Somebody Else’s Mama (1995) by David Haynes

 1,001 Novels: A Library of America

Somebody Else’s Mama (1995)

 by David Haynes 

River Ridge, Missouri

Missouri: 7/11

  The closest geographical neighbor to Somebody Else's Mama is Winters Bone, but tonally the books couldn't be set farther apart. Somebody Else's Mama is set in River Ridge, Missouri, an all-black town near the Mississippi River.  This is a multi-generatonal family saga with a husband/wife/2 teen sons set up reflecting the present and past relationships with their mother's.  Specifically, the plot centers around the wife taking in the mother of the husband, moving her from St. Paul, Minneapolis, to this town in Missouri, where her husband was the longtime mayor and himself the son of an almost unbelievable founder figure who owns most of what counts in the town.  So soon after reading The Warmth of Other Sons I found myself wishing for more information about this founding grandfather, but alas, most of what we get is the wife complaining about their life together.   

  The wife of her husband has her own interesting story- the only daughter of a wealthy St. Louis area insurance agent and his widowed wife.  Their complicated relationship in the past is contrasted wit the complicated "sandwich generation" dynamics of the present.  I do find that the plight of the upper-class American housewife strikes similar notes regardless of the era and ethnicity of the housewife in question. 

The Weight of Blood (2014) by Laura McHugh

 1,001 Novels: A Library of America

The Weight of Blood (2014)

by Laura McHugh

Henbane, Missouri

Missouri: 6/11

  It is hard for me to read Ozark set noir without thinking about the Netflix drama, Ozark, with Jason Bateman.  There is a strong connection between Ozark noir and Appalachia noir: characters who live in or around a "holler."   Few non-white people of ANY kind in evidence. Generally speaking, a world where the lives of people, particularly children are cheap. The Weight of Blood ticks all those boxes, with a story about an attractive Iowa orphan who "ages out' of the foster system and unwittingly signs a labor contract with a man who is going to turn her into a prostitute.  She thwarts his scheme by marrying his brother.  They have a child, who is the central protagonist, interspersed with flashback chapters from the POV of the Mom (now gone) and the two brothers, as well. 

  I think the plot is meant to be a thriller in terms of finding out what actually happened to the Mom of the protagonist and solving the gruesome murder of a local wayward teen.  Normally I'd take a shot along the lines of these characters are uninteresting because they don't do anything or go anywhere, but that is not quite the case here- probably because the central mother/daughter pair are outsiders (half outsider) and the two brothers are well off and reasonably sophisticated about the world.

Corregidora (1975) by Gayl Jones

 1,001 Novels: A Library of America

Corregidora (1975) 

by Gayl Jones

Lexington, Kentucky

Kentucky: 4/16

     Gayl Jones was a Toni Morrison protege in the 1970's who disappeared for over 20 years before recently returning with new work. Corregidora was her fiery debut, about a Lexington, Kentucky jazz singer with a tangled personal history (slave owning great-grandfather who fathered her great grandmother AND grandmother.  Written decades before the phrase "intergenerational trauma" became common, Corregidora is nothing but an expression of the theme. Surely the best book in the Kentucky chapter of the 1,001 Novels: A Library of America- arguably a classic of 1970's American lit.   Something I've noticed is that precious few works of art dealing with this subject actually take place INSIDE the mine or factory, rather what you get is the impact the work has on the workers and their families outside the work environment.  I'd be more interested to read a novel about what it is like to work in a coal mine then what the experience is like seeing one's dad work in the mine, which is the situation here.

Earth 7 (2026) by Deb Olin Unferth

 Audiobook Review

Earth 7 (2026)

by Deb Olin Unferth

Daunt Publishing

  The idea of "book-tok" is not something I take seriously, probably because it favors genres like Romantasy.  The major exception to this stance is the phenomenon of Jacquelline Harpman, the Belgian author who struck Tik Tok gold a couple years back with the English language translation of I Who Have Never Known Men (1995).  I had that book recommended to me by a random woman at a dog friendly cafe in Eagle Rock, but when I searched up the title, it seemed clear I would like that book, and I did. Earth 7, which is published by Daunt Publishing, seems to mine that same literary territory: minimalist science fiction and strong feminist themes with an end of the world vibe. 

  The protagonist of Earth 7 is the lonely daughter of a single mom who happens to be a gifted scientist/programmer, working in the aftermath of "Depop" which is pretty much how it sounds- the causes being many and varied.  Dylan Stein is her name, and she is raised by her mom inside a living habitat at the bottom of the ocean.  Originally planned as a community, Dylan's mom ends up being the last hold out, which leaves Dylan, naturally, dreaming of escape.  Unferth works with a light touch as far as the genre stuff goes- there are no chapters of exposition where recent history is explained by a thoughtful professor or authority figure.   Rather, Earth 7 more or less resembles a bildungsroman as Dylan escapes her undersea mom prison for life on the dry n' dusty surface, where she works for an obscure corporation plodding forward in the wasteland. 

  Eventually she falls in love, with another woman, of course and that sets in motion the rest of the book- Dylan and her love living in obscurity in the desert until death do us part.  Stuff happens, but it is low impact plot and mostly what the reader is left with is atmosphere of the dying Earth. 

Lost World (2026)by Patrick Wyman

 Audiobook Review

Lost World (2026)

by Patrick Wyman

  I love the subject of "pre-history" or the history of pre or semi-literate peoples.  The frontiers of linguistic history have been joined with incredible advances in DNA science and LIDAR ground-scanning technology to produce a new knowledge about complex cultures in pre-history outside of those who developed writing.  Wyman has a podcast, but he is well versed on his linguistics.  I'm not as sure of his grasp of the underlying science of dna and human genetics- a historical pitfall for linguistics trying to stretch historical identity back into non-historical times.  But there is no denying that DNA is a big improvement over 20th century nonsense about "blood" and "race," neither of which exist as they relate to identifying human cohorts.

  Wyman does an excellent job traversing the recent work in these various fields and harnessing them to a narrative that roughly tracks the theoretical outline of scholar James C. Scott and his successors like David Graeber, i.e. not taking for granted that the concept that we know as "civilization" through Ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt and the Mediterranean somehow represents the ONLY way for humans to organize complex society.  As recently as a decade ago this was mostly speculation, but the confluence of DNA science and LIDAR archeology has really pushed back the frontiers of knowledge in non-western places like Bronze age Ireland, the Amazon, the Andes, China, etc.  Even if we don't know what DNA specifically represents, we can use it to track the kinship of people we find in archeological settings.  

  Lost World is at its least interesting when it gets into the familiar proto-indo-european game- although it's clear that genetic evidence has borne out the truth of the traditional thesis of horse writing redheads who came and conquered Europe, especially in the north and west.  More interesting to me was the less familiar material- firming up the Anatolian Farmers vs. the European Hunter-Gatherer groups and showing how they persist in modern DNA despite the loss of their culture.    His description of the expansion of the Malay-Austronesian language group from a small patch of land in present day Taiwan to a present geographic territory encompassing everywhere from Malaysia to Hawaii is a welcome counterpart to the western intensive PIE hypothesis. 

  I also thought the archeological evidence was interesting- here he mostly discusses recent discoveries in modern day Turkey and Ireland, making the case that pre-bronze age Earthworks (think Stonehenge) were not a product of elites and enslaved a la the Egyptian pyramids but rather a more cooperative, voluntary endeavor. 

All the Living(2009) by CE Morgan

 1,001 Novels: A Library of America

All the Living (2009)
by CE Morgan

Berea, Kentucky

Kentucky: 3/16

   Like Strangers Here Below, All the Living is set in Berea, Kentucky.  Birds of Opulence, the first book in the Kentucky chapter, is also set nearby. I gather from all three books that this whole swath of Kentucky was settled from the north, and settled late, and settled without a landed class of plantation owners, which allowed for alternative ways of life: Interracial schools, communities of free African American.  Here, we have a young man who inherits his family tobacco farm and then moves in to his family home with a local girl he meets at an orphanage.  They live together "in sin" which is surely unusual but the farm they live on is so isolated that literally no one knows.  She finds work as a pianist at the local church- piano being her only skill (something she reflects upon frequently.)  All the Living is another example of the "Go Nowhere, Do Nothing" novel which becomes about the place where it is located because that is the only setting.  Great for the purpose of the project, but these protagonists, white, black, young, old- blend together over time in terms of the limits of their insights about the human condition.

Stangers Here Below (2010) by Joyce Hinnefeld

 1,001 Novels: A Library of America

Strangers Here Below (2010)

by Joyce Hinnefeld

Pleasant Hill, Kentucky

Kentucky: 2/16

   Two books in and I can already tell you that Kentucky had a different racial vibe than the deep South.  Take Berea College, which was founded as an interracial institute of higher education in the 19th century. It had to abandon that mission for a half-century when Kentucky made interracial education illegal in 1904 but then went back to being interracial before such a thing was widespread.  This book details the history of that school as seen through the eyes of one white student and one black student and folds in the story of a nearby Shaker colony that was hanging on by virtue of a single resident into the mid 20th century.   Strangers Here Below is a perfect pick for the 1,001 Novels: A Library of America project because it is specifically about a specific place on the map, but I also liked the underlying history itself- of which I was unaware. 

Rum Punch (1992) by Elmore Leonard

 1,001 Novels: A Library of America

Rum Punch (1992)

by Elmore Leonard

Miami, Florida

Florida: 21/21

  I've long been interested in Elmore Leonard as an example of an author who writes genre books which maybe transcend genre.  I think the standard is wait for the death of the author, give it 20 years, and see if anyone is still reading or writing about said author.  By any standard, Elmore Leonard has achieved canonical status, whether you are measuring by his four Library of American volumes, including an entire volume dedicated to his western era, or the activity on his Amazon author page.  

  After that, the question is, which works best represent the author- pick an early work, a mid-career work and a late career work.  With Leonard, I think the early career pick is Mr. Majestyk (1974) which is an early example of his crime fiction and takes place in Detroit, not Florida or California.  It also leaves out his whole western career which spans 1954 to 1970.  Mid-career and late career kind of blend together with Leonard- he continued publishing until 2012 but you'd be hard pressed to pick anything after Out of Sight (1996).  You've also got Get Shorty, Maximum Bob and this book- all of which were hits, well reviewed and got memorable movie/tv versions (Jackie Brown for Rum Punch.)  

  I would probably go with this book over Get Shorty because of the "inside-Hollywood" angle of that book.  You want an Elmore Leonard Florida title on the short-list.  Rum Punch is a good pick because Jackie Brown, the weary stewardess at the center of the familiar double-cross heavy Leonard plot, is as memorable a heroine as you are going to get.  As for the rest: guns, drugs, murder- you know the drill.

The Perez Family (1990) by Christine Bell

 1,001 Novels: A Library of America

The Perez Family (1990)

by Christine Bell

Miami, Florida

Florida: 20/21

  I had to buy a copy of The Perez Family- a movie edition copy, no less.  The movie was made by Mira Nair, Mayor Mandani's Mom, and starred Anjelica Houston and Marisa Tomei.   Her Amazon product page only has five listings- one is a Japanese translation- none appear to be in print.  At this point, I think I'm good on the Cuban immigrant experience at least as far as it extends through South Florida.  Many people found the move hard, particularly those with a limited skill set.  The inability to speak English as an issue- which frequently arises in immigrant novels of all types, does not appear to be a problem for the Cuban immigrants, nor does categorical racism/blanket discrimination. Due to the circumstances in Cuba almost all (all?) have some kind of lingering PTSD from their Cuban experience, and family and friends who were left behind. 

  Here, we have a character who spent 20 years in a Castro prison for being an opposition newspaper editor, he is sent to the US during the Marielito boat lift- at the tail end- and has difficulty reuniting with his family, but he makes new friends along the way. The New York Times called it "oft maudlin" and I would concur, but I would also say that maudlin is a very Cuban mode and that the shared experience of this group as a class of people has maudlin attributes that you would expect to see in fiction.

  One more Florida title to complete the chapter! And a book from blog-favorite Elmore Leonard. 

Stoner (1965) by John Williams

 1,001 Novels: A Library of America

Stoner (1965)

by John Williams

St. Louis, Missouri

Missouri: 5/11

  This is a good pick for the 1,001 Novels: A Library of America.  As I noted when I read it back in 2019, it had a bit of a revival at the end of 2010's:

Published 10/6/19
Stoner (1965)
by John Williams

  Stoner is not about weed, it's about a guy named Stoner.   I've been aware of Stoner since the New York Review of Books put out a paperback version- that was back in 2005- and then in 2012 it was Waterstone's book of the year, which spurred more interest in the United States- for the last few years I've seen it everywhere that carries New York Review of Books Editions.  Sadly, New York Review of Books doesn't do Audiobooks, but I guess someone else got the rights and BOOM- I'm listening to the Audiobook.

  John Williams spent most of his life in Denver as a tenured assistant professor at the University of Denver.   He wasn't unrecognized in his lifetime- his 1972 novel, Augustus, about the life and times of Caesar (of ancient Rome) won the National Book Award, but he isn't what you would call "canonical."  If he is, it is because of this book- Stoner, his anti-bildungsroman slash existential hero, about a character who bears a marked resemblance to the Author.   William Stoner is what you call a "tragic hero," born to a pair of Missouri dirt-farmers who decide to send him to the then brand new University of Missouri (Columbia) with the thought that he will learn agricultural science and return to the farm.

  Instead, young Stoner- who is, it must be said a "square"- he represents the polar opposite of of Kerouac's Sal Paradise in On The Road- falls in love with English literature and abandons his planned course of study to become a university English instructor.  What follows takes place almost entirely on or near the University of Missouri, making Stoner a charter member of the first generation of the "campus novel" of American literature.

  The pathos really starts to build when Stoner makes the ill-advised choice to court and wed Edith, the mentally ill daughter of a wealthy St. Louis area banker who is affiliated with the university.   Edith is literally the first woman that Stoner dates, so a modern reader won't miss the warning signs, and the use of a third part narrator makes sure that the reader is aware of how bad things are likely to get.   Edith is a memorable character, and the miseries Stoner experiences at her hands are only exceeded by the misery he experiences in his job as a tenured assistant professor- he has a lifetime job, but no guarantee of when or what he will be teaching, a hitch that comes to the fore when Stoner gets into a spat with his department head over the progress of a student.

   Stoner is a sad book, very sad.   It's certainly a nice counter-point to the beat influenced/classic 60's era American books from this period.  One thing that Stoner is not is experimental, nor is it difficult to read.  My understanding of books reprinted by the New York Review of Books is that they are often experimential/modernist/difficult to read, and that was not the case here.