(Rain, rain, go away. Come again some other day.) Photo credit: LegendNation
Weather: RAIN. This past week we also had snow, hail, sleet, fog, sun, and more rain.
Cousin's Shower: My youngest cousin had a baby in November. All my attempts (more mental than anything) to get up to Seattle to meet and welcome Miss Zoe were for naught, so I organized a shower to meet and greet the latest member of our family. Yesterday four cousins, my aunt, my sister, my daughter and son-in-law came to our house for a baby shower. I am still basking in the glow of the event. It was so good to be together with family, especially since we rarely gather together, chatting and catching up on our lives. And of course, Miss Zoe, allowed us all to snuggle her a little bit. What a doll.
More visits for my 60 for my 60th: This was a busy week on my yearlong plan to reconnect with my friends and relatives: Cousin's Shower---four cousins, one aunt, one sister = six; coffee date with friend Margaret = one; dinner at a Mexican restaurant with my cousin's daughter and her husband = two. Total for the week = nine. My little plan is working out well.
Prayers for: My father and my brother. My dad is unwell. He has a mass in his abdomen, is experiencing pain, and no appetite. He has a CAT scan scheduled for Thursday. Prayers that they find an answer and some relief. My brother will be receiving his last melanoma treatment this week but he has also been unwell with chest congestion and a horrible cough. Prayers that he is well enough to get his last treatment and that he gains strength and lung function going forward.
Books completed this past week (a lot of poetry):
Selections from Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman...what can I say? I finally read at least some of this famous American poet's poems and enjoyed the experience. Check out my review by clicking the hyperlink. (Print)
Howl and other poems by Allen Ginsberg...what can I say? I finally read this famous poet's small volume of poems patterned after Whitman's and I admit it, I hated them. (Print)
A List of Cages by Robin Roe...my first potential Mock Printz book of the year and not a good starter for me. I sped-read through the middle of this very disturbing book about foster care, abuse, and neglect. But also about the power of friendship. I won't be recommending this book for our reading list. (E-Book)
Currently reading:
LaRose by Louise Erdrich...several generations of individuals with the name LaRose in a Native American community. Pretty complicated but it does provide a peek at what life is like on the reservation. I love this author. (Audio, 72%)
History is All You Left Me by Adam Silvera...another YA Mock Printz contender. (E-book, just starting)
Sad Animal Facts by Brooke Barker . Illustrated, silly book about animals. (Print, 11%)
So today is the day to discover what book I will be reading for the next six weeks and it is....
#12
The 12th book on my list is Tales of the South Pacific by James Michener.
Published in 1947 this is the book that launched Michener's career. He is a master storyteller. This book is set in the South Pacific during WWII and from it came the famous Broadway Show: "South Pacific." Tales of the South Pacific won the Pulitzer Prize in 1948. I've read at least one other book by Michener many years ago, Centennial, which was an epic tale almost starting at the beginning of time. I wonder if this book starts the same way? I don't have my own copy of the book so I will have to borrow it from the public library
In case you are playing along, consult your list. The book you will be reading is your 12th book on the list.
Book Beginnings on Friday is hosted by Rose City Reader. Share the opening quote from the book. The Friday 56 is hosted atFreda's Voice. Find a quote from page 56. Check out the links for the rules and for the posts of the participants each week. Participants don't
select their favorite, coolest, or most intellectual books, they just use the one they are currently reading. This is the book I'm reading right now--- Title:A List of Cages by Robin Roe Book Beginnings:
Julian: There is a room in this school that no one knows about but me. If I could teleport, I'd be there now. Maybe if I just concentrate----
Friday 56:
Adam: I've never been inside the ISS room, but I can already tell it's going to suck.
Comments: Julian's parents died in a car accident. Adam's mom fostered him until a relative could be found. Now can Adam save Julian from the hellish life Julian is living?
Walt Whitman, Library of Congress. Photo taken by George C Cox; restored by Adam Cuerden
Unbelievably, I am taking a maiden voyage. I am reading Selections from Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman for the first time. In my initial exploration of the slim volume of the Selections from Leaves of Grass that I have in my library I learned quite a bit, which made me even more determined to read it.
Walt Whitman is considered to be the first poet of democracy, or the first truly American poet whose voice is singularly American.
Harold Blood said, "If you are American, then Walt Whitman is your imaginative father and mother." He went on to say that of all the literary works we associate with America--- Huck Finn, Moby Dick, Emerson's Essays--- Leaves of Grass tops the list.
Whitman kept editing Leaves of Grass throughout his writing career and published nine editions of it. Each edition had different variations of poems. He didn't just keep adding and adding, he sometimes subtracted poems, too.
The influence of "Song of Myself", Whitman's most famous work, on American poetry is incalculable. "The poet insists that 'every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you'—words that have inspired countless poets to map new worlds. Indeed it is hard to imagine William Carlos Williams discovering “the pure products of America,” Theodore Roethke undertaking “the long journey out of the self,” or Allen Ginsburg writing “Howl” absent Whitman...We all live under the gaze of that pioneer who counsels us, in the final lines of “Song of Myself,” to look for him under our boot-soles."---Univ. of Iowa
"Song of Myself" has 52 numbered sections. One per week of the year? Even though it got longer with the different editions, and renamed, it is still a marvel and was thought so from its first printing onward. The version I am reading is unnumbered and not sectioned, so I believe it to be the original 1855 edition.
The poem "Song of Myself" is so long it can't be easily summarized but suffice it to say that what, at first glance, appears to be a very self-centered poem is actually the opposite. As it says in the first stanza, "For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you." Whitman seems to love everything and everybody except those who are judgmental or preachy. Seems like a good message for today's politics.
Henry Canby, who wrote the biographical notes on one of the editions of Leaves of Grass said, "nobody ever read or should attempt to read Leaves of Grass cover to cover." Good. I will have an excuse to take my time.
Favorite lines from "Song of Myself:"
lI celebrate myself, and sing myself, And what I assume you shall assume, For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.
lThere was never any more inception than there is now,
Not any more youth or age than there is now,
lI believe in you my soul...
lI resist any thing better than my own diversity,
Breathe the air but leave plenty after me... lI exist as I am, that is enough, If no other in the world be aware I sit content... lWhoever degrades another degrades me, And whatever is done or said returns at last to me.
lThe clock indicates the moment --- but what does eternity indicate?
"O Captain, My Captain" Goes to show how little I know. I had no idea that this poem, a favorite of mine since the movie Dead Poet Society came out, was written by Whitman after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. The poem was embraced by the American public as soon as it was published for good reason. Reread it and you will see what I mean. Everyone in the country is celebrating because the battle is over and the victory is secured, but the captain lays dead. How can they celebrate?
Exult O shores, and ring O bells!
But I with mournful tread,
Walk the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
"I Sing the Body Electric" Well here is another Whitman poem I recognize by title. But when I went searching for some audio version, I ran into this, from the 1980s movie, Fame. The title of the song is just about all that is borrowed from this poem. I did enjoy listening to the song, so thought I'd give you the chance to listen and watch, too, this blast from the past.
"Crossing Brooklyn Ferry" When Whitman first published Leaves of Grass some people considered it obscene since some of the poems contain quite frank lines about our bodies and sexuality. By today's standards, of course, they are quite tame. Here is a line I found tucked in this poem, "About my body for me, and your body for you, be hung our divinest aromas." It speaks to me of the mysteries of knowing another person fully.
"Song of the Open Road". Years ago, when I was a classroom teacher and taught Sociology my students and I would explore the theme of cultural literacy, or being able to understand and participate in one's culture fluently. I would then send out my students and have them interview teachers, parents, grandparents about what they thought every American should know to be culturally literate. When we convened we would compile and discuss our lists. Usually our lists contained things like knowing the rules to baseball; the words to the National Anthem and the Pledge of Allegiance; nuanced things like which side of the stairs to walk up/down, etc. Apparently, however, it never occurred to anyone, including me, that Whitman should be included on the list. I'm bumping into lines in his poems which I seem to know by heart, without even knowing how I know them or knowing that he wrote them. Case in point are the opening lines to this poem, "Song of the Open Road",
Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road,
Healthy, free, the world before me,
The long brown path before me leading wherever I choose.
"Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking". Here is another thing I just discovered. I know the titles of many of Whitman's poems, once again not knowing that they were his, like the title of this poem. Don't these titles just roll off your tongue? "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking"; "Song of the Open Road"; "I Sing the Body Electric"; "I Saw in Louisiana a Live-Oak Growing." The titles alone invite the reader in. Now granted, all the 52 (there's that number again!) poems in this slim volume don't have wonderful, catching titles, but many, possibly most, do.
Selections from Leaves of Grass, the edition I hold in my hands right now, is one of the Walt Whitman poetry books in the GKHS library. It is a slim, plain volume weighing in at 109 pages. It was published in 1961. Apparently, book font styles were very different in past decades. Even though the book is short, the font is small and the text cramped. For the longer poems like "Song of Myself" and "Song of the Open Road" I found myself searching on the the Internet for copies of the poem which were easier to read. I liked those I found on The Poetry Foundation the best. I'm sure you agree. Font size and style really do make a difference for reading enjoyment.
Death is a theme I see repeated in Whitman's poems but he doesn't get all morose or creepy as he describes it. In fact in several poems, one gets the impression that he welcomes it or at least likes it.
"When Lilacs in the Dooryard Bloom'd" is an elegy to Abraham Lincoln after he was assassinated in 1865. In this poem he uses a lovely and comforting metaphor for death---"a dark mother as gliding near with soft feet." The poem "Scented Herbage of My Breast" seems to be all about death and being buried with lines like this that evoke a very natural order of things---"Tomb-leaves, body-leaves growing up above me above death..." In the poem "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking", where a boy (Whitman) is awakened to poetry through nature because he observes and then hears the lovely and heart-rending lament of a sparrow who is mourning the loss of his mate. O past! O happy life! O songs of Joy! In the air, in the woods, over field, Loved! loved! loved! loved! loved! But my mate no more, no more with me! We two together no more.
Favorites. It seems that everyone has a Whitman favorite. I think my favorite is "O Captain, My Captain.", but now that I've read this volume full of other favorites I think I may change my mind. I'll let them simmer a few more days before I decide for sure. What about you? What is your favorite Whitman poem?
"Says" is the last poem in this collection. In this poem Whitman seems to be giving us all advice. Here are a few of the gems he leaves us with: l"I say nourish a great intellect, a great brain;" l"I say man shall not hold property in man; I say the least developed person on earth is just as important and sacred to himself or herself, as the most developed person is to himself or herself." l"...anything is most beautiful without ornament," l"I say that every single right, in politics or what-not, shall be eligible to that one man or woman, on the same terms as any." I like that last thought so much I highlighted it. Whitman was truly a great poet and I'll claim him as my "imaginative father." Thanks for sticking with me, dear reader. This is a log post and you deserve credit for reading to the end.
Edition: Whitman, Walt. Selections from Leaves of Grass. Avenel Press. New York. 1961. Print. -Anne
Lily and the Octopus is a love story between a man and his dog. Ted is a lonely writer. Lily is his aged dachshund. Lily, is 12.5 years old and is nearing the end of her life. Ted is completely unprepared to let her go. As any pet owner knows, we usually outlive our pets but that doesn't make their passing any less painful and heart-wrenching.
So from the outset the reader knows this book is going to pull at one's heart-strings, except for one little detail---the octopus. It is the octopus that causes this book to veer off into unexpected places.
Ted, who recently ended a long-term relationship with Jeffrey, lavishes his love and attention on his dog. They even spend special nights together. Thursday is the night they talk about cute boys; Fridays is pizza night; another night is Monopoly night. It is on a Thursday night when Ted first notices the octopus attached firmly onto Lily's head. For the rest of the novel Ted cannot bring himself to name the actual thing on Lily's head and he calls it an octopus, an evil sea-creature who is taking over his beloved pet. His best friend, Trevor, and his therapist, to placate Ted, call it an octopus, too, so his delusions are confirmed as reality.
Ted and Lily carry on conversations, when other people aren't around, of course. The octopus talks, too. But Lily's voice is very unique and rather barking-like. After licking tears off Ted's face she says. “THIS! EYE! RAIN! YOU! MAKE! IS! FANTASTIC! I! LOVE! THE! SALTY! TASTE! YOU! SHOULD! MAKE! THIS! EVERY! DAY!”
The book becomes a bit silly and tedious as Ted steadfastly insists that the octopus is real and he attempts to scare it, so it will leave Lily alone. In fact, at one point in the story the plot becomes almost magical realism when he and Lily go on an adventure to hunt the octopus on an improbable sea journey. But with all good magical realism the plot allows the reader to finally decide, once and for all, that the details stand for something else. In this case, Ted may temporarily be mentally ill due to his grief and his loneliness. Maybe you've been there once or twice. I know I have.
This book may be silly, often farcical, but it also perfectly captures the exquisite love we have for our dogs.
Muffy, Summer 2015
As I read Lily and the Octopus I couldn't help making comparisons with my dog, Muffy. The two dogs have a lot in common. Both dogs are twelve. Both are long bodied, short-legged. Lily is a Dachshund, Muffy is a Welsh Corgi. Lily and Muffy both had to have an operation for a ruptured disk in their spine. We both paid exorbitant amounts of money for the surgeries. Muffy was treated at an emergency clinic based on a referral from our veterinarian. We had a hard time finding the clinic as it was in an unfamiliar part of town. Ted also had a hard time finding the clinic with Lily. Lily has a red ball that she loves to distraction. Muffy is the same way about our laser pointer. There is no talking to her when she is under the spell of the pointer. Both dogs are big pigs and love a variety of human foods. Ha! Lily has a tumor that Ted calls an octopus. Muffy has a tumor which we call a tumor. In fact, we just talked last night about when/if we should bother having it cut off again. The vet told us it would return and will return again even if we have it cut off. At what point do we say enough is enough? Ted got to that point. I'm afraid we'll be there soon.
I want to warn you. If you love your dog, you will cry when you read Lily and the Octopus. But don't avoid it for that reason. It will break your heart but will also stitch back together again. It is worth the pain. Believe me.
The Classics Club is sponsoring a SPIN again. It is the 15th spin they have sponsored.
What is the spin?
It’s easy. Before next Friday, March 10th, create a list of any twenty classic books that remain “to be read” on your list.
This is your Spin List. You have to read one of these twenty books in March and April. Try to challenge yourself. For example, you could list five classic books you are dreading/hesitant to read, five you can’t WAIT to read, five you are neutral about, and five free choice (favorite author, re-reads, ancients — whatever you choose.)
On Friday, C.C. will post a number from 1 through 20. The challenge is to read whatever book falls under that number on your Spin List, by May 1, 2017. C. C. will check in May to see who made it the whole way and finished their spin book!
Join me. Create your own list. Or read along with me. I'm really hoping for a short one this time but with my luck, the winner will be the longest book on the list. Here's my list for this, the 15th Spin event on Classics Club.
(And thanks to CC for organizing this. I have been a pest to get another SPIN going. I know.)
Weather: It was cold with blue skies this morning but it has clouded over. Our hilarious new weather person on the local news warns us that snow is coming. There was evidence that it snowed a few flakes this morning before I woke up so maybe that is what she was predicting. How really knows?
I'm listening to: La La Land soundtrack. Cue the YouTube video for highlights of the music from the movie. The photo doesn't change except to name the songs, so listen while you read this blog. Enjoy. I am.
Good news: We are going to be grandparents. Our daughter Rita and son-in-law are expecting their first baby in September. We've known for a while but had a gag order put on us, allowing them time to tell in their own way. Now everyone is buzzing about the news! We are so thrilled. This week we even saw an ultrasound video of our grandchild. He/she had hiccups. We're in love already.
Slow days at school: Allowed me and my clerk to catch up on tasks which we have had on the back burner for a while. Which means I started library inventory (30% completed), we ran down all the students whose accounts had errors on them, sent out overdue notices, and attempted an organization project which isn't working out correctly. It will need more work to get it right but we are on the way to a more organized filing system.
Jane Austen week: for the past nine years I have set aside a week in the library to celebrate the genius of Jane Austen. I show a JA movie, have trivia, prizes, food for participants. I've done a rotten job of keeping track of the movies I have shown for previous years. I don't want to repeat so I need at least a four year rotation. Some of the movies are too long to show in five lunches of approximately 25 minutes (Sense and Sensibility and Emma) and one just doesn't lend itself to riveting viewing unless the viewer is already familiar with the story (Persuasion.) That leaves Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Northanger Abbey, and Becoming Jane Austen (starring Ann Hathaway.) I thought this year I would go off the track a bit and show the Bollywood version or one of the spin-offs like "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies." But I haven't seen it. Would it be school appropriate? Then I remembered that Lady Susan Jane Austen's novella was made into a film this last year called "Love and Friendship." I had high hopes but alas, after viewing it last night there is no way it would hold the attention of high school students for a week of lunches. It is terribly confusing. Even though Kate Beckinsale is in it, I don't recommend it. I think I am back to my original rotation. This year, I believe it is Pride and Prejudice's turn. Ah well, students love it and know it. Now to schedule a start date.
88 Books/Essays That Shaped America: I just stumbled upon this list compiled by the Library of Congress of books which have helped shape America. Before you click the link try to think of what titles do you think are on the list? I guessed only a few and have only read 25 of them, 26 if you count part of the dictionary listed. Click on the link for the list at Library of Congress.
Is my reading Mojo back? Books completed this week:
The War With These Walls by Aline Sax...a partially illustrated account of the Jewish experience during WWII in Poland and the Warsaw Ghetto. It was really well done. Print.
Love Warrior by Glennon Doyle Melton...a memoir about learning to love self and accept pain as a part of life, not something to be avoided, but embraced for its lessons. It is very powerful and I hope everyone reads it. Print. Click on the link for my review.
Lily and the Octopus by Steven Rawling...a love story of a man and his dog, Lily, who is coming to the end of her life. Funny, stupid, and touching by turn. Audio.
A lot of books came in from the library Overdrive account this week. Since I am on a time limit on these books/audiobooks, I am placing these two books on the back burner for a few weeks since I own them or got them from my library (where I can renew them without penalty!)
If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo @18%
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi @15%
Books/Audiobooks I got from Overdrive this week:
LaRose by Louise Erdrich...an audiobook about two families wrapped up in a tragedy which profoundly affects both of them. Audiobook. 10%
Lab Girl by Hope Jahren...a memoir about a gal who loves science. Audiobook
History is All You Left Me by Adam Silvera...a YA book with plenty of starred reviews making it qualified for Mock Printz 2018. E-Book.
A List of Cages by Robin Roe. Another Mock Printz potential YA novel. E-book.
60 for my 60th: I had one more event to add to my attempt to do something with 60 of my frineds this, my 60th year. This time I went to lunch with two friends, Roxanne and Jane Ann. Thanks gals. I loved the visit. This brings my total up to eight. I also have scheduled four more events for the future: a walk with a friend around Chamber's Bay Golf Course; a friend from Singapore will be stateside the end of the month so we are planning a long walk and visit, a cake-baking lesson with a frined who has mastered the art, and finally dinner out with a couple. Thanks friends for your willingness to join in my celebration.
Lent: for the forty days of Lent I plan to pray a psalm a day and read a daily devotion from my favorite devotional: My Utmost for His Highest by Chambers.
Lastly, a question: Are there any good, honest Republican's in the white house or legislature? Honestly. This week has been mystifying to me. How can the republicans in Congress support the President and his nonsense? The President spent yesterday tweeting about his outrage over Obama wiretapping Trump Tower during the campaign. Obama denied it. Everyone went spinning out of control. Today we learned that Trump got the wiretapping news from Brietbart news and the man who started the rumor admitted that he didn't have any evidence that Obama did that, he just thinks it is true. Inane nonsense.
Wow. I just the read the most important book I'll read all year. I am sure of it.
Love Warrior by Glennon Doyle Melton starts off like all/most memoirs---"Here is my life laid open for you to see the mess I've made of it,"---but it ends with life-changing insights about our true selves, love, God, beauty, marriage, raising children, church, breathing. No wonder Oprah picked it up as her latest Oprah Book Club 2.0 selection.
Glennon Doyle Melton felt like a pretty little girl until she was ten years old. When she started her growth spurt at adolescence she stopped feeling pretty. In order to numb the pain of this disappointment she started to binge on food and then purging (bulimia.) Later, she did the same thing with alcohol and drugs. She thought she was broken, a person who couldn't handle pain. Her first crisis in life came at age 26 when she was learned she was pregnant while she was wasted, sitting on the floor of the bathroom. She used this crisis to get herself the help she needed to stop drinking/drugging. She married the father of her baby, Craig, and thought now life would be perfect. It wasn't. As a stay-at-home mom with three children, she often felt like her life was a sham. One day, while attending a therapy session with her husband, he revealed he had been sexually unfaithful to her, that he was a sex addict. Enter crisis number two.
Now Glennon has to get down to the hard, hard work of learning to love and cherish herself so she can determine if the marriage can be saved or not. But more importantly if she is willing to unlearn all the lessons she has learned in her life up to that point about the way that women are supposed to behave in our society. Eventually she feels like she has been stripped naked and what remains in faith, love, and hope. Sounds like I Corinthians 13, doesn't it? She allows herself to be vulnerable enough to be open to the "teacher" when she appears and to pay attention to the lessons she provides.
These life lessons Glennon shares in the last 50+ pages of the book. So many of them I need to learn myself. I want to copy down all the quotes, the paragraphs, the chapters and carry them around with me so I too will be open when the teacher appears to help me. I want this for all mankind, especially those in my family who are hurting in their own ways. Life changing.
The following is for me, but you can read it if you want, as a guide to help me find those special parts of book I may want to look back on later.
Lessons gained during hot yoga where she learned about the Journey of the Warrior and realized she was a warrior, a love warrior. Pages 196-206.
Feeding ourselves; giving ourselves what we need---not too much or too little. Pages 207-208.
Breathing exercise which leads to revelation that "I'm loved just as I am," and that God is not defined by human limitations. Pages 214-217.
"You are not what you have done", a paragraph that could be a healing salve in a relationship in trouble. Page 218.
Grace from God makes no disclaimer. It is for all or none. Page 218.
God created women as a Warrior (Ezer). We no longer need to look for heroes in our life, we can be our own hero because we are warriors. Page 222-223.
A church which welcomes all, where the minister declares he not here to add barriers between God and people; he's here to remove them. Pages 228-30.
Glennon's message to children about God. Pages 231-2.
Our lives as a triangle---body, mind, spirit. All parts need to be healed for our wholeness. Page 233.
Listening to the teacher to take care of ourselves. Page 236-39.
Talking to children about what it means to be "sexy" defined as true beauty, loving slef and radiating beauty for within, not attempting to reflect what the world thinks women should look like. Pages 252-4
Saying sorry to the body. It is almost a prayer. Page 256.
"Marks of the Warrior. There's nothing here but what nature insists upon. This is me. Naked, unashamed, stripped down to my barest essentials. Just me. Just me is all I'll ever offer anyone." -pg 257.
Rating 4.75 out of 5 (the middle part is pretty upsetting, so couldn't give the book a clear 5 star rating.)
Book obtained from the public library, but now I need to purchase my own copy of the book so I can highlight sections.
Book Beginnings on Friday is hosted by Rose City Reader. Share the opening quote from the book. The Friday 56 is hosted atFreda's Voice. Find a quote from page 56. Check out the links for the rules and for the posts of the participants each week. Participants don't
select their favorite, coolest, or most intellectual books, they just use the one they are currently reading. This is the book I'm reading right now---
Title:Love Warrior by Glennon Doyle Melton Book Beginnings:
I was loved. If love could prevent pain, I'd never have suffered.
Friday 56:
The priest is watching me shake and I know he's thinking that I'm some sort of junkie, and I am, but I'm also just cold.
Comment: Love Warrior is a memoir by Glennon, a bulimic-alcoholic. It is about love and loneliness, family, and getting well.
Last week for book club I walked in the door with the next month's tub of books, The Narrow Road to the Deep North. I had started the audio version of the book earlier in the week so my arrival came with a few thoughts/worries about it. To say that the book is INTENSE is an understatement. It is also crass, horrifying, and agonizing.
Unbelievably The Narrow Road to the Deep North is also a love story, which is surprising since the majority of it is set in the middle of a horrific war. The central topic of the story is the Death Railroad built in Burma (Thailand) by thousands of POWs for the Japanese during WWII. The workers were Asian and Allied prisoners. Most were starved, denied medical attention, and beaten by their captors. Of the 200,000 prisoners slaving on this project, over a third of them died, and died horrible deaths. Flanagan was relentless in his descriptions of the horrors endured by the prisoners as their bodies wore away from lack of food, diseases, and infections.
The book's protagonist, Dorrigo Evans, feels like anything but a hero. He is a medical officer in the Australian army and leadership of the ragtag group of P.O.W.s falls to him when they are captured in Singapore and sent to work on the railroad. Every morning he has to make decisions about which of his soldiers must march to work on the railroad and who are so sick they must stay behind. Every day he tries to provide medical care without medicine or supplies. The deaths of his soldiers haunt him for the rest of his life. Flanagan's descriptions of the men and their maladies are horrifying and sickening. This example is representative of the descriptions. If you have a weak stomach, skip over it. "A severe, untreated ulcer left a thin strip of intact skin down the outer side of the calf, the rest of the leg being a huge ulcer from which poured offensive, greyish pus. "
When the surviving soldiers returned home to Australia no one at home wanted to hear about their horrendous experiences as captives. The public wanted to celebrate the end of war with stories of the triumph not be weighed down with depressing tales of defeat and loss. The men, then, were left to suffer in silence, or on the rare occasions they could talk to one another. Unlike today's soldiers who come home from battle with acknowledged PTSD, these soldiers had to fend for themselves without help from mental health specialist. Most drank heavily, many had anger issues, some even committed suicide. The memory of their experiences during their war years preyed upon them to their graves.
Based on the above summary I doubt anyone would ever want to even start this book, and I'm afraid that is where many of the gals in my book club are right now as they are starting the book. It begins so confusing, jumping back and forth from all periods of Dorrigo Evans' life. Until the reader starts to understand the whole story, it just seems confusing. But by the end of the book, when all the pieces come together the reader will recognize the brilliance of the writer. The ending is possibly one of the most perfect finales I've ever read in a book. Unfortunately, I am afraid, my book club friends may not make it to the end before they abandon it. That will be a pity, but one I will understand.
I've been pondering the title, The Narrow Road to the Deep North, and I finally stumbled upon an attribution. It is from a 17th century haiku poem by Basho. In addition to the focus on the events that happen during the war, we also see what happens to not only the Australians but also their Japanese captors after the war ends. Some Japanese poets in the past made a point of writing one last poem right before they died. Perhaps the inclusion of a haiku as a title brings the story around full circle.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Version: Audiobook checked out from the public library. The voice actor, David Atlas, is Australian. His reading enhanced to my listening experience.
