Fiction Review – Page 8 – …on the B.L.

Go Set A Watchman

January 20, 2018 RaeAnna

Read: Yes
Length: 278
Quick Review: Jean Louise – Scout – Finch is no longer the little girl we know and love. She is a grown woman returning home to her beloved Maycomb, Alabama.

Published in what could be called a scandal, Go Set A Watchman became accessible to the public 55 years and three days after the publication of To Kill A Mockingbird. Nelle Harper Lee wrote Go Set A Watchman, but revised it into an entirely different book most every American has read, which won a Pulitzer. It would be hard to imagine Harper Lee as a public figure, but in her early years she was. Due to the drains of fame, she receded from the public eye never to publish again. In her old age, Go Set A Watchman was published under a great amount of scrutiny as to if this is what she really wanted. The reviews flooded in quickly. They were mostly skeptical and rarely glowing.

I never read To Kill A Mockingbird in high school. I read it one summer in college. I enjoyed it, but I didn’t love it the way others do. It took me over two years before I bought Go Set A Watchman because of the circumstances it had been released. Its blue spine sat untouched on my shelf for several months before I finally picked it up to read.

I understand why people didn’t love this second Lee book. I, however, did. I wish I could talk about Go Set A Watchman without talking about To Kill A Mockingbird, but they are intrinsically linked not only by their characters but by the integral part To Kill A Mockingbird has played in the landscape of modern Americana.

Scout is no longer a little girl; instead, she is a grown, college educated woman of 26 living in New York City. She is known as Jean Louise, and she’s going home to Maycomb for two weeks. A lot has changed in her hometown. Atticus has gotten older, but he has stayed the same. Jean Louise is an adult on her own in the world. Go Set A Watchman is a coming of age story. The kind that is rarely told: the difficulty of separating one’s identity from that of their idol’s. As people, we all go through it in one way or another.

I can understand why so many people have a hard time with this book. They’re comparing it to the first. It’s easy to do. The characters are present. The setting has only been phased by the passing of time.

The narrative of To Kill A Mockingbird flows forward through time; it’s easy to follow. Go Set A Watchman has a completely different rhythm. Jean Louise isn’t living in the present. She bounces between the past and present as memories are triggered. The book is well organized but anecdotal. It is a completely different reading experience than what one goes in believing it will be.

Atticus is a hero to Scout in a way he is a hero to everyone who has read him. He’s even, educated, fair, loyal, true, just, kind, and more. He is an ideal of a person we strive to become someday. I always found him to be too perfect. I didn’t love him because he seemed flat. Too good to be true, in a way. I want my heroes flawed, human. Go Set A Watchman rips holes in the perfect man. Lee portrays him as human, as a man of his time, a good yet flawed man. All the while, Lee portrays Scout as a young idealist with grit. Scout stands up for what she sees to be right under the most difficult of circumstance: she doesn’t back down when her hero disagrees. It becomes tenuous when Scout compares Atticus and Maycomb to Hitler and the Russian communists saying, “You just try to kill their souls instead of their bodies.” (Ouch!)

Scout replaces Atticus in our mind’s eye. She is the one who will go out into the world working to create a better and more just place for all. She believes in equality and opportunity for all, in helping, in tearing down walls based on gender or class or sex, that silence is support, and more. Jean Louise is no longer six years old; she is a young woman coming into her own in a world being torn further and further apart.

I think in many ways, Go Set A Watchman is more relevant today than To Kill A Mockingbird. We live in a world torn by intolerance and hate based on so many things, and sometimes the impact is felt most acutely in our own homes. As unfortunate as it is, many of the scenes playing out in front of Jean Louise’s eyes are familiar to the ones I see today. The relationship Scout has with her father is incredibly similar to the one I have with my father today. Many can relate to feeling betrayed by those we love when we find out their views fail to reach the standard we have set for them while failing to realize they are human too.

Go Set A Watchman has created waves. Many people do not feel for it the way they feel for the predecessor. I think this is a large part of its magic. It dares you to see a character and a book in a new light, no longer through rose colored glasses. Atticus is seen through the eyes of a child in To Kill A Mockingbird, but he is seen through the eyes of an adult in Go Set A Watchman. As children we see the world one way and another way as an adult. Lee makes us return to a favorite with the eyes of an adult.

Memorable Quotes
“Integrity, humor, and patience were the three words for Atticus Finch.”
“The course of English Literature would have been decidedly different had Mr. Wordsworth owned a power mower”
“They are simple people, most of them, but that doesn’t make them subhuman.”
“Prejudice, a dirty word, and faith, a clean one, have something in common: they both begin where reason ends.”
“You just try to kill their souls instead of their bodies”

Title: Go Set A Watchman
Author: Harper Lee
Publisher: Harper (HarperCollins Publishers)
Copyright: 2015
ISBN: 9780062409850

Books

13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl

January 10, 2018 RaeAnna

Read: Yes
Length: 212
Quick Review: Lizzie has been fat since adolescence. Her body has shaped how she is seen, and more importantly how she sees herself.

Lizzie grew up in suburban town, where she was known as the fat girl.

I had a hard time picking up this book because of the title. Without even reading the synopsis, I knew it would be a heartbreaking tale but an important tale nonetheless. It’s an issue women (and people) face. Size. We are a society that judges based on appearances. The world treats women (and people) less the more space they take up. It is unfortunate fact today.

Thirteen chapters told from varying perspectives. Sometimes, Lizzie tells her own story. Other times, people around her tell her story. In all of the narratives, her physical size is an important. Lizzie starts out as a young teen. As the novel progresses, she changes in size. As her size shifts, so does her name. Removing the name she was known by, does not remove her memory of herself. Even when she becomes an incredibly in shape twenty-something, all she can ever see herself is as the fat girl. She is so obsessed with her outward appearance, she ceases to live.

Awad describes society’s consumption with physical appearance through one woman’s story. It is consistently heartbreaking yet witty. Awad is unafraid to dive deep into the emotional abyss that is self-image.

It is a short novel, a quick read, and a huge punch. I set it down with a sigh. As a living woman, it is impossible not to identify with so many sentiments depicted in the book.

Memorable Quotes
“Never the doughnuts because we agree that a fat girl with a doughnut is too sad a thing.”
“…like her thinness was a punch in the gut, the air of heaviness around her that will never leave.”

Title: 13 Ways of Looking At A Fat Girl
Author: Mona Awad
Publisher: Penguin Books (Penguin Random House)
Copyright: 2016
ISBN: 9780143128489

Books

Dreams of Joy

December 30, 2017 RaeAnna

Read Yes
Length 354
Quick Review At 19, Joy finds out her family’s biggest secret. She runs away to find her father in her ancestral homeland of newly communist China.

I have had the accident of unknowingly buying sequels without reading the first. Fortunately, they have not been dependent upon the first book, so I am not totally lost while reading.

I did this again with Dreams of Joy by Lisa See, which is a sequel to her book Shanghai Girls. Joy and May were young sisters in the first novel; now, they are middle aged women with a dark secret embodied in their daughter Joy.

Joy is an idealist nineteen year old born in Los Angeles to Chinese parents. She yearns to go to China to build a Republic based on equality. When she learns her mothers’ secret, she runs away to China to find her father, who happens to be a famous artist. Spending time in communes and in the upper echelons of society with her father, it takes time for her to fully see the true meaning of Red China. Pearl embarks on her own mission to bring her daughter home to America. She returns to China and Shanghai after more than two decades away. Bittersweet. Many things have changed, but many have stayed the same.

Dreams of Joy is told from two perspectives: Joy, the daughter, and Pearl, the mother. They have their own unique viewpoints and voices. Their voices and views fit their age and experience. Pearl’s voice comes across more naturally. Joy’s voice is more forced with a tendency toward explanation and immature phrasing. It feels like the author isn’t fully invested or understanding of the characters perspective or psyche.

See discusses many horrible aspects of Chinese culture during the early years of communist China. Foot binding had been outlawed for many years in China, but there were still women alive who had endured the experience during the early years of the government shift. Infanticide and more atrocities were common practices during the famine. The desire to have male children was a violent and sincere part of culture even when men and women were considered “equal” by the government. See has no qualms about jumping head first into the ugly sides of history in her novel.

I really enjoyed Dreams of Joy and suggest it to anyone looking to learn a little more about Eastern culture. It’s a story of motherly love, idealism, and harsh reality.

Memorable Quotes
“She’s so sure of herself, but anyone can be sure at nineteen.”
“Those who have little to lose don’t want to lose what little they have.”
“To lose a daughter is sad, they tell me. To lose a son is tragic.”
“Mao my day women hold up half the sky, but it is the lesser half.”
“That means all food must go to males first.”
“Fu Hsüan’s famous poem that begins, “How sad it is to be a woman! Nothing on Earth is held so cheap.””

Title: Dreams of Joy
Author: Lisa See
Publisher: Random House
Copyright: 2012
ISBN: 9780812980547

Books

Winter Storms

December 7, 2017 RaeAnna

Read Yes
Length 246
Quick Review The last in a trilogy by Hilderbrand about the lovably dysfunctional Quinn family set in Nantucket.

The Quinn family is back with a whole new set of problems so I assume because I haven’t read the first two books. Winter Storms, however, I didn’t find that fact to hinder the understanding of the plot or characters in the novel. Hilderbrand does a good job of reminding readers who the characters and their pasts without sounding kitschy or dumbing it down for the reader.

Each chapter is devoted to a member in the Quinn family weaving their stories with those of the others. The Quinn family is incredibly dysfunctional in an endearing way. They have made mistakes and paid for them, but below the surface they are all good people.

The Quinn family is large and diverse. The characters range from blue collar to incredibly successful broadcast news anchor. You’d be hard pressed to find a subplot Hilderbrand hasn’t explored in some way: drug addiction, military hero, white collar crime, divorce, wedding, cancer, love triangle, dreams, and more. Through all the hardships, the Quinns are a family anyone would want to be a part of full of love and support through the good times and the bad.

It’s a sweet novel perfect for the Christmas season. It’s short with fairly large print. I would have loved to read it in front of a fire with snow outside, but alas, I read it in Houston. I sat down and read it in a few hours. It’s easy to see how Hilderbrand has a number of successful novels. She writes about love and struggle in a beautiful setting. She made me want to visit Nantucket for a summer or even a winter.

Memorable Quotes
“He will simply enjoy this Christmas as though it were his last.”

Title: Winter Storms
Author: Elin Hilderbrand
Publisher: Little Brown
Copyright: 2016
ISBN: 9780316261173

Books

Eligible

November 30, 2017 RaeAnna

Read Yes
Length 488
Quick Review A hilariously modern reworking of Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Sittenfeld turns something old new, while maintaining the integrity of the original.

I bought the book solely on my admiration for Sittenfeld’s short stories. Her ability to write is captivating. I picked up Eligible apprehensively because I abhor retellings or fanfiction. They are never done well. I can no longer say “never.” I have been proven wrong.

Pride and Prejudice is a universally beloved novel with themes still present in today’s society. That being said, it does not lend itself to modern reinterpretation. The status of women has changed a touch in the past 150 years. No longer are we dependent on men and marriage. How do you take a novel about five unmarried women and their ludicrous behavior and adventures which are incredibly relevant to their time and make it relevant in our time? Age them and a whole load of other things.

Set in Cincinnati, of all places, the Bennet sisters are unmarried and majorly dependent upon their ailing father and ridiculous mother. After a heart attack on Mr. Bennet’s part, Jane and Liz return home from New York to help care for him, when they meet surgeons Chip Bingley and Fitzwilliam Darcy along with the abhorrent Caroline Bingley. Chip comes from a famous family and was on a reality TV show Eligible (the equivalent of “The Bachelor”).

The characters personalities are all intact and even more vibrant than their original namesakes. Collins being the exception, I found him less dreadful than in Pride and Prejudice, maybe it’s because I know a good few of the modern Collins’ that I can tolerate him. Caroline, however, is truly oddious in a way Austen always implied. Sittenfeld split Wickham into two characters. Throughout the entire novel I was expecting one thing to happen, and was surprised when a vastly different something happened. In the original, it is understandable why all the sisters are at home doing a whole lot of not much because that’s what they did then, and they were young. I found it grating that four sisters in their twenties and thirties could be so lazy; Liz, of course, being the exception. Mrs. Bennet, in true form, was a neurotic basket case. I truly wanted to like Mr. Bennet more, but alas, he too had his faults. Enough said.

I finished the 500 plus pages in a day. It is a fabulous novel with real depth and wit. Sittenfeld took an untouchable classic and made it relevant.

Memorable Quotes
““That’d be like watching a burlesque show with one’s eyes closed.””
“Caroline was on Darcy’s other side and had spent midst of the meal curled toward him in conversation like a poisonous weed.”
““You have no idea how lucky you are that someone like him would settle for you.””
“If you really want to do something unselfish, adopt a seven-year-old black boy from foster care.”

Title: Eligible; A Novel
Author: Curtis Sittenfeld
Publisher: Random House
Copyright: 2016
ISBN: 9780812980349

Books

Dead Souls

October 24, 2017 RaeAnna

Read Yes
Length 512
Quick Review When Tchitchikov comes up with a brilliant plan, he embarks on an adventure bringing him a name and fortune after encounters with interesting people.

Nikolai Gogol published Dead Souls in 1842. I read it for the first time in Russian while I was in college. This is the first time I am reading the English translation by Constance Garnett. She translated a majority of classical Russian literature to much critical skepticism at this point in time. The work in its original form is more nuanced and beautiful than the translation, but that is always the case. It is impossible to relay the original in its entirety to another language and culture. Although, Dead Souls is an incredible read in English. So I highly recommend it.

The narrator, even Gogol himself, views and refers to the novel as an epic poem, though, in prose form. It is intended to encapsulate the mindset and attitudes of the middle class in Russia during the mid-1800’s. Gogol is able to capture a range of emotions, attitudes, psychology, and culture within this epic novel, which garnered him the role as grandfather of Russian realism.

In order to understand the plot of the novel, it is important to understand the culture in which it was written. Serfs were referred to as souls in legal jargon. Before 1861, serfs belonged to the land and landowners, who could sell them, trade them, or mortgage them at will. The word poshlost is incredibly important to the novel, but it does not translate to English well; it deals with the character of a human always negative. Poshlost is always in bad taste, self-serving, petty, and even to the point of evil. It’s hard to encapsulate this word in English.

Tchitchikov comes up with a brilliant plan to basically get rich quick. The novel revolves around the idea that Tchitchikov collects the dead souls, or dead serfs, from the landowners who have to pay taxes on them until the next census. Tchitchikov’s plan eventually reveals itself, but he amasses a large holding of souls, who are not dead in the eyes of the law.

Tchitchikov has his own sordid past, but he arrives in an area of Russia and turns all of his charms on the landowners in the region. Tchitchikov is his own caricature. Each landowner he meets is a ridiculous caricature of personality failings Gogol bears witness to in society around him. The landowners, though absurd in their own way, is not a flat character. They have their own evolutions and complexities. None of the characters are overly likeable; they do come across as understandably diluted.

The title Dead Souls refers to two different concepts. The souls of the deceased serfs, obviously. The second is more thematic and requires reading to understand and revolves around the word poshlost. The other dead souls in the novel are the living characters suffering from an unrivaled amount of poshlost. Their souls are dead in Gogol’s eyes. Arguably, there is no “hero” in the traditional sense. Tchitchikov is more of an antihero.

Gogol is an amazing writer even in translation. He is one of my favorite Russian authors. He is not as well known outside of Russia like Tolstoy or Dostoevsky is, but he is just as important if not more so. Gogol set the tone and bar for all Russian writers after him.

Memorable Quotes
“”What… a sale of dead souls?””

Title: Dead Souls
Translator: Constance Garnett
Author: Nikolai Gogol
Publisher: Barnes & Noble Classics
Copyright: 2005
ISBN: 9781593080921