beauty

One Book a Week-51: “The Watch”, Joydeep Roy-Bhattacharya

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I could not stop reading this book. The setting is a US military outpost during the Afghan war in the middle of nowhere in the mountains of Kandahar. The weather is brutal–extremes of cold and heat, sand storms, heavy fog early in the mornings. Suddenly, after a brutal battle where they lose some soldiers, a young Afghan woman, Antigone, with stumps for legs shows up pulling a cart. Her brother, who the soldiers think was part of the Taliban, was killed in the battle; she wants her brother’s body for a proper Muslim burial. The soldiers do not know whether she is who she says she is or a suicide bomber. It confuses them even more when she plays hauntingly beautiful music on her rubab every night. All this leads to a lot of confusion over and raises many questions about morality and duty. Each chapter is from a different viewpoint, the young woman and various soldiers in the outpost.

Note: The rubab is a traditional Pashtun 12 string guitar-like instrument. You can find recordings on YouTube.

One Book a Week-50: “The Poet X”, Elizabeth Acevedo

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I purchased this book not long after it won the National Book Award, but never managed to get around to reading it until recently. I love this book. Yes, it won in the youth category, but since I have worked with teens for decades, I “get” it. It is a novel in poetry where the narrator, a 15 year old Dominican Latina, Xiomara, who lives in Harlem, keeps a poetry journal to stay sane. Her very religious Catholic die-hard Mom frequently drives her crazy with rules like she can never talk to a boy, much less date one. Her dad is a bit of a playboy and less strict. Her twin brother is a genius who won a scholarship to a fancy private school, and her best friend, Caridad, is hyper religious. Yet these young people all keep each other “together”. Her English teacher realizes Xiomara has a gift and encourages her to become involved in poetry slam events. She cannot see how this is possible given her mother’s attitude toward her poetry. You do not have to be a teenager to enjoy this book. In fact, if you think you do not understand teenagers, I suggest you read this book. It will enlighten you.

One Book a Week-46: “Road Fever”, Tim Cahill

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After reading two intense, somewhat depressing novels, I decided to read a lighter non-fiction work. An article I read mentioned a tale of two guys, Tim Cahill and Garry Sowerby, who drove a GMC Sierra pickup truck from Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska in less than 25 days. I like adventures and the best vehicle I ever owned was a Sierra 4 by 4 Off Road. I sold it to a former student when I moved. It was still going strong at over 300,000 miles.

In order to follow along on their adventure, I dug out my atlas and followed their trip through 13 countries, finding cities, little towns, rivers, mountains. When they traveled in 1987, the only place with no road was the Darien Gap on the border between Colombia and Panama–today still no road and now famous for all the migrants who labor through this dangerous, swampy, jungle area on foot on their way north. Since no road there, Tim and Garry had to load the truck onto a container ship in Cartagena and unload it in Panama. They also rode on the ship as passengers. This lead to their meeting some of the most colorful characters on their trip.

Along the way, they meet all sorts of people, e.g. sadistic police, kind employees of international GMC, a weird consulate employee, and helpful women, describe them and the landscape in detail. Procuring the right documents and proceeding across borders is sometimes easy and sometimes grueling, again described in detail. Of course, political leaders, ease of travel, etc. have changed in many places–I’ve been to or lived in five of the countries they traverse.

Want to explore new places, meet all sorts of folks?? Then this is the book for you and a fun read.

One Book a Week, 36-39: See notes below plus “Mrs. Caliban”, Rachel Ingalls

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“Mrs. Caliban”, once called “The Perfect Novel” by the New York Times, was a book ahead of its time. A sort of magical realism story, its message remains relevant over the decades. Mrs. Caliban’s husband just lives with her and only returns home to eat, and after going out for the evening, to sleep. He’s polite and indifferent. One day a green, sort of humanlike, highly intelligent monster shows up. He is hiding from the authorities who found him and experimented on him. She listens to his relating the horrible things done to him and hides him in the guest room where her husband never goes. He transforms her life. In the meantime, she goes to visit a close friend and listens to the friend’s stories of multiple simultaneous affairs she is having with multiple men friends. They give each other advice, exchange stories about various people they know. Mrs. Caliban tells no one about her house guest. Then a shocking accident and astonishing information she never guessed occur.

This short novel reveals so much about life, human behavior, and the status of men and women. I highly recommend it.

Note: The other three books I read for a project and cannot discuss them at this time.

One Book a Week-32: “gilead”, Marilynne Robinson

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A theological treatise, a family history, and a love story, this winner of the Pulitzer Prize, left me wondering. It is nothing like any of the other books I’ve previously read. As a long letter from an aging preacher to his young son, it contains family stories of his pacifist preacher father and his violent preacher grandfather, an ardent abolitionist who knew and aided John Brown, theological religious analyses and musings, personal beliefs and doubts, and his own unlikely love story only found at the age of 67, and his views and feelings toward the Iowa prairie and the tiny town where he lives.

For a substantial portion of this letter, the narrator discusses the mixed feelings he holds toward his namesake, the wayward son of his best friend, another local preacher. In the paperback version I read, the first 215 pages continue, no breaks, no chapters. Then, suddenly, there is a blank page and the narrator relates some rather unexpected new information about his friend’s wayward son and his own reactions to this information. In the last two pages, the narrator discusses his love of the prairie and the town and why he never left.

I read several reviews on Amazon and find some do not really review the book but rather rant about their religious opposing views to what the narrator relates or criticize the style and subject matter with which they disagree. For me I can read a book and even though I may disagree with some of the material, if it is well written. Well, this novel is well written. The prose is lovely, often poetic, and some of the descriptions remain memorable. However, if you want a traditional plot, do not want to think about religious views and philosophies, then this novel is not for you.

One Book a Week-31: “Miracle At St. Anna”, James McBride

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The third novel I’ve read by McBride in the last year, “Miracle At St. Anna” brings to life a little know part of WWII. Toward the end of the war, the US sent the Army’s Negro 92nd Division to Tuscany. Due to the ineptitude of one of their superiors, several soldiers find themselves behind enemy lines. This is their story–they sneak through dangerous mountain passes and ravines and find themselves in the tiny village of St. Anna di Stazzema where the peasants take them in and treat them more respectfully than they had been treated at home. It is also the story of this village, the residents there, and an orphan boy one of the soldiers rescues, a story of the tragedies of life and war and the miracles the villagers, the soldiers, and the boy experience.

While heart wrenching, it also inspires.

Note: I read this book last week and started on two others, one of which is the original “The Little Review ‘Ulysses'” which is how the first copies of James Joyce’s “Ulysses” were published. From March 1918 to December 1920, the Little Review published chapters of “Ulysses” in serial form. They had to quit because the material was considered obscene and censored. My reading of this is a long work in progress. This copy is not edited; the original spelling and other mistakes remain.

One Book A Week-27: “Lucy By The Sea”, Elizabeth Strout

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A short, honest, realistic view of life, this book by Strout, written from the viewpoint of Lucy
Barton, continues the story started in her book, “Oh, William”, where Lucy and her ex, William, go to Maine to seek out his long lost sister whom he did not know existed until he took a DNA test. Once again they head to Maine, but for a much more stressful reason, the Covid pandemic. They both live separately in NYC where Covid hit early and hard. After accurately assessing the danger, William finds a large, old house to rent on the Maine coast and convinces Lucy to go with him there to save their lives. He convinces one daughter to leave NYC but the other insists on staying.

The book addresses the issues of isolation brought on by the pandemic and how people deal with stress and isolation differently and with the difficulties which arise when once close families can no longer see each other. It also shows that isolation can bring the positives that can be found in a more quiet life. Strout’s uniquely simple style emphasizes the emotions and stresses as well as the joys life can bring to all of us.

One Book a Week-26: “Holding Fire: A Reckoning With The American West”, Bryce Andrews

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If you LOVE the West, but sometimes struggle with its violent history, this is the memoir for you. Here is a quote from page 178: “I’m embarrassed at how long it has taken me to notice that a rancher’s view of the natural world is blindered in comparison to the hunter’s perspective; that driving livestock from one field to another is nothing like stalking free-ranging herds; that finding, gathering, and preparing a hundred different wild plants bears no resemblance to growing alfalfa or oats…”

Andrews also discusses the difference between sustainability and reciprocity. Before reading the book, I had never thought about this. He notes that sustainability is taking without damaging. Reciprocity entails giving back, e.g. nature, asking, “What can I give back? What can I do to take care of this place that feeds and shelters me?” This is quite different from “How much can I sustainably take?”

Andrews grew up in the West. However, after cowboying on several ranches in Montana, hunting annually, and later inheriting his grandfather’s Smith and Wesson revolver, he begins to question the gun violence and destructiveness of Western culture. This book details his journey. He continues to live on a farm in the Montana mountains, slowly transforming the land to make it profitable but also a place for nature, for wildlife to prosper.