Review 728: Interpreter of Maladies

Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
My rating: 3 of 5 stars



This is a collection of nine short stories. I found it mixed, a few I really enjoyed, while others not so much.

The characters in these stories are in the United States from India or Bangladesh. The stories explore the cultural aspects of the people while living in a different type of society. There is the juxtaposition of the way things are done in America to how these characters were raised.
I enjoyed the last story, The Third and Final Continent. A young man needs temporary lodging while he waits for his new wife to come to American and join him. He finds a room with an elderly woman, and he is very surprised when he finds out she is over 100 years old.

In the second story, When Mr. Pirzada came to Dine, is narrated by a child. Mr. Pirzada is now from Pakistan as the story takes place during the time of India being ripped apart. The family should now dislike and separate themselves from him as their home countries, but of course they do not. I thought this was one of the better stories as well.

Review 687: Love Can't Feed You

Love Can't Feed You by Cherry Lou Sy
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The book opens with Queenie immigrating from the Philippines to New York City with her father and younger brother. They reunite with her mother after 5 years of being apart. Mom has changed and her father has difficulty accepting how she is now. She is more independent.

It's a turbulent family life. Which culminates in the father leaving the small apartment and never returning. Now Mom takes up with a young doctor from the hospital she works at. Meanwhile, Queenie turns 18 and wants to go to college, but her mom makes her work first, earning the money she went into debt to bring them over.

Their live moves quickly along, and many different topics are brought up in the book, and this is where the book flounders. It started off strong, but meandered and went into too many directions and fell flat in the end.

Review 645: Pick a Color

Pick a Color by Souvankham Thammavongsa
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was interested in reading this book as my sister-in-law is Vietnamese and her parents had owned a nail salon. So the book has a personal experience that ties into my sister-in-law, her family, and my visits to a salon with her.

This book was about a nail salon told from the point of view of the owner. The book really grabbed me in the beginning. But as the story went on, there were important aspects to her personally that were never revealed. I find it annoyed me, I wanted the backstory but was given only pieces. I don’t like all the ambiguity.

This lack of fully explaining the situation reminds me of a couple other short books I read this year. I’m one who likes more definitiveness. There were other aspects in the book that it wasn’t a total miss for me.

I will say, that hopefully people reading this book don’t feel like it confirms their suspicions about that the nail salon women are talking about you in their language. At least in my experience, that is not what is going on. It did add some humor to this fictional book, however.

I listened to the audiobook version of this book which was very well narrated. My enjoyment of this book was increased because I listened to the audio.


Thanks to Little, Brown and Company and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book. However, I listened to a published audiobook copy of the book.

Review 630: Picket Line

Picket Line: The Lost Novella by Elmore Leonard
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I have not read any of Elmore Leonard’s books before, so this may be an odd place to start. He has an extensive bibliography mostly in a genre I don’t read, so maybe this is a good place to start. The introduction covers how this novella came to be published, and a bit of history of the piece, which was first written for the screen.

What appealed to me was the labor aspect. I tend towards work fiction in a way, and this one covers that, with a union and a strike. The workplace here is a melon field in Texas, the workers Spanish speaking maybe migrants. Since there is a strike some of the pickers have different people in the field, such as a young white college kid. The story opens with three guys driving in from California.

Even though the book is short, there lacks depth of character, not much development. Perhaps there were too many characters. I’ve read shorter pieces with better understanding of a character. In any case, this did feel too short. There was some action, but it ended too soon. The story felt like a moment in a larger story.


Thanks to Mariner Books and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book. However, I listened to a published audiobook copy of the book.

Review 614: Speak, Memory

Speak, Memory: An Autobiography Revisited by Vladimir Nabokov
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Superb writing! The book is composed of essays written over many years, and previously published, yet the come together in one book quite nicely. They were all titled as published essays, but that was not retained in the book, which is a detriment.

The majority of the book covers Nabokov’s years growing up. An amazing amount of detail and description from when he was very young is contained in the first several chapters. He was born in 1899, and a brother soon followed less than a year later. Nabokov had five siblings, after the brother were two sisters and the last another brother. They were a family of the upper class, having a country estate and a house in town. They went abroad quite often.

The book is chronological, with an occasional hint at what is to come, particularly exile. Nabokov doesn’t go into a lot of detail the Russian Revolution, it was a tumultuous time, and his father was in the thick of it. But he does provide some information that I understand slightly better what was happening during the overthrow on the Tsar to the next regime.

Nabokov and his brother were taught by various tutors and learned to read English before he learned Russian. They were of the kind of Russian family that he says is now extinct.

Nabokov loved butterflies, well butterfly collecting, or Lepidoptera as its scientifically known. He started at a young age, and was determined to find a new species while he was still a young school boy. It wasn’t until much later, as an adult, he finally got a named butterfly: Plebejus (Lysandra) cormion Nabokov.

One of the later chapters Nabokov talks briefly about both of his brothers. It was quite moving, as by that point when we was writing both of them had died, and somewhat young. His sisters weren’t discussed. The last chapter ends in 1940 as Nabokov, along with his wife and young son, were granted passage to emigrate to the United States.

I really enjoyed his writing style. I may need to read one of his novels later this year.

Review 607: French Lessons

French Lessons: Adventures with Knife, Fork, and Corkscrew by Peter Mayle
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Peter Mayle and his wife are British ex-pats in Southern France and use this Englishman non-French way of poking fun at both the English and French for their differences. In this book Mayle tours a few of the unusual festivals or fairs, sometimes with a companion.

There is the frog in Vittel, the snail in Martigny-les-Bains, blue footed chicken in Bresse, and the most pungent cheese in Livarot, just to name a few. Lots of food and flowing wine, and a lot of light-hearted interactions.

The shortest essay is the one where he got the wrong place and ended up in a muddy field while it’s raining, asking the farmer where to find Monthureux. Which one? The farmer asks. So, he missed the event. Mayle mostly pokes fun at himself.

My favorite essays are the first and last. The first being when he has fine French food for the first time as a young assistant. It opened up another world for him. The last essay being on the history of the Michelin Guide book. Mayle was hoping to do a ride along with one of the tasters. No, that was not going to happen. Secrecy is the most important.

This year I’ve been digging deep into my bookshelves, to those forgotten ones, this is another. The book is overall enjoyable, but I’m not much of a foodie.

Review 585: Go

Go by Kazuki Kaneshiro
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

This was not an enjoyable book for me. I disliked the main character, Sugihara through much of the book. But I kept reading as I haven’t read many Japanese books, and none where the main character is considered Korean. It’s a different life to explore.

Why I didn’t like Sugihara is mainly due to all the fighting. I’m much more for peace than fistfights. And fighting scenes are not what I want to read. When the book shifted to the girl Sugihara dates it became more pleasant for me, less fighting. But the ending, I did not like.

The book highlights prejudice and assumptions. Sugihara was born and raised in Japan. His father, however, was born in Korea. He left and settled in Japan. Both of Sugihara’s parents retain North Korean passports. There was a choice but his father was somewhat idealistic and chose the north, so his son was raised in the North Korean schools.

When Sugihara was about to enter high school his father wanted to visit Hawaii, which was impossible to do with a North Korean passport so he just switched to South Korean and was able to visit. This was a revelation for Sugihara, as he realized you can just switch your nationality and it means nothing. You are who you are regardless of which passport you hold.

What Sugihara has difficulty in accepting is the harassments for Korean people in Japan. How is he different than a Japanese as he was born and raised there? Why does Japan treat him like a foreigner? Interesting questions.

Since this book became a success in Japan when it came out over 20 years ago, one may hope there has been some changes. Although racism is hard to overcome in any country. Glad I read this despite my somewhat lack of enjoyment, still got something out of the book.

Review 576: The Red Umbrella

The Red Umbrella by Christina Diaz Gonzalez
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This is another freebie book from Sync some years back (2017). I did not finish the book. I listened to just under 14%, which equals to around 40 pages, not too far into the book, but I wasn’t enjoying it.

The writing is very simplistic, which this is billed as young adult sometimes it can be overlooked. I read a few reviews, both those who liked it and those who did not, and decided my reading time would be better spent with a different book and leaving this one. (I’m not good at letting a book go.)

The book starts in early May 1961. The book point of view is from a young teenager, Lucia Alvarez, her quinceanera is coming up in November. She comes from an upper-middle class family, her father is a banker. Lucia and her family are Cuban and this is during the time that Fidel Castro takes over the government.

The title of the book comes from the (embarrassingly) red umbrella Lucia’s mother carries with her all the time.

Review 570: Boat Baby: A Memoir

Boat Baby: A Memoir by Vicky Nguyen
My rating: 3.75 of 5 stars

Although Vicky Nguyen is on a popular broadcast news network, I have never heard of her. I’m not one to watch broadcast news actually. In any case, her story of being an immigrant from Vietnam was one I wanted to read. There are some similarities to my sister-in-law and her family, to some degree. Although, I think my in laws had a more harrowing experience with the pirates on their boat.

The first half of this book describes her parents background, their leaving Vietnam, and her early years; these were great reading. I listened to the audiobook narrated by the author and loved hearing the Vietnamese pronunciation, even though it may be an Americanized version as she states.

Somewhere along the way the story seemed to lose some focus, or maybe it was my interest. There were some things discussed, talked about in the book that wasn’t full explored, left me as a reader wondering why was that included. Other times, a situation felt important to her and her family, but not to me as a reader. Maybe I just don’t get memoirs sometimes.

For myself the ending was abrupt, or overall there was a missing part of the book, what exactly I’m not entirely sure. Maybe it is emotion, although that is not fully absent. In any case, I’m glad I read this book, learned about another person’s lived experience which is different than mine. There definitely needs to be more books like this.

Thanks to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book. However, I listened to a published audiobook copy of the book.

Review 546: A Gesture Life

A Gesture Life by Chang-rae Lee
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Franklin Hota known as Doc Hota around the quaint town of Bedley Run is our main character. This novel is mainly a character study. A Korean-Japanese immigrant to the United States, now living in a small town in New York. He sets up a shop of selling medical supplies, which is how he became known as Doc. He always tells people he’s not a doctor, but they insist on the moniker.

He adopted a daughter, Sunny, and named his business after her, but the relationship had never been a good one. As the book continues Franklin reveals more of his life during the war, where he served as a medic in the Japanese forces. His unit didn’t see much action, but they did have comfort women.

The book is not fast paced. There are a few people he becomes friends in town, particularly a neighbor he had a relationship with for a few years, but overall he seems to be a lonely person. Some of this stems from his childhood, where his parents sent him to live with an adopted family to become Japanese.

I never got a clear view of his relationship to his daughter while she was growing up. There were few snippets of that time, and she seemed to be removed emotionally from him. But without more to go on, it was hard to get a good sense.

There is movement of the daily life and things that happen, but overall no real plot. The story is propelled by the revelations of his time during the war and what actually happened.

The language and writing style was well done. I had this book sitting on my bookshelves for well over twenty years, not sure why I waited so long.

I started reading my print book. Around 40% through the book I wanted to read it faster, and sometimes I have more time to read via audio. I found the audiobook at my local library and finished the last 60% in a two days, where the first part took about a week. 

Review 537: The Barbarians are Coming

The Barbarians are Coming by David Wong Louie
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I didn't care for this book very much. I put it down and stopped reading for a nearly a week and easily forgot about it, but decided to go ahead and finish. The main character does have a transformation in the end, but amid much sadness. Nearly all of the characters in this book are not likeable.

Sterling Lung, the main character, is Chinese but dislikes his culture, only dating white women and become a chef in the French way, refusing to cook Chinese food.

Things come to a head when his parents have brought over the Chinese girl he is to marry. Sterling has always told them he is not interested, but when he meets her, he becomes conflicted, something about her arouses him. Then his girlfriend, Bliss, who he has been putting off as they now live in different states has become pregnant and refuses to do anything but have the baby. Sterling must decide if he wants to be a father or not.

The book has some well crafted sentences and good writing. The book is about culture identity and connection, family connection. Sterling has always felt disconnected with his father. In later chapters we get the father’s point of view and see his life when he first came to the United States before bringing over his wife and first born daughter. I like his character better than most the others.

I’m happy I stuck with it and finished the book as there was character growth, but overall I found the book meh. This book has been sitting on my bookshelves for over twenty years, so there's that.

Review 400: Transplanted Man

Transplanted Man by Sanjay Nigam
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is centered around a hospital in New York’s “Little India” with the doctors, patients, and other workers as the characters. There are several themes in this book, primarily seems to be about sleep disturbances and relationship problems, but that is not all. Yet there is a lot of humor in the book as well, perhaps as taking life to an extreme, such as one of the first couples in the E.R. we meet is where the man took a severe bite on his wife’s buttocks. This bite, of course, does lead to problems in the marriage.

Sonny is a resident doctor, who sleepwalks, and has a healing touch. One of the main patients is a politician from India with so many transplanted organs he is known as the Transplant Man. Thus, we get the title of the book, but it is a double meaning, as most of the people are transplants from India.

We follow Sonny with a relationship with an English Indophile nurse, Gwen, who loves literature but found her calling with helping people instead. She has her own unknown illness which caused relationship issues before.

There are many characters in the book, seemingly follow them all, but it doesn’t become confusing as they are distinct enough and introduced slowly. The book doesn’t seem to have much of a plot itself, we just follow these characters and see what happens, much like a year in the life of type story. Everyone does have some transformations of sorts, so it is not static in any way. An entertaining book.

Brief Review 352: Queen of Dreams

Queen of Dreams by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Glad I stuck with the book. I almost stopped reading several times, really disliked the main character. But around the half-way point something dramatic happened, then later "9/11" happened, and the main character changed. This is one of those books where there is definite growth of a person.

Review 318: Alien Nation: 36 True Tales of Immigration

Alien Nation: 36 True Tales of Immigration by Sofija Stefanovic
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book seems perfect for audio, a compilation of personal short stories, tales of their lives that showcases being an immigrant. Some are humorous, some serious, many filled with poignant moments. I found they are just a little too short, these glimpses into their individual lives. Unfortunately, I did not have an audio copy, I read the print instead.

It’s easy to set the book down, I felt like I read enough about half-way through but would return now and then to read one or two more of the essays. I’m glad I did, because some of my favorite selections were near the end of the book. The illustrator for the cover is one of them, and he is the last entry.

There is an advantage to print, you can skip around easily. The book is grouped together in sections, seemingly tied together with a similar theme.

With my strong desire to hear the voices, not just what was in my head, I searched the internet and found a video with some of the included authors at a New York Public Library Live event reading part of their essays, which is found here: https://youtu.be/LmNjumtemEA

Sadly, these are even shorter versions, snippets of the short essays, but happily, they are the authors speaking. There are around twelve people showcased in the video compared to the 36 authors included in the book.

There is an audiobook version, that has two narrators, so it isn’t the writers themselves reading their works.

Review 267: Songbirds

Songbirds by Christy Lefteri
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A book inspired by real events, about the women who migrated from poorer countries to ones of wealth, where they work menial jobs and send the money home. Typically the women are leaving behind children and other family, but don’t see a future without a way to make money for education, to get ahead. So they make the unthinkable choice to leave the country, be a mom via internet, and send money home. 

This story is based in Cypress, told between to different voices, of Petra and Yannis. Occasionally between their chapters there is this foreboding interlude that describes among other things a decomposing rabbit. I could have done without that! 

Nisha is missing. She is Petra's maid and caregiver of her child, while Yannis is the tenant in the apartment above who loves Nisha, asked her marry to him the day she went missing.

Petra learns about Nisha while searching for her, realizing she never knew this woman despite her being so enmeshed in Petra's life for ten years. Petra also learns how hidden from life she was with her own child. Nisha came to help Petra shortly before she gave birth, just after her husband died. Petra lives in this perpetual mourning, a shadow of a life for ten years while Nisha raises her daughter.

 

The mystery is the propulsion for the story but it is Nisha and the other women on the island who are the gems of the book. Not entirely an easy read, but a good one.

Thanks to Ballentine and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book.

Although I got an advance eBook copy, I ended up reading via audiobook. The narrator did an excellent job and would recommend this version as well.

Review 188: The Colour

The Colour by Rose Tremain
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This historical novel is set in the mid-1800’s, a newly married couple with his mother emigrate from England to New Zealand. They are a slightly older couple but determined to start a new life. Harriet wanted to leave being a governess, while Joseph Blackstone had to leave. We discover early on his mother was also joining them due to the untimely, and embarrassing, death of her husband that left her with nothing but debts. In this new land they homestead and try to become a family.

We soon find out Joseph keeps too many secrets, even when he finds gold dust in their river. Soon the gold fever is sweeping New Zealand and Joseph must go to the latest site on the other side of the mountains. Harriet by this time is happy to have her time alone, still longing for her adventure.

The book drew me in but slowly became less soothing than it started out. And there is part where it was just odd, magical realism you could call it, with the neighbor boy and a native person, Pare. They became connected and the boy knew things he shouldn’t.

I enjoyed Harriet’s character and the neighbor’s, the Orchards (Toby, Dorothy and the boy Edwin). It took nearly a day to reach their house, so calling them neighbor’s may be stretching it, yet the land was nearly empty. It felt like accurate descriptions of a mining camp. One thought I kept having was, how much money did Joseph have? It seemed like he kept spending money when he had none.

Review 149: The Refugees

The Refugees by Viet Thanh Nguyen
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars



The more books I read the less I enjoy short stories, so perhaps my rating is reflected in that aspect. And I would rate it closer to 3.5 stars. I never felt fully immersed in the stories, perhaps that is due to the format. The writing was decent, straight forward. Most of the stories had the theme of children and parents not getting each other, certainly common with immigrants and the next generation.

I listed to the audio book of this collection of short stories. I wasn't a fan of the narrator. Perhaps that did sway my overall rating for this book, but doubtful. Generally I can pay attention to the words, what is being said and not have the narration effect the book itself. Although a good narrator does enhance!  That said, I do not books that start out with ghosts.

Review 138: Sigh, Gone: A Misfit's Memoir of Great Books, Punk Rock, and the Fight to Fit In

Sigh, Gone: A Misfit's Memoir of Great Books, Punk Rock, and the Fight to Fit In by Phuc Tran
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book took me much longer to read than it should. I kept putting it aside. Was it the book or me? I tend to think it was the book. While it was written well, there didn’t seem to be a strong thread pulling the story forward that made me want to keep going. Once a chapter finished, it could have been the end of the story, for each chapter.

The frame of the chapters was a great choice, starts out with a classic literature book, then relates how that fit into his life at that time. For example: The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka is compared to his teenage transformation, he cannot control and his body does something different and his family treats him differently, much like Gregor Samsa when he turned into a bug with his family reaction.

I particularly enjoyed one of the later chapters “The Autobiography of Malcom X” and Tran’s look at racism. For me that was his most powerful chapter. I wanted to call it essay, since that is what this felt like, a group of essays, that also happen to follow Tran as he ages, starting young when the family left Vietnam to when he graduates high school. Oddly enough, I wanted more post-high school, how was college for him, how did he change?

The book is very readable and relatable.
Overall rating 3.5 stars, and rounded up.


Thanks to Flatiron Books/Macmillan and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book.

Review 132: They Called Us Enemy

They Called Us Enemy by George Takei
My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Everyone will learn something from reading this book, even if you already think you know something about the Japanese internment camps during World War II.

The book was crafted well, the graphics display the words and help portray the story. A few aspects I’d like to point out. One is that not all were accepting of the Japanese being forced into camps. For instance, one man would deliver books to the camps, and was told by the soldiers many times to stop, but he would return the next month with another shipment of books.

I also learned that the US Government attempted to right the wrong. First, to upgrade their hero medal to the Japanese Americans who served in the army, to the Congressional Medal, the highest honor. Also there were reparations to the Japanese Americans who were interred. Everyone still living got a check for $10,000. It went to about half of the people interned, the rest had already passed away, since it was years later. Yes, these attempts to correct didn’t happen right away, but it did occur. It helps to have the government acknowledge the wrong and apologize.

One other aspect I liked with Takei’s autobiography, was how he brought in participatory democracy. That his father, despite what this country did to him, still believed in the fundamentals this country was built upon. People forget that our democracy requires people to participate, if nothing more than at least to vote.

Review 99: Deep River

Deep River by Karl Marlantes
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Book read: December 9-23, 2019

This was an epic of a book. A long tome covering only one generation of the Koski family, through decades (1890's-1930's) and with some years closely detailed. It is a linear book, without jumping around in time, which I do enjoy in a book.

The first part of the book covers the family while they lived in Finland, already the eldest child, Ilmari, off in America establishing himself and writing letters home. Aino, the middle child, becomes political, radicalized and determined to change her country to independent (from Russia) and Socialist. When she must move to America her goals do not change much. The youngest, Matti leaves Finland before Aino, though she follows not too long later, after being tortured and her boyfriend killed by the Russian who rule Finland.

When the Koski’s siblings leave Finland separately, all are young teenagers. With Ilmari settled, they other two make their way to him. Despite having a farm and blacksmith shop already running, he can’t afford to feed his reunited siblings, so they too must find work. They all end up deeply into the logging industry.

It is astounding at the young age how much these three do, along with their friends, with working in the logging industry in the Pacific Northwest. Askel Langstrom, Matti’s friend also joins the Koski’s after fleeing Finland. He dreams of returning to fishing, while also being a logger. Aino won’t give up her politics, tries to unionize the loggers, and organizes strikes once joined with the International Workers of the World with the goal of One Big Union. As the years roll by they find spouses and love, soon children are born. And there are some that die.

The detail in the book is quite remarkable. The writing is plain and straightforward and there lies the one major downfall of the book. The writing style was a bit flat and sometimes the descriptions were way off from what one may expect. Such as when Aino is an older woman, maybe in her 40s now, and still keeping up with the latest fashion and acting like a school girl, it seemed unlikely given how he never cared what people thought given her politics and personality. And it is with the women that was the weakest depiction, despite one being a main character and viewpoint.

Regardless of the faults I did enjoy this book, and give it a high rating. Perhaps others may be bothered more severely than I with its faults, and given the length of the book be more skeptical.

I read that Marlantes is working on another book, which is continuing the same family, focusing on one adult son of one of the Koski brothers. It may be a while before that book is available given the length of this writer’s books, but I will be willing to continue read the Koski saga.


I will close with quote from Aino, found on page 453: " 'Everyone is equal' is..a myth. It's economic Calvinism. If you're one of the elect, the right parents, the right schools, the right connections, you get into capitalist heaven. The rest are damned at birth."


Final note: I was excited about this book. I did get an advanced review copy from NetGalley. Then at the ALA Annual convention I was so happy when the author was there signing books, so I got that which was still an advance review copy. Well, I meant to read the book right away, but the length was daunting. I was tempted to listen to the audiobook from the library, but again, length. The library where I work bought a hard copy of the book. I checked it out and ended up reading that copy, a hardback book. (wanted to keep my signed copy pristine) It was way too heavy to carry, so I read it at night before sleep until I had a stretch of time during the holidays at home, when I blew through the rest of the book, about two-thirds, in just a few days.