Kate Keeps on Jumping

Books read in January
Stasiland - Reviewed
The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox - Reviewed
The Best Minds: A Story of Friendship, Madness, and the Tragedy of Good Intentions - Reviewd
Everyone Knows Your Mother is a Witch - Reviewd
Vengeance Is Mine - Reviwed
Breaking Point - Reviewed
The Return of Martin Guerre - Reviewed
At Night All Blood is Black - Reviewed
Suite Française - Reviewed
Learning to Talk - Reviewed
The Undertaking - Reviewed
Mouth to Mouth - Reviewed
Martian Time-Slip - Reviedd
The Enchanted April - Reviewed

February Books listed here
March Books listed here

Thought I’d bounce gently into February with Enchanted April.

Writer Elizabeth von Arnim had an interesting and privileged life, staying mostly in London and major cities in Europe and the U.S.. She had an affaire with H.G. Wells and married Francis, 2nd earl of Russell, brother of philosopher Bertrand Russell. She became disillusioned with marriage - saw it as tyranny, and this is reflected in many of her novels.

I’m finding it worthwhile researching writers in order to understand their take on life. Von Amin’s life could not be more different than my own, but from what I’ve read so far in Enchanted April, we both share a love of Italy.

Edited to fix Touchstone.

Nice new thread, Kate. You read a lot of books in January! I like how you link to your reviews too.

>3 labfs39: Thanks. Yes, I was surprised at how many books I’d read. I thought of adding the rating and the gender of the writer, but then decided it’d look too busy and kept it simple.

Very good January for books. I’m interested in von Arnim. Hope you enjoy.

>5 dchaikin: I am enjoying it so far. But there’s something about it that’s a little fey. The writing is excellent and I’m enjoying the different characters,

>2 kjuliff: Arnim's first husband was German, and appears in Elizabeth and Her German Garden as "The Man of Wrath". It's fairly autobiographical, and shows her as a young woman trying to integrate into a foreign society - not nearly as light as Enchanted April

>7 SassyLassy: Thanks. I’ll put it on my list. She such an evocative writer.

Nice to see you, Kate. What a lot of great January reading! Enchanted April sounds lovely.

>2 kjuliff: I also like to read little about the authors whose books I read. February is the shortest month and so you will have to go some to match your January reading.

You had a great January reading month, but a stressful end of month, so I wish you a happy new thread and a quieter February!

>9 BLBera: Yes The Enchanted April is a real gem. I’ll review soon.

>10 baswood:>8 I was so enchanted with Elizabeth von von Armin that I’m reading more about her life.. She mixed in upper-class literary circles but was by no means fully accepted and was not averse to saying and writing what she thought. Interestingly she thought little of Somerset Maugham’s works. And she was much criticized by the thinly-vaulted negative representations in her novels by the men in her life.

I am now reading her Vera which is nothing like The Enchanted April. Enjoying it as well though.

>11 raton-liseur: Thank you. I’ve only just recovered from my late January health problem - fixing the O2 concenrators really knocked it out of me. But I’ve been listening to audio books and will set up my February log today.

February Books
Minor Detail - Reviwed
Vera - Reviewed
Death is Hard Work - Reviwed
The Years - Reviewd
Elizabeth and her German Garden - Rviewed
The Mother's Recompense - Reviewed
The Discomfort of Evening - Reviewed
Mysteries - Reviewed
Convenience store woman - Reviewed
Earthlings - Reviewed
Homegoing - Reviewed
Before the Fall - Reviewd
Love and Summer - Reviewed
Death in Summer - Reviewed

A Case of Stendhal’s Syndrome?


The Enchanted April
By Elizaber Von Arnim
Media: Audio
Reader Jennifer Mendenhall
Rating: 4

Set in the 1920s , The Enchanted April is a story of four English women’s vacation in a castle on the Italian Riviera and the effect the beauty of the castle, the vistas, and more especially its gardens have on them.

One of the women, a Mrs Wilkins is clearly overwhelmed by the beauty of the place and has a spiritual transformation, similar to that of George Harrison when he “found himself” in India in the mid sixties.

So sure is Ms Wilkins that all you need is love, that she telegrams her husband who she previously feared and felt was cold, asking him to join her. Surely he too would feel the love. Mrs Wilkins’ bliss is contagious, so much so that she persuades her friend Mrs Arbuthnot to do the same.

The other members of the group, Lady Caroline Dester and Mrs Fisher who are both “spinsters”, appear less affected, though Lady Caroline becomes more self-aware. She is more able to come to terms with her own beauty, which has so far been a hindrance in her young life. Mrs Fisher, who is considered ancient at 65 and who is still stuck in the Victorian era remains somewhat immune, though she occasionally has feelings she can’t quite work out.

As for the two husbands, von Arnim has little time for the men. Mr Wilkins becomes warmer toward his wife as his feelings for the female sex are rekindled by the beauty of Lady Caroline if not the garden. And Mr Arbuthnott sees that Mrs Arbuthnott has a sex appeal that he has been unaware of for many a year.

Which leave the main character in the book, the garden. As an avid gardner myself, I delighted in the long paragraphs describing in exquisite detail, the different flowers and shrubs, and their placement around the castle, and in some cases around the individual women when they act as shields allowing the individual women to revel in their solitudes.

The writing is crisp and humorous. The class distinctions separate Mrs Fisher and Lady Caroline Dester from the Mrs Wilkins and Mrs Arbuthnot, the former clearly seeing the other women as “below them”. But what the women have in common is that they are not men.

The men in the novel appear as necessary appendages. Accessories. Accessories that are generally found wanting.

I came saw from the book intrigued by the author. I wanted to find out more, and did.

I’m glad that I discovered von Arnim. I thoroughly enjoyed The Enchanted April and rated it a deserving 4.

>14 kjuliff: and free on audible. I enjoyed your review. I’m intrigued.

>15 dchaikin: I enjoyed the book so much I had to find out more, so I read Vera and found the tone to be so different. How much is based on her own life I cannot tell, but I am quite taken by this writer. Her private life is so interesting. I might see if I can find a decent biography. She was on close terms with so many “between the wars” writers there must be something.

I’ll review Vera later. I need to recover from my dental visit today.

>14 kjuliff: What is "Stendhal’s Syndrome?"

>17 dianeham: Stendhal’s syndrome is a psychosomatic condition involving rapid heartbeat, fainting, confusion, and even hallucinations, allegedly occurring when individuals become exposed to objects, artworks, or phenomena of great beauty. The name is taken from the writer’s experience in Italy.

He wrote of Florence I was in a sort of ecstasy, from the idea of being in Florence, close to the great men whose tombs I had seen. Absorbed in the contemplation of sublime beauty . . . I reached the point where one encounters celestial sensations . . . Everything spoke so vividly to my soul. - from Stendhal’s Naples and Florence

I used it in mild jest to describe Mrs Wilkins’ behavior in the novel.

>16 kjuliff: dentists visits. Yuck. I’m curious about Vera

>19 dchaikin: Think Rebecca with a dash of emotional DV. I was most surprised. Vera does not actually appear in the novel, but a large photo of her hangs on the wall overlooking the table where the new wife dines.

From Little Things Big Things Grow

Minor Detail
By Shibli Adania
Media: Audio
Reader: Siiri Scott
Rating: 4.5

This a a book I will never forget. It shows the true horror that can be enacted when one group of people see another group of people as less than human.

The book is in two parts and starts off describing an officer of the Israeli army getting ready for his day in his camp in what is now known as southern Israel. It is 1949, one year after the war that the Palestinians mourn as the Nakba, and the officer’s actions and ablutions are described in minute detail. Every action, every part of him putting on each item of clothing is described. At first I thought that the character was suffering from OCD, but eventually it came to me - every detail, every thing we do has its importance.

During that day in 1949 a Bedouin girl is captured and abused physically and mentally. A dog has followed her. She has her clothes torn from her body. They are thrown carelessly into a heap and petrol poured over them. They are burned. Her long hair too is covered in petrol and cropped. The dog howls. All this described in minute detail. She is then put in a hut and the officer leaves the camp and the detail of camp life stop. For the reader there is silence except for the howling of the dog. But we know and can imagine what is happening.

Many years later in the Occupied Territories an Arab office worker learns what happened to the girl in the camp from a newspaper article. She becomes obsessed with the story, as the day of the girl’s capture is the day after her own birth.

She can’t get hold of any official documentation because she is Arab. So she decides to go to the area of the camp to see if there is any record there. This is no easy task as being a non Israeli she can’t rent a car or even travel without a pass, and even then she has to line up at checkpoints. Nevertheless she manages and her efforts and trip south are described in minute detail.

Arriving south she rents a room in the Israeli Area A. She luxuriates in bathing in hot water and in having continuous electricity. The next morning she gets inter the rental and drives. There is a smell of petrol. A dog follows her.

The book ends fittingly. I’ve written all that is necessary.

It is shattering. It is brilliantly written. In both partís it is fearful and unsettling.

I highly recommend this novel.

Two more excellent reviews that I enjoyed reading

I have become aware of your recent difficulty obtaining books with excellent narration and I have a suggestion that you might consider. When I read The Return of Martin Guerre i was amazed at the quality of the narration by Sarah Mollo-Christensen and I did a Google on her.

I found that just in Audible she has over 400 books of a wide variety of genres. You can obtain a list of those books on Audible, but also can narrow it down to a genre, such as 'Literary Fiction'. Any list can be ordered by average rating, date released, etc.

It appears that you can do similar searches for your personal favorite narrators.

I don't know if this would be useful to you, but it might be a track to consider.

>23 JoeB1934: Thanks Jim. I have occasionally done a narrator search but didn’t thinks of narrowing it down by genre, so I will definitely be using your tip.

The two books - reviewed above - both had excellent narrators. I should note, in case you decide to read The Enchanted April that the version I got has a different narrator from the various versions available at Audible - my review. I borrowed it from the Andrew Heiskell Braille and Talking Books division of the New York Public Library.

Because I often get books from that library I’ve decided to include narrator (reader) in the header of my reviews. Often this library has different versions than Audible or even the main New York Public Library.

>22 baswood: Thanks so much. I really liked both books and so far am having a very good run. I have two reviews waiting to be written, both about quite unusual books.

>21 kjuliff: Excellent review of Minor Detail, Kate. If I hadn't just read it, I would be inspired to pick it up again!

>21 kjuliff: phew. I couldn’t read that right now. Someday. Excellent review

>21 kjuliff: Great comments, Kate. Could you get someone to read to you if the book isn't available in audiobook format? I actually read to another blind student when I was in college, mostly math homework, unfortunately. It was a rewarding experience.

>28 BLBera: Not really. It would be a lot to ask. And everyone I know well enough in New York are too busy working. And I think I prefer to read alone anyway.

>27 dchaikin: It’s a short listen Dan, just under 4 hours listening time. And there’s not a lot of explicit violence. I think you would be OK with that part. Did you read Lisa’s review?

>26 labfs39: Lisa I’m so glad now that I didn’t read your review before reading Minor Detail as we felt in such similar ways and had the same reaction to the novel. I think Dan should read it but am worried about what he’d say about the ending.

>29 kjuliff: it's the subject. I'm not in a good mental place regarding that area, since Oct 7.

>30 dchaikin: I understand. I thought I might have given the impression that the book was too graphic. Which it isn’t but I understand about wanting to stay away from that subject in literature. I actually liked that it was short and to the point, and did not go on and on, as many other novels of that subject have.

Rebecca à la française


Vera
By Elizabeth Von Armin
Media: Audio
Reader: Paul Nicki
Rating: 4

Reading Vera was I in “The Willows” or “ Manderley”? Hard to say at times. But no, I was in The Willows, firmly entrencehed. But minus the sinister Danvers at the window with Manderley burning around her. Another woman stood at a window at The Willows. The first wife, Vera, who died not by fire but by falling through the open window to her death.

Liked Rebecca, Vera’s likeness hangs on a wall in The Willows, staring at Everard‘s new wife Lucy. And like Rebecca, Vera does not appear in Von Arnie’s Vera.

But let’s step back. It’s the 1920s, and Everard, a boring man whose platitude-based morality borders on Trumpism captured the heart of ingebue Lucy who is less than half his age. She’s a pretty girl, but none too bright. He is the first man whose sentences she actually understands. She has been used to her father’s intellectual friends, old lefties who discussed politics endlessly, in nuanced terms. Her father has recently died when Lucy meets Everard, a man who speaks in simple terms, a man who thinks there is one side to every question. Her fate is sealed.

Everard tals to Lucy in baby talk, telling her not to worry her pretty little head about his decisions. She’s in heaven, oblivious to her only living relative Aunt Dot’s gentle warnings. Her late father’s friends gradually disappear from her life, like liberals turning off the TV when Trump rambles on. They marry.

Once Everard has caught the fly in his boring Willows’ web the domestic abuse starts. Lucy is locked out in the freezing rain for hours and has to apologize repeatedly until Everard can fully relish her submission. He opposes every thing she desires. She is a virtual prisoner in his house. She obeys his every command. Nothing is good enough for her new husband who is a simple-minded bully. Lucy is isolated from the world. Vera looks at her as she sits at the table to eat. Vera’s eyes follow her and there is a twisted smile on Vera’s mouth.

She falls ill and her aunt Dot tries to help her but is unceremoniously forced to leave The Willows and forbidden to see Lucy again, ever.

We never find out about Vera’s death. Possibly it was suicide. But could Lucy last as long as Vera who had stayed married to Everand for 15 years, the exiled Dot muses.

Apart from Robby Doyle’s The Woman who Walked into Doors, I can’t remember reading a book about domestic violence. And although Vera’s Lucy suffers emotional rather than bodily violence, it is just as harrowing to read about it in Vera.

Lucy and Everard are not similar to Maxim and the second Mrs de Winter except for the age difference. But there are so many “pre-shadows” of Rebecca in this earlier novel that it is, like Everard, creepy.

Still intrigued by von Arrnim my reading of Vera has thrown some light on her life. Is the novel semi-autobiographical? I have read that Vera is based on her disastrous second marriage, to Frank Russell.

I need to find out more. I am on a quest.

The original story in English of enforcing submission of a woman was The Clerk's Tale way back in the 14th century. The story is still being retold.

>32 kjuliff: phew. Maybe i’ll try The Enchanted April 1st

>33 baswood: I haven’t gotten there yet. Reading the Summoner’s Tale (requiting the Friar’s… or Frere’s)

>34 dchaikin: I’m reading my third von Armin book now, Elizabeth and her German garden and my edition has a forward by Elizabeth Jane Howard which shines a light on Von Armin’s marriages. Her first marriage was seemingly happy, and husband Henning August von Arnim-Schlagenthin adored her. It was well after he died that she married Bertrand Russell’s brother, Frank Russell, and it was this second marriage that was the inspiration for Vera.

So now I’m back to the earlier book, Elizabeth and her German Garden and it’s all sweetness and light. Her references to the German husband as “The Man of Wrath” in the book is provably in jest, or that she couldn’t be bothered with his ridiculously long name.

>35 kjuliff: Interesting that you are finding Elizabeth and Her German Garden "all sweetness and light".

I remember it as a constant struggle against the impositions of a rigid rural German society, against the head gardeners reluctant to implement any change she wanted, and as a constant struggle to find that time alone that she so desperately needed to write and read.
Then there were the constant setbacks in that garden, as she taught herself about the plant world and learned what could work and what would not. I did love her optimism about it though.

Also noting that her first husband was arrested and imprisoned for fraud. After his death, there was a three year affair with H G Wells before the Earl came along.

>36 SassyLassy: I am only about a quarter way through Elizabeth. and her German Garden and so far I haven’t come across what you describe. Looks like I spoke too soon. Yes I knew about the affair with HG Wells but didn’t mention it in my post as I didn’t want to make the post too long.

Yes she wanted a rambling natural garden, but it was not only the rigid Germans who found it odd. E.M. Forster, who lived at the von Arnim estate when worked as a tutor to the her children, wrote that there was in fact not much of a garden, and wrote . "The German Garden itself ... did not make much impression”.

I don’t know much about Elizabeth’s first husband but according to Elizabeth Jane Howard he was very much in love with von Ardin throughout her marriage, and certainly for those times, whether in the UK or Germany von Armin had quite a lot of freedom, and lived a very privileged life.

Death in Syria

Death Is Hard Work
By Khaled Khalifa
Media: Audio
Reader: Neil Shah
Rating 3.5

This is a story of four family members who take a trip by car from Damascus to Anibiya, a small town a few hundred kilometers away.

The car’s occupants are three sibling and their father. The father has recently died. His cadavre is wrapped in a makeshift shroud. The body is being taken to Anibya for burial next to his wife as was his dying wish.

Thirty year’s ago a fourth sibling, a talented, smart independent young woman who, when her father arranged for her to marry a man she did not love, decided to die. On the wedding day in Anibiya, she climbed to the roof a building, looked down at the wedding party and burned herself to death.

Possibly it was because of guilt that father’s dying wish was that his body be buried in Anibiya. It was an impractical wish as to drive there from Damascus was extremely dangerous. But the brothers decided to go. The sister was not consulted.

It’s hot. It’s Syria. There are many official and unofficial road-blocks with stops between Damascus and Anibiya. The trip which is only a four hour drive in normal times, takes three days. The father’s dead body putrefies in stages, graphically told. There’s no A/C. The siblings can’t open the windows as they are scared of regime and rebel soldiers, and gangs. They are frequently held up at checkpoints. At one the two brothers are told to leave the car. The sister waits in the closed-window car for five hours with her father’s putrefying body. When the brothers return she is mute and remains so, forever.

This is a disturbing book in a bad way. It is an unpleasant read. Although it illustrates the meaningless of war, the method used, the long passages describing the decaying of the body did not seem to be there for any reason other than to engender horror. It was also a little disingenuous as it’s common knowledge that Islam requires bodies to be buried cleanly as soon as possible after death.

I was being generous with a rating of 3.

>38 kjuliff: one to avoid.

>38 kjuliff: oye, decaying corpses. I had trouble How Much of These Hills is Gold because of long sections on a decaying body. It was disgusting, whatever their point was. Anyway, kudos for getting through it. I think i agree with baswood.

>40 dchaikin: I’m reading Wharton’s The Mother's Recompense now. From your list. Enjoying it immensely.

>41 kjuliff: ❤️ yay! I’m reading it with a group on Litsy. We discussed books i and ii on Feb 17.

>40 dchaikin: Would Death is Hard Work be more interesting if you knew it was an adaptation of As I Lay Dying? I liked it well enough that I accidentally bought the book twice.

>43 ELiz_M: Did it have graphic descriptions of the body decomposing over a period of four days? I looked up As I Lay Dying and read that the book also delves into at the lives of the people on the journey. Khalifa does that too - for the male occupants of the car. Female sibling Fatima though, seems to hardly to exist.

The danger and the frustration at the road-blocks are an essential part of Death is Hard Work, so while it may be loosely based on Faulkner’s novel, I don’t think the engendered horror would be the same.

>41 kjuliff: How do I get the dchaikin list?

>45 JoeB1934: It’s on his thread. I looked at his one for the next few months. Go to his thread and scroll up a few pages - HERE.

Shared Headlines

The Years
By Annie Erneaux
Media: Audio
Reader: Anna Bentinck
Raiting: 4

A thoroughly enjoyable look-back at a French writer’s reactions to fifty years of sociopolitical landscapes.

Major and minor events, tastes and movements from the 1950s through the early twentieth century are chronicled by Erneaux from the point of view of her “circle”. Being born only half a decade after the writer, I’m assuming the circle is left-intellectual. The book is a mix of memoir and a personal account of history.

Throughout the book Erneaux uses “we” as the subject and the work is presented as a “collective memory” of the writer’s peers. As she is viewing the world through French eyes, some of the events she notes are local to the French. I recognized only a few of the politicians for example, the obvious de Gaulle, Mitterand, Chirac, Macron. Le Pen. But the bulk of the world news of the times was recognizable, as were the writer’s reactions to the events they described. The war with Algeria through the demonstrations of ‘68 to the destruction of the Twin Towers and the war in Iraq are recounted as if from a collective memory of a group of middle-class French. As well as world events, technological and social issues and tastes are recounted. From the inventions of the transistor radio to cell phones, the impacts are memorialized, as are very minor domestic trends, such as using salt to remove wine-stains from carpets.

The Years fitted well with my own understanding and recollections Of western history. The half decade age-difference did have a jarring effect in a couple of instances. The ‘68 student rebellion for example. I was still studying and Erneaux was married with at least one child. The demonstrations I remember differed from Erneaux’s as I felt dead center, while she reacted as a conventional married woman looking in at them, wishing she were a part. And of course she still uses the subject, “we”.

So while I enjoyed and related to the book, I would not expect everyone to identify with Eareaux’s “We”. Even so, it’s an interesting if not insightful look back at life in the second half of the twentieth century in France.

Recommended.

>47 kjuliff: I still haven't tackled Ernaux, although I mean to. I wonder which book I should choose as a first introduction to her writing? Maybe not this one?

>48 labfs39: I liked this one and intend to read more of Erneaux, despite my critical review. I still gave it a 4. It was really the use of “we” throughout - it’s a bit hard to describe and maybe something got lost in translation.

Personally I liked the book as I had/have similar world views to Erneaux, but it did niggle me the way it came across at times, as if everyone should have felt the way her circle felt. If I held more politically conservative views for example I might have felt excluded.

In Mcewan,s Lessons he also relates a similar world history mixed with his own perceptions and emotions. But he owns them as his own and not necessarily those of others. The Years sort of assumes you know modern French political history and hold similar world views.

I will be reading more. This one was an easy read for me and it did bring back memories, particularly 1980s on. I do recommend it.

>44 kjuliff: As I Lay Dying is essentially a comic novel. The major road block in it is the Mississippi River in flood. I’d find it very interesting to hear your thoughts on the two novels, as Death is Hard Work is now erased from my TBR (Thanks!) While there are numerous disasters, I don’t remember any graphic descriptions of decaying corpses, but it’s been awhile since I read it…

I have this one planned as my first by Erneaux. So I enjoyed your review and will prep myself for the collective we. I don’t typically include myself in a writer’s we, but I sometimes struggle with how impersonal it is. The run through history sounds fun.

>51 dchaikin: I just finished The Mother's Recompense which I understand you’ll be reading shortly. I really enjoyed it, especially as it turned out to be a bit of a page-turner.

>50 dianelouise100: I think you’d remember them Cindy. The corpse is described in great detail in several stages of decomposition. Even writing this it’s all coming back to me. Terrible!

>53 kjuliff: I apologize for the vagueness of the last sentence in Post#50. I should have written “While there are numerous disasters in As I Lay Dying, I don’t remember any graphic description of Addie’s decaying corpse…” You have spared me the reading of Death is Hard Work. I’m now thinking of rereading As I Lay Dying, though.

>54 dianelouise100: Dan recommended that Faulkner to me, but it doesn’t appeal. I’ve now changed my mind about burials. Must inform my kids back in OZ.

>55 kjuliff: there’s a natural cemetary near me where they do green burials. https://destinationdestinymemorials.com/services/natural-burial/steelmantown-cem...

>56 dianeham: Good to know. I’ll keep it in mind!

Fabulous reviews. I'm also an Enchanted April fan, so enjoying your other reading around this author. I have in the back of my head an article I read in The Times last year about a female author being terribly mean in real life, and I keep think it was von Arnim but now I'm doubting my memory.

I've put Minor Detail on my wishlist.

The Man of Wrath

Elizabeth and her German Garden
By Elizabeth von Arnim
Media :Audio
Reader:: Yolande Bavaria
Rating: 4

This is the third and earliest of von Arnim’s books in my collection, and it like the others was a joy to read.

Unlike Vera which is also semi-autobiographical, this book tells of the happier marriage to a wealthy German who Elizabeth facetiously refers to as “The Man of Wrath”. Count Henning August von Arnim-Schlagenthin is portrayed as an old-fashioned boring Teuton, best ignored. And Elizabeth does her best to ignore him. She has her own way, by politely acting as if she does not even hear what he had to say, and spends her life planning and enjoying her garden in an old Pomeranian mansion.

Elizabeth and Henning have three children who are four, five and six in the book. Elizabeth calls them “babies” and refers to them by the names of the months they were born in.

Thus we have April Baby, May Baby and June Baby, Elizabeth talks about the babies in the same way as she talks about her flowers, flowers that take on childlike qualities. Bluebells peep cheekily through the snow. Petunias raise their quaint little heads in the morning.

A gardener plants the flowers. A governess looks after April Baby, May Baby and June Baby.

Elizabeth lives a life of privilege. She can do as she pleases, weather permitting. She’s a charming and witty young woman, who doesn’t tolerate fools gladly. And except for one close friend fools include her husband and most of the people she knows or whose paths cross hers.

The peasant are ignorant, less than animals and oh so annoying when they return to Russia in winter to see their families

Similar to Jane Austen’s Emma Elizabeth goes through life without a real care in the world. Unlike Emma though, Elizabeth is never sorry. Elizabeth has to be taken as one finds her. Any delving into the background of the social class structure of the time will be horrified to read of her referring to laborers as “menials”. I suggest the socially squeamish stay away. An LT member reviewing the book exclaimed, What a crock of über-privileged shit!

As for me I found I could suspend my politics and I loved both - Elizabeth and her German Garden.

>47 kjuliff: The Years was my introduction to Annie Ernaux, and the one of hers that I liked the best. I am about 10 years younger than her, but most of the events she described really resonated with me, although of course there were lots of French events and references that were not familiar.

>53 kjuliff: I have just started The Mother's Recompense for the Litsy Wharton Buddy Read led by Dan. We are in our second year (I think), so at this point we've read a lot of Wharton, and there was only one I did not like (it was, in effect, war propaganda).

>12 kjuliff: do you know if there is a bio of her?

>60 arubabookwoman: The Years is the only Erneaux book I’ve read. I looked at the others but none in particular caught my eye for the moment.

I have just finished The Mother’s Recompense and enjoyed it but felt it was a little melodramatic in parts.

>61 cindydavid4: A bio of Erneaux? - no I don’t know. It looks like most of her books are biographical to an extent and probably more personal than The Years which covers historical and social events, and her personal life is told from the point of view of here reactions to them. arubabookwoman will probably know.

>62 kjuliff: sorry I was replying to the wrong post; a bio for Von Armin

never mind I should have looked first

Elizabeth of the German Garden: A Literary Journey; a Biography of Elizabeth Von Arnim

>64 cindydavid4: Yes it’s called a biography but only covers the early part of her life. I don’t know is there’s a memoir after that, but you can get an idea of the middle part of her life from the fictional Vera that seems to be based on her miserable year or so of living with her second husband, the brother of Bertrand Russel. I don’t know if there’s a whole life biography but I’d be interested it there is. She certainly had a life after leaving him.

Maternal Melodrama

The Mother’s Recompense
By Edith Wharton
Medís:Audio
Narrator: Barbara Caruso
Rating 3.5

During the 1920s in America a young woman, Kate, falls for wealthy New Yorker, who turns out to be not according to her taste. The marriage produces a daughter they call Anne, but when Anne is still an infant Kate runs off in the middle of the night to be with a new lover. Anne is left to be raised by her father and after the his death lives alone, with her education and financial cares looked after by a family-appointed guardian. Kate and her new love travel from the marriage home on Fifth Avenue in New York to the French Riviera.

After a short while, Kate dumps her lover, and eventually meets a younger man called Chris, an American with an adventurous spirit who is good in bed. They have a few years of bliss and travel but being young Chris eventually tires of the older Kate and tells a fib - he says he has to return to New York but will be back. He never returns.

While Kate dreams hopefully and uselessly of his return she lives cheaply (by her standards) with her maid, in hotels on the French Riviera where rich Americans flock to what they call “American colonies”.There they pack their days with card playing, dinners, parties and visits from dignitaries, in order that they can forget about whatever past they have left.

Meanwhile the infant Anne has grown up and come of age. She has no memory of her mother Kate, but wants a mother. She’s living in the same Fifth Avenue mansion as the one Kate fled from 18 years ago. Her guardian turns out to be an old admirer of Kate ever since her New York days. He is all for Anne to reunite with her mother. He has been in love with Kate forever but his love has always been unrequited. Kate finds him a bore.

Anne telegraphs to Kate who is surprised to hear from the daughter who she was unable to even visit after she fled the mansion. Anne asks Kate to return. Kate does, happy to leave her shallow life.

The ingredients: A thityish man, sexy and adventurous, but poor
A woman in her fifties still good-looking but on a fixed income.
An adoring older New York gentleman who loves Kate
Anne, the ingenue who wants a mother.

The rest would require a very large spoiler alert, so I’ll leave the action there, but action there surely is.

The book is well-written, and it’s an enjoyable read. Will she or won’t she? Noting there are two she’s. There is a bit of a drift into melodrama, but what does it matter? The writing is good and we are kept interested.

Recommended for those not averse to melodrama.

>66 kjuliff: Good review. Wharton is a gap in my reading though, so this might not be the best one for me to start with.

that does look like fun, and it seems like Ive been reading more and more Wharton so I should take a look

just got Elizabeth of the German Garden – A Literary Journey: A biography of Elizabeth von Arnim on my kindle; hope this is good, Ill report back

>65 kjuliff: based on the review on Amazone It looks like its a lot more! Ill report back

>69 cindydavid4: but did you read my review here?

Catching up on your February reading: only two weeks in and you've read so widely and posted such wonderful reviews. Delighted to be able to read them, and especially all the Von Arnim books, as we were just talking about her on the Questions for Avid Readers thread. I particularly appreciated your review of Adania Shibli's Minor Detail.

>59 kjuliff: this was a lovely review. You have left me thinking I need to read von Arnim.

>52 kjuliff: A page turner?!

>66 kjuliff: thanks for no spoilers. I’m curious how it evolves. But now i keep highlighting lines. Love her prose.

>72 rv1988: Thanks for the compliment! I’ll have to catch up on Questions for Avid Readers. Glad you enjoy my reviews. It’s good to get feedback!

>58 AlisonY: Thanks Alison. I think many female writers can seem harsh. But many times it’s more in humor. This humor is sometimes taken at face values by American readers. Americans are so polite that one sometimes needs to be careful lest a remark made in jest is taken seriously. Especially if one is Irish or Australian. 😊

>73 dchaikin: Thanks Dan.
Yes I found The Mother’s Recompense to be a page turner in that I wanted to know what happened and to say anything more would be a spoiler.

Re von Armin I am sure you would love her and I’m a little surprised you haven’t already read any of her books. I write this because of what I understand to be your tastes in 20th C books. She’s such a lovely writer.

>67 valkyrdeath: Thanks! Wharton was a gap in mine too, till I was reminded of her by dchaikin . The first of her work I read recently (I read The Age of Innocence years ago, but that was all) was Roman Fever and Other Stories. I’m not really into short stories, but these were delightful. I recommend these as a Wharton 101 😊

>70 kjuliff: yes I did, this is a different book :) It covers her whole life and discusses all of her books. It starts with this

"so this is the story of how by the strangest of ironies, a woman whose books are so concerned with exploring identity has somehow lost hers. its the story of Mary Beaucamp, a courageous woman whose remarkable life spanned the turbulent years from the end of the 19 century until the end of you life in the 20th In the course of this narrative I will show that Mary assumed an identity parallel but not identical to her own when she wrote. Elizabeth is not a penname, but another creation; one who existed in the imagination of Mary...

>78 cindydavid4: I see. We are talking of different books. Thanks for clarifying.

any time :)

Hi Kate - I haven't read either Erneaux or von Arnim and your comments really make me want to give both of these writers a try.

>81 BLBera: Good to hear Beth. I was put on to them by other LT members. They are both really good writers. Glad you enjoyed the reviews.

>47 kjuliff: Interesting that 'we' caused some disquiet. This is not evident in the original french which uses 'on' for much the time which can be translated into English as 'one' as it takes the third person singular.

Anyway glad you enjoyed the book

>59 kjuliff: I am not sure that everyone would agree, but yes I am prepared to 'suspend the politics sometimes'.

>83 baswood: That is interesting that the translation to “we” in The Years being from the French “on” rather than “nous”. I would find that even more affronting to those of an opposite political bent, as to me “one thinks xxx” assumes that everyone thinks xxx, whereas “we think xxx” implies a subgroup of the population thinks xxx.

The “we” in The Years didn’t make me feel disquiet, but I could see that it might to people of a different political persuasion than that of Erneaux’s circle.

>83 baswood: I’ve thought some more about the translation of the French on to the English we, and now I think that it was the use of “we” that was disconcerting. After all, it is a personal history and I think this would be more obvios in the original French version. It’s unfortunate that the use of “one” instead of “we” would have sounded too formal in English. I can see why the translator went that way. But there’s really no English equivalent for the pronoun “on”.

>77 kjuliff: Thanks for the recommendation! It sounds perfect for me as I love a good short story, but it can be hard finding the actually good ones.

>82 kjuliff: We do hear about great new authors on LT, don't we? I have expanded my reading a lot since I started here.

>87 BLBera: Yes I’ve certainly expanded my reading since joining LT. I initially joined just to keep track of my own reading, but I’ve discovered many new writers since joining. I used to rely on a few friends with tastes similar to my own, and the Booker longlist. Now my reading is much more diverse.

I just finished The Discomfort of Evening by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld and am incapable of picking up another book. It’s a brilliant debut novel and I will review it once I’ve recovered.

>89 kjuliff: Ooh - a solid book hangover! I'm intrigued...

I made notes for my review. Here are some unedited scraps for you till I can write it.
you enter a world you don’t want to be in.
If anything is even partly normal we are jolted out of it by something some/horror words of horror
Glow in the light yellow stars, the Jews in the basement, Christmas decorations
juxtapositions
uncomfortable
Thou shalt not

>91 kjuliff: Even your scraps are intriguing!

Especially that scrap. (in >91 kjuliff: )

>93 dchaikin: >89 kjuliff: >90 AlisonY: Yes, I am still somewhat in that book and need to read something gentler. I think I’ll need a Wharton or a Von Arnim to recover.

But no need to wait for my review - you can get an excellent review from thorold HERE. We both had similar reactions. I read his review when I’d almost finished reading as I was in the state of emotional suspense and needed to pause. As a female I will have a slightly different take, but essentially we are on the same page.

BTW it’s free on Audible right now, but is not for the faint-hearted.

Oooh - bleak and disturbing. Sounds right up my alley!

In the Mind of a Child

The Discomfort of Evening
By Marieke Lucas Rijneveld
Media:Audio
Reader: Genevieve Gaunt
Rating: 4.5

It’s as if Rijneveld had to get it all out there before they forgot. The Discomfort of Evening draws upon many of Rijneveld‘s own experiences growing up on a bleak farm in the Netherlands around the turn of the century.

Jas is ten and her family is falling apart. The tight external structure of extreme religion is not enough to hold it together in the face of two tragic events in as many years. In fact regular visits of Church Elders and the extreme beliefs of the Dutch Reformed Church are stifling influences on the family. The parents distance themselves from each other and from the children. The.children are left in a vacuum. Schooling is intermittent. Jas is forced to fill in the gaps of the “why” of everything in order for her world to make sense.

From the accidental drowning of her older brother, the death of the farm cows who are euthanized due to an outbreak of foot and mouth disease, to witnessing the animal cruelty of her surviving brother, Jas has a mind full of explanations.

Told by her teacher to write a letter to Anne Frank, she’s confused. How can Anne read a letter? She finds out her birthday is the same date as Hitler’s (as is Rijneveld‘s) and fears she herself must be bad. She tells a Hitler joke at school, so off that it’s been excluded from the English translation.

At home at night she looks at the glow-in-the-light star stickers and peels one off and sticks it on her coat. She thinks there are Jews hiding in the basement and worries they aren’t getting enough food when her family falls on hard times after the cow disease.

She keeps toads under her desk hoping they will mate as this will mean her parents might and then her drowned brother will be replaced. She masturbates on her teddy bear and watches when her surviving brother does sexual acts with a coke can on her complicit younger sister. She tries to make sense of every little thing. She imagines teeth peeping up through the snow, teeth that have kept growing, the teeth of dead animals buried on the farm. Why would teeth not keep growing? she asks herself. When her drowned brother’s body is kept for days in a cooled coffin, she lifts the clear viewing lid to see if he’s warm. It’s Christmas time when he dies and the parents cancel Christmas. Her mother takes the Christmas decorations down and carries them to the basement where the Jews are living.

The paucity of Jax’s external life contrasts with her mind’s imaginative explanations. This juxtaposition of external and internal increases as the child Jas progresses though puberty where sexual ideation escalates.

The reader starts to enter Jan’s/ Rijneveld’s mind. If any thing even partly normal happens we are jolted out of it by something some horror. We enter a world we don’t want to be in.

Reading The Disturbance of Evening is an unnerving and enduring experience, but one I am honored that I was allowed into.

>96 kjuliff: that’s a lot of strange. Great review

>97 dchaikin: The Disturbances of Evening won the International Booker in 2020. There’s an interesting but old ártica about Rijneveld and this debut novel here. The writer is now known as Lucas Rijneveld and has recently published a third book (he has a book of poems) -a novel, My Heavenly Favorite.

>96 kjuliff: This sounds like such a difficult read. A great review by you.

I just started the book Weyward by Emilie Hart and it occurs to me that it might be of interest to you. The author is British/Australian and a promo says

"Weaving together the stories of three extraordinary women across five centuries, Emilia Hart's Weyward is an enthralling novel of female resilience and the transformative power of the natural world."

Maybe a bit lighter reading than some of what you have been doing.

>100 JoeB1934: Thanks Joe but I’m not one for multi-generational novels. I am currently not reading anything as I’ve given up on two books in my tbr list and am just floundering around.

>99 rv1988: it was not so difficult as it was gripping. But it was disturbing. It’s a very honest book. I’ll definitely be reading her next one, available on audio in March.

>102 kjuliff: have you seen the Women’s Prize Nonfiction longlist? I added US audio options on the Just Lists thread.

>103 dchaikin: Yes I did look at that list. I didn’t get tempted by anything. I think I might get The Good Soldier. It has a good review from thorold who is always on the mark, no pun intended. I listened to a few pages. After a Rijneveld type of novel it’s hard going to get connected to another book.

>104 kjuliff: i must be more easily tempted. They all look promising to me. 🙂

>105 dchaikin: I’m not much into non-fiction, that’s all. I read some but right now in need a story.😊

Understand!

>96 kjuliff: I bought this shortly after it won the International Booker (it must have been a cheap Kindle deal), and it has languished on my Kindle since. Your review compels me to get to it soon!

>108 arubabookwoman: From what I know of your reading, I think you would like this book. Note also it is free for Audible members now.

>96 kjuliff: Great comments, Kate. It sounds powerful. I know it's sometimes hard to settle on something to read after such an experience.

Loveless but not Bloodless

The Vegetarian
By Hans Kang
Media: Audio
Rating: N/A

I’m cataloging this book for reference rather than reviewing it. After reading the 2020 International Booker winner The Discomfort of Evening I checked other winners and saw that At Night All Blood is Black and Time Shelter were past winners, and although I couldn’t handle At Night All Blood is Black, I recognized it was well-written. Seemed to me that the International Booker judges are into dark, and I like dark so I looked for more.

I decided to give The Vegetarian a go. I had a feeling it’s be a dark read but as I’d been able to watch “Squid Game” I would be able to handle The Vegetarian.

I suspect this book might be readable in print, but in audio it just seemed sick. Blood doesn’t turn me on. Neither does an anorexic vegetarian woman who runs around her kitchen chucking the contents of her freezer all over the floor.

The book has chapters that alternate between the voices of husband and wife. The husband chose the wife because she was plain and he assumed he wouldn’t have to worry about her straying. I’m not sure why she chose him. I only know she had vivid dreams about blood. Nothing about the first three chapters grabbed me. Not the prose, not the characters, not the story if there was one. Life is short and is getting shorter. I gave up.

I think it might be a story of a marriage, loveless but not bloodless. But thankfully I’ll never know.

>111 kjuliff: I read this and semi-enjoyed it, but looking back at my review I did find it odd and dark and one I was glad to get to the end of. I think the bizarreness of it kept me hanging in there, but I can get why you bailed.

Norwegian Wood

Mysteries
By Knut Hamsun
Media: Audio
Narrator: Ed Blake
Rating: 3.5

It was hard to believe that this book was written in 1892. Certainly in style it’s ahead of its time. The depiction of the inner life of its characters, the stream of consciousness writing, the strange feelings we get of the troubled Camus-like anti-hero, are the most memorable features of this Norwegian novel.

Although written in the third person, Hansun drops into the mind of Nagel, the rebel without a cause who is the protagonist of this fascinating book.

The book starts with Nagel who| arrives unannounced at a Norwegian coastal town knowing no one, wearing a yellow suit and carrying a fur coat and a violin-less violin case. He takes a room at the local hotel and proceeds to embark upon some very unpredictable acts whose purposes are at odds with conventional society.

He takes pleasure in persuading people to act contravention to their own dispositions. He orders a new coat for the town jester, a cripple who ignorant villagers laugh at, calling him as “the midget”. He insists on buying an old worn-out chair from a poor widow for a price that exceeds her annual income. These people don’t want his money but Nagel wants them to go against their virtue of poverty to satisfy himself.

To Nigel money is no object and he throws it around hosting a “stag party” for the towns local dignitaries.

The dinner party scene was the highlight of the book. The town’s pastor, doctor, deputy and Negal sit around a table discussing world políticas. When thoroughly inebriated the move on to literature. Negal is contemptuous of Tolstoy, and Ibsen, calling them mediocre. He despises Marx, socialists and liberals, claiming the latter are makers of bureaucracies whose height of legislation is the setting up of a committee to improve the footwear of mailmen.

As the book progresses Nagel becomes manic, contradictory and irrational in his thought patterns. He confuses himself as his opposing desires clash. He proclaims his useless passion for the pastor’s blond-haired daughter and proposes to a poor gray-haired widow. When he falls down in his manic dementia the novel veers from the third person narrative to the stream of consciousness of Nagel’s mind.

Mysteries is a very intriguing book. I had to keep reminding myself that it was written in the 19th century. I had to google this writer, Knut Hamsun - I’d chanced upon the novel by accident. I needed to know more. This was when I was halfway through the book. I discovers he had, much later in life, praised Hitler. I almost stopped reading but continued to the end because I felt there must be some obscure reason. How could this be?

I ended up going with the Guardian reviewer in The Nazi novelist you should read -
I will not defend Hamsun's politics. He betrayed both his country and more importantly humanity in general and deserves every bit of the scorn that's been heaped upon him. Hamsun's writing, however, is another matter. Whether we like the man or not, it seems to me both foolish and pointless to continue ignoring the significance of Hamsun's work - if for no other reason than it's an important part of our literary evolution and denying this can do nothing but cloud our understanding of our ourselves as readers and writers.

I am both glad and ashamed that I finished this novel. Like the book’s main character, I’m holding two competing thoughts in my head. I can’t unread it. I thought the book was brilliant.

>113 kjuliff: Why is the title of another unrelated book Norwegian Wood above the cover?

>114 JoeB1934: That’s not the name of another book; that’s the title of the review - from a Beatles song. I like to give titles to my reviews.

>115 kjuliff: That is the name of a book which I have read by Murakami. But that is okay for a title if you like it!

>113 kjuliff: It just goes to show that you can't judge a book by its author.

>117 baswood: Ha! Apparently Norway is forgiving him There is now a museum dedicated to him, and a $20 mill statue depicting him, the King of Norway quoted him in a speech and several books based on him and/or his books Nevertheless there is no doubt that he was pro-Nazi, none at all.

“We can’t help loving him, though we have hated him all these years,” said Ingar Sletten Kolloen, author of “Dreamer & Dissenter,” a Hamsun biography. “That’s our Hamsun trauma. He’s a ghost that won’t stay in the grave.” - Walter Gibbs NT Times.

>116 JoeB1934: I think that book was written in the late 1980’s and would have also taken the title of the Beatles’ song of that name. As the title of my review it was not intended to refer to Haruki Murakami’s book.

Turning Japanese

Convenience store woman
Sayaka Murata
Media:Audio
Rating 3.5

Keiko is a worker at a convenience store. Well, more than a worker. Although only part time, her work defines her. Completely.

She uses the workers’ manual as her guide for living. It makes life easy. Everything is well-defined. How to greet customers, when to replenish supples, the roster. She eats the store food so not only her mind, but her body is made from convenience store. She lives for the convenience store, earring and sleeping adequately in order that she fulfill her role perfectly. Life is good.

The problem is that the rest of the world has expects something else from her. At 36, working part-time at a convenience store and unmarried does not fit Japan’s social expectations. an opportunity arises for Keiko to fix this.

She takes in a homeless man, Shiraha who regards her as old and too ugly for sex. Keiko is not phased. She is not interested in men or sex of any kind. She treats him as she would a pet. Her house is small and in the day Shiraha sits fully-clothed in the empty bath, playing with his phone. She brings him his food on a plate and he eats it in there.

Things are going well for Keiko. Her family and friends accept her, pleased that she has a man. But when her sister-in-law drops by and sees the living arrangements she’s horrified. Keiko is nonplussed. What’s she done wrong? She’s no longer perceived as single, and her part-time low-level job should now be acceptable seeing as she is living with a man. But it’s obviously not. She’s not accepted and has now no manual to instruct her.

Shiraha also has problems with the outside world. He wants to hide from everyone. He doesn’t want to abide by the social rules which he regards as no better than those of cavemen. Their worlds are falling apart. What can they do?

Convenience store woman is a delightful novella. Murata is able to combine pathos with humor. This situation is believable. It’s a parable, a take not just on Japanese life but on life everywhere. Perhaps Shiraha is right and we really haven’t advanced since the Stone Age.

>121 cindydavid4: Yes, I know what you mean about the end. I left it out in my review así don’t generally divulge the end if it’s not anticipated.

not saying what the end was, tho ill go ahead a put a spoiler on it

Two great reviews. Very interesting about Hamsun. I wonder if knowing that will impact whether i read him. I’ve thought about it.

Having just finished Earthlings I think I need a new collection, RBWIH - Read But Wish I HADN’T.

Stayin’ Alive

Earthlings
By Sayaka Murata
Media: Audio
Length: 7 hrs and 6 mins
Rating: 1
Unfortunately I read this book to the end. It starts off in the same vein as Convenience Store Woman, but very soon I realized I was in something rather horrible. It was on the edge of being discarded, but the horror grew slowly. Just bearable. Until i was thrown into something really very very sick.

Surely it could get no worse.

It did.

Well, good warning. Maybe another label: CU - can’t unread

or TAW tossed against wall

Tuning Japanese by the Vapors - anyone remember that?

>130 baswood: Only just us old rebels I suppose :-(

Memories -
Turning Japanese
and
Walk Like an Egyptian

>130 baswood: how can anyone forget it

Not long till My Heavenly Favorite is out on Audible 3/5/24. Can’t wait. thorold says it’s darker and better than Rijneveld’s debut novel, The Discomfort of Evening. Hoping to finish Homegoing by then, and may sneak in In the Woods by Tana French for some light relief.

Never Ending Story


Homegoing
By Yaa Gyasi
Media:Audio
Read by: Dominic Hoffman
Length: 13 hrs and 11 mins
Rating:3.5
Homegoing tells multiple stories from over 300years of Ghanian history through the eyes of fourteen people over seven generations and two continents, Africa and America.

The fourteen individuals are presented one by one, alternating between each branch of a family that splits between two Ghanaian nations.

The links between generations form two single strands from the huge binary tree whose root starts with one man and his progeny - the half-sisters raised separately. Subsequent generations are followed, two from each branch chosen from maternal or paternal lines with no apparent pattern.

Each generation-2 sister is given half of a black stone that is meant to be passed down to their children for generations. How this happens isn’t really dealt with but it’s no surprise that at least one half survives whole for 300 years.

At about generation-4 I started to lose track of the two branches of the family but did try to follow the stone. Admittedly this lack of pattern as to which two sub-branches would be in the next two chapters made the book interesting. I was forced to concentrate. Who had the stone? Who married who in the previous generation? What happened to the other children? I never knew who would pop up in the next chapters.

To add to the morass, there are multiple time shifts per chapter. I started counting them for interest. In at least one chapter time shifts within a single paragraph. While listening to Ness reminisce about her life, time shifts from her “present” situation to her early childhood memories, both presented “in the moment”. Later in Harlem I was in an apartment with Willie and in the next sentence I’m with her and her father “H” from previous generation in Pratt City. Stories within stories ending in jumps to another story in another time and place.

But it’s not the time-shifts that are distracting, it the overuse of metaphors. There are paragraphs of them. I started seeing them multiply along with the expanding generation-tree. As Gyasi herself writes “The family is like the forest: if you are outside it is dense; if you are inside you see that each tree has its own position.”.

I could forgive the grating metaphors. However the book failed to grab me. Especially in the early slave scenes where descriptions didn’t capture the period or place adequately. Early descriptions such as that of life in the British slave dungeon lacked substance and I remained outside, never feeling that the events were real though knowing they were.

A mediocre novel, adequately written, worth the effort if you have the time and don’t mind a mountain of metaphors.

nice collection

>135 kjuliff: Remember trying to read this for a book group, and it was a DNF for me wanted to like it but it was just too much. I agree with your assessment

>137 cindydavid4: I almost did a DNF but I became intrigued as to how Gyasi would handle the structure she’d set up.. Once I got a third of the way in I decided to stick it out. Had one of my holds had become available I would have, at minimum, paused Homegoing.

The writer didn’t capture Ghana for me, so I wasn't surprised when I found, after I’d finished that Gyasi left Ghana as an infant and has lived in America most of her life. But maybe she’s not very good at evoking atmosphere. Her descriptions of life in Harlem post the Great Migration also seemed lacking.

LT keeps eating my posts. 😒

Sorry Homegoing didn’t work for you. I happier with it, but can definitely see your complaints.

>139 dchaikin: I was disappointed with Homegoing as I’d had high expectations for it and read many positive reviews. Looking back at it I think my main problem was not the structure but the way the early scenes in Ghana were described. They just weren't convincing.

I’m now reading a book outside of my normal genres and preferred settings - Before the Fall. I’m really enjoying it. Ian really tell the author is a scriptwriter - I can almost see the film unfolding as I read it. Interestingly it also has chapters per characters and time shifts. But the writing is so much crisper, although there’s again the tendency to over use metaphors.

>140 kjuliff: He was the creator and primary writer for the tv version of Fargo.

ETA: He being Noah Hawley

>141 dianeham: Thanks Diane. I’ve only seen the movie Fargo. I’m a great admirer. of the directors - Coen Brothers.

February Books
Minor Detail - Reviwed
Vera - Reviewed
Death is Hard Work - Reviwed
The Years - Reviewd
Elizabeth and her German Garden - Rviewed
The Mother's Recompense - Reviewed
The Discomfort of Evening - Reviewed
Mysteries - Reviewed
Convenience store woman - Reviewed
Earthlings - Reviewed
Homegoing - Reviewed
Before the Fall

>143 kjuliff: That is an incredible reading and reviewing list. I can't imagine how you accomplished that. Congratulations!

>135 kjuliff: Great comments on Homegoing, Kate. I liked it more than you did, I think, but not as much as some. I think the structure she used creates issues. It 's hard to fully develop a character or a place in what is basically a chapter. That was my big complaint. I thought it was very much a first novel. Her second is much better.

>144 JoeB1934: Thanks Joe. I will be reviewing Before the Fall soon which I think you may have read? If not I think you might like to read it. It’s more suspense than mystery, and has strong character development. I gave it a 4

>145 BLBera: That’s a good point. A chapter per character isn’t enough, especially as the book covers 300 years of history which need to be explained even if shallowly. There are seven generations (14 major characters) over two continents and multiple US states and Ghanaian nations. Plus side characters. Too much for one book, managed with the cost of any depth.

>135 kjuliff: I too liked Homegoing more than you but not as much as some. I would think it would be difficult in audio, as I relied on the family tree in the front.

I have two other books about by Ghanaians to read: Transcendent Kingdom by Gyasi, which some have said is better (perhaps being a second novel) and North to Paradise: A Memoir by Ousman Umar. Have you read any other Ghanaian or Ghanaian American authors?

Flying High

Before the Fall
By Noah Hawley
Media: Audio
Read by:Robert Petkoff
Length: `13 hours
Rating: 4
A private jet takes off from Martha’s Vineyard with a bunch of rich passengers on boards. Also along for the ride are an ex-Israeli security guard and an artist who was invited by one of the passengers.

The plane crashes into the Atlantic about 20 minutes after take-off and only two of those on-board survive. It’s a 15 mile swim to shore and it’s night. There’s heavy fog and huge waves. Only two survive, the artist an a four year old boy.

As the book rolls along we get to know the major players, and the suspense level is kept high as the authorities try to unravel the cause of the crash. We learn about the pre-flight lives and social circles of those on board. There is a crooked money-launderer with links to the baddies, a good-natured trophy wife, a beautiful Manhattanite, a ‘90s hippy loser, a cute kid, a drowned sister, a nice black cop, a nasty white cop and a farmers’ market. It sounds like the sort of novel I’d normally avoid. But Hawkey pulls it off.

Hawley is best known as a script write and his work for the U.S. film industry shines through in his highly visual writing style. He paints cinematic pictures of the crash, the passengers’ lives before, and the survivors’ lives after. Hawley’s exposure to big media is also evident in his depictions of the Murdoch media empire, specifically of right-wing hosts à la Hannity which are spot on.

I can easily recommend this book. There are a couple of gray spots where chapters are devoted to some boring passengers and their sub-plots, but despite these the reader is kept in suspense through to the final pages.

The ending was a little too “American”, but we can’t have it all. I enjoyed reading this book.

>147 labfs39: I haven’t read any other books by Ghanaian writers, though I’ve read a quite a few from different African countries. I’ll probable give Gyasi another go with Transcendent Kingdom.

Yes it was hard keeping a visual track to the family tree in Homegoing in audio, but had I not had that to concentrate on I might have given up on the book.

There are so many good books coming out of Africa now, I had such high expectations of Homegoing.

>146 kjuliff: There are so many good books coming out of Africa now

I agree. I read some really interesting ones last year during the African Novel Challenge. I also really liked The Bad Immigrant by Nigerian American, Sefi Atta.

>150 labfs39: The first Nigerian book I read is still one of my all-time favorites. Half of a Yellow Sun. I’ve since read more by Adiche but HoaYS remains my favorite.

>151 kjuliff: I liked Half of a Yellow Sun too, but I loved Purple Hibiscus.

Half a Yellow Sun is terrific. Enjoyed your take on Before the Fall. Also admiring all the books you got through this month.

I don't know if you are interested but this came up when I used the Bing AI app called copilot

https://ctmitchellbooks.com/blog/australian-authors/11-best-australian-mystery-a...
and
https://fivebooks.com/best-books/australian-crime-fiction-emma-viskic/

>154 JoeB1934: Thanks Joe. I see the top writer in both those articles was Peter Temple who wrote the “Jack Irish” TV crime series that was very popular on TV Oz. I didn’t really like it. I like mystery but am not much into crime. What I mean is that I don’t like descriptions of murder or heavy violence, but like mystery, especially psychological mysteries that come with many “crime” novels.

I really liked the two Helen Garner books about actual crimes as working out the why of them along with here excellent writing made them really interesting.

I’ll further explore those lists. I’m a fussy reader. I don’t like series about a particular detective, or series in general.

>153 dchaikin: I will probably finish William Trevor’s Love and Summer by the and of February. I have a lot of time on my hands as I’m more or less confined to my apartment and most of my family including my children are back home in Australia. I can’t fly that distance due to health concerns.

Please don’t anyone say they are sorry. I don’t want or even like sympathy. I only mention it to explain my reading. Before my illness I used to go to the ballet and art galleries and bars with friends. I also travelled a lot. Now that time is given to reading.

I’ve always had a book to read, even when hitchhiking across Asia. In NYC I’d read a couple of books a week while commuting to Queens.
So, 13 books in February and 14 in March. Yes it’s a lot and even surprised me.

>143 kjuliff: Your February reviews have been incredible. Such a wide, interesting list of books. Thank you for all the posts.

The Farmer Takes a Wife

Love and Summer
By William Trevor
Media: Audio
Read by: Jim Norton
Length: 5 hours 12 minutes
Rating: 4

It’s summer in a small town in Ireland. There’s a chance meeting between a local lass and a young man on a bike. We know that these two, Ella and Florian have clicked. And then?

William Trevor builds up the cast chapter by chapter. We learn about the players, the farmer, the guesthouse proprietor and her husband, the salesman, the ex-librarian who has lost his mind. We learn about the town’s recent history and scandals. The farmer accidentally killed his first wife and child; the local cinema burned down, the guesthouse proprietor was forced by her father to have an abortion.

There are more chance encounters between Ella and Florian. These are fleeting until, amongst the ruins of an old manor house that is overrun with the sweet peas, peonies and lavender, a love blossoms.

Sounds clichéd at best, at worst a cheap Victorian “penny dreadful”. But it’s not. Trevor manages to weave a tale that brings to mind Thomas Hardy rather than Mills and Boon. Scenes are described in minute detail, so we can see every movement of the characters as they interact with each other and go about their daily tasks. From the farmer repairing a tyre tube to Ella folding her clothes ready for the next day, mundane details bring to life a world we are experiencing as we read on. A Vermeer in words.

I tottered between a 3.5 and a 4 for rating, as the book is slight in content and in length. Not an important book. Not a seminal Trevor work, so perhaps a 3.5? I gave it a 4. Love and Summer epitomizes everything that is exquisite about William Trevor’s books. He brings to life moments in time and builds up a world that we can enter, lavender and all.

>158 kjuliff: Sounds like an intriguing light read. Adding it to the list of potential light reads with good characters.

You remind me I should read William Trevor

>160 dchaikin: I hope you do. He’s such a good writer. I just read another of his but I don’t think I will review it. I’m thinking now of reading the The Wager though it’s hard to tear myself away from Irish gardens and sweet sorrows.

>159 markon: Yes it’s good to have a light read - a breath of fresh air, no multiple generations or time-shifts, no stream of consciousness - I found the experience quite refreshing.

It’s such a delight when one discovers a new writer.

I was checking to see if there were any new books by David Means when I read that he was compared favorably to such esteemed writers as Raymond Carver and Alice Munro . So I decided to check out. Alice Munro. And so far I’m enjoying Too Much Happiness, a collection of short stories. I’m hoping I am not going to be disappointed in this new (for me) Canadian writer. Stay tuned.

>162 kjuliff: Alice Munro is an author I keep meaning to try and never getting to. I'll look forward to your thoughts on her short stories.

>163 labfs39: I had never heard of Alice Munro. I hope I’ve found another short story writer that I like. In the past I’ve enjoyed short stories by David Means, Wharton ,Claire Keegan, Jhumpa. Lahiri, and of course George Saunders. I’m not really into short stories, but there are so many good writers around who excel at them.

I was disappointed with Kate Atkinson’s new short story collection, Normal Rules Don’t Apply and gave up with the first chapter. Sci-Fi/fantasy is fine, but I can’t suspend belief and manage to engage when the story is internally inconsistent.

>164 kjuliff: I am really disappointed in Kate Atkinson if your reaction is accurate. She is my most favorite author and have been looking forward to the book.

After your comment I went to GR to see what other readers were saying. As per usual there were a lot of fans who gave it 4,or 5 stars. However, there were quite a few that had your reaction. Like one said, "loosely connected stories sometimes never connect".

I am not a regular fan of short stories, so I am going to give this a pass.

>164 kjuliff: Alice Munro won the Nobel Prize for literature in 2013.

>163 labfs39: I think you would enjoy her a lot.

>165 JoeB1934: one lovely thing about Kate Atkinson’s novels has been her ability to immerse the reader in a story. Short stories are not my preference but I was looking forward to Normal Rules. I was most surprised to see there was no wait list when I checked NYPL. Now I see why.

>166 SassyLassy: I’ve only read one story so far and really liked it. Yes I think Lisa would like Alice Munro’s works too.

>164 kjuliff: I had a problem withthat collection as well: I can suspend belief, but it was hard to engage with it.

Read some Alice Munro in college, liked her work ok but nothing really kept me reading her

>169 cindydavid4: the stories I’ve read so far remind me a little of Nora Ephron’s work. I like the edginess and her pleasant degradation of the male species. But I’m hoping there’s more to her.

Kate, I see you gave two Colum McCann 5 stars. I recommend his short story book, Thirteen Ways of Looking. I don’t remember anything specific about it but I gave it 5 stars. I think I’m going to reread it.

>171 dianeham: Yes he’s a great write. Thanks for reminding me. Also he’s pretty consistent.

Alice Munro is a fantastic author and I envy you getting to discover her for the first time.

>173 RidgewayGirl: I’m really enjoying her stories. I’m also reading a strange novella by another writer which I’ll write about later. Re Alice Munro, it’s so good discovering an established writer, knowing there are so many good reads awaiting.

Only seven months to go for Audible to release The Empusium A Health Resort Horror Story and four days till My Heavenly Favorite.

>162 kjuliff: >163 labfs39: I happened to pick up Alice Munro's Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage (a collection of short stories) a few years back and I recall liking it very much, although it is quite melancholy.

>176 rv1988: The stories I’ve read so far are more wistful than melancholy. But I can imagine her writing melancholy. I’m alternating between her short stories and the crazy The Crying of Lot 49

I hope you continue to enjoy Alice Munro. I read her a lot in my 20s & 30s. I haven't read her last two collections though - someday . . .

>178 markon: Growing up and being educated in Australia, there are many American novelists I’ve never heard of. My reading was mostly confined to Australian and European/UK. It’s good in a way as I have so many books yet to discover.

>179 kjuliff: Munro is Canadian. :)

>180 ELiz_M: Oops. I should have written North American.

Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door”

Death in Summer
By William Trevor
Media:Audio
Read by Simon Prebble
Length: 6 hrs and 30 mins
Rating: 3
Not Trevor at his best, this short novel is still worth a read if you like his other books. Trevor’s prose is easy on the ear, and even at his most mediocre he manages to keep the reader interested.

There’s a garden, am old house, a loveless marriage and a death. The usual stuff and the usual mystery at the end. But it appears hastily done and lacks the depth of earlier Trevor novels.

I recommend this book for readers who enjoy Trevor’s writings, but it’s not for those experiencing a Trevor novel for the first time.

March Borks
Too Much Happiness: Stories - Alice Munro - Reviewed
The Crying of Lot 49 - Thomas Pynchon - in progress
The Push - Ashley Audrain - Reviewed
Normal Rules Kate Atkinson DNF
My Heavenly Favorite Lucas Rijneveld - in progress
The One
Pyre - Reviewed
One Part Woman - Reviewed

>182 kjuliff: The Story of Lucy Gault is an interesting one by Trevor. Wanders a bit but interesting.

I need to read more Munro. Look forward to your review

Good luck with Lot 49. I read and had no idea what i read. I didn’t mind it, just made no sense. Then later i read it was about the Kennedy assassination. That didn’t help at all. I have no clue how it might be about that.

>177 kjuliff: I didn't even start it after I read reviews and noted the type of postmodern it is. Hope you can be stronger than me.

>185 dchaikin: >186 JoeB1934: I’m reading it in chunks. It’s interesting but I can’t see the Kennedy link so far. I like how Pynchon describes it as a pre-apocalypse novel. Amusing. I also like the names of the characters. The shrink, Dr Hilarious, Genghis Coen, Mike Fallopian and Epicure Mammon to name just a few.

Still it’s tame fare compared to My Heavenly Favorite that I’m attempting to read concurrently.

When Push Comes to Shove

The Push
By Ashley Audrain
Media: Audio
Read by: Marin Ireland
Length: 8 hrs and 38 mins
Ratin: 3

Reminiscent of Shriver’s We Need to Talk About Kevin and Lessing’s The Fifth Child The Push centers around a child who may have been born “bad”. Or is she the product of an unreliable narrator.You’ll have to read the book to the very end to find out.

Violet is the much-wanted child of the happily married Blythe and Fox . From the moment she is pushed from the birth canal however, all is not well. Blythe doesn’t bond. The baby won’t stop crying. A familiar story and in the beginning chapters I thought I was reading a book about the problems associated with postpartum trauma. It’s all a bit boring until Violet enters the world outside the cosy middle-class family.

A little boy at kinder has his hair pulled out. Or did he cut it himself? At pre-school playground another child is pushed, - I started to get the title - shoved from the platform of a climbing frame where he had been standing next to Violet. Was it an accident? The husband Fox loves Violet. She can do no wrong. He starts to think he’s married a nutcase. He has dinner with his PA. Blythe questions him. She’s neurotic. An unfeeling mother. Or is she?

Around this part of the story I was hooked. Was Blythe crazy or was her husband naive. Audrain writes about Blythe’s mother and grandmother. Both had been cold toward their daughters. I started to lose interest and thought of skipping to the end to see what happened. The maternal line just wasn’t interesting. But I plowed through. Having got this far I wasn’t about to cheat. I could leave the cheating to foxy Fox who I was beginning to dislike.

Once it’s clear that Blythe’s childhood was pretty horrible the plot takes a new turn. Blythe’s behavior becomes unhinged, bordering on the bizarre. She decides on a course of action from which there’s no turning back. As to the rest, it’d require a spoiler alert, so there’s no point.

I think The Push showed promise. The plot was good though I could have done with a bit less of the postpartum episodes and descriptions of milk and nipples. And the maternal genealogy was cumbersome. But overall it was an enjoyable read and the ending was spot on. I look forward to reading more of Audrain.

>188 kjuliff: Interesting review, but I think I'll pass on the book.

Nice review! Made me remember the things I liked about that book. And you’re right in drawing the comparisons to Lessing and Shriver - I think their books were better, but they are all in the same vein.

>188 kjuliff: Interesting! I was just having a conversation with someone the other day about the 'bad child' genre of books. Thomas Tryon's The Other was mentioned but I think it sounds too scary for me.

>188 kjuliff: reminescent of "the bad seed" a play about a similar tyle child with a very creepy ending, with the film totally changed.

>192 cindydavid4: I remember that play, and the film that was different. I remember worrying about the play as a child.

>191 rv1988: I haven’t heard of The Other. I’ll look it up.

>193 kjuliff: yes I was very unsettled by it even in HS; the girl who was playing the child was quite excellent and at the end her eyes gave us shivers.

Green trees behind the stars

Too Much Happiness
By Alce Munro
Media Audio
Read by: Kimberly Farr, Arthur Morey
Length: 11 hrs and 40 mins
Rating: 3.5
This collection of ten short stories was my introduction to Alice Munro. I was surprised at the diversity of her tales and I must confess I’m still not sure of her sub-genre. Too Much Happiness is a mixed bag.

My favorite story was Wood”, a story about a carpenter’s love of trees and the revival of his love for his wife after an accident in a forest’s edge. I was absolutely engrossed in the description of the trees, each type being described in the minute detail of their individual shape, bark color and texture, leaf and size. I felt like leaping out of bed and walking to Central Park to examine aspects of trees that I’ve never paid attention to. How could I have lived all these years and not looked?

I least-liked the title story. It’s five chapters and follows a 19th century scientist and her lover through her long trip from Russia to the French Riviera and back again. Had it been the first story I read I would most likely have marked the book as a DNF. I could not see the point of the rambling account, the characters were uninteresting, the events unremarkable, and the plot unintelligible.

Of the rest “Holes”, a story of a mother of whose eldest son drops out to live squats in Toronto, interested me most. More convincing than the title story it conveyed emotion and was anchored in a time and place that I can understand.

I have to believe that this collection is not representative of Munro’s writings. I would have preferred stories of equivalent length rather than the nine stories and a novella. I feel that I haven’t come to grips with this writer, but still look forward to reading more of her work. There is something there, but what is it?

>195 kjuliff: interesting. I read her collection The View from Castle Rock, which I liked and which is carefully written, but it didn’t leave me rushing to get another Munro. But I would like to read another.

>196 dchaikin: That’s a good way of describing her writing - “carefully written”. The five chapters that comprised the story “Too Much Happiness” were carefully written, but there was nothing else there. But the story “Wood” made me feel that it was worth looking for more in another collection. I will try to find a different collection lest I leave it underwhelmed.

A Tamil Love Stoty

Pyre
By Perumal Murugan
Translated from Tamil by Aniruddhan Vasudeva
Media: Audio
Read by: Suvash Mohan
Length: 6 hrs and 16 mins
Rating: 4

Longlisted for the 2023 International Booker Prize and beautifully narrated by Suvash Mohan, the short novel tells a tale of two young lovers, and like so many such love stories it can only end in tragedy.

Saroja and Kumaresan meet in Saroja’s town where Kumaresan works. After falling in love they marry and Kumaresan takes his bride to live in his tiny rural village where his the couple is immediately ostracized.

Despite Kumarestan’s protestations the villagers believe that Saraja is from a different caste. Everyone there is related to each other. Everyone is of the same caste. The hostility toward Sareja extends to Kumaresan. He has to leave her alone in their hut, when he leaves for work in the town where they met. We follow her life alone. She sees Kumaresan only at night and on a festival day, when the couple are shunned.

The book is delicately written and the reader is put into the village where Saraja waits alone. She has no human contact in the day but can hear the villagers deriding her as they talk to each other outside her hut.

Surprisingly this is not a difficult read. Despite the ostracism of the couple their love for each other shines through. Kumaresan is optimistic and naive. Saraja wants only to love.

I’m reminded of Anuk Arudpragasam ’s Story of a Brief Marriage, another poignant story of two young Tamil lovers. Gentle and delicate in the face of britality.

>198 kjuliff: thats exactly what I was thinking about during your description. And when the brutality comes from her husband it shocked me and broke my heart.. Intersting both came from Tamil

>199 cindydavid4: I looked at the spoiler and I think you are thinking about different books. In both books the couples are happy.

Oh.... ok lemme check, thanks for letting me know? stay tuned

Darn it; looked through two years and couldnt place it. takes place in africa, thought Tamil but maybe not. A native of the village falls in love with a French woman, and woes her till she falls for him. She is called back to France by her parents, but she escapes and they have a secret marriage. When he brings her home all hell breaks loose and eventually well, its in the spoiler

>202 cindydavid4: OK. The title of the book might come to you later - that happens to me a lot. I’ll know the book’s plot or genre and whether I liked it, but will not remember the name or author.

I’m particularly fond of books by Tamil writers as I knew quite a few Tamils when I lived in Australia. Some had fled from the civil war in Sri Lanka. Pyre is actually set in southern India as late as the 1980s. Story of a Brief Marriage is set in a refugee camp in, I think, Sri Lanka.

what I wished id that I set aside the books I read for the Asian and African challenges so Id locat them better. But I write them down in my journal, but its not threr. Yeah It will come to me

>198 kjuliff: Great review. I just recently read a nonfiction anthology edited by Murugan on the subject of caste. He's a wonderful writer, and it's unfortunate he's faced so much opposition and hostility for his work.

>205 rv1988: Thank you for your positive content. I’ll try to get that anthology Murugan edited. I was sad to read he renounced writing in 2019 after he was attacked by right wing Hindus.

I’m currently reading One Part Woman.

>206 kjuliff: if I'm not wrong, he actually started writing again. One Part Woman is the book that the controversy was focused on, but he then published Poonachi which deals with themes of resurrection.

>207 rv1988: Thank you for letting me know. I’m so glad that he’s continued to write. I misread the publication date of Poonachi.

>198 kjuliff: Nice review, Kate. I have read little from that part of the world. Perhaps that can be a focus for me next year.

>209 labfs39: I strongly recommend Subcontinent literature. There are a number of writers I’d happily recommend. Of course I’m not unbiased - India is one of my favorite countries.

While I was reading reviews I stumbled upon
‘A SMALL WINDOW OF CONSCIOUSNESS’: AN INTERVIEW WITH ANUK ARUDPRAGASAM
- an interésing article for those interested in Anuk Arudpragasam’s works. Thought I’d note it here even if only for my own reference. I only wish he’s write more.

>210 kjuliff: I'm neck deep in China at the moment, but I definitely should head that way soon. I'll definitely be looking for suggestions.

>211 kjuliff: Thanks, Kate. I loved A Passage North, so I'll definitely read this article.

>210 kjuliff: Since India is one of your favorite countries I am wondering what you think of The Museum of Failures by Thrity Umrigar She is a bestselling author of Indian origin. I read the book and reported on it in my thread, but I am unfamiliar with books about India.

>214 JoeB1934: Joe, I’m not familiar with that writer. The first books I read about life in India were by R. K. Narayan who remains a favorite. His most well known book is Malgudi Days.

>213 kidzdoc: Anuk Arudpragasam is such a young writer. He was not yet 30 when he wrote his first novel Story of a Brief Marriage. I read that he’s currently writing his third novel set in New York and Canada.

>195 kjuliff: Interesting to read your thoughts on the Alice Munro book. Maybe this year will be the year I finally get round to reading something by her. Though I've probably been saying the same for years.

>217 valkyrdeath: well she’s a competent writer but I only recently read her short stories and haven’t tackled a novel yet. There’s always something new comes along.

Even though it all went wrong

One Part Woman
By Perumal Murugan
Translated by Aniruddhan Vasudevan
Media: Audio
Read by Peter Holdway
Length: 6 hrs and 19 mins
Rating: 3

This is a story of a married couple Kali and Ponna in Southern India who have been happy for many years but who have been unable to conceive a child. For many years they have pondered going to the festival of the god Maadhorubaagan. Maadhorubaagan is half woman, half man. On the eighteenth day of the annual festival this god allows men and women to have consensual sex outside of marriage. The men in this case become gods. If the problem of conception is Kali, then there’s a chance that if Ponna attends the festival on the eighteenth day, she will conceive.

Neither Kali or Ponno want Ponna to attend, though all but one of their families’ members have encouraged this course of action. If Ponna does not have a child Kali worries she will regret it. If she doesn’t have a child Ponna worries that Kali will regret it. What can they do?

The story is set during colonial rule, though colonial actions do not play a proactive part in the main story. It’s more about the daily lives of Kali and Poona, and their friends and family, as they live mostly happy lives in rural India. Until. Or maybe forever. You’ll have to read the book.

I doubt many of you will have my delightful experience though. I “read” the book using an electronic copy from the US Talking Books library. It’s read by Peter Holdway, a non-professional volunteer who does an excellent job. At times he repeats a phrase. There was at least one time when I heard an intake of breath and the sound of a turning page. It was sort of comforting, like having a real live person reading to me.

The book was written in Tamil. Many Tamil writers have written in English. This includes Sri Lankan Anuk Arudpragasam who noted, … English is the language of aspiration and opportunity in Sri Lanka, as in many other former British colonies, and it is taught to those of us in Sri Lanka who have the privilege, even if our parents were educated in Tamil or Sinhalese. Very few people in South Asia are capable of writing and speaking in sophisticated English, but almost all South Asian writing disseminated internationally has been originally written in English, because it is financially and institutionally supported globally. in A SMALL WINDOW OF CONSCIOUSNESS

On listening to One Part Woman I could feel the authenticity of the book. Whether this was because it was originally written in the writer’s native language, or because of the audible page-turning of the narrator, I’m unsure. Whichever it was, or perhaps it was both, I found it a gentle and pleasant read.

>219 kjuliff: Lovely review. I enjoyed revisiting this book, I read it a long time ago.

>220 rv1988: Thank you Rasdhar. It’s a truly delightful book, delicately written. I was transported to India as I was reading it.

>219 kjuliff: Great comments, Kate. I will look for this one.