I am coming down with the cold that my fiancé had over the last week. All day today I have been curled up on the couch, wrapped in my big fluffy blanket. I’ve been reading Paradise Kiss off and on… mostly in between naps and meals. Thankfully, I’m working from home this week, so there is no fear of sharing this with anyone else!
Fawcett, 1984. ISBN 978-0-449-20652-2
Many books can be read in a day, but only a few of them are books worth reading in one sitting. Fewer still are difficult to put down. Tales of the South Pacific is one of those rarities. Everything- the narrator, the setting, to each individual tale, is spellbinding. Michener weaves each individual story together to one cohesive theme, and whisks the readers away to the beautiful, wild South Pacific to languish on ‘the rock’ with soldiers and sailors alike.
I am familiar with the movie-musical South Pacific but I have never read the book. I started reading it outside of the polls on Election Day, and finished it that evening. The whole book flows perfectly, no spot or line drags- no word feels out of place. Even though the narrator darts around the islands, you are carried along on his back, his witty thoughts whispered in your ear and observing the raucous Navy soldiers trying to “hurry up and wait” the War. The musical adaptation does the book justice, and takes everything a step further than the book even attempted.
The singular negative aspect of this book- which, as I am learning, is common to books written in an era before our own- is the racist tropes and stereotypes at play in all of the Pacific Islander characters. This book is peppered with them- all fall under the overarching themes of Yellow Peril. Bloody Mary, who has the most agency of all the Pacific Islanders featured, is still yet reduced to a mixture of Asian Store-Owner and Asian Speekee Engrish. It is important to note that the movie-musical South Pacific shames Joe Cable for his inability to overcome his racist beliefs to remain with Liat- but in the book, he is simply embarrassed for having been with her at all. The mentions of Vanicoro island and its ‘cannibals’ also is a dated racist stereotype.
From here, the book is a detailed description of how the Navy took an island (with plenty more of Yellow Peril stereotypes of the nameless Japanese characters) and then the outset of the Alligator operation. I know very little of the Pacific Theater of World War II, so the fictionalized version was fascinating to me. While there are no analogues to the islands that the author featured in the book, I can only imagine the absolute beauty- and devastating humidity- that the characters endured.
The fact that this book received a Pulitzer Prize is not lost on me. The literary qualities of this book deserve recognition, and with that recognition should come a discussion of the racist stereotypes employed in the characters. I do suggest reading this book- if you are willing to engage with it and its topics. Reading books with difficult themes, subjects, and methods of characterization are important to understand how real people acted and believed in a time before our own.
I have… unusual reading tastes. I will read anything that is handed to me, or piques my interest. The University Library will save up my book requests, leading me to have a gigantic to-be-read pile on my nightstand. I can only read so much, despite my best efforts. What am I trying to get to now?
I have a couple things on my holds list, of which the Library will likely send to me in a week or so. Granted, this list grows every day. Often, I add a book as soon as I know of something I want to read.
What is in your TBR pile?
Pan Books, 2015. ISBN: 978-1-4472-1864-7
Summary, from back of book:
Maia D’Apliese and her five sisters gather together at their childhood home of Atlantis- a fabulous, secluded castle situated on the shores of Lake Geneva- having been told that their beloved father, the elusive billionaire they call Pa Salt, has died.
Maia and her sisters were all adopted by him as babies and, discovering he has already been buried at sea, each of the is handed a tantalizing clue to their true heritage- a clue which takes Maia across the world to a crumbling mansion in Rio de Janerio in Brazil. Once there, she begins to put together the pieces of where her story began…
Eighty years earlier, in the Belle Epoque of Rio, 1927, Izabela Bonifacio’s father has aspirations for his daughter to marry into aristocracy. Meanwhile, architect Heitor da Silva Costa is working on a statue, to be called Christ the Redeemer, and will soon travel to Paris to find the right sculptor for his vision.
Izabela- passionate and longing to see the world- convinces her father to allow her to accompany him and his family to Europe before she is married. There, at Paul Landowski’s studio and in the heady, vibrant cafes of Montparnasse, she meets ambitious young sculptor Laurent Brouilly, and knows at once that her life will never be the same again.
My thoughts:
It took me a while before I realized that this is the first book in a series. This is both a good thing and a bad thing, as I have almost 60 books to read lying around the house. However, this can be amended and I will try to find the others at my local library. This book was an enjoyable dip into Brazilian history, and while the premise is a little… outrageous, I liked it.
Okay, okay, the premise is truly outrageous. Six women that have been adopted by a billionaire named Pa Salt meet at their childhood castle on the shores of Lake Geneva. First, what on earth is a billionaire doing adopting six girls? Second, why isn’t he married, and what relation does the nanny have to him? Then third, what does he do for a living? While I know the author wanted me to simply accept the situation, I couldn’t. I like a decent amount of exposition, especially for a book as thick and with a wild as premise as this one. I struggled through every scene set at Atlantis. These were the parts that drug for me, and the places where I would stick in my bookmark and set the book down. However, I really loved the historical sections set in Brazil and France.
Lucinda Riley is an excellent writer of historical fiction. Brazil leapt to life from the page, and I was immediately cast into the Bonifacio’s opulent mountainside villa, I felt the wind whipping at my back on the top of Corcovado Mountain, and I could feel the clay under my fingers in Landowski’s studio. The dialogue was top-notch, and the language of the Roaring 20s felt natural to read. I felt deeply for Izabela, and I waited for the chapters dedicated to her story with baited breath. I wish that I had felt the same for Maia, but her life was too outrageous for me to accept.
Overall, this book wasn’t a quick read- at over 600 pages, I whipped through this book in a matter of days, even with the slow parts. While the life setting was a little wild, the historical settings were pitch-perfect and flowed. Even though I have many other books to read, I will keep this series at the back of my mind to look for while at the library.
Bantam, 1993. ISBN: 0-553-37183-5
Summary, from back cover:
In Acquired Tastes, Peter Mayle, the erudite sojourner and New York Times bestselling author of A Year in Provence and Toujours Provence, sets off once more, traveling the world in search of the very best life has to offer. Whether telling us where to buy the world’s best caviar or how to order a pair of thirteen-hundred-dollar custom-made shoes, advising us on the high cost of keeping a mistress in style or the pros and cons of household servants, he covers everything the well-heeled – and those vicariously so inclined- need to know to enjoy the good life.
From gastronomy to matrimony, from the sartorial or baronial, Acquired Tastes is Peter Mayle’s most delicious book yet- an irreverently spiced smorgasboard of rich dishes you’re sure to enjoy.
My thoughts:
When the Chicago Sun-Times only says a book is “Intriguing.” in the endorsement of a book, you know it’s going to be a flop. I was very disappointed in this book, especially after being an ardent fan of A Year in Provence. This book felt empty in comparison. Yes- the articles were funny, but they felt too lordly for me. Possibly this is my own personal feelings for the wealthy, but the knowledge that Mayle had actually lived this life made this book rather distasteful. I would have much rather read a book by a “poor” man experiencing these things for the first time rather than a man who had actually lived the life.
Obviously, this is not the cream of the crop concerning Mayle’s work. He has the ability to write delightful gastronomic adventure stories- pick up any of his Provincial books and you’ll find yourself lunching in the French countryside. This book fell short of that standard. Obviously, these articles were intended for being in a magazine, as they are written perfectly for a short column, but as a book, they don’t work together. His sense of humor changes from here to there, and occasionally he waxes on a little more than he should have, while in other cases (especially concerning the caviar) I would have appreciated more context.
Alas, not every book is perfect. While I have written some “I’m disappointed” reviews lately, this was a quick read, well-suited for a summer afternoon without many cares in the world. A great book for when I want to read without paying much attention to it, like I have been with Tess of the D’Urbervilles. This book is definitely that can be tossed aside for whenever a better book comes along, and provide a brief interlude when another book becomes too heavy.
gathering swallows 