Hemingway's Girl

by Erika Robuck

This book was not worth the money I paid for it. This is the other book that I bought at the Hemingway House in Key West because it was a book and it grabbed my interest and I was on vacation so budget be damned! If I had only bothered to look at the price and realized that I was paying more than $15 for a paperback I might have put it back on the shelf.

The book is very amateurishly written. The narrator feels the need to tell us about every single thought that the characters are having (OK, not really every single thought, but it felt that way at times). While, as a writer, I can understand the temptation to do that, as a reader, it was extremely irritating, especially when the characters' inner thoughts just repeated what the dialogue or action had just told me. I find it ironic that Robuck is such a Hemingway fan because he was a minimalist writer. He never did any of that, usually not even bothering to show his characters' facial expressions. He just lets the dialogue and the action speak for itself. While Hemingway's writing style is a bit extreme for my taste, I'll take that over Robuck's rambling any day.

The setting also needed work. This wouldn't have bothered me so much if I hadn't just been to the Keys. Robuck lost me at the very beginning when she described her character on Whitehead Street and hearing Duval street from "a couple blocks away". Whitehead is one block away from Duval street. She also mentions Hemingway and some other characters discussing the Spanish Civil War. The book takes place in 1935. The Spanish Civil War didn't start until July of 1936. Way to go. Then there was the scene where Hemingway tells Mariella that smoking will kill her. No one knew that smoking would kill anyone in 1935. Heck, as late as the 50s and 60s doctors were recommending it.

OK, now it's time to talk about the parts of the book that I did like. First of all, it was short. No, I'm kidding. That's not the first thing I liked about it. My favorite part was the characters. The main character, Mariella, is tough and smart and strong and she has guts. I love her. I also loved the portrayal of Hemingway. It struck me as very true to life, from what I know of him. Robuck did an excellent job of displaying his charisma but also showing that he was kind of a dick. It left the main character feeling torn and I found all of that entirely believable. My favorite part was a scene where Mariella calls Hemingway out for writing weak female characters. It was perfect because it is so true. That was my biggest complaint about "For Whom the Bell Tolls" and Mariella was a perfect example of a real woman: strong, smart, capable, and flawed.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

by Stephen Chbosky

I know. I know. I'm so behind the times in reading this book. I meant to read it before the movie came out, but I must have been feeling particularly overwhelmed by my reading list at that point because I just never got around to it. I don't know what finally made me get it together but I ordered this from the library a couple weeks ago and read it right away.

After all that waiting, I have to say I wasn't all that impressed with it. Maybe it just couldn't live up to all of the hype. When you wait X number of years to read something that is supposed to be the best, most life-changing book ever, it's pretty hard to stay on that pedestal as it keeps getting taller.

I might actually go back and reread the book later because I think that might help me to understand it better. I spent the whole book wondering what was wrong with the narrator. He wasn't exactly naive, but the way in which he wrote seemed below his actual age. I had to keep reminding myself that he was actually 15/16. Then I hated myself a little for thinking that there must be something wrong with him just because he's different. And THEN I got to the end. Oh man.

But before that, it was really hard for me to place Charlie. You know how when you read a book you compare all of the characters to people you know or have known. Doubly so when you read YA, because it reminds of you all the different kinds of people that you went to high school with and the different cliques and all that. I placed Sam and Patrick easily, but I couldn't place, Charlie, and that kind of bothered me.

Although I could (obviously) relate to his desire to read and his tendency to stand apart and just observe everyone. I kind of hated the teacher a little bit when he told Charlie that thinking was an excuse to not "participate", but then the teacher turned out to be pretty cool in the end. I'm just really sick of society telling me that being introspective is somehow wrong, and when the teacher basically told Charlie this, I was all ready to get in there and defend Charlie's young, naive, fictional butt.

That being said, Charlie really is an amazing character and I wish that I could be more like him. The most striking part of the book, for me, was the end when he said he loved his Aunt Helen. Forgiving her I can understand. Loving her? After all that? I don't understand. But that's what makes Charlie special. He truly loves every one he comes into contact with and he expects absolutely nothing in return. In that sense, he is the person I am trying to be.

For Whom the Bell Tolls

By Ernest Hemingway

Ever since I moved into my current home about a year and a half ago, I've been meaning to go to the Ernest Hemingway museum that's on my block. My excuse for not going was that I hadn't read any Hemingway since high school. Despite all my best intentions to read some more of his stuff, it just never happened. Then, on the vacation mentioned in my last post, we went to the Florida Keys. Although we did not stay in Key West, we spent a fair amount of time there wandering around Old Town and looking at all the pretty. Of course we stopped at the Hemingway museum down there which is the house Hemingway spent his winters in in the 1930s. The guy who sold us our tickets was doing his usual friendly, asking where we were from and when we told him he asked if we had been to our Hemingway museum. It made me feel guilty so now I'm resolved to go ... someday.

Anyway, I did actually read another one of his books, which is a good start. I don't really have any interest in reading any of his books about hunting in Africa or fishing or bull fighting but I did enjoy A Farewell to Arms when I read it in high school, so I chose something which sounded similar. I bought this in the bookshop because 1) I love buying books and I was on vacation so why not? and 2) if I bought the book, I would have to read it. Yes, I could always get it at the library for free, but I've had that option for the past year and a half and it's clearly not getting me anywhere.

So, after all that, I did really like this book. It definitely took some getting used to because his writing style is so different from what I've come to expect of modern writers. One thing that stayed the same though, is Hemingway's strict adherence to the he said/she said rule. I don't think he ever used any other verbs when he could have used "said." I definitely think that there's something to be said for stripping prose down to his barest bones, but personally, it left me feeling kind of disconnected from all of the characters. Yes, there was emotion and the dialogue by itself was enough to tell me that the particular emotion or the tone was there, but it wasn't enough to make me feel it.

That probably had something to do with why I couldn't buy into the love story. The entire novel takes place in the span of about three days and in that time these two meet, fall in love, have a lot of sex, barely even talk to each other, and then they part ways. I also found it very hard to have any respect at all for Maria. Her whole world was comprised of taking care of her man and making her man happy. She literally had no other interests. It was revolting.

That being said, I really liked the rest of the story. It was a very interesting commentary on war and the things that people tell themselves to get through it. There was a great contrast between the guerrilla fighters behind enemy lines and the officers (some of whom are literally insane) and the careless manner in which they send their soldiers out to fight. The main character, Robert Jordan, has a bad feeling about the whole mission from the very beginning. But orders are orders so he tells himself that this mission is necessary to win the war in order to get himself through it.

Hemingway also does stream-of-conciousness very well. Many pages are taken up by the main character's internal debate and it is written in such a way as to be very believable. It reminded me of what goes on in my own head when I catch my mind wandering. Then again, maybe I'm just crazy in the same way that Hemingway was crazy. In which case I'm screwed.

Vacation Reads 2014!

Winter's Tale
by Mark Helprin

Apparently, I'm really bad at choosing books to read when I'm on vacation that are nice and light and actually good. Last year I thought "The Host" would be a good one. Instead, it bored me to tears. This time I was thinking more along the lines of "On vacation I'll have the time to read this 700+ page behemoth without having to worry about getting through it in a week in order to write my blog." So I started it when I knew I would have plenty of time to read. Unfortunately, the result is that I feel like I lost a lot of valuable reading time.

Full disclosure: When I bought the book, all I knew about it was the trailers for the movie. All I really cared about were the fact that Colin Farrell and Jessica Brown Findlay are in it. I could have read the reviews, but I'm not sure that would have helped me. This book seems pretty divisive. It has a lot of five-star reviews, a lot of one-star reviews, and only a handful in the middle.

Most of the negative reviews hated his writing style. I have to agree with them there. It's all very flowery and boy does this guy like his similes! Everything is like this, like that, like a virgin's flowing locks, etc. Don't get me wrong. I actually like a little of that. The problem with Helprin is that he spent more time doing that than he did telling the story. It got very old very quickly and helped to make me feel like I was slogging through this book rather than being engaged by a good story-teller.

Some of you may be wondering why I bothered to finish the book if it was so long and so boring. I have to admit that I don't know. I liked the first third of it. I didn't love it, but I thought it might warm up. The second third was spent introducing new characters and going off on tangents, but I trusted him to bring it all back together and make it relevant. And he did. But by the time I reached that part, I was so bitter about having had to slog through the middle third and so focused on just finishing the book that I didn't take the time I should have to enjoy it.

Oh, and the horse! Oh, my god, you guys! The horse! The very beginning of the book is told from the point of view of the horse as he is running away from his master. The horse so clearly had an attitude from the very beginning that it reminded me of the horse in Tangled (which we all know was the best character in that movie). Usually, when I got bogged down by two-dimensional human characters, Helprin would go back to talking about the horse and I would instantly perk up.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters
by Rick Riordan

I was a little disappointed in this one, too. Granted, Annabeth is still my favorite forever and the villains here are awesome, but the plot was basically a retelling of The Odyssey. Right down to using the name "Nobody" and hiding under the sheep. I mean, if you're going to have your characters face all of the same villains, can't you at least make them a little more creative, rather than just copying off of Odysseus?

That being said, the ending was phenomenal and I cannot wait to read the next book to see where that leads!

I Am Malala

by Malala Yousafzai

I want to be Malala when I grow up.

Seriously. Everyone should read this book and then we can all wonder together what we've been doing with our lives while this girl has been fighting to make the world a better place. Her bravery and optimism are astounding and the rest of us can only hope to ever be as cool as she is.

I think my favorite part of this book was the fact that she points out the irony of the Taliban. As a deeply religious Muslim who has memorized the Quran, Malala is well equipped to point out exactly how these people are wrong. While they beat and threaten women into staying home and out of men's sight, Malala insists that nowhere in the Quran does it say that women should not go to school. On the contrary, it encourages both boys and girls to gain as much knowledge as they can. According to Malala, Islam is a pro-education faith.

Purdah is a touchy subject. I'm not a fan of it personally, but I'll try to remain respectful of other people's beliefs. While many Muslim women were practicing purdah before the Taliban came along, the Taliban imposed further restrictions on women for no apparent reason. Not only did they have to cover their heads, but they had to wear burqas, could not go outside without being accompanied by their husband or a male relative, and they were forbidden from dancing. Why the Taliban is so against music and dancing is beyond me. It reminds me of certain Christians who seem to think that anything that's fun must be evil. I guess that's another thing that Christians and Muslims have in common, regardless of whether or not they'll ever admit it.

I thought Malala made a great point when she said the Taliban accused women of wanting to disobey their fathers and husbands by going outside on their own. Malala says that this is not true. She points out that there is a difference between wanting to make your own decisions and wanting to be disobedient. I thought this was an excellent point because it effectively shuts down one of the Taliban's main arguments.

Of course, this is all coming from a girl who has been granted quite a bit of independence. Her father is an educated and liberal-minded man who encourages his daughter to study, to work hard, and to speak out for what she believes in. Malala is truly an amazing person, but it's clear that she couldn't have done any of what she did without the help and support of her father. Those two are so adorable. Just look at them.

The Accursed

by Joyce Carol Oates

I'm still not sure whether or not I actually liked this book. I think I did. It was certainly well-written. It just wasn't quite what I thought it was going to be. Although I try not to buy books anymore (I get most of my reading material from the library, borrowing from friends and family, and when I do make a purchase, it's usually for my kindle), this one caught my eye when I was at the Book Table. I like the Book Table and enjoy supporting it, so rather than getting the book cheaper in a digital version or for free at the library, I went ahead and bought a hard copy. Part of the reason I bought it is because I had been hearing a lot of good things about the author lately and had not yet read any of her books, so I thought it was time I introduced myself to her material.

The other reason I bought it is because the description on the back cover said, "Vampires and ghosts haunt the dreams of the innocent and a powerful curse besets the families of the elite". This sounded to me like urban fantasy meets historical fiction, which is kind of accurate, but I was hoping, based on what I had heard of the author, that this would not be a typical urban fantasy novel, and it certainly wasn't. Not that I have any problems with urban fantasy, it's just that I think I've kind of ODed on them for now and it just wasn't what I was looking for.

It turns out that the urban fantasy meets historical fiction description is pretty accurate, but it's also not your typical urban fantasy novel. In modern urban fantasy, the paranormal has been made human, so I guess that's what I was expecting. You know, vampires are really humans who just happen to be nocturnal and drink blood, but they're very sexy and usually disgustingly wealthy, and ghosts are just misunderstood and all they really want is a way out of here so they can go into that bright white light.

This was not the case here. Vampires are scary. Demons come in all forms, including voices in your head that tell you to murder your spouse and ghosts entice you to try new things like jumping off of rooftops. It is implied that two different mysterious people are actually the same demon, but it's never confirmed. The demons in this novel retain an air of mystery that I'm just not used to seeing any more. While that took some getting used to, I think I really liked it. It reminded me of the truly scary ghost stories I used to read/watch as a kid.

I'm still not entirely sure how the curse worked. It was mostly explained in the epilogue (which was, hands down, the best part of the entire book), but that really only explained why four people were affected. It didn't really explain to me why the rest of the town was affected, and I'm still trying to figure out how Upton Sinclair fit into everything. Oates managed to tie him in with some of the main characters at the very end, and while I was gratified by that, I'm not sure it was necessary. It leaves me wondering if Oates was using the curse to make some sort of commentary on capitalism and the Gilded Age. I think she was, but I'm not sure.

Don't rely on my dense opinion, though. Read the book and decide for yourself, because I just wrote myself into it: I really liked this book.

The Civil War Diary of Clara Solomon

OK, you guys, last Civil War book for awhile, I promise. This one was actually really interesting. Not that I anticipated that it wouldn't be, it's just that I was oddly fascinated by it and I'm not quite sure why. The diary was written in New Orleans and only covers the first year or two of the war. At the beginning of the diary, Clara is fifteen and she is seventeen by the time the diary ends. Despite the fact that there is a war going on, which she does mention frequently, she is still a typical fifteen-year-old. She is shallow and self-absorbed and most of her concerns were related to things like who her best friend was that week.

I don't think that Clara and I would have gotten along if we had ever met in real life. And since I generally don't like fiction written from the POV of a teenage girl, I have a hard time explaining why I was so absorbed by this girl's diary. Most of her concerns were petty, every-day concerns, but I found myself wrapped up in them anyway. I wanted to know about the arguments at school and who insulted whom and who Clara was obsessed with that week.

Despite the fact that I found it entertaining, I obviously read the book because I was hoping it would give me an insight into what life for my characters was like during the first two years of the war, and that it certainly did. Although I knew about the rise in prices and all of the problems with Confederate currency, it really makes a difference to hear about how it affected a young girl's day-to-day life. It's also nice to know that, although it was clearly a major issue, the war was not the only thing that people were talking about. They still had their parties and their card games and went about visiting. Speaking of which, I think that's something we need to bring back as a society. Just dropping by each other's homes to pay a visit just for the hell of it. Sure they might be out, and they might not be expecting you, but who cares? We need more physical interaction.

This book also inspired me to start writing in my diary again. I have not done that yet, and I'm not sure I really have the time for it, especially given the fact that Clara kept complaining about how time consuming it was to write in her diary on a regular basis. Nonetheless, I think it's a good idea to write things down every now and again, if only to keep track of one's thoughts and feelings.