The Book Thief by Zusak

I can only take so many Holocaust novels. I went through a phase where I read quite a bit of YA Holocaust literature: Boy in the Striped Pajamas, Number the Stars, Tell No One Who You Are, Diary of Anne Frank. Great for teaching---lots of discussion, lots of conflict.

But every story makes my heart hurt again, so I have to psyche myself up to read another one.

But there was this long road trip that we took . . .

And there was a copy of The Book Thief by Markus Zusak at Costco . . . .

And the book was amazing. So obvious that it's not Zusak's first work. So obvious that he knows what he's doing with dialogue and character.

It's art, this book. It's brilliant. It's worthy of all the hype it's received.

If you haven't read it, yet, do.

I would love to teach it. Discuss it. Read essays written about it, even poorly written essays by 8th graders finding their own voice and their own humanity.

Last note:

Death as the narrator. Brilliant!

Olsen's Standing here, Ironing

I'm sure it was required reading when I read Tillie Olsen's short story "As I Stand Here Ironing," where a mother reflects on the choices she made in raising her daughter Emily, and the consequences of those decisions.

It's a short story, even for short stories, and I got so into it that I barely breathed through the first reading. Then I mentally wrestled through the second reading. Then I handled Eric the baby and went on a long walk so I could deconstruct the text while walking by myself.

I have a different perspective now, twenty years later, reading the text at this phase in my life, where mothering little children is what I do all day and all night.

I am ever aware, now, that the way I treat my children is shaping the people they are becoming and how they perceive themselves.

I'm aware of that. Which is what I bring to this text that I didn't know when I was twenty years old, sitting in a literature class where I probably had nothing to say when the professor asked, "So, what did you think?"

So it's a different text this time, and I am a different woman reading it.

So I took a long walk and thought about mothering and just what it is that I'm doing and trying to do and how I want to tread gently and kindly in my children's lives.

As I walked back near home, I heard the baby fussing from the open upstairs bedroom window. It was the time of the night where he wants his mommy and he wants to eat. And I could hear that he wasn't really seriously crying, just sort of starting to get worked up.

So as I walked in the door, before I went to the baby, I hugged each of my other kids and smiled at them. Gave them each a full dose of my attention before I dashed off to do something else.

Go find a copy. Then tell me what you think. It's a quick read, really, ten minutes. There are lots of anthologies that have it, but I used Points of View, Revised Edition by James Moffett.

If I could convince a book club to read it, I'd do it. Pair it with Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper, which I'd love to discuss that with intelligent women and analyze the wallpaper as a symbol for depression.

Here's just a teaser for one little tiny thing I'd love to discuss, from Ironing,

In this, the mother is recalling that her daughter was a good child who did more than should be expected of a child, even at a very young age. The mother asks herself, recalling this, "What in me demanded that goodness in her? And what was the cost, the cost to her of such goodness?"

See? That's a good start for discussion right there.

I don't think this story is just for mothers. It's for anyone who has been a mother or a daughter. Or anyone who has been a child or been a parent. So, everyone who has ever had a family with imperfect people in it.

You know. All of us.

The Light Between Oceans by Stedman

Someone asked what my latest book recommendation was and I told her; it's The Light Between Oceans by Stedman. Then I leant her my copy, which is how I justify buying books these days, I'm going to lend it out, that's why I need a real copy.

So since she has my copy, I can't write the quotes out that were my favorites. And I won't waste your time with plot summary---just look on Amazon.

What I can say is that I liked the book, Stedman did a great job for a first novel, and there are some great passages about love and forgiveness that I've been thought rumbling. And it's made me ponder things like:

1. When we love someone to know well enough what their breaking point is, and we watch as they are pushed past it and then they break and act badly . . . well, we should have seen that coming and we better forgive them already.

2. In a perfect world no one grieves, mourns, gets depressed, or can't see clearly. Too bad we don't live there, we're stuck loving each other despite our imperfections.

3. (And this is what I've really been pondering a lot . . . ) My observation in real life is that people react to difficult experiences in one of two ways:

a) They either close themselves off to other people---no one else has suffering. No one else knows pain. No one else went through what they did, so no one else hurts.

or

 b) They grow in compassion for all people who suffer, even if their pain isn't exactly the same.

I'd say, try the book. Good prose. Good story. A little emotional manipulation and plot twist whiplash, but Stedman's new at this, so we should cut her some slack.

And the overall theme of the book: People hurt. Let's forgive. People make bad choices. Let's forgive. Stick it out, don't bail, and forgive, forgive, forgive.