War and Peace

War and Peace by Lev Tolstoy (1869) 

This is my final War and Peace post - you can see my introductory post here, and also my first and second progress reports.

I discussed some of the details of the plot and characters before and I don't want to say too much more about that at the risk of spoiling it for any of you thinking of reading the book. So I'll keep my final discussion a bit more general.

Our instructor insists that this isn't a historical novel, that to Tolstoy it was about family because family is the most important thing ever. It's hard to see sometimes, especially because in all his philosophical musings in the epilogue and appendix, he doesn't really talk about family at all. But our instructor cites Tolstoy's 99 volumes of journals as evidence of his ideas.

There were, of course, some families in the novel and the parts centering around them were my favorite. I'm not super interested in military strategy, and am rather shaky with history (I find it interesting, but have a hard time grasping it), so I preferred everything that revolved around the romantic entanglements and family life. There were some good war parts though, especially those that focused on particular characters like Bolkonsky, Rostov, and Kutuzov.

It was a bit rough getting through all the philosophical musings (especially at the end), though Tolstoy discussed some interesting ideas. For instance, the difficulty of separating historical events from one another. How do you decide where to begin with a story, when clearly everything that happens has roots in earlier events? He also questions what causes movements. Is it personalities of leaders, conditions of the time, the results of particular orders that were given, or a combination of all of these things? Tolstoy seems to accept a certain inevitability when he discusses our lack of free will. We may think we are doing what we want to do, but there are always restrictions and obstacles, and that applies as much to historical events as to actions in our daily lives.

As you can probably tell, this novel is nothing if not ambitious, and the 1200 or so pages were crammed not only with a great story, but many big thoughts and ideas. Even reading along with a class I know I'm still missing some things. This seems like the sort of book you could read 10 times and get more out of it each time. (I am unlikely to read it 10 times though.)

Reading War and Peace feels like a huge accomplishment, and I'm very glad I did it. Now I don't feel quite so daunted by other unread classics, and hopefully I'll be able to take classes on some others as well to make the reading go a little easier. But maybe not soon.

Nobody Is Ever Missing

Nobody Is Ever Missing by Catherine Lacey (2014)

One day Elyria leaves her husband behind and flies to New Zealand with no explanation. She has a vague plan to to stay with a poet she has met once at a party in New York and who invited her to stay on his farm if ever she found herself in the area. It is clear that Elyria is still dealing with her sister's suicide several years before, and as she hitchhikes around this new country, her grasp on reality becomes more and more questionable.

Despite how it sounds, this isn't a very complex story. Many of the threads were not followed or explained. Elyria's sister was adopted from Korea and was Elyria's own age, which could have add a great deal to the story, but didn't. The fact that Elyria married her sister's professor is also noteworthy, but rather unexplored. At the time of her leaving, Elyria had also been participating in a study that involved having blood drawn and being subjected to a battery of questions, but we never find out why. In many of these cases, I wondered why these story lines were even introduced if they were just going to be left hanging there. But even with all these tidbits, there is very little going on at all.

The best part of the story was when Elyria was waylaid in a small town because she was out of money and was forced to take a catering job where she befriend a transgender woman named Jaye. Jaye was easily the most likable, down-to-earth and well-adjusted person in the whole book and I really thought Elyria would have done better to just stick with her.

The real beauty in this novel is the prose. Despite not being much of a story, I found great pleasure in reading Lacey's poetic and frequently surprising narration. Told in the first person, the reader is drawn inside Elyria's disordered mind, and her stream-of-consciousness perspective is sometimes frustrating but also full of unexpected beauty and I marked many passages to re-read. Here are a couple of the shorter ones:

"One framed picture was on the wall: a man on a sailboat looking at the ocean like it belonged to him, like he'd spent his whole life earning enough money to buy the ocean and now he had it and he was pleased with himself."

"...I imagined they slept in a pile the way that puppies or kittens sleep, but I slept in the metal caravan the way a sardine would if sardines came canned individually." 

Unsettling and slippery, my reading experience was best when I read big chunks at a time because I was able to settle into Elyria's story a bit better. The few hours I spent reading this unusual and intriguing novel were pleasurable, though it ultimately left me unsatisfied.

Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock

Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock by Matthew Quick (2013)

For a review free of spoilers, see my original post about this book from last year.

My Not-So-Young Adult book group at work voted to read this and because it has stuck with me so much since I listened to the audio last year, I wasn't going to necessarily read it again. My plan was to skim through a few chapters to remind myself of some of the details. But once I opened the book, I couldn't help but read it in its entirety, even though I'm in the midst of War and Peace and, at that point, had hundreds of pages left.

I loved Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock as much the second time as the first. But now I'll tell you more about why. Some important pieces of the story were left out of my original post because they were spoilers, but those aspects of the story were some of the most important parts.

The reason Leonard is angry and wants to kill Asher Beal is because Asher sexually abused him. They were very close friends and it is implied that Asher was abused by a beloved uncle, after which he turned to Leonard. It is further complicated because Leonard sort of went along with it at first, but then he didn't and it clearly became forced. So he feels not only hurt by the abuse, but guilty and confused. What I love about this plot (I mean, it's horrible, but it's also fiction) is that it represents something that exists but is rarely acknowledged. We know all about bullying, and we know about sexual abuse, but the abuser is generally an adult and the victim is generally a girl. It is just as upsetting when a teenaged boy is raped by another teenaged boy and somehow we forget that this can happen. The novel is all the more realistic because it's as complicated and nuanced as real life can be.

In an interesting juxtaposition, Herr Silverman - the adult that Leonard admires most - has come out as gay to Leonard late in the novel. Leonard is totally like "hey, that's ok" and then immediately chastises himself, because Herr Silverman doesn't need Leonard's approval, so, what a ridiculous thing to say. In an awkward attempt to explain his hatred of Asher Beal, Leonard explains by saying "He's not gay like you. He's horrible." Then he goes on to clarify what happened between them. I keep wondering if Quick made Herr Silverman gay just to contrast with Asher so that the only gay character in the book wasn't an abuser. In any case, it works, and Herr Silverman is one of my very favorite adult characters in YA literature. (Don't be tempted to think a gay teacher could get away with inviting a teenage boy to stay overnight at his house in real life. I'd like to think it would be ok for a teacher to act as Herr Silverman did in the interest of saving lives, but the cynical side of me thinks he'd probably lose his job over it.)

I wondered if my experience with this book would be as positive the second time around, and I'm so glad it was. I just love Leonard. He is angry, yes, but even though he is planning to murder someone you know that deep down he is also a good person, or at least he wants to be. When his horrible mother dismisses the danger of his situation by saying that Leonard would never hurt anyone, it's a terrible thing to say but also, I think, true. This is a boy who spends his lunch breaks listening to another student practice his violin - and even pays him for the privilege - and who befriends a devoutly religious girl who hands out pamphlets at the train station even though he's an atheist, because he admires her wish to save everyone, and who spends his free time watching Bogart movies with an elderly chain-smoking neighbor. He is a great kid who is hurting and just needs someone to say "Happy birthday" to him. I was convinced that he continued to find good in the world and would not be able to bear leaving it. Of course, while I was reading it the first time, I really didn't know whether or not he'd go through with the murder/suicide until he actually made the decision, so maybe this is all hindsight talking.

Matthew Quick is pretty high profile (he's the author of The Silver Linings Playbook, which I've still neither watched nor read) yet this one hasn't gotten nearly the attention that it deserves. I thought maybe I was alone in my love for it, but the 5 attendees at my book group agreed that it is awesome. So spread the word!

Top ten characters I wish would get their own books

Here's a fun thing! Top Ten Tuesday is hosted over at The Broke and the Bookish. I don't know if I'll participate every week, but I'm going to start trying. I love lists.

I frequently wish I knew more about certain characters, so this is a great topic. Most of these are from books I've read in the past year because they're fresh on my mind, but I'm sure I'm forgetting some that are important. Links go to my reviews.

1. Baback from Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock. I just read this book again (review coming soon!) and am intrigued by this Iranian violin virtuoso who Leonard never really gets to know.

2. Marin from The Miniaturist. A mysterious character from the start, once her secrets were revealed it really made me want to know her whole story.

3. Stephanie from In Darkness. She's an aid worker for the UN who ends up running with the gangs in Haiti and getting romantically involved with Shorty's friend Biggie. I want to know how that happened!

4. Serena Joy from The Handmaid's Tale. As readers we're very focused on the position of the handmaids, but all of the women in this world are oppressed and the privileged wives were in rather an awkward spot themselves. I'd love to hear the story from this perspective.

5. Anna Pavlovna from War and Peace. A single, aristocratic woman who hosts fashionable salons in early 1800s St. Petersburg. I like to imagine a free and glamorous life for her, so different than most of the other women in the book.

6. Patrick from The Perks of Being a Wallflower. He's in the book a lot, and I loved him, and I bet he had a great story of his own. (I really need to review this on my blog sometime so I have something to link it to!)

7. Charlie from My Notorious Life. What did you do the whole time you and Axie were apart? Huh, Charlie?

8. Ty from Stolen. What kind of a guy kidnaps a teenage girl to live with him in the Australian outback and thinks it will work out well?

9. Aidan from The Coldest Girl in Coldtown. There's room in this world for another great story, and I loved poor, well-intentioned, flawed Aidan.

10. Boris from The Goldfinch. I guess his mystery is part of his charm but, man, his whole life must be an adventure.

What other characters deserve to have their own stories told? And am I forgetting someone obvious?

In Darkness

In Darkness by Nick Lake (2012), narrated by Benjamin L. Darcie

Shorty was in a hospital in Haiti when the earthquake hit, and now he is trapped in darkness where nobody can find him. He thinks about his life - his father, who was murdered, and his twin sister, who was taken the same day. He thinks about how everything changed after that and how he became a gangster and a killer.

In the late 1700s a slave named Toussaint L'Ouverture leads a rebellion against the French which ultimately results in the freedom of the slaves and the founding of the Republic of Haiti. His story is also one of struggle, danger, and tragedy. There is a connection between Shorty and Toussaint which brings both stories together in this deservedly award-winning novel.

There are so many elements that make this story stand out. How many works of fiction are even set in Haiti, much less ones intended for teenagers? I'd venture to guess very few. Beyond the uniqueness of the subject, though, is a strong story that is also driven by believable characters brought to life in all their personal struggles and imperfections. I also fascinated by the descriptions of vodou ceremonies and attempts to create zombis, which were different from the zombies of our popular culture. And I think Shorty is now one of my favorite characters. His voice is sincere, earnest, sometimes angry, but always compelling. He is trapped and alone with his thoughts, so he tries to be completely honest, but his story also has a desperate feel because he's trying to tell the whole thing before he dies.

Toussaint's character was very different - a middle-aged slave being lured into leading a revolt - but not without similarities. Both characters are desperate, both characters are in a dangerous Haiti that is changing, and both are caught up in a life that feels beyond their control, Shorty as a gangster and Toussaint as leader of a revolution. The two characters kind of channel each other, their stories woven together in a way that is difficult to buy as a concept, but works very well and doesn't feel forced.

This is a book that would have probably worked better for me in print than audio, particularly the historic scenes, but I do have a hard copy available that I read bits of in spots where my mind had wandered from the audio. That being said, Darcie's Haitian-accented narration was fantastic. I could listen to that guy read to me all the time. The story contains a lot of unfamiliar French or Creole words, but they are usually explained or just obvious from the context. In the audio, this only added to the feeling of authenticity.

Although this book has been on my list to read for quite a while, I kept passing it by until impulsively downloading the audiobook one day when I was feeling extremely indecisive about what to listen to. It was a great surprise and I'm so glad I got to finally experience this story, and accidentally learn about some Haitian history in the process. In Darkness stands out as one of the most unique books for teens I've come across, and I know I'll be recommending it a lot and I'll be thinking about Shorty and his story for a long time.

Sally Heathcote: Suffragette

Sally Heathcote: Suffragette by Mary M. Talbot, Bryan Talbot, and Kate Charlesworth

When I heard about this graphic work from Tiny Library, I was very excited because it brought together two things I love: feminism and Bryan Talbot. Talbot is the author The Tale of One Bad Rat, a graphic novel which I love and which partly inspired the titles of my blog. He also wrote an amazing, crazy graphic novel called Alice in Sunderland which is about Lewis Carroll and the young girl who may have been the inspiration for Alice and lots of other weird stuff which may or may not be based in reality. It made my head spin, but in a good way.

Those two books are both very different from each other and Sally Heathcote: Suffragette isn't like either of them. Sally is a maid who works for a suffragette and ends up being involved in the movement herself. I didn't realize when I started reading that Sally was a fictional character and I'm not sure how I feel about inserting a character into a story that is otherwise real. Ultimately, though, it was an effective way to tell the story and all the important parts are true.

I should mention that this takes place in the UK, so although I know a bit about the American suffragist movement, most of this was new to me. I knew about Emily Davison, the activist who threw herself under the king's horse in 1913, because I saw this video, but that was the extent of my knowledge about the British suffragette movement. (Unless you count Mrs. Banks singing "Sister Suffragette" in Mary Poppins, but that's hardly educational.) The movement really was complicated and unglamorous, with its imprisonment and hunger strikes and forced feeding (which sounded awful!) and activists disagreeing about the use of targeted violence.

It was more informative than pleasurable - though I really did appreciate some of the art - and in that way was quite different from what I expected. But if you want to learn more about the women's movement in Britain, Sally Heathcote: Suffragette surely beats reading a dry history book.

Ten books I'd be reading if I wasn't reading War and Peace

Don't get me wrong - War and Peace is a great book! But it's long and I've been reading it for weeks. I've read a few other things, mostly for book groups because I have to read those, and I also snuck in a graphic novel. But it's fall, which is a huge season in publishing and I keep staring longingly at shiny new copies of books on my coworkers' desks.

If it weren't for Tolstoy, here's what I'd be reading right now. Links go to Goodreads so you can easily add them to your own lists (you're welcome!)

1. I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson. I keep hearing that this new YA book is magical.
2. The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters. I put myself on hold the moment I heard it was coming out, and got a copy just before I started W&P. Sadly, I had to send it back and now there are 400 people ahead of me on the list.
3. Revival by Stephen King. Ok, it's not out for another week or so, but my life isn't going to change by then.
4. Glory O'Brien's History of the Future by A.S. King. New A. S. King!!!
5. Smoke Gets In Your Eyes and Other Lessons from the Crematory by Caitlin Doughty. Informative, morbid, what's not to love?
6. Yes Please by Amy Poehler. Like Bossypants, but different.
7. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. There's a lot of buzz about this new post-apocalyptic novel.
8. 100 Sideways Miles by Andrew Smith. One of my new favorite authors!
9. Men Explain Things To Me by Rebecca Solnit. I read a snippet of the introduction and loved it, but of course I always love a good feminist rant.
10. Lost and Found by Brooke Davis. I get galleys from Penguin every month and a lot of the time they don't interest me, but this one looks really good and since I have a pre-pub copy I'd like to actually read it before it's published.

These are all published this fall except Men Explain Things To Me (May 2014) and Lost and Found (January 2015.)

And these are just the new and forthcoming books! Additionally, I wish I had time to read The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins right now. It's the final book on my TBR Pile Challenge and I don't technically have to read it for the challenge because I read one of the alternates, but I still want to! I also have a copy of Cockpit Confidential by Patrick Smith that I've had checked out since mid-September. My library doesn't own it so I want to read it before I send it back home.

The best part of all this is that when I actually finish with Tolstoy, I bet I'll start reading something completely different that's not even on this list. I wonder what it will be!