Books Blog : families, reviews

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

KickinLibrarian@evpl — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 14:04:00 GMT

When I went home a little while back, I saw a copy of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn in my little sister's room. Feeling a bit nostalgic, I went home and started reading the battered copy on my bookshelf. I don't know how many times I have read this book (almost as many as Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird), but I always come away feeling like I have just read it for the first time.

Betty Smith published A Tree Grows in Brooklyn in 1943 and it was an immediate success. The story focuses around Francie Nolan, a young girl growing up in the early twentieth century with a fun-loving, but alcoholic father, realistic mother, and younger brother. Struggling against poverty and isolation from her peers, Francie finds solace in the library where she plans to read every book in the collection. The story continues over the next five years of Francie's life. Her struggle to gain her mother's love, her desire to better her own life, and finding love are all issues that Francie encounters growing up in Brooklyn.

I don't want to give away too much of the story for those of you that haven't read it because A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a book that I believe everyone should read at least once. Francie and her family have struggles that many people can relate to, and you can't help but wish to be the friend Francie so desperately needed. If you are wandering around the library one day searching for something to read, remember to grab a copy of this book.

Lost Boy by Brent W. Jeffs

Bufkinite@evpl — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 22:08:00 GMT

Anyone familiar with John Krakauer's book Under the Banner of Heaven will be familiar with the polygamous, Fundamentalist Church of the Latter Day Saints (FLDS). In that book Krakauer recounts how religious polygamy was often used as a cover for pedophilia, and how anyone who questioned the motives of the church leaders often paid in "blood atonement."

The last name of the author of Lost Boy, Jeffs, may be familiar to anyone who has followed the saga of the FLDS, which has been in the news a lot in the past five years. Warren Jeffs, the "prophet" of this splinter cult off of the mainstream Mormon church, is the uncle of the author. The author's grandfather, Rulon Jeffs, was the "prophet" before him, and this book recounts the power struggles that took place within the FLDS, as well as the power struggles that went on within his own family - his father had three wives and 12 children, a small family by FLDS standards.

In a church like the FLDS, where men are guaranteed a "seat in the Kingdom" when they achieve "a quorum," or three wives, young men tend to be seen as "in the way" by older men in looking to complete their quorum with younger - often much younger - women.

The book is divided into four sections called "Before," "During," "After," and "Fighting Back." Brent Jeffs recounts how, as a very young child - just a boy of six or seven - he was forcibly and brutally raped by Warren Jeffs, as were at least two of his brothers. He recounts how young men were singled out for "discipline" for the slightest infractions, and made to feel like they didn't and couldn't belong to the church because of their unsanctified ways.

He recounts how, upon assuming the mantle of leadership of the FLDS, Warren Jeffs began to transform it from a faith - a fringe faith, yes, but a faith - into a cult. Outlawing such small things as pet dogs, the color red, any sort of clothing that was "worldly," and a host of other everyday things like videos of popular television shows like The Simpsons, or name brand clothing or running shoes.

He recounts how his own father was expelled from the the church by his brother, and the life they led trying to keep at least part of their family together. (Warren Jeffs had the authority to "reassign" the wives of expelled church members, and broke up hundreds of families this way in his struggle to maintain power.) He details his and his brothers slide into alcoholism and drug addiction, as they became marginalized from the only community they'd ever known.

Finally though, we are told about his long struggle to return to sanity, and even to filing a Civil suit in 2004 accusing Jeffs of abusing him.

Ultimately, this book is an uplifting look at how people can find happiness and meaning in life, even those who have had truly horrific and demeaning experiences.

Link to the segment of NPR's "Fresh Air" where Terry Gross interviews Brent Jeffs.

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.

The Wedding Girl

KickinLibrarian@evpl — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 14:54:00 GMT

Are you a fan of the Shopaholic Series by Sophie Kinsella? If so, let me introduce you to Kinsella's alter ego, Madeleine Wickham. Both personas write about English women who have found themselves in a predicament. Whether it be money (Shopaholic series), quitting a job and winding up in the country (Undomestic Goddess), or having a marriage from ten years ago come back and haunt her (Wickham's newest novel), women in all of the novels have an obstacle to overcome. The difference, however, is the slapstick humor that can be found in Kinsella's books. When she writes under the alter ego of Wickham, Sophie Kinsella approaches subjects more seriously and tackles some difficult issues.

In the newest book by Wickham, The Wedding Girl, Milly Havill is just four days from marrying the man of her dreams. It seems, however, that Milly has a secret that she has been hiding for ten years and the secret is threatened to be revealed by her wedding photographer. When she was 18, Milly married an American student to allow him to stay in England with his partner. Thinking no one would ever find out, Milly continues to live her life for the next ten years. A few days before her wedding, however, the photographer shows up to take her picture, and Milly discovers it is the same young man that snapped a shot of her first wedding on the courthouse steps.

Milly's story is just one of the storylines in The Wedding Girl. Each character has issues that he or she is struggling to resolve. While there are multiple storylines occurring in this novel, Wickham manages to keep the reader invested in all the characters. It isn't her strongest, or funniest, but for fans of Kinsella or Wickham, it will be another good read.

The Weight of Silence by Heather Gudenkauf

Guatemama@evpl — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 23:21:00 GMT

It's every parent's worst nightmare.... you wake up early one morning to find that the child that you tucked into bed the night before is gone -- not playing in another room or downstairs watching TV, but truly, hopelessly, nowhere to be found. Missing! The terror, the panic, the overwhelming emotions of just such a scene plays out in two very different homes just a few yards from each other in the book, The Weight of Silence.

Both seven years old, Calli and Petra are best friends. Calli does not speak. She is selectively mute after witnessing a traumatic event with her mother at the hands of her alcoholic father. Petra is the adored only child of loving parents who "knows" what her best friend is thinking and, therefore, often becomes her voice. Then in the pre-dawn hours of that fateful day, both little girls disappear.

Calli's parents, Antonia and Griff; Petra's parents, Martin and Fielda; Calli's big brother, Ben; deputy sheriff Louis, and the girls themselves all have a voice in this compelling narration. As the story unfolds each of their experiences and perspectives are told through alternating chapters of the book. In the eyes of the law and of each other, everyone is a suspect, and yet, there are no definitive clues. Did the girls wander off to play in the woods of their own free will? Were they snatched away by some horrible serial killer? Was it the dad? Or was it the big brother? Will there be answers or will they find them too late?

It is not often that I am able, or so inclined, to finish a book in one sitting, but this is a book that I just could not put down. I could feel the panic and desperation of these families as they searched for their little girls and like them I had to know what happened... good or bad. And even days after finishing the book, the story still haunts me and will likely remain in my memory for some time to come.

"The Condition" by Jennifer Haigh

MediaPhile@evpl — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 21:09:00 GMT

With its sympathetic portrayal of a family in crisis, "The Condition" reminds me of Jonathan Franzen's "The Corrections" and Joyce Carol Oates' "We Were the Mulvaneys." All three novels convey the message that every family has points of stress and conflict -- we all just differ in the specifics.

In this case, the problem seems to be that thirteen-year-old Gwen has been diagnosed with Turner's Syndrome, a chromosomal abnormality that causes short stature, delayed or absent puberty, and a variety of other possible problems.

But it doesn't take long to figure out that the McKotch family has other hairline fractures in their persona.

Haigh is so adept at both characterizations and plot development that I have shortlisted her other critically acclaimed novels -- "Mrs. Kimble" and "Baker Towers" -- for future reading.