"Now I realized that the least deluded of all women was the prostitute. That marriage was the system built on the most cruel suffering of women."
Woman at Point Zero
was written by Nawal El Saadawi in 1975. This feminist Egyptian author has quite a resume. She became a doctor in her early twenties in 1955. She campaigned against female circumcision in Egypt for over 50 years, with the practice not becoming illegal until 2008. Early in her career she lost her job as Director of Public Health because of her campaign. Later, she was even imprisoned by the Sadat regime over a political matter. And, not only that, she has written at least 16 books on women's issues.
This book was written as a result of her visiting a woman in prison. While she was studying neurosis in women, another doctor told her about a prisoner who refused to ask for a pardon from the President for the crime of killing her pimp. After the author heard the woman's story, she couldn't sleep for days until she started writing this book. (Source: BBC interview below)
Firdaus tells her life story from the beginning, from being touched by her uncle inappropriately, to being married off and beaten by her 60+ year old husband, to being raped and then finally becoming a prostitute. It is a harrowing story and one I won't easily forget. The book is short and it is structured to repeat in a few places, but this was intentionally done by the author to good effect. Highly recommended for those interested in women's issues and feminist fiction.
"Everybody has to die. I prefer to die for a crime I have committed rather than to die for one of the crimes which you have committed."
Author interview with BBC World Book Club:
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" 'I wanted love and goodness in this which is living death,' I said. 'It was impossible from the beginning, because you cannot have love and goodness when you do what you know to be evil, what you know to be wrong. You can only have the desperate confusion and longing and the chasing of phantom goodness in its human form...' "
I've always been afraid to read this book or watch the movie. I don't do well with the horror/supernatural genre in general, but since I liked
Twilight
and LOVED
Dracula
, I thought I might as well try Anne Rice's book for the R.I.P. Challenge. I read it in a period of only two days. It was sufficiently creepy, much creepier than
Twilight
of course, but not nearly as bad as I feared it would be. I actually enjoyed the book much more than I thought I would, as I am a complete wimp when it comes to this genre.
Minor spoilers ahead....
First of all, I'm surprised that this was Anne Rice's first book. It's very well written, and from everything I've heard and read online, it's probably her best novel. The main characters - Lestat, Louis, and Claudia - really do come 'alive' on the page (hee hee - little vampire joke there). I found Claudia to be especially creepy and am looking forward to seeing how well she is portrayed by Kirsten Dunst in the movie. I hated Lestat at first, but I did feel sympathy for him in the end. It did seem that he cared more for Louis than he let on, and vice versa. Louis does seem to be a mystery, always wanting good and hating himself for the evil he does. I am glad that we're left wondering a bit if the 'love' he has with Armand, though, is erotic or simple companionship. If it's the former, I'm glad Rice wasn't explicit in this regard. I'm very curious to see how these relationships play out on screen with Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, and Antonio Banderas. Interesting casting choices there! I've read that Rice was pleased with the movie so that's encouraging.
I'm not sure if I'll continue to read any of Rice's other novels in the Vampire Chronicles, but I am interested in her latest religious books and her memoir. I'm intrigued by her turning from atheism to Christianity and do want to find out more about that aspect of her life.
Recommended for
Twilight
fans and fans of vampire fiction.
Memory lived not in initial possession but in the freed hands, pardoned and freed, and in the heart that can empty but fill again, in the patterns restored by dreams.
Eudora Welty's Pulitzer Prize winning book was a little disappointing to me. I had been looking forward to reading her work for awhile, and I thought this book would be perfect for the Southern Reading Challenge and, of course, the Pulitzer Project. While it does convey a strong sense of the South, I didn't like Welty's writing style at all.
The first 2/3 of the book is almost like a play in that it is about 85-90% dialogue. It was extremely difficult to read. The last 1/3 has very little dialogue and was definitely the best part of the book. In this last section, we are able to make sense (a little) of Laurel's relationship with her parents and her past.
Although I'm glad I read this book for its Southern feel and because I can check off another Pulitzer, I can't really recommend it unless you are reading it for the same goals.
Summer of the Swans
by Betsy Byars won the Newbery Medal in 1971. The title of the book refers to a little boy's fascination with the birds. Charlie (who is mentally handicapped) and his sister Sara live with their Aunt Willie. The story begins with Sara's dissatisfaction with herself and her life, but when Charlie goes missing, she puts all that behind her to help find her brother.
While I appreciated Sara's growth in the book and the tenderness between Sara and Charlie, it definitely isn't one of the stronger Newberys that I've read. It is positive in its illustration that family relationships are more important than selfish concerns, but the book just didn't grab me. To be fair, my conclusion could be based on the mediocre performance of the audio narration, which I didn't at all care for.
I don't know where to even start with this book. I highlighted passages on almost every page.
So Long a Letter
is an insightful look at one woman's pain and anguish when her husband takes another (much younger) wife. The book actually begins with Ramatoulaye's widowhood. Her husband has just died and she is writing a letter to a friend about her feelings on her marriage, her husband's taking of another wife (allowed in Islam), and her husband's death.
Ramatoulaye, a Senegalese teacher, has 12 children, and her husband has run off (without telling her) and married her oldest daughter's best friend. Sort of makes for a bad day. This is what her husband's friends tell her, and her thoughts about it:
'You can't resist the imperious laws that demand food and clothing for man. These same laws compel the "male" in other respects. I say "male" to emphasie the bestiality of instincts... You understand....A wife must understand, once and for all, and must forgive; she must not worry herself about "betrayals of the flesh." The important thing is what there is in the heart; that's what unites two beings inside.' (He struck his chest, at the point where the heart lies.)
'Driven to the limits of my resistance, I satisfy myself with what is within reach. It's a terrible thing to say. Truth is ugly when one analyses it.'
Thus, to justify himself, he reduced young Nabou to a 'plate of food.' Thus, for the sake of 'variety,' men are unfaithful to their wives.
I was irritated. He was asking me to understand. But to understand what? The supremacy of instinct? The right to betray? The justification of the desire for variety? I couldn't be an ally to polygamic instincts. What, then was I to understand?
Another strong passage:
I had never known the sordid side of marriage. Don't get to know! Run from it! When one begins to forgive, there is an avalanche of faults that comes crashing down, and the only thing that remains is to forgive again, to keep on forgiving. Leave, escape from betrayal!
Ramatoulaye doesn't 'leave' her husband; they do not divorce, a fact which surprises her husband and, it is implied, irritates him. He never goes back to her, even though they are still married. As Ramatoulaye adjusts to her new life, she appreciates even more the value of friendship:
Friendship has splendours that love knows not. It grows stronger when crossed, whereas obstacles kill love. Friendship resists time, which wearies and severs couples. It has heights unknown to love.
Ramatoulaye also must raise her children alone (even before her husband's death), with all the trials and tribulations that entails. But, she is obviously grateful for her children. On motherhood, Ramatoulaye states:
And also, one is a mother in order to understand the inexplicable. One is a mother to lighten the darkness. One is a mother to shield when lightning streaks the night, when thunder shakes the earth, when mud bogs one down. One is a mother in order to love without beginning or end.
I highly recommend this book to all, but especially those interested in women's issues or in African fiction.
Note: This book is one of the new additions to the
1001 list
.
1979 (French), 1981 for the English translation
90 pp.
Ummm.....no. No, no, no, no, no. I don't think I can recommend this title. That this book won the Governor General's Award flabbergasts me. A librarian and a bear get kinky on a small Canadian island. That's all you really need to know to realize why I didn't like this book.
1976 Governor General's Award
1976, 141 pp.
Rating:
"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." (
John 13:34-35
,
ESV
)
" 'I wanted love and goodness in this which is living death,' I said. 'It was impossible from the beginning, because you cannot have love and goodness when you do what you know to be evil, what you know to be wrong. You can only have the desperate confusion and longing and the chasing of phantom goodness in its human form...' "
Summer of the Swans
by Betsy Byars won the Newbery Medal in 1971. The title of the book refers to a little boy's fascination with the birds. Charlie (who is mentally handicapped) and his sister Sara live with their Aunt Willie. The story begins with Sara's dissatisfaction with herself and her life, but when Charlie goes missing, she puts all that behind her to help find her brother.
Ummm.....no. No, no, no, no, no. I don't think I can recommend this title. That this book won the Governor General's Award flabbergasts me. A librarian and a bear get kinky on a small Canadian island. That's all you really need to know to realize why I didn't like this book.
