The Lost Month

I can't make excuses for not blogging, but I hope all of you forgive me for the lack of posts over the last month (plus a few more days). I recently became a byproduct of the failing economy (the magazine I started working for in March folded, and I will be looking for work come August), and blogging simply hasn't been on my personal radar.

However, I do have a few things to write about, so here goes:

There will be a Get Lit book club meeting tonight at 7:30 at the Barnes & Noble in Poughkeepsie. We're discussing "The Reluctant Fundamentalist" by Moshin Hamid. I read the book last week, and was completely drawn into the story. The protagonist, Changez, addresses you, the reader, as if you are the man he comes across in the Pakistani market. Changez tells his life story to this visitor, but the way the story is written, you can't help but feel you've stumbled across a very dangerous game of chess, with each word a calculated move on the part of both the visitor and Changez. I loved it.

Here's some of what I have been reading lately, but haven't written about. I'll try to give a rating and synopsis in as short a way as possible:

- Sugar Queen, Sarah Addison Allen. Josey is 27, slightly overweight, and lives to take care of her mother. She keeps her dreams, and her junk food, hidden in her closet. That is, until a waitress from the local greasy spoon takes up residence there as a hideout, forever changing Josey's life.

- '>Olive Kitteridge, by Elizabeth Strout. This book is another one of those collection of short stories that tell a cohesive narrative about a place or person. This is the second time I've seen this recently, and wonder if it's the vogue thing. While the stories feature very different members of a small Maine town, they all involve, either directly or by slight reference only, Olive Kitteridge, a middle-aged elementary school teacher.

- The Gathering, by Anne Enright. This is the August Get Lit selection, and I'm afraid some of you may not like it at all. I'm sorry. It features Veronica, a middle-aged woman from a gigantic Irish family. Veronica is having to deal with her brother's recent death (including getting the body, organizing the wake and keeping her crazy family intact), but also has to deal with a secret she's kept since she was young: a secret that could very well explain Liam's death. I'm not going to argue with Enright's writing. It's bleak and funny and explicit all at once. The graphic sexual references turned me off in the beginning, but as her story unravels, you see why she was using them in the first place, and will notice that they slowly dissapate as she unburdens her soul. Not sure who will like this one, but I will admit, in the end, I did. Not a favorite, but good enough.

- The Welsh Girl, by Peter Ho Davies. In this World War II-era novel, three seemingly unrelated characters: Esther, a Welsh barmaid; Karsten, a German prisoner of war; and Rothram, a German raised Lutheran but with Jewish ancestry (on his father's side) become intertwined against the backdrop of a POW camp in the Welsh hills. Well-written, engaging and with a quiet but powerful voice.

Your ABCs May Affect Your Perception Abilities

According to a story on PsychologyToday.com, the type of alphabet a person grows up with may affect how he or she perceives mirror images.

Eric Pederson, Ph.D., assistant professor of linguistics at the University
of Oregon, examined monoliterate, biliterate and nonliterate Tamil and English
speakers in southern India. Pederson showed participants a complex line drawing
and three other images: a shape contained in the original drawing, the same
shape reversed and an unrelated shape. He asked if the reversed or "mirror"
shape was identical to the shape contained in the original drawing. Eighty-six
percent of biliterates (those familiar with Tamil and Latin alphabets)
successfully identified the shapes. Nonliterates and subjects who only read
Tamil were successful 59 percent and 35 percent of the time.

Pederson attributes the difference to the alphabets: Unlike English,
which requires readers to distinguish between "b" and "d" or "q" and "p," Tamil
has no reversed characters.

What I think is interesting is that the nonliterates actually do better than those who are familiar with the Tamil alphabet.

Does Reading Alter Our Reality
Psychology Today

The Painter from Shanghai, Jennifer Cody Epstein

My apologizes to Ms. Epstein, who was kind enough to contact Get Lit about her new novel. I finished it about three weeks ago, but haven't had the opportunity to write about it until now.

Jackie first blogged about it in April, and predicted it would be the breakout book club selection for 2008-09.

After reading this debut effort, I have to agree. Epstein's portrayal of Pan Yuliang, the Chinese prostitute-turned-artist, is richly detailed and exquisitely presented.

In the story, young Xiuqing is sold to a brother by her opium-addicted uncle. But through her own personal strength and the kindness of a local dignitary, she, now called Pan Yuliang, leaves the brothel to discover her own artistic talents. It's based on a real "woman painter," and fleshes out her life beyond what is already known.

Against the backdrop of World War II and the Chinese Revolution, Epstein takes a relatively unknown character and brings her to life with broad strokes of emotion and descriptive detail. Pan Yuliang constantly struggles internally with her anger against and her desire to forgive her uncle, and also struggles externally against popular opinion and sensibilities, when the world tries to compromise her artistic vision.

The obvious comparison for this novel would be Arthur Golden's "Memoirs of a Geisha," with its "whore turned wife" story and Eastern motifs. But Epstein's writing is more complex, her character's emotional range more varied, than in "Geisha." There's a complexity of spirit and experience that is told against this vibrant Chinese setting, which I found really appealing.

Thanks to Jennifer for contacting Get Lit, and for bringing our attention to this fantastic novel!

USA Today's Summer Book Review

Can't believe I haven't posted this yet!

USA Today Summer Books Preview

My favorite picks from the list:
- The Other, by David Guterson (June 6)
- The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, David Wroblewski (June 10)
- America, America, Ethan Canin (June 24)
- Brida, Paulo Coelho (July 1)
- The Likeness, Tana French (July 21)

September Get Lit selection

We have all the books chosen for the rest of the 2008 Get Lit season, except for September. I've been going through the recent paperback publication lists, but I haven't seen anything that really grabs me.

Any suggestions?

The last two weeks

I'm embarrassed that I haven't blogged in the last two weeks.

In my defense, it has been busy with a lot of travel and visiting old friends. From my last post to now, I've really only been near a computer for about five days. I kept thinking, "Oh, I'll get around to it. I'll do it tonight." And tonight turned into the next day turned into the weekend turned into the next week.

I do feel even worse about missed the club meeting for the second month in a row. I ended up at Grand Central's lost-and-found (or in my case, lost-and-still lost), and missed my train. (That's the way things have been going lately.)

Thanks to Kathy, who, again, is kind enough to give us a quick recap of Monday's meeting:

We had a nice turn-out. There were six of us. All liked this month's book -- "Traveler" by Ron McLarty. A few of us (including me) like his first book (The Memory of Running) better. But most liked this book better. I really liked the character of Smithy Ide in the first book. It took me a bit to get into this book because I was missing Smithy. We all agreed that this book would make a great movie and we liked the mystery aspect to it, which we were not expecting. We also all agreed that we hope Ron McLarty keeps writing and that we would definitely want to try his next book -- if there is a next book.

I too, really liked McLarty's book. I blogged about it when I first read it a few weeks ago. And Kathy, there is a next book: It's called "Art in America" and will be out July 7. More information is listed on McLarty's website.

I promise to be a better blogger for the next few weeks. You can see there are some new books added to the list of what I'm reading now, so look for some new posts in the upcoming days.

Who killed the literary critic?

This is the question Salon.com's book reviewers try to answer after reading "The Death of the Critic," by Ronan McDonald.

The book purports that in postmodern America, the critic is dead because of a "damn The Man" philosophy, and the idea that everyone can be an expert, and that everyone's opinion is valid. With the Internet, too, the ability for ordinary folk to put their thoughts out there is easier than ever before.

As an amateur reviewer who is uncomfortable even with calling herself a reviewer, I can appreciate that there's something to be said for having "experts" who hold the keys to the city of culture. There's something to be said for a group of people who have a mass of professional experience and practice in reviewing movies, books and television.

At the same time, the opinions of "lay people" are helpful too. Let's face it: I often don't agree with the New York Times Book Review. I just don't. I'm not that erudite or snobby, and the fiction they choose doesn't appeal to my reading appetites. But does that mean I could do that job just as well as they do? Absolutely not.

It's like journalism. There's no test, no degree, no license required to be a journalist or a reviewer. Anyone can call themselves as such, and be correct. At the same time, however, does that mean everyone should?

Who killed the Literary Critic? Salon.com

Girls in Trucks, by Katie Crouch, and two reviews

Both of these novels were reviewed in the NYTimes Style section. I think I'd probably read both, although the latter sounds better than the former.

I'm currently reading "Girls in Trucks" by Katie Crouch. It's about a Southern belle's life growing up as a debutante-turned-New Yorker, whose life (at this point in the book about 2/5 in), is resembling the Confederacy after Sherman's army marched through.

It's a debut effort, and while the chapters tell a continuous story, it's like reading a collection of short stories, rather than a novel. I like the technique, and so far, the story has been engaging.

Friday Nights, Johanna Trollope

I finished "Friday Nights" by Johanna Trollope late last week, but because I (stupidly and accidentally) downloaded a virus onto my laptop (it's so scary when a screen saver of bugs eating away at your computer screen appears), I haven't had a chance to blog about it until now. (My lunch break after deadline).

The novel centers on a group of unlikely friends in London: Paula and Lindsey, young mothers struggling to have their own lives; Karen, the exhausted businesswoman/mom with the artist (read: not making money) husband; Blaise, Karen's business partner who focuses on work more than her social life; Jules, Lindsey's wayward sister who deejays in local clubs and crashes at a different flat every night; and Eleanor, the retired woman who brings these characters together every Friday night for conversation and comfort.

The group has a regular get-together for about five years, until Paula starts dating a MAN, whose presence in the group causes a chain-reaction of events that changes the women's lives forever.

There were a couple things I really liked about the book. One, it seemed based in chaos theory — you know, a butterfly flapping its wings in New York causes a typhoon in Japan kind of thing. I like the concept that every action has a reaction, and they're not predictable. I also liked how complex the women's relationships with each other were. There weren't easy answers, easy reactions. It was messy, like life is.

What I didn't like was that it took a man to stir these women out of their doldrums. I just feel like every book about women ends up being about men. You never read a novel about a man who's waiting for a woman to make a decision. Another review on Amazon.com mentioned that the ending is all sewn up a little too neatly. I agree, but I like tidy endings.

Overall, it's a fast read and a fun read, but it's beach reading at best.

Note: My computer is getting fixed by the wonderful people at JK Tech Solutions, a company that picks up the computer from your house, fixes it, and brings it back within 48 hours. I'm getting my computer debugged and rebooted for $90. Amazing!

a double-dose of love!

Hello again! Sorry I haven't posted in a while, but it's final exams time, so I've been plenty busy with my last essays!

Here's what I've been reading in classes that people might enjoy.

Across the River and Into the Trees by Ernest Hemingway was considered his worst novel. It was met with a lot of criticism for overuse of his standard devices and too much sentimentality. However, as William Faulkner wrote in a letter to the New York Times, Hemingway at his worst is better than everyone at their best.

The story is about a 50 year-old retired American army Colonel who falls in love with a 19 year-old Italian countess. The book follows them through his last days in Venice, as they deal with his impending death due to heart problems.

The book is a poignant love story set in the iconic city for romance. 

The second book is contemporary, but not necessarily current. I read The Dew Breaker by Edwidge Danticat for a class in contemporary literature focusing on immigration. It is comprised of several stories from different perspectives of a man who was a known torturer in Haiti during the end of Aristide's administration.

It was relatively interesting, but I was not immediately attracted to Danticat's style. I did like the construction of the novel and her stories were heartfelt. I was on the fence about her characters - I felt some were filled out and understandable, but there were others that I didn't get a chance to fully experience.

I would recommend it, nevertheless. It's a captivating account of how Haitian immigrants deal with living in America.

Author dies at 68

Irish author and journalist Nuala O'Faolain died in hospice Friday after battling an inoperable cancer. She was 68.

I saw Ms. O'Faolain speak at National Writer's Workshop in Hartford, Conn., in 2006. She wrote "Are You Somebody," a memoir detailing her difficult life with abusive parents and her own destructive habits in pursuit of fulfillment.

The one thing I remember most about her talk is how sad she seemed. For her, the writing process wasn't cathartic. It was what she did because she was compelled to do it, but I'm not sure she ever really had any joy in it.

I hope, in the end, she found some peace.

Irish author Nuala O'Faolain dies at 68

Another interesting story

Remember James Frey? Author of "A Million Little Pieces," the memoir that wasn't? He had to go on Oprah and apologize to the grand dame herself for his deception.

He's back, and writing fiction (correctly labeled as such), he's now written "Bright Shiny Morning," which is (apparently) getting rave reviews and is seen as Frey's atonement for his past sins. The story is set against the backdrop of Los Angeles: a fitting place for fiction, memoir and nonfiction to meld.

I did not read "A Million Little Pieces" because of the controversy, but I may pick this up this time round.

Little Pieces of Los Angeles, Done His Way