Ms. Hen reviews the GAME OF THRONES tour in Iceland

Ms. Hen gets stabbed at The Bloody Gate

Game of Thrones Tour

Iceland, Gray Line

When Ms. Hen was planning her trip to Iceland, she noticed there was a GAME OF THRONES tour. She had tried to watch GAME OF THRONES, but she was grossed out by the misogyny in the first three episodes of the first season. But she wanted to go on the tour. She didn’t want to be someone who goes on a tour and has never watched the show, so she watched the second season in two days, since she found out that had the most scenes filmed in Iceland. She was hooked! She watched all six seasons by the beginning of March, to get ready for her adventure in Iceland.

When she got on the bus for the tour, she was startled by a man in a costume with a sword taking tickets. He was the tour guide, Theo, and he talked for the entire eight hours of the tour. He was extremely entertaining, or Ms. Hen thought so, but he had a bit of a dirty mouth, and she could understand why some people who live sheltered lives would be offended by his remarks. Ms. Hen does not live a sheltered life, and she is used to perversity, and sometimes even enjoys it in the right context.

Theo had been an extra on GAME OF THRONES for many seasons: he was in the Night’s Watch, he was a Wildling, and he was a sentry overlooking the Bloody Gate. He had lots of inside stories about GAME OF THRONES, including one about the costumes of the Night’s Watch. He said they were made of very thin material, and they were designed in South Africa. The men who were the extras in the Night’s Watch were all Icelandic, and even though they were used to the cold, they were not used to being soaked in such flimsy clothes in the rain. They were told to act like they were suffering, but they didn’t have to act, because they already were.

The first stop on the tour was the Laxness Horse Farm, where the horses from GoT lived. Icelandic horses are much smaller than other horses, and they are a pure breed. Other horses are not allowed to come to Iceland, so they had a hard time filming GoT with the actor who plays the Hound, since he is so large. The scenes with him in Iceland are shot in an awkward way, as Ms. Hen remembers. The people on the tour got to feed the horses at the farm! Ms. Hen was excited about this, since the horses were so beautiful.

The tour went to the waterfall where the scene was filmed when the dragon kills the little boy in the field, and afterwards Daenerys chains the other two dragons in the dungeon. Ms. Hen was amazed that this area passed for the Mediterranean, even though it is in Iceland. The scene was filmed in the height of summer when everything was green.

Ms. Hen and the tour got to go to the Bloody Gate, in Thingvellir National Park, an ancient site where the Vikings held their Parliament. Ms. Hen was awed by the Bloody Gate, she even climbed down into it, though she is not a very agile hen. She thought she might fall, but she didn’t. The rock formations are beautiful. Ms. Hen learned about the authenticity of the show. Theo told the group that there was a poor extra who had to carry a crate full of lemons back and forth doing the takes over and over because the producers and directors wanted the show to be authentic. They didn’t want a crate with a few lemons on top, or the little plastic lemons; they had to have a crate full of real lemons for Sansa because Littlefinger knew she liked lemon cakes and he wanted her to be happy. She might have been happy, but the extra carrying the crate was not.

Ms. Hen at The Bloody Gate

Also, there was a scene in which a rabbit was cooking on a spit, and the directors wanted a real rabbit, because if it were fake fur and plexiglass, it would burn black smoke and have an odor. Theo showed a picture of an arm, and he was wondering if someone actually donated their arm to the show, since the people wanted it to be so authentic. Ms. Hen knows that was a joke.

The group went to a Viking village where the scene when the Wildlings kill the people in their house and tell Ollie to go tell the crows that Mance Raider is coming. Theo told a disturbing story about how he had been an extra in many films, and he liked doing evil things. He said he got to play a zombie, and he thought it couldn’t get better than that, because zombies were so evil. Then he said he got to be more evil, because he played a zombie Nazi, and he was so excited because he thought that was the absolute worst character to play.

At the Viking Village

But then, in GoT, he got to murder a six-year old girl, and he decided that was the utmost evil part to play, a child murderer. He described in detail the young actress who played the little girl, and how every time he had to pretend to kill her, she did a better job acting. He said she is going to be a famous actress someday.

At the Viking village, he demonstrated different ways to stab and punch someone while filming to make it look realistic for the camera. Ms. Hen thought it was interesting, because it’s something a hen doesn’t hear every day. Also, the village was situated overlooking a waterfall, which was lovely. Iceland is full of waterfalls, almost to the point where Ms. Hen wanted to say, “Oh, no, not another waterfall!” But she couldn’t, because how could a hen say that?

Ms. Hen says, "Oh, no, not another waterfall!"

Ms. Hen thought the GAME OF THRONES tour was one of the highlights of her trip to Iceland. She would recommend the tour to anyone, especially with the exuberant madman Theo at the helm of the ship.

Ms. Hen reviews JAR CITY

Jar City

Arnaldur Indridason

Picador

2000. 2004

Translated from the Icelandic by Bernard Scudder

Ms. Hen went on a streak of reading Icelandic novels before she went to Iceland, but she wanted to save one for when she was actually in Iceland, and she decided it would be JAR CITY. She thinks this is the perfect novel to read while sitting in her Airbnb in Reykjavik, or a coffee shop, or a restaurant.

In this novel, it is autumn, and the rain is incessant. Ms. Hen liked this because it rained practically every day she was in Iceland, so she felt like it was happening. She felt as if she were in the novel with the character trying to solve a murder.

This novel is a mystery, which Ms. Hen usually does not read, because they are for the most part written badly. But this book is not; it is complicated, and has a lot of twists and turns and many colorful characters.

A man is murdered is a basement apartment, and a note is left behind which says, “I am him.” The man was smashed on the head with an ashtray. The detective Erlender searches for who murdered him and why. The victim’s past comes hurtling through: he was an accused rapist, and may have fathered children in that way. He was the carrier of a brain disease than mainly killed women.

This quest leads Erlender to a jar city, an organ collection in jars. (This reminded Ms. Hen of the penis museum she visited in Reykjavik.) Erlender is determined to find the murderer, but there are obstacles in his way. This is different from other mysteries Ms. Hen has read, because she was actually interested in what was going to happen, and there was not a formula for the novel, new fascinating characters kept being introduced.

One interesting thing to Ms. Hen was that the murder victim lived in a basement apartment in an area called Nordurmyri. She is staying in a basement apartment near this area, which Google maps tells her, but she thinks she might be staying in the area. The book says that these apartments were the former maids’ quarters when the houses were owned by wealthy people. The fact that the character lives in this area is important because it is a former marsh area, and a body could be hidden in the ground under the house.

There was one mention of a chicken in this novel, Erlendur, “called in at a takeaway and picked up a bag of fried chicken for dinner.” There are lots of Kentucky Fried Chickens in Iceland, but Ms. Hen refused to eat at them. She will only eat a decent restaurant, or not an American one. But the character does not take care of himself. He is stressed from his job and his life and eats badly and does not exercise.

Ms. Hen loved JAR CITY. She understands there is a sequel, but she does not usually read those. She enjoyed reading this novel while in Iceland because it gave her more of an understanding of the Icelandic nature, which is quiet, determined, and has a sense of humor.

Ms. Hen reviews THE NATURAL WAY OF THINGS

The Natural Way of Things

Charlotte Wood

Europa Editions

2016

Ms. Hen read this novel because she had learned that it is considered one of the best of 2016. At first, it was difficult for Ms. Hen to become engrossed in the book, but once it happened, she was entranced.

It’s hard to get situated in THE NATURAL WAY OF THINGS. Ms. Hen didn’t know where the characters were or where they had come from. And before she started reading the novel, she had no idea it took place in Australia, so she had to get used to the Australian slang and flavor.

To make the review short: This novel is similar to THE HANDMAID’S TALE, THE LORD OF THE FLIES, and CRACKS, but in Australia, with lots of rabbits. This novel is not for the weak or squeamish. A bounty of perversion lies between these pages.

The main character, Yolanda, wakes up to find herself held captive, along with several other young women. They find out that they all have the fact that they were involved in sex scandals in common, in varying degrees. Yolanda and Verla become friends, and they and the other women are forced to march while chained together in the hot sun. They are held by Boncer and Teddy, the guards. None of them truly knows why they were sent there.

The group is far in the outback, and are trapped by an electric wire fence. Nobody can leave, so they don’t try. Eventually, the food runs out, and the electricity stops, and the women are left to scramble to find sustenance. Yolanda discovers the rabbit traps. All the women start to go insane a little: they acquire unique pets.

The natural way of things is that the women take care of the aspects of life that are important, like birth and death and meals and making sure life runs smoothly, even though it seems as if it could fall apart at any moment.

Ms. Hen could only find one mention of a hen in this novel, but it is a beautiful passage:

“The girls trooped in, staring at the poor bitch. Mostly, the staring was out of pity, but Yolanda felt some other instinct shivering too, same as happened among the hens in her nana’s chook yard. The button eyes taking a good look, circling, sizing up the weak. Looking around to see who might go in for a lunge, for the first darting, investigating peck.”

No other hens appear in the novel; they are in a remote location, and not on a working ranch. But the dream of fresh food haunts the women, and drives Yolanda to become a hunter of rabbits, to become feral. The other women look at her and don’t know how she would survive in the civilized world after her transformation.

Ms. Hen was haunted by this novel, but at the same time, she would tell anyone she knows who reads good books to read this because it is visceral and poignant and important.

Ms. Hen reviews GUNNLOTH'S TALE

Gunnloth’s Tale

Svava Jakobsdottir

Forlagio

1987

Translated from the Icelandic by Oliver Watts, 2011

Ms. Hen has been binge-reading novels from Iceland in order to be thoroughly prepared for her upcoming vacation. She read on a website that this novel, GUNNLOTH’S TALE, is considered one of the best novels from Iceland. Ms. Hen does not agree.

Yes, Ms. Hen wanted to love this novel. In the description, she learned that it’s about a woman whose daughter commits a crime, and it involves Nordic mythology. It should have been wonderful, right? Well, Ms. Hen thought otherwise.

This book was difficult to read for many reasons. The writing style is very strange, and Ms. Hen is not sure if it has to do with the translation. It’s a first person narrative, which Ms. Hen usually revels in, but the narrative is odd. The book is infested with sentence fragments. Ms. Hen thought this was distracting. She understands that it’s a writer’s style choice, but so many sentence fragments all in a row! It disturbed Ms. Hen. She didn’t like so many incomplete thoughts all at once. Ms. Hen knows that the author might have been trying to write like a person thinks, but she thinks it makes the writing choppy and static and annoying.

One other reason that Ms. Hen did not like reading this was that the parts about the Nordic Gods were boring to her, and made her eyes glaze over. She believes that a lot of people are interested in reading this kind of writing, and she has nothing against it, but she was more interested in the story of the mother and the daughter in jail than the priestesses making mead and having the art of poetic invention stolen from her.

What Ms. Hen didn’t understand was why the mother becomes part of the daughter’s fantasy. The mother is more devastated at the thought that her daughter could be mentally ill instead of a criminal. She is more ashamed that her daughter could be crazy. Ms. Hen thinks that is preposterous! There’s nothing a person can do about being crazy, but there is if a person is a criminal. With criminals, it’s usually that person’s own fault. Most of the time being insane is just bad luck.

Ms. Hen will tell you the end, so you don’t have to suffer through reading this novel. At the conclusion, the daughter is sent to a psychiatric hospital because she smashed the glass at a Copenhagen museum and stole a classic antique beaker. The lawyers decide she is psychotic. But, the mother steals the beaker from the courthouse. The mother ends up being arrested and is sent to jail. So who is crazy? Is it real, or are they both crazy?

The novel professes they are both so enthralled by the beaker that when they see it, it gives the two women an unquenchable thirst they believe only the beaker can satisfy. But Ms. Hen thinks they were crazy. She didn’t believe the fantasy.

Ms. Hen does not recommend this novel. She realized that not all Icelandic novels can be wonderful, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t any less excited about her trip to Iceland on April Fools Day. She is happy that Svava Jakobsdottir is no longer on this earth, in the slim chance case she would read this review and get upset L

Ms. Hen reviews BUTTERFLIES IN NOVEMBER

Butterflies in November

Audur Ava Olafsdottir

Black Cat

2004

Translated from the Icelandic by Brian Fitzgibbon 2013

Ms. Hen decided to read this novel because she liked the title, and it’s Icelandic. Ms. Hen is on a reading binge on books from Iceland, in order to prepare for her trip.

Ms. Hen thinks this is the perfect novel to get someone excited about traveling to Iceland. The narrator is a quirky character: it’s as if she’s a literary version of the singer Bjork. Ms. Hen envisions that everyone in Iceland is as eccentric as Bjork, but she won’t know until she gets there. She’s not scared, but she doesn’t know what to expect. Ms. Hen is a strange hen, but she attempts to appear as a normal hen to people who don’t know her.

This novel is about a woman who gets dumped by her lover and her husband on the same day, for the same reason. She is a translator of eleven languages. The men say she is distant, and they do not understand her. She has no yearnings towards motherhood, and makes impulsive decisions about things. Her friend, a single mother, Audur, asks the narrator take care of her four-year-old deaf-mute son while she is in the hospital pregnant with complications from having twins. Audur sends the narrator to a psychic since she could not go herself, and the psychic confuses but inspires the narrator.

She wins the lottery and sets off on an adventure around the Ring Road in Iceland, the road that circles the island. She runs into an Estonian choir, several animals die on the way, and she meets three mysterious men. The boy is quiet for a child, which the narrator enjoys because they can handle each other’s company.

Ms. Hen noticed that this is a sensory novel. There are a lot of smells described in the text, and also many descriptions of food and eating. The end of the novel is a list of recipes of food that appeared in the book, mostly Icelandic food, including sour whale, stuffed goose, and pepper cookies.

Lots of chickens and hens appeared in this novel. Interspersed between the narrative are bits of fantasy and memories that the narrator has. She is eating dinner with the fisherman boyfriend of her dreams, “…but then one day, after three  months, as we’re eating chicken with coconut milk with corn, beans, and rice, because he’d rather not have fish, he says between mouthfuls, ‘Feels a bit empty around here, have you changed anything?’” When her husband is about to leave, he leaves clues around the house, “And then there were the homemade crossword puzzles left by the phone, love, nine down, longing, six across, coward, seven down. Affection, desire, and chicken.”

Ms. Hen thinks this novel is zany and quirky. She loved the descriptions of people’s lives in Iceland. This novel is quite different from INDEPENDENT PEOPLE, the previous book she read about Iceland. It’s a modern fable, about a woman in today’s Iceland, and unlike most women, doesn’t pay attention to what the world thinks of her; she does her own thing, and has her own vision, and that is a lesson that Ms. Hen learned from reading BUTTERFLIES IN  NOVEMBER. She learned she should be herself – and she shouldn’t let other people bother her, because in the end, it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks, life only boils down to the choice to be happy J

Ms. Hen reviews INDEPENDENT PEOPLE

Independent People

Halldor Laxness

Alfred A. Knopf

1946

Translated from the Icelandic by J. A. Thompson

Ms. Hen decided to read this novel because she is going to Iceland, and she wanted to steep herself in its literature. She read that the author, Halldor Laxness, won the Nobel Prize for Literature for this novel and others, and is the only person from Iceland to ever win that prize. Iceland has more Nobel Prize winners for Literature than any other country per capita, which is one, since the population is so low.

When Ms. Hen bought this novel, she thought it would take a long time to read and it would be dense, but it was not! The book she bought is hardcover, and was cumbersome to carry around, but the story flowed and captured her interest right away. It is an epic of an Icelandic pioneer, Bjartur of Summerhouses, and life on his farm.

The land is cursed by Kolummkilli, a spirit whom if one doesn't give a stone to her tomb, it will bring the person bad luck. Bjartur’s bride wants to give the spirit a stone, but he doesn’t let her, because he doesn’t believe in superstitious nonsense. Thus begins his string of bad luck, but he does not see it that way.

Bjartur is stubborn in a way that no other person is stubborn. He is not upset when his wife dies, and his child might almost be dead, he is not upset when his children are hungry and malnourished which is caused by his stinginess, he only thinks of his land and his independence.

Ms. Hen was impressed by the enormous amounts of coffee that the characters drink throughout the novel. When they would have a party or a gathering, cup after cup of coffee would be consumed. Iceland has a huge coffee culture, and Ms. Hen admires this. She can’t wait to go to Iceland and drink lots of coffee.

In the beginning of this novel, Ms. Hen could not help but think that Bjartur is like Captain Ahab in MOBY DICK; Bjartur has a singular vision, an obsession about his sheep and his land, and does not care about anything else. Later on in the novel, she realized that his obsession is with independence, and not his land. He wants to be an independent person at all costs. He becomes successful during World War 1, when the other countries in Europe are too busy killing each other to produce wool.

The war is Bjartur’s blessing and downfall. He becomes rich, has a bountiful amount of sheep, and two cows, and he is prosperous. But like Captain Ahab, he becomes too obsessed, and it becomes his curse.

Since this is a rural novel, there are many mentions of chickens and hens throughout. Ms. Hen did not underline or bookmark any of the places where the hens appeared because she didn’t want to ruin the book. But Bjartur calls his daughter, Asta Solilja, “chicken,” as a term of affection. Asta Solilja is a wonderful character, the child that is brought back to life after her mother dies, and even though she disgraces Bjartur, he still loves her.

This novel opened Ms. Hen’s eyes to what the independent spirit of Iceland is about. Bjartur wants nothing more than to be able to stand own his own two feet and be able to make his own choices. Bjartur is a fascinating character, though he is stubborn, he knows what he wants. He wants freedom from the chains that have held his people down, and the ability to change his life, which is something everyone should admire, and if we have that ability, to strive towards it ourselves.

Ms. Hen writes short stories

The book Ms. Hen is reading right now is lengthy, and she did not finish it in time to review it this week. She didn't feel like writing a film review or any other review, so she thought she would share some things she has had published lately. Ms. Hen doesn't just review things, she writes things, too.

"The Elephant Closest to the Moon," on THE NEW ENGAGEMENT
http://thenewengagement.com/literature/the-elephant-closest-to-the-moon


"Princess Stops the World," on WORDGATHERING
http://www.wordgathering.com/issue40/fiction/oconnor.html

"The Roommate," on THE DEAF POETS SOCIETY
https://www.deafpoetssociety.com/shannon-oconnor

Ms. Hen says, "Have a nice weekend, and don't let the chickens get you down."

Ms. Hen reviews THE HANDMAID'S TALE

The Handmaid’s Tale

Margaret Atwood

Houghton Mifflin

1986

Ms. Hen has wanted to read this novel for a long time, and she finally got around to it. She thinks it is the perfect book to read for the political mood in the country. She understands that there is going to be a TV show, which she has not seen, but would like to. She understands how this novel would work as a TV show rather than a film, since there are many avenues that the story could go down.

Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead, which used to be the United States and possibly Canada. She is a type of fertility slave, since the birthrates have become low for Caucasians, women were forced into this type of servitude in order for more babies to be born. She lives with a married couple and their servants. The women are not allowed to read or own property; women are considered to be inferior people, and are not given the same rights as men.

Ms. Hen thinks that reading this novel is like going into a swimming pool little by little; she didn’t quite understand everything that was happening until she was over her head in the water. Offred suffers because she remembers the way the world used to be, when she had a husband, a daughter, and a job, had money, and lived a life as we know now. She comes to have nothing; she is a prisoner, she has no choice of what to do with her life, and no hope for the future.

This novel concerns Ms. Hen because she thinks it could be the way the world is turning now. Births are down, and many women don’t want to have children. Men are trying to take rights away from women. Men are afraid that women have had too much power of their own, and many men want to usurp the power they think is their right. Ms. Hen worries the United States may be going down this path. It could all start slowly, little by little, until we are dwelling in Gilead with Offred and the other Handmaids.

There are many chickens and hens in this novel, and an egg is a motif that is shown over and over. Ms. Hen decided it has to do with eggs being ovaries, and the women are considered to only be good as how fertile they are.  One day Offred looks at the egg she is going to eat for breakfast:

“The shell of the egg is smooth but also grained; small pebbles of calcium are defined by sunlight, like craters on the moon. It’s a barren landscape, yet perfect, it’s the sort of desert the saints went into, so their minds would not be distracted by profusion. I think that that is what God must look like: an egg. The life on the moon may not be on the surface, but inside.”

When Offred goes shopping, she buys chicken for the household to eat. Sometimes she doesn’t like the chicken, but she always eats it.

Ms. Hen thinks THE HANDMAID’S TALE is an important novel in the vein of 1984 and other dystopian novel, but with a feminist twist. She loved reading it, even though it scared her. She hopes that the TV show is high quality, and introduces people to the book. She prays that this novel is not as prophetic as she imagines it could be, and also that she never has to live in a place like Gilead.

Ms. Hen reviews SPIN CYCLES

Spin Cycles

Charles Coe

Gemma Media

2014

This small treasure happened to fall into Ms. Hen’s lap recently. SPIN CYCLES is a novella published by the Gemma Media Open Door Series for new readers. Not necessarily young readers, but people who are new to reading as adults. The books are very simply written, and brief. Ms. Hen happened to read this book in one day, on the train on her way to work, then she finished it on her lunch break.

The story of the homeless man is heartbreaking. He wanders around Boston, looking at people, finding places to sleep, scavenging food, and tries to survive in a world that does not want him. The character is brilliant; he went to MIT, but his parents kicked him out of the house because of his instability.

If you are a fan of Ms. Hen’s blog, you will know that she is interested in fiction about mental illness. This book is an accurate portrayal of a young person who is severely bipolar, and has no choice but to wander the streets of Boston, without meaning, and without hope. He only finds comfort in watching the spin cycles in the Laundromats around the city; the steady rhythm of the clothes going around and around soothes his busy brain. He doesn’t have access to medication or therapy, and does not have a home, and watching the machines is the only sedative he has.

Ms. Hen thinks that this book is a lovely description of a walking tour through Boston. The character walks from the JFK Park in Harvard Square down the river to Copley Square, and to the Boston Common. Ms. Hen could picture the character walking through the city on a late autumn day, because she’s been there, and has experienced the beauty of the city during that time. But she also understands the tragedy of the character; there are people like this everywhere, which the general public ignores and never considers what the homeless might be going through.

Ms. Hen doesn’t remember reading a novel or a novella about a homeless person before. She did some research to find out if there are a lot of books like this, and there aren’t many. There are a number of nonfiction books, and young adult books, which SPIN CYCLES could be considered, but there are very few novels about homeless characters. Ms. Hen thinks that the homeless are people who do not have a voice, and most people don’t care about them, they just walk by, and don’t see that they are people. A book like this attempts to understand the character from the inside, and to see his life from his point of view. Ms. Hen thinks that this is a perfect book for new readers, since reading fiction fosters empathy, this small book has the potential of teaching people what it’s like to live in another person’s skin for a short time.

There are no chickens or hens in SPIN CYCLES, but that doesn’t mean Ms. Hen didn’t adore this book. She enjoyed the simplicity of the story, and the tenderness of the character, and opening her eyes to thinking about homeless people around the city, that they all have stories, and have had former lives, and could have genius and potential the same as anyone else walking down the street.

Ms. Hen reviews THE LITTLE RED CHAIRS

The Little Red Chairs

Edna O’Brien

Back Bay Books/ Little Brown and Company

2015

Ms. Hen came to read this book because she had read another book by Edna O’Brien, and she looked at her pile of to-read books, and she discovered that they were all by men. She went on a book-buying spree of women authors and happened to come upon this novel. She was intrigued by the story about a woman who falls for a perpetrator of genocide.

This is a novel about a small village in Ireland where a stranger comes to town. It has been said there are only two plots: a stranger comes to town, and someone goes on a journey. This novel consists of both those plots. Vlad arrives in Cloonoila, and announces that he is a sex therapist and a healer. The people are intrigued, especially Fidelma, who is married and childless, and wants a baby desperately.

Fidelma and Vlad come together and he helps her. But he is not who he claims to be. He is a war criminal from Bosnia in charge of murdering thousands of innocent people. Ms. Hen knew this when she was reading the book that the man was vicious, but she did not believe it, because he appears so kind in the beginning, since it seems as if he wants to help Fidelma.

Edna O’Brien does not hold back on the barbarity in this novel. Ms. Hen was shocked by the gruesomeness of it, which reminded her of the gritty brutality of Toni Morrison’s work. Vlad is a brute, and those people have enemies. What those enemies did to Fidelma will burn in Ms. Hen’s mind for a long time.

After that, Fidelma went on a journey, thus the other plot. She travels to London and leaves her husband and the village behind. She tries to get work in a boutique, but she does not succeed. She arrives at a shelter, and makes new friends. She does not tell anyone what happened to her. She is ashamed of her love affair with Vlad, because he was arrested and is going to be on trial.

Ms. Hen loved this novel because it was not what she expected it to be. The village is a peaceful place, and the people live their own lives, and get by, but their lives are shattered, and the story turns in ways that Ms. Hen did not expect. Fidelma meets many characters along her journey, and survives. She is strong the way a woman who has had to put up with hell can be.

There are a handful of hens in this novel, as there are in many novels that take place in rural areas. Vlad rents a room from a woman named Fifi, “They settled on a price of one hundred Euros per week, and as fortune had it, he could now look after Bibi and her six hens while she kept her promise to go over to Mickey in Leenane.” Ms. Hen is unsettled by a murderer watching hens, but she knows he has done worse things than hurt animals.

There’s something about this novel that draws Ms. Hen in and keeps her wondering what will happen. Ms. Hen loved living in this world, though the characters suffered. She realized that getting through and surviving is what makes life beautiful and worthwhile, for decent people to live and to learn not to look back and stew too much in what came before.

Ms. Hen reviews CINNAMON GIRL

Cinnamon Girl

Lawrence Kessenich

North Star Press

2016

Ms. Hen decided to read this novel because she heard the author read from it, and was intrigued by the story of a young man who falls in love with his friend’s wife. She didn’t know that the title, CINNAMON GIRL, is the name of a Neil Young song. Ms. Hen is not a big Neil Young fan, but she listened to the song, and it makes her think of the summertime haze of years past.

This novel is about nineteen year old John Meyer, during the late Sixties, who meets Tony, then his wife Claire, and their son Jonah, and becomes friends with them. John is smitten with Claire at first sight, even though she is married. They hang out in their apartment, smoke pot and get to know each other over a few months.

John is caught stealing an 89-cent book from the college bookstore. He has a hearing and is sentenced to community service. He doesn’t get along well with his family: his father and he differ on political issues, such as Vietnam. They have a generation gap, the father thinks that he knows more about the way things are in the world than the son, but the son understands that everything is changing, and wants to have a say about the way the world is going to be.

Eventually John moves in with his friends, Tony and Claire, and another man, Jonathan. The group drinks a lot and smokes a lot of pot during the first few months they lived together. But the Kent State murder happens. And everything changes for John. He decides that he wants to get involved with the student strike at his college, and helped organize the protest, and led discussion groups about the war in Vietnam. John’s relationship with Claire comes to life when the strike is happening; two worlds come crashing together. He doesn’t want to get arrested again, because he is still on parole, so he is careful.

Ms. Hen admired the characters in this novel. It seems to her as if the youth in the 1960s had conviction, that they wanted to change things, and they were mad as hell that they didn’t have control of their own destinies, such as the draft. Ms. Hen wishes that young people, and everyone today would be as angry and provoked as the people in the Sixties. She thinks that the tipping point has come in this country, and everyone with intelligence is going to start making waves again, and doing things to make the world a better place.

Ms. Hen thinks that right now is a perfect time to read a novel like this, one that’s about fighting the people in power, and trying to make our voices heard. The hippies in the Sixties had great ideas, but they didn’t take their ideas far enough. Ms. Hen wants to take her ideas farther than any hen has.

Ms. Hen found a couple of chickens in this novel. John and Claire make dinner together, “…stood at her elbow as we fried chicken, tossed salad, and mashed potatoes, sat across from her at the table, so I could stare into her deep green eyes while we ate.” Also when Claire gets angry at John, “ ‘It’s not what you say, but how you say it. You puff up your chest like a rooster. You really think you’re the cock of the walk since you fucked me, don’t you?’” Ms. Hen admires Claire for saying what she feels.

Ms. Hen enjoyed this novel. She was engrossed by the story of a man living in a different time, but with the same kind of problems that all young people face. Ms. Hen couldn’t help but think that the Sixties were a raucous age, when nobody knew what the future held, but we never know what will come. We still live in a precarious era, but Ms. Hen thinks the world will survive, or she at least hopes it will.

Ms. Hen reviews SHELTER IN PLACE

Shelter in Place

Alexander Maksik

Europa Editions           

2016

Ms. Hen read about the best books of last year, and this was on the list, so she decided to read it. She loves reading novels about mental illness, since that is what she usually writes about. She wants to see what is out there in the same category, but she thinks this novel is in a category of its own.

This novel is about Joseph March, a young man who has just graduated from college, whose mother has beaten a stranger to death with a hammer because she saw him hitting his wife. Joe meets a woman during the summer before his mother became a murderer. Joe starts drowning in his mind: he believes there is a bird inside him trapped in tar, and his mother has always been a little off kilter.

Joe’s father moves to the prison town where his wife is incarcerated, and rents a house and makes a life for himself. Joe follows and his girlfriend, Tess, eventually comes to join Joe in the town. Anne-Mare, his mother, becomes a cult hero for abused women; people write to her to tell her of their own problems, and want to know if they should kill their husbands and perpetrators.

The style of this novel is startlingly beautiful. The words are crisp and dance on the page. Ms. Hen does not remember the last time she read such an electrically written book. Most of the time, Ms. Hen takes her time when she reads a novel, but she flew through this one, because the writing is so liquid, and also because she wanted to know what happened.

SHELTER IN PLACE is written in a nonlinear fashion, bouncing between the early nineties when Joe is in his twenties, to the present day, with Joe in his forties. The reader keeps getting drawn back to the time in the nineties when Joe is young, and the characters have ideas and principles and live on the edge.

Ms. Hen thinks that this novel is strange, since it is about mental illness, but it never mentions the name of the illness the characters have. Ms. Hen wondered why Joe never sought treatment for his affliction, which on the inside flap of the novel says is bipolar disorder. Ms. Hen thinks the author did not want Joe or his mother to seek a doctor for their illness because that would make a boring novel. But Ms. Hen felt sorry for the characters. She knows they’re not real people, but she doesn’t think they should suffer through mental illness and not get help. She knows that many people do not receive medical treatment for conditions they have, and not everyone has a support system, but she thinks that life is better for people when they do seek help.

Ms. Hen couldn’t find any chickens or hens in this novel, but it didn’t matter, because the novel was so ecstatically written that she forgives it, and thanks it for having been written. She just wishes that people, fictional and otherwise, would get help for their mental illnesses, even if it would make a dull novel, and some people would think, an uninspired world. A world full of healthy people is one that would please Ms. Hen, because she wants everyone to learn to swim and hold their heads above water.

Ms. Hen reviews IT CAN'T HAPPEN HERE

Ms. Hen can't stand fascism

It Can’t Happen Here

Sinclair Lewis

Signet Classics

1935

Ms. Hen decided to read this novel because she bought THE PLOT AGAINST AMERICA, and this is a similar book. Both books are about a fictitious rise of fascism in America, but the former was written many years after it took place, while IT CAN’T HAPPEN HERE was written in the time it actually did take place, the 1930s, which makes the novel more immediate, and more frightening, to think that it can’t happen here, that a fascist dictator could never happen in America, no absolutely not.

IT CAN’T HAPPEN HERE was written during the time of Adolph Hitler and Joseph Stalin. The full atrocities of World War II were not known yet, and the author hints at what could happen if a dictator took over America.

It would make sense that fascism would rise in America in the 1930s, during The Great Depression, when there was no work, and scarce amounts of food, and not enough of anything to go around. In this novel, Buzz Windrip, the presidential candidate promises to give every family 5,000 dollars a year. He also says he will take the vote away from women and “Negroes” will lose their property and status. Does this sound familiar?

The story surrounds Doremus Jessup, a newspaper owner and editor in Vermont, and how the election of Buzz Windrip affects him and the people around him. In Buzz Windrip’s America, the lower, uneducated people rise up and become the bullies of the educated revolutionaries. Doremus hates this and attempt to fight it, but in this America, anything is possible.

Ms. Hen noticed in the novel that the characters seemed to be a result of their recent history. The Great War is fresh in their memories, and Doremus, about sixty at the time, is shaped by his Victorian upbringing. A parade marches through the town, and a few straggling Civil War veterans participate. Ms. Hen didn’t realize there could have been Civil War survivors at that time, the way there are some from World War II now. But when this novel was written, there had been no World War II. History weaves its web, the past chases us, tries to catch up, and we try to outrun it, and sometimes we do, when it escapes, sometimes we don’t realize who could have been alive in 1935.

Chickens popped up in this novel several times. Ms. Hen’s favorite is when Doremus is talking to his hired hand Shad Ledue about the chickens Shad is going to buy when he gets his money from Buzz Windrip. Buzz says, “ 'I’m not going to waste my time with a couple dozen chickens. When I get five-six thousand of ‘em to make it worth my while, then I’ll show you! You bet.’ And, most patronizingly, ‘Buzz Windrip is O.K.’”

Even though Ms. Hen enjoyed this novel, and thinks it is important, she found it difficult to read. The dialogue is snappy in the way that films from the 1930s are,  with wise cracking women, and smart aleck men, which she found entertaining and different, but the density of the writing made it difficult for her to concentrate fully on the narrative. Also, she read it during the holiday season, which is distracting, and may not have been the proper time to read such a novel.

However, she thinks that this is a book that everyone should read, because what is happening now is similar to what happens in this novel. People are afraid, and they don’t know what’s going to happen. Ms. Hen is hoping that life in America never gets as bad as it does in IT CAN’T HAPPEN HERE, because if it does, we are utterly doomed.

Ms. Hen's Top Ten

Frankenstein is one of Ms. Hen's most read books of all time

Ms. Hen's Top Ten Books (she read) in 2016

Ms. Hen is jumping on the bandwagon, yet again, to let you know which books were her favorite in 2016. These are the books she read last year, which not necessarily were released last year. She did not count books she had read previously, because she thinks that doesn't count. The books are in chronological order backwards, not numerical order.

The Plot Against America.

http://mshenreviewsthings.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2016-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&updated-max=2017-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&max-results=48

The Motion of Puppets

http://mshenreviewsthings.blogspot.com/2016/11/ms-hen-reviews-motion-of-puppets.html

Water for Elephants

http://mshenreviewsthings.blogspot.com/2016_09_01_archive.html

Stones from the River

http://mshenreviewsthings.blogspot.com/2016/06/ms-hen-reviews-stones-from-river.html

The Bastard

http://mshenreviewsthings.blogspot.com/2016/05/ms-hen-reviews-bastard.html

Sacred Country

http://mshenreviewsthings.blogspot.com/2016/04/ms-hen-reviews-sacred-country.html

God Bless the Child

http://mshenreviewsthings.blogspot.com/2016_03_01_archive.html

Sputnik Sweetheart

http://mshenreviewsthings.blogspot.com/2016/02/ms-hen-reviews-sputnik-sweetheart.html

Miss Emily

http://mshenreviewsthings.blogspot.com/2016_01_01_archive.html

The Long Night of White Chickens

http://mshenreviewsthings.blogspot.com/2016/01/ms-hen-reviews-long-night-of-white.html

Ms. Hen would like to wish you a Happy New Year! This coming year is the year of the Rooster, and Ms. Hen is so excited about that!

Yours truly,

Ms. Hen (SO)