Blog: Books

The Firekeeper's Daughter

Author: Angeline Boulley

Captivating characters with complex backstories brought me into their world. The drizzle of the Ojibwe language, Anishinaabemowin, took me by surprise and I wasn't convinced by how the people in the story sprinkled it in. I came around though, and by the middle was looking up words out of curiosity kwe means woman, and is often used as a suffix. History was a smaller part of the culture exposition than I imagined; I quite liked the focus on the modern society and cultural practices. At the end, a choice to study combined modern and traditional medicine was very meaningful and fit beautifully with the story arc.

The story itself was very captivating, though I did feel the YA aspect of it coming through. Certainly a page turner, thought I found some of the actions didn't match up with my understanding of the character, which pulled me out of the story intermittenly.

After finishing, I read a bit about the author, Angeline Boulley, to learn more about the cultural references. While the story is very fictional, the issues and themes are not. She is an enrolled member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, and herself is a firekeeper's daughter .

My father is a traditional firekeeper, who strikes ceremonial fires at spiritual activities in the tribal community and ensures protocols are followed, while providing cultural teachings through stories told around the fire. He is one of my greatest teachers.

- Angeline Boulley

May 2022

The Age of Innocence

Author: Edith Wharton

The narration describes the character's reasoning, which is often immediately relatable even though their subsequent actions are not. Their world has conventions, that are to be broken. Seeing clearly that conforming does not necessarily make sense but doing so anyways creates an absurdity that is sometimes sad, other times quite funny. This tone is immedately shown in chapter 1, an expert from the opening scene at the opera:

She sang, of course, "M'ama!" and not "he loves me," since an unalterable and unquestioned law of the musical world required that the German text of French operas sung by Swedish artists should be translated into Italian for the clearer understanding of English-speaking audiences. This seemed as natural to Newland Archer as all the other conventions on which his life was moulded: such as the duty of using two silver-backed brushes with his monogram in blue enamel to part his hair, and of never appearing in society without a flower (preferably a gardenia) in his buttonhole.

Comedy is probably not the main theme but I couldn't help but giggle at certain passages. Like the many that describe a situation with a certain tender criticism and such colorful language, from Chapter 21:

One of these rooms had been turned into a bedroom by Mrs. Mingott when the burden of flesh descended on her, and in the adjoining one she spent her days, enthroned in a large armchair between the open door and window, and perpetually waving a palm-leaf fan which the prodigious projection of her bosom kept so far from the rest of her person that the air it set in motion stirred only the fringe of the anti-macassars on the chair-arms.

What did you think of that sentence? Something between sassy and picturesque?

The book is by author Edith Wharton and won the 1921 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, making her the first woman to win the prize. The dramatic reading is the first time I listened to a whole book through a podcast (for free!) and would recommend the series as an alternative to buying/renting audiobooks. If the search for Marilyn Lightstone Reads doesn't work in your podcast app, here is a link to the website where you can listen.

April 2022

Embassytown

Author: China Miéville

China Miéville took me on a journey, and not at all the one I expected.

Surrounding the theme of Language is a rich fiction of a colony of humans that have found an equilibrium with the locals. The stability is taken for granted and starts to show tears just before the cataclysm. Following Avice Brenner Cho through her adventures on other planets maybe motivated her return to Embassytown, but the story for me got particularly interesting around the Hosts' changes. The Festival of Lies , for example, was so bizzare to learn about, but made perfect sense in the context of the Hosts' constraints: the Ariekei cannot tell anything but the truth. A party where humans speak to them untrue things makes them giddy and they get some sort of high of out hearing lies, and even trying to product them themselves.

Musing... Is vocabulary to describe an idea necessary to be able to formulat the thought to begin with? My experience with this is mixed. When I speak a secondary language, for example, I've noticed that I get stuck in the confines of the words I do know. Only when someone else describes it better do I realize that I didn't even think to translate because I hadn't concieved of that epxression.

Embassytown, as a town, has aspects of any science fictional world: with new methods of construction to change the physical landscape, as well as variations on dresscode and technology to enhance mental capacities. Not to mention the varied use of artificial intelligence, from simple cleaner robots to a complex machine with personality that is a genuine friend to the protagnist. Towards the end of the novel, the progression felt rushed but I enjoyed the character growth and general conclusion. I think this is a good candidate for a second read through.

February 2022