Category: A Real, Live Book

As a break from manuscript reading for the Taos Conference, I’ve been indulging in some delicious novels.  The first, The River Wife, is by my workshop leader, Jonis Agee.  The story follows the fortunes of several women with one thing in common: a bond to the river pirate Jacques Ducharme.  The scope of the novel is tremendous, and I’m impressed that Agee has made each of the women unique, even while certain elements of their lives repeat and build.  On the sentence level, the writing engaged me, and, in the same way I have a crush on Jack Sparrow (who doesn’t?  What, you don’t?  Do you have a pulse?  Or, what, you just don’t like dirty boys?), I am a little bit over-fond of Jacques Ducharme.  There is adventure, tragedy, a ghost or two, and even a cameo appearance by John Audubon.

As a part of my 1% Well Read Challenge, I  read  Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson.  If, like I do, you have a soft spot for Nick and Nora, for gowns and cocktails in the afternoon (in the films, silly, not in real life!), then pick up this delightful novel.  While the excessive use of adverbs put me off at first, I sank into Miss Pettigrew’s adventures rather quickly.  Lovers, cocaine, fashion, fists…it has all the makings of a fun, summer read.  I recommend a tall, cool glass of lemonade (oh, add a shot of vodka if you must) and a hammock as the perfect accessories to this frothy, sweet Cinderella story. 

I’m off for a quick bike ride before it gets too hot.  Oh, wait, it’s already too hot.  I’ll ride anyway, then I’ll spend some time at my sewing machine.  With the air conditioner on, no doubt.

As always, let me know what summer delights you are reading!

I read this novel as a part of the 1% Well-Read Challenge that I joined in May.  Jeffrey Eugenides won the Pulitzer Prize for Middlesex.  The novel is both a coming-of-age story and an intergenerational saga, both of which appeal to me.  The narrator is Cal, an intersexed person who is raised as a female, but later identifies as a male.  Cal traces his genetic difference by relating the fascinating story of his grandparents. 

The writing is strong and specific, never overdone, but often witty.  I’m interested in the faux memoir (I guess what we once called first-person narrative, but with a difference) as a genre, and I took a lot away in terms of how to work this form.  I also, in part because of the unpublished novels I’m reading for my master class in July, interested in how a writer successfully integrates history into a novel without becoming didactic.  The research is there; the trick is to make it a natural part of the story, which Eugenides does with grace. 

I was so immersed in the story, so attached to Cal and his world, that I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning to finish the novel, and I was bummed when I finished.  I’m going to have to return to The Virgin Suicides, which I listened to on tape years ago.

In between manuscripts, I’m reading Jonis Agee‘s The River Wife, which I’m enjoying so much. Jonis is leading the master class I’m taking, and before this I’d only read her short stories.  As I read her novel, I’m even more excited for the class.

For about 18 months in the late 1970s James Wright and Leslie Marmon Silko exchanged letters that shifted from formal expressions of admiration to warm, personal, often tender missives.  The two writers discuss their writing, encourage each other, and share how the events in their personal life influence their work.  Wright’s widow compiled the letters in the slender volume The Delicacy and Strength of Lace, a book that is close to perfect as I can imagine.

While in Belgium, Wright purchased lace to send to Silko for her birthday, hence the title.  From the thinnest of threads, as with knitted lace, the lace maker creates something both beautiful and useful.  Just think how rich our world is when we have that combination–beauty and usefulness–in our lives.

I highly recommend this book, whether you’re interested in writing or not.  I felt suspended as I read it, as though I was given a precious gift of a peek into the lives of two brilliant, kind people navigating a friendship that was bigger than they were.  Just as I feel I’ve been given a gift as I knit Swallowtail.  It’s a delightful pattern, and the cheerful Sunsilk is exactly right for banishing knitting ennui. 

At least, if I’m to believe this review of Lolita, I am.  I’m not put off by the taboo subject matter, and at times, I relished the language with gusto, but Nabokov’s arguably most famous novel did not leave me wanting more.  I’m not sure I understand why; examined feature-by-feature, I admire a lot about the novel.  The narrator’s voice is witty and delightfully unreliable.  I love me a road story, which in many ways, this is.   In places, the playfulness of the language engaged me so thoroughly that I had to read it out loud to make sure I’d wrung every drop of liveliness from it.  In the end, though, it simply wasn’t a good fit for me.  I do not deny the enduring brilliance of the novel; I do admit to struggling to finish it, especially after Lo’s kidnapping.  I wanted to care for H.H., for Lo, for anyone; I fear I never developed a bond with the characters, even one based in distaste. 

Lolita is a novel that I thought I had read already, but I couldn’t remember anything about it than the obvious:  perverted older man hooks up with pre-teen.  There is so much more than that to the novel, and I’m glad to have read it, but only, as Dan Bern might say, so I can cross it off my list.

My trip to NY was a whirlwind, and I failed to take a single picture.  So much for my photo essay of my former home.

I hope you’re staying cool.  We drank lemonade slushies in the shade, and now I plan to stick close to the air conditioning.  Not very environmentally friendly, but this weather is the type of thing that lets a girl knows just how far she’ll go for a cause, no?

This weekend I’ve finished three books, so here are some reviews for you:

The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood.  I rushed through reading this while at the same time, I didn’t want it to end.  Even though I "solved" the mystery pretty early in the novel, I enjoyed watching it play out.  Atwood’s language is lush and precise, a combination that isn’t always found together.  I am a fan of books within books (a la A.S. Byatt’s Possession), and each time one of the Blind Assassin chapters appeared, I was excited.   The narrator is strong; her voice is funny even as it is longing and regretful.  This novel won Atwood the Booker prize, and I wholeheartedly recommend it as a great summer read.

In an effort to have a real go at the graphic novel form, I took out Persepolis and Persepolis 2 from my library.   While I’m not going to dive into the form with abandon, I did enjoy both of these.  Some of my colleagues teach Persepolis, and I might add it to my syllabus, too.  I liked Marjane Satrapi’s illustrations, although my taste usually runs to dreamy watercolors, and I thought her storytelling was provocative.  She was born in the same year as I was, and I was compelled by how different our childhoods were.  I felt the second book, in which she relates the story of her return from Austria to Iran,  was even more interesting.  I laughed aloud in places, but mainly I felt sorrow and anger.  The emotional truth of the books, above everything else, is what made them important to me.  I’ll certainly seek out the film version.

Nestled in with my weekend filled with reading, Neal and I celebrated our first anniversary.  We had a lovely day with lots of conversation about what we’ve done in the past year and what we hope to accomplish in the coming year.  He took today off, too, and we finally bought plants and fencing for my kitchen garden.  I’m hoping that harvesting lots of yummy veggies will be one of my big accomplishments in our second year of marriage!

One of the many joys of being (nearly) done with graduate school is that for the first time in years, I can read exactly what I want.  My reading list is no longer dictated by my coursework.  To help myself focus that list, I've taken to joining a few reading groups.  You've already read about the non-fiction one.  Well, today, as I wait to go out for a run in the rain with Blog-free Kim, I discovered the 1% Well-Read read-along.  While I won't read the book that it's based on, there is a list here, which I think seems a bit random, but aren't they all?  There are books left off that I should think imperative for the well-read person to have read.  I went through the spreadsheet and found that I am 14.79% well read.  I didn't mark off any books to which I said "I think I read that, but I don't remember it."

Here is my list of ten books to add to my percentage:

The Blind Assassin (currently reading)  finished
The Corrections (on my bookshelf)
Shame (on my bookshelf)
Unless
Middlesex finished
Choke (on my bookshelf) finished
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie finished, but was left cold.
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day  finished…and adored!
Independent People (won this one at the Greg Martin end-of-semester swap 2006)
Lolita (finished)

12/2 ETA: I substituted The Bell Jar for one of the remaining books…so as of today, three left to read!

Any takers?  Ten books in ten months.  Easy peasy, right?

A while ago I mentioned that I had joined Thoughts of Joy’s Non-Fiction Five Challenge, and since May is just around the calendar, I thought I’d list the five non-fiction books I intend to read:

1.  Julie and Julia (Noelle gave this to me ages ago, and it’s about time I read it!)
2.  Passionate Apprentice
3.  The Devil’s Picnic
4.  If Mountains Die (a sweet gift from Mona)
5.  Writing About Your Life (Edited to fix link.  Thanks, BFK)
The list may change as I move through it.  I welcome your non-fiction suggestions!

In the last week or so I’ve finished two books, both of which I’m happy to recommend.  The first is Neil Gaiman‘s Sandman: The Dream Hunters, which is the first graphic novel I’ve read.  I was given this as a birthday gift, and it is exquisite.  Yoshitaka Amano‘s illustrations are magical and done with a light, lovely touch.  The story is a re-telling of a Japanese fable.  While I am not familiar with the original, I believe Gaiman has done an excellent job maintaining the tone that one expects in a fable or fairy tale.  This was a real treat.

I went to the bookstore last week, determined to pick up as many other Sandman books as my budget would allow, but I left without any.  When I opened them up to look at the illustrations, I realized my naiveté  about graphic novels.  The one I’d just finished is really more of an illustrated novel; the ones I flipped through, I suppose, take the more "traditional" graphic novel form, which harkens back to comic books.  I have to confess that I didn’t like the artwork that much (mind you, I only skimmed), and I was not enchanted by the comic book format.  I left the books behind.  The woman who gave me Dream Hunters highly recommends this series, and she is one of the best readers I know, one whom I always will trust about books, so in time I’ll look for them in the library or borrow them from her to see if I change my mind upon spending more time with this form.

The second book about which I want to tell you is Moloka’i by Alan Brennert.  This well-researched (but never didactic) historical novel deals with the leper colony in Hawaii.  The story follows Rachel, who contracts Hansen’s disease at around age six, throughout her life.  She is a fantastic character, supported by numerous secondary characters who are well-rounded.  Brennert’s descriptive powers are excellent, and I always felt that I was in the hands of a good story teller.  At times, the narration, generally a third-person close to the protagonist, dips into other characters in a way that seems like it is not deliberate, but those minor flaws were not enough to turn me off.  In fact, I was so compelled by the novel that I even did some simple knitting while I read on the deck; I couldn’t put this one down!

I just took Margaret Atwood’s The Blind Assassin out of the library; I’ll let you know what I think of it when I’m finished!

I showed restraint in packing for my quick trip to New Mexico.  I took only two small knitting projects (of which I knit not a stitch, wtf?) and one novel.  On the flight out I read literary criticism about the Wife of Bath to prepare for my presentation, and on Thursday and Friday, my reading time was dedicated to my dissertation.  Finally, Friday night, after the festivities, I was able to hunker into the novel I’d borrowed from the library: The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards.  Over breakfast on Saturday, Mona mentioned that she’d read it and couldn’t decide how she felt about it, and I see what she means.  The writing is solid, certainly.  The story has some truly compelling moments, and there is a lot of heartache and joy.  I enjoyed Edwards’ explorations of the dangers of secrets, and I believed in her characters.   Still, though, I came away from reading the book a little less than satisfied.  Perhaps it’s the ending that seems to veer into bow tying.  I simply did not feel the same pull to get to the end that a book like, say, Fire in the Blood engendered in me.  Nevertheless, I would recommend the novel.  I think it would make a good beach book.  Life changing?  Not for me.  Entertaining and interesting?  You bet.  By the way, I like some of the interview and FAQ material on Edwards’ website.  It’s worth a look around if your considering reading the novel.

My perennial question:  what are you reading that’s good?  I won’t be mired in lit. crit. for much longer!