The Life and Loves of a She Devil

From the book cover:
When Ruth Patchett discovers her husband is having a passionate affair with the lovely romantic novelist Mary Fisher, she is so seized by envy she becomes truly diabolic, embarking on a course of destruction which brings those around her their just desserts and herself an amazing reward. This is the fantasy of the wronged woman made real: wild, funny, true.
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Fay Weldon got it wrong. This novel ought to be titled 'The Lives and Love of a She Devil', cause a she-devil may have many lives but she will never have more than one love - herself.

I really enjoyed the first half of this novel. Ruth was easy to identify with, being a giantess myself. I'm 5'9.5'' in a country where the average female is 5' 3.5"; I'm use to feeling like a giantess. To be 6'2" would probably be 10 times more isolating.

What's the moral of this story? There is not one virtuous character. Mary Fisher is redeemed, somewhat. She takes care of her mother and Bobbo's children despite their imposition on the life she worked to create for herself. Despite her love for Bobbo, she does eventually realize that love is not justification for bad behaviour. Mary Fisher's redemption is one of many bitter-sweet themes in this novel. It goes to show that people do learn from their indiscretions.

What's disappointing about this novel is that Ruth gets everything she wants but doesn't learn any real lessons about accepting herself. I would have preferred to see her get her revenge and then realize that it's not that sweet, but I guess that would be a clichéd end.

One of the more remarkable things about this novel are the deep, multi-layered characters Weldon creates. With their interaction with Ruth, each character evolves, although not always for the better. Ruth improves the physical and financial circumstances for many of the secondary characters, while leaving them emotionally weaken and in a darker spiritual place. But I suppose that's what she-devils do.

According to online dictionaries, a she-devil is a woman regarded as extremely wicked or cruel. Ruth is a she-devil. She is cold, unfeeling, diabolical and manipulative. Among her greatest acts of cruelty are abandoning her own children despite knowing the pain of being abandoned by her own parents, convincing other women to sell their children, framing her husband for a crime he didn't commit, manipulating the judge into giving her husband a harsh sentence, and seducing a priest into breaking his vow of celibacy.

Ruth breaks at least six of the ten commandments.

The Life and Loves of a She Devil is a nice easy read about a woman scorned and her revenge on her husband and his mistress. It is both chic-lit and fantasy.

3/5

Trailer for the 1989 movie based of Fay Weldon's The Life and Loves of a She Devil. Roseanne Barr stars as Ruth and Meryl Streep stars as Mary Fisher. While entertaining this film is not as good as the novel, it leaves a lot of the story untold.

For the Love of History

From the book cover:
For the Love of History awakens a past full of scandal, political turbulence, and high drama: the corruption and vice of 1930s Winnipeg; the intrigue behind Canada's first political murder; the national passions inflamed by Trudeau's stand against the FLQ. From the legacy of civil engineering in this country to the perils and rewards of dramatizing history for a prime-time television audience, this is a collection of diverse stories and perspectives. What unites these authors is, in the tradition of Pierre Berton, their ability to make history captivating and vital. For the Love of History brilliantly illuminates our past.
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Dr. Cook's Strange Odyssey is the story of Dr. Frederick Cook and Robert Peary, and their competing claims to being the first man to reach the North Pole. Both men's claims have come under criticism. Pierre Berton examines the chain of events and possible reasons for each man making the claim and whether there is any truth to either claim.

Quote from the Author:
"The non-fiction writer can and should use some of the novelist's techniques - scene setting, character development, narrative drive - but at the same time he is hampered by one dictum: he cannot make anything up. Yet that is where the fun and excitement lie - in digging out the facts, as a private eye digs out clues, and stitching them together in a way that intrigues, educates, and stimulates the reader." - Pierre Berton
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There was no Street like Annabelle Street is the story of Winnipeg's struggle with prostitution in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Quote from the Author:
"If we are to generate in our children an appreciation of their Canadian heritage, we first have to acquaint them with the history of their own country. Only then can they avoid the mistakes made by previous generations." - James H. Gray
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The Two Solitudes is about the different ways historical events are remembered depending on whether you're a Francophone, Anglophone or Native. Special attention is given to the events of 1837-38.

Quote from the Author:
"In tribute to Pierre Berton, who on occasion studied the vast differences between the two solitudes." -Jacques Lacoursiére, FRSC
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The Heritage Minute and How They Grew is about the creation of the one minute Canadian history movies that have become a part of Canadian culture.

Quote from the Author:
"In the midst of all the maps and professors, it is easy to forget, sometimes, that the first historical question is simple, "Mother, where did I come from?" Keep widening the circles as the answers come in and you're doing history." - Patrick Watson
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Selections from Today in History is a compilation of 10 historical events as re-told in the 1980s onwards. Everything from George Washington's triumph over British forces in January 1777 to Canada's struggle to become one of the founding members of the League of Nations and Canada's first and only political murder is covered.

Quote from the Author:
"History isn't dates and battles and acts of Parliament. That's boredom. History is the first night anyone recited 'Casey at the Bat' onstage. Or the day a pompous governor of Ottawa read a proclamation in a blizzard on the empty prairie because his Metis subjects wouldn't show up to greet him. Or the day Jonas Salk announced he'd found a vaccine to prevent polio and thousands of kids wouldn't have to face life sentences in wheelchairs. Boredom goes in one ear and out the other. History spears you in the heart." - Bob Johnstone
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The Magnificent River Rats is the story of "the unsung and uncouth" early fur-trade voyageurs. These are the men who would portage great distances bringing goods to the trading posts. They were one level above indentured workers. They made very little money and were encourage to go into debt at the company stores.

Quote from the author:
"History is memory refined, and this country is only half a dozen memories old...." - Peter C. Newman
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Opening Pandora's Box is the story of Canada's three founding nations: the English, the French and the Natives, and their relationship throughout history as revealed in the documentary Canada: A People's History.

Quote from the author:
"The river that runs through Canadian history is a current of refuge and hope" - Mark Starowicz
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A Herculean Task is about the role civil engineers played in World War II  in constructing airfields and infrastructure to support the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP). The Canadian Government signed a agreement to build 58 training airfields on December 17, 1939, by 1943 a total of 88 airfields had been built.
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Willie's Tug of Love (1894-1898) is about Canada's tenth Prime Minister during the years he attended university in Chicago and Boston. Through letters between William Lyon Mackenzie King, his family members and his love interests, this story explores some of the defining moments that may have contributed to MacKenzie King's aloofness.

Quote from the author:
"Our past has shaped us, as individuals and as citizens. There will never be one story that fits all of us, but the rich tapestry of our shared history allows us to enjoy the perspective and passions of the men and women who walked this land before us. Written history can offer drama, tension, interpretation - and the elements, in fact, of a great mystery novel. But history is real." - Charlotte Gray
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Changing Positions: Reflections on Pierre Trudeau and the October Crisis is about opinions Canadians had on Trudeau's handling of the crisis during the crisis and after the crisis. The author explores his own changed views and possible reasons for the flip flopping by the Canadian public, and explains why he changed his mind about Trudeau's handling of the crisis.

Quote from the author:
I genuinely believe that history tells us where we have been and points to our future. The past is never totally clear - a good thing, for if it was, history would be no fun at all. Of course, we always get out imagined future absolutely right!" - J.L. Granatstein

4/5

Interpreter of Maladies

Interpreter of Maladies is a collection of short stories by Jhumpa Lahiri.

Jhumpa Lahiri was born in 1967 in London, England, and raised in Rhode Island. The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, she is also the author of a novel, The Namesake. She lives in New York City.

A Temporary Matter is the story of a young couple trying to come to terms with a stillbirth and a shift in their relationship. One day, they receive a notice informing of a temporary matter - for five days their electricity will be cut for one hour, beginning at 8 p.m. Having spent six months avoiding each other, they decide to spend their hours of darkness sharing secrets.

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When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine is about a young girl's window into the Pakistani Civil War. Lilia is a young girl of Indian descent living in America. Her father is a college professor and her mother works part-time at a bank. In the fall of 1971, Mr. Pirzada of Dacca (an area in Eastern Pakistan) is in America on a grant to study the foliage of New England, starts to take his evening meal and watch the news at Lilia's house. Mr. Pirzada has a wife and seven daughters at home in Dacca. After her father gives her a brief history of India, Dacca, Pakistan and the impending war, Lilia begins to contemplate Mr. Pirzada's predicament - being away from his wife and kids during a war and unable to receive communications from them.

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Interpreter of Maladies is about the day Mr. Kapasi, a part-time tour guide and full-time interpreter of maladies, spends taking the Das, an Indian American family, to India's Sun Temple. As an interpreter of maladies, Mr. Kapasi listens to patients who speak Gujarati, a language not spoken by many people, and translates their symptoms so that the doctor can deliver a diagnosis. Mr. Kapasi thinks the family is odd, like a bunch of siblings rather than a mother, father and three kids. Mr. Kapasi finds himself attracted to Mrs. Das after she describes his work as an interpreter of maladies as 'romantic.'
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A Real Durwan is about Boormi Ma, a 64-year-old stairwell sweeper and the poor tenants of the rundown flat-building, where she sweeps stairs in exchange for shelter underneath letterboxes inside the building's gate. Boormi Ma is fond of sharing stories about the losses she suffered with her deportation to Calcutta after partition. Boormi also likes to tell the tenants about the luxurious life she use to lead. "Believe me, don't believe me, such comforts you cannot even dream them," is how Boormi Ma's stories always end. The tennants of the flat-building don't believe most of Boormi Ma's stories, but are happy with her presence because she keeps their stairwell clean and serves as a guard against mischief seekers. Things begin to change when after a promotion, one of the tenants installs two sinks, one in his apartment and the other in the building's hallway.
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Sexy is about infidelity. Miranda is an American woman secretly involved with a married Bengali-American man. At work, Miranda listens to the story of her Indian-American co-worker Lashmi's cousin's husband's betrayal. Lashmi's cousin's husband fell in love with an English woman, half his age, on a flight from Delhi to Montreal, and decided to get off with the woman at Heathrow, abandoning his wife and son. Miranda's perspective on her relationship changes when she spends an afternoon babysitting Lashmi's cousin's son.
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Mrs. Sen's is about an eleven-year-old American boy's relationship with his Indian babysitter. Eliot's mom seeks a sitter to watch Eliot in their home but ends up agreeing to have Mrs. Sen watch Eliot at her own home after Mr. Sen assures her that Mrs. Sen will have her driver's licence by December. Eliot doesn't mind going to Mrs. Sen's after school. He enjoys watching Mrs. Sen chop vegetables and talk about India and Indian traditions. Mrs. Sen also takes Eliot out to practice her driving. During one of these practice sessions Mrs. Sen gets into an accident.
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This Blessed House is about a newly-married Hindu couple's experience moving into a new house that is littered with Christian paraphernalia. The husband is adamant that since they are not Christians they should get rid of the stuff, but his wife finds the items charming and thinks it would be sacrilegious to throw them out. Their different opinions regarding the items leads the husband to wonder if he made a mistake marrying his wife after knowing her only two months.
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The Treatment of Bibi Haldar is about an Indian woman who suffers from epilepsy. Everyone around her, from family and friends to prophets and fools is baffled by her ailment. No one knows how to cure her. Because of her 'ailment' she's never been able to live a normal life or have what she desires most - a husband. One day after one of her seizures, a doctor at a clinic prescribes "relations will calm her blood." Bibi is delighted and throws herself into preparing for her wedding. There's only one problem, no one has come forward to propose marriage.

The Third and Final Content is about an Indian expatriate's experience in England and the United States.

5/5

Blessed Are the Cheesemakers

                                     From the book cover:

Joseph Corrigan and Joseph Feehan, better known as Corrie and Fee, make the finest cheese in the entire civilized world. But Corrie still pines for his long-lost granddaughter, Abbey, whisked away from the family farm as a child by her gallivanting mother.

As it happens, Abbey, now twenty-nine and trying to cook a chicken in a primitive hut on a remote South Sea island, is soon to leave her irrigation-obsessed husband after discovering that he has gone biblical with several of the natives.

Meanwhile, a continent away, Kit Stephen is struggling with the loss of his wife and his career as a high-flying Wall Street broker. What this lonely, hungover, and burned-out New Yorker needs is a miracle - fast. Where better to find one than in a distant corner of Ireland, on a dairy farm run by the unlikeliest pair ever to preside over a vat of unpasteurized curd?
As Abbey and Kit converge on Coolarney House in County Cork, they discover a marvelous kingdom where something wonderful is always fermenting...where pregnant, vegetarian dairymaids milk cows to "The Sound of Music"...and where a cat named Jesus realizes she just isn't cut out for motherhood. While Corrie and Fee zealously guard the secret of the renowned farmhouse cheese and shelter an odd collection of whisky-soaked men and broken-hearted women, a tantalizing mystery  surfaces from the aromatic depths of the factory. Soon Abbey and Kit will find out whether they have what it takes to become master cheesemakers. And something more. For in this magical place where wounds miraculously heal, falling in love is what makes us come truly alive.
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I picked up Blessed are the Cheesemakers at a book and bake sale last year but only started reading it two weeks ago. I'm not sure what attracted me to this novel. My feelings about cheese are about average. I buy it at the grocery store and find it to be a comforting snack. Despite it's mediocre cover and plot summary, Cheesemakers is a good book.

It's populated by a ton of eccentric characters and filled with lots of cheese metaphors. Before reading this book, I had no idea how symbolic of life cheese could be. Some parts of the novel feel rushed and contrived. I question the presence of a lot of the characters. Sarah-Kate Lynch spends half of the novel setting up the main story and then rushes through it. I'm not sure if this book has a climax. Or perhaps, the problem is that the climax occurs really close to the end of the novel, so there isn't a smooth decline into the happily ever after. The happily ever after comes off rushed.

You can't hurry cheese just like you can't hurry love, so then why does Sarah-Kate Lynch appear to do just that in this warm and fragrant novel?

SPOILER ALERT - if you intend to give this book a go, stop reading now!

Sarah-Kate Lynch flips the script much like Marian Keyes' did in Anyone Out There? When it's seem like the novel should be wrapping up, Kit's "dead" wife appears and she's very much alive. Turns out he wanted her dead so he convinced himself that she was dead. In fact she's been in court ordered rehab! I guess if I had read between the lines on the book jacket I would have realized that it said that "Kit was struggling with the loss of his wife", not grieving for his wife. Once you find out that Jacey, Kit's wife, is alive his actions don't add up. Not only that, but the coming back from the dead bit is a cheap trick better left to the soaps.

Despite this, I would definitely recommend this novel. It's a light read, beside how many books are there out there about cheese?

3/5