Blind Your Ponies Stanley Gordon West

Moved this one from my other blog.  read it in 2011 as a book club selection.

Blind Your Ponies, by Stanley Gordon West             *****

Our book club selection, a paperback.   Outstanding novel about  a high school in Montana and their boys long time loosing basketball team, and their town. At first I thought, why do I want to read about boys basketball, but once I started the characters and their stories and the interweaving drew me in.  Excellent characters especially the basketball coach, townsfolk, and some of the boys and how they landed in Montana.  Written by a MN author. His  selection of the title  and what it represents from the Indian culture is a story unto  itself.  

This book would make a wonderful movie with the  right cast, Matt Damon as Sam Pickett.  I want to  read more of his books.  I understand he has written one about  old folks in the Twin Cities, "Until They Bring the Streetcars Back."   

I just posted a Facebook like about this book so others would know.  

The Burgess Boys; Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

UPDATE APRIL 20, 2024  Dang, I bought this at the Friends' pf Library book sale yesterday.  Thought it sounded familiar but didn't know until I came home and looked here.,  Oh well,  I'll just donate it back and anyway it was only one in a bookbag filled for only $5./  I probably paid more for it when I first bought it below.  But this also had lost the photos when all vanished mysteriously from this blog so I reinserted Burgess Boys.  

When I read that  Elizabeth Strout's newest book was out, I knew I would want to read it and there it was in Barnes and Noble, as I was passing through on  the day I had received an extra 15% off coupon, which meant a full 55% off the price,  What a bargain, being a "book drunkard" how could I resist?   Newly released, published by Random House 2013, 320 pages, and being a new book in hardback.  I read it in 4 evenings and felt disappointed by the ending, where we are left to imagine once again what happens but these characters are again memorable.  As I reread my review about "Olive Kitteridge"  I see I  was ambivalent about that ending, too, but in "The Burgess Boys", I felt like shouting, "Hey wait a minute what happens to the rest of it?  What about Jim?"  

This novel comes sans reader's guide, likely because it's too new.  The novel tells the story of the Burgess family, two brothers Jim and Bob and a sister, Susie.  Bob and Susie are twins but Jim the eldest is the high achiever and the apple of the eyes of all.  They grow up in Maine but the brothers leave for New York, Sue stays behind.  All are haunted in their own way all through life by the fatal accident that takes their father when they are young tots.  But when Zack, Sue's son commits an outrageous act toward the Somalis who have  been settled in their small Maine town, the plot heats and thickens and the brothers, both attorneys, are called  back to help.  Jim is the achiever of the three, big time successful corporate  attorney in a prestigious law firm, living the good life, married to the wealthy Helen, with a perfect family, now an empty nest. Jim ultimately has a typical mid life crisis.   Bob has done OK despite two divorces but he is the more withdrawn less ostentatious  brother, the one who lives in Jim's shadow, the Legal Aid attorney. Bob has a cordial relationship with  his  ex wife Pam Carlson in her new marriage with her two sons who treat him as an uncle.   While Sue is the withdrawn, somewhat  neurotic single mother, clinging to her son and then unable to manage or cope when Zack gets into trouble. She rents out room to Mrs. Drinkwater, an eaves dropping older lady who becomes a savior for Sue.  

 I was drawn into the description of settlement of Somali's in Maine because that happened in

Author Elizabeth Strout

MN as well in St. Paul, Minneapolis and even Rochester area and  one Maine Somali character is  said  to have  gone to Minnesota where the atmosphere was more welcoming and life would be better.  That the  Somalis are Muslim adds another layer to their acceptance or not in the community while paralleling immigrants and their concerns.  One Somali, character Abdikarim becomes more prominent toward the end of the story. 

As in her other works, the characters are intriguing and the writing abounds with witty quotes and phrases worth underlining.  

Page 94, about Abdikarim,  demonstrates her skill at describing feelings of immigrants and while the situation borders on the humorous, there is a tragic depth...."He felt too old to learn English.  Without that, he lived with constancy of incomprehension.  In the post office last month he had mimed and pointed to a square white box, the woman in her blue shirt repeating and repeating and he did not know and everyone in the post office knew and finally a man came to him and crossed his arms quickly toward the floor, saying "Fini!"  And so Abdikarim thought the post office was finished with him and he must go and he did go.  Later he found out  the post office was out of the boxes they had sitting o the shelf with price tags on them.  Why did they show them if they did not have them to sell?  Again the incomprehension......Living in a world where constantly one turned and touched incomprehension--gave the air the lift of uncertainty and this seemed to wear away something in him,...."   

Page 4....about  Unitarians...."My mother did not like Unitarians; she thought they were atheists who didn't want to be left out of the fun of Christmas, but ...".    

page 182..."..because friends faked it with each other all the time, it's how society existed... .....Helen crossed her legs feeling how her black pantyhose  had become twisted at the thighs, no doubt from having to pull them up quickly in the stall as the gong rang out its warning.  What had the feminists accomplished, she thought, if women still had to wait twice as long in ladies' room lines?" 

page 222..."The key to contentment was to never ask why; she had learned that long ago."

page 311...Bob's response to Jim who asks what to do because now he has no family, .."You have family......a wife who hates you.  Kids who are furious with you.  A brother and sister who make you insane.  And a nephew who used to be kind of a drip but apparently is not so much of a drip now.  That's called family."    That demonstrates that soap opera families and the Walton's are not real family today.  I found that truthful and comical.  

Poignant, comical and thought provoking,  all adjectives for The Burgess Boys.  "Literary art" is a very appropriate tag for this book. This is a 5 star book *****

Here's my review, from my other blog March 10, 2010  Olive Kitteridge

I read Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout, 270 pages + Reader's Guide, paperback, published by 

 Random House in 2008,  last month but  have not had time to post my review.  My cousin, Carol, recommended it because I absolutely adored  "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society."   In a way Olive is similar but  still very different.   My final verdict on this book though, is uncertain.  I did enjoy reading it and noted several phrases but didn't like the ending.  The  descriptive writing is outstanding, but a peculiar darkness  seeps in at times.  The link to this post indicates that this won a 2009 Pulitzer; a merited achievement.   While the main character is Olive, a  mathematics school teacher in Maine in her  sixty's, the novel  looks back over the area and features  short tales about many characters.   I kept waiting for Olive to appear prominently  or heroically in each story but that was not the way it happened, sometimes she was annoying but each character, in turn, reveals more about Olive's character and the area. the town, the times, and above all the choices people make.  I am not sure whether I admired or pitied Olive.   The book is a significant  commentary about people, aging and life;  perhaps on the more quiet morose side, but certainly from Olive's eyes with many memorable lines.   I love the description of hope.  Actually I highlighted many lines in the book

Pg. 35,   "Does everybody know everything?......Oh, sure, what else is there to do?"

Pg. 60.  "..that must be the way of life, to figure something out when it's too late..."

Pg. 122.  "..when the years behind you are more than the years in front of you...."

Pg. 125  "..life picked up speed, then  most of it was gone..."
Pg. 126   "..one of the things about getting older, so many moments weren't moments but gifts...."
Pg. 162  "..quietly, joyful....Most people did not know enough when they were living life, that
they were living it..."
Pg. 203  " hope...The inner churning that moves you forward...."

And in  the  beginning of the book, a comment on pg. 33 while Kevin looks back at his childhood home, "States and traits....Traits don't change,  states of mind do."   That stuck with me, confirming that  often there is nothing to be done;  things about a person that  cannot ever change no matter what influences are pressed on the person.   No manipulation or intrusion by someone else really changes traits. Distinguishing wisely and truthfully accepting traits is part of the wisdom we can gain on our life journey.   

Olive Kitteridge is a book to ponder on, especially the  ending comparison  page 270 of two lives as Swiss cheese  slices, "..pressed together, such holes they brought to this union--what pieces life took out of you."

PS,  when I reviewed "Olive"  I was not using my star rating.  Retroflectively I give it 5 *****

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson

Published in 2010 and in paperback with Reader's Guide in 2011 by Random House Trade, this fiction comedy is one of the funniest books I have read in a long time.  Our book club read it while I was snow birding  for the winter and most of the women found it amusing, while I have absolutely laughed aloud  many times and chuckled others.  It is the author's first novel.  

Told through the experiences of the main character,  Major Ernest Pettigrew, a retired widower living quietly in his cottage in a small English village of Edgecombe St Mary. His wit, remarks and observations are dry yet  so very  biting at times and  so very British. While working  through his grief over the recent unexpected death of his younger brother Bertie,  the Major is befriended by Mrs Jasmina Ali, a widow and local Pakistani shopkeeper.  Although she was born and raised in England she is considered a foreigner by the local townspeople because of her dark skin.  Other amazing characters abound and create human circuses on every page. There are the environmental protesters busy railing against development and  engaging the children en mass.  The Major suffers encounters with  his only child, Roger an adult,  who is overly impressed with himself and his career in London  finance and who is sure that  the Major is losing it at his age of 68.  The ladies of the town are engaged in selecting the theme for  the annual dinner dance and the  husbands are engaged at the local golf club or country shoots. The evening of the dance ends with gut splitting uproarious chaos  of all the characters and then the novel takes a slightly serious turn.  


Anyway, very well written,  this debut novel that leaves me anticipating subsequent books by  Helen Simonson.  In the Reader's Guide, I found myself  agreeing with the  comment that Major Pettigrew is "something of a love letter to civility and person to person conversation about books and ideas" in an age of increasing impersonal and brief digital communication.     I enjoyed the author's comment on how she writes and how it has become a job, work, not something to squeeze in now and then.  "I have slowly come to the conclusion that this struggle to find consistency and a good routine and to pile up creative work, is the challenge of all creative people.  It is what separates the writer from the person who has an idea for a novel if they could just find the time."  

Page 5....while considering that with his wife and brother gone and  Roger living in London, the Major finds himself alone and he thinks,,,,"of course there was Marjorie, his unpleasant sister-in-law, but,  like his late parents, he had never fully accepted her.  She had loud ill-formed opinions, and a north country accent that scraped the eardrum like a dull  razor."  

Page 10.. the Major comments about the imprudent funeral arrangements and appeasing people...."I assume the youth are in crisis every week....It's a funeral for God's sake, let them put the needs of others ahead of their own for once.  It might teach them something. "  Perhaps watching the unfolding  for the committal service of Jerry's late mother I relished the judgement. 

Page 66...Mrs Ali speaks kindly,  "The world is full of small ignorances and we must all do our best to ignore them and keep them small."  

Another 5 ***** read.  It left me grinning and kept  me giggling or even laughing out loud while I read.  

Hemingway's Girl by Erika Robuck

Published in 2012, and the first novel for the author, this 321 pages came as a gift, a first edition and signed by the author.  I had read a review somewhere and thought it an "interesting concept" as my friend wrote;  it was on my list of perhaps to pick up at a book sale.  I will be recommending it to my book club and will be interested in their reactions.  It begins with detailed descriptive writing which I prefer.   Look at this phrase  on the very first page,  "Her slender forearms flexed to the pole, and drops of sweat mingled with sprays of seawater, leaving a briny film on her skin."  The comparisons are further demonstration of the thought that the author has put into her work, not just merely slapping words onto the page.

Page 3 in reference to the banyan trees, "She could still feel the banyan's presence, though its great woody roots strangling some old host tree.  She remembered when Hemingway had planted a banyan at his house and told her its parasitic roots were like human desire."     It did stir my interest to perhaps someday, reread Hemingway's books which reside smartly on my home library shelf, read long ago in  youth.  Interesting that the author is a self proclaimed Hemingway'phile having read  Farewell to Arms  at 19 years of age,  It is good to have read while young, I believe, because this is the beginning of knowledge and  foundation of lifelong interests.

On pages 108-- Mariella, describes her turmoil with her mother, a long grieving widow who pulls others into her self misery.  She writes that her anger outweighed her compassion for her mother as they exchange viscious comments.  Oh, that was a familiar scene. 

The story did not always follow as I thought it would  and while this book is certainly not a mystery, but historical fiction, it's predicaments kept me reading along.  The main character Mariella tells the tale and as the author admits in the reader's guide at the end of the book, her seed of question about the boy's father intrigued me.  I had forgotten some history of the 1930's that she  includes and the  US government's  attitude toward veterans.   I did not know about the Labor Day hurricane.  The author does a marvelous job making that tragedy pertinent to today and the FEMA, etc.governmental intervention during  Katrina, Sandy, and all other natural disasters.  The other message is some attitudes today are not new.  Erika Robuck  achieved her stated  goal of interconnecting a historical span while  transporting people and places across time.

I give it  just shy of a 4**** rating.  It was a fast enough read and one I will share.  I was glad to have gotten this gift.  

Alaska by James Michener

First published in 1988, then in the paperback edition in 1989 this was one of the few Michener's I had not read  although I have a shelf of  complete works. In January I determined this was a must read prior to our August journey to Alaska and so it traveled south with us and then returned home.  It is a Michener tome, a wonderful work, over 1100 pages, very small print but I finished it last month; read very little of it on our trip when I  went through other books faster.  James Michener is one of  my all time favorites if not the number one author, who else  does such marvelous research and delves into history, geography, sociology, anthropology, biology, geology and all facets of whatever subject he tackled, perhaps David McCullough and is it not a coincidence both authors are Pennsylvanians with roots into Pittsburgh.

An adroitly blended mixture of fact and fiction, woven through 12 chapters covering geolocigal concepts beginning far before the prehistoric era  with Clashing Terranes and culminating with Alaskan statehood in the final chapter, Rim of Fire there is no history nor anthropology of a peoples untouched. The early movement of the woolly mammoth and the arrival of humans is almost comical but becomes tragic.  I cannot begin to adequately review this book;  readers who enjoy learning as they read and spending a good long time delving into a work enjoy Michener.  It is neither light reading nor for someone lacking rudimentary literary, historical, sociological background.  As only Michener can do, the historical is expanded upon, characters embellished or created and their descendants survive through the ages tying all the chapters back to the earliest times and memorializing events.    It is not until Chapter 3, that humans arrive, first on a small island of the Aleutians, about 12,000BPE however the Athapascans are the first,  much  much later the Eskimos and  finally the Aleuts who were probably a mixture of Eskimo while the Tlingits were descended from the Athapascans.  The Russians, English and Americans explorers, sailors, narrative covers  Tsar Peter the Great, Vitus Bering, George Steller and Aleksei Chirikov, Captain James Cook, William Bligh, George Vancouver and more. 

I was a teenager in 1959 when Alaska  became a state and I recall then from studies that it must surely be a desolate wilderness.  The Alaskan history, settlements, heritage of the Russian Orthodox  church, seal hunting, life cycles of salmon, reindeer, whales,  gold rush, mining techniques and equipments,  land rush and maneuvers of the Seattle businessmen who conspired to keep it as a territory make fascinating pondering.  I never  knew before reading this book about the US government land give away and transport of hearty stock Minnesotan  but starving  farm families  to settle the Matanuska Valley in the depression.  The families had to be intact families, husband and wife and children, no single stragglers, healthy stock preferred to be German and Finn ancestry.  Those who went and stayed in Alaska prospered eventually but many returned to their homes in MN disheartened.  It was a very different aspect of another type of homestead, managed by the US  government.  This is absolutely a 5 *****. 

I have marked up many passages in my previously pristine volume.  Page 94 for one passage,  as Azaruk an early human ponders,  "Will I find a refuge for my people?  Does that matter?  And as he tucked the little figure back in its pouch he could hear the laughter, the chuckling of the wind coming over the hail, the exhilaration of a whale breaching after a long  submarine chase, the gaiety of a young fox chasing birds and lessly, the wonderful hallowed sound of a universe that does not care whether a man finds refuge or not, so long as he enjoys the irreverent pleasure of the search. "  See and feel the picture that passage portrays?  

Page 106 on the origin of the word Alaska, is precious  linguistic history,  "The Aleutian word for  Great Land was Alaxsxaq'"   but earliest  Europeans stopping in this portion of the arctic asked  the name of the lands ,   and in their tongues Alaxsxaq became Alaska. 

Page 207, when the a settler considers to marry an Eskimo woman, Kiinak, "Let this be a lesson.  Good lives only come from  good beginnings. "

When we tour Alaska in August I will have knowledge to build upon and an enhanced perspective having read this great work.

Five Books read, reviews pending

There are several books I read between December and now but have not had time to post reviews.  The stack is beginning to stare at me when I sit at the computer, so I decided to combine post and then perhaps when I have time, and who knows when that will be, return and summarize each with a more detail review.   Perhaps.  

Currently I am reading James Michner's tome, "Alaska" close to 1,000 pages, smaller print but one that has been on my shelf for years.  Actually Michener's complete works occupy their own shelf in my home library,  they are keepers, he being one of my all time favorite writers.  The research, historical and geographical facts mixed with traces of fictional characters are compelling.  I will finish it soon and certainly ahead of our August Alaskan sojourn.  

This excellent  memoir by Curtis Roosevelt, grandson of FDR & Eleanor, son of their  daughter, Alice, and her multiple marriages along with the multi marriages of siblings and the rest of the family is worth reading for personal interest.  It validated that  wealth does not equate happiness nor good lives.  A 5 star read, fascinating in that these children saw it all and the legacy of divorce and self interested individuals.  Curtis and Sissy, his sister spent most of their early years in the White House, removed when their mother remarried and uprooted them and returned when she too did during  WWII.  One brief quote:  Children are expected to grow out of their fantasy world.  I did not."  Curtis kept to himself, was raised to be seen and not heard, in a  privileged lifestyle, yet appreciated most Christmas stockings and the annual orange in them, exotic as it was for the times.  His nickname is Buzzie and he writes of "basking in my Buzziness" stuffing his opinions and going along to get along.

  

Candice Millard's historical  tale of President Garfield, 20th President delves not only into history and  politics but  medicine and the shoddy practices that ultimately led to Garfield's death.  The assassin's bullet did not kill him but the inadequate and  unsanitary medical care following the shooting did.    I have not read much before about Garfield, but enjoyed this investigative report into what she notes as madness, medicine and murder.  Her style reminds me of Erik Larson, another favorite author.  Another 5 star book.  Page 286, "There is nothing in all the world that you and I can do for the Dead.  They are past our help and past our praise.  We can add to them no glory, we can give them no immortality.  They do not need us, but forever and forever more we need them."  so spoke  James A Garfield  in August 1880.  I will find another book by this author as I enjoyed history and mystery.   

A new book picked up on our southern snow birding travels at Books A Million which has become my favorite chain bookstore,  abundant in the south and east but unknown to this area.  This is another true mystery, written by a southern author, set in London in  pre world war 1913, with Scotland yard and a detective ala Sherlock Holmes, the ingenuity of the skilled thieves and their surroundings is intriguing.  I have never before heard about this heist of the most perfect pearls in existence.  She introduces all the characters at the front of the book before delving into the tale.  I just missed meeting this author by a day when she had been in southern Memphis where I bought the book.  Another 5 star read, true mystery  history, comedy and tragedy.  Shades of the sting where the thieves are watching the police watching the thieves watching the police watching the thieves, yes indeed that is the circular operation taken to capture the clever sheisters.  Great characters all in a tale based on research amplified. 



  
 I was attracted to the subject of a Polish boy from Vandergrift, PA who  rode the rails as a hobo in 1932.  The true tale based on some diaries his father kept provide the story for the book.  Joseph (the father) travels 13,776 miles in four months between July and December 1932 all over the country and learns the ways of the hobos, their languages and signs.  .  Because of the information about the  life in Vandergrift, a town desolate today but not far from my home town, the early steel mills, the lives of the Polish settlement, I kept reading to learn more.  However the book is repetitive and not too much there.  While I applaud the author for getting the story together from the diaries, it was not as interesting as I expected, nor as well written   Still I did complete it and will donate this copy to my hometown library in PA on our next trip east.  Mediocre at 3 stars.   



And the last but not least by a long shot another 5 star read, the premier sweeping novel Roses by Leila Meachem.  Thanks a million to Juliet, my new MS friend at Books A Million in Southhaven, MS.  Juliet gave me this book after we spent hours  talking about books; she said there is no woman she knows who did not adore this book.  I rolled my eyes, thinking, "spare me a woman's read?"  But she ignored my reaction and talked about how many women she has gifted with this story of a strong and yet manipulative woman, Mary Toliver who wants to control things from the grave and her cotton land and  legacy in Howbutker Texas. Intriguing how that town was named.  "Roses" is a saga of the leading families, the Warwicks, the Tolivers, the Du Monts and starts as Mary Toliver now an elderly dowager is redoing her will about her grand niece's inheritance.  Lots of life decisions with far reaching effects, good and bad in this book about what might have been and what was not.  There is an excellent reading guide in the back making for great book club discussions.  Well I took it with  a sigh, from Juliett, but  once I started reading I did not want to put it down.  How did I miss this book, guess it did not reach the MN north. 

 A huge  book at  610 pages, but  a fast read and big sized paperback so it can  be put open comfortably on your lap, another hint from Juliet, don't buy paperbacks that are short and squatty, they are uncomfortable to handle while sitting reading.  I'd not thought of that but  as I am struggling with that aspect of "Alaska" by Michener, she is right.  The women in my book club are currently choosing small books so they nixed this recommendation  although a couple of the real readers in the group will be reading it aside.  So far I have not met any woman either who did not fall into this book. It's  not mushy but intriguing. 

Not literary life style but some memorable lines,  pg. 396, "Memory could be a terrible thing,...an instrument of torture that persists in its work long after a man has suffered his time upon the rack." I see she has another book out, Tumbleweeds and I will have to get it, later. 

Turn of Mind by Alice LaPlante

I am catching up after our snowbird expedition to the south, so although these posts appear in 2013, I  read "Turn of Mind in December, then lent it to a friend who is caretaker for he spouse in the mid stages of dementia.  This Debut novel published in 2011 by Grove press is only 305 pages, much in dialogue form.  It was a NY Times Bestseller and received several best book of the year awards including the Kirkus Reviews and the Washington Post. 
It is a thriller and one I read in a couple spurts because it intrigued me and sustained a feeling of  what's going to happen  now, always good when reading  a mystery.  I just had to keep reading and yes the shocking revelation  is a surprise coupled with wondering "how could that be and yet, perhaps. The turmoil of dementia is portrayed with some lyrical writing in parts. 
 
 Quoting another review by Mark Athitakis in AARP Magazine where I learned of this book, "..What lingers in the reader's mind is not so much the resolution of the plot  as the resilience of Jennifer's character.   Alzheimer's patients reshape those around  them in ways that transcend anguish and frustration.  ...the best parts..reveal, the disease opens us to the very things that make us human."    And another review by Jose Bernard,  "...an incisive humane exploration of how we can rail against our need for close relationships with others, feeling that they  undermine our independence, even as we keep going back for more..." 

Back cover

This is the story of Jennifer, a former surgeon;  her care taker Magdalena; Fiona, her daughter and Mark,her son and the murder of Amanda, neighbor and Jennifer's best friend. The family dynamics are not that of endearing siblings but life like, a family  at odds, culmination of years at odds.  The tale begins with Jennifer flashing in and out of lucidity.  Ultimately Jennifer must be institutionalized something she protests while the family  realizes keeping her in her own home is not an option. What's with the children, which one is looking out for their mother and which one just wants  the money, the leavings?  As Jennifer's dementia increases which sibling will prevail? What can Amanda do to help?

Pg. 8 Jennifer's  thoughts..."The half state.  Life in the shadows.  As the neurofibrillary tangles proliferate, as the neuritic plaques harden, as synapses cease to fire and my mind rots out, I remain aware.  An unanesthetized patient."    Yikes, her brilliant mind grasps,  resents yet realizes what is happening to her as deterioration accelerates.

Pg. 9 More of Jennifer's thoughts on a meeting of the Alzheimer;'s support group at the Methodist church ....."A motley crew, perhaps half a dozen of us, our minds in varying states of undress."

Pg.  68  Amanda talks to Jennifer...."episodes of aggression are getting worse. I haven't seen one yet.  ....I know better than to think I've got some secret power, I've read enough about this disease to know you can't predict the future by the past."

Pg.95 Jennifer wanders and wonders..."The room is full of faces I recognize, and if I don't love them, at least I know their names, and that is more than enough.  Perhaps this is my revelation?  Perhaps this is heaven?  To wander among a multitude and have a name for each."
  .... 
pg 203   Detective Lutton, "People think it's just forgetting your keys, ..or the words for things.  But there are personality changes.  The mood swings.  The hostility and even violence.  Even from the gentlest person in the world.    You love the person you love.  And you are left with the shell."

 I cannot reveal  too  much  or it would spoil the mystery, but I recommend this as a good mystery read.  I rate it 4 stars ****,  clearly it is not for everyone.