A Tale Not so Gayheart-ed

Lucy Gayheart was one of Willa Cather's later novels, written in 1935.  It tells the story of Lucy, who grows up in a small Midwest town, and then moves to Chicago at the age of 18 to study music.  While in Chicago, she discovers her own talent and also falls in love with the great singer Clement Sebastian.  After tragedy strikes, she returns home to her small town, where further tragedy ensues.  While the story line is not riveting, Cather captures small town life in her usual pitch perfect way.  In my opinion, this was not nearly as good as some of her other works that I have previously reviewed. 

Here is one of my favorite quotes from the novel:

"In little towns, lives roll along so close to one another; loves and hates beat about, their wings almost touching.  On the sidewalks along which everybody comes and goes, you must, if you walk abroad at all, at some time pass within a few inches of the man who cheated and betrayed you, or the woman you desire more than anything else in the world.  Her skirt brushes against you.  You say good-morning, and go on.  It is a close shave.  Out in the world the escapes are not so narrow."

A Comeback for Kincaid

The last time I read a Jamaica Kincaid was in college, but with the recent release of her first novel in ten years and after hearing her brilliant words on NPR's City Arts and Lectures, I decided to read See Now Then.  This slim novel tells about the unraveling of the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Sweet and their children Heracles and Persephone, who live in a small town in New England.  The novel is written in a very unique style which has a repetitious yet unique use of language that borders on magic realism.  Of Mrs. Sweet, Mr. Sweet says, "The sound of her voice, as she read to the young Heracles, made him want to kill her, take an ax (as a child, he lived in an apartment, and he had never seen such a thing) and chop off her head and then the rest of her body into little pieces..."  The book is filled with bitterness and vitriol, but is so unflinching and caustic that it demands the readers' attention.  Kincaid also writes of her son's tasks, which include both the mundane and the surreal, such as "wash the dishes...imprison the innocent in a dungeon...trap and then skin the she-fox...tie his shoelaces..."  Interestingly, we learn of Mrs. Sweet's first name about half way through the novel, which is Jamaica, which of course leaves the reader to wonder the extent of the autobiographical nature of this work.  About the Sweets' daughter, Kincaid writes, "The beautiful Peresephone grew strong and big, so big that she looked like an illustrated rabbit, caught, just before he was cooked, which would then satisfy the hunger of a small family named McGregor..." 

All in all, I feel this would have worked better as a short story.  Nonetheless, the writing is unique and it is refreshing (though depressing) to hear such an honest telling of a family irreparably torn apart and asunder. 

Highs and Lows

 

I really enjoy reading survival stories.  My favorite in this genre is Miracle in the Andes by Nando Parrado, which is a first-hand account of the plane crash in the Andes (see my review for this on my blog).  I couldn't put that book down because Parrado's writing is simple and illuminating, unflinching and emotional.  In 1996, Jon Krakauer, a writer and mountain climber, was sent by Outside magazine to write an article focusing on the increasing commercialization of Mt. Everest, and to do so, he would have to attempt the summit to the top of Everest with one of the respected groups, led by Rob Hall.  At the time, there were several different outfitters and guides that would take groups on the Everest ascent, some which charged over $60,000 (I am not sure what the figure is today).  What Krakauer of course could not know when he accepted the assignment was that he would be part of one of the deadliest years of Everest summits, in which fifteen people lost their lives.  His memoir, Into Thin Air, captures his harrowing experience. 

 

What is it that compels people to risk high altitude, well below freezing winds, and essentially their lives, to conquer a mountain?  There are parts of Krakauer's book that focus on this particular and unique drive which I found the most interesting, as well as how people make decisions on the mountain.  However, for me the book was too bogged down in detail, and not rich enough on the internal decision making and emotional landscape of those who take on a nearly inhuman challenge, which is the part of survival stories that interest me the most. 

Summer Camp and Beyond

 

I'll admit that I didn't think I would make it that far with Meg Wolitzer's new novel, The Interestings, mainly because I often find that novels in this day and age that are over 500 pages suffer from a lack of editing.  However, I was quickly drawn in by Wolitzer's swift and humorous writing style.  The Interestings tells the story of a group of friends who first meet at the arts camp Spirit-in-the-Woods, in Massachusetts in 1974.  After the one summer in which these friendships are solidified, Wolitzer follows the group of friends from their teens into their adulthood.  Jules Jacobsen, the one camper who didn't grow up in New York City with wealthy parents, is initially surprised to be invited into the group, but her offbeat humor is winsome to the others.  Ethan Figman, a budding cartoonist, is drawn to Jules romantically, though the two remain friends for many years to come. Ash and Goodman Wolf, the siblings of the bunch, are a mysterious twosome whose lives take unexpected turns.  Jonah Bay is the somewhat elusive and aloof son of a famous female folk singer.  The novel explores how the friends' lives are affected differently by fame, fortune, marriages, children, etc.  After all, not everyone who is a talented teenager at an art camp can make it big, though of course, some do.  I found the novel to be very funny, poignant, and well-written, with a cast of motley characters.  Recommended, especially as a good summer read!

A bit of doubt, for Strout

 

Olive Kitteredge was a delightful read, so I decided to dive into the newly released novel by Elizabeth Strout, The Burgess Boys, which tells the story of brothers Bob and Jim and Bob's twin Susan.  Born and raised in small-town Shirley Falls, Maine, Bob and Jim move to New York City and pursue careers in law, while Susan stays in Maine, eventually raising her teenage son on her own.  What sets the story in motion is that her lonely son Zach puts a frozen pig's head in a mosque in the local town, where a recent influx of Somalis have come to live.  Jim, the "golden boy" of the family, and Bob (who idolizes Jim) attempt to help their sister and nephew, and in returning to Maine and becoming involved in the family drama, they also revisit conversation that was put to rest long ago regarding their childhoods, specifically around the accidental death of their father.  The novel explores issues of guilt, loyalty, and the imperfections of family life.

 

This was an easy read, however I did not find any of the characters particularly likeable, compelling, or unique.  While there are a few plot twists, none of them were so climactic or riveting.  For me, the character development was not as strong as it was in Olive Kitteredge. 

tiny beautiful things, indeed

 

My introduction to Cheryl Strayed was by way of reading her memoir, Wild:  From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail, which I really enjoyed (see earlier review on my blog!).  I recently picked up her book tiny beautiful things: Advice on love and life from Dear Sugar, and I did not want to put it down.  I really mean it - I walked down a busy sidewalk reading this book!

 

The book is a modern day "Dear Alice," in which Sugar fields all kinds of questions about love, life, money, intimate relationships, important life decisions, etc., and she does so with wit, compassion, and an authenticity that cuts right through to the heart of the matter.  The Dear Sugar column started on a website called the Rumpus, and it was only recently that Cheryl Strayed outed herself as Sugar. 

 

Strayed is not a trained therapist, but she has lived a lot of life, and her responses are well crafted, raw, and direct.  This is both immensely entertaining and illuminating! Highly recommended.

A Novel of Contrasts, from Cather

Published in 1925, Willa Cather's The Professor's House is a character study of Professor Godfrey St. Peter, the book's protagonist.  St. Peter is a scholar and a family man with two married daughters, very stuck in his ways.  Even though his family moves into a new house, he continues to work in the study of his old one.  The novel is divided into three sections - the first and last focus on St. Peter and we learn through this lens about one of his most brilliant students, Tom Outland, who was also engaged to one of St. Peter's daughters before Outland's untimely death.  The second section of the novel focuses on Outland's story of discovering the remains of a cliff dwelling city in New Mexico, and for me was the most beautifully written part of the novel.  The themes of the novel are many, but the most interesting to me is the that of embracing modernity and change versus holding on to the beauty of nature's simplicity and a lost era.  While this is a departure from Cather's rural novels mainly set in Nebraska, I enjoyed the exploration of life in a small university town.  For me, this doesn't hold a candle My Antonia, which for me thus far is Cather's greatest masterpiece.  

Some of my favorite quotes:

"...the muscular, many-lined palm, the long, strong fingers with soft ends, the straight little finger, the flexible, beautifully shaped thumb that curved back from the rest of the hand as if it were its own master.  What a hand!  He could see it yet, with the blue stones lying in it."

"St. Peter was so pleased with his flowers that it hadn't occurred to him to get more; but all his life he had regretted that he didn't buy two bunches, and push their fortunes a little further."

For the Love of Nebraska

Having read Willa Cather's Prairie Trilogy, I have become very intrigued with the setting of her novels - rural Nebraska.  Therefore, I was excited to learn about Pamela Carter Joern who also focuses on the Nebraska landscape as a backdrop for some of her work.  In fact, her novel The Floor of the Sky takes its title from a Willa Cather quotation.  The Floor of the Sky, set in modern day in the remote Sandhills region of Nebraska, focuses on the story of Toby, an older widow, and her pregnant granddaughter, 16-year old Lila.  The novel weaves together stories of Toby's past and Lila's new life in the small town and on her grandmother's ranch.  With a range of characters, including Toby's embittered sister Gertie, the quiet but loyal ranch hand George, and Lila's cousin Clay who is going in a bad direction, there are interesting perspectives and meta-stories within the novel.  However, for me the setting is not as prominent as it is in Cather's works, and in fact seems like it could be a small rural town anywhere in the U.S.  The writing style reminds me more of Kent Haruf than Willa Cather.  Ultimately, while I liked the focus on inter-generational relationships and the multiple perspectives, I did not feel connected to the characters and this is not one of those books that will resonate with me for very long. 

Lost and Found

I'm on a reading roll with Willa Cather!  Once again, she does not disappoint.  While A Lost Lady (published in 1923) is not as epic or sweeping as Cather's Prairie Trilogy works, it is an intriguing character study and intimately explores the relationship between the protagonist, Marian Forrester and her relationships with the men and boys who live in Sweet Water, a Western town along the Transcontinental Railroad during pioneering days.  We mainly see Mrs. Forrester through the eyes of Niel Herbert, who we first meet as a young boy going fishing at the Forrester's creek with his friends, but who becomes a friend and confidant of Mrs. Forrester even as Niel becomes a young man.  He is drawn to Mrs. Forrester's laugh, twinkling eyes, and charisma.  However, after her husband Captain Daniel Forrester has a stroke and his health continually declines, Mrs. Forrester also declines in her own way.  Eventually she moves away (first to California, then to South America) and marries again.  What Cather captures in this short novel are some very warm and heartening scenes that seem to exude the essence of small town life. 

Hatchet and Hope

There is something about survival stories that draws me in, and I think it is about reducing (or expanding?) to the basic elements and needs of life - shelter, warmth, food, and the human instinct to survive.  Gary Paulsen writes young adult fiction that often focuses on coming of age stories in the wilderness.  Hatchet is Paulsen's 1987 Newbery Honor-winning novel that tells the story of thirteen year-old Brian Robeson.  Brian is the only passenger of a small plane flying from New York to Canada, to visit his father.  His parents have recently divorced, which Brian is grappling with as he flies toward his father's home.  While in the air, the pilot has a heart attack and dies, and Brian is left to figure out how to land the plane and then survive in the wilderness.  The novel tells of his despair, resourcefulness, and self-sufficiency.  Brian comes up against many challenges of the natural world, such as sharing his new environment with wild animals (beavers, moose, bears, wolves, skunks, etc.), weathering a tornado,combating loneliness, and making it through each day with enough food and a well stoked fire.  While there is something rather formulaic about fictionalized survival stories, I enjoyed the novel and found each challenge that Brian must face to be interesting and I was always wondering how he would overcome everything thrown at him.  After nearly two months in the wilderness, Brian reflects that he becomes a new version of himself.  I am not ultimately a huge fan of young adult fiction, but this is a readable and engrossing tale.

Introduction to Henry James

The Turn of the Screw is a novella published in 1898 by Henry James, and is considered to be a kind of old-world, old-fashioned, even gothic, ghost story.  A young governess watches over two cherubic children, Miles and Flora, at the Bly Estate, in the countryside.  Along with Mrs. Grose, the estate housekeeper, the two women must care for the children without involving their uncle who has expressly asked to not be involved in the children's lives.  What starts out as an idyllic story with two children who couldn't be easier to care for, quickly turns into a subtly sinister tale of supernatural occurrences and strange relationships.  The ghosts of Peter Quint and Miss Jessel seem to haunt the house and to specifically seek out the children, who are aware of their presence.  Things quickly unravel and end on a disturbing note.  While I enjoyed this introduction to Henry James, the writing is somewhat dense and the plot moves rather slowly, though I do love an old-fashioned tale.  Thus, I was left with mixed feelings about James.  Perhaps I will read another novella to get a better sense of his breadth. 

O Willa!

One of Ours, published in 1922, is Willa Cather's classic Pulitzer Prize-winning novel that explores the life of a young man who grows up on a farm in Nebraska and eventually becomes a soldier in World War I.  Claude Wheeler hopes to someday leave the farm, but his father's plans for him conflict with this, resulting in him staying in Nebraska and marrying a woman he has known since his childhood.  While friends of his are content with their farming lives, Claude is "unable to conceal his discontent" and is unable to "subdue his own nature," despite "resisting unalterable conditions."  Claude lives with "the conviction that there was something splendid about life, if he could but find it!"  He sets off to Europe with high hopes of finding a sense of purpose and seeing more of the world, but quickly must face the harsh reality of the violent life on the frontier.  I love Willa Cather's writing and I was very engaged with the first two-thirds of the book, but I did not enjoy the final part of the novel which focuses on Claude's life at war.  This was not my favorite Cather novel, but I still want to read all of her other novels, because she has such an engaging writing style.

This Boy's Life

In This Boy's Life, Tobias Wolff tells the story of his upbringing in the 1950's, starting with a car trip taken by him and his mother to escape an abusive man, which lands them in Utah, and soon after Seattle.  Wolff's mother eventually meets another man, Dwight, who doesn't like or accept Tobias (who renames himself Jack) from the get go.  Wolff writes of his relationship with his mother, his friends, his father, and his brother.  He straddles the line between being a kid who gets good grades and is a Boy Scout, and one who falls in with the wrong crowd and might end up with few opportunities.  This is a well written memoir that can be read in just a few days.  The language is straightforward and simple, but pierces right to the heart of things. 

How Marjorie Celona's Debut Novel Made Me Cr(Y)

Marjorie Celona's debut novel, Y, centers around the life of Shannon, a foster child who is abandoned as a newborn by her mother on the steps of the YMCA.  We follow Shannon's life from home to home, until she comes to life with single-mother Miranda and her daughter Lydia-Rose, who try their hardest to create a new sense of family for Shannon, who never feels like she truly belongs.  Interspersed with scenes of her foster family are scenes of Shannon's birth mother Yula and father Harrison, in the days when they first meet as well as the days leading up to Shannon's birth.  The novel moves quickly, with punch and unflinching detail, but even two-thirds of the way in, while I liked the writing I had not yet really been moved by any of the characters.  Yet,  I found myself with tears in my eyes in the final parts of the novel, when Shannon comes face to face with her past.   It is very rare that a book brings me to tears, and for that quality alone, I recommend Y. 

Kent Haruf is Back, with Benediction

I remember vastly enjoying Kent Haruf's novels Plainsong and Eventide, and was thrilled to learn that Haruf recently published a new work of fiction called Benediction.  The backdrop, as is the case in several of Haruf's other novels, is a small town called Holt located in the high plains of Colorado.  This story centers around the life and approaching death of Dad Lewis who has only a short time left to live as he is dying of terminal cancer.  It is interesting how I just happened to read this book after reading A Death in the Family, which also focuses on the death of a patriarch in a small town, though nearly a century earlier.  With simple, graceful language, Haruf introduces us to a diverse cast of characters that surround the protagonist and intersect with his life in different ways, including a preacher that is new to town and his wife and son, an elderly neighbor and her daughter, and Dad's immediate family, his wife Mary, daughter Lorraine, and estranged son Frank.  This work highlights some moving small moments and gestures, as well as gives one a sense of the importance of community and neighbors in small town life.  I did not enjoy Benediction as much as Haruf's earlier works, but it is well worth reading nonetheless. 

Agile Writing from Agee

James Agee's classic novel, A Death in the Family, was published in 1957 and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1958.  The story revolves around the death of the patriarch of a family living in Knoxville, Tennessee in the early 1900s.  The book closely follows each family member and their internal thought process and interactions with each other shortly before and after learning Jay's death, the one major event of the novel.  Other than this, the book focuses on smaller details and intimate moments, between brothers and sisters, mothers and their children, etc.  There are many beautiful passages, including a very moving scene between Jay and his wife Mary, which neither could have known would be the last time they would see each other.  In this scene, they are up in the middle of the night, and Jay freshens the covers so that Mary will have a warm bed to return to after seeing Jay off. 

Here are a few of my other favorite passages:

"I need never fear: nor ever shall I lack for loving-kindness."
"Rufus felt his father's hand settle, without groping or clumsiness, on the top of his bear head; it took his forehead and smoothed it, and pushed the hair backward from his forehead, and held the back of his head while Rufus pressed his head backward against the firm hand..."
"I know it's just unmitigated tommyrot to try to say a word about it." 
"He put his hand around her arm and felt how little it was.  He could feel a vein beating against the bone, just below her armpit."

Southern Fried Stories

Flannery O'Connor's A Good Man is Hard to Find, is filled with great story titles, memorable one-liners, macabre moments, and scenarios bordering on the absurd and outrageous.  Her work is very original, and her talent is evident.  O'Connor lived to be only 39 years old, and in that time she published a total of 32 short stories.  The stories in this collection are set in the rural South, and are considered to part of the Southern Gothic style.  My favorites were, "A Late Encounter with the Enemy," which focuses on a grandfather attending his granddaughter's graduation, "Good Country People,"which tells of the brief affair between a Bible salesman and a wooden-legged well educated woman, and of course the infamous title story in which a family outing quickly becomes a murderous tale, where even grandma isn't spared.  In "Good Country People," I really liked these two lines:

"Well, young man, I don't want to buy a Bible and I smell my dinner burning." 
"True genius can get an idea across even to an inferior mind."  

All in all, this is a rather zany collection of unique stories.

Man vs. Marlin

The Old Man and the Sea, published in 1952,  is one of Ernest Hemingway's classic works of short fiction, and won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1953.   The story is about a fisherman named Santiago who has both a physical battle with a marlin he tries to catch off the coast of Havana, Cuba, as well as a psychological battle within himself.  Hemingway is quite economical in his words, yet he vividly captures the scene so much so that you feel you are alongside Santiago in his boat as he captures the fish, then patiently waits for it to come to the surface, and then battles against sharks who want to eat the newly captured and killed fish strapped to the side of his boat.  There are some intriguing elements to this book, one being Santiago's relationship with a boy named Manolin.  They have a very tender and loving relationship, revealed to us through just a few exchanges between the two of them.  Santiago also has emotions toward the fish he aims to kill and sell.  He states, "I love you and respect you very much.  But I will kill you dead before this day ends."  He further describes fish as as "noble" and "more able" than man, and acknowledges the fish's "greatness and his glory."  Interestingly, he even at one points admits that the killing of such a great fish is "unjust."  Hemingway writes, "Then he was sorry for the great fish that had nothing to eat and his determination to kill him never relaxed in his sorrow for him.  How many people will he feed, he thought.  But are they not worthy to eat him?  No, of course not.  There is no one worth of eating him from the manner of his behaviour and his great dignity."  As the fisherman becomes more tired, hungry, in pain, and even delirious, he continues to ponder the concept of killing the fish.  Ultimately, his great effort is not rewarded and we are left to ponder the message of this short but powerful "man vs. nature" story.  This is a book best read in one sitting!

Turnips and Tragedy

Tobacco Road, by Erskine Caldwell, was published in 1932 and focuses on the lives of a white sharecropper family, the Lesters, who live in poverty in rural Georgia.  The novel takes place over the course of just a few days, starting with Jeeter Lester's son-in-law passing by the Lester house along Tobacco Road with a bag of turnips.  Fueled by desperation and hunger, Jeeter tries to take Lov's turnips, and subsequently repents for this as he believes it to be a sinful act.  Jeeter and Ada Lester had seventeen children, most of whom left home to seek a more prosperous life as a result of industrialization, and more specifically, cotton mills.  Jeeter Lester steadfastly refuses to leave his land and go work in the cotton mills, given that the land had been in his family for two generations.  As Lov states, "The ground sort of looks out for the people who keeps their feet on it.  When people stand on planks in buildings all the time, and walk around on hard streets, the ground sort of loses interest in the human."  Despite his desire and need to farm his land, Jeeter has few options as storekeepers won't extend credit to him for seed and fertilizer, and he was also the victim of predatory lending.  Set against the backdrop of the Great Depression, Caldwell's famous novel unflinchingly portrays the degradation, oppression, and racism prevalent in those times.  It is an unsettling work, brought to life by the day to day struggle of the Lester family. 

Three with Ford

I'll read anything that Richard Ford writes, because I was a huge fan of Canada, Wildlife, and Rock Springs.  Women with Men is a collection of three long stories (shorter than novellas), that highlight intimate moments, mixed signals, unspoken thoughts, and crossroads moments between men and women. Two of the stories are set against the backdrop of Paris but my favorite story was "Jealous," which takes place in Montana and focuses on Ford's typical nuclear family of an estranged mom and dad and their teenage son.  Larry sets off with his aunt to visit his mother, but on the way, they stop in a small town where things quickly take an unexpected turn.  I loved the few exchanges of dialogue between the father and son, as I did in Ford's other books.  This wasn't my favorite Ford work, but very readable nonetheless.