NonF. LOSING MY COOL, Father's Love Beats Hip-Hop

Thomas Chatterton Williams' revealing memoir elucidates how the hip-hop culture permeates black youths & subjugates them with a misguided conception of acceptable behaviors.  Thomas is son to a white mother & black father.  "Losing My Cool" pays tribute to his loving parental guidance, in particular his father's mentoring that steered him to a better way of life and to being a better person.  Obama, also of mixed heritage, clarifies himself as a black man.  Thomas identifies himself as black & aspires to be accepted as cool by relating to the lifestyle of the hip-hop culture.  "Hip-hop is a way of being street-shit." The mind-washing rhetoric drummed into young blacks is "money, hoes, and clothes, that's all a brother knows: fuck bitches, get money."  Ironically, this jargon which Thomas, along with his peers growing-up bought into, is subversive to success, in all significant wakes of life.  While there is much to feel chagrin at in Williams' adolescence, he speaks with a voice of  innocence, sauciness, wit & revelation.   There is so much to recommend from the unpretentious lessons learned here that aspire us to be independent thinkers and universally tolerant.  I am only perplexed as to who would make a cooler father, Thomas' dad or Bill Cosby.      

Trans Atlantic by Colum McCann;Winner Nat'l Book Award

Irish born author, Colum McCann received the Nat'l Book Award for Let the Great World Spin.  In "Great World," McCann brilliantly intertwines diverse lives at a specific point in time inhabiting NYC.  "Trans Atlantic," is much more ambitious & even more rewarding.  The fulcrum connecting different generations & countries originates & returns to Ireland beginning with Lily, a young, destitute maid during the great famine.  Lily encounters Federick Douglas when he toured Ireland to gain public & financial support for the abolition of slavery in the States & for himself.  Douglas stirs Lily to pursue her own liberation.  She crosses the Atlantic by ship to America and the saga of Lily and her offspring commence.  Worlds are knotted together by war, persecution & human suffering. "Tunnels of lives connect, coming into daylight and then plunge us into the dark again."  McCann's elegiac writing & captivating storytelling makes us question what is life anyway.  "An accumulation of small shelves of incident.  Stacked at odd angles to each other."  I question whether McCann will repeat another Nat'l Book Award honor.  The odds are heavily stocked for it.  

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Unforgettable

A pilgrimage is a mission to gain moral or spiritual significance.  Harold Fry is just an ordinary guy whose life somehow has gone awry.  Harold is adjusting to retirement from the same job he held for his entire adult life.  His long loveless marriage to Maureen is exhausting.  Harold is friendless, his only son David has abandoned him and he is adrift in a malaise of loneliness.  When Harold receives a note from an old colleague "that would change everything."  Queenie, an old colleague wrote informing him she is dying and wished to say good-bye.  Without premeditation or a plan, Harold sets out to mail Queenie a letter and ends up determined to walk the 600 miles to her believing that his walk will save her.  Perhaps this may deter you from Rachel Joyce's novel.  This would be a travesty.  Bear with the initial vapid "Forest Gump" character whose naivety is at first grating & preposterous.  His journey along sets him free to ponder the mysteries of life and reexamine his own.  Living takes putting one foot in front of the other "but, it never ceases to amaze how difficult the things that are supposed to be instinctive really are."  Trust this unlikely beginning transcends & marvels the reader.  "What the world needs is a little less sense, and a little more faith."

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson-Same Old, Same Old

Life after Life is a novel that is in part a time travel epic, part British WWII account, and for the most part, a philosophical examination of reincarnation.  On all parts, it seems never ending.  If you are considering reading this relentless palimpsest, let me save you from squandering your future. This story grows old just as it seemed nouveau.  It is both trite, & preachy.  "Most people muddled through events and only in retrospect realized their significance."  For those who have died in the war, "we must bear witness."  Ursula, born in Britain, Feb. 1910, dies & is reborn, over & over.  Izzie, Ursula's  quixotic aunt believes "life is an adventure."  Sylvia, Urusula's pragmatic mother thinks of life "as more of an endurance race or an obstacle course."  Teddy, Ursula's much beloved baby brother wonders "What if we had a chance to do it again and again, until we finally did get it right?  Wouldn't that be wonderful?" I will steer you in the right direction.  Pass on this indefatigable rehash.  Read Barne's Sense of an Ending & see the effervescent film, About Time.  Life after Life was never ending & life is just too short.

The Newlyweds, Bangladeshi meets US husband online

The illuminating novel, THE NEWLYWEDS, by Nell Freudenberger, is an insightful look into what constitutes a marriage while examining cultural differences & lifestyles between the USA & Bangladesh.  Amina, the only child of over protective parents only want what's best for their daughter (and themselves.)  Amina's father is a bungler who squanders the family's finances.  Her mother who can't bear to be apart from her, wants her daughter to have more than an impoverished life.  The novel draws religious, family & cultural comparisons between Amina's Muslim upbringing & that of her American husband, George. The real heart of the story are Amina's observations on marriage & family.  Freudenberger's characters & narrative are so easy to perceive I could smell the curry in Bangladesh & feel the chill in the air in Rochester, NY& around the dinner table in George's mother's home.  Arranged marriages are common in Amina's village despite her parent's elopement.  Amina's parents encouraged her to pursue an American husband online.  George & Amina's connection grows over the internet until George flies to meet Amina & her family.  It is decided Amina will immigrate to the US where she & George will wed, in a purported civil & Muslim ceremony. Amina's adjustment to both her new life & marriage shows her resignations, disappointments and triumphs. Amina tells George, "At first we were puzzle pieces. Now we're the puzzle."  Amina discovers, "the hardest thing about marriage - how can you continue to be kind, once you knew all of another person's secrets?"  This is the kind of novel that flourishes with empathy & intelligence.

N/F Lone Survivor-War is Hell HooYah!

 Luttrel's retelling of his miraculous & heroic survival from a Taliban attack in Afghanistan is a rare glimpse into the incredulous demands of SEAL training, the bonds of brotherhood, and the bloody horrors on battlefront.  "War is not healthy for children & other living things."  True, but trite given the 1st hand accounts of the gruesome realities of war killing too many of our nation's finest; and the heartbreaking collateral fallouts. "In times of uncertainty there is a special breed of warrior ready to answer our Nation's call; a common man with uncommon desire to succeed.  Forged by adversity, he stands alongside America's finest special operations forces to serve his country and the American people."  Retired Navy SEAL, Marcus Luttrell, said  "I'm an American.  And when the bell sounds, I will come out fighting for my country and for my teammates.  If neccessary, to the death."  The reconnaissance Operation Red Wing, June '05, claimed the lives of the 3 SEAL's in Luttrell's unit and the 8 SEALs shot down in their helicopter in their fatal rescue attempt.  Luttrel' reason for his book was "because of my three buddies Mikey, Danny, and Axe.  If I don't write it, no one will ever understand the indomitable courage under fire of those three Americans.  And that would be the biggest tragedy of all."  The ultimate tragedy is the killing of our nation's soldiers.  I found LONE SURVIVOR a story of unbelievable cruelty, amazing sacrifice & deep morality.  The Pashtun people in Afghanistan value "lokhay," the essence of humanity.  It's crucial Luttrel's book be read to honor our American soldiers.  It serves as an essential tool in the arsenal against war.  Congressional hearings must address what is required to protect our own when sent into battle.  "Under the laws of the country we are sworn to serve. They represent a danger to us; they undermine our confidence on the battlefield in the fight against world terror."  HOOYAH!

Gaskell's North & South: Britain's Indust Revolution

The novel North & South by British, Victorian writer, Elizabeth Gaskell is NOT about the Amer. Revolution.  Rather, it is about the Industrial Revolution of the mid-19th depicting social stratas of Britain (as in Downton Abbey; early 20th C.)  Gaskell's novel calls for social & relgious reforms.  Her literary prowess led to a strong friendship with Charles Dickens.  During a time of strict Victorian protocols, Gaskell was a pioneer for impoverished factory workers, religious dissenters & women's liberations.  The societal restrictions & limited opportunities for women left little else but to secure a "good marriage."  To "marry for love," was atypical. The heroine's life, Margaret Hale, parallels  Gaskell's life.  Both women were orphaned young, their fathers both ministers & they were raised by their affluent aunts.  North & South is Austen's Pride & Prejudice meets Sinclair's The Jungle.  Both the harsh struggles of the workers & the "idyllic" charmed lives of the upper classes are equally made clear.  This is a turgid historic novel yet prescient for it's clairvoyancy into labor negotiations between workers/management:  "its success necessitate personal intercourse, the formation of a plan as all had borne a part." As for the love interest for Miss Hale, Mr. Thornton is an admirable & misaligned ole chap, but he's no Mr. Darcy; but then who is?  Oh Mrs. Gaskell, you have written a compelling historic novel of social significance.