Ms. Hen reviews Open City

 

Open City

Teju Cole

Random House

2011

Ms. Hen decided to read this novel because she found it at a Little Free Library near where she lives. She didn't know anything about this book, but she saw it had good reviews, and won some awards, so she gave it a try.

This novel is about a man from Nigeria, who is a Psychiatry Resident in New York City. He is finishing his residency, and spends his free time in the city, wandering the streets. He encounters different kinds of people, and talks to some. This novel takes places around 2006, when Tower Records and Blockbuster Video were in the process of closing, due to the Internet, and Ms. Hen thinks it's an interesting time. The world was in a state of flux. The character travels to Belgium to look for his grandmother, and meditates on the Nigeria of his youth.

Ms. Hen found that this novel left a bad taste in her mouth. Critics praised it up and down, and it won major awards, but Ms. Hen did not like spending time with this character. He is an elitist, and is condescending, and Ms. Hen thinks he is a sociopath. He seems like the type of person who enjoys hearing himself talk, and will force anyone around him to listen to his pontificating about any subject he thinks he possesses knowledge on. 

Ms. Hen came to the conclusion that the critics who praised this novel vehemently are the same type of person this character is drawn out to be: pompous, snobby, and difficult to be around. Ms. Hen prefers quirky characters with personality and charm, who will make her laugh, and help her think about the world in a new way.

Ms. Hen suffered through this novel, but fortunately it is short. One takes a gamble reading something unknown, but risks have to be taken in life, or else nothing would be gained.

Ms. Hen reviews Sodom and Gomorrah

Sodom and Gomorrah

Volume 4 of In Search of Lost Time

Marcel Proust

1921

Translated from the French by John Sturrock

2002

Ms. Hen read the first three volumes of IN SEARCH OF LOST TIME years ago, before she had her blog. She read the third volume on her Kindle in France, and she didn't like reading it on her Kindle, but she enjoyed that she had the opportunity to do so in France. She decided to read volume four, because she does not like light summer reading, she believes that longer daylight calls for heavy books, since she has more energy when the sun is out.

Ms. Hen read 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami, and a great quote about this book appears there:

“How about Proust's In Search of Lost Time?" Tamaru asked. "If you've never read it this would be a good opportunity to read the whole thing."

"Have you read it?"

"No, I haven't been in jail, or had to hide out for a long time. Someone once said unless you have those kinds of opportunities, you can't read the whole of Proust.”

It's a long book, and it takes time to read. But Ms. Hen doesn't think a person should read the whole thing at once.

This novel is a continuation of the last three. The narrator, in the beginning of this volume, is observing men who are attracted to men, and women who are attracted to women. The first section is a party, and it's full of snobs who insult everyone they can. Afterwards, the narrator goes to Balbec, to the seaside, and observes the girls there, and falls in love with all of them. His romantic interest, Albertine, stays at the hotel, and he thinks she is attracted to a woman. Parties occur, and the people talk about everyone they know, and who is interesting, and who isn't. The narrator wants to break up with Albertine, and is jealous of everyone who speaks with her.

This novel is densely written, and Ms. Hen had a difficult time reading it. She took a seminar with a professor years ago, and he recommended only reading two pages of this every night before bedtime, but Ms. Hen thinks that if someone did that, it would take twenty-five years to read all the volumes. Ms. Hen might not live that long! She thinks the prose is dense like layered buttercream cake, and must be consumed slowly, but deliberately, so the reader does not get a headache, or a stomachache. 

Ms. Hen believes the reason readers still love these books is because they portray people the way they truly are: brutal and petty and jealous and rotten, with selfish needs and narrow views. The narrator wants to hurt the one he loves, but he doesn't know what he truly desires. The best novels and stories do not lose their shine over time, because humanity never changes - society changes, and societal norms, but humans are always the same.

Ms. Hen will take a break before she reads the next volume. She thoroughly enjoyed this, but it's a huge chunk to chew and swallow, and the days are getting shorter now, and Ms. Hen needs to rest her feathers.  

Ms. Hen reviews Ghost World

 

Ghost World

Directed by Terry Zwigoff

2001

Ms. Hen loves GHOST WORLD. She has probably watched this film more times than any other in her life. She loves this because it's about being an artist, and seeing the world through an artist's eyes, and also not wanting to confirm to what the world expects. It's a strange film, but it's full of magic and hope.

Enid and Rebecca have just graduated from high school, and are planning on getting an apartment together. Enid has to take an art class to make up a failing grade. They decide to call a man who placed a personal ad looking for a woman he met on a bus, and they tell him to meet her at a retro 50s diner called Wowsville. 

They watch as he cringes when the woman doesn't show up at the diner. Enid and Rebecca find him at a yard sale, and Enid buys a record from him. He and Enid become friends, and she tries to find him a date. He is fussy about what he likes; he likes old jazz and old things. Enid takes an antique print he owns to her art class, and that causes a brouhaha when it's in the school art show.

GHOST WORLD is about a young woman trying to figure out who she is, and what she wants. She scoffs at conformity; she doesn't like her father's girlfriend, she and Rebecca don't get along with each other as well as they used to, and she doesn't want a regular job. She likes hanging around with Seymour, but he is a curmudgeon, and is stuck in his ways.

Enid is on the precipice of changing, and she does. She doesn't know what she desires from life, but she knows she needs something else. She views the world differently, and tries hard to express herself.

Every time Ms. Hen watches GHOST WORLD, she sees something different. One time she watched it, and realized she is similar to Enid and Seymour at the same time. This time when she watched it, she realized colors of this film pop. Ms. Hen thinks everyone should watch this film, possibly again and again.

Ms. Hen reviews A Great Storm Rising

 

A Great Storm Rising

Marty Kingsbury

Archway Publishing 

2022

Ms. Hen decided to read this young adult novel, because she met the author at a gathering, and thought it sounded like a fascinating book. Ms. Hen likes to read some young adult books for light reading once in a while. This novel is based on Shakespeare's THE TEMPEST.

A GREAT STORM RISING is about Teddy, and the situation with her father, who has a mental illness, and her brother, Adrian, who disappears with his father. Adrian is blind, and Teddy thinks her father kidnapped him. She and her mother call the police, but Teddy and her girlfriend Evvy want to take matters into their own hands.

In school Teddy's English teacher wants her to audition for the play he is directing, THE TEMPEST. He tells her he would like her to audition for the part of Ariel. Teddy is excited, even though her brother is missing. She borrows her mother's car, without permission, and picks up Evvy. They find her father and Adrian in a hunting lodge in a remote part of the woods, and a brouhaha erupts. A tree crashed behind the car so Teddy and Evvy can't leave. The next morning, Teddy's uncle Tony shows up. Teddy's father is unstable.

This novel is a mystery, a fantasy, and love story all at the same time, similar to THE TEMPEST. It's also about a family, and the difficulties they have communicating and surviving in the world. Teddy's family has moved around a lot, and her father has scared away most of her friends. Living with a mental illness is difficult and painful, and Ms. Hen imagines that if a parent has a mental illness, it can be humiliating and shameful, and dangerous for a child. In a perfect world, a parent is supposed to be a steady support, but if they're unstable, the child might believe an uneven ground is normal. But what is truly normal?

Ms. Hen likes that this novel took place in a rural area, in Western Massachusetts, and some chickens appear. Teddy dreams of a comfortable family life, "Then we would turn around and find our way back, and we'd be home in time for cocoa, and Mom would have a chicken roasting in the oven, and we'd walk in, and the whole house would smell of family and joy - until the bell rings, and it's time to go to science." She equates chicken roasting in the oven with love and joy, which Ms. Hen can understand. She loves chicken, too.

Ms. Hen knows that not everyone wants to read a young adult novel, but she thinks they're refreshing - the perspective of a young person's problems helps Ms. Hen appreciate that she's not young anymore! "O brave new world that has such people in it!" If you're youthful, but mature, the world can still be brave and new. She recommends this book.