Nose in a Book

Player One by Douglas Coupland

Read for: Canadian Books Challenge 4

First of all…this is totally unrelated to the book but my biggest pet peeve is when the library puts the bar code right over the title or the author of the book.  My library copy of this book has the sticker right over the title.  Why do they do that?  There are lots of other good places on this cover for the bar code that wouldn’t hide the title of the book.  Another book I have from the library has the sticker right over the author’s last name.  What’s up with that?  Anyway, rant over.

This book was really weird, and not just normal Coupland weird, but really out there weird.  It’s a good thing it was short because otherwise I might not have finished it.  It’s about these four people who are in a hotel lounge when the world goes insane after the price of a barrel of oil hits $350.  (I have to admit, as an Albertan whose husband works in the oilsands, my first thought on that was “Woohoo!”)  They barricade themselves inside the lounge and basically just talk and kill time.  Other than that, there’s not much to the book (as I said, it was short).

I guess I’ll start with what I liked.  I like Coupland’s writing.  Even when he is writing about serious stuff, he still has a little bit of irreverence in his writing that somehow makes Coupland’s version of the apocalypse easier to read about and even laugh about.  I actually also really liked his characters.  They all seemed a little lame and sad at the beginning but as I read the book I came to like them all and see the good in them.

Now for the rest.  I can’t say I didn’t like this book, I just didn’t get it.  I needed more time with it but it has to go back to the library so that’s not going to happen.  I feel like this is a pretty lame review but I just have nothing to say about the book.  If you like Coupland and you have the time to dedicate to reading it, you’ll probably enjoy it.

Beatrice and Virgil by Yann Martel

Read for: Canadian Books Challenge

Hmm…I’m not really sure where to start with this one.  At first, I didn’t think I liked it, but as I thought about it more and read about it, it’s starting to grow on me.

So, Henry, an author, published a book a few years ago – a super famous, well loved book about animals (coincidence?  I don’t think so…)  Anyway, he’s got his second book all ready to go when the publishers shoot it down because it’s a little unconventional (ok, a lot unconventional).  It’s two books in one – an essay about the Holocaust and a fictional story about the Holocaust.  He wants it published as a flip book.  Meaning that you would read one part of the book from the beginning to the middle and then you’d flip the book to read the other part of the book from the beginning to the middle again.  (Guess who else wanted to write a flip book?)  After this disappointment, Henry decides to quit writing and move away to some unnamed big city.  There he meets a taxidermist who is writing a play that on the surface is about a donkey and a monkey (Beatrice and Virgil) who live on a shirt just talking, but is actually about “The Horrors” – the holocaust (and other similar “Horrors”).

I’m still not sure I liked the book but I think that Martel accomplished what he set out to do in spite of his publishers not enjoying his original idea (I don’t know the whole back story – I’m just going on other reviews I’ve read -and of course a lot of assumption based on the actual novel).  And I like that.  And I think that makes it a successful book.  It was also pretty short and besides that it was a quick read which also works in its favour.  Also, apparently Martel’s original story was about a talking monkey and a talking donkey and it seems he was able to get a lot of their conversations published anyway as they were part of the taxidermist’s play.  I love that.  (And, honestly, I don’t know if the publishers really did tell him that his flip book idea sucked but I’m assuming because that’s what happened in the book.)

It’s also a smart book, almost to the point of pretentiousness.  In fact, it is pretentious but not overly, annoyingly so.  There is one scene from the play (the first one Henry reads) where Virgil describes a pear to Beatrice because she’s never seen one before.  I really liked it, it was very well written, but somehow it knew it was well written and it came through in the writing.  (Make sense?)

I guess I would reccomend it but not as a fast paced, can’t put it down, gripping type of story.  More as a story that says something important and also happens to be entertaining.

The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood

Read for: The Canadian Books Challenge

I find the more Atwood I read, the more I appreciate her writing.  Sometimes I don’t love the plot but her writing is brilliant.  If you’ve read Oryx and Crake you might recognize the setting and some of the characters in this novel.  It took me a really long time to clue into this though.  I did read Oryx and Crake right when it first came out so it’s been a while.

In this novel, there’s been a supervirus (the waterless flood) that’s spread through out a large majority of the population.  The story is told through two of the survivors, Ren and Toby who have managed to avoid the plague by being isolated from the general population.  Through flashbacks we learn that Toby and Ren were once part of the same religious group – called the Gardeners – and have since left for various reasons.  Eventually, Ren and Toby are forced to leave their respective hideouts and they are able to find others from their pasts and eventually each other.

I really liked this novel.  I sometimes have a hard time reading dystopian literature because it can be so disturbingly accurate.  Somehow this one didn’t get to me the way others have. (And not because it’s unrealistic.  Maybe I’m just becoming desensitized to it because I’ve read so much lately!)  With people making such a big deal over the swine flu and a possible pandemic it becomes a lot more real to read about a virus that killed huge portions of the population.

The characters in the book were likable and realistic.  It was really interesting to read how Toby viewed  Ren after they were reunited and see how different it was of Ren’s own view of herself.  I think this is quite often true in the real world.  How we see ourselves can be very different from how others view us.

I have a really hard time writing reviews of Atwood’s work because there is so much to talk about that I just don’t know where to start.  I also feel like I don’t want to give away too much of the story because it’s so much better to read it without knowing what’s coming next.  So for those reasons I think I’ll stop now.  Just read the book yourself!  It’s good.

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

Read for: Banned Books Week, 1% Well Read Challenge, Canadian Books Challenge

The more I read of Atwood, the more I come to realize what a brilliant writer she is.  I read a few of her books about ten years ago and I think I just wasn’t ready for them yet.  Everything I’ve read of hers recently (even the ones I haven’t enjoyed) have really struck me in some way or another.

Most people have read this one, and those who haven’t usually know what the general plot is so I’m going to make my summary brief.  This one is another dystopian society – Gilead.  Offred is a handmaid which means that her sole purpose is to procreate.  Handmaids are sent to Commanders and their Wives in the hopes that they will conceive a child.  If she does, she bears the child and then moves on to another Commander.  Handmaids (and in fact all women) are allowed almost no freedoms and are carefully watched to be sure that they do not  step out of line.  As the novel unfolds, Offred, whose real name is never revealed, reveals Gilead came to be.

I really liked this book, actually a lot more than I was expecting to.  Once I started reading, I couldn’t put it down (which for me and Atwood is rare).  As I mentioned earlier, Atwood is a brilliant writer, but besides that she has the ability to tell a really great story.  Even though, Offred was in a truly depressing situation, Atwood kept giving little hints that all was not lost, there was hope yet.  Offred clung to the hope of her daughter and husband from “before”.  She was able to find friendship in unexpected places.  I liked that in the darkest of times, Offred was able to see the simple beauty in the flowers (or perhaps she imagined them, which makes it that much more amazing).

On the other hand, parts of this book were terrifying because Gilead is so plausible.  Almost every part of this society has some historical (and some not-so-historical) counterparts.  There have been times in the past and in the present in parts of the world, where women have been treated as less than human, as just bodies to clean up, cook and have babies.  Even the way Gilead was formed was scarily real and even reminiscent of certain incidents following 9/11.

I am really glad I finally took the time to read this book, but I’m also glad I waited until this point in my life because I don’t think I would have understood it as well without the lens of experience I’ve been able to view it through at this time.

Other reviews:

• Book Nut
• things mean a lot
• read_warbler
• it’s all about me

If I missed yours, please leave a link in the comments.

This is a meme from John at The Book Mine Set for the Canadian Book Challenge.  I’m afraid there are a lot of blanks but I really haven’t read tons of Can Lit which is why I’ve joined the challenge!

Your Favourites:
1. Favourite Canadian author? Margaret Atwood
2. Favourite Canadian novel? I really like the Emily books by L. M. Montgomery
3. Favourite Canadian nonfiction? Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
4. Favourite Canadian picture book? Something by Robert Munsch, I Love You Forever or The Snowsuit
5. Favourite Canadian YA or juvenile chapter book? The only one I can think of is Anne of Green Gables. Oh!  I really liked Eric Wilson when I was younger…is he still writing?
6. Favourite Canadian science fiction or fantasy book? I think the only one I’ve read was The Onion Girl by Charles deLint and I really enjoyed it.
7. Favourite Canadian romantic fiction? I don’t read a lot of romantic fiction
8. Favourite Canadian mystery? ?
9. Favourite Canadian graphic novel? I’ve never read a single graphic novel
10. Favourite Canadian book blog? Books I done read
11. Favourite Canadian fictional character? Aminata Diallo from The Book of Negroes
12. Favourite movie based on a Canadian novel or story? Anne of Green Gables
13. Favourite Canadian short story? I don’t read very many short stories.
14. Favourite Canadian poet? Ditto
15. Favourite Canadian poem? See above
16. Favourite Canadian play? ?
17. Favourite novel by an established Canadian author? The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
18. Favourite novel by an up-and-coming Canadian author? The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill
19. Favourite Canadian book award? ?
20. Favourite Canadian publisher? ?
21. Favourite Canadian humorous book? something by Mordecai Richler
22. Favourite Canadian newspaper? ?
23. Favourite Canadian magazine or journal? ?
24. Favourite Canadian dystopian novel? Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
25. Favourite Canadian epistolary novel? ?

I discovered this one last year too late to join and I’ve been waiting patiently for this year’s to begin.  The rules are simple:  you have a year (from Canada Day to Canada Day) to read 13 Canadian books.  To be considered Canadian, they must take place in Cananda or be written by a Canadian.  You can do a theme or not, but I think I’ll just try to get 13 books read this time around!  I’ve already read the first one and reviewed it.

I’m open to suggestions, if anyone has read a really great Canadian book!

The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill

Read for: The Canadian Book Challenge

I’m not really sure where to start with this one. This is an incredible  book and one that I think everyone should read.  It’s also an important book.  This book won the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize for best overall book in 2008 and it definitely deserves it.

Ok, enough raving about the book.  It’s an important book because of the subject matter.  The book is about the slave trade and I think it’s really important that we not forget how truly disgusting that whole period in history was.

But, (and I think more importantly) the book was incredible because it was captivating and interesting.  Aminata, the main character, was lovable and strong and smart and believable.  The novel tells the story of Aminata’s life, from the time she was brutally seized from her family and her life, forced to walk across the country, naked and poorly fed, branded and then pushed onto a ship to cross the ocean.  Once in America, she was sold to an indigo plantation.  After being sold again, she ends up a runaway in New York City, and lands herself in the Book of Negroes, for loyalty to the British Government.

And here’s where the Canadian history begins.  Many Canadians know who the Loyalists were but I had never heard of the Black Loyalists before.  Just before the British left America for good, the blacks of NYC were promised that if they had served the British cause for at least a year, that they would be considered free and would be transported by boat to Nova Scotia, where they would be given land to farm.  3000 blacks were listed in the Book of Negroes (which is transcribed here) and were shipped to Nova Scotia.  Unfortunately, the land was slow in coming and the Black Loyalists lived a similar existence in Canada as they had previously.  Several years later, 1200 of those Black Loyalists travelled back to Africa to found a colony called Freetown in Sierra Leone.

Aminata has always dreamed of going back to Africa so she joins the colony.  Once back in Africa she finds that things aren’t quite the way she was expecting them to be and she travels to England to help the abolitionists.  This is more than just an accounting of the journey Aminata makes.  The book also tells of many of her struggles and the tragedies that befall her as a result of her colour.  This book could have been really depressing but it wasn’t.  It was really a beautiful read.  I just can’t say enough about how much I loved this one!  This definitely gets a 10/10!

Has anyone else read this book?  What did you think?

The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood

Read for: The What’s in a Name Challenge – book title with a profession in it, The 1% Well Read Challenge

I’m still unsure about how I feel about this book.  I finished it last night and after sleeping on it and reading some other reviews, I’m liking it a bit more than I did initially.

The story is about three women who are connected by their hurt at the hands of a single woman, Zenia.  Zenia is supposedly dead, but on the day that the novel begins, the friends are meeting for lunch when Zenia walks into the restaurant.  As each of the women leave the restaurant that day, they begin to remember the circumstances that brought Zenia into their lives and caused them so much pain.

Zenia is extremely manipulative and she knows exactly how to act and what to say to each of these women to be allowed into their lives and to steal their men.  We never really learn anything else about Zenia because everything she says is a lie.  Her history is a story carefully tailored for the person she’s telling it to, in order to garner the most sympathy.  Zenia must be extremely intelligent to be able to determine exactly what will work the best on each of these women, but she is not at all likable.  Her motivation for destroying these women’s relationships seems to be none other than because she can.

The story is told, in turn, from the viewpoint of the three friends.  First we hear from Tony, then Charis and lastly Roz.  Each of the women, from their own point of view, seem weak but when we view them from the other women’s perspective they become stronger and much more likable.  Isn’t this true of real life?  Are the people around us able to see our strengths better than we can ourselves?  I liked the book a lot better once I realized this.  I was feeling disappointed that the characters were all so weak-willed when I noticed that they weren’t really.  It was just their internal voice that was, but these women were a lot stronger than they thought they were.

The book was centred around Zenia and I thought it was about her, but I’ve realized that it wasn’t about her at all.  It was about the three women.  This is their story, not hers and that’s what I like about the book.  This book definitely isn’t for everyone, but if you like Atwood’s other books, you’ll like this one too.

Other reviews: caribousmom, dancing badger

St. Urbain’s Horseman by Mordecai Richler

Read for: Orbis Terrarum Challenge – Canada

This is either the third or fourth book I’ve read by Richler.  I like his books because although they are definitely can lit they aren’t as depressing as some books in this genre tend to be.  This one was no exception.  Richler’s novels (at least the ones I’ve read) tend to be satirical and sometimes funny without being satirical, which according to the wiki article linked above is one of the traits common to can lit, who knew?  (Probably lots of people, but I haven’t read that much can lit that was funny!)

Anyway, this one is about a man, Jake, who is on trial.  The book is one of those story’s where the reader isn’t given a lot of information and has to try and piece it together until your suspicions are confirmed near the end of the novel.  Richler gives us a peek into Jake’s life at the time of the trial and the reasons he is on trial but then back tracks to give the reader more insight into the Jake and his character.  As Jake remembers different incidents and times in his life he begins to question who he is and where he’s been.  St. Urbain’s Horseman, the title character is Jake’s cousin whom he pretty much worships even though he hasn’t seen him for years.  I don’t want to give away too much more about the horseman and Jake’s trial because part of what is good about the book is finding these things out as they are revealed in the book.

I wasn’t really sure if I would like this book when I first starting reading.  It took a while to get into it because as I mentioned before, the reader isn’t really given a lot of information.  I think Richler did this on purpose though.  He introduces his character, charging him with a crime and then puts him on trial.  By the end of the novel, the reader knows whether Jake is guilty or not before the circumstances around his crime are described.  We know whether or not he should be acquitted because we know Jake and we know his character.  What I didn’t like at first, I had come to appreciate by the end of the novel.  I would defintely recommend this book to most people.  It is kind of crude though, so you might what to avoid it if that kind of thing bothers you.

The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood

*Warning – There are spoilers in this review!*

I was going to do this book as one of my favourites, but I’m not sure yet that I can put it up there with some of the other books I’ve reviewed.  I did just reread it and couldn’t put it down.  I think I even liked it better this time around.  Anyway, onto the review!

Atwood starts the book with this line: “Ten days after the war ended, my sister Laura drove a car off a bridge.”  She just dives right in.  The book is divided into alternating parts.  One set of sections is narrated by Iris Chase Griffen at the age of 83.  Her writings are a journal that she is writing for her estranged grand-daughter, basically the story of her life.  The other set of parts starts with newspaper articles that tell more of Iris’ story and alternates with a novel attributed to Iris’ sister Laura, and published posthumously by Iris.  Laura’s novel is also called The Blind Assassin.

Iris begins her story with Laura’s death and then begins to describe their childhood as daughters of a  successful industrialist.  As the girls grow up they lose both of their parents and Iris is married to one of her father’s competitors.  As a result Iris and Laura end up in Toronto living with Iris’ husband, Richard.  Iris’ marriage is not a happy one and Laura does not get along with her brother in law at all.  As the novel goes on, we realize that there is a very good reason for Laura’s hatred of Richard, which Iris is unaware of.

Meanwhile,  the reader is treated to Laura’s entire novel.  It’s a story about an unhappy married socialite carrying on an affair with a communist agitator in hiding.  There are no names or details in Laura’s novel but as the story continues, you realize that the story is autobiographical and that Laura is not the author.  The details of the affair are never described, but he tells her a story in instalments.  It is in this story that we meet the blind assassin.

What I love about this novel is the way Atwood tells the story.  The reader starts out with many questions.  As the story goes on, all of those questions are slowly answered.  I just love the way Atwood gradually reveals more details as the novel unfolds. I also love the way she tells a story within a story within a story.  (I read one website that described compared them to Russian nesting dolls.) You’d think is might be complicated and confusing but Atwood does such a good job timing and relating the different parts of the story that it’s easy to follow.

The novel isn’t a happy novel with a happy ending, but I do think it’s very well written and very poetic.  This is the kind of writing that is truly amazing.  I can see why it won the Booker.  Other books by Margaret Atwood that I would recommend are Alias Grace and Oryx and Crake.  (Two entirely different books though…I’m warning you!)