2025 #36 James (Everett)

 

James by Percival Everett
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a book that needed to be written and needs to be read. There's no better way to reconcile some of the problems with Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn than with satire. But while satire comes into play, this is also a truly beautiful novel. And it isn't just simply "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as told by Jim", although it has been so many years since I read Twain's book I can't claim knowledge of a side-by-side comparison. The messages aren't subtle, but it is an invitation to think about an old character (or actually old characters--Huck, too), in a new way. There are parts that drag a bit, but overall the novel illuminates the privilege of "adventures" and how characters can reclaim and change the archetypes to which they've been relegated.

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2024 #39 The Night Watchman (Erdrich)

 

The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

1953 was the real-life year of the U.S. Congress passing House concurrent resolution 108 and therefore establishing the federal policy known as "termination", which sought to abolish tribes and relocate American Indians (the start of a series of proceedings held from 1953- 1970). Primarily through the story of the titular character, Thomas Washashk (based on the life and activism of Erdrich's grandfather, Patrick Gourneau), and Patrice (Pixie) Paranteau, the novel revisits the mid-century tension of a people long dispossessed and disenfranchised caught in a no-man's land of ambiguously defined citizenry and capitalist manipulation. Thomas, who serves on the tribal council of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, and works as a night watchman at the jewel bearing plant, reflects an optimism and ethic of tenacity, perseverance and patience. Patrice, a recent high-school graduate, on the other hand, has youthful energy and occasional impulsiveness, but is also the sole provider for family that includes her alcoholic father, her mother, and her brother. She, with her friends Valentine and Doris, works at the jewel bearing plant as well. Her older sister, Vera, moved to Minneapolis, but has not been heard from in months, so Patrice sets off on a brief, but Campbellian, hero's journey, which opens her eyes to savagery from which she has been relatively sheltered on the reservation.

Somehow, Erdrich manages to mix historical account, a coming-of-age-story, and an intriguing story through a rich cast of humanized characters -- from the Mormon missionaries to the Washington senators. Most of the characters are multi-dimensional and fairly well developed, but the pace of the story (stories, really) moves in fits and starts and occasionally we lose track of some threads in deference to others. Everything does come back together by the close of the book, although I found myself disquieted by the relative neatness of the ending (I won't say "happy"). There's more to tell, that we know, and it is perhaps the challenge of historical fiction: good characters will make us want to have a larger slice of the historical narrative, especially when that narrative is perpetuated into our own time. This is an important book that attempts to zoom in on the lived experiences of a whole host of characters in order to illuminate the hardship and mistreatment of a government toward its indigenous peoples--the task is not an easy one. The latter goal occasionally gets submerged under the former, but this is a good problem to have because if nothing else, the characters keep us turning the page for all their foibles, their propensity for chaos, their passions, and their search for meaning.

Louise Erdrich's reading is very beautiful, full of tender and sensitive intonation and wisdom behind each word.

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2023 #21: Life On Mars (Smith)

 

Life on Mars: Poems by Tracy K. Smith
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The title of this collection, Life on Mars seems almost tongue-in-cheek as the collection is VERY much about life here on earth, in a very visceral, beautiful, and sometimes intensely difficult, way. Poems like "Everything That Ever Was" manage to dance with the universe without overly lofty ambition, keeping our feet on the ground. "The Universe as Primal Scream" marries biblical storytelling with the everyday tedium of our existence. Occasionally Smith packs a huge punch with just a few words (your mileage will vary, based on personal experiences). When I read, "Tonight, I'm at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. I don't know where I end" ("They May Love All That He Has Chosen and Hate All That He Has Rejected"), I was transported to that exact state of being. Prior to reading the collection I had been at an event where Tracy K. Smith spoke about her father, and many of the poems in this collection revealed much about that relationship--in particular the one dedicated to his memory, "The Speed of Belief".

At that same event, Smith said, "When you read a poem you become humble." In humility there is great wisdom and beauty and it is woven throughout this wonderful collection.

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2023 #19 The Overstory (Powers)

 

The Overstory by Richard Powers
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is an incredibly artful book, both in its writing and its metaphorical structure (the tree analogy is overt). Powers has the ability to look at the present as if it were the past (and vice-versa), leaving us with a strong blend of optimism and pessimism (pessimoptimism?) in looking at the future. There are nine protagonists (we can use the term loosely) whose stories intertwine like a leafy canopy, but the real focus of the story is the power, history, and life of trees. Honestly, if that doesn't engage you, you are probably the perfect audience for this book. NOT engaging with trees is the not-so-subtle criticism Powers offers humanity. His powerful and descriptive language draws us to the trees, or at least the idea of them. The research aspects are excellent, and it seems clear that a lot of the ideas of Peter Wohlleben and others surface through the story and the characters.

What is particularly compelling is how Powers pulls in ideas of generational trauma and legacy, so not only are there nine main characters, but a variety of generational lessons packed into several of the individual's story lines. The connections become apparent in the first section of the novel as Powers introduces each character and there are one or more links from one character to the next.

Suzanne Toren does an astounding job voicing all the different characters, although as always, I wish audiobooks didn't resort to voicing folks of other ethnicities with accents--while understandably an efficiency, it seems a missed opportunity. I was somewhat uncomfortable, assuming Toren does not have a hearing-related disability, with her voicing of Patricia Westerford, whose character does not speak until the age of three, and is revealed to have a deformation of her inner ear. That said, it IS an essential part of the character and Toren's depiction allows the words, not how they are said, to be front and center.

As much as it is about trees, it is also about humans. Not just how we inhabit and interact with the planet, but how we create our own overstories and understories in the relationships we have--those that we damage and allow to decay, and those that we plant and nurture.

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2018 #1: The Sympathizer (Viet Thanh Nguyen)

The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book will sit with me for a long time. As someone who studies the Cold War—that “experiment they call, with a straight face, the Cold War” (344)—I responded to this book both academically and personally.

Viet Thanh Nguyen’s nuance is masterful—his pro-antagonist, if you will, is one of the more interesting characterizations I’ve come across in recent literature. While there are brief moments of heavy-handedness, most of the book is filled with stunning language, vivid imagery, and beautifully-crafted moments of sardonic humor.

This is the hero’s journey with a twist. As Nguyen said recently at a talk at Radcliffe, revolutions often lead to disillusionment, but that doesn’t mean they fail and can’t continue (paraphrase). In some sense, Nguyen highlights the sense of the word “revolution” as it appears in physics and makes a compelling case that we are often our own axis for that revolution—something I think the main character comes to understand.

This is an important book to read for multiple reasons, but specifically to understand, at least in some way, the many angles of being a refugee. While a spy, the nameless narrator is also a refugee, and Nguyen peels back the multiple layers of that relationship.

50BC06 #9: Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

This Pulitzer Prize winning novel is one of the purest expressions of narrative beauty in contemporary fiction. Told through the writings of one narrator, the story weaves in and out of four generations with seamless grace, exploring the inevitable ties that bind: family, friends, faith and love.

As Congregationalist minister John Ames prepares for death, he paints a vivid picture of America’s history from the Civil War to segregation. At the center of his writings to his son, is a lesson about how much we stand to gain from the introspection most of us fail to engage in until it is too late. His poignant reflections resonate with a timelessness, yet never sacrifice the flow of the narrative.

This is a book to be read slowly, a little at a time. Every anecdote and vignette is a life lesson in miniature, but the book never resorts to pontification or blithe nostalgia. It unites believers and non-believers, old and young, men and women in an exquisite tapestry of the human condition.

Posted 9/12/08, originally posted 5/25/06.