The Weekly Meme

The question before the panel this week:

Monica suggested this one:

Got this idea from Literary Feline during her recent contest:

“Name a favorite literary couple and tell me why they are a favorite. If you cannot choose just one, that is okay too. Name as many as you like–sometimes narrowing down a list can be extremely difficult and painful. Or maybe that’s just me.”

This is a tough one. A lot of books about couples either end with them split up, or they focus solely on one person in the relationship, with the partner as a cookie-cutter symbol happiness and fulfillment. A lot of the guys that the heroines of chick-lit wind up with can barely be defined even in the broadest terms (smart? funny? caring?).

But in thinking it through a bit, I came up with two outstanding couples. The first, isn't a "couple" in the sense of romantic involvement, but are bound together nonetheless. In Richard Russo's Nobody's Fool, the "title character" Sully has had his share of romantic failures. At 60, he's been divorced from the mother of his son for decades. He nurtures a crush on his boss's wife Toby, who is about the same age as his son. For 25 years, he's also carried on a half-hearted affair with Ruth, a married woman 15 years younger than him. I liked this coupling a lot too, because it was realistic. In the movie version of the book, they had Melanie Griffith play a glammed-up Toby, and positioned her as the love interest. Ruth, a young grandmother who worked as a supermarket cashier and waitress and wore cheap slacks, was totally absent from the movie. There are more women in small towns like Ruth than like Toby, and a woman like Ruth would be more likely to take an interest in Sully.

But the real woman in Sully's life is Miss Beryl. She was his eighth-grade English teacher, and her husband was his football coach all through high school. Miss Beryl had a spinal deformity all of her life that gave her a strange appearance and made her the butt of her students' jokes. Long after her husband, Clive Sr., has died, she remains surprised by him choosing her. Her son, Clive Jr., runs the local bank and stops in frequently. But the two are completely different in their beliefs, attitudes and outlooks, and are not very close, although they do care for each other.

In high school, Sully was a frequent dinner guest at Miss Beryl's house. His own house was a horrible place to be: he had an abusive, drunken father who frequently vented his anger on Sully, on their timid mother, and on Sully's older brother Patrick, who died in a car crash. Fifty years later, Sully is a permanent tenant in an apartment in Miss Beryl's home, much to Clive Jr.'s chagrin. But their relationship is more than just that of a landlord and tenant. Miss Beryl saves the mail Sully chucks in the trash without opening and maintains a file of important papers for him. Sully helps her maintain the house, and rushes her to the hospital when she has a stroke halfway through the book. They support each other in subtle ways, and by the end of the book it's clear that in their relationship, they've both found the mother-son relationship they've always wanted, so late in life that even the memory of wanting it had almost faded away.

A more traditional "favorite couple" of mine is from The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery. Valancy Stirling, at 28, has led a lonely and unsatisfying life. No friends -- ever. No boyfriends -- ever. The object of derision from her large and annoying family, including, unfortunately, a stunningly beautiful and popular cousin her own age. When a doctor tells her she may have only a year to live, at most, she's determined to change everything. She breaks with her family. She moves in with disreputable local man to care for his ailing daughter (who was also the unwed mother of a baby that died). And then, most shockingly of all, she marries local ne'er-do-well (they still had them back then) Barney Snaith.

I picked them as a favorite couple because they were unconventional in drably conventional times, in a drably conventional literary genre. Most couples, both in real-life Victorian Canada and in books aimed at 10-13 year-old-girls, live in houses and go to nightclubs or parties for fun. Barney and Valancy lived in a shack in the woods. They rarely socialized or even went into town. When they wanted to have fun, they went hiking through the woods, looking for wild flowers (but never picking any, as Valancy didn't believe in removing them from their naturally wild place), getting to know the animals, picking roots and berries, and other woodsman stuff. Barney and Valancy were also not firmly joined at the hip: one of his pre-conditions for marrying her was that she allow him his space, stay out of one particular area of the house, and not ask questions when he told her he was going away for a few days. All of these sound to a modern women like items from Dear Abby's "Is He Having An Affair?" checklist, but Valancy accepted them without question and their relationship blossomed.

I mentioned at the beginning of this blog post that in many books, one half of the happy couple is a straw man for fulfillment and happiness. Usually, these books tell the story of courtship and end with the marriage, or at least the suggestion of long-term involvement. Barney and Valancy get married towards the beginning of the book, and throughout the rest of it, their happiness in their unconventional life sparkles and shines in comparison to Valancy's earlier misery at being mired in a more conventional one. The book has an over-the-top happy ending to the point where you actually expect someone to appear leading a diamond-encrusted unicorn for the couple to enjoy as a pet, but it doesn't diminish the developing story of their relationship.

Chosen

My favorite section of Barnes and Noble is the "remainder" table. As I've noted before, I tend to freeze up when I'm confronted with an array of books in the $25-30 range, but a $5 book is no great risk. Sure, it's not the newest book on the market, but I've never been about the latest and greatest. I tend to avoid it, actually, and try to seek out the more hidden gems. But last time, I picked up an extremely hyped novel, The Historian, by Elizabeth Kostova. Let me tell you, the hype is well-deserved, maybe even understated, for the quality of this book.

Vampires, and Dracula in particular, have long fascinated authors and movie-makers. The current popularity of the Twilight series, the popularity of the Anne Rice books in the late 80s and early-to-mid 90s, the multiple remakes and remixes of the Dracula story that hit theaters in the interim point to the ongoing power of the vampire to excite the imagination. I think it's because of all the mythical creatures, vampires are the most like us. Werewolves lose their intelligence when they transform. Frankenstein was cobbled together from household objects and dead bodies. Unicorns and dragons? Just more fantastic versions of horses and lizards. But vampires were once ordinary men and women, and retain some of their human characteristics while losing the one we all hate most: they will never die.

The Historian is a fantasy and a mystery for people who don't much like fantasy or mystery. I first heard about this book from a fantasy-loathing friend, who raved about it. He was also in graduate school with me, though, and the meticulous research that is an underlying theme of the book was probably what appealed to him. The plot is two stories nested together, and told through the eyes of a sixteen-year-old girl who was raised by her father. One night, she finds a curious book in his study, and he starts to tell her a remarkable tale, about his advisor Professor Rossi, who disappeared after telling him about finding a similar book, and his journey to find his advisor. Then, her father himself disappears in the middle of the night, with a note saying that he's gone to find her mother, whom he believed dead. The girl pursues her father by train, while uncovering the rest of the tale of his epic journey.

The first part of the book is a little slow, but it picks up rapidly when the girl's father Paul disappears. Elements of her pursuit of him echo his pursuit of Rossi over 20 years ago. Both have a partner in their hunt, who ultimately become lovers. Both visit out-of-the-way places in Europe. Both solve their respective mysteries through careful research and questioning, and the use of their intellectual powers. This gives a very realistic feel to what could have been an over-the-top fantasy.

Just seeing the places the characters visit makes it an enjoyable read. Paul and Helen (the narrator's parents) start in Istanbul and trek deep behind the Iron Curtain, through Helen's native Hungary and into the mountains of Bulgaria. They get to eat traditional meals, visit villages that haven't changed in centuries and participate in traditional celebrations. Paul and Helen are both strong characters, and their journey towards each other is enjoyable to watch. The book is a historical mystery, a supernatural mystery, a love story, and a travel story all at once.

But one of the most appealing devices is the mysterious book itself. Paul, Rossi and several other characters in the novel are bound together by the fantastic discovery of an ancient book in with their own possessions, with a woodcut of a dragon and the word "Drakulya". This is the item that begins each of their individual quests and fuels their research and travel despite the dangers faced along the way. It gets at the heart of the appeal of the vampire myth, and (I believe) of many other fantastic stories like the Harry Potter novels: the idea that one day, for better or for worse, you too could be chosen. That one day, in the middle of the most mundane tasks, the sudden appearance of a book, or a letter received, or a wardrobe opened might transform your ordinary life into something extraordinary. It's an idea that most of us buried deep in childhood, after we'd exhausted all the leads in our search for the gateway to Narnia, after the letter from Dumbledore should have arrived.

Most of the readers of The Historian will, of course, be too old now to actually believe in such things. But it's a fascinating feeling to remember, and I for one will surely examine the next pile of books I check out from the library a little more carefully, just in case.

Booking Through Thursday: The Curse of the Long-Term TBR

Okay–here was an interesting article by Christopher Schoppa in the Washington Post.

Avid readers know all too well how easy it is to acquire books — it’s the letting go that’s the difficult part. … During the past 20 years, in which books have played a significant role in both my personal and professional lives, I’ve certainly had my fair share of them (and some might say several others’ shares) in my library. Many were read and saved for posterity, others eventually, but still reluctantly, sent back out into the world.

But there is also a category of titles that I’ve clung to for years, as they survived numerous purges, frequent library donations and countless changes of residence. I’ve yet to read them, but am absolutely certain I will. And should. When, I’m not sure, as I’m constantly distracted by the recent, just published and soon to be published works.

So, the question is his: “What tomes are waiting patiently on your shelves?“

This is a good one, as I finally just picked one of them up last week and polished it off, finding it worth the wait. The answer to this question can largely be found on this blog already -- my TBR list is an amalgalm of interesting-looking new releases, and books that have languished all these years. How did they come into my life? Some were unexpected and surprising gifts, like The Rape of Nanking and City of Masks. A shameful few were school books, assigned late in the term when I had many other things on my plate, that I never got to.

A large number came from the annual "orgy at the library," their used-book sale, where books started at a dollar each and were reduced to ten cents each on the last day of the sale. We often went several times during the week-long sale and carted out as much as we could carry. One year, I acquired most of the biographical novels by Irving Stone (of The Agony and the Ecstasy fame), which I had to have after reading his Van Gogh novel Lust for Life but still haven't read. Another significant chunk of them are refugees from my parents' purge a couple of summers ago. I was going to the library and they had all of these fascinating books they wanted me to take for the book sale. I took most of them, but kept a fair number for myself. I still haven't started them.

The question is: why not? If I checked any of these books out of the library, I'd probably get to them immediately (since I'm not even certain of a complete list, I may do that by mistake one day). I think it's because there's less of a sense of urgency with them. I am the type of person who likes to use the new things I buy right away. It hasn't changed much from childhood, where I'd be ripping open the packaging of a new toy on the car ride home. Even if it's something as mundane as a new sponge caddy, I put the sponges in it right away. Library books always have that dreadful timer running on them from the moment you check them out. But books you own, that you acquired in great numbers or needed for a class, will always be there.

It's too bad, really. I've decided (and I know I made this resolution before) that when I finish my current read, I'll choose my next book from my own library, rather than the public one.

Of Djinn and Magicians

Languishing on my TBR list for years was The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud. I just finished it a few days ago, and it was pretty enjoyable, although I'm undecided about reading the rest of the trilogy.

One unusual thing about this book is that it doesn't have a strong protagonist. The story is told from both the perspective of young apprentice magician Nathaniel and the djinni Bartimaeus that he summons. Bartimaeus seems to hold most of the personality, although that may partially be a function of his parts being told in the first person: he is witty, funny and tricky, at once disdainful of his audience and enjoying its rapt attention. Nathaniel is childish in all the negative senses of the word: he dislikes being told what to do, he feels that no one can see his potential, he is quick to anger and holds grudges.

He summons Bartimaeus to get revenge on a magician who had insulted him during a gathering at his master's house. His plan is to steal a piece of contraband from the man, then embarass him by exposing him. But all goes wrong when Bartimaeus learns his real name, giving the djinn power over the boy. Nathaniel is quick to react by slapping a post-dated indefinite confinement charm on him, thus binding the pair together. Like a couple in a bad marriage, neither one can walk away because each has something the other needs. Nathaniel's fears -- of his master finding out what he is up to, of Bartimaeus betraying him, of the whole plot blowing up in his face in one manner or another -- and Bartimaeus's resentment of his forced servitude are what drives the plot.

The one real criticism I have of this book is that I thought the plot dragged a bit. Beyond that, I'm not sure why it failed to capture my imagination. It certainly is different from many books involving magic: for one, the magicians operate in the open and are accepted by society, for another, there's the lack of an obvious sympathetic figure. There's nothing noble about Nathaniel at all, and Bartimaeus is intriguing, but too misanthropic to really warm up to. You certainly wouldn't want one of your own. All in all, though, it was a decent and enjoyable read, very funny in some parts, and intriguing for the bits of Bartimaeus's life and backstory that filter through. I probably will read the rest of the trilogy at some point, but I'm in no rush to do so.

Two Endorsements: One Fun, and One Serious

image from barackobama.netimage from ultrapdx.com


Let's get the serious one out of the way first: it should surprise no one who's taken note of my favorite authors or read any of my more political posts that I will be proud to cast a vote for Barack Obama in three weeks' time, and that I hope everyone else does too. This has been an extremely long campaign, and during much of the beginning part of it, I'd hoped that Hillary Clinton would be our candidate (as I'd hoped since I was 16...sigh). I was unconvinced about Obama at first, but the more I hear of him, the more I like him. He's well-spoken and passionate. Some people would have you believe he's an "elitist", but I think the president should be elite. After all, we let a dumbass give it a try for eight years, and look what's happened.

I'd tried to write out a longer commentary, but realized I could not possibly state it better than the New Yorker's editors did last week when they officially endorsed Obama. It's an excellent article, well worth your time. In the past few weeks, it's become so apparent that the country's in serious trouble that even the Republican Masters of Denial can't ignore it anymore. I believe that of the two candidates, Obama is the only one with the patience and understanding to start to get things back on the right track.

Now for my fun endorsement: Leanne Marshall as the winner of Project Runway. This Wednesday, at 9PM on Bravo, we'll get to find out if the judges felt the same way. I caught most of this season, and thought it was reality television at its best. Heroes! Villians! Wacky characters! High highs! Low lows! The triumph of victory! The agony of defeat!

Well, maybe that's a bit much, but it was a pretty exciting season. Leanne stood out for me right away because of her personality. In a case full of opulent Harry Winston and Tiffany 5-karat rocks, Leanne was the simple opal ring that you couldn't help but be drawn to. She was so meek and mild that I wondered how she'd fare in such a high-stress, competitive, backstabbing environment. But week after week, she proved herself. She's won two challenges and has made it all the way to the end now.

Usually, the "home visit" episode decides it for me. Last season, I was touched and inspired to see Christian Siriano's tiny apartment, with the studio that doubled as bedroom. Generally, Tim will talk to the contestant about his or her collection, and then the contestant will take Tim to meet family, friends or significant others. Christian had no one to show off. All his family, he explained, lived far away and only came up rarely. At an age where most people are still trying to find themselves, Christian not only knew what he wanted but had sacrificed everything to get it. So I was very pleased when he won, and I'm happy about the successes he's had already. Hopefully they've allowed him to get a two-bedroom apartment!

In Leanne's case, I was sold by her collection. I think the wave shapes are innovative and beautiful. I loved her wedding and bridesmaid's dresses, and I think her collection has a very cohesive look. It was also probably pretty technically challenging, but it all looks beautifully made.

image from ultrapdx.com

I liked seeing Korto's family and hearing her story too, but I pick Leanne for the ethereal beauty of this collection. You look at it and you feel like you're at the ocean. It's such a simple, beautiful inspriation, and I'd love to see more from her.

In Training

Well, once again I'm going to try NaBloPoMo. Last year, it was a success: I made it 30 days with posting every single day. Some days it was hard to come up with anything to say. Some days I had to rely on memes, or cheat a bit buy posting about how I didn't know what to post about. But overall, it was a fun challenge. I realized that I've been horrible about posting lately and that this was coming up, so I'm going into training. I'm going to try to post at least three times a week until November 1, when I have to start posting every day. So the blog should be a little more active. I have some ideas for new features, but you'll have to come back to see what they are!

The Return of Booking Through Thursday

I’ve seen this series of questions floating around the ‘net the last few days, and thought it looked like a good one for us!

What was the last book you bought?

(answer here)

Name a book you have read MORE than once

(answer here)


Has a book ever fundamentally changed the way you see life? If yes, what was it?

(answer here)

How do you choose a book? eg. by cover design and summary, recommendations or reviews

(answer here)

Do you prefer Fiction or Non-Fiction?

(answer here)

What’s more important in a novel - beautiful writing or a gripping plot?

(answer here)

Most loved/memorable character (character/book)

(answer here)


Which book or books can be found on your nightstand at the moment?

(answer here)

What was the last book you’ve read, and when was it?

(answer here)

Have you ever given up on a book half way in?

(answer here)

So here goes:

What was the last book you bought?

I had to think really hard on this one. It's been quite a while, but I think it was probably Bright Lights, Big Ass by Jen Lancaster. Good read, too.

Name a book you have read MORE than once

Name a book I haven't read more than once, is more like it! I am a serial re-reader. But one book I like to go back to every year is Nobody's Fool by Richard Russo. The story is set between Thanksgiving and New Year's Eve, so that's when I usually read it. Then again, there are some books, like L.M. Montgomery's The Blue Castle that are so familiar to me that I barely even need the book anymore to re-read it.

Has a book ever fundamentally changed the way you see life? If yes, what was it?

I actually left this one for last, because it's so hard. I've been sitting here thinking about it for a few minutes, and I still don't know the answer. There are a lot of books that have opened my eyes to various issues (Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, What's My Name, Fool? by Dave Zirin) and some that have even had a direct impact on my behavior (after learning in Schoolgirls by Peggy Orenstein that teachers subconsciously called on boys more often than girls, I've made a conscious effort to alternate when I'm leading a tour of schoolchildren). But as for a book that fundamentally changed my whole point of view, I can't think of one. Then again, those moments are so subtle in life that they're easy to miss.

How do you choose a book? eg. by cover design and summary, recommendations or reviews

I've chosen books by all of the above and more: the author, the subject matter, the cool title (remember "The Porno Girl?"), recommendations from friends and family, references to it in a magazine article, seeing the movie it was based on, hearing about it from a famous author, and the ever-popular "because my book club said so." I don't have one set way of choosing what I want to read.

Do you prefer Fiction or Non-Fiction?

I like fiction better. I find it more powerful, and if it's based on something real, I find it teaches me more. Barbara Kingsolver explained the power of fiction in an essay using the story of a plane crash. If you read about a plane crash in the news, where all the passengers were lost, you think "that's too bad. Thank God none of my friends or family were on that plane" and you generally go about your day. But if you were to read a short story about that same plane crash, and follow the morning of one of the passengers, as she packed her suitcase, kissed her husband and daughter goodbye at the terminal, and boarded the plane that was taking her to a job interview in a distant city, you'd really feel the loss, and really understand what a tragedy the plane crash was. Good nonfiction can do that too (I think of Stewart O'Nan's The Circus Fire) but a lot of times, it's fairly bloodless.

What’s more important in a novel - beautiful writing or a gripping plot?

I think they're both equally important. They need each other in order to make any book worth reading.

Most loved/memorable character (character/book)

It is still, and always, Eilonwy from Lloyd Alexander's Prydain series. She is a princess and enchantress, brave, funny and clever. She's a worthy companion for the protagonist, Taran, and also provides some comic relief. I hate the choice she makes at the end of the series, and I hate what Disney did to her character in the movie version of The Black Cauldron, but the character as Lloyd Alexander wrote her is still wonderful.

Which book or books can be found on your nightstand at the moment?

The smartass answer would be that I don't keep books there, because it's a very small space and my cat likes to climb on it. So it's almost always bare except for my lamp and alarm clock. If they mean, "what are you currently reading," it's The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Strauss, but I don't keep it there, although it is sometimes there overnight.

What was the last book you’ve read, and when was it?

Readers will be shocked, SHOCKED, to learn that it's The Flamenco Academy by Sarah Bird, that I finished last week.

Have you ever given up on a book half way in?

I never used to, but after the death of a professor convinced me that life was too short to plow through stuff that sucks, you bet I have. I think the most recent one was that abominable piece of "Christian" fiction, Doesn't She Look Natural that I actually threw across the room after the nasty passage about homosexuality. A while back, I did have to give up on David Copperfield halfway through because I'd already renewed it twice. I'm still sorry about that.