Ms. Hen reviews ROOM the novel

Ms. Hen drinks Nitro coffee and enjoys the world

ROOM

Emma Donoghue

Little, Brown

2010

Ms. Hen saw the film ROOM earlier this year, and she had heard that the book was completely through the little boy, Jack’s, point of view. She usually likes novels written from unique perspectives, so she decided to read this book.

Usually it’s a big no-no to see a film before you read a novel, but this novel is so different from the film that Ms. Hen believes it’s acceptable in this case. There are many similar plot points in both the film and the book, but what makes the book original is the voice.

The voice of Jack, the little boy held hostage for the first five years of his life, is a voice unlike Ms. Hen has ever read. When she saw the film, she was amazed that such a thing could happen, that a woman would be kidnapped, and her child could be born in captivity, and how it could ruin or warp a person forever, but Jack is a child that is willing to learn and capable of change. In the beginning of the novel, Jack and his mother are celebrating his birthday, and his mother wants to figure out how to escape. Jack doesn’t know any other world other than the 11 by 11 shed in which he lives with his mother, Room.

Jack’s mother tries to teach him about the world outside Room, but Jack gets upset. He thinks trees are only on TV, and stores and people aren’t real, but when he tries to understand, he fights it. Whenever he sees a spider or an ant in Room, he gets excited because it’s something that’s tangible, but his mother kills the ants and the pests because she tells him they’re dirty. His mother wants him to learn that the world is real, and she knows they have to plan their escape.

Ms. Hen was astounded at the author’s ability to stay in Jack’s voice for the entire novel. She understands that some people might find it annoying, but Ms. Hen thinks it’s a great feat for a writer. It’s similar to watching gymnasts in the Olympics, the audience wonders how the competitors can do amazing jumps and leaps and twists. It was that way for Ms. Hen reading this novel. It takes enormous talent and experience to write a novel from the point of view of a five-year-old who has never been outside a small room.

This novel is about motherhood, but it’s also about childhood. It made Ms. Hen try to remember what it was like to be five years old. Five is about the time when a child starts to realize things and remember things, and Ms. Hen thinks that Jack is realistic in the way he is depicted.

There are many ways in which Jack is a little too sophisticated for his age and experience. He remembers everything his mother told him, and it’s possible that since he was in such close contact with his mother, and she was the only person he knew, that he would be more advanced than other children his age. He knows words and stories that other children would not know.

ROOM is a sad novel, but it’s also full of hope. It could make the reader appreciate the things that person has in life, especially freedom. Ms. Hen thinks it’s worth reading this novel to experience what it’s like to have your eyes opened and to finally discover the world.

Ms. Hen reviews BY NIGHT THE MOUNTAIN BURNS

BY NIGHT THE MOUNTAIN BURNS

Juan Tomas Avila Laurel

Translated by Jethro Soutar

And Other Stories

2008, translation 2014

Ms. Hen happened to read this book because she had read an article about novels with a great sense of place, and this was one of them. And this novel indeed has a wonderful sense of place. Ms. Hen was brought into a world that is completely foreign to her own, an island off the coast of Equatorial Guinea, which is based on Annabon, but the name is never mentioned in the novel.

This is an island where a young boy lives in a house with his grandmother and grandfather, several mothers, no fathers and many children. The grandfather is sick, or the boy thinks he might be mad, but it is never explained to the children. On the island, men fish to feed their families. Since there are no men in the house of the narrator capable of fishing, the children go hungry at times. They crave fish because when they eat it, they love it, and they drip the water from the fish on their cassava bread.

Ms. Hen was brought to a world that she knew nothing about, to a timeless place. The novel could have taken place in the 1960s, or it could have been the nineteenth century. There is no technology, and there are no cars, and many of the houses do not have toilets.

There is a lot of discussion of the characters relieving themselves in this novel, more so than in most of the novels Ms. Hen reads. She’s not sure why this is. The people go to the beach at night to move their bowels, and the boys in the house share a bed they wet every night. Ms. Hen thinks this is a strange thing to discuss in a novel, but she realized that the people who live on this island might not have anything else to talk about, and everyone does this, so why not discuss it with each other.

The characters talk a lot with each other about everyone’s business. Every time a ship comes from another nation, men and women go to see if they can give them kerosene, alcohol, needles and things they don’t have. Some women get pregnant by the men on the ships and give birth to white children. They are not ostracized; they carry on with their lives.

Two women who become outcasts burn down the island by mistake and their mother is punished. The narrator doesn’t understand why the woman is tortured, and he has never seen anything so horrible. Life is difficult on the island, but there’s nothing the narrator can do. His main focus is finding food, but he has nobody to teach him to fish, since he does not have a father and his grandfather in incapable.

This novel makes Ms. Hen think of an allegory, but she knows that some of it is probably true. Magic exists on the island; the people believe in she-devils and superstitions that could seem silly to people in the west, but rule the lives of people in Africa. Ms. Hen thinks it’s a patriarchal view that some women could be witches, and not men. Where Ms. Hen lives, no women are accused of witchcraft, because that would be ridiculous. Ms. Hen is not a witch, and she doesn’t know any, and she doesn’t think she will meet any soon.

Even though Ms. Hen is not a witch, she is a hen, and she likes to find hens and chicken in novels. There were a handful of hens in BY NIGHT THE MOUNTAIN BURNS, and Ms. Hen was happy about this. The character complains about the lack of fish he gets to eat and wonders, “And don’t ask me why we didn’t raise hens, goats, or pigs on our island of unknown geographical coordinates.” Ms. Hen wondered this, too. Why should the gathering of food be left to the men? And what if there weren’t men around? Ms. Hen realizes that some things in this world don’t make any sense, but they are that way because that's the way they’ve always been.  

Ms. Hen enjoyed this novel, even though it made her sad. BY NIGHT THE MOUNTAIN BURNS is a bittersweet legend about an island trapped in time. Ms. Hen wishes that all the people on the island would have enough fish, and also that they would not be cruel to each other. But that’s the way the whole world should be.

Ms. Hen reviews THE IDIOT

THE IDIOT

Fyodor Dostoevsky

Vintage Classics

1868-9, translation 2001

Translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky

Ms. Hen likes to read heavy Russian novels in the middle of the summer. She does this because most of the time, she has more of an attention span to read something long when the sun shines all day. While most people are reading fluffy bestselling books on the beach, Ms. Hen reads about the torment of life in Russia in the nineteenth century.

Ms. Hen has read both THE BROTHERS KARAMASOV and CRIME AND PUNISHMENT during different summers. She liked CRIME AND PUNISHMENT the best, out of the three, because she thought it makes the most sense as a story, and the characters weren’t all completely unpleasant.

Ms. Hen read that THE IDIOT is the most autobiographical of all Dostoevsky’s novels. She also read that he wanted to write a novel that was the complete opposite of CRIME AND PUNISHMENT, one that surrounds a character that is completely innocent. But all the characters that are around the prince, or the idiot, are despicable.

The novel is about a young prince, Lev Nikoleavich Myshkin, who is traveling on a train to Petersburg from Switzerland where he had spent time recovering from an illness. He meets Roggozhin on the train and they talk about their lives. The prince tries to make his way in Petersburg, but quickly he becomes embroiled into Nastaya Filipovna’s life, which is a disaster. She is known as a disgraced woman, and everyone he meets tells him that.

The prince also meets the Epanchin family and becomes involved with them, especially Aglaya. All the people around him seem to take advantage of the prince’s naivete. He spent so much time in an asylum when he was young, that he doesn’t know the ways of society, and how things work amongst people. He doesn’t know that it isn’t deemed proper to associate with fallen women like Nastaya Filipovna, and it also isn’t right to say you will marry one woman, then take up with another.

Ms. Hen found reading this novel difficult because most of it consists of people standing around at a party, screaming and being horrible to each other. Even though the prince is an simple character, everyone in his circle is out to get everyone else, and are only interested in themselves. This made it difficult for Ms. Hen to pay attention to what was happening in the novel.

Some hens appeared in THE IDIOT, which made Ms. Hen happy. There was talk about dreams that are childish, “Once Alexandra Ivanovna saw nine hens in a dream, and this caused a formal quarrel between her and her mother – why – it is difficult to explain.” Dreaming of hens might be childish, but Ms. Hen doesn’t know why she should tell her mother and have a formal quarrel about it. Ms. Hen realizes that this novel took place in a different culture, and a different time. A lot of aspects of this novel made Ms. Hen cringe, for the way women were treated, and the ridiculousness of fighting duels, but she knows that she can’t do anything about the way the world used to be.

Ms. Hen thought this novel was difficult, and slow. It took her a very long time to finish. When she was reading, there seemed to be a lot of suffering on every page. Ms. Hen likes to read about people’s troubles that are not her own. There’s a special degree of torment that goes along with the Russian soul. Ms. Hen thinks she might have a piece of Russian soul inside her, even though she is not Russian, she feels as if she connects with Russia through a type of astral cord that she can’t control.

Ms. Hen reviews three films from Iceland

RAMS

Directed by Grimur Hakonarson

2016

REYKJAVIK 101

Directed by Baltasar Komarkur

2000

NOI THE ALBINO

Directed by Dagur Kari

2013

It’s been a hot summer where Ms. Hen lives. She doesn’t have decent air conditioning, and on hot days she sits inside with her fan, and sprays herself with a water bottle. She decided that it would be a good idea to watch films from Iceland in the middle of summer, since she thought watching people covered in snow might cool her off.

Films from Iceland are strange. Ms. Hen thinks it’s because Iceland must be an odd place, but she’s never been there. She’s heard people from Iceland are the happiest people because they don’t expect too much from life, all they need is a bottle of vodka and some fish, and they’re content.

In the film RAMS, two brothers, Gummi and Kiddi are neighbors, but they don’t speak. A plague hits Gummi’s sheep and all the sheep in town must be killed. The Icelandic farmers have a difficult life, so when Ms. Hen watched this, she didn’t feel too badly about her own. Gummi and Kiddi fight to save their own herd. Ms. Hen thinks that the scenery in this film is exquisite: a raw landscape similar to the moon. The snow in this film cooled Ms. Hen off.

REYKJAVIK 101 is a different type of film. Hlynur is thirty and lives with his mother, goes out drinking, and doesn’t have any goals. His mother’s friend, a Flamenco dancer from Spain, comes to stay with them and the situation becomes complicated. Another woman likes Hlynur, but he doesn’t want her, even though they’re sleeping together. Hlynur is interested in the Spanish woman, but is shocked when he finds out the truth about why she is staying with his family. There are lots of scenes of parties and bars, people drinking and dancing, and Ms. Hen thought these scenes appeared hectic. Ms. Hen thought Hlynur proclaimed a great line which sums up Iceland, “There are no insects and no trees. The only reason people live here is because they were born here.”

NOI THE ALBINO is about a young man with a troubled life. Noi doesn’t like to go to school, he lives with his father and grandmother, and there is nothing to do in the small village where he lives. He steals money from slot machines, and becomes interested in the young woman who works at the gas station. This is a film about someone who has bad luck, but in the end, his life could turn around. It’s about finding chances. Noi isn’t very smart, but he has ambition. Ms. Hen watched this on one of the hottest days of the year while sitting in front of her fan. The snow in this film appears to be so cold, that Ms. Hen could almost feel it.

Ms. Hen enjoyed watching these films from Iceland. Some other films that depict cold weather are FARGO, MARCH OF THE PENGUINS and any of the Harry Potter films. Ms. Hen is fascinated by Iceland and would like to go someday. Some people could think she lives in Reykjavik, because it might say that online, but that’s a joke. She doesn’t think she could live there, because she believes too much cold is not pleasant. What is pleasant is cooling off in the summer watching films full of snow.

Ms. Hen reviews GIGI and THE CAT

Mikki reading THE CAT with Ms. Hen

GIGI and THE CAT

By Colette

1944, 1933

Penguin Books

GIGI translated by Roger Senhouse THE CAT translated by Antonia White

Ms. Hen decided to read this book on a whim, because she had heard of Colette, and wanted to learn more about her writing. She looked up what is considered the best book by the author and found GIGI, along with THE CAT.

Ms. Hen was charmed by GIGI; she thinks the story is sweet, but difficult at the same time. It is about a family of women who do not marry. They have lovers and men who take care of them, but they are not the type to settle down. It’s difficult to discern what the philosophy behind the story is, but Ms. Hen thinks that the grandmother and the aunt and mother don’t want Gigi to get married because they don’t want her to be different from them. They want her to be pleasing to men, and they want her to understand her place in the world.

Ms. Hen thinks that Gigi’s transformation in the story is upsetting. The grandmother wants her to be kept by Gaston, but Gigi doesn’t want to be like the other women in the family. It seems to Ms. Hen that Gigi doesn’t have much say in what she does with her life. She can either get married or be a woman who does not marry. Ms. Hen thinks this is depressing, but she realizes that Gigi lived in different times. She didn’t have the option of getting an education and doing something important with her life or doing anything with her life other than having it revolve around a man, or several men.

Ms. Hen knew that GIGI was also a film from the 1950s, so she decided to watch it after she read the book. The movie made Ms. Hen uncomfortable. In the beginning, a man who is not a character in the story sings a song called, “Thank Heaven for Little Girls,” which Ms. Hen thinks is perverted. Ms. Hen thought the whole film was disgusting, it is an elongated version of the short story, but the difference is in the movie, Gigi actually loves Gaston. In the story Gigi had too much sense to fall for a fool like Gaston, but she knew what was important. Ms. Hen says no to the film, but a hesitant maybe to the story.

Ms. Hen has different ideas about THE CAT. This story is about a young couple, Alain and Camille, who are about to get married and Alain owns a cat named Saha. He loves his cat more than anything, but when he gets married the cat isn’t able to come live with them because they are staying in a small apartment. The cat gets depressed, and stops eating and loses weight because Alain leaves her, so he takes her to the apartment. Camille is jealous of Saha. Ms. Hen can’t imagine a woman being upset because her husband loves a cat. Ms. Hen thinks Camille is envious because she has nothing else to do with her days: she does not work, she doesn’t have any friends, she simply sits at home and waits for Alain to come home so they could spend time together.

Ms. Hen does not think that the story of THE CAT could happen in today’s society because women have better things to do than become jealous over a cat. But it’s an important story because it shows how women’s lives used to be, spending time waiting for a man to come home and hating the cat that shares his affections. Women love cats most of the time because they are delicate and feminine and mysterious like women, and they can be our co-conspirators.

Ms. Hen reads classics because she likes to learn about and be angry at the way the world used to be. These stories are entertaining, but they show a time and place where Ms. Hen does not live, and she’s glad she does not. One of the good things about this book is that it is very short, so reading about the women suffering in these stories does not take too long.

Ms. Hen reviews THE BLUE FLOWER

THE BLUE FLOWER

Penelope Fitzgerald

Mariner Books

1995

Ms. Hen had read about this novel in a couple of different places, and it seemed like something she would like to read, since it is a novel about a real-life writer, the poet known as Novalis who lived in the late eighteenth century Germany. Ms. Hen was immediately enthralled with the style of writing.

Something about the writing in this novel made Ms. Hen think that the author was attempting to copy the language of the era in which the novel takes place. Some of the characters are referred to with a “the” in front of their names, such as “The Bernhard.” The writing seems to drip off the page; it feels as if the reader is right there in Germany in the first chapter on washing day, when all the washing for a year was done. Ms. Hen could imagine how badly everything would smell if everyone only washed their clothes and their linens once a year.

The novel is about Friedrich von Hardenberg, later Novalis, who falls in love with a twelve-year-old girl, Sophie, when he is visiting her family home on business. Everyone around him does not understand his infatuation, because the girl is not up to par with him intellectually. Hardenberg does not inform his father of this for quite some time, and his brother Erasmus is angry about Friedrich’s intentions at first, but comes to love Sophie himself.

Sophie is a child, and has not been educated well, but she is beautiful and simple, and love has no explanation. People are upset about him being engaged to Sophie, including his father’s friend, Just, and his Just’s niece, Karoline, though she would never let Hardenberg know. Hardenberg is afraid his father will disown him if he marries Sophie, but there is nothing his father can do.

Some feminists might be angry about the way women are portrayed in this novel, but the things the characters say are views people held in the past. Some of the notions put forth by both men and women appear so preposterous today, that Ms. Hen had to laugh, if it weren’t so tragic that people used to believe things like this. But this aspect of the novel only served to make the story more believable; the reader gets involved in the age in which the novel took place, like going in a time machine, which quality historical fiction should do.

Even though this story is a tragic tale of love, humor abounds. Ms. Hen couldn’t help but be amused at the absurdity of the situations that these characters put themselves into, even though the comedy is dark. The lovers don’t understand each other, and nobody understand them, but that is the way life is sometimes, but we have to think it's funny at how ridiculous their actions are.

Ms. Hen thinks this novel is unlike any she has read. It is magical and real at the same time. Fairy tale elements exist in the novel, but at the same time, it’s based in reality. The writing is exquisite, like delicate porcelain painted with flowers and trees that Ms. Hen was afraid to drop and smash on the floor, but it is beautiful all the same.

Ms. Hen reviews DALVA

DALVA

Jim Harrison

Dutton/Lawrence

1991

Ms. Hen had never heard of Jim Harrison until he died earlier this year. He isn’t really her cup of tea: she isn’t into fiction about rural areas. She wasn’t sure about him, but one of her rooster friends sent her an interview with Harrison and she thought he said some cool things about writing. She wanted to read one of his novels, and finally got around to reading DALVA. She chose this book because it is about a woman.

Dalva is a woman who has had a lot of bad luck in her life, but she deals with it with her chin held high. Her father died in the Korean War after he survived World War II. Her first love abandons her, and she gets pregnant, then she becomes barren. She travels and has lots of jobs, but her roots are in Western Nebraska. Her family comes from money. She thinks that she has no father, no husband, and no son.

Since Ms. Hen doesn’t like books about the country and country people, she wasn’t sure she would like this. But she did. This book wasn’t boring – it moved along at a fast pace. There were many colorful characters in this novel, from Dalva to her mother, Naomi; her sister, Ruth; Lundquist; Michael. Also the descriptions of the countryside in Nebraska and Arizona are breathtaking. The author went to a lot of depth to describe both the characters and the setting.

Even though Ms. Hen loved this book, there seemed to be too much information at times. The writing was too deep, almost like the author was living in the book that he created. Ms. Hen was a little uncomfortable at the way Dalva was described at some points in the book. She thought that she is described through a man’s eyes, and if a woman wrote this book, she wouldn’t have been seen as such an object. Not that Ms. Hen doesn’t think that the author didn’t like his character, it’s that he sees her as something sexual, and the other male characters do as well. There are other aspects of Dalva which are important, but to the other male characters, she’s just beautiful.

The novel breaks into a different character’s point of view, Michael's, in the middle of the book. Michael is a flawed character, but he brings balance to Dalva’s strength. He is researching the family history through diaries that Dalva’s great-grandfather left behind, who survived the oppression of the Indians in the territories. The great-grandfather’s wife was Sioux, and he was an arborist who planted trees. He was devastated over the way the Americans treated the Indians, and the family has a secret, which Dalva and Michael discover.

Her quest to find the son that she gave up for adoption over twenty years ago causes Dalva a lot of pain. She doesn’t know what he will be like. She suffers because of a mistake she made when she was young. The mistake is bigger than she knows at first.

There is a smattering of chickens in this novel, which made Ms. Hen happy. Ms. Hen didn’t underline the passages, because she read a library book, but the characters were always eating chicken that was freshly plucked.

This novel is a broad sweep of a brush across a canvass. A lot of characters come and go, and are so richly drawn, Ms. Hen felt like she knew them, even though she hasn’t spent much time in rural areas. Ms. Hen felt sorry for Dalva, but she knew Dalva would survive, because that’s her nature.