Editorial Reviews from Amazon.com

From Publishers Weekly
A hard-living Appalachian family weathers a contemporary coal boom in the debut from West Virginia native Pancake. Soon after their first meeting in the 1980s, college freshman Lace See and 15-year-old local boy James Makepeace Turrell (Jimmy Make) conceive their first child. Nearly 20 years later, Lace is uneasily settled as a mother to Jimmy’s four children as a flurry of strip mining and clear cutting make the mountains she has known since childhood unrecognizable. One summer right after a strip-mining induced flood, things come to a head. Lace’s environmental activism ramps up; daughter Bant, working at a local motel, discovers her allegiance to the mountains and her sexuality; each of Lace and Jimmy’s three sons (Corey, Jimmy and Dane) is touched in turn by the collapsing economy and environment. Lush descriptions of the landscape are matched with a hurtling stream-of-consciousness narration to great effect: one doubts neither the characters’ voices nor their places in a very complex poverty. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
*Starred Review* With her beloved West Virginia hollows and valleys under constant onslaught by a savage coal-mining industry whose raping of the land threatens her home with devastating floods, Lace Ricker finds herself battling callous forces both without and within her own family. As thunderous blasts weaken their home’s foundation and poisoned wastewater infiltrates their well, Lace and her daughter, Bant, secretly become more determined to find a way to stop the mines, while Lace’s husband pragmatically refuses to fight the union bosses, and her sons tentatively, then calamitously, accept the challenges and adventure of life lived in the shadow of imminent danger. By tracing the devastating impact of coal mining through the eyes of Lace and her four children, Pancake’s powerful debut novel evinces a poetic pathos and authentic respect for the land and the people who love it. To comprehend the egregious and tragic environmental damage mountaintop-removal coal mining has wrought on the once pristine vistas of Appalachia, one should read any one of many excellent exposés. To understand the human toll such destruction exacts, one must turn to fiction, for novels such as Pancake’s reflect deeper, timeless truths. Haggas, Carol

Product Description
Set in present day West Virginia, Ann Pancake’s debut novel, Strange As This Weather Has Been, tells the story of a coal mining family—a couple and their four children—living through the latest mining boom and dealing with the mountaintop removal and strip mining that is ruining what is left of their mountain life. As the mine turns the mountains to slag and wastewater, workers struggle with layoffs and children find adventure in the blasted moonscape craters.

Strange As This Weather Has Been follows several members of the family, with a particular focus on fifteen-year-old Bant and her mother, Lace. Working at a “scab” motel, Bant becomes involved with a young miner while her mother contemplates joining the fight against the mining companies. As domestic conflicts escalate at home, the children are pushed more and more outside among junk from the floods and felled trees in the hollows—the only nature they have ever known. But Bant has other memories and is as curious and strong-willed as her mother, and ultimately comes to discover the very real threat of destruction that looms as much in the landscape as it does at home.

My Review
This is Ann Pancake’s debut novel. She’s a Professor of English. She has won numerous awards. This particular book takes place in her home state, West Virginia. She describes the difficulties of raising a family in Appalachia where mountain top removal sites are destroying their precious land and their lives. She weaves a tale about a family’s struggles living in one of these towns as well as raising awareness levels about what mountain-top removal is really doing to the families that live in these towns. She picks a typical West Virginia Appalachian family and tells their story. This is a book I normally wouldn’t read. It was nominated for a book club I’m in. It’s an easy read and it does evoke sympathy and a desire for activism for the people of these West Virginian towns. I wasn’t too happy with the ending, but I don’t want to give it away. I couldn’t really identify with any of the characters. Obviously. hehe. But I think it was a story that needed to be told and an issue that should be a national concern, possibly a global one. I think Pancake wrote a lovely debut novel about her hometown state. It’s a very easy read and you can finish it in a day. Only 360 pages. I am critical of the parents in the story. I didn’t think they were the best of parents, but I couldn’t blame them because they were poor and were doing the best they could. If you’re interested in learning about the tragedies of mountain top removal sites for coal mining or how the lives of the people who live in that area are affected, then I highly recommend this book. I give this book 2 out of 5 stars just because I didn’t like the ending and the parents frustrated me. *Grin*

Tags: Ann Pancake, book review, books, coal mining, Mountaintop removal, Strange as this weather has been, West Virginia

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From the Publisher

First published in 1958 and set in the early 17th century, this bestselling novel—and follow-up to Katherine—follows Elizabeth Winthrop, a courageous Puritan woman who finds herself at odds with her heritage and surroundings. A real historical figure, Elizabeth married into the family of Governor John Winthrop of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. In those times of hardship, famine, and Indian attacks, many believed that the only way to prosper was through the strong, bigoted, and theocratic government that John Winthrop favored. Defying the government and her family, Elizabeth befriends famous heretic Anne Hutchinson, challenges an army captain, and dares to love as her heart commanded. Through Elizabeth’s three marriages, struggles with her passionate beliefs, and countless rebellions, a powerful tale of fortitude, humiliation, and ultimate triumph shines through.

My Review:

Well I finally finished this book yesterday. 586 pages, small print, some archaic language. It’s the story of the life of Elizabeth Fones. It’s based on historical fact, but given some fictional license. It traces her life from England to America. She was a real person. And a lot of research went into the book. Anya Seton, the author, took the historical data and weaved a tale about Elizabeth’s life. She filled in the blanks and made a novel out of it. It was a very educational book. It explains the Puritans and why they left England at that time to go to America because they were being persecuted. It also explains the difficulties of making it in a new land. It was a good read. I give it 4 out of 5 stars.

Tags: America, Anya Seton, book review, books, England, The Winthrop Woman

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• August 10, 2009 -- Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer (0)
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Movie Review by Roger Ebert:
Surrogates

/ / / September 23, 2009

Cast & Credits
Thomas Greer Bruce Willis
Jennifer Peters Radha Mitchell
Maggie Greer Rosamund Pike
Andrew Stone Boris Kodjoe
Young Canter James Francis Ginty
Dr. Lionel Canter James Cromwell
The Prophet Ving Rhames
Strickland Jack Noseworthy
Bobby Devin Ratray
Colonel Brendon Michael Cudlit

Touchstone Pictures presents a film directed by Directed by Jonathan Mostow. Screenplay by John Brancato and Michael Ferris, based on the graphic novel by Robert Venditti and Brett Weldele. Running time: 88 minutes. MPAA rating: PG-13.

by Roger Ebert

In the future world of “Surrogates,” most of the human population reclines at home without moving, while living vicariously through robot avatars controlled by their minds. They present themselves to the world as younger and more attractive than they really are — and more fit, I assume, since the avatars work out at gyms instead of their owners. No one you meet is really there.

Bruce Willis, looking about 38 and with a healthy mop of hair, stars as Greer, an FBI agent. He and his partner Jennifer Peters (Radha Mitchell) are assigned to investigate a messy murder late one night outside a club, and are astonished to find that the victim is the son of Dr. Lionel Canter (James Cromwell), the inventor of surrogate technology. But wait a minute, you’re thinking. Who dies if only your surrogate is killed? The unsettling answer is that the murder device works by frying the brain of its controller. I hate it when that happens.

Dr. Canter, no longer associated with the corporation that makes surrogates, has indeed grown disillusioned with his invention. As Agent Greer’s investigation continues, it leads him into the world of the Dreads — actual human beings, who reject surrogates and live on “reservations” with other flesh and blood people. The Dread leader is The Prophet (Ving Rhames of the eerie presence), who preaches against avatars as an abomination.

As indeed they are. It’s a relief when something goes wrong with Greer’s avatar and he must venture onto the streets as himself–middle-aged, bald, and looking, I must say, considerably more attractive than his creepy surrogate.

Unfortunately, “Surrogates,” while more ambitious than it has to be, descends into action scenes too quickly. Why must so many screenplays reduce their ideas to chases and shoot-outs? The concept here, based on a graphic novel by Robert Venditti and Brett Weldele, would lead naturally to intriguing considerations.

Consider plastic surgery. To what extent is Joan Rivers a 76-year-old woman inhabiting a 56-year-old avatar? Consider the problem of sex. After two attractive people meet, flirt and desire to have sex, there are two possibilities: (1) their avatars have some sort of mechanical encounter while their owners, at home, masturbate; or (2) two real people, god forbid, have to discover how the other really looks. Since evolution suggests that we evaluate potential mates for their reproductive potential, this could lead to setbacks in the process of natural selection.

In this future world, we learn, surrogates mean that crime and racism have been all but eliminated. If anybody can be of any race, that takes care of racism, all right. But crime? How do those humans who are poor and unemployed pay for their surrogates? What if you decide you want to trade up to a better model? Sure, your surrogate may have a job, but why would salaries be any better? Especially since robots make poor consumers. What process actually takes place when they have a meal together in a restaurant? Can they eat or drink?

Avatars first came into general consciousness by way of computer games and chat boards. It’s well known that someone you meet online may not be who they pretend to be. Surrogates sound like an ideal solution for transsexuals. Don’t go through the surgery, just switch your avatar’s gender. But would that satisfy your hormonal feelings? There are real bodies involved here, and that gets into another issue: If you spend your life reclining, your muscles will atrophy surprisingly quickly, and it will become physically impossible for you to get out of bed and walk, let alone go into action like Bruce Willis does here.

These are areas “Surrogates,” perhaps wisely, doesn’t explore. Such a film might have required a Spike Jonze or Guy Maddin. “Surrogates” is entertaining and ingenious, but it settles too soon for formula. One other thing: It ends with the wrong shot. The correct shot would have been the overhead exterior of the street, about four shots earlier. You’ll know the one I mean.

My Review: It reminded me of the Gerard Butler movie, “Gamer” except in Gamer you can control human beings. In Surrogates you control robots. The action sequences were good. Imagine a world where everyone owns a surrogate and stays at home reclining in a chair controlling and instructing what your surrogate does. Of course there are some areas that don’t use surrogates, but they are a minority. I wouldn’t want to live in a world of surrogates. Surrogates is a 2009 science fiction film, based on the 2005–2006 comic book series of the same name. It was an action flick. The ending was a good one. I don’t know if I got my money’s worth. Well, I haven’t seen Bruce Willis around for a while. I give it 2 and a half stars out of five. You might be better off getting it on DVD.

In 2017, humans live in near-total isolation, rarely leaving the safety and comfort of their homes, thanks to remotely-controlled robotic bodies that serve as “surrogates,” designed as better-looking versions of their human operators. Because people are safe all the time, and damage done to a surrogate is not felt by its owner, it is a peaceful world free from fear, pain, and crime

-wikipedia

I can’t really conceive a world like that even with surrogates. I don’t buy that such a world could exist with those remote-controlled robots. Just isn’t believable to me.

Tags: Brett Weldele, Bruce Willis, Jonathan Mostow, movie review, movies, Radha Mitchell, Robert Venditti, Rosamund Pike, Surrogates

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“Madame was afraid of us. But she was afraid of us in the same way someone might be afraid of spiders. We hadn’t been ready for that. It had never occurred to us to wonder how we would feel, being seen like that, being the spiders.”

source for synopsis and Washington Post Review

Synopsis

From the acclaimed author of The Remains of the Day and When We Were Orphans, a moving new novel that subtly reimagines our world and time in a haunting story of friendship and love.

As a child, Kathy-now thirty-one years old-lived at Hailsham, a private school in the scenic English countryside where the children were sheltered from the outside world, brought up to believe that they were special and that their well-being was crucial not only for themselves but for the society they would eventually enter. Kathy had long ago put this idyllic past behind her, but when two of her Hailsham friends come back into her life, she stops resisting the pull of memory.

And so, as her friendship with Ruth is rekindled, and as the feelings that long ago fueled her adolescent crush on Tommy begin to deepen into love, Kathy recalls their years at Hailsham. She describes happy scenes of boys and girls growing up together, unperturbed-even comforted-by their isolation. But she describes other scenes as well: of discord and misunderstanding that hint at a dark secret behind Hailsham’s nurturing facade. With the dawning clarity of hindsight, the three friends are compelled to face the truth about their childhood-and about their lives now.

A tale of deceptive simplicity, Never Let Me Go slowly reveals an extraordinary emotional depth and resonance-and takes its place among Kazuo Ishiguro’s finest work.

The Washington Post – Jonathan Yardley

What Madame thinks she sees will not be revealed for many pages, but it gets right to the essence of this quite wonderful novel, the best Ishiguro has written since the sublime The Remains of the Day. It is almost literally a novel about humanity: what constitutes it, what it means, how it can be honored or denied. These little children, and the adults they eventually become, are brought up to serve humanity in the most astonishing and selfless ways, and the humanity they achieve in so doing makes us realize that in a new world the word must be redefined. Ishiguro pulls the reader along to that understanding at a steady, insistent pace. If the guardians at Hailsham “timed very carefully and deliberately everything they told us, so that we were always just too young to understand properly the latest piece of information,” by the same token Ishiguro carefully and deliberately unfolds Hailsham’s secrets one by one, piece by piece, as if he were slowly peeling an artichoke.

My review
I was enticed by this gripping tale. It’s sort of like a mystery. You enter the world of Hailsham where the main characters grow up and it’s a world of mystery. Who they are. Where they came from. What’s their purpose. Why are they at this place. Where are their parents. It’s all a big mystery. With every chapter I turned to, another important bit of information would appear bringing me closer to the truth of the lives of these characters. I don’t want to give away the book, so I’m not going to give you the details of who they are and what purpose their lives serve. I’ll tell you why the book is called “Never Let Me Go.” Well part of the reason. It’s from a song on a casette the teenager Kathy had. The song is track 3 entitled “Never Let Me Go,” by Judy Bridgewater. Kathy liked to play that song often. Once she was pretending she was carrying a baby in her arms by using a pillow singing that song. She fantasized that she had a baby that she would never want to let go. Madame, another character in the book, sees her doing this in her dorm and starts crying. Why Madame cries and leaves is discovered at the end of the book. So I won’t give it away. The book began in the 1990s. Anyway I found the book somewhat frustrating. I didn’t understand why these special Hailsham students never rebelled against their fates. I didn’t understand why they so easily acquiesced to follow out the purpose of why they were born. I didn’t understand their resignation. After I read this book, I told myself I hope we never live in a world that allows for such inhumanity to exist. That statement is hard to understand if you don’t read the book. But I don’t want to live in a world where babies are born and considered subhuman and may not have souls and can’t lead normal lives. I didn’t find this book wholly believable because I thought if a world like that existed there would be some of these “special” babies that would grow up and rebel against their fates. I think that survival instinct would be strong unless they were genetically programmed to be so passive. I didn’t buy into the resignation of their fates. Anyway, I read most of this book today at the park. It was only 288 pages and quite easy reading. A nice break from Proust. hehe. I give this book 4 out of 5 stars because I enjoyed how the mystery unfolded. I don’t give it a five because I didn’t believe none of them would rebel their fates, unless they were genetically designed to be so passive. If that’s possible it wasn’t mentioned in the book. It’s a very interesting plot and after reading it I hoped that a world like that will never exist. I hope it never comes to that. Because I for one would fight against it. Anyway, I highly recommend this book.

Tags: book review, books, England, Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go

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Barnes and Noble Review:

Swann’s Way is the first novel of Marcel Proust’s seven-volume magnum opus À la recherche du temps perdu, or Remembrance of Things Past. Following the narrator’s opening ruminations about the nature of sleep is one of twentieth-century literature’s most famous scenes: the eating of the madeleine soaked in a “decoction of lime-flowers,” the associative act from which the remainder of the narrative unfurls. After elaborate reminiscences about his childhoodwith relatives in rural Combray and in urban Paris, Proust’s narrator recalls a story regarding Charles Swann, a major figure in his Combray childhood, and his escapades in nineteenth-century privileged Parisian society, revolving around his obsessive love for young socialite Odette de Crécy.

Filled with searing, insightful, and humorous criticisms of French society, this novel showcases Proust’s innovative prose style, characterized by lengthy, intricate sentences that elongate, stop, and reverse time. With narration that alternates between first and third person, Swann’s Way unconventionally introduces Proust’s recurring themes of memory, love, art, and the human experience—and for nearly a century readers have deliciously savored each moment.

Marcel Proust:

Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust (French pronunciation: [maʁsɛl pʁust]) (10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, essayist, and critic, best known as the author of À la recherche du temps perdu (in English, In Search of Lost Time; earlier translated as Remembrance of Things Past), a monumental work of twentieth-century fiction published in seven parts from 1913 to 1927.
- wikipedia

In Search of Lost Time:

In Search of Lost Time or Remembrance of Things Past (French: À la recherche du temps perdu) is a semi-autobiographical novel in seven volumes by Marcel Proust. His most prominent work, it is popularly known for its extended length and the notion of involuntary memory, the most famous example being the “episode of the madeleine”. The novel is still widely referred to in English as Remembrance of Things Past, but the title In Search of Lost Time, a more accurate rendering of the French, has gained in usage since D.J. Enright’s 1992 revision of the earlier translation by C.K. Scott Moncrieff and Terence Kilmartin.

Begun in 1909, finished just before his death in 1922, and published in France between 1913 and 1927, many of the novel’s ideas, motifs, and scenes appear in adumbrated form in Proust’s unfinished novel, Jean Santeuil (1896–99), and in his unfinished hybrid of philosophical essay and story, Contre Sainte-Beuve (1908–09). The novel has had a pervasive influence on twentieth-century literature, whether because writers have sought to emulate it, or attempted to parody and discredit some of its traits. In it, Proust explores the themes of time, space, and memory, but the novel is above all a condensation of innumerable literary, structural, stylistic, and thematic possibilities. Proust died before completing his revisions of the drafts and proofs of the final volumes. His brother Robert had the final three volumes edited, and they were published posthumously.

-wikipedia

Legacy:

In Search of Lost Time is considered the definitive Modern novel by many scholars, and it had a profound effect on subsequent writers such as the Bloomsbury Group.[2] “Oh if I could write like that!” marveled Virginia Woolf in 1922 (2:525). Proust’s influence on Evelyn Waugh is manifest in A Handful of Dust (1934) in which Waugh entitles Chapter 1 “Du Cote de Chez Beaver” and Chapter 6 “Du Cote de Chez Tod.”[3] More recently, literary critic Harold Bloom wrote that In Search of Lost Time is now “widely recognized as the major novel of the twentieth century.”[4] Vladimir Nabokov, in a 1965 interview, named the greatest prose works of the 20th century as, in order, “Joyce’s Ulysses, Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, Biely’s Petersburg, and the first half of Proust’s fairy tale In Search of Lost Time.”[5] J. Peder Zane’s book The Top Ten: Writers Pick Their Favorite Books, collates 125 “top 10 greatest books of all time” lists by prominent living writers; In Search of Lost Time places eighth.[6]

Since the publication in 1992 of a revised English translation by The Modern Library, based on a new definitive French edition (1987–89), interest in Proust’s novel in the English-speaking world has notably increased. Two substantial new biographies have appeared in English, by Edmund White and William C. Carter, and at least two books about the experience of reading Proust have appeared, by Alain de Botton and Phyllis Rose. The Proust Society of America, founded in 1997, now has three chapters: at The Mercantile Library of New York City,[7] the Mechanic’s Institute Library in San Francisco,[8] and the Boston Athenæum Library. The French phenomenologist, Merleau-Ponty, frequently refers to Swann’s Way to help elucidate his own ideas.
-wikipedia

My Review:
Proust’s work consists of seven volumes. I have only read the first volume. This book is not for the casual reader. I say it’s like “Finnegan’s Wake” by James Joyce. It’s truly a literary classic and a book read by English Lit. grad students. I would need to take a class or read critiques and articles about the book to fully comprehend what I read. This was a good translation. Lydia Davis, the translator, received numerous awards for her translation. The footnotes were very helpful. I have two and a half pages, back and front, full of GRE words. OMG, it’s not for the faint of heart. If you’re not an English Lit. student, this book may be difficult to read. I read it rather slowly because of the GRE words, the historical references, the footnotes, and Proust’s serpentine way of writing.

In order to truly understand this book you would have to immerse yourself in Proust’s world, near the turn of the 20th century in France. He makes references to many playwrights, artists, musicians, authors, and politicians of that time. He also makes references to other cultural phenomena from early centuries. He’d mention a play by like Racine or Dumas. Or he’d mention a painting by an artist. And without having read, listened, seen any of these historical references, you can’t truly comprehend what he’s trying to say. Had I lived in France during that time and was part of his society, perhaps I would have fully grasped what he was saying. As it is I have a list of paintings, books, musical compositions, plays, and politicians that I have to look up and figure out their meaning in relation to Proust’s world. It would have been nice to see the paintings and musical compositions he describes.

His themes have to do with memory, time, art, nature, even homosexuality. This book was composed of three parts. In the first part the narrator is an older man that writes about his boyhood days in Combray. He masterfully writes serpentine passages about his memories. He’ll associate his memories with the natural landscape surrounding Combray. His sentences are very long. He describes his emotions and memories in relation to let’s say Hawthorn flowers or two steeples in town. He’ll wax poetic constantly. His memories are immersed in the natural landscape of that time.

The second part is about Monsieur Swann and his difficult love affair with Odette de Crecy. Swann is a neighbor of the young boy in Combray. This part was my favorite. In this part Proust makes many references to works of art, music, literature of the times and times gone by, especially in relation to Swann’s emotions and memories. Odette is a woman of ill-repute. She’s not even Swann’s type, but he falls madly in love with her. Again he uses nature and artistic allusions in describing the relationship between Swann and Odette. They have a special song they share, by Vinteuil. Swann’s emotions are heightened every time this piece is played. Once he went to a soiree without Odette and this song was being played by a small orchestra. Proust described masterfully how the song reflects his love for Odette.

The third book returns back to the narrator who describes once again the young boy and his meeting with Swann’s daughter Gilberte. It’s rather brief. It’s entitled “Place names-Names.”

Here are the last two sentences of this volume:
“The places we have known do not belong solely to the world of space in which we situate them for our greater convenience. They were only a thin slice among contiguous impressions which formed our life at that time; the memory of a certain image is but regret for a certain moment; and houses, roads, avenues are as fleeting, alas, as the years.”

Because in the last four or five pages of the book the narrator is no longer the young boy, but an older man regretting the passage of time and how everything changed since his boyhood days, like the arrival of automobiles.

It was a very interesting book. I’ll have to search for articles on this particular volume to understand it in more detail. There were many lovely passages where he’ll use art or music or the natural landscape to describe a particular memory or emotion. Long passages.

If I had read the books Proust mentioned, seen the art he referenced, as well as the songs, the natural landscape and politics of that time, I would have understood the book more fully. This book is over a 100 years old. And takes place about 130 years ago.

Anyway, I’ll read more articles about it. And I’ll pick up his second volume on my next book run.

His books give you a singular view of life in France for the bourgeoisie during the late 19th century. Reading the book is like being transported to a different world.

I don’t know any other authors who use art in all its forms and nature and landscapes to describe memories and emotions. Maybe Virginia Woolf, but I’ve only read two of her books. I’ve been meaning to read all her books.

Anyway, some good critical essays of the book as well as articles would be helpful. I hope they contain pictures of the paintings mentioned. And I’d love to hear Swann and Odette’s special sonata. And of course I’d love to return to France to the specific locations he describes in so much detail.

It was like reading a memoir. It’s semi-autobiographical.

I’m not rating this book because it’s a classic and I think I’m too ignorant to truly grasp what a monumental masterpiece it is.

Again, it’s not for the faint of heart.

Tags: book review, books, France, Lydia Davis, Marcel Proust, Swann's Way

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Editor’s Review
From Publishers Weekly
Oskar Schell, hero of this brilliant follow-up to Foer’s bestselling Everything Is Illuminated, is a nine-year-old amateur inventor, jewelry designer, astrophysicist, tambourine player and pacifist. Like the second-language narrator of Illuminated, Oskar turns his naïvely precocious vocabulary to the understanding of historical tragedy, as he searches New York for the lock that matches a mysterious key left by his father when he was killed in the September 11 attacks, a quest that intertwines with the story of his grandparents, whose lives were blighted by the firebombing of Dresden. Foer embellishes the narrative with evocative graphics, including photographs, colored highlights and passages of illegibly overwritten text, and takes his unique flair for the poetry of miscommunication to occasionally gimmicky lengths, like a two-page soliloquy written entirely in numerical code. Although not quite the comic tour de force that Illuminated was, the novel is replete with hilarious and appalling passages, as when, during show-and-tell, Oskar plays a harrowing recording by a Hiroshima survivor and then launches into a Poindexterish disquisition on the bomb’s “charring effect.” It’s more of a challenge to play in the same way with the very recent collapse of the towers, but Foer gambles on the power of his protagonist’s voice to transform the cataclysm from raw current event to a tragedy at once visceral and mythical. Unafraid to show his traumatized characters’ constant groping for emotional catharsis, Foer demonstrates once again that he is one of the few contemporary writers willing to risk sentimentalism in order to address great questions of truth, love and beauty.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Adult/High School-Oskar Schell is not your average nine-year-old. A budding inventor, he spends his time imagining wonderful creations. He also collects random photographs for his scrapbook and sends letters to scientists. When his father dies in the World Trade Center collapse, Oskar shifts his boundless energy to a quest for answers. He finds a key hidden in his father’s things that doesn’t fit any lock in their New York City apartment; its container is labeled “Black.” Using flawless kid logic, Oskar sets out to speak to everyone in New York City with the last name of Black. A retired journalist who keeps a card catalog with entries for everyone he’s ever met is just one of the colorful characters the boy meets. As in Everything Is Illuminated (Houghton, 2002), Foer takes a dark subject and works in offbeat humor with puns and wordplay. But Extremely Loud pushes further with the inclusion of photographs, illustrations, and mild experiments in typography reminiscent of Kurt Vonnegut’s Breakfast of Champions (Dell, 1973). The humor works as a deceptive, glitzy cover for a fairly serious tale about loss and recovery. For balance, Foer includes the subplot of Oskar’s grandfather, who survived the World War II bombing of Dresden. Although this story is not quite as evocative as Oskar’s, it does carry forward and connect firmly to the rest of the novel. The two stories finally intersect in a powerful conclusion that will make even the most jaded hearts fall.-Matthew L. Moffett, Northern Virginia Community College, Annandale
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Other Reviews
“Inventive and imaginative…Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close…displays the gifts – Foer’s energy, imagination, ambition, and humor – that made his first book, Everything is Illuminated, such a success.” – Francine Prose, People, Critic’s Choice

“Is there a novel that, in a fit of envy, Holden Caufield, Huck Finn, Harriet the Spy, and Krazy Kat – all of the above – might long to enter? And would feel at home in? Yes! Jonathan Safran Foer’s funny, tender, tragic, ingeniously imaginative Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close has all the kick and brio of a child’s wild vision and child’s wild hurt. Foer’s nine year old Oskar Schell, confronting the cataclysms of our time, is an American original.” – Cynthia Ozick

“Jonathan Safran Foer’s second novel is everything that one hoped it would be – ambitious, pyrotechnic, riddling, and above all, in its portrait of orphaned Oskar, extremely moving. The powerful emotions generated feel deserved, not borrowed. An exceptional achievement. – Salman Rushdie

My Review: The book made me sad. I felt so much sympathy and compassion for this young 9 year old boy who loses his father. His entire family is dysfunctional, beginning with his grandmother and grandfather. They are a very odd family, yet there is so much love and caring. Too many tragedies occurred in two generations and it left them all emotionally handicapped. Foer has a very gifted imagination and his use of illustrations and other techniques to write his story is top-notch. It’s a good book to recommend to any child that has lost a parent. In fact it’s a good book to read for anyone who has lost a loved one. The book is like tragic comedy. Foer tries to keep it up tempo and at times humorous, but the overall overarching theme is one of tragedy, loss, and dysfunction. This is the first fiction book I’ve read that had to do with the tragedy of 9/11. It was very well-written. You fall in love with Oskar Schell. He’s a beautiful, angelic boy who only wears white. Your heart just goes out to him. You feel his pain and frustration. I wanted to cry during some parts. It gets you emotionally involved. The ending was surprising and left you hoping for happiness to once again enter Oskar’s life. A very tender, imaginative, yet tragic book. I give it four out of five stars.

Tags: 9/11, book review, books, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, Jonathan Safran Foer

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Synopsis: With only a yellowing photograph in hand, a young man — also named Jonathan Safran Foer — sets out to find the woman who may or may not have saved his grandfather from the Nazis. Accompanied by an old man haunted by memories of the war; an amorous dog named Sammy Davis, Junior, Junior; and the unforgettable Alex, a young Ukrainian translator who speaks in a sublimely butchered English, Jonathan is led on a quixotic journey over a devastated landscape and into an unexpected past.

About the author: Jonathan Safran Foer was born in 1977. He is the editor of A Convergence of Birds, and his stories have been published in The Paris Review and The New Yorker. This is his first novel, which appeared on Best Books of 2002 lists internationally, won several literary prizes, including the National Jewish Book Award and The Guardian First Book Award, and has been published in twenty-four countries.

Reviews: “Imagine a novel as verbally cunning as A Clockwork Orange, as harrowing as The Painted Bird, as exhuberant and twee as Candide, and you have Everything is Illuminated…Read it, and you’ll feel altered, chastened-seared in the fire of something new.” – Marie Arana, Washington Post Book World

“[A] wild, indelible first novel…The payoff is extraordinary: A fearless, acrobatic, ultimately haunting effort.” – Janet Maslin, New York Times

“[An] astounding, clownish, tender, intricately and extravagantly plotted novel…From the hilarious overreacher’s English of the Ukrainian tour guide Alexander Perchov to the passionately fanciful evocations of a Polish-Jewish shetl from 1791-1942, the prose [keeps] jolting the reader into a heightened awareness that comes with writing those exact like hasn’t been seen before.” – John Updike, The New Yorker

My Review: It was a very original first novel by a 24 year old. It kind of reminded of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz. It was about the trip this young Jewish man takes to find this woman Augustine that saved Safran’s grandfather from the Nazis. Throughout the book he weaves this magical tale about his ancestry through the generations from 1791 to 1942. It was very comical and original. He takes the trip to the Ukraine where his grandfather was from and his tour guide is this Ukrainian young man named Alex who speaks in butchered English. His English is very entertaining to read. hehe. Both Alex and Safran develop a friendship and correspondence. Safran writes to him about the book he’s writing about his trip there. And Alex is helping him write the book.

A young American Jew, who shares a name with the author, journeys to Ukraine in search of Augustine, the woman who saved his grandfather’s life during the Nazi liquidation of Trachimbrod, his family shtetl. Armed with many copies of an old photograph of Augustine and his grandfather, maps, cigarettes, and a fanny pack filled with Ziploc bags, Jonathan begins his adventure with Ukrainian native and soon-to-be good friend, Alexander “Alex” Perchov, who is his own age and very fond of American pop culture, albeit culture that is already out of date in the U.S. Alex has studied English at his university and is “premium” in his knowledge of the language, therefore he becomes the translator. Alex’s “blind” grandfather and his “deranged seeing-eye bitch,” Sammy Davis, Jr., Jr., accompany them on their journey.

The writing and structure received critical acclaim for the manner in which it switches between two story arcs: (1) fragments of Foer-the-character’s novel-in-progress, where he tells in highly literary English a quasi-magical story about the citizens of Trachimbrod; and (2) a straightforward narrative of searching for Trachimbrod (an invented name for the real village Trochenbrod), as told by Alex in broken English. They are tied together by letters sent from Alex to Foer and attached to Alex’s version. Alex’s narrative is most notable for its broken English, which sounds as if he learned English from a thesaurus without ever hearing it spoken. Throughout his narrative, he makes frequent use of improper synonyms, such as using the word rigid to mean “difficult” or “hard”.
-wikipedia

It was an enjoyable and refreshing read. It was a very unique tale. You learn a lot about Jewish culture in this book. They also made this book into a movie which I have to watch. I give it four out of five stars. A great book for a 24 year old writer. I’m going to read his next book now, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.

Tags: book review, books, Everything is Illuminated, Jewish, Jewish culture, Jonathan Safran Foer

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Synopsis:
From The Washington Post
This extraordinary work of fiction about the German occupation of France is embedded in a real story as gripping and complex as the invented one. Composed in 1941-42 by an accomplished writer who had published several well-received novels, Suite Française, her last work, was written under the tremendous pressure of a constant danger that was to catch up with her and kill her before she had finished.

Irène Némirovsky was a Jewish, Russian immigrant from a wealthy family who had fled the Bolsheviks as a teenager. She spent her adult life in France, wrote in French but preserved the detachment and cool distance of the outsider. She and her husband were deported to Auschwitz in 1942, where he was gassed upon arrival and she died in the infirmary at the age of 39. Her manuscript, in minuscule and barely readable handwriting, was preserved by her daughters, who, ignorant of the fact that these notebooks contained a full-fledged masterpiece, left it unread until 60 years later. Once published, with an appendix that illuminates the circumstances of its origin and the author’s plan for its completion, it quickly became a bestseller in France. It is hard to imagine a reader who will not be wholly engrossed and moved by this book.

Némirovsky’s plan consisted of five parts. She completed only the first two before she was murdered. Yet they are not fragmentary; they read like polished novellas. The first, “Storm in June,” gives us a cross section of the population during the initial exodus from the capital, when a battle for Paris was expected and people fled helter-skelter south, so that the roads were clogged with refugees of all classes. Némirovsky shows how much caste and money continued to matter, how the nation was not united in the face of danger and a common enemy. In her account, the well-to-do continue to be especially egotistical and petty. And yet a deep, unsentimental sympathy pervades this panorama. Looking up to the sky at enemy planes overhead, the refugees who have to sleep on the street or in their cars “lacked both courage and hope. This was how animals waited to die. It was the way fish caught in a net watch the shadow of the fisherman moving back and forth above them.” I can’t think of a more chilling and concise image to convey the helplessness of civilians in an air raid.

Not being French herself but steeped in French culture may have made it easier for Némirovsky to achieve her penetrating insights with Flaubertian objectivity. She gives us startling, steely etched sketches of both collaboration and resistance among people motivated by personal loyalties and grievances that date from before the war.

The second part, “Dolce” (the title — Italian for “sweet” — derives from Némirovsky’s plan to give the work a musical structure), covers the occupation by the Germans of a small village, from the so-called armistice in June 1940 to the Soviet Union’s entry into the war a year later. One can forget that there was a period after the defeat of France when World War II could be seen simply as a war between Germany and Britain. The villagers yearn for peace, and many are indifferent as to who wins, England or Germany, as long as their own men come home. Némirovsky is superb in describing how fraternization comes about, including French girls and women giving in to the attractions of the handsome German occupants — there are no other men around, most of the French men having been taken prisoner. But the unnatural situation also breeds fierce feelings of resentment and humiliation. Némirovsky embodies this conflict in the story of a woman who falls in love with a German officer and at the same time hides a villager wanted for the murder of another German — a murder motivated partly by patriotic hatred and partly by marital jealousy.

One puzzling omission from the spectrum of conquered and cowering French society is the Jews — the one group that was more endangered than any other, as Némirovsky knew only too well. Perhaps she wanted to save the fate of the Jews for the next part, which was to be entitled “Captivity.” Even so, when one thinks of the threat the Jewish population endured even at this early stage of persecution, one feels the significant gap here.

Still, this is an incomparable book, in some ways sui generis. While diaries give us a day-to-day record, their very inclusiveness can lead to tedium; memoirs, on the other hand, written at a later date, search for highlights and illuminate the past from the vantage point of the present. In Némirovsky’s Suite Française we have the perfect mixture: a gifted novelist’s account of a foreign occupation, written while it was taking place, with history and imagination jointly evoking a bitter time, correcting and enriching our memory.

Reviewed by Ruth Kluger
Copyright 2006, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.

Review
It was a wonderful read. It wasn’t a novel really. It was more like a novella with short vignettes about the time of German Occupation of France in WWII. There were many different characters and different points of view about what the French experienced during the War. She chose different characters from different classes. There were the aristocrats, the bourgeoisie,
the farmers, the lower working class, the influential writers. Each chapter revolved around a different class of people and how they endured the War. You can still see that a caste system is still in place. The wealthy were hardly affected by the war as much as the poor people. Their views on the war were different. The wealthy knew that they could come out of it alive and still retain their station in life. The poor however were struggling to survive and flee their villages. They didn’t have money to bribe people in other villages for food and petrol (if they had a car, which most didn’t.) The poor also had many of their husbands in the war, most taken as prisoners by the Germans. The wealthy were far removed from that. Irene had a wonderful way of weaving her vignettes. Her metaphors and descriptions were amazing. She’s a very good writer. It’s an unfinished novel, since it was being written before she was killed in Auschwitz. She was Jewish and despite her fame, she was executed. So was her husband. Her two daughters were able to survive by hiding from the Germans and changing their names. The most interesting stories were about how the Germans were billeted to certain villages and lived with the French. Every French household had to take in a soldier. It was interesting to see how polite and somewhat kind the Germans were to the French. Well probably not to the Jews. But Irene doesn’t write about them. She didn’t have a chance to finish the book. But the Germans were rather friendly with the French. Although they made it clear that they were the conquerors. There are references to WWI when the French conquered Germany. But it didn’t seem like the Germans were trying to exact revenge. They were polite and civilized and treated the French decently. The wealthy French were treated even better. There wasn’t this feeling that all the French were in this war together. There were definitely class boundaries and divisiveness. It was interesting to note that the French and Germans managed to get along with each other despite the fact that this was wartime and the Germans were the enemy. Some French refused to deal with the Germans unless they had to. But for the most part the French were curious about the Germans and fraternized with them.

I thought it was a very well-written book. I wish Irene wasn’t murdered so that she could have finished the book. It would have been interesting to see the part about how the Jews were treated. If you’re interested in French History during the time of German Occupation of France during WWII, then I highly recommend this book. I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. I didn’t give it five because it’s an unfinished book. But still, it was rather good and illuminating. It gave you a bird’s eye view of what actually transpired during that time. At the end of the book is an Appendix that shows Irene’s notes for the novel as well as correspondence to her Publishers and correspondence from her husband looking for Irene when she was taken as a Jewish prisoner and sent to be executed.

Tags: book review, books, France, irene nemirovsky, suite francaise, WWII

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Review: Well it was a book of poems written by Charles Bukowski from 1974-1977, when he was around 55.

Henry Charles Bukowski (August 16, 1920 – March 9, 1994) was a German American poet, novelist, and short story writer. Bukowski’s writing was heavily influenced by the geography and atmosphere of his home city of Los Angeles, and is marked by an emphasis on the ordinary lives of poor Americans, the act of writing, alcohol, relationships with women, and the drudgery of work. A prolific author, Bukowski wrote thousands of poems, hundreds of short stories, and six novels, eventually having over 60 books in print. In 1986 Time called Bukowski a “laureate of American lowlife”
-wikipedia

His poetry was very raw, profligate, licentious, at times crude and lewd. Most of his poems had to do with the “whores” he sleeps with. Yes, like prostitutes and strippers. He was also an alcoholic who dabbled in illicit drugs. His poems talk about his endless consumption of alcohol, mostly beer. In some of his poems he does say he has to give up his voluptuary ways and find a nice woman and stop drinking. His poems are visceral and very blunt and honest. I read all 307 pages in like one day. I had heard that he was a popular writer in America so I wanted to know what he was all about. He has a legion of fans. In one poem he writes that he keeps his number and address listed and his fans do call him, they even proposition him for sex, which he takes. lol. He’s also an artist, a painter. He doesn’t live in affluence. In fact through his poems you imagine he lives close to squalor. He talks about the cockroaches that permeate his place. It’s about the harsh realities of living in near squalor and poverty in a rough part of Los Angeles as a sex addict and alcoholic. I can understand why his fans adore him, because he’s very honest. Also he’s like 55 when he wrote these poems. He died in 1994 at the age of 73. He’s a horny, drunkard old man.  He also has a thing for redheads. Those were his favorites

I give this book of poetry 3 out of 5 stars. I don’t rate it very high because his poetry isn’t exactly the kind of poetry I like. But if you want to read honest poetry about the life of a profligate, lewd, crude, raw, alcoholic man, then you’ll like this book of poems. Here’s the poem “Love is a Dog from Hell” which is the title of the book. It pretty much sets the theme/motifs of the entire book.

feet of cheese
coffeepot soul
hands that hate poolsticks
eyes like paperclips
I prefer red wine
I am bored on airliners
I am docile during earthquakes
I am sleepy at funerals
I puke at parades
and am sacrificial at chess
and cunt and caring
I smell urine in churches
I can no longer read
I can no longer sleep.

eyes like paperclips
my green eyes
I prefer white wine

my box of rubbers is getting
stale
I take them out
Trojan-Enz
lubricated
for greater sensitivity
I take them out
and put three of them on

the walls on my bedroom are blue

Linda where did you go?
Katherine where did you go?
(and Nina went to England)

I have toenail clippers
and Windex glass cleaner

green eyes
blue bedroom
bright machinegun sun

this whole thing is like a seal
caught on oily rocks
and circled by the Long Beach Marching Band
at 3:36 p.m.

there is a ticking behind me
but no clock
I feel something crawling along
the left side of my nose:
memories of airliners

my mother had false teeth
my father had false teeth
and every Saturday of their lives
they took up all the rugs in their house
waxed the hardwood floors
and covered them with rugs again

and Nina is in England
and Irene is on ATD
and I take my green eyes
and lay down in my blue bedroom.

Tags: books, charles bukowski, love is a dog from hell, Poetry

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Synopsis:
From Publishers Weekly
Her storytelling skills displayed with panache in this captivating historical novel, British author Laker ( The Silver Touch ) should gain an appreciative audience here. Set during the reigns of Louis XIV and Louis XVI, the sweeping saga takes place mainly in the Chateau of Versailles and the surrounding town from which the magnificent edifice took its name. The narrative is enriched with intriguing period details, and beautifully paced with fast-moving events, drama and romance. Spanning four generations, the protagonists are the women of one family, named, in turn, Marguerite, Jasmin, Violette and Rose, all of whose destinies are entwined with those of their monarchs as well as the dashing men who bring them love and heartache. Involving her heroines in the art of fan-making, Laker interpolates fascinating information about the fashions of the time and the codes of social etiquette. The sybaritic luxuries of the French Court are set against the brutalities of the Huguenot persecution and the barbaric excesses of the Revolution. If the ending is a bit pat, with a destined love affair coming full circle, readers enraptured by Laker’s romantic imagination will not care. Literary Guild dual main selection; major ad/promo.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review: This is the second book I’ve read by Rosalind Laker. And again she captivated me. I shall read every single word she’s ever written. I just love her historical fiction books. This book is 613 pages long. It takes place in France during the time of King Louis XIV, King Louis XV, and lastly King Louis XVI. But the story isn’t about the monarchy;that’s just a subplot. No, the story is about four generations of women named after flowers: Marguerite, Jasmin, Violette, and Rose and how their lives were affected by the times they lived in and how they became intertwined with the monarchy and nobility. Marguerite was of peasant stock but she rose to prominence through luck, beauty, independence, and entrepreneurship. She was born to a peasant couple. Her father was a common day laborer and her mother made fans. They lived near Versailles where King Louis XIV was in constant attendance and in continual expansion and construction of Versailles. This was a richly told tale. Laker’s descriptions of Versailles, courtier life, and the monarchs are astounding. She is excellent at describing a scene with precision and exacting detail. It wasn’t a happy tale. And the ending was bittersweet. It’s also about love in various forms. Loves that are thwarted. Most of these women are cursed when it comes to love. I was frustrated throughout much of the book by various turns of events. A recurring theme is marriages of convenience. Marriages not based on true love, a true melding of mind, body, and spirit. “A man can love two women at the same time.” Just different kinds of love. Back then you could only marry within your class. If a noble wanted to marry beneath himself he had to get permission from the King. In fact all noble marriages had to have the King’s blessing. The backdrop of this saga was Versailles. King Louis XIV moved the country’s seat of power from Paris to Versailles. Everyone wanted to be a part of Versailles. I learned a lot of French history by reading this book, especially about the monarchy then and courtly life. I can write a thesis of 200 pages or so on this book. It was very intricate. It ends with the execution of King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette. In this book Marie Antoinette is seen as a victim. The ending is supposed to be a happy one, but considering all the heartbreaks and misfortunes throughout the generations, it seems like a phyrric victory. I took my time reading this book because I was disappointed by the plot. The plot is good, but it’s disappointing. I was hoping for a happy tale. Laker must have done enormous research to write this book. If you want to learn about French History during those times and engage yourself in a fictional tale that revolves around it, you won’t be disappointed by this book. I give it four out of five stars. I don’t give it five because I was disappointed and upset throughout most of the book. I’m not fond of unhappy love stories.

Tags: book review, books, France, rosalind laker, to dance with kings

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