The Goldfinch

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

At 771 pages, The Goldfinch is definitely in the chunky category.  I'm sure many of the Chunky participants have already discussed this book, since it was a choice for a read-a-long.  I couldn't get in on that but I did manage to get a copy from the library, so I lucked out.  I've read both of Donna Tartt's previous books and found them interesting, imaginative, and lengthy.  The Goldfinch is every bit in that same vein.  Briefly, the story concerns Theo Decker, a mildly troubled youth who has been abandoned along with his mother by his alcoholic father.  Theo and his mother are visiting an unspecified museum one morning, basically killing time until their appointment with Theo's elite school to find out if he's going to be expelled, when a bomb is exploded.  Theo's mother is killed and Theo is wounded but not as badly as many others.  He and his mother are separated at the time of the blast but Theo is mesmerized by a dying elderly man who directs Theo to take the painting The Goldfinch out of the museum. This act sets the whole novel into motion.  Theo becomes almost possessed by the painting and it gives meaning to his life during a deeply troubled period.  His father's whereabouts are unknown and  Theo informally goes to live with the affluent family of a school friend.  At the same time he establishes a connection with the elderly man's family which includes a half-sister and business partnerr in the antiques trade.  Theo's father subsequently returns and whisks him off to Las Vegas where he lives a depraved life, neglected by his father, and drawn into drug abuse along with another troubled youth, Boris, who becomes an important character.
There's a lot more to the story but the main part revolves around the twists and turns of Theo's life and the fate  of the painting.  Some people I've talked to said the book should have been 100 pages shorter and I agree there are descriptive passages that probably should have been deleted.  The writing is good but so much description and reflection detract from the plot, and the plot is intriguing and the characters are unusual.  I also like the change in  locales, Las Vegas versus New York, gives the author a chance to dig into regional contemporary America.. I  enjoyed her musings on art and its importance in people's  lives. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and read it in just a few days.

My Heart Laid Bare by Joyce Carol Oates

My Heart Laid Bare by Joyce Carol Oates 531 pg.

     This is one of five gothic novels that Oates wrote around the same time but then were published at various later times. This was published in 1998 and tells the story of Abraham Licht, who makes his living as a confidence man.  His several children  start out adoring him but eventually are destroyed or driven away.  He views his children as extensions of himself and insists upon using them in whatever way will maximize profit in his various scams. The oldest son Thurston almost hangs for murder, the second son Harwood is murdered and in a gruesome way, his daughter embarks on a love affair with her adopted brother and  he is banished as a result and she forced into a lackluster marriage.  The younger children fare somewhat better, Darian becomes a tortured avant-garde musician and Esther trains as a nurse and joins the suffragettes.  Yet all must leave their father or be destroyed in turn as he descends into madness as the culmination of his criminal life.
It's a strange and haunting book with an  implication of a criminal ancestor who haunts a mysterious and forbidding marsh.

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

     This is I believe my 5th book for the Chunky Challenge. I hadn't read any Neil Gaiman books before but he's so popular and this book in particular, that I thought I'd better read it. I found it a very original book with an interesting premise. The premise being that if gods are real then the ancient gods are still among us but neglected. An important corollary to this premise is that the old gods of the ancient world were brought to America by immigrants who still believed in them at the time they arrived. So now there are gods established in America and by gods here I mean  Norse gods, Egyptian gods, Greek gods, fairies, and other pre-Christian deities. But as America has changed over the last 200 years or so, the old gods have become forgotten and degraded, more like someone who's down on their luck. So Gaiman has fashioned a world where the once powerful gods live in the seedy underbelly of America.  They live in out of the way places, performing unpleasant jobs or existing on limited means as well as criminal activity.
     The book revolves around Shadow, aptly named because he's a shadowy character. He's in prison and due to be released soon when he's told his wife has been killed in a car accident.  On a plane to the funeral he meets Mr. Wednesday who, after a strange series of events, hires him to do whatever Mr. Wednesday needs.  The clue to Mr. Wednesday's identity is of course that Wednesday is his day so he's Odin. This association with Mr. W. leads Shadow through a series of experiences, meeting gods and sort of knowing about them but not really, that make up the bulk of the story. I can't even begin to relate details because there's too much and it's too complicated but in the end Shadow has to stop a war between the old gods and those things that represent modern America that has been engineered by Mr. W. to feed him power.
     Gaiman is British but living in America now and a large part of the book is a reflection of his particular take on America. He seems fascinated by the obscure, bizarre, repulsive and crazy aspects of American culture. It's interesting for me to speculate if that's how America is seen when viewed through the eyes of a outsider.. A  lot of the things he seems enamored of seem to me a joke or something to roll one's eyes about. Of course, undoubtedly that's the point! Another part to the book that's worth reflecting on is the nature of worship.  The ancient gods demanded horrible sacrifices and so how would that look in twenty-first America?  One way it could appear would be as horrific crime or just general degradation of the human being.  It's interesting and  creepy to think about just as this is an interesting and creepy book.
   

River of Smoke

River of Smoke by Amitav Ghosh  515 pg,

River of Smoke is the second book in this series by Amitav Ghosh about the opium wars in China.  When I say it's about the opium wars, that's a very broad interpretation because it's also about many other things but that's what ties the disparate elements together.  Just as in Sea of Poppies, there's a large cast of characters, some are returning from Sea of Poppies, but others are inroduced here. One of the main characters here, Master Barry, is the father of a relatively minor character of Sea of Poppies  Master Barry is representative of the Indian merchants who became wealthy from the opium trade but did not occupy the same social position as the British merchants who were involved in the opium trade. Through this character, Ghosh is able to explore that class of people and the foreign enclave they were allowed to have in Canton.  The history of this period in very interesting and Ghosh uses real people and their own writings to capture the conflict between the merchants who are smuggling opium, their supporters, and the Chinese government of the Manchus. It made me want to read more about Guangzhou (Canton) because I've been there and we have family ties to Guangzhou.

 At the same time, the author explores horticulture and the immense number of plants that were introduced to the world from China.  He also describes the intense cultivation of gardens and plants that went on in China at that time and describes Hong Kong when it was just a relatively wild place where ships filled with contraband opium would harbor until they could go up the Pearl River . River of Smoke is both the Pearl River because that's how the opium is coming into China and opium itself because people drift away on a river of opium smoke that releases them from their cares momentarily. 

The shipwreck that ends Sea of Poppies is the beginning of River of Smoke but is dropped relatively soon and then picked up again at the end of the book so it's a little confusing and I know that some people were disappointed that this book was not a direct continuation of River of Smoke and we don't find out the fate of many characters but there is another book planned that hopefully ties the loose ends together better. I enjoyed the book particularly the historical aspects of it and recommend it to any general reader.

The Children's Book by A.S.Byatt

The Children's Book by A.S.Byatt 879 pg.

This is my third book for Chunkster Challenge and it is a chunky at 879 pages but it covers an immense amount of ground.  I'm a big fan of Possession and so when I saw this new book (2009) I just had to read it immediately.  It's a sweeping tale, covering the end of the Victorian age, thru the Edwardian, and up to the First World War.  The starting point is the finding of a young boy hiding in the storage rooms of the  forerunner to the Royal Victoria and Albert Museum.  He's escaped from the Potteries, where porcelain is made under horrible working conditions. He's taken to a director of the museum where he meets Olive Wellwood, a sucessful children's book author.  She takes him home with her to Todefright, the home in the country of her large family.  Because the boy, Philip, has ambition to make pots, he ends up being taken to Purchase House, the home of a well known but difficult potter. It seems at first that Olive or Philip must be main characters and they are, but different characters dominate in their respective parts of the book.  It ends up being a large number of characters, more than I can discuss.  Byatt weaves together the stories of  several families who become interdependent and through those stories she tells many other stories that reflect the times during which these people live. So, the Arts and Crafts Movement is discussed in detail as well as the art of pottery, social justice movements, socialism, anarchism, communism, the women's suffrage movement, German puppetry, English and German folk tales, children's literature, and the Great War.  There is a tremendous amount of research on display here and overall I liked it but at times it can be distracting from the characters. Byatt sometimes almost forgets her characters in all the discussions but not quite. So along the way there are also various family secrets revealed as well as plot twists and turns.  The book ends with the bloodbath of the first world war and many of the charming children who have grown up in the book, become cannon fodder for the war.  I found that very touching and I think Byatt handled familiar material and made it fresh and wounding again. Overall, I enjoyed the book although I didn't enjoy every single thing about it.

Sea of Poppies

Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh

This is my second book for Chunkster Challenge. I had intended to read it last year for the book club, but it just didn't happen so I've finally completed it for this year. At 468 pages it's a fairly quick read.
When I first read the book jacket about the slave ship, the Ibis, I was a little put off for some reason.
But once I got deeper into the book, I became intrigued by the story and the wide range of characters and social milieu. It's set in India, mid-nineteenth century, starting in the poppy fields along the Ganges inland from Calcutta. A peasant woman, Deeti, has a vision of a ship even though she's never seen the ocean or an ocean going ship.  Originating with that vision, Ghosh weaves together several different story lines including Deeti's, low-caste Kalua's, a disgraced raja Neel, a young Frenchwoman Paulette, and a young mixed race freedman from Boston Zachary.  There are other characters too who all play a part by ending up on the Ibis, going to Mauritius across the Indian Ocean.  The opium trade is an important part of the story and it's interesting to read how the British forced small Indian farmers to plant ever more opium to the point where people couldn't raise enough food to eat and faced starvation. That opium in turn was used to help ruin China's economy and initiate the decline which China is just now starting to recover from.
This book is first in a trilogy and ends in an ambivalent way.  We don't know what's become of our characters and hope that their stories will be continued in the next book, River of Smoke.  I enjoyed this book and hope to read the next installment.

Elizabeth of York

Elizabeth of York, A Tudor Queen and Her World, by Alison Weir


This is my first book for the Chunkster Challenge and at 476 pages, quickly read.
Elizabeth of York was of course Henry VII's wife and more famously Henry VIII's mother. 
She was the eldest child of Edward IV and after her two younger brothers (the Princes in the Tower) were killed or disappeared, she became the de facto successor to the throne. The book begins with her birth instead of an eagerly anticipated boy and follows with a childhood fraught with intrigues because this is the era of the War of the Roses.  At one point she is engaged to the Dauphin (the heir to the French throne) but shortly after that falls apart her father dies and the whole family is plunged into chaos.  What follows is well-known territory, Richard III's usurpation of the throne, his subsequent death on Bosworth Field, and the establishment of the House of Tudor by Henry VII.
Even though it is well known history, it's still quite extraordinary times to have lived through much less been at the epicenter. Marriage to Elizabeth is a big part of establishing the House of Tudor and Weir offers quite a bit of research to point out that many people felt at the time and later that Henry VII was only able to rule as king because he did marry Elizabeth and made her queen, thereby uniting the York and Lancaster factions of the royal family. Elizabeth as it turns out is a popular and capable
queen and she and Henry manage to forge a genuine bond. They suffer a major blow when their eldest son Arthur dies unexpectedly.  Elizabeth tries to have another child but sadly dies in childbirth.
Weir doesn't solve any of the Tudor mysteries but she does offer extensive detail of court life and she presents Elizabeth as a quietly assertive presence as opposed to being completely dominated by her husband and mother-in-law.
I have read other book on this time period, both historical and historical fiction, and it's amazing how the same historical facts can be used to tell different stories.  I read Sharon Kay Penman's "The Sunne in Splendour" and although it's historical fiction it deals with the same time period and SKP tells it all from Richard III's point of view and the reader ends of up sympathizing with Richard! I liked this book and recommend it to anyone who enjoys English history.

Book List 2013

• The Bell by Iris Murdoch
• Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
• A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore
• Book of Ages by Jill Lepore
• The Paris Wife by Paula McLain
• Digging to America by Anne Tyler
• Dear Departed by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles
• Body Line by Cynthia-Harrod Eagles
• Blood Never Dies by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles
• The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo
• Kill My Darling by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles
• Fell Purpose by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles
• Game Over by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles
• The Good Husband of Zebra Drive by Alexander McCall Smith
• Blue Shoes and Happiness by Alexander McCall Smith
• In The Company of Cheerful Ladies by Alexander McCall Smith
• The Full Cupboard of Life by Alexander McCall Smith
• The Kalahari Typing School For Men by Alexander McCall Smith
• A Conspiracy of Faith by Jussi Adler-Olsen
• Midnight in Peking by Paul French
• The Ghost Riders of Ordebec by Fred Vargas
• The Absent One by Jussi Adler-Olsen
• The Keeper of Lost Causes by Jussi Adler-Olsen
• The Damascened Blade by Barbara Cleveryly
• Ragtime in Simla by Barbara Cleverly
• Tears of the Giraffe by Alexander McCall Smith
• The Tattooed Girl by Joyce Carol Oates
• A Train In Winter by Caroline Moorehead
• Betrayers by Bill Pronzini
• Nightcrawlers by Bill Pronzini
• Morality For Beautiful Girls by Alexander McCall Smith
• The White Forest by Adam McOmber
• Red Wolf by Liza Marklund
• Sunne in Splendor by Sharon Kay Penman
• Snow White Must Die by Nele Neuhaus
• The Falls by Joyce Carol Oates
• A Hologram For The King by Dave Eggers
• Camouflage by Bill Pronzini
• Friends in High Places by Donna Leon
• Blind Descent by James M. Tabor
• The First Inspector Morse Omnibus by Colin Dexter
• Mourners by Bill Pronzini
• The Snowman by Jo Nesbo
• Wolf to the Slaughter by Ruth Rendell
• The Map of Time by Felix J. Palma
• Death of Kings by Bernard Cornwell
• The Burning Land by Bernard Cornwell
• Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver
• Beneath the Abbey Wall by A.D.Scott
• Beastly Things by Donna Leon
• A Charmed Life by Liza Campbell
• Black Girl,White Girl by Joyce Carol Oates
• Dark Assasin by Anne Perry
• From Doon with Death by Ruth Rendell
• Some Lie and Some Die by Ruth Rendell
• Two Graves by Preston and Childs
• Shake Hands Forever by Ruth Rendell
• The Inspector and Silence by Hankan Nessor
• The Devil's Star by Jo Nesbo
• The Leopard by Jo Nesbo
• A Small Death in the Great Glen by A.D.Scot
• Mind's Eye by Hankan Nesser
• The Redbreast by Jo Nesbo
• Phantom by Jo Nesbo
• Nemesis by Jo Nesbo
• Femme by Bill Pronzini
• A Double Death on the Black Isle by A.D. Scott
• The Little Friend by Donna Tartt
• A Florentine Death by Michele Giuttari
• City of Fiends by Michael Jecks
• The Dead of Winter by Rennie Airth
• River of Darkness by Rennie Airth
• Night by Elie Wiesel
• Sacred Games by Vikram Chandra
• Brat Farrar by Josephine Tey
• The Franchise Affair by Josephine Tey
• Miss Pym Disposes by Josephine Tey
• My Life As A Man by Philip Roth
• Total 78 books