This is the first entry into what I hope becomes a weekly institution: the recommendation of two books that I happen to like. I promise you that it is my decision which Wooks to share with you, and that if there is a book - rather than a Wook - that I have posted on this blog because the author requested it, I will explicitly say so. I also promise that I have read every single Wook in its entirety.
In the interest of full disclosure, I will admit that Amazon.com will give me a small cut of their profit from the sale of the book if you arrive at it through one of my links. However, Amazon doesn't care which books I advertise. I care. Wooks are chosen out of love, which as we know gives me such a thrill, but...love don't pay my bills. (Given the choice of which is Detroit's finest accomplishment, I would not say Ford or GM. I would say Motown.)
Without further ado, here are two Wooks for your enjoyment:
The Crock of Gold by James Stephens
The Gray Woman of Dun Gortin and the Thin Woman of Inis Magrath asked them [the two Philosophers] the three questions which nobody had ever been able to answer, and they were able to answer them...The Gray Woman and the Thin Woman were so incensed at being answered that they married the two Philosophers in order to be able to pinch them in bed, but the skins of the Philosophers were so thick that they did not know they were being pinched. They repaid the fury of the women which such tender affection...the women uttered the fourteen hundred maledictions which comprised their wisdom, and these were learned by the Philosophers, who thus became even wiser than before.
With that most eccentric passage, the most magical, odd work I have ever read begins. James Stephen's The Crock of Gold takes place in a world of Irish myth, where fairies argue with policemen, philosophers and their wives constantly battle, children are amazed to see sunlight, and young girls run off with the Great God Pan.
It's part fairy tale, part offbeat philosophical work, in which the philosophers discuss questions of why people wash their clothes, why humans cannot communicate with animals, and whether knowledge is the most important thing in the world.
The women of the story contend that happiness is the most important thing in the world, and nothing else really matters. When the philosophers are talking, other characters ask them if they will be quiet. "No, I will not," each one says, then continues.
The son and daughter of the philosophers meet leprechauns and Caitilin, a shepherdess who has fallen in love with the woodland god. The leprechauns are angry because someone following the philosopher's advice found their crock of gold, and retaliate by accusing the surviving philosopher of murdering his brother and the Grey Woman, who in fact died naturally. When the philosopher is arrested, the Thin Woman and her children must save him.
To try summing up this fantasy in a few words doesn't do it justice. The easy, natural tone, the depth of concepts in the story, and the occasional wise silliness is all too ephemeral, too special.
This is, without dispute, my favorite book. It is also the most obscure book I've ever read, so it's extremely hard trying to find someone other than my father to discuss it with. I hope I've been able to give it a little more time in a patch of sunlight.
The next book is a good deal more well known and straightforward, but my passion for it runs deep. I first borrowed it from an English teacher of mine who kept a small bookcase in her class. I took it out several times as a library book and eventually bought it. I thought it was good to bring it up now, what with my own coming-of-age story featuring a strong young woman named Taylor.
The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver
I have been afraid of putting air in a tire ever since I saw a tractor tire blow up and throw Newt Harbine's father over the top of the Standard Oil sign. I'm not lying. He got stuck up there. About nineteen people congregated during the time it took Norman Strick to walk up the Courthouse and blow the whistle for the volunteer fire department. They eventually did come with the ladder and haul him down, and he wasn't dead but lost his hearing and in many other ways was never the same afterward.
Missy Greer is only afraid of two things: exploding tires and having a baby by accident. She grew up poor, raised by her cleaning-lady mother, and wants to get as far away as possible from her hometown in Kentucky, USA.
As she drives across the country, she changes her name to Taylor, and receives a great shock when a Cherokee woman gives her a baby girl and begs Taylor to give her a better life. The girl's mother is dead and her father beats her. The woman leaves, and not knowing what else to do, Taylor takes the baby with her. She names her Turtle, because she is in a shell of hurt but clings to life, and biting turtles do not let go.
By the time her car breaks down in Arizona and she is forced to take a job as a mechanic, she is prepared to believe anything, even that beans can grow on trees. Soon her and Turtle's lives become connected to a newly divorced woman, the woman's son, and a pair of refugees from Guatemala. Taylor must face her fears and become a true adult.
It is not often that a book comes up with such a strong, likeable heroine and handles such important issues. All the characters feel like they could be real. Those who read The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver will come to feel that the world is a scary place, but many of the people who live in it are very brave.
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