I’m pretty awful at keeping up with my readings while on the road, so here I find myself in December having to read another seven books before the month is up. Wah. Thankfully I have secured some light poetry, a novella from the likes of Tolstoy, and a graphic novel. I also have been listening to Jules Verne’s Around the World in 80 Days on audiobook while I’m at the gym, which goes against any bibliophile’s code of morality, but it must be done.
Here’s what I’ve read.
Chad Pelley – Away from Everywhere
Quick summary
Brothers Owen and Alex Collins are brought together when mental illness claims their father and sets off a chain reaction of unrelated, heart-breaking events. Both tender and bold in its delivery, Away from Everywhere cuts no corners in telling the story of their crushing childhood, the reasons the brothers become different men, and the unthinkable act of love that tears them apart.
Three-line review
I really wanted to love this book more than I did, because I saw Pelley reading live and he’s a darned good Newfoundland writer. But this book had so few joyous moments that it left me profoundly depressed. I know that’s life, but damn. Throw a bit of sunshine in there.
***/*****
Rudolph Wurlitzer – Hard Travel to Sacred Places
Quick summary
Hard Travel to Sacred Places is the record of a personal odyssey through Southeast Asia, an external and internal journey through grief and the painful realities of a decadent age. Wurlitzer—novelist, screenwriter, and Buddhist practitioner—travels with his wife, photographer Lynn Davis, on a photo assignment to the sacred sites of Thailand, Burma, and Cambodia. Heavy Westernization, sex clubs, aging hippies and expatriates, and political dissidents provide a vivid contrast to the peace that Wurlitzer and Davis seek, still reeling from the death of their son in a car accident. As Davis with her camera searches for a thread of meaning among the artifacts and relics of a more enlightened age, Wurlitzer grasps at the wisdom of the Buddhist teachings in an effort to assuage his grief. His journal chronicles the survival of age-old truths in a world gone mad.
Three-line review
Sad and enlightening and beautiful and brief, with just a touch of pretentiousness. I really felt moved by everything Rudolph and his wife had been through, but struggled through a lot of the philosophy. It’s food for the soul.
***/*****
Ed. Luke Armstrong – Bushwick Poetry
Quick summary
Bushwick Poetry is a collection of verse from poets living in Bushwick, New York. In this collection is the communal story of bursting hearts reaching for transcendental vibes of artistic elation and American Spirits rolling tobacco. These are the stories of following dreams, breaking and healing hearts, late night reflections in the rain, walking alone in a city of eight million people and finding community in the glances of late night subway cars.
Three-line review
Despite knowing next to nothing about Bushwick, I did enjoy several of these poems, especially Patricia Gillespie’s work. It’s neat to see what a little community of poets can bring together. My friend Luke put this together.
****/*****
Halldor Laxness – Independent People
Quick summary
Amid the bleak, frozen wastes of an Icelandic winter, Bjartur of Summerhouses tends his sheep. A proud, stubborn man, who ekes out his humble living in a constant battle against nature, he has at last acquired his own small holding after eighteen years as a hired hand.
Three-line review
Likely the most beautiful book I have ever read. The politics were difficult to wade through but I don’t think I’ve ever encountered such a lyrical, historical, unbelievable piece of literature in my life. Bjartur is awful in the best kind of way.
*****/*****
Favourite quote
“This was the first time that he has ever looked into the labyrinth of the human soul. He was very far from understanding what he saw. But what was of more value, he felt and suffered with her. In years that were yet to come, he relived this memory in song, in the most beautiful song this world has known. For the understanding of the soul’s defencelessness, of the conflict between the two poles, is not the source of the greatest song. The source of the greatest song is sympathy.”
Anita Shreave – The Pilot’s Wife
Quick summary
A pilot’s wife is taught to be prepared for the late-night knock at the door. But when Kathryn Lyons receives word that a plan flown by her husband, Jack, has exploded near the coast of Ireland, she confronts the unfathomable-one startling revelation at a time. Soon drawn into a maelstrom of publicity fueled by rumors that Jack led a secret life, Kathryn sets out to learn who her husband really was, whatever that knowledge might cost.
Three-line review
I wanted a quick, easy read after absorbing Laxness. This did a good job. Not a particularly great book, and do NOT read it while you’re on a plane. Seriously. I did. I’m an idiot. The plot was fairly predictable and the ending made me scream.
***/****
Mary Sojourner – Solace: Rituals of Loss and Desire
Quick summary
Solace is a book about obsession and release, and the lifelong search for balance in a world revolving around appetite and acceleration. Written in short, beautifully crafted pieces, the book carries the reader through Sojourner’s life, from a restrained Catholic childhood to the excesses of her generation, through motherhood and divorce to her quiet, solitary existence in the Southwest, where she has learned the importance of living at the right pace.
Three-line review
Every now and then a book waltzes its way into your life and everything about it just kind of falls into place. I have dozens of pages dog-earned and words underlined because everything inside spoke to me. It made me feel lighter than I had in months.
Favourite Quote
“I was a woman disconnecting from my moments alone, when the world seemed to shatter into terror, into madness coming toward me at the speed of loss. The moment for which — I could not have guessed — my spirit and writing longed.”
*****/*****
Wayson Choy – Not Yet: A Memoir of Living and Almost Dying
Quick summary
In 2001, Wayson Choy suffered a combined asthma-heart attack. As he lay in his hospital bed, slipping in and out of consciousness, his days punctuated by the beeps of the machines that were keeping him alive, Choy heard the voices of his ancestors warning him that without a wife, he would one day die alone. And yet through his ordeal Choy was never alone; men and women, young and old, from all cultures and ethnicities, stayed by Choy’s side until he was well. When his heart failed him a second time, four years later, it was the strength of his bonds with these people, forged through countless acts of kindness, that pulled Choy back to his life.
Three-line review
I realize there’s only so much you can say when half of the book takes place inside a hospital. I thought the writing was fantastic, and I love Choy, but the story just kinda fell flat for me. Looking forward to seeing what his other material is like.
***/*****
