HOW to AGE DISGRACEFULLY

 Clare Pooley. HOW TO AGE DISGRACEFULLY. Penguin, 2024

A holiday book club selection. Amusing. I copied some lines that made me laugh out loud. It took me a while to get into it. I felt no empathy for the two main characters. Daphne was rude which to me is not the same as funny. And Art is delusional about career and self. The writer eventually gets to the info that helps us understand. One takeaway: every senior needs a techie on call. 

HELD

Anne Michaels. HELD. Penguin, Random House, M&S, 2023.

Winner of the Giller Prize for fiction, 2024. I bought this book because I felt guilty, having tried and never succeeded to get into her first novel, FUGITIVE PIECES. I will read it now.

HELD is like reading a novel-length poem. The Table of Contents is helpful because it forewarns the reader that the time line is not linear--from 1908 to 2025. At first there seem to be no recurring characters but certain objects seem to be passed down from earlier generations. 

I read the whole novel aloud, just for the sound and the rhythm of it, and the giant challenging vocabulary. 

Characters include returned soldiers, photographers, musicians, scientists including Marie Curie, suffaggets, and contemporary lovers.

Sometimes there was a bit too much abstraction--seemingly living inside someone else's head. But that's just me. 

MOON OF the TURNING LEAVES

 Waubgeshig Rice.  MOON of the TURNING LEAVES. Random House, 2023.

A dystopia, set twelve years after the power went out, with small bands of Indigenous people living together and realizing they have to move if they are going to be able to feed themselves.

The group, 15-year old Nangohns, Elder Evan, JC, Cal, Amber, and Tyler set out to discover what lays beyond, looking for the land on the north shore of the big lake where their people were once from. The pace is slow, matching the speed of their walking. They stick to abandoned roads when they can, not knowing what they will encounter and if they will be safe. They manage their affairs by consensus, deferring to those with experience, with gender and non-binary equity, remembering to give thanks, make offerings, respect the help from the ancestors. They encounter good and bad people. 

 

WHEN the TREES SAY NOTHING

Thomas Merton. WHEN the TREES SAY NOTHING. Kathleen Deignan, Ed. Sorin, 2003.

I must have found this book on my impromptu trip to Seattle last fall. A beautiful cover, small volume with "good hand", and I've turned to it in this time of confusion and fear associated with American politics. I note that Merton documented an incident when the monastery where he lived in Kentucky was being circled by a military helicopter. I read this as a nod to the conspiracy theory that Merton was assassinated by US government agents while he was attending a conference in Asia, because of his vocal anti-Vietnam War position. But this is not part of this book. These are excerpts from his personal journals, observations of the natural world, and the gratitude he felt and the pleasure he gained by being able to have solitary time to write. 

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.