The Moor’s Account

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Booker Long List, historical fiction, Laila Lalami, Mann Booker Prize, Narváez Expedition, novel, The Moor's Account, The Pulitzer Prize, Young Adult Fiction, Young adult literature

Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca chronicled the1527 Narváez Expedition licensed by Carlos I to claim the Gulf of Mexico for Spain. Of the about 600 men who embarked on this exploration in search of gold comparable to that discovered in Mexico only four survived. Cabeza de Vaca was the Crown’s treasurer, and as second in command, entrusted to return the Crown’s 5% share. There was dissention between Cabeza de Vaca and the leader of the Expedition, Pánfilo de Narváez.  The latter tried to separate Cabeza de Vaca from inland exploration, unsuccessfully trying to assign him to the ships. After exploring Hispaniola and Cuba, and having lost a couple of ships to a hurricane, 300 of the party disembarked in what may now be Tampa Bay. Cabeza de Vaca wrote the first European account of the travails of this Expedition, which traversed Florida and the Gulf of Mexico, through Texas and perhaps what would now be New Mexico and Arizona, to present day Mexico City. One line in his book notes that of the four survivors of this Expedition, one was a black Moor slave from Azamor whose Spanish name was Estevanico (the diminutive used for slaves). The latter is the sole basis for Laila Lalami’s imagined historical novel, that was a finalist for The Pulitzer Prize and now Long Listed for the  Mann Booker.

This entertaining read traverses the cultures of the Barbary Moors, the Portuguese and Spaniard conquistadors, and the varied native American tribes in Florida and the Gulf. As no one people have a monopoly on fear, disease, barbarism, survival ignorance and prejudice, there are no heroes. This is an excellent choice for young adult readers. It raises questions about culture and religion; adaptation and tradition; and the values that are held and shared.

Ms. Lalami is a storyteller. The prose is fluid but not elegant. The latter is not a criticism. There are fictional embellishments, but she does not profess to write a history. There is no revisionist’s goal. History is written by winners, so she offers an enjoyable alternative.

“And in this relation I tried to tell the story of what really happened when I journeyed to the heart of the continent. The servants of the Spanish empire have given a different story to their king and their bishop, their wives and their friends. The Indians with whom I have lived for eight years, each one of them, each one of thousands, have told yet other stories. Maybe there is no true story, only imagined stories, vague reflections of what we saw and what we heard, what we felt and what we thought. Maybe if our experiences, in all their glorious, magnificent colors, were somehow added up, they would lead us to the blinding light of the truth. To God belong the east and west, whichever way you turn, there is the face of God. God is great.”

 

 

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A Tale For The Time Being

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A Tale for the Time Being, American Literature, Book review, Booker Prize, books, bullying, Fiction, Japanese literature, Novels, Ruth Ozeki, suicide, Young adult literature

This unassuming novel is a tour de force. It was short listed for the 2013 Booker Prize. I read and reviewed two other 2013 Booker short listed novels. “Harvest” is an extraordinary novel. I assumed it would win the prize, as it captured medieval England with beautiful prose. In contrast, “A Tale for the Time Being” by Ruth Ozeki is plainly written. I also read “The Testament of Mary”. It has an imaginative plot. “A Tale for the Time Being” does not have an imaginative plot. I intend to read most of the other 2013 short listed Booker novels, although I am not sure I can wade into “The Luminaries”, which one the prize. At this point I think “A Tale for the Time Being” should have won the prize, with “Harvest” being a close second. As it is hard to compare books, I recommend you read all three of these novels.

The story in “A Tale for the Time Being” is simply told by two narrators. One a teenage Japanese girl who has emigrated back to Japan from the U.S. after her father lost his job in Silicon Valley. The girl is ostracized and bullied by her Japanese peer group and teacher. The father is unemployed. Both are suicidal, with her father being practiced. The girl and father are saved by the girl’s 104 year old Zen Buddhist nun grandmother.

The other narrator is a married female writer of middle-aged who is childless. A child of Japanese parents she moved to the Pacific Northwest from New York City to live with her introverted naturalist husband. Despite, or because of his intellectual foibles, he is the philosophical equivalent of the nun. A few years after Fukushima tsunami a diary and some letters wash up on shore. The diary is of a young Japanese girl who is on the verge of suicide. The letters are in French and need translation.

The story unfolds a few years apart in Japan and in Canada as the diary and letters are slowly read. The author is interested in parallel time and universe, and its one weakness in my view, is the animistic employment of a crow to join them. The novel is subtle learning experience. Japanese vocabulary is taught. It is written and defined in footnotes, and then used without footnotes as the novel progresses. Lessons in Japanese culture, Zen Buddhism, botany, philosophy, quantum mechanics, etymology, and history are all absorbed osmotically.

The title of the book is a double entendre. The “Time Being” is the living. A theme of the book is suicide and life, two sides of the same coin. The book celebrates living for the moment, as it explores suicidal variations. It juxtaposes kamikaze pilots with 9/11.

My favorite literary reference in the book concerns the history of the medlar, an applelike fruit which is best eaten rotten despite its awful smell. Apparently in Elizabethan England it was called open-arse fruit. The French called it cul de chien, or dog’s asshole. The novel notes that it plays a part in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.

“If love be blind, love cannot hit the mark,
Now will he sit under a medlar tree,
And wish his mistress were that kind of fruit
As maids call medlars, when they laugh alone.”

As Ms. Ozeki points out Mercutio is having fun with Romeo for not getting it on with Juliet.

This is an immensely enjoyable book. I would recommend it with caution to young adults in high school. I am concerned that those who have been bullied and are suicidal might find it too close to home. Some schools might also object to some passing adolescent prostitution.

Adults will spend their time wisely by reading this book.

In The Orchard The Swallows

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book reviews, books, British writers, Fiction, In the Orchard the Swallows, Literature, Pakistan, Peter Hobbs, Reading Suggestions, Young Adult Fiction, Young adult literature

The weight that social and economic class imposes on young love is a well-worn theme in literature. “In the Orchard the Swallows” revisits this theme in modern-day Pakistan. In this Peter Hobbs’ novel a young boy from a lesser class becomes the victim. The plot is simple. A young boy is infatuated by a young girl whose father is a powerful local political figure. She is attracted to him and during an adult party she slips away to meet him in his father’s beautiful orchard. She decides to stay with him to she the orchard come alive at dawn. They both fall asleep. She is discovered. The boy goes to see the father to explain and is whipped. He retaliates by disarming the father and whipping him. The boy is immediately sent to prison. The narrative is conveyed as he subsequently writes an explanatory love letter for her during his post-prison recovery. He does not know where she is and he has lost his family as well.

This story is not about plot. Its beauty is in the feel it creates. Young love is a universal experience as is the beauty of nature. The surprising element is the time period. It could have been early 20th Century as small villages slowly change. There is currency however. A passing reference is made to the war in Afghanistan and by implication, the Taliban.

The novel leaves unanswered whether the boy was punished because of this innocent love between classes or because of his physical confrontation. There is no mention of the young girl’s history, and it would make an interesting companion novel.

This novella was well received. His first novel “The Short Day Dying” was shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel Award. This novel is worth your time.

A Long Way From Verona

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A Long Way From Verona, book reviews, books, english literature, Fiction, Girls Literature, Jane Gardam, Novels, Reading Suggestions, Young Adult Fiction, Young adult literature

Neither “A Long Way From Verona”, nor “Crusoe’ Daughter”, which I reviewed on February 4, 2014, are considered to be Jane Gardam’s best novels. It is hard to tell.

The backdrop for the story is England during World War II. The blitz is ongoing in London and Cissie Comberbach has been sent to a country public school to be kept safe. She is not a principal character but one of a group of young girls of middle school age at Cleveland Sands who are each growing up in their own way. Jessica Vye is the principal character. Her family’s living standard has declined since moving to Cleveland Sands. Her father has become the local pastor of socialist leaning and her mother is endlessly busy with the church. Jessica is loved, but there is distance between children and parents at that age and time. She is intent on becoming a writer after a guest at her school politely tells her she can write.

Ms. Gardam has a wonderful ear for young women and this is a lovely coming of age novel for girls interested in becoming writers. The war is deftly handled. It is told from a child’s perspective. It exists, but it is not pervasive. There were villages where life went on. Nearly normal, save for air raids, children’s lives were protected by their parents. As in “Crusoe’s Daughter” distinction between classes is evident without weighing down the narrative.

A strong element is the value of a mentor to young people. After substantial time and effort Jessica writes a story which she believes will be the best in her class. In volume it dwarfs the other stories. Pride can be a distraction. Her teacher, whom she dislikes, tells her that anything you write that you really like should be ripped up. She judges the story the worst in the class. Criticism that might have validity given too harshly and too early may be needlessly discouraging. Fortunately, the more senior school mistress manages to undo the damage and helps Jessica mature socially and as a writer.

“A Long Way From Verona” is a story well told by a gifted writer. It is a good choice for middle school girls, even while being enjoyable for adults.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane

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Children's Literature, Fiction, Literature, Neil Gaiman, The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Women's Literature, Young Adult Fiction, Young adult literature

Pure joy is the high-pitched giggles of toddlers at a playground. The universe for children is immediate and small. A big bang in their social fabric unleashes an expansion of imaginary fears that parallel reality. Subsumed in a black hole of adulthood, memories are rekindled upon a return to the childhood home.

This is the case in Neil Gaiman’s novel “The Ocean at the End of the Lane.” A middle-aged man returns to his English countryside childhood home and visits the Hempstocks, neighbor’s farm where he found comfort and mythical protection from real and imagined forces when he was a boy. The list of Mr. Gaiman’s other works at the outset of the book categorizes his works as “For Adults” and “For All Ages”. I would place this novel in the latter category, although he might not. The novel shares the wonderful imagination of well written children’s literature. It could be scary, but not as dark as Grimm. As an adult retrospective of the childhood period of the narrator’s life, it transforms childhood imagination into philosophy about the universe that might border on the “Twilight Zone”. This would be lost on readers before late elementary school, but could invite worthwhile questions. It would have loved to have this book illustrated.

The story is namelessly told in first person. A lonely bookish boy of seven has a birthday party to which no one comes. His parents are having an economic downturn and take on borders. The boy loses his room to a border, who soon is found dead. The boy is taken to the Hempstock’s to stay while the police investigate. The Hempstocks are 3 generations of well-drawn women who live alone. The youngest, eleven year old Lettie, befriends and protects him like an elder sister. She introduces him to the pond on the farm, which she says is an ocean. At home, the boy’s life is unsettled by a live-in nanny with extracurricular activities, while his mom is at work. He wants his parents to replace her, but his father demands otherwise. Her evil is more than human, altering the relationship with his father. The Hempstocks are goddesses as old as time who become his protectors. Upon returning to their farm as an adult, he asks after Lettie, who still has not returned from Australia after having been put in the ocean.

Mr. Gaiman possesses a child’s mind. Untethered by adult constraints, he fashions a work that can be read by readers of all ages. Water seeks its level. Readers will do the same with this enjoyable novel.

Crusoe’s Daughter

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book reviews, Booker Short List, books, British fiction, Costa Prize, Crusoe's Daughter, english literature, Fiction, Jane Gardam, Literature, Novels, Orange Finalist, Robinson Crusoe, Whitbread Prize, Women's Literature, Writers, Writing, Young Adult Fiction, Young adult literature

There is a quote from Maureen Corrigan of NPR on the book cover of “Crusoe’s Daughter”: “Gardam is the best British writer you’ve never heard of.” She is the recipient of many literary awards: twice awarded the Costa (formerly the Whitbread) for best novel of the year (“The Queen of the Tamborine”; “The Hollow Land”); short listed for the Booker Prize (“God on the Rocks”); a finalist for the Orange Prize (“Old Filth”); various New York Times Notable Book of the Year awards, among others. What drew me to read this classic work of British literature, was that it did not receive any awards. It was the author’s favorite work.

It is an old fashion tale, not now in vogue. On one level, it is the life story of child orphaned to her spinster aunts and relatives in the Midlands of England during the first half of the 20th Century. On another level, it mentally parallels the vicissitudes of Crusoe’s marooned existence. Polly Flint, a sheltered child of a Yorkshire seaman, finds company in literature. Her faux realism and rejection of romanticism is due to absence not experience. She gravitates from agnosticism to religion, following Crusoe’s pathway and seemingly replicating the life of some of her aunts. Ms. Gardam drew Polly Flint’s character from her mother’s life, but the novel has a third level. Through Polly Flint, the book is a review of the English novel. Daniel Defoe’s novel was mass market literature of its day and was not considered to be literature in the classical sense. Ms. Flint is an ardent defender.

Jane Gardam is a fabulous writer. The characters are as well drawn as Dickens. The language is descriptive without excess. For me the latter is a problem for many writers. Ms. Gardam has perfect pitch. It is vintage writing that compares favorable with George Eliot, Jane Austen, and Dickens, although for a different era. Ms. Gardam plots a story-line along diverging paths that avoids sentimentality. There is realism in her choices that parallels history and Ms. Flint’s perspective.

While an excellent choice for anyone who cherishes good writing, it might particularly appeal to those who read women’s literature. It most certainly can be read by children from Middle School onward, although it may be too uneventful for those not interested in period pieces. The book can be funny at times, but it would be a suicidal choice for young boys who do not have a literary bent.

Specifically I would recommend this novel to those who want to learn how to write well. If you are not in this category, read it anyway. I am adding it to my short list of best reads.

The Elegance of the Hedgehog

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book reviews, books, Fiction, French literature, Literature, Muriel Barbery, novel, Parisian literature, The Elegance of the Hedgehog, Young adult literature

I struggled with Muriel Barbery’s novel through the first 125 pages. Like “You Deserve Nothing’ it is based in Paris. A concierge and a precocious twelve-year-old resident in a bourgeois apartment each share their ruminations on class, classical literature, art, philosophy and the meaning of life. The concierge masks her superior intelligence for fear of rising above her station, while the child, filled with the angst of an introvert recoils from her family.

The novel is structured like a personal journal, each imparting their “profound” thoughts sequentially. The different font and titling of the chapters helps distinguish who is the narrator.

The arrival of a new resident, a truly wealthy Japanese man, provides the novel with some plot. Both the concierge and the girl find solace in the simplicity of Japanese culture and his unpretentious intellect and demeanor. This is not a book for francophiles.

The prose is not distinguishing and the wisdom is commonplace. It received good reviews, but even as young adult literature it falls short for me. Unlike “You Deserve Nothing” which captures the tension and difficulties of teenagers and expats, I do not know why a young adult would find this novel interesting. Perhaps a pre-teen who aims to impress may be drawn to 12 year-old Paloma.