The Warmth of Other Suns (2010) by Isabel Wilkerson

 100 Best Books of the 21st Century: The New York Times

The Warmth of Other Suns (2010)

by Isabel Wilkerson

#2

   The Warmth of Other Suns is my 66th read from the 100 Best Books of the 21st Century list from the New York Times.  Most of those reads proceded the publication of the list, but I found there were a good dozen non-fiction titles on the list that seemed like books I really *should* read.  At Number Two, Isabel Wilkerson's monster work of history on the African American migration is the last major title on the list that I handed tackled.  I ended up reading it on my Kindle because it is 622 pages long and I didn't fancy it as an Audiobook or a hard copy.  Mostly I read it on my most recent vacation on the East Coast.  The subject matter blended nicely with the recent chapter of the 1,001 Novels: A Library of America- each of the individuals Wilkerson focuses in on could be characters from a novel from Mississippi, Alabama or Louisiana. 

  These are the people that left, a viewpoint largely missing from the map-based approach of the 1,001 Novels: A Library of America, which essentially guarantees a roster of losers from nowhere who do nothing- I mean almost by definition.   Wilkerson clears up many questions I had about why EVERYONE didn't leave.  Turns out, the local authorities and employers made it difficult on top of the fact that many black southerners lacked the resources to do anything besides simply existing. 

  What I've seen in the 1,001 Novels: A Library of America is that most people just want to be left alone to try the best they can.  For example, I haven't read a single novel involving poor people in rural America waiting for any government to do anything for them in any way, shape or form.  Mostly what I've read is about scenario's where the local power structures actively interfere with the ability of certain groups to simply exist without being actively oppressed in ways subtle and less subtle. 

  I'm not just talking about the rural south- the poor of New England have a thing or two to say about being forced into particular modes of life.  Wilkerson follows he subject through their entire lives, and it becomes clear that no one but no one "gets over" the experience of the systemic racism as practiced in the deep south in the early 20th century.  Even if you cut off the actual period of slavery- which for the characters in this book represented their GRANDPARENTS, the Jim Crow period was in many ways crueler because it held out at least the hope of a semblance of the ability of black Americans to go about their business, but the reality was anything but that. 

Breaking Out of Bedlam (2010) by Leslie Larsen

 1,001 Novels: A Library of Ameri ca

Breaking Out of Bedlam (2010)

by Leslie Larsen

Joplin, Missouri

Missouri: 5/11

   Breaking Out of Bedlam is a 1,001 Novels: A Library of American mainstay, about a 300 pound, 82-year-old mother of three who has just been confined to an assisted living facility by her "loving" children.  Surprisingly, the narrative structure takes the form of narrator Nora Sledge deciding to tell her story by writing in a journal.  Author Larsen thus avoids the central dilemma of the entire 1,001 Novels project: How to write an interesting book about a character or characters with little or no formal education and never go anywhere or do anything.   As Sledge herself makes perfectly clear, she fits this description.  It's unclear if she has ever read a book.  But she is a lively and engaging narrator, and the low-stakes plot about assisted living shenanigans kept me engaged.

  The 1,001 Novels project has this book mapped but it is hard to say why.  The nursing home where 100% of the action takes place is in suburban San Diego- it sounded like the Clairemont Mesa area to me.  The written flashbacks to Sledge's past live must be happening in or around Joplin, Missouri though Sledge doesn't tell us much about the place other than her own story- getting pregnant as a teenager and then tricking her husband into marrying her to give the illegitimate child a home.

Mrs. Bridge (1959) by Evan S. Connell

 1,001 Novels: A Library of America

Mrs. Bridge (1959)

by Evan S. Connell

Kansas City, Missouri

Missouri: 4/11

     Mrs. Bridge was a genuine pleasure to read and Connell a genuine discovery for me, one of only a limited number of authors thus far in the 1,001 Novels: A Library of America.   Mrs. Bridge is a really well-done portrait of an upper-class matron in Kansas City, Missouri in the early-middle 20th century- apparently based on Connell's sister, who was an upper-class matron in Kansas City, Missouri.   Connell was raised there, though he resided in San Franscico and later New Mexico as an adult.  I couldn't find any information about him being a member of the LGBT community at any point, but his romantic history is limited to a single woman who sounds like a beard to me.  He never got married, never had any kids and shunned publicity.  Sounds pretty LGBT to me!

    Mrs. Bridge works because he tells the story of this objectively uninteresting woman in the form of a hundred little episodes, leaving the reader to piece together the more prosaic moments of her life.  What is fantastic about this technique is that it transforms an uninteresting subject into an interesting subject without demanding an excessive amount of time from the reader.  Surely, Connell was ahead of the curve in that regard.  This approach wasn't characteristic of all his books- later in his career he wrote a 450-page non-fiction book about the life of General Custer that was his biggest commercial hit.

   

Audiobook: Civilizations (2021) by Laurent Binet

 Audiobook: 

Civilizations (2021)

 by Laurent Binet

  I'm really warming up to the Spotify feature of having every Audiobook for free.  My hunch is that this is mostly new releases and classics, but I wait FOREVER to check out new release Audiobooks in the Libby library app, so this Spotify feature is welcome.  Right now, I'm going through and looking for Audiobooks of books I've already read.  The first one I picked out was The Kindly Ones, Civilizations, by Laurent Binet was second because I bought the English translation in hardback, read it, and thought that I would have been better off with the Audiobook because of Binet's textually based approach to the plot.  Part I is a faux-Viking saga, Part II is written in the style of Early-Modern/Middle Ages prose, etc. 

  I was really excited when this book was published- in the original French.  I thought for sure it would prove a sensation, but such was not the case.  It seems like a natural for a tv version and the rights were published but there have been no updates since then. 

How to Leave Hialeah (2009) by Jennie Capo Crucet

 1,001 Novels: A Library of America

How to Leave Hialeah (2009)

by Jennie Capo Crucet

Hialeah, Florida

Florida: 19/21

   Hialeah, Florida is a western suburb of Miami and the most heavily Hispanic city in the nation, with over 95% of the population claiming Hispanic background on the last US census.  Of that 95%, just about 75% claim Cuban ancestry, compared to 30% for the city of Miami.   One important aspect of the post-Castro Cuban diaspora is that it blended with a smaller but still present pre-Castro Cuban-American population, and that it came in waves, with the original wave being largely economic and cultural "enemies" of the new Cuban state (I.e. rich people, their families, and intellectuals who weren't getting with the program and then a second wave of the Marielito's, which, by design contained criminals and maniacs but was mostly just working class Cubans and the relatives of those who had already made the trip.   Those who traveled as part of the Marielito wave have suffered prejudice by association, but they also represented a less well-off social-economic cohort. 

  Author Jennie Capo Crucet is a good example of second-generation Cuban diaspora, a novelist with good reviews, some prizes and no hits, working as a professor at a midwestern college (Nebraska).  Some of the set ups here are familiar- I found myself trying to remember where I had read about the practice of paying people to read to Cuban cigar rollers- one of the stories here.  The title story I'm assuming is auto biographical since it mirrors her actual biographical details.  The experience of coastal Latinos whether they be from NYC of Miami, attending midwestern universities is almost a trope at this point in the 1,001 Novels: A Library of America- as I've learned (and knew beforehand) it is never, ever easy for students to do well in unfamiliar/collegiate settings, particularly when they are visibly members of a minority group.

  Whether that actually applies to Cubans is a good question.  Most Cubans present as white and come from a place in the United States (either South Florida, NYC area or LA) where they are either the dominant group or just one of many.  The experience of students at Midwestern universities is highlighted by so many authors because their "minority-ness" in the rural Midwest is assumed and the more challenging minority groups are often excluded by lack of interest from these parts of the US.  I'm just saying it's a particular circumstance for Cuban Americans vs other groups.

The River of Kings (2018) by Taylor Brown

 1,001 Novels: A Library of America

The River of Kings (2018)

by Taylor Brown

Altamaha River, Georgia

Georgia: 25/25

  I missed The River of Kings my first time through Georgia- so make this novel 25/25 for that state. The River of Kings is interesting and kind of a mess as well- a head scratching combination of settler-fiction with a contemporary tale of two brothers searching for the truth behind their father's untimely death at the hands of a sturgeon on the river.  For the life of me I couldn't figure out the thematic connection between the two tales- besides the shared geography of the river.   The settler tale was of the moder variety, where the western "conquest" of the new world is shown to be much more precarious than history would have it.  The inevitability that constitutes the modern world view would have been a shock to the French settlers of the 16th century who figure in The River of Kings.

  Meanwhile the modern tale of two brothers- one a college student, the other a damaged veteran of the war in Afghanistan, never really sparked to life. Perhaps because they don't do anything except try to figure out their dad's death over a couple of days "on the river."  Author Taylor Brown did a decent job capturing the sophistication of the Native Americans- as we now know, the early European settlers were incorporated into the existing political-military landscape and were far from being the dominant player for hundreds of years.

The Old Man and the Sea (1951) by Ernest Hemingway

 1,001 Novels: A Library of America

The Old Man and the Sea (1951) 

by Ernest Hemingway 

Gulf Coast, Florida

Florida: 18/21

   I like Hemingway TBH.  He gets a bad rap because he was such a cartoon of a human being, but there is no mistaking the impact of his prose- the only idea of minimalism.  I think you can really only appreciate it if you've struggled through the morass of the high modernists.

Published 10/3/15
The Old Man and the Sea (1952)
by Ernest Hemingway

  The Old Man and the Sea is a slim hundred and thirty pages in length.  Generally considered to be Hemingway's last good book, it also won the Pulitzer Prize and was a staple of courses in American literature for decades after publication.   Today, it's popularity has been eclipsed, a victim of the quest for other (non white, non male) voices, particularly when it comes to tales about Caribbean fishermen.  Let the fishermen speak for themselves, in their own language, is what contemporary teachers of literature would most likely say.

 The story concerns an old fisherman and his quest to bring in one last giant marlin.  It is a journey that takes him far out into the gulf stream, off the coast of Cuba.  The Old Man and the Sea is one of those narratives that has burrowed so far into the popular consciousness that you can almost write the damn thing.   Reading Hemingway outside of the constraints of school has been a delight.  I find his restrictive prose soothing, a welcome antidote to the stuffy English and European upper classes of most early 20th century fiction.  Like other Anglo-American authors, he moves into fraught territory with Latin American characters, but you can't really hold him responsible for wanting to write this story and feeling like he was competent to do so.

The Old Man and the Sea, a man, a fish, some sharks, the water and a boat.

The Secret Lives of Church Ladies (2020) by Deesha Philyaw

1,001 Novels: A Library of America 

The Secret Lives of Church Ladies (2020)

by Deesha Philyaw

Sugar Hill, Jacksonville, Florida

Florida: 17/21

  Deesha Philway has her first novel dropping in a couple months, The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman, and it was cool to see The Secret Lives of Church Ladies on the 1,001 Novels: A Library of America.  Also, a very obvious pick given editor Susan Straight's predilections.

 

Published 1/18/21

The Secret Lives of Church Ladies (2020)

by Deesha Philyaw

    The Secret Lives of Church Ladies was the last of the 2020 National Book Award finalists in the fiction category I was able to secure- the LA Public Library finally picked up the Audiobook version, though I certainly would have bought a copy if I'd seen it in a bookstore.  The publisher is West Virginia University Press, and I'm pretty sure I've never read another book from that imprint, and it makes me wonder why this obviously sharp collection of short stories about the lives of African American women in the rural/suburban America didn't pique more interest from an established publisher.

    It was an enjoyable listen- Philyaw has a sharp eye for domestic detail that reminded me of Alice Munro.  I look forward to future books from her, hopefully a novel, but there is no doubt that the National Book Award nomination will ensure that she has a greater choice of publishers for her next book.

Winter's Bone (2006) by Daniel Woodrell

     Map of the Ozarks

 1,001 Novels: A Library of America

Winter's Bone (2006)

by Daniel Woodrell

Ozark Hills, Missouri

Missouri:  3/11

    I associate the Ozark mountains with Arkansas, but as the map above clearly demonstrates, most of the Ozarks are in Missouri, as in Winter's Bone, which is just about as Ozarks a book as you can get.  The movie version is mostly remembered for introducing Jennifer Lawrence to audiences, and it was hard not to listen to the Audiobook without picturing her as the narrator, a high school student trying to locate her meth-cook Dad after he skips out on a court date, and the bond attached to that court date, comes due.

  Ree Dolly, of the Ozark Dollies, is forced on her own Odyssey, in the dead of the Missouri winter, taking her from valley to valley, with little help from anyone.  Along the way she is exposed to plenty of bad behavior, though the proceedings can be described as PG 13 for violence, swearing and drug-use. God knows there are moments in the book where a darker turn seems in the card, but Woodrell keeps an element of nobility among his backcountry meth cooks and welfare frauds that is charming to this hardened criminal defense lawyer.

Hard Aground (1993) by James W. Hall

 1,001 Novels: A Library of America

Hard Aground (1993)

by James W. Hall

Miami, Florida

Florida: 16/21

  I can see why editor Susan Straigh picked this James W. Hall 90's noir- it's the "Chinatown" influenced history of Miami plot line that backstops the otherwise forgettable tale of a mentally ill "boat bum" brother trying to solve the cold-blooded murder of his urban archeologist(!) brother.  Cringe inducing plot points abound, from the depiction of the schizophrenia suffered by the protagonist to the trans-hitwoman.  Along the way you get an absolutely inexplicable mother-daughter relationship and some mid sex scenes.  But the material about the history of Miami is welcome, and rare within the parameters of the 1,001 Novels: A Library of America project, mostly because most of the books about poor people with grade-school educations who don't know much about history.  History is largely communicated through works of historical fiction with those sorts of characters, rather than the presence of any characters who know about historical context, as is very much the case here.