Readers Advise....Divisadero

Well, I have been sooo busy lately with school, work and family that I am going back to my roots a little readers advisory, again, and submitting a book review on a recent book I've read (and by recent I mean like two months ago). I don't think reviewing knitting books from the 80's and 90's would be very beneficial...

DIVISADERO

- Michael Ondaatje

“He pushed the glass doors open and walked into the night so the coldness filled his shirt. He noticed the square of a window on the slope of the hill. There was a tightrope between the two farms, and below it an abyss.” (221)

Anyone who knows me knows that The English Patient is not only my favorite movie, but also my favorite book. Ondaatje uses his skill as a poet to write beautiful lyrical prose that simply carries the reader away to the mysterious worlds of Herodotus, Caravaggio and turn of the century France.

Yet, Divisadero is not without its problems. The beginning of the text, which is unusually set in the 1970’s is clunky and without much direction. The plot is slow if not non-existent. Ondaatje focuses on Claire, Coop and Anna who are raised like family since childhood. Anna and Coop have an innocent liaison and then a tragic separation takes place thanks to her father. Then, the story jumps several years down the road to Coop’s self-destructive behavior. The problem is, it isn’t until this section of the novel that the reader really gets hooked onto the characters. Up until then, the reader feels passive, like they are on the outside, looking in. A reader doesn’t want to be on the outside, they want to be there, transformed to where the action is happening.

The final part of the novel transports the reader to turn of the century France, following the life of a recluse writer whose life subtly parallels that of Anna. This was the best and most interesting part of the whole story. Ondaatje’s writing remains beautiful and excels in this section. It is his fluid verse that gives life to the story. Ondaatje also has that gift for weaving history into the mundane and making the whole world seem like one big canvas. Unfortunately, when the writer’s section ends, so does the novel. Anna says a few last words as she reflects on her time spent researching in France, but aside from that there is no conclusion. Part of Ondaatje’s style is that he doesn’t visualize things linearly. The plot starts in the middle, moves backwards and then ends in the present. Ondaatje loves to just end books without a solid finale. This vague conclusion leaves the reader hanging in a most disturbing way. Sometimes the unknown is good, but this is too much.

Overall, the characters all have the beginning of what makes well-developed characters. Unfortunately, the segmented style that guides the text keeps the reader from gaining an attachment to the text. While this method works in The English Patient because the characters come full-circle, it doesn’t work for this novel.

THE POLICE OFFICER LIBRARIAN

On Monday, I gave a presentation on safety and being a police officer at my son's day care. Two things occurred to me throughout preparation and during the event: One, I don't know why I didn't think of taking a book with me to read sooner. And, two, that was the most fun being a police officer I have had since I started with the department two and a half years ago. The sad thing is, it was my day off and I wasn't even getting paid.

Other things to share: talking to a group of 27, 3-5 year olds is very challenging. They have short attention spans. They are also very talkative. It's been awhile since I've been around kids of that age group. I'm still use to my son who just makes funny sounds and giggles.

Although I planned badly and wasn't able to find a halloween book to take with me, the children's librarian helped me find two really good books: "Keeping You Safe: A Book About Police Officers" by Ann Owen and "Officer Buckle and Gloria" by Peggy Rathman. I opted out of reading the latter because of the length and age group, but it's looks like a cute story, none-the-less for the right group. The first book had nice clear pictures and simple sentences that was perfect for the 3 and 4 year olds. It even featured lots of women police officers which is important in a room full of girls who want to be princesses when they grow up.

All in all, it was a very good day.

It's Hard to Be a Reader

It seems that reading is all around us. Directions, signs, mail, the infamous text message, email, work email, school email, all these nonchalant forms us reading just to make it through everyday life. Sometimes after a busy day at work when I've spent all day trying to read, and decipher, other people’s questions, it's surprising that I want to go home and read for fun.

The idea of reading for fun should be exactly that: fun. On the contrary, sometimes searching for that right book, the book that will hit that arbitrarily established, perfect selection is almost impossible to find. Why is this?

I have a few reasons and a few examples to suggest:

Reason #1:

My first answer to this frustrating question is publishing. Have you ever browsed through a bookstore and seen the massive amount of totally off the wall titles? I can't think of any off the top of my head, but there is a book dealing with anything you can think of. Has the publishing world even heard of the word discretion? Do they know the difference between utter garbage and useful, entertaining material? I'm not talking about bestsellers and children's books. I'm talking about the How to Manuals for everything under the sun. The plethora of self helps books that restate the same topics monthly. Do people actually read these books?? I'd just like to know? Are these the types of books that geniuses read so that they can win Jeopardy?

Reason #2

Great Expectations. Anyone who has ever read a really good book, a book that they absolutely just loved, now has their expectations too high to ever really enjoy a good book again. This is why reading a good book is bittersweet. You can no longer purely enjoy a book if you take the time to think about how much you're enjoying it, getting out of it, learning from it and the impression it's made on you. Oh, you can think about it and how much you like it, but in the back of your mind you're gradually counting down to the end.

It gets worse; after you've read that title that blows away all other options you spend the rest of your time trying to find something better. It's a vicious cycle.

#3

Here's a great example: I'm a huge Jane Austen fan. I absolutely love "Sense and Sensibility." Unfortunately, my love of all things Jane Austen does not automatically offshoots and topical related Jane Austen novels any good. I was recently reading "Austenland," a contemporary novel about a New York City writer, of course, lands a trip to a Pride and Prejudice inspired reality vacation. I made the mistake of reading 100 pages more than I should of, trying to trick myself since it's only a 200 page book. Alas, I finally gave up, being bored to death by generic clichés, an obvious story line and a wannabe Carrie Bradshaw. The thing that makes me the most frustrated is that I wasted minutes, hours of my life reading crap that will have no lasting impression. Ugh.

To counter this semi-negative essay I will include some of my favorite titles on the sidebar to the right.

Reading and Vocabulary

This month's cover story in American Libraries, "It's All about Books -- Not!," deals with the ever popular issue of teens and reading.

I think this is an interesting topic to discuss since it addresses the shift in teen reading behavior. I think it's good that the National Endowment for the Arts is going to study teen reading specifically. Although the adult report's definition of reading was a little bit stingy, it was very interesting. The area that I have trouble with is when the article includes reading text messages as a form of reading.

Let's be realistic. Text messaging is a quick form of communication comprised primarily of acronyms and gossip. I don't really see how texting, instant messaging and other like formats should really qualify as a shift in teen reading behavior. I understand that it's really popular and highly used, but how does that play into education and learning? It has been proven time and time again that the more a person reads the larger their vocabulary is and the better they do in school.

While the library can use these tools to get in touch with teens, schools and libraries still need to promote the concept of reading. And by reading I mean physical books, with words printed on the page. I doubt that teenagers are using complex words, spell check, or a thesaurus in their text messages to each other.

In this fast-paced world being able to sit still and read a book for fun is not often looked upon as important. Like I stated before, the effects of reading, especially classic literature has a huge effect on vocabulary development and comprehension.

One of the more prestigious Police Departments I applied for, uses as its first elimination step a reading and vocabulary exam. 1100 people took the exam with me and only 100 people made it onto the next step. I owe my high test score almost exclusively to the extra-curricular reading I did during high school and college. People might be surprised that fields like law enforcement require knowledge of reading comprehension and spelling, but it shows that these are the basic skills that everyone needs to be successful in this world. What's more embarrassing than having a police report, which is an legal document, full of errors and inaccuracies when it's read in a court room? Enough said.