Ms. Hen reviews GET IN TROUBLE

Get in Trouble

Kelly Link

Random House

2015

Ms. Hen decided to read this because she was determined to read something she would like, a book she would not have to throw across the room in disgust. Also, because it is similar to THE PARTICULAR SADNESS OF LEMON CAKE, which she just read and enjoyed. Ms. Hen read a couple of books by the author of GET IN TROUBLE, Kelly Link, many years ago.

This book is similar to the others that Ms. Hen read by the same author. The collection is full of magical, whimsical stories based on fairy tales, but dwell in the real world. Certain threads run through the book, such as superheroes and young people having a good time.

Ms. Hen particularly liked the first story, “The Summer People.” It is about a young woman who is in charge of her father’s summer homes where it turns out unseen people live. Her friend comes with her to see the house, and her friend learns what the house is, and why it’s so full of odds and ends. This story is about home and not knowing what’s real and not real.

Ms. Hen found the story, “The New Boyfriend,” endearingly haunting. It’s about four girls who are best friends, and one is having a slumber party for her birthday. She gets a new “boyfriend,” a type of robot doll, called the Ghost Boyfriend, who is supposed to scare the owner. Her friend gets jealous, because she doesn’t have any Boyfriends, even though she did have a boyfriend in real life at one time. Ms. Hen liked this because it’s about jealously and the absurd lengths teenage girls will attempt to get back at their friends.

Ms. Hen could not quite understand one of the stories, “Valley of the Girls.” It’s about young people, but they’re building pyramids, and it’s about ancient Egypt, but it’s about a young man who sleeps with lots of women. Ms. Hen didn’t understand what exactly is happening in this story. It didn’t seem to make any sense to her. Ms. Hen is quite capable of understanding the strange things she reads, but this story was too weird for her liking. None of the other stories come as close to being as indecipherable as this one. The story “Two Houses” is a little odd at first, but after a few pages Ms. Hen got it. Ms. Hen doesn’t like to be lost and not to be able to grasp what is going on when she reads. She thinks that not all writers are great all the time, even though they may be great at some times.

Ms. Hen thinks some of the stories in this collection are too bizarre, but it is mostly worth reading. Each story brought her to a different place, to help her figure out what is unique about the world where it is set. Reading a collection like this is like diving into different mindsets, which Ms. Hen can enjoy if she knows what on earth she is reading. Ms. Hen considers herself smart and strange, but she thinks there is a world of strangeness and absurdity that may be beyond her. She tries to be as strange as she can, though most of the time she hides it. J

Ms. Hen reviews THE PARTICULAR SADNESS OF LEMON CAKE

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake

Aimee Bender

Anchor Books

2010

Ms. Hen has started reading some subpar books lately and hasn’t finished them. She is disgusted by books with bland writing. She won’t say which books those are, but she wanted to read one that she knew she would like, so she chose THE PARTICULAR SADNESS OF LEMON CAKE. She has read other books by Aimee Bender, and she has loved them. Aimee Bender writes some unique and strange novels and stories, which are right up Ms. Hen’s alley.

This novel is about a girl named Rose who can taste feelings in the food that she eats. Her mother bakes a lemon cake for her right before her ninth birthday, and Rose eats the cake when her mother is taking a nap, and Rose can taste her mother’s sadness in the cake. She is horrified that she is overwhelmed by her mother’s emotions. She doesn’t understand why.

That night, the family eats chicken that the mother makes for dinner, and Rose can taste her mother’s hurt again. Ms. Hen likes that the family eats chicken, but it upsets her that it makes Rose distraught. Rose doesn’t know what’s wrong with her. She recruits her brother’s friend, George, to help her on her birthday to discover foods and figure out the feelings of people who made them. She tastes angry cookies at a bakery and a sandwich that is made by someone upset that her boyfriend doesn’t love her.

This novel is magical realism, but at the same time, it’s about a family. It’s about Rose and her parents and brother Joseph, and how they interact with each other. Rose can taste her mother’s feelings and she knows her secrets, and her brother is a strange kid who doesn’t know how to relate to people. The father is a lawyer and tries to be normal, except he can’t go into hospitals because he's afraid. The family has to deal with issues that Rose cannot control. Rose gets older in the novel, but most of the book takes place during the springtime of different years.

The subject matter of this novel reminded Ms. Hen of an article she read about cheese bread in the former Soviet State of Georgia. In the article, the people who made the bread have to be happy, or their sadness would come across in the taste. You can read the article here: http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20171120-georgias-addictive-cousin-to-pizza     Ms. Hen doesn’t know if this is quite true, or if this is superstition, but she thinks it is a lovely idea that someone who makes food should be happy.

This book is strange, but it is not over-the-top strange. It is just quirky enough that Ms. Hen wanted to eat lemon cake, and it made her hungry for good food. In the novel, Rose eats vending machine snacks in school when she is young, because she didn’t want to taste her mother’s pain, and she can't stand so much drama wrapped up in the food she eats. When she gets older, she learns to appreciate quality food.

Ms. Hen thinks this is a charming novel. It is the exact remedy for the mediocre books she has started to read lately. She wants to read more books like this, ones that are light and airy and like meringue, books that taste delicious when you read them.

Ms. Hen reviews RUNAWAY

Runaway

Alice Munro

Vintage Books

2004

Ms. Hen decided to read this book because she has read other books by Alice Munro, and she adored them. She saw a Spanish film recently, called JULIETA, by one of Ms. Hen’s favorite directors, Pedro Almodovar, which is based on some of the stories in this collection, and Ms. Hen was curious as to how the stories translated to the film. She read that Almodovar had a hard time making the film in Canada, since he doesn’t know anything about the country, so he decided to transform the story and make it Spanish. Spain is different from Canada, as everyone knows, but Ms. Hen thinks the stories of the woman with a tragic past crossed over well.

The three stories, “Chance,” “Soon,” and “Silence,” are about Juliet at different times in her life. The story “Chance,” is about her traveling on a train where she meets a man, and dismisses him, then tragedy occurs. She meets another man, and she doesn’t know that she will become involved with him. She is a Latin scholar and an awkward young woman. She loves the classics, but she doesn’t know if she can make a career of them. She is scarred by the events on the train.

In the story, “Soon,” Juliet visits her parents with her baby. She doesn’t know what happened to her parents. A woman, Irene, helps her father with the housework, since her mother has a heart condition. Juliet thinks it’s strange that her father admires Irene so much, and it unsettles her. Her mother is delicate and cannot handle much.

The story, “Silence,” is about Juliet and her daughter Penelope's decision to join a religious organization, which Juliet thinks is a cult. Penelope leaves home and never returns. Juliet is troubled by this, but she continues her life. Ms. Hen distinctly remembers this part from the movie, the woman is old, but she pines for her lost daughter, and she doesn’t tell people that she had a daughter, and that causes problems in her life.

Another story that attracted Ms. Hen’s attention was the story, “Tricks,” about a lonely young woman who goes to the theater in the city, loses her wallet, meets a man, and becomes somewhat obsessed. She finds out what she thought was true was a trick, that it is like the Shakespearean plays she had gone to see. Sometimes when a person thinks one thing is true, the exact opposite is true. Ms. Hen has learned this in life. At times, things just aren’t what they seem.

There are some chickens in this collection of stories. One of Ms. Hen favorites is in the short story “Soon,” “Their father had been killed in an accident in the chicken barn where he worked.” That is, Irene’s husband, the woman who helps Juliet’s father. Ms. Hen imagines that dying in a chicken barn would be a poetic way to die, but she doesn’t think the characters would believe that. She understands the characters would consider it bad luck.

All the stories in this collection are about women and the different degrees of their sadness and tragedies. Ms. Hen felt for these women, because their problems could be everyone’s problems. Ms. Hen recommends this beautiful collection to anyone who wants to feel emotions shine through the pages, and learn how to see humanity better.