"The Forgetting Time" an Uninspiring Reflection on Reincarnation

What if we had chance upon chance to love the people we love, to redeem ourselves and make things right?  This is the reiterated core of Sharon Guston's debut novel "The Forgetting Time."  This hogwash remains a sentimental bore. "And tomorrow, creeps in this petty pace from day to day. And all our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death."  (Shakespeare)  Guston references to Shakespeare & to documented cases of conceivable accounts of reincarnation are not suffice to make for a compelling story or strong argument for reincarnation.   Guston has written & produced a documentary "On Meditation."  The book is overflowing with cornball cliches that are meant as profound reflections.  "I can't hold on to hope and I can't hold on without."  And, "You had to be where you were.  The life you're living, the moment you're in."  In retrospect, these alternative truisms are shallow.  Still, this substantively light novel is a swift read due to the mother/son bond driving the narrative.  Janie is a single mother of an emotionally disturbed 4 year old, Noah.  Noah has extreme night terrors, water phobias, unexplained knowledge and a relentless plea with Mommy-mom (Janie) to take him back to his Mama.  Janie's frustrations out of love & concern for her son are understandable.   Help from professionals only offers psychotic medication which she is reluctant to use.  Searching the internet she comes across research by a Dr Anderson purporting evidence of reincarnation.  Desperate to help her tormented son, she reluctantly agrees to meet with the Dr who himself is suffering from degenerative aphasia.  The Dr seizes the opportunity to meet with Noah as his last chance to leave a legitimate legacy of his life's work.  Together they search for answers that lead them to another family & an unsolved murder mystery.   Guston's novel contemplates notions of reincarnation.  More interesting is the focus on the brain: who knows why it remembers what it does.  Also fascinating are glimpses of human nature.  It's a human trait to disregard & dispute evidence.  As an engaging, easy read, Guston succeeds.  As lofty philosophical prose, it sinks.  

"The Wangs v the World" Wacky Asian/American Family Road Trip

"The Wangs v the World" is about an Asian/American family with patriarch, Charles Wang.  Wang left his native Taiwan for CA where he prospered as a cosmetics entrepreneur & raised his 3 children: Saian, an artist in upstate NY, Andrew an AZ college student & aspiring comic and Grace, at boarding school, a self-obsessed fashion blogger.  Self-obssessed with overblown egos is a shared family trait.  It is infuriating in Charles but less so with his offspring.  Their wealthy, privileged & vain lives have not deterred a fondness for one another that is endearing.  Author & journalist, Jade Chang (b America of Asian heritage) makes her debut with this off-beat & outlandish parody of the American dream as seen by Charles, the Asian immigrant with indefatigable drive.  His relentless work ethic & overblown ego lead to immense wealth & then to financial ruin.  Chang also lampoons contemporary life in the U.S. through the eyes of all 3 siblings and their step-mom, Barbra.  Barbra had her eye set on Charles as a young man in Taiwan.  When she learned of his beautiful wife's untimely demise, she hustled herself to the states & became his bride.  Greed is an overriding theme in this entertaining & unconventional novel.  This funny & perceptive novel lambasts human traits as we hitch a ride with this zany brood on a desperate, cross country road trip. Charles & Barbra take an old mercedes (back from their housekeeper) after everything they previously possessed; businesses, property & bank accounts have been repossessed by the bank.  He's a man that can't be derailed from his plan.  The couple get Andrew & Grace from their schools (where tuition is overdue) and set their route from CA to NY where Saina may prove to be their sane, saving grace.  Andrew sums it up "my family's bankrupt and I'm in the middle of a cross-country road trip in my dead mom's car because my dad might be delusional."  Dad is quite mad and he's filled with rage & envy for all that was once his.  Saina gained early fame in the contemporary art world in NYC which just as quickly turned against her.  She retreats to an old farmhouse where her family is about to descend upon her.  Chang exposes the art world for its alchemy "every successful artist is the product of mythmaking."  The pratfalls of pride are priceless.  So too is  the hypocritical idealism of Communist China.  Charles travels to China to reclaim his families' rightful land & legacy.  Charles' views are often astute.  He believes there are 2 types of people, passive or  those who seize opportunities.  This is an impressive first novel that is unique with tongue in cheek.  But the sentimental ending is rather meek. "In the end all we had were the people whom we were beholden."

Canadian Author & Humanist Margaret Atwood's "Hag-Seed" Literary Fiction at its Finest

Margaret Atwood (b Canada 1939) has received numerous literary awards for her novels (Oryx & Crake & The Blind Assassin; Man Booker Prize winner.  Atwood is also highly regarded for humanitarianism.  Her newest novel, "Hag-Seed" is a literary novel that swirls around Shakespeare's "The Tempest."  Felix, a thespian has just been unceremoniously thrown overboard from his artistic directorship of a Shakespearian CO. by his plodding nemesis.  Felix is drowning in an enormous black  boiling cloud of sorrow & self-castigation after his firing & deaths of his wife & daughter, Miranda.  He banishes himself to the bleak countryside to live a parsimonious & hermit-like existence.  An ad for a theatrical teacher for inmates draws hims out of his self-imposed prison to an actual prison where he teaches inmates whose worlds contain few freedoms from which to choose.  The opportunity to participate in a Shakespearian production appeals to some of the prisoners.  "Hag-Seed" is derived from the "Tempest'" a name that represents all that is evil in the play.  "I'm two times evil and I ain't sorry, cause I'm Hag-seed," raps one of Felix's students. Atwood's eloquent & poignant novel contemplates many of Shakespeare's themes:  revenge, remorse, redemption, insanity, power & love.  These themes are encased within Felix & the inmates in his theatrical group.  Felix is the king of retribution.  He manipulates his powerful educational opportunities as a means of vengeful payback.  He cunningly & obsessively plods how he will strike-back at the villain who deposed him.  Theater is a persuasive tool & the redemptive power of art often cathartic.  The inmates & Felix discover the strength to call forth light from darkness.  "The rare action is in virtue than in vengeance."  The keynotes of the novel are prison reforms, power & clemency; from  revenge to forgiveness.  The prisoners discuss & collaborate on Shakespeare's Tempest.  The profundity they gained is liberating.  "Despite the crap they did, he {Caliban} feels sorry for the bad guys and what they're being put through once they've suffered enough, so we take that it's okay to change our minds."  Atwood again proves her exceptional literary finesse.  I applaud her writing and her thoughtful call for social reform.

Amy Schumer's Auto-bio "The Girl with the Lower Back Tatoo" Too Funny & Too Much Info

"The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo" is Amy Schumer's auto-biography.  In it she shares everything (well how would I know that?) & anything about her childhood, family, sex life, comic personna, introvert personna (huh?) and did I mention sex life.  Schumer's writing is self-deprecatingly hilarious especially her footnotes of her own earlier journal entries.  Her writing has a comic timing you don't see coming which is LOL (don't you hate that?)  It seems Amy gives us a full disclosure, full dose dossier of her life from infancy (yep) through adolescence, parental relationships, boyfriends & sexual relationships and her penchant for the spotlight & making people laugh.  There are serious, somber reflections on sexual abuse, self-doubt & sensible gun controls.   Her pontificating on finding your inner strength is palpable mixed with her dry wit & wisdom.  "Know what it is to depend completely on yourself in life." "What's wrong with being alone anyway?  Being alone is sometimes a great place to be but people are always trying to correct this problem for you."  Amy's upbringing was unique (whose isn't?)  But really, her mother made a lot of mistakes by sharing way too much information & being too permissive rather than being a responsible parent.  (Perhaps, Amy gets her sharing of TMI from her mom.)  Amy's father's alcoholism & degenerative muscular disease are an open book.  Again, more shit than I needed to know.  However, whenever 2 sisters are as close as Amy & her sister, there was something unerring in the home.  And, Amy's outlook on life is resplendent. "Life is full of pain & disappointment.  I've made a whole career out of pointing this out and reliving it in ridiculous ways so everyone can laugh and cry along with me."  Amy's never ending lust for the comic hustle under the spotlight is surprisingly at odds with her inner introvert core.  (Is this part of her ultimate hustle at being funny?)  Amy grasps that making people laugh allows her to dismantle power structures (albeit to her advantage.)   Schumer does what comediennes do best, they push boundaries allowing us more space to examine the ludicrousness in life with humor & a sense of kindred-ship.  Schumer's "…Lower Back Tattoo" has too much intimate info but this is what makes it the most entertaining & rewarding autobiography I've read by a comic.  "Sitting & writing & talking to no one is how I wish I could spend the better part of everyday."  Schumer's on-stage talents are rooted in her embracing of the mundane to the insane.  HEY LADY!

"Humans"-British Author Matt Haig-An Alien's Mindful View of Mankind

Matt Haig (b. Britain 1975) is a novelist who writes for both adults & children.  "Humans" is a sci-fi novel appealing for adults & Y/A alike.   An alien is sent to earth to prevent Prof Andrew Martin, a mathematics genius, from sharing his knowledge gained solving the most significant mathematical puzzle ever faced.  The consequences for this achievement pose dire consequences for the entire universe.  Humans' scientific advances will hasten an apocalyptic demise of the universe.  Hence, an alien is assigned the task of killing Martin and anyone he shared his discovery & destroying all traces of his research.  The alien assigned the task, does so reluctantly, but it's only a temporary mission.  To begin, the alien assumes the life form of Martin by erasing the brain matter that mattered in making Martin the man he was.  Now, Martin is a martian with superhuman abilities.  But he is a 43 year old newborn to earth; a stranger in a strange land.  The "new" Martin has to blend into his alien existence with his estranged wife Isobel, disengaged son, Gulliver  and the family dog, Newton.  Everything is a new experience for the E.T.  He's baffled by mankind's childlike harboring of hope for happiness & meaning in their lives.   This brilliant conceit of viewing humanities' foibles, follies and passions with an innocence & wonder is not original but Haig's writing is off beat, insightful, poetic and otherworldly.  His observations are hilariously insightful & heartfelt.  Humans are ruled by their desires which leads to suffering.  Where Martin originated there is no love, no hate - only the purity of reason.  Martin's epiphanies are miraculously eye opening.  "Love is about finding the right person to hurt you.  Two life forms in mutual reliance."  Martin's pitiful dissociation with earthlings becomes transformed by the infinite wonders that abound: books, music, art, poetry; especially Dickinson, canine company, wine, food; especially peanut butter and laughter.  "Humans" is so disarming & touching that presumptive platitudes transform into a black hole of celestial splendor.  Martin leaves his "son," Gulliver sage advice that elicited fluid from my ocular formations.  "Dog's are geniuses of loyalty.  And that is a good kind of genius."  "Don't worry about your abilities.  You have the ability to love.  That is enough." "You have the power to stop time.  You do it by kissing. Or listening to music."  "The things you don't need to live - books, art, cinema, wine and so on are the things you need to live."  "Peanut butter sandwiches go perfectly well with a glass of white wine.  Don't let anyone tell you otherwise."

British Writer Zadie Smith's "Swing Time" Another Brilliant Novel from this Talented Writer

Zadie Smith (b Britain 1975) is an accomplished writer with numerous honors.  She received the Whitbread 1st Novel Award for "White Teeth" ('00) and her novel "On Beauty" earned an Orange Prize.  Smith's latest novel "Swing Time" is another literary achievement that strives to strike a balance between serious social issues: race, class along with astute social parodies.  This is a craftily written contemporary novel that swings for the fences but doesn't always score.  The nameless, bi-racial narrator shares the millenials' search for a substantive life, yet she's fairly self-consumed.  "We felt we had our place in time." Smith uses music & dance as a metronome for racial, economic, social & power divides.  The hierachy pits blacks at the bottom.  "Sometimes at the top, white man, Jew, Arab, Chinese, Japanese - depend.  But your people {Black} at the bottom - always they lose."  Smith observes "Tribes stick together - it even goes by shade."  The novel leads with a heavy foot regarding power struggles.  "Power preys on weakness, local, racial, tribal, royal, national, global, economic - on all kinds of weaknesses. "  People are placed into categories & a pecking order.  The narrators' black mother felt what mattered was culture & color.  Her white father defined by their labor.  There's striations of esteem related to skin tone; lighter skinned blacks being considered superior to darker skinned.  "Tribes stick together - it even goes by shade.  Everybody goes with their own is the point and it's natural."  Musical styles are rigidly divided: black music, white music.  The narrator ponders if there exists a world where the two combine.  She believes dancers are the best type of people.  "Their bodies tell them what to do."  The novel does a scorching parody of Madonna a.k.a. "Aimee."  She's an int'l (white) rock star who drops in on Africa trolling money behind and leaving with her a young lover & infant.  Smith returns to dance & time, time & again. These themes lead the rhythm of the book.  "A great dancer is eternal, has no time, no generation, he moves eternally through the world so that any dancer in any age may recognize him."  Smith tips her top hat to Astaire, Michael Jackson & Nijinsky.  Smith loves the ephemeral qualities dancers posses & the absence of ties to any one people.  Our narrator loved watching older dance movies like  "Swing Time" with Fred & Ginger.  These movies are distractions from one's own problems.   Zadie Smith's "Swing Time" is a charming & diverting novel which moonwalks towards preachiness.  During London's Bohemian 60's, "At that time, there was no black, there was no white - Nothing so banal.  We were brothers, in art, in love."

Melinda's Top 10 List for Books Read in 2016

My list for the year pertains to books I've read this past year.  The following books are listed in alphabetical order by author.  I've been leaning more towards Non-Fiction than I have in the past.  Moving forward into 2017 - "One Never Knows - Do One?" (Fats Waller)

1.  "Heroes of the Fontier" David Eggers (b American) - Previous winner of the Pulitzer Prize for
      Non-Fiction and finalist for the Nat'l Book Award for Fiction

2.  "The Moor's Account" by Laila Lalami (b Morocco) was a Pulitizer Prize Finalist for Fiction

3.  "13 Ways of Looking" by Colum McCann (b Ireland) previous winner of the Nat'l Book Award

4.  "Nutshell" by Ian McEwan (b Britain) previous Man Booker Prize winner (and 6 nominations)

5.  "The Fisherman" by Chigozie Obioma (b Nigeria) received the Man Booker nomination

6.  "The Sympathizer" by Than Ngyuen (b Viet Nam) winner of this year's Pulitzer Prizer

7.  "Swing Time" by Zadie Smith (b Britain) previous Man Booker nomination

8.  "Doors" by Magda Szabo (b Hungary) received the French Prize Femina Etranger Award

9.  "Hillbilly Elegy" by J D Vance (b American) Autobiography

10. "A Man Without a Country"  by Kurt Vonnegut - Memoir

I'm awarding two razzie awards for the most self-indulgent non-fiction works this year to:

"Tapesty of Fortune" by Elizabeth Berg (b American)

"Superficial" by Andy Cohen (b American)