Ms. Hen reviews M Train

Ms. Hen at her favorite local cafe, Jitters

M Train

Patti Smith

Vintage Books

2015, 2016

Ms. Hen decided to read this book because her hen-sister lent it to her, and Ms. Hen has always been curious about Patti Smith. She is not a fan of her music, but she understands a mystique surrounds Smith that not many public figures possess. She was one of the first women in punk rock, which Ms. Hen admires.

M Train is a memoir about different places Smith has been and her obsession with coffee and cafes. Ms. Hen can relate to this because she is also obsessed with coffee. She can’t go a day and not have at least two cups.

This book is also about loss: the loss of things, and the loss of people. Smith tends to lose things. When Ms. Hen read that Smith lost some beautiful pictures that Smith took of Sylvia Plath’s grave, it pained her. She could imagine such a thing happening and how devastating it would be to a person who was an admirer. Ms. Hen is also a Plath fan, so she can relate.

Ms. Hen liked reading about the different places Smith traveled to, and the adventures she experienced. She went to Mexico to speak at Frida Kahlo’s house; she flew to Japan to see where the tsunami hit, she also went to Tangiers to speak and play at a Beat festival. Smith’s journeys have a purpose, and they seem to be a part of her; they are necessary. She buys a house right before Hurricane Sandy hit the Northeast, and the area in which it was located was devastated, and she had to have extensive renovations done. This book is also about trying to find a home.

There are some mentions of chickens in this book, which Ms. Hen enjoyed. One particular passage is, “He drove a beat-up tan Peugeot and insisted our bags stay with him in the front seat as chickens were normally transported in the trunk.” This is important because it was a lie. There was a man in the trunk and the people in the car were arrested for that, including Patti and her husband, Fred, even though they didn’t know. Ms. Hen doesn’t like when people lie about chickens, especially when people get in trouble.

When Ms. Hen first started reading this memoir, she wasn’t into it. The narrative follows Smith around her messy apartment with her cats to the café near her place and scribbling in a notebook and also on napkins. Ms. Hen thought that Smith might have had too much time on her hands, but after she got into the book, Ms. Hen decided that Smith is an obsessive artist and sees the world in a different way than other people. Ms. Hen wishes she had a lot of time on her hands, so she could wander the streets and write in notebooks and be strange. Ms. Hen used to be stranger than she is now, but these days she has to pretend she’s a normal person. It’s difficult for her, but she is capable of doing it.

This book is about dreams and has a lot of air and wispiness to it. Ms. Hen took pleasure reading this book, and she thinks it’s the right book to read at the end of the year: it’s quiet and peaceful, sad, but hopeful. It’s about some of one person’s life, and how she views things and feels, and meanders around the world.

Caffe Trieste, San Francisco

Ms. Hen reviews Household Saints

Ms. Hen, a Christmas hen

Household Saints

Francine Prose

G.K. Hall

1981

Ms. Hen happened to pick up this book a couple of weeks ago at the Little Free Library in front of the Walgreens in Downtown Boston. She usually is able to unearth one good book when she is there. Some people might be offended that the location of the former Borders Bookstore is now a Walgreens, but Ms. Hen is a forgiving hen. This particular Walgreens has a liquor department, which Ms. Hen finds convenient and inexpensive.

She picked this book for the simple reason that she had heard of the author. She didn’t remember anything about her, just her name. She is so glad she did! Ms. Hen adored this book.

This novel is about an Italian family in Little Italy in New York around the 1950s. Joseph Santangelo wins his wife Catherine in a card game that he plays with her father. Catherine is unaware for a long time that her father gambled her away for a breath of cold air from the walk-in refrigerator in the butcher shop on a hot summer’s day. When she finds out, it’s almost a joke. They marry and are happy, but have hard times.

In the beginning the couple live with his mother in their apartment above the butcher shop. Catherine loves the way Joseph smells like meat when he goes to bed with her when they first get married, which Ms. Hen thinks is visceral. Ms. Hen is not a meat eater, but she could understand why someone would love that smell.

Mrs. Santangelo is superstitions in the ways of the old country. She believes Catherine loses her baby because she saw a turkey being slaughtered while she was pregnant. Mrs. Santangelo dies and after that, the couple live alone. When Catherine becomes pregnant again, she wants science to rule her life, not superstition. She reads medical books and does not tell anyone in the neighborhood she is pregnant. She gives birth to a healthy girl, but the girl grows up to be a strangely religious as her grandmother had been, to the dismay of her parents.

This novel has a tinge of magical realism, even though it is based in real life, fantasy is thrown in, or the hint of fantasy. This novel reminded Ms. Hen of the work of Gabriel Garcia Marquez in the way that magic can be hidden in ordinary life, and part of the mystery is whether it actually is magic.

Ms. Hen loved this book because she thinks the characters are realistic; they could be anyone that she has known in her life. Ms, Hen is not an Italian hen, but she grew up in an area where there are lot of Italians, so the characters in the neighborhood in this novel could have been her neighbors or classmates.

Since the book is about a butcher’s family, there are enough mentions of chickens to satisfy Ms. Hen. One particular passage Ms. Hen enjoyed was, “Crying, he turned away, but not before the thought had crossed his mind that the infant resembled nothing so much as a plucked and freshly slaughtered baby chicken.” Ms. Hen thought this was depressing and morbid, because Mrs. Santangleo predicted that Catherine would give birth to a chicken and the baby would be born dead. Ms. Hen doesn’t like when chickens in novels and stories are a source of sadness, but sometimes it’s inevitable, because sadness is part of life.

This is one of two novels Ms. Hen has read recently where she found herself in tears at the end. She thinks the ending of this novel is so beautiful and profound that it makes her almost believe in magic and saints. Ms. Hen is not a superstitious hen, but she would like to believe in something other than what's on the surface. She would like to believe in saints, even everyday household saints, like Theresa. It’s comforting to know that there could be an unseen power, especially during the darkest days of the year, like right now, which is supposed to be a time of celebration.

Ms. Hen reviews Elena

Elena

Directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev

2012

Ms. Hen likes quirky foreign films, but she does not review everything she watches. She decided to write this review because she was moved by ELENA and the characters and how messed up their lives are. Ms. Hen does not like desperate and hopeless books and films, but she likes learning about how truly demented humanity can be.

Elena is a retired nurse who lives with her new husband, Vladimir, in their spacious apartment in Moscow. He is a former businessman who has a lot of money. Their apartment is large and clean, but it seems as if it’s too clean. Elena goes to visit her son and his family; the son is unemployed, and he and his wife have two children. They live in a downtrodden area where thugs loiter outside the apartment. Elena gives her son money. When Elena cashes her pension check and takes it to her son, Ms. Hen was afraid for her walking around in a dangerous area, because she thought she would get mugged. Elena didn’t, though, because that is not the story. Ms. Hen thinks it is interesting to see how Russians handle money; it appears they mostly use cash, unlike in the United States.

Elena’s husband does not want to give her grandson money so he can get out of joining the army and go to college. Elena and he fight over his daughter, who she says is worthless and money-hungry. Vladimir wants to leave all his money to his daughter when he dies.

This film is artfully made. Ms. Hen has seen other Russian films and the lines do not appear as clean as they are in this one. The story shows the disparity between the classes in Russia today, there are some who prosper, and others who have little. And the ones who have a lot do not care about the people on the bottom. Vladimir is greedy, but Elena’s son and his family are either lazy or victims of circumstance. There are few opportunities in Russia today if a person does not have money or connections. Ms. Hen feels sorry for Elena’s son’s family.

The use of music in ELENA is done well. The scene where Vladimir is driving to the gym, then when he is at the gym is ominous with the soundtrack in the background; Ms. Hen knew something horrible would happen, and it did. Also, the music in the scene where the grandson, Sasha, is outside fighting with the young men is poignant and dramatic. Almost everything in ELENA is meaningful, which is the way movies are supposed to be made. Ms. Hen thinks this film could be considered Russian noir, and the music plays a part in that.

There are aspects to life in this film which are completely Russian, which Ms. Hen will not give away, because she does not want to ruin the surprise of the story. Ms. Hen couldn’t help but think, that would not happen in the United States, a few times when she watched this, or the character would behave differently if she were American. This film shows the chaos of Russian society.

This is a dark film, but Ms. Hen likes these kinds of things. Desperate people will do desperate things when faced with limited choices. Ms. Hen thinks that this film is centered on love and hate and indifference and power, which Ms. Hen thinks could be the basis for all art, and the reasons the world is still turning and disintegrating.

Ms. Hen reviews Vox

Vox

Christina Dalcher

Penguin Random House

2018

Ms. Hen decided to read this book because she had read it was similar to THE HANDMAID’S TALE, and she is interested in novels like that. She put it on reserve at the library, and did not receive it for about three months. It is a new release, and she thought that since it was in hot demand it would be brilliant. Was she ever so wrong.

The idea for this novel is fantastic: women in the United States are only allowed one hundred words per day by order of the government, and they wear counters on their wrists to keep track of how many words they say. They also cannot read or hold jobs. The protagonist fights for women to be free. The premise is great, but the writing in this novel is so bad, that Ms. Hen was horrified. This novel was written by someone who does not know how to write. There are a lot of impressive words in this novel, but the author does not use them to their full capacity. This is what’s called a plot-driven novel, which Ms. Hen does not enjoy. Ms. Hen prefers literary fiction because she has credentials, and she is a snob. There is no melody to this book, it’s not even prose; it’s just words on the page telling the story. Ms. Hen was so disgusted that she almost didn’t finish the book. But she did, because she waited for so long to get it from the library.

Ms. Hen decided to not write a full review of this novel because she does not want to waste your time. This novel proves that even a great concept can turn out to be an atrocious book.

Ms. Hen reviews A Map of the World

A Map of the World

Jane Hamilton

Anchor Books

1994

Ms. Hen bought this book a while ago at the branch of the library near where she works. Some people might think it’s strange to buy a book at a library, but they are considerably cheaper than at bookstores, and the money supports the library, so everybody wins. This book sat on Ms. Hen’s shelf for some time. She bought it because she had read another book by the author, WHEN MADELINE WAS YOUNG, which she enjoyed.

Ms. Hen thinks this book is long and winding. The print in the book is small, so it took her a long time to read. The problem Ms. Hen had with this book is that it’s extremely sad. She knows that most literary fiction is about people who are sad, but this is one of the saddest books she has read. It’s about how a woman’s life can turn one day and then spiral downward out-of-control into a pit out of which she can never return.

This novel is about Alice, a woman married to Howard, who live on a dairy farm with their two daughters, Claire and Emma. They are both college educated and it was Howard’s dream to own a dairy farm. After they were married they purchased a large piece of land with help from his mother.  Alice is babysitting her friend Theresa’s children when one girl, Lizzy, accidentally drowns in the pond on their land. Alice is riddled with guilt, and becomes depressed and immobile. Soon after that, she is accused of sexually molesting some boys where she works as a school nurse.

Alice ends up in jail, and Howard and her daughters are desperate. Her friend Theresa is heartbroken about Lizzy. Everyone’s life is terrible in this novel. One of the aspects that Ms. Hen didn’t like about this book is that all the characters seem to be pretentious. She does not usually like books about rural areas, because that is not the world that she understands. Ms. Hen prefers urban novels, but everything she read about this book was positive, so she decided she needed to stick to it. It was considered one of the best books of the year when it came out, but Ms. Hen thinks it’s too depressing to be one of her best books of this year.

One thing Ms. Hen did like about this novel was the sense of place. She felt she really knew what the farm looked like, and she felt that the characters loved the land and the house. Ms. Hen liked that the characters felt connected to the land, even thought they had not lived there that long. The entire surrounding area was turning into unattractive housing developments, and theirs was the last farm in that area of Wisconsin. There are enough chickens in the book to keep Ms. Hen’s radar on, even though the book brought her down.

One other piece of the novel Ms. Hen admires is the inner lives of the characters, especially Alice. She has a rich fantasy life about everyone around her; she has the capability to imagine people in their ordinary lives, what they do and how they spend their time, which most people do not, unless they are writers. Ms. Hen wonders if the author is projecting her propensity to imagination onto Alice, giving her insight that a regular person would not have. Alice might not be a regular person, but she is invented by a writer who thinks like most writers do.

Ms. Hen did not love this book. She understands that the world is sad, but when she reads something, she wants to be enlightened or invigorated in some way. She doesn’t like to just be brought down. She realizes, and knows it’s true, that life sucks and then you die, but she prefers to read books that distract her from that fact rather than remind her of it. 

Ms. Hen reviews Travelers

Travelers

Ruth Prawer Jhabvala

Counterpoint

1973

Ms. Hen picked up this book at a Little Free Library in Melrose, Massachusetts. She chose it because she had read other novels by this author. She couldn’t remember them in detail, so she poked through her blog and found the reviews she had written for them. She wrote that the other books tended to drag in places. When she read the past reviews, those novels came back to her.

Ms. Hen thinks that TRAVELERS is more to her taste than the others that she has read by Prawer Jhabvala. She thinks that it is paced better and is not as boring as the other two. She didn’t know why she picked up the book if she didn’t love the other two, but sometimes she can’t remember everything she reads. She tends to recall things that are visceral and strange, and the other two novels are not like that for the most part.

TRAVELERS is about four people who are traveling through India: Lee, Raymond, Asha, and Gopi. Lee is a young American woman. Raymond is a British man older than Lee. Asha is an older Indian woman. Gopi is a young Indian man. Different short chapters are told from each character’s perspective. Lee likes to travel around and not have an agenda; Raymond has an apartment that he furnishes with beautiful Indian handicrafts, Asha tries to recover from her husband’s loss with sensual living, and Gopi is a young man who attaches himself to Raymond, not knowing Raymond’s true feelings.

The characters move around each other and they try to discover what they want from India and also life. Raymond likes Gopi, then Gopi likes Lee, and after that Asha and Gopi have an affair, and then Lee situates herself in the midst of a cult and gets too involved with a cult leader.

The aspect of this novel that Ms. Hen enjoyed that did not come through in the other novels was the wry humor. Ms. Hen thought this novel was funny in the beginning; she thought the characters were ridiculous in their fascinations and obsessions. But the novel becomes violent, and after that depressing, and though Ms. Hen did laugh quietly in the beginning, toward the end, she felt sorry for the characters. She didn’t quite cry, but she felt pathos for them. This novel took her through the spectrum of feelings, and that rarely can happen while reading a book. Not for Ms. Hen anyway, and she imagines it does not happen for everyone often.

The characters talk about what India can do to people, and how it can change them. Ms. Hen understands that, because even though she has never been to India she knows how a place or an experience can help a person see the world in a different way.

A lot of this novel is about journeys that travelers can take, spiritual journeys, or journeys though love or pain. Prawer Jhabhala writes about gurus a lot and how phony ones can be detrimental. Ms. Hen liked this novel, because it took her through the gauntlet of emotions, and she enjoyed reading about the characters and how problematic their lives are, like everyone’s, because nobody is perfect, and nothing in this world ever will be.

Ms. Hen reviews Frog Music

Frog Music

Emma Donoghue

Back Bay Books

2014

Ms. Hen picked this book up at the Little Free Library in Harvard Square in front of the Science Center. She wandered to Cambridge one day, and she did not know why, but she found this book and realized that was the reason. She has read other books by Ms. Donoghue before, and she thoroughly enjoyed them.

Whenever Ms. Hen goes on a trip, she reads novels about her destination. This year, she read a crop of books about San Francisco for her vacation, but she did not love most of them. She didn’t know about FROG MUSIC then, a historical crime novel that takes place in San Francisco. The city shines through in these pages, Ms. Hen could see and smell what was happening in San Francisco while she read this book. The hills, and the immigrants, and the desperation of people with a thirst for gold and fear of smallpox come alive when she read this. Ms. Hen thinks this is a visceral novel.

FROG MUSIC is about Blanche Beunon, a French dance hall girl who becomes fast friends with a cross-dressing woman, Jenny Bonnet, when Jenny hits her with her high-wheeler bike. Jenny is a frog catcher for restaurants in San Francisco. Blanche does not usually become friends with women; she lives with her lover, Arthur, and their friend, Ernest. Jenny has just spend some time in jail for wearing men’s clothes. She goes home with Blanche who tells her about P’tit Arthur, her baby, who she believes is on a farm, but she soon discovers lives in squalid conditions in a home not too far from the House of Mirrors, the club where she dances.

At the beginning of the novel, Jenny is murdered. The storyline goes back and forth to the time right before the murder to the month before when Blanche meets Jenny. Blanche decides that Jenny turns her life upside down because she is the one who makes her think of looking for the baby, P’tit. A baby cramps Blanche’s style, she is a stripper and a prostitute, but an expensive one, and she makes a lot of money working.  She made so much that she was able to buy the building where she lives.

Arthur calls her his little bourgeois, since they met when he was a trapeze artist in the circus in France, and she joined to do the horse act. They started their affair, and they aspired to live la vie boheme, the bohemian life.

Ms. Hen thinks this book is fantastic, and a lot happens between the pages. It’s about San Francisco as a young city; it’s also about the United States as a burgeoning country; it’s about racism against Asian people in Chinatown, and it’s about love and the quest for love. It’s also about social taboos; Blanche is a prostitute who owns property, which at that time in history, might be an unthinkable venture in other parts of the world. She doesn’t care about anyone's opinion of her, she likes having a good time, but the love of her child gets the best of her. The murder of her friend terrifies her, and the world comes crashing down. Blanche is not a typical person.

This novel is based on true events. Ms. Hen thinks it’s astounding that Jenny and Blanche existed once, and the murder of Jenny remains a mystery. Ms. Hen thinks this novel is cinematic and she believes it could make a breathtaking movie. She doesn’t think this of every book she reads. There are certain parts that Ms. Hen would like to see on film, such as Blanche’s dancing. Ms. Hen recommends this novel to anyone who wants to get swept away.