This is a really interesting novel about Peter Huang, the only son of Chinese immigrant parents living in small town Ontario. As the third of four children, Peter is revered by his father merely for being a boy. But from a young age Peter relates more to his sisters and wants to be one of them. They periodically indulge his desire to dress in their clothes, and his father, who suspects he is "soft" tries to strengthen him and mocks him for crying more than his sisters. Peter's father is a philandering tyrant who tries to control his whole family. One by one his children abandon the home - and only one following the path he decreed for them. The eldest, Adele, escapes to Europe where she works as a nanny, the second daughter, Helen, studies hard then gets into law school in California where she follows the path expected of her (with the help of anti-depressants and anti-anxiety medications). Peter becomes a chef and the youngest, Bonnie, turns a life of partying into a job as a stripper.
Peter's sisters and even his parents, guess at his secret, but it is not openly discussed until, in Montreal, as an adult, he meets other LGBT people and realizes he is not totally alone. This allows him to explore how he really wants to live.
Though there is not a lot of action, this is a moving portrayal of a troubled boy who is totally uncomfortable with the identity foisted upon his at birth. His internal struggles as well as those with his family and friends make for a fascinating read. The author approaches the topic with sensitivity and powerful descriptive language.
Saturday, January 31, 2015
Saturday, January 24, 2015
Intolerable, A Memoir of Extremes
This is a fascinating memoir by Kamal Al-Solaylee, a professor of journalism at Ryerson in Toronto and a former theatre critic for the Globe and Mail.
Al-Solaylee was the eleventh and last child to be born (in 1964) into a well to do family in Aden, Yemen. His mother was an illiterate child bride, the daughter of a shepherdess; his father a property developer who was partially educated in Britain and maintained close relations with the British colonial officers in Yemen. The family was modern, concerned with fashion, immersed in the arts, and enamoured with British and American culture.
Everything started to change in the late 1960s when Yemen shrugged off the colonial powers and nationalized all of the property owned by Al-Solaylee's father. His father relocated the large family to Beirut in what was supposed to be a temporary move until the situation in Aden stabilized. The author was still a young child and has few memories of the time in Beirut though he does remember they lived above their means and were surrounded by the country's cultural elite. They spent a lot of time watching Egyptian movies and listening to Egyptian and other pop music. However, when Beirut became less safe due to the sectarian tensions, the family again relocated to Egypt.
Here the family remained very modern for years, spending beach vacations in Alexandria in bikinis. The author, now a teenager, also realized he was gay. Again the family lived beyond their means as their father was never able to re-establish his business and relied on savings he had squirrelled away in the UK. Slowly the family turned more religious - first the eldest brother and then other brothers turned to the Quran and tried to restrict the movements and dress of the family's many daughters. Of course, Kamal kept his sexual preferences to himself.
In the 1980s the family was again forced to move as sentiments in Egypt turned against Yemeni immigrants and the family members could not get permits necessary to work. With no other options they returned to Sana'a, Yemen. There the family became more and more religious as Kamal yearned to escape. Which he did, eventually to study in England and then to become a permanent resident and finally citizen of Canada. In the west he could live as a gay man though he never formally advised his family (he was sure his sisters and maybe even his mother had figured it out). As Kamal becomes more and more free, his family, especially the women, become more and more trapped by a religious and isolated country. The gap between them creates tension for Kamal which leads to depression.
In whole this is a fascinating story of how the events of history can have a major impact on a family and even markedly different impacts on different family members.
Al-Solaylee was the eleventh and last child to be born (in 1964) into a well to do family in Aden, Yemen. His mother was an illiterate child bride, the daughter of a shepherdess; his father a property developer who was partially educated in Britain and maintained close relations with the British colonial officers in Yemen. The family was modern, concerned with fashion, immersed in the arts, and enamoured with British and American culture.
Everything started to change in the late 1960s when Yemen shrugged off the colonial powers and nationalized all of the property owned by Al-Solaylee's father. His father relocated the large family to Beirut in what was supposed to be a temporary move until the situation in Aden stabilized. The author was still a young child and has few memories of the time in Beirut though he does remember they lived above their means and were surrounded by the country's cultural elite. They spent a lot of time watching Egyptian movies and listening to Egyptian and other pop music. However, when Beirut became less safe due to the sectarian tensions, the family again relocated to Egypt.
Here the family remained very modern for years, spending beach vacations in Alexandria in bikinis. The author, now a teenager, also realized he was gay. Again the family lived beyond their means as their father was never able to re-establish his business and relied on savings he had squirrelled away in the UK. Slowly the family turned more religious - first the eldest brother and then other brothers turned to the Quran and tried to restrict the movements and dress of the family's many daughters. Of course, Kamal kept his sexual preferences to himself.
In the 1980s the family was again forced to move as sentiments in Egypt turned against Yemeni immigrants and the family members could not get permits necessary to work. With no other options they returned to Sana'a, Yemen. There the family became more and more religious as Kamal yearned to escape. Which he did, eventually to study in England and then to become a permanent resident and finally citizen of Canada. In the west he could live as a gay man though he never formally advised his family (he was sure his sisters and maybe even his mother had figured it out). As Kamal becomes more and more free, his family, especially the women, become more and more trapped by a religious and isolated country. The gap between them creates tension for Kamal which leads to depression.
In whole this is a fascinating story of how the events of history can have a major impact on a family and even markedly different impacts on different family members.
Tuesday, January 20, 2015
People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
I read this book years ago and needed to read it again for book club but was somewhat hesitant since I had read it before, discussed it in another book club and seen the author speak about it. But my hesitation vanished as soon as I began to read again. Brooks writes so well - it's no wonder she's a Pulitzer Prize winner.
In some ways, the style reminds me of The Great House by Nicole Krauss, in that it revolves around the story of an object (in that case a desk; in this case the famous illuminated Sarajevo Haggadah) and jumps back and forth in time to explore the history of the object. But this is just so much better written which makes the jumping back and forth far less confusing.
The novel starts in Sarajevo in 1996 - the UN has invited Hanna, an expert at restoring ancient texts, to restore the Sarajevo Haggadah which will be the centrepiece of a new museum display intending to show how people of different faiths could peacefully coexist and even influence each other's art (despite evidence to the contrary in the recent war). There she meets the head of the Sarajevo library, Ozren, a Muslim who risked his life to save the manuscript during the war.
As she restores the Haggadah, Hanna comes across several clues embedded in it - the wings of an insect, evidence that it was once held together by clips which are now missing, wine stains, saltwater stains and a white hair. In different chapters she uses forensics to trace where these items came from. And in alternating chapters we are taken backwards in time to see where the Haggadah came from - the mountains of Yugoslavia during World War II, Vienna in 1894, Venice in 1609, Tarragona in 1492 and Seville in 1480. In each of these chapters Brooks weaves a fascinating and realistic narrative with well developed characters who we get to really know though we see them for a very short time.
There are also side stories of Hanna's relationship with her mother, the father she never knew, her mentors in the book restoration trade and Ozren. While not as compelling as the story of the Haggadah, I also found myself drawn into these stories and anxious to see them through to a conclusion.
I highly recommend reading this book - even if it's not your first time.
In some ways, the style reminds me of The Great House by Nicole Krauss, in that it revolves around the story of an object (in that case a desk; in this case the famous illuminated Sarajevo Haggadah) and jumps back and forth in time to explore the history of the object. But this is just so much better written which makes the jumping back and forth far less confusing.
The novel starts in Sarajevo in 1996 - the UN has invited Hanna, an expert at restoring ancient texts, to restore the Sarajevo Haggadah which will be the centrepiece of a new museum display intending to show how people of different faiths could peacefully coexist and even influence each other's art (despite evidence to the contrary in the recent war). There she meets the head of the Sarajevo library, Ozren, a Muslim who risked his life to save the manuscript during the war.
As she restores the Haggadah, Hanna comes across several clues embedded in it - the wings of an insect, evidence that it was once held together by clips which are now missing, wine stains, saltwater stains and a white hair. In different chapters she uses forensics to trace where these items came from. And in alternating chapters we are taken backwards in time to see where the Haggadah came from - the mountains of Yugoslavia during World War II, Vienna in 1894, Venice in 1609, Tarragona in 1492 and Seville in 1480. In each of these chapters Brooks weaves a fascinating and realistic narrative with well developed characters who we get to really know though we see them for a very short time.
There are also side stories of Hanna's relationship with her mother, the father she never knew, her mentors in the book restoration trade and Ozren. While not as compelling as the story of the Haggadah, I also found myself drawn into these stories and anxious to see them through to a conclusion.
I highly recommend reading this book - even if it's not your first time.
Monday, January 19, 2015
An Obedient Father by Akhil Sharma
I read this book because I really liked Sharma's more recent novel, Family Life. While I liked this, I was a bit disappointed as it was not of the same calibre. First of all, the main character, Ram Karan, was quite distasteful. Not only was his "profession" collecting bribes on behalf of a government department, he was also a pedophile and engaged in incest. His deceased wife was also not great since she knew of the incest and, while she put a stop to it, she did not report him or even seek help for her daughter. As a result, the daughter, Anita has grown into a bitter, angry and therefore vindictive woman. Ram's granddaughter, Asha, is a sweet kid at the start but even she turns out to be a difficult adolescent. In sum, it was hard to truly like any of the characters, though you could sympathize with those who were Ram's victims.
The story follows the fallout of Ram's incestuous actions, 20 years after they took place. His wife has died and Anita and Asha are forced to move in with him when her husband dies suddenly and she is left with no money. Their living together, and Anita's fear that Asha will become the next victim, lead to very strained relations and Anita eventually going public with what occurred. However, due to the sexist environment they live in, her confession not only affects Ram's life, but also hers and Asha's.
This is all set against the backdrop of the election campaign between BJP and Rajiv Gandhi and the eventual assassination of Gandhi. We see Ram and his colleagues scramble to figure out which party to support with the bribe monies they collect - in some cases with very disastrous results. It's pathetic that oftentimes Ram seems more troubled by his work activities than the rape of his daughter.
Though it his hard to rally behind the characters, they are believable, particularly in the context of the environment they live in. And the description of Delhi at that time are vivid - I could particularly relate to the description of the pollution making it feel like living inside a coal miner's lungs.
I recommend this book but you have to be prepared for the serious topic and the distasteful characters.
The story follows the fallout of Ram's incestuous actions, 20 years after they took place. His wife has died and Anita and Asha are forced to move in with him when her husband dies suddenly and she is left with no money. Their living together, and Anita's fear that Asha will become the next victim, lead to very strained relations and Anita eventually going public with what occurred. However, due to the sexist environment they live in, her confession not only affects Ram's life, but also hers and Asha's.
This is all set against the backdrop of the election campaign between BJP and Rajiv Gandhi and the eventual assassination of Gandhi. We see Ram and his colleagues scramble to figure out which party to support with the bribe monies they collect - in some cases with very disastrous results. It's pathetic that oftentimes Ram seems more troubled by his work activities than the rape of his daughter.
Though it his hard to rally behind the characters, they are believable, particularly in the context of the environment they live in. And the description of Delhi at that time are vivid - I could particularly relate to the description of the pollution making it feel like living inside a coal miner's lungs.
I recommend this book but you have to be prepared for the serious topic and the distasteful characters.
Monday, January 12, 2015
Girl Runner by Carrie Snyder
I don't want to give away too much of the plot of this book as it unfolds a bit like a mystery (though, of course, parts are predictable from very early on).
The prologue in a nursing home when Aganetha (Aggie) Smart is 104 years old. She is wheelchair bound and thought to be deaf but in fact seems quite in touch with her surroundings. Her main worry seems to be who will be left to write her obituary (we later learn writing obituaries was one of her careers).
Chapter one jumps far back in time to when Aggie is a young child following her older half sister, Fannie, into the graveyard on the family farm. We immediately learn that this family has been touched by tragedy with several infant deaths and the death of Fannie's mother. Her father remarries and Aggie and two other sisters are born.
The book jumps back and forth this way with elderly Aggie being seemingly kidnapped by two teenagers who take her back to the family farm, ostensibly to film a movie about her. The story of Aggie's past which slowly unravels eventually explains the connection the two teenagers have to her.
The highlight of Aggie's career was winning gold for the 800 metre race in the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics. One factual aspect of this book is that women were permitted to run the 800 metre in 1928 but then prohibited until 1960 as the Olympic organizers felt the race was too hard on a woman's more delicate constitution.
Aggie returns to Toronto after the race and suffers through the Depression, an ill-fated romance with Johnny, an equally ill-fated friendship with Glad and more tragedy striking her siblings and parents. Through it all she remains strong, if somewhat of a loner. She often escapes through running.
The story is really well told and I like how it moved back and forth in time, leaving me curious but not confused. I definitely recommend this book.
The prologue in a nursing home when Aganetha (Aggie) Smart is 104 years old. She is wheelchair bound and thought to be deaf but in fact seems quite in touch with her surroundings. Her main worry seems to be who will be left to write her obituary (we later learn writing obituaries was one of her careers).
Chapter one jumps far back in time to when Aggie is a young child following her older half sister, Fannie, into the graveyard on the family farm. We immediately learn that this family has been touched by tragedy with several infant deaths and the death of Fannie's mother. Her father remarries and Aggie and two other sisters are born.
The book jumps back and forth this way with elderly Aggie being seemingly kidnapped by two teenagers who take her back to the family farm, ostensibly to film a movie about her. The story of Aggie's past which slowly unravels eventually explains the connection the two teenagers have to her.
The highlight of Aggie's career was winning gold for the 800 metre race in the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics. One factual aspect of this book is that women were permitted to run the 800 metre in 1928 but then prohibited until 1960 as the Olympic organizers felt the race was too hard on a woman's more delicate constitution.
Aggie returns to Toronto after the race and suffers through the Depression, an ill-fated romance with Johnny, an equally ill-fated friendship with Glad and more tragedy striking her siblings and parents. Through it all she remains strong, if somewhat of a loner. She often escapes through running.
The story is really well told and I like how it moved back and forth in time, leaving me curious but not confused. I definitely recommend this book.
Sunday, December 28, 2014
Winter Vacation Reads
The first three books I read were novels by other former Winnipeg residents. They were recommended to me by the editor of the Jewish newspaper there who reviewed my book (and compared it to the first of those listed below in his review).
Ravenscraig by Sandi Krawchenko Altner
While I do see some similarities with my book (takes place in Winnipeg, deals with Jewish immigrants to the city, describes familiar locales, includes actual historical events...) there are also significant differences. First and foremost this book takes place entirely in the more distant past (1895 to 1914) whereas mine takes place largely in the 1990s. The descriptions of Winnipeg as a booming city for trade, transportation, and immigration were quite interesting as a result.
Secondly, my book was described as having mostly nice characters. And I can see why when compared to Rupert Willows in this book. He is a thoroughly unlikeable con artist who takes advantage of everyone around him (including his wife and children) for his own material and status gains. Remarkably, despite this he does raise children who have strong values and social consciences.
Essentially the story revolves around Rupert, who bought Ravenscraig, a large though ugly mansion in Winnipeg's finest neighbourhood at the time in order to buy his way into Winnipeg society. He eventually serves on city council, joins the Board of Trade and all the best social clubs and becomes a respected businessman. At least until his tawdry past and conniving ways catch up with him.
The other main story revolves around Zev Zigman, a Russian Jew who sacrifices everything to bring his family to Winnipeg in order to escape anti-semitism and resultant pogroms. The last family member to arrive is his niece Malka, who disguises herself as Maisie and comes to work as a maid at Ravenscraig (the anti-semitic Willows would never have hired a Jewish maid). In this way the two stories and families intersect.
The penultimate chapters take place on the Titanic and Altner did a nice job of mixing her fictional characters with actual passengers on the ship.
Overall this was a nice historical fiction though frankly a little long for my taste. But of interest to anyone who has any interest in Winnipeg in its glory days.
The Briss and The Shiva by Michael Tregebov
It's easiest to describe these two related books together as they are very similar in style and involve some of the same characters. I preferred the second book although neither was really my style. While some parts were humorous, in general I found the Winnipeg based Mordecai Richler/Woody Allen style satire somewhat grating.
The first book revolves around the Ostrove family. Sammy and Anna are horrified when they discover their son, who they sent to Israel on a Birthright style trip to escape the scandal arising from his affair with a lesbian rabbi's wife, has become a human shield for the Palestinians and has fallen in love with and impregnated a Palestinian princess. But Sammy gets into a physical fight one night at his club when he overhears another member badmouthing his daughter (using lurid details of her apparent sexual liaison with his son). An assault charge and community shunning follow. The narrative mostly consists of one or the other of Sammy or Anna falling into a funk, whining, complaining and fighting with their children. All is resolved when the son and his Palestinian fiancé arrive to spend time with the rest of the family at their Winnipeg Beach cottage (which sounds as awful as the Winnipeg Beach cottages I remember from my childhood). The book closes with the whole community attending the baby's briss.
In The Shiva, the action actually begins with another briss. An acquaintance of Sammy and Anna, Mooney, has just been released from the psychiatric ward following a bout with depression. Mooney's brother, the grandfather of the baby in question, sits Mooney at the kids' table where he provokes a fight and earns his brother's wrath. Despite this, their mother tries to bring them together and gets the brother to lend Mooney $50,000 which he invests in a short-selling scheme promoted by an Indian seer who predicts the sub-prime mortgage crisis. Fighting, whining and complaining prevail when Mooney earns then loses millions on the scheme. Some of Mooney's elderly friends are entertaining which was basically the book's only saving grace.
Family Life by Akhil Sharma
After three books set in Winnipeg, it was nice to move on to something completely different. This book is short and really easy to read but very powerfully written. In 1978 we meet the Mishra family in Delhi. The whole story is told from the perspective of the younger brother Ajay who is 8 at the start. He, his mother and his older brother Birju are awaiting tickets to America to be sent by their father who has immigrated ahead of them.
Eventually the tickets arrive and the family settles in Queens where they are amazed by simple luxuries like elevators, flushing toilets and automatic doors. Birju excels in school and is accepted at the prestigious Bronx High School of Science. But when the boys are spending the summer with an aunt in Virginia, Birju has an accident and is left severely brain damaged. His parents struggle to take care of him with limited resources and a small negligence settlement. His father turns to alcohol and his mother is basically seen as a goddess who can bring good fortune on Indian visitors - some who they know and some who they don't. So Ajay is often left to fend for himself and to find his way in the strange world of an American middle school then high school.
A very powerful story of the devastation that 3 minutes can bring to the dreams of a whole family but how the family still sticks together to achieve what best they can in the circumstances.
Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight
This is a young adult novel which uses a lot of the gimmicks popular in such books, such as transcripts of text messages and Facebook posts. But it was still a good story about bullying and a mystery with sufficient complexity that it kept me guessing until almost the end.
Kate, a single mother and partner in a law firm, is shocked one day when she receives a call from her daughter Amelia's private school saying Amelia has been suspended. But she is more shocked when she gets there and finds out that Amelia has fallen from the school's roof and died. A very perfunctory investigation by the police rules it a suicide, which does not sit well with Kate, especially when she gets an anonymous text stating Amelia didn't jump. With the help of her boss, Kate convinces the police to reopen the investigation and that is when Amelia's last few days are reconstructed.
The narrative switches from Kate to Amelia's perspective (in flashback, of course) as we consider various suspects - the school bullies (members of the exclusive girls' group, the Magpies which had tapped Amelia), Amelia's best friend Sylvia, a texting friend who is only known as Ben, and members' of the school's staff and PTA. There is also the side mystery of who Amelia's father was which gets revealed toward the end as well.
An easy and compelling read.
The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult
I only picked this up because I was in an airport and needed something to read and this book was on sale. But I'm glad I got it - it was better than I expected. The main complaint I had is that the end was so predictable I wondered why the characters were not smart enough to figure it out earlier (particularly Leo who is supposed to be an experienced Nazi hunter).
Sage Singer is a lonely baker who is still mourning the death of her mother three years before the narrative starts (and blaming herself). In her grief support group she befriends the elderly Josef Weber who eventually confesses that he is a former Nazi who has been hiding in plain sight as a pillar of the small New Hampshire community they live in. He wants Amelia, a Jew by birth if not practice, to forgive him then help him kill himself.
Struggling with this request Sage reaches out to the US DOJ and meets Leo, a Nazi hunter. He guides her in how to figure out if Josef is really who he says he is and therefore should be extradited and charged in Europe.
This story is interwoven with a story within a story about a vampire like monster who falls in love with a human girl. We learn about mid-way through that this story was written by Sage's grandmother both before and during the Holocaust. In fact, she was in part able to survive Auschwitz by recounting the story to a German administrator there who took an interest in hearing the end. The early story moves between the perspectives of Sage and Leo to the story within a story. But the middle is all from the perspective of Sage's grandmother as she recounts how she survived the horrors of war despite losing all of her family and friends. There are also small sections written from Josef's perspective where we hear how he got involved in the Nazi machine.
As I said earlier, the end was rather predictable but the story was still well written and interesting. I found the changing perspectives and time periods made it even more compelling.
Ravenscraig by Sandi Krawchenko Altner
While I do see some similarities with my book (takes place in Winnipeg, deals with Jewish immigrants to the city, describes familiar locales, includes actual historical events...) there are also significant differences. First and foremost this book takes place entirely in the more distant past (1895 to 1914) whereas mine takes place largely in the 1990s. The descriptions of Winnipeg as a booming city for trade, transportation, and immigration were quite interesting as a result.
Secondly, my book was described as having mostly nice characters. And I can see why when compared to Rupert Willows in this book. He is a thoroughly unlikeable con artist who takes advantage of everyone around him (including his wife and children) for his own material and status gains. Remarkably, despite this he does raise children who have strong values and social consciences.
Essentially the story revolves around Rupert, who bought Ravenscraig, a large though ugly mansion in Winnipeg's finest neighbourhood at the time in order to buy his way into Winnipeg society. He eventually serves on city council, joins the Board of Trade and all the best social clubs and becomes a respected businessman. At least until his tawdry past and conniving ways catch up with him.
The other main story revolves around Zev Zigman, a Russian Jew who sacrifices everything to bring his family to Winnipeg in order to escape anti-semitism and resultant pogroms. The last family member to arrive is his niece Malka, who disguises herself as Maisie and comes to work as a maid at Ravenscraig (the anti-semitic Willows would never have hired a Jewish maid). In this way the two stories and families intersect.
The penultimate chapters take place on the Titanic and Altner did a nice job of mixing her fictional characters with actual passengers on the ship.
Overall this was a nice historical fiction though frankly a little long for my taste. But of interest to anyone who has any interest in Winnipeg in its glory days.
The Briss and The Shiva by Michael Tregebov
It's easiest to describe these two related books together as they are very similar in style and involve some of the same characters. I preferred the second book although neither was really my style. While some parts were humorous, in general I found the Winnipeg based Mordecai Richler/Woody Allen style satire somewhat grating.
The first book revolves around the Ostrove family. Sammy and Anna are horrified when they discover their son, who they sent to Israel on a Birthright style trip to escape the scandal arising from his affair with a lesbian rabbi's wife, has become a human shield for the Palestinians and has fallen in love with and impregnated a Palestinian princess. But Sammy gets into a physical fight one night at his club when he overhears another member badmouthing his daughter (using lurid details of her apparent sexual liaison with his son). An assault charge and community shunning follow. The narrative mostly consists of one or the other of Sammy or Anna falling into a funk, whining, complaining and fighting with their children. All is resolved when the son and his Palestinian fiancé arrive to spend time with the rest of the family at their Winnipeg Beach cottage (which sounds as awful as the Winnipeg Beach cottages I remember from my childhood). The book closes with the whole community attending the baby's briss.
In The Shiva, the action actually begins with another briss. An acquaintance of Sammy and Anna, Mooney, has just been released from the psychiatric ward following a bout with depression. Mooney's brother, the grandfather of the baby in question, sits Mooney at the kids' table where he provokes a fight and earns his brother's wrath. Despite this, their mother tries to bring them together and gets the brother to lend Mooney $50,000 which he invests in a short-selling scheme promoted by an Indian seer who predicts the sub-prime mortgage crisis. Fighting, whining and complaining prevail when Mooney earns then loses millions on the scheme. Some of Mooney's elderly friends are entertaining which was basically the book's only saving grace.
Family Life by Akhil Sharma
After three books set in Winnipeg, it was nice to move on to something completely different. This book is short and really easy to read but very powerfully written. In 1978 we meet the Mishra family in Delhi. The whole story is told from the perspective of the younger brother Ajay who is 8 at the start. He, his mother and his older brother Birju are awaiting tickets to America to be sent by their father who has immigrated ahead of them.
Eventually the tickets arrive and the family settles in Queens where they are amazed by simple luxuries like elevators, flushing toilets and automatic doors. Birju excels in school and is accepted at the prestigious Bronx High School of Science. But when the boys are spending the summer with an aunt in Virginia, Birju has an accident and is left severely brain damaged. His parents struggle to take care of him with limited resources and a small negligence settlement. His father turns to alcohol and his mother is basically seen as a goddess who can bring good fortune on Indian visitors - some who they know and some who they don't. So Ajay is often left to fend for himself and to find his way in the strange world of an American middle school then high school.
A very powerful story of the devastation that 3 minutes can bring to the dreams of a whole family but how the family still sticks together to achieve what best they can in the circumstances.
Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight
This is a young adult novel which uses a lot of the gimmicks popular in such books, such as transcripts of text messages and Facebook posts. But it was still a good story about bullying and a mystery with sufficient complexity that it kept me guessing until almost the end.
Kate, a single mother and partner in a law firm, is shocked one day when she receives a call from her daughter Amelia's private school saying Amelia has been suspended. But she is more shocked when she gets there and finds out that Amelia has fallen from the school's roof and died. A very perfunctory investigation by the police rules it a suicide, which does not sit well with Kate, especially when she gets an anonymous text stating Amelia didn't jump. With the help of her boss, Kate convinces the police to reopen the investigation and that is when Amelia's last few days are reconstructed.
The narrative switches from Kate to Amelia's perspective (in flashback, of course) as we consider various suspects - the school bullies (members of the exclusive girls' group, the Magpies which had tapped Amelia), Amelia's best friend Sylvia, a texting friend who is only known as Ben, and members' of the school's staff and PTA. There is also the side mystery of who Amelia's father was which gets revealed toward the end as well.
An easy and compelling read.
The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult
I only picked this up because I was in an airport and needed something to read and this book was on sale. But I'm glad I got it - it was better than I expected. The main complaint I had is that the end was so predictable I wondered why the characters were not smart enough to figure it out earlier (particularly Leo who is supposed to be an experienced Nazi hunter).
Sage Singer is a lonely baker who is still mourning the death of her mother three years before the narrative starts (and blaming herself). In her grief support group she befriends the elderly Josef Weber who eventually confesses that he is a former Nazi who has been hiding in plain sight as a pillar of the small New Hampshire community they live in. He wants Amelia, a Jew by birth if not practice, to forgive him then help him kill himself.
Struggling with this request Sage reaches out to the US DOJ and meets Leo, a Nazi hunter. He guides her in how to figure out if Josef is really who he says he is and therefore should be extradited and charged in Europe.
This story is interwoven with a story within a story about a vampire like monster who falls in love with a human girl. We learn about mid-way through that this story was written by Sage's grandmother both before and during the Holocaust. In fact, she was in part able to survive Auschwitz by recounting the story to a German administrator there who took an interest in hearing the end. The early story moves between the perspectives of Sage and Leo to the story within a story. But the middle is all from the perspective of Sage's grandmother as she recounts how she survived the horrors of war despite losing all of her family and friends. There are also small sections written from Josef's perspective where we hear how he got involved in the Nazi machine.
As I said earlier, the end was rather predictable but the story was still well written and interesting. I found the changing perspectives and time periods made it even more compelling.
Friday, December 12, 2014
Six Metres of Pavement by Farzana Doctor
This book was really a find. It was published in 2011 but I had not heard of it until it made CBC's list of the top 100 Canadian books. And I think it really deserved its place on the list.
The story centres on Ismail Boxwala, a Canadian of South Asian descent. Twenty years before the novel begins, Ismail tragically, and accidentally, left his 18 month old daughter asleep in her car seat when he went to work. He only remembers he did not drop her off at daycare when a policeman shows up at his office advising him that she has died. Of course, following this he is investigated by the police (though never charged as it was found to be an accident), shunned by his neighbours and friends and eventually divorced as his marriage could not survive this. He has also clearly not forgiven himself - living in the same home, his daughter's room a closed up shrine and drinking heavily. He has never had a serious relationship since his divorce and is mostly a loner but for obligatory visits to his brother's family in the suburbs and the "merry pinters", the name he has given the women he hooks up with at his local bar.
Things change when two new people enter Ismail's life. First, Celia, a widow who moves in with her daughter's family across the street from Ismail. Celia is dealing with her own troubles - her husband died of a heart attack leaving her with virtually nothing but gambling debts and, three weeks later, her mother dies. She is unhappy in her daughter's den, she gave her mother the spare bedroom and feels she deserves the same, but doesn't really have any choices. She spends the early part of the book peering at Ismail through the curtains. Eventually they meet and develop a really nice relationship despite their very different backgrounds (Celia is Portuguese) and thus the disapproval of both their families.
Around the same time Ismail also meets Fatima, a 20 year old Muslim girl who has been kicked out of her family home for being an openly gay activist. Ismail clearly directs all his pent up fatherly feelings at this girl who is just a year younger than his daughter would have been. Of course, because the Toronto South Asian community is small, Fatima's parents have heard about Ismail's past and use him as further reason to distance themselves from their daughter. But with Celia's support, Ismail is able to help Fatima get back on track.
The main characters in this book are interesting and rather charming. The relationship that develops among the unlikely companions is fascinating. It really shows how sometimes you have to move outside your comfort zone to get the support you need to move ahead. As an aside, I loved reading about local streets and TTC routes in Little Portugal. I thoroughly recommend this book.
The story centres on Ismail Boxwala, a Canadian of South Asian descent. Twenty years before the novel begins, Ismail tragically, and accidentally, left his 18 month old daughter asleep in her car seat when he went to work. He only remembers he did not drop her off at daycare when a policeman shows up at his office advising him that she has died. Of course, following this he is investigated by the police (though never charged as it was found to be an accident), shunned by his neighbours and friends and eventually divorced as his marriage could not survive this. He has also clearly not forgiven himself - living in the same home, his daughter's room a closed up shrine and drinking heavily. He has never had a serious relationship since his divorce and is mostly a loner but for obligatory visits to his brother's family in the suburbs and the "merry pinters", the name he has given the women he hooks up with at his local bar.
Things change when two new people enter Ismail's life. First, Celia, a widow who moves in with her daughter's family across the street from Ismail. Celia is dealing with her own troubles - her husband died of a heart attack leaving her with virtually nothing but gambling debts and, three weeks later, her mother dies. She is unhappy in her daughter's den, she gave her mother the spare bedroom and feels she deserves the same, but doesn't really have any choices. She spends the early part of the book peering at Ismail through the curtains. Eventually they meet and develop a really nice relationship despite their very different backgrounds (Celia is Portuguese) and thus the disapproval of both their families.
Around the same time Ismail also meets Fatima, a 20 year old Muslim girl who has been kicked out of her family home for being an openly gay activist. Ismail clearly directs all his pent up fatherly feelings at this girl who is just a year younger than his daughter would have been. Of course, because the Toronto South Asian community is small, Fatima's parents have heard about Ismail's past and use him as further reason to distance themselves from their daughter. But with Celia's support, Ismail is able to help Fatima get back on track.
The main characters in this book are interesting and rather charming. The relationship that develops among the unlikely companions is fascinating. It really shows how sometimes you have to move outside your comfort zone to get the support you need to move ahead. As an aside, I loved reading about local streets and TTC routes in Little Portugal. I thoroughly recommend this book.
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