Keith for Elephants

Read from Saturday, December 18^th to Wednesday, December 22^nd.

Water for Elephants, by Sara Gruen.  This book has been a bestseller in recent years, which attracted my attention.  Not until after I finished reading did I discover that it is being made into a major motion picture.  It was a good book, one which I read very quickly, but I found that I liked it more for the plot than the style. 

It is an historical novel, set in 1931, right in the middle of the Depression.  Jacob Jankowski is a veterinary student at Cornell when he learns his parents were killed in a car wreck.  They left him with no money, so he was unable to stay at school.  So Jacob ran away and hopped on a train, only later to discover that it was a circus train, the Benzini Brothers Circus.  Since he had vet training, Jacob was hired by the owner, Uncle Al, to work with the animals.  The animal director was named August, and his wife was Marlena, a performer with the horses.  Jacob entered into an uneasy relationship with the couple.  He quickly fell in love with Marlena, but August was his boss and could be very temperamental.  He brutally beat many of the animals, including a new elephant named Rosie who refuses to do any tricks.

Jacob is more loving of the animals, and he soon fits in with the circus.  He discovers that Rosie only understands Polish, so he teaches August some Polish phrases, and Rosie is a big success in the show.  However, August becomes paranoid of Marlena and Jacob, and he brutally beats both of them one night.  Jacob and Marlena vow to leave, but it is not that easy.  Uncle Al is greedy and won’t lose his performers, and he has thugs that threaten to throw off the train some of Jacob’s friends if Marlena and August don’t get back together.

Jacob tries to kill August in his sleep, but he backs out.  He returns only to find out that he was arranged to be killed and only missed it because he was with August.  The next day, disgruntled workers let loose all the animals from the show, causing a riot and stampede.  Rosie the elephant kills August, and the workers kill Uncle Al.  The show is over, and Jacob and Marlena and Rosie and other animals go off to join Ringling brothers.

The book is narrated from the point of view of Jacob as an old man in a nursing home.  His kids have left him alone, and Marlena has already died.  He feels no one respects him, except a friendly nurse named Rosemary.  When the circus comes to town, none of Jacob’s children arrive to take him, so he sneaks off on his own to watch the show.  He meets the show’s manager and tells him his life story.  Then Jacob begs to be taken with them, to work as a ticket taker or anything, and the manager, touched by his story, accepts.  For the second time in his life, Jacob has run away to join the circus. 

It is a fascinating story about the life of a circus worker in that era, and it is accompanied by many interesting photos.  Filled with lions, tigers, bears, fat ladies, bearded ladies, trapeze artists, elephants and even prostitution.  In terms of plot, it was great, and had me hooked, but I thought the style was a little off.  The dialogue felt stilted and fake at times, and a little too clichéd.  The characters were often very one-dimensional.  Camel got annoying because all he talked about was drinking.  Even Jacob was too much of a hero, stubbornly refusing to do anything but the right thing, and him and Marlena falling so deeply in love was almost too easy.  Also, the ending felt like a deus ex machina, with everything being resolved so easily.  August was killed, Uncle Al killed, and the money problems disappeared as well

But I did enjoy the book, and I am excited for the movie as well.  It looks visually very exciting, as the book appeared in my mind.  Robert Pattinson plays Jacob and Reese Witherspoon is Marlena.  Three and a half out of five stars.

Leaf Keith

Read from Wednesday, December 15^th to Saturday, December 18^th.

Leaf Storm, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.  This was a collection of stories by one of my favorite authors, Garcia Marquez.  I bought it over a year ago, and have been meaning to read it for awhile now.  It is centered around the main story, Leaf Storm, which takes up the first two thirds of the small book, and then follows with a few short stories, only a few pages each.

Leaf Storm is the story of a family in Macondo, Colombia, in the early 20^th century.  The “Leaf Storm” is a metaphor for the rapid growth of the town after the banana company came, and then left it just as suddenly.  The town is now in decline, and bitter, as they were used to the populated, urban, and developing atmosphere.  Told from alternating perspectives, an aging colonel, his daughter and his grandson have to bury a doctor who died alone. He is the most hated man in town because he refused to treat some wounded men who came to his house one night.  The rest of Macondo would rather he rot in the street.  Although it takes place at the funeral, the crux of the story is the rehashing of memories surrounding the entrance of the Doctor into the family’s life. 

The Doctor arrived mysteriously one day, with no past, and asked to stay at the house of the Colonel.  He arrived with a letter of recommendation from a famous general.  When the leaf storm hit Macondo, the Doctor lost his patients and he became a shut-in.  He had an affair with the house maid, Meme, and they went off to live together down the street. He never left his house until the day he died. 

The rest of the family objects, but the Colonel had promised the Doctor to give him a decent burial.  There is also a back story about the daughter, Isabel, and her husband who left her, and the Colonel lost his first wife in childbirth.  Leaf Storm is not one of my favorite works by Garcia Marquez.  It is slow, and repetitive.  It is more just a glimpse into these character’s lives, and they are not as well-developed as his characters in other books.  There are traces of magical realism here, my favorite of his stylistic techniques, but nothing near some of his later works.

I enjoyed the shorter stories at the end of the book.  They were more like fables and tall-tales, full of wonder and magical realism.  There was one about a drowned man who washed up on the beach of a small town, and the town becomes enamored with him, creating an elaborate background and eventually adopting him as their own.  I also enjoyed the story about a boy who sees a ghost ship once a year in the harbor, but no one believes him, and so one year he goes out in a small boat, and using a light, guides the ghost ship to crash along the coast of the town.  Also, there are stories about an old angel that fell to the ground, and a boy who can perform miracles but goes around as a side show attraction. 

This is Garcia Marquez’s first published book, in 1955, and it is possible to see traces of his later techniques that I love so much.  It was enjoyable, but nothing spectacular.  Three out of five stars.

Never Let Keith Go

Read from Tuesday, December 14th to Wednesday, December 15th. 

Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro.  I've been meaning to read this book for awhile now, ever since I saw that it was highly rated and there was a movie made about it.  However, I was a little hesitant because I was getting a little tired of futuristic dystopias.  This book was great though, and nothing at all like I expected.  It takes place in a world that is similar to ours, but with only major scientific advance; cloning and organ harvesting.

This is the story about three friends, Kathy (the narrator), Ruth and Tommy.  They go to an elite boarding school called Hailsham together.  The novel is structured as Kathy telling a story, speaking in the present but going through all her old memories of the past.  She recollects, and often goes on tangents, about Tommy, a sweet, naive boy who gets picked on a lot, and Ruth, her incredibly strong-willed best friend who is the leader of the group, but often pushes Kathy away.

Through stories about the other kids and the strange behavior of their teachers and guardians, the kids slowly realize who they actually are.  They are clones, and when they grow up their organs will be harvested for people who need them, and they will die.  Through it's slow development, the children do not freak out about it, but gradually accept it, and some consider it an honor to 'donate.' 

Set against this plotline, it is really the story of the three kids growing up together.  After school, they go to the 'cottages,' where they are on their own for the first time.  Ruth and Tommy are dating, even though Kathy has been developing feelings for Tommy all her life.  They leave the cottages separately after a big fight, and the three of them begin their 'caring' stage, where they act like nurses to all the other clones donating their organs.  Kathy stays on as a carer the longest, and she becomes Ruth's carer.  They repair their relationship, and visit Tommy.  Ruth has changed, and she begs Kathy to be with Tommy before time runs out, and they might have a chance to defer their donations if they can prove they are in love.

Ultimately, it is a sad ending.  Tommy and Kathy visit the old headmistress of Hailsham, and she explains the reasons behind the school.  They tried to educate and instill culture and art in the students in order to prove to the world that the clones had souls, and that they should be treated more humanely.  However, there is no chance of a deferral.  It is happy to see Tommy and Kathy end up together after all those years apart, but it makes you think about all the time lost.  It is also a wonder at how easily all the clones accept their fate. 

It is a cautionary tale about the perils of cloning and manipulating human life.  But Ishiguro didn't seem all that interested with the higher moral lessons.  He was mainly interested in presenting a tale about the people we have that travel throughout our lives, and the importance of hanging onto them. 

There were a few questions about the cloning process that I didn't understand, but ultimately were not that important.  What was the order of organ donation?  There are technically three organs you can donate in the book, and the fourth is your completion, if you make it that far.  Kidney, Liver, Pancreas? I don't know, I'm not a doctor.  Also, why did no one try to escape?  I tried to harbor some hope that Tommy and Kathy would sail away in an abandoned boat they found, where they could live happily ever after.  What was the punishment for disobeying?  There was not much talk about the government presence in the book.  However, that is probably all for the best.  Too much of that description would change the overall feel of the story, in a negative way.  Looking forward to reading The Remains of the Day.

Four out of five stars.

The Old Keith and the Sea

Read from Monday, December 13th to Monday, December 13th.

I flew through this classic, The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway, another or the used books I got over Thanksgiving.  I had never read this book in high school, although it seemed as if everyone else had.  It was time I caught up on this novella.

It is a very short story of an old Cuban fisherman.  He hasn't caught a fish in 84 days, and he sets out deep into the ocean on the 85th to catch the big one.  He does hook a giant marlin, but it refuses to die, and pulls the old man far out away from land.  For over two days he struggles physically and mentally to bring the fish in.  The old man is wise, and he respects his opponent, but is confident that he will win.  It is the biggest fish he has ever seen, over 18 feet and 1500 pounds.  Finally he catches the fish, but it can't fit in the boat so he has to lash it to the side.  He sails for home, but the blood in the water attracts the sharks.  He defends his prize valiantly, killing many sharks, but they eventually overwhelm him and eat the marlin completely.  He returns home to some much needed sleep, and the other fishermen marvel at the skeleton of the giant fish attached to his boat.

The novella is a story about struggle and adversity, and about life and death.  The old man knows his place in the food chain, and he respects his graceful opponent, but the scavenger sharks are demonized.  It has many Christ allusions, such as when the old man gets the stigmata and when he hauls his mast up the hill like a cross.  Many readers have also said that Hemingway used the old man to represent himself.  Even though as a writer he has had bad luck, he can still go out far and land (or write) the 'big one.'  It was an easy read, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Hemingway's prose is quick and to the point, but also very scenic.  Alone with just his thoughts and his dreams of the lions on the beach, the old man is a tragic, sympathetic protagonist.

Four out of five stars.

Fahrenheit Keith 51

Read from Wednesday, December 8th to Monday, December 13th.

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.  Bought this book at a used book store in Asheville, North Carolina over Thanksgiving.  It is one of my roommates favorite books, and I was ashamed that I had never read this classic.  Also, it is a short book, and after The War of the End of the World, I needed a quick read.  At a little over a hundred pages, it took me longer than it should have, due to some friends visiting for the weekend. 

I liked this book.  It is the simple story of Guy Montag, who burns books and houses for a living.  It is a futuristic world where books are illegal.  Society is dumbed down in order to stay happy.  However, Guy realizes quickly on that he is not happy after he meets a neighborhood girl who loves to explore and learn and love life and nature.  Guy questions his own job, his marriage, and his curiosity to read overwhelms him and he builds a collection of books.  He seeks out a retired English professor who agrees to teach him how to analyze what he is reading.  But Guy is quickly found out by the other firemen when his wife rats him out.  They force him to burn his own house down, but before he is arrested, Guy kills the fire captain, Beatty, and escapes town.  In the woods outside town, he meets a band of other renegade book lovers, and Guy learns that there are thousands out there just like him, and they have to wait patiently and remember books until this dark age passes.  The book ends with the city being destroyed by a nuclear bomb in a war. 

It is a simple story, and the action moves fast without too much buildup.  Guy changes from fireman to revolutionary too quickly in my opinion.  There were also questions I had about why Captain Beatty hated books so much, even though he could quote them endlessly.  Howevery, the story needs to be looked at for what it actually is, a fable about the perils of censorship and what the world could look like.  In the world in the book, it is not the government that imposed censorship, it was first what the public wanted.  It became so that each minority and interest group wanted certain passages blocked in each book, and soon the need for books disappeared entirely.  There was too much focus on the television and fast cars.  Even though Bradbury wrote it in the early 1950's, it's amazing how much he could predict the numbing entertainment forces that would distract us now. 

The world is destroyed at the end, but humanity always knows how to pick itself up and rebuild, and we need to learn from past mistakes, which are why books are so important.  The book ends on a hopeful note that things can and will change.  As a bibliophile, I loved some of the subject matter.  I hope my library and this blog can someday be the beacon of light that can help Guy in the future, haha. Three and a half out of five stars.

The War of the End of the Keith

Read from Saturday, November 27 to Tuesday, December 7.

The War of the End of the World, by Mario Vargas Llosa, a Nobel Prize winner.  This sprawling, massive epic masterpiece is one of the best books I've read in awhile.  It is the, believe it or not, fictionalized true story of a rebellion in the backlands of Brazil in the late 19th century.  I refused to let myself look up online what actually happened while I was reading the book, but when I did last night, I was amazed to see that the book followed very closely the major events and timeline of the rebellion.

I will do my best to sum up the plot, although there are so many characters and subplots that I will not do it justice.  In the state of Bahia, Brazil in the late 19th century, there is a wanderer, called the Counselor.  He travels from town to town repairing churches, putting walls around cemetaries, and telling the poor people about the coming of the end of the world and what they must do to prepare for it.  He travels for many years, and he gradually develops a following.  Llosa takes turns describing the backstories of many of these followers.  There is Abbot Joao, a murdering thief; Antonio Vilanova, a merchant; Big Joao, a former slave who killed his master; Maria Quadrado, who killed her newborn; the Lion of Natuba, a deformed hunchback; and the Little Blessed One, a bastard who wants to be a priest.  There are many others, and when they meet the Counselor and hear him preach, they are converted into 'the elect,' and they become his disciples.  They are reformed completely, and worship the Counselor, Jesus, and do only good.

The Counselor does not like the new Republic of Brazil, he liked the monarchy better.  He considers the Republic the anti-Christ, since they impose new taxes, allow civil marriage, and want to have a census.  The Counselor and his followers refuse to accept this, and they settle in a small deserted farm called Canudos.  There, they create their own society with their own values; no money, no taxes, communal labor and property, free love.  They build a temple and soon thousands of people pour into the city, they are pilgrims (the city eventually reaches an estimated 30,000 people). 

The government of the state of Bahia doesn't know what to do with these people.  They have stolen a farm that belonged to the Baron of Canabrava, a rich landowner sympathetic to the monarchist cause.  The state sends an army unit to break up the 'rebels.'  However, the people in Canudos defend fanatically and crush the force.  The government then sends a larger expeditionary force to Canudos.  The army wins the initial battle on the mountain, but the rebels, or jaguncos, launch a fierce counterattack and win.  There is political disagreement about Canudos.  Some claim it is supported by the monarchists in order to bring down the Republic, others claim that the republicans are setting them up so it looks like the monarchists aren't patriotic.  A Scottish communist, Gallileo Gall, is a pawn by the different parties, as he tries unsuccessfully to make it to Canudos because he believes it is a communist revolution. 

A third time, the federal army is called up to crush the city, this time an entire Regiment under the command of a famous Colonel, Moreira Cesar.  A journalist is sent along with him to document the campaign, and much of the remaining story is told through his perspective.  Cesar is very confident, and he has greater numbers, but thanks to guerrila tactics and the hostile terrain, the regiment is completely destroyed, and Cesar is killed.  This battle feels like it is the climax of the novel, but it is only halfway through..  The journalist escapes to Canudos with a dwarf and Jurema, a woman who lost her husband in a duel with Gallileo Gall.

In the final part of the book, the frightened journalist is telling the Baron of Canabrava all that he witnessed in those final months of Canudos.  He was held there, for his safety, because the government mobilized the entire army of Brazil from all the states to descend upon Canudos.  The inhabitants of Canudos fight and hold out for a long time using their guerrila tactics, but in the end, they are without food and ammunition to defend any longer, and street by street, the city is taken.  The entire town is destroyed along with everyone in it.  The journalist, Jurema and the dwarf escaped because the Counselor told them to leave in order to tell the world the story of Canudos. 

It is a fascinating, long story.  Llosa's storytelling technique is interesting as well.  It is told through the different perspectives of nearly every character in the story, each segment being only a couple of pages long, and each segment ending on somewhat of a cliffhanger, which compells the reader to continue.  The segments often overlap, so that many parts of the story are told a few times, but each from a different viewpoint.  The timeline can also be confusing as well, although I am sure it was done on purpose.  The reader finds out that Canudos is ultimately destroyed midway through the book because the journalist is relating the events to the Baron.  Even though you know what is going to happen, you still read on for the interesting story of what went down.

The book is often morally ambiguous.  There are no true good guys or bad guys in the book.  The journalist tells a good portion of the latter half of the book, but he is a coward, and not involved in the action.  The army and the generals seem to be good, decent people when their perspective is told, although they are seen as 'dogs' and the Anti-christ by the Elect.  Even though the inhabitants of Canudos are massacred by the end and there is a great amount of sympathy for them, they burn the homes of people nearby so they cannot feed the army.  They also desecrate the corpses of the soldiers.  The Baron, even though he is wealthy, is a good person as well, who is distraught over his wife's growing insanity.  In the end, it seems as if everyone loses, and everyone tries to figure out the lesson of that rebellious city.

Wonderful book, and I am looking forward to reading more by Mario Vargas Llosa.  Four and a half out of five stars.