Push, Sapphire

I read this book in about four hours.  At approximately 175 pages, it isn’t a long book by any means. Small though it may be, the storyline was fascinating and it packed a punch.

I found Precious to be confronting, upsetting, uncomfortable, unforgiving and raw.   Some parts of it just made me want to bury my head in the sand and pretend that this stuff doesn’t really happen to real people in this real world.  But the other parts of me applauded Sapphire for writing such a book. 

Yes.  Ugliness in this world exists.  Some fathers rape their daughters.  Some children see the most despicable things at a time when they should be colouring in or playing hide and seek.  But despite this ugliness and a feeling that the world is against you, it’s possible for great beauty to thrive.  This book was uplifting.  I thought it was beautiful.

How to Be a Woman, Caitlin Moran

So I actually finished this book two days ago and it’s taken me this long to get to writing what I thought.  This fact alone says a lot.  Initially, when I first finished the book I thought I liked it a lot.  In fact, if I had actually sat down and written my thoughts back then, it would be a different review to this one.

Two days ago I would have said I liked it, and that’s it.  But now, I can honestly say I only liked bits of this book.  Part of it I found offensive.  It had nothing to do with the description of masturbation, or the different names for vagina.  No.  It was this passage (and I can’t even recall what Moran was referring to):

“He will react as if he has had a live rat wanged at his head. He will run, screaming, away from you – like that Vietnamese kid covered in napalm.”

What.  The hell.  I actually wanted to stop reading the book then and there.  And it was only about a third of the way in.  But I pushed myself to finish the book, and it was fine.  I bought this on my kindle upon reading a Mammamia book recommendation and they raved about it.  Raved!  So I bought it.  And I think I laughed….oh, maybe twice?  If that?  I concede, I may have lost my funny bone at the mention of the “Vietnamese kid covered in napalm”.  And FYI – her name is Kim Phuc.  I know this because I have read the book “The Girl in the Picture” which is the story behind the famous photo.   Just sayin’.

But back to the book in question.  Moran raised a lot of interesting points that made me pause and think about what I do including what fashion I choose, and why I choose it.  Asking yourself “are the boys doing it?” as a kind of misogyny metre is something I have taken away from this as a very handy tip.  In fact I have come away from this book with a few handy tips and a few a-ha moments.  I will definitely be looking at the world a little differently now, thanks to Moran, so for that I’m thankful.

So overall, it was okay.  Just okay.  I realise that I am in the minority here as a lot of people think this book is the bees knees and they laughed til they cried through the entire book.  But that just wasn't me.

Room, Emma Donoghue

I have just finished “Room” and probably haven’t had a real chance to really think about and digest everything that happened.  I enjoyed reading the story from Jack’s point of view.  I also like the fact that you never get to know Ma’s name and there isn’t much dwelling on how she came to be in this room.  This story is solely about Jack and his journey and I was pleasantly surprised at how it wasn’t too taxing on the ol’ emotions.  Don’t get me wrong, it tugged on the heart-strings in places, but I was expecting a totally different type of story.

This is such a sad story but a great illustration of how people can survive in less than perfect conditions.  How Ma structures their days and has a set routine for the Scream Game, exercise, and even games utilizing the television, is both admirable and clever.  Telling Jack that everything on television isn’t real is another strategy for keeping him happy within these walls, given this is the only world he’s aware of.

I was on the edge of my seat throughout this book and found it to be a real page-turner.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Thoroughly.

On the cover of this book it reads:

'Room' is a book to read in one sitting.  When it’s over, you look up: the world looks the same but you are somehow different and that feeling lingers for days.

I’m sure I will be going over and over this story tonight before I go to sleep and more in the coming days.  I’m looking forward to talking to my book club girls about this one.

Sophie's Choice, William Styron

It’s taken me a while to finish this book.  About two weeks.  Ordinarily I’d be plowing through a book a week, but it all came to a screaming halt once I picked this book up.

It isn’t often that I dislike the main character of a book, but I found myself disliking Stingo, the young, impressionable protagonist.  His naïveté irritated me although the story would have been altered had it been told through the eyes of somebody older and savvy.  No doubt altered in a negative way for lovers of this book for there would be almost no mystery involved.

The layout of the book didn’t appeal to me either.  The disjointed story-telling, coupled with the lies that Sophie tells and the back-tracking and re-telling, all contributed to a feeling of being lost.

I got impatient with the tumultuous, doomed relationship between Nathan and Sophie and just wanted to get down to the nitty gritty of what this choice was!

I haven’t seen the movie, and I haven’t heard much at all about it.  I have heard many a reference to this choice of Sophie’s and curiosity got the better of me and acted as the motivation to read Styron’s novel.

For those of you who are where I was previously, I won’t ruin the story for you.  Suffice to say that I cried and if given the same choice, I don’t know what I would do.  It’s a cruel choice, but the alternative was just as cruel.

I learnt a lot.  About the concentration camps Auschwitz and Birkenau.  About their roles in the war.  About what each camp was designed for.  About the roles of the Poles in these camps and about the roles of some prisoners in the Commandant’s house.

It was with a sense of relief that I turned the last page and finished this novel.  And it’s with a small sense of dread that I pick up our next book club choice: Room by Emma Donoghue.  Since becoming a parent, I can't seem to stomach stories involving cruelty to children.

So tell me.  Have you ever read a popular book and not liked it?  Am I all alone here?

Life of Pi, Yann Martel

The last time I read the book, the year was 2005 and I was hooked.  This time round, armed with foresight, I made sure I paid particular attention to detail.  The island still baffles me.  I have heard people say they believe the island’s purpose is simply as a reprieve for Pi and “Richard Parker”.  I tend to agree.

I fall firmly in the camp that the ‘people’ version was true, and Pi created the animal version in his head to allow himself to deal with the horrors he faced.  Not that I am professionally qualified, but I would say it is possibly similar to when a personality splits in order to cope with severe trauma and tragedy.  If you saw someone being killed and devoured by another human being, wouldn’t you want to have an alternative reality to retreat to?  I know I would.  And I’m glad that Martel gave us this alternative for the entire story, only revealing a glimpse of the truth in the last ten pages.  Fantastic.  Most of the appeal in this book lies in those last few pages for me. 

Why do I believe the ‘people’ version?  A number of reasons really.  Pi’s father had the keys to the animals’ cages and he went down with the ship.  If the father had the keys, and he died, then no animals escaped from the cages.  If no animals escaped from the cages, there were no animals in a lifeboat.  And frankly, being adrift at sea for seven months would be enough for anyone’s reality to be skewed, specifically after witnessing heinous acts such as murder and cannibalism.  For Pi, a devout vegetarian and God-worshipping young man, the act of killing another human and eating their flesh, whether for survival or not, would simply be too much to bear and I understand why he would prefer to live with the ‘animal’ version.  How else would you carry on?

As a side note and a point of interest, Richard Parker is the name of several people in real life and fiction who became shipwrecked, with some of them subsequently being cannibalised by their fellow seamen.

All in all, I enjoyed the book a second-time round.  I’m not entirely sure it made me believe in God though.  It made me believe in human survival.  Perhaps it’s through Pi’s belief in his Gods that he has made peace with what he had to do. 

To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee

I cried.  I cried in the end and went to bed feeling sad.  I felt sad for Tom Robinson, Boo Radley, Scout, Jem, Atticus….everybody I guess.

 It seemed to be an impossible situation and it was true that Tom Robinson was dead the minute Mayella Ewing opened her mouth and screamed.  I even felt sorry for Mayella.   Everybody but her father.

I had already read this book, but it would have been over 20 years ago now (what?!) and I’m stoked that Shelley chose this for our book club.  I’m thankful I wasn’t around in the early sixties, especially in the Deep South.  Scout and Jem were fortunate enough to have Atticus to guide them through the confusion and hate that penetrated their little town.

It’s a sin to kill a mockingbird because “mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corncribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. This message of sparing the innocent runs through the entire book and there are many innocents in this story.  Dill’s tears after Tom Robinson’s conviction, and Atticus’ statement that “it seems only the children weep” add to this message and left me feeling more than a little melancholy.

And you?  What did you think?