Ms. Hen reviews The Collected Tales of Nikolai Gogol

 

The Collected Tales of Nikolai Gogol

Vintage Classics 1999

Translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky

Ms. Hen decided to read this book because she was researching the meaning of the term "Russian soul," and she learned that this idea started with Gogol. She usually likes to read a Russian book in March, around her birthday, but she's late doing this. She got this book from her local library.

The collection is in two sections: Ukrainian Tales and Petersburg Tales. She had read some of the Petersburg Tales before. She thinks the Ukrainian tales are dream-like and similar to fairy tales. Some of them are funny and some dark. She especially enjoyed, "The Night Before Christmas," with the way it turns and twists and transforms into different stories.

In the Petersburg Tales, Ms. Hen was struck by the story, "The Nose." It reminds Ms. Hen of Kafka's "The Metamorphosis," in the way that it is absurd, but Gogol's story is satire, and Kafka's is dark. In "The Nose," a man wakes up to find his nose gone. A barber's wife bakes the nose into a loaf of bread, and when the barber finds it he becomes dismayed.

In the story, "The Overcoat," the character is a titular councillor who needs a new overcoat, and saves money to buy one, but it's stolen. Ms. Hen learned that scholars think this is the best Russian short story ever written, and she can understand why. It's about the anguish of poverty and the ridiculousness of bureaucracy, which Ms. Hen found similar to Kafka's THE TRIAL. Ms. Hen has read "The Overcoat" before, but she still finds it compelling, because she always finds something different in it. The character evokes pathos, and his life gets worse and worse.

This collection took a long time for Ms. Hen to read. Not because it wasn't interesting to her, but she had other things going on while she read it. Lots of chickens appear in this book, which Ms. Hen liked a lot. Ms. Hen enjoys reading classics to learn how life was in the past. She thinks they are like time machines, instead of learning about history from a class or a non-fiction book, we can learn through the pages of book written a long time ago about the attitudes of people, and how different the world was back then. The world has changed, but we still have a long way to go.

Ms. Hen reviews Red Clocks

Red Clocks

Leni Zumas

Back Bay Books/ Little, Brown

2018

Ms. Hen read about this novel a while ago, and at first she didn't want to read it, because it's about how difficult it is to be a woman, and Ms. Hen already knows that. It's described as being similar to THE HANDMAID'S TALE, and it is, but it takes place in the very near, realistic future. Ms. Hen thinks it might be almost too realistic.

This novel is about women who live in a small town on the coast of Oregon. A biographer, a mother, a daughter, and a mender enter the novel and it's revealed that the biographer desires a child, but is not married, and is in her early forties, the mother is unhappy in motherhood, the daughter finds herself with an unwanted pregnancy, and the mender tries to heal people, lives in the woods, and shuns comforts and company.

The lives of the four women intertwine, and they want different things. The biographer is resentful of the mother's children, and her life. The daughter wants to have an abortion, but abortion is illegal in the United States. 

In vitro fertilization, and adoption by single people are also illegal. If a woman wants to go to Canada to have an abortion, she is arrested with a possible jail sentence. If a woman has an abortion, she can go to jail, and if someone performs an abortion, that person can also be arrested with possible jail time.

Ms. Hen was entranced by this novel. Not only is the writing exquisite, the characters and their lives were so realistic, Ms. Hen thinks that they are people she could know. She loved all the characters, but was especially interested in the Mender, because she is so strange. Ms. Hen doesn't know anyone like that, but she imagines there are people like her. Hermits, who stay away from people, prefer animals, don't like artificial food or fabrics, and know ways to heal with herbs.

Ms. Hen breezed through this novel. She thinks it might be one of the best books she read this year. She thinks it's important, because it looks at all the stages of being a woman, and how the different characters handle their lives. Reality can be a difficult thing to handle, and most of the time, Ms. Hen does not like to face it. She reads her books and looks at the trees, and the world keeps going on. The birds still sing in the spring, and always have.
 

Ms. Hen reviews Remote Control

 

Remote Control

Nnedi Okorafor

Tordotcom Books

2020

Ms. Hen decided to read this novel, because she had read another by this author recently, NOOR, and wanted more. This novel is very different in the way that it is a fable or a fairy tale, and is very short. Ms. Hen read this quickly.

This novel is about a young girl named, Sankofa, known as the adopted child of the Angel of Death. She has powers that others do not understand. She can glow green, and she cannot touch technology, because she will break it. She travels to towns in Ghana where she is invited into people's houses, but everyone is afraid of her.

She received her power from a seed. Her family and entire town died because of her, but she didn't understand why. She is alone in the world, and wants to go back home, and when she goes home, her town is transformed. 

This novel is written like a fable. It's about a girl who is alone, and she wants to be accepted. Some of this novel reminded Ms. Hen of stories of witch hunts. People do not understand Sankofa; they drive her out, and try to kill her. Other aspects remind her of the story of the Midas touch, where the characters turns everything into gold by touching it. This is similar, but instead of turning things to gold, Sankofa breaks them, or she kills people.

Ms. Hen liked the simple way this novel is written. It's almost like a children's book, except adult issues are discussed. Ms. Hen admires the writing style.

Ms. Hen recommends this novel, but the reader has to be prepared for something weird. When she first started reading it, she wasn't into it, because her head was still swimming with the previous novel she read. That happens sometimes, when her head is so full, that it needs to take a break. REMOTE CONTROL packs a punch, but be ready to travel to a strange place.

Ms. Hen reviews All the Light We Cannot See

All the Light We Cannot See

Anthony Doerr

Scribner

2014

Ms. Hen decided to read this novel because she had read about it, and had been meaning to get to it for a while. It was recommended to her, and when she started reading it, she realized it was the perfect book for her in that moment. She usually shies away from reading really long books, but this moved fast, and she gulped it down.

This novel is about a young blind girl, Marie Laure, who lives in France, and a young man, Werner, who lives in Germany during World War II. The narrative darts back and forth between these two characters, and we learn about Marie Laure's life with her father in Paris; he works at the Museum of Natural History as a locksmith, and they leave for the north of France at the outbreak of the war.

Werner is an orphan in Germany, but he has talent with electronics and radios, and he goes to school to learn to be a soldier, but he is sensitive and does not totally embrace the Nazi ideals. Werner's and Marie Laure's lives intersect. A stone called the Sea of Flames lies hidden in the museum, legend has it that it is a cursed stone, and whoever is in possession of it will live forever, but their loved ones will perish.

Ms. Hen loved the way this novel moved back and forth between the two characters, and also between time periods. She thinks there is enough mystery to keep the reader reading, and the chapters are short, so this is a fast read. The novel is also a thriller, and Ms. Hen didn't know what would happen in the end.

Ms. Hen thinks the writing in this novel is exquisite and precise. Each word is carefully placed where it is. She also admires the way the author wrote the sections about Marie Laure, and how she moves in the world. It's difficult to write about a blind person, but reading these parts made Ms. Hen understand that the character would smell odors on people others would not, and hearing sounds and understanding what they mean that seeing people would not be able to decipher. Writing about disabled people can be challenging, but the author succeeds in this.

Ms. Hen thinks this book is lovely, and she understand why it is critically acclaimed. It's a tender novel about life and love and war, and Ms. Hen would recommend it to anyone who wishes to be swept away.