Joseph Sciuto's Blog: A Curious View: A Compilation of Short Stories by Joseph Sciuto, page 11

“THE FORETELLING,” BY ALICE HOFFMAN.

Inspired by the ancient Amazon culture where women rule, “The Foretelling,” by Alice Hoffman is another wonderful, creative novel by this superb author.

“Rain,” the queen-to be, is the daughter of the Queen of a large tribe of warrior women. The Queen, who was raped by fifty men, is impregnated and so Rain is the daughter of fifty men.

The warriors live in an area, which is never mentioned by name, but its landscape resembles that of Ukraine and Russia. They move their tent cities according to the seasons, they call their horses that they ride into battle against invading tribes of men, sisters. The men they kill are discarded, except for a couple who are drugged for a night and used to beget further generations of women. Afterwards, these men are allowed to go back to their tribes.

Rain is the narrator of the story and it is seen in her future by, priestess Deborah, that the future queen will face difficult decisions and those obstacles and challenges is what carries this story, at an amazing speed, to its finish.

This book is relatively short, but its questions, have befuddled the world since the beginning of time, such as the relationship between the animal world and humans, between nature and humans, between men and women, and if the world would be a more peaceful place if more women were in charged?

Simply put, a fast paced, exciting novel, by this amazingly prolific writer.

“THE RIVER KING,” BY ALICE HOFFMAN.

Simply stated: Just another wonderful novel from this amazingly creative and gifted writer. Ms. Hoffman is one of the few authors that can mix myth, magic, and reality and create a miraculous story fulled with great characters and a plot that moves unstop.

“The River King,” is set in the fictional town of Hadden, Massachusetts in which a prestigious prep school is the main attraction. On the surface, everything seems perfect but as Ms. Hoffman peels back the lives of the residents of the town and the student body a whole different world is revealed. A hierarchy exists among its life long residents, and a seriously dangerous hierarchy exist between the seniors and the freshmen and the faculty members that leads to the suspicious suicide of a freshman who refuses to play by their rules.

Ms. Hoffman’s description of natures’ beauty and its often hidden dangers is a work of art, and her ability to give the reader a true picture of teenagers between fifteen and eighteen years old is as realistic as it gets.

I highly recommend.

“THE GATES OF EUROPE,” BY SERHII PLOKHY

Serhii Plokhy’s, “The Gates of Europe (A History of Ukraine)” is a comprehensive, informative history of Ukraine covering a period of 1500 years. The book is around 370 pages, whereas in my view it would have been a much better book if it was about 800 pages. If one wants to cover 1500 years of a country’s history, especially one as complicated as Ukraine, longer is definitely better.

In short, the first 150 pages of Mr. Plokhy’s book are nightmarish to get through. The reader encounters so many different regions of the country, individuals, ancient religions, emperors, Kings, Cossacks, invaders, and different languages etc. etc. that it is nearly impossible to follow the narrative which was really unnerving to me because I have studied Russian history which is so intertwined with Ukrainian history.

Suddenly around the beginning of the 18th century the cloud is lifted, and the cast of characters are more familiar, such as Catherine 2, Napoleon, Emperor Alexander 2, Hitler and Stalin (What history of any European or Slavic country would be complete without the mention of these two madmen and their henchmen) Brezhnev, Gorbachev, Putin and Zelensky.

And the invading countries, well, they’re familiar also, such as Poland, France, The British, The Germans, Russians, and every country that seemed to border Ukraine. And let us not forget the rivalry between the religions and their aspirations to convert, such as The Roman Catholic Church, The Greek Catholic church, the orthodox Greek Church, Protestant denominations, and of course the Jews who weren’t trying to convert anybody but when all excuses fail, blame the Jews.

It is quite amazing to me how the Jews, who currently make up 0.2 per cent of the world population, could be the cause of so many problems. You see, it doesn’t always pay to study hard, get an education, and do research that benefits all of humanity, help heal the sick, and seem to cause very few or no problems.

Ukraine, until recently or just before the invasion of Crimea and now the entire country by Putin and Russia, was never truly in charge of its own country. Poland controlled part of Ukraine as did Lithuania, Hungary, Austria, Germany, and of course Russia. The Russians actually tried to rid Ukraine of their language, and make Russian the official language.

When the country finally became whole after the end of the cold war, few saw it surviving because of all the different cultures, religions, and languages but to the surprise of everyone they did survive as a diverse country with the vast majority of its population considering themselves Ukrainian regardless of their backgrounds.

Putin read into the myth that the Ukrainians were divided, and that when he invaded the Russian population of Ukraine would welcome them as liberators. Except for a few regions, his calculations were wrong and the results have been catastrophe for Ukraine and Russia.

“THE FOREST OF THE VANISHING STARS,” BY KRISTEN HARMEL

Very seldom will I buy a book after just looking at its cover and title, but that was the case with Kristin Harmel’s novel, “The Forest of Vanishing Stars.”

The publisher, “Gallery Books,” did some very good marketing. I had never even heard of the author, but was soon to learn she is a best selling novelist.

As for the book, all I can say, is that the novel itself lived up to its marketing, and surpassed it. There were times in this novel that were so intense that at times I had to put it down and simply hope that one of the many great characters in the novel was not killed. That’s how involved I was when reading this book about a two year old, Yona, being kidnapped from her wealthy German parents and raised in the unforgiven forests surrounding the country of Poland.

Her solitary existence is interrupted, at about the age of twenty, when she stumbles upon a group of Jewish refugees fleeing the Nazi genocide. She becomes a leader, and teaches the ever growing number of refugees how to survive and how to keep out of the sight of the Germans who occasionally patrol the forests.

The story is fictional, but it is heavily based on the true life experiences of the Bielski Group of Jewish refugees, who numbered as many as twelve hundred members, who escaped the genocide inside the surrounding ghettos and lived in the forests until the end of the war, fighting the Nazis, and surviving on the food the wilderness had to offer.

Ms. Harmel is an excellent writer, and I highly recommend.

“AHAB’S WIFE,” BY SENA JETER NASLUND

This book is loaded with quotes from Wordsworth, Emerson, Byron, Frederick Douglas, Shakespeare, and biblical references. And for the first five hundred pages I really enjoyed this book, but then it went on for another two hundred pages and it felt like it would never end…and when I say never I mean never. So much so, that I can’t even write a two paragraph review. It’s a miracle, I even finished this book.

“THE MOLECULES OF LIFE,” BY RUSS HODGE

In my ever ending quest to understand the human genome, RNA, DNA, chromosomes, cells, genes, viruses and diseases, Russ Hodge’s, “The Molecules of Life,” was a step backwards. This was far too advance for me, and I doubt I understood more than 20 percent of what I read.

That is not to say that there is anything wrong with the book, but this book is written in a way that only ‘researchers, scientists, and doctors,’ could comprehend. I guess I should have read more reviews on this book before deciding to buy it.

I can’t rate it, but all I can say is that this book is not for the average person.

FYODOR DOSTOYEVSKY’S, “THE IDIOT.”

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, even the name itself elicits a sense of brilliance for those who know nothing about him. For those in the literary community, he is a genius. For me, his works of literature have had the greatest of influences on me.

After about thirty years of reading mostly the ‘Classics,’ I decided about ten years ago that it was about time I started reading more modern writers. The experience, for the most part, has been great.

But about three years ago, I decided that each year I would pick one or two of my favorite writers and re-read for the third or forth time their books, short stories, and poetry. The first year, it was strictly Conrad, the next Hemingway, and this year it is Dostoevsky.

“The Idiot,” is a masterpiece in my opinion and ten stars would not be a high enough a rating. The great thing about reading a book three or four times, especially when the book is one by Dostoevsky, is that you always learn new things. “The Idiot,” highlights the great comic touch in his writing that is ofter overlooked and I laughed throughout large segments of the novel. The characters, like in all his novels, are so fully realized, never one dimensional, and always unforgettable. Of course, the Prince is not an idiot but suffers from epilepsy and possesses a soul and a conscience that many of the other characters do not and so they have no problem calling him an idiot because isn’t life all about prestige and money.

It is the character of the prince that is at the center of Russian society in the mid-to-late 1800’s, and it is through him that we experience spiritual compassion, caring and love for the sick and dying, class differences, and the enigma of beauty that can lead to deadly consequences.

Over the years some critics have said that Dostoevsky is too Russian. Of course they are totally wrong because if he was too Russian his popularity would never have achieved its world wide popularity. Dostoevsky’s themes are universal…survival in an otherwise cruel world.

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“THE WITCHES OF EASTWICK,” BY JOHN UPDIKE

If one can get through the first twenty pages of this novel and about ten long, pedantic, nonsensical passages, one might actually like this book. Set at the end of the Vietnam war, in the small village of Eastwick, Rhode Island, three witches (Alexandra, Sukie, and Jane) fall under the spell Darryl Van Horne, a man who is constantly spitting salvia each time he speaks and whose hands are as hairy as a bear’s claws. It is quite unusual for me not to like any character in a book but this novel managers to do just that.

Years ago I made a promise to myself, after I started reading Joyce’s “Finnegans Wake,” that if the first twenty pages of any book became impossible for me to read that I would simply put it down. I have mostly kept to that promise but having read a number of John Updike’s works which I truly enjoyed, I decided to go on and that was a mistake.

ALICE HOFFMAN’S. “SECOND NATURE.”

Ms. Hoffman is known too many readers as this marvelous author who is cleverly able to mix spiritual magic into her stories that involve very serious plots…many historical, familiar, and social.

“Second Nature,” has no spiritual magic, yet it is as magical and brilliant as any of her novels. The magic, in this novel, is the environment around us…forests, animals, a brilliant star full night, snow and ice. It is against this background that this amazing author, dives into infidelity, divorce, first love, raising children, and love that passes from one generation to another.

Her characters are so real and their stories so compelling that I read this book in one sitting which is very unusual for me.

Throughout, I thought of a saying from the great John Lennon. He said, “that everyone is looking for a miracle and yet a miracle happens every day and most of us sleep right through it … the beautiful rising of the sun.”

NORA EPHRON’S, “HEARTBURN.”

A wonderful, funny, satirical novel about living in Washington, DC and New York during the 1970’s and having to deal with a certain famous unfaithful husband who works for the Washington Post.

Ms. Ephron was a great talent, directing many famous movies, writing original screenplays, and writing marvelous novels.

Inside the novel, there are a number of wonderful food recipes which she cleverly inserts into the plot of the novel.