February 8th, 2010

middleplaceThe Middle Place—“that sliver of time when parenthood and childhood overlap.” That moment when one is comfortably wedged between adult duties and still falling beneath a parents’ care. It is about being a parent and a child at the same time.

At thirty-six, Kelly Corrigan (both author and main character) had a marriage that worked, two funny, active kids, and a weekly newspaper column. She also has a lump in her breast and gets the diagnosis no one wants to hear.

For Kelly, family is everything.  Her entire identity is carefully constructed around her relationship with her Irish-American, charmer-of-a-father, George Corrigan.

“The thing you need to know about me is that I am George Corrigan’s daughter, his only daughter.

He’s Catholic. That’s the first thing he’d want you to know about him. Goes to church many times a week. Calls it “God’s House” and talks about it in loyal, familiar terms, the way the Irish talk about their corner pub.

You also need to know about the lacrosse thing. He’s in the Hall of Fame, partly because he was an all-American in 1953 and 1954 but mostly because now, in his retirement, he marches up and down the field of my old high school, Radnor, side by side with a guy thirty years his junior, coaching the kids who want to be lacrosse stars. I’ve watched a hundred games sitting next to him; both my brothers played for years. Not being an athlete myself, I am amused by how attached he is to the game. He remembers every play and can talk about a single game for hours. The words don’t mean much to me, but the emotion needs no translation.

And he’s a Corrigan. He was one of six loud, funny kids who broke out of a tiny house on Clearspring Road in working-class Baltimore.”

The Middle Place is a memoir of one year in the life of a cancer patient who was the spoiled daughter who craved her father’s attention. During that year, her father also is diagnosed with bladder cancer. What I most related to was her all encompassing desire to try to leave the same kind of memories for her daughters that her father had given her.

Many times throughout the book the author seems to acknowledge that she operated through life believing things centered on her and reflected a bit on the reasons for her selfishness.

Corrigan is diagnosed with breast cancer, and the book focuses mainly on how she handles this crisis – while still protecting her children, and being there to support her aging parents.

I thought it was interesting how readers found it odd that on the day she found out about her diagnosis, she chose to email her 100 closest friends about what she was going through. While touching, it failed to acknowledge that many of the people she was sending the email too had probably already been through a similar experience. This anecdote highlighted Corrigan’s focus on the self and while she consistently wanted her friends to walk in her painful shoes, she rarely seemed able to walk in theirs, or ever acknowledge that others might be going through difficult times of their own.

While I found her struggle with cancer to be quite honest and read many scenes depicting her close relationship with her father with a lump in my throat, it was easy to be frustrated by her view of the world, which often seemed to presume that she was the only one suffering and failing to fully appreciate that she had a family willing to go above and beyond in every situation.

This is an amazing and though provoking story.  The writing is heartfelt and Corrigan expressed thoughts in print that seem to be the secret feelings we harbor inside of ourselves.

A perfect choice for any book club with characters you will come to love and wish to meet.

GENRE: Memoir/Biography

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January 26th, 2010

Hush by Donna Jo Napoli is a young adult novel inspired by the Icelandic Saga of the People of Laxardal. Napoli creates an intricate story from a single line that reveals the character to be an Irish princess. The resulting story of princess Melkorka is vividly imagined, well-researched, and beautifully written

Set in early medieval times, around the year 900, Melkorka’s father is looking for revenge over the Norse because a Norse boy cut off his son’s hand. He makes plans in the case things go should go wrong, by sending his two daughters away. It’s ironic that instead of safety the two girls are captured by wandering slave traders. Melkorka doesn’t want her captors to know she is royal, so she chooses not to speak.

“You are right to keep your voice to yourself, Aist,” she says into my ear. “Hush. You’re the one who started this silence–you have to keep it up. Or you lose yourself. He’ll just snuff you out.” She makes a puff of hot air that warms my brain. “Like that, like a lamp flame. A slave life counts for nothing unless the slave finds a trick. You’ve found yours. Stick to it. Hush.”

I don’t understand, But I will hold my tongue. The last person who told me to hush was Mother.

The story is told in Melkorka’s voice, giving a firsthand view of her perceptions, feelings, confusion, and grief — and of her developing wisdom in the face of horrendous circumstances that lead her into a life completely unlike the one she expected as the daughter of an Irish king and queen.

As a spoiled princess, Melkorka held much contempt for slaves.  The Abbott preaches in the cathedral that the practice of slavery should be banned, but Melkorka’s father insists that slaves are necessary to the Irish way of life.  We learn that her brother, whose hand was cut, is opposed to slavery by his comments such as, “civilized people don’t own other people.”

Melkorka believes that most slaves are stupid, or they would not be slaves in the first place.  She does not consider that they are people in their own right, no different from herself

Historically, it’s a fascinating description of the time and people and the conflict between the Vikings and everyone else. The idea that this people just came in and took whomever they wanted–men, women, and especially children–and sold them as slaves is shocking.

She doesn’t speak during her entire ordeal and this failure, or refusal, to communicate is of great interest to her captors.

“I have very little power. But I have no doubt anymore: What power I have comes from my silence.”

This is a mature story.  Although told delicately and with little graphic detail, it is apparent that the crew misuses some of the women and that Melkorka becomes a man’s mistress.  Napoli does not cheapen her tail but wrapping up the details or providing an unrealistic happy ending.  It was not a happy book, but I cannot help my recommend it for its masterful writing and new twist to the issue of slavery.

GENRE: Historical Fiction

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January 25th, 2010

“If someone found out they only had one day to live, they should totally move to Hog’s Hollow, because here every day feels like an eternity”

cupcakequeenThe Cupcake Queen by Heather Hepler, is narrated by Penny Lane (her father was a Beatles fan), a fourteen-year-old who has just moved from New York City to the tiny town of Hog’s Head with her mother. Her father, has remains in New York while her parents are separated.

Hog’s Hollow is one of those small towns where everyone knows each others business, and your ancestor’s pictures are posted around town, which is complete with a festival, parade and a Hog Queen.

As Penny negotiates her new school and works in her mother’s new cupcake bakery, she meets a cast of characters that are both quirky and familiar: the school bully, the outcast with crazy fashion sense, the cute boy, and the spunky grandmother.

Originally, Penny doesn’t seem to know how to confront her problems, whether it is in regards to bullies or talking to her mom. Her confusion about her parents seperation, the challenges of a small town compared to the big city, and how a family copes with the death of a parent are just  a few of the themes within the story. Along the way, the reader sees as she works through her own problems and those of her friends.  Ultimately, she must make a choice: does she stay in Hog’s Hollow with her mom, or does she return to New York and the life she loved with her dad?

“…I think about the problem with running from your trouble. The problem is in the stopping. The whole time you think you’re getting away from everything, the trouble is running like mad, too, trying to catch up with you. And it doesn’t slow down when you do–it keeps on sprinting. So when trouble finally reaches you, it hits you hard”

The book is as cute and sweet as the cupcakes on the cover, but strives to have substance.  The story’s moral being that life is always going to throw out unexpected and often unwelcome, surprises. And that it matters how you work through them and the people you surround yourself with. Penny discovers that when you give things a chance, it can all work out much sweeter than you ever expected.  Appropriate for girls, ten and up.

GENRE: Realistic Fiction

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