After reading Riven Rock by TC Boyle earlier this  month, I was anxious to get my hands on his most famous novel, Tortilla Curtain.  Hoping that I would be able to pick up a copy at Goodwill, I perused the thrift stores for a few days before giving up and checking a copy out from the library.  Now please understand, I love the library, I couldn't live without the library, but there is still something slightly disturbing about reading a book that potentially dozens of other people have read through.  People with less than ideal sanitary or hygienic standards.  Now, how I manage not to be similarly bothered by picking up a book from the thrift store, I fail to understand.  But it's just the way my mind works, and I can't begin to explain it.

But onto the book...Tortilla Curtain is required reading in many high school classes, and while I was not fortunate enough to read the novel until after I graduated college, I would highly recommend this book to any young or old person in America.  Written in the nineties, Tortilla Curtain still rings true to many of the issues we wrestle with in this new century.  As you can probably imagine, this novel explores the perplexing and often heated debate surrounding illegal immigration.  Set in California, Tortilla Curtain reveals to its readers two very different viewpoints on immigration.  TC Boyle brings to life two couples: an upper-class, liberal, environmentally friendly wife and husband and a newly married bride and groom, freshly immigrated from Mexico, struggling to survive in a very unfriendly environment. 

While these two couples live in vastly different worlds, their paths unexpectedly cross when Delaney (the white upperclass male) accidentally hits Candido with his car.  For different reasons, both men decide not to call the police or an ambulance, and Delaney gives Candido a twenty dollar bill to compensate for his injury.  From that point on, the lives of these couples are directly and indirectly influenced by each other, and prejudices and assumptions are made on both sides. 

Out of TC Boyle's twelve novels, Tortilla Curtain is his most successful, and I understand why.  The characters are unique and painfully human.  As I read about Delaney and Kyra or Candido and America, I found elements of my own life embedded in their stories.  These small connections helped to remind me that as human beings, we have far more in common with each other than we sometimes think.  Additionally it encouraged me to look at the immigration issue with different eyes.  Like so many political hot topics in our country, illegal immigration is complex, far more complex than most politicians want to admit.  I think our country would be a lot better if more people were exposed to novels that painted both sides of difficult issues; Boyle was able to accomplish this, adn I   As always, Boyle is a master with language and his writing is comedic, fresh and engaging.  So if you need a book to read over the next few weeks, I would highly suggest picking this one up. 

So I've realized that my last few book reviews have been far from recommendations.  While I love Oates and Ishiguro, I was fairly disappointed in their latest work.  However, I do have a host of books I would readily recommend to any of my friends and family, books that have made a profound difference in my life, books that have left tiny marks on my soul. 

Now if I sat down to list all of these books, the list would reach the floor.  I have read quite a bit, and Ryan will attest to our constantly expanding library.  We spend almost every weekend perusing the thrift store, and unlike most people, I walk away with a bag of books (It is just far too difficult for me to find clothes at thrift stores that fit my long, lanky body).  These books sit in boxes and on shelves and provide me with an always open library.  Many of them are good, some of them are great, and a few have entered into the realm of my most treasured possessions.    

But I want to catalog these works in a more meaningful way than just listing them under the title, "Favorite Books".  So every week, I will attempt to create a thematic list of recommended reading.  I hope that you enjoy the categories I create and the books that fall under them.  If you live close by and would like to borrow a copy of one of the books I mention, please let me know.  I love lending books almost as much I enjoy borrowing them. 

As March is about to close on us, I must begin my first list by honoring Women's History Month.  I am most often drawn to literature written by women, and so I have quite the list of favorite female authors and their works.  So in order to specify, this first list will focus on novels that attempt to "Write women back into history" (which happens to be the overarching theme of National Women's month 2010). 

Writing Women Back Into History

Cane River by Lalita Tademy
This novel explores the personal ancestry of the author, Lalita Tademy. 
Utilizing an amazing amount of research, Lalita brings to life four remarkable women in her family that lived and breathed the discrimination and injustice that African-Americans have faced over the past two hundred years.  These women face innumerable hardships, but retain a commitment to preserve their heritage.  The novel is well researched and written in eloquent and precise prose.  It is an excellent choice and will motivate you to explore your own family's past.   

My Antonia by Willa Cather
Oh pioneers.  As a child, I was obsessed with Laura Ingells from Little House on the Prairie.  Yes, I read every book numerous times and found the television show far too addicting for my 1/2 hour limit of television each day.  I would lie in bed at night, imaging embarking on the Oregon Trail with my dog and bonnet in hand.  In high school, I discovered Willa Cather and my love for pioneering was reignited.  My Antonia tells the story of several immigrant families who move out to Nebraska to start a new life.  Although the book is narrated by Jim, it chronicles his friendship with the bohemian farm girl, Antonia.  The novel paints a stark picture of what life truly was like for many girls and women in the West.  Willa Cather has a gift with language and her descriptions of the rolling prairies and the stark landscape upon which so many families began new lives is worth immense admiration. 

Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
Ah, the sexual double standard...how could I leave this theme out?  Hardy's most famous novel chronicles the painful coming of age of a poor country girl.  Issues of class and sexuality permeate the novel, and Hardy's detailed description of the Wessex countryside makes me want to live in Europe and herd goats.   I love Victorian literature, but I understand that many of you would rather eat sawdust than sit down with Henry James or Thomas Hardy.  But this is a novel I fell in love with at the tender age of sixteen.  As I read about Tess, I found myself grateful to be living in a time and a place where my gender afforded me more opportunity than many women faced throughout history.    

Bless Me, Utlima by Rudolfo Anaya
Throughout history, women have been healers.  Although in the 19th and 20th centuries, the medical practice became largely controlled by men, history proves that women have long held positions of authority within the healing realms.  This novel, set in a small New Mexico town in the 1940's, follows the life of a young boy who has a curandera (a woman healer) come and live with his family.  The young boy is forced to wrestle between the opposing forces of his parents.  He is torn between the masculine influence of violence and possession and the feminine influence of his mother's family and religion.  But with Ultima, the curandera, he discovers oneness with nature.  Gender become neutral and reconciliation between masculinity and femininity occurs.  This is a beautiful book about a child growing up in a conflicting family environment (not unfamiliar to me in the least) and the reconciliation that one woman brings into his life.   

Kazou Ishiguro is one of the most celebrated contemporary authors in Britain and the world.  He has been nominated for the Booker Prize four times, and his most famous novel, the Remains of the Day, won the prize in 1989.  I stumbled upon Ishiguro while still in high school.  One of my dearest friends brought in his latest novel, Never Let Me Go, and as she explained the premise of the plot, I knew Ishiguro was a writer I would like and admire for  years to come.

What sets Ishiguro apart in my opinion is his ability to gracefully invite the reader into the world and lives of his characters.  Most of his novels are written in first person, and so the reader finds herself privy to the inner thoughts and workings of a character both flawed yet sympathetic.  Ishiguro writes with such agility that the reader does not realize how attached he or she has become to the protagonist until the last page ends and that sinking, hollow feeling rises in his or her chest.  The story ends and yet we feel like this person, these people should still exist.

And so I've determined that while Ishiguro is a talented writer, the short story form does not work for him as well as his longer pieces.  While the stories in his latest collection, Nocturnes, are well written, I found the characters to fall flat.  I couldn't attach to them, and I found some of them to be fairly unconvincing.  This collection is bound together by the motifs of music, declining or dejected musicians, regret and the labor of finding meaningful relationships and love.  Each story feels fairly similar, and like a good musical score the first and last story begin in the same place, Italy.  Throughout the collection, the reader is introduced to a slew of different characters that somehow fall short of being meaningful. 

I think that if this collection had been written by a lesser known author, I would have been able to find more praise.  But because Ishiguro is so brilliant and his other works so powerful, I found these stories to be somewhat disappointing.  So once again, I recommend this author highly, but just not that this particular book.            

Without question, Joyce Carol Oates is a living, literary genius.  She has written over 50 novels and has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize three times.  Although diminutive in stature, she is a force to be reckoned with artistically and intellectually.  I had the pleasure of hearing her speak at the Tattered Cover a couple of years ago, and I was struck by her evident passion for writing.  This woman has written 50 novels and dozens of short stories; each crafted with painstaking detail and precise prose.  Although she may not be my favorite author, by far, she is a woman that deserves our highest recognition and honors. 

Over the weekend, I read her latest novel, A Fair Maiden, and I was immediately reminded of her famous short story, "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?"  Written in the 1960's and inspired by Bob Dylan's "It's All Over Now Baby Blue", Joyce's story follows a beautiful yet irresponsible teenage girl and highlights the dangerous world in which young women can find themselves in.

Similarly, this novel focuses on another teenage beauty, Katya Spivak.  Katya comes from a lower-class family in New Jersey but spends her summer nannying in an exclusive East Coast beach town.  While there, she is "befriended" by a very prominent and wealthy gentlemen.  Over the course of their relationship, Katya finds herself in compromised situations but in her naivety and irresponsibility, she refuses to cut off ties.  Katya is both innocent and knowing.  She recognizes the threat that this older man poses, but still allows herself to become entrapped in sexual exploitation.

The story almost plods along until the last chapters, where the plot suddenly escalates and becomes  captivating.  The ending of the story makes me wonder if Oates was attempting a feminist take on certain fairy tales about virgins and noblemen, but I found myself relatively detached by the conclusion.  One of the biggest problems I found with this novel was Oate's attempt to write Katya as a modern, 21st century teenager.  While in her earlier novels, Oates was able to capture the youth and beat of the younger generation, she fails to understand the modern teenager.  I found myself sometimes laughing at the mannerisms and reactions of this protagonist. 

So if you've never read Oates before, I would highly recommend looking into another novel.  She is an amazing author, and when she is on, her novels are captivating and her prose is mind-blowing. You Must Remember This and them are two novels that I particularly enjoyed.  You can't really fault Oates for being out of touch with modern, American girls.  She is, after all, seventy two years old, and I have to admire the fact that she can even do a decent job capturing the voice of this generation.        

Below is a picture of Oates in her younger years...I think she is beautiful.

Although I've heard great things about T.C. Boyle for a number of years, this is the first novel of his I've read.  I walked away from this book understanding why Boyle is such a respected and admired author.  Riven Rock is a thoughtful meditation on love, loyalty and the absurdity of life.  Set in the early 20th century, Riven Rock chronicles the life of Stanley McCormick, an East Coast millionaire plagued with an insanity that alienates him from women.  Based on a true story, this account delves into the confusing and often debilitating world of psychiatry and sexuality at the turn of the century.  When Mr. McCormick's mental illness becomes too much for his wife, Katherine, to handle, he is sent to California to be treated by a montage of doctors and nurses.  Riven Rock is the estate where he is kept apart from the rest of the world and women, specifically. 

In his novel, Boyle focuses not only on Mr. McCormick, but on the other characters that surround him.  It is his development of Eddie, Mr. McCormick's chief nurse, and Katherine, Mr. McCormick's wife, that makes this novel a rich and involved analysis of the price of love and loyalty.  Katherine marries Stanley McCormick without realizing the years of pain and loneliness she will face as the wife of a clinically insane man.  Both her bravery and her coldness show the reader ways in which loved ones cope with mental illness.  Eddie, a young nurse with his whole life ahead of him, faces his own demons as he treats Mr. McCormick.  Although Stanley is the man receiving psychological treatment, it becomes apparent that almost all people harbor deep and trying demons. 

The strength of the novel lies in Boyle's ability to infuse his narrative with both tragedy and comedy.  While many authors could fall trap to making this a morose and depressing tale, Boyle infuses a sense of the comedic in almost every chapter, so that the reader finds herself laughing amidst the darkest of scenarios.  Boyle is a master of the English language, and his descriptions and dialogue are riveting.  I found myself stopping to read certain paragraphs aloud, the lyric quality of many of his paragraphs is striking.  It is evident that Boyle spent considerable time researching the lives of the McCormicks and the time period in which they lived.  The reader is easily transported back in time, and I found myself not wanting to leave the world that Boyle had crafted. 

Ultimately this is a story about love.  It is a story that calls into question the human desire for control, especially when the one we love is unable to perform or act in an acceptable way.  I highly recommend this novel for anyone who is curious about psychology or about the nature of human love and commitment.       
 

Despite what you might think...I do manage to do a few other things in my life besides baking.  Reading and writing have long been passions in my life.  Growing up, I would spend afternoons in my mom's office, typing away on her computer, crafting stories about horses and girls with short, cropped hair.  I would spend evenings pouring over the chapter books my parents graciously bought for me and my sister.  Books about Cleopatra, about the pioneers, about horses, about fairies, about adventures in far-away lands.  I fell in love with reading, and that initial head-over-heels attraction has yet to dissipate.

In high school, thanks to one of my dearest friends, I was introduced to a variety of literature that most teenagers don't interact with until college.  I fell in love with Toni Morisson, checking out every  books our library had stocked on its shelves.  I read Vonnegut, Faulkner, Hardy, Ishiguro, Neruda, and the list could go on.  In college, my passion expanded, and I read voraciously, devouring books like bread. 

Now, as I begin graduate work in the fall, I continue to read with fervor, increasing fervor actually because a good writer only comes by being a good reader.  I hope to document the books that I'm consuming on this blog.  I hope that this allows me to reflect more on what I'm reading and encourages my friends and family to read works by different authors.  So after you've taken a look at what I'm baking, please feel free to take a look at what I'm reading.  I hope that I can bring thoughtful analysis and critique to the literature that is shaping my perspective on the world and influencing my work as a writer.