Our Mutual Friend, Part 1

Whew, this is a long book.  Current progress: page 222/889.  And I have not been able to read as much as I had been recently b/c too much other crap to do, including a Federal Income Tax exam coming up soon...not as funny as Dickens.  I think Charles Dickens is hilarious, and I probably don't get half of his jokes.  To show you how fun he can be, we're going to play the Charles Dickens name game!!  Match the character name with their description: 

1. "With an immense obtuse drab face, like a face in a tablespoon, and a dyed Long Walk up to the top of her head, as a convenient public approach to the bunch of false hair behind, pleased to patronize Mrs. Veneering opposite, who is pleased to be patronized."

2. "So poor a clerk, through having a limited salary and an unlimited family, that he had never yet attained the modest object of his ambition: which was to wear a complete new suit of clothes, hat and boots included, at one time.  His black hat was brown before he could afford a coat, his pantaloons were white at the seams and knees before he could buy a pair of boots, his boots had worn out before he could treat himself to new pantaloons, and by the time he worked round to the hat again, that shining modern article roofed-in an ancient ruin of various periods."

3. "A dark gentleman.  Thirty at the utmost.  An expressive, one might say handsome face.  A very bad manner.  In the last degree contrained, reserved, diffident, troubled."

4. "a broad, round-shouldered, one-sided old fellow in mourning, coming comically ambling towards the corner, dressed in a pea overcoat and carrying a large stick.  He wore thick shoes, and thick leather gaiters, and thick gloves like a hedger's.  Both as to his dress and to himself, he was of an overlapping rhinoceros build, with folds in his cheeks, and his forehead, and his eyelids, and his lips, and his ears; but with bright, eager, childishly inquiring grey eyes, under his ragged eyebrows and broad-brimmed hat.  A very odd-looking old fellow altogether."

5. "an ill-looking visitor with a squinting leer who, as he spoke, fumbled at an old sodden fur cap, formless and mangy, that looked like a furry animal, dog or cat, puppy or kitten, drowned and decaying."

6. "this young rocking-horse was being trained in her mother's act of prancing in a stately manner without ever getting on.  But the high parental action was not yet imparted to her, and in truth she was but an under-sized damsel, with high shoulders, low spirits, chilled elbows, and a rasped surface of nose, who seemed to take occasional frosty peeps out of childhood into womanhood, and to shrink back again, overcome by her mother's head-dress and her father from head to foot."

A. Nicodemus Boffin

B. R. Wilfer

C. Lady Tippins

D. John Rokesmith

E. Georgiana Podsnap

F. Roger Riderhood

The point of this fun little exercise is to marvel at Dickens's powers of characterization.  The names always match the personalities so perfectly, and even every physical detail that he tells us about the characters reveals their true natures.  You read the person's name and physical description and you already know if they are good, bad, tragic, ridiculous, rich, poor.  I mean, could anyone named Uriah Heep have any redeeming qualities?  I just love that.  If Charles Dickens had written Twilight, none of us would be wondering why Edward and Jacob are so in love with Bella.  Much more Dickens to come, including trying to figure out why this book is titled Our Mutual Friend...

Mockingjay!

Real or not real -- this book is awesome.  Real!  I thought it was the perfect ending to the trilogy, even though I want to cry that it is over.  It is not a completely happy ending, but there is no way that it could have been (or should have been) after everything that Katniss has been through.  Even aside from the psychological damage, in this book alone, Katniss is strangled, shot, burned, has a ruptured spleen, broken ribs, shrapnel in her leg...she literally lives in the hospital.  But she overcomes it all and finds love and eventually realizes that she can escape from the horrors by focusing on the good deeds and acts of kindness that she has witnessed.  This series gives you examples of every possible reaction to violence and war -- anger and lust for revenge, depression, tears, compassion, immobility, calm purposefulness in caring for the injured, self-sacrifice, courage, humor, addiction -- and raises so many questions.  Could you kill another to save your life or the life of someone you love?  When does saving many justify the killing of a few?  Should you always accept an eye for an eye?  Can you love two people at the same time?  What is not fair during war?  Is it ever acceptable to use others?  Are there fates worse than death?  It's like a philosophy course disguised as YA lit.  And while all these questions are being raised, you get a completely gripping story and unforgettable characters.  I can't think of many villains creepier than President Snow...he smells like blood and roses, which gives me the willies just thinking about it.  This series will be definitely be on my list of books to be reread like once a year - READ THEM NOW!

Up next - Because I have been so absorbed with THG, I feel like I need something very different that I know will be good.  So get ready for Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens.

Catching Fire

Holy crap, this book is amazing!  I loved The Hunger Games, but this one just picks the story right back up and takes it to a new level.  It is kind of like the progression of the Harry Potter story where each book you get a bigger picture of this entire world that the author has created.  Don't want to give too much away, but there are some major twists and turns that I never saw coming.  You get to meet a lot of the former HG victors and it's really interesting to see how they're described and characterized to show how damaged they are.  The Peeta/Gale thing is seriously breaking my heart.

One thing I always look for in a series is how the author handles the generally inevitable and awkward recap of the previous book.  I think I've been fascinated by this ever since my Sweet Valley Twins days when chapter 2 of every book was the explanation of how Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield were identical twins with long honey-blonde hair and aquamarine eyes and matching dimples in their left cheeks, and even though they looked exactly alike, they were really very different b/c Elizabeth was the bookish type-a school journalist and Jessica was the outgoing social butterfly, but of course they were best friends too.  Oh and by the way, here's 5 more pages about their one-story ranch house, parents, older brother Steven, all their friends, Todd Wilkins, and a brief history of the Unicorn Club.  I never checked, but I wouldn't be surprised if some of these sections were just copied and pasted between the 150 different books in the series.  Obviously most authors don't take it to that extreme, but I just have no sympathy for people who might actually need that information.  If you don't read the books in order, then that's your fault and don't take up any of my time bringing you up to speed.  That being said, I thought that Suzanne Collins handled that aspect of the story very well - she tried to give info about what had happened in book 1 throughout instead of all at once, but there were definitely some places where it seemed forced.  We'll see what book 3 is like because it's up next - can't resist!

The Red Tent - Part 2

Well I finished the story of Dinah, and with apologies to Heidi, I don't think this one is a keeper.  I thought the final 2/3 was better than the first part, but for some reason it just didn't quite do it for me.  Reading this book is kind of like watching a flashback movie, except instead of going to the flashback, you just watch the old person telling the story the whole time.  Sure it's interesting, and you don't want to get up until you hear the end, but it doesn't really transport you.  Titanic without Leonardo DiCaprio.  It makes sense that that style would be used to emphasize the importance of storytelling in Dinah's history and that Dinah lives on through the females in her family passing on the story through the generations, but I think it makes it difficult to really build the other characters and there's not enough dialogue.

What a great story though - love, sex, murder, revenge.  Dinah is claimed in marriage by a prince who is so in love with her that he agrees to be circumcised as part of her bride-price along with his father and all of his male subjects.  That is true love.  I always thought Jacob was a heroic character in the Bible, but in this story he ends up ruining his daughter's life and living a cursed life until his miserable death.  Also, the brief account of Dinah in the Bible says that the prince rapes and defiles her, but in this story they fall in love at first sight and he promptly drags her to the bedroom where they do nothing but have sex and bath each other for about a week, which I hope for Dinah's sake is closer to the truth.

One big point I'll take away from this book is to be grateful to be a woman in 2010, rather than Genesis. Here are some things I can do that Dinah could not: get mad if my husband takes another wife, have drugs stronger than herb tonics during childbirth, eat meals with my husband, leave my house during my period...just to name a few.

Here is a good representative passage from when Dinah first sees and then has to cross the Euphrates as a child -
"I stood by the water's edge until the last trace of daylight had drained from the sky, and later, after the evening meal, I returned to savor the smell of the river, which was as heady to me as incense, heavy and dark and utterly different from the sweet, thin aroma of well water.  My mother, Leah, would have said I smelled the rotting grasses of the marsh and the mingled presence of so many animals and men, but I recognized the scent of this water the way I knew the perfume of my mother's body. ***
I had no time to be afraid.  The pack animals were at my back, forcing me ahead, so I entered the river and felt the water rise to my ankles and calves.  The current felt like a caress on my knees and thighs.  In an instant, my belly and chest were covered, and I giggled.  There was nothing to fear! ... I moved my arms through the water, feeling them float on the surface, watching the waves and wake that followed my gesture.  Here was magic, I thought.  Here was something holy. ***
Later that night, when I lay down to sleep among the women, I told my mothers what I had seen and felt by the side of the river and then in the water, during my crossing.  Zilpah pronounced me bewitched by the river god.  Leah reached out and squeezed my had, reassuring us both.  But Inna told me, 'You are a child of water.  Your spirit answered the spirit of the river.  You must live by a river someday, Dinah.  Only by a river will you be happy.'"

Up next: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

The Red Tent - Part 1

Sorry I forgot to tell you what was up next at the end of my last post.  I am currently about a third of the way through The Red Tent by Anita Diamant.  This book was recommended to me by two people: First, a nice lady at the book sale last year who was browsing right beside me, and second, Heidi Montag.  No, Heidi was not at the book sale, but she did tweet about this book and said it was great.  Guess she had plenty of time to read when she was recovering from all those plastic surgeries...

Anyway, I'm not so sure I would agree with Heidi that this book is great.  It is the story of Dinah, the only daughter of Jacob.  Dinah apparently gets a few sentences of fame in the Bible, and this is the rest of the story told in her voice.  I have just finished Part I, which is Dinah's retelling of the stories of her four mothers (well, she only really has one mother, but her father is married to her mother and her three aunts so she calls them all her mothers - weird).  There's not too much action in Part I - Jacob shows up at Dinah's grandfather's home, having apparently run away from his strained relations with his father Isaac and brother Esau, promptly marries the 4 sisters as soon as they've all started their periods, and then has 13 children.  So lots of sex (with women and with sheep - also weird) and lots of births.

I think the most interesting part of this book so far is the snapshot of life in biblical times - the food they ate, the medicine they used, the different gods and goddesses and idols they worshiped, the possessions they valued, family dynamics with polygamy.  I've been thinking for a while about trying to read the Bible because I never have, so this book has made me wonder how much we actually know about how people lived back then.  Another thing I loved is the family tree in the front to help keep track of all the different wives and whose kid is whose.  I always get excited when I start a book and it has a family tree, although sometimes it can be a bit of a spoiler.

This is the second book in a row that I've read with very strange names - Gad, Zilpah, Bilhah, Beor, Naphtali, Issachar, Re-nefer, Shalem, Oholibama - but for some reason, I don't find these names as distracting as the ones in The Hunger Games.

The Hunger Games

I loved this book!!  It was over way too quickly, and I would be seriously depressed right now if there weren't two more books in the trilogy.  The concept of teenagers being forced to fight each other to the death on live TV is definitely disturbing, but it's introduced and handled almost casually - I think we're supposed to feel desensitized to the idea just like the people of Panem.  Life in the Capitol seems full of unreality - crazy costumes and makeup, affected speech, hovercrafts, genetically altered animals - and the people in the Capitol are so intent on their material comforts and are so separated from the districts both physically and morally that they celebrate the Hunger Games and cheer on the competitors as if it really was just a game.  Most of the people in District 12 seem to be just as unconcerned - the games are just another burden imposed by the Capitol that takes time away from their daily struggle for survival.  So as humans, how far does our capacity to accept atrocities go?  Is it our responsibility to keep our head down and try to protect the ones we love or to risk the consequences of speaking out?  Isn't it kind of sick and twisted to enjoy reading this book - does that mean you might enjoy watching the actual Hunger Games as well?

Peeta and Gale - the new Edward and Jacob.  Two good looking guys with different skill sets.  One represents danger, the other security.  A heroine possibly in love with both.  Sound familiar?  I'm pretty sure Katniss could kick Bella's ass any day of the week, but there are certain similarities in the love triangle situation.  Gale is Katniss's literal partner in crime and wants her to run away, and he makes dangerous criticisms of the Capitol.  Peeta also loves Katniss and feeds her and keeps her warm, and her life may depend on her ability to convince the world that she loves him, but Peeta can't "walk with a velvet tread" like Gale and Katniss can't stop thinking of Gale when she's with him.  I was always Team Edward all the way, but I think I prefer Peeta here.  He's self-sacrificing, witty, strong, emotionally available.  It's definitely a tough choice though and I care about these characters enough that I'm already nervous about it.

One final thought - the names in this book bothered me.  Katniss, Clove, Peeta, Thresh, Rue, Glimmer, Cinna...  I guess maybe the strange names were supposed to seem futuristic, but I just found them distracting.  There have got to be some cool futuristic names that don't seem quite as dumb...

Love in the Time of Cholera, Part 2

Lately I've gotten in this habit of looking up a book on Wikipedia after I finish reading it, just to see what other people have had to say and some of the most interesting entries I've found are quotes about the books from the authors.  I read Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh a few weeks ago.  According to Wikipedia, it was recognized by Time magazine in 2005 as one of the 100 best English language novels written since 1923; however, in a letter to Graham Greene 5 years after its publication, Waugh apparently said that he had re-read the novel and was appalled.  Isn't that great to think about an author re-reading their own work years after it was published?  Makes me think about the book in a whole new way, thanks to Wikipedia.

Anyway, I read the Wikipedia entry on LITTOC after I finished reading it this morning and learned that Marquez once said "you have to be careful not to fall into my trap."  This has been interpreted to mean that you shouldn't just look at this book as a love story about a woman who marries another and the man who waits for her for over 50 years.  Does Marquez think we should not be sucked into being sympathetic for this man who so badly wants to be loved?  It's a real testament to the skill with which he lays that trap that he can make us cheer when a character who craps in his pants and molests a 14-year-old relative (who later commits suicide) finally wins the heart of his true love.  But I think that cheering for Florentino should give us hope - if Fermina can love him, then no one is unworthy of love.  Love is redemptive - it might not wash away our faults but if we can find one person to love us, then our faults have no power.  And I think its important that Florentino does not find that love until he and Fermina are both old and near death.  Maybe sometimes we have to grow old before we are lovable.  Which brings us with beautiful irony back to the beginning of the book where Jeremiah de Saint-Amour has committed suicide by cyanide at age 60 out of his refusal to never grow old, leaving the scent of bitter almonds that inevitably reminds Dr. Urbino of unrequited love.  GGM is my hero.

P.S. According to Wikipedia, the 2007 movie version of LITTOC was horrible and did not do the book justice at all.  I have trouble believing that anything with Javier Bardem could be that bad.  Anyone seen it?

Up next: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, which comes highly recommended by my friend smgA.

New Purchases

Forgot to share the news that I went shopping at Books-A-Million today.  I bought the 2nd and 3rd books of the Hunger Games trilogy and Wally Lamb's new book The Hour I First Believed.  Couldn't resist...

Love in the Time of Cholera, Part I

I have been meaning to read this book for years, and I finally decided that it was time after watching the movie Serendipity, which is without question one of the best five movies ever made.  Lars the Swedish new age wind musician guy, Eugene Levy as the uptight salesperson, John Cusack looking all shaggy and adorable, Jeremy Piven before he ate all that mercury and became an a-hole, Molly Shannon...doesn't get better than that.

It's hard to come up with one word to describe this book because it is beautiful, disgusting, funny, heartbreaking, disturbing all at the same time... For example: "But first he enjoyed the immediate pleasure of smelling a secret garden in his urine that had been purified by lukewarm asparagus."  As I read this book, I keep thinking about the coexistence of the beautiful and the ugly.  The story takes place in this old Caribbean city full of mango trees, exotic birds, and ocean views, but also suffering from poverty and war and teeming with pathogens.  Dr. Urbino is at times a respectable doctor and loving husband and at times an insufferable and shallow bore.  Florentino writes love poems and cherishes this pure adulation of his longtime love, and he also has seriously gross personal habits and has indiscriminate sex with "little birds" who he hunts down in the streets.  No character is completely likable, but no one is completely unredeemable either.  But that's life isn't it?  No city is totally clean, no relationship is always harmonious, no one who you love is as great as you hope they are.  However, there's still plenty of beauty to go around, and all you have to do is read Marquez to find some: 

"She put her palette down on a chair and tiptoed to the window, her ruffled skirt raised to keep it from dragging on the floor. She wore a diadem with a jewel that hung on her forehead, and the luminous stone was the same aloof color as her eyes, and everything in her breathed an aura of coolness."

"She clung to her husband.  And it was just at the time when he needed her most, because he suffered the disadvantage of being ten years ahead of her as he stumbled alone through the mists of old age, with the even greater disadvantage of being a man and weaker than she was.  In the end they knew each other so well that by the time they had been married for thirty years they were like a single divided being, and they felt uncomfortable at the frequency with which they guessed each other's thoughts without intending to, or the ridiculous accident of one of them anticipating in public what the other was going to say.  Together they had overcome the daily incomprehension, the instantaneous hatred, the reciprocal nastiness and fabulous flashes of glory in the conjugal conspiracy.  It was the time when they loved each other best, without hurry or excess, when both were most conscious of and grateful for their incredible victories over adversity.  Life would still present them with other mortal trials, of course, but that no longer mattered: they were on the other shore."