Birds of a Lesser Paradise

One thought kept running through my head as I read Megan Mayhew Bergman’s debut short story collection: If Jennifer Egan spent a day birding with Jonathan Franzen, this is the book she’d come up with. Because seriously, if you’re an animal-loving Jennifer Egan fan, this book has your name all over it. The twelve stories that comprise Birds of a Lesser Paradise capture fragile, imperfect people living in an animal world. The collection is melancholy in tone and most of the stories are about people wanting to reclaim a part of their past, but almost all of them are tinged with hope.

The book begins with “Housewifely Arts,” which beautifully sets the tone for the rest of the collection. It’s main protagonist is a woman reflecting her tense last few years with her mother. She’s taking a road trip with her son in hopes of finding her mother’s African gray parrot, who can perfectly mimic her mother’s voice. Now a mother herself, the woman is starting to understand her mother and longs to retrieve a tangible lost piece of her.

One of the more memorable stories is “Saving Face,” about a once-beautiful veterinarian named Lila whose face was mauled by a dog; her face is now partially disfigured. As someone who could always get by on her looks, she now felt that she had to get by on her intelligence and her actions, and the repercussions were affecting other areas of her life. Everything about her is immobilized by this new self-consciousness.

American Dervish

Hayat Shah is a young Pakistani boy coming of age in the early 1980s. His family is Americanized in most regards — in fact, his father Naveed can’t stand hanging around the more traditional members of the Muslim community — and Hayat has lived a fairly mundane Midwestern childhood. His biggest problem is trying to figure out his parents’ strained relationship, which he is still too young to fully understand. Then everything changes with the arrival of Mina, his mother’s best friend from Pakistan, who has fled from an abusive marriage and has come to live in the United States with the Shah family.

In an instant, Hayat falls in love. Mina is gorgeous and attentive, treating him like a son. She is a devout Muslim, and when she sees Hayat’s interest in learning more about Islam and the Quran, she eagerly begins telling him stories to help him understand the Quran’s messages. Hayat eagerly soaks up these lessons and looks forward to the private time he gets to spend with Mina. All is well until his father’s Jewish colleague — and his father’s best friend — begins courting Mina.

There’s a lot going on in this book. As with any culture or religion, there’s a spectrum of people who each have their own interpretations. Even in Hayat’s family, there are wide ideological differences: Hayat’s father rejects Islam, thinking of it as a backward religion. Hayat’s mother isn’t exactly devout, but neither has she rejected Islam the same way her husband has. Then there’s Hayat, who falls so in love with the religion and its teachings — and obsessed with trying to impress Mina — that he even tries to become a hafiz (someone who has memorized the entire Quran). Still, he’s young and impressionable, and he’s caught in between two opposing Islamic views: Mina’s teachings, which are more spiritual and take into account the intent behind one’s faith (for instance, she sees no point in praying if one’s heart isn’t in it); and the extreme fundamentalist views he’s exposed to at the local mosque.

Quickies: Home & The Virgin Suicides

Home by Toni Morrison

Publisher/Year: Knopf, 2012
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 160
Source: Purchase

What it is: A novella about a traumatized Korean War veteran’s return home — both literally and figuratively — upon hearing disturbing news about his sister.

Why I read it: Toni Morrison is one of my favorite authors.

What I thought: It’s been a while since I’ve read a Morrison book, but there’s something instantly familiar about all of her writing.  There are actually two stories — and “homecomings” — going on here: Frank Money’s and his sister, Cee’s. It’s a very short book that can easily be read in one sitting, but by the end, you still feel like you intimately know Frank and Cee, and understand why they make the decisions they do. There’s little flair to this book; Morrison’s writing is spare and straightforward, but it is no less powerful or lyrical. Her characterizations are spot on, and her storytelling abilities never fail to inspire me.

A taste: “There was no love from Jessie Maynard in Portland. Help, yes. But the contempt was glacial. The Reverend was devoted to the needy, apparently, but only if they were properly clothed and not a young, hale, and very tall veteran.”

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The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides

Publisher/Year: Picador, 2009 (reprint)
Format: Paperback
Pages: 256
Source: Purchase

What it is: Set in 1970s Michigan, a group of adolescent boys struggle to make sense of the mysterious Lisbon family. Starting with Cecilia Lisbon’s suicide attempt, the boys become obsessed with trying to figure out why each of the five Lisbon girls eventually commit suicide.

Why I read it: I love Eugenides, and this was the only novel of his that I still hadn’t read.

What I thought: I already knew what was going to happen because I saw Sofia Coppola’s film adaptation years ago when it first came out. The film is pretty faithful to the book…and I thought the film was overrated. Unfortunately, that sentiment carried over to the book as well. It’s not a bad book, but it just didn’t do much for me. Eugenides’ writing is gorgeous as usual, but I just never really latched onto the story. Since it’s told from the point of view of a bunch of boys who were witnessing the Lisbons’ downfall from afar, the reader never really finds out what went on in the Lisbon household; you’re only given the same clues the boys were given, and you’re left to piece together whatever you can. Personally, I would have preferred the book from the Lisbon girls’ point of view, even though it would have meant taking away some of their mystery.

The Anti-Romantic Child: A Memoir of Unexpected Joy

When getting ready to start her own family, Priscilla Gilman envisioned a charmed life and looked forward to the pleasures and discoveries that motherhood would bring. Her father had held children in high regard while she was growing up, and she had always been encouraged to express herself creatively whenever possible. As a Wordsworth scholar, her work provided her with plenty of romantic images of what childhood entailed. Everything seemed perfect: she and her husband were both doctoral candidates at Yale, and both were determined to put family ahead of everything, even if it meant making sacrifices in their fledgling careers in academia.

When their son Benjamin was born, he began to immediately challenge the romanticized vision Gilman had always dreamed of. There were some obvious behaviors — like the fact that he hated to be held, therefore making bonding a lot harder — but he seemed normal enough that his parents brushed off their unease. Even so, Gilman always had a nagging suspicion that there was something different about Benjamin that she couldn’t quite put her finger on.

As Benjamin got a little older, it became apparent just how different he was. By the time he was a year old, he could recognize letters on the television screen. By the time he was two, he could read entire books and recite poetry; he also showed a talent with numbers and shapes. Still, however amazed his parents were, they seemed to accept Benjamin’s gifts in stride. Gilman writes:

I Never Promised You a Goodie Bag

At the age of twenty-two, Jennifer Gilbert returned home from her a post-college adventures in Europe and was prepared to find a job and take Manhattan by storm. Instead, while on her way to visit a friend, she was targeted by a stranger then violently stabbed multiple times with a screwdriver. She survived the attempted murder, but gone was the carefree person who had once dreamed of going to work in powerful designer suits and high heels. In her place was a severely traumatized young woman who was struggling to put on a brave face for everyone else, but was dying inside.

Now the founder and head of Save the Date, a successful event planning company in New York City, Gilbert looks back on the difficult process of piecing herself back together after the attack. The only way she was initially able to move on was to bury her emotions under a carefully controlled facade, and the emotional effects lingered for long after. But though her personal life may have been suffering, Gilbert could not have anticipated all of the turns her professional life would take; she was well on her way to a successful future within a few years of the attack.

Gilbert paints a vivid image of what she went through and the personal revelations she discovered along the way.  I Never Promised You a Goodie Bag begins with the harrowing retelling of what happened on that fateful day in May 1991. Though that event in itself was damaging enough, it was during her physical recovery that Gilbert began internalizing the need to swallow her pain:

Sunday Salon: Thank You!

The winners for the Goodreads Independent Book Blogger Awards were announced earlier this week. If you recall, this blog was entered in the Adult Nonfiction category. Almost 10,000 people voted on over 800 blogs in 4 categories, so I was surprised to discover that this blog was one of the 15 finalists for the Adult Nonfiction award!

I didn’t win, but considering the sheer number of entries and the fact that this is a pretty small blog, I am humbled to have even made it to Round 2!

The winners in each of the categories were:

• Adult Fiction: Insatiable Booksluts
• Adult Nonfiction: Sophisticated Dorkiness
• Young Adult & Children’s: Nerdy Book Club
• Publishing Industry: Writer Beware Blogs

And these were my fellow finalists for Adult Nonfiction:

• The Girl from the Ghetto
• Jeannie Walker – Award Winning True Crime Author
• The Parchment Girl
• Reading, Writing, Working, Playing
• Misfit Salon
• At Home With Books
• A Novel Affair
• Scandalous Women
• The Dunce Academy
• World War ll London Blitz Diaries 1939-1945
• The Well-read Naturalist
• Janet Boyer Reviews
• Notes From The Parsonage

Major congrats to all of the winners and finalists, and especially to Sophisticated Dorkiness, who always has great book recommendations! Most importantly, my sincere thanks to everyone who voted for this blog. You all are awesome!

First They Killed My Father

In 1975, Loung Ung lived in privilege with her parents and six siblings in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. At the age of five, she already knew she was more fortunate than many of the other children she encountered on the busy streets of her city. Her father was a government official, so the family was well off and never had to worry about where they would get their next meal, or whether the children would be able to attend school.

Then in April 1975, Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge army invaded the city and forced everyone to flee; those who were unable to leave were killed. The Ung family was was forced to join hundreds of thousands of people traveling for days on foot, leaving behind everything they owned and not knowing if they would ever be allowed back. Since the Khmer Rouge were indiscriminately killing anyone associated with the former government, the entire family had to be careful of what they said at all times and move constantly to avoid attracting attention.

Though Loung was only five at the time, the horrors she describes are vivid and painful. Her youngest sibling was three at the time and the oldest was fourteen; with seven children, their parents struggled to keep the family safe and nourished. The family moved around to various camps; about two million Cambodians died from disease, starvation, or executions at the hands of the Khmer Rouge soldiers patrolling the area. To better protect the family, the parents decided it was best to separate and send all but the youngest child to work camps; this way, if their true identities were discovered, the entire family wouldn’t be murdered together.

The Cranes Dance

Kate Crane is a talented twenty-three-year-old soloist at a prestigious New York City ballet company. As she dances her part in Swan Lake one night, she throws her neck out and must dance the rest of the show in pain.

So begins Kate’s downward spiral for the remainder of the ballet season: her neck injury leaves her in constant severe pain that only Vicodin can alleviate, her boyfriend has left her for someone else, and her little sister Gwen — who is also a ballerina in the company, and is arguably the more talented of the two — has had a mental breakdown of some sort and is back home with their parents in Michigan for the foreseeable future. In Gwen’s absence, Kate is left to parse through the tumultuous relationship she has with her sister, who is both her closest friend and her biggest competition. The jealousy and anger that has been simmering in Kate is now able to bubble to the surface. Kate also feels relief since, as the protective older sister, she bore witness to Gwen’s complicated unraveling.

It is appropriate that the novel opens with Swan Lake, as Kate and Gwen’s relationship has a White Swan/Black Swan edge to it, but the reader can’t really tell who’s who. Kate certainly has a darker, narcissistic edge to her: she walks around pretending like an audience is always watching her and behaves accordingly. She also wants her sister to succeed but is jealous of Gwen’s perfection. Gwen, who Kate (the narrator) introduces in gradual increments, harbors her own secrets and competes with her sister in passive aggressive ways.

Ticket Masters: The Rise of the Concert Industry and How the Public Got Scalped

As an avid concertgoer who has done more than her share of obsessive concert-related things, one thought kept running through my mind as I delved deeper into Ticket Masters: “YOU PEOPLE SUCK.” And by “you people,” I mean pretty much anyone who has anything to do with live performances, from promoters, to ticketing companies, to brokers scalpers, to — depressingly, though unsurprisingly — even the performers themselves.

Dean Budnick and Josh Baron give readers an in-depth, behind-the-scenes look at rock concert industry. Armed with anecdotes and interviews, the authors chart the rise behind many of the artists and corporations who helped make the concert industry what it is today, such as Ticketmaster, Live Nation, Clear Channel, and Stub Hub. They go back to the early days of ticketing, when the concept of computerized ticketing was still unheard of and people were outraged when the service fees on tickets were raised from a quarter to a whopping fifty cents (must be nice).

As technology has progressed, fans have seen corporations merge and ticket prices skyrocket. The chance of a fan getting a front row seat through regular ticketing outlets is pretty much zero. Instead, it’s possible a show to be sold out within three minutes of going on sale — *cough* Franz Ferdinand, NYC, 2007, yes I’m still bitter even though I’ve seen them three times *cough* — only to see tickets for these shows available on sites like Stub Hub minutes later. That’s because, in addition to getting more money through service charges and ticket fees, performers regularly sell the best seats in the house to secondary ticket outlets and ticket brokers scalpers, or set aside a large portion of these prized seats for expensive VIP packages or fan club sales; either way, the fans getting screwed. Though I was already aware of this practice, it doesn’t infuriate me any less. (A small list of the performers who do this: The Rolling Stones, Beyonce, Lady Gaga, Madonna, The Eagles, Katy Perry, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, and Shakira, just to name just a few. And yeah, probably Franz Ferdinand, too.)

Maurice Sendak on The Colbert Report

Today’s Author Friday video goes out to the late, great Maurice Sendak. I was thrilled when this aired back in January:

You can watch Part 2 here. He will be missed.