Wow, it is almost Sunday and I haven’t posted “Saturday’s Book” yet. A bit distracted here…

I chose this book because of what it said on the cover (if you recall, I dislike reading blurbs on the back cover): “Bestselling Author of THE ACCIDENTAL TOURIST”.

That was a fun movie! I saw it years ago! The funny thing is, what has mainly left its mark all these years (the movie came out in 1988) was the main character’s job. He was a writer of travel guides on how to minimize the feeling of being abroad when you have to be away from home (such as where to find hamburgers that taste just like the American ones, etc), instead of welcoming new experiences . I always think about this on trips abroad. While most of the time I’m delighted with new experiences, there are certainly times when I would give a lot to eat a proper Israeli salad (lots of chopped tomato, cucumbers, peppers and onion) instead of a bowl full of lettuce with a decorative tomato…

Anyway, back to THIS book!

I was drawn in from the first page. Very readable. Certainly an intriguing, most unusual cast of characters. I won’t even begin to describe them, it would be a spoiler. Now that I’m up to page 100, the pace has gotten slower and the extended family is SO unusual I think it is a bit much. But really, it all depends on where the story goes from here. The wonderful thing about is that I haven’t a clue!

So, I think I’ll add a footnote to this post when I’ve actually finished the book. I’d better not stay up too late reading!

So, here’s how my mind works:

There was an article in The New Yorker magazine about a tiny Channel Island called Sark (tiny place with a big problem). For me, mentioning the Channel Islands immediately evokes memories of a book I really enjoyed: “The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Schaffer & Barrows”. It’s a wonderful book combining a historical tale (the island of Guernsey was occupied by the Nazis during WW2), a love story AND the benefits of reading books! The whole story is told through letters the heroine wrote and received.

Which got me thinking of other books that tell a tale through letters.

“Daddy Long Legs” By Jean Webster is the first thing that came to mind. I only discovered the sequel, “Dear Enemy” (same format of letters) in recent years – I heard it as an audio book. Interesting to see how women’s roles and educational polices have evolved.

Then there was “Dear Theo: The Autobiography of Vincent Van Gogh” by Irving Stone. I read that a long time ago but it made a significant mark in my memory. The characters seem so real when you are reading their letters!

One book I keep hearing about, is often discussed, intend to read but still haven’t done so, is: “Letters : 1925-1975” – The letters of Hannah Arendt & Martin Heidegger  What a strange connection, yet they kept corresponding! I really should put more effort into getting hold of that one.

I’m sure I’ve read other books told through correspondence but I can’t recall any more titles at the moment. Can you?

I have been “going around” this book for a number of years now, saying I would read it but not actually doing it. But two things happened that led to me reading it now. And I am so glad that I am!

As I mentioned in the past, I read The Cave by Saramago a couple of years ago. Its a very good book with a powerful message (what an ending!) but extremely slow moving. There are endless detailed descriptions of clay figures and of course, Saramago’s signature style of pages of run on sentences. I read it in Hebrew and it took me a long time to read.

I kept saying that now wasn’t a good time to take on the commitment of reading another Saramago.

Then, in July, following my husband’s recommendation, I read Saramago’s “The Elephant’s Journey” and rediscovered Saramago’s magic.

The final push was waiting for me in the Readers Corner (where people leave books for others to take for free) at the library. A copy of “Blindness” in perfect condition. In fact it looks as if I’m the first to read it!

If that isn’t a sign I don’t know what is!

I was amazed at how much “action” there is in this book, especially in the beginning chapters. Not comparable to the pace of the events and the potters in “The Cave”. Each chapter seems written as if in one breath so I’ve changed my reading habits for this book. I like to read books (as opposed to other reading material, such as The New Yorker”) before going to sleep but I simply cannot stop in the middle of a chapter. So I read one chapter a day right after school.

This turned out to be a good policy in regards to the content of the book as well. I’ve read half the book and reading the description of events (and filth + smells!!) that follow when an unnamed place is engulfed in blindness is certainly not easy reading and nor are these things I want to think about before closing my eyes at night. Very powerful social commentary!

In any case, without having watched the movie I strongly urge everyone to read the book and not settle for the movie. Saramag’s gift was with words and his way of telling it makes the tale what it is. I read quite a few reviews of the movies and they are unanimously negative. Inmy opinion it was a mistake to try and turn a book by Saramago into a film.

This book surprised me every step of the way. Every time I was positive that it was now clear how the rest of the story would play out, the plot veered in another direction.

The last 85 pages – I simply ignored everything I was supposesed to be doing at home and read them in one sitting.

I chose the book fairly  randomly. It was one of those library visits when I get discouraged beccause I can’t find any of the titles I am looking for and every book I pull off the shelf seems to be the “your uncle is really your father” type, which I detest. The review quoted on this one states ” This extraordinary novel seduces as it also challenges”. “Challenges” sounded promising!

The book presents a family of three dealing with an 11 year old daughter who stopped talking. The plot progresses as we see things each time from the point of view of each of the parents and the daughter. Be warned, it is a deceptively  “slow” book. There are a lot of descriptions of different sorts (winters in New England & New York , feelings,) and you may think things aren’t “moving”. Then suddenly you realize they most certainly have been moving. I’m not spoiling anything by saying that there IS a happy end, since I had no inkling of how they would get there. And isn’t the journey what a book is all about, not the destination?

Our youngest son (18) just read “When We Were Orphans” by Kazuo Ishiguro. He simply  pulled the Hebrew version off the shelf in our living room bookcase and read it. We have it in English as well. Back in 2001 I was so impressed with how pleased my husband was with the book and was still such a stickler for not reading books written in English in any other language, that I went out and bought it.

My husband just came back from the library with a copy of “The Remains of the Day” by Ishiguro. The movie came out in 1993 and despite having written on this blog that I had only seen the movie I believe  I DID read the book though some years after seeing the movie. I have memories of comparing the versions.

All that was a very long time ago. The most recent book I read by Ishiguro was “Never Let Me Go” which was excellent and powerful all the way through. I remember it well. My main memory of the first book is of my feelings – I was fascinated by the beginning, utterly drawn in, and disappointed by way it ended. Regarding the plot, beyond the fact that the hero began his life in the Far East, went to England and then went back to the country where he was born, I could not remember a thing.

Being delighted that our son read the book, I wanted to discuss it with him. Luckily he is very open and talkative and was willing to supply basic details from the plot, which made me feel better. Also, I must admit to being a bit pleased by the fact that he wasn’t crazy about the ending either. But it raised a question in my mind:

If I want to discuss a book read long ago, should I read about it on the Internet? On the one hand that will supply me with details long forgotten, which sounds like a good thing. I had been trying to remember details from the book all week!

But won’t my personal feelings and memories of the book get lost when I read summaries and reviews by other people?

What do you do?

I have mixed feelings about this book.

The style of writing is a pleasure to read, it flows and the descriptions are vivid. The author brings alive the American reporters attempts to make the American’s back home understand the horror that what was going on in England and in Europe during the early period of WW2, before Pearl Harbor.

But the main issue Blake seems to be dealing with is whether there is some order to the chaos of war, whether or not there is someone up there watching out for us or all that happens to us is random. And she rams this down your throat with intensity.

This is one of the books where I feel the author counts pages. Every seven pages (or maybe it is eight) something sensual or romantic must be mentioned.  Every ten pages the major questions must be asked again – does it all add up? Is someone watching over us? is there ryhme and reason during war time?

I’ve read a large number of novels about the same period, written by authors from different countries. Many of them certainly made me think of these questions and other moral issues, without being so explicit about it. It is if the author wasn’t sure we, the readers, could figure it out on our own and she needed to spell it out for us, repeatedly, throughout the book. Its a shame because the book could have been better.

Nonetheless, I certainly didn’t want to abandon ship and had to read to the end!

I know it isn’t fair to label a book as a “travel book” but this book was such an excellent choice to take on a trip!

Just picture this: four a.m, sitting at an airport gate on an uncomfortable chair after barely getting any sleep, loudspeakers in the background, and me engrossed in this book. I read a lot on the plane too, which I don’t always do.

It is very easy reading and the author made me feel as if I was standing beside Miss Julia. I’m not spoiling anything by saying that you know at once there will be a happy end but that just gave me a warm, comforting feeling. Especially as I had no idea how that “happy end” would happen. The story is a great combination between things that make you chuckle and some serious notes.

The book reminds me of “Fried Freen Tomatoes” by Fannie Flag, though I admit I probably made the connection a lot faster because there’s a recommendation by Fannie Flag on the cover of the book! It also reminds me a bit of “The Help” by Kathryn Stockett. Not in the sense of civil rights, this book doesn’t touch on that subject. But rather regarding the issue of the right of the American Southern white women (in the sixties, more or less) to be independant thinkers and manage their own lives. That was certainly an issue that came up in”the Help”.

I finished the book the day after I arrived. Tired or not – had to finish it!

Our local library set up a new stand with recommended books for readers of English. This one caught my eye. I find Turkey to be a fascinating country and I was interested in experiencing it through the eyes of a female writer.

I’ve already read more than half the book (455 pages) and I am riveted and annoyed by it in turns.

The two stories AND the cultural background are very interesting. I’m curious as to how things will develop as I cannot predict anything here. I like that!

However, the way the book is written reminds me of the expanding circles created when one throws a stone into water. Uzunet returns often to the same events, telling them again but adding new details. I find this repetition irksome and at times even boring. I also dislike such frequent use of superlatives.

But the bottom line is that I have no intention of abandoning the book before I’ve read to the very end. And I guess that is what counts!

*** NOTE: Saturday’s Book is going on a brief holiday. You can be sure that whatever I’m doing, I will be reading. The books are already waiting on the shelf for me!

A few weeks ago I was enthusiastically telling some people how funny I thought the book which I was reading “The Hundred Year old Man who Climbed out of the Window and Disappeared” was.

One of the women who heard went out and bought the book.

When I met her again a week later she had read about 30 or 40 pages. “When does it get funny”? she asked. I was a bit taken by surprise as I had started chuckling by the end of page one. I said something about the hero leaving Sweden soon and meeting all these famous people and she nodded hopefully.

I met her again a few days ago. She didn’t mention the book and I didn’t ask but the conversation was akward and short. If she had just borrowed it from the library instead of buying it…

What’s nice about my blog, as opposed to such situations, is that I don’t see it as”a book recommendation blog”. I write about my own feelings about what I’m currently reading. I’m delighted when people discuss their opinions with me but I don’t feel commited to supplying a full or objective review of the book for readers.

Perhaps “funny” is the most “dangerous” word. People differ wildly in regards as to what makes them laugh. If I had discussed a heart-wrenching drama the expecations may have been clearer.

But then again, maybe not. The style of writing is very important to me and people have been bored by books I found dramatic…

Any book by Erri De Luca that I can get my hands on, I read. This is third one since I’ve started this blog.

My husband brought it home from the library in Hebrew.  I don’t know if it was translated into English – Amazon only carries it in Italian.

If I had seen the name in English I might have guessed what it was about but as it was I was clueless. It has to do with the birth of Jesus from the mother’s point of view. Though, now that I’ve finished it I believe it is about giving birth in a very univerasal sense. Strange to think that the author is a man!

Its a very small book. I never dreamed I would read it in less than a week during the hectic beginning of a  school year! Its only 66 pages, the pages are smaller than normal and the print is large. And, as always. Erri De Luca is immensly readable. Wonder why this book was translated into Hebrew and at not into English (at least as far as I found on the web)?

Unrelated note: Read a great post for book lovers: “Just Let them Read Books”  .  I really enjoyed it.