Books – Page 40 – …on the B.L.

The Glass Castle

July 31, 2017 RaeAnna

Read Yes
Length 288
Quick Review A memoir about the difficulties of growing up in a dysfunctionally transient family with a fascinating and intelligent alcoholic of a father leading their way.

I read this book a few years ago, and it has stayed with me not just for the story but because of Walls’ writing. With the movie coming out in a few days, I power read it over the weekend. It is just as resonating a second time.

Jeannette Walls is a journalist in New York City with a degree from Barnard College. These are wonderful achievements, which help define her character and intelligence even more so considering what she overcame as a child. The Glass Castle is a testament to her resilience.

Walls was born in 1960 to Rex and Rose Mary. She is one of four children. Growing up she lived a nomadic life. Her father was a brilliant man. His children adored him before growing up to resent his alcoholism and inability to conform even a little. He was able to capture his children’s imagination through storytelling and science. The children were home schooled a great deal with an emphasis on living life through the absence of fear. With one parent abhorring the conformity of society, the children needed a grounded parent. They did not find it in their mother, Rose Mary. She was an artistic free spirit looking at feminine domesticity as a prison she would not tolerate. She dismissed her role as parent and mother.

Walls writes about the difficulties of growing up in secluded environment. She describes the bond between her siblings; how they would lean on each other for support, nourishment, clothing, and protection in a world where their parents were barely present.

All four Walls children went on to live in society as fully functional and present participants ending up in New York City. Rex and Rose Mary followed their children to New York. Rex died in 1994 from a heart attack after he and his wife chose to remain homeless despite offers of help from their children.

Walls is a wonderful writer. She does not shy away from brutal honesty. She meets her childhood trauma head on with the maturity in the realization it formed her into the well-respected and successful journalist and writer she is today.

Memorable Quotes
“You’ve got to get right back in the saddle. You can’t live in fear of something as basic as fire.”
“You have to find the redeeming quality and love the person for that.”
“She had her addictions and one of them was reading.”
“Life’s too short to care about what other people think. Besides, they should accept us for who we are”

Title: The Glass Castle
Author: Jeannette Walls
Publisher: Scribner
Copyright: 2005
ISBN: 9780743247542

Books

Herland

July 24, 2017 RaeAnna

Read Yes
Length 147
Quick Review Written over a hundred years ago, this underappreciated utopian novel is a small powerful punch. It is still incredibly relevant in today’s society as a critique on gender and society.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman is best known for her short story “The Yellow Wallpaper.” She never shied away from the difficult subjects at a time when very few women even received an education.

Herland is the story of three young men, who have ventured on an exploratory expedition. Along their journey they find out about a country inhabited solely by women. They could not believe this to be true, so they took off to discover it for themselves.

The story is told in first person narrative by Vandyck Jennings observing the new country, the inhabitants, their ways and beliefs, and the reaction between the women and his counterparts. His travel companions are Terry Nicholson and Jeff Margrave. They are all very educated men embodying very different yet mainstream Western beliefs on the role women play in society and the home. Jeff believes women are purity anchoring society in goodness meant to be worshipped as delicate in body and mind. Terry believes women are objects to be possessed and controlled whose existence is solely for the pleasure and benefit of men, who are superior. Vandyck is in the middle choosing to look at Herland and the inhabitants through an educated lense but still preferring his homeland.

When the men arrive in Herland they can’t stop looking for the men believing women are incapable of surviving without men. They are taken as prisoners. The women learn all they can from the three men, who are the first men they’ve encountered in 2,000 years. Through their interaction the men learn and are shocked by the organized and intellectual abilities of the women.

Though it was written in 1915, it is still incredibly relevant in today’s society. In many ways society has not progressed much further from the three viewpoints embodied by the men. Women are still seen as delicate in need of protection, seductresses, or far too emotional to function in any capacity with a greater power and reach than mother and homemaker. Men, and even women, are still shocked and intimidated to find a successful, organized woman.

Gilman is able to tackle incredibly complex and difficult subjects in a mere hundred and twenty-two pages. She is able to tear down the traditional meaning of feminine and the meaning of motherhood. She shows women are equally capable, if not more, of organized and intellectual society. Gilman explores the meaning of society, gender, sex, and happiness.

Memorable Quotes
“They were inconveniently reasonable, those women.”
“These stalwart virgins had no men to fear and therefore no need of protection.”
“This led me very promptly to the conviction that those “feminine charms” we are so fond of are not feminine at all, but mere reflected masculinity – developed to please is because they had to please is, and in no way essential to the real fulfillment of their great process.”
“If, by any accident, you did harm any one of us, you would have to face a million mothers.”
“They aren’t human – they’re just a pack of Fe-Fe-Females!”
“There never was a woman yet that did not enjoy being MASTERED.”

Title: Herland
Author: Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Publisher: CreateSpace Publishing
Published: 1915
ISBN: 9781534848474

Books

Shame by Annie Ernaux

July 19, 2017 RaeAnna

Read Yes
Length 112
Quick Review A very short yet punchy memoir about a woman reminiscing on the events of her twelfth summer, and how her perception was forever altered by the trauma.

Annie Ernaux is finally able to commit to paper the life altering event which shaped her life’s perspective. Since the event, she has been marked by a feeling of never ending shame. This book is different from others she has written. She had been able to name her hometown previously, but found herself unable to after writing the first page.

Ernaux starts the book out with a stunning sentence: “My father tried to kill my mother one Sunday in June, in the early afternoon.” Normally a writer would leave something like this for further into the book; however, she starts with this and uses the rest of the book to explain her life leading up to the event.

As the daughter of store owners, a religious zealot of a mother, and a push-over of a father in a small, rural town in France, Ernaux felt oppressed, confined, controlled, and watched. Ernaux was “lucky” enough to go to private school meaning a school in a convent. Her parents had a shop in their home. Her town was small full of watching eyes. These aspects culminated in having to always maintain a facade of perfection in order to maintain a good standing at school, keep her parents happy, allow the family to look perfect, and never stray from the path.

Her father, who had been nothing but acquiescent to her mother, lost it and held a scythe to his wife’s neck in front of his daughter, Annie. By the afternoon, everything went back to normal in the house. For Ernaux, nothing was ever normal again. She viewed life as before and after. She was constantly waiting for the next time; nervous she would arrive home to a disaster.

Though it’s a short book, it is relatable. Everyone experiences shame in one way or another. Shame is felt by people for different reasons in different ways, but it is a burden we all bear silently because we feel alone in our own shame.

Memorable Quotes
“We have no true memory of ourselves.”
“Politeness was the supreme virtue, the basic principle underlying all social behavior.”
“Believing and having to believe were the same thing.”
“For me the word private will always suggest deprivation, fear and lack of openness. Including in the expression private life. Writing is something public.”
“The worst thing about shame is that we imagine we are the only ones to experience it.”
“…that the shame will never cease and that it will only be followed by more shame.”

Title: Shame
Author: Annie Ernaux
Translator: Tanya Leslie
Publisher: Seven Stories Press
Copyright: 1998
ISBN: 9781888363692

Bookstores

The Last Bookstore

July 17, 2017September 8, 2019 RaeAnna

I happened upon The Last Bookstore in downtown LA by accident, truly. I was on my way to a dinner reservation (see Los Angeles – Eating) when the strap on my high heel broke… Ugh! So I had to hobble to a Walgreens for some super glue to save the day, which it did. As I was speed walking through downtown LA to make my reservation, I walked by The Last Bookstore. Speed peeping through the window, I made a mental note to return after dinner. I did. It was worth it.

I vowed I would only spend $20 because I don’t need more books… Who am I kidding? Of course I NEED more books. I spent a bit more than $20 a few times more. I’m proud of myself; I could have spent so much more. This bookstore was amazing. Seriously.

You walk into the bookstore, and it’s marvelous. They sell both new and used books. The used books are in all but perfect condition, and at such a low price you would be stupid to buy new. Feel free to buy new, though! I was in heaven. There is the ground floor which has contemporary fiction and classical fiction and self help and cooking and rare books and biographies and more. There are hug columns, which are gorgeous. When you walk up the stairs, on each stair it says what genre awaits on the second floor. On the second floor there are art exhibits and art vendors. There is a tunnel made from books and a cute circle acting as a window to books yonder. You can find sci-fi books, mystery, foreign language, history, philosophy, psychology, you name it, you can find it. My favorite part was when I happened upon several shelves dedicated to decorative books in every array of color because, I guess, some people don’t actually read books?

Suffice to say, I could have stayed in the bookstore forever. I let my close friends know if I am ever lost they can find me here. No, in fact, I was not kidnapped; I just ran away to The Last Bookstore in LA. So if you don’t hear from me, I’ll be there!

I’m considering moving to LA just to be in close proximity to this bookstore… So if there’s anyone out there who wants to employ me for, you know, a living wage in LA, hit me up!!!

Books

Me Talk Pretty One Day

July 1, 2017 RaeAnna

Read Yes
Length 272
Quick Review As one of the most prominent contemporary authors, he has a unique voice filled with poignant moments and an outrageous sense of honest that will leave you laughing.

I have read several of David Sedaris’ articles in The New Yorker since I have a subscription and he is a regular contributor. Coincidence? I think not. Other than that, I just knew his name. I highly recommend him to anyone who likes to laugh and is not afraid of the perverse. My only complaint is his unfortunate habit of forsaking the oxford comma. I don’t know if it’s political, his publisher trying to save money on ink, or his rebellious nature, but it bothered me immensely.

This is not one of his recent books; it was published in 2000. So I am late to join the Me Talk Pretty One Day party. Oh well I’m here now. It is a memoir recollecting time from childhood as one of six children through his present (meaning 17 years ago present.) He has a wonderful sense of humor. I rarely laugh out loud when reading, but I did often causing my dog to jump and look at me funny.

Sedaris talks about his time as a child having a lisp. In order to teach his speech therapist a lesson he took to the thesaurus learning how to dodge the ever looming ‘s’ giving him a large vocabulary. I would surmise this adolescent subversion has aided his writing career and later helped him dodge the ever present difficulty of gendered nouns in the French language.

I would like to think Sedaris could see the future when he noted (predicted?) nachos at the movies was a gateway to hot dogs, hamburgers, and full blown meals with cutlery… Way back in 2000, he didn’t know then that the theater-restaurant would exist less than two decades later. What else does he know?

Me Talk Pretty One Day is one of my favorite reads this year. I’m looking forward to picking up more of his work. He also inspired me. He showed me at 26, I have not wasted my life because at my age he hadn’t even finished college, but he had started and stopped twice. So there’s still time for me to be a success! Although, I will skip the methamphetamine stage.

Memorable Quotes
“Although I had regularly petitioned for a brand-name vacuum cleaner, I’d never said anything about wanting a guitar.”
“To me, one of the greatest mystery of science continues to be that a man could father six children who shared absolutely none of his interests.”
“I don’t know who invented the template for the standard writing workshop, but whoever it was seems to have struck the perfect balance between sadism and masochism.”

Title: Me Talk Pretty One Day
Author: David Sedaris
Publisher: Little Brown and Co.
Copyright: 2000
ISBN: 9780316776967

Books

Forgotten Country

June 26, 2017 RaeAnna

Read Yes
Length 296
Quick Review The story of a Korean family who emigrated to the US. Following the oldest daughter as she looks to the past while coping with her father’s illness in the present. Delving into issues of identity, immigration, education, family, sisterhood, cancer, and more.

Catherine Chung is able to capture the complexities of familial relationships with grace tackling difficult subjects.

The protagonist, Janie, is in her mid twenties and a PhD student when her sister disappears and her father is diagnosed with cancer soon after. While trying to put her family back together she looks toward her version of the past for answers. As the story unravels more versions emerge giving a larger picture to the intricacies of what it means to be family and siblings.

Chung takes on issues of immigration and the difficulty of identity as a child growing up in a new culture. She explores the problems of being the peacemaker in a family. The issue of being born a girl within a family desperately wanting a boy. Having to face the reality of a past after having lived never suspecting the truth.

For me, the most interesting aspect of Forgotten Country is a truth I have been toying with for awhile. Though siblings are raised under similar conditions with the same parents, advantages, genes, and everything else, they have completely different experiences within those conditions. It is a difficult reality coming to this conclusion that siblings have vastly different experiences of the same instance or that a moment away can make all the difference to another.

I really loved this novel. I believe it has more depth than it seems at first glance. I look forward to reading her future work. She has a bright future ahead of her.

Memorable Quotes
“And it seemed that if this impossible thing was true, the opposite could also happen.”
“In the end, we left our house bravely: we did not go from room to room talking about old memories. We did not stand and state, or turn back for one last glance.”
““Your girls need names.” “They already have names,” my mother said. “Proper names,” Mr. B. clarified. “American names.””
“I think joy can stop time.”

Title: Forgotten Country
Author: Catherine Chung
Publisher: Riverhead Books
Copyright: 2012
ISBN: 9781594486524