Book Review: THE GREAT BRAIN by John D. Fitzgerald

The Great Brain by John D. Fitzgerald
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

My sister entered my room unannounced last night and balked at the expression on my face.

"Did someone die?" she asked.

"Yes," I choked out, holding up my copy of this book.

I haven't been this affected by a character's death since you-know-who passed away in Little Women. (Keeping it spoiler-free, baby!)

One of my favorite books, as a child, had been John D. Fitzgerald's "The Great Brain at the Academy." I remember loving everything about it... the black and white illustrations by Mercer Mayer, the crazy adventures of the biggest ten-year-old con man growing up in a Catholic school in 1890's Utah (getting several demerits on his first day, haha) ... it was magic!

That book, sadly, has been lost to history. But when I found the other books in the series for sale online, I ordered the first two. I've had them for several months now, but only got to pick up the first one last week. If I'm being honest, a part of me was scared to re-visit the character of someone I grew up with. I was scared that the magic would go away, now that I'm an adult.

My fear was unfounded. If anything, the magic has grown stronger! 

"The Great Brain" is the first book in the series, and brings the reader back to 1896 Adenville, Utah, where 80% of the population was composed of Mormons. "The Great Brain," or TGB for short, is ten-year-old Tom, the middle child in a Catholic family with three sons. And a naughtier boy has never existed in real life nor in print! 

Told from the point of view of the youngest brother, we follow TGB in his escapades that bring to mind Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, but told in language far more accessible and with a better sense of humor (I think)!

It's heady stuff! I just couldn't tear myself away. As an educator, I appreciated the life lessons taught in each chapter. The thing with TGB is, his self-proclaimed mission in life is to promote himself and "swindle" his townmates out of money. What an endearing cad!

But as the book progresses, the reader sees that, unlike men of commerce, there are things that TGB holds dearer than money. Things like honor and justice. And sometimes, when his greed or pride temporarily blinds him, his incredible father and mother jump in to help straighten him out.

Parents need to be warned, though, that this is serious children's literature, with serious themes discussed: racism and bigotry included.

For instance, there's the chapter that broke my heart: the case of a wandering Jew who pays the ultimate price for anti-Semitism.

And then there's the case of the playmate whose leg got amputated, and when he couldn't do his chores properly, his father shouted in anger: "You're plumb useless," making the poor boy wish to "do myself in."

But it's not all doom and gloom. Most of the early chapters had me grinning all the time that I was reading! 

This is one of the best examples of children's literature. You know it's a classic when adults have even more fun reading it than kids. I've been fortunate enough to be both, at different times, and I can definitely say that this one is a keeper for the ages, for all ages.

Now on to Book 2! And a search for the other books in the series!

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Book Review: EUPHORIA by Lily King

Euphoria by Lily King

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


"And all the while I am aware of a larger despair... who are we and where are we going? Why are we, with all our "progress," so limited in understanding and sympathy and the ability to give each other real freedom?"

I jumped into this novel without knowing anything about anthropology, nor Margaret Mead and her fellow love-triangle members, Reo Fortune and Gregory Bateson.

After ending the book, I feel that if I could re-live my college life, I'd probably apply for Anthropology as a college degree! And YES, THAT'S HOW AMAZING THIS BOOK IS.

Upon opening the book, there were SIX PAGES of glowing recommendations from various authors and publications! And I can tell you right now, the hype is well-deserved.

This book brought me to the Sepik River in Papua New Guinea in the 1930s, with its many tribes, many cultures, and for a few hours I was an invisible spectator to the lives of the three Western anthropologists who studied the people there, trying to find "somewhere on earth (where) there was a better way to live." 

Lily King's writing is RICH. In a word, that's what this book is. It's rich in ideas and actions, emotions and conflict. It makes the reader feel small, in a good way, emphasizing how we look at the world through the lens of ONE culture, one upbringing, and makes us realize that there are so many other equally valid cultures and beliefs. 

"If I didn't believe they shared my humanity entirely, I wouldn't be here."  

This book is an important one. In a time where people of the same country are so divided... books that emphasize our common humanity, that let us walk a mile in other people's shoes, are badly needed.

How fitting to read this book a day before SY 2020 begins!! This is why it's so important to continue the cause of education. We pray that our children will become better than us, more loving, more forgiving. It takes a village, a country. And in our children's success we can all find a common cause, one that goes beyond politics and religion.



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Graphic Novel Review: "THE ONE HUNDRED NIGHTS OF HERO" by Isabel Greenberg

The One Hundred Nights of Hero by Isabel Greenberg

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


It's an interesting graphic novel! While it didn't rock my world, the images were charmingly rendered, and the stories easy to read. This is the first time I've read a graphic novel that featured two women as lovers.

I was particularly touched by "A Very Honest Harp," which ends with this Lesson: "Men are false. And they can get away with it. Also, don't murder your sister, even by accident. Sisters are important."

I think that last sentence sums up this graphic novel pretty well: feminist story telling, mixing fairy tale language and tongue-in-cheek modernity.

I suppose that's also my problem with the book... I would start to get carried away by certain lyrical passages, then suddenly I'd be jolted rudely awake by a certain modern phrase. This inconsistency with tone was distracting and prevented me from becoming fully immersed in another world, because I kept being reminded at how "modern" this all is, despite the familiar echoes of old tropes.

But that's just me. Perhaps others would find this author's brand of humor and wit more to their taste.



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Book Review: OLD SCHOOL by Tobias Wolff

Old School by Tobias Wolff

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


*Spoiler alert for those who have yet to watch the film "The Emperor's Club"...  best skip this review, go watch that beloved Kevin Kline film first, then come back!*

I first heard of this book from a blog post by a friend more than a decade ago (hi Meewa!!!). I thought, "This is MY kind of book!" and I remember going around Metro Manila in various bookstores, looking for it and writing requests with Customer Service that never came to fruition. So imagine my delight when I discovered this for sale at an online secondhand bookstore!!! 

It's so different from the other fiction books on teachers that I've read!! Growing up, I read about these amazing teachers who led amazing, meaningful lives (being weaned on Louisa May Alcott, Laura Ingalls Wilder, and Lucy Maud Montgomery)  . They were never wealthy, true, but they were involved in the sacred task of forming souls, and I thought there could be no nobler duty than that!
 
To add to this smorgasbord of Teacher-topia is one of my favorite films of all time ... "The Emperor's Club" with Kevin Kline. The day I was assigned to teach History was one of the happiest of my life, I remember thinking "Oh now I'll be JUST like Mr. Hundert!!"

(It's important to note that... just like Josephine March, Anne Shirley, and Mr. Hundert... all these teachers were of unassailable virtue.)

And here's where I couldn't help but compare OLD SCHOOL to T.E.C (which, incidentally, was based on a piece of fiction as well).

Both are set in elite prep schools, both have main characters who commit that most insidious of violations against the Honor Code: academic dishonesty. Both have teachers who try to live virtuously but fail to live up to moral perfection, being only human. Both show a redemption long time coming, but in very different ways.

OLD SCHOOL shows us what happens when the boy who cheated gets kicked out. But it also shows how that life-changing event allows him to reform himself.

OLD SCHOOL's strength, I thought, was the beauty and power of Wolff's writing. Although he claims that his works are fictional, a quick Google search reveals that he himself went through what the protagonist in this novel did. Redemption in literature. How fitting!

The older me appreciates the moral ambiguity presented in this novel, not just of the student but of the Dean. It shows the damaging power of lies, both of omission and commission, and how we lie even to ourselves because it is so difficult to be true in all things.

English teachers will love the snippets about Ernest Hemingway, Robert Frost and Ayn Rand... writers who visit this fictional school to speak to the students... and teachers of all subjects will rejoice in the descriptions of the hustle and bustle of a pre-pandemic school.

Oh how we miss it all!

What IS a school? Wolff writes that it is "the yearning for a chivalric world apart from the din of scandal and cheap dispute, the hustles and schemes of modernity itself." We go online this year, but school has and always will be more than just the building. It's the life of the minds and souls of the teachers and students in it.

And because our seniors didn't experience a physical graduation this year, here's an excerpt about Commencement Exercises: 

"What Purcell would actually lose... was the chance to end this span of years and shared life with the rest of us. To sit with us on the graduation platform and feel silly in his mortarboard cap and mutter dark footnotes during the As-you-go-forth speech... to doctor his punch from a friend's flask, but only once, not wanting to dull himself to the unexpected full-heartedness he feels. To linger as the shadows spill across the grass and day turns to dusk -- even to lend his raspy voice to the songs being raised by boys still not ready to say good-bye to each other. To look into their faces, some dear, some not, all of them familiar as his own, and allow himself a moment's blindness as our last song dies away." :')




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Book Review: TO THE BRIGHT EDGE OF THE WORLD by Eowyn Ivey

To the Bright Edge of the World by Eowyn Ivey

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


"It is remarkable how we go on. All that we come to know and witness and endure, yet our hearts keep beating, our faith persists." 

This was a lovely escape from the sweltering heat of Manila. In these pages I felt the coldness of the Alaskan wildnerness, the icy hold of despair of a husband in pursuit of honor, and his wife who endures pregnancy in rough territory.

"We each of us brave our own darkness."

Despite its cover design, this isn't YA. There are so many themes, and the writing in some parts is very "literary." Part tender love story, part homage to Alaska and its people, part historical epic, and part treatise on nature and legend, it is a very wise book that is difficult to summarize. It is best read with a steaming hot cup of tea, in stark contrast with the deprivations of its explorer protagonists!

"Father spoke of a light that is older than the stars, a divine light that is fleeting yet always present if only one could recognize it. It pours in and out of the souls of the living and the dead, gathers in the quiet places in the forest, and on occasion, might reveal itself in the rarest of true art."

I particularly liked how the story came vividly to life, despite the epistolary style! Eowyn Ivey is a very skilled writer, all her characters had unique voices that made it no trouble at all to watch the novel slowly unfold its cool brilliance.

"As Allen and I make choices that will seem to us so mundane and ordinary, we will shape our child's vision of the world."  

Eowyn Ivey's vision of Alaska is that of a terrible beauty. And her vision of humanity reveals such optimism for the eternal conquest of both land and soul.



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Book Review: THE SECRET PIANO (From Mao's Labor Camps to Bach's Goldberg Variations) by Zhu Xiao-Mei

The Secret Piano: From Mao's Labor Camps to Bach's Goldberg Variations by Zhu Xiao-Mei

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I thought long and hard if I could post this mini review.
Just the fact that I had to pause and consider censoring my innocent summary, one of many attempts to preserve what I thought and felt about a book (primarily so that I wouldn't forget them), is an indicator of how serious, how dangerous these times are in Manila.

Do we no longer have the freedom to speak or write plainly?

True enough, this lack of freedom is a main theme of this true story, written by a Chinese pianist turned professor and performer, now based in Paris (listen to her on Spotify here: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7FYbe...).

The first half of the book was the strongest, for me, and gave a peek into what it was like, growing up in Mao's Cultural Revolution in Beijing.

From concert hall to gulag, there was much to admire about this remarkable lady... and much to criticize, as well, I thought.

But that is what democracy is about: being able to respectfully disagree with someone's values, priorities, and beliefs, while acknowledging our common humanity, our fundamental rights to self-expression. Being able to hold civilized discourse with someone from the opposite camp enriches both parties, and this is what we lose when all but the approved voice is silenced.

One of my favorite composers, J.S. Bach, plays a big part in this book. As a piano student who only got as far as his three-part inventions, I find his restrained passion incredible, the depth of feeling broad yet balanced, and I thought Zhu Xiao-Mei's interpretation of his Goldberg Variations seemed very different from how I've heard it performed (less focus on the intellectual/physical demands, and more intuitive somehow, I thought).

Bach brings order out of the mundane, and out of chaos. And that is what Zhu Xiao-mei has wrought out of her life.

I feel that pianists would be very interested in her detailed descriptions of her many teachers and pieces, while others would find her life's story utterly fascinating!



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