Books completed in May 2015

1. Baba Yaga Laid an Egg by Dubravka Ugresic
2. A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park
3. Crispin: The Cross of Lead by Avi
4. Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness
5. Middlesex (audio book) by Jeffrey Eugenides
6. Monster by Walter Dean Myers
7. Breakfast at Tiffany’s (audio book) by Truman Capote
8. Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

Books still in progress at the end of the month: The Hours by Michael Cunningham, Everyone I Love Is a Stranger to Someone, poetry by Annelyse Gelman, and thanks to the Short Story Month challenge I’m in the middle of Her Smoke Rose Up Forever, a massive compilation of James Tiptree, Jr. short stories.

REVIEWS:

1. Baba Yaga Laid an Egg by Dubravka Ugresic

I love Baba Yaga, the old fairy tale witch who lives in a house with chicken legs and threatens to eat the heroine or hero if they don’t complete certain tasks. So, when I saw this book I knew I had to read it.

Although, it turned out to be nothing at all like I expected, with the fairy tale and fantastic aspects nearly nonexistent, providing what at first seems a mundane picture of women’s lives. The introduction, “At First You Don’t See Them…”, is the eeriest part of the book in the way it describes the old women around us everyday, invisible and ready to latch on to us like flimsy leeches at any moment.

In Part I, the narrator is a woman describing how she has turned into a caretaker for her mother, who is clinging to her home and demanding acknowledgement of her existence in whatever blunt way she can.

In Part II, the POV and tone shifts. Here an omniscient narrator reveals the mother, Pupa, on a trip with two other elderly friends to a Grand Hotel with a wellness center. Why they have come is not clear, but they meet many quirky characters along the way. Though anchored in some semblance of reality, this section has a fairy tale tone, with the narrator interjecting rhymes at the end of each section, each variants of the following: “What about us? We carry on. While the meaning of life may slip from our hold, the purpose of a tale is to be told!”

The third and final Part gets meta. It is written in the form of an introduction to Baba Yaga folklore an an analysis of the stories that appear in Part I and Part II of the novel. It’s very strange reading these, since the academic writing them, Aba, is a young woman who appears in Part I, having met both the mother Pupa and the daughter/narrator. This section can drag a bit with the amount of detail it goes into, but the information on folklore and tales is fascinating (to me at least) and provides some insight into the symbolism of the first two parts, allowing me to think about them from an entirely new perspective.

Though reading Baba Yaga Laid an Egg was a slightly strange experience, I enjoyed it overall. It has me wanting to go out and read oodles of folktales now and has inspired me to write some reinterpretations of my own.

2. A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park

Tree-Ear, a nameless orphan in medieval Korea is captivated by the work of the potters and longs to work the clay himself. Tree-Ear strives to be honest in all his doings and works hard to achieve his goals. It’s a sweet tale, weaving in the importance of family and dedication to one’s art.

3. Crispin: The Cross of Lead by Avi

Crispin is accused of theft and declared a wolf’s head, a death sentence meaning anyone he meets has the right to kill him if they wish. Along the way, he takes up with Bear a colorful jester who believes in freedom above all else. Although danger lurks around every corner for Crispin, I found his story to be a little dragging at times. Still, it was a good read, even if I didn’t quite buy into the ending.

4. Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness

A powerful conclusion to The Chaos Walking trilogy. The story continues to develop an expanded picture of humanity and the people we’ve come to hate in book two are revealed to be even more complex and human here, as the ways they can and cannot be redeemed are revealed. Todd and Viola also continue to make difficult decision and to work on atoning for their mistakes.

This book also reveals a greater understanding of the culture and community of the Spackle, who call themselves the Land. Their culture could fall under the Noble Savage trope. Although we are presented with the POV of a Spackle who is as furious and angry and complicated as Todd and Viola, revealing how war can make monsters of anyone it touched whether human or Spackle.

Overall this trilogy was fantastically well done, drawing me in with interesting concepts, fantastic characters, a great story, and deep feels.

5. Middlesex (audio book) by Jeffrey Eugenides

A complex family saga and coming-of-age story narrated by Cal Stephanide, who traces his family history (sometimes relating events omnisciently he could not possibly know) as a way to understand himself. He describes growing up as a girl, Callie, and his life-altering discovery as a teenager that he is intersex, at which point Cal lives the rest of his life as a man.

Fascinating on many levels and deeply human, I loved the way the story described each of these family members with all their mistakes and flaws — from incest to racism and other stuff in between. Maybe it’s because Cal is the narrator rather than some disconnected third party, but the love Cal has for his family shines through, providing a sense of compassion and empathy. It allows for characters to be seen as sympathetic, even at their worst. It’s a book I’d want to read and absorb again.

Also, the audiobook is excellent with Kristoffer Tabori giving a powerful reading that makes Cal’s passions come alive.

6. Monster by Walter Dean Myers

Sixteen-year-old Steve Harmon is on trial for murder. As a way to hold it together through his terrible nights in prison and the stress of the trial, he records events as part diary and as though he were writing a movie script about his life. It was an interesting structure and fits with Steve’s personality, since one of his passions is to make films. But while the structure suits the character, it also created emotional distance from me, like I was looking at events through a lens instead of getting into Steve’s head. The most moving moments in the novel were those written in diary format, where we were able to see more than just the surface and really get into his head.

7. Breakfast at Tiffany’s (audio book) by Truman Capote

The classic story of Holly Golightly, a “wild thing,” party girl, flirt, gold digger, and dreamer — none of which really sums up the complexity of her character. The story is told through the POV of her upstairs neighbor, a writer who becomes her friend, despite (or perhaps because of) his own attractions to her. It’s a short quick read, beautifully told.

Michael C. Hall does an amazing job as the audiobook narrator, melting into each character and drawing out their personalities.

Although the movie’s ending is quite different, happy, smoothed out and clean, I can enjoy both separately for exactly what they are. In fact reading the book just makes me want to rematch the movie all the more.

8. Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

Wheeeeee! I’m done!

Obsessed with books and stories of chivalry, Don Quixote dons makeshift armor and rides out with his trusty squire Sancho Panza as a knight errant, seeking out adventures and to right wrongs and battle injustice. Unfortunately, he was born into the wrong time, because the knights are no more and his fancies evaporate, his giants become windmills, his castles fade into humble roadside inns.

I didn’t expect to laugh out loud as much as I did. While it certainly helps to have read some Arthurian and other chivalric romances in order to fully appreciate some of the tropes Cervantes is satirizing the genre, it’s not required. Don Quixote’s adventures are amusing on their own. There is also considerable amount of body humor (fart and poop jokes), which I didn’t expect and was most amusing. Part I also had some interesting side characters, who meet with Don Quixote and share their own tales of woe, whom he tries to help through chivalry, while these same characters (recognizing he is mad) try to lead him home.

That said, there were plenty of moments where the story dragged, mostly when the characters have some sort of discourse on the nature of books, writing, chivalry, or polite behavior. Sancho’s long speeches thick with proverbs also lead me to start speed reading in order to get through them more quickly.

If you want examples of meta, you can certainly look to Don Quixote in which Cervantes has characters talking about the value of Cervantes’ work on a number of occasions. The second part also comments on itself — a large reason as to why Cervantes ever bothered to write Part II was because writer author took up the slack and attempted to continue the Don Quixote adventures. Part II is infused with references of Don Quixote’s adventures having been written down by two different authors, one who wrote with beautiful nobility and another who was just a hack.

Knowing the Cervantes didn’t really want to write Part II explains a bit as to why it was so tedious. The joy of writing the estimable Don Quixote and the droll Sancho Panza was no longer there, which plays out in how he treats them. Instead of characters hoping to assist him in finding home again, he meets with a litany of characters who have heard of his madness and set about playing tricks on Quixote and Sancho for their own amusement. Some of these tricks are quite cruel and conveyed a feeling of underlying bitterness beneath all the fun, as though Cervantes was punishing these two fellows for being more popular than the works he really wanted to write.

Honestly, the best adventures appear in Part I. You could skip Part II entirely and the story would feel complete enough to enjoy.