This book got a lot of hype, and while I enjoyed it, I didn't like it as much as many of its reviewers. The premise was interesting - the story followed 7 or 8 generations in two branches of an African family (originating on the Gold Coast in what is present day Ghana). Two half sisters had vastly different lives - one, Effia, started out with an unhappy relationship with her mother, only to discover the woman she thought was her mother was not. In fact, her father had a relationship with a housemaid who started a fire in their home on the day of Effia's birth abandoning her in the care of her father and step mother; leaving only a stone necklace. The second, Esi, is later born to Effia's mother with her husband and has a very happy childhood.
The girls' paths then take very different turns. Effia is married off to the British governor at the time and lives life in a castle. Esi is stolen from her home and sold into slavery; passing through the castle's dungeon on her way to America.
Subsequent chapters alternate in telling the stories of Effia and Esi's descendants. Effia's descendants live in Africa for the most part where they live through the impacts of tribal warfare, colonization and ultimately revolution and independence. It is only her great, great, great grandson who eventually emigrates to America; of course as a free man. Esi's descendants live in slavery, escape from slavery only to be imprisoned in the south (it seems for the "crime" of being black), and then live in poverty in Harlem. It is only the last generation who escapes the cycle of poverty with a university education. Of course the final generations ultimately meet up without knowing the connections (which was very predictable so I'm not giving anything away).
There were a couple of problems I had with the book. First, to me it read more like a collection of interconnected short stories. I would have liked to see better development of the relationships between the different generations. And while I understood why the author alternated chapters between the two different branches of the family in order to tell both stories chronologically, I found myself often forgetting what happened in the previous generation by the time I got to the next instalment on that branch. I had to rely heavily on the family tree at the front of the book, but even that left me with questions that could only be answered by rereading. The chapters somehow needed to better tie in the previous ones. Also, I couldn't help but feel this type of story had been done before, for example in The Book of Negroes. While the author clearly did a lot of research and had an interesting premise, it just didn't feel that original to me.
All in all, I'm not sorry I read the book, but I was a bit disappointed after the hype it received.
Thursday, October 27, 2016
Wednesday, October 19, 2016
By Chance Alone by Max Eisen
This memoir of a holocaust survivor should be required reading for all high school students (and anyone else who has graduated high school and has never received a proper holocaust education). Max Eisen is now in his eighties and living in Toronto. He has devoted his post retirement years to holocaust education in schools, with police organizations and through the March of the Living. The last time he saw his father, when they were separated at Auschwitz, his father blessed him then asked him to tell the world their story if he survived. No doubt Mr. Eisen's father is immensely proud of the work his son has carried out in his memory and in the memory of all other victims.
Max was born in a small town in Czechoslovakia, near the Hungarian border. He lived with his extended family of parents, paternal grandparents, aunts, uncle and siblings. He was mischievous, not happy in school, but adored working the orchards with his grandfather. He had a wide group of friends and by all accounts a normal, happy childhood. He spent idyllic summers with his mother's extended family in a nearby town.
This all changed in 1944 when his town, which by then had been handed over to Fascist Hungary, liquidated its Jews and sent them by cattle car to Auschwitz. Prior to this his mother's family had been sent to Madhausen where they were exterminated - though first sent the propaganda postcard about how happy they were farming in the East. So until arrival at Auschwitz Max was quite naive about what was happening though it was relatively late in the war. At selection, his mother, younger siblings, aunt and grandparents were immediately sent to the gas chambers. His father and uncle became his "guardian angels" as he navigated the brutal work and living conditions, though eventually they too were taken from him.
By chance, as the title suggests, a severe beating on his head likely saved his life. He was sent by an under Kapo to the camp hospital and there a Polish political prisoner doctor first nursed him to help then put him to work in the hospital - saving him from certain death. They were together until separated on the death march in 1945.
Somehow Max managed to survive the unspeakable horrors of the death march and was eventually liberated by an American army unit from Ebensee at the end of the war. He dragged his ill body back to his home town only to find his home had been taken over by neighbours who wanted to have nothing to do with him - except for one kindly woman who was now the mayor's wife. She recognized how ill he was and arranged to have him hospitalized. He then spent a couple of years at a school for orphans set up by the American Joint Distribution. However when the communists took over Czechoslovakia he was caught trying to escape and imprisoned again. By further chance a connection of his was able to get him released from prison and he made his way to a DP camp in Austria and eventually to Canada.
Max was fortunate enough to find employment and a wife whose family took him in and helped him rebuild his life. It was years before he could fulfil his promise to his father and speak about his experiences, but now that he has started he tells a mesmerizing tale. I also loved how he maintained his connections with his past - two cousins who were the only other survivors of his extended family, the family of the doctor who saved his life in Auschwitz and even one of the American soldiers who liberated him. And most importantly he defied the Nazis by having children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.
The book is well written and hard to put down. And a must read since there are so few with first hand knowledge left to tell their stories.
Max was born in a small town in Czechoslovakia, near the Hungarian border. He lived with his extended family of parents, paternal grandparents, aunts, uncle and siblings. He was mischievous, not happy in school, but adored working the orchards with his grandfather. He had a wide group of friends and by all accounts a normal, happy childhood. He spent idyllic summers with his mother's extended family in a nearby town.
This all changed in 1944 when his town, which by then had been handed over to Fascist Hungary, liquidated its Jews and sent them by cattle car to Auschwitz. Prior to this his mother's family had been sent to Madhausen where they were exterminated - though first sent the propaganda postcard about how happy they were farming in the East. So until arrival at Auschwitz Max was quite naive about what was happening though it was relatively late in the war. At selection, his mother, younger siblings, aunt and grandparents were immediately sent to the gas chambers. His father and uncle became his "guardian angels" as he navigated the brutal work and living conditions, though eventually they too were taken from him.
By chance, as the title suggests, a severe beating on his head likely saved his life. He was sent by an under Kapo to the camp hospital and there a Polish political prisoner doctor first nursed him to help then put him to work in the hospital - saving him from certain death. They were together until separated on the death march in 1945.
Somehow Max managed to survive the unspeakable horrors of the death march and was eventually liberated by an American army unit from Ebensee at the end of the war. He dragged his ill body back to his home town only to find his home had been taken over by neighbours who wanted to have nothing to do with him - except for one kindly woman who was now the mayor's wife. She recognized how ill he was and arranged to have him hospitalized. He then spent a couple of years at a school for orphans set up by the American Joint Distribution. However when the communists took over Czechoslovakia he was caught trying to escape and imprisoned again. By further chance a connection of his was able to get him released from prison and he made his way to a DP camp in Austria and eventually to Canada.
Max was fortunate enough to find employment and a wife whose family took him in and helped him rebuild his life. It was years before he could fulfil his promise to his father and speak about his experiences, but now that he has started he tells a mesmerizing tale. I also loved how he maintained his connections with his past - two cousins who were the only other survivors of his extended family, the family of the doctor who saved his life in Auschwitz and even one of the American soldiers who liberated him. And most importantly he defied the Nazis by having children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.
The book is well written and hard to put down. And a must read since there are so few with first hand knowledge left to tell their stories.
Monday, October 17, 2016
Sons and Daughters of Ease and Plenty by Ramona Ausubel
Another strange book recommended by the New York Times book review, but interesting enough that I made my way through it.
The book begins in 1976 on Martha's Vineyard. Fern and Edgar are spending their summer at their vacation home with their three children, nine year old Cricket and six year old twins, James and Will when they are advised that all the family money they had been living off of was gone. Fern becomes very concerned and wants Edgar to take over the helm of his father's steel business in Chicago. But Edgar has never wanted that life - though he has happily lived off his family's money, he is embarrassed by it and is in the process of completing the publication of a book which delves into the horrors of making your money off the backs of poor miners and other workers. This leads him to find solace in the arms of another woman, Gloria.
When the family returns to Boston, Edgar tries to set up a bizarre dinner where he will again hook up with Gloria but will hand over his wife to her husband. Not surprisingly Fern is horrified and kicks Edgar out of their home.
Every second chapter the books goes back in time and we learn how the families made their money (Fern's is old plantation money earned off the backs of slaves; Edgar's parents are self made and very ostentatious in their lifestyle and spending habits). We also learn how Fern and Edgar met; about Fern's twin brother who was mentally unstable (and how she blames her parents for his fate); about Edgar's time in the army (coddled as a result of his father's connections) and about the birth of the children.
When we return to the present Edgar has decided to escape on a sailing adventure with Gloria while Fern embarks on a completely odd cross country drive with a giant of a man who she has just met. Neither knows the other is gone so the three children are left to fend for themselves. Cricket seems to be the most capable of anyone in the family and actually manages to not only keep her siblings alive but to get them to school looking normal so that no one suspects the children are on their own.
The remainder of the book fills in more about the past - and the love/hate relationship with money. And we follow the week long adventure of both parents and children as they all try to sort out how they should deal with their future now that they can no longer live off of Fern's family money. There is some sort of resolution in the end, but it is no more sensible than the lives of the family members ever were.
The book begins in 1976 on Martha's Vineyard. Fern and Edgar are spending their summer at their vacation home with their three children, nine year old Cricket and six year old twins, James and Will when they are advised that all the family money they had been living off of was gone. Fern becomes very concerned and wants Edgar to take over the helm of his father's steel business in Chicago. But Edgar has never wanted that life - though he has happily lived off his family's money, he is embarrassed by it and is in the process of completing the publication of a book which delves into the horrors of making your money off the backs of poor miners and other workers. This leads him to find solace in the arms of another woman, Gloria.
When the family returns to Boston, Edgar tries to set up a bizarre dinner where he will again hook up with Gloria but will hand over his wife to her husband. Not surprisingly Fern is horrified and kicks Edgar out of their home.
Every second chapter the books goes back in time and we learn how the families made their money (Fern's is old plantation money earned off the backs of slaves; Edgar's parents are self made and very ostentatious in their lifestyle and spending habits). We also learn how Fern and Edgar met; about Fern's twin brother who was mentally unstable (and how she blames her parents for his fate); about Edgar's time in the army (coddled as a result of his father's connections) and about the birth of the children.
When we return to the present Edgar has decided to escape on a sailing adventure with Gloria while Fern embarks on a completely odd cross country drive with a giant of a man who she has just met. Neither knows the other is gone so the three children are left to fend for themselves. Cricket seems to be the most capable of anyone in the family and actually manages to not only keep her siblings alive but to get them to school looking normal so that no one suspects the children are on their own.
The remainder of the book fills in more about the past - and the love/hate relationship with money. And we follow the week long adventure of both parents and children as they all try to sort out how they should deal with their future now that they can no longer live off of Fern's family money. There is some sort of resolution in the end, but it is no more sensible than the lives of the family members ever were.
Friday, October 7, 2016
Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld
After reading a heavy book about cancer treatments, this was a nice light escape. It's a modern day telling of Pride and Prejudice, but much easier to digest.
We follow the lives of the Cincinnati Bennet family. The two oldest daughters, Jane and Liz, return from New York following their father's bypass surgery. Jane is a yoga instructor, Liz a magazine writer. The girls discover their family home in disarray - their father is incapacitated due to the surgery; their mother has a shopping addiction and is otherwise solely focused on the lunch she is organizing at the country club. Middle sister Mary is working on her third online degree and hardly ever leaves her room while the two youngest, Kitty and Lydia, do little other than cross training. Liz also quickly discovers that her father has nearly bankrupted them.
In addition to the family drama, like in the original work, Jane quickly falls in love with a doctor, Chip Bingley though the relationship is obviously plagued with misunderstanding. Liz is smitten with the unlikely Fitzwilliam Darcy - who on first glance is rude and judgmental. The youngest Lydia falls for a transgendered man and Kitty for a black man, much to this dismay of their racist and homophobic mother.
The drama comes to an end on the reality show, Eligible (think The Bachelor) where Chip was a contestant prior to meeting Jane. If you have read the original the happy endings are no surprise, but the book is fun to read nonetheless.
We follow the lives of the Cincinnati Bennet family. The two oldest daughters, Jane and Liz, return from New York following their father's bypass surgery. Jane is a yoga instructor, Liz a magazine writer. The girls discover their family home in disarray - their father is incapacitated due to the surgery; their mother has a shopping addiction and is otherwise solely focused on the lunch she is organizing at the country club. Middle sister Mary is working on her third online degree and hardly ever leaves her room while the two youngest, Kitty and Lydia, do little other than cross training. Liz also quickly discovers that her father has nearly bankrupted them.
In addition to the family drama, like in the original work, Jane quickly falls in love with a doctor, Chip Bingley though the relationship is obviously plagued with misunderstanding. Liz is smitten with the unlikely Fitzwilliam Darcy - who on first glance is rude and judgmental. The youngest Lydia falls for a transgendered man and Kitty for a black man, much to this dismay of their racist and homophobic mother.
The drama comes to an end on the reality show, Eligible (think The Bachelor) where Chip was a contestant prior to meeting Jane. If you have read the original the happy endings are no surprise, but the book is fun to read nonetheless.
Wednesday, October 5, 2016
Alice & Oliver by Charles Bock
This book was interesting, but very depressing - all the more so because it is based on the real life experiences of the author's late wife.
When baby Doe is just a few months old her mother, Alice, takes ill and is diagnosed with fairly advanced cancer. Most of the book deals with Alice's fight to survive - multiple hospitalizations, radiation, chemotherapy and eventually bone marrow transplants. In addition to feeling her enormous physical pain, we see the emotional pain she endures; particularly protracted separations from her infant daughter as her immune system is not strong enough to withstand catching any germs a baby is likely to carry. Apparently many of the hospital and treatment scenes are based on journal's kept by the author's wife as she underwent cancer treatment.
Certain chapters are written from the perspective of Alice's husband, Oliver. We see how he struggles trying to be the primary caretaker for his wife and child while at the same time juggling the financial strain of Alice's treatments. He expends much energy trying to ensure proper insurance coverage. There are also weird interludes where Oliver visits with prostitutes - I suppose illustrating his desperate need for escape and companionship of some sort.
One of the nice aspects of the book is the support Alice and Oliver receive from Alice's mother and their various friends. Alice's mother takes on care of the her granddaughter while her friends rotate shifts by her bedside to ensure her comfort and, at times, safety when nurses cannot constantly assist her in her weakened state. Oliver's friends try to help keep his business afloat thus ensuring continuity of insurance coverage - however, by the end we feel they have not been as supportive as Alice's friends.
My biggest problem with the work is that it was somewhat weird in its writing style - it jumped around a lot and there were certain scenes that either didn't work for me or I simply didn't understand what they were getting at.
The final chapter is from the perspective of Doe many years later when she is a teenager. It is in this way that we learn the outcome of the story - both what happened with respect to Alice's health and how Oliver and Doe came through it all.
In all it was an interesting book, but very depressing so make sure you are in the mood for that kind of story. You also need to be prepared to ignore or skim over the weirder parts.
When baby Doe is just a few months old her mother, Alice, takes ill and is diagnosed with fairly advanced cancer. Most of the book deals with Alice's fight to survive - multiple hospitalizations, radiation, chemotherapy and eventually bone marrow transplants. In addition to feeling her enormous physical pain, we see the emotional pain she endures; particularly protracted separations from her infant daughter as her immune system is not strong enough to withstand catching any germs a baby is likely to carry. Apparently many of the hospital and treatment scenes are based on journal's kept by the author's wife as she underwent cancer treatment.
Certain chapters are written from the perspective of Alice's husband, Oliver. We see how he struggles trying to be the primary caretaker for his wife and child while at the same time juggling the financial strain of Alice's treatments. He expends much energy trying to ensure proper insurance coverage. There are also weird interludes where Oliver visits with prostitutes - I suppose illustrating his desperate need for escape and companionship of some sort.
One of the nice aspects of the book is the support Alice and Oliver receive from Alice's mother and their various friends. Alice's mother takes on care of the her granddaughter while her friends rotate shifts by her bedside to ensure her comfort and, at times, safety when nurses cannot constantly assist her in her weakened state. Oliver's friends try to help keep his business afloat thus ensuring continuity of insurance coverage - however, by the end we feel they have not been as supportive as Alice's friends.
My biggest problem with the work is that it was somewhat weird in its writing style - it jumped around a lot and there were certain scenes that either didn't work for me or I simply didn't understand what they were getting at.
The final chapter is from the perspective of Doe many years later when she is a teenager. It is in this way that we learn the outcome of the story - both what happened with respect to Alice's health and how Oliver and Doe came through it all.
In all it was an interesting book, but very depressing so make sure you are in the mood for that kind of story. You also need to be prepared to ignore or skim over the weirder parts.
Monday, September 12, 2016
The Best Kind of People by Zoe Whittall
Finally a book I loved and had a hard time putting down - it's been a long while since that happened. Whittall is very deserving of being long listed for the Giller.
The Woodbury's are the third generation of a wealthy WASPy family living in the large family home on a small lake in New England. The father, George, has been teacher of the year every year for at least a decade at the prestigious prep school his 17 year old daughter, Sadie, also attends. His wife, Joan, is a trauma room nurse who married into the wealth and does not live the life of leisure that others expect of her. Their older son, Andrew, is now in his thirties and working as a lawyer in New York while living with his partner Jared. The other main characters are Joan's prickly but practical sister, Clara, Sadie's boyfriend, Jimmy, his mother Elaine and her boyfriend, Kevin.
On the day of Sadie's 17th birthday the police barge into her home and take her father away in handcuffs - he has been accused by several teenage girls of inappropriate sexual advances and attempted rape while chaperoning a school ski trip. His family is totally surprised by the charges against him - which he vigorously denies - and the book really focuses on how each of them deal with it in their own way.
At first Joan is certain her husband is being framed. But as she looks into her finances in an effort to raise bail she discovers money missing and becomes more suspicious about what George could be hiding. At the start she visits him in prison and tries to get the truth until one day he explodes and tells her to stop asking questions. Then she takes a break from the visits. Being practical she tries to work through the surprise of suddenly being on her own - she attends a support group for partners of men in prison for sexually related crimes, she goes back to work, she leans on her sister and she tries desperately to parent her children.
Sadie cannot take the constant scrutiny of press in her home or the nasty voice mail messages, eggs thrown at the windows and the fact that she's suddenly become a social pariah when previously she had been her grade's highest performer, president of student council, a track start and very popular. She leans on her boyfriend Jimmy who remains very loyal and in love with her and moves into his family home. There Kevin, who is a writer with one bestseller in his past and a severe case of writer's block, exploits her story to write his next bestseller. Sadie misinterprets his interest in her which causes a strain on her relationship with Jimmy while his book puts a strain on Kevin's relationship with Elaine. Elaine is mortified that he would use Sadie in this way.
Andrew's partner Jared tries to be very patient in his support, but Andrew continuously pushes him away as he struggles to deal with his fervent wish his father was innocent but his inability to make a legal case for it. This is heightened when someone from Andrew's past brings him a new and more shocking revelation.
Another interesting side story is how George's case is taken up by a fervent group of anti-feminists who say charges of this nature are all a plot against men by slutty women who regret their actions in the morning. Both Joan and Sadie are tempted to accept their support but are horrified to be associated with these fanatics who are so against their regular ideals.
As the book unfolds the reader is left to decide whether George is guilty or has been framed and whether the reactions of his family make sense. To me all of the varied reactions seemed very realistic and I sympathized with everyone (except perhaps Kevin and the anti-feminists) at some point in the book. It ends with the trial and a brief epilogue of what happened a year or so out in the future.
I highly recommend this book!
The Woodbury's are the third generation of a wealthy WASPy family living in the large family home on a small lake in New England. The father, George, has been teacher of the year every year for at least a decade at the prestigious prep school his 17 year old daughter, Sadie, also attends. His wife, Joan, is a trauma room nurse who married into the wealth and does not live the life of leisure that others expect of her. Their older son, Andrew, is now in his thirties and working as a lawyer in New York while living with his partner Jared. The other main characters are Joan's prickly but practical sister, Clara, Sadie's boyfriend, Jimmy, his mother Elaine and her boyfriend, Kevin.
On the day of Sadie's 17th birthday the police barge into her home and take her father away in handcuffs - he has been accused by several teenage girls of inappropriate sexual advances and attempted rape while chaperoning a school ski trip. His family is totally surprised by the charges against him - which he vigorously denies - and the book really focuses on how each of them deal with it in their own way.
At first Joan is certain her husband is being framed. But as she looks into her finances in an effort to raise bail she discovers money missing and becomes more suspicious about what George could be hiding. At the start she visits him in prison and tries to get the truth until one day he explodes and tells her to stop asking questions. Then she takes a break from the visits. Being practical she tries to work through the surprise of suddenly being on her own - she attends a support group for partners of men in prison for sexually related crimes, she goes back to work, she leans on her sister and she tries desperately to parent her children.
Sadie cannot take the constant scrutiny of press in her home or the nasty voice mail messages, eggs thrown at the windows and the fact that she's suddenly become a social pariah when previously she had been her grade's highest performer, president of student council, a track start and very popular. She leans on her boyfriend Jimmy who remains very loyal and in love with her and moves into his family home. There Kevin, who is a writer with one bestseller in his past and a severe case of writer's block, exploits her story to write his next bestseller. Sadie misinterprets his interest in her which causes a strain on her relationship with Jimmy while his book puts a strain on Kevin's relationship with Elaine. Elaine is mortified that he would use Sadie in this way.
Andrew's partner Jared tries to be very patient in his support, but Andrew continuously pushes him away as he struggles to deal with his fervent wish his father was innocent but his inability to make a legal case for it. This is heightened when someone from Andrew's past brings him a new and more shocking revelation.
Another interesting side story is how George's case is taken up by a fervent group of anti-feminists who say charges of this nature are all a plot against men by slutty women who regret their actions in the morning. Both Joan and Sadie are tempted to accept their support but are horrified to be associated with these fanatics who are so against their regular ideals.
As the book unfolds the reader is left to decide whether George is guilty or has been framed and whether the reactions of his family make sense. To me all of the varied reactions seemed very realistic and I sympathized with everyone (except perhaps Kevin and the anti-feminists) at some point in the book. It ends with the trial and a brief epilogue of what happened a year or so out in the future.
I highly recommend this book!
Thursday, September 1, 2016
Secret Child by Gordon Lewis and Andrew Crofts
This is not a great book, but it's a reasonably interesting memoir of Gordon Lewis who was born and spent his early childhood in a home for unwed mothers in 1950's Dublin. At the time, his mother was determined to keep him but unable to tell any of her friends of family that she had a child so they lived in relative isolation from the outside world.
The author paints a great picture of his mother - strong, determined, and self-sufficient she makes the best life she can for her son under the circumstances. However, Gordon who does not do well in school (years later he is diagnosed with dyslexia) begins to get in trouble by running about town with the other "unfortunates" and causing general mischief. When he is brought home by the police for the second time his mother decides she must get him away from the bad influences and turns to an old boyfriend who she had been unable to marry as his Protestant and her Catholic families were so vehemently opposed to the relationship. He proposes and promises to take care of mother and son, bringing them to London where he now lives.
Gordon learns early that Bill is full of promises and short on delivery, but nonetheless he sees Bill and his mother are in love and figures out the best way he can how to make a new life for himself in London. His mother even prohibits him from ever talking about his past life - which is hard for him as he misses both his friends and Bridie, the woman who was like a second mother to him while his mother worked. Though still struggling in school, Gordon inherits his mother's entrepreneurial spirit and finds creative ways to make money even as a young boy.
The book begins with Gordon returning to Dublin to seek out his father and ends with us learning the identity of his father and the details of why his mother was left on her own. Though that story is somewhat sad, you can't help but feel Gordon was lucky to be raised by such a determined single mother in a time and place when that was nearly unheard of.
The author paints a great picture of his mother - strong, determined, and self-sufficient she makes the best life she can for her son under the circumstances. However, Gordon who does not do well in school (years later he is diagnosed with dyslexia) begins to get in trouble by running about town with the other "unfortunates" and causing general mischief. When he is brought home by the police for the second time his mother decides she must get him away from the bad influences and turns to an old boyfriend who she had been unable to marry as his Protestant and her Catholic families were so vehemently opposed to the relationship. He proposes and promises to take care of mother and son, bringing them to London where he now lives.
Gordon learns early that Bill is full of promises and short on delivery, but nonetheless he sees Bill and his mother are in love and figures out the best way he can how to make a new life for himself in London. His mother even prohibits him from ever talking about his past life - which is hard for him as he misses both his friends and Bridie, the woman who was like a second mother to him while his mother worked. Though still struggling in school, Gordon inherits his mother's entrepreneurial spirit and finds creative ways to make money even as a young boy.
The book begins with Gordon returning to Dublin to seek out his father and ends with us learning the identity of his father and the details of why his mother was left on her own. Though that story is somewhat sad, you can't help but feel Gordon was lucky to be raised by such a determined single mother in a time and place when that was nearly unheard of.
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