Book Report

[stormkeeper_lovedoris]

 In Love by Amy Bloom – I’d been wanting to read this ever since I heard of it, the memoir by the well-known novelist. (One of her novels was on my “best of 2022” list, though I am laughing as I write those words, as if anyone would care about a “best of” list written by me, lol rotfl). Bloom’s husband had early-onset Alzheimer’s, and they fly to Zurich for what is basically doctor-assisted suicide. I make it sound so easy but the whole process was enormously difficult, in all regards – but especially logistically and emotionally. Long story short, it is easier to get doctor-assisted suicide in Zurich than in the handful of US states that allow it, but it is still an extremely challenging process that requires you to marshal many professionals and do it all before the person in question is too far gone mentally. In any case, the book is not “just” about this though. It’s also a love story; Bloom and her husband met in middle-age. The book is about the little things that kept their relationship going, and then how horrible it was when the person she fell in love with began to fade away. (Even when he’s chatting about his life with a few people, days before his death, he doesn’t mention Amy Bloom or other things he loved like his architecture work). Just a brilliant memoir with the right amount of detail and backstory. Grade: 8

 

The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd – Ah, I so love a good work of historical fiction! In this story, Ana is a woman from a wealthy family living about 2,000 years ago in Galilee. She has to fight for her desire to be educated, to write, and to not be married to a man she loathes. And then she meets a carpenter from Nazareth named Jesus, and eventually they marry. Yes, THAT Jesus. Bold choice, Sue Monk Kidd. Bold choice. But it absolutely works and I was quite engrossed in this book. The author’s notes at the end are compelling too (the Bible never says that Jesus had a wife, but it never says he didn’t either. And for many reasons which Kidd lays out, it certainly was possible that he did). But putting the whole Jesus thing aside, this is a wonderful story of a woman fighting for what she wants and carving out a life for herself in a world that wants her to live a very narrow one. Grade: 8

 

Starving Season by Seang M Seng – This is a memoir by a survivor of the Khmer Rouge’s Killing Fields in the 1970s. Out of 24 members of his family, Seang Seng was the only one to survive. His account is crisp and tight, and of course heartbreaking. It’s scary too – the Khmer Rouge seemed to be, as Seng puts it, a bunch of “illiterates and sociopaths” bent only on killing and torturing everyone who wasn’t a member, and I think of some of the nutjobs with powerful roles in this country and what they’d do to the people they hate….yikes. All that is left for me to say is that when I read about things like what Seng went through, I wish I had a time machine and a magic wand. Grade: 8

 

Miles From Nowhere by Barbara Savage – First published in 1983 and recently re-released, this is an account of the trip that the author and her husband took around the world, on bikes in the 1970s. They do indeed make a circle around the globe though they entirely skip South America, and the only place in Africa they hit was the far-north end of the continent. About the book itself, it is written in an honest, unpretentious style and it’s unfailingly fascinating. It’s a long book and I finished it in like 2 days. We got just the right amount of detail and funny/weighty/scary anecdotes. (One month they are shooing mice off their faces at night as they battle dysentery in Egypt, not long afterwards they are marveling at the Himalayas). I do need to point out that a lot of the author’s comments are really borderline-ethnocentric. At times I believe she tried to be conscious of her privilege (white western woman traveling through countries that are brown and poor. Spending more money on this trip than many of these people will ever see in their lifetimes, as she points out), but still I hope that she (or an editor) would’ve thought twice about or reworded a few comments. The book was published in 1983, and I don’t think too many white westerners thought about this stuff then though. Also, I gotta mention this. The author died in 1983, after she knew this book would be published but before it hit the stands. There’s an interview with her husband in the afterward, and it mentions that he remarried in 1985. Am I a jerk to question the fact that he met and married someone circa two years after his wife died? Well, I guess he was lonely and I suppose you can’t ask someone to spend the rest of their life alone; and if I died, I’d sure want Doris to find someone else and be happy. But….two years?? Like, did he meet someone eight months after his wife died and they decided to tie the knot like a year later? Idk, leaves a bad taste… Grade: 8

 

The Town of Babylon by Alejandro Varela – I’m not sure what to make of this novel! Taking place in modern times, the book begins when its main character returns from NYC to his childhood home in the ‘burbs because his dad has taken ill. His relationship with his husband already on the rocks, he meets an old flame and he has a run-in with a guy who once bragged about beating a gay guy to death. The plot moves slowly, and I often don’t stick with novels that don’t have compelling plots. But something about this book was really good. The author or main character (who I suspect are one in the same) pepper the book with thoughts on race, community, inequality….just general life in the US today. And for some reason, those thoughts don’t weigh the book down – in fact they are one of the best things about it. IDK. The book was pretty good. Grade: 6

Comments

[rhoda_rants]

Awww, I care about your 2022 best books list! <3 That first sounds horribly heart-wrenching for so many reasons. Although it's great that she put that process into words, even if just to show others going through the same thing what it's like, and that they're not alone.

Wow, that IS a bold choice! I'm intrigued. Although my person Bible head-canon (which I apparently have, who knew?) is that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene. I probably have the film version of Jesus Christ Superstar to thank for that.

On your last one--okay it's interesting to hear you say the author and main character are the same person, because I read one last year that gave me the same thought. Not the same book, but I got that vibe, y'know? It's not totally autobiographical, but you know they're speaking from direct experience.

[stormkeeper_lovedoris]

Thank you for caring about my 2022 best books list. :)

I am both smiling and finding it totally relatable that you have Bible head-canon!

Thanks for reading my report.