Ms. Hen reviews Girl with a Pearl Earring

Girl with a Pearl Earring

Tracy Chevalier

Penguin Group

1999

Ms. Hen decided to read this novel because it goes along with two others she has read recently, TULIP FEVER, and THE MINIATURIST. She is fascinated by this time period right now, because the Netherlands in the 17^th century was a lot like our society at this time, prosperous, but dysfunctional concurrently. She ordered this novel from the library.

Ms. Hen had seen the film years ago in the theater when it came out. She had heard that the book was excellent, but she never read it before now, partly because she had seen the film and she knew what happened, and also because she forgot. The book is a multi-layered story, and when she read it, it was difficult for her to remember what happened in the movie. Some pivotal things are different, but that does not make the film less beautiful. Ms. Hen watched the film again right after she finished the book, and there are a lot of aspects of the story missing, but a novel can be much longer than a book. Both are exceptional.

Griet is a young woman whose father has gone blind in the Delft china factory. She has to go to work as a maid in the famous artist’s Vermeer’s house. She leaves her sister alone with their parents. Griet is unhappy in the house because Katherina, the painter’s wife, does not like her. Griet wants more from her life than being a maid. She desires beauty.

The butcher’s son, young Pieter, pays attention to Griet, and she accepts. He searches for the church where her family worships and goes there. Her mother is excited because a butcher’s son can provide the family with meat, which the family lacks because there isn’t enough money. Griet shops at the butcher’s for the Vermeer family, and is choosy about the meat, even though Vermeer’s family does not have that much money either because he paints so slowly. Though she is being courted by Pieter, she yearns for Vermeer.

Katherina and her husband have a lot of children. They are Catholic and Griet is a Protestant. Griet’s father remarked about his Catholic coworkers that they were lively and seemed like they liked to have a good time. Griet does not like the paintings of the Crucifixion in the house.

Ms. Hen thinks Griet is a bold character. This novel is an imagining of how the painting might have come into being, but there is no proof. The author wrote in the forward that she did a lot of research for this novel by simply looking at paintings. She wrote that there isn’t a lot written about daily life, but she could learn about it by studying the artwork of the time. Whether or not there is truth to how the painting came to being, this is a realistic interpretation.

Ms. Hen loved this novel. She thinks is goes along perfectly with the other novels she has read about this time period. This was a fascinating era in history because that country was successful, but it had numerous problems. Art flourishes in prosperity, but it can come with a price.

Ms. Hen reviews The White Castle

The White Castle

Orhan Pamuk

Vintage International

1985

Translated from Turkish by Victoria Holbrook 1990

Ms. Hen picked up this book at the Little Free Library near where she lives. She had never heard of the book or the author, but she liked the title and the cover so she took it home. It was free, so the price was right. She has learned in seminars about writing that publishing companies give attractive covers to books they think are worth it. So, a person can judge a book by its cover, contrary to popular belief.

Ms. Hen didn’t know what to make of this novel at first. The tone is quiet and unassuming. It takes place in what is supposed to be 17^th century Istanbul, but that is not explained in the novel. That was written on the back of the book. The setting of this novel reminded Ms. Hen of Dorne, the fictional country in GAME OF THRONES, which Ms. Hen learned is supposed to be based on Spain. Ms. Hen thinks that both Dorne and the Istanbul of this novel are places that have darkness hidden underneath them, but are bright, sunny, dry locations, which can be deceiving. She read that the description of Istanbul is not historically accurate.

Ms. Hen decided this novel is allegorical. It’s about a man meeting someone who looks just like him, and that tortures his soul. It’s about the dark side of us all that we don’t usually have to face. The protagonist does not like that he gets to know his double and that fact between them is not discussed.

A young scholar travels from Venice, and is captured by the Turkish, taken back to Istanbul and sold as a slave. He eventually comes in the possession of a man who looks just like him. No explanation is offered as to why they look exactly alike. They study together and Hoja, the master, asked the slave to teach him everything he knows about science. They sit at a table, which is not part of the Turkish culture, and write together. They also tell each other their life stories.

This novel reminded Ms. Hen of WAITING FOR THE BARBARIANS by J. M. Coetzee, in the way that it’s slow, atmospheric, and can have multiple meanings. Ms. Hen had to read that novel twice when she was in college, and she didn’t love it, and she doesn’t remember it that well, but she remembers the feelings it gave her, of uncertainty and disgust.

There were a few mentions of chickens in THE WHITE CASTLE, which Ms. Hen appreciated. The plague hit the city, and people were dying, and, “A bricklayer who quarreled with all the neighbors about their chickens getting in through his wall, had died screaming with fever one week ago.” And also Hoja developed a weapon that he believed would destroy their enemies, “Hoja would describe to me the devastation his red rooster would wreak upon his enemies.” Hoja called his weapon the red rooster. Ms. Hen thinks it’s appropriate that a weapon would be called a rooster because they’re tough.

Ms. Hen liked this novel, but it wasn’t the best book she has read recently. She thinks that it was a little too slow for her taste, and too masculine. Few women appear in this novel, which Ms. Hen didn’t enjoy. Women are background characters and are not significant, which is historically accurate, but that doesn’t mean Ms. Hen has to like it. Ms. Hen is sure that there were interesting women in that era, though this novel doesn’t recognize that. This novel is about a man finding himself and losing himself and ultimately becoming someone else.

Ms. Hen reviews The Miniaturist

Ms. Hen with the doll's house at the Museum of Fine Arts

The Miniaturist

Jessie Burton

Harper Collins

2014

Ms. Hen first learned about this novel through the PBS miniseries. She didn’t watch the whole thing, she only watched a few minutes of it. She doesn’t have patience to watch a TV show when it’s on TV; she prefers to watch it on her own time. She went to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston shortly after the show was aired, and in the Dutch 17^th century room, there was a doll’s house similar to the one on the show. The house is a perfect tiny piece of art, and it looks like everything inside is real: real dishes, real vases, tiny beds and chairs; it’s so adorable that Ms. Hen can gaze at it for a long time. She went back to the museum as she was reading the novel to inspect it further and take a picture with Ms. Hen.

She decided to read the novel because she wants to learn about that time period, which is the same as another novel she read recently, TULIP FEVER. But she thinks THE MINIATURIST is superior. It’s better written; it’s not written in a thriller type of style, and it’s full of surprises.

Petronella comes to live in her husband, Johaness’ house with his sister and his two servants. They were married in her town, and they did not consummate their marriage when they were wed. She wonders if he does not love her, or something is wrong because when she moves into his house, he continues to treat her with indifference. She married him because her family is poor, and she needs to survive. His sister, Marin, is domineering and cruel to her at first.  Johaness buys her a cabinet house as a wedding gift, which is expensive. It has tiny rooms that are an exact replica of their house.

At first, Nella hates the cabinet house. She would prefer his love rather than receive gifts from him. She does not know what to do. She hires a miniaturist to furnish the house, and she becomes frightened by the objects that are delivered. She becomes friends with Cornelia, the maid, and is fascinated by Otto, the manservant who is a black man. There are no people of color in Amsterdam at that time. People stop and stare at him in the street. Nella doesn’t like how they stare.

This novel shocked Ms. Hen, then it continued to shock her. She knew something creepy would happen, then creepier things kept happening. In this way, it reminded her a lot of a novel she read recently, FROG MUSIC, by Emma Donahue, which was also historical fiction, about San Francisco in the 1800s. Ms. Hen thinks the style in which THE MINIATURIST is written is admirable; the writing is excellent, the pacing is well done, and it did not cease to surprise her. She likes to be surprised by what she reads, because she prefers not knowing what is going to happen. The ending of the novel is not as exciting as the rest, but it is like life, it continues on. A quality novel shouldn’t have an ending; it should be realistic, a line which does not end. Ms. Hen doesn’t like to spoil things, and she doesn’t think this is a spoiler.

Ms. Hen adored THE MINIATURIST. It is a perfect winter novel, because it takes place in winter in Amsterdam, and the descriptions of the frozen canals are lovely. She enjoyed being taken away to a different time by a novel written in a way that would not have been written in the time it took place. But that doesn’t mean situations similar to this would not occur. Bizarre things have always taken place, in every point in history. Civilization can demented, and the more advanced we become the stranger the world gets.

Ms. Hen reviews Riding the Bus with My Sister

Riding the Bus with My Sister

Rachel Simon

Penguin Books

2002

Ms. Hen read this book because she found it at the Little Free Library right near where she lives. She had never heard of the book or the author, but she liked the title and the cover. She thought it might have been a young adult book, but it’s not. She decided to pick it up because it was free, and there was no loss if she did.

This memoir is the story of Rachel and her sister Beth, who has mental retardation. They are eleven months apart, and for one month a year, they are twins. The family has had a difficult time deciding what to do with Beth. She rides the busses in her small Pennsylvania town all day, and she knows all the drivers and routes and times the busses will arrive. Rachel decides to ride the busses with Beth for once a month for a year to discover what Beth is doing and also to write about it.

This book also goes back in time to tell the story of Rachel and Beth’s family life when they were young. They had a difficult time in childhood when their mother and father divorced and went separate ways. Rachel thought her mother suffered from depression, and their mother put Beth in danger. But Beth survived.

Ms. Hen found this book emotional. The stories of the bus drivers and how most of them try to help Beth by teaching her about life and telling her their own stories brought Ms. Hen to tears at times. She reads a lot in public, on the train, and at her break at lunch, and she found herself with tears running down her face as she read this book. She was embarrassed, but she didn’t think anyone noticed. This doesn’t happen often. Ms. Hen does cry sometimes at the end of a book, but not usually in the middle.

This is not the typical book that Ms. Hen would read. It’s a nice book. Ms. Hen doesn’t usually read nice things. She usually likes angst driven novels about people with dire problems, like mental illness, or she reads dystopian novels. But this is about a woman whose sister has mental retardation. It’s about learning to have patience, and learning to love someone she can’t completely understand. It’s also about the author changing her worldview, and her view of herself, and transforming her life.

One aspect of this memoir Ms. Hen enjoyed was the writing, which is high quality. Ms. Simon knows how to put words together, and Ms. Hen enjoys a well-written book. Ms. Hen thinks this might be considered a book club book, but she doesn’t hold that against it.

Ms. Hen recommends this memoir to anyone who wants to feel better about the world. The bus drivers help Beth and her sister to see the bigger picture. This book teaches the readers to appreciate what we have, and not take anything for granted. And also to not be afraid of change.