Two Books about Women

 February's pick for one of my book groups was an Irish novel, Annie Dunne by Sebastian Barry.  It was a great pick, as it led to insightful and lively discussion.  Rather surprising for such a small, unassuming novel!

The main character is, of course, Annie Dunne, a simple Irish woman in her 60's living on a small farm in rural Wicklow with her cousin, Sarah.  The story begins in 1959.  Annie has never been married, and spent years living in her sister's home as a housekeeper.  When her sister died,  Annie's brother-in-law remarried, and sent Annie away, as she was no longer needed.  She was then homeless, and was invited by Sarah to come and live with her.  One day, her nephew, whom she helped raise while her sister was ill, came to ask if Annie would care for his son and daughter over the summer.  The children add a whole new dimension to Annie and Sarah's lives and Annie is surprised at her deep feelings for the children.  However, this pleasure is threatened when Annie learns that Sarah is being courted.  Old feelings arise in Annie.

This was really a quite fascinating book, with many sub-themes going on.  I loved how Annie incorporated things that her grandfather used to say and do into her everyday life.  The language and prose of the book is beautiful.  One of the very interesting things noted after reading the book, is that the children never were named.  They were always referred to in the book as "the boy" or "the girl".

All in all, an excellent book!

I followed Annie Dunne with Alice Hoffman's latest book, The Red Garden.  Each chapter of the book takes place in a different time period, going from 1750 to sometime in the 2000's.  All of the stories are about the town of Bearsville, MA (later changed to Blackwell in 1786).  In 1750, Hallie married William Brady and he led an expedition that landed in the area that Hallie named Bearsville, because of the bears there.  In the first story we are introduced to Hallie and the others who stayed in Bearsville.  Hallie helped the others survive their first winter in Bearsville. After the first winter, Hallie started a garden where the soil was as red as blood and everything grown there was red.

Each chapter was about descendants of the founders of Bearsville.  I did have a little trouble with following who was who, but finally let that go, and just enjoyed the stories.  It was very interesting how Ms. Hoffman tied all of the stories together, and to see how the world events over the years affected this small town and it's people.  This book also had lovely language and prose. I enjoyed the book!

Those Who Save Us

Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum

This is the author’s first novel, and it will be very interesting to see if she can live up to the standard of writing that she delivered in Those Who Save Us. From the little bit of research that I did, I found that Ms. Blum is of German descent and is half Jewish. She worked for the Shoah Foundation for four years, interviewing Holocaust survivors. It is quite interesting to know this background after having read the book.

The story alternates between war-torn Nazi Germany and the present. For the past 50 years, Trudy’s mother, Anna has refused to talk about her life in Germany during the war. Trudy was three years old when she and Anna were liberated by an American soldier, who married Anna and took Anna and Trudy to Minnesota to live. Trudy’s only link to her past is a family portrait she found in Anna’s possessions of Anna, herself and a Nazi officer.

A good synopsis of the story from Publishers Weekly:
“The narrative alternates between the present-day story of Trudy, a history professor at a Minneapolis university collecting oral histories of WWII survivors (both German and Jewish), and that of her aged but once beautiful German mother, Anna, who left her country when she married an American soldier. Interspersed with Trudy's interviews with German immigrants, many of whom reveal unabashed anti-Semitism, Anna's story flashes back to her hometown of Weimar. As Nazi anti-Jewish edicts intensify in the 1930s, Anna hides her love affair with a Jewish doctor, Max Stern. When Max is interned at nearby Buchenwald and Anna's father dies, Anna, carrying Max's child, goes to live with a baker who smuggles bread to prisoners at the camp. Anna assists with the smuggling after Trudy's birth until the baker is caught and executed. Then Anna catches the eye of the Obersturmf hrer, a high-ranking Nazi officer at Buchenwald, who suspects her of also supplying the inmates with bread. He coerces her into a torrid, abusive affair, in which she remains complicit to ensure her survival and that of her baby daughter. “

The book is similar to Sophie’s Choice in the sense that Anna has to make life-decisions that are the kind of choices that no woman ever wants to be forced into making. It is about choices women have to make to save their children. The book begs the questions of what happens when a women has to ignore her own sense of right in order to save herself and her child? What are the future implications of such choices? Can a woman live with those choices? Can those choices ever be understood by others?

It is never really clear how Anna felt about her choices. Obviously, she was always and forever unwilling to discuss the past that she had. But it is not clear exactly why. I would suspect that she felt guilt for being with the Nazi officer, and I also think that at times she may have cared for him and felt guilt over that. After all, she kept the photo of the family all those years.
The book leaves one wondering: What would I have done to save my child? And how would I have lived with the choices?

I found the book especially intriguing as it involved seeking the past, which is my second (only to reading) addiction. Genealogy is seeking the past. Some say the past history of one’s family is not their business. Yet we are formed by our family’s past and how can we understand who we really are without knowing the past? This book is a good example of that. Once Trudy uncovered the real truth of her past, it would completely alter her conceptualization of who she is and what her life would become.

I highly recommend this book. I could not put it down, which is the comment that runs through all of the reviews I have seen of the book. I read it during dinner, instead of watching TV, late into the night, etc. It is really that good!

My Best Reads of 2001

Well, 2001 was a good year for finding excellent books to read. As a matter of fact, it was so good, that I have to mark 2 books as my absolute favorites! I can’t choose between them!

Below is a list of the best of the books that I read in 2001. I have *** the best, with *** being my absolute favorite books read that year.

The Red Tent-Anita Diamant ***

Drowning Ruth-Christina Schwarz ***

Red Grass River-James Carlos Blake

This One and Magic Life-Anne Carroll George

In The Fall-Jeffrey Lent

Queen-Alex Haley & David

Plantation Trilogy-Gwen Bristow

Fall On Your Knees-Ann-Marie McDonald ***

As I continue to list my best reads of each year, you may notice some duplicates. There are a few books that I have found so good that I have re-read them in following years. Drowning Ruth is one of those. It is just an excellent story. Fall on Your Knees is actually a rather similar book, in that it is such a great women’s story.

Both of my favorite books from 2001 reflect my life’s career choice, working with women and their stories. It isn’t surprising to me that these books touched something in me, since I hear these kind of stories every day. The authors do an excellent job expressing the stories that my clients try to tell each day, as they struggle for recovery.Interestingly enough, as I look at the whole list, most of them are about strong women, trying to survive. Seems to be a theme here…..