A Spool of Blue Thread

Anne Tyler

To paraphrase the opening line of Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, all families are quirky; each family is unique in its quirkiness. This is what came to mind as I read Anne Tyler’s A Spool of Blue Thread. Just as a spool of thread slowly unravels, Anne Tyler’s novel slowly unwinds to reveal the lives of four generations of the Whitshank family. It is the very quirkiness of this family that makes them unique and yet so recognizable and engaging.

In a quiet, slow-moving family drama, Tyler realistically portrays her characters with all their eccentricities, petty squabbles, sibling rivalries, and secrets. Hovering in the background is the house they live in, rendered with such loving detail and given so much importance that it seems to emerge as another character in the novel.

The first half of the novel is stronger than the second half, and the ending was disappointing since there was no sense of closure. This is not a fast-paced novel in which the reader races from one exploding event to another. It is a novel about people. And when it comes to writing novels with realistic characters that seem to step off the page, Anne Tyler is mistress of the craft. 

Classical Literature: An Epic Journey From Homer to Virgil and Beyond

Richard Jenkyns

In Classical Literature: An Epic Journey from Homer to Virgil and Beyond, Richard Jenkyns displays his extensive knowledge of the classics. He surveys 1,000 years of classical Greek and Roman literature. Jenkyns brings the greatest thinkers of classical literature to life through lively, engaging, and informed discussions of their work. He sprints from one figure to the next, evaluating their work, expressing his opinions, challenging outworn interpretations while simultaneously dropping gems of insight. He discusses the plays of the great tragedian Aeschylus in new and thought-provoking ways. His sentences can take unexpected turns. His views can be somewhat unorthodox as when, for example, he describes Sophocles’ Ajax as leaving us “in a state of appalled wonderment.” Or when he says of the Romans that their original achievement was to “invent imitation."

Throughout the work, Jenkyns peppers his analysis oughout the work, Jenkyns peppers his analysis with humor and tongue-in-cheek irony, which makes for a thoroughly engaging and informative read. The breadth and scope of his knowledge is impressive. This book is highly recommended for those with an interest in Greek and Roman literature.

Plainsong

Kent Haruf 

Kent Haruf’s Plainsong is a quiet, subtle, and beautifully written novel about a fictional rural town in Colorado. Everything about it is understated. Haruf portrays a diverse range of heart-warming characters vividly, with elegance, simplicity, and compassion. We come to know these characters even though we are never made privy to their thoughts. The novel has no internal monologues. What dialogue exists between characters is sparse. Haruf reveals his characters through their actions and the few words they say to each other. The reader is drawn in and finds himself/herself invested in their struggles as they cope with the challenges life has thrown in their direction.

It is a beautiful story told with clarity, elegance, and above all, simplicity. We gradually come to know and love the gentle, unassuming characters. Their quiet generosity and the support they give one another in times of crisis is heart-warming and restores one’s faith in the goodness of people. 

The Jungle

Upton Sinclair

Written in 1906, Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle follows the plight of Jurgis Rudkus, a Lithuanian immigrant and his family, as they struggle to make a living in Chicago. Jurgis finds work at a meatpacking company, allowing Sinclair to expose the unsanitary and inhumane working conditions of the industry. Speaking very little English, Jurgis and his family become victims of con artists, corporate greed, political corruption, violence, harassment, and exploitation. They reel from one catastrophe to another, from one tragedy to another. We witness their physical and moral decline as the novel progresses. Sinclair’s description of the horrific working conditions and grossly contaminated meat sold to unsuspecting consumers caused a huge public outcry. This led the government to implement much needed reforms, one of which was passage of the Meat Inspection Act.

Sinclair performed a valuable service in exposing the horrors of the meat packing industry at the turn of the century. However, at times his novel reads more like a political treatise than a work of fiction. He hammers home his political agenda so heavily that the novel borders on becoming tiresome. But possibly this heavy-handed intrusion of political, economic, and social injustices was necessary at the time to get the public’s attention

The Lowland

Jhumpa Lahiri

Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Lowland depicts the lives of an Indian family told against the backdrop of a politically turbulent period in India. It focuses on two brothers who come of age in the 1950s. Their paths diverge when one of them moves to America while the other becomes progressively more embroiled in revolutionary activities in India. Lahiri’s skill in storytelling lies in weaving her narrative in such a way as to transcend the specificity of a particular family. Her characters experience the fragility and vicissitudes of life in all its challenges of violence, betrayal, love, grief, honor, and loss.

Through her poignant and beautifully told story of the Mitra family, Lahiri reminds us of some of life’s universal truths: we can never be fully removed from the historical and cultural climate which gave birth to us; the choices we make in life, even if they are made with the best of intentions, can have devastating consequences; aging consists of the slow, irreversible process of letting go; and life frequently presents us with challenges we may never fully comprehend.

Spinning Straw into Gold: What Fairy Tales Reveal About the Transformations in a Woman's Life

Joan Gould

In Spinning Straw into Gold, Joan Gould deconstructs some popular fairy tales, dividing them under the categories of Maiden, Matron, and Crone.  Gould’s study is interesting and her insights perceptive. However, woven in and out of her analyses are Gould’s continuous interjections of personal anecdotes and digressions. These interrupt the flow of her discussion and border on being irritating. In spite of that, however, the book is worth reading because Gould’s actual analysis and discussion of fairy tales is entertaining, lucid, and penetrates beneath the superficial level of the fairy tale narrative. Her analyses contain nuggets of wisdom, many of which continue to bear relevance for women today.

Ransom

David Malouf

Ransom by David Malouf is a brilliant re-telling of a pivotal moment in Homer's Iliad when Priam, the aged king of Troy, journeys to the enemy camp to offer a ransom in exchange for his son's body. What makes the event so poignant is he has to make the offer to his son's killer, Achilles. 

In his skillful and detailed portrayal of Priam, Achilles, Hecuba, and Somax, Malouf performs a masterful taks of fleshing out these characters, rendering them as fully rounded human beings. He depicts them with tenderness, compassion, empathy, and a sensitivity to detail that is mesmerizing. This remarkable novel, told in lyrical prose, touches us at the core of our humanity. It is one of the best novels I have read in a long time.

Boy, Snow, Bird

Helen Oyememi

Based on reviews I had read of Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyememi, I approached the novel ancitipating an imaginative retelling of Snow White. I was somewhat disappointed, therefore, to find little connection with that classic fairy tale. Nevertheless, the novel was well-written and engaging primarily because it illustrates the devestating impact racism and internalized racism can have on an individual's self-image and life choices.

The Kindness of Enemies

Leila Aboulela

The Kindness of Enemies by Leila Aboulela weaves two interlocking stories set approximately 150 years apart. Beginning in Scotland in 2010, one story is of Natasha Wilson (aka Hussein), a professor of mixed Sudanese and Russian heritage, torn between her two cultures and trying to define her place in the world. The second story is of Imam Shamil, a Muslim leader and member of the Naqshbandi Sufi order, who lead the resistance to Russian occupation of the Caucasus in the mid-1800s. The thread that connects both stories is Wilson’s research on Imam Shamil and her discovery that one of his descendents is a student in her class.

Aboulela skillfully weaves in and out of both narratives, taking the reader along with her at a breathtaking pace. There are twists and turns in the narrative, some of which are predictable. For me the value of the novel lies in its realistic portrayal of characters struggling to live according to their convictions and their subsequent disparagement by those who perceive reality through a different set of lenses.

Aboulela reminds us the issue of truth and justice is seldom a simple question of either this way or that. Instead, it frequently straddles between the two paths and one has only to use a different set of lenses to begin to see the possible merit of an opponent's point of view. 

The novel is well written, moves at a rapid pace, and sheds light on the challenges facing Muslims post 9/11.

Baghdad: City of Peace, City of Blood: A History in Thirteen Centuries

Justin Marozzi

Justin Marozzi’s Baghdad: City of Peace, City of Blood: A History in Thirteen Centuries is a well-researched and well-documented history of that troubled city. Written in a style that is engaging and accessible, Marozzi peppers his sentences with occasional humor and irony. He traces the decline of a city once known as the center of the world and the cradle of civilization.

Beginning with the caliph Mansur who established it as his capital in 762 C.E. and concluding in 2007 with the fall of Saddam and the aftermath of the invasion, Marozzi shows us how Baghdad lives up to the title of his book: it rotates from being a City of Peace where scholarship, culture, and the arts flourished to a City of Blood, violence, and the massive slaughter of innocents at the hands of one conquering army after another.

Marozzi does not shy away from describing some of the horrors inflicted on various segments of Baghdad’s population throughout the centuries. In chilling detail, he also narrates some of the gruesome tortures perpetrated on Iraqis by Saddam Hussein, his sons, and his henchmen.

Marozzi concludes his history on a hopeful note as expressed by a retired diplomat: “The cycle that sees Baghdad lurching between mayhem and prosperity has been long and gory, but of course we must have hope. May the City of Peace live up to its name before we ourselves depart to eternal peace.”

To paraphrase Hamlet, "'Tis a circumstance devoutly to be wished." 

Woman at the Window: Biblical Tales of Oppression and Escape

Nehama Aschkenasy

Woman at the Window: Biblical Tales of Oppression and Escape by Nehama Aschkenasy is an engaging read for anyone wanting to explore the portrayal of women in the Hebrew text.

Through close textual analysis of several events involving women, Aschkenasy illuminates the woman's role and position. She reframes the text, discussing it from the perspective of the woman whose voice has been muffled or completely silenced in the biblical narrative. By repositioning the female from the margin to the center, Aschkenasy opens the text to a wealth of interpretations that are fascinating and insightful. She gives voice to the female and speculates possible motives for her behavior and her silence. She breathes life into these otherwise nebulous women, reconstructing their lives and their personalities, thereby allowing them to materialize from the shadows of the patriarchal context in which they have been submerged.  

Chaucer's Tale: 1386 and the Road to Canterbury

Paul Strohm

Paul Strohm’s Chaucer’s Tale: 1386 and the Road to Canterbury charts Chaucer’s growth as a writer from his time as a bureaucrat living in very modest quarters in London’s Aldgate Tower to his banishment in Kent. Chaucer wrote at a time of transition in manuscript production, increases in circulation, and expansion of audiences.

Strohm walks you through Chaucer’s London: a time of political intrigue; unscrupulous merchants; traitors’ heads dangling on the tower scaffold; streets teeming with life; church bells peeling at regular intervals; people shouting and jostling through narrow, cobbled streets; strangers accosting each other, eager to share the latest gossip; and the stench of open sewers wafting through the atmosphere. Incredibly, against this chaotic and noisy and smelly background, Chaucer somehow managed to carve out time and space to write.

Strohm's lively portrayal of London while charting Chaucer's progression as a literary genius is a must read for lovers of Chaucer and his Canterbury Tales.

Dear Committee Members

Julie Schumacher

Dear Committee Members by Julie Schumacher is a series of letters written by Jason Fitger, a beleaguered English professor in a small liberal arts college. Prof. Fitger writes letters of recommendation on behalf of his students as well as letters pleading for help from administrators and colleagues. 

The novel is laugh out loud hilarious. The bizarre experiences, outlandish events, and colorful characters resonate with anyone familiar with the inner workings of higher education.

The novel is also very poignant: Those same experiences, events, and characters are a reminder of the marginalized status of Humanities and Fine Arts departments in higher education. Prof. Fitger’s attempts to obtain funding and resources for his department as well as his valiant requests for financial support for his students sound like cries in the wilderness.