"The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Olympics" by Daniel James Brown *****

• Non-Fiction
• US author
• Stewart Place Book Club Selection
• Originally published in 2013
• Names:
• Joe Rantz.....abandoned by family
• George Pohock.....shell builder and philosopher
• Vocabulary:
• swing:  achievement of perfect spiritual and physical synchrony
• repechage:  (in cycling and rowing) a last-chance qualifying heat in which therunners-up in earlier heats race each other, with the winner advancingto the finals.
• Epigraph: 
•  "It's a great art, is rowing,it's the finest art there is.  It's a symphony of motion.  An when you're rowing well, why it's nearing perfection.  And when you near perfection, you're touching the Divine.  It touches the you of yous,  Which is your soul."--Pohock
• "{But I desire and I long every day to go home and to look upon the day of my return....for already I have suffered and labored at so many things on the waves,)...Homer
• Quotes:
• p.1--Well, there must be some beauty which ordinary men can't see, but extraordinary men do."...Pocock..."In a sport like this--hard work, not much glory, but still popular in every century
• p.37..."The trick was to recognize a good thing when you saw it, no matter how odd or worthless it might at first appear, no matter who else might just walk away and leave it behind."
• p.39..."Competitive rowing is an undertaking of extraordinary beauty preceded by brutal punishment."
• p.40..."It is not a question of whether you will hurt, or of how much you will hurt; it's a question of what you will do, and how well you will do it, while pain has her wanton way with you."
• p.46..."......if you wanted to keep her on an even keel, you had to part your hair in the middle and divide your chewing tobacco evenly between your cheeks."...re: one of the old style shells
• p.48..."And he came to understand how those almost mystical bonds of trust and affection, if nurtured correctly, might lift a crew above the ordinary sphere, transport it to a place where nine boys somehow became one thing---a thing that could not quite be defined,, a thing that was so in tune with the water and the earth and the sky above that, as they rowed, effort was replaced with ecstasy.  It was a rare thing, a sacred thing, a thing devoutly to be hoped for........George Pocock had quietly become its high priest."
• p.53....."The enemy, of course, is resistance of the water, as you have to displace the amount of water equal to the weight of men and equipment, but that very water is what supports you and that very enemy is your friend.  So is life:  the very problems you must overcome also support you and make you stronger in overcoming them."
• p.87..."They were state-of-the-art, so elegant 
• streamlined that people liked to say they seemed to bee in motion while still on the racks."...Pocock's boats
• p.173..."A boat is a sensitive thing, an eight-oared shell, and if it isn't let go free, it doesn't work for you."
• p.177..."Rowing is, in a number of ways, a sport of fundamental paradoxes."
• p.178..."Rowing is like a beautiful duck.  On the surface it is all grace, but underneath the bastard's paddling like mad!"...favorite quote
• p.275..."Therein lies the secret of successful crews:  Their 'swing', that fourth dimension of rowing, which can only be appreciated by an oarsman who has rowed in a swinging crew, where the run is uncanny and the work of propelling he shell a delight."...Pocock
• p.308..."Mr. Brundage...has reached his destination, the Utopia of sportsmanship and good-will, where Nazi beer and Jewish blood flow freely--where Hitler made root torment and persecute the living dead...For two months the dead will be buried.  But with the conclusion of the Olympics in September, their graves will be desecrated...and dead men once more will walk the streets of Germany."...NY Times editorial
• p.343..."Men as fit as you, when your everyday strength is gone, can draw on a mysterious reservoir of power far greater.  Then t is that you can reach for the stars.  That is the way champions are made"...Pocock
• p.357..."Harmony, balance, and rhythm.  They're the three things that stay with you your whole life.  Without them civilization is out of whack."...Pocock
• Notes:
• Inspired by conversation between the author and one of the participants
• Incredible the way Joe Rant coped with abandonment...thank goodness for Joyce
• I would love to ride in one of the rail observation cars that ran alongside the race
• the parallel events in Germany were juxtaposed perfectly
• "pull your own weight"...originated in rowing?
• abandonment of self to team
• Yoo Hoo Girls....funny name
• loved it when Pocock christened the Olympic shell with sauerkraut juice "to get it used to Germany"
• Joe Louis v. Max Schmeling....Aryan v. Negro
• Team visit to Hyde Park was wonderful
• Bobby Moch, coxswain, finding out he was Jewish....incredible
• Nazi re-creation of Berlin as a veritable movie set was incredible
• I like it when the American crew responded with "Heil Roosevelt"
• Hugh Laurie, actor, crewed at Oxford
• Awful moment at start of gold medal race when starter spoke in french
• a mere 28 miles of actual racing, yet 4000+ mile training amongst them
• Review: You know that feeling of wishing a really wonderful story would just go on and on?  Well I have never felt that way about a work of non-fiction until now.  This is absolutely fantastic!  The story itself has all the elements of drama, suspense, and memorable characters, set against the historical backdrop of the Dust Bowl, the Great Depression, and the rise of Nazi Germany.  However, I believe that the crowning achievement here is the writing.  Brown is able to wax philosophical and poetic without sounding the least bit artificial.  His ability to pain the context of the national and international within which these young men rose to such glory is truly impressive.  He interweaves personal biographical details with multiple social perspectives. I new the outcome of the gold medal race, yet found myself holding my breath, in part because I felt like I knew the crew members personally by the end of the book. I could hardly put the book down. Outstanding!

"Proud Beggars" by Albert Cossary *****

• Summer Sub Club read with Beth
• Egyptian author
• Originally published, 1955
• Vocabulary:
• saltimbank:  street performer
• Characters:
• Gohar:  university professor turned hashish addict and philosopher
• Yeghan:  hashish dealer, admirer of Gohar's intellect
• El Kordi:  civil servant, in love with tuberculaar prostitute
• Nour El Dine:  detective, homosexual,  obsessed with his dignity, chasing Samir
• Samir:  hates his father for representing the bourgeois ideal

• Quotes:
• p.4..."He hated to surround himself with objects: objects concealed hidden germs of misery--the worst kind of all, unconscious misery, which fatslly breeds suffering by its unending presence."...Gohar
• p.4..."Most furniture and ordinary objects insulted his eyes, as they could not nourish his need for human fantasy.  Only people with their endless follies, had the power to amuse him."...Gohar
• p.7..."It was always the same thing: this amazement he felt before the absurd easiness of life.  all was simple and ludicrous.  ...The swarming poverty that surrounded him was not at all tragic; it seemed to conceal a mysterious opulence, treasures of a strange, unknown richness.  A prodigious indifference seemed to preside over the destiny of this crowd; here, every humiliation assumed  pure and innocent character."
• p.8..."He had the piercing look that marked the professional beggar able to judge his client with a single glance."
• p.17...."To teach life without living it was a crime of the most detestable ignorance."
• p.20..." 'What is most futile in man.....is this search for dignity.'  All these people trying to maintain their dignity? For what? The history of mankind is a long, bloody nightmare only because of such nonsense.  As if the fact of being alive wasn't dignity in itself.  Only the dead are undignified."
• p.34..."She was skilled in the art of distilling sadness; she spun misery like a spider its web."...Yeghen's mother
• p.36..."His mother's soup was the supreme insult to his optimism; it reeked of good intentions and respectable poverty."
• p.37..."She enjoyed her sadness, not understanding that one  can laugh despite the gravest deprivations."
• p.100..."Their inalienable misery, their refusal to participate in the destiny of the civilized world, concealed such strength that no earthly power could exhaust it.....he begrudged them their indifference their capacity to disregard the principles of a world whose foundation was sadness and contrition.  By what magic had they escaped common distress?"...Nour El Dine's view of the impoverished
• p.109...."Gohar now knew that this anguish was not metaphysical,  He knew that it was not an inevitability of the human condition but that it was provoked by a deliberate will, te will of certain powers that had always fought against lucidity and simple reason. These powers considered straightforward ideas their deadliest enemies because they--the powers--could prosper only in obscurantism and chaos!"....view of the powers that run government
• p.109..."The universe was not absurd; it was simply ruled by the most abominable gang of scoundrels that had ever soiled the surface of the planet."
• p.133..."Once we have a country where the population is composed entirely of beggars then you'll see what will become of this arrogant domination.  It will crumble into dust."
• p.146..."Man has become worse than an earthquake.  At any rate he does more damage......don't you agree that the horrors cause by man long ago exceeded those of nature's cataclysms?"....post nuclear bomb
• Notes:
• Many references to the atomic bomb, sense of impending  annihilation
• story of the donkey who was elected mayor....fools
• group at a cafe argued, calling each other fake blind men
• killing of a prostitute for her gold bracelets...turned out to be cheap imitation gold
• Yeghen's mother tried to lend respectability to poverty
• Gohar believes you can choose progress or peace...not both
• I love the hotel which only had three eiderdowns and as a customer got comfy and fell asleep, the clerk would sneak in, take the eiderdown,and offer it to a new customer

• Review:  This is an incredible novel!  I do not know if it is satirical or deadly serious.  Probably both.  Set in Post WWII Egypt amongst a host of beggars, the reader gets a glimpse into a sub-culture which may well represent the only means to true peace and joy?  If one has nothing left to lose, life becomes full of peace?  The cast of characters?:  Gohar (university professor become hashish addict whose dream is to migrate to Syria where there are free fields of hashish), Yeghen (Gohars's dealer and supplicant), El Kordi (civil servant who dreams of performing acts of heroism to free his beloved who happens to be a prostitute), Nour El Dine (detective and homosexual who dreams of rising above his life amongst the masses), and many more.  Oh, did I mention that there is also a murder?  Yes, this novel is entertaining, philosophical, and disturbing all at once.  Just read it and see for yourself!

"Moll Flanders" by Daniel DeFoe ****

• Audiobook
• English author
• Originally published in 1721
• Review:  My, my, my.....how can one woman survive all of these crimes and husbands, incest and deportation, and still live happily ever after? Maybe it is the close brush with death by hanging that brought about fairly devout penitence? Tough to say, but nonetheless, it was a delightful read! One could wax poetic about the sexism, but what's the point when it was written in the 1700s? Just sit back and give yourself over to this rollicking read!

"Bootstrappers: From Broke to Badass on a Northern Michigan Farm" by Mardi Jo Link ***

• Audiobook
• Non-Fiction, Autobiography
• Originally published in 2003
• Review:  This book, the autobiographical story of a single mother with a dream, started a little slow, but became increasingly engaging.  The author conveyed the sense of desperation she felt at times, the feelings of shame and degradation which she combatted with the pride of independence and survival, and the love of her three boys very well.  It is not a unique story, yet a story well told.

"Purple Hibiscus" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. *****

• Audiobook
• Nigerian author
• Originally published 2003
• Notes:
• Characters:
• purple hibiscus symbolizes freedom to be an individual and to stand out, per the protagonist
• "There were stories in his eyes that I would never know."....about her papa
• "I could taste the sounds that settled on my lips."
• "Why does Our Lady always appear in Europe?"
• "Defiance is like marijuana.  Not a bad thing when used right."
• Review:    Absolutely beautiful! This is a lyrical, powerful story which reminds the reader that life is full of contradictions, yearnings, fears, love, loyalty, and most of all the tiny triumphs which can seem to change the world. The protagonist is an adolescent girl who struggles to make sense of a world which can simultaneously consist of abusive terrifying people and people whose unconditional love is absolute. She struggles to be a purple hibiscus, symbol of freedom to be individual and free. The story is set in the author's native Nigeria. I strongly recommend the audio version of the novel, as the reader's voice is melodious and rich, adding to the authenticity of the narrative. Adichie's use of language and fabulous characters make this a memorable read. 

    

"This is Paradise" by Kristiana Kahakauwila ****

• Early Reviewer edition for LibraryThing.com
• Short Stories
• US author
• Originally published 2013 (I lost track of this in my book stacks so did not read it in the timely manner required for an Early Reviewer......oops!
• Stories:
• "This Is Paradise":  nature's paradise marred and exploited by humanity, loss to indigenous, hatred for haoles
• "speed of poi"...LOL
• p.23..."Our families are barely affording a life here, the land is being eaten away by developers, the old sugar companies still control water rights.  Not only does paradise no longer belong to us, but we have to watch foreigners destroy it.".....like Native Americans
• "Wanle":  Cock fighting is common, and a metaphor for life
• Epigraph:  "Hawai'i is a cock-pit, on the ground the well-fed cocks fight." - From the Chant of Haui-Ka-Lani
• "Wanle" means 'it is gone'
• p.83 - "In my last semester at college I took a course in poetry.....they write about the beauty and majesty of nature, and I understand why he loved them.  But the Indian failed to understand their work in its fullness, how their poems at times celebrate the violence , loss, sadness, and cruelty inherent in the natural world."
• "The Road To Hana": a love story with conflict
• p.95...."For Becky, however, the past and present existed in the same moment.  In her memory the two met, and through their meeting, she layered them until past and present were like ocean and sky, without noticeable boundary."
• "Thirty-Nine Rules For Making A Hawaiian Funeral Into A Drinking Game":  One drink for every difficult moment during grandmother's funeral
• p.119...."Your father is absent from your uncles' stories not because he left, but because he was never of Kaua'i in the first place.  Because he was in his own world.  Because hi is Hawaiian, but no local."
• p.124..."Understand that your grandmother is in heaven now, and heaven has fighting cocks and Heineken, poi and dried ahi, your uncles' teasing and your aunties' cooking and your cousins laughing with you when you talk.  heaven is them acting like this is where you belong, and if that's what haole pastors call hell, then thank God you finally got here."
• "Portrait of a Good Father": imperfection of love
• p.139..."Her entire life Grace has suspected men know things because they think them, and women know things because they feel them."
• "The Old Paniolo Way":  family dynamics around dying father
• paniolo:  a person who herds cattle; cowboy
• Review:  What an interesting collection of short stories about Hawaii.  Thoughts which come to mind as I think about the collection as a whole include:  ambivalence, wistful yearning, cultural pride, deceptively simple, gently blunt.  I have to be honest and say that no individual story stands out.  It is the overall message which is fairly compelling.  Stories of people in a culture which has been co-opted and changed so that indigenous inhabitants become showpieces and part of a tourist dependent economy, while trying to hold on to their unique identity and values.  This is an old story of colonialism told set in a stunningly beautiful and surprisingly complex location.  The collection provided this reader first-time insight to the Hawaiian culture, which made it particularly fascinating.  Nice collection!

"All The Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr ***

● Audiobook
●  Stewart Place Book Club selection, January 2015
●  US author
● Review:  A very nice book.  Standard metaphors, (i.e. the blind seeing the most),  are used to find the light in the darkness of WWII and its well known atrocities. Stolen youths, orphaned children, love despite all odds, and the survival instinct are standard themes, written about with an elegant prose.  However, I think that the converging story line structure was not well implemented and became confusing along the way, probably because there was jumping not only between characters, but also back and forth in time. I must admit to being bored and that it bogged down for quite a while in the middle.  So overall, very nice is the best I can muster for this very popular novel. This one will probably do better as a film than as a novel.

"The Mad and The Bad" by Jean-Patrick Manchette ****

• A New York Times Review of Books (NYRB) Classic
• French author
• Originally published in 1972, this translation published in 2014
• Vocabulary:
• demotic:  of or relating to the ordinary, everyday, current form of a language;vernacular
• nacelle:  the car of a balloon
• Quotes:
• p.162..."He did not clearly comprehend how his uncle had ended up on the side of the bad guys but since he had always detested the redhead the question did not strike him as of any great import.".....young Peter as he looked at the body of his dead uncle
• Introduction by James Sallis:
• Manchette created a new genre of French fiction...the "neo-polar", "distinguished from traditional detective novel, the "polar" by its political engagement and social radicalism."
• p.vii...."Manchette wanted to throw in rocks, disturb the calm surface, bring up all the muck beneath--to demonstrate that the crime novel could be (a he said again and again) 'the great moral literature of our time' ".
• p.vii..." 'He was like an electroshock to the chloroformed country of literature and the French thriller,' Jean-Francois Gerault noted."
• p.x...."...juxtaposes the vulgar and the precious, enjambs depictions of quotidian life against scenes of such extreme and often implicit violence as to call into question all the myriad fictions of bourgeois accepted existence."
• situationist:  believed that capitalism's overweening successes came only at the expense of increased alienation, social dysfunction and a general degradation of daily life; that the acquisition exchange and consumption of commodities had forcefully supplanted direct experience, creating a kind of life by proxy; and that liberation might be found in fashioning a parody of labor in capitalist society..."
• p.xii..."Back in the hills of the rural South where I grew up, squirrel hunters often nailed their game to trees and, with a knife and brute strength tore the body from the skin in a single hard pull  As a method it was clean, quick, and efficient.  The skins stayed behind on the trees, dozens of them, all around cabins and favorite hunting sites, constant reminders.  Books like Manchette's are those skins."......WOW
• Review:  You have to love it when the only character diagnosed as mentally ill turns out to be the only sane character in a book!  Jean-Patrick Manchette is referred to as the French version of Raymond Chandler or Dashiell Hammett.  This was my first experience with Manchette, and I am so impressed by his dynamic storytelling.  I always have to be careful discussing use of language when reading a translated piece of literature, but I really liked the language of this novel.. It is a violent tale highlighting the absurdity of the lifetime criminal, the pettiness of envy, and in some respects the naivete and purported resilience of children. Julie, the insane character, and Peter, a child in her care, are kidnapped and the criminal romp and killing spree go from there.  Sounds awful, but it reads very well, a tribute to the writer and translator!