Far to go by Alison Pick *WOW!*

She nodded yes. Her jaw was clenched shut. After everything they'd shared, what did Pavel take her for? Something that could be forsaken along with the silverware and linens? He should have known better, she thought. She'd been taken advantage of too many times already. She would not be made the fool, not again, not this time.

Imagine if a war is brewing around you, but you don't have the knowledge of WW2, its history, causes, and its ultimate two tragedies (the Holocaust and the atom bombings) and their repercussions. Imagine that you are not lucky enough to have read about what Hitler did, from your living room or classroom, and rail against his actions in indignation, disgust and disbelief. Imagine that WW2 never happened - instead it is only going to happen, soon, in exactly the same way and we are going to be puppets in Hitler's hands, again. As a member of a designated "inferior" race, would you trust the people who stood by you all these years - friends, neighbors, colleagues? As a non-member of the said "inferior" race, would you betray your friends, neighbors, colleagues, and even little kids, all because a self-styled leader is brandishing a supremacy theory? This is what Alison Pick's Far to Go asks the reader. Not what choices you would make now, but what you would have done then. It puts you in the shoes of the people who had no idea about what is unfolding about them, what is going to happen.

Far to go follows two story lines - one is set during the year leading to the start of WW2 and the other is set in the present. The events of the past are narrated mostly from the perspective of Marta, a non-Jewish nanny staying with a Jewish family - Pavel and Anneliese Bauer and their son Pipik. The present is written in second-person narrative with the identity of the characters not revealed until the last few chapters. The Bauers are an affluent and secular Czech family, who have not practiced their religion in years. At the time of the events in the book, however, in 1938-39, having a Jewish grandparent was enough to make a person Jewish in the eyes of the SS officers.

At the beginning of the book, Pavel is telling Marta about an anti-Semitic attack that his brother faced. Marta is very confused by all the anti-Jewish sentiments floating around her. She likes and respects the Bauers, and looks after Pepik as if he was her own son. But when Ernst, Pavel's colleague, whom Marta meets secretly at night, talks about the inferiority of the Jewish people, she is truly unsure of what to believe. On the one hand, she can't fathom how such a thing could be true. Aren't they just like her? On the other hand, she wants to believe Ernst, wants to impress him. And she thinks there there possibly is some difference between the Jews and her.

I've wondered many times how people could just accept Hilter's dogma, when so many people were being killed, many disappearing into camps. I knew the facts - how easy it is to be swayed, how many young people wanted to "belong" and be seen doing something important, how they wanted to get over the WW1 failure. But it is one thing reading about it and a totally different thing actually feeling it or living it. I thought that Far To Go helped me answer those questions in the best way - by putting me in the shoes of Marta. She is no perfect person, just like many others during that period. She has considered Hilter's theories, committed a truly life-changing act towards the Bauers as an act of defiance, and not tried to rescue the Bauers' from a swindler. I so wanted her to stand up and tell the truth. In the end, I could understand why she did what she did. It was not right, but it was the only way she would have done it.

Far to go also explores the Jewish identity, or rather the meaning of being one. Not in the religious or theoretical sense, but more in the sense of the believers' actions. The Bauers were assimilated Jews - they were as non-Jewish as could be. They didn't follow the Jewish customs, they celebrated Christmas. And yet, the arrival of Hitler triggers something in them. Pavel becomes increasingly proud of his Jewish heritage and opposes his wife's desire to baptize Pepik. Anneliese, on the other hand, distances herself further from the faith. It soon becomes evident that they had never had a conversation about their religion.

Rather than being just another WW2 fiction, Far to go is actually about the Kindertransport, a program by which nearly 10,000 children were sent without their parents out of Nazi-occupied areas. Pepik too is put on the train, but the process by which the Bauers managed to get Pepik on was not straightforward. They suffered a lot, and struggled with the many choices they and Marta made. The events of this book have relation to the author's background - Alison Pick's own Jewish grandparents left Czechoslovakia to Canada without telling their children that they were Jewish. The dedication section of the book has a list of 12 people, 8 of whom died between 1942 and 1944. No guessing was needed to know how or why most, if not all, must have died. Even though it's no secret that millions lost their lives during WW2, seeing so many members of the same family on the same page is painful. Two of them were not even past 10 years of age.

When the book started off in the present in the second-person narrative, I was worried. I'm not a fan of that form of narration, but surprisingly, I thought it worked well here. I myself write in second-person sometimes when I write my reviews, if I want to project my experience on to the reader, so that you can be the one living the book instead of me. In that same respect, I thought it worked really well here, because obviously I didn't put the book down. The narration is occasionally interrupted by a few letters - many of them truly heart-breaking.

Alison Pick's writing pulled me in, right from the start. There is a frank bluntness about her prose that makes you want to keep turning the page. She examines emotions in a very unflinching manner; there are no perfect characters here, everyone is flawed. Even though Pavel is mostly a good person, Pipik an innocent child, and Marta a poor girl who just knows what she hears, it is Anneliese who I most sympathized with. She could be selfish, appear uncaring, show disregard towards the help, but she was willing to do anything, even lose her honor, to save her family. It was sad. Overall, I strongly recommend this book. It is beautiful, poignant and very powerful! 

I received this book for free from the publisher via TLC Book Tours.

The Beauty of Humanity Movement by Camilla Gibb

"Comrade, sir, I assure you we believe fully in the theories of Marx and Lenin," said Dao. We believe absolutely in communism, the most wonderful ideal of mankind, the youngest, the freshest ideal in all of history. But if a single style is imposed on all writers and artists, the day is not far off when all flowers will be turned into chrysanthemums." 

(The above was actually told by the Vietnamese intellectual leader, Phan Khoi, but the author has attributed them to her character, Dao, in this fictionalized story set in one of Vietnam's darkest times. - As mentioned in her note at the end of the book)

The Beauty of Humanity Movement is a story about Vietnam - about one of its warring times that the United States had nothing to do with. In fact, the better-known US-Nam war is only mentioned in passing - almost because it actually happened, not because it had any connection to this story. Old Man Hung serves pho to his faithful customers every morning, although he doesn't have a license to operate a business nor does he have a decent location to set up shop. He keeps moving and sets up his stall in an alleyway, construction areas, parks or factory grounds, until he is yet again driven away by the police. It is on one such morning that Maggie, a Viet Kieu (a Vietnamese-born person raised in a foreign country) comes asking him if he knew her father. Soon, we are privy to Hung's many reminiscences about an age of beautiful artistic expression that the authorities struggled to contain.

The Beauty of Humanity Movement (that is, the movement itself) is a liberalized interpretation of a real movement (The Nhan Van-Giai Pham movement) that was formed by intellectuals, writers and artists as a means to express their thoughts and to demand freedom of speech. Although they abided by Communist principles, they opposed the government's attempts to stamp out any original thoughts. Dao, a member of this movement, and several of his colleagues would gather in Hung's then restaurant and have frequent discussions, which Hung relished. As did actually happen, many of these members were later arrested by the Vietnamese Party, tortured, imprisoned and murdered. "Reeducation" is a scary phrase used throughout. Although it sounds much like a benign classroom lecture, it was anything but. It was a method of forceful brainwashing and torture through which the party tried to bend the straight proud backs of the intellectuals and make them a distorted shadow of their selves, failing which, they were probably murdered.

This book is primarily about the events of 1955 - 1959, and also of Maggie's search for some proof that her father existed (the government destroyed every writing, painting, etc that it could get its hands on), and it is Hung who ties together these various strands. Dao's son, Binh, and grandson, Tu, are also pivotal to this story as the protectors of Hung, to whom they feel much obliged for many reasons. Hung and his pho have together seen history change wildly and been privy to a lot of secrets and also tragedies. Hung is a character I deeply respected - for how well he stood by his principles even without being a member of the movement, how he strove to protect the works of the writers and the artists, and how he felt it was his duty to look after his neighbors when there is a scarcity of food in town.

I really enjoyed reading this book. It started out slow for me, and I didn't expect to get really engrossed in it. Most of this book requires patience to get through - a sentiment I've heard expressed previously. It's not the kind of patience you would need to read books like Ulysses, but rather, right when the author builds up interest in a topic, she changes the subject immediately. For me, that meant getting frustrated at not knowing what was so important that it had to be tantalizingly dropped in front of me and then pulled away. It's not suspense at all. I'd call it character investment - getting really empathetic with the characters and aching to know what's happening to them. Moreover, I loved reading about the movement and its members fight for individuality. It was a recurrence of the Dark Ages and the Renaissance in Europe. It most reminded me of George Orwell's book, Animal Farm. Now, most wars and revolts are originated mostly by word of mouth and mutual suffering, it feels alien to imagine writers and artists being punished for their work, and yet it is a reality of many countries.

I thoroughly enjoyed this look at Vietnam's history. Although it took me a while to get used to Camilla Gibb's descriptive writing, I began to appreciate it more as I continued reading. There are more sentiments in this book than those of the revolutionists and the intellectuals. It explores the attitudes towards the Viet Kieu and the alienated feelings of the latter (a sentiment I can relate to). It also shows how even decades after the creation of the movement and its eventual suppression, people in the current generation still harbored some form of revolutionist thoughts - for instance, although Tu would never imagine having another internal war in the present, he cannot embrace certain forms of art or support their existence. The author makes a wonderful case of showing how certain behaviors still outlast the revolutions they brought about - in a much milder form, but never fully stamped out.

I could have however done with a not-so-well-patched-together ending. After a really rich sieving of the story, some parts of the ending fell flat on me. Not that they weren't believable or that they should have been more tragic, but the rhythm of the story suddenly changed gear and I felt it very out of place. Overall though, I will definitely recommend this book. In spite of the slow start, it compensates through the rich description of the characters, vivid portrayals of a history that is very much lost to a guzzling revolution, and the genuine thoughts and beliefs of the characters during the various tests of humanity.

I received this book for free from the publisher via TLC Book Tours. The Beauty of Humanity Movement is being released in the US on March 17, 2011.

13, rue Thérèse by Elena Mauli Shapiro

"The fellow in the corner of the room -- do you see him?"

He did not seem frightened; instead he looked almost conspiratorial, as if they had come upon some unexpected animal in the forest and he was deciding whether he wanted to spook the animal for fun, or merely stay still and watch it.

Louise looked and saw only an empty wooden chair, bathed by the dimming light of late afternoon.

13, rue Thérèse is being talked about as a puzzle novel - with plenty of pictures and puzzles, and a narrator who tries to piece them together. Not quite unlike a suspense thriller, but this one is set in a totally unique setting and the story is told in a very unusual way. American Professor, Trevor Stratton, has just arrived in Paris to teach, and finds in his new office a small box full of artifacts from the WW1 period. His secretary placed them there for him to feast his research-oriented mind on them, but he doesn't know that yet. As he picks up item after item, he tries to decode the relevance of each object in the life of the person to whom the items in the box originally belonged to - a feisty Frenchwoman named Louise Brunet. As he gets through the items, he constructs a vivid portrait of this woman, whom he has no way of knowing but through this box.

Reading this book is like solving a puzzle, like playing treasure hunt. This is a mystery, but not a mystery by any traditional definition of this genre. Instead, it almost feels like the reader is solving the puzzle. Looking through the memorabilia, placing them in context, learning more about the characters and figuring the questions. The picture of each object is provided in the book when we/the narrator first find it. There is a sense that the objects are found in no particular order - they all seem very disconnected and spread across in time, but we do know that the secretary is laying this puzzle for her targets, so there must be some connection.

The narrator and also we, the readers, have no way of really knowing this Frenchwoman, but Trevor's imagination and his highly curious mind paint a picture that feels real. Through him, we come to know who Louise is, what kind of life she led, what she aspired for, and what she did. We also meet her family, her relatives, lovers and dreams. The title of each chapter is in French, and the French lover in me had as much relish in figuring out the title as it did in solving the puzzle. The focus shifts back and forth between the present, where the professor is trying to piece the story together, and the past, where we go through a few defining months in Louise's life.

What I loved the most was Elena writes the war experiences so well that I felt as if I was reading a real gritty first-hand experience. The experiences of the characters who had to serve were felt rather than just read. There was something very realistic about those passages. Still, there were aspects of the book that troubled me. The last few pages of the book build up to a high frenzy, that there's also a lot of confusion. Sometimes I had to read twice to get through. The funny thing is that the confusion was deliberate. As time wore on, Trevor Stratton (and I) got so involved that reality and imagination began to interleave. There were times, when I wasn't sure what I was reading about or if I read it right. There was also a little too much of sex in it. At one point, I felt things were crossing my permissible limit. But that was before my confusion became imminent. After that, I think I "got" why that was all there, but still things just literally heated up.

I would recommend this book - for the thrills (although it's not a thriller by genre) and for the unique storytelling format. 

I borrowed this book from the library.

Review: The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien

I wish I could remember whose review compelled me to read this book - so much that I still remember snatches of that review. When I saw this ebook for under six bucks on the Barnes and Noble website, I had to grab it. It was the perfect read on the 30/45-minutes-to-anywhere NY public transportation system. Sometimes, I read it on my nook, and sometimes on my phone (I'm beginning to completely appreciate the utility of the ebook).

The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien is actually a collection of essays, set during the Vietnam war, and focusing more on the experiences of the other members of Tim's platoon. It starts ostensibly as a list of the men's possessions, intriguingly tied with their own habits, preferences and beliefs.

Henry Dobbins, who was a big man, carried extra rations; he was especially fond of canned peaches in heavy syrup over pound cake. Dave Jensen, who practiced field hygiene, carried a toothbrush, dental floss, and several hotel-size bars of soap he'd stolen on R&R in Sydney, Australia. Ted Lavender, who was scared, carried tranquilizers until he was shot in the head outside the village of Than Khe in mid-April.

By the time, Tim is done listing the items they carried, I began wondering how they even moved about. It's harrowing reading about the little things they carry to ensure that even in the case of a sudden near-fatal attack, they do have a chance to be alive. Beside all the essential fighting gear, they carry around items of sentimental value - letters, photos, etc. The essays are also about the emotional baggage that the men carried around - lost love, dumped girlfriends, school accounts, and also about how they felt when they were drafted.

Loss was a theme central to this book. Whether it was about losing fellow soldiers or finding that the someone special back home has left you, the vibes were strongly felt. Death doesn't give any warning before claiming someone on the battlefield. "Here one minute, Gone the next minute" pretty much summed up the sentiment. There was one essay titled "The Lives of the Dead", in which Tim explains how the soldiers detach themselves from death, mainly using humor. To any new soldier and an outsider, it would appear plain callous. It did to me, when I first read it. By the end of the essay, that feeling changed to respect. When watching any war movie or TV show, or reading a war book - I am most interested in knowing how the soldiers cope. Being hard inside is not solution enough, and what are the chances that every soldier sent out to the field can just swallow up every sad feeling in the world when his best buddy dies?

All the essays were poignant. There was one, titled "Speaking of Courage", which though not one of my favorites, was nevertheless moving in its construction. It detailed a few hours in the life of a soldier who served with Tim. The PTSD, the lack of connection with outside life, the feeling that nobody can ever understand him, the torture of guilt over losing a friend, suppressing the real guilt under the mask of disappointment over not getting a major award - the powerful feelings just stood out for me in this essay. How does one go back to normalcy after all the gore and tragedy? Does one?

I sometimes wished this book was longer. When I started reading it, I wasn't aware that it was a collection of essays. That mode of narration really worked in this case, except that once in a while, a few things became repetitive. Mostly, it was to be drive impact, but sometimes the effect began to dry off and become sore. Still, this is a great collection that has elements of pre-war, during-war and after-war effects molded well together. And the essay format worked well here, because the effects of war span over a long period. The physical war may have ended, but the inner war wages on, and many of the essays reflected that well.

Updated: Chris, in the comments below, alerted me that this book isn't true nonfiction, rather, Tim uses a technique called verisimilitude to make the reader see reality in a new way. (Please check out Chris' comment!) I have to admit I was surprised because I had always assumed this book to be nonfiction but with certain liberties taken to move the story along. I did a bit of digging online, and it is mentioned that the title page mentions that this is a work of fiction. I checked back to my ebook version, and alas, it's not there. And I remember reading the introduction pages a few times before starting the book. Not having known about it until now, I'm not sure how I feel about this. It almost feels disappointing to know that what I considered to be nonficiton is actually fiction, though probably based on the author's life. Does this change my opinion of the book? No. But it sure leaves me a tad disappointed that I didn't know this earlier, at least right after I completed the book.

   

I am a bookaholic and I bought this book.

Review: Moloka'i by Alan Brennert (WOW!)

Seven-year old Rachel Kalama is like any other girl living with her family in Honolulu. Her father is a merchant seaman who is away from home for months at a time. Her mother works hard to bring up four kids. Rachel and her older sister, Sarah, fight like typical siblings, until one fight turns ugly and Rachel returns home with minor injuries. That's when her mother notices a bleeding rash on her thigh, which Rachel could not feel. Rachel is proud that she isn't complaining (not even feeling) an injured spot in her body. But her mother is anxious and worried. She gives the injury a couple of weeks to heal, and when there's been no change, Rachel's parents dress her up in long skirts and shoes to cover the spots. Her mother visits a local doctor privately for help, and Rachel is barred from removing her shoes ever in public (much to Rachel's anger). Until one day, something happens in the school grounds in front of a large crowd that reveals to everyone what is wrong with her. She has leprosy.

Alan Brennert's Moloka'i is a brilliant read. Rachel Kalama is a protagonist anyone would root for. Mostly because she could be the girl next door. She could have been anyone from 19th-20th century Moloka'i. Alan Brennert didn't try to make her some sort of heroine, or keep her safe while everyone around her suffered. Her disease not only shattered her, but also her entire family in a rippling fashion. How does one cope with losing every single person that ever mattered? Over the years, Rachel meets so many people that even we come to love and pray for. And this motley cast of people are not just treated as faceless extras, but have very interesting back-stories and are molded into fully-fleshed characters by Brennert. They have their own place in the book and without overwhelming the reader get their story told too. In the end, I cried and hoped for every character in this book.

In addition to the tangible players of this book, Moloka'i has several other characters - leprosy, the island Moloka'i, and history itself. Through the book, we see how leprosy ravaged the people of Moloka'i, both directly and indirectly. Just like in any other community, Rachel makes friends with other patients, many of whom become her playmates in pranks, and has adult figures she respects - a Sister who remains her constant companion, an aunt who treats her like her own daughter, an uncle who loves her a lot. The only difference is that this whole coterie is surrounded by leprosy and thus there is a chance they could die any time. One day, Rachel is having the best time of her life with a person, and the next day, that person has passed away. It is one of life's mocking cruelties - to become so close to someone, and then watch that person being taken away. While some people took to brooding about their disease, most accepted it and became the better for what they were.

Set beginning in the 1890s and going all the way to middle of the twentieth century, this book captures so much of the history that happens during this period - and clearly, this period is one of the richest in terms of its history - two world wars, tons of innovations; in fact, the world in which the book starts and the world in which it ends are so different that it would make you wonder if you were still reading the same book. This history is as significant as the characters of the book, and yet Alan Brennert doesn't ramble about the important events that I've noticed in so many books and found digressing. You almost never notice the history, but rather you feel like you are part of the history itself. You feel the same amazement felt by the characters, almost as if you are watching it too.

When I started reading the book, I expected to come to hate the place called Moloka'i, because of all it stands for. On the other hand, I came to love the place. There is this bunch of people who were so set apart from the rest of humanity, and also didn't have any part in the innovations that were happening. The rest of the world was moving into the 20th century, while the residents of Moloka'i were still stuck in 19th century with no electricity and feeding on the same standard diet provided by the government for more than 20 years. Without being too wordy or stopping the story to talk about the place, the author slowly but surely builds Moloka'i as a significant character in the background. Moloka'i had a church, a school, a "sanctuary" for girls under the age of eighteen, proper houses for residents, and most importantly, in Moloka'i, nobody ran away from them or looked at them with disgust. But, on the other hand, this place received what people from other places didn't need anymore, as if indicating that these people have no worth and no place in society, which is how they were treated.

Class was held only three hours each day. The books were old and had DISCARD stamped in red ink on the inside front cover; the crayons were neither as plentiful nor as colorful as those provided at Fort Street School; and the classroom lacked even a globe of the world!

The initial part of this book was hard to read - not because of language or lack of intrigue - but because it was hard reading about a seven-year old girl (and other unluckier girls) forcibly separated from her parents by a disease she wasn't even old enough to comprehend, and sent to Moloka'i, from where no one apparently returns. Rachel's parents knew what Moloka'i meant, and they realized that they may never ever see her again. For victims of leprosy, Moloka'i is understood to be their grave even before they die. But for all the doom and gloom associated with this place, people in Moloka'i knew how to live. They partied, danced, had their own cozy homes, and made best with what they had. At times, I saw a civilization that was far more tolerant and cohesive than people elsewhere. They understood each other at a level other people didn't. While others shunned them as outcasts and looked at them with disgust, the victims gelled well with each other, even though the effects of the disease on each person varied hugely.

It should also be mentioned that so many characters in this book actually existed in reality, and yet this is not nonfiction. I wasn't aware of this at first but the afterword draws clear lines between what was real and what is fiction. Through the course of the book, I came to respect some of those real characters, and it was with a lot of pride that I read their back story. Alan Brennert gives those characters a tribute of the highest order by forever immortalizing them in print for us to read.

Check out this book @ Goodreads, BetterWorldBooks, Amazon, Barnes and Noble.

I received this book as a Secret Santa gift last year from a friend.

Book n Movie Review: The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd/Gina Prince-Bythewood

Fourteen year old Lily Owens has been tormented by the same memory since she was four - the events of the afternoon her mother died. She stays with her harsh father, T. Ray, in a peach farm in South Carolina - a father who never acknowledges her birthday, doesn't buy her anything, and is nothing like a father should be. When he wants to punish her, he makes her kneel on grits for an hour. Her only real companion is the fierce, sometimes-outspoken, black woman, Rosaleen. Then something happens that prompts Lily to leave her father and her home to a place called Tiburon along with Rosaleen. There, she stays with three black beekeeping sisters, August, June and May, who provide such delightful company and eventually helps Lily get answers to the questions with which she arrived there.

I had been putting off reading this book for so long because I knew nothing about it, and the bee-word was honestly a little repulsive. (I have serious issues with any kind of small creepy crawly fly-ly living things.) But when I requested you readers to choose a book for me to read, and you guys recommended this one, I knew I couldn't put it off anymore. And so I started reading it, wondering what the whole thing about the bees was. And should I say Thank you? Or yell or chant it? Because I just absolutely loved this book!

The Secret Life of Bees is a coming-of-age story of a girl who tries to comes to terms with what happened the day her mother died. It is also a story of how she tries to learn more about her mother, and in the process, finds some wonderful women who love her like a daughter. This is not a YA book, but with a fourteen-year old protagonist and with an abundance of innocence in the book, I would imagine it could be one.

Lily is now probably one of my favorite bookish characters. I loved her spontaneity and her close relationship to Rosaleen and the beekeeping sisters. Her presence of mind is what saves her (and Rosaleen) from possible trouble. The three sisters (or calendar sisters, as Lily liked to call them because they were named after months), are characters who, you could say, have awesome screen-presence or "page-presence". August, as the oldest, was also the most mature and sensible one. She took care of the beekeeping business, into which she initiated Lily. Although I'm no fan of bees, I actually loved reading about some of the procedures described. June, though, didn't fancy Lily much and made her dislike very obvious. As for May, she was an eccentric character who carried the sorrows of the world on her shoulders. Each time, she heard any sad news, she broke down and started crying.

The Secret Life of Bees was one quirky read. It actually reminded me of Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman, though I know it should have been the other way around, had I read this one first. Reading this book took me through such a wonderful mix of emotions. One moment I'm laughing, and the very next moment I'm sniffing my way through. One minute I'm subdued as I read, and then I'm all vehement and outrageous. I loved it! I loved that it sparked so many reactions in me!

Although I have read many books depicting racial prejudice, I still get shocked when I read about it. It's nothing new in today's world, but there is something very appalling about someone mouthing profanities at a person of a different color. It is as if you never imagined that the hatred in a person can get so disgustingly low. Lily is very frank when it comes to speaking her thoughts, so frank that she puts up a disturbing idea,

T. Ray did not think colored women were smart. Since I want to tell the whole truth, which means the worst parts, I thought they could be smart, but not as smart as me, me being white. Lying on the cot in the honey house, though, all I could think was August is so intelligent, so cultured, and I was surprised by this. That's what let me know I had some prejudice buried inside me.

I found it so very truthful, because I've noticed that those who are the staunchest to declare that they are bias-free are, in fact, not. This idea was expressed in the movie, Crash, and we've seen such hypocritical characters in many books. That Lily noticed it was the first step to a change in herself.

The South in the 60s is a time I love reading about. There was so much prejudice and reading about it makes me thankful that things are very different now to what they used to be - although so many people died in getting that freedom. For every prejudiced person, there were people like Lily and Skeeter (of The Help), who had very different perceptions, though colored by the same noticeable prejudice that Lily spoke of in the quotes above. As Lily said,

Up until then I'd thought that white people and colored people getting along was the big aim, but after that I decided everybody being colorless together was a better plan. I thought of that policeman, Eddie Hazelwurst, saying I'd lowered myself to be in this house of colored women, and for the very life of me I couldn't understand how it had turned out this way, how colored women had become the lowest ones on the totem pole. You only had to look at them to see how special they were, like hidden royalty among us. Eddie Hazelwurst. What a shitbucket.

(By the way, Lily's curses are really cute!)

Soon after reading the book, I rented the movie, which was just as enjoyable though not as much as the book (No surprise). I loved the characters except for May. Somehow I had a very different image in mind for May. Sophie Okonedo looked childish as May, which is not how I had pictured her. Definitely not old, but definitely not too teenage-y. There is one other character in the book - Zach, whose portrayal I wasn't too happy about either. However, I loved the screentime they gave to August and Lily, during the beekeeping tasks. They were great to watch, though of course, the book gave a lot more explanation of why some things are done. The book shows Lily's dad as an absolute rascal, but I was surprised to see the movie take a more mellow line. I'm not sure what the goal was, but it sure didn't strike any points with me.

In the end, I'm really glad that I got to read this book. This is one of those I didn't expect to like but ended up loving.

Check out this book published by Penguin @ Goodreads, BetterWorldBooks, Amazon, B&N.

I bought this book with my hard-earned money.

Review: Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See (Audio Book)

In nineteenth-century China, six-year old Lily is just beginning the rituals towards becoming a woman. As per custom, her foot is to be bound and her marriage fixed in a few years, even though it will be much later before she starts staying with her to-be-husband. Even before she begins her initiation, her fate and that of her aunt's daughter, Beautiful Moon, are beginning to get intertwined with that of a girl named Snow Flower.

I listened to this book a couple of months back, and my review comes really late. So while I probably forgot a few points, there is so much about this book that is still with me. For starters, I am not an audiobook fan, but I'm beginning to understand that it's more due to unengaging narrators than the audio book itself. Janet Song, the narrator of Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, does an impressive job in evoking the character emotions and conveying the tragedies and happiness.

Girls in China had their feet bound at six years of age. I had previously read only one book which involved foot binding, and even then I assumed it was a harmless custom. Harmless! Girls could die from foot binding, and that was a really shocking piece of news for me. Everything I needed to know about this custom came from the second chapter of this book. Lisa See (and Janet Song, through her narration) captures the dangers of this custom very well - the pain, the cracks heard as the bones broke, the compulsory walks across the room on bound feet, the regular removal of the bindings only to put on a clean set even more tightly - all to bend the feet completely, so that the person appears to walk on tip-toes. Imagine your feet and your pointed heels as one object - that's how a bound feet would look like. I have never been more appreciative of the feet I have, in fact, I have almost sworn-off pointed heels because of what they'll remind me. And if the bindings aren't done properly? You can get gangrene or blood poisoning. The ideal size is apparently 7 inches (if my memory serves me right). 7 inches is not even a foot.

Most of this book focuses on the "friendship" between Lily and Snow Flower. I use friendship for want of a better word. Because, what exists between the two is a relationship closer than that between friends, sisters or a married couple. In China, it is called laotong, which is signed in contract - just like arranged marriages. Snow Flower is from an ostensibly richer town and a richer house. Lily is financially at a lower strata. While Lily's mother is only interested in the monetary benefits, the real situation is a lot more complicated. Having been brought up in the ways of the rich, Snow Flower has a very sophisticated manner of doing anything. Her education is more solid and her mannerisms more lady-like.

I wish I could go on about this book, but apart from the first couple chapters, the rest constitute spoilers. There is so much that happens in this book. The women are understood to have no say in a lot of matters, with men dictating all the rules, and yet it is obvious that the women have more power than Lily admits. Most of this story is from the perspective of women, and for all I know, the men hardly exist other than as props. It is interesting how much a woman can do even within a limited or non-existent freedom. As a daughter-in-law, the pressures on one are really great, but as a mother of sons, she has more status.

As was the norm in many countries in the nineteenth century (and still is in most places), sons are most coveted, while daughters are considered worthless. I cringed so many times through the book whenever the sentiment was expressed. Lily, herself, was not without fault. You would expect that one who goes through so many hardships as her, would at least try to unburden her daughter. But this is like the snake that bit its own tail - a cycle that never ceases. I both hated and loved Lily as the narrator. Lisa See was taking a risk by making her the narrator. Lily was clearly no ideal woman. She passed on her burdens to her daughter, glorified her son (in fact, she talks a LOT of her son). She is selfish and arrogant, and she begins to doubt her own friend, Snow Flower.

I was, however, annoyed by how much tragedy seems to befall people around Lily, while Lily just keeps getting luckier. I know that's not coincidental but circumstantial, nevertheless all that tragedy was just wearing me out. Every once in while, I wondered if I could just get through a part without having to sniff a bit. Other than the overdose of tears, I found this book really wonderful. I will especially recommend the audio book over the print.

  

Check out this book published by Random House @ Goodreads, BetterWorldBooks, Amazon, B&N.

I borrowed this audio book from the library. This book also completes my Women Unbound challenge.

Review: The Elephant Journey by José Saramago

It is by chance that José Saramago stumbled upon the history of this elephant's journey. In 1551, King João III of Portugal gave Archduke Maximilian an unusual wedding present - an elephant named Solomon. Solomon and his Indian mahout, Subhro, travel from Lisbon to Vienna with a interesting motley of characters. The details of the travel are not historically known, but Saramago has woven an interesting fictional tale recounting that journey.

I have to confess that my expectations from this book were low. I had never read Saramago before, although I did try to read his The Stone Raft, with which I didn't have any success. I was very worried about whether his books were even for me. But finally, the title is what prompted me to request this book from NetGalley. I then received a protected PDF that would expire within 60 days. Since I wasn't too keen to read it, I let the days lapse by, until eventually I found myself on a flight to NY with no reading planned. By then, I had less than two weeks on the book, so I decided to start it.

First thing I noticed is that the ebook is short - less than 200 pages. The next thing I realized is that I had to keep my seat belt really tight because I was rolling on the seat, laughing my head off! The Elephant's Journey was freaking funny! And no, it wasn't funny in the characters-joking-with-each-other sense. Rather, it was in Saramago's clever and occasionally quirky writing that I found the humor. Moreover, although The Elephant's Journey is an account of the elephant's journey between the two places, it was much more than that - it had some outlandish characters who will stay in your mind, it has some very interesting interactions, and it also has some lovely elephantine (in both senses of the word) wickedness!

As you would expect, Solomon the elephant is the main character of this book. José Saramago reminds us many times that we can never know what the elephant is thinking or why he is doing a particular act. In the same vein, he takes liberty with making the elephant do funny yet honorable actions and explaining them for our benefit. These humorous passages made me wish that I was part of the human entourage that went with Solomon - oh, what an amazing elephant (can you guess that my favorite animal is the elephant? If they came in smaller sizes, I would have adopted them.. sigh)

The mahout - the caretaker of the elephant - was a man with his own mind. Although he is way below in the hierarchical strata of the monarchy, he would unknowingly question the leaders, landing himself in a soup each time. Then again, he is the one who knows Solomon best and his affections for the animal are very obvious. Coming from a country where I see elephants walk by my house every day, I can tell you that not all mahouts are "nice". After all they will argue that to control a huge beast, you need to be a bit "stern". I loved it that Saramago didn't vilify Subhro but instead painted him as the most understanding of the mahouts.

The Elephant's Journey has some more interesting characters - the archduke who spends half his time getting his wife pregnant (for 16 times overall). I know it is rude to laugh of the dead, so I nobly stifled my laughter as I read this (really hard to do that because then you start snorting). Then there is a priest who demands that the elephant should bow in front of the church (oh my - you should read this!), the captain of the Portuguese army with whom Subhro shares the best rapport. Indeed the two sat together and planned the order in which the various members of the troop should travel so that no one has to wait for another. And several more!

Eventually, I finished reading this on on my nook with just 16 minutes to spare, so I did not get the time to jot down any passages! And how I would love to do that since there is so much hilarity romping through the book. I feel more optimistic about reading José Saramago, even if his other books are widely different. The only thing that bothered me about The Elephant's Journey was when the narration took a philosophical view on things. But even then, I couldn't wait to turn the pages to continue with the adventure! Top recommendation!

    

Check out this book published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt @ Goodreads, BetterWorldBooks, Amazon, B&N.

I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley.

Review: The Color Purple by Alice Walker

This is a book that needs no introduction. In fact, I had no idea either what the book was about before starting it. I don't recall ever reading the synopsis, which I now read for the first time. The Color Purple is a book of letters. Celia is a black woman who is so ashamed of her life that she cannot even talk of it to God. So she writes to God instead. She starts writing at age 14, and chronicles her life for the next 20 years. Raped and abused by her father, she wants to prevent her sister Nettie from the same fate. Eventually she gets married to "Mr. _____" (whose surname is never revealed). This man beats her, which she yields to, believing that it is proper for a man to beat his wife. In fact, she is so submissive, she doesn't ever protest.

Then she meets Shug, an attractive, independent black woman who has always been attracted to Celie's husband. Through Shug, Celie learns to express herself more and discovers her creative self. In Shug, she finds the friend, confidant, and soulmate that she never had. She also discovers that her husband has been concealing letters from her sister, who is in Africa on missionary work.

The Color Purple was a powerful read for me. I especially appreciated the authentic accent in which the story is narrated. Every chapter is a letter - mostly written by Celie to God. But once she discovers Nettie's letters, we get to read those as well. Nettie was the more educated of the two. Alice Walker has done a remarkable job in contrasting between the education level of the two sisters through the letters the sisters wrote.

I found that I could not put the book down. Celie's every letter was thought-provoking and complete in itself. Her innocence is haunting when she remarks about the way her husband treats her and how his children from his previous marriage don't respect her. And then when she meets Shug, her desire to be close to her is overwhelming. Shug, however, does not share Celie's enthusiasm. She trashes Celie's looks as ugly and refuses any help from her.

The two women slowly open up to each other. In finding their opposites in each other, they also find their complement. I was very enamored by the relationship between Celie and Shug. The Color Purple has other very interesting characters as well. Sofia, another independent woman, was the dominating person, both in stature and personality. She and her husband, Harpo, were very much in love and respected each other, until Harpo began to believe it a man's right that the woman obey him, failing which he has the permission to beat her. Through Nettie's letters, we get a glimpse into an African way of life, particularly the Olinkan tribe. I found these letters by Nettie very moving. Her happiness at meeting the native Africans is mixed with her disappointment that they don't exactly openly welcome her and her companions although historically they share the same origins.

One thing that I was aghast at is the casual relationship between the men and women, married or not. Although Celie and "Mr. _____" are married, Celie never minds him rekindling his love and attraction towards Shug. After Sofia leaves Harpo, he is quick to bring home another girl. One of Shug's husbands doesn't hide his interest in another girl. Reading about that felt worse than reading about polygamy, in a very weird sense.

In a nutshell, this book was a gripping read. The short-letter format worked very well in delivering a punch through not too many words. The voices of the writers are genuine and poignant. At the same time, it isn't depressing - rather it has so much of the positive human spirit on display. There are triumphs and disappointments, successes and failures, prejudices and retorts - a holistic read!

    

Check out this book published by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich @ Goodreads, BetterWorldBooks, Amazon, B&N.

I borrowed this book from the library to read for The Color Purple Readalong.

Review: Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman

Title: Saving Ceecee Honeycutt
Author: Beth Hoffman
First Published: January 2010
Publisher: Penguin
Source: Library | Who could miss all that rave?
306 pages



In a nutshell
Twelve-year old CeeCee Honeycutt has been looking after her psychotic mother, Camille, for years. But when Camille is hit by a truck, CeeCee's aunt, Tootie, comes to take care of her. And thus she enters a world filled with strange and eccentric characters. From the exotic Miz Thelma Rae Goodpepper, who bathes in her backyard bathtub and uses garden slugs as her secret weapons, to Tootie's all-knowing housekeeper, Oletta Jones, to Violene Hobbs, who entertains a local police officer in her canary-yellow peignoir, the women of Gaston Street keep CeeCee entertained and enthralled for an entire summer.

I think...
CeeCee's mother believes she is a beauty queen. In fact, she was the 1951 Vidalia Onion Queen. She trots around town in her tiara and the cheap prom gowns she gets at the nearby Goodwill store. In addition, her crumbling relationship with her husband further erodes her mental faculties. Initially, CeeCee is freaked out by her mother's behavior but over time, CeeCee starts getting irritated. CeeCee's reactions moved me. It was sad watching a child feel helpless when no one can help her mother. She tries coaxing her father to take some action, but he just shirks off any responsibility.

When Camille is killed in an accident, CeeCee feels shattered. She begins to miss her mother, and is outraged when her father wants to give her away to her aunt, Tootie Caldwell. She'd rather stay with her neighbor, Mrs. Odell. But Tootie's arrival is one of the best things that happen to CeeCee. She doesn't realize it first, but before the end of the summer, she comes to embrace that.

Saving CeeCee Honeycutt has an interesting plethora of characters. Tootie is the very concerned empathetic person who helps everyone is trouble, and is held in high regard by everyone. Mrs Oletta, Tootie's maid, who stayed with her even when she could move on is very like Minny (of The Help) without being so sassy. She is stern and warm in perfect combination. Miz Goodpepper, who stays next doors, seems nice on the surface, but hers is a mind that puts a lot of wheels into motion, while sometimes slightly unsettling CeeCee, and thus the reader. In this setting of mainly ladies is another character - Miz Hobbs - who is much hated by other characters, due to her wagging tongue and her tendency to rebuke the others. In the process, she comes to be the butt of many jokes, that although are quite hilarious, can be branded as in poor taste.

This is a very sweet read. It is also funny, but sometimes in a sad way. When CeeCee is curious about a book called "Kama Sutra", she has the following conversation with Miz Goodpepper.

---

While Miz Goodpepper pulled a pitcher of lemonade from the frig, I asked "Is the Kama Sutra a volcano?"

She gasped and splashed lemonade across the kitchen counter. The strangest look streaked across her face as she sopped up the mess with a wad of paper towels. "Well I suppose some might think it's a volcano of sorts, but I can say with absolute assurance you wouldn't enjoy that book."

"That's what I thought," I said, feeling pleased with myself, "so I put it back on the shelf."

---

I found this book to be an enjoyable read, but I didn't love it. There was quite a bit of predictability, that I couldn't take nicely. CeeCee sure deserved all the good things that happened to her, but the coincidental manner in which they happen didn't please me. Moreover, I didn't feel as warmed by this book as I expected too. I liked it, but didn't love it. It is a good light read, one that will have you smiling as you read.