Books Blog : WWII

La's Orchestra Saves the World by Alexander McCall Smith

HRevvdon@evpl — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 20:18:00 GMT

La’s Orchestra Saves the World (2009) by Alexander McCall Smith is the first book in a long time that I have sat down and read in one sitting. McCall’s book is an old fashioned story set in Suffolk, England, during World War II. La, short for Lavender and pronounced “as in do-ra-mi-fa-so….,” has moved to the country after her marriage ends. The war breaks out and La stays in the country and begins to do her share by taking care of the chickens at a neighboring farm – an unofficial “Land Girl.” An injured Polish flyer, no longer able to fly, begins to work at the farm as well. Their relationship grows into a rich friendship but before it can deepen he is taken from the farm – in part because of La’s concern about his true background. Is he really Polish or is he a German?

La starts a community orchestra, enlisting neighbors, townspeople, and service men from a nearby air field. Their unconventional orchestra becomes a symbol for maintaining a normalcy in horrific times. The story is not about the orchestra at all, it is about the quiet and determined courage of the English people when faced, again, with war.

Reminiscent of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (2008), I think this book will inspire just as many book discussion groups.

This is the first McCall book that I have read. It is well written and the characters are wonderful. I am already searching for my next read by this author, any suggestions?

Love As Always, Kurt: Vonnegut As I Knew Him, by Loree Rackstraw

Bufkinite@evpl — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 06:21:00 GMT

In September of 1965 Lorree Rackstraw was a graduate student in her second year at the Iowa Writer's Workshop, apprehensive about her new teacher, a relatively unknown writer named Kurt Vonnegut. Vonnegut had published just three books: The Sirens of Titan, Mother Night, and Cat's Cradle. He'd also finished writing God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater the previous spring, and was struggling to get onto paper what he referred to as his "Dresden Book."

Love As Always, Kurt, recounts the friendship that began that summer, and lasted over 40 years, until Kurt Vonnegut died in April of 2007. To call it a friendship cheapens the care that this memoir makes clear they shared with one another. Rackstraw is now Professor Emeritus and the University of Northern Iowa & former editor of The North American Review.

This memoir of Rackstraw's forty-year relationship with Kurt Vonnegut is a very personal and deep look into both the human and the writer behind the name Kurt Vonnegut. We see clearly how, as a writer, he labors in draft after draft of everything he wrote from Slaughterhouse Five to Man Without a Country, and down to the speeches he gave at countless colleges, universities, graduations, and memorial services. We see, just as clearly, how he champions common humanity, and simultaneously enjoys the company of the famous and relatively well-to-do. We see how, despite periods of darkness and cynicism, this relationship buoyed Vonnegut, and provided Rackstraw with an escape from the pressures of her academic career as well.

We see, most plainly, a deep and abiding friendship that transcends all normal definitions. Was it love? Definitely. What it friendship? In the most useful meaning of the word, yes. But it was more: it was a collegial relationship - Vonnegut sent her page proofs of everything from Slaughterhouse Five forward; it was an intimate relationship, certainly: "Kurt and I toured the town of Key West, hand in hand like kids, and took photographs of each other beside somebody else's catch of a huge fish... Later, we danced barefoot under moonlight on that beach, to ragtime music from the piano bar;" and ultimately, it was a lifelong relationship, that saw a parting of the ways only in the death of one.

Being a long-time Vonnegut fan, I loved this book. It represents a first-hand account of four decades of his life by someone who he consistently loved, and who loved him in return. A tender portrait.

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet: A Novel by Jamie Ford

HRevvdon@evpl — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 02:23:00 GMT

I am happy that I seldom listen to book critics. Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet: A Novel (2009) by Jamie Ford has gotten mixed reviews, one of which called it "flat" and "strained." I did not find it either. I very much enjoyed this novel.

It is a love story between a young Chinese-American boy of twelve and a young Japanese-American girl of twelve, Henry and Keiko. The story is set in Seattle and alternates between the 1940's and the 1980's. After the belongings of Japanese families sent to internment camps during WWII are found in the basement of the Panama Hotel, Henry begins to remember that time of anti-Japanese sentiment and the bigotry shown to the Chinese as well. What ensues is Henry's narrative of his life then and in the present time of the novel.

Henry and Keiko meet while working as scholarship kids in a "white" school. They are separated when Keiko and her family are sent to the camps. They are devoted to each other and defy Henry's parents to maintain their relationship. I think the passages set in the 1940's and involving the internment are exceptionally well written and from a fresh perspective. The 1980's passages are less interesting by comparison but still held my interest in the comparison of the relationships Henry had with his father and with his son.

Henry and Keiko are separated by the historical events of the time, and since this is Henry's narrative we learn about his life, his wife, and his son. What happens in Keiko's life is a mystery.

The Reader by Bernhard Schlink

HRevvdon@evpl — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 13:34:00 GMT

The Reader (1995 US) by Bernhard Schlink tells the story of its main character, Michael Berg, and his affair with an older woman. The larger story is about generations of German people, after the Holocaust, struggling with trying to understand what and why it happened and how their own families were involved or chose to do nothing.

The story is told in three parts. First, Michael as a young boy recovering from an illness. He is helped by an attractive older woman when he is sick in the street. Their relationship builds as they are both lonely people in their own ways. Reaching out to each other they begin to have an affair, a 15 year-old and a woman more than twice his age. The writing of the love scenes is well done, and the meaning of the affair to Michael is well conveyed. As part of the relationship Michael begins to read to Hannah. Reading becomes an intimate part of their relationship. Soon the affair dwindles as Michael grows up and joins his friends, and when Hannah unexpectedly leaves her job to move to another city.

The second part of the story takes place much later when Michael is a law student auditing a war crimes trial. Hannah is one of the defendents accused of atrocities while she was a guard at a concentration camp. It is here that Michael realizes that Hannah is illiterate and that she would rather be punished more harshly than necessary than have her secret found out. The third part of the story is about Michael's continued relationship with Hannah while she is in prison and at the time of her release.

The Reader is about a young man growing up in troubled times in a troubled nation, but it is also about the tragedy of ignorance and pride.

I came late to reading this book, deciding to read it only because I wanted to see the recently released film. I wish I had read it sooner.