Meg's Monthly Booklist

July 2000

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(7/27) Amsterdam by Iam McEwan.

Story of three ex-lovers of a woman, Molly, who has just died. Two of them, Clive and Vernon, are close friends who detest the third, a politician named Julian. In the days following Molly's death, both Clive and Vernon make disasterous moral choices that they each consider the other's spitting on Molly's grave. Their friendship is strained and Julian's political life is nearly ruined. This was an interesting and well-crafted novel, but I had trouble connecting with any of the characters except the dead one. Is that a bad sign? Winner of the 1998 Booker Prize.
[FICTION]

(7/26) Fleur De Leigh's Life of Crime by Diane Leslie.

Really wonderful book about a young girl whose mother is a famous radio-show actress in Hollywood, a job that has consumed her entire life, thus leaving her very little time to actually be a mother to her daughter. So, the novel is told in chapters titled with the names of each nanny Fleur goes through. They never seem to last very long, mostly because Fleur's mother is an intolerable egomaniac, but each one of them teaches Fleur a valuable lesson about life and about herself. The book is very funny and Fleur is as charming as they come. Highly recommended!
[FICTION]

(7/15) Helen: A Courtship and Mississippi Poems by William Faulkner.

An interesting side of Faulkner -- the poetic, romantic side. The first half of this was a fascinating discussion about the history of William and Helen's relationship. They met in 1925 and he fell in love with her and asked her to marry him two years later. So, what did she do? She ran off and married someone else (it is suggested that their continuing "friendly" relationship is one of the things that inspired "The Wild Palms"). Poor Billy. Anyway, the poems themselves run the gamut from romance to wild sexuality (a gamut Faulkner runs a lot in his novels too). On the whole, they are only "good" poems. Possibly because when you write poetry to someone you love, it means you are under the influence of one of the most insane emotions there is. So, your judgement is always going to be a little off and what strikes you as amazingly poignant is going to make a casual reader go, "Huh?"
So, as a counter-balance, I read a second collection of poems, called simply "Mississippi Poems." But I forgot the most obvious of Faulkner's sweethearts was his homeland -- these poems are love poems too, though they don't talk quite as much about knees and breasts. These are much better, though they are still somewhat dark (could we say Mississippi also left Faulkner? Maybe it didn't leave as actively as Helen did, but he certainly has told us many times before in his novels that Mississippi was not the same after the war.) Anyway, this was an interesting little diversion (short book), and I recommend it to anyone who is a Faulkner fan wanting to know more about his personal life.
[FICTION/POETRY]

(7/10) If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem by William Faulkner.

I started with this one because it was one I'd never read before. Boy, was it ever a good one, too. The novel is actually comprised of two separate stories, each chapter alternating between them. The first, "The Wild Palms," is about a young man and woman who fall in love and run off together (she is married to someone else, which is why they have to run off). But it's more a parody of sappy romance than an actual romance itself. The man, Harry, is a weak dude (my word, not Faulkner's) who is already in his late 20's and is still a complete child when it comes to women and love. The woman, Charlotte, is a flaky, super-sexual animal who happily gives up two children and a husband who loves her just so she can suffer more for love (this is where the satire comes in). They spend a lot of time being melodramatic and miserable but mad about each other. And ultimately, you start to feel for them because everything pretty much goes to hell by the end. Still, MAN were they stupid. Bah!
The second story, "Old Man," is about a convict who is sent out in a boat during a flood to rescue a woman out of a tree (the convicts from the local prison are all sent out to try to help people or sandbag levies). When the guy in the boat with him falls out and is lost, the convict has the perfect opportunity to escape. But he comes across the woman and takes her in when he sees she is pregnant. Then he can't find his way back and ends up paddling around for several days with her (meanwhile, she has the baby, by the way) (in the boat!) (yikes!). Anyway, I won't give away what happens, but I will say this was an absolutely WONDERFUL story.
Put the two together and what do you have? My opinion: a two-sides of every coin kinda thing. You could even say the two women are the two faces of Eve -- the temptress and the mother. The two men are the two faces of Adam -- the foolishly tempted and the protector. Marvy.
[FICTION]

(7/4) The New New Thing by Michael Lewis.

Jim Clark, the guy who started Silicon Graphics, then Netscape, and is presently involved with Healtheon, a company poised to turn the health-care industry upside down, is also at work on his boat -- Hyperion, the largest single-masted vessel in the world. The boat is controlled by, what else, a computer, and its code could contain the seeds of the next software coup. From there we begin our whirlwind ride through Silicon Valley and its boardrooms on the one hand and the pitching deck of the Hyperion in a furious North Sea on the other. A lot of fun!
[NON-FICTION]

(7/1) Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J. K. Rowling.

If you're an adult like me (ha), you've probably heard all the hoopla about Harry Potter and wondered a bit about it. Maybe you even bought the first book and it's sitting on your shelf waiting to be read. But you're not sure it's something you're REALLY going to like and besides it's a kids' book and yadda yadda yadda. LISTEN UP. You need to read this! Harry Potter and his world is WONDERFUL! In this, the first in the series, Harry, who has been raised by his evil aunt after both his parents died when he was young, gets called upon to attend a very prestigious (and, to the common person, very WEIRD) school -- Hogwarts. Hogwarts is a school for wizards and witches and Harry is surprised to hear he's not only been chosen to attend, but is already a legend there. Turns out his parents had been heroes in the wizardry-world and they were killed by an extremely evil entity, whose name no one dare speak. But this bad guy was unable to kill Harry -- something pretty significant. When Harry starts his training, he quickly makes some serious friends and enemies at school. But when he uncovers a plot to steal the Sorcerer's Stone, a very powerful magical item, he has to sacrifice those friendships in order to do the right thing. Excellent messages for children and so creative it's a joy for everyone. I LOVED IT. And that's what all the hoopla is about!
[FICTION]

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