Normal People by Sally Rooney - A Novel - 2020 - 279 pages

Normal People- By Sally Rooney- A Novel - 2018 - 279 pages

From The Irish Times - A Very interesting interview with background information 

Normal People takes us deeply into the relationship of Connell and Marianne.  Set in Dublin from 2011 to 2015, they both attend a secondary school in County Sligo before going to Trinity College in Dublin, an elite institution.  

Connell is handsome, popular and very intelligent.  Marianne is not at all popular, considered by most other students as not quite normal.  She is also quite intelligent. To complicate matters, in very class conscious Dublin Connell’s mother works two days a week as a cleaner for Marianne’s wealthy mother.  

At first Connell keeps their affair a secret out of concern his friends will mock him.  Both are at the age where the opinions of their peer group are very important to them.  Much of the novel is taking up with details of their sex life.  Marianne is very possessive as well as insecure, demanding to know about other women he may have slept with.  

At Temple Marianne begins to blossom, becoming popular 

and attractive while Connell struggles to fit in with his peers, most from richer families who talk a lot about how rich their fathers are.  Connell’s father deserted his mother when he was an infant.  She refuses to talk about this with Connell.

Marianne’s father died a few years before their relationship began.

Their relationship becomes a  struggles as each have other partners.  It develops Marianne is very masochistic, she wants to be hurt during sex.  Connell will not do this.

As they work to understand themselves, to judge their lives against “normal people” their relationship continues even as they have new partners.

I found myself very interested in Marianne and Connell. There are numerous surprising developments.

As I read this I was reminded of Declan Kiberd’s essential book Inventing Ireland: The Literature of the Modern Nation in which he asserts and documents the assertion that the dominant theme of modern Irish literature is that of the weak or missing Irish father.  For sure I see this in Normal People.

Her third novel is just out Beautiful World, Where Are You? was published today.  I for sure hope to read it soon. It is already a best seller on Amazon.

The Dutch House by Ann Patchett - 2019 - 352 pages - Pulitzer Prize Finalist for Fiction - 2021

 The Dutch House by Ann Patchett - 2019 - 352 pages - Pulitzer Prize Finalist for Fiction - 2021

This is my first venture into the work of Ann Patchett.  The Dutch House, built in 1922 just outside Philadelphia, by a couple that got rich selling cigarettes. In 1946 a real estate mogul bought the House and the full contents at a bank sale.  It was meant to be a surprise for his wife. She hates the House and everything it stands for so much she deserts the Family, supposedly to go to India to help the poor..  Their children Maeve ten and Danny three beoome very close.The children begin to 

“Suffer as if they had all become characters in the worst part of a fairy tale”.

Andrea, 18 years younger than the father, falls in love with the house but not her stepchildren.   She is a widow with two children. As expected in a few years when their father dies, he left almost everything to her, she kicks them out of The House. Danny narrates the story.

There are lots of twists and turns. Danny goes to medical School but never practices.  Following his father he begins to buy properties at foreclosure sales,Marries, has kids, becomes rich, divorced and more.Maeve does the books for his business and a big fruit and vegtable company. She never Marries or has any relationships.

Lots of quite surprising things happened.

I enjoyed this novel a lot.

“ANN PATCHETT is the author of seven novels, The Patron Saint of Liars, Taft, The Magician’s Assistant, Bel Canto, Run, State of Wonder, and Commonwealth. She was the editor of Best American Short Stories, 2006, and has written three books of nonfiction–Truth & Beauty, about her friendship with the writer Lucy Grealy, What Now? an expansion of her graduation address at Sarah Lawrence College, and This is the Story of a Happy Marriage, a collection of essays examining the theme of commitment. In 2019, she published her first children’s book, Lambslide, illustrated by Robin Preiss Glasser.

A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, Patchett has been the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including England’s Orange Prize, the PEN/Faulkner Award, the Harold D. Vursell Memorial Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Book Sense Book of the Year, a Guggenheim Fellowship, The Chicago Tribune’s Heartland Prize, The Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, the American Bookseller’s Association’s Most Engaging Author Award, and the Women’s National Book Association’s Award. Her books have been both New York Times Notable Books and New York Times bestsellers. Her work has been translated into more than thirty languages.

In November, 2011, she opened Parnassus Books in Nashville, Tennessee, with her business partner Karen Hayes.  She has since become a spokesperson for independent booksellers, championing books and bookstores on NPR, 

Ann Patchett lives in Nashville with her husband, Karl VanDevender, and their dog, Sparky.”  From http://www.annpatchett.com/

I look for war to reading more of her work.

The Night Watchman- A Novel- by Louise Erdrich - 2020- 397 pages- 2021 Pulitzer Prize Winner for Fiction

 The Night Watchman- A Novel- by Louise Erdrich - 2020- 397 pages- 

2021 Pulitzer Prize Winner for Fiction

Buried in Print on Louise Erdrich

Birchbark Books- owned by Louise Erdrich. 

Best Bio of Author I could find. On The Poetry Foundation 

Back in July of 2014 I read “Nero” by Louise Erdrich.  It won the O. Henry Award for best short story that year.  Seven years it took me to read another of her works, The  Night Watchman, the 2021 Pulitzer Prize Winner for Fiction.

It is gratifying to start September with such a powerful novel.

The Night Watchman is based on the author’s grandfather who worked as a night watchman while working to prevent Native Americans Chippewas from being dispossed from land they long lived on.  The Bureau of Indian Affairs, a Federal agency, was in charge of whether or not a linked group of Native Americans should be designated a tribe.  Losing that designation meant loss of reservations rights and government help.

It is 1953, powerful men  in the American Congress want abolished the  treaty given rights of the Chippewas and other groups, a potential disaster.

The novel focuses on Pixie Paranteau, a high School Valedictorian, granddaughter of Thomas, thd night watchman.  Most of her female fellow graduates quickly marry and have children. Pixie, she prefers to be called Patrice, does not want to be tied down.  She has a job at a bearing plant.  She supports her mother and younger brother.  Her alcoholic  father periodically returns home to terrorize his wife and try to bully Patrice out of money.

There is a large cast of characters.  Vera, Patrice’s sister, moved to Minneapolis several months ago and has not been heard from in a long time.  Minneapolis is pictured as a potentially dangerous big city.  Vera takes a week leave to look for her.  She gets involved in a strange job playing an ox in a bar where she is exploited and at risk for being forced into prostitution.

Thomas and Patrice live in this impoverished reservation community along with young Chippewa boxer Wood Mountain and his mother Juggie Blue, her niece and Patrice’s best friend Valentine, and Stack Barnes, the white high school math teacher and boxing coach who is hopelessly in love with Patrice.

Watching Thomas testify in Congress was a wonderfully rendered very important part of the novel.

“In the Night Watchman, Louise Erdrich creates a fictional world populated with memorable characters who are forced to grapple with the worst and best impulses of human nature. Illuminating the loves and lives, the desires and ambitions of these characters with compassion, wit, and intelligence, The Night Watchman is a majestic work of fiction from this revered cultural treasure”. From Harper and Row

I am so glad I read The Night Watchman.

The Reading Life Review - August - 2021-

 

Column One

1. Claire Keegan - Ireland - Irish writer Claire Keegan’s debut collection of stories, AntarcticaIn 2007, her second collection, Walk the Blue Fields, was published to huge critical acclaim and went on to win The Edge Hill Prize for the strongest collection published in The British Isles. The prize was adjudicated by Hilary Mantel. 
2. Isabel Fonseca- US- author Bury Me Standing-The Gypsies and Their Journey- great narrative non-fiction
3. Pat O’Connor - Irish -  Pat O’Connor lives in Limerick in the southwest of Ireland. He was a joint winner of the 2009 Best Start Short Story Competition in Glimmertrain, and in 2010  he was shortlisted for the Sean O’Faolain International Short Story Prize. In 2011, he was shortlisted for the RTE Francis MacManus Award for radio stories, and won the Sean O’Faolain Prize. In 2012 he was shortlisted for the Hennessy New Irish Writing Award and the Fish Short Story prize.  In 2013 he was longlisted for Over the Edge New Writer of the Year.
4. Jean Stafford- USA- classic short stories. First time featured 

Column Two

1. Lilly King - USA- author Writers & Lovers- first appearance 
2. Barbara Pym - UK- I hope for a full read through
3. Isabel Wilkerson - USA - author The Great Migration and Caste - first appearance  - highly illuminating historical works 
4. Jean Stanfford - USA - classic Short stories - first apperance - recent Library of America Collection 

Column Three

1. Donald Barthelme- USA - classic short stories. High art. First appearance - new Library of America Collection
2. Catherine Lowell - USA - The Madwoman Upstairs- A Novel of the Last Bronte- first apperance 
3. Elizabeth Hardwick  - USA - first apperance.essential Short stories.new Library of America Collection 
4. Nella Larsen - USA - Harlem Renaissance - author Passing and Quicksand and several Short Stories. I hope to read more of her work

Column Four

1. Colum McCann - Irish - Colum McCann is the author of seven novels and three collections of stories. Born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, he has been the recipient of many international honours, including the U.S National Book Award, the International Dublin Literary Prize, a Chevalier des Arts et Lettres from the French government, election to the Irish arts academy, several European awards, the 2010 Best Foreign Novel Award in China, and an Oscar nomination. In 2017 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts.  I have posted on all Seven of his novels 
2. Vladimir Nabokov - Russia
3. Alistair MacLeod - Canada - powerful Short stories 
4. Steve Wade - Irish - debut collection - In The Field of Butterfly Dreams and other stories.  He has been featured numerous times in Last eight years.

Birth Countries of Authors 

1. USA - 7
2. Ireland - 4
3. UK - 2
4. Russia - 1
5. Canada - 1

Works by women were featured nine times, men six.  Eight writers are living, six were featured for the first time.

The Reading Life is a multicultural

book blog, committed to Literary Globalism

Blog Stats

As of today there are 3985 posts on The Reading Life.

Our posts have been viewed 6,428,305 times

Home countries of visitors

1. USA
2. India
3. Phillippines
4. Germany
5. Vietnam
6. Russia
7. Canada
8. UK
9. Faroe Islands - first time on this list 

All of The top five most viewed posts are on Short Stories.  Among The top five is Day 21” - A Short Story by Ruby Cowling - first published in Wasafiri - A Journal of Contemporary International Writing - May 21, 2018 - By the Author of This Paradise was in the top most viewed posts for August.

Ruby Cowling is a Thresholds Short Story Forum Member

Works I read but did not post upon

1. Kindred- Neanderthals, Life, Love, Art and Death by Rebecca Sykes 
2. The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry 
3. 30 of The stories in 52 Short Stories by Anton Chekhov - 

Our thanks to Max u for kind provision of Amazon gift cards 

To our readers stay safe.  

Ambrosia Bousweau  ( managing editor)

Mel u

The Madwoman Upstairs - A Novel of The Last Bronte by Catherine Lowell - 2016 - 353 pages

 The Madwoman Upstairs - A Novel  of The Last Bronte by Catherine Lowell - 2016 - 353 pages

If you are seriously into the Brontes then I think you will find this novel fascinating.  It assumes you have reread at least Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights and know them well enough to feel you could discuss the novels with an Oxford Don.  If you are also an avid reader of the lesser known Anne you will probably be in your glory.

Samantha Whipple, with the recent passing of her father,a well known writer, is the last descendant of the Brontes.  Everyone assumes she is the heir to a hidden fortune in diaries, letters, paintings and early manuscripts.  The problem is Samantha has never seen such items and has few clues about them.  For all she knows they do not exist.

When Samantha enrolls in Oxford she gets a lot of attention due to her ancestry.  With the help of James Orville, her Oxford Tutor and some strange clues she begins to unravel literary and family mysteries.

I enjoyed this book.  I liked the intense conversations about literature.   I was left waiting for a romance to develop.

I found the characters could have been better developed. I did not find a real sense of place in Oxford.  I thought the mother needed work to be interesting.  Her father’s old Love  interest was not all convincing.  

I would endorse this book to Bronte devoted readers.  

I must note it received all sorts of rave reviews 

“Catherine Lowell is writer of novels, letters, and the occasional limerick. She received her degree in English literature from Stanford University, where her academic interests were inspired by Ralph Waldo Emerson's observation: "There is creative reading as well as creative writing." The Madwoman Upstairs owes its existence to a fierce love of the Brontës, a terrible bout of insomnia, and the kind hospitality of many Manhattan coffee shops. 

Catherine’s passions include obscure history books and hot chocolates. Her favorite quote is from Robin Williams:

"You're only given a little spark of madness. You mustn't lose it."   http://www.cathlowell.com/about

“ Creeping” - A Short Story by Pat O’Connor from his debut collection - People in My Brain - 2019

 “Creeping” - A Short Story by Pat O’Connor from his debut collection - People in My Brain - 2019

During the last 18 months, here in Metro Manila, I have been pretty much under lockdown the entire time.  The government has strict regulations and my wife and three adult daughters have imposed stricter ones.  We suffer no material deprivation, while many here do have real food anxieties, I have videos, a virtual and real library, six cats and a newly added Shin Tsu for company.  I am grateful for my privileged situation but sometimes I miss going to the mall, dining out and other things.  Compared to millions who live day to day struggling to survive, like the man in “Creeping”,I am so very fortunate.

I have been working my way through The stories in 

People in My Brain,  creatively a very diverse exciting collection, for the last few months.

Today’s story, “Creeping”, centers on a quite old man, recently widowed.  He lives in a terrible urban slum, nearly dystopic.  Once his neighborhood was not to bad, it all went to hell when his wife Gracie died.  He stays in their house but afraid to Go out to get food because of the children.

“Evening has deepened. Darkness falls. Out in the street, roars and shrieks echo against the walls, the blare of loud cars and motorbikes is angry, ever-changing. I can’t know who might be in the garden. The windows are useless because of the bushes. I dread those windows. I’ve dreamed of sheets of wood, of corrugated iron, so that when they come they must at least come by the door. But corrugated iron is as impossible as anything else.”.

We can feel the old man’s fear.

In just a few pages O’Connor brings us into this horrible world.

From The author’s website

Pat O’Connor lives in Limerick in the southwest of Ireland. He was a joint winner of the 2009 Best Start Short Story Competition in Glimmertrain, and in 2010  he was shortlisted for the Sean O’Faolain International Short Story Prize. In 2011, he was shortlisted for the RTE Francis MacManus Award for radio stories, and won the Sean O’Faolain Prize. In 2012 he was shortlisted for the Hennessy New Irish Writing Award and the Fish Short Story prize.  In 2013 he was longlisted for Over the Edge New Writer of the Year.

His stories have been published in Southword, Revival, Crannóg, The Penny Dreadful, the Irish Independent, the Irish Times, anthologized by the Munster Literary Centre, and broadcast on RTE.

His radio play This Time it’s Different, was broadcast on 95fm as part of the Limerick City of Culture program in 2014.

In autumn 2014, he was one of eight International Writers in Residence in Tianjin, China.

His story Advice and Sandwiches was included in the Hennessy Anthology of New Irish Writing 2005-2015, published by New Island.

Apeirogon by Colum McCann - 2021- 480 Pages - a novel

 Apeirogon - by Colum McCann - A Novel - 2020 - 480 Pages 

“apeirogon: A polygon having an infinite number of sides and vertices”

I have been following the work of Colum McCann for nine years.

Here are my suggestions as to reading order for his prior six novels.

1.  Let the Great World Keep on Spinning.  His most awarded book to date.

2.  Transatlantic is actually my favorite but it is not yet as famous as the above work.  It was nominated for The Booker Prize.

Proceed on in McCann if you  like these novels, I certainly did.

3.  Zoli - revolves about a Roma woman (gypsy) who became a well known poet.  I am very interested in this culture so that helped me like the book.

4.  Dancer - about Rudolph Nureyev, fascinating in parts.  

 

5.   Everything in this Country Must. -   An internationally roaming but rooted in Ireland search by a man for his father.  Parts are brilliant

6.  This Side of Brightness 6th place McCann still worth reading.- 

What are your favorite McCann novels and stories?

I think I would put Apeirogon now at least in third place.

Apeirogon deals very profoundly with conflict between Israelis and Palestians over living territory.   To Palestinians Israelis have stolen their land, treated them with great inequity.  Israelis, The country was founded by Holocaust survivors, feel they are occupy ing  a God ordained homeland they will defend at all costs.  

The novel is structured on the actual experiences of two fathers whose daughters  were innocent victims, collateral damage, in the conflict.  Rami Elhanan is an Isreali grahic designer whose Young daughter was killed by a suicide bomber and Bassam Aramin, is a Palestinian scholar of the Holocaust.  As a Young man he spent Seven years as a political prisoner.  His daughter was killed by Isreali Defense forces, perhaps by accident.  Told in 1001 episodes, the  novel ranges widely in Middle Eastern history, goes into detail about the birds of the area, the economics and the Apartheid like policy imposed on those of Arabic heritage who live in Israeli.  The two men in time begin to engage in speaking engagements urging the end of the conflict.

I agree with The Guardian’s assesment of Apeirogon

“It is a strange time for a novel as full-hearted as Apeirogon. It feels as if the situation in the Middle East is always a reflection of its age... But perhaps that’s the point – the desperation of the situation has brought forth a work of art whose beauty, intelligence and compassion may go some way to changing things. Is it absurd to suggest that a novel might succeed where generations of politicians have failed? Perhaps, but then Apeirogon is the kind of book that comes along only once in a generation.”

Apeirogon is a challenging novel, both in content and method.

Whatever effort it reauires Will be more than repaid.

From http://colummccann.com

Colum McCann is the author of seven novels and three collections of stories. Born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, he has been the recipient of many international honours, including the U.S National Book Award, the International Dublin Literary Prize, a Chevalier des Arts et Lettres from the French government, election to the Irish arts academy, several European awards, the 2010 Best Foreign Novel Award in China, and an Oscar nomination. In 2017 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts.  His work has been published in over 40 languages.  He is the President and co-founder of the non-profit global story exchange organisation, Narrative 4. He is the Thomas Hunter Writer in Residence in Hunter College, in New York, where he lives with his wife Allison and their family.  His most recent novel, Apeirogon, became an immediate New York Times best-seller and won several major international awards.