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February 13
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Krys
gave
 
to:
In the Country of Men (Hardcover)
by Hisham Matar
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my rating:
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read in February, 2008
Krys said:
"In The Country of Men is about a Libyian family threatened by the September Revolution led by Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi. The father Bu Suleiman (Baba), part of a counter-revolutionary group of intellectuals, comes under suspicion of treachery along with hi...more
In The Country of Men is about a Libyian family threatened by the September Revolution led by Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi. The father Bu Suleiman (Baba), part of a counter-revolutionary group of intellectuals, comes under suspicion of treachery along with his cohorts. The story is told by Baba's 9-year old son Suleiman from the first point of view, so his limited understanding of events influences what unfolds.
There is an attempt to create ironic distance between the character's understanding and readers' understanding, but the pov is handled in such a clumsy manner that is is largely mannered and unsuccessful. Suleiman's motives, his machinations that led to a disclosure of the counter-revolutionary office's location in Martyr's Square (the book is far from subtle), are hard to believe. Despite the evident danger surrounding them, and the hints that his mother and the family friend Moussa, drop all over the place, the narrator continues to act in a manner more akin to a four-year old than a nine-year old. Not only is pov of view and mechanical plotting (the mother is an alcoholic when Baba's not around, but happily gives up the bottle forever when he stays home, Suleiman decides that the government spy outside must want to help his father because he gives him an English mint, etc.) but the writing itself is clumsy and the characterizations, are at best, approximate.
What redeems this book? Strangely enough, despite its problems, it's oddly readable. The history of the country and the drama of the events that unfold keep you interested. Some events mentioned include the confiscation of everyone's personal bank accounts by the government after everyone has been duped into depositing their money to comply with the "new currency design", the publicly televised hangings and post-torture confessions, the complex military conscription rules that technically allow one to be dragged back from overseas. Also, the feelings of love and loss of family, particularly when the boy is tricked into living overseas in Egypt away from his family, are genuine and moving. In that sense, the book gains sympathy and heart from using a young child's perspective through which to tell the tale; it loses only because it doesn't know how to handle that perspective.
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Krys
gave
to:
The Bloody Chamber (Paperback)
by Angela Carter
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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read in February, 2008
Krys said:
"Angela Carter doesn’t just reinterpret the fairy tale, she reinvents it. I read Bloody Chamber while also reading an up-to-date translation of the complete Grimm’s fairy tales, in order to continue reminding myself of how far away one can get fro...more
Angela Carter doesn’t just reinterpret the fairy tale, she reinvents it. I read Bloody Chamber while also reading an up-to-date translation of the complete Grimm’s fairy tales, in order to continue reminding myself of how far away one can get from source material. Carter takes it as far as she can with brilliant execution.
Some highlights?: The Bloody Chamber, a first person pov narrated novella from the perspective of a poor girl determined to marry up and improved her family’s economic circumstances; Carter’s modernization of the psychology of all characters involved while still retaining much of the basic plot of the original; her dark delight in the psychotic, the mad and disturbed, in werewolves and vampires and other lonely creatures of the night, her fascination with blood—in its virgin form, in its role as signifier of passion, in its violent aftermath; her masterful control of point of view, retaining the quaint folk quality of most of her tales while still managing to keep the stories modern and personal.
What’s so surprising and wonderful in Carter’s tales is not only her feminist, sensual interpretations, her understanding of human nature, and her delicious manipulation of the gaps or white spaces that fairy tales often leave. What really keeps you reading is her command of language. (“He is in London tailoring; she, bare as a lambchop”; “His library seemed the source of his habitual odour of Russian leather”; “a young girl who looked as if she had been carved out of a single pearl”; “the viscera of the palace”; “candles in antlered holders”; “..the poor, shabby things I’d seen once, in the Czar’s menagerie at Petersburg, the golden fruit of their eyes dimming, withering in the far North of captivity”; “His house is made of sticks and stones and has grown a pelt of yellow lichen.” So forth. Carter’s precise, painstaking search for the perfect word, phrase, and image reveal her to be an artisan of words.
The collection is an uneven one—some stories seem more hastily thought through than others—but overall, it’s always a treat to enter Carter’s wild, macabre, sensual world where really, anything can happen.
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February 11
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Krys
is currently reading:
The Lonely Voice: A Study of the Short Story (Paperback)
by Frank O'Connor
bookshelves:
currently-reading
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my rating:
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February 10
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Krys
gave
to:
Kaffir Boy: An Autobiography--The True Story of a Black Youth's Coming of Age in Apartheid South Africa (Paperback)
by Mark Mathabane
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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read in February, 2008
Krys said:
"Kaffir Boy follows the story of Johannes Mathabane and his family while living in a ghetto of Alexandria. The detailed descriptions of the inhuman circumstances and the daily humiliation the natives are subjected to, particularly in the form of pass ...more
Kaffir Boy follows the story of Johannes Mathabane and his family while living in a ghetto of Alexandria. The detailed descriptions of the inhuman circumstances and the daily humiliation the natives are subjected to, particularly in the form of pass books, Influx Control laws, and the degrading stereotyping of natives as an inferior race, make this a powerful and disturbing book. Mathabane's own attempts to understand why and how the Africaans could subjugate an entire nation of natives, as well as his struggle to see white people as individuals rather than as a demonized race, is moving and educational. My only complaint? He can be a little self-justifying at times as an autobiography can be, especially about his minimal participation in the post-Soweto rebellions and in the ANC-led movements, but who can blame him? It's an amazing journey that he narrates, and a little smugness is only natural, considering where the man is and what he's been through. ...less
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February 09
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Krys
is currently reading:
Wide Sargasso Sea (Paperback)
by Jean Rhys
bookshelves:
currently-reading
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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read in February, 2008
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Krys
gave
to:
The Ecstatic (Paperback)
by Victor D. LaValle
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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read in February, 2008
Krys said:
"The Ecstatic is narrated by Anthony James, a 315-pound Afro-American who may be a touch schizophrenic, like his mother. The book begins strong with the family bringing Anthony back to the family home, after finding him in his apartment naked and offi...more
The Ecstatic is narrated by Anthony James, a 315-pound Afro-American who may be a touch schizophrenic, like his mother. The book begins strong with the family bringing Anthony back to the family home, after finding him in his apartment naked and officially dropped out of Cornell. It takes on the form of part road trip/part community/family story, but the plot is actually the weakest part of the book. One example is the Lorraine strand of the story that recedes, then disappears altogether without explanation.
But so many things make this book such a wild read that it almost doesn't matter what is actually happening. One, Anthony's funny, deprecating, direct, ironic voice is what really keeps you racing to the end of the book. Victor Lavalle's talent is also clear in his powers of observation and bold use of language. Some examples: "Maybe the guy spoke to me that way because he truly meant to be kind, but it was the tone one takes with a guy who separates clear and colored glass for a living," "When both sets were open we could see far back into the lungs of the theater," "The lapels [of the suit] looked about as thick as wax paper." His ability to render textured, unique but also quite ordinary characters, and the cadence of their dialogue, is enviable. And especially with this book, you cannot the humor, which is always coupled with an undercurrent of sadness. There is the pageant for Miss Innocence that only virgins can enroll in, the pageant terrorists, Anthony's obsessive spitting into uncut books lining the shelves of stranger's house, and so forth. But ultimately, this is a large, unhappy college kid in a purple suit with a crazy, unreliable mother, a spiteful sister in Nabisase, and no real friends. He is hopeful, lonely, and jocular despite the odds, and that refusal to give into sentimentality is what makes this book so powerful and ultimately, sad.
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February 07
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Krys
is currently reading:
The Complete Fairy Tales of Brothers Grimm, Volume 1 (Paperback)
by The Brothers Grimm, Jack Zipes
bookshelves:
currently-reading
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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New comment on Tommy's review of
Out Stealing Horses: A Novel
(see all 2 comments)
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February 05
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New comment on Laura's review of
Catch-22
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