The Year in Books

After the Fire, a Still Small Voice, by Evie Wyld

2012-02-23T10:10:00.001-08:00

9780307378460
Pantheon, 2009
296 pp
(hardcover ed.)

"Sometimes, people aren't all right and that's just how it is."

After the Fire, a Still Small Voice is Evie Wyld's first novel. It won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize in 2009, and a year later it was on the shortlist for the Orange Award for new writers. In 2010 it also won a Betty Trask award, and was on the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award's shortlist for the 2011 award. Considering it's the writer's first novel, the recognition seems to have been major. After having read this book, I can see why.

The novel deals with the repercussions of war both on a man's soul and on the lives of those closest to him.   There have been a number of books that have dealt with this topic, but in Wyld's novel, she brings in something new as she follows not just one man's return from the war but three generations of men in the same family who have suffered either directly or indirectly from two different wars.   The story is compelling enough on its own, but what lifts it out of the range of just good fiction is the author's evocation of place, one of the strongest I've seen in a novel in a very long time.

Frank Collard has left Canberra, swapping city life for the isolation of his grandparents' old rustic shack along the coast where he used to go as a kid. He is estranged from his father, Leon, who also lost his father, ultimately due to his experiences in a Korean prison camp during the Korean War. Leon's father had escaped from the persecution of the Jews during World War II and had come to Australia; during the Korean conflict he had enlisted, leaving Leon home with his mother. Upon his return from the war, he had changed; he was no longer able to be around other people and ultimately left his family, taking off for points unknown.   Leon's mother left her son to go and find her husband, leaving Leon behind to run the family bakery shop, sending him the occasional postcard once in a while to let him know they're both okay. Neither have returned by the time Leon is drafted into service in the Vietnam War, where his experiences leave him a changed man as well, and neither are around when Leon returns. They've bought the shack that after their deaths Leon will inherit, the one where Frank is living at the beginning of the story. Not long after Leon comes back, he also looks to escape, wandering off into the outback.   Frank is now at the old shack, trying to escape his own anger-fueled demons. The story weaves together these three strands, going back and forth through time to create an incredible story of men seeking stillness in their lives after the traumas each has suffered. The stories of these three men echo and resonate down through the generations, as does the idea of escape.    The book is also populated by other characters who have had their own share of trauma and who deal with them in various ways.

From the Australia beaches to its vast outback, to the jungles of Vietnam, the sense of place brings this book alive, as does Wyld's insightful descriptions. For example,   Frank's first night's sleep in the shack was interrupted by

"the feeling that there had been some noise of movement in the shack, like a soundless bird had flown in one window and out the other ruffling the air as it went. He listened for feathers landing on the floor. Past the frogs and insects, the drill of night things, he heard it again. The night sounds dipped and let the noise through -- a faraway cry, something prehistoric, like the noise of a pterodactyl in an old plasticine movie. His ears became full of the sound of his own blood and he ticked in his head all the explanations. 'Bird' was what he arrived at. Some kind of bird was what the Creeping Jesus was. Owl. Jabiru. Cockatoo. He listened past his own breathing, past his own blood, then past the outside noise, banana leaves on corrugated iron, past the scrubbing of the gum trees in the little wind, .... Again like wind dropping, the nightbirds tucked their heads under their wings and the sound echoed from far away in the bush, a siren, a vowel noise that was long and thin, and when it reached its peak it broke and turned into a low howl, tailing off like a sad question."

The noise that "echoed over the tops of the cane," that sometimes "had the lightest touch of a man or woman about it," keeps Frank awake with his memories, as the nights "drip slowly by."

After the Fire, A Still Small Voice is not only a good novel, but a very timely and pertinent one as well, considering what's going on in the world and the problems of many returning soldiers and servicemen. While sometimes I felt the narrative could have been a bit less rambling in spots, I really liked it and each time I put it down I couldn't wait to get back to it. I could sense the loneliness within each of the main characters, although I was much more intrigued by Leon's story more than anyone else's. I can't explain why exactly, but he is a character I won't soon forget. Definitely recommended.

The Sly Company of People Who Care, by Rahul Bhattacharya

2012-02-19T15:24:00.001-08:00

9780374265854
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011
278 pp
(hardcover ed)

The Sly Company of People Who Care is Rahul Bhattacharya's first novel,currently shortlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize, and winner of the Hindu Literary Prize for Best Fiction in 2011. It is structured in three parts, told via first-person narrative and set in the country of Guyana. It's also a hell of a good book that will leave you thinking long after you've set it down.

The story is told from the point of view of the narrator, who has left his home in India for Guyana to escape the "deadness" of his life. His plan is to stay for a year, to become a "slow ramblin' stranger." He'd been in Guyana before for a week reporting on a cricket match, and during that time he sensed "moods and images, names and rhythms, contours of a mystery world one could perceive but not grasp." This time around, he finds this place to have the "feel of an accidental place," a place of "epic indolence," with a multitude of voices to be heard: "chinee, putagee, buck, coolie, and the combinations emanating from these, a separate and larger lexicon." While traveling into the interior with a local huckster and "porknocker" (diamond miner) named Baby, he soaks up local life along the way, and becomes enthralled with Guyana's natural beauty. There he discovers that while he's in awe at Baby's freedom and ability to live off little more than his wits, he also finds witnesses an act of betrayal and something worse that leaves him wondering. On his return to Georgetown, after recovering from a case of dengue fever, he realizes that

"One escapes one's life for however long, seeking adventure - I think of the Hindi word dheel. That is what kite-flyers in Bombay shouted when they wanted the spooler to let loose the thread...So one escapes one's life seeking adventure, and with enough dheel and some luck, that happens. But the thread is anchored. You can only go so far. The impulse must change. Instead of adventure one seeks understanding."

Hooking up with a local character named Ramotar Seven Curry, a professional wedding guest, the narrator is at one such event, "where everyone is welcome," regardless of social class, but as it turns out, that blanket doesn't exactly include Africans. Here the narrator begins to grasp what really lies beneath Guyana's beautiful exterior. The tone of the novel begins to shift, as the author explores "the wounds left behind," and where the narrator makes a critical discovery about the country he at first thought so "accidental." While discussing India's hierarchical class rigidity and the fact that Indian nationals do not see their fellow Indians in Guyana as Indian at all, in a mix of both fiction and nonfiction, the narrator also relates how Guyana became a nation divided along the lines of race beginning with its European colonization. The narrative goes back into Guyana's troubled past to make some sense of its troubled present. It is a story of the forced migration of slaves, the end of slavery and the introduction of indentured servants largely from India, and the social, political and economic displacement of one set of people over another via policies set by the Europeans. What's left now is a "competition of suffering" between the two groups," with the Afro-Guyanese seeing things from one point of view and the Indo-Guyanese having an altogther different take on the situation. What Europeans started before leaving the country has left long-standing wounds that continue to inform most aspects of life in this country, and not just the economic and political aspects. And the pattern of movement and displacement continues today, as "there are more Guyanese living outside Guyana than in it."

In another shift of tone, the narrator's story picks up with him becoming a bit bored and restless, ready for yet another journey. He meets a local girl named Jan, and they're off to Venezuela. He falls head over heels; she's looking for an escape. They're attracted to each other by the sex, but otherwise he comes to realize that they have very little in common, and the excitement begins to wear thin. As his visa is about to expire, the two head back to Guyana, and it is then that he runs into a moral dilemma or two over "wounds left behind" for which he might be responsible.

There's a great deal more to this book, but there's too much to encapsulate in a few paragraphs. Suffice it to say that the narrator ultimately comes to realize that in Guyana, everything is not so accidental after all -- that everything has been created, seeds have been sown that have taken root deep within the very souls of the Guyanese people, and they all stem back to the European colonizers.

At first I wasn't so sure about this book, but after finishing it and giving it some thought, I grew to really like it as I considered all of the ironies within. I'll leave you to figure them out for yourself. The prose is lush and descriptive, especially in detailing the beauties of the Guyanese landscape. Some people have criticized the book for having no real resolution, but perhaps the lack of an ending tied up neatly in a little bow is reflective of the content of the novel. Definitely and highly recommended. There is a lot of really good fiction coming out of South Asia right now, and this book is no exception.

the winner of the Running the Rift giveaway....

2012-02-14T16:34:00.000-08:00

It's Harvee! Her comment was second, and random.org said that number 2 is the winner. So congrats, and I'll be contacting you soon.

Thanks to everyone for playing, and since I'm on a giveaway roll this year, stay tuned. More to follow.

The Silent Oligarch, by Chris Morgan Jones

2012-02-14T03:03:00.001-08:00

9781594203190
The Penguin Press, 2012
312 pp.

The Silent Oligarch is Chris Morgan Jones' first novel, and it's a good one. While I'm generally not a huge fan of books in the thriller genre, I actually couldn't put this one down. The author's firsthand experience in the intelligence-gathering industry lends a great deal of credence to the story he offers his readers, and he leaves behind the usual clichés found in many novels in the genre.

Former journalist Ben Webster works as investigator for Ikertu, a private firm that specializes in gathering intelligence for those who can pay for it. The company's newest client is one Aristotle Tourna, whose goal is to bring down the corrupt Russian energy oligarch Konstantin Malin, "the power behind the throne at the energy ministry," ... "the silent oligarch" and "gray cardinal of the Kremlin." Tourna is accusing him of global money laundering via a corporation known as Faringdon, which owns most of the assets. On paper, the owner of the corporation is Richard Lock, attorney and front man for Malin, but Tourna is alleging that Malin is the actual owner, which just happens to be true. But Lock and Malin operate in a world where there are carefully-built layers of secrets and zealously-guarded fictions, putting Lock in a tenuous spot: in this world, the two men "cannot divorce." It is Lock who will ultimately have to answer when Tourna brings his case to the courts.

Webster realizes that Lock is the key to getting to Malin, that bringing him in and turning him will produce needed results. But when Lock's carefully-built fictional affairs start receiving unwanted attention, and after various law-enforcement agencies start to take an interest, Lock starts getting nervous. When a former colleague is found dead, Lock begins to unravel. Webster tries to convince him that he and Ikertu may be Lock's only hope, but Lock doesn't know if there is anyone he can trust. Webster is not without his own battles in this particular case -- his family is being threatened, he may have discovered a link between this current case and the death of a friend ten years earlier, and people are starting to die after he asks them pertinent questions. He begins to question how much longer he can go on with the investigation, or if he is really the right man for the job.

There are a number of very good things about this novel to recommend it. First,the author has done a good job with his characters, most notably that of Lock. While a bit on the naive side, deep down inside he knows he's not hard enough to survive in the world he's working in. He's a credible character who finds himself in way over his head, not always making the smartest decisions, but as the story progresses, so too does Lock's desire to make a break and try to regain his own identity. Webster, on the other hand, is not as nicely filled in as Lock, which is a bit surprising, considering that the author once played a role similar to Ben's. The prose is approachable, intelligent and never overdone, and while there's always enough suspense to keep the reader engaged, the author doesn't have to result to general thriller gimmicks to move the story along. But what really stands out in this book is the idea that life is not actually divided into black and white, but rather that the world moves in patches of muddled grays. As Lock notes at one point:

"So Malin's bent. So what? ... Everyone's bent. Tourna's bent, Jesus. He's worse. And all those blue-chip companies, you think they haven't got someone like me to hide things, help them avoid tax? They've got legions of them. I'm just one man." ... "Ben, we both work for crooks. We play our parts, and that's it. And if we didn't someone else would. That's the world."

The Silent Oligarch is a good read, with enough action to make thriller readers happy, while at the same time offering less "pulse-pounding"-oriented readers a glimpse into how things work behind the scenes of the world's richest players. It's an eye-opening story as well. I never knew that organizations like the fictional Ikertu existed, but when I received the book, it came with article from the New Yorker (you can read the abstract here ) profiling Jules Kroll, head of the real-life organization for which Chris Morgan Jones used to work. Definitely recommended.

My thanks to TLC Blog Tours, and to the publisher for sending me a copy of the novel.

You can find other tour hosts and reviews for Silent Oligarch here.

Chinaman, by Shehan Karunatilaka

2012-02-09T10:57:00.000-08:00

9780224091459
Jonathan Cape, 2011 (UK)
397 pp.
(hardcover)

There is a Sinhalese expression "Konde bandapu cheena," which translates as "ponytailed Chinaman," and connotes someone gullible -- someone who will believe anything.   A "Chinaman" in cricket terms is (according to Wikipedia) "a left-handed bowler bowling wrist spin (left arm unorthodox). For a right-handed batsman, the ball will move from the off side to the leg side (left to right on the TV screen). " The question asked by the narrator of this novel is this:

"Is this a story about a pony-tailed Chinaman bowler? Or a tale to tell a pony-tailed Chinaman? That is for you to decide."

Whatever your choice may be after finishing this novel, Chinaman is one of the best novels I've read so far this year. I know jack about cricket, which features heavily throughout the story; no surprise there, considering Americans are far more involved in football, baseball and basketball. Strangely enough, my lack of knowledge was not a drawback in any form. The mix of Sri Lankan history, contemporary politics, humor, the characters and the author's prose all come together to make this book an unforgettable experience.

"There is nothing more inspiring than a solid deadline," notes retired Sri Lankan journalist WG Karunasena, and after a long career of both sportswriting and serious drinking, he has been given his last one. His doctor has given him about a year to live if he does not stop drinking; if WG cuts down to two drinks a day, maybe a year or two at most. He decides that it's a good time to do a "halfway decent documentary on Sri Lankan cricket", and is obsessed with a cricket player named Pradeep Mathew, who he says, is Sri Lanka's all-time best cricketer. Mathew was a "top spinner...," "Chinaman, googly, top spinner and that amazing arm ball that god rid of the Aussie captain."   Along with his friend and fellow cricket fanatic Ari Byrd, WG begins to gather information on Mathew, who has long-since disappeared from the cricket scene, official records and also from Sri Lanka, seemingly vanishing into thin air.   As they start the documentary project, which will later evolve into a book project for WG, they run into several people who claim to know something about Mathew, and they run into others who do not want WG to go any further with the project. Is there some conspiracy at work here? As WG and Ari embark on their at times rather strange quest, WG's obsession with Mathew and his discussions about the game of cricket become a vehicle for exploring Sri Lankan politics and history, and life in contemporary Sri Lankan society.

But there are other considerations at work in this novel as well, both on and off the cricket field -- relationships within families; friendships; politics and money that get in the way of sportsmanship; old age; the sadness and regret of wasted lives; the inescapable power plays -- all presented in a style that fits well into the story without ever getting overly preachy.   There's WG's old nemesis, once a rival for WG's wife Sheila, who may or may not have had six fingers and who may or may not have been Mathew's school coach ; a midget who claims to have had an underground bunker and to have secretly taped damning conversations on the cricket field; a friend of WG who may or not be a pedophile; and there's WG himself, the very center of the novel -- should anyone even believe his ramblings, considering his alcoholic bent toward self destruction and considering the characters that populate this novel?   The story is punctuated throughout with definitions of cricket terms, diagrams of different cricket techniques, parts of the field etc, largely to help the reader and to move the story along. . There are also fuzzy photos here and there that may or may not lend credence to WG's search for the truth about Pradeep Mathew.

Chinaman is funny and downright sobering at the same time, which given the seriousness of the history of ongoing problems in Sri Lanka is a good juggling act, keeping the reader entertained on one hand while exploring the problems of this nation. And then there's the sports aspect: the author clearly brings out the "magic" moments of sporting events that tie people together: "sport can unite worlds, tear down walls and transcend race, the past, and all probability. Unlike life, sport matters." As WG notes,

"In thirty years, the world will not care about how I lived. But in a hundred years, Bulgarians will still talk of Letchkov and how he expelled the mighty Germans from the 1994 World Cup with a simple header."

As an American who knows little to nothing about the sport of cricket, at first the book was a bit daunting, even though the author lays out the basics and then throws in bits about different throws or batting techniques. When I realized that this could be problematic, I went to the internet for help in getting a quick rundown on how this game is played -- problem solved. Cricket might be a sticking point for some readers in this country, but ultimately I discovered it didn't really matter -- the overall story is so good and is so well told that my lack of cricket knowledge was only a momentary glitch that really did not distract from the narrative. The ending may be a bit gimmicky for some readers, but the book's good points are so numerous that they outweigh any negatives.

Whether or not you care about cricket, I definitely and highly recommend this book -- it is that good, offering its readers a glimpse into life in another country, and into one man's journey of discovery in his last months of life. It's a beautiful book, and I hope it finds other Americans to cheer it on.

addendum: One of my online book friends informed me yesterday that this book is going to be published by Graywolf Press under the title of The Legend of Pradeep Mathew. According to Graywolf's page (linked under the title), it will be coming out May of this year.

The Last Storyteller, by Frank Delaney

2012-02-07T08:52:00.000-08:00

9781400067855
Random House, 2012
400 pp.

My many thanks to Tara for offering me this book, and to Random House as well. The Last Storyteller is the final book in Delaney's three-volume series that begins with Venetia Kelly's Traveling Show then continues with The Matchmaker of Kenmare. Now in Last Storyteller, Delaney offers his readers a novel of historical fiction that not only continues to highlight Ireland's 20th-century past, but also shows that the stuff of legends has a tendency to reverberate in real life and human experience. Most importantly, however, Delaney weaves throughout this book the idea of the transforming power of storytelling, which for readers is undeniable. But he adds another dimension -- that of the wandering seanchai, who travels the country sharing his stories. For readers who are already familiar with the previous two books in the series, Last Storyteller also continues the story of Ben McCarthy, the long-estranged husband of Venetia Kelly.

McCarthy works for Ireland's Folklore Commission, and he lives on a "staple diet" of "herbal cures, rambling ballads, family curses, jigs and reels played on fiddles and pipes, nonsense verse, riddles and recitations -- and above all stories." Ben's travels have given him the opportunity to meet many different kinds of people, but he is most at peace with his friend John Jacob Farrell O'Neill, seanchai, a "fireside storyteller," a "descendant of the bards who had entertained kings and chieftains long before Christ was born." But because of events from his past, and more recent happenings as well, Ben is still in a deeply-entrenched state of loss and melancholy. The Last Storyteller is his own story, addressed to his children Ben and Louise, but it is also a tale of how the power of storytelling leads to Ben's own personal transformation. Taking a bit of advice given to him from his old friend James Clare, who is dying as the novel opens, Ben discovers that

"One day you have to tell the story of your own life...and perceive it as myth. when you can do that -- that's when you've finally grown up."

The events of Ben's life in this novel begin in the mid 1950s, and the book takes the reader through turbulent times in Ireland's history that have a bearing on Ireland's modern situation.

The storytelling aspects drew me in to the novel and kept me there, as did the ongoing story of Ben McCarthy and Venetia Kelly, which I first discovered in Delaney's Venetia Kelly's Traveling Show, probably my favorite of the author's three connected novels. The image of a storyteller being welcomed into the homes of strangers, going from fireside to fireside, sometimes staying into the wee hours was quite enchanting; the idea of people gladly opening their doors to this person also grabbed my attention, as did the stories Delaney incorporated into the book. At the same time, the parallels in the stories were a bit too coincidental to Ben's adventures, and it bothered me a little that not enough distance was put between O'Neill's telling and the events unfolding around Ben and those near to him. And sometimes the dialogue was a little too much; there were entire scenes that sometimes dragged due to wordiness, leading to the dreaded skim.

However, it is quite obvious that the author succeeded in getting his message across and aside from some of the more lengthy conversations and coincidences, I liked this book. The Last Storyteller and the books that precede it it are much lighter in tone than my regular reading choices, but I have a fondness for Delaney's novels, a) because they're set in Ireland, and b) because the author has a gift for storytelling. The novels are not complicated, they are very approachable in terms of reading, and make for a good and relaxing reading experience -- exactly what I need at the moment. My advice: although you could easily catch up with what happened in the previous two novels, start with Venetia Kelly's Traveling Show and work your way toward this one. I think you'll get much more out of The Last Storyteller with the backstory provided by the other two books, and this book will be more meaningful in the long run. And if anyone knows a seanchai who wants to come sit by my fireside, send him on over.

NOTE: Since I'm finished with this book (an ARC ), if anyone would like it, it's yours for the asking.

Another giveaway: Running the Rift by Naomi Benaron

2012-02-06T07:23:00.000-08:00

As luck would have it (and this happens to me more frequently than you would believe), the current Powell's book store Indiespensable selection is a book I already have and which I've already read. This time it's Running the Rift, by Naomi Benaron, so I now have a copy to give away. I'll be returning once again to random.org on Tuesday, February 14th , to select someone to take home this book -- international is very much okay.

There is, as always, no points system to deal with, no following necessary (I didn't even start this blog in hopes of followers -- it's really just for me). All you have to do is leave a contact with some sort of contact info (a link to your blog with contact info, or a comment followed by an email to me, whatever). Please have your comment in by February 13th.

Good luck!

2012 challenge wrap up -- January

2012-02-03T08:29:00.000-08:00

The 2012 Mount TBR Challenge:

total: 5

Book Chick City Mystery and Suspense Reading Challenge

total: 5

The Aussie Author Challenge 2012

alas, nothing yet

The 2012 South Asian Challenge

- sigh - nothing here yet either

I'm sure these numbers will be higher for February -- anyone else want to comment about their challenge results for January? I'd be really interested.

February: the 2012 book challenges -- let's go!

2012-02-03T08:00:00.000-08:00

Looking for an answer to the out of control tbr pile (this is not really at my house, but it's a reflection of how I see my book stacks), I decided to involve myself in book challenges to get through a large chunk of them this year. This month I'll be reading a totally random selection of books from my home library to sort of kick start these challenges. I need space so I can start this all over again next year!

January Reading Roundup

2012-02-01T12:33:00.000-08:00

In the first month of 2012, as usual, I didn't get quite as far as I would have liked in my reading progress. Travel, illness and catching up on things here at home sort of took care of more reading time, as did evenings watching my new dvds bringing to life the Inspector Montalbano series by Andrea Camilleri. But all in all, it was a pretty decent month, and I'm okay with how far I actually got.

Rounding up the month, here's the summary:

translated general fiction
Scars, by Juan Jose Saers (read, not reviewed)

fiction from the U.S.
A Walk Across the Sun, by Corban Addison
The Paris Wife, by Paula McLain
The Orphan Master's Son, by Adam Johnson
Running the Rift, by Naomi Benaron
The Last Storyteller, by Frank Delaney (review coming 02/07)

fiction from New Zealand
Hand Me Down World, by Lloyd Jones

fiction from the UK
How It All Began, by Penelope Lively (just finished, so review shortly)

Russian crime fiction

The State Counsellor, by Boris Akunin
The Coronation, by Boris Akunin
She Lover of Death, by Boris Akunin
He Lover of Death, by Boris Akunin

crime fiction from the UK
Bloodline, by Mark Billingham

other book-related stuff:
1) my book group read Swamplandia!, by Karen Russell. All agreed on liking it; some of us found it a bit boggy (no pun intended) due to too much overdescriptiveness

2) Added to the Amazon wishlist this month: (once again, some pretty obscure stuff!):
When Captain Flint Was Still a Good Man, by Nick Dybek
Narcopolis, by Jeet Thayil

3) Books bought this month:
Marigold: The Lost Chance for Peace in Vietnam, by James Hershberg
The Stone Virgins, by Yvonne Vera

Obviously I'm trying to stick to my pledge to lessen my tbr load.

4) Currently reading:
The Silent Oligarch, by Chris Morgan Jones
Chinaman, by Shehan Karunatilaka
The Diamond Chariot, by Boris Akunin

That's it ... hopefully February will be less other stuff and more reading!

*Running the Rift, by Naomi Benaron

2012-01-30T06:14:00.000-08:00

9781616200428
Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2012
365 pp

I decided to read this novel because of my interest in the origins of genocide in general and because for years I followed the ongoing situation in Rwanda, and then the war crimes trials that followed. There is still a great deal of fallout from this time period that continues to interest me as well. So when I heard about this book last year, I snapped it up via pre-order, curious to see how a woman from America was going to pull off a story about a boy who grows up in Rwanda during the time of the massacres. By and large she did a good job of it while simultaneously weaving the basics of this catastrophic time period into her story. The premise of the novel is also intriguing. But unlike the rest of the reading public, it seems, I just didn't go uber-gaga over this book, largely because it reads like a young adult novel. However, I think that once the word gets out about this book, it has the makings of a bestseller exactly because of its potential appeal to the young adult audience.

Divided into five parts and spanning a period of fourteen years, Running the Rift follows the life of Jean Patrick Nkuba, a Tutsi boy who grows up pretty sheltered, with a father who taught him that there is no difference between the Tutsi and Hutu tribes. With the death of Jean Patrick's father in a car accident, the family's situation changes, and Jean Patrick begins to discover that not everyone thinks the way his father did. While the family is coming to terms with their loss, wondering about the future, an incident occurs in which a group of Hutu boys hurl rocks through the windows of the family home. Jean Patrick chases after the gang, but fails to catch up to them, leaving him feeling guilty about not being a faster runner. The family moves to the home of Jean Patrick's uncle , where he and his older brother Roger did not initially want to go, where, as Roger thought, they would be "nothing but poor fishermen, running around dirty and eating with our fingers like the rest of Uncle’s children. ” Uncle and the rest of the family are definitely poor and life is harder there, but the brothers discover that there is more to wealth than money -- that a loving family is at the root of everything good in life. Things begin to change for Jean Patrick when an Olympic runner comes to his school and to celebrate, the school holds a race which he wins. The prize is a poster which the runner dedicates to Jean Patrick, calling him "our next Olympic hero." At this point, Jean Patrick's life dreams and ambitions are born, and as he moves on to secondary school, he begins training in earnest under Coach, a strange figure who seems to have more going on than just helping young men get to the Olympics, and who offers Jean Patrick a Hutu identity card to stay safe. It's running, not the political situation, that keeps Jean Patric focused while things begin to explode all around him; he becomes very well known after running the 800-meter with an Olympic qualifying time, and it looks like he may actually realize his dream. He's got good backing, too -- his picture appears in the paper with the Rwandan president; McDonald's hamburgers are flown in for a reception with an ambassador, and all eyes are on Jean Patrick. But over time, politics, propaganda and ultimately the murder of the president turn Rwanda into a full-blown, bloody killing ground and events occur that thrust Jean Patrick right into the heart of the nightmare. This is his story, set against a time when "no safe or sane place exists within the country," when Tutsis are hunted down just because they are not Hutus.

While the Hutu/Tutsi story is a bit more complicated than the way the author depicts it in this novel, she still does a good job of describing the atmosphere of horror during this time of madness. As events unfold, she examines the effects of this conflict on people at every level, from the family to the community to the nation, even to the world at large, where the Western countries more or less turn their backs to the slaughter. In terms of pacing, the story plods along for much of the first half of the novel, as the characters are introduced and established, as Jean Patrick's early life is set forth, and as change is beginning to rear its ugly head for the worse. My favorite section of Ms. Benaron's book, in terms of writing and prose, is in Book Three, when all hell breaks loose for Rwanda and for Jean Patrick as well -- it is there that the author amps up the pace, where the situation becomes very tense, enough to hold my attention for the longest time. This section, personally speaking, is where I believe the author's true writing potential comes shining through. If the rest of the book had conveyed this much intensity, it would have been a much better reading experience for me.

I'm sort of torn here -- on one hand, I appreciate the author's choice of subject matter and her willingness to tackle it and the fact that she brings this terrible situation to the attention of members of the reading public who may be familiar with events in Rwanda from movies or from TV news of years ago. The basic story is good, and she does manage to get across many of the terrors faced by a young person coming of age in Rwanda during this time. At the same time, with the exception of Book Three, I just didn't think it delivered that punch I was looking for, considering the topic at hand. After having finished it, I thought that Running the Rift was a book my daughter would enjoy much more than I did. It has that young-adult lit feel, and would not be out of place on high-school library shelves, or as a required text for a high-school history course. It really reminded me of books I read when I was younger, where there was enough to tug at my heart strings and to capture my intellectual interest, leading me to want to find out more about the topic. If the book is geared for readers of young adult fiction, then it's a perfect fit; if it was supposed to be more of a literary read, well, it just didn't do it for me.

Still, despite my personal feelings about the young-adult style, readers are loving this novel, and there are many good things about it to recommend. The book is extremely approachable in terms of reading, and despite the 365 pages, it moves quickly. If you're squeamish about violence, beware. Running the Rift works (imho) largely on an emotional level, so if that's what you're looking for, you'll probably love it.

Shehan Karunatilaka wins the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature with Chinaman

2012-01-24T09:59:00.000-08:00

Congratulations to Shehan Karunatilaka for winning the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature. I've been sitting on this book now for months, but it's definitely going to be popping up in my reading list within the next couple of weeks.

Karunatilaka's competition was as follows:

U.R. Ananthamurthy: Bharathipura
Chandrakanta: A Street in Srinagar
Usha K.R: Monkey-man
Tabish Khair: The Thing About Thugs
Kavery Nambisan: The Story that Must Not Be Told

and, as it just so happens, I've read Khair's novel and loved it, and the other 4 are sitting here on my floor just begging to be read.

Now I'm more eager than ever to get started on Chinaman!

Publish Post

Adding two more challenges to the list -- what the hell

2012-01-24T07:08:00.000-08:00

My tbr pile is absolutely out of control, something I noticed when I started having to slide books around on my office floor to get to my computer. I'm 100% determined to cut down the number of books that have been laying around here forever. So I'm adding two more challenges to the list to help pare down the number of unread books.

First is the Aussie Author Challenge, which is hosted by Jo at Booklover Book Reviews and has been an ongoing part of my reading life for the last two years. I think I contributed a whopping grand total of 6 books read for that challenge last year, but at least I cleared out that many books from my shelves. Six doesn't sound like a whole lot, but it's shelf space. I absolutely adore Jo and all of the other book people from Australia I've met through the internet, and I'm hoping I can make it to the 12-book "Dinky-di" level this year. I've got a ton of Aussie books that will work for that challenge, and they'll work for the Mt. TBR challenge as well.

Moving on to number two, this is a first for me: the 2012 South Asian Challenge hosted by S. Krishna at her website, S. Krishna's Books. I've become a lot more serious about literature from this area of the world lately, and have a number of books from this region that need to stop being neglected. I'll start of with 12 books for the year and see if I can do more.

Since I can't keep track of every single book for every single challenge on a list on the sidebar, I'll be posting a monthly challenge tracker to see how far I've come.

More books read means more books to new homes -- so stay tuned.

The Goodreads book rescue -- have you heard about it?

2012-01-24T06:37:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I take myself off line just because. There's no specific reason -- it's just because. But today I started thinking that this isn't such a good idea because I miss way too much stuff when I do this. For example, I've recently finished two books by Boris Akunin trying to get to the latest one published, and I go to Goodreads to post the reviews. Next to each book is a little note saying that this book needs saving. I'm like "what?" (sorry about the like, I really do talk like that and I can't help it because I was born and raised in California -- it's not affected on purpose). So I do a bit of research and find this link at the site, which basically says that Goodreads will no longer be using Amazon's database for book listings at the Goodreads site, because evidently, according to the powers that be,

"Amazon's data has been great for us for many years, but the terms that come with it have gotten more and more restrictive, and we were finally forced to come to the conclusion that moving to other datasources will be better for Goodreads and our members in so many ways that we had to do it. It may be a little painful, but our aim is to make it as seamless as possible for all our members.

Amazon data that we will stop using includes data such as titles, author names, page counts, and publication dates. For the vast majority of book editions, we are currently importing this data from other sources. Once the imports are done, those few remaining editions for which we haven't found an alternative source of information will be removed from Goodreads."

So I "rescued" the two Akunin books I just read, plus the one I'm getting ready to start, and then discovered that 197 titles in my own Goodreads library are in need of rescuing. Hmmm. I'm willing to hunker down and get to work on saving them, but at the same time, the powers that be say not to be in a hurry to do so since they're working on other book databases to try to remedy the problem. So I'll check back soon to see where we're at in the process.

So what's going on? Is Amazon getting all bitchy or wanting more money or what? I've been really really really upset since the whole Amazon/Book Depository thing which has totally screwed me on buying books at the Book Depository. I still get them from there (BD), but I end up having to do an end run through Alibris or places like that to get new releases that aren't going to be released here in the US for some time. That means that the free postage from Book Depository no longer exists for me, since Alibris isn't so generous with their mailing fees. Plus I have to wait longer to get my books now, etc. etc. etc. Plus, here's the kicker: Book Depository says "book not in stock" but yet I can buy it from Book Depository via Alibris. Go figure.

You might want to go look at your Goodreads library and see if you have any books needing rescuing -- I probably wouldn't have noticed at all except that I'm a stickler about keeping track of my reading.

The winner of the Orphan Master's Son is....

2012-01-20T13:09:00.000-08:00

Christina! Christina was commenter #6, the number generated by random.org for this giveaway. I'll be mailing your book next week, and congratulations!

As usual, I wish I could give you all a copy, but well, you know. Thanks for commenting, and I'll be back with another giveaway soon.

*The Orphan Master's Son, by Adam Johnson

2012-01-18T10:27:00.000-08:00

9780819292793
Random House, 2012
443 pp

While 2012 is not yet even three weeks old, it's just possible that I've found the novel that come next December I'll be listing as my favorite book of the year. Go ahead -- scoff or do the eyeroll if you so choose, but as I said in an earlier post, The Orphan Master's Son has just set the bar for my reading year. Rarely do I find something that affects me the way this book did, and when I have, it's generally been by an author from another country. But with this novel, the prose, the characters, the story and the author's imagining of life under totalitarian rule in North Korea all combine to produce the literary equivalent of the perfect storm in my reading universe.

While getting my thoughts together and perusing the internet, I discovered an interview where the author notes that

"... in North Korea there is a national script, conveyed through propaganda. There is one notion about who the people are and what the national goals are, and you as a citizen are conscripted to be a part of this national narrative. . . You have to relinquish your own personal desires.”

And the main character in this story, Pak Jun Do, has spent a great deal of his young life following the script. His early life and career are laid out in the first part of this novel, "The Biography of Jun Do," which even by itself would have made an incredible story. His father is in charge of the orphan camp called Long Tomorrows near Chongjin, where Jun Do grows up without a mother. Orphans are very low in the social order, and are hired out to various companies or other work details; when they get older they are sent directly to the military, where they are usually assigned the most dangerous jobs. Jun Do, although not technically an orphan, ends up as a tunnel soldier, then ends up on assignment kidnapping people from Japan. From there, he is assigned to language school, then to a listening post on the fishing boat Junma, where he monitors radio transmissions. After an encounter with an American interceptor at sea and later a defection, he is proclaimed a hero and recruited for a secret mission to Texas. It is there, looking through of all things a telephone directory, that he comes to realize that there's a bigger and better world out there, and that he hates his "small, backward homeland, a land of mysteries and ghosts and mistaken identities." His return to North Korea leads directly to part two of the novel, "The Confessions of Commander Ga," where in a rather abrupt change, we find Jun Do in a prison mine where one of the outputs is the blood of the dead that is shipped to the capital, Pyongyang. From there Jun Do's life takes on a new twist, one I won't reveal here, but it is a story guaranteed to keep you awake and turning pages because you do not want to miss even a second of Jun Do's story.

There is not one useless character in this novel, down to Brando, the dog, and they all serve to illuminate life in North Korea under the "Dear Leader" as imagined by the author. While some of the scenes in the book are downright funny and will make you laugh out loud, the author is quick to keep the reader in mind of some of the harsher realities that exist, some of which go beyond the prison camps and torture of inmates. For example, there's an unforgettable scene in the second part of the novel where an interrogator flashes back to when he was eight years old, listening to "a talk that every father must have with his son," a talk is meant to teach him how he must act to survive in this society:

"He told me that there was a path set out for us. On it we had to do everything the signs commanded and heed all the announcements along the way. Even if we walked this path side by side, he said, we must act alone on the outside, while on the inside, we would be holding hands."

To illustrate his point, his father goes on:

"Now take my hand," he told me. I put my small hand in his, and then his mouth became sharp with hate. He shouted, "I denounce this citizen as an imperialist puppet who should be remanded to stand trial for crimes against the state." His face was red, venomous. "I have witnessed him spew capitalist diatribes in an effort to poison our minds with his traitorous filth."...I was terrified, on the verge of crying. My father said, "See, my mouth said that, but my hand, my hand was holding yours. If your mother ever must say something like that to me, in order to protect the two of you, know that inside, she and I are holding hands. And if someday you must say something like that to me, I will know it's not really you. That's inside. Inside is where the son and the father will always be holding hands."

The author's range from funny to downright heartwrenching is amazing; his prose, his characters' dialogue, his sense of place and time are all nearly pitch perfect.

The strongest parts of the novel are found in how different people retain their dignity and integrity after enduring incredible hardships, and in what really constitutes a hero, a word that is bandied about at the upper echelons in keeping with the national myth. North Korea is a place where above all the myths behind the cult of personality endure, no matter what methods are used to ensure its survival -- "re-education," fear, torture, etc. While the author shows that not everyone buys into it, there is also propaganda everywhere, made very clear by the loudspeakers in everyone's living room, factory floors, offices, etc. Announcements beginning with "Citizens" are a device the author uses often throughout the novel, often related in a tongue-in-cheek manner, used to broadcast not only the latest good deed done by the Dear Leader -- "Kim Jong Il was seen offering on-the-spot guidance to the engineers deeping the Taedong River channel," but also the myth: "While the Dear Leader lectured to the dredge operators, many doves were seen to spontaneously flock above him, hovering to provide our Reverend General some much needed shade on a hot day."

The Orphan Master's Son is a wonderful novel for several reasons, and I've just skimmed the surface of the story here. I had only a small problem in terms of reading, and that was with the juxtaposition from part one to part two, where I read a few pages, scratched my head and had to go back again to make sure what I'd read was correct. Once I figured out what was happening and continued reading, all was explained and back into smooth reading zone I went.

It's very obvious that the author has done his research, even traveling to North Korea. At one point I looked up kidnapping of Japanese citizens by North Koreans and was amazed to discover that this practice has been going on for some time. Furthermore, the propaganda and mythmaking around Kim Jong-il so beautifully incorporated into The Orphan Master's Son is now being ramped up in real life for the new leader Kim Jong-un, as shown in this article.

Very highly recommended, although his book may not be for everyone -- many readers might find the story too dark or bleak to get through, so if you're looking for a lighthearted read, forget it. It is gritty and often difficult to get through, with scenes of torture and prison life, starvation, famine and other hardships endured by regular people in a situation in which they have little or no control. And although this book is very approachable from a reader standpoint, some may be bothered by the change in narrative form from part one to part two, which admittedly is a bit confusing at first. On the other hand, it is a book in which the author's imagination regarding this closed society comes to life and translates into a credible look at a place most people know only through news reports.

I can't say exactly why I loved this book, but it is one that made its way under my skin and one I will not soon forget. Bravo, Adam Johnson!

first international giveaway of the year -- The Orphan Master's Son, by Adam Johnson

2012-01-13T05:05:00.000-08:00

I'll be back to post what I think about this book shortly, but in the meantime, I LOVED this book so much I just bought a signed copy. That means I have my current copy available to give away. There are no gimmicks, no this-many-points-for-doing-whatever, all you have to do for a chance for it to be yours is to leave a comment with an email address or your blog link. International is no problem. One week from today, January 20th, I'll be using random.org to select someone to take this book home & it will be off to the lucky person the following week. Only one comment per person, please, to keep it fair.

Let me just say this about the book: for me, The Orphan Master's Son just set the bar for the rest of this year's reading -- I've never read anything quite like it and never expect to again. I rarely ever give a book five stars -- this one is 5 plus.

Good luck!

The Paris Wife, by Paula McLain

2012-01-11T05:12:00.000-08:00

9780345521309
Ballantine Books, 2011
320 pp

In early December, I selected Ernest Hemingway's A Moveable Feast for my book group to read. While most of the group didn't share my enthusiasm toward that book, I loved it enough to read both versions. During our discussion, one member of the group whose opinions I value started telling us about The Paris Wife, and she was so taken by it that I figured this book was something I really had to read. You know those blogging memes that ask the question "Have you ever recommended a book to someone and they really disliked it?" or something along those lines -- well that's the situation here, but in reverse. With apologies to my friend Maxine, and feeling like a lone fish swimming against the current, I just wasn't all that impressed with this novel.

McLain's book focuses on the relationship between Ernest Hemingway and his first wife Hadley, from their meeting to their decision to divorce, and then adds an epilogue with a phone call from EH to Hadley and then her learning of Hemingway's death thirty-plus years later. The first part of the novel details their time together before their arrival in Paris, but the meat of the novel, of course, as in the couple's real lives, is found in what happens once they arrive there, told largely from Hadley's perspective, with a few entries from Hemingway's writing thrown in here and there so the reader can hear his voice once in a while. The Paris setting is something McLain writes well: the cold Paris winters, the shabby, cramped apartment the Hemingways called home, the Bastille-day celebrations where music playing outside kept them awake all night, the bohemian lifestyle of the artists in residence there, etc. She also shows a changing Hemingway who once scoffed at the rich, but who later "saw a different kind of life and liked what he saw," as he moved from living the life of a poor, suffering writer to noticing that the "rich had better days and freer nights." It is also very obvious that she's done a great deal of research in preparing to write this book.

My real issue with this book is this: if someone is going to write a novel in which the title character, "The Paris Wife," is the central focus, then that character should have some kind of personality. Instead, Hadley comes across as flat, a stick figure who even after finding out her husband is having an affair just sits and tries to wait it out. There's a scene where Hemingway and Hadley are napping one afternoon and Pauline, the future ex-Mrs. Hemingway #2, slides into bed next to Ernest and here's Hadley, describing her reaction:

"I was feeling so languid and so drugged, I didn't even know Pauline was in the room until after she'd slipped under the sheets on Ernest's side of the bed. The afternoons were hot and we slept naked. I knew what was happening, and I also didn't want to come awake enough to feel it. I never opened my eyes...No one spoke or made any noise that would shake me out of my trance. The bed was sand, I told myself. The sheets were sand. I was still in the dream."

I don't know about you, but if a woman I knew was after my husband slipped into our bed while we were sleeping naked, I'd be a little pissed, and I definitely wouldn't be just laying there trying to ignore things.

Or try this one:

"He might ultimately fall out of love with Pauline and come fully back to me -- that was still possible -- but nothing was in my control. If I gave him an ultimatum and said she couldn't stay, I would lose him. If I got hysterical and made public scenes, it would just give him an excuse to leave me. All that was left for me was a terrible kind of paralysis, this waiting game, this heartbreak game."

Really? Does she really want him back after all of this?

All through this book Hadley is depicted as a flat, paralyzed kind of doormat person who shows very little emotion. I get it that she started out as Hemingway's number one supporter, staying out of his way, making it possible for him to write because she felt that was what he needed, but another woman is an entirely different ballgame. As I was reading this novel, I kept saying to myself "why doesn't she do anything?" Okay, she gets sad, but so what? Hadley's monotonal and one-dimensional portrayal is unforgiveable since the book is about her. And the rest of the characters also pale against what is known about them in real life. Zelda Fitzgerald's character is a bit steamrolled here; Scott Fitzgerald barely gets a mention. It's almost as if the author sacrificed character to get to the story, which is already well known. Too bad, really, because in terms of story, she does well -- given the events, it's difficult not to feel some pity for Hadley, and it's also interesting in terms of learning about Hemingway's early career years, so fleshing out the characters would have made this a top-notch read.

I'd say that if you have a keen interest in the Paris years, I'd recommend Hemingway's A Moveable Feast, where that time comes alive in terms of time, place and his relationship with Hadley. There's also Gioia Diliberto's biography Hadley, reissued last year as Paris Without End: The True Story of Hemingway’s First Wife. I may have to dig that one out and reread it here very shortly. However, there are many ardent fans of this novel out there, so maybe it's just me. With hefty 4 and 5-star ratings behind this book, readers are finding something to love about it.

A reading challenge most suitable....one my husband will LOVE

2012-01-10T18:18:00.000-08:00

Aieeeeeeee! This is perfect! My tbr pile is so freakin' huge right now that this challenge is perfect. My husband will be ecstatic. Guess which level I'm going for! Here is the link to the challenge website as well as the rules:

Challenge Levels

Pike's Peak: Read 12 books from your TBR pile/s
Mt. Vancouver: Read 25 books from your TBR pile/s
Mt. Ararat: Read 40 books from your TBR piles/s
Mt. Kilimanjaro: Read 50 books from your TBR pile/s
El Toro: Read 75 books from your TBR pile/s
Mt. Everest: Read 100+ books from your TBR pile/s

And the rules:
*Once you choose your challenge level, you are locked in for at least that many books. If you find that you're on a mountain-climbing roll and want to tackle a taller mountain, then you are certainly welcome to upgrade.

*Challenge runs from January 1 to December 31, 2012.

*You may sign up anytime from now until November 30th, 2012.

*Books must be owned by you prior to January 1, 2012. No ARCs (none), no library books. No rereads. [To clarify--based on a question raised--the intention is to reduce the stack of books that you have bought for yourself or received as presents {birthday, Christmas, "just because," etc.}. Audiobooks may count if they are yours and they are one of your primary sources of backlogged books.]

*Books may be used to count for other challenges as well.

*Feel free to submit your list in advance (as incentive to really get those books taken care of) or to tally them as you climb.

*A blog and reviews are not necessary to participate.

*A progress site for reviews will go up in January and I will post the link in my sidebar for easy access.

Hand Me Down World, by Lloyd Jones

2012-01-09T09:28:00.000-08:00

9781608196999
Bloomsbury, 2011 (US edition)
313 pp.

Two things: first, a hefty thanks to the publisher for sending this to me via LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program. It was supposed to have come some time ago, but oh well. It was well worth the wait. Second, I loved this book. It's one of those stories that sticks with you long after you've finished it.

There are a number of novels where the story is told in a number of different voices, but I do believe this one may win the prize for the largest number of narrators. It is a bit reminiscent of modern television documentaries in which multiple people relate their experiences relating to a given topic; unlike television however, the story is not passive; it is one in which the reader has a job to do in interpreting what's really going on -- if he or she can find any reliability in the narration.   Each narrator has his or her own slant on the truth -- and what they say speaks not only to the situation at hand but also to how they perceive and wish others to perceive them in the world each occupies.

Hand Me Down World is the story of a young woman in Tunisia whose quest for her young son begins in the middle of the Mediterranean, where she is dumped by human traffickers and told to hang on to a buoy until someone comes to pick her up. After a while it becomes obvious she's been duped, so she makes her way dog paddling onto the Italian coastline.   There she takes on the name Ines, and with only a plastic bag in which she keeps only a few meager possessions, she begins to make her way to Berlin where her son's father lives. Her story is related by those with whom she comes into contact, and by Ines herself.   This cast of characters include a truck driver, an elderly snail collector, an ex-pat Parisian who calls himself Millennium Three, a researcher from the UK sent to study the Roma culture in Berlin, and others that bump into Ines along the way. After the book introduces all of these people (and a few more), the most involved narrations begin with Ralf, an elderly blind man who hires Ines to view the world for him; Defoe, another lodger taken on by Ralf, and then there's Ines herself, whose account of things doesn't always coincide with what has already been said about her. The novel is structured sort of like a detective story, where there are conflicts among all of the narratives for the reader to sort and then try to piece together in some coherent fashion. And then there's the Inspector, whose purpose I won't reveal here, but who serves as sort of a compiler of all of the stories.

While the author explores Ines' search for her son and her experiences along the way, he is also able to veer off into other areas, especially the issues faced by immigrants trying to find a better life than the one they left behind, who often become "the real ghosts... those whom we choose not to see." But even as he's tackling this issue in a big way, running through the novel is theme of identity, most obviously examined in Ines but also among all of the other characters. There's also a great deal of thought offered about living with dignity instead of fear, a choice Ines and other characters have to consider in the hopes of having any kind of future.

While the prose may be a bit sparse in comparison to Jones' Mr. Pip, the pacing is good and appropriate for a novel like this one. In the first part of the book,the reader is not stuck on any one character or situation too long as Ines makes her way through Europe. As Ines continues her journey, the story also moves along and doesn't dwell too long in one spot . The second half moves a bit slower as it boils down to the stories of only a few characters in Berlin, and then of course, Ines herself.   This part is not as quick to read through, but what makes it very interesting is how certain events are repeated and retold, offering a new slant on information received earlier in the novel.

I was very intrigued by this novel both in terms of structure and story; the multiple-voice approach is quite interesting and actually works well here as things are slowly revealed, little by little. Yet at the same time, just when I started thinking I had Ines figured out, the author throws in little curve balls that made me wonder if I knew her at all. This line of thought carries throughout the book, and actually, I'm walking away from the book wondering how well I really know anybody. If you're looking for a regular narrative story in linear format, keep looking -- this isn't the book for you. But if you want something intriguing that resonates long after the last page is turned, you might just want to give it a try.

fiction from New Zealand

*A Walk Across the Sun, by Corban Addison

2012-01-03T09:49:00.000-08:00

9781402792809
SilverOak/Sterling, January 2012
384 pp

"You do the thing that's in front of you."

First, a very hearty thanks to the publishers, who sent me an ARC of this novel. They asked me to hold off with my review until the book's release date, and wanting to comply with their wishes, I've been waiting a while to share. My only prior familiarity with the illicit sex trade in India is the movie Born Into Brothels (2004) , and I have to admit that that movie was part of the reason I wanted to read this book. But while much of the action takes place in India, A Walk Across the Sun also goes beyond that country, as Corban Addison moves the action across several nations, involving young girls from different parts of the world. One of Addison's goals with this novel is to get the message across that the illicit sex trade is a worldwide phenomenon, limited not only to countries like India, but happening right under our very noses. As he notes in an interview, the UN estimates that the illicit sex trade brings in a profit of thirty-two billion dollars a year, just behind the profits of the illegal drug and gun trades. He also notes that his objectives in writing this book are to inspire his readers to : 1) learn more about the topic, 2) to discover and support organizations that do "heroic work in this field," and 3) to "put pressure on people in positions of power" who have the ability to do actively do something about helping these girls. Granted, illicit sex trafficking in young children is not a pretty topic, and this book may not be for everyone, but it is a real and expanding international concern, one that needs to be addressed openly. And Addison has made a good start with A Walk Across the Sun, his first novel.

The basic story begins with two girls, Ahalya Ghai (17) and her sister Sita (15), whose lives are overturned in the veritable blink of an eye. The girls come from a very well-off family on the coast of India, and the story opens as they are making plans to attend a violin concert and go backstage to meet the artist. But an earthquake triggers a tsunami off the coast of India and catches the girls and their family off guard, killing all but the two sisters. As they try to seek the haven of their school, an offer of a ride turns into a one-way ticket to Mumbai, where the girls are sold into a brothel. As if things aren't bad enough, Sita is eventually sold off and taken away from India and from her sister. In the meantime, Thomas Clarke, an up-and-coming attorney in Washington DC, has suffered a number of setbacks in his personal life and career. While traveling to visit his parents, he witnesses a child abduction and it turns his entire life around, ultimately sending him to Mumbai to work with a local NGO that helps with prosecutions of those who deal in sex trafficking there. Ultimately Tom will be caught up in the search for Sita, and in the process he will be forced to enter the ugliness of the "shadow world" of the illicit sex trade.

Addison's intentions with writing this novel are good ones and he is very passionate about his subject. As the story progresses, it gets harder to put the book down as the reader waits to see what is going to happen next. In writing the character of Tom, he portrays a man who is in personal crisis mode; one whose work with the NGO offers meaning and purpose and allows him to finally find himself. The underlying horrors of illicit sex trafficking are laid bare, but the author never gets into any gross detail that would undercut the seriousness of what he's trying to do here.

It's very clear that Addison has done a great deal of research in preparation for the novel, but there are a few issues I found problematic. First, although Tom's ongoing issues with his estranged wife Priya are offered as a counterpoint to the sisters' experiences, these scenes detracted from my interest in the main storyline. I realize that this is a personal issue (I'm not a love story kind of girl), and that others may find these scenes as relief from the horrors of the sex trafficking, but I thought that if Addison's goal is to get people interested in this terrible reality, Tom and Priya's relationship was a bit of extraneous fluff that didn't really need to be there. Second -- is it me or did things happen a little too quickly -- and how is it that a young girl can be traced around the world but a local kidnapping victim couldn't be found? I think you might want to be prepared to suspend your disbelief in some cases.

A Walk Across the Sun is lighter in terms of writing than my normal fare, but considering this is the author's first novel, it's a good read, very approachable and Addison's passion for his subject shines through. While the subject matter may be difficult, and may not appeal to everyone, there is a reality out there that needs to be brought out into the open and made visible. Bringing the human trafficking issue to the forefront in a less than in-your-face kind of way is where Addison is at his best. I'll recommend this one to anyone who is interested in the topic.

January: starting with the new

2012-01-03T09:36:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year to all from my home state of California, where I'm currently vacationing. January is bringing with it several new books that I'm eager to read, and they are my priority this month. My choice of titles begins with Corban Addison's A Walk Across the Sun, then the others that will follow include

Ragnarok: The End of the Gods, by A.S. Byatt
How It All Began, by Penelope Lively
Running the Rift, by Naomi Benaron
and
The Orphan Master's Son, by Adam Johnson

I'll also be working on other books, so you never know what's going to pop up. My goal this year is to work harder on translated fiction from different areas of the world, so there should be a bit more than last year.

I'm hoping for a great year in books and am looking forward to seeing what everyone else is reading as well!

and as the curtain comes down over 2011,

2011-12-27T17:48:00.000-08:00

it's once again time to close out the year in books. If you're so inclined, you can see everything that I read this year by clicking here.

and now to the favorites list:
This year's books were, for the most part, so good that in some cases, it's definitely hard to pick just one favorite. So I'm going to give my top favorites:

Overall favorite book of the year:

Dream of Ding Village, by Yan Lianke

Top five favorite books of the year in literary fiction (not including my favorite overall book)

The Thing About Thugs, by Tabish Khair

Jimmy the Terrorist, by Omair Ahmad

Kamchatka, by Marcelo Figueras

Gods Without Men, by Hari Kunzru

The Raw Man, by George Makana Clark

Top five favorite crime fiction novels of the year:

Ashes, by Sergios Gakos

Dregs, by Jorn Lier Horst

The Pledge, by Friedrich Durrenmatt

Black Minutes, by Martin Solares

Red April, by Santiago Roncagliolo

Top three speculative fiction/sci-fi/fantasy novels:

Cold Skin, by Albert Sanchez Pinol

Pym, by Mat Johnson

11/22/63, by Stephen King

Top three nonfiction books of the year:

El Narco: Inside Mexico's Criminal Insurgency, by Ioan Grillo

Clandestine in Chile, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Classic Crimes, by William Roughhead

Favorite book of translated fiction:

Dream of Ding Village, by Yan Lianke

Strangest good book of the year: Death in the City of Light, by David King

Others worth mentioning for the year:

Hangover Square, by Patrick Hamilton
The Sisters Brothers, by Patrick deWitt
Misterioso by Arne Dahl
Death on a Galician Shore, by Domingo Villar
The Missing Head of Damasceno Monteiro, by Antonio Tabucchi
To Each His Own, by Leonardo Sciascia
anything at all by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo
Matterhorn, by Karl Marlantes
That Deadman Dance, by Kim Scott

Here's to another good reading year, and above all to peace, health and prosperity to all.

The Raw Man, by George Makana Clark

2011-12-27T15:28:00.000-08:00

9780224090469
Jonathan Cape, 2011
323 pp

"Stories want to circle back on themselves."

And in George Makana Clark's The Raw Man, that's exactly what happens. Told in a reverse-chonological structure, The Raw Man captures not only the main character's family history, but it reveals bits and pieces of Rhodesia's (now Zimbabwe's) turbulent history during the twentieth century as well. It is a lovely book about the power of storytelling, one which begs for reader participation: the more you learn about the past, the more you want to revisit and re-engage with the present. It is also a story about the power of blood and identity, one you won't soon forget after having finished the book.

The prologue of the novel, "The Owner of the Story," introduces the reader to house of the narrator, which is actually a metaphor for the novel itself. It has twelve interior doors, which in passing through them, "you'll find yourself back where you began," a very appropriate beginning for a novel which travels back through different periods of time and links back to the present. The house is inhabited by the story ghost of Sergeant Gordon, and conjures the smell of peaberry coffee, a lullaby, a garden ... all bits and pieces of Sgt. Gordon's story the house's owner learned from him in years of captivity together as prisoners of war. As the narrator notes, " I built my house from borrowed memory, every detail as it was described by Gordon long ago in the complete darkness, three miles beneath the earth. " The story ghost breathes life into Gordon's memories, so that they take form and come alive in the telling. From the present, the story first skips back to October, 1978, going backward through Gordon's life, revealing scenes of a very troubled Rhodesia from the 60s through 1980, and takes a brief foray into the Africa of the 1850s.

The book is not an easy read in terms of subject matter -- the very first story is how Gordon, in the Rhodesian Army, came to be captured and sent to the hellish copper mines as a prisoner, where on the first day in captivity he witnesses a dead prisoner being roasted on a spit. But it is there that Gordon tells his stories, where his "life emerged from the darkness as a mosaic of disjointed details...," where his stories were committed to memory by the other prisoners, whose own stories had been lost after years of living in the mine. His are tales of death, fear and cruelty in a time of war, mistreatment of "lesser" people by outside colonial powers who've also marginalized and displaced whole societies, and a family secret that at one point causes a father to hold a pillow over his newborn baby daughter's face. All of these short stories and more creep into the mix before the bigger picture is revealed, not just of Gordon himself, but of his troubled family and of other lives caught up in a very turbulent time in Africa's history.

As each piece of the story is told in a chapter of its own, it slowly begins to dawn on you that in some cultures, this is how history is passed on -- through memories and stories handed down through the ages, an effort which helps maintain the ongoing power of tradition and cultural identity that together have the power to speak to a person's blood. Sadly, as it also happens,these traditions can also be lost -- here, in the face of wars, cultural displacement and other factors tearing Rhodesia apart, it turns out, as one character notes, that "we have lost our place in the world, and our stories mean nothing now," which is really not true if you think about it ... they just need someone to do the telling and someone to do the listening.

There is something very different going on here in terms of storytelling, and it works well. In novels with a normal chronological and linear approach, the reader gets an idea that something's going to happen and the time spent reading is to get to whatever that thing might be. In that sense, the reader is drawn along with the characters and the action of the novel toward an ending. Here, going backwards, the reader knows that something has happened in the past that takes him or her to the situation of the present, but it's not exactly clear what that might have been. Each chapter takes the reader closer to Gordon's roots, to uncovering his real identity, so that we don't get the full picture of who exactly Gordon is until everything has been exposed, taking us to a beginning. In the meantime, as each segment of Gordon's life is revealed, there's this compelling urge to revisit the previous section to link things together. While there's definitely a choppy, rather disconcerting feel to this method, it works, definitely demanding active, rather than passive reading. It also leaves you a bit disoriented as you're reading one section, wondering "how did we get here?" and you feel you must continue reading to find out. This approach may not be to everyone's taste or liking, but it makes for a more intense and active reading experience.

The Raw Man is a lovely book, one that verges into the realms of the fantastical at times, but at the same time maintains a very realistic feel as the author goes back through time, connecting disjointed memories into a more cohesive whole. What may be most problematic about this novel is that if you are unfamiliar with the history of the ongoing conflicts in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), it may be confusing trying to sort out who is on what side, or who are the good guys or the bad guys, or why one side is doing what they do, etc. I wouldn't let that be a deal breaker if you're considering reading this book, but it can get a bit confusing sometimes. I loved this book, and recommend it most highly.

The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern

2011-12-19T10:17:00.000-08:00

9780385534635
Doubleday, 2011
387 pp

"When the battles are fought and won and lost, when the pirates find their treasures and the dragons eat their foes for breakfast with a nice cup of Lapsang souchong, someone needs to tell their bits of overlapping narrative. There's magic in that. It's in the listener, and for each and every ear it will be different, and it will affect them in many ways they can never predict. From the mundane to the profound. You may tell a tale that takes up residence in someone's soul, becomes their blood and self and purpose. That tale will move them and drive them and who knows what they might do because of it, because of your words...There are many kinds of magic, after all."

Considering I was actually going to give this one a pass, the handwriting was on the wall when I received two signed copies in the mail. It was at that point pretty much preordained that I would have to read this book. After finishing it, I was a bit taken aback after reading several reviews of this book at just how nasty people became when reviewing it. As the paragraph quoted above states, "it's in the listener and for each and every ear it will be different." The book is not without its problems, but when all is said and done, it's a charming little story that will keep you reading.

Moving through the late 19th and early 20th centuries and throughout the world, the novel focuses on the lives of two "illusionists," Celia and Marco. Celia's father, Prospero the Enchanter (aka Hector Bowen) passes on his knowledge of performing illusions that are not really stage magic -- they're the real thing, teaching Celia "enchanting, or forcibly manipulating the universe;" Marco's guardian, Mr. A H, takes him from the orphanage and sets Marco to the task of learning, among other things, how to manipulate perception. But rather than being the object of their parents' affections, Celia and Marco are more like pawns to be used to further the ambitions of their mentors. The fathers have their own unique methods of child raising and teaching: Hector Bowen slices Celia's fingers or smashes her wrists to teach her how to fix things, while Marco is left on his own in a bizarre form of home schooling learning the secrets of the universe and doesn't even know his guardian's name. Each is being groomed to become the opponent of the other (although they don't know it) as a part of an ongoing, strange competition between the fathers. The venue for this contest is the Cirque des Rêves (the Circus of Dreams), "Theatrics sans theater, an immersive entertainment." What neither Celia nor Marco know is that beyond this strange contest, the stakes are high, not just for the loser (which is bad enough), but for everyone concerned with the circus itself.

The Cirque des Rêves is ultimately at the center of this book, and the imagery set forth by author makes it a magical place. It can appear anywhere at any time, populated with a tarot reader, a contortionist, aerial performers who do their acts with no nets, and more otherworldly kind of people. There are also magical, elaborately-constructed rooms through which people can walk and take part in the action. The Cirque des Rêves even has a cadre of diehard fans, known as "rêveurs," who, through a connection on the inside, are able to follow the circus to its next location, sporting red scarves over their dark or grey clothing that stick out in a scene where everything is black and white. The circus is only open at night, and is nearly impossible to experience in one visit.

The Night Circus is very much an atmospheric novel, depending more on its imagery than on plot. The settings, from dinner parties to the circus, are all rather surreal and you never know what's going to happen at any given time, or how things are going to change from one moment to another. There is a wealth of description and imagery that never lets up, especially regarding the circus, and there are undertones of mystery that run throughout. I'm not a huge fan of love stories, so the love interest didn't really grab me, but there was something different in the at-times ethereal oddness of this particular novel that captured my attention, as did the stories of Celia and Marco's sad childhood. At the same time, I wasn't as captivated with the characters as I thought I probably should have been. I actually liked some of the side characters (Thiessen, Chandresh, Isobel) much better than the main ones because they had more substance than the principals. There's also one character who seems to have been thrown in as a convenient plot device to save the ending of this novel, whch just didn't play right with me. Considering how much effort the author went to in her descriptions, it's mystifying as to why the characters weren't fleshed out as much as they could have been! Another thing: although I tend not to mind so much when questions within a story are not answered, some of the holes left in the plot made me scratch my head now and then. But getting past the naysaying, I was not about to put this book down once I started it, and it had a way of holding my attention and drawing me forward to the finish.

This book should really be read by people who are into love stories -- I think that group will likely be its best audience. At the same time, there's something unique about the imagery that conjures up pictures in your head of how the Cirque des Rêves might actually look and what you might experience there that will keep anyone reading. Overall -- a good book with a few issues, but one that will take you away for a while as you read it.