Devon Trevarrow Flaherty's Blog, page 53

Book a Day: Dawn

[image error]Normally, I would have read this book as part of the trilogy that it belongs in, but since this is my book-a-day challenge and this is the only one (inexplicably) on our bookshelves, I read it. The books, Night, Dawn, and Day, can stand alone.

When I was in college, Elie Wiesel was all the rage. Okay, so that’s not the way one would say that, but at any rate there was an interest in and reverence for Elie Wiesel and other Holocaust literature, and I read at least one of his books. If I had to guess, I would say it was Night. I don’t really remember it, but I didn’t have that familiar feel when I read Dawn, so I really doubt it was this one.

I was excited when I started, because I adore a great first sentence, and this is the opening:

“Somewhere a child began to cry.”

And through the first section, we keep returning to this child, which feels like an omen, a symbol. In fact, this book is rife with omens and symbols. It might even be considered magic realism, although I think we can say it’s more a psychological thing (as in, in the character’s head). Sometimes the reader’s not even sure what reality is, because Jewish mysticism in woven into the story at surprising moments, along with very deep introspection.

[image error]And that–the character’s head–about sums up this whole book. It is really similar to those one-room plays, since any action that takes place in this novel happens in the main character’s memory or in conversation, so you really are almost completely in one building the whole time.

[image error]I’m not sure being that close-in on a character is my style, honestly, so I was probably never going to love this book. It’s a thinker, for sure. And I’m sure there are plenty of contexts in which this book could really facilitate some important thoughts and conversation. On the surface, it’s about a Jewish Holocaust-survivor who is tasked with executing a British soldier in early-modern Palestine, and about how he deals with his conflicting feelings and conscience as the night before the execution drags on. But the internal conflict between violence and morals is a much more universal one, and–like I said–could be applied many places.

Also, it would make a quick and interesting read if you were studying the occupied Palestine of the 50s.

Recommend, but only if you’re that type or if you need a book to explore the moral conflict of violence as a means to a peaceful end.

_______________

QUOTES:

“‘I’m not from around here,’ he said in a voice that seemed to listen rather than speak” (pxi).

“If today I am only a qusetions mark, he is responsible” (p25).

“…the mysterious world of the Cabala, where every idea is a story and every story, even one concerned with the life of a ghost, is a spark from eternity” (p28).

“Until this moment I had believed that the mission of the Jews was to represent the trembling of history rather than the wind which made it tremble” (p29).

“They too ran like rabbits, like rabbits sotted with wine and sorrow, and death mowed them down” (p45).

“No, it was not easy to play the part of God” (p45).

“The lucky fellow, I thought to myself. At least he can cry. When at man weeps he knows that one day he will stop” (p46).

“There are times, his father said, when words and prayers are not enough. The God of grace is also the God of war” (p58).

“A cold, I thought to myself. And in this case it turned out to have more practical use than either faith or courage” (p59).

“The silence of two people is deeper than the silence of one” (p67).

“An act so absolute as that of killing involves not only the killer but, as well, those who have formed him. In murdering a man I was making them murderers” (p79).

“He can’t say I’ll kill only ten or twenty-six men; I’ll kill for only five minutes or a single day. He who has killed only one man alone is a killer for life” (p90).

“Judge God. He created the universe and made justice stem from injustice” (p93).

Book a Day: The Wave

[image error]Second day, second book.

I read The Wave, by Todd Strasser. It is a novel, but it hits the reader more like journalism and is read largely during social studies education. Why? Because The Wave is based on the true story of a California classroom in 1969. The teacher was surprised by his class’s response to a Holocaust video, so he started a club to prove to the students that the Holocaust could happen again and could happen to anyone (in essence).

As the tagline reveals, the experiment goes too far.

First there was the experiment, which the book says was significantly scary enough that it wasn’t talked about for years. In the 70s, the teacher, Ron Jones, wrote a fictionalized short story, “The Third Wave,” about what had happened. Fairly quickly, it was picked up as a TV special and then that special was novelized in 1981 by Morton Rhue (who is actually Todd Strasser and it is printed both ways).

[image error]As is to be expected, the story got crazier and crazier as it went from short story to TV to novel. (Yet, I was surprised how reigned in the story ultimately is.) There are still elements of truth to it, so that it is used today in classrooms both in the US and in Germany to augment teaching about the Holocaust.

While it isn’t the most eloquent of books, I couldn’t put it down. I really wanted to know how far the experiment would go and how the students would react. In the back of my mind, always, I was wondering what the real story was. I may have even preferred that the story was written as a nonfiction account of the experiment, like Columbine.

The main point of this book is to make you think. It definitely does that. This book can apply to really any time and any person. Currently, I find it applies most to our political parties.

Perhaps I didn’t agree with the simplified moral of individuality over community, but I think there is truth here: no matter what democratic community you are part of, you must fight for the freedom for all to think for, believe for, and express themselves. Members of a community should not be afraid to leave a community or hold a contrary belief. There should be no damage imposed for holding different beliefs, unless the person expressing them is causing real harm to others (and not just offending them), which would mean that the members and non-members feel and are safe and free.

The moral of this book is that individuals were willing to give up their rights to be part of a leader-ruled community, without thinking much about it. Would you?

The writing wasn’t spectacular. I liked the portrayal of the characters, but other than that… ehn. And the build-up didn’t quite deliver. Still, it’s an easy read that I think should be used to create discourse in the history or social studies classroom. I can see myself referencing it in years to come.

Book a Day: God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian

Day one of my possibly insane goal of reading nineteen books at a rate of one a day, and I didn’t even have a full day to complete the first one! Naturally, I grabbed the thinnest book in the stack.

[image error]God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian is one of the lesser-known publications of heavy-hitting author Kurt Vonnegut (more well-known for things like Slaughterhouse-Five, Cat’s Cradle, and Breakfast of Champions). I say “publications,” because it turns out this is not really a novel or a novella at all, but a collection of radio broadcasts for WNYC based on a fictional set-up. The idea is intriguing, as is the result.

I’m not much of a Vonnegut fan. His stuff tends to be too gritty for me, and I don’t always track with his humor. My husband, on the other hand, has every one of his novels and listed him as his favorite writer when we first met. I bought him this book when we were newlyweds, and I was so happy to have found something by Vonnegut he was unaware of. (This is back in the days when books were largely sold at brick-and-mortar book stores and we didn’t even have to say, “brick-and-mortars.”)

Let me say this, too: although I have strong religious views, a book does not have to jive with my worldview for me to enjoy it and even learn from it. This book is a good example of that.

Self-proclaimed as a humanist collection by a die-hard humanist (pun intended), the fictional set-up is this: Vonnegut is going to meet regularly with infamous “Doctor Death” Dr. Jack Kevorkian to be killed, only to be retrieved again before gone too far. In the interim, Vonnegut will conduct interviews with characters hanging around near the pearly gates. Like I said, great set-up.

Each chapter–or broadcast–is what would now be labeled flash fiction, so very short, and is a brief description of his encounter with another person from the other side. Some of the people are famous, some infamous, some un-famous. Some have been dead a long time, and some for mere minutes. Although the meat of the writing is in these witty, interesting, and sometimes irreverent interviews, there is just as much fun in the interaction with Kevorkian, the traveling, and the situations with both heaven and Saint Peter. Plenty of weighty things are thrown into the melange, like politics and history, even genocide. Let’s not forget that this book is, surprisingly obliquely, about life after death, and still manages to be fun.

It’s funny. And it’s insightful. And it’s, well, just plain masterful. If anything, you wish that it would last longer. It does, as the back-piece promises, “defy categorization,” which feels both rebellious and refreshing. And I really did LOL.

On to the next book!

_______________

QUOTES:

“My epitaph in any case? ‘Everything was beautiful. Nothing hurt.’ I will have gotten off so light, whatever the heck it was that was going on” (p11).

“What Uncle Alex found particularly objectionable about human beings in general was that they so seldom noticed they were happy” (p12).

“What [modern, married people] are really saying to each other, though, without realizing it, is this: ‘You are not enough people!’ (p13).

“‘The presence of those cameras finally acknowledges,’ Clarence Darrow said to me, ‘that justice systems anywhere, anytime, have never cared whether justice was acieved or not'” (p36).

“‘There are two types of men in this womanly world: / Those who know they are weak, / Those who think they are strong” (p68).

“‘One last question,’ I begged. ‘To what do you attribute your incredible productivity?’ / Isaac Asimov replied with but a single word: ‘Escape.’ ANd then he appendd a famous statement by the similarly prolific French writer Jean-Paul Sartre: ‘Hell is other people'” (p78).

A Book a Day

Every once in awhile, I get out of the habit of reading on a regular, usually daily, basis. Often this is the indirect fault of media–TV or internet–but sometimes it’s because I haven’t encountered a good book in awhile so I start dragging my feet. This time, I think it was a combination of free Food Network shows and the reading of a few books that were a tad too slow to develop. So there I was, watching all the people around me scramble for New Years goals. I had been waiting for mine to arise organically–it could take all month–when it occurred to me that I need to read something and read it fast to pull out of my dry spell.

Actually, it happened more like this:

[image error]It was snow day number two, and all four of us were home once again. I had decided that on day one I would do some home projects (see the awesome book stairs that I have been working on), day two I would do some writing and reading, and day three I would clean the house. (Blech.) My much less uptight husband had no agenda, and so decided after a few rounds of Acquire and Risk that he wanted to watch The Princess Bride with the family. Suddenly our very different agenda/non-agendas merged into focus as a weird goal. I thought I could read The Princess Bride before we even got to watching the movie. I had always wanted to read it and I was pretty sure we had a copy. This odd goal would help me, overall, get away from hours of TV before bed and back to my love, books.

[image error]My search for The Princess Bride on the shelves was unfruitful. Apparently, we either don’t own it and never did, or we gave it away, or it is in that one box of books still buried in the garage. Amid my disappointment, I started pulling other novellas and short novels off the shelves, with a vague question in my head: could I read one of these a day? Certainly, by the time I was done (the stack reached nineteen), I would be back in the habit of carrying a book with me and grabbing reading time in all manner of places and times.

Not sure how insane this goal was, I began.

The experiment will unfold under the blog title, “Book a Day: [book title].”

Book Review: 365 Journal Writing Ideas

[image error]It is true. My review of Rossi Fox’s 365 Journal Writing Ideas is not without its problems. The truth is that I am working on a similar project for Owl and Zebra Press, titled The Beginner’s Journal. I’m sure that project and this particular journal will have plenty of overlap, but only because we have a similar aim and many things about both products are intuitive.

I bought 365 Journal Writing Ideas because The Beginner’s Journal was not finished but I needed something for home school. My son is as reluctant a writer as he is a reader, so I try to keep some of his writing time light by requiring a daily journal entry.  Since we are full-on home school this year, I thought it would be nice to have a journal prompt handy for each day, and then just open up his blank book and instruct him (again!) that I want to see three full sentences before he doodles.

Looking online (which is where I did most of my curriculum research) I came across this lesser-known, self-published journal prompt book. It looked like just what I needed.

And it exceeded my expectations.

Let’s set one thing straight. This is not a place to actually journal. It is a journal companion. So you still need something–like anything from a spiral-bound notebook to a leather-bound, hand-pressed paper sketch pad–to actually journal. This book, however,will get you where you need to be when staring at the blank page that you just paid good money for.

It’s also not meant for writers, as many prompt books are. Only rarely will it say something like, “Finish this idea with a short story.” It’s mostly more what journals are supposed to be like: introspective. About you. A little random. A little creative.

And it is not going to record your life, like an old planner. You won’t look back on day 200 some year in the future and go, “Oh! It was sunny that day. And John and I left for Slovenia! And look, they had the audacity to serve fish on the flight!” Unless you make it a point to record those sorts of things each day yourself, you are mostly going to have entries with more general introspection. My dream was to be a trapeze artist?!?

But let’s move on from what it isn’t, because this journal prompt book packs a lot in and has a lot to offer.

First of all, it is flexible, which means you can use it several different ways, which also means you could use it for two or three times 365 days. (365 will almost definitely play out to more than one year for you. Not many people are disciplined enough to journal every single day, come rain or shine, ER visits, flus, or snow days, let alone general laziness.) The book is broken into sections, which are:

Tips and tricks
Encouraging quotes (throughout the book)
365 writing prompts (the meat of the thing)
52 weekly actions
400 thought-provoking quotes
Create-your-own prompts section
A year-long photography challenge

If you are feeling especially intense this year, you could do a prompt per day, along with an action per week and a photo challenge per week (printing them out and taping them in as you go). You’ll need to set aside some real time, though, because some of these prompts require more brain-power and/or creativity than others, and the same could be said for the actions. If you have a gaggle of small children or are in a physician residency or have a job on Wall Street, you might want to stick with an audio journal or maybe something like Wreck This Journal (because you just can’t go wrong with the release destroying a journal can provide).

The book is neat and tidy, straight-forward, friendly, professional-looking… there’s nothing bad to say about it.

Obviously, I think this is a great tool for exactly what it advertises. You want to journal this year but you’re not sure where to start each day? Or are you an old hand at journaling but you want an outside prompt this year? Well, until The Beginner’s Journal publishes (

Book Review: Holes

[image error]I had seen the movie. It was popular, in its time, with the kids. I wasn’t especially impressed. But I knew that didn’t mean I wouldn’t like the book. So when I found myself at a Cracker Barrell in upstate New York, facing a solo twelve-hour drive and perusing the audio book rentals, this one seemed like a pretty good choice. (I had to keep it kid-friendly since the kids would be ignoring me in the back seat, so I grabbed this and The Giver, which I will review soon.)

Called a “young adult, mystery, comedy novel” by Wikipedia (can that be right?), the idea is that Stanley Yelnats has been mistakenly convicted of stealing, which isn’t surprising because his family is cursed. He is sentenced to time at a juvenile facility in the middle of nowhere. The place is typical, at least in trope, and there are unfriendly kids, a tyrannical manager (or two), and all sorts of things you aren’t allowed to write home about, including the incessant digging of six-foot holes. The history of the place and of Stanley’s family starts weaving into the narrative, and you want to know how this all ties together, if the bad guys are going to get it, and how Stanley could become our hero. It’s light-hearted, if not a bit cliche.

It was a really good book, surprisingly so. There were times that the two stories (past and present) felt like I really was skipping back and forth between two stories, awkwardly so. But this was also part of why I liked the book. I loved the creative and variant chapter lengths, styles, and interweaving stories. Loved the bits, too, that were subtly magic realism. Also loved the way everything felt like it was going to work together and it did. Perhaps one or two things were too much of a give-away, but it was still nice. I even liked the ending, how it tied things up but didn’t overdo it or feel trite (and I know some literary fiction or modern fiction readers would find it too clean. So what?).

It’s a very short review, I know, but in conclusion, this book is creative and a great read for a kid–especially a boy–middle grades, who can handle themes of juvenile delinquency, bullying, etc.

_______________

I listened to the audiobook version of Holes by Louis Sachar (the author of the Wayside School books). The book was first published in 1998, by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. It has won a U.S. National Book Award and a Newbury Medal.

_______________

[image error]MOVIE

I actually gave this movie a second chance, after having “read” it. I watched with my kids. We staying interested, and I liked it better having known and appreciated the story. Still not a great movie, though. Pretty typical for something coming out of the cheap end of the Disney conglomerate. But a decent way to kill some time.

Book Review: Earth Kids are Weird

[image error]We were perusing the children’s section of a Barnes & Noble on a family trip to the mall, when we came across a few featured tables piled high with great-looking books. I did what all modern Americans do, and I pulled out my smart phone to take photos of all the books that I wanted to read or wanted to buy for someone else. My husband then pointed out this book, The X-Files: Earth Children Are Weird, since we are avid X-Files fans and I still love picture books at age 38. I snapped a photo, but then I decided just to stand there and read it because then I could review it right away.

This book is a pleasant surprise, especially if you have been convinced by experience that a movie/show-to-book trajectory is a bad idea. Sure, there are plenty of crappily done Frozen 3: The Novel and what not, but this book is on a featured table at Barnes & Noble because it’s actually cute and worth adding to your future-sci-fi-geek-baby’s library.

It’s short. The illustrations are clean and nice (if not mind-blowing). The storyline is pretty much perfect as an elementary-age Cliff’s Notes on the point of X-Files. And creating future fans for the X-Files universe is always a good idea. (If you are living under a rock, I will tell you that The X-Files is a sci-fi TV show which has become two TV series plus some movies, comic books, and other related merchandise. The premise is that a couple of FBI agents–one a logical doctor and the other a believe-anything alien-theorist–are put on a team to deal with the secret, unexplained “X” files. Antics ensue (largely built around the story of Mulder’s sister’s disappearance in childhood as possibly being an alien abduction OR a government conspiracy), as do several seasons of episodic encounters with the unexplained, and, of course, a vveerrryyy slow romance. I reviewed the series HERE. Note that this book is not in direct correlation with the series, as the two characters representing Mulder and Scully are probably siblings, etc., but more embodies the spirit of the series with a cute, lighthearted twist.)

If you aren’t an X-Files fan, you’ll definitely be missing something here. You won’t hate the book, it will just seem a little straight-forward. But you’ll still like the twist ending and the bright colors and all that jazz.

I would recommend this book for exactly who it’s meant to be marketed to: parents who love X-Files and who also happen to have small children. I will probably buy one for my grandchildren one day, since my daughter regularly credits The X-Files theme music as a warm, fuzzy childhood memory.

There are a number of other books that would interest you if this one does, including others by Kim Smith and Pop Classics/Quirk Books: kids illustrated versions of E.T., Home Alone, and Back to the Future, not to mention A Die-Hard Christmas by Doogie Horner. I normally don’t like the movie-to-book thing because it isn’t done well, but these books have great illustrations and are very well reviewed.

_______________

I read The X-Files: Earth Children Are Weird, illustrated by Kim Smith, while standing in a Barnes & Noble, waiting for my family. It is available only in hard cover at this point, and has come out in the past year, from Pop Classics/Quirk Books.

 

Series Review: The School for Good and Evil

I found this trilogy—at least the first two books (which was all that was available at the reading)—to be very, very confusing.[image error]

Let’s get this established: I don’t confuse easily, especially when reading. The confusion with these books is three-fold, and it is reflected in the contradictory reviews. First, the plot it confusing. Second, the characters are confusing. And third, the whole point of the books is confusing. I could further break this down, but let’s just keep it at this.

What do these books do well? Marketing, clearly. Promises. And world-building. When you first encounter these book, they are likely to be standing out on an end cap in a book store, recommended by someone. They have lush covers with great illustrations, and the cover copy is a winner: two kids kidnapped every four years from a small village, and every time one is beautiful and good and one is odd and outcast. This time, the most beautiful child is busy trying to be extra good so she’ll get kidnapped and sent to school to become a princess. Meanwhile, the daughter of a witch is none to keen to go anywhere. The set-up continues: when they get to the school, the “princess” is enrolled in the School for Evil and the oddball in the School for Good.

[image error]Love it. The idea was really spectacular and even the world that Chainani creates is fun and engaging. You have these two opposing high schools training the good and evil to be fairytale characters, and bad grades can land you as a good or evil animal or sidekick. Throw in some fractured fairy tale, and this should have been a real winner.

I believe that some readers are still clinging to the idea behind the books, because what actually happens as the story continues (and continues and continues) is, like I said, confusion. The plot? Honestly, I had to re-read some sections because the narration is so spastic that I didn’t always know (or want to believe) what had just happened. Quite frankly, I’m good at interpreting/deciphering story, but this book? What made the most sense was often completely the opposite of what happened, and I don’t mean that in a good way. When something surprising happens in a story, it should on some level feel inevitable. The plot here was often willy nilly, slip shod, random. Something should have happened, and something else did. Or—which plenty of readers have pointed out—nothing happened or things happened in circles for much too long.

Characters? Everyone assumes that the moral of this series is that good and evil are not always how they appear. You imagine that Chainani is going to play with the conventional ideas of beauty, goodness, evil, and ugliness, and—super oddly—some readers end thinking that is what he did when he clearly didn’t. He instead gives us two main characters and many others who waffle back and forth between being one thing and being another while spouting truisms about themselves and each other that aren’t even believable. And the princesses are still boy-crazy and the witches still murder people. She’s good! (No, clearly she’s not.) He’s deeper than you think! (No way.) If Chainani had just let his characters be themselves after the first few chapters, the whole story would have gone a different, and less annoyingly zig-zag direction.

Because, let’s face it, the series ended when the first book ended. Writing a second and third book to undo the ending and re-write the outcome is just irritating to a good reader. What was this whole thing about, anyways? Well, I already addressed this, mostly.

Believe me, I approach every book wanting it to be amazing, even though I would be a little bit jealous if it was perfect. I don’t want to find a book laughable, unreadable, or disappointing. The first two books of the School for Good and Evil series do not, in any way except for world building, deliver on the promises or good reviews. What other reviewers have identified as a need to “cut” is really a need to be true to the characters and the inevitable moral of the set-up, or a lack of writing intuition. Instead, you get hundreds and hundreds of pages of confusing, mediocre, random narration that left me sincerely let-down.

I would not recommend this series. If they make a movie, it is possible they will be able to create a new story from the mess, and that might be pretty good.

_______________

I read the first two books of the School for Good and Evil trilogy, by Soman Chainani, published by HarperCollins beginning in 2013. I only read the first two because that’s what was available when I read it. The final book is now available, but my daughter (as well as I) have outgrown the series.

Book Review: The Turner House

[image error]There are a few people I will take book recommendations from and they are mostly in my writing group. This particular recommendation, for The Turner House, came not only as a title scribbled on my writing notes, but as a book pressed into my hand by someone else who had just finished it. “It reminded me of you,” he said.

There are a number of reasons why this book would remind someone of me, whether they be a friend or a reader. As for a friend, they would recognize that I am from Detroit and that I grew up there in a time that coincides with some of the book (which spans a few generations). If you are one of my readers, you would note that the writing has a tone similar to mine, and that the book features of number of main characters while point of view shifts around over time and across characters (a style which I prefer as reader and writer). If you are one of my writing friends, you would further know that I have been writing a book, The Family Elephant’s Jewels, for a while, and that that book shares a premise with The Turner House: family matriarch of a large family is dying (or has just died) and her demise causes her progeny to reinvent themselves as they slowly gather toward home.

And that is the idea of this book, as well as mine. The Turners lost their patriarch years ago, but now the mother’s health is failing and she has left the family home to stay with her eldest son. The thirteen children are left with the complicated decision of what to do with the house, which is under water in a city that is, at times, literally up in flames. It is an exploration of a family, of a few select members, and a time and a place. It is in exploration, too, of a race in America, but we’ll get to that more, later.

The book is very well written, interesting and fluid and, at times, the language is pretty. Also, it is insightful, although this too we will get to later. The main complaint that I have heard about Turner House is that the narrative feels lopsided because it develops a couple people deeply, a few people a little less, and most of the characters very little. While this feels appropriate in most books, it doesn’t feel right when the story is of a family of equals who are all in the adventure together. I suppose it makes sense to flesh out the oldest and youngest, but then you get something more from just one other brother, one neighbor, and only one grandchild. I agree, it can be awkward, and there are places where nothing happens or where repetition happens, and the book loses readers in those places.

Still, in the end, I found the book enjoyable enough that I kept reading, happily. Then again, I like literary fiction.

Of course, part of what I loved about this book are the references to Detroit. Streets, places, products, history… it was full of things that I recognize. (Except for that bit about a “chili dog,”—as if someone from Detroit would call it that!—it was surprisingly familiar for having been written by someone who only had a father from there.) It’s akin to watching Stranger Things when you are a Gen-X-er; you get something out of it that others can’t. If you’re from Detroit, it’s nostalgic.

And not always in a comfortable way. Part of what this book is, is another voice in the current racism-in-America conversation. I’m going to try to be politically correct about this, but I had a very troubled time with this book, so, well… On one hand, I don’t think the book, as fiction, claims a whole lot ideologically, directly. The reader sees what the characters see, not the author. On the other hand, it’s hard to separate the two. You see, this book could have been the story of my own family, all the way from the grandfather coming up from Arkansas, being confounded and disillusioned, to work in a factory. The streets in the city I recognize from my own family’s houses—yes, both of them—including one which housed one set of grandparents’ eleven children. By the time the second generation dispersed, the neighborhood was in disarray, and it was bullets in the glass which changed our own church attendance. At least one uncle and aunt kept a firm hold on their city farm until they aged out, not long ago. Now, we’re scattered. Some have moved as far away as North Carolina and DC, although many of my cousins are still in the city and the suburbs. Some of the debris of our Detroit story includes the American dream, while some of us crashed and burned in a cloud of poverty, drugs, and crime.

But I’m basically white. My grandfather was Native American and Irish, but the rest of the family is a combo of German, Irish, Welsh, and English with a secretive branch of what might be Spanish. Which makes reading this book as is… well… interesting because the characters occasionally, off-handedly blame what has happened to them and to the city of Detroit on white people in general, and on their status as African American. But since I recognize most of the struggles of this book in my own family, I fail to see how that simplistic of an answer can be true or even helpful, especially as an assumed fact. The characters are so busy shrugging while pointing fingers that in that respect the book truly lacks insightfulness.

And yet, for me, that journey in itself was a real thinker. I was forced to consider what the African Americans in the book were assuming while reconciling it to my own family’s history which is shared by many whites (who were at one recent time immigrants) in Detroit. I’m not denying the reality of racism or American history. The struggle is real. It’s just that many of the assumptions about modern Detroit that are made in this book regarding racism didn’t seem to jive with what I know about my own life because of the over-simplification. White family moves out of Detroit = they are racists. White family tries to rehabilitate Detroit = they are racists. White family exists = they are racists. I suppose this is a reflection of Northern segregation, but at any rate, I think that these assumptions weakened the book’s position as a portal into the family life of Detroit African Americans, which was super interesting. Or maybe hearing these assumptions is part of the experience, I just fear that most readers will accept them hook, line, and sinker without understanding the broader narrative, which includes a number of racial enclaves and experiences, economic roller-coastering, and political corruption, among other things, like innovation, creativity, and the blood, sweat, and tears of the blue collar worker.

Then again, the book does have a lot more insight into other things. I find it most insightful when remarking on everyday life and humanity in general, especially struggle and addiction. See the quotes below.

And there is a story to follow, even if it isn’t totally straightforward. It jumps back and forth between the 40s, the 60s, and current time, answering the question: did the Turner kids really see a ghost, or is one of them just going crazy because of their shared history? It does drag on at times, and doesn’t keep you gripped once the story drags and repeats here and there. That is also a common complaint.

I would recommend this book for people who enjoy modern American literary fiction. You are going to have to think a little bit about race relations (hopefully deeper than the book takes you), but mostly you are going to enjoy the characters and Flournoy’s generally wry insight. It’s not the most engaging or best book I’ve ever read, but it was well worth the read.

_______________

I read Angela Flournoy’s The Turner House, published by Mariner Books in 2015, and which was shortlisted for the National Book Award and won many other prices, including Oprah’s endorsement.

_______________

QUOTES:

Whoops. Have to find the book. I will post them later.

Book Review: Where the Wild Things Are

[image error]This book really doesn’t need a review, does it? But it was on the Best Books list and I read it (not for the first time), and here it is.

I will admit that this was never a favorite of mine. I just didn’t get all the hype. I was so used to the illustrations by the time I was grown that even those didn’t seem that exciting. I think this may be attributed to me being a rule-follower. Even as a child, I didn’t really relate to Max and his rampant misbehavior, nor his attitude toward his parents. If I had just loosened up enough to see my own style of rebellion, perhaps I would have related more.

I did enjoy it more when I read it recently. And then I was invited to a baby shower and the invitation stipulated that we should bring a picture book in lieu of a card (as if I were going to bring a card which cost me money, anyway). I wanted to narrow my Friday shopping down, so I decided that the Babies ‘R’ Us where the expectant mother was registered might be an okay place to buy the book, too. (I had also cut too close to the deadline to order the book.) On the paperback (read: more affordable and also read: I don’t like board books) end, there were a few very classic choices, many of which would have been a good contribution to the new baby’s library. I figured someone else would get all the titles with “love” in them, like I Love You to the Moon and Back or I Love You Forever. And then there was Where the Wild Things Are, looking completely hip next to all the babyish titles with fluffy covers.

I stood there and read through the book again, and a tear formed in my eye that reappeared when the mom opened the gift at the shower and I explained myself to the room; “I want Lucy to know that no matter how she behaves, she can always come back home.” It’s still choking me up, because while this book does not enable children to never grow up or not take responsibility (which is, I agree, a current trend among twenty- and thirty-somethings), the message is in line with the parable of the prodigal son: no matter just how low a child sinks or how terrible they behave, their parents should always love them and be willing to forgive and celebrate their victories.

It really made the book a new personal favorite, when I realized this. Plus, those illustrations are really very cool.

[image error]Maurice Sendak also needs no introduction, but here that is, too.

Mr. Sendak was an American artist, born way back in the twenties. He was the third child of Polish-Jewish parents, and although he grew up in New York, he was profoundly affected by the death of several relatives in the Holocaust. He fell ill as a child and fell in love with books while reading all those books in bed. Then, when he saw Fantasia, he decided to become an illustrator, as well (at least according to Wikipedia).

[image error]He spent the late 40s and 50s illustrating (including Little Bear), and then ventured into writing his own copy. It was Where the Wild Things Are that made him famous, but he had a long career full of bright moments, including designing the window displays for FAO Schwartz and advising for the creation of Sesame Street, as well as opera and theater set design. Where the Wild Things Are was published in 1963, which garnered him his first major award, the Caldecott Medal. He also won the Hans Christian Andersen Award, the National Book Award, and other awards.

Besides his many other projects, collaborations, collections, and illustrations, he illustrated (and sometimes wrote) the following—

[image error]As Illustrator:

Little Bear, Else Holmelund Minarik
Mrs. Piggle Wiggle series
Zlateh the Goat and Other Stories
The Wheel on the School, Meindert DeJong
Library posters

As Writer and Illustrator:

Chicken Soup with Rice
Alligators All Around
Kenny’s Window
Very Far Away
The Sign on Rosie’s Door
One Was Johnny
Pierre [image error]
Higglety Pigglety Pop!
In the Night Kitchen
Ten Little Rabbits
Some Swell Pup
Seven Little Monsters
Outside Over There
We Are All in the Dumps with Jack and Guy
Maurice Sendak’s Christmas Mystery
Bumble-Ardy
My Brother’s Book
Brundibar

TV, Film and Stage

Really Rosie (TV and audiorecording)
Simple Gifts (TV)
Peter and the Wolf
Seven Little Monsters (TV)

[image error]It seems to me that Sendak was a pioneer of children’s literature and especially illustration. What you see when browsing the picture book section of a bookstore is in large thanks to Sendak and his pushing the envelope, both in content and in illustration. I have definitely become a new fan, and I don’t think a children’s library would be complete without Where the Wild Things Are, Little Bear, Chicken Soup with Rice, and Alligators All Around, at the very least. And if you like banned books, you should grab a copy of In the Night Kitchen, as well.

_______________

THE MOVIE

[image error]I was as excited as any other writer and childrens literature lover when the previews for Where the Wild Things Are hit the screens. I was probably just as disappointed as the next guy, as well, when I saw it. Taking a picture book to movie format always has to be a risk, since so very much has to be added to the beloved story. But while Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs did it with aplomb (although not relating too much to the actual book), Where the Wild Things Are came off slow and emotionally dim. Yes, it was totally amazing at the time to see all that CG hair blowing in the wind, but there was just nothing compelling or very redemptive about the story. And while the original Max is just bursting with energy and personality, the movie Max is a new level of complicated, in a depressing way. Also, children don’t seem to get it.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t watch it, but don’t’ expect too much, and don’t watch it with your kids if you expect to keep them riveted.