The Round House by Louise Erdrich

The Round House by Louise Erdrich
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was in a rush to finish this tonight before the National Book Award winner was announced, and I got to the last page right as the ceremony was starting. It ended up winning this year's award, so I'm glad I chose this novel to read over the other two I didn't get to.

In an Ojibwe community, a mother is brutally raped. The novel is told from her son's perspective as their family tries to heal and they attempt to catch who did this horrible thing. Most of it is told in the time of the story, but occasionally the son steps back and sprinkles in details of things that happen in his adult life, such as his marriage and his career. You know his friend doesn't last into his adulthood before you know how or why he dies.

Overall, I feel this novel suffers a bit in its storytelling techniques. The story goes along rapidly, very action focused, until around page 115 where you take a side trip to one person's background story. This happens a few more times, but not often enough for it to flow easily in and out the narrative. They serve a specific purpose to give the son details he needs, but I felt they were a little forced. The novel also reads so easily that it is almost to its detriment. I fear I may not remember it for very long.

There are a lot of surrounding issues - Native American vs. American law, jurisdiction issues, poverty, inequality, etc. The author knows them well. I would like to read more of her books, and plan to next year when I do the Around the USA in 52 Books challenge.

The Hobbit: Week One

I am participating in the "The Hobbit" Read-a-Long instigated by Unputdownables.  (I know the two the's seem redundant, but the title has one!)  As I previously mentioned, this is my first time reading The Hobbit! Some of my observations may seem like no-brainers, but I hope you can forgive my naive perspective.

For those of you interested in exactly how this is going to go, we are taking two months and posting discussion posts on a weekly basis.  There are set chapters to read for each week, and this week was chapters I-II.  If you are curious about my Whispersync experience, I listened to the audio entirely, and every time I checked in on the Kindle app, the page had switched to wherever I was in the audio.  Cool.

One of the most important details I learned in these chapters is that hobbits do not crave adventure.  My only exposure to their world is from watching the movie versions of The Lord of the Rings, where of course all we see is hobbits going on adventures.  There is some nostalgia for their lives back at the Shire, of course, but I didn't know what a "typical" hobbit was like.

"'Very pretty!' said Gandalf. 'But I have no time to blow smoke-rings this morning. I am looking for someone to share in an adventure that I am arranging, and it's very difficult to find anyone.'

'I should think so - in these parts! We are plain quiet folk and have no use for adventures. Nasty disturbing uncomfortable things! Make you late for dinner! I can't think what anybody sees in them,' said our Mr. Baggins...."

I'm just now noticing the lack of commas in the dialogue, seeing as I listened rather than read the text.  It is a little disturbing, isn't it?  Sidenote: I keep hearing Bilbo in Jim Broadbent's voice.  Maybe it is the naivete and generosity that makes me think of some of Broadbent's roles, that wide-eyed open face.

The first two chapters do an excellent job of introducing us to Bilbo Baggins and contrasting him to the other types of characters.  Gandalf brings the dwarves in, and they require so much food, the hobbit housewifes around after them, cooking and cleaning while they tell stories and sing.  (By the way, the reader of the audio, Rob Inglis, does a great job with dwarf voices, even in song.)

It is clear that Bilbo Baggins is going to have a major experience.  The dwarves are skeptical, but Gandalf has his reasons:

"'Let's have no more argument. I have chosen Mr. Baggins and that ought to be enough for all of you... There is a lot more in him than you guess, and a deal more than he has any idea of himself. You may (possibly) all live to thank me yet.'"

And we are off on our adventure!

Rites of Spring: The Great War and the Birth of the Modern Age by Modris Eksteins

Rites of Spring: The Great War and the Birth of the Modern Age by Modris Eksteins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read this book for one of my online book clubs.  I don't read a lot of history, despite recently listening to The Disappearing Spoon.  I would never have come across this book on my own, and that, boys and girls, is why book clubs are so amazing.

This well-researched and well-written history spans about 35 years, from the Parisian performance of Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" to brief mentions of the end of WWII. Different sections focus in on different elements of the arts and political upheaval, including chapters highlighting specific cultural works, cities, or moments in time. I am still pondering the ongoing connection between societal change that could simultaneously create the environment where such important musical and artistic developments could happen, while also being the same breeding ground for devastating war. This makes me uncomfortable, somehow, as if in appreciating the art I have also condoned the violence.

The trio of Stravinsky the composer, Diaghilev the founder of the Ballets Russes, and Nijinksy the choreographer were instrumental in the infamous production of The Rite of Spring in 1913. Intentionally manufactured for a reaction, the author argues that the audience is integral to the experience of the work.

"Surprise is freedom. The audience, in Diaghilev's view, could be as important to the experience of art as the performers. The art would not teach - that would make it subservient; it would excite, provoke, inspire. It would unlock experience."

Eksteins comes back to this argument about every seminal work he mentions, that it isn't just the work itself, but the reaction to it.

When he discusses the end of "The Great War" in the context of books like All Quiet on the Western Front, Eksteins says, "Art had become more important than history." Events fueled the art, and art played a key role in determining events. This is an interesting parallel to follow throughout the book. There are a lot of other bits I am tempted to quote, but they are bits from other sources that Eksteins used in his well-documented research. (I may need to go back and read more of Ludwig Feuerbach and Rainer Maria Rilke.)

Over all, this is a great read. I did get bogged down a bit in the middle when the emphasis was on life in the trenches, but the constant connection to the arts and philosophy saved it from only being about sand bags filled with rotting corpses.

Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain

Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk: A Novel by Ben Fountain
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read this because it is a finalist for the 2012 National Book Award. I never would have picked it up based on the description, because I don't generally read war novels or watch war movies. This year, two of the five finalists have to do with soldiers recently returned from the war.

Billy Lynn is one of the Bravo Squad, home from one tour in Iraq on a "victory tour" after an exciting day dealing with insurgents was filmed and broadcast by Fox News. The entire novel takes place on Thanksgiving Day, most of it at a Dallas Cowboys football game where the living members of the Bravo Squad are going to be honored.

Despite my disinterest in the subject matter, I have to applaud Ben Fountain for superb writing. He captures people very well, and every character in the novel reads realistically. Nobody is cut/dry black/white, but everyone and everything is far more complicated. He shows a deep understanding of the internal conflicts in being a soldier and how difficult coming back home can be. The best moments for me were when people would talk to Billy and he would zone out; suddenly there would only be a few words on the page, generic patriotic words parroted by well meaning Texans, in an accent. It is like you get to experience exactly what he is hearing (and more importantly, what he's tuning out).

Less believable were some of the side story lines, such as the serious one-day romance with the cheerleader and the movie option of their experience. I enjoyed this novel far more than I expected.

"Hector is nodding. 'That's sort of my whole point. What I got out here sucks, so I might as well join.'
'What else is there,' Mango says.
'What else is there,' Hector agrees.
'What else is there,' Billy echoes, but he's thinking of home."

This is one of the bits I read out loud because this woman is a very minor character, but this is a vivid depiction:
"...Then he's being introduced to Mrs. Norm, a well-maintained lady of a certain age with a poufed-out cloud of dark hair. She's pretty. Her dark violet eyes don't quite focus. She smiles but it's purely social, gives nothing of herself...."

Near the end, as Billy thinks about heading back to Iraq:
"Just assume you're going to die, so they were instructed the week before deploying to Iraq. Affirmative! Roger that! Sir yes sir! Carnage awaits us, we are the ones who will not be saved, the poor sad doomed honorably fucked front line who will fight them over there so as not to fight them here! A harsh thing for any young man to hear, but this is part of every youth's education in the world, learning the risks are never fully revealed until you commit."

Harsh, but Ben Fountain isn't afraid to spell out the bleak future that these soldiers are not able to escape. It colors every minute of their interactions in the states.

Poetry Finalists for the 2012 National Book Award

I had the opportunity to read all the poetry nominated for the National Book Award this year prior to the award being announced.  After Nikki Finney won last year's award for Head Off and Split, my favorite volume of last year's nominees, I decided to keep up with poetry for this award even before novels.  (Novel count - almost done with 2 out of the 5.)

This year's nominees include quite a few well-known poets, at least two in the late decades of their careers.  I personally don't care how long a person's career is; I'm looking at what kinds of poems are written, what the subjects are, and how they make me feel.  To cut down on clutter, I'm not linking to any of the titles throughout the text, but you can click on the cover images at the top of this post.

Bewilderment: New Poems and Translations by David Ferry

This volume is a combination of David Ferry's own recent work, including several poems that are responses to other poems, as well as his translations of works from the ancient world.  Highlights for me were "That Now Are Wild and Do Not Remember," clearly an homage to Thomas Wyatt.  I also loved In the Reading Room, which you can read online at the Poetry Foundation

The response poems are my least favorite, however I love the last stanza of "Reading Arthur Gold's Poem 'Chest Cancer:'"
In our consenting, by the ways we spend
Our days obeying the laws of how things are,
We deliver each other up unto the God
Until one day no Ram is caught in the thicket.


Meme by Susan Wheeler

Three very different sections make up this volume. In "The Maud Poems," each page sticks a mini four-line poem into something that feels like a conversation between a harried mother/wife and the people in her house. In "The Devil - or - The Introjects" - these are tiny poems, sometimes just thoughts in passing. In "The Split," it is hard to tell if each page is a poem, or if the entire thing is one long meandering poem moving through different styles and techniques.

Fast Animal by Tim Seibles

It is evident from these poems that Tim Seibles has had a full life. I wasn't surprised to find that this is his eighth book of poems because so many inside this volume are what I would call memory poems - girls he had crushes on, friendships that have survived adulthood, etc. There are also some entertaining villanelles and a surprising number of well-fashioned rhyming poems. Hardly anyone writes rhyming poems anymore, but they really work here.

The poems I connected with the most have to do with politics, particularly considering the current political climate (we are about two weeks from election day!). Tim Seibles does not mince words particularly when it comes to his disregard for particular politicians. "Vendetta 2006" is really great:
"...I have held
my rage on a short
leash like a good,
mad dog whose bright

teeth could keep
the faces of our enemies
well lit...."

Night of the Republic by Alan Shapiro


"Not my style" is the best summary I can give Shapiro's work. It feels like the poet walked around town one night and wrote a poem about each place he saw. His structures are overly limiting with little variety between them, and it makes for pretty dry reading. The poems seem to imagine the possibilities of actual events at each place, instead of digging into emotions or memory.

Heavenly Bodies by Cynthia Huntington

Cynthia Huntington is a genius. Reading this tiny volume was accompanied by little exclamations and repeated insistence on reading bits out loud to people who don't really get poetry to begin with, followed by the distinct sorrow of understanding that THIS is greatness and nothing I write will come close.  The poems are divided into three sections. The first section is devoid of health and full of hospital stays, medications, and addiction. There is also a sense of a lack of control over how life is, particularly as a woman. That you have to come up with ways to cope, rather than ever have hope to change it. This comes through in Delinquent, and the creatively-titled "Bride of the Barbiturate?"

Section II has "Shot Up in the Sexual Revolution: The True Adventures of Suzy Creamcheese." I'd buy this volume just to own this poem. Amazing. I can't pull out one bit of it. Okay maybe a bit from 7.:
"Oh, I admit you were beautiful to me, each dog-faced man-child,
steaming with revolution, and the absolute confidence
of sexual privelege...."

Section III focuses on fantastic beings and places, and ends with a poem called "Cut Flowers" that I really loved.  She would be my favorite to win the award.

The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean

The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements by Sam Kean
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"Never underestimate spite as a motivator for genius."

I can't really speak to the scientific accuracy of this book, but I really enjoyed listening to the stories that come from the periodic table. I feel like I learned some things, which isn't that difficult of a feat since what I remember from my high school chemistry class has more to do with the people sitting near me (we called ourselves the Peanut Gallery). I have vague memories of a teacher, the great Thorstein Sabo, who tried to teach us about the periodic table by telling us stories about electrons playing cribbage in the electron hotel. I didn't really get it.

This book groups different elements, and tells stories about them in context of political intrigue, devastating consequences, and lifesaving discoveries. Coincidentally, I am also reading Rites of Spring: The Great War and the Birth of the Modern Age, a book with a lot of parallels to The Disappearing Spoon. Where The Disappearing Spoon demonstrates how war interrupts scientific process, Rites of Spring shows the same about war interfering in the arts. You have to wonder how much farther, or at least different, both science and the arts would be, had we never had the world wars consuming the first half of the twentieth century.

The tiny pieces of information I didn't know would fill a book, this book. It would be impossible to even recite them, but I particularly enjoyed the story of argyria, silver poisoning, and the senate/governor hopeful who drank collodial silver in preparation for Y2K. Argyria turns your skin blue... permanently. Papa smurf!

I also made a note to myself to check out the poet Lowell, who is one of the first people to be treated with Lithium for mental illness. Salt (not an element) was also put into perspective with Ghandi and enforced iodine and I just don't know whether to be grateful that my government is preventing birth defects or to be freaked out that they are adding things like iodine to salt and fluoride to the water.

The audiobook was great for this. Sean Runnette has a unique voice that I enjoyed in zombie stories but still translated well to science!

I will leave you with the song I could not get out of my head during my listen to the second half of the book.

The Hobbit Read-a-Long

Reading confession - I have never read The Hobbit.

Another reading confession - I have never read The Lord of the Rings.

Eep.  I know, right?  How can any self-respecting science fiction or fantasy reader have committed such great offense to her reading heritage?

I'm not sure.  I was handed The Chronicles of Narnia as a child, and A Wrinkle in Time, but most of my reading otherwise was taken up by the Mandie books and old Bobbsey Twin books, at least, when I wasn't practicing the piano.  Hours and hours of Suzuki later, I'm a better reader than pianist.

I know that The Hobbit is coming up in December for the Sword and Laser Book Club, of which I've been a longtime member.  I would have read it during that month, but in Twitter today I came across a post (a tweet) about the read-a-long over on Unputdownables.  I love reading in community, and am always looking for more book blogger buddies, so I signed up immediately.

The reading schedule, which you can see at the aforementioned site, only requires a pace of 58 pages a week for two months.  This is something I can do while participating in NaNoWriMo and slogging through other books. 

I need to track down a copy of the book.  I will take any suggestions for editions, but I'm thinking of following Veronica Belmont's lead:

Veronica is wise, plus I have not yet had the opportunity to try out the Whispersync shindig.  The audio version of The Hobbit that just came out in Audible last month is the version set up for this, which makes it even more appealing!

So tell me... what are your book confessions?