The Light of Paris

Finished December 2

The Light of Paris by Eleanor Brown

I love Brown's books, and this is no exception. Here Madeleine is a woman who has always felt herself to be a misfit, whether in the private school her parents sent her to or in the social world of her husband's business contacts. What Madeleine loved was art, and although she'd been allowed to do art in school, her work wasn't valued by her parents, and she ended up succumbing to the pressure from her mother to get married. Phillip is a successful businessman who met Madeleine through her father's business and while moving in the world her parents expected, proves to be a very controlling husband. Phillip has an interior designer do their home, not allowing Madeleine to have any input on the minimalist style, nor does he allow her to work, or do her art. The only outlet to pleasure she has is as a volunteer docent at the art gallery, where she leads tours. The book opens on one of these tours, and the comments from the teacher escorting the students Madeleine is guiding around the gallery speak to something in her. She is due to go home to her mother for a week the following day, and while there discovers the diaries of her grandmother Margie, and finds that Margie also had an artistic bent and was denied fulfillment in her passion. The diaries reveal Margie's one experience of true freedom, living in Paris for several months, earning her own living, and as Madeleine reads of Margie's life, she determines what she has to do in her own. 

This is a novel of what happens when family expectations don't lead down the same road as one's own bent, and how hard it is to overcome the path that is set for oneself. Brown makes her scenes vivid here, so that I could experience the situations the characters were in, and found myself urging them to speak up for themselves. It was lovely to see the women bloom when they were in their element. I should note that it wasn't only the women characters who were forced into a life they wouldn't choose by family expectations, as there were men in similar circumstances, although the focus was on the women. 

A great read.

The Saddest Words

Finished November 9

The Saddest Words: William Faulkner's Civil War by Michael Gorra

I first read Faulkner in my university American Literature class, and have several of his novels on my shelves. This book looks at his books treatment of the civil war and its aftermath, and of his own personal statements on the same. Beyond that it looks deeply at the social history of the American South, and how the civil war is reflected in that history. 

It looks closely at several characters in his novels, and at how he portrays black characters, quite differently from other southern white authors, and we see how his books differed from the customary attitude about black people in the south. Some of these things in his novels were observations that he wasn't as comfortable saying publicly outside of fiction, and he still struggles with some of the prejudices of his peers. 

There is in-depth analysis of his writings, social commentary, historical comparisons between his fiction and the real events, and literary criticism. The book includes a chronology of his life, a list of his major works, and a brief history of his fictional Yoknapatawpha County. 

The title refers to references from the book, referring to the words "was" and "again", both references in this way by the author. 

I found this a fascinating insight into his books, and his environment. It seems especially apt during the social changes that we are going through now.

My Drowning

Finished October 4
My Drowning by Jim Grimsley

This reminiscent novel has a woman looking back on her memories growing up in extreme poverty.  The woman's name is Ellen Tote, and throughout she describes the dreams she's had of her past, and her memories as they are triggered by different elements, from geographical to physical to more ethereal. Ellen had an older sister and three older brothers, one of whom was disabled. She also had younger siblings and we see how she reacted to their arrival as she remembers various events from her earlier life.
Ellen's father was lazy and a drinker. He was also the main one who took in a brother who'd been disabled during an accident. Her mother wasn't a proud housewife, letting the house fall into bad repair and Ellen's older sister doing most of the cooking.
Occasionally Ellen was able to get away: helping her paternal aunt look after her grandmother in the last months of her life, having a friend whose father owned land. She became exposed to things beyond those at home: from house-proud women to church to pretty things one took care of.
This novel is sad, yet because we know that Ellen did better in her life, also hopeful.
The title comes from a recurring dream that Ellen has of her mother slowly drowning. She returns to the old places they lived in as she looks for answers to the meaning of these dreams.