Whites by Norman Rush - 5 Stars

This is a masterful collection of short stories. I do not normally love short stories and find “slice of life” stories boring.  However, these charming tales each have a beginning, a middle and an end.  If you are a fan of The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency Series by Alexander McCall Smith which take place in Gaborone Botswana, you owe it to yourself to read about the other Botswana portrayed in Rushes’ book. The characters are all distinct and other than minor interactions they have little to do with each other’s story.  They also are impactful.  Some are disturbing or frightening. It is impossible to remain objective and the reader becomes involved.  Perhaps, my two favorite were the stories about Ione and Frank ,”Instruments of Seduction” and “Alone in Africa.”  How can two people married to each other know so little about their mates? I am now going to watch a video on how to string sugar peas.  I could not put this book down and am going to seek out his other novel long book if it is in print. I do not know the author, and I am not a shill for him.  I read the kindle edition.

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithe - 5 Stars

This memoir by a promising neurosurgical post doctorate fellow who died of lung cancer at age 37 is filled with lyrical language that soars, beautiful metaphors and inspiring quotes from literature throughout the ages.  This New York Times bestseller is rare for the fact that the author scientist was also an accomplished and schooled author.  Most scientists have difficulty writing and difficulty communicating especially when it comes to their subject of expertise.  Not so in the case of Paul Kalanithe.

 The Last Lecture by Randy Pauche, a memoir by another man stricken with cancer in the middle of his career does not compare to When Breath Becomes Air.  The Last Lecture was a Chevy whereas this tome is a Mercedes. The loss of a much loved computer science professor at a good but not great university cannot compare to the loss of a talented neurosurgeon and author who had the promise of lifesaving and life enhancing discoveries in his future. Kalanithe’s memoir is really divided into two halves.  The first half deals with his upbringing as the son of Indian immigrants in Kingman, Arizona where there were few Indian families. When Paul was ten, the family moved from Bronxville in Westchester County N.Y to Kingman, Arizona. Bronxville was an upper middle class suburb of N.Y.C. His father was a hardworking and much respected cardiologist in Kingman.  A graduate of Harvard University medical school he expected and demanded high scholastic accomplishments from his three sons.  However, he tempered high standards with love. His mother realizing the dearth of opportunity for educational excellence in their small town, obtained a long list of recommended reading for young people headed for college and read by successful college graduates. She insisted her three sons work their way through the lists.  Before endless hours of cable T.V. and the ubiquitous ipads, books were one of the Kalanithe children’s main sources of escape. Paul’s regular quotes from great works of literature as well as his love of literature were the result.  Further, when the SAT tests were not offered in Kingman, Mrs. Kalanithe drove four hours away to Las Vegas to make sure they had access to this college application requirement.  Although his father is a Harvard man, Dr. Kalanithe graduates from Stanford with a B.A. in English, a B.A. in biology and an M.A. in English.  He receives an M. of Philosophy in the history and philosophy of science and medicine from Cambridge.  He then earns a medical degree cum laude from Yale where he also meets his wife Lucy.  They both head to Stanford where he begins a promising career as a neurosurgical resident and she studies internal medicine.  He received the highest award given for resident research by the American Academy of Neurological Surgery.  His education and career reflect his fascination with the tension between objective medicine and compassionate humanity.  When was it time to give up was a regular refrain in his treatment plans.  Little did he know that he would soon answer that question as a patient.

Dr. Kalanithe worked 100 hour weeks and immersed himself in his field leaving little time for his wife or social obligations.  Still he was a dedicated practitioner performing lifesaving and life enhancing surgeries on many grateful patients as well as engaging in groundbreaking research that he hoped would one day provide the compassionate humanity that he wanted to see in the practice of medicine.  He and his wife, Lucy were scheduled for a reunion of sorts with some of their east coast classmates.  Paul went alone.  Even before his trip he was feeling ill.  He thought he was coming down with a virus for weeks and had begun to suffer back pain some of it becoming extreme.  He chalked it up to too many long days and too much time on his feet in the operating room.  He was really ignoring his symptoms at this point and hoping they would disappear.  In this way he is not so different from the typical patient.  Believing he would benefit by the trip where he could rest and relax, he left for the east coast.  Once there and exhausted from his travels, he plopped down in bed and never left it.  He slept the whole of the next day.  On the second day feeling something more than a virus and backache were the cause of his malaise, he left the reunion early and headed home where he drove immediately to the hospital where he worked.  After an exam by a physician there, he was admitted.  The admitting doctor told him he was very ill and would need to stay.  Suddenly, the lifesaving doctor became the patient needing lifesaving treatment.  His wife Lucy read the X-Rays and knew the moment she saw them that her husband, Paul, was dying.  Then the two of them viewed the X-Rays together.  The oncologist confirmed their fears.  Paul was on the cusp of a stellar trajectory when he was diagnosed at the age of 36 with metastatic lung cancer.  They marveled at the tiny percentage of 36 year old lung cancer patients there were in the statistics.  But Dr. Kalanithe also acknowledged the fact that when you the patient are the statistic, statistics don’t matter.  Realizing he had little time remaining, he tried to squeeze as much life out of the year and a half left to him.  His compassionate oncologist asked him about those parts of his life that were most important to him, and she strove to save as much of them as she could.  Paul underwent arduous chemotherapy etc. to delay the inevitable.  For a while he was bedridden and the pain in his back was disabling.  Gradually, the chemo worked and he was able to return to his surgery and research but not at the same super human pace as before.  He and Lucy were amazed at how the chemo shrunk the tumors.  His X-Rays were a marvel.  He felt so much better even daring to hope he had a future.  He was hurt when Stanford offered the prestigious teaching and research position he had expected to come his way to another resident in his program. Stanford knew he was dying. Still a Medical school in Wisconsin offered him such a post even agreeing to foot the bill for monthly visits with his oncologist at Stanford. He felt well enough that he even flew out to Wisconsin to talk them. He was that good that even though the medical school believed he had at most five more years of life, they wanted him anyway. However, it was not to be. Even earlier the Kalanithe’s decided to have a child so Paul could experience fatherhood, one of his main goals in life.  They succeeded and Lucy bore a little girl named Elizabeth.  His family in Arizona rallied around him regularly visiting to offer support and love.  After his brief reprieve,  his cancer returned with a vengeance as it so often does.  He was unable to complete his memoir as he would have liked.  However, the book is not lacking because he left the composition sooner than he would have liked.  An epilogue by his wife, Lucy, ends the book.  We can only hope that the sales from the book will be enough to financially support his child, Elizabeth so that Lucy and Elizabeth have the same standard of living they would have had had Paul lived.

This book is a must read.  It is inspirational not only for telling us how to live. It is inspirational too for telling us how to die gracefully. (248 pages)

Uncovered By Leah Lax-5 Stars

This is a memoir.  Featured is the method by which fundamentalist religious sects take hold of a person or family and the stricture under which they hold that family.  In this case the religiosity is that of the ultra-orthodox Jews.  However, the same holds true for ultra- religious Mormons and/or other Christian faiths or beliefs including scientology.  Usually as in this case the subject is part of a dysfunctional family.  Sometimes the subject as in this case was subject of abuse and/or a family tragedy that has marked the person with sadness, guilt and or loneliness.  In this case a sad a lonely Leah Lax whose dysfunctional family included a mentally ill father was attracted to the warmth and comradery she envisioned in an ultra-orthodox Jewish family in Dallas, her hometown.  When she was with this family who made her feel very welcome, she no longer felt alone.  They encouraged her to visit as often as she liked and partake of dinner especially Shabbat dinner with them and their large family.  Through this family, the local Chabad house and or Hillel, she was directed to an ultra-orthodox women’s center in Minnesota.  These organizations do not charge the new participants.  These foundations are funded by Jewish organizations such as Jewish Federation and/or ultra-orthodox groups who constantly look for converts from the secular way of life.  Jews cannot seek converts among non-Jews.  There is no proselytizing among non-Jews seeking converts to Judaism.  The proselytizing is by Orthodox Jews seeking to convert secular Jews of the reform or conservative movements to ultra-orthodoxy.  So first Leah traveled to Minneapolis with a modest skirt falling at least to the knee and a couple of pairs of pants.  However, soon she was encouraged to wear longer skirts and she sought them out.  Longer skirts and high necked long sleeved blouses were furnished to her.  She spent each day studying Torah and the role of the Jewish woman in orthodoxy.  She learned the dietary rules of Kashrut, the laws she had to follow, and the limitations of female participation in the synagogue and prayer.  In the meantime her parents had separated and her father often lived in sheltered situations for those suffering from mental illness.  Her artist mother did not know quite what to make of things, but she had two other daughters, a marriage that had fallen apart, and a life in disarray.  She seemed to tolerate the situation, but after all what could she do about it.  Leah had arranged the financing of her education through scholarships and loans.  She had originally planned to at least minor in music if not major in it, because she was an accomplished cellist.

She returned home to follow an ultra-orthodox way of life.  People at her university campus looked askance at her modest dress which set her apart from other students.  She appeared odd.  She eventually transferred to University of Texas in Austin where she was directed to the local Hillel and Chabad house and an ultra-orthodox rabbi.  She studied cello as well as other subjects and carted her large instrument back and forth to campus where she could play to her heart’s content in the music studios.  She lived off campus but ate only kosher meals.  Ultra-orthodox young adults do not date.  Their marriages are arranged by their ultra-orthodox parents.  However, Leah did not have orthodox parents who could arrange a match.  Instead the young rabbi took over that function.  He introduced Leah to her future husband, Levy Lax.  Levy too had suffered a traumatic childhood.  Levy attended the University of Pennsylvannia where he earned a Phd. in engineering.  However, he lost his older brother in a tragic accident when Levy was only 20.  He too was drawn to the warmth and boisterous family life of orthodoxy when his brother’s death left a hole in the family dynamic.  With little fanfare a marriage was arranged between Leah and Levy.  This was not a love match, and neither expected love from the outset.  Instead they each sought a mate who would help each build an ultra-orthodox Jewish home with a host of children.  Orthodox Jews use no birth control.  It is not unusual for a family to have 10 or more children.  There is a high incidence of down syndrome and other abnormalities since motherhood over the age of 40 is not discouraged and women have children even at the age of 50.

Leah at least expected to have a room in her house where she could keep her cello and play it so she would not have to cart it back and forth to campus.  Before they married Levy at least seemed to agree with this scenario.  However, it was not to be and it became clear to Leah that she would have to cart her beloved cello back and forth so that the second bedroom could be dedicated to Levy’s torah study and prayer.  If she had any disillusion about the state of this marriage before they set up house together, she quickly learned that her personal needs would be on the back burner.  The only concession was permission from the rabbi to use birth control until they both finished their degrees for a period of about 2 years.

Leah always had to work.  Levy worked as well, but he had to study torah and pray about 8 hours a day as well both at the synagogue and at home.  It is the wife’s duty to take care of the children, household, meal preparation, and hold down a paying job so that the husband could devote the necessary hours to study and prayer as required by the ultra-orthodox laws.  Leah struggled managing a household with 5 children and no help while also teaching in the synagogue school full time.  Keep in mind that they could not buy ready made meals for carry out b/c those meals did not comply with the kosher dietary laws.  So Leah cleaned the house, cared for 5 children including a newborn, prepared and served breakfast, lunch and dinner that complied with strict kashrut and held down a full time job.  She was often exhausted to the point of tears.  Had she had any energy to pursue her love of cello, she would not have been allowed to do so.  No help came from her husband as his self centered way of life concerned itself solely with his obligations to pray and study torah and to a lesser degree to earn a living.  Even though he claimed there was no money to hire help at home, he always had money when the rabbi requested synagogue or Yeshiva donations.  All the children attended the ultra-orthodox day school requiring large capital outlays for private synagogue school.

Still Leah continued to feel alone.  She also struggled with the fact that though she slept with her husband she did not feel sexually stimulated by him.  Her often conflicting feelings troubled and confused her.  From time to time she noticed that she felt more attracted to the softness of a woman’s hands than to those of her masculine husband.  Nevertheless, after her 6^th child she announced much to the chagrin of her husband that she would not continue to work.  Six children and a household were enough work for one woman.  Further, she hired a Hispanic woman to help her with the household chores.  Levy complained about the loss of income and extra expense, but he put up with it.  Though money was always short, Levy always had money to give to synagogue causes or expenses.

After Leah’s 7^th childbirth and a controversial abortion, with the rabbi’s blessing she had her tubes tied.  She followed her heart and took a writing course.  She slowly toned down her religious dress, and even gave up covering her hair with a wig.  She slowly realized she was gay and decided to leave Levy.  The rest of her story concerns itself with how she came out of the closet.  She now lives a secular life.  Of her 5 sons and 2 daughters some have chosen to live a secular life including her oldest son, Leibl, and some have chosen the religious life.  While Leah has positioned this book as a story of a gay woman’s realization that she was gay and her coming to terms with her homosexuality, it is really a story about how fundamentalist religions take advantage of individuals with personal problems or those from dysfunctional families.  Leah is prouder of the fact that her book is number 10 on the homosexual best seller list than the fact that it is a good memoir of a woman who was taken advantage of by a fundamentalist Jewish movement.

The Woman Who Walked in Sunshine by McCall Smith - 4 Stars

I love this series about Precious Ramotswe and the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency and usually give them 5 Stars.  This one was weaker than the rest.  Again we are faced with a domestic mystery.  However, this coincides with some upheaval in the agency between Precious and Madam Makutsi along with Mr. Polepi, the local chemistry teacher who was once a pharmacist.  Still I recommend it, because the characters are once again warm & charming.  Madame Makutsi and her husband, Phuti Radiphuti are now the proud parents of a baby boy.  The reader and the novel’s characters are all very happy for Madam Makutsi’s good fortune.  Despite her rigidity she is a hard working honest, and decent human being even if she is not as beautiful as Violet Sephoto who is a constant source of irritation for her.  Violet also has a place in this novel.  She is up to no good again.

The Storyteller by Piccoult - 4 Stars

This book by Piccoult is better than most of the author’s efforts and the story is a page turner.  Four characters populate the novel.  Sage, a member of one of the few Jewish families in her  small Connecticut town, is the main character.   She is the youngest of three sisters and the daughter of a widow. Her father died a few years earlier of natural causes.  On the way home from her college graduation, she and her mother are involved in a terrible accident.  Her mother is critically injured and after lingering 3 months she dies.  Sage is disfigured in the accident by a scar that runs along one side of her face.  As a result she joins a grief group.  In the grief group she meets Herman, a beloved high school German teacher who has been a contributor to community life in their small Connecticut town.  Herman , the second  character, is a  widower and reformed Nazi SS man hiding under an assumed identity and seeking redemption.  Minka, is Sage’s grandmother.  She survived Auschwitz and married one of her American liberators.  She is the third character. Leo, our fourth character, is a Jewish justice department Nazi hunter.  Sage is hiding from life both because she is self conscious about her scar and because she feels guilt ridden over her mother’s death.   Sage was driving back from  college graduation with her mother when  they are involved in a terrible accident.  Her mother dies as a result of the injuries she sustained in the collision.    Furthermore, Sage  believes her two sisters blame her for her mother’s death. 

Sage takes a job as a baker working nights for an ex-nun who seems to attract broken characters.  Night work allows Sage to hide from life and avoid facing the public with her scar.  She feels unloved and unlovable by all but her grandmother. Herman makes friends with Sage, because he has an ulterior motive.  He believes that if he confesses his sins to a Jew and she forgives him,  he can go on to the happy hunting ground and be eligible for heaven.  Sage no longer practices Judaism and considers herself to be a Buddhist maybe. 

In any case Herman is wrong.  He is unaware that Sage’s beloved grandmother, Minka, is a holocaust survivor.  Minka never told her granddaughters her story, but now Sage seeks it out.  We have four story lines here.  Each story is told in the narrator’s voice.  The author uses a clever technique to indicate the change of voice.  She changes the print type for each character.  For me the most compelling story was Minka’s tale.  Like all holocaust histories I was drawn to her story of suffering and noble survival in spite of all odds. She was the only person in her large extended family to survive.  Sage who was never pretty and feels even less attractive now believes she is destined to lead a lonely single life while her sisters enjoy the companionship of their own families.  Herman is 95 and healthy while  Minka is about 90 and ailing.   Leo is single and has no love interest on the horizon.  He is probably in his mid thirties.  A love interest develops between Leo and Sage.  The love interest is the only cheesy element of the story.  It is just too pat.  Like all Piccoult novels it is the way in which she ties up all the loose ends. Typically, I do not like novels  which switch from the past to the present day.  However, in this case with the change of type face there is no confusion or difficulty switching from time periods and narrator.  This device is successful.

The Silver Star by Jeanette Walls - 5 stars

Jeanette Walls has again taken us to a small southern town where dysfunction abounds.  At the center of her story are twelve year old Bean, the narrator, her fifteen year old sister, Liz, and their poor excuse for a mother, Charlotte.  The story opens in California where Charlotte is still trying to get her big break in music at the age of 36.  Bean and Liz are her daughters by two different men.  Bean’s father died before she was born.  Charlotte has again left them alone for a few days in their rented house in the California desert while she goes to auditions in L.A.  They are left with about twenty frozen chicken pot pies which is one of their favorite meals.  Liz makes certain than Bean eats, attends school, and has sufficient clothing, school supplies etc.  Charlotte has been gone longer than usual, and Liz is worried.  Charlotte does return after a few days, but she has again been disappointed by her options.  Her money is running out and she is concerned about her next move.  The phone and other services have been turned off for non-payment of bills, and she has been late on the rent payments.   Clearly, she is unstable and troubled.  She seems to suffer from manic depression.  Yet she leaves them once again and returns after a few days with an imaginary or made up boyfriend who is going to be her entrée to the music industry. Once the reality surfaces and her daughter, Bean confronts her, she has a melt down.  She disappears again for days. This time the girls have no idea when she will return.  They also don’t have any money.  They scrounge for money working at any odd job or task that will keep them in pot pies and school supplies.  Someone notices their situation and calls the authorities.  The girls are aware that social services is likely to take them and put them in foster care.  Instead they pool their money and buy bus tickets to Byler, Virginia, their mother’s small southern home town.  There they have an uncle Tinsley, their mother’s brother.  They do not phone him ahead of time and simply show up at his door.  Once they arrive they learn that his wife, Martha, died a few years earlier and he was on his own.  After a few sketchy days, he takes them in.  Previous to this, Liz had been in charge.  She was beautiful with strawberry blond hair, and she was tall and slender.  She was also considered gifted in school and was deemed a child prodigy by some of the teachers.

At one time the Holladay family who owned the textile mill which was the chief employer in the town was wealthy.  They lived in the biggest house and were the most admired family in the town. However, the mill was struggling.  The Holladay family sold it to a national outfit and Tinsley became an employee of the mill.  The mill continued to fail and Tinsley was replaced.  He has fallen on hard economic times and the condition of the house shows it.  Repairs and upkeep have been neglected. He survives on venison which he hunts and farm products much of which he gets by trading extra venison or pasturing privileges.  His farm also has orchards and gardens where fruit and vegetables can be harvested.  It also appears that uncle Tinsley is a pack rat and cannot throw anything out.  The house is cluttered with papers and other detritus.  In order to “earn” their keep the girls begin cleaning up the house.  They organize the clutter, weed the garden, help clean out the gutters, paint what needs to be painted, and dust and vacuum the house in the hopes that their uncle will not throw them out.  Because they have an irresponsible mother who has abandoned them, they are in a very precarious position.  Realizing that they will need money for school clothes, they look for and obtain jobs against their uncle’s advice. He has no idea they are working.  Liz is acting as a secretary and Bean is babysitting for a powerful and cruel plant foreman brought in by the new owners.  They attend school in Byler and make a more stable place for themselves with their uncle.   Bean becomes the dominant sister who suddenly becomes her older sister’s support.  This is the story of that year in their lives.

I loved the story and for me it was a page turner.  It is a quick read that is a good companion for a vacation.  The story is told lovingly and tenderly.  The author knows these kinds of flawed characters.  She recognizes their flaws but loves them just the same.  She accepts them as they are, and understands their deficits.  However, she also realizes that there are consequences to their emotional instability, failure to plan their futures properly, and failure to parent.  She illustrates the consequences which can be tragic for the children involved.  She does not excuse them from responsibility for the hardships they create for others who are often their offspring.  However, she is neither angry nor vengeful.  The children still long for and love their mother and hope to have her in their lives.  However, they realize that she cannot care for them, and they seek their best alternative on their own.  This is not so different from the author’s own story, The Glass Castle.

The Secret Chord by Geraldine Brooks - 5 Stars

This is another tome by that talented storyteller Geraldine Brooks.  In this tale of the biblical David, Ms. Brooks fleshes out the biblical character who slew the giant and became the king of the nascent state of Israel.  He was the first king to truly unite the fractious tribes of Israel.  Taking the reins from the weakened and elderly Saul who may well have been suffering from some form of Dementia, David unites the various tribes under his kingship.  The red headed king takes many wives including the beautiful Bathsheba with whom he conceives Solomon.  The tragedy of Uriah, Bathsheba’s husband, curses him for much of his life.  Unbeknownst to me before reading this book,  homosexual aspects of David’s character are bared for all to see.  Nathan, his lifelong advisor is a major character in the book. Fans of Brooks other works will find much to like in this one.  Who knew that in addition to his leadership abilities, David was a talented musician with a dedication to his harp.   Be forewarned that David’s story includes much violence and heartbreak. 

The Paris Architect by Belfoure - 4 Stars

  This debut novel clearly was written with commercial success in mind.  It is a thriller with plenty of sex to go around.  It would make an excellent film.  It was a great read too.  It is definitely a page turner.  Lucian, a talented narcissistic architect in Paris has never received the big reputation making commissions for commercial buildings.   However, less talented architects have designed these buildings.  It is during WWII and the Nazis have occupied Paris and part of France.   The Vichy government sympathetic to the Nazis is prevalent in the South of France.  Suddenly, one of the richest men in Paris offers Lucian the commission of a lifetime, designing an airplane factory for the Nazis.  There is a catch though.  The rich man, Monsieur Manet, is a Christian with a moral conscience.  He is hiding Jews from the Nazis.  If Lucian wants the commission for the factory, he must also design undetectable hiding places for the Jews who Monsieur Manet is hiding.  Manet offers him a huge sum of money to design the hiding places and Lucian reluctantly accepts.  The Nazis pay him far less for the designs for the factory.  In fact, they pay him a mere pittance.  Money is not the reason he salivates over the opportunity to design a large factory.  It is his desire to see his designs of monumental buildings constructed even if it is for the Nazis.  He wants recognition for his talent.  Without the big commissions he will never receive it.  At first Lucian has no sympathy for the persecuted Jews.  However, he slowly develops a moral conscience which comes to the fore when he designs a hiding place that due to a small design defect results in the death of the hidden elderly couple.  This event crushes him.  In this book we see an ordinary man’s reluctant descent into heroism. Part thriller and part love story, this novel will appeal to both men and women and would make a terrific film.  The main characters in the book are Lucian,his wife Celeste, his mistress Adele,  Adele’s assistant Bette, Major Herzog, Mr. Mamet, Colonel Shlegal, Alain, his assistant, and Pierre, the 13 year old French Jewish orphan he hides in his own apartment. Elements of suspense include the fact that Alain’s German uncle, a member of the Gestapo, forces Lucian to accept him as his assistant.   Though Alain is a talented draftsman, he is jealous of Lucian and tries to sabotage him every way he can.  This includes following up on his suspicions that Lucian is designing hiding places for Jews.

The Nightingale By Kristin Hannah (A Page Turner) 4 Stars

Even tho I only gave this a four star rating, I could not put it down.  I stayed up late at night reading it, and it had my full attention.  My criticisms at the bottom of the page have to do with literary issues and have no effect on the level of interest I had in the story.  It was completely absorbing and entertaining as much and sometimes more so than a 5 star book.

This novel is historical fiction.  It is the tale of two sisters, Vianne and Isobel and their experiences in WWII France.  The novel opens with an elderly widow opening a long closed trunk in the attic of her coastal Oregon home of 50 years hence.  She is preparing to move into an assisted living facility as she faces a terminal disease.  She pulls out an old trunk to seek some of her mementos.  When she pulls out an identity card with the name Julliette Gervais on it, she is thrown back in time to remember her life during the war.  The reader is brought along with her.

The Mauriac sisters lose their mother when Isobel is 4 and Vianne is 14.  Unfortunately, their father who returned to Paris from his experiences in WWI a mere shell of his former self, is unable to care for them.  He sends them off to his country house in the south of France in the care of a cold and harsh woman who offered neither warmth nor solace.  Their mother had been the soul of the family.  Their father had always been mercurial.  A poet and a book shop owner, he never recovered emotionally from the horrors he saw in WWI.  Aware that he has failed his young daughters, because he cannot show them any love, nevertheless, rebuffs them. ”Papa dropped off his daughters like soiled laundry and left them with a stranger.”

Both girls are bereft.  Vianne’s friendship with a boy named Antoine saved her.  They became inseparable and by the time she was 16, she was pregnant.  The two married and at 17 Vianne became the mistress of Le Jardin.  Two months later she miscarried.  After two more miscarriages, she gave birth to her daughter, Sophie, the light of her life.  Meanwhile, Isobel rebelled against the woman hired to care for her and eventually, her father put her in a series of boarding schools and convents.  She ran away from all of them.  Finally, when she was 19, the most recent convent expelled her, sent her home, and recommended that she no longer continue in school. Isobel works in her father’s book shop in an effort to develop a closer relationship with him.  She tried to connect with her father who had never told her he loved her.  He had never hugged her nor put a hand on her shoulder even to comfort her after her mother’s death.  Then WWII breaks out and the Nazis are about to occupy Paris.  Isobel’s father tells her to leave Paris and travel to her sister’s house in Carriveau.  He even arranges for her to ride with some of his friends in a car headed out of town.  The car loaded with its occupants, the couple, their two children, and Isobel as well as their luggage join the throngs fleeing ahead of the Nazis.  Eventually, like all the other cars, theirs runs out of gas leaving everyone stranded.  Sophie, who packed her suitcase with clothing and books failed to bring even one container of water with her.  Dreadfully thirsty, tired, hungry, and hot she joins the throngs of refugees on the road leading away from the Germans.  She is extremely beautiful with very light blond hair and exquisite features.  However, she is unable to obtain so much as a drink of water.  Finally, in frustration she plops down on the ground with her suitcase.

A disarmingly handsome young man spots her and offers his assistance.  Gaetan  who at about  25 is older than she is and tho not very well dressed posesses tremendous charisma. Even in her soiled and unkempt state he is taken with her striking beauty and femininity.  He offers to escort her to her destination, her sister’s home, Le Jardin in Carriveau since he is traveling in the same direction.   There is no explanation about why he was not with the French forces fighting Hitler.  However, he does not take advantage of the situation even when Isobel becomes infatuated with him and he could have had her for the asking.

Meanwhile Vianne’s husband, Antoine has been drafted along with Marcus, Vianne’s best friend’s husband.  The two of them say tearful goodbye’s to their husbands as their children wave goodbye to their fathers. Rachel, a Romanian Jew is Vianne’s longtime best friend.  She has a little girl, Sarah, who is Sophie’s age.  She also has a newborn son who is only a week old when her husband, Marcus must leave.  The two promise their husbands they will look after each other.  Their once idyllic life is interrupted.  However, both Rachel and Vianne who teach at the public elementary school return to their jobs and their lives continue on without their spouses’ income, love and support.  Antoine has hidden money in the house for Vianne’s use while he is gone and she and Rachel both prepare to live a  more Spartan life. 

Gaetan and Isobel spend two more nights together on the open road.  Isobel is smitten with the charming young man. They arrive at Le Jardin very late at night and they decide to wait until morning to knock on the door rather than awakening the sleeping Vianne and her daughter Sophie. In the morning just outside Le Jardin Isobel awakes with a note pinned to her blouse.  Gaetan is gone and he has not said goodbye to her.  She is heartbroken and hurt that once again someone she loved rejected her.  First her mother dies abandoning her.  Then her father unable to show love to anyone rejects her offers of love.  Her sister Vianne who is 10 years older and who is herself bereft cannot offer her any succor.  Now this potential suitor with whom Isobel is enamored deserts her in another form of rejection.  With this feeling of multiple rejections she knocks on Vianne’s door.  She is angry with all of those who have rejected her.

Vianne is not happy to see Isobel for she recalls her rebellious and troublesome ways, but she takes her in and offers her clean clothes, a bedroom and a place to wash up.  Vianne warns her not to bring her rebellious ways into her house and infect her daughter Sophie who is about 8 years old.  Vianne while not as beautiful as the stunning Isobel is also beautiful with strawberry blond hair and blue eyes.  Meanwhile the Nazis occupy Carriveau and one of the officers billets in Le Jardin.  They confiscate some of the furniture, paintings and tapestries to furnish their own offices and rooms. Isobel is angry that Vianne complies without complaint.  Vianne is terrified that Isobel will violate the Nazis’ strict rules for the French citizens living under the occupation and put them all in danger. Much to Vianne’s chagrin Sophie adores her tante Isobel and agrees with her rebellious attitude toward the Germans. She admonishes her mother to be more like Isobel.  Vianne does not like the Germans either, but she is practical and she has an 8 or 9 year old daughter to protect. She begs Isobel to watch her behavior and demands that she pull her weight by standing in lines to buy their meager food rations while Vianne teaches school.  Reluctantly, Isobel performs this task. However, she despises the Germans and offers to help the resistance.  She is asked to deliver resistance leaflets they hide in the bread rations.  The Germans have confiscated all the radios and they spread propaganda inflating their performance on the battlefields.  The leaflets tell the French people what is happening with the free French forces led by DeGaulle and about the German atrocities throughout France.  Suddenly, Isobel rises early ostensibly to stand in the bread lines.  Instead she delivers the leaflets throughout the countryside.  She has been selected for this dangerous task because of her disarming beauty and youth.  The resistance believes the Germans will be so taken aback by her looks that they will not question her activities so early in the morning.  However, she does get to the food lines early right after delivering the leaflets and this benefits the family with better selections of food.  The Germans have kept all the best cuts of meat, the best flour, butter, and cheese for themselves.  The Germans are fat and they throw out more food than the French have to eat.  Even those with gardens and chickens like Le Jardin are required to turn over what they grow on pain of death.  The French people do not receive enough calories to sustain themselves, and the entire population becomes thinner and thinner.  Many of them hover on the edge of starvation, but their suffering does not compare to the Jews in the camps.  They easily suffer illnesses and the children are always hungry, but they stay alive.

Vianne believes that Isobel has taken a lover and that she is sneaking out early in the morning to see him.  Isobel allows her to continue thinking so. Manfred, the Nazi officer living with them is under the same misconception.  While Vianne does not like the officer and she is forced to prepare his supper from time to time, he is more polite than most.  He assures her he is a gentleman and that he is living with them b/c he is following orders.  He makes it clear that even though he is lonely for his wife and children, he will not force himself on her.  From time to time he brings additional food to the house.  Nevertheless, Vianne is careful about accepting help from him, because she does not want to be seen as a collaborator.  She definitely is not a collaborator.  While Isobel is delivering the leaflets, she avoids any confrontations with Vianne over the Nazis and she is polite to Manfred and predominately, avoids him.

The novel progresses as we watch ordinary people drawn into unthinkable circumstances beyond their control.  In order to take back some of that control they make heart wrenching, impulsive, dangerous, and sometimes catastrophic choices that cannot be undone.  Spoiler Alert!  Isobel becomes responsible for escorting over 100 downed allied pilots over the Pyrenees into Spain so they could return to their units and continue fighting the Germans.  Spoiler Alert! Vianne rescues many Jewish children and is responsible for their survival.  This she does right under the nose of the two officers billeted in her house.   She does it easily under Manfred’s less critical gaze, but she continues to do it when he is replaced by a brutal SS officer.

My criticisms are the following:  In spite of this being a WWII story, this is still a ladies novel and could be considered a romance novel.  I cannot imagine a man reading this book on his own. Spoiler Alert! The descriptions of Isobel leading these expeditions over the Pyrenees in ordinary walking shoes and without climbing gear or climbing experience is not credible.  She should at least have had a history of climbing which could easily have entered the novel since many Europeans with country houses have skied or had climbing experience.  She had neither.  The allies who were financing these expeditions could have easily supplied climbing gear to the resistance.  They supplied radios, explosives, spam, and other supplies and equipment.  Warning  Spoiler Alert:  It is also not credible that Isobel, sick as she was and coughing up blood would have been discharged from the Paris hospital by the allies and put on a train to her sister’s house in the countryside.  Her sister or her sister’s husband would have had to pick her up and accompany her.

The Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon by Alexander McCall Smith- Five Stars

Mma Makutsi becomes pregnant and must take maternity leave.   Precious Ramotswe misses her and realizes what a valuable asset and friend she has been to the detective agency.  Mma Makutsi misses her work and returns sooner than expected to help Mma Makutsi help the proprietor of the Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon discover who is sabotaging her new shop on the Riverwalk. Charlie grows up a bit and Mr. J.L.B.Maketoni takes a course on being a modern husband.  This is another satisfying tale in the series populated with loveable characters and pearls of wisdom about everyday life.

The Marriage of Opposites by Hoffman-5 Stars

This novel by the prolific author Alice Hoffman is a novel of historical fiction (1807-186-‘s).  Based on the life of the Jewish family of Camille Pissaro, the father of the impressionist movement, this novel tells the story of the tumultuous life of his mother, Rachel and his father, Frederick in the tiny town of Amalie on St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands.  While the novel is true to the existing documentation of the historical facts, many of the characters are invented or filled out with fiction.  Camille Pissaro born Jacobo Camille Pizzaro, grows up in the riot of color and beautiful scenery that exists on St. Thomas.  Some of his paintings reflect his childhood and early adulthood spent among the gorgeous flora and fauna on the Island.  Rachel Pomie Petit Pizzaro, herself an enticing character, has 4 stepchildren and 1 biological child with her elderly husband whom she married due to her family’s financial needs. She bears 5 more  children with the love of her life, Frederick Pizzaro.  Her husband was a scandalous 8 years her junior as well as her deceased husband’s nephew.  Even though they were related by marriage and not blood the marriage was unacceptable to the Jewish community of Amalie of which they were a part. The members of the synagogue viewed the marriage as improper and refused to condone it.  They were both shunned by the Jewish community for engaging in an improper union and refused formal marriage by the rabbi.  The children of their union were also shunned. Instead their children attended the Moravian school created by the church to educate the black population of the island.  The black population came from the free children of former slaves, former slaves, and those still bound by slavery.  Camille and his siblings grew to know, like, and love the black people on the island and view them as equals in many ways.

All through her childhood, adolescence, and adult life, Rachel Pomie dreamed of traveling to and/or living in France. However, her mother refused to give her the financial support needed for the trip to Paris which was her lifelong dream. There was an ongoing conflict between Rachel and her mother over her desire to travel to France and her mother’s refusal to allow it. The community at the time was a Danish colony considered backward in worldly ways.   Many of the ancestors of the Jews of St. Thomas were the heirs of the legacy of the Inquisition when Jews of Spain, Portugal, and parts of Italy were required to convert to Catholicism or be burned alive at the stake. Many Jews left these lands for Holland,Turkey, the Middle East and the Americas including St. Thomas, an island in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Rachel’s mother tried to suppress her only living daughter’s rebelliousness and she refused her permission or the funds needed to travel to France.  When marriage to a widowed business acquaintance of her father’s was needed to save the family’s finances, Rachel acquiesced and married the elderly Isaac Petit, father of 4 children.  Isaac is still in love with his deceased wife at the time of their marriage.  While neither Rachel nor Isaac love one another, they respect and care for each other until Isaac’s death shortly before the birth of their own biological child. Rachelle’s best friend, Jestine, is the half black daughter of Adelle, the black maid who raised Rachel.  (Spoiler alert!) Unbeknownst to her, Jestine is really her half-sister, the product of the affair her father had with Adelle.  As a result Rachel’s mother is cold and unwelcoming to Adelle and Jestine.  Adelle also has her own house overlooking the sea shore.  Jestine is beautiful and Rachel is homely.  Nevertheless Rachel has a passionate nature and a lovely figure.  Knowing that Frederick, her deceased husband’s nephew recently arrived from France  and  who was exceptionally handsome, could see her, she walked out into her garden in the moonlight wearing only a white slip.  Frederick falls passionately in love with the woman in the white slip who had a voluptuous and lovely figure even tho she was not pretty.

Of their 5 children Rachel loves most deeply, her son, Camille.  Camille and Rachel are similar in many ways.  Both are rebellious and possessed of independent spirits.  However, Rachel does her mother’s bidding and sacrifices her own happiness for her family’s financial stability.  Camille refuses to do his mother’s bidding and instead insists on studying art.  For high school Rachel and Frederick acquiesce and send Camille to live with his Parisian Aunt  & Uncle while he attends art school.  He does very well in art school.  His professors and the Parisian art world believe he is an outstanding talent and has great promise.  Nevertheless, when he is 18 per his agreement with his mother, once school is over he returns to Amalie to work in the family business. While he was studying in Paris two of his older brothers die from illness.  They were both more suited to working in the family business than he ever was.  Not only is he unhappy in the family business, but he also is a poor worker.  He  prefers  to give away  the goods they sell to anyone too poor to pay for them. Of course, one cannot run a business that way.  Though Rachel realizes Camille is a good artist, she worries and rightfully so how he will ever earn enough money to support a family by painting. This was a reasonable belief at the time. Still she hangs one of his paintings unbeknownst to him in a prominent place in her bedroom.

Sadly, though Rachel should be sympathetic to Camille’s desire to return to Paris, the center of the art world, Rachel refuses to allow it.   There is no one but Jacobo to take the reins of the family business.  Jacobo is miserable working  in the import/export business, but he tries. Eventually, he leaves Amalie to follow a Dutch artist who has praised him and who has connections to the European art world.  He returns to Paris.  Shortly, there after his mother sends his ill younger sister to Paris for more advanced medical treatment and follows her there.  Rachel, Jacoby and his sister are reunited in Paris where Jacoby (Camille) finds love and makes his life.  Rachel never returns to Amalie leaving the business in the hands of the trusted Mulatto employee to whom she has given an ownership interest and who regularly sends Rachel her share of the income from the business. Camille Pissaro becomes the father of French Imprssionism.  In spite of Camile’s artistic success, his mother must continue to help support him and his family.  Camille still insists on giving some of his artwork to those too poor to pay him for it.  Because of that, he is never a financial success.

Of interest in understanding the story is to question why it was titled” The Marriage of Opposites.”  How are characters in the book in opposition?  Look at Rachel and her mother, Mrs. Pomie and Adelle, Jestine and -, Mrs. Halevy and Rachel,  Camille and Rachel, …

The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch and Jeffrey Zaslow -3 Stars

A cocky, arrogant narcissistic professor writes his last lecture in the form of a memoir. First before everyone chastises me for giving this only 3 stars and my previous descriptive statement, let me begin with the context. I read this on my e-reader while lying on a gurney in the ER of a major level one trauma center of a big city hospital.  I did not expect to be nor was I diagnosed with a terminal illness. I had never seen the lecture and had been meaning to get to this book on my list for a long time.   This book kept me entertained while I waited for a room in the hospital after being admitted. I could not put it down.  It is unusual for me to rate a book with which I was so taken on an emotional level, so low.  However, it is Randy’s believed misrepresentation of the quality of his character which has made me down rate it.  I was pretty miserable physically with an illness that had laid me low.  For most of the time I read it, I was bawling.  It is a real tear jerker.  I never saw the lecture either in person or on the internet.  I may do so now.  I think this is a wonderful gift for his children who will at least realize that since Randy loved himself so much he almost assuredly deeply loved and would have continued to love his offspring as they grew had he lived to see it.  Thank goodness the sale of his book has made his family financially secure, because so many young families tragically left without the chief breadwinner are mired in poverty.  This fate will not befall Randy Pausches’ children.  I wondered why he did not charge a small fee for his lecture.  Some of it could have been donated to cancer research with the great portion being held by his wife in trust for her use and the use of his children. That would not have offended me in the least.  I suspect that Carnegie Mellon University owned the rights to the lecture.  However, under the circumstances no one would have chastised them for charging a fee for the video lecture and agreeing to convey part of the profits to the family.

Further, in addition to Randy’s smug attitude offending me, I found some of it did not ring true.  For example, when he was wooing his wife and her response was lukewarm, he could not accept that the Randy charms were not the most winning of all.  He describes her reticence as fear.  She had been married before and divorced at a young age.  She was gun shy was his excuse.  However, though she came to love him I suspect she properly evaluated his arrogance.  When there was a choice of giving his “Last Lecture” in Pittsburgh in front of his enamored students or spending her birthday alone with her which we knew would be the last they would ever spend together, he chose the stage and the adoration of his students.  This was a selfish act.  He could have filmed the production and shown it to the students at a later date.  However, then he would not receive the immediate adoring feedback from the live audience.  I don’t know why the lecture could not have been scheduled for another day in the same week or two.  Hopefully, he did not schedule it then to be available for the largest audience of his students.  However, I would not put that past him.  On various occasions he chose a public presence over spending more quiet and private time with his three children under 5 who would probably never remember being with him anyway.

Another issue that did not ring true was his representation that he was offered a job as a Disney imaginer.  I doubt it.  His dream job would have been to be a Disney Imagineer or a creative/technical employee at Lucas Films, Pixar or the like.  In fact he lists among his greatest accomplishments that one of his students went to Disney and one went to Lucas.  Because he had not been offered such a job, he asked for a sabbatical and he interned at Disney.  My understanding of these internships are that they are unpaid.  Surely, Disney doesn’t just take anybody into their internship programs, but it is likely that it is easier to get an unpaid internship spot than a paid employment spot. Probably, many more internships are offered than actual paid jobs because of Disney’s personal interest in education and the spread of its culture.  Randy readily admits that he loved his six months at Disney.  At the end he claims that they offered him a permanent job.  Why didn’t he take it?  He loved teaching so much that he felt compelled to return to his adoring Carnegie Mellon students.  At least that was the reason he gave.  They don’t have students in California?  CIT comes to mind as does USC and UCLA right there in L.A.   There is probably a U.C Anaheim and a California State University system too.  So I do not believe that he was offered a meaningful job with them.  Maybe to save face Disney kicked around offering him a job.  However, I believe there was no real concrete proposal with a competitive salary.  Why could he not have been candid about that?  It would have made him more human and less arrogant. Though Randy had the technical stuff down pat, the artistic and creative side is predominantly inherited. Yes, it can be and must be developed, but there must be some innate artistic ability which Randy probably did not have.  Obviously, he could not admit that Disney did not love Randy as much as Randy loved Randy.  Randy had good self-esteem and that was great.  His strong self-esteem was one reason he was so successful and so well liked.

The real hero of this story is his wife, Jai pronounced Jay.  The daughter of a military family which moved around, she relocates without much help from Randy from Pittsburgh to Virginia near her adult brother and his wife.  We don’t hear much about her parents.  I suspect that relationship was not great.  Though they too live in the area most of the family help Jai relied on came from her brother or Randy’s mother and sister who had to travel from Pennsylvania.  Unless they asked to be kept out of the book, I do not understand why they weren’t present.  Perhaps, one had Alzheimer’s disease, but I suspect it is something more.  It might have been alcoholism.  A form of substance abuse would have given the book another dimension and taken it out of the arrogant, smug, narcissistic category at least in part.

Jai Rausch also wrote a book called Dream New Dreams.  Randy was not a writer and it was really a colleague who put his tome together.  However, Jai who was an English major wrote her own book without help other than the typical editor. Her writing is good and it does not fall into the overly sentimental hole.  Jai writes about the end of Randy’s life including his last day and how she picks up the pieces and goes on with her life.  Spoiler alert:  Was Randy so overwhelmingly charming that she can never again find a mate to fill his shoes?  No and she does.  She is most grateful for the income from the best- selling book which allows her and her children to consider nothing but their physical and emotional welfare when making decisions about their future.  She goes on the speaker circuit and is earning a good income as a motivational speaker (for what else could it be called).  So she too and not just Randy can command an audience.  However, when Randy and her children needed her most she was not touring the speaker’s circuit to aggrandize herself and earn much needed (at that time) income.

Hopefully, Randy also recorded both visually and in writing more messages for his children to be offered them as they age.  I think he did but they were not and should not be offered for public consumption until the children themselves after reaching majority decide that they want the recordings/writings released.

Whenever a nurse, aide or orderly entered my ER cubicle where hooked up to an IV, I waited for an empty hospital bed and saw me crying therein, they all knew what book I was reading.

The Janissary Tree by Jason Goodwin - 4 Stars

A Murder Mystery Filled With Political Intrigue and Sex and a Eunuch As the Hero.  It is 1836, Europe is modernizing.  Under the Sultan Turkey too is modernizing.  Goodwin who has written a history of the Ottoman Empire has begun a mystery series featuring, Yashim, a brilliant trustworthy eunuch as the hero.  While he may not be able to effect a sexual encounter, this is no dry eunuch.  He still has romantic inklings as born out in his interaction with the beautiful but lonely wife of the Russian ambassador. Ten years earlier the Janissaries, the Sultan’s version of the Roman Empire’s Praetorian guards had been crushed by the “new guards.”  Now ten years later the mysterious disappearance of four members of the new guard and the murder of one of the Sultan’s harem signals the possible return of the Jannissaries.

With access to all areas of the court and society because he is a eunuch, Yashim works his contacts and his networks to solve these crimes. The novel is populated by colorful characters including the dyspeptic Polish ambassador, a transsexual dancer, and a creole born queen mother.  This novel is the start of a mystery series featuring Yashim in what promises to be a series read by fans of the mystery novel.

I read this to prepare for a trip to Turkey.  I am not a fan of mystery novels.  The only mysteries I read are the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series.  For fans of the mystery novel this series promises to be filled with interesting characters during a romantic, exotic interesting time and place in world history.

Malena by Holzman (5 Stars)

This political thriller set during the military junta in Argentina between 1976 and 1983 was a page turner. Four main characters, Solo, Ines, Malena and Diego are enmeshed in disappearances, kidnappings, torture, murder and political intrigue. Through these characters the reader learns of the unnerving actions of a police state run amok. While this novel takes place in Argentina, the Pinochet regime in Chile was the setting for similar atrocities in that country. Further, American complicity in the dreadful tactics of these regimes was an outrage. Apparently, American fear of Communist leaning governments removed all common sense appropriate responses that the U.S. should have had toward these atrocities. Once a country loses its bearings its conduct becomes more and more outrageous. Even more surprising was the involvement of the Catholic church in kidnappings, torture, and murder. There are overtones of anti-Semitism in this novel in part encouraged by the church. Though Jews comprise only 1% of the Argentinean population, they comprised 1/3rd of the victims of Argentina’s military junta. Considering America’s contribution in teaching the Junta torture techniques euphemistically called “enhanced interrogation techniques”, I am surprised that Argentineans today welcome American tourists and seem to bear no ill will. This is a first novel, but I am hopeful we will see more from this talented author. He weaves the facts into a tangled web with one surprise after another. The twists and turns are not predictable. This novel would make an excellent basis for a suspense film.