Kitchen God’s Wife

A relatively short read, and even shorter when listening on tape at double speed, but I didn’t do that!  The book was the Kitchen God’s Wife by Amy Tan.  I would call it a “chicklit” book mainly because of the focus on female relationships.  The story is about a Chinese-American woman, Pearl, and her learning the history of her family’s heritage.  Pearl is called by her mother, Winnie, to attend a family engagement, which she doesn’t want to attend, but the next day learns of her aunt’s death.  When she arrives, she meets with her Aunt Helen, who wants Pearl to inform that she has the debilitating disease MS to her mother.  Aunt Helen holds over Pearl the fact that she has a brain tumor, though she doesn’t let Pearl know it is benign.  Helen also encourages Winnie to tell her daughter her life, and all of the things that she went through coming to the US. Winnie goes into great detail her horrific life in China, including being abandoned as a child, being married to a abusive man, not really being related to Helen, and finally the fact that Pearl was not really the biological daughter of the man that had raised her, a loving Chinese Baptist Minister, who helped Winnie escape from the rapist husband and come to the US.  Wu-Fen, the husband of Winnie at that time, was actually Pearl’s biological father.  After learning of these revelations, Pearl shares with her mother her serious medical condition. All the sharing leads the three women to plan a trip back to China.  Obviously there is much more to the depth of the sharing and issues that arose from Winnie’s history, but I provided some of the highlights.  The story gives insight to some of the atrocities and secrets that stay within families.  A well written story, but just not my favorite type of story.  I think this would be a good short book club read for twenty-somethings.

The Foreign Student - Philippe Labro (Extra book)

How strange to read my second The Foreign Student in two days, this one by Philippe Labro.  This one is a bit more of what I expected.  A quick read and a “coming of age” autobiographical story that the author lived himself (or at least it appears a good deal of it is) in 1955. The story is based in a small liberal arts college in Virginia (Washington and Lee?) where the young French student is awarded a one year scholarship to attend for his freshman year.  The book is broken into cycle of the academic year, autumn, winter, and spring and all of the highlights and traditions that a college campus offers.  Philippe experiences the transitions that any first-year student does: fitting in, finding friends, and dealing with academic difficulties, plus all of the issues that an international student would experience as well (language barriers, American colloquialisms, feeling self-conscious).   The book includes some of the same issues that we experience today as back in 1950s: sexual orientation, homosexuality, social class, sexual promiscuity, race issues, financial difficulties, role of alcohol on campus, suicide, and self-esteem (He jammed in all of the same issues we see these days!).  The book begins as a self-reflective look back on the freshman year where Philippe remembers the death of a fellow classmate and moves into his elicit sexual relationship with an African-American older women.  It was interesting how realistic the story was and how much it relates to many of the issues that we find on our campuses today.  It was one of those fast reads I finished on my day off and enjoyed the journey and growing up phases that Philippe went through.  There are a number of issues that would help people who work on a college campus to think through the life of an international student.  There is also the changing societal issues happening during the 1950s with race relations in the south, especially the surprise relationship that develops for Philippe (music’s impact on students, on-coming sexual revolution, and the Civil Rights movement).  The book was a #1 best-selling book in France when published.  I can see why, kind of like the Catcher in the Rye sort of journey.  A period piece, yet does more than one would expect for even today’s readers.  Worth picking it up for student affairs staff.

The Foreign Student - Susan Choi (Extra book)

Ever start reading a book and part way into it, find out it was the wrong book?  Well that’s what happened to me when I started reading The Foreign Student by Susan Choi.  It was suggested I read the book to help understand the international exchange students experience on college campuses, well, it did have some examples early on, but clearly after the introduction of characters and story line, it drifted into another direction.  If you have followed my blog over the years, you know I will always finish any book I begin, so it goes with this one, which means I will be reading the other Foreign Student in the coming months.  The story is of a Korean young man, after completing military service at age 25,  who is given a scholarship to study in the US (at Sewanee University) by a Christian organization.  The story begins with his arrival and all of the barriers he faces upon entry to the campus.  Chuck, as he is known, has trouble with language, fitting in, and understanding the culture of the students and the campus environment.  Chuck’s roommate tries to help him, as does a “mysterious woman” (Katherine) whom is later known as the daughter of a former college professor at Sewanee.   From there the story goes in two distinct directions, Chuck’s history in the military before he arrives to the campus when the Russians and Americans split Korea after WWII and he was held captive and tormented; and the story of Katherine and her affair with a college professor starting at the age of twelve, I would say rape at the least and seduction at best.  And how do these two stories intersect?  Well Katherine meets Chuck, and Chuck is taught by the professor whom Katherine has the on-going affair (Charles).  Interesting how the author plays on the names of the two characters, the youthful in-experienced Chuck (the Korean student) and the older professor (Charles).  Choi does this same technique with foreshadowing of the “hurricane” with the ending of the story as well.  Katherine comes from a well-to-do family with means and has to eventually make the choice between Charles and Chuck.  Throughout this “coming of age” tale, Chuck is hindered by his own understanding of his journey by the horrors of his entrapment and as he tries to find “peace.”  Katherine’s own “awakening” from the grips of Charles occurs as her mother fights for her life, where Katherine who has lived on her parent’s money will need to begin to live a life for herself and not be relying on others.  I intended to read a book that would assist in learning more about international students, and got a “love story” with many “warped” turns.  Interesting that this mid-40 year old placed the story in the 1950s.  Her historical representation was sound, but the movement from Korea to Sewanee to the mother’s home in New Orleans made for a complicated storyline.  Not sure in the end if the characters grew/changed/or even moved toward some new place.  I’d say she would have been served better in sticking more with Chuck’s story rather than Katherine’s, or else come to some stronger resolution between the two.  In the end, I didn’t gain what I had hoped to gain, but at times a “Lolita” story with an interruption of an international student stopping in.  Looking forward to the other Foreign Student book.

The Book Lover’s Companion: What to Read Next (Extra book)

Just finished reviewing The Book Lover’s Companion: What to Read Next by Lionel Shriver.  This was a thoughtful gift from one of my AnBryce scholars!  Ok, so nothing wrong with a list of must reads, BUT, the author admits in the foreword that they haven’t read them all!!! Say what!  How can you have a list of book recommendations when you haven’t read the books?  I have a problem with this.  The book highlights 98 books, 40 of which I have read (nice!).  I still am lost on how you make a recommendation on books you haven’t read.  The book gives a paragraph overview (can you say she must have been reviewing my blog!) and then suggested things to chat about should you be in a book club, a brief liked it/didn’t, background information, and suggested companion books.  Interesting format.  I promise you when I produce my favorite book recommendations, I’ll have read them.  Shame on you Lionel, you are an author too!  Quick read and adds top ten lists for men, women, mysteries, non-fiction, and fiction.  As my aunt would have said, great toilet sitting reading.  So if you visit our camp you’ll know where to find this book :)

Baseball as a Road to God

Nothing like reading a book your University President wrote and loving it.  John Sexton’s class, Baseball as a Road to God is now a book, and yes I read the autographed copy he recently gave me (for being awarded the inaugural Team Achievement Award for our NYU Welcomes You program).  There are so many connections to the ritual that is baseball to the world of religion, and in true baseball form, Sexton has the “nine-innings” format for the nine chapters to review the ideas of: Sacred space, sacred time; faith; doubt; conversion; miracles; blessings and curses; saints and sinners; community and nostalgia.  I had no idea how much baseball lore John had and how he was able to weave it throughout the book.  The course uses the “great books” of our time to help illustrate the idea that baseball, like religion, is something that develops us and has the components outlined above.  There were significant reflections shared that I have heard previously and I felt like I was sitting in a room with this phenomenal teacher who captivates you into the journey of life.  John’s life was made to be a teacher, giving lessons on the trials and tribulations of man, fragile and imperfect, but with the ability to do incredible things in life through the use of our gifts and talents.  John, as many in his younger days, lost the thing every young boy (and girl) love… their baseball team.  When the Brooklyn Dodgers left for Los Angeles so too was an end of an era for all those who bled Dodger Blue.  Much of the story is motivated by the “push for greed” by the owner, Walter O’Malley, in an effort to bring baseball to Hollywood”.  This eventually led John, and all of the Brooklynites to determine if they need to be “converted” to another team, which John did when his son was a young boy.  The Yankees became the benefactor of the move as John now has the traditions and love for the Bronx Bombers.  The story of the conversion and how it happens to people is “perfectly understood” and he brings others into the story of the change of loyalties.  World Series highlights, individual successes on the field, personal challenges for players off the field, and strange but true amazing “coincidences” within games/stats are all shared in this “gotta read” for anyone who loves the game and wonders how it connects to so many things in our lives, including whether we believe in a spiritual being.  It is a great feeling to read something that someone you know and admire has written.  I would highly suggest this to any baseball lover, and to anyone who wants to think more deeply on life’s important questions.