Transcendent Kingdom

 

Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I loved this book about science, God, mental health, immigration, addiction, connection. So many great moments of insight. I loved Gifty and felt for her as she retells the story of her life--her mother's immigration, her father's abandonment, her brother's addiction, her mother's depression. She tries to fix it all but doesn't know how until she finally reaches out to those around her. I didn't love the how the story seemed to stop at the climax, but maybe I just wanted to spend more time with Gifty.

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I vaguely remembered childhood kindness, but maybe I was conflating innocence and kindness.

One-tenth of a centimeter is all that stood between pretty good and unimaginable sorrow.

If I've thought of my mother as callous, and many times I have, then it is important to remind myself what a callus is:  the hardened tissue that forms over a wound.  And what a wound my father leaving was.

times when I saw him strung out in front of the carp-filled pond at Big Spring Park when I would think, God, I wish it was cancer, not for his sake but for mine.  Not because the nature of his suffering would change significantly but because the nature of my suffering would.

It's true that for years before he died, I would look at his face and think, What a pity, what a waste.  But the waste was my own, the waste was what I missed out on whenever I looked at him and saw just his addiction. 

All you have to do is watch a child ride her bike directly into a brick wall or jump from the tallest branch of a sycamore tree to know that we humans are reckless with our bodies, reckless with our lives, for no other reason than that we want to know what would happen, what it might feel like to brush up against death, to run right up to the edge of our lives, which is, in some ways to live fully.

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

 

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

How do you rate a classic? Especially a classic that built a new genre in the English language and was one of the first to have an omniscient narration that focused solely on one character in an almost stream-of-consciousness (is there a term for that?). But on the other hand, you really do need annotation to help explain the Irish politics and history of the day (because quite frankly, I didn't even know who Parnell was) and to translate the Latin in the school boys jokes (because I didn't have an annotated copy and the kindle translation didn't know Latin??!). Also, after reading (quite extensively ) about it after the fact, a few explanations and pointed notes would have helped a lot. Reading it cold I was lost at least half the time. However, I did find the anecdotes the character remembered as being really real. Like they weren't necessarily the things you would put on an official timeline but instead the moments that made deep impressions on you for various reasons--the memories that aren't of anything in particular but that when you recall your childhood, for some reason they stick out. His experience of being saved is powerful and the scene where he sees his chums swimming and comes across a girl in the water that looks like a bird is transcendent. This is the moment he decides he is an artist and it is hard to describe the scene as anything but immersive. Really, I'm not sure what the rest of the novel is about but that scene was worth the rest of the plodding.

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How to be Eaten

 

How to Be Eaten by Maria Adelmann
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I'm partial to a good retelling and this one isn't bad. It sets Grimm's fairytales in today's world, with a mix of literal and fantastical. Red Riding Hood really was eaten and wears her assailant as a coat, but now she engages in self-defeating activities to deal with the trauma. In fact we meet all the women (yes, they are all women, hmmm) in a self-help group as they talk about their traumas. They all have fantastical elements but they all have real life issues dealing with traumas people with not so fantastic lives have. Love the inclusion of reality dating shows as part of the fantasy--we are creating our own myths and fairytales! This won't be for everyone--definitely need a suspension of belief, and it can be gory and crude at times (which, let's face it, fairytales are both) but the way Adelmann ties it all up together at the end is brilliant.

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It was like one of those trick pictures, in which you could see either the beautiful young woman or an old hag, never both at once.

What if, for some of us, moving on involves finding good in the bad?  Or being thankful for how we changed?  That doesn't mean we wished it to happen.

The Rules of Magic

The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A novel about three siblings who have magic, but discover they are cursed, that all their loved ones will leave them. Life happens. They realize the curse is just that the risk you take in caring about someone means that you will lose them eventually. It's an enjoyable read. The characters experience a lot of ups and downs. Can't say that anything was particularly amazing or disappointing.

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She understood why ancient monsters were often made of two creatures, with two hearts and minds.  There was strength in such a combination of opposites.

Hang the Moon

 

Hang the Moon by Jeannette Walls
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I liked the time era of this book--the time between the world wars. And from the end notes there is some truth to the characters in this story. I just didn't feel connected to them. The first half of the book seems like a log of people who come, and then go or die just to set up the second half of the book which isn't near as much fun as it should be. I think we are supposed to sympathize with Sallie and the bootleggers but I just couldn't. I felt they were sanctimonious as if it were ok to break the law, hurt others and make a profit as long as they could justify it. Everyone else was a bully, amoral, and wrong in their eyes, yet they couldn't see how their own actions were similar. I guess I just didn't relate well enough to the characters to care about them.

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