Ms. Hen reviews Julia

 

Julia

Sandra Newman

Harper Collins

2023

Ms. Hen decided to read this novel because she has always been fascinated with 1984 and dystopian fiction. She heard the author on the radio recently talking about writing the book, and she said she lived in a totalitarian world while she immersed herself in it. Ms. Hen decided to read this during the Christmas season, because nothing says Christmas like dystopian fiction.

This novel is about Winston Smith's lover, Julia, from 1984. It's a feminist retelling of the novel. Ms. Hen came to realize that Julia was much more important to Winston than he was to her.

Julia works in the Ministry of Truth as a mechanic. She has had many lovers, and she works on getting Winston to become her lover because she thinks he's attractive. She lives in a hostel with a group of women, and they get along. Telescreens sit by their beds and play while they sleep. 

Julia prowls the prole district to buy black market goods. She and Winston become lovers, and she has other lovers at the same time. She works for the Thought Police in trying to expose the men. A telescreen is behind the painting in the room where she has her affairs. She gets arrested and is sent to the Ministry of Love.

This novel reminds Ms. Hen of other novels that are written now about bad women, such as EILEEN and MY YEAR OF REST AND RELAXATION by Ottessa Moshfegh. In these types of novels a woman is an anti-hero, unlike traditional women characters who are kind and nurturing and enjoy helping other people. These women are out for themselves, like to have a good time, have their own agenda, and enjoy being bad for bad's sake, but the reader can't help rooting for them. JULIA is like this.

Julia is a woman who has had a complicated life history, and she is dysfunctional is ways that are incomprehensible in today's world. She grew up in a totalitarian state, and learned that she had to survive by lying and cheating early in life, and she spends her time in pursuits of things that seem pointless, but she does these things to survive.

Ms. Hen thinks this is an important novel, and one that fans of Orwell's 1984 should read. Julia is an important character, and she ends up in a strange place, but Ms. Hen knows that she will find a way to survive.

Ms. Hen reviews A Modern Mephistopheles

 

A Modern Mephistopheles

Louisa May Alcott

Robert Brothers

1877

Ms. Hen bought this book when she went to Louisa May Alcott's house, the Orchard House, recently for the Christmas living history presentation they have during the holiday season. Ms. Hen saw Louisa May Alcott and her family members as they were preparing for Christmas.

Ms. Hen knew that Alcott preferred to write thrillers, and did not like writing LITTLE WOMEN. This novel was published anonymously, the only dark book published in her lifetime.

This novel is about a writer, Felix Canaris, who is about to give up hope, but meets a man, Jasper Helwyze, who says he will help him. He helps him publish a book of poetry, and it is a great success, and he becomes famous. Helwyze tells him to marry a young woman, even though Canaris does not love her.

Helwyze plays with Canaris; they live together, and he demands that Canaris do everything he says. Helwyze torments Canaris' wife, Gladys, and he makes her look like a fool. The ending is so dark that Ms. Hen lost a little faith in the world.

Ms. Hen thinks this novel could be considered a morality tale, meaning to teach people to beware of those who offer things that seem too good to be true. Ms. Hen is aware that people in those days were not as worldly as they are now; some of them were too pious to see reality, and some thirsted for fame so much that they could see nothing else.

One part of this novel interested Ms. Hen. Helwyze gives Gladys bonbons laced with hashish, which apparently were the edibles of the nineteenth century. Gladys does not know she has been drugged, and performs a play for the men.

Ms. Hen really didn't like the writing style of this book. She thinks it's a little too old-fashioned for her taste. She reads classics, but something about the writing in this book was difficult. She thinks it might not have been edited well.

Even so, Ms. Hen thinks this is an important novel, because it shows a darker side of the Louisa May Alcott we all know so well. She wonders if all the people who work at the Orchard House know what a strange person Louisa truly was, and what bizarre books she could write. People are complicated, and the women of her time were supposed to be good and nurturing, but Louisa had her own way of living and writing, and Ms. Hen applauds that.

Ms. Hen at the Orchard House

Ms. Hen reviews Every Heart a Doorway

 

Every Heart a Doorway

Seanan McGuire

Tor Books

2016

Ms. Hen decided to read this book because it was recommended on Book Riot a while ago. She thought it sounded like something she would enjoy.

This book centers around Nancy, who is a new girl at a boarding school for children who have come back from magical lands. She went to a place called The Halls of the Dead, and has a difficult time adjusting to being back in the real world. Her roommate is Sumi, a girl who went to a High Nonsense World, who is fast with her hands.

Nancy makes friends with Jack and Jill who had been in the Moors, another dark world, and Kade, who she thinks is cute, but she is not interested in boys. The children go to therapy at the school, and have classes. The headmistress, Eleanor, went to a High Nonsense world, is younger than she seems, and dresses in mismatched clothes. Some dangerous things happen at the school, and the children need to learn to handle them.

This novel is a combination between GIRL, INTERRUPTED, HARRY POTTER, and SHERLOCK HOLMES. It's a lot of things mixed into one: it's about a magical school, but they have therapy, and there is a mystery involved.

Ms. Hen liked this novel, but it left her wanting more. There is a lot of discussion about magical worlds, but the narration does not actually go to one of them, which Ms. Hen wishes it would. She loves the description of the worlds where the children went: such as the spider country, where the Loriel lived with the spiders, and the skeleton land, where Christopher learned to talk with bones.

Even though this book is wanting in parts, Ms. Hen still liked it. This novel is a fast read. There are nine books in this series, and Ms. Hen might read some more, because she would like to see if the characters travel to their countries, because Ms. Hen would like to go to them, to see what it's like to experience a magical land.

Ms. Hen reviews Running with Scissors

 

Running with Scissors

Augusten Burrows

Picador

2002

Ms. Hen decided to read this because she found it at a Little Free Library near where she lives. Someone she knew had read it years ago, and she always remembered the title.

This is a book based on the author's true story, but he claims it is not a memoir.

This is the story of young Augusten and his dysfunctional life. His mother was a poet, and struggled with mental illness. His father was an alcoholic, and was not very responsive. His mother sent him to live part-time with her psychiatrist when she got a divorce, and was having a difficult time with her life.

Augusten's life in the psychiatrist's house was unconventional and never boring. The doctor had children, and the house was a mess, and they had some adopted children, and a patient that lived in the house, and never left her room. Augusten became good friends with Natalie, who was around his age. They got in trouble together. His mother became more unstable, and his situation was like that as well. He didn't go to school, but wanted to be a doctor, or own a hair empire.

When Ms. Hen first started reading this book, she didn't like it; she didn't like the way the mother was portrayed, because she seemed cartoonish, and Ms. Hen didn't think the story was funny. But as she got into the book, she liked it, because it's like being a voyeur into someone else's twisted life. 

Ms. Hen thought she knew about mental illness, but the doctor in this book is completely off the rails, and she does not understand how someone like this could practice psychiatry.

After she finished the book, Ms. Hen wondered what the point of it was. None of the characters are likable, and they don't have any redeeming qualities. The protagonist is a selfish, cruel, weird young man, and his mother is sick, and the family he stays with is demented.

Ms. Hen thinks the author might have written this as a sensational book to make the people in his life look bad.

Ms. Hen learned that the family portrayed in RUNNING WITH SCISSORS took the author to court and they lost. Ms. Hen understands why. If a book is not a memoir, then it is not the truth. Writing is a funny business, and some people write for questionable reasons. 

Ms. Hen isn't sure if she liked this or if she didn't, but while she was reading it, she thought it was a fun romp. She thinks that might be the whole point. 

Ms. Hen reviews Behind the Mountains

 

Behind the Mountains

Edwidge Danticat

Orchard Books

2002

Ms. Hen decided to read this novel because she has read other books by this author. She saw it at a thrift shop, but could not carry it with her, but she went back a month later, and it was still there.

This novel is about a thirteen-year old girl named Celiane in rural Haiti. She receives a journal from her teacher, and writes about her life. She is intelligent and gets good grades in school. She lives with her mother and brother, but her father lives in New York. He sends them money, and they plan to move there to live with him.

Celiane and her mother and brother visit her father's sister, Tante Rose, in the city. She works as a nurse, and is successful. Elections are happening, and violence erupts in the city and all over the country. Tante Rose helps the family gets visas to New York after a bomb hits their van while they were on the way home. The family goes to New York. 

This novel is very easy to read. Ms. Hen did not realize that it's a novel for young adults until after she finished reading it. The book is very calming, even though there is violence, and parts are scary when Celiane is in the hospital, and she doesn't know if her mother is dead. Ms. Hen found this novel a stark contrast to the last novel she read, DAVID COPPERFIELD, which is long and winding, and complicated. 

Ms. Hen thinks it's good to escape into a world which she knows nothing about, but is beautifully written. Being an immigrant is difficult, and this novel opens a window to what it means to leave your country, and live somewhere completely different. Ms. Hen has never left her country, but everyone has different issues, that is what makes the world a diverse and beautiful place.