Ms. Hen reviews THE AUTOGRAPH MAN

The Autograph Man

Zadie Smith

Random House

2002

Ms. Hen picked this book up because she read WHITE TEETH last year and enjoyed it. This book is different, but charming in its own way. It is about young man, Alex-Li Tandem, who collects, and buys and sells autographs for a living.

Alex is half Jewish and half Chinese. The opening scene shows Alex with his friends and his father at a wrestling match. Alex is getting an autograph from a wrestler with his new friend, Joseph, who introduces him to collecting autographs at the arena, and Alex's father dies right there. This scars him permanently.

The novel follows Alex-Li through the train wreck of his life. He’s a mess. In the beginning, he has done some type of drug, and does not know how he has spent the past few days. Every one of his friends is angry with him. He is obsessed with the obscure film star Kitty Alexander because her autograph is the hardest to obtain, since she hardly ever signed any. He writes letters to her describing what he imagines her own life to be.

Alex’s girlfriend, Esther, has a pacemaker, which he loves. Ms. Hen has not read many novels in which young people have pacemakers, so she thinks this is quirky. Currently Ms. Hen knows a lot about them, since it’s her day job. She didn’t know that you could see them under the skin, and touch them. Alex does this in a way that is erotic, which Ms. Hen thinks is odd. But Alex is an odd character.

This novel has a lot of Jewish mysticism in it. Alex’s friend, Adam, is interested in this subject. Adam is trying to get Alex to say Kaddish for his father, since he never did when his father first died. Adam tells Alex that this is important, that he should respect the dead, but Alex doesn’t want to do it, because his father was Chinese, and also because he is afraid.

This is a very loud novel. It races around from place to place, from person to person, and does not stop. Ms. Hen couldn’t figure out if she liked Alex or if she didn’t. He is a type of jerk that Ms. Hen doesn’t think she would want to hang out with. But he has fascinating qualities, obsessions that he would not let go. Ms. Hen doesn’t know if this is supposed to make Alex appealing.

This book is paced very well. It seems as if there are plot points along the way, which are turning points, such as the way a film is supposed to be written. There are moments when the story changes, and the action rises and falls. Ms. Hen admires this, and she knows it takes skill to write this way.

Ms. Hen liked this novel, but she didn’t love the character. There was something unpleasant about him. She doesn’t think this is the best novel she has read recently, but it is entertaining. It isn’t enlightening or beautiful or poignant. It’s just a fast-paced romp through one guy’s messed up, but cool life.

Ms. Hen reviews LISETTE'S LIST

Lisette’s List

Susan Vreeland

Random House

2014

Ms. Hen picked up this book at a Little Free Library near her house, because she had read another book by this author, GIRL IN HYACINTH BLUE, and she enjoyed it immensely. Ms. Vreeland writes a lot about art, which is a subject Ms. Hen enjoys. She doesn’t always like the way everyone talks about art, but she can appreciate beauty.

This novel is about a young woman, Lisette, who is dragged to the countryside of Provence against her will to help take care of her husband Andre’s grandfather, because he is sick, right before the outbreak of World War II. Lisette can’t stand to be in the rural area, she yearns for Paris, the city where she was born; the place full of excitement and brimming with love. She loves her husband, but pines for the city.

That is, until she gets to know the grandfather’s paintings. She falls in love with the artwork by Pissarro and the Cezanne, and the mysterious painting they think is by Picasso. She vows to take care of the paintings. Pascal, the grandfather, dies, and Andre goes off to war, and hides the painting so the Nazis will not steal and destroy them. Lisette goes to find them, but cannot, and it is a long process after the war to find them.

This book took place in a similar timeframe as another book that Ms. Hen read, but she adored, called LA BATARDE, by Violette Leduc, which is a memoir about a woman growing up in France as an illegitimate child, or a bastard, hence the title. However, there are few similarities. This novel is not as urgently written and powerful as Leduc’s memoir. The Resistance is mentioned, and so is the black market during the war, but LISETTE’S LIST pales in comparison in importance and scope.

Ms. Hen loved the descriptions of the French countryside in Provence, and she longed to go there as she read. She has not been to that area of France, but she has been to the other side of the south, Languedoc, and thought it was breathtaking, and dreams of returning. She couldn’t understand how Lisette could not love this place immediately, but she does eventually. This book was not Ms. Hen’s favorite book she has read recently.

This novel seemed to go on a little too long, and it seemed to drag. Ms. Hen thought this book was what she calls “book clubish,” a word to describe a novel written for women, which is just too nice, not offensive, with nothing dark about it, for women or people who do not want to get easily offended by writing. This surprised Ms. Hen, because GIRL IN HYCINTH BLUE was one of her favorite books she read last year. But that book has a lot of spirit that this novel simply lacks.

This is not the worst book Ms. Hen has read recently, but it is not the best. Ms. Hen does not recommend this novel to people who like to be punched in the face and inspired by something they read. But there are a lot of chickens and hens floating around within the pages, which is one positive aspect. But mostly Ms. Hen says, no, find something else to read.

Ms. Hen reviews WE

We

Yevgeny Zamyatin

Modern Library

1924, 2006

Translated from the Russian by Natasha Randall

Ms. Hen decided to read this novel because she learned about it from the afterword in NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR. She had never heard of it before. She is interested in dystopian fiction, and some people think this book is the first of its kind.

This novel was not published in the Soviet Union when the author wrote it because it was too scandalous. It was first published in Prague. The author was sent to exile a couple of times in the Soviet Union for writing things against the government. Ms. Hen thinks it is outrageous that someone should be sent to jail for writing a book, but that is the way things were in that country back then.

This novel is about a mathematician who is building a ship, the Integral, to go to space. The rigid society tells the ciphers (people) when to do everything they have to do, when to wake up, when to work, when to eat. When the ciphers want to be intimate with each other, they have to get permission for the “blind drawing,” to draw their blinds, which are always up; everyone can see into everyone else’s rooms unless the blinds are drawn. The city and everything in it are made of glass.

The narrator, D-503, (all the ciphers have a code and not a name) writes a chronicle of what happens. He meets another cipher and is intrigued when she takes him to the Ancient House, a place full of objects from before the revolution. The narrator talks a lot about the past, it seems as if he is writing a letter to the author about the world he lives in. Everyone has a routine for the day, but the narrator gets caught up in a situation with a woman, and starts to fall in love. He doesn’t understand how he could develop a soul, but he does, and suffers because of it.

Ms. Hen noticed that this novel seems to be about Soviet Russia and not the future. The author appears to be critiquing the way his country was headed at the time he wrote this. All the ciphers are supposed to be part of something bigger than themselves, and it does not matter where they stand individually. He likens the society to a scale, on one end of the scale is an item that weighs a ton, on the other is a gram, and what happens to the ton matters more than the gram; the whole matters more than the small amount.

Ms. Hen learned reading the introduction that the narrator speaks in equations. Ms. Hen is not a math expert, but she understands how this is true. The narrator would make a statement, then there would be a colon, and then something would equal the beginning of that statement. Ms. Hen would like to talk to someone who has read the novel who understands math better than she does to explain how this works, but unfortunately Ms. Hen is not acquainted with a mathematician or even someone proficient in math. Those are the circles she runs in: no math experts around Ms. Hen, just artistic and ordinary people.

This is a short book, but a dense one. Ms. Hen read it quickly because she had time. This novel is beautifully written and important. It is considered one of the first science fiction novels ever written, and it was written before the term science fiction was invented. Ms. Hen recommends this novel if you want to be disturbed and enlightened, and she does not understand why you wouldn’t want to be.

Below is a short film based on WE that Ms. Hen found by chance.

Ms. Hen reviews WHISKEY, ETC.

Ms. Hen likes cats

Whiskey, Etc.

Sherrie Flick

Queen’s Ferry Press

2016

Ms. Hen happened upon this delightful collection of short stories by chance. It is full of flash fiction, or very short stories, which are difficult to write, because the writer has to get to the crux quickly.

This collection reminded Ms. Hen of a couple of other writers of short stories she admires: Lorrie Moore and Mary Gaitskill. Ms. Hen likes these writers because they write things in such a unique way that it makes the reader pause and think, hmm, yes, this is true, but why didn’t I think of that?

The different sections in this book are some of Ms. Hen’s favorite things, and what Ms. Hen considers to be the great aspects of life: songs, pets, coffee and tea, dessert, art, cars and canoes, soap, and whiskey. Ms. Hen is excited that there is a cat in almost every story.

One of Ms. Hen’s favorite stories in this collection is, “Breakfast,” which is about a mother and son, and the chickens in their yard. Ms. Hen likes this because chickens appear. Evan makes eggs and bacon for his mother, and plucks a feather from a chicken for a garnish for the breakfast. Another memorable story is, “Microwave,” in which a woman dreams of putting a dog in a microwave.

Ms. Hen never thought she could read a funny story about a dead dog, but “Heidi is Dead,” fits that bill. It’s about a couple visiting the husband’s family in the Midwest and the family’s dog dies, and they go around the room sharing dead dog stories. The wife feels she does not fit in with the family, which is conservative and rural. The couple lives in Boston. Ms. Hen thinks this story is hilarious because she knows that somewhere in the world, there are people like this family, even thought she is not acquainted with them in her personal life situated in Boston.

A lot of these stories are about relationships, which Ms. Flick writes about well. It’s easy to picture the characters in these stories; they could be people we all know. Ms. Hen came to understand the characters and their neurotic tendencies. Ms. Hen is a hen who knows about such things.

Ms. Hen sped through this book, because she was engrossed in it. She would recommend it to anyone who likes quick stories pinpointing the pieces of human nature not everyone notices all the time. This book might help you to see small parts of the world better, and find humor in ordinary life.

Ms. Hen during the blizzard

Ms. Hen's Top Ten

Ms. Hen chose her top ten books she read this year. Not all of them were published this year, and she did not include books she has read before.

Stephen Florida by Gabe Habash http://mshenreviewsthings.blogspot.com/2017/12/ms-hen-reviews-stephen-florida.html

The Wonder by Emma Donoghue http://mshenreviewsthings.blogspot.com/2017/11/ms-hen-reviews-wonder.html

The Boy Who Drew Monsters by Keith Dononue
 http://mshenreviewsthings.blogspot.com/2017/10/ms-hen-reviews-boy-who-drew-monsters.html

The Night Country by Stewart O'Nan http://mshenreviewsthings.blogspot.com/2017/10/ms-hen-reviews-night-country.html

The Boston Girl by Anita Diamant http://mshenreviewsthings.blogspot.com/2017/09/ms-hen-reviews-boston-girl.html

Girl in Hyacinth Blue by Susan Vreeland http://mshenreviewsthings.blogspot.com/2017/08/ms-hen-reviews-girl-in-hyacinth-blue.html

The Patron Saint of Ugly by Marie Manilla http://mshenreviewsthings.blogspot.com/2017/06/ms-hen-reviews-patron-saint-of-ugly.html

Butterflies in November by Audur Ava Olafsdottir
 http://mshenreviewsthings.blogspot.com/2017/03/ms-hen-reviews-butterflies-in-november.html

The Little Red Chairs by Edna O'Brien http://mshenreviewsthings.blogspot.com/2017/01/ms-hen-reviews-little-red-chairs.html

Shelter in Place by Alexander Maksik http://mshenreviewsthings.blogspot.com/2017/01/ms-hen-reviews-shelter-in-place.html

These books are not in order that Ms. Hen enjoyed them, but they are in order chronologically backwards. Ms. Hen wishes the best of the New Year to you, and she hopes the world will survive this year, so she can read more books and eat more food and see more places she has never seen. Ms. Hen doesn't make New Year's resolutions, but if she did, she would do her best to not be afraid of the unknown.

Happy New Year!

All the Best,
Ms. Hen
(S.O.)

Ms. Hen reviews NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR

Nineteen Eighty-Four

George Orwell

Harcourt Brace and Company

1949

Ms. Hen read NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR when she was a sophomore in high school many years ago. When she recalled the novel, she remembered being struck by the story about the vision of the future that the author had, even though when she first read this book, it was after 1984. She didn’t know yet how prophetic the book was, and what a part of our culture it would become.

When Ms. Hen remembered this novel, she thought of the romantic parts. That might have been because she was sixteen and more interested in romance that the future of politics, destruction, and Winston’s job in the Ministry of Truth. What struck her this time reading the novel is that there are no computers. Of course, there weren’t many computers in the actual 1984, and there was barely a vision of what something like the internet would be, but in the novel, there is an image of a television screen watching the citizens’ every move and reporting back to the party when someone did something wrong.

This novel is important because it tells of a future which could become true. It’s general knowledge that the Internet is similar to Big Brother; the Internet knows what you search for and buy, and who you are stalking, and what kinds of pictures you put on social media. Social media is a special type of Big Brother in which everyone who is your friend is your own Big Brother and they know everything that you put on that website.

(Ms. Hen knows that most people don’t care about her life and what she does. But she tries not to reveal everything to everyone.)

Ms. Hen hopes that the world does not become the vision of this novel, but she is afraid that it might. There was a news story last week in which the CDC (The Center for Disease Control) had to change the wording in their documents. Ms. Hen read an article about that, which you can read here:

https://www.vox.com/culture/2017/12/20/16795890/cdc-language-policy-orwellian 

It talks about how this is “Orwellian” which Ms. Hen agrees with. Vladimir Nabokov said that every writer should try to put a word in the dictionary, such as his “Lolita.” Orwell managed to put the version of his own name, which means, “characteristic of the writing of George Orwell, especially with reference to his dystopian account in his totalitarian state in NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR.”

When Ms. Hen remembered this novel, she thought of how the Party broke Winston. She was afraid that this is what would happen to the world. The hopeful thing is that now, there are still people to stand up and say, “No, we won’t take that!” or “WTF?” of some such version. She hopes that there will always be people who will fight the those in charge if the world is going badly, which Ms. Hen thinks it is.

Ms. Hen believes that this is a novel everyone should read. It is important because it was one person’s imagined scenario of the future, which we have not succumbed to yet, and hopefully never will. But Ms. Hen is not sure. She does not want to believe these things could happen, but current events are proving her wrong. George Orwell wrote this novel as a response to the horrors or World War II and Stalin’s Soviet Union. He didn’t know about today’s world, and the icy slope the United States and the Western world are now slipping down. Who will be there to catch us? Ms. Hen doesn’t know, and is not sure anyone does.

Ms. Hen reviews I AM A CAT

I Am a Cat

Soseki Natsumi

Tuttle Publishing

Originally 1905, 1906

Translated from the Japanese by Aiko Ito and Graeme Wilson

Ms. Hen had planned to read this novel for a long time simply because she liked the title. She wanted to read an entire book from the point of view of a cat. She thought it would be fascinating to get into a cat’s mind, or what an author would think a cat ponders. But she didn’t like this book as much as she thought she would.

One of the reasons she didn’t like it is because it is not completely about a cat; it is about a cat’s observances about the humans around him. And since the people surrounding the cat are men in Japan circa 1906, they are completely misogynistic and narrow-minded. But there are some positive things about the book.

This novel is very long and winding and reminded Ms. Hen a little of Proust’s IN SEARCH OF LOST TIME, but it takes place in Japan, and as told by a cat. Ms. Hen liked the parts where the cat talked about being a cat, and the things he did, such as visiting other cats in the neighborhood, and trying to catch rats.

Ms. Hen didn’t like the way the owner of the protagonist treats his pet. She thinks the family is cruel to the cat. It could have been because he is a stray, but it made Ms. Hen wonder about the cats that belong to people she knows today; contemporary cats are thoroughly spoiled! The poor cat in this novel was tortured by the children and dismissed by the household. Cats these days in the United States are pampered and coddled beyond belief. Cats in Japan one hundred years ago did not have the same comfortable life that our feline friends do today.

As well as disrespecting women, the men in this novel show their disdain for dark-skinned people. Ms. Hen couldn’t believe what she was reading when she read it. The men talk about a certain village in Japan where the women were dark, and one man said that it was a good thing, because it would make them less vain. Ms. Hen was disgusted with these characters, and she would have stopped reading the book right then, but she was on page 411, and she had spent almost two weeks reading this tome, and she wasn’t going to give up right near the end. So she persevered.

The end of the novel was one of the strangest she has ever read. She will not give it away, because that’s not the proper thing to do in a review, but if you see her in person, you can ask her and she will tell you. It is sad and upsetting, but Ms. Hen realized that’s the way life is sometimes, there are things that just don’t make any sense. Usually in literature, aspects of novels have to make sense, but not always, and as it stands, not in I AM A CAT.

Ms. Hen read this book so you don’t have to. She loves cats, but she would have liked a more entertaining novel about a charming, curmudgeonly cat that watches interesting, complicated people. Instead she became upset and her eyes glazed over at times. Now she’s glad it’s over.