bookrblog

This Lovely Life

Saturday, October 31st, 2009 | American Literature | No Comments

I had followed the blog of Vicki Forman and had been saddened by the death of her young son (around which the blog had been written). This is her story, although it’s the story of the first days and years rather than the later ones of her blog. She had been pregnant with twins and had gone into labour at only 24 weeks; although she asked that the babies not be given resuscitation, she was told that was not allowed, and the hospital worked hard to save them. Ellie died after a few days; Evan lived for nearly nine years. He was blind, with significant physical and intellectual disabilities, including a seizure disorder. Vicki found herself fighting the medical establishment from the day the twins were born, who had a different agenda from her. She wanted quality of life for her babies; they just wanted survival.

This book isn’t really about her babies so much as herself. There are tantalising snatches of information about Evan’s life past babyhood, but not much. Mostly it is the medical and therapy circuit, and most of all Vicki coming to terms with what has happened, something she didn’t expect in her ordinary, even perfect, life. How could she lose a child; how could she have a child with severe disabilities; how could her life consist of such a long-term struggle? In the end Vicki concludes that “even a short life is a whole life”, but in a way her book doesn’t say that, because there isn’t enough about Evan’s life. Instead it reflects the horror and shock and indignation of being given a burden, and the slow resignation and acceptance of that burden. It was a book about grief, especially with Evan’s death at the end. It was a good book.

Wildwood Dancing

Saturday, October 31st, 2009 | Children's Literature | No Comments

I’ve seen this book by Juliet Marillier many times but haven’t been tempted to read it, mostly because of the over-the-top fairytale cover. Alas, the cover did represent the book; it’s an over-the-top predictable fairytale. I did like the beginning, the tantalising bits of history around Transylvania (Romania), the sisters; but the rest of it takes bits of fairytales such as the frog prince and the 12 dancing princesses and other stories, and doesn’t build enough interest. I can see it may have been more interesting to a young girl - and it is a YA - but maybe not. Pieces of it is good; it doesn’t make a good whole.

Remarkable Creatures

Saturday, October 31st, 2009 | British Literature | No Comments

This is the most recent novel by Tracey Chevalier, and is similar to her others; set in a particular historical period, and focusing on relationships. This particular story is about Mary Anning, who was the earliest female discoverer of fossils, including the first pterodactyl, in the first half of the nineteenth century. She was from the working class and was barely acknowledged for her work, although that has changed of course.

Her story is fascinating; this book isn’t, because it focuses more upon her friendship with an upper class woman who was also interested in fossils. The friendship isn’t particularly interesting. It’s a good book in that it does make Anning’s story more well-known; but as a book it’s only so-so. It lacks depth and lacks a real moving plot. While that worked for “girl with a pearl earring”, it doesn’t work this time, mostly  because of the split narration. A good subject, but it would have been a great book under different hands.

Fire

Monday, October 26th, 2009 | Children's Literature | No Comments

I couldn’t wait - I had to go out and find Kristin Cashore’s next book right after I’d read her first one. It’s actually a prequel, but one which includes spoilers for Graceling, so you do need to read the other first, although Fire is a standalone book. Fantasy, set in a wild world of monsterously beautiful creatures living side-by-side their ordinary counterparts. Fire is the only monsterous human (there’s all sorts of monsters, from mice to raptors), but the point of this story is that the truly murderous can be hidden behind a mild face. Fire may be labelled a monster due to her bright hair and ability to read and mould minds, but she strives to help and can’t be cruel. She’s forced to travel to the King’s city to help the spies with their work in preventing war, and her entire world is altered by this experience.

Initially I wasn’t as keen on this book, and I still prefer Graceling, but I quickly warmed to the characters and the world. Cashores has a gift for writing action and bringing tension to the poor reader, but it’s the depth of the characterisation that sets her books apart. I really enjoyed this, and I’m looking forward to her next.

Graceling

Saturday, October 24th, 2009 | Children's Literature | No Comments

I really enjoyed this first novel by Kristin Cashores. It’s the usual “sword and sorcery” fantasy, but it’s well-written and the characters really draw you in. Katsa is “graced” or gifted with fighting and so is used by her king as a kind of “strong-man” or assassin. As she grows older she realises this is wrong, and forms an underground organisation to help those hurt by her king and the other kings in the lands around her. She eventually develops the strength to leave her king, due to her friendship with a young prince, who is graced with a kind of mind-reading, and fights well, too. This is a lovely coming-of-age story, with lots of adventure and romance, and a positive model of a girl learning about the bigger world she’s part of. A very good YA read.

Yipping Tiger

Saturday, October 24th, 2009 | Australian Literature | No Comments

Perminder Sachdev is a neuropsychiatry professor at UNSW and apparently an Oliver Sacks wannabee - alas, this book of stories fails to come anywhere close to Sacks’ writings. Sachdev has put together a number of case studies of interesting patients he has come across through the years, including people with Tourette’s, Obsessive-Compulsive, brain injury, anorexia, and golfer’s cramp. The ostensible theme is the wonder of the mind-brain connection, but the actual theme seems to be the fact that not much can be done; Sachdev fails to help pretty much everyone, and the only patients who do well are the ones he refers on to psychologists. Interestingly, Sachdev takes the opportunity to bag out psychodynamic psychology and the entire field of philosophy, while acknowledging that his own field can’t do much and doesn’t know much either. Sacks’ warm respect for humanity is missing here; his stories are human, about people who despite their diagnoses are people first and show us what it is to be human. Sachdev has the opposite slant; people are simply diagnoses, and show us what damaged humans are like. Not nice.

Her Fearful Symmetry

Sunday, October 18th, 2009 | American Literature | No Comments

I was a little nervous about this new novel by Audrey Niffenegger, as so many reviewers commented onbeing disappointed by how different it was from her previous novel. It is different; it actually resembles her graphic novels, with the obsession with twins and the supernatural. It’s about a set of identical twins, daughters of another identical twins, who are left an apartment and a fortune by their mother’s sister (her twin), who has just died. And who happens to be a ghost in the apartment. There’s a big secret - why have the two older sisters been estranged all their lives - and some fascinating characters living in the apartment building, and a wonderful setting, the Highgate cemetery. However, the silly ending does let the book down, I think. She is a very good writer and I did enjoy this, but I was disappointed by the way she tied up all the different characters in the end, and the way it got more and more absurd. I think it would have been a far better book if she’d restrained herself; it’s quite good, but not great, which is probably why it’s a disappointment after her previous book. But - I did enjoy it.

An Exact Replica of a Figment of my Imagination

Tuesday, October 13th, 2009 | American Literature | No Comments

This sad little memoir by Elizabeth McCracken is about her experience of losing her first son; he was stillborn. She and her husband had been living in France and had gone two weeks overdue when he died; she had no idea this was a risk factor. In the womb, they had called him “pudding”; when they legally had to name him in France, they still called him pudding and being France, no one questioned it.

Experiences like this are just like being in a foreign country with a strange language and new customs and a new way of living. The fact that they were living in France makes it an extended metaphor; they return to the US for their next baby. Only people who have “been there” really know how to comfort Elizabeth; many old friends abandon them or hurt them unwittingly with their lack of understanding.

This is a small sad book, a little bitter and a little bewildered, trying to memorialise something  - someone - through literature who should have been part of life. I understand it.

The Birth Wars

Sunday, October 4th, 2009 | Australian Literature | No Comments

This non-fiction book by Mary-Rose MacColl is a confronting yet fascinating read. MacColl tries to present the information without bias, and does not come to any real conclusion, or offer any hope that the “war” - between midwives’ “women-centred care”, and the Obstetricians’ medical model - will ever be resolved. She takes a few case studies, including some tragedies, then looks at the research, which shows that obstetrics is the least evidence-based field of medicine altogether. The purpose of the book is to show that there needs to be significant change in the field to increase both morbidity and mortality for mothers and babies; and to say that at present, that change does not seem to be happening.

A Far Off Place

Sunday, October 4th, 2009 | African Literature | No Comments

This is the sequel to Laurens Van Der Post’s “A Story Like the Wind”, which I loved. I enjoyed this, but I didn’t love it; it was very sad, with a lot of violence, despite being a wonderful portrait of Africa. Basically, the survivors of a terrible massacre have to cross the Kalahari desert to escape their attackers and find safety. It is a coming of age story for Nonnie and Francois, but its purpose is also to celebrate the uniqueness of the Kalahari Bushmen. It was exciting, but to me, too sad to really love.