Review: God Help the Child by Toni Morrison

God Help the Child by Toni Morrison (Knopf, 192 pages)

I admit that I haven't read a whole lot of Toni Morrison, not because I didn't want to, but because MY TBR SHELF IS SO SO SO SO CROWDED. You understand what I mean.

I did read Beloved twice, though, and was knocked on my butt both times, not surprisingly. Not having read any of her more recent work, though, allowed me to come to God Help the Child without many preconcieved notions.

First of all, this slim novel (just under 200 pages) is disturbing. Very, very disturbing. It's main focus is on the mental and physical suffering caused by child molestation. Many of the characters in this story are either victims or molesters (including a wrongly-accused one), and after you finish reading, you'll feel like you just watched several SVU episodes back-to-back and you'll feel accordingly disgusted with everything.

Books to Look For (April): Literary Fiction

The Turner House by Angela Flournoy (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 352 pages, April 14) 

Set in Detroit, Flournoy's novel has a house as the central character, one that has witnessed the passing of generations, the decay of the city's East Side, and an eternity of memories. When the Turner matriarch is forced to leave the house, the children are asked to decide what to do with it. What follows is their own struggle to reconcile the past and the grim present.




God Help the Child by Toni Morrison (Knopf, 192 pages, April 21)

Toni Morrison's latest is out near the end of this month, and having read it, I can tell you that it's disturbing and unnerving, but beautifully-written, as Morrison novels are. I'll be posting my review tomorrow night.

Review: Dendera by Yuya Sato, translated by Edwin Hawkes & Nathan A. Collins

 





Review on the Speculative Fiction in Translation site

An Argument for Reading Literature in Chronological Order

“There she goes again,” I hear you saying, “haranguing us about history and dates and chronological order. Let me just read my damn books and be happy.”

I understand your complaint, and if you really are tired of hearing me talk about the intersection of books and history, feel free to read a different post. But if you’re even mildly interested in historically situating the fiction and poetry that you read, then read on, y’all.

Reading Pathways: Theodore Dreiser

Good ol’ Theo and I go way back. But, as with many of my most beloved writers, he and I started off on the wrong foot. I bought his most famous (and first) novel, Sister Carrie, at a used bookstore on Maryland’s eastern shore when I was about 16. I read it in a couple of days and was perplexed, flummoxed, and underwhelmed. Only when I reread the novel for a college course on American Naturalism did I suddenly understand the depth and beauty of Dreiser’s vision. From there, I gobbled up more of his books and never looked back.

In grad school, I often had to defend him from sneers and sarcastic remarks about his supposed clunky writing, flat characters, and uninspired vision. I nearly came to blows with these people defending Dreiser’s literary honor, because that’s how strongly I feel about his work and the kind of person he was. At the other extreme are most other people who have never even heard of him. From everything that I’ve read by and about him, Dreiser was a deeply compassionate, gentle, and insatiably curious individual. His early marriage failed, and the rest of his life was spent pursuing and having affairs with numerous women, many of whom were strongly drawn to him. Dreiser exerted a strange magnetic force on everyone who met him.

Random Recommendation Guest Post: Jagannath by Karin Tidbeck

This recommendation comes from Julianne. Check out her blog, and follow her on twitter @OutlandishLit.

Jagannath (2012) by Karin Tidbeck

"Enter the strange and wonderful world of Swedish sensation Karin Tidbeck with this feast of darkly fantastical short stories. Whether through the falsified historical record of the uniquely weird Swedish creature known as the “Pyret” or the title story, “Jagannath,” about a biological ark in the far future, Tidbeck’s unique imagination will enthrall, amuse, and unsettle you. How else to describe a collection that includes “Cloudberry Jam,” a story that opens with the line “I made you in a tin can”? Marvels, quirky character studies, and outright surreal monstrosities await you in the book widely praised by Michael Swanwick, Ursula K. Le Guin, China Mieville, and Karen Joy Fowler."

Books to Look For (April): Biography/Memoir

Born with Teeth: A Memoir by Kate Mulgrew (Little, Brown and Company, 448 pages, April 14)

Yes, that is indeed the Kate Mulgrew. She's portrayed many strong women in her life, including Captain Janeway on Star Trek: Voyager and "Red" on Orange is the New Black, and in this memoir, she tells us about the sources of her real-life strength. From the time she left her hometown to move to New York until now, Mulgrew has used Stella Adler's advice to guide her: use everything that life throws at you. I can't wait to read this, you guys.




Romantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Her Daughter Mary Shelley by Charlotte Gordon (Random House, 672 pages, April 28)

I find it bizarre that no one had ever written about both Marys in one book, especially considering how similar their lives were. Though Mary W. died just after her daughter was born, both became famous writers and defied many of the conventions of their day. Both also helped define what we think of as the Romantic era. So go (re)read The Vindication of the Rights of Women and Frankenstein, and then read this.

Give Me Some Money So I Can Open My Dream Bookstore

As many of you know, I live in bookish Madison, Wisconsin. You really can’t go anywhere without tripping over books or running into authors, booksellers, reviewers, book sales, book talks, or libraries. And to add to this wonderfulness is the fact that Madison boasts some fantastic indie bookstores (see my Literary Tourism post).

There’s just one problem. Since I moved here nearly 11 years ago, at least two pretty great indie bookstores have closed. Those that are still going, though, boast a strong, diverse inventory and knowledgeable staff. They all offer drool-worthy first editions, leather-bound collections, and every genre and topic under the sun.

In Translation: March Fiction

It’s March, so I’m thinking SPRING SPRING SPRING. And what better way to welcome that lovely (though allergy-filled) season than with some fantastic novels in translation?! This month we’re featuring works from Ireland, Argentina, and Russia. Enjoy, and let us know in the comments which translated books you’ve been reading!

The Dirty Dust: Cré na Cille by Máirtín Ó Cadhain, translated by Alan Titley (Yale University Press, 328 pages, March 24)

From Yale University Press comes the first-ever English translation of “the most important prose work in modern Irish.” A deeply satirical novel, The Dirty Dust is reminiscent of Edgar Lee Masters’s Spoon River Anthology, in that Cadhain’s characters are all already dead, yet they speak to us about their lives and the lives of their fellow townspeople. Written entirely in dialogue form, The Dirty Dust imagines a world in which the dead continue to take an interest in the living and one another.