The Year of Magical Thinking has embarrassingly been on my TBR list since it came out in 2005. So it's only fitting that my review was also so long in being finalized. It finally made it on my TBR shelf thanks to my local library used book sale and I picked it up for a solid $1. As soon as I started reading I remembered why I had been so interested in reading in the first place. To say that Joan Didion is an exceptional writer should really not have to be said, but for the uninitiated, Joan Didion and her husband John Dunne are basically literary royalty. That a personal tragedy would occur and the best way Joan could process it was to write it all out as a touching memoir is the least surprising thing that could happen. And it's fortunate for us that she decided to do this. Because there is something so poignant in the way she has shared her sorrow. She's able to put words to experiences that others can only feel. And she has access, in her brain, from all this writing to the writing of others that can succinctly say what she needs said, and there's only honor in turning to these sources when they're required. I read: "'one has only learnt to get the better of words / For the thing one no longer has to say, or the way in which / One is no longer disposed to say it'". YES!! My heart sang as I LITERALLY leapt out of my seat. Yes! I've felt so many things in my life that I was unable, at the time, to explain or comprehend, only later to find I could put words to the thoughts when they were no longer relevant, or no longer urgent and the time had past for saying them.Joan is able to spell out the pain and confusion and just plain heartache that comes when losing a spouse. The fog she wandered in for months afterwards feels so real and so damn relate-able, even if I can't imagine myself in a NY apartment, having the connections she had. That she was also dealing with her daughter's serious illness just compounds my deep sympathy and admiration of her courage in sharing it all on the page.
5/5 Stars.
When it comes to picking an author for Women's History Month, it just makes sense to spend some time with Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison. She's phenomenal. Her prose is smooth and if you're not careful will lull you into an odd sense of peace to only be broken by the truths she brings from the characters she brings to life. This short Novella follows brother and sister Frank and Cee Money. Frank has returned from the Korean War with wounds unseen. Having lost his two best friends, one who died right in his arms, Frank is haunted by the things he saw and the things he did during the war. What we would now call PTSD has led him to drink himself into oblivion. He seems to have found sanctuary and peace with Lily out in the Pacific Northwest. But when he receives a letter that his sister Cee "be dead" he knows he has to hurry to save her. Crossing the country has a black man in the 1950s is not easy and Frank is quickly waylaid into a mental institution. His escape and eventual arrival in Atlanta, Georgia is a master class as only Toni Morrison can present in the large and small cruelties of living in Jim Crow, segregated and overtly racist America. In the meantime, we're told that Cee left home as soon as she could, accompanied by a young man who professed love, but really had his eye on her father's car. Abandoned in Atlanta, Cee is determined to make her own life rather than return to the abusive taunts of her step-grandmother. Cee knows she needs a better job to make ends meet, so she applied to be a doctors assistant at a suburban home-office of Dr. Beau. Only, well Dr. Beau shows a little to much interest in his new assistant's anatomy and too little interest in her status as a human being. So this is how Cee becomes ill, only it's never really detailed, it doesn't need to be. One can google medical experiments of black women and find enough historical details to choke the joy from you for the day. This book is as much about Cee as it is about Frank, and their mutual healing after trauma. It's a shame that the brief descriptions offered mention Cee not at all, since her journey is just as moving. In such a short time, Toni Morrison paints a vivid and dense picture of redemptive sibling and self loves.
4/5 Stars.
There's nothing like a good airplane ride to get some pages logged. I finished American Fire shortly after touchdown in Florida. I love a good narrative non-fiction book. This one felt a little less smooth than my favorites, but I really enjoyed the subject matter.Essentially, abandoned structures start burning on the East Shore of Virginia. Accomack County has seen better days and the countryside is littered with buildings left behind when the County was. Brave crews of volunteer firefighters begin to battle the blazes and are shocked when three burn in one night. Something nefarious is going on. Hesse does not structure this like a mystery, so we know right away who the culprit is. The details of why are teased out over the course of the story. Charlie Smith, a one time volunteer firefighter and convicted felon has had a rough go of life. Seemingly below normal in IQ and decision making skills, Charlie has a recurring drug problem that leads him into trouble, but he is occasionally able to set that aside for the sake of love and a new woman. He does so about a year before the fires begin. His new flame (haha I'm punning) is Tonya Budnick, a bit of a party girl. The two of them fall in love and annoyingly have a joint facebook account. But there's a problem. Charlie suffers from crippling insecurity and he can never believe he is deserving of this woman. So he is unable to "perform" sexually. Which, combined with the couple's dwindling finances and problems with one of Tanya's children, lead to a whim one night to burn something down. So they begin.And for 66 fires, they baffle the investigative teams sent to solve the crimes. Until they are caught. While Charlie confesses right away, Tanya remains steadfast that not only was she not involved in the setting of the fires, she also was not aware Charlie set any of them. If you find that far fetched, you're not alone, so did the jury that convicted her. I liked the woven themes of an aging and declining County and the arson. It was a good read.
3 1/2 Stars.
This short book was terrifying and enlightening and in the end, somehow comforting. We are all gifted with an inherent ability to sense and react to real threats. Not the uneasy feeling we get in a little airline turbulence, but the visceral (gut) reaction we feel when we are in the presence of real danger. The Gift of Fear tells us to listen to that voice. Whether or not we listen to this feeling can be the difference between life and death. de Becker introduces many scenarios of people who have listened or not listened to this voice. And most of these scenarios are terrifying. Ask yourself, he says, what is the worst thing you can ever imagine one human could do to another? And then, he says, rest assured that that thing, that thing that you can only imagine has been done to someone somewhere in the world. And that thought sends chills through my body. Man's capacity for cruelty is only limited by the imagination. And most often the target of those limits are children. Which, is the most horrifying and unpardonable fact I have ever encountered.So, I'm glad I read this book, because keeping myself and my children safe may (hopefully not) be necessary sometime. May I never let politeness, social norms, or societal expectations override my natural instincts to react to fear.
4/5 Stars.
I had so many moments where I forgot that I was listening to an audio book and lapsed into full-fledged conversation with Jeannette Walls. "These parents in the Glass Castle... WTF on every page." is what I texted to my sister when it just seemed like the never-ending train of neglect and abuse rolled on. I couldn't understand how Jeannette turned out so normal. How she could forgive her parents. The story starts with a grown up Jeannette seeing her mother picking items from a garbage dumpster in a New York City alley. Then it travels back in time to a three year old Jeannette who is terribly scarred when a stove top flame catches her dress on fire. And then it travels forward. With Jeannette, her older sister Laurie, younger brother Brian and baby sister Maureen transported across the country by their parents. Who can never seem to settle down or "straighten up." Their mother, a trained teacher, elects to spend her time painting and writing novels and stories that are consistently rejected. Their father, a former Air Force pilot and engineer, works for about six months at a time before being fired. He is an alcoholic. Neither parent ever seems to be able to put their children first, a fact that becomes painfully more obvious when the family moves from the desert landscapes Jeannette and the older siblings are used to, and on to Welch, West Virginia, where their dad grew up and where their grandmother probably sexually abused him. Good grief. A multi-generational horribleness sets in. But all of this is told in a rather matter of fact way, by a woman who is entirely grateful to have had her siblings to navigate and survive with. Even when their parents chose booze or jewelry over putting food on the table and let their kids dig food from the trash, the siblings look out for one another and each gain they get is hard won and hard fought. I won't go into detail of every issue of neglect that's committed by the parents in this story, but ultimately, Laurie is able to leave for New York where she pursues her dream of being an artist. Rather than wait out her time in Welch, Jeannette follows to finish her senior year in New York. Brian follows suit the next year when he enters the 12th grade. And much to the relief of the siblings, Maureen is permitted to move to New York under Laurie's care at the age of 12. Their children all gone the parents wait a while and then follow them to New York, where they spend time homeless and on the streets and then eventually squatting in an abandoned building. If it wasn't a memoir I would have thought I was reading a piece of hard fiction. But the fact that this was someone's life is rather amazing. It's a sad truth that some people are not able to set aside the mental illness or addictions that prevent them from being fully there for others. And in the end, I think Jeannette forgives her parents for that, if she even felt like she needed to. She knew they loved her in their own flawed ways. If she can forgive them, who am I to hold a grudge. But I am going to hug my kids tighter today AND when I see them, my own mom and dad.
5/5 Stars.
This is a really hard book to review. Barracoon was initially written by Hurston in the 1930s based on interviews she conducted with Kossulo (renamed Cudjo Lewis following his freedom), abducted and forced onto the Clotilda, the last ship to carry enslaved people to the United States.Hurston insisted on maintaining Kossulo's original dialect and vernacular, one of the reasons the piece was originally rejected for publication. In the afterward, many pages are devoted to analyzing a plagiarizing issue with Hurston's earlier articles about Kossulo, mainly that she lifted entire background passages from an un-cited work. Although not mentioned, this could also be problematic in getting this later work published. Kossulo's story is a sad and cruel one. A teenager in Africa, his tribe is attacked by another and he is sold into slavery in 1859, at a time when the international slave trade is supposed to be outlawed. The importing of enslaved peoples to America has been prohibited but three brothers and a ship captain have decided they will run the risk. Of course, they have no qualms about accepting enslaved peoples, but when they get to America, the market has become a little dry and the brothers and ship captain end up retaining most of their "cargo." Not much is said by Kossulo about the time he spent enslaved aside from the loading and unloading of river ships. He does recount the day he is told he is free. And it's a stark moment because there is no where to go and he's not quite sure what he should do. But he and some other men manage to work and save and buy some land together to make their own town. He eventually marries and has six children. And then, tragically, his six children are killed one by one. He also loses his wife and is left bereft and lonely in Africa Town, waiting, it seems, for someone to come and listen to his story and show an interest in the life he has led. And it is interesting, and devastating. There is little redemption in the story except to say that Kossulo persisted and tried to make a life for himself, but even a life after slavery was filled with hardship and loss. The story of Kossulo itself garners 4 stars. The forward pieces and afterward were long on words, but somehow short on information. What became of Kossulo? What else can be said about his family or Africa Town (Plateau, AL)? I think the style of non-fiction written by journalists has developed so much over the last almost 100 years, that this story is almost unrecognizable in its current format and it left me wanting so much more. So this story is so important because there are so few first hand narratives of actual enslaved people. And the Clotilda represents such a dark and reprehensible period of our country's history. But I wish there was more. I wish someone had advanced Hurston the capital and independence necessary to really get the whole of Kossulo's story.
4/5 Stars
