Monday, May 27, 2024

The War on Peace in Prose


War – What is it good for? Absolutely nothing in the real world, but on page it can make for compelling reading. The fighting may be in the foreground of the plot or may serve primarily as backdrop to the story. Central characters may be soldiers, or veterans, or civilians going about the process of living while others kill and are killed around them. Perhaps a truce has already been called that ends the fighting, but not the impact on shattered lives.

The following books are examples of such compelling reading material

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All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr – Set in Europe during World War II, the narrative features a German orphan boy who is handy at mechanical fidgeting, including the self-taught ability to fix radios and finding which transmissions can reach him. One is picked up from France, sent by the great uncle of a blind girl that it is his destiny to one day meet. 

Much takes place between Werner hearing the broadcasts of Marie-Laure's great uncle and finally crossing paths with her. Due to his talent, rather than being sent to work in the mines Werner lands in an academy that trains German boys to become soldiers. Marie-Laure ends up alone when her father is taken prisoner. Left behind by him is an invaluable gift - a rare gem removed from the museum to be kept safe from treasure seeking Nazis. Along with its monetary worth are rumored magical properties that can heal disease. Marie-Laure is unaware that it is in her possession until figuring out clues sent by her father. While we read on to see when and how fate will lead Werner to Marie-Laure, the war that Hitler thrust the world into rages on.

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The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon –A novel about the immigrant experience, particularly that of Jewish people who came to American shores from Europe to escape Nazi persecution. Being set in wartime means that violence and survival instinct are on display during the frozen battlefield portion of the narrative. It also is about magic and illusion and escapism and the earliest days of the comic book industry.

Last but not least, we are presented with a love story. Two actually - one straight and one gay. Given the time period, the latter is clandestine, forbidden, and ultimately heartbreaking. If you are drawn to sprawling stories that take place over many years in which spectacular events take place, pick this book up.

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Freeman by Leonard Pitts Jr. - History buffs interested in a post-Civil War setting will be enthralled. Those who take interest in this nation's troublesome history of race relations will be drawn in and will shake their head at the realization that centuries old truths stubbornly remain valid to this day. Those searching for bittersweet love stories will find them here, and most importantly, readers will empathize with the well-developed characters.

Sam, a runaway slave who once worked for the Union Army, is determined to find his wife even though this means leaving the safety of Philadelphia behind to return to the war-torn south. Tilda is being forced at gunpoint to walk until finding a place that the man who enslaves her believes his rights as a slave owner will still be honored, despite the result of the war. The third primary character is Prudence, a white woman who goes from Boston to Mississippi to start a school. While the events of this story take place after bloodshed on the battlefield has officially ended, long lasting effects dominate the lives of those in search of a new meaning for freedom.

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Home by Toni Morrison – Frank Money is a veteran of the Korean War, haunted by blood-soaked memories of his time there. Now back in America, returned to its unique brand of racism against black people, he finds himself with a peacetime rescue mission. His sister is in bad shape, and so he must return to the hometown in Georgia that he loathes, taking a journey from one trauma inducing location to another. It is the last thing he wants to do, and the only challenge capable of shaking him from a crippling sense of apathy and PTSD.

Much has changed over the course of the years since Frank last set foot in the town where they were raised. Plenty remains basically the same. Home is there to provide familiar comforts, even though our return to it is inevitably in the form of a different version of ourselves. Even when it is a place that was run away from, home is what one hopes remains when the war and the running is done.

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The Light in the Ruins by Chris Bohjalian – This book jumps back and forth between the years 1943 and 1955. The earlier setting takes place in an Italian countryside during World War II. Mussolini's Italy became an ally to Hitler's Germany during the war, but initially German soldiers treated Italy like an occupied nation rather than viewing its citizens as brothers in arms. During this period of uneasy alliance, the wealthy Rosati’s host parties for the Germans, the two adult sons serve in the military, and their sister falls in love with a German soldier whom she believes to be more humane than most of his comrades. Their cozy relationship with Germans is a recipe for resentment from their less prosperous neighbors who are distrustful of the Nazis and anyone who chooses to associate with them.

In the 1950's, the second plot revolves around a serial killer who for unknown reasons is targeting members of the Rosati family. Two detectives try to hunt down the killer. This fast-paced novel races along on a dual track. We learn the identity and motivation of the killer in its final pages. If you enjoy whodunnits, or war novels, or historical fiction with a dash of romance, or art history – you will be rewarded with each of these elements.

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The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah –This novel is about German occupation of France during the WW II that centers on the heroism of French women- two in particular, sisters Isabelle and Vianne. Isabelle is the more rebellious of the two, not content to sit at home and wait to be saved when she can go out and do some saving of her own. She joins a group of rebels that help the cause of defeating Germany any way they can, such as escorting to safety various pilots who survive their planes being brought down by the German military. Vianne has a young daughter in her care, so she is not able to be as reckless as her sister.

Vianne’s husband joins the fighting and is captured. A German soldier is billeted in their home. After he is killed to protect the hiding Isabelle, a far less decent Nazi takes his place. The narrative alternates between Isabelle's exploits and Vianne's struggle to survive Nazi occupation of her town and home. A third thread takes us to 1995. An elderly woman who recently moved into an assisted living complex has been invited to an event in France. We understand that this woman must be one of the sisters but must wait for her identity to be revealed.

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Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi –The narrator of this graphic novel is a young girl growing up during the Islamic revolution and the Iran-Iraq war who reveals impactful events to us in matter-of-fact fashion, such as her one day being a student in a co-ed, non-religious bilingual school - the next day a student in an all-girls school with the wearing of veils now obligatory. The contrast between the stylistically simple black and white illustrations and the brutal inhumanity of what is taking place is startling - like a pre-school children's book and a Rated R horror flick merged into one.

Loved ones are introduced on one page, killed a page or two afterwards. Tragedy just keeps coming. Yet we also can't help smiling in certain places as this stubborn, resilient girl puts together a punk rock look, or goes shopping for music by acts some readers will remember from the 1980's, scoring posters of Iron Maiden and Kim Wilde that her parents sneak into the country, or when she takes a forbidden puff of a cigarette in the basement and declares herself to have reached adulthood. Regime changes are detailed at a dizzying pace. No matter who is in charge during any given period, repression in one form or another is present, as is danger. Permanence is a foreign concept to this Middle Eastern world. Her immediate family is the only constant, but how long can it last when the only reliable guarantees are sudden change and arbitrary violence?

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The Plot Against America by Philip Roth – This book asks the hypothetical question - what if FDR had been defeated in his run for a third term by the charismatic Charles Lindbergh whose main campaign promise was to keep the US out of World War II while having a darker motive for acquiring power? It is told in a macro way, as well as going micro and showing the impact of Lindbergh's fictional presidency through the eyes of a boy in a Jewish family in Newark, NJ. Instead of being about fighting against tyranny overseas, it’s about hope of avoiding war being used as lure to spread antisemitism in America.

Parallels between the 1940's of Roth's imagination and our current political climate are striking. Simply switch the idea of a man who ascends to the presidency aided by a foreign government (Germany) with the idea of a man ascending to the presidency aided by a foreign government (Russia). Switch a celebrity with no previous political experience having an improbable, meteoric rise to the White House with a celebrity who – actually, no theme switch is necessary here. Switch people being thrown into concentration camps because they're Jewish with people being thrown into detention centers because they crossed a border in hope for a better way of life. The American way is something that can be taken for granted until it is under assault.

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The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen – The narrator is the product of an absent French father and Vietnamese mother. He leaves Vietnam for America and establishes a new life with other refugees in Los Angeles, secretly reporting back to communist superiors in his homeland.  As a spy he toes the line between identity as a capitalist and as a communist who will never spiritually leave his native land.

This novel explores the nature of being two sided.  The narrator is both unfeeling and remorseful, a sensitive soul and a cold-blooded killer, a loyal friend and a lone wolf, the conqueror and the conquered, Western and Eastern, Caucasian and Asian. These ideas are explored with beautiful command of language. The closing section features the most vivid torture scene I can recall since reading William Goldman's Marathon Man years ago. I suppose I should provide a trigger warning for those who steer clear of graphic violence on page. If you can look past that, you will find an astute book of compelling ideas.

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The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien – This book is written from the perspective of down-in-the dirt participants of the Vietnam War. It’s about bonding with your fellow man and then watching him die before your eyes. It's about surviving to tell a jungle tale, not so much the true details of what did and didn't happen, but how it felt to know that the next minute might be your last...or the last for the guy sitting next to you. It's about being steeped in mud and surrounded by death, some of it brought about by your own hands, most of it something that you're helpless to stop and so are forced to grow familiar with. It is about the things soldiers carry, physically as well as emotionally, to remind themselves that a world at peace awaits those lucky enough to make it through hell and return to wherever they came from. Not that home will be what it once was, because war permanently alters everything that it does not destroy.

Billed as fiction but it feels like a memoir so split the difference. O’Brien writes beautifully about awful circumstances and tragic events rendered mundane by repetition. It is a time capsule filled to the brim with things held on to, and things lost.


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My humble contribution to the genre - THE RIDE HOME


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Friday, May 10, 2024

AND STILL THEY RISE


Amelia Earhart said that courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace.   We are living in trying times for women in America and beyond our shores. As these novels written by and largely about the inner lives of women attest, that has pretty much always been the case.



American Spy by Lauren Wilkerson - Someone breaks into Marie Mitchell’s home to kill her. She thwarts the attack and goes on the run. The rest of the story details what led to this situation. Most of the text is what Marie writes to her twin sons while absent because she has one more dangerous mission to complete. In case she doesn't survive, she wants to explain her actions and choices.

Although a work of fiction, there are characters from real life featured. Most notably, Thomas Sankara who is known as "Africa's Che Guevara”. He is the father of Marie's sons, and she is tasked with setting him up on behalf of the US government. Nearly everyone in this book is practicing the art of deceit. Marie is constantly being manipulated while directed to manipulate others. It's what she signed up for, although prior to receiving this assignment she was underutilized and underappreciated by the FBI. But she is the right race and gender and level of attractiveness to be put on the case of bringing Sankara down. He is one of the few people in this story who isn't lying with every other word he says. His intentions in many respects are noble, so readers along with Marie wonder if her allegiance is to the right side.

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The Paris Bookseller by Kerri Maher - Historical fiction centered on the life of Sylvia Beach who in 1919 founded Shakespeare and Company bookstore. She is surrounded by creatives who felt stifled by the conservative attitudes of America and so came to Paris to live their best lives and produce their best art. While Prohibition was taking place in America, artists freely expressed themselves in France. Sylvia is also free to love the woman she loves.

Her decision to publish James Joyce's Ulysses in 1922 drives the story. Considered obscene by those who couldn't look past the strong language to appreciate the novelty and beauty of its prose, Ulysses needed someone brave and resourceful enough to bring it to the light of day. By publishing the only title under the bookstore's imprint, the course of literary history was altered. Readers have a window seat view of this artistically influential period.

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Tumbling by Diane McKinney-WhetstoneHerbie and Noon’s marriage is not consummated due to a dark secret, a brutal attack in Noon's past. She escapes her demons through church. Herbie does likewise in nightclubs and in the arms of another woman, when she's around and will have him.  Ethel fulfills Herbie’s physical needs if not necessarily his emotional ones.

The couple comes to raise two daughters just months apart in age who are left on their doorstep - Fannie as an infant and Liz later at the age of 5. Mysteries are unraveled throughout the narrative taking place in Philadelphia during the 1940's and 50's. Struggles are endured, mostly because of secrets and lies and maintained silences. Readers pull for them to remain together when fate seems determined to tear their world apart.

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Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward - A motherless girl in Louisiana with a mostly absent father lets the local boys take what they please from her until she meets one that she wants something back from. Esch is a lone young woman in a world of males, and it is through her eyes that we pass idle time waiting, watching, remembering, wishing for what is plain will not be, settling for whatever she is able to grab hold of. Pregnant at the age of fourteen, she does not get placed on a pedestal like her brother's prized dog. But like China she can nurture when called upon, is ready to fight tooth and nail for survival when necessary.

Esch aches with desire, is burdened by a stifling sense of loss, yearns to be loved. Prior to the arrival of Hurricane Katrina, the book’s pace covering twelve days is slow and steady. We wait with her for the inevitable devastation.

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The White Woman on the Green Bicycle by Monique Roffey – Trinidadians’ struggle for independence from the authority of Europeans is backdrop to the story of a rocky marriage. In this book’s first section, the title character incessantly complains about her situation. Even though her husband is no saint, initially he is the more tolerable of the two. He's an alcoholic and a serial adulterer, one who in his older years does not bother to have mistresses but settles for prostitutes. But we also see decency in his dealings with people and root for his efforts to atone and win back his wife's affections.

We are brought back in time for the second section to when they first arrive in Trinidad. They are more vibrant, seem to be deep in love with each other, open to giving things a chance. But while the husband is happy to be where he knows he can enjoy a successful career, his wife sees island life as a temporary necessity to experience, and then to endure until their return to England. She is led to believe that there is an exit strategy. He is hoping that she will come around in time, until he ceases to care. Rum and women and professional achievement and growing wealth help him to deal with a wife who hates where she is yet will not or cannot leave. Time passes and revolution is in the air. If the Trinidadians achieve the freedom they long for, perhaps she will get what she passively desires. The book draws to a close as the day of her personal emancipation seemingly draws near. We know it is a mirage because we have already learned that Trinidad will not loosen its grip on them.

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New World Monkeys by Nancy Mauro –A married Manhattanite couple has reached a rocky patch, but they’re not saying much about it. When Lily inherits a house in upstate New York, it’s as an excuse to move there for the summer while working on her obscure dissertation, never mind that the small town's library is insufficient. Duncan balances his stressful advertising job with trips upstate to spend weekends Lily. They're separated, but not officially; married but no longer truly intimate; perhaps still in love but neither one certain of how to express it.

The change of scenery brings various quirky characters into their unsettled lives and immediately puts blood on their hands, that of a not so wild boar which turns out to be the town mascot. Duncan has a jeans campaign that he's in charge of as distraction. The local Peeping Tom shows Lily the ropes as diversion. Together the couple finds a mystery to literally unearth in the form of a scattered skeleton buried in their garden while figuring out if they've reached the end of their road, or merely a slippery turning point.

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Blonde by Joyce Carol Oates – A thoroughly researched work of fiction about things that really happened (mixed with conjecture) in the life of a very well-known person. Her meteoric rise to Hollywood stardom as well as her tragic early death makes for irresistible subject matter. Her romantic life includes high profile marriages to Joe DiMaggio and Arthur Miller plus a dalliance towards the end of her days with President Kennedy.

The book begins when Norma Jean is a baby and closes with dramatization of her final breaths. Mostly written from first person point of view, Marilyn's thoughts, hopes, and dreams are revealed. What we see is a woman who led a glamorous existence, had many lovers but not nearly enough love, was on a lifelong search for the father she never knew, and on a quest to earn her mother's love. While the world viewed her as a blonde bombshell to adore, she saw herself as an artist trying to master her craft while exploited by Hollywood power brokers. Her unfulfilled desire to have and raise children meant that a fairy tale ending kept eluding her. Being the most desired woman in the world would be consolation prize. She had it all, including an abundance of insecurity and loneliness. When the spotlight was on, she dazzled. When it was off, the character of Marilyn Monroe was put away and the reality of being Norman Jean was her burden to bear.

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Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat – A tale about mothers and daughters and the pain they bring one another. The setting is divided between Haiti and America as well as between childhood and adulthood for the main character - Sophie. It starts off in Haiti where she is being raised by her aunt, left behind while her mother establishes a new life in New York. In her teen years the time arrives for Sophie to be reunited with her mother.

It isn't until she gets to New York that significant male characters are introduced. One is her mother's boyfriend. The other is a musician who lives next door when he isn't on the road. Joseph is closer in age to Sophie's mother. Staunch refusal to allow any man to ruin her daughter's purity drives a wedge between them. Sophie and her mother are no longer far apart physically, but distant emotionally. Patriarchy extending beyond Haiti results in cruelty imposed by women upon girls in their care to keep them worthy for male suitors. Sophie chooses to marry someone who seems to be a good man, breaking a family pattern. She is willing to attend therapy sessions in the hope that her husband's wait for physical intimacy need not be indefinite.

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The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri – A story of family, a construct supposedly bonded by blood, but more so by love and willingly made sacrifice. Gauri marries the love of her life, loses the charismatic and impulsive Udayan to political violence, and then marries his younger brother while carrying the child of the man she lost. Even though she is willing to make a new life with Subhash, he remains to her the lesser of the two brothers. Since the daughter they raise without revealing true paternal roots is a potent reminder of Udayan, Gauri never comes to love her daughter as you would expect a mother to do.

Leaving a country behind does little to erase memories and allow a new chance for happiness. Whether it's in the lowland of Calcutta or a college town in Rhode Island, when a ghost is more real to you than the people in your home, the only possible existence is a haunted one.

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The Magician’s Assistant by Ann Patchett –A woman struggles to learn who she truly is, which starts out by embarking on a journey to discover who her deceased husband was. Sabine's husband has just died. His lover Phan died of AIDS not long before, which informs us that Sabine was married to a gay man - the magician whom she assisted. She then learns that her husband was not an orphan bereft of any family other than her and Phan as she had thought. His mother and two sisters plus a couple nephews are alive and well. To them his name was Guy. Parsifal's greatest magic trick was reinvention of himself.

The first version is a boy growing up in Nebraska, dreaming of being anyplace else. The second version is a man (with a wife as well as a male partner) who has found that place in Los Angeles, performing magic shows for the joy of it and selling antique rugs as his main source of income. The only answer we receive regarding why Sabine was willing to marry him is that she loved him and failed to find anyone else who made her feel the same way. When she learns that Parsifal had been lying to her, she throws herself into solving the mystery of his life. By getting to know the people who share his blood, Sabine hopes to move on from torturous mourning towards a potential new form of happiness.



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Happy Mother's Day to all of the moms out there!






FAREWELL SAM