Defined By Books

Surfacing - Margaret Atwood

Surfacing follows a young woman's journey back to her childhood home in Canada to discover what became of her missing father. She makes her journey with her lover, Joe, and a married couple whom she considers "friends" even though she has only known them for two months. They have a car and are, therefore, her ride back to her secluded village. She grew up on an island many miles away from the village without electricity or running water, which intrigues her city friends.

We learn quickly that she doesn't want to see her missing father, but to only make sure that he is safe. Through her inner monologue, we also learn that her mother has already passed away some time before and that she herself was married but is no longer, hence why she hasn't visited her childhood home.

I'm done with that narrative only because it's so much more complicated than that. For such a short novel, it's incredibly full of unfinished thoughts and convoluted memories. We are initially led to believe that the narrator married young and had a baby, which she says was never her own but was always "his." Then, the subsequent divorce, which we are also told led to her estrangement from her parents. However, as the story moves forward, she (has no name) discovers that she has been supressing the truth within her own mind. Instead, she had an affair with a married professor at her art school and got pregnant. He, in turn, "helped" her get an abortion, claiming it was the only way. Broken-hearted and broken-minded, she creates a false story in her mind and begins to believe it.

At this point in the novel, our narrator begins to go crazy and that's where Ms. Atwood lost me. The narrator tells the reader that basically she is metamorphosing into some other being, an animal, with fur and no longer understands language. Of course, this also stems back to her secluded childhood growing up in a French speaking community where her parents spoke only English - an obvious barrier for her language skills to develop as she developed into an adult. Our narrator becomes a crazed animal trying to become one with her surroundings, refusing to have anything to do with man-made items of any sort. Finally, she begins to come back to her senses and grow back into her own skin, so to speak.

I have enjoyed many Margaret Atwood novels. She also creates an intriguing plot and narrative. She rarely repeats herself on the subject matter directly, although she may revisit science fiction, feminism, etc. as a whole throughout her novels. I never know what to expect from her and that makes me enjoy her work. When I read Oryx and Crake for the first time, I didn't really like it. The second time I read it, I loved it. I enjoyed The Handmaid's Tale the first time around. This time, I'm going to have to admit that I doubt that I will read this novel again.

I disliked all of the characters who accompanied our narrator on her trip. No wonder she went crazy! They used sex as a manipulative tool, spoke of those "Yanks" (they were Canadian) in an aggressive, yet uneducated way (obviously, keeping up with the times of the novel). They were loud-mouthed and stupid and rarely acted in a way that made them likable. Sometimes, I caught myself feeling sorry for Joe, the narrator's lover. He was able to show emotion but to me, he was much like a grown man with teenage angst emotions instead of matured emotions.

Then of course there is the narrator herself and her repression of her early young adult trauma, i.e. abortion. She tells us that "he" claimed it was legal. I understand her repression of the truth and her inevitable break down when she realized what really did happen. What I don't understand is her belief of the story she made up in place of the truth. I can understand completely forgetting what happened, but fabricating a lie in her mind that she based her entire existence on shows that she was emotionally unstable long before she ever left the island to begin her grown up life. I just don't find her a believable character, unless of course she's a mental patient...which she may very well be after her incredulous metamorphis.

Sorry Ms. Atwood. Your second published novel leaves me feeling empty and not quite right inside. Maybe that's what you wanted?

Like Water For Chocolate - Laura Esquivel

Like Water For Chocolate tells the doomed love story of Tita and Pedro. Doomed only because Tita, the youngest of three sisters, finds out when she tells her mother that Pedro is going to ask her mother for her hand in marriage that she is destined to live her days without children and marriage. According to family tradition, the youngest daughter must take care of their mother until her death, forgoing any attempt to create a life of her own.

The book itself is written in 12 chapters or "monthly installments" by Tita's niece. Each month she brings to life one of Tita's recipes all the while telling the reader of Tita's love for Pedro and cooking, Pedro's marriage to her older sister Rosaura, arranged by their mother and the disappearance of their middle sister, Gertrudis.

I was hoping that there would be at least one recipe that I could make from this book. Um. No. I'm not that good. The recipes are incredibly in depth. And complicated. Plus, according to the novel, most are affected by the emotions of Tita while she prepares them.

I was a little surprised in the soft core porn aspect of this novel. For such a short little book, it sure does pack in the sexuality of the characters. Tita's love for Pedro, and thus her lust for him as well, become somewhat overwhelming to me at times. Although we are drawn a beautiful image of Tita both inward and out from the book's decription, Pedro seems a bit like a underdeveloped character to me. Her character is so strong and full of emotion and his is like a dead fish. I never feel that he lives up to her vivid personality and presence.

Um. Total slacker here. It's been over a month since I started this post. Doh!

I guess I'll sum up and move on since it's been that long since I've even read anything!

I liked this book but at the same time, it was a little over-the-top unbelievable for me. Woo!

Philip K. Dick - Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

The year is somewhere in the future after World War Terminus. Rick Deckard works as a bounty hunter on Earth where the planet is nearly uninhabitable due to a release of toxic nuclear dust years before. Animals and humans are nearly extinct on the planet, either having died from the dust or emigrated to Mars. Androids are not allowed on Earth and are killed or "retired" without most of Earth's population even realizing that they are a problem.

To own an animal on Earth is a sign of status. Rick Deckard had a real sheep that died and now owns an electric sheep. His goal is to collect enough bounty money to buy another real animal.

Rick "retires" androids that look and have intelligence as human beings. Their own true identifying character is their lack of empathy, something all humans, no matter their intelligence level, possess. In order to "retire" an "andy", Rick must perform a test on them called Voight-Kamff test that analyzes empathy based on a series of questions.

His most recent job is to find and retire a group of 6 Nexus-6 type android, the latest in technology. They are so human that it's nearly impossible to distinguish them from actual humans. The novel follows his adventures tracking down and killing the illegals.

A secondary plot follows a man named J.R. Isidore who leaves in a nearly uninhabitable suburb to San Francisco. Isidore drives a truck for an artificial animal hospital disguised as a real vet. He has a substandard intelligence caused by the dust and cannot emigrate off of Earth. He is doomed to live his meaningless and uneventful life in filth and dirt. However, he meets a beautiful young woman new to his apartment building and his life quickly becomes much more exciting.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. It was short and was easy to read. The plot never really slows down and after reading it, you realize that the story takes place in about a day. At first I was apprehensive about the book, thinking that I may not enjoy the story because of androids and their lack of personality - it seemed like the last thing I wanted to read about was some stupid robots. I was wrong. In fact, the best part of this novel is that it's based on empathy - our ability to express emotion. By following Deckard while he interviews an android, we begin to understand what it is that makes us human and them unemotional.

Dick creates beautiful characters in this novel and paints them in two different categories: human and android. We can imagine what it might be like to meet an android and never realize that they aren't human but at the same time it is difficult to understand how they can be so in-human without our senses and fears and sympathy.

This story is a study on human nature. The science fiction helped to make the story more "realistic." It was easy to imagine the novel taking place in a little spot in my head. It was very enjoyable.

Okay. I'm definitely getting WORSE at reviews.

My next review will be on Like Water For Chocolate by Laura Esquivel...I'm two chapters away from finishing it!!

The Secret History - Donna Tartt

The Secret History is narrated by a young college fellow named Richard who leaves his California roots and transfers to a small liberal arts college in Vermont called Hampden College. Richard has a fair knowledge of Greek and when he tries to get into the Greek class, he learns that it is full. He later learns that that class only offered to a selective group of students, five in particular. After one failed attempt to get accepted into the class, he later impresses the head professor, Julian, after carefully watching the five students. He gets a little more than he bargained for...

Julian's small group of students: Henry, Francis, Bunny and the twins, Camilla and Charles, take only classes offered by Julian or allowed by Julian in the classics. At first, Richard's acceptance by his classmates is awkward. However, he eventually gets to know them well. So well in fact that after 4 of them are involved in the mutilation of a local farmer during a bachannal, they confide in him. As time wears on, Bunny's acceptance of the murder, which he was not a part, becomes a heavy burden for him to bear. As a means to an end, the others decide the only choice they have in keeping the farmer's murder a secret is to kill Bunny.

Many moons ago, I was in a book club in memphis. We read The Little Friend as one of our monthly novels. Although Donna Tartt is an excellent writer, I was not a fan of that novel then, nor am I now. There was nothing enjoyable to me in The Secret History. I chuckled a few times here and there, but reading this novel was a chore. There's something so ridiculously fake about her characters and their actions that I just can't seem to ignore the fact that they are made up.

I enjoy reading fiction mainly because in most novels, I can become part of the main characters. Or at least I can relate to them and feel as though I am part of the story. Tartt's novels seem to alienate me. I feel like all of the characters are so far away from being able to be a real character that I can't grasp what they are even doing in a novel. I know it seems odd that I say then when talking about fiction...even science-fiction. However, most books I have read in my lifetime, even the ones that are so far out there in truth, have been easy to imagine because the characters are so intriguing and believable. Even the craziest ones. Not so in my eyes for Tartt's novels. Her characters are so well thought that they seem completely imagined.

That being said, I found it hard at all to relate to the story. Sure, I read it but there was never a point where I was on one side or another. Richard's character actually goes into a narration describing how awful Bunny was acting at one point. Then goes on to say that he still loved him and maybe he wasn't really that bad. Minus the whole killing Bunny part, an emotional decision was never made in the novel. No right or wrong. No hate or love. Nothing. And maybe that's the part that I dislike and the reason I can't relate to her characters: they have no soul.

Tartt writes beautifully. The novel is graceful and reads easily. She desribes things in detail and it's easy to imagine the things she writes about. But going back to those soulless characters. I just can't get past the fact that there is little emotion to them. They are stagnant to me.

Maybe it's Tartt's way of being politically correct by not really defining right or wrong, love or hate. I have no idea. I do know that this will be the last novel I will read by Tartt.

Alias Grace - Margaret Atwood

Alias Grace is a novel about a murderess named Grace who is being interviewed by a young doctor in an attempt to determine her innocence, sanity and general state of being at the time of the murders of her employer, Mr. Kinnear and the mistress of the house, Nancy Montgomery. Several years have passed since her incarceration and she works in the prison Governor's house as a seamstress and general servant. Grace tells of her early years as a child up to the time of her arrest, never truly remembering the murders. Or so we are to believe. Her story contains a recollection of astonishing events including abortion, adultery and murder: the recipe of a perfect novel?

I have been a fan of Margaret Atwood's for years. I enjoy her inventive tales that sometimes mesh science fiction with the ordinary. She's a weaver of intricate detailing in her novels, sometimes causing you to read a passage or chapter a couple of times, or even going back a few hundred pages to recall something that you had read that now made complete sense. I am usually shocked and occasionally appalled by her climax and/or endings. Yet, she draws me in. I am hooked.

Alias Grace was an exception to the rule.

I bought Alias Grace several years ago when I first read A Handmaid's Tale and The Blind Assassin (which I have read at least three times since). I should have known when I added it to my 1% Well-Read Challenge that nothing had changed since the first time I read it. Of course, I tried for three years to read The Fountainhead and after finally becoming engrossed in it after the first 100 pages, I became an Ayn Rand addict, Atlas Shrugged still being on my top ten fave books of all time. So why not Alias Grace?

First off, part of the novel is written in letters. I hate letters. I hate trying to recall formal names and trying to remember who is who and the dates and what not. I hate it. That's what made me put the book down the first time.

Second, the story is based off true events that DID indeed occur in the 1800s. Fine. I'm fine with that. I love history. However, a climax or even a little bit of a buildup in the story would be nice. Nothing. The novel was flat. She describes the characters in intricate detail, as always, making it easy to imagine exactly what they would be like if we met them in person. She elaborates and somewhat embellishes Grace's story that she is telling but it never seems like she strays much off the beaten path. We are forced to assume nothing definitive. Did Grace kill Mr. Kinnear and Nancy Montgomery in cold blood? In a moment of insanity? We are given a story at one point but even for Atwood and her tall tales, it doesn't seem plausible.

I will continue reading Margaret Atwood because I love her stories. I can handle a disappointment every once in a while as long as she still produces crazy love stories such as Oryx and Crake. My suggestion would be to never pick up Alias Grace and read The Blind Assassin instead if you want to read about abortion, adultery and murder.

The Plot Against America - Philip Roth

The Plot Against America is my first Philip Roth book. I found out after starting it that Mr. Roth has a tendency to use himself as the main character. Interesting.

The Plot Against America is a story, as told through the eyes of Philip, our 8-year old Jewish narrator, about what happened to America after Charles Lindbergh beats FDR in the 1940 presidential election because he proclaimed that under his presidency, America would not go to war. Philip and his family reside in the heart of Jewish Newark when America is slowly led into fascism by Lindbergh.

I've always been a huge fan of alternative history stories. It's not so much that I don't like what really happened but it seems that we all go through a "what would have happened" scenario in our heads with our everyday lives. Why not with a significant event in the history of America?

What I liked about this novel is that Roth didn't make America become Fascists overnight. Nor did he really make them Fascists in the end. Lindbergh comes to office and slowly things begin to change for the Jews of America. Lindbergh makes a pact with Hitler to remain on neutral ground. America does nothing to interfere with what appears to be a gradual Nazi takeover of Europe. Jewish Americans are taken aback when a famous Rabbi becomes one of Lindbergh's biggest supporters.

Philip's world, at his young age, is one of observation. He tells the reader in detail conversations his parents have over their hatred and fear of having Lindbergh in office. His cousin goes to war overseas through the Canadian military and comes back with a grotesque injury and wounded soul that Philip illustrates to his readers through his youthful point of view. To me, it felt like it was an unadulterated version of what the world would have been like for a young child trying to understand politics and the slow fall of American Democracy through his surroundings.

Eventually in the end, after Lindbergh disappears in 1942, there are riots in cities throughout America, focused on the Jewish communities. Hatred is a fast spreading disease when ignorance is to blame and this is how the reader can understand mob mentality in a fictionalized fashion.

Overall, the book was a fairly easy and entertaining read for me. However, the final 50 pages or so were incredibly boring. I don't know if I my expectations for action were higher or what. I would recommend the book to anyone who is interested in history, even if it ends up being a made-up history, some dots still connect in the end.

Man, I began writing this post on April 28th. It is now June 11th. Whew. I'm almost done with my 3rd book already! I finally took my last ARE (architectural registration exam) so I have a feeling that my book reading time will much expanded. Although, there seems to be a new boy in the picture that is my life.

I, Robot - Isaac Asimov

Hello bookies!

Well, after a crazy two months, I finally finished one of my books! Woo! I'm going to have to step it up if I'm going to read all 10 of them! Anyway, I'm not going to tell you the gory details of my new job, the fact that I have worked there for two months and have put in over three months time and that I moved - getting the stomach flu that night. It's been a rough two months.

But here I am, nearly done with unpacking and settling into the new job. Which means?? Books!

I, Robot by Isaac Asimov was a fabulous read!

First, forget Will Smith and his hot body. How that movie was made based off this book is still a mystery to be solved...

I’ve never been a huge fan of science fiction novels. Or rather, I should say that I’ve never been fond of sci-fi books that contained intricate details about space travel - so much so that I could probably build my own Delorian or whatever in my invisible garage. However, I have to admit that I do enjoy sci-fi books that are about the people more than their machines. One of my all time favorite books is Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. I know little to nothing about sci-fi, but I understand that apparently this book belongs into that genre but the feel to me is more like a mystery novel. While I was reading it, I felt like there was something that needed to be solved - somehow I had to piece together the information that was being provided to me, interpret it and figure out what was going on.

I, Robot seemed to me to be a "mystery" novel. It isn’t  one of those sci-fi novels that involves gadgetry or warp speed or any of that other stuff I know nothing about and care nothing about. Yes, the novel, or shall I say, collection of short stories, is presented to us as if a young journalist were interviewing a robopsychologist named Dr. Susan Calvin. Dr. Calvin worked for US Robots and Mechanical Men, Inc. for her entire career.  She is initially introduced to the reader as a formidable and humorless woman. We learn otherwise throughout the stories. Like the robots she studies, her emotions are hidden or hard to interpret - repressed would be a good word.

As Dr. Calvin describes to the journalist her career and its ups and downs, we learn that the cleverness of the robots increases as the technology increases. Each story holds its own, just as we expect a short story to do. Each story is like a mystery. We are presented a new robot with each story. In the story, something goes wrong with the robot. Our "heroines" in each story must then come up with a way to save the day.

The most fascinating part of these stories, save the human element that I love, is the techonology. Computers had hardly even been invented in 1950, when the book was published. The interest in robots goes back to before Da Vinci’s time. But Asimov’s inventiveness in the technology of robots, space travel and even energy production is highly interesting. And I’m not even into that kind of thing.

I, Robot rocks. Read it - plus it's relatively short!

Veronika Decides To Die - Paulo Coelho

I really enjoyed Veronika Decides To Die.

Mr. Coelho included the following to the title: "A Novel of Redemption." That is the entire point of this novel.

Veronika was a young woman who had everything and instead of enjoying her life and making the most of it, she decided to kill herself because she felt that she was happy and that if she ended her life at that point, then nothing would change. If she kept on living, she had nothing to look forward to and her life would be entirely planned and methodical: nothing would be a surprise.

So she attempted suicide and thankfully, failed. Or so she thought.

She is placed in a mental institution and left to believe that she has about a week to live.

What would you do with a week to live if you were stuck in a mental institution?

Having taken her entire life for granted, so to speak, she begins enjoying life for the first time. She takes risks. She speaks out. She does everything she never dreamed she would do in her former life. Because she doesn't hold back, she enjoys emotions she never experienced.

Redemption is deliverance. Rescue.

The novel is about redemption because I think it's more of a message to the reader. Rescue yourself. Remember that every day could be your last. With that in mind, don't hold back. If you've always wanted to go skydiving, do it. If you've always wanted to write a book, do it. The only thing in the world that is stopping you is you.

Mr. Coelho apparently wrote the book based on his own experiences in a mental institution when his parents committed him three times because he wanted to be an artist, something unacceptable in Brazil during that time. Mr. Coelho found courage to write of his story after hearing of Veronika's story from a friend. Life teaches us our best lessons and helps us write out most intriguing stories.

Veronika's story is one of life, not of death. So should each of ours. Live your life as if you are going to live, not die.