A Staggering Work of Heartbreaking Genius

I really took my time with this book. The story is so rich, with so many layers and I found myself re-reading sections of the book as the characters began to come together in a sad and surprising vortex towards the end of the book. The author begins the story with several separate strands and weaves them together into a story in which the characters touch each others' lives without realizing it. Beyond the characters, I was entranced by the setting itself. Anthony Marra paints a world so dark, gloomy and depressing and yet manages to create little pockets of light that shine through briefly, a metaphor for the redemption of humanity in the midst of the extreme depravity that surfaces in a war-torn society. I will hold this book with me for a long time, and be haunted by the images and the characters. 

You can read an excerpt from the book below! 

  A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra

{I received a copy of this book from Blogging for Books, in exchange for my honest review. This post contains affiliate links.}

2012 Read Shelf

I stopped using Goodreads for quite awhile then started up again over the summer, so I'm doing my best to remember all the books I read this year! Joining the From Left to Write book club and signing up for Netgalley,  filled up my Read shelf quite a bit, but my goal had been to read 24 books this year. I fell a little short but I did read some really good books, along with some duds. Here are the books, in no particular order.

1. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho: Here's a little disclaimer...I'm not entirely sure that I read this in 2012 but I think I did! This was my first experience with Paulo Coelho and I want to read more of his books in 2013. I loved the mystical and spiritual aspects of this story, as a person who grapples quite a bit with being comfortable with religious belief. 
2.  I Am Forbidden by Anouk Markouvits: This was a From Left to Write book club selection but I was not yet part of the club when I read it. It is a gripping, compelling story that spans generations and time periods as the characters struggle with what it means to be a religious Jew. 
3. The Midwife of Venice by Roberta Rich: I love period fiction, and I loved this story of a daring Jewish midwife in segregated 17th century Venice who risks her life to save a non-Jewish noblewoman and her baby. 
4. The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach: There was a lot of hype about this book, and I never thought I'd like a book about baseball but as with all things, it wasn't about baseball. It is about relationships, the ways we depend on each other for validation and struggle with our own shortcomings. There are some excellent lines in this book, and overall, is well written though it does drag on in some parts. It's not a short, quick read. 
5. The Baker's Daughter by Sarah McCoy: This was a From Left to Write book club selection, and another period novel. The book switches from Germany during WW II to El Paso, Texas in the present day and follows a reporter as she tries to uncover a story about a bakery owner from Germany. I enjoyed the book and read it straight through one night in bed. I wrote about it here. 
6. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline: Though I am a child of the '90s, and not the '80s, I appreciated all the '80s references in this book, especially since we had a Commodore 64 growing up and plenty of video games to go around. Reviews have been mixed on this book but I thought it was fascinating, though the ending was rushed. 
7. The Bloodletter's Daughter by Linda Lafferty. Another From Left to Write book club selection, and set in Old Bohemia during the 17th century, I took a special interest in this book because I lived in Prague for four months, on study abroad Junior year of college. At it's heart, this is a book about the struggle between mystical belief, faith and science. Again, lots to think about in terms of my own relationship to these things. I wrote about it here. 
8. The Rabbi in the Attic and Other Stories by Eileen Pollack. This was a selection I chose from Netgalley, a collection of short stories, some of which have a slight Jewish-y tone to it, and others that were straight up Jewish. Most of the stories are set in the Catskills, where I spend a decent part of my childhood summers visiting my grandparents, so I enjoyed recognizing the names of small towns mentioned in the stories. I no longer have a copy of the book, since the egalley expired off my Kindle, which is a shame because I would to re-read some of the stories. Overall, enjoyable. 
9. Behind the Woodpile by Emily Rosenbaum. This is a book written by a member of From Left to Write, self-published on Kindle. It is a harrowing tale of child abuse and neglect. I was a little skeptical at some points that some events actually happened but I was sucked in. 
10. A Thousand Pardons by Jonathan Dee. Another book from Netgalley, it reminded me of Revolutionary Road. I enjoyed it but didn't find it to be exceptional.  I wrote about it here.
11. Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks. I don't remember how I came across this title but I discovered a new favorite author! Again, I'm a sucker for period novels and this one was set in the time of the Plague in England. I loved the main character and how she evolves into a strong woman. 
12. The Headmaster's Wager by Vincent Lam. This was a From Left to Write book club selection that I read before the holiday hiatus. I went through a period in high school where I read a lot of fiction and memoirs about China during the 5 Year Campaign, so I really enjoyed reading this book about a Chinese expat in Viet Nam. I wrote about here. 
13. The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown. I pretty much chose this book because of it's cover and because it was about sisters. I really did not appreciate that the narrator seemed to be some unknown 4th sister, and the Shakespeare references were overwrought. It would probably make a better movie than book. 
14. The Expats by Chris Pavone. This is the most recent From Left to Write book club selection, and I haven't written a post about it yet. It starts slowly but picks up speed about halfway through, to the point where I had to sit on the couch for a couple of hours, ignoring the kids so that I could get to the end. 
15. The Black Count by Tom Reiss. I found the historical aspects of this biography about the real Count of Monte Cristo fascinating but the book was more than twice as long as it needed to be. I didn't finish it; I tried to rally but ultimately, it was just taking up too much of my time. 
16. Caleb's Crossing by Geraldine Brooks. After Year of Wonders, I was eager to read another book by Geraldine Brooks. This one was set in The New World, during the 1600s. Again, I loved the strong central female character. 

Feel free to leave a link to your own year-end reading round-up in the comments!
{All links to titles are IndieBound affiliate links. By buying books using my links, you support independent bookstores, and you support me, as well!}

A Thousand Themes, Maybe

It's funny... the title of Jonathan Dee's book, A Thousand Pardons, did not register with me at all. I did not look at the synopsis of the book before I started reading. It was only until after that I realized that the theme of the book was supposed to forgiveness. In my day (that would be the '90s, ahem), reader response was the prevailing method for teaching literature. Accordingly, reader response is my default, especially when the setting and plot details hit home.

So I read A Thousand Pardons as a reader from Upstate New York, who lived in New York City. I read A Thousand Pardons as a woman with complicated, unseen layers in her marriage. I read A Thousand Pardons as a housewife that has been out of the workforce for as long as she's had children.

The writing is breezy, the characters are well-developed and the plot is the stuff of Hollywood. There is nothing too deep going on here, but a reader is drawn into the story, and finds herself cheering the characters on. Even the pitifully at fault Ben is a sympathetic character. His fall from grace makes a reader cringe in the way that a horror movie heroine makes you shake your head and yell at the screen, "No! Don't open that door!" The reader sees disaster coming before he does, and wishes Ben had the benefit of hindsight. 

Helen, on the other hand, rises from the ashes of her marriage with commendable fortitude. The reader knows that Helen has a small flame burning inside of her, that is at danger of being suffocated by her powerlessness over the unravelling of her marriage. The separation from her husband breathes new life into the fire and fuels her transformation into a woman with control over men. 

Does any of this resemble my own marriage? Not in the least but the discontent of a housewife, hidden or looming large, is a well-known and familiar feeling to women, whether through experience or exposure. For that reason, I blew through this book, murmuring in sympathy with Helen and telling her, "I know what you mean, girl."

I received a free copy of this book from Netgalley, for review purposes. Links to the title are affiliate links which means, if you buy the book using my link, I get a cut from IndieBound. 

Plan to Fail

I've written before about my reluctance to face other people's realities. I do this by not watching the news, skipping over articles in the paper, scrolling past news stories on Facebook. I mean, it's not like I don't know. And it's not like knowing more is going to suddenly spur me to action.

Actually, that's not true. After I watched Half the Sky, the first thing I did was offer myself as a volunteer to Pathways Togo. I've been helping them with their social media presence and outreach. A small thing but it helps to spread the message. A little can do a lot.

But for the most part, I block it all out. The anxiety of knowing, the guilt over feeling lucky, does me no good. And I have been very lucky. I lived an almost charmed life. Is it always easy? No. But easy is relative. I've never wanted for much, I have good friends and good family. My worries, as they say, amount to First World Problems.

This is where I sympathized with Percival, the main character in this month's From Left to Write selection, The Headmaster's Wager. Even though the stakes are higher for Percival, a Chinese ex-pat living just outside Saigon, I completely understood his subconscious refusal to pay attention to the rumors and stories swirling around Saigon about Chairman Mao's campaign in China. In the end, his determination to keep his head in the sand became his downfall. He found himself trapped between a rock and a hard place because he stayed in the present and didn't allow himself to consider the future, unless it was a rosy one.

Maybe it's only human? I'm the same in many ways. It's easier to think about now and live for now, than it is to do the hard work that will allow me to ride out whatever the future brings, good or bad. To paraphrase Peter Drucker:

Planning deals not with future decisions but with the future of present decisions

It's one thing to know it; it's another thing to act on it. I'm a slow learner sometimes. Even though I've already felt the repercussions of my past failures to plan, I still only do a half-assed job of it. But my stakes are higher now. I don't have to worry about the things that Percival should've worried about but they are important, First World Problems though they may be.  In my heart of hearts, I don't take my own problems seriously enough because I know that compared to the rest of the world, what I'm shouldering is small potatoes. Maybe it's a mistake to think that way. It's some kind of guilt complex, I realize.  This is the way my mind works: "It's silly to worry about worrying that you are making a big deal out of something that really is so silly when you think about the rest of the world." Are you confused? Now you know why I drink a lot of wine. *sigh*

Headmaster Percival Chen is a proud Chinese-born man who runs an English language school at the cusp of the Viet Nam Conflict. In his refusal to accept his adopted country's turbulent times, his gamble becomes a life-changer. Join From Left to Write on November 15 as we discuss The Headmaster's Wager, by Vincent Lam. As a member, I received a copy of the book for review purposes.

Legend.

There were many, many fascinating details I learned about France, Europe and the development of race as a social construct in Tom Reiss' new book, The Black Count but I really got hooked on the idea of Alex Dumas as a legend in his own time, even before his son, Alexandre Dumas, used him as the inspiration for The Count of Monte Cristo. Alex Dumas, born Thomas-Alexandre, was a legendary figure not just because he was a black man who achieved incredible military success at a time when policies were being enacted to dehumanize people of African descent. His story is the classic stuff of legend: born into dubious social standing, sold into slavery by his desperate father, reclaimed again by the same man and groomed for nobility, rising through the French social ladder. Everyone loves the triumph of the underdog, especially when he's good-looking!

And it got me thinking about how any of us could be legends in the making, without knowing it. Do you think Alex Dumas knew he would be immortalized in his son's novels? That books would be written about him? We don't have to be big legends and we don't have perform heroic acts but we can leave a mark on the world by sharing some part of ourselves for the good of humanity.

Every once in awhile I ask myself, "what is the point of me?" Don't get me wrong-- I place great value on my role as a mother and a keeper of the home but if you know me, you know that I totally buy into that woo-woo stuff about giving back to the universe. Some people call it karma but I think it's a mistake to actively court karma. Instead, you should send out to the universe what you hope to get back.

Not so long ago, the "point of me" was to share my knowledge and passion with teenagers in the South Bronx. I'm still very passionate about education. I don't have a lot of money but I do have time and energy, and that is how I've chosen to return the favor. Getting involved with Pathways Togo is an action that I feel good about, getting to the root of change-- education. The idea of education as a path to empowerment, to personal freedom, to personal success is something that I tried to instill in my students. I reminded them often that I was not in the classroom for them, they were not in the classroom for me. They were in the classroom for themselves, and so our time together would be whatever they made it be.

I try very hard to take my own advice: the quality of my time here is what I make it. When I imagine myself as an old lady, looking back on my life, I don't see myself as a legend, but as a small force that joined together with other small forces to create a powerful synergy in the universe that became an agent of change for the greater good.

Alexandre Dumas' works were heavily influenced by his father, also named Alexandre Dumas. In the biography The Black Count, author Tom Reiss tells how Dumas went from slavery to become the equivalent of a five star general in the French military. Join From Left to Write on October 11 as we discuss the The Black Count. As a member, I received a copy of the book for review purposes. All links to the book are affiliate links. This means if you buy the book using the link, I get a cut. 

Seeking the Righteous.

When I first began reading The Baker's Daughter, I was struck right away by the realization that while I've read plenty of Holocaust literature, very little of it has been from the non-Jewish/non-Other perspective. The Holocaust seems to be one of those issues that is made out to be black and white, with no grey. Jew=good. German=bad. But few things in life are that simple. First of all, how about the fact that Jew and German often overlapped? Or the fact that Jews were merely a percentage of the total "Others" killed?

How much responsibility ought we place on a person that was emotionally vulnerable and easily brainwashed by propaganda, for whatever reason?  It takes a special measure of strength to go against the tide, especially one as violent and threatening as the Nazi tide. That is why it is imperative to shine more light on the Righteous Gentiles, especially the Germans. Not all those Righteous Gentiles started out as Righteous. Some probably unwittingly took up the cause when they came face to face with the human side of the Nazi campaign, as Elsie did in the book. Idealogy is easy to subscribe to when the details are abstract but when the victim of that ideaology takes on the face of a child, a mother, a father, looking you in the eyes and pleading, the human instinct kicks in, or at least, it did for some Gentiles.

I have a very good friend whose parents were born in Poland, and whose family still lives in Poland. Her family, along with others in their small Polish village, hid a Jewish schoolteacher during the war. (You can read that story here: http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/books/107970/polish-village-secret). Another side of her family used to sneak bread under the fence to the Jews living in the Warsaw Ghetto.  As a Jew, I find it important to know these stories, to know that in the face of incredible inhumanity, there were brave, brave souls who risked life and limb (literally) to shelter and rescue the persecuted among them.

But the lessons of the Holocaust are not translating to the modern day. Darfur, Rwanda, Srebrenica, to name just a few of the genocides that have occurred worldwide since the end of World War II. We rally, we spread awareness, we donate money. But I hope there are righteous people on the ground who help those poor souls in a way that money and exposure cannot. I have to believe there are but where are those stories?  

This post is inspired by Sarah McCoy's The Baker's Daughter. In a small Texan town, Reba discovers Elsie's German Bakery and falls in love with more than the pastries. She is drawn to Elsie's life in Germany during the last year of WWII. Join From Left to Write on August 29  as we discuss The Baker's Daughter. As a member, I received a copy of the book for review purposes. All links to the book are affiliate links. This means if you buy the book through my link, I get a percentage of the sale.