Review: Unless

This book is the story of a mother's despair when she discovers her daughter has chosen to leave her comfortable, suburban existence and live on the street. Reta Winters is devastated to discover that her daughter Norah is spending her days on a Toronto street corner holding a sign that says "goodness." Her nights are spent in a shelter. Unless enters the interior world of a mother. We learn all of Reta's thoughts; what we learn very little of is Norah herself. Norah is arguably the most interesting character in the book. Instead we get Reta, reminiscing and thinking about all of the elements of her life, her marriage, and her children. Reta has spent her professional life translating the works of French feminist philosopher Danielle Westerman, and writing a chick lit novel of her own. We hear quite a bit about both the novel (which has a sequel in progress) and Westerman. This is far too much for a fictional philosopher whose contribution is never all that well explained, and novels are not especially interesting. Ultimately, Shields never really made me care about any of the characters except Norah, of whom I consistently wanted to hear more. This is one of those book where I suspect there are deeper things going on with the writing, but I simply couldn't engage enough to really investigate them.

Carol Shields, Unless (Random House Canada, 2003) ISBN: 0679311807

Review: Dragonwell Dead

I should start by stating that I am clearly not the intended audience for this sort of book. I read this book for the "tea" category in my 999 Challenge. This is the first book I've read in the "cozy mystery" genre, and everything about it was just a bit too cute for my taste. Much of the plot was highly improbable. The basic plot involves tea shop owner Theodosia Browning trying to figure out why a local orchid aficionado dropped dead immediately after winning a rare specimen at an orchid auction. There's not much else to say about the plot, so I'll get on to the elements I found unbelievable or troublesome. First, the prose is chock-full of description that seems to serve little purpose. Second, there's really no character development. The characters are entirely one-dimensional. Third, the elements of the story and completely implausible. What police chief allows a random civilian to drop off key evidence in a homicide investigation to him at her convenience? Finally, all the extraneous elements of the story are just a bit too perfect. Everything is the best and the nicest.- the nicest tea shop, the most popular bed and breakfast. The tea shop has an unflappable chef who can always make just the most perfect pastries. All this saccharine is more than a little tiresome. Nowhere have I seen a discussion (and an extensive discussion, at that) of a community of small businesses that suffer from none of the concerns endemic to business owners. Ultimately this was a quick read, but I got little out of the experience.

Laura Childs, Dragonwell Dead: A Tea Shop Mystery (Berkley, 2008) ISBN: 0425220451

Review: Lark Rise to Candleford

Written in the 1940s, this semi-fictional account of the Oxfordshire villages Lark Rise and Candleford looks back at the 1880s, a time of transition in the English countryside. Work, social relationships, home life, schooling- all of these things changed in the last years of the 19th c. Thompson examines these changes through the story of Laura, a girl who comes of age in the 1880s and 90s. But truly, in this work Laura's story takes a back seat to description. Thompson is clearly using this book to capture a lost world, and the book includes whole chapters describing the countryside and the traditions of its people. The writing is almost anthropological. While the description is interesting, and it is a very easy read, I found myself longing for more plot, more discussion of what happened to Laura. I also found that the book seemed to romanticize what must have been, by all accounts, grinding poverty. That said, the descriptions Thompson offers are engaging and vibrant, and the book is a quick, and dare I say, relaxing, read.

Flora Thompson, Lark Rise to Candleford (Crown, 1984) ISBN: 0140074546

Review: Tender Grace

Take an unimaginative plot, add clunky writing, and the result is a book that is very difficult to read for extended periods. That's precisely what we have here. Widow Audrey Eaton is having a hard time dealing with the death of her husband Tom. Two years after his death she is still staying in the house watching hour upon hour of television. To try and deal with her grief she decides to take an extended trip west. Along the way she meets some "interesting" characters and starts to notice some "tender graces," as she calls them, which gradually reshape her outlook on life. The book is written as a day-to-day account of Audrey's trip. Though this is a slender volume, it was extremely difficult for me to finish, as it suffers from several significant flaws. First, the plot is entirely predictable. Throughout the book I knew exactly where the story was going. Second, the characters in the story were entirely unbelievable. Audrey and Tom Eaton are apparently people without flaws (unless you count grief as a flaw, which is all the character development Stark allows Audrey). They produced perfect children, and have perfect friends. It's difficult to invest much sympathy or interest in characters like these. Third, the writing is clunky and awkward. The prose is littered with pop culture references, including, but not limited to, Stacey and Clinton of What Not to Wear, Law and Order, and more. The prose is generally sophomoric in tone. Ultimately I couldn't recommend this book. There must be better fictional accounts of grief than this.

Jackina Stark, Tender Grace (Bethany House, 2009) ISBN: 0764205757

Compass Points Challenge

And another! I loved the sound of this challenge, so I've decided to add this one in too. Running from March 1 through August 31, 2009, the rules are as follows:

Between March 1, 2009 and August 31, 2009, you must read one book each with a title echoing the four main compass points: North, South, East, and West. These can be from any genre, fiction or non-fiction but they must have the word north, south, east, or west in the title.

Here's what I'm thinking thus far:

North: By the North Gate by Joyce Carol Oates
East: East of Eden by John Steinbeck
South: Running in Place: Scenes from the South of France by Nicholas Delbanco
West: West with the Night by Beryl Markham

These are, of course, subject to change.

Classics Challenge

I've decided to join the Classics Challenge because, quite frankly, I need to read more of them. The rules are as follows:



Classics: We love them, we hate them, now we are going to challenge ourselves to read more of them.

**Choose Your Level
1. Classics Snack - Read FOUR classics
2. Classics Entree - Read FIVE classics
3. Classics Feast - Read SIX classics

I will be going for the classics snack, as I am not entirely sure how much of an appetite I will have, and at least one of my choices is quite long. Here's what I'm thinking about:

John Steinbeck, East of Eden
Jane Austen, Persuasion
Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God
Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Marble Faun

This list is, of course, subject to change.

This whole event goes from April 1-October 31, 2009.

Review: The Culture of Fear

This book focuses on the sort of public media scares that have, and continue to, grip the American public. It argues that not only are these episodes of mass hysteria completely unfounded, they are actively detrimental to the American population. From fears of car-jacking and plane crashes to those of silicone breast implants and unwed teenage mothers, Glassner uncovers significant evidence that these threats were grossly overblown, even in the face of hard countervailing evidence. So, that raises the question of how these non-issues become the basis for widespread fear. On this Glassner is clear. He places the blame squarely on the media and lobby groups. The frequency and the tone with which the media presents scare stories leads to their power and proliferation. Glassner certainly shows the existence of significant scares, and offers compelling evidence that many of these were overblown. As for Glassner's second contention, that these fears are actively hurting Americans, his claims are not uniformly sound. One of the strongest parts of this book is Glassner's discussion of the ways in which unreasonable fears perpetuate racism against young black men. Many are well aware of the failures of the heavily-funded war on drugs, and how the conditions of poverty, hunger, and lack of opportunity are completely ignored. But some of Glassner's claims are just as far-fetched as the media events he studies. Claiming that airline crash hysteria is dangerous because people who might fly would otherwise engage in the more dangerous activity of driving is specious at best. The bulk of this book is a series of topical chapters on various hysterias. In his conclusion Glassner addresses the question of why Americans are so susceptible to these scares. Here, Glassner points to one of the phenomena that has defined the lives of Americans in the second half of the twentieth century: celebration of the culture of experts. Each of these scare campaigns gained legitimacy through public pronouncements made by those who appear to be knowledgeable experts. Each of these campaigns has loud, publicly-oriented experts of its own. And experts seem reliable. Herein lies the danger. Professionalization began in the United States in the 19th c., as practitioners in certain fields sought the hallmarks of professionalism: standards, limited entry, national organizations, and peer review. In the wake of WWII, as American culture celebrated higher education, especially science, Americans came to respect, even celebrate the culture of experts. They sought experts to analyze and improve all areas of their lives. The very standards of education and professionalization suggested that expert opinion was trustworthy, that it was best. This very trust has allowed for the manipulation of the American public. In a culture in which expert opinion is revered, and the very fact of expert status suggests qualification, it becomes difficult to determine what is reasonable trust and what is not. In seeing Glassner's conclusions, it becomes clear that one of the problems is surely too much news. With 24-hour news channels, programs like Dateline on television every night of the week, all of this airtime has to be filled with something. This creates an atmosphere ripe for exploitation. This book certainly made me think, however, I suspect Glassner might be preaching to the choir. People who are reading academic sociology are likely not the same people who drink up hours of sensationalist news without a second thought.

Barry Glassner, The Culture of Fear: Why Americans Are Afraid of the Wrong Things (Basic, 2000) ISBN: 0465014909