The Can't Wait To Wake Up So I Can Read Some More Story.

Bedtime Story

Author:

Robert J Wiersema

Publisher:

 Random House Canada (2010)

Number of pages:

496

Review: "Turning to the first chapter, I couldn’t help myself: with the first sentence it was like I was eleven years old again, reading in the apple tree or the hayloft at my grandparents’ place in Henderson." Parents will always see their children as their little boy or their little girl. It is a fact that neither you nor I can escape. Our parents until they die will view us as the little people they’ve birthed and raised. So when I was browsing the shelves of the library and happened to stumble upon a novel called Bedtime Story it caught my interest. When I started to read the synopsis I was hooked, no doubt about it. Not only was this novel going to remind me about my parents and their unrelenting love of reading to their children, but I love novels with two separate plots written in one book, it’s like a bonus: two stories in one. So of course I jumped at the opportunity to read Bedtime Story and I must say Mr Wiersema would have made my father proud.

Christopher Knox began his writing career with a bang. He had a hit novel, a popular column, and the ambition to be the best writer in his generation. 10 years later he finds himself living above the garage of his home, estranged from his wife and still trying to write his second novel. The only thing that keeps him sane is his daily routines, one of which involves reading his young son a bedtime story every night. When David’s 11^th birthday rolls around, Christopher presents him with a novel written by one of his favourite authors from his childhood called To the Four Directions. At first the novel was discarded by David but soon he becomes so enthralled in the novel he cannot distract himself away from it until one day David has a massive seizure and falls into a catatonic state. At first devastated Christopher tries to make sense of the seizures that usually fall around the time he would read a bedtime story to David. When Christopher falls into his story routine at the hospital David’s seizures rapidly decrease yet he still remains catatonic. Christopher realizes that the novel is somehow connected to David’s inability to snap out of his coma and sets on a mission to find out what is happening to his son, all the while he is unaware that his son is trapped within the pages of the novel, trying desperately to stay alive, and find his way back to consciousness.

I absolutely adored this novel, I couldn’t put it down.  I was David; trapped within the words of Wiersema (I didn’t get a seizure thankfully). This novel, right from the very first sentence, captures your whole attention and sends the reader on an adventure of mystery, action and suspense. It also shows the true love a parent can have for their child. Where David’s mother tries desperately to come to terms with the fact that her son may never get out of his catatonic state, his father tries desperately to find a solution using theory, magic and psychics. There is a story in here that will appeal to both children and adults.  There’s David’s narration of his quest to find the healing stone that will appeal to a young adult reader while Christopher’s quest to find a cure for his son will surly capture the attention of the adult reader. And, while these days with television and the internet, it sure is nice to read a novel that advocates the joys and pleasures of reading, especially among young males. I honestly hope that our generation and the generations to come will fall in love with reading again, especially boys. There is so much joy to be had being captured for a few hours by a book. Anyway I do hope you all will get a chance to read this one. It really is worth a look.

What is the Opposite of Sweating?

Shiver

Author:

Maggie Stiefvater

Published:

Scholastic (2009)

Number of Pages:

400

Review:

“I listened for a long time. I prayed for them to stop, to leave me alone, but at the same time I was desperately afraid they would. Long after the other voices had dropped away, Sam kept howling, very soft and slow. When he finally fell silent, the night felt dead.” Werewolves, vampires, zombies, OH MY. It seems that every young adult book we pick up to read these days (you know the ones that make it on the best sellers list) are the ones that feature at least some gothic or mythical creature within its fine paper walls.  While I’m all for gothic literature and my love of vampires haven’t deteriorated yet, what I’m not for is the clichéd gothic literature that is coming out these days.

I remember a time when vampires and werewolves were supposed to be scary, feared, or even mocked. But ever since Twilight (perhaps before that but Twilight is responsible for this craze) these creatures are not scary anymore. In fact they’re wimpy, and love sick, and pathetic. While men are usually like this on a whole, it’s the women of the stories that disappoint me the most. And while I did love this novel Shiver (I loved it to death) I can’t get over the fact that Grace was portrayed as this over obsessive character, and obsessed she was.

The novel starts off with Grace as a young child sitting on her tire swing minding her own business when she gets attacked and dragged by a pack of wolves. All of the wolves are attacking her except one, a lone wolf with sad yellow eyes. The lone wolf eventually fights off the others and brings her back to safety. Fast forward to present times Grace is now 17 years old and desperately in love with the wolf (A WOLF) and the wolf is in love with her, the only problem is Grace doesn’t know that her wolf is actually a boy by the name of Sam who in the summers enjoys his time as a human, but in the winters he prances around in his wolf costume 24/7 (in other words he’s a werewolf). It isn’t until Sam it shot that their two worlds collide and the love story begins.

Bella is to Edward as Grace is to Sam. These two love stories could be identical with their sense of longing and foreboding and the yearning and the desire, young passionate love that lasts forever. It is stories like these that make me a neurotic love torn spinster. I have yet to feel that obsession these children feel for each other but I’m an older gal, and I know the difference between fantasy and reality (and although this kind of love is romantic, it can’t be healthy) but I’m worried about the young girls (and boys) who are reading these stories and thinking this is what love is supposed to be like. These children are going to be crushed when they find out that their potential spouse isn’t going to be as obsessed about them as these characters are about each other (I know I always am). Yet publishers keep accepting these story lines about obsessed teenagers with no concern about their effects on the young minds reading them. It’s like reading Gone with the Wind when your 14 years old and then spending the rest of your life trying to find a Rhett Buttler. It’s just not going to happen yet these kids are growing up with this notion that they’re going to find their Sam or Grace and they’re just setting themselves up for disappointment.

Anyway back to the review. The novel itself is brilliant. The plot line is redundant but there is a twist, where werewolves back in the 90’s changed because of the moon, these humans of the 21^st century change because of the weather, as the temperature drops so does their ability to stay human. The narration moves between Grace and Sam, this is no one sided love story; the reader gets to experience both tales of this extremely fanatical love. But what I loved most about this novel has got to be the prose and this is why I deemed it brilliant. Where Meyers was more simplistic and juvenile with her writing, Stiefvater is very poetic and cadence, almost musical. “I didn't think I belonged here in her world, a boy stuck between two lives, dragging the dangers of the wolves with me, but when she said my name, waiting for me to follow, I knew I'd do anything to stay with her.” It just flows; from sentence to sentence the whole novel was like floating above water. I couldn’t put it down because I didn’t want to leave the pool; I just wanted to wade there for as long as I could, soaking up every word.

Sam was probably my favourite character, only because when he was narrating I was sure to get some intoxicating prose. “I could still smell her on my fur. It clung to me, a memory of another world. I was drunk with it, with the scent of her. I'd got too close. The smell of summer on her skin, the half-recalled cadence of her voice, the sensation of her fingers on my fur. Every bit of me sang with the memory of her closeness. Too close.” I said intoxicating, I didn’t say grammatically correct. I guess I’m just a sucker for prose.

All in all, this novel was worth the read. Was it my favourite, definitely not, but I can’t say I wasn’t entertained, which is saying a lot because there are some books out there I wouldn’t poke with a nine inch pole *cough cough* MOBY DICK (I read it, didn’t like it... sue me)!  I do fancy fluffy novels now and then and for those of you who happen to like fluff then I urge you to get a copy and make your home within the pages of this book.

Happy Reading!!!

The Publicly Loved (But Secretly Annoying) Book

Secret Daughter

           

Author: 

Shilpi Somaya Gowda

Published:

Harper Collins (2010)

Number of Pages: 

342

Review:

“Adoption only solves childlessness not infertility.” Celebrities make adoption look like a breeze. You go to a foreign poverty stricken country, point to the child you want and within a few weeks that child is yours. What the public fails to see is the struggle parents have bonding with the child. It isn’t easy to be a parent in the first place, imagine being a first time parent to a child who doesn’t look like you and worse of all who doesn’t respond to you. But what about the biological parents of this child? Are they really so heartless that they can give up their baby or is there no choice in this decision? Perhaps giving the child away is much more advantageous to the child then it is to selfishly cling to the kid and bring them up in that poverty stricken world. However, this sense of loss and abandonment can haunt the parents for the rest of their lives. These are the dilemmas that surround the story of Secret Daughter.

In rural India Kavita and her Husband are expecting their second child, a child that Kavita both loves fiercely and fears, for if this child is a girl her husband is sure to do something drastic. Across the ocean, Somer and her husband wait patiently at the gynaecologist’s office hoping to hear that after suffering through several miscarriages that she’ll be able to try reproducing again; only instead of hearing good news Somer learns that her ovaries have stopped producing eggs and that although she is only in her 30s she never going to give birth. Kavita gives birth to a beautiful baby girl, a girl she had no hope of keeping, so she gave up the child for adoption rather than have her husband kill this one as he did the other. Somer adopts Kavita’s baby and struggles to find that bond so many mothers have instantly with their children. Although separated by an ocean these two women both struggle with the same issues when it comes to raising a family and find themselves to be connected by a little girl named Asha.

The power of a mother’s love is present in every letter of this novel. The things women will do for their children are devastating, unforgiving, unconditional, and overwhelming. I have so much more appreciation for my mother after reading this novel. Where Kavita smothers her only remaining child with love because of regrets and a feeling of loss, Somer smothers her child because of her fear of a dream, a dream burning within Asha to find her biological family.  Somer fears that if Asha does find her biological family she will lose Asha forever, a fear with which many adoptive mothers probably live.

When I was reading this novel I had a lot of resentment towards Somer. She married into an Indian family (her husband Krishnan is Indian) but she never allowed herself to embrace his culture. In fact she repressed her husband from expressing his culture. I found this very American idea of assimilation to be insulting to me who was born in Canada but still maintains a very South American culture. It wasn’t until I got another prospective that I started to realize my initial hatred for Somer was unnecessary. In truth Somer never got the chance to embrace the culture because her husband never showed her what being Indian was like. He immediately changed his ways of living the minute he stepped on American soil. He gave up every part of him that was Indian and showed Somer that he was indeed American. It wasn’t until he went back to India that he did a complete 180 and changed into someone Somer couldn’t even recognize and what’s worse: he didn’t even educate Somer about his culture. It was complete culture shock that damaged Somer and made her resent her Indian husband and later her Indian daughter.

Another thing I found to be annoying was the fact that the men really didn’t have much of a voice in the novel. Jasu (Kavita’s husband) the hard working husband of Kavita was often seen as the bad father who was trying to mend his ways. Krishnan was the one suppressing who he really was, always with a bottle of hot sauce to pour over his bland food as if it’ll spice up his bland life, and Vikram, the son of Kavita and Jasu, who although growing up in such horrible conditions and then finds himself settling into a life of crime doesn’t even have a say in the novel, in fact by the end he’s pretty much a forgotten memory. 

One thing I really liked though was the symmetry of India. The reader through Kavita got to see India in a very negative disgusting light. Living in the slums of Mumbai, the lack of proper housing, corrupted legal forces, and crime knocking on every door all of these situations were replaced when Asha arrives in India with the splendour of Indian weddings, the amazing tastes of the cuisine, and the glamorous clothing and houses.  The two sides of this country were portrayed with a beautiful sadness.

Perhaps if Gowda had focused a bit more on Somer and less on Kavita I’d have warmed up to Somer more than I had; this was probably one of the more major flaws of the novel, the fact that the author spent so much of it focused on Kavita and her struggles the other characters are often left as a side story, or insignificant. I’d have also enjoyed it more had the men been given a stronger voice. Yes this is a story about strong women, but I felt the men to be neglected, supporting characters that weren’t really supporting. However the novel was emotionally poignant and beautifully so. Her writing was easy to capture your attention. The novel captures what it means to be a mother but more importantly it captures what it means to be a family.

Happy Reading!!!

Hey Coupland!

Hey Nostradamus!

Author:
Douglas Coupland

Date Published:
Random House; 2003

Number of pages:
244

Review:
With melancholy, wit and a lot of personality, Douglas Coupland has rendered another marvellous piece of literature. In Hey Nostradamus, we see the budding artist mature and tackle the task of writing multiple perspectives in narration and it works out brilliantly in his favour.

Taking place in Vancouver, Coupland starts his novel with a school shooting in the cafeteria of Delbrook Senior High School in the year 1988. Four people over a span of 25 years are each affected by the trauma and the loneliness that ultimately follows. Divided into 4 parts, the plot flows smoothly from one narration to the next, each section representing a new narrator. Each narrator has their own voice, their own prose, and their own thoughts and memories are captured by a brilliant author.

The first narrator Cheryl, an abiding Christian, faces oblivion in the beginning of the novel being a victim of the school shooting and often questions her ideals, her beliefs and her religion as she takes her last remaining breaths. “[Dear Lord] A massacre in a high school cafeteria can only indicate Your absence” she utters as she is dying and leaves behind a bloody binder which she wrote:

“GOD IS NOWHERE GOD IS NOW HERE.”

Her words haunt her husband and fellow schoolmate, Jason, who is often accused of being a part of the adolescent team that shot his wife and is the second narrator in the novel. He narrates 10 years after the shooting and is often nostalgic and distant. His narration is quick and jumpy much like his personality. His thoughts often trouble and elude him from his potential; his past affects his ability to create a thriving future.

“In the end, we are judged by our deeds, not our wishes. We’re the sum of our decisions.”

In which, his decisions cause him to disappear leaving behind a girlfriend, Heather, the third narrator being stalked by a psychic.

A stenographer by profession, her narration, in the form of a journal, is organized in thought as well as being articulate. She is left wondering where Jason disappeared to and is contacted by a psychic claiming to have telepathic messages sent to her from Jason. In the end she realized that she often attracts people of a lonely nature.

“Did I unwittingly send out the sort of signals that attract desperate souls?”

One of these desperate souls she attracted, while trying to find comfort for the disappearance of Jason was the 4th narrator, Jason’s father Reg.

Reg writes in the form of a letter as well, tying up the novels loose ends and often jumping from 3rd person narration to 1st person. His confused and pleading form of writing is very much associated with his personality. He ends the novel beautifully.

Each character has a sense of loss and yet they have a deep understanding of what it is to be a human, in touch with emotions and living off of memories in a culture and society moving forward while they are being left behind. Every character is relatable because every character is real; their emotions, their actions and their life can be found in any home in any city, regardless of the shooting. Everyone questions their beliefs and everyone feels a sense of loneliness, of loss.

Coupland has written a novel of nostalgia on a subject often considered faux pas. With the recent shootings at Virginia Tech and here at home with Dawson in Montreal it’s important to see how one senseless act can affect the lives of dozens of people. Whether they are people who witnessed the shooting or those who interacted with the victims or even those who watched a broadcast of it on national television, everyone is affected. This novel clearly illustrates this point. Smart, witty, fantastic, Hey Nostradamus is a modern classic and a pop culture haven. Coupland never ceases to amaze me.

Happy Reading!!!