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November 26, 2005
Books I Read Recently (and some that I just forgot about)
Portuguese Irregular Verbs
by Alexander Mccall Smith
From Audiofile: The author of the highly successful NO. 1 LADIES' DETECTIVE AGENCY offers another treasure in this gentle satire of academics. This first book of a trilogy chronicles the activities of Dr. Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld, professor of philology and author of PORTUGUESE IRREGULAR VERBS, a scholarly tome of 1200 pages, only 200 copies of which have been sold and even fewer of which (if any) have been read. (Von Igelfeld's female dentist uses her copy as the perfect step stool for reaching patients.) Paul Hecht's deep baritone gives the necessary pseudo-scholarly tone to academicians measuring out their lives in Dravidian verb shifts, Urdu subjunctives, and Early Irish obscenities. Hecht takes the seemingly pointless minutiae of archaic grammars and transforms them into moments of quiet mirth, always investing the bumbling von Igelfeld with endearing goodness.
My review: Well, its true that the narrator of this audiobook has a deep baritone, but at that point my opinion diverges from the review above. Actually, my gripe is with the author itself. As with my previous review of The Sunday Philosophy Club, I think the author has mistakenly assumed that--just because The #1 Ladies Detective Agency was a great success--books don't really need plot. Where I love the details of Precious Ramotswe's life, I found that a book filled with nothing but the details of Dr. Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld was the best way to get a full night of restful sleep.
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Guardian of the Horizon
by Elizabeth Peters
From Amazon: Amelia Peabody and her husband Emerson, along with their son Ramses and foster daughter Nefret, are summoned back to the Lost Oasis, a hidden stronghold in the western desert whose existence they discovered many years ago (in The Last Camel Died At Noon) and have kept secret from the entire world, including their fellow Egyptologists. According to Merasen, the brother of the ruling monarch, their old friend Prince Tarek is in grave danger and needs their help, however it's not until they retrace their steps back to the Oasis, with its strange mixture of Meroitic and Egyptian cultures, that they learn the real reason for their journey. There's no better company on an archaeological expedition than the Father of Curses and the Lady Doctor, their beautiful Anglo-Egyptian ward, and Ramses, the Demon Brother who loves her, as Peters once again demonstrates in the latest historical mystery in this immensely popular series. If you haven't met the indomitable Amelia yet, this intriguing tale is a great place to start!
My review: I believe I have established my undying love of Amelia Peabody, and this--her 16th adventure--was also delightful. Not exactly intelligence-enhancing literature, and, to tell the truth, the plots never make any sense--but I love it nonetheless.
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The Master Butchers Singing Club : A Novel
by Louise Erdrich
From Amazon: Louise Erdrich's The Master Butchers Singing Club is a powerfully told story of love, death, redemption, and resurrection. After German soldier Fidelis Waldvogel returns home from World War I to marry his best friend's pregnant widow, he packs up his father's butcher knives and sets sail for America. He settles in Argus, North Dakota, where he sets up a meat shop with his wife Eva, who quickly befriends the struggling yet resourceful Delphine Watzka. Delphine, who runs a vaudeville show with her balancing partner Cyprian Lazarre, has returned home to Argus to care for her alcoholic father. While most of this emotionally rich novel focuses on the changing landscape of small-town life as seen through Delphine and Fidelis's eyes, Erdrich does a masterful job of illuminating hidden dramas through her secondary characters. Erdrich's portrayal of these various townsfolk, including members of the Master Butchers Singing Club, truly shows off her storytelling talent. Her ability to infuse each character with a distinct and multifaceted personality makes this novel an intimate and thought-provoking adventure.
My review: This was one of my favorite book club selections of all time (AA always picks good ones!!). I was hooked by page 8, and couldn't put it down until I reached the last page. I love how Erdrich is able to blend incredible plot details with character development--just as good as The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse.
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Brick Lane : A Novel
by Monica Ali
From Amazon: Wildly embraced by critics, readers, and contest judges (who put it on the short-list for the 2003 Man Booker Prize), Brick Lane is indeed a rare find: a book that lives up to its hype. Monica Ali's debut novel chronicles the life of Nazneen, a Bangladeshi girl so sickly at birth that the midwife at first declares her stillborn. At 18 her parents arrange a marriage to Chanu, a Bengali immigrant living in England. Although Chanu--who's twice Nazneen's age--turns out to be a foolish blowhard who "had a face like a frog," Nazneen accepts her fate, which seems to be the main life lesson taught by the women in her family. "If God wanted us to ask questions," her mother tells her, "he would have made us men." Over the next decade-and-a-half Nazneen grows into a strong, confident woman who doesn't defy fate so much as bend it to her will. The great delight to be had in Brick Lane lies with Ali's characters, from Chanu the kindly fool to Mrs. Islam the elderly loan shark to Karim the political rabblerouser, all living in a hothouse of Bengali immigrants. Brick Lane combines the wide scope of a social novel about the struggles of Islamic immigrants in pre- and post-9/11 England with the intimate story of Nazneen, one of the more memorable heroines to come along in a long time. If Dickens or Trollope were loosed upon contemporary London, this is exactly the sort of novel they would cook up.
My review: I have no idea why this book would be "wildly embraced" by anyone. I thought the language was stilted, the characters underdeveloped, and the story poorly paced. If anything, this book cemented my previous experience of "high-quality" British literature--it's just not my cuppa tea.
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The Unthinkable Thoughts of Jacob Green
by Joshua Braff
From Booklist: Like a child, Jacob Green's father, Abram, wants what he wants when he wants it and will throw a temper tantrum if he doesn't get it. What Abram wants most of all is the perfect suburban Jewish family--perfectly intelligent, perfectly religious, and perfect at obeying thy father. Braff's rich, moving, and very funny first novel begins with a 1977 housewarming party at which Abram dramatically introduces each member of his family while the four children and their mother seethe with resentment at being paraded as testaments to Abram's greatness. Jacob's present-tense, first-person narration keeps the pace quick, and the exquisite plotting ensures that Jacob's growing emotional turmoil is paralleled by metaphorically resonant real-life events. To survive and mentally escape his father's cruel, perverse love, young Jacob shares hilariously unthinkable thoughts--the funniest are the hypothetical bar mitzvah thank-you notes in which Jacob thanks people for Jerusalem stone bookends and the like and then details his lust for his live-in nanny before signing "Love, Jacob." Readers will adore Jacob, but Braff's greater accomplishment is describing the boy's complex relationship with his father so well that we are forced to see the cruel, self-obsessed Abram as something more than a mere monster of ego.
My review: I read this book in practically a single sitting. It was infectious. I laughed (out loud, much to the consternation of my DCL friends), I cried, I was moved. Bravo to the very talented Braff family.
