Illuminae (The Illuminae Files_01): Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Illuminae (The Illuminae Files_01)

Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Yowza. 

What a reading experience. I can honestly say it doesn’t remind me of any other book I have ever read. 

When first I saw the book sitting in the Sci-Fi section, on top of our hardcover shelf, unsure of its placement, I was intrigued by its colorful and rather involved cover.  Plastic it looked, and plastic it turned out to be. Clear in spots so the text on the hardcover (front and back) could come through, like code-breaking should.

 It looked explosive, it looked different, and upon closer inspection, it had two authors. 

There is not one section in the store that I can think of to place this book. It could definitely be in Sci-Fi. It could definitely be in Art. It could definitely sit successfully on a shelf near graphic novels. It would absolutely sit comfortably on the shelf reserved for ‘Interesting Reads’.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Though this futuristic novel has some glaring differences than how I see the future and man and progression and communication, it is a

...dare I say it…

masterpiece. 

Yes. I dare say. 

The art, the storytelling, the flow, the method of information delivery….

The text….

I read this book in one day not because I could not put it down, 

but because I would not.

The Clothes They Stood Up In: Alan Bennett

                This is a small book. Hardcover, pressed paperboard, black, with an imprint of two close vertical parallel lines, then capital letters AB, then another vertical line with a lovely, wood-suggestive, well-formed clothes hanger pressed askew as if on a quickly-riffled curtain rod.  The simplicity of the imprinted image on the cover suggests the feeling the title invokes; just lovely.

                The dust cover is of good-lasting material. I assume it is, like the pages it protects, acid-free.

                The illustration on the dust cover is well-suited to the story, implying British upper-middle class, multiple events, character impressions, comedy, classic architecture, and an upset.

                On the first page of print we learn Alan Bennett, writer of this wonderful story, is a playwright and keeps busy with focused direction.  At this point, I don’t know anything about Alan Bennett other than what has been given.  For now, I like the mystery of the mind of the yet unknown (to me) author, and because of cover quality and book presentation, possible artist.

                This particular book came in as a donation to our little used bookstore. Donations themselves are interesting because there are no new bookstores for many, many miles, and other than mass-market popular fiction that can be found in every 10^th gas station or self-respecting general store, books like The Clothes They Stood Up In  must have travelled for miles before crossing our threshold.

                Now the title page:

Simple print, unadorned, and absolutely lovely as a precursor when followed quickly by the first line of the progression of the story, the first line being, “The Ransomes had been burgled.”

                This story is not formatted like common fiction; no chapters, just a smooth trip from beginning to end, with logical progressions, and unique thoughtful characters (players?) that closer reflect reality than average fiction.

                The language, though English, is more English-English than American-English, and since I already have trouble with American-English humor the lack of experience with English social situations and colloquialisms  makes  the humor go right over my head, meaning his impressive “humour” ability is lost on me.

                Though I wasn’t involved in the jolly rollers, Bennett’s capture of psyche, especially of the protagonist and her husband, was enveloping and intriguing.  This is a book of discovery, capable of impressing the reader with emotional response and an empathic vicarious experience. It was a two-day read, only because I had things that absolutely had to be done.

                I would read The Clothes They Stood Up In again, and because of my reading schedule, that means a lot.

*I must say, the back cover has two items of praise for this work.

                One, a great description of the contents and effort of the author, the other a blatant marketing tool directed at vacation readers.

* One more “I must say”: I wish publishers would stop putting ISBN codes on the exterior of their publications. Bar codes are a mood and beauty killer.

Harriet Beecher Stowe: Uncle Tom's Cabin

Reading Uncle Tom’s Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe.   The copy that I’m reading was published in 1929, and has been poorly handled at some point of its 85 years of existence.

                                The story was hard to read at first, because of language use and content. Dialect is sometimes hard to follow, but I’m getting the hang of it, and it’s coming easier.

                As for content, the situations and perspective offered are hard to consume, knowing the offense it would cause, does cause, to the many people whose families were involved in  the participation, willing and unwilling, of slavery.

                The depictions of the characters, just as in many occurrences of fiction, are stereotyped and one dimensional, which is one of the problems or issues I have with fiction. The reader is presented with the sole perspective of the author, in its nature faulted.

                The illustrations or caricatures throughout this copy of the book are of the nature that are not necessarily banned but avoided in modern society because of their demeaning representation of the people they describe; essentially, stereotypical drawings of the time by white artists of black people.  

                I read Uncle Tom’s Cabin, now, as a method of bearing witness to the past, of acknowledging the cruelty of dispossession, of generational wrongs and the potential of man. I see how an entire social order can be so very wrong, and even more so how perspective defines right and wrong.

                My husband told me of how the author had no first-hand experience with slavery, and has written out of research and peripheral exposure.

                I can see how assumptions and presumptions fill the gaps of her story, and how it was necessary for this story to be written by an outsider, because a slave owner might justify their actions, as in Gone With the Wind (though written after the occurrence of slavery in the United States, the author was a child of privilege of the south and therefore biased), while a person with more slave experience would be writing with justifiable anger.

                This book is quite an eye-opener for someone with little insight into the details of early United States slave history, and I’m glad I’m finally reading it.

Elie Wiesel: Night

Night                                                                                                   

Elie Wiesel

                Night was the first book written by Elie Wiesel, published 15 years after his release from the infamous concentration camp system of the Nazi regime, lead by Adolf Hitler, in World War II. When it was first published, many people didn’t believe the atrocities described within, claiming sensationalism.

Today, we know the unthinkable truth.

Night is not an easy read, though I finished it in less than 2 days. As Robert Brown says in the Preface of the * 25^th Anniversary Edition, “such depressing subject matter”, but important.

It’s 70 years now since Elie Wiesel was released from hell on earth. 70 years is within a lifetime. There are still people alive today who managed to walk away, who still carry the memories and identification numbers.

This book must be read by those who need a refresher of what is possible in tyranny.

Review: Freud and Man's Soul, a Bettelheim translation

Occasionally I write reviews about whatever I have read for our little bookstore newsletter. The following is a short review on Bruno Bettelheim's Freud and Man's Soul for your perusal.

Author:  Bruno Bettelheim

Title: Freud and Man’s Soul

Published: 1982

8 years before his death, Bruno Bettelheim published the book Freud and Man’s Soul.  This was 1982, and at this point in his life, Bettelheim had spent many years in the science of psychoanalysis and studying the works of Freud in his native German and in English translations.   The purpose of Bettelheim’s work, Freud and Man’s Soul specifically, is to make readers know that the translations of Freud’s work that modern American psychoanalysis is based on has been translated in a way that detracts from Freud’s humanistic and soulful purpose.   

                What Bettelheim  points out is that the American translations of Freud’s work completely alters Freud’s purpose to suit the purpose of the institution of American science, while crediting Freud for the definition of psychoanalysis.  To add to this conundrum, many of the translations were approved by Freud, and Bettelheim has been accused of falsifying his degrees and achievements.  What to believe? Is the foundation of American psychoanalysis written by a self-serving system more interested in controlling the method of thought of its people by defining the words of a great thinker only on its own terms, or was Freud actually translated frankly in a method that will carry on his meanings?  Is the truth lost in translation?