by Camille Aubray
The title of this book captured my attention. It is about a young girl who is sent to prepare lunch for Picasso (who is in hiding as Mr. Ruiz) in Antibes in the mid 1930's. She is a precocious girl who goes from quietly preparing and serving his lunches to being a model for some paintings and eventually having an affair with him and getting pregnant.
The story switches from the past with Odine to the present when her granddaughter learns from her mother that the Grandmother claims to have been given a painting by Picasso.
The granddaughter, Celine is going through a rough time, her mother (Odine's daughter) married an abusive man who had twins from a previous marriage. The stepfather is hard on Celine and her mother. He is a very angry controlling man. When he dies the twins take control of his estate and move their stepmother from New York to Nevada to be near one of them. They keep Celine entirely out of the picture. One time Celine's mother gives her a book which turns out to be a notebook where Odine wrote down recipes and notes for what she prepared for Picasso. Celine's mother has a stroke and her siblings try to keep her away from her mother.
Celine discovers that her mother had plans to travel to France to take a cooking class with Celine's stepfather's sister. She is much nicer than he is. Celine and the aunt decide to change the mother's ticket and have Celine go instead so that she can search out her grandmother's history and search for the painting.
As the story goes on we learn that Odine was promised to a local man but married the love of her life and they moved to the U.S. where they set up a successful restaurant on the east coast. However the mafia are demanding payments and there is an altercation and Celine's adopted father is killed. Her mother is frightened and takes them back to France where they learn that Odine's parents have both died. They struggle but eventually Odine is able to convince the owner of her parents former restaurant to take her on as a cook. She helps him build up the business to include a small hotel/b and b??
The story goes on to describe how Odine is able to get the painting by Picasso by stealing it from him
Eventually Celine, with the help of the current owner of her Grandmother's hotel, finds the painting and though she would like to keep it she decides to sell it to become partners with the chef who owns her grandmother's hotel and also fund a legal case to free her mother from her siblings control. Sadly her mother dies before she can achieve this.
I picked this book up on a whim and wasn't expecting too much but it actually was an engaging read with lots of details and mystery.
Sunday, 28 April 2019
Saturday, 20 April 2019
The Island of Sea Women
by Lisa See
This is the story of the lives of two south Korean female divers, called haenyo. The two girls, Young- sook and Mi-ja. Young-sook's mother is head of the women's diving collective. Mi-ja is living with an aunt and uncle who are very mean to her. She is an orphan (with a cloud hanging over her because her parents were considered Japanese collaborators). The girls are very close friends and share all the time they can together. They are illiterate but do rubbings to document their various adventures and memories.
The book describes how the women divers are the breadwinners of the family and the cooks and gardeners. It seems all the men do is look after the children. There is an early tragedy when Young-sook is being taught to be a diver, the other baby diver she is diving with gets caught underwater. She lives but is brain damaged.
The lives of the people are tough especially as they are under Japanese occupation. Many people are killed or arrested as rebels. Mi-ja gets engaged to a man that Young-sook likes. She is sad about this but soon comes to suspect that they man she likes is abusing Mi-ja. Young-sook marries a young school teacher and they are very much in love. Young-sook's affection for Mi-ja wanes as she suspects Mi-ja's husband is siding with the Japanese against the local people. He is eventually captured during the war (by whom I am not sure). But when he returns being the chameleon he is he gets himself employed by the new occupiers, the Americans, and the new government that has been installed
The people are unhappy with this government and one day their dissatisfaction boils over into a riot.
Young-sook is devastated when her husband and son are killed and the young brain damaged woman who is now her sister-in-law is raped and murdered in front to the crowd. She begs Mi-ja who is also there to take her other children to save them but Mi-ja refuses.
The years go by, Mi-ja eventually returns to the town but Young-sook avoids her. She is outraged to learn that her daughter is seeing Mi-ja's son. When the young people announce they are getting married Young-sook refuses to attend. Eventually Mi-ja and the young people move to the U.S. They send Young-sook letters but she only reads the first one.
Eventually Mi-ja's granddaughters (also Young-sook's granddaughters) come to town and want to speak to Young-sook, she ignores them repeatedly until she finally agrees to listen to a tape recording of Mi-ja. Young-sook realized that she did not know the truth of what was going on and harbouring her hatred for so long (when many other people had suffered as much or more than she) was a mistake.
This book was very hard to read and times but it was fascinating to get a better understanding of the history of south Korea. It was a very powerful story and it was worth sticking through it to the end.
This is the story of the lives of two south Korean female divers, called haenyo. The two girls, Young- sook and Mi-ja. Young-sook's mother is head of the women's diving collective. Mi-ja is living with an aunt and uncle who are very mean to her. She is an orphan (with a cloud hanging over her because her parents were considered Japanese collaborators). The girls are very close friends and share all the time they can together. They are illiterate but do rubbings to document their various adventures and memories.
The book describes how the women divers are the breadwinners of the family and the cooks and gardeners. It seems all the men do is look after the children. There is an early tragedy when Young-sook is being taught to be a diver, the other baby diver she is diving with gets caught underwater. She lives but is brain damaged.
The lives of the people are tough especially as they are under Japanese occupation. Many people are killed or arrested as rebels. Mi-ja gets engaged to a man that Young-sook likes. She is sad about this but soon comes to suspect that they man she likes is abusing Mi-ja. Young-sook marries a young school teacher and they are very much in love. Young-sook's affection for Mi-ja wanes as she suspects Mi-ja's husband is siding with the Japanese against the local people. He is eventually captured during the war (by whom I am not sure). But when he returns being the chameleon he is he gets himself employed by the new occupiers, the Americans, and the new government that has been installed
The people are unhappy with this government and one day their dissatisfaction boils over into a riot.
Young-sook is devastated when her husband and son are killed and the young brain damaged woman who is now her sister-in-law is raped and murdered in front to the crowd. She begs Mi-ja who is also there to take her other children to save them but Mi-ja refuses.
The years go by, Mi-ja eventually returns to the town but Young-sook avoids her. She is outraged to learn that her daughter is seeing Mi-ja's son. When the young people announce they are getting married Young-sook refuses to attend. Eventually Mi-ja and the young people move to the U.S. They send Young-sook letters but she only reads the first one.
Eventually Mi-ja's granddaughters (also Young-sook's granddaughters) come to town and want to speak to Young-sook, she ignores them repeatedly until she finally agrees to listen to a tape recording of Mi-ja. Young-sook realized that she did not know the truth of what was going on and harbouring her hatred for so long (when many other people had suffered as much or more than she) was a mistake.
This book was very hard to read and times but it was fascinating to get a better understanding of the history of south Korea. It was a very powerful story and it was worth sticking through it to the end.
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