The More You Read

The Namesake is a full length novel written by Jhumpa Lahiri.  Her collection of short stories, Interpreter of Maladies, won the Pulitzer Prize in 2000 and has been much loved by many.  The Namesake is a beautiful book that has sense become a movie.  I haven’t seen the movie, but I love the book.

This is the story of Ashoke and Ashima.  Ashoke and Ashima have an arranged marriage and move to live in America where Ashoke is a student.  Ashima lives a fairly isolated life compared to that she would have had in India.  Yet she is a good and faithful wife and has two children.  The first child they have ends up with the name Gogol, for several reasons.  The name Gogol has great significance to Ashoke and he has a difficult time conveying to Gogol the importance of his name.   Gogol is ashamed of it and goes by his other name, Nikhil, which fit into his American life a little better.

Nikhil has tension with his parents throughout the book as his Bengali and American identities pull him in different directions.  Nikhil is very involved with an American girl when his father dies and he starts to re-examine his life a little bit more.  He becomes more involved with family again and becomes more understanding of his father now that he is no longer present.

This is a book that I thoroughly enjoyed.  I only hope that Jhumpa Lahiri continues to write and will write more novels.

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Fiction, Indian, Jhumpa Lahiri

I have yet to read The Time Traveler’s Wife, but I had heard good things about it and when I saw Her Fearful Symmetry on the library shelves, I picked it up.  I’m happy that I did even though it contains a ghost haunting those left behind and an ending that I never would have imagined.  As I’ve mentioned before, I am one who likes my stories….even my fiction…to be believable.  This wasn’t quite believable but I liked the characters and was interested in where the story was going to go until the very last page.

Her Fearful Symmetry is the story of Elspeth Noblin.  We do not get to know her very well in life but we learn more of her after her death.  She lives in London and dies in her 40s of cancer leaving behind a much younger boyfriend who spends his time wandering, studying and writing about the Highgate cemetery.  She leaves her London flat and an inheritance to her twin nieces who have never known her.  They live in America and are the daughters of Elspeth’s twin sister that has not had a relationship with Elspeth in many years.  The conditions of the inheritance are that the twins live in the flat for a year and do not allow their parents to come.

The twins, Valentina and Julia, are at a point in their live where they are not sure what else to do so they move to London and begin learning about Elspeth through her neighbors.  Robert, her younger grieving boyfriend, and Martin, a man who is deeply affected by OCD and whose wife has left him because of his constricting lifestyle.  Valentina and Julia have done everything together their whole life and fear making any move or decision that might separate them.  They are mirror twins, so that even Valentina’s internal organs are reflected of Julia’s and on the wrong side.  Valentina is more interested in moving on with her life and figuring out what to do while Julia wants to hold her close.  Julia forms a friendship with Martin and tries to help him with his disease while Valentina falls deeply in love with Robert.  Meanwhile, Elspeth’s spirit has remained in the apartment and she works to grow stronger and is eventually able to communicate with the twins and Robert in her apartment.  Valentina and Robert both spend a lot of time communicating with her.  Elspeth’s story comes out and Valentina becomes more assertive about the direction that she wants her life to take.

The ending of this book was very surprising.  Some things I liked about it…and some things I didn’t.  And that’s all I’m going to say.

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Audrey Niffenegger, Fiction

I loved The Red Tent by Anita Diamant so I was excited to see her new book at the library.  It would also fall into the historical fiction category.  But it in no way caught my heart the way The Red Tent did.  Day After Night focuses on four female refuges after WWII.  They all had very different circumstances and ended up at Atlit, a British internment camp in Palestine.  The women were waiting to be relocated to kibbutz.  The women grow frustrated with the long wait in the camp and compare it to the concentration camps that they so narrowly avoided or were captive in.

The four women become leaders in their own way, among the people in the camp.  Some of the women dream of finding husbands and having children…a dream they did not ever think would be realized during the war when they were in hiding or in concentration camps.  Some women grieve for the family and friends that they lost.  And some rage against the twists that life has thrown at them.

The characters are well developed and their stories intertwine well.  The book is filled with something that is almost like hope as the characters try to figure out how to start their lives over again.  However I did not feel the draw to this book as I did her previous novel.  It was definitely readable but will not make my “top” list.

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Anita Diamant, Fiction, WWII

I truly feel that so much of how you like a book has to do with the timing of when you read it.  I have recently had my first baby and have contemplated childcare choices while looking at my return to full time work.  This is a book about nannies and how they work to negotiate the boundaries of raising someone else’s children.  Tasha Blaine worked briefly as a nanny and grew interested in the women who make careers out of being a nanny.  She focuses on three different women who have different backgrounds and motivations.

Claudia is a woman who immigrated from Dominca and is trying to make a better life for herself and her daughter.  She is legally in the country but has the perspective of many women who come to the country illegally and caring for someone’s children is the only option they have.  Claudia works for a couple in New York City caring for their two children.  She is happy with her employers who not only employ her but advocate for her as well.  Claudia lives on the brink of poverty, barely making ends meet, and for her one of the most difficult parts of nannying is that she does not see a future.  She talks of how her employers do better in their employment and make advances and more money, yet she stays the same.  She dreams of taking classes and becoming a nurse but doesn’t find the time or money to do so.

Vivian is a professional nanny.  She belongs to nanny organizations and she strives to make her profession more respected.  Vivian works for a couple who have twin boys.  She has cared for the boys since they were born and takes a very active stance in how they are raised, disciplined and educated.  She considers herself as someone equally involved and invested in the children’s upbringing yet tries to be sure to differentiate her role so that the boys understand who the parents are.  She has a salary with benefits and is very confident and sure of her role in the home.

Kim takes a job with a young couple expecting their first baby as a live in nanny.  She does it mainly because she needs a place to live as she is getting a divorce.  The match does not work from the first day as she is continually disrespected and treated as much as a maid and assistant to her employers as she is a nanny.  Her role is not well defined and Kim continues to work in a place where she feels belittled because she does not know what other options she has.

This book brought up a lot of interesting points in how there are many things to think about when hiring one person to care for your children.  There are issues of jealousy, control, and matching personalities as well as parenting methods.  I would recommend this book to anyone who is thinking about their options of child care.  It was a quick read and gave perspective into the lives of nannies.

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nanny, Non Fiction, Tasha Blaine

The Wonder Spot is Melissa Bank’s second book and I enjoyed it just as much as her first, The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing.  I like the voice that she gives to her main characters so much that it makes me think that I would like her, if I were to meet her.

In Wonder Spot Sophie Applebaum is the main character and we meet her as a teenager at her cousins bat mitzvah.  Throughout her teenage years into her young professional life her struggle to find who she is and what she is meant to do is vivid.  As well as her search (and disappointments) when looking for a life partner.

Sophie leads a life that can be seen as a fairly normal life…it’s just that coming from her the things that happen are more amusing, heartbreaking, more vivid.  Throughout the book I found myself wanting her to find a job she loves, a man that she loves who loves her back.  I wanted her to find happiness.  Melissa Bank has a gift  and I look forward to reading her future books.

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Fiction, Melissa Bank

This is a book about Pat Tillman, the NFL player who left a lucrative multi-million dollar football contract to serve in the military and later was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan.  It is also about the way his death was portrayed in the media and how the circumstances around his death were concealed from his family for a long time.

I had heard about Pat Tillman as most of us have.  It is one of those events like the Jessica Lynch capture and rescue that were construed as defining moments in the Iraq/Afghanistan war by the media.  The interesting part of this story is that Jon Krakauer writes about how Pat Tillman had gone out of his way to avoid media attention since leaving the NFL.  He did not do interviews and did not want to be made into anything special.

The biographical information that Jon Krakauer provides describes Pat as someone who was always driven and worked hard to meet his goals.  He was small when he was young and still went on to be a great football player in high school, college and later in the NFL, mostly due to hard work.  He challenged himself in many ways through doing marathons and triathalons in his off season.  It sounds as though he lived to experience life and did his best to learn and challenge himself.  After 9/11 Pat started having doubts about his career as a football player and felt that he needed to do something more and he joined the military.  His brother, Kevin, joined as well and served with him throughout his time.  This made the cover up of what truly happened even more remarkable, to me, since his brother was on scene when it happened and just out of view from what had happened.

From the way the book describes the circumstances surrounding Pat’s death, it was obvious pretty quickly that it had been due to friendly fire.  Their platoon had been split in two and one section ended up firing on Pat who had thought he was coming to their aid.  The videos of the battle went missing, the clothes that he was wearing were destroyed and those who were aware of what had happened, which was the majority of the platoon were ordered to keep it a secret as a deliberately misleading account was provided in order to garner better press.

Pat’s wife, Marie, worked with the author in providing information for this book but most of the rest of Pat’s family declined to take part.  His mother has also written a book Boots On the Ground Before Dawn which I am interested in reading.  The one thing that this book really brought to my attention is that the people who are serving in the military and their families are so greatly affected by the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, but for many of the rest of us we live our daily lives without really thinking about it.  The sacrifice is so great for those involved.

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Jon Krakauer, Non Fiction

This is the first book that I have read by Jonathan Tropper and I found it interesting, funny and a little heartbreaking all at the same time.  This Is Where I Leave You is the story of the Foxman family told by one of the sons, Judd.  He and his siblings, Paul, Wendy and Phillip are called to sit shiva after the death of their father.  They were told that it was his dying wish so the family comes together to honor it even though spending seven days together in the same home is difficult and complicated for all of them.

Judd has just been separated from his wife after finding her in bed with his boss.  He is jobless, living in a bad basement apartment, and feeling pretty down about his life in general.  He is trying to sort out his feelings towards his wife and towards love during this time.  His older brother, Paul, is taking over the family business and nursing resentment towards Judd for an incident years ago that changed the path of his life.  Phillip, the youngest, is affectionately known as the family goof up and surprises everyone by showing up to sit shiva with a much older fiance, who used to be his therapist.  Wendy, is raising three children with a semi-absent husband and coping with the realities of growing older.  The dynamics between the siblings are complicated…but very warm and believable at the same time as being conflicted.  They are typical siblings.  The book is divided into the seven days that the family spends together and you watch as the relationships grow and change during this time.

This story had a lot to offer.  It said things that rang very true to me, even if I never would have said it the same way.  I’m definitely going to try to find other books by Jonathan Tropper.

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Fiction, Jonathan Tropper

 I am so happy to be reading things that I enjoy again.  This was a wonderful book.  It takes place in New York City in the summer of 1974.  Several different characters and stories are tied together throughout the book which gives the reader all of the different perspectives.  Each of the characters have a different voice, a different life and are truly believable.

The book centers around an event of a man walking on a tight rope between the World Trade Center towers.  In the book hundreds of people stop to watch this unlikely event and are captivated both by the fear that the walker may fall and the wonder and hope of someone doing something unimaginable.  Throughout the story the different characters come back to this as a touching place, another common spot in their diverse lives.  In the author’s note Colum McCann writes that the tightrope walker was Philippe Petit and he truly did this on August 7, 1974.  He admits to taking some liberties with the event but I was interested that this actually took place.

The characters in the book are an Irish “priest” pursuing his calling, the prostitutes that he works with, the woman that he loves, a married couple of artists whose lives intersect with him, and eventually two women who have lost their sons in Vietnam.  The author artfully tied and connected these different people together in a believable way.  What I liked most was the last chapter of the book that takes place in 2006 and gives some closure to a few of the different characters.  In a book that does deal with a lot of grief and hard living, hope and goodness also shines through.

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Colum McCann, Fiction

 I have read several books recently and I just wasn’t liking any of them.  I wasn’t sure if it was me or if it was the books so I decided not to write about them.  But I was very happy to read The Murderer’s Daughters because it was one of those books that I didn’t even want to put down.

This is the story of Lulu and Merry.  Lulu was seven and Merry was five when their father murdered their mother, injured Merry and tried to kill himself.  The story is told through both sisters so their different reactions and emotions are shown.  Lulu lives with the guilt that she may have allowed the murder to happen by letting her dad in that day and hesitating when her mom told her to get help.  As the girls travel through family member’s, an orphanage and a foster family Lulu remains the strong protector and tries to bury the past to make a better life for herself.  She does not visit her father in prison and does what she can to distance herself from the reputation of being a murderer’s daughter by telling people she was orphaned later in life.

Merry carries the physical scars of the attack and also some sense of responsibility and connectedness to her dad.  She visits him in prison for the thirty plus years that he is there and works through different stages in a relationship with him.  Merry is portrayed as being weaker and more emotional…as though she needs protection and defending from Lulu.  Yet Merry has a lot of strength in the way she faces her past and what has happened.

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Fiction, Randy Susan Meyers