B. Morrison's Blog, page 65

Crusoe's Daughter, by Jane Gardam

Gardam has been one of my favorite authors since I was introduced to her via “Old Filth”: , recommended by the ever-reliable folks at my local indie bookstore, The Ivy. Her stories remind me a bit of Barbara Pym’s because they are about the charming and extraordinary lives of ordinary people. In the memoir workshops I lead, I always say that everyone has a story to share. The most humdrum life has trials and triumphs and moments of grace. Often, reading obituaries of people I never met, I thi...

War Requiem, by Benjamin Britten

Going to a performance of Britten’s War Requiem by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra seemed an appropriate way to end a week that began with Remembrance Day. Britten wrote it to commemorate the rebuilding of Coventry Cathedral, destroyed in 1940 in the devastating bombing raid that killed so many. Coventry and Dresden have always stood as bookends for me of the horrors of the then-new tactic of aerial bombardment.

I want to write about the War Requiem this week instead of a book because music,...

Counter Currents, by Shaun J. McLaughlin

Dressed in buckskins, 19-year-old Ryan Long Pine sends his canoe into Canada’s busy Kingston harbor. It is 1837 and he stands out: “Not yet an anachronism, he was a curiosity”. Alone in the world except for the raven who accompanies him, Ryan is not looking for adventure; he is looking for a job. Armed with good carpentry skills learned from his father and trapping skills learned from a stint with a family of Algonquins, he can fend for himself. His work ethic quickly endears him to the shipb...

The Tide King, by Jen Michalski

Michalski’s novel, winner of Best Fiction from Baltimore’s City Paper, is the story of Stanley Polensky and Calvin Johnson, thrown together in the trenches of WWII, their forced intimacy creating an unlikely friendship between the shy Polish boy from Baltimore and the tough Midwestern farmboy. It is also the story of a girl named Ela Zdunk, who lives with her mother outside the small mountain village of Reszel in Poland in 1806. Ela helps her mother find flowers and roots to use in the tinctu...

Live by Night, by Dennis Lehane

I’ve been a fan of Lehane’s novels ever since the first one came out, long before the films and the awards. Although their violence is more graphic than I prefer, I love the strength and clarity of his prose, the depth of his characters, and the satisfying intricacy of his plots. I love the way Boston itself is a vibrant character in his stories.

Live by Night is the story of Joe Coughlin, a petty thief who happens to be the son of a chief of police, pulling heists with his two chums, when by...

The Immoralist, by Andre Gide

Michel, an austere and studious young man pulls himself away from the history of the Classical world long enough to get married, mostly to please his father who—dying—worried about leaving his son alone in the world. Michel barely knows Marceline, but he respects her and feels some affection for her. It is only when they are embarked on their honeymoon that he discovers she has a life and a mind of her own. A greater surprise is to come when, still traveling in North Africa, Michel, already f...

Speak, Memory, by Vladimir Nabokov

Rereading this remarkable memoir has been even more delightful than the first time. And more awe-inspiring. From the poetic beauty of his sentences to the intricate structure of the book, Nabokov’s consummate writing skills are on display.

The memoir covers his youth and young adulthood, up to the age of 40 when he and his wife, Vera, emigrated to the U.S. The chapters arranged thematically rather than strictly chronologically. So, for example, one chapter is the story of the most memorable o...

March: Book 1, by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell

This graphic novel, a gift from my dear friend, Kate, is a fabulous introduction to the Civil Rights Movement for those too young to tackle Taylor Branch’s trilogy. Nate Powell is responsible for the dramatic graphics, while Andrew Aydin is the co-writer with Lewis. It’s not a dry history. Instead, it is Lewis’s personal story which makes it far more powerful.

Personal stories, truthful ones, are the way we open ourselves and learn each other’s truths, the way we find our common ground.

The a...

The Lost Prince, by Selden Edwards

This novel follows Eleanor Burden, a woman with a peculiar destiny. She has returned from a visit to Vienna in 1898 with a secret. Although she lost the “love of her life”, she carries home with her a mysterious journal that lays out her future and that of the world. Returning to Boston, she marries stolid banker Frank Burden and takes her place in society while secretly pursuing the tasks assigned to her by the journal.

As she moves forward through the events of the early 20th century, such...

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, by David Mitchell

It’s always interesting how one person can love a book, rave that it’s the best book ever, and the next person find it ho-hum. One of my book clubs selected Mitchell’s book at the urging of one member, backed up by glowing reviews. One professional reviewer called it a page-turner; for me, not so much.

Jacob de Zoet, an earnest and honest young man, comes to Japan in 1799—a five-year undertaking—to earn enough money to be acceptable to his fiancé’s father back home in The Netherlands. Jacob a...