Muruch

Helen Simonson’s debut novel Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand left me with the deep feeling of elation and satisfaction that only a truly great book can create. I can’t remember the last time I fell so completely in a love with a character as I did with this novel’s stuffy, utterly charming titular protagonist. Author Simonson has managed to write one of the sweetest, most heartwarming love stories I’ve ever read without ever falling into the trap of sappy sentimentality – all the while tastefully and humorously tackling such weighty issues as racism, nationalism, religion, family dramas, class distinctions, and the sharp difference in how various cultures can perceive a shared history.

Set in the small, old-fashioned English village of Edgecombe St. Mary’s, the story centers on aging widower Major Ernest Pettigrew. The Major is introduced as the epitome of traditional values and manners, who clings to the old ways of his village as much as he does to his father’s two antique Churchill hunting rifles. Said rifles have been the objects of the Major’s lifelong adoration and serve as the catalyst for a somewhat comical battle with his greedy relatives over his brother’s estate.

When the Major strikes up a friendship with a widowed Pakistani shopkeeper and kindred bookworm named Mrs. Ali, he begins to see himself and his closeminded neighbors in a whole new light. The delicate, subtle romance that blossoms between the Major and Mrs. Ali grows into a middle-aged, multi-cultural Romeo & Juliet as they face the harsh criticism and prejudice of their respective friends and families, who disapprove of the couple’s dissimilar skin colors, religions, and incomes.

A tense and emotional subplot regarding Mrs. Ali’s nephew and her family’s strict adherence to their religion adds to the forces separating our dignified and hesitant lovebirds, ultimately resulting in the novel’s breathtakingly climatic scene.

Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand will fit snuggly on any bookshelf filled with classics both old and new. And it would make a wonderful, sophisticated romantic comedy if ever it’s turned into a film.

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Vic’s husband and fellow bookworm Brendan loved James Hynes’ new novel Next so much, he had to do another guest review…

“By now the plane is empty behind him and the rest of the passengers are trailing away down the long cathedral arcade of the terminal through the pillars of light streaming in the windows: silhouettes fat and lean, major and minor, limping, striding, slouching, swinging briefcases, dangling backpacks, towing wheeled suitcases, in twos and threes, or weaving through the crowd, alone. None of the silhouettes ahead is swaying. None of them is carrying a duffle. None of them is dangling a book at her hip and holding her place with a finger. Kevin can no longer see his slinky seatmate, Ms. Joy Luck Club, the girl in the camisole, the girl with the tattoos, the girl who walks like Lynda.”

Ah, the joy of browsing at the library. I’d never heard of James Hynes, but the colorful cover of Next captured my attention, as did the brief summary on the inside flap. It exceeded my expectations. The author is remarkable at capturing detail and the human condition.

As Kevin Quinn goes through life, his mind returns again and again too the past. And much of the time not spent reliving the past is used up fearing the future – from terrorist attacks to fatherhood. It takes a lot to help him truly experience the present. Kevin trudges through a viscous Austin, following his own selfish longings until he can follow them no further.

Next has been aptly compared to Ulysses. It’s not quite so formidable, but Kevin’s quest through a city in one abbreviated day, his encounters with the people of that city, and his constant reminiscences certainly reminded me of Bloom’s Odyssey.

Next captures the anomie of our modern existence, the constant need for something better, for instant gratification. Only when faced with something momentous does Kevin appreciate the blessings in his life. And what a momentous something it is. The final act of this work will take your breath away.

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James Hynes was recently interviewed at Large Hearted Boy.

James Hynes Official Site

The Hand That First Held Mine is the new novel by Irish author Maggie O’Farrell. After falling in love with O’Farrell’s writing style in her last book The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, I tracked down and devoured all of her brilliant previous works. Maggie O’Farrell’s eloquent prose combined with the depth of her characters and her unique method of weaving subtle mysteries into emotional dramas have made her my favorite living author. And The Hand That First Held Mine only adds to her already substantial literary legacy.

“Listen. The trees in this story are stirring, trembling, readjusting themselves. A breeze is coming in gusts off the sea, and it is almost as if the trees know, in their restlessness, in their head-tossing impatience, that something is about to happen.”

In The Hand That First Held Mine, O’Farrell deftly alternates between two sets of characters living in the same city – London, England – in two different time periods.

We begin with Lexie and Innes, an eccentric Bohemian couple living in the artsy Soho area of London during the 1950s. O’Farrell vividly portrays the era as Lexie and Innes meet, fall in love, began working together for Innes’ art magazine, and eventually move in together. Their freelovin’ bliss is short-lived, however, when Lexie learns of Innes’ checkered past and other secrets that threatened to tear their relationship apart. Theirs is a heartbreaking, multi-layered tale of love and loss with far-reaching consequences both throughout the rest of Lexie’s life and into the generation that follows.

This flashback interchanges with a contemporary young couple – Londoner Ted and Finnish painter Elina – who are each suffering with their own kind of post-partum depression as they attempt to adjust to life with a baby. Both spouses struggle with unusual memory problems – Elina has blocked out the traumatic birth of her son and Ted seems to be discovering repressed memories of his own childhood. Meanwhile, the couple are sinking beneath the standard stress and chaos of having a newborn in the house, bickering and resenting each other every step of the way.

Initially this second thread of the book is a somewhat painful, slow-moving read that makes you think twice about having a child, but the couple’s turmoil becomes more compelling as the connection between the novel’s two worlds is gradually revealed.

The idea for the first retro storyline was born when O’Farrell attended a London exhibition of photographs from 1950s Soho. One particular portrait from the exhibit appears in the modern story, giving us the first glimpse of a possible link between the two seemingly unrelated plots.

The tragic revelation when O’Farrell finally and fully ties the two couples together is beautifully executed, yet what I enjoyed most about this novel were the small glimpses of time and life outside the central characters. In between it all, O’Farrell gives brief, lovely descriptions of the inhabitants of various buildings – including the office of Innes’ magazine – then and now. This innovative tactic really brings home the idea that time doesn’t heal old wounds so much as cover them over with new life.

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Maggie O’Farrell Official Site

Jamie Ford’s book Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet is a great work of beauty and eloquence. The split-narrative novel flows gracefully through heartwarming romance and heartbreaking tragedy in the turbulent war-torn past and the drastic changes and second chances to be found in the modern era.

The story centers on Chinese-American Henry Lee, alternating between his chaotic adolescence in 1942 and his aging present in the mid 1980s. Ford uses historical elements surrounding the internment of Japanese citizens during World War II as the setting for Henry’s childhood romance with Japanese friend Keiko, and the factual discovery in Seattle’s Panama Hotel of belongings of Japanese immigrants from that time as the catalyst for adult Henry’s memories.

The idea for Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet was initially inspired by the childhood experiences of the author’s father – Ford wrote a short story that would evolve into the novel about the “I Am Chinese” button his father wore as a child. The button is as much a character in the novel as Henry and Keiko, who are the only students of Asian descent in an otherwise all-white private school in 1942 Seattle.

Henry’s overbearing, nationalistic father (who also insists Henry only “speak his American” at home) forces Henry to wear the “I Am Chinese” button to distinguish his son from “the enemy” Japanese during a time when even American citizens of Japanese heritage were rounded up as suspected spies and sent to “internment camps.”

Henry’s blossoming love with Keiko becomes a victim of such prejudice, first within his own home and then in the frightening outside world. The story is brimming with a wide array of emotions – the sweetness of Henry’s feelings for Keiko, the kinship he finds with a black jazz musician, the torment he experiences from school bullies, the frustration born from his strained relationship with his father, and the gut-wrenching sorrows and separations born of war.

The unique plot would be interesting and strong enough on its own, but Ford’s writing style brings it vividly, beautifully to life. The love story is touching without being overtly sentimental, the hurtful consequences of war and prejudice are subtly portrayed without being graphic or disturbing, and the inaudible soundtrack of 1940s jazz woven throughout the story gives the novel a palpable atmosphere of sophistication and elegance.

The book also has the rare ending that is truly satisfying. So often it seems even the best of novels lose steam by the end, but Ford prevented this by writing the final scene before the rest of the novel. The lovely paperback edition I bought includes “A Conversation With Jamie Ford” (you can read it at Ford’s site) in which the author is quoted as saying: “that ending is all-important for me. And by ending, I mean a real, unambiguous, nonmetaphorical ending. I look at storytelling as either banking or spending emotional currency with the reader. Good or bad, happy or sad, the ending is where those emotional debts are paid.” He more than accomplished that goal.

I can’t emphasize enough how extraordinary this novel is, everyone should read it.

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Jamie Ford’s Official Site

Lost Highway by Richard Currey is one of the best novels I have ever read, and I’ve read more books than I can remember. I highly recommend it to fans of Crazy Heart. Lost Highway‘s protagonist Sapper Reeves may be a tad more sentimental and genteel than old Bad Blake, but he’s every bit as authentic and enthralling. And Richard Currey’s prose is refreshingly eloquent without detracting from the simplistic nature of this country musician’s story or its rustic Appalachian setting.

Lost Highway spans the life of fictional West Virginian banjo player Sapper Reeves, starting with his optimistic early days as leader of the bluegrass band The Still Creek Boys. The story follows the band from their starving but enthusiastic musical beginnings through their brief brush with fame and subsequent disillusionment – all the while artfully portraying their struggle to survive the arduous life on the road.

As his band and his mental state slowly disintegrate, so does Sapper’s previously happy marriage. He soon finds himself seeking solace from the bottle as all that he formerly loved slips away. This is only the beginning of the drastic changes and heart-wrenching losses the aging musician will face before the end of this beautiful novel. Just as he is dealt his most crushing blow, life grants Sapper a bittersweet second chance.

I checked out Lost Highway from the library last week and read it in two sittings. I’ll be buying my own copy after publishing this review, because this is the kind of book I will re-read and relish for years to come.

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Shades of Grey is the new novel by British author Jasper Fforde. I loved Fforde’s debut novel The Eyre Affair, but the rest of the Thursday Next series and the entire Jack Spratt series were too light and silly for my taste. Fforde’s writing is at its best when there’s a darker edge to his satirical fantasies. Happily, he is back in top form with Shades of Grey, the story of a Dystopian society ruled by a “Colortocracy.”

In the bizarre world of Shades of Grey, everyone is born mostly color blind. Individual vision typically contains one predominant color perception, which is heavily influenced by heredity. So a “Red” family may have members who see various shades from pink to crimson.

Since their society is strictly divided into social castes based on color, every aspect of life – home, work, even marriage – is based on what color a person can see. Greens are the top class, Yellows are usually politicians or law enforcement, and Greys are the slave class. Parents arrange marriages in order to strengthen the “hue” of their family, and “complimentary colors” (such as Green and Red) are forbidden to marry.

“The chromatic scale” is the central focus of everything, but the rulers oppress the common people with various other strange rules and teachings. History has been all but erased , anyone or anything that isn’t easily explained is ignored as invisible (a.k.a “Apocryphal”), and those who receive too many demerits (for such offences as bad manners) are terminated (a.k.a. “Rebooted”).

The protagonist is Eddie Russett, a Red who is sent to a “Fringe” town as punishment for a rebellious act (he suggested a new method of queuing). Despite the occasional question and idea, Eddie is mostly satisfied with the status quo and plans to marry into a more prominent Red family. But Eddie’s devotion to the system is rocked by a series of revelatory events and discoveries, and his inexplicable attraction to a volatile Grey named Jane.

There are several other inventive details in Fforde’s colorful new world – man-eating plants, psychotropic color addiction, and cryptic references to the “Something That Happened” – that are sometimes annoyingly over-the-top, but mostly entertaining. That could be said of the entire novel. The humor tends to overshadow the intelligence of the writing, but it’s still a clever and solid narrative. Fforde is no Vonnegut, Huxley, Kafka, or Orwell, but he’s as close as we get these days and has certainly been inspired by them.

I have mixed feelings over Fforde’s plans to turn Shades of Grey into a new series. I enjoyed this novel immensely and the cliff-hanger ending certainly left enough unanswered questions for at least a sequel, but I can’t help but expect this series to unravel like the previous two. Still, this novel is one of my favorites of recent years.

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Jasper Fforde Official Site

Joshua Ferris’ new book The Unnamed has restored my faith in the modern novel. After a year of reading mostly classics (Thomas Hardy, George Elliott, Willa Cather, Edith Wharton, etc.), I was hard pressed to come up with five new novels for my Top Books of 2009, and they were really the only recent literary releases I’ve liked enough to finish. It seems far too often a reader is forced to choose between style and substance. But Ferris (author of Then We Came to the End) has an intelligent and eloquent writing style to match the imaginative and riveting plot of his second novel.

“Not biological death, which brought relief, but the death that harrows the living by giving them a glimpse of the life they’ve been denied.
Its sorrow was a thousandfold any typical dying.”

The Unnamed literally follows a man who can’t stop walking. Tim Farnsworth was a happily married man, father, and successful lawyer whose life is dismantled by his own body.

Some uncontrollable force compels Tim’s feet to walk against his will, leading him away from all that he loves at random moments throughout his life. He and his distraught wife Jane are helpless against this unknown compulsion, and the many doctors and therapists they consult prove to be useless.

Initially the problem seems to be some mysterious physical ailment that temporarily activates his legs, leaving Tim exhausted when his muscles finally tire out. But as his involuntary sojourns become more frequent and prolonged, the disruptions to his life as well as the physical and emotional consequences he suffers dramatically increase.

Tim’s physical agony eventually leads to a mental breakdown and the total destruction of his marriage and career.

Some reviews call this unusual story a metaphor for addiction or spiritual crisis, and I can understand why. But there are also elements of chronic physical and mental illnesses mirrored in Tim’s frustration with his clueless doctors and his wife’s guilt ridden resentment as she pushes aside her own pain and desires to support her husband.

The Unnamed is really any external or internal thing that tears a family apart and Ferris perfectly portrays the isolation, anger, and heart-wrenching sorrow that each member of the family feels as a result.

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Joshua Ferris Official Site

Look at the Birdie is a new, posthumously published collection of short stories by late, great author Kurt Vonnegut. I always feel it’s a little disrespectful for works to be published without the permission of their authors after their deaths, but I couldn’t resist reading new material from my favorite author of all time. And if ever a work called for an unauthorized release, it’s this one.

Kurt Vonnegut’s genius continues to astound me. His seem to be the only books whose endings I can never even partially predict. I’m very selective with the short stories I read since it seems far too often that they badly written, failed novels. A truly good short story requires an even greater deal of creativity, intelligence, forethought, and restraint than the most classic novels. Yet Vonnegut makes it all seem so easy.

Look at the Birdie begins with the brilliant and unusual “Confido.” A poor but happy couple find themselves cynically questioning their life together thanks to the attractive, insidious invention that gives the story its title. Confido claims to be the cure for loneliness, but instead it intensifies and vocalizes a person’s deepest, darkest thoughts.

From there we’re introduced to a lonely worker in “Fubar” whose entire outlook on life is changed by a new co-worker, and an author whose previously happy marriage has been thrown into chaos by the bitter success of her novel in “Shout About it from the Housetops.”

Many of the stories take simple, ordinary people and throw them into extraordinary, sometimes Kafkaesque circumstances – such as the innocent couple victimized by one small town’s unjust justice system in “Ed Luby’s Key Club.”

One of the more interesting stories in the book is “The Petrified Ants,” which follows two Russian myrmecologists as they discover the remains of an ancient, highly intelligent and civilized race of ants that read books and lived in houses. What the two scientists discover about the decline and fall of these great ant predecessors has chilling similarities and appalling implications for humanity.

My personal favorite story in the collection is “The Nice Little People,” a fantastical tale of a man who unwittingly brings a strange and dangerous object into his home. It is the most innovative, impressive, twisted story I’ve ever read, but I think it’s more effective if you don’t know anything about it before reading it. So I’ll say nothing more.

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Kurt Vonnegut Official Site

Well, my Best Books of the Decade list wore me out, so my year end book list will be brief. Click the titles to read my reviews – except #5 and #3, which are Amazon links…

*Honorable mentions to two books I read and loved for the first time this year: Ferney by James Long (originally released in 1999) and the creepy gothic novel We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson.

5. Alan Bradley: The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

I just finished this cute novel about a precocious eleven year old chemist and amateur detective named Flavia. The second half was unnecessarily heavy with exposition, but it was a fun read.

4. David Grann: The Lost City of Z

I also recently finished this exciting non-fiction book, which chronicles explorer Peter Fawcett’s search for El Dorado (a.k.a. The Lost City of Z) and his mysterious disappearance in the Amazon jungle.

3. Elizabeth Hay: Late Nights On The Air

2. Kurt Vonnegut: Look at the Birdie *

*Listed edited to include this one, which I didn’t read until 2010.

1. Samantha Harvey: The Wilderness

In addition to my usual year end lists, I’m also doing decade lists. Following are my favorite books that were released between 2000-2009. It turns out my two favorite books of the early aughts – Douglas Copeland’s Girlfriend in a Coma and Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity – were released in the mid-1990s. Oh well. With one exception, I only included books that were newly released in this decade…

10. Ian McEwan: On Chesil Beach

This unique little novella is probably not one that I would re-read, but I did like it enough to buy it after I’d checked it out from the library. There was just something so elegant and insightful about its painfully realistic depiction of an inexperienced couple’s awkward wedding night in 1962.

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9. Lin Enger: Undiscovered Country

2008 was a very good year for novels. As I said in my review: “Undiscovered Country is a modernized retelling of Shakespeare’s Hamlet set in small town Minnesota.” I still think it’s a shame a certain bloated, boring copycat Oprah book club selection stole the attention and praise this novel rightfully deserved.

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8. Maggie O’Farrell: The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox

I summed it all up in my review: “Irish author Maggie O’Farrell has quickly become a favorite writer of mine. Her new novel The Vanishing Act Of Esme Lennox is a beautifully written, enthralling piece of Gothic fiction that effortlessly weaves together the emotional and riveting threads of one family’s multi-generational tale. “

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7. Samantha Harvey: The Wilderness

One of the most unique books ever written. I would have put it at #1, except it’s too painful for me personally to ever re-read. As I said in my review, “Harvey’s beautiful, intelligent prose weaves the frayed threads of Jacob’s turbulent life and decaying mind together to create a magnificent tapestry of tragedy and hope.”

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6. Emma Forrest: Namedropper

Compared to the rest of the list, this book probably ranks higher for nostalgic value than the quality of the novel itself. It’s a fun read about the loves and semi-adventures of vivacious, melodramatic, Elizabeth Taylor-obsessed Viva, including her encounter with an ill-fated indie musician that was inspired by Jeff Buckley.

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5. Lee Maynard: Crum

Most of the world may not know who local writer Lee Maynard is, but he is known in West Virginia as the infamous author whose book Crum has been banned in various bookstores throughout the state. The book fictionalizes and scandalizes portions of Maynard’s adolescent years in Crum, WV. It’s been called an Appalachian Catcher in the Rye, but I think it’s far superior.

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4. Robert Cremins: A Sort of Homecoming

This book was originally released in Ireland in late 1999, but the paperback edition wasn’t released in the U.S. until 2000. It was Brendan‘s favorite book then, and I read it when we were living in Ireland during the summer of 2000. I agreed with Brendan’s assessment that the novel perfectly and humorously captured the real Dublin of that time.

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3. James Long: Ferney

I’m cheating a little here, as Ferney was originally released in the late 1990s. But the edition I bought and read this year was a 2001 reprint. As I said in my review: “Ferney is a tale of immortal love trapped within the confines of mortal flesh…the narrative is intricately and intelligently crafted.” This is one of those books that I couldn’t stop thinking about long after I finished it.

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2. Mary Ann Shaffer: The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society

This delightful little book is one that I expect to read over and over again throughout my life. I said in my review: “I found myself cheering for these fictional people I had unwittingly become so invested in. “.

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1. Markus Zusak: The Book Thief

As I said in my original review, “The Book Thief is one of the most brilliant and emotional books I’ve ever read. The book is narrated by the personification of Death, and tells the story of nine year old orphan Liesel Meminger in World War II era Germany..” It was #1 on my 2008 book list, and I think it will eventually be considered a classic.

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Ferney by James Long is a tale of immortal love trapped within the confines of mortal flesh. Young anxiety-ridden bride Gally, who suffers from night terrors, convinces her weary and dedicated husband Mark to purchase a decaying house in the small village of Penselwood, England. Gally finds herself irresistibly drawn to the old house and to the mysteriously familiar old man who lives nearby, while her cynical husband becomes increasingly suspicious of both.

It’s difficult to describe the story without partially spoiling it, but the narrative is intricately and intelligently crafted enough to withstand it. Early on, Old Ferney himself reveals the central plot – that he and Gally are reincarnated lovers. Then the rest of their historic love story is elegantly woven together with their awkward modern circumstances.

As Gally’s fragile mind begins to relive her multiple existences (both joyous and terrible) with soulmate Ferney as well as the painful separation of their many deaths, her heart becomes increasingly torn between her timeless love of Ferney and her current life with Mark. Things are further complicated by Ferney’s revelations regarding past promises that will drastically alter their future.

Glimpses of Gally and Ferney in centuries past mingle with their present dilemma seamlessly thanks to Long’s beautiful yet tastefully restrained prose. The ending contains a surprising twist that is as outlandish and heart wrenching as all that precedes it.

The brilliant gold and dark green cover of the UK edition I bought in Dublin is as gorgeous as the writing it contains.

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Buy @ Amazon.co.uk

Pakistani-Australian author Azhar Abidi’s debut novel Passarola Rising is truly (excuse the pun) uplifting. I happened across the book in a local library and was attracted to the bright blue cover featuring a ship sailing on air. Passarola Rising is a historic fantasy adventure that reminded me of both The Three Musketeers and Gulliver’s Travels.

Initially set in eighteenth century Portugal, the story centers on brothers Bartolomeu and Alexandre Lourenço. The brothers escape The Inquisition by fleeing in priest-turned-scientist Bartolomeu’s airship, The Passarola. Their adventures on air, land, and sea are exciting and fast-paced. There’s also a great deal of poignancy, as the brothers struggle with issues of faith, politics, and love, as well as battles both mental and physical.

I didn’t realize until finishing the novel that only the more fantastical elements of the story are fiction. Bartolomeu Lourenço de Gusmão was really an eighteenth century Brazilian priest and inventor who worked on a design for an airship. Modern sources differ on why he didn’t complete the airship, but interference by The Inquisition was rumored to have stopped his work. Whatever the truth about the real Bartolomeu was, I can’t imagine it was any more interesting than Abidi’s beautifully written fable.

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Following is my haiku book review of The Heart of the Canyon by Elizabeth Hyde, a very exciting novel about a group of strangers white water rafting through the Grand Canyon.

Strangers colliding
Adventure on white waters
Face nature’s terror

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Time for another haiku inspired by another of my all-time favorite books, Cleo by Jean Brody. Set in the 1920s, the novel follows teenage spitfire Cleo from the country to the city and back to the country, through love, loss, quirky comedies, and family dramas. I’d recommend it to fans of Billie Letts’ Where the Heart Is and Fannie Flag’s Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe.

Cleo by Jean Brody

Country girl escape
Speakeasy, Reverend heat
Strawberry secret

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Elizabeth Hay’s atmospheric novel Late Nights On The Air is part small town character study and part frontier adventure. Set in 1975, the book opens in a Canadian radio station as aging station manager Harry falls for cold, exotic siren Dido and hires insecure, inexperienced ingenue Gwen.

Tensions quietly, slowly build among members of the radio station’s ensemble as professional and romantic rivalries are formed. Meanwhile, the surrounding community becomes embroiled in a political battle over a proposed pipeline on native land. The two stories intertwine as employees of the station join local activists in protesting the pipeline. Yet the political drama continues to be overshadowed by the friendships, relationships, and conflicts between the co-workers.

Eventually, though, the central plot makes a drastic shift as the following summer finds four of station’s employees setting out on a perilous trek across the Arctic. The drama often feels subdued considering the volatile potential of certain characters and the dangers imposed by nature, but Hay’s eloquent prose beautifully portrays the complexities of ordinary relationships as well as the vast beauty of the untamed wilderness.

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Samantha Harvey’s mysterious and memorable novel The Wilderness delves inside the troubled, unraveling mind of Jacob, an elderly man in the early stages of Alzheimer’s. After reading a favorable review of the book (alas, I can’t recall where), I scoured the bookshops of Dublin during my recent visit to Ireland and found a lovely hardback edition at Chapters on Parnell Street. The novel was just what I hoped it would be – so well written that the sadness of its subject was perfectly balanced by the beauty of the text.

Rather than disclose her protagonist’s history and current circumstances in a straightforward manner, Harvey chose instead to reveal random, dreamlike sequences of Jacob’s life through the distorted memories and distraught imaginings conjured by his illness. These autobiographical fragments become increasingly erratic and intertwined as his mental powers deteriorate.

This technique could easily have resulted in an annoying, confused jumble. But Harvey’s beautiful, intelligent prose weaves the frayed threads of Jacob’s turbulent life and decaying mind together to create a magnificent tapestry of tragedy and hope.

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Ice-9 Ballads is the new soundtrack to Kurt Vonnegut‘s classic novel Cat’s Cradle. A 1997 collaboration between the late, great author Vonnegut and composer Dave Soldier, the album features nine tracks that were directly inspired by the book. I didn’t know quite what to expect when I first received it, but I can’t imagine a more perfect score for my favorite novel of all time.

Kurt Vonnegut adapted the lyrics himself from his novel Cat’s Cradle, and named the songs after chapter titles in the book. Dave Soldier composed and arranged the melodies, which capture the delightfully bizarre mood of the novel. The songs are fleshed out beautifully by The Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, Tiye’ Giraud, Jimmy Justice, and Valarie Naranjo on the African balaphone.

“Annihilation Life” opens in a mellow, old-fashioned blend of bluegrass, jazz, and classical styles akin to Pianafiddle. “Dyot Meet Mat” follows with a buoyant, chiming Caribbean vibe.

Vonnegut narrates several songs in a cool, spoken word manner reminiscent of William S. Burroughs. This vocal style is particularly used well in the standout track “Nice, Nice, Very Nice”, the lyrics of which were culled from Bokonon’s “Fifty-third Calypso” in Cat’s Cradle. The song swirls and chirps like a psychedelic Talking Heads number accented with dramatic orchestration and a choir of female voices that remind me of Cibo Matto.

“Duo for Clarinet & Meade Lux Lewis” returns to the vintage style of the opener with a splash of classic piano blues, then “14th Calypso” stirs a light hint of Gospel into Island instrumentation.

Also included on the disc is “A Soldier’s Story”, which was recorded in the style of a 1940s radio broadcast. The song is based on a text by Vonnegut that was inspired by the death of Private Eddie Slovik, the only American soldier to be executed for cowardice during World War II. Vonnegut voices the General in the piece, which again features music composed by Dave Soldier. DJ Phil Schaap fittingly plays “The Radio Announcer”, Dina Emerson is “The Red Cross Girl”, Wilbur Pauley is “The MP”, and Brad Hougham portrays “The Soldier.”

“East St. Louis, 1968″ closes the album with the tale of a young viola player’s first trip to the city. But it is undoubtedly the first literature-inspired portion of the disc that will certainly push it toward the top of my end of year list.

Kurt Vonnegut & Dave Soldier – Dyot Meet Mat (mp3) *
Kurt Vonnegut & Dave Soldier – Duo for Clarinet & Meade Lux Lewis (mp3) *

*mp3s hosted by Mulatta Records

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Buy @ Mulatta Records

The Dead is a short story in The Dubliners by James Joyce. You can hear an audio version recorded by my Irish husband over at Librivox. Following is a haiku I wrote after recently re-reading the story:

The Dead by James Joyce

Snow on his shoulders
Gathering, his heart bestirred
Her secret sorrow

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This is haiku review of another all-time favorite book of mine by another all-time favorite author of mine. It is also one of the most well written and poetic novels I’ve ever read…

Away by Jane Urquhart

Irish girl Moira
Seaside inamorata
Frontier family.

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The Voyage by Philip Caputo

Banished boys at sea.
Survival of the fittest.
A Gothic epic.

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Frankenstein by Mary Shelley:

Man who would be God.
Sad creation abandoned.
Doomed to wander. Lost.

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Moby Dick by Herman Melville:

Call me Ishmael.
Ahab’s white whale heart of Hell.
Obsessed depths of death.

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Inspired by the contest that I won on The Paul & Spike Show, I’m starting a new series of “Haiku Book Reviews” on Muruch. The first haiku, which won the contest, is about my favorite book of all time:

Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut

Ludicrous mankind.
No damn cat, no damn cradle.
A doomsday satire.

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The Tenderness of Wolves is the debut novel by Scottish author Stef Penney. The multi-layered (and multi-character) story is set in the icy frontier of 19th century Canada. Like The Outlander and Undiscovered Country, the tension and suspense of this murder mystery is enhanced by its snowy landscape.

The Tenderness of Wolves is a densely populated epic, so it was a little difficult to sort out the multiple plots and characters. But I personally like my imagination to be challenged in such a way, and the complexities of the story gave the book momentum while allowing the author to pace out the action with pretty prose.

Though each chapter is narrated by a different character, it is undoubtedly Mrs. Ross who is the protagonist of the story. It is she who discovers the dead body of French fur trader Laurent Jammet in his cabin, and it is she who first suspects that her missing teenage son, Francis, may be the murderer.

The murder and Mrs. Ross’ subsequent search for her son are the central plot of the novel, but there’s also an enthralling subplot involving two missing girls that is subtly intertwined with the main story.

As Mrs. Ross and her reluctant guide Parker reach a Scandanavian settlement, we’re introduced to a whole new cast of immigrant characters. Things get a little muddled here, as the arrival of so many new character connections and histories makes it easy to forget what we had already learned about the all-powerful Hudson Bay Company and independent fur traders like the deceased Laurent Jammet. This leads to my only real complaint about the novel, which is the ending.

While the climax of the story is much more action-packed and fast-paced than what precedes it, it involves one of the few characters who was not introduced and fully fleshed out early in the book. I was personally hoping that the cryptic flashbacks to Mrs. Ross’ time in an asylum would provide some grand revelation in the final chapter, but alas they did not. So what could have been an emotionally charged final scene falls flat simply because I was not as invested in the new character as I was in the others. The ending aside, though, the book is very memorable and well written.

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The History of Love by Nicole Krauss is such a beautiful, intricate, emotional novel that I will forgo my usual in-depth review style for fear of robbing potential readers of any the story’s surprises. I will say that the three main characters are: Leo, an old Jewish curmudgeon who is unaware that a novel he wrote as a young man was published; Alma, a young girl named for one of his characters; and Alma’s troubled and devout younger brother Bird. The plot is a little slow at the beginning, but is utterly absorbing once it hits its stride. Even after we as readers unravel the various threads of the story, there is such suspense as we wait for the characters of the novel to weave them together. Though The History Of Love did not produce in me as intense an emotional reaction as Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief, it is one of those rare books that left as deep an impression on my mind as a vivid and exciting dream.

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Is it possible to fall in love with a record label? Because I think I have, at least a little. The book Worlds Of Sounds: The Story of Smithsonian Folkways by Richard Carlin chronicles the origins and evolution of Smithsonian Folkways. The nonprofit music organization was born in 1940 from a conversation between original Folkways label founder Moses “Moe” Asch and Albert Einstein. Asch was an immigrant who dreamed of breaking ethnic stereotypes and Einstein encouraged him to capture “all the sounds of the world”. And he did just that.

From the very beginning, Moe Asch endeavored to explore obscure and exotic genres of music, spoken word, and other sounds that had been abandoned or entirely neglected by major labels, working closely with any artist who walked through his door with the desire to record. Some of the artists he welcomed, nurtured, and befriended were Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly, and more recently, Lucinda Williams.

Asch issued the very first live jazz recordings, and it’s not a big leap to say that concert series like Mountain Stage owe him a credit. He was also the originator of the fully documented liner note booklets that are one of my personal favorite features of Smithsonian Folkways albums.

Asch shared my view that “jazz is folk music”. Though one of the more interesting anecdotes tells of Asch’s ill-fated sole foray into commercial jazz. There aren’t many who could claim Nat King Cole drove them into bankruptcy. Also of note are the vivid descriptions in the book of the field recording process, culled from correspondence between Asch and his collaborators. I especially enjoyed reading about the perils one folk guitarist faced when playing with three hundred turkeys.

Though it is of course difficult to differentiate fact from legend in such a biography, the perception I get of Asch is one of a kindred music enthusiast. He valued albums over individual hits and sincerity over popularity. This principle resulted in a young Bob Dylan being turned away from his studio due to what Asch deemed a false twang in Dylan’s singing voice that Asch felt was designed to appeal to more fans.

Unlike major labels, Asch was determined to keep his recordings in print even if there was little or no demand. In his words, “Just because the letter J is less popular than the letter S, you don’t take it out of the dictionary.”

One of the more controversial aspects of Asch’s business was his practice of reissuing recordings made and owned by other labels without obtaining permission. This resulted in Asch being labeled “a musical pirate”. Sound familiar? Asch’s response was: “cultural property belongs to all”.

Asch’s reasoning was that he was “creating new audiences for the music, which actually benefited the labels”. He felt that the major labels were “destroying the culture” by suppressing less popular recordings simply because they owned them, and he was determined to make the recordings available to the public. I think any music blogger would be inspired by Asch’s battle with major labels in the early days of copyright litigation.

However, Asch was no saint to his artists. Though he granted them total creative freedom, he gave them little compensation for their work and many later accused him of not paying royalties to them at all. Asch had no qualms about putting the survival of his oft struggling label ahead of the interests of the artists. While historically we may appreciate the huge part Asch played in preserving these recordings, one can’t help but sympathize with singers who felt betrayed by the man they placed so much trust in.

All of this and much more is detailed on Carlin’s book. The reader’s absorption in the material may vary with the genre or era discussed in each chapter. I was personally drawn more to the sections on blues and folk music than the albums for children. The contents of the book are just as diverse as the Folkways catalogue.

The latter portion of the book deals with the transfer of the Folkways archives to The Smithsonian, the creation of the new Smithsonian Folkways label, and the organization’s efforts to continue Asch’s vision of bringing sounds of the world to everyone – including the institution’s embrace of the digital age, which led to their work with music websites like Muruch.

Woody Guthrie – Buffalo Gals (mp3 expired) *

*mp3 posted w/ permission of Smithsonian Folkways

Muruch Smithsonian Folkways Reviews

Smithsonian Folkways Official Site

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