Evening (1998) by Susan Minot

 1001 Novels: A Library of America

Evening (1998)

by Susan Minot

Newport, Maine

Maine: 24/24

   Surprise!  I forgot to read this book from Maine!  In her 1998 New York Times review, Michiko Kakutani called this book "stunning".  It's a very Virginia Woolf type affair: Ann Grant Lord is dying of cancer in her Maine summer home and as she drifts in and out of consciousness she spends the most time not remembering any of her three husbands or four children but rather a doomed love affair with a young daughter at a wedding near her home in Maine.  Kakutani points out something that was very much on my mind at times, "At times, Ms. Minot's efforts to capture Ann's state of mind fall into mannerism -- several passages written in run-together sentences read like poor imitations of Molly Bloom's soliloquy in "Ulysses".  

  I had that exact thought!  Now that I have my subscription status with the New York Times squared away I like to check to see what they had to say about these 1001 Novels authors- it is very much a situation where I expect every single one of these 1001 Novels titles to have a corresponding New York Times review.   Evening also spawned a movie version in 2007 with Meryl Streep and Vanessa Redgrave (27% certified rotten).   FWIW, Evening is the hit of the Minot Bibliography- it has a couple hundred Amazon reviews and her other books have under a hundred for the most part.   

   Heart breaking? Beautiful? Heart breakingly beautiful? OK I guess so 1998 New York Times but I can hear the regrets of an aging white woman every time I call my Mom- I'm not looking for that in fiction or literature.

Meeting Rozzy Halfway (1980) by Caroline Leavitt

 1001 Novels: A Library of America

Meeting Rozzy Halfway (1980)
by Caroline Leavitt

Boston, Massachusetts

Massachusetts: 10/30

    The Map Makers for the 1001 Novels project have Meeting Rozzy Halfway placed in Boston, but it seems like Brookline, a tony suburb that is surrounded by Boston, would be more accurate.  I'm not entirely sure, having never been to Brookline, but I've certainly heard about it, specifically as having a Jewish element within the greater Boston metro area- which is not a Jew intensive area.   I hadn't read or heard of Leavitt before this book- a review of her 2021 novel Cruel Beautiful World identifies her as a writer of "dramatic-absorbing popular fiction", which is not the same as being a writer of serious literature but better than being the type of writer of popular fiction who is ignored by the New York Times Book Review.

  Meeting Rozzy Halfway also got a New York Times book review as part of a two-book review where both books are about family relationships.  The critic in the Times wasn't a huge fan at the time, but I gather from the author's afterword to the Ebook version I read, it was a popular success and sold plenty of copies.  I agree with the criticisms of the New York Times critic back in 1980, Rozzy, the schizophrenic half-sister is not particularly interesting as the literary insane go.  Bess, the sister and narrator, is herself a bit of a bore, and the relationship between siblings seems more of an example of a self-obssessed schizophrenic using everyone around her, with the healthy sister functioning as an enabler. 

  The reader knows that things are not going to end well for anyone in Meeting Rozzy Halfway- like all families that allow themselves to become consumed by the disability of one of them, regret is inevitable and also self-inflicted wounds- in this book the father of the family, a succesful corporate lawyer, eventually becomes a shuffling automaton who stuffs his face with junk food 24/7 and does nothing but watch television in his spare time.  Leavitt is not there to propose any solutions and I sensed that the desired reaction was to stand up and applaud for the sacrifices made by the well-sister/narrator but I found both siblings equally unsympathetic.

   Meeting Rozzy Halfway also scores a zero out of ten for its Boston-ness- they could have been  anywhere and it's quite clear over three hundred page novel that the only thing this family cares about is itself.

Beyond That, the Sea (2023) by Laura Spence-Ash

 1001 Novels: A Library of America

Beyond That, the Sea (2023)

by Laura Spence-Ash

Chelsea, Massachusetts

Massachusetts: 9/30

  I listened to this entire Audiobook- 12-13 hours worth, without guessing that this was a recent release.  It's obviously a recent work of historical fiction but it could have been published anytime in the past fifty years and I wouldn't have questioned it.  But, as it turns out it came out this summer and got a capsule review back in May of this year.  The Times called it, "a timeless exploration of what it means to be a family," but I mostly found the Audiobook bearable because of the accents from upper-crust Boston and working class London in the 1940's to 1960's as articulated by the book readers.   Beyond That, the Sea is a good example of a book I might have been able to complete in hardback, but give me an Audiobook with a female narrator in 1950's London and I am all ears for 10 to 15 hours of drive time.

   The story is about a girl- Beatrix call her "Bea" who is shipped across the ocean during the London Blitz to live with a genteel family in Boston.  For the purposes of the 1001 Novels project, Beyond That, the Sea is assigned to Chelsea, which is a still-grubby western suburb of the center city.  I've never been there beyond stopping to buy a doughnut and coffee off the freeway on the way north, but I gather from the description of the family home of the American host family, it used to have some nice parts. 

   Her host family is part of the genteel protestant world of old Boston- Dad is a three generation legacy at Harvard, Mom comes from a family that is perhaps less cultured but wealthier than that of the Dad.  They live in a house provided by the school where Dad is the headmaster.  They have two sons.   Most of the book is about the relationship with Bea and those two boys (then men) but both sets of parents have their own distinct voices, with both Mothers taking up almost as much space as the central relationship between Beatrix and the two sons of the family.

  Here, for the first time, nine books in, we get some good Boston content- Beatrix loves Fenway park and a couple important scenes take place there.  There  are also decent descriptions of Maine- where the family owns a small island with a house.  There is some tediousness in the fact that most of the book takes place with the three main characters on separate continents for decades- it's just not conducive to compelling fiction- but it's a pleasant enough book.  It is fiction- not literature, with a happy ending fit for a Hallmark movie.

 

Faith (2011) by Jennifer Haigh

 1001 Novels: A Library of America

Faith (2011)

by Jennifer Haigh

Boston, Massachusetts

 Massachusetts: 8/30

    I think this is the first 1001 Novels book from Boston.  I have spent a LOT of time in the city of Boston over the past decade- twice a year, usually two to three days each visit.  It's a solid second tier city- I would say the only two really world class, top tier cities in the US are New York and Los Angeles followed by a dozen at the same level as Boston.  Maybe you could put Chicago on a top three with NYC and LA.   Anyway- Boston is a top 10 city.   Not top 3, but top 10.  The positive qualities of Boston relative to other cities in the top 10 are:  the history- as in, it has some.  The center city is relatively compact, 19th century affair making getting around on foot very plausible.  It's located on the water, making for a relatively mild climate for the area.  The airport is 10 minutes from downtown.  Weed is legal, the food and bar scene is and Fenway Park and Madison Square Garden are both in the city proper. Negatives include a horrific tunnel-based road system in the center city, a history of white, working-class racism and a stodgy elite that has been slow to catch up with 21st century trends in urban management.  Those are pretty minor problems as US cities go.

    Faith has a plot that sounds like it was spit out by a Boston literature mad-libs generator:  A priest is accused of child molestation and it impacts his family, mostly his sister (the narrator) and his half-brother. I repeated this description to my Boston-area native partner and she quipped, "Isn't that every novel about Boston?"  As I've mentioned, there is a surfeit of books within the precincts of the 1001 Novels: A Library of America list that deal with conflicts between siblings.  My favorites are the ones narrated in flashback forms about their sibling issues- Affliction is the best example.   So, by those standards, Faith is more tolerable than other books of its ilk because it is narrated by the older half-sister in the aftermath of the events described- same as Affliction.  

    The Boston of this book is drab and colorless, which, don't get me wrong, is an accurate description of Boston, at times.  However, something I'm now looking for when I read books on the 1001 Novels: A Library of America list, is show-piece physical descriptions of these places- Boston- in this book.  Something like the opening sequence of Underworld by Don DeLillo which takes place during a 1951 New York Giants baseball game at Ebbets field.  In the Boston context- the first mention of Fenway Park comes 10 books in, and I've to get even a mention of the Boston Garden, either in the basketball of hockey context.  

   The particulars of the plot of Faith are grim and dare I say, a trifle sordid. The three siblings all have their failings but obviously a priest getting accused of child molestation in the post-Church Child Abuse Scandal era is a big deal for all involved.  I'm not sure I'd put this specific narrative on a "must read" list to understand the story, specifically because it takes place in the aftermath of the original out-cry.  The construction of the plot contains multiple spoilers as Haigh leaves the readers guessing about guilt, innocence and the personal histories of the three siblings. 

  One fact that emerges that I found particularly hard to square with my own knowledge of these situations is that it comes out that the accused priest/half brother was himself molested as a very young child by a local priest who preyed on his single mother.   And yet, he went on to become a priest himself.   If this book was set in the 19th century, perhaps that would make more sense to me, but it is hard to square that later disclosed fact with his earlier decisions vis a vis the priesthood.   I'd be the first to admit that I "just don't get" the cultural values embodied here. 

   I listened to the Audiobook version which was grim- if I had to do it over I would have read the physical book so I could get through it as quickly as possible- not the kind of novel one savors. 

Winner of the National Book Award: A Novel of Fame, Honor and Really Bad Weather (2003) by Jincy Willett

 Winner of the National Book Award: 

A Novel of Fame, Honor and Really Bad Weather (2003) 

by Jincy Willett 

Frome, Rhode Island

Rhode Island: 9/9

   Rhode Island: It's eccentric even by the high standards for eccentricity set by the other states in New England.  That is my assessment after reading the 9 books this smallest state got on the 1001 Novels: A Library of America List.  As you might guess from the title, Winner of the National Book Award is a wry, self-aware book that still manages to be about the troubled relationship between two sisters in the northeast- which feels like the subject of 8/10 of the last 1001 Novels: A Library of America.  This time around, one sister (narrator) is a prim librarian the other is a slatternly tart currently facing murder charges for killing her comically abusive writer husband. 

  Once again I found myself rolling my eyes at the degree to which the mental illness of one family member totally controls the life (and plot of the novel) of another, seemingly not insane family member.  Like other re-occurring situations this one seems to be at the heart of contemporary fiction, particularly as it is represented by editor Susan Straight in the 1001 Novels List.  Winner of the National Book Award, is, at least, intermittently funny and it comes with pull quotes from both Augusten Burroughs and David Sedaris, which should give anyone familiar with either writer an idea of the vibe the reader is going to experience.   I'm pleased to see the end of Rhode Island- the fourth state I've finished on the 1001 Novels List.

Don't Ask Me Where I'm From (2020) by Jennifer de Leon

1001 Novels: A Library of America

Don't Ask Me Where I'm From (2020)

by Jennifer De Leon

Weston, Massachusetts

Massachusetts: 7/30

   Don't Ask Me Where I'm From is a 2020 YA title about the experience of the high school aged US citizen daughter of two illegal immigrants from Central America. Early in the book she is selected by her urban high school to attend a ritzy high school in the suburbs. meanwhile dealing with the sudden deportation of her father at home.  I've now read more YA novels via the 1001 Novels: A Library of America project than I had in the proceeding decade plus.  I find them tedious.  Unfortunately, Don't Ask Me Where I'm From is no exception to that trend.  First, I checked out the Audiobook from the library but I literally could not take it.  I found the voice of the narrator/teen to be particularly annoying, like watching a humorless television show about high school students.  

  I don't have anything against Liliana and her background- I deal with the consequences of our broken immigration system in the federal court system on a weekly basis, talking to families EXACTLY like Liliana's, so she isn't saying I haven't heard or felt or argued in Court a million times over the past two decades.  As for her high school experience, I don't have a lot of sympathy.  I'm a full supporter of diversity, affirmative action, being cognizant of valuing different experiences etc. but not so much of high school students.  It's a tough time, I know, but would it be too much for one character in a YA title to not think that they are the center of the universe and that their particular set of problems is unique to themselves- because that it is literally every high school student in a a YA novel EVER. 

   Don't Ask Me Where I've Been is, however, the first book about Central American immigrants, which is a diversity win for the 1001 Novels: A Library of America.

Sparrow (2023) by James Hynes

 Book Review

Sparrow (2023)

by James Hynes

 I practically spit out my coffee when I read the write-up of Sparrow by James Hynes in the Sunday New York Times Book Review last month:  A novel set in post-Christian Rome written from the POV of a slave in a whore-house?  Sign me up!  Serious works of fiction set in this period are few and far between, so kudos to Hynes who includes an afterword showing he was up to date on the scholarship surrounding the delicate issues of sexuality in Rome, a slave-holding society.  Those interested in this place and time will find much to like in Sparrow- though the sexual content is at times cringe inducing- just like- horrible stuff about the experiences of sex workers in the Roman Empire, but Hynes doesn't sensationalize the abuse and I enjoyed the rest of the book.

Christendom (2022) by Peter Heather

 Book Review

Christendom (2022)

by Peter Heather

  British historian Peter Heather is the leading popular voice in the area of the history of late antiquity (Europe).  I've been enjoying his books for years. Heather is part of a generation of historians- he's actually part of the second generation of scholars in this area- who have rewritten the history of Rome by applying advances in historiography which have occurred since the late 19th century, when Edward Gibbons published his monumentally influential The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.  Gibbons was a fan of the idea that the Roman Empire was felled via the decadence of its own people- many of our received cultural ideas about the insanity of late Rome can be traced directly to people who read The History of the  Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire during the century and a half when it was the only such history. 

  Anyway- times have changed, as Heather has repeatedly noted over the past two decades.  In Christendoom he hones in on the changes that occurred after the conversion of the Roman Emperor.  The conventional wisdom- largely put forward by the Catholic church in the early Middle Ages to justify the outsize role they wished to play in Europe- was that the Roman conversion was thorough and involved the vast majority of Roman citizens converting with a generation or so.   This explanation was largely accepted by secular historians in the modern period, and only recently have scholars begun to question this received wisdom.

   As it turns out, the conversion of the Roman country-side to Christianity was nothing like a thorough-going conversion of the entire countryside, rather it resembled an adoption by local elites of a new "Cult of the Emperor" that was very much in their self interest as citizens of the Roman Empire. Those who had less interest in the empire as a whole had almost no reason to convert for centuries.

   Another strand of Heather's analysis concerns the idea that Roman Catholicism and its medieval power structure was somehow present in the time after the conversion of the Roman Emperor.  Heather points to non-controversial scholarship that firmly demonstrates the absurdity of this idea.  Rome was originally only one of four patriarchs and there was no idea of a supreme Rome (outside of Rome) until after the Islamic conquest decimated the patriarchates of the Near East. 

    After a shaky section on the Islamic world made difficult by the lack of medieval Islamic scholars in pre-Islamic local history or early Islamic history (this being a controversial subject inside Islam), Heather gets to the real heart of the book, a tour of recent scholarship on the conversion experience in Northern Europe from Ireland through the Baltics.  This has been a fertile area for scholarship and Heather has absorbed it all and regurgitated it in easily consumable form.

  I listened to the Audiobook- 24 hours in length- because I've got his other hits in hardback and didn't want another on the shelf.  I didn't find it as difficult as the New York Times reviewer- but perhaps listening to it rather than reading it saved me some problems in reading comprehension.