Bang

Bang is another book, similar to Tyrell, about life in the " 'hood." Mann lives in a neighborhood where gunfire and drug traffic is normal, and two years before the story opened his little brother Jason is accidentally killed by passersby who are shooting at each other. After that, Mann refuses to go on his front porch again and tells his mother that the blood is still there , even though it has been cleaned up. Mann obviously is depressed and feeling guilty about Jason's death and needs professional help.

Instead, Mann's father tells him to be a "man" and not a "little boy." Mann says that "boys ain't men yet." Mann's friend Kee-lee is more support for Mann than his mom and dad are, but even Kee-lee is not the best example, buying into the drug, alcohol, and gun culture of the hood that Mann first tries to stay away from.

Even though Bang is a short book and did not take me long to read, a lot happened in the book. Also, although Bang had a somewhat happier ending than Tyrell, I really have a lot of misgivings about putting it on the shelves. Yes, it is realistic, but also quite gruesome and horrifying in its detail. Coach H., an African-American teacher who cares a lot about showing kids in poverty that there is a better way out than violence and drugs and also has the same concern that I do that there is a need for good YA novels for the African-American audience, is reading it for me over the break. I will take his opinion into consideration before putting the book out for the masses.

The Red Hat Club

I finished The Red Hat Club last night, and I really enjoyed it. The book is about 5 women who have been friends since girlhood. The book's main story line is the present in which the women are there for each other in the midst of divorces, affairs, money problems, and other ups and downs of adult life. However, I also enjoyed the chapters that "flashback" into the early lives of the ladies, showing how they became friends and how they overcame adversities even back in "the day." They all became friends by being in the exclusive "Mademoiselle" club, and then remained friends throughout their adult lives. The climax of the book is an elegant reunion of Mademoiselles which holds quite a few surprises for the ladies.

I liked the book and recommend it for a light, easy read.

The Chocolate War

The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier is a classic YA novel that has been around since the sixties. I've been meaning to read it for a long time and finally got around to it. Ironically, one of the English teachers came in and saw me reading it and asked me about it. It seems her fifth grade son had checked it out and asked his mom what the word "bastard" meant.

The story is pretty good. It is set in an all-male Catholic high school. A group of boys within the school who call themselves "The Vigils" are sort of the exclusive clique that everybody wants to join. A few kids are picked every year to join The Vigils and must complete initiation.

Every year the school has a huge chocolate sale, and this year the boys are pressured to sell double what they sold the year before. As part of his Vigil initiation, Jerry has to refuse to sell the chocolates. The story takes off from there, and I really liked it.

As for language, bastard was the worst word in there, and the talk is realistic. However, there are several references to masturbation (one boy buys a Playboy magazine, for example), which I thought not appropriate for elementary students. I think it is fine for high school reading, but not for any lower. I called the librarian at the fourth and fifth grade school and found out that the book had come from the AR cart in his teacher's room, not the library. The librarian quietly talked to the teacher and she removed the book from the cart. She had no idea of the content. Much like I received Tyrell (see entry below), she had gotten The Chocolate War in a group of AR books. Luckily, she is pretty sure that the English teacher's kid is the only one who had read it, and his mom is not the type to make a stink about it.

I do recommend this book for ninth grade and up, and I really liked it.

Tyrell

I read Tyrell, one of the books that I had received in a books for teen readers assortment that I got from BMI. I liked the book, but I have a lot of misgivings about having it in my library. Tyrell is a fifteen-year-old whose father is in prison, and he and his mother and little brother have just been put into the homeless system in New York City. His mother is sorry, not even trying to work, and it is up to Tyrell to try to scrounge money and food for them. He also takes care of Troy, the ten-year-old, most of the time. Tyrell has a girlfriend, Novisha, but meets another girl, Jasmine, at the "roach motel" where the homeless people are "temporarily" housed. I think that Tyrell is very realistic and I liked the book.

However, I'm not sure if I will put it on my shelves for several reasons. First of all, the language is pretty raw. It is written in the first person, so it is how Tyrell talks. Profanity is on every page, and I know that is realistic. Also, his grammar is horrible; I know that is realistic also, but because the book is in the first person, there is no good grammar anywhere in the book.

Second, as you can imagine, is the sex. It is not explicit at all, but it is there. Tyrell does not have sex with either Novisha or Jasmine in the course of the story, but the references are prolific and the making out that they do is pretty advanced, to put it mildly.

The third misgiving I have is the drugs. Tyrell smokes "weed," but only when he is given it. Remember, he has no money. He also drinks beer; again only when someone gives it to him.

Tyrell does have some redeeming qualities, however. He tries to provide for Troy and be a parent figure to him. He talks to Troy's teacher and finds out that Troy does not have to be in special education (his mother wants him there just to get a check). He knows that he can sell drugs to make some money and get himself and his family out of the situation that they are in, but he does not do it. He pressures Novisha to sleep with him, but does not dump her when she refuses. Also, he does not sleep with Jasmine when she presents herself to him and remains faithful to Novisha.

I asked one of the English teachers to read Tyrell and tell me what she thinks. I'm just not sure if I want it on the shelves. I will post what I decide later.

For Whom the Bell Tolls

I rented the movie on my Netflix and watched it last night. I thought that it was great adaptation of the novel. Ingrid Bergman and Gary Cooper manage to be very sexy without the blatant sex in today's movies. Gary Cooper is wonderful as Jordan, and the final scene is very moving. I know that it was done in those days to put Caucasian actors in minority roles, but I just did not like seeing Ingrid as the Mexican Maria. She played the part well; she just did not look it. I am reminded of Orson Welles playing Othello. Couldn't the movie producers see back then how ridiculous is would look? Oh, well; at least we have learned from the past.

I did like the movie and highly recommend it.

Jayber Crow

Russell has been wanting me to read Wendell Berry for a long time, so I finally did. I read most of Jayber Crow while in the hospital with David. I really liked it. It reminded me of the Mitford books, Willie Morris, and Eudora Welty all rolled into one. As a matter of fact, one of the parallels that I was talking to Russell about this morning was "Thy will be done." Father Tim and Cynthia call this the "prayer that never fails" in the Mitford novels. Jaybe calls it the prayer that scares him to death. How true are both!!

I liked the portrait of the townspeople of Port William; they are all typical country, Southern folks whom I can easily picture and imagine the way Berry describes them. Jayber, as the narrator of the novel, is a wonderful character who manages to tell the reader a lot about himself as he tells about the people that he knows and the lives of those with whom he interacts. As the town barber, Jayber is not only a participant in much of the action, but also an omniscient narrator of the plot. Berry even manages to cover a pet topic, the mechanization of farming and the death of the small farmer, without being heavy-handed or preachy. This was a unique, wonderful story which I highly recommend. I will definitely read some more of Berry when I can.

As a side note, David is home from the hospital, out of pain, and doing well.

Reflections again

I forgot today was my birthday. I remembered after I got in the tub this morning, then forgot again after I went to work. When Russell called, I remembered again. Is this the true sign of old age? I love birthdays, mine and others, and we have always made a big deal out of them. But this year seems kind of anti climatic. Is it because of the recent engagement and the excitement there, or because of the surgery David faces tomorrow and the tension there?

Well, I guess that is doesn't matter. What matters is that I did finally remember it and that I am grateful for another year after having cancer at age 42. I am well; my family is well; my son is getting married to a sweetheart of a girl; my husband will be out of pain soon; there are so many other blessings that I could list.

I got several phone calls today to wish me happy birthday-Russell, Paula, Sharon, and Jennie. That means so much to me. And everyone has wished David well also and says they are praying for him.

As I enter my last year of my forties, I feel wonderful to be where I am in life and hope for at least 49 more years!

P.S. Johnette, if you're reading this, please complete your profile!

For Whom the Bell Tolls

For Whom the Bell Tolls is not really my kind of book, normally. I am not a big Hemingway fan nor am I a fan of war stories. However, in my quest to read some classics that I had never read before, I picked it up a few weeks ago, and it has taken me a while to get it read. I had a little trouble with the language, but mostly it took me a long time to read it because it is not a book that is easy to stop and start. Reading a chapter or two at night (the way I normally read books) is not a good way to read this one. It is not easy reading and therefore hard to constantly pick up and down without losing some of the understanding. I was at Russell's a couple of weekends ago, and I was able to read for several long blocks of time. During those periods, I understood the book better, enjoyed it more, and wanted to keep reading to find out what happened. But when I got back home and to my old method of reading, I once again had trouble picking it up at night and lost some of my interest.

That being explained, I did like the book, although I did not love the book. I liked the love story of Roberto and Maria, and I really wanted to know if they would stay together. I wanted to know if Robert and friends were really going to blow up the bridge or not. I did not particularly like the way the book ended, but was not surprised at it. I have to admit that the ending, forshadowing Robert's death, was true to the story and answered for me who "thee" is. ("Ask not for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee" is a rough approximation of John Donne's poem.) Of course there are several other characters for whom the bell tolled!

This is what I found most perplexing about the book: there is a class set of them in the library! Why was this book with its obvious sex scenes (not explicit, but pretty close!) ever assigned to high school students? I was sickened when Maria describes her rape and amazed that a class of high school kids were ever assigned this book. Maybe I am too old-fashioned, but I could just foresee a lot of parent complaints and I personally would not have wanted my child to read this when he was a teenager. Don't worry; I never would have complained about it or not let him read it if he had been assigned it or wanted to read it on his own. I'm just saying that I would not have liked it.

I will keep a few of these books for general check out, but discard the rest of them. It was a good story, and I will be watching the movie soon and will post again.