aka Nirgendwo in Afrika Winner, Academy Award Best Foreign Language Film, 2002 in German, Swahili, and English; with English subtitles based on the autobiographical novel Nowhere in Africa by Stefanie Zweig
My grade: A
In the beginning of the movie, it is 1938, and Walter and Jettel Redlich and their young daughter Regina have fled Nazi Germany for Kenya. Adjusting to their new home is a struggle, particularly for Jettel, who yearns for her comfortable life back in Germany. It is their daughter Regina who thrives in Kenya. Her relationship with the people, especially their cook Owuor, is very special. The family still has problems, though, even in Africa, and the strain is evident in Walter and Jettel’s marriage. Knowing the unthinkable has happened to their loved ones in Germany is especially difficult on both of them.
After the war is over, the family must decide whether to stay in Kenya or return to Germany, or even whether or not to remain a family. The film is a realistic, astounding portrait of Jewish refugees during WWII.
Seeing the film definitely made me want to read Zweig’s book. There is also a sequel, Somewhere in Germany, that I’d like to read as well.
I’m not a huge fan of McEwan’s so I had put off reading this book until my sister read it and enjoyed it. I have a commitment to reading all the Booker Prize winners and this was short so that also made it easier to start it.
I was surprised to find it much easier to read than Atonement, where I really bogged down in the initial chapters. It’s a darkly comic novel about four men who’ve all been lovers or married to Molly Lane, who is recently deceased. The book starts out with her funeral, the interactions of the four men during it, and their thoughts on how much they all appreciated Molly.
We then go on to their professional lives. Clive is a composer, Vernon a newspaper editor, George (the husband) is on the board of that same paper, and Garmony is the Foreign Secretary. All of these men and their vocations intersect throughout the story. It was hilarious to hear how the men see and think about themselves. McEwan pokes fun of all these men and their professions, and even of fellow writers.
“He had a number of friends who played the genius card when it suited, failing to show up for this or that in the belief that whatever local upset it caused, it could only increase respect for the compelling nature of their high calling. These types–novelists were by far the worst–managed to convince friends and families that not only their working hours but every nap and stroll, every fit of silence, depression, or drunkenness, bore the exculpatory ticket of high intent. A mask for mediocrity, was Clive’s view. He didn’t doubt that the calling was high, but bad behavior was not a part of it. Perhaps every century there was an exception or two to be made. Beethoven, yes; Dylan Thomas, most certainly not.”
I was enjoying the book for the most part when suddenly I saw what was coming at the end, and thought, “It’s not really going to go there, is it?” It did go there. I put off reading the last 50 or so pages because I knew I wouldn’t like the ending. Although, the sequences “in the haze of confusion” were quite funny. As was the modern duel.
I don’t know. I guess I didn’t like how Atonement began but appreciated how it ended, and with Amsterdam it was just the opposite. I liked the beginning and not the ending, though it did have its humor. I didn’t like On Chesil Beach at all. Not sure I’ll read another McEwan novel, but I was happy to check this one off my list.
I was really intrigued when I heard about this book, so I pre-ordered it before the book came out. I have two sisters myself and all of us had the same excellent high school English teacher who taught Shakespeare with a passion. I know there was some variation from year to year in the plays that he covered, but I studied Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, Macbeth, Othello, and the Merchant of Venice. All three of us are Shakespeare fans as a result.
The book is essentially about three sisters who are all at turning points in their lives. Rosalind, Bianca, and Cordelia are all named from Shakespeare plays, not a coincidence as their father teaches courses on the Bard at the local college. Their mother is a homemaker and both parents have a strong influence on the sisters.
I love the first paragraph of the book:
“We came home because we were failures. We couldn’t admit that, of course, not at first, not to ourselves, and certainly not to anyone else. We said we came home because our mother was ill, because we needed a break, a momentary pause before setting off for the Next Big Thing. But the truth was, we had failed, and rather than let anyone else know, we crafted careful excuses and alibis, and wrapped them around ourselves like a cloak to keep out the cold truth. The first stage: denial.”
It’s always nice to go home after failure, where people will love you whether you have failed or not. So, they go home to help their mother through her battle with cancer and to deal with their own failings the best they can. Each sister has her own storyline that’s interesting, but the character that fascinated me the most was their mother. I definitely wanted to hear more of her back story and learn why she was the way she was. I think she really was the silent star in the book.
The book is peppered with Shakespeare quotes, and for the most part, I enjoyed them and was familiar with them. However, it got to be too much even for me after a bit and started to become a little annoying. I also really didn’t like the two older sisters much, especially Bean (Bianca). Cordy was probably the only one that I enjoyed getting to know. Also, the plural narrator threw me for a loop at first, and I just really couldn’t get used to that format.
All in all, I enjoyed this book about three very different sisters, but I think I’m a little less enthusiastic than most about it. If you have even one sister or you enjoy Shakespeare you will probably appreciate it.
“We talked about other things, too. About how the town seemed to have come back to life. All the Remember When stories in the paper had folks talking about the way Manifest used to be. And all the fine memories they had. And how people used to take care of each other.”
Reading this book made me yearn a bit for my childhood. In the very first chapter, Abilene jumps from the train that is taking her to her new town. She wants to see it ‘before it sees her.’ I’ve never jumped from a train, but back in the old days in the 70′s there were only 4 TV channels and kids were made to play outside and find adventure on their own. I was blessed to have such a childhood, and Abilene’s childhood summer made me remember that.
While Abilene’s story is set in the 1930′s, part of her adventure takes her into the past of 1917 and 1918 as well. Abilene is shipped off by train by her father to the town of Manifest, Kansas to live with Shady, one of the town’s ministers. She attends the last day of school, makes a couple of friends, and discovers some letters and artifacts in her new home. She takes these discoveries to the town diviner, Miss Sadie, who tells her stories of the town’s past, with two boys in particular being the stars.
This started out just to be an average read for me, but I liked it more and more as I read on. With old newspaper clippings from the ‘Reporter About Town’ interspersed throughout the book, and stories of drought, immigration, World War I, bootlegging, and the Spanish Flu, I could clearly imagine this book being turned into film. I can just see the dusty old town now. Recommended for MG and YA historical fiction fans.
I love southern fiction, and I was especially interested in reading this book as the setting is in southeastern Mississippi, which is close to where I live now in Mobile, Alabama. I use to read a lot more mysteries than I read now, particularly in the early 1990s, but I’m not a fan of gritty content, so I’ve drifted more into literary fiction over the years. I was pleasantly relieved, when, for the most part, this book turned out to be more character driven and written in a literary style without the typical gory descriptions of many modern novels. It’s a page turner and I read it pretty much straight through.
The two main characters are Larry (white), called ‘Scary Larry’ by the locals, and Silas (black), the local policeman. Growing up, the two were friends for a time when they lived in close proximity to each other. Then when Larry was in high school, he was accused by the community of killing a girl after a date, although the body was never found and Larry was never formally charged. Due to all this, Larry lives a lonely life in almost total isolation, with only his books (mostly horror) to keep him company.
Fast forward about 20 years and now another girl is missing. Naturally, the police consider Larry ‘a person of interest’ in the case, and Silas, his old boyhood friend, must get involved in trying to solve the girl’s disappearance.
This book is about a lot more than just the mysteries of the two girls’ disappearances. It’s about race, class, friendship, and family. I enjoyed it and would definitely read another book by this author, especially if Silas were one of the characters.
Crooked Letter Crooked Letter is on the shortlist for the 2011 Edgar Awards.
Winner, Orange Prize 2004 Winner, Whitbread Book of the Year 2004 Winner, Commonwealth Writers’ Prize 2005
Andrea Levy wrote Small Island as a way to research her Jamaican parents’ immigrant experience. The title, Small Island, is apt as it refers to both Jamaica and Britain. The book takes place both before and after World War II and is comprised of 4 main characters, with each character speaking in his or her own voice throughout the novel. Gilbert and Hortense are a couple from Jamaica who rent a room from Queenie in England. Queenie is renting rooms out because her husband Bernhard has not yet returned from the war.
The novel covers several issues: war, immigration, prejudice, and class. I love historical fiction because history is so much more interesting when it’s portrayed in the personal experiences of the men and women who lived it. I’ve always wondered why England didn’t have as much of a racial problem as the U.S., but in this book we discover that there were, in fact, prejudices that needed to be overcome. While Gilbert was so proud to be a part of Mother England as a Jamaican citizen, enough so that he went to war for her, his ‘Mother’ not only didn’t appreciate his efforts, she didn’t even recognize him as her child.
Each character in the book is so well defined. I got a kick out of Hortense and her ‘white-gloved,’ prudish ways. I appreciated that Queenie was ahead of her time in terms of racism, and even though Bernhard was quite the opposite, I felt sorry for him. Gilbert was perhaps the star of the novel as just an overall good-hearted person and patriot.
I always enjoy hearing authors speak about their novels, and if you’ve already read the book (because there are spoilers), you might want to hear her interviews here:
Andrea Levy interview for The Guardian Book Club:
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Andrea Levy interview with BBC’s World Book Club:
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Not only did Small Island win the Orange Prize, it was also voted The Best of the Best out of all the winners by the Orange Prize committee chairs. While my favorite Orange winner so far is probably Half of a Yellow Sun, I do understand why Small Island has a strong following as well.
"For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil." Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? (1 Peter 3:12-13, ESV)
aka Nirgendwo in Afrika
Winner, 1998 Man Booker Prize
2011 Newbery Medal
I love southern fiction, and I was especially interested in reading this book as the setting is in southeastern Mississippi, which is close to where I live now in Mobile, Alabama. I use to read a lot more mysteries than I read now, particularly in the early 1990s, but I’m not a fan of gritty content, so I’ve drifted more into literary fiction over the years. I was pleasantly relieved, when, for the most part, this book turned out to be more character driven and written in a literary style without the typical gory descriptions of many modern novels. It’s a page turner and I read it pretty much straight through.
Winner, Orange Prize 2004
