Ms. Hen reviews The Thirteenth Tale

 

The Thirteenth Tale

Diane Setterfield

Washington Square Press

2006

Ms. Hen decided to read this novel because she found it in one of the Little Free Library boxes near where she lives. She doesn't remember which one it was, and she picked up the book because she liked the cover and read the back and it sounded intriguing to her. She had never heard of the book, but she understands it was a bestseller when it came out.

Margaret Lea is a young woman who works in a bookstore with her father. She has always lived in books, but prefers nineteenth century tales because they have a definite ending: people get married, or someone dies, or a tragedy occurs. She is summoned by a famous writer, Vida Winter, to write her biography, but she hesitates, because she has never read any of the author's books, but she devours some of them and decides to take on the task. She travels to Miss Winter's home in Yorkshire to meet her and write her story.

The novel becomes a story within a story, with Miss Winter's life story intertwined with Margaret's. She tells Margaret of her mother and uncle and her own life with her twin sister in the strange house. The novel takes twists and the way it turns out is not the way appeared to be. This is a ghost story, and a story about a family and siblings, and the horrible things people do to the ones they love.

Ms. Hen thought it was difficult to get into this novel at first. She thought the language was a little too wordy and flowery for her taste. But she became involved in the story about the twins and their dysfunctional lives, and she fell into the novel. Most of the novel takes place in the winter, near Christmas, and Ms. Hen enjoyed reading it during the holiday. On Christmas day, she sat on a chair and read this book and ate chocolates most of the day and enjoyed herself.

This novel is written in the Gothic style, and people don't write like this anymore. When Ms. Hen was in writing school, she was taught that the American style of writing should be clear and simple, not too flowery or poetic, even for poets. KISS or Keep It Simple Stupid was one of the things she learned somewhere in her academic career, but that might have been when she was an undergrad. Ms. Setterfield might be able to get away with writing like this, since she is not American. It's difficult to be an American when such high standards and expectations are held for us, but Ms. Hen does her best to attempt to write as clearly as she can.

Even though this book is loquacious, Ms. Hen enjoyed it. She likes a good scare now and then, especially in the winter, when it's dark, and she knows there are ghosts around watching her, and waiting until the time is right to bring fear or music back into her existence.

Ms. Hen reviews her Silent Saturdays

 

Ms. Hen created an event this past fall in which she watched silent films, mostly from the 1920s every Saturday. She calls this Silent Saturday. 

She did this because she wanted to learn about the history of these films by watching them. She thinks it's fascinating to see how people lived one hundred years ago, the hairstyles they had, the clothes they wore, and the way they moved, the visual aspects and even the attitudes of the people were so different from the way we are now.

The following is a list of most of the films Ms. Hen watched. She may have missed a couple.

INTOLERANCE 1916

THE LITTLE AMERICAN 1917

BIRTH OF A NATION 1915

TARZAN OF THE APES 1918

ARIZONA 1918

THE HOMESTEADER 1919

DR JEKYLL AND MR HYDE 1920

THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA 1925

NOSFERATU 1922

THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME 1923

THE KID 1921

A WOMAN OF PARIS 1923

THE GOLD RUSH 1925

THE TRAMP 1915

THE FIREMAN 1916

WORK 1915

ASPHALT 1929

FAUST 1926

DIE PUPPE "THE DOLL" 1919

SHERLOCK JUNIOR 1929

ALICE IN WONDERLAND 1915

METROPOLIS 1927

Ms. Hen enjoyed watching all these films, and she studied them along the way. She initially watched them sequentially by year, but it became October and she watched Halloween movies such as THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA and DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE, also THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME and NOSFERATU, which she learned is the same story as DRACULA, but the name were changed. The people who made NOSFERATU were sued by the Bram Stoker estate and told to destroy all copies of the film, but they didn't.

The people who made these films didn't have a lot of special effects available, but Ms. Hen noticed while watching the horror movies that a lot of shadows are employed for dramatic effect, which Ms. Hen thinks are not used much anymore in film.

Ms. Hen watched a smattering of Charlie Chaplin films, which she thinks is necessary, since she believes he is the only person who worked in silent film whose name is still a household word. She enjoyed THE KID, and thought it was charming, but the short comedies are a little too punchy for her. The characters are always setting themselves on fire, falling into water buckets, and poking each other with pitchforks. Ms. Hen knows that this style of comedy is derived from vaudeville, and it reminds her of the cartoons she watched as a child, such as TOM AND JERRY and THE ROADRUNNER, which undoubtedly were inspired by these films.

Ms. Hen watched a handful of German films, which she enjoyed. She had seen THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI a few times before and didn't watch that. She liked FAUST and thought it was scary enough, and the special effects were advanced for the time. DIE PUPPE is like nothing she's ever seen, and though it's short, it pops out with its creativity and charm.

As for ALICE IN WONDERLAND, Ms. Hen thinks it's wonderful, but she was disappointed there is no Mad Hatter's tea party scene. She decided to end her Silent Saturdays with METROPOLIS. Ms. Hen had seen it before, but she thinks the first time she wasn't ready. It is one of the first science fiction films, and is exactly what Ms. Hen likes.

Ms. Hen enjoys watching silent films because to her, they are a window to the past. Ms. Hen is taking a break from Silent Saturdays for a while. She might start watching them again at the end of January. She's taking a type of winter break. 

All these films are available free on Youtube.

Ms. Hen reviews The Way of Love

 

The Way of Love

Nigel Watts

Thorsons

1999

Ms. Hen decided to read this novel because she was scrounging around for books, and her hen sister had this from when she was in college. This book is about Rumi, the Sufi mystic poet, and Ms, Hen had always wanted to learn more about him. She understands that people admire his poetry, even though she has not read a lot of it.

This novel centers around the friendship between Rumi, who is referred to as Jalal in this novel and his friend and teacher Shams. Jalal was already a respected imam who teaches college in his town. He is married and has two sons. Shams arrives one day and shatters Jalal's world. The two men spend time alone together in a small room, barely eating or drinking; they simply meditate and grow to understand each other in their silence.

Jalal's wife is upset that she is not part of their friendship. She thinks that since she is his wife, she should be more important than a man who is Jalal's mentor. Shams goes away for a while, but Jalal finds him. Jalal starts to whirl, and he goes out of time, able to understand things that are not clear to him at other times. The people in the town don't like how Jalal is unnaturally obsessed with Shams. Jalal's son deceives him, and it devastates him.

Ms. Hen thinks this book might be considered a thirteen century bromance, if such a word existed back then. This novel was based on a real friendship of Rumi's with a mystic named Shams, and how people reacted to them. Ms. Hen does not know if it was unnatural for men to be so closely attached to each other in those days.

When Jalal first meets Shams he runs from him, "' I'm not ready, I'm not ready,' Jalal shouted over his shoulder, darting past children, setting chickens flapping and squawking." The chickens appear right at the moment when he meets Shams, which is an important moment in his life.

Ms. Hen liked this novel, but she found herself distracted by it. She thinks it's an important story, although it's a little weird. Ms. Hen is okay with weird most of the time, but bromance isn't really her things. Also, she thinks that two men alone in a room together for weeks on end would be unsanitary and odorous.

Ms. Hen reviews The King's Nun

 

The King's Nun

Catherine Monroe

New American Library

2007

Ms. Hen decided to read this because she picked it up a while ago at a Little Free Library near where she lives. She does not read a lot of historical fiction, but she does like it sometimes. She felt that she needed to read something light and breezy after working through DUNE.

This novel is about a young novice, Amelia, who lives in Munster-Biltzen Abbey in the year 793. She is on the verge of making her final vows, and she is studying farming and architecture in the abbey's library. King Charles comes to visit, and the Abbess offers Amelia to take him on a guided tour of the abbey. They are in dire need of assistance of books and lumber, and the abbess thinks Amelia could persuade the king to help them. Amelia and King Charles have a lively conversation, but she is eager to get back to studying. He is impressed with her, and sends for her to come to the palace for advice.

Amelia has no idea what the king would need to ask her advice on, but he thinks he needs a woman's ear on the subject of his son, who is trouble. She tells him that his son should be sent to an abbey to become a monk, and that would help him. Charles and Amelia talk and enjoy themselves. She does not think she should be attracted to him, since she is about to become a nun, but she can't help it. She discovers the next day that Charles' daughter is supposed to become to new abbess of Munster-Biltzen, which Amelia hope would be her position. She is upset, but tells Charles that she was sinful in coveting becoming the abbess.

Ms. Hen did not know what to expect from this novel at first. She thought it was a romance novel, or a fluffy women's fiction book, but it is not like that. She does not know how realistic it is, because she has not studied the history of this era in depth, and some of the female characters seem a little too progressive to have lived in that time, but Ms. Hen is not sure how they actually thought and behaved themselves. Ms. Hen was pleasantly surprised at how this turned out, because she was not ready to have it turned into a fairy tale. Life is not a fairy tale, and Ms. Hen knows this is true.

There are some decent example of the use of a "Chekov's gun" in this novel. That is, what is expected to happen does happen. The idea is, if you mention a gun in the first act, it has to go off by the fifth act. The Vikings are mentioned as dangerous men who should be feared, and Ms. Hen would have been disappointed if none had showed up, even though when they did, it was horrifying.

There are some hens mentioned in this novel, which Ms. Hen liked. Amelia stayed with some Jewish people while building a church in their village, and helping them with farming, and she would assist the wife, Judith, with housework, and they would talk while they worked. Judith said to her, "One cackling hen is tiresome, two can send a man to eternal rest." Ms. Hen thinks this is charming, if not quite true.

Ms. Hen thinks this novel is a nice, sweet book about a nun in the Middle Ages who tried to find her own way in the world. It was based on a footnote in history, so there was some truth to Charlemagne seeking the advice of a nun. The author spun a story out of a small piece of history, and whether or not it was true is not important, it's the hints of truth that speak to the reader and let her uncover what could have been.

Ms. Hen reviews Dune

Dune

Frank Herbert

Penguin Random House

1965

Ms. Hen decided to read this because she knows it is in the cannon of great science fiction. She didn’t know anything about it before she started reading it, and didn’t realize until then that it is all science fiction. She doesn’t usually read dense, heavy sci-fi, she mostly reads speculative fiction that is more contemporary. This book took a long time to read.

This novel is about a young man, Paul, son of Duke Leto and his concubine, Jessica. Jessica has trained him in the Bene Gesserit ways of paying attention, and always being aware of what is going on, among other things. The family moves from Caladan, a temperate planet to Arrakis, a desert planet, with little water. Shortly after they arrive, a coup occurs and Paul and Jessica escape from their captors and end up with the Fremen, desert people who live in the dunes.

Paul becomes Muad’Dib, the leader of the group, and his mother becomes the Reverend Mother. They live in the dunes and learn to scrape water where they can, and doing their best to not waste water. When someone cried over the death of a person, it is said that person is wasting water. They survive in the dunes how they can.

Ms. Hen knows this book was published before STAR TREK came out, and also before STAR WARS, and there are similarities to both of those. The people are humans in space in the future, like in STAR TREK. The desert planet is reminiscent of Tatooine on STAR WARS, also the Bene Gesserits resemble Jedis, but they are all women. Ms. Hen thought it was interesting that the author based Jessica on his wife, and also Jungian psychology. Ms. Hen also thinks that the Bene Gesserits are similar to the spiritual leaders of the Bjorans, on STAR TREK DEEP SPACE NINE.

When she started reading this, Ms. Hen wondered what it is about men who write epic sagas. It seems to her that all the really large books and series are written by men. She did some research about some writers to find out about their personal lives, and she found that Tolstoy, Tolkien and Frank Herbert were all married and had women who took care of them, who most likely made dinner and kept the house clean. Tolstoy’s wife was his secretary, and made clean copies of his books. Frank Herbert’s wife worked in advertising full-time for a while, which enabled him to write undisturbed. Proust, however, was not married; he was gay, but he was wealthy, and that gave him freedom to write. Ms. Hen thinks that women tend to not write large books because they have too many things to do besides writing. Ms. Hen believes that the world exists to keep writers from writing.

Ms. Hen liked this book, but she thought it was a little long. She found that she grew impatient with it, and her mind would wander. However, she thinks it’s a beautiful book, and an important one because it points out the importance of ecology and water. She would like to become a Bene Gesserit, if that was possible. It’s also a pleasant book to read when the weather is cold, because it’s about a desert, and it made Ms. Hen warm when she was reading it.