A Beautiful Truth (by Colin McAdam)

A Beautiful Truth

by Colin McAdam

Published by SOHO Press, September 17, 2013

SUMMARY

WHO: Louee, a chimpanzee…

WHAT: is adopted by a childless couple…

WHERE: in Vermont…

WHEN: in the early 1970s…

WHY: as a sort of surrogate son.

HOW: The couple anthropomorphize the primate and inadvertently inculcate a dual nature within Louee.

WHY YOU MIGHT LIKE THIS BOOK:

+ Stylistically, A Beautiful Truth is interesting in its use of and reference to language: Dialogue is stripped of quotes and; Pronouns are not necessarily tethered to the subject in the topic sentence of a paragraph. The reader needs to linger a little over each sentence to catch the current of mood that will take him/her to the next point.

+ The novel raises some intriguing questions about the nature of primates and the fine line that may exist between humans and apes. The whole of the novel is cut with chapters from various chimps’ points of view, which are written in short truncated sentences; and while the humans’ chapters are more fully developed, the sentence structures themselves are not complex. The near stream of consciousness from both the human and the apes emphasizes the similarities between the primates.

+ Humans tend to project human meaning into other orders of animals, and Judy and Walt (the adopting couple) are no different. However, the actions described by the very words that emphasize commonalities, throw into sharp relief the wild nature of non-human animals. 

WHY YOU MIGHT NOT LIKE THIS BOOK:

- The reader needs to work a little to negotiate and hopscotch the atolls of mood and thought as presented as a result of the writing style, making the novel as a whole semantically challenging.

**********

SAVE THE CHIMPS: Half of the net profits from the book's sales will benefit Save the Chimps, the largest chimpanzee sanctuary in the world, providing home and care for 300+ chimps.

OTHER: I received a paperback ARC of A Beautiful Truth (by Colin McAdam) from a publishing industry professional and friend. The ARC was unsolicited but highly recommended by my friend. I receive no monies, goods or services in exchange for reviewing the product and/or mentioning any of the persons or companies that are or may be implied in this post. 

From the Land of the Moon

From the Land of the Moon

by Milena Agus; translated from the Italian by Ann Goldstein

Europa Editions, January 2011

From the Land of the Moon is a novella about a Sardinian woman searching for love in the post-war years amongst the metaphorical and literal ruins of her life. The woman recognizes that her nature is perhaps flawed as true love seems to remain elusive. Her quest assumes at times, sad, pitiable, desperate and creative forms that echo the pathos of Anna Karenina and Madam Bovary. The woman moves about the Italian landscapes of Cagliari and Milan as the country rebuilds from the effects of Allied Bombing and Nazi retreat. The settings of the story provide the physical architecture of the woman's efforts and parallels can be drawn between the reconstruction and her state of mind. The story is told from the point of view of the woman's granddaughter after the woman, referred to as Grandmother, has passed away, providing a doubly unreliable narrative: The woman herself may have been insane and her story suffers from being two generations away from being immediately verified. From the Land of the Moon is poignant without being maudlin and, the letter which serves as the final chapter is a powerful denouement.

***********************************************

From the Land of the Moon qualifies for the What's in a Name? Challenge #5 hosted by @BethFishReads at www.BethFishReads. The title, From the Land of the Moon contains a word that is "something you'd see in the sky": "Moon"

I borrowed a copy of From the Land of the Moon (by Milena Agus; translated from the Italian by Ann Goldstein) form the Jackson County Library System in Southern Oregon. I receive no monies, goods and/or service in exchange for reviewing this product and/or mentioning any of the persons that are or may be implied in this post.

"If you can't be with the one you love, love the one you're with" --- Stephen Stills

Coraline (10th Anniversary Edition)

Coraline

10th Anniversary Edition

by Neil Gaiman

Illustrated by Dave McKean

Harper Collins Children's

Published 04/24/2012

Coraline discovers an alternate reality though a small door that at first, seems to open onto a bricked  up wall in the new house that her family has moved into; but in fact leads her to her Other Mother and Other Father. Coraline's Other Parents extend a tempting invitation to remain in this Other place which is very much like the one she has left; but much better in terms of the food, care and, attention from parents that Coraline craves.

There is a temptation to view Coraline as something of a dark and distorted version of Alice in Wonderland: there is the young female protagonist, a looking glass, an enigmatic cat, a prandial setting in which the absurd reigns... and yet, to insist on this analogy would diminish Gaiman's work as merely derivative ---- which it certainly is not, at least not in the pejorative sense. There are certainly multiple influences, literary in form and style that have come to bear in this young adult tale; but it would be more apropos to consider Coraline as the extension of literary tradition. e.g. that of the Knight's Tale or even of the troubadour tradition.

The tenth anniversary edition of Coraline also includes interviews with Neil Gaiman at the end of the book: the first set of questions & answers are from when the book was first published and the second set of questions & answers are on the occasion of the book's tenth anniversary. Gaiman mentions that Coraline is a book about bravery and it is; but more than that, though Gaiman himself does not draw the correlation, Coraline speaks to the classic tales of heroism and quest that are usually reserved for boys. Coraline is a Knight's Tale for girls: Coraline is an Everygirl who wants for nothing extraordinary, but is cast upon a mission or quest for three things - three things that will engender True Love from a Mother figure and, who ultimately must confront a dragon. The leitmotif of the dragon is introduced in the epigraph by G.K. Chesterton and reinforced with descriptive phases in regard to the antagonist and again underscored in the interviews.

Fairy tales are more than true; not because
they tell us that dragons exist, but because
they tell us that dragons can be beaten. 

                            --- G.K. Chesterton 

Coraline is a fairy tale, a Knight's Tale, a very dark tale that draws on some fine literary traditions; but presents the reader with novel and creative images that make it uniquely the work of Gaiman.

For parents: The imagery in Coraline is very dark and may not be appropriate for children who are prone to fearfulness or nightmares, especially of rats, actors and/or the door in your house that leads to the crawl space. Parents may also have to answer questions about parental love, neglect and abuse, smother love, abstract concepts of creativity and parallel universes.

See Also:
Mr. Bobo's Remarkable Mouse Circus
Coraline.com

Other Stuff:
I purchased Coraline, 10th Anniversary Edition (by Neil Gaiman; with illustrations by David McKean) from the Barnes & Noble in Medford, Oregon. I receive no monies, goods or services in exchange for reviewing this product and/or mentioning any of the persons or companies that are or may be implied in this post.

This post is part of the Murder, Monsters, Mayhem feature being hosted by Jennifer L. at her blog, www.jennsbookshelves.com

Zombie in Love

Zombie in Love

by Kelly DiPucchio

illustrated by Scott Campbell

Atheneum Books for Young Readers,

An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division

Published: 08/23/2011

For Ages: 4-8

Mortimer is a lonely, zombie boy looking for a date to The Cupid's Ball. From the ghoulish environs of his home, he tries to find that special someone; but all the human girls he approaches are nonplussed. Then Mortimer gets an idea...

Zombie in Love is a cute, humorous story about how there is someone for everyone. The reading level is very easy, skewing more towards the four-year-old's reading ability than the eight-year-old's; but the artwork and universal appeal (who hasn't felt like Mortimer in his loneliness at one point in their lives?) makes this a great novelty book for teens and adults as well.

The words in and of themselves create the framework for the art of Scott Campbell. His watercolors wash over the pages in gentle tones, in contrast to the black ink renderings one might expect in a zombie tale. The muted tones make this easy on the eyes (and less-scary for small children.) There is nothing graphically explicit, which isn't to say the illustrations aren't detailed. It's the details in each of the paintings that bring out the humor in the story, contrasting with the text by offsetting the sentences as understatements. Neutral background washes and a balance of cool and warm figures in the foreground are compositionally well balanced and offset each other to create darkish but palatable pictures.

Scan of the first two pages of Zombie in Love

What parents might have to explain: Zombies; and the fact that worms can't do the things that are depicted in the book :-D

Other Stuff: I purchased Zombie in Love (by Kelly DiPucchio; illustrated by Scott Campbell) from Barnes & Noble in Medford, OR. I receive no monies, goods or services in exchange for reviewing the product and/or mentioning any of the persons or companies that are or may be implied in this post.

The Scarlet Letter

The Scarlet Letter

by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Introduction and Notes by Nancy Stade

General Consulting Editor, George Stade

The Scarlet Letter was first published in 1850.

This trade paperback edition was published in 2005.

Why should we read the Classics? One reason is for the history not only of the time and place; but for the ideas that have found expression through the writer. Roughly 4500 years ago, some scribe marked up The Epic of Gilgamesh into clay tablets. We have an intriguing glimpse into the time and place and some action points to string a story together; but we don't have a sense of what the characters were really thinking or what sensibility guided their thought processes. What was it like to live in a world where you perceived time as circular and cyclical, not linearly? How did the concepts of civilization, a major shift from the nomadic and animistic lifestyle change their worldview? How did the oral tradition and sense of history transmute their own sense of culture? Unfortunately, it is unlikely that we will ever know because the story contains no explanation. It is no more than a historic artifact celebrated for being the oldest written story. The Classics, however, tell us more. The Classics provide a sense of "interior history," ideas that had currency when they were written and still inform our culture today.

But why should you read The Scarlet Letter? The events that make up the main body of the work were not contemporary to the writer so how could he posit a credible story that reflects a mindset of a society that he could not have possibly have experienced? But the thing is, he did. No, Hawthorne did not live in the 17th century; but he did live in a small town with a strong cultural legacy to that time and; family ties bound him to the history of which he wrote. He was living with the effects a Puritanical society that embedded itself into the political consciousness of his day and, actually still lives with us even now (Don't fool yourself that because we don't put people in stocks or force them to wear a scarlet "A" upon their breasts, that we don't excoriate adulterers, especially if they happen to be public figures.) Hawthorne builds the first bridge between the events of 1650 and 1850 by creating prologue in which he discovers the documents that purportedly contain the events of the main body of the story. The second bridge is the one created by the reader's connection to the text. The second bridge is a meta-literary experience that elevates the text from being an artifact to being historically relevant, something from which, like all history, we can extricate meaning to our current lives.

The Scarlet Letter is an exposition of how religious and political thought cohered to create an inheritance of our American culture: a paradox of sex and sexuality, religious freedom that incarcerates and the punishment that frees. Hester Prynne falls in love with a man and gets pregnant by him; but does not enjoy the benefits of marriage which apparently include not being shoved into a jail cell, being publicly called out for her sin, reminding everyone else of her indiscretion by wearing a red "A" upon her chest and, being pretty much excluded from town life. Had she been married to the man, this would not have happened. So, falling in love and having sex with the man is a sin when the sanctity of marriage is not conferred by the town-church; but falling in love and having sex with a man becomes the consecration of life affirming values when you add in the public endorsement of marriage. It's a fine line between hypocrisy and relative morality. Hester Prynne is punished for her transgression; but her moment in the the town square (wherein she is brought out before all the townspeople) is meant to be an occasion for her not only to renounce her sin; but to give up the name of her lover as well so that he too may be free of guilt. Only through renunciation can the opportunity exist for forgiveness. There is an celebratory atmosphere to the denunciation of Hester Prynne. A zealful, but compassionless event in which Hester Prynne's pride is sacrificed to the self-righteous crowd. Except that Hester doesn't renounce her sin, give up her lover's name and, the public does not forgive or even really seem inclined to do so (after all the punishment begins before the possibility of her renouncement.) Ironically, Hester Prynne's punishment actually does free her: Her isolation forms her into a woman of independent thought, devoid of the hobbling dictates of the Puritan community.

The Scarlet Letter offers a lot in terms of ideas as to who we were, who we are and through the second bridge, who we can be.

Other Stuff: The Scarlet Letter (by Nathaniel Hawthorne) qualifies for

• The What's in a Name? Challenge #5 hosted by @BethFishReads as a "book with something you'd carry in your pocket, purse, or backpack in the title [e.g.] Sarah's Key, The Scarlet Letter, Devlin Diary"

I purchased The Scarlet Letter (by Nathaniel Hawthorne) from the Barnes & Noble store in Medford, OR. I receive no monies, goods or services in exchange for reviewing the product and/or mentioning any of the persons or companies that are or may be implied in this post.

"Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

--- John 8: 32