Memoir autobiographical, great writer, Lesbian + adoption themes --- very well done.
One of the greatquote: "That here might be a level we can reach above the ordinary conflict is a seductive one. Jung argued that a conflict can never be resolved on the level at which it arises --- at that level there is only a winner and a loser, not a reconciliation. The conflict must be got above --- like seeing a storm from higher ground."
Ethel Wilson developed this theme in Swamp Angel (see review on this blog) where the heroine works for a couple in a fishing camp in northern BC, just the 3 of them and the guests. The heroine is most capable and manages and does everything, which makes the wife jealous, so she attacks, and the heroine realizes she needs make the situation work to further her higher goals, and because there is no escape so she does. The wife continues to make things worse for herself as she is stuck in the conflict of the moment --- her personal immediate emotional need causes her to lose sight of the bigger picture.
This plays out in life all the time too --- travelling with tour groups in which most make it work, with effort, positive input, overlooking quirks foibles insults, participating, and just enjoying, while others make sure that there displeasure is known on petty things, and only talk if and when they feel like it, etc. Also, neighbours who have a gripe which to them is more important than the long term benefits of cordial and helpful relationships.
Satirical memoir of officer life during the war.
Other books by this author reviewed on this blog:
Officers and Gentlemen ****
This woman is pretty crazy but it's a great story (true) about how a family greed and piety can destroy great wealth and properity. The story of the family that built the Piano HOuse in Winnipeg.
This is a memoir of a soldier captured in Italy in WWII. He escaped and was helped by Italian peasants in the mountains at very great risk to themselves. It's also a romance.
A great story, never before told. He makes it interesting while not sparing us the miserable details of survival.
My first encounter with this author was at the writers' festival in Vancouver, when she was completely unknown, and had just published her first memoir, Too Close to the Falls. She was the hit of the festival, like none other since, and catapulted herself immediately into the limelight by the strength of this one hilarious, witty, pithy talk. She became instantly famous in Canada and I have always thought of her as Canadian. However, she grew up in Niagara Falls and Buffalo, New York.
Being a similar type of person and having similar experiences, I found the book redeeming. But more important, this is an extremely well written, extremely funny, and extremely real memoir.
Read it. Then read Too Close to the Falls. Better yet, read in reverse order.
A slim volume, unique in telling the childhood story of a Hutterite girl whose family ultimately left the colony. Fascinating details of life in the community, happy, sharing, free of cares, with allusions to deep human frailty in the leaders of the community, and the price paid by the men and women who give up a separate identity, life, hopes, and ambitions for never having to worry about food on the table or making decisions. The price ---- not taking your sick child to the doctor without permission and not being able to marry without permission.
The first part of the book is so badly written --- every cliche of a harlequin romance or low quality true crime story --- but later it changes (two authors?, and intrusive editor?) to good writing --- voice, prose, structure, plot.
This is a memoir of Jeannette Walls upbringing by two disfunctional parents. I was avoiding this book as I expected another dreadful Frank McCourt slog through misery. I was very pleasantly surprised.
Walls' parents did neglect their 4 kids, but there was a lot of fun and good memories too. I don't suggest that anything in their upbringing was justified anything but just meaning that the book is readable and stays with you, but doesn't deliver permanent scars to the reader's soul) . The parents were dreamers and the mother depressed or bipolor and the father was an alcoholic. They hung on percariously moving constantly on a whim or when the situation was untenable. Finally, as the children fled to make their own way in New York, the parents followed and became homeless willingly. The mother actually had property worth millions, but did not want to sell it.
This is a must read because it is unique in it's subject matter, treatment and readability. Wall's writing is amazing, in so many ways. It is a fast read, every word essential and interesting. The editing is rigorous and skillful. The style is unique and consistent. There is a consistency of design like Jane Austen or Frank Lloyd Wright. Walls describes the facts and some feelings, and through the action.
Other books about bad/odd parents:
Mennonite in a Little Black Dress ** by Rhoda Janzen
This book provides a real soldier's account of the Canadian's Italian Campaign in WW II. It tells the human story to complement Dan Dancock's The D-Day Dodgers.
Again, I was often speechless in wonder at how these men and women not only endured war but threw themselves into bloody battle over and over.
The book is often short on details, and it seems to have been edited by cutting chunks out of it. Nonetheless, I strongly recommend it.
A small book, loaded with insights. I also thought the movie was really excellent, portraying well the reality of a young girl dating a con artist, while everyone looked on in tacit approval or silence. Having been there a few times myself (I am a slow learner), I found the book and movie rang true.
Barber is a lovely writer, but a bit of a BS'er. She has the style of Jilly Cooper, witty and breezy.
Very funny book. It's more too. Janzen offers insight into the psyche of a woman raised as a Mennonite but not living as one. For instance, why she stayed in an abusive marriage for 15 years. The heroine is her mother, a very wise woman. A lot like Loris' mother maybe.
An amazing book, original and fresh look at race in America. Obama's life story up until he became a senator. A clear insightful look at the boy, the youth, the young man, who could have ruined his life many times, or followed the path of his family members, for the most part, not successful, with many problems of their own making and imposed by circumstances. His portraits of his grandparents, father, and many other family members are full of insight. The only blurry figure is that of his mother.
Steve's a good writer and his story is interesting. The book is about how he got started in stand up comedy and it left me wanting to read more about Steve.
Steve is so self deprecating in telling his story that he infers that he has no talent, but is only very hard working. We all know how untrue that is, so I guess he doesn't have to tell us the obvious. Coincidentally, Steve came into the store where I work a couple of times latelty and bought some luggage. He was obviously not looking for recognition(wearing a bicycle helmet for disguise) so we just left him alone, checking out all the cases himself. I wanted to tell him how much I liked All of Me, and ask him why it was always left out of lists of his best movies, but, bearing in mind a story from his book about a nurse who asked him to autograph his EKG in the emergency room after he collapsed on stage, I didn't.
This book is a memoir by a cousin of my mother's, Betty Reimer. Beautifully written, and blessed with several wicked poems, I thoroughly enjoyed this story. The Reimer family established a general store in the 1870's in Steinbach, Manitoba, and the memoir chronicles the history of the store, through the personal experiences of a child and teenager.
I read the first chapters based in Steinbach carefully to make sure I found any new scuttlebut but the book mainly fills in details of the story told to me by my mother (Evelyn). The main secret of the family is how Aunt Annie's romance was sabotaged by Uncle Henry for reasons unknown. Rumour abounds.
Betty (now Elizabeth) tells the story of her upbringing in Steinbach, first as a relatively privileged granddaughter of a prominent businessman, H. W. Reimer, and her life growing up and working in the huge general store, and later as a much poorer teenager when her father left the family business and the town to start his own business. Well told, the story paints a clear picture of real people living those years in the foreground of the history of Canada in depression, war, and recovery.
She alludes to the Reimer tendency to independent action and wild impractical dreams without the grit to plan and execute them or consider those others whom it may affect. Heaven knows the family is full of renowned characters who prove this point, especially the male family heads in each generation. She also describes the Mennonite system of inheritance (European system) and how the Reimer money and business were dissipated by decades of fighting amongst the heirs.
The eye openers are there too. When I lived there in the 50s and 60s, the whole town seemed uniformly conservative and stifled by the Kleinegemeinde church. Betty's memories are broader in perspective and describe more liberal ideas and behaviours than I had imagined existed in those early years of the 20th century.
I was moved by the struggle of my parents' generation to get a high school education, even for those with rich grandparents. Heaven knows my mother described this desperation to me many times. And I admired the bravery of those young men who joined the armed forces against strong opposition from home. Leaving home for them meant learning vernacular English, trying to fit in with the mainstream of Canadians, and facing ostracism for being "German".
I was brought to tears at her mention of her sisters and the bond between sisters being the strongest of all bonds, because sisters are the most closely related.
A strong recommendation to anybody who knows Steinbach. And let me know what you think please.
This is a delightful set of stories of a British ex-pats in a Turkish village. You can buy it at the souvenir stand at the abandoned Greek village that was the subject of the book, Birds Without Wings.
Published in 1950, this is a memoir of life in Turkey from about 1908 to 1940. It chronicles the downfall of an upper class family into poverty and starvation during WWI, the incredible survival of the women and children after the men have disappeared into the army. Orga portrays the characters of himself, his mother, other relatives with clarity and insight. A short, powerful, easy read. The city version of Louis de Bernieres 'Birds Without Wings.
Loved this book. Well written and entertaining, the descriptions (which are lists of the components) of the local environments are excellent. Julia remembers her life with husband Paul, their love of France and struggles in the diplomatic service and writing of the cookbook and the making of the TV shows. The details apparently gleaned from the volumes of correspondence written by both Julia and Paul to their siblings.
I really sympathized with the struggle to find accurate descriptions of cooking techniques and ingredients, missing in nearly every other cookbook. I find the same problems writing my cooking blog and teaching myself methods and how to judge ingredients. So many cook books and online recipes and instructions are written with little detail or with needless complexity.
A must read --- a graphic memoir by an exceptionally talented woman. The history of Persia as experienced by a child growing into a rebellious teenager and young woman artist. Sent to Europe at age 14 alone to keep her safe from the arrest by the mullahs, her experiences are heart breaking and yet familiar to anyone.
Well told and real.
