Poetry Sunday: The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein

When my kids were little, I read to them every night after putting them to bed. It's a ritual well-known to many parents of course. We had our favorites that we returned to time and time again. This was one of them.

The Giving Tree

by Shel Silverstein

Once there was a tree....

and she loved a little boy.

And everyday the boy would come

and he would gather her leaves
and make them into crowns
and play king of the forest.
He would climb up her trunk
and swing from her branches
and eat apples.
And they would play hide-and-go-seek.
And when he was tired,
he would sleep in her shade.
And the boy loved the tree....
very much.
And the tree was happy.
But time went by.
And the boy grew older.
And the tree was often alone.
Then one day the boy came to the tree
and the tree said, 'Come, Boy, come and
climb up my trunk and swing from my
branches and eat apples and play in my
shade and be happy.'
'I am too big to climb and play' said
the boy.
'I want to buy things and have fun.
I want some money?'
'I'm sorry,' said the tree, 'but I
have no money.
I have only leaves and apples.
Take my apples, Boy, and sell them in
the city. Then you will have money and
you will be happy.'
And so the boy climbed up the
tree and gathered her apples
and carried them away.
And the tree was happy.
But the boy stayed away for a long time....
and the tree was sad.
And then one day the boy came back
and the tree shook with joy
and she said, 'Come, Boy, climb up my trunk
and swing from my branches and be happy.'
'I am too busy to climb trees,' said the boy.
'I want a house to keep me warm,' he said.
'I want a wife and I want children,
and so I need a house.
Can you give me a house ?'
' I have no house,' said the tree.
'The forest is my house,
but you may cut off
my branches and build a
house. Then you will be happy.'

And so the boy cut off her branches
and carried them away
to build his house.
And the tree was happy.
But the boy stayed away for a long time.
And when he came back,
the tree was so happy
she could hardly speak.
'Come, Boy,' she whispered,
'come and play.'
'I am too old and sad to play,'
said the boy.
'I want a boat that will
take me far away from here.
Can you give me a boat?'
'Cut down my trunk
and make a boat,' said the tree.
'Then you can sail away...
and be happy.'
And so the boy cut down her trunk
and made a boat and sailed away.
And the tree was happy
... but not really.

And after a long time
the boy came back again.
'I am sorry, Boy,'
said the tree,' but I have nothing
left to give you -
My apples are gone.'
'My teeth are too weak
for apples,' said the boy.
'My branches are gone,'
said the tree. ' You
cannot swing on them - '
'I am too old to swing
on branches,' said the boy.
'My trunk is gone, ' said the tree.
'You cannot climb - '
'I am too tired to climb' said the boy.
'I am sorry,' sighed the tree.
'I wish that I could give you something....
but I have nothing left.
I am just an old stump.
I am sorry....'
'I don't need very much now,' said the boy.
'just a quiet place to sit and rest.
I am very tired.'
'Well,' said the tree, straightening
herself up as much as she could,
'well, an old stump is good for sitting and resting
Come, Boy, sit down. Sit down and rest.'
And the boy did.
And the tree was happy.

This week in birds - #601

A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment:

                                                                                                         Photo by Susan Borders Evans

The orb weavers are out and doing their thing. They are wonderful critters. Please be kind to them.

*~*~*~*

Defending Nature is a dangerous business in a world where at least three defenders are killed every week.

*~*~*~*

Unfortunately, Nature must be defended not only against those who harm intentionally but also those who harm through carelessness. 

*~*~*~*

Fall migration is in full swing. According to BirdCast, nearly two million birds passed over my county last night.

*~*~~*~*

Sometimes humans actually manage to assist Nature. This was the case of the Bald Ibis in Europe.

*~*~*~*

A scientific investigation has concluded that Earth vibrated for nine days after a landslide and mega-tsunami in Greenland in 2023. Figuring that out took the efforts of about seventy people from fifteen different countries.

*~*~*~*

It is for good reason that the Amazon is referred to as "Earth's lungs.

*~*~*~*

Some orb weaver spiders are known to use captured fireflies to lure in more prey.

*~*~*~*

At least three major wildfires are burning in southern California displacing tens of thousands of residents.

*~*~*~*

It seems that Earth may have a new mini-moon at least for a couple of months.

*~*~*~*

The Brazilian city of Linhares has granted its ocean waves the status of legal personhood in order to pave the path to marine protection.

*~*~*~*

We have recognized the need for wildlife bridges over busy highways, but do marine animals need such bridges also?

*~*~*~*

Studies have found that methane emissions are rising faster than ever.

*~*~*~*

Those methane emissions could contribute to the fact that this year has seen the hottest summer on record and could lead to the warmest year that humans have measured.

*~*~*~*

The American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week this week is a seabird, the Parkinson's Petrel, also called the Black Petrel because its only spot of color is its pale yellow bill with its black tip. 

*~*~*~*

Hundreds of sea lions took over a popular California beach during their migration, causing officials to close the beach down for a period of time.

*~*~*~*

Pompeii was destroyed by a volcanic eruption 1945 years ago, but it is still yielding up its secrets to archaeologists.

*~*~*~*

There is evidence that birds that live in the city have less vibrant colors than the same species living in more rural areas.

*~*~*~*

The new Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary in California will protect more than 116 miles of that state's coastline.

*~*~*~*

This is a new tarantula species (Aphonopelma jacobii) that has been discovered in the Chiricahua Mountains of southeastern Arizona.

Poetry Sunday: The Breezes of June by Paul Hamilton Hayne

The soft breezes of a late June afternoon are much appreciated as I sit in the swing on my patio at the end of the day. It's the best time of day to venture out just now. Then, or else the early morning. Only a very foolish person would spend much time outside in the mid-day heat. Either a foolish person or one whose job requires him/her to endure the triple-digit temperatures. Those who must earn their living under this brutal June sky have my sympathy and concern. 

If we make it through the heat of the day, those late afternoon "sweet and soft" breezes that whisper through the leaves of the trees are our reward. But if June comes, can July and August be far behind? It doesn't bear thinking about!

The Breezes of June

by Paul Hamilton Hayne 

On! sweet and soft,
Returning oft,
As oft they pass benignly,
The warm June breezes come and go,
Through golden rounds of murmurous flow,
At length to sigh,
Wax faint and die,
Far down the panting primrose sky,
Divinely!

Though soft and low
These breezes blow,
Their voice is passion's wholly;
And ah! our hearts go forth to meet
The burden of their music sweet,
Ere yet it sighs,
Faints, falters, dies
Down the rich path of sunset skies—
Half glad, half melancholy!

Bend, bend thine ear!
Oh! hark and hear
What vows each blithe new-comer!
Each warm June breeze that comes goes,
Is whispering to the royal rose,
And star-pale lily, trembling nigh,
Ere yet in subtlest harmony
Its murmurs die,
Wax faint and die
On thy flushed bosom, passionate sky,
Of youthful summer!

The Madness of Crowds by Louise Penny: A review

 

Louise Penny's latest mystery set in the little Quebec village of Three Pines takes place at a time in the future when the present pandemic has been officially declared over. Things are beginning to get back to normal, but the effects of the pandemic and its consequences are still very much on the minds of the residents. 

All of those Three Pines residents that we have come to know over the course of this series, characters who feel like our friends that we enjoy spending time with, are present and accounted for and Inspector Gamache is still on the job.

Gamache is marked by a horrendous experience he had during the pandemic. He was called to a nursing home where he discovered that the inmates had been abandoned. They were dead or dying. He feels shame, not that he himself had abandoned these people but that his society had abandoned them and that, as a senior police officer, he had not realized earlier that something like that could happen. 

Now it is late December and the holiday season is in full swing. At the height of it all, Gamache is called upon to provide security for a speaking event at a nearby college. When he learns who the speaker is, he is appalled.

The speaker will be Abigail Robinson, a controversial statistician who has been hired by the Canadian government to analyze the country's pandemic-related data. Her conclusion is that the sick and elderly used too many of the country's resources during the pandemic. They were going to die soon anyway but caring for them put a strain on the country's finances, medical supplies, and personnel. She proselytizes for a kind of eugenics and for rationing care for those who are least able to benefit from it. Disgusted by her conclusions and proposed solutions, Gamache asks the college chancellor to consider canceling the event. For his efforts, he is accused of stifling free speech.

The speech goes on and predictable chaos ensues and in the midst of it all, someone tries to shoot Robinson. Gamache pushes her down and the shot misses, but it is a near thing. However, soon after, Robinson's manager who is her close friend is killed while walking on a trail at night during a snowstorm. Could this have been a case of mistaken identity? Did the killer mistake her for Robinson? Gamache must answer those questions and determine a motive for the killing in order to figure out who did it.

Louise Penny's mysteries have always been firmly rooted in the social fabric and in the love of family and friends but she has never shied away from addressing difficult issues. The Madness of Crowds continues that tradition. She remarks upon the fact that crowds of people can lose social inhibitions and act with a disregard for law and norms of behavior. They can even perpetrate cruelty that they would not normally consider. They can, in fact, succumb to a form of insanity or madness. 

Gamache is concerned that if Robinson continues spreading her ideas that such madness may overtake his own society. This is very personal for him because his youngest grandchild, his daughter's baby has Down Syndrome. She would be one of those vulnerable people who Robinson believes it is a waste to spend resources on.

This is the darkest Penny mystery that I can recall, but as always, it is lightened by the beauty of Three Pines and all its quirky but lovable residents. It's always a pleasure to visit them again.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

 

My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell: A review

In Kate Elizabeth Russell's debut novel, My Dark Vanessa, she knocks it out of the park in so many ways. The book is a clever telling of a Lolita-like story. In this case, the girl is Vanessa Wye, a naive, yet precocious, fifteen-year-old student at a boarding school in Maine. The role of Humbert is played by her magnetic and manipulative forty-two-year-old English teacher, Jacob Strane. The action kicks off in 2000 when Vanessa is a sophomore at the school.

Vanessa is lonely and friendless. Her former best friend and roommate from the previous year and Vanessa had fallen out over the friend's relationship with a boy. Vanessa felt isolated by the relationship and had reacted badly. Now the two are not on speaking terms and Vanessa has not found anyone to fill that void. The predator, Jacob, recognizes her isolation and "cuts her from the herd," so to speak.

Jacob begins by telling her how special she is, how intelligent and talented. Vanessa writes poetry and her teacher is effusive in his praise of her. He gives her special attention in his class and calls her up to sit by him at his desk while he goes over her work with her. And surreptitiously, while all the other students are bent over their own work and oblivious to the teacher, he reaches out and touches her knee...

Things proceed from there. She lingers after class. She follows him into his office. He turns off the lights. He kisses her.

Jacob gives her his underlined, annotated copy of Lolita to read and she becomes obsessed with it. He gives her Sylvia Plath. He shows her lines in Nabokov's Pale Fire that say "Come and be worshiped, come and be caressed/My dark Vanessa." 

Vanessa rewrites the story of this relationship in her head, making it a love story, and all the while the reader wants to scream at her, "He's grooming you, you ninny!" 

Vanessa tells herself, "At least I knew how it felt to be worshiped. He fell at my feet even before he kissed me." And again she accepts his narrative, saying, "He was careful with me. He tried so hard to be good." She feels powerful: "I feel forced over a threshold, thrust out of my ordinary life into a place where it's possible for grown men to be so pathetically in love with me they fall at my feet."

The affair is in full swing in 2001 and the pair delude themselves - at least Vanessa deludes herself - that no one knows, no one notices. In fact, of course, all the other students in the English class know by now and rumors rage throughout the school. Vanessa's former best friend even tries to talk to her to warn her, but Vanessa isn't listening. Finally, the administration of the school hears those rumors and "investigates" mostly by talking to Jacob. And who is punished? Who suffers the consequences? Why, Vanessa, of course! She is kicked out of school, while Jacob continues his teaching career and is free to abuse again.

Vanessa transfers to a public school in her hometown, but the rumors follow her there. Meanwhile, her parents struggle to protect her and give her a normal life.

But the story doesn't end there. In fact, the affair continues. The two manage to meet up on an irregular basis and through the years Vanessa continues to be in thrall to this man and her life which once held such promise is a mess.

Finally, in 2017, Vanessa is thirty-two, still alone, still deluding herself with her great "love story" and still seeing Jacob. Then another female student of his dares to speak out. She, too, has been abused and she reaches out to Vanessa because she knows the stories about her. Vanessa is still in denial. She doesn't believe the girl's story and she still believes that she was different, unique. She can't accept the idea that Jacob Strane has been a teacher at that school for more than thirty years and has most likely been a serial abuser during that time.

This is a very well-written and an extremely disturbing book. The account of this weird relationship is creepy but it is thoroughly believable. Being acquainted with the overwrought imagination of teenage girls, I can fully understand how Vanessa was duped and fell under the sway of this odious man. Even to the end, she refuses to give up on the idea of a love story:

Driven toward it, toward him, I was the kind of girl that isn't supposed to exist: one eager to hurl herself into the path of a pedophile. But no, that word isn't right, never has been. It's a cop-out, a lie in the way it's wrong to call me a victim and nothing more. He was never so simple; neither was I.

And neither is this story. But it is propulsive and hard to put down, a memorable debut for Russell.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

     

This week in birds - #398

A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment:

Male Baltimore Oriole on feeder.

The spring migration has continued in full swing this week. When I stepped outside on Monday, the first sound I heard was the unmistakable call of the Yellow-breasted Chat. There seemed to be several of them all around the yard giving their whistles, chuckles, rattles, and squawks. It always makes me smile to hear them. The Great Crested Flycatchers arrived the same day, but the stars of the show had to be the Baltimore Orioles. It's always a thrill when they pass through. Some years the yard has been filled with them, but I've only seen a few this year so far. They do love their oranges as the one in the picture shows.

*~*~*~*

For Earth Day, The New York Times offered a crash course on climate change on the 50th anniversary of the first Earth Day.

*~*~*~*

As the price of crude oil collapsed this week, producers were forced to shut down rigs. The shale oil industry is expected to shrink. This would seem like a good time to wind down dependence on fossil fuel and switch to cleaner sources of energy.

*~*~*~*

Blue Tit image from The Guardian.

This little bird is a Blue Tit and something very bad is happening to its species in Germany. More than 11,000 instances of sick or dead birds have been reported within the last couple of weeks. A bacterial infection seems to be the cause.

*~*~*~*

One of the unexpected effects of climate change is an alteration to Nature's soundscape.

*~*~*~*

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts that there is a 75% chance that 2020 will be the warmest year on record, beating out 2016.

*~*~*~*

A global study has found that there has been a 25% decrease in insect populations since 1990. Since insects are a vital link in the food chain, this is a very worrying statistic.

*~*~*~*

Red Knots will be arriving in the Mid-Atlantic area over the next few weeks on their long migration route. Although they come in fewer numbers these days, their migration is still one of the wonders of Nature. 

*~*~*~*

A study of outdoor domestic cats using tracking collars found that they do not stray far from their homes, but they have an enormous impact on wildlife in that area, killing more than their owners are aware of. They have a bigger impact, in fact, than wild predators.

*~*~*~*

Decades of dam building and water extraction have had an effect on the ecosystem of San Francisco Bay. The ecosystem is collapsing under the weight of the demands made on it.

*~*~*~*

Would you be surprised to learn that the groups protesting stay-at-home directives are financed by the same people who have been financing climate change denialists? Incidentally, some wags on Facebook have dubbed the protestors the "Flu Flux Klan" or the "Branch Covidians." Seems about right to me.

*~*~*~*

About 40 million years ago, frogs lived on Antarctica. Of course, it was a lot warmer then. A fossil frog has been found from that period and it appears to be related to modern-day frogs in South America. 

*~*~*~*

A new study traces the evolution of bird brains from tyrannosaurs to modern crows. The study found that those birds that evolved later, like crows and parrots, have bigger brains.  

*~*~*~*

The side-effects of the pandemic on Nature offer a vision of an alternative future of the possibility of a healthier relationship with the natural world.

*~*~*~*

Tiny primates called tamarins are one of the more charismatic and beloved symbols of conservation in Brazil, where they are building an overpass over a major highway for the little critters to keep them safe from traffic.

*~*~*~*

A large tree fell in Panama in October 2015 and it took a lot of its neighbors with it. After the clearing of the area, the number of hummingbirds there has increased.

*~*~*~*

Not all pigeons, or more accurately, Rock Doves, are from the same gene pool. Along the Atlantic Coast, for example, researchers found that there were two distinct populations, the New York branch and the Boston branch separated by Connecticut.  

     

Poetry Sunday: Phenomenal Woman by Maya Angelou

I've actually featured this poem before but it's been a few years and I think it is time for it again. It is, after all, still Women's History Month and what better way to celebrate that than a poem by a woman. A phenomenal woman. 

Phenomenal Woman

by Maya Angelou

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.

I’m not cute or built to suit a fashion model’s size   

But when I start to tell them,

They think I’m telling lies.

I say,

It’s in the reach of my arms,

The span of my hips,   

The stride of my step,   

The curl of my lips.   

I’m a woman

Phenomenally.

Phenomenal woman,   

That’s me.

I walk into a room

Just as cool as you please,   

And to a man,

The fellows stand or

Fall down on their knees.   

Then they swarm around me,

A hive of honey bees.   

I say,

It’s the fire in my eyes,   

And the flash of my teeth,   

The swing in my waist,   

And the joy in my feet.   

I’m a woman

Phenomenally.

Phenomenal woman,

That’s me.

Men themselves have wondered   

What they see in me.

They try so much

But they can’t touch

My inner mystery.

When I try to show them,   

They say they still can’t see.   

I say,

It’s in the arch of my back,   

The sun of my smile,

The ride of my breasts,

The grace of my style.

I’m a woman

Phenomenally.

Phenomenal woman,

That’s me.

Now you understand

Just why my head’s not bowed.   

I don’t shout or jump about

Or have to talk real loud.   

When you see me passing,

It ought to make you proud.

I say,

It’s in the click of my heels,   

The bend of my hair,   

the palm of my hand,   

The need for my care.   

’Cause I’m a woman

Phenomenally.

Phenomenal woman,

That’s me.

My favorite books of 2016

It is the solemn duty of every blogger who writes about books to compile a year-end list of the best books read that year. Since I am nothing if not a dutiful blogger, I have been agonizing for days over my list.

As of today, I have read 88 books this year and the majority of them were terrific reads. Those who follow the blog know that I rate my books on a scale of one to five stars, using the Goodreads definitions; one-star meaning "not good" and five-stars meaning "exceptional." I had a few one- and two-star reads this year, but most of them were three stars or higher.

In compiling my list, I narrowed the 88 books down to four- and five-star reads, because often there's very little daylight between four and five stars. But that list proved much too unwieldy. I couldn't give you a list with more than forty books on it! So, in the end I selected just the five-star reads. Even that list had nineteen books on it, but I simply couldn't choose among them, so here they all are - my favorite books read in 2016 with links to my reviews of the books.

The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante: This was the second in Ferrante's highly (and justifiably) praised Neapolitan Quartet series. In my opinion, it was even better than the first book.

H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald: Macdonald wrote this memoir of her lifelong obsession with birds, particularly with raptors, and with her work in attempting to train a Goshawk, supposedly one of the most difficult raptors to tame and train. 

The Story of the Lost Child by Elena Ferrante: This was the fourth and final book in Ferrante's Neapolitan series. I was sorry to see it end.

The Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin: This was the first in Le Guin's fantasy Earthsea Cycle books. It was a wonderful beginning. 

The Noise of Time by Julian Barnes: I am a big fan of Julian Barnes and I always look forward to his books. In this one, he takes the bare facts of Dimitri Shostakovich's life and gives us Shostakovich's interior dialogues, his explanation and justification of his life.

Before the Fall by Noah Hawley: A blockbuster summer read that was much more than just a thrilling page-turner. Hawley ruminates on the role of the media in modern life and presciently touches on the issue of fake news.

LaRose by Louise Erdrich: Nobody does it better than Louise Erdrich, in my opinion, and this story of a conflicted man who tries to make amends for accidentally killing a child by offering the grieving family his own child as a replacement is one of her best.

Emma: A Modern Retelling by Alexander McCall Smith: Smith caught the personality of Jane Austen's delightful Emma and translated her smoothly into a modern setting. This was one of several retellings of Austen or Shakespeare classics that I enjoyed this year.  

Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler: Another retelling, this one of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, and it's by the wonderful Anne Tyler, another personal favorite. How could I not love it?

Sense and Sensibility by Joanna Trollope: And, yes, still another reinterpretation of an Austen classic makes my list. This was actually the first book published in The Austen Project and it set a high standard for all those retellings that followed. 

Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow: Chernow's book, published twelve years ago, has had a revival of interest because of the hit Broadway musical which is based on it. It had languished on my bookshelf for twelve long years and I finally got around to reading it this year. Wonderful book! It reads almost like a Dickens novel.

Nutshell by Ian McEwan: Ian McEwan is a writer of perfect little gems of books in which not a single word can be extracted or changed without altering the meaning. This was another one, an imaginative retelling of Hamlet with Hamlet being represented as a fetus!

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman: This was an under-the-radar Swedish novel that unexpectedly became an international bestseller. It featured an irascible curmudgeon as its main character, Ove, and the reader would have to have a heart of stone to end the book without loving him.

Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood: This was another one in the Hogarth Shakespeare series, a retelling of The Tempest, that I had been impatiently waiting for all year. It was worth the wait!

Commonwealth by Ann Patchett: Many of my favorite writers had new books out this year, which is one of the reasons it was such a terrific year of reading for me. One of those favorites is Ann Patchett and her story of the Keating and Cousins families and their intermingling lives was wonderful and gave the reader a lot to think about.

My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout: Strout's ability to delineate and explore the motivations in the lives of conflicted women is well known. Like her wonderful Olive Kitteridge, this one drew me in and I didn't want to leave Lucy Barton.

Moonglow by Michael Chabon: If you held my feet to the fire and forced me to name my favorite of all the wonderful books that I've read this year, this would be it. Chabon's fictionalized memoir of his own family's experiences has everything that one could wish for in a book, and like Ian McEwan's books, one would not want to extract or change a single word of it.

Here I am by Jonathan Safran Foer: Foer's tale of the unlovable and unraveling Bloch family of Washington, D.C., juxtaposed with upheaval and catastrophe in the Middle East and the possible destruction of Israel is a tour de force of imaginative storytelling.

Swing Time by Zadie Smith: And of my favorites, this one would be a very close second. Smith's portrayal of the lives of two young girls raised in poverty but in very different personal circumstances rang true for me in every aspect. Smith just gets better and better as a writer.

And there you have it, my creme de la creme of 2016. I can unreservedly recommend any one of them to lovers of good writing, and there were so many others that just barely missed making the list. One can only hope for another such fascinating year of words in 2017.  

Swing Time by Zadie Smith: A review

Two young girls growing up in poverty in North London in the '80s and '90s meet at a Saturday dance class. One of them has natural talent as a dancer. Both of them love music and rhythm. 

They become friends and remain close, with only occasional adolescent fallings-out, through all the years of growing up, sharing a love of old musicals and of dancers like Fred Astaire and Bojangles. They watch those movies over and over again, learning and copying the moves of the dancers.

Swing Time is the story of those two girls as they make the passage through adolescence and into young adulthood and increased responsibilities. The girls grow apart, but their friendship will always be the major influence and touchstone of their lives.

The talented young dancer is Tracey, friend of the narrator of this book. The narrator is never given a name. Both girls are biracial; Tracey has a white mother and black (Jamaican) father and the narrator has a black (Jamaican) mother and a white father. 

The narrator's family is intact, both parents present and caring. Her father is the primary caretaker of the home while her mother pursues her education and supports the causes about which she is passionate.

Tracey's family is a mess. Her father is not present in the household, at least not on a regular basis. He makes occasional visits and Tracey adores him and constructs an entire fantasy life for him as a back-up dancer for Michael Jackson. In her story, his being on constant tour with Michael is the reason he's never home. In truth, he is in and out of prison, plus he has a whole other family in another part of town. Her mother dotes on Tracey and is particularly proud of her dance talent. She sees it as the girl's ticket out of poverty.

Eventually, Tracey does get some professional dancing jobs, while the narrator goes on to college at her parents' insistence. In her early twenties, she goes to work for a company that seems modeled on MTV and there she comes to the attention of rock superstar Aimee.

Aimee hires her as a personal assistant and she spends the next nine years in Aimee's orbit, flying around the world on tour with her and easing her passage through life. When Aimee becomes obsessed with West Africa and wants to establish a school for girls there, the narrator spends a lot of time there with the villagers. She comes to admire them, but never really seems to understand them.

Much of this story, on its surface, seems torn from Entertainment Weekly headlines; the superstar superficially obsessed with Africa, building schools, adopting African children, etc. But Zadie Smith is only using that superstructure as a broad outline. She is interested in what lies beneath.

Smith writes brilliantly about modern culture and about female friendship, identity, and family. All of this medley is sifted through timeless themes of power and powerlessness, misunderstanding and crass manipulation of others, and the dichotomies between third world values and values of what we are pleased to call the "developed" world. It is a heady mix that makes for a huge and powerful novel.

Although she raises many issues in her narrative, Smith does not necessarily provide us with the answers. In the end, her narrator, not a particularly likable person, has to acknowledge, as the mother she has battled with lies dying, that even though she is in her early thirties she has not grown into a fully realized and admirable human being. Cut loose from her ties to Aimee, she is adrift in the world with little idea of where to find a mooring.  

I loved this book. The story has such energy and is so deeply human. It reminds us once again that we can never truly grow away from our roots. Of course it helps that Zadie Smith is such a brilliant writer.

My rating: 5 of 5 stars