Review 562: There Are Rivers in the Sky

There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak
My rating: 4.25 of 5 stars

There are three different story lines in the book. My favorite character is Arthur, named King Arthur of the Sewers and Slums. His name reflects where he was born and grew up, in extreme poverty. Arthur was an unusual boy as he had perfect memory, could even remember his birth, near the River Thames. Arthur’s time line is in the mid-1800s. His chapters are marked as O for oxygen, as the book has water as one of the themes.

The other two main characters are H for hydrogen. There is Zaleekhah, also in London and the most modern timeline in 2018. She is undergoing a change, a recent split with her husband and is a water scientist who just moved onto a houseboat. Then there is Narin, a young girl in Turkey and Iraq in 2014. Narin's story is the most unsettling, as her story is filled with persecution and horrendous treatment by others in her area, particularly ISIS.

All of the characters stories revolve around Mesopotamia, and the epic poem of Gilgamesh. There is only a slight intertwining of the three stories. This was good storytelling and well written. Quite enjoyed this book.

Much of the novel is based in historical fact, which makes it all the more poignant, particularly with the tragedies.

Review 561: The Sound and the Fury

The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a challenging book, one which I would have appreciated more in a lit class. I had to look up notes to understand what was going on. It is a stream of consciousness book, which is a format I tend to not like. This book is a good literary example of the usage and has been influential in the literary world. Perhaps this was an experimental book at the time, and I can appreciate author’s stretching the bounds of the novel, but typically they are a challenge to read. While I may appreciate it, my enjoyment is another matter.

Add to this mix, I listened to a newly released recording of the book. It made the challenges in the book even more so. The editing and narration of this version perhaps may have helped. There are multiple narrators. The first part which is of Benjamin, or Benjy’s voice, is the most confusing. It truly is all over the place, in time, place and had many different characters, all of this to represent his diminished mental capacities. In the narration there were many voices in the book, so it did help to separate out some of this confusion.

In the written text Faulkner used clues, such as colored text or italics to help the reader understand the shifts that were going on. This is not possible in audio, so the route I took was the more difficult one, or perhaps I should admit to making a mistake.

I also found out there was an appendix Faulkner wrote many years later that he wished would be included with all subsequent editions. Some call this the fifth part, and it may help to understand the family and the dynamics that are portrayed in this book. This was missing from the audio.

This is a book that needs multiple readings to fully understand and appreciate. Had I known what I was attempting by reading the first time in audio, I would have not done so, would have opted for a text version. That said, I do think this newer version with the multiple professional narrators did an excellent job. If this book is one to be revisited or already a favorite, audio may be the way to go. Or just plan on relistening to passages multiple times.

Review 560: Ice

Ice by Anna Kavan
My rating: 2.75 of 5 stars

This is a surreal book with many dream sequences, or hallucinations tossed in that make it hard to know what is real or not. Certainly this was purposeful, but make for uncomfortable reading experience. None of the characters or places are named. The story is about an impending world catastrophe that ices over the planet, meanwhile war is breaking out everywhere.

The narrator is a man who is involved in the war somehow, maybe in intelligence, it isn’t clearly explained. He is haunted by this woman who he almost asked to marry. She is portrayed as childlike, very thin, an albino with silvery white hair, and was raised in such a way that is very docile. He was careful with her, trying to gain her trust, when suddenly this other man married her. Thus the three main characters. This other man is very dominant.

The narrator has these awful dreams about the woman, sometimes they seem to be waking visions of what happened, but he couldn’t actually know this. The narrator often makes statements like “Reality had always been something of an unknown quality to me”, or “it dawned on me that this was reality and the other a dream”. Yet these statements don’t always come with the altered sequence of events.

The narrator can’t stop pursuing her, at times he feels like he is saving her from the other man, or from the imminent emergency. It is cold, snowing artic weather. He travels by boat, plane, or car, whatever means he can get. He ends up in an unnamed town, unnamed country, time and again. He always seems to get arrangements yet it usually isn’t explained how he contacts these people, how he knows to get on this boat at this specific time.

The woman seems to have no say in her life. She is roughly handled by her husband, or this other man, who seems to be her husband, but in different countries. It’s never very clear. He is kept up in a room, not able to leave. Our narrator tries over and over to get to her, to see her, and when he does she wants him to leave her alone. She is often called a girl. It’s uncomfortable to read.

Yet some of this is Kavan blending in her own life into fiction. She had two failed marriages, the men pursued her and she felt she had no say in her life. She travels around during WWII trying to escape the fighting, and this matches the book, although the female is not in control, was Kavan during this time? I don’t know enough about her biography.

The foreword placed this book into the genre of slipstream, not quite science fiction, but blending into other genres. Other authors in this category include J.G. Ballard, Philip K. Dick, and Haruki Murakami to name a few. I think this (new to me) category works well. The book is sometime in an unnamed future, with an ecological world collapse, covering everything with artic snow and ice.

Review 559: The King's Messenger

The King's Messenger by Susanna Kearsley
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

This is a somewhat predictable book, taking place in England and Scotland in 1613. The bulk of the story is an adventure taken on behalf of King James. The King's Messenger, Andrew Logan, is tasked to bringing Sir David Murray from Edinburgh, Scotland to the King to answer on charges of the death of Prince Henry. This is quite a long journey in those days. And Logan is not to go alone, but to bring a scribe with him to record all of what Sir David says along the way.

The King assigns the elder Laurence Westaway as the scribe, and his daughter Phoebe insists on going along to take care of her father. Phoebe has known Logan most of her life and very much dislikes him, and has a paramour waiting her return, a nobleman Valentine Fox. In Edinburgh a young stable lad hoping to become a King’s messenger someday as well is added to the party.

The story took the POV of four characters: Andrew, David, Phoebe and Queen Anna. Overall this was written well, an enjoyable read.

The author’s note, or “About the Characters” section at the end the book was quite long and detailed. Likely one of the longest I’ve encountered, but it is well worth reading.

I listened to the book via audio, which had two narrators Angus King and Beth Eyre, who did an excellent job.

Thanks to Sourcebooks Landmark, RB Media/Recorded Books and NetGalley for an advance review copy of this book.

Review 558: A Lesser Light

A Lesser Light by Peter Geye
My rating: 3.75 of 5 stars

A fictional account of a mis-matched couple in the early 20th century. Theodulf Sauer is from a prominent family in Duluth and the now in charge of the Gininwabiko Lighthouse and the other watchers, on the shore of Lake Superior. She is much younger, Willa Brandt Sauer, ripped out of Radcliffe College where she studied astronomy, due to the death of her father.

Now Willa and her mother are stranded without funds or ability to get by, so a quick marriage of convenience to Theodulf was arranged. They don’t get along from day one, it is a marriage of convenience and they hardly seem to even try to be friendly with each other. They had met because of her piano playing. Theodulf was taken by her rendition of Moonlight Sonata. It reminds him of the one time he was truly happy, in Paris when he met and had a brief affair with Paul. Being of a strict religious family this type of behavior is not tolerated, thus the need for a wife.

This is a long book and things move slowly. There aren’t many characters, but the solitary neighbor girl, Silje is quite a character herself, and my favorite in the book. I was intrigued by the premise of lighthouse and the watchers, and it was satisfied as the lighthouse has a prominent place in the book.

 

Thanks to the University of Minnesota Press and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book.

Review 557: Octavia E. Butler: H is for Horse

Octavia E. Butler: H is for Horse by Chi-ming Yang
My rating: 4.25 of 5 stars

This is a slightly academic biography, not only the author, but also of her early writings as well. Yang dove deep into Butler's archives held at the Huntington Library and have presented here an insight into how Butler's writing grew into the published books. Yang provides summaries on many of Butler’s juvenile writings, as she was writing stories since grade school.

The book is short and presented in 26 chapters, one for each letter of the alphabet, such as the subtitle. It’s a different way of organizing a biography, as it goes forward or backward in time as it fits into the chapter letter.

Any fan of Butler can find something here to appreciate and help to understand the author, and the origin stories of her books.

I listened to the audiobook which was well narrated. My only complaint is that there were references to images I could not see. I may have to seek out a copy just to peek at the images I missed while listening.

Thanks to HighBridge Audio and NetGalley for an advance review audiobook.

Review 556: Isola

Isola by Allegra Goodman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

An enjoyable historical fiction book taking place in the 16th century, which begins in France. Marguerite is a noblewoman, but an orphan and all alone. She has servants, a large estate, lands and much riches, but no family other than a cousin who is serving as her guardian until she marries, then she will inherit her vast holdings and estate.

Marguerite is being raised by her nursemaid, her mother’s before she died in childbirth. After some time her guardian grants a teacher so Marguerite can learn to read and write, and the teacher brought her young daughter. The two become fast friends, more like sisters.

But Marguerite’s life is ruled by her unscrupulous guardian and before long she is sent to live in a small portion of her house and the rest of the estate has been leased to another family. Her guardian has squandered her riches.

The book is thick with the how Marguerite has no control over her own life. The lives of her teacher and nursemaid, the women, have little options.

It says in the overview that Marguerite is stranded on an island in the New World, but what leads up to that and other aspects is best to be discovered by the reader.

Without giving away any more of the entire plot, I will say this was based on a true story that took place in the 1500s. Maguerite de la Rocque de Roberval’s story was written down by Queen Marguerite of Navarre and a priest. Their stories differ and not much is entirely known, so this is a fictional retelling of what happened and how the circumstances came to be.

Quite an enjoyable writing style. Haven’t read any of Goodman’s other works, but certainly will now.

Review 555: The World Until Yesterday

The World Until Yesterday: What Can We Learn from Traditional Societies? by Jared Diamond
My rating: 4.25 of 5 stars

Somehow I have admired Jared Diamond’s writings without ever having read one of his books. Or maybe I just thought I admired it. I did see a documentary that was based on his book Guns, Germs, and Steel and I have a copy of the book a friend gave me, but have yet to read it. I bought this book, in audio form, over ten years ago. So it is nice to have finally read some of his work.

I did enjoy the book for the most part. It is on the longer side which is why I have avoided it for so many years, but I should not have feared its length as it went quickly. His writing style is very readable. And with this book the concepts are simple, maybe too simple?

Much of the book looks at traditional societies and how they conduct their lives and compare to our modern, western lives. These traditional societies are living mostly as they have been for thousands of years, how our human bodies have evolved. Today in the modern world suddenly we have a different way of life, as far as evolution goes, very sudden.

Diamond is clear that the traditional ways are not always the best ways, and there is much in the modern world that is better. However, we may have left behind a few ways of living that would serve us better if we took that practice back up. One example is by speaking more languages and raising children in multilingual households. It is common for immigrant families to have the children speak only the dominant language and not to learn the family language, but there are many reasons why being exposed to more than one language since birth is good.

The last part of the book goes into a lot of detail about food, eating and the diseases that come from the sedentary modern lifestyles. It feels like this over use of salt and sugar is very common knowledge, yet Diamond uses very compelling examples of how the modern diet effects human bodies. When a traditional society, such as Papua New Guinea, suddenly becomes integrated into a more modern society the rise of diseases previously unknown in their society start to show at alarming rates. There is a shift from communicable diseases in the traditional world, to non-communicable, such as diabetes and heart diseases. I found it interesting what he says about rates of cancer are virtually unknown in traditional societies. Yet, the average life span is also at least 20 years less, and cancer is more prevalent the older you become.

There are some very incredible stories in here too. The chapter on dangers was quite fascinating, which Diamond relating several stories about how he was unaware of the danger he was in until much later. Also, a harrowing story of an overturned boat and his hope to make it out alive.

Review 554: Gut

Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body's Most Underrated Organ by Giulia Enders
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

This was an informative book, with a somewhat entertaining writing style. Although the focus was the gut, it covered much more, starting with the mouth and worked downwards. Although the book was comprehensive still felt like there was parts left out. I'm tempted to read another book about the same topic, but not sure I'm fully interested enough.

I read this in small bites, so as to not be overwhelmed by too much information all at once with an unfamiliar topic. Also, followed along with the eBook occasionally while listening to the audio. The book has line drawings by the author’s sister, sprinkled throughout, they are cute images.

It was a bit odd as the audio and the eBook were different in some areas, definitely some heavy editing between the two. The audio was European, (the author is German) while the eBook was for an American audience. But there were more changes than just changing a phrasing or measurement for the American audience. Nothing that really changed the content, just found it interesting.

Review 553: Possessed by Shadows

Possessed by Shadows: A Novel by Donigan Merritt
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Not entirely sure how I came across this book. Goodreads has only one other review and that’s from the author, so technical no reviews, although there are some ratings. In any case, I did read this slightly short book.

This novel is told in two narratives, two halves of a married couple – Tom and Molly. Molly was just diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. She is still young, mid-thirties and doesn’t want to spend her last days with treatments and hospital visits when it won’t extend her life much anyway. She wants to spend her final days doing what she’s always done, which is climbing. Her narrative is what she wrote about her life, starting not really from the beginning, but sometime as a teenager.

The other side, Tom’s narrative begins with the diagnosis in 1989 and continues forward, so we do have a split with the timeline. They decide to return to Czechoslovakia, to the Tatra Mountains. There they meet up with Tom’s good friend Štefan Borák. Molly’s good friend Saŝa was from a village near Prague, although died a while back in a climbing accident.

Climbing was in the center of the book. In fact there was a glossary in the back to define the various climbing terms, although it seemed to me that the terms were self-explanatory. In Molly’s portion went into explaining how different rocks or routes were named.

This book cannot be called a light read with so much death in the book, with a youngish person facing their own eventual death, plus her good friend, along with her father she was very close to growing up. Yet, it was marginally interesting. Maybe if I was into climbing the book would have worked for me better.