Review – Maus, A Survivor’s Tale I: My Father Bleeds History by Art Spiegelman

Review – if you come softly by Jacqueline Woodson

“Jeremiah twirled the saltshaker absently, wondering how long it took before you stopped missing someone.”  (pg 36)

If you come as softly
as the wind within the trees
You may hear what I hear
See what sorrow sees.

- Audre Lorde

Review – The Implacable Order of Things by José Luís Piexoto

“I think: perhaps there’s a light inside people, perhaps a clarity; perhaps people aren’t made of darkness, perhaps certainties are a breeze inside people, and perhaps people are the certainties they possess.”  (47)

Owen Meany Discussion 2 – The Little Lord Jesus

A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving (1989) – Chapter Four: The Little Lord Jesus (146-200)

Welcome to the second installment of the joint discussion on A Prayer for Owen Meany, hosted by Care of Care’s Online Book Club. You can find the first part of the discussion here.  In this discussion, we will talk about the first half of the Christmas pageant.  Let’s jump in!  (There are a lot of questions here, but feel free to skip around and answer only the ones you thought of.  I really just tried to cover everything!)

• Something obviously changes with this chapter – we are plunged into the world without Johnny’s mom, something none of the characters are quite prepared for.  There are subtle changes to mark this, including, I think, somewhat of a change in Owen.  Did you feel that Owen changed?  How?  What do you think about Owen’s “power” over people?  Do you think it presents itself even more in this chapter, or has it always been a looming presence?

• Sex/sexual discover are themes that appear frequently in Irving’s novels and for the first time we see Owen and Johnny, well, maturing.  What do you think this says about Owen’s “holiness”?  Is just indicative of his age, or is it something more?  Does it, perhaps, point to a less prudent faith on his part?  Do you think the disparity between Owen’s faith and the faith of the church will come up again?  What about the approach of sex by the society.  Take these two quotes, run with it!

“We learned where to look for the sex magazines, or the diry pictures…. Some of these gave Owen THE SHIVERS.  In those days, such pictures were disturbingly unclear….  And the women’s sex parts were often blurred by pubic hair – some of them had astonishingly more pubic hair than either Owen or I thought was possible – and their nipples were blocked from view by the censor’s black slashes.  At first, we thought the slashes were actual instruments of torture – they struck us as even more menacing than real nudity.  The nudity was menacing – to a large extent, because the women weren’t pretty; or else their troubled, serious expressions judged their own nakedness severely.”  (155)

“Since her death, Owen had hinted that the strongest force compelling him to attend Gravesend Academy – namely my mother’s insistence – was gone.  Those rooms allowed us to imagine what we might become – if not exactly boarders…, we would still harbor such secrets, such barely restrained messiness, such lusts, eve, as these poor residents of Waterhouse Hall.  It was our lives in the near future that we were searching for when we searched those rooms, and therefore it was shrewd of Owen that he made us take our time.

It was in a room on the third floor that Owen discovered the prophylactics.  [...]  The examination of the bettleskin was a solemn occasion; it was the nonlubricated kind…and with some difficuly and occasional pain, we took turns putting the thing on our tiny penises.  This part of our lives in the near future was especially hard for us to imagine; but I realize now that the ritual we enacted in Potter’s daring room also had the significance of religious rebellion for Owen Meany – it was but one more affront to the Catholics whom he had, in his own words, ESCAPED.” (157-159)

• In the Twitter discussion, Care thoughtfully brought up the different pronunciations of Gravesend: Graves-end or Grave-send.  I have been saying Grave-send, but I wonder what this potentially means.  Any thoughts?
• What do you think about Johnny’s role as Joseph?

I – Joseph – had nothing to do, nothing to say, nothing to learn.  (167)

• Armlessness doesn’t really seem to come up in this chapter, but rather the opposite.  Owen insists that his arms are free when he is cast as baby Jesus and it is his pointing finger in the Christmas Carol that is part of his truly frightening.  Did you notice this?  Did I miss any armlessness in this chapter?
• There is so much connecting Owen to Jesus.  Other than the obvious, when Owen is playing Jesus in the play, but also in the way so many people willingly listen to him.  Then he actually blesses Mary Beth Baird.  For example:

“‘She should do nothing?’ the Rev. Mr. Wiggin asked Owen.  The rector, like one of the teachers in the temple, appeared “amazed.” This is how the teachers in the temple are described – in their response to the Boy Jesus:  ‘All who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers.’” (171)

• We begin to see more of older Johnny.  Any thoughts on the differences between adult Johnny and young Johnny?
• page 179: OWEN KILLS SOMETHING ELSE WITH A BALL.  ?!
• On pg 185, Johnny interacts with Mrs. Meany for the first time.  What do you think of this scene?
• Do you think there is significance to the Flying Yankee?  Read the scene again on page 186.
• The chapter ends with Owen taking over the part of the Ghost of Christmas Future, frightening everyone in the audience.  Discuss!

Whew!  Comment, comment, comment!

TSS – 26 July 2009

Good afternoon, kids!  Here’s a look at my book-related posts this week, and future booktastic posts to come:

Reviews:

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green
Broken April by Ismail Kadare
Memory by Philippe Grimbert
Quartet in Autumn by Barbara Pym
Widdershins by Charles de Lint

Controversy!:

Liar – Book Cover fail.

Shout out:

A Book Blog.  Period.

On the way:

• More #owenmeany!  Care is holding a group read-along for A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving.  I’m hosting the second round of discussion, right here, tomorrow!!!  Stay tuned.
• A review of The Implacable Order of Things by José Luís Peixoto: loved it!  Can’t wait to share my review.

Liar, Liar

If you haven’t heard what’s happened yet, let me inform you.  Liar is a YA novel written by Justine Larbalesteir is about a young woman who is a pathological liar, she also happens to be black.  When the US cover was released, people were shocked and angry – why?  Because, the girl on the cover is white:

The Australian cover is in the back and the US cover is in the front.  What does this say about the publishing industry?  That they are making inexcusable decisions about what will sell and what won’t; they are making inexcusable excuses that try to justify racism.

When I first read about the controversy, I was so incredibly angered that I had nothing to say.  Nothing but spewing angry comments that would have done nothing to further the discussion.  I have calmed down, though I have lost none of my anger at the situation.

When I brought up the Liar controversy at lunch with some girlfriends the other day, my friend who is a journalism major, described what it was like working for an agency that dealt with models and advertising.  She said the overt racism in relation to what would sell and what would not was disgusting.  It is not just books, but clothing ads and television commercials for anything and everything.  Then it extends to issues of gender as well.  What needs to change?  Do our buying habits need to change before the industry will?  Or does the industry need to take an initiative?  I feel like I am banging my head against the wall, because I don’t know the answer to that question.  In an ideal world, the industry would take the initiative to change the way we buy.  But I know that that too is naive: money is first.  Always.

I do know that what I can do is write an email, expressing my anger and frustration, not only with the original decision to make the girl on the cover white, but also with their excuse.  A sorry excuse that is, probably, an outright lie:

“The entire premise of this book is about a compulsive liar,” said Melanie Cecka, publishing director of Bloomsbury Children’s Books USA and Walker Books for Young Readers, who worked on Liar. “Of all the things you’re going to choose to believe of her, you’re going to choose to believe she was telling the truth about race?”

I just don’t believe it.  Maybe it’s true, but if it is (and I doubt it is) then they made a huge mistake.  I have never read one of Larbalesteir’s books, and I would love to in the future.  This clearly is not a reflection on her, in any way.  But if you want to say something about this, send the publisher an email.  Let them know that we are paying attention, and it’s not right anymore.

More opinions: Chasing Ray, Color Online, A Chair, A Fireplace, A Tea Cozy

Join Color Online in reading more diverse books for the month of August, I know I am!

Review – Widdershins by Charles de Lint

“Because some things – the deep, meaningful things that sit at the heart of our souls – can’t be touched by magic.  They can only be touched by the hurt or the love that we offer to each other.” (page 494)

Review – Quartet in Autumn by Barbara Pym

“You’ve retired now?”  Father G. Asked, making conversation with Letty.  “That must be…” he cast about for a word to describe what Letty’s retirement must be… “a great opportunity,” he brought out, all life being nothing so much as a great opportunity.

Review – Memory by Philippe Grimbert

“The smell of new books intoxicated me.  I got drunk on the almond fragrance of book glue, on the leather of the satchel in which I buried my face.  Exercise books accumulated in my desk drawers; I never reread them.  The vigor I lacked for physical activities became incandescent when, pen in hand, I filled whole pages with invented stories.  Sometimes they were intimately about me – family tales, parental exploits – sometimes they became horrific stories sprinkled with torture, death, and reunion: crazy games and tear-soaked sagas.” (page 43)

Shout out!

My housemate, formally known as Weremonkey (it’s a long story, we will explain it one day), has started a book blog!

She’d love it if you went on over there and said hi!