Book Review: STILL LIFE by Sarah Winman

Still Life by Sarah Winman


"We just need to know what the heart's capable of."
"And do you know what it's capable of?"
"I do. Grace and fury."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The past month has been the most difficult one yet, as we went through loss and pain, as every family must. Reading this bonny blue book was a grace-full way to close it, as it seemed to shed a light: this is the way forward. It sounds trite but it is true, how I could almost feel my bruised soul knit and heal as I pored over this charming story of probably the most atypical collection of characters ever put together in one book!

It begins with a chance encounter between a young British soldier and a 64-year-old art teacher in WWII Italy. I initially thought it would be something like THE ENGLISH PATIENT, and while the two books both touch on lives enriched by art (can you write about Italy and not?!?) , STILL LIFE proved to be something uniquely different, for which I'm glad!

STILL LIFE is about all kinds of people, all of their hurts, and all kinds of love. An age gap of forty years is nothing between kindred souls, and I loved how Winman picked seemingly unlovable characters (those whom society might deem "unworthy" of particular attention) and made this reader care so deeply about every aspect of their lives.

The old man who talks to a cherry tree outside a pub and sees the golden goodness in everyone. The globemaker and his parrot who quotes Shakespeare. The ageing beauty torn between self-respect and a desire for safe conformity.

And so many other brave souls who dare to live on society's periphery, defying convention to form their own kind of family. Finding joy despite the cracked-open chests full of regret and loneliness, and thriving while living, recognizing "how sorry ran tributary to beauty."

We get incredibly intimate descriptions of Firenze as well, which never hurts! Perhaps the most touching portion of the book was about the tragic flood of 1966, which tragically killed many people but also damaged so many masterpieces (some beyond hope of saving)!!

"We keep going, we always have. We keep cleaning and when we remember to, we keep singing. And one day, we will triumph once more."

Winman cries: Look at our lives with love. She reminds us this is the first rule of art, and while there are many things wrong in our society (a big portion of the book is devoted to attacking the patriarchy), hope in the eternal in us lie in our poetry and passion, our museums and libraries.

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Book Review: CLOUD CUCKOO LAND by Anthony Doerr

Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The best kind of art, books, and films are those that remind us "of the immensity of the world and our own smallness inside it," reminding us that "there is nobility in being a part of an enterprise that will outlast you."

The quotations above are from Anthony Doerr's latest, CLOUD CUCKOO LAND, which he wrote as a tribute to books, and to what they stand for: The Great Conversation, the unbroken chain of Civilization, of knowledge passed down through the ages.

Doerr's novel is set in three different timelines: Constantinople in 1453, Idaho in 2020, and a space ship in an unknown date in the future. Similarly to what he did in ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE, Doerr draws the life threads of people together, despite being so far removed from each other (by millenia and geography).

Doerr writes truth despite his fiction, and the germ of this novel is a missing book written by a Greek, Diogenes, sometime in 150-200 CE. Doerr writes in the afterword:

"Diogenes claimed... that it was actually a copy of a copy of a text discovered centuries before by a soldier in the army of Alexander the Great. The soldier... had been exploring the catacombs beneath the city of Tyre when he discovered... engraved onto twenty-four cypress-wood tablets, the story of a journey around the world."

The book cover becomes meaningful once the novel has been read. How can one book matter to so many, throughout the centuries?

"A book is... a way for the memory to stay fixed after the soul has traveled on."

Doerr adds, however, that "books, like people, die. They die in fires or floods or in the mouths of worms or at the whims of tyrants."

It is a reminder never to take knowledge for granted. I was shocked at these statistics from Doerr:

Only 32 out of a 100 Greek tragedies survive... 7 out of Aeschylus' 81, 7 of Sophocles' 123, and 11 out of Aristophanes' 40 comedies.

Reading this book has special significance a few weeks from a historic presidential election in my country, with one side shouting: "Forgive and forget."

As Doerr reminds us, to forget what has gone before is to let the martyrs of democracy die a second time.

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Book Review: DRIVE YOUR PLOW OVER THE BONES OF THE DEAD by Olga Tokarczuk

Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

"What sort of a world is this, where killing and pain are the norm? What on earth is wrong with us?"

People mysteriously start dying in a sleepy village in Poland. Finding herself at the center of it all is a weird lady of a certain age. Whodunit? Or, perhaps... WHAT-dunit?

This is my second Olga Tokarczuk, and I think I shall take a break from her books for a bit. I am simply not the ideal reader for her work.

I look for hope and light. There is none to be found in this particular novel. It's kind of like watching the most recent BATMAN movie: both are signs of the times we live in. The extraordinary bleakness. The despair nearly palpable in its intensity.

Over and over, Tokarczuk's protagonist describes the world and its people as "fallen," to quote Blake, and while it's an unforgettable mystery skillfully written, with a protagonist so unique and memorable, it's not a book I'd care to re-read, nor recommend to others.

There is a lot of rage in the book as well. Animal rights activists and feminists may find it rewarding.

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Book Review: LOOKING FOR JOSE RIZAL IN MADRID - Journeys, Latitudes, Perspectives, Destinations by Gregorio C. Brillantes

Looking for Jose Rizal in Madrid: Journeys, Latitudes, Perspectives, Destinations by Gregorio C. Brillantes
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

"There are distances... between a man and his country, which are bridged only by love. One of the names that such love bears is nationalism. Another is courage."

I came across this book in the family library (defined as the books in the common living area, as opposed to our personal libraries in our separate bedrooms) and thought it belonged to my dad. Apparently, it was my twin's! It was required reading for her in college: "This is HOW to write Creative Nonfiction."

(I think contemporary CNF authors can learn a thing or two, but stylistically, I think Brillantes' technique was for a different time, for a more learned general reader familiar with Thomas Merton and Graham Greene, what with all the run-on sentences that lasted PAGES).

The Table of Contents showed that it was a book of travel essays published in different magazines and newspapers, ranging in dates from the 1960's to the 1990's. The first part was about local spots, the second in Europe, and the third in South America.

And as you do when it's Holy Week, and both work and circumstance do not allow you to travel, I thought I'd travel vicariously through the words of "Escolastico," as Brillantes called himself.

Without a doubt, the best works were the ones about Tarlac, Ermita, and Quiapo! The author's love for country seeped through every line, although he was unafraid to point out the squalor and noise of the urban areas. True Love is, after all, not blindness, but willingness to accept the entirety of the beloved. As Brillantes put it, "To go away from your country is to fall in love with it: the perspective, and the tension, of distance enables you to view it, as if for the first time, in the wholeness of its being."

Of lesser brilliance, but still worthy of interest, were the essays about Lourdes, Madrid, and Paris.

The South American essays in this book may actually turn off future potential visitors, haha! So unfortunate and unpleasant were the author's experiences there!

I am told that I need to read his sci-fi works, and so I shall! Am grateful for this Black Saturday trip around the world, from the safety of our home. I particularly liked this reminder by the author, for fellow patriots:

"As the noble and the brave, the truly great, from Rizal to Aquino, have shown us by their example, we must all go home again."

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Book Review: THE EASY LIFE IN KAMUSARI by Shion Miura (translated by Juliet Winters Carpenter)

The Easy Life in Kamusari by Shion Miura
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"Running around won't make the trees grow faster. Get plenty of rest, eat hearty, and tomorrow take what comes."

I LOVED this author's THE GREAT PASSAGE ever since a dear friend lent it to me (I'll never tire of saying what a big blessing a book club can be!), and so I'd been eyeing this Shion Miura novel for a long time. Imagine how thrilled I was when Amazon included it as one of ten free books for their "Read The World" campaign! (Go to https://www.amazon.com/article/read-t... . Even if you don't own a Kindle device, you can easily download it as an app on any phone!)

The tone of the teenaged protagonist was off-putting, at first, but it quickly wore off as Miura swept me up in the (surprisingly) compelling story of a "lost" high school graduate, someone unsure of what path to take in life, and how he found his purpose through the dignity of labor, working in an ancient forest in Kamusari.

"The incoherence of a crazy quilt, the orderliness of spun silk; these two opposites were subtly interwoven in village life."

Forestry, Miura tells us, has been in decline in this modern day, but she brings us to a special village so remote, there is no cell service, and barely any Internet.

And it is this separation from the modern world that holds the secret to this book's charm. Miura is known for her "humor and lightness," but this does not make the book inconsequential. Much like Studio Ghibli animated films, the laughter on the surface has hidden depths. Miura had me laughing at the antics of grown men staging a show for a loyal dog who underwent trauma, but she also had me tearing up at the day-to-day struggles of ageing men and women fighting to keep their sacred village traditions alive. For it is in the past, after all, that our roots come from. And how can we face our tomorrows if, root-less, we are swayed by every passing fad?

As a teacher for 14 years, I've seen how technology and social media gradually affected the mental health of teenagers, these half-adult, half-child, wholely precious youngsters whose bodies look grown up, but who are emotionally and intellectually unready to handle Real Life. She can be a b*tch, after all.

And so, I would thrust a copy of this book into the arms of every high school student of mine, if I could! Highly recommended! Its manageable length and simple language make it easily accessible to anyone looking for a good read, with timely reminders of what truly matters in Life: finding a job that you love, growing roots, and watering them for the next generation.

Book 2 in the series is coming out in a month, you betcha I'm shelling out money for it!

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Book Review: THE ANTHROPOCENE REVIEWED - Essays on a Human-Centered Planet by John Green

The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"You can't see the future coming - not the terrors, for sure, but you also can't see the wonders... the moments of light-soaked joy that await each of us."

I never thought that a book of essays would affect me this powerfully, but there I was reading while waiting in queue at the bank, blinking madly, trying to hold in a sudden flood of tears. And that was just the intro.

I have been a fan of John and Hank Green's CRASH COURSE videos for almost as long as I've been teaching, but this was my first time to READ John Green, and if his novels are anything like this, then I shall hunt them down posthaste! Maybe it's time I figure out why our sixth graders loved his books for their English book reports.

I could hear Green's cheery voice in my head as I read, with that signature mix of humor and honesty, condensing complex thoughts into short and simple sentences that make for maximum impact.

John Green wrote that the time he spent as a chaplain in a children's hospital was "the axis around which my life spins." How fitting that I picked up this book so soon after my own axis shifted, as did all of ours in March 2020.

He wrote this as a reaction to the pandemic, perhaps as a way to deal with his dread and anxiety. Having been close to so much pain and suffering himself, he brings much-needed perspective on everything from Dr.Pepper to sports teams, dinosaurs and hotdogs. Do not judge so hastily when you read the Table of Contents, for Green is a master of uncovering the miraculous in the mundane. Written in the short format of that 21st century phenomenon: The Review, he ends each essay with a rating over five stars. Hehe.

He wrote: "We live in hope-that life will get better, and more importantly, that it will go on, that love will survive even though we will not."

He says his mission is "to present more light, and to better witness the light in others."

This is a must-read for anyone seeking light. May his words "sing ourselves and one another into courage."

I rate this book 4.5 stars out of 5!

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Book Review: THE QUIET AMERICAN by Graham Greene

The Quiet American by Graham Greene
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"Rooms don't change... only the heart decays."

This former M16 spy-turned-journalist's reputation as supposedly one of the greatest "Catholic" 20th century authors precedes him, and so when this slim volume showed up for sale in a secondhand online bookshop, I excitedly typed "Mine please!"

Masterfully written. Objectively speaking, I think it deserves 5 stars, but I subtracted one because it was not my cup of tea. Realistic depictions of the Vietnam war aren't usually my weekend book pick, but it speaks to the the skill of the author that he hooked this reluctant reader right from the start.

Published in 1955, the book starts with an American civilian murdered in the depths of a tropical Saigon night, and I felt to my bones that I needed to understand WHY, and WHO was guilty.

"You cannot exist unless you have the power to alter the future."

This being Greene, it's not a typical whodunit. He shows how murderously dangerous certain ideas are, when enacted by well-meaning outsiders in a country they could never hope to understand. He asks the big questions, such as the worth of democracy versus taking the lives of innocent babes and women. In an unpopular war, he dares to speak for Asians who would rather live in ignorance than die in freedom.

I suspect this is partly what makes Greene "Catholic." He picks apart man's anxiety about guilt and shame, and all done with such economy, such grace! This "master of moral nuance" wrote about the ambiguities of war, unafraid to rattle his reader's values system. You THINK you know where you stand ethically... until you read Greene and you realize thinking of ideals is a luxury denied many.

Do not read Greene for the comfort of cold Christianity, or certainty in salvation made while wallowing amid the material trappings of Capitalism.

Read him to understand the darkness in others... and in ourselves.




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