Civil War in El Salvador

One Day of Life is told by the matriarch of a peasant family in El Salvador. Originally published in 1980 at the start of the civil war in El Salvador, it is an account of the persecution of one family by government-backed soldiers. Through flashbacks we learn that the son of the matriarch has already disappeared due to his "Communist sympathies."

Lupe, the matriarch, begins her day like any other. Her 14 year old granddaughter, Adolfina, goes out with her younger siblings to get tortillas in the village. By noon a group of soldiers arrive at the family home. They want to take Adolfina to see if she can identify a "wounded man." Since we know that the wounded man was "wounded" by these soldiers it is clear that their intentions are not good. Lupe refuses to let Adolfina go and eventually the soldiers bring the man, near death, to be identified. Only Lupe recognizes him, with grave consequences.

The tension of this story builds gradually throughout the day and the conclusion is unpredictable. As it is describing the tactics Salvadorean soldiers used to intimidate and torture their fellow peasants, all in the name of preventing communist tendencies, it is a story of the viciousness of humanity.

The author of this story, Manlio Arugeta, is better known as a poet in the Spanish-speaking world. He was exiled from El Salvador for nearly two decades, due to his political views. The Salvadorean Civil War lasted from 1980 until 1992. Much credit for the duration is attributable to the generous funding of U.S. administrations, especially Bush I. The UNHCR summarizes the Bush policy in El Salvador succinctly.

Any sufficiently boring history of magic is indistinguishable from boring history

Sometimes a book is published that seems to be exactly the type you will enjoy, but turns out to be a disappointment. An excellent example of such a book is Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke. This book details how magic is revived by two magicians in England in 1806. It is an alternate history. What the book does well is provide a rich literature for British magic in footnotes, create believable historical characters, and engage the reader to the end. The book falls short though in ending badly, in creating unsympathetic (arguably stupid) characters, and giving the female characters no personality or agency.

If the book had had an ending to suit its length it would make up for much, but instead the ending seems patched on. After 782 pages I expect to feel that my reading time was well spent. It is apparent from the fact that "darkness" covers the world at the novel's end that Clarke intends to write a sequel, but why would I read a sequel to a book if the plot can not not be brought to some kind of conclusion in so many pages? One problem many books seem to have is being too long. I think this is a problem of the author not knowing how to end the novel and not doing enough revision. If something could be told in fewer pages then it probably should be.

A second problem with the book is the unsympathetic and boring characters. Neither magician is sympathetic. Jonathan Strange is particularly unpleasant, pompous and self-important. Granted this could be said to be true to the literary form of the British novel, but the plot would be more interesting if the main characters are likeable.

Second, I must object to the comparisons of this book with those by Jane Austen (review). The characters in Austen's novels have personality - both the female and the male characters. In this book the female characters are dull and uninteresting. That the women are boring characters is quite surprising since Jonathan Strange's wife, Arabella Strange, plays a significant role in the book. The issue is the total lack of agency that she has. She has no particular skills or intelligence. When she "dies" her husband finds another young woman to marry, though their marriage is forestalled when Arabella revives. The message of the book seems to be that women are replaceable, but necessary. That is why it is unfair to compare this to Austen. Though Austen's characters had limited agency they did manage to accomplish things, in the private realm. Clarke's female characters are singularly unaccomplished.

The fundamental problem with the book is the concept - making an alternate history of a magical Britain and creating it to be as dull as an actual history. The magic has been taken out of magic.

Puerile Science Fiction

Jupiter, by Ben Bova, is part of the "Grand Tour series" through the universe. In terms of space adventure this is an interesting book, but the human personalities and interactions are so stunted and underdeveloped that one can only imagine Bova was intending it for a readership of 12 year old boys.

Briefly, Grant Archer is a doctoral student in Astrophysics on an Earth of some indeterminate future. On this future earth the political fighting is fierce and comes down to science versus religion. One faction, the "New Morality," is anxious to learn what is happening at the space station orbiting Jupiter. Choosing Grant as their spy, he is sent to the station with the assignment of finding out what secrets are being withheld. As a newly married man he is very upset to leave his wife on Earth four years, possibly more, but given no choice. When Grant arrived on the Jupiter station he discovers that he must study the dynamics of the Jovian ocean which will not allow him to work on his dissertation.

"Finding any kind of alien life was seen as a threat to belief in God. Every time scientists discovered a new life-form anywhere, some people gave up their faith. Atheists crowed that the Bible was nonsense, a pack of scribbling by ancient narrow-minded men steeped in superstition and primitive ignorance." This is one of Grant's inner thoughts used to position his belief system and understanding of the relation between faith and science. This statement could plausibly be applied to today's earth as well, although no extraterrestrial life has yet been discovered.

Grant is not only a brilliant scientist, a prerequisite for a science fiction hero, but he is also quite religious. Due to his religious feeling his understanding of morality is inflexible. Excerpts such as the following force me to think that the book has been written for pubescent boys:

"His bedsheets were tangled and soaked with his perspiration. With a lurch in the pit of his stomach, Grant realized he had made a nocturnal emission." Reading this I thought, maybe Bova's trying to make this appeal to young boys? But then it continues, "It's all right, he told himself, while that stubborn buzzing noise kept ringing in his ears. Wet dreams are natural, beyond your conscious control. There's nothing sinful about them as long as you don't take pleasure from the memory." This statement, while consistent with Grant's character, is not a really reassuring statement for the boy readers I thought Bova might be aiming for. Since Grant is going to be apart from his wife for four years, the message seems to be that he will take refuge in prayer and Bible reading for the duration.

Though this is an interesting book, especially when focusing on the space adventure aspects, the emotional maturity of the main character makes for some truly painful reading. Additionally, though it was published in 2001, it feels like it was written in the 1970's. Perhaps that is just a sign that Bova's writing is frozen, in terms of human interaction.

Homeland

"Sometimes you dream of hearing only the beating of your own heart, but this has never been the case. You have never been able to escape the pounding of a thousand other hearts that have outlived yours by thousands of years. And over the years when you have needed us, you have always cried "Krik?" and we have answered "Krak!" and it has shown us that you have not forgotten us."

Edwidge Danticat describes a call and answer storytelling tradition of her Haitian homeland at the conclusion of Krik? Krak! as an interaction between the living and their ancestors.

The first story in the collection, "Children of the Sea," is told through letters from a young man escaping Haiti by boat, and the thoughts of the young woman he left behind. This nameless girl and boy recount the details of what occurs around them, naming individuals while they themselves remain nameless. Though they boy never reaches Miami and the letters are never sent the two remain connected.

The last story, "Caroline's Wedding," is set in New York. It describes the wedding of a Haitian American woman through her sister's eyes. It is a simple story that shows the difficulty of living in multiple cultures. It contrasts the American lifestyle with the poverty and suffering in Haiti, yet somehow the culture of Haiti is realized in color and New York is little described.

The connecting theme for all the stories is "Ville Rose" a small town which is the natal village of many of the individuals in the stories. This linking of the stories makes them seem more like a continuous narrative then they would be which is better, I think, then short story collections with discrete stories. Unsurprisingly, the stories are quite unremittingly sad, despite which they are worth reading.

Joys

The Joys of Motherhood by Buchi Emecheta is the story of Nnu Ego's life from conception to death. It is a novel rich in irony as the title suggests "the joys" are not realized, but instead the imagined joys that women are supposed to have according to cultural tradition.

When Nnu Ego marries for the first time she does not conceive and is put aside. When she marries a second time she has eight children. By having many children Nnu Ego should, culturally be considered a happy woman. Unfortunately, over the course of her lifetime culture has changed. Her husband fights for the British in WWII, which is impoverishing and does not result in more comfortable living for the family. Her eldest son does well in school and leaves Nigeria to study in the U.S.A. Nnu Ego hopes that he will come back and support her in her old age as was the cultural expectation that she grew up with.

This is an interesting novel both because of the familial relationships that are described and the shifting cultural environment that serves as a backdrop. The story is told exclusively in Nnu Ego's voice. I thought this book was engaging though it would have been interesting to get more of a sense of personality from Nnu Ego. She is rather archetypical.

"The great Indian rooster coop"

Continuing the theme of narrators who feel trapped by the society in which they live, Balram Halwai, a young Indian man, recounts his life history in The White Tiger. This is an epistolary novel and Balram is writing to Wen Jiabao. Hearing on the radio that Wen Jiabao wants to meet Indian entrepreneurs Balram volunteers to recount how he became an entrepreneur. Over the course of seven nights he tells his story.

As a boy Balram was successful in school and aspired to leave his village for the city. Learning how to drive he succeeds in becoming a driver, a prestigious occupation for someone of his background. Unfortunately, as he outlines philosophically, he (and all Indians) are constrained by "the great Indian rooster coop" which prevents any one individual from escaping their prison of indebtedness and familial obligations to become really free. As soon as someone tries to escape they are dragged back down with the rest of the chickens. Balram, however, has found a way out of the coop as only a white tiger can.

I did not find Balram to be an admirable or likable character. His lack of familial responsibility or affection is aberrant by any cultural standard.

Stuck

A Complicated Kindness by Miriam Toews, amusingly was translated as "Ein komplizierter Akt der Liebe." This is a direct translation, but has a very different connotation. "Akt" can mean a pornographic picture, so the German title leads one to believe that perhaps a complicated sexual act of love is the topic of this book. This is quite misleading though, as the novel is a bildungsroman about a teenage girl living in a Mennonite community in Canada.

Nomi, the narrator, lives with her father, as her mother and older sister have both left home. Their disappearance focuses the story as Nomi tries to work out where and why they left. Normal life unravels for Nomi as her father gradually sells all the household furniture. Speaking to the guidance counsellor about future aspirations Nomi says she wants to become a city planner. To explain why she says: "That our main street has two dirt fields on either end of it is weird to me. Shouldn't it lead somewhere?" The guidance counsellor suggests that she needs both math and engineering skills rather than responding to the problem which Nomi has pointed out - that their is no way out of the town, figuratively. There is nothing to which the school or work within the town can lead to. Unsurprisingly, Nomi gradually stops going to school.

This book is quite interesting as it deals with reality in ways that books about teenagers don't generally. It won the Governer General's Literary award and Canada Reads 2006.