Booker Prize for Heat & Dust, by R. P. Jhabvala

Heat and Dust is a forbidden love story between a newly married Englishwoman, Olivia and a Nawab, a minor Indian prince.  Olivia moves to colonial Indian in 1923 with her British civil servant, Douglas.  This is a novel of powerful yet quiet, majestic beauty.  Heat & Dust contrasts the social constraints & lifestyles of British society and those of India in early 20th C.  More importantly, it  confronts the demise of India's culture under British Imperialism.  Oliva's restless & reckless story is told by Douglas' granddaughter from his 2nd marriage who discovers her letters and retraces Oliva's steps through India while keeping a compelling journal of her own.  Douglas' granddaughter learns of the harsh lives in India by her Indian landlord, "Nothing human means anything here. Not a thing." Olivia lears of Douglas attempt to prevent the India religious practise of suttee.  Indian woman who become widowed are placed upon their husband's funeral pyre.  Though barberic, Olivia does questions British  interferance with India's cultural practices. "It's part of their religion isn't it?  I thought one wasn't supposed to meddle with that.  And quiet apart from religion, it is their culture and who are we to interfere with anyone's culture, especially an ancient one like theirs."  Jhabvala's impressive novel reveals a compelling look at Anglo-Indian relationships.  It's also a penetrating look at India's past and present.

Morality Play, Barry Unsworth, a Sin to Miss

Barry Unsworth is Booker Prize winning author & a master of historical fiction.  Morality Play is a play within a play about morality set in the 14th C English countryside. This is a time when rampant religious & judicious corruption reigned. The story begins with Priest Nicholas fleeing to excape discovery of his adultrous liasion by the husband.  Haven fallen from grace, Nicholas becomes an outcast, alone in the difficult & treacherous countryside.  He is destitute and vulnerable. Survival appears bleak when he stumbles upon a troupe of actors.  Nicholas convinces the group of his value as a man of the cloth and with the gift of gab.  The band led by Martin, agree to bring him into their fold despite the his questionable predicament.  As a member of the troupe, Nicholas hears complaints against both Church & Nobles who rule the land.  "The Church works with the Nobles and keep folks tied to the land."  Men were not permitted to leave their townships without permission of their Lords or risk "being taken & branded as fugitives on their foreheads for all to see."  They enter a town where a young boy has just been murdered and a woman condemned to hang for the crime.  A monk brought the woman in for questioning.  Martin devises a new type of play to draw in a paying audience that  will depict the murder.  Plays were only performed from biblical stories at this time.  Hear ye, a large audience hath come forth to their performance bringing the wrath of the Nobel Lord upon them.  This historic novel is worth reading for its historic depiction, its crime mystery, and for the philosophical quandries it raises  "It was the Church that first made God a player, the priest played before the altar."  And, for its clever irony, Nicholas muses, "I was a priest playing a priest, dressed for the part in my own dress."  I hereby order you to read this novel.  When it is performed, I wouldn't tarry to attend.

The Yellow Birds - A Gleaming Anti-war Novel

Kevin Powers served with the U.S. in Irag 2004-2005.  THE YELLOW BIRDS is Power's 1st novel & is a Nat'l Book Award Finalist.  I rank this Iraq war novel alongside the WWI novel ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT & the Vietnam novel THE THINGS THEY CARRIED.  All are powerful & poignant novels that speak of the attrocities of war; both on the battlefield and the homefront for returning vets.  In THE YELLOW BIRDS, John Bartle & Daniel Murphy, enlist in the army as young men.  They meet & befriend each other while in bootcamp, under the command of Sgt. Sterling.  Their friendship between under Sterling's war weary knowledge, emphasize the harsh realities of war.  Power's lyrical tale is not linear in structure which adds an element of intrigue.  Bartle is the narrator of this heartbreaking saga.  He looks back at his life as a naive youth, on the battlefronts, and at his own post war purgatory. "There isn't any making up for killing women or even watching women get killed, or for that matter killing men and shooting them in the back. There was acid seeping down into your soul and then your soul is gone."  THE YELLOW BIRDS is sure to be a classic literary achievement addressing the Hell of war.  We continuously fail to heed the wisdom of our founding father, "If tyranny & oppresion come to this land it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy." J. Adams

The $12,000,000 Stuffed Shark, Non-Fiction

The $12,000,000 Stuffed Shark refers to the price paid for Damien Hirst's taxidermic shark embedded in formaldehyde.  This engrossing & mystifying book by Don Thompson, examines "The Curious Economics of Contemporary Art." Thompson seeks to clarify the definition or parameters of contemporary art as well as the intent of art.  He delves into the factors driving the interest & monetary value of contemporary pieces of art. Thompson rationally dissects the emotional calculations of the purveyors in the art world as well as its consumers.  The candor of the author is beguiling, "I have long been puzzled by what makes a particular work of art valuable."  The value I gained from this book is priceless.  I came away with some keen insights into an enigmatic & compelling world to which I'm already drawn.  However, I came away feeling further perplexed.  Art holds the power to to illuminate & align both our thinking & visceral responses.  Contemporary Art has blurred the boundaries between business and visual creations.  "Never invest in a business you can't understand.  Only buy something that you'd be perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for ten years."  W. Buffett  

The 12 Tribes of Hattie Oprahs Pick/not mine

When Oprah speaks, people listen.  A book selected for Oprah's Book Club becomes a best seller.  Ms. Winfrey is a positive force for constructive change.  Oprah is credited for getting more people reading.  However, that doesn't mean Oprah's picks are divine.  I appreciate why the The 12 Tribes of Hattie, by Ayana Mathis, was chosen.  The novel touches on many significant issues affecting African Americans'  lives; Jim Crow Laws in the Southern States and dire poverty endured by the multitudes who came north hoping for a better life.  Hattie migrated north to escape the horrors of the south.  One of Hattie's 12 children notes, "they left because of the whites, only to spend the rest of their lives being hostalgic for the most banal and backwoods things.  The North was cold and colorless."  Mathis touches briefly on numerous struggles in addition to racism: a self-imposed class system, stubborn pride,"unseemly failed" males, church charlatans, unwed mothers & limited options for a better life.  Hattie concluded ""60 years out of Georgia, and there's still the same wounding and the same pain."  Mathis covers too many issues through too many lives that their impacts becomes diluted.  I recommend "To Kill a Mockingbird, or the Help instead.  People listen when Oprah speaks, but those who speak to Oprah, do not always speak the truth (Sir Lance Lies-a-Lot.)  I on the other hand, can be trusted.

The Attack by Yasmina Khadra

The central character in the novel, The Attack, is Amin Jaafari, an Arab naturalized Israeli citizen who becomes a surgeon in Tel Aviv.  Amin earns respect with his colleagues. Amin & his Palestinian born wife, Sihem, form friendships in Tel Aviv.  Nonetheless, he does suffer 2nd class citizenship amongst the general public who view him with disdain & distrust for his Arabian heritage. Still, Amin has been happily married for more than 10 years to Sihem, until his marriage & his life are irrevocably shattered.  An exploison erupts in close proximity to the hospital Amin works & it becomes an immediate triage for the severly wounded.  The blast takes the lives of dozens of innocent victimes & children & the life of Sihem.  Sihem, however, was not an innocent victim.  She was the fundamentalist suicide bomber to the complete horror & total disbelief of Amin. "We had no secrets from each other," Amin tells the polic Capt.  Therein lies the guise for understanding the deep rooted hated between Israelis/Palestinians.  Amin's quest for answers leads him to his Arabian relative complicit with Sihem who explains why. "Humiliation.  It takes away your taste for life.  Other people are trying to confine them {Palestinians} to ghettos until they're trapped in them for good.  The reason why they prefer to die.  When dreams are turned away, death becomes the ultimate salvation.  She died for others." Yet, Amin maintains, "Every Jew in Palestine is a bit of an Arab, and no Arab in Israel can deny that he's a little Jewish. So why so much hate between relatives?" The Attack is somewhat preachy but it does serve to open vital dialogue.

The Border of Truth by Victyoria Redel

The novel, The Border of Truth, is a present day story set in NYC juxtaposed against the time in Europe just prior to WWII.  The current story centers on a single, middle aged woman, Sarah.  Sarah is a Prof. researching the writings of a famous writer who died in Europe during the war.  Sarah is also in the midst of adopting a child from any war torn country that will permit an adoption.  The Holocaust escape story is told almost entirely in letters by a 17 year old Belgian boy, Itzak, who is fleeing Nazi persecution via whatever means necessary.  Itzak is writing his life's story to Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt while pleading for her assistance to enter the U.S.A.  Itzah is travelling alone on board the Quanza, that  landed in NYC in Aug. 1940.  Entrance for most of the immigrants on board was denied.  The obvious irony to the reader, unbeknownst to Sarah, is Itzah, a.k.a. Richard, her father, has not revealed to her his true history.  Itzak's letters reveal his life as a boy in Brussels, his amazing means of escape and his guilt  for self-preservation.  The Border of Truth examines how history is recounted, what constitutes a family and why understanding the past matters.  Itzak wrote the First Lady, "Sometimes I think we need to tell our stories more than any one needs to hear our stories.  Maybe just so that anticipation or happiness can be reached for again."  The intertwining stories in The Border of Truth compell the reader to question how we discern perfidy in our lives & the world in which live.