Review: RENTING LACY

Through a series of inexplicable events, some slow changes to my heart, and a decision or two, I’ve come into contact with someone at a local non-profit that seeks to serve and defend victims of Tucson Childhood Sex Trafficking. When I emailed Megan to ask her about the needs of Sold No More (previously Streetlight Tucson), I was planning on answering their phones, cleaning their floors, and really just starting with the lowest-level of skill required. In my experience with Ronald McDonald House and a few other organizations, that’s what they feel comfortable having new volunteers do. Then, if the volunteer sticks around and grows to love the organization, they find a better fit.

However, the needs Megan listed for me were much more involved, and she even listed a few that she thought would fit me well, since I’d included on my application that I am an English teacher. The most manageable need on her list seemed to be developing a book club curriculum. So, even though they hadn’t yet accepted me as a volunteer, I ordered the book Renting Lacy.

It’s a relatively short book (162 pages) written to be accessible and compelling, while also informative. It weaves together a narrative of true stories of Child Sex Trafficking, presenting the issue from multiple perspectives, including pimps and buyers.

I’ll refrain from attempting to describe what I’ve learned from Lacy, because words aren’t up to the task. However, I do recommend that you give a couple of hours of your life and read this book, regardless of your current thoughts and beliefs on the sex industry, it is a devastating piece of life, and worth your time and effort. Be warned, though, the tactful writing will not soften the blow of the shockingly mature content. Author Linda Smith may use the gentlest of words possible for this subject matter, but the tragedy and horror of such stories are inescapable.

 

Book Review: A Voice in the Wind by Francine Rivers

Cover via Amazon

Francine Rivers consistently exceeds my expectations… and, okay, I have pretty low expectations for her since I’m a snob and tend to believe Christian writers sacrifice God’s glory to the altar of preachy, thumping, contrived, sterile story lines that only help out the choir and turn the rest of us to Suzanne Collins for an engaging read.

That being said, I REALLY enjoyed A VOICE IN THE WIND. Throughout the book, I struggled to trust Rivers, wondering if REDEEMING LOVE wasn’t her single piece worth reading, but the ending of this book blew me away. There were a few moments prior to the ending that nudged me on, including a slave’s sacrificial act to rescue a horrible, self-involved, spoiled, depraved Roman girl, and it was completely worth it. I felt emotionally engaged with the characters and loved the historical aspects of the novel. It also didn’t hurt that I’ve been to Rome and seen the Coliseum for myself, and hold a deep affection for that era of world history.

My only criticism of the book is its pacing. It’s pretty slow. I suspect this is because Rivers subtly reveals each character through his or her interactions and experiences, which takes time. Also, the omniscient POV was a bit rough at first, but I came to love it towards the end, and I believe it sets a sturdy foundation for the next two books.

*I originally posted this review on Goodreads.

 

Quick Review of I AM NUMBER FOUR

Cover of I Am Number Four (Lorien Legacies)

At least a year ago, and without really knowing what it’s about, I rented the film version of I AM NUMBER FOUR, and while I wasn’t blown away with how amazing it was, I thought the idea of a war that had strict rules about who could be killed and when was really interesting. That’s why I decided to follow-up by reading the book.

It’s fascinating to think about the situation and the psychology of our main character at the beginning of the story. John/Four knows that the three before him are dead, and he has to be killed next. In addition to that, I AM NUMBER FOUR has the feel of a classic comic book because the first half (or possibly three fourths) of the story is about a young man developing god-like powers.

Those are my two favorite things about I AM NUMBER FOUR.

However, despite such great potential, I thought I AM NUMBER FOUR became rather ordinary because of poor execution. John is a relatively flat character, because all we know about him is that he’s an alien who doesn’t want to die and who likes a girl. He’s an archetype rather than a person, and the supporting cast follow-suit.

At the sentence level, the writing for I AM NUMBER FOUR was pretty disappointing as well. There were tons of incomplete sentences, most of which seem to be stylistic and intentional, but a few of them helped me understand why my students (I’m a high school English teacher) write so many fragments.

Examples: “I walk the rest of the way around the house. Overgrown weed and bushes left over from summer,” (230).

“I run for a mile and stop in the big clearing where Sarah and I made snow angels. Our clearing, she had called it. The clearing in which we would have our summer picnics. A pain in my chest at the thought that I won’t be here for summer, a pain so great the I bend over and grit my teeth,” (344-345).

*For both of those examples, I tried not to drop you in the middle of something without context, so I didn’t start with the fragment.

Finally, I’ve got one more, English teacher nitpick… Here’s an example of subject/verb disagreement:

“A mess of crows fly by overhead, squawking noisily,” (288).

Note: a mess flies… it doesn’t fly.

Convention complaints aside, I AM NUMBER FOUR is a decent read that’s engaging most of the time and entertaining. It isn’t going to knock your socks off if you’re much of a reader at all, but that’s why it’s a YA selection.

 

Review: A Visit From the Goon Squad

Cover of A Visit from the Goon Squad

I’ve been reading Jennifer Egan’s A VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD, and even though I haven’t finished it yet, I think I’m ready to write a review.

In case you were wondering, A VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD isn’t my norm. I tend to love stories that are full of hope. I can’t abide good guys losing, effort coming to naught, and despair.

I can’t.

I’m not warm and bubbly or naive in real life, but I want my fiction to be that way.

Just so you know, I didn’t choose A VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD for myself; my book club chose it, and I’ve been pushing myself through it because I wanted to be able to talk about it. My book club is brand-new, and it consists of the other faculty at the high school I teach at, so I thought it would be a good avenue for some bonding with my colleagues and for broadening my literary horizons, and it was the perfect book for those two things.

It’s a great book for discussion, because Egan does some fascinating things with the writing. However, those fascinating things are also the elements of the book that I hated the most. Every chapter is about a different character, all of whom live interconnected lives of dysfunction and depression. None of them have very redeemable traits, and none of them are very likable.

But all of them are interesting.

Generally speaking, I don’t read books about characters who I hope will die. I know it’s harsh, but Egan’s book was that. I want them all dead. I truly believe that the fictional world will be a better place without them.

And yet, I’m still reading it.

Another brilliant element of the story (that I hated) was Egan’s ability to shift between wildly varying voices. She writes each chapter from a different character’s POV, which means she has to be a kleptomaniac receptionist, a homeless rock star, a journalist convicted of attempted rape, a drug addict (or two. or three), a single mom, a teen girl being taken advantage of by a rock star creeper, a man (or two) struggling with his sexuality, and any number of other characters.

And not only does she write all of those voices…

She writes them well.

She does some fascinating things with footnotes and PowerPoint slides, and provides some beautifully imagined settings and scenes, and while I am honest enough to get past my own biases about what a novel is to admire Egan’s innovation, I don’t get why it won the Pulitzer.

Maybe I’ll understand once I reach the end of the story, but as I’m closing in on the ending, I’m not getting it. I don’t think innovation is an achievement in itself. While I admire Egan’s command of the craft, it seemed a bit too much like she’s trying to impress as a means of distracting from the story.

The thing is, there isn’t much of a story. The storyline I’m seeing run throughout all of the characters’ lives is this: person begins life with hope, things happen to him (the world, others, or he, himself screws him over) and he ends life in an apathetic sort of despair. He isn’t dynamic. He isn’t kind. He isn’t admirable. And nobody is those things to him. There’s obviously something there about the degrees of separation between us all, but I want more than that.

I want my fiction to transcend my experience, but my experience isn’t nearly as horrible as Egan’s fictional world.

That’s why I don’t like it.

I admit that it’s brilliantly crafted, but it seems an awful lot like a brilliantly crafted mud pie. At it’s core, it’s mud, which will never nourish or feed and it just leaves a bad taste in your mouth.

 

Film Review: ARGO

English: Cover movie poster that was created by the CIA as part of their cover legend. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The movie Argo is spectacular, and you should see it.

Argo is based on the true story widely known as “The Canadian Caper.”

Basic History: In 1979, the U.S. embassy in Tehran, Iran was taken by dissidents who supported the Iranian Revolution. They held 52 embassy workers captive for more than a year (this is also frequently referred to as the Iran Hostage Crisis). During the seizure of the embassy, six American diplomats managed to escape, and sought refuge in the nearby Canadian and Swiss embassies. Argo relates the story of how the CIA partnered with the Canadian Government in a covert mission to get the six out of Iran. This was accomplished under the cover story that the six diplomats were part of a Canadian film crew scouting locations.

So.. after discovering what this film was about, and discovering the ‘R’ rating, I thought I was probably in for some brutal violence that would cause me to cover my eyes as I watched.

That’s not what I got.

Argo wasn’t good because of the action (there wasn’t nearly as much as you’d expect). It wasn’t good because of Ben Affleck,although he gave a very good performance.

It was good because I felt like my time and money were well-spent on it. I learned a little about my nation’s history, experienced empathy, and considered my place in the world. I was reminded that, while America has its flaw, I’m blessed to have been born here.

On a side-note, the only prior knowledge I had going into the theater last night came from reading Azar Nafisi’s best-selling memoir Reading Lolita in Tehran. For a brief time a few years ago, I was trying to make a book club happen, in spite of the fact that no one I’d recruited seemed able to follow-through with any of our plans. In an effort to make sure people were invested in the book choices, each member of the club got a turn to pick a book, and the first person selected this memoir for us to read.

So I read it, and while I’m still slightly bitter that I was the only person in the club to read all (or really any) of the books in their entirety, I also have to admit that Reading Lolita in Tehran is one of the only books I’ve read as an adult that profoundly impacted my understanding of the world. It wasn’t the best book I’ve ever read, but it depicted a world that was completely foreign to me. I read it before I’d traveled much; I’d been a tourist in Italy, but hadn’t yet lived as a teacher in Mongolia. So I didn’t know what it’s like to sleep in a one-room house with five other people and no toilet. Therefore, the injustices Professor Nafisi included in her story were shocking and enlightening… which is a similar strength in the film Argo. It’s a story about things I’ve never experienced and probably never will, as I hope to live a life safely separated from angry mobs who hate me because of my birth nation, and because the CIA isn’t likely to recruit me as a covert agent anytime soon.

But one of the things I learned in reading Reading Lolita in Tehran is that the greatest value in literature is its effectiveness in teaching empathy for characters we shouldn’t be able to understand.