Gleaned from the Saturday Review

Oct8

Reluctant Fundamentalist–Hamid. Recommended by Laura. Laura says this book is both suspenseful and thought-provoking as a nervous American interviews a Pakistani man in a cafe. The two discuss Muslim perceptions of Amerians and American life.

Chris at Book-a-rama read The House on the Strand, a Daphne du Maurier story about time travel into the Middle Ages. I think I could stand some du Maurier right now, seems sort of fall-ish.

This dystopian novel by Gemma Malley reminds me of Children of Men by P.D. James or the Hidden series by Margaret Peterson Haddix. Thanks, Becky, for the review.

What Would Barbra Do?: How Musicals Changed My Life by Emma Broches. Recommended at Moomin Light. Sounds delightful. I love movie musicals. I left a comment at Moomin Light about my favorite musicals. What are yours?

Sophie Scholl and the White Rose is also nonfiction, but rather more on the serious side. I think I would be as inspired by this story of resistance to the Nazi regime as was Krista at Musings of a Lady.

What did you find in the Saturday Review that piqued your interest?

Gleaned from The Saturday Review

Sep24

The Making of a Chef–Ruhlman Recommended by Laura of Lines in Pleasant Places. I’ve never wanted to be a chef; I don’t even like to cook that much. Everything you worked so hard to do disappears so quickly. Nevertheless, this book sounds fascinating. What would it be like to attend The Culinary Institute of America?

The Case Against Adolescence–Epstein Recommended by MatthewLee Anderson at Mere-O. Actually, I found this one in last Saturday’s Review. I am already attuned to what I think is the thesis of this book: that American adolescence is both artificial and prolonged. I must read it and see if my preconceptions are confirmed or challenged.

The Chequer Board—Shute. Recommended by Will Duquette at View from the Foothills. I added Mr. Duquette’s link to the Saturday Review of Books myself. I do that sometimes when I want to be sure I have a link back to a review I want to remember. I’ve read a couple of Neville Shute’s books (A Town Like Alice, On the Beach), and I want to read more. Semicolon reviews of the two I read last year here.

Me and Emma by Elizabeth Flock sounds like a book I would like. At least, Becky’s review made me curious —especially about the ending.

Sovereign by C.J. Sansom

Sep20

Here’s my very short (February 2007) review of Sansom’s first book in this Henrician* detective series, Dissolution:

Dissolution by C.J. Sansom A- Recommended by P.D. James. I really liked this one. I hope there will be more books about the detective Matthew Shardlake who works for Henry VIII’s Thomas Cromwell. Wait, I just checked Amazon, and there are sequels: one called Dark Fire and a new one called Sovereign.
Grumpy Old Bookman’s review of Dissolution.

I found the third book in the series, Sovereign, on the “new books” shelf at the library, and I checked it out, forgetting that there was a book between the new one and the one I read in February. It didn’t matter. Sovereign was an absorbing read, full of historical details and a plot that held my interest and kept me guessing until the very end of the book. Sansom’s detective, Matthew Shardlake is a hunchback lawyer with court connections who wants to live a peaceful, quiet life in the background of London’s courts and law offices. Instead, he is drafted by Archbishop Cranmer for a special assignment and sent to meet King Henry VIII as he and his court make a Great Progress through the north country of Yorkshire. Shardlake reluctantly accepts the job Cranmer gives him, as if he had much choice, and finds himself in more trouble than he could have imagined. Almost assassinated, accused of treason, witness to the betrayal of others, Shardlake must depend on his own wits and the faithfulness of old friends to save his life and his livelihood.

The most fascinating parts of the book dealt with the history of the Wars of the Roses, Richard III’s accession to the throne, and the usurpation of that same throne by the Tudors, all events that happened way before this story even begins. But the historical events cast a long shadow. In the book, Henry VIII, and Matthew Shardlake, are still dealing with the fallout of decisions that were made long before either man was born. Of course, the story reminded me of one of my favorite vindications of Richard III, Josephine Tey’s Daughter of Time. Sansom’s book is set in the England of Henry VIII, just after his marriage to his fifth wife, Catherine Howard. Nevertheless, both books share an interest in the details of the Tudor succession to the English throne and the legalities thereof. I can only imagine the amount of research that went into the writng of Sovereign since the period details are so rich and plenteous and seemingly verisimilar.

Matthew is an interesting hero/detective, too. He’s crippled, in body of course, but also emotionally. He finds it difficult to trust because of the suffering he’s had to endure all his life at the hands of those who make fun of his physical disability. Yet, he’s a man of integrity who hasn’t allowed his affliction to make him bitter or violent. Instead, he has sympathy for those who are mistreated, and he finds ways to excuse and forgive even the most grievous sins against him. Yet, he is shocked and moved to anger by injustice. And many times in the novel Shardlake’s desire for justice conflicts with his inclination toward mercy.

*Isn’t “Henrician” a wonderful word? I know “Elizabethan” and “Edwardian”, but I’d never heard of “Henrician” until I read the historical notes in the back of Sansom’s book. Unless, you’re talking or writing about the life and times of Henry VIII, the word is of limited use; nevertheless, I like it.

A Madeleine L’Engle Annotated Bibliography

Sep9

1. 18 Washington Square South: A Comedy in One Act, 1944. Ms. L’Engle actually wrote several plays and was an actress herself before her marriage, but this is one of the few that appears in the bibliography at her website.
2. The Small Rain, 1945. Madeleine L’Engle’s first published novel tells the story of young Katherine Forrester, daughter of two famous musicians, who discovers in herself her own musical talent. This one is a beautifully realized coming-of-age novel set in Europe and New York City in the years before World War II. Semicolon review here.
3. Ilsa, 1946. Has anyone read this? Is it a novel or a play?
4. And Both Were Young, 1949, is another boarding school story starring artist Philippa Hunter who is miserable until she meets Paul and learns from him how to confront the past and overcome her self-doubt. I read this book a few months ago as a part of my Madeleine L’Engle project, but I never got around to writing about it here on the blog, maybe because I didn’t like it as much as I do her other books.
5. Camilla Dickinson, 1951. Republished in 1965 as simply Camilla, probably reworked to some extent. Semicolon review here.
6. A Winter’s Love, 1957. Semicolon review here.
7. Meet the Austins, 1960. The first in the Austin family series of books.
8. A Wrinkle in Time, 1962. Madeleine L’Engle’s most famous book, winner of the Newbery Award in 1963, is deserving of the praise it gets. Meg Murry, her brother Charles Wallace the genius, and her friend Calvin “tesser” through space and time to rescue Meg’s father from IT.
9. The Moon By Night, 1963. The Austin family goes on a cross-country camping trip, and Vicky, age 15, meets some interesting characters, including Zachary, a poor little rich boy who is alternately fascinating and alarming. This one moves into Young Adult territory with romance, but nothing salacious.
10. The Twenty-Four Days Before Christmas, 1964. Christmas with the Austins.
11. The Arm of the Starfish, 1965. Polyhymnia (Polly) O’Keefe is the daughter of Meg (Murry) and Calvin O’Keefe from A Wrinkle in TIme. She becomes involved, along with a young student, Adam Eddington, in a complicated episode of scientific espionage.
12. Camilla, 1965. Semicolon review here.
13. The Love Letters, 1966. The story of a woman who is running away from a difficult marriage. She runs to Portugal, of all places, where she learns about love and responsibility and commitment from a 17th century Portuguese nun who broke her vows for the sake of a handsome French soldier. My favorite Madeleine L’Engle novel. (Adult) Semicolon review here.
14. A Journey With Jonah (a play), 1967.
15. The Young Unicorns, 1968. The Austin family is living in New York City; however, the story focuses on a couple of new friends of the Austins, pianist Emily Gregory and former gang member Dave Davidson. It’s a very sixties YA novel, featuring street gangs, lasers, and mad scientists.
16. Dance in the Desert, 1969.
17. Lines Scribbled on an Envelope and Other Poems, 1969
18. The Other Side of the Sun, 1971. The setting is early twentieth century South Carolina. English bride Stella Renier must come to live with her new husband’s famiy while he goes travelling on business. Sort of Gothic in good way with spiritual/Christian themes. (Young adult or adult)
19. A Circle of Quiet, 1972. Autobiography about Ms. L’Engle’s life in a village, her familly and her early writing life.
20. The Wind in the Door, 1973. The second of the Time Quartet books. Instead of travelling through time and space, Meg must travel inside Charles Wallace to diagnose and cure a problem with Charles Wallace’s mitochondria. Semicolon review here.
21. Everyday Prayers, 1974
22. Prayers for Sunday, 1974
23. The Risk of Birth, 1974
24. The Summer of the Great Grandmother, 1974. Nonfiction counterpart to the fictional A Ring of Endless Light, the two books deal with the task of dying with dignity and role of families in the process of death and dying.
25. Dragons in the Waters, 1976. Murder, smuggling, and blackmail in Venezuela. This YA novel features Polly O’Keefe.
26. The Irrational Season, 1977. A follow-up to Circle of Quiet and Summer of the Great-Grandmother.
27. A Swiftly Tilting Planet, 1978. The third book in the so-called TIme Quartet, this novel is one part science fiction, one part historical fiction, and another part just plain weird —in a wonderful sort of way.
28. The Weather of the Heart, 1978
29. Ladder of Angels, 1979
30. The Anti-Muffins, 1980. A short book about the Austins and nonconformism.
31. A Ring of Endless Light, 1980. Vicky Austin and her family must come to terms with the impending death of Vicky’s garndfather, and Vicky must decide who she is and whom she can trust.
32. Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art, 1980. These essays on the intersection of faith and art are quite helpful and thought-provoking for Christian artists in particular. JR at brokenstainedglass has been blogging about the insights he has gleaned from this book for last couple of months (August-September, 2007).
33. A Severed Wasp, 1982. Katherine Forrester from A Small Rain returns as an elderly retired concert pianist who becomes entangled in the life of the characters who ive in and around the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City.
34. And It Was Good: Reflections on Beginnings, 1983.
35. A House Like a Lotus, 1984. Polly O’Keefe, nearly seventeen years old in this novel, travels to Cyprus and learns both discernment and acceptance in her relationships.
36. Trailing Clouds of Glory: Spiritual Values in Children’s Literature, 1985 (with Avery Brooke). Another excellent book about the art of writing particularly for Christian writers.
37. Many Waters, 1986. A fictionalization of the Biblical story of Noah and the ark, with time travel, unicorns, and nephilim thrown in. The main characters are Meg Murry’s twin brothers, Sandy and Dennys.
38. A Stone for a Pillow: Journeys with Jacob, 1986
39. A Cry Like a Bell, 1987
40. Two-Part Invention, 1988. The story of Madeleine’s marriage to actor Hugh Franklin.
41. An Acceptable Time, 1989. Polly O’Keefe returns in her fourth story, and the plot and themes hark back to those of Time Quartet: time travel, peoples and cultures of the past, healing, the power of love.
42. Sold Into Egypt: Joseph’s Journey into Human Being, 1989.
43. The Glorious Impossible, 1990.
44. Certain Women, 1992 is an adult novel about the Biblical King David and about a modern-day David, an actor who engages in serial polygamy in about the same way that David of the Bible loved many women and had many wives. Semicolon review here.
45. The Rock That is Higher, 1993
46. Anytime Prayers, 1994
47. Troubling a Star, 1994. Vicky Austin and Adam Eddington are in Antarctica where they resist those who are trying to exploit the continent’s natural resources. YA.
48. Glimpses of Grace, 1996 (with Carole Chase)
49. A Live Coal in the Sea, 1996. This adult novel returns to the character Camilla from the book of the same name and tells the story of her famiy, especially her son Taxi and granddaughter Raffi.
50. Penguins and Golden Calves: Icons and Idols, 1996
51. Wintersong, 1996 (with Luci Shaw). Poetry.
52. Bright Evening Star, 1997
53. Friends for the Journey, 1997 (with Luci Shaw). Reviewed here by Carol of Magistramater.
54. Mothers and Daughters, 1997 (with Maria Rooney). Maria Rooney is Madeleine L’Engle’s daughter.
55. Miracle on 10th Street, 1998
56. A Full House, 1999. A Christmas story about the Austin family and an unexpected Christmas baby.
57. Mothers and Sons, 1999 (with Maria Rooney)
58. Prayerbook for Spiritual Friends, 1999 (with Luci Shaw)
59. The Other Dog, 2001
60. Madeleine L’Engle Herself: Reflections on a Writing Life, 2001 (with Carole Chase)
61. The Ordering of Love: The New and Collected Poems of Madeleine L’Engle, 2005.

Under the Radar: Christian Fiction

Aug30

If you want to ridicule or denigrate a subculture, you read the worst diatribes and pulp fiction that subculture has to offer, use excerpts to support your prejudices, and go merrily on your way. If you want to understand a subculture or group, you could read the best fiction or apologetics that group has to offer and see if there’s a connection, something to value. So because I read and learn from fiction, I try to read fiction by all sorts of authors in lots of genres: young adult fiction, science fiction, Islamic authors, African authors, graphic novels, postmodern novels and many others. Sometimes I get it, and sometimes I don’t. At least I can say I tried.

I say all that to preface my contention that “Christian fiction” has gotten a bad rap, partially deserved. Some so-called “Christian fiction” (just like some YA fiction and some post-modern fiction) is nothing more than a bad sermon disguised as an even worse story. However, some of the fiction published by Christian publishing houses is not only exemplary and literary, but also just good reading. If you are a Christian and you want to be challenged to think more deeply about the world and about God’s hand in this world, or if you are not a Christian and you want to read something that challenges you to see Christians and the world in general in a new light, from the inside out so to speak, I have two authors to recommend who are “under the radar” because their books tend to be marketed only in Christian bookstores or in the religious section of Borders or Barnes and Noble.

Jamie Langston Turner: Ms. Turner lives in South Carolina. She graduated from Bob Jones University, and even worse, she teaches there. (I’ll admit to a little prejudice myself against BJU.) However, put all that aside, and take a look at her novels. Her first novel, Suncatchers, was published in 1995, followed by Some Wildflower in My Heart, By the Light of a Thousand Stars, A Garden to Keep, No Dark Valley, and Winter Birds. Winter Birds, published in 2006, received a starred review in Publisher’s Weekly and a Christy Award for excellence in Christian fiction. It was the first book by Ms. Turner that I read, and I found it fascinating and insightful.
Here’s my review. I then started looking for Ms. Turner’s other novels: not in my library system. That would be the entire Houston library system. I just checked, and despite the fact that Ms. Turner’s latest and greatest won a Christy Award, there are only three copies of Winter Birds available from any branch in the Houston Library System. (I’m a former librarian; I know the library can’t buy all the books. Don’t tell me.)

Anyway, I found one of Ms. Turner’s other novels, A Garden to Keep at a used book sale. I read it and liked this story of the dissolution and redemption of a marriage just as much as I liked Winter Birds. Not only does Ms. Turner have stories, she also creates real characters: an 80 year old woman who bribes her relatives with promises so that they’ll put up with her bitterness and sarcasm, a substitute teacher who loves poetry so much she takes night classes, a teenager whose parents homeschool her to keep her away from a toxic boyfriend, a nephew who talks too much, is somewhat pretentious, and still turns out to be a decent guy. My descriptions of these characters are, however, over-simplifications. The characters in Ms. Turner’s books grow and surprise you and stick in your mind. If I’ve managed to pique your interest, you can read my review of A Garden To Keep here. Then find the books. You may have to search a bit.

Athol Dickson also won a Christy Award in 2006 for his novel, River Rising. That same book was also selected as one of the Booklist Top Ten Christian Novels of 2006 and a finalist for Christianity Today’s Best Novel of 2006. (This time I find six copies in the Houston Library System–yay!) Here’s my Semicolon review of River Rising. Briefly, it’s the story of Louisiana Mississippi delta town with a big secret and of the preacher who blows the secret wide open. Rev. Hale Poser is a little odd for a preacher, and the town of Pilotsville doesn’t know quite what to make of this black pastor who doesn’t know “his place” and doesn’t conform to the established mores of this 1927 Southern enclave. The book is disturbing and provocative, two qualities you may or may not expect from Christian fiction.

Dickson’s most recently published novel, The Cure has a completely different setting and characters, but continues in the same disquieting and thought-provoking vein. In this novel, the premise is a question: what if there were a cure for alcholism, a pill that would take away the craving for alcohol completely? There’s a catch, though, of course. If, after being cured, the patient touches even a drop of alcohol again, the cravings come back even stronger and more destructive. You’ll have to read the book to see what Dickson does with this set-up as he mixes in a couple of homeless characters, a huge pharmaceutical company, and some missionaries in South America. Here’s my review.

So as Levar Burton said many times on Reading Rainbow, here are some great books, but you don’t have to take my word for it. Read them for yourself. Gain some insight and understanding. Enjoy.

Under the Radar: An Adult Fiction Trio

Aug28

Giovanni Guareschi: Italian author Guareschi wrote a series of stories about a priest named Don Camillo and his arch-enemy, the Communist mayor Peppone. These stories were originally published in a weekly periodical in Italian between the years 1946 and 1960. The pieces tell the ongoing story of the clashing worldviews and evangelistic methods of the Communists and the Catholics of a small Italian village. Don Camillo has frequent conversations with Christ who speaks from a crucifix in Don Camillo’s little chapel and tells Don Camillo to fight atheistic Communism with grace and forgiveness, orders Don Camillo is often too proud and angry to follow. The stories are humorous and at the same time full of insight into human nature and the difficulty of fighting fire with . . . Christian humility. The six volumes of Don Camillo stories in English translation are:

The Little World of Don Camillo (1950)
Don Camillo and His Flock (aka Don Camillo and the Prodigal Son) (1952)
Don Camillo’s Dilemma (1954)
Don Camillo Takes the Devil by the Tail (aka Don Camillo and the Devil) (1957)
Comrade Don Camillo (1964)
Don Camillo Meets the Flower Children (aka Don Camillo Meets Hell’s Angels) (1969)

Here’s an illustration by Guareschi, who was an artist and cartoonist as well as an author, of Don Camillo’s little village:

Sadly, I only have a copy of and have only read the first book, The Little World of Don Camillo, but surely the other collections are just as delightful. I found at least two websites dedicated to Giovanni Guareschi and his writings, so maybe he’s not completely “under the radar.” Nevertheless, if you haven’t been introduced to his “little world”, it’s time to home in on some funny little stories with a message of peace on earth, good will to men.

The Little World of Giovanni Guareschi.

The Little World Wide Web Homepage of Don Camillo.

Samuel Shellabarger is a much different kettle of fish. He wrote, also back in the forties and fifties, historical fiction, popular and reminiscent of the work of Alexander Dumas or maybe your favorite historical romance author. However, Shellabarger knew how to write popular fiction with a thoughtful subtext. He wrote the following novels:
The Black Gale (1929)
Captain from Castile (1946) (1947 film starring Tyrone Power, Cesar Romero, Lee J. Cobb)
The Door of Death (1928)
The King’s Cavalier (1950)
Lord Vanity (1953)
Prince of Foxes (1947) (1949 film starring Tyrone Power and Orson Welles)
The Token (1955)
Tolbecken (1955)

I’ve read Captain From Castile and Prince of Foxes. I enjoyed the former book, but probably won’t return to it. Prince of Foxes is one of my very favorite books ever. (I even talked my mother into reading my worn out copy just this week.) The novel tells the story of Andrea Orsini, a social climber during the Renaissance Italy times of the Borgias, Michaelangelo, and da Vinci. Orsini is determined to become a gentleman, to do whatever it takes to overcome his humble origins, including service to Cesare Borgia, the Machiavellian politician who plans to unite Italy by force if necessary. Orsini’s fate becomes entangled with that of his servant and erstwhile assassin, Mario Belli, and also with the fortunes of a beautiful young woman, Camilla Varano, and her elderly husband, the Duke Varano of Citta del Monte. Throughout the novel, Orsini is torn between the demands of his ambition and his sense of morality and honor.

W.H. Hudson: The final “under the radar” recommendation for today dates back to my college days. Green Mansions was actually published in 1904, way before my time, but I was introduced to this fine story of Mr. Abel and Rima the Bird Girl during my college days, in Dr. Huff’s Advanced Reading Survey class. (Wonderful class, wonderful professor, by the way.) The basic plot is simple: a young man meets a mysterious and beautiful bird-girl in the depths of the Venezuelan jungle. The two fall in love, but the perfect love between them is spoiled by the appearance of both primitive envy and fear and the encroachment of civilization. The plot summary doesn’t do the novel justice, however. Hudson was a distinguished naturalist, and his descriptions of the rain forest flora and fauna are beautifully done and, I assume, accurate. Hudson once said, “The sense of the beautiful is God’s best gift to the human soul.” He had a sense of the beautiful and the ability to describe beauty and the honesty to tell a story that included the tragic ending that mars all perfection in our world.

In Search of Rima: a painting and a bit about the novel.

Gutenberg’s etext of Green Mansions. I think, however, you’re going to want to read it from a real book. Try your library or used bookstore.

LOST Reading Project: Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens

Aug21

From the introduction (Penguin Classics edition) to Our Mutual Friend:

Most of the life in Dickens’s last completed novel tends to a state of suspended animation. Nothing seems certainly dead nor entirely alive.”

Well, if that motif doesn’t relate to the TV series LOST . . . Fans have been trying to decide whether the survivors of Oceanic Flight are alive or dead or someplace in-between ever since the series began.

p. 130 I’ve discovered a new word, and a very useful one at that: Podsnappery.

. . . The world got up at eight, shaved close at a quarter-past, breakfasted at nine, went to the City at ten, came home at half-past five, and dined at seven. . . . As a so eminently respectable man, Mr. Podsnap was sensible of its being required of him to take Providence under his protection. Consequently, he always knew exactly what Providence meant. . . . And it was very remarkable (and must have been very comfortable) that what Providence meant, was invariably what Mr. Podsnap meant.
These may be said to have been the articles of a faith and school which the present chapter takes the liberty of calling, after its representative man, Podsnappery.”

Having read a little over half of the book, I would now say that it’s not so much about suspended animation as it is about pretending to be dead or the advantages of playing dead and changing identities. One of the main characters is a man who allows everyone around him to believe he is drowned, takes on an alternate identity, and lives a life of observation as he watches to see the effect of his death on those he leaves behind. Two young ladies find a hideaway on a rooftop to escape the hard realities of their poverty-stricken lives. One of the young ladies, Jenny, feels as if she were dead when she’s up high above the city on the rooftop:

‘How do you feel when you are dead?’ asked Fledgeby, much perplexed.

‘Oh, so tranquil!’ cried the little creature, smiling. ‘Oh, so peaceful and so thankful! And you hear the people who are alive, crying, and working, and calling to one another down in the close dark streets, and you seem to pity them so! And such a chain has fallen from you, and such a strange good sorrowful happiness comes upon you!'”

Is this feeling of escape from the real world exactly what Jack and maybe some of his cohorts miss in the last episode of LOST Season Three? They’ve escaped death-in-life on the island and now they wish they could go back and again be above or outside of the real world.

Other characters in the book run away to their own hiding places, in the world but hidden away: Lizzie Hexam and Betty Higgins to the country, the Boffins hide themselves in their Bower, the incessant London fog hides everyone and everything. Many of the Losties are also escaping or hiding from the real world: certainly Kate and Sawyer, Shannon and Sayid, Claire and Charlie are hiding , running away from something or someone in their past. LOST Island is a great sanctuary, but as Season Three ended, their cover had been blown.

Some other obvious connections between LOST, the TV series, and Our Mutual Friend are: lots of strained father-daughter relationships (Kate, Penelope Widmore, Lizzie Hexam, Sun, Jenny Wren, Pleasant Riderhood), the effect of the sudden aquisition of great wealth (Hurley, Mr. Boffin), a profusion of peculiar characters whose stories intertwine (everybody in both stories).

I’ll write some more thoughts when I finish the book. I just thought that those of you who are missing LOST might like something to ponder, and a book recommendation, too. I’m enjoying the eccentric characters in Our Mutual Friend, and I would suggest that Desmond read it sooner rather than later. Wanting a certain book to be the last one you read before your death is all poetic and romantic-sounding, but the plan has some practical difficulties. How do you decide when death is imminent but far enough away to give you time to finish a Dickens tome before it’s too late?

Author Steven Berlin Johnson on LOST Season Two and Dickens’ Our Mutual Friend.

Lostpedia on Our Mutual Friend.

Of Camels and Salt and Deserts and Books

Aug1

The Camel Bookmobile by Masha Hamilton.

Men of Salt: Crossing the Sahara on the Caravan of White Gold by Michael Benanav.

Sister O’ Mine suggested The Camel Bookmobile as the July Selection for our family book club, and since I already had it on my TBR list, I concurred with the selection. Then, while browsing at the library I found the book Men of Salt and knew it would make a perfect companion to the fictional story of carrying books to bush villages in northeastern Kenya. Even though Men of Salt takes place in the desert of Mali, the concern in both books about changing cultures and intruding technologies and Western values is the same.

In The Camel Bookmobile Fiona Sweeney, a single librarian in Brooklyn with a boyfriend named Chris, a family who doesn’t understand her need for adventure, and friends who expect her home by March, makes a decision to go to Kenya to help start a travelling library. The books will be carried to outlying areas by camel. Fiona’s job is to take the books and make sure they are returned. She finds out that while her main concern is the first part of the job (“Books are their future. A link to the modern world.”), her African counterpart, Mr. Abasi, is more concerned about getting the books back and not at all sure that they should be taking books out into the countryside at all. And the people of Mididima, one of the villages on their route, have their own worries and agendas. When one of the villagers, nicknamed “Scar Boy”, fails to return his library book, the entire scheme starts to unravel, and the villagers learn more about themselves as Fiona explores the value of books versus traditional wisdom in her attempts to reclaim the overdue library books. The book never comes to a definite conclusion or answer to the central question: are change and cultural adaptation good, or bad, or inevitable?

The nonfiction book Men of Salt approaches the same question from the point of view of the azalai, salt merchants, of the Sahara Desert. Michael Benanav, an experienced wilderness guide in the U.S., takes the journey of his life when he decides to travel along with the salt caravans from Timbuktu to the salt mines of Taouodenni and back. The caravans travel by camel, but Mr. Benevav has read that trucks are beginiing to make the camel caravans obsolete. The truth he learns on his trip about the interaction between modern technology and ancient tradition is much more complicated and interesting than a simple story of how Western technology destroys the traditional culture. The story tells of the challenges Benavav faces as he crosses the desert in the company of men who have made the same journey many times and who are accustomed to its hardships. Benavav finds himself tested to the limits of his endurance and amazed at the ability of the azalai and the salt miners to survive and even thrive in the most extreme desert environment. I was amazed, too, and thankful to be able to read about it instead of experiencing it for myself.

I recommend both books for anyone who wants to do a little “armchair adventuring.” A short reading trip to Africa and back this summer certainly gave me the illusion of exploring new territory.

By the way, I found Men of Salt shelved in the juvenile/young adult section of the library, but I’m not sure why. The characters are all adults, and the story is one that, although certainly appealing to adventurous young adults, would also interest those of us with a few more years behind us. Who can fathom the classification decisions of librarians and publishers? Also by the way, I tried to read Mark Kurlansky’s well-publicized tome, Salt: A World History several months ago, and I never got past the first chapter. It was laborious reading with an attitude –not that I put much labor into it. I learned a lot about the history of salt from Mr. Benavav’s adventure, and I enjoyed it, too.

LOST Reading Project: The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

Jul18

Ambiguity. Spectres, ghosts, and apparitions. Good versus evil. Children captured by Others. Illicit or unrequited passion. Incipient insanity.

These are some of the elements that The Turn of the Screw shares with the TV series LOST. In a season two episode (Orientation), Desmond tells Jack and Locke that the DHARMA Initiative orientation film is on the shelf behind The Turn of the Screw. As anyone who’s been watching the show for a while knows, the books that are featured or mentioned are there for a purpose. James’s ghost story, The Turn of the Screw shares quite a bit in common with LOST.

First and last, there’s the ambiguity. I read James’s story to the tragic end, and my first thought was, “I don’t get it.” I re-read some sections and became even more confused. I wondered whether the narrator was at all trustworthy, whether she was sane, whether the ghosts were real or imaginary. (LOST fans: do those questions sound familiar?) The “screw” of the narrative does turn around and around, presenting a different view of the events in the story with each turn.

Ghosts appear —or are they real? Are the appearances in LOST real, or do they only appear to those who see them as some sort of aberrant psychological experience? Lots of dead people have appeared in LOST to various of the survivors: Jack’s dad, Yemi, Ben’s mother, Boone, Ana-Lucia. Are these messengers from beyond the grave evil or good? Then, there’s Hurley’s imaginary friend who leads him to the edge, both literally and figuratively, almost exactly the same thing that happens to the governess narrator in The Turn of the Screw.

The two children in The Turn of the Screw are also ambiguous characters. They may or may not be innocent children. They may be influenced by the evil spirits that the governess sees. According to the governess, the spirits are trying to capture the children and lead them to the pit of hell. In LOST, there’s a similar motif of Evil Others who capture children and do something to them or with them. Or the Others may not be evil at all.

The governess who narrates James’s story, who is the only one who says she sees the evil apparitions, admits from the beginning that she is in love with her employer, a shadowy figure whose main concern is that he not be bothered. Is she making up all the supernatural events in the story to impress her employer? To get his attention? Are the LOST characters also trying to get or to escape attention?

Are they all mad? Is the island imaginary or does it exist in another parallel universe? Do the ghosts that the governess sees exist in a parallel universe, or is she simply psychologically disturbed?

James leaves the ending to his story deliberately ambiguous. I certainly hope the writers and producers of LOST don’t do the same. From a review in Life magazine, 1898 by reviewer “Koch”:

Henry James does it in a way to raise goose-flesh! He creates the atmosphere of the tale with those slow, deliberate phrases which seem fitted only to differentiate the odors of rare flowers. Seldom does he make a direct assertion, but qualifies and negatives and double negatives, and then throws in a handful of adverbs, until the image floats away on a verbal smoke. But while the image lasts, it is, artistically, a thing of beauty. When he seems to be vague, he is by elimination, creating an effect of terror, of unimaginable horrors.”

What effects are the LOST writers producing as they turn the screw around and around from one season to the next? Are the LOST characters headed on a downward spiral into madness and death, or are they moving toward a resolution of their emotional and psychological dilemmas as they redeem themselves through suffering on the island?

We’re back to unresolved ambiguity —so far.

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

Jul16

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith. Recommended by Cassie at Scads of Books. Also recommended by Carrie K. at Mommy Brain.

This book also happened to be the first book in a new project: our new Family Reading Club. My sister and I together chose this book for June because both of us had been planning to read it. So far the Family Reading Club includes just me and my sis. But we’re planning to get others involved: Mom? Eldest Daughter?

I liked I Capture the Castle very much; Sis J was a bit lukewarm. The first interesting thing about the book was really about the author: Dodie Smith also wrote 101 Dalmatians, the story that was the inspiration for the Disney movie. Castle, as far as I can tell, has little or nothing in common with Dalmatians, aside from a tendency toward quirky, eccentric characters.

I guess it was the characters that “captured” me. I Capture the Castle is narrated by sevevteen year old Cassandra, who ives in somewhat genteel poverty in a drafty old castle with her older sister, her artist’s model stepmother, and her washed-up writer father. The only hope for the family to get out of poverty is for one of the girls to marry someone rich. (This is starting to sound like a Jane Austen novel, but it’s not like that at all.)

Cassandra tells the story in her journal. She’s a wonderful narrator, witty, insightful, and honest. Cassandra’s sister Rose is the pretty one, and she’s determined to do whatever it takes to get the family some money. Stepmother Topaz is a model for various famous artists, but by the time she pays her expenses in London while she’s modelling, she doesn’t bring home much income. Father James Mortmain wrote one highly praised novel, very popular in America, but after spending a couple of years in prison for a crime that was never committed, James got a bad case of writer’s block. All he does is read mystery stories and work crossword puzzles and show up for dinner expecting miraculous loaves and fishes.

Into this rather chaotic family, which also includes a Heathcliff-ish servant with a crush on Cassandra, walk two rich Americans, Neil and Simon Cotton. Rose is sure she’s going to marry one of the brothers; she doesn’t really care which one. And Cassandra is both an interested observer and a willing accomplice to Rose’s rather clumsy machinations. The book turns into a tragicomedy as Cassandra grows up and begins to realize that she has romantic feelings of her own. I really liked the ending of the book; let it suffice to say that the ending was not trite and expected.

A minor discussion in the book was of great interest to me. Cassandra considers escape from her feelings of unrequited love by burying herself in religion or in good works. She’s essentially a pagan with Christian cultural clothing, but she sees others who are happy in their churchiness or in doing good. So Cassandra thinks she could do the same and thereby achieve peace and emotional detachment. However, she decides finally that she’d rather hurt (better to have loved and lost) than take refuge in Christianity or even simple goodness. I think she has a very simplistic view of Christianity, but maybe for a seventeen year old who hasn’t been properly taught what being a Christian is all about, she’s fairly advanced in her thinking. I wanted to tell her that being a Christian doesn’t help you to avoid suffering and pain; it only gives you a framework in which to evaluate and give meaning to the suffering and emotional pain that is unavoidable in life. But of course, I had to remind myself that Cassandra is a fictional character.

Do you ever want to talk back to the characters in your books? Please tell me I’m not the only one.

The July book for our Family Book Club is The Camel Bookmobile by Masha Hamilton. You’re welcome to claim us as family and read it, too. Or not claim us and still read the book. SisJ’s already read the book; I still have to pick it up from the hold shelf at the library.

Semicolon

Books we must have though we lack bread.

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