Lazy W Marie

Carpeing all the diems in semi-rural Oklahoma...xoxo

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The Birth of Venus (Book Review)

   My most recent literary adventure was orchestrated by a lovely woman named Sarah Dunant, author of The Birth of Venus. It is a 400 page piece of historical fiction, illustrating and exploring the life of an Italian woman during the late fifteenth century. I loved it. It reads like a guilty pleasure but feeds your mind enough to make you feel pretty good about it. Like a bacon sundae.

Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant, 2004
   In all seriousness, reading good historical fiction is a fabulous way to both tempt and satisfy an appetite for real history, all the while thoroughly indulging in everything avid readers love. This novel weaves together with dazzling emotion and detail the lives of Renaissance artists, authority figures of the Catholic church, Italian politicians, and nameless but fascinating private citizens. 
   I wonder if history teachers ever use fiction to reinforce their lessons? I think it would be a great idea. Seeing the world’s most notable events unfold from the street view, so to speak, rather than from the usual global perspective, really raises better questions and prompts more compassion and understanding than just memorizing lists of names, dates, and capital cities. 
   Okay, teaching style rant over. Back to highly recommending this gorgeous piece of writing.
   If you are interested in art history, this book will surround you with mouthwatering images, understanding, and fascination about who painted, how they painted, why they moved around the world, what impacted their style, and how their careers evolved. Without hitting you over the head with the obvious, Dunant hints at and whispers secrets about artists some people only know as teenage mutant ninja turtles. It is wonderful. I have walked away slightly pleased with what I could discern from her sneaky suggestions but also desperately hungry to know more.
   If you are a sucker for reading about social struggle and the motivations of different classes of people at key moments in history, this book will tease you plenty. Dunant deals a lot with the impact of religion and politics on the Italian social fabric, and I think the issues raised in these 400 pages could keep a good intellectual discussion fueled for months. Book club, beware…

   Perhaps it comes as no surprise to you that a complex tale of a woman’s life during this highly textured time in history would include sex. Well, it does. Plenty of it, though not in the Christian Grey kind of way. Dunant unfolds this aspect of life elegantly but directly. So that is just my little caveat for you, lest you should arrive at that first juicy page while reading aloud to either your history class or your mother in law.
   One more thing I would like to mention is how the author has generously seasoned her story with lines that are perfectly quote worthy. Her characters speak sometimes in a vernacular of adage, so if you borrow my copy you will find lots of highlighting and dog-earring.
“My limitations made me despair. 
As long as I was both 
my own master and apprentice
I would be forever caught 
in the web of inexperience.”
   You guys, what a beautiful story. Truly. What a great way to be reminded of the importance of the Italian Renaissance, the seriousness of religious corruption, the power of the female force, and the tendency for history to repeat itself. I am so thankful to authors like Sarah Dunant who take the time to study our mutual past then express it in new and sparkling ways. 
Consider Your Own History 
and the Complex Story it Would Tell
xoxoxoxo  

Craving a Smart but Twisted Read? (Book Review of Survivor)

   Holding my breath and sandwiched sideways between book club projects and an ever growing Goodreads list, I have rebelled and spent the last few days peeled away from the crowd. Devouring an offbeat novel all by myself, with nobody’s permission and nobody’s company. What has been at the center of my papery affair?

Survivor
Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk, author of Fight Club 



   This feels so sneaky, except that I am neither alone nor terribly original. This book was loaned to me by our very youngest book clubber, Mysti. Also, its author Chuck Palahniuk, creator of a little thing called Fight Club, comes highly recommended by Julia. 



   Ignoring these facts, I have for a few days been pretending to be an independent, free thinking reader. My ego takes what it can get.

Most of you know Julia by now. She is my baby sister’s ten-four good buddy and my west coast literary mentor. Julia is the shiz-nay. You should read my two-part interview with her here and here. She is a cool chic with a fascinating job. 
   
   Survivor has been a trippy read, you guys. When Mysti handed it over to me in secret at the end of a particularly crowded book club dinner, she touted it as “a little twisted,” and now I see why. So the question is, does having thoroughly enjoyed this book make me a little twisted? Cast your vote in the comments, please. 

********************



   Survivor grabbed me with the first sentence and has since then confused me, made me chuckle, made me wonder about so many social and religious themes, and inspired some fastidious house cleaning in the most literal, physical sense. (The main character is a housekeeper by trade.)

  I definitely recommend this book, though with a few caveats: Potential readers should know that a major theme of the story is suicide and that for the most part it is handled with unemotional casualness. Dark humor, certainly. The story’s sexuality could be perceived as perverse by some people, too. Finally, its religious commentary is, well, not flattering to most of the Christian community. That is sometimes uncomfortable for people, so head’s up gentle reader.


   The author’s message is somewhere behind and betwixt all of that, though. I was able to glean from these 289 pages (listed in reverse, by the way, another strange delight) a lot of positive energy and worthwhile thinking then even laugh and pretend to be really smart for a few days. 

“Still, just dawning on him is the idea 
that now anything is possible. 
Now he wants everything…
After moments like this, 
your whole life is gravy.”

   That quote is chalkboard worthy.


   Honestly, telling you what this book is about is a bit tricky. The storytelling and flavor are unconventional for sure. I know I say that a lot, but today I really mean it. The speaker jumps from present tense action to internal commentary with little warning and even less dialogue punctuation, all the while telling his own life story and keeping a myriad of story lines and character developments taut and interesting. I loved it. I may have been cringing through about a third of the pages, but I still loved it. The laughing more than made up for it.

   Palahniuk manages to wrangle so many controversial and agitating topics at once that for the first half of the book I was constantly guessing what he wanted me to care about most. Religious cultism, extreme materialism, media machinery and our new culture of attention addiction, psychobabble diagnosis obsessions (perhaps all cults unto themselves), and more. While he prompts plenty of self analysis, I gradually learned to stop forming opinions, mostly because nobody asked. That seemed to be a message unto itself: Mass movements are bad, you guys. Think for yourself but please keep your opinions to yourself. Live your own life. 


   Through one unanticipated misadventure after another, Palahniuk pokes fun at serious stuff. He makes almost sarcastic remarks on society by building his plot in ridiculous, exaggerated ways, and by inserting just enough realism to make it all believable. Then suddenly the controversial and agitating topics are so well braided together that I saw how the story would have been incomplete without any of them. And then a moment later the story has ended. Just like that. I was so frothed up by the final chapter that I had to block the remaining paragraphs with my hands, forcing myself to only read one line at a time, as slowly as possible. I was in a panic about the ending and would have been happy for the story to continue a wile longer.


   The characters of the book are as offbeat as the book itself and provide gritty, sometimes uncomfortable texture to the weird story. I found myself rooting for everybody at one time or another, only barely understanding each of them. Is this guy messing with us? Did I just fall for a big literary practical joke? Don’t care. Loved it.  

********************

  Rumor has it that Julia just might be able to get this dorky girl (yours truly) an interview with Chuck Palahniuk. I already have a million questions, but I am pretty sure he’ll be rolling his eyes because I missed something big. This novel is so layered with implication that I wonder if even its creator gets all of it. It would make either a fascinating or a devastating springboard for friendly debate.


   Read Survivor. Keep track of how often you cringe or laugh out loud. And get back with me. I need to talk about this in exhaustive detail.


Be Weird and Accidentally Brilliant,
and Keep Reading!
xoxoxoxo



SurvivorSurvivor by Chuck Palahniuk

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


WOW. Proper review on my blog, The Lazy W:

http://thelazyw.blogspot.com/2012/06/…



View all my reviews


The Grapes of Wrath (book review)

   Our famous little book club tackled a modern classic this session, The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. Have you read it? Being from Oklahoma, the ancestral land of the Joad family, you might think we all had read it before, but not so.

   Of the twelve ladies who participated this month, only four had read it in school and some of those admitted they might have had help from Cliffs Notes. So in essence this was a new read for everyone. My point is to not feel ashamed if you think you “should” have read Grapes by now, and do not feel guilty if you’ve only seen the Henry Fonda movie. You might be surprised by how many people are in the same boat. Just please do find time to read it eventually, especially if you are from either Oklahoma or California, the two states whose recent histories are so intertwined in these pages.

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, a luxurious tray of fruit, and perfect coffee.
I am so blessed.

   Okay. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, you guys. For the important social and historical reasons, for the chapter rhythm of action/insight/action/insight, for the author’s descriptive powers, for the characters, and for the deepening of gratitude it caused in my heart, I loved The Grapes of Wrath.

   This is the story of a tenant farming family from Oklahoma who is driven out of their home because of the Dust Bowl of the early twentieth century. They are a varied group, like any clan, and they follow Route 66 out of necessity, seeking a paradise in California.

   Steinbeck writes in such a way that you feel the excruciating detail of daily life during those hot, dry years; He builds characters worth knowing (my favorite was Ma Joad); and with his words he exposes the natural world in ways that prompt large-scale thinking. Case in point: Chapter 3. It’s all about a turtle and its journey across a road. Steinbeck’s telescoping observations are plain and profound all at once. He inspires humanity in strong, simple ways, just by telling the story of what was happening in our country at that time.

   One of the things that was happening, of course, was a westbound migration, an influx of people into California from here and other parts of the then suffering country, and I cannot help but make comparisons to our modern issues of Mexican immigration and border control. If you only have time to dabble, then please find chapter 21 and allow your heart to simmer in Steinbeck’s perspective on this hot button issue. He paints the picture from both sides and does so poetically.

   Another impression this book made on me was a new understanding of society. Heavily on a few pages about halfway in, but really all throughout the book, the reader sees disconnected people form and reform micro societies. They build social orders and maintain traditions and rituals without being told how to do so. They live and love according to some internal directives, revealing their hearts’ desires and their programmed humanity. This stuff was delicious to me. The cycles of need and relief, pain and pleasure, hot and cool, they made every page tangible.

   At our book club dinner-slash-swim party this past weekend, one member Desiree shared with us stories from her grandfather. Like many of our personal ancestors, he was a small child during Oklahoma’s Dust Bowl and Depression, but beyond that he has vivid memories of traveling to California with his parents. He remembers picking fruit for pennies and traveling Route 66 by car. He remembers returning to Oklahoma to live with his brother, around eighth grade. This turned out to be his last year of formal education, but he went on to become a successful businessman and is today a well respected pillar of the community in Seminole, Oklahoma. Isn’t that incredible? This cemented the Joad family story a little more and is another reminder to me of how much real, pulsing history we have in our grandparents. I am so thankful to Desiree for sharing this with us.


   Something else that we all found interesting was that the term Okie used to be terribly derogatory. Did you know that? I was surprised. I have heard and used this term my entire life and never once tasted negativity with it. But apparently, and certainly in Grapes, Okie was at that time an ugly, demeaning word used to refer to the dirty, misunderstood people from this part of the country. Fellow book-clubber Misti told us Saturday night that it was not until the 1995 Murrah Building bombing that Oklahomans adopted the word as a point of home-state pride and affection. Fascinating. Those of you not from here, have you heard this word? Do you use it? Does it mean anything to you? This is super interesting to me and I’d love some feedback.


   In closing, a few nuts and bolts statistics from our group:

  • Twelve fantastically smart, witty, gorgeous, and hilarious women read this book.
  • Only four of us has sort of read it before.
  • Three of the twelve admitted to not quite finishing the book and were honest about why. The turtle chapter was mentioned as perplexing by more than one person. 
  • Four of us would recommend this book to a friend.
  • Another novel is mentioned in the beginning of Grapes and is touted as another important read, probably a strong influence on Steinbeck at the time: The Winning of Barbara Worth  by Harold Bell Wright. Guess what was just added to my encyclopedic Goodreads list?
  • I used an ink pen with abandon while reading this book and estimate about three or four dozen notable quotes and expressions worth exploring further. The Grapes of Wrath is flush with poetry, wisdom, and social commentary. Read it.
   I hope I have encouraged you to spend some time with this novel. If you have already traveled Route 66 with the Joad family, I would love to hear your thoughts! In the mean time, I wish you the safest, surest journey possible. Appreciate whatever ease you have in life. Know that all difficulties have an end.
Proud to be an Okie
xoxoxoxo

 

The Book Thief (a book review)

   This novel, The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak, is a title our club consumed a few months ago. I am just now reviewing it, honestly, because I am just now finishing it. I did not much groove this book, you guys. Not much at all. And this places me squarely in our club’s minority. It has several redeeming qualities, for sure, and I am happy to share them with you and encourage you to try it for yourself; but overall I had to push and prod myself through page after page. Even with nice, beefy subject matter like friendship and survival, coming of age, and genocide, I like books to offer a little more momentum than that. Okay, now that that’s out of the way… Have you heard of The Book Thief?

   It is a fancifully written but gritty, personal account of a young girl living in Nazi Germany. It is told more or less from the perspective of Death himself, which as far as I remember is why our club chose the book in the first place. Written by Marcus Zusak, this story is aimed at a Young Adults audience and in fact spent almost a year on the New York Times Children’s Literature best seller’s list. That’s quite something! And it may sort of explain why I had a hard time connecting with it.

   The format is unique, in that Death sometimes narrates in a comfortably informal, conversational tone, and other times the story is told as distantly as any novel. I greatly preferred the odd narration and really liked how Zusak used sensual imagery to convey war and death. Especially luscious are the long series of different ways Death lifts a soul from its body, and often, interestingly, vivid accounts of the sky at the moment each soul is claimed.

“The sky was like soup, boiling and stirring. 
In some places it was burned. 
There were black crumbs, and pepper, 
streaked across the redness.”

   That was well done, as were many scattered elements of the story. I got lost in more than a few descriptive scenes like that. And he does express pain really well.

“Hans Hubermann sat with her. 
He placed his hand on hers, as she fell back to the hard ground.
He allowed her screams to fill the street.”

   The characters are only marginally sympathetic for me, until the very tail end of the book, and by then I was rather exhausted. On the other hand, the characters were realistic and believably flawed, less heroic than we are used to seeing in novels. Perhaps that was his whole point, that the World Wars were fought by real people, that not all Germans were all evil or all good, and that not all Jews or Allies were either.

   Again, this is important historical material, and perhaps it is intended to fall on ears that have had little exposure to World War II realities. Zusak does a great job reducing the big events to the cellular level, relaying, for example, how a bombing raid would feel to a village, to a family, to a young girl. And through the main character’s life story we are invited to see how the wars affected German bystanders who were not necessarily Hitler supporters. These are valuable perspectives, for sure. And I do not mean to discount them or any other part of the book with my overall negative impression of it. It was just a slightly laborious read.

   I find myself wishing Zusak would write something else, something more adult, employing more of the fringed imagery he has invented.

   Have you read this book? Please share your thoughts. And please do not forward this to the author.

A Friend to All is a Friend to None, 
Even in Book Reviews
xoxoxo

Let the Great World Spin: a book review

   This latest book was suggested and loaned to me by my friend Desiree, one of our original four book clubbers. Hi Desiree! Thank you for this, I totally enjoyed it! She is an avid reader with strong opinions, and she always brings something interesting to the discussion table. So when she thought specifically of me for a title she had just finished, I paid close attention. And then I gobbled it up greedily. In a nutshell: this award winning and critically acclaimed novel was just as interesting and enlightening as it was beautifully written.

Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann

(Thank you goodreads for this cover image!)

    Set almost entirely in 1970’s New York City, Let the Great World Spin tells the stories of several seemingly unrelated characters who are like the spokes on a wagon wheel if the center of the wheel is this certain event: a renegade tightrope walker between the Twin Towers. Their lives begin to intersect more and more, and a history between them builds just exactly the way real life does. Telling you that much, though, does nothing to impart the book’s magic.

   If you read this piecemeal, like I did the first third or so, you may not notice this at first, but ingesting several chapters at once will make it clear: the author writes in a perfectly unique voice with every single character. New vocabulary, new mood, new context, everything was new every time we moved to a new perspective. I could find none of the usual narrator’s objectivity, and I loved it.

   A little bossy momma’s warning: this is an excellent book, told truthfully and graphically. It is not suitable for children or young adults. Desiree, are you sure you’re old enough to read this?? LOL Totally kidding.

   One other thing struck me about the pattern McCann built as the characters were revealed. Each one of them had a drive, something in his or her life that fully motivated will, pleasure, longing, and relationships. Some of those drives were healthy and some were certainly not, but under his creative brush, I have to admit that I could see the pull of each one clearly. The inertia or magnetism, even when it was negative. Career mobility, romance, drugs, charity, grief… These people had kinetic themes attached to their lives whether they liked it or not. That gave me a lot to think about you guys. What are your life themes?

   In addition to their actual life paths, these personalities also differed in how they viewed and interpreted the tightrope walker. An otherwise innocuous event sparked opinions in people and interactions between friends and strangers that were really insightful, really telling of the spectrum of emotions human beings are capable of displaying. And of course, we cannot help but see the intentional foreshadowing of the September 11th attacks on those same towers.

   On the back cover of Let the Great World Spin is a list of glowing reviews from various authors and publications. I’d like to share one that happens to express my own opinion succinctly:

“McCann’s gift (is) finding grace in grief
and magic in the mundane,
and immersing the reader in these thoroughly.”
~San Francisco Chronicle

   Exactly. Maybe that’s why I liked it so much: finding grace in grief and magic in the mundane is what keeps me going. More than that, it’s what fills the tiny gaps in life and what grows us from the inside out. Do you agree?
   While browsing for cover images, I happened to see that many sites are already dedicated to listing quotes from this book. I am not at all surprised. If this had been my personal copy I would have dried up two highlighters and a red pen by the end! Just for fun, here are some quotes I happened to really like myself (and no I didn’t cheat and pull these off of someone else’s list, these were collected along the way like wildflowers):
  • “Let this be a lesson to us all, said the preacher. You will be walking someday in the dark and the truth will come shining through, and behind you will be a life that you never want to see again.”
  • “Genius, they called it. But it was only genius if you thought of it first. A teacher told him that. Genius is lonely.”
  • “He said to me once that most of the time people use the word love as just another way to show off they’re hungry. The way he said it went something like: Glorify their appetites.”
  • “I wasn’t sure if I hated her or not. Sometimes my mind sways between good and bad. I wanted to lean across and smash the glass and grab her nappy hair, but then again, she was looking after my babies, they weren’t in some orphanage, starving, and I could’ve  kissed her for not giving them too many lollipops and rotting their teeth.”
  • “He never saw himself in any danger or extremity, so he didn’t return to the moment he lay down on the cable, or when he hopped, or half ran across from the south to the north tower. Rather it was the ordinary steps that revisited him, the ones done without flash. They were the ones that seemed entirely true, that didn’t flinch in his memory.”
  • “Now that he was gone he had a name again. Thomas. I wrote it in blue eyeliner on my bathroom mirror. I looked through it, beyond, at myself.”
  • “Every time a branch of mine got to be a decent size, that wind just came along and broke it.”
  • “Listening to people is like listening to trees- sooner or later the tree is sliced open and the watermarks reveal their age.  
  • “…she was tired of everybody wanting to go to heaven, nobody wanting to die. The only thing worth grieving over, she said, was that sometimes there was more beauty in this life than the world could bear.”
   And just one more, possibly my favorite…

“Afterward, Gloria said to her 
that it was necessary to love silence, 
but before you could love silence 
you had to have noise.”

   Please do try to squeeze this into your reading schedule soon, before they make it into a movie. Can you believe the weird timing? I finished the book the day that article there was published. 
   Anyway, it is a very well done 349 page illustration of humanity, and reading it will be time well spent. Please let me know what you think!

Thanks again Desiree!
xoxoxo