Admission

#442
Title: Admission
Author: Jean Hanff Korelitz
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Year: 2009
452 pages

Although I liked most of this novel, I can only give it three stars because I didn't think the conclusion was the best of the possibilities. I liked the detail and characters, and I figured out most of the plot pretty early on. I thought the protagonist's final dilemma wasn't adequately developed. I would have preferred that her act wasn't successful, which still could have resolved her psychological impasse. I question whether someone so scrupulous would have engaged in this behavior. To say she would suggests a profound moral breakdown, not an illuminating catharsis. In addition, her insistence on Princeton for the young man utterly undermines the sincerity of her and others' heretofore consistent assertions that there are many fine schools that might be a better fit for a given applicant.

How I Became a Famous Novelist

#441
Title: How I Became a Famous Novelist
Author: Steve Hely
Publisher: Grove Press
Year: 2009
322 pages

Amusing, light, and fun if you sometimes wonder why your friends are raving about some piece of unfortunately published fluff or drek. I found it enjoyable until near the end, which I thought was rushed and the protagonist's epiphany unearned.

The Unheard: A Memoir of Deafness and Africa

#440
Title: The Unheard: A Memoir of Deafness and Africa
Author: Josh Swiller
Publisher: Henry Holt
Year: 2007
Country: Zambia (placeholder)
281 pages

A problematic but potentially useful memoir. Swiller recounts his time in Zambia, where as a Peace Corps volunteer he appears to have violated ethical principles, flouted standards of cultural sensitivity and appropriateness, and generally been a cowboy. I say that the book is "useful" because I am going to use it in an ethics class as a casebook of how not to behave as a professional representing a service organization. That Swiller is deaf raises interesting questions about intersection of disability, identity, and behavior. Unfortunately, these questions aren't answered here.

Rule Number Two: Lessons I Learned in a Combat Hospital

#439
Title: Rule Number Two: Lessons I Learned in a Combat Hospital
Author: Heidi Squier Kraft
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Year: 2007
256 pages

Kraft was a navy psychologist who was sent to Iraq for 7 months. This memoir recounts her deployment. She and her team seem to have spent much of their time doing immediate response for medical traumas, some critical incident debriefing, emergency psychiatric evaluation, and regular appointments. This is described against the backdrop of Kraft's wrenching separation from her young twins.

I would have wished for more technical descriptions of the therapeutic work. While Kraft goes into her countertransference and other emotional responses, I'd have liked to read about this in a deeper context, even if it was in composite cases.

Just Kids

#438
Title: Just Kids
Author: Patti Smith
Publisher: HarperCollins
Year: 2010
303 pages

Patti Smith's memoir of her life with Robert Mapplethorpe. The tone is consistent throughout and the narrative is interesting and engaging. As an homage to Mapplethorpe, it is not as moving as her book The Coral Sea, but it's a different way of telling the story of their relationship. It's rich in detail and fascinating. For the full emotional impact of Mapplethorpe's death, read these books together.

I've been a huge fan of Patti Smith since 1978. I confess that the more I learn about her,the more she is revealed as weird, vague, and over-meaningfully-engaged with religious images and other people's art. I don't think this is a bad thing, just something that underscores the differences between our approaches to and philosophies of art. I was sorry to learn about her use of drugs in the writing process; I had heard her say in the past that she didn't use drugs, so I'm now less impressed by range of images and the connections between them when I thought they were endogenously-generated. Again, a difference between our ways of engaging in the creative process.

Mema

#437
Title: Mema
Author: Daniel M. Mengara
Publisher: Heinemann
Year: 2003
Country: Gabon
126 pages

Superficially, Mema is a story of a boy's relationship with his mother, from whom he is removed by relatives following the death of his father and two sisters. However, it's also the story of the colonial experience of being taken away from mother, home, and community; brought up as a lower status person and educated in a new environment far away; adapting and thriving; returning home and, in this case, being sent away again. (In some colonial narratives, the protagonist returns only to discover that he cannot reintegrate and that his education does not help, but just makes him alien.) As this narrator is in fact sent away again by his mother to learn the white man's ways, the analogy of the colonial experience is collapsed into the literal experience of a young boy thrust into the incomprehensible world, adjured to remember his mother and origins. To be protected from malevolent spirits, he must be separated from his community, and, though understated, this is rendered poignantly. Mengara draws village life more deftly and in greater richness than town/city life, which may reflect the emotions associated with each.

Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide

#436
Title: Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide
Authors: Nicholas D. Kristof & Sheryl WuDunn
Publisher: Alfred A Knopf
Year: 2009
317 pages

A sweeping overview of the status of girls and women in the world. Filled with case examples (which the authors point out are more likely to engage people than statistics), but also interwoven with statistics and other more abstract data, this is a fast-paced but substantial introduction to social, medical, educational, and human rights inequities across multiple cultures. The focus, however, is on what works and what doesn't, some of which is surprising. With photos, case studies, and a good index, it is very readable and compelling. Because the content is often grim, it would be important to pair it with facilitated discussion in a classroom or book group.

Tales of the Tikongs

Apr. 10th, 2010 | 03:04 pm

#435
Title: Tales of the Tikongs
Author: Epeli Hau'ofa
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press (originally published by Longman Paul)
Year: 1994 (1983)
Country: (Fiji; it could also serve for Papua New Guinea depending what else I find)
103 pages

A very funny collection of loosely related short stories and sketches. Affectionately cynical, the author skewers both islanders (who are lazy, sly, rationalize using religion, and rationalize religion itself) and development efforts (which are misguided, bloated, idiotic, and clueless). A really fun book for anyone with a sense of humor about the sometimes-agonizing clash of indigenous and former colonial cultures.