by Gabrielle Zevin
This is a book for lovers of books and bookstores. It is a gentle, loving story of a man and events that change his life.
A.J. is the owner of a small bookstore on an Island somewhere. Most of his business comes in the tourist season. A.J. is spiralling into despair after the death of his wife. He is drinking too much and not looking after himself.
His one love is books, serious literature. A young publishers agent comes to visit him and he is very rude to her.
One day A.J. is drunk and he leaves his prized possession, a rare book, unlocked. When he awakes his messy kitchen has been cleaned but the book is gone. Police searches turn up nothing.
A short time later A.J. returns to his store, which he has left unlocked, to find a toddler, abandoned by its mother. She leaves a note saying she wants her daughter, Maya, to grow up around books. Her body is later found, she drowned herself.
A.J. agrees to look after the child for a weekend, but he comes to love and cherish her and ends up adopting her. The description of how the little girl comes to do her job, reading the children's books in the store and then writing picture reviews of them is delightful. She also gives books to children so that their parents will be convinced to buy them.
A.J. also realizes he really likes the agent he was so rude to. He woes her and eventually they marry. They are having a very happy life, sadly A.J.'s sister-in-law is not. Her husband is unfaithful to her and we find out that Maya is actually a child from one of her husband's liaisons. She had stolen A.J.'s prize book to try to bribe the mother of the child to leave her husband alone. The girl refuses the offer but Maya has defaced the book, so the sister-in-law doesn't return the book to him. Her husband is killed in a car accident and she eventually finds happiness with the local police chief.
Sadly, A.J. is diagnosed with cancer but doesn't feel he can afford the treatment. The missing book suddenly appears and he is able to get surgery but it only gives him a temporary reprieve. The sister and law and her husband buy the bookstore after A.J. dies.
Each chapter of the book makes reference to a piece of literature. After Maya arrives many of the references are addressed to her.
This was a poignant story. Perhaps not a great work of literature, but I enjoyed it.
Sunday, 25 May 2014
Friday, 11 April 2014
Namesake
ByJhumpa Lahiri
This book is about a young man whose parents have immigrated to the U.S. from India. The parents were married in an arranged marriage. When they come to the U.S. the husband is busy with his career. His wife however is very unhappy. She misses the comraderie and support of family in India. When their son is born they are asked for his name but are waiting for a grandmother to send a letter with the formal name. When pressured they give the name Gogol in tribute to the father's favourite author, Nikoai Gogol .
The father was almost killed in a train crash as a young. A fellow passenger who was killed in the crash was reading a Gogal book. The young man waved a page of the book and that is how rescuers spotted him. They don't explain the reason for his name to the boy. When the boy goes to start school the parents decide he should be called by a formal name not the friendly family name. They say his name is Nikhil. The boy is upset at the thought of having to take on a new name. He resists this and the Principal goes against the wishes of the parents and lets him use the name Gogol. In high school Gogol learns of the sad life of his namesake.
His family may be separated from their family in India but they develop connections with other Indian immigrants in the city. The boy and his family have a circle of friends almost exclusively limited to Indian immigrants.
His father eventually tells him how he came to be called Gogol. The boy is very angry that he was not told sooner.
When it comes time to attend university he chooses one away from his parents so he can escape his culture. He also assumes the name Nikhil to start his new life. He studies toi be an architect and has several romantic liaisons. While he is on a holiday with a girlfriend he learns his father has died from a heart attack while tezahing in a distant city. He, his mother and sister are devastated. His despair at his father`s death causes his relationship to collapse. He mopes for a while and then pressured by his mother dates a girl from a family that was friends with his parents. Both he and the girl do this because of stress from their families and to their surprise they like each other and marry. It seems things are going well but then he finds out his wife is having an affair. As the book ends his moither is selling the family hime and plans to spend part of her year in India and part with her children and family friends. Gogol hopes that he will meet someone and maybe even have children. As Gogol comes to help his mother pack and leave for India he finds a copy of a book of Gogol short stories that his father gave him years before.
This book presents an interesting picture of the life of a new immigrant and the way the children tend to draw away from the traditional practices and become part of their new country. I read the author's most recent book The Lowland, earlier this year. The book the Namesake was praised by many as the better book. While I had some trouble with some of the story elements in the Lowland I personally think it was a more powerful and interesting story. With this story, the Namesake, I have to ask... What's in a name, why did the name Gogol make a difference? Does a famous name affect our fate? With this book I have to ask so what.... I can't see that Gogol grew or changed in the book.
This book is about a young man whose parents have immigrated to the U.S. from India. The parents were married in an arranged marriage. When they come to the U.S. the husband is busy with his career. His wife however is very unhappy. She misses the comraderie and support of family in India. When their son is born they are asked for his name but are waiting for a grandmother to send a letter with the formal name. When pressured they give the name Gogol in tribute to the father's favourite author, Nikoai Gogol .
The father was almost killed in a train crash as a young. A fellow passenger who was killed in the crash was reading a Gogal book. The young man waved a page of the book and that is how rescuers spotted him. They don't explain the reason for his name to the boy. When the boy goes to start school the parents decide he should be called by a formal name not the friendly family name. They say his name is Nikhil. The boy is upset at the thought of having to take on a new name. He resists this and the Principal goes against the wishes of the parents and lets him use the name Gogol. In high school Gogol learns of the sad life of his namesake.
His family may be separated from their family in India but they develop connections with other Indian immigrants in the city. The boy and his family have a circle of friends almost exclusively limited to Indian immigrants.
His father eventually tells him how he came to be called Gogol. The boy is very angry that he was not told sooner.
When it comes time to attend university he chooses one away from his parents so he can escape his culture. He also assumes the name Nikhil to start his new life. He studies toi be an architect and has several romantic liaisons. While he is on a holiday with a girlfriend he learns his father has died from a heart attack while tezahing in a distant city. He, his mother and sister are devastated. His despair at his father`s death causes his relationship to collapse. He mopes for a while and then pressured by his mother dates a girl from a family that was friends with his parents. Both he and the girl do this because of stress from their families and to their surprise they like each other and marry. It seems things are going well but then he finds out his wife is having an affair. As the book ends his moither is selling the family hime and plans to spend part of her year in India and part with her children and family friends. Gogol hopes that he will meet someone and maybe even have children. As Gogol comes to help his mother pack and leave for India he finds a copy of a book of Gogol short stories that his father gave him years before.
This book presents an interesting picture of the life of a new immigrant and the way the children tend to draw away from the traditional practices and become part of their new country. I read the author's most recent book The Lowland, earlier this year. The book the Namesake was praised by many as the better book. While I had some trouble with some of the story elements in the Lowland I personally think it was a more powerful and interesting story. With this story, the Namesake, I have to ask... What's in a name, why did the name Gogol make a difference? Does a famous name affect our fate? With this book I have to ask so what.... I can't see that Gogol grew or changed in the book.
Thursday, 3 April 2014
Maisie Dobbs
by Jacqueline Winspear,
This is the first book in a series about a female detective Maisie Dobbs.
The story is kind of unusual, perhaps a bit unbelievable, but maybe it is realistic.
The book opens with Maisie, a female detective, getting settled into her new office. One of her first cases comes from a man who suspects his wife is having an affair as she spends long periods of time out of the house. Maisie follows her and finds out she visits the grave of a soldier (whom she loved).
She finds graves with only the soldier's first names on them, she is intrigued by this.
The story then switches to years prior to the first world war. We are introduced to a young Maisie and her father. He is a widower who uses his horse and cart to sell fresh produce. He loves his daughter but they are very poor. He doesn't want to see her starve or suffer so makes arrangements for her to be hired on as a household worker at the home of one of his clients.
She does her job well and works long hours, but when she discovers the huge library in the house she starts arising even earlier in the morning, 3 am , to have time to sneak into the library to read. She doesn't just read fiction, she reads philosophy and even tries to learn Latin.
One night the family members arrive home late from a party and discover her in the library. She thinks she will be sacked but instead the wife of the household wants to help her. They agree to let her study, under the guidance of a family friend, if she does her studying and coaching on her own time. She eagerly agrees. She is a diligent student and eventually passes the exams to be admitted to a woman's college at Cambridge. Her father is proud of her but afraid of losing her...
She is working on her education but when WWI arrives everyone' lives are turned upside down. The death of one of her former co-workers prompts her to leave her exams and volunteer to become a nurse in the war effort. She works hard in hospitals near the front lines in France, sees a lot of tragedy and is the victim of a tragedy herself. We don't learn the details about this until the end of the book.
Maisie sees a young doctor she met just prior to the war and they fall in love. He asks her to marry him but for some reason she hesitates to say yes. Yes, he is a higher social status than she, but that is not really what bothers her.
Then we jump back to the "present" in the book and find that Maisie's sponsors are concerned about their son who has returned from the war with post traumatic stress. He is thinking of going to live at a farm for soldiers called the Retreat. They want her to check into it for them. As the single named soldiers are also affiliated with this estate she is eager to investigate. We learn that Maisie's teacher/mentor is the person who groomed her to be a detective. Maisie has recruited a young man who has helped her get her office set up to go to the Retreat. At first everything seems fine, the place seems to be helping the men who live there. Then the young "plant' phones Maisie to say that one of the soldiers who had wanted to leave has disappeared. Maisie tells him to get out quickly but when she goes to pick him up at their planned rendezvous place he is not there. She ends up saving him from being murdered for "desertion" by the Major who runs the Retreat. We then learn that Maisie's lover was badly injured in an attack on the hospital where he and she were working and he is an invalid, probably brain damaged.
The author did a fabulous job of portraying the impact of WWI on people. The characters are interesting. The things I wonder about 1) would a serving girl be singled out and sponsored for an education like Maisie was? 2) If this unlikely candidate for education got a university education would she really become an investigator? If you can suspend disbelief in these regards, she has written an interesting mystery tale.
This is the first book in a series about a female detective Maisie Dobbs.
The story is kind of unusual, perhaps a bit unbelievable, but maybe it is realistic.
The book opens with Maisie, a female detective, getting settled into her new office. One of her first cases comes from a man who suspects his wife is having an affair as she spends long periods of time out of the house. Maisie follows her and finds out she visits the grave of a soldier (whom she loved).
She finds graves with only the soldier's first names on them, she is intrigued by this.
The story then switches to years prior to the first world war. We are introduced to a young Maisie and her father. He is a widower who uses his horse and cart to sell fresh produce. He loves his daughter but they are very poor. He doesn't want to see her starve or suffer so makes arrangements for her to be hired on as a household worker at the home of one of his clients.
She does her job well and works long hours, but when she discovers the huge library in the house she starts arising even earlier in the morning, 3 am , to have time to sneak into the library to read. She doesn't just read fiction, she reads philosophy and even tries to learn Latin.
One night the family members arrive home late from a party and discover her in the library. She thinks she will be sacked but instead the wife of the household wants to help her. They agree to let her study, under the guidance of a family friend, if she does her studying and coaching on her own time. She eagerly agrees. She is a diligent student and eventually passes the exams to be admitted to a woman's college at Cambridge. Her father is proud of her but afraid of losing her...
She is working on her education but when WWI arrives everyone' lives are turned upside down. The death of one of her former co-workers prompts her to leave her exams and volunteer to become a nurse in the war effort. She works hard in hospitals near the front lines in France, sees a lot of tragedy and is the victim of a tragedy herself. We don't learn the details about this until the end of the book.
Maisie sees a young doctor she met just prior to the war and they fall in love. He asks her to marry him but for some reason she hesitates to say yes. Yes, he is a higher social status than she, but that is not really what bothers her.
Then we jump back to the "present" in the book and find that Maisie's sponsors are concerned about their son who has returned from the war with post traumatic stress. He is thinking of going to live at a farm for soldiers called the Retreat. They want her to check into it for them. As the single named soldiers are also affiliated with this estate she is eager to investigate. We learn that Maisie's teacher/mentor is the person who groomed her to be a detective. Maisie has recruited a young man who has helped her get her office set up to go to the Retreat. At first everything seems fine, the place seems to be helping the men who live there. Then the young "plant' phones Maisie to say that one of the soldiers who had wanted to leave has disappeared. Maisie tells him to get out quickly but when she goes to pick him up at their planned rendezvous place he is not there. She ends up saving him from being murdered for "desertion" by the Major who runs the Retreat. We then learn that Maisie's lover was badly injured in an attack on the hospital where he and she were working and he is an invalid, probably brain damaged.
The author did a fabulous job of portraying the impact of WWI on people. The characters are interesting. The things I wonder about 1) would a serving girl be singled out and sponsored for an education like Maisie was? 2) If this unlikely candidate for education got a university education would she really become an investigator? If you can suspend disbelief in these regards, she has written an interesting mystery tale.
Saturday, 22 February 2014
Sense and Sensibility
By Joanne Trollope
This book is a modern version of the Jane Austen novel of the same name.
I thought the author did quite a good job of providing a modern version of the tale. The story is set in the present. However, the young girls and their mother still find themselves thrown out of their house upon the death of their father/husband. The family had been living with an elderly family member, he bequeathed the house to the father's step son, who the family has had no contact with. The man supposedly promised his father that he would after his mother and sisters, at the father's deathbed. However, his scheming wife has other plans and convinces him that they must leave.
A distant relative offers them a small cottage. Not a quaint old English cottage but a recently built, but small one, on his estate.
One of the girls, Elinor, falls in love with her stepbrother's brother-in-law much to the chagrin of the girl's sister in law who is totally against the relationship. She and her mother , both of whom are very concerned with wealth and staus, have much better plans for the young man. This does not include marrying a poor girl of no social standing.
Elinor, the only sensible one jn the familh tries to take his abandonment stoically. She realizes they have little money and sets out to find a job to have some income for the family.
Here sister, Marianne, suffers from severe asthma, as did her father. Marianne is rescued when she is having a severe attack by a handsome young man driving an Astin Martin sportscar. She falls for this handsome young man, heir to a neighbouring estate. He later breaks her heart by marrying someone else. This ruins her health and sanity. The family member who has invited the mother and girls to live on his estate has a male friend who spends a lot of time at his property. This man takes an interest in Marianne but she isn't interested in him. He is very nice and kind but the family considers him to old and boring to think of as a potential suitor.
In the end Elinor's beau decides to go against his mother's wishes and follow his heart. He proposes to Elinor and she accepts. This means he will likely be written out of his mother's will but he is convinced they will do okay. Elinor convinces him to go and visit his mother to explain his decision. He does. and the mother relents and gives them some money.
The other sister, Marianne decides that she can accept the offer of marriage from the boring older man. She realizes he is kind and she likes his company. He too suffered from an unfulfilled love. The book shows that while some things have changed since Austen's time, some things--young love, treachery, romance still exist today. A fun read.
This book is a modern version of the Jane Austen novel of the same name.
I thought the author did quite a good job of providing a modern version of the tale. The story is set in the present. However, the young girls and their mother still find themselves thrown out of their house upon the death of their father/husband. The family had been living with an elderly family member, he bequeathed the house to the father's step son, who the family has had no contact with. The man supposedly promised his father that he would after his mother and sisters, at the father's deathbed. However, his scheming wife has other plans and convinces him that they must leave.
A distant relative offers them a small cottage. Not a quaint old English cottage but a recently built, but small one, on his estate.
One of the girls, Elinor, falls in love with her stepbrother's brother-in-law much to the chagrin of the girl's sister in law who is totally against the relationship. She and her mother , both of whom are very concerned with wealth and staus, have much better plans for the young man. This does not include marrying a poor girl of no social standing.
Elinor, the only sensible one jn the familh tries to take his abandonment stoically. She realizes they have little money and sets out to find a job to have some income for the family.
Here sister, Marianne, suffers from severe asthma, as did her father. Marianne is rescued when she is having a severe attack by a handsome young man driving an Astin Martin sportscar. She falls for this handsome young man, heir to a neighbouring estate. He later breaks her heart by marrying someone else. This ruins her health and sanity. The family member who has invited the mother and girls to live on his estate has a male friend who spends a lot of time at his property. This man takes an interest in Marianne but she isn't interested in him. He is very nice and kind but the family considers him to old and boring to think of as a potential suitor.
In the end Elinor's beau decides to go against his mother's wishes and follow his heart. He proposes to Elinor and she accepts. This means he will likely be written out of his mother's will but he is convinced they will do okay. Elinor convinces him to go and visit his mother to explain his decision. He does. and the mother relents and gives them some money.
The other sister, Marianne decides that she can accept the offer of marriage from the boring older man. She realizes he is kind and she likes his company. He too suffered from an unfulfilled love. The book shows that while some things have changed since Austen's time, some things--young love, treachery, romance still exist today. A fun read.
Monday, 17 February 2014
The Humans
By Matt Haig
This book was a good contrast to Cockroach. It is the story of an alien who comes to earth because a mathematician has solved a mathematical proof that has potential to change the earth. He murders the husband and takes over in his body or at least a replica of his body. He has been sent to earth to destroy any evidence of the discovery of the proof plus killl thd man's wife and son.
The alien comes from a world where there are no families, no relationships, no fear. Everything is done based on rational thought. They have great techological knowledge - can heal illness, travel vast distances through space.
However, as he is new to human habits he doesn't know that he needs to be wearing clothes. When he is found wandering around nude he is taken to a psych ward. The assumption is that he has had a mental breakdown from overwork.
He meets the mathematician's wife and son, both of whom are not fond of him. He finds out that they considered the mathematician totally self-absorbed and devoted only to his career. He tries to talk to them to find out what he did wrong. The wife is quite forthcoming, the son not so much.
He finds out that the mathematician had confided the news to one of his colleagues so the alien visits the person and kills him (it appears to be a heart attack). However, despite urgings from his leaders he finds he cannot bring himself to kill the wife or the son. In fact, he brings the son back to life, using his healing powers, when the boy commits suicide.
He is getting a lot of grief from his superiors and finally tells them to take away his powers and let him remain as a human. He does this without really thinking of the full consequences of this decision. It is painful being human but he is able to start to mend the rifts in ths family. However, when he confides to the wife that he has had sex with one of his students (not realizing that it is wrong to do this) the wife kicks him out.
He is going to leave but disovers another alien has arrived to carry out the job he was supposed to do and he hurries back to the house to protect "his" family. When the son arrives home he sees that there are two men that look like his father in the house. The second alien tries to kill him but the first alien gets the son to kill the second alien. Before the alien dies he makes the second alien tell the bosses that he has completed his mission -- so that the family will not longer be hunted. They bury the rapidly deteriorating remains of the alien (he is reverting to his alien form) in the backyard. He tells the son and wife the truth about being an alien and his mission and how he gave up everything for them. The wife cannot deal with his deceit and tells him to leave.
He finds a job in California but finds he misses the wife and boy. A year later he travels back to Cambridge to deliver a lecture. He meets the son and the family dog whom he really likes. Theson tells him that the wife misses him and he should come see her.
The message of the story sems to be that love is the only thing that saves us from the pain of being human. But that love can make the pain worth it. This was a funny, tender story. Obviously it had a few holes, for e.g. the son and wife didn't seem to surprised at his apparent change of personality... I guess they accepted it as part of the outcome of the breakdown It was a good light read, and good for some laughs..
This book was a good contrast to Cockroach. It is the story of an alien who comes to earth because a mathematician has solved a mathematical proof that has potential to change the earth. He murders the husband and takes over in his body or at least a replica of his body. He has been sent to earth to destroy any evidence of the discovery of the proof plus killl thd man's wife and son.
The alien comes from a world where there are no families, no relationships, no fear. Everything is done based on rational thought. They have great techological knowledge - can heal illness, travel vast distances through space.
However, as he is new to human habits he doesn't know that he needs to be wearing clothes. When he is found wandering around nude he is taken to a psych ward. The assumption is that he has had a mental breakdown from overwork.
He meets the mathematician's wife and son, both of whom are not fond of him. He finds out that they considered the mathematician totally self-absorbed and devoted only to his career. He tries to talk to them to find out what he did wrong. The wife is quite forthcoming, the son not so much.
He finds out that the mathematician had confided the news to one of his colleagues so the alien visits the person and kills him (it appears to be a heart attack). However, despite urgings from his leaders he finds he cannot bring himself to kill the wife or the son. In fact, he brings the son back to life, using his healing powers, when the boy commits suicide.
He is getting a lot of grief from his superiors and finally tells them to take away his powers and let him remain as a human. He does this without really thinking of the full consequences of this decision. It is painful being human but he is able to start to mend the rifts in ths family. However, when he confides to the wife that he has had sex with one of his students (not realizing that it is wrong to do this) the wife kicks him out.
He is going to leave but disovers another alien has arrived to carry out the job he was supposed to do and he hurries back to the house to protect "his" family. When the son arrives home he sees that there are two men that look like his father in the house. The second alien tries to kill him but the first alien gets the son to kill the second alien. Before the alien dies he makes the second alien tell the bosses that he has completed his mission -- so that the family will not longer be hunted. They bury the rapidly deteriorating remains of the alien (he is reverting to his alien form) in the backyard. He tells the son and wife the truth about being an alien and his mission and how he gave up everything for them. The wife cannot deal with his deceit and tells him to leave.
He finds a job in California but finds he misses the wife and boy. A year later he travels back to Cambridge to deliver a lecture. He meets the son and the family dog whom he really likes. Theson tells him that the wife misses him and he should come see her.
The message of the story sems to be that love is the only thing that saves us from the pain of being human. But that love can make the pain worth it. This was a funny, tender story. Obviously it had a few holes, for e.g. the son and wife didn't seem to surprised at his apparent change of personality... I guess they accepted it as part of the outcome of the breakdown It was a good light read, and good for some laughs..
Sunday, 16 February 2014
Cockroach
by Rawi Hage
This is the second book I have read by him. I enjoyed his first book De Niro's game.
Hage is a masterful writer, he has exquisite language in his writing. This book is about an immigrant to Canada, from a war-torn country, who tried to commit suicide and is having to see a psychiatriast as a result.
He is living on welfare and eaking out a living by working in restaurant's part time. He is often hungry and breaks into people's homes to steal food and other things. He even breaks into his psychiatrist's house and takes ehr slippers.
He obviously has mental problems, while he has an ongoing battle with the cockroaches in his apartment he sees himself as a cockroach and often visualizes or describes himself as crawling down sewers, into basements etc. At one point he imagines a humansize cockroach talking to him in his aparment.
He lusts after women but seems to dislike other people he encounters. As the story goes on we learn that his parents fought, his daughter married young to a man who beat her constantly. The young man tries to kill his brother in law but when he has the chance he doesn't do it. He escapes his country instead. He comes to Canada and learns that there is corrupton here too. Later his sister is killed by her husband. He does end up killing a man who was the jailer and rapist (in Iran) of a woman he has a relationshiup with. So, he will have to disappear like a cockroach. But as the Jehovah's witnesses tell him, at the end of the world only the cockroaches and God's chosen will survive...
The book obviously reflects ideas of Kafka and Dostoevsky (notes from underground). While Hage writes beautifully and with passion, we really feel the anxiety and madness of the main character, I think you set yourself up for criticisim when you take on the ideas of literary giants. It has been a long time since I have read Kafka or Dostoyevsky but I don't think this quite measures up to either of them.
I think I had hoped that the character would find some redemption but instead he just becomes part of the violence he tried to leave behind. It was a sad book but certainly worth reading. However, I find it a surprising choice for Canada Reads this year, the theme of which I thought was supposed to be change... I don't really see that this character changed much.... except for the worse.
This is the second book I have read by him. I enjoyed his first book De Niro's game.
Hage is a masterful writer, he has exquisite language in his writing. This book is about an immigrant to Canada, from a war-torn country, who tried to commit suicide and is having to see a psychiatriast as a result.
He is living on welfare and eaking out a living by working in restaurant's part time. He is often hungry and breaks into people's homes to steal food and other things. He even breaks into his psychiatrist's house and takes ehr slippers.
He obviously has mental problems, while he has an ongoing battle with the cockroaches in his apartment he sees himself as a cockroach and often visualizes or describes himself as crawling down sewers, into basements etc. At one point he imagines a humansize cockroach talking to him in his aparment.
He lusts after women but seems to dislike other people he encounters. As the story goes on we learn that his parents fought, his daughter married young to a man who beat her constantly. The young man tries to kill his brother in law but when he has the chance he doesn't do it. He escapes his country instead. He comes to Canada and learns that there is corrupton here too. Later his sister is killed by her husband. He does end up killing a man who was the jailer and rapist (in Iran) of a woman he has a relationshiup with. So, he will have to disappear like a cockroach. But as the Jehovah's witnesses tell him, at the end of the world only the cockroaches and God's chosen will survive...
The book obviously reflects ideas of Kafka and Dostoevsky (notes from underground). While Hage writes beautifully and with passion, we really feel the anxiety and madness of the main character, I think you set yourself up for criticisim when you take on the ideas of literary giants. It has been a long time since I have read Kafka or Dostoyevsky but I don't think this quite measures up to either of them.
I think I had hoped that the character would find some redemption but instead he just becomes part of the violence he tried to leave behind. It was a sad book but certainly worth reading. However, I find it a surprising choice for Canada Reads this year, the theme of which I thought was supposed to be change... I don't really see that this character changed much.... except for the worse.
Monday, 10 February 2014
Goldfinch
by Donna Tartt
This is another book that has received a lot of rave reviews. In this case the book lived up to my expectations.
The story starts with an explosion in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. A young boy, Theo, and his mother are visiting the gallery. The boy's father, a drunk who beat the mother, had abandoned them several years before. The boy and his mother have a very close relationship. She is very impressed with a painting of a Goldfinch, chained to a perch by a Dutch Master.
Just prior to the explosion his mother leaves him to go have another look at a particular painting, she tells him to go to the gift shop and she will meet him there. However, Theo has been watching a young girl who is accompanied by an older man. He has been following them rather than going to the gift shop.
When the explosion occurs Theo sees dead bodies and destruction everywhere. However, he finds the old man still alive. The old man tells him to take the painting of the goldfinch and also gives him a ring. He also mentions a name, that sounds like a business name. Theo stays with the old man until he dies, then he scoops up the painting and manages to wander his way through some back rooms in the gallery and get outside. He stumbles home and waits for his mother to meet him there (their agreed upon plan should they get separated at any tiime). But his mother does not return.
After a short time Theo recalls the name that the old man told him and goes to the address. He is greeted at the door by a man who was the business partner of the old man. They have an antiques/restoration business. He is delighted to meet the boy and get the old man's ring back. The man invites him in and tells the boy that they young girl survived the explosion but was badly hurt, including some brain damage.
Eventually children's services people come to collect the boy. His grandparents are contacted but claim that they are too ill to care for him. No one knows how to contact his father. The boy contacts a childhood friend of his, from a wealthy family, and they agree to care for him in the short term. The friend's family is very happy to have him staying with them, the boy's brother and sister aren't so happy about it. The father of the family has had some mental health issues, the mother is a socialite and do-gooder, but really seems to care for the welfare of her young guest. The father is a sailing fanatic and wants his son (the boy's friend) to learn to sail, the boy is terrified of sailing.
Theo is quite happy living with this wealthy family. However one day he returns to their apartment to find his father sitting waiting for him. Theo doesn't want to go with him, but the father takes him to Las Vegas to live with him, his girlfriend and their dog (which they frequently neglect). The boy is very unhappy living with them, not only do they negelct the dog, they neglect him, leaving him alone with no food in the house. He meets a Russian boy in his school. The boy's father is an engineer who also isn't a good parent and who gets drunk and beats him on occasion. The Russian boy is streetwise and they become friends, steal food and get involved with drugs. The Russian boy is quite manic. He calls Theo "Popper" because of his Harry Potter glasses. Sadly, Theo's father seems to have a better relationship with Boris than he does with Theo.
Theo's father is a gambler and has highs and lows. One day a man arrives at the door asking for his father. He tells Theo to tell his father that he will be back to collect on the father's bad debts. The father tries to get the boy to free money from an education fund his mother had set up for him. The father claims it is to help him start a restaurant. He is lying, he wants the money to settle his debts. However, the lawyer who handles his fund tells Theo he can't just take money out, it has to go to an educational institution. He also warns him that someone had tried to get money from the fund previously. Theo is furious at his father for trying to steal his education funds.
Shortly thereafter Theo's "stepmother" arrives home in tears telling him that his father has been killed in a car accident, it seems he was leaving town (without them). Theo doesn't want to stay with the stepmother but doesn't know what to do. He decides to return to New York. Before he goes he takes some money from the house, some drugs and the dog and the goldfinch painting he took from the art gallery.
When he arrives in New York he is desperate and decides to go to visit the partner of the old man. This gentleman welcomes him. The boy contacts the lawyer who was handling his education fund and it is agreed that the older man can be his temporary guardian. Theo helps the man with some of his restoration work. But he knows he needs to complete schooling so he works hard to get an early admission to college and completes his studies
When he is done he returns to New York and eventually becomes the informal business parter, running the store for the man, while he the old man works on restoration work in the basement. Theo realizes the business is having financial difficulties as the old man would rather restore things than run the business. Theo starts running the store and conducts some fraudulent sales to help the business recover financially.
One day a former client accuses Theo of having sold him a fake. Theo offers to buy the item back but the man threatens to destroy Theo and his business partner. Later the man returns to say he knows that Theo has the Goldfinch painting and he wants it, or else. The boy is to attached to the painting to want to give it up, but he does feel guilty keeping it. How could this man get this info? This was not clear to me.
Theo evenutally confides what he has done regarding fraudulent sales to his business partner. The man is sad and shocked and insists that he must contact all clients he has wronged and reimburse them. Theo doesn't tell his partner the full extent of his crimes.
Why did he steal the painting? He did it because the old man who he comforted in the museum told him to do it. Why did he keep it?
"The painting had made me feel less mortal, less ordinary. It was support and vindication... my whole life was balanced atop a secret that might at any moment blow apart".
Theo is tormented by memories of the explosion, the young girl is likewise tormented. She has been cared for by an aunt and later sent to a school in Europe for "damanged" people. He occasionally meets her when she comes to New York. He is in love with her. But she is living in England and engaged to another man.
Theo eventually contacts the rich foster family. He is shocked to learn that the father of the family and his friend died in a boating accident. The father had had a nervous breakdown and was staying at a cottage to recover. He was manic one day and his son went out with him sailing. A storm arose and they drowned. The family is glad to renew acquaintance with him. The oldest brother is still a bum, the mother is a wreck, barely leaving her room. The boy eventually realizing he can never have the girl he really loves, falls into an engagement with the daughter in the family. She tells him they will make a good couple, but he hates her socialite lifestyle.
He contintes to use drugs, a holdover from his time in Las Vegas and his friendship with the Russian boy. One day he is walking down the street and hears someone call his name. It is his Russian firend, Boris. Boris.seems to have a lot of money and be involved with some illegal activities. Boris admits that he actually stole the goldfinch painting from him and that what he has wrapped and in storage is just a textbook.
The painting has now become a pawn among some bad dudes. Boris convices him to go to Amsterdam, assuring him they will be able to get the painting back easily.
Things don't go as planned, Theo ends up killing two people in an attack and then hiding out, ill, in an Amsterdam hotel. He doesn't have his passport (Boris had it) so he can't leave the country. He contemplates suicide. However, eventually the ever optimisitic, fast-talking Boris arrives with a bag of money for him. Boris tells him that the money is his share of the reward money. Boris explainds that he and his colleagues had found where the painting was and alerted the authorities of the location. The goldfinch and several other stolen artworks were found there. As a result of reporting on the house they were entitled to a sizeable reward. Theo's share of the reward money allows him to travel around the world to meet clients he has wronged and reimburse them.
This was a long story but a fascinating story. The author did an incredible job of portaying all the characters, the passion, the despair. Boris, the Russian, is an especially colourful character. The author really portrayed this survivor, fast-talking, conman with humour and breathtaking detail.
The boy and girl in this book suffered a major trauma, like the character in the Vasquez book, but I felt more empathy for these characters and their ongoing trauma seemed more understandable than that of the Vasquez character.
This was a great book! It kept my interest throughout. Even though some of the characters and story line were really fantastic they were believable.
This is another book that has received a lot of rave reviews. In this case the book lived up to my expectations.
The story starts with an explosion in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. A young boy, Theo, and his mother are visiting the gallery. The boy's father, a drunk who beat the mother, had abandoned them several years before. The boy and his mother have a very close relationship. She is very impressed with a painting of a Goldfinch, chained to a perch by a Dutch Master.
Just prior to the explosion his mother leaves him to go have another look at a particular painting, she tells him to go to the gift shop and she will meet him there. However, Theo has been watching a young girl who is accompanied by an older man. He has been following them rather than going to the gift shop.
When the explosion occurs Theo sees dead bodies and destruction everywhere. However, he finds the old man still alive. The old man tells him to take the painting of the goldfinch and also gives him a ring. He also mentions a name, that sounds like a business name. Theo stays with the old man until he dies, then he scoops up the painting and manages to wander his way through some back rooms in the gallery and get outside. He stumbles home and waits for his mother to meet him there (their agreed upon plan should they get separated at any tiime). But his mother does not return.
After a short time Theo recalls the name that the old man told him and goes to the address. He is greeted at the door by a man who was the business partner of the old man. They have an antiques/restoration business. He is delighted to meet the boy and get the old man's ring back. The man invites him in and tells the boy that they young girl survived the explosion but was badly hurt, including some brain damage.
Eventually children's services people come to collect the boy. His grandparents are contacted but claim that they are too ill to care for him. No one knows how to contact his father. The boy contacts a childhood friend of his, from a wealthy family, and they agree to care for him in the short term. The friend's family is very happy to have him staying with them, the boy's brother and sister aren't so happy about it. The father of the family has had some mental health issues, the mother is a socialite and do-gooder, but really seems to care for the welfare of her young guest. The father is a sailing fanatic and wants his son (the boy's friend) to learn to sail, the boy is terrified of sailing.
Theo is quite happy living with this wealthy family. However one day he returns to their apartment to find his father sitting waiting for him. Theo doesn't want to go with him, but the father takes him to Las Vegas to live with him, his girlfriend and their dog (which they frequently neglect). The boy is very unhappy living with them, not only do they negelct the dog, they neglect him, leaving him alone with no food in the house. He meets a Russian boy in his school. The boy's father is an engineer who also isn't a good parent and who gets drunk and beats him on occasion. The Russian boy is streetwise and they become friends, steal food and get involved with drugs. The Russian boy is quite manic. He calls Theo "Popper" because of his Harry Potter glasses. Sadly, Theo's father seems to have a better relationship with Boris than he does with Theo.
Theo's father is a gambler and has highs and lows. One day a man arrives at the door asking for his father. He tells Theo to tell his father that he will be back to collect on the father's bad debts. The father tries to get the boy to free money from an education fund his mother had set up for him. The father claims it is to help him start a restaurant. He is lying, he wants the money to settle his debts. However, the lawyer who handles his fund tells Theo he can't just take money out, it has to go to an educational institution. He also warns him that someone had tried to get money from the fund previously. Theo is furious at his father for trying to steal his education funds.
Shortly thereafter Theo's "stepmother" arrives home in tears telling him that his father has been killed in a car accident, it seems he was leaving town (without them). Theo doesn't want to stay with the stepmother but doesn't know what to do. He decides to return to New York. Before he goes he takes some money from the house, some drugs and the dog and the goldfinch painting he took from the art gallery.
When he arrives in New York he is desperate and decides to go to visit the partner of the old man. This gentleman welcomes him. The boy contacts the lawyer who was handling his education fund and it is agreed that the older man can be his temporary guardian. Theo helps the man with some of his restoration work. But he knows he needs to complete schooling so he works hard to get an early admission to college and completes his studies
When he is done he returns to New York and eventually becomes the informal business parter, running the store for the man, while he the old man works on restoration work in the basement. Theo realizes the business is having financial difficulties as the old man would rather restore things than run the business. Theo starts running the store and conducts some fraudulent sales to help the business recover financially.
One day a former client accuses Theo of having sold him a fake. Theo offers to buy the item back but the man threatens to destroy Theo and his business partner. Later the man returns to say he knows that Theo has the Goldfinch painting and he wants it, or else. The boy is to attached to the painting to want to give it up, but he does feel guilty keeping it. How could this man get this info? This was not clear to me.
Theo evenutally confides what he has done regarding fraudulent sales to his business partner. The man is sad and shocked and insists that he must contact all clients he has wronged and reimburse them. Theo doesn't tell his partner the full extent of his crimes.
Why did he steal the painting? He did it because the old man who he comforted in the museum told him to do it. Why did he keep it?
"The painting had made me feel less mortal, less ordinary. It was support and vindication... my whole life was balanced atop a secret that might at any moment blow apart".
Theo is tormented by memories of the explosion, the young girl is likewise tormented. She has been cared for by an aunt and later sent to a school in Europe for "damanged" people. He occasionally meets her when she comes to New York. He is in love with her. But she is living in England and engaged to another man.
Theo eventually contacts the rich foster family. He is shocked to learn that the father of the family and his friend died in a boating accident. The father had had a nervous breakdown and was staying at a cottage to recover. He was manic one day and his son went out with him sailing. A storm arose and they drowned. The family is glad to renew acquaintance with him. The oldest brother is still a bum, the mother is a wreck, barely leaving her room. The boy eventually realizing he can never have the girl he really loves, falls into an engagement with the daughter in the family. She tells him they will make a good couple, but he hates her socialite lifestyle.
He contintes to use drugs, a holdover from his time in Las Vegas and his friendship with the Russian boy. One day he is walking down the street and hears someone call his name. It is his Russian firend, Boris. Boris.seems to have a lot of money and be involved with some illegal activities. Boris admits that he actually stole the goldfinch painting from him and that what he has wrapped and in storage is just a textbook.
The painting has now become a pawn among some bad dudes. Boris convices him to go to Amsterdam, assuring him they will be able to get the painting back easily.
Things don't go as planned, Theo ends up killing two people in an attack and then hiding out, ill, in an Amsterdam hotel. He doesn't have his passport (Boris had it) so he can't leave the country. He contemplates suicide. However, eventually the ever optimisitic, fast-talking Boris arrives with a bag of money for him. Boris tells him that the money is his share of the reward money. Boris explainds that he and his colleagues had found where the painting was and alerted the authorities of the location. The goldfinch and several other stolen artworks were found there. As a result of reporting on the house they were entitled to a sizeable reward. Theo's share of the reward money allows him to travel around the world to meet clients he has wronged and reimburse them.
This was a long story but a fascinating story. The author did an incredible job of portaying all the characters, the passion, the despair. Boris, the Russian, is an especially colourful character. The author really portrayed this survivor, fast-talking, conman with humour and breathtaking detail.
The boy and girl in this book suffered a major trauma, like the character in the Vasquez book, but I felt more empathy for these characters and their ongoing trauma seemed more understandable than that of the Vasquez character.
This was a great book! It kept my interest throughout. Even though some of the characters and story line were really fantastic they were believable.
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