Deraiyagala has written a sad, brave and honest book about the loss of those she loved the most in the world. She bares the intense grief the loss caused her which makes this memoir so real and truthful, that the reader feels her pain and wonders how she could endure such unimaginable loss.
In 2004, on the day after Christmas, a horrifying tsunami born in the Indian Ocean spread over a number of countries causing the deaths of approximately 250,000 people, a number the mind can hardly accept. We saw the images on t.v. and the destruction that is still in evidence in some areas.
Sonali with her husband, Steve, two young sons, Vic and Malli, and her parents, was on holiday in the Yala National Park, staying at a beach-front hotel. Their day began normally enough, and then the nightmare began. What had been a sunny warm morning, with preparations being made to go to the beach, in a matter of minutes turned violent with a wall of water roaring inland. Sonali and Steve grabbed the children and ran with no time to check on the parents in another room. They raced outdoors and jumped into a Jeep that was departing with other guests. It wasn't long before the Jeep was upended, and Sonali lost consciousness. When she came to, she was being swept along in the maelstrom, bleeding profusely, and the rest of her family nowhere in sight.
Sonali was eventually rescued, and after a fruitless search and in a state of shock, she realizes that she is the only survivor in her family. She never saw her husband, children or parents again. In stark detail Deraiyagala allows us into her world in the aftermath of this tragedy. She is eventually taken to her aunt's home in Colombo, but there is no recovery for her there. She descends into a hellish state of depression fed by alcohol, hatred and resentment of those who survived. Some time goes by, and she finds her brother has leased her parents home to a Dutch family on holiday. She harasses this family in numerous ways, again fueled by her intense grief. She goes back to the site of the hotel with her father-in-law in the hope of finding some shred of evidence of their former life. Miraculously her father-in-law picks up a paper that turn out to be part of a report Steve was working on. Sonali and Steve were both successful economists. They met at University in England, married and had their careers and a nice home in London.
It was two years before Sonali could bear to return to London and enter the home in which they had lived. The description of her re-entry and intense sadness at seeing everything just as it was left on the day they departed for their holiday is difficult to read. Eventually with support of friends and family, Deraiyagala is able to piece part of her life together and begin recovery. Seven years after the tragedy, she found some relief in writing this account. She now teaches at Columbia and lives in Manhattan.
"Wave" was chosen as one of the 10 best books of last year by the "New York Times." It is an intense book, maybe not for everybody. It is beautifully written and with such honesty that it is an experience to read it. Why do we read of another's suffering? Perhaps it is important to remind us of our blessings and help us to realize that life goes on in the face of tragedy, that people find strength to carry on, and that we help each other through these bad times. Those we loved and lost are kept alive through the happy memories as the bad memories fade.
Thursday, May 8, 2014
Saturday, April 26, 2014
LOOKING FORWARD by Gillian Tindall (fic)
Gillian Tindall has written a large number of books. Looking Forward was written back in the early 80s and was lent to me by a friend. Because she is a popular British author, the book is still available.
As I read, I realized this story would be perfect for Masterpiece. It possesses all of the elements that American viewers like about British film series, and it has enough of them to fill several seasons.
Looking Forward opens in the early 20th century and follows the fortunes of a young woman from her early years to her death in the latter years of the century. Mary Howard studied medicine when it was not a common career choice for young women who were supposed to look to marriage as one's career. Mary worked in the poor East End neighborhoods of London, and eventually became a well-known pioneer for birth control. In contrast to Mary is her cousin Dodie born and raised in colonial India. After World War I Dodie falls into the fast life of a twenties flapper. As these two women grow and age, the reader follows their fortunes, loves, travels and mistakes.
Tindall writes well. Her story moves at a stately pace, but has enough of a plot that the reader does not become bored. If you enjoy British period drama, you may enjoy this novel.
As I read, I realized this story would be perfect for Masterpiece. It possesses all of the elements that American viewers like about British film series, and it has enough of them to fill several seasons.
Looking Forward opens in the early 20th century and follows the fortunes of a young woman from her early years to her death in the latter years of the century. Mary Howard studied medicine when it was not a common career choice for young women who were supposed to look to marriage as one's career. Mary worked in the poor East End neighborhoods of London, and eventually became a well-known pioneer for birth control. In contrast to Mary is her cousin Dodie born and raised in colonial India. After World War I Dodie falls into the fast life of a twenties flapper. As these two women grow and age, the reader follows their fortunes, loves, travels and mistakes.
Tindall writes well. Her story moves at a stately pace, but has enough of a plot that the reader does not become bored. If you enjoy British period drama, you may enjoy this novel.
Friday, April 25, 2014
FORMER PEOPLE by Douglas Smith (non-fic)
The subtitle of this book is The Final Days of the Russian Aristocracy. Douglas Smith has written a definitive and well-researched book about the decline of the Russian aristocracy. He is a well qualified historian having worked and lived in the Soviet Union for many years.
At the turn of the 19th century Russian had a long established class of nobles, much like those who lost their lives and fortunes in the earlier French Revolution. And, for many of these nobles well versed in history, the Russian Revolution came as no surprise. Nicholas II was a weak ruler with poor and greedy advisers. But this book is not about Nicholas and his sad end, it is about the noble families who were landowners, government officials, military elite and dilettantes. They were a diverse group and many, in one of history's tragic ironies, even supported the overturning of the old order. The story we follow is mainly about the fortunes of two great Russian families, the Sheremetevs and the Golitsyns whose members chose to stay in Russian rather than flee. What became of them and their progeny is a somber yet fascinating tale.
The majority of the nobility had left Russia by 1921. According to one source,...no more than 12 percent of the prerevolutionary nobility, about ten thousand families or some fifty thousand individuals, was still in Russia. The revolution and civil war had torn the nobility in two...A chasm began to open between the nobles who had stayed and those who had departed that grew wider in the coming decades, and left family members strangers to one another.
There was a short interlude after the Great War when members of these noble families were able to find work in the new Russia. They had the education and skills that the peasants and workers did not possess. However Lenin and the Bolsheviks feared their presence and what they represented even as they depended on them for their skills. When the ruthless Stalin came into power and the Communists gained control of the government, they were determined to wipe out every member of the old ruling class.
The fortunes of the Sheremetevs and the Golitsyns quickly descended into nightmare by the mid-twenties. Their great estates had been either destroyed or taken over by local governments, plundered or left to fall into ruin. The peasants turned on them, and many members of the family were murdered or sent off to hard labor in Siberia. Those who survived adjusted as best they could, living in poverty, growing their own food, some using a skill such as music to entertain those who used to serve them, and some serving as curators of the estate museums they spent their childhood living in. By the end of World War II, 95% of Russia's country estates had disappeared. They moved from town to town keeping one step ahead of their persecutors. Sometimes they were helped by sympathetic peasants, sometimes they were betrayed and were carted off in trains to work on government rail lines, in mines or building roads. What they were able to save from their former lives was quickly sold sometimes for mere pennies to unscrupulous black marketeers. Yet, babies were born, old people died, and a few descendants of the Sheremetevs and Golitsyns managed to survive, hiding the pride they still felt in their aristocratic ancestry. As poor as they were, they were noble in spirit to the end.
I highly recommend this readable book to any who love history and wish to learn more about the end of the Russian empire and the mighty who had fallen but whose spirit was not defeated.
At the turn of the 19th century Russian had a long established class of nobles, much like those who lost their lives and fortunes in the earlier French Revolution. And, for many of these nobles well versed in history, the Russian Revolution came as no surprise. Nicholas II was a weak ruler with poor and greedy advisers. But this book is not about Nicholas and his sad end, it is about the noble families who were landowners, government officials, military elite and dilettantes. They were a diverse group and many, in one of history's tragic ironies, even supported the overturning of the old order. The story we follow is mainly about the fortunes of two great Russian families, the Sheremetevs and the Golitsyns whose members chose to stay in Russian rather than flee. What became of them and their progeny is a somber yet fascinating tale.
The majority of the nobility had left Russia by 1921. According to one source,...no more than 12 percent of the prerevolutionary nobility, about ten thousand families or some fifty thousand individuals, was still in Russia. The revolution and civil war had torn the nobility in two...A chasm began to open between the nobles who had stayed and those who had departed that grew wider in the coming decades, and left family members strangers to one another.
There was a short interlude after the Great War when members of these noble families were able to find work in the new Russia. They had the education and skills that the peasants and workers did not possess. However Lenin and the Bolsheviks feared their presence and what they represented even as they depended on them for their skills. When the ruthless Stalin came into power and the Communists gained control of the government, they were determined to wipe out every member of the old ruling class.
The fortunes of the Sheremetevs and the Golitsyns quickly descended into nightmare by the mid-twenties. Their great estates had been either destroyed or taken over by local governments, plundered or left to fall into ruin. The peasants turned on them, and many members of the family were murdered or sent off to hard labor in Siberia. Those who survived adjusted as best they could, living in poverty, growing their own food, some using a skill such as music to entertain those who used to serve them, and some serving as curators of the estate museums they spent their childhood living in. By the end of World War II, 95% of Russia's country estates had disappeared. They moved from town to town keeping one step ahead of their persecutors. Sometimes they were helped by sympathetic peasants, sometimes they were betrayed and were carted off in trains to work on government rail lines, in mines or building roads. What they were able to save from their former lives was quickly sold sometimes for mere pennies to unscrupulous black marketeers. Yet, babies were born, old people died, and a few descendants of the Sheremetevs and Golitsyns managed to survive, hiding the pride they still felt in their aristocratic ancestry. As poor as they were, they were noble in spirit to the end.
I highly recommend this readable book to any who love history and wish to learn more about the end of the Russian empire and the mighty who had fallen but whose spirit was not defeated.
Saturday, April 12, 2014
A CONSTELLATION OF VITAL PHENOMENA by Anthony Marra (fic)
This is Anthony Marra's first novel, and it is superb! Marra is a young professor teaching at Stanford University, and he has chosen a volatile area of the world to write about, one we in the west know little of except for its violence and being the spawning place of terrorists and crime. The setting of his novel is Chechnya in the North Caucasus. The novel introduces us to realistic characters who remind us that in the middle of whatever nightmare they are caught in, they have the need for love and friendship in the face of the overlying anxiety they live with in their daily lives. This helps us to understand them and identify with their universal needs.
The novel takes place between 1994 and 2004, a time that encompasses the two recent Chechen wars, and its policing by Russia. One of the characters, Khassan has been working for most of his life on a 6 volume history of the region, and through him, the reader learns a bit of Chechen history. After the 1917 Russian revolution, Chechnya was an autonomous republic and part of the USSR. Then after World War II, Stalin forcibly shipped off most of its Muslim population to Kazakhstan because some of the inhabitants of this rural region preferred to be conquered by the Germans than live under the reign of Bolsheviks. They were eventually allowed to return to their homeland.
The novel opens in a rural village where we meet a group of three friends who had grown up together. One of the men, Ramzen, betrays his innocent friends to the Russians who are stamping out all resistance to their regime and looking for Muslim Jihadi sympathisers. The story we follow is that of Akmed a gifted artist who is also an incompetent doctor. After Ramzen betrays his friend Dokka who is taken away by the secret police, Akmed helps Dokka's eight-year-old daughter escape. He takes her to Hospital #6 where we meet the other main character in the novel, Sonja.
The woman whose story intersects with that of Akmed is Sonja Rabina, a Russian whose family had relocated to the area in the 50s when the native Chechens were move out. Sonja is a physician who was living and working in London. She returned to Chechnya between the wars to search for her sister, Natasha, who had disappeared after she had been kidnapped and forced into a life of prostitution. What Sonja returned to was a destroyed city with bombed out apartment buildings, including the one that had been lived in by her family. Eventually she is reunited with Natasha between the wars. Their relationship is an interesting one. When Natasha leaves for a second and final time, Sonja never gives up hope that she will find her sister again.
By this time Sonja is the only doctor left in what had once been a thriving hospital in Volchansk. Akmed arrives on the scene with Havaa, the little girl and throws himself on the mercy of Sonja to collude in hiding the child. At the same time, Sonja takes on Akmed as she is in dire need of help with the unending stream of patients who come for help, most needing surgery and amputations. Their relationship allows a bit of levity into what is is a thoroughly depressing situation.
While the subject is a heavy one, Marra skillfully keeps the story moving between darkness and light as he shifts back in time to fill in back stories in the 10 year span which is the largest section of the book. The reader truly believes in and cares for these characters. Especially touching is the relationship that develops among Sonja, Akmed and Havaa. This section of the story takes place over only five days in 2004. By the end of the novel, all the characters are connected in one way or another.
The title of the novel comes from a Russian medical textbook that Natasha finds and becomes fascinated with. The text defines life as a constellation of vital phenomena--organization, irritability, movement, growth, reproduction,adaptation. All this is contained in the wonderful and amazing story Marra relates to us. I highly recommend this book, though I caution that it deals with sad times in an area of the world that is in constant turmoil. It would be a good choice for a reading group as there is much to ponder on in these pages.
The novel takes place between 1994 and 2004, a time that encompasses the two recent Chechen wars, and its policing by Russia. One of the characters, Khassan has been working for most of his life on a 6 volume history of the region, and through him, the reader learns a bit of Chechen history. After the 1917 Russian revolution, Chechnya was an autonomous republic and part of the USSR. Then after World War II, Stalin forcibly shipped off most of its Muslim population to Kazakhstan because some of the inhabitants of this rural region preferred to be conquered by the Germans than live under the reign of Bolsheviks. They were eventually allowed to return to their homeland.
The novel opens in a rural village where we meet a group of three friends who had grown up together. One of the men, Ramzen, betrays his innocent friends to the Russians who are stamping out all resistance to their regime and looking for Muslim Jihadi sympathisers. The story we follow is that of Akmed a gifted artist who is also an incompetent doctor. After Ramzen betrays his friend Dokka who is taken away by the secret police, Akmed helps Dokka's eight-year-old daughter escape. He takes her to Hospital #6 where we meet the other main character in the novel, Sonja.
The woman whose story intersects with that of Akmed is Sonja Rabina, a Russian whose family had relocated to the area in the 50s when the native Chechens were move out. Sonja is a physician who was living and working in London. She returned to Chechnya between the wars to search for her sister, Natasha, who had disappeared after she had been kidnapped and forced into a life of prostitution. What Sonja returned to was a destroyed city with bombed out apartment buildings, including the one that had been lived in by her family. Eventually she is reunited with Natasha between the wars. Their relationship is an interesting one. When Natasha leaves for a second and final time, Sonja never gives up hope that she will find her sister again.
By this time Sonja is the only doctor left in what had once been a thriving hospital in Volchansk. Akmed arrives on the scene with Havaa, the little girl and throws himself on the mercy of Sonja to collude in hiding the child. At the same time, Sonja takes on Akmed as she is in dire need of help with the unending stream of patients who come for help, most needing surgery and amputations. Their relationship allows a bit of levity into what is is a thoroughly depressing situation.
While the subject is a heavy one, Marra skillfully keeps the story moving between darkness and light as he shifts back in time to fill in back stories in the 10 year span which is the largest section of the book. The reader truly believes in and cares for these characters. Especially touching is the relationship that develops among Sonja, Akmed and Havaa. This section of the story takes place over only five days in 2004. By the end of the novel, all the characters are connected in one way or another.
The title of the novel comes from a Russian medical textbook that Natasha finds and becomes fascinated with. The text defines life as a constellation of vital phenomena--organization, irritability, movement, growth, reproduction,adaptation. All this is contained in the wonderful and amazing story Marra relates to us. I highly recommend this book, though I caution that it deals with sad times in an area of the world that is in constant turmoil. It would be a good choice for a reading group as there is much to ponder on in these pages.
Sunday, March 30, 2014
THE BULLY PULPIT by Doris Kearns Goodwin (non-fic)
This hefty book is as large as its title, The Bully Pulpit Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft and the Golden Age of Journalism, and it took most of the month to read, but it was well worth it. If you have read any of Doris Kearns Goodwin's books then you know she is a superb writer of non-fiction who will keep the reader involved and interested until the last page is turned.
Bully pulpit was coined by Theodore Roosevelt on the campaign trial to describe how he planned to influence and mesmerize the voters, and that he did. While the book is scaffolded around Taft and Roosevelt, more interesting to me was the the story of Sam McClure and his brilliant writers who worked on McClure's Universal Journal. And what a magazine it was! The writers: Ida Tarbell, Lincoln Steffens, Ray Stannard Baker, William Allen White, and later Upton Sinclair exposed the ugly underbelly of big city and national politics and its involvement with big business. They were as responsible as any politician for influencing anti-trust laws and championing the rights of the poor and disenfranchised in America. It becomes obvious as you read this book that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Before you get too deeply into your reading, you begin to realize that we are still fighting the same battles that the muckrakers fought, only these journalist were stronger and more powerful than our journalists today.
The story of Teddy Roosevelt and William Howard Taft is also fascinating. Kearns compares and contrasts these two very different friends and tracks their rise to power and their partnership that was forged through mutual goals. Both men were Republicans (equally interesting is the difference between today's Republican Party and that which these two Progressives represented). Both men were dedicated to righting economic inequality. Roosevelt was raised by an indulgent father, while Taft was brought up by what we would today call a "helicopter parent" heavily involved in his son's education and life path. Roosevelt went to Harvard, Taft to Yale. Roosevelt's first marriage was short-lived; his wife died giving birth to their only child, Alice, of "Alice-blue" fame. His second wife, Edith, was an intelligent bookish woman who was content to stay out of the lime-light. Taft married a woman who was very much in the spot-light. Nellie Taft was a blue-stocking who love the challenge of politics and pushed Taft throughout his career. Roosevelt was gregarious and a natural politician, Taft was shyer and would have preferred to be a judge his whole life. His large ambition was to become a Chief Justice which he did achieve after his one-term presidency. Roosevelt befriended and knew how to use journalists for publicity and legislation. The retiring but personable Taft stood aloof from the press.
The lives and story of these two large men became intertwined as soon as they both found themselves in Washington. Their friendship lasted many years, and then as Taft began to prepare the campaign for his second term there was a fatal break. Roosevelt, whose ambitions and ego challenged Taft for the presidency, desired a third term. He felt Taft was not assertive enough in persuing the progressive agenda Roosevelt had formulated. When Roosevelt could not muster the votes to be nominated during the contentious Republican national convention, he formed his own progressive party, The Bull Moose Party, which ultimately split and brought defeat to the Republicans. Woodrow Wilson and the Democrats easily defeated Taft. What had been a warm and enduring friendship between Taft and Roosevelt was finished. It was only at the end of Roosevelt's life that the two men were able to again find common ground.
This book is so thorough and introduces the reader to so many interesting characters, that it is hard to put down. Kearns Goodwin is a master historian and story teller. Her research is meticulous. I highly recommend this book to all readers. It will fuel many interesting discussions for book groups. Many of the domestic problems faced by pre-World War I America are still being talked about and still unresolved today.
Bully pulpit was coined by Theodore Roosevelt on the campaign trial to describe how he planned to influence and mesmerize the voters, and that he did. While the book is scaffolded around Taft and Roosevelt, more interesting to me was the the story of Sam McClure and his brilliant writers who worked on McClure's Universal Journal. And what a magazine it was! The writers: Ida Tarbell, Lincoln Steffens, Ray Stannard Baker, William Allen White, and later Upton Sinclair exposed the ugly underbelly of big city and national politics and its involvement with big business. They were as responsible as any politician for influencing anti-trust laws and championing the rights of the poor and disenfranchised in America. It becomes obvious as you read this book that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Before you get too deeply into your reading, you begin to realize that we are still fighting the same battles that the muckrakers fought, only these journalist were stronger and more powerful than our journalists today.
The story of Teddy Roosevelt and William Howard Taft is also fascinating. Kearns compares and contrasts these two very different friends and tracks their rise to power and their partnership that was forged through mutual goals. Both men were Republicans (equally interesting is the difference between today's Republican Party and that which these two Progressives represented). Both men were dedicated to righting economic inequality. Roosevelt was raised by an indulgent father, while Taft was brought up by what we would today call a "helicopter parent" heavily involved in his son's education and life path. Roosevelt went to Harvard, Taft to Yale. Roosevelt's first marriage was short-lived; his wife died giving birth to their only child, Alice, of "Alice-blue" fame. His second wife, Edith, was an intelligent bookish woman who was content to stay out of the lime-light. Taft married a woman who was very much in the spot-light. Nellie Taft was a blue-stocking who love the challenge of politics and pushed Taft throughout his career. Roosevelt was gregarious and a natural politician, Taft was shyer and would have preferred to be a judge his whole life. His large ambition was to become a Chief Justice which he did achieve after his one-term presidency. Roosevelt befriended and knew how to use journalists for publicity and legislation. The retiring but personable Taft stood aloof from the press.
The lives and story of these two large men became intertwined as soon as they both found themselves in Washington. Their friendship lasted many years, and then as Taft began to prepare the campaign for his second term there was a fatal break. Roosevelt, whose ambitions and ego challenged Taft for the presidency, desired a third term. He felt Taft was not assertive enough in persuing the progressive agenda Roosevelt had formulated. When Roosevelt could not muster the votes to be nominated during the contentious Republican national convention, he formed his own progressive party, The Bull Moose Party, which ultimately split and brought defeat to the Republicans. Woodrow Wilson and the Democrats easily defeated Taft. What had been a warm and enduring friendship between Taft and Roosevelt was finished. It was only at the end of Roosevelt's life that the two men were able to again find common ground.
This book is so thorough and introduces the reader to so many interesting characters, that it is hard to put down. Kearns Goodwin is a master historian and story teller. Her research is meticulous. I highly recommend this book to all readers. It will fuel many interesting discussions for book groups. Many of the domestic problems faced by pre-World War I America are still being talked about and still unresolved today.
Tuesday, March 25, 2014
THE GLASSBLOWER OF MURANO by Marina Fiorato (fic)
Looking for a quick read while I was biding time in an airport, I picked up this book. An airport being full of distractions, I was able to read and remain aware of what was going on around me. For this book, which seemed interesting from its title, is a formula romance with bits of window dressing. You know the drill, impossibly gorgeous girl meets impossibly handsome Italian lad in romantic Venice, girl has rival for boy's affection, yadda, yadda. Along the way, you will learn a bit about glass blowing and its history in Murano that colorful island off Venice where all the glass blowers live. Mixed in with our heroine's story is that of her 17th century ancestor, Corridino who was accused of giving away to France the secret of making perfect mirrors. This was the more interesting story in the novel. The story, a pretty fairy-tale is entertaining enough for an airport read, though I would not recommend it as a serious novel.
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
SWIMMING HOME by Deborah Levy (fic)
Swimming Home was shortlisted for the Mann Booker Prize in 2012, and it has some merit, being well-written, in parts funny, disturbing, satirical, but at times confusing. Having said that, I detested the characters, except for Nina a 14 year old through whose eyes we view the absurdities of the adults around her.
The story takes place on the French Riviera. As the story opens Joe Jacobs, a poet of some renown and his wife Isabel, a journalist, along with their daughter, Nina and another couple have rented a villa near Nice. They awake one morning to find a naked young woman floating in their pool. She is not dead, but she wreaks havoc on this dysfunctional little group. Her name is Kitty Finch, and she is anorexic, unstable, and full of anxiety, She claims to be a naturalist and spends most of her time au natural. She sets out to seduce the poet, or is it the other way around?
The title of the book is the title of a poem that Kitty has written which she wishes Joe Jacobs to critique. This poem seems to be the center around which the characters revolve. It is a bit of a mystery why Isabel agrees to allow Kitty to stay with them as it is obvious Kitty has designs on her husband. There are also several minor characters spinning in and out who are as unstable as the main characters.
The novel is a short one with a lot of emotional action packed into its pages. I was glad to reach the end and be rid of the characters and their self-absorption.
The story takes place on the French Riviera. As the story opens Joe Jacobs, a poet of some renown and his wife Isabel, a journalist, along with their daughter, Nina and another couple have rented a villa near Nice. They awake one morning to find a naked young woman floating in their pool. She is not dead, but she wreaks havoc on this dysfunctional little group. Her name is Kitty Finch, and she is anorexic, unstable, and full of anxiety, She claims to be a naturalist and spends most of her time au natural. She sets out to seduce the poet, or is it the other way around?
The title of the book is the title of a poem that Kitty has written which she wishes Joe Jacobs to critique. This poem seems to be the center around which the characters revolve. It is a bit of a mystery why Isabel agrees to allow Kitty to stay with them as it is obvious Kitty has designs on her husband. There are also several minor characters spinning in and out who are as unstable as the main characters.
The novel is a short one with a lot of emotional action packed into its pages. I was glad to reach the end and be rid of the characters and their self-absorption.
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