When the Emperor Was Divine

It's been a while since I committed to reading something from the Read It Or Remove It Pile. There are many interesting things lurking in that stack but I have allowed myself to be seduced by the newer titles that have shown up at my house. Could this be yet another facet of my shallowness perhaps? I’m thinking yes. Oh well, back to the pile.

What I selected was When The Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka. I know exactly how this book ended up in the R.I.O.R.P. It's the page count or as they say on the Penguin India site the extent. Don't you love that, the extent? The Emperor's extent is a mere 160 pages. That is short story territory for me. My interest in the subject matter, the Japanese internment during WWII was trying to overcome my skinny book allergy and it finally won.

Otsuka's novel begins with a young Japanese family in Berkley. We never learn their names. They are Father, Mother, Girl and Boy. Already they are dehumanized, they are Them and they are Anyone. Their nightmare begins late one night when Father is taken away by the FBI. Soon after that Mother sees signs posted around the neighborhoods announcing the planned relocation of Japanese Americans by the U.S. government.

The next three years brings degradation and continued separation. Father is imprisoned somewhere in New Mexico being endlessly interrogated. Occasionally the family receives letters from him but always they have been heavily censored. Mother and the children are living in filthy, overcrowded camps with no privacy. When the family is finally reunited and back in Berkley they find that their home has barely survived the war. It's been vandalized and stripped of anything of value almost to the point of disappearing completely just like the family itself

When the Emperor Was Divine is a beautiful example of how effective spare can be. In a non-sentimental and melodrama free way Julie Otsuka drives home the shameful acts perpetrated by the U.S. by exposing one family's loss of happiness, faith and security to bigotry, prejudice and unreasonable fears. Otsuka does more storytelling and expresses more humanity in this very slim novel than books that find the time to use every word in the Thesaurus….twice and I of course know because those are the books I usually read!

Going To The Chapel Of Love!

New York State has passed a same sex marriage bill!!! Yipee!! Finally I can give my brother away!

Tiny Sunbirds, Far Away

Tiny Sunbirds, Far Away by Christie Watson is a coming of age novel for the reader as well as the book's twelve year narrator, Blessing. The novel is placed in a world few of us know much about and the characters labor under circumstances that compared to our lives might as well be science fiction. Blessing's journey from a comfortable home in Lagos with her parents and older brother to life with an extended family she doesn't know in a village in the Niger Delta without electricity or running water is an education.

Things change for Blessing when her Mother, Timi, catches her Father with another woman. Within days Father is gone taking his breadwinning with him and Timi's job at a local hotel is not enough to support the family. Blessing, her brother Ezekiel and Timi are on their way to Timi's hometown, the village of Wassi. Here things go from horrible to extra jumbo sized horrible. Wassi is life from another century. The small family compound includes Blessing and her family, her grandparents and their driver and his wives and children. Every convenience Blessing had taken for granted in Lagos is gone. She now uses an outhouse and totes water from a community well. What little food the family has is no longer just a trip to the market away.

There are plenty of other changes as well. Timi now works all day and then again late into the evening which is troubling. Ezekiel is spending less time in the school his Mother is struggling to pay for and more time with the local militants who call themselves The Freedom Fighters. Grandfather has recently converted to Islam and is contemplating taking on a second wife in order to get a son. The one new bright spot for Blessing is her Grandmother. The old woman becomes Blessing's mentor teaching her about their plain life and passing on to Blessing her skills as a midwife.

Watson's setting for Tiny Sunbirds provides a wealth of political and cultural extremes that add depth to this novel. She touches on female circumcision, poverty, kidnapping for profit, race, government and private corporation monopolies on natural resources, pollution, education, the erosion of village life and religion. In most instances the experiences of Blessing and her family with these things is extremely negative but Watson does not pass judgment on any of it. She keeps her tone neutral and always her characters to speak for themselves. The everyday-ness of these weighty problems for Blessing and the other characters is used by Watson to great disquieting effect.

Tiny Sunbirds, Far Away  features flawed characters living in a country and environment that seems hell bent on making life as difficult as possible. They have to fight to survive on a daily basis with only each other to rely on but this novel is not a litany of hardships. There is storytelling here. In Watson's skilled hands Blessing is an observant child moving too quickly into the adult world. Her plight and her responses to it are realistic and vivid and well worth a read.

Why Check Out The Borrower?

If you would like to read THE book about a librarian you need to read The Giant's House by Elizabeth McCracken. It is a moving, funny, sarcastic, glorious novel about a 1950's small town New England librarian who falls in love with an eleven year old boy who keeps growing and growing and growing. Theirs is a singular relationship to say the least. I am crazy about this novel. It is a wondrous story skillfully told by a talented writer. A gem.

Now there is a new librarian novel in town called The Borrower by Rebecca Makkai but like all pretenders to the throne it makes promises it cannot keep. Makkai brings on the quirk with a powerful, book loving bond between a children's librarian, Lucy, who dreams of making a difference and a ten year old boy, Ian. The boy's evangelical parents (Remember the rules say evangelical always equals bad.) have enrolled him in an anti-gay program. Lucy takes that as a sign he is from an abusive home and needs saving. The result? Lucy kidnaps Ian.

Really?

The one saving grace for me in The Borrower were all the fun literary references. They do reward the well read.

Ultimately though the quirky turns to creepy. Makkai isn't able to whip up the prerequisite amount of charm needed to make the jump from the friendship of two lonely book lovers to a PG rated Thelma and Louise road trip believable enough to work.

I can't help feeling that if Lucy had been a High School aged babysitter instead of an adult librarian The Borrower might have turned out a whole more rewarding. Not to mention convincing.

The Map of Time

The Map of Time is an International Sensation. I know that's true because it says so right on the book. Good thing because I wouldn't have known that from reading the book. I would have thought that The Map of Time by Felix Palma was a heavy handed time travel novel featuring H.G. Wells in three separate, unconnected stories that do not add up to one convincing novel. So, thanks Simon and Schuster for setting me straight.

Now if only I had a time machine I could use to get back the hours I wasted reading The Map of Time.

 

Oh well.

Summer Reading

All the Summer Reads lists that have been flying out of the woodwork recently have me thinking about some of my most satisfying summer reads. As a reader summer as a time to read isn't anything special to me. My hibernation instincts make me value fall and winter more as perfect reading times. Me cozy inside, cold weather on its own outside. What could be more conducive to reading? That weather makes me not want to leave the house, every chair in the world is made more comfortable with a blanket added to it and there are no yard work chores breathing down my neck. Those things make getting comfy with a world in your hands ready to enter a guilt free, energy conserving pleasure.

Oh well. It is tradition, longer days and the end of the school year that makes summer the acknowledged king of reading seasons. There are a few books for me that have the memory of reading them tied into summer. For some of them it is because they were read during some high school summer vacations. The others were read on day trips to local lakes with much loved, happy, loud children or on my back porch surrounded the smells and sounds of hot days and one during a summer spent in an I.C.U. while I watched and waited for my Father to recover from a dreadful illness. For those reasons and because they are excellent books these novels mean summer reading to me

Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry

Never have I ever read a novel where the author loves the characters as much as the reader does. It's apparent on every page. There is the good, the bad, the ugly and every combination of the three throughout this western and McMurtry's affection for these people is right there as well. Lonesome Dove is essentially the story of two aging Texas Rangers taking on a multi-state cattle drive as their last hurrah. If you have never read this novel you are in for the read of your life and I am so very jealous.

Cider House Rules by John Irving

I do like a book about orphans and this book has plenty of them. This is John Irving's masterpiece. It's the novel where this talented writer gets out of his own way and tells a powerful coming of age story that takes place in the 1930's and 40's. The characters from the biggest to the smallest are well drawn, the plotline is strong and there are about a hundred mini heartbreaks throughout the story. Don't be satisfied with just having seen the movie. One of my favorite things about Cider House rules are that the boy orphans all have David Copperfield read to them and the girls get Jane Eyre.

Shogun by James Clavel

This was the first book I ever read that was set in the Far East and it started my lifelong love affair with Asia. It takes place in the 1600's in Japan. Englishman John Blackthorne and his Dutch crew are shipwrecked in a Japan that is closed to all foreigners with the exception of the Portuguese and is on the verge of a civil war. Blackthorne comes under the protection of Toranaga a feudal lord who is angling to become the leader of Japan, the Shogun. This novel is the epitome of the learn a million new to you things page turning historical storytelling. If you think you can write historical fiction and you haven't read this novel you have no idea what historical fiction should be. My fifteen year old niece is going to read this on her summer vacation this year and I cannot wait to be a part of that experience.

Bleak House by Charles Dickens

Does a girl ever forget her first Dickens? Not this girl. I chose Bleak House because it was chubby. I had heard of Dickens and had seen a couple movies based on his novels so I was good to go. What did I know? I was a silly high schooler. I was completely caught off guard by the numbers of characters, the individuality of each of them, the convolutions of the plot, the social consciousness, the sentiment, the morality and the humor. I was challenged. I had to pay attention or get lost in one of the many London fogs that roll through this novel. The massive populace of the novel spoke to me. I am the tenth of eleven children and here was a book that by page five was more populated than my world. Thrilling.

The House of Orphans by Helen Dunmore

I know. More orphans. What can I say? This moving novel takes place in 1900 Finland just before the Finnish rise up against the Russians. Eevie became an orphan a little later than most. She can clearly remember life with her revolutionary Father. Despite all she has lost she is lucky enough to escape the harsh survivalist orphanage and become a housekeeper for the kindly local doctor. In the doctor's household she blossoms. For the first time in her life Eevie is well fed and safe. It doesn't last. The townsfolk don't approve. Eevie has to move on. The characters are interesting, the story is compelling but what the real payoff is in something written by Helen Dunmore is the atmosphere. She can set a stage, build an environment better than anyone writing today. You feel every location, every shift in mood. Sadly, House of Orphans is currently out of print but it is so worth searching for in a used bookstore---or of course your library!

The Piano Teacher by Janice Y.K. Lee

This novel is the story of two women who never meet but share a lover. In 1942 Englishman Will Truesdale is new to Hong Kong and having a passionate affair with a Holly Golightly-esque Eurasian named Trudy. Their relationship shocks and fascinates both the British and the Chinese communities. When the Japanese invade the city party time is over and survival is the new black. The occupation is brutal. Every choice made by these people will haunt them to the grave. Ten years later, Claire arrives in Hong Kong with her new husband. She takes a job as a piano teacher to the daughter of a wealthy, old Chinese family. She meets Will there and they begin an affair. There is intrigue to spare in this novel and the secrets that get revealed are actual surprises! Lee’s recreation of pre-war, war and post war Hong Kong with its segregated communities and unique culture is fascinating. While not always likeable, Claire and Trudy are strong, captivating women. 

Will I be reading something this summer that forever reminds me of summer? Hmmm....

The Astral

Author Kate Christensen seems to specialize in writing novels about people you would never in a thousand years want to spend any time with if you met them in real life. So what kind of voodoo writer magic has to happen for an author to make you enjoy a book even though you dislike the main character? Beats me but Kate Christensen has it. Read The Epicure's Lament or Jeremy Thrane or The Great Man. Don't however read her newest novel, The Astral and expect the same magic. The Astral is the story of a weak and complaining middle aged man's autopsy of his marriage, when he isn't begging his wife to take him back. It sounds like a phone call you would try to dodge not a novel you would want to read.

Harry Quick is a 57 year old poet living in Brooklyn with his wife of 30 years, Luz. When Luz discovers a new collection of poems in his notebooks she is convinced that Harry is having an affair. Harry did have an affair once but that was twelve years ago and he and Luz worked past it. His poems are always about women, this is writing not an affair. Still, Luz kicks him out and destroys the new poems. Now Harry is a 57 year old homeless poet. As he bicycles around his gentrifying Brooklyn neighborhood trying to remember the new poems, sponging off people for places to sleep he ruminates on what went wrong in his marriage and his life.

Harry's story or rather Harry's thoughts are interrupted by drinking, a couple jobs, his interactions with his two adult children, some friends and the characters of his neighborhood. The citizens of Harry World are interesting people. Although they are not crucial to the plot because there isn't one, they do offer respite from Harry's boring me, me, me. Ultimately as engaging as these characters are, they are nothing more than examples of some of the other choices good and bad that people make.

The Astral is a very long short story in which tedious whining rules the day. Too bad.