Across The Endless River by Thad Carhart

Across The Endless River by Thad Carhart
320 pages
Published September 2009 by Knopf Doubleday
Source: the publisher

Across The Endless River is the story of Jean-Baptiste Charbonneau, the son of Sacagewea and a French fur trader. Baptiste (as he preferred to be called) went with the Lewis and Clark expedition to the Pacific Ocean as an infant and grew up in two cultures. Through much of his life, Baptiste split time between the Mandan tribe his mother was a part of and St. Louis, where he got a traditional education and was cared for by his godfather, Captain Clark. Even as a young man, he became well known for his skill with languages (in addition to English and French, Baptiste was skilled in several Native American languages as well), knowledge of the western lands and people, and his ability to live in the wild. Because of these skills, Baptiste was introduced to Duke Paul of Wurttemburg (Germany) and asked to help the Duke collect Native American artifacts and native plants and animals. Impressed with the young man, the Duke asked Baptiste to accompany him back to Europe to help catalogue his acquisitions, prepare them for exhibition and write a book.

Baptiste spent the next five years in Europe, spending time in France and Germany, meeting people from all walks of life, working with the duke and his peers, attending balls, and falling in love. While he enjoyed the benefits of living with nobility and finding himself accepted by them, it was always clear to Baptiste that he was not one of them. Neither was he one of the servant class, a fact also made clear to him.

Across The Endless River is one of the first books I was offered for review when I began blogging. I accepted it because much of the early story was set in my part of the country and because I enjoy historical fiction. For some reason, once it arrived, though, it never seemed to call to me. In the past few months I've been accepting far fewer books for review in an effort to clear up my previous commitments and this one finally made its way into my hands.

There were parts of this book that very much impressed me. Carhart does a wonderful job of taking historical fact and mixing it with historical fiction and has a way with description that really made me see the places, people and things he was writing about. Ultimately, though, the book feel flat for me. Much of the first part of the book felt like a buildup to the second part but once Baptiste and the Duke arrived in Europe, it felt like very little was actually happening. The pair would flit from place to place and periodically Carhart would stop and spend a great deal of time writing about a particular scene but often these scenes didn't seem to contribute to building the story for me. Carhart touched on some topics I would have liked to see him spend more time with and I couldn't help but wonder if a different editor might have been able to keep the book on a track that would have worked better for me.

Left Neglected by Lisa Genova

Left Neglected by Lisa Genova
336 pages
Published January 2011 by Gallery Books
Source: the publisher

Bob and Sarah Nickerson are working hard to have it all - they and their three children live in the best neighborhood, they drive great cars, they have a home in the mountains. But it all comes at a price. Both work more than 60 hours a week leaving them little time with their children and even less time for each other.Sarah loves her job and is proud of the success she's had in it. Still...

When Sarah wakes up eight days after being in a terrible car accident, everything has changed. Diagnosed with a rare brain disorder called "Left Neglect," Sarah is unable to see and is unaware of anything on her left. She can't walk or dress herself because she doesn't even know she has a left leg or arm. She never finishes a meal because she doesn't see the left side of the plate. She can't read because she can't see the left side of the page or even the left side of the words.

"She has Left Neglect. It's a pretty common condition for patients who've suffered damage to the right-hemisphere, usually from a hemmorhage or stroke. Her brain isn't paying attention to anything on her left. "Left" doesn't exist to her."

After weeks in rehabilitation and intensive therapy, Sarah is sent home where she must continue to train herself to recognize that while she is missing the left of everything now, she may have been missing even more before her accident. Thanks to her condition, Sarah is able to rebuild her estranged relationship with her mother, reconnect with Bob and truly become the parent her children need.

In Left Neglected, Genova addresses a number of medical subjects and relationship concerns. You've heard me complain before about authors trying to tackle too many issues in one book. It rarely works for me and I often find books that do this to be preachy and teachy. Genova manages to avoid that trap for the most part. Other than the Left Neglect, the medical conditions that she introduces are common to many families and it doesn't feel like Genova has tried to work something into the story just because she has something to say. Any household with children and two working parents can identify with much of what Bob and Sarah go through, trying to balance family and career, figuring out whose turn it is to take the children to school.

Genova's characters feel real and her writing highlights the little moments as much as the major ones. Readers will be able to relate to Sarah throughout the book, but certainly more so after her accident as she struggles between doubt and hope for her recovery. The Nickerson family is so real that Genova has even managed, with all of the heavy topics in the book, to work in some humor, lightening the book and helping to make it feel true to life. When I finished this book, I was immediately ready to start Genova's first book, Still Alice. Not wanting to muddy my thoughts on this one, I've tabled that book for a bit. As much as I enjoyed this one, it won't be long before I read pick it up, though. I highly recommend Left Neglected.

Sunday Salon - February 5

Welcome to the Snowman edition of the Sunday Salon! After getting no more than 8-9" total of snow all winter, we got that much snow overnight Friday and into Saturday. Not that nice light fluffy stuff that doesn't make good snowballs but is easy to scoop. Oh no, this was the kind where every scoopful felt like it weighed twenty pounds. Miss H does two of the neighbors' driveways and sidewalks and with that much snow The Big Guy and I felt like we should help her. Once we got through all of that, it was a day to play on the computer, watch movies and read, read, read. I'll tell you what, I'm hurting today but geared up to get the house cleaned and ready to have some people in to watch the Super Bowl. Go Giants (I have to say that; Miss H is a huge fan)!

I spent yesterday afternoon getting caught up on reviews. In almost three years of blogging, I've never been so far behind on reviews! It's nice to be ahead on posts for a change, though. This week I'll have reviews of Across The Endless River by Thad Carhart and Left Neglected by Lisa Genova. I updated my challenges and find that I'm off to a good start there for a change. Maybe I'll succeed at all of them this year!This week I'm reading Rules of Civility by Amor Towles. I've been looking forward to it for awhile, especially after finding it on so many bloggers "best of 2011" lists. What are you reading this week?

This week's highlight for The Big Guy and me will be a concert in Lincoln on Saturday night. Every year, Neal and Leandra (a folk music duo) come to either Omaha or Lincoln to perform and we've been going for years. We've never tired of hearing them and have been happy to introduce their music to many friends. Here's why:

What are you looking forward to this week?

Fairy Tale Fridays - The Mermaids

It's been years since I read Hans Christian Andersen's original tale of The Mermaid (who, by the way, in my copy at least, wasn't little). The closest I've come to it in the past twenty years is repeated viewings of the Disney adaptation. Just after Christmas, though, I picked up a copy of Andersen's Fairy Tales and The Mermaid was the first tale in the book, making it the perfect place to start.

On her fifteenth birthday, the youngest daughter of the king of the mermen is at long last allowed to travel to the surface of the ocean. There she sees a ship with a handsome prince traveling on it and she is immediately smitten. As she watches him, a storm comes up and the prince is thrown into the sea. The mermaid saves the prince, depositing him on the beach where a young woman finds him. The prince, who had been unconscious for some time, awoke, believing this young woman had saved him.

The mermaid continued to travel to the surface to watch the prince from the distance. As her love for him grew, she became determined that she must be with him. She has also been told that humans, unlike merpeople, have souls, making them immortal. The mermaid had long yearned to have a soul and decided to visit a witch to see if her dreams might be made to come true. The witch assures the mermaid that she can be made human but she warns the mermaid that the pain of her tail separating intolegs will be excruciating and that the price of becoming human is the mermaid's voice. Furthermore, if the mermaid is unable to win the prince's heart and he marries another, then the mermaid will die and return to the sea as foam. Despite all of that, the mermaid agrees and the witch cuts out her tongue.

The mermaid swims to shore, drinks the potion and is found sometime later by the prince. He is enchanted by her beauty, as is the kingdom. But the prince cannot stop thinking of the young woman he believes saved his life. When she turns out to be the daughter of another king, and not a religious woman as he believed, he marries her. The mermaid is devastated and prepares to die. Just as that begins to happen, she is visited by the daughters of the air, who tell the mermaid that if she joins them and does good deeds for three hundred years then she will earn a soul. It's a price she is more than willing to pay.

Reading the original tale gave me a much greater appreciation for what Carolyn Turgeon has written in Mermaid. In it, she retained much of the original story, playing up the darkness that Andersen only hinted at. What struck me most about Andersen's tale was not the love story between the prince and the mermaid but the story about the mermaid's desire for an eternal soul, something that makes the story even more universal.

In My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me (edited by Kate Bernheimer), Katherine Vaz has used the tale of the mermaid as the inspiration for her story "What the Conch Shell Sings, When The Body Is Gone." She was also influenced by the story of the real life Million-Dollar Mermaid, Annette Kellerman, a woman who performed self-styled ballet inside water-filled tanks.

Vaz tells the story of Meredith and Ray, a couple who started as friends and eventually married. By the time we meet them, however, Meredith and Ray are hardly talking. Meredith suspects, rightly, that Ray is having an affair. When she confronts him, she warns him that the other woman is only using Ray to promote her own career. The two divorce and Ray marries the other woman, only to find out that Meredith was right. Years later, when Ray is again divorced and Meredith finds herself battling breast cancer, the two find themselves together again, more in love than ever.

As I was reading this story,  I didn't initially understand where the story of The Mermaid had played a part, beyond obvious references to the ocean plants and tank that Ray and Meredith had installed in their house to practice holding their breath under water. But as I read, I was able to see the influence. Ray allowed himself to be drawn from the woman he truly loved to marry the woman he thought was 'saving" him. As with the tale of The Mermaid, What The Conch Shell Sings is the story of a love triangle but also the story of eternal love.

As with all of the stories in My Mother She Killed Me, I very much enjoyed Vaz's explanation at the end of the story of how she came to write it. She had long been interested in the life of Annette Kellerman and even a walk through a perfume department in a store played a part in her story.

Next week, I'll be reading stories about The Little Match Girl, including the original tale and an adaptation from My Mother She Killed Me. I'll also be looking at how that one has been sanitized for children.

Mermaid: A Twist On The Classic Tale by Carolyn Turgeon

Mermaid: A Twist on the Classic Tale by Carolyn Turgeon
256 pages
Published March 2011 by Crown Publishing Group
Source: I bought this at the Omaha Lit Fest

In a convent, high on a mountain top, Princess Margrethe of the Northern Kingdom is being hidden from her kingdom's enemies. One cold morning, Margrethe is out walking in the gardens when she is startled to see a mermaid emerging from the sea with a nearly dead man in her arms, depositing him on the rocks, Margrethe is certain, even from as far away as she is  that she can hear the mermaid calling to her to save the man. Margrethe rushes to the man, covering him with furs and then goes for help, risking her own life in the process. Hours later, after she recovers, she makes her way to the man and the two are instantly drawn to each other. When the man rushes away from the convent the following day, it is then that Margrethe realizes that he is Prince Christopher of the Southern Kingdom, sworn enemy to her people.

Margrethe's father, King Erik, rushes to her "rescue" and uses the situation to convince his kingdom to go to war with the Southern Kingdom. But Margrethe is sure that the mermaid brought the man to her for  a reason and concocts a secret plot to unite the two kingdoms by marrying Christopher.

Lenia, the mermaid princess, who saved Christopher, also finds herself in love with this human. She has always longed to know more about humans and believes the stories her grandmother told her about humans living forever through their souls. Unable to shake the memory of Christopher from her mind, Lenia visits Sybil, a witch, who promises her that there's a way that Lenia can become human and join Christopher. The price is great and Lenia must convince Christopher to marry her or she will never have a soul and if he marries anther, she will die.

It's been a long time since I've read the original tale of the Little Mermaid, my comparison as I read being primarily with Disney's version of the classic fairy tale. As far as I could recall, there was much of Andersen's story retained in Turgeon's retelling, with the grittiness that is more authentic to classic fairy tales while retaining the magic that appeals to all ages (although this is definitely not a story to read to your children). The story could occasionally fall into sappiness and the characters a bit caricaturized (I know, I know it's not a word but you get my point).  Overall the book was fun and I found I couldn't put it down. There was, of course, the twist spoken of in the title and plenty of others that kept me guessing as to which woman would win the hand of the handsome prince. Sometimes, happily ever after means someone has to suffer.

The End of The Affair by Graham Greene

The End of the Affair by Graham Greene
192 pages
First published in the U.S. in 1951 by Viking Press
Source: bought this one

"This is a record of hate far more than of love, and if I come to say anything in favour of Henry and Sarah I can be trusted: I am writing against the bias because it is my professional pride to prefer the near-truth, even to the expression of my near-hate."

A year after the end of his life with Sarah Miles, Maurice Bendrix looks back at their relationship - the love, the hate, the jealousy, the others who played a part in their lives. Poor Maurice is a very unhappy man who doesn't seem to have ever been happy. His certainty of the end of his affair with Sarah and his jealousy of her husband, Henry, and any other men that may have come into her life, taint their time together.

And there you have it. The book is not long, but that's really all there is to write about the plot of the book. But it says so little about what the book is about. In under 200 pages, Greene explores an entire range of human emotions, creates characters readers will grow to thoroughly know (probably without liking any of them), and most surprisingly, for me, religion. I thought, going in, that this was strictly a love/hate story. That was, after all, what I had taken from having seen the movie. I had no idea that Greene was going to take the reader through the full range of human emotions when it came to God as well. Both Sarah and Maurice must come to terms with their belief (or lack thereof) in a higher being. A being, that, in the end, Maurice comes to be more jealous of than any man.

This is a book to make you think. If you are looking for something light, do not pick this one up just because it is thin - it is a much heavier book than it appears. Thanks to all of you who have recommended Greene to me in general, and this book in particular.

A Winter's Respite Read-A-Thon Wrap Up

As I said yesterday, there just wasn't as much reading time this past week as I had hoped for. Thanks to a push last night, though, I did manage to finish a second book yesterday.  All told I read for 15 hours for a total of 499 pages. I finished Across The Endless River by Thad Carhart and American Eve: Evelyn Nesbit, Stanford White The Birth of the "It" Girl And The Crime of the Century by Paula Uruburu.

Charla of Book Talk with Charla won her choice of books in my mini-challenge for the readathon. She left me a couple of great words she found in her reading including "sesquipedalian" which means given to using long words or containing many syllables. Love it!