Devon Trevarrow Flaherty's Blog, page 50

Book Review: Half Magic

[image error]When I made the Best Books list and started on the adventure of reading to children as they grew, I did not realize that so many of the “classics” of children’s chapter books come from the 50s. Even if they weren’t written in the 50s, many of them take place in or around the 50s. It feels disproportionate.

Half Magic was another book that I had no impressions of before procuring it. Then, looking at the cover and reading the cover copy, I thought maybe Chronicles of Narnia and Homer Price. Or at least that’s what I might have thought.

Four siblings–two girls and two boys–find a magical coin which works by wishing… in halves. That certainly livens up their summer, as adventures both domestic and exotic ensue. The far-flung adventures are a bit random, but there is an underlying storyline related to their mother and a mysterious (and kindly) shopkeeper.

[image error]It is endearing, in a way. And I could see some readers and some families enjoying it. Somehow, we didn’t, really. We found the writing to be a tad stiff. And all the characters were introduced at once, leaving us confused on which sibling was which for most of the book. And the story was cute, but could have been more fluid and compelling.

It wasn’t all bad, not at all. If you look at the reviews, people “like it,” “love it,” and call it nostalgia in between two covers. They also cite is as the book that made them love reading, or the book they read over and over as a child. (And they also occasionally point out that the caricature of the Arab man might be problematic today.) Laugh-aloud. A majority of four- and five-star reviews.

There are more books following the adventures of the kids and their kids. It is #1 in the Tales of Magic series. We have found, however, that if a series is known only for its first book, there is little reason to read more than the first book. (More on this when I review A Wrinkle in Time.) Here is the series:

Half Magic (1954)
Magic by the Lake (1957)
Knight’s Castle (1956)
The Time Garden (1958)
Magic or Not? (1959)
The Well-Wishers (1960)
Seven-Day Magic (1962)

 

Helping Orphans in China

[image error]Announcement time! My daughter and I are headed to China!

As you probably know, I very rarely solicit my bloggers. Like when I publish a novel (which is rarely). And when I go on some major humanitarian adventure. This post falls into the latter category.

There is a woman from our church who has been in China for eighteen years, helping orphans there. For many years now, Maria has opened her home to orphans with special needs. Some of those children have gone on to be adopted by loving families, and some of them are still in her care. She has decided to adopt one lucky boy, and has to return to the United States to finalize the adoption. Due to his disabilities, she requires assistance on the transportation back home to China. This is where we will start off helping her. Once there, Windsor and I will be cooking, cleaning, organizing, taking care of the babies… basically whatever Maria asks and whatever will bless her and the kids.

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You can help, of course. You can support us financially. You can also just opt in to hear from us about our pre-China and China adventures.

If you want to donate to the trip, we have a couple GoFundMe pages, one for each of us. Please click HERE to give there. Or HERE for Windsor.

If you want to be added to our email communications, via our blog, please sign up at Flahertys in ChinaFlahertys in China.

Thanks so much for sharing in our joy and excitement!

Book Review: Big Fish

[image error]I may have let this book build up too much before reading it. I have been intending to read it for years. It was recommended by lots of people as well as generally the state of North Carolina. It is magic realism, which is my favorite genre. And I love the movie, am a huge fan of Tim Burton. I wanted it to be my next, favorite book, but it just couldn’t live up to my bloated expectations.

The book takes some warming up. The style is choppy and brief, and the tone is just different. (I am reminded that I can hardly fault an author for having a style that takes some adjusting to, as mine is easily faulted for this same thing. Doesn’t change the reality, though.) By about a quarter through the rather short book, however, I had adjusted and was enjoying the book. The style becomes integral to what is happening in this quirky, special book, though I do wish the whole thing had been more developed and, well, longer.

It definitely has some charm to recommend it. It touches a reality most of us can relate to–while staying simple and optimistic–and it also contains both humor and magic. If you want a short, enjoyable book full of life and thoughtfulness, this could be your summer beach read. It would also make an excellent, book club book.

While this book is revered in North Carolina, where Daniel Wallace lives and Algonquin Books is seated, it takes place in an Alabama which has one foot in a nostalgic history and the other in a larger-than-life series of vignettes. Edward Bloom is a traveling salesman who came for a backwater town to marry a local beauty and have a son of his own. He’s basically intensely self-absorbed and ambitious, and the twisted whoppers and endless jokes that he has told his son about himself leads the reader down a winding path of Edward’s and his son’s somewhat disastrous relationship, as one stands by the death bed of the other.

I would recommend it, to just about anyone. It has beautiful language, lush descriptions, enraging characters, and imaginative stories. It’s an interesting and ultimately rewarding book, if a bit slow on the start and quick on the read.

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[image error]MOVIE:

There are some differences between the movie and the book, as would be expected. The movie winds a little further into the stories and combines them more into a straight narration. Also, the son’s emotions are more negative in the movie, but the father’s obnoxiousness is conveyed how I read it. The ending also adds a significant twist, a twist that one may or may not read into the book. Overall, though, I think the movie distills much of the fancy of the book and shakes it up nicely with Burton’s bizarre. I love this movie.

There is also a Broadway musical I would love to see.

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QUOTES:

“My hope is that in these last moments he’ll show me the vulnerable and tender underbelly of his self, but this isn’t happening, yet, and I’m a fool to think that it will” (p72).

“These are tears of frustration, of being alive and alone while my father lies in the guest room dying and not dying right” (p108).

“He is retired from everything but talking” (p149).

Book Review: The Boat to Redemption

[image error]Well, this is the first Devon-y, from-the-best-books-list book review that I have done in quite some time. (In the old days, I read mostly literary literature, with an emphasis on world and trendy.) The book wasn’t actually slated to be next, but I am going to China in July, so I have started gleaning from the Asia section of the World’s Best Books List. This is the first one. For what reason? It just happened that way, due to randomizing, prices, finding used copies, etc.

Su Tong is an important figure in 1980s and 1990s writing in China. He writes about a wide range of things, and The Boat to Redemption is about the Cultural Revolution. It was written during a period in Chinese literary history when literature was an experiment, and it is said that his writing in this book is less literary and more straight-forward than elsewhere. As an English-speaker, I have to take what I get in translation, anyways. Boat to Redemption won the Man Asia Literary Prize, and continues to garner general praise.

It was long. I really had to dig my nails in and keep reading, on a couple cross-country bus trips, when I would much rather have jumped over to one of the other books in my bag. It wasn’t horrible, it was just clunky and long, with not very much action or even narrative arc. Also, the story is obsessed with penises. That’s not necessarily a bad thing; it just is.

I also felt like I was out of my depth. This is to be expected, as I have limited exposure to Eastern literature and even Eastern culture. I have long found the East interesting, but I could not slip into the language, place, or meta-narrative in the same way I could Shakespeare or even–to a lesser extent–Latin American literature. Of course, we have the internet now, so I could do quick studies of time frame, culture, reception of this book, etc. And I also would not use that as an excuse not to read Asian literature: on the contrary, exposure will make all of this easier and more fluid with time.

Perhaps my greatest struggle with the culture was the word play. The characters’ conversations always seemed to have this sarcastic and nuanced level which I was not able to completely appreciate. This played out most in humor and in debate. I just didn’t seem to be finding the same things funny–or even witty–that the characters were. And arguments? This book was chock full of arguments, which made it difficult for a Westerner, since our mode of arguing and our ethics and logic would lead us to different conclusions, even different “winners.” (To be fair, though, some of this was a result of socio-economic class differences, as well.)

I say it all the time, but I can’t truly love a book if I can’t find a character to love. Every character in this book–including the three main ones–is so deeply flawed that it is hard to root for them or even to feel sorry for them. Despite the title, there is little to no redemption in this story. Maybe The Dead-End Boat to Redemption? The Sunken Ship to Redemption? But by about three-quarters through the book, I realized that not one of the characters had grown, and that I therefore had no investment in them, at all. I despised them for being to static and yet so self-pitying.

I think that my favorite part of reading this book was just noticing the cultural differences. From basic conversation to all the little things, I enjoyed immersing myself in Chinese literature, to see what fundamental differences I could find between my world and theirs. Some stories unite the world’s people, and some bring us to a better understanding of those who think, behave, or believe differently than us. This was definitely of the second type.

I just can’t really recommend this book. It was long and uneventful, painted very few pictures in my imagination, and the characters did not develop, or even change at all. Even though it is considered to be a great of Chinese literature, I can’t imagine there is not better. I’m going to keep reading and see what I come across.

Movie Review: Arrival

[image error]Yes, this is a writing and reading blog. I do take the liberty of reviewing other entertainment, however, when I feel it is applicable to either the writing or reading life. Sometimes something is so good, that I might be stretching it a bit, and when I saw Arrival I knew that I wanted to talk about it. But I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to call it applicable for both readers and writers.

There are two things that–besides it being excellent–should recommend this movie to you, my blog reader. First, it is about language. The main character, Louise, is a linguist, and is recruited by the government to communicate with aliens. Much of the movie truly is about language, and the approach to language is fascinating and interesting. Second, the story itself is so expertly told, that a study of this movie could benefit anyone who tells stories. I have very rarely witnessed a story with such impeccable timing and withholding. Between my husband and I, the delivery played out 100% effective. It was surprising and invigorating, the way it all came together. (I shouldn’t talk it up too much, because then your expectations will be too high. Alas, I’ve already done so.)

On top of all that, the movie has great twists and turns and elements of romance, tragedy, science fiction (obviously), math, and even time theory. It is, on the other hand, very slow. I can think of people who expressed interest in seeing it whom I know would not appreciate it because of the pacing. Sssllllooooowwww.

My biggest take-away? The bit about language theory, where they allude to learning a new language as re-wiring the brain. It gave me something to think about as I read my first Chinese book for my trip to China. I’ll talk more about that in the next entry.

Obviously, I would recommend this movie, but not if you can’t handle slow movies. If you have a special interest in language or aliens, especially.

 

Book Review: The Princess Bride

[image error]I’m going to do you a solid. You want to read The Princess Bride, but you don’t want to be as confused as I was when I started reading. And you don’t want to have to do research to grasp where you are standing, in relation to a novel. So, here.

The Princess Bride is, on one level, a standard love and adventure story underneath a film of satire. Castle. Princess. King. Monsters. Bad guys. Etc. Goldman wasn’t totally breaking any new ground with the story, but it’s solid enough–and tongue-in-cheek enough–to be enjoyable on its own. However, there is a second level to the story, which is similar to the standard grandpa-reading-to-grandson, but is just enough different to add even more interest. William Goldman has styled himself as a fictional character with things in common with himself. The fictional Goldman remembers a book out of the country of Florin, that his father had read to him. When he wants to share this story with his own son, he has a hard time finding it. Part of the novel is the story of how he finds the book, and how he ends up “abridging it” and presenting it to us Americans, full of asides. Like I said, all of this is fictional, even though it is presented as an introduction. Even the cover of the book is in on the play-acting.

Unfortunately, I have the twenty-fifth anniversary edition, which confuses things further than they need to go. For the anniversary, Goldman added yet another layer of introduction and conclusion, and another layer of story-within-a-story. All of a sudden, the fictional Goldman’s busy trying to translate another Florin book, Stephen King is hanging out, and lawsuits from the Morgenstern legacy hang over his head. It is moderately clever, and I would say you could read it, but you certainly don’t have to read it. It’s just extra.

I would, if I were you, start AFTER the Introduction to the Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Edition, where the page simply says, “The Princess Bride.” Then stop when the story concludes, before the “Buttercup’s Baby” page. If you are then curious to explore the other layers, read the frontspiece and the (rather large) “Buttercup’s Baby” section. It does include some post-story story, after a whole lotta Woody-Allen-esque behind-the-scenes shenanigans. You’ll thank me for explaining just enough to keep you oriented.

Whew! Now for an actual review.

I loved this book. I have seen the movie a number of times, and I wish I had read the book first. The book would have been better without having seen the movie, but I still enjoyed it. While I have often wished that a movie would stick closer to a book, because this movie is so similar to the book, it kinda made one or the other obsolete. They really are both literally and spiritually twins.

It is an adventure tale, complete with everything one looks for in an adventure tale. But the added layer of the abridgement and the asides, etc., work super well here to add charm and interest to an otherwise straight-forward tale. It also creates space for Goldman to be especially playful, flirting with anachronisms and wrapping it up in something akin to magic realism. Plus, the voice he has created with the narrator is a perfect foil while also being a little lovable.

Speaking of lovable, there is one issue here: because the main characters are satirical, they are not lovable. I suppose there is a way to be both, but Goldman’s princess and “prince” are too flawed to be someone you can really pull for. You want them to succeed because the narrator wants them to succeed, but The Princess Bride could never actually be the greatest love or adventure story of all time, because the characters are sometimes mere caricatures.

My recommendation for this book: yes. Understand what they heck it is you are reading, and then sit back and enjoy the read, all the layers and sides to the story. It really is a conglomeration of so much: romance, love, adventure, comedy, satire, postmodernism, magic… all wrapped up in charm. Love it.

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MOVIE

The Princess Bride is known these days more as a movie, than as a book. The movie was a classic in its time, and has managed to stay relevant to a new generation. We own the movie, and our family watches it maybe once a year. As I mentioned in the above review, I have never come across a book and movie that are more similar to each other. Not only is the story practically exact and even dialogue pulled from the text, but the book and movie feel very much the same. I suppose the spirit is the same largely because the author also did the screenplay, but it probably also has to do with the author being a screenplay author. Given good actors and a sizable budget, Goldman’s vision was able to translate straight from his imagination to the big screen.

Of course I recommend it, but expect it to be quite silly.

Book Review: Replay

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My husband wanted me to read this. And since I have long joked that once I recommend something to him it’ll never get read… well… somehow that meant I had to read what he recommended. I doubt that drive comes from a healthy place. Even so, my husband, who knows and loves me, thought that there was something here for me (besides time travel, which is all he needs to pick up a book or movie or show or article or podcast, etc.).

There were a lot of thighs. If I was a thigh guy, I would have to give this a re-read. Like seriously a lot of thighs.

What else? It was intriguing. Often, a book comes to me partly because it resembles what I write, or a project I am currently working on. I have a book–which is mostly in notes–that approaches time travel from a supernatural perspective. Its working title is The Marvelous Life of Mary McG, and it is probably why this one get passed along. Being that I would write a book about time travel without a tremendous amount of science, I did find the book interesting. In fact, I lapped it up. Which sometimes happens because a book is so light that it goes down too smooth. There was some of that here, but also you just wanted to know more.

In the end, it didn’t deliver. I don’t want to give things away, but the author decided to leave the explanations sit while he wrapped up the personal bits. This could have worked, but it didn’t. The personal bits didn’t feel wrapped up enough, and there were too many questions that were posed and never answered. While there were twists galore, there was no big climax at the end. So, disappointing and flat.

Still, it was fun to go with the main character on his journey. Jeff Winston is dying. He can feel it in his chest. But when he wakes up and it’s twenty-five years earlier and he’s twenty-five years younger, he doesn’t know what to think. The reader gets to cycle with Winston through a series of pasts, and the best part is seeing what he would do differently (especially as his own emotions and maturity change).

A fun romp–over and over again–through the 1960s. Also fun because the author was only able to stop at the 1980s, where we can see a lot further. Does border on the pain of Groundhog Day, but not fatally. Also, sometimes gets lost or meanders.

If you eat up science fiction and time travel books–and don’t have the highest of standards–then you’ll probably find this entertaining. The writing is mostly unobtrusive. The sex is geared more toward the masculine. And you’ll just fly right through it.

Book Review: Tell Me

[image error]Um.

I read this book some time in 2017. It has sat on the list of reviews to write since then. The problem is, it is a fairly forgettable read. I mean, it accomplishes what it is, I think, but I am no teenage girl.

Tell Me, written by Joan Bauer of young adult literary fame and holder of a Newbery Medal as well as other awards, is meant for teens. While Bauer mixes up her male and female leads in her writing, I would say that this one is distinctly feminine. Bauer is known for writing serious themes in a light-hearted style, a la Jacqueline Wilson. I have not read any of her other books, so I speak only to this one, which my (at the time) twelve-year-old daughter really enjoyed.

What I appreciate is that it introduces the concept of human trafficking to young people who are beginning to look obliquely at the troubles of the world. It also deals with divorce, which as much as it might be overdone these days, is a concept many young readers are at home with. It is also very readable. You have friendship, family, romance, small town, coming-of-age, and criminal/mystery, in a pretty short format.

I did not, on the other hand, think it was a great book. It felt forced at times, and perhaps a little formulaic. I also never felt the real tension of the situation with the trafficked girl, so it was hard to identify with the main character’s urgency. There were some cute things, but nothing rose up much higher than a murmur.

I haven’t more to say. A good beach read for a tween girl, especially if you care about the victims of human trafficking and want her to, as well. Not especially notable, though. I wish I had something better to recommend for the subject matter. I might, some day.

Headed to Camp

If you have been following this blog for forever, then you should know what NaNoWriMo is. If you haven’t, you may anyhow, but my experience has been a lot of blank stares where I mention it. If you are a writer and don’t know what NaNoWriMo is, then it is time I introduced you.

NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. It takes place in November every year. The idea is to challenge novelists and aspiring novelists to write a novel in one month by putting 50,000 words of original content on the page between November 1st and November 30th. There is an online community, where you can sign up for NaNoWriMo, donate to the cause (which you don’t have to do to participate), buy some inspiring swag, and then enjoy the benefits of community. The benefits? Daily inspirational emails. Local meet-ups and write-ins. An assigned small group where you can chat back and forth to ask questions and encourage one another. And—the best part—real-time tracking. Every time you get more words on the page, you update your word count in a little box and NaNo shows you graphs and numbers telling you just where you are in your goal and how to accomplish your goal at your current rate, etc. I love these numbers and graphs.

It i[image error]s not November. But NaNo has come up with something else which I have used for the past several years, off and on. In order to offer more opportunities at writing-mania throughout the year and offer opportunities to write to a more tailored writing goal, Camp NaNoWriMo was born. It is essentially the same thing as NaNoWriMo, just in April and July, and with the option to write to a different number than 50,000 words.

Since I am currently homeschooling, volunteering, and even planning overseas travel, I decided that 20,000 words in April would be an amazing feat.

It is Day Three. I actually skipped Day One because it was Easter and my nephew’s birthday. I had three hours at the mall on Day Two (while my teenage daughter hung out with a friend) and so I got ahead of myself. Tonight, I plan on attending a write-in and I imagine I will be ahead by the end of spring break. Then hopefully not behind as the month stretches out.

Officially, NaNo is designed for you to sit down with a brand new project and create a rough draft of a new book. A complete rough draft would be ideal. I have used NaNo this way, and wrote nearly all of The Night of 100 Thieves, which I finished up in a couple weeks after. I also wrote the first huge chunk of The Journey of Clement Fancywater, which is why I am returning to NaNo with the second half of this project. I just draw a giant line on the page that says, “CAMP NANOWRIMO 2018 STARTS HERE,” and start clacking away.

I find that NaNo and Camp NaNo are great motivational tools. I like to win stuff, and the tracking is very motivating for me. Also, write-ins are awesome. (A write-in is simply writers sitting in a room together doing nothing but writing (and maybe drinking coffee or beer)). But the key is that—even in a super-crazy modern life—there is still space (however broken up and short and already occupied by something less important) to squeeze in the things that are important to you. If I have a goal, it’s easier for me to make time for my top priorities.

I have written a book and a half, and a little more, on my NaNo journey so far. I have had to buy a voice-to-text for my computer because my hands were so sore one year I had to sit with them on literal ice. I have also discovered that I can write upwards of 4,000 words on a productive day! And I have entrenched my belief that writer’s block does not exist. There is much to be gained.

Now for a NaNo for exercise and meditation. National Exercise and Meditation Month.

And wish me a clear mind and strong hands.

Book a Day: Fahrenheit 451

[image error]I seem to be on a roll with the dystopian fiction. It might have something to do with reading short fiction? It seems like the rate of dystopian fiction among novellas is on the high side. Or this is all just a coincidence. Well, whatever the reason, I landed on Fahrenheit 451 for my very last Book-a-Day.

(Have you ever thought about the spelling of the word “Fahrenheit.” It’s weird.)

Guy Montag is a fireman, except in the future America, firemen aren’t needed to put out fires; they light up houses which harbor the enemy of modern society: books. In insular cities where people turn inward with the help of media, entertainment, and sport, every one is kept happy through constant stimulation and no worries about politics or relationships. Then one day, Guy meets a girl who is different, and wonders, are they happy? Is he happy?

I’m going to give you my rating right off the bat: this is a great book and I wouldn’t miss it, yet it has some issues.

Maybe the best part is reading what an imaginative author in the 1940s thought the future–however dystopian–might look like. I love noticing what actually has come to pass, and what hasn’t (at least not yet). And then heap onto that all the ways in which our society has totally lived up to his critique and his warning. It makes me want to leave a complete pile in every high school classroom across the country.

Positives? It’s entertaining. You don’t want to put it down. It’s brief but full of tidbits. Insightful. Ray Bradbury is known as perhaps the author who did the most for influencing science fiction, as it launched up and forward in the 1900s. He wrote a handful of different genres, as well as many short stories and screenplays. Farhenheit 451 is among the most important books of American fiction.

Negatives? The occasional monologue (which should have been lengthened out into more story). Sometimes metaphor and changing POV get in the way of the reader understanding exactly what just happened. (I’m still not sure if the other firefighters were dead or knocked out, and how.) And it can be difficult to root for the main character (which is understandable, since Guy has not had his character fed at all, as part of his culture). I would sort of love to see this story re-written, drawing out the dramatic elements and filling in character holes.

All in all, Fahrenheit is a fascinating look at where we’ve been and where we might be doomed to go. A musing on the difference between titillation and living, between diversion and joy. A classic.

Other famous books by Bradbury:

Dandelion Wine
Something Wicked This Way Comes
The Illustrated Man
I Sing the Body Electric

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QUOTES:

“‘Where’s your common sense? None of these books agree with each other'” (p35).

“‘Was I given a choice? My grandfather and father were firemen. In my sleep, I ran after them'” (p47).

“‘If you don’t want a man unhappy politically, don’t give him two sides to a question to worry him; give him one'” (p55).

“‘The magic is only in what books say, how they stitched the patches of the universe together into one garment for us'” (p74)

“‘The books are to remind us what asses and fools we are'” (p77).

“‘Those who don’t build must burn. It’s as old as history and juvenile delinquents'” (p80).

“‘If you hide your ignorance, no one will hit you and you’ll never learn'” (p94).

“‘But you can’t make people listen. They have to come round in their own time, wondering what happened and why the world blew up under them. It can’t last'” (p136).

“‘”Stuff your eyes with wonder”, he said…'” (p

“‘Ask no guarantees, ask for no security, there never was such an animal'” (p140).

“We pick up a few  more people that remember, every generation'” (p146).