Celestial Bodies by Jokha Alharthi: A review

This book was the winner of the Man Booker International Prize last year. The writer is Omani and is the first female Omani writer to be translated into English and the first from the Arabian Gulf to win this prize. She is also - as best I can recall - the first Omani writer I have read.

I should also mention that Marilyn Booth translated the book from Arabic. Had I not known that it was a translation, I could not have discerned it so smoothly did the narrative flow.

And that is not to say that I did not have some problems with the narrative. There is a huge number of characters in this story and most of their stories are told by an omniscient third party narrator, but two of the characters speak in first-person narratives. I found the switch back and forth a bit confusing, and it made the story harder to follow and invest in. Plus some characters are mentioned tangentially and never heard of again. Nevertheless, overall this story provides extraordinary insight into a society that seems incredibly foreign and that is a value in itself.

Alharthi structures her tale around the lives of three sisters from the village of al-Awafi in Oman. She shows how the decisions of each of the sisters to accept or not accept the marriages that are arranged for them by their parents reverberate throughout their lives and the lives of others in the village.

Mayya, the oldest of the three, spends her days at her beloved sewing machine creating things from fabric. A young man named Ali bin Khallaf catches her eye and she becomes infatuated. He is her idealized love and she dreams of a life with him. But her parents arrange a marriage to a man called Abdallah, who, in fact, loves her. She bows to tradition and marries him.

The second sister, Asma, a lover of books and reading, also feels a sense of duty to accept the man selected for her by her parents. She is keen to have children and is not too concerned about who will father them as long as he is respectable and accepted by her society.

The third sister is the beautiful Khwala who is betrothed to a cousin who has emigrated to Canada. Years have passed and there is no word from him about when he will return. In fact, there is no word from him, period. Her parents decide to arrange another marriage for her, but Khwala is insistent. Her betrothed had promised to return and she is confident that he will. She is prepared to wait for as long as it takes and when his money finally runs out, he does return. Their marriage turns out to be a disaster.

Among the mindboggling plethora of characters that appear here in addition to the daughters, their parents, husbands, and children, the one that stands out for me is Zarifa, a woman who began life as a slave. Through her story, we see the transition of Omani society from a medieval slave-owning nation to a (somewhat) more modern 21st-century culture. Even though she makes the transition to "freedom", she continues as a servant in the household of her former owner and as his mistress. She was also the caretaker of his young son as he was growing up. She is a multi-layered, complicated character whose relationship to some of the other characters helps to give the story its structure.

The narration flows in a non-linear fashion, back and forth through time and results in a picture of a society in transition as experienced through the lives of three generations of this particular family. Although it was not an altogether easy read, I found it fascinating and informative.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars    

Poetry Sunday: January by John Updike

In the northern hemisphere, we are now in the dead of winter, even as many in the southern hemisphere scorch under unbearable heat waves.

John Updike, of course, was a New Englander, and the winter he describes in this short poem is a New England winter. It might still be accurate, although I doubt there are any milk bottles bursting outside the door!
  
January

by John Updike

The days are short,
The sun a spark,
Hung thin between
The dark and dark.

Fat snowy footsteps
Track the floor.
Milk bottles burst
Outside the door.

The river is
A frozen place
Held still beneath
The trees of lace.

The sky is low.
The wind is gray.
The radiator
Purrs all day.

This week in birds - #384

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

A Red-bellied Woodpecker visits my suet feeder.

*~*~*~*

Thousands of Australians have been forced to flee their homes because of the wildfires raging there. As many took refuge on the shore, the week saw the last day of the warmest decade on record in the country. Nine people and countless animals have died as a result of the fires and hundreds of properties have been destroyed. 

*~*~*~*

A new interpretation by the current administration of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act means that as of now, companies are no longer subject to prosecution or fines even after a disaster like the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010 that destroyed or injured about one million birds and for which BP paid $100 million in fines. It essentially ends protections for migratory birds. Moreover, the Interior Department is planning to redefine "habitat" in a way that will make it more difficult to protect endangered species. (Truly, the damage that this administration has done to our environment is appalling and it is not at all certain that it can all be repaired.)

*~*~*~*

As the climate continues to warm, many species of birds that nest in North America are eschewing the long and hazardous fall migration to Central and South America. This includes many Ruby-throated Hummingbirds that are now choosing to winter in the Carolinas and further south along the Gulf Coast.Credit...

*~*~*~*

Interior Secretary David Bernhardt on Tuesday extended the tenure of William Perry Pendley as acting head of the Bureau of Land Management, without a presidential nomination to the post. Pendley has been a stalwart supporter of selling or opening up federal lands to drilling, mining, and other commercial use. The position of BLM director has been left empty for the entire tenure of this administration.

*~*~*~*

More than 400 new species previously unknown to science have been discovered in the past year by experts at the Natural History Museum in London. The new species include lichen, marsupials, snakes, long-extinct dinosaurs, and 171 beetles, one of which was named in honor of the teenage environmental activist Greta Thunberg.

*~*~*~*

The lone male wolf which took up residence in Belgium in August 2018 may have found a new mate. A female wolf has been observed in the area recently.

*~*~*~*

Two rare Spoon-billed Sandpiper chicks have been hatched in a captive breeding program in Britain. So far, the program has not been able to successfully return captive-bred birds to the wild.

*~*~*~*

Coyotes have been busily carving out new niches in the ecosystem for some time now, and one place they have found to make themselves at home is Donald Trump's golf course in New York City.

*~*~*~*

Although the heat wave being experienced in Australia this year has been nothing short of apocalyptic, conditions in the ocean surrounding the continent/nation are, if anything, worse.

*~*~*~*

The country has a new national park, its 62nd. It is the White Sands National Monument in southern New Mexico, now designated as White Sands National Park.

*~*~*~*

Golden Eagles are birds of the West and Canada, but estimates are that about 5,000 of the birds spend their winters east of the Mississippi River. 

*~*~*~*

So far the plastics industry has been very successful in beating back all attempts to regulate it and limit its production of more plastic products or certain types of plastic products.

*~*~*~*

The Environmental Protection Agency is pushing ahead with its plans to roll back environmental regulations despite sharp criticism from its panel of scientific advisers. The changes would weaken standards that govern waterways and wetlands across the country, as well as those that dictate gas mileage for U.S. automobiles. Another change would restrict the kinds of scientific studies that can be used when writing new environmental regulations, while a fourth would change how the EPA calculates the benefits of limiting air pollutants from coal-fired power plants.

*~*~*~*

Rather than developing new roots, conifers appear to rely upon their existing root systems during times of drought.

*~*~*~*

A ballot initiative in Colorado calls for the restoration of gray wolves to the state. If passed, the state would develop a plan for reintroducing the wolves to western Colorado by 2023.

*~*~*~*

Costa Rica has a plan to achieve zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. A key component of the plan is reforestation. Meanwhile, in Germany, fares for long-distance rail travel are being reduced to help encourage people to take trains rather than flying which creates more pollution. 

A Taste for Vengeance by Martin Walker: A review

I'm still catching up with reviews of books read in the latter part of December. This is actually the last book that I read in 2019, something to entertain in the quiet moments as the holidays wound down.

In this eleventh in the Bruno, Chief of Police series, Bruno has received a promotion. He is no longer only the chief of police for the little town of St. Denis, he now has responsibility for a wide range of territory in the Dordogne region of France which encompasses two other towns with current police with whom he must build a relationship. Bruno, who thoroughly enjoys being the chief in St. Denis and being a large fish in a small pond, is not at all sure he likes the idea of his enhanced authority and responsibility. 

Moreover, his efforts to work with the policeman in one of the new towns under his jurisdiction prove problematic when it turns out the man seems to spend most of his day drinking. He's not someone on whom Bruno can rely.

Fortunately, the head policewoman in the other town seems very proficient. She is definitely a keeper.

Bruno learns all of this as he works with them in the investigation of a double murder. An Englishwoman who was slated to attend the cooking school run by his friends, Pamela and Miranda, failed to turn up and efforts to reach her are unsuccessful. Then, her body is discovered in a local farmhouse. She had been stabbed once. The body of the owner of the house is found hanging from a tree in the woods nearby. A suicide note is found. It appears to be a murder/suicide.

But, of course, it is not that simple.

The male victim turns out to be an Irishman hated by the remnants of the IRA who have never resigned themselves to a peaceful outcome of "The Troubles". They instead continue to seek vengeance from those they consider to be their enemies. And that, it seems has been the case in the instance of the two dead bodies.

Because of the international terrorism connection, the national police of France and of the European Union become involved, which allows Bruno's former lover, Isabelle, to put in an appearance. One begins to wonder, is this woman going to continue dipping in and out of his life forever even though it is obvious the relationship is going nowhere? It seems as though Walker thinks, "Okay, time for a little sex to liven things up and provide an interlude!" And so, he brings on Isabelle. I confess to being more than a little tired of her.

The best thing about this book, as in all the series, is the description of the culture, the food, wine, history, and archaeology of the Dordogne region. But there was actually less of that in this one than in most of the books and, for that reason, it was not quite as enjoyable.  

My rating: 3 of 5 stars   

Blood from a Stone by Donna Leon: A review

Corruption is rampant in Donna Leon's Venice. Venetians might have invented quid pro quo. It seems impossible to get anything done there without one hand washing the other, so to speak. 

That holds true for the police as well. That is the milieu in which Commissario Guido Brunetti must operate. It's what he must deal with to extract information, investigate crimes, and achieve justice for the victims. In fact, in these dark stories, there is very little justice achieved.

Leon always manages to bring a bit of current-day politics into her tales which contributes to their feeling of verisimilitude. In this case, her reference is to refugees and immigrants from Africa that are coming into Italy, some legally and some illegally. Some of the men work as street vendors. They buy knock-off handbags and then resell them to customers on the streets after shops are closed for the day. The community is tolerant toward them. They seem harmless and don't cause any trouble.

Then one of the men is assassinated while standing next to his wares and in the company of his fellow vendors. The time is just before Christmas and the streets are crowded but no one seems to have seen clearly what happened. Two American tourists were standing nearby and saw two men who, in retrospect, were clearly the assassins, but they are not able to give good descriptions.

Brunetti and his sidekick Vianelli investigate and, as usual, are aided by the computer-savvy Signorina Elettra. (Computers are still a mystery to Brunetti in this book first published in 2005. At some point, he's going to have to get a clue!) But soon Brunetti is warned off the case by his boss. No reason is given but Brunetti understands the exigencies of Venetian politics and how they affect the police. Especially his very politically sensitive boss.

Of course, he continues his investigation on the down-low and when he and Vianelli go to the man's apartment to search it, in a container of salt they find a hundred or more diamonds. Brunetti calls on outside experts to try to determine where the diamonds are from and learns that they are likely "blood diamonds". What to do with them?

Leon attempts to address a number of social issues in this one, including treatment of refugees and immigrants, incipient racism in Italian society, the disruptions to society as a result of a flood of immigrants from Africa, as well as the everyday tension between the honest cops and the corruption in government which they have to navigate. It's a lot to try to cover. Maybe too much. Sadly, I felt that the problems she was describing were very familiar because they have their counterparts in current American society.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars  

  

Harbour Street by Ann Cleeves: A review

I'm finishing up my reading year of 2019 by visiting some of the series that I've been following. This was the year that I started reading the Ann Cleeves Vera Stanhope Mysteries and I've now reached the sixth in the series, published in 2014.

The quality of the writing, plotting, and character development continue to be exceptional for a mystery series. Each book is different and does not follow any particular formula. I am always surprised by the identity of the perpetrator and that was true with Harbour Street, as well. That's true even though I watched and enjoyed the BBC series based on the books.

The action in this book takes place around Christmastime and begins with Vera's sergeant, Joe Ashworth, and his young daughter, Jessie, traveling on the Metro after a trip into town. The train is extremely crowded and loud with holiday shoppers and revelers. When the train is stopped due to bad weather ahead and all the passengers exit to be picked up by buses, Jessie notices that one woman has not left her seat and appears to be asleep. She goes back on the train to wake her and that's how they discover she's dead. She had been stabbed. Joe had not seen anything.

The elegant older woman who had been killed had lived in the town of Mardle in a house on Harbour Street. Vera and Joe and their team investigate and soon discover that the woman had a colorful history that somewhat belied her current appearance. Just days later, a second woman is murdered, and the two victims had known each other and were connected through their association with a women's shelter. Surely the two murders are related, but how? That is what Vera and the team must discover.

As usual, we are privy to Vera's thoughts as she sorts through the clues and what is known about the victims and those associated with them on Harbour Street. Her thoughts also make the associations between the victims' lives and her own solitary and often lonely existence. She is middle-aged, overweight, with an unlovely face, and few social graces. She has no family except her investigative team. Joe is the person closest to her. He is like a surrogate son. He understands her and admires her as the best detective he's ever met and he makes allowances for her failings. It's a prickly relationship but it works for them and for the reader. 

Cleeves is an excellent writer who is able to portray some of the most wretched characters who inhabit these stories with empathy and grace. Moreover, her depictions of the Northumberland countryside and the way of life there are vivid and they ring true. Finishing up the book, I feel as though I've been there and I look forward to further visits in the coming year.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars 

Underland by Robert Macfarlane: A review

Robert Macfarlane is an acclaimed English Nature writer, winner of numerous awards for his intelligent and readable books on many subjects related to Nature. His latest book, Underland, certainly continues that string. In it, he takes us on various expeditions deep under the surface of our planet.

I found the descriptions of many of those explorations extremely hard to read. That's no criticism of the writing. In fact, it may be a compliment to the writing. It was so evocative of the dark and tight places that he was visiting that I found it very claustrophobic and oppressive. I have to admit I skimmed quickly through some of those sections.

The author visits a great variety of such underground features from sinkholes in Slovenia to a nuclear-waste containment site in Finland and sea caves in Norway. His explorations in Greenland document the effects of global warming, including the fact that some of the things that are being brought to the surface by melting ice are detrimental to the environment and to human life on the planet. 

One of the most depressing facts encountered by Macfarlane is that everywhere he goes he finds garbage about which he expresses his disgust.

"Among the relics of the Anthropocene, therefore, will be the fallout of our atomic age, the crushed foundations of our cities, the spines of millions of intensively farmed ungulates, and the faint outlines of some of the billions of plastic bottles we produce each year – the strata that contain them precisely dateable with reference to the product-design archives of multinationals. Philip Larkin famously proposed that what will survive of us is love. Wrong. What will survive of us is plastic, swine bones and lead-207, the stable isotope at the end of the uranium-235 decay chain."

Occasionally, Macfarlane's prose is a bit over the top, not to say purple, but for the most part, it is exceptional. He is extremely talented in describing scenes, events, and scientific concepts in ways that are easily understandable for laypeople.

My favorite part of the book was the discussion of the underland communication system of trees and other plants. It has long been known that plants do communicate but mostly it has been observed as an above-ground phenomenon. It turns out that there are a lot more complicated communications going on under the surface. Roots of trees, for example, communicate to each other specific information about the state of the tree's health and about the environment. They even are able to provide sustenance to a fellow tree through the root system. And all of this is facilitated with the help of fungi called mycorrhizae. 

“The term ‘mycorrhiza’ is made from the Greek words for ‘fungus’ and ‘root’. It is itself a collaboration or entanglement; and as such a reminder of how language has its own sunken system of roots and hyphae, through which meaning is shared and traded. The relationship between mycorrhizal fungi and the plants they connect is ancient – around 450 million years old – and largely one of mutualism. In the case of the tree–fungi mutualism, the fungi siphon off carbon that has been produced in the form of glucose by the trees during photosynthesis, by means of chlorophyll that the fungi do not possess. In turn, the trees obtain nutrients such as phosphorus and nitrogen that the fungi have acquired from the soil through which they grow, by means of enzymes that the trees lack.”

Fascinating! Macfarlane should write a book just about this subject. I'd certainly read it. 

My rating: 4 of 5 stars