Book review – Page 9 – Finding My Wings

Road trip audiobook – Part 1

IN A NUTSHELL

The Wright Brothers by David McCullough, narration by the author (Simon & Schuster audio, 2015)
In 40 words or less: There’s far more to the Wright brothers’ story than the first flight at Kitty Hawk. McCullough brings the family to life and sets them in the context of their times. His narration provides the gravitas the story deserves.
Genre: History/Biography
Locale: Ohio/NC/Europe
Time: Late 19th – Early 20th centuries
Read this to understand the genius and persistence of the Wright brothers and the family that inspired and stood behind them in their work.

Several things need to work well for an audiobook to be a good choice – the subject, the reader and the quality of the material. When you are choosing a book for more than one person to listen to on a road trip, the stakes are higher. Knowing that our tastes differ, I had several selections. The Wright Brothers was not the first pick but within minutes we were hooked.

Orville and Wilbur Wright’s successful flight at Kitty Hawk in 1903 is credited with launching the age of flight. The brief paragraphs about this achievement in most history books tell of brothers that began as bicycle builders who parlayed their mechanical knowledge to create the first successful airplane. The brothers and their siblings were raised in a household where reading books on all subjects from classical philosophy to mathematics to contemporary literature was the primary activity. Throughout their lives, Sundays were reserved for reading and contemplation, a tribute to their minister father who instilled in them their love of learning and persistence of purpose.

The flight at Kitty Hawk was barely heard of beyond those working on the project for more than five years. Politics and scientific jealousies sent the Wrights to Europe looking for support and a market when U.S. government officials created stumbling blocks or ignored them outright for several years. Throughout it all, the Wrights remained fixtures in their hometown of Dayton, Ohio and maintained their bicycle shop as an ongoing concern. From beginning to end, their sister Katharine provided personal support and business guidance critical to every success they had, often sacrificing her own aspirations.

David McCullough’s deep and expressive voice is perfect for telling the story as he wrote it. The only downside to listening to the audiobook is the lack of photos and a map. I had given an autographed copy of the book to my father, so upon our arrival at his home, I was able to look at the photos. Having a map handy is a great reminder of the very narrow spit of land that was so important to the birth of modern aviation.

Whether your interest is in history, aviation, the power of genius or just a great story, David McCullough’s The Wright Brothers will fit the bill.

Irène Némirovsky’s Look at Life Between the Wars

IN A NUTSHELL

The Fires of Autumn by Irène Némirovsky, translated by Sandra Smith (Vintage International, 2015)
In 40 words or less: Through the lives of three interconnected families, the many changes to France’s working- and middle-class from WWI to the early days of WWII are shown. Némirovsky’s keen eye for the import of social status carries the story.
Genre: Historical Fiction
Locale: Primarily Paris
Time: 1912-1941
Read this for a character-driven tour of the vast changes in daily life over the quarter-century between WWI and WWII.

Irène Némirovsky came to fame in the US more than 60 years after her death in Auschwitz in 1942. Russian and Jewish by birth in 1903, she fled to France after the Revolution and saw herself as French, though never accorded citizenship. Némirovsky converted to Catholicism in 1939. She received acclaim for her novels during her life though some were criticized as anti-Semitic. While three novels were published posthumously in France after the war, the discovery of the manuscript of Suite Française by her daughter in the late 1990’s led to the publication of it, and many of her other works, both in French and in translation.

The Fires of Autumn, written as World War II loomed, is reflective of the many changes in the early decades of the 20th century. Three families, the Jacquelains, the Bruns, and the Humberts, all have children whose choices are altered by the advent of WWI. Rather than opening his medical office, Martial enlists as a military doctor on the front. This “heroic” choice leads to an unexpected engagement with Thérèse. And Bernard, the scion of the Jacquelain family, destined for the university, enlists as soon as he is of age, shortly after Martial’s death.

Bernard returns jaded from the war, disinterested in his family’s aspirations or concerns for him. Quickly caught up in the hedonism emblematic of the 1920s, he connects with wheeler-dealer new style businessman changing the course of his life. He marries Thérèse and through their relationship and the interaction with their families and childhood friends, the fracturing of many societal norms are seen.

Having found Suite Française overwhelming, I was hesitant about reading The Fires of Autumn. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Némirovsky tells a good story and her characters are well-formed. The strength of The Fires of Autumn is the timing of the telling of the story. As seen in her life choices, Némirovsky knows all too well that politics can alter fortunes in mere moments and that choosing sides can exact a heavy price. While at times the dramatics of Némirovsky’s life receive more attention than her writings, The Fires of Autumn is a good reason for her inclusion among noteworthy writers of pre-WWII France.

Kelli Estes tackles 1880s racism and violence

IN A NUTSHELL

The Girl Who Wrote in Silk by Kelli Estes (Sourcebooks, 2015)
In 40 words or less: Parallel stories of a young Chinese woman in the 1880s a modern young woman, determined to find her calling are brought together at her family’s century-old island home.
Genre: Fiction with historical underpinnings
Locale: Seattle and nearby islands
Time: 1886 -1895 and the present
Read this fictional account to spark your interest in the truth about the expulsion of the Chinese in the northwest.

In the 1840s the U.S. was in desperate need of laborers to support the mining camps and build the railroads. Chinese men were welcomed along the West Coast for this express purpose. So long as they were not integrated into the communities and didn’t take “American” jobs, they were tolerated. By the early 1880s organized efforts began to undermine their ability to work and to send them back to China, preferably at their own expense.

The Girl Who Wrote in Silk opens on one of the most horrific days in Seattle’s history. Armed mobs are entering Chinese enclaves, kidnapping the residents and looting their possessions before taking them to the docks. Mei Lien, her father and grandmother operated a small store. Understanding the danger for young Chinese women, her father has had her live as a young boy and kept her by her grandmother’s side and in the store. After a violent confrontation, they are placed on a ship, allegedly to be sent to China. Late that evening, Mei Lien overhears the ship’s captain planning to throw all the people overboard to their deaths. After sharing this information with her father, he decides she must be saved and pushes her over himself, in the hope that she can swim to shore and be saved.

Inara Erickson is the youngest child of a prominent Seattle shipping family. Having just graduated from college, her father is “helping” her find employment. A family tragedy kept Inara away from Orcas Island for many years. Her aunt’s death brought her back to the one place she felt at home. Rather than follow her father’s path, she undertook to turn the family homestead into a bed and breakfast. While uncovering the original staircase, one tread was unlike the others. Underneath the board was an intricately embroidered silk sleeve. Finding the sleeve begins her road to discovery about family, history, honesty and forgiveness.

As she went into the water, Mei Lien was seen by the local postman and fisherman. Joseph rescued her and brought her to his small cabin, nursing her back to health. Though skeptical about her story, the murmurings among his neighborhoods and in town showed her concerns to be warranted.

Not surprisingly, Kelli Estes weaves these stories together to create this novel. Mei Lien’s story is fascinating and tragic. Her isolation as the only survivor from her family and prey to the racism in the community is heartbreaking. Island life was difficult at that time under the best of circumstances. Inara’s story has the clichéd elements of true love at risk due to family skeletons. But by having the modern story Estes is able to provide broader historical details on Mei Lien’s life through Inara’s research using the vast resources of the internet. The present day story also offers the opportunity for restitution and reconciliation.

Kelli Estes deserves a lot of credit for bringing the anti-Chinese riots and expulsions to a wider audience. Mei Lien, The Girl Who Wrote in Silk, is a wonderful character I won’t soon forget.

‘Everyone Brave is Forgiven’ deserves a place on your nightstand

IN A NUTSHELL Unknown - Version 2

Everyone Brave is Forgiven by Chris Cleave (Simon & Schuster, 2016)
In 40 words or less: Mary, a privileged Londoner, volunteers for the war effort. Cleave brings to life the personal effects of the Blitz and the war’s early campaigns on Mary and those closest to her. The imperfections of the characters bring depth to the story.
Genre: Historical Fiction
Locale: London, France, Malta, Algeria
Time: 1938-42
Read this for a glimpse at the early British involvement in WWII. Cleave takes on class distinctions, racism and the high personal toll on those on the home front as well as on the battlefield.

Before, life had been a tradition, a tendency to forgiveness, a regression to the mean… A child was lost as easily as a shilling. And once one had understood that, though one’s heart continued to beat, one was never entirely alive again. She knew, now, why her father had not spoken of the last war, nor Alistair of this. It was hardly fair on the living. (p.268)

Chris Cleave made his mark on US readers when Little Bee was published here in 2009. In his latest novel, Everyone Brave is Forgiven, class, racism and power again play major roles in the story. Mary North is a daughter of London’s elite but with a mind of her own. When war is declared she enlists, only to find herself assigned to help ferry children from London to the countryside to escape the expected bombardment. For some of the children, life in the country is not meant to be, and several end up as the only pupils in an urban school with Mary as their teacher.

Elsewhere in London, a school administrator and an art conservator share a garret apartment. Alistair, the conservator enlists and is sent to France; Tom is put in charge of Mary’s school. As the bombing of London begins the men’s letters tell the story of the great changes occurring in Europe. Mary is far from the classical teacher and reaches out to her small band of students, each of whom would stand out in a regular classroom. She takes particular interest in Zachary, a bright African-Amerian student who is unable to read and has a tendency to run at the least provocation. As Mary and Tom develop a personal relationship, Mary’s advocacy for Zachary is a point of contention.

When Alistair returns disheartened from France before being posted to Malta, Tom, Mary and Mary’s friend, Hilda, plan an evening out to raise his spirits. The evening ends in a shelter during a bombing, with Mary following him above ground to turn over his duffel before he rejoins his regiment. This brief, chaste encounter changes all their lives.

As the war continues, roles change as does the landscape of London. The foursome is wounded physically and emotionally. Bonds are broken. The weak show resiliency and the strong learn that no one is immune from the ravages of despair.

What differentiates Cleave’s story is his careful picking at society’s prejudices. Racism, the power of rank and class, friendship and familial allegiance are all intrinsically part of the narrative in this rich historical novel.

Anne Tyler reimagines ‘The Taming of the Shrew’

Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler (Hogarth Shakespeare, 2016; Random House Audio, Kirsten Potter, reader)
In 40 words or less: A commissioned reimagining of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew in novel form. Kate is a preschool teacher’s assistant “encouraged” to marry her scientist father’s research assistant before his visa expires.
Genre: Fiction
Locale: Baltimore
Time: Contemporary
Read this if you are interested reading each of the eight titles in the Hogarth modern retelling of Shakespeare’s classics.

Fair warning, I rarely opt to share my opinion on a title I can’t wholeheartedly recommend. I am making an exception having had multiple occasions in the last two weeks to consider different treatments of Shakespeare’s works. My post, ‘The fascination with Shylock’, gives a taste of my Shakespearian interactions.

Modernizing classic literature for contemporary audiences is far from new. West Side Story and Kiss Me Kate have engaged many who otherwise would have been put off by Shakespeare’s language. Film marathons could be devoted to treatments of Romeo and Juliet or Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. In the spirit of finding new audiences via modern retellings by acclaimed authors, Hogarth Press has created a new series, Hogarth Shakespeare.

A week ago, we saw The Shakespeare Theatre Company‘s all-male version of The Taming of the Shrew, the final production of the 2015-16 season. In brief, while

there were some wonderful acting performances, the shtick of the all-male casting often overtook the production. In another Shakespeare foray, prep for my book groups for next program year has made Howard Jacobson’s My Name is Shylock, his fresh look at The Merchant of Venice, courtesy of Hogarth, a preferred pick.

The third entry in the Hogarth series is Anne Tyler’s Vinegar Girl, released earlier this month. Tyler is renowned for her Baltimore-based novels of quirky family life. In theory, bringing Shakespeare’s tale of two daughters to a classic American city could give the story a different, yet spicy flavor. Anne Tyler ability to share the quirkiness of “regular” families makes her one of America’s beloved authors. In this novel, Tyler doesn’t take full advantage of the opportunity, creating a family most notable for its stultifying routine.

Thanks to Random House Audio, I had the chance to listen to Kirsten Potter’s reading of Vinegar Girl. To her credit, Potter aptly gave voice to the personality traits Anne Tyler imparted to her characters. Among the funniest characters are those least seen – Kate’s aunt and uncle that each have unique roles to play in the nuptials.

Kate and Bunny Battista are mere shadows of Kate and Bianca Minola. Kate Battista is rather aimless for a 29-year-old daughter of a widowed college professor – she’s dropped out of college and is barely hanging on to her job in a preschool with no real friends. Her off-hours are spent preparing the same one-pot meal to cover dinners for the entire week, doing her family’s laundry and criticizing her beautiful-but-empty-headed high school student sister.

Dr. Battista is in a quandary. He is concerned about continuing funding for transformative research involving rats. He seems on the cusp of a breakthrough but is faced with losing his assistant, Pyotr, whose three-year visa is about to expire. Battista’s solution is to have Kate marry him. Battista intends it be a marriage of convenience, creating pictures on his phone to convince ICE that it is a love match. Dad’s plan would have Pyotr moving into a (separate) bedroom in Battista household and Kate continuing with her domestic roles. Unlike Shakespeare’s Petruchio, Pytor is neither brash nor wealthy. In his somewhat awkward yet genuine way, he undertakes to woo Kate in furtherance of the scheme.

While Kate is hardly a warm, creative and altruistic figure, she is far from the obstinate and feisty character in Shakespeare’s play. The secondary characters at her preschool might make anyone a bit churlish. And Bunny’s high school infatuation with the boy next door hardly qualifies as the string of suitors set to marry Bianca as soon as Kate is married off.

For the modern reader or theatergoer, the treatment of Kate as little more than chattel is at best troublesome. Tyler hasn’t reached sufficiently beyond this in her novel. For its many failings as a modern comedy, the one aspect of the Shakespeare’s play that provides some relief is the comic changing/mistaken identities. While it may be an overused device across the body of Shakespeare’s work, having this twist might have added a comedic lift to Vinegar Girl.

To the good, it is genuine affection between Pyotr and Kate that carries the day in the end, rather than submission. Given such broad license with The Taming of the Shrew, I expected more.

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