Bird by Bird: A Recommendation

Just read Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott - got it on Kindle and devoured it in between the chunks of other urgent things to do over two days - and I can see why so many people love it. For one thing, I have resolved to follow her challenge of writing 300 words a day for 30 days while I try to figure out what novel I'm doing after Seasons Four Open the Door, as I currently have no idea except for the neat title that's been bouncing around in my head for a couple years now.

Even if it doesn't galvanize you to any sort of action, though, this is a friendly, wry, clever, eminently lovable book about writing and healing the self. The chapter on how being published, though a valuable thing, does not solve all your problems, rung especially true for me. Before I was published all I wanted was to be published. Now I long for a bigger publisher. Then after that I'll probably yearn to go on talk shows. And so on. It never ends.

The book is a real treat. I give it all the stars allowed.

Weekly Wook Wecommendation

Watership Down by Richard Adams

"'All the world will be your enemy, Prince With a Thousand Enemies. And whenever they catch you, they will kill you. But first they must catch you, digger, listener, runner, prince with the swift warning. Be cunning and full of tricks, and your people will never be destroyed.'"

In a world full of danger, wise leaders and tricks are the only ways to survive. In the bestselling classic Watership Down, the story begins when Fiver, a young, sensitive character, has a vision. He predicts the destruction of their home community, and says they must leave at once. His older brother, Hazel gathers a group of followers who believes the prophecy, and they set off on a great journey that nearly kills them all more than once. Like their culture's legendary hero, El-ahrairah, the Prince With a Thousand Enemies, Hazel becomes their leader and must escape hundreds of fierce creatures, find a safe place to settle in, and even fight against enemies of his own kind.

What makes the book unique is that Hazel, Fiver, and all the other main characters are rabbits. Not humanlike rabbits either, these are real rabbits, speaking their own language of Lapine, eating grass and vegetables, living underground, and always struggling to survive against weasels, foxes, hawks, dogs, cats, and – worst of all – humans.

The delights of Watership Down, which happens to be the name of the warren the rabbits establish, are too many to describe. The characters are rich in personality, while still being animals all the way through. Besides Fiver and Hazel there is Bigwig, a strong, fighting rabbit who believes in biting first and running later; Dandelion, who is a wonderful storyteller and knows all the legends of El-ahrairah; Blackberry, the only rabbit clever enough to understand how boats, traps, and doors work (which saves them more than once); Hyzenthlay, a female full of spirit who escapes from another, horrible, warren, run like a prison camp; and General Woundwort, the most fearsome thing they come across in all their travels.

The result is an unusual tale of heroism, drama, and excitement. These rabbits have souls and gods and poetry, they can both fight for their lives and tell jokes. Watership Down is one of those books that really change the reader, for you will never look at ordinary rabbits in the same way again.

Wook Wecommendation Wednesday 2

Running in the Family by Michael Ondaatje

This pendant, once its shape stood still, became a mirror. It pretended to reflect each European power till newer ships arrived and spilled their nationalities, some of whom stayed and intermarried - my own ancestor arriving in 1600...and a new name with a Dutch spelling of his own. Ondaatje. A parody of the ruling language. And when his Dutch wife died, marrying a Sinhalese woman, having nine children, and remaining. Here. At the center of the rumor. At this point on the map.

Michael Ondaatje spent his childhood in Sri Lanka, but moved to England and then Canada for his adult life. One day, though, he decided to go back to Sri Lanka and find out more about his family, a bunch of rich party-lovers with English, Dutch, and Indian blood.

He has trouble telling the difference between fact and fiction in what people tell him about his family, especially his father. So he tells us everything, all the wild stories, and mixes in poems, photographs, and conversations.

We learn that his grandmother, Lalla, used to steal flowers from her friends and neighbors, so his father started growing cacti. People say his father drunkenly hijacked a train by waving a rifle and getting the driver drunk too. A man who tortured his wife's chickens was cursed and died clucking and pecking at pillows.

Eventually Running in the Family convinces us to agree with the author: it does not really matter how much is made up, as long as it is a good story. Few books will ever be as much fun.

Wook Wecommendation Wednesday 1

"Book Recommendation Wednesday" is only alliterative if I pretend I'm transcribing the dialogue of someone who's just had dental surgery.

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.