Sunday Caught My Interest

The end of my week turned a tad to the chaotic side with lots of time spent with my friend who had some procedures done to prepare for her chemotherapy treatment. Youngest made it home only two hours late (he looks taller) and the dog was ecstatic and the cat decided the kid was only worth ignoring. Himself is also happy to have all his kids home and a very large amount of lasagne was both made and consumed. Sunday Youngest and I hopped into the car and drove to Oregon so he can make some arrangements for moving to Portland for the summer and so that he and I can see the Dalai Lama speak this Thursday – we are both very excited.

I did manage to make it through The Light of Amsterdam by David Park and I did not like it at all, in fact I was pretty disappointed by it. Many other readers have had a different experience so read Dove Grey’s review of the book before dismissing it completely. The other two books I finished were much better, so much better that I am really looking forward to reading both again: My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok and Testing the Current by William McPherson.

Here is what caught my interest this week:

If you are fond of short stories, Eve’s Alexandria reviews a collection by Australian Margo Lanagan called Black Juice (originally published in 2005). The collection itself is prizewinning as well as the story described by Eve in her review, Singing My Sister Down. While these stories are considered fantasy, they seem to be about the ordinary seen from a slightly fantastical perspective. Eve describes them as stories about communities or families and an individual’s actions in relation to these communities. I also like how Eve describes how the stories “get under your skin. They seem to slide in sideways, exploiting gaps you didn’t know you had, lodging themselves in the recesses of your mind.” And after reading the review, I can see how they would do that.

Another odd book that came to my attention through Stuck in a Book is Skylark by Dezso Kosztolanyi first published in 1924 and it is considered a Hungarian classic (Publisher’s Weekly). Set in the 1900’s, Skylark is the name of the daughter of a couple who live in a small town. The father is retired, the mother keeps house, and both of them are under the thrall of their daughter. She leaves her parents for a short time to visit relatives and with her absence, her parents rediscover themselves while at the same time, being inadequate to take care of themselves. The review has a quote from early in the novel which illustrates the subtle depth of the writing and explains, in part, why it is now on my list of books to read:

They had given her that name years ago, Skylark, many, many years ago, when she still sang.  Somehow the name had stuck, and she still wore it like an outgrown childhood dress.

It turns out that Margaret Atwood’s first novel is not Surfacing (1972). Instead it is The Edible Woman. Chrisbookarama reviews the book this week on her blog and it sounds like a very interesting read. Written in 1969, the book pre-dates much of the feminist movement, but Atwood uses identity, gender, roles, expectations (societal and personal), and satisfaction/dissatisfaction in the story of Marian McAlpin unhappy with her life and waiting for a proposal from her boyfriend to project her into the life she thinks she wants. However, when it happens she gradually finds food disgusting and wants to eat her own body. So Marion must hide all this from the world, try to survive, and figure out what she wants out of life. I happen to be on a very restricted diet and so food and what I can and cannot eat has been consuming a lot of my mental space so the use of a person’s relationship with food to explore that person’s psychology is very interesting to me. The fact that it is an early Atwood I haven’t read is icing on the cake.

I always wondered what it would be like to have an identical twin – how does it feel to look at yourself walking around and interacting with the world. Dorothy Baker had two twin daughters and her husband stated that her 1962 novel, Cassandra at the Wedding, was based on her twins. Violet, of Still Life with Books, describes the book in her review. Cassandra is a graduate student at Berkeley writing her thesis on contemporary French female novelists. She is also facing depression and alcoholism all of which is topped of by her impending existential crisis – her twin sister is getting married and moving away from her forever. Cassandra will do anything to stop this from happening, the question is will Judith, her twin, turn back to her sister or continue with the separation.

Finally, if you are a fan of Irish author Edna O’Brian, The Literate Housewife reviews her memoir, Country Girl.