Category Archives: Book Reviews

December 28, 2006 · 10:12 pm

Meeting Alex Haley

03590001.jpgDave: When I was 20 and without much cash, I decided to leave Vancouver and see the world. I had heard about the opportunity to travel on freighters – free passage in exchange for work – so I hitch-hiked down to Los Angeles and managed to get a place aboard a German vessel bound for Australia.

My day started at 5 a.m. when I made coffee for the captain, then washed dishes, mopped hallways and cleaned the crew’s quarters.

Soon after departing,  I discovered that these freighters also offered luxury travel for a few, well-to-do passengers. The three cabins aboard the ship were beautiful, spacious and very luxurious.

 One by one I met the five paying passengers on board: an ex-Governor of Texas and his wife, a couple who owned a professional sports team, and Alex Haley, author of Roots.

I was instructed by the crew not to talk to these passengers, unless approached by them first. However, I was playing darts one day, (on the ship’s beaten-up dartboard), when Mr. Haley appeared, and to my surprise, asked if I could teach him the game.

The next few hours were spent teaching Alex Haley how to play darts, a time during which our two different worlds met… He was both shocked and interested to learn that I was heading to Australia with no return ticket, no place to stay, no plan for getting back, and only $1200 in my pocket. That afternoon we explored various topics, including the way that some individuals feel compelled to seek out adventure, and also the experience of travel (or other ventures), without a plan or specific itinerary.

Right from the start, he made me feel relaxed. He asked genuine and original questions, which caused me to think, before answering. I admitted I was embarrassed because I hadn’t yet read Roots; he laughed at my honesty. In spite of our different backgrounds, we became friends.

He told me he had spent many years with the Coast Guard and being at sea helped him write. This trip he was working on Queen. I remember hearing him tapping away on the keyboard each day as I walked by his cabin.

At the end of the journey, to my surprise and delight, he gave me his address, saying that if my travels ever brought me to his neck of the woods, to look him up.

On the note he wrote:  To David, with brotherly love to a fine young shipmate, Alex Haley, Roots. And when I left the ship in Australia, he wished me good luck.

Meeting Mr. Haley made me realize that travelling was not only about seeing other places but also about meeting other people and learning of their worlds and experiences. It was a great way to start, what turned out to be a long and adventurous trip.

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December 27, 2006 · 6:51 pm

The Modern Ayurvedic Cookbook: Healing, Healthy Recipes for Life

Tessa:

For anyone interested in

a) good food b) good food with an exotic, world cuisine (pre-dominantly Indian) slant c) vegetarian recipes d) a variety of mainly wheat-free recipes, e) dead curious to find out what your dosha is, don’t be put off by this book’s title.

Ayurveda is based on the principles of a 5,000 year old Indian healing tradition that believes that spiritual and physical well-being are the key to good health and longevity. For those interested in learning more about ayurveda the book offers a brief but good overview, including a dosha questionnaire which allows one to determine how to balance your personal constitution through diet.

For the rest of us who are just interested in yummy food  The Modern Ayurvedic Cookbook, won’t disappoint. The recipes are simple and easy to prepare,  starting with breakfast, salads, soups, entrees through to breads, grains and desserts. The soup section is particularly good with recipes for Acorn Squash Soup, Carrot Ginger Soup, Spiced Pumpkin Soup, Spinach Vegetable Soup and Warming Cauliflower, Broccoli & Miso Soup.

Entrees include dishes such as Lata’s Green Masala with Paneer, Indian Fusion Ratatouille, Soft & Spicy Eggplant Curry. For breads and grains there are all kinds of great recipes for those great unwashed… the wheat intolerant. Carrie’s Spelt Oatmeal Bread, Corn Chapatis and Spelt Chapatis and Ugali ( a staple of Kenya made of corn flour).

I could go on but you get the idea. If this kind of food is your thing than The Modern Ayurvedic Cookbook might just be the cookbook for you!

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December 14, 2006 · 12:28 am

Skids – Cathleen With

Tessa: Twice a week I work downtown in an area known as the Downtown Eastside, one of the poorest neighbourhoods in Canada. When I used to live in East Vancouver I would often walk to work which took me through the heart of this district. Sometimes in the early morning I would walk past alley ways where I would see men, women and children disappear, turning corners, hovering, standing, sometimes sleeping. Often I would see someone, a child, and I would avoid eye contact because it was uncomfortable. That’s because they weren’t just any kids. They were street kids. Or Skids.

Cathleen With’s debut collection of stories Skids is based on her own experience as a troubled young adult when she spent time in rehabilitation centres downtown and became friends with many of these kids. What Cathleen With has accomplished with this elegiac collection is to provide a glimpse of understanding for all of us who simply don’t know or understand.

Having said that there is nothing in this book that is easy to read. To say that Cathleen With is a beautiful writer would be misleading bu what she does most effectively is to capture the raw voice of hard experience of society’s most vulnerable members; its young. These are portraits of kids who’s lives haven’t been easy and for whom there is no easy escape to another life. That she doesn’t provide easy answers in these twelve remarkable tales is, of course, the point. There is no happy ending in these tales that are an almost cinematic rendering of lives most of us can’t even imagine. And yet somehow she offers us insight into how love and redemption work in an unimaginable life. I think she’s a remarkable writer for this reason alone.

You can visit Cathleen at: http://cathleenwith.blogspot.com.

A portion of the proceeds of this book will be donated to Covenant House.

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November 28, 2006 · 12:44 pm

The Memory Keeper’s Daughter: Kim Edwards Book Review

Secrets. Every single one of us has one. Whether we like it or not it occupies a small place inside of us that keeps us alone and separated from the world as though a film exists between you and those closest to you. It’s what makes us unknowable. Kim Edwards in her debut novel The Memory Keeper’s Daughter explores how a secret insidiously weaves its way through the heart of a young family and how a generation later it continues to shape the relationships affected by it.

In 1964 Dr. David Henry and his wife Nora make their way through a snowstorm to the hospital as Nora’s contractions come faster and faster. Unable to make it to the hospital Dr. Henry, an orthopedic surgeon, delivers the children himself. The first child, Paul is a healthy boy, The unexpected second child, Phoebe, is mongoloid. In a split second decision that will irrevocably change the course of his and his family’s life he asks the attending nurse, Caroline Gill, who is in love with him, to take the child to a home. She takes the child to the home and horrified by what she sees she takes the child to another city and raises Phoebe as her own.

The fact that Dr. Henry sends his child to a home would not have been an uncommon decision in 1964 and ultimately he believes he is acting out of love for his wife. What he doesn’t realize is that the lie that is created grows between them until ultimtately their relationship falls apart many years later. From the moment the children are born the lie and everything that is never said between them grows into palpable silence and isolation. And still he cannot bring himself to tell her because as the years pass the nature of his crime weaves itself into the very fabric of his life and his relationships with his son and Nora. Their house is large, affluent and empty.

The parallel story follows Caroline Gill and Phoebe’s life as she struggles to find a her place as a single mother with a challenged child in a brand new city. That we see Phoebe grow up as a delightful young woman who’s mother has fought tooth and nail to allow her the opportunities of any child, makes it even more poignant because what we see here is the fabric of a rich life. One full of challenges absolutely but definitely rich.

This is, of course, not only what Nora Henry has been robbed of but what David Henry and his son are robbed of as well. The Memory’ Keepers Daughter is an auspicious beginning for this debut novelist. Kim Edwards skillfully weaves the insidious nature of this secret throughout her narrative without ever making the reader want to abandon or dislike the characters. Dr. Henry makes a bad choice but her skill as a storyteller allows us to see him as he is; a flawed man but also a good man. Again, this is a great read. It’s a tearjerker that makes you think as well as feel.

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November 20, 2006 · 12:40 pm

My Sister’s Keeper and The Memory Keeper’s Daughter

Tessa: I recently finished reading My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult and The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards. Both of these books are coincidentally New York Times Bestseller’s and both of them are tearjerkers. So if you’re looking to give gifts this Christmas that are guarenteed to reduce friends and family members to tears then be sure to pick up a copy of either of these two and that should do the trick.

I’ll start with My Sister’s Keeper. Although Jodi Picoult has written several novels, I had never actually heard of her but a friend lent it to me urging me to read it so we could discuss it afterwards. Admittedly I had a hard time putting this book down. The story is about two sisters Anna and Kate. At the age of two Kate is diagnosed with leukemia. Through preimplantation genetic diagnosis Anna is conceived as a perfect bone marrow match for her sister and until the age of thirteen unquestioningly allows herself to be subjected to countless transfusions, surgeries and shots. But by thirteen Anna begins to question the trauma of these endless rounds of hospital procedures. When Anna’s parents offer her kidney for transplant to Kate Anna initiates legal action against her parents for medical guardianship over her own body. It’s clear that although a hospital would never compromise a healthy child to save a dying child, Anna’s permission is never asked. Her parents take it for granted that she will subject herself to procedure after procedure for Kate.

At the heart of this narrative is the issue of medical technology and this is a topic that Picoult navigates her way around very well. Having been a parent of a very sick child she is able to draw the reader into the emotionally charged and tortured journey that families of very sick children are forced to make. The choices clearly aren’t easy and when Anna’s mother pushes the envelope in favour of her dying daughter she at times appears monstrously one-sided and blind to Anna’s needs as a human being. In the end Anna was conceived as a donor to save her sister’s life. What her mother neglects to understand is that her daughter is a human being first.

The premise of this story is timely, as the long term implications of stem cell research unfolds in the American political arena. But like all issues, we as a society, are increasingly blindsided by ethical implications of medical technology. This book certainly has its weaknesses, namely the uneven and sometimes ludicrous characterizations of Campbell Anna’s lawyer, and the fact that Anna and Kate’s mother after years of being a stay at home mom returns to court to handle her own case against her daughter. Perhaps this is done to add levity to an emotionally charged topic that stands at the centre of this narrative. Overall, however, this is a riveting book that is sure to generate debate and yes, tears.

Next book review: The Memory Keeper’s Daughter

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October 23, 2006 · 12:02 pm

Suite Francaise: Irene Nemirovsky, Book Review

I recently finished reading Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky on the recommendation of a friend who had called the book one of the most ‘humane stories’ she had ever read. I enjoy reading war stories (my favourite book is The Things They Carried and so looked forward to this one which takes place in France in 1941 when the Germans occupied Paris. I was initially surprised at my friend’s enthusiasm for the book because the story takes a candid look at French society from the highest to the lowest classes and ruthlessly pillories each and every one of them. Leaving no stone unturned Nemirovsky clearly has no sympathy for the French or the fate that awaited them during the war. I’m glad I stayed with the story because it’s in the second half of the book as well as in the Appendices that the full emotional import of what the author documents bears fruit.

The fact that the author, a Russian Jew, is in France during the occupation at the time this story was written and later perished in a concentration camp makes this story even more poignant. Suite Francaise was never published until now, sixty five years later when her surviving daughter discovered a suitcase she assumed was her mother’s journals was in fact this novel.

Suite Francaise brilliantly creates an authentic tableau of French society and the impact of the German occupation during this period. What she reveals in its telling isn’t very pretty. With clinical precision she unpeels the layers of civility to reveal what people are truly made of when confronted with horrific and often life and death circumstances. The characters she portrays come from all walks of French life from urban upper middle classes, to farmers, aristocrats and villagers. While some of the characters disappear early in the book the story truly hits its stride when we’re introduced to Lucille a young, beautiful, married French woman who ultimately falls in love with the German soldier billeted in her mother-in-law’s home.

It is against the backdrop of the German occupation of this small village that Lucille and Bruno’s love for each other unfolds. Here we see a parallel relationship between the French and their German occupiers and Lucille and her German officer. During their three month stay the initial shock and shame of having foreigners in their homes and village dissipates as familiarity creates a skein of normality that allows day to day life more or less to continue. When the immediate pressures of war fall away, friendship and in the case of Lucille and Bruno, love blossoms.

Love like war is chaotic and has no rules. It’s only when a French farmer kills a German soldier that the reality of the occupation re-asserts itself and both Lucille and the villagers find themselves once again at odds with their occupiers. In the end, love like water can’t be contained but in dangerous times it poses a real threat. Nemirovsky’s real skill here shows not only how war, class, jealousy and other malignancies keep people from love but also what brings them to love in spite of all these obstacles. Therein lies the humanity in this book.

What I also found interesting was Nemirovsky’s depiction of French class structure and how it invited complicity when the war came. When the Germans occupied the small village the aristocrats, notorious for hoarding and unwilling to sell food to the starving villagers, began to assume a comfort level with the German soldiers. In the end they knew that these foreigners would protect their interests.

This book is brilliant in its detail and evocation of everyday life under the German occupation and shows yet another sorry time in our contemporary history. It’s a great read.

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October 2, 2006 · 11:55 am

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Tessa: I usually buy books through one of three methods; a book review, a recommendation from a friend who has reasonable book taste or by browsing in the bookstore and reading one or two pages from random books.

I recently picked up Jonathan Saffran Foer’s recently published book Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close on the recommendation of a friend. I read the book quickly and overall quite enjoyed it. The story is set in post 9/11 New York and follows a year in the life of Oskar Schell, a precocious nine year old, who embarks on a journey to find the lock that matches a key that belonged to his father who died in the World Trade Center. The book transitions between the sometimes hilarious journey Oskar takes in the wake of this horrific tragedy and the journey his grandmother and grandfather took over 60 years ago as survivors who lost everything in the firebombing of Dresden. And while the transition between these two stories is sometimes confusing the parallels between Oskar and his grandparents is apt. War takes a heavy toll on those who are left to carry on. The price that is paid is both personal and political. As Oskar, his grandmother and grandfather struggle to come to terms with each other and their loss, a zeitgeist of violence, pain, healing and revenge is created on different levels. Although Oskar’s journey ends in coming to terms with his father’s loss, the looming issue of war is increasingly the cornerstone of all of our realities. In the end the reason I liked this novel as much as I did was because it brought home the reality of loss. War no longer feels so far away. It’s not an artifact of history or of another place. Jonathan Foer lets us know that war is on our turf.

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