Category Archives: Semi-autobiographical

Review: Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

03 Saturday May 2014

Posted by in Adult Contemporary, Ethiopian Literature, International Fiction, Semi-autobiographical

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In Cutting for Stone, Abraham Verghese, grabs hold of a reader’s attention and keep it, with a narrator whose story begs the question: How much can we control the events in our lives and fates? Humans are united by experiences that link us together; life, death, love, loss, struggles and pain. Similarly, they want to believe that they have an influence over their own decisions-that they make their own fate. Protagonist narrator, Marion Stone’s, life shifts from past to present through a series of flashbacks that eventually come together to explain the ways in which a life can be shaped by the human plight but also by our own decisions. From the start of Marion’s life story, the reader is asked to consider the way things a person cannot control impact his or her life. Marion tries to piece together the circumstances preceding from and resulting in the births of him and his twin brother, Shiva. The reader is drawn in by the love, life, death, and deep loss, which enter into the lives of the twins before they can choose their own paths. Questions about how these events will impact the future for the children lead the reader to consider the broader implications of Marion and Shiva’s struggles. The reader is left wondering: Do people have the freedom to alter their futures despite the cards they have been dealt? As the the twins grow and make choices, and the reader is introduced to more histories and present events which fuse to weave the fates of Marion and Shiva. The reader watches as the events of their lives shift from little control over their situation to more decision-making. Through the lens of everyday experiences and family, explanations about where and how the boy’s lives are molded become clear: they follow in the footsteps of their parents to practice medicine, they empathize with the people of Addis Ababa who are poor and suffering, their family is torn apart by the inevitable uprising of the people against corrupt governments, they learn about cultural practices of native Ethiopians. The reader maintains hope that forces out of their control do not have too great an impact on their futures, on all human futures. But, the older they become, it is obvious that their lives are a tangled web of outside forces and their own decisions. The author implies that for all people, the two are twisted together and permanently merged with time. Verghese is successful in his authoring of Cutting for Stone; because, people enjoy reading about global subjects and experiences . Questions about the human plight and people’s ability to change their circumstances through force of will are universal. Marion’s story is captivating, because we want to see someone persevere, to beat human fate, which will inevitably lead to suffering. Even when we know this cannot happen, we still read stories hoping it will. Star Rating: 3.5 out of 5

The Honest Irishman Dissects His True Self for the World to Judge: James Joyce’s Semi-Autobiographical Portrait

17 Saturday Mar 2012

Posted by in Semi-autobiographical

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James Joyce, A Portrait of an Artist

In honor of  one of Ireland’s  finest writers to date, I take the liberty of mentioning his ability to use brutal honesty regarding his distate for many topics in Irish culture, religion, and politics, see irishhistoryonline.ie, on a day (St. Patrick’s Day) when most people celebrate the country without considering the aspects Joyce battled so adamantly and passionately that he spent much of his adult life on the mainland of Europe reflecting upon the days of his youth- they days he writes about in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

Although the entire text is brilliant and exemplifies the plight of a troubled soul, I choose to highlight here a few lines that exhibit not only the confusion of youth, but the humor that goes along with searching for a place in a world filled with similarly confused people.

These words give a person who has not yet had the privilege of experiencing the full text a taste of the magic:

“Towards the others he felt neither shame nor fear. On Sunday mornings as he passed the churchdoor he glanced coldly at the worshippers who stood bareheaded, four deep, outside the church, morally present at the mass which they could neither see nor hear.  Their dull piety and the sickly smell of the cheap hairoil with which they had anointed thei heads repelled him from the altar they prayed at.  He stooped to the evil of hypocrisy with others, sceptical of their innocence which he could cajole so easily.

On the wall of his bedroom hung an illuminated scroll, the certificate of his prefecture in the college in the college of the sodality of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  On Saturday mornings when the sodality met in the chapel to recite the little office his place was a cushioned kneelingdesk at the right of the altar from which he led his wing of boys through the responses .  The falsehood of his position did not pain him.  If at moments he felt an impulse to rise from his post of honour and, confessing before them all his unworthiness, to leave the chapel, a glance at their faces restrained him.

Joyce’s willingness to admit the doubts and spiritual crises all people encounter at some point in their lives is truly comforting and thought provoking.

Review: Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald

14 Wednesday Mar 2012

Posted by in book reviews, Honors and Acclaim, Modernism, Modery Library 100 Best English Language Novels of the 20th Century, Semi-autobiographical

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30 Day Book Challenge: Book Most Like Your Life

 

The 2003 Scribner edition of Tender is the Night mentions the friend and contemporary of Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway once noted of this novel, “It is amazing how excellent much of it is.” This statement could not be truer.  In devising a modernist classic, which reflects the life the author lived with his wife Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald in Europe as an expatriate, the novel shines in all aspects of elements that combine to create a masterpiece in fiction: plot, setting, characterization, conflict, and organization, all executed with precision.  The tale focuses on Dick and Nicole Diver, who are said to be semi-autobiographical  portrayals of the Fitzgeralds.  Other characters, such as teenage actress Rosemary Speers, Mary Abrams, Frenchman Tommy Barban, socialite Mrs. Mickisco, and psychiatrist Dr. Dohmler  play supporting roles in the drama that unfolds.

At the onset of the story, in part one, Fitzgerald introduces the reader to a bright and sunny beachside hotel in the South of France.  Down the road from Dick and Nicole’s extravagant seaside home is also where Rosemary encounters, and ‘falls in love with’, the husband and wife pair. Both Dick and Nicole are magnetic, attractive, rich, and well-liked by everyone they meet.  It doesn’t matter that neither of them have careers, or that they spend all of their time traversing France, Spain, Switzerland, living in hotels, frequenting cafes, and throwing parities-this is their life because it can be.  No one questions them.  Dick, especially, convinces people that his way is the correct way.

Fitzgerald makes the persons he depicts so convincing, that even his readers have the notion that they cannot argue with the personalities or emotions he describes.  The author has insight into human interactions that readers may not have realized exist.  In observing Dick’s thought processes, the narrator writes, “When the subject of Mr. Denby fell on its own weight, he essayed equally irrelative themes, but each time the very deference of Dick’s attention seemed to paralyze him, and after a moment’s stark pause, the conversation that he had interrupted would go on without him (33).”  Not only is this observation something most people would not make, it completely encapsulates Dick’s experiences.  It also foreshadows part two of the text, when the reader realizes Dick’s discontentedness with his life.  He is not using his intelligence to feel fulfilled.

Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald

By part two of the text,which is a flash back, a completely new side to the story unfolds.  A serious issue briefly broached about Nicole’s situation is brought to light. The reader soon finds that Dick, a young and successful psychiatrist, a met the wealthy, schizophrenic, and previsouly sexually abused, Nicole, while she was a patient at a hospital for the mentally ill. What appears as a loving and functional marriage to outsiders years later, began as a request by Dick’s fellow doctors for Dick to do everything he could to keep Nicole stable and happy.  For her part, Nicole knew then, and as the marriage progressed, that Dick felt a dependency toward keeping her healthy.

In pairing this couple together the author makes both a likely and unlikely match.  Both people need to be loved and need to be cared for, both have addictive personalities and need to feel in control, both are exceedingly intelligent, yet constantly make unintelligent decisions,  and both want to save the other, but cannot save themselves.  Still, some things will always divide them.  The more Nicole’s health improves and the less she relies on Dick for support, and things fall apart for them as a couple.

The story is not just one of a couple’s rise and fall. It captures the larger image the Lost Generation in Europe, where people seek fulfillment they may never find.  Similar to the ideas Woody Allen executes in Midnight in Paris, the novel poses the question: What is it people live for?  As Nicole leaves Dick for Tommy Barban, and he moves back to the United States, the reader gets a sense there will never be an answer.

F. Scott Fitzgerald begins the novel with a line from Keats’ “Ode to a Nightingale.” The meaning of the novel’s title and introduction can only be fully realized until after one has read the novel.  Keats wrote,

Nightingale

“Already with thee! tender is the night…

…But there is no light,

Save what from haven is with the breezes blown

Through verdurous glooms and winding mossy ways.”

There is no better way to summarize the sad end of a man like Dick Diver, who despite the magnetism, beauty, intelligence, good intentions, and togetherness of his youth, became analogous to Keats’ nightingale in his older years.  He inevitably became jaded, unlikable, unable to save himself or his wife, could no longer impress or influence others, his addiction got the better of him, he lost his family, and his goals of being a successful doctor never came true.  Sadly, like all birds, his wings eventually failed him.

All humans want what they can’t have.  Dick Diver wanted to save Nicole and live happily ever after, even though he knew deep down this was not possible.  Dick could never be satisfied…is anyone?  It may be pessimistic, but Keats said it beast, “There is no light.”

For more information:

Read Tender is the Night  free On Project Gutenberg

Others Works By F. Scott Fitzgerald: This Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and the Damned, The Great Gatsby, The Last Tycoon

F. Scott Fitzgerald Biography on Biography.com

Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald Zeldafitzgerald.com

Watch Tender is the Night 1962 film

Tender is the Night 1985 TV Mini Series

True Love and the Impact of Loss: A Review of The Lover by Marguerite Duras

10 Friday Feb 2012

Posted by in book reviews, Genre, International Fiction, Nouveau Roman, Semi-autobiographical

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After reflecting on the powerful emotion, imagery, themes, and language of The Lover, I became convinced of several elements of the text that must have been experienced by the author.  I was not at all surprised to find through the reading of the biography of Marguerite Duras that The Lover reflects her own life, emotions, and experiences.  It is with a depth not easily matched that the story of young girl’s life in French Indochina is portrayed.  A combination of themes, which come to light in the process of recollection, reveal ideas that are present in us all.   The narrator, who recounts the story of her relationships with her family members and the one memory that takes precedence over every other moment in her life, explains a past filled with pain, fear, love, and hate with vivid and unequaled language.

By describing her true love for two individuals, her mother and the Chinese millionaire she began an unforgettable  affair with when she was fifteen and a half, the narrator shows the reader how certain events and emotions lead her to her current state.  Through her unrequited love for her mother, who she accounts as never being happy and bringing much sadness into the lives of her and two brothers after the death of their father, the author realizes that love and hate can coexist.  The life of poverty and uncertainty the family leads due to the mother’s inadequacies causes the author to decide that there came a point when her deep love for her mother became pity and remorse for things she had no control over.  When she could no longer feel sorry, she felt hatred, and then numbness.  In unveiling her feelings for the Chinese man who altered her existence, she shows the reader that even with a most beloved person, she could not escape pain, fear, and premature aging. Being with him made her realize she had never felt happiness.

In her relationships with her family and the man she chose as a lover, the young girl is destined to remain unfulfilled. The girl attributes her ‘ravaged’ physical appearance at a young age to prematurely experiencing a heartache and love that would last ‘unto death.’  Without a family by her side for support, the girl becomes the lover of a man she can never be with.  The couple must combat intolerance and societal expectations that disallow their races, economic statuses, or ages to come together in marriage.

By combining her own conceptions of the way humans understand time, her own body decaying, and the wisdom that shocked her into permanent sadness, the author is able to convey memories from different points of view. The girl attributes her ‘ravaged’ physical appearance at a young age to prematurely experiencing a heartache and love that would last ‘unto death.’  She is also plagued by her mother’s discontent and a family where the members tried to avoid any real knowledge of each other’s struggles.  Although most of the account is told in the first person, sometimes, the author changes to a third person perspective.  The changes are most prevalent in her recollections of time spent with the man, perhaps confirming a need for her to analyze her past from an outside perspective.

The pain and fear the girl experiences may have altered the way she perceives the past. Her emotions and memories affect how she thinks she felt and what she knows in the present.  Although she says she loved her family, she notes that they are dead.  “Now I don’t love them anymore.  I don’t remember if I ever did.”  It is difficult for her to know the truth, because she says she can only really recall a single image from her past. The memory that dominates her thoughts is of the day she met the Chinese man. The clothing, weather, and scenes she associates with him add to her ideas about incomparable feelings for him. But the reader is forced to wonder if the memory of the man and its perfection are due to impassioned recollection, as opposed to what occurred in reality.

There is a lingering mystery and raw power the reader detects in this story.  The language the author uses to tell about the most important instances in her life leave the reader feeling similar to the author: saddened, empty, confused.  Yet, in the end it seems as though this is fitting.

Final Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

For more information:

Read: Marguerite Duras: The North China Lover: A Novel, The Sea Wall

Marguerite Duras: A Life by Laura Adler

Film: The Lover (1992), The Sea Wall (2008)

Review:The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende

15 Monday Aug 2011

Posted by in Adult Contemporary, book reviews, Fantasy, International Fiction, Magical Realism, Multiculturalism, Roman a clef, Semi-autobiographical, Women's Fiction

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“I write, she wrote, that memory is fragile and the space of a single life is brief, passing so quickly that we never get a chance to see the relationship between events; we cannot gauge the consequences of our acts, and we believe in the fiction of the past and present, and future, but it may also be true that everything happens simultaneously-as the three Mora sisters said who could see the spirits of all eras mingled in space.” The House of the Spirits  page 432

Every family has a story to tell. The House of Spirits shares the epic tale of three generations of the Trueba- de Valle family told through the memories of the patriarch, Esteban Trueba and his granddaughter Alba.  As an old man, Esteban looks back on the events of his past, the family’s ancestry, the history of his country and his family with loneliness, remorse, and forgiveness. Reading through the notebooks his mystical wife, the love of his life Clara, has left him with her passing, Esteban is able to understand things about the decisions he made which altered the course of not only his fate, but many others as well. Isabel Allende’s novel creates a complicated fictional world in which the Trueba family lives in a constant state of conflict over the cultural, political, class, economic, and spiritual struggles existing in the time and place they find themselves. Both the characters and reader are thrown into the life-long tumultuous situation which is the country and living environment in the house on the corner- the house of spirits. Although it is fiction, and personalities and circumstances may be exaggerated-no moment feels far from truth.

One of the most powerful messages the author sends in the novel is the alienation a family is able to feel, even for someone they are meant to love. Esteban Trueba begins his life as a poor man with an invalid mother and only his sister Ferula to support him. Ferula wishes to leave her terrible life caring for her mother. She is resentful and jealous of her brother, but he will not sacrifice the way she has. In order to become the rich and powerful man he dreams of being, Esteban goes to the country and seizes control of Tres Marias, land with peasants that leads to his financial success. Although the peasants of Tres Marias wish to be given their personal freedom in the form of wages as payment instead of Esteban controlling their food rations, he wants to be patron. Despite his own poverty stricken past, his new wealth has turned him into a Conservative. He does not keep the people from being free due to intentional cruelty, but because he believes he knows better than they do what they need.  Around the same time Trueba’s power grows, he marries the young Clara de Valle, his deceased finance Rosa’s little sister. From the start, it is obvious that Clara is Esteban’s opposite.

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Review: The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

22 Friday Jul 2011

Posted by in book reviews, Lost Generation, Modernism, Nobel Prize Winner, Pulitzer Prize Winner, Semi-autobiographical, Time 100 Best English-Language Novels

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30 Day Book Challenge: Book I’d Like To Live In

 

It is hard to imagine a time when Americans meandered aimlessly through the streets of Paris without considering how absolutely lucky they were for the privilege. Thanks to inflation after WWI, Americans were able to travel around Europe on a whim. They did not need to work, drank and smoked heavily, lived carelessly. This was the Lost Generation.

In The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway’s narrator, Jake Barnes, describes the unfulfilled wanderings of himself and his friends around Paris and Spain. Part of what makes the novel great is its ability to cause the reader feel as if they too are crossing the Boulevard Montparnasse, or catching a taxi at the Parthenon. The author’s experiences living and traveling in the cities he describes make them come to life on the page.

Near the start of the novel, Jake and Lady Brett Ashley, the vixen of the tale meet in a taxi. The two drive around discussing their directionless relationship, a symbol of Brett’s relations with the other male characters in the text and all of their lives. The reader soon learns that both Jake and Brett have been crippled by loss in the past. The love of Brett’s life died of dysentery during the Great War, essentially disabling her ability to give love to another. Jake’s wartime injury has rendered him impotent, reducing his self-confidence and notions of masculinity. In each of these people, it is easy to infer they seek something to replace the loss they have suffered.

Stemming from the relationship of Jake and Brett, Hemingway creates an intricate and entertaining love quarrel of sorts which involves their circle of friends and travels along with them from Paris to Pamplona. In typical fashion of the author, the themes of men versus women are dense within the work. Jake’s feminine side is exposed due to his accident whereas the first description of Brett in the text is one of an independent woman referring to herself as ‘chap’ with a short boy’s haircut. When Jake’s tennis companion Robert Cohn falls for Brett’s charms, it becomes obvious that the two have one thing in common; neither one of them will ever possess the woman they long for in the way that they hope. These two are not the only men who fall into Lady Ashley’s clutches. Her latest finance, Michael Campbell joins the group. By the time they are in Pamplona the men are reduced to begging, crying, groveling and catty fighting for her attentions. They have become the emasculated, while Brett behaves as the stereotypical male in charge of them all.

The trip to Pamplona is the ultimate display of pageantry in the novel. Even the bitter and listless Jake cannot help but become revived by the multihued spectacle that is the Festival of San Fermin. Jake and his friend Bill Gorton end a peaceful fishing trip in the Basque region of Spain to meet up with Robert Cohn, Brett and Michael in Pamplona for the fighting of the bulls. Illustrated beautifully are the whitewashed walls of the Spanish town juxtaposed by corrals filled with steers ready to kill. In the streets people crazily wave red handkerchiefs, play flutes, lutes, and drums. Excitable  drunken crowds pass around bottles and bottles of wine as wine shops open cask after cask of sheraz for seven days straight. ‘Doesn’t this thing ever stop?’ This is the definition of a FIESTA!

Perhaps the most significant aspect of the trip to Pamplona is that of the bull-fighting itself. The concept of the bull and the bull-fight is steeped in metaphor within the context of the novel. The bull, with its ‘crest of muscle’ and brute force, is the epitome of masculinity. It is all that the male pursuers of Brett are not. As an aficionado with a ‘true passion for bull-fights’, Jake regains his manliness through the steer. In this way he is able to communicate a special knowledge of the tradition and artistry to Brett. Lady Ashley has an instant attraction to the masculine energy of the bull. ‘My God, isn’t he beautiful?’

In the moment Brett sees the bull, her suitors know for a fact what they have sensed all along; she is lost to them. The cynicism and sarcasm Hemingway utilizes in conversations among the men as they attempt to blame each other for the loss of the woman is utter brilliance. From the constant anti-Semitic slurs shot at Cohn to the accusation of Jake for being Brett’s pimp- no one is safe from the author’s clever insults. There is a definite sense that the reader is experiencing the words of a Hemingway personality in Jake’s narration.

The pointless arguments continue over Brett, but Jake finally realizes she will never be his. Then, Pedro Romero takes the stage. The bull-fighter of bull-fighters, Romero is 19 years old and ‘the best looking boy’ Jake has ever seen. For Brett, it is lust at first sight. Jake agrees to help her earn Pedro’s affection, and of course she does. But Pedro is perfection in the ring, he is graceful and pure. The Spanish don’t want him associating with American’s. Brett taints him.

As with all the other men in her life, Brett takes Pedro and destroys what is good in him. After they have been together he is different. ‘It was not brilliant bull-fighting. It was only perfect bull-fighting.’ His flawlessness is gone.  Brett then decides she can’t be with Pedro. She won’t destroy a child,she claims. Yet, she already has. She leaves Pedro another victim searching for what he’s lost.

Back to Jake she runs. Into a taxi they both climb to drive around aimlessly once more. As always, Brett leads Jake to believe their ending will be a happy one. I feel certain he knows she’ll only let him down again. He will always be there when she needs him, and although she’ll only let him down for another man-one day she will come calling again. The sun goes down and some nights Jake is alone. But, the sun also rises. Isn’t that the way it is for us all…

Final Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars

For more information:

Read: Death in the Afternoon by Ernest Hemingway (about bull-fighting)

A Moveable Feast by Hemingway( autobiographical short stories based upon time spent in Europe, mostly Paris)

Does anyone love Hemingway as much as I do and know of a reputable biography I could read?? What are other people’s opinion’s of the ending?

Review: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

16 Saturday Jul 2011

Posted by in book reviews, Semi-autobiographical

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A Tree Grows in Brooklyn tells the story of Francie Nolan’s childhood growing up in the slums of Williamsburg, Brooklyn at the turn of the century. Along with her parents and younger brother Neeley, Francie sprouts up among the brutality, poverty, and sadness surrounding her. With the blossoming mind of a child and an observational perspective only the innocence of a young person can provide; Francie gives an account of difficult lessons learned and the memories formed with her family she’ll carry forever.

Francie’s father, Johnny Nolan, is a drunk who cannot hold down a job. He is also a kind-hearted attractive Irishman who walks in the door singing Molly Malone at night. He puts a smile on his little girl’s face. When he walks with her, he holds her hand and she feels proud to be with him. These qualities are what drew her mother Katie to him years ago, but now she is tired. Katie supports the family because she can’t count on Johnny, decent man or not.

As the child among adults, Francie has conflicting thoughts and emotions involving her parents. She knows Johnny is an alcoholic, he drains the family of money, but his love for her is certain. On the other hand, Katie doesn’t show emotion. When she does, it is in favor of Neeley, Francie’s brother. Neeley is more attractive and has Katie’s personality. Francie is sorry she favors she papa.

There are lessons people learn in childhood that they don’t necessarily understand until later in life. There are things adults know that children don’t and messages they send that don’t get received.  Johnny is well aware of his special connection to Francie, and he knows he isn’t to be counted on. He tries to let Francie know this by telling her he never wanted a family. This only hurts her feelings. What he knows at the time and she doesn’t is that his father and all three of his brothers did not live past the age of thirty. He has already lived that long. In order to help her cope with his imminent death, Johnny assures Francie; Katie is a good woman-and she is.

On both sides of the Nolan-Romeley family no one has been educated past grade school. In order to assure this will not be the case with her children, Katie will get them through High School. It is a rule that Francie and Neeley read both the Bible and Shakespeare before bed each night. Katie works as a janitress to keep the family eating stale bread and drinking coffee to keep from starving.

Francie loves reading and learning. Despite all the qualities of her parents she possesses, these things make her unique. She reads one book each day, which she borrows from the library. These books become part of her escape to another place. She will read every day of her life. In school she also discovers writing. When her grade school teacher catches her in a lie, Francie must promise only to use her imagination to recreate her world for fiction. Later for her graduation, Francie’s creativity progresses. She writes about problems she is familiar with, but the teacher says these are not ‘truth.’ Her subject matter needs to change. ‘But poverty, starvation, and drunkenness are ugly subjects to choose. We all admit these things exist. But one doesn’t write about them.’ Even as a child Francie knows  the teacher is wrong. Just because these things are vices doesn’t mean they are not worth writing about and it certainly doesn’t make them less profound or beautiful. For the Nolan family, and for most families, vices are true beauty. If people are able to persevere through vices such as drunkenness, poverty and remain together as a family-this is love.

No one in the family is perfect, but faults are forgiven. Johnny passes away and Francie loses her best friend. She thinks she’ll be lonely, mama will always have Neeley. Then, she realizes that she has her own place in her mother’s heart. ‘She doesn’t love me as much as she loves Neeley. But she needs me more than she needs him and I guess being needed is almost as good as being loved. Maybe better.’ Accepting her loss and place in the family makes her feel alright about things. Anyway, Francie has her own plans to fulfill.

The mind of the child in the novel  brings the reader back their youth. There once was a time when you too were  told wise and wonderful notions that went in one ear and out the other. Your parents worked to support you, took care of you, argued or got along splendidly. You took it all in. What did they say to you that you wish to God you would have understood at the time? What happy memories do you have with your family on holiday’s or special occasions? Oh how I wish I could get back the feeling I had on Christmas morning, waking up to presents under the tree. Those are the feelings the reader can relate to in this book.

Final Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars

For more information: Film(1945) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038190/

about the author: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_Smith