Nonfiction for a Change

I'm usually engrossed in a novel or two a week during the summer, since fiction is my favorite, but this summer I've veered toward some other options. I had downloaded a copy of Francine Prose's book Anne Frank back in November after attending the NCTE convention in Philly, but I just got around to reading it on my flight home from Turkey when I just couldn't hang in there with Neil Gaiman's American Gods. I had read one of Prose's books on writing, lent to me by a student in my creative writing class a few years ago. This book takes a fresh look at Anne Frank's famous diary from a literary perspective.

In this book, Prose first disabuses readers of the idea of this book as a one-draft stroke of young prodigy. Evidence of revision, among other things, proves that Anne had intended her writing to have a broader audience that "Dear Kitty." The resulting book by Prose offers something for a wide audience as well. She looks at the book, the play, and the movie that resulted, as well as much of the controversy involved in each. For writers, the book reemphasizes the value of revision and of a sense of one's readers. The last part of the book deals with ways for teachers to use the book--at all education levels. This was for me one of the most valuable sections of Prose's work, but I needed to read the preceding chapters to make this last most useful.

I was reminded of a work of fiction I had encountered a few years ago, The Boy Who Loved Anne Frank, a work of fiction based on the flawed assumption that Peter might have survived and come to American, choosing to pass as a Gentile--even to his own wife--until the diary's publication strikes him mute. I had also read a most clever essay by David Sedaris first in the New Yorker then in one of his books in which he describes the dilemma of looking for a new apartment and deciding that Anne Frank's house was the perfect place for him to live. He manages to balance his pointed humor with very poignant response to the truth of her story.

The Diary of a Young Girl (which, by the way, was not her chosen title) is one of those classic works that not only stands up to rereading after one's school years, but absolutely demands it. (I put The Good Earth, To Kill a Mockingbird, and The Once and Future King in that same category.) The book doesn't change over time, but as a reader matures and experiences life, the book takes on a richer, fuller meaning. Prose has certainly enriched that experience for her readers.

Nonfiction for a Change

The Book Report:

I spent more time at the airport than I really intended on my way to Istanbul this month. Missing about five connecting flights, including three different international flights, I had lots of time for reading. I had intended to report on my reading during my travels, but our hotel (the Lady Diana in Sultanahmet) had three computers, all of which were different and I had the most challenging time finding my punctuation marks. I eventually found most. In fact, my closing my eyes and using my tenth grade touch typing skills (Thank you, Mrs. Aldridge!) I found the comma and period right where they belonged, hidden under symbols I didn't normally use. I eventually had to use cut and paste for the @ symbol--just to check my email--and I never found the apostrophe. I actually considered typing without it and using a little note in the header, but my English teacher in me just couldn't do it. I have a hard enough time typing titles on Facebook without italics. Now without further ado (oh, maybe just a little), here is the first installation in my travel reading report.

On the way to the airport, I finished listening to my current audio book (due back at the library before I return), Anita Shreve's new novel A Change in Altitude. I had read a couple of her novels before and found that what keeps me reading is not her characters but the research. I had read her book A Wedding in December, her attempt at a Big Chill experience, set not at a funeral but at a wedding, and I kept reading for the back story, a historical account of a ship explosion in Halifax, that had me googling for more details. This book had whiny, inconsistent main characters centered around two attempts to climb Mt. Kenya.

On the flight I began reading Anna Quindlen's latest novel, Every Last One, my current book club choice. I have always enjoyed Quindlen's writing, both fiction and nonfiction. I was immediately drawn to the protagonist, a mother just a little younger than me, with children almost ready to leave the nest. The first half was a gentle, engaging story line, but without giving a spoiler, I will say that midway through the book, Quindlen threw a major curve and I couldn't stop reading. Now I am so eager for our book club meeting because I have a genuine need to talk about this book.

My next book on the trip was Joanne Proulx's Anthem of a Reluctant Prophet, a book with an "I couldn't put it down recommendation from one of the younger members of my book club. As the novel opens, the protagonist is in the basement of his best friend's house with several of his stoner buddies when--out of the blue--he predicts, quite accurately, the accidental death the next day of one of the boys in the room. While it might be more natural for me to identify with Quindlen's middle-aged wife and mother, this kid had me. As he deals with his bizarre unwanted gift, he also must wrestle with feelings for his dead friend's charming girlfriend. This is an eerier, less humorous I Love You, Beth Cooper novel. The same actor could play either leading part--an awkward, out-of-the-mainstream teenage boy. Sara was right: I couldn't put it down.

I'll pick up next with more of my wide variety of reading experiences on the road and in the air. Stay tuned.

The Book Report:

Lacuna The Carolina Connection

It's happened again--I'm reading along, traveling vicariously to another part of the world, then zing! I'm back home faster than Dorothy clicking her slippered heels. It happened a few years ago when I read Steve Berry's The Romanov Prophecy (beware of spoiler!) when the title character moved from the former Soviet Union to San Francisco then Richmond then Boone, NC.

Now I've just finished Barbara Kingsolver's latest novel Lacuna, and after spending half the book in Mexico City with Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, and Lev Trotsky, the protagonist Harrison Shepherd ends up, of all places, in Asheville, NC, living on Montford Ave. I forget who said it--I think Richard Peck, the YA novelist, that we all read fiction for a sense of recogniton. I know I do.

Lacuna was a bit of a slow start for me. Anyone who reads Kingsolver's novels--and I've read them all--knows she gives lots of detail--places, colors, plants, food. It all fits in the end, but you have to read through it. This book is told through journals, letters, clippings from the newspaper, and it is, in the end, a satisfying tale.

The protagonist is a young man, a writer, who keeps himself out of the spotlight in his own stories. As a result, I found his secretary Violet Brown the most engaging character of the novel. She is a no-nonsense woman, widowed young, empathetic and wise. She's the one I missed most at the end. I will try to catch a glimpse of her or the home she inherited from Shepherd the next time I visit Asheville.

Lacuna The Carolina Connection

Reading on the Fly

As I get ready to travel to Istanbul with my best friend Debbie and her two daughters, I am loading up my eBook. From my summer list, I've added Pamuk's My Name Is Red, Gaiman's American Gods, Anna Quindlen's One Last Thing, Francine Prose's Anne Frank, and Joanne Proulx's Anthem of a Reluctant Prophet.

My only concern is maintaining the reader's charge for ten days. Other than that,a I am thrilled by the idea of traveling with one slim volume instead of a sack full of books (especially in light of the airlines' money-grubbing move to charge for luggage). Thirteen years ago, I went with Debbie's family to China and brought at least eight books along for the trip. My inner clock was so upset by being on the exact opposite side of the world that I often work at one in the morning certain that it must be morning. I read.

Since I love to read about a place I visit, I am especially eager for other titles besides those by Pamuk that are set in and around Turkey. The area is so rich with history and culture, I could probably read a shelf full of books and just scratch the surface.

In anticipation of a visit to Ephesus while we are there, I am already re-reading Paul's letter to the Ephesians. I'd love other recommendations. While I'm away, I'll try to report back.

Reading on the Fly

Let the Great World Spin

Just in time for my book club meeting (tonight) I finished Colum McCann's novel Let the Great World Spin. We are always either too indecisive or too eager to read ever to settle on one book. This book is paired with Major Pettigrew's Last Stand. While two could not be any more different in tone or mood, I realize that both involve characters who area able to develop close, dear friendships across cultural barriers.

The central event of McCann's novel is the famous tightrope walk between the two towers of the World Trade Center by Phillipe Petit in August of 1974. The author has taken some liberties creating Petit's back story, but all the other characters--the main characters, actually, intersect in unusual ways around those days in New York City. He brings together two Irish brothers--one who has taken religious vows then fallen in love, a mother and daughter who are prostitutes, a couple living a 1920s reenactment until involved in a hit-and-run, and five mothers who have lost children in the Vietnam war, coming together to share their grief and to keep their sons alive through memory.

Because the story moves back and forth between the characters, sometimes told in first person, sometimes in third, and also back and forth in time, the reader has the experience of surprise and discovery as the pieces fit together. The story, though, never feels disjointed or intentionally confusing.

I had read somewhere that this book had been described as a 9/11 novel, so the only real surprise was that it wasn't--at least not directly. With the towers so central, New York so firmly set as the setting, the future of those towers loomed powerfully. McCann presents so many different eyewitness perspectives to the tightrope walk that I was reminded of all those other witnesses 26 years later, those who would always mark where they were when.

While Major Pettigrew wrapped up all the tidy ends, Let the Great World Spin did just the opposite: the author reminds us that is exactly what the world will do.

Let the Great World Spin

Summer Reading: Making My Own List

My friends who teach year 'round get tired of my rubbing it in--three months off to refresh and renew. With a bookstore gift certificate burning a hole in my pocket, I shopped around the local Barnes and Noble this week, taking time to peruse the table of school summer reading assignments. As usual, it's an eclectic mix of new books and classics. I remained baffled by parents who object to summer reading requirements, considering them an encroachment on personal family time. As I recall, reading was one of the best parts of time together. I would probably still welcome a list. As I've probably mentioned before, the summer before my first full-time teaching job, I was given a list of the books my students would be reading. They actually had choices--and I was teaching three grade levels--so I had about fifteen books to read just to be ready for the school year. With few exceptions, they were wonderful.

Now, though, I make my own list, changing it as I go along, at suggestions that crop up from other book-loving friends I encounter. This summer, I want to put together a list for myself and then in early August to weigh it against the list I actually complete.

Already this year (this week) I have finished Helen Simonson's first novel Major Pettigrew's Last Stand, a charming book set in England that deals with late-in-life love, class and generational struggles, just about everything. It's a perfect summer read--some serious issues but not wrapped in cryptic language--and some genuinely engaging characters.

I am midway through Colum McCann's novel Let the Great World Spin, a darker, more serious story pulling the threads of several lives together, centered around the day the man walked a tight rope between the two towers of the World Trade Center.

Other books I plan to read include these:
Neil Gaiman's American Gods--I was so taken by The Graveyard Book and Anansi Boys that I
wanted to try another.
Orhan Pamuk's My Name Is Red--because I plan to travel to Istanbul for ten days this summer,
and I always want to read something set in the area where I travel.
Barbara Kingsolver, Lacuna--So far, everyone who's read this one says it's a good read.
Fatemeh Keshavarz, Jasmine and Stars: Reading More than Lolita in Tehran
Elizabeth Kosova, Swan Thieves--I always love some kind of art connection in my books
Francine Prose, Anne Frank
Julia Alvarez, In the Time of Butterflies
Ruth Reichl, Tender at the Bone
Perry Deane Young ,Two of the Missing (about Sean Flynn and his colleague's disappearance
in Vietnam

I'll be honest, just sitting here, looking at the shelves is enough to make me weep that summer is only three months, as time keeps ticking away.

I'd love to hear other recommendations for books absolutely not to be missed. I'll report as I go, and I'll tally my summer reading at the end. For me, this will be the only test.

Summer Reading: Making My Own List

Let Summer Begin--Bring on the Books

If I have seemed mysteriously absent here for a couple of weeks, I have a logical explanation: end of semester essay grading. I admit that going into the teaching profession--especially teaching English--I should have known to expect this challenge, but the quantities has certainly increased. Now, though, I have papers graded, and I'm close enough to completing all the little details of red tape that I feel like beginning my true summer reading regimen.

I've had to depend on audio books for the last couple of weeks, and I'll admit that I got through four discs of Margaret Atwood's The Year of the Flood and had to give it up. I appreciate her versatility in writing the lyrics and score for the songs that accompany the text, but I won't be downloading on the iPod! I can take grim, and I can take weird, but this novel--at least for me right now--was too much of both.

Fortunately, I have plenty of options lined up for reading. I have two selections for my May book club, Major Pettigrew's Last Stand (which so far is delightful) and Let the Great World Spin, which I started reading last night when I was caught without Major Pettigrew. I look forward to starting in front of my bookshelves and prioritizing. Summer reading is such a pleasure that I cannot imagine why parents and students bristle at their assignments. Meanwhile, I look forward to hearing from all my reading friends to learn what great choices are in their summer stacks.

Let Summer Begin--Bring on the Books