tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8642452870984628732024-03-04T22:04:18.478-08:00My Friend the Readersome of my thoughts about books and readingThe Reading Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12215564945059615664noreply@blogger.comBlogger93125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-864245287098462873.post-11366602998113252792020-08-26T18:56:00.004-07:002020-08-26T18:58:02.029-07:00Booker Longlist #5: The Shadow King by Maaza Mengiste<p>Continuing the Booker journey, it is becoming clearer to me that this is one of the strongest longlists in years. Each new book confirms that the chosen thirteen for the most part are stellar examples of literary fiction, works that explore the unexplored or tell similar stories that delve into different themes. And while most don't seem to over experiments in form or structure, the writing itself has been breathtaking at times.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5s5eFFAb8Y9mfBwTvkpVIOqaTgvV8iFpvymxtPF98qPRTL_hEiE3mIT38O_ly23e5UI49dOWMx2XEoa71UOSycM4T3YdF79oPNofIBTpNeSAgfEK2g5OfOKkacA-v_8qCKUn4Fi6gN7GY/s1824/71PmVAhLusL.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1824" data-original-width="1200" height="410" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5s5eFFAb8Y9mfBwTvkpVIOqaTgvV8iFpvymxtPF98qPRTL_hEiE3mIT38O_ly23e5UI49dOWMx2XEoa71UOSycM4T3YdF79oPNofIBTpNeSAgfEK2g5OfOKkacA-v_8qCKUn4Fi6gN7GY/w270-h410/71PmVAhLusL.jpg" width="270" /></a></div><p>The Shadow King by Maaza Mengiste is no exception. Taking place during the Italian invasion and occupation of Ethiopia in the 1930s, Mengiste crafts a beautifully written story that recentres the forces of Ethiopian resistance to include the role and voices of women soldiers, who played a vital role in pushing back against and eventually defeating the Italian invasion. Although the Shadow King gives important voice to the Ethopian emperor, Haile Selassie, and his loyal officer, Kidane, the most significant protagonists are the women, Aster (Kidane's wife) and Hirut (their maid), who are eager to take up arms and support the anti-Italian forces beyond traditional roles of nursing the wounded men. It is Hirut who comes up with the ingenious plan of disguising a peasant as the Emperor (the real one exiled in England) to help mobilize Ethiopian forces against the occupying army, whose willingness to commit war crimes had worked to demoralize resistance. </p><p>On a purely sentence level, The Shadow King may be the most beautifully crafted work on the longlist (so far) and that is saying a lot, especially with the weight of Hilary Mantel's prose right there. There were moments were I was left breathless with the power of the imagery and feeling expressed in Mengiste's words. Plotted elegantly, The Shadow King does not linger in its prose, even though it could. Instead, it moves quickly, back and forth between the protagonists, each plotting key strategic decisions in the battle between Italian imperial forces and the resistance to its colonial intentions. If there was one fault in this book, however, it is the number of perspectives. Besides Aster and Hirut, significant amount of time is spent with Kidane, Selassie, the Italian commander Carlo Fucelli and his Jewish photographer (Ettore, whose backstory in itself could have been a novel). This broadened the scope of the events, but also lost some focus for the larger goals Mengiste is trying to accomplish.</p><p>Despite this, however, this is one of the more important novels on the longlist. It provides a unique perspective to historic events we don't know enough about. Add to this the incredible level of writing, I feel that The Shadow King may very well be one of the favourites to take the prize. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><p></p>The Reading Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12215564945059615664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-864245287098462873.post-13899895460610379182020-08-17T19:54:00.002-07:002020-08-17T19:55:01.208-07:00Booker Longlist #4: The New Wilderness by Diane Cook<p>I am not the only avid reader that has become somewhat exhausted with the genre of dystopian fiction. There are still really thoughtful and unique contributions to that kind of literature, but the prospect of climate catastrophe and inchoate fascism at the doorstep makes reading about the end game of our trajectory less appealing. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4umkdJNPjqtEIvxcYRRSZe5H7qr3lVuaERW5YRhqgQVMjJpgjwCfDg6W6picWIJr_c3LsqE1a-1-jHGLV-5nQyvTsKnNuGZ8adyoblbg2ZEjpc3Ec4jUeVH96dowMyvRJGQD8sPV9n_Pr/s400/48836769.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="263" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4umkdJNPjqtEIvxcYRRSZe5H7qr3lVuaERW5YRhqgQVMjJpgjwCfDg6W6picWIJr_c3LsqE1a-1-jHGLV-5nQyvTsKnNuGZ8adyoblbg2ZEjpc3Ec4jUeVH96dowMyvRJGQD8sPV9n_Pr/w210-h320/48836769.jpg" width="210" /></a></div><p></p><p>Yet with the Booker Prize longlisting the debut novel of Diane Cook, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48836769-the-new-wilderness?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=OHOojpJMzd&rank=1">The New Wilderness</a>, I was compelled to throw myself into the thick of a world, not that different than ours, imperiled and expiring. It was a bit of a rough start, a slow introduction to a group of pioneers of sorts choosing to leave the growing poisonous cities to fine requiem in the midst of a wild, unpopulated small tract of land. Modern amenities useless, the small community quickly adapted to past ways of survival, resorting to hunting without guns, foraging without agriculture, nomadic instead of stable. Although we had not arrived here by way of natural disaster or plague, the setting still felt somewhat derivative to the likes of <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20170404-station-eleven?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=usntVvlUTl&rank=1">Station Eleven</a>, with Emily St. John Mandel ironically blurbing the book. </p><p>But there is a shift at some point. Without giving away spoilers, Cook decides to dive deeply into the idea of motherhood and its significance in a world where familial relations are loose or crumbling. The two central characters, Bea and Agnes, mother and daughter, are the perspectives that shape our understanding in this world, and while survival is an ever present constant, it is the relationship they have with one another and their feelings about being mother and daughter that shape their desires and actions. </p><p>There are bumpy moments at the beginning, I was not immediately captured by the voice of Bea, who provides the initial eyes into this world. But as I slowly grew accustomed to the pacing and plotting and the prose that felt accessible but definitely not sparse or pedestrian, I became entranced by the questions Cook is trying to grapple with. How would familial bonds, that appear so universal as motherhood, react to a world where the threads of those bonds grew weak and challenged by other loyalities, other relationships that became more important. How would those still placing meaning to familial bonds react to the changes to these social relationships that no longer carry the same importance? How would ideas and concepts of motherhood transform as the basic structures of society broke down?</p><p>I truly appreciate when fiction becomes a tool to explore larger questions of the human experience and although it doesn't always work in other books, The New Wilderness manages to pull it off. It is an engrossing read, beautifully written, well plotted, and with this huge injection of thematic considerations that don't feel forced. <br /><br />A bit of an update of my Booker quest. I have finished (or abandoned) two others: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45895362-how-much-of-these-hills-is-gold?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=oathdfnDr3&rank=1">How Much of These Hills is Gold</a> (very good) and <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36479936-this-mournable-body?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=2UhUOjccLm&rank=1">The Mournable Body</a> (less good), so I have read 7 in total. It's a very strong list and I have managed to really like a couple of books others appear to have mixed feelings about (this one and <a href="http://myfriendthereader.blogspot.com/2020/08/booker-longlist-3-such-fine-age-by.html">Such a Fun Age</a>). I am on schedule to finish the list before the shortlist is announced, which is pretty awesome!</p>The Reading Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12215564945059615664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-864245287098462873.post-74066279736028632722020-08-07T19:07:00.003-07:002020-08-08T05:42:51.887-07:00Booker Longlist #3: Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid<p>Sometimes it is best to have low expectations for a book so
that when you get to it you can be </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">pleasantly surprised. That was definitely
the case with my experience reading <i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43923951-such-a-fun-age">Such a Fun Age</a></i> by Kiley Reid, a
book that has been, in my opinion, unfairly maligned for daring to be longlisted
for the Booker Prize. A more commercial and straightforward novel, championed
by the likes of Reese Witherspoon, many were gobsmacked why a book with such
pedestrian prose, a beach read of sorts, could supplant the likes of <i>Hamnet</i>
or <i>Utopian Avenue </i>and compete for an award known for embracing experimental
and edgy works of fiction.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBbetEi3jPF9Wo0LIcDph7UQMalMcNCfxnkPMdop1QmolEGGLK70bAvqDCTZIBtJ5fcOrt1HH8H6pbybPKTFTmgTwKk5GVIW9vJjl_aBj55NiDTsfnsgMPF2B4nz9BhjQbZ4zLY4YKbBhD/s2048/91TwkWWSsiL.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1357" height="410" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBbetEi3jPF9Wo0LIcDph7UQMalMcNCfxnkPMdop1QmolEGGLK70bAvqDCTZIBtJ5fcOrt1HH8H6pbybPKTFTmgTwKk5GVIW9vJjl_aBj55NiDTsfnsgMPF2B4nz9BhjQbZ4zLY4YKbBhD/w271-h410/91TwkWWSsiL.jpg" width="271" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><i>Such A Fun Age </i>begins with an upsetting encounter. Our
central protagonist, a twenty-five-year-old African American woman, Emira, has taken
a child she babysits to a local grocery store. While there, she is accused by another
customer and security guard of kidnapping the child and is forced to call the
parents to recuse herself from the situation. So begins a captivating story
that jumps back and forth between Emira and the child’s white mother, Alix. The
latter is eager to make things right after the encounter, embracing Emira in often
cringy, protective and patronizing ways. Emira, on the other hand, focuses on navigating
the various white-spaces that make up her life, always figuring out how to
respond to the white characters in those spaces who make assumptions about who
she is and what she wants. Although Alix’s awkward attempts to befriend Emira
beyond the employment relationship remain uncomfortable, they are totally thrown
off when a common person in their lives means that past secrets of Alix’s past
threaten to undermine the image she has created as a progressive liberal
professional.</div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Although <i>Such a Fun Age</i> is an unlikely choice to be
longlisted for the Booker and is unlikely to win, it nonetheless impressed me,
both with how it dealt with timely and relevant issues (maybe the most
zeitgisty book of the longlist) and how captivating it was to read (or in this
case I listened to the excellent audiobook). It certainly is a more accessible
commercial novel. The prose is breezy in a summer beach read kind of way, but
it does not stop Reid from taking on important themes about the African American
experience. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The book was released on the last day of 2019, before George
Floyd, before the term “Karen” became ubiquitous, and before American society
and beyond began the American self-reflection about how white privilege and
racism play themselves out in the experiences of ordinary people. In this sense,
<i>Such A Fun Age </i>accidently feels incredibly on the nose for what’s going
on in the United States right now, but it also speaks to the reality of African
American experiences navigating “white spaces” that is more than just a 2020
phenomena. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Reid’s debut novel may not do everything perfectly, but for me
it has captured this experience in profound ways, giving us a relatively banal,
ordinary, likeable protagonist who must every day perform her acceptable “Blackness”
in these white spaces, who must internally process but externally ignore minor
and major mircoraggressions that her white employer and boyfriend don’t even recognize
as problematic, who must choose whether to affirm her agency or not, knowing
that doing so carries risks and repercussions that the white characters will
never understand. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Whether this book is everyone’s cup of tea (clearly it’s
not), I’m personally happy it made the longlist. It is a book of the moment, an
important book, a book that has been and will be widely read. Looking forward
to having deeper conversations in the next two months about the merits of the
pages Reid has created. <o:p></o:p></p>The Reading Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12215564945059615664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-864245287098462873.post-17975999285502139142020-08-02T11:40:00.000-07:002020-08-02T11:40:00.292-07:00Booker Prize Longlist: #2: Apeirogon by Colum McCann<div>So I will once again try to read the entire Booker Prize longlist that was released last year. I had already read Hilary Mantel's massive tome THE MIRROR AND THE LIGHT, and have followed this up with Colum McCann's novel APEIROGON, which provides an intimate account of two real life protagonists, an Israeli and Palestinian, who both have lost their daugthers to the conflict and have taken their sadness into the peace movement. Here are my thoughts.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSpwqwSqV_lwYFK6H8_HDC_ThTj3W3ptignEk8wAxtUbsgbvtZtXDFjNQFycNk-olp-Ze2I4E8PVaM8wMyhQinlFfxt_sZ-yTvpfR57uPUXNfZ_aXuolpFL1rK9XMNQDk5iR-MYg5gx8xK/s400/50732671._SX0_SY0_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="400" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSpwqwSqV_lwYFK6H8_HDC_ThTj3W3ptignEk8wAxtUbsgbvtZtXDFjNQFycNk-olp-Ze2I4E8PVaM8wMyhQinlFfxt_sZ-yTvpfR57uPUXNfZ_aXuolpFL1rK9XMNQDk5iR-MYg5gx8xK/w256-h256/50732671._SX0_SY0_.jpg" width="256" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Despite offering a formally balanced account of the Middle East conflict, focusing on the tragic stories of two fathers, one Palestinian (Bassam) and one Israeli (Rami), each having lost a daughter in the conflict, Colum McCann’s celebrated APEIROGON minces no words that the ultimate culprit, the ultimate villain in his story, is the Occupation of Palestinian lands by Israeli forces. McCann doesn’t hammer us over the head with this point, but rather lets his protagonists get us there, who repeatedly recall every detail that surrounded the deaths of their children, to the point of forensic precision, a way for them to understand what mechanically has happened to their child so that they can begin to grapple with the why. Bassam and Rami, who could easily have descended into unfettered anger and desire for vengeance, instead become voices for peace, working together to tell their stories both inside their borders and internationally, exposing the humiliation and brutality associated with occupation and that in the end there is no peace and security that comes out of this, only victimhood across both peoples.</div><div><br /></div><div>There is no question that McCann is a wonderful writer and the story he tells in 1000 chapters (many just a sentence long, some a paragraph, some longer) is a glimpse into the conflict that may reach audiences McCann can access and others cannot. My issues with this book, however, are not in quality as much as what it represents. Despite the occasional flourishes of flowery prose, it reads like narrative non fiction, almost journalistic in quality, and as such as a work of fiction it worked less well for me, lacked the magic that fiction can create.</div><div><br /></div><div>Before delving into that, I do want to grapple with some other issues that others have brought up. </div><div><br /></div><div>The first is the issue of cultural appropriation and others have sought to call McCann out for writing a story that is others to tell. This issue has been much debated in literary circles, especially as communities who have had their stories told to them have challenged who is constructing the narratives of their histories, who is exposing their intimacies. These concerns are legitimate and I don’t believe that dismissing it with the quip “people can write whatever they want” has merits, since having McCann write this story means that he does take a spot away from another author. A publisher could choose to publish a story of a less known Palestinian author or a well established commodity like McCann and they are likely to choose the latter for commercial reasons. That said, I’m not opposed to authors telling other’s stories, the question is always whether they do their homework, are sensitive to their perspective as an outsider, and don’t resort to stereotypes. APEIROGON is definitely no AMERICAN DIRT in this respect. McCann elevates the real voices of Bassam and Rami, he relies heavily on testimonies and researched texts. It’s a thoughtful and respectful telling of others stories and as such this would not be a criticism I have of the book. That said, we should not lose sight of the larger publishing implications of having McCann tell this story rather than someone who may have more intimate connection to the subject matter but will never find a publisher to tell their story.</div><div><br /></div><div>The second issue, which is the huge elephant in the room, is the accusation of sexual misconduct that has bee levelled toward McCann. Roxanne Gay and others have brought this up on twitter and it’s a charge that should not be treated lightly. This is an accusation of course, not proven, and whether it should play any role in how we appreciate art is heavily debated. I’m personally done with the act of separating artists and art though. Fiction is supposed to, among other things, promote empathy and if you go out and behave in ways that are antithetical to empathy, then yes it will colour my view of the text as a reader. I found out of the accusations just as I began the book, and admittedly it did leave a sour taste in my mouth. That may not be fair to the novel, but it is what it is. </div><div><br /></div><div>Despite this, I did manage to appreciate the text and it was moving. However, I am still not convinced this is a work of fiction or if there are moments of fiction, those are considerably weaker and persuasive than the more fact based accounts of Bassam and Rami’s story. I admittedly listened to the audiobook (narrated very well by McCann), which meant that I could not see the text and this may have impacted how I interpreted it. From the beginning McCann acknowledges that this story was largely based on accounts provided by Bassam and Rami and in fact the middle section are direct transcripts of their stories. McCann insists that this is the base but built upon it is his fiction. I found his fiction hard to find and when it emerged it was not the least compelling part of the book. Most of the text appears to be accounts of the protagonists’ life experiences and then the days and weeks surrounding the deaths of their daughters (which would have been directly from the protagonists accounts). Interspersed are factoids about various things (the history of explosives, the history of rubber bullets and tear gas, the history of Israel’s creation) that read as encyclopedic entries rather than accounts through McCann’s voice. There are occasional philosophical ruminations but again, is this fiction? McCann’s decision to structure his book in these very short chapters also means that he never lets his own prose get much momentum, and when it does it quickly comes to an end, cut off by another factoid or account of Bassam and Rami. In the end, I found the most compelling writing to be the non-fiction bits and was annoyed whenever McCann interrupted it with his own voice, his own efforts to insert his fiction. </div><div><br /></div><div>If this had sold itself as a work of narrative non-fiction the rating would have been higher (a 4 or 4.5) but it insists it is a work of fiction and as such I judge it as that and it frankly does not work as well as a novel. It never had the magic that we get from fiction, the poetry, the enveloping prose that lets us examine the truths of the human experience and not just facts. APEIROGON, unfortunately, is a greatly flawed novel because it failed to produce that magic.</div>The Reading Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12215564945059615664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-864245287098462873.post-87165173527221703902019-09-08T18:41:00.000-07:002019-09-08T18:41:33.733-07:00Olive Strikes Again...A Kitteridge SequelThank you for the publisher for providing me an advance copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhycYYq98Lw5JOzKSZxSGa1CkjuIswqt9_kcUGSgsrfHhOZS9RskxgBE8dIu9odcqUSiR2pN39dFYS-1z__fgUb8sAUfpi-CKIUJBuTlGADi0yGZBRZMx1SXZLrbVFdY-lLqE5lvTNjPY3b/s1600/9780812996548.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="296" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhycYYq98Lw5JOzKSZxSGa1CkjuIswqt9_kcUGSgsrfHhOZS9RskxgBE8dIu9odcqUSiR2pN39dFYS-1z__fgUb8sAUfpi-CKIUJBuTlGADi0yGZBRZMx1SXZLrbVFdY-lLqE5lvTNjPY3b/s320/9780812996548.jpg" width="210" /></a><br />
Olive Kitteridge has become an iconic figure in American literature, her vituperative, downer personality reverberating to a Pulitzer Prize some ten years ago and several Emmy awards when Strout's first book with her as its star was made into a fantastic (and fantastically cast) HBO miniseries. Despite being the most unlikable of characters, someone who verbally abuses those who love her and sees little joys in a life impacted by tragedy and likely mental health issues, Kitteridge still manages to engender sympathy.<br />
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In the follow up to the classic, Strout once again structures it as many interlaced stories, some with Olive at the centre and others at the periphery, but even more than the first she is the centre. As life as a widow takes hold and the unwinnable trek toward death take hold, Olive begins to consider her life and her attitudes, her treatment of others, her now dead husband Henry and her somewhat estranged son, and she begins to self-reflect and take responsibility for her bitterness and what it must have done to others. Despite those she has crossed continue to be skeptical about her, she manages to grow, find love, and try to find meaning in old and new friendships. As we approach the twilight of her life, Olive remains cantankerous but also more rounded, a better person, and we are happy to have journeyed with her as she has grown.<br />
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Strout remains a remarkable conveyor of the intimate meanings of life, taking the small moments in life and uncovering them for their profundity. Her writing is economical, no wasted word, but also takes its time to slowly reveal the secrets below the surface of the ordinary life, how difficult ordinariness can be, with its suffering, its loneliness, but also how wonderful and rewarding even the smallest joy can bring to the mundane. Strout hits it out of the park again and hopefully this one will not disappoint the loyal followers of Olive Kitteridge.<br />
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Olive, Again comes out on October 19th.The Reading Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12215564945059615664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-864245287098462873.post-42652423801038905532019-09-03T18:25:00.001-07:002019-09-03T18:25:04.932-07:00My Booker Shortlist ThoughtsToday, the Booker Prize announced its shortlist, winnowing down its Booker dozen 13 longlisted titles to 6 finalists, which are:<br />
<br />
Margaret Atwood (Canada), "<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42975172-the-testaments?ac=1&from_search=true">The Testaments</a>"<br />
Lucy Ellmann (USA/UK), "<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43412920-ducks-newburyport">Ducks, Newburyport</a>"<br />
Bernardine Evaristo (UK), "<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41081373-girl-woman-other?ac=1&from_search=true">Girl, Woman, Other</a>"<br />
Chigozie Obioma (Nigeria), "<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35003282-an-orchestra-of-minorities?ac=1&from_search=true">An Orchestra of Minorities</a>"<br />
Salman Rushdie (UK/India), "<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43811212-quichotte?ac=1&from_search=true">Quichotte</a>"<br />
Elif Shafak (UK/Turkey), "<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43706466-10-minutes-38-seconds-in-this-strange-world?ac=1&from_search=true">10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World</a>"<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjU7-on2S46H5jAeTu3MfCUfDnCsamEDV5FksIB9V56Ut8id_W72gktR0Cj9esHBVR-x_a_97bgATyeh9segW65ib5yhBtrLsm-CN4Z5Soo4CvZJtC6gn_JpA5zJzZErJS2EW8FJxvr_4R/s1600/36148864_303.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="394" data-original-width="700" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjU7-on2S46H5jAeTu3MfCUfDnCsamEDV5FksIB9V56Ut8id_W72gktR0Cj9esHBVR-x_a_97bgATyeh9segW65ib5yhBtrLsm-CN4Z5Soo4CvZJtC6gn_JpA5zJzZErJS2EW8FJxvr_4R/s320/36148864_303.jpg" width="320" /></a>I managed to guess 4 of the 6 (even though I have only read 2 of them, although 6.5 of the longlist). That said, despite being relatively accurate I read the list and my heart sank as the strongest book from the longlist, Valeria Luiselli's <a href="http://myfriendthereader.blogspot.com/2019/03/documenting-diaspora-lost-children.html">Lost Children Archive</a>, did not make it. A remarkable and technically brilliant look at the migration crises of the Americas, Luiselli's book is an accomplishment that soars both in its meticulous plotting but also how profound and originally she tackles a topic filled with political meaning and whose significance at the present time is immense. I really hoped that it would make the shortlist and possibly win, because it is a book so many more need to read. It is a book that needed the attention that winning the Booker would bring.<br />
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On the other end, however, are two books that needed no recognition to garner attention. Margaret Atwood's sequel to The Handmaid's Tale, The Testaments, is already garnering enormous buzz leading up to its release next week. Bolstered by the award winning television series, Atwood's book is going to be a massive best seller, no award needed to get it in people's hands. Similarly, Salman Rushdie's Quichotte will sell briskly, especially with some praising it as his return to form. Unfortunately, as one of the two I have read, I can't see this as any return to form. Rushdie is a solid writer, but after reading about a third of this retelling of Don Quixote, it felt like a formulaic redoing of his past novels, a bit too cute, too meta, pretension oozing from every sentence. This is not Rushdie "at the top of his game" as the chair of the Booker jury suggests it is.<br />
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I was also a bit surprised that Chigozie Obioma's An Orchestra of Minorities made it. His debut novel, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22875103-the-fishermen">The Fisherman</a>, was a wonderful tale of innocent youth being destroyed by fate and was rightfully shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2015. However, Orchestra was a much more tedious reading experience, using narrative devices that became grating if not pointless. At times beautiful prose almost saves it but it was too much of a slog to be saved by a few elegant passages.<br />
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Of the three others, Lucy Ellman's Ducks, Newportbury sounds the most exciting. A 1000 page, 8 sentence stream of consciousness that delves into the mind of a Midwestern housewife's thoughts about a contemporary American falling apart into chaos and division. I am also eager to pick up Bernardine Evaristo's Girl, Woman, Other, which delves into the diverseness of the black experience in the UK. The one I am least likely to pick up, however, despite it sounding vaguely alluring is 10 Minutes 38 Seconds.<br />
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So in many ways this is a good list. Ducks and Girl seem like the most likely to win. They are accomplished writers who may have hit their stride. It is unlikely that Rushdie or Atwood win their second Booker but I would not be totally shocked if Atwood somehow managed to win. That said, some of the reviews that just leaked today (embargo over I guess) suggest it is more literary thriller than the kind of experimentation with form and style that Booker juries look to award. But who knows.<br />
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That said, I feel sadness that Lost Children Archive is not part of the conversation moving forward. It's the prize's and the reading public's loss but hopefully Luiselli will get her due eventually.<br />
<br />The Reading Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12215564945059615664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-864245287098462873.post-60257435200616475212019-04-09T23:48:00.000-07:002019-04-09T23:48:59.277-07:00Transcending Boundaries: FRESHWATER by Akwaeke EmeziLONGLIST FOR WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION<br />
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13 OF 16 BOOKS FROM LONGLIST READ<br />
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There is a saying that works of fiction worry less about facts and more about truth and I have always embraced this axiom when talking about why I am so drawn to the world of literary fiction, defending this form of art from the jaded few who scoff at what they deem fantasies. The best works of fiction, in fact, use fantasy to tell profound and meaningful insights into the human experience, offering us a window into the meanings of life that non-fiction forms aren't always able to. And on occasion a great novel is able to tap into the a question of the moment, at the heart of the zeitgeist, and offer readers a more compelling and convincing portrait than the most well argued polemic or essay ever can.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuhEgOFUnsr5dvXY5meYfL5Uh3I8MdWLKMa_PsDwgPwf9Slk5ToY4ewzWVrsJpruSfRW4IBIq3Y0cVoC0J9b87McG_AKF9zGJpW99rpEDJOp4HPEkO3y3jdvIwDezhTR-yDzFeuUocbasF/s1600/Freshwater.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="305" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuhEgOFUnsr5dvXY5meYfL5Uh3I8MdWLKMa_PsDwgPwf9Slk5ToY4ewzWVrsJpruSfRW4IBIq3Y0cVoC0J9b87McG_AKF9zGJpW99rpEDJOp4HPEkO3y3jdvIwDezhTR-yDzFeuUocbasF/s320/Freshwater.jpg" width="205" /></a>In many ways, the exhilarating debut novel <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35412372-freshwater">Freshwater</a>, by Nigerian author Akwaeke Emezi, offers just that, a book we desperately need, a story so intimate and personal to Emezi but that offers a glimpse into an experience society and its occupants need to hear. As troglodyte charlatans like Jordan Peterson try to shame and marginalize those challenging gender dichotomies, Emezi offers a magical and metaphysical, yet also incredibly visceral and corporeal, tale of the how those breaking from societal norms must overcome pathologizing and othering to construct identities of self that reflect who they actually are.<br />
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The story centres on Ada, but is largely told through the voices and perspectives of godlike consciousnesses that live inside her brain, a cacophony of external voices that try to control Ada's actions, her sexuality, her will to live, as she journeys to the United States to study and live. Emotionally detached and sexually uninterested, she relies on these consciousnesses to play active roles in her relationships with others, determining her sexual preferences, her most intimate desires, abdicating her own role in these most personal of things. Unsure who she is, what form she should take, Ada lives a life filled with loneliness and depression, resorting to self-harm and self-imposed isolation, until she is able to determine what identities are most representative.<br />
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Emezi identifies as non-gender conforming and has described this book as largely autobiographical. But unlike many works of auto fiction, which frankly I often find boring and difficult to tell the fiction part, Emezi uses metaphysical forces and the flourish of the magical to explore the journey they went through, a device not only entrancing while reading but also one that works as an incredibly astute device in describing how ones gender identity is shaped through prolonged struggle between multiple internal voices. But Emezi cuts sharply against attempts to pathologize this process as mental disorder, placing it rather in the realm of a religious experience, spiritual creatures fighting for their control over Ada's body until Ada can take control and affirm the rightful place of all these voices within Ada's identity.<br />
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When this book was listed on the Women's Prize for Fiction longlist, it obviously generated <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-47442283">significant interest</a> but also controversy after one of the judges suggested that Emezi still identified as a woman when the book was submitted, something Emezi and their publisher have rebuked as inaccurate and misgendering. This has resulted in the Women's Prize deciding to <a href="https://www.thebookseller.com/news/womens-prize-longlist-akwaeke-emezi-longlist-gender-policy-980156">formalize a policy</a> on how it will treat the quickly changing terrain of gender moving forward. Hopefully, some of the reactionary backlash won't cause the Prize to conservatize its approach. The prize in many ways was set up to spotlight works from voices who had been marginalized because of gender and one hopes the prize will embrace this year's decision to include Emezi as the best approach.<br />
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That said, I also hope all the attention about who Emezi is does not take too much focus away from what is a remarkable text. Emezi has written a work of fiction filled with flowery and biting prose, easily devoured in only two days (which is very fast for me) that grapples with issues that are obviously reflective of Emezi's experiences but also speak to so much more, namely how we as readers, as a society, should understand the struggle and final outcome of those experiences. Complex in form and style, this book feels not like a debut but a grand accomplishment of a literary veteran. Certainly destined to greatness, I am hoping both this book and Emezi get the due they absolutely deserve.The Reading Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12215564945059615664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-864245287098462873.post-48628978102296427652019-03-27T07:03:00.000-07:002019-03-27T07:05:43.759-07:00Documenting Diaspora: LOST CHILDREN ARCHIVES by Valeria LuiselliLONGLIST FOR WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION<br />
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BOOK 9 OF 16 OF LONGLISTED TITLES<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuvXCAUtPY-HhgI_CAaq_vHxVvYeaXjY4kwhCIaNmljPWpU4EIar21szh2LDkZr-JCIKFv7zj6F2OPNxSIdKV5sYJsc5lR-ETtpstlqAmbZFhLjpbWU1Vhf2xX8-7tIm1YbiC9K7AaKcE4/s1600/812wPl04e-L.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1047" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuvXCAUtPY-HhgI_CAaq_vHxVvYeaXjY4kwhCIaNmljPWpU4EIar21szh2LDkZr-JCIKFv7zj6F2OPNxSIdKV5sYJsc5lR-ETtpstlqAmbZFhLjpbWU1Vhf2xX8-7tIm1YbiC9K7AaKcE4/s320/812wPl04e-L.jpg" width="209" /></a></div>
I had thought Colson Whitehead's <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42270835-the-nickel-boys?from_search=true">THE NICKEL BOYS</a> had firmly ranked itself as the top book of 2019 and lo and behold Valeria Luiselli came swooping in the very next novel and challenged for the crown with her absolutely remarkable L<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40245130-lost-children-archive?ac=1&from_search=true">OST CHILDREN ARCHIVES</a>, a timely depiction of the migrant crisis through the eyes of a family taking a road trip from New York City to Arizona.<br />
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In some ways this book is hard to describe or to summarize in a few sentences, because there is so much going on above and below the surface. Up front we are placed in car journeying south, a husband and wife in the front, in the back two children, each parent having brought a child to the marriage. Told through the voice of the wife, we quickly become attuned to the sad fate that waits the end of this road trip, a family whose time has come to an end, a relationship appearing to fail as each party discovered they want to explore different professional goals.<br />
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But this basic structure is filled in with the most astounding details that shape the story as it moves forward. The husband and wife met several years before working on a sound project that New York University had commissioned to record all the languages spoken in the city. The documenting of sound is given life, we are given exact details of the mechanics of the process as well as the meaning the partnership gives to what they are doing. As the project winds down, the husband and wife become determined to further the documentation of sounds, the former wanting to record the echos of now gone Apache warriors that once dominated the southwestern territories of the United States and the latter keen of giving voice (or recording voices) of child migrants caught in the harsh and merciless immigration system.<br />
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As the family travels south, both parents knowing their union may be at an end, the soundscape of the car ride is filled with the father's stories of Apache warriors, age inappropriate audiobooks the children must listen to and radio broadcasts of the migration crises, filled with stories of children who have attempted the border crossing on their own only to be detained and now face the prospect of deportation back to countries whose violence threatens their survival. The mother, whose New York friend has had her two daughters detained and have gone missing during a transfer from one institution to another, is now intent on not only documenting the lost children but finding these two girls.<br />
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Midway through the book, Luiselli shifts perspective, giving voice to the ten year old son, whose adolescent mind has absorbed and reinterpreted the stories coming from the front of the car, producing bizarre understandings of the reality that in itself is horrific and bizarre, but has become the normal for the adults. The boy slowly begins to recognize the impending end of his family and decides he must try to act in some way to impress his step mother, making a decision to run away with his five year old sister in search of the two lost girls his mother is intent on finding. The final third of the book becomes a harrowing descent into an unknown territory as the two children themselves become lost and their voices facing the threat of becoming another echo, their story another tragedy to be archived.<br />
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Luiselli is a skilled crafter of prose, her sentences filled with detail and specificity, yet beautiful in a precise but also meandering way. She captures intimate details of the characters lives and perspectives, all the while articulating the broad ideas and contemplations of the various narrators. But most striking here is her use of a plethora of literary texts, music, photography and other medium to inform the narrative, to provide background to the characters and also understand their actions as their world is about to change drastically. Each chapter begins with an opening of an archival box the family brings with them, containing works of literature, academic texts, musical scores, that not only tells their research project but become integrated into the plot of the book. She quotes passages, lyrics and even creates a fictional book within a book, <i>Elegies of Lost Children</i>, itself a literary allusion to other works that have sought to detail experiences of "voyages, journeying, migrating."<br />
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Some have criticized this technique as pretentious (see Mercedes Bookish Musings quite harsh and I'd contend unfair <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-7h9Ptyqng&t=429s">review</a>) and I will admit that in other cases I do get annoyed with writing that seeks to name drop works of literature for the sake of bragging, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18114449-an-unnecessary-woman">An Unnecessary Woman</a> comes to mind. But in this case, Luiselli is not trying to merely show off her incredible grasp of literature, but instead alludes and quotes to further the goals of the text in a way that is organic. As she notes in the Works Cited section after the text of the novel:<br />
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<i>...references to sources--textual, musical, visual, or audio-visual--are not meant as side notes, or ornaments that decorate the story, but function as intralinear markers that point to the many voices in the conversation that the book sustains with the past.</i><br />
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Far from showy decoration, these references become powerful components of the text, serving the narrative, acting as echoes from the past that the present must confront. Just one example that many have cited, is the first line from Cormac McCarthy's <i>The Road</i>, which is repeated often as the audiobook player manages to default to it whenever the mother turns on the radio:<br />
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<i>When he woke in the woods in the dark and cold of the night he’d reach out to touch the child sleeping beside him.</i><br />
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This chilling line is not there for show but serves as a foreshadow, as a constant worry of losing ones child, as a warning of potential dangers that await the young siblings. For me, this is not pretentious but an amazing sculpting of literary works to inform the narrative purposes of this novel. That Luiselli does this so well, uses these texts or other media to build an archive of this family that touches upon so much beyond their own compelling drama is one of the reasons this book is a thing of beauty.<br />
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A more concerning critique is the question of cultural appropriation and how Luiselli uses the story of the Apache to further her own story telling goals. Some have noted that this falls into the trope of treating indigenous voices as unable to speak for themselves, reinforces a narrative of victimhood and denies agency to a population that continues to rightfully insist on self-determination. In LOST CHILDREN ARCHIVE, Luiselli gives the father, a Mexican American, full control over the story of the Apache, which leaves us to consider the problematics associated with this narrative decision. However, I don't believe that Luiselli is oblivious to the problems with this decision. In several interviews she discusses issues of appropriation and who has the right to tell other's stories and notes that the heart of the LOST CHILDREN ARCHIVE is asking the question of where do we stand when archiving the experiences of political violence. In this case, the pressing political violence Luiselli wants to document is that of Central American child migrants and she uses analogous histories of disappearance that Native Americans have experienced to emphasize the echoing of experiences across large swaths of time. That she chooses to have those comparative experiences channeled through the voyeuristic eyes of the father is a question worth debating but a debate that I would imagine Luiselli welcomes. That other indigenous authors, such as Tommy Orange, have effusively praised the book's treatment of transcending historical experiences, signals to me that it is not so easy to condemn Luiselli's choice as a sloppy or disrespectful act of cultural appropriation.<br />
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If anything, I'd suggest the level of discussion and grappling with this text speaks to how powerful a statement it is. Beautifully written, densely packed with ideas, timely as ever, Luiselli has offered us an utterly important novel, one that asks how and where we stand as millions of migrants move around the world, looking for safe passage but met with cold rejection if not brutal violence. To have tackled such big issues through the lens of a modest road trip story speaks to how fantastic a writer Luiselli is. This will be one of the big books of 2019 and beyond and hope it gets its proper due critically and beyond.The Reading Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12215564945059615664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-864245287098462873.post-63007625675898126112019-03-24T06:41:00.000-07:002019-03-24T07:06:05.010-07:00You Can't Break Me: Colson Whitehead's The Nickel Boys<i>"The world had whispered its rules to him for his whole life and he refused to listen, hearing instead a higher order. The world continued to instruct: Do not love for they will disappear, do not trust for you will be betrayed, do not stand up for you will be swatted down. Still he heard those higher imperatives: Love and that love will be returned, trust in the righteous path and it will lead you to deliverance, fight and things will change. He never listened, never saw what was plainly in front of him, and now he had been plucked from the world altogether. The only voices were those of the boys below, the shouts and laughter and fearful cries, as if he floated in a bitter heaven."</i><br />
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<i> </i>Colson Whitehead, <i>The Nickel Boys</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqwPmUVhUR6Csmcn00UliSGC30KVAdoR1DHw3KS7DawhNqLYyoX-isDur7N4I3QsYb-7PDRjOaXIvAqTArR_wIx_0fOQIDQYO7S1Q8RNBNmFX6HoYXRpQB_Y2o2OB71gXlw04NA59ZcYWr/s1600/nickel+boys.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="298" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqwPmUVhUR6Csmcn00UliSGC30KVAdoR1DHw3KS7DawhNqLYyoX-isDur7N4I3QsYb-7PDRjOaXIvAqTArR_wIx_0fOQIDQYO7S1Q8RNBNmFX6HoYXRpQB_Y2o2OB71gXlw04NA59ZcYWr/s320/nickel+boys.jpg" width="211" /></a>Colson Whitehead has asserted himself as one of the preeminent English language literary figures of our times. Emerging as a talent with his wonderfully inventive debut, <i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16271.The_Intuitionist?ac=1&from_search=true">The Intuitionist</a></i>, he followed his first novel with a string of critical successful books, both fiction and non. It was the 2016 release of <i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30555488-the-underground-railroad?ac=1&from_search=true">The Underground Railroad</a></i>, a magical realist reimagining of the slave escape passage, that garnered him near-ubiquitous acclaim. Chosen as an Oprah book and winning the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the novel is now set for adaptation, with Oscar winning filmmaker Barry Jenkins (Moonlight) directing a six-part limited series.<br />
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With all this success, Whitehead could have been forgiven if his follow up novel, <i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42270835-the-nickel-boys?ac=1&from_search=true">The Nickel Boys</a></i>, was a bit of a letdown. Thankfully, there is no such ebb in quality here and Whitehead demonstrates that right now he's at the top of his game, giving us this haunting and tragic account of the final years of Jim Crow institutions in the the Deep South, institutions eager to give African American bodies as much pain as possible before the era of legal segregation was dismantled completely.<br />
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Elwood Curtis is a black teenager living in Georgia in the early 1960s who becomes inspired by the Civil Rights movement and the hope of desegregation it brought with it. Repeatedly listening to the one record his grandmother has, <i>Martin Luther King at Zion Hill</i>, Elwood embraces the emancipatory rhetoric of King and seeks to take advantage of the improved opportunities for African American youth. He studies assiduously and prepares to pursue post-secondary education when misfortune and bad timing results in his conviction for a crime he did not commit and his incarceration in a juvenile reformatory called the Nickel Academy.<br />
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Elwood, a shy and studious boy, must quickly re-evaluate his prospects while figuring out ways to expedite his release. He learns quickly that the stern hand of violent repression still guides the reformatory's philosophy and watches in horror as any stepping out of line can result in cruel torture or death at the hands of white tormentors, none of whom will ever face any consequences. Although he finds friendships and opportunities to avoid some of the worst punitive punishments of the reformatory, Elwood must decide whether his commitment to the justice that King advocated can allow him to silently bide his time and leave in tact the corrupt school so eager to sadistically punish black children.<br />
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A gifted story teller, Whitehead's prose is more toned down compared to some of his previous work, but in <i>The Nickel Boys </i>it is his plotting, the slow build up to an unforgettable climax, that is so engrossing. In particular, it is the revelation at the end, one that is so unexpected (despite knowing in advance that something special happens in the end and trying to guess what was going to happen) that leaves the reader shattered. <i>The Underground Railroad</i> also uses a twist at the end, one of an almost absurdist quality, one fitting to explain the genesis of Cora's fantastical journey. <i>The Nickel Boys</i>, however, uses this slight of hand even more powerfully. While much of the novel repeats the theme quite common in African American literary canon, and Whitehead's own work, of white supremacy's subjection of black bodies to abuse and violence, the end of <i>The Nickel Boys </i>demands of his protagonist to take agency for these abused bodies, to refuse to let their stories disappear in past or in this case the grounds surrounding the reformatory. While devastating when revealed, it also echoed the powerful message from Whitehead's speech after winning the National Book Award:<br />
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<i>They can't break me, because I'm a bad mother f****r</i><br />
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What is so amazing about Whitehead is his mastery of different voices, different techniques, different genres. Of the four books of his I have read, no two is the same, let alone similar. From the noir detective quality of <i>The Intuitionist</i>, to the embrace of horror and magical realism in <i>The Underground Railroad</i>, Whitehead appears comfortable writing anything. With <i>The Nickel Boys</i> we get another taste of Whitehead's talents, writing a more conventionally structured telling of Jim Crow that is gripping and powerful and incredibly timely at a time when more and more are shouting out loud to power: You can't break me.<br />
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*I received an Advanced Reader Copy of this book from Penguin Random House Canada in exchange for an honest review, which is above.<br /><br />**The Nickel Boys is set to be released in Canada in July 2019.<br />The Reading Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12215564945059615664noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-864245287098462873.post-61611129205845000882019-03-11T21:58:00.000-07:002019-03-11T21:58:26.368-07:00Don Winslow's The Border: An Unapologetic Condemnation of the War on Drugs<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifv-8UVBppwKOqC09T6Y-7PqwFyWZnwbVs6fD6J4zYvao684HYYEbKkc1iKUlxg21QKLfvRT7WbqdmX-dXgVJPsyQYsd6MIFzPJK-7gaB8BFxFniFhWYTeVdOAgi8VKgDUlfa6Rv8FhH7l/s1600/the+cartel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="648" data-original-width="430" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifv-8UVBppwKOqC09T6Y-7PqwFyWZnwbVs6fD6J4zYvao684HYYEbKkc1iKUlxg21QKLfvRT7WbqdmX-dXgVJPsyQYsd6MIFzPJK-7gaB8BFxFniFhWYTeVdOAgi8VKgDUlfa6Rv8FhH7l/s400/the+cartel.jpg" width="263" /></a>I thankfully discovered Don Winslow several years ago when the second leg of his now complete <a href="https://myfriendthereader.blogspot.com/2016/05/cocaine-corruption-and-cartel-don.html">The Cartel</a> trilogy, was released. I picked up the audiobook and was captured immediately, taken deep into the world of drugs and its traffickers, and the accompanying violence and corruption. Winslow writes in a compelling almost journalistic style, turning the intrigue of the narcotic trade into a page turner extraordinaire.<br />
trilogy, <br />
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Last year, Winslow announced the release of the final chapter in the story of DEA agent Art Keller and I quickly got myself a copy of The Power of the Dog, the pilot episode in this epic story of Keller and his obsession with Adán Barrera, the patron and head of the Sinaloa Cartel. In the final chapter, however, Winslow had his aim clearly on the current U.S. administration, teasing early on that the reckless behaviour and policies of Trump and his cronies would be subject to scrutiny, aptly titling the novel <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38376040-the-border?from_search=true">The Border</a>. <br />
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Ambitious in scope, written with gusto, pleasing to those lovers of crime fiction or political thrillers, Winslow delivers a fittingly brilliant conclusion to the trilogy that speaks to so many of the most pressing issues of the political moment.<br />
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After Keller had killed Barrera at the conclusion of The Cartel, he is recruited to head up the DEA as the Sinaloa drug empire falls into chaos and powerful players seek to replace Adan as the patron of the cartel. At times this can be messy, as many different families and alliances assert themselves and then quickly are defeated or fade. But Winslow does his best to bring the readers up to speed and allows them to get a grasp of the chaos that Barrera's death has caused.<br />
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While the Mexican forces battle for supremacy, the 2016 Presidential election takes centre stage, as a fictionalized Donald Trump, aka John Dennison, enters the race eager to scapegoat Mexican migrants for the ills of American society. At times Dennison feels cartoonish, but only because Winslow takes Trump's rhetoric verbatim when scripting Dennison's speeches, which says more about Trump's own unbelievable villainy than Winslow's writing. Dennison's son-in-law (Jared in disguise) gets roped into the drug world in the midst of the election, procuring a massive loan from cartel affiliated forces to fund a tower project that Dennison has a direct financial interest in. Keller, concerned with the fortunes of American democracy at the hands of Dennison, turns his attention to this laundering scheme and must face the inevitable backlash when Dennison surprisingly wins the election.<br />
<br />
I must admit I was concerned with how this plot device would work. Winslow, who is very active with his views on Twitter, spends significant time challenging the Trump administrations ties to Russia and whether financial dealings between the Russian government and Trump compromise the latter's fealty to the United States. Although the Trump administration may raise such concerns, there is nothing inherently foreign about its actions nor about the thirty years of aggressive bipartisan neoliberal governance, Trump being its latest, most extreme, incarnation. Stressing Russian influence is often a substitute for looking deeply into the core rot of the American system that Trump is merely a symptom, otherizing the causes of the mess we are currently in. Thankfully, Winslow avoids this and if anything uses cartel influence of the Dennison regime to emphasize American complicity in the drug crisis. In terms of the narrative, the Dennison-drug money ties actually works quite well, allowing Winslow to delve into the realm of political thriller that does in fact deliver compelling plot points.<br />
<br />
More powerful, however, are the vignettes into the lives of Central American migrants, often escaping civil wars or drug gangs that the United States market has encouraged. Winslow tells the story of two Guatemalan children, Nico and Flor, who flee local unrest, only to be repeatedly victimized either by criminal players or state actors, pushing them into lives of exploitation and crime. In many ways these sections are the most forceful rebuke of the Trump obsession with his wall, painting a picture of chaos and suffering that the American state has played a direct hand in causing and the very human face of those Trump eagerly dismisses as 'bad hombres' and criminals. If there are monsters in the midst, Trump and by association the United States has no one to blame but themselves for creating them.<br />
<br />
In the end, Winslow concludes with a very explicit and bludgeoning take down of the War on Drugs. Keller, confronted by political circumstances keen on destroying him, must come to terms with his own actions and the consequences they had on innocent parties. He is forced to question whether his four decade hunt of the drug cartels was the right war to be fighting, a question whose answer is unequivocally negative.<br />
<br />
Without a doubt, Winslow is one of the premier crime writers of our times. His research is impeccable, his story telling engrossing. He peppers the historical context with the brutal violence that colours it, and he is able to capture his readers eager to find out how this epic saga ends. If you haven't picked up Winslow, do it now, go get yourself a copy of The Power of the Dog, The Cartel and The Border and don't look back, just read and disappear into the story of the new American century.<br />
<br />The Reading Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12215564945059615664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-864245287098462873.post-64927539273674075912019-01-17T00:17:00.002-08:002019-01-23T09:32:42.807-08:00Dreaming In The Midst of Apocalypse: Karen Thompson Walker's The DreamersI received an advanced copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. So here it is for <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34409176-the-dreamers?ac=1&from_search=true">The </a><br />
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34409176-the-dreamers?ac=1&from_search=true">Dreamers</a>, which was released this week.<br />
<br />
Frankly this was going to be a hard sell for me. The blurbs compared it to the huge hit, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20170404-station-eleven?ac=1&from_search=true">Station Eleven</a>, which I admired but did not love and I have grown weary of the post-apocalyptic genre. It has been overdone and as many have noted the fantastical separation we once had reading these books is no longer there, with reality quickly aligning with the nightmares authors once created out of thin air.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfXbL1BgM29L87G_ofG3E4DYbAG1f8gL4OLtgOMmvEgSuxI62A06Gx5jkjq2vc20xZhC8C0q_LxgPJt1RzHMLfMdlmpl8Ee09PYk4H5VC6ihl-1MHBs6DNTT7ETzfG0JrivjBuft0u8yoE/s1600/the+dreamers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="271" data-original-width="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfXbL1BgM29L87G_ofG3E4DYbAG1f8gL4OLtgOMmvEgSuxI62A06Gx5jkjq2vc20xZhC8C0q_LxgPJt1RzHMLfMdlmpl8Ee09PYk4H5VC6ihl-1MHBs6DNTT7ETzfG0JrivjBuft0u8yoE/s1600/the+dreamers.jpg" /></a>For the most part, The Dreamers is a unique take. Instead of a collapsing world, Walker focuses on a small Californian town overcome by a mysterious disease that leaves its victims alive but asleep, prisoners to dreams that may be premonitions or just longings for past experiences long buried in the subconsciousness. Walker takes around the town, introducing us to college students at the epicentre of the outbreak, various families broken up by the illness, senior lovers hoping to be taken to the same dreamland after the ravages of senility have taken their toll.<br />
<br />
Much of the time I was somewhat bored by Walker's plot. It did not meander or get bogged down by too ornate language, it pushed forward at a nice pace, keeping the various plotlines fresh in the mind of the reader. But frankly, most of the characters were quite boring, too quaint, too normal, with all shady elements of the past unexplored. As Dwight Garner's <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/07/books/review-dreamers-karen-thompson-walker.html">NY Times review</a> notes, all the characters are "exceedingly nice" and none say or do anything particularly interesting. While sharing Station Eleven's desire to explore the unexplored elements of human experience in moments of societal collapse, the agents of that exploration that Walker relies on hold none of the sharpness or dark malevolence that Emily St. John Mandel managed to imbue her characters.<br />
<br />
However, something beautiful comes about toward the end of the book as the world of dreams and their meanings begin to surface. Walker's prose rises to another level and the questions she asks about how our dreams convey or filter how we understand our experiences, especially those moments of crises, is truly beautiful. It turned a mediocre reading experience to one where I had to go back to read passages, mesmerized by the writing and the dalliance into the subconsciousness Walker wants to explore.<br />
<br />
I'm happy I powered through, as I would have lost the most powerful elements of the book had I abandoned. In the end, The Dreamers is more than just a new Station Eleven, and should be reckoned on its own merits, giving credit to the questions Walker wants to explore, which are not conventional to the genre and which offer important insights into the human condition.<br />
<br />
3.5/5The Reading Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12215564945059615664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-864245287098462873.post-88440003039419403042019-01-10T05:48:00.000-08:002019-01-10T05:48:35.037-08:00Reading The Overstory in the Shadow of Bolsonaro<br />
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In early January, Brazil’s new president, Jair Bolsonaro,
took office. It is not a stretch to describe Bolsanaro as a fascist, someone
who pines for the days of military dictatorship and torture of leftist
opponents. In addition to his desire to reverse even the most moderate of
reforms enacted under the previous government and his embrace of the most
radical of neoliberal economic programs, Bolsonaro has also set his sights on
accelerating the exploitation of the Brazilian rainforest. <o:p></o:p></div>
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As reported in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/02/brazil-jair-bolsonaro-amazon-rainforest-protections">The
Guardian</a>, huge new regulatory powers have been transferred to the Agriculture
Ministry, that most declare beholden to agribusiness interests. Deforestation
is at the forefront of the agenda and considering how significant a sinkhole of
carbon gases the rainforest plays any further attacks on its integrity will be
detrimental not only to the inhabitants of the Amazon but also the fight
against climate change. <o:p></o:p></div>
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It’s in this bleak shadow that I picked up Richard Powers’ <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36075657-the-overstory">The Overtory</a>.
Shortlisted for the Man Booker in 2018, and appearing on many year end best of
lists, this a five-hundred page tome offers a poweful cri de coeur on behalf of
The Trees. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The Overstory is a work of fiction structured like a tree.
Powers first introduces 8 characters in what is deemed the book’s roots. Each
discrete story involves people in someway touched by the world of trees,
pessimistic about the damage humans have ravaged upon the beautiful creatures
of wood, eager in some way to save them from destruction. The second part, the
trunk, brings the characters together as their stories begin to overlap and
influence one another as their journeys turn to activism and challenging
industries insatiable need to destroy. The third part, the cover, jumps ahead
twenty years as the consequences of their actions come to fruition, before
concluding with the seeds, the hopeful promise of some sort of salvation for
the wonders of forests. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Powers uses beautiful prose to disclose the mysteries of the
tree, from the scientific to the mystical, exploring how the trees own language
to one another conveys not only something truly magical, but also more powerful
than even the most promethean desires of human industry. And though he clearly
admires the tree much more than the species eager to destroy it, Power manages
to convey the power of human compassion and empathy, with his subjects driven
to save these creatures at great personal cost.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Although incredibly ambitious in scope and structure, this
is not a perfect novel. Not all storylines work well and shedding a couple of
the more pointless characters may have led to an even more powerful work. It is
also an incredibly pessimistic take, almost nihilistic in the end game Powers
sees as likely. Admittedly, I share some of this pessimism, but a cri de coeur
must also inspire those to take action, to stop the destructive path we head
in. Doing so may have weakened the work, made it too propagandist, but
sometimes the political imperative demands the weakening of art.<o:p></o:p></div>
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All that said, this a book people should pick up. If not to
be motivated to take up the fight, at the very least to appreciate the magical
marvel that is majestic creature we call The Tree. <o:p></o:p></div>
<br />The Reading Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12215564945059615664noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-864245287098462873.post-80307833785128310132018-12-30T19:42:00.000-08:002018-12-30T19:42:05.873-08:00My Favourite Books from 2018The year is coming to an end and it was frankly a wonderful year in books. So here it goes. Just a caveat, I will be only listing books that were actually published in 2018, so leaving out amazing books like Arundhati Roy's The Ministry of Utmost Happiness and Helen Ann Thompson's epic history of the Attica Prison uprising, Blood in the Water. Go read those too!<br />
<br />
But here is the Top 10 Books I have read this year:<br />
<br />
10. Richard Powers, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35187203-the-overstory?ac=1&from_search=true">The Overstory</a> (W.W. Norton and Company)<br />
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I am not quite done this but I am confident that this will be on my top ten and could very well be near the top. Powers book has made many top ten lists and was shortlisted for the Man Booker and maybe would have won if not for the fact that Americans had won the previous two years. The story is structured like a tree, with 8 stories (roots) introduced separately to merge (trunk). An homage to the great lifeforms that are trees, Powers prose is elegant and rich and entrancing. By the time I finish, I may claim the work is a masterpiece.<br />
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9. Nafissa Thompson-Spires, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35297351-heads-of-the-colored-people">Heads of Colored People</a> (Atria)<br />
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The best short story collection I read this year, Thompson-Spires dives deep into the contemporary African American experience, with a strong grasp of politics, pop culture, history. Funny and engaging, each story leaves one chuckling or astonished. Looking forward to future work of hers.<br />
<br />
8. Esi Edugyan, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39731474-washington-black">Washington Black</a> (Serpent's Tale)<br />
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Edugyan won herself a second Giller Prize for this story of an escaped slave who sets of on a fantastical journey that forces him to confront the price freedom brings as well as the limits it presents to a black man, even one incredibly talented. Edugyan's story is told in spell binding prose and paints rich characters, even if the story at times the story is a bit too apocryphal. Nonetheless, its an adventure story like no other, a powerful retelling of the slave narrative, that will have longevity as a text for many years to come.<br />
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7. Sigrid Nunez, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35457690-the-friend">The Friend</a> (Riverhead)<br />
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The Friend follows a woman dealing with the death of her good friend who has left her an aging Great Dane to take care of. Emotionally wrecked, she quickly finds solace in the dogs embrace and restructures her entire life to meet the needs of him. This slim book packs so much as it offers a powerful lamentation about death, grief, and how we process the most difficult moments in our life. A pleasant surprise winner of the National Book Award last month.<br />
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6. Ottessa Moshfegh, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36552920-my-year-of-rest-and-relaxation">My Year of Rest and Relaxation</a> (Penguin Press)<br />
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Moshfegh is the master of writing the most engaging characters who are simultaneously disgusting and offputting. Here she gives us an unnamed narrator, lost and bewildered as her parents have died, who decides to confront her existential anxiety by sleeping for the year. Filling herself with drugs prescribed by a hilariously frightening psychiatrist, she tries to sleep away her sorrows only to find herself doing things while she is out. Funny and sharp, Moshfegh delivers her best work yet.<br />
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5. Julian Barnes, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35570812-the-only-story">The Only Story</a> (Vintage)<br />
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Barnes tells an emotionally devastating novel about a young man who begins an affair with a much older married woman and tells the story of their relationship as it descends into chaos as addiction and depression overtakes all feelings of lust and love. Beautifully told and executed perfectly, Barnes' only story is one of sadness but also one that speaks to many truths about love and loss.<br />
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4. Nick Drasdo, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37533587-sabrina">Sabrina </a>(Drawn and Quarterly)<br />
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The first ever graphic novel longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, Sabrina tells the story of the aftermath of a young woman's murder, following her sister, her boyfriend and her boyfriend's childhood friend as they try to process what has happened while the lunatic world of conspiracy theories shows its fangs in response to the death. The drawing is stunning, flat and cold but fitting of the chilling story being told. Panels are allowed to convey silence and loneliness, capturing perfectly the world that has left so many vulnerable to violence and pain. Graphic novels are expensive so if out of your budget get it from the library!<br />
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3. Rebecca Makkai, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36739329-the-great-believers?ac=1&from_search=true">The Great Believers</a> (Viking)<br />
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Also did a full review <a href="https://myfriendthereader.blogspot.com/2018/11/the-great-believers-devastating-and.html">here</a>. Makkai delivers the big social novel of the year about the AIDS crisis in the mid 1980s, taking place in the heart of Chicago's gay community, where Yale, a young donations solicitor for a university affiliated art gallery is watching his friends die off. Flash thirty years into the future, Fiona, one of Yale's friends, who was a caregiver for many of the dying, deals with consequences of death and loss in her early life as she searches for her missing daughter. This book is a punch in the gut and a faithful retelling of a shameful period in American history, where an entire community was ostracized and left alone in their most vulnerable moment. Already shortlisted for the National Book Award and the Carnegie Medal in Fiction, don't be surprised to hear this one winning the Pulitzer Prize in April.<br />
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2. Lisa Halliday, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35297339-asymmetry?ac=1&from_search=true">Asymmetry</a> (Simon & Schuster)<br />
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I did a full review for this already <a href="https://myfriendthereader.blogspot.com/2018/12/asymmetry-rare-case-of-experimental.html">here </a>and it is one of the most contested and talked about books to have been released this year. Told in three seemingly unconnected parts, loosely depicting a relationship a young Halliday had with a much older Phillip Roth in the early 2000s, an Iraqi American being held in London on his way to visit his brother in Iraq, and the Roth character's appearance on a famous BBC radio show, this book is both tender and poignant but also revealing of so much, whether the nature of power dynamics of a relationship like the one depicted but also the disjointed world the early 2000s produced. Not for everyone, but if you connect with it, totally rewarding.<br />
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1. Sally Rooney, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37539457-normal-people">Normal People</a> (Faber & Faber)<br />
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Rooney introduced herself with <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32187419-conversations-with-friends">Conversation With Friends</a> but she confirmed herself as the next big thing with this amazing delve into modern romance, which was criminally not shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. It is so simply written but don't let that fool you for how deep and profound Rooney's prose is. You will power through this novel and fall in love with both Connell and Marianne and come feeling rejuvenated at the end. Won't be released in Canada and the US until April 2019 but do not hesitate when it does.The Reading Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12215564945059615664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-864245287098462873.post-30118026678569020962018-12-30T05:39:00.003-08:002018-12-30T05:41:47.445-08:002019 Reading Goals<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The year is coming to an end and it is time not just to reflect on what I have accomplished as a reader this year, but also what I hope to accomplish next year. So here are some of my 2019 reading goals.<br />
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Although 2018 was likely my most productive year reading wise, I found myself compelled to read things I wasn't super interested in, having signed up for some challenge or trying desperately to finish an awards longlist. Toward the end of the year, I tried to focus on what I wanted to read rather than trying to check off books from some list. I don't think I'll get away from that completely (see below) but I definitely want to focus on some diversifying what I read and what determines what I read next.<br />
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Firstly, I will not be doing the <a href="https://bookriot.com/2018/12/12/2019-read-harder-challenge/">Book Riot READ HARDER challenge</a>. Every year the folks at the website put together a list of 24 categories aimed at encouraging people to go beyond their comfort zone. Every year I commit to do it, every year I fall short of reading from each of the specific categories. Frankly I don't think the challenge (which this year feels way too specific) encourages me to do what it wants. I already read quite diversely, reading more female authors than male, consciously aiming to read more writer's of colour, queer authors, works in translation etc. I will continue to do so and consciously think about reading diversely when I decide what is next for my eyes.<br />
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Secondly, I really want to explore some new genres more aggressively. I am a lover of literary fiction and will continue to gobble it up but I really want to read more crime/mystery, fantasy and science fiction. I am committing to read <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/series/53593-jackson-brodie">Kate Atkinson's Jackson Brodie</a> series as well as a bunch of others from the genre on my Kobo. In terms of fantasy, a genre I am totally uncomfortable with, I'll start with Marlon James' much anticipated <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40524312-black-leopard-red-wolf?ac=1&from_search=true">Black Leopard, Red Wolf</a>, which has been described as the African Game of Thrones. For Science Fiction, we'll see what comes out, but I do hope to finish the <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34569357-remembrance-of-earth-s-past">Three Body Problem trilogy</a> and maybe tackle some classics like Ursala K. LeGuin.<br />
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Another hope is to follow more closely the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/column/book-review-podcast">New York Times Book Review Podcast</a>. I was so impressed with their Top Ten this year and if I had paid closer attention to their weekly show I may have opened these books up sooner. I know, this kind of goes against my no lists goal but maybe if I catch good stuff earlier on I won't be beholden to lists at the end of the year.<br />
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One place where I know lists will remain a burden will be for awards. This year I read long and short listed books from the Women's Prize for Fiction, the Man Booker International Prize, the Man Booker Prize, the Giller Prize and the National Book Award. I never pressured myself to read the entire list before the award was handed out and I liked that more relaxed approach. I'll try to repeat this method in 2019.<br />
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In terms of this page, I'll try to keep on reviewing the books that really impress me and make regular booktube videos about a variety of topics. We'll see how that works out.<br />
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Anyways, here is to another great year in reading!!<br />
<br />The Reading Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12215564945059615664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-864245287098462873.post-23630394740228573252018-12-26T02:55:00.002-08:002018-12-26T02:55:24.034-08:00My Year In Reading<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPPxp1dflBidg8w-apT-PTGn1d9zQ2Lv_uGFeltyPhPwEfr4F9fo0aKoOZ5CrNwAVwtEZ0erFzj4VtReAiQBj8zCGwWcVyUa88M6_Wh6VR5pdU1t4AZMFFSehI_VS4ExuF8kH44TG6cAhp/s1600/reading.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="183" data-original-width="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPPxp1dflBidg8w-apT-PTGn1d9zQ2Lv_uGFeltyPhPwEfr4F9fo0aKoOZ5CrNwAVwtEZ0erFzj4VtReAiQBj8zCGwWcVyUa88M6_Wh6VR5pdU1t4AZMFFSehI_VS4ExuF8kH44TG6cAhp/s1600/reading.jpg" /></a>This has been an eventful year for me. I became a father and introducing a child into life's equation <br />
certainly shook things up. She is wonderful of course but quite dependent. Thankfully I have been able to take a full year off work, and that certainly resulted in more reading time in between naps and diaper changes.<br />
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In general this has been a fantastic year. I was introduced to fantastic up and coming authors like Sally Rooney (<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37539457-normal-people?from_search=true">Normal People</a>) and Lisa Halliday (<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35297339-asymmetry?ac=1&from_search=true">Asymmetry</a>), as well as blown away by Rebecca Makkai's amazing social novel about the AIDS epidemic in 1980s Chicago, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36739329-the-great-believers?ac=1&from_search=true">The Great Believers</a>.<br />
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I tried to follow the big awards, the Booker, the Pulitzer, the Women's Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award. I didn't pressure myself to finish the long or shortlists, but was able to read enough to have my favourites or least favourites, as the case may be.<br />
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For the first time I decided to tackle the Giller Prize before the award was handed out. I read the entire shortlist and was happy to see Esi Edugyan win her second Giller for the epic W<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39731474-washington-black">ashington Black</a>. It would have been nice to see Eric Dupont's work in translation <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40120669-songs-for-the-cold-of-heart">Songs for the Cold of Heart win</a>, but Eduyan was worthy winner.<br />
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I was lucky enough to continue with some great online reader communities (my Pulitzer group) and started making BookTube videos. I am taking a bit of a break from the latter but will hopefully get back to it in the new year, although I must say I prefer blogging. I also was invited to join a great Goodreads group of readers that share my passion and keep up a very intense schedule of group reads and award follows.<br />
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I'll try posting a 2019 Reading goals in the next few days. I really want to do somethings differently but we'll see.<br />
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Anyways, here are the stats for the year:<br />
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Total Books: 125<br />
Fiction: 77<br />
Non Fiction: 27<br />
Graphic Novels: 7<br />
Short Story Collections: 5<br />
Women Authors: 71<br />
POC Authors: 38<br />
Canadian Lit: 15<br />
Works in Translation: 5<br />
Children's Books: 13<br />
DNFs: 4<br />
<br />The Reading Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12215564945059615664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-864245287098462873.post-46202847223572423372018-12-14T22:31:00.001-08:002018-12-14T22:39:17.962-08:00Asymmetry: A Rare Case of Experimental Fiction That Blew Me Away<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6hV7-5pG4ogOr0QbUWyOY2OViZS20PrXLwJ3dO4SNFb-uhH8Y4j4Kmcz56IkB_vCibCfprUVfV25EdqXYFM_TTPJINVxS3NyGUp-gJhiF108JebzqFO4w3540bhVzatp2ToOsPXPRhocH/s1600/07bookhalliday2-articleLarge.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="867" data-original-width="600" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6hV7-5pG4ogOr0QbUWyOY2OViZS20PrXLwJ3dO4SNFb-uhH8Y4j4Kmcz56IkB_vCibCfprUVfV25EdqXYFM_TTPJINVxS3NyGUp-gJhiF108JebzqFO4w3540bhVzatp2ToOsPXPRhocH/s400/07bookhalliday2-articleLarge.jpg" width="276" /></a>I recognize that Lisa Halliday’s Asymmetry is a polarizing novel, that has received both significant praise (see <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/29/books/review/best-books.html">NY Times Top 10 Books of 2018</a>) as well as scorn from those who could not get into it for a variety reasons I understand. That said, there have been few books this year that have impressed me as much both in the quality in writing but the audacity in its choices in form and how these choices made the book’s thematic explorations that much more poignant for me as a reader.<br />
<br />
Asymmetry is a book told in three parts.<br />
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The first follows Alice, a twenty-something editor who begins an affair with renowned author Ezra Blazer, who is loosely (maybe not so loosely) based on Philip Roth, who Halliday has admitted to having a romantic relationship with in the early 2000s. This is definitely the hook of the book and I imagine many rushed to read the section eager to get the dirt on Roth’s sexual escapades. But we get so much more. Halliday certainly presents a famous author able to use his power and wealth to engender romantic feelings from Alice and at times this power is exerted manipulatively and is expressed condescendingly, but she also presents a very tender, genuine relationship, where Blazer cares deeply for Alice and desperately fears losing her. Halliday is not interested in a hit job but offering an intimate insight into the author, both personally, but also his determination and single mindedness as an author, an insight Halliday stresses in her interviews.<br />
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The second part feels incongruous (asymmetrical one could say) and takes its time to catch the reader. Amar is an American-Iraqi travelling back to Iraq in the late 2000s to visit his brother and is held by authorities during a transfer in London. We quickly get taken back through Amar’s past, from being born over American airspace to his many returns to Iraq, witnessing first hand the destruction of the country as a result of the 2003 war that claimed to seek democracy but delivered chaos and death. We get grizzly accounts of the havoc as Amir recounts how he got to where he stood, suffering further indignity at the hands of the power that has destroyed his ancestral home and caused so much pain for his family. While the first section at first appears to be the more intimate and close to Halliday’s self, it is Amar’s story that is told in the first person, offering a depiction of pain and suffering that Alice’s romantic heart-break cannot.<br />
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The third part, the coda, is the transcript of an interview on the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qnmr">BBC Desert Island Discs</a>, where a famous person (Ezra Blazer reappearing) offers up their musical desires if they were stranded on a desert island while retelling their life story. While meant to tie things up, Halliday is quite subtle in doing so, allowing Blazer to only give passing insights into the writing process, extolling authors to not force their characters together if not realistic but let their individual stories follow their own destinies. Blazer remains audacious, still eager for romantic hook up, but Halliday does not punish Blazer (or Roth) too much for his lechery, having awarded him the Nobel Prize for Literature (that Roth never won despite coveting it for so long).<br />
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So the question then is does Halliday pull off this very ambitious novel that asks the reader to fill in so many blanks, to find the connections, to create the meanings that would allow Asymmetry to exist as a cohesive novel. For me it does and I believe that partly this has to do with the novel situating itself in a time period that was incredibly formative to me, the early to late 2000s. The moment that struck me most was when I was forced to contrast visceral reactions I had to two moments, one in each of the two parts.<br />
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The first was an account of Alice and Ezra watching the now infamous American League Championship Series between the Yankees and the Red Sox in 2004, where the Sox came back from three games to none down to upset the Bronx Bombers and eventually go on to win the World Series. Alice, a devout Red Sox fan, is intensely watching the late innings of Game 5 when Ezra asks her to fetch a series of things from the neighbourhood store to deal with some physical discomfort he was experiencing. Alice becomes bitter and when forced to converse with Blazer after she returns she loses her patience. Being a Red Sox fan, who also remembers these moments, I was vicariously angry along with Alice, furious at Blazer’s selfishness, his lack of consideration for what was important to Alice.<br />
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The second moment is when Amar is on one of his visits to Iraq between 2005 and 2007. He is surrounded by the bloodshed, the anger of a people boiling over, but also a people fearful to carry on with their lives, worried about kidnappings, bombs, living. I felt a moment of shame both because this dire moment contrasted so much with the triviality of missing a few innings of a playoff game but also because my visceral reaction was greater for Alice’s misfortune than Amar’s. As someone who was actively involved in the anti-war movement in 2003, organizing massive protests to try to stop the invasion, how was it that I felt so distanced from the bloodshed. If the war and its consequences felt like such an abstraction for me, how would others less involved weigh their feelings? Was it just as Ezra insinuates in his interview that war for Americans (full disclosure I’m Canadian) is just a game, even for those opposed to the conflict?<br />
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For me this contrast perfectly encapsulates the asymmetry that Halliday is trying to depict, the stark incongruousness of the experiences that are nonetheless experiences that exist side by side in the current moment of humanity. There are likely several other asymmetry's to be explored here but for me this reading moment sunk me a little and made me appreciate what Halliday was trying to do.<br />
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A few more thoughts.<br />
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I imagine that if you have not read Philip Roth this book may not connect with you. I am hardly a Rothophile but I have read enough of his work, seen a few documentaries, that the hook of the first story drew me in immediately. I could hear Roth’s cadence in Blazer’s words. I could see his flaws (very much present in his work) in Blazer’s actions. Halliday’s portrayal is neither hitjob nor hagiography so maybe not the kind of hot gossip some hoped, but it is insightful into the mind of an author whose influence continued to permeate in American letters well after his star as a writer had begun to fade. If one does not have a relationship with Roth's work then maybe this fascination does not exist.<br />
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Secondly, I also understand why for some the structural choices made by Halliday does not work. I personally am not someone that impressed with experimental fiction, tending to prefer straightforward narratives with deep thematic explorations and emotional punch. Halliday manages to cover these as well as offer a formalistic choice that asks readers to work for meaning, to impose their own narrative structure. That may not work for everyone and maybe the time period the stories are set in helped me do so in ways others could not.<br />
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Lastly, the three books I enjoyed most this year (Sally Rooney’s <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37539457-normal-people?ac=1&from_search=true">Normal People</a>, Rebecca Makkai’s <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36739329-the-great-believers?ac=1&from_search=true">The Great Believers</a>, and Asymmetry) are fantastic examples of a stripped down writing styles that deliver a lot without being bogged down with overly ornate or descriptive prose. I do not know if this is a new trend, nor do I want to lessen the quality of writing from those with more verbose and adjective filled styles (like Chabon or Whitehead) but I find it refreshing and speaks to how powerful language can be without overdoing it.<br />
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Anyways, great work and looking forward to seeing what is next for Halliday.<br />
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<br />The Reading Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12215564945059615664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-864245287098462873.post-37485228997978170882018-11-15T22:40:00.002-08:002018-11-15T22:40:56.313-08:00Who will win the Giller Prize? It's Washington Black's to lose.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmfswuAF6dNG560cLo7gZi6K9L1ZZ8_vk5vn2ms2b-pjczrFfY-DXNkRhv77lDr8Xq6oc_g44C-WIAS9Atwzoo5onqH-8damnABRMMvPXJxudeuAZCWmnpgNiRjub7_s-7ZSNiMcLlPTp_/s1600/scotia%252Bgiller.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="400" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmfswuAF6dNG560cLo7gZi6K9L1ZZ8_vk5vn2ms2b-pjczrFfY-DXNkRhv77lDr8Xq6oc_g44C-WIAS9Atwzoo5onqH-8damnABRMMvPXJxudeuAZCWmnpgNiRjub7_s-7ZSNiMcLlPTp_/s200/scotia%252Bgiller.jpeg" width="200" /></a>I had really hoped to finish the shortlist before Monday's award show, but alas getting through the 600 page epic Songs for the Cold of Heart has taken longer than anticipated. That said, I am about half way through and feel confident that I can give a decent analysis of this year's short list and discuss who I think is likely to win.<br />
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For those new to the Giller (or who are non-Canadian Lit fans), this award was established 25 years ago by Jack Rabinovitch, in honour of his late wife Dorris Giller, who was a literary critic. Since then, it has established itself as the most lucrative ($100,000 Canadian for the winner) and arguably the most prestigious award for Canadian fiction. In addition to the prize money, a real commercial phenomena called "The Giller Bump" often results in significant sales for the book, especially for holiday shoppers eager to get their friends and family the "it" Canadian book of the year.<br />
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Past winning books have often used the award to propel themselves into the esteemed literary "CanLit" canon, becoming instant classics. Rohinton Mistry's <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5211.A_Fine_Balance?ac=1&from_search=true">A Fine Balance</a>, Margaret Atwood's <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/72579.Alias_Grace?ac=1&from_search=true">Alias Grace</a> and Madeleine Thien's <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31549906-do-not-say-we-have-nothing?ac=1&from_search=true">Do Not Say We Have Nothing</a> remain among my favourite books and have won over a large swathe of readers as fans.<br />
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Unlike the <a href="https://themanbookerprize.com/">Man Booker Prize</a>, whose focus on form and experimental structure is at times too obsessive, the Giller Prize tends to award much more reader friendly books whose strength are the themes explored and the profound emotional response they engender. For that reason, those looking to give a Giller gift, the chances of the recipient actually reading and finishing the given book are pretty good.<br />
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As I have indicated in other posts, award predictions is a fun past time for many, but it's a difficult task when dealing with a relatively small jury of 5 people deciding what they think is the best book. It's not like larger membership bodies that award prizes (like the Oscars or Emmys) where more idiosyncratic tastes are often lost among the mass of voters. Here it is five writers or people with ties to the arts arguing in a room and deciding who they believe deserves Canada's most prestigious literary award. For that reason, take my prediction with a grain of salt.<br />
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This year, the shortlist feels quite strong. I enjoyed the four books I finished and am thoroughly enjoying Songs for the Cold of Heart. Anyone would be an acceptable, if not deserving winner (which is definitely not how I feel about other shortlists). That said, gotta make my picks. Here the books, in the order of least likely to most likely to win:<br /><br /><br />
5. Patrick deWitt, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36300687-french-exit?from_search=true">French Exit</a> (House of Anansi)<br />
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It has been a good year for deWitt. His breakthrough <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9850443-the-sisters-brothers">Sisters Brothers</a> was turned into a very good movie. His new book has received plenty of critical acclaim and another shortlisting for the Giller Prize. This clever and witty story of an eccentric socialite woman and her too attached oddball son dealing with the drying up of their significant fortune is well done. It's an enjoyable and quick read, one that fans of his kind of humour will embrace. That said, it's definitely not as strong as Sisters Brothers and one wonders how necessary a book about the pratfalls of the rich really is. I just don't think the jury will feel inclined to awarding French Exit the title.<br />
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4. Thea Lim, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36622743-an-ocean-of-minutes?from_search=true">An Ocean of Minutes</a> (Viking Canada)<br />
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I was pleasantly surprised with this one. Following a young woman who time travels to the future to pay for her husband's medical treatment after a disasterous flu pandemic, Lim explores the consequences of making those decisions andhow disaster strains and leaves in tatters the strongest bonds of love. In some ways, Lim tackles a topic that has been well explored before and the comparisons to <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20170404-station-eleven?ac=1&from_search=true">Station Eleven</a> are with some merit. But it still felt fresh and captivating and the writing is beautifully melancholic, perfectly capturing the mood required for such a story. That said, Lim is relatively young and this is her first novel. I think we are going to get better and even more substantial works from her that will be more worthy of the Giller.<br />
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3. Sheila Heti, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36203362-motherhood?from_search=true">Motherhood</a> (Knopf Canada)<br />
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Heti is definitely one of the better known names on the shortlist, having written extensively, mostly essays and short stories that were widely read. Her <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9361377-how-should-a-person-be">How Should A Person Be</a> was recently included as a t<a href="https://www.vulture.com/article/best-books-21st-century-so-far.html">op choice for a 21st Century literary canon</a> by Vulture Magazine. In Motherhood she embraces the very popular fad of autobiographical fiction, exploring through a first person voice of a near-forty year old woman (also named Sheila) the thoughts and anxieties when confronting whether to have children or not. It is very profound and engaging and if the Giller jury decided to go in the direction of embracing the autofiction trend this may come out on top. I had some issues with it though, which I do with other examples of the subgenre, unable at times to really decipher the fictional elements in an execution that feels like a collection of introspective non-fiction essays rather than the kinds of story telling we associate with fiction. Heti's book is already a best seller and likely does not need this award to establish herself as a leading Canadian voice, but if the jury goes in this direction it will be a bold break from the kinds of books that have won the award.<br />
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2. Eric Dupont, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40120669-songs-for-the-cold-of-heart?from_search=true">Songs for the Cold of Heart</a> (QC Fiction)<br />
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The one I have not finished yet, but that is no fault of the very skillful storytelling Dupont employs in this dense family epic that takes us from rural Quebec to the cities of Europe, exploring themes of changing social and cultural norms that transformed the province and its people during the post-War years. Those who love the prose of John Irving (with a dash of magical realism), falling into this book will be a pure joy (and even at the very slow pace I have attacked this text, I can say I am thoroughly enjoying the folksy charm of Dupont's writing). That said, the Giller Prize has never gone to a work in translation and this would be a departure. I think it would be a good one though. For a pan-Canadian prize to have effectively excluded the immense cultural products coming from the French speaking province is a shortcoming that a Dupont win will do a lot to overcome. However, the juggernaut that is the next book will likely keep that from happening.<br />
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1. Esi Edugyan, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38140077-washington-black?ac=1&from_search=true">Washington Black</a> (HarperCollins Canada)<br />
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When the shortlist initially came out, I would not have bet on Edugyan's third novel. She has already won the Giller for her 2011 <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11076123-half-blood-blues">Half-Blood Blues</a> and only two other authors have repeated (Alice Munro and M.G. Vassanji). Washington Black is certain to be a best seller and already appeared to have received sufficient acknowledgment when it was shortlisted for this year's Man Booker Prize. Edugyan's place as one of the leading literary lights in Canada is well established. If it had won the Booker, maybe the jury would feel less in need to award Edugyan. But since Anna Burns' <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36047860-milkman?ac=1&from_search=true">Milkman </a>upset Washington Black for that prize, the latter has added a plethora of award and critic acknowledgments. It is shortlisted for the <a href="http://www.ala.org/awardsgrants/carnegieadult">Andrew Carnegie Prize for Fiction</a>. It was both <a href="https://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=17276804011">Amazon </a>and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=17276804011">Chapters/Indigo</a>'s top fiction choice for 2018. It has been on the Washington Post and <a href="http://time.com/5454708/best-fiction-books-2018/?fbclid=IwAR19kWvY8V3XbHNdxCMyEFhtggoGX_3XZsQ_zlJ8aKfjVAwJrUiDaoLPz9o">Time Magazine</a> Top 10 Fiction books of the year and is certain to make additional appearances in the lists about to appear across publications. It is one of the "it" works of fiction of 2018. If it were not to win the big national prize in Canada it would feel a bit odd.<br />
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In terms of the quality of the book, it also matches if not betters the others on the shortlist. Although at times inconsistent, with some clunky dialogue and questionable plot choices, for the most part the writing is extraordinary, finding myself lost in these beautiful passages that conveyed so much emotion. Additionally, Edugyan is doing something really interesting in her reinvention of the slave narrative, adding hints of adventure, but also exploring important themes of the erasure of black genius and how the past continued to haunt the freed. It is a hefty book with lots of gravitas (not to mention some really great cover designs--the UK cover is gorgeous and the Canadian and US editions are quite unique as well).<br />
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So for those wanting to skip all I have written, in conclusion:<br />
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Who will win: Washington Black<br />
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Who should win: Washington Black or Songs for the Cold of Heart<br />
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Darkhorse: Motherhood <br />
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<br />The Reading Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12215564945059615664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-864245287098462873.post-55228671129621752842018-11-05T23:18:00.002-08:002018-11-06T02:19:59.241-08:00The Great Believers: Devastating and Beautiful account of 1980s AIDS Crisis<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcQZa4x-7zOTcR5coRbHPKrN975ey332QmEiGPoD_RuAa9k9LWBtxrXUrFuETIqhqFXXcxK8a_yjSF9_iS-tjHzmxCH1GT_tJyCZYyJn_mRZKr-B15wjdFRnwjpXutdhjDcPAmyONviu02/s1600/rebeccamakkai-thegreatbelievers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1060" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcQZa4x-7zOTcR5coRbHPKrN975ey332QmEiGPoD_RuAa9k9LWBtxrXUrFuETIqhqFXXcxK8a_yjSF9_iS-tjHzmxCH1GT_tJyCZYyJn_mRZKr-B15wjdFRnwjpXutdhjDcPAmyONviu02/s320/rebeccamakkai-thegreatbelievers.jpg" width="211" /></a>It's often dangerous to read a too hyped book, the fear being that the clamour among critics, award juries, and other readers sets the expectations way too high. Rebecca Makkai's <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36739329-the-great-believers">The Great Believers</a>, a recounting of the AIDS crisis in 1980s Chicago certainly brought the hype. Starred reviews from Kirkus and Publisher's Weekly, shortlisted for the National Book Award and the Carnegie Medal in Fiction and certain to make dozens of year end lists for best book of the year and is a favourite to win the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction next April. Despite the praise, I'd put off picking it up until the time was right, and it certainly was when I finally did a few days ago. Makkai has delivered a heart wrenching account of what she describes as a war, with the casualties of the crisis scarring the survivors with emotional wounds that never will completely heal.<br />
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The story is told through the eyes of two protagonist in two time periods. The first being Yale, a thirty-something gay art gallery procurer recounting his life from the mid 1980s just after the death of a close friend, Nico, up until the early 1990s. Dealing with the emotional turbulence of death surrounding him, the constant paranoia of becoming infected, and surviving a political and cultural environment keen to dispose of him and his friends, Yale's story is an intimate depiction of someone eager for stability, for love, and some professional success, all things we all take for granted but for Yale things so hard to attain because of the AIDS epidemic. Yale's sections are emotional juggernaughts, providing us an insight into a war zone that Yale has to navigate through, with others but often alone.<br />
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The second storyline takes place in 2015, following a fifty-year old Fiona, Nico's younger sister who remained loyal to her brother when her parents exiled him and chose Nico's friends as her family after his death. Thirty years later, she is in search of her long estranged daughter and ends up in Paris reconnecting with old friends and the community she stood by during the bleakest periods of the 1980s. While trying to figure out what went wrong with the relationship with her daughter, Fiona must face up to the impact the death that filled her youth had on who she was and how she related to those she cared deeply for. Some have suggested that her storyline is less powerful than Yale's, but I found it both necessary (allowing the reader to catch their breath, Fiona's timeline giving us some distance from the harshest and saddest moments of the story) but also a valuable perspective of those who embraced allyship during the 1980s and investigating the toll that brought with it.<br />
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Filled with discussions of art, love, friendship, sexuality and with a darkly sentimental reverence for a place and time that left so much carnage behind, Makkai delivers an emotionally devastating novel that while hard at times to take in, reads beautifully and fills the reader with the sense of loss that so many experienced during the period. Makkai delivers a book that is meticulously researched and is a worthy companion to other works of art and non-fiction that form the canon of gay and AIDS related depictions of the 1980s crisis.<br />
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One additional point I do want to bring up is the issue of allyship versus appropriation, that Makkai herself brings up in her acknowledgment. A few years ago, author Lionel Shriver launched a discussion about <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/sep/13/lionel-shrivers-full-speech-i-hope-the-concept-of-cultural-appropriation-is-a-passing-fad">cultural appropriation</a>, suggesting that writers were no longer allowed to write characters that shared their identities and that this amounted to censorship. She was, somewhat dishonestly, responding to l<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/the-bankruptcy-of-liberal-america-the-mandibles-by-lionel-shriver/2016/06/20/67f1a6f4-3322-11e6-8ff7-7b6c1998b7a0_story.html?utm_term=.66835b62eae2">egitimate criticisms of her book</a>, The Mandibles, and racist tropes she resorted to in depicting African American characters. Most retorted (<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/no-lionel-shriver-the-problem-is-not-cultural-appropriation/2016/09/20/1c3a5620-7e9f-11e6-8d13-d7c704ef9fd9_story.html?utm_term=.e01ecf21f026">here </a>and <a href="http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-ca-jc-appropriation-culture-20160926-snap-story.html">here</a>) Shriver, noting that of course authors are able to write characters that did not share their identities or experiences, but when one does so writers must do their homework, research, be respectful and cognizant that you are voicing an experience and a story that is not yours.<br />
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In many ways, The Great Believers is an example of doing this right. Makkai is a straight woman who is too young to have been in the middle of the crises. Yet she engaged in years of research, numerous interviews of those who were there, and used these first hand sources as readers to assure an authenticity to the story. The product speaks for itself, and shows what authors can do rather than repeat Shriver's dishonest laziness and faux outrage.<br />
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Anyways, this was a spectacular book and merits all the praise it has received. Hopefully with some award attention it will get the readership it deserves.The Reading Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12215564945059615664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-864245287098462873.post-85109717403927203662018-10-30T18:11:00.002-07:002018-10-30T18:13:44.831-07:00Non-Fiction NovemberTaking a bit of a break from YouTube as I try to figure out a workable set up while travelling. That said, still want to do some writing about books, and what better way to start than discussing what I hope to read for Non Fiction November, a whole month where those inclined to read fiction make an extra effort to read some subject matters less steeped in the made up.<br />
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So here are three book I hope to get through this month.<br />
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The first I hope to get to is <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36236157-asperger-s-children?ac=1&from_search=true">Asperger's Children: The Origins of Autism in Nazi Germany</a>. Autism is a subject matter close to my heart, an issue that has touched my family. A couple of years ago I listened to the marvelous <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22514020-neurotribes?ac=1&from_search=true">NeuroTribes</a>, which masterfully laid the history of autism and reframed how we see the condition as a reflection of neurodiversity in the human species. Asperger's Children delves deeply into the notorious and morally problematic experiments that one of the first studies of autism engaged in during the Third Reich's reign over Germany.<br />
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The second I hope to get to is Alexander Chee's <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35721123-how-to-write-an-autobiographical-novel?ac=1&from_search=true">How to Write an Autobiographical Novel</a>. Chee wrote the epic opera novel, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17912498-the-queen-of-the-night">Queen of the Night</a> a few years ago and is an entertaining and insightful presence on twitter. I'm looking forward to hearing his more elaborated thoughts on all sorts of issues impacting the social and political zeitgeist.<br />
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The third book I hope to tackle is <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36221506-mistaken-identity?ac=1&from_search=true">Mistaken Identity</a> by Asad Haider. Haider tries to address the very tangled subject of identity politics, which has both provoked right wing populist white identity politics and created divisions within the left trying to build a broad opposition to the emergence of extreme politics. I have heard great things about this and hopefully it's a tool that others wanting to build radical political alternatives to the mess we are in can use.<br />
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<br />The Reading Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12215564945059615664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-864245287098462873.post-4752838200571083002018-10-15T06:24:00.003-07:002018-10-15T08:43:33.032-07:00Man Booker Prediction OK not enough time to do a prediction video for this year's shortlist so decided to do a little blog post.<br />
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First things first. The Shortlist:<br />
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36047860-milkman?ac=1&from_search=true">Milkman</a> by Anna Burns (Graywolf)<br />
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39731474-washington-black">Washington Black</a> by Esi Edugyan (Knopf)<br />
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36396289-everything-under">Everything Under</a> by Daisy Johnson (Graywolf)<br />
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36373648-the-mars-room">The Mars Room</a> by Rachel Kushner (Scribner)<br />
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35187203-the-overstory?ac=1&from_search=true">The Overstory</a> by Richard Powers (Norton)<br />
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35659255-the-long-take?from_search=true">The Long Take</a> by Robin Robertson (Knopf)<br />
<br />
This is the first year in three that I haven't finished the entire shortlist. One book, Robin Robertson's The Long Take is not available in Canada until the end of the month and attempts to order it from the UK had to be hastily stopped. Richard Power's The Overstory, a 500+ page door stopper about trees, interests me but I wasn't ready to commit.<br />
<br />
So saying that take my opinions about who I think will win with the caveat that I cannot judge the books solely on literary merit, not that this is the only consideration taken into account anyways.<br />
<br />
I must say, that this feels like a weaker year than last. I gave 6 books from last five stars on Goodreads and this year none. Also, the two books from the longlist that appeared to resonate most, Sally Rooney's <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37539457-normal-people?ac=1&from_search=true">Normal People</a> and Guy Gunaratne's I<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35212538-in-our-mad-and-furious-city?ac=1&from_search=true">n Our Mad and Furious City</a>, did not even make the final list. So we are left with these six, most of which have not built loyal armies of readers.<br />
<br />
I'll also say that this year is one of the most unpredictable years since I started following closely. In 2015 it was clear that the award was going to be won by either <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22822858-a-little-life?ac=1&from_search=true">A Little Life</a> or A<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20893314-a-brief-history-of-seven-killings?ac=1&from_search=true"> Brief History of Seven Killings</a>. In 2017, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31549906-do-not-say-we-have-nothing?from_search=true">Do Not Say We Have Nothing</a> and <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22237161-the-sellout?ac=1&from_search=true">The Sellout </a>stood above the rest. Last year, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29906980-lincoln-in-the-bardo?ac=1&from_search=true">Lincoln in the Bardo</a> was the favourite both among bookies and critics. Although The Overstory is the bookies choice this year, one would not be totally stunned if any of the other books were to be named the winner.<br />
<br />
Other issues that are informing the conversation this year is the fact that there has not been a woman victor since Eleanor Catton won for her breathtaking tome <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17333230-the-luminaries?from_search=true">The Luminaries</a>. Nor has there been a UK winner since Hilary Mantel won her second Booker Prize for <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13507212-bring-up-the-bodies?ac=1&from_search=true">Bring Up The Bodies</a>. Will a jury feel inclined to award a book that ends these streaks? Purely on a law of averages, betting on a woman author from the UK would make sense. That would seem to give Anna Burns and Daisy Johnson an advantage.<br />
<br />
Another and even more suffocating issue is the presence of American authors on the list, the result of a rule change five years ago, a rule change that continues to be controversial and officially opposed by UK publishing. Considering the last two winners (Paul Beatty and George Saunders) were American, would a jury decide to blow up everyone's head and give the award to another American author?<br />
<br />
In terms of literary merit questions, of those I read, Washington Black felt like the most accomplished work, delving deep into thematic questions of freedom and the black experience in freedom all in the context of a compelling work of historical fiction. I also quite enjoyed Daisy Johnson's Everything Under, a chilling but very fresh retelling of the Oedipus myth and Rachel Kushner's women's prison drama, The Mars Room. Both brought such strong atmosphere and voice. Although many loved Milkman, I felt it to be such an exhausting reading experience. Set in the Troubles in Northern Ireland and told in a experimental style of dense, run-on sentences that leaves the reader few moments to catch their breath, I could imagine that its victory tomorrow will result in many people picking up the book and putting it down just as quickly.<br />
<br />
Of the two that I have not read, they both appear to have significant merits behind them. Power's book is the best reviewed on Goodreads and appears to have wowed those who managed to get through it. But it's Americaness will certainly be hard to overcome this year. The Long Take is a arguably a long form poem and its inclusion on the list speaks to the Booker prize pushing the limits of what is a novel. It also seems to be a beautifully constructed narrative and I will definitely pick it up when available. But will it be too much for the Booker to award a work that would not be deemed a novel by most readers? The Prize does not need to be beholden to the lowest common denominator reader, but one shouldn't be too contemptuous either.<br />
<br />
Anyways, here is my prediction (a foolish endeavour but nonetheless):<br />
<br />
Who Will Win: Washington Black<br />
Who May Win: Milkman<br />
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