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A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid

My rating: 4 of 5 stars This is an incredibly powerful, angry book, with intense writing that speaks directly to the reader. It begins with, “If you go to Antigua as a tourist, this is what you will see.” Anyone considering a trip to the Caribbean (or anywhere less wealthy than America) should be required to read this. Jamaica Kincaid shines what feels like a fresh new light on racism and colonialism (the book was published in 1988 but feels extra relevant today as we watch Haiti struggle to rebuild itself). Slavery and colonialism may be over, but their legacy lives on, and as we gaze at the unreal beauty of the ocean, we should not forget, “it would amaze even you to know the number of black slaves this ocean has swallowed up.” The element this book is lacking is what to do about it. Should we really not travel? But the ending note seems to hold a hint of redemption, pointing out that now, “rubbish” masters and “noble” slaves are all just humans. Perhaps in reading books like this, acknowledging that anger like this is justified, and trying to understand how this pain was brought about, how it works, we can live differently and make Antigua ‘real’ again instead of just a postcard of that we use for our vacationing pleasure and don’t take the time to think twice about. View all my reviews »

“There is nothing else in magic but the wild thought of the bird as it casts itself into the void. There is no creature upon the earth with such potential for magic. Even the least of them may fly straight out of this world and come by chance to the Other Lands. Where does the wind come from that blows upon your face, that fans the pages of your book? Where the harum-scarum magic of small wild creatures meets the magic of Man, where the language of the wind and the rain and the trees can be understood, there we will find the Raven King.” —From Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke (p. 126).

The Mystic Masseur by V.S. Naipaul

My rating: 3 of 5 stars I am torn between anywhere from 2 to 5 stars on this book. It reads really quickly, especially in the first half. I read 100 pages on Wednesday and could hardly put it down and was so excited to give it a 5 star review and recommend it to everyone. Then Thursday came and I read the remaining 100 pages but struggled a little more and didn’t feel nearly as into it. It’s absolutely wonderful as a description of the life of Indians in Trinidad, who were sent there as indentured servants after the U.K. outlawed slavery (I did a little Wikipedia background work here). You see how little they have, how much they struggle to become modern, and their relationship with their homeland. They seem to float in an ambiguous sea of culture in which their choices can seem arbitrary yet have immense significance in the end. Wear the dhoti and kurta or the suit? Use “proper” grammar or speak Trinidian dialect? Capitalism or socialism? Most vexing, practice Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, or invent your own religion? Naipaul’s characters, like we all do but less obviously so, tend to invent their own hybrids; Leela speaks with her own invented accent (kind of like Madonna?) and has “a grammar that owes nothing to anybody.” Ganesh builds a Hindu temple to make money but is clearly an independent thinker. Indarsingh comes up with a new political philosophy called “Socialinduism.” Without directly addressing these choices, Naipaul shows his characters grappling with them in their everyday lives. I’m probably making it sound completely boring but I promise it is hilarious. Ganesh is immensely likable and finds his own inspired brand of success just through pure chutzpah and a sense of destiny. He slaps a sign on his house calling himself a Mystic and then seals his fame with a book inspired by his musical toilet-paper holder. Ramlogan, his father-in-law, is a particularly funny character, who cries easily and likes “hearing educated people giving off ideas.” (23) This book is hilarious and sweetly non-judgmental but sneakily sad in the end. View all my reviews »

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke

My rating: 3 of 5 stars In this book, everything has meaning and a language of its own: sky, stones, animals. Magic turns out to consist neither of the safe illusions of performance magicians nor of the dark powers of traditional magicians of literature. What it turns out to be is more radical, more exciting: the magic of Susanna Clarke’s universe is all around us, hidden just beneath the surface of the ordinary, waiting for us to learn to read it: “It was as if everything he could see was simply a skin that he could tear with one fingernail.” (501) Reading this made me want to read Yeats, another author who saw magic in nature, and could understand how a close relationship with nature leads to the invention of fairy stories. Don’t take it seriously and it will be a fun read. There’s not a single good female character and the male protagonists are too full of hubris to like. I had the strange sensation that I was not reading a book, but I was reading a MOVIE. I googled it and sure enough, this will be a movie sometime in 2010. Don’t know yet who’s in it. Of course, it’s really long (800 pages). This would be a perfect airplane book if you’re flying somewhere really far away and need something easy, fun, and intelligent to read. It’s light-hearted, clever, creative, and funny. But there are also plenty of dry parts that I bore patiently. View all my reviews »

Wow, this is an amazing blog.

Boyhood: Scenes From Provincial Life by J.M. Coetzee

My rating: 4 of 5 stars An excellent memoir that uses totally unadorned language to tell the story of J.M. Coetzee as a young boy trying to make sense of the world and figure out the meaning of his life. The title and the use of “he,” “his mother,” “his father,” and “his brother,” instead of their names, gives this a sparse, universal, almost archetypal feel. Yet at the same time, Coetzee the individual, Coetzee the famous writer, is unmistakable, as the boy describes an almost religious feeling of being called to something special, something that will go on forever. Art is often most meaningful and dramatic when it is at its simplest, and Coetzee certainly manages to find meaning in the most banal details of childhood. Conversely, he makes the tragedies of South African politics even more heartbreaking when told from the simple, uncomprehending perspective of a child. Would South Africa have been as tumultuous if children weren’t raised to feel such damaging disparity between the reality of their emotional life and the injustices of society? Coetzee describes a sense of needing to hide his real self, saying, “He has a sense that something is slowly tearing inside him all the time: a wall, a membrane. He tried to hold himself as tight as possible to keep the tearing within bounds.” (9) I didn’t love the other Coetzee I’ve read (Elizabeth Costello was only agreeable because of its vegetarian main character and The Life and Times of Michael K bored me), but this makes me eager to revisit his work, starting with Youth, then Summertime, the follow-ups to Boyhood. I reserve full judgment about the memoirs until reading them all. I don’t give this 5 stars even though I highly recommend it because it didn’t quite fully absorb me somehow. I got a little bored during all the cricket talk. And it’s not quite as transcendent as I think it could be. But I did love the honesty. Coetzee bares his soul with a Zen-like acceptance and honesty that makes the uncomfortable sympathetic and simply natural. Oh, and funny. View all my reviews »

I Heart Huckabees: The Shooting Script by Jeff Baena

My rating: 5 of 5 stars I have never read a screenplay before. As far as I can tell, this was the perfect one to start with. This script is so funny and rich. It’s refreshing to see spiritual/philosophical issues addressed in a comedic way. This is also one of the best movies made about the environment that I know of. Especially after just finishing up with the darkness of Boyhood, I was happy to read something that presented a practical middle ground between the emotionally brutal concept of nihilism and the pleasing but often difficult to practice new age-y oneness. I will now be renting out my services as an existential detective! Please call with any dilemma. View all my reviews »

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz

My rating: 5 of 5 stars “Nerdly, Nerdliness, nerdery, Nerd Class 2, supernerd.” Oscar Wao, a morbidly obese young man whose depth of nerdery can only be described with a whole new set of declensions of the word nerd, is in the end, one of the greatest heroes of this page-turning novel. Beginning (and ending) with Oscar, we read the stories of several generations of the Cabral family, which is supposedly cursed by the infamous Dominican “Fuku” curse that can strike anytime, inflicting horrors both unfair and unimaginable. The whole country seems to be cursed by fuku as well, living under the terrifying dictatorship of Trujillo, an absolute monster of history whose atrocities upon humanity are outlined in amusing and saddening footnotes. There are certain elements that will guarantee my love of a novel: magical realism, Spanglish, humor, multigenerational sagas, humor, pop culture references, feminist spirituality, immigration, and history explained. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao has all this, plus it adds to my list: now I will feel partial towards novels with science fiction and fantasy references. Read it for the pure unfettered play of the narrative voice, for the colorful, often stubborn characters, and to find out whether the Cabral family finds a way to shake the “Fuku.” View all my reviews »

The Schopenhauer Cure: A Novel by Irvin D. Yalom

My rating: 4 of 5 stars This is the third Irvin Yalom book I’ve read in the last few months. The more I read, the more I am addicted. He turns philosophy, psychology, and even a vipassana meditation retreat into page-turning, emotionally engaging fiction. Reading his books is almost like going through therapy myself. Somehow, Yalom invokes some of the most pessimistic, miserable philosophers ever living, and uses their ideas and lives as inspiration to write life-affirming stories. This particular book stars a character named Philip, who seems to be the reincarnation of Arthur Schopenhauer, a generally appalling misanthrope. Through modern-day Philip, the novel addresses the question, “How would Schopenhauer have responded to group therapy?” I know that doesn’t sound like the most exciting basis for a novel, but it yields a constantly dramatic plot that moved me deeply with an ending I would have never predicted. View all my reviews »