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March 17
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March 14
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Edith
gave  to:
The Pearl (Paperback)
by
John Steinbeck
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my rating:
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Edith said:
"On my recent drive back and forth to Messiah College to pick up Faith for her audition in New Jersey, I listened to this book on tape and enjoyed it immensely. It is short, concise, and powerfully written. A tragedy that just won't resolve itself.
...more
On my recent drive back and forth to Messiah College to pick up Faith for her audition in New Jersey, I listened to this book on tape and enjoyed it immensely. It is short, concise, and powerfully written. A tragedy that just won't resolve itself.
Many big winners of the lottery would probably attest to the truth in this story. Nothing but trouble follows the immense good fortune of a poor village diver who finds the jackpot of a pearl. There is no peace for him. A sad but true commentary on the greediness of man.(less)
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Edith
gave  to:
25 Months: A Memoir (Hardcover)
by
Linda McK. Stewart
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my rating:
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Edith said:
"Linda McK. Stewart writes a memoir of her final months with her husband who suffered with Alzheimer’s. Her husband was a book editor for the New York Times and she was/is a travel writer and the U.S. representative for a French publishing group. Th...more
Linda McK. Stewart writes a memoir of her final months with her husband who suffered with Alzheimer’s. Her husband was a book editor for the New York Times and she was/is a travel writer and the U.S. representative for a French publishing group. This was a second marriage for both. She describes the good, rewarding life they shared together in the New York editing and writing world. Linda did everything she could to support and encourage her husband to keep up skills and interests but it was a steady roll downward for the space of 25 months.
One thing I learned was that Alzheimer’s can hit almost unannounced. In looking back, Linda could maybe point to incidents that were related to Alzheimer‘s, but then again, they were symptoms that many older people grappled with. Her husband woke up confused and disoriented from an afternoon nap and she assumed he might be experiencing a stroke so she rushed him to the hospital. The next day the doctor told her it was Alzheimer’s which can actually come on in a single, sudden episode. Surprise to me.
It also seems that blood transfusions carry risk. And possibly concussions. Linda’s husband Jack had experienced both. Of course, the cause of Alzheimer’s is still much of a mystery but it is informative to read various accounts in an effort to get some sort of handle on it.
Especially interesting was one chapter written about their visit to Lambarene in Gabon- the location where Albert Schweitzer built his famous hospital. For awhile, this couple helped spearhead a new magazine called “Africa Update” and they made many trips to Africa on magazine business. On their walk to the landing where their boat was awaiting to take them out of the jungle, they passed a small house of slats with no windows and a locked door. The eerie, distinctly human sounds coming from this building turned out to be the “crazies” who had to be kept safe from others and themselves in this manner because there was not sufficient medication. This experience made a deep impact on Jack and near the end of his life, he referred back to this incident. It was so sad.
Also, it is interesting that some Alzheimer sufferers get very violent and foul-mouthed and others seem to just quietly fade away. There are also some who frequently discard their clothes and walk around naked. One of my good friends said her father, who had been extremely modest, private, and reserved, would do this and she found this behavior so disconcerting that she could not deal with it. (She said she told her children to shoot her if she ever comes down with Alzheimer’s!)
This woman writes beautifully. This book was a pleasure to read. Her love and respect for her husband comes across clearly.(less)
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March 13
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March 10
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February 13
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Edith
read and liked
Bonnie's
review of A Complicated Kindness:
"Governor General’s Award 2004
Shortlisted for Giller 2006
Winner Canada Reads 2006
Half-way through reading A Complicated Kindness it struck me that the only way Miriam Toews could write in such an authentic voice would b...more
Governor General’s Award 2004
Shortlisted for Giller 2006
Winner Canada Reads 2006
Half-way through reading A Complicated Kindness it struck me that the only way Miriam Toews could write in such an authentic voice would be if she herself had grown up in a Mennonite community. Sure enough, Miriam WAS raised Mennonite in small town Steinbach, Manitoba. There was a Mennonite Village Museum there when she grew up. “That is taken right out of my life,” she says in an Interview with Dave Weich (Nov. 8, 2004; Powells.com). “It was a pioneer village – I worked there, too; I knew all about the history – but I think I just took it for granted.”
I returned to reading A Complicated Kindness without losing one iota of enthusiasm or admiration. Miriam may have taken a real-life experience straight to her novel, but 16-year-old Nomi Nickel became a larger-than-life character in her own right.
This is a coming-of-age story set during the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, told in the first-person by Nomi. Her mother and older sister left three years earlier and haven’t been heard from since, so the narrative includes a series of flashbacks about life before they left. In the present, Nomi rebels against the conventions of the Mennonite community. Her behaviour is considered reckless by her ruling Uncle Hans, a zealot known as The Mouth. We learn all about what is not allowed in a Mennonite community and how it feels to belong to “the most embarrassing sub-sect of people... if you’re a teenager.” Not only that, but another of Nomi’s reasons for despair is revealed when she reflects, “People here just can’t wait to die, it seems. It’s the main event. The only reason we’re not all snuffed at birth is because it would reduce our suffering by a lifetime.” This is but one glimpse of the dark humour inherent in the story.
Having recently read (and reviewed) The Flying Troutmans, I was reminded of this previous book. In both stories, Miriam Toews sweeps the reader into worlds both familiar and unfamiliar, evoking emotions that travel the full spectrum.
(less)
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Edith
gave  to:
A Complicated Kindness (Paperback)
by
Miriam Toews
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my rating:
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Edith said:
"This story is of a 16-year-old Mennonite (those with ancestors from Russia) girl in Canada who is left with her patient and bewildered father after her older sister and her mother have left town. There is no communication from either of the “excom...more
This story is of a 16-year-old Mennonite (those with ancestors from Russia) girl in Canada who is left with her patient and bewildered father after her older sister and her mother have left town. There is no communication from either of the “excommunicated” women and Nomi and her father are floundering in their lives. Nomi is a lost rebel who is trying to make sense of the upheaval in her life. She smokes, drinks, skips school, wanders around town at night, hangs out a lot with her boyfriend, and makes observations about the rigidity of the religious town run by her uncle. She has a sharp, observant mind.
Miriam Toews is an exceptional writer. I can easily see why she has won numerous awards for her writing. I found myself rereading passages just because they were written so cleverly and with such wit. She writes the young Nomi so well that you will yearn to comfort her and “make things all better”. And if you are Mennonite, you will know whereof she speaks. I think it needs to be said that Mennonite communities differ drastically from area to area and that not all of these communities are so rigid and unbending as this one in southern Canada. But to Miriam Toews’ credit, the title “A Complicated Kindness” refers to a kindness that “you can see sometimes in the eyes of people when they look at you and don’t know what to say.” I have always felt, though, that if you find that you don’t fit into the community where you were born, you should simply leave instead of expecting/demanding them to accommodate you. Group identities can only survive if there are allegiances to prescribed behaviors and beliefs. If the shoe doesn’t fit, don’t wear it.
This writer is one to keep in sight. (less)
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January 30
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Edith
is currently reading:
Baby Love (Hardcover)
by
Rebecca Walker (Goodreads Author)
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my rating:
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