Book review – Page 13 – Finding My Wings

Whether film or novel, Emma Donoghue’s ‘Room’ will grab you

Having just seen a preview of Room, the movie Emma Donoghue brought to life from her novel, I’m not surprised the process took five years. As a fan of the book, I was waiting to see how a story told through the eyes of a five-year old could be transferred successfully to the screen. Jacob Tremblay as Jack and Brie Larson as Ma made believers out of me within minutes. Lenny Abrahamson’s direction brought the difficult juxtaposition of home/prison to life.

My companion at the theater had not read the novel but was familiar with the real life situation in Cleveland a couple of years ago. We were impressed with how regular each of the characters appeared even in the midst of extraordinary circumstances. The acting was so persuasive I was still grabbed emotionally despite knowing exactly what would happen. The only jarring note was William H. Macy as Joy’s father, but he fit the role to a tee.

For those easily spooked I’d likely choose the book over the movie. While there is little violence, the story is about physical and emotional abuse and the most vulnerable. Room in both versions is a story very well told.

******** From October 16 **********

Five years ago, during one of my Book Expo America forays into the larger world of soon-to-be published titles, I picked up Emma Donoghue’s novel Room. With its colorful and childish lettering on the cover, it gave off a simple, calm impression. Was I wrong. It was Room that brought home the wonder of reading a title months before it hits the stores and the critics have at it. This book made such an impression that I seek it out every time I pass the shelf. So why write about it now? Today the movie version of Room is opening in New York, Los Angeles and other select locations. It will have wider distribution beginning next week.

Room is Jack’s story. Jack is five years old and lives with his mother, Ma, in a single room with no view of the outside world. Ma has been a prisoner for seven years after having been kidnapped. Jack is her captor’s son. As a reader, there is magic mixed with horror in Jack’s description of his world. Under the worst of possible circumstances Ma is nurturing a funny, bright boy while hiding from him the unending terror that is her life. When I read it back in 2010 the story was almost unimaginable. Two years ago, a reality all too similar to Donoghue’s fiction was uncovered in Cleveland. Three young women, and the daughter of one, were held in a similar fashion for up to ten years. The tragedy of life imitating art.

Emma Donoghue could have taken the easy way out and ended the novel with Jack and Ma’s escape. At that, it would have been a searing story of love and creativity under dire circumstances. Jack is to all appearances an active, inquisitive, normal boy, albeit a boy with inanimate objects for friends and no conception of the world beyond his walls. Instead Donoghue touches the world anew through Jack’s eyes – the bright vastness and the feel of the breeze in the open air. New people, new sounds, new experiences – all overwhelming at times. Too often we are desensitized by the common and everyday. Room brings back the mix of excitement and trepidation of the unfamiliar.

Having read the book in advance, I am now lucky to have snagged preview tickets for the film. I plan to assiduously avoid reviews until after I bring fresh eyes to the screen on Wednesday. For now, I can wholeheartedly recommend you read the book. Next week I’ll see if the movie can capture Jack and Ma’s world.

The beauty of Kent Haruf’s ‘Our Souls at Night’

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Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf (Random House Audio, 2015)
In 40 words or less: A beautiful, yet spare tale of two older adults who are changed through their relationship.
Genre: Fiction
Locale: Colorado
Time: Present
Read this to savor a story about the essence of humanity and the importance of relationships at every age.

There are some things are far better with a healthy measure of life experiences behind you. Kent Haruf’s Our Souls at Night is such a book. As with Haruf’s other novels, it takes place is small town Colorado. Addie Moore drums up the courage to approach her neighbor, Louis Waters, with a proposal. Both are widowed and up in years. She suggests that they consider spending some nights together, talking in bed, an intimacy she misses and suspects he might as well. And so the story proceeds.

Over the course of this short novel their relationship grows. They become the subject of gossip in town and consternation from their children. Life happens, both good and bad.

Our Souls at Night is written beautifully. The language is befitting the wise, yet simple characters. I had the good fortune to listen to the book read by Mark Bramhall. If anything, his reading amplified the message. It has been years since I wanted anyone other than my children to read me a bedtime story. More so than any other audiobook I’ve listened to, this one was true artistry. Whether holding the book in hand or listening to Bramhall’s voice, Our Souls at Night warms the heart.

Kent Haruf died on November 30, 2014, shortly after completing this book. At its publication six months later it was heralded as a fitting swan song. If only we could all finish out our days so well.

Armenian Genocide Remembered in Fiction (Part 2)

Every man’s memory is his private literature.- Aldous Huxley

There was a timeliness to selecting a title about the Armenian genocide for a book group I work with. April, 24 2015 was the date selected to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the start of this horrible period. I suggested Chris Bohjalian’s, The Sandcastle Girls (see post Part 1) or Aline Ohanesian’s, Orhan’s Inheritance. To prepare to lead the conversation, I chose to read them both and came away with a far richer understanding of the multifaceted aspects of this tragedy than I would have if I’d only read one. Whichever you choose, your view of history will be changed.

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Orhan’s Inheritance by Aline Ohanesian (Algonquin Books, 2015)
In 40 words or less: Dialog and detailed descriptions provide personal views of the Armenian genocide and war against the British through the eyes of a young girl and a conscripted Turkish boy whose families long-lived side by side.
Genre: Historical Fiction
Locale: Ottoman Empire, California
Time: 1915-23 and 1990
Read this to gain an understanding of the complexities of life when neighbors were pitted against neighbor. Using her grandmother’s recollections as a starting point for her novel, Ohanesian writes of love, loss, inhumanity and compassion.

Continue reading Armenian Genocide Remembered in Fiction (Part 2)

Armenian Genocide Remembered in Fiction (Part 1)

History is written by the victors. – attributed to Winston Churchill, author unknown

Once I realized that for 100 years a key objective of the government of Turkey has been to hide from the world knowledge of a systematic campaign to rid the Ottoman Empire of its Armenian citizens, I was less embarrassed by my ignorance and far more angry. From 1915 – 1923 between a million and 1.5 million citizens of Armenian descent were systematically forced out of their homes, subjected to death marches, crammed into railway cars, raped, tortured, starved and placed in concentration camps. Sound familiar? While it isn’t clear which nation came up with the techniques, among those aligned with the Turks and serving alongside them throughout WWI were the Germans.

Sometime within the last decade I first realized I knew next to nothing about what is now called the first genocide of the modern era. I’ve been learning, bit by bit, but I didn’t started with history books. An unexpected encounter at a B&B in Harpers Ferry, WV, was the beginning. But it’s Chris Bohjalian’s The Sandcastle Girls and Aline Ohanesian’s Orhan’s Inheritance (see post Part 2) that set me on the path to understanding.

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The Sandcastle Girls by Chris Bohjalian (Doubleday, 2012)
In 40 words or less: A young woman travels to the Ottoman Republic in 1915 to aid Armenian refugees. Her experiences with all those she meets change the course of her life. Strong historical underpinnings provide critical insights.
Genre: Historical Fiction
Locale: Ottoman Empire, Aleppo, USA
Time: 1915-16 and 2012
Read this if you have limited knowledge of the Armenian genocide at the hands of the Turks from 1915-23. Fans of Bohjalian will be thrilled with the balance between storytelling and history.

Continue reading Armenian Genocide Remembered in Fiction (Part 1)

An award winning story of Soviet-era politics meeting contemporary mores

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The Betrayers by David Bezmozgis (Little, Brown and Company, 2014)
In 40 words or less: A disgraced Israeli politician on vacation sees the man who betrayed him to the KGB forty years earlier. One is a prisoner of his past, the other has no sense of his future. Each is changed by the meeting.
Genre: Fiction
Locale: Crimea, Israel, Moscow
Time: 2012 and 1972
Read this if you enjoy novels where difficult moral choices are front and center. Bezmozgis provides incisive historical context and characters consistent with the issues presented. It is rare that an author can pull it all together so succinctly .

David Bezmozgis has spent more than ten years opening the door on the lives of refuseniks that left the former Soviet Union (FSU) in a trickle in the early 1970s becoming a tidal wave in the 1990s. His latest, The Betrayers, tells of a senior Israeli politician, Baruch Kotler, a poster child of the dissident movement, who travels to Crimea with his young lover as pictures of their indiscretion hit the press. Kohler left Israel in disgrace after taking a position against the government, speaking out against dismantling settlements in the territories. The exposure of the affair came about after he refused to change his position.

The plot centers on an unfortunate coincidence. Upon arrival in Yalta there is a mixup at the hotel and Baruch and Leora are forced to find accommodations in a private home. Their host is the wife of Baruch’s roommate from 40 years earlier. He betrayed Baruch to the KGB, resulting in 13 years of imprisonment. When Baruch recognizes Volodya (Chaim) through the window, he has a choice – leave without disclosing his identity or confront the man he considered a friend and colleague.

From start to finish, the story covers less than a weekend. Using a mix of memory to bring in details of the past and technology to connect to the conflicts of the present, The Betrayers is tightly written and clearly drawn.

The title is plural for a reason. Each of the principals makes explicit choices with major repercussions for themselves and their families. By focusing on the encounter between Baruch and Chaim, the ripples of these decisions are clearly seen.

In this and his prior works, David Bezmozgis has been frank about the motivations that sent Jews (and non-Jews) from the FSU and the reasons some regretted this choice. Each book has shown the challenges in acclimating to a completely different way of life and the difficulties that the older generation, in particular, has had in finding a place in the new world.

As Bezmozgis was completing The Betrayers, the Russia/Ukraine conflict erupted. While this provides an odd current events twist for the reader, the setting was key to the story and Bezmozgis had undertaken extensive research so no changes were made.

For those in the DC area, David Bezmozgis will be on a panel on October 19 at the Folger Shakespeare Library as part of the DCJCC Literary Festival. The Betrayers won the National Jewish Book Award and was a Scotiabank Giller Prize finalist in the same year.

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