The Old Plantation

 The old plantation

dressed in a recent coat of whitewash,

shutters an identical shade of original green,

braced by golden beams of new wood 

as it slightly lists to the left

due to foundational errors.

The whole affair cordoned off.

A restoration of remembrance 

     or nostalgia;

     admiration

     or a recognition--

of weathered stairs polished with 

    plain worn shoes

    beating

    steady rhythm

    behind a staccato of kid leather boots;

of ledgers laid open to

   columns of profits

   as straight as

   harrowed furrows;

of windows peering out 

    at fields sprouting snow--

    a harvest of clouds--

    while wraiths creep amongst fog

    under the relentless glare of

    barren sockets 

 framed in green and white.

Caste

Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Wilkerson does a great job of having Americans confront the historical atrocities of slavery. Having the institution of slavery rub shoulders with the Holocaust and the Indian caste system and come out as the worst definitely makes me as an American feel shame and sadness for our past collective behavior. She also does a pretty good job of illustrating how the caste system still exists in America and I won't deny that . However, she also seems to equate anyone that voted for Trump as at least a closet racist and that anyone who was ever rude or mean to her did so because she is black. While I definitely won't discount her feelings (and some definitely were racist actions against her), nor will I even try to defend That Man (although Hillary Clinton was no real choice, either), I sometimes as a white person despair as to what I can do to make the situation better. I sometimes feel like the constant listing of slights, mini-aggressions, even blatant racism is counted against any white person, so that I feel so shameful of my skin, that a gulf between me and a black person has widened instead of shrunk. I am more terrified of inadvertently offending a person of color now that I think twice about engaging them in conversation. Even now I am certain someone is misunderstanding what I am trying to say. I will keep reading about race because with each book I understand better a different point of view and I can empathize just a little bit more.

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At first, religion, not race as we now know it, defined the status of people in the colonies.  Christianity, as a proxy for Europeans, generally exempted European workers from lifetime enslavement.  This initial distinction is what condemned, first, indigenous people, and, then, Africans, most of whom were not Christian upon arrival, to the lowest rung of an emerging hierarchy before the concept of race had congealed to justify their eventual debasement.

Their lives were to some degree a lie and in dehumanizing these people whom they regarded as beasts of the field, they dehumanized themselves.

The elevation of others amounts to a demotion of oneself, thus equality feels like a demotion.

seeing whatever is happening to them as, say, a black problem, rather than a human problem, unwittingly endangering everyone.

Pachinko

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed the first half of this novel about South Korean immigrants in Japan. The setting was new to me, and the set up was well-thought out, different and yet relatable. But then it evolved into more like vignettes of Korean-Japanese without a lot of preamble or follow-through. Even the characters that carried over from the first half seemed to change too drastically to be accounted for, making them almost different people. I would have preferred less breadth and more focus. Also, for a novel named Pachinko, and the game parlors playing a integral role in several of the characters lives, there was little description of the job or the game. I even had to google it to understand what it was. However, overall the experiences of this family opened my eyes to a different history and made me care.

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Saga

 

Saga, Vol. 1 by Brian K. Vaughan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The characters are the best in this graphic novel, and the action keeps going. It opens with a bang, has unique and interesting plot points, and comedy sprinkled throughout. It deals with prejudice, war, environment, violence, and family. The drawings are amazing and I loved the take on the spider-woman. However, it is just a bit too crude for me to continue this saga.

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running to stand still

 

Running on a treadmill

standing stock-still

I tell myself I am safe

from judgement, as though my slow progress

would offend, my stretched Lycra

would distress

I tell myself I am safe 

from runner's knee, and muscle pulls

concrete is too hard to fall

one trip to make me crawl

I tell myself it is easy 

drinks at hand, music wired

as though carrying what I need and desire

is too heavy

I tell myself it is easy

course predestined, speed anticipated

No sudden turns, dogs, streets gated

Even the seasons don't change

I don't change

I get nowhere.

Family Furnishings

Family Furnishings: Selected Stories, 1995-2014 by Alice Munro
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Alice Munro has perfected the realistic short story and though this collection contains 24 they are each perfection. I give her the Willa Cather award. Her stories often carry the tension between the expectation of a woman's role and her longing for something more fulfilling. In "The Children Stay" raw protagonist contemplates bringing her play's script on a beach outing with her children, but "then laid it down. She was afraid that she would get too absorbed in it and take her eyes off the children for a moment too long." This desire to be a good mother, a good wife, a good daughter, and the desire to realize one's own dreams and desires often chafes up against one another. Family Furnishings is also the perfect title because so many of these stories deal with family and a sense of place. The later stories become more and more autobiographical, but they all deal with the inheritance of expectations and responsibilities as well as personality and proclivities that are passed along family lines. I could, and probably should, expand what I mean by everything I just wrote, but I won't and encourage you to read a Munro story whenever possible.

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Mosquitoland

 

a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18718848-mosquitoland" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px">Mosquitoland by David Arnold
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this YA novel about Mim who is trying to reunite with her mother after a divorce. Mim's father worries about Mim's quirkiness, that it is a harbinger of mental illness prevalent in his family. So with Mim as an unreliable narrator we embark with her on a crazy road trip full of adventures and a crew of pals she picks up along the way. All in all, it is just purely enjoyable. Do I like that one of the pals has Down-syndrome which they treat well, (yay), but also (and is even stated) as sort of a pet, no. Still, it emphasizes that we are all a bit crazy, we all have problems, we are all doing the best we can (even the evil step-mother). It is a refreshingly original, sensitive, funny, thoroughly satisfying book.
FYI: Does have some language. Although not jarringly so.

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