Lilian Nattel's Blog, page 8

Gift at the Lake

On a beautiful day recently, A and I walked for 4 hours. At Sunnyside Beach, where in another time people danced to the music of big bands in the Palais Royale, I saw a swan. I learned that this is an aggressive and invasive species, unlike the native swans with their black beaks who appear in my dreams. But still, the swan has always meant sanctuary to me, and grace, and I felt graced by its presence.

Swan at Sunnside Beach

Filed under: Beautiful Tagged: swans, urban nature

Review: Little Failure

Little Failure by Gary Shteyngart

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a memoir about life as an immigrant child from the Soviet Union in the 1970s and 1980s, a subject that I’ve become very interested in because of this memoir. I rated this a four (though I am against ratings really) because the first part, about Shteyngart’s childhood, is fantastic. Had it stayed that way, I would be raving about it, had it not been that good, I wouldn’t bother adding it to my books.

The writing about his childhood is hilarious, biting, vivid. I was really struck by how little was different in the Soviet Union, by way of material life, in the 1970s from 1930s Poland (my parents’ memories). His parents even treated his asthma with cupping (in Yiddish bankes): heating small glass vessels to create a vacuum which are then put on the ailing person’s back, thereby sucking up the skin to suck up the vapours or something. My grandmother was a specialist in “laying bankes” in the pre-ww2 years.

The next part of the story, his years of being stoned and drunk in high school and university were pages I got through for the sake of the first part, and because even there his writing was good enough to keep me going, even if I was disappointed that as I went there was just more of the same.

The last part of the memoir covers his return to Russia with his parents, and that felt to me inhibited and truncated, abruptly so. His parents are still alive, and I had the feeling that there was a lot more to say, and that if he were to write his memoirs when he was older, it would be more satisfying to read, both because of maturity and freedom.

He was on the jury of the Giller Prize, the year that Web of Angels wasn’t listed, and, oddly enough, reading this memoir was a relief. I could see why my novel wouldn’t be his cup of tea. Too bad The Singing Fire wasn’t up in 2012–I think that would have been more in his line. But after all this time, the sting has gone out of it thanks to Little Failure. So for that alone, it should get four stars!

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Filed under: Literary Tagged: Little Failure, memoir

Review: Tenth of December

Tenth of December by George Saunders

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Brilliant stories. My favourite was only two pages and in that compact space told the story of a father’s rage and pathos through the vehicle of an unusual scarecrow. A book I want to own.

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Filed under: Literary Tagged: short stories

Review: The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared

The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A book people seem to love or hate. I did laugh out loud. It’s a tall tale, not my favorite genre usually: the hundred year old man runs away from an old age home, has adventures, tells the story of his life, which is the story of the 20th century and his unlikely encounters with presidents and dictators. But I was thoroughly entertained and amused by both the front and back stories. It was a great romp. A sort of Swedish Candide. I keep recommending it to people who may or may not thank me for that.

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Filed under: Literary

Sunrise on New Moon

(click to enlarge)

Part of my project for 2014 is to pay attention to the day. Every morning I jot down in a notebook the time of sunrise and sunset, moonrise and moonset, the phase of the moon, and the weather, not the forecast, but the feel of the day: cold, windy, warming, drizzle or snow. The weather has been noteworthy and attention grabbing in my part of the world. First the glittering ice storm that knocked out power in hundreds of thousands of homes, and then bouts of extreme cold. Today there is sun and it’s warming up. I may be able to shed one of my layers. Is that symbolic?

Filed under: Beautiful Tagged: mindfulness

Real Winter

kitchen window (click to enlarge)

I thought that climate change would end winter. Instead it ricochets from one season to another. Everything at hyper-speed, plants, animals, viruses on the move. We’re riding the rapids. Hang on!

Filed under: Beautiful, Concerning Tagged: winter photography

Cardinals Know the Day

I heard cardinals singing this morning. They know the days are getting longer.

– A

One minute longer than yesterday. 

Filed under: Uplifting Tagged: city birds

Sun on Ice

It’s very cold but I’m grateful for the sun.

(click to enlarge)

Sending warm thoughts to everyone still waiting for power and to all those working so hard to restore it.

Filed under: Uplifting Tagged: urban photography

Toronto Ice Storm: Birch Tree

Mercifully we have power. So I can appreciate the beauty of this:

(click to enlarge)

That’s the birch tree leaning over our back balcony. Across the street the limb of a tree fell down on a power line. A neighbour set up orange pylons around it. I pray for the trees.

Filed under: Miscellany

Toronto Ice Storm: Birch Tree

Mercifully we have power. So I can appreciate the beauty of this:

(click to enlarge)

That’s the birch tree leaning over our back balcony. Across the street the limb of a tree fell down on a power line. A neighbour set up orange pylons around it. I pray for the trees.

Filed under: Miscellany