I initially came upon this collection of stories at Borders, where it was on a shelf next to 'Eat, Pray, Love' in a display of if-you-like-this, you-will-also-like-this' books. Since I very much liked Eat, Pray, Love, I did what I typically do at Borders; I got out a piece of paper and wrote it down along with Lahiri's name to order from the library. (Hey, I read a LOT, and I'm not made of money.) After reading both, I am not sure why it was placed in that particular display, since they are really nothing at all alike, but I am glad that they were, because I might never have found it otherwise.
While I had never heard of Lahiri before picking up Unaccustomed Earth, it turns out that she has had a very illustrious writing career thus far, winning a Pulitzer, the PEN/Hemingway award, and having pieces selected for various prize recognitions from the New York Times, LA Times, Entertainment Weekly, and USA Today.
It was immediately clear to me why she has won so much recognition. Her stories are simply captivating. I do not choose the word 'simply' by chance; they *are* simple, beautiful, complex, and understated. If you are a skimmer, as I sometimes am, you will miss subtle breaths that form the living soul of the characters. This is important, because while typically major plot points are not conveyed in this manner, the almost silent information that is slipped in those lines is what gives the characters their startling ability to extend beyond the pages, and in fact since the stories themselves rarely involve an Ending for the characters, it is easy to believe that they are actually out there, these people who are too real to be mere figments of Lahiri's imagination.
Like Lahiri herself, all of her main characters are Indian, and the essence of Indian culture as well as the struggle of integrating and continuing - or not continuing - that culture across oceans and generations is a major component of the tales she tells, although it is never the main focus. What she spotlights instead are issues everyone faces, such as caring for aging parents, death, love, growing up, alcoholism, and marriages lagging under the weight of parenthood, which are told through the lens of people who have the feeling of being not wholly one culture or another.
While the first two-thirds of the collecton is taken up with several shorter stories, the final third is given entirely to two individuals who met as children when one child's parents allow the other's family to stay with them during a relocation from India to Massachusettes. The story gives the two, a man and a woman, equal time, both while they are living together as children and over several short periods as they become adults, examining them finally as they again come together when they near middle age, this time as lovers. The resolution of this particular story literally took my breath. I sat and stared at the page, rereading the final paragraphs two, and then three, times, while my mind absorbed the contents. I am still thinking about it.
I love, love, loved this book. I will definitely be searching for her others.
Rating: Five out of five stars. A definite read.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
I Feel Bad About My Neck (And Other Thoughts About Being A Woman), By Nora Ephron
Nora Ephron.... Nora Ephron... where do you know that name from? It sounds familiar...
Remember a few films called You've Got Mail?, Sleepless in Seattle, and When Harry Met Sally? She was behind all of them. (Come to think of it, she's responsible for about half of Meg Ryan's career!)
I Feel Bad About My Neck... is a collection of various essays she's written over the years for various other publications, and they have the same distinctive tone as her films: quiet, amusing while not usually laugh-out-loud, and easygoing. While this made for a vanilla-colored read, it was also a pleasurable and relaxing one that simultaneously took my mind off of any concerns without stirring up any additional stressors. In fact, one of the things I specifically like about collections like this is that they are easy to put down, but also easy to pick right back up.
Ephron's book opens with the title essay, and discusses the full littany of biological woes that come with aging, albeit in a much more humerous and affectionate way than my Great-Aunt Jane did at our Thanksgiving table one memorable year. In fact, affection is a theme that binds the essays together. She discusses her love affair with various cookbooks and chefs, her three marriages, even penning an ode to her former apartment building, with the emotion and self-depreciation that are prominent in her films. Even political relationships are touched upon with a light and tickling pen, not a heavy quill, and she avoids current events entirely, instead focusing on her jilted-lover feelings for Bill Clinton, and her status as the only JFK White House intern to not have had a fling with the king of Camelot. In this election year, her restraint was more than refreshing.
All in all, this was worth a check-out at the local library. It is not something I would refer to time and time again, so I wouldn't recommend a purchase on this one, but if you need to unwind before bed, or if you're hiding in the bathroom from your kids, spending five minutes with Ephron will be an updated form of Calgon. Heck, it's not like many of us are alone in the bathroom, anyway, so you might as well bring someone that will make you smile, and not make comments.
Rating: Three stars out of five: a quick and pleasant jaunt into non-controversial fluffiness
Remember a few films called You've Got Mail?, Sleepless in Seattle, and When Harry Met Sally? She was behind all of them. (Come to think of it, she's responsible for about half of Meg Ryan's career!)
I Feel Bad About My Neck... is a collection of various essays she's written over the years for various other publications, and they have the same distinctive tone as her films: quiet, amusing while not usually laugh-out-loud, and easygoing. While this made for a vanilla-colored read, it was also a pleasurable and relaxing one that simultaneously took my mind off of any concerns without stirring up any additional stressors. In fact, one of the things I specifically like about collections like this is that they are easy to put down, but also easy to pick right back up.
Ephron's book opens with the title essay, and discusses the full littany of biological woes that come with aging, albeit in a much more humerous and affectionate way than my Great-Aunt Jane did at our Thanksgiving table one memorable year. In fact, affection is a theme that binds the essays together. She discusses her love affair with various cookbooks and chefs, her three marriages, even penning an ode to her former apartment building, with the emotion and self-depreciation that are prominent in her films. Even political relationships are touched upon with a light and tickling pen, not a heavy quill, and she avoids current events entirely, instead focusing on her jilted-lover feelings for Bill Clinton, and her status as the only JFK White House intern to not have had a fling with the king of Camelot. In this election year, her restraint was more than refreshing.
All in all, this was worth a check-out at the local library. It is not something I would refer to time and time again, so I wouldn't recommend a purchase on this one, but if you need to unwind before bed, or if you're hiding in the bathroom from your kids, spending five minutes with Ephron will be an updated form of Calgon. Heck, it's not like many of us are alone in the bathroom, anyway, so you might as well bring someone that will make you smile, and not make comments.
Rating: Three stars out of five: a quick and pleasant jaunt into non-controversial fluffiness
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
I Sleep At Red Lights: A True Story of Life After Triplets, by Bruce Stockler
I have to preface this review by saying that I do not have multiples myself, so my reading of this book was purely for giggles and not out of any need or ability to commiserate with the author.
To dispense with the immediate question on everyone's mind, Stockler, a magazine editor, and his wife, Roni, a high-powered attorney in New York City, became pregnant with triplets on a final, last-ditch attempt at IVF, in an effort to give their young son a sibling. They are shell-shocked at the news that they will have triplets, and spend the next nine months in denial about their situation. They make no plans for the care of the babies, down to not having diapers or anywhere for the babies to sleep, the entire time Roni is pregnant, even though she is on bedrest for the last few months of the pregnancy and, frankly, had nothing but time on her hands to plan. Unfortunately, this sets the tone for their entire lives; they are unprepared mentally, emotionally, and financially to deal with the situation they have created.
I have no idea how this family has even managed to stay together, to be honest with you. At least half of the book is devoted to describing how their marriage began as the 'wrong people who got together for the wrong reasons', and detailing their fights. From the account given here, Stockler has a good relationship with his sons, and their nanny. If I were his wife, I'd watch out for that. Add to this Roni's complete unavailability, both as a wife and parent (due to her determination to be partner in her law firm, she is gone sixteen hours a day, minimum, works weekends and holidays, and refused to get up at night with the children, ever), Stockler's repeatedly acknowledged lack of attachment to one of the triplets, Hannah (because she is a girl), and their inability to even deal with the mail (which they simply throw into boxes in the basement rather than paying the bills). He also spent a great deal of time grousing about finances, but it was difficult to feel sorry for them due to things like their employ of an all-encompassing nanny who, for the first five weeks of the babies' lives, cooked their meals and did their laundry in addition to doing all the feedings. Granted, they did not pay for this entirely by themselves, but the fact that they had her at all, plus their regular full-time nanny, speaks of people who are in no position to feel sorry for themselves. Lawyers and magazine editors do not get to whine about money.
While at first the story was interesting, the memoir became stale as the triplets became older and the initial zaniness of the situation wore off. The editing is poor, and as a result the book contains multiple passages containing the same material along with various awkwardly-written segments; I would have hoped for better from a (former - he was fired from his magazine job) big-time editor. Most disappointing, however, was the lack of in-depth stories relating to how the triplets handled things outside the home, like preschool, or how their older brother coped with the entire process as an individual. Instead, Stockler focused entirely on the children, his wife, and even the townspeople as related to him, and skipping years entirely rather than using the slowing of the craziness to detail how he and Roni pulled their marriage back together. Perhaps they haven't. Regardless, I wonder how his family has reacted to the publication of this book, and how his daughter will feel as she becomes old enough to read her father's memoir to hear that he always put her down first, as quickly as possible. I wonder if we will hear from *her* at some point, in her own memoir, about surviving life with three spoiled brothers, an absent mother and a distant father. Hopefully it will be a more thoughtful, well-organized piece of writing.
In short, this could have been a sweet, humorous ode to parenting of multiples. In reality, it almost serves as a litany of how not to parent, partner, or, sadly, write.
Rating: Two Stars out of Five - mildly entertaining, in a train-wreck kind of way
To dispense with the immediate question on everyone's mind, Stockler, a magazine editor, and his wife, Roni, a high-powered attorney in New York City, became pregnant with triplets on a final, last-ditch attempt at IVF, in an effort to give their young son a sibling. They are shell-shocked at the news that they will have triplets, and spend the next nine months in denial about their situation. They make no plans for the care of the babies, down to not having diapers or anywhere for the babies to sleep, the entire time Roni is pregnant, even though she is on bedrest for the last few months of the pregnancy and, frankly, had nothing but time on her hands to plan. Unfortunately, this sets the tone for their entire lives; they are unprepared mentally, emotionally, and financially to deal with the situation they have created.
I have no idea how this family has even managed to stay together, to be honest with you. At least half of the book is devoted to describing how their marriage began as the 'wrong people who got together for the wrong reasons', and detailing their fights. From the account given here, Stockler has a good relationship with his sons, and their nanny. If I were his wife, I'd watch out for that. Add to this Roni's complete unavailability, both as a wife and parent (due to her determination to be partner in her law firm, she is gone sixteen hours a day, minimum, works weekends and holidays, and refused to get up at night with the children, ever), Stockler's repeatedly acknowledged lack of attachment to one of the triplets, Hannah (because she is a girl), and their inability to even deal with the mail (which they simply throw into boxes in the basement rather than paying the bills). He also spent a great deal of time grousing about finances, but it was difficult to feel sorry for them due to things like their employ of an all-encompassing nanny who, for the first five weeks of the babies' lives, cooked their meals and did their laundry in addition to doing all the feedings. Granted, they did not pay for this entirely by themselves, but the fact that they had her at all, plus their regular full-time nanny, speaks of people who are in no position to feel sorry for themselves. Lawyers and magazine editors do not get to whine about money.
While at first the story was interesting, the memoir became stale as the triplets became older and the initial zaniness of the situation wore off. The editing is poor, and as a result the book contains multiple passages containing the same material along with various awkwardly-written segments; I would have hoped for better from a (former - he was fired from his magazine job) big-time editor. Most disappointing, however, was the lack of in-depth stories relating to how the triplets handled things outside the home, like preschool, or how their older brother coped with the entire process as an individual. Instead, Stockler focused entirely on the children, his wife, and even the townspeople as related to him, and skipping years entirely rather than using the slowing of the craziness to detail how he and Roni pulled their marriage back together. Perhaps they haven't. Regardless, I wonder how his family has reacted to the publication of this book, and how his daughter will feel as she becomes old enough to read her father's memoir to hear that he always put her down first, as quickly as possible. I wonder if we will hear from *her* at some point, in her own memoir, about surviving life with three spoiled brothers, an absent mother and a distant father. Hopefully it will be a more thoughtful, well-organized piece of writing.
In short, this could have been a sweet, humorous ode to parenting of multiples. In reality, it almost serves as a litany of how not to parent, partner, or, sadly, write.
Rating: Two Stars out of Five - mildly entertaining, in a train-wreck kind of way
We're Here, We're Here, We're Here!
It's me, over from the Muddled Sage, opening a book review shop! Like the Who's, hidden in the dandelion in Horton's hand (at least I think it was a dandelion, if it was anything real at all), here we are, a little review blog in the middle of probably a million review blogs. But, we're here, and that's what's important!
I'm starting up here because I don't want to drag *all* the people who read my other site (listen to me talk like there are millions of people over there, hanging on my every word!) through my book talk, but I do love to read, and even if no one ever looked at this, it will be nice to have a place to put all my thoughts about the things I read. Also, if anyone else has things to say about things *they've* read, you can guest-post on here and share your thoughts, as well! We're all busy, and knowing ahead of time if something's worth the effort, or if it's a total tanker, is a good thing. Plus, it's fun to read what other people think!
Also, just for kicks, I'm going to start a Book Club on here as well, for those of us who would like to read a specific book and then have a 'discussion' about it, but don't have the time/location/gas money to get to an actual meeting. My thought on this is, I'll post a book title once a month, and then everyone will have the month to post what they thought, read other's comments, and respond. I'll try to post some sort of discussion points to go along with it, too, if I can be so organized. Anyone who wants to suggest a title, feel free. My one request is, no romance. As in, no closet-bodice-rippers, please. If it has a cover person that might remotely resemble Fabio, I would rather poke out my eyes with a spoon than read it. However, if you want to read it on your own and do a guest-post, I'll think about letting your girly-girl cooties touch my pages. :)
So, let's do the Book Club from the 15th to the 15th, starting tomorrow. The first book will be, The Heretic's Daughter, by Kathleen Kent. It's about a young girl who survives the smallpox epidemic only to become enmeshed in the Salem witch trials as one of the accused. The author based the novel on actual events that occurred within her own family! It has disease, paranoia, witchcraft, family feuds and court drama. I know it's hardcover, but hopefully with a month's notice you'll be able to either get it from the library by request or borrow a copy from someone.
And.... go!
I'm starting up here because I don't want to drag *all* the people who read my other site (listen to me talk like there are millions of people over there, hanging on my every word!) through my book talk, but I do love to read, and even if no one ever looked at this, it will be nice to have a place to put all my thoughts about the things I read. Also, if anyone else has things to say about things *they've* read, you can guest-post on here and share your thoughts, as well! We're all busy, and knowing ahead of time if something's worth the effort, or if it's a total tanker, is a good thing. Plus, it's fun to read what other people think!
Also, just for kicks, I'm going to start a Book Club on here as well, for those of us who would like to read a specific book and then have a 'discussion' about it, but don't have the time/location/gas money to get to an actual meeting. My thought on this is, I'll post a book title once a month, and then everyone will have the month to post what they thought, read other's comments, and respond. I'll try to post some sort of discussion points to go along with it, too, if I can be so organized. Anyone who wants to suggest a title, feel free. My one request is, no romance. As in, no closet-bodice-rippers, please. If it has a cover person that might remotely resemble Fabio, I would rather poke out my eyes with a spoon than read it. However, if you want to read it on your own and do a guest-post, I'll think about letting your girly-girl cooties touch my pages. :)
So, let's do the Book Club from the 15th to the 15th, starting tomorrow. The first book will be, The Heretic's Daughter, by Kathleen Kent. It's about a young girl who survives the smallpox epidemic only to become enmeshed in the Salem witch trials as one of the accused. The author based the novel on actual events that occurred within her own family! It has disease, paranoia, witchcraft, family feuds and court drama. I know it's hardcover, but hopefully with a month's notice you'll be able to either get it from the library by request or borrow a copy from someone.
And.... go!
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