To be fair, I only included the word “shit” because it rhymed with “lit.”
I could talk about Shantaram all day. I equally loved and hated the book. I hated the non-stop introspection from Gregory David Roberts. The naval-gazing. The outlandish observations, like when the author comments on the silkiness of a woman’s inner thigh and how it’s responsible for everything men do, or something. Oh my god.
On the other hand, I loved the imagery. And the action. It actually made me want to visit Bombay: “The simple and astonishing truth about India and India people is that when you go there, and deal with them, your heart always guides you more wisely than your head. There’s nowhere else in the world where that’s quite so true.”
Ahem. But that’s not even my review.
Also in the past two months: a ton of Canadian lit. Joseph Boyden, Cathy Marie Buchanan, and Wayson Choy. All highly recommended…especially Joseph Boyden.
Shantaram – Gregory David Roberts
Quick summary
Shantaram is narrated by Lin, an escaped convict with a false passport who flees maximum security prison in Australia for the teeming streets of a city where he can disappear.
Accompanied by his guide and faithful friend, Prabaker, the two enter Bombay’s hidden society of beggars and gangsters, prostitutes and holy men, soldiers and actors, and Indians and exiles from other countries, who seek in this remarkable place what they cannot find elsewhere.
Three-line review
I’m not sure how to feel. One of the best written books I’ve read all year, but it’s hard to get past the narrative’s own endless musings. I mean, are chapter-long discussions of philosophy really necessary? And what the hell actually happened in the end?
****/*****
The Jade Peony – Wayson Choy
Quick summary
Chinatown, Vancouver, in the late 1930s and ’40s provides the backdrop for this poignant first novel, told through the vivid reminiscences of the three younger children of an immigrant Chinese family. The siblings grapple with their individual identities in a changing world, wresting autonomy from the strictures of history, family, and poverty. Sister Jook-Liang dreams of becoming Shirley Temple and escaping the rigid, old ways of China. Adopted Second Brother Jung-Sum, struggling with his sexuality and the trauma of his childhood in China, finds his way through boxing. Third Brother Sekky, who never feels comfortable with the multitude of Chinese dialects swirling around him, becomes obsessed with war games, and learns a devastating lesson about what war really means when his 17-year-old babysitter dates a Japanese man.
Mingling with life in Canada and the horror of war are the magic, ghosts, and family secrets of Poh-Poh, or Grandmother, who is the heart and pillar of the family. Side by side, her three grandchildren survive hardships and heartbreaks with grit and humor. Like the jade peony of the title, Choy’s storytelling is at once delicate, powerful, and lovely.
Three-line review
I wasn’t impressed by the first book I read by Choy, but this one changed everything. Every page was pure poetry. Every word was rightfully place. I’m glad I saw his reading at WAWP.
****/*****
Let’s Get Lost – Adi Alsaid
Quick summary
Five strangers. Countless adventures. One epic way to get lost.
Four teens across the country have only one thing in common: a girl named LEILA. She crashes into their lives in her absurdly red car at the moment they need someone the most.
Three-line review
We got off to a rocky start — I’m a little “over” the whole adorably petite-but-tough girl deal. I mean why can’t the lead character be a badass bulky ginger or something? But then I realized I was over-thinking it and I should probably get a grip. It’s for teens, after all. And nothing here is sugar coated, which I also like.
***/*****
The Ocean at the End of the Lane – Neil Gaiman
Quick summary
Sussex, England. A middle-aged man returns to his childhood home to attend a funeral. Although the house he lived in is long gone, he is drawn to the farm at the end of the road, where, when he was seven, he encountered a most remarkable girl, Lettie Hempstock, and her mother and grandmother. He hasn’t thought of Lettie in decades, and yet as he sits by the pond (a pond that she’d claimed was an ocean) behind the ramshackle old farmhouse, the unremembered past comes flooding back. And it is a past too strange, too frightening, too dangerous to have happened to anyone, let alone a small boy.
Three-line review
This book was creepy as hell. But I read it in like, two days. Because it’s short. And also, awesome. I admire Gaiman for his ability to create fantasy that’s appealing to anyone, even the cynics.
****/*****
One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Quick summary
The novel tells the story of the rise and fall of the mythical town of Macondo through the history of the family. It is a rich and brilliant chronicle of life and death, and the tragicomedy of humankind. In the noble, ridiculous, beautiful, and tawdry story of the family, one sees all of humanity, just as in the history, myths, growth, and decay of Macondo, one sees all of Latin America.
Three-line review
Sometimes I feel like Marquez just sat down at a typewriter and banged out his thoughts for a week straight while writing this book. It’s like one long stream of consciousness. I wish my edition had a family tree.
****/*****
The Painted Girls – Cathy Marie Buchanan
Quick summary
Paris. 1878. Following their father’s sudden death, the van Goethem sisters find their lives upended. Without his wages, and with the small amount their laundress mother earns disappearing into the absinthe bottle, eviction from their lodgings seems imminent. With few options for work, Marie is dispatched to the Paris Opéra, where for a scant seventy francs a month, she will be trained to enter the famous ballet. Her older sister, Antoinette, finds work — and the love of a dangerous young man — as an extra in a stage adaptation of Émile Zola’s naturalist masterpiece L’Assommoir.
Marie throws herself into dance and is soon modelling in the studio of Edgar Degas, where her image will forever be immortalized as Little Dancer Aged Fourteen. Antoinette, meanwhile, descends lower and lower in society, and must make the choice between a life of honest labor and the more profitable avenues open to a young woman of the Parisian demimonde — that is, unless her love affair derails her completely.
Three-line review
I’m surprised by how much I enjoyed this book, and how quickly I read it. Not that I didn’t have any faith in the author; it’s just that the plot synopsis didn’t really do it justice. I only picked it up because I saw Buchanan do a reading at Writers at Woody Point last year. Bottom line: Loved this book.
Through Black Spruce – Joseph Boyden
Quick summary
Will Bird is a legendary Cree bush pilot, now lying in a coma in a hospital in his hometown of Moose Factory, Ontario. His niece Annie Bird, beautiful and self-reliant, has returned from her own perilous journey to sit beside his bed. Broken in different ways, the two take silent communion in their unspoken kinship, and the story that unfolds is rife with heartbreak, fierce love, ancient blood feuds, mysterious disappearances, fires, plane crashes, murders, and the bonds that hold a family, and a people, together. As Will and Annie reveal their secrets-the tragic betrayal that cost Will his family, Annie’s desperate search for her missing sister, the famous model Suzanne-a remarkable saga of resilience and destiny takes shape. From the dangerous bush country of upper Canada to the drug-fueled glamour of the Manhattan club scene, Joseph Boyden tracks his characters with a keen eye for the telling detail and a rare empathy for the empty places concealed within the heart. Sure to appeal to readers of Louise Erdrich and Jim Harrison, Through Black Spruce establishes Boyden as a writer of startling originality and uncommon power.
Three-line review
Boyden might be my new favourite Canadian author. A gorgeous insight into the Canadian Arctic, and the natives who live there. Annie is one loveable, badass character.
****/*****
Gone Girl – Gillian Flynn
Quick summary
On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy Dunne’s fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick’s clever and beautiful wife disappears. Husband-of-the-Year Nick isn’t doing himself any favors with cringe-worthy daydreams about the slope and shape of his wife’s head, but passages from Amy’s diary reveal the alpha-girl perfectionist could have put anyone dangerously on edge. Under mounting pressure from the police and the media—as well as Amy’s fiercely doting parents—the town golden boy parades an endless series of lies, deceits, and inappropriate behavior. Nick is oddly evasive, and he’s definitely bitter—but is he really a killer?
Three-line review
I LOVE Gillian’s style. I HATED the characters. It’s hard to review anything when both characters are so bloody vile. THis is one hell of a read, though. I’m eager to see how the movie’s ending compares to this one.
***/*****
