Deaf Sentence...

I'm reading a book called Deaf Sentence by David Lodge.  It is about a retired linguistics professor in the North of England who is losing his hearing, Professor Desmond Bates.  His wife is in the throes of a successful new career.  Down in London, his aging father is showing signs of needing assisted living though reluctant to admit it.  About the time he is doubting his uselfulness in life, an American grad student approaches him for guidance on her dissertation.  Her chosen topic is stylistic analysis of suicide notes.  He is intruiged - by both the topic and the attractive young woman.  I am only halfway through the novel and don't know how Prof. Bates' issues will be addressed or resolved  The story is interesting, though not riveting, and I am looking forward to the second half.

What really drew me to this book was the title.  I've never before read a book where the protaganist was hearing impaired.  Add the fact that Professor Bates and I are both in our sixties and you can understand why I was drawn to it.  Prof. Bates is frustrated with his hearing loss and all the ways it makes life difficult.  The author has really hit the nail on the head with his descriptions.  I find myself saying, "Yes.  Exactly!" to so much of the descriptive writing that centers around the frustration and feelings of isolation that accompany hearing loss.  I don't know how he's done it, but the author describes impending deafness as accurately as if he was experiencing it himself.  He seems to understand that deafness truly is a prison sentence of sorts.

I wish everyone in my life could read it...

"The Wives of Henry Oades"

The Wives of Henry Oades is a first novel by Johanna Moran...and it is an amazing one.  Based on an old legal abstract, that may or may not have been a hoax, the author tells a story of a man who, through no fault of his own, ends up with two wives...and two women who, through no fault of their own, end up married to the same man. 

Henry and Margaret are a young couple living in England in the late 1880s with their two children and another on the way.  Henry, presented with an opportunity to go to New Zealand for two years as an accountant, is eager to accept this promotion and honor; Margaret, good wife that she is, accompanies him...although she is reluctant to leave home.

After a grueling sea journey, they arrive in New Zealand and make a life for themselves.  They are a loving family, obviously devoted to one another and to their children.  In due course, Margaret and the children are kidnapped by the native Maori - Henry arrives home to find them gone, their home in ashes and an unidentifiable body in the rubble.  While friends and townspeople are sure they are all dead, Henry refuses to give up, searching for them for months.  He eventually comes to accept what everyone else seems to know and decides he can no longer stay in New Zealand.  Not wanting to return to England without his family, Henry sets sail for California.  He begins a quiet life there and finds a new career path, all the while still mourning his family. After a time he meets Nancy, a young widow with a newborn and no one to turn to; they marry and begin to build a life.

Six years after their abduction, having managed to escape the Maori and years in captivity, Margaret and the children arrive on Henry's doorstep.  The worlds of Henry, Margaret, Nancy and the children are turned upside down.  When the town learns that Henry Oades has two wives, they assume he is Mormon and ostracize the family as well as levying legal charges of adultery, cohabitation and bigamy.  There are trials, traitors and tribulations that would confound King Solomon. 

I can not recommend this book highly enough.  I read it in two sittings, staying up until five am to finish and then was sorry to have to put it down.  The characters are well-drawn, the writing is excellent, the story gripping, heart-breaking and thought-provoking. It can not leave you untouched.

Old Friends, New Friends and The Blue Virgin...

My brother Glen is here again.  A friend of his from high school just published her first novel and was in town this weekend for a book signing.  He has the coolest friends.

Marni's a retired nurse and has always loved writing - poetry as a young girl, articles for nursing journals during her nursing career and fiction...mysteries to be precise.

The Blue Virgin

Her new novel is a mystery, set in Oxford, England, and Marni's first hand experience in Oxford is evident in her book, as is her grasp of the intricacies of the mystery genre.

I read The Blue Virgin several months ago and thoroughly enjoyed it...but have to confess...I was just a teeny bit jealous.   I too am a nurse (currently being forced to contemplate retirement), an avid reader (partial to mysteries) and a wishful writer...I have some skills but lack the creativity and imagination required for success.  Needless to say, I was excited at the prospect of meeting someone who succeeded in bringing this particular dream to reality.  Our plan was to attend the book signing and then all have dinner together.

Marni felt like a friend the first minute we met...warm and outgoing with a contagious smile...and just too nice to be the least bit jealous of!  Turns out we went to the same nursing school and trained in the same hospitals...at almost the same time...and likely crossed paths at some point!  Her husband, Arthur - a retired plastic surgeon - although on the quieter side, was just as down-to-earth as Marni.  They are people I would enjoy getting to know better.

The book signing, which resulted in the sale of ten books, was a success.  Dinner at The Pilot House was an even bigger success.  Another HS friend of Glen's and Marni's...Simone and her husband, Tom...joined us.  The good food, the camraderie and the peaceful atmosphere that accompanies dining on the riverfront added up to a really great time and by the end of the evening I felt like I had new friends.

P.S. ~ If you'd like to read The Blue Virgin, you can either request that your Barnes and Noble store order it for you or you can order directly from this website:  The Blue Virgin.  Meanwhile, Marni is hard at work on the next novel in this series.

Middlesex ~ A Novel by Jeffrey Eugenides

"I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day in January of 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of 1974."

Thus begins Middlesex.  Narrated by Calliope Stephanides...called Callie, later Cal, an hermaphrodite born into a Greek-American family, it is the story of the journey that took them from the slopes of Mount Olympus to the suburbs of Detroit...carrying with them a silkworm box, a dark secret and a mutant, recessive gene.  The story, told in both the first and third person as Callie shifts from present to past and back again, takes us through the history of that time as it intertwines with the lives of the Stephanides family.  It is an epic and a coming of age story...told by a young girl who grows up to be a man.

Eugenides writes with an energy that never flails.  It is a compelling tale...one I didn't want to put down and hated to see come to an end.  The author demonstrates a real understanding of the human condition as he tackles taboo issues with humor, irony, drama, and poignancy.  Middlesex is a long read - over 500 pages - but well worth it.  I don't know how I missed it when it was published in 2002 and awarded the Pulitzer in 2003, but I'm glad to have discovered it in 2010! 

A Reader is Born...

I've carried on a lifelong love affair with books.  I don't know just when its seeds were planted; my earliest memories all take place after we moved to the house on Superior Road.  The books started coming when I was seven or eight.  Dad would come home from work every so often with a gift...even though it wasn't a special occasion...a book.  A perfect speciman...a new straight spine, beautiful, soft, cream-colored pages filled with words in crisp black type, a cover illustration that just hinted at the the story within...and no pictures.  I have no idea if Dad picked out the titles himself or if he had help from Mom...or a knowledgeable salesperson.  It never ocurred to me to ask until just this moment, so it goes unanswered.

First came The Five Little Peppers, I don't recall anything about that series other than I was not particularly enamored of them.  Next to arrive were The Bobbsey Twins - Flossie and Freddie were too young, I liked Nan with her dark hair that matched mine but not enough to care what happened next.  Still, I read them all because they were gifts from Dad.  Then one day he came home with Trixie Belden.  It was love at first sight!  I couldn't wait to find out what Trixie's and Honey's next adventure would be!  For the first time I found myself drawn into another world...again and again!  After finishing the entire series (in those days that was only about 6 books), I moved on.  Nancy Drew, Sue Barton: Student Nurse, Tom Sawyer, Little Women...I loved Jo, and Becky Thatcher!  Years later I even named my daughter Rebecca.

At the same time Dad was bringing books to me, Mom was bringing me to the books.  We went to the Floral Park library every two weeks like clockwork.  The librarian introduced me to Betsy-Tacy books by Maud Hart Lovelace...and to Booth Tarkington.  I devoured those and many others until I eventually read my way through most of the children's section.  I read ravenously - every waking minute and after bedtime under the covers with a flashlight.

I must have been around eleven when Mom signed for a library card that allowed me to check out books from the adult section...and a whole new world opened up for me.