Book report
Jul. 21st, 2012 05:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stormkeeper_lovedorisMy goodness – this was a fantastic group of books. What’s even more odd is that most of them are fiction, and I’ve always believed that I prefer non-fiction. Yet I loved every novel in this crop. I guess I need to read more fiction!
Dirty Secret: A Daughter Comes Clean About Her Mother’s Compulsive Hoarding by Jessie Sholl – I’ve found that memoirs can really vary in quality. I like reading about people whose lives are interesting, but just because there is something atypical about them doesn’t make for a great memoir. Recently I began reading but couldn’t finish (due to the books being BORING) a memoir by someone who had agoraphobia and another by someone who had face-blindness. So….I was ready for anything when I opened this memoir, by the daughter of a hoarder. I couldn’t put it down. The author describes her mother’s life and her interactions with her mother, she keeps the pace brisk, and she got me to care about her. Sholl shares her struggle with trying to help and “cure” her mother, realizing at some level that she can’t live someone else’s life but agonizing for the situation she is in. The subject of hoarding does interest me; I have a close friend who is a hoarder. Sholl provides illuminating tidbits of research on people who hoard and what is going on in their heads. (What I can’t figure out, though, is why my friend who hoards doesn’t display any of the other characteristics typical to hoarders. Sholl tells us that many hoarders also suffer from perfectionism, OCD, a lack of empathy, they tend to move/walk/drive slowly – slower reaction times overall, they may idealize and build up a person in their head only to tear them down later, attachment disorder, and more. But I don’t think there’s anything unusual about my friend other than her hoarding!). The book did contain one homophobic lapse by the author but putting that aside for now*, this was a fascinating read that I polished off in a day or two. Grade: B+
The Help by Kathryn Stockett – I wasn’t going to read this book. Like a lot of people, I was like, ‘Do we need another book where Black women the maids of white women….and to top it off, it’s written by a white woman!’ To make a comparison, one of my favorite books is Marion Zimmer Bradley’s “The Catch Trap”. But I do remember someone commenting that The Catch Trap is a book about gay men that is written by a straight person for straight people. Is “The Help” a book about Black people that is written by a white person for white people? That is a legitimate point and legitimate criticism, but risking derision, I am going to put that question aside and just admit that I read and liked the book. I decided to read it after my friend A said she happened to get into it at her parents’ house as she was doing her laundry. I am always in need of good audio books so that I have something to listen to in the car, and my library did have this one on CD, so I gave the audio version a go. The four voice actors (including one of whom who had stared in the movie) were phenomenal. And any time a novel has a strong plot and interesting characters, then I’m there – and the plot and characters here were stellar. Sure, there were a few problems (you have your textbook-evil Southern belle, you have a male character who goes from jerk to Prince Charming in ten seconds flat, and then back again to jerk), but I say this one deserved to be a best-seller. I was really hooked. Grade: A
More books, and of course more detail on the homophobic part in “Dirty Secret”, behind the cut.
*Okay, first here’s the bit about the homophobia in “Dirty Secret”. The author keeps referring to one of her mother’s neighbors as the “Mean Lesbian Neighbor”. The woman is given no name other than Mean Lesbian Neighbor. I am all for visibility of LGBT people, but what’s the point of calling out someone’s sexual orientation, especially when all we know about this woman is that she’s mean? Would a writer include a character referred to only as “Mean Disabled Neighbor”? “Mean Jewish Boss”? “Mean Heterosexual Writer”? The memoir describes plenty of other unpleasant characters, but none of them are referred to solely as “Mean Heterosexual Fill-in-the-blank”. It seemed offensive to treat this person this way, when no one else is singled out like this. (And, by the way, I can see why the neighbor of an extreme hoarder may justifiably not be thrilled). I wrote to the author to share my thoughts on this but haven’t heard back from her.
Now, back to the book report.
The Personal History of Rachel DuPree by Ann Weisgarber – It is such an awesome thing to be able to read a novel as good as this one. I seriously said some silent thank yous to the author and to the library for bringing me the experience of reading this novel. Maybe I sound a little over the top, but this book was worth it. Sometimes when a book is so good, I fail at describing it in my own words and paste in those of another reviewer who is more articulate than I: “Enamored of Isaac DuPree (the son of her employer) and desperate for a life beyond that of boardinghouse cook in Chicago’s slaughterhouse district, Rachel accepts a deal proffered by Isaac: join him in settling 160 acres of land offered by the Homestead Act in the wilds of South Dakota. She heads off to the aptly named Badlands in a bargained marriage of at least one year. Fourteen years later, she looks back over her life, the dreams and longing of a young woman versus the harsh reality of a wife and mother living in an unforgiving territory. After months of drought, the land, the animals, and her children are parched and on the brink. She herself is on the brink, pregnant again and coping with Isaac’s obsession with the land, the cruel demands on their five young children, and the isolation of being one of the few black families in the territory. A shimmering novel of the sacrifice, hardship, and determination of a black family in the early-twentieth-century settlement of the West.” Please note that I only paste in reviews that I agree with. Another review compared this work to “The Color Purple”, and I just don’t see the similarity other than that the main characters are Black and it takes place about 100 years ago. In any case, I read this book in a few short days and wish I could have savored it for longer. Grade: A
Dreams of Joy by Lisa See – This is the sequel to the novel “Shanghai Girls”. I have got to hand it to Lisa See – she is prolific and she knows how to pen a story that keeps me interested. (Just for the run-down, I’ve read three of her other novels. I loved “Snow Flower and the Secret Fan”, liked “Shanghai Girls”, but found “Peony in Love” to be inexplicably dreadful). I won’t go into specifics on the plot of this one, in case anyone hasn’t read it or its predecessor; like all of See’s novels that I’ve read, it centers on Chinese (or Chinese-American) women and their familial relationships with each other. The plot really tested the limits of believability and the dialog was shockingly clunky for such an experienced writer, and yet for whatever reason, I couldn’t put this one down. I liked it even better than “Shanghai Girls”, though this one certainly isn’t going to ever make it into a literature class. Grade: B
Gillespie and I by Jane Harris – This is another novel that is so fantastic that my words won’t do it justice and what’s more, I don’t want to give out any spoilers. The author wrote another fantastic novel, “The Observations”, and so I was eager to read this one. Taking place in 19th century Scotland and narrated by a semi-wealthy “spinster”, this novel starts out mild and perhaps even a bit slow-paced. Then you reach a point where you can’t put it down and, even better, you slowly begin to question what your narrator has told you. The author has dropped clever hints all along the way and at the end of the day, you’re not sure what to think. Despite its length of 500 pages, the novel was finished by me in days. Grade: A
Books I started reading but didn’t finish:
None this time
Dirty Secret: A Daughter Comes Clean About Her Mother’s Compulsive Hoarding by Jessie Sholl – I’ve found that memoirs can really vary in quality. I like reading about people whose lives are interesting, but just because there is something atypical about them doesn’t make for a great memoir. Recently I began reading but couldn’t finish (due to the books being BORING) a memoir by someone who had agoraphobia and another by someone who had face-blindness. So….I was ready for anything when I opened this memoir, by the daughter of a hoarder. I couldn’t put it down. The author describes her mother’s life and her interactions with her mother, she keeps the pace brisk, and she got me to care about her. Sholl shares her struggle with trying to help and “cure” her mother, realizing at some level that she can’t live someone else’s life but agonizing for the situation she is in. The subject of hoarding does interest me; I have a close friend who is a hoarder. Sholl provides illuminating tidbits of research on people who hoard and what is going on in their heads. (What I can’t figure out, though, is why my friend who hoards doesn’t display any of the other characteristics typical to hoarders. Sholl tells us that many hoarders also suffer from perfectionism, OCD, a lack of empathy, they tend to move/walk/drive slowly – slower reaction times overall, they may idealize and build up a person in their head only to tear them down later, attachment disorder, and more. But I don’t think there’s anything unusual about my friend other than her hoarding!). The book did contain one homophobic lapse by the author but putting that aside for now*, this was a fascinating read that I polished off in a day or two. Grade: B+
The Help by Kathryn Stockett – I wasn’t going to read this book. Like a lot of people, I was like, ‘Do we need another book where Black women the maids of white women….and to top it off, it’s written by a white woman!’ To make a comparison, one of my favorite books is Marion Zimmer Bradley’s “The Catch Trap”. But I do remember someone commenting that The Catch Trap is a book about gay men that is written by a straight person for straight people. Is “The Help” a book about Black people that is written by a white person for white people? That is a legitimate point and legitimate criticism, but risking derision, I am going to put that question aside and just admit that I read and liked the book. I decided to read it after my friend A said she happened to get into it at her parents’ house as she was doing her laundry. I am always in need of good audio books so that I have something to listen to in the car, and my library did have this one on CD, so I gave the audio version a go. The four voice actors (including one of whom who had stared in the movie) were phenomenal. And any time a novel has a strong plot and interesting characters, then I’m there – and the plot and characters here were stellar. Sure, there were a few problems (you have your textbook-evil Southern belle, you have a male character who goes from jerk to Prince Charming in ten seconds flat, and then back again to jerk), but I say this one deserved to be a best-seller. I was really hooked. Grade: A
More books, and of course more detail on the homophobic part in “Dirty Secret”, behind the cut.
*Okay, first here’s the bit about the homophobia in “Dirty Secret”. The author keeps referring to one of her mother’s neighbors as the “Mean Lesbian Neighbor”. The woman is given no name other than Mean Lesbian Neighbor. I am all for visibility of LGBT people, but what’s the point of calling out someone’s sexual orientation, especially when all we know about this woman is that she’s mean? Would a writer include a character referred to only as “Mean Disabled Neighbor”? “Mean Jewish Boss”? “Mean Heterosexual Writer”? The memoir describes plenty of other unpleasant characters, but none of them are referred to solely as “Mean Heterosexual Fill-in-the-blank”. It seemed offensive to treat this person this way, when no one else is singled out like this. (And, by the way, I can see why the neighbor of an extreme hoarder may justifiably not be thrilled). I wrote to the author to share my thoughts on this but haven’t heard back from her.
Now, back to the book report.
The Personal History of Rachel DuPree by Ann Weisgarber – It is such an awesome thing to be able to read a novel as good as this one. I seriously said some silent thank yous to the author and to the library for bringing me the experience of reading this novel. Maybe I sound a little over the top, but this book was worth it. Sometimes when a book is so good, I fail at describing it in my own words and paste in those of another reviewer who is more articulate than I: “Enamored of Isaac DuPree (the son of her employer) and desperate for a life beyond that of boardinghouse cook in Chicago’s slaughterhouse district, Rachel accepts a deal proffered by Isaac: join him in settling 160 acres of land offered by the Homestead Act in the wilds of South Dakota. She heads off to the aptly named Badlands in a bargained marriage of at least one year. Fourteen years later, she looks back over her life, the dreams and longing of a young woman versus the harsh reality of a wife and mother living in an unforgiving territory. After months of drought, the land, the animals, and her children are parched and on the brink. She herself is on the brink, pregnant again and coping with Isaac’s obsession with the land, the cruel demands on their five young children, and the isolation of being one of the few black families in the territory. A shimmering novel of the sacrifice, hardship, and determination of a black family in the early-twentieth-century settlement of the West.” Please note that I only paste in reviews that I agree with. Another review compared this work to “The Color Purple”, and I just don’t see the similarity other than that the main characters are Black and it takes place about 100 years ago. In any case, I read this book in a few short days and wish I could have savored it for longer. Grade: A
Dreams of Joy by Lisa See – This is the sequel to the novel “Shanghai Girls”. I have got to hand it to Lisa See – she is prolific and she knows how to pen a story that keeps me interested. (Just for the run-down, I’ve read three of her other novels. I loved “Snow Flower and the Secret Fan”, liked “Shanghai Girls”, but found “Peony in Love” to be inexplicably dreadful). I won’t go into specifics on the plot of this one, in case anyone hasn’t read it or its predecessor; like all of See’s novels that I’ve read, it centers on Chinese (or Chinese-American) women and their familial relationships with each other. The plot really tested the limits of believability and the dialog was shockingly clunky for such an experienced writer, and yet for whatever reason, I couldn’t put this one down. I liked it even better than “Shanghai Girls”, though this one certainly isn’t going to ever make it into a literature class. Grade: B
Gillespie and I by Jane Harris – This is another novel that is so fantastic that my words won’t do it justice and what’s more, I don’t want to give out any spoilers. The author wrote another fantastic novel, “The Observations”, and so I was eager to read this one. Taking place in 19th century Scotland and narrated by a semi-wealthy “spinster”, this novel starts out mild and perhaps even a bit slow-paced. Then you reach a point where you can’t put it down and, even better, you slowly begin to question what your narrator has told you. The author has dropped clever hints all along the way and at the end of the day, you’re not sure what to think. Despite its length of 500 pages, the novel was finished by me in days. Grade: A
Books I started reading but didn’t finish:
None this time
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no subject
Date: 2012-07-21 03:23 pm (UTC)With the hoarding, maybe it is more that those are all *possible* symptoms or attributes, but don't necessarily show up? And it depends on the circumstances? Like lots of Holocaust survivors and others who were starving for whatever reasons become food hoarders. They are terrified of ever going hungry again so they stock up as much food as they can. I saw an episode of Hoarders that was similar...the woman had been poor as a child and you got the feeling that she had had to make everything stretch...so she saved everything so it was not wasted. It is a fascinating subject in any case. I read something about the Collyer brothers in NY once and whoa, super out of control hoarding...
no subject
Date: 2012-07-21 10:06 pm (UTC)And yeah, good point - just because something can show up with some hoarders doesn't mean it applies in every case. I think with mental illnesses you have to expect a lot of variation.
no subject
Date: 2012-07-21 04:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-21 10:06 pm (UTC)Do you sew a lot?
no subject
Date: 2012-07-22 01:39 am (UTC)Not a lot. Every now and then when I need to relax. I do more beading and such than sewing. I like making friendship bracelets a lot, it's pretty mind-numbing but it keeps your hands busy and you get multi-coloured bracelets that go with everything. Hehe.
no subject
Date: 2012-07-22 07:03 am (UTC)ya know, i looked back and i don't think i ever included the help in a book report. i did find it very addictive and easy to read, but the whole time i was reading it, i always felt very strongly that i was reading a book written by a white person about Black people for white people. but if i approached it as a light read only, i could kinda get past that. it certainly was compelling. i mean, you wouldn't expect a breezy beach read to be hard-hitting, so that was how i approached it.
and i hear you on the "mean lesbian neighbor" thing. i would bet there would be some other descriptors she'd be willing to use the same way. and yes, very very understandable that a neighbor would have a problem with extreme hoarding! did the author seem to sincerely not understand why the neighbor would have a problem with it?
gillespie and i sounds very interesting... i think that might need to go on my to-read list :D
thanks for sharing these!
no subject
Date: 2012-07-23 01:40 pm (UTC)I think the author of "Dirty Secret" gets why the neighbor wasn't thrilled. I just still don't get the author's cluelessness on how bad this comes across, but the book was definitely a good read anyway.
I loved loved loved Gilesspie and I. Some fine writing, a good book that makes you question things. If you do read it, please be ware that it does get off to a slow start. But then I read 300 pages in like 2 days. The Observations by the same author is really great too.
Thanks for reading!
no subject
Date: 2012-07-24 04:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-24 07:47 pm (UTC)