Book 56: Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang

Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang by Kate Wilhelm

 

I actually picked this novel up at the college bookstore back when I was a college senior because it was being used in a class I didn't have room for in my schedule.  I then never actually got around to reading it because every time I picked it up, the first paragraph just seemed oddly impersonal and distant to me.  I finally realized recently that it would actually fit into the Keyword Challenge I was participating in this year, and moved it into the short term to read pile (or in sports terms, it went from bench warmer status to on deck).

 

 The novel is set at an undetermined time in the United States, but definitely the future.  The world is facing huge environmental issues, and societies are close to the brink of collapse.  David is a member of a large yet close knit family that has been very successful, spawning doctors, researchers, and department store owners among other things which gives them useful skills and resources.  The family's leadership can see the epic crisis that is looming, and as a result, the family comes closer together, all relocating to the patriarch's land under the guise of building a hospital.  This gives them access and reason to buy a large amount of medical supplies and equipment without looking suspicious.  In reality, the hospital is a front for Walt, David's uncle, to run his experiment in the caves with the assistance of other medical professionals, both in and out of the family.  The only solution Walt and David can see to the future of the family and humankind is cloning.  The livestock aren't breeding successfully, and neither are humans.  Research suggests that after a certain generation of cloning, the specimens regain the ability to breed naturally, so the clones are supposed to be a kind of stop gap to prevent humanity (and their livestock) from going extinct before allowing nature to once again take its course.

 

The novel follows the collapse of society, and the beginnings of this secluded life on the farm, but David sees that their plans may not go as desired before he dies - the clones have developed ideas of their own about the future of society.  From here the novel jumps forward, to a society of clones.  While the society functions well enough, they are also at the point where they must explore their surroundings to continue to thrive, and salvage what they can from the abandoned, dead cities.  It is here that this community reveals its weaknesses which are very much related to the lack of individualism and lack of creativity.  At this point, the clones have no idea what their original function was as previous clones have rewritten their history.

 

Mark is born into this, the result of a relationship between two clones that have been behaving oddly as a result of exploring the world, and his individuality allows him to see the threat to the future of humanity.

 

I actually liked the first two sections of this novel the most, seeing how the family determined what they felt needed to be done to preserve themselves and humanity.  Though this was written in the '70s, using environmental issues as the reason for the breakdown of society makes it still very much relevant to today.  I also felt like the novel did a great job of showing the problems that would eventually arise in such a homogenous society as cloning could lead to, and enjoyed the inner conflicts that the characters faced.  My biggest complaint is that the section with Mark both went into great detail about certain things, and yet wrapped up very quickly.  Wilhelm spends a good portion of narrative on his development, his childhood and his sense of difference, but I would have enjoyed more time on the resolution.  At the end, I couldn't help but wonder if a whole different issue had the potential to arise in the type of society being developed but that is a whole new discussion.  Overall, I would definitely recommend it.

Book 55: The Painted Girls

The Painted Girls by Cathy Marie Buchanan

 

While I had already bought and decided to read this novel before this review by a fellow Cannonballer (which the author even responded to!), the review certainly helped move it towards the top of the pile.  While I didn't love it as much as Jamie, I enjoyed the novel.

 

The novel is told from the alternating perspectives of Antoinette, the older sister and protector of her two younger sisters, and Marie, the middle sister, the shy one with the most schooling.  The family has always assumed that Grace, the youngest, would be the professional ballerina, especially after Antoinette's attitude got her kicked off the troupe, but after their father's death, Marie and Grace both end up trying out for positions on the same day, and both make it.  Their mother is an alcoholic, and Antoinette sees herself as their guardian, taking care of Marie and Grace to the best of her ability.  Unfortunately she meets a boy, who becomes a major distraction for her, Emile, and as a result of his influence, she soon finds herself descending the rungs of society to help him when he gets in trouble.

 

Marie doesn't understand her usually intelligent and streetwise sister's attraction to Emile, but it isn't exactly a topic Antoinette is willing to discuss.  Instead, Marie focuses on her training, works extra jobs to help with her progression, and even is paid to model by Edgar Degas.  This exposure helps her find a sponsor, which is both a bad and a good thing.  The older rich man that takes an interest in her helps her monetarily but some of his interest is definitely less than kosher and makes the naive Marie uncomfortable.

 

I admit, I was expecting a slightly different story than the one I read - since the novel charts the progression of two sisters, one who is a descending star in the ballet world, while the other is on her way down, falling victim to the seedier side of Paris, I think I was expecting the high to be higher, though the low was rather low.  However, what I thought worked very well is the way that the sisters' success and failures paralleled each other - Marie may have been becoming more popular and accomplished in the theater but how much did the things she ended up doing truly contrast with her sister's actions?

 

While Marie and Antoinette have their differences, it is their relationship that anchors the novel, even if at points other things and people take priority.  The three sisters are actual historical figures and Emile is also pulled straight from history.  Of course, the idea that they ever interacted is the author's imagination, so while some of the big facts of their lives are used in the story, the feelings and things that drove them to those outcomes are conjecture on the author's part.  I actually liked the fact that the main characters of this historical fiction novel had a basis in reality beyond "this could have happened."  Still, I didn't get quite that attached to the characters, and I'm not sure whether that is because I didn't care as much about the relationship between sisters or because I've read so much historical fiction that it takes quite a lot to stand out to me.  As a result, while I liked the novel, it didn't hook me in the way it did some other readers.  And let's be honest - I've always been much more of an Anglophile than a Francophile.  While I've always felt the need to branch out, the fact is Paris just never entices me the same way that London does.  This isn't the novel's fault, but may very well be one of the reasons I didn't connect to this more.  Still, the novel is well-written, and I liked the concept behind the writing, showing that the author actually put some thought into this and some research.

Book 54: Faceless Killers

Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell

 

I keep seeing the Kurt Wallander series at the bookstore, and since I wanted to read a novel by a Swedish author, I decided to give the first novel in the series a shot.  While there were some things I liked about this, I also found myself comparing it unfavorably to the Harry Hole series.  Of course, this novel came out long before Harry Hole became popular in the States, so some of the cliches in this novel may not have been quite as cliched when this was originally published.

 

The novel begins with the murder of the elderly couple in the country who are discovered by their neighbors.  The violence and randomness of the crime shock the nation, and Kurt Wallander is assigned to the case.  Kurt's wife has left him, his relationship with his daughter is almost non-existent, he is struggling with his weight, and in this novel, he also is making bad decisions when it comes to drinking.  However, he isn't a loose but brilliant cannon in the lines of Harry Hole, and in fact, comes off as occasionally incompetent.  The wife of the elderly couple actually lived long enough to make it to the hospital and utter the word foreign, so in addition to facing a brutal crime, Wallander has to find the murderer soon enough to prevent any racially motivated crimes from occuring as a result of the tensions the murders cause to flare up.

 

I actually liked this part of the novel.  Mankell shows us the slow investigation, with very few clues, and several possible motivations but none that truly stand out.  The fact that this isn't some incredibly intricate case and instead something that probably resembles life was actually interesting.  The murders lead to a hate crime which is solved more quickly than the main case of the novel.

 

The issue I mostly had is that Wallander isn't really a character I felt that invested in. While Hole makes mistakes, you still find yourself rooting for him to figure it all out.  In the case of Wallander, I just kept thinking "stop bumbling around with your personal life."  He becomes interested and makes a pass at a married prosecutor which honestly just pissed me off and made me not like him.  Actually, I don't think I would have minded him making a verbal pass or slightly flirting with her, but the fact is he becomes a bit forceful.  I can deal with a lot of things, and I realize detective novels aren't always the most gender friendly, but don't have the hero act like an entitled, sexist asshole and still expect me to want to read about him.  He apologizes the next day with flowers, but seriously?  This is supposed to be the flawed protagonist?  There still needs to be something interesting or likable about him.  Wallander on the other hand is a middle aged guy that doesn't know how to deal with his family, is having a bit of a midlife crisis as a result of his wife leaving him and is taking to drinking.  This makes him a realistic enough character but I'm not sold on him being a great cop, nor am I sold on him being a good person who is having some bad luck given his forceful pursuit of a married woman that didn't express an initial interest.

 

Since I actually liked the approach to the mystery, and this was a very quick read, I would be willing to give the series another shot before completely writing it off.  Maybe once Wallander has processed his impending divorce more, there will be a redeemable character hidden underneath.

Book 53: Stolen

Stolen by Kelley Armstrong

 

I've taken a bit of an unplanned break from reviewing, and have also fallen a bit behind on my reading in general (so this is what having a bit of a social life does - I'm not sure if I approve), but figured it was time to get back to it.  Stolen is the second novel of the Women of the Otherworld series, and so far, I'm definitely still hooked.  While investigating a potential threat to exposing werewolves to the public, Elena discovers that werewolves are not the only supernatural beings in the world when she realizes that the people she is meeting with are witches.  This meeting leads to the introduction of vampires, demons and other beings into Armstrong's world.  Elena is a bit surprised to find out that werewolves aren't alone in the world, and while it is easy for the reader to thing "well, if there are werewolves, why wouldn't there be these other things?", it actually makes sense in a way.  It's easy to think of being able to change one's body has some weird genetic mutation but witchcraft?  That's a whole different level.

 

This gathering of supernatural forces is in response to a common threat.  A group of scientists, sponsored by a tech millionaire (billionaire) are kidnapping supernatural beings for nefarious purposes - research, money making schemes, gaming ... as the only female werewolf, Elena is of special interest, and is soon targeted and captured, leading to various adventures as she attempts to learn as much as she can and escape.

 

Since Armstrong wasn't tied down as much with introducing her main character, this novel moved along much more quickly than the previous one, and it also helped that Elena had by this point come to accept herself rather than fighting with the parts of her personality she was unsure about it.  Additionally, even though Armstrong introduces quite a few new characters, she only develops the ones important to the story, relying on the fact that there will be later novels to flesh others out more.  With the influx of new characters, she was also smart about how she handled old characters, sending a few off to a trip on Europe, thus avoiding cluttering the book just so the readers could see familiar faces.  My one complaint about the previous novel was the lack of female characters which this novel nicely gets rid of, introducing several women in both the supernatural setting, and in the lab/prison.  So far I'm definitely happy with the series - as far as seriousness vs lightheartedness, I feel like it ranks somewhere between The Dresden Files and The Stackhouse Series - Elena is a fairly competent character (Sookie wasn't incompetent, but I feel like she got rescued more), but at this point, I don't think series has gone as dark as The Dresden Files occasionally do.  It might help that unlike Harry, Elena actually gets to have sex fairly often.

Book 52: Wool

Wool by Hugh Howey

 

I saw this at Barnes and Noble shortly after reading a very enthusiastic review for it over at the Cannonball Read site, and of course had to pick it up.  I wasn't disappointed, either.  It was nice to see a good piece of dystopian fiction in the adult section for once (I love all the YA ones, I just wonder sometimes why they seem to be primarily marketed for that group).  Wool originally started as a short story, which comprises the first section of this compendium entitled "Holston."  Due to the fan response, Howey followed this up with four novellas which all expanded on the world he built.

 

There is a lot of rich detail that adds to the story but I don't want to give too much away.  One thing I quite enjoyed is that Howey played with the readers' expectations, and subverted them.  I think many people that read this will have read other dystopian pieces, such as The Hunger Games trilogy.  As a result, we expect secrets and lies from top officials, but Howey plays with this and turns it on its head.  For example, I thought I knew where the short story was going with one or two of the comments or hints dropped but I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was wrong.

 

When the first story begins, the piece slowly reveals details.  Survivors of some catastrophic event live in a huge underground silo that is over 100 levels deep.  There is a mayor, and a sheriff to ensure law and order.  Everything is very controlled to ensure survival, including reproduction.  Holston is the current sheriff and his wife has been dead for three years.  On the third anniversary of her death, he decides he is done, and expresses a desire to go outside.  This breaks a giant taboo and law, and Holston knows he faces death, outside being something that isn't talked about.  We hear a little about his wife, and the past, gleaming hints of life in the silo - there have been revolutions in the past, but the history has been erased.  No one knows what happened to cause humans to retreat to the underground, how long they have been in the silo or what has happened in the silo in the past but they know that the outside is toxic.

 

The second section or first novella of this compendium covers the search for a new sheriff, and the mayor's decision to put Juliet in charge.  Juliet is a mechanic and has worked deep down in the silo for most of her life, but she made a good impression on the deputy during a case years earlier that took place in that level.  Juliet, of course, knows about Holston's fate since news travels in this environment, but once she is in place she is driven by a desire to find out what inspired him to make that kind of decision.  It is her search for meaning and understanding that drives the rest of the novellas and leads to the actions that occur.

 

Howey takes on a familiar story but adds his own spin, making this seem fresh and new within the genre.  I quite enjoyed it, though I think some of the later novellas ended up being a bit longer than necessary.  It was definitely a page turner, and I wonder how much of the world Howey had in mind from the beginning vs. how much he developed as he went based on fan response and popularity of his story.  There is a prequel out as well now, and on the one hand, I would very much like to read it, but Wool was so good on its own that I'm almost hesitant to change that experience or read anything further that might detract from Howey's creation in this compendium.

Book 51: The Unbearable Lightness of Being

The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera

 

This is one of those titles I've always heard of and felt like I should read but never actually got around to.  I had no idea what the novel was about and kept confusing this novel and its author with Jonathan Safran Foer (Everything is Illuminated and The Unbearable Lightness of Being sound like titles that could be from the same person, right?).  However, I've been trying to read more translated work this year and this fit in well with that goal.  With that title, I have to say I was expecting a rather heavy read, but I was pleasantly surprised by just how approachable the novel was.  That isn't too say that it doesn't touch on serious topics or that the author doesn't spend a good time engaged in philosophical discussion, but the writing itself was accessible and contained a simple story to settle it.

 

The two main characters are Tomas and Tereza.  He is a surgeon in Prague, and after a chance meeting (or one determined by fate depending on which character's thoughts you go with), Tereza visits him in Prague, and eventually moves there to be with him.  Tomas is a philanderer, and marriage and a relationship based on love are not what he was looking for, but he loves Tereza, and they get married. Tereza, of course, is miserable with the fact that even after marriage, Tomas continues to sleep with other women.

 

One of his many lovers is Sabina and she actually knows Tereza since she helped Tereza get her job at Tomas's request.  The novel follows Tomas and Tereza, Sabina and one of her other lovers whom she met in Geneva after leaving Czechoslovakia in 1968.  Tomas and Tereza also temporarily left the country, but return based on a choice Tereza makes.  Sabina remains an expatriate, while Tomas sees his status decline due to a statement he had made which the current government sees in a bad light.

 

Throughout the novel, Kundera goes off on various tangents, discussing the idea of light and heavy.  I liked the way he referred to language, discussing how certain words were composed in different languages and how this affected their meaning within their language.  And since I speak German, I enjoyed the bits of German thrown in here and there, such as his repeated focus on the idea that "einmal is keinmal" or once is the same as never doing it.  I also liked the way he played with the reader, referring to the novel as a novel while we were reading, acknowledging that Tomas and Tereza were characters, explaining the ideas that led to their creation.  Of course, within the context of the novel, he still gave them a backstory and family background, but to me it all seemed very tongue in cheek.  While he may have been using the characters to make a point about a belief or an idea, I still found them well developed, if sometimes eccentric or not always likable.  The other thing I liked a lot was the dictionary in the middle of the novel where he compares Sabina and Franz's definition of words.  This demonstrates just how different they are though I think only one of them realizes it.

 

I was pleasantly surprised by this one.  I generally avoid straight up philosophy if I can (at least straight philosophy - I can't get through Plato), but I like it when it's in small doses surrounded by a story, and this novel certainly met that requirement.  It was also nice to read something set in Prague (it's such a fun city), though I think it may be time to read an actual history of the Czech Republic and Slovakia to put everything in the proper context.

Book 50: Home

Home: A Memoir of My Early Years by Julie Andrews

 

Despite the fact that my dad introduced me The Sound of Music at a very young age, I didn't know very much about Julie Andrews.  I can't even remember seeing Mary Poppins more than once though The Sound of Music was a repeatedly viewed film during my childhood.  When I found this in the bargain bin, I was certainly sold because it's Julie Andrews, and I quite liked the book and her voice.

 

In my head I have a picture of Julie Andrews as proper but fun, slightly naive - basically, it's hard not to start thinking of her as her character Maria.  This book certainly shows that she is very classy.  There were points throughout the book where she could have viciously gossiped or made biting remarks about people, but she didn't do that.  She would explain the situation, provide a comment, but not drag anything through the mud or treat them too harshly.  For example, she describes being disappointed by her manager when he raised his percentage and she trustingly signed his contract without realizing this part, but beyond acknowledging that this changed their relationship, she does not attempt to settle any scores or rehash old drama.

 

The book follows Andrews through her childhood, introducing her somewhat unorthodox upbringing, her first successes on stage, through to her first musical on Broadway, her follow on role in "My Fair Lady," and ends with Andrews married, with her first child, enroute to Disney to take on the role of Mary Poppins.

 

I was actually amazed by the family situation that Andrews described - Andrews loved both of he parents though she trusted her father more.  Her mother was a pianist, divorced Julie's father and married another performer, and it is through them that Andrews eventually ended up performing.  As she becomes more successful, Andrews feels more and more responsible for taking care of the family in all senses of the term, financially paying for the family home, looking after her younger half brothers and even looking after her mother.  While it is easy for the reader to judge this relationship, and wonder at the amount of responsibility Andrews had thrust upon her at an early age, Andrews is not resentful at all, which is truly admirable.

 

While it is not necessarily a tell all, I feel like Andrews opened up quite a bit and revealed a lot about her life (Pat Benatar's memoir for example not only didn't have any juicy gossip, it didn't feel like it revealed much about her though it was nice to read about her musical career).  I would definitely be interested in checking out a book about her later successes, but I feel like she ended it in a good place since most people are probably more familiar with what happened once she made it to film anyway.