Turner, James. Rex Libris: I Librarian. San Jose: SLG Publishing, 2007.
Submitted by R. Stuhr
This is the first volume in a comic books series, with the tag: "The World's Favorite Butt-Kicking, Sesquepedalian Librarian!" I have volume one and two on my bookshelves. The second is Book of Monsters and was published in 2009. Each volume is made up of multiple issues, which can be purchases separately from SLG Publishing. Check out the Rex Libris Web site to read about one of the few vector based comic books in the world. Rex Libris has mythical qualities. When he isn't traveling across time and space, he is the Head Librarian at Middleton Public Library. The library, apparently has generous lending policies, because Rex Libris travels to the "farthest reaches of the galaxy" in search of overdue books, all the while fighting the forces of ignorance and darkness. He wears "super thick bottle glasses" and is "armed with an arsenal of high technology weapons." Zombies as well as recalcitrant borrowers figure into the plot line.
Within these pages you will find your blams, pows, zips, and zings (also thaks, thwopks, and schwifs).
Truthfully, I find slogging through a graphic novel, no matter how creative and how much about librarians not really my first choice of reading. But these have great black and white illustrations by Turner, and enough villains, odd creatures, black market weapons, and references to all the intellectuals of times past you could possibly want. Here is a tiny sample from book 1, I, Librarian:
"Find for the first time in print ever, the tumultuous tales of the public library system and its unending battle against the forces of evil. This struggle is not just confined to our terrestrial sphere but extends out into the farthest reaches of the cosmos ... and beyond! The librarian has faced patrons so terrible, so horrific, they they cannot be described here without the risk of driving readers mad. But enough prattle and preamble! Settle back with a cup of coffe and a donut (or other pastry if you prefer), and prepare to enter the secret world of ... Rex Libris 'I, Librarian.'"
Immediately, the reader is thrown into a confrontation between the librarian and a demanding patron:
"Puny Mortal! I am Kurui-No-Oni, Demon Spirit Samurai! I need no card! I take what I wish! Give me the book, lest I squash you like the sniveling little bookworm that you are!"
(Rex:) "Listen Bucko, the branch administrator sez nobody, but nobody, takes out a book here without getting a card and signing for it. And that includes you, Buster. .... And you're going to have to check that sword at the desk."
So that is just the very beginning--imagine where this winding tale can take you. Join Rex and his roommate Simonides (turned into a bird by Circe--a former villain and now cookie baker), on his travels and investigations (when the Montgomery Reading Room is overrun by vandals, they really are Vandals).
More on Rex Libris
Check out Volume 1 from Burling Library:
1st Floor, Smith Memorial PN 6727. T865x R48 2007
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Librarians and Libraries in Fiction I: Some Tame Gazelle
Pym, Barbara. Some Tame Gazelle. New York: Dutton, 1983 (first published in England in 1950).
Submitted by R. Stuhr
Writing about the mobile librarian reminded me of another novel I read recently, this one by Barbara Pym. I am a big fan of Barbara Pym. I suppose I read her the way others read Jane Austen. I like to read and reread her books at intervals. I think of them as miniatures or tiny jewels. Almost all of her novels feature unmarried women. Occasionally the women get married, most are involved in the church, and if not with the church, then they at least share tea with the clergy. They are generally well versed in the greater and lesser English poets. Most of Pym's novels are comedies. In Some Tame Gazelle, Pym writes about two unmarried sisters, one flamboyant, outgoing, and flirtatious, the other quieter and cherishing a long unrequited love from college.
I bring up this novel now, because of the charcter Nicholas Parnell, friend to the quieter sister (but not the cherished love) and chief librarian at the college they both attended. There are quiet a few funny lines related to libraries and librarians, although, maybe they are funny because I spend much of my time in and thinking about libraries
Nicholas Parnell responds to the reverence he receives, when introduced as the Librarian, "I do not approve of this hushed and reverent attitude towards our great Library. After all, it is a place for human beings, isn't it?" (94). He goes on to explain that the Library now has central heating and a Lady's Cloak Room.
Later tells another character, "She ... introduced me to a charming lady who showed great reverence when the Library was mentioned. It is really rather gratifying. I should be delighted to show her round," he added. "She would find every convenience. The next thing will be to have some kind of a restaurant where readers can take luncheon or tea together. Do you know,"--he tapped his walking stick on the ground--"I have had to have notices printed requesting readers not to eat in the Library? One would hardly have thought it possible" (97).
More references to libraries and this time library patrons while discussing scholarly pamphlets and popular reading tastes at dinner:
"I'm afraid you're hardly a best seller," said Mr. Mold [the Librarian's no. 2 man] jovially. "Nor even as much ordered in the Library as Rochester's poems . .. "
"I am afraid they are rather naughty," Said Dr. Parnell. "We have had to lock them away in a special place, together with other books of a similar nature. All the same, they are quite often asked for by our readers."
"Oh, well, I suppose people have to study them," said Belinda, handing round cigarettes wondering how she could change the subject (p. 117).
And just one more, Belinda, the quiet sister, describes the Librarian, "Nicholas, is a great connoisseur," said Belinda. "It seems right that a librarian should be, I think. Good wine and old books seem to go together" (115).
Pym writes about expectations, disappointments, small successes, and the routine, often welcomed, of every day life. Her characters are often content with the trajectory of their lives, even when all around them think that they must be wishing for something more.
To dip into a Barbara Pym novel yourself stop by Burling Library.
Submitted by R. Stuhr
Writing about the mobile librarian reminded me of another novel I read recently, this one by Barbara Pym. I am a big fan of Barbara Pym. I suppose I read her the way others read Jane Austen. I like to read and reread her books at intervals. I think of them as miniatures or tiny jewels. Almost all of her novels feature unmarried women. Occasionally the women get married, most are involved in the church, and if not with the church, then they at least share tea with the clergy. They are generally well versed in the greater and lesser English poets. Most of Pym's novels are comedies. In Some Tame Gazelle, Pym writes about two unmarried sisters, one flamboyant, outgoing, and flirtatious, the other quieter and cherishing a long unrequited love from college.
I bring up this novel now, because of the charcter Nicholas Parnell, friend to the quieter sister (but not the cherished love) and chief librarian at the college they both attended. There are quiet a few funny lines related to libraries and librarians, although, maybe they are funny because I spend much of my time in and thinking about libraries
Nicholas Parnell responds to the reverence he receives, when introduced as the Librarian, "I do not approve of this hushed and reverent attitude towards our great Library. After all, it is a place for human beings, isn't it?" (94). He goes on to explain that the Library now has central heating and a Lady's Cloak Room.
Later tells another character, "She ... introduced me to a charming lady who showed great reverence when the Library was mentioned. It is really rather gratifying. I should be delighted to show her round," he added. "She would find every convenience. The next thing will be to have some kind of a restaurant where readers can take luncheon or tea together. Do you know,"--he tapped his walking stick on the ground--"I have had to have notices printed requesting readers not to eat in the Library? One would hardly have thought it possible" (97).
More references to libraries and this time library patrons while discussing scholarly pamphlets and popular reading tastes at dinner:
"I'm afraid you're hardly a best seller," said Mr. Mold [the Librarian's no. 2 man] jovially. "Nor even as much ordered in the Library as Rochester's poems . .. "
"I am afraid they are rather naughty," Said Dr. Parnell. "We have had to lock them away in a special place, together with other books of a similar nature. All the same, they are quite often asked for by our readers."
"Oh, well, I suppose people have to study them," said Belinda, handing round cigarettes wondering how she could change the subject (p. 117).
And just one more, Belinda, the quiet sister, describes the Librarian, "Nicholas, is a great connoisseur," said Belinda. "It seems right that a librarian should be, I think. Good wine and old books seem to go together" (115).
Pym writes about expectations, disappointments, small successes, and the routine, often welcomed, of every day life. Her characters are often content with the trajectory of their lives, even when all around them think that they must be wishing for something more.
To dip into a Barbara Pym novel yourself stop by Burling Library.
Mr. Dixon Disappears
Sansom, Ian. Mr. Dixon Disappears. A Mobile Library Mystery. NY: Harper, 2006.
Submitted by R. Stuhr
This is the second in the Mobile Library Mystery series. I posted a review of the first novel, The Case of the Missing Books in March of this year. You can hearken back to that review for my general feelings about mysteries. And yet, I dived into volume two and Sansom still pleases because of his take on libraries and librarianship, for his cast of quirky characters falling into no particular stereotypes, and this time for his representation of churches, pastors, and congregations.
The plot in this novel surrounds the disappearance of the head of a local department store. Israel, the mobile librarian, is implicated because, while he is setting up a display he has created to tell the history of the department store, he is called in to be of service at the scene of the crime by a panic stricken caretaker. Naturally, being a librarian, he responds to the call, and as he is trying to read the clues--leaves his fingerprints all over the place. It is a ridiculous plot, gets going slowly, and then takes several twists and turns to a satisfying ending. My main objection with Sansom's writing is his dialogue--people rarely finish sentences, and Israel is unnecessarily thick with his inability to follow people's intentions.
Still! Read up and Enjoy!
Submitted by R. Stuhr
This is the second in the Mobile Library Mystery series. I posted a review of the first novel, The Case of the Missing Books in March of this year. You can hearken back to that review for my general feelings about mysteries. And yet, I dived into volume two and Sansom still pleases because of his take on libraries and librarianship, for his cast of quirky characters falling into no particular stereotypes, and this time for his representation of churches, pastors, and congregations.
The plot in this novel surrounds the disappearance of the head of a local department store. Israel, the mobile librarian, is implicated because, while he is setting up a display he has created to tell the history of the department store, he is called in to be of service at the scene of the crime by a panic stricken caretaker. Naturally, being a librarian, he responds to the call, and as he is trying to read the clues--leaves his fingerprints all over the place. It is a ridiculous plot, gets going slowly, and then takes several twists and turns to a satisfying ending. My main objection with Sansom's writing is his dialogue--people rarely finish sentences, and Israel is unnecessarily thick with his inability to follow people's intentions.
Still! Read up and Enjoy!
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Tariq Ali: The Islam Quintet
T. Hatch
In reading the review on Mueenuddin and Afzal-Khan I was put in mind of Tariq Ali. Especially his last book Night of the Golden Butterfly which is the fifth of five in his Islam Quintet series. All five books of the Quintet are a wonderful window into Muslim culture covering different historical eras in as many different locations.
As I watched the Twin Towers collapsing on September 11, 2001 I remember thinking "man, am I woefully ignorant about Middle Eastern history?" Tariq Ali in the novels of the Islam Quintet, and in his nonfiction works, has been incredibly useful in attacking that ignorance.
I highly recommend the series.
Fiction and Nonfiction by Tariq Ali at Grinnell College Libraries
Novels in the Islam Quintet:
The Book of Saladin. London, NY 1998.
Burling 3rd Floor PR6051.L44 B66 1998
On order:
Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree, 1993|
Stone Woman, 2000
Sultan in Palermo, 2006
Night of the Golden Butterfly, 2010
In reading the review on Mueenuddin and Afzal-Khan I was put in mind of Tariq Ali. Especially his last book Night of the Golden Butterfly which is the fifth of five in his Islam Quintet series. All five books of the Quintet are a wonderful window into Muslim culture covering different historical eras in as many different locations.
As I watched the Twin Towers collapsing on September 11, 2001 I remember thinking "man, am I woefully ignorant about Middle Eastern history?" Tariq Ali in the novels of the Islam Quintet, and in his nonfiction works, has been incredibly useful in attacking that ignorance.
I highly recommend the series.
Fiction and Nonfiction by Tariq Ali at Grinnell College Libraries
Novels in the Islam Quintet:
The Book of Saladin. London, NY 1998.
Burling 3rd Floor PR6051.L44 B66 1998
On order:
Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree, 1993|
Stone Woman, 2000
Sultan in Palermo, 2006
Night of the Golden Butterfly, 2010
Shades of Grey: The Road to High Saffron
Fforde, Jasper. Shades of Grey: The Road to High Saffron. New York: Viking Press, 2009.
Reviewed by T. Hatch
As the narrative begins our narrator and protagonist Eddie Russett is being digested by a carnivorous yateveo tree. Eddie is a Chromatocracy up-and-comer who, because of his 86.7 percent Red perception, is likely a future prefect. His potential up-spectrum social mobility is threatened, and the fact that he is being macerated inside a tree in the first place is because of his relationship with the subversive Jane Grey. She is an anarchist (only in the most positive sense of the word) who infatuates and leads young Russett through a harrowing experience beyond the established boundaries of the Collective. These actions set the stage for further collaboration in undermining the rigidly enforced hierarchy that is Chromatica.
Fforde who is the author of the Thursday Next and Nursery Crime series has said that reading requires a greater amount of imagination than writing. Little surprise then that Shades of Grey, even more than his previous work, has Fforde - to create a Ffordean trope of our own - becoming the master enabler of reckless invention. Like his previous seven novels, Fforde continues to create a genre of his own which looks to the influence of Swift, Carroll, and Waugh and manifests itself as a satirical mystery wrapped in a solid science fiction shell. It has been suggested that Shades of Grey is thematically darker than previous works by Fforde; there is a grain of truth in this, if for no other reason than politics and corrupt hierarchies are inherently more sinister than Jack Sprat tracking down Humpty Dumpty's killer.
The world Fforde creates is remarkable both for the copious amount of absurd details that litter the narrative and his ability to manage the life-is-long-art-is-short problem of providing the reader with the necessary information in the beginning of this complex creation. This is the first of three books thus making the task even more daunting. Another wondrous aspect of Shades is the structural integrity of Fforde's created world of Chromatica. All the details “fit.”
The first thing about twenty-sixth century Chromatica is that it is a society with an iron-clad hierarchy. The Colortocracy assiduously follows the Rulebook based entirely on The Word of Munsell and the crackpot prophet's chef d'ouvre, The Munsell Book of Wisdom written four hundred years ago (i.e. circa 2100). Munsell was widely credited with bringing peace to the Collective. The number seventy-three was forbidden, there was no counting of sheep, spoons were not to be made, and there was absolutely no using acronyms. Additionally, Gross Impertinence was a criminal charge. Munsell may have his eccentricities but no one can argue with results.
Little is known of the Epiphany which occurred circa 2083 but The Something That Happened was the societal rupture that ended the chaos associated with what came to be known simply as The Previous. The prophet opined that: “Imaginative thought is to be discouraged. No good ever comes of it – don't.” His particular genius (not unlike Glen Beck's philosophical system) was that he made the world knowable to everyone by simply reducing the number of facts. The prefects who managed society took a dim view of “irresponsible levels of creative expressions.” Libraries had more librarians than books. Librarians fondly remembered what books used to sit on the now empty shelves, acting as oral historians reminiscing about the books there used to be, they were now consigned to checking out Racy Novels and the Collected Thoughts of Munsell. A succession of National Color engineered Great Leaps Backward had seen to this. The long-term secular trend in Chromatica was defacting, which made continuous sustainability both safe and possible.
Chromatican society is organized around the hue of it various members. Chromaticans are required to display prominently the color spot that identifies their hue for all to see. Their entire existence is defined by what color they are and how much of it they can perceive. At the bottom of the Colortocracy are the Greys. About thirty-five percent of the population, Greys are unable to distinguish any color at all. Theirs is a second-class citizenship. Jane (the anarchist in a good way) resists the dominant paradigm. Her chance meeting with Eddie Russett has serious implications for the history of Chromatica.
The most difficult and mysterious character in the book is the Apocryphal man. A four hundred and fifty two year-old historian who pops in from time to time and only occasionally makes himself visible to Eddie. Even then the only way to get a straight answer out of him is to bribe him with loganberry jam. The Apocryphal man says he exists because without him no one's life would have any meaning. It's difficult to say what all of this means. We will have to wait until 2014, when the second installment of Shades of Grey is scheduled to be published, to find out.
Jasper Fforde at Grinnell College Libraries
Thursday Day Next Lost in a Good Book: A Novel
Burling 3rd Floor PR6106.F67 T48 2003
At Drake Community Library
The Eyre Affair, 2002
Thursday Next in the Well of Lost Plots, 2004
More
Reviewed by T. Hatch
As the narrative begins our narrator and protagonist Eddie Russett is being digested by a carnivorous yateveo tree. Eddie is a Chromatocracy up-and-comer who, because of his 86.7 percent Red perception, is likely a future prefect. His potential up-spectrum social mobility is threatened, and the fact that he is being macerated inside a tree in the first place is because of his relationship with the subversive Jane Grey. She is an anarchist (only in the most positive sense of the word) who infatuates and leads young Russett through a harrowing experience beyond the established boundaries of the Collective. These actions set the stage for further collaboration in undermining the rigidly enforced hierarchy that is Chromatica.
Fforde who is the author of the Thursday Next and Nursery Crime series has said that reading requires a greater amount of imagination than writing. Little surprise then that Shades of Grey, even more than his previous work, has Fforde - to create a Ffordean trope of our own - becoming the master enabler of reckless invention. Like his previous seven novels, Fforde continues to create a genre of his own which looks to the influence of Swift, Carroll, and Waugh and manifests itself as a satirical mystery wrapped in a solid science fiction shell. It has been suggested that Shades of Grey is thematically darker than previous works by Fforde; there is a grain of truth in this, if for no other reason than politics and corrupt hierarchies are inherently more sinister than Jack Sprat tracking down Humpty Dumpty's killer.
The world Fforde creates is remarkable both for the copious amount of absurd details that litter the narrative and his ability to manage the life-is-long-art-is-short problem of providing the reader with the necessary information in the beginning of this complex creation. This is the first of three books thus making the task even more daunting. Another wondrous aspect of Shades is the structural integrity of Fforde's created world of Chromatica. All the details “fit.”
The first thing about twenty-sixth century Chromatica is that it is a society with an iron-clad hierarchy. The Colortocracy assiduously follows the Rulebook based entirely on The Word of Munsell and the crackpot prophet's chef d'ouvre, The Munsell Book of Wisdom written four hundred years ago (i.e. circa 2100). Munsell was widely credited with bringing peace to the Collective. The number seventy-three was forbidden, there was no counting of sheep, spoons were not to be made, and there was absolutely no using acronyms. Additionally, Gross Impertinence was a criminal charge. Munsell may have his eccentricities but no one can argue with results.
Little is known of the Epiphany which occurred circa 2083 but The Something That Happened was the societal rupture that ended the chaos associated with what came to be known simply as The Previous. The prophet opined that: “Imaginative thought is to be discouraged. No good ever comes of it – don't.” His particular genius (not unlike Glen Beck's philosophical system) was that he made the world knowable to everyone by simply reducing the number of facts. The prefects who managed society took a dim view of “irresponsible levels of creative expressions.” Libraries had more librarians than books. Librarians fondly remembered what books used to sit on the now empty shelves, acting as oral historians reminiscing about the books there used to be, they were now consigned to checking out Racy Novels and the Collected Thoughts of Munsell. A succession of National Color engineered Great Leaps Backward had seen to this. The long-term secular trend in Chromatica was defacting, which made continuous sustainability both safe and possible.
Chromatican society is organized around the hue of it various members. Chromaticans are required to display prominently the color spot that identifies their hue for all to see. Their entire existence is defined by what color they are and how much of it they can perceive. At the bottom of the Colortocracy are the Greys. About thirty-five percent of the population, Greys are unable to distinguish any color at all. Theirs is a second-class citizenship. Jane (the anarchist in a good way) resists the dominant paradigm. Her chance meeting with Eddie Russett has serious implications for the history of Chromatica.
The most difficult and mysterious character in the book is the Apocryphal man. A four hundred and fifty two year-old historian who pops in from time to time and only occasionally makes himself visible to Eddie. Even then the only way to get a straight answer out of him is to bribe him with loganberry jam. The Apocryphal man says he exists because without him no one's life would have any meaning. It's difficult to say what all of this means. We will have to wait until 2014, when the second installment of Shades of Grey is scheduled to be published, to find out.
Jasper Fforde at Grinnell College Libraries
Thursday Day Next Lost in a Good Book: A Novel
Burling 3rd Floor PR6106.F67 T48 2003
At Drake Community Library
The Eyre Affair, 2002
Thursday Next in the Well of Lost Plots, 2004
More
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
A little popular culture: Why Libraries are so Important
The Old Spice Guy weighs in on libraries. Thank you!
Sunday, July 25, 2010
In Other Rooms, Other Wonders and Lahore With Love: A Collection of Short Stories and a Memoir
Mueenuddin, Daniyal. In Other Rooms, Other Wonders. NY: Norton, 2009.
1st Floor Smith Memorial PR 9540 .9 .M84 I52 2009.
Afzal-Khan, Fawzia. Lahore with Love: Growing Up with Girlfriends, Pakistani-Style. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2010.
Burling 2nd Floor HQ1745.5.Z9 L332 2010
R. Stuhr
I have, in the past month, read two books by Pakistani authors. I read Afzal-Khan's memoir at the request of the Multicultural Review and Mueenuddin's collection of short stories because he was a Pulitzer Prize finalist and I was recently browsing through some lists of award winning (nearly award winning) authors. Both books are collections of discreet chapters, connected through time, place, characters, and theme.
Afzal-Khan's book is a memoir of her years growing up in Pakistan with a close circle of female friends. As she and her friends progress through childhood and school, Pakistan's political climate changes ineluctably to restrict the rights of and opportunities available to women. In Afzal-Khan's privileged world, the reality of these changes are slow to sink in. Afzal-Khan recounts the stories of her friends, several of whose lives ended tragically in no small part because of the oppressive conditions under which they lived. Afzal-Khan's life turns out differently, if not without her own inner darkness, in part because of her rebellious nature and in part because she leaves Pakistan for the United States to attend graduate l, ultimately marrying and settling there.
Afzal-Khan does not presume to have the answers; she is humble. She honors her friends and recognizes that she would not be the person she is if they had not been part of her childhood.
Mueenuddin's collection of short stories are all connected through the presence of the character K. K. Harouni, an industrialist and landowner. Mueenuddin writes about a Pakistan where the social heirarchy is a determining factor in one's well being. The wealthy thrive and the less fortunate derive ways to prosper through the largesse and inattention of their wealthy employers and benefactors. Success is as much about scheming and plotting as it is about birth and connections--it must be one or the other. The status of women is a significant aspect of each story. Mueenuddin's women rely on their intelligence and instinct to survive, but also prosper and fail according to the desires and whims of the men in their lives.
Some of the stories revolve around the lives of the servants of K. K. Harouni and others focus on his far flung family and others in the land owning classes. Rich or poor, no one has what they want and disappointment accompanies death. Power and peonage with their attendant and relative privileges and hardships provide a structure to each story.
Both Mueenuddin's and Afzal-Khan's books can be read as a whole or dipped into for a chapter here and there. But, if you start at the beginning, you are certain to want to read both in their entirety.
Afzal-Khan writes on literature and the condition of Muslim women. This is Daniyal Mueenuddin first published collection. His stories have appeared in Granta and The New Yorker.
1st Floor Smith Memorial PR 9540 .9 .M84 I52 2009.
Afzal-Khan, Fawzia. Lahore with Love: Growing Up with Girlfriends, Pakistani-Style. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2010.
Burling 2nd Floor HQ1745.5.Z9 L332 2010
R. Stuhr
I have, in the past month, read two books by Pakistani authors. I read Afzal-Khan's memoir at the request of the Multicultural Review and Mueenuddin's collection of short stories because he was a Pulitzer Prize finalist and I was recently browsing through some lists of award winning (nearly award winning) authors. Both books are collections of discreet chapters, connected through time, place, characters, and theme.
Afzal-Khan's book is a memoir of her years growing up in Pakistan with a close circle of female friends. As she and her friends progress through childhood and school, Pakistan's political climate changes ineluctably to restrict the rights of and opportunities available to women. In Afzal-Khan's privileged world, the reality of these changes are slow to sink in. Afzal-Khan recounts the stories of her friends, several of whose lives ended tragically in no small part because of the oppressive conditions under which they lived. Afzal-Khan's life turns out differently, if not without her own inner darkness, in part because of her rebellious nature and in part because she leaves Pakistan for the United States to attend graduate l, ultimately marrying and settling there.
Afzal-Khan does not presume to have the answers; she is humble. She honors her friends and recognizes that she would not be the person she is if they had not been part of her childhood.
Mueenuddin's collection of short stories are all connected through the presence of the character K. K. Harouni, an industrialist and landowner. Mueenuddin writes about a Pakistan where the social heirarchy is a determining factor in one's well being. The wealthy thrive and the less fortunate derive ways to prosper through the largesse and inattention of their wealthy employers and benefactors. Success is as much about scheming and plotting as it is about birth and connections--it must be one or the other. The status of women is a significant aspect of each story. Mueenuddin's women rely on their intelligence and instinct to survive, but also prosper and fail according to the desires and whims of the men in their lives.
Some of the stories revolve around the lives of the servants of K. K. Harouni and others focus on his far flung family and others in the land owning classes. Rich or poor, no one has what they want and disappointment accompanies death. Power and peonage with their attendant and relative privileges and hardships provide a structure to each story.
Both Mueenuddin's and Afzal-Khan's books can be read as a whole or dipped into for a chapter here and there. But, if you start at the beginning, you are certain to want to read both in their entirety.
Afzal-Khan writes on literature and the condition of Muslim women. This is Daniyal Mueenuddin first published collection. His stories have appeared in Granta and The New Yorker.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
The Yacoubian Building
Alaa Al Aswany. The Yacoubian Building. NY: Harper Perennial, 2006.
R. Stuhr
This book is currently on display at Burling Library as part of our display of summer reading recommended by staff. Cecilia Knight recommended this along with the trio of books published posthumously by Stieg Larsson. I just finished this book too, and so these comments are mine. Written about Cairo during the time leading up to the first Iraq war, Alaa Al Aswany touches on the history and politics of Egypt, regional differences, the intensification of Islamic identity that goes beyond nationalism or simply religious ferver, the extensive gap between rich and poor, political corruption, the plight of women, individual hopes and dreams, and dashed hopes and dreams. The author, in his narrative, crosses back and forth among the stories of a range of characters, the privileged and the underprivileged. Although a dark story, it is also romantic and in the end the purest of hearts finds some happiness.
This book, in some ways, also tells the story of the twenty-first century, with one of the shaping factors of this century being the rise of fundamentalist Islam. In reading about the limitations of one society, we can recognize some of the same failings in our own society, the importance of influence (oil, pharmaceuticals two name just two for instance) and money in politics, the treatment and expectations for women, the widening gap between rich and poor... we are all implicated.
Despite my representation, this is definitely a recommended read for summer or anytime. Burling library has both the book (currently on display) and the film (wander down to the listening room).
R. Stuhr
This book is currently on display at Burling Library as part of our display of summer reading recommended by staff. Cecilia Knight recommended this along with the trio of books published posthumously by Stieg Larsson. I just finished this book too, and so these comments are mine. Written about Cairo during the time leading up to the first Iraq war, Alaa Al Aswany touches on the history and politics of Egypt, regional differences, the intensification of Islamic identity that goes beyond nationalism or simply religious ferver, the extensive gap between rich and poor, political corruption, the plight of women, individual hopes and dreams, and dashed hopes and dreams. The author, in his narrative, crosses back and forth among the stories of a range of characters, the privileged and the underprivileged. Although a dark story, it is also romantic and in the end the purest of hearts finds some happiness.
This book, in some ways, also tells the story of the twenty-first century, with one of the shaping factors of this century being the rise of fundamentalist Islam. In reading about the limitations of one society, we can recognize some of the same failings in our own society, the importance of influence (oil, pharmaceuticals two name just two for instance) and money in politics, the treatment and expectations for women, the widening gap between rich and poor... we are all implicated.
Despite my representation, this is definitely a recommended read for summer or anytime. Burling library has both the book (currently on display) and the film (wander down to the listening room).
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Making the Rounds with Oscar
Dosa, David, M.D. Making the Rounds With Oscar: The Extraordinary Gift of an Ordinary Cat. NY: Hyperion, 2010.
Reviewed by Sharon Clayton
Dr. David Dosa was a non-believer. He didn't like cats. He was a dog person. Oscar the cat can't know when a person is dying, he's just one of several strays that lives in a nursing home. But maybe it's true...
Oscar not only comforts dying nursing home residents with dementia, but he also touches the lives of the family members who are left behind as well as the staff at the nursing home where he resides. Dr. Dosa's book documents his quest to find out about Oscar's gift by interviewing family members who lost their loved ones on Oscar's watch. The book also explains the stages of dementia which is very informative for
people who are affected by this debilitating illness.
For more of Sharon Clayton's favorite reads see The Eclectic Review.
Available at the Grinnell's Drake Community Library
Reviewed by Sharon Clayton
Dr. David Dosa was a non-believer. He didn't like cats. He was a dog person. Oscar the cat can't know when a person is dying, he's just one of several strays that lives in a nursing home. But maybe it's true...
Oscar not only comforts dying nursing home residents with dementia, but he also touches the lives of the family members who are left behind as well as the staff at the nursing home where he resides. Dr. Dosa's book documents his quest to find out about Oscar's gift by interviewing family members who lost their loved ones on Oscar's watch. The book also explains the stages of dementia which is very informative for
people who are affected by this debilitating illness.
For more of Sharon Clayton's favorite reads see The Eclectic Review.
Available at the Grinnell's Drake Community Library
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Grinnell College in the Nineteenth Century
Joseph Frazier Wall. Grinnell College in the Nineteenth Century: From Salvation to Service. Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1997.
Reviewed by T. Hatch
Manifest Destiny required a group of eleven easy going Calvinists to set out for the frontier of the Iowa Territory to spread a Congregationalist form of Christianity and New England culture. The result of their effort was the opening of Iowa College in 1850. But their openly abolitionist and temperance positions were decidedly unpopular with many in their new home of Davenport; the trustees of Iowa College were soon looking for a new location.
In a parallel development Josiah Bushnell Grinnell, whose goal was to found a Congregationalist community in Iowa, had acted on advance inside information as to where future rail lines were to be constructed. As one of five founders of the town he imagined founding both a religious and an educational community. Starting in 1855 when purchasing land in Grinnell twenty dollars over the asking price went directly to a fund for the founding of a college. J.B. Grinnell “[who] had always evinced ...an interest in both pietism and profits” (p.92) envisioned a full-blown university. Competing with seven other towns the trustees of Iowa College chose Grinnell in 1858. J.B. Grinnell, who designated himself President of the “University” as well as Professor of History, Rhetoric, and Elocution (without the benefit of any students, faculty, or campus buildings) had persuaded a group of authentic scholars to join him in efforts at institution building. In September 1858 the merger between Iowa College and Grinnell University was official. Classes began when Iowa College opened in Grinnell in October of 1861.
While this magisterial book delineates the development of Grinnell College from its founding until the end of the nineteenth century it really does much more. It is possible over a century later to trace backward in time, from the normative ideal of “truth, understanding, and shared endeavor,” to those anti-slavery, pro-temperance, pro-suffrage forbearers who set the trajectory on which Grinnell College now finds itself. Additionally, there are a number of narratives that are both compelling and stand on their own.
John Brown, whom Abraham Lincoln in an Obamaesque moment referred to as a “misguided fanatic,” visited Grinnell in February of 1859. Fresh from a raid in Missouri where he had killed a slave owner while liberating his slaves, Brown was warmly welcomed by J.B. Grinnell and allowed to use his large wool-storage barn to house his company of followers. The people of the town were both eager and enthusiastic in their welcoming of Brown who spoke at the Congregationalist church on Sunday and visited the local primary school on Monday before leaving town. This was to earn both the town and its eponymous founder a reputation for radicalism around the state. Legend has it that before he was executed, John Brown requested that one of the pikes used in the Raid on Harper's Ferry be sent to J.B. Grinnell who, as long as he lived, used it at the head of the academic Commencement procession.
Professor Leonard Parker was to Grinnell College in the nineteenth century what Paul was to the New Testament. In his dual role of the superintendent of Poweshiek County Schools and later as a professor at Iowa College (it did not become Grinnell College until early in the twentieth century) Parker was in many respects the soul of the institution. He and one of the town's founders Amos Bixby resisted a mob in 1860 that sought to prevent the enrollment of four male fugitive slaves in the town school. After first being denied a leave of absence from his teaching duties he was finally allowed to lead a company of Grinnell volunteers in 1864 for a one hundred day tour of duty. And, what goes down as one of the finest moments in Grinnell history, he published an extensive article in The Grinnell Herald arguing against the imperialistic annexation of the Philippine Islands.
One tradition that did not persist (thankfully for anyone holding a Jello-shot party insulting faculty members) was President Magoun's “Come Forward” program. Any student guilty of an infraction against the code of conduct was required to make a public confession of it during chapel. Maoist self-criticism was based on the same principle and understandably the student body was not sorry to see the practice discontinued.
Perhaps the incident covered in the book that is my personal favorite had to do with finding a replacement for the outgoing President George Magoun. A leading candidate for the position was J.B. Grinnell's son-in-law David Mears. Mears also had the financial backing of Massachusetts shoe merchant Edward Goodnow. The contour of the deal was that if Mears was to become the President of the college then Goodnow would donate $50,000 (about $1.2 million in 2010 dollars). The proposal was further contingent upon the renaming of the college after Goodnow. In a classic response, the trustees declined the offer because “the sum named does not in our view by any means warrant it” and because such an action would potentially make the college the source of ridicule. The trustees, pragmatic to the end, stated: “that should the circumstances ever occur in which some larger gift, say from $150,000 to $250,000 be conditioned on a change of name, that question would be favorably considered” (p.221). Mears, who was angry at the rejection, withdrew his name from consideration and George Gates became the second president serving from 1887 until 1900.
In speaking to a retired Dean of Students who attended Grinnell College in the 1950s I learned that Professor Wall taught a course attended by all freshmen on the history of the school. Is this feasible today? It is undoubtedly more complicated than merely finding someone to write the syllabus with many more matriculates now in attendance than in the middle of last century. However, one seemingly logical addendum to Professor Wall's work would be a work entitle something like The History of Grinnell College in the Twentieth Century: From the Brink of Insolvency to Incredibly Well Endowed.
Burling Library 2nd floor LD2055.G52 W35 1997
Reviewed by T. Hatch
Manifest Destiny required a group of eleven easy going Calvinists to set out for the frontier of the Iowa Territory to spread a Congregationalist form of Christianity and New England culture. The result of their effort was the opening of Iowa College in 1850. But their openly abolitionist and temperance positions were decidedly unpopular with many in their new home of Davenport; the trustees of Iowa College were soon looking for a new location.
In a parallel development Josiah Bushnell Grinnell, whose goal was to found a Congregationalist community in Iowa, had acted on advance inside information as to where future rail lines were to be constructed. As one of five founders of the town he imagined founding both a religious and an educational community. Starting in 1855 when purchasing land in Grinnell twenty dollars over the asking price went directly to a fund for the founding of a college. J.B. Grinnell “[who] had always evinced ...an interest in both pietism and profits” (p.92) envisioned a full-blown university. Competing with seven other towns the trustees of Iowa College chose Grinnell in 1858. J.B. Grinnell, who designated himself President of the “University” as well as Professor of History, Rhetoric, and Elocution (without the benefit of any students, faculty, or campus buildings) had persuaded a group of authentic scholars to join him in efforts at institution building. In September 1858 the merger between Iowa College and Grinnell University was official. Classes began when Iowa College opened in Grinnell in October of 1861.
While this magisterial book delineates the development of Grinnell College from its founding until the end of the nineteenth century it really does much more. It is possible over a century later to trace backward in time, from the normative ideal of “truth, understanding, and shared endeavor,” to those anti-slavery, pro-temperance, pro-suffrage forbearers who set the trajectory on which Grinnell College now finds itself. Additionally, there are a number of narratives that are both compelling and stand on their own.
John Brown, whom Abraham Lincoln in an Obamaesque moment referred to as a “misguided fanatic,” visited Grinnell in February of 1859. Fresh from a raid in Missouri where he had killed a slave owner while liberating his slaves, Brown was warmly welcomed by J.B. Grinnell and allowed to use his large wool-storage barn to house his company of followers. The people of the town were both eager and enthusiastic in their welcoming of Brown who spoke at the Congregationalist church on Sunday and visited the local primary school on Monday before leaving town. This was to earn both the town and its eponymous founder a reputation for radicalism around the state. Legend has it that before he was executed, John Brown requested that one of the pikes used in the Raid on Harper's Ferry be sent to J.B. Grinnell who, as long as he lived, used it at the head of the academic Commencement procession.
Professor Leonard Parker was to Grinnell College in the nineteenth century what Paul was to the New Testament. In his dual role of the superintendent of Poweshiek County Schools and later as a professor at Iowa College (it did not become Grinnell College until early in the twentieth century) Parker was in many respects the soul of the institution. He and one of the town's founders Amos Bixby resisted a mob in 1860 that sought to prevent the enrollment of four male fugitive slaves in the town school. After first being denied a leave of absence from his teaching duties he was finally allowed to lead a company of Grinnell volunteers in 1864 for a one hundred day tour of duty. And, what goes down as one of the finest moments in Grinnell history, he published an extensive article in The Grinnell Herald arguing against the imperialistic annexation of the Philippine Islands.
One tradition that did not persist (thankfully for anyone holding a Jello-shot party insulting faculty members) was President Magoun's “Come Forward” program. Any student guilty of an infraction against the code of conduct was required to make a public confession of it during chapel. Maoist self-criticism was based on the same principle and understandably the student body was not sorry to see the practice discontinued.
Perhaps the incident covered in the book that is my personal favorite had to do with finding a replacement for the outgoing President George Magoun. A leading candidate for the position was J.B. Grinnell's son-in-law David Mears. Mears also had the financial backing of Massachusetts shoe merchant Edward Goodnow. The contour of the deal was that if Mears was to become the President of the college then Goodnow would donate $50,000 (about $1.2 million in 2010 dollars). The proposal was further contingent upon the renaming of the college after Goodnow. In a classic response, the trustees declined the offer because “the sum named does not in our view by any means warrant it” and because such an action would potentially make the college the source of ridicule. The trustees, pragmatic to the end, stated: “that should the circumstances ever occur in which some larger gift, say from $150,000 to $250,000 be conditioned on a change of name, that question would be favorably considered” (p.221). Mears, who was angry at the rejection, withdrew his name from consideration and George Gates became the second president serving from 1887 until 1900.
In speaking to a retired Dean of Students who attended Grinnell College in the 1950s I learned that Professor Wall taught a course attended by all freshmen on the history of the school. Is this feasible today? It is undoubtedly more complicated than merely finding someone to write the syllabus with many more matriculates now in attendance than in the middle of last century. However, one seemingly logical addendum to Professor Wall's work would be a work entitle something like The History of Grinnell College in the Twentieth Century: From the Brink of Insolvency to Incredibly Well Endowed.
Burling Library 2nd floor LD2055.G52 W35 1997
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