No One Belongs Here More Than You

short stories
Miranda July
2007

rating: good

plot: These short stories are brief glimpses into the extreme emotions of socially awkward people.



Back in 2007 Miranda July made waves with her impressively low-tech self-promotion for this book. Go to her website to be amused (click on the tiny pink arrow on the bottom right corner).

The stories aren’t your typical beginning-middle-end tales. Instead, July presents a sort of snapshot of the thoughts of a seemingly average person. But doesn’t getting even a fleeting glimpse into someone’s mind always reveal things are not what they appear to be?

I usually stay mum on all plot points of a novel, but I think I’ll tell you about one of the stories just to give you an example. The one story that stuck with me was about a woman who was born with a disfiguring birthmark on her face, then later in life had it completely surgically eradicated. Although she married and had a happy life, she was consumed by thoughts that if her husband had met her with the birthmark, he wouldn’t have loved her. This despite the fact that her husband seemed like a caring person who already told her it wouldn’t matter to him what she looked like. She never realized her preoccupation wasn’t about him at all; if she still had the birthmark, she wouldn’t have been ready to fall in love. Aren’t these the kind of frustrating what-if questions we all ask ourselves?

Little Women

sometimes split into two novels: Little Women and Good Wives
Louisa May Alcott
1868

rating: very good

plot: The lives of four sisters from girlhood through marriage in the American Civil War and Reconstruction periods.



I was given Little Women as a gift when I was a child. I tried to get through it but I was supremely uninterested. After looking at this book on my bookshelf for twenty years, I finally decided to give it another go. I’m glad I did because I would mark this as one of my favorite “classic” novels. The reason for my distaste as a child is simple; this novel is about young women growing up and getting married. School teachers might try to pass it off as a historical novel, but this is a pure romance in the way of Hallmark movies.

We meet Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy while they are still teenagers holding forth with their mother while their father is away at war. The archetype each girl represents is as true today as it was 150 years ago. Meg is the pretty one who has her heart set on romance. Jo is a tom-boy who hopes to earn her living as an author (Jo being, of course, Alcott herself). Beth is angelic, musical and thoughtful (see Jane in Pride & Prejudice). Amy is the outspoken, spoiled but lovable baby.

The beauty of Little Women is that the romance doesn’t end with the marriages. The novel follows them through the compromises and trials of matrimony. My favorite scene in the book involves a newlywed Meg. She is trying to be the perfect wife, always encouraging her husband to bring home his colleagues so she can show off her housekeeping. One day she attempts to make jelly. By the end of the day, the kitchen is strewn with pans and the currant fruit is spread all over in her unsuccessful attempts to get the jelly to GEL. Just then her husband pops his head in the kitchen and announces that he’s brought his colleague home to dine. She just loses it, "tell him I'm away, sick, dead - anything. I won't see him and you won't have anything else here." They give each other the silent treatment for a few days until finally, "she softly kissed her husband on the forehead. Of course that settled it; the penitent kiss was better than a world of words, and John had her on his knee in a minute."

What I love about that scene is that it could have come out of my own marriage (well, maybe without the currant jelly). I don’t mean the Susie Homemaker part; I mean the part where newlyweds try hard to be agreeable but still have minor misunderstandings as they’re getting used to each other. I’m not sentimental, but it makes me a little choked up to think that human nature truly doesn’t change despite centuries of “progress”.

Overall, nothing very exciting happens in this book; it’s more of a slow glimpse into the lives of the girls over the years. The fun lies in Alcott's beautifully worded prose and insight into the human condition. It’s a great comforting read.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

Lisa See
2006

rating: very good

plot: The lives of two girls in nineteenth century China.



A beautiful book. I still find myself thinking about this story.

The book describes the lives of Lily and Snow Flower in 19th century China. A large part of their girlhood was occupied with foot binding. This is a part of Chinese history I knew of only in passing prior to this book, but afterward I researched for my own information. Foot binding is the century-old tradition of fracturing and re-forming girls feet, creating small nubs that were considered sexually attractive and, more importantly, vital for making a marriage. The process took years and many of the girls died from complications of this mutilation, not only when it was occurring but later in life. This crippled the women, enslaving them to their husbands and households.

But I’m projecting modern ideas onto this practice. The narrator, Lily, and her female relatives had no such notions about imprisonment. For them, the foot binding is a necessary rite of passage. Lily describes this process, then betrothal and then life after marriage for both herself and Snow Flower. Her outlooks is generally optomistic. Meanwhile, the author, See, raises excellent points about women’s status, place in society and duty to family and friends. So does this through her narrative; not through philosophical ramblings.

It's possible that as a firm feminist, I was more affected by some of the themes of this book than other may be; but still it would be hard for anyone to read this and be unaffected.

Wicked

The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
Gregory Maguire
1996

rating: meh

plot: The life story of the Wicked Witch of the West, who spent most of her years as an advocate for societal change but at the end degraded into the evil villain we find in The Wizard of Oz.



I just want to point out that I read Wicked before it was cool. I read this book when it first came out. My gentle reader will remember that I was an avid reader of the Oz books as a child, so when I saw this new release back in 1996, my interested was certainly piqued. I remember liking it. I was 17 years old.

An incredibly intriguing concept. Take the Wicked Witch of the West, who we all know to be a cackling harpy, and make her into a protagonist we care about. How did this drastic fall from grace occur? I think Maguire has a fabulous story here. Elphaba, the witch, begins her life as, if not lovable, then endearing. Her gradual change into the creature who meets Dorothy is heart-wrenching and dramatic, but well-explained.

This book is not intended as a prequel or companion to the Oz books. This is not a book for children. Or people who like the musical Wicked. Maguire describes Oz as a country on the brink of race-war, torn by politics. He spends most of the book outlining long philosophical arguments regarding good/evil and human/animal rights and gosh knows what else. It can frankly get dull.

I would have rated this book “good” if the only problem were a few boring, ranting passages.

OK. So we have two Ozes. The first is the movie, The Wizard of Oz. The second is the book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The differences between the book and the movie are unimportant in general conversation, but vitally important when one is writing a book based on one of them. And this is my problem with Wicked. Maguire didn’t decide. He used both. In one passage he will talk about Ozma of Oz (a character only mentioned in the book). In another passage he notes that the magic slippers are ruby. (They are ruby only I the movie; in the book they are silver.) I won’t bore you with the nerdy list of back and forth references, but the book is full of them.

My point is, you can’t base the book on BOTH the movie and the book. It makes no sense. I am a world class suspender of disbelief, but this was just befuddling. “But,” you might say, “didn’t Maguire just write this book for the casual audience who only saw the movie?” But then why include all those inside references to the Oz books?! Why include those references to only then throw them out the window when the storyline intersected with the movie? Why?

My brain hurts.

(I previously mentioned my feelings about the musical Wicked. I won’t repeat them here.)

Throw Like A Girl

Jean Thompson
short stories
2007

rating: good

overview: Stories about the every-day lives of women.



I love reading short stories. The necessary jam-packing of action into a short story excites my imagination and reading just one can keep me thoughtful and satisfied for the rest of the day. (But I usually devour two or three at a time because I can’t help myself.)

Thompson’s stories are about women from all walks of life who typically by the end of the narrative will have some sort of realization. It’s almost a collection of thoughts that you might find in the head of that given women.

I’m not sure exactly how to review a book of short stories. These were good stories, but they didn't have me thinking about them hours later. Let's say it is a good book to carry into a waiting room with you.

The Gospel According to the Son

Norman Mailer
1999

rating: bad

plot: The gospels (i.e. the first four books of the new testament) retold from Jesus’ point of view.



Although I’m a firm atheist, I’m fascinated with mythology. In my mind, mythologies were the first submissions to the fantasy genre. I started reading about Greek and Roman mythology when I was in grade school. I know that business inside and out by now. And I’m learning a little about Norse mythology as I get the chance. But the Judeo-Christian mythos that I grew up with is as fascinating as those Greek myths that came only shortly before it.

Besides, who here doesn’t love a good Catholic Church conspiracy plot?

With this book, I was not looking for a debunking of Jesus’ miracles; I was looking for a personal retelling of the New Testament. I was disappointed. This book is a literal paraphrasing of the four gospels. Those four gospels, by the way, are hopelessly dull and devoid of human emotion. So was this book.

Mailer didn’t add any scenes. What happened during the twenty years in which the gospels are silent on Jesus’ life? Who knows? Mailer sure doesn’t tell us. What really happened when a boy Jesus spent days talking to the church elders? Why, he was talking with them. What else do you need to know? What was going through his mind when he wrote on the sand before the woman who was about to be stoned to death? According to Mailer, a big fat nothin’.

If you thought you were interested in this book, instead read Lamb by Christopher Moore (which I will be reviewing at a later date). Or, to be completely honest, just read the New Testament. (I'm not kidding.)

Ghost World

Daniel Clowes
Serialized 1993-1997; compilation 1998

rating: good

plot: Two angsty teenagers sound off about their friends, their town and their lives in general.

Scarlett Johansson and Thora Birch in the 2001 movie.

I’m not one for graphic novels. Although I love the stories, I’ve never been able to get into the erratic picture/text lay out of the books. The Uncanny X-Men doesn’t work for me, although those are my favorite superheroes. Neither does Sandman, although Neil Gaiman is my favorite author. But my mom gave me Ghost World and I wanted to try it because it’s about two angsty teenage girls and the layout is clear and boxy.

The comic is a low-key look into the lives Enid and Becky, who overanalyze every situation and make their best efforts to seem as cutting edge as possible. Take, for instance, the couple they see every day in the local diner, who the girls are convinced are Satan worshipers simply because they look so mundane. Or when Enid dyes her hair green and insists it’s not because of the resurgence of the punk craze; it’s because she just felt like doing it. Needless to say, I love Enid and Becky because they are just like me.

I would recommend this to anyone who was interested in a quick read about two people who can’t get out of their own heads. (Although the protagonists are two girls, the plots are not distinctly feminine.)

Ozma of Oz

L. Frank Baum
1907

rating: good

plot: Dorothy accidentally returns to Oz only to find that she and her newly accumulated odd-ball friends must save the new child-ruler, Ozma, from the underground lair of the Nome King.



It really doesn't help my case for knowing how to read when the first book on my list is a children's book. But this was the first book I read this year and I am far too meticulous to post the books out of order.

Ozma of Oz is the third book in Baum's Oz series (the first being, of course, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz). There's a whopping 14 books in the series. I read all of them when I was a kid. If you are a big fan of the Julie Garland movie, I recommend you approach the Oz books with caution, as they are not written in Technicolor. If you are a big fan of the Broadway musical Wicked, I recommend you do not read the Oz books at all because you are clearly the type of person who is only satisfied when literature is butchered to the point where they bring the witch back from the dead in the end. For pete's sake. (Oh yeah...spoiler alert.) However, if you enjoyed the movie Return to Oz, you should read the whole series because that movie is a dead-on interpretation. (The movie's plot is based on two books: Ozma of Oz and the second book in the series, The Land of Oz.)

The Oz books are frankly written non-stop adventures. They are page-turners in the same way we all know the Harry Potter books to be page turners. But they in no other way resemble Harry Potter books. If I were to make any comparisons, I would say they are like Discworld meets Dick & Jane.

What you have to remember is that these books were written between 1900 and 1910, back when there really weren’t many novels exclusively for children. The books allow fascinating insight into the behaviors expected from children in that time. Again remembering the publication year, the female characters in the series are surprisingly adventurous and independent. Baum was a great supporter of Women’s Suffrage. While his approach may seem quaint to us now, he exhibits in these books a clear belief of female equality.

If I’m lumping the Oz books together instead of talking about Ozma of Oz it’s because the stories start to run together in my mind. The book is really about Dorothy, not Ozma. This is Dorothy’s first return to oz after she was carried about back to Kansas by the silver slippers. (The second book, The Land of Oz, didn’t feature Dorothy at all.) She befriends a new assortment of odd companions and goes on a new assortment of zany adventures.

I recommend an Oz book if you enjoy fantasy adventure and you’re looking for a quick, fun read. But I recommend reading them in order as the stories build on each other.

I blog, therefore I am

I have read 46 books so far this year. I am going to write a blog post on all of them. My hope is that my posts will reach the type of people who, like me, are always looking for new reading material.

Here is me with my glasses on. Doesn't it look like I know how to read? Well, it's true. I do know how to read.


My life's general silliness is already well documented on my Flickr page, Hey Hey Helen, but I probably won't be able to help myself from adding non-book-related posts here as well.