Quote. Jonathan Franzen

For the last week or so before she was hospitalized, my mother couldn't keep any food down, and by the time I arrived her refrigerator was empty of almost everything but ancient condiments and delicacies. On the top shelf there was just a quart of skim milk, a tiny can of green peas with a square of foil on top, and, next to this can, a dish containing a single bite of peas. I was ambushed and nearly destroyed by this dish of peas. I was forced to imagine my mother alone in the house and willing herself to eat a bite of something, anything, a bite of peas, and finding herself unable to. With her usual frugality and optimism, she'd put both the can and the dish in the refrigerator, in case her appetite returned.

from Meet Me in St. Louis (published in How to Be Alone)

Richard Matheson, 1926-2013

Richard Matheson, whose books and short stories spawned many a film adaptation, has passed away at 87.

Did You Need Another Reason to Love This Man?

Notes on a Scandal

by Zoë Heller

The new pottery teacher Sheba starts an affair with one of her students, who is 16 at the time. The story here is recorded by her friend Barbara, also a teacher at St. George's. I use the term 'friend' very loosely when it comes to this Barbara, however. She is a spinster not long before her retirement and fancies herself to be a much better person than she really is.

She is judgmental and bitter, belittling people she deems not worthy of her attention. When Sheba arrives, Barbara is convinced that they will be great friends and is somewhat incredulous when Sheba becomes close with Sue, an overweight simpleton in Barbara's opinion. And opinions she has plenty.

The story is set after the affair was discovered and the scandal broke. At this point Barbara appears to be the only friend Sheba has left in the world. They removed themselves from the media's eye and Barbara is coaxing details of the affair out of Sheba to write a 'record' of the whole business. This she keeps to herself.

One quickly realizes that she is a petty, jealous creature with no real friends, or rather, one person that she leaches onto until it all goes sour - a previous 'friendship' is referred to that went to shreds when her then confidant got engaged and it did not end prettily.

Barbara is very condescending in her story about Sheba, who tried talking to her about the boy she was sleeping with, but backed out and made up some story of him trying to kiss her. When Barbara later learns that even then the relationship was already in full swing, she is upset because Sheba initially lied to her and how dare she?

Barbara, who fancies herself trustworthy of course, urged Sheba to destroy any evidence and memorabilia of the affair, but finds photographs in Sheba's bag.

It was while I was sprucing things up that I came across Sheba's handbag.
I had no intention of going through Sheba's stuff, but when I caught a glimpse of the chaos inside the bag, I couldn't resist giving it a little spring-clean.

Sheba, in turn, finds the manuscript and is furious about the way everyone involved in the story was portrayed. Also, this is how she finds out that it was in actuality Barbara who told on her. (Barbara herself felt bad about this for a very short time before convincing herself that it would have come to light anyway and, really, none of anything was her fault.)

The reality of what kind of person Barbara is is finally put in words by Sheba herself, before returning to her new position of helpless, wide eyed puppy who can't quite figure out what went wrong.

'You have such delusions of grandeur, don't you? It's fascinating. You actually think you are somebody. Listen. Let me tell you something. You're nothing. A bitter old virgin from Eastbourne.[...]'

The book was turned into film starring Cate Blanchett and Judi Dench.

7/10

Two books by Lorraine Peterson

I don't know what to say.

Things Fall Apart

by Chinua Achebe

This is the story of the great warrior Okonkwo. He is a very hard man, mostly because he wants to be as different from his father as he possibly can be. His father never amounted to much of anything.

Okonkwo tries to prove to himself and everyone else that he is strong and serious. And he is a very angry man. First and foremost, he is angry at his no-good father but over the course of the story, he has more reasons to get angry about. When he accidentally kills a young man of his village tradition commands him to leave home for seven years.

While he is in exile missionaries start moving into the most remote communities and bring their stories of one god with them. Among the ones converted to Christianity is Okonkwo's eldest son, which for him is unacceptable so he sends him away

After he returns to his village he realizes that missionaries and their 'white brothers' have increased their influence everywhere and act on new laws. Obviously, the two different ways of life collide and there is only the occasional voice of reason on either side. When Okonkwo and some of his fellow clans men get imprisoned for speaking up against the invaders his anger finally boils over and he kills a head messenger. After he realizes that the clan is still not willing to make war against the white man - as Okonkwo believes it must be - he resignates and commits suicide.

Great read.

8/10

The Other Hand (aka Little Bee)

by Chris Cleave

Am I the only one who was annoyed by the whole marketing strategy of "it's all hush-hush because we don't want to give too much away"?

Here's what I would have blurped. And I don't think I am giving "too much away" but people should be given some idea of what the freakin' book is about:
"Young Nigerian girl Little Bee is illegally in England makes her way to see the only people she knows in the country, Sarah and Andrew. They met two years previously and their lives have been drastically and tragically changed by the encounter."

Would you still read it or is this TMI? Yeah, I thought so.

Anyway, the story revolves around the two mentioned women and the narrating voice changes from one to the other with each chapter. Everything about their lives is wrong or difficult. Sarah's four year old son Charlie insists on wearing his batman costume every single day and fights imaginary "baddies" ever since his father died. Sarah's lover suddenly stands in front of her house and offers his help, which complicates the situation further. Little Bee lives in constant fear of being found and deported while Sarah helps her to work out ways and means to help Little Bee to stay in England.

Very sad and at times brutal. Good read.

6/10

Iain Banks, 1954-2013

It didn't come unexpected, Iain Banks died of bladder cancer that he announced was terminal two months ago.

Iain Banks dies age 59

Executioner: Pierrepoint

by Albert Pierrepoint

I am slightly wary of autobiographies written by people that come from a field of work as far from writing as it can possibly be. There was no co-author listed, so this probably was penned by Mr Pierrepoint himself.

In the end, I was pleasantly surprised by the fluency of the account, it did take me about 20 pages to get into it and familiarize myself with the language and time period of his life story.

Mr Pierrepoint, despite being probably the most experienced British executioner, seems to have been a very reasonable man that did not brag about his profession and had his doubts about capital punishment. However, he did believe that if a person is to be executed, he/she should be put to death as quickly and as free from suffering as possible.

He just so happened to be active during the post-war years of the German trials and executions, which is the main reason he officiated as many hangings as he did.

His life story was made into a film (of course it was) called Pierrepoint (US title The Last Hangman) and starring Timothy Spall. There is also another book about the Pierrepoint family available (the executioner business was a family trade) called Pierrepoint: A Family of Executioners (currently on my TBR pile).

6/10

Quote. Samuel Wood

CRICKET.

 

There are two classes of crickets: viz. the field cricket, and the house cricket; the latter inhabits warm places, the holes of the hearth, &c. from whence we hear its notes, which are agreeable: it is said, that they are purchased by some, and kept in a kind of cage, for the sake of their music. Field crickets inhabit the meadows, and subsist on roots, &c. as does another species, called the mole cricket.

from The History of Insects (1813)

The Story of a Marriage

by Andrew Sean Greer

Andrew Sean Greer’s writing is so fluent and beautiful that you hardly notice that nothing much happens in this book.

The story is told from a young black woman, Pearly, living in 1950s San Francisco with her handsome husband Holland and their son and spans approximately 6 months in their marriage. Their quiet life is interfered with by a white man named Buzz, an old friend of Holland's that he met in a medical facility during WWII.

During the six months Buzz is working out a deal with Pearly to help him convince Holland, who he had a relationship with back when they met and whom he is still in love with, to leave with him. The details of the deal remain somewhat sketchy but involve money (of course) and a plot of land. Pearly wants to do what is best for Holland and agrees, believing that Holland really wants to be with Buzz. In the end, Holland stays with her. Years later they revisit the episode and it turns out that they each believed that Holland leaving was really what the other one wanted.

What is not clear to me, though, is whether or not Buzz tried to convince Holland that Pearly wants to be by herself or if he really thought he was doing him a favor. We only ever get the story from Pearly's perspective, so we never find out.

What impressed me most about this book, I guess, is how believable (to me anyway) the author told the story from Pearly's point of view. The overall tone reminded me of Stewart O'Nan stories, that also live through storytelling rather than action.

8/10

The Problem with The Great Gatsby's Daisy Buchanan

At this point, there is no end to stories of The Great Gatsby in sight. With the critiques of the film come the defenders and haters of the book and its characters. So, we might as well embrace it all (mind you, the stories surrounding it, not the actual story...we don't like that).

The Daily Beast features an article about the female lead, Daisy Buchanan (and the story's raison d'être).

By the by, the book cover design on the left there is my favorite yet.

Juliet, Naked

by Nick Hornby

Nick Hornby is one of those writers whose books always pick me up after slow and/or tedious reads.

This one literally made me laugh out loud on several occasions - mostly about something the various men in the book said or did. All the male characters are tied together by Annie and they all have some major issue.

The male lead, Duncan, is obsessed with an obsucre musician called Tucker Crowe. Duncan has very firm opinions on what the songs and the disappearance of his rock hero mean. Of course, he turns out to be wrong about pretty much everything. One wonders how Annie could put up with the guy for so long, because the unnatural music obsession is by far not his only flaw.

Tucker Crowe himself has his own troubles. He is unable to have a functioning relationship and tends to father children with different wives/girlfriends he subsequently loses touch with. When he has a mild heart attack, the prospect of all his children being around him at the same time is more than he can handle. It is through Annie that he meets Duncan (and sets him straight on a few things).

Annie's therapist is hilarious, I thought. Annie does more of the analyzing in this particular relationship.

...and let's not even get into the Northern Soul dancers.

7/10

Quote. Paul Auster

It is death. And we say "death," as if we meant to say the thing we cannot know. And yet we know, and we know that we know. For we hold this knowledge to be irrefutable. It is a question for which no answer comes, and it will lead us to many questions that in their turn will lead us back to the thing we cannot know. We may well ask, then, what we will ask. For the subject is not only life and death. It is death, and it is life.

from The Death of Sir Walter Raleigh

The Prince of West End Avenue

by Alan Isler

This is the story of Otto Korner (formerly Körner), who lives at Emma Lazarus, an old peoples' home in Manhattan, where a group of residents is in preparation of their yearly theater production. This year it will be Hamlet. But since the actors are all elderly, death has a say in the casting of roles and some roles have to be recast, which brings the production to a frequent halt.

Mr. Korner tells of the turmoil surrounding their Hamlet and also tells of his life in Europe during the years of World War I and time spent in a concentration camp during World War II, prompted by the arrival of a new nurse, Mandy Dattner. Ms. Dattner is a spitting image of his first great (and foolish) love, Magda Damrosch.

Whereas the current story of egos clashing over the casting are amusing and sweet, the memories Mr. Korner writes about are very sad in contrast:

How could I have been so blind, so insanely smug? Well, of course, I knew my Germans. One had to adjust his perspective to the larger view. Sporadic acts of anti-Semitism were no more than the initial exuberance of the Nazi triumph, a passing phase of the new Reich. Things were bound to get better, settle down. What were we if not Germans? We sprang from the German soil; we were Germans in our innermost souls. One could not, in any case, give in to female vapors. One had responsibilities. No doubt I believed all that.

Very good read.

6/10