Ellie's Book #13: The Black Tulip

The Black Tulip by Alexandre Dumas, père

***

I love the idea of gardening but I am an irredeemable plant-killer.

I can back up this assertion.

Ninth-grade biology was traumatizing in many ways (anyone else who took Mr. Ekberg’s class can attest to this), but one of the assignments I actually was looking forward to was the project for the asexual reproduction unit. We had to grow and tend an asexually-reproducing plant and keep it alive until it reproduced asexually (yes, I am deriving a disproportionate amount of amusement from typing “asexual” so many times. In some ways I might still be in ninth grade).

“If you’re not so great with plants,” Mr. Ekberg told us, “try a bryophyllum. They’re pretty much impossible to kill.” My ears perked up. My previous biology project—growing a flower from a seed—had failed spectacularly. Come to think of it, all my elementary school and primary class bean sprouts had met similarly sad fates. Bryophyllum sounded right up my alley.

For those of you who don’t know what a bryophyllum is, it looks a-like this:

Cute, right? All those little flowers on the edges are the asexually-reproduced new plants.

I marched up to Mr. Ekberg’s desk with the other students to get my bryophyllum starter. I cradled it carefully all the way home. This was going to be my first real, successful plant, I just knew it. I’d keep it alive until it reproduced and get an A on my assignment but then I’d also keep it alive FOREVER. This plant was going to come to college with me, just you wait and see. Hadn’t the teacher said they were impossible to kill? Yes. Yes, he had. He had even gone further: “If you can manage to kill a bryophyllum, you should probably just give up on plants altogether.”

Well, I did get an A on my assignment. Two days later the bryophyllum went from beautiful, A-grade flowering to brown, dry, dead practically overnight.

I pretty much gave up on plants altogether. Except in books. Because, as we know, the plants in books cannot die merely from being in my presence. (They may not have taught you that in biology, but I am here to share important tidbits like that.) This is part of the reason why I like books which feature gardens or plants or growing things.

So I was excited for this book. It was another book club read. Kristen already described it (aptly) as a horticultural thriller. It follows the efforts of a tulip breeder, Cornelius, to create a perfect black tulip and win the national prize. He must battle his neighbor’s jealous efforts to thwart Cornelius and steal the prize for his own. He must deal with false imprisonment. He must learn to balance his love of tulips with his love of Rosa, the prisonkeeper’s daughter. And he must not get too entangled in political drama. Can he do it? Will his fortunes and love affairs flower like a prize black tulip or wither like my ninth-grade bryophyllum? Will the reader accidentally learn some history on the way? Will good times be had by all?

This book moved much more quickly than the other Dumas works I’ve read, but felt slightly less richly developed. It was still an enjoyable read and I recommend it to anyone else who, like me, dreams of the flowers they cannot grow. Or, you know, who just likes a good horticultural thriller. Three stars.

Ellie's Book #12: The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

****

Not too much to say about this one, since everyone has read it or seen the movie and I have little to add.

I re-read this book in preparation for the movie, as it had been about two years since the first time I’d read it. I was impressed again by the urgency of the writing, how the pace keeps moving the reader along, as if by staying in one spot too long the reader, too, will get attacked by giant flying fireballs. As before, I cried for Rue (even though I cry at the drop of the hat where movies are concerned—it’s ridiculous, really—it takes a lot for a book to make me cry, so this is fairly high praise). Katniss frustrates me some of the time because it seems like she switches back and forth very quickly at times from competent kick-ace huntress to “wait, what, you actually like like me?” and the contrast seems choppy and uncharacteristic. But that’s probably just me. All in all I still really liked it. I’m looking forward to getting a chance to unpack my boxes of books and re-read the rest of the trilogy. Four stars.

(If you want to know my thoughts on the movie, you can read them over on my LitGroupie blog, but I didn't want to clutter up this blog with movie stuff for now.)

Before Green Gables

Before Green Gables, by Budge Wilson, is a prequel to the Anne of Green Gables series. This book begins with Anne's parents. Bertha and Walter Shirley are happy newlyweds with a relationship so ideal that it depresses the neighbors. Their wonderful life becomes more wonderful still when their daughter Anne is born. Unfortunately, the Shirley's seem to have used up a lifetime's supply of good fortune, because within three months they have both died of a fever and left their precious daughter to the kindness of strangers. Most of Anne's time in this novel is spent with the Thomas family. She cares for their children, barely younger than herself, and tries to reason out the motives behind Mr. Thomas' alcoholism and domestic abuse. Luckily, she finds silver linings that help to develop that notorious Anne Shirley optimism and imagination when she begins attending school and meeting a different set of people. Anne's life seems to revolve around one disaster after another and she is forced to move from home to home, including a brief stint in an orphanage. The resolution, of course, comes when Anne makes the trip to Prince Edward Island to what she knows will finally be home.

This book was a fun read, and I think anyone who likes Anne of Green Gables would agree. But... some things in the story are a bit much. Like, that  Anne, at age three, is as verbose as she is when she arrives at Green Gables. (Although, I will admit that by the end of the book she really does seem to have grown into the character you see in Anne of Green Gables.) Or, that her parents' relationship was so sweet and sincere that their neighbor just couldn't bear to be around them both because her own life was so sad. Of course Anne has a dramatic flair, but these weren't part of that. There were definitely some eye roll moments for me.

One aspect that I really enjoyed about the book, though, was seeing how Anne, who has had such a sad life, develops her enthusiastic personality. Most of the positive experiences Anne has as a child revolve around stories, learning, and developing her imagination. I really enjoyed the romance of the Word Man and her teacher.

I'd give this book three stars. It's a fun read if you already love Anne, but I wouldn't recommend starting here.

Book 28: When She Woke

When She Woke
Hillary Jordan
3.5 stars

I finished this book before we left on vacation last week, but it's been really hard to figure out what to say about it. It started off awesome. The middle was good, but not quite as strong. And the ending... well, I have to say it veered way off course.

When She Woke is a futuristic retelling/revamping of The Scarlet Letter. Hannah Payne (Hester Prynne) is a young churchgoer who has an affair with her preacher Aidan Dale (Arthur Dimmesdale). In this version of the story, Hannah becomes pregnant and decides to abort the child rather than shed an incriminating light on Dale, who is very much a public figure. I found a review of the book that sums up my feelings exactly, so I am going to post it here and link back to the user on goodreads:

From Jeanette:

This was a four-star book until the last 80 or so pages, and then it lost its way. So 3.5 stars it is. 

The novel starts off strong with a tale of private shame made very public, and gleeful cruelty masquerading as religious piety. I saw some spooky parallels with the way Warren Jeffs was controlling the FLDS Church a few years ago. 

Jordan takes the basic themes from Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter and brings them into the future with the addition of abortion and extreme fundamentalist rule. Hannah Payne (Hester Prynne) and Aidan Dale (Arthur Dimmesdale) have had an affair. She's a young innocent parishioner. He's a married preacher with a huge following and a spotless reputation. Hannah has aborted their love child. Instead of a scarlet letter, she is punished with a scarlet body. 

In this version of America, most criminals serve out their sentences among the general populace rather than behind bars. Their skin is "melachromed" red, yellow, green, or blue, depending on their crimes. Being marked in this way makes them outcasts, subject to derision, physical attacks, and even death threats. Prison would seem a more merciful punishment. [I will add a note here, to clarify that Hannah is melachromed because, in this future America, Roe v. Wade has been overturned and abortion is illegal. Her crime is therefore akin to second degree murder.]

After her initial chroming and public humiliation period, Hannah stays in a halfway house meant to prepare her for re-entering society as a "Red." She then makes a series of stops along a sort of futuristic underground railroad. Here is where the novel begins to go off the tracks, so to speak. It slowly collapses on itself with a tedious journey and a rushed ending that is too inconclusive to warrant the buildup. The quick foray into lesbianism is awkward and unrealistic, and thus feels obligatory rather than purposeful.

I was disappointed that Hannah didn't emerge more strengthened by her ordeal. I think Jordan hoped to show a transformation from a mousy, obedient evangelical girl into a fearless, bold, and resourceful woman. Whatever transformation does occur is too fast to be plausible. Hannah never quite reaches the state of maturity and self-knowledge we might wish for her. She's left mired in that late-adolescent stage of defiance versus dependence. 

I do recommend the book, despite my middling rating. Just don't expect a strong finish to match the powerful beginning. 


And that is pretty much how I feel. I loved the idea for the story, and I was so excited to see what would happen. But I was left feeling very unsatisfied at the end. Jordan didn't seem to be pushing a pro-choice agenda here-- even Hannah believes throughout that abortion is wrong-- but I feel like the agenda she did have was so unclear and muddled by the end as to be unrecognizable. Which is really too bad, because this story had a lot of potential. 


Be warned-- as noted above, there is a quick foray into lesbianism toward the end. It was completely out of character for Hannah, IMO, and just weird. It's not graphic, but I can see it offending some. 

Unbroken

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption,by Laura Hillenbrand, is the biography of Louis Zamperini, one time Olympic runner turned WWII soldier. Serving in the Air Force as a bombardier in the Pacific, Louis experiences some close shaves. On a seemingly routine search mission for a downed crew, flying a shamefully under-maintained plane, things go terribly wrong. Louis' plane goes down. He and three other men narrowly manage to escape the wreckage. The men were then on the raft, constantly surrounded by sharks, with no food and little water for 46 days. Rescue seems unlikely. Especially as they float nearer and nearer to occupied islands and life as prisoners of war.

This book is one of the most compelling that I've read in a long time. At every turn of the page Louie's predicament becomes more and more dire. From plane crashes to shark attacks, starvation to torture, it seems like things just can't get worse. And then they do. What makes Louie's story so incredibly compelling is how courageously he pushes through what seems impossible.

Hillenbrand's research is extensive. She interviewed Zamperini and many other POWs. She interviewed their family members and spent hours and hours looking through personal and federal documents related to Louie's experience. And, something I appreciated, is she also interviewed several of the Japanese guards who had worked at the POW camps. That, and her collaboration with Japanese translators, allows her to give a more balanced, multi-perspective account than subjects like this often get.

Sometimes, you need a reminder of how good people can be. It's ironic, perhaps, that a book about war and some of the darkest moments in history, could highlight the strength and goodness of so many people. Louie is brave and absolutely indefatigable, but he's not the only one. I was constantly impressed by the strength, faith, and courage of the other people in Louie's story: his parents, who never stopped believing that he'd make it home; Phil, the pilot of the downed plan who was a constant friend and fearless leader; the prison guards who risked their own lives to help POWs; prisoners who were willing to share the little they had; and, especially those who were able to forgive each other for the wrongs and injuries of war.  

This is a definitely a five star read for me. I would absolutely recommend this book to anyone and everyone. I would, however, warn them that some of the things that Louie experiences are hard to read about. But, that's because it's real, and for me, that makes it important to learn about.