Wide Sargasso Sea

From the book cover:
Jean Rhys's late, literary masterpiece, Wide Sargasso Sea, was inspired by Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, and is set in the lush, beguiling landscape of Jamaica in the 1830s.

Born into an oppressive, colonialist society, Creole heiress Antoinette Cosway meets a young Englishman who is drawn to her innocent sensuality and beauty. After their marriage the rumours begin, poisoning her husband against her. Caught between his demands and her own precarious sense of belonging, Antoinette is driven towards madness.
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 I read the edition with edits, an introduction and notes by Angela Smith.


Wide Sargasso Sea tells the story of the mad woman locked in the attic in Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, while exploring the racial inequalities and injustices of the post-colonial world.

The novel is split into three parts.

Part one is set in Jamaica and narrated by Antoinette. We learn about her upbringing, her mother's marriage to Mr. Mason, the fire that killed her brother and her mother's resulting descent into madness, her education at a catholic convent and her arranged marriage, to a man assumed to be Mr.Rochester of Jane Eyre.

Part two is set in Granbois, Dominica. Antoinette is married and her husband takes over the narration. We learn how his mind and heart were poisoned against her and of the beginning of her descent into madness.

Part three is set in England. Antoinette, locked in the attic of the 'great house', resumes the narration. She is now completely mad and closely resembles the madwoman in the attic, as described in Jane Eyre.

I really enjoyed this novel. The fact that a large part is set in Jamaica, my homeland, was definitely part of the appeal. I left Jamaica when I was a young child, so all of my education is North American centered. I don't know a lot about the emancipation act and its affect on the West Indies and Jamaica, so this book offered me a glanced into the experience of the freed slaves and former slave owners.

If you're a regular reader of this blog you probably already know that I enjoy reading about women's issues and historical fiction, this novel is a blend of both of those genres. 

My only grievance is with some of the end notes Angela Smith provides. A lot of the notes seem unnecessary. Who needs a definition of shingles or a mango tree? I found the abundance of end notes distracting at times, as I'm not the type of reader who can ignore end notes. Even when I'm positive I know what the end note is going to say, I still flip to the back of the book. Despite this, I am really grateful for the introduction and notes on the emancipation act, Creole and obeah.

Before reading these notes I did not know about the compensation paid to slave owners (£19 per slave, slaves were valued at £35) or the proposed 7-year transition period. I also did not know about the history of the Creole people in the West Indies and Jamaica. I had always assumed that the slave owners where all of British or European descent. It was surreal reading about obeah. It's something I grew up hearing stories about but never took seriously, rolling my eyes when the grown folks would tell stories.

Wide Sargasso Sea is a powerful novel about a young girl caught up in a vicious cycle created by the patriarchal world surrounding her, in a time when the world is going through a metamorphosis. I recommend this book to those who enjoy reading about women's issues, historical fiction and race relations.

5

 Movie Trailer for the film adaptation of Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea.

Fly Away Home

From the book cover:
Sometimes all you can do is fly away home...
When Sylvie Serfer met Richard Woodruff in law school, she had wild curls, wide hips, and lots of opinions. Decades later, Sylvie has remade herself as the ideal politician's wife - her hair dyed and straightened, her hippie-chick wardrobe replaced by tailored knit suits. At fifty-seven, she ruefully acknowledge that her job is staying twenty pounds thinner than she was in her twenties and tending to her husband, the senator.
Lizzie, the Woodruffs' younger daughter, is at twenty-four a recovering addict, whose mantra HALT (Hungary? Angry? Lonely? Tired?) helps her keep her life under control. Still, trouble always seems to find her. Her older sister, Diana, an emergency room physician, has everything Lizzie failed to achieve - a husband, a young son, the perfect home - and yet she's trapped in a loveless marriage. With temptation waiting in one of the ER's exam rooms, she finds herself craving more.
After Richard's extramarital affair makes headlines, the three women are drawn into the painful glare of national spotlight. Once the press conference is over, each is forced to reconsider her life, who she is and who she is meant to be.
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I'm not sure why I put Fly Away Home on my reading list. I think I saw it advertised on a subway poster. It was probably around the time of some sex scandal or another. Anyhow, I read it this past week. It's an alright book but it doesn't fill me with satisfaction, inspire any new realizations about life or leave me wanting more. In fact, I feel like this novel could have been at least a hundred pages shorter.

 Porn anyone?
I don't think of myself as a prude but I found the sex scenes a bit too graphic, and they seemed to go on forever. At times I felt myself blushing and praying that no one in the subway car was reading over my shoulders. Weiner's sex scenes are comparable to the stuff I imagine would be found in a porn magazine.

Enough with the foreshadowing already!
Weiner goes over board with foreshadowing; she doesn't give the reader enough credit to pick up on hints. Almost every paragraph starts off with a flashback that inevitably foreshadows the main events of that chapter. In some cases this is good because it's a window into the relationship between the main characters but other times it's just too much. One of those times is when Lizzie discovers she's pregnant. Several pages are spent in a flashback of Lizzie and a high school friend smoking pot and watching I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant; both girls agree they would know if they were pregnant.

The characters are cliches:

• Cheating politician
• Devoted, wool suit wearing wife
• Successful but emotionally cold daughter
• Black sheep daughter
• Brash, Jewish mother

Need I go on?

Sex Scandals
Society is saturated with sex scandals. Just this week, alone, two major scandals are in the headline. Former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger revealed the existence of a 10-year-old "love child" that he fathered with a former household staffer. International Monetary Fund Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn  was arrested and charged with attempted rape. Admittedly, the Strauss-Kahn scandal is a criminal matter but it can still be classified under PEMS (Powerful Entitled Man Syndrome). In contrast to this week's news, the 'scandal' that is the centre of the Fly Away Home plot is boring.

2.5/5

The Color Purple

From the book cover:
Life wasn't easy for Celie. But she knew how to survive, needing little to get by. 

Then her husband's lover, a flamboyant blues singer, barreled into her world and gave Celie the courage to ask for more - to laugh, to play, and finally - to love.
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Alice Walker's The Color Purple is set in a dark place in history yet manages to be uplifting. Set in the early twentieth century, the characters are one or two generations removed from slavery, and racism and sexism are a large part of life. The novel tells the story of the abuses heaped upon a small group of African-American women. The women are so different that together they represent almost every black woman. Or at the very least, it can be said that there is a little bit of at least one of these characters in each of us.

The colour purple is representative of God's creation or all things that are so magnificent that no man can destroy.

More than the abuse that that these women suffer as a result of sexism and racism, this novel is about the healing bonds of the female friendship. This strong bond and  friendship is illustrated amongst the African-American women living in America and the African women Netty comes across during her mission work in the village of Olinka. Despite being a continent apart these women have a lot in common. Celie's relationship with Shug and Sophia's relationship with Squeak is comparable to the relationship that exists between the sister wives in Africa. Although it would seem natural that the women would not get along and compete for the men's attention, they develop supportive relationships that are independent of the men.

I love that this story is told through a series of letters from: Celie to God; Celie to Nettie; and Nettie to Celie. The language is clear, colourful and unpretentious. I also like the redemption of two of the main male characters, Harpo and Mr. _________.

There are so many lessons to be learned in this book and messages to take away. This was my second time reading this novel but I feel like it's my first time because I've learned so much. I can't wait to read it a third time!

5

 A scene from the 1985 film, The Color Purple, which is based on Alice Walker's novel.

The Bell Jar

About the author
The Bell Jar is Sylvia Plath's only novel. It was originally published under the pseudonym "Victoria Lucas" in 1963. Plath suffered from clinic depression. It is an accepted theory that The Bell Jar is semi-autobiographical with names and places changed. Plath committed suicide in 1963, a month after The Bell Jar was published in the United Kingdom.

Plot Summary
Set in 1953, The Bell Jar is about Ester Greenwood's clinic depression. As the novel opens, Ester is in New York on a one month summer internship at a prominent magazine. As the month comes to an end Ester starts to ponder her future. The few options she has leave her feeling trapped. Upon completely her internship, Ester returns to her home in Massachusetts feeling down. And that feeling increases when her mom tells her that she did not get into a writing course she hoped to enroll in for the rest of the summer. Ester's depression worsens, she sees a psychiatrist, attempts suicide and winds up in an asylum.


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The Bell Jar is a hard novel to get into. At times I found it dragged. In the end, I came to enjoy Plath's subtle way of telling the story. At first I didn't think there was anything wrong with Ester, I thought she was just quirky. I didn't realize she wasn't all there until her last night in New York, when she is almost the victim of date rape. Once she started to decline in happened fast and furious. As her depression worsens, Ester describes herself as feeling trapped under a bell jar. A bell jar is a piece of laboratory equipment used to create a vacuum. In essence, she feels trapped in a vacuum.

Imprisonment is a major theme in this novel. Being a female Ester feels trapped by society's expectations, the consequences of sex and a lack of career choices.

Although times have changed and women have a lot more choices, many of us still feel pressure to live up to society's expectations. It's still expected that women are going to marry and have children, and when they choose not to go down this path, they are described as spinsters, old maids, cat ladies, or their sexual preference is questioned.

The world has gone through a sexual revolution since the 1950s but women still face more consequences when it comes to sexual relations. Just think how many words you've heard to describe women who are believed to be promiscuous. How many words do you know for promiscuous men? Also consider, women in committed relationships are more likely to be responsible for birth control. And when birth control fails, a woman's life definitely changes more than a man's life. Until oral contraceptives are widely available for men and they have the ability to physically bear children, women will always face more consequences in sexual relations.

My point in comparing the 1950s and 2011 is not to stand on a soap box, but merely to explain why I think The Bell Jar is still very relevant almost 50 years after it was first published. Read it if you like, you can only gain knowledge and insight into one of society's taboos - mental illness.

4/5

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