Books completed in August 2015

1. The Walls Around Us by Nova Ren Suma
2. Rupetta by N.A. Sulway
3. Veronika Decides to Die by Paulo Coelho
4. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (audio book) by Susanna Clarke
5. Highku: 4 & 20 Poems About Marijuana (chapbook) by Brennan ‘B Deep’ DeFrisco
6. House and Home (chapbook) by Jaz Sufi
7. Reflections by Jocelyn Deona De Leon
8. The Reader by Bernhard Schlink
9. Her Smoke Rose Up Forever by James Tiptree Jr.
10. The 2013 Rhysling Anthology, edited by by John C. Mannone

In progress at the end of the month: The Martian by Andy Weir

REVIEWS:

1. The Walls Around Us by Nova Ren Suma

Discussed elsewhere.

2. Rupetta by N.A. Sulway

Discussed elsewhere.

3. Veronika Decides to Die by Paulo Coelho

I have become less and less enamored with Coelho’s writing, since I first read The Alchemist many, many years ago. Maybe I have become a bit more cynical or maybe my relationship with spirituality has shifted and matured in a way that doesn’t relate to the kinds of messages he shares anymore (it would be interesting to re-read The Alchemist and see if I still relate to it as I once did).

All of this is to say that I did not love Veronika Decides to Die, which tells the story of a young, beautiful woman who attempts suicide and is placed in the Villete mental hospital in Slovenia and how her redemption and growth inspires other patients to redeem themselves and find their own ways back into the world. My problem with the story is not so much a rejection of the idea that “normal” is a condition determined by the majoritythat condemns the unique and different as insane, but rather that none of the characters seem to behave as real people. Each character, including many of the patients turn out to be secretly wise old souls, able to spout deep and meaningful philosophy at a moment’s notice. These four main patients are just “different” from what society expects them to be, which is why they have settled and become comfortable in the hospital. Although, some of the “real insane” are mentioned in passing, the complicated issues of those dealing with true mental illnesses is not treated well. The main focus of the story is on a more romantic vision of insanity and suicide as something that is just misunderstood, with the idea that if a person can just learn to take risks and live life fully everyday, then they can cure themselves of “insanity.” While I agree in the concept of trying to live as fully as possible, here it is presented as such an oversimplification and repeated over and over again to the point that the story becomes dull and the message watered down.

There is also a strange meta-moment early in the book in which Coelho inserts himself into the story in order to explain that he chose to write the book due his own experiences of being put in a hospital as a young man. Although this is both true and interesting (his parents thought his entry into the arts was a mental aberration), it felt like an odd distraction from the main story and was something I would have preferred to have seen better described in an author’s note.

4. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (audio book) by Susanna Clarke

Discussed elsewhere.

5. Highku: 4 & 20 Poems About Marijuana (chapbook) by Brennan ‘B Deep’ DeFrisco
6. House and Home (chapbook) by Jaz Sufi
7. Reflections by Jocelyn Deona De Leon

All three discussed here.

8. The Reader by Bernhard Schlink

I almost gave up reading during the first part of this book, which focused on the relationship between a fifteen-year-old boy and an older woman. I found no sense of the eroticism described on the back cover, only a feeling of unsettled bordom. Although the young man in part pursued the relationship, it was clear that emotional manipulation was taking place and that this was not really erotic or romantic.

It was only when the book shifted in part two to the young man as a law student, seeing his past lover again as a defendant in trial for war crimes after the holocaust that the story became interesting. The moral aspects of not only this one young man torn between wanting to understand his former lover’s horrifying actions as a guard at an intermnent camp and wanting to condemn her for those same actions, but also an entire generation of German young men and woman shamefully trying to distance themselves from their parents past crimes, is fascinating and well handled. The writing itself is plain and resists trying to come to any of its own judgements.

Although I didn’t love the reading experience, I find myself mentally returning to it over and over again, mentally rolling over the circumstances. What was circumstance? What was crime? What deserves condemnation and what does not? Questing and reconsidering my own conclusions again and again, just as the narrator does.

9. Her Smoke Rose Up Forever by James Tiptree Jr.
10. The 2013 Rhysling Anthology, edited by by John C. Mannone

Both discussed here.