Melinda's Mindful Reads - Top 10 Picks of Literary Finds; Fiction, Non-F, Short Stories, Poetry

The following books are my top ten favorite reads since the new year.  The books, arranged in alphabetical order by author are by nat'l & int'l authors.  The list consists of fiction, non-fiction, memoir, short story collections and poetry.

Top 10 Picks:

1.   Paul Auster's 4,3, 2,1 - Book Prize nominated Four trajectories for the same young man's life.

2.   Nathan Englander's short story collection WHAT WE TALK about when WE TALK ABOUT ANNE FRANK nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

3.   T S Eliot's phenomenal poetry collection THE FOUR QUARTETs

4.   Jason Felch & Ralph Framolino's CHASING APHRODITE Non-Fiction account of outrageous alchemy in the art world.

5.   Lisa Hadley's ASYMMETRY - an amazing debut novel reminiscent of Philip Roth.

6.   Moshni Hamid's "Exist West" nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

7.   Tayari Jones' AN AMERICAN MARRIAGE

8.   George Saunders' Nat'l Book Award winning LINCOLN at the BARDO

9.   David Sedaris' humorous & bittersweet memoirs CALYPSO.

10.  Madeleine Thien's  Booker Prize nominated DO not SAY WE HAVE NOTHING - historic fiction of Chinese Cultural Revolution.

S. Africa's Apartheid 1970s Told from a White 10 Year Old Heroine HUM IF YOU DON't KNOW the WORDS

The Soweto Uprising in S. Africa (1976) during its fractious & poisonous apartheid regime is the setting for the novel HUM if YOU DON'T KNOW the WORDS by Bianca Marais (b S Africa).   The unwary, childlike title is unwittingly deceptive.  The somber hateful matters of apartheid, racism, bigotry and persecution ring loudly.  It's a coming of age story of a 10 yr. old heroine, Robin, confronted with the horrors of her parents murders & S African tyranny.  Robin is white & cared for by a black housekeeper, Mabel during apartheid.  The night her parents have left for the evening she & Mabel are awoken to the brash pounding on the door by police ordering them to the station.  Robin is separated from Mabel who is taken & tortured.  An officer informs her of her parents murders by black men as she shivers in her pajamas and wets herself while confined to a bench & neglected for hours.  Her distraught & disheveled Aunt Edith arrives to rescue Robin and confirms the inconceivable truth of her parents' deaths.  Robin refuses to leave the station without Mabel.  Mabel has been badly beaten while in custody.  She disentangles herself from Robin's clinging arms. Mable has no intention of remaining in town.  With no other family Edith, a single flight attendant is given custody of her niece.  It's not long before Robin realizes she's a burden to her unstable, alcoholic aunt.  Robin's jejune narrative is divergent from that of the mature & worldly wise Beauty.  Beauty as a black woman knows first hand the oppressive system of white supremacy.  Their trajectories interject with the aid of a white couple subversively seeking to dismantle apartheid and provide safe havens.  Beauty has sons in her village. She has come to the city with the sole purpose of rescuing her daughter Nomsa.  Nomsa is actively fighting the iron-fisted subjugation & persecution of the black population.  Her position of leadership has put her in grave peril.  Beauty is placed as Robin's caregiver.  Robin possesses inner strength, imagination & resolve.  These attributes help her contend with grief & alienation.  Among Beauty's attributes are her dignity, tenacity, courage & compassion.  Through Robin's guileless eyes we discover the cruel & unjust legal system of apartheid and the hateful bigotry against Jews & homosexuals comes into focus. This sensitive and stirring novel is constructed as a young adult detective story.  Robin is an unbridled sleuth who magnifies the evidence of pervasive hatred and assembles a solid case for justice & empathy through traces of care & compassion.   Robin & Beauty's voices harmoniously combine to refute cruelty & violence and hums with words of love.  Beauty's sagacious observations mentor Robin's dawning ephiphanies.  "Evil needs something to hate, it's easier to treat people terribly if you tell yourself they're nothing like you." In caring for Robin, Beauty's grasp of love flourishes.  "I am learning how love wells up and causes great pain when it has nowhere to go.  Like breast milk, it has to have an outlet; it can only be nourishing if it is directed away from the source."  I recommend this bold & gracious novel for its significant historic accounting of S. African apartheid and for its relevance our cruel world.  The world is often a cruel place.  It's our job to record its ugliness and render peaceful change for justice.  

Richard Russo's TRAJECTORY - 4 Short Stories on a Course Driven by Academia, Aging and Reflections

The four short stories in Richard Russo's "Trajectory" or loosely connected by middle aged characters who are reflecting back on their lives acknowledging where they took a definitive turn driving the trajectory to where they are now.  Russo (b Amer 1949) is a Pulitzer Prize winning novelist ("Empire Falls") who began his literary profession as a Univ. Prof. of creative writing.  He went on to a lucrative career as a novelist, short story writer and screenwriter.   The first 2 stories "Horseman" and "Voice" are imbedded within a university and the main characters are both Professors of Literature.  In "Horseman" Prof. Janet Moore (a tribute to novelist Laurie Moore) has just confronted a cocky male student with proof of his plagiarism.  "Horseman" would likely earn a gifted student a B not an A for its heavy handed metaphors of opaqueness, transparencies and hinderances to connecting.  "…When she got out she could see her husband and son through the dining room window…So this, she thought, was heartbreak…Even now her inclination was to remain right where she was with a pane of glass between herself and her husband and child, safe from them and they from her…Robbie was now bent over the dining room window, trying to peer out.  He'd no doubt heard her car pull in and was wondering what she could be doing out there in the dark and wet."  Russo uses this story to project his syllabus of conundrums.  His 2nd story "Voice" is an inventive & sensitive portrait of a middle aged man accepting his failures & fallouts while retaining hope of a fortuitous future.  Nate is a former college prof. whose had traumas with his students & now reluctantly retired.  This leaves Nate the opportunity to join his estranged brother Julian on a Venice Biennale trip.  Siblings are also subjects in "Intervention".  Siblings share a strong history and then sprout off in different paths.  Julian is derisive of Nate & his career causing him to question his choices.  "Nate's own self-doubt, his secret fear that he's led a life other than the one he was intended for, following the wrong trajectory entirely."  Although Nate feels assured Julian took the right fork.  "Say this for Julian, a career salesman:  he's lived the life he was meant to live and followed the only trajectory that truly suits him, from start to finish."  "Intervention" is a humorous, bitter-sweet coming to grip story of aging.  Ray is a realtor recently diagnosed with cancer.  "He was about to become yet another bare-assed, middle-aged man, the kind who didn't get to make decisions."  The hallmark of Russo's clever writing style is his incorporation of eccentric & likable characters whom we'd share a beer with but perhaps only one before departing.  "Milton and Marcus" is Russo's parodied jab at Hollywood's unscripted rules of script writing.  TRAJECTORY is another hallmark of a masterful writer who captures life's wry observations with equal measures of wit, wisdom and delight.   His writing is also lofty with poetic prose.  "Is it better to be known whole or to conceal what makes us unworthy of love."  

David Sedaris' CALYPSO Is Just so Funny it Masks Just How Sad It Is

David Sedaris is a memoirist humorist whose material is taken from his upbringing, family & his life; past & present.  Sedaris' writing is a gift to viewing life with a curious impish eye and an outlook for finding absurdity in humanity.  Born in America (1956) with 5 siblings (including comedian Amy Sedaris) David's mass appeal is his candid & comical observations within the nucleus of his eccentric family and his unabashed questioning & commentary on people he encounters in his multitudinous travels domestically & internationally.  The numerous book tours & readings demand a lot of time traveling and take their toll, to alleviate the monotony, David will turn the tides on his fans.  "I'm constantly surprised and delighted by some of the things I hear while traveling across the US."  Sometimes he likes to feign psychic abilities and guess an Astrological sign.  If that proves correct he will try to shock further by saying the person has a sister.  "I can't help it.  I told her her. 'I know things.  I see them.'  I don't of course.  Those were just guesses pulled out of my ass in order to get a rise out of someone."  Another favorite pastime is to inquire of foreigners what the most offensive thing one can say to someone else.  The responses are almost as shocking as David's silent evaluation of their impact.  The wry humor is omnipresent and mitigates the tragedies from his life; a beloved alcoholic mother who died, a cantankerous, obdurate father in his 90s and an estranged sister who recently committed suicide.  David tells his siblings the reason for their father's longevity.  "The secret to dad's longevity isn't diet or exercise or even his genes.  He's just late for death the way he's been late for everything else all his life."  The explanation for his mother's drinking, "It's almost laughable this insistence on a reason.  I think my mother was lonely without her children, her fan club. But I think she drank because she was an alcoholic."  As for his sister's suicide David is somber "When you're in the state that my sister was in, and that most people are in when they take their own lives, you're not thinking of anything beyond your own pain."  David peripatetic ponderings are melancholy mixed with warmth & wit that make his memoirs endearingly memorable.  "Maybe ours wasn't the house I'd have chosen had I been in charge of things.  It wasn't as clean as I'd have liked.  From the outside, it wasn't remarkable. We had no view, but still it was the place I held in mind, and proudly when I thought, Home."  Reading CALYPSO is akin to the best to be said of one's own family gatherings.  They may not seem as amusing as Sedaris finds his reunions.  Nonetheless, it's always reassuring to have family to fall back on.  "I've often lost faith in myself, I've never lost faith in my family.

"A Mother's Reckoning Living in the Aftermath of Tragedy" Sue Klebold - Lacks Any Onus for Son's Atrocities

Ground zero for mass shooters in schools, the mother of Dylan Klebold grieves but doesn't concede culpability in any way for his murderous rampage at Columbine.  Sue Klebold professes grief & remorse for her son and his victims but considers herself & her husband, Tom, collateral damage & denies any inclination or knowledge of her son's plans to commit a massacre at his high school.  She was stunned by the bomb making equipment and arsenal discovered by police in their home.  My intent in reading Sue Klebold's memoir was to gain some insight into what may have prevented this tragedy & the mounting school shootings that have occurred since.  Sue receives a sympathetic letter from a young boy telling of being bullied "I'm not surprised it happened.  I'm surprised it didn't happen at my school too and that it doesn't happen everyday at schools."  This prescient letter portends today's students not only fear being killed at school, they expect its likelihood.  In May, Paige Curry, a student from the Santa Fe High School where 10 people were killed was asked by a reporter if she was shocked by shootings.  Her candid & chilling response "No,…it's been happening everywhere, I always kind of felt like eventually it was going to happen here too."  My conclusions having read "A Mother's Reckoning" is to levy blame and blood on her hands.  I also found Sue to be a narcissistic liar making my blood boil.  Sue wrote "I believe I am a profoundly honest person - sometimes to a fault."  She also wrote "He'd {Dylan} always been the kid we could rely on to do the right thing."  Dylan & Eric Harris, the other shooter, were arrested for breaking into a van and stealing equipment.  In school, the two used computers to retrieve locker combinations & broke into lockers.  The school gave the boys a week suspension which both Sue & her husband argued as too harsh (white privileged parents perhaps?)  That year, Dylan was caught scratching a student's locker & received another suspension & a $75 fine for damages which Tom argued was too costly.  Dylan's English teacher called Sue in to discuss a very disturbing paper for its violence & vulgar language.  Sue wrote "I never wanted to leave a meeting without an action plan.  Sue asked 'So, you'll call us if you think this is a problem.'  Obviously that's why you were notified. Sue never had Dylan show her what he wrote & passed the responsibility back to the school.  The night before the shooting Dylan asked if Eric could sleep over.  Sue noted Eric came  at 10PM carrying in large duffle bags he could barely lift yet she never questioned what was they contained.  The day after the heinous murder-suicide, Sue had her monthly hair appointment.  She felt it necessary to be well groomed. She called the salon and asked for her appointment at closing.  She was horrified by the press painting her in a bad light the next day or why this would appear so abhorrent.    Sue blames Eric and defends Dylan, "Eric was a failed Hitler. Dylan was a failed Holden Caulfield.  Sue failed as a parent and blood is on her hands for the victims & families whose lives Dylan destroyed. There is an important aftermath take away.  Ethical parenting means being responsible for knowing when your child is troubled and that an invasion of their "privacy" & persistent questioning/listening is mandatory followed by professional help to prevent these preventable tragedies.

Julian Fellows' Novel SNOB - Pity the Fellow His Pithy Posturing on Aristocracy

Julian Fellows, a.k.a. Baron Fellows is quite the Renaissance Man.  Fellows is a writer, director, actor, screenwriter and producer.  He is most highly acclaimed for his association with the production of "Downton Abbey" (DA) as an executive producer.  SNOBS (2004) is a dated and droll depiction of the contemporary aristocracy that hovers above its adoring, social climbing inferiors.  Being born to the Manor, Fellows makes some wry observations of the exclusive savior faire narcissistic nature of the upper crust in society.   The British easily succumb to the silliness of titles as depicted in "Downton Abbey".  Although DA won us over as it imparted a humane chipping away at the veneer of socially endowed aristocracy.  SNOBS is merely a droll, self-congratulatory soap opera with a scandalous plot that doesn't say a lot.  Fellows feels he can perceive the pompousness of the wealthy class system since he himself is born into the society for which the middle class aspires.  The infatuation with the Royals does reach over the pond as evidenced by the recent Royal Wedding to an American.  Needless, there is no need to read (or finish reading) this frivolous fiction.  Edith makes a Faustian deal and marries Lord Charles Broughton well above her station to a much favored social advancement.   There are 2 narratives; one from a British actor friend of Edith's Peter, who lies someone within the strata sphere of social acceptance to the privileged; in part due to his family's bloodline.  Peter, is a charade for Fellows and Fellows also steps in as a narrative voice.  The insouciant observations are mildly amusing although they do tend to go on tediously as to become uncouth.   However, the sentiments of the privileged aristocracy are not without their cunningly cutting critiques.  Their cool insouciance which appears so chic & well mannered is so crashingly boring in practice.  Their incessant need to demonstrate their ties with others of their social rank is relentless.  And, it's impossible for the aristocracy to conceive of the notion that their very presence is a distinguished honor for whomever is fortunate to be permitted into their proximity.  The Achille's heel which the haughty taughty birthright does not automatically endow are good looks.  "Of brains, birth, beauty and money - it is beauty that makes locked doors spring open at a touch." Touche' - this was the most candid enviable attribute the elite envy across class lines.

LESS by Andrew Sean Greer is Less than Deserving of this Year's Pulitzer Prize for Fiction

LESS is more or less about a whiny, self-indulgent, angst riddled gay male author bemoaning his faded youth, broken heart and waning literary talents.  LESS is comparable to Philip Roth's self-reflecting novels wherein he laments his youth and aspirations for a literary legacy.  Andrew Sean Greer (b Amer 70) is a n adroit writer but one culpable of appropriating narratives from acclaimed American writers.  Greer has been candid regarding his novel "The Confessions of Max Tivoli" about a man who ages backwards as mirroring Fitzgerald's "The Curious Case of Benjamin".  LESS echoes the sentiments of Roth's novel "Everyman" ('06) of a male writer passed his prime yearning for his youth & recognition for his work.  The main dichotomy between Greer and Roth (who passed earlier this year) is that Greer's protagonist is gay.  We're meant to empathize with the middle-aged, mostly unacknowledged Less, "Arthur Less, once pink and gold with youth, faded like the sofa he sits on."  Less is aware he's becoming invisible and his notoriety is mostly attached to his status as the former lover of Robert, a much older genius poet.  After breaking Robert's heart as the younger, unfaithful partner, Athur is now  feeling the piercing pain of heartbreak.  Arthur portends his ego is unaffected by poor reviews & lack of literary awards.  It's only the rebuke of his younger lover Freddy that torments him.  "Mediocre reviews or careless slights can no longer harm him, but heartbreak, real true heartbreak, can pierce his thin hide."  With the upcoming marriage of Freddy that stings, it sends Arthur on a world wind trip to all foreign countries content to host a middling author.  Much of the humor comes from Arthur's eccentric accommodations & encounters in exotic locations.  The quirky peripatetic travels are delightful diversions from the melancholia that submerge Arthur Less in drink & doldrums.  "Arthur Less is the first homosexual ever to grow old.  That is, at least how he feels at times."  Greer continuously questions, as does Roth how to contend with letting go of vanity, anxiety and desire.  Perhaps, Greer received this Pulitzer Prize because he eloquently encourages the reader to consider love and music and poetry, things everyone forget as important.  Arthur has an epiphany that prizes do not constitute love because people whom you've never met don't proffer love.  I regard LESS with high esteem for its comic portrayals of narcicissm and love's folly.  I contend, Greer's earlier novel "The Story of a Marriage" ('08) to be a more original and captivating story of innocence, love and heartbreak.

Non-F Lorrie Moore's "See What Can Be Done" Book Reviews and Essays on Writers & Whimsies

"See What Can Be Done" is the title of Lorrie Moore's collection of previous reviews & essays on authors, books, writing & whatever struck her fancy.  Moore (b Amer. 1967) is known for award winning short story collections and novels.  She is a writer of perspicacious wit and sardonic humor.  Writing a review on Moore's review is a bit like Rabbit Redux only ridiculous from the point view of Alice Through the Looking Glass with the risk of sounding like an ass.  Moore is fawning in her abject praise for her favorite short story writers, Alice Munro among them.  For those who want to delve into a writer's "Cat's Eye" (Moore is also a fan of Margaret Atwood's writing) this loquacious  collective is for you.  For those (myself included) preferring a cogent capsulation of a book, you need not look into "See What Can Be Done."  However, the most captivating captions have to do with the "art" of critiquing.  "...the idiom of criticism do not belong to artists.  One cannot really dance a review of someone els's dance.  One cannot paint a review of someone else's exhibition.  Criticism can be a rarefied field."  Moore also maintains "...fiction writer reviewing is performing-I still believe an essential task."  It's Moore's introspective look at her own life as a recent college grad and working as a para-legal the most disarming and perhaps revealing as to her chosen literary career.   "{This} exquisitely wrong job did bring me for a brief period, a life in Manhattan-improvised, lonely, exhilarating."   And Moore does provide her own perspectives of writings aims and tribulations.  "The main struggle for every writer is with the dance & limitations of language."  Moore quotes  Anne Beattie's view on a writer's task, "It serves as a kind of flypaper.  It catches the casual thoughts and material detail that define people, places and times."  Yet Moore expounds on a more profound level a writer's task.  "Writing is both the excursion into and the excursion out of one's life.  That is the queasy paradox of the artistic life."