Caity's Book Log

Abundance: A Novel Of Marie Antoinette by Sena Jeter Naslund
B+

Thrilling, beautifully and eloquently written, poetic, as well as historically accurate. Naslund has genuine talent. This page-turner takes you from Marie Antoinette's wedding at age fourteen to her death at age thirty-eight. Recommended to all girls and women interested in history, royal culture, French culture, or the true life of Marie Antoinette herself. An epic novel to be remembered. 

Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen
D+

I didn't finish this book either. For one, the summary on the inside cover flaps pretty much gave away the entire story, and for two, it was already ridiculously obvious that Jacob was going to end up with Marlena, so there were no twists or turns to look forward to.

While Gruen is certainly a descriptive and proper writer (a huge breath of fresh air compared to Kim Edwards), her story lacks plot and enthusiasm. Even eventful scenes, like when Jacob jumps the train and is almost pulled under, are described blandly. I had a lot of trouble getting through one paragraph without my eyes starting to close. A lot of times I had to re-read whole pages because it was very unclear as to who was talking and what exactly they were talking about. 

The thing that threw me off about this book is that the opening chapters that take place in Jacob's nursing home were spectacular. They were both humorous and readable. But then the story launches into his memories of joining the circus, and it's like all the lights dimmed down. Strangely, one of the most common things said about this book in Amazon.com reviews was that it's one of those books that you "simply can't put down." That's the whole reason I bought this book; I was expecting it to be like Memoirs of A Geisha or The Thirteenth Tale, something gripping and epic that kept you awake through all hours of the night. Water For Elephants is NOT one of these books. I actually fell asleep while trying to read it. 

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See
C

In this dramatic yet fairly light fiction, eighty-year-old Lily recounts her life in her memoirs of growing up as a girl in China during the mid-1800s. Born to a Chinese farmer in a world where women are considered worthless, Lily knows that her future depends on who she marries, which is determined by the size of her feet. At age seven, her mother wraps and binds her feet, breaking all of the bones and compressing them to create delicate "golden lillies". Lily's foot-binding is successful and her feet are ideally small, so the village matchmaker renders that she deserves something more significant and privileged than a "sworn sisterhood" (an official group of friends which most Chinese women are assigned). The matchmaker unites Lily with a laotong-- an "old same"-- called Snow Flower. Snow Flower shares a birthday with Lily, as well as a considerable amount of other similarities. Lily cannot believer her luck, for Snow Flower is educated, refined, and lady-like, while Lily is a mere farmer's daughter. 

Together, the two girls developed a love for each other deeper than the love they shared with their natal families. They recorded significant events of their lives together in nu shu, a secret form of women's writing, on a special fan. But as they grow and their circumstances begin to change drastically, the two women have a horrible misunderstanding that damages everything and that continues to haunt Lily for the rest of her life. 

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is culturally and historically interesting, and it is quite readable too. I found it to be rather dry at times, however. Sometimes it felt like all I was reading was a list of different weddings and women in different households who bore no significance to the plot. I also felt that Lily had been unreasonable with herself and needed to forgive herself for what happened. But then again, she lived in a time and place where people-- especially women-- did not know much about forgiveness. 

Not recommended to men or feminists.

God's Dog: Conversations With Coyote, Coyote Says...: More Conversations With God's Dog, and Get A God! More Conversations With Coyote by Rev. Webster Kitchell
B-

New Mexican Reverend Webster Kitchell of the Unitarian Universalist Church has written some great little philosophical blurbs in his three Coyote books. In the Native American tradition, Coyote is a minor deity who is known for his cunning tricks and remarkable sense of humor. Kitchell reveres the hilarious, playful Coyote as his "spirit guide," his other half, and each book is a series of interesting theological dialogues between the two of them. They discuss Jesus Christ, fortune and misfortune as a relative judgment, the UU Church, money, politics, and dozens of other philosophical hot spots. The conversations are quite entertaining, Kitchell being a progressive liberal and Coyote being a tough cynic. 

If you are interested in theology, philosophy, or the thoughts behind a leading mind of the UU Church, I strongly recommend these books. Do not be deceived by their short lengths-- they aren't exactly "easy reads"!

        

Chicken With Plums by Marjane Satrapi
A-

I cannot get enough Marjane Satrapi, I just can't. The more I read, the more I need. Chicken With Plums is the story of the last week in the life of her great uncle, Nassar Ali Kahn. Nassar, an emotional musician with a wife whom he'd never loved and several rather obnoxious children, lies down in his bed one day after his wife breaks the only passion in his life, his guitar, and decides to die. Sure enough, he does. 

The strangest suicide story I have ever been privy to, Chicken With Plums is surely fascinating as it is very short in length. I hope Satrapi creates a 1000+ page novel, because it doesn't seem to matter whether her books are 80 pages or 280 pages, I read them straight through in one sitting! They're that good!



Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
B+

Classic African American writer Zora Neale Hurtson tells the story of Negro woman Janie Woods in this rather tragic novel. Searching for love, identity, and her place in the world, young Janie sets forth on the journey of her life, starting with her marriage to land-owner Logan Killocks, which she took part in to satisfy Nanny, her grandmother. After Nanny's death, however, Janie leaves Logan for young, ambitious Joe Starks who carries her away to Eatonville where he becomes mayor. But being the mayor's wife does not satisfy Janie. Her husband expects her to stand still in the background and smile, and forbids her to speak or "stoop" to the level of the townspeople. 

If you read this story for anything, read it with the awareness that it is a pivotal novel in African American history, and that it carries deep and heavy symbolism. Throughout the book, themes of independence, control over one's own destiny, and autonomy are precedent. It is not a book to be taken lightly. Although my prefered Afro-American reading would have to be Malcom X or The Color Purple, I appreciate Their Eyes Were Watching God as the phenomenon that it was, and still is. 

Here is the essay I wrote on a particular theme in the novel for my African American Literature class (first semester, senior year):

Mankind’s Natural Hierarchies in Their Eyes Were Watching God

            Since publication, Zora Neale Hurston’s award-winning novel Their Eyes Were Watching God has been a controversial representation of African American culture in the late nineteen thirties, accused by some scholars such as author Richard Wright as mocking black culture; but among Hurston’s many controversial underlying themes is the recurrence of mankind’s tendency to rank among one another and form a hierarchy. In her novel, Hurston points out that slavery and/or white supremacy is a natural human instinct. This is controversial for an African American to write, for one would be misled into believing that Hurston’s intention was to justify race-over-race superiority; however, Hurston is merely demonstrating how she believes this is so, sans judgment.

            To begin, the title, Their Eyes Were Watching God, represents a dramatic scene in the novel where the people watch as God’s power effortlessly destroys their homes through a raging hurricane. This suggests that a large theme in the book is God’s power and control over Nature, which ultimately effects and therefore holds power over all people. After cowering beneath the authorities of God and Nature, people in the novel begin to create a hierarchy of rankings among themselves, beginning mainly with white people over blacks.

The main setting of the novel is in various black towns where whites are not present to oppress, but it is still in the era of oppression and black inequality. White riches and education serve as an ideal and a goal for black townspeople, but many never get to achieve it. It is here in the black community that people begin to, whether consciously or not, rank themselves in an almost pitiful effort to stay as far away from the bottom as possible, starting with men over women.

            In the beginning of the novel, the main character, a girl called Janie, marries landowner Logan Killocks. He, however, tries to exert too much power over her by forcing her into housework. Janie senses this male supremacy and therefore escapes her marriage for fear of being controlled, pushed down to the bottom rung of the ladder of society. The theme of male supremacy continues throughout the book when Janie marries Joe Starks. Joe ultimately exercises control over everything she says, wears, and does. For example, he will not let her make a speech on the opening night of a store, and he also makes her wear her hair up at all times so as not to attract other men. It is seen throughout the book as well that other wives are beaten by their husbands, not because they have wronged, but because their husbands are trying to assure their manly control over their women.

            But even these “wife-owning” men are under the control of another man when Joe Starks becomes the mayor of Eatonville. Now it is no longer a question of race or gender, but one of education as the hierarchy continues. Because Joe is more ambitious, active, and educated in social matters, he now has authority over the town of Eatonville. This town accomplishes nothing of great consequence, other than the opening of a successful store to be run by Joe and Janie, but Hurston seems to be asserting a point that even though Joe is human and black, as long as he is not female or uneducated, he is content and eager to avoid falling any lower in the ranks of society. Hurston seems to be demonstrating that gender power is not enough for some people; men may thrive for political power as well to ensure power over more that just women.

            At one point in the book, Joe exercises his authority over the animal kingdom as well when he buys an old mule and sets it free, much to the amusement of the townspeople of Eatonville. Those who are under Joe’s authority, even the black women, now have something to rank themselves above: this poor and foolish mule. The mule had become the laughing stock of the town, but not because he was very smart or amusing. Hurston points out that the mule is aged and ill, and will not survive for much longer, but the black housewives still cackle with laughter when he sticks his head into their kitchen windows. This could be interpreted as a sign of delight that they are not, after all, as useless and therefore low-ranking in their town as this old, flea-ridden mule; for although they are under the power of their husbands, the mayor, the white man, and God himself, it seems only natural that they should be glad to claim status over an animal.

            Later in the novel, the reader is acquainted with Mrs. Turner, a black woman who possesses white features. On page 142 she says:

“‘Look at me! Ah ain’t got no flat nose and liver lips. Ah’m uh featured woman. Ah got white folks’ features in mah face. Still and all Ah got to be lumped in wid all de rest. It ain’t fair. Even if dey don’t take us in wid de whites, dey oughta make us uh class tuh ourselves.’”

Not only is Mrs. Turner appalled with the stereotypes that most blacks fall under but she agrees with them. Furthermore, she believes that “white-blacks” should class off, not quite to the class of the white people, but at least not with the other sorts of blacks. Like the white people and like the men before her, her natural wish is to be classed above those who are different to some disadvantage.

            In the latter half of the book, the Native Americans warn the black plantation workers in the Everglades to leave before the hurricane hits. But Janie’s third husband, Tea Cake, argues against removing himself and his wife. He argues that “‘…Indians don’t know much uh nothin’, tuh tell de truth. Else dey’d own dis country still. De white folks ain’t gone nowhere. Dey oughta know if it’s dangerous” (156). Here Tea Cake is expressing an opinion that Indians are less intelligent than whites because the white man was able to steal their land from them. Tea Cake therefore decides to copy the actions of the whites, believing them to be the superior of the two groups, and unwilling to make a fool of himself by leaving. In some regard, Tea Cake is compensating for his black inferiority by siding with the whites over the Seminoles even during the threat of a fatal hurricane; anything to escape being the “lowest of the low”.

            The recurring theme of classings-off and self-rankings in Their Eyes Were Watching God is a sign of Hurston’s awareness in this tendency of human nature. However, by refraining from expressing judgment of this natural trait, Hurston is not justifying white supremacy nor is she condemning it.  She is merely portraying one of the many aspects of human behavior in society for the purpose of adding realism in her novel.

'Tis by Frank McCourt
C-

What a disappointment! I almost finished reading this book, I have but seventy or so pages left, but I can't take McCourt anymore. All of his whining and moaning has finally driven me up the wall. It was fascinating when he was a little toddler in New York City or the impoverished youth of Ireland, but continuing to tell revolting stories and complain, complain, complain even into his teens and twenties-- I couldn't take it anymore. Sure, life was no piece of cake back then, but save me the drama! McCourt is anything but romantic, and this trait of his was a breath of fresh air in Angela's Ashes, but 'Tis is an angst-fest that frustrated me to no end. I refuse to finish it.

Fire: Hope and Despair in Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree

            Many people believe that the eyes are the window to the soul. What then, is said about one’s soul if he is described as having “fire in his eyes”? Does this mean that this person is possessed with the type of fire that destroys and rages on, spreading out and leaving nothing but charred ruins behind it? Or is this a description of a passionate warrior, alight with fervor to create a vision or recreate truth, the candle of hope in his grasp? In Tariq Ali’s compelling novel Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree, both such characters are prevalent, together embodying the dualistic nature of fire.

            Ximenes de Cisneros is a man burning with hatred for the Moors and anyone/anything in the way of Christian Queen Isabella of Spain. The novel begins with the scene of the Wall of Fire, where Cisneros burned the collected books and documents belonging to the Muslims on the Iberian Peninsula. In this way, fire was detrimental and greatly devastating. The fire of Cisneros was the fire that destroys and is capable of creating nothing, except perhaps hopelessness. His Queen Isabella was sculpted as a chess piece in young Yazid bin Umar’s set, her eyes painted a blazing red. Also, Captain Cortes, the red-headed captain who, at the end of the novel, burned down the entire city and murdered the entirety of its inhabitants, was described by police chief was described as having eyes that “burn with an evil flame” (Ali 223). To look into the eyes of Cisneros, Isabella, and Cortes is to see fire in their souls— fire that ravages and devastates, spreading despair in its wake.

            However, Zuhayr “Al-Fahl” (“The Stallion”) bin Umar is a fiery young man, but in a quite different way. A Muslim, quick to defend his people and their prophet Mohammad, Zuhayr takes action to fight against the evils of Cisneros and the King and Queen of Spain. The fire he possesses is a passionate and youthful fire; the fire of anger that one feels when they discover that someone innocent and close to them is being treated poorly, or horribly. In his heart is the burning instinct to survive and attack, along with the powerful will to defend and protect. He uses this fiery passion within him to create an army and to rise himself and his men up at the top of the moral highgrounds, above Cisneros and the others. Fire as a symbol of hope is represented when Zuhayr’s little brother Yazid and their cook, the Dwarf, are hiding in the grain cellar from the war above, illuminated by the light of a single candle. This candlelight represents hope as long as they are safe below ground and alive.

            Whether positive or negative, creative or destructive, hopeful or despairing, fire is passionate. Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree is the epitome of the popular phrase ‘fighting fire with fire’. It is arguable that fire is in the soul and center of every human being; it is only to be asked which kind of fire he or she possesses.