"This is How it Always Is"

   This novel begins with Rosie Walsh and her husband Penn, who have four boys - Roosevelt, Ben, and twins Rigel and Orion.  Four boys!  But Rosie wanted a daughter, since her only sibling, a sister, Poppy, died at ten.

Quote:
"Was she just trying endlessly to make a daughter to fulfill an ancient dream of her sister's, a ten-year-old's dream at that?  Did she believe this daughter would grow up and be, at ten, the little girl she'd lost, Poppy herself, picking up where Poppy had left off, fulfilling all the promise of that stymied, hacked-off, stubbed-out little life?  As long as she kept her womb full, might Poppy, some version of Poppy - some waiting, watchful, wandering Poppy demon- gather up all her errant atoms and come home again?"
    Well, she did have another child, but it was not a daughter- at first.  Rosie and Penn's last child was born a boy, but he wanted to dress like a girl.  The parents were loving and accepting of his wishes and tried to accommodate the challenges, as their son transitioned to a daughter.
   This novel raises many questions that will be interesting to address at the next book club meeting.
   The author explains her interest in such a story in the notes at the end, where she tells of her transgender child.
   What would the author want us to understand from this novel, that is not biographical although based on her experience?
   "So one of the things that I hope is that people who read this book will read it and forget about the transgender issues and just be in the embrace of this family and realize that this family is like all families: They love and they keep secrets from one another and they protect one another and they struggle with how to do that and they have these challenges.  And it's hard, but it isn't scary and it isn't abnormal at all." (Laurie Frankel)

   I appreciated the opportunity to read such a novel.  I enjoyed the family of five children with such permissive parents.  It was a very creative family and fun to read about their life.  However, I struggled with the author's syntax.  Her sentences were often long and confusing.  Was that on purpose, to reflect the chaos in the home?
  This may say more about me, because I realize that modern authors create their own path and do not follow the grammar of the past.

"Charlotte's Web" by E.B.White

book club choice: "Charlotte's Web"
  I love the fact that that one of my book clubs chooses a children's classic every year, along with several adult classics.  I found this book about that very topic: "The Joy of Reading Children's Literature as an Adult".  It was interesting to remember all those wonderful early novels for children, as well as picture books.

  Garth Williams, who wrote the foreword for "Charlotte's Web", admits to not reading this book as a child because the cover made him feel that the book 'guaranteed misery'.
   I agree that the cover is not great for children.  So I searched for other covers.  I found these:

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   I like this cover, since it features Wilbur, who is the main character in the story.



   
  
   The second cover illustrates the power of friendship, one of the themes in the novel. 




   
   The last cover was published after the movie was made.  It is similar to the original but the expressions on the faces of Fern and the animals are much more serene.


   E.B.White (Elwyn Brooks) was a writer for the New Yorker Magazine, as well as the author of children's novels. He wrote "Stuart Little" and "The Trumpet of the Swans".
   Obviously, he enjoyed animals. He gave them interesting characteristics.  He also enjoyed nature and describes the changing of the seasons in lovely detail.

"All that I hope to say in books, all that I ever hope to say, 

is that I love the world". 

 (E.B.White 1899 - 1985)

"Nothing to See Here" by Kevin Wilson

    This book was a gift to me, and I started reading it immediately because I had just finished reading that group of self-help books and wanted something different.
   Well, this is very different!  The premise is quite bizarre.  There are children in the novel who spontaneously combust.  That's right, they burst into flames.

   I was so fascinated, that I listened to an interview with the author, and it put everything into perspective.  The author, Kevin Wilson, has always been obsessed with spontaneous human combustion.  As a child, he felt that he could burst into flames at any time.  He describes the feeling as electric.   He felt that, if he could burst into flames, he could get rid of this 'thing inside him'.  As an adult, he discovered that he had Tourette's Syndrome.
  And so, as an adult, he wrote a book with the theme of human spontaneous combustion, expecting to get the obsession out of his system.  But, no, he continued to write books with this theme.
   His other theme is family- the family you are born into and also the family that you make.  When he had children, he felt a great responsibility to protect them, but also to prepare them for the world.
  This novel is about a young woman who felt unloved and adrift in the world.  When she began caring for these two children who combust when they are agitated, she found purpose and worth.
  This author has a good following of readers.  He does write well and I found myself engrossed in the novel even though I would have appreciated less strong language.

Self-help book, part 4

   "The Power of Now" is the most difficult self-help book that I have read or attempted to read.
  The basis of the book is the fact that there is and always has been only one spiritual teaching, although it comes in many forms.  And often, other things obscure the spiritual essence.
   This may be considered 'New Age', but it is really getting at the root of all world religions.
Quote: "Love, joy and peace are deep states of Being- three aspects of the state of inner connectedness with Being."
  I found the book simple but profound.  It was wonderful to discuss the book in depth with two other family members- each of us in different stages of life.

   I read "A New Earth" eleven years ago.  Perhaps because my brain was younger, I was able to understand it more clearly.  I wrote this review at the time:
In the first chapter, Tolle introduces readers to enlightenment and its natural enemy, the mind.  He points out how we create our own pain and shows how to have a pain-free identity by living fully in the present.  The author shows how to connect to the essence of our Being: "the eternal, every-present One Life beyond the myriad forms of life that are subject to birth and death".

Eckhart Tolle

    I see now how the two books are connected  and each one was appropriate for  my stage of life at the time.
     Keeping focussed on the present is more  difficult as I age, and I appreciate the  reminders and suggestions for ways to stay  present and 'live in the Now'.

   I just watched a lecture by Eckhart Tole where he talked about the importance of laughter.  If you have ever listened to Eckhart, you may appreciate how bizarre that experience was.  He is so droll that it made me laugh!