Not all of my reading in August consisted of mysteries. Here's the rest of the books I read (and one I listened to):
Joy and 52 Other Very Short Stories by Erin McGraw
This
was recently added to the short story category at the e-book section
of the library website, so I borrowed it. I wasn’t sure about it at
first and considered returning it without finishing it, but I decided
to read on for a while longer and I’m glad I did. The stories got
stronger as I passed the early part of the book. Some were linked
stories, in which we read about an episode or relationship from
various points of view.
If, Then by Kate Hope Day
I
came across this book in the e-book section of the library website
and it sounded intriguing. The title comes from a philosophical
formula—if x, then y. One of the characters is a philosophy grad
student. The setting is a small community at the base of a dormant
volcano in Oregon. All of these people begin to question their
choices as the story unfolds. The foundation of the book is the idea
of the multiverse and the story moves back and forth between
characters and different versions of each character’s life. In the
multiverse, the same people are making different choices which lead
to different outcomes. This was a great book. I’m glad I found it.
Object Lessons: The Work of the Woman and the Poet by Eavan Boland
A
friend gave me this book and I am thrilled to have it. As I recall, I
was looking for this book and some of Boland’s poetry collections 6
or 7 years ago when we lived in Maine, but the library didn’t have
any of her work. I was glad to start reading it when we got to
Ireland, but I’d not read this book until now. It was published in
1996, so Ireland has changed a lot since she wrote this. The book is
a memoir, but also places the author in the context of larger poetic
and place-specific historic traditions. She write about her struggles
to come to terms with herself as an Irish poet and as a woman in
Ireland. The two were mutually exclusive when she was coming of age.
The Irish poets of earlier times were mostly men, many of whom wrote
about nationhood in the context of fighting for independence. Ireland
was portrayed as a woman in these poems, so as the object. Boland
could not find herself in that tradition, especially when she
married, moved to the suburbs, and had children. Her everyday
suburban life did not seem to be the kind of subject for ‘serious’
poetry. She was able to overcome this and it may be that this is one
reason why I like her poetry It is precisely because she deals with
everyday life as a woman that I can relate to it and find meaning in
it.
She
recounts an experience she had when she was at university in Dublin
and had borrowed a friend’s cabin on Achill, in County Mayo. She
wanted a quiet place to study and think. There was a local woman who
came and did things for her, including bringing water, since there
was no running water in the cabin. One day, the woman started telling
the poet about the experiences of local people during the famine. She
talked for some time and it got dark. When the woman left, Boland
went back to her studies, realising that she was working to memorise
forms and structures that described the very system that created the situation of suffering those people
had experienced. It made her very uncomfortable and she began to
consider traditional forms and what counts as valid poetry and
subject matter.
Boland’s
attempts to situate herself as an Irish poet and an Irish woman were
complicated by the fact that she had left Ireland when she was quite
young. Her father was a diplomat and the family moved to London, a
place she didn’t like all that much. When she was a teenager, the
family spent time in New York City. At some point, she went back to
Dublin, attended boarding school, and then at 17 began studying at
Trinity College. Even though she was born in Ireland, she’d spent
most of her early life elsewhere, so she did not have the same
reference points that other people had.
I
enjoyed this book a lot. I was interested in all of it—her thoughts
on poetry, her life experiences, her discussions of the culture and
how it impacted her, and her overcoming the obstacles, both systemic
and in her own mind, that led her to a space in which she could
express herself and create her art.
The Mist in the Mirror by Susan Hill (audiobook read by Matt Addis)
James
Monmouth returns to London after a life abroad. He’d spent his
childhood with a guardian in Kenya, not knowing anything about where
he came from. During his childhood, he developed a fascination with a
traveller/adventurer named Conrad Vane. Upon the death of his
guardian, he set off to follow in Vane’s footsteps. After a couple
of decades of this, he decided to go back to London, both to learn
more about the country of his birth and about Conrad Vane. He had an
idea of writing a book about Vane and was surprised when people began
to warn him against going any further, but without being specific. He
dismissed these warnings and proceeded. But who is the distraught boy
who seems to follow him and why is he the only one who sees him?
It rained a lot yesterday and when I popped out to snip some scallions, I noticed the rain droplets hanging from the montbretia--so lovely (more so in person than in the picture).
Today is a mix of showers, cloud, and sun and there's a fresh gusty wind. I hope it's as pleasant where you are. My heart goes out to people in the Bahamas. What a terrifying experience for people to have such wind and rain going on and on and on. Now their suffering continues as they grieve for lost loved ones and try to come to terms with losing homes. Heartbreaking.
