Astray

Short Stories. I have tried reading short stories but have never truly loved them. They always seemed to leave me hanging with no real ending, with too many unanswered questions and me feeling somehow slightly ripped off. This was not the case with Astray. 

Emma Donoghue’s collection of verbal snapshots depicting social outcasts. The stories of people who existed only in dust covered history books on back shelves of old libraries. Characters who were remarkable and mundane all at once. They lived in the margins of a society that did not accept them - they just didn't fit in. 

Characters like Mollie who worked as a prospector, cowboy, cook and saloonkeeper in 1860’s Arizona. The immigrating Irish couple whose attempt at reuniting in America was rife with disaster. The mother who goes crazy from guilt and the woman who disguised herself and became a prominent business ‘man’ in New York City in the late 19th century. 

These stories are fact-inspired, existing previously as a line or two in obscure newspapers or archives. Yet Donoghue makes the characters come alive with haunting detail and vivid imagery with plots that tell a full story - all in about nine to fifteen pages per story. It is remarkable. 

The Afterword** explains that many of these characters were in fact real people, while other characters were “invented to put a face on real incidents”. It is Historical Fiction at its finest - in fact Donoghue calls her work a “hybrid form”, existing somewhere between the real and the fabricated. 

The elusiveness of writing historical fiction is a concept I struggle with in my work. How free am I to manipulate the story, to deviate from the truth, to enhance it or eliminate parts of it altogether. Where does an author draw the line between fact and fiction? Or is it not a line at all, but a smudgy, blurry band where the two meet and meld together? 

Ferris wheel at Santa Monica Pier
in California. (taken January 2013)

As a writer, what are my obligations and as a reader what are my expectations? 

These are discords that I will begin to solve as I evolve as a writer. But for now I am content in my evolution as a reader - finally taking on the short story medium! My reading repertoire is ever expanding, perhaps it will include poetry next... ok, I don’t think I have evolved that much!

(In reality I have chiseled myself halfway through Wild by Cheryl Strayed)

**I broke my own rule of no prologues, no epilogues, no forewards and no afterwords. But I was on a flight with nothing else to read and desperation does crazy things to people. I am happy I read it.   It enhanced my understand of the stories. Maybe it is time to drop this rule? 

When God Was A Rabbit

By: Sarah Winman 

Contrary to the title - this is not a book about God. 

It is however, about an interesting hodgepodge of social misfits and the relationships they form with each other. The focal relationship is between Elly and her older brother Joe. The truly unique connection they share is formed the day Elly is born and continues to grow stronger as they share in each other’s lives. 

 The book is divided into two parts - Elly as a child and Elly as a young adult. All the while these complex characters flow and evolve, change and adapt as years age them and events (both big and small) influence them.  

This is an incredibly original and quirky story that allows profound and taboo topics to surface. One particularly weighty notion that captivated me was the idea of memories. More specifically, how important it is for us to remember our memories - to have these collections of moments frozen in time.  It raises the question of who we are without the memory of our experiences? And then later, who are we if our memories are not remembered? Pretty heavy stuff, but Winman’s unambiguous voice and the captivating characters take the edge off the intensity and allow you to get lost in the amazing and unforeseen events that unfold.  

I dog-eared this page...

“I look at photographs from those years and my presence is there, in front of the Eiffel Tower maybe, or the State of Liberty, or knee-deep in sea water, waving and smiling; but these experiences, I now know, were greeted with the dull tint of disinterest that made even rainbows appear grey” pg. 1

When God Was A Rabbit  =  *** loved it

My highly academic book rating scale: 

*‘meh’ - I finished the book; but it didn’t pull me in. I

**liked it - I enjoyed reading it, but I will give the book away after finishing it. 

***loved it - This is a book that captivated me and I will recommend to my ‘book friends’ (all readers have these friends who have the same taste in books as you)

****couldn’t put it down - This book sucked me into its world and had me waking up early or staying up late to spend more time with the characters. 

*****all-time favourite - Every once in a while a book will come along and blow your mind and knock you off your feet. A book that makes you look at everything differently and stay in your thoughts years or decades down the road. They are the books that get prime real estate on the bookshelf. 

Buy your own copy of When God Was a Rabbit:

Wordsworth Books (local, independent bookstore in Waterloo)

Amazon.ca

The Lost Girls

Every once in a while a great little book comes along that seems to speak directly to you. It ignites something within you, an old passion that had been lost- buried somewhere under deadlines, appointments, and grocery store check-out lines, only to re-surface and take hold of you once again. This is what happened to me with The Lost Girls. 

I love to travel, I love being on the road, I love airports, I love packing, I love getting a stamp in my passport, I love converting currency, I love changing your watch to a new time zone and I love being a foreigner. Most importantly, I love a great travel buddy. This is what The Lost Girls is about. Three friends on the road, traveling for a year. Amanda, Jennifer and Holly go country hopping, hoping to find some answers to big questions. Because this is what traveling does, it answers big questions. And these three girls need some answers. They are 28 years old, workaholics, New Yorkers living lives that most women would kill to have. But they feel stagnant, they need to do something and it has nothing to do with finding a new job, apartment or boyfriend. They need something that makes them feel alive. They needed to travel. So they do. They save their money, plan their route and commit to making this trip together - their Around-The-World trip.  The girls travel through South America, Kenya, India, Southeast Asia, New Zealand and Australia documenting their experiences, lessons, mistakes, romances, fights and realizations that come along the way.

I have been feeling stir crazy lately. I have been blaming it on the winter blahs, but now that spring has sprung and that feeling is still here I know what the real issue is. I am itching to be back on the road, itching for adventure. Is that why they refer to it as being “bitten by the travel bug”? The Lost Girls dusted off the cobwebs on my travel memories and made me dig out the in-depth journal I kept while traveling with my then

 boyfriend, now husband-to-be. I open to a random page of the journal which takes me back to our time spent in Don Det, one teeny, tiny island amongst the other 4,000 Islands in southern Laos. Reading about the adventures we once had makes me happy and excited.        
It makes me happy knowing I am marrying my #1 travel buddy and excited for the next adventures we conjure up as we pour over a map. And just like that, I don’t feel so stir crazy. I know I am never stuck somewhere, there is always the possibility to explore. The Lost Girls reminded me of that...

***RANDOM SIDENOTE***One thing that I found a bit odd was that the cover photo of the book is a stock photo! Why didn’t they use a real picture from their year of traveling? They must have at least ONE cool picture between the three of them that could have been used! Does this not seem bizarre to anyone else? Am I the only loser who looked up the photo information? 

What I just Read: The Zookeeper's Wife

This is not supposed to be a book review. I just love to talk about the books that I read - especially the good ones!  

The Zookeeper’s Wife

By: Diane Ackerman

Diane Ackerman blends her voice and the words of Antonina Zabinski (taken from her beautifully written journal) to describe the horrors of Warsaw, Poland during Nazi occupation. The civilians that somehow survived within the hollows of a bombed city and the persecution the Jews in the Ghetto endured over five long years of war. The reader is exposed to the struggles and fear of everyday life during these wartorn years for the civilians within the bombed out city and for the Jewish population forced into Europe’s biggest Ghetto. And yet, somehow a lightness and warmth comes through the pages as well. The loving relationships and strong characters that develop in times of war will consume you as you feel a part of their world. I found myself thinking about the Zabinskis and their ‘guests’ even when I wasn’t reading the book. The Zabinski family was one of many whose bravery, ingenuity, kindness and sheer tenacity saved the loves of over 300 people from being sent to Nazi concentration or death camps. 

The Zookeeper's Wife found the perfect balance between beautiful writing and tireless research that provides a close and intimate glimpse into the every day lives of civilians during WWII. Obviously, I am slightly biased towards original WWII books, but this book is just wonderful!

I dog-eared this page...

“Once its sprightly melody had been a favourite of hers, but war plays havoc on sensory memories as the sheer intensity of each moment, the rolling adrenaline and fast pulse, drive memories deeper, embed every small detail, and make events unforgettable. While that can strengthen friendship and love, it can also taint sensory treasures like music. By associating any tune with danger, one never again hears it without adrenaline pounding as memory hits consciousness followed by a jolt of fear. She was right to wonder. As she said, “It’s a terrific way to ruin great music.” (Ackerman, 179)

The Zookeeper's Wife = CPD (couldn’t put it down)

My highly academic book rating scale: 

‘meh’ - I finished the book; but it didn’t pull me in. 

liked it - I enjoyed reading it, but I will give the book away after finishing it. 

loved it - This is a book that captivated me and I will recommend to my ‘book friends’ (all readers have these friends who have the same taste in books as you)

couldn’t put it down - This book sucked me into its world and had me waking up early or staying up late to spend more time with the characters. 

all-time favourite - Every once in a while a book will come along and blow your mind and knock you off your feet. A book that makes you look at everything differently and stay in your thoughts years or decades down the road. They are the books that get prime real estate on the bookshelf. 

Buy your own copy of The Zookeeper's Wife.