Ms. Hen reviews Unspeakable Things

Unspeakable Things

Kathleen Spivack

Alfred A. Knopf

2016

Ms. Hen decided to read this novel because she is acquainted with Ms. Spivack in writing circles - Ms. Hen is an on again off again member of the same poetry group as Ms. Spivack. Ms. Hen has been meaning to read this novel for a while, and she finally got around to it.

When Ms. Hen started reading this novel, she thought the voice was difficult to grasp. After a few pages, though, she realized why. This is a novel written by a poet! Novels by poets are different animals because they swirl the words around in their mouths like connoisseurs at a wine tasting. Ms. Hen got used to the poetic flair and the words settled into her mind after that.

This novel is about Eastern European immigrants, mostly from Vienna, who end up in New York while World War II still rages on. Maria, a young girl, lives with her mother, brother, and grandfather. Her father lives in Washington D.C., and is a translator for the war. Anna, or the Rat, comes to live with them, and sleeps in Maria’s bed. A pediatrician, Felix, takes care of Maria while she is sick, and does unspeakable things. The Rat tells Maria of her past in St. Petersburg while living amongst the Tsars.

This novel made Ms. Hen think of Latin American mysticism, specifically by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. There are a lot of weird, unsettling aspects to this story. The Tolstoi quartet, a string quartet, has the end of the last finger on their left hands chopped off, and go on a quest to find them. This is one of the dark places where this novel goes. Ms. Hen wondered if there was a tradition in Eastern European Jewish mysticism, and she read there was, but not specifically in fiction, more in the vein of mystical religious writing. Ms. Hen thinks Ms. Spivack might have invented her own genre.

One of the most gruesome and wonderful parts of UNSPEAKABLE THINGS is the part about Rasputin. Ms. Hen has learned about Rasputin, and what he did, and what he was like, but she has never read such a description of his actions. He was a pervert, but the Rat loved it. Ms. Hen wonders if the starved soul is one that would accept any kind of love.

This novel is about a community of people that immigrated to the United States that all had lost people to the war. People would ask each other, and who did you lose? It’s terrible for parents to lose children, and Herbert and Adeline’s loss of their son Michael scarred them, especially Adeline. Many unspeakable things live in this novel.

Something about this novel moved Ms. Hen in places she did not know could be moved. She was disgusted, but at the same time, could not look away. She kept reading to discover how more perverse this could become. Ms. Hen loved this novel. She likes being disturbed, and if that’s not your cup of tea, stay away from this novel! If it is, get ready to drink up the darkness and beauty within these pages.

Ms. Hen reviews Portrait of the Walrus by a Young Artist

Portrait of the Walrus by a Young Artist

Laurie Foos

1997

Coffee House Press

Ms. Hen read this novel several years ago when she took a class with Laurie Foos at the Boston Center for Adult Education when she was a student. She decided to read it again because she was doing research for a speech, and she wanted to refresh her memory of the book. It had been about seventeen years since the first time she read it, and that is a lot of time in a young hen’s life.

The first time Ms. Hen read this novel, she was dazzled by the magic of the story. This novel is about a teenage girl named Frances, who with lives with her mother and her stepfather, and her family is obsessed with bowling and pizza. She wants to be an artist like her father who had passed away. She sculpts sharks, but one day she goes to the aquarium and sees some walruses mating there, and she become obsessed with them. She writes fevered poetry about the walruses, and the walruses escape from the aquarium and chase her and her family friend/ employee, Bessie down the highway.

When she took the class with Laurie, she had a chance to ask her how the walruses escaped from the aquarium. Laurie said it was simply magic.

When Ms. Hen read the novel this time, she paid attention to Frances' desire to be an artist; however, she has to overcome the fact that she lives immersed in the world of bowling with her stepfather’s chain of bowling alleys. Frances’ father was an unstable artist who ate voraciously and came to the point where he never left the basement where he sculpted his chainsaw men, which made him a star in the art world. Frances becomes unstable also when she sees the walruses mating, and does not leave her room or bathe. Her mother does not understand art, and her stepfather is just as bad as her mother, but Bessie wants to help Frances, and she does what she can.

When she goes to the bowling alley with her family, Frances meets the man who makes pizza, Dirk, and they have a strange encounter. Dirk breaks into the house and attacks Frances, which disturbed Ms. Hen when she read it this time.  There is a lot of teenage angst in this novel, but Frances does not go to school, which Ms. Hen thinks is curious, and she also does not have any friends, which is unusual for a teenager. Ms. Hen tried to figure out why, but she thinks her father might have wanted her to be homeschooled, but that was never explained in the novel.

This novel has a lot of fairy tale qualities to it, and it’s magical and weird and full of sexual innuendo with Frances inspecting everyone’s underwear lines under their pants. Ms. Hen didn’t know if she would like this novel after reading it so many years ago, but for the most part, she did! It’s charming and odd, and that’s the type of thing that Ms. Hen fancies.

Ms. Hen reviews Lust for Life

Lust for Life

Irving Stone

Heritage Press

1934

Ms. Hen decided to read this novel because right now she is interested in books about art, and also historical fiction. She did a search for novels about artists, and this one appeared. She has always been interested in Van Gogh, and wanted to learn more about him. Years ago, she read the letters between Van Gogh and his brother Theo, but she had a difficult time enjoying that book. Ms. Hen decided she doesn’t like to plug through letters; she would rather read a novel.

Ms. Hen thought LUST FOR LIFE was gripping. It’s about Vincent and his journey towards becoming an artist. The novel follows through with his failures in life: in love, in his careers of choice, and his artwork. Each section is about a place where he lived, starting with London, then the Borinage, Etten, the Hauge, Paris, Arles, St. Remy, and Auvers.

Vincent had a failed love affair in London, where his landlord’s daughter rejected him. He obsessed over her, and refused to acknowledge she did not love him and was betrothed to another. He did not do well as a clerk in London, and his family suggested that he join the clergy. He wanted to be an evangelist, but he struggled with his studies. He was sent to the mining region, but he became neurotic about helping the impoverished miners. He was dismissed from working there, and went back to his parents’ house.

Everywhere Vincent went, he made a disaster of his life. He tried to learn to be an artist in the Hague, but he ended up living with a prostitute and driving his mentors away. When he went to live with his parents, a woman fell in love with him, and her family rejected him, and drove him out of town. He desperately worked at his art, but got no encouragement, and no respect. He was unstable and stubbornly refused to let anyone tell him he could not be an artist.

Ms. Hen admires Vincent because he persevered at his art, and did not let anyone tell him he didn’t have the capacity to do what he wanted. He never saw great success in his life, but he has posthumously. He was mentally ill, and it was possible he was never happy or content, but he lived a fascinating life.

Ms. Hen loved the scene where he went to Theo’s art gallery and saw the Impressionists for the first time. She thought it was beautiful that he was provoked and inspired by the light and colors of Monet and Pissarro and the others. Ms. Hen has had moments like that when she is reading or viewing a film or looking at art, if it’s something she’s never experienced before, she could be illuminated by a work.

Ms. Hen finally learned the true story about how Van Gogh cut off his ear. That was the incident that proved to everyone around him that he was truly insane. A prostitute chided him because he did not have any money to pay her, and she joked with him and told him that he could give her one of his ears as a payment. He went home, and cut off one of his ears and handed it to her wrapped in a package. When she saw it she fainted. He was put in the hospital, and not long after, the sanitarium.

Ms. Hen took her time reading this novel. It’s a very dense read, but worth the effort. Ms. Hen loves reading about unstable, but brilliant artists, because those are the kinds of people she connects with the most.

Ms. Hen and Van Gogh

Ms. Hen Celebrates the Truth

Ms. Hen and the elephant bag

Birthday 3/5/2019

           Once upon a time, there was a girl who was not like everyone else. At first she wanted to be like everyone else, but as she grew up, she gave up that notion. She knew she was strange, and she accepted it. She made a great attempt to appear as everyone else did; she did not have strange hair or clothes, and she tried to do things that normal people did, though it strained her.

            She walked through her life like a zombie sometimes, and occasionally she became a zombie. She didn’t know what to do. She thought she could have been like everyone else, but one dreary cold winter’s day, she decided there was no chance she would ever be normal. She decided to continue pretending like she was normal, to trick everyone, but she realized that was not her destiny.

            The heart is like a birdcage, if a bird is trapped, it might not flourish. If you let the bird free, it could fly out the window and never come back. Why would the bird come back if it has the option of flying in the blue sky, away from your prying eyes? She was the bird that became free because she let go of what people thought of her, flying high in the air, like she never cared, though it pained her to know that she couldn't be a clone, accepting the fallacies that we’re fed about the way our lives should be; she would be her own creature and silently tell the world to fuck off.