(Continued from Part 1)
Birds, Beasts, and Relatives - Gerald Durrell (1969)
"One day we had one of those freak storms when the sky turned blue-black and the lightning fretted a silver filigree across it. And then came the rain - great, fat, heavy drops, as warm as blood. When the storm had passed, the sky had been washed to the clear blue of a hedge-sparrow's egg and the damp earth sent out wonderfully rich, almost gastronomic smells as of fruit-cake or plum pudding; and the olive trunks steamed as the rain was dried off them by the sun, each trunk looking as though it were on fire."
This is another lovely book from Durrell, taking place concurrently with his first (My Family and Other Animals). Like its predecessor, its writing style is lyrical and beautifully descriptive, it's generally humorous and light, and it captures a sense of childlike joy and wonder as the author describes his childhood years of exploring the Greek island that he called home.
I do feel that this offering is little less kid-friendly than the previous book due to a few situations; namely, the main character inadvertently stumbling upon and witnessing a neighbor give birth, a (humorously portrayed) seance, a lengthy scene involving drunken house guests, and some scattered cursing. There are also a few of-the-time-period pejoratives (a few things in nature likened to an "oriental face," and a visiting gay friend of Durrell's adult brother described by the brother as "homo" and "queer").
Related Reads:
(See review for My Family and Other Animals)
Her Privates We - Frederic Manning (1929)
"Death, of course, like chastity, admits no degree; a man is dead or not dead, and a man is just as dead by one means as by another; but it is infinitely more horrible and revolting to see a man shattered and eviscerated, than to see him shot."
Her Privates We is based on the author's experiences fighting in WWI. Written in surprisingly refined prose, the book is an illustration of both the physical and psychological aspects of war - the dehumanization, the impossibility of coping with sudden losses, the confusion of battle, the drudgery of camp life, even the capacity to find beauty in the midst of despair. It's a devastating read.
Related Reads:
All Quiet on the Western Front (Remarque)
The Mint (T.E. Lawrence)
The Things They Carried (O'Brien)
Short Stories 1907-1908 - L. M. Montgomery
"There's not much comfort, or help either, praying one way and believing another."
I would go so far as to describe this collection as "soothing." There are few real surprises in these stories, no content issues, and nearly all the endings are happy; the differing main characters of the stories serve to give a good overall snapshot of the era. This is a nice collection to peruse if you're a fan of any of Montgomery's novels.
Bonus: you can currently find L. M. Montgomery's various short story collections for free on Kindle.
Related Reads:
The Story Girl and other short-story collections (Montgomery)
Eight Cousins (Alcott)
Life's Little Ironies (Hardy)
Alias Grace - Margaret Atwood (1996)
"When you are in the middle of a story it isn't a story at all, but only a confusion; a dark roaring, a blindness, a wreckage of shattered glass and splintered wood; like a house in a whirlwind, or else a boat crushed by the icebergs or swept over the rapids, and all aboard powerless to stop it. It's only afterwards that it becomes anything like a story at all. When you are telling it, to yourself or to someone else."
I finished this book before I realized (from the author's afterword) that it's a fictionalized account of a real historical event. I'm not sure if my failure to realize this added or detracted from the reading experience at all (I'm generally intrigued by historical accounts and guesswork).
Alias Grace has similar themes and not a dissimilar feel to Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale; the role of women in a patriarchal society is an obvious motif. Though the story has something of a mystery feel, there weren't necessarily big surprises, reveals, or tidy explanations - it's more about the exploration of themes (the reliability of memory, mental illness, gender roles, hierarchical society) than conclusions. Atwood's prose draws you in and pulls you under before you realize what's happening.
As of this writing, I haven't yet watched the Netflix series, but I plan on doing so soon.
Related Reads
The Handmaid's Tale (Atwood)
The Little Friend (Tartt)
The Princess Diarist - Carrie Fisher (2016)
"I wish I could go away somewhere, but the only problem with that is that I’d have to go, too."
If you're looking for a complete and detailed tell-all book, you'll probably be disappointed here. Fisher largely writes about her brief relationship/affair with Harrison Ford during the filming of Star Wars:A New Hope - though this is discussed somewhat obliquely and through a sampling of her diary entries during that time. She also spends a large section of the book writing about the strange phenomenon of celebrities being paid for autographs. While the book might come off as somewhat uneven, it was interesting for me to see the difference between her diary writings as a 19 year old and the writing style of her books today. And as was a theme throughout her life, Carrie Fisher gives an unflinching look into what it's like to struggle with mental health.
This book will probably make more sense if you've read her other books in order to get more of an overall background for her life and get used to her writing style. I'd have to say that I liked Fisher's previous autobiographical books better than this one, although The Princess Diarist is a little milder in tone than those.
Related Reads
Shockaholic (Fisher)
Wishful Drinking (Fisher)
Little Girl Lost (Barrymore)
Birds, Beasts, and Relatives - Gerald Durrell (1969)
"One day we had one of those freak storms when the sky turned blue-black and the lightning fretted a silver filigree across it. And then came the rain - great, fat, heavy drops, as warm as blood. When the storm had passed, the sky had been washed to the clear blue of a hedge-sparrow's egg and the damp earth sent out wonderfully rich, almost gastronomic smells as of fruit-cake or plum pudding; and the olive trunks steamed as the rain was dried off them by the sun, each trunk looking as though it were on fire."
This is another lovely book from Durrell, taking place concurrently with his first (My Family and Other Animals). Like its predecessor, its writing style is lyrical and beautifully descriptive, it's generally humorous and light, and it captures a sense of childlike joy and wonder as the author describes his childhood years of exploring the Greek island that he called home.
I do feel that this offering is little less kid-friendly than the previous book due to a few situations; namely, the main character inadvertently stumbling upon and witnessing a neighbor give birth, a (humorously portrayed) seance, a lengthy scene involving drunken house guests, and some scattered cursing. There are also a few of-the-time-period pejoratives (a few things in nature likened to an "oriental face," and a visiting gay friend of Durrell's adult brother described by the brother as "homo" and "queer").
Related Reads:
(See review for My Family and Other Animals)
Her Privates We - Frederic Manning (1929)
"Death, of course, like chastity, admits no degree; a man is dead or not dead, and a man is just as dead by one means as by another; but it is infinitely more horrible and revolting to see a man shattered and eviscerated, than to see him shot."
Her Privates We is based on the author's experiences fighting in WWI. Written in surprisingly refined prose, the book is an illustration of both the physical and psychological aspects of war - the dehumanization, the impossibility of coping with sudden losses, the confusion of battle, the drudgery of camp life, even the capacity to find beauty in the midst of despair. It's a devastating read.
Related Reads:
All Quiet on the Western Front (Remarque)
The Mint (T.E. Lawrence)
The Things They Carried (O'Brien)
Short Stories 1907-1908 - L. M. Montgomery
"There's not much comfort, or help either, praying one way and believing another."
I would go so far as to describe this collection as "soothing." There are few real surprises in these stories, no content issues, and nearly all the endings are happy; the differing main characters of the stories serve to give a good overall snapshot of the era. This is a nice collection to peruse if you're a fan of any of Montgomery's novels.
Bonus: you can currently find L. M. Montgomery's various short story collections for free on Kindle.
Related Reads:
The Story Girl and other short-story collections (Montgomery)
Eight Cousins (Alcott)
Life's Little Ironies (Hardy)
Alias Grace - Margaret Atwood (1996)
"When you are in the middle of a story it isn't a story at all, but only a confusion; a dark roaring, a blindness, a wreckage of shattered glass and splintered wood; like a house in a whirlwind, or else a boat crushed by the icebergs or swept over the rapids, and all aboard powerless to stop it. It's only afterwards that it becomes anything like a story at all. When you are telling it, to yourself or to someone else."
I finished this book before I realized (from the author's afterword) that it's a fictionalized account of a real historical event. I'm not sure if my failure to realize this added or detracted from the reading experience at all (I'm generally intrigued by historical accounts and guesswork).
Alias Grace has similar themes and not a dissimilar feel to Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale; the role of women in a patriarchal society is an obvious motif. Though the story has something of a mystery feel, there weren't necessarily big surprises, reveals, or tidy explanations - it's more about the exploration of themes (the reliability of memory, mental illness, gender roles, hierarchical society) than conclusions. Atwood's prose draws you in and pulls you under before you realize what's happening.
As of this writing, I haven't yet watched the Netflix series, but I plan on doing so soon.
Related Reads
The Handmaid's Tale (Atwood)
The Little Friend (Tartt)
The Princess Diarist - Carrie Fisher (2016)
"I wish I could go away somewhere, but the only problem with that is that I’d have to go, too."
If you're looking for a complete and detailed tell-all book, you'll probably be disappointed here. Fisher largely writes about her brief relationship/affair with Harrison Ford during the filming of Star Wars:A New Hope - though this is discussed somewhat obliquely and through a sampling of her diary entries during that time. She also spends a large section of the book writing about the strange phenomenon of celebrities being paid for autographs. While the book might come off as somewhat uneven, it was interesting for me to see the difference between her diary writings as a 19 year old and the writing style of her books today. And as was a theme throughout her life, Carrie Fisher gives an unflinching look into what it's like to struggle with mental health.
This book will probably make more sense if you've read her other books in order to get more of an overall background for her life and get used to her writing style. I'd have to say that I liked Fisher's previous autobiographical books better than this one, although The Princess Diarist is a little milder in tone than those.
Related Reads
Shockaholic (Fisher)
Wishful Drinking (Fisher)
Little Girl Lost (Barrymore)
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