3M's Challenge Wrap-Up

Thanks, Wendy, for a wonderful challenge!

I committed to reading ten and finished ten, though I did switch out some titles. I loved the top three, which were truly outstanding books. I'm really glad I read the middle of the pack, and I could have done without the last two.

Here they are, ranked in order of enjoyment:

1. The Road by Cormac McCarthy


2. Suite Française by Irene Nemirovsky


3. Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie


4. The Translator by Leila Aboulela


5. Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert


6. The Echo Maker by Richard Powers


7. Lisey's Story by Stephen King


8. Last Evenings on Earth by Roberto Bolano


9. The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai


10. Everyman by Philip Roth

Suite Française - 3M's Review

Suite Française is the incredible incomplete set of novels by Irene Nemirovsky, a Russian Jew who had been living in Paris for 10 years before ultimately dying in Auschwitz. The preface to the French edition states that:

She dreamed of a book of a thousand pages, constructed like a symphony, but in five sections, according to rhythm and tone. She took Beethoven's Fifth Symphony as a model.

Sadly, only two of the planned five were completed. In these stories, she creates such vivid characters and situations that it is a shame we never get to find out what happened to them. She was a fine writer. Her characters were so well-defined; I cared about the worthy ones and loathed the loathsome ones. Even in her description of the latter, there was humor to be found. Both good and bad die, and of course the question is always, "Why?" The accounts of the flight from Paris as the Germans descended on them during 1940 were chilling and frighteningly relevant to what could happen today. Then, during the section depicting the occupation of France, I was most surprised at her portrayal of the German soldiers, in which some could be seen as sympathetic.

Her two daughters had kept these stories in a suitcase for years, not even looking at them as it was too painful. When one of her daughters did finally take out the papers to type them, she found this wonderful, incomplete novel and it was published in France in 2004, sixty-two years after her death in 1942.

Highly recommended.

2006 for the English translation, 367 pp.
Rating: 4.5

Last Evenings on Earth - 3M's Review

Bolaño is a Chilean author whose book The Savage Detectives was also named to the most recent NYT Most Notable list. It seems to be getting a lot of buzz on many 'Best of 2007' lists. Although Bolaño died in 2003, some of his works are just now being published in English.

The settings of these stories are in Chile, Mexico, Spain, and many other countries. It has a very international feel to it. Bolaño's writing is fascinating. Without really enjoying many of the stories, I still felt compelled to read them. There is always something literary going on; perhaps that's why they intrigued me. However, many of the stories just had too much violence and seediness for my taste--otherwise the book would have had a higher rating from me.

I'm curious about The Savage Detectives, though, and I may try to read that one in 2008.

2006 (for the English translation), 219 pp.
Rating: 3.5

Lisey's Story - 3M's Review

It had been over 20 years since I had read a Stephen King book. I used to love horror and love his books. I really, really did. That changed and I don't like horror at all now. I like scary, suspenseful stories-just not horror. I think I had convinced myself that surely there wouldn't be that much horror because he put so much of his wife/marriage into the story. I guess there probably wasn't as much as in his other books, but it was still too much for me.

Stephen King had said that he wrote this after considering what could happen to his wife if he had died in the car accident that he had. I do think he put quite a bit of himself and her into this story. I liked the beginning of the book very much, but then in the middle there was a little too much of the horror element for me. Lisey's husband Scott flashes back to a horror-full childhood. There were some crazy things that happen to Lisey as well that bothered me because I kept thinking, "How can he think of these things happening to his wife?"

Anyway, it was a good book to also use for the R.I.P Challenge, but I don't think I'll be reading another King book for awhile. If you know of one that is very tame, I might try it. Otherwise, there's just too much horror in King for this wimpy woman. I really wish I would have thought to read The Inhabited World instead.

2006, 509 pp.

Rating: 3.5

Half of a Yellow Sun - 3M's Review

A beautifully told story of a savage civil war, Adichie's Half of a Yellow Sun definitely deserves the 2007 Orange Prize and to be on the NYT Most Notable list.

"They sat on wooden planks and the weak morning sun streamed into the roofless class as she unfurled Odenigbo's cloth flag and told them what the symbols meant. Red was the blood of the siblings massacred in the North, black was for mourning them, green was for the prosperity Biafra would have, and finally, the half of a yellow sun stood for the glorious future."

I resisted reading this book because I really just don't like war stories at all. I wanted to give it a chance, though, because so many bloggers had said they appreciated it. They were right; it's a very special book. Based on the conflict in Nigeria in the late 1960's, it not only depicts the horrors of war, it also hauntingly and lovingly depicts the lives of the participants. Apparently many of the characters were based on real people in Adichie's family history, and this authenticity very much shines through.

There were some content issues for me in the book, but I'm very glad I read this story. I look forward to reading Purple Hibiscus and other books of hers to come. If you decide to read the book (and I highly encourage it), afterwards you might want to go to her website http://www.halfofayellowsun.com where you can find a lot more information about the true story.

2006, 541 pp.
2007 Orange Prize
Rating: 4.5

Update from 3M

Update on 5/12:

I set my goal for 10 books but will most likely do 12. I didn't follow my plan as outlined below, but I am 60% (or 50% if I read 12) finished. I'm happy with that so far. I don't know if I'll be able to complete the remaining titles until after June 30, though, because of all the other challenges I'm doing. Right now I'm reading The Stone Diaries for the bookawards group and toward the end of the month I'll start on The Known World for the Pulitzer group. I'm also trying to pack and put most of my belongings (hence, books!) into storage so my house will be mostly clutter free when we put it on the market. Packing.is.not.fun.

Finished titles:
The Echo Maker by Richard Powers
The Road by Cormac McCarthy (to be reviewed after I re-read print version)
Everyman by Philip Roth
The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai
The Translator by Leila Aboulela
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

To be read:
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Arthur and George by Julian Barnes
Lisey's Story by Stephen King
Suite Française by Irene Nemirovsky


Previous update on 3/15:
I have finished The Road on audio CD from the library. Although somewhat depressing, I liked it very much. Before I write a review, though, I want to read the actual print copy. Luckily, it's a short book. I've bought a copy and will "re-read" it soon. Sometimes I feel like I miss a lot when I just listen to the CD.

I have gotten quite a few NY Notable titles from the library lately. Black Swan Green, Intuition, and Half of a Yellow Sun to name a few. Hopefully I'll complete them by the end of April. I plan on finishing Suite Française and Inheritance of Loss by the end of March.

Other books I'm reading include Big Stone Gap for my f2f book group, and The Myth of Me and You for one of my online book groups.

Previous update on 3/3:

I am halfway finished with Inheritance of Loss. For anyone interested in reading that title with others this month, you may join our Yahoo group here. Our group includes several people from the NYT Notable Challenge.

After I finish Inheritance of Loss, I plan on reading Suite Française. I'm also reading The Book Thief for the Chunkster Challenge. Those two titles should go along nicely with each other.

Happy reading!
(yet another) Michelle

Eat, Pray, Love - 3M's Review

Eat, Pray, Love
by Elizabeth Gilbert

2006, 352 pp.

Rating: 4
Caveat! I didn't like the book much. I'm giving it a '4' because of the brilliant writing.




Subtitled One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia, Elizabeth Gilbert's book about "finding herself" after a divorce is, well, interesting to say the least. She is frank, candid, brutally honest, and bares all in this travel memoir. I do give her this: she is a brilliant writer and narrator (I listened to the audio CD). The problem was, though, that after finishing the book, I found I really didn't like it much. It is an easy read/listen, with a little 'too much information' sometimes, if you know what I mean. I also didn't agree with almost any of her decisions or with her conclusions about God and spirituality, though I'm sure she's not asking me to, either! Still, I rated it a '4' because I want to recognize her writing talents.

She goes through a messy divorce and travels through the three "I" countries listed above. She learns Italian and eats a lot of pasta in Italy (the Eat in the title), she "finds God" in India (the Pray), and she finds love (the Love in the title) in Indonesia. She makes it all very interesting, that's for sure. I do recommend this book because it is always fascinating to take a peak at other women's lives and their viewpoints, and as I said, the writing is excellent. In some ways, though, books like these always reinforce my own beliefs and viewspoints as well.

The Translator - 3M's Review

The Translator
by Leila Aboulela

1999, 203 pp.

Rating: 4






Sammar, (I believe it was pronounced 'Summer'), is a young widow working as an Arabic translator at a university in Aberdeen, Scotland. She has been grieving for several years over the loss of her husband who was killed in a car accident. She has a little boy but feels she is unable to care for him and leaves him with her mother-in-law in Sudan.

Faith plays an important part in Sammar's life, so when she starts to fall for Rae, her boss, she realizes it could never be. That is, unless he converts to Islam. Their relationship starts off slowly, just by talking on the telephone. I found this to be very real and touching. Many of my best conversations with my husband have been on the phone, and this was the first time (that I could recall, anyway), that I had found it portrayed in such a way in a book. The progression of the relationship and the issues of faith and belief are explored in the rest of the novel.

I really enjoyed Aboulela's writing. It was very tender and poignant. I found it easy to feel Sammar's grief. There were a few things I did dislike about Sammar's character, though. I really cannot imagine leaving a child behind like that for such an extended period of time. A few weeks perhaps, but not a few years! The writing was beautiful. However, in the last few pages of the book there were a few too many sentence fragments for my taste. I don't mind some, but it seemed a little excessive. I would definitely read another book by this author, though.

This is the author's first novel and was first published in the UK in 1999.

The Inheritance of Loss - 3M's Review

The Inheritance of Loss
by
Kiran Desai

2005, 318 pp.

Winner: Booker Prize, NBCC

Rating: 3.5




While this book has garnered much critical acclaim, I found it very difficult to complete. It took me over two months to get through it. Once I put it down, I just wasn't compelled to pick it up again. It sort of felt like a school assignment. Luckily, the last 1/3 of the book went by much faster than the first 2/3. Before reading, I would highly recommend doing a little research if you are ignorant (like I was) of Indian culture or history. One link that shed a little light on the subject for me was here.

There are two settings for the book--America and Kalimpong. Sai lives with her grandfather, a former judge, at the foothills of the Himalayas. She falls in love with Gyan, her tutor, who is sympathetic to the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF). The clash of ideals between the Indians who want change and those who wish to retain aspects of British colonialism is one of the two main conflicts in the novel.

The other conflict is that of the Indians who emigrate to the United States and the conditions of their lives once they live there. Biju, who is the son of the Judge's cook, is one of the lucky few who get a visa to go to America. But once he is there, is he really better off? The novel asks the question -- how much does each person care about their individual culture, nationality, and family. What does our "inheritance" mean to us?

While I appreciate these themes and do think the writing was brilliant at times, I wouldn't recommend this book for most readers.

Everyman - 3M's Review

Everyman

by
Philip Roth

2006
182 pp.

Rating: 1



Everyman could have been a good book. If only. . . Had he not. . . I will get to those details later.

The book traces a 70-something man's history of his health problems, his three marriages, and his affairs. After doing some research on Roth, I wondered if it is a bit autobiographical. At the end of the novel, he regrets his life. His sons and his ex-wives hate him, and he doesn't get to spend time with the one person he does love, his daughter Nancy. He is even jealous of his brother's good health and stops calling him--a brother who has always been there for him. There are lessons to be learned from the novel, sure, but here is my objection to it.

He could have written this novel without the graphic s * x scenes. It really does border on p * r n. How such a le wd book could be awarded the PEN/Faulkner is beyond me. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

An NPR interview with Philip Roth about the book Everyman is here.

A theory about p. 74 of The Road

Only read my theory in the comments if you have read the book!

The Echo Maker - 3M's Review

The original review of this title may be found here.


I've been wanting to read The Echo Maker for several reasons. I always like to read novels that are set close to where I grew up--on the prairie in the Colorado/Nebraska/Kansas region. This novel is set in Kearney, Nebraska, where my sister currently lives. Also, I like to read award-winning novels, and The Echo Maker won the 2006 National Book Award. Lastly, it concerns Capgras and Cotard's Syndromes, and I have an intense interest in these because I know a person who experienced them.

Warning: there may be some minor spoilers below.

Mark Schluter has been in a rollover accident and has sustained a severe head injury. As Mark starts to get better, he insists that his sister is an impostor. He also doesn't recognize his dog, Blackie. He begins to think that his home has been duplicated and perhaps the whole community has as well.

His sister Karin (Mark calls her Kopy Karin and Karbon Karin) is devastated when he refuses to accept her as his sister, and she calls in a nationally known doctor who has written several popular books on brain disorders. "Shrinky" as Mark calls him, comes to Kearney, runs a few tests, consults with Mark's doctor, and then goes home. Is he truly interested in Mark's case or does he just want another "story" for his new book? Mark does trust "Shrinky," though, as well as his nurse's aide Barbara--two people he did not know before the accident. Much of Mark's time is spent trying to figure out who wrote a mysterious note found on his nightstand in the hospital.

"I am No One
but Tonight on North Line Road
GOD led me to you
so You could live
and bring back someone else."

We do find out who wrote the note, how the accident occurred, and if Mark gets well again. Contrary to some bad reviews of the book, I liked how the characters were developed--even if some weren't likable. While I was interested in the various characters' thoughts and feelings, I thought some of it extraneous. I appreciated the setting (of course) and the descriptions of the birds. I didn't like the vulgar language and s*xual content, but I guess that is the norm in a modern novel today.

Also, I'm not sure why, when referring to prairie farm people, certain very negative subjects have to always be brought up. The people I know from the area are the most decent in the entire USA, and I'm always sad to see it when they are portrayed with negative qualities that might occur in less than 0.5% of the population of the region.

All in all, I'm glad I read the novel because of the reasons I stated in the first paragraph. I'm not sure that most readers would appreciate it, though.

Note: After doing a little research after I read the book, I found a book that contains very similar individual case descriptions that are mentioned in The Echo Maker:
Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind By V.S. Ramachandran, M.D., Ph.D., and Sandra Blakeslee. New York, William Morrow, 1998, 328 pp.

3M's List

I am totally nuts--insane, bonkers, crazy, etc. Why am I doing another challenge? Because I'm really enjoying the literary blogosphere. Because I'm "meeting" fellow bookaholics. Because I love to read. (And because a lot of the books were on my list, anyway!)

I am only reading 10. That's wimpy compared to others, but that's all I can do!!

*Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson
*Arthur and George by Julian Barnes
Only Revolutions by Mark Z. Danielewski
*The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai
*Lisey's Story by Stephen King
*The Road by Cormac McCarthy
*Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky
Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl
*The Echo Maker by Richard Powers

Edit: I am adding some more possibilities. The ones with the asterix above are definites. I can still commit to only 10, but after doing some more research, the following titles are interesting as well:

The Translator, by Leila Aboulela
The Dead Fish Museum, by Charles D'Ambrosio
Twilight of the Superheroes, by Deborah Eisenberg
Old Filth, by Jane Gardam
Golden Country, by Jennifer Gilmore
Intuition, by Allegra Goodman
The Stories of Mary Gordon, by Mary Gordon
The Dream Life of Sukhanov, by Olga Grushin
All Aunt Hagar's Children, by Edward P. Jones
Gate of the Sun, by Elias Khoury
The Inhabited World, by David Long
Gallatin Canyon: Stories, by Thomas McGuane
Black Swan Green, by David Mitchell
Everyman, by Phillip Roth
A Woman in Jerusalem, by A.B. Yehoshua
Eat, Pray, Love By Elizabeth Gilbert
The Omnivore's Dilemma By Michael Pollan
Reading Like a Writer By Francine Prose