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Henry and I dug the hole seven feet deep. Any shallower and the corpse was liable to come rising up during the next big flood: Howdy boys! Remember me?
Title: Mudbound
Author: Hillary Jordan
ISBN: 9781655126770
Publisher: Algonquin Books/2008
Pages: 324
The novel opens with a grave being dug by Henry and Jamie for their father in the farm that Henry owns. There is an atmospheric feel to it because of impending rains. Both want to finish the burial before it pours.
It is 1939 and Laura a Memphis school teacher, at thirty one years is resigned to the fate of spinster whn she meets Henry. After courtship of some months, they get married and live in Memphis where they have two daughters. But Henry McAllan buys a cotton farm in remote Mississippi without telling her and she is forced to move there. And circumstances makes them stay in a house which has no running water, no electricity and no bathroom, other than an outhouse. And come rains, the ramshackle farm is cut of from civililzation, and they are bound only with mud. Although Laura isn't vocal about it, but she doesn't like her situation one bit. She also hates the fact that Pappy, Henry's father comes to live with them.
Intermingled to their lives are the Jacksons, the black sharecroppers working on Henry's land. Florence is hired by Henry to help Laura at the house. She does it happily enough as she needs the money. Florence is a midwife too, who is much sought after. Hap, along with working on Henry's land also acts as preacher of sorts for the blacks and coloured people in that remote place.
When World War II ends, Henry's brother Jamie comes to the farm and also Ronsel, Jackson's son to returns from the very same war. Both have their own demons to kill. An unlikely friendship develops between the two, which brings forth racial tensions in that place, which brings about the inevitable tragedy. This brings more sorrow for both the families.
Told in the voices of Jamie, Laura, Henry, Ronsel, Florence and Hap, it gives us glimpses into everyone thoughts and the interactions between the families. Of all the character, Pappy has not been given a voice but that only enhances his evil persona. The racial tensions are felt by us all throughout the book. Right from the beginning, there is a sense of doom, which concludes in tragedy. And redemption comes from unexpectedly and from the unlikeliest source. Jordan's descriptions are very vivid too. People and places come out alive right in front of us.
The questions asked by Ronsel are very disturbing. A novel that grips right from the first page. And does not leave the mind long after finishing it. What I really liked is that she has given voices to blacks too. A very important aspect.
I hear someone's voice chanting, and the repetitive verses lap like water at the edge of my consciousness.
If I had a book, I would read it.
If I had a song, I would sing it.
Title: Rooftops of Tehran
Author: Mahbod Seraji
ISBN: 9780451226815
Publisher: New American Library/2009
Pages: 345
Rooftops of Tehran grabbed me from the first page. It is winter of 1974, and Pasha is in the Roozbeh Psychiatry Hospital, Tehran. He is unaware how he came into being there. From there we see flashes of memory taking us through the events leading to it.
It is based in the midst of the Revolution, where many wanted the Shah to be overthrown. Pasha and Ahmed are two seventeen year olds and are the best of friends. Both are in school. Pasha is intellectually inclined, he reads everything he can. Ahmed is not so much so but he is witty, sarcastic and loves his friend to no end. Both friends are most of the time on the rooftop of Pasha's house even sleeping there some times, which Pasha's mother does not like.
Ahmed is in love with Faheemeh and Pasha with the beautiful Zari, who is engaged to another man, whom all know as Doctor. Pasha feels guilty but can't help falling in love with her. Slowly a rich bond develops betweem them. However, Pasha knows as soon as Doctor comes back, Zari will be married off to him. He does not reveal his feelings for her. One night everything blows up. Shah's secret police catches hold of Doctor, which Pasha thinks is his fault. It ends in tragedy. Suddenly Pasha, Ahmed question their very existence. Zari mourns in her own way and takes such a decision which shatters Pasha completely. He ends up in hospital. When he gets back, he finds Zari gone...
Rooftops in Tehran is a very well written book with well etched out characters. Pasha, Ahmed, Faheemeh, Zari, Doctor, Iraj are all well brought out. Pasha, Ahmed, Iraj are like any teenager in any place. This book covers a very important period of Iran but it is in no way a heavy read. There is wit and humour which carries it forward with ease. And I must mention, the wit does not lighten the book or takes away from it. It only enhances the seriousness of it.
Iran is a much misunderstood country. One of my friends was living there when the Shah was overthrown. She still has good memories of the people. Politics aside, people are same or similar everywhere. Fairly recently another of my friends stayed in Tehran for 3 years. She too recalls its people fondly. In no way the country is regressive as most assume. I think we need to keep our eyes and years open, and must not believe all that the so called world leaders say. Reading books on the country would help us understanding the people, the culture and its ethos. I say if for any country, not Iran.
Reading the novel also enhances our knowledge about the age-old Persian culture. I would recommend this book to all those who want to explore a new country, its culture, ethos, people....
Thanks Mahbod Seraji, for sending me this book. It is one of my best reads of 2009.
Also reviewed by:
Book Chase
Let me tell you about the time your grandfather took a sledgehammer to the car.
Title: Breathing Out the Ghost
Author: Kirk Curnutt
ISBN: 9781579660703
Publisher: River City/2007
Pages: 329
Book Blurb:
Colin St. Claire is on a dangerous mission. His young son is missing, and he is on a self-appointed quest to find the boy, or at least find the man he believes is responsible. Fueled by uppers and a profound lack of sleep, Colin’s road soon becomes an uncontrollable spiral of blurry white lines, of fleeting forms in the night, ghosts of memory as intangible as vapor . . . Assisting him is Robert Heim, a former private investigator who lost his license in the line of duty—and it is a sense of warped duty that still ties him to Colin, though his own family, a loving wife and children, beckons him back home . . . The answers for both men may lie not with the man they believe is the perpetrator, but with a long-suffering farmer’s wife, Beverly “Sis” Pruitt, whose own daughter was claimed by violence, years prior.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Curnutt has taken up a very difficult issue, that of the parents of a missing child. One of the worst nightmares any parent can face. Not knowing if the child is dead or alive and the hope that he/she is. Living with that day after day is one uphill task. Everyone expects that the parents ought to move on and get on with their lives. Is it easy? Curnutt has kept his characters the way they are. No explanations, no apologies but what they are. Has there to be any reason for what we are? Curnutt shows us no reason is needed. Colin St. Clair, Heim, Dickie, the pedophile, Sis, whose daughter has been murdered, don't need props or anything.
Answers are not easy to find. But Curnut is not on that mission to provide us answers. He has written a novel about the thoughts of a father with a missing son, a mother whose daughter has been murdered, and a private invesigator who just has to go along and Dickie, the pedophile. Their connection to each other and their single minded pursuits. Does it converge anywhere. Most important, does it have to?
With complex characters and the novel moving from one character to the other, totally keeps us riveted. Curnutt's prose too helps, with its poetic way of writing. A novel, which is powerful, hard hitting, profound, disturbing, brutally frank, deeply moving and intelligent. Not an easy novel but why should any book need to be easy?
I especially liked the following:
"There aren't any laws governing grief except the law of certain obliteration." Thoughts of Colin St. Clair
" What kind of man would leave his wife to go on a wild goose chase -- and what kind of woman wouldn't go with him."
These are the thoughts of Sis, whose daughter has been murdered.
Some people move on leaving behind the past, some can't. It is as simple or as complex as that. Who are we to judge?
In India, everyday Children go missing, mostly from poor families. Believe it or not, the police does not seem to care unless the child is from an affluent class.
I rate it: 5/5.
Also reviewed by:
She is too fond of books
Chartroose
Caribousmom
