Like Romeo and Juliet, The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak is about teenage lovers whose families hate each other. He is Greek and she is Turkish, and they live on the divided island of Cyprus in the 1970’s, a time of war between the two cultures.
He is forced by his family to leave the island and she, having nowhere to go, stays. He suffers the alienation of the immigrant and she, the devastation of war. How they find one another and reconcile with the past are the actions that drive this straightforward plot.
In between each chapter is a small exposition by a fig tree. Yes, a tree. If you are surprised that the fig tree talks to us (and it has plenty to say) you would benefit from Shafak’s ideas about the oneness of life and the intelligence of non-human beings. This charming device echoes, very appropriately, the chorus in a Greek play that comments on the issues raised by the action on stage. It is also a symbol as its original happiness, then disease and death, and finally rebirth from a cutting reflect what is happening to the people.
Shafak is interested in several moral issues, many of which can be grouped around the long-term damage caused by war, long after the fighting is finished, both to people and the environment. She wonders if genetic memory exists – in plants, animals and humans. This was an easy-to-read story with provocative ideas, but I think the author brought up too many subjects and would have done better to focus on one or two.
Olga Dies Dreaming, an unusual title, is appropriate for this debut novel by Xochitl Gonzalez. Likeable, lively, and outspoken, Olga is a swank wedding planner for New York’s upper crust.
We meet her when she is hustling some of her client’s super expensive no-lint napkins for her own cousin’s wedding, a skill recently learned from the Russian mafia.
Although Olga plans weddings, her own love life has stalled, and she is still single at 40 – until she meets Matteo at the local bar. He is a bit seedy looking, but comes from her Puerto Rican neighborhood, and despite wearing socks with sandals, there is a certain something about him.
Olga’s brother Prieto, a closeted gay politician, does his best for the old neighborhood until a pair of powerful developers discover his secret. Because he tries to do the right thing, he is accused of having kindergarten ethics, a term that introduces one of the main subjects of the novel.
Brother and sister are especially close. They lost their father to AIDS, and their mother, a revolutionary dedicated to Puerto Rican independence, left them with their abuelita while she went off rabble rousing. Like Trees, this book has a chorus, in the form of the missing mother who reappears by writing untraceable letters to her adult children commenting on their choices. The contrast between their current posh lifestyles and their revolutionary, idealistic upbringing builds to a climax when Hurricane Maria barrels into Puerto Rico and their mother storms back into their lives.
The novel’s title comes from the poem, “Puerto Rican Obituary” by Pedro Pietri. “Juan, Miguel, Milagros, Olga, Manuel All Died yesterday…waiting for the garden of eden to open up again under a new management…Olga died waiting for a five dollar raise…dreaming of real jewelry…” Not too long, easy to understand, and very powerful, the whole poem is easily found online.
I’ve come late to the party with Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. Written more than thirty years ago, it is a famous best seller which has sold more than 27 million copies.
Follett makes the building of a twelfth century cathedral into a fast-paced thriller. The prior of an insignificant church in England wants to build something magnificent for the glory of God. A master builder, desperate to feed his starving family, is looking for work. Jealous church officials connive for power. Civil war wages when the heir to the crown dies and greedy local officials force control with knights and swords. There are heroes and heroines and the devil incarnate.
The architectural design and structure of the church are often illustrated as the story progresses. The details of everyday life for peasants, monks, lords and bishops are vivid and well researched. We learn what they wear, how their houses are built, and what they eat. “They ate vegetable pottage, baked fish with pepper and ginger, a variety of ducks…posset to drink, made of ale, eggs, milk, and nutmeg.”
But this is a book that is obsessed with blood, sex and violence. It both starts and ends with a hanging, told in colorful gruesome detail. The heroine’s large breasts are described repeatedly. Her rape is lingered over. The book wallows in swords, slaughter and spurting blood. The mood is often ominous and fearful.
If this is typical of the thriller genre, I am not a fan. Give me a nice cozy murder mystery where violence is a one-time thing often off stage, and the emphasis is on the puzzle of solving the crime. In Pillars, lively action, sympathetic characters, and the details of medieval life are outweighed and spoiled by the repeated scenes of violence.
Hidden Talents was a lively event in the gazebo of our over-55 neighborhood. Illustrating the “And More” part of Old Ladies Read and More were old ladies – and old men – showing off their skills.
We all enjoyed learning about the painters, quilters, writers, gardeners, craftspeople – even a musician – among us. And the bakers brought cookies.
Great variety of books described here, and I thank you for that. I want to read the one featuring a fig tree which gives lectures to humans! No doubt we can use some lectures from the trees.
I loved the trees book and you did a super job of explaining with tantalizing details
Another of your concise and tantalizing descriptions of these books.
I have read other articles about plant communication. My brother has ben telling me about trees ‘talking to each other’ trough mycelium systems in mushrooms. I will put this book on my list–thank you! Enjoyed our discussion this morning. I hope this has been a wonderful day for you.