Stolen by Lucy Christopher

Aug4

Is there, can there be, anything redemptive in the story of a girl kidnapped and held captive by a delusional young man? I read these two articles just after reading Stolen by Lucy Christopher, and I’m still not sure:

The Redemptive Narrative in Jaycee Dugard’s Captivity Story by Karen Swallow Prior at Christianity Today.
Jaycee Dugard’s Memoir, An Acclaimed Novel, and the Art of Writing About Captivity by Ruth Franklin in The New Republic.

Both articles refer to captive Jaycee Dugard’s memoir, A Stolen Life, and novelist Emma Donoghue’s best-selling fictional account of a mother and son in captivity, Room. Stolen is a YA novel, and it’s fundamentally different from the memoir and the novel because there is no rape or sexual abuse involved, and consequently no children are born. However, the girl in the story, Gemma, who is kidnapped by a man who has been stalking her for some time, does begin to identify with her captor, just like many real-life captives do.

The New Republic says of Jaycee Dugard and her kidnapper: “she stops short of calling him insane, which he clearly is.” Gemma at first thinks her kidnapper, Ty, is insane, but later she is confused by just how much she identifies with him and how reluctant she is to call him either evil or mad. And Stolen takes the reader step by step into that sort of world where everything one knows to be true is turned upside-down–without using the obvious plot/character device of making Ty into an evil rapist. Ty is delusional, and what he has done—kidnapping an innocent girl–is wrong, but Ty is not evil. Gemma wants to escape, but when she does, she’s torn by her continued concern for Ty’s well-being and her new-found love for wide open spaces. (Ty takes her to the Australian outback.) In other words, it’s complicated.

I’m not sure to whom I would recommend this book. It seems a little scary and other-worldly for most teens, but maybe some would be haunted by it in a good way, as I have been. There are no paranormal elements in the book, except for a little bit of aboriginal mysticism about being part of the land, so those who are looking for vampires and werewolves wouldn’t find them. Adults and young adults who have read and liked Room might like this YA novel, but if the child narrator part of Room was what you enjoyed, you won’t really find that in Stolen. Gemma is young, but she’s pretty much left childhood behind; certainly by the end of the book, she’s an adult with adult problems and issues.

At any rate, I did find Stolen to be absorbing and evocative. The descriptions of the Australian countryside and desert landscape are worth the time, if you like that sort of thing.

Small Town Sinners by Melissa Walker

Aug3

Nominated for 2011 Cybil Awards, Young Adult Fiction category. Nominated by Ashley at Book Labyrinth.

This YA novel featuring small town Christian young people gets many things right. The story is absorbing. The characters are believable and interesting. The themes and issues in the book–teen pregnancy, homosexual temptation, drunk driving, etc.—are issues that young people do face; the presentation is realistic and sensitive. The author shows respect for the beliefs of conservative Christian people. I thought the parts of the book where the main character and narrator, Lacy Anne Byer, is experiencing God through her “prayer language” (charismatic speaking in tongues) were particularly well written and understanding.

However, (you knew there was a however) I am somewhat annoyed by books in which it is assumed that Christians, young and old alike, have never thought about the things that they believe, and it takes some enlightened outsider to bring them to their senses and make them realize their parochialism and blindness. In this book, Lacey’s new boyfriend is that enlightened, understanding, broad-minded outsider who makes Lacey Anne see that the Christian answers that her parents have given her are inadequate and unsatisfying. I don’t have a problem with Lacey Anne questioning the things she has been taught; I would question some of things that Lacey Anne has apparently been taught. And often it does take a new person’s perspective or a new experience to jumpstart that questioning process. Tyson, Lacey’s new friend in the book, is so perfect, however, that his answers seem obviously right and good while Lacey’s conservative Christianity comes off looking ineffectual and untrustworthy.

It doesn’t help that the adults in the book are mostly hypocritical, in a mild, unthinking way. There are no real villains in the book (other than Satan); even the bully is seen to be reacting to the abuse he receives at home from his alcoholic father. However, Lacey’s parents have difficulty dealing with her friendships with kids who are not perfect Christians from perfect families, and Lacey’s dad, a pastor, is quite over-protective. I have dealt with what I consider to be over-protective families in my church and in the homeschooling community, and Lacey’s dad is not uncommon. However, he is something of a caricature and his views on homosexuality, dating, and teen pregnancy are not very nuanced or well articulated.

I also didn’t like the way the book strongly implied that if a guy is a nerd and artistic and creative in his clothing choices, and if he hangs out mostly with girls and gets bullied, then he might be suppressing his homosexual identity. Especially, he might be smothering those tendencies if he has grown up in a small town and been taught that homosexual behavior is immoral. Talk about stereotypes. Artistic men are not naturally gay and do not necessarily, or even probably, have same sex desires. And if one does have those temptations, I would argue, like the people in Lacey’s church, that it’s not a bad thing to reject homosexual behavior for yourself. In fact, I would still maintain that the repudiation of homosex is what the Bible teaches and what is best for a man or woman who is tempted in that way.

Overall, Small Town Sinners is a good book, but it does encourage the view that there are no answers, only questions. And parents are not the ones to go to with your questions; a kid your age from out of town who has experienced so much more of Life is more likely to know the meaning thereof than your small town, uncomprehending parents. My final complaint is that there is very little or no gospel in Lacy Anne’s church or in her ideas about Christianity, only rules. Ty, who encourages Lacey Anne to question that legalism, doesn’t have much concept of what to replace it with either. Forgiveness is discussed, but staying “pure” and avoiding sins (of the flesh) are the main focus of Lacey’s brand of Christianity.

I didn’t even get into the “Hell House” aspect of the plot, which provides an interesting bit of evangelical Americana for those interested, but you can read more about that drama at Linus’s Blanket or at Presenting Lenore. Take it with a grain of salt, and some questions of your own, but Small Town Sinners provides a good story and some challenging ideas for evangelical Christian teens and non-religious ones alike.

1904: Events and Inventions

Aug3

February 10, 1904. The Russians and the Japanese go to war after a surprise attack by the Japanese on the Russian fleet at Port Arthur. The two countries are really fighting over their mutual desire to control territory in Manchuria and Korea. Later in the year, the Japanese bomb Vladivostok and destroy the entire Russian fleet.

March, 1904. The British invade Tibet because, they say, of rumors that the Russians are about to attempt a take-over of that country. Many Tibetans are killed in the British incursion, but no Russians are found in Tibet. The British expedition reaches Llasa, and the Dalai Lama flees.

May 4, 1904. Charles Rolls and Henry Royce go into partnership to manufacture cars in England The new car is to be called the Rolls-Royce.

April 8, 1904 Britain and France sign an “Entente Cordiale” settling a number of territorial disputes between the two countries. France is given the right to “guard the peace” of Morocco, and Britain is given free rein in Egypt.

April 30, 1904. The 1904 World’s Fair, also known as the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, opens in St. Louis, Missouri. Several “new” treats take off in popularity at the fair: ice cream sold in cone-shaped waffle pastries, fairy floss (later known as cotton candy), a fizzy new drink invented in Texas and called Dr. Pepper, and tea with ice. The third modern Olympic games also takes place in St. Louis later in the summer.
Meet Me in St. Louis by Robert Jackson is a nonfiction book for children about the World’s Fair.
Meet Me in St. Louis is also a movie starring Judy Garland.

September 25, 1904. In spite of the war with Japan, the Great Siberian Railway linking the Ural Mountains in the west to Vladivostok in the west is finally completed.

October 27, 1904. The official opening of the New York City subway.

November 8, 1904. Teddy Roosevelt is elected president of the United States after having served out the remainder of assassinated president McKinley’s term. He says he will not seek a third term in four years.

December 10, 1904. Ivan Pavlov wins the Nobel Prize in physiology for his studies on digestion and conditioned responses in dogs.

During 1904. About 500 separate strikes take place in Russia as peasants and workers protest the lack of freedom and the horrible working conditions in Russia. Tsar Nicholas II proposes reforms in December, but warns that the strikes must stop.

Meet Me in St. Louis: A Trip to the 1904 World’s Fair by Robert Jackson

Aug2

Facts:
Almost 20 million people from all over the world came to the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis.

President Theodore Roosevelt made two visits to St. Louis, once before the fair’s opening on April 30th and again later in the year before the fair closed on December 1st.

The fair was planned to take place in 1903 as a celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Louisiana Purchase, but it had to be postponed for a year due to the need for more preparations.

THe U.S. Congress invested five million dollars in the fair.

John Philip Sousa and his band performed on the opening day of the fair. Ragtime composer and Missouri resident Scott Joplin composed a piece especially for the fair, called The Cascades.

Thomas Edison himself came to the fair before it opened to help set up al the electric light displays.

Peanut butter and puffed rice, two foods not yet popular in the U.S., were promoted at the World’s Fair. Peanut butter was said to be a health food that was good for teeth.

Displayed in the Palace of Agriculture were a giant elephant made of almonds, a giant horse made of pecans, sculptures made of butter, and a corn palace.

Prince Pu Lun, nephew of the Emperor of China, Minister to His Imperial Presence, visited as the representative of his Emperor at the World’s Fair in St. Louis.

Geronimo lived at the fair for our months and signed autographs for ten cents each.

Ice cream in thin cone-shaped waffles became a favorite treat from the fair. Hot dogs and iced tea also became popular. Dr. Pepper was a fizzy new drink, introduced as a new kind of soda pop, made with 23 flavors.

The Ferris wheel from the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition was brought out of storage in Chicago and reassembled for the St. Louis fair. It was 265 feet high, and the cost for a ride was fifty cents.

Reactions:
Edward V. P. Schneiderhahn: “It is unthinkable what may all be seen. The mind reels at the mass of various and wonderful exhibits.”
Anonymous visitor: “My idea is to take in just as much as I can in the time I have.”
A farmer: “By George, I’ve plowed all day many a time; and I know hard work as well as the next man. But this is the hardest day’s work I’ve ever done–it uses you up. But it’s worth it.”
Edmund Philbert: “The view from the top of the wheel was very fine. We made two trips in the afternoon, and in the evening two more to view the illumination which looked fine.”
President Roosevelt: “I count it, indeed, a privilege to have had a chance of visiting this marvelous exposition. It is in very fact, the greatest Exposition of the kind that we have ever seen in recorded history.”

Related books:
Still Shining! Discovering Lost Treasures from the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair by Diane Rademacher.
Beyond the Ice Cream Cone: The Whole Scoop on Food at the 1904 World’s Fair by Pamela Vaccaro.
The Great Wheel by Robert Lawson. Newbery honor fiction about an Irish worker who helped build the great Ferris wheel in Chicago in 1893.
Fair Weather by Richard Peck. Fiction about a farm family’s visit to the Chicago World’s Fair.
The Minstrel’s Melody by Eleanora Tate. Twelve year old Orphelia longs to perform at the St. Louis World’s fair, but she must win a competition to do so. An American Girl history mystery through time.

1904: Books and Literature

Aug1

The Nobel Prize for Literature was divided equally between poet Frédéric Mistral and dramatist José Echegaray y Eizaguirre.

Fiction Bestsellers:
1. Winston Churchill, The Crossing
2. Ellen Glasgow, The Deliverance
3. Anonymous (Katherine Cecil Thurston), The Masquerader
4. Miriam Michelson, In the Bishop’s Carriage
5. Mary Johnston, Sir Mortimer
6. George Barr McCutcheon, Beverly of Graustark
7. John Fox Jr., The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come
8. Kate Douglas Wiggin, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm
9. Henry Harland, My Friend Prospero
10. Stewart Edward White, The Silent Places

The only book on the above list that I know is Kate Douglas Wiggin’s Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, and I must commit heresy and admit that as a child I liked it every bit as much as the more famous Anne of Green Gables by L.M> Montgomery. They seemed to me to be the same book, or at least in the same series, with Rebecca Rowena Randall and her maiden aunts substituting quite well for Anne and Marilla. Since Rebecca actually came first, I wonder if L.M. Montgomery ever read Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, either before or after she wrote her own story of a young girl from a large family sent to live with a stern spinster lady. Rebecca and Anne both bring joy and laughter and a bit of benevolent turmoil to a rather joyless home.

Similarities between Anne of Green Gables and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm:
Rebecca is the second oldest of seven children, and her father is dead as the book opens. She has been quite involved in taking care of her siblings since her mother is so overworked, but she is sent to live with her aunts Jane and Miranda because her mother can no longer provide for all of the children. Anne is a poverty-stricken orphan who has been taking care of other people’s children in her foster homes, and she comes to live with sister and brother Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert. Both Anne and Rebecca are imaginative, joyful, and exuberant, sometimes too much so. Marilla and Aunt Miranda are determined to turn their respective charges into proper young ladies. Matthew and Aunt Jane become allies for Anne and for Rebecca in the face of their more domineering sisters. Rebecca and Anne both turn out to be good students, especially in English and literature, and both of them study to become teachers. Both girls read and write poetry. Both girls have a more prosaic best friend for whom they are the catalyst for imaginative adventures.

Both books are good, and Ms. Montgomery was probably the better writer, hence the continued and greater popularity of Anne of Green Gables. However, I think Anne Shirley and Rebecca Rowena Randall would have been “kindred spirits” had they met each other, and perhaps Ms. Wiggin and Ms. Montgomery would have been friends, too.

Critically Acclaimed and Historically Significant:
Henry James, The Golden Bowl
Henry Adams, Mt.-St. Michel and Chartres
Thorstein Veblen, Theory of Business Enterprise
Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
Joseph Conrad, Nostromo
W.H. Hudson, Green Mansions. Semicolon review here. Green Mansions is a particularly interesting and romantic product of the times, set in South America.

As for this list, for the most part I know the authors, but not the books. I think I know Mr. Weber’s basic premise which was that Protestantism lends itself well to and encourages capitalism and business success. Ye olde Protestant work ethic.

Bloomsday, the day on which the action of James Joyce’s novel Ulysses (1922) takes place in Dublin, was June 16, 1904.

Also on December 27, 1904, James Barrie’s stage play “Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up” debuted in London. It was hugely successful and inspired Walt Disney’s Peter Pan movie (1953), Hook (1991), a movie starring Robin Williams as Peter, and Finding Neverland (2004), a movie starring Johnny Depp as James Barrie.

Amy Inspired by Bethany Pierce

Aug1

About halfway through Amy Inspired, I had to look at the author blurb to see how autobiographical the novel was. The book is about Amy Gallagher, an almost-30, single, Christian, adjunct professor of English at a small college in Ohio Ms. Pierce is married, but she must have taken some of the characters and scenes in Amy Inspired from her own life as a single person before marriage. True-to-life and yet romantic describes the book perfectly.

Amy Gallagher so reminded me of my own Eldest Daughter and her friends who are also trying to navigate the waters of Christian single-hood. It’s not easy. Christian young women are supposed to be chaste but not frigid, open to marriage but not desperate, intelligent, beautiful, but not intimidating or vain, confident and independent but also submissive and selfless, and it goes on and on until a woman can get lost in all the expectations.

Amy is, frankly, a little lost. She’s a Christian, but she doesn’t know how to approach God except through the expectations that she believes He has for her life and behavior. Amy lives her life in lists–to do lists, grocery lists, lists of the rejection letters she’s received for her writing submissions, lists of former boyfriends lists of her lists–and when she meets Eli the artist who’s more of a free spirit with a checkered past, Amy isn’t sure whether it’s love or fear at first sight.

I don’t know how to convey the sheer goodness of this novel because I’m just not as skilled a writer as Ms. Pierce. It made me laugh out loud a couple of times. I never knew exactly what would happen or how the novel would end. I know some of the characters in the book—Amy’s annoying but lovable Mrs. Malaprop Mom (OK, maybe I AM the mom, a little), her tofu-loving roommate Zoe, the men in her life, self-centered and shallow, but trying to grow up, too. Amy herself reminds me, as I said, not only of Eldest Daughter, but also of several other single young women I know. The novel felt Real in a way that many Christian novels don’t manage to accomplish.

Amy Inspired made it onto my TBR list because it was nominated for the 2011 INSPY Awards in the category of General Fiction. I’m trying to read all of the nominated books that I find of interest, and I hope Amy Inspired makes the shortlist for the INSPY’s. It’s that good.

Sunday Salon: Books Read in July, 2011

Jul31

Children’s and Young Adult Fiction:
Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys. Semicolon review here.
Three Black Swans by Caroline B. Cooney.
Small Town Sinners by Melissa Walker.
Stolen by Lucy Christopher.

Adult Fiction
The Daughter’s Walk by Jane Kirkpatrick.
Friends and Lovers by Helen MacInnes.
Angel Sister by Ann H. Gabhart.
The Hardest Thing To Do by Penelope Wilock.Semicolon review here.
The Hawk and the Dove by Penelope Wilcock.
The Wounds of God by Penelope Wilcock.
Amy Inspired by Bethany Pierce.

Nonfiction:
The Fear by Peter Godwin. Semicolon review here.
One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp.
The Peacemaker by Ken Sande.
Unplanned by Abby Johnson with Cindy Lambert.

Plus some bookish links:
Minimalist posters inspired by children’s stories.
Five Vacation Spots for Book Lovers. I doubt I could afford any one of these, but it’s fun to dream.
This year’s Bulwer-Lytton prize for bad writing.

1903: Art and Music

Jul30

“In the Good Old Summertime” was a popular song of 1903, first published in 1902 with music by George Evans and lyrics by Ren Shields. Sheet music, player piano, and even recordings were all ways to buy and enjoy popular music in the early twentieth century. Sousa’s band recorded “In the Good Old Summertime” in 1903.

In the good old summertime, in the good old summertime.
Strolling through the shady lanes with your baby mine.
You hold her hand, and she holds yours,
and that’s a very good sign.
That she’s your tootsie-wootsie,
in the good old summertime.

Artist Paul Gauguin died in Hua Oa, the Marquesas Islands on May 8, 1903. He left France to live in Tahiti, then in the Marquesas, because, he said, “After the disease of civilization, life in this new world is a return to health.” More images of Gauguin’s paintings.

'Gauguin' photo (c) 2006, Tore Urnes - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

Later in the year, artists American James Whistler (July 17) and Impressionist Camille Pissarro (November 12) also died. The art world was moving from Impressionism to new schools and forms, including Art Nouveau, Fauvism, Cubism,and Die Brucke (The Bridge) in Germany, but the Impressionists were still quite influential.

Saturday Review of Books: July 30, 2011

Jul29

“The sight of the cover of a book one has previously read retains, woven into the letters of its title, the moonbeams of a far-off summer night.” ~Marcel Proust

SatReviewbuttonIf you’re not familiar with and linking to and perusing the Saturday Review of Books here at Semicolon, you’re missing out. Here’s how it usually works. Find a book review on your blog posted sometime during the previous week. The review doesn’t have to be a formal sort of thing. You can just write your thoughts on a particular book, a few ideas inspired by reading the book, your evaluation, quotations, whatever.

Then on Saturday, you post a link here at Semicolon in Mr. Linky to the specific post where you’ve written your book review. Don’t link to your main blog page because this kind of link makes it hard to find the book review, especially when people drop in later after you’ve added new content to your blog. In parentheses after your name, add the title of the book you’re reviewing. This addition will help people to find the reviews they’re most interested in reading.

After linking to your own reviews, you can spend as long as you want reading the reviews of other bloggers for the week and adding to your wishlist of books to read. That’s how my own TBR list has become completely unmanageable and the reason I can’t join any reading challenges. I have my own personal challenge that never ends.

1903: Events and Inventions

Jul29

'New York City, Lower Manhattan, Financial District, Wall Street, NYSE, New York Stock Exchange' photo (c) 2011, vincent desjardins - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/Mach 5, 1903. The Turkish Ottoman Empire and Germany sign an agreement to build the Constantinople-Baghdad Railway. Germany is trying to make an easily accessible way for German trade to the Far East. Britain, Germany’s rival, shows concern about German expansionism.

April 22, 1903. The new New York Stock Exchange building at 18 Broad Street opened to fanfare and festivity. The Exchange building is considered one of architect George B. Post’s masterpieces and is a national landmark.

June 11, 1903. Serbian King Alexander Obrenović and Queen Draga are assassinated.

June 16, 1903. Henry Ford, along with 12 investors, forms the Ford Motor Company. Their first car, produced in 1903, was the Ford Model A.

July 1, 1903. The Tour de France, the world’s most famous cycling race, begins in Paris.

September, 1903. Turkish troops massacre thousands of Macedonian/Bulgarian rebels and civilians in retaliation for the St. Elijah’s Day Uprising, or Ilinend Uprising.

November 4, 1903. With the encouragement of the United States, Panama proclaims itself independent from Colombia. The U.S. wants Panamanian independence so that we can build a canal through the isthmus of Panama. On November 18, The Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty is signed by the United States and Panama, giving the U.S. exclusive rights over the Panama Canal Zone.

December, 1903 Pierre and Marie Curie win the Nobel Prize for their work with radium and radioactivity.

December 17, 1903 at Kitty Hawk, NC, Orville and Wilbur Wright pioneered the first successful powered human flight. For all practical purposes, they invented the airplane.

Sometime in 1903: The first box of Crayola crayons was made and sold for five cents. It contained eight colors; brown, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet and black.

For insight into the state of the nation and travel in 1903, watch Horatio’s Drive: America’s First Road Trip, a Ken Burns documentary about Horatio Jackson who attempted a cross-country drive From San Franciso to New York City in a cherry-red Winton automobile. (available on Netflix).