The Painted Bird

What a barbaric world we live in… throughout history this is repeated often and yet our civilization is supposedly getting more socially responsible and active to stop behaviors that destroy others in the world.  Nothing was more brutal and realistic than Jerzy Kosinski’s The Painted Bird, set in the time of World War II in Europe.  While the author has provided a brilliantly written story, it is one that is really hard to visualize and comprehend.  The story is of a young Jewish boy who is given away by his parents in the hopes they can escape the Nazis and allow their son a chance to escape the killings.  The young boy is left with a woman who dies rather soon after his parents depart, leaving the young boy to live as a gypsy roaming the Eastern part of Europe attempting to live through the chaos of a country torn apart by hatred and destruction.  I had often wondered what this book was about as it appears in the New York Times Best 100 Novels of the Twentieth Century.  I, for one, echo their accolades and say add this one to your list.  While difficult reading, after you read it you will wonder how this world can sustain itself, where is the love, the hope for humanity?  We are nothing more than animals, eating upon each other much like the description of the “painted bird” which tries to mingle with its family of birds, but is ostracized and eventually killed based on being different, in this case because the bird catcher decided to paint it.  We are afraid of “the other,” never taking a moment to understand and realize at our core, we are no different on the inside, though our colors may be different.  Kosinski’s protagonist, the young boy, runs from village to village, and faces savage beatings, almost being raped by a gang of boys, witnessing rape and bestiality, and being thrown into a pit of manure where he becomes deaf due to the injuries.  The young boy’s experience mirrors that of the animals that surround him on his travels, where some animals prey on others, and illustrates that all living things on this earth have one goal, to survive over others.  Surprised a bit by the ending of the story, as did not think it needed to end as potentially positive as it did, though it does end as World War II comes to a conclusion.  I appreciated the postscript at the conclusion of the story explaining Kosinski’s reason for the book and some of the challenges he faced in his country after the book was published (and banned from the book shelves and classrooms).  Kosinski escaped to the US and lived in NYC.  I wish I could be more optimistic as the book’s closing about life, but with so much war, brutal murder, and the destruction of others for sex, money, and power, it is a hard to have hope.  Dialogue and understanding need a renaissance in our world today, we all need to play a role in this work.

Sula

Toni Morrison is a wonderful author providing insights into a world rather lightly discussed, the plight of African-Americans.  In this book, Sula, Morrison sets this story in Northern Ohio during the 1920s through the 1960s.  Like many of her other stories, there is a dark side to the story and a rather complicated depth to her characters.  The story begins by introducing the character, Shadrack, who is released from a mental facility after serving in the military and witnessing death and destruction during the war and then sets off to Medallion, his home while growing up. The two main characters, Sula and Nel are childhood friends, from rather different family situations, Nel from a stable family life, while Sula lives in a home that houses visitors and her non-traditional family.  The two girls lives go in very different directions, Nel settles down and gets married, while Sula disappears after her mother is killed in a burning accident.  Before her departure she is involved in a freak “accident,” the twirling of a neighborhood boy over the river, who slips from her hands and drowns.  The series of strange incidents involving Sula creates a “shadow” of mystery and evil from which others want to avoid.  It comes full circle upon Sula’s return to Medallion and takes her friend’s husband, Jude, out of Nel’s arms by bedding down with him while Nel goes out, yet returns to find the two of them in her bedroom. The citizens of the town are fearful of Sula and all that they believe she does. Just as the community was driven out of the valley from the white townspeople, it is driven out of the valley years after Sula dies, which reminds the people of her ongoing hold over them even in her death.  Morrison’s depiction of the complexity of the time is best illustrated in Sula and how she is seen as a villain as she takes away “things” from others, just as the white population does from the African-American community. This is a relatively brief read with a complex characters intertwined in a place that is supposed to provide relief from the racial divide. A darkness of death is profound in Morrison’s stories.  The brutality throughout the story reflects some of Morrison’s own life, being alone, yet the hope for escape from the hands that contain and strangle. A strong portrayal of the on-going challenges of race in an unfair society.  Worth picking up, as are her other stories.

Have a Little Faith

Growing up in NJ as a young Jewish boy living life carefree but connected through his parents on the faith so dear to them, one never knows what will happen when one continues to practice the faith (albeit through the motions), live a good life and be open to the possibilities.  Guess what happens?  The young boy grows up a successful author and sportswriter and is called to assist his former rabbi on one last life request, write his eulogy.  The only problem is that the rabbi isn’t dead and has a number of years left in life.  This real life story, reminiscent of Mitch Albom’s first book Tuesday’s the Morrie, Have a Little Faith describes how he handles one of the toughest tasks in his life.  Albom, who for years describes his interaction with his faith similar to that of a bystander, was never really involved in a church, except for his annual return to his parent’s synagogue.  The story actually brings in two faith traditions with two very different religious leaders, his own leader, Rabbi Albert Lewis, and then Pastor Henry Covington, an ex-convict turned good.  The stories of the two leaders intertwine with some interesting commonalities, both men lost a child during their life and both were referred to as “reb,” a coincidence… hmmm.  Covington’s past certainly is an amazing turn-around as he states, “I broke every commandment” and almost faced death due to theft, drugs, and other breaking of laws. Henry had an “awakening” when he was hiding behind garbage cans after stealing drugs from dealers he had worked with previously.  He and his wife then went cold-turkey and began the process of turning their life around and giving back to others eventually ending up in Detroit as the assistant pastor and then pastor.  Covington’s church has a hole in the roof, limited money, and a ton of people who need his assistance.  In true “Albom” style, he opens himself to the possibilities of really hearing what it is to live and help people through two very different ways, two different faith traditions.  If you don’t shed a tear or two after reading this one, not sure you ever will.  What a beautiful story about living in a world where one is called and the other asks to be called and then the two actually do something to serve others.  We all meet great people in our lives from time to time.  Albom once again opens himself to meeting greatness, ever so reluctantly at first but then gives all of his readers a chance to experience his growth moment.  Here is an excerpt from the eulogy:

I didn't want to eulogize you. I was afraid. I felt a congregant could never eulogize his leader. But I realize now that thousands of congregants will eulogize you today, in their car rides home, over the dinner table. A eulogy is no more than a summation of memories, and we will never forget you, because we cannot forget you, because we will miss you every day. To imagine a world without you in it is to imagine a world with a little less God in it, and yet, because God is not a diminishing resource, I cannot believe that.

This one should be given to anyone who needs to understand the meaning of life.  Thanks for suggesting this book and Mr. Albom continues to illustrate why saying yes can prove life altering!

The Razor's Edge

"The sharp edge of a razor is difficult to pass over; thus the wise say the path to Salvation is hard”… and so begins the book The Razor’s Edge by W. Somerset Maugham.  Maugham does an outstanding job providing real characters that move in different directions – all connected to their own internal motivations.  The author actually serves a role in the book, a character himself, one who tells the story of the various people who enter his world.  The main character, Larry Darrell, returns from World War I interested in learning what should be the meaning of his life.  Larry’s journey back has him meeting with his fiancée’s aristocratic uncle, Elliott Templeton, who is always concerned about whose company he is engaged in at any given moment.  The juxtaposition of the two characters serves as an underpinning of all the characters, Larry and his fiancée Isabel, Larry and Grey (the son of a millionaire), Isabel and Sophie (a prostitute turned good and then returns back to her ways), and the list continues.  Larry is incapable of doing what most men his age would do, work and attempt to rise in the society he lives in.  Instead he decides he can’t work, mainly based on what he experienced during the war, losing his fellow military comrades.  Isabel, Grey, Elliott, and others can’t believe that Larry would turn down offers from Grey’s father to work as a stockbroker in his company, instead Larry intends to “loaf” around the world.  Larry will eventually lose Isabel, who wants the “good life” and ends up marrying Grey.  But funny how things happen in life as the great stock market collapse ruins Grey and Isabel’s fortune and she now needs to rely on her uncle for money, similar to what Larry had to do earlier in his life.  Ironies happen throughout and make one think about how those that “should have” end up with little.  Still, Isabel could never get over the loss of Larry, even when he leaves for a trip to India to find himself.  Larry returns a decade later and winds up in the arms of Sophie, a former prostitute, but can one really change?  Here’s where Isabel plays a role.  Death, drugs, greed, and the desire for things one shouldn’t have…  Maugham knows how to write.  I really enjoyed the “coming of age” character who seeks to find out “why,” “what,” and “how.”  He is true to himself even in the worst of circumstances.  There is so much more here but a nice read on characters that grow up during the story.  And yes there can be salvation… for those who deserve it!

Eating Animals

Always hard reading a book that makes you re-think how you live your life, especially when it comes to how we eat.  Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer does just that, he makes the reader think deeply about what happens to our environment, health risks to our bodies, and of course, the animals themselves.  Safran Foer steps away from the fiction format, which has made him pretty popular among RAs in the past, to present a story that begins when the impending birth of his son and how he believes he can transform his earlier life choices (in terms of eating) during this life changing addition to his family by becoming a vegan.  If this book doesn’t compel one (and I guess me) to become more aware of the potential dangers to our world because of the mass production of animals for protein, not sure what will? Why dogs are not eaten and cows are?  What type of waste is produced by the mass production of animals for food?  How much emphasis the American consumers have affected the rest of the world, (and how obese we are as a society!)?  Safran Foer draws a great deal from previous reviews on the topic, including one of my favorites, Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan.  He also does intensive research by interviewing farmers who are still trying to hold on against the “factory farming and commercial fisheries” that may in the end destroy our world.  Details of the various harms caused to animals through brutal treatment of “ray guns gone awry,” “suffocation,” and inhumane ways that workers kill animals will make one think twice before eating this year’s Thanksgiving turkey dinner.   The US is leading a very scary movement to influence other nations to produce meat products in a “lab” that allows us to produce animals through artificial insemination. A ton of ethical issues are presented to the reader, though Safran Foer always challenging our own views on what we should do as a member of the society.  It certainly isn’t a topic that one really wants to think about when sitting down for a prime rib dinner, but we really do need to reflect on how our footprint may destroy the future generation’s clean water, fresh air, and ability to live without new diseases.  A compelling read that presents a great deal of data (and personal stories from insiders) on the current practices that seemingly not being challenged by our government or many members of our society.  Every person should reflect on a book of this importance.  Of course an added benefit of the book is that you support a NYU Faculty member when you purchase it!   Tough read, but important.