tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34324663859828303302024-03-05T16:14:19.097-05:00cross reference: a book review blogFiction and nonfiction book reviews by Nannette CroceAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12456734276020287727noreply@blogger.comBlogger33125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3432466385982830330.post-32361862907686763162010-10-29T16:54:00.001-04:002010-10-29T16:55:45.357-04:00The Fort by Bernard Cornwell<div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"></span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">How do you write 450 pages about a battle that didn't happen?</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">It isn't easy, but somehow Bernard Cornwell, NYT bestselling author of <i>Agincourt</i>, managed to make it fairly interesting. It's not exactly that the battle at Penobscot didn't happen; it's that, after much planning and the first assault by the American Rebel forces against British Fort George, bickering and lack of cooperation among the militia, the Navy and the Marines -- and a frustratingly haughty and prickly, Paul Revere--caused them not to follow through and destroy the fort while it was still vulnerable.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br />
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</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">I can't say I was hooked on this book from the beginning. There were too many characters introduced too quickly, and, outside of Peleg Wadsworth, none of them were treated with enough depth for me to really care. Cornwell ends with the destruction of the fleet, apparently considered the worst American naval disaster prior to Pearl Harbor. As a history, that's the proper ending point, but as a novel it felt as though it ended in midstream. Characters like John Fletcher and his sister Beth are introduced with great promise, but their stories go nowhere.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br />
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</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Cornwell's battle scenes are well-done and riveting. Indeed, that's when my interest first piqued, after which point I decided to stick with it. Some historical novels focus on the individual acting within the event, and some focus on the event itself. <i>The Fort</i> leans toward the latter, which was interesting for me, but not beyond three stars.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>This book was provided free of charge under the Amazon Vine program, in return for posting a review at Amazon.com.</i></span><br />
<div style="clear: both; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; padding-top: 10px; width: 840px;"></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12456734276020287727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3432466385982830330.post-29233712324548325802010-02-07T14:09:00.002-05:002010-02-07T14:24:54.504-05:00Gilded: How Newport Became America's Richest Resort by Deborah Davis<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
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<i>This book was provided free of charge under the Amazon Vine program which provides free books in return for a review posted on Amazon.com</i></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">As someone who has read and re-read the novels of Edith Wharton and has done some research on the Gilded Age in the East as it contrasted to what was going on in many of the western states and territories at the time, I jumped at the chance to read and review Deborah Davis's <i>Gilded</i>. I wasn't disappointed. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Davis takes us from Newport's colonial beginnings through the Gilded Age, the creation of the Newport Jazz Festival, and up to the present, ending with the death of society doyenne Eileen Slocum in 2008. I'm usually not much on "light" histories, but how else would you present the history of a resort where pedigree and income counted more than accomplishments. Even so, Davis deserves credit for a lengthy bibliography that reflects prodigious research when she could have easily gotten by with a gossipy tell-all instead.</span><br />
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Personally, my interest began to wane after the Kennedys, but that had nothing to do with the author's presentation that, I felt, struck just the right tone between awe-struck and deprecating. It is simply that the late 60s and early 70s is the time I grew into social awareness, and while I remember many names from that period, none, save for <a href="http://terrorism.about.com/od/groupsleader1/p/PattyHearst.htm">Patty Hearst</a>, had much of a connection to the monied classes. Minnie Cushing and her "oh-so-sixties" beach wedding may have been a trendsetter in her own circle, but comes off more like a follower for those of us who lived through the era. And by the time Davis got to the IYRS 2008 fundraiser that raised over $600,000 for an association that restored classic yachts in a year when food pantries and other nonprofits that served the poor went begging, I felt I had eaten one too many courses of a sumptuously rich dinner.<br />
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Still this is an eminently readable history with short chapters and fascinating vignettes. I also appreciated the author's reminders, now and again, of who was related to which socialite who had thrown what lavish party back in the early chapters, as so many names were bandied about I would otherwise have lost track . </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">All in all I highly recommend this book both for those interested in history, like me, or for those simply interested in a peek behind the iron gates at the lives of the rich and famous.</span><br />
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</span></span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12456734276020287727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3432466385982830330.post-25307116834417343772010-01-17T12:00:00.003-05:002010-01-17T16:21:51.943-05:00Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street by Michael Davis<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><iframe frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?lt1=_blank&bc1=000000&IS2=1&bg1=FFFFFF&fc1=000000&lc1=0000FF&t=nanncroc-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&m=amazon&f=ifr&md=10FE9736YVPPT7A0FBG2&asins=0143116630" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe></span><span style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you wonder why the sixties are characterized as such a volatile decade consider that 2009 marked the 40th anniversaries of such disparate events as the first moon landing, Woodstock, the American Indian occupation of Alcatraz––and another one that went less noticed by me since my kid is grown––the debut of <i>Sesame Street</i>. To mark that last one, Michael Davis's <i>Street Gang </i>gives us the entire history of the much-acclaimed children's program from its beginnings in 1965 as a dinner party discussion between J<a href="http://www.museum.tv/eotvsection.php?entrycode=cooneyjoan">oan Ganz Cooney</a> and <a href="http://www.joanganzcooneycenter.org/about/our-people/mlloyd.html">Lloyd N. Morrisett</a> through <a href="http://www.sesamestreet.org/onair/characters/elmo">Elmo</a>'s surpassing of <a href="http://www.sesamestreet.org/muppet?p_p_lifecycle=0&p_p_id=MuppetsLandingPage_WAR_sesameportlets4369&p_p_action=muppetView&p_p_muppetName=Big%20Bird&t=1263707565316&">Big Bird</a> as the show's biggest star.</span></span><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is not the kind of reading I normally purchase for myself, but as a Christmas present from a gal who was raised on the <i>Street, </i>as it were––my daughter––I found it quite enjoyable, kind of like reading <i>People </i><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: normal;">while getting my hair colored. As you can imagine, if all behind the scenes were as copacetic as on the set (Oscar the Grouch notwithstanding), it wouldn't make for a very interesting read. So Davis includes the disputes and envy, false starts and government intrusion, and the impossible to ignore tragic life and death of Northern Calloway (David). Thankfully, the author has the grace not to go into detail on things like the Hensons' divorce or other possible "juicy" but irrelevant tidbits.</span></span></span></span><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Those of us who know the show only from the years spent watching with our children (which for me included the marriage of Luis and Maria and Gabby's birth) will enjoy the history of early children's programming, particularly <i>Captain Kangaroo, </i>the show that nurtured much of Sesame's seminal staff, much to <a href="http://www.museum.tv/eotvsection.php?entrycode=keeshanbob">Bob Keeshan</a>'s chagrin as he watched them all jump ship. It will also bring you back to an earlier time when the education of inner-city kids with programs like <a href="http://www.paheadstart.org/UserFiles/File/General_History.pdf">Head Start</a> was a national priority. Indeed, <i>Sesame Street </i>that eventually became the program of choice for so many suburban moms like myself, was originally meant to serve as a sort of on-air Head Start program. Changes in national priorities in the mid-ninties were reflected in the temporary addition of "Around the Corner" "...a new array of spaces that seemed less like Harlem and more like any gentrified up-and-coming neighborhood in America." (p.321)</span></span><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The thoroughness of this history is both its plus and minus. While Davis attempts to cover everyone who worked a puppet or wrote a word or a note of music for the show, there are far too many people to keep track of, and most of us reading are interested mainly in the big behind-the-scenes names like Jim Hensen and Carroll Spinney, or those actors who played the humans. Also, he insists on telling the entire life story––literally from birth––of every participant. After a while that got a little old. </span></span><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Overall the book was a pleasant surprise and one I'm glad I had the chance to read.</span></span><br />
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12456734276020287727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3432466385982830330.post-10701910573014584192009-12-20T15:26:00.000-05:002009-12-20T15:26:27.205-05:00The Buccaneers by Edith Wharton completed by Marion Mainwaring<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><iframe frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?lt1=_blank&bc1=000000&IS2=1&bg1=FFFFFF&fc1=000000&lc1=0000FF&t=nanncroc-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&m=amazon&f=ifr&md=10FE9736YVPPT7A0FBG2&asins=0140232028" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Penguin Books, 1993</span></span><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is not a new book, having been published in 1993 and serialized for a dazzling <a href="http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-17534093.html">PBS Masterpiece Theatre</a> in 1995. However,I came to it only recently after renting the DVD for a second viewing and learning the novel on which it was based, about a group of <i>Nouveau Riches</i> Americans in the 1870s who take England by storm, was by one of my favorite authors Edith Wharton, though it remained incomplete at Wharton's death in 1937 and was finished by Marion Mainwaring–-a Wharton scholar and writer––and published posthumously.</span></span><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The ethical question of posthumous publication has long been debated among writers and scholars, and is all the more significant when the work is not just in first draft, but incomplete. According to the "Afterword" Wharton's literary executor, Gaillard Lapsley, first published the incomplete (through Chapter XXIX) work in 1938 with only "'certain verbal emendations required by sense or consistency'." Mainwaring added another 27(!) chapters and made "a few other... changes" in the Lapsley version "when it seemed that Wharton would have revised to avoid repetitiousness, and when she referred to a race in terms repellent to modern readers." Wharton had drawn up a synopsis and outlined the novel, though the written chapters apparently "departed from it in significant respects almost as soon as she began work."</span></span><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Despite the high praise in the blurbs, mostly saying how Mainwaring maintained the Wharton voice or transitioned seamlessly, I would respectfully disagree. Missing in Mainwaring's style are the ornate, almost Baroque, sentences, and, oddly, for a work with a more upbeat ending, it lacks the tongue-in-cheek observations on society that characterize Wharton's more tragic novels. In addition, many of the chapters added by Mainwaring comprise multiple scenes written in small chunks, many no more than a paragraph long. Before reading the "Afterword" I assumed these had been a part Wharton's original draft that Mainwaring chose not to "fill in." But apparently that was not the case. Mainwaring also departs from the great beauty of Wharton's understated love scenes, with the one major love scene reading like something more suited to a Harlequin Romance.</span></span><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>The Buccaneers</i> is one of those rare cases where I found the TV rendition actually better than the novel it was based on. The three-part <i>Masterpiece</i> series focuses on all the American girls who, due to a lack of pedigree, are scorned by New York's Gilded Age society and make up for it by marrying into aristocratic but impoverished English families. The novel as completed by Mainwaring focuses almost exclusively on Annabelle Tintagel (nee St. George)––whom I found, in many ways, the least interesting character––and seems out of sync with the plural title.</span></span><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">As novels go, in general, this wasn't a bad read. As Edith Wharton novels go, I found it lacking and disappointing.</span></span><br />
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</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12456734276020287727noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3432466385982830330.post-84223199993778438932009-10-20T11:33:00.003-04:002009-12-20T11:51:11.174-05:00The Last Trials of Clarence Darrow by Donald McRae<div style="text-align: center;"><iframe frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?lt1=_blank&bc1=000000&IS2=1&bg1=FFFFFF&fc1=000000&lc1=0000FF&t=nanncroc-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&m=amazon&f=ifr&md=10FE9736YVPPT7A0FBG2&asins=0061161497" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe><br />
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<i>This book was provided free of charge through Amazon Vine</i><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: left;">I knew more about Clarence Darrow's famous cases––defending <a href="http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/FTrials/leoploeb/leopold.htm">Leopold and Loeb</a>, <a href="http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/FTrials/scopes/scopes.htm">The Scopes Trial</a>, and the <a href="http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/Ftrials/sweet/biographies.HTM">Sweets</a>––than I did about the man. Though growing up in a family that was pro-union with an immigrant grandfather who supported the Communist party, was an atheist, and nearly arrested during the <a href="http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USApalmerR.htm">Palmer Raids</a> , I had a vague sense of who Darrow was and what he stood for. Still, I probably wouldn't have considered this book had it not been available to me through the Amazon Vine program.<br />
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Overall I'm glad I did decide to try it. While I generally prefer my biographies (though this is really only a partial biography dealing with the end of Darrow's life) a little more straight forward and less inclined toward the dramatic, when dealing with an individual I might not normally read about, a slightly lighter treatment makes for an easier read. Former South African Donald McRae did an excellent job of researching, and his dramatic touch perhaps was necessary when dealing with a figure who depended so much on drama to win his cases.<br />
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At first I wasn't too keen on references to Darrow's love life with Mary Field Parton, his almost life-long mistress, mostly through her diary entries, especially as she wasn't present for any of the main events. Yet they did serve to provide insights into Darrow's character. On the other hand, telling so much from her point of view left me wondering whether she was his "one and only" or as Darrow's wife Ruby obviously thought, one of many or someone who insinuated herself into his life for personal gain. A little more about Ruby Darrow––who, after all, was there for most of the trials––other than how she appeared through his mistress's eyes, might have provided more balance.<br />
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</div><div style="text-align: left;">What enthralled me the most about this book, though, was the history. Amazing that back in the 1920s this avowed atheist, Clarence Darrow, could have so much support in the press defending two obvious sociopaths and the teaching of evolutionary theory in schools. In our more "modern" times hiring an atheist as your defense lawyer would be tantamount to flipping your own switch on the electric chair. I also remember learning about the Scopes trial in high school and thinking how lucky I was to be living in a time when Evolution could be taught freely. That was 1969. We could definitely use more Clarence Darrows today––men and women not afraid to claim the freedoms guaranteed in our Constitution.<br />
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All in all, a book worth reading.<br />
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</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12456734276020287727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3432466385982830330.post-14875974502400111472009-10-09T13:47:00.005-04:002009-12-20T11:52:26.631-05:00Shades of Luz by John Gorman<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><iframe frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?lt1=_blank&bc1=000000&IS2=1&bg1=FFFFFF&fc1=000000&lc1=0000FF&t=nanncroc-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&m=amazon&f=ifr&md=10FE9736YVPPT7A0FBG2&asins=098409847X" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe></span><span style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><br />
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<i>This book was provided as a free review copy by the author.</i><br />
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John Gorman's first novel <i>Shades of Luz </i>is a fun read, though I must admit I'm a little surprised it found a publisher. That's not criticism. It's just that the book is hard to classify, and classification––or genre––seems to carry far too much weight with agents and publishers these day. Happily All Things That Matter Press must be somewhat more flexible.<br />
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</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>Shades of Luz</i> is part coming-of-age novel and part love story and even a bit surreal at times. Benny Fluke is a 29-year-old still living at home and working on his Master's thesis, the subject of which he keeps changing. He meets the elusive Luz while selling stuffed animals for a fake charity, and from then on she threads through the story, popping in and out of his life, encouraging him to move out of his parents' house, eventually sharing his apartment, but always hovering between friend and lover. The story is enlivened still more by some oddball and humorous minor characters and Benny's unusual workplace where he goes from overseeing the monkeys who pick stocks on a dartboard to championship thumb wrestling within the same company. And then there's that strange secret about Benny's Mom.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">As a Baby Boomer I'm used to thinking of coming-of-age novels dealing with teens, but 29 is probably on target for the current coming-of-age generation. One thing that did confuse me a bit about the novel was the time period in which it was set. While much of it seemed current, Benny's workplace seemed a little futuristic, though maybe it was just meant to be fantastic. Whatever, it added interest and humor.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">I "met" John Gorman when I accepted and edited <a href="http://www.theroseandthornezine.com/Fall08/BobaFett.html">Boba Fett Blues</a>, my last official job with The Rose & Thorn. So I wasn't surprised that Gorman is at his best in those scenes that reminisce on childhood and adolescence.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Here's wishing John Gorman success with <i>Luz</i> and all future endeavors. <br />
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12456734276020287727noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3432466385982830330.post-54872429703032823802009-09-10T11:11:00.005-04:002009-12-20T11:55:32.027-05:00A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore<div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fs%3Fie%3DUTF8%26x%3D19%26ref%255F%3Dnb%255Fss%26y%3D24%26field-keywords%3Da%2520gate%2520at%2520the%2520stairs%26url%3Dsearch-alias%253Dstripbooks&tag=nanncroc-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=390957"><iframe frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?lt1=_blank&bc1=000000&IS2=1&bg1=FFFFFF&fc1=000000&lc1=0000FF&t=nanncroc-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&m=amazon&f=ifr&md=10FE9736YVPPT7A0FBG2&asins=0375409289" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe><br />
<br />
</a><br />
<span style="color: #0000ee;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;"><i><br />
</i></span></span><br />
</div><br />
<div style="text-align: left;"><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><i>A review copy was provided free under the Amazon Vine program</i><br />
</div><br />
<i></i>This is the first novel I've read by Lorrie Moore, though I'm a big fan of her short fiction, particularly "<a href="http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=1458">People Like That...</a>" the story that deservedly seems to get mentioned in every workshop I attend. So I was looking forward to this, but I ended up very disappointed.<br />
<br />
The novel is loosely about a young woman, Tassie, in her sophomore year at a college in a small Wisconsin town. The time is 2001, beginning just after September 11, which I imagine was supposed to have some significance, but I don't know what, as the story could have taken place any time in the last eight years. Tassie goes to classes––though seemingly not very often for someone who is a good student––works as caregiver to an adopted biracial child, visits her boyfriend––sometimes alone, sometimes with said child––and spends a lot of time alone in her apartment playing her base guitar. If that doesn't sound very interesting, well, it really isn't.<br />
<br />
Moore's snarky observations and internal dialogue work great in small doses, but when they take up the majority of 321 pages, the style becomes very waring. The characters she interacts with––though interact is not really the right word, because most of the dialogue is inside Tassie's head––are far from cliche. So far, in fact, that they are all enigmas, including Tassie herself, and not one is developed fully enough. The few events are only tenuously connected, if at all (see my zine writer post on <a href="http://zinewriter.blogspot.com/2009/09/soap-opera-writing.html">soap opera writing)</a>, and, frankly, unbelievable. Since they all clump at the end of the book, I'll give only one away. That's when Tassie works with her farmer dad over the summer, dressing in a bird costume and running ahead of his combine to scare the mice out of the fields. She does this willingly and even drives into town on her motor scooter one day, still wearing the costume. And what happened when she arrived? We don't know. It isn't part of the story. From this you might get the idea there is something surreal or symbolic about this work, but the style just doesn't fit with that.<br />
<br />
I read a recent interview where Moore said she enjoys studying the way people talk. That's obvious here when she writes about the support group her employer, Sarah Brink, holds every Wednesday for adoptive parents of black and biracial children. Bits of their conversation are overheard by Tassie as she babysits the kids on the third floor. Yes, they are self-congratulatory, self-absorbed, and totally clueless. Those points come across in the first few lines, but not only does it continue for pages––including those typical inside jokes that realistically get repeated ad infinitum––but Moore covers several of these gatherings.<br />
<br />
I'd like to end on a positive note, but I honestly didn't find one good thing about this book . At the same time, during the entire reading I was very sympathetic toward Moore as an author. The lay reader who doesn't follow the publishing business often thinks known writers "get away" with bad books because of their name recognition. But writers who excel at the short story are often pressured into producing novels for both financial and career reasons. Short stories sold separately don't pay very well, and big publishers won't accept collections without the promise of a novel. I always keep that in mind when one of my favorite short story writers produces another novel. In this case, I'm guessing Moore's heart wasn't in it. So she did the best she could.<br />
</div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12456734276020287727noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3432466385982830330.post-60804588340194167112009-08-13T11:01:00.005-04:002009-12-20T11:57:22.294-05:00Howard Dean's Prescription for Real Healthcare Reform<div style="text-align: center;"><iframe frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?lt1=_blank&bc1=000000&IS2=1&bg1=FFFFFF&fc1=000000&lc1=0000FF&t=nanncroc-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&m=amazon&f=ifr&md=10FE9736YVPPT7A0FBG2&asins=1603582282" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe><br />
<br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Written with Igor Volsky and Faiz Shakir</span><br />
<i><br />
</i><br />
<i>A review copy was provided free by the Amazon Vine program, however the biggest influence on this review was my party affiliation, strong support of healthcare reform, and my great admiration for Dr. Howard Dean.</i><br />
</div><span style="font-style: italic;"><br />
</span>I thought I was a little smarter than the average bear when it came to understanding healthcare reform, since I worked in employee benefits for more than 10 years in the 70s and 80s when cost-containment (but not yet issues of denied coverage) had just become a major issue. However, I still learned quite a bit from Dr. Dean's book about the past history of healthcare reform, what is included in Obama's plan, and what other countries do. I highlighted huge portions to quote for<a href="http://cross-examine.blogspot.com/"> healthcare reform blog.</a><br />
<br />
Though obviously put together quickly, including a few typos and awkward sentences, it is still quite interesting and easy to read. At the same time, I'd say it is as objective as it needs to be in this fight that has turned into a shouting match. When opponents of reform are spouting outright lies--which they are--there isn't room for much deference. On the other hand, what some are touting as a plan from the far left, actually pays great homage to our free enterprise system. Dean repeats over and over that Americans wouldn't accept a plan without choice, though I'm not so sure that is true.<br />
<br />
However, as originally a strong advocate of single payer, I was amazed to learn that most of the countries providing universal healthcare are not single payer but a system of competing private plans with guaranteed coverage and community rating with most either providing some form of public option for those who can't afford private coverage or a mandate on what private insurers can charge. As I can't see anyone in this country accepting regulation of what a private insurer can charge as premiums, the public option now appears to me as the most reasonable way to go.<br />
<br />
I was a little vague on how much of what Dean outlines is actually part of the Obama reform plan and how much is what he, Dr. Dean, would like to see. But there's no doubt that, as a physician and former governor who successfully reformed Vermont's healthcare system, he is knowledgeable on the subject and his ideas should be considered seriously.<br />
<br />
Even if you think you already know where you stand on this subject, I suggest you read this book. It could change your mind.<br />
<span style="font-style: italic;"><br />
</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12456734276020287727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3432466385982830330.post-83784486783651374642009-08-09T13:13:00.004-04:002009-08-10T21:10:59.630-04:00The Power of the Dog by Thomas Savage<div style="text-align: center;"><iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?lt1=_blank&bc1=000000&IS2=1&bg1=FFFFFF&fc1=000000&lc1=0000FF&t=nanncroc-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&m=amazon&f=ifr&md=10FE9736YVPPT7A0FBG2&asins=0316610895" style="width:120px;height:240px;" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"></iframe><br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;">I looked up Thomas Savage's books on Amazon after reading about him in the Winter 2008 issue of <a href="http://www.encyclopedia.com/Montana%3B+The+Magazine+of+Western+History/public"><span style="font-style: italic;">Montana, the Magazine of Western History</span></a>. Born in Dillon, Montana and publishing 13 novels between 1944 and 1988, Savage is rarely listed among contemporary western writers like <a href="http://sfpl.lib.ca.us/librarylocations/main/envir/wsbio.htm">Wallace Stegner</a>, <a href="http://www.ivandoig.com/">Ivan Doig</a>, or <a href="http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/m/larry-mcmurtry/">Larry McMurtry</a>, possibly because only a few of his books take place in the west, and he didn't begin writing until he'd settled in New England. He also had a certain cosmopolitan flamboyance at odds with the stereotypical western personality. Consequently, thinking I'd discovered a "forgotten" writer––or one <span style="font-style: italic;">Montana</span> had rediscovered for me––I was surprised when the edition I ordered turned out to have been reissued in 2001 and had an afterward by<a href="http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid23486.asp"> Annie Proulx</a>. Though it's not a surprise that Proulx would have been drawn to the subject matter of repressed homosexuality in the cowboy west. This time the novel was written in the 60s and takes place in the 20s.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">The Power of the Dog</span> is a most unusual novel. One thing I enjoy about most Western writers, both contemporary and those from the past like <a href="http://www.online-literature.com/willa-cather/">Willa Cather</a>, is the way the western landscape becomes a character in itself. This is not so much the case with this novel. Nor would I say the writing is particularly stand out. What does stand out, though, in this novel where a grown man and a young boy eventually turn into two opposing forces battling for supremacy, is the psychological depth of the characters, their contrasting personalities, and the scheming and plotting, handled so deftly that it did not seem at all over-the-top. And while, on my zine writer blog, I often warn new writers to avoid a "twist" at the end, this one worked well.<br /><br />Reading the article in<span style="font-style: italic;"> Montana</span>, which should eventually become available online, one wonders if Savage didn't hide his own homosexuality behind a wife and children as so many did in those times and if this didn't provide the depth of insight into his characters. But while Phil and his step-nephew Peter dominate the story, all the characters are well developed down to the parents who really play only a minor roll.<br /><br />This is the kind of book you are drawn to read in one sitting. It really pulls you in, and, when it becomes available, I highly recommend the Montana article Thomas Savage for greater insight into the author and his times.<br /><br /><br /></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12456734276020287727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3432466385982830330.post-89613404624914694622009-05-20T15:31:00.005-04:002009-12-20T11:58:26.342-05:00Brooklyn by Colm Toibin<div style="text-align: center;"><iframe frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=nanncroc-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=1439138311&md=10FE9736YVPPT7A0FBG2&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe><br />
<br />
Scribner May, 2009<br />
<br />
<i>A review copy was provided free by the Amazon Vine program.</i><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">I have not read Colm Toibin's other books––<span style="font-style: italic;">Blackwater Lightship</span> or <span style="font-style: italic;">The Master</span>––both of which were apparently shortlisted for the Booker Prize, but going by the reviews on <a href="http://www.amazon.com/">Amazon</a>, those who did read his other books, and enjoyed them, found <span style="font-style: italic;">Brooklyn</span> to be a disappointment. I thought it a pleasant enough story, more akin to something your immigrant mother or grandmother might tell you, with the caveat that it all turned out for the best. Only, like a story Grandma might tell, the story of Eilis Lacey, who leaves her small town in post-WWII Ireland to find work in Brooklyn, lacked the depth and tension to hold my attention through 262 pages.<br />
<br />
Having not read his other books, I can only speculate that part of Toibin's problem might have been taking on a female POV, though other male writers have done this quite well. Here Toibin seems to only skim the surface. He tells us what happened, but brings to it no depth of emotion. We meet a wide range of characters, especially in the bording house where Eilis lives, but we don't get to know any of them well, including Eilis herself. Threads are begun, then dropped, as when Eilis screws up the courage to approach her Jewish law professor, who turns out to be a Holocaust survivor. From the conversation I thought he might become a rival of Eilis's Italian boyfriend, but the man and the thread simply disappear. Same with when Eilis's boyfriend Tony reacts sadly to the story. I expected there would be something about Tony's war experiences, but, for all we know, neither Tony nor his older brother were in the war.<br />
<br />
Which brings me to my second major criticism––much of this simply did not ring true. It is unlikely that Tony's Italian family, particularly his mother, would be so welcoming to his Irish girlfriend even if she did take the time to learn to twirl her spaghetti (I'm Italian, born in 1953, I know these things). It is even more unlikely that, in the 50s, a young Irish Catholic woman who gave into a night of passion with her boyfriend, would so easily have her guilt assuaged by one confession with an unusually open-minded priest and the fact that she wasn't pregnant.<br />
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All the tension comes in the last 30 pages or so, and I will say, at that point I kept reading to find out what Eilis would do. It made an interesting choice.<br />
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I certainly wouldn't say I disliked this book, but I can't say I liked it either––at least not enough to highly recommend it. However, if you like a simple, fairly happy tale––beach season is on it's way––this could definitely be read in one sitting.<br />
</div><br />
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12456734276020287727noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3432466385982830330.post-17646069359142989552009-04-19T20:46:00.003-04:002009-12-20T11:59:21.066-05:00Tender Graces by Kathryn Magendie<div style="text-align: center;"><iframe frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=nanncroc-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=0982175620&md=10FE9736YVPPT7A0FBG2&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe><br />
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<i>Free review copy provided by the publisher.</i><br />
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<div style="text-align: left;">In the tradition of <span style="font-style: italic;">To Kill a Mockingbird</span>, <span style="font-style: italic;">Tender Graces</span> is a moving tale told through the unfiltered thoughts of a young girl. Unfortunately, Virginia Kate Carey and her siblings have no Atticus Finch to usher them through the ups and downs of childhood. As the adult Virginia Kate struggles to reconcile painfully conflicted feelings about her dead "Momma," the young Virginia Kate, "Seestor" as her brothers call her, tells the story of the confused, at times tormented, adults in her life, who often reverse rolls with their children. The only fairly steady figure is stepmother Rebekha, and even she is riddled with self-doubt and requires bolstering from VK at times.<br />
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Telling a story mostly from a child's point of view can be a challenge, but Magendie, deftly, never steps out of voice to engage in "author speak." From the cool mountains of her "holler" in West Virginia to hot, steamy Louisiana, she takes us with her wherever she goes, with sensory details that bring the story to life without weighing it down, and the ending, while I won't give it way, is just what the story calls for.<br />
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I don't know about blood, but I certainly know the sweat and tears that Kathryn Magendie put into her first novel and efforts to bring it to life for others to read. From this point on, I hope others will follow in short order.<br />
</div><br />
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12456734276020287727noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3432466385982830330.post-86875948907918108312009-03-22T10:20:00.005-04:002009-12-20T12:00:35.172-05:00Dreams from the Monster Factory by Sunny Schwartz with David Boodell<div style="text-align: center;"><iframe frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=nanncroc-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=1416569812&md=10FE9736YVPPT7A0FBG2&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe><br />
</div><div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><i>Free review copy provided by the Amazon Vine Program</i><br />
</div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
The description of this book on the flyleaf is a little misleading. It would have you believe that it is all about the RSVP (Resolve to Stop Violence Program) and ideas for reforming our abominable criminal justice system. (That last bit about the "abominable system" are my words and not part of the description.) It becomes that, eventually, but not until about 70+ pages of a 200-page book. Until then it is a memoir--haven't we had enough of those yet--told in the typical memoir style of infusing an otherwise fairly normal childhood with painful Freudian significance and centering on the memoirist as though Sunny Schwartz, alone, could see the failings of the criminal justice system she worked in. Even more irritating for me was the snarky style that nearly caused me to toss it in the trash more than a few times.<br />
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I'm glad I didn't, because it eventually became the story of the development, implementation, and relative success rate of RSVP, which represents a holistic approach to violent crime that includes bringing perps and victims together and getting violent criminals to accept responsibility for their actions. The second half of the book--over which I am guessing Sunny Schwartz had more control than her co-author--is totally different, told in a calmer, more mature voice and giving credit where credit is due, to all he people who helped develop the program, get it off the ground and keep it running. Still some of the most important points are lost, such as that the program is only running in two places in the country, funding is a constant struggle, and it isn't getting nearly the recognition it deserves.<br />
<br />
I have enough writer friends trying to get books published that I won't blame Ms. Schwartz for these problems. I can just imagine her agent/editor telling her how no one wants a book about prison reform, but memoirs are selling like hot cakes, and then assigning a co-author to turn the book into this unfortunate hybrid. In fact, I can think of lots of people interested in a book about the RSVP program such as the 100 or so people with whom <a href="http://zinewriter.blogspot.com/2009/03/writing-life-doing-double-duty.html">I volunteer teaching decision-making skills to inmates,</a> as well as judges, lawyers, law enforcement and corrections officers, and anyone else connected with the criminal justice system. However, not only is it asking a lot of busy people to weed through all the extraneous preliminaries, it would be awkward for a professional to suggest this to staff when it includes far more about things like the author's love life than most readers would need or want to know.<br />
<br />
Still, if you have a professional or human interest in our criminal justice system; if you, like me, feel it is failing and badly in need of innovative ideas; and if you are willing to pay full price for what amounts to half a book (or, better yet can get it from your library), then you will benefit from <span style="font-style: italic;">Dreams from the Monster Factory.</span><br />
<br />
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12456734276020287727noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3432466385982830330.post-2761569423892667012009-03-11T11:02:00.004-04:002009-12-20T12:58:30.082-05:00Accountable: Making America as Good as Its Promise<iframe frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=nanncroc-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=1439100020&md=10FE9736YVPPT7A0FBG2&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe><br />
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<i>Provided free from Amazon Vine.</i><br />
<br />
This book is apparently the third in a series. The first two, <span style="font-style: italic;">Covenant with Black America</span> and <span style="font-style: italic;">The Covenant in Action</span> were aimed at the African-American community (of which I am not a member). This third--and final?--in the series is aimed at a larger audience, I'm assuming because we now have an African-American president who is accountable to all of us. The book tells real-life stories in areas of concern like health care, education, the economy, etc.; sets out various possible solutions; then provides a checklist for how each player--including we individuals--can be held accountable.<br />
<br />
I chose this book because I have enjoyed Tavis Smiley's work on NPR, I do believe in citizen involvement and have my own ideas how each of these situations needs to be handled, and because I had my doubts as to whether candidate Obama's rhetoric on change would translate to President Obama's action plan.<br />
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I was disappointed, but to be fair, it had a lot to do with the timing of my reading. First, in the midst of this severe economic downturn, tragic tales like people losing their medical insurance elicited not my usual empathy, but a panicking fear about my own situation. Second, I didn't see any of the authors' solutions being particularly workable. Third, I wasn't sure I saw the point in listing the ways that, say, insurance companies should be held accountable when I'm betting their CEOs aren't even reading the book, and fourth, the list of things individuals could do were pretty much the same as they've always been--call your Congressman, vote, get involved. Nice when you are talking about saving the park down the street from development, but paltry in light of the issues we face today. Also, as of now I'm pretty pleased with Obama's action plan and his no BS style of putting it forward. The man's feet haven't been removed from the fire once since election day, and I think it's time to stop questioning his every move.<br />
<br />
<br />
As recently as last year, with more hope in the economy and less hope in our elected officials than I now have, I might have found this book motivating and uplifting. Reading it now, I actually found it somewhat depressing.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12456734276020287727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3432466385982830330.post-29806180261243135532009-02-25T16:38:00.004-05:002009-02-25T16:56:31.228-05:00Three Books on American Indians, Land Loss, and the IRA<iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=nanncroc-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=0292715986&md=10FE9736YVPPT7A0FBG2&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="width: 120px; height: 240px;" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe><br /><iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=nanncroc-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=0195314891&md=10FE9736YVPPT7A0FBG2&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="width: 120px; height: 240px;" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe><iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=nanncroc-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=067402396X&md=10FE9736YVPPT7A0FBG2&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="width: 120px; height: 240px;" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe><br /><br /><br />In its February 24, 2009 decision on <span style="font-style: italic;">Carcieri v Salaza</span>r the Supreme Court decided that the word "now" in the Indian Reorganization Act means the year 1934 when the Act was passed.<br /><br /><blockquote>The term "Indian" as used in this Act shall include all persons of Indian<br />descent who are members of any recognized Indian tribe now under Federal<br />jurisdiction, and all person who are descendants of such members who were, on<br />June 1, 1934...</blockquote><br /><br />In light of this ruling I thought it might be appropriate mention some good books on the subject of how American Indian land was lost in the first place and how the IRA worked to reverse the tide.<br /><br />In 1887 the <a href="http://nativeamericanfirstnationshistory.suite101.com/article.cfm/the_dawes_act">Dawes Act</a> divided Indian Reservations into individual allotments with the purpose of ending the very unAmerican custom of holding land in common and turning Indians into farmers. Another convenient consequence was to open un-allotted land to sale outside the tribe. The allotments were to be held in trust by the Federal Government for a specified period, after which they would become fee lands that could be sold by the individual owners. One purpose of the<a href="http://nativeamericanfirstnationshistory.suite101.com/article.cfm/indian_reorganization_act_ii"> Indian Reorganization Act</a> (part of FDR's New Deal) was to end the hemorrhaging of Indian land being sold for subsistence or, especially during the Depression, lost for taxes.<br /><br />An excellent book on the history and effects of the IRA is <span style="font-style: italic;">The Nations Within, the Past and Future of American Indian Sovereignty</span>. Under the IRA, provisions were made for the Secretary of the Interior or Congress to take land into <a href="http://nativeamericanfirstnationshistory.suite101.com/article.cfm/indian_reorganization_act_ii">trust</a> for American Indian tribes. Since 1934, according to the <a href="http://www.ncai.org/Land-Into-Trust.57.0.html">NCAI website</a> Interior has taken about 9 million acres into trust, accounting for only about 10% of the total lands lost between the Dawes Act and the IRA. Now the Supreme Court has ruled that the Secretary's ability to take land into trust applies only to tribes <a href="http://www.nigc.gov/AboutUs/FrequentlyAskedQuestions/tabid/57/Default.aspx#q_03">federally recognized as of 1934</a>.<br /><br />But as any school kid knows, most Indian land was already lost before The Dawes Act. Some Eastern tribes have been on reservations for over 300 years. Others like the Lenape who started in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware, were constantly pushed west until they ended in Oklahoma, which, for a time, was supposed to remain Indian Country until it too was opened to settlement. So how did the Indians come to lose all that land?<br /><br />A common misconception is that Indian land was lost through conquest, but that isn't really accurate. <span style="font-style: italic;">Conquest by Law </span>tells the history of <span style="font-style: italic;">Johnson v M'Intosh</span>, the land tenure case that was the first of the Supreme Court decisions known as the <a href="http://nativeamericanfirstnationshistory.suite101.com/article.cfm/themarshalltrilogy">Marshall Trilogy</a> that formed the basis for <a href="http://www.suite101.com/blog/chwoman/american_indian_law_">American Indian Law</a>. <span style="font-style: italic;">How the Indians Lost Their Land </span>tells how, "between the early seventeenth century and the early twentieth century almost all the land in the present-day United States was transferred from American Indians to non-Indians."<br /><br />Some of what you read here may be surprising.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12456734276020287727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3432466385982830330.post-60513196142105411772009-02-16T06:00:00.004-05:002009-12-20T12:59:24.973-05:00Ablutions, Notes for a Novel<div style="text-align: center;"><br />
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Publication Date: February 18, 2009<br />
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<i>Provided free from Amazon Vine</i><br />
</div>Given the major cutbacks among the big publishing houses and the tendency over the past decade or so to go with the promise of commercial success, I am very surprised that <span style="font-style: italic;">Ablutions </span>by Patrick deWitt found a publisher outside the small presses. That isn't a criticism. It's just that the style is somewhat experimental and the author's prior publishing credits––three in all––were not exactly in top-tier literary journals.<br />
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"Notes for a Novel" is an accurate description of what is mostly vignettes centered around the life of an alcoholic and substance abusing bartender working at a well-known but now seedy Hollywood bar. That format along with the second person point of view (you), which I can enjoy in short pieces but often find tedious in a novel, had me convinced I'd hate this. Instead it pulled me in, so much so that I felt so creepy-crawly and grimy I wanted to take a shower, but I couldn't put it down. Scary to think––but no doubt true––that so many people drive our highways with that much booze and narcotics in their systems. And not to give anything away, but I hope the first thing this guy did with his money was visit a good dentist.<br />
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I can imagine the author struggling to shape all these notes into a compelling novel, then giving up and deciding to just work at threading them together. The result is something masterful that would have come off rather prosaic had he stuck to a standard form. <span style="font-style: italic;">Ablutions</span> has the potential to become one of those breakout word-of-mouth novels like <span style="font-style: italic;">A Confederacy of Dunces</span>, only happily the author is still with us to enjoy the praise.<br />
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At 163 pages, <span style="font-style: italic;">Ablutions</span> is a one-nighter if you can handle the intensity, but however long you take, it's well worth your time.<br />
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</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12456734276020287727noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3432466385982830330.post-84520560322001416182009-02-07T09:03:00.005-05:002009-12-20T13:00:54.719-05:00Valeria's Last Stand<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><iframe frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=nanncroc-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=1596916206&md=10FE9736YVPPT7A0FBG2&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe><br />
<span style="color: #990000;">Provided free from Amazon Vine</span></span><br />
</div><span style="font-style: italic;"> <br />
Valeria's Last Stand </span>by Marc Fitton is the lighthearted tale of a Hungarian town reluctantly moving into the 21st century before even catching up with the 20th. The term lighthearted, here, should not be confused with insignificant or throw-away. It is light in the style of Italo Calvino who uses humor to point out the foibles of society.<br />
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Zivatar is the town history ignored–no bombings during WWII, no tanks rolling through during the 1956 Revolution. The current older population looks back wistfully on Communism, not as dogma, but as a convenience that would have provided security in their old age. Now the mayor––once a loyal party member, now an ardent capitalisit––is determined to drag his small town into the future, building a train station and constantly courting foreign investors with the promise of new factories and jobs. In a town where everyone is still either a farmer, a shopkeeper, or a craftsman, where everyone travels on foot or on bicycles, the mayor takes his Mercedes to travel just down the block.<br />
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Valeria is an old spinster, once jilted, who afterward never enjoyed life and became the town hag, until love presents itself in the form of the town's Potter. The Potter, a widow, has had a short fling with the pub-owner, Ibolya, herself somewhat disillusioned with life and love. None of these characters is young any longer, yet, like the town, they teeter on the brink of change, at times lured by its promise; at times recoiling in fear.<br />
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Marc Fenton is Editor of the<a href="http://www.chattahoochee-review.org/"> <span style="font-style: italic;">Chattahoochee Review</span></a>, and anyone who has read the short fiction that appears there may, as I was, be somewhat surprised at his writing style. However, it is definitely a pleasant surprise and one I would highly recommend.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12456734276020287727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3432466385982830330.post-64620386444406646642009-01-28T08:59:00.011-05:002009-01-28T11:32:06.449-05:00Running Alone in photographs: A Novel by Robert Mirabal<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://mirabal.com/shop/shop.php?cat=30&id=122&sc=1"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 134px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgdGOioDvM0V4uE45BdngnK3Tam3PpgUjPa9hWji2EbaUOmdxylHGFZ63z-OlyEY0IxKGgusLz3Z3dlnnJ83wobjCce4NHJ89uGO-BNwfOHAmb0jsN2k9ZUdPUAXeGTR20gBjU-sbr2jc/s200/181lg.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5296346512095692994" border="0" /></a>I have followed Robert Mirabal's <a href="http://mirabal.com/shop/shop.php?cat=18&sc=3">music</a> for years now. I saw both he and bother Patrick (see below) in concert. I'd read Robert's poem, "They Survive" in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1574160648?ie=UTF8&tag=nanncroc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1574160648">Po'pay: Leader of the First American Revolution</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=nanncroc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1574160648" alt="" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" border="0" height="1" width="1" />. Now Robert Mirabal has written a novel, <span style="font-style: italic;">Running Alone in photographs</span>, that reads like a combination of his music and poetry.<br /><br />Reyes Kristina Wind is a young American Indian Woman from Santa Teresa Pueblo in New Mexico, an artist who lives for her music and travels the world on a quest for something she can't quite name and from which alcohol and drugs will not provide escape. She never knew her father––a vet whose soul was destroyed in Vietnam––hardly knows her mother––who spent most of her life searching after her lost love––but she has an advantage over many of the other Pueblo youth she knows. She was raised by traditional grandparents who taught her to love the land and the things that grow in it.<br /><br />The entire novel is framed in a few hours of Reyes' memories after returning to Santa Teresa for her grandmother's funeral. One imagines that Santa Teresa serves as a stand-in for Mirabal's home of Taos––once a haven for artists, then hippies, and now a tourist attraction––and Reyes, at times, serves as Mirabal's alter ego providing that much more depth and truth to the story.<br /><br />This is a very interior novel, but in the tradition of American Indian writing that explores connections with the natural world that surrounds us. Anyone who has read my blogs knows I love Native American literature for the beautiful language and imagery that seems to come naturally to a culture with a story-telling tradition. Mirabal's prose is no exception. There were just a few spots where he seemed to fall into stream of consciousness, and in those few instances I had trouble picking up the thread. However, over all, this is a beautiful story told in beautiful prose and I am looking forward to reading more from Robert Mirabal if he can miraculously find the time in his busy career.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Couldn't resist adding these photos. Below I pose with Patick Mirabal in 2007 (I'm on the right and I've lost a few pounds since then).</span><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0bAEI4LLq6f3kSdjvOdLHlImsy_FGCT8mqIloJC-s85mSeqcgkESSVnQ8xj7jiWf_Ww47Z9zS00QxZVs6_c8yMSZBnTHJLKTC5KFigMrS0w4gR227k5klRtSLKAxEOviSDyIZ6DPkZKg/s1600-h/P1010096.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0bAEI4LLq6f3kSdjvOdLHlImsy_FGCT8mqIloJC-s85mSeqcgkESSVnQ8xj7jiWf_Ww47Z9zS00QxZVs6_c8yMSZBnTHJLKTC5KFigMrS0w4gR227k5klRtSLKAxEOviSDyIZ6DPkZKg/s200/P1010096.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5296374742361374642" border="0" /></a><br /></div><img src="file:///Users/nannettecroce/Desktop/P1010096.jpg" alt="" /><img src="file:///Users/nannettecroce/Desktop/P1010096%20copy.jpg" alt="" /><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipG4w0M2TP9ojFcUTHGYsd_uGAZpeXnKHUlj0bv3jorrrCQWbxfx-x7K_QxGkdJgBpwwAT2KfnGS5qj65Xq4XHM2PDNgxoi3BjThv2U5xbv58nnBVU5_9EBt8MB5S-0V6Xf9KgopIbSvs/s1600-h/P1010097.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipG4w0M2TP9ojFcUTHGYsd_uGAZpeXnKHUlj0bv3jorrrCQWbxfx-x7K_QxGkdJgBpwwAT2KfnGS5qj65Xq4XHM2PDNgxoi3BjThv2U5xbv58nnBVU5_9EBt8MB5S-0V6Xf9KgopIbSvs/s200/P1010097.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5296374741753834770" border="0" /></a></div><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="file:///Users/nannettecroce/Desktop/181lg.jpg" alt="" /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12456734276020287727noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3432466385982830330.post-90615239971754459892009-01-14T17:20:00.004-05:002009-12-20T13:00:12.750-05:00Nothing Right<div style="text-align: center;"><iframe frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=nanncroc-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=1596915749&md=10FE9736YVPPT7A0FBG2&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe><br />
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<i>Provided free from Amazon Vine</i><br />
<div style="text-align: left;">Okay, then, this collection makes a great follow-up to my post about stories that appear in <a href="http://zinewriter.blogspot.com/2009/01/new-yorker-i-just-dont-get-it.html">The New Yorker</a> because the stories in this collection that didn't appear in that magazine should have. Antonya Nelson's work here typifies that group of elite literary writers these days who appear to write more for each other than for a larger audience. One imagines that the main characters in these stories are almost all either thinly disguised versions of the author or people from the circles in which she travels.<br />
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Just about every character here is middle class, hovering somewhere around 40, divorced or cheating or being cheated on or all three. The surrounding cast of characters may vary slightly in that the kids may be older or younger, well-behaved or delinquent, the lover's age might vary, but the main character appears over and over in a slightly––very slightly––different play.<br />
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Within this circle of writers I refer to above, cheating is such a matter of course that no motive need be given and only the slightest lip service is paid to guilt or angst. Husbands are, of course, non-descript beings who don't know how to "give". Supposedly mature women fall in and out of love like adolescents and regularly follow strange men to their homes or apartments without the slightest thought of ending up a naked corpse in a ditch somewhere.<br />
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The characters here are so frustratingly flat they remind me of Barbie dolls. You can buy Mermaid Barbie or Native American Barbie or Beach Barbie, but really they are all the same doll only wearing different clothes. That's the way these stories left me feeling.<br />
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To summarize, if you are one of those who reads The New Yorker each month waiting to see what new gem of literary fiction will be included, this collection is for you. If you are like me and puzzle most months over what, exactly, is supposed to make those stories so great, then give this one a pass.<br />
</div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12456734276020287727noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3432466385982830330.post-82821653104576021172008-12-16T15:35:00.003-05:002009-12-20T13:01:46.073-05:00Failures of the Presidents: From the Whiskey Rebellion and the War of 1812 to the Bay of Pigs and the War in Iraq<div style="text-align: center;"><iframe frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=nanncroc-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=1592332994&md=10FE9736YVPPT7A0FBG2&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><i>Provided free from Amazon Vine</i><br />
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Though written in a textbook format with sub-headings and sidebars, this reads more like a "light" history. I categorize light history as anything where the writers compile information from secondary sources and organize it into an easy-to-read format with a theme and no citations. In this book the author(s) (I'm not quite sure who did what here as there are several co-authors listed in the acknowledgments who aren't listed on the cover) review what they consider to be the greatest failures of certain--not all--of the presidents from George Washington to George W. Bush. (Interestingly, Bush the Father doesn't have a separate chapter but was included in the Iran-Contra chapter). There are no footnotes and no bibliography, only "additional reading" for each chapter, which, I assume, comprises their source material unless these authors knew it all of the top of their heads.<br />
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As someone who prefers her histories a little less broad and a lot deeper, on occasion a sampling of this type can provide a good review of things I haven't studied since high school, like the <a href="http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/whiskey_rebellion.htm">Whiskey Rebellion</a>, and those parts of history we like to gloss over like the occupation of the <a href="http://countrystudies.us/philippines/13.htm">Philippines</a> and attempts to annex <a href="http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/1/8/5/9/3/p185930_index.html">Santo Domingo</a>.<br />
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Of course, anything of this sort will be extremely subjective, however, in this case, I was at a loss to determine the authors' method of choice. In the introduction it is noted that the Monica Lewinsky scandal and Clinton's impeachment are not included because the co-authors "...could not agree definitively that the ...scandals...actually inflicted damage on the United States at the time." In fact, there is no chapter on Clinton, implying, I suppose, that he had no major failures. However, (and I'm a Democrat), if Carter's botched attempt at rescuing the Iranian hostages was included, why not the <a href="http://inquirer.philly.com/packages/somalia/nov16/rang16.asp">Battle of Mogadishu</a> (Black Hawk Down)? Conspicuous in their absence are some of the best-known scandals like <a href="http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAteapot.htm">Teapot Dome</a>.<br />
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There are also some inclusions I question. For example, what has become known as "<a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h1567.htm">The Trail of Tears,</a>" the relocation of the Cherokee under Andrew Jackson. A qualifier here. I am a huge advocate for American Indian rights and know more about America's treatment of the Indians than most professional historians. However, I can't say I see how it falls under the rubric noted above. While it was certainly a moral shame, I don't see how it could be seen as "inflicting damage on the US at the time." The US, as opposed to the Cherokee, wasn't damaged at all.<br />
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I would also question the inclusion of the Energy Crisis under Jimmy Carter as a presidential failure. Too bad if it caused some economic woes at the time. In retrospect we'd have done better to stick with gas rationing and lowering our thermostats.<br />
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I did appreciate the inclusion of <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/reagan/peopleevents/pande08.html">Iran-Contra</a>, the now all but forgotten illegal dealings of the Reagan administration which are far too complicated to outline here. At a time when both Republicans and Democrats feel the need to pay lip service to the late president, it's good to remember what that administration got away with and how it began the line of thinking that the president is above the law and all things are allowable as commander-in-chief. However, I would have liked to see other inclusions under Reagan, like the firing of the <a href="http://eightiesclub.tripod.com/id296.htm">Air Traffic Controllers</a> and the banking deregulation that led to the <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/03/24/politics/main3964240.shtml?source=RSSattr=Politics_3964240">Keating scandal</a> (of which John McCain was a part).<br />
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Then again, you can't include everything or it would be a tome. All-in-all a good read, especially for those who avoid history because they think it is too boring. This is an easy read, covers a lot of important history, and, at its best, may entice people to read more about these events.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12456734276020287727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3432466385982830330.post-44342622588176706252008-11-01T15:56:00.002-04:002008-11-01T16:04:07.785-04:00Celebrate Native American Heritage Month with These Books<div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=nanncroc-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=0802141676&md=10FE9736YVPPT7A0FBG2&fc1=000000&IS1=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="width: 120px; height: 240px;" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe><br /></div><br /><iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=nanncroc-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=0826304699&md=10FE9736YVPPT7A0FBG2&fc1=000000&IS1=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="width: 120px; height: 240px;" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe><br /><br /><iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=nanncroc-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=0826311008&md=10FE9736YVPPT7A0FBG2&fc1=000000&IS1=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="width: 120px; height: 240px;" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe><br /><br /><iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=nanncroc-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=0143105183&md=10FE9736YVPPT7A0FBG2&fc1=000000&IS1=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="width: 120px; height: 240px;" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe><br /><br /><iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=nanncroc-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=0944024440&md=10FE9736YVPPT7A0FBG2&fc1=000000&IS1=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="width: 120px; height: 240px;" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe><br /><br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12456734276020287727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3432466385982830330.post-22004649205901396342008-11-01T15:04:00.001-04:002008-11-01T15:17:01.592-04:00Reckonings, Contemporary Short Fiction by Native American Women<div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=nanncroc-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=0195109252&md=10FE9736YVPPT7A0FBG2&fc1=000000&IS1=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="width:120px;height:240px;" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"></iframe><br /><br /></div><br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12456734276020287727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3432466385982830330.post-47865320528080506432008-10-06T16:03:00.004-04:002008-10-07T16:23:00.410-04:00The Secret Life of Bees: Now that it's a movie<div style="text-align: center;"><iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=nanncroc-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=0142001740&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="width: 120px; height: 240px;" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe><br /><br /><br />Penguin<br />Reprint Edition August, 2008<br /></div><br />I was a little late coming to this novel, but now that it's been made into a <a href="http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox_searchlight/thesecretlifeofbees/">movie</a> starring <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001451/">Queen Latifa</a> and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0266824/">Dakota Fanning</a> I guess a review is still timely. In a world caught up with ever narrower "genrefication" I suppose I'd categorize The <span style="font-style: italic;">Secret Life of Bees </span>as literary women's fiction as opposed to commercial women's fiction (which is what I would call <a href="http://crossreferencebookreviews.blogspot.com/">Time Is a River</a>). Reason being, the former spends a little more time on capturing sensations and sunsets, introspection, and follows through on most of the plot lines. There's the de rigueur female bonding, and a love interest, but at least it's of a loftier nature and conversations have less of that slumber party feel.<br /><br />Still, I found the novel no more than mediocre. Okay, color me sick of female bonding––in fact strictly female anything––which may have affected my reading. The plot was somewhat contrived, but that didn't bother me as a good author, and I believe Kidd qualifies, can make the contrived believable. What bothered me the most was that, about two-thirds of the way through, Kidd seemed to run out of reasons to delay the inevitable climax of Lily revealing to August the secret about her mother (this is not a plot give-away), and threw in what felt to me like "filler", just to make the novel long enough. What happens to Zach (I don't want to give that part away), could have been very effective had the author carried it to the conclusion I expected, but as she wrote it, it felt empty and inconsequential, and certainly not significant enough to have the effect it did on May.<br /><br />I never read the Sue Monk Kidd short story on which this novel is based, however I'm going to guess this could have worked as a short piece. Perhaps that's why the novel feels stretched like a bit of taffy. All in all, I'd give it a C+ to B-.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12456734276020287727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3432466385982830330.post-55372787724776687222008-09-25T17:57:00.005-04:002009-12-20T13:02:45.157-05:00Time Is a River: Tell Me Something I Need To Know<div style="text-align: center;"><iframe frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=nanncroc-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=1416544364&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe><br />
<br />
Pocket Books<br />
<br />
July 2008<br />
<br />
<i>Provided free from Amazon Vine</i><br />
<div style="text-align: left;">Here I was expecting a poignant and insightful novel about breast cancer survival, and what I found was formulaic women's fiction where the protagonist just happened to be recovering from breast cancer. I have real problems with so-called women's fiction on two levels. First, I'm tired of fiction written by women for women, where the protagonist is jolted into a journey of self-awareness by the loutish behavior of one guy with the end-prize turning out to be––what else?––the love of another guy. Oh, there's plenty of bantering among the "sisterhood" in between, but the love of a man is, obviously, the only real reward in life. Second, it shows the ultimate disrespect for women readers to assume we will ignore stock characters and poorly developed plot lines just for a "happy" ending. Though, since this stuff obviously sells, I guess it's true––for some women at least, but not for me.<br />
<br />
In Mary Alice Monroe's novel, it takes protagonist, Mia, exactly the length of one summer––during which she is divorcing her first husband whom she found with another woman so soon after her cancer treatments that her hair has barely grown back––to fall into the arms of yet another man. And we wonder why divorce rates are so high. Yes, I'm sure that body image and sexual desirabilty can be a major issue for breast cancer survivors, and I can understand throwing in a sexual encounter, but was that really the best time to begin a long-term relationship? Shouldn't one of her women friends bring this to her attention instead of acting like giggly school girls?<br />
<br />
For me this novel represented a wealth of missed opportunities. Part of the strain on Mia's marriage was the strain her illness put on their finances. Were they among the 14 million Americans without healthcare coverage? Or was she one of those who pay a fortune for paultry individual plans with high deductables? When she receives payment for her half of their condo, we learn she had been down to her last $200, but we never felt the tension of this woman, still reeling from her illness, trying to get by on such little income. And what about thoughts on her mortality? Her profound loneliness lasts about two days. Next thing you know, she's got the cabin cleaned up, has a bunch of friends, and is just happy as a clam.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">And then there's that <a href="http://zinewriter.blogspot.com/2008/09/devils-in-details.html">mouse issue</a> I mentioned on zine writer.<br />
<br />
To some these issues may sound picky, but if women truly believe there is value in writing specifically for other women (other than the obvious monetary one), then they should try writing books that tell what it's really like. Sure, the woman can triumph over adversity in the end, but that should be real adversity, not simply what women's fiction writers obviously consider the worst of all states––living without a man.<br />
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Snow White was a fairy tale ladies. It's time to grow up.<br />
<br />
<br />
</div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12456734276020287727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3432466385982830330.post-72955745468505836672008-09-15T16:57:00.007-04:002009-12-20T13:03:26.275-05:00Guernica: This Is Not For Whom the Bell Tolls<div style="text-align: center;"><iframe frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=nanncroc-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=1596915633&fc1=000000&IS1=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe><br />
</div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">Bloomsbury<br />
2008<br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Provided free from Amazon Vine</i><br />
</div>Most readers today, if they know it at all, would associate Guernica with the painting by Pablo Picasso and not the bombings of the Basque town that inspired him and became a metaphor for the worst horrors of war. I, on the other hand, was fascinated by the Spanish Civil War back in high school (nearly 40 years ago), prompted not a little by my grandfather, the immigrant activist who had supported the Loyalists, even though too old at the time to volunteer to fight for them. So when I saw this title I jumped at it.<br />
<br />
An author writing about the Spanish Civil War in the 21st century faces three major challenges. One is the inevitable comparisons to Ernest Hemingway's, <span style="font-style: italic;">For Whom the Bell Tolls</span>, the great American novel about the era. Another is a lack of the historical knowledge necessary to make the story resonate. Third is that the history of the various factions who made up the Loyalists on the one side and the Fascists on the other is difficult enough to explain in a history book let alone a novel. Unfortunately, while not bad, Guernica manages to come up short in these three areas.<br />
<br />
Dave Boling made a conscious decision, as noted in his "Author's Notes," to not explain the history at all. This makes for a strange novel, indeed, even for me who had a general idea what was going on. One minute all seems well in the Basque country, with only one character showing any concerns for the growing strength of the Fascist rebels; the next minute brothers Dodo and Miguel Navarro are accosted by the Guardia Civile and forced into exile. For most of the novel, the people of Guernica happily go about their lives, then, suddenly, we learn that food is scarce and they are nearly starving, with no real explanation of what was happening around them to make this occur. Guernica also fills with soldiers and refugees. From where and why? If the lack of background made little sense to me, I can imagine what it would be like for readers with no knowledge at all of the times.<br />
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The high point of the novel is Boling's description of the bombings of this civilian population with no warning–-a precursor to the ubiquitous civilian bombings of WWII. The horror is almost as palpable as in the Picasso painting and I found myself unable to put the book aside at that point, wondering which of the characters would survive and which would not. But the grief and pain recede too quickly to feel realistic.<br />
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Strangely, in an odd disconnect to the theme, this is more of a "happy" story with everyone in Guernica singing and dancing and eating right up the the holocaust, followed by a quick recovery, even by those who lost most of their loved ones. Given that Basques separatists remain a force in Spain even today, long after the death of Franco and Fascism, it seems odd that the author would portray the wounds as healing so quickly. Yet, in the end, everything is tied up neatly, in an almost Dickensian style.<br />
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Needless to say, this is no <span style="font-style: italic;">For Whom the Bell Tolls</span>, though it has its moments. All in all, it lacked the depth to make me care, no matter how much I tried.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12456734276020287727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3432466385982830330.post-64025551553025462522008-08-15T08:00:00.006-04:002009-12-20T13:04:03.503-05:00City of Refuge: Katrina, Up Close and Personal<div style="text-align: center;"><br />
<iframe frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=nanncroc-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=0061238619&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe><br />
<br />
Harper Collins<br />
September, 2008<br />
<br />
<i>Provided free from Amazon Vine</i><br />
</div><br />
Where were you when the levees broke? For those of us not in the eye of the storm, that reference to newscasts from New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina stays with us like 9/11 or, for an earlier generation, the Kennedy assassination. Reading <span style="font-style: italic;">City of Refuge, </span>about the events and aftermath of Katrina,<span style="font-style: italic;"> </span>just a few weeks shy of the third anniversary, I clearly recalled newsmen hanging onto columns with coifs gone astray, the relief that maybe it wouldn't be as bad as expected, then the images of Americans stranded on rooftops with no food or water, begging for help, and the bodies floating.<br />
<br />
By focusing on two families, Craig and Alice Donaldson, an upper middle-class white family, and the extended African-American family from the Lower Ninth, SJ, his sister Lucy, and her son Wesley, Tom Piazza personalizes the catastrophe in a way newscasts and documentaries could not, at least for me. In heavier hands, the white folks who got out and the black folks who didn't could have come off as cliche, if not somewhat opportunistic. But Piazza applies a light touch that contrasts perfectly to the weight of the subject. A black man enters into conversation with Craig Donaldson in the hotel where they both landed after hours in traffic, camping on lounge chairs if they were lucky, any space available if they weren't. We see white families at the Superdome. Pointing out that the difference was more rich vs poor than black vs white, or native New Orleanians vs transplants with someplace else to go, and sometimes simply folks who rode out other storms and figured on doing it again vs the more cautious. I also understood for the first time why people wouldn't leave: It's inconvenient and expensive, you can't leave your job, you have nowhere else to go, and most of the threats never materialize anyway.<br />
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Never having visited NOLA or The Big Easy, two names by which the city is known, may actually make me a good choice to review the book because I came with no preconceived notions of the city's unique culture. Tom Piazza had to create it for me, and he did an excellent job. He also steps back from time to time to show the huge dimensions of the loss and the government failures that allowed it to happen. Again, in the hands of a different writer, this might interrupt the flow, and again, Piazza handles it with a perfect touch.<br />
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I will say that I found the details of the Donaldson's marital issues that raged mostly around their differing feelings for the city, the least interesting part of the story. At first I attributed it to "author creep"––the way many literary authors today write about loosely disguised versions of their own lives––but soon saw the value of it in the context. As compared to the problems of SJ's family that included poverty, ill health, drug addiction, kids constantly in danger of taking a wrong turn, the Donaldson's problems seemed light. But having nothing else to compare them to, they exaggerated small things out of all proportion.<br />
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The best part about this novel is that, as in life, things don't always take the course you'd expect, and the end does not tie everything up in a package with a neat little bow. Tom Piazza's <span style="font-style: italic;">City of Refuge </span>has the makings of a classic and the ability to become to Hurricane Katrina what <span style="font-style: italic;">The Grapes of Wrath </span>was to the Great Depression.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12456734276020287727noreply@blogger.com0