Yaa Gyasi's Novel "Homegoing" - Slave Trade Stemming from 18th C Ghana

Yaa Gyasi (b Ghana 1989) marks her debut novel with an epic an intimate look at slavery from within the African nation of Ghana & its war faring tribes and the far-flung tragedies of slavery.  The novel is broken down into separate families that broke off at 2 unbeknownst sisters and their family lineage & legacies.  The chapters break off the story-telling into many fractions that became too much of a distraction.  I kept putting down the novel with its truly devastating historic travesties and kept finding it harder to go back to Gyasi's "Homegoing" novel.  Although there is much to commend Gyasi's novel for including its courageous content and dazzling writing I made it half-way through this arduous journey and decided not to return.  "Homegoing" is an inspirational as well as purposefully shameful retelling of history's notorious practice of slavery.  I don't want to discourage readers from this well-worth reading tale, but truth be told, having gone on a journey half-way round the world and half-way through this dense book, I will not be returning.

"Miss Jane" A Novel by Brad Watson based on His Aunt Born with a Debilitating Congenital Disorder

"Miss Jane" is an old fashioned novel, set in MS in the early 20th C written in a languorous style.  Our heroine Miss Jane is born into a stoic farming family in a rural MS town.  Jane's birth, which was not a heralded event by the Chisholm household.  She was born to an embittered mother and stoic father.  Complicating the unwelcome child into this household which had its share of death, is the child's rare congenital disorder.  Brad Watson's unhurried storytelling slowly reveal the specific birth defect that mars Jane's future chances at finding love and forming her own family.  Watson (b Amer 1955) is a distinguished novelist.  "The Heaven of Mercury" was a Nat'l Book Finalist and "Aliens at the Prime of Their Lives" won the Pen/Faulkner Award.  Watson's languid writing allows the reader to assume the girl is a hermaphrodite; having birth female & male genitalia.  The local country Dr. Thompson who delivers Jane will remain a major companion in her life.  Dr. Thompson instructs the embittered mother to raise their newborn as a girl.  The parents have buried two children & their 2 oldest sons have already left to raise their own families.  The only sibling living at home is Jane's much older sister Grace who assumes the key role in raising her while devising her own nefarious escape from this desolate place.   Jane is mystified with a sense that she herself is some kind of curious creature; unlike other females.  Jane's congenital disorder is persistent cloaca  revealed later in the story.  Persistent cloaca is when the body develops only one orifice for the anus, urethra and vagina.  In small towns, there are no secrets, plenty of gossip & resentments.  People's cruel ignorance abounds within & outside of the Chisholm home.  Moreover, the novel is a thoughtful examination of the melancholy borne of being alone in the world.  Knowing of Jane's palpable isolation we still see her as an impenetrable force in the world.  Dr. Thompson, a steadfast confidant answers all Jane's inquiries candidly to the best of his ability.  He assures her the highest form of love transcends physical love and that the love of one person for another defies classification.  "Miss Jane' is a character driven story underscored by human nature that defies the need for physical perfection.  Sadly, human nature also has the tendency to dissipate over time.  "Beauty is truth, truth beauty that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know." (J. Keats)

Literary Legend E.B. White's "Here is New York" Speaks Eloquently to NYC's Past, Present & Future

E. B. White (b Amer 1899-1985) is one of America's most distinguished writers of the 20th C.  White's writing has earned every prestigious literary award.  These awards include a Pulitzer Prize, an Amer. Acad. of Arts & Letters Honor and the National Medal for Literature.  President John Kennedy bestowed White the Meal of Freedom in 1963.  White's writing is astutely observational & companionably, conversational.  Needless to say, I regard his brilliant writing with the utmost esteem.  "Here is New York" is an astute essay that paints New York's past; its people, places & pervading tones with an undulating patina. His clever candor in dissecting the metropolis' population into 3 groups is humorous & haughty.  I concur with White's assessment that the heart & pulse of the city comes from those who chose the city as their home with a passion to succeed in their aspirations,  and aim to make the city their home.  Those born here are seen as fortunate by the luck of their birth.  The   upper east siders alluded to as jaded & shrouded behind their inherited wealth.  The milieu of commuters are scorned for taking what the city provides them in income only to retreat to their strewn suburbia.  These commuters enter & exist the city without taking in all the allure & mystique  waiting around every corner in the multitudes of uniquely defined neighborhood.  Not everything is portrayed from behind rosy glasses.  In fact, the grunge, poverty and olfactory offenses are dutifully noted.  So too are glimpses of budding romances & ubiquitous parades that pummel the city relentlessly.  Nonetheless, there is an unmitigated, self-congratulatory pride for all who chose to reside in the most remarkable & indomitable city in the world.  White believes it essential for NYC to solidify.  "In New York smolders every race problem there is, but the noticeable thing is not the problem but the inviolate truce. The city has to be tolerant, otherwise it would explode in a radioactive cloud of hate and rancor and bigotry."  E.B. White's profound essay written in 1948 is disturbingly prophetic.  "The city at last perfectly illustrates both the universal dilemma and the general solution, this riddle in steel and stone is at once the perfect target and the perfect demonstration of nonviolence, of racial brotherhood, the lofty target scraping the skies and meeting the destroying planes halfway, home of all people and all nations, capital of everything, housing the deliberations by which the planes are to be stayed and their errand forestalled."

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.