Classic review: PEDRO PÁRAMO

Pedro Páramo: 

"The Perfect Novel You’ve Never Heard Of"(Slate)

About two years ago I read a list of 75 books one should read before they die. Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo was on that list. I had not heard of the book but figured it would be good for me to read more Latin American literature and added Pedro to my TBR list. Since then I've noticed the books on several other must-read lists and noted an upcoming Netflix film adaptation. It was time to get more serious about locating a copy of this classic book.

First I searched the library and found that all of their print versions had a long waiting list. The library had an audiobook available, which I prefer anyway, but on closer inspection I determined the recording was in Spanish. Since that wouldn't work for me I went ahead and used an Audible credit to purchase the English translation audiobook. My next challenge was to find a time to listen to the book with my husband who is better at interpreting magical realism or books with deeper meanings than me. Since Pedro Páramo is short, less than 130 pages and only 4-1/2 hours listening time, we were able to complete the book on a recent car trip. And, boy, was I glad Don listened to it with me. 

Wikipedia describes Pedro Páramo this way, "This novel showcases the roots of Mexican culture and its beliefs on afterlife through deeply complex characters, spirituality, and a constant transition between realms/dimensions that encompass a nonlinear chronology." Well, that doesn't sound confusing at all (snark)! To add to the mixed-up timelines, the shifting narrators and verb tenses switch back and forth so often that time itself has no meaning. The first/main narrator, Juan Preciado, travels to his mother's hometown, Comala, to confront the father he has never met, Pedro Páramo. When he reaches Comala Juan meets ghost after ghost, though distinguishing the living from the dead is an ongoing and futile effort. The town itself seems to be disintegrating. Through these ghosts Juan learns about the history of this town and of his father. The memories they share do not match up exactly with the memories his mother shared with him before her death. In the end, before he is literally scared to death, he learns the town has become a ghost town because of his father. Everyone died because of Pedro Páramo's cruelty. 

At some point during the trip -- midbook, actually -- I looked up information about Pedro Páramo on Shmoop, my favorite go-to spot for literary criticism. The book plays with the question "what is reality anyway?" The reader is never really sure what just happened. "The chorus of ghosties helps keep this sense of dread rolling around in your head not only when you are reading but long afterwards. Isn't that the definition of being haunted?"

A book becomes a classic when it is never done saying what it has to say, making a rereading likely. Pedro Páramo has a lot to say about spirituality and religion, time and memory, madness and suffering, gender differences, and culture and history. The author, Juan Rulfo, was speaking to issues that Mexicans living in the 1950s would understand about the death of rural communities as people were leaving for urban centers and various abuses of the Catholic church. These themes and many others are ones we can still relate to today. Rulfo also played with the names of the characters that perhaps only Spanish speaking readers would immediately understand. Many character names were clearly carefully chosen to reflect personalities, fates, or themes. For example Abundio Martinez, with a name that implies abundance, starves to death.

The version of Pedro Páramo we listened to was translated by Douglas Weatherford, who included an endnote describing his efforts to translate the text the way it was written, which may be a bit more confusing to English readers than other previous translations. Gabriel Garcia Marqués wrote the forward and extolled Rulfo's book and writing in general. Marquez credits Rulfo with really opening up his own career -- and for many other famous Latin American authors -- which we know included the very highly regarded One Hundred Years of Solitude. He read Pedro Páramo over and over. Marquez thinks he could actually recite the book line for line from cover to cover. High praise for a book I had never even heard of.

My rating: 4 stars.

At 122 pages, Pedro Paramo qualifies for Novelas in November.

-Anne

Review: THE WOMEN IN THE CASTLE

Title: The Women in the Castle by Jessica Shattuck

Book Beginnings quote:

The day of the countess's famous harvest party began with a driving rain that hammered down on all the ancient von Lingenfels castle's sore spots -- springing leaks, dampening floors, and turning its yellow facade a slick, beetle-like black. In the courtyard, the paper lanterns and carefully strung garlands of wheat drooped and collapsed.

Friday56 quote:

The rest of the evening passed pleasantly. There was no further talk of politics, and Connie seemed truly interested in learning all about her. Benita had never been asked so many questions.

Summary: 

Amid the ashes of Nazi Germany’s defeat, Marianne von Lingenfels returns to the once-grand castle of her husband’s ancestors, an imposing stone fortress now fallen into ruin following years of war. The widow of a Nazi resister murdered in the failed July 20, 1944, plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler, Marianne plans to uphold the promise she made to her husband’s brave conspirators: to find and protect their wives, her fellow resistance widows.

Review: The Women in the Castle was this month's book club selection. Every gal who braved the windy forecast for a 'bomb cyclone' said they really enjoyed the book. So did I. Oddly and to a person, we all noticed the similarities between the politics of Germany in the 1930s and 40s under the Nazis and what we are experiencing today in American politics. We had to stop ourselves from talking about one issue just to move on and discuss other questions from the publisher. Shattuck said the story was related to her family story but didn't elaborate on that note. Did she mean her grandparents were Nazi resisters like the characters in the book? Or did she just mean that her grandparents had to live through the lean years after WWII were Germans were forced to confront their complicity in the Holocaust even if they were ignorant, as most said? Shattuck also said that the book took her seven years to write and it was published in 2017. There is no way she knew what kind of politics Trump would bring forward, or embrace at the time of her writing. So we decided her book was unintentionally prescient. 

Most WWII books stop at wars end. This book is mainly set after the war's end when Marianne sets out to find and protect the other resister's widows. She finds two and brings them and their children to live with her in the old family castle that is a cold and leaky place. The stories of these three women, and to a smaller degree their children, populate the book. War has all kinds of victims. Some die in the fighting, others can't seem to make sense of their lives after it is over. This book addresses those grey zones of life in the shadows and aftermath of war.

Discussion questions for The Women in the Castle (from Lit Lovers):

1. What does the novel reveal about the method and degree of Hitler's appeal to the German populace? In what way does it address the most problematic question of the War: how the German people allowed themselves to be swept away by Hitler and Nazi propaganda. Just as important, how much—and at what point—did ordinary citizens truly know about the impoundment and murder of Europe's Jewish population.

2. Describe each of the three women—Marianne, Ania, and Benita. Talk about their different views of the Hitler regime as it unfolded and their various reasons for supporting it. What was each woman's role, or position, in German society, and how did each experience the war? What about the years after the war?

3. Which woman's story do you find most compelling, frightening, or horrifying? Are you more sympathetic toward one than the other two?

4. Most of the recent books about World War II focus on the horrors of the holocaust, and for good reason. Yet ordinary Germans also suffered, especially as the war neared the end. What was it like for the country as Nazism collapsed? Consider the population at large, but most particularly the women at Burg Lingenfels. How are the three of them luckier than most survivors?

5. What roles do hope…denial…and forgiveness play in this novel? Is Jessica Shattuck's book an attempt to somehow exonerate the citizens who supported Hitler's rise to power?

*6. What comparisons can you make between the politics of the 1930s/40s in Germany and those of today in the US?

*7. WWII has certainly been fodder for a lot of books and movies. What are you favorites about this topic? How does this book compare to those?

-Anne

Sunday Salon -- I am holding my head up

Weather: Rain. Pure and simple, it is raining outside. This past week, you may have heard of it on the news wherever you live, our region experienced a 'bomb cyclone.' Look it up. It is a real thing. It is like the equivalent of a cold water hurricane. It drags winds from the east into it and so the prevailing winds alter dramatically and trees and power lines topple to the ground. Our town was spared, thanks to Mt. Rainier. We live in her shadow and she nicely diverted the wind to the north or the south of us. That meant that places like Seattle and Bellevue (north) and Olympia (south) had a much worst impact than us. Whew!

Twitter (X) out, BlueSky in! I canceled my account on Twitter (X) and started an account on BlueSky. My handle is: @Headfullofbooks.  Twitter became too toxic for me with Elon Musk at the helm. BlueSky seems like it is a safer place for people like me who are still smarting from the election results. Follow the link to learn more, if you are interested.

Tipping my toe back into the political water as a resister: This week my book club discussed the book The Women in the Castle by Jessica Shattuck (My review is set to post on Nov. 29th) which is a novel about the wives of Nazi resisters during and after WWII. The parallels between Nazis in Germany and Trump's MAGA movement was hard to miss. To a person, every woman in the club discussion mentioned it, often without even mentioning Trump's name. I decided right then and there that I am going to be a resister. I have to stand up for what is right even if it is hard or maybe even dangerous.

Join me? What can we do:

1. Take care of yourself.
2. Let go of things you cannot change. 
3. Support people and organizations who are able to make a difference. Like the ACLU.
4. Fascism thrives on fear and isolation and despair. Fight that. Spread love.
5. Find a local group to connect with like-minded people. Meet in person. We need each other.
6. Limit your news consumption. 
7. Engage in small acts of resistance: Resistance doesn’t always have to be grand or overt. Small acts—such as supporting independent media, sharing truthful information, using art to critique power, or preserving banned cultural practices—can weaken autocratic power and inspire others to act.
8. Reach out to others who are more vulnerable than you. Ask how you can help.
9. Don't succumb to to cynicism or distrust.
10. Always tell the truth in kindness, and call out your own people when you hear lies or rude comments. We can't change them but we can change us!    (DKos)

Since my last Sunday post about self care: I have had many, many, many conversations with other women who are hurting just as much as I am about the election results and what we see happening already with the Trump cabinet appointees. Every conversation I've had has actually helped  and supported me. I encourage you to do the same. Seek others who are understanding and like-minded. Hold each other up!

Books. Books. Books: As I'm still limiting my news/opinion consumption, I have been busy reading and blogging these past two weeks---

• Read: 
• Buffalo Dreamer by Violet Duncan (Middle grades Novella)
• The Postman Always Rings Twice by James Cain (Novella and Classic Club Spin selection)
• How to Be Both by Ali Smith (Past Women's Prize)
• All Systems Red (Murderbot Diaries #1) by Martha Wells (Novella)
• The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy (Novella)
• The Turn of the Screw by Henry James (Novella)
• The Women in the Castle by Jessica Shattuck (Book Club)
• Whereabouts by Jhumpa Lahiri (Novella)
• Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption by Stephen King (Novella)
• House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday (Novella and Pulitzer)
• Modern Poetry by Diane Seuss (Poems)
• Blogging (hyperlinked):
• TTT -- Books With Place Names in the Title
• Novella reviews: Giovanni's Room; The Postman Always Rings Twice; The Death of Ivan Ilyich
• Novella reviews: Foster; All Systems Red; Buffalo Dreamer
• Review: Orbital
• TTT -- Books on my TBR with the oldest publishing dates
• Classic review: The Turn of the Screw
• Novella reviews: Whereabouts; Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption; A House Made of Dawn
• Classic review: A Death in the Family
• Review: The Women in the Castle (written but not posted yet)
• Current:
• Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson -- a novella set in Brooklyn. A coming-of-age story by a favorite author. Print. 36% complete.
• Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder by Salman Rushdie -- a short memoir by the famed author, written after he was attacked by a knife-wielding fanatic. Print. 10% complete. 
• A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf -- a famed essay by the classic author who penned this when asked to make a presentation about female writers. Print. 13%, but I am moving over to the audio format.
• Queued on audiobook for listening during car trip for Thanksgiving (Which will I listen to?):
• Of Mice and Men by Steinbeck
• Death at the Sign of the Rook by Atkinson
• Piranesi by Clarke
• Pedro Paramo by Rulfo
• The Portable Veblen by McKenzie
• A Room of One's Own by Woolf
• Playground by Richard Powers

Thanksgiving: We are heading south to Eugene, Oregon for a family Thanksgiving reunion, of sorts. I am looking forward to some solid family time!

-Anne

Classic Review: A DEATH IN THE FAMILY

A Death in the Family by James Agee was the 1958 Pulitzer Prize winning fiction book. Published after the author's death it is thought to be semi-autobiographical. This fact sort of haunted me as I read the book and still does one month later as I sit down to review it.

The story, A Death in the Family, is told from the perspective of Rufus Follett, a young school-aged boy of no more than six years. The year is 1915. The setting is Knoxville, Tennessee. A telephone call in the middle of the night wakes the small family of four. It is the father's brother, Ralph, calling Jay to tell him that their father is very ill, possibly dying. Jay makes the ominous decision to leave immediately, even though it is still the dark of night, to make the journey to attend to his own parent.  After a quick breakfast with his wife, Mary, Jay heads out with a promise he will return before the kids are in bed the next day. He never makes it home. Jay dies in a single car accident when some part of the steering mechanism breaks loose, killing him instantly in the ensuing crash.

The rest of the story takes place in the following hours and days after the death is discovered as the bereaved family copes with all the decisions of what to do with the body, where the funeral will be, and how to go on. By and large Rufus and his younger sister are shoved off to the side, as the adults gather round Mary to help her make decisions. But being told to sit down and be quiet doesn't help a child to understand what is happening and how to proceed from this step forward. Rufus is left in the dark, confused and afraid.

It is a heartbreaking story, one the author had to live himself. When he was six his beloved father died in a car accident. A year later he and his sister were both sent off to boarding schools. In one scene in the book, a Catholic priest comes to the house presumably to talk about the funeral, but the priest casts his unkind eyes on the children correcting them about some issue or another. I got the creepy feeling, perhaps unfounded, that this scene provided foreshadowing for what was ahead for the children -- parochial schools taught by unkind, judgmental teachers.

At another point in the book older children taunt young Rufus saying they heard the father (Jay) was drunk and that was why he was in the accident. Rufus tries to intervene on his own behalf saying it was the steering mechanism. But a memory intrudes. Rufus recalled a time when he was younger when he was taken by his father to a bar where his father tossed back several drinks and then told Rufus to never tell his mother where they went. In addition, the phone call from Ralph, which started the whole chain of deadly events, was probably precipitated because Ralph was drunk when he called. Alcohol was an issue in this family. The author never definitively discounts the story of driving drunk, which leaves it as an open question.

When I learned A Death in the Family was semi-autobiographical I did a little research on the author. Though James Agee was a modestly successful writer and a successful film critic, his personal life was a shambles. He died in 1955 from a heart attack, at age 45 years. He was a heavy smoker and an alcoholic. He had been working on this book for years, so his publisher was able to put the story together in some cohesive form and publish it posthumously. Clearly this publisher did a good job since the book won the Pulitzer Prize the next year and has not been out of print since then.

The tragic early death of James Agee got me thinking about events in life which abruptly change one's trajectory. A boy's father dies young and that boy's life spins off in a new direction, often untethered from the security that home and parents provide. We had such a tragedy in our family. A relative's daughter lost her husband in a tragic way. Her son was preschool aged at the time. I often worry about this boy. Can his mother and grandparents provide him with the stability he needs to keep him from spinning off in a new, possibly terrible, direction? I pray so.

Sometimes I marvel at the books still on high school reading lists after more than a half century. I don't wonder about A Death in the Family. There are so many themes that need to be probed: death, religious fanaticism, children as thinking/feeling beings, alcoholism, etc. It is not a cheery story but one certainly worthy of many good class discussions.

My rating: 4 stars.

-Anne

Novella Reviews: WHEREABOUTS; RITA HAYWORTH AND THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION; A HOUSE MADE OF DAWN

Whereabouts by Jhumpa Lahiri
Knopf, 2021. 157 pages.

The unnamed narrator of Whereabouts admits to having an unhappy childhood. This book, a sort of diary, may be the product of her work with a therapist who asks her after every session to name one happy thing in her life. In 46 brief chapters, or entries as I think of them, the narrator gives her impressions of the people and places she encounters in her unnamed Italian city. She is troubled by her unresolved feelings toward her dead father and her living but elderly mother who has always been so critical of her. She talks about friends and lovers with an arms-length of separation, never allowing herself the passion to really get  involved on a deep level. As the year progresses through the seasons, her entries become more and more melancholy until finally she hits upon a solution. The book ends as she prepares for a year-long journey to a new town, a fresh start.

I fell in love with Jhumpa Lahiri's Pulitzer Prize winning collection of short stories, The Interpreter of Maladies, when I read it a few years ago. This past week I decided to walk the bookshelves of the public library to see if I could locate any novellas for my November challenge. I picked books based on size alone until I got to Whereabouts. I knew I wanted to read more by this author. I learned from the book jacket this is Lahiri's first book written in Italian and the first full length novel she has translated into English. She lives in Italy now, after growing up in the USA, and the book had a very European feel to it which I appreciated so much. The writing was lovely. In the sample except, the narrator is thinking back to a time when she was on the beach, but unprepared for the sun. She ended up getting as close as she could to a woman who was casting a bit of a shadow for relief. Here she muses about shadows.

I've always felt in someone's shadow, even though I don't have to compare myself to brothers who are smarter, or sisters who are prettier. 

There is no escape from the shadows that mount, inexorably, in this darkening season. Nor can we escape the shadows our families cast. That said, there are times I miss the pleasant shade a companion might provide. (112)

I recommend the book for its writing but the melancholy of the narrator is so palpable I would warn off anyone feeling a bit blue themselves.

My rating: 4 stars.

Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption by Stephen King. Originally published in 1982 as part of the collection Different Seasons by Viking Press. In 2009 it was reprinted in another collection, Stephen King Goes to the Movies in 2009. The novella was published in 2020 by Scribner as a standalone book. 128 pages.

An unjustly imprisoned convict, Andy Dufresne, seeks a satisfying revenge in Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption.

Andy's story, as well as details about life behind bars, is narrated by Red Redding, a 57-year old convict, a lifer in Maine's Shawshank State Penitentiary. As a former bank executive Andy starts helping guards and prison administrators with their financial forms and issues. He even starts laundering money for one warden who is making a killing (pun intended) with kickbacks from the work done for the Inside-Out programs he has organized in the community, which is essentially providing slave labor from the inmates for projects. When a chance arises for Andy to have a new trial to exonerate himself, the warden sees to it that all of Andy's defense witnesses are out of commission. He doesn't want to lose his cash cow. Then Andy escapes.

I've seen the movie, Shawshank Redemption at least a dozen times and I never seem to get tired of it. If you live anywhere near a TV where old movies are run, you've probably seen it several times yourself. There are a few differences between the story and movie, however. In the book Red Redding is an Irishman with red hair. In the movie that role is played by Morgan Freeman, a Black man. I never wondered at the name Red before. Did you? My favorite scenes in the movie aren't in the book -- 1. When Andy locks himself in the warden's office and plays an opera song on the record player but blasts it out to the yard so the other prisoners hear it. 2. When Andy steals the warden's clothes and shoes so he has something good to wear when he escapes. He also doesn't get away with the laundered money and doesn't frame the warden in the book. Minor details. Lastly, Andy is imprisoned in Shawshank for thirty years before he escapes, making him in his 60s or 70s. In the movie the timeline is condensed.

Stephen King was at his best when writing Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption. It is generally considered to be one of his best works. It is quite different than his usual horror/terror novels, though it is exciting in its own way. If by chance you are part of the small minority who has never seen the movie, read the novella first, then watch the movie for comparison's sake. And what about Rita Hayworth in the title? What does this old-timey actress have to do with a prison escape story? Actually quite a bit. Read it and find out.

My rating: 4.75 stars.

House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday. 
Harper and Row, 1968. 212 pages.

A young man, Abel, returns home from a foreign war to the land of his Native father where one is always aware of the rhythms of the seasons and the beauty of nature. A life focused on the cultural traditions of his Native people and and of the ancient rites and stories passed down by generations. A life at odds with the rest of civilization -- modern and industrial. This life demands much from Abel and sets him at odds with himself. 

The book sounds great but, oh boy, it is confusing. It reminded me a little of Sherman Alexie's Flight: A Novel. In that book the main character, an Indigenous boy, experiences scenes from his tribe's history by time travel. The kid is messed up but the reader comes to understand why after experiencing the historical events with him. Abel, in House Made of Dawn, seems to be doing the same thing but there is no clear "now I'm time traveling" prompts to help the reader. And the divisions between stories about his life in the present tense (which was in the 1950s) and his visions of rites and stories just seem abrupt and jarring. So much so I contemplated not finishing the book. That was my plan until I ran across a review by Great Books Guy. His words, not Momaday's, kept me reading.

Structurally, House Made of Dawn is a highly fragmented, kaleidoscope of a novel that was initially conceived as a series of poems, but Momaday collected the poems and re-worked them into a novel, albeit a panoramic collection of stories and recollections. The book is also peppered with Kiowa legend and ritual, while the protagonist, Abel, comes to embody the tragedy of indigenous cultural loss. With House Made of Dawn, I was thankful for the opportunity to learn more about an indigenous tribe.

I mentioned Sherman Alexie as a Native writer, but Momaday came first, paving the way for many famous and important Indigenous writers of today. I also found it interesting that the book was originally conceived as a series of poems. Momaday wrote the novel after he had finished his course work for his Masters degree in poetry. He was trying a new thing out.

Great Books Guy goes on to analyze the book and concludes with this --

Throughout the novel, Abel is a scarred and wounded World War II veteran, seemingly unable to find a place to call home, an outsider everywhere he goes. His post-traumatic stress disorder is manifested in a blur of alcoholism, murder, suicide, and a pervasive sense of spiritual isolation. His character was an amalgamation of different individuals Momaday knew in the Jemez Pueblo. But by the end of the novel, Abel –divinely scorned– displays signs of returning to the traditional world of his ancestors, at least he is running at dawn again. Abel is a tragic character, unable to share in the post-war bounty enjoyed by his fellow veterans. He experiences the quiet cultural devastation of his people, the Kiowa, while stumbling into numerous personal pitfalls. In later reflections, Momaday said “Abel’s story is that of one man of one generation. It is otherwise a story of world war, of cultural conflict, and of psychic dislocation. And at last it is a story of the human condition.”

Thanks to this review I was able to appreciate the book much more and understand why it was selected as the 1969 Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction. Momaday was the first Native American to win the coveted award and only the second winner to write about the experiences of Native people in America at that time. Abel's story is the story of so many lost and discouraged people who need to find their way "home."

That said, I still would find it hard to recommend this book to anyone. It is just too confusing. 

My rating: 2.5 stars.

-Anne

Classic Review: THE TURN OF THE SCREW

Title: The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, published originally in a 12-part serialization in Collier's Weekly Magazine, 27 January- 16 April 1898.

Book Beginnings quote: 

The story has held us, round the fire, sufficiently breathless but except the obvious remark that it was gruesome,  as on Christmas Eve in an old house a strange tale should essentially be, I remember no comment uttered till somebody happened to note it as the only case he had met in which such a visitation had fallen on a child.

Friday56 quote: 

I remained a while at the top of the stair, but with effect presently of understanding that why my visitor had gone, he had gone; then I returned to my room.

From Collier's Weekly 1889. Illustration by Eric Pape. Where the governess sees the ghost on the stair.

Summary: A group of friends spend Christmas Eve telling ghost stories. Douglas assures the group he has a scarier tale. Days later he assembles the group again this time to read out the account written by a woman who lived the detailed experiences.

The woman was hired to be a governess of two children. Her employer wanted nothing to do with their upbringing and she was NOT to contact him at all about decisions concerning the children. When she arrived at the estate, the governess (unnamed) meets Flora, one of her young charges, and Mrs. Grose, the housekeeper. Flora is a beautiful, delightful girl. Days later her brother, Miles, returns home from boarding school but not before a letter arrives from the school stating that Miles has been expelled and will never be allowed back. The governess expects a hellion but finds Miles to be delightful also. Both children are so good, it strikes her as odd. Are they too good?

 Man on the turret.
Collier's Weekly, Illustration: Eric Pape.

One day the governess sees a man standing on the turret of the manor house. Later she sees the same man looking in the window. When she described him to Mrs. Grose, the older lady knew knew the man but said he was dead.  After several more encounters with this ghost and another female ghost, the governess is certain the children are aware of them and the ghosts are trying to make contact not with her but when the kids. After many attempts of trying to save the children, Flora and the housekeeper leave the manor for London, leaving the governess and Miles alone in the house. She is sure she can save Miles, but can she?

Review: Henry James, writing in the late 1890s, was famous for big novels which were studies in psychology where his characters pondered deeply about abstract ideas. He dealt with the interiority or the workings of people's minds. Some of his critics complained he wrote too well.  If one were to think back on his career they wouldn't automatically think horror or ghost stories, but here is The Turn of the Screw, one of the most terrifying ghost stories of all time. And also one which spawned generations of books and movies about creepy, terrifying children. I don't watch many horror movies but I am aware of a few involving creepy kids: Linda Blair in The Exorcist, the twins in The Shining, the devil boy in The Omen, Children of the Corn, etc. Beware of the children!

 

My husband and I listened to the audiobook together. I am one of those people who gets frightened by horror stories so listening while we were in the car, in the middle of the day worked fine for me. I was glad for the listening company since we were able to discuss the nuanced scenes which didn't make sense to us. Both of us felt like there were some hidden themes just below the obvious ghost story and the idea of good vs. evil. Repression was at play here, for sure. Was there references to incest? What was the governesses relationship with the employer? Was there a fall from grace? The book is definitely multi-layered and complex which has no doubt led to its popularity over time and its classification as a "classic." One reader told me she tries to read it every year. I understand why. There is so much to this tale, I am sure a rereading is in order, maybe two. I bet it won't be the same story second time around.

My rating: 4 stars.

Most editions of The Turn of the Screw are 100-130 pages in length. A perfect number of pages for a novella. The audiobook was 5 hours in length.

-Anne

TTT: Books on my TBR list with the earliest publishing dates

Top Ten Tuesday: 

Book on my TBR list with the earliest publishing dates.

The Iliad by Homer -- 801 C.E.

The Inferno by Dante Alighieri -- 1320 

Hamlet -- William Shakespeare -- 1601 

Candide by Voltaire -- 1759

The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales by Jacob Grimm -- 1812

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte -- 1848

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne -- 1850

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens -- 1850

Moby-Dick by Herman Melville -- 1851

North and South by Elizabeth Gaskill -- 1855

-Anne

Review: ORBITAL

Book: Orbital: a Novel by Samantha Harvey

Book Beginnings quote:  

Orbit minus 1: Rotating around the earth in their spacecraft they are so together, and so alone, that even their thoughts, their internal mythologies, at times convene.

Friday56 quote: 

Orbit 4, descending: Their hands are in sealed experiment boxes or assembling or disassembling ruggedised units or refilling the auto-release food pouches in the modules of mice, their feet in tethers at their work stations, their screwdrivers and spanners and scissors and pencils are drifting here and there about their head and shoulders, a pair of tweezers breaks loose and sails towards the air vents which, in their imperceptible sucking, are the resting place of all lost things.

Summary:

A slender novel of epic power, Orbital deftly snapshots one day in the lives of six women and men hurtling through space—not towards the moon or the vast unknown, but around our planet. Selected for one of the last space station missions of its kind before the program is dismantled, these astronauts and cosmonauts—from America, Russia, Italy, Britain, and Japan—have left their lives behind to travel at a speed of over seventeen thousand miles an hour as the earth reels below. We glimpse moments of their earthly lives through brief communications with family, their photos and talismans; we watch them whip up dehydrated meals, float in gravity-free sleep, and exercise in regimented routines to prevent atrophying muscles; we witness them form bonds that will stand between them and utter solitude. Most of all, we are with them as they behold and record their silent blue planet. Their experiences of sixteen sunrises and sunsets and the bright, blinking constellations of the galaxy are at once breathtakingly awesome and surprisingly intimate. So are the marks of civilization far below, encrusted on the planet on which we live (Publisher).

Review: Orbital is not my usual reading fare. I rarely read science fiction but if I do the setting is usually in another world or in a far off time. This novel is set on the International Space Station in current time. The astronauts on board are fictitious, or more correctly they are probably an amalgam of the 280 astronauts who have lived on or visited the station since its inception in 2000. When I began reading the book I kept wishing it was nonfiction. Though I've been aware of the I.S.S. since it first launched, I know very little about it. Here was my chance to learn more. But as I read on I realized that author Samantha Harvey did her homework. It was evident that she did her research about what life on the space station is like. The quote for Friday56 shows a bit of what I learned -- in order to stand at their work the astronauts have to put their feet in tethers; items not secured will float around and move toward the air vents. In another section I learned the astronauts sleep in a chamber about the size of a phone booth, loosely attached to the wall so they won't float off. One character said he slept like a bat, upside-down. There is no up or down in space. Their tours up in the space station usually last nine months. It is critical they take care to exercise every day so their muscles don't atrope. Keeping a healthy mind is vital. Isolation and detachment would so easily destroy a psyche.

As the space station rotates the earth sixteen times in one 24-hour period the astronauts spend a lot of time looking out the window at the beautiful planet we call home. Circling 250 miles above Earth, politics, pollution, and other human conditions are smoothed out. Here is where I think Harvey's story really shines -- Orbital becomes a meditation, a song for Mother Earth. Harvey also pans out and helps us view man's time on Earth. Starting billions of years ago, she looks at the cosmic calendar of the universe and life. If creation started on January 1st, life on Earth started on September 14th, the dinosaurs appeared on Christmas Day. "[M]id-afternoon on New Year's Eve [mammalian things] had evolved into their most opportunistic and crafty form, the igniters of fire, the hackers in stone, the worshippers of god, the tellers of time, the sailors of ships, the wearers of shoes, the traders of grain, the discoverers of lands..." (171). We, mankind, have been on earth for less than a cosmic day in this history of the universe and look at what we've done -- for good or for bad.

The International Space Station is getting old. Cracks are appearing that no amount of epoxy or duct tape can mend. It is likely that the current astronauts on the station right now will be its last inhabitants. Orbital is also an elegy to the station itself.

Orbital is remarkable and very memorable. It won the Booker Prize on Tuesday, which didn't surprise me at all. I agree with the Booker Prize Committee who said of Orbital it is a "beautiful, miraculous novel."

My rating: 4.75 stars. Why not five? It starts out a bit slow but after that it builds to a wonderful finale where the songs of the different planets in our galaxy are compared. On Earth, "a fumbled harmony takes shape. The sound of very far-off voices coming together in a choral mass, an angelic sustained note that expands through the static. You think it'll burst into song, the way the choral sound emerges full of intent, and this polished-bead planet sounds briefly so sweet" (207).

-Anne

Novella Reviews: FOSTER; BUFFALO DREAMER; ALL SYSTEMS RED

Foster by Claire Keegan. Grove Press 2010 and 2022. 92 pages.

A child is taken by her father to live with relatives in rural Ireland. She does not know if and when she will return home again. In the Kinsellas' house, she finds warmth, affection, and attention. All unknown by her heretofore. Under their care, the girl begins to blossom. But she also understands that there is something unspoken in this new home and the girl worries that she will be sent home if she ever discovers it.

This is the shortest novella I've read so far this month. At 92 pages in a little book, it read much more like a short story. But it was also the perfect length, telling a heartbreaking story about an unnamed girl who is left with strangers by parents who are too hassled to think much of her, to even care enough to tell her when she will return home.

The very first day, after her father leaves without so much as a goodbye, even forgetting to leave her clothes, Mrs. Kinsella gives the girl a bath. From her reaction one wonders if this is the first good hot bath she's ever had in her life. Later, as the girl and the woman walk to the well together she tries "to remember another time when I felt like this and am sad because I can't remember a time, and happy, too, because I cannot." Rather than feeling abandoned, the girls feels at ease all summer with the Kinsellas. One worries that the idyll of the summer will come to a crashing end. And indeed the girl is delivered home to her parents before the start of school. But not before she expresses her love by calling Mr. Kinsella "Daddy." Heartbreaking.

My rating: 5 stars.

Buffalo Dreamer by Violet Duncan. Nancy Paulsen Books, 2024. 128 pages.

Summer and her family always spend their summer vacations in Alberta, Canada on the reservation where her mother is from. This summer is eye-opening for this pre-teen girl. Even before they arrive on the reservation she starts having vivid dreams as if she is a girl escaping from an Indian residential school. After several of these types of dreams she finally consults with her mother and other elders and learns about her own grandfather's experiences with the residential schools where many of the native children didn't even survive. At one point during the big summer Pop-wow she meets a woman whose story matches the dreams. 

Buffalo Dreamer is based on the author's family story. It is an important story for all North Americans to hear and to appreciate, not just children and teens. Generational trauma is a real thing. Summer's grandfather was traumatized by his schooling experiences. That trauma affected him for the rest of his life. His family was also impacted. We don't have the right to say "That was ancient history. Get over it." I am glad this book was selected as a finalist for the 2024 National Book Award, Young People's Division. Hopefully the publicity which comes with the award process has and will increase readership. the target audience is middle grade students, grades 5-8.

My rating: 4 stars.

All Systems Red (Murderbot Diaries #1) by Martha Wells.
Tor.com. 2017. 160 pages.
Audible Audio by Recorded Books. 3 hours, 17 minutes.

All Systems Red is a the first book is a Sci-Fi series known as the Murderbot Diaries. In a world run by corporate interests, all exploration must be done for maximum profits. Even the security androids, required for all exploratory and scientific journeys, are made by the lowest bidders which means that parts fall apart quite often. When a team of scientists start their work on a distant planet they do not know their SecUnit has disabled his governor module, making the possibility of going rogue. This SecUnit calls himself Murderbot.  But this self-aware SecUnit isn't interested in going rogue he is interested in all the entertainment programs he has downloaded to his feed. He'd like nothing better than to be left alone with his shows. 

But when I neighboring scientific team goes silent, it is up to the scientists with the help of Murderbot, to figure out what is going on or they may become the next victims.

I have to confess how much I enjoyed this quick Sci-Fi adventure. My husband and I listened to the audiobook together. I was entertained and he was not. I think he had a hard time picturing the action and couldn't quite suspend his disbelief long enough to embrace the characters or appreciate the action.

In 2018 All Systems Red won both the Nebula and the Hugo Awards for best novella of the year.  

My rating: 3.5 stars. Don's rating: 2 stars.  

-Anne

Classic Novella Reviews: GIOVANNI'S ROOM; THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE; THE DEATH OF IVAN ILYICH

Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin

Dial Press, January 1956. 169 pages. Baldwin's first publisher, Knopf, rejected the book due to the theme of homosexuality.

I'm committed to reading novellas this November. I got a jump on it by reading Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin a few days early. What a heartbreaking story!

David, the main character and narrator of the story, is an expat living in France in the 1950s. He left the US for a variety of reasons, many related to his poor relationship with his father and what he saw in himself as a character flaw -- his desire to be with men. While in Paris he meets up with other expats and falls for an American girl, Hella. He asks her to marry him but she goes off to Spain to ponder the answer. While she is gone, David meets Giovanni is a bar and the two start a relationship, eventually moving in together. Even though David is living with Giovanni, he is conflicted about their relationship, convinced what they are doing is bad and wrong. To David's relief, Hella returns from Spain and accepts his offer of marriage. David's handling of the situation is evasive and destructive to all three people: Hella, Giovanni, and David. The novel ends on a note of resignation.

James Baldwin, as you may know, was a gay man who left the US for France in 1948. He was sure if he didn't leave the country he'd end up either killing himself, like a friend did, or in jail. Homosexuality was outlawed at the time in the US but not in France. Baldwin's own despair, loneliness, conflicted feelings populated this story. What should have been a joyous love story between David and Giovanni ended up being a curse. David's lack of self-acceptance condemned three people. While David's, and by extension James' stories were tragic, the writing was so beautiful. It reminded me a little of reading Lolita by Nabokov. The topic was one thing but the writing, oh the writing, was a whole other thing. 

Giovanni's Room is a tragic love story with no happy ending but it is also instructive. It reminds us that people, all people, deserve to love and be loved no matter who they choose.

My rating: 4 stars.

The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain

Knopf, 1934. 188 pages.

The Postman Always Rings Twice was both successful and notorious at the time of its publication in 1934. Thought to be a remarkable crime novel of the roman noir genre, it sold well and is now regarded as one of the best crime novels of the 20th century. It was, however, banned in Boston due to the sexuality and violence it portrays. It has been made into films seven times and is credited with inspiring Camus' The Stranger.

The story is narrated by Frank Chambers, a grifter, who stops at a diner in California and ends up working there. It is the Depression so jobs don't come along everyday. Frank is immediately attracted to the owner's wife, Cora. They start an illicit affair and scheme on how to murder her husband while making it look like an accident. It takes two tries but they pull it off. This, of course, makes both Cora and Frank suspects for murder. They get off on a technicality and honestly I wondered what the last half of the book had in store for the reader. A plot twist I didn't see coming is what.

Don and I listened to the audiobook together. As we finished this short book Don wondered aloud what the title meant, since there is no postman in the story. I guessed at an answer and, not satisfied, he looked it up. You know how easy it is to jump down rabbit holes on the Internet. I won't tell you the answer because that will give away the plot twist, but I will tell you the phrase "The postman always rings twice" originated when a fellow screenwriter, Vincent Lawrence, was commiserating with the author about the anxiety he felt while waiting for mail from the studios. He noted that the postman always rang twice to make sure someone heard. Look up how this relates to the story after you finish it.

The Postman Always Rings Twice is my Classics Club Spin #39 selection. I only listed classic novellas in my list of choices this fall since I am also participating in a novella challenge. 

My rating: 3.5 stars.  Don's rating: 4 stars.

  

The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy

First published in 1886 in Russian; first published in English in 1887 in a book in called My Husband and I; published alone as a novella in English in 1902. 86 pages.

Thought to be one of the finest novellas ever written, The Death of Ivan Ilyich was written shortly after Leo Tolstoy's conversion experience in the late 1870s. After that time this famous Russian author's writing seemed to focus more on the meaning of life and pondering some of life's big questions than before. In Ivan Ilyich, Tolstoy explores death. 

Ivan Ilyich is a man determined to make something of himself and is always striving for a better job posting where he makes more money. When he gets his last job, as a high-court judge, he decks out his house in a way that seems good and classy but it is really like everyone's home who is striving to live above their station. Keeping up appearances is very important to him. When he starts experiencing pain and an odd taste in his mouth, he consults a series of doctors trying to find the magic cure to what ails him. Instead of spending his remaining days with his family is loving communion, he is irritated by them, even thinking he hates his wife and daughter.

During his painful process of dying Ivan Ilyich doesn't think he deserves to die because he thinks of himself as a good person. Nothing and no one can help him feel better except a servant, Gerasim. He is the only person in Ivan's life who is not afraid of death and feels compassion toward his employer. Ivan comes to view Gerasim as living an authentic life whereas everyone else is living an artificial life. Once he makes this revelation, he is able to bless his son and forgive his wife and daughter. In the end death isn't the end but a moving into the light.

Today The Death of Ivan Ilyich is considered a medical humanities classic and is used by medical educators to highlight doctor-patient conversations and how one should be fully present with ill patients, especially those who are dying. It has been especially helpful for those professionals working in hospice care.

My husband and I listened to the audiobook together on a recent trip. He more than I, was swept up in the story and in Leo Tolstoy's writing. He reminded me of the lessons we learned from George Saunder's book, Swimming in the Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing. In his introduction to the book Saunders says all good writing addresses these four questions: 

How are we supposed to be living down here? 

What were we put here to accomplish? 

What should we value? 

What is truth, anyway, and how might we recognize it?"

Leo Tolstoy, one of the four Russians examined in Saunder's book, addresses all of these questions in spades. Perhaps this is why we are still reading it over 150 years later and still getting something out of it.

My rating: 4 stars; Don's rating: 5 stars.

-Anne