Sunset Park, according to a White Dude

Sunset Park

Sunset Park 
Paul Auster

I was so disappointed in this book. I picked it up because I used to live in the neighborhood south of Sunset Park, Brooklyn. I would ride my bike up 5th Avenue to the best taco place in the city, Tacos Matamoros. Then I'd go to La Gran Via Bakery and get myself a delicious coconut macaroon that was so good, a friend declared it must be made with baby jesus parts. Afterwards, I'd walk to the park known for having some of the best views in Brooklyn.

The most delicious macaroon, ever.

And yes, Paul Auster, sometimes I'd walk around gorgeous Greenwood cemetery, looking at the graves of the famous and not-so-famous.

In Paul Auster's idea of Sunset Park, the vibrant, diverse community becomes nothing more than a sordid backdrop for four white privileged twenty somethings to play out their anarchist dreams while squatting in an abandoned and dilapidated house.

The plot - as much as there is one - revolves around Miles Heller. Miles is battling some serious physic wounds from a teenage trauma. Wounds are a major theme here, made most clear by a young Miles engaging in a thoroughly mature critique of To Kill a Mockingbird.

Despite Miles's hurt, or maybe sometimes because of it, people are drawn to Miles. Everyone loves him. Including seventeen year old Miami schoolgirl, Pilar. It's because Miles is running from rape charges that he ends up in Brooklyn. It's no big deal - everyone agrees, Miles is so great. Just let him have his Pilar. (Ew.)

If you can get past these issues, the book has some good qualities. The descriptions of Miles's relationships with his parents are particularly realistic. They show people bumbling along, making mistakes, but ultimately forging lasting bonds.

I wish that the rest of the novel could have lived up to the better parts. Le sigh. Oh well - another author I can say I've read, and not have to mess with again, at least for a while.

A Discovery of Witches

A Discovery of Witches

A Discovery of Witches
Deborah Harkness

I wanted to like this book. I really did. I mean, as much as I'm a fan of "literary" fiction and the classics, I still like a good vampire & witches story every now and then. And this one started off strong.

Diana Bishop is descended from a long line of powerful witches, but she's rejected her magic when it didn't save her parents from a horrible, violent death. Now she's turned to academia. She's researching alchemy, which means she's poring over old must books in gorgeous libraries. Turns out one of these books holds some kind of secret regarding witches, vampires, and demons. Now every magical creature wants to get its hands on it, but it's protected by some sort of spell. When Harnkess is describing the details of the ancient texts, it's like magic (ha). You know that she's done these things, and she has a love for the written word. As a book lover myself, I was totally drawn in.

Unfortunately, Harkness seems to want to describe everything she loves. I do not need a wine lesson every 50 pages just because you're an expert on it. Vampires, demons, and witches do not need to form a supernatural yoga club just because you like yoga. It's just a bit much.

Also, Diana, hunter goddess witch extraordinaire - how many times do you have to be swept up and rescued? It's like she's a wilting violet one moment and an unstoppable force of nature the next. It doesn't make for a very believable character.

Speaking of unbelievable characters, wow, Matthew Clairmont. Wow. I cannot believe that a 1,500 year old vampire has not learned to keep control over his emotions. He's about to rip people's throats out because they tease him about his fashion choices (okay, maybe I exaggerate a tiny bit).

Don't get me started on the cheesy romance aspect. Just don't.

Bottom line: discover something else.

Lord Help Us

Find it yourself. Ugh.

The Help
Kathyrn Stockett 

Le sigh. What can I say about this book that hasn’t been said already? My book club decided to read this as our next selection. It’s not the type of book I usually read – I don’t like reading the same book as everyone else on the subway.  In this case, it wasn’t just my book snobbery getting in the way. This looked like your classic white-protagonist-swoops-in-and-saves-the-poor-black-folks narrative. But the majority of the group was excited to read it, especially with the movie coming out.

It was exactly what I expected. Skeeter, a recent college grad, daughter of a wealthy cotton farmer, with a trust fund ready to help her snare a husband, is the one who brings "dignity" to the black maids of Jackson, Mississippi. 

Skeeter's complete cluelessness about the world is what crystallized this book's problems for me. She thinks that she can drive to the black neighborhood in her Cadillac, hang out for hours, and not be noticed. She thinks she can keep her position editing the Junior League newsletter after she makes enemies with nearly everyone else in the League. She thinks that Stuart, her sometimes-boyfriend and son of the segregationist state senator, is still going to want to marry her after she tells him about her book project. AND YET. Skeeter is the one with a direct line to a senior editor at a New York Publishing House.  Skeeter puts the maids' stories down, and works so hard editing them so they can be published. Skeeter is the one who provides a way for two young black boys to attend college. Skeeter is the one who convinces the Jackson Journal to hire Aibileen to write the Miss Myrna cleaning column after Skeeter runs off to New York. Skeeter manages to accomplish so much, despite her bumbling, one wonders how she manages.

I suppose that this could be looked on as a commentary on just how disadvantaged African Americans were during the Jim Crow era. On how much institutionalized racism kept people in poverty. It could start a discussion about how oppression still continues to keep a hierarchical society firmly in place. That's not how the book read, though. It read as though I was supposed to identify with Skeeter, and realize - "Hey, if I lived in that time, I'd be a "good" person, too!" Of course, if everyone actually behaved that way, then the world would have looked (and would look right now) much, much different.

The best thing I can say about this experience was I was spared buying it or trying to get it from the library, as a friend lent it to me.

For a much more complete look at this book's problems:

I Don't Need Kathryn Stockett's Help

Ten Issues That Tarnish "The Help"