Book review - Kismet
Kismet follows Ronnie Khan, the daughter of Pakistani immigrants who is herself born and raised in Queens, New York. Orphaned in childhood, she is raised by an abusive aunt, but as a young adult Ronnie meets Marley, a self-help guru. Marley helps Ronnie be more assertive, and soon Ronnie has broken free from her aunt and moves with Marley to Sedona, Arizona; i.e., the New Age capital of America.
Housekeeping note - August 21, 2023: I have switched hosting platforms for this website, so some things, particularly previous posts, might be a bit out of sorts for a few days. Everything should be back to normal by the end of the week. If that isn’t the case, let me know.
Content warning: violence, homicide, racism
My 13th book in the 2022+ challenge is Kismet by Amina Akhtar. The book satisfies Category 19, a novel with more than one point of view. With this being the 13th book in the 25-book challenge, we’re officially over the halfway mark! At this rate I might finish the challenge by 2025.
The book
Kismet follows Ronnie Khan, the daughter of Pakistani immigrants who is herself born and raised in Queens, New York. Orphaned in childhood, she is raised by an abusive aunt, but as a young adult Ronnie meets Marley, a self-help guru. Marley helps Ronnie be more assertive, and soon Ronnie has broken free from her aunt and moves with Marley to Sedona, Arizona; i.e., the New Age capital of America.
Marley hopes to grow her brand as a self-help influencer in Sedona, while Ronnie is looking for a clean break from her life in Queens.
What I liked
I mentioned earlier that this novel is told from multiple perspectives. It's mostly told from Ronnie's point of view but not exclusively. There are chapters told from the perspective of some local ravens, who are unhappy with the environmental damage that many of these new arrivals to Sedona are causing. We also get some narration from a person who is killing off some Sedona residents. The different points of view serve as clever ways to convey information that is important for the reader but that Ronnie wouldn’t know.
Another thing I enjoyed was the skewering of the superficiality of many so-called spiritual circles. It's very easy to get sucked into the consumerism and whitewashing of it all.
What I didn't like
This is a bit nit-picky, but there was a plot point involving identical twins that I didn’t entirely believe. I bring it up because this plot point is pretty important to the story. A little reworking could have made that storyline more believable without compromising the overall integrity of the story.
Overall verdict
Minor plot quibbles aside, I really enjoyed Kismet. Is it the deepest thing ever written? Not really. But it has some interesting things to say about spiritual communities, and how people of color and their ideas can be co-opted in unintended ways. The tone isn’t a million miles away from My Sister, the Serial Killer, so if you enjoyed that book, you’ll probably like this one, too.
What's next?
The next book is Adventures in Immediate Irreality by Max Blecher. This satisfies Category 8, a fictionalized memoir. Buckle up, because it’s a doozy.
How important is it for you to incorporate different perspectives into your reading? Leave your thoughts in the comments!
Book #12 - The Department of Historical Corrections
Content warning: violence, homicide, racism
My twelfth book in the 2022+ challenge is The Office of Historical Corrections by Danielle Evans. The book satisfies Category 15, a short story collection.
The book
This is a short story collection with a novella at the end, which shares its title with the book. The stories look at race and how we reckon with our past from various angles.
The novella concerns a woman who works for a fictitious government agency, sarcastically dubbed "The Office of Historical Corrections" by its detractors. The purpose of this agency is to correct historically inaccurate information in public places. For instance, early in the story, the protagonist issues a correction to a bakery that conflates Juneteenth with the Emancipation Proclamation.
The premise starts off humorously enough, but things turn darker when a rogue former employee of the agency travels to a small Wisconsin town to confront a violent racist incident of the past, where some descendants of the perpetrators are now prominent members of the community.
What I liked
The stories covered a wide range of experiences, which I almost always appreciate. More specifically, the characters didn't all come from the same economic and educational backgrounds. We need more stories about working-class people and Evans gives us some good ones.
Several of Evans’s stories concern the overeducated and underemployed, and I didn’t only find them compelling because I very much identify with that situation. There’s a tendency in fiction to gloss over economic realities (spoiler alert: your favorite TV characters probably couldn't have afforded their fancy apartments on the likely earnings for their professions, especially in a city as expensive as New York), and I appreciate how Evans addresses them without feeling like you’re being hit over the head about it.
What I didn't like
A couple of the stories felt more like slices of life than stories per se. It feels like such “stories” have become more common in short stories published in the last few years, and I’d be curious to know if anybody has any insight on that. Maybe it’s a move away from structure in the same way that poetry no longer requires fixed meter and music has explored different relationships to melody and harmony. Slice-of-life stories often leave me frustrated because I don’t know what to think of them, but then maybe that’s the point.
Overall verdict
This is one of my favorite books that I’ve read for this challenge, as I liked most of the stories very much, more than enough to outweigh the one or two I wasn't as excited about. I'd love to see a movie adaptation of the novella. I can totally see Issa Rae in the lead role.
What's next?
The next book I’m going to discuss in this challenge is Kismet by Amina Akhtar. This satisfies Category 19, a novel with more than one point of view.
How important is it for you to incorporate different perspectives into your reading? Leave your thoughts in the comments!
Book Review | Of One Blood
Content warning: violence, homicide, suicide, slavery, incest
My 11th book in the 2022 challenge is Of One Blood by Pauline Hopkins. The book satisfies Category 6, a novel written by a woman published before 1940.
The book
Reuel Briggs is a promising Harvard medical student. Unfortunately, he lacks both money and friends. Not helping matters is his decision to hide that he is mixed race, since he is light-skinned enough to pass as white. Unfortunately, this would have been necessary at that time, as the first Black medical student to graduate from Harvard only did so in 1951. All these things weigh on Reuel, leaving him in a somber mood much of the time.
One evening a colleague of Reuel's, Aubrey Livingston, offers to cheer him up by bringing him to a performance by a group of Black singers. Reuel is immediately attracted to one of the singers, Dianthe Lusk, and recognizes Dianthe's face from a vision he'd had earlier that day.
The following day Dianthe is critically injured in a train accident and is presumed dead at the hospital where Reuel works. Aubrey convinces the senior doctors to let Reuel attempt to treat Dianthe. Both Aubrey and Reuel believe in spiritual visions and healing. Reuel has even performed experiments where he claims he has been able to revive seemingly dead animals. Figuring they have nothing to lose, the senior doctors allow Reuel to try his methods, which revive Dianthe, to everyone's surprise.
Although Dianthe regains consciousness, she is weak and does not remember her identity or her life before the accident. As Reuel helps with Dianthe’s recovery, the two begin to fall in love. But Reuel knows that he can't afford to support a spouse, and he has been unable to land the sort of lucrative job that his skills would normally warrant.
Aubrey tells Reuel about a forthcoming treasure hunting expedition in Africa and that they need someone with medical skills. If successful, this expedition could take care of Reuel’s financial concerns for a long time. Aubrey even offers to continue helping Dianthe with her recovery while Reuel is away.
But Aubrey is not who he seems, and Reuel’s expedition party finds a whole lot more than they bargained for in Africa. Reuel also develops a new appreciation for his African heritage, which makes him reevaluate his life in America.
What I liked
The previous section might sound like the setup for one wild ride, and is it ever! Whatever flaws this book might have, it's definitely not boring. There's intrigue at practically every turn.
I also liked that the novel offers a perspective on African history that most white people don't see too often. Sure, we learn about ancient Egypt in school, but at least in my education we didn't learn about how diverse that civilization was, much less what was going on in neighboring areas. I enjoyed learning a bit more about the surrounding civilizations that influenced ancient Egypt.
What I didn't like
This was definitely a plot-driven book, and while it was an interesting plot, the characters felt more like plot devices than actual people. There were also some confusing elements about the relationships between some characters. For instance, when we learn that certain characters are related, I wondered:
how didn't the characters already know this, and
why they behaved the way they did even in light of this information.
Without dropping spoilers, the behavior didn't seem to reflect how people in those situations would behave.
Overall verdict
The edition of this book that I checked out from the library described this book as horror, but I think it's closer to sci-fi. I liked the premise and the underrepresented historical perspective. But if you're looking for deep character dives, this might not be for you.
What's next?
The next book is The Office of Historical Corrections by Danielle Evans. This satisfies Category 15, a short story collection. I also have an exciting reading project for this year that I will announce soon.
How important is it for you to incorporate different perspectives into your reading? Leave your thoughts in the comments!
Interlude - on failure and success
Has life ever gotten in the way of doing something you really wanted to do?
Has life ever gotten in the way of doing something you really wanted to do?
The good news is that over the summer I got accepted to a cybersecurity training program. The bad news is that put a serious dent in my fiction reading time. However, I'm not giving up.
Failure in one sense
In a way, this is a defeat, as I will not complete all 25 categories that I set out to read in 2022. Of course I'm disappointed. But I've tried to keep 2 things in mind:
This isn't school. No one's grading me on any of this.
Self-compassion is always a good idea. Beating myself up about falling short isn't somehow going to make me a faster or more organized reader.
Success is still possible
So now what? Basically, I'm committing to finishing this challenge, however long it takes. However, I think part of the reason I didn't meet the original timeline is that sticking to these categories felt a bit too rigid, so I'll be weaving this in with other reading. I love my highbrow stuff, but I also need a commercial palate cleanser every once in a while.
So now what?
I already have a couple of books in the can that I read for a book club I belong to which meet the challenge requirements, so those writeups will be up soon. I'm also part of a couple of other online reading groups, so I might post some thoughts on the books I read there, too.
One of those online reading groups is centered around classic literature, so I probably won't review that material in the same way I've been reviewing books on this blog to date. It feels tacky to say, for instance, that I don't recommend a particular Shakespeare play, even if I don't personally enjoy it. But I would like to discuss these works in some way, so stay tuned. Normal service is resuming.
Book Review | Abigail
My tenth book in the 2022 challenge is Abigail by Magda Szabó. The book satisfies Category 5 of the challenge, a lesser-known book of a popular author. Describing this book as "lesser-known" might surprise Hungarian readers, as it is her most widely-read book in Hungarian. However, it was only translated into English in 2020, over a decade after Szabó's death and a good 50 years after it was originally published.
In the English-speaking world, if people know of Szabó's work at all, they probably think of The Door, which received renewed attention in 2015 with a new English translation. Incidentally, the person who did that translation, Len Rix, also did this translation of Abigail.
Szabó has a wide literary output that unfortunately remains mostly unknown outside the Hungarian-speaking world. She also wrote for a variety of age groups. Indeed, most people familiar with Abigail consider it a young adult novel, and Szabó wrote for even younger audiences, too.
The book
Gina Vitay is the beloved teenage daughter of a widowed general living in Budapest. She lives a comfortable life going to teas put on by her aunt and rubbing elbows with members of high society, including some romantic interest in a young army lieutenant. Although World War II is in full swing, it doesn't seem to have much effect on the day-to-day lives of these people.
Everything changes when the general tells Gina he is sending her away to a Calvinist boarding school in a small town in the eastern part of the country. This seems to come out of nowhere to Gina, and she doesn't take the news well. Her father's insistence on secrecy and refusal to explain his motives don't help, either.
Gina struggles to adapt to the strict rules at her new school, and a social gaffe makes her an outcast among her peers. Her only chance for help comes from a statue on the campus that everyone refers to as Abigail. Local legend says that students with big problems can leave Abigail a note explaining their situation and she will help them. Can Abigail help Gina with her problems? Are even bigger problems on the horizon?
What I liked
"World building" is often discussed in genres like fantasy and science fiction, but I think it's worth mentioning here, too. Szabó does an excellent job of showing the contrast between Gina's life in Budapest and her life at the school. Because everything at the school is so foreign to her, her process of figuring things out performs a similar function for the reader without things getting too info-dumpy. Szabó taught at a school like the one described in the book, so I'm sure that informed her writing, too.
In contrast to my complaints regarding some recent books, I found this book very structurally sound. There are no loose ends in the storytelling. We need to know about Gina's life in Budapest so we can see what a shock her new school environment is for her. When characters disappear, you know why they disappear.
I also want to throw a quick shout-out to Samantha Desz, the narrator of the audiobook version, which is how I consumed this book. Her pronunciation of Hungarian names is on point, which is hard to come by in the English-speaking world.
What I didn't like
There was one recurring bit in this book that almost felt like a tic. On several occasions, the book says something like, "Years later, when Gina was with her husband and children...", and those bits took me out of the story. I think they might have been included because there was less tolerance for seeing kids in danger in stories than there is now. For instance, The Hunger Games clearly does not have this problem. These reassurances may have felt necessary at the time but are more likely to feel like unnecessary interruptions for today's readers.
Overall verdict
YA doesn't make up a huge percentage of my bookshelf, so I worried that the book might be too simplistic for my tastes (my mostly unfounded genre trepidations seem to be another recurring theme in this challenge). But not every book needs to be some great literary challenge. Sometimes books can just be fun with good storytelling and decent characters. This can be a good palate cleanser after reading something you find particularly taxing.
What's next?
The next book is Of One Blood by Pauline Hopkins. This satisfies Category 6, a novel written by a woman published before 1940.
Do you enjoy YA novels? If so, what are some of your favorites? Leave your thoughts in the comments!
Book Review | The Bone Fire
My ninth book in the 2022 challenge is The Bone Fire by György Dragomán. The book satisfies Category 21 of the challenge, a novel with a woman protagonist. I'm also counting Dragomán as a Romanian author, as he was born in Romania, not to mention that the novel takes place in Dragóman's native Transylvania.
Content warning: violence, death (including suicide)
My ninth book in the 2022 challenge is The Bone Fire by György Dragomán. The book satisfies Category 21 of the challenge, a novel with a woman protagonist. I'm also counting Dragomán as a Romanian author, as he was born in Romania, not to mention that the novel takes place in Dragóman's native Transylvania.
The book
The story centers around Emma, a recently-orphaned 13-year-old in the months immediately following the Romanian Revolution. After a short stay in an orphanage, Emma is picked up by a grandmother she has never met and is only referred to as Grandmother throughout the novel.
After some initial difficulties, Emma begins to adjust to her new life. In addition to discovering some of her talents, Grandmother also begins to teach Emma what appears to be folk magic. However, many townspeople regard Grandmother with suspicion because they believe she was a Securitate (secret police) informer during the communist era.
What I liked
Dragomán's prose is some of the most vivid that I've encountered recently. Almost Toni Morrison levels of vivid, which is quite an accomplishment. When he describes something, it's very easy to imagine yourself in the middle of it.
Another element I enjoyed was how the post-revolution paranoia seemed to play out pretty similarly whether it was between Emma and her classmates or Grandmother and her fellow townspeople. One of my favorite bits in the novel is when a teacher breaks up a fight between two students where one accuses the other's father of being an informer. The accuser is eager to spill all these accusations to the teacher, who points out, now who's the informer? I thought this was a great illustration of how it's so easy to turn into the thing you claim to despise.
I also appreciate that Dragomán leaves certain elements of the story open to interpretation. One person who my wife and I discussed the book with put forth the theory that there was nothing magical about Grandmother's acts, but because it's so unfamiliar to Emma, it seems like magic to her. It's cool to me that the story works either way.
What I didn't like
Man, could this book have used an editor. There were so many tangents that, while they were interesting anecdotes in their own right, didn't advance the story. I feel like I'm starting to sound like a broken record on this to the point where I should probably explain what I mean by that.
Advancing the story doesn't have to be one of those plot-on-rails situations. Indeed, I don't usually find those particularly enjoyable. But I feel like a scene should either advance the plot in the simple sense or shed light on a character's behavior or motivations that are relevant to the story. If the reader is left wondering, "Why are you telling me this?", then that's a problem for me. In The Bone Fire there's an entire subplot that's just wrapped up with no explanation of what actually happened.
Like the subplot mentioned in the previous paragraph, I felt like the book just kind of ended, albeit in a different way than I'm an Old Commie! did. That book felt like it just kind of ran out of steam. The Bone Fire felt more like the ending of The Sopranos - a sudden fade to black with no explanation.
Overall verdict
This was mostly an enjoyable read. Although Emma is a less interesting character than Grandmother, I still think it makes sense to have her as the protagonist, as it's useful to see this world through fresh eyes. And Dragomán is very effective at crafting beautifully written scenes.
What's next?
The next book is Abigail by Magda Szabó. This satisfies Category 5, a lesser-known book of a popular author. This classification might surprise Hungarian readers, but I'll explain it in my review.
What's your take on tangents in a story? Are you ok with a little side journey here and there? Leave your thoughts in the comments!