Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver

 

THIS is why I love reading.

Barbara Kingsolver is a Writer.  One of my favorite books is The Poisonwood Bible.  There is nothing else like it.  It is a tough read, a long read, but did I mention she is a WRITER???

This is another of the (many) books that have been collecting dust on my shelf for several years.  In my Covid Reading Challenge of reading mainly the books on my TBR shelf, I finally picked this one up.  I have no reason for why I delayed, and if it happens to be on your shelf, go get it - NOW.

Some reviews point out that this novel is too full of overly descriptive nature.  Maybe.  I didn't mind it.  The story is in three arcs, set at the same time.  Like three novellas about three neighbors in the same farmland town near the Appalachian Mountains.  They do not seem connected by anything other than their location, and their individual connections to nature: a "bugologist," a Forest Warden who has isolated herself on the mountain, and a tree cross pollinator and his crazy neighbor who refuses to use any chemicals at all in her apple orchard.  (Her encounters with the tree man are some of the best dialogue and inner musings I have read in a while.  Loved it.) 

The poignancy of the life of the city girl turned farmer's wife is so touching.  I liked her character fine and would have read an entire novel about her.

The character and history behind and future of the Warden, not to mention her knowledge of her mountain, was so fascinating I hated when her chapters ended.

And while some of the connections are pretty obvious, you may still get a surprise or two.  But it should be no surprise in the capable hands of Kingsolver.  She is a genius. Species Genius Writerus.

Lockdown Vent number I cannot remember: Terminology and Normality

I love words.  Beautiful, descriptive words and sentences.  I am a Reader.  I love prose.  But:

Social Distancing.

Flatten the Curve.

Masks Required.

Synchronous.

Lockdown.

Quarantine.

Quarantini.

PPE.

Zoom Bombers.

Covid Cancelled.

Six Feet Apart.

Doomscrolling.

Mask it or Pack it (college hashtag)

And the Granddaddy of them all - NEW NORMAL.

Oh, my God, if I hear that one more time!  I am so sick of hearing that we are living in a New Normal.  There is nothing normal about life in the United States of America right now.  Yes, it is an Election year (insult to injury much?).  Yes, it is August so "school" has started back in a variety of Non-Normal forms.  Yes, it is still hot as heckfire down here in the South.  But it is also still March in my head.  Summer never happened.  Just the same day OVER AND OVER again.  One friend said her son hit the nail on the head when he said, moping,"Mom, I have nothing to look forward to."  

Wow.

I have heard several people lately (six months into the COVID-19 pandemic) say they are feeling unmoored, strange, can't-put-their-fingers-on-it weird.  It is not really depression, just unfocused and exhausted.  This morning I read an article about "surge capacity" and that we are at its limit (linked below).  A couple of other new terms hit me pretty hard in this piece: how our "rhythms of life" are upended and for people who like a schedule, this has been devastating. For over-achievers who are not allowed to achieve in the usual way, this has been devastating.  (Not to mention those who have suffered from the virus itself, either personally or through loss - extremely devastating.)

Another term this author used is the current feeling of "disinterested boredom," which I totally get.  I find myself standing in my kitchen some days.  Literally just standing there.  I cannot make a decision as to what to do, and my usual interests have waned a bit after six months, so I end up doomscrolling - WAY too much scrolling.  Even my weekly To-Do lists are not really helping much.  I am still reading and enjoying that, but still also feel guilty just sitting there and reading a book.  I still feel like I should be doing Something (and I just realized I might be reading but the reviewing part...well......).  But, all these restrictions mean that I have to find a new Something to do.  And anything new is, well, restricted.  ARRGGGGHHHHH!

Six months ago my omniscient husband said to me, "This is going to last at least six months."  I guffawed.  Seriously?  Who could think this sudden halt to life as we knew it on March 14 would last into the fall and disrupt going back to school?  Who could think the numbers would get so high for positives and deaths?  Who could think that this mind-numbing lockdown of Normal might even last two years?  It is like a never ending labor with no delivery in sight.  

I am usually a very positive person.  I am all about the silver linings.  But even my linings are starting to tarnish.  I am watching my family lose their joy.  I have not seen my parents since Christmas and they only live an hour and a half away.  Granted, I have lost no family or friends to this virus (but I know those who have).  For that I am very grateful, so I know I should have nothing to complain about in the big scheme of things.

However, here we are in the little scheme of things, living every day and Groundhogging it like crazy. Pun intended, ha.  Give yourself grace, they say.  Pick up a new hobby, they say.  Do Something for others Clean out your Closet Enjoy the Slower Pace Blah Blah Blah.

I am officially OVER IT.  I hereby announce and require that going forward the term should be "This Temporary Normal."  At least that gives me some hope.  I understand in my head that we can never really go back to what Normal was pre-Covid (oh, there is another new term), but I must sincerely also believe that the current way of life will be Temporary.

Ok, wow.  I have heard other people say they felt a blog post coming on (Hello, Dartinia! And her blog posts are required reading, see below).  But, I never felt the push as much as I did this morning.  Self Care sometimes just means blowing off steam and not being sorry for it.  I mean, I can't go get a massage!  I think I will go hit the Treadmill (I am focused on those iFit Challenge Magnets - like an obsession!! Here's to hoping that is NOT a temporary normal even if the treadmill was a Covid Purchase), take a shower before 3:00, watch another episode of The Umbrella Academy, and promise to write more blogs.  

And be more like Lauren, who posted this morning about her new habit of walking the church gardens while listening to our service.  She loves it.  She shares it.  It calms her and gives her a schedule.  Now, that is the kind of "New Normal" - positivity - I can get behind.  Will it be temporary?  Probably.  But Lauren's post put the reins on my despair a little bit, as did the article below.  Plus, I called Dartinia.  Life's silver linings got a little shinier just now.  Nice.

I feel better now.  I just feel sorry for the person at Webster who has to add all these new terms to the dictionary.

Your "Surge Capacity" is Depleted article by Tara Haelle:  

https://elemental.medium.com/

Dartinia's blog:  https://medium.com/@dartiniahull

Lauren's blog: https://ourteachertribe.com/blog/

Maya Angelou's Collected Biographies

(please click on the link to access the entire review(s!))

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings

Gather Together in My Name

Singin' and Swingin' and Getting Merry Like Christmas

The Heart of a Woman

All God's Children Need Travelling Shoes

A Song Flung Up to Heaven

These are the six titles in the Collected Biography of Maya Angelou.  And every one of them should be required reading.  Each are very different but they flow together with the Angelou's fabulous command of the written word, and with amazing stories of a life fully lived, and honestly told.  And this only covers the first half of that life!  Wowza.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (309 pgs)

I reviewed this one in April 2019 and highly recommend it.  It is a tough read; her childhood (through age 16 is covered here, 1928-1944) was brutal.  But the language and the set up for the rest of the volumes make this absolutely necessary reading.  Heartbreakingly beautiful may be an overused term but it is appropriate here. (copyright 1969)

Gather Together in My Name (219 pgs)

Maya's life as a very young mother and the lengths she goes to to care for her child while still trying to grow up herself makes for another type of hard read.  Only covering a few years ('44-48) and not as difficult as the first book, this one will surprise you as you begin to see Maya's fire really come out as she struggles to find her way.  As famous as she later became, she is very open about her experiences here, and so begins a long and unbelievably varied list of occupations! (copyright 1974)

Singin' and Swingin' and Getting Merry Like Christmas (310 pgs)

Now this book was FUN!!!  (Covers 1949-1955) So many famous names begin appearing here as Maya's talents on stage become known and she travels to Europe touring with Porgy and Bess.  And gets a(nother) new name.  She struggles being away from her son, but revels in her glitzy life.  She is still so very honest with her mistakes, her feelings, her misgivings, her feelings of having no place.  But there is much humor here and friendship building and romance even.  Again, what a life!! (published in 1976)

The Heart of a Woman (346 pgs)

This one is probably my favorite of all.  Maybe because I am reading it during quarantine in the summer of 2020, after a year of social unrest, protest, and what is hopefully the beginning of a true awakening in the United States about racial justice, actions, feelings, and reactions.  To read these words almost forty years after they were written, feeling they could have been also from yesterday's news, is both disheartening for how things have not changed, and eye-opening for this privileged white girl.  Maya speaks truth, her truth, and truth for many black people.  She experiences systemic racism and manages to still be successful, truthful and bold.  She begins her writing career here with a writer's group in Harlem.  She meets Martin Luther King Jr and begins working for him, running the Southern Christian Leadership Conference office.  She also gets engaged, finds love, finds more adventure, and prepares to move again (a recurring theme in her life).  Fascinating stuff. (covers 1957-1962, written in 1981)

All God's Children Need Travelling Shoes (228 pgs)

In which, Maya and Guy move to Africa.

Boom.

Egypt, Liberia, Ghana. The back of this book states, "Maya...discovers that you can't go home again, but she comes to a new awareness of love and friendship, civil rights and slavery - and the myth of mother Africa."  You can FEEL Maya's yearning in this book - for understanding, for Place, for history and connection and roots.  She is treated as royalty here, then again is on her own and has to find her way.  This woman definitely has guts and makes her own way!  She finds that things are done very differently in Africa, and that she is an American Black rather than a native.  I was surprised to read about the American Black community that moved to Africa during this time; all seemingly looking for connection.  Still, the friendships she makes here are deep and beautiful, the things she learns and sees are invaluable, and her son plays a bigger part in this one as he becomes his own man too.   And whoa, that ending.  I will never cross a bridge again without thinking of that scene.  Shivers!!!  (in a good way!)

Written without chapter numbers, and in a style that seemed more like short stories put together, or essays even.  Will she stay in Africa?  For a while maybe, ('61-64) but remember that theme of motion?  Yup. (published in 1986)

A Song Flung Up to Heaven (173 pgs, c2002)

It is 1964.  Maya has returned to the US.  But her plans shift like sand in front of her for the first few years and emotions are running high in the US over racial inequality.  This one seems a little like a footnote, and she kind of skims over a lot for the four years she covers in this slim edition.  I do recommend reading the entire series, even if, like the author herself, it takes you a few years between books to finish.  What a fascinating life, and these are all before she truly begins to write.  This one ends with her beginning I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, so a nice little circle back.  I have never read her poetry; maybe in a few years I will come back to that!!!

Low Country by Anne Rivers Siddons

While this made me homesick for the coast in my home state - I could just smell the marsh and the Old Man's Beard! - the main character in this story is just short of annoying.  She is not the typical strong southern woman with a tragic past - she has the tragic past alright but not the shutz-pah I expected.  What strength she does have she pulls from her island (or sometimes, her bottle).  And, somewhat from her husband, who also did not get a fair shake or a fully fleshed out chance here.

The best thing about this story is not the main character though - or maybe I should say that the main character is not Caroline but the people who live on her island.  They have been there for centuries and they have their ways, their language, their connections.  And nothing and nobody will, nor should, move them.  Or the wild horses that live alongside.

Until Caroline's developer husband tries.

More devastation, more crying, more collapsing with disbelief, and one ghost child later, we have a story.  And secondary characters that are much more interesting than Caro and Clay.  (And listen, I am Southern born and raised and I never heard anyone named Caroline called Caro, but that's just me.)  Caroline stands up for what she believes in even through betrayal and loss, and I will say Clay completely redeems himself in the end, which made me happy.  

So, overall, an easy quick read, perfect for the beach or if you are looking for some relatively good, if slushy, Southern literature.   Now, if you want EXCELLENT Southern literature, go grab Pat Conroy.  Meanwhile, this will do (and won't require a dictionary like Conroy does, haha!)

The Revolution of Marina M. by Janet Fitch

The Revolution of Marina M.

By Janet Fitch

First off, this tome is 800 pages, so get ready.

Secondly, the last four words of the book are "End of Book 1." 

AACCCKCKKKKK!!

Now y'all know I love historical fiction. It has been a while since I read anything set in Russia, much less in 1916-1918 Russia. And this author has done her research. I could feel the cold, I could feel the despair and I could feel the revolutionary frustrations and energy from the Bolsheviks. And while I thought it would be a bit of a slog to get through and kind of heavy for summer, I could not put it down. I did get a little tired at the end and I was not jumping up and down to read the next book even with so many story lines unfinished. (What will become of Marina? What happened back at the summer home? Where is her one true love???) Of course there is a lot of conflict, and there are a few quite violent scenes, including a pretty graphic sexual assault (trigger alert here!). And in the last half some situations seem really really far fetched and unnecessary and just plain weird. Some of Marina's decisions don't fit with the person she is becoming, I think she gives up on Koyla too easily much to her disadvantage, and the whole scene at her old summer home with the people now living there - meh. Not sure I will dive into the second book, especially if it is this long again, but this is a good book if you are into epic novels about Russia or historical fiction. Very well written even with its plot flaws (imho). 

Into The Free by Julie Cantrell

(Note: I point out triggers in this novel which some may find to be spoilers, so proceed with caution. I don't name names or give too much away I don't think, but there you go. More than fair warning.)


In-ter-est-ing.

I just skimmed several other reviews of this book and am vindicated in my opinion here somewhat. Yet, still conflicted. Mightily.

I gave it four stars because it is so beautifully written. And, that is hard to do in the present tense I think! Made it kind of dreamy. Millie is a girl to root for, who has everything stacked against her, and we yearn with her in all her hopes and dreams. She has an abusive rodeo star father (tough to read about - in detail - but only abusive to her mother, let me clarify), a mother who slides between painkillers and severe depression, grandparents who want nothing to do with her, and a big ole' crush on a travelling gypsy. By the time she is 16 she has decided to run away with the gypsies. I would too!!!

Of course - conflict intervenes. Tragedy strikes. A nice nurse and a nice cowboy enter the picture and things change. As does the novel. I did not like the second half of this story - it is almost like two different stories - and the ending chapters really turned me off. There is a big trigger scene for sexual abuse that is graphic, terrible, and the aftermath is NOT well handled in my opinion. Maybe that is the way it (the aftermath) was back then, but I was not impressed at all with the reactions, or lack thereof. My only half hope for why that was even part of the story was because there is a book two and it must have repercussions. But, I am probably not going to read book two. Which is a shame because, like I said, this book was otherwise a pleasure to read, for the prose more than the storylines. I was annoyed with Millie and her seemingly Oh Well decision at the end, her treatment of her gypsy friend - almost like the book is almost over gotta sort this out! I would be willing to try other books by this author, but I think I am done with Millie, bless her messed up little heart. 

*Funny, I just listened to a podcast about trigger warnings. Did I mess up the story by revealing a rape? Am I turning some people away from this book because I have mentioned domestic abuse and sexual assault? Maybe. But I am a big advocate for knowing what you are getting into if you have triggers. I was shocked and so disappointed that the story took this turn in this book. So yes, this review seems very negative in the re-reading of it and I don't mean it to turn everyone off the story. It is worth reading, hence the four stars. BUT, if you are triggered by these things, or even if you are like me and just DON'T WANT TO READ ABOUT IT, especially right now during this pandemic where things are already stressful, then I do not want to lead you to a book that is upsetting, even if it is beautiful. Just my opinion, in my review. Happy to discuss further!

The Invention of Exile by Vanessa Manko

(If receiving this via email, please click on the title above to read the entire review, and check out other reviews on my blog at rawlesreads.blogspot.com!)

A very different writing style here - broken, gauzy, flowing.....not much dialogue but I think that is on purpose - really suits the story.  The story is Austin's - a Russian immigrant to the US who because of a language misunderstanding, ends up deported to Russia, then flees to Mexico, and begins the process of trying to legally enter the US.  His American wife takes their three children home to wait for him.

Begin Heartbreak.

This was a bit too depressing for me this summer - lots of themes here including family, loss, mental breaks, and lots of stubbornness!  Because Manko based this story on the true story of her grandfather, there is a certain poignancy as well.  But I was bored.  I skimmed.  Nothing much happened.  Which, as another reviewer pointed out, might be just exactly what the author was going for in atmosphere.  

I appreciated that Austin was so determined to enter the country legally, and was dogged in his efforts to make the Consulate hear him.  My husband is foreign as well (citizen now), and we went through all the hoops to get him into the US legally.  But this is 1934 and things are different.  Reds are the enemy; they will not listen to Austin.  So he keeps up with his inventions, his drafts, his brilliance, just knowing that they will see how much his work will help the US so they have to let him in to be with his family.

Bless his heart.

I expected the ending to be tragic.  Or at least hopeful.  But I did not feel either of these things.  I felt like I was missing the last chapter, it was that sudden.  I found myself even WISHING for the tragic ending over that.  Sigh.  What I will say is that the title makes a lot more sense at the end.  That, at least, was brilliant.  I think this author is worth watching as well.