Laura's Review - Brother, I'm Dying

Brother, I'm Dying

Edwidge Danticat
270 pages


In Brother, I'm Dying Edwidge Danticat has written a book that is both a personal memoir and an homage to the two most significant male figures of her childhood: her father and uncle. Danticat was born in Haiti and raised primarily by her aunt and uncle after her parents left to start a new life in New York. At the age of twelve she and her brother were reuinted with their parents, and with two more brothers born in New York. Her memoir highlights the emotional impact of such an unusual childhood, but this is not a negative tell-all story. Rather, Danticat focuses more on Haiti's tumultuous political climate, its effect on her uncle and other relatives, her parents' struggle as immigrants, and the relationship between her father and uncle, which only develops when they are well into adulthood.

In 2004, just as Danticat was anticipating her first child, she also faced the responsibility of caring for aging parents. Her father had a life-threatening condition and was declining rapidly. Her uncle was still in reasonably good health, but was forced to leave Haiti during riots that same year. On arrival in the U.S., he became the victim of distressing acts of bigotry and prejudice, was held in a detention center, and died within days. Danticat matter-of-factly described the series of events that led to his death, in a way that made me feel simultaneously outraged and heart-broken.

Danticat is a talented writer; I enjoyed her novel Breath, Eyes, Memory (read my review), and look forward to reading more of her work. ( )

My original review can be found here.

Laura's 2008 Challenge List

In 2007, the NYT Notable Books Challenge was my introduction to the world of reading challenges, and I read 12 books from the 2006 NYT Notable Fiction list. I can’t resist Wendy’s 2008 Notable Books Challenge, which is so flexible as to allow reading from several different “notable books” lists. However, I also have several challenges and projects going, so I have only chosen books that were already on my TBR pile. Of course I reserve the right to add to or change this list over time!

2007 NYT Notable Books:

• What is the What, the Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng, by Dave Eggers (completed 3/18/2008 - review)
• The Gathering, by Anne Enright (completed 4/2/2008 - review)
• Out Stealing Horses, by Per Petterson (completed 7/13/2008 - review)
• The Septembers of Shiraz, by Dalia Sofer (completed 7/20/2008 - review)
• Brother, I’m Dying, by Edwidge Danticat (completed 7/23/2008 - review)

2007 ALA Notable Books:

• The Secret River, by Kate Grenville (completed 2/3/2008 - review)

2007 Kiriyama Prize:

• The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar (completed 2/28/2008 - review)

Laura's Review - The Septembers of Shiraz

The Septembers of Shiraz
Dalia Sofer
340 pages


In The Septembers of Shiraz, Dalia Sofer paints a vivid emotional portrait of one familiy's struggle to cope when the father disappears and becomes a political prisoner. Set in Iran immediately after the Shah's regime, Isaac Amin is a Jewish jeweler who is arrested in his office. His wife, Farnaz, is not notified but quickly realizes what has happened; arrests such as Isaac's were quite common. The effect on her is devastating; she struggles to maintain "business and usual" in her household while fearing for her own life and that of her 9-year-old daughter, Shirin. Shirin acts out her fear, operating from limited information and a child's perspective. Meanwhile Isaac & Farnaz's son, Parviz, is attending a university in New York. He is lonely to begin with, and then overcome with helplessness at his inability to help his family.

If this story were only about Isaac, it would be a fairly typical novel of political imprisonment. But Sofer brings great depth not just to Isaac's character, but to his immediate and extended family. Her prose is wonderfully descriptive, such as this passage describing Isaac's dying father: The beads, she thinks, will outlive his hands. His wool robe, which he has owned as long as she has know himm, and before, will soon be folded and put away in a box, along with his hat, his good shoes, his pocket watch. What had allowed her to tolerate him, on that trip to Isfahan so long ago, was a single sentence. "Please make Isaac happy, Farnaz-jan, because we never did." With this sentence he had made her realize that despite all the things his character lacked, which were many, he possessed at least the capacity to admit who he was: a bad father.

During the Isaac's captivity, both he and Farnaz have ample opportunity to reflect on their lives together, which had become a bit stale. Isaac, reflecting on his successful business ventures, thinks to himself, All this, he had achieved, but the price had been a string of compromises, looped over one another like pearls, creating a life at once beautiful and frail. Slowly, all four family members come to terms with the importance of family, homeland, and ethnicity and the trade-offs necessary to preserve what they can.

An excellent book; highly recommended. ( )

My original review can be found here.

Laura's Review - Out Stealing Horses

Out Stealing Horses

Per Petterson
258 pages


Trond Sander is a 67-year-old widower living with his dog in a remote cabin in Norway. He enjoys the solitude and takes pleasure in small things, like the physical activity associated with chopping wood, walking his dog, or making a meal. As he works, he revisits significant events from his wartime childhood. Events originally seen through the eyes of a child come into sharp focus when seen from his adult perspective: his father's work as a courier for the resistance movement, the devastating impact of a child's death, and the complex relationships between adults in his life.

Petterson's writing is terrific; the language is beautiful. He weaves the stories of Trond's present and past together seamlessly. The language has a particular rhythm to it, like waves lapping on the side of a boat. And yet it's also impossible to put down and has a strong emotional pull: I felt extreme sadness for losses in Trond's life, and at the same time I felt the peace and acceptance he had achieved.

Highly recommended ... not to be missed. ( )

My original review can be found here.

Laura's Review - The Gathering

The Gathering
Anne Enright
261 pages

"There is something wonderful about a death, how everything shuts down, and all the ways you thought you were vital are not even vaguely important. Your husband can feed the kids, he can work the new oven, he can find the sausages in the fridge, after all." (p. 27)

The Gathering is an intimate and painful look at grief. Veronica Hegarty's life has been turned upside-down by her brother Liam's suicide. Throughout this novel Veronica operates in a fog, disconnected from her siblings, her husband, and her children. She is barely able to function. As she reflects on her brother's life, she tries to piece together elements of their shared past, but her childhood memories are fraught with inaccuracies and inconsistencies. Liam's death also makes her keenly aware of her own less-than-satisfying adult life: "I was living my life in inverted commas. I could pick up my keys and go 'home' where I could 'have sex' with my 'husband' just like lots of other people did. This is what I had been doing for years. And I didn't seem to mind the inverted commas, or even notice that I was living in them, until my brother died." (p. 181) When did it all go wrong?

As winner of the 2007 Booker Prize, The Gathering has received more than its share of reviews. It seems to be a "love it or hate it" book, mostly because it is so bleak. This is, indeed, a very sad book. Each person seems to be lost in their own island of grief, unable to support one another. Veronica withdraws completely; her siblings are each caught up in their own childhood baggage and destructive behavior patterns. As the book draws to a close, the truth has proven to be elusive, and the future is uncertain. Those looking for neat and tidy endings will be disappointed, but I found The Gathering's stark realism to be both intense and memorable. ( )

My original review can be found here.

Laura's Review - What is the What

What is the What
Dave Eggers
475 pages


This is the life story of Valentino Achak Deng, one of the "Lost Boys" of Sudan. Separated from his family at the age of 7, Valentino walked across Sudan into Ethiopia with hundreds of boys in similar circumstances. For 14 years, while his country was ravaged by civil war, Valentino lived in refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya. He was ultimately resettled to the U.S. as part of a relief effort.

Valentino's story is heart-breaking. He witnessed violence, and cruelty at such a young age. His own village was attacked by militia, with villagers brutally murdered. During the walk across Sudan, boys routinely died of malnutrition or other illnesses. Conditions in the refugee camps were appallingly bad. And it shocked me to realize that these refugee camps were not at all temporary; that a conflict can exist for so many years that the camp becomes the only life its inhabitants know.

This was a difficult book in many ways, but extremely well-written. Highly recommended. ( )

My original review can be found here.

Laura's Review - The Space Between Us

The Space Between Us

Thrity Umrigar

321 pages

In this novel, Thrity Umrigar explores issues of social class and the ways in which class impacts life experience and relationships. Sera is a wealthy Indian woman who suffered in an unhappy and violent marriage. Bhima is her servant, living in extreme poverty with her orphaned granddaughter Maya, who she has cared for since early childhood. Bhima has worked for Sera for years; the two women understand and care deeply for each other. Many times Sera has come to Bhima’s aid, using her status to secure better healthcare for a family member, arrange for Maya’s education, and help Bhima navigate government beaurocracy. And Bhima provided Sera with much-needed emotional support throughout her marriage.

On the surface it would appear the two women have overcome class differences and forged a deep and lasting friendship. Yet Sera will not allow Bhima to sit on her furniture. There are many other small indications along the way, until the novel’s climax fully exposes the chasm between the two women. In the final analysis, class differences reinforce one woman’s privilege and the other’s destitution.

While this novel takes place in India, where much has been written about the role of social class, supposedly egalitarian societies fall victim similar traps. Just this week I had a conversation with a colleague who was struggling with the importance of developing a diverse workforce. “I think we should just hire the best people,” he said. I was reminded of an article I read years ago: White Privilege, Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack, by Peggy McIntosh. The author writes, “Obliviousness about white advantage, like obliviousness about male advantage, is kept strongly inculturated [sic] in the United States so as to maintain the myth of meritocracy, the myth that democratic choice is equally available to all. Keeping most people unaware that freedom of confident action is there for just a small number of people props up those in power and serves to keep power in the hands of the same groups that have most of it already.”

Food for thought. ( )

My original review can be found here.

Laura's Review - The Secret River

The Secret River
Kate Grenville
334 pages


Set in Australia in the early 1800s, The Secret River is the story of William Thornhill, a London riverboat driver sent to Australia after being convicted of a crime. He is accompanied by his wife Sal, who acts as his "master" as required by law. During his twelve month sentence he finds work on a riverboat and, after serving time, buys his own boat and becomes an independent businessman running goods on the river Hawkesbury. Like many "emancipists" of that time, he also stakes his claim to a large parcel of land. The only problem is, the native people claimed it years before. The white settlers demonstrate remarkable hubris, assuming they have a right to the land and shoo-ing the startled natives away.

William embraces life as a free man, but Sal longs for home. When he buys a 100-acre parcel, he extracts a promise from Sal to stay for five years. She believes they will then return to London, but William never takes his part of the bargain seriously. Sal notes each passing day by marking a tree with a knife. "The unspoken between them was that she was a prisoner here, marking off the days in her little round of beaten earth, and it was unspoken because she did not want him to feel a jailer. She was, in a manner of speaking, protecting him from herself." (p. 150) The book's title comes from this and other unspoken secrets between the couple. As time passes, more and more goes unspoken: the size of the native camp on their land, the details of atrocities between whites and native people, the prejudiced and often violent behaviors exhibited by their neighbors. But Sal is no fool, and is well aware of the escalating tensions and the danger to her family.

Grenville keeps a low- to medium-grade tension running throughout the novel. Some of the tension comes from the very act of survival in the Australian wilderness, and the stress between William and Sal. But the primary conflict is direclty with the native people. While William demonstrates a growing awareness of the natives as human beings, as it says on the book jacket, "to keep his family safe, he must permit terrifying cruelty to come to innocent people." The book's denouement portrays the Thornhills' lives years after this "terrifying cruelty." It is somewhat disappointing, as it's unclear how he and Sal resolved their differences. But the outcome is probably quite true to that period in history. This is a memorable book, well deserving of its Commonwealth Prize and Booker Shortlist recognition. ( )

My original review can be found here.

Laura's 2007 NYT Notable Reviews

When the list of 2006 NYT Notables was published, I had only read one of the fiction winners. This year, I'm showing a slight improvement, having read three from the 2007 NYT Notable list, including one non-fiction. Below are the books I've read, with links to reviews on my blog:

• HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS, by J. K. Rowling - review
• THE RELUCTANT FUNDAMENTALIST, by Mohsin Hamid - review
• LONG WAY GONE: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, by Ishmael Beah - review

I'll be back to post a 2008 challenge list before the end of the year.

The Book Thief - Laura's Review

The Book Thief
Markus Zusak
552 pages

First sentences: First the colors. Then the humans. That's how I usually see things. Or at least, I try.

Reflections: This book tells the story of a young girl, Liesel, who lives near Munich during World War II. The story is set in the early 1940s and is told by "Death," who is quite busy claiming recently-departed souls. Liesel is placed in foster care and gradually assimilates into a new community and a new family. Her new family is poor, and she takes to stealing books in order to feed a reading habit. The story develops when Liesel's family takes in a Jewish man named Max, the son of someone her "Papa" fought with in the first world war. Liesel becomes close to Max, and also befriends a local boy named Rudy. The story intensifies as the war progresses and the Allies begin bombing Germany.

I very much enjoyed this author's writing style and the unique point of view of this story. I became attached to the characters and the relationships. Many of the events are foreshadowed again and again, so when the climax occurs it is not a huge surprise but still very sad. The last 100 pages or so were gripping.

This book left me pensive and contemplative, as it caused me to reflect once again on the holocaust and its terror and devastation.

The original review can be found here.

The Inheritance of Loss - Laura's Review

The Inheritance of Loss
Kiran Desai
324 pages

First sentence: All day, the colors had been those of dusk, mist moving like a water creature across the great flanks of mountains possessed of ocean shadows and depths.

Reflections: The Inheritance of Loss won the Booker Prize in 2006. The novel is set in India during the 1980s, and the plot centered around political conflict. I'm sure if I had more knowledge of the situation in India at that time, I would have appreciated the novel more. Kiran Desai's prose is lyrical and beautiful. It was her writing that held my interest.

I failed to identify with most of the characters. Each of the main characters is an outsider: for various reasons they are not in their home country or have spent so much time away from India that they feel out of place. For example, two elderly women who spent extensive time in England, ensure they always have on hand "familiar comforts" such as English foods and clothing. This I could relate to, having spent 4 years away from my home country. Although it was a fantastic experience, many times I felt like an outsider and knew I would never be fully part of the local community. I've been surprised to feel even more of an outsider since returning "home." Living abroad changes you in many ways. It's made me stronger and more thoughtful, and increased my curiosity about other cultures. Unfortunately there are few I can share this experience with so it remains a somewhat hidden part of who I am ...

The original review can be found here.