Category: literature

Black Experience, book-review, books, literature, reading

James by Percival Everett

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If you are unfamiliar with Percival Everett’s work, it will help you to understand that he focuses on the use of language before you start this book. This is the story started by Huckleberry Finn, but from with Jim as the protagonist. To believe this is simply a retelling of the Mark Twain tale is to enter the book from the wrong standpoint. In the original telling Jim is made a simpleton, with Huck saving him. In this telling, the story is about an intelligent man in terrible circumstances helping a boy survive an adventure of his own making while staying focused on the pursuit of justice for a family born in servitude.

Language – its acquisition and its use – is a symbol of expected intelligence. This novel shows it as another protection to survive. By using language to fool the white people into a false sense of safety and superiority allows for the slaves to build a rich life together under the noses of those that believe themselves better. When there is treasure found with Huck it is the books that Jim clings to. His simple request for a pencil, however, to write his story leads to tragedy for the man who brought him the pencil. As Jim puts his story down on paper, you see how much the pencil, and his ability to use this language, is dangerous. From the beginning of Jim’s “adventure” you see him switch between the poverty of language expected of a slave to the breadth of language when posing as a white man in blackface, never knowing how to speak to stay “safe”. The brutality in the book shown to those of color is jarring and explicit. The lengths taken to keep slaves in fear are extreme. Throughout Jim’s adventure, however, we begin to see him emerging from the fear and desire to simply survive into an angry man in search for true justice and action.

The structure of the book is itself part of the telling. You begin with the lyrics to derogatory songs made to make fun of the slaves, with more songs interspersed between the story. This is James’ journal of his feelings and thoughts. And the ending you learn of the structure further in the book, and upon reflection it makes perfect sense.

This book, in my opinion, needs to have multiple readings. I personally read it the first time, but have heard that the audio version highlights the language changes even more. The message is multi-layered and deserves many revisits to learn more about the time, and ourselves.

book-review, books, Historical Fiction, literature, reading

The Women by Kristin Hannah

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At one time the US was filled with pride and unwavering belief in the government. When asked what would you do for your country, boys signed up to be part of the military with pride – theirs, their families, and the country’s. Then came that awful day in November when President Kennedy was shot.

Fear of communism spreading in Asia lead the US to begin its offensive in Vietnam, a place few knew where to find on a map. In the early days of the conflict Frances Grace (Frankie) McGrath attends her brother Fin’s going away party that his parents were holding before he shipped out. A recent graduate of the Annapolis Naval Academy, Fin and his buddy Rye were being honored by Connor McGrath, a father that took military honor to heart, and posted pictures of them on his “heroes” wall in his study. Frankie, a newly graduated nurse, signs up with the Army Medical Corp to be near her brother, but before she leaves, the family learns that Fin is killed in action. 

From her first day “in country” we see Frankie grow into a new person. The horrors she and her fellow nurses (and best friends) Ethel and Barb live through are as real and haunting as foot soldiers and pilots experienced. We see how Frankie opens herself up to being in the world. Throughout her time there she struggles with her belief in who she is, what she is able to be, and becomes a top-rated surgical nurse, a great friend, and more.

When finally returning after 2 tours in Vietnam, Frankie is spit upon and called a baby killer by strangers in the streets. She realizes her parents not only will not put her picture on the wall of heroes, but that they told their friends she had been studying abroad in Florence.

Women who served in Vietnam had an especially difficult time getting support when they returned; they were being told there were no women in Vietnam, or that they didn’t see actual combat. When reaching out for help, the VA shunned these women. When the men were starting to get help, there was still no where for these women to turn. The betrayal of the country, as well as the personal betrayals Frankie faced, add salt to the wound. Frankie finds help from the most surprising places.

A truly important story to tell, Kristin Hannah acknowledges that this took her decades to complete. She has done well by the women of Vietnam, being true to the horrors that impacted their lives both while they served, and for the decades since.  

Could this be a metaphor for the country? We went to Vietnam not knowing what we were supposed to do or who we were, and came back knowing less, only to struggle with what reality had dealt us. But in the end, battered and worn, we stand face to face again with who our true self is? Or could the relationships that Frankie have mirror the country? She was lied to, but wanted to believe so desperately. She struggled against what it meant about who she was. Did the country and Frankie keep themselves believing past the time they should have? Did the pain of betrayal bring the country to the brink? All are parallels I see clearly here. Ultimately, when the country faces itself years later, wiser about what happened, did we find our true selves again? Did Frankie? The question is left open.

book-review, books, Family Drama, literature, Middle Eastern, read around the world, reading

A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam

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What would you do to be with your children?

This is the central question that Rehana Haque is faced with when widowed in East Pakistan.

The story opens with Rehana, freshly widowed, losing custody of her children to her brother and sister-in-law, who take them thousands of miles away from her. We learn that she will need more money to persuade the courts that she can care for them on her own.

Fast forward, we join a gathering of the 10th celebration of the children’s return to their mother. The children, son Sohail and daughter Maya are now university students. Rehana was able to get her children back, even though she never remarried. She was able to build a small home behind her large one, and rented the bigger home to a Hindi family. She built a community of women around her, and was comfortable and caring to others.   

The world around them is also changing. The elected Bengali official Sheikh Mujibur Rahman is arrested and barred from taking office by West Pakistani Punjabi and Pathans. A massacre was led by the West Pakistani to decimate the Bengali community they looked down on. Scores are forced to flee. This is when Rehana’s tenants allow their religious community onto the property to be safe from the massacre. Rehana – a non-Bengali originally from India – unhesitatingly opened her arms, and her limited resources, to make sure these refugees are feed.  

The arrest leads to students – including Maya and Sohail – joining the revolution. Sohail sees his mother’s love and undying devotion to him and requests her help for the rebels. She allows them to bring ammunition and people to stay and train in her yard. She gathers her friends to make blankets from silk saris for the rebels. She does all she can, without real thought to her safety, but always for her children’s. After a detonation that severely injured a rebel general, Sohail brings him to his mother for safety. Soon after, Maya is sent to Calcutta to write press releases for the movement and help at refugee camps.

As Rehana helps the general heal from his wounds, she finds herself attracted to him. She opens herself and shares her secrets of how far she has gone to protect her children. At this time, Sohail again asks his mother for intervention to gain the release of a man that married the girl Sohail loved. Rehana, unable to deny her child anything, goes to her brother and requests help. The tortured man she brings home, however, sickens her to what had been done to people. She flees to go to Maya. While there she ministers to those in the refugee camps, especially her former tenant’s wife.

Through all Rehana’s actions, she has been finding her voice, her desires, and her own strength. While this is a tale of a woman alone standing for herself, she also represents the spirit of Bangladesh. As the country is starting out, they too need to learn of their voice and strength. What both Rehana and Bangladesh will do for their children is almost anything. It is that love and understanding by everyone – those that sacrifice and those that are sacrificed – that brings about independence.  

book-review, books, Family Drama, literature, reading

The Messy Lives of Book People by Phaedra Patrick

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The premise of this book is a bit of a stretch, but somehow it works. Olivia (Liv) Green is a 42 year old wife and mother that works as a cleaner. Her sons are almost grown, with one at University and the other getting ready to head off also. Her husband is constantly being summoned by his sister to talk about their family’s business, which he won’t discuss with Liv.

We see Liv at her jobs – one as a commercial cleaner being left to pick up after people that look through her, one where the parents expect her to care for their kids as well as cleaning for the same cost, and one with her favorite author of all time.

On a Friday she wishes the reclusive author, Essie Starling, a pleasant weekend, only to be informed the following week by a solicitor that Essie is dead and left instructions for Liv to finish her last book and that she can’t tell anyone for 6 months that Essie is dead. As Liv takes on the task, she finds self confidence to stand up for herself against everyone that underestimated her abilities – including herself.

As she works to complete the book in a faithful way for the character – her favorite – to complete the 20th and final book of the series, she digs deep into Essie’s past for inspiration. What she finds shakes her to the core, but also provides her strength to create a new path for herself.   

Black Experience, book-review, books, literature, reading

The Love Songs of W.E.B. DuBois by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers

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If there was ever a book that you should read to learn of how other’s lives have been lived, this is it. This epic tale – but you are never sure exactly who the hero is. You are introduced to many individuals, all who sing a different song. None of the songs are named, but each time you see a new title page with SONG, you know the speaker has changed. It is through all these voices that moves this story along, even if not linearly. You are introduced to many people, at different times in history, in different orders. None of this makes sense until you are almost at the end. You are faced with information on the many terrible things that humans are capable of, even those that are supposed to love and protect you.  


We are introduced to the Creek Indians, those that inhabited the land. White men from Europe come and took away their land as if they had never been there. They brought slaves to do their work. And through their arrogance and ego, they abused these men and women. They sowed not only the seeds of cotton and tobacco, but also of themselves. Mixed races are common, but never acknowledged by the white men that made them.

This history of a people is complex and confusing. The book reflects this in the intertwined stories of sisters, generations, family, tragedies, and fears. Throughout the book, however, Uncle Root, an educated Black man with a doctorate in History, understands that the history of the family comes from the women. He extolls the strength of Black women especially, because the burdens they have carried is so heavy.

I can never imagine having lived this history and surviving it. The brutality and ongoing ramifications are horrifying. The truth of these pains and these slights are not shied away from to make it easier for someone else to read it. The racism that still exists within the hallowed halls of education and throughout the country is astounding. I am humbled that I have probably erred without knowing or understanding, and I hope that I will not make the same mistakes again.

This book challenges you. You need to understand that we are the sum of our ancestors, as well as our times. While this book is well over 750 pages, I never once wanted to skim a page, because I was so involved in the number of people we are introduced to. I felt the pain of loss, the pain of betrayal, and the pain of self-doubt. This was worth every single page – and there is not a word I would keep out to make it shorter. We need to do the work to understand what these families have endured, and continue to endure. Until we face it and learn, things will not change.

book-review, books, Holocaust, literature, reading

All the broken places

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Guilt and complicity. What you have done and what you have not done. Both are things that can torment people. I had heard John Boyne speak about his book All the Broken Pieces , and was intrigued by the idea of what you are complicit of allowing versus what you have committed – and how the sins of the parent are cast on the child. All these ideas led me to buy this book.

I admit, I never read the first book, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas.  I also admit I had no idea of the backlash – that the book was considered controversial in its way of conveying the atrocities

The story is simplistic, while trying to deal with complex issues. Gretel grew up faithful to the Third Reich, proud of the part her family played in it, including her father’s role as commander of Auschwitz. As Gretel’s mother states, it was the Jewish problem – first the problems they made for Germans that forced the need for extermination, and then for the problems they wouldn’t stop talking about after the camps were closed – that were a disgrace. Gretel, however, understood the terrible things her father had led. She knew her place in allowing this to happen, even as she hid behind “I was only a child” excuses.  This was underscored in the book by others excuses – they were only following orders or they didn’t know anything about it. Being forced to see the horrors by the French Underground, other Nazi hiders, documentary films and camp survivors, Gretel understood she would live with guilt for the rest of her life. She kept her true self away from others. She tried to atone for the sins she knew, in the only way she knew how.

As the parts of history are unraveled, and the new realities of cruelty she faced within her own building, Gretel finally takes action – to not be one that stands by doing nothing, fulfilling her destiny as she and others had hoped it would be. It is, however, a destiny that is rooted in violence – acting on the brutality of her father’s answers for solving a “problem.”   

I felt this was an interesting read. I am glad I have taken my time to read this. With so much hatred in the world, in the US particularly, understanding the need to stand up and speak out is just as important as jumping into the fight directly.  While I understand that it only glimpses at the true horrors that were experienced by those that were taken and lost their lives at these camps, I don’t believe this story is about them. As in every story, there are always two sides. You do not need to agree with them both, but to ignore them is to do the same thing the Germans did to the Jews. Not all Germans are monsters, just as not all Jews are bad. For me, it is Gretel’s final decision to act with brutality to solve a problem that doesn’t make her a saviour but that allows her to accept she is her father’s child.

book-review, books, literature, reading

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

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Barbara Kingsolver is an author that has proven again and again that she understands the way the world works, with all its ugliness and beauty. With this novel, she yet again proves her superior abilities in story telling. A retelling of Dicken’s David Copperfield in the early 2000s in rural Appalachia, this novel shines its light on the same institutionalized poverty that Dicken’s railed against in Victorian times.

This story introduces you to Damon, known as Demon Copperhead because of his bright red hair. Demon was born to an addicted teen mother that had witnessed the death of his father 3 months before he was born in a trailer in the mountains of Virginia. With every turn Demon faces more odds against him – an addicted mom, an abusive step-father, a dead father, and more with each month. As you follow the path that Demon follows, you see obstacles thrown in his way each time he tries to make things better. Hanging over everyone he knows in Lee County VA is the ever-present need for a fix to take away pain – physical and emotional. We find that, in truth and in fiction, this is because drug companies have identified the largest population on medi=care that requests pain medications to sell aggressively and deceptively to. The people that have already been harmed by the mining industry are then preyed upon by drug companies. While the drugs are a problem, as Demon’s friend from foster care, Tommy points out, this has been a war on people that are different. The Hillbilly jokes keep putting down those that can and do survive by growing, hunting and sharing to fill needs of hungry bellies. 

It is through Demon’s grit and resilience, and ability to make do with what he has and not hope for more, that he is able to survive his trials. Along the way you meet people that don’t care, that care only about themselves, and those that cared but are too jaded with the inability to change things. You also meet the most unlikely people that go out of their way to try to ease someone else’s load or try to help them find their way.  You realize that while there is dark in the world we live in, there is also some light in it.

Near the end you are rooting for some happiness to find him, and you are never sure. You care deeply for him by the time you turn that last page.  And you hope that the ride he is on is a positive one.

book-review, books, Family Drama, literature, reading

The World Played Chess

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by Robert Dugoni

This is a complex, intertwining story told by two men in three time periods. We start in 2016 when Vincent, a successful lawyer, receives a journal from an old friend he hadn’t heard from in years.  The author of the journal was William – someone that Vinny met when he was 18 in the summer of 1979. William, 12 years older than Vinny, had made a strong impression on him, and while he never spoke of the friend, this relationship helped shape the way Vinny approached life. William’s journal was written when he was an 18-year-old going off to Vietnam in 1967. Vinny had been a witness to William’s PTSD that summer, when he couldn’t fathom how difficult choices in life can be and how they change your course forever.

In 1979 Vinny just graduated as valedictorian, was accepted into Stanford, but his family was unable to pay the tuition and he is devastated. Instead, he is headed to community college. As he parties with his friends that summer before school, he takes a job in construction. There he meets William, a Vietnam vet twelve years older than he is. Over the course of the summer William tells stories of what he lived through as his life unravels.

As Vinny reads the journal in 2016, one entry each day, he is also preparing for his son Beau to graduate high school and go off into the world.  Disappointments and frustration are all there, as Beau tries to become independent and make his own decisions. After a tragedy Vinny watches as Beau struggles with the fragility of life. He is seeing personally that growing old is a privilege, not a right. Through Vinny’s eyes we see the pain of watching youth stolen from both William and Beau at the same point of life. You are reminded that the moments in between are all about shaping who you are. You need to accept your abilities, and make choices for yourself and your family, with the knowledge that all choices have consequences that you must live with. You also learn to put things in perspective – like being able to go to community college is better than not being able to go to college at all.

Everyone’s demons are different, but in the end, the role that Vinny place for both William and Beau is someone that has enough empathy to listen. That allows both men to face the hard parts of life, and be able to move forward to being a better person because of their past, not despite it. In 1979 most didn’t want to listen to those that saw horrors in Vietnam, and in 2016 most don’t want to acknowledge the dark possibilities in life.

This story was so well written that it was not hard to jump between the timelines. The interweaving of the stories is what makes it just so poignant – even though each man had different things happening in their lives at 18, the hope for the future and the realization of what that really means is difficult. As I watch my own son at 18, this has given me another layer of understanding to what it is he is grappling with. I wholeheartedly recommend reading this. 

African Experience, book-review, books, literature, read around the world, reading

Seven Moons of Maali Almeida

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by Shehan Karunatilaka

Maali Almedia introduces himself with what should be on his business card:  Photographer, Gambler, Slut. He awakes to find himself in what seems to be a government office. He isn’t sure he if he is dreaming or awake because of the “silly pills” he had taken the night before. He slowly comes to realize that he is dead – murdered. Around him are lines and chaos as people try to figure out where they are and what comes next. He is faced with a dead political activist, who is to help him prepare to go “into the light” after having seven moons (days) to come to grips with this and prepare himself. He is also pursued by a slain member of the JVP (communist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna’s group) that is seeking to gather an army to exact revenge on those that killed them and thousands of innocents.

Through eavesdropping and memory, we learn of Maali’s history, of the country’s history, and the history of people he knew. He roams through the rooms where his friends and his enemies are looking to find him. Along the way he also meets some that he photographed when they were dead.  We learn of the atrocities he witnessed and documented. He decides it is time to show the reality of what he has seen now that he is dead. To do this, Maali makes pacts with The Crow Man, a medium, to give information to Jaki, his best friend, to find his photos. You also meet DD, Jaki’s brother and Maali’s lover, and their father, a minister in the government. Other players are leaders of waring factions across the spectrum: Army, Tamil, LTTE, arms dealers from Israel, CIA and CNTRE from Canada and Europe. Everyone has a hidden agenda, and if you get in someone’s way you end up dead. We follow those sent to get rid of the bodies, too.

In the end, Maali must come to a decision – what did his life stand for and how does he want to move forward. You need to read to the end to see if he goes to the light or not, and to discover what he finds his role is in this life. I can tell you, however, that people end up where they are supposed to be. 

Very well written. I was surprised how much this story captured me. Going back and forth from the in between and life, as well as to memory, worked seamlessly. You felt the confusion, and the despair, and the absurdity, as well as the relief when things are finished, even if they didn’t work out the way it was hoped. There is always time to do better. Not an easy story, but I am glad I read it.  

book-review, books, Family Drama, literature, read around the world, reading

The King’s Cartographer by Jair Alcalay

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The story starts out in the late 1600s with an introduction to Jewish brothers that are running from a mob that have been sent by the Catholic Church to kill them for their religion. You are introduced to the particulars of leaving Spain, how the sea faring business they owned was organized, and about the ships they sailed. I was looking forward to hearing how the family escaped, built a new life in Portugal, and continued to grow and navigate around the world.

What you get, however, are the details that the family moved and settled in. You do not hear of the family and how they deal with the changes in circumstance and the future planning they are doing to find somewhere they can practice their religion openly. You learn how new ships were built, how a new person comes to the family and learns of the sea and how to create new maps – and even how they were created and used in the early days of naval investigation. With each new person you are following in the story, you hear details on how they faired at sea, a few comments of who they may have married, but the focus was on the exploration and the ships.

While these details were very interesting, this left me confused about this novel. The story was more of a travel log that passed from people. At the end, there were indications as to how Jews moved to the new world, now New York, but nothing was ever noted explicitly. I wanted to hear a story around these facts. This, in my opinion, was a lost opportunity to tell a fascinating historically based story that fell way short of the mark.

I will keep searching.