Literary Sci-Fi Future Apocalyptic Fantasy "The Fifth Season" by N K Jemisin

"The Fifth Season" by N K Jemisin (b Amer 1972) is the 1st of a sci-fi, fantasy trilogy series.  It's the first such trilogy to win the Hugo Award 3 consecutive years.  (Even the Warriors couldn't do a 3 peat).  This honor, along with many other literary awards, including the Hugo Award for best novel distinguishes this skillful writer as a crafty short story writer, novelist & psychologist with a very singular writing style.  The author cleverly combines an imaginative, colorful hero in a futuristic fantasy world auguring environmental disaster.   "This is what you must remember the ending of one story is just the beginning of another."  Lerna (when will we learn?) is a middle-aged, overweight guy trying to get by in a world that has crumbled.  In other words, he's an atypical hero heralded for his ingenuity & resiliency doing his best to survive against insurmountable odds.  I'm all for an odd, sci-fi, imaginative world that takes you out of your element.  But, Jemisin's lyrical prose posed some obstacles for me.  I found it difficult to gain access into this made-up, likely to happen world.  There is disastrous geological upheaval on earth that is not healthy for children and other living things.  Are you with me here?  Because this writing felt too ephemeral I was held at bay from inhabiting this peculiar planet (our own) & prevented from leaning into Lerna's unconventional (though essential) personality.  Hmm...Jemision's "The Fifth Season" should appeal to most sci-fi literary lovers(and environmentalists) the first go round.  I'm going to re-read this remarkable fantasy a 2nd time at a later date but it's doubtful I'll try the other two in this trilogy. Of course, this may prove untrue in the future.  

"Kaddish" by Nathan Englander - Extreme Observances Extremely Engaging

Nathan Englander (b Amer. 1970) is a Pulitzer Prize nominated author ("What We Talk about When We Talk about Anne Frank") and winner of the Pen/Malamud & Frank O'Connor Int'l Short Story Awards.  His novels & short stories center around Jewish families and the spectrum of observances and assimilations in the Jewish faith.  "Kaddish" begins with a yahrzeit (a weeklong period of mourning) for the father of Larry and his sister Dina.  The siblings were raised in an Orthodox household.  Dina has maintained her religious fervor.  She is forever grieved by Larry who has distanced himself from his Jewish faith and traditions.   At the end of Larry's confining week of bereavement, Dina pleads with him to carry out the tradition of reciting Kaddish (the mourner's prayer) for their father for an entire year, an important obligation of the male family member to carryout.  Dina is skeptical. Larry is practical.  Larry found a portal to porn on the internet & discovered a site where you can hire a Talmudic student to fulfill this commitment.  Larry makes an about face with his faith.  He returns to his Orthodox roots and Brooklyn where he is now Rev (Rabbi) Shuli.  Shuli is happily married with young children when he has an epiphany of hypocrisy, guilt & remorse for shirking his religious duty of saying Kaddish for his beloved father who was also Rabbi and religious leader.  Englander delves so deeply into his characters they become vibrant & multifaceted.  Shuli's obsession of seeking redemption becomes an ordeal which overrides reason & protocal.  Yet, Englander's clever writing instinctually leads you alongside Shuli's search for answers & forgiveness.  Shuli's return to his faith seems a natural shift for one who has strayed from his fold.  While revealing the ultra-Orthodox rituals, Englander makes clear universal sagacious views on life.  Shuli shares his tale to tell us "It's never too late to live one's true life."  His wife Miri, a miraculous wife & mother (or perhaps saint) has her patience tested by Shuli's unorthodox pursuit or redemption.  Miri tells her husband it's permissible to forgive oneself and what makes a marriage work is the knowledge that no relationship should be taken for granted.  Englander's talent as a storyteller is phenomenal.  The profuse references to what I perceive as extreme religious observances & beliefs do not shroud Englander's gifts as a writer they only enhance the transformative power of his elegant prose.  Leave no doubt, you don't have to be Jewish to love "Kaddish."  I pay my respects to Englander's talent as a writer and offer a prayer for universal peace.

Casey Gerald's Auto-bio "There Will be No Miracles Here" NPR & PBS Book Picks

Casey Gerald's uniquely told coming of age revelations depict his early unstable years shuffled from one home to another in TX while trying to negotiate salvation in this life and the next.  Born to a legendary football father whose glory days are over and a mother with mental health issues who flits in and out & ultimately vanishes from his life, Casey searches for any welcoming port wherever it may come.  Casey possesses a preternatural pluckiness while at odds with himself.  He is forever questioning his masculinity & divinity with apprehension sensing his homosexuality is perceived as an abomination; the ultimate sin.  Casey struggles to secure deliverance in this life while wary of jeopardizing his chances in the one yet to come.  We learn early on he'll be attending Yale & Harvard although neither Casey or the reader have a clue how this remote opportunity will be achieved and maintained.  Gerald's writing warbles timelines and is indiscriminate in placing gravitas on events that bear more significance.  It feels as though his influences & maturations are more serendipitous than strategically planned.  I had difficulty deciphering the ephiphanies or moments that molded Gerald.  However much his writing meandered as is more in keeping with memory, the glimpses of greatness outshine confusion.  "Our time is too short and our odds are too long to wait for 2nd comings.  When the truth is there will be no miracles here... It will not be our blind faith but our humble doubt that shines a little light into the darkness of our lives and our world."

Martin Greenfield's Auto-bio "Measure of a Man From Auschwitz Survivor to President's Tailor

"Measure of a Man" is Martin Greenfield's life-story where he tells of the inhumane suffering under Hitler's Nazi regime.  This is his account of his miraculous survival during the genocide of 6 million human beings; mainly European Jews during WWII.  Martin (b. Ukraine 1928) named Maximilian Grunfeld, his parents, 2 brothers & 2 sisters were forced from their homes in April '1944.   Jewish families were herded from their homes onto cattle cars & sent to Auschwitz where millions were exterminated.  Martin takes us back to his beloved family & beautiful hometown of Pavlovo near the Hungarian border and shares what he felt & experienced at 15 when  separated from his family.  He questions whether his parents knew what their fates would be.  Was there a plan to remain together or whether his parents had put on brave facades knowing they were being sent to their deaths.  Martin's realization of religious hatred and the understanding of what horrible things happen when people don't think for themselves are harsh lessons he learned and that mankind must learn from.  The atrocities are inconceivable making Martin's account so imperative to be told and heard.  He writes of his internment & struggle to survive in his 15 year old voice, reliving the horrors he experienced & witnessed making his narrative accessible, comprehensible and impactful. The torment of being separated from his father at the camps and his father's imparting wisdom are especially poignant.  "Together, we will never survive, because working together we will suffer one for the other.  We will suffer double." His father's parting words provided strength to survive and freedom to live a full life afterwards with gratitude, love, humanity without the burden of survivor guilt.  "You are young and strong and I know you will survive.  If you survive by yourself, you must honor us by living, by not feeling sorry for us."  Today, Greenfield says "I am grateful for those words.  They echo in my heart even still.  It is a cruel thing, feeling guilty for surviving."  His journey to America, hard work and zest for life that garnered him a loving family & a remarkably successful tailoring business is an impressive, hilarious, humbling and mindful account rendering the entire auto-bio a vital & essential read.   "My life has been filled with far more light than darkness."  At Martin's Bar Mitzvah at age 80, his Rabbi said "Here you have a survivor of the Holocaust who understands that {the} response to destruction is construction.  Marty reconstructed his life.  He built a successful business, and also a beautiful, loving family."  Martin believes strongly life is too short to hoard one's gifts and considers the deliberate severing of family ties abhorrent.  "Measure of a Man" is a first hand testament to history, humanity from a remarkable man with an incredible outlook & regard for the value of life.








Holocaust Survivor and Inspiring Thriver

Japanese Author Yoko Tawada's "The Emissary" - Receives the Nat'l Bk Award '18

The hauntingly beautiful futuristic tale "The Emissary" is a sci-fi dystopian genre that is story of devotion between multi-generational family members.  Great-grandpa Yoshiro has been left with the sole care of his great-grandson Mumei.  Yoshiro takes on the responsibility fully & lovingly.  Mumei is an extraordinary young boy living in the not too distant future during an exceedingly restrictive epoch in Japan which has closed its doors to all foreign entities.  Besides becoming an isolated nation, the country is struggling with the fall-outs of catastrophic toxicity resulting in scarce food supplies and creating a corrosive environment causing a generation of frail children.  Yoshiro and his contemporaries are living into their 100s with little signs of wearing down while Mumei and his classmates are becoming weaker & dying young.  There's an irrepressible  spirit for Mumei's generation.  They appear equipped with natural defenses against despair unaware of any reason to feel sorry for themselves.  This irrepressible outlook evokes a fondness & obligation to care for our environment to ensure a future for our descendants.  Tawada's warning of self-destruction comes in the waves of love and empathy. The state of Japanese children's health was being studied hopefully to be beneficial for their young & useful for similar disastrous phenomena occurring throughout the world. Yoshiro's generation appeared to be living forever robbed of their own deaths and obligated with caring for a lost generation of infirm children.  Mumei notes that unlike his great-grandpa, he's unable to chew or swallow easily and the slightest activity drains him of strength. Mumei senses without understanding why Yoshiro should pity him. Yoshiro has the desire to laugh & cry simultaneously for Mumei while providing an unremitting devotion to be there for him.  "Assuming he had knowledge and wealth to leave his descendants was mere arrogance, Yoshiro now realized. This life with his great-grandson was about all he could manage."  Tawada's unique framing of a gloomy future through the outlook of familial loving eyes.  It's enough to make you weep for a doomed society unwilling to suppress its humanity.  Tawada (b Japan 1960) received the Nat'l Book Award for Translated Literature ('18).  This is a rare work of elegance amidst a melancholy & terrifying world that feels all too real.

"A Lucky Man" Jamel Brinkley''s Nat'l Book Award Winning Short Story Collection

Jamel Brinkley makes an impressive debut with his short story collection "A Lucky Man" earning the Nat'l Bk Award '18.  These 9 stories set in and around Brooklyn provide a voyeuristic view into the lives of its characters.  Permission is given from father to son or big brother to younger brother to view may offers an inkling of taboo regarding sex, nudity or of appreciating the female form.  Of the 9 varied and nuanced stories expose the rights of passage into manhood.  "The man he was about to become was beginning to erupt out of him like a flourish of horns."  Males are allotted the unabashed admiration of the female form except for the books' title story "A Lucky Man."  Lincoln Murray is a married man with a daughter.  He works at an elite private school on the upper west side.  Now in his mid-50s he finds himself estranged from his wife after she discovered numerous photos of women on his phone.  He's also in a vicarious situation with his security guard job at the school.  He's been called out by as a pervert by a parent for taking photos of the young girls.  Somehow, Lincoln's compulsion to take clandestine photos fails to register as inappropriate.  In Brinkley's other stories, male bonding is strengthed by engaging in the blatant ogling of women.  Brinkley stories convey universal themes of failed expectations, dysfunctional families, aging and racial disparities.  Brinkley's characters shed light from the perspectives of men of color from a broad range of ages.  Freddy, a young boy being taken on a field trip to the suburbs is let down by his high expectations of a fun day swimming in a large pool & great food hosted by a white family only to be disappointed by the murky pool & lousy meal served by their black hostess in a modest home. Freddy can't contain himself from wandering through the home on his own and into the master bedroom of the hostess.  Most of the women are presented as fierce, regal and commanding.  The stories contain mixed families raised by single mothers without father figures.  Boundaries are blurred and loyalties questioned.  Role models for masculinity are looked up to or disregarded.  Brinkley's clear voice is ferocious, tender and heartbreaking.  A recurring theme that speaks with poignancy is the human desire to be someone your child will look up to.  "I keep imagining what it would be like to be a father to a boy who loves and believes in me and despite all our differences wants nothing more than to be a man in my image."  Brinkley is a brilliant writer, with great insights and affecting observations.  "A Lucky Man" winning the Nat'l Book Award was no fluke.  It's an elegant and eye-opening collection that glows with energy.

Irish Author Sally Rooney's Novel "Normal People" Is an Unconventional Coming of Age Story

 Sally Rooney (b Ireland 1991) has written a quirky and touching story of two teens from a small Irish town who see themselves as navigating outside the perceived norms of their peers.  Marianne is from a wealthy but totally dysfunctional family.  She has no friends, no idea how to make friends nor  feels compelled to conform to imposed social constraints.  She attends the same local high school as Connell, a handsome, athletic and popular boy she admires from afar.  Connell's mother is the housekeeper for Marianne's mother and the two have a fractured relationship drawn from short interactions at Marianne's home.  Their relationship becomes sexual but is kept under wraps from everyone for fear of...what exactly?  Humiliation and shame on Connell's part for his liaison with Marianne?  Further alienation from her peers on Marianne's part  for whom she feigns not to care.  Believing they both share similar views on the world they're  drawn into a symbiotic relationship that is fulfilling, comforting and destructive.  Rooney gets us into the mindset for both and we're simultaneously empathetic, appreciative and repulsed by their behaviors and co-dependence.   The two leave their small town for the Univ. in Dublin where their relationship flourishes without the guise of subterfuge.  As Connell grows more adjusted to the world and Marianne's world regresses they grow apart yet remain tightly rooted to one another.  Rooney's unique coming of age tale is incredibly perceptive of how and why people interact.  Connell wonders "Is the world such an evil place, that love should be indistinguishable from the basest most abusive forms of violence."  Marianne thinks that those obsessed with popularity become desperate and capable of cruelty.  Both view themselves as flawed and desperately wish themselves able to feel normal and concede the parts of themselves they think shameful and confusing.  "Normal People" is a deeply sensitive and intriguing novel that is far superior than the normal coming of age story.

"The Return" Hisham Matar's Memoir - Pulitzer Prize Winner (2017)

Hisham Matar (b Amer 1970) is a British-Libyan author.  In the Pulitzer Prize winning "The Return" Matar writes his hauntingly beautiful story of returning to his Libya in 1990 to learn what became of his father, Jaballa Matar who was imprisoned in 1970 for his dissidence against the Gaddafi regime.  Matar's writing is not only a coherent account of life under the oppressive political reign of Gaddafi it's also a poetical expose on his personal search for his father and the repercussions of grief.  Matar writes so majestically the reader is empowered by his tenacity and deeply empathetic for his journey of grief.  After more than 20 years of embattlement with the Libyan & Egyptian government while living abroad, the release of many political prisoners including his uncles and cousins brings Matar gratification, remorse and defiance.  "I was keen to let them know how much I thought of them.  It was an exchange of promises and devotion, one colored, on their part, by the excitement of those who have survived an accident, and on mine, by the guilt of having lived a free life-guilyt but also a stubborn shamelessness that, yes, I had lived a free life."   Matar makes it clear that it is after being released from a long incarceration, only then does the injustice fully form.  Only then does comprehension come for the time has passed & how much of life has been lost.  Matar's persistence to pursue the emancipation of imprisoned dissidents and the gathering of information for what occurred made Matar a thorn in the side of both the Libyan and the British governments."  The comfortability of living in the US or the UK casts a sheen of indifference shielding us from acknowledging those living under inconceivable atrocities of censorship, torture, imprisonment & genocide.  "The Return" removes these blinders with obliterating light.   Matar's writing ponders grief with a profound gravitas.  "Grief is to a whodunit story, or a puzzle to solve, but an active and vibrant enterprise.  It is hard honest work.  It can break your back.  It is part of one's initiation into death."  Matar's masterful memoir flows outward from his own family in search of answers and leaves us all living in its aftermath.