Ukrainian Novelist

Grey Bees by Andrey Kurkov

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I’m late to the party, since the publication date is 2018. Obviously current events drew me to a Ukrainian author writing about the area between Ukraine and the Separatist eastern area, albeit late. Now I have a new author to follow. Current events also made many place name familiar that otherwise could have been stumbling blocks. The Russian annexation of Crimea and attempted separation of Donetsk and Luhansk are past events in the novel, but fighting continues as Sergeyich and Pashka remain in the area between.

Since the two old guys are the only people left in a small town, and the story is told from the perspective of only one, there is a lot of the detail that one notices when alone, detail about surroundings and steps of performing a task. It is done well enough that it didn’t get tedious for me. And there are occasional encounters with other people in the early part, more later. There is much less flashback than I would have expected. It is a novel about survival as well as interpersonal negotiations. Yurkov gets mileage from dream sequences, from that liminal state where the dream and sounds of the actual present merge as well as his descriptions. Shifts from dream to wakeful reality are mostly clear as are the occasional ones from present to past. The pacing picks up around halfway through as encounters increase among the friendly and the unfriendly.

Sergeyich is likeable, though sometimes I find his lack of knowledge of the way the world works less than believable. When Sergeyich is in Crimea among the Tatars, his lack of knowledge of their culture is more fitting than some of his assumptions about government. His belief in the “treatment” of sleeping on the bee hives, I can accept as a rural superstition. His only neighbor, Pashka is interesting, but a little less likeable. The two, enemies from school days when Pashka was a bully, have a relationship of necessity. Sergeyich is generally closer to his bees than to people, though that begins to shift.

There is an almost constant suspense, though it increases and decreases throughout. I found myself alternately anticipating a doom that didn’t happen and blindsided by ones that do. Some of the endings I anticipated happened, others did not. And that is just about right for me.



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Finally Reading a Nobel Literature Winner

By the Sea by Abdulrazak Gurnah

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


After a long wait (300+ holds before me), I finally got this book. It was worth the wait. It tells of interpersonal treachery, of governmental treachery, of hopes and dreams. As a postcolonial novel, it deals with issues of imperialism (some benefits, mostly destructions) and the problems of forming a government after independence.

It opens with Saleh Omar (alias Rajab Shaaban) awaiting Rachael, who turns out to be a person working with refugees and quickly shifts to a recollection of his entry to UK from Zanzibar and how, long ago, he acquired a prized possession he now carries with him. Mostly the early narrative is reflective with occasional appearances of Rachel in the present. The reflections are triggered by something in the present, and the shifts are adequately signaled. Several chapters into the novel, there is another narrator for a couple chapters, Latif Mahmud, whose life has paralleled that of Saleh for a few years. The two have heard totally different tellings of experiences involving both families. Latif is a language scholar and is called upon to translate because Saleh has feigned not speaking English. And though he gives up the pretense, the two recognize each other’s name and eventually meet. The later narrative intermingles conversations between them with recollections of the past.

The pace is slow. The description is rich throughout. In addition to setting the tone of various locations, it informs an audience who would be unfamiliar with the places. It is so well written that I never felt it as intrusion, always as essential, even as character at times. Sometimes it was the detail of nostalgia for an abandoned past.

Definitely worth the read, and a prompt to read more of Gurnah’s works.







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Kingsolver’s Novel

I sewed too slowly to get this week’s border done on time so am waiting to post it till I have the next prompt. Meanwhile it was hard to put down Demon Copperhead.

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


While this was a hard read because of the child welfare and drug themes, it was a well written narrative. Demon Copperhead survives many hurdles, including some misplaced loyalties. But there are also savior figures who help him along as others are pulling him down. Influences in the extremes and in the middle are believable. The push-pull between the negative and positive forces holds in balance till almost the end. Time expands and contracts in the telling, as needed, so my attention held throughout the long novel.

I’d sort of anticipated the ending, not wanting all the pieces to end as they did. But they seemed better when actually occurring. I did like the scene where Demon drives and recalls past events as a summary of past actions in the plot–useful in such a long novel where my mind was always in the present. Reminders were good.

Kingsolver’s mentioning the novel as a modernization of David Copperfield makes me want to read the older one soon. Somehow I made it though school without ever reading it.





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Everybody Reads, 2023

This book has been chosen as the Everybody Reads by the county library this year. Because so much time has passed since I read this the first two times, I’m rereading it so the details will be fresh for group discussions coming up. While I could have integrated the notes into one, I’m going the lazy route and just including all three. Besides the time benefit for me, you can see where I change my mind. 🙂

Also, I see the spoilers can’t be hidden in the transfer from Goodreads, so I’ll label them and maybe you can avoid them.

A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


After the third reading (2023).
And I’m glad that I have read it again. I see more connections with each reading. This time I was struck by the parallel between Ruth, who was experiencing writers’ block in trying to write her mother’s story, and Nao, who intended to write Jiko’s story but kept writing her own. (Of course we did get a picture of Jiko, but it wasn’t her full story.)

And because one Everybody Reads gathering focused on the Buddhist elements in the novel, I realized more was Buddhist than I’d realized on the first two readings. And on this reading, the Buddhism, as such, and climate science felt wholly integral to the storyline and characters.

This time I saw that Ruth had translated the journal rather than that Nao had written it in English. I don’t think I’d paid much attention to the footnotes on the first two readings; this time I noticed where Ruth said she had made notes when translating, so I read them. Most were useful, and they serves as a reminder that it had been written in Japanese.

After the second reading (2015)
One of the pleasures of a second reading is that no longer needing to find out “what happens next?” frees one to enjoy other features. And to revise previous opinions. Or to see that the wrong questions were asked. I started reading with a focus on Ruth, as planned. The more I read the more I realized that it was not really two stories alternated, but one continuous narrative, that Ruth’s portions could not be separated from Nao’s . SPOILER: There was so much preparation for Ruth’s dream encounter with Nao’s father, Haruki, that it wasn’t deus ex machina at all. Early on Ruth had two dreams of Jiko. There was the time discussion where Oliver reminds Ruth of the ten years that had passed from the writing of the journal to the present. There were the statements of Jiko involving apparent contradictions being equally true and the flow of identity and time. It is “background” until the disappearance of words in the journal. END SPOILER

I still feel the philosophy was mostly well integrated. Possibly more actual Buddhist early on and more new age when it gets heavier at the end.

I could pause and savor the many puns on “time being,” such as “Mind and words are time being. Arriving and not-arriving are time being” (347). Also enjoyable were the meditations on moments and on “now/Nao.”

While I had intended a second reading eventually, I am glad for my book group selecting the book to prompt me to do it.

After the first reading (2014)
One of my favorite narrative structures is one that combines a past (through letters or journals) and a present story. And that is the basic structure of this novel. Ruth in the Pacific Northwest on a remote island finds a packet containing a journal and other objects washed up on shore, possibly from the earthquake and tsunami a couple years before, . The chapters alternate between Ruth, the finder and Nao, the writer. At first I wondered why Nao would have written a journal in English–it became clear when she revealed that she had spent her early life in California.

The pacing is interesting. Instead of racing through the journal, Ruth paces herself slowly to reflect the pace it was written. In addition there is a French journal and some letters in old Japanese–these do not get translated immediately, but add essential information when they do.

The characters are well drawn, sometimes interesting, sometimes ordinary. Sometimes likable sometimes less so–but as more is revealed, the major characters become more likable. The minor ones, the school contemporaries, not so much. At one point in the middle I found myself wondering about Ruth’s chapters. Would her story be worth a novel without having found the journal? What were the parallels that were going to pull the two narratives together? I may reread it and focus more on Ruth, though the natural focus is Nao.

Science, philosophy and religion were woven into the novel, generally not too heavily, though heavier at the end. The novel is a kind of exploration of time, of existences, of influence. How seriously are we to take the question of who is creating whom? I was intrigued by the moments of magical realism, though I have not yet decided if they were integral or an easy solutions to narrative problems. SPOILER:Was the happy ending believable? Contrived? I realize “happy” may be a stretch since the father and daughter may have perished in the tsunami–this possibility leads to calling it ironic rather than happy; however, the question remains about Ruth’s intervention in the father’s intended suicide. END SPOILER And did I learn about Buddhism or New Age cooptations of Buddhism? I will ponder these when I reread also.





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Time-Travel Fiction

There wasn’t much reading happening while I was finishing the quilt, but I’m back to it.

This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This was a good read after a slow beginning. The premise is really fun, producing some entertaining moments as well as angst in the time travel. It is also fun to have the father be a sci-fi writer who writes about time travel comments about good and bad time travel in a time-travel novel.

The description of Alice’s ordinary, moderately satisfying, something-missing life was vivid, but seemed to go on too long. After that, once the time travel began, the pacing was better, the page-turner quality entered. Several condensed scenes were well placed. Alice’s self understanding that developed over the whole was worth thinking about, as were her understandings of aging. The ending might not have pleased me in most novels, but it was fitting for this one.

Three characters were especially well developed: Alice, Sam, and Leonard, Alice’s father. I will read more by this author.



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More Fiction

Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


First of all, the long book is a page turner from the start. That’s pretty hard to sustain! There are three stories: Asher, a teen; Olivia, his mother; and Lily the girl he has just begun to date. There are only two narrators; Olivia and Lily–what we learn about Asher is through their eyes. In the afterward we are told that Picoult wrote Olivia and Boylan, Lily. Reading it, I didn’t feel shifts in style, probably because they edited the whole together. Lily’s story is told in reverse chronology, Olivia’s is mostly forward moving, though with many flashbacks. Asher’s chronology varies with who is narrating. This allows for interesting pacing of details and tensions.

There is a death/?murder and a trial and enough red herrings to keep readers shifting opinions. (I’d made a correct choice of whodunit, but it was one among several choices.) The main characters are fully deveoped, minor ones a little less so. I cared what happened to the main three and some of the minor ones. A couple were just hateful.

The information about bees was interesting, and I have a feeling it has more significance than I found on first reading, significance beyond something Olivia enjoys and goes to when she needs comfort or she and Asher do together when they need to communicate.

A good read and a good introduction to Boylan. Now her books are also on my to-read list.



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Still Reading–This Time a Nobel Prize Winner

As Covid-19 restrictions are lightened, I’m getting out and about more. But I still have time to read. I’m halfway through my goal of 75 for this year, a fitting place to be in June. Here’s the most recent.

Paradise by Abdulrazak Gurnah

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


“Postcolonial” is not quite the right category; it is written by a postcolonial writer but its setting is colonization time. If I were keeping up my “Around the World” list, this would be my first book about Tanzania/Zanzibar. It is the first of Gurnah’s books I’ve read since hearing of his Nobel prize in literature, the first African writer since Wole Soyinka, (Toni Morrison, the African American winner coming between). This is one of three listed as his better novels, and it lives up being excellent. Since I have yet to read the others, I cannot yet corroborate the comparative claim.

The plot starts out episodically as Yosuf goes with his “Uncle” in payment for a debt of his father, works in his shop, then accompanies him on a trade expedition. Through all this are hints of upcomng doom, personal and at the hands of the German colonists. Then the plot tightens into conflict and resolution in the latter portion. The pacing is handled adroitly, and bits of personal history and German occupation gradually emerge.

The harshness of the setting is palpable in the description. Allusions to the story of Joseph in the Koran (and also in the Hebrew Scriptures, though Koran is relevant to the Muslim culture of many of the characters) are cleverly woven in–it might have taken me longer to notice them had they not been remarked in a blurb on the cover, but at some point I would have. There are cultural references that I am sure would be richer to someone in the know. That layer will have to wait till I have done more reading.

The characters were likeable, though for me that is not an essential so long as they are well developed. It was easy to identify with Yosuf and his dreams and quandries; Kahlil, though seeming unfriendly at first becomes more sympathetic as we learn more about his background. The same can be said of other characters who have overseer positions. The “uncle,” though pompous, has some redeeming features as well.

I look forward to reading more of Gurnah’s work. I’ll be waiting a long time for By the Sea since I started as the number 157 hold request on one copy–let’s hope the library purchases more. It was listed as another of the three best.





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A Native American Novel

Yearly, my county library chooses a book for “Everybody Reads” month in February and schedules multiple related events, including an evening with the author as speaker. This year’s selection was unusually good.

There There by Tommy Orange

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This novel tells of several Urban Indians whose lives converge in a pow wow in Oakland, CA. A thoroughly modern story, yet roots of the past appear in the Prologue. I was especially intrigued by the section, “Urbanity.” Instead of showing separation between city and rural, reservation life, the section presents unity: “An Urban Indian belongs to the city, and cities belong to the earth. . . . The process that brings anything to its current form–chemical, synthetic, technological, or otherwise–doesn’t make the product not a product of the living earth” (11).

At first each chapter felt like a random vignette. Gradually an overlap of detail became apparent. The pace continued to quicken till it was a page turner at the end.

The meaning of “there” changed throughout, for me culminating at the end, emphasizing the identity formation that was a struggle for some of the characters.

This novel is told from multiple perspectives. While each adds information, many show the same scene from a different perspective, a much more satisfying use of the technique. The number of characters with issues avoided becoming a soap opera. I have yet to put my finger on the source of this success, but success it was. Problems did not dominate, though they were present. There were also vivid moments of strength.

Getting to “know” so many characters, with rather short vignettes, left me amazed at how well I felt I knew them. The idea of being a person behind masks is made explicit in the tales of Tony Loneman; however, it is stated in the Javier Martas quotation in the headnote to Part I: “How can I not know today your face tomorrow, the face that is there already or is being forged beneath the face you show me or beneath the mask you are wearing, and which you will only show me when I am least expecting it”(13). I’m left feeling I should reread to see how it applies to others.

The ending, so often a problem, is here quite successful. It is motivated by all that has gone before; it is believable; it is satisfyingly ambiguous with hints of the future.

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A Novel by Ta-Nehisi Coates

The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is not your ordinary underground railroad story. Myth and magical realism combine to trade one set of dangers for another. It is more a story of the main character, Hiram Walker’s development. And of relationships.

The novel is narrated by the older Hiram (frequently addressed as Hi)  looking back on his youth. Reflections on youthful decisions increase as the novel progresses. Hi’s growth is motivated and believable. The pace of narration is steady with mostly moderate ups and downs (a few more dramatic).

The life of slavery is neither romanticized nor told in harrowing detail. Because Hi is a house slave, we do not see the hard labor. Brutality is referenced more than it is shown. Although more attention is given to positive experiences of caring for one another and community, there are constant reminders that even so, the Tasked, as slaves are called, are not free.

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A Novel

The Dark Flood Rises by Margaret Drabble

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As with so many good novels, the first read is but an introduction. Many more encounters will be needed before getting to know it.

There are so many characters that at first I didn’t think there was a main character (in spite of book jacket naming Fran). But as the novel progressed, I realized Fran was central. However, she is not the sort of person I like–so needing to be needed. Still, one does not have to like a character to be intrigued by their thoughts and encounters.

All the characters–or at least almost all–have some connection to aging or death. Fran is in her 70s as are Jo and Teresa, friends from her youth. Jo had a friend, Owen; Owen has a friend, Bennett. Christopher, Fran’s son, has lost his girlfriend to a sudden illness; Christopher goes to the Canary Islands to visit Bennett and Ivor. Each character has several vignettes. As I read, I began to think that if a person were named, they would eventually have a vignette. Almost true, but not quite.

So with all these old folks, we get a variety of attitudes toward aging. Yet none of the characters exist merely to be illustrations. They are developed proportionately to their space in the novel. For now I’m thinking Fran, Christopher, Jo, and Teresa as main characters, and the rest as subordinate. I may add Owen to the main list. Not sure.

Action is not a part of this novel. Everyone plods along, thinking thoughts, having conversations. Drama is minimized (having to abandon a car because of flooded roads; an evening with a daughter that could have been emotional is pretty flat).

The narration is 99% omniscient author; however, at least twice she says something like, we can’t know what happened then, or we can’t know what he thought about this. An interesting break in the pattern–in breaking expectations makes us aware of expectations and conventions.

The novel felt finished; I almost missed the “Envoi.” I don’t think it was needed.

Besides aging, two other social issues are present. Sara, the girlfriend who died young, was doing a documentary on refugees; Poppet, Fran’s daughter, is researching climate change issues. As readers we are aware of these issues, but not in a heavy handed way.

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