Mona's Eyes

 by homas Schlesser

This is an incredible book.  It is the story of a little girl who has an incident where she loses her sight temporarily.  She is taken to a doctor and receives multiple exams which seem to show she has exceptional vision so they are puzzled as to why this occurred.  Her parents decide to send her to a psychiast and her grandfather agrees to take her.

But instead of taking her to a doctor, once per week, they go to an art gallery to explore one piece of art.  They start at the Louvre, then the D'Orsay and then on to the Modern Art Museum in Paris.  Each time the grandfather gets the girl to study the art and tell her what she sees/feels.  He then gives her some background on the artist and the art.  The selection of art was very interesting, much of it was new to me or pieces by artists I knew but was not familiar with.

The story also includes the tale of how the father has a failing store but eventually gets more money from modifying phones to be cell phones (not sure what that was about) and it turns out the girls loss of sight was due to a memory of her dead grandmother.  The little girl eventually learns her grandmother chose euthanasia.

The art/descriptions in the book were phenomenal.  I don't think I will be able to see art in such a cursory way ever again.

The book also had some lessons about life:

The grandmother tells the girl "Forget the negative my darling, keep the light forever within you".

Christian Boltanski's Archive Yourself "What he wants is for everyonge... to be able to recognize their own life.....We must archive ourselves because whoever we might be, whether a hero or unknow, visible or unvisible, it's through our archive that we can make the memory of the past glimmer".

Pierre Solage's Black is a Color: That there's always moe to look at than you might think.... That you must see beyond what can be seen, because under the panel of wood, we realize that there are other forms... Those forms are hidden but exist elsewhere.  .He teaches us the existence of what escapes our eyes. (another reminder to be mindful).

The book was insightful and inspirational. 

The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny

 by Kiran Desai

This book was longlisted for the Booker and has had good reviews.  I got 3/4 of the way through but couldn't finish it, it was too depressing.

As I started it I enjoyed her writing and language.  She is very critical of traditional Indian class structure, the mysogyny etc.  However the story was just too sad.

Stories include:

- a young woman returns home after 6 months marriage and looks after both her parents thinking she will be taken care of financially.  But when her father dies she learns he has gambled away most of his money.

- Sunny is a student and later young reporter in the US seeking a green card.  He has a nagging mother who lives in India in a joint property with her brothers in law.  She would really like to move to th US to be with Sunny but he doesn't want her to.

-Sonia is a young student in the US.  She keeps phoning her parents in India and crying about how lonely she is.  She meets and older man, an artist, he makes her is mistress.  He is emotionally abusive to her.  Eventually his wife shows up and sends her packing.  Later she finds Ilan has painted her naked and painted them making love.  She feels even more abused.

Her parents live in India.  Her mother decides to leave her husband and move to a cottage in the mountains.

At one point Sonia's family suggested a marriage between Sonia and Sunny but Sunny's family rejects this.  Sonia and Sunny do meet and have an on again off again relationshop and then seem to split. 

Sunny's mother decides to sell the family home and thinks she will get a lot of money.  She is told by the brothers that some will be sent to Sunny. She does get enough cash to buy an old place in Goa, where she is very unhappy.  But no money gets to Sunny and the two brothers are brutally murdered.

More bad stuff happens when Sunny goes to Mexico.....  I just couldn't take any more sadness and despair...

I skipped to the last two chapters but in the end Sonia and Sunny do get together and live with Sunny's mother in Goa.

Desai is a great writer, great descriptions of people and relationships but i don't think i will ever read her again given what a downer this book was. 

Remarkably Bright Creatures

 by Shelby Van Pelt

This was a  cute story.  It takes place in the pacific northwest of the US.  There is an old woman, Tova, who works as a cleaner at an Aquarium.  She talks to the fish and other creatures and especially likes the Octopus, Marcellus.  One day while she is cleaning the lunch room she sees something on the floor.  She thinks it is a sweater but it turns out to be the Octopus, tangled in some electrical cords.  Tova frees him, but gets some sucker marks on her arm.  She takes Marcellus back to his tank.  Tova's husband has died and her 18 year old son drowned/disappeared when he was 18.  He was a good boatman so that is mysterious.

The second major character is Cameron.  Cameron's mother abandoned him and he was raised by an aunt.  He has come to the town to find his birth father.  He thinks the birth father is a rich businessman.  Eventually after much effort he tracks the man down but finds out that he is not his father.

Eventually we find out that Cameron is Tova's grandson.  They are both delighted at this.

A lot more happened along the way, including Tova releasing Marcellus back into the ocean as he nears his death.

It was a cute, uplifting story, despite the sadness.