The Everlasting

Finished May 21

The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow

This fantasy book tells an interesting story. In the country of Dominion, Sir Una Everlasting is the greatest historical hero, a young woman who took revenge on those who killed her own father after drawing a sword from the trunk of a tree. She was then recruited by a queen for whom she fought many battles, overcoming other threatening nations, and killing all the remaining dragons in the world. 

Owen Mallory is a boy who grew up in Dominion, playing in the woods and reading. He joined the military inspired by Sir Una Everlasting and came home a hero, but changed. He became an historian and when a fabled book about her last quest came into his hands he finds himself transported to her time and a motivating factor in the quest. 

Owen falls in love with Una, not the hero of tales, but the actual woman. She is a physically dominant woman and he is a scholarly man, and the gender roles blur here. Every time their story seems to end, Owen finds himself brought back to the same place in Una's life for a redo, asked to make the story better, the ending more climactic, the legend more legendary. 

But the woman behind this is one without empathy, without thought for the people. The people of Dominion, the people of the other nations Dominion wars with, the ordinary people whose lives are changed for the worse. Una and Owen begin to have memories of their stories and find themselves wanting to own their own stories and not be merely actors in the drama. 

This story speaks to the mindset of colonialism, the lack of empathy for others, and other dramas playing out in our world as well. A thoughtful story that caused me as a reader to pause and consider. 

Justice

Finished August 9

Justice by Larry Watson

This novel is a prequel to Watson's bestseller Montana 1948. It covers earlier years of the Hayden family and events that led to the events in the earlier novel. There are seven sections in the novel, each dealing with a specific event in the family's history. These are mostly in chronological order, except the first section. 

The first section, titled Outside the Jurisdiction and set in the winter of 1924, involves teenagers Frank and Wesley Hayden and two of Frank's friends, Tommy Salter, and Lester Hoenig. The group is travelling in a Model T from their home in Bentrock, Montana to the Dakota Badlands on an annual hunting trip. This is the first year the young men haven't gone with the Hayden boy's father. It is snowing hard, and the weather leads them to stop in a small North Dakota town that some of them visited to play baseball in the summer. Frank and Wesley, as the sons of the sheriff in their region feel that they can's escape that connection at home. But in a different state, they might be any young men, and their and their friends' actions lead them to a difficult situation and a learning experience. 

The second section, Julian Hayden is set in 1899 and involves Julian's move west to Montana at the age of sixteen from his childhood home in Iowa after his father's sudden death. His mother had accompanied him, but his sister Lorna stayed behind, taking a job looking after the children of the local Methodist minister. Julian worked hard to homestead his land, but the increasingly plaintive letters from his sister lead him to make a short trip back to Iowa to deal with things. This section gives a real sense of his character and his ruthlessness that also showed in the first section. 

The third section, Enid Garling is set in 1906, and tells the method and circumstances in which Enid escaped a controlling father in her home in North Dakota to marry young Julian Hayden for a different, yet still controlled life, in Montana. This shows more of Julian's character, but also Enid's and explains the weak role she played in the raising of her own sons. 

The fourth section, Thanksgiving, takes place in 1927 when Wesley returns home from his North Dakota university for the holiday. His mother has included a local girl, Iris Heil, that Wesley had dated in high school, expecting that someday this woman would be her son's wife. The thoughts of Wesley take us back to their courtship, but the conversation at the table after Enid has taken the plates and leftover food to the kitchen is enlightening for Wesley and us. He gets a different view of Iris, and one he doesn't entirely like of his father and brother. 

The fifth section, Len McAuley, is set in 1935, but has history about Len's earlier days in the community that give us a sense of who he is and what is important to him. Len is Julian's deputy and to stay within the bounds of term limits, he takes the position of sheriff every few terms. Len came to town with his family at the age of twelve. That was in 1898, the same year that Julian arrived. A traumatic event soon after they arrive has Len making his own way, and he finds companionship with his neighbour Julian. When Julian stopped serving as sheriff and Wesley took the position, Len tried to guide him to do as his father would have done, but found himself unable to express himself properly. Len married soon after Julian did, as he felt it was expected, but never felt towards her the way other men expressed themselves about the women in their lives. He thinks he is incapable of these feelings until a woman finally awakens them, but she is already taken and he can only admire her and be offended by the way some other men disrespect her. What we see here is very informative as to both his character and his interaction with the community. 

The sixth section, The Sheriff's Wife, takes place just a couple years later in early 1937, and is centered on Wesley's wife, Gail Hayden, a very capable woman who works as a secretary in a local government office, her commute just across the street from her home. As she watches her father-in-law and judges his behaviour, she sees her own husband taking on some of his father's mannerisms as he takes on the role of sheriff, and begins to question whether she has made a bad choice. 

The last section, The Visit, also takes place in 1937 and is also centered on Gail. She has a baby now, and is visiting her own parents in North Dakota, showing the child to her relatives there. Back in her childhood room, she finds herself mulling her marriage again, wondering about Wesley's behaviour, and considering whether she should allow the urges she is having to stay with her parents and not go home to become a real choice. These last two bring us back to Wesley, who was the main character in the first and fourth sections. We see how he has different feelings than the other men in his family, and struggles between wanting to please his father and wanting to be different from him, true to his own morals. It also shows how this struggle sometimes appears to others and makes him harder to understand, even with those close to him. I have the novel Montana 1948, but haven't read it yet. This novel intrigued me enough to want to continue reading about these characters. 

The Afterlife of George Cartwright

Finished August 30
The Afterlife of George Cartwright by John Steffer

George Cartwright was a real historical figure from the 18th century. He was born in England, and spent time in India and Labrador. He ran a trading post in Labrador and developed a relationship with some of the Inuit there.
This book takes the information from Cartwright's real life and adds to it, more fully developing the character. This book was on several award shortlists when it came out and won a first novel award. The premise for the book is George Cartwright caught in a kind of limbo after his death, where he wakes up in a room in the inn he died in, and has his hunting bird there, with his horse in the stables below, and goes about activities.
These activities are mostly roaming the countryside and using his bird to hunt, but he gets occasional glimpses into the real world as it develops over the many years he is stuck in this situation, and has entered that world invisibly on occasion. But for the book, his story is in the past. He makes diary entries reflecting on his life and what he did, all of which start the same:

1819. May. Wednesday 19. Wind S.W. light. 

We also get entries from his real life diaries and the book makes connections and enlarges upon what is there so we get a better picture of the world he lived in, the people he interacted with, and how he treated them. Despite his reliance on the Inuit, and the things that he learned from them, he still regards them as lesser than himself, and that is obvious in a few different situations in the book. His companion, Mrs. Selby seems more enlightened in that regard, but still takes the advantages that the situation offers. In some cases he treats the natives with regard, but when it comes right down to it, he doesn't respect them in the same way he does his contacts in England. His relationship with Mrs. Selby is a different one, part business and part personal, and she definitely wants more than he is willing to give. He is a lonely man, but that loneliness is due to his choices as much as anything. This is a man looking at his life and regretting certain things and seeing things in a new light, but still a man of his times.
An enlightening read.

Things Fall Apart

Finished August 20
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, read by Peter Francis James

This classic is one I have long meant to read, and so when I was looking for an audiobook last week, this caught my eye.
Originally published in 1958, this work portrays the life of an Igbo Nigerian village before contact with white men. We see the social structure, the annual cycle, the food grown, prepared and eaten, the religious ceremonies, and the way families interacted. The story centers around a warrior Okonkwo, a man who is self-made, working hard to overcome his lack of support from his father, supporting not only himself and the family he built, but also his parents and his sisters. He wants sons that will carry on in the same way that he has, but finds that his child that he connects the most strongly with is one of his daughters. We see the effect on the family when children don't thrive, and the superstitions that this tribe has around twins, around what their gods expect of them, and around the crop cycle that their lives are built around.
When an accidental death occurs, we see how the one who killed his clansman is punished, and how he makes amends for this sad event. There are rules that these people live by, a system of responsibility, and of community that guides their lives and a system of justice that ensures that people treat each other with appropriate respect.
And then, sadly, we see what happens when first the Christian missionaries come, and then the British colonizing government, those who come to "civilize" these people who already have their own civilization. The British seldom take the time to study and consider how things work in this community before imposing their own values and rules on people who don't understand and who are threatened by this immense change to their culture. The lack of respect these people show to the Africans made me feel angry as well as sad, and the arrogance was horrible to hear of. There are some good men, like the first Christian pastor who takes the time to ask questions about why people do what they do and has real conversations with the elders about their religion and customs. But the one who replaces him is not one who embodies true Christian values, and the way he and the District Commissioner talk as opposed to how they treat the people is almost horrifying.
This is sad reveal of the horrible things down in the name of religion and civilization, a sad story of history that is not that long past.

White Woman on the Green Bicycle

Finished June 15
White Woman on the Green Bicycle by Monique Roffey
This is a wonderful book that follows the lives of a British man, George, and his wife, Sabine. They came to Trinidad in 1956, where he would work, as many did, in a shipping company as a clerk, on a three-year contract.
The book begins in 2006, when Sabine has resigned herself to living in Trinidad for the rest of her life. Her daughter, Pascale, has married locally, and her son Sebastian works in England. George does freelance writing for the local paper. When George discovers one of her long kept secrets, he is driven to take new risks in his life, in an effort to revive their relationship. This section occupies the major part of the book. We see events from both George and Sabine's viewpoint.
In the next section, the book moves back to 1956 when the couple arrived in Trinidad. From her on, we see things from Sabine's view only. She has brought with her a green bicycle and she bicycles all over Port of Spain and the surrounding area on it. She is a legend, but she doesn't realize it right away. Also in 1956, the young Eric Williams is beginning to speak out for home rule. Sabine's wanderings take her to one of his speeches and she is fascinated. We see how she fought to be her own person and fought against the seduction of the island that had already captured George.
The book follows through other major events in 1963, culminating in the riots of 1970 when the family almost left. Throughout, Sabine rages against the island and studies it, and finds that she has become part of it, whether she likes it or not. This is a story of modern-day colonialism and the struggle of a developing country to find its own voice. Sabine belongs here and yet she will never belong. This is both her home and her prison. And, as the white woman on the green bicycle, she makes one final stand for what she believes is right.
A fascinating book that tells a unique story.