Book Review: The World Without Us

The Book

Let me start by saying I’m a big fan of the “End of the World” genre. I enjoy watching/reading anything dealing with killer asteroids or plague epidemics. Theoretical world-ending bombs, that sort of thing. I don’t have an explanation for it, and I don’t think of myself as a strangely morbid individual. Clearly I’m not alone, because there seems to be an increasing market for this multi media topic. Perhaps it harkens to that theory (or maybe accepted fact) that people want to be scared. Horror film buffs, roller coaster enthusiasts, sky divers, ouija board aficianados…they all love the adrenaline rush. And it’s an interesting connection between genuine fear and the pleasure we derive from it. Of course, these are all hobbies of people’s choosing and do not involve any intentional threat to their lives. And that is where the premise of The World Without Us falls for me.

What happens to our worldly additions when we’re no longer here? This is assuming that all humans have left the earth by some mass extinction before society was able to deteriorate, thereby neglecting or destroying our massive buildings and land alterations. My first question is one that the author addresses in the beginning of the book- what are the odds that we would all leave at once? And, if we did, what are the odds that our killer would be big enough to take us and not our structures, house pets or any other animals? Slim to none. But Alan Weisman’s purpose is not to make mass human destruction-by-epidemic seem plausible, so much as to make it provocative.

He does a good job. The World Without Us is a good read with an intriguing topic. The most interesting pieces bookend Weisman’s cautionary tale, the beginning being about losing our cities and domestic pets to wild animals; the end deals with the inevitable, if prolonged loss of man-made landmarks. In fact, these parts were considered so page-turning to television producers, that The History Channel recently aired TV’s answer to World, Life After People.

Somewhere toward the middle of the book, the story turns to plastics. This was the more difficult piece to get through, primarily because it is the only aspect of our legacy that has no hope of a positive turnaround. Basically, when it comes to plastics, Earth can’t undo our mistake. Because it will never disappear, all of the plastic that exists on our planet at the time of our departure will continue to break down into smaller and smaller pieces, becoming dangerous to smaller and smaller organisms, but never go away.

However, even the slow and slightly depressing chapters don’t ruin the book as a whole. The message is important, and there are plenty of “wow” statements that will keep the reader interested. For example, the length of time it will take to erase the faces on Mount Rushmore, the visual of a future ocean turned green with sea turtles, and the resistance of the Hoover Dam to crumble are all astounding talking points. Overall, a good addition to your bookshelf!

Book Review: Water for Elephants

 The Book

Water for Elephants opens with a vague passage of madness in the midst of a chaotic Big Top performance. The chapter closes at the height of the moment; the reader is thrust forward into present day and we’re introduced to Jacob Jankowski, a 93-year old nursing home patient. Immediately it’s clear that he is bitter over his plight; his mind is far too present and his body too functional to belong in the home. If his wife were still alive, Jacob tells us, he would never have been placed here.

He has a small group of friends at the home and enjoys the company of the ladies who think he is virile and handsome compared to most of his peers. One day, a few days before the circus comes to town, another nonagenarian enters the home. He tells stories of his days working on a circus, and goes on about how he used to carry the water for the elephants. Jacob overhears this and becomes enraged; “Do you know how much water an elephant drinks?!” he asks him angrily. The orderlies come to take Jacob to his room so that he won’t disturb the patients, but Jacob swears that he knows the other man to be a liar. He knows because, when he was 21 years old, he hopped a circus train himself and learned all too well what it took to care for a menagerie of big top animals.

From here, Gruen takes her reader on a surreal and stunning journey into Depression-era middle America, into the dark depths of a second rate circus.

After suffering a life altering tragedy, a young Jacob Jankowski walks out on his final veterinary exams and hops a train that passes as he’s walking the tracks. He is found as a stowaway and soon must show his strength as an animal caretaker. (Or be thrown out…literally.) He is reluctantly accepted into the working man’s segment of Benzini Brothers’ Most Spectacular Show on Earth. He meets Kinko, a dwarf performer; Camel, an old mentor who may have been on the train a bit too long; and Earl, the muscle of the Benzini security team. He meets August, the certifiable, crazy animal trainer and ‘Uncle Al’, the sleazy operator of the show. He’s absolutely floored when he meets Marlena, the beautiful horse rider, and August’s much younger wife.

Jacob quickly has to learn the ropes of the traveling circus. He learns where he can eat and sleep, where he is welcome and where he is not, who he can speak to and to whom he can’t. Benzini Brothers is revealed to be a creepy underground world, and Jacob finds himself tangled in scandalous cover-ups and, eventually, and life or death battle for love and for escape.

The book comes full circle, when the passage from the beginning is revisited and the characters’ roles fall perfectly into place.

This story was facinating from beginning to end. What I loved most was Gruen’s writing style; her conversations are realistic, even between two lovers. It’s something you don’t always find in these sweeping novels. Her characters are as rich and multifaceted as her setting descriptions. Not a word is wasted, and the book covers 70 years of time flawlessly. The end is bittersweet and satisfying.

Overall, a fabulous read!

Book Review: The Other Boleyn Girl

 The Book

I’m a big, BIG fan of historical fiction. I like it because even the most romanticized version of history…could very well be true. Or at least, more than likely, there is as much truth to the story as there is fiction. This is especially the case when the fiction deals with a time before video cameras and before photography. The Other Boleyn Girl takes place in 14th century Tudor England- a place and time where records of lives and events were kept by hand, in ink, on paper. And the people from then who we know now are known only from the most prominent record keepers. In ’Girl’, author Phillipa Gregory explores the life of Mary, the less-notable sister of the notorious Anne Boleyn.

 Gregory’s interest in Mary Boleyn was what immediately attracted me to this novel. (I plan on reading the entire series. All in due time. Gregory is a phenomenal writer and absolutely shines with this particular time period.) Mary is generally thought of as having been promiscuous and air-headed, the less polished, undesirable sister of the Boleyn girls. In her book, Gregory simply asks her reader to think: If these things were true of Mary, why is it that she was the only member of the Boleyns to survive after the executions of her brother and sister, and the ruin of her entire family?

What is known of Mary is that she was a mistress to King Henry VIII before her sister Anne even entered the picture. She gave birth to two children while living in Henry’s court, and while she was married to another nobleman. William Carey was the legitimate father of Mary’s children, but some historians speculate that at least one child could have been fathered by Henry.* After William Carey died prematurely of an illness, Mary remarried. Sir William Stafford, her second husband, was a man far below Mary in social standing; at the time of her their marriage, Mary was sister-in-law to the King.

  To have married a man for no financial or social benefit, and to the dismay of her family, Mary must have married for love. This much is accepted fact. In her book, Gregory uses this relationship as the turning point in Mary’s life, and makes the argument that it was love that saved her from the fate of the Boleyns. The timeline in the book closely (although not perfectly) matches the actual events in English history, and the fleshed out characters add humanity to figures widely known as one-dimensional. Mary Boleyn is bright, brave, cunning and nurturing. Anne is strong, determined and yet vulnerable. Henry is a wise man with a hot temper and touch of boyish immaturity. It was facinating to me to read these people in such a way.

Gregory’s depiction of the Tudor court and the relationships among family members and friends within it carry her book. She flawlessly blends fact with interpretation and the result is a very believable story. Tudor England was perhaps the most significant point in Western civilization and Gregory found perhaps the perfect figure to tell its story.

 The Other Boleyn Girl is a definitive page-turner. I couldn’t put it down! It’s fast-paced and rich with detail and intrigue. I read cover to cover (just about 700 pages) in four days.

Another recommendation for anyone who enjoys historical fiction and/or romance!

*I’ve read countless research on the topic of Henry, his wives, his children. In all of his marriages, he was only able to produce two healthy daughters and one sickly son (Edward). It’s common knowledge that, while he blamed his wives for his inability to produce a viable male heir, the problem was his. Many historians point to Syphilis as the culprit. It should be noted that there is no solid evidence or academic agreement that any of Mary’s children belonged to the King Henry. All speculation. But again…not decidedly untrue.

Book Review: The Kite Runner

 The Book

It took me a while to get around to reading this one. The only consistent review I received was “Ohhhh that book is SO sad!” and then “But you won’t be able to put it down.” And I have to say…that’s the best way to sum up this instant classic from Khaled Hosseini.

Set in 1970s Afghanistan in the immediate years before Soviet control, and fast forwarding to present day when the nation has been forever altered by Taliban takeover, The Kite Runner tells an exciting, moving and alltogether upsetting tale of love and loyalty. Hosseini tells his story through the eyes of Amir, the son of Baba, a wealthy man of power in Kabul, and Hassan, the son of Baba’s servant, Ali. Amir and Hassan are raised as brothers in Amir’s household, but social and religious tension, as well as a heinous violent act, tear the boys apart 5 years before Amir and his father leave to take refuge in the United States.

Fast forward to 2003. Amir is living in San Francisco and is married to a lovely Afghan-American woman, the daughter of another powerful man in their old country. Baba has passed away, and Amir is called back to the new Afghanistan by an old friend. Navigating his way through his first home becomes more and more dangerous as the days go by, and Amir begins to learn all of the secrets that were kept from him in his seemingly perfect childhood. He listens to heartwrenching stories of the deaths of friends and witnesses a terrifying public execution under the guise of a bearded, subserviant Taliban follower. 

Amir’s ultimate purpose in going home is as profound as the convictions he makes along the way. Knowing that he cannot return to the U.S. and his comfortable life in California without burying the demons he left behind in the Middle East, he accepts pain and possible death and makes ammends with his past.

The fictional story is sad enough, but even more devastating to me was knowing that the story is not fiction at all. Somewhere in the world, people were (and continue to be) living and dying in these appalling conditions.

 Hoseini’s book ends on a note of hope, that maybe some people can excorsise the ghosts of terrifying tyranny. Most importantly, The Kite Runner is a smooth page turner that opens doors of dialogue about humanity and freedom in places where people may have never known the lack of either.

 I would recommend this book to everyone.