Book Review: Dance the Eagle to Sleep by Marge Piercy


There really is something about Marge Piercy and her writing. She literally TALKS to me. I've already talked about how much her novel Gone To Soldiers has affected me in my life (as well as the sheer amount of times I go back to it), but she has written other novels that have the same effect on me. Her prose tends to tear me apart, touches me intensely and then leaves me to think about it over and over again for days afterwards. A lot of it comes from the fact that she is able to to create story lines around (political) ideas that I completely agree with; strong characters that you relate to, love, dislike, want to be; and her powerful writing that always seems to become timeless. The ability to blend beauty and ugliness together in prose is what Piercy is insanely good at, as well as the ability to make you imagine that you are living the exact story that you are in the middle of reading.

Dance the Eagle to Sleep is Marge Piercy's first novel, originally published in 1970 and recently reissued, with a new foreword by Piercy herself. The novel is centered around four students, each from different backgrounds (Shawn the rockstar trying to avoid doing military service, Joanna the runaway, Corey the revolutionary and Billy the scientist). The story starts with the student revolt at Franklin High and continues with the development and country-wide growth of a dissident youth movement named the "Indians". Young people who are tired of being told how to live their lives, what they need to become to be a "proper adult"and what box they need to fit into. People with ideas that defy the norm and who want to live, be free and create a new type of world where there is no war and plastic pre-fab lives and boredom.
Through-out the novel the movement grows inside and outside of the cities; communes are created and the inevitable governmental crackdowns start happening. The Indians become self-sufficient and live as one large family, with natural leaders and different groups inside the family. Discussions are held every day where all members can voice thoughts and opinions and drugs are seen as a way to enlightenment as opposed to addiction, in the same way as hallucinogenics were used in certain Native American tribes. The Indians look for peace in the alternate way of living but prepare for the eventual clashes with the police and the the government. Police brutality is expected, but once the violence of the crackdowns becomes more akin to war, the family divides into those who want to go underground and those who want to fight to the bitter end.

Although an invented world, this novel is never far from the truth, and is based on the student protests in the 60's, and can easily be transplanted into the world of today, with the Arab Spring and the Occupy movement around the world. Hope, change, revolution, repression. A story of despair, of hope, of uprising and of defiance. Full of powerful images and metaphors that leave you imagining the may bes and the could have beens.

Marge Piercy's Website

Book Review: Let The Great World Spin by Colum McCann


Let The Great World Spin by Colum McCann

I just finished this one on the subway home from work, after starting it yesterday. I have to write about it now, even though I have a million things to do to prepare for my trip to England on Tuesday morning (working 8 days in a row and then picking up an extra shift tomorrow night isn't giving me much time to do laundry, pack, clean the apartment, go to the bank, print the eulogy and my tickets etc etc). I just have to write about this one now because I want to do it while it is still fresh in my mind.

No wonder this novel won the National Book Award. It's AMAZING. The story is about several lives that are intertwined in NYC in the 70's: Corrigan and his brother Ciaran, Irish immigrants living in the Bronx, Tillie and her daughter Jazzlyn, two prostitutes in the Bronx that Corrigan looks after, Clare and her husband Solomon, parents who are mourning the untimely death of their son in Vietnam, Lara and her husband, artists who are still looking for themselves through art and drugs, as well as quite a few others, lesser characters, but just as important and interesting.

Colum McCann starts the story with Philippe Petit's incredible feat of walking between the Twin Towers on a cable, and proceeds to use this as a back story for all the entire book. On the day that Petit walks across the wire different events happen that will change the lives of all characters for the rest of their lives. Although the narrative goes back in time and into the future to give background on some of the characters and events, the main storyline is based in this week in August 1974.

Rich, full of emotion and feelings that everyone can empathise with, this book is literally magical. Not only that, it creates a real vision of NYC, one that really exists, a city of everything, paradoxical and alive, one that anyone who has lived in NYC will immediately recognise. It's going to take me a while to get this book out of my mind, I think I am still a little overwhelmed.

At the end of the edition I read there is an interview with McCann by Nathan Englander. One of the questions was "Let The Great World Spin paints a broad picture of New York. Do you want to talk about the various worlds you walk us through?". McCann's answer really does explain it all, and I have to say that he succeeded in what he set out to do: "I wanted it to be a Whitmanesque song of the city, with everything in there - high and low, rich and poor, black, white, and Hispanic. Hungry, exhausted, filthy, vivacious, everything this lovely city is. I wanted to catch some of that music and slap it down on the page so that even those who have never been to New York can be temporarily transported there."

Read it - you won't be sorry.

Colum McCann
Man On Wire - Philippe Petit documentary

Book Reviews: Thirteen Reasons Why & The Fault In Our Stars

I really shouldn't be reading about anything that relates to death or sickness right now, but for some reason I am drawn to these type of books at the moment, and they provide some kind of comfort. I also haven't read any real YA novels this past year, probably because I always worry that I am going to get bored. I guess the last Laurie Halse Anderson book I read left a bit of a bitter taste in my mouth, and also I've been obsessed with spy stories from the 40's for months, so that may explain it. Anyway, last week I was in the middle of reading White Riot (Punk Rock and the Politics of Race), and was looking for something a little lighter to read between the different essays. I remembered that my friend Holly had lent me a few books a few months ago and I just grabbed the top one and started reading it.


And couldn't stop. Thirteen Reasons Why (by Jay Asher) tells the tale of a high school kid called Clay who receives a box of cassette tapes in the mail. No return address and no sender. Once he starts to listen to the tapes he realises that they come from a girl called Hannah, a girl who had committed suicide a few weeks before. Through her voice on the tape he learns the reasons why she killed herself. It's heartbreaking, but so very real. The narration is shared by both Clay and Hannah's voice on the tapes, Jay Asher actually does a wonderful job weaving the narration seamlessly. You actually don't feel like the story jumps between the character's voices, more like there are two voices complementing each other, both sides of the story coming together as one. I actually wish I had read this book as a teenager, and would probably advise all teens to read it. It's so sad, but the story does show that all actions, however small they may be, can have consequences.


So I raved about the book to Holly and she came back with three more, one of which was The Fault In Our Stars by John Green. I started it yesterday during the performance at work, spent 2 hours reading in bed before I literally couldn't keep my eyes open anymore and got up early to finish it this morning (and I am dealing with serious sleep deprivation this week). This story deals with life-threatening illness (cancer) in teens. What I liked about this book is that it treats cancer in the way that cancer victims live through/with it, and avoids all the clichés that you may expect. The main character, Hazel, is smart, funny, witty and lives with the fact that one day in the near future she will not be around anymore. John Green creates a wonderful story with characters you just can't help falling in love with. Imagine the shit you went through as a teen, and then imagine having cancer on top of that... It's like trying to live as a child, a teen and an adult all at the same time. And yes, you will cry, but you will also laugh just as much.

I also must mention that it's pretty awesome, having a friend like Holly who has the knack of picking out the exact book you need at just the right time <3

Book Review: Displaced Persons by Ghita Schwarz


I'm still obsessed with historical fiction, and will always make a beeline to any fictional writing based in the 1930's and 40's. World War Two still holds a fascination for me that I can't explain. I go for non-fiction too, but fiction will always be my main love. There is something about the fact that it COULD be real, because the written story will be based on events that actually happened at some point in time. It helps me imagine myself in the feet of the characters, living the lives that they did, thinking that maybe they did really exist, or someone like them was alive at the same time in the same area. All that to explain that my purchase of Ghita Schwarz' Displaced Persons was yet another random buy that I happened to come across when browsing the through the new book selection at St Mark's Bookstore. WW2 + Europe + survivors? It was a no-brainer, I grabbed it and immediately started reading it.

The story starts in 1945, just after the war and follows a small group of "displaced persons", the name given to concentration camp survivors and general survivors of the Nazi murdering machine, as they randomly find each other and fight to rebuild their lives as best as they can. The main character through the book is Pavel Mandl, and the narration follows him through his life, directly post-war around the Belsen camp and then post-immigration to the US with his new family and friends. The story sometimes skips to other characters, for example Fela, Pavel's wife; Chaim, the young boy who had survived the Holocaust by pure wit and intelligence and attached himself to Fela and Pavel, and Sima, Chaim's wife. You can find a full synopsis of the novel HERE.

I like that this book was written about survivors picking up the pieces and creating new lives for themselves, after losing everything, instead of being about the actual survival during the war. The narrative is written in such a way that you can hear the Yiddish, Polish and Russian inflections in the characters' voices, but it's so well done, that you don't even notice it outright, it just seems natural. The other point that I really liked about this book is that Schwarz focuses on the characters as normal people who have gone through traumatic experiences and continue to be normal people looking to survive and move on with their lives. The fact that they are survivors does not make them into super humans, they are just normal human beings with flaws and hopes and dreams, trying to make the most of what they have, while still trying to come to terms with the tragedies they have experienced.

By the end of the novel you feel as if you have known the characters all of your life and you don't want to leave them. I applaud Schwarz for writing such an emotional and real novel. If I am not mistaken this is her fictional debut so I can't wait to see what she comes up with next! I also LOVE the fact that she added a couple of pages to the end of the novel with titles of books about the subject, as well as a small synopsis for each book. For someone like me who continues to look for WW2 fiction, this is the best thing that an author can do!

More information:
Gita Schwarz official website

Book Review: They Poured Fire on Us From The Sky: The Story of Three Lost Boys from Sudan

They Poured Fire on Us From The Sky: The Story of Three Lost Boys from Sudan by Benson Deng, Alephonsion Deng, Benjamin Ajak, Judy A. Bernstein


We have all heard stories of war and famine in Sudan on the news, especially over the past year as the famine has been widespread, extremely deadly and finally people have started taking notice (for a little while anyway). The North and the South have now become two separate countries and hopefully South Sudan will now be able to create an environment of peace again after so many years of war, mass killings and atrocities committed by both the government of the North and rebel army fractions from the South. Children have literally grown up in refugee camps after fleeing for their lives and managing to survive alone, through great hardships and without their families. I'm not going to go into detail on the decade-long conflict here, but there is more information on the country HERE.

During the years of war, millions of boys (and girls) from the ethnic Southern Dinka and Nuer tribes ran for their lives when their villages were attacked, walked thousands of miles over years through famine, desert, starvation and death, and survived. About 20,000 or so of these boys (and much fewer girls) ended up in refugee camps in Kenya and Ethiopia. These boys were colloquially named the Lost Boys of Sudan, and the name stuck. More information on the Lost Boys and literature regarding them HERE. The 20,000 refers to only the boys who survived and ended up in refugee camps, the numbers of displaced children go into 2 million or so, so many dying before they could ever reach safety.

I literally could not stop reading They Poured Fire on Us From The Sky. It accompanied me everywhere, until I finished the last page yesterday and felt a little at a loss on what to read next. What can follow on after such a heartbreaking but heartwarming book?! The book revolves around the true stories of three of the Lost Boys of Sudan, told in their own words after their arrival to the USA in 2001. While in a refugee camp in Kenya they applied to the program set up by the US government and the UNHCR to have a certain number of lost boys (and girls) resettle in the USA.
Benson, Alepho and Benjamin are brothers and cousins from the Dinka tribe of South Sudan, born into villages where they spend much of their time helping their families by guarding cattle from a young age. When war broke out and their villages were attacked they literally fled for their lives, with just the clothes they were wearing. For years and years they ran, across southern Sudan, to Ethiopia, back to Sudan, and finally all ended in refugee camps in Kenya. They lost each other many times, but miraculously found each other again, on multiple occasions. Each chapter is written by one of the boys and recounts a story, an occasion, or a memory of something that happened along their journey. Atrocities, death, starvation, wild animals, bombs and so many tears, but also hope, love and at utmost will to survive.
I honestly could not even imagine my 5 year old self trekking across thousands of miles of bush and desert, running away from death without knowing if I was actually going to run right back into its jaws again; not knowing if I would ever see my family again, whether they were alive or dead. How they survived all those years seems pretty much like a miracle to me.

Buy and read this book, you will cry (unless you are really heartless), and it will break your heart, but it also may open your eyes slightly, if they aren't already wide open enough.
More information on the book and the authors HERE.

Book Review: Jennifer Egan's A Visit From The Goon Squad

I haven't written about a book for a while, mainly because I made a strict promise to myself months ago to only write about books/movies/music etc that I actually liked on here. This blog has always been my own personal outlet, to write about what I want to, not a place to pan someone else's work, just because it's not of my own personal taste. So, this really means that I haven't been blown away by a book for a really long time... Until now.

A Visit From The Goon Squad


I bought this book last year in the summer, when I was in Santa Cruz with my sister. I had seen it around in every book shop, picked it up, read the back, hesitated and then put it down again. I finally bought it because it really did look like something I should read, and would possibly like. I only picked it up to read it recently because I am trying to get through my "to be read" piles of books before purchasing any new ones. As soon as I started reading the book I recognised the style and realised that I had already read another book by her a few years back (The Invisible Circus), which I hadn't been able to put down.

This is one of those books that I wish I had written myself. You know, when you are reading it, you stop and say "ARGH - I wanted to do something like this!!". Yes, that. Each chapter is written from a different person's standpoint, from a different type, but everyone is linked back to everyone else, brother, mother, sister, father, son, daughter, employer, friend, boyfriend, girlfriend. Spanning 30 or so years, and seemingly disconnected while each chapter jumps to another character and time, the storyline is held in place by a string of music. By that I mean that music is the underlying theme in each chapter and that everything is brought together by music. From the kids in the LA punk scene, via the music label guy who won't sell out to the last concert at the end of the book 10 years from now, music is literally everywhere. Of course I was going to love this book!!

I read a few reviews last night after I had finished the book, and was surprised to read that many people felt they couldn't connect with the characters as I felt a lot of affection for most of them, especially Sasha and Rob. Other people complained about the whole PowerPoint pages nearer the end of the novel - I thought it was a pretty genius way of telling a story, especially seeing as the point was to show how music and structure can help calm the symptoms of autism. Others complained that it didn't deserve the Pulitzer, but then again didn't really give any reasons for why it didn't deserve it. All I can say is that I devoured the book, and I haven't done that for a while. It's quite refreshing to say that because I've been a little disappointed by what I have been trying to read lately.

I cried in the end. I don't want to spoil it for anyone, so I won't really say anything, but the ending is pretty majestic in my opinion. High technology and simple feelings, all brought together by music that everyone knows. Brilliant.


Marge Piercy's Gone To Soldiers: my favourite book of all time


This happens once a year, at least once, sometimes multiple times: all of a sudden I will stop what I am doing and say "it's time to read Gone To Soldiers again." Then I pick it up and fall back into the words that have kept me going for so many years now. I will never ever tire of this book. It happened to me this morning, while I was making my morning tea, wondering through the haze of my mind what on earth I was going to write about today, trying to avoid the inevitable subjects of "2011 was a shitty/great/annoying/interesting year", when I just stopped in my tracks, grabbed my most recent copy of the book and read the first page. Nothing better than starting off your new year with firstly your first bender in 3 years, and then back to reality with your favourite book. The former not to be revisited for a while, the latter a lot more healthy.

The first time I read Marge Piercy's Gone To Soldiers was in 1991 or 1992. One of my mum's friends lent it to her, and as with any book that ever came into our household, I read it. Actually I devoured it. I've always loved historical fiction, especially dealing with WW2, and I love strong women characters that I can relate to. I also love rich, well-constructed prose, words that let you imagine the scene in your own head, help you to picture faces and expressions and leave them imprinted in your mind for a long time after you have read the last page of the book. This is how Marge Piercy writes. Gone To Soldiers will make you laugh, cry, want to hit things and finally feel like you can go out and accomplish anything that you want to, just because you can.

The novel is the story of ten different characters (men and women), interweaving, across the Atlantic and the Pacific, over the space of 5 years of war. Every character is human, and you will probably relate more to one over another, depending on how old you are when you read the book. My favourite will always be Jacqueline, feisty French Jewish girl who has to grow up and deal with the undealable. I sometimes see some of myself in her, more than in any of the other characters. Basically, Jacqueline makes me realise how much potential we have to create something from our lives, while remaining true to our hearts and beliefs. I know it sounds a little silly said like that, but you really need to read her story to understand what I mean.
There is also Bernice who breaks away from her father and runs away to fly aeroplanes; Louise who goes from writing women's stories to writing from the front lines in France via London; Daniel who deciphers code for a living; Jeff, the artist with the survival instinct, and probably the male character who I am the most attracted to; Abra who learns to live with nothing after having everything and all of the others who will touch your lives in a way that you wouldn't expect. An epic story that you can't put down. Life changing? Maybe. Just read it, the least it can do is help you learn a little more about what the regular person went through in the 40's.

I've read this book at least once a year since 1991. I've been through so many copies of it, I've given copies to my friends and it is without a doubt my favourite book of all time. Every time I read it I discover something new and somehow I find comfort in the stories, in a way I find a patch of non-moving ground that I can stand on for a moment to recollect myself.

More information on the book on Marge Piercy's website: Gone To Soldiers
More information on Marge Piercy: Biography

All of Marge Piercy's novels are excellent - once you have read this one try the others (especially Braided Lives).

Anthropology of an American Girl - review & musings


I find it very, very difficult to categorise books. There are books I liked, there are books I loved. There are books I really didn’t enjoy but forced myself through anyway. There are books that I couldn’t get into, but went back to after months, even years, and loved. There are good books that I didn’t enjoy. There are books that are not considered “good” that I really loved. I read for several reasons, the main one being because I cannot remember a day in my life when I haven’t been reading one book. The other reasons are completely self-explanatory: I read to learn, to escape and to let my imagination run away from me. I am never bored, not just because I always have something to do or to see, but mainly because I always have a book to discover, to read, to finish. I live surrounded by books, as do/did my parents and my grandparents, my sister and my brother. I read fiction and non-fiction, classics and modern fiction. I love poetry, plays and prose. I love to read poetry out loud to my cat (she prefers French literature to English, but I think that is more because of her national pride and all that). Words inspire me, reading inspires me to write and vice versa.

I read many books that inspire me, I read many good to very good books, but there are only a few times a year that I read a book that hits me so deeply that it affects my entire being for the time I am reading it, as well as afterwards. I read a review of Hilary Thayer Hamann’s first novel Anthropology of an American Girl a while ago, and tried to bookmark it in my brain, but didn’t remember about it until I was browsing the new paperbacks at St Mark’s Bookshop a few weeks ago. Once I started it I went back to the Jade I was when I was 17 and 18. It’s as if I had a direct connection with the main character, Eveline Auerbach. I am probably not the only one who feels this way, but I am not kidding when I felt I was being literally pulled into the story and became Eveline. First love, second love, heartbreak, freedom, passion, thoughts… The last years of high school, growing up in a “bohemian” household, friends who know your fears and help you through them, fragility but so much strength. But then, halfway through the book Eveline and I became separated. We went our separate ways, she took a path I could not agree with, could not really understand, while I took another path, that of personal freedom from everything.

There is a very specific break in the story, between high school graduation and the beginning of college and it was at this point that Eveline and I became friends and I no longer saw her life through her eyes, as one, but by her side, through her narration.

To understand, you must read this novel. On the outside it appears to be another coming of age novel, girl becomes woman, loves and loses, to love again, but there is so much more to this than that. The prose is wonderfully well written, so much that instead of reading you feel that you are living the story. When Eveline was sad, I cried. When Eveline was depressed, I walked around in a haze. When Eveline walked away I threw the book on the ground in anger. What I am trying to say is that Hilary Thayer Hamann did a remarkable job of writing a novel that is right up there on my favourite novels that I will read over and over again and that will never cease to make me cry list. Right up there with Marge Piercy’s Gone To Soldiers, Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar, Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles to name a few. We go through Eveline’s late teens and early twenties, follow her from East Hampton to Manhattan, watch her grow, then wither, then grow again.

We all have an Eveline, a Harrison Rourke, a Jack, a Kate, a Rob and a Mark in our lives, whether we are male or female, they all exist. I know who they are in my life. At first I thought I could be Eveline, it appeared that I am not, but I still love her as a person. Person or character? Although the main character is female, the story is for everyone. Be prepared to be punched in the stomach and in the face, to bawl your eyes out and to want to run to the ocean and watch the waves. Just read this book – you won’t regret it.

(When I bought the book I thought I was giving myself a break and that this was going to be some fun, light reading. I was so wrong! I didn’t realize exactly how much it had affected me until I found myself crying at everything this week, even for my crying average it was over the top. For some reason this story just hit me right in the core).

“Everywhere there are angels.”

The Shadow of the Sun - Ryszard Kapuściński (Book Review)


I picked up The Shadow of the Sun by Ryszard Kapuściński while I was on holiday in California last week and definitely need to recommend this one! Not only for those interested in essays on Africa, but also for the pure captivating storytelling and wonderful writing.

Ryszard Kapuściński was a Polish journalist who covered the news in Africa from the later 50's until the 90's, and each chapter in the book relates a different experience. Think the independence of Ghana, Idi Amin's coup in Uganda, traveling through the Sahara with no water, living in the slums of Nigeria, the genocide in Rwanda... Each essay contains fact but also the world from the author's eyes, descriptions of real people, of places, feelings, emotions, colours... Kapuściński never really felt comfortable in the richer, "white" areas, and tended to prefer living and travelling with the everyday population in every country he visited and/or lived in, which gives us great insight into his own personal experiences of Africa.

What I really appreciate about this book is that it is definitely written by a journalist (his ability to outline every experience with historical background that helps the reader get a better understanding about the current situations in each country as he writes about them), he is also an excellent writer. His descriptions of the insane heat of the sun, and the complete darkness of the African nights are palpable.

Excellent read, even if you never really know if he is always telling the truth or not (read this interesting article on that exact subject).

The Bang-Bang Club: Snapshots From A Hidden War


This one caught my eye a few weeks ago while I was browsing through the aisles of the bookshop. Just like foreign war correspondents amaze me, war photographers do too. There is such a huge element of danger in taking THAT shot that will be published around the world, and then the inevitable questions of "but what did he/she do after the shot was taken?". I'm not going to go into the psychological questioning and trying to understand as I personally don't think you can answer those questions, but the Bang-Bang Club gives you some insight into the thought process and passion of photographers who follow and capture violence and war.

Written by Greg Marinovich and João Silva (manly from Greg Marinovich's eyes) about the period between the release of Nelson Mandela in 1990 and the general elections of 1994 in South Africa. During these four years there was a tremendous amount of violence and death in the different townships, and Greg, João, with Ken Oosterbroek and Kevin Carter, documented this, obtaining the name "Bang-Bang Club" through an article in the South African press published about them at the time.
The book describes the scenes, the violence, the people, the incomprehension of WHY people were continously killing each other, the emotions, the untimely deaths of both Ken Oosterbroek (killed by cross-fire that seriously injured Greg too) and Kevin Carter (who took his own life), and finally the joy of being a free and equal human again, through the eyes of a black family in one of the townships on the day of the elections.

I can't say that I am very knowledgeable about South African history, apart from the main parts: Boer War, Apartheid, extreme racism, Nelson Mandela, and finally the end of Apartheid. This book started giving me some insight into life in South Africa during and right after Apartheid, and I've started researching into more depth to learn more. I would really like to understand what instigated all of the violence during those four years, why it was continuously called "black on black violence", when a lot of it was most entirely triggered and enabled by law enforcement and different factions of the people still in power...

As a sidenote - Greg and João also describe some of their jobs outside of South Africa (Yougoslavia, Sudan...), a lot of backlash that came from the public about Kevin Carter's Pulitzer Price winning photograph of a starving Sudanese child, collapsed on the ground while being watched by a vulture in the background.

Anyway - I really could go on and on about this book. It's NOT an easy read in the slightest, and most of the photographs that are included are horrific (in the sense of the scenes that were captured), but it is a must read in my opinion.

I don't think I will ever understand how humans can be so utterly inhuman to each other.

More info here: The Bang-Bang Club: Snapshots from A Hidden War