Reading the Alphabet, Part V

Author:  VanLiere, Donna
Title: The Good Dream
First Line: I didn't set out to be an old maid.

My Thoughts: I picked this book up because of its title, but it was the first line that made me want to check it out. And I'm glad I did. It's set in 1950 in the small town of Morgan Hill, Tennessee. The main character, Ivorie Walker, is only thirty, but everyone in town has already declared her to be an old maid, something she doesn't exactly mind. "I gave up trying to talk to single men when, years earlier, I told Lloyd Parker I felt fine as frog hair. There's no way back from something that idiotic."  But since her mother's death, she's felt an emptiness in her life that she doesn't know how to fill. Then, one night, a young boy wanders into her vegetable patch and steals her tomatoes. He is dirty and malnourished and comes from the hills. His mother is dead and can no longer protect him from his father, but Ivorie thinks she can ... even against the advice of everyone else in town who warns her not to get involved.

This is an amazing and beautifully told story; I didn't even mind that the narrative alternates between Ivorie and the boy. Ivorie is a great character--stubborn and funny and kind. And very memorable. I really liked her. This novel is both heartbreaking and heartwarming...a great combination in a book when you can find it. And I'm very glad I found this particular novel on the V shelf. Reading the Alphabet has been a lot of fun; I can't wait to see what bookish serendipity the U shelf holds for me.

Happy Reading!

Reading the Alphabet, Part X...

There aren't a lot of authors whose last names begin with the letter X, at least, not at my library. And the few books I did find on the library shelf weren't ones I wanted to read. I was just about to give up on the letter X altogether when I remembered that April is National Poetry Month. So, I went to check out the 800s and serendipitously stumbled upon Notes on the Mosquito by Xi Chuan (translated by Lucas Klein). I love the imagery in his poetry; and found his later prose poems to be very powerful. But since I'm no literary critic, I'll let Xi Chuan's words speak for themselves.

Here are a few stanzas from Answering Venus (45 Fragments):
1.
night is the sleep of seven wax moths
dawn is the singing of five mermaids
noon is the scratching of three field mice
dusk is the shadow of a crow

8.
If I breathe, what will my heart think?
If I vomit, what will my soul think?

14.
in sudden loneliness
someone who rarely worries can't help but sob

33.
when my life is a mess
my watch is particularly precise

37.
no one has yet tested the pencil
to see how many words it can write


And here's the first part of his prose poem Salute:

Depression. A suspended gong. A leopard dozing in the basement. A spiral staircase. A torch at night. A city gate. Cold that touches a blade of grass beneath an ancient constellation. Concealed flesh. Undrinkable water. An ice cube floating like a giant vessel. Its passenger a bird. A blocked canal. An unborn girl. Unformed tears. Unenforced punishments. Chaos. Balance. Ascent. Blankness... How can depression be discussed without error? Facing flower petals descending at a crossroads, consider the cost of desperate risk-taking.

Depression: an immovable ocean.
Civilization written on the seventh page of suffering.

I want to shout, to force steel to echo, to force mice so accustomed to secrecy to line up before me. I want to shout, but I suppress my voice so I'm not abusive, so I whisper like the wind instead of booming like a cannon. Stronger heartbeats follow a greater silence; I see reserves of water drunk dry, so scream! Oh I want to scream, when a hundred crows cackle I have no golden tongue--I'm a bad omen.

Too many desires, not enough seawater.
Fantasies require capital for sustenance.

Let roses correct our errors, let thunder rebuke us! On a slow journey, no asking the destination. The moment the moth hits the flame it's inopportune to discuss eternity, it's hard to find proof of perfection.

Memory: my textbook
Love: the unfinished business of the heart.

Good, huh?

Happy Reading!

Reading the Alphabet, part Y

There are a lot more Y authors to choose from than Z:

Yarbro        Yamamoto        Yellin       Yip       Young        Yttrup

The one that caught my eye?  Yoon, Paul

Snow Hunters is the quiet story of Yohan, a North Korean soldier who defects to Brazil rather than return home to North Korea after the war. Can you imagine? Brazil is so different from Korea. Without knowing the language or understanding the culture, Yohan becomes an apprentice to a Japanese tailor and slowly makes a new life for himself in this strange new country. 

"In the harbor, crates hung suspended in the air. Birds circled them. The sea was clear. It moved toward him and faded and (Yohan) felt the time that had passed and his time here. He thought that he had made the best of it all, that he had worked and made a living, and he felt the contentment of that. He thought of what the years would bring, what sort of life was left in him. ... (And) he wondered what choice there was in what was remembered; and what was forgotten."

This beautifully written book is a story of hope, second chances, and overcoming past sorrows. I loved the glimpses of Yohan's experiences as a soldier and prisoner of war in Korea set alongside his current experiences in Brazil and the kind people he meets and befriends. This isn't a long novel, only 196 pages, but each sentence is thoughtfully crafted, each word carefully chosen. I savored every page. And to think, if I hadn't been browsing the Y shelf at the library I never would have known it existed. Here's to the letter Y!

Happy Reading!

Next up: Young, Sara (My Enemy's Cradle)