by Amy Tan
This is the first book by Tan that I have read. Her books have been very popular so I had high expectations.
The book is the story of Violet Minturn. Violet's mother, an American, operates an exclusive courtesan house. She observes how her mother handles the clients, teasing them, nurturing their egos. As the politics in China change one of Violet's mother\s clients makes arrangements for the two of them to leave China for San Francisco on a ship. Violet's mother makes it onto the ship but Violet is detained and does not make it. It appears this was deliberate on the part of her mother's client. Violet later finds out that this man was likely her father.
Violet is taken in by another courtesan house and groomed to be a courtesan by a former employee of her mother's. This woman not only coaches her on how to behave but looks after her as a surrogate mother. Violet does not want to become a courtesan but she has no alternative.
The man who buys her "deflowering" is a man she likes, they have a loving but also tempestuous relationship while he has her contract. She treats him very rudely and he decides not to renew his contract. She then lives several years with a variety of clients.
Then she meets a client, an American. They fall in love with her and he takes her away from the brothel and they live together as man and wife. She has a baby girl. They are very happy for a few years until the man dies. Violet doesn't know what to do and decides to take on the name of the man's American wife, registering her daughter as his daughter. He has left her his fortune in China so she should have been comfortable. However, the man's American wife discovers what she has done, she is charged with a crime and the woman takes her daughter from her.
Violet is distraught by the loss of her daughter. She returns to work in a brothel where she meets a man who claims to be a poet. He woos her with tales of his family and with poetry and she agrees to marry him. She and her surrogate mother travel a great distance and are shocked to discover that the man is not as wealthy as he claimed and he has two other wives. She will be one of his concubines. She is furious and plots how to escape but the location is very remote and escape seems impossible. She does try to get away and her "husband" beats her savagely. Then she and other of the concubines hear about a village you can reach by climbing a nearby mountain.
They set out but the man almost catches up with them, but he is killed by a rock fall.
Violet returns to her home city but is adamant she will no longer be a courtesan. She goes to her first lover and insists he give her a job in his business. He does so and her English language skills and ability make a valuable contribution to his company. Initially they remain friends but not lovers.
Eventually Violet learns where her mother is and the circumstances under which she left. She contacts her mother who tracks down her daughter. Violet's mother makes friends with the girl and keeps an eye on her for Violet. It is clear the girl does not like her adopted mother. Violet's mother and her daughter travel to China to see her and invite her to return with them to the U.S. But she decides it would be better for her to stay and take care of her aging lover.
This was an interesting story, the portrait of the lives of the courtesans was interesting. It was interesting to see the strong female characters trying to have some measure of control over their lives. The story line of the mother's losing their daughters was poignant. The woman were very strong willed. The story was interesting with a lot of colourful characters. However, I felt it was a bit too wordy at times. The author spent a lot of time describing scenes and interactions but didn't give us much detail as to how Violet or her mother were feeling about the loss of their daughters. Violet's mother, to be fair, had been told that her daughter had been killed, run over by a carriage, if I remember correctly.
Thursday, 2 October 2014
Thursday, 4 September 2014
Cuckoo's Calling
by Robert Galbraith (a.k.a. J. K. Rowling)
In this mystery a youmg famous black model falls to hear death from her apartment window. The coroner rules it a suicide. However, the brother of the woman engages the services of a down and out Private Investigator because he does not believe it was suicide.
The detective is living out of his office as he has been kicked out by his girlfriend. He is a war vet and has a prosthetic leg.
He takes on the case, and with help from his temporary assistant, interviews the girls family members (she was adopted), her friends and business acquaintances and he does uncover the truth.
This was a typical detective story, it kept developing the story towards the truth a bit at a time. I thought the story was okay, the persistence of the detective was engaging. It did seem to drag on a bit near the end.
As I read reviews of the book people seemed to be pleased with the surprise ending but I have to say that I found the ending entirely unbelievable, and as a result unsatisfactory.
At the end of the story we find out that the model wrote a hand written will on the day she died. Why would she do this, did she expect something to happen? She leaves all her money to a brother she has never met (she has identified her biological mother and father and learns that her father had a family including a son). Why would she leave all her money to someone she has never met? She had met her mother, a poor sluttish woman and had befriended a young drug addict in Rehab. I don't understand why she would leave money to a total stranger and nothing to these others. I know she didn't like her birth mother but thought she might leave something to the other girl.
But the most problematic aspect of the book is that the man who hired the detective is actually the one who killed the girl. Why would he go to the bother and the expense when it had been deemed a suicide and without a will all the money would have gone to him and his family. I don't see the point.
I think I had expected something better written, more creative, by Rowling.
In this mystery a youmg famous black model falls to hear death from her apartment window. The coroner rules it a suicide. However, the brother of the woman engages the services of a down and out Private Investigator because he does not believe it was suicide.
The detective is living out of his office as he has been kicked out by his girlfriend. He is a war vet and has a prosthetic leg.
He takes on the case, and with help from his temporary assistant, interviews the girls family members (she was adopted), her friends and business acquaintances and he does uncover the truth.
This was a typical detective story, it kept developing the story towards the truth a bit at a time. I thought the story was okay, the persistence of the detective was engaging. It did seem to drag on a bit near the end.
As I read reviews of the book people seemed to be pleased with the surprise ending but I have to say that I found the ending entirely unbelievable, and as a result unsatisfactory.
At the end of the story we find out that the model wrote a hand written will on the day she died. Why would she do this, did she expect something to happen? She leaves all her money to a brother she has never met (she has identified her biological mother and father and learns that her father had a family including a son). Why would she leave all her money to someone she has never met? She had met her mother, a poor sluttish woman and had befriended a young drug addict in Rehab. I don't understand why she would leave money to a total stranger and nothing to these others. I know she didn't like her birth mother but thought she might leave something to the other girl.
But the most problematic aspect of the book is that the man who hired the detective is actually the one who killed the girl. Why would he go to the bother and the expense when it had been deemed a suicide and without a will all the money would have gone to him and his family. I don't see the point.
I think I had expected something better written, more creative, by Rowling.
Body Count
By Barbara Nadell
This mystery, set in Istanbul, involves the gruesome murders of several people on the 21st day over several months. Some of the victims are loosely related. Several of them have had their hearts cut out. The first victim, apparently somewhat mental, had strange writing, that was at first thought to be math formulas in his home. The writing was later identified as related to the Mayan calendar. The police wonder if the mrders are somehow connnected to Mayan rituals.
As Inspector Suleyman goes about trying to solves the crimes he encounters a gypsy woman, a former lover of his. Their affair is reignited. This causes him to abandon a young female colleague he was in a relationship with.
As the victims all have crimes/sins in their background (adultery, crime, pedophilia, homosexuality the police wonder if the murders are being done to punish the"sinners". The search for the killer results in the death of Suleyman's female colleague and Suleyman comes close to death at the hands of the serial killer.
In the end, it is one egomaniac academic, who got one of the victims pregnant as a young girl, who was having an affair with one of the victims and who has a hatred for the Ottoman descendents who is the serial killer.
It was an interesting mystery. The various police officers had unique and endearing personalities. The setting in Istanbul and the time frame in current Turkey added extra colour and life to the story.
This mystery, set in Istanbul, involves the gruesome murders of several people on the 21st day over several months. Some of the victims are loosely related. Several of them have had their hearts cut out. The first victim, apparently somewhat mental, had strange writing, that was at first thought to be math formulas in his home. The writing was later identified as related to the Mayan calendar. The police wonder if the mrders are somehow connnected to Mayan rituals.
As Inspector Suleyman goes about trying to solves the crimes he encounters a gypsy woman, a former lover of his. Their affair is reignited. This causes him to abandon a young female colleague he was in a relationship with.
As the victims all have crimes/sins in their background (adultery, crime, pedophilia, homosexuality the police wonder if the murders are being done to punish the"sinners". The search for the killer results in the death of Suleyman's female colleague and Suleyman comes close to death at the hands of the serial killer.
In the end, it is one egomaniac academic, who got one of the victims pregnant as a young girl, who was having an affair with one of the victims and who has a hatred for the Ottoman descendents who is the serial killer.
It was an interesting mystery. The various police officers had unique and endearing personalities. The setting in Istanbul and the time frame in current Turkey added extra colour and life to the story.
Tuesday, 26 August 2014
We Are Completely Beside Ourselves
by Karen Joy Fowler
This books is one of the titles on the Booker longlist this year. I read a previous bestseller by this author, The Jane Austen Book Club. As I recall it was okay.... not great.
This book is about a young girl who as a child had a baby monkey being raised as a sibling and being studied by her father, a scientist and his grad students.
They are studying how the monkey learns, if it learns from the child, and vice versa.
We learn that the girl used to have a sister, but we don't learn that the sister was a monkey until well into the book. It turns out that the monkey was removed from the family when the girl was approximately five years of age, after the girl tells the family that the monkey killed a kitten.
At the same time as the monkey is removed from the family, the girl is sent to stay with her grandparents. She thinks she has done something wrong. She acts out and is returned home to find that her sister is gone. The family is told that the monkey has been sent to a sanctuary. The family falls apart with the removal of the monkey. The girl remembers playing with the monkey, being read to by their mother, she misses her desperately even though she was taunted at school, called a Monkey Girl. She thinks of herself as having monkey behaviours she learned from the baby monkey, Fern.
After the monkey is taken away from the family the family falls apart. The mother becomes depressed, the fathers academic career falters, the son's relationship with the family deteriorates and he eventually runs away to become an animal rights activist/terroist. The family don't know where he is and the FBI are looking for him.
As the story starts the girl is in university, she has a girlfriend who is very self-centred and explosive. The girl's brother shows up and tells her the truth about Fern. She is in a laboratory. He is trying to figure out how to get her out but doesn't succeed.
Eventually the girl and her mother become volunteers at the facility and have some contact with Fern, but it is of course very sad for them know what has happened to her.
As with Annabel, I was dissatisfied with this book. I can understand being distraught at the loss of the monkey, they thought of her as family. However, I have lost two dogs, both of whom we loved as members of our family. It hurts a lot when you lose them but gradually the pain lessons, but you never forget them. Perhaps because we tell ourselves they have "gone to a better place" or "are no longer suffering". I could understand the son's response -- to become an animal activist, but I really couldn't buy the long drawn out grief of the mother and daughter. The girl did eventually remember that she is likely responsible for the monkey being taken away from the family, I can see her having some guilt from that. The parents probably had guilt or realized how unethical it was to subject the baby monkey to experimentation. But overall, it just seemed way over the top emotionally.
I suppose you could consider the book in terms of a family losing a child, a child losing a twin or sibling and the grief that would ensue. I think I would be less critical of the story.
This books is one of the titles on the Booker longlist this year. I read a previous bestseller by this author, The Jane Austen Book Club. As I recall it was okay.... not great.
This book is about a young girl who as a child had a baby monkey being raised as a sibling and being studied by her father, a scientist and his grad students.
They are studying how the monkey learns, if it learns from the child, and vice versa.
We learn that the girl used to have a sister, but we don't learn that the sister was a monkey until well into the book. It turns out that the monkey was removed from the family when the girl was approximately five years of age, after the girl tells the family that the monkey killed a kitten.
At the same time as the monkey is removed from the family, the girl is sent to stay with her grandparents. She thinks she has done something wrong. She acts out and is returned home to find that her sister is gone. The family is told that the monkey has been sent to a sanctuary. The family falls apart with the removal of the monkey. The girl remembers playing with the monkey, being read to by their mother, she misses her desperately even though she was taunted at school, called a Monkey Girl. She thinks of herself as having monkey behaviours she learned from the baby monkey, Fern.
After the monkey is taken away from the family the family falls apart. The mother becomes depressed, the fathers academic career falters, the son's relationship with the family deteriorates and he eventually runs away to become an animal rights activist/terroist. The family don't know where he is and the FBI are looking for him.
As the story starts the girl is in university, she has a girlfriend who is very self-centred and explosive. The girl's brother shows up and tells her the truth about Fern. She is in a laboratory. He is trying to figure out how to get her out but doesn't succeed.
Eventually the girl and her mother become volunteers at the facility and have some contact with Fern, but it is of course very sad for them know what has happened to her.
As with Annabel, I was dissatisfied with this book. I can understand being distraught at the loss of the monkey, they thought of her as family. However, I have lost two dogs, both of whom we loved as members of our family. It hurts a lot when you lose them but gradually the pain lessons, but you never forget them. Perhaps because we tell ourselves they have "gone to a better place" or "are no longer suffering". I could understand the son's response -- to become an animal activist, but I really couldn't buy the long drawn out grief of the mother and daughter. The girl did eventually remember that she is likely responsible for the monkey being taken away from the family, I can see her having some guilt from that. The parents probably had guilt or realized how unethical it was to subject the baby monkey to experimentation. But overall, it just seemed way over the top emotionally.
I suppose you could consider the book in terms of a family losing a child, a child losing a twin or sibling and the grief that would ensue. I think I would be less critical of the story.
Annabel
By Kathleen Winter
This book received lots of praise, it was a Canada Reads book plus a finalist for the Giller Prize.
I am not sure what I expected, but I think I expected it to be a better book. The story is certainly unusual, a hermaphrodite child is born to a couple in a remote Labrador community. They are advised to select one sex for the child, the father opts for a boy, the mother would have preferred a girl.
The child seems to have a desire for some girly things, a shiny synchronized swimming costume (if I remember correctly). The father does everything he can to make the boy a man. The boy builds a bridge on the family land and he and a female friend decorate it with lights and fabric and spend a lot of time there. The father is fine helping the boy design and build the bridge structure but after he sees what the kids have done to it he dismantles it and buys his son a puppy an apology. The boy does not take to the dog and the father eventually gives it away.
The father is a trapper, he is a strange man. He is first to go out onto the trap line and the last to return. He seems to enjoy life more out in the wild on his own, wear he reads philosophical books, than the time he spends with his family. The child's mother is very depressed, she misses her life and the liveliness of Newfoundland. I had to wonder why he ever got married. The mother sufferes severe depression partly because of her anxiety about her child and the isolation of living in Labrador with such an unloving, inattentive husband.
The child is on hormones but isn't told why he is taking them. One day, a female friend of the family, who is also a local teacher, finds the boy in discomfort and decides to take him to the hospital because she cannot reach his parents. It turns out menstrual blood has been collecting in his body. The father is furious that she has chosen to do this and the teacher is suspended for her actions.
The boy is eventually told the truth about himself. In some ways he is relieved as it explains why he has always felt different. When he graduates high school he leaves for Newfoundland where he finds a job delivering meat. He decides to stop taking the hormones regardless of the consequences. He tells a boy he hardly knows the truth about himself, this person blabs to some other guys and they brutally rape the boy. The boy confides what has happened to his father when he comes for a visit. The father plots to revenge his son on the perpetrators. It isn't spoken of again but we assume he did. He also gives the son money he saved from buying gold stocks so the boy can finance a future for himself. So despite his harsh treatment of the boy in the past we know he cares about him.
Near the end of the book the mother and father seem to develop some sort of companionship, going out for dinner. Meanwhile, the family friend has tracked down the boy's childhood friend and arranges for him to visit her in Boston where she is living and studying.
He goes to visit her and realizes he thinks he could fit in in a university setting.
I found the book very sad, I think the boy's confusion about himself was portrayed adequately but I just don't understand why the character of the father had to be so cold and cruel. I also don't know why they couldn't have told the boy about his condition sooner. Was it because they didn't want to admit to the situation? I think the book could have included a bit more about the father's thoughts and the mothers.
I wonder if the appeal of the book was the unusual story, as I don't think the writing itself or the entire story were all that memorable. The story seemed to be about coming to terms with who you are, the father seems to have done this and the son near the end, but we don't see any such redemption/resolution for the mother. I have to say I was disappointed in the book. I spent more time asking "why" or "why not" than thinking "wow".
This book received lots of praise, it was a Canada Reads book plus a finalist for the Giller Prize.
I am not sure what I expected, but I think I expected it to be a better book. The story is certainly unusual, a hermaphrodite child is born to a couple in a remote Labrador community. They are advised to select one sex for the child, the father opts for a boy, the mother would have preferred a girl.
The child seems to have a desire for some girly things, a shiny synchronized swimming costume (if I remember correctly). The father does everything he can to make the boy a man. The boy builds a bridge on the family land and he and a female friend decorate it with lights and fabric and spend a lot of time there. The father is fine helping the boy design and build the bridge structure but after he sees what the kids have done to it he dismantles it and buys his son a puppy an apology. The boy does not take to the dog and the father eventually gives it away.
The father is a trapper, he is a strange man. He is first to go out onto the trap line and the last to return. He seems to enjoy life more out in the wild on his own, wear he reads philosophical books, than the time he spends with his family. The child's mother is very depressed, she misses her life and the liveliness of Newfoundland. I had to wonder why he ever got married. The mother sufferes severe depression partly because of her anxiety about her child and the isolation of living in Labrador with such an unloving, inattentive husband.
The child is on hormones but isn't told why he is taking them. One day, a female friend of the family, who is also a local teacher, finds the boy in discomfort and decides to take him to the hospital because she cannot reach his parents. It turns out menstrual blood has been collecting in his body. The father is furious that she has chosen to do this and the teacher is suspended for her actions.
The boy is eventually told the truth about himself. In some ways he is relieved as it explains why he has always felt different. When he graduates high school he leaves for Newfoundland where he finds a job delivering meat. He decides to stop taking the hormones regardless of the consequences. He tells a boy he hardly knows the truth about himself, this person blabs to some other guys and they brutally rape the boy. The boy confides what has happened to his father when he comes for a visit. The father plots to revenge his son on the perpetrators. It isn't spoken of again but we assume he did. He also gives the son money he saved from buying gold stocks so the boy can finance a future for himself. So despite his harsh treatment of the boy in the past we know he cares about him.
Near the end of the book the mother and father seem to develop some sort of companionship, going out for dinner. Meanwhile, the family friend has tracked down the boy's childhood friend and arranges for him to visit her in Boston where she is living and studying.
He goes to visit her and realizes he thinks he could fit in in a university setting.
I found the book very sad, I think the boy's confusion about himself was portrayed adequately but I just don't understand why the character of the father had to be so cold and cruel. I also don't know why they couldn't have told the boy about his condition sooner. Was it because they didn't want to admit to the situation? I think the book could have included a bit more about the father's thoughts and the mothers.
I wonder if the appeal of the book was the unusual story, as I don't think the writing itself or the entire story were all that memorable. The story seemed to be about coming to terms with who you are, the father seems to have done this and the son near the end, but we don't see any such redemption/resolution for the mother. I have to say I was disappointed in the book. I spent more time asking "why" or "why not" than thinking "wow".
Tuesday, 19 August 2014
Open Secret
by Deryn Collier
I picked up this book at a bookstore in Nelson, BC. It is by a local author.
The book is the second mystery book by this author featuring the coroner Bern Fortin. Fortin is a retired soldier who it appears has PTSD or at least a lot of skeletons in his closet. He has served in Rawanda, Bosnia and Afghanistan in an Administrative capacity. But that has not prevented him from witnessing the horror and even contributing to it. One of his superiors is shot by a boy along the road. They shoot back and the boy is wounded. His superior wants him to save the boy but Bern knows the boy is dying so shoots him so he won't suffer more. Bern also had an affair with the wife of one of his senior officers and still longs for her.
Bern is now living in Nelson, serving as a coroner. He is living amidst a colourful group of characters including the local police. One family is grieving the disappearance of a native girl they adopted. She disappeared many years before but they still miss her, especially the adopted father (who it appears sexually abused her, but he was not the only one -- she was neglected and abused by her father and possibly also a male cousin.
Bern is out hiking one day when he hears a gunshot. His immediate reaction is to duck. He then sees the local doctor running to a downed man, but the man dies. It turns out he is a known criminal.
The Doctor keeps making excuses so she doesn't have to report to the police about the incident. At the same time as the murder a man disappears at the Can/US border. He had a panic attack and bolted from his vehicle. As the murdered man had been staying with him, much to the chagrin of the man's wife, he is suspected of being the murderer. He realizes his marriage is over but thinks if he can score some marijuana or the special ointment that the Dr. is preparing, which is illegal, he could set his wife and family financially. However, he is tricked by the local pharmacist and it appears doesn't get his payday.
As Bern and the police try to figure out why the crook was murdered they interact with a local woman suffering from MS, her son and his child and wife. There is suspicion that this group is growing illegal marijuana but no one can find evidence. Bern does stumble onto their grow op but it has been robbed and trashed.
As the story develops we find out that the runaway man knows what happened to the missing girl. He digs up part of her corpse so that it can be found and she identified. Then he writes the coroner a letter telling him where to find the rest of the body.
While all this is happening, the cousin of the dead girl arrives in town and attacks/kidnaps a local woman who bears a resemblance to the missing girl and a former soldier/reporter tracks Bern down and asks him to confess to some of his deeds to "save" another soldier who is on trial for killing a wounded Afghan man to put him out of his mystery. Bern is reluctant to tell his story at first but eventually decides to come clean even though there will likely be serious consequences for him.
Bern had told police about the local grow-op. This has the unintentional consequence of getting the woman with MS murdered... another death on his conscience.
This was a well written mystery. In some ways, with the off the beaten path local and the quirky local population, it reminded me of Louise Penny's mysteries. I enjoyed it.
I picked up this book at a bookstore in Nelson, BC. It is by a local author.
The book is the second mystery book by this author featuring the coroner Bern Fortin. Fortin is a retired soldier who it appears has PTSD or at least a lot of skeletons in his closet. He has served in Rawanda, Bosnia and Afghanistan in an Administrative capacity. But that has not prevented him from witnessing the horror and even contributing to it. One of his superiors is shot by a boy along the road. They shoot back and the boy is wounded. His superior wants him to save the boy but Bern knows the boy is dying so shoots him so he won't suffer more. Bern also had an affair with the wife of one of his senior officers and still longs for her.
Bern is now living in Nelson, serving as a coroner. He is living amidst a colourful group of characters including the local police. One family is grieving the disappearance of a native girl they adopted. She disappeared many years before but they still miss her, especially the adopted father (who it appears sexually abused her, but he was not the only one -- she was neglected and abused by her father and possibly also a male cousin.
Bern is out hiking one day when he hears a gunshot. His immediate reaction is to duck. He then sees the local doctor running to a downed man, but the man dies. It turns out he is a known criminal.
The Doctor keeps making excuses so she doesn't have to report to the police about the incident. At the same time as the murder a man disappears at the Can/US border. He had a panic attack and bolted from his vehicle. As the murdered man had been staying with him, much to the chagrin of the man's wife, he is suspected of being the murderer. He realizes his marriage is over but thinks if he can score some marijuana or the special ointment that the Dr. is preparing, which is illegal, he could set his wife and family financially. However, he is tricked by the local pharmacist and it appears doesn't get his payday.
As Bern and the police try to figure out why the crook was murdered they interact with a local woman suffering from MS, her son and his child and wife. There is suspicion that this group is growing illegal marijuana but no one can find evidence. Bern does stumble onto their grow op but it has been robbed and trashed.
As the story develops we find out that the runaway man knows what happened to the missing girl. He digs up part of her corpse so that it can be found and she identified. Then he writes the coroner a letter telling him where to find the rest of the body.
While all this is happening, the cousin of the dead girl arrives in town and attacks/kidnaps a local woman who bears a resemblance to the missing girl and a former soldier/reporter tracks Bern down and asks him to confess to some of his deeds to "save" another soldier who is on trial for killing a wounded Afghan man to put him out of his mystery. Bern is reluctant to tell his story at first but eventually decides to come clean even though there will likely be serious consequences for him.
Bern had told police about the local grow-op. This has the unintentional consequence of getting the woman with MS murdered... another death on his conscience.
This was a well written mystery. In some ways, with the off the beaten path local and the quirky local population, it reminded me of Louise Penny's mysteries. I enjoyed it.
Tuesday, 5 August 2014
Boy, Snow, Bird
By Helen Oyeyemi
This book has been on the "Best of" lists at Chapters for long time. It is a very unusual story. It seems to reference fairy tales to some extent - there are two sisters one very blonde one black-- rose red and snow white, and the blonde one is even named snow. The main character, Boy, feels she has a spell on herself. The three main character's reflections don't show up in mirrors... this is never explained...
The story starts with the life of Bird. She is living with her very violent father, a rat-catcher, who beats her and torments her. Bird finally has enough and runs away from home. She loves him too. She jumps on a bus and arrives in a town where she remains for the rest of her life. She leaves behind a young man, Charlie, who is very much in love with her. She lives in fear of her father tracking her down and seeking revenge.
When she arrives at the end of her bus ride she follows some young girls to a boarding house where she is welcomed. She stumbles through various jobs eventually getting a job in a bookstore. She meets a man, who has a beautiful young daughter, Snow, who is adored by everyone. She doesn't love the man but he keeps persisting and eventually she succumbs and agrees to marry him. Before she gets married her former boyfriend contacts her and asks her to marry him, but she turns him down. Why?? Does she think she doesn't deserve to be happy. Her husband is a jewellry artist and at one point makes handcuffs and chains.... is he threatening her?? Later he makes a snake bracelet that extends from her elbow to her upper arm, she wears it all the time except when she is pregnant. What is his intention in this?
Her husband's mother and other relatives tolerate her but they dote on his daughter Snow. Everyone seems to think that she is perfect and can do no wrong. Bird likes her but is suspicious of her. When Boy has a baby girl the child is black in colouring. Of course people think she cheated on her husband but the truth is he is of negro ancestry, his relatives have pretended to be white to become successful. The story describes why the family felt it had to go north and act white to be accepted and respected.
Boy finds out that her husband's oldest sister was sent away as a child because she wasn't white skinned. After she finds this out Boy decides to send Snow away to live with her husband's sister. Everyone is shocked at this, they would have expected her to send Bird away. Bird refuses to have anything to do with Snow but her husband visits with her regularly and eventually Bird and Snow start a letter writing campaign.
As Boy wasn't loved by her parent you would think she would have loved both girls, but it seems that she resents the appeal that Snow has with everyone, figures she will have the strength to survive, but she doesn't want Bird to have to live in Snow's shadow. Bird eventually learns that she has a sister who was sent away. Her mother won't talk about her but keeps some letters she received from he daughter. Bird eventually finds these letters and reads them, including a letter from Snow addressed to her. Snow eventually has accepted the fact that she will not be returning to live with her father and stepmother. She accepts life with her black aunt and her family.
Bird is friends with a young chinese boy. He is the victim of some bullying because of his race. She seems to be the only one able to engage in a true loving relationship. Eventually Snow and her adopted family join the rest of the family for Thanksgiving. It is a meal from hell -- all the family tensions come out. Snow and Bird end up having a fight as they are washing dishes after the meal.
One day Bird is dragged down from a tree by a strange man. He tells her her mother is his daughter and that her mother is evil. She is a afraid of what he will do so agrees to go to a diner with him. He starts to tell a very different story than what Boy remembers of his life with the man. Bird's father finds them in the diner and sends the man away telling him never to come back.
Bird's friend (who had an abortion and trouble recovering from it) tells her that she has been doing research on her, Bird's, father. She has found out something amazing.... there is a birth certificate for Bird listing a mother's name but not a father's name. She then goes on to state that Bird's mother had been a graduate student showing great promise. She was a lesbian. She is raped. She runs away from college and gives birth to Bird, she then takes up a job as a rat catcher. Bird and her friend think the father? mother might be visiting to come clean.
They decide to set off for New York to find Bird's parent, only after she asks for advice on how to break a spell.... when you are fed up with it, it won't affect you anymore.
This book was very difficult to read, there was so much sadness and discord, lonliness, feeling of being rejected, not good enough. Why didn't Bird marry her first boyfriend, the one who loved her and whom she loved? Why couldn't they have lived happily ever after? As she didn't choose that route, she became the wicked stepmother.... rejecting her beautiful step daughter and sending her away in favour of her less attractive, less captivating black daughter. Obviously the book was making reference to the reverence, assumed goodness of "whiteness". Like Bird's husband's family pretended to be white, Birds mother decided to become a man. Would this be safer for her? Why was she so cruel to her daughter?
I never could figure out why the three women, Boy, Snow and Bird could never been seen in mirrors... something to do with them not being what others expected to see? not being real? a spell on them? I started to think that this was possibly a made up story to cover up something else that happened.... like Life of Pi, but that didn't seem to occur. A very puzzling story.
This book has been on the "Best of" lists at Chapters for long time. It is a very unusual story. It seems to reference fairy tales to some extent - there are two sisters one very blonde one black-- rose red and snow white, and the blonde one is even named snow. The main character, Boy, feels she has a spell on herself. The three main character's reflections don't show up in mirrors... this is never explained...
The story starts with the life of Bird. She is living with her very violent father, a rat-catcher, who beats her and torments her. Bird finally has enough and runs away from home. She loves him too. She jumps on a bus and arrives in a town where she remains for the rest of her life. She leaves behind a young man, Charlie, who is very much in love with her. She lives in fear of her father tracking her down and seeking revenge.
When she arrives at the end of her bus ride she follows some young girls to a boarding house where she is welcomed. She stumbles through various jobs eventually getting a job in a bookstore. She meets a man, who has a beautiful young daughter, Snow, who is adored by everyone. She doesn't love the man but he keeps persisting and eventually she succumbs and agrees to marry him. Before she gets married her former boyfriend contacts her and asks her to marry him, but she turns him down. Why?? Does she think she doesn't deserve to be happy. Her husband is a jewellry artist and at one point makes handcuffs and chains.... is he threatening her?? Later he makes a snake bracelet that extends from her elbow to her upper arm, she wears it all the time except when she is pregnant. What is his intention in this?
Her husband's mother and other relatives tolerate her but they dote on his daughter Snow. Everyone seems to think that she is perfect and can do no wrong. Bird likes her but is suspicious of her. When Boy has a baby girl the child is black in colouring. Of course people think she cheated on her husband but the truth is he is of negro ancestry, his relatives have pretended to be white to become successful. The story describes why the family felt it had to go north and act white to be accepted and respected.
Boy finds out that her husband's oldest sister was sent away as a child because she wasn't white skinned. After she finds this out Boy decides to send Snow away to live with her husband's sister. Everyone is shocked at this, they would have expected her to send Bird away. Bird refuses to have anything to do with Snow but her husband visits with her regularly and eventually Bird and Snow start a letter writing campaign.
As Boy wasn't loved by her parent you would think she would have loved both girls, but it seems that she resents the appeal that Snow has with everyone, figures she will have the strength to survive, but she doesn't want Bird to have to live in Snow's shadow. Bird eventually learns that she has a sister who was sent away. Her mother won't talk about her but keeps some letters she received from he daughter. Bird eventually finds these letters and reads them, including a letter from Snow addressed to her. Snow eventually has accepted the fact that she will not be returning to live with her father and stepmother. She accepts life with her black aunt and her family.
Bird is friends with a young chinese boy. He is the victim of some bullying because of his race. She seems to be the only one able to engage in a true loving relationship. Eventually Snow and her adopted family join the rest of the family for Thanksgiving. It is a meal from hell -- all the family tensions come out. Snow and Bird end up having a fight as they are washing dishes after the meal.
One day Bird is dragged down from a tree by a strange man. He tells her her mother is his daughter and that her mother is evil. She is a afraid of what he will do so agrees to go to a diner with him. He starts to tell a very different story than what Boy remembers of his life with the man. Bird's father finds them in the diner and sends the man away telling him never to come back.
Bird's friend (who had an abortion and trouble recovering from it) tells her that she has been doing research on her, Bird's, father. She has found out something amazing.... there is a birth certificate for Bird listing a mother's name but not a father's name. She then goes on to state that Bird's mother had been a graduate student showing great promise. She was a lesbian. She is raped. She runs away from college and gives birth to Bird, she then takes up a job as a rat catcher. Bird and her friend think the father? mother might be visiting to come clean.
They decide to set off for New York to find Bird's parent, only after she asks for advice on how to break a spell.... when you are fed up with it, it won't affect you anymore.
This book was very difficult to read, there was so much sadness and discord, lonliness, feeling of being rejected, not good enough. Why didn't Bird marry her first boyfriend, the one who loved her and whom she loved? Why couldn't they have lived happily ever after? As she didn't choose that route, she became the wicked stepmother.... rejecting her beautiful step daughter and sending her away in favour of her less attractive, less captivating black daughter. Obviously the book was making reference to the reverence, assumed goodness of "whiteness". Like Bird's husband's family pretended to be white, Birds mother decided to become a man. Would this be safer for her? Why was she so cruel to her daughter?
I never could figure out why the three women, Boy, Snow and Bird could never been seen in mirrors... something to do with them not being what others expected to see? not being real? a spell on them? I started to think that this was possibly a made up story to cover up something else that happened.... like Life of Pi, but that didn't seem to occur. A very puzzling story.
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