http://www.goodreads.com/review/list_rss/99935 en-US Mon, 04 Aug 2008 15:00:49 -0700 60 http://www.goodreads.com/ 200 41 http://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/gr_logo.gif 29244101 Mon, 04 Aug 2008 15:00:49 -0700
author: Edwidge Danticat
name: Mary
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 07/08
date added: 08/04/08
shelves:
review:
A hard story to take in; but also the beautiful story of the love between two brothers, and of how families are sustained by each other. And this is true; not fiction. Danticat is an excellent story-teller.
]]> 29244018 Mon, 04 Aug 2008 14:59:51 -0700
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Mary
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at: 07/08
date added: 08/04/08
shelves:
review:
Harry Potter is getting better as it goes along.
]]> 29243960 Mon, 04 Aug 2008 14:59:16 -0700
author: Jan Willis
name: Mary
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2008
rating: 3
read at: 07/08
date added: 08/04/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 23840603 Fri, 06 Jun 2008 05:38:48 -0700
author: Jhumpa Lahiri
name: Mary
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at: 05/08
date added: 06/06/08
shelves:
review:
I like novels that span a lifespan and this is one of them. I think the author does a good job of getting into the head of two different characters: the mother and the son. This novel gives a good feel for one immigrant experience and the next generation's experience.
]]> 23840471 Fri, 06 Jun 2008 05:35:44 -0700
author: Jhumpa Lahiri
name: Mary
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 05/08
date added: 06/06/08
shelves:
review:
I found her writing, her "describing," to be excellent. You could really picture what it was she was describing, which is not often the case. The stories are also excellent. Some of them are almost "O Henry-esque" as one reviewer put it and I agree.
]]> 18387889 Fri, 06 Jun 2008 05:28:44 -0700
author: Amy Stewart
name: Mary
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2005
rating: 2
read at: 03/08
date added: 06/06/08
shelves:
review:
While she's a great writer, I couldn't get into this book. A lot about Charles Darwin in the part that I read. Maybe I'll try again another time.
]]> 20861474 Thu, 24 Apr 2008 04:17:39 -0700
author: Philip Pullman
name: Mary
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1995
rating: 4
read at: 04/08
date added: 04/24/08
shelves:
review:
This book is amazing. The tension was done quite well. I found myself being more tense at certain points than usually happens when reading other books. The main character - a girl - is brave, compassionate, smart, and therefore inspiring. I was disturbed by the ending, which is why I only gave it 4 stars. But I imagine the ending was done in order to take us into the next book, which I look forward to!
]]> 20707108 Tue, 22 Apr 2008 05:04:28 -0700
author: Naomi Shihab Nye
name: Mary
average rating: 3.67
book published: 1999
rating: 5
read at: 04/08
date added: 04/22/08
shelves:
review:
This is one of those gems that I found at random at the library. I know Naomi Shihab Nye from a poem that I've seen a few times. This is a young adult novel. It's the story of a 14 year old girl whose mother is white American and her father is Palestinian. She lives in the States, but when she's 14 they move back to Palestine. So it's the story of her meeting that other part of her culture, identity, her relatives. One thing I love about novels is getting inside someone's head. I could relate so much to her thoughts, insights and questions as she goes around her village, and Jerusalem. Nye's poetic sensibilities really shine through. This is a gem. Well worth reading.
]]> 20707053 Tue, 22 Apr 2008 04:57:54 -0700
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Mary
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2000
rating: 4
read at: 03/08
date added: 04/22/08
shelves:
review:
The best Harry Potter so far.
]]> 19861806 Thu, 10 Apr 2008 08:07:39 -0700
author: Mark Haddon
name: Mary
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2003
rating: 3
read at: 07/07
date added: 04/10/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 19861201 Thu, 10 Apr 2008 08:06:25 -0700 If you buy flowers casually at the grocery store, you might want to think twice about the labor conditions of the folks in the field. Plus the fact that every bunch of flowers that enters this country is dipped into fungicide as it comes in through Miami. There are organic and fair trade alternatives, and I encourage folks to seek them out!
A movie that touches on this peripherally is called Maria Full of Grace. It's about a woman in Colombia who becomes a "mule" which means she smuggles drugs into this country. She does it because she works at a rose farm and her options are severely limited and she wants to broaden her horizons. ]]>
author: Amy Stewart
name: Mary
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 09/07
date added: 04/10/08
shelves:
review:
Everything you ever wanted to know about the cut flower industry! She's an excellent writer. She starts out with the story of the man who developed the star gazer lily - how he did it and how he marketed it (or actually failed to market it,) and what happened to him later in life. She goes to visit Guatemala where there are many flower farms from which flowers are imported to this country, and ends up in Holland where the international flower markets take place. Kind of like Wall street, but for flowers.
If you buy flowers casually at the grocery store, you might want to think twice about the labor conditions of the folks in the field. Plus the fact that every bunch of flowers that enters this country is dipped into fungicide as it comes in through Miami. There are organic and fair trade alternatives, and I encourage folks to seek them out!
A movie that touches on this peripherally is called Maria Full of Grace. It's about a woman in Colombia who becomes a "mule" which means she smuggles drugs into this country. She does it because she works at a rose farm and her options are severely limited and she wants to broaden her horizons.
]]> 19860803 Thu, 10 Apr 2008 07:57:13 -0700
author: Ted Dekker
name: Mary
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2004
rating: 1
read at: 03/08
date added: 04/10/08
shelves:
review:
Not that I'm against Christians at all, but when I got this book out of the library based on a recommendation from the Writer's Almanac and saw that it was Christian, my heart sunk. I did try to give it a chance but it was too fluffy for me. Or something. It takes place in the middle east and I was afraid of what this novel's take on the middle east would be. Is that being too set in my ways?!
]]> 18388048 Sat, 22 Mar 2008 12:23:21 -0700
author: James McBride
name: Mary
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at: 03/08
date added: 03/22/08
shelves:
review:
This is the story of an escaped slave, which turns into many escaped slaves, because the first one helps free a bunch of them. I heard the author interviewed on the radio and he said he based some of his novel on historical events. While a lot of it was good, the part I liked the best was the author showing how the slaves communicated with each other across the county through signs and signals like quilts put out, food sent to a home, arranged a certain way, and the blacksmith pounding in a certain rhythm.
]]> 18387919 Sat, 22 Mar 2008 12:17:33 -0700
author: Paula L. Woods
name: Mary
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2001
rating: 2
read at: 03/08
date added: 03/22/08
shelves:
review:
An average mystery, with the theme of classic black films.
]]> 15781574 Tue, 19 Feb 2008 07:33:31 -0800
author: Patricia Hall
name: Mary
average rating: 2.00
book published: 2005
rating: 2
read at: 02/08
date added: 02/19/08
shelves:
review:
This is a mystery which I picked because it supposedly had stuff about striking workers. It did have that, but it was a minor plot line. The thing I liked about this book was the accents of the people, from what I assume is northern England. (I don't know my geography!) There was also stuff in the plot about Pakistani culture in the midst of British culture and how values may clash.
]]> 15781080 Tue, 19 Feb 2008 07:27:02 -0800
author: Nadine Gordimer
name: Mary
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2002
rating: 1
read at: 01/08
date added: 02/19/08
shelves:
review:
People rave about this, but I just couldn't get into it. The tone is distancing, I think.
]]> 13038942 Mon, 21 Jan 2008 06:38:02 -0800
author: Dan Zuberi
name: Mary
average rating: 3.00
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at: 01/08
date added: 01/21/08
shelves:
review:
This book was dry and academic, yet I'm glad I forced myself to read it. The author compares the lives of hotel workers in Seattle and Vancouver. They work for the exact same hotel chains. Yet because of governmental policies in these two countries, the quality of life for those in Vancouver is much better. Things like community centers, parks and beaches easily available. City planning things like mixed-income neighborhoods, so the low-income folks in Vancouver don't have to live in ghettos and fear for their safety. And policies on how easy it is (or not) to start a union. In the United States it's much harder. Much easier for the employer to intimidate workers at the workplace. He has a concluding chapter laying out what social policies should be pushed for (in both countries) to help the working poor.
]]> 1488857 Mon, 21 Jan 2008 06:31:14 -0800
Last week (Jan. '08), I re-read the chapter called Scrubbing in Maine, where she finds a job as a housecleaner for an agency. If you haven't read this book at all, I really recommend it as an easy read, and an eye-opener into the lives of the working poor, on whose labor we are all standing. ]]>
author: Barbara Ehrenreich
name: Mary
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2001
rating: 4
read at: 01/04
date added: 01/21/08
shelves:
review:
An easy yet profound read. An excellent and funny writer. One conclusion I came to is that housing needs to be cheaper in this country, to help people get out of poverty. The chapter on Walmart really struck home.

Last week (Jan. '08), I re-read the chapter called Scrubbing in Maine, where she finds a job as a housecleaner for an agency. If you haven't read this book at all, I really recommend it as an easy read, and an eye-opener into the lives of the working poor, on whose labor we are all standing.
]]> 13038518 Mon, 21 Jan 2008 06:27:48 -0800
author: Peter Henshaw
name: Mary
average rating: 2.00
book published: 2002
rating: 2
read at: 01/08
date added: 01/21/08
shelves:
review:
This is the book to get if you're looking for a tractor! We'll be getting a version of the International Farmall A, last manufactured in 1947!
]]> 13038426 Mon, 21 Jan 2008 06:25:44 -0800
author: Robert Cormier
name: Mary
average rating: 3.57
book published: 1974
rating: 1
read at: 01/08
date added: 01/21/08
shelves:
review:
Recommended by the Writer's Almanac, this is young adult fiction, which I usually like. I couldn't get into the psychological cruelty of the secret society and had to stop after 60 pages.
]]> 13038056 Mon, 21 Jan 2008 06:19:02 -0800
author: Danzy Senna
name: Mary
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1999
rating: 4
read at: 01/02
date added: 01/21/08
shelves:
review:
I had forgotten that I had read this book until someone else on GoodReads put it on her list. It has stayed with me all these years as a really good novel about issues of race, and family, being underground, parents and children, and much more.
]]> 12491444 Mon, 14 Jan 2008 10:56:50 -0800
author: John Steinbeck
name: Mary
average rating: 4.35
book published: 1952
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 01/14/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 12146384 Thu, 10 Jan 2008 07:42:13 -0800
author: Richard Russo
name: Mary
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2007
rating: 1
read at: 01/08
date added: 01/10/08
shelves:
review:
This was recommended in the Writer's Almanac. I couldn't get into it. Way too wordy for me. Could have just been my mood.
]]> 12146318 Thu, 10 Jan 2008 07:41:12 -0800
author: Anne Tyler
name: Mary
average rating: 3.37
book published: 2001
rating: 1
read at: 01/08
date added: 01/10/08
shelves:
review:
I've liked Anne Tyler in the past, but I just couldn't get going on this book. It seemed a lot like her other ones.
]]> 12146101 Thu, 10 Jan 2008 07:40:14 -0800
author: Tom Perrotta
name: Mary
average rating: 3.33
book published: 2007
rating: 3
read at: 12/07
date added: 01/10/08
shelves:
review:
This made the NY Times list of best 100 books in 2007. A sex ed teacher is made to teach abstinence, which goes against her grain and values. Her daughter's soccer coach belongs to an evangelical church. She is wary of him politically, but begins to fall for him. The book does a good job of humanizing the coach, showing how he came to hold his beliefs.
]]> 12145982 Thu, 10 Jan 2008 07:37:38 -0800
author: Wangari Maathai
name: Mary
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at: 01/08
date added: 01/10/08
shelves:
review:
She went through a lot of hard times and persisted. I always enjoy reading memoirs, and get a lot out of reading about other activists.
]]> 11629305 Fri, 04 Jan 2008 09:27:36 -0800 But what I appreciated most about this most amazing man is his gentleness and his persistence in his intimate relationship. Relationships are not easy for people with autism, so the fact that he has a successful one says a lot.]]>
author: Daniel Tammet
name: Mary
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2007
rating: 3
read at: 12/07
date added: 01/04/08
shelves:
review:
My fascination with autism continued by reading this book. The author is a savant: brilliant in some areas. What was most fascinating to me is his synesthesia. He has a sense of colors and textures attached to numbers, which makes it way easier to remember long strings of numbers. What he's most famous for is reciting the number pi to 22,500 digits. He did it in just over 5 hours.
But what I appreciated most about this most amazing man is his gentleness and his persistence in his intimate relationship. Relationships are not easy for people with autism, so the fact that he has a successful one says a lot.
]]> 10459115 Sat, 15 Dec 2007 05:27:51 -0800
author: Alice Sebold
name: Mary
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2002
rating: 4
read at: 12/07
date added: 12/15/07
shelves:
review:
The premise of this book may sound far-fetched, but it works. A 14 year old girl is brutally murdered. By a neighbor, as it turns out. She narrates this book from heaven - her heaven. Everyone has a slightly different heaven. (She has an intake counselor.) She watches her family from heaven, watches as their lives unfold, always touched by what happened to her.
]]> 10459105 Sat, 15 Dec 2007 05:25:27 -0800
author: Alice Sebold
name: Mary
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2004
rating: 3
read at: 01/06
date added: 12/15/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 9800799 Sat, 01 Dec 2007 08:32:49 -0800
author: Marina Nemat
name: Mary
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 11/07
date added: 12/01/07
shelves:
review:
Wow. What this woman went through is truly the stuff of fiction, but it's true. This book gives a good insight into the politics of brutality. She was outspoken and brave, and I wonder if I would have done the same. Very well written - it sticks with you.
]]> 9800757 Sat, 01 Dec 2007 08:30:28 -0800
author: Jeffrey Goldberg
name: Mary
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2006
rating: 1
read at: 11/07
date added: 12/01/07
shelves:
review:
I thought a book about an American Jew who emigrates to Israel and does military service in the biggest prison for Palestinians, and (guessing from the title) makes friends with a Palestinian, would be good, but I couldn't get into it.
]]> 9800664 Sat, 01 Dec 2007 08:28:23 -0800
author: A. Manette Ansay
name: Mary
average rating: 3.67
book published: 1995
rating: 1
read at: 11/07
date added: 12/01/07
shelves:
review:
When I saw the photograph of the author on the book jacket, I was sure that I'd read a short story of hers somewhere that blew me away. But I couldn't get into the first story, and am stopping.
]]> 9800385 Sat, 01 Dec 2007 08:25:58 -0800
author: Joan Borysenko
name: Mary
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1998
rating: 3
read at: 11/07
date added: 12/01/07
shelves:
review:
This breaks down the cycles of a woman's life into seven year periods and talks about what goes on in each cycle- from a biological, psychological and spiritual point of view. It had some good stuff, but the section on my period, I didn't find that helpful!
]]> 9800253 Sat, 01 Dec 2007 08:17:30 -0800 You don't have to have read Lear to enjoy this book, but it definitely adds to it.]]>
author: Jane Smiley
name: Mary
average rating: 3.58
book published: 1991
rating: 5
read at: 11/07
date added: 12/01/07
shelves:
review:
King Lear is my favorite of Shakespeare's plays. Jane Smiley recreates Lear in the farm land of the midwest and adds depth to the lives and decisions of the sisters. A father gone mad, daughters trying to cope; I thought it was brilliant the way she re-created it. I also enjoyed reading about conventional farmers and their lives and wives and the ever-present pesticides.
You don't have to have read Lear to enjoy this book, but it definitely adds to it.
]]> 9800018 Sat, 01 Dec 2007 08:13:29 -0800
author: Marisa Handler
name: Mary
average rating: 2.86
book published: 2007
rating: 3
read at: 11/07
date added: 12/01/07
shelves:
review:
I picked this up at random and was surprised t find how much the author has done that is similar to what I've done. She is an activist writer who traveled to different places in search of herself, and of truth - spiritual truths. She questions the wisdom of tactics. She plugged into what is loosely called the anti-globalization movement. In Ecuador and Peru, she found a movement that was true to its culture, and therefore successful, and one that had lost its culture, and was probably losing to oil companies. Her last chapter is at the School of the Americas action in Georgia, where she is inspired by the mix of art and politics and spirituality and de-centralized decision making.
]]> 8688529 Mon, 05 Nov 2007 05:54:49 -0800
author: Monica Ali
name: Mary
average rating: 3.11
book published: 2008
rating: 1
read at: 10/07
date added: 11/05/07
shelves:
review:
I just couldn't get into this book, and stopped.
]]> 8688220 Mon, 05 Nov 2007 05:52:13 -0800
author: Stephanie Wellen Levine
name: Mary
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2004
rating: 3
read at: 10/07
date added: 11/05/07
shelves:
review:
Fascinating. The author moves to Crown Heights to live among the Lubavitchers, strict followers of Orthodox Judaism. She wondered what the girls were like. An assumption on the part of many might be that because this type of Judaism requires women to wear wigs, cover up their bodies, cook a lot, and serve the men, etc, that the girls would be timid and maybe unhappy. Au contraire, the author found that the teen girls were exuberant, self-possessed, opinionated, and happy. For the most part. She did interview some that hated it. But for girls who could "get into" the mysticism of their particular sect, they found some peace. I was struck, in fact, by the loving, connected families.
]]> 8688067 Mon, 05 Nov 2007 05:44:45 -0800
author: Stacey Richter
name: Mary
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2000
rating: 1
read at: 10/07
date added: 11/05/07
shelves:
review:
While I loved her other book, I pretty much hated this one and couldn't finish it.
]]> 8120702 Tue, 23 Oct 2007 05:41:45 -0700
author: Stacey Richter
name: Mary
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2007
rating: 5
read at: 10/07
date added: 10/23/07
shelves:
review:
What a pleasant surprise to find a gem of an unknown author at the library! This book of short stories is amazing. Some of the stories are astonishing; some are just excellent; most are quirky and funny. I look forward to "My date with Satan." (the name of her other book!)
]]> 7697501 Sun, 14 Oct 2007 04:58:08 -0700
author: Vincent Lam
name: Mary
average rating: 3.44
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at: 10/07
date added: 10/14/07
shelves:
review:
If you ever wondered about the details of a doctor's life on duty, this book will give you some insights. Some of the stories in this book are quite strong and leave impressions. Others are weaker. There is a particularly good one about the SARS epidemic in Canada. (The book takes place in Toronto.) There is also a dynamic about the ethnicity of the young doctors. Three out of the four main characters are Asian; the fourth is white. Their stories weave in and out of each other's.
]]> 7697486 Sun, 14 Oct 2007 04:50:30 -0700
author: Anne Tyler
name: Mary
average rating: 3.44
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at: 10/07
date added: 10/14/07
shelves:
review:
This book starts out strong but lags about 3/4 the way through. Interesting musings on what it means to be an American, and on bridging cultures, in this case Iranian and white suburban American.
]]> 7697470 Sun, 14 Oct 2007 04:48:27 -0700
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Mary
average rating: 4.33
book published: 1999
rating: 3
read at: 10/07
date added: 10/14/07
shelves:
review:
I found the first Harry Potter book clever, but not worth continuing into the series. A friend convinced me to keep going. Number two was the same. But this one was much better. I think because the evil one was much more complicated. I look forward to the rest.
]]> 6246194 Sat, 15 Sep 2007 11:29:04 -0700
author: Sue Grafton
name: Mary
average rating: 3.71
book published: 1985
rating: 3
read at: 09/07
date added: 09/15/07
shelves:
review:
I really like the "voice" of the detective, Kinsey Millhone. She is smart and easygoing. I like watching and reading mysteries, because I like to see the unraveling of the plot and the tying it all together at the end.
]]> 6246100 Sat, 15 Sep 2007 11:26:36 -0700
author: Ross Gregory Douthat
name: Mary
average rating: 2.80
book published: 2006
rating: 1
read at: 09/07
date added: 09/15/07
shelves:
review:
Privilege is something that I think about a lot. So when I saw the title of this book on the shelving cart at the library, I snatched it. I thought it would be more encompassing, but instead it focuses on what it's like at Harvard. I'm not that interested in what it's like at Harvard.
]]> 5279374 Wed, 29 Aug 2007 05:51:56 -0700 I find this quote from the book thought-provoking:
"I get irate about people in their comfortable lives, looking at history, judging people who supposedly did heinous acts, and assuming they would have behaved differently. We don't - any of us - know how we would behave in a situation until that situation hits us right between the eyes, and our children and parents are involved. Germany is not the story. It's what's in the heart of the individual human being. I will not accept or acknowledge the presence of an enemy. No person is my enemy. Each person is me.
Whatever happened in Germany is not isolated to Germany. That's what gets me so riled up. Yes, we have to study it...the problem I've seen in the literature is that it is looked at in terms of Germans and Jews. And I would like to see it looked at on a larger scale. If we're emphasizing a larger humanity, maybe that's what needs to happen to heal."
]]>
author: Ursula Hegi
name: Mary
average rating: 3.58
book published: 1998
rating: 4
read at: 08/07
date added: 08/29/07
shelves:
review:
The author of this book, Ursula Hegi, wrote the excellent novel Stones from the River, about a family in a village during the Holocaust. In this book, she interviews Germans who were born just after the war, who later immigrated to the United States, either as children or as adults. The interviews are lengthy and really give a picture of the person's life, and of what life was like for them or their family during the war. Those interviewed inevitably muse on what it means to be German, and that's what interested me the most. Highly recommended to anyone interested in either their own German heritage, or another angle on the Holocaust.
I find this quote from the book thought-provoking:
"I get irate about people in their comfortable lives, looking at history, judging people who supposedly did heinous acts, and assuming they would have behaved differently. We don't - any of us - know how we would behave in a situation until that situation hits us right between the eyes, and our children and parents are involved. Germany is not the story. It's what's in the heart of the individual human being. I will not accept or acknowledge the presence of an enemy. No person is my enemy. Each person is me.
Whatever happened in Germany is not isolated to Germany. That's what gets me so riled up. Yes, we have to study it...the problem I've seen in the literature is that it is looked at in terms of Germans and Jews. And I would like to see it looked at on a larger scale. If we're emphasizing a larger humanity, maybe that's what needs to happen to heal."

]]> 1791573 Tue, 24 Jul 2007 05:46:10 -0700
author: Gwen Marston
name: Mary
average rating: 2.00
book published: 2004
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 07/24/07
shelves:
review:
Only if you're really into quilt history and quilt pattern collecting will you get into this book.
]]> 1953603 Tue, 24 Jul 2007 05:45:45 -0700
author: Emma Goldman
name: Mary
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1969
rating: 3
read at: 07/07
date added: 07/24/07
shelves:
review:
I'm reading this for a book group, and am getting a lot out of it. I had long wondered what exactly anarchism is, and am now getting a clearer picture.
]]> 3259290 Tue, 24 Jul 2007 05:44:12 -0700 The first of the two novellas, Storm in June, I have to say, even though it's a strong, loaded, word, is a masterpiece. It's the story of people fleeing Paris, as Paris is about to be taken over by the Nazis, and possibly bombed. She weaves together the stories of many people and families as they're fleeing. She touches on issues of class, privilege, love, fear,self-preservation, death, cats, beauty, parents and children,and much more.
It may have been my mood, but the second novella, Dolce, didn't touch me in the same way. It's the story of occupation. German soldiers are quartered in the houses of the French, so it's the story of what that's like. The awkwardness as they pass in the hallways, the Germans trying to be friendly, but ultimately, they're the occupiers.
So that part did affect me - thinking of course of Iraq being currently occupied and what it must be like for them. Here's a brief quote: "War...yes, everyone knows what war is like. But occupation is more terrible in a way, because people get used to one another. We tell ourselves, 'They're just like us, after all,' but they're not at all the same. We're two different species, irreconcilable, enemies forever."
I would strongly recommend this book.]]>
author: Irene Nemirovsky
name: Mary
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2004
rating: 5
read at: 07/07
date added: 07/24/07
shelves:
review:
Irene Nemirovsky wrote this book in the depths of WWII, as she and her family were hiding out from the Nazis. She had planned to write five related novellas, but her family was discovered, and she died at Auschwitz, so only two were written. Her daughters, who survived the war, did not read the manuscript until recently. So this book was just published last year.
The first of the two novellas, Storm in June, I have to say, even though it's a strong, loaded, word, is a masterpiece. It's the story of people fleeing Paris, as Paris is about to be taken over by the Nazis, and possibly bombed. She weaves together the stories of many people and families as they're fleeing. She touches on issues of class, privilege, love, fear,self-preservation, death, cats, beauty, parents and children,and much more.
It may have been my mood, but the second novella, Dolce, didn't touch me in the same way. It's the story of occupation. German soldiers are quartered in the houses of the French, so it's the story of what that's like. The awkwardness as they pass in the hallways, the Germans trying to be friendly, but ultimately, they're the occupiers.
So that part did affect me - thinking of course of Iraq being currently occupied and what it must be like for them. Here's a brief quote: "War...yes, everyone knows what war is like. But occupation is more terrible in a way, because people get used to one another. We tell ourselves, 'They're just like us, after all,' but they're not at all the same. We're two different species, irreconcilable, enemies forever."
I would strongly recommend this book.
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