Shutter Island

#409
Title: Shutter IslandAuthor: Dennis Lehane
Publisher: HarperTorch
Year: 2003
369 pages

As I've said before, I'm not great at figuring out mysteries, and that's not why I read them. This means that I'm usually disappointed if I can immediately see the major plot point. I immediately saw the major plot point here. I enjoyed reading it well enough, but I thought that the story would have been stronger if it remained ambiguous. The ending could have kept the reader in a state of confusion while still showing what was about to befall the protagonist, which is distressing enough whether it's warranted or part of a conspiracy.

The City of Ember

#408
Title: The City of EmberAuthor: Jeanne DuPrau
Publisher: Yearling
Year: 2003
288 pages

It may seem like an oxymoron to call this middle reader title a sweet little dystopian novel, but that's what it is. This first in a series of four introduces Ember, an underground city developed and populated in the face of potential holocaust to safeguard a tiny fraction of the human race. In this it is reminiscent of Mordechai Roshwald's classic Level 7. Unlike Roshwald's tragic Officer X-127, DuPrau's Lina is a young adolescent with a community, a job, and relationships. Here the threat to the underground safe house is not related to the war but to the failure of the physical infrastructure. The actions of a greedy leader several generations before led to the misplacing and later mangling of the revelatory document that would have explained events and provided egress instructions to the denizens of Ember. Lina and Doon, a boy about her age, discover evidence of more greed and misuse of power, while also following clues that may save themselves and their community.

A theme that is present in at least the first three books but not elaborated upon is that small-scale individual greed, corruption, or suspicion of others may have dire consequences for large numbers of people.

Meet Vannah of the Seychelles

#407
Title: Meet Vannah of the Seychelles
Authors: Jennifer Toussaint-Cali and A. Nathalie Essomba
Publisher: Trafford
Year: 2007
Country: Seychelles
48 pages

A cute illustrated children's book about a girl's family in Seychelles. It appears that the illustrations and the text are entirely or partially biographical for a member of one of the authors' families, which increases the appeal and interest. There's more about God in it than I would wish, but I imagine it's an accurate depiction of the main character's family and culture.

The Gods Drink Whiskey: Stumbling Toward Enlightenment in the Land of the Tattered Buddha

#406
Title: The Gods Drink Whiskey: Stumbling Toward Enlightenment in the Land of the Tattered Buddha
Author: Stephen T. Asma
Publisher: Libri
Year: 2005
272 pages

I enjoyed this personal reflection/discursus on Buddhist practice versus philosophy. However, it was often a struggle to continue reading given the author's two very obnoxious habits: Insulting and disparaging any form of Buddhism or related practices with which he does not agree, and putting these and other insulting and offensive commentary on others' thoughts and practices into the mouths of his conversation partners rather than claiming them as his own. I don't disagree with many of Asma's statements when they're stripped of their gratuitous contempt and vitriol, but I hope never to express disagreement with others the way that he does. An interesting book, but almost devoid of enjoyment for this reviewer, also a Buddhist-thinking, Cambodia-going, professor.

Born to Kvetch: Yiddish Language and Culture in All Its Moods

#405
Title: Born to Kvetch: Yiddish Language and Culture in All Its Moods
Author: Michael Wex
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Year: 2005
319 pages

Audiobook: http://www.amazon.com/Born-Kvetch-CD-Yid

dish-Language/dp/0061131229 . Be aware that the audiobook reader sounded like a cross between Jerry Lewis and Stephen Hawking--very strange intonation.

I read this by alternating between the book and the audiobook so that In could see orthography and hear pronunciation. Ideally I'd have done these simultaneously, but in fact I alternated media.

I enjoyed about the first 6 chapters, which included topics such as the titular kvetching. Though they included a heavy dose of diachronic linguistics, the balance of language, anecdote, and culture worked well. The latter half of the book took some slogging, perhaps because it became a vocabulary lesson (which, don't get me wrong, I enjoy) without sufficient leavening humor. I could appreciate the scholarship, but it was no longer very fun. Oddly, the sections on relationships and sexual terminology were relentlessly heterosexual. As a child who heard neo-Yiddish terms like faygeleh, which has a fun etymology (<vogel) and is used a lot in conversation, I wondered: How does one navigate this in conversation? By same means as for schwartze? Sadly, Wex does not illuminate this fairly ubiquitous term, or any others related to homosexuality. .וואָס אַ שאָד

Birds of Central Park

#404
Title: Birds of Central Park
Author/Photographer: Cal Vornberger
Publisher: Harry N. Abrams
Year: 2005
208 pages

An exquisite volume of photos of Central Park's birds, including many sublime, larger than life shots. It's hard to imagine the patience Vornberger must have to capture such lovely, balance images. The Blackburnian Warbler on page 58 takes my breath away.

The Education of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N

#403
Title: The Education of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N
Author: Leonard Q. Ross (Leo Rosten)
Publisher: Harcort, Brace, & World
Year: 1937/1965
154 pages

I can't find a photo of my edition, but the publishing information above is correct. This is a re-read for me, but since I read it somewhere between 30-37 years ago it's more nostalgic than anything else. I have had H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N on my mind for several weeks as I read books that evoke him. Hyman, an immigrant, takes beginner's night English classes and speaks like your immigrant forebearers did if they were Ashkenazi Jews in New York or New Jersey before 1950. Hyman is an earnest yet immovable object. Reading this as a child, I saw him as the bane of his teacher's existence. Reading it now, having taught or worked in educational settings for most of the intervening years, I took in that Hyman's teacher, Mr. Parkhill, understands that Hyman is both a burden and a genius. This, I think, is something that differentiates this episodic comedy from others that rely exclusively on the trope of the dumb greenhorn's hilarious mispronunciation and mangled grammar. Hyman's misunderstandings provide a fresh vision of English, revealing hitherto unseen facets of the language and forging fresh connections. For me, the shining and ineffable utterance, the pinnacle of Jewish philosophy's efflorescence, is Hyman's assertion, "Mine oncle has a gless eye." You'll have to read the story to see why this simple (and untrue) statement is such a hilarious emblem of Talmudic reasoning paired with the Jewish stubbornness necessary to survive in world that seeks to quash the Jewish spirit.

I read The Education of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N at my grandparents' house, at about the same time as I read Roth's Portnoy's Complaint and Idries Shah's Mulla Nasrudin tales. Leaving aside an early adolescent's profound embarrassment at having her mother ask, "Have you gotten to the liver yet?", this is a useful trio, of which Ross/Rosten is the fulcrum. Hyman brings Yiddishkeit to the New World, not just through his language, but in his attitude, world view, and exuberance. His is the optimism of the Jew in the promised land. While he bears the burdens of tsars and World War I, his is not the generation of Hitler's particular horrors. Portnoy holds the angst of post-Holocaust American Jewry that must wrestle with how much to accept and how much to reject the pessimism of such active anti-Semitism. Portnoy would find Kaplan naive, but see this as contemptible, whereas the Mullah Nasrudin might find him companionable, another blessed fool whose nonsense makes reasonable sense, if one is willing to really hear it.