Weathering Katrina in Dave Eggers’ Zeitoun

As someone who witnessed Hurricane Katrina in 2005, this book about one man’s experiences in New Orleans during the legendary storm was difficult to read because of the memories and emotions it brought back. However, Dave Eggers’ Zeitoun is an important book because of its accurate portrayal of the storm and the problems that occur in chaos, even in a big American city like New Orleans.

Zeitoun

Dave Eggers

Originally published: 2009, USA

325 pages

Click on the cover to view the novel on Amazon

Rating: 4 = Recommended Reading

Summary:

Similar to his approach to telling the story of Sudanese refugees in What is the What, in Zeitoun Eggers uses the real life story of a man facing a difficult challenge. Abdulrahman Zeitoun (or, just Zeitoun) is a Syrian immigrant living in New Orleans with his wife, children, and their contracting business, Zeitoun Paining Contractors, LLC. Zeitoun decides to stay in New Orleans in 2005 as Hurricane Katrina approaches and the rest of his family evacuates. As the storm tears through New Orleans, Zeitoun travels through the city in a canoe trying to do what good he can, but his wife—monitoring the news from safety—hears that the military is moving into the city which could spell trouble for Zeitoun, a Muslim immigrant from the Middle East in post-9/11 America.

 

What Worked:

• Details

Eggers’ attention to detail in Zeitoun is not a surprise. His What is the What was another non-fiction book that was well-researched and easy to read. A lot happened in New Orleans during Katrina, and Eggers does a good job of hitting on a lot of it. There are mentions of officials’ speeches, publicity appearances, and various controversial situations. For example, there are only a couple of sentences about the prisoners stranded on the I-10 bridge for three days, but the incident is present. For me, it brought back memories of seeing aerial photos of the stranded prisoners: a situation I had almost forgotten about. By including details like this, Eggers is able to present a good scope of events in New Orleans during Katrina.

• Pacing

With such a large possible scope, Eggers does an excellent job with the pacing. While the primary focus is on the day-by-day events of Katrina, there are also flashbacks of Zeitoun’s childhood in Syria and Kathy’s conversion to Islam. While sometimes the flashbacks are longer interruptions from the main plot, they remain interesting, provide depth for the characters, and give additional fuel for the Muslim-American tension. There are also bits of passages from the Qur’an that provide more context for the Zeitouns’ religion and family culture.

• Religious and Cultural Tension

At the center of this particular Hurricane Katrina story is a Muslim-American family, the Zeitouns. Through flashbacks of Zeitoun’s childhood in Syria, the reader learns about his cultural upbringing before immigrating to the US. Through Kathy’s conversion story and the Zeitouns’ lives, the reader is given insight into their Islamic culture. While their cultural and religious backgrounds might not be terribly important for the first part of the story, it becomes very important as the story unfolds. After the hurricane, reports of violence led to military troops flooding the city, many of whom were on the lookout for potential terrorists in the wake of 9/11. Eggers does a good job of describing this situation realistically without exaggerating or dramatizing the cultural/religious clashes.

• Unifying Message

The central message of Zeitoun is to help all in the wake of tragedy. When horrible things happen, instead of turning to violence and chaos, we should come together in common humanity to care for all people. It may sound like a utopian dream, but we can look to others with love, not hate, when faced with fearing for our own survival. Situations like Hurricane Katrina are terrible disasters and mistakes are often made when people tried to wrap their minds around what is happening. Fear can quickly turn into violence, but it doesn’t have to.

 

Issues:

• Scope

Really the only issue I have with Zeitoun is the scope. While there is power in focusing on a particular area and viewpoint of Hurricane Katrina, I worry that people who do not remember Katrina will mistakenly think that New Orleans was the only part of the country affected. While the damage in New Orleans was widespread and unfathomable, the Mississippi Gulf Coast was in a similar situation. The Mississippi coast was devastated and entire towns were swept away. The damage went farther north through the state than anyone had imagined (including me, hunkered down in Hattiesburg, MS). There was also further damage to the Louisiana coast and further inland. While I do not think Eggers should be responsible for telling the entire story of Hurricane Katrina, I do worry that without mention of the other affected areas some readers will remain misinformed about the scope of this tragedy. The book needed to focus in on the Zeitouns and New Orleans, but I guess I can encourage at least the readers of this review to remember the thousands of other people who lost their family members, homes, and communities in Katrina’s wake.

 

Overall:

Whether you experienced Hurricane Katrina or not, this is an important book to read in order to remember that while tragedies do happen, we must remain human beings who operate with love, respect, and kindness to all people.

Exploring Nature and Self with The Bone People

Set in beautiful New Zealand, Keri Hulme’s Booker Prize-winning novel The Bone People explores Māori culture and universal human truths through three unlikely people brought together to confront brutal aspects of themselves.

The Bone People

Keri Hulme

Originally published: 1984, New Zealand

450 pages

Click on the image to view the book on Amazon

Rating: 2 = At Your Own Risk

Summary:

Set in New Zealand, Hulme’s story centers on Kerewin, a hermit living in a tower, whose life is disrupted by a 7-year-old mute boy, Simon, sneaking into her home. Simon and his adoptive father Joe become part of Kerewin’s life as she tries to figure out the mystery of Simon’s origin—nothing is known about his life before he was found washed up on a beach after a shipwreck. Interrupting her search for Simon’s past life, is the discovery that Joe has been physically abusing Simon. What will Kerewin do about the abuse? Will she cast aside her new friends just has she has alienated herself from her family? These answers and more are revealed in the wake of a terrible catastrophe that will test the mettle of Kerewin, Joe, and Simon.

What Worked:

• Cultural Fusion

Hulme draws from her own life as a New Zealander of Māori (the native peoples of the island) and European descent to craft the character of Kerewin. Using a mixture of English and Māori language Hulme is able to show the culture of the area where Kerewin is living. Joe is full Māori and Simon is an orphan of European descent being raised in this blended Māori/European environment. All of the main characters can speak (or write in Simon’s case) both languages although only Joe looks Māori on sight. Hulme’s depiction of cultural blending is believable and mostly well-executed. The book also includes a glossary of Māori words and phrases at the end for the reader’s reference. Notably absent in the book are discussions of the political climate of this mixed Māori/European area, moments of stereotyping or persecution, or much mention of ethnic clashing at all (save perhaps Kerewin’s mention that people are often surprised that she holds to some of the Māori culture since she looks white). So, while the culture blending is well-crafted, it is unevenly executed throughout the book.

• Descriptions

Hulme does a good job of describing places and internal spaces throughout the novel. The places the characters go are beautifully and vividly depicted, and even though I haven’t been to New Zealand I had no problems picturing the settings.  She also does a good job with the internal dialogue of the characters—even mute Simon, which is a challenge for a speaking person to imagine. The reader is mostly in Kerewin’s head but also spends time looking at the world from Simon and Joe’s points of view. Internal dialogue can be difficult to describe to someone else, let alone have it be a major narrative mode in a novel, but Hulme brings the internal spaces of the characters to life excellently.

• Story Form

The form of The Bone People differs from a typical novel and is more similar to a free verse poem where ideas can come in spurts, topics can change frequently, and singing can be easily incorporated. This style blends well with the internal dialogue of the characters (primarily Kerewin) and allows for a more mysterious climate for the plot of the story. This style can be vague at times, but that is necessary, I think, for a story where each of the main characters has an easier time in their own heads than out in the world. The first half of the story is told from Kerewin’s point of view and the second half is split into the points of view of the three main characters, so the reader has a chance to get in everyone’s heads.

 

What did not Work:

• Uneven Storytelling

Although the style form of the novel is interesting, the story is told unevenly. The first half is more factual and linear with Simon coming to Kerewin’s tower and the reader watching how Kerewin becomes friends with Simon and Joe. The events happen in order and, while there are some times when the story become mysterious or unexpected things happen, the story is not difficult to believe or follow. In stark contrast, the second half of the novel becomes more mystical and scattered. An aspect of magical realism comes in where Māori spirituality is explored in the lives of two of the characters. While this Māori element is not exactly out of place, it does come out of nowhere and gives the story an uneven feeling like it has been knocked off kilter. This continues on until the epilogue, which in my opinion was not necessary to include because it tries to give a glimpse into the near future but doesn’t actually provide any resolution.

• Unrelatable Characters

While Hulme does make it easy to get into Kerewin’s world in the novel and provides a portal into Kerewin’s inner life, she is not ultimately a relatable character. The reader is never given an answer to why Kerewin has intentionally severed all ties with her family so the reader can never understand her well enough to feel empathy for her. Combined with Kerewin’s plot line in the second half of the novel, the reader feels increasingly detached from her and unsure of her decisions. Simon is shrouded in mystery for the other characters as well as the reader who doesn’t know why Simon cannot speak and finds no answer or comfort in the part of the novel told from his point of view. The looks into Simon’s inner dialogue offer little useful information and many useless facts about him. Joe, who is easily the most unrelatable character in the novel, does not become any easier to like as the story progresses. However, Kerewin seems to have more sympathy for Joe as the story goes on—another reason why the characters are difficult to have empathy for.

• Unresolved Simon Mystery

It may be a bit of a spoiler to tell you that while you do find out more about Simon in the course of the novel, Hulme seems to give up on interesting questions about who he is, where he came from, and why he is mute. In my opinion, Simon is the most interesting character in the novel, but his story keeps going off on tangents that are never resolved. Perhaps if Hulme had not modeled the primary character, Kerewin, after herself, she would have been more interested in fleshing out the other characters.

• Depictions of Violence

I mentioned in my summary that there was child abuse in the novel, and these depictions of violence are not for the faint of heart. Knowing more about the characters’ internal lives does not soften the blow (perhaps a poor choice of words) of the intense scenes of violence perpetrated on a child. While all of the scenes do serve important purposes in the storyline, they are graphic and difficult to read. The violence, although punished, is also another unresolved Simon plot line in the end.

Overall:

The Bone People focuses on three characters in turmoil alongside brutal violence with a beautifully depicted Māori New Zealand backdrop. Fraught with uneven storytelling and difficult characters, this book is certainly one to read at your own risk, but if it sounds up your ally it probably is.

A Future of Ultra-Violence: A Review of A Clockwork Orange

There has been talk for years about violence and children or youth.  But what if instead of worrying over the future impact of video games and the internet we were faced with real gangs of youths terrorizing citizens after dark on the streets and in their homes? In A Clockwork Orange, Burgess shows us exactly that: a society trying to deal with armed gangs of teenagers instigating random acts of ultra-violence nightly.

 A Clockwork Orange

Anthony Burgess

Originally published: 1962, UK

272 pages

Click on the cover to view this book on Amazon.com

Rating: 4 = Recommended Reading

Summary:

A Clockwork Orange is set in the not-to-distant future in England. The main character is Alex, a teenager who leads a group of boys into acts of ultra-violence at night. After imbibing milk-plus (plus drugs), the boys go around town and do whatever they like, usually stealing money, raping women, beating men, and breaking into homes. Often in trouble with the police, Alex is betrayed by his group and imprisoned for murder. In order to get out early he volunteers to submit to a new technique guaranteed to cure him of wanting to do bad deeds. Alex does not really want to reform but the technique is not all what he expected.

Horrorshow bits:

• Unreliable narrator

Alex often cited as an unreliable narrator because the reader sometimes cannot believe that he is giving a full, true account of his life.  He neither expresses regret or pity for his actions nor justifies them. While the reader has no doubt that Alex has committed the crimes and actions he claims, the reader is also not convinced that Alex has told the whole truth. I personally enjoy reading books with an unreliable narrator because they allow the reader more freedom in exploring interpretations and they generally provide richer themes and questions. A novel that really attempts to get at the heart of human experience or ask an important question of life usually has a narrator that the reader cannot completely trust. Ambiguity is thought-provoking, and Burgess uses his narrator well to that end.

• Interesting central themes

The big question in A Clockwork Orange is whether someone can truly be good if they are not given a choice and are instead conditioned to be good. Burgess fundamentally presents the question of free will wrapped up in ultra-violence and a critique of Skinner’s behaviorism. If a man is subjected to aversion therapy and conditioned to avoid bad behavior is he truly good? The prison chaplain expresses it this way:

“Does God want goodness or the choice of goodness? Is a man who chooses to be bad perhaps in some way better than a man who has the good imposed upon him?”

Burgess doesn’t give Alex the religious perspective on this issue (instead he gets the conditioning), but the prison chaplain provides this very important side of the free will debate: Does God want people to choose goodness?

The other big issue in the novel is whether people can be reformed at all. Can someone who has a true desire to be violent become a person who no longer enjoys violence? Can a person really be reformed? There are two versions of A Clockwork Orange: one published without the last chapter and one with it. These versions cause different readings because the last chapter has to do with whether Alex’s reform holds or not. The US version was published without this chapter, and it caused Burgess to have to defend his novel’s message to American readers since it allowed for a wider interpretation. This question of reform is one that we are still asking in our society when it comes to how to deal with criminals, run prisons, and curb violent behavior.

Difficult veshches:

• Language

Burgess invented a type of slang called Nadsat for the novel, a Slavic-influenced mix of Russian-derived words, rhyming slang, and made-up words. Alex and his gang members (droogs) use this language exclusively, and a large part of the novel is in Nadsat since Alex narrates it. Some editions of A Clockwork Orange have a glossary of Nadsat terms in them. The version I read didn’t, but I found it easy to guess the word meanings based on context. There are also glossaries available online to help out.  In two of the subheads of this article so far I’ve used two Nadsat words: horrorshow and veshches. If something is horrorshow it is good, possibly even great or wonderful, and a veshch is a thing.  Here is a passage with some Nadsat:

“The next morning I woke up at oh eight oh oh hours, my brothers, and as I still felt shagged and fagged and fashed and bashed and my glazzies were stuck together real horrorshow with sleepglue, I thought I would not go to school.”

As you can see from this example, Nadsat is not always very confusing. But sometimes it is:

“How art thou, thou globby bottle of cheap stinking chip-oil? Come and get one in the yarbles, if you have any yarbles, you eunuch jelly, thou.”

That one is a bit more difficult. Basically, this book may slow down your normal reading pace until you get familiar with the Nadsat either because you’re guessing word meanings from context or because you’re flipping back to a glossary often.

• Violence

A Clockwork Orange is a frequently challenged and banned book mostly due to violence. Alex and his band of droogs participate in ultra-violence—beating up old men in the street with whips, razors, and fists or raping women. These violent acts are cruel, not instigated by the victims, and the perpetrators are unrepentant; for them it is just a bit of fun, a light-hearted distraction from boredom. Because of the off-handed way this ultra-violence is treated in the first part of the book, it has often been censured. And because of the US version’s omission of the final chapter of the novel, the ultra-violence has been glorified by some. The novel itself does not glorify violence and the violent scenes in the novel are brief and lack gory details. The ultra-violence is central to the story and so is necessary to telling it. If it will offend you to read about it, even in the larger context of a story focused on free will and reforming criminals, then I would avoid this novel. But if you can tolerate the passages of ultra-violence in the first part of the novel in order to understand the other parts which ask important questions, then certainly read A Clockwork Orange.

A note about Kubrick’s film version:

• Adaptation

Stanley Kubrick’s film version of A Clockwork Orange is certainly adapted, as many films are, and so differs somewhat from the novel. It is hailed as a Kubrick masterpiece and is excellent in its own right. The film violence is certainly more graphic than the novel simply because the visual medium necessitates more detail that a printed book can gloss over. Know that there are graphic beating and rape scenes and the film was originally rated X in 1971, but after editing was rated R on the re-release in 1973.

• Themes

For the most part the central themes and questions of the novel remain in the film. Kubrick did, however, use the US version of the novel so the content of the final chapter is missing from the film, leaving it more open to misinterpretation of Burgess’ message. The film does still question the importance of free will, critiques Skinner’s behaviorism, and struggles with the idea of reforming a person successfully.

Again, be warned that this film is rated R for graphic violence and rape.

 

All-in-all:

If you are not squeamish and enjoy books that deal with issues of free will, rehabilitation, and behaviorism, this book is for you. Read it—like many other dystopian-like novels—in order to question present society and imagine ways to avoid a future of ultra-violence.

“When a man cannot chose, he ceases to be a man.”

Traveling to Italy with E. M. Forster

A Room with a View

E. M. Forster

Originally published: 1908, UK

199 pages

Click the cover to view it on Amazon.com or view the FREE Kindle version here.

Rating: 3 = Worth a Try

Oh, Edwardian England, where boys are silly and girls are taught to be proper.  When Lucy Honeychurch goes to Italy (chaperoned by a spinster cousin, of course) she does not expect to become cultured and learn more about herself.  She especially does not intend, at this point in her life, to come across love.

Summary:

As was fashionable at the time, Lucy journeys to “the Continent” to absorb some culture and art outside of England.  She is accompanied by her cousin, Charlotte Bartlett, a spinster who annoys Lucy with her gratitude for Lucy’s mother funding the trip.  While in Florence, their first stop, the women meet a brash Mr. Emerson and his gloomy son George at their hotel. They also meet a female novelist, Ms. Lavish, a burgeoning feminist, and two spinster sisters, the Ms. Allens.  After a secret kiss in a field, Lucy is forced by Charlotte to go to Rome where some friends of theirs are staying.  While there, Lucy is reacquainted with another young man, Cecil Vyse, whose two proposals she turns down.  Finally back in Surrey with her brother and mother, which man will Lucy choose?  Will her secret kiss in Florence stay a secret?

Excellent Bits:

Lucy

The main character, Lucy, grows in the reader’s esteem just as she comes into her own as an adult woman.  In the beginning of the novel, I wasn’t a fan of Lucy and found her dull and an empty “everygirl” character; however, as the novel progressed I was able to view Lucy as the complex, sure-minded woman she becomes.  This is not terribly surprising since the novel focuses on Lucy’s internal coming of age (Bonus: this story type is called a bildungsroman in literary criticism).  Forster does do a good job of making this coming of age story so believable that Lucy actually becomes a more likeable character as she comes into her own.

The Men

The young men in the novel are also excellent, but very different, characters.  George Emerson is a naturalist and initially gloomy.  Cecil Vyse is a snobby man of leisure (meaning, he doesn’t have to take a profession because he has family wealth).  Though Forster clearly means for the reader to like one and dislike the other, Lucy is conflicted, making Forster’s commentary on religion and many social and political issues of the era more entertaining.  In the end, the young men greatly affect the way in which Lucy makes sense of who she is and how she relates to the world around her.

Theme: Repression vs. Expression

Another triumph of A Room with a View is Forster’s exploration of repression vs. expression during this transition into the 1900s.  Women’s changing place in society is encouraged by Ms. Lavish’s independence and Lucy’s growing up, while it is also challenged by Charlotte’s social cautiousness and the repressed sexuality in British culture.  Lucy must choose if she will follow the example of Ms. Lavish, the eccentric beliefs of the Mr. Emersons, and the culture of Italy in expressing herself or if she will stay with the repressed cultural ideals of Charlotte, Mrs. Honeychurch, and Cecil.  I can certainly say that reading this book made me glad to be a woman in this day and age, and not in Edwardian England.

 

Dull Spots:

The Late 19^th / Early 20^th Century Novel

For people not as familiar with the 19^th century novel tradition Forster is emerging from, A Room with a View may be a difficult read at times.  There are illusions to works that are not as familiar now (but at least my version had footnotes and endnotes for reference).  With this novel, Forster is working on breaking down the 19^th century three-volume novel.  A Room with a View is in two volumes, though it does retain some of the traditional divisions (Part I to whet the appetite, Part II containing the climax, and Part III to resolve the action) with Part I containing the background and a crisis event and Part II containing the climax and resolution.  If you have read any 19^th century (especially British) novels, however, then you are certainly up for this one (A Room with a View is more modern than Austen, Frankenstein, and Dickens).

Slow to Start

While the novel does include a fair amount of action, beautiful art, odd characters, and some philosophical discussions to keep you entertained, it does begin slowly.  Perhaps it is because I didn’t find Lucy very relatable at the beginning, but once Lucy and Charlotte left the hotel and began to explore Florence the novel really picked up.  So give yourself a few chapters to settle into the novel.

The Film:

WARNING: This trailer includes a bit of full-frontal male nudity in a pond bathing scene.

In 1985, a British film version came out also named A Room with a View.  It is a close adaption of the book with some parts combined and shortened, of course, to fit a movie length.  There are also some big names in this film, like Maggie Smith, Helena Bonham-Carter, Judi Dench, and Daniel Day-Lewis.  This was an early film for both Bonham-Carter and Day-Lewis, who were just breaking into acclaim when A Room with a View came out.

Finally:

Overall, if you like British romantic novels and/or history, A Room with a View is for you (and maybe the film, too)!

Children at War: A Review of Ender’s Game

Ender’s Game

Orson Scott Card

Originally published: 1985, US

324 pages

Click the cover image to view the book on Amazon.com

Rating: 5 = Personal Classic

There is currently debate about women in the military, but what about soldier children?  In Card’s celebrated Ender’s Game, certain children are selected to devote their lives to military service, beginning at age 6. Part boarding school adventure and part sci-fi epic, Ender’s Game reveals important lessons about violence and humanity while setting up a huge battle against an alien species.

 “Why else do we read fiction, anyway? Not to be impressed by somebody’s dazzling language—at least I hope that’s not our reason. I think that most of us, anyway, read these stories that we know are not ‘true’ because we’re hungry for another kind of truth: The mystic truth about human nature in general, the particular truth about those life-communities that define our own identity, and the most specific truth of all: our own self-story. Fiction, because it is not about somebody who actually lived in the real world, always has the possibility of being about oneself.” –xxiv, Orson Scott Card, introduction to Ender’s Game, Tor, 1991.

Summary:

In the future, human beings have engaged in battle with the buggers, an alien race.  As the military forces of Earth prepare for another bugger war, they search for a commander among the children selected for military service and training. Ender Wiggen is a Third under a two-child mandate and is selected to participate in military service at the age of six (a normal age for entry). He is gifted and rises to the top in the Battle School by participating and later commanding in the game: fighting armies with laser guns in zero gravity. As Ender grows up and becomes a promising strategist and warrior, he is plagued with isolation, enemies at the school, and reconciling his memories of his bully of a big brother Peter and kind sister Valentine. With the time to the next bugger war running out, could Ender become the savior of humanity?

 

Excellent Parts:

Having just read this novel for the first time as an adult, I only knew that Ender’s Game was a sci-fi novel about adolescents and involved a space war. I was not prepared for how complex, violent, and philosophical this novel would be.

Storytelling:

Card uses interesting devices to tell a story which primarily takes place in Ender’s head. Most chapters begin with conversations between military commanders. Names are rarely used and the scenes are written so the reader feels like they are overhearing a secret conversation. The rest of the chapters are either about Ender’s current thoughts, feelings, and actions or about his siblings, Valentine and Peter, told from Valentine’s point of view. The reader is only privy to Ender’s and Valentine’s minds, providing interesting points of view for the events in the story. Because of this, the reader is easily able to relate to Ender and understand Valentine.

History and Power:

Ender’s Game focuses a lot on the idea that those who have power are able to dictate the writing of history. The military force, the IF, controls the perception of the upcoming bugger war, the two preceding bugger wars, and the war heroes. Peter and Valentine use the nets (a version of the internet) to shield their ages (12 and 10, respectively) in order to write articles under pseudonyms that influence global political policy. Between Peter’s thirst for power and the IF’s “protection” of the people, they are both able to dominate the way history will remember the events of the novel. Ender, though a powerful military figure, does not have power in society and so is unable to influence how history remembers him (even his biography is written by Valentine under her pseudonym).

Violence of Childhood:

The idea of children being capable of violence is one that I have been pondering since I reread Geek Love recently.

“How deep and sticky is the darkness of childhood, how rigid the blades of infant evil, which is unadulterated, unrestrained by the convenient cushions of age and its civilizing anesthesia.” — Katherine Dunn Geek Love, “How We Fed the Cats”

This quote and knowledge of the all-boys boarding school genre (in books and movies) highlight a certain innocent cruelty in children that is absent in adulthood, once knowledge has increased and motivation is more complex. Ender’s Game does an excellent job of highlighting this violence with the character of Peter and his treatment of Ender as well as with Ender’s experiences in the Battle School. Even Ender’s first encounter with a bully at his normal school on Earth is a violent scene where Ender decides to beat Stilson so that he will not want to every mess with Ender again. Today, I think we tend to sterilize childhood and put a false veil of complete innocence around it.  We’ve extended childhood to 18 at least (sometimes more like 22/23, the end of 4-5 years of college), but these “children” are capable of terrifying violence and hatred.

Descriptions:

This is the only book of Card’s I’ve read yet so this may be the author in general, but the descriptions in Ender’s Game are excellent.  They are vivid enough that the reader can picture what is going on and short enough as to not become boring or tedious.  The futuristic world of the novel has some parts that are more difficult to imagine than others, like the Battle School and the zero-gravity battles, but Card provides clear descriptions of all of these parts.

Drawbacks:

Violence:

The most common criticism of this book is the violence. This is a book about war and the terrible decisions that must be made as well as the effects on people. Ender’s Game deals with battle and the violence all people are capable of; having young children perpetrate the violence only makes the reader more uncomfortable because it is more difficult to rationalize that violent behavior. While the book does involve violence, each episode is necessary to the progression of the plot or characters and is never glorified. Even Ender, the origin of much of the violence in the novel, is uncomfortable with his violent tendencies. I found the level of violence to be indispensable to the story and would defend its necessity.

Film Version:

The film adaptation of Ender’s Game (which shares the novel’s title) is one of the best adaptations of a book I have seen in quite a while. It can be enjoyed just as much by those who have read the book as those who have not. And if you’ve seen the movie you can still read the book without being bored because there is so much more in the novel.

Likes:

• Excellent casting (Asa Butterfield, Harrison Ford, Viola Davis, Ben Kingsley, etc.)
• Effective technology use in depicting the space bases (especially the Battle School battle room), the alien fleet, and the IF fleet
• Good pacing; the choices to remove some plot points and condense others made sense
• Good use of alternative means to get Ender’s interior dialogue across

Dislikes:

• Changing the name of the alien race from the Buggers to the Formics is a change I don’t understand

Overall:

Ender’s Game has everything you want in a sci-fi novel: epic story, interesting and relatable characters, political upheaval, and philosophical issues.  Put it on your to-read list, even if sci-fi isn’t usually your thing. Oh, and see the movie!

I Finally Read Bossypants

Bossypants

Tina Fey

Originally published: 2011, US

277 pages (read on Kindle)

Click the cover to view the book at Amazon.com

Rating:   3 = Worth a Try

If pop culture is any indicator, we love to know about celebrities’ lives.  In Bossypants, Tina Fey gives readers an uncensored, hilarious look at her life including her time on SNL, the development of 30 Rock, and personal stories from her life.  C’mon, you know you want to know more…

Summary:

Bossypants isn’t a straight-up memoir but it does move in mostly chronological order through Fey’s life. She begins with the story of how she entered the “real world” through a coloring experience in kindergarten and ends with a bit of an anxious meditation on what her future holds.  Bossypants reads like a collection of short stories or essays on specific moments of Fey’s life, while other parts are glossed over and summarized, and the ideas these experiences give her.

Hilarity:

Tina Fey is a hilarious woman, as evidenced by her comedy and her interviews.  And she is relatable.

Craig Ferguson interview for Bossypants, 2011

The book has a brash, honest tone (much like Fey herself) that I find quite funny.  In the chapter titled “What Turning Forty Means to Me” Fey says only:

“I need to take my pants off as soon as I get home.  I didn’t used to have to do that.  But now I do.”

This humorous, true, self-deprecating tone continues throughout the book as Fey describes uncomfortable but realistic and relatable teenage stories. She tells about the awkwardness of communication when she prepares to get her first period and as she gets ogled for the first time.  I suppose these specific stories are most relatable for women, but really Fey is writing for a female audience primarily since she tells personal stories about being a woman.  Men can and should certainly read this book too, but I’m not sure how they would handle the parts about growing up as a teenage girl—would they relate to the embarrassment or suddenly understand why girls were so weird when they were teenagers?

Aside from the tone, Fey uses countless pop culture references.  Working in the entertainment business, these are probably easy to think of and they don’t feel forced.  One of the best uses of these references is the chapter titled “The Mother’s Prayer for Its Daughter” (interesting wording, right?):

 “First, Lord: No tattoos. May neither the Chinese symbol for truth nor Winnie-the-Pooh holding the FSU logo stain her tender haunches.”

And later…

“Oh Lord, break the Internet forever,

That she may be spared the misspelled invective of her peers

And the online marketing campaign for Rape Hostel V: Girls Just Wanna Get Stabbed.”

Fey also does a great job discussing the oddness of the moment in her life where she impersonated Sarah Palin.  She discusses hate mail, reviews, and meeting Palin herself with full acknowledgement of this surreal experience and using her honest tone.

Which one is Tina?

Things I Could Do Without:

This is the first “pop fiction” book I’ve read in a long time.  By pop fiction I mean that it is created for a broad audience and is easy to read and easily consumable.  These are not necessarily bad things (a large audience is great for memoir), but they are just different for me.  I find this type of writing a bit forgettable due to its easy consumption, but Fey does try to make it memorable.  If you are used to pop fiction, Bossypants will not be a difficult read for you, and you may even find the essay form a bit scattered.

The other big issue for me is that I wanted more.  There are some parts of her life that Fey glosses over, some of the more famous parts, that I wanted to know more about.  I’m not sure whether this is simply that she and I are interested in different parts of her life or it’s something else.  While the stories about growing up and her family were interesting, I wanted more about SNL than there was.

 

Finally:

If the idea of reading Tina Fey’s musings on her life appeals to you, and you want a light read, Bossypants is for you.  Read it, enjoy it, and carry on.

A Fascination With Circus Freaks: A Review of Geek Love

Geek Love: A Novel

Katherine Dunn

Originally published: 1989, US

348 pages

Covers of Geek Love. The top left cover is the original one.

Rating: 5 (Personal Classic)

I have to give some credit to my friend R, who read this with me and helped me gather my thoughts for this review.

There is something about circus sideshows and “freaks” that people just are drawn to and fascinated by.  When we see someone who is different than we are or different from the “norm”, we want to figure out how and why.  It may be voyeuristic or grotesque, but there is some part of human nature that is fascinated by differences, especially physical ones, whether we admit it to ourselves or not.

Katherine Dunn’s Geek Love uses this fascination and has fun with it.  The story focuses on a carny family and their unique abilities as it also forces us to question what is freakish and what is normal.

Summary:

The story follows the Binewski family.  Al Binewski inherited his father’s circus and married Crystal Lil, a woman who had been a geek in that circus (“geek” here means a person who would bite the necks off of chickens with their teeth as entertainment–awesome, right?).  Al and Lil decided to create children who would also be circus attractions.  Using drug cocktails that Al concocted, they had an array of children: Oly, an albino, bald dwarf with a hump; Arty the “Aquaboy”, with flippers where his arms and legs would have been; Iphy and Elly, piano-playing conjoined twins; and Chick, who seemed normal (horror!) until his telekinetic abilities were revealed.  Oly is the main character of the novel, and she tells the stories of growing up with her family as well as explaining her present struggle with how to best protect a unique family member in danger.

 

Highlights:

• History

Geek Love captures the important historical phenomenon of the traveling circus, where people came to see the weirdest and wildest of humanity.  There were the common things like cotton candy and sword swallowers, but there were also specialty acts like a fly wrangler or an “Aquaboy” with fins instead of limbs.  This fascination with the extreme and odd is still alive and well today but more hidden on the internet than out in the openness of the circus midway*.  In the novel, Dunn captures this historical moment well through Oly’s stories from her childhood and the characters she meets along the way.

*Beware: You can get stuck on the internet for hours looking up historical circus acts and circus freaks.

• Relatable main character

Oly is an excellent gateway into the Binewski family.  She is a great observer of her other family members and is an accessible voice because she is vulnerable with the reader and seems to be as honest as she can be.  She is still a flawed character (she’s in love with her brother), but she experiences loneliness, feels inferior, is proud of her family, and fiercely loves her family.  Oly is a bald, albino, hunchbacked dwarf, but her happiness, struggles, and desires are very relatable.  I feel like I would be friends with Oly, if she’d let me, in real life.

• What is normal?

Geek Love focuses on the question “What is normal?”  Oly presents her family with some of the basics of a typical family—two parents who love one another, sibling competition, family rituals, caring for those who have died, and children taking care of one another—but her family is not “normal” as we would think of them.  They are a showbiz family of “freaks”—the term used in the novel by many of the “norms” (as the Binewski children call them) in reference to the family.  There is a pressure in the family to be as freakish as possible in order to be unique and to entertain crowds well.  Oly, although she is a bald, albino dwarf with a hump, feels inferior to her siblings because she cannot draw big crowds and is stuck doing announcements for her siblings’ shows.  When Chick is born, Al and Lil almost leave him at a gas station because he seems like a “norm” and so is no use to them.  His first display of telekinetic power is the only thing that saves him from being abandoned.  Although some of the emotions and desires of the Binewski’s seem “normal”, they are sometimes difficult to fully understand (at least for “norm” readers).

• Arty’s cult (Arturism)

Arty, a manipulative and persuasive genius, has a cult grow up around him that is fascinating.  Dunn is said to have been inspired in this book by the rise of cults at the time and by the events at Jonestown.  Arty’s cult is a fascinating one because he makes it seem like they came to him and that he did not cause people to be this way.  It all starts with a woman who attends Arty’s show and admits that she wants to be just like him.  The woman begins to “shed” parts of her body so that she can physically resemble her hero, Arty—who has a torso with flippers where his arms and legs should be—believing that this will make her happy.  This woman’s actions spawn a cult of people whose desires and deeds you can imagine.  Their motto is PIP (Peace, Isolation, Purity).  This aspect of the novel is certainly in the top 5 creepy parts (oh yes, there are more) and creates a great study and criticism of cults.

Difficulties:

• Jumpy plot

Geek Love is a novel that begins in the present, jumps to the past for quite a while, and the proceeds into the future.  While this is a common way to order a novel, the plot sometimes seems jumpy and disconnected.  Some readers may lose their place in the story or feel like the novel is slow because of the way the plot is structured.  Parts of the ending also seem to tie up the plot points in a hurry; the part that tells the fates of Oly’s family members goes so quickly that it is almost not as satisfying as I want it to be.  Some people criticize this novel for needing editing, and I think it is mostly because of the structure of the plot (though I could get into a much longer discussion of why I think this structure is necessary for the novel).

• Some disturbing aspects

Geek Love was not written to make you feel comfortable.  On the contrary, it is meant to make you feel uncomfortable because it deals with a wide spectrum of human experience—death, love, birth, sex, power, betrayal, loss of innocence, family, etc.  There is Arty’s cult of course, and the surgeon who performs all of the operations.  There is a character who lives upstairs in Oly’s building who works at a strip club and capitalizes on her tail to make money.  There is a man who attempts to kill the Binewski children in a parking lot.  There is a woman who works to make other women’s lives “better” by surgically removing physical aspects of theirs that get in the way of success.  There is rape, prostitution, drug use (Lil’s cocktails), puberty, pregnancy, and murder.

In my opinion, these aspects of the human experience that Dunn highlights are necessary and appropriate for the story (save maybe one—but no spoilers).  I tell you about these so that you have no illusions going into this novel—it will get dark, but it is totally worth it.

When the Lights Go Down:

This book is challenging in that it makes you think about your view of the world and what is “normal”.  I find that generally people who like that type of challenge enjoy this book, and those who like something more easily digestible are not as pleased with it.  If you can embrace this novel’s style, it may easily become one of your favorites like it is one of mine.

Review: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Douglas Adams

Originally published: 1979, UK

145 pages (Read from The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide)

Click this image to view the book on Amazon.com

Rating: 5 (Personal Classic)

What is the answer to the life, the universe, and everything?  The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy answers this question and creates so many more as a spaceship filled with the president of the galaxy, a former resident of Betelgeuse, 2 Earthlings, and a manically depressed robot travel across the galaxy in a stolen spaceship.

 

Summary:

Arthur Dent’s home is about to be demolished to make room for a bypass, but a larger adventure is in store for Arthur when his friend Ford tells him that the Earth is about to be destroyed, forcing them to hitch a ride on an unfriendly orbiting spaceship. On their adventures, Arthur and Ford run into the president of the galaxy in a stolen spaceship, an Earth woman who Arthur once tried to chat up at a party, and a depressed robot.  Arthur and Ford join the group on their journey to a mystical planet named Magrathea where custom planets are designed, and Arthur learns some very important secrets about the Earth.

Well Done Bits:

• Humorous style

  Adams began his Hitchhiker’s stories (there are 4 more) as radio shows, and the humorous style and tone is captured well here in print.  For example, this passage notes the horror that is Vogon poetry (Vogons are an alien race Arthur encounters):

  Vogon poetry is of course the third worst in the Universe.  The second worst is that of the Azgoths of Kria.  During a recitation by their Poet Master Grunthos the Flatulent of his poem ‘Ode to a Small Lump of Green Putty I Found in My Armpit One Midsummer Morning’ four of his audience died of internal hemorrhaging, and the President of the Mid-Galactic Arts Nobbling Council survived by gnawing one of his own legs off. (Chapter 7)

• Unexpected plot points

  This excerpt also points to another great aspect of the book: its zany plot.  The plot of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is difficult to predict and often involves asides, like the example about Vogon poetry, which add more information that is needed to give the reader an impression of the universe Adams is describing.  An important aspect of the plot is also the stolen spaceship with an “improbability drive” that aids in the wackiness of the group’s adventures.

• Arthur

  At the center of this odd tale is Arthur Dent, the relatable main character.  Arthur is a common everyman who is easy to relate to and, as an Earth man, is the reader’s only real link to reality as they are exposed to the wide, wild universe. Arthur is described as

  “about thirty as well, tall, dark-haired and never quite at ease with himself.” (Chapter 1)

  It is easy for the reader to slip into Arthur’s skin because he is described just enough to picture him but simply enough that he could easily be anyone.

• Bigger ideas

  With Arthur helping to keep the reader connected to the story and the zany plot, Adams could have created a simple, entertaining story without much substance.  Thankfully, he doesn’t.  The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is well-known for the answer it gives for the life, the universe, and everything, and it isn’t what anyone expects.  This story deals with the questions of who we are and why do we matter in the grand scheme of things anyway.  It also helps the reader wonder about fate, probability, and if things really do happen for a reason or not.

Issues:

I enjoyed this book and didn’t have any serious concerns with it, but that will certainly not be true for all readers.  Some might find this book difficult to follow because of all of the new information about the universe and the jumpy nature of the plot.  Adams has also created some fascinating but difficult to pronounce names for characters, planets, and items.  This won’t be a big deal unless you are trying to discuss these details of the book with someone, have to pronounce each word in your head while reading, or are reading the book aloud (as I was).  Adams also has a fantastically dry (and very British) humor that pervades the book.  I am a huge fan of dry humor, but some find it boring, silly or just plain not funny.  If you don’t appreciate dry humor or silliness, this book may not be for you.

About the Movie:

In 2005, a film version was released, also named The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, based on Adam’s book.  Adams had some input into the screenplay but died before it was completed and filmed.  I actually watched this movie version years before I read the book (*gasp!*).  I think the film is excellent and well worth a shot (but do read the book, too!)

• Characters

  The film stars Martin Freeman, Sam Rockwell, Mos Def, Zooey Deschanel, Bill Nighy, and Alan Rickman.  All of these, and the other actors as well, are excellent choices.  My favorite casting choices are Martin Freeman as Arthur and Alan Rickman as the voice of Martin, the manically depressed robot.

• Plot

  Aside from the characters the plot is also entertaining, though different from the book. The main plot points are there, but there are also elements from a few of the other stories.  My assumption is that the creators of the movie figured they wouldn’t get to make the other stories into film so they included their favorite parts into this one.  The first scene in the film is one of my favorites, and it is barely mentioned in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

In the End:

A lighthearted book that asks important questions about life, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is a book that anyone can enjoy and that everyone should try to read.

(http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11.The_Hitchhiker_s_Guide_to_the_Galaxy)

The Man Who Was Thursday by G. K. Chesterton

The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare

G. K. Chesterton

Originally published: 1908, England

182 pages

Click this image to purchase the book from Amazon
As of this blog post the Kindle edition is FREE!

Rating: 4 (Recommended Reading)

G. K. Chesterton was an unknown author to me when I read this book.  I knew from my husband, that Chesterton was an important religious and political author, and that my husband read this book in a class on anarchy in college.  I didn’t know what to expect.

The Man Who Was Thursday is about an upstanding citizen, Gabriel Syme, who is recruited by a department of the police who are trying to stamp out anarchy.  Through meeting an anarchist speaker in a park and being taken to his anarchist headquarters, Syme is voted onto the lead European anarchist council.  After meeting the rest of the council, Syme’s adventure begins.  The rest of his time involves fantastic characters and events that range from frightening to hysterical.

I was pleasantly surprised with the humor of this book.  The characters are especially entertaining and there are surprising plot points that add to the ridiculousness of all that happens to Syme.  While there is certainly important food for thought in this book about anarchy and whether people are naturally good or evil, the book does not belabor these points and is genuinely entertaining.  Chesterton’s larger ideas, however, are interesting, and it makes me wonder about the great concerns of each generation. If anarchy, or at least bucking the established order, was a concern in the early 1900s, as it would have been in the time leading up to World War I, what are the big issues of our time?  Will today’s issues look as obvious to future generations when viewed with the knowledge of what came next? We’ll have to wait and see, I suppose.

Aside from making me think about larger societal issues, my favorite aspect of this book is the detail that Chesterton gives to the appearance of the characters, the settings, and even the action that makes this book very easy to visualize.  Although the ending would be difficult to resolve, this book would make an excellent movie, though from what I’ve researched there is only one, a German film. Someone should undertake an English language adaptation—hint, hint.

There is some antiquated language in the book, and some French, but don’t be intimidated. Context clues work well and a dictionary is always useful for those readers who can’t abide not knowing a word they are reading.  This book was written in 1908 and is set in England, so there are some words and allusions that may be lost on the present American reader, but you can catch on easily enough.  There is also so much about the language and the humor that is timeless and still as funny today as it would have been then (or even more so from it being antiquated).

This book gets a 4 rating from me because it is an excellently entertaining read.  I highly recommend it, and since it is short–just over 100 pages–you really have no excuse.

Enjoy!

H.