It's been a long while since I shed a few tears at the end of a novel, but I did with this one. It's a quick read, a family road trip, and last night I thought I'd skim through to the end but today I backed up to re-read the last thirty pages and was overwhelmed, both by the beauty of the writing and the love of family that permeates the end of the book, as well as the fact that it resembles so closely the dilemma our David continues to endure with his separation from his 17-month-old daughter.
Min, the mother, is in a psychiatric hospital for the nth time, and tells her sister Hattie, the narrator, that she wants to die. Min has two children: Logan, aged 15 and Thebes, 12, and Logan, who has seen the exchange between the two sisters, wants to know what his mother said. Hattie doesn't want to tell him, so instead she says that Min wants the three of them to find Cherkis, their father and promptly sets out on a road trip with the two teenagers to find their father - a seemingly impossible task, given the fact that they have no clue where he is and they're driving in an aged and inform Ford Aerostar, and all three of them are a bit nuts themselves.
It's a unconventional trio, but you know all along that they do love each other, and of course they meet some interesting characters along the way.
A five-star read for sure, Toews certainly knows how to write about teenagers and family. As the Edmonton Journal said, " She shines a kindly light on family dynamics that the average social worker would find worthy of a hefty investigation. And she balances heartbreak with laugh-out-loud wit."
Shirley loaned me this book - it came from her cousin Cheryl.
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Saturday, June 25, 2011
The Paris Wife by Paula McLain ✔✔✔✔
This is our first Book Club selection for September 2011, which I downloaded to my Kindle. It was a slow start, but I was very busy with other things while reading it. I ended up enjoying it and look forward to our discussion of it. Meanwhile, I've copied this from Book Browse because, once again, I'm feeling lazy...
A deeply evocative story of ambition and betrayal, The Paris Wife captures a remarkable period of time and a love affair between two unforgettable people: Ernest Hemingway and his wife Hadley.
Chicago, 1920: Hadley Richardson is a quiet twenty-eight-year-old who has all but given up on love and happiness—until she meets Ernest Hemingway and her life changes forever. Following a whirlwind courtship and wedding, the pair set sail for Paris, where they become the golden couple in a lively and volatile group—the fabled “Lost Generation”—that includes Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, and F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald.
Though deeply in love, the Hemingways are ill prepared for the hard-drinking and fast-living life of Jazz Age Paris, which hardly values traditional notions of family and monogamy. Surrounded by beautiful women and competing egos, Ernest struggles to find the voice that will earn him a place in history, pouring all the richness and intensity of his life with Hadley and their circle of friends into the novel that will become The Sun Also Rises. Hadley, meanwhile, strives to hold on to her sense of self as the demands of life with Ernest grow costly and her roles as wife, friend, and muse become more challenging. Despite their extraordinary bond, they eventually find themselves facing the ultimate crisis of their marriage—a deception that will lead to the unraveling of everything they’ve fought so hard for.
A heartbreaking portrayal of love and torn loyalty, The Paris Wife is all the more poignant because we know that, in the end, Hemingway wrote that he would rather have died than fallen in love with anyone but Hadley.
A deeply evocative story of ambition and betrayal, The Paris Wife captures a remarkable period of time and a love affair between two unforgettable people: Ernest Hemingway and his wife Hadley.
Chicago, 1920: Hadley Richardson is a quiet twenty-eight-year-old who has all but given up on love and happiness—until she meets Ernest Hemingway and her life changes forever. Following a whirlwind courtship and wedding, the pair set sail for Paris, where they become the golden couple in a lively and volatile group—the fabled “Lost Generation”—that includes Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, and F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald.
Though deeply in love, the Hemingways are ill prepared for the hard-drinking and fast-living life of Jazz Age Paris, which hardly values traditional notions of family and monogamy. Surrounded by beautiful women and competing egos, Ernest struggles to find the voice that will earn him a place in history, pouring all the richness and intensity of his life with Hadley and their circle of friends into the novel that will become The Sun Also Rises. Hadley, meanwhile, strives to hold on to her sense of self as the demands of life with Ernest grow costly and her roles as wife, friend, and muse become more challenging. Despite their extraordinary bond, they eventually find themselves facing the ultimate crisis of their marriage—a deception that will lead to the unraveling of everything they’ve fought so hard for.
A heartbreaking portrayal of love and torn loyalty, The Paris Wife is all the more poignant because we know that, in the end, Hemingway wrote that he would rather have died than fallen in love with anyone but Hadley.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
God's Secretaries by Adam Nicolson ✔✔✔✔
How the King James Bible came about is the theme of this informative, reader-friendly book. I have always loved the King James version, with its beautiful language, which flows so majestically, especially in the Psalms. I already knew, of course, that it had been put together in the 17th century in England, but I never knew exactly how, or how much James I - who succeeded Elizabeth I - was actually involved in the making of it. This book answered those questions, but was also a vivid portrayal of that post-Elizabethan time in England, plus a comparison of the Puritans to the Church of England clergy.
Some of the highlights were: - a Puritan minister who spent five years from 1594 - 1599,preaching each and every Thursday on the book of Jonah, which consists of four chapters, a total of 48 verses! The author calls this "word - inflation".
- the fact that James I commissioned this translation as a way of unifying England and Scotland.
- the translators divided up the Bible amongst some 50 of themselves, and each translator was to work on a chapter, then submit it to his particular group to work on it together, then to submit it to the entire group. In this way, the richness and majesty of the text was the result - each word was important.
- this richness and lushness was reflected in the stained-glass windows and beautifully-wrought interiors , not to mention vestments of the churches and clergy. It reminds me of the Baroque period in Europe, particularly in Bach and Vivaldi.
This was not a stuffy, scholarly read. Nicolson was obviously passionate about the subject - he says he is a Christian, but doesn't go to church - and has made this book as readable as its subject.
Some of the highlights were: - a Puritan minister who spent five years from 1594 - 1599,preaching each and every Thursday on the book of Jonah, which consists of four chapters, a total of 48 verses! The author calls this "word - inflation".
- the fact that James I commissioned this translation as a way of unifying England and Scotland.
- the translators divided up the Bible amongst some 50 of themselves, and each translator was to work on a chapter, then submit it to his particular group to work on it together, then to submit it to the entire group. In this way, the richness and majesty of the text was the result - each word was important.
- this richness and lushness was reflected in the stained-glass windows and beautifully-wrought interiors , not to mention vestments of the churches and clergy. It reminds me of the Baroque period in Europe, particularly in Bach and Vivaldi.
This was not a stuffy, scholarly read. Nicolson was obviously passionate about the subject - he says he is a Christian, but doesn't go to church - and has made this book as readable as its subject.
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