I’ll be leaving tomorrow with relatives to spend some days in Vermont at my grandmother’s house. It should be a nice relaxing vacation and there will be reading involved. 🙂 There will not be any internet involved. So it will be quiet here for that time. I’ll be heading back home on Tuesday, June 1st and back in action both at work and blogging-wise on June 2nd.
Monthly Archives: May 2010
Terra Incognita by Sara Wheeler
1996. 337 pages. Hardcover. Random House.
From: the public library
Recommended by: Olduvai Reads
In a nutshell:
During her travels in Chile, British travel writer Sara Wheeler was introduced to the allure of Antarctica. Later she gets the opportunity to visit Antarctica, sponsored by the U.S. funded Writers and Artists program. The scientists and other Antarctic inhabitants take her along to their bases and camps spread out over the vast, extreme continent.
Review:
Last month I read White Darkness by Geraldine McCaughrean, a thriller set in the Antarctic. In that novel, the continent had a wild, threatening nature and brought out the worst in some of the characters. The Antarctica in Terra Incognita, while far from benign, is a place where a profound peace can be found, and where the rest of the world is put in perspective.
Sara Wheeler is an excellent writer, conveying the varied moods of her Antarctic travels: wonder, frustration, bonhemie, and a good deal of humor. Most of all, she shows the reader how and why she fell in love with Antarctica.
I like travel writing where the writer offers some self-revelation, because travel is so much about personal connection with place. However, Wheeler’s narrative is not self-centered. It is clear that she is genuinely interested in other people and their work and she describes them with warm detail. In particular, near the end of her travels, she bonds with an artist named Lucia who is also there on the Writers & Artists program. The two of them share a hut in a field camp for weeks. As most of the narrative has her switching her company constantly, it was nice to see her spend some extended time with this new friendship.
I really enjoyed learning about the varied communities of the Antarctic and the culture that is heavily shaped by the environment and the multinational demographic. While most places are welcome, Wheeler does encounter an off-putting boys-club atmosphere at one particular base. Historically, men have thought of Antarctica as their domain and some of that attitude still existed in pockets.
Wheeler does describe the travails of the famous Antarctic explorers in the book, and intersperses them with her own travels. Because she hops around a bit with the history, I kind of wish there had been an appendix with a chronology of Antarctic exploration. Also, I wish there were some photos to illustrate some of the landscapes that Wheeler describes.
Overall, this was a highly enjoyable book and I recommend it if you like travel writing, or are curious about Antarctica, or even just looking for a good non-fiction read. I think I will be seeking out more of Sara Wheeler’s writing in the future.
Other reviews:
Filed under Non-Fiction
The Summer Book by Tove Jansson
1972. 170 pages. Softcover. New York Review Books [NYRB].
Trans. by Thomas Teal
From: The public library
For: Spotlight Series
In a nutshell:
The Summer Book immerses the reader in the summer meanderings, conversations, and revelations discovered by Grandmother and her granddaughter Sophia. Along with Papa, Sophia’s father, the three spend their summers as the only human residents on a small island in the Gulf of Finland.
Review:
The title of The Summer Book is indicative of the reading experience it provides. It is a simple title, but promises a distillation of that tantalizing season, of those summers that seem both forever and fleeting.
The back cover description states that The Summer Book occurs over the course of one summer, when Sophia is six. However, the actual story does not insist on these details. Actually, I could not recall where in the story either of those two facts were stated. Sophia often came across as older than six at times, and I struggled with that at first, but because the book wasn’t that concerned with reiterating her age, my concern faded away too.
Similarly, the book encourages a feeling of timelessness. Indeed, one of the last chapters starts with “One summer, Sophia was suddenly afraid of small animals” as if it could be the same summer or another one, and does it really matter anyway? Because each of the twenty-two chapters are actually self-contained “vignettes” (the apt term used on the back cover), sequential plot is hardly the point.
Not that I think the vignettes should ever be taken on their own. I couldn’t tell you exactly why each part is absolutely necessary to the whole, just that they all belong together exactly the way they are. I do have some favorite chapters though. I loved the one where Grandmother and Sophia become enraptured by Venice; they recreate its canals and sinking palaces in the island marsh. There is also “The Cat,” when Sophia gets frustrated that her cat always remains aloof. In another, “Day of Danger”, Sophia learns about and quickly adopts superstitions, causing a great anxiety that Grandmother must somehow dispel. These seem like small things, but there is so much contained in these small things.
Many of the stories involve an incident where Sophia is stirred to some great emotion and Grandmother handles it with wisdom. However, this wisdom does not come across as omniscient, predictable or dull. The writing itself is too wise for that. Grandmother is not an archetype, but an individual. While Sophia is figuring out the world for the first time, Grandmother is figuring out old age. They accomplish this task alone and together. The book often finds the two collaboratively spinning out stories to explain an object or a person, sometimes rejecting the other’s contributions, sometimes accepting and embellishing upon them.
There is a theme of mortality running throughout The Summer Book. Early on, the book indicates that Sophia’s mother died recently. Her mother’s death is mentioned only once explicitly, but whenever the story brushes with death, it is deepened by the knowledge of the family’s loss. I learned from Kathryn Davis’ introduction that Tove Jansson wrote The Summer Book shortly after the death of her own mother.
There is much more I could write on this book, such as its keen sense of place. It is a book that I know deserves to be re-read. I read The Summer Book as part of the Spotlight Press Series NYRB tour. Check out the other stops here. I had read only one NYRB book before and that was The Dud Avocado earlier this year, which I have already labeled a favorite. Now having loved The Summer Book as well, I will be definitely checking out more books from this press.
Edited to add: NYRB decided to give Spotlight Series participants a few gift items, including a book, after the tour was over. As noted above, The Summer Book came from the public library. I had heard that there was going to be a gift before I posted this review, but it didn’t affect my opinion of the book. The Summer Book attracted my praise completely on its own merits.
Filed under Book Review
Book Thing of Baltimore
A friend introduced me to The Book Thing of Baltimore, which is basically a place where people donate books and a place where anyone can browse through those donated books and get them for free. The books are roughly organized by genre (e.g. mystery, fiction, classics, politics, history), but more or less it’s a matter of having a good eye for authors and titles of interest.
Here’s what I found:
Diary of a Provincial Lady by E. M. Delafield (I’ve wanted to read this since it was reviewed on Savidge Reads.)
The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry – you know, this had good reviews on the blogosphere, but I had tuned it out somewhat because there were so many reviews of it at the same time. I got a little tired of hearing about it. But it’s free and I should just find out for myself.
Middlemarch by George Eliot – This seems to be a well-loved classic and I haven’t read it.
The Moonpool by P. T. Deutermann – this is the third book in a good thriller series, of which I’ve read the first two books. This one used to belong to the Harford County Public Library so it looks good.
My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok – my friend Jenny is dismayed that I haven’t read anything by Potok. I think The Chosen was her recommendation, but I know My Name is Asher Lev is also a highly regarded work of his.
Sagramanda: A Novel of Near-Future India by Alan Dean Foster – this looks like a strange and potentially terrific sci-fi novel. This one used to be the property of the Baltimore County Public Library so it is in excellent shape with library binding.
Tenney’s Landing by Catherine Tudish – I read this collection of short stories several years ago and loved it. Another cast-off of the Baltimore County Public Library.
Trespassers Will Be Baptized by Elizabeth Emerson Hancock – This is a memoir of a preacher’s daughter and thus I could not pass it up. I too grew up as a pastor’s daughter. Hancock’s father was a Southern Baptist preacher in Kentucky and my childhood was in New England so there will be cultural differences, but I’m sure there will be some common ground.
Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell – another classic. I’ve seen the mini-series adaptation, but not read any of Gaskell’s works.
Filed under Uncategorized
Patience of Ice by Renate Wood
2000. 68 pages.
Triquarterly Books. Northwestern University Press.
From: A university library.
For the challenge:
Review:
I picked this book of poems randomly off the shelves because I liked the title and the description on the back, which reads in part: “Beginning with the sequence titled “German Chronicle,” Wood evokes her childhood in Germany during the Second World War, recording the war’s impact on the world in general and on her family in particular.”
This sequence did end up being my favorite. Though I had moments of connection in the later poems, or admiration for a phrase or word choice, I found the subject matter of “German Chronicle” to be the most compelling.
Here is an excerpt from “German Chronicle” (sorry I couldn’t get the line spacing to be smaller):
8. Berlin: 1940/1945
I remember nothing of that city but a dead mouse
we buried together, how my mother scooped out a hole
in my grandfather’s garden and I placed the small corpse
inside, wrapped in its shroud of maple leaf.
How I filled in the earth until it made a mound
and marked it with a small oval of stones.
Later when we found out about my father,
how he had died in that city, I remembered
that mouse and how my mother had wiped the earth from the ring
on her finger so carefully. Then I saw that soil
on the ring of his hand. And he and the mouse
became inseparable, so when I thought of him walking through the streets
in those last days, there was always a mouse on the sidewalk
scampering ahead like a shadow before him.
Filed under Poetry
Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat
1994. 234 pages. Paperback.
Vintage Contemporaries.
From: The public library
Recommended by: Easmanie Michel, who commented on my review of Danticat’s Krik? Krak!
For the challenge: 2nd Reading Challenge
In a nutshell:
Sophie Caco has lived in Haiti with her aunt since she was a baby. When her mother, who lives in New York City, sends for her, Sophie is reluctant to leave the only mother she’s had for a mother she doesn’t know, but she goes. Indeed, the mother-daughter relationship is a tense one, as Sophie’s mother carries deep psychological pain from a violent incident in her past. Furthermore, throughout the generations of Caco women, the mothers have – without malice – passed along what the book jacket aptly calls “a legacy of shame.”
The book follows Sophie as she herself gets married and has a daughter of her own, voyaging back to Haiti to try and figure out how to break this legacy.
Review:
I liked Krik? Krak!, Danticat’s collection of short stories, but I think the novel format of Breath, Eyes, Memory is a better showcase of her writing. Her stories were shot through with sorrow, but here, in Sophie’s story, the sorrow of Haiti, of its women, has time to build upon itself.
I really like the simplicity of Danticat’s writing, a kind of graceful economy of words. She is wonderful at describing Haiti. There is a scene of a funeral that crystallizes the sense of community that has been present throughout the novel’s depiction of Sophie’s hometown in Haiti.
I don’t always like books that hinge their characters’ motivations on past traumatic events that need closure. If a novel gets too deep into therapist-speak, characters start becoming more like ‘cases’ and less like humans in my eyes. To Danticat’s credit, even though there a couple of therapy sessions described in the novel, her characters did not read like exercises or petri dishes of psychological motivations.
I don’t want to scare anyone away by saying that I cried at one of the final scenes in the book, but that’s what happened. I’ve read far more depressing books than this one, so it isn’t that the book is supremely sad. I cried because a character finally got to express her rage at the forces that tore apart her family.
Other reviews:
Filed under Book Review
Enna Burning by Shannon Hale
2004. 317 pages. Hardcover. Bloomsbury.
From: the public library
For the challenge: 2nd Reading Challenge
In a nutshell:
This is the second of Hale’s Books of Bayern series, the first being Goose Girl. Goose Girl was based on a fairytale, but Enna Burning is an original tale. Enna was a secondary character in Goose Girl, but as the title indicates, she is the protagonist in this second book.
Set a year or so after the first book, Bayern is now under attack from the neighboring kingdom of Tira. Enna acquires the power to create fire, but she is barely in control of her new abilities and they threaten to consume her. She takes some risks in contributing to the Bayern war efforts and is kidnapped by Tiran forces. A handsome Tiran captain beguiles Enna, who struggles to keep her wits about her. Meanwhile her loyal friends, among them Isi of Goose Girl, seek to rescue her.
Review:
I read Goose Girl last autumn when I was recovering from the flu. While reading Enna Burning, I wished that I had read Goose Girl more recently, so that the friendships from the first book were more solid in my mind. Enna’s relationships with her friends form the emotional foundation of Enna Burning and I felt like I wasn’t getting that full effect because I had forgotten details from Goose Girl.
Still, the theme of loyalty and unconditional friendship is a strong one that appealed to me. There’s a song lyric I know that goes: “For love is not unconditional unless conditions call upon it.” Circumstances and Enna’s own actions test the mettle of her friendships and it’s wonderful to see them hold firm.
I liked how Hale handled the romantic elements of Enna Burning. I don’t want to give too much away, but I liked how she addressed the attraction of the ‘dangerous’ love interest, how the power of words and the manipulation of situations can lull one into feeling desired and protected. Underneath, however, is not real love, but possessiveness. This is contrasted nicely with the previously mentioned loyal friendships.
The book is a slow-burner and I remember that Goose Girl was like that too. I found that the book became most interesting after Enna is kidnapped. Even though she is in a state of confusion during her captivity, I liked seeing her spirit rebel against her forced helplessness.
The plot becomes rather convoluted when Enna must try to find a way to survive the fire’s control over her. Although, looking back, Hale did plant some seeds throughout the book to hint at the solution, it still came across as too convenient. (A little like the wand-thing in the last Harry Potter book, if you know what I mean.)
My favorite part of the book was seeing Enna come into her own when she confronts her enemy for the last time. Hale knows how to create intense scenes and this one is definitely a winner.
Filed under Fantasy, Supernatural & Surreal
Mouse Guard Fall 1152 by David Petersen
2007. 192 pages. Hardcover. Archaia Studios Press.
From: the public library
Recommendation from: Tales of Capricious Reader
In a nutshell:
In Petersen’s world, mice live in a collection of communities scattered throughout a region. Guard mice are responsible for keeping travelers and traders safe as they journey from community to community. This graphic novel follows three guard mice, Lieam, Kenzie, Saxon, as they try to track a traitor.
Review:
The book is geared toward a younger audience, and the story is interesting, but not novel. The setting and characters remind me a bit of Brian Jacques’ Redwall books that I read growing up. But the main reason I picked up this graphic novel is because I saw the drawings from another blogger’s review and the mice were so cute! They are fierce and wield swords and yet you still want to pet them on the head.
The book resolved the main storyline but definitely set the reader up for the sequel graphic novels, which I will probably read.
Filed under Graphic Novels
A Good Stopping Point 