Blindness - Jose Saramago

It's been two days since I finished Blindness. And I thought two days would be enough time to really process what I thought of this one. But here I sit, two days of thinking of what to say, and I'm still not really sure.

That I even decided to pick up this book and start it is a real accomplishment. I tried so hard to read Saramago's History of the Siege of Lisbon last year. But once the dog started narrating I was just done. And I couldn't get past Saramago's lack of paragraph breaks for dialogue. I guess the story just wasn't interesting enough for me to do so much work to figure out what was talking.

But in this case, Blindness was interesting enough, and horrifying enough, and realistic enough. (No dogs narrate in this one). The book starts with a man suddenly going blind at an intersection. Despite the honking cars, he's paralyzed by indecision and cannot find a way to get out of his car. He's disoriented. A "good samaritan" helps him home and into his house (and then steals his car -but don't worry that guy goes blind too, so Karma). 

The blindness begins to spread. The government, also paralyzed by fear, decides to stick the blind and those they've come in contact with in an unused former mental asylum. They deliver food three times a day. Otherwise the blind are left to fend for themselves. More and more afflicted begin to arrive. The conditions are deplorable. No working toilets, no clean water. 

And then, one group of the blind begin to terrorize the others. Until, well, I don't want to give too much away. But it's actually painful to read, but again not totally foreign because sometimes epidemics do not bring out the best in people. And just because people are afflicted does not mean that they are honorable or even worthy of assistance. Being blind brings out the worst in people in some cases.

The interesting parts are how Saramago really nails all those things we rely on sight for. The blind don't even recognize each other. People they've known or been intimate with are strangers. It's altogether pretty fascinating. 

Again, I'm not a big fan of how Saramago constructs his dialogue. It's confusing and irritating, but in this case, I didn't mind a little extra work to get it done. So, I can see why he's a nobel laureate, and I kind of forgive him for that Lisbon thing.

4/5 Stars.

It Starts with Food: Discover the Whole30 and Change Your Life in Unexpected Ways - Dallas & Melissa Hartwig

You are what you eat. Basically. It's hard to argue with some of the main precepts in this book. Added sugar is bad for you. Eating too much of the wrong thing is bad for you. Vegetables are good for you. I did enjoy the science background of the information. It's important to have that as well. Although I do think sometimes they emphasize the science that supports their conclusions and dismiss the science that does not rather summarily. 

My sister "discovered" the Whole 30 this year and I was at first skeptical. No wine? That sounds terrible. But I've had a bit of my own transformation with food this year and the Whole 30 takes it a couple steps past what I was already doing. So this doesn't seem quite as scary as it would have earlier in the year. 

You can check out their website for all the nitty gritty (click here). But I appreciate their "tough love" concepts that basically acknowledge our complicated and emotional connection to food. The Whole30 seems strict so it's probably not as accessible to some people. I think that's okay. Sometimes we need some tough love to look at what we've been eating and how we got that way. Taking a break from all that for 30 days is a great way to really examine what we put in our bodies. 

Here's a good quote from the book that's pretty hard to argue with: “There is no food neutral; there is no food Switzerland—every single thing you put in your mouth is either making you more healthy or less healthy.” 
― Melissa Hartwig

Here's the basics. 30 days. No dairy. No gluten. No alcohol. No legumes. No grains (not even rice or quinoa). Just meat, vegetables and fruits. And after 30 days, slowly reintroduce small amounts of these things to see how you do. What makes our bodies feel the way they do. There are apparently thousands of anecdotal good results with this program. And while I usually dismiss anecdotal evidence, large amounts of anecdotal evidence start to represent trends and more solid evidence in my mind. This is a way to address chronic inflammation, immune and bowel diseases and a host of other conditions. 

So after listening to the book. I'm not "sold" but I'm definitely going to try it starting January 1st (I'm realistic enough to know I won't make it through Christmas without eating a cookie) and I'll use my body as its own laboratory to figure out how the food I eat affects me. If it works for me, then it works and then I'll be "sold." I'll post an update January 31st.

4/5 Stars.

The Girl in the Spider's Web - David Lagercrantz

I was concerned that Lagercrantz wouldn't be able to capture the odd mix of action and exposé that marked the earlier Millennium books. I was thankfully wrong. 

This book finds us with our two friends, Lisbeth Salander and Mikhail Blomkvist again on the hunt of a story. Mikhail's little magazine has suffered a bit since its last scoop and is now partly owned by a larger media corporation which has threatened to show Mikhail the door. He's lost his stuff. His writing is tired and so is Mikhail. 

Lisbeth, however, has been busy. She's been trying to track down her erstwhile sister Camille, who she suspects has picked up where their horrible father left off. In order to get the information she needs, she sneaks into the NSA to find get the dirt on her sister's organization. In the meantime, there is a Swedish computer genius and his autistic son Franz and August Balder, who get caught in a struggle for Franz's technology. Franz is murdered while Mikhail is on his way to interview him. 

And if that was then end of the conspiracy, this would be a poor Millennium novel indeed. It goes deeper than that and of course Salander is in the mix on it all as well. Mikhail and Lisbeth maintain a loose affiliation and friendship and it's nice to see them work together again. 

There were a couple sections of exposition that may seem slow, but that again is also characteristic of this series. This is a solid action/conspiracy drama, perfect for fans of the first three novels. I can't write any more without giving away the goose.

3.5/5 Stars.

Ploughshares Summer 2015 - Guest Editor Lauren Groff

It's been a while since I gave Ploughshares a 5 star review. And really that's unfair since it's the piece of mail I look most forward too. I love Ploughshares. I love that it gets me out of my genre rut. I love that it gives me short fiction to devour or savor depending on my reading mood.

This edition was edited by Lauren Groff, whose personal tastes she described thus, "Give me the short and the sharp, like a slap; give me the long, slow immersion in an alien sea. I am searching for work that is written with blood or bile or choler, not necessarily sweat alone." And I have to say, after reading the collection, I'd probably read anything she recommends. There are many many good stories in this collection.

A couple I particularly liked were In the Flesh, We Shone by Alex Shakar; An Arc Welder, a Molotov Cocktail, a Bowie Knife by Kevin Wilson; and The Miracle Years of Little Fork by Rebecca Makkai.

In the Flesh is a story of a woman who falls in love with a dead man. As their relationship blooms, his flesh, does not. It's a really interesting take on love and futility. Little Fork follows the trials of a small town after the circus comes to town and the star elephant dies. It is all told through the eyes of a Reverend in the middle of a faith crisis. It's just a really interesting mix of subject matters that somehow works. Arc Welder is look into the lives of a man and his girlfriend following an incident of domestic violence among the girlfriend's family. They must take temporary custody of the sister's children. It's all very dysfunctional and somehow hypnotic. The narrator has you agreeing that he'd be a much better parent even as he criticizes how the children are raised but does absolutely nothing to change anything in their lives.

I even loved the Plan B essay this go round which I usually skip. Instead, this time, Thomas Pruiksma describes how he was a magician as a young child and how he managed to get back into magic but making it somehow literary. It's a unique read that I really cherish because I just can't imagine reading something like this anywhere else.

So yeah, I loved it. And I can't believe I let it sit on my nightstand for so long before getting to it.

5/5 Stars.

Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck

I'm not sure how I missed Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men when I was slogging through required reading in my High School and then Undergraduate years. But somehow, I'd never read this short gem of a novel. The plot is relatively straight forward. Lenny and George are ranch hands, traveling within California and going from ranch to ranch to work the land.

George is a small dark fellow with dreams of owning his own land and never having to work for anyone again. Lenny, is a large lumbering blonde man who is dim witted and essentially has the mind of a child. George looks out for Lenny and has a lot of compassion and love for Lenny that goes beyond simple companionship. Essentially, George has become Lenny's caretaker, his parent-figure. And he takes his duties seriously, even if he may resent it a little.

Lenny has a penchant for soft things he can pet. At the beginning of the story, we are shown that Lenny has pocketed a small mouse, but in the midst of his overzealous petting, Lenny has killed the mouse. It doesn't keep him from wanting to keep petting it however. George advises Lenny that when they buy their own land, he will get Lenny some rabbits, which will be larger and therefore, harder to kill.

Lenny obviously doesn't mean to kill the mouse, but he really has no concept of his own strength and he is sad that the mouse had to die, although there is a strange disconnect between Lenny's knowledge of the death, and his knowledge of his own actions which produced the death.

Lenny and George get hired on to a new ranch at the beginning of the story. The old ranch they had to leave when Lenny took a liking to a girl's red dress and wanted to pet it. Even after being told to let go, he got confused and grabbed tighter, leading the girl to run to the authorities, who then run Lenny (and by association, George) out of town.

Lenny is joyous to learn that the lead ranch hand on the property has a dog that has just given birth to a litter of puppies. The lead ranch hand, Slim, is appreciative of the care George has taken for Lenny and agrees to give Lenny one of the puppies. The new jobs are complicated by the son of the ranch owner, Curly, a small man with a Napoleon complex who decides Lenny is a good target to pick on, and his wife, who shows up at odd times ostensibly to "look for her husband" but really to flirt and talk with the men.

Steinbeck does a great job of overlaying all scene's with Curly's wife with an uneasiness bordering on foreboding. George tells us she is no good and will only lead to trouble. In the end she does, but not in the way we'd expect.

The unlikely friendship between Lenny and George is a bright spot in the book. It's easy to see how Slim would be warmed by it. Taking care of Lenny makes George more human. It gives him a reason to want a better life, to remain connected to himself and his humanity. This makes the ending that much more despairing. I won't write a spoiler here in case you are like me and one of the probably 25 people who have not read the book before. But if you have managed to miss it, you should pick it up and give it a chance. The writing itself is fantastic and the story really hits hard. It's no wonder it's withstood the test of time and is considered great American fiction.

5/5 Stars.

The Age of Miracles - Karen Thompson Walker

I really really wanted to like this book. The premise is interesting, a slowing has started in the earth's rotation, having all kinds of effects on gravity, plant growth, magnetic fields. This is all very interesting. And the writing is very good. The actual words on paper and the prose are well done.

But.... It's boring. The narrator is 11 years old at the beginning of the book, so events just kind of happen around her and she comments on them. An 11 year old is a bit young to have a lot of agency in a novel. She can't really make anything happen, so she takes to commenting on things as she sees them. Things other people are doing. It makes for very very slow progress. The book is also written from Julia's perspective looking back. She's around 20 years old as the narrator, talking about things that happened when she was 11. So there is a lot of "that was the last time I ever saw (insert minor character name) again."

The drama of the events don't quite match up with the reactions recorded by Julia. All the world's food is grown in greenhouses using artificial lights? Hmmm.... pretty sure this wouldn't quite cut it. Perhaps after reading the really really well researched, The Martian (read my review here), it's too much to expect a young adult novel to have plausible scientific calculations, but I wanted the cause and effect to at least make sense. Even those things that Julie should be able to convey or have some kind of dominion over are not taken as opportunities. She ends up eating alone in the library at lunch time.

The slow plodding of the plot, coupled with the complete impotence of the main character made for a very very slow and unexciting read.

2/5 Stars.

O is for Outlaw - Sue Grafton

I always enjoy an alphabet series book where we learn more about Kinsey. I'm not sure if Grafton always had in mind that she would write 26 of these things but she, like Kinsey, has been slow with the personal details. So Kinsey's backstory has been slow to be revealed. Here we are in book 15 and although we have always known that Kinsey was married twice before we "met" her, we have never known the identity of her first husband.

In this case, Kinsey is contacted by a storage picker who has come across some of her personal items in a storage locker. Kinsey buys the items off the picker and then tracks down the ex-husband she left them with a decade earlier. Her ex-husband, Mickey Magruder, has been shot and is in a coma. Kinsey sets out to find out what happened to him. It leads us to Vietnam and a her old bar stomping grounds from her cop days.

While this book is a solid outing in the series, and it is nice to get more of Kinsey's backstory, it always seems weird to get so much of a completely new history at once. If this was really in Kinsey's past, why haven't we had ANY inkling regarding this before? And, frankly the more Kinsey reveals of her personal life, the more selfish and petty and unlike able she becomes. Maybe this was meant to be a growth showing book but mostly I was annoyed with her. Why is she so against telling the police anything? Why does she keep so much information to herself?

I did appreciate the way the mystery unfolded and Grafton's writing is spot on. So this is again 3 stars.