Margaret Atwood's "The Heart Stops Lasts" Dystopian Affairs of the Heart

Margaret Atwood is one of Canada's most prominent novelists.  Born in 1939, Atwood is highly acclaimed for her sci-fi futuristic dystopian novels (The Handmaid's Tale & Oryx and Crake).  She's also writes essays & political commentary seeking social reform & environmental conservation.  "The Heart Stops Lasts" fits the dystopian genre yet it generates more heat entwining sexual mores & prison reform.  Stan (the man) and Charmaine (charming & gentle) are newly married. They're full of hopes & dreams that come crashing down soon after their vows & are now living in a survivalist "road warrior" world as the economics comes crashing down.  They live in their car in constant fear & long for normalcy.  The US is now a dystopian nightmare & the reality of their dire circumstances leads them to an experimental, self-contained community; plenty to eat, clean living conditions, safe & secure behind a citadel.  This haven is known as Consilience & Positron.  It has a few catches.  First, you have to be selected.  Then, you must sign away your right to ever leave.  One more thing, while you get to live to in clean safe surroundings, proffered plenty to eat, every other month you must live within the confines of a benign prison.  The sexes are separated & the prison requires you to share a cell & do assigned work.  The alternating month outside the prison also comes with work assignments but it feels like heaven to Charmaine compared to the barbaric conditions outside the compound.  Atwood is at her best constructing a society that credibly & chillingly starts to constrain any pretense of liberation.  Humans are hardwired for survival & for disavowing responsibility for one's own actions.  What may have started as a misguided plan for a utopian society by politicians to create jobs, save taxpayers money & avoid anarchy is too easily corruptible by oligarchs.  The new society model misappropriates people's bodies & eliminates all human rights.   Added intrigue is produced by sexual oppression & animalistic libidos (hints of Huxley's 1984).  The infinite suggestibility of the human mind is also examined.  Atwood cuts into both Stan & Charmaine's minds; an increasingly twisted & troubling place to dwell.  The title "The Heart Stops Lasts" refers to a procedure never referred to as murder but undesirables or bodies desired for their parts are drugged causing the heart to stop.  Poor Charmaine, they Positron big wigs "expected her to use her head & discard her heart, but it wasn't so easy because the heart goes last and hers was still clinging on inside her all the time."  Don't deceive yourself.  Looks are deceiving.  Poor Charmaine may not be as pure as perceived.  There are boundaries & then there are boundaries.

"The Boy Who Loved too Much" Williams Syndrome

Williams syndrome is a genetic disorder resulting from missing chromosomes of an individual's DNA genome.  The disorder presents itself with physical traits of short stature, pear shaped body types tending to being overweight and "dwarf" like facial features of enlarged foreheads, pointy chins, gapped spaced teeth and flat fingernails.  The common disabilities stem from low I.Q.s, enlarged aortas & heart issues, persevating on objects (vacuums in particular), anxiety & phobias and a propensity for a rapacious need for physical & social contact.  People with Williams syndrome have little impulse control and a compulsion for physical contact with everyone; hugging everyone, inlcluding complete strangers.  Youngsters with Williams are unflappable, happy & guileless which renders them vulnerable to being abused. As adults, those with Williams need ongoing support & supervision.    Reporter & author of "The Boy Wh Loved Too Much" Jennifer Larson,  ponders life in a constant state of euphoria and its ripple affect on humanity.  They love & trust everyone unconditionally.  Would this be a lifestyle to aspire?     follows Gayle, the mother of Eli who has Williams & shares Gayle's hopes, heartaches & struggles.  First, the ideal of an irrepressible spirit of joy appears to have its appeal.  The reality of caring for Eli as a child, adolescent & planning for his future is all consuming, exhausting, frustrating, heartbreaking and relentless worry.  A parent with a child with a disorder that limits their indepence & abilities must relent their hopes for what parents of healthy, mentally capable children take for granted.  Gayle's life & Eli's became irrevocably entwined and she realized that this was harmful to both in the long run.  The social impulse for unconditional love for humankind is not a gift.  The social drive lacking the cognitive ability to use it effectively is a major obstacle to fitting into society that is so earnestly craved.  The author did an exceptional job evoking empathy & understanding the stresses, obstacles and of living with Williams and living with a person with Williams.  The various responses from those who interacted with Eli ranged from derision & disgust to compassion & empathy.  The salient achievement of "The Boy Who Loved Too Much" was  empathy for others and a scientific understanding of the Williams disorder.  I recommend this intelligent & poignant book for everyone.  The one failing was the unnecessary & religious proletyzing Larson included in her final chapters.  "Christians make an effort to embrace the same openness, trust, and wonder found in Williams syndrome following Jesus' admonition...". The quote Larson chose in the beginning best outlines the humanity found in this ephiphanous work.  "We got a future.  We got somebody to talk to that gives a damn about us...Because I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you." (J Steinbeck)

Pulitzer Prize Winner Michael Chabon's "Moonglow" Memoir Gleaning His Grandfather's Amazing Life

Michael Chabon (b Amer 1963) is a gifted writer.  Chabon is a successful novelist, screenwriter & columnist whose won a Pulitzer & Hugo Prize.  His book "Moonglow" is a memoir of his family rotating around his maternal grandfather's storytelling.  "Moonglow" received a Nat'l Book Nom.  It's a  stunning achievement for eloquent writing & bio of his grandfather; an extraordinary man.  It's significant that Chabon clarifies "…90% of everything he {my grandfather} ever told me about his life.  I heard during his final 10 days."  Michael informs us everything was kept to himself until completing his research & memoir.  Michael's mom brought her father home to care for him during his final months with terminal cancer.  The family patriarch Michael had regarded as stoic & measured, discloses his incredible life to his crafty story writing grandson.   The grandfather was a soldier in WWII.  He married a Jewish, French woman who survived the camps but not emotionally unscathed.  She suffered  mental illness requiring hospitalization.  The grandfather's fascinating life included work as an engineer.  He served in the military & time in both military & civilian prisons.  He worked various odd sales jobs, was a rocket scholar and highly intelligent.  Michael's mother is his grandfather's step-daughter.  Her heretofore undisclosed, disturbing origins; a child of Nazi rape, had remained concealed.  During the war, grandfather was assigned to capture technicians & men of science on the black list for the US to propel their own scientific agenda; in particular the development of rocket ships & bombs.  Wernher von Braun (b Germany 1912-1977) was grandfather's lifelong nemesis and focus of admiration.  Having come close to capturing von Braun in WWII, he succeeded in recovering many of WvB's hidden papers.  The two crossed paths in FL in 1975 when von Braun received the Nat'l Medal of Science.  Chabon's grandfather was a sagacious & remorseful man.  "von Braun should not be extolled & glorified without shouldering the shame of the slaughter of millions."  He also noted "Ambitious men from Hercules to Napoleon have stood ankle-deep in slaughter as they reached for the heavens."   "The ideals of justice, of openness, of protecting the weak - of fundamental decency for which I had fought,….meant nothing to the country that espoused them.  They were encumbrances to be circumvented in the exercise of power."  Glimmering throughout this enlightening memoir are Chabon's literary references to the mystifying beauty of our moon. "He passes silver moon trees like the skeletons of cacti." "Though the moon was high and nearly full, its light hung diffuse & opaque as if moonlight were only an inferior brand of darkness."  Despite all the amazing accomplishments, Michael's grandfather felt only failure. "You look back and you see all you did, with all that time, is waste it.  All you have is a story of things you never started or couldn't finish."  "Moonglow" is a masterpiece that radiates.

This Summer's Beach Book "Today Will be Different" by Maria Semple ("Where'd You Go, Bernadette)

Maria Semple (b 1964) had a runaway best seller with her 2012 novel "Where'd You Go, Bernadette." For those who loved this novel (and I'm not among you) you will have a lot more to cheer for and for those who only liked it (I'm among the later) you'll be delightfully surprised by Semple absurdist satirical look at the contemporary "Odd Mom Out" humor.  Semple is also a screenwriter & successful TV writer ("SNL" & "Arrested Development." Eleanor, the odd mom out heroine shares Bernadette's impactful personality that borders on madness.  Only, there's much more than the hysterical lambasting of today's helicopter parents seen through the eyes of less driven & more disorganized mom who doesn't make the bake sales.  Humor stems from Eleanor, an older mom who had a career as a moderately successful illustrator, finds love, marriage to Joe (a successful hand surgeon) and from her dealings with their son, Timby (auto-spell checked from Timothy.)  Timby is a precocious  10 year old who manages to manipulate his manic & self-destructive mom in ways both endearing & off-putting.  Timby is triumphant & stole the spotlight whenever he was on the scene.  The novel takes many twists & turns and looks back into Eleanor's childhood. Her childhood revolved around her beloved younger sister Ivy.  The sisters thespian mother whom they adored, died when they were young.  After their mom died, their alcoholic father moved with the girls to CO where he left them for weeks on end to fend for themselves.  Ivy is an interesting piece of work.  She lived a quixotic & nomadic lifestyle until she meets Bucky (inadvertently through Eleanore).  Bucky is an eccentric southern aristocrat. Ivy & Bucky marry soon after meeting.  Bucky is another unexpected & amusing character.  He stirs the novel with his haughty pretensions & indomitable personality.  Semple's fast paced writing makes this a novel you won't want to put down.  She captures the ambience of a dank Seattle, the alchemy of the art world and  the mid-life neurosis of a strong willed yet likable heroine.  Religion is denounced & then reconsidered by Joe, her steadfast husband and physician for the beloved Seattle Seahawks.  Adding to the pastiche  is Eleanor's love for poetry.  Her mentor poet rakes out a living wage at Costco.  The lampooned scenes in Costco are LOL & chillingly precise.  Semple's fondness for poetry favors Yeats.  "The best lack all conviction while the worse are full of passionate intensity."  Other astute observation are:  "change is the goal, insight the booby prize."  Most importantly, Eleanor realizes the importance of life is loving we'll the people you love most.  "Today Will be Different" is an insightful & enjoyable read you will polish off in a day or two.  

Irish Author Dolan Ryan's "All We Shall Know" A Remarkable Tale of Torment and Redemption READ IT!

Ryan Dolan (b Ireland 1977) is an acclaimed writer of novels & short stories.  Dolan's novel "the Spinning Heart" was listed for the Man Booker Award & received the Guardian First Book Award ('13).  "All We Shall Know" is a story that is filled with torment, grief, betrayal, misguided loyalty & convictions, compassion & redemption.  Ryan is a skillful writer who embodies the voice of our female heroine, Melody.  We meet Melody as a young teen while at a private Irish high school.  She is an outsider who forms a tight friendship with Breedie.  Both girls are looked down upon by the popular school set.  Ryan fully embodies the mindset of Melody.  He cleverly builds tension by structuring his novel charting the weeks & progress of Melody's pregnancy.  The narrative follows Melody's illicit conception, to the birth of her beloved baby.  Her developing pregancy coincides with the brewing feud between warring clans leading up to both the birth of her child & the cataclysmic combustion between opposing bloodlines.   As a teen, Melody's headis was turned by Pat, the 1st boy she ever kissed & later marries.  Their high school romance elevates Melody into the in crowd abandoning Breedie to fend for herself.  Both Melodie's betrayal to her friend and her illegal & adulterous affair are intimated early in the novel.   But, Ryan's stark & poignant writing slowly & painfully release all the hefty damages & remorse with unbearable madness & torment.  The observations on a marriage made at too young an age are solemn & sagacious.  "How did love's memory fade so completely from us?  We should have seen more of the world, less of each other, and more of other people.  We fastened ourselves too tightly together; we were two people sharing one life, so we had only half a life each."  Melody is aptly named for the pervasive melancholy & her failure to forgive herself her transgressions.  While pregnant, Melody attaches herself to a young woman named Mary who is shunned & brutalized by both her family & members of the clan into which she married for her damnatory disloyalty.  The novel at times is overburdened by religious fervor, barbaric clan violent retribution, cruelty & insurmountable shame & guilt.  Still, there is a prevailing strength, dignity & compassion that persists.  There is boundless love between Melody & her consoling father, between Melody & her unborn child & Melody with her selfless protectiveness over Mary.   Ryan's literary style is poetic and scorching.  "All We Shall Know" is an unforgettable, graceful, ambitious work that spans the range of humanity.  "No one can tell the story of a life or a friendship or a death or a marriage day for day for day."  

Norway's Award Winning Author Author Per Petterson's "I Refuse" A Masterful & Powerful Novel

Per Petterson (b Norway 1952) is a highly acclaimed literary novelist.  His previous novels "Out Stealing Horses" ('06) won the Int'l IMPAC Dublin Literary Prize & "I Curse the River of Time" ('08) earned the Nordic Council Literary Prize.  "I Refuse" is another stunning novel written in Petterson's sparse style, set in the frozen & steely Norwegian landscape.  Petterson's evocative storytelling in "I Refuse" differs from his previous novels.  Here, Petterson chooses to utilize multiple characters voices and an outside narrator.   The novel implements varying voices as well and uses a non-linear timeline.  There's an overriding sense of gloom & missed opportunities.  Regardless, the novel garners its strength from the lifelong friendship between Tommy & Jim.  Tommy has a slightly younger sister Siri & much younger twin sisters.  Tommy is the main recipient of their abusive father's beatings.  He becomes the patriarchal saint at age 14 protecting his sisters after his mother vanishes one morning, never to return.  Jim moved with his mother to Tommy's town as a young boy.  Jim is as an only child & with a single mother.  Both boys share a kinship that is indivisible.  Tommy contends with his father's violence until he reaches his breaking point.  He strikes back seriously injuring his father.  The father abandons his 4 children as Tommy intended.  He & Siri serenely care for their younger sisters for short period until social services disbands the girls into appropriate parental households.  Tommy is questioned by the local police regarding his father but remains steadfast as to his innocence.  Jonsen, a bachelor known to the family steps up to assume responsibility for Tommy.  Jonsen is a kind & mentoring figure for Tommy.  Jonsen's history is slowly revealed and the intertwining of his life with Tommy is both surprising & bittersweet.  The skillful writing, crystal descriptions and intriguing characters create a layered novel with icy depth & hardened reflection.  "I Refuse" has a shadowy ambience blurring dusk & sunset.  Insomnia, solitude, restlessness & immense voids in life are harkened throughout this profound work.   The characters combat a pervasive perdition, some with more vigor than others.  No one remains unscathed.  Still, there is an undeterred wanderlust for travel & a fortitude sustained through friendship.  Petterson gracefully pays homage to Robert Louis Stevenson in his novel.  "I travel not to go anywhere, but to go.  I travel for travels sake."  "No man is useless while he has a friend."  (RLS)

"Lab Girl" Geobiologist Hope Jahren's Autobiography Wins the Nat'l Book Critics Award (2016)

Hope Jahren's life can be described as groundbreaking and heartbreaking.  After reading her tale of her trials & tribulations in a male dominated scientific academia world, I've come away with a fertile  fascination & stirred awareness of trees, plants & ground beneath my feet.  Jahren's profound affinity for studying trees, plants, flowers, seeds & dirt has sprouted a steadfast curiosity & awakening to the miraculous nature of...nature.  Hope's life is no less fascinating although not without debilitating struggles with mental illness.  Much has to be said for her lifelong lab partner Bill.  His unique personality, drive and devotion to Hope are remarkable.  The passion Hope shares for plants & her unflappability in the face of diversity pique one's own wherewithal within the world we take up space.  Partly an erudite master class in botany & scientific study and part intimate & uninhibited life story, Hope's "Lab Girl" is engrossing & thought provoking.  It's also a conservation wake-up call for our planet.  Please, someone notify the president to make note of Hope's findings.  There is an appalling sparsity of funds allocated  to significant scientific study & discovery.  This is a particularly  inspiring read for girls as encouragement, not only towards the realm of scientific study, but to persevere & pursue their own interests.  The joy of accompanying an original thought is infectious in a fecund & ferocious manner.  Hope demonstrates a willingness to struggle and commit not only to research but as a partner with someone that is quite extraordinary.  Having read "Lab Girl" I've learned many miraculous things that occur in our midst daily & those that have evolved over time.  Spending time reading Jahren's Nat'l Book Critic winning auto-biography has enriched my sensitivity to the environment and to the miraculous super nova of possibilities around us.