Mr. Mani

Wow, it took me a long time to read this book by Israel's A.B. Yehoshua!  It was a really tough read for a few reasons.  The book tells the story of six generations of the Mani family (the "Mr. Mani's", in particular).  Except for the last section, each generation of Mr. Mani is described from the perspective of someone else who encounters him.  In the last section, you actually hear a Mr. Mani's voice.  But there are two aspects of the writing style which makes this book rather hard to follow (though they also make it really unique and interesting).  First, it is written in reverse chronological order - so the first section actually addresses the last Mr. Mani's (taking place in 1982) and the last deals with the original Mr. Mani's (taking place in 1848).  What makes it even more interesting, however, is that each section is a conversation and we only get to hear one side of the conversation so we have to deduce what's being said by the other party. It took me quite a while to get used to this but once I did I could really appreciate the artistry involved in writing in that manner - the author had to imagine a whole other side of the conversation that he was not writing down.  The story itself is very interesting - each of the Mr. Mani's was a troubled soul and those who encounter them describe their psychological issues.  Moreover, it addresses many historical events over the years - from the Napoleonic wars through the Zionist Congresses, the two World Wars and ending during Israel's incursion into Lebanon in 1982.  It also takes place in a multitude of places - a Kibbutz in the Negev, Jerusalem, Crete, Poland, Constantinople and Greece...

I highly recommend this book, but only if you have time and patience to devote to it.  It's not a breezy beach read.  Unfortunately I'll miss my book club's discussion because I'd be interested to hear what the others think of it.

My Weekend Reads

I read two shorter books this weekend.  The first was The London Train by Tessa Hadley, a Welsh author. It's actually two related short stories, though the connection is not revealed until partway through the second story.  They both deal with characters who travel from Cardiff to London by train and the consequences of a chance meeting between the two.  I preferred the second story, the male protagonist in the first story was a bit weird and not terribly sympathetic.  The female in the second story was more likeable.  Sometimes the descriptive language was a bit too flowery for my taste but overall it wasn't a bad book.

The second book I read was This Beautiful Life by Helen Schulman.  The story is actually sort of frightening as you can imagine it innocently happening to your own child.  After a New York City party, a 13 year old girl sends a sexually explicit video of herself to a 15 year old boy she thinks she loves.  He innocently forwards it to his best friend - partly puzzled, partly proud.  The friend forwards it to two friends, they forward it to two friends each, and so on and so on and so on...The e-mail falls in the hands of the school resulting in investigations, suspensions, media attention, lawsuits and ultimately the breakdown of the boy's family.  The picture on the jacket is of a house of cards - it's an apt visual for how quickly a seemingly perfect life can fall apart.  The book's well written and easy to read.

What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty

A really interesting concept...Alice falls off her bike at a spin class, knocks her head and loses 10 years of her recent memory.  She thinks she is pregnant with her first child and madly in love with her husband rather than a separated mother of three.  Based on the reactions of others in her life she's not sure she likes who she's become either.  The book explores the week of memory loss and what happens when she gets her memory back.  Light and entertaining but also makes you think about what it would be like to wipe the slate clean and try again.  Also, the author is Australian which made me realize I haven't read much by Australian authors - I think I'll take a look and see what else I can find out there.

The Arrogant Years by Lucette Lagnado

The last couple of books I've read have been long and heavy so it was a pleasure to pick up this book which has an easy to read journalistic style.  This book is a companion to Lucette Lagnado's biography of her father, The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit.  This is the story of her mother and herself, some of it is repetitive but most is altered by the change in perspective.  Not deep or meaningful but for a relatively young woman she's had an eventful life that makes for an interesting read.  I particularly enjoyed the end where she revisited people she had not seen since childhood (or some she had never met but who knew her mother - or were descendants of those who did).  Together with the acknowledgments this gave good insight into how she did her research.  A worthwhile read that doesn't require a big investment of time or energy.

The Emperor of Lies by Steve Sem-Sandberg

A really difficult book to read and even hard to describe my feelings about it.  This is the story of the Lodz ghetto and, in particular, its Jewish leader, Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski.  At first the book seems to strike a tone that is not quite serious enough given the subject matter.  But as I got into it I realized that's because it's written from the perspective of the ghetto inhabitants who, early on, cannot fathom the gravity of their situation.  The book struggles with the question of whether Rumkowsi was an opportunist collaborator driven by a lust for power or merely a practical collaborator who did what he had to in order to save as many Jews as possible.  I came away concluding it was the former - he was portrayed as a despicable man, particularly in his treatment of the children under his care at an orphanage and the son he ultimately adopts.  Though the title of the book refers to Rumkowski, the perspectives of many other ghetto inhabitants are explored which results in a vivid portrayal of events between 1942 and the Russian liberation of the ghetto in 1945.  Occasionally the changing perspectives make the book a bit confusing as it results in a departure from strict chronological order.  The book is well researched and contains actual excerpts from journals and ghetto publications, though in an afterword the author explains that even the ghetto publications were prepared under Rumkowski's scrutiny and were undoubtedly sanitized.  I also had trouble following the occasional German or Yiddish phrases which were not translated and whose meaning was not obvious (at least to me) from the context. Although the end was not a surprise, it was nonetheless horrific to read.

11/22/63

Wow, this is the first novel I've read by Stephen King and it was a long one (849 pages).  I've never read King because he isn't really my favourite genre but something caught my eye about this one so I decided to give it a try.  It really was gripping - he writes very well, not at all what I expected.  This is the story of an English teacher in Maine who travels back in time in an effort to stop the Kennedy assassination.  However, he discovers how dangerous it can be to mess with history when he returns to 2011.  The characters are interesting and well developed, the picture of the late 50s and 60s is very detailed and obviously meticulously researched and the action is at times frightening (I literally had nightmares a couple of nights).  Definitely worth the read - if you can find the time!

An Exclusive Love

This is a memoir by Johanna Adorjan describing the double suicide of her grandparents - I suppose not surprisingly it's very depressing.  The author's grandparents were Hungarian Holocaust survivors who fled to Denmark during the Hungarian revolution in the 1950s.  The couple rarely spoke of their wartime experiences or their escape to Denmark and the author interviews friends and family members to try to piece together what happened.  She also envisions her grandparents' last day based on notes and gifts left behind, discussions with the few people who knew or suspected they were contemplating suicide (including a physician) and the police report.  For me the most depressing part is that the author must come to terms with the selfishness of her grandparents' suicide (planned because her grandfather was terminally ill though her grandmother was physically healthy).  They gave very limited thought to the impact it would have on their children and grandchildren.  The title really describes the couple well - an "exclusive love" as her grandmother felt she was loved only by her husband and did not want to go on without him which overpowered any feelings she had for her descendants.