August 13, 2019

Summer a time for reading indulgence

Summer is often thought of as a time to indulge oneself in activities that are not typically seen as “productive”: traveling, sleeping in, reading to excess. (I would argue that all of these are productive activities.) And many folks have their pile of books for “summer reading.” You know, the romances, the mysteries, the stories that we enjoy but rarely remember much of.

And part of the fun of summer reading is sharing with our friends the titles and summaries of what we’re reading. So, friends, here is some of my summer reading.

Last week’s read

Last week I finished Fauna and Family (1978) by Gerald Durrell. Those of you who enjoy Masterpiece on PBS will recognize the name from the series The Durrells in Corfu. Fauna and Family (originally published under the title The Garden of the Gods) is the final installment of the Corfu Trilogy, which recounts the Durrell family’s five years living on Corfu, a Greek island, before WWII.

Ten-year-old Gerald spends his days observing, studying, and collecting specimens of insects, birds, reptiles and mammals that he finds on the island. The book alternates between wonderfully lyrical passages describing the natural beauty of the island and the author’s fascination with the fauna around him, and the comical hijinks of his quirky mother and siblings.

A quick sample: That summer was a particularly rich one; it seemed as if the sun had drawn up a special bounty from the island, for never had we had such an abundance of fruit and flowers, never had the sea been so warm and filled with fish, never had so many birds reared their young, or butterflies and other insects hatched and shimmered across the countryside. (p 139)

If you like travel, nature, or laughing, you will enjoy this series. The first two books are My Family and Other Animals (1956), and Birds, Beasts, and Relatives (1969). The first book tends to focus more on Durrell’s study of nature than the other two, but there are some hilarious scenes also.

This week’s read

One of my all-time favorite books is a memoir by Mary Karr titled The Liar’s Club (1995) about her tumultuous childhood in East Texas in a dysfunctional family, focusing on that time her mother shot her father. It is both heartbreaking and funny. Karr’s style and the non-linear structure keep the reader on the edge of her seat. I read this book about 25 years ago on the recommendation of a friend.

I’ve been thinking about this book lately and went looking for it at a used book store so that I could reread it. I didn’t find it, but I did find another of Karr’s memoirs, Cherry (2001), which picks up where The Liar’s Club leaves off. In the prologue, we see 17-year-old Mary getting ready to leave home, and East Texas, for Los Angeles, and the author teases us with suggestions of the deaths, arrests, and overdoses that lead up to her escape from aptly named Leechfield. Karr’s poetic style keeps the reader engaged, and will evoke memories of childhood and adolescence (both the good and the bad) for those of us who grew up in the 60s and 70s.

Book club

Téa Obreht’s new book, Inland, was released Aug. 13. Inland is set in 19th century Arizona Territory. My book club has selected it for our next meeting. One of the first books we read together was Obreht’s The Tigers Wife (2011), and it remains one of my favorites. If you’re not familiar with magical realism, it is a melding of the real and the fantastical, and Obreht’s books are an excellent place to explore the genre. The Tiger’s Wife won the 2011 Orange Prize for Fiction and was a finalist for the National Book Award. And Newsday listed Inland in its “Best Summer Books of 2019.” I am starting it now.

 

No comments:

Post a Comment

Verghese's long-awaited second novel is impossible not to love

  Abraham Verghese’s new novel, “The Covenant of Water,” is epic and engrossing. This is the book that fans of “Cutting for Stone” have been...