Ms. Hen reviews One of Ours

 

One of Ours

Willa Cather

Alfred A. Knopf

1922

 

Ms. Hen wanted to read about the Spanish flu in 1918, so she did some research, and discovered that there is not a lot of fiction written about this event. She thinks the reason is that writers were too busy contemplating the Great War, because nothing like that had happened before. Pandemics had happened previously throughout history. She found out that this novel mentions the Spanish flu briefly when the character is going over on a ship to fight in Europe in the war.

 

This novel is about a young man, Claude, who isn’t much to talk about at first. He goes to college to a school he doesn’t like, but he tries to make the best of it. His father decides to move to Colorado to take over his friend’s ranch, and leaves the farm in Nebraska in Claude’s charge, so he has to drop out of school. Claude is upset about this. He gets married to a woman who is not that interested in him. Everyone thinks Claude is a disappointment, and will never amount to anything.

 

Claude enlists in the army when America joins the war. He goes back to his town on leave before he ships off, and everyone is impressed by his uniform and new confidence. They think he has gotten taller since joining the army. When going over on the ship, a lot of men get sick and die, and Claude helps nurse them. He comes to the conclusion that this is the first time his life means something, In France, he leads the men in fighting and he meets the locals and grows to love the country. He fantasizes of owning a French farm after the war is over. Ms. Hen found the end of the novel moving.

 

This novel reminds Ms. Hen of another she has read, STONER. That novel is about a man who just isn’t good enough, and he continues that way his entire life. They’re similar in that way, and also the time period in which it takes places, but at the end of ONE OF OURS, Claude redeems himself, and finds his true purpose.

 

Ms. Hen wanted to read some criticism about this novel, so she looked it up, and found out that Ernest Hemingway was surprised at the sales of this, and was unimpressed by Cather’s description of war. He said that he thought that the last scene was straight out of BIRTH OF A NATION, which might be true, but one hundred years later practically nobody has seen this film. Ms. Hen thinks he was being snarky. (Ms. Hen watched BIRTH OF A NATION after she finished ONE OF OURS, and the film traumatized her, because it’s disturbing. It’s free on YouTube.) Of course Cather had never been to war. That doesn’t mean this novel doesn’t have merit.

 

There are too many chickens in this novel to mention. A lot of this novel takes place on a farm in Nebraska. Ms. Hen thinks this is a beautiful novel, and she recommends it to anyone who is feeling down about the world, because it will make you feel better. Sometimes life can take a curve, and you end up where you were supposed to be, and you can find meaning. Claude’s life is similar to the hero’s journey, he has ups and downs, but in the end he shines.

Ms. Hen reviews Brick Lane

Brick Lane

Monica Ali

Scribner

2003

 

 

Ms. Hen decided to read BRICK LANE because a rooster friend recommended it to her, and she is always fascinated by immigrant stories, especially Asian immigrant stories. Ms. Hen loves to read about people who are completely different than she is, possibly because she understands the world is bigger than what she knows.

 

This novel is about a young woman from Bangladesh, Nanzeen, who moves to London to be with the man her father chose for her. She doesn’t like leaving her sister and the village of their youth. When she is in London, she struggles to get by; her husband does not let her work at first, and she does not leave the flat that much. She makes friends with some of the neighboring women, but she is unhappy.

 

One thing that helps her get by is the letters from her sister. She misses her sister more than her country. Her sister gets into trouble when she runs off to marry a man and doesn’t tell anyone, and gets into further trouble when he leaves her. Nanzeen’s husband talks endlessly about returning home, he is a man who talks big, but his pontifications don’t always amount to much. Their two daughters are terrified of going to Bangladesh, and don’t want to go. Nanzeen has a younger lover who wants to marry her, but she does not know what she should do at first, but she decides eventually.

 

This novel reminds Ms. Hen of the last one she read, GIRL IN TRANSLATION, in the way that it’s about an immigrant, and even though they are different, they have a similar yearning for someone: Nanzeen for her sister, and Kimberly for her father who is gone. There’s a chance Nanzeen will never see her sister again. Even though her husband is a windbag, he has a good heart, and he wants Nanzeen to be happy, and he believes returning to Bangladesh and seeing her sister again would make her happy.

 

Chickens abound on these pages. There are so many! Ms. Hen was tickled. Nanzeen imagines the village where she grew up, “For a couple of beats, she closed her eyes and smelled the jasmine that grew close to the well, heard the chickens scratching the hot earth, felt the sunlight that warmed her cheeks and made dancing patterns on her eyelids.” Ms. Hen thinks this is a beautiful description that involves chickens. A lot of poetic flourishes are in this novel, and it contains many colorful descriptions. The author has a melodious voice that helps the reader imagine the places and situations she wants to convey.

 

Ms. Hen thinks this is a beautiful novel. It’s about a woman who does not have a lot of power in her life, but she works with what she has. Some people don’t have choices to make, they are victims of destiny, but they take a turn and do what they want to do, and try to take matters into their own hands. That’s what Nanzeen does. She wants to life live on her terms, and she tries to control what happens to her in the end.