Address Unknown

I read about Address Unknown by (Katherine) Kressmann Taylor on Renee's Reading Group. Wow! What a powerful little novel. At under 60 pages, I'd consider it more of a novella. But wow! The edition I read had an introduction by a teacher who had lived through World War II and an by Kressmann Taylor's son, Charles Douglas Taylor. Both enriched the story quite a bit.

Address Unknown is an epistolary novel with the letters being written by two men who, at the start of the novel, are partners in an art gallery in San Francisco. Max is a Jew who remains in San Francisco and Martin is a German (non-Jew) who returns to Germany in 1932, just as Hitler is coming to power. It portrays the insidious spread of Nazism and how that destroys what was a strong friendship.

From Goodreads:

Originally published in Story magazine in 1938, Address Unknown became an international sensation. Credited with exposing the dangers of Nazism to American readers early on, it is also a scathing indictment of fascist movements around the world and a harrowing exposé of the power of the pen as a weapon. A powerful and eloquent tale about the consequences of a friendship - and society - poisoned by extremism, Address Unknown remains hauntingly and painfully relevant today. 

 

Tell The Wolves I'm Home

When asked, "How's next month's book?" at last month's book club, the woman who suggested it wouldn't commit to liking it or not. She only said, "It's different."

Yes, Tell The Wolve I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt was different. But I think that's partly because it was written in 2012 and partly because it's about the early days of the AIDS epidemic in the United States. I really enjoyed the story. It's a coming-of-age story, it's a story about families, and, as I've already said, it's about the early days of the AIDS epidemic.

Finn, the uncle of June and Greta, is dying from AIDS. June is different from most other kids. When Finn dies, she is really forced to confront her feelings for him as well as the relationship with Greta that has been deteriorating over time. She also attempts to figure out her mother's relationship with Finn.

A stranger shows up at Finn's funeral who will help June get these unresolved issues as figured out as they can be when you're 14 years old.

It brought up memories of how AIDS impacted my family in the 1980s and 1990s, things I don't care to discuss here, partly because they should probably stay private and partly because they might be considered spoilers. However, bringing up these memories may be  why I liked this novel so much.

I'm looking to next month's book club discussion.

 

The Book of Hope

Jane Goodall's latest book, co-written with Douglas Abrams, The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times, was the selection for my NJ book club this month. I alternated reading an e-book and listening to the audiobook and must say that I much preferred listening to the audiobook. The whole book is an extended conversation that Douglas Abrams has with Jane Goodall. It's a little try in the writing, but hearing Jane Goodall speak brings her words to live. Literally.

I didn't hate the book, didn't love the book. But I was disappointed that the book didn't make me feel any more hopeful once I'd finished it than I felt at the start. Most of the trying times the book deals with are related to the climate crisis and other environmental issues. Jane shares case after case of where people's lives have been turned around because they've been engaged in one environmental project or another, and in turn, their engagement leads to positive changes in the environment. That's all good and well. But not seeing that in action, and hearing the constant voices of climate change deniers, especially those in leadership roles, leaves me without hope. 

I think Jane's point is that if everyone can do a little bit towards improving our planet, our planet will flourish. I still don't see how we can get even a third of the population on board. Hence, my feelings of hopelessness.

I liked reading about the perceived difference between "hoping" and "wishing." Hope involves having a plan and a commitment to work hard towards whatever you're hoping for. Wishing is more like wishing for some magical act, like the cleaning fairy coming to your house while you sleep so that every morning you wake up to a spotless, organized home without you having to do a thing.

I lost hope early on in the book when Jane and Douglas where talking about good versus evil. That you need to be taught that something is wrong before you are punished for a wrong doing. Otherwise, violence breeds violence. I see kids riding in their parents cars giving people they don't like the finger. That makes me feel like too large a portion of the population is trying to instill whatever hatred they have in their adult hearts into the hearts of their children. So the cycle of hate continues.

I was really disappointed when I was unable to participate in the book club discussion last week. I figured that talking to others would have given me reason to think there is more hope than I see in my own little world.

 

A Castle In Brooklyn

More than 24 hours after finishing A Castle in Brooklyn by Shirley Russak Wachtel, I still have such mixed feels about it. A Castle in Brooklyn is one of my Amazon Prime First Read selections. I mean, how could I not pick a book with Brooklyn in the title that is actually set in Brooklyn?

Jacob and Zalman meet as teens while hiding from the Nazis in a farm in Poland. They are found, captured, and en route to a concentration camp when miraculously they escape. Eventually, the two young men make their way to America. Jacob settles in Brooklyn with an aunt and uncle. Zalman, well, Zalman ends up on a farm in Minnesota. The farm of a Jewish farmer in Minnesota. It's unclear to me exactly how he ended up there? And that is my reason for having very mixed feelings. At one point, it seemed as though someone he met in a displaced persons camp recommended he go the farm route. At another point, it states that a cousin of his (in Brooklyn?) suggested he go to Minnesota and work on a farm. (I wish the author would have included a quick chapter explaining how both Jacob and Zalman got to the United States and when.)

That's just one of the inconsistencies that I found in the book. I have probably mentioned before that I'm a nitpicker. And there were so many inconsistencies that started to make me crazy. I felt as though lots of the timeline was off. Some chapters had the years included. Others did not, and in those, the passage of time was often not clear. Other things also didn't make sense. Like why would anyone ask a person who owns rental property and does some apartment development to look for an apartment just so they could see what's out there. 

Other questions I had:

1. Was there a subway stop a 5-minute walk from a house in Mill Basin?
   
2. Was there a restaurant called Wolfie's on Bedford Avenue near Brooklyn College in the 1960s?
3. Are any of the lots in Mill Basin large enough that in the 1990s there would be woods behind a home?
4. Leaving Brooklyn, could you drive only an hour south and be in a completely rural area?
5. Why would there be a reference to Presidents' Day in the 1970s? Weren't we still celebrating Washington's birthday and Lincoln's birthday separately? And if there was Presidents' Day, why would Jacob say that he'd leave any work he needed to do until Monday. Presidents' Day has always been on a Monday.

By including a few of my other questions, I feel like I'd be giving too much of the story away.

Don't get me wrong. This is a lovely story about finding the American dream. It's about a strong friendship between two men. It's about a close friendship between a woman and a man. It's about childhood, parenthood, loss, and moving on. Much of it I was able to relate to because my first husband was a child of Holocaust survivors. Things that might seem odd to someone unfamiliar with survivor mentality might question why two friends might live together once they get to the United States. The arc of the story worked although I wish some of the events had been more flushed out. I also loved seeing some of the references to Brooklyn. Ebinger's black out cake. Barracini assorted chocolates.

Would I recommend this book? I'm not sure. There are so many good books out there. This one was merely okay.

 

The Bullet Journal Method

 

This is the second time I've read thru Ryder Carroll's The Bullet Journal Method. If you'd like to read my original review, written in June 2019, a few months after I started keeping a bullet journal, you can find that here. I'm not sure why I felt the need to re-read this "bible" of bullet journaling, but I guess I needed some sort of affirmation that I'm still on the right track.

Like the first time I read this self-help guide, I didn't feel like I was the target audience. I'm not at the stage of building a career or juggling a busy family life. I'm a retiree who doesn't do too much of anything (but read... obviously). Although I am replanning a trip to Italy that was originally planned for October of 2020.

I did get confirmation that I'm using my bullet journal "properly." (In case you're unfamiliar with bullet journal, it's a system of keeping a planner and a journal in one book, designed by the user to specifically meet the needs of a user. I've evolved into doing what I'm doing. Rereading this book gave me a better understanding of why I'm doing what I am doing, even the thinks that I "discovered" by adapting my bullet journal over time.

If you're thinking of bullet journaling, I think you get more information from blogs you can find online.

The one big takeaway this time might be the companion app that goes on your phone, for those times when you just don't have your notebook with you. (I rarely carry my notebook with me, unless I'm working on a specific project.) Apparently what the app can also do is index all your bullet journals, something I'd been wondering how to do long before I reread the book. It might be worth the $4.99 to index the way that Ryder Carroll suggests.

Cold Sassy Tree

2023 is sure off to an auspicious beginning. Cold Sassy Tree, by Olive Ann Burns, is another book that seems to be greatly loved that I simply liked. Set in 1906 in fictional Georgia, it's the story of a family in the town of  Cold Sassy told from the perspective of the young son, Will Tweedy. 

At the start of the story, Will Tweedy's grandmother has just died. His grandfather has announced he's getting remarried. Will Tweedy's mother and her sister are mortified. In 1906 Georgia, getting married 3 weeks after burying your first wife is scandalous. I guess it would be pretty scandalous today, too. What makes things worse in this case, though, are that Rucker Blakeslee new wife, Love Simpson, is closer in age to his daughters - and a Yankee, to boot!

This is a novel about death, acceptance, family, remarriage, religion, and societal norms. Will Tweedy is privvy to a lot of what goes on within the family making him a good choice as the narrator.

There were many things I didn't enjoy about the book. The story is being told by 22-year old Will Tweedy. Why we need to know this is never clarified. So why tell us? It's like what appears to be the foreshadowing in the novel isn't followed up. Several instances where foreshadowing would have been helpful are introduced abruptly.

Like Sister Carrie, I've enjoyed reading reviews of the novel. And look forward to my book club discussion. That's later this afternoon. I considered waiting until after the discussion to write my review, but I can always add to this later on. Word from other book club members is that they loved the book.

 

Sister Carrie

 

Books and Beer Club doesn't meet in December, so at the November meeting, the group picks a LONG classic to be discussed in January. I wish I could recall the suggestions that were tossed out. Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser sounded the most interesting to me, mostly because Carrie ends up in New York City. The woman who recommended the book absolutely loved it. The reviews online echoed that.

I definitely did not love the book, but I didn't hate it either. It's the story of Carrie (called Sister Carrie  not because she's a nun but because that's what her family at home called her growing up) who leaves her small town in Indiana for the big city of Chicago. Her plan is to live with her sister and get a job to support herself and then kind of wait for life to happen.

She meets a guy, Charles Drouet, on the train to Chicago. He wants to meet her once she's settled and she really isn't comfortable with him coming to her sister's house. Until... she gets sick and loses her lousy job and needs help. They live together apparently as man and wife.

Drouet introduces her to his friend Hurstwood, a married man with a demanding wife and two older children. Carrie and Drouet are attracted to each other. Hurstwood mistakenly thinks that Carrie is married to Drouet and Carrie mistakenly thinks that Hurstwood is single.

The story kind of bumbles along, much of it descriptions of Carrie's life with the two men. I guess that would make this classic novel a character study. I was intrigued by lines that could have just as easily been written today as over 100 years ago. Here's one example, noteworthy as we watch the demise, redefinition, and repurposing of department stores and shopping malls all across the country.

The nature of these vast retail combinations, should they ever permanently disappear, will form an interesting chapter in the commercial history of our nation. 

They were along the line of the most effective retail organization, with hundreds of stores coordinated into one and laid out upon the most imposing and economic basis. They were handsome, bustling, successful affairs, with a host of clerks and a swarm of patrons.

What I've found exceptionally interesting is reading the commentary on the novel in an attempt to figure out why I didn't love the book. Those are riveting and lead me to believe that our book club discussion in another few weeks will be as well.

Just to keep this complete, here's the line I took offense at. I mean, really?

There was another fellow there, representing Burnstein, a regular hook-nosed sheeny, but he wasn’t in it.