Davad itibaren Kainjalia, West Bengal 734201, Hindistan
You know, given how much of my career is now directly tied to Dickens's tale, I found this really refreshing as a look into how the book happened, and why. It made it clear to me which parts of "A Christmas Carol" are the most important, and that's got me thinking differently about it on the whole. A great read.
You should read this book if you enjoy hearing other people bitch and moan about how hard their lives are in a painful fashion that lacks wit and clever design.
Book #3 in the Irish Book Challenge was a delightful read for a snow day in February. Appropriately described on the cover as reminiscent of Chocolat and Under the Tuscan Sun, the book tells the story of the Aminpour sisters, who have fled Iran and opened the Babylon Cafe in Ballinacroagh Ireland. Each chapter of the novel begins with a recipe that figures into the plot of the chapter somehow. At first I thought the book was going to be a fluffed up romance, but the emotional baggage that the sisters have brought along with them makes the book more complex, weaving in the history of the Iranian Revolution. I am tempted to try a recipe or two - especially fessenjoon - a chicken, walnut, pomegranate dish. Also, one of the characters climbs Croagh Patrick in the novel, as did the author, who is married to Irish American.
Bellow is so good that it almost seems trivial to complain about the deep misogynist tinge on Mr. Sammler's planet. Sammler, a septuagenarian, is overwhelmed by the sexuality of the women who surround him, including his flighty bag-lady daughter. Somehow I doubt that you or I, in our century, would be overwhelmed by the estrogen or whatever it is emanating from these ladies. But for Sammler everything woman-related is tights, legs, knees, thighs, female smells, hair, wigs, food preparation, panties, breasts, veined nipples, and again, smells. Whenever a woman crosses her legs, Sammler's nose twitches. Perhaps, blinded in one eye from a Nazi rifle butt, his olfactory awareness is heightened. That's a side story, though. The main story is Sammler, Polish Holocaust survivor, living on the Upper West Side in the sixties, being intimidated by a large Negro pickpocket, trying to convince his H.G. Wells-obsessed daughter that Wells had his flaws, reading a manuscript about the moon, waiting for his nephew and benefactor to die of an aneurysm.
One of my most favorite books. It's a simple and powerful story of woman, mothers, belonging, being powerful and standing up for yourself. You read this and you know you will always have a place in this world.