IN the COMPANY of CHEERFUL LADIES.

Alexander McCall Smith. IN the COMPANY of CHEERFUL LADIES. 

Another ladies' meet up book club selection (from the FVRL collection). I have read one or two earlier titles in this series. Cosy. I always wonder what the people of Botswana think about them as this idea of creating characters and stories about people from other cultures has been debated here in Canada for many years. I really identified with Mma Prescious Ramo... the head of the detective agency, and her personal challenges--intervening in a young person's bad decisions, coping with a violent ex, solving mysteries the boring way (phone calls) and the wise way, by using her intuition and her contacts and her understanding of motivation and her ability to select talented employees. 

Another part of my enjoyment is my recent immersion in Africa-set stories. My reading had been limited: CRY, the BELOVED COUNTRY, HEART of DARKNESS, OUT of AFRICA, and Maya Angelou's account of an unfortunate marriage to an Egyptian man. And M.G. Vassanji's The IN-BETWEEN WORLD of VIKRAM LALL. Oh yes, SHAKE HANDS WITH THE DEVIL. More recently, I enjoyed Prince Harry's account  in SPARE of the solace he has found in the natural environment and press-free world, and in Trevor Noah's wonderful memoir BORN A CRIME. This is another perspective. Female. Entrepreneur. Working Class, with points of connection--pumpkins, shebeens, co-workers, crime, and finding suitable partners.

The STATEMENT

Brian Moore. The STATEMENT. Plume, 1996.

Found at the hospital book sale. Hunting Nazi Collaborators in France in  May, 1989. Explores reasons why the church gave asylum to PB, one specific wartime murderer of Jews, twice commuted, then re-charged with crimes against humanity. Explores corruption in church, police, and military.

The MARROW THIEVES

 

The MARROW THIEVES, a novel by Cherie Dimaline. Cormorant, 2017

The Marrow Thieves was featured on Canada Reads, won the Governor General’s Award for Fiction among other prestigious prizes, and was a #1 national bestseller. Many people loved it, so my hesitancy to read it at the time matters not. Although I prefer to read Canadian writers whenever possible, I was not that interested in this one because: 1) I seldom choose to read Sci-Fi. This story is speculative fiction, set in a dystopian future, some time after 2066. Frenchie, the 16-year old narrator, is part of a small “unhoused” group living in a post-climate change country, somewhere northeast of Toronto. 2) I am also not a fan of YA, young adult stories of coming-of-age which usually involve first love/sex and developing independence. I am old. I’ve read too many coming-of-age stories; my personal challenges are different. 3) Finally, the “concept” of the book, capturing Indigenous people in order to harvest their bone marrow, reminded me too much of British Nobel Prize-winner Kazuo Ishigaro’s novel Never Let Me Go, also about “harvesting” but different organs. That said, I am glad that my last book club selection was The Marrow Thieves and that I have read it now, and discussed it at book club on October 15. .

My hesitations above tell you what you need to know about the story. Frenchie is hiding out, moving from camp to camp in the bush with Miig, the older leader, Minerva, the Elder, Wab and Chi-Boy, an emerging couple, Rose, the love interest, and RiRi, one of four children. Frenchie has lost his brother Mitch and their father; Miig has lost his husband Isaac. Coincidence does play a part in the plot more than once. The group feels like “prey”, “hunted” by government Recruiters. They fear being captured and sold to the “schools” where the harvesting labs are located. Fear of the unknown and suspicion dominate. Which strangers can be trusted? Individuals are angry at what has caused climate change which has destroyed life as it was known. They cope with their grief by telling “coming-to” stories about what they have lost and how they arrived where they are now. There are some beautiful poetic descriptions and the plot is engaging. Will they or won’t they be captured? Will he or won’t he get the girl? Well worth reading.

As part of my Substack newsletter One Lonely Writer, my series on RECONCILE THIS1, I look at how The Marrow Thieves contributes towards RECONCILIATION.

MIDDLESEX

Jeffrey Eugenides. MIDDLESEX. Vintage, 2002.

This is a book club selection which I gave notice that I did not intend to read. I bought a copy several years ago thinking it was about a place in England. It is not. It is about the immigration experience in the USA, and later generations of a Greek family coping with gender-identity issues. Not that I object, but I do object to the "trends" manipulating my reading choices.

It annoys me when gender issues (diversity) are implied to be "caused" by abuse. In reading interviews with this writer, he makes it clear that the specific type of "intersexuality" depicted in this story is a genetic condition which is more likely to materialize with incest, each partner bringing part of the damaged gene with them, and that the condition was not visible at birth. Changes occurred to the body with puberty. 

The discussion at the September book club was basically a consensus, that the story was too long, too complicated, covering at least three generations of a Greek immigrant family to the USA. People did appreciate the depiction of the afflicted/divergent character's feeling rejected and needing to leave the country to find a private non-judgmental society that would not reject him. 

I am not sorry that I did not read it, but it was partly because I was still reading the 600+-page The Secret History. And I really do hate long books. I am a slow reader.

THE SECRET HISTORY

Donna Tartt. THE SECRET HISTORY. Knopf, Penguin, 1992

629 pages. Much too long. Way too many words. A coming-of-age story of a group of Classics students at a Vermont university getting a bit too involved in their studies. Constant smoking and drinking. Constant peer pressure to comply as the price of admission/acceptance. Plot and character. The final few pages offer a bit more insight as a survivor looks back.

I am glad I read it as this title makes many lists of 100 Best... I will count it as 3 books. 

LINCOLN IN THE BARDO

George Saunders. LINCOLN IN THE BARDO. Bloomsbury, 2018.

Finished reading this experimental novel, winner of the Man Booker Prize, 2017,  on August 26, 2024. Sought it out because I've been following Saunders' Substack column Story Club, on reading and writing, and because Abraham Lincoln has always been my favourite famous American. The first time I ever had to give a speech in school, I spoke about him. It was back during the Civil War centennial, and all the media in our home, Readers Digest and National Geographic, were full of it.

I had to look up the meaning of "bardo"--which seems to be not a building but rather a Buddhist tradition of a transitional state where souls await their final placement.

I love the experimental nature of the style of this book. The "damn the rules" attitude. The presentation of voices as if they are dialogue in a stage play. The presentation of citations as if nothing more need be said of the jaundiced view of people and politics then and now. 

I love the idea of exploring attitudes towards death, burial, and the afterlife. Not one who is too interested in abstractions myself, and not of a faith group which puts much stress on an afterlife, I have not thought much about what happens after death. Our family prefers cremation; we have chosen a return to nature rather than solid physical memorializing of lost loved ones. So Saunders' imaging of Lincoln's dilemma is interesting. Visiting the mausoleum in private. Opening the coffin. Holding the body. Believing his son is still present; feeling when the soul departs. Very affecting, as is the juxtaposition of the president's grief with the grieving of families having lost and doomed to lose more loved ones in the years of civil war yet to come. 

A sad story leavened by the delusions and denial of several waiting souls, and the devious nature of one group, mostly impoverished and/or lower class, destined for the other place. 

The HOME for UNWANTED GIRLS

Joanna Goodman. The HOME for UNWANTED GIRLS. Harper, 2018.

Ladies Only Book Club pick. Not wild about the style which is too much telling and weak on matching POV and life experience. [words and images used which the POV character would not know of]  But the history and the emotions kept me hooked. The history of Quebec's funding orphanages run by nuns, and switching them over to asylums because the federal grants were greater. Unconscionable. And the lifetime, a whole generation, of mother and daughter longing for each other. And the damage done by loss of agency, hypocrisy, lies, forced labour, restricted access to the world, and abuse is heart-breaking. Maggie got pregnant at 15. Not sure who the father was as an uncle had raped her after her own father separated her from Gabriel, the love of her life. Elodie did not get adopted. 

Elodie = Melody without the M. I wish I knew that sooner as I had no idea how to pronounce the name.