Sunday, May 23, 2010

A Banquet for Hungry Ghosts-- Ying Chang Compestine



I succumbed to A Banquet for Hungry Ghosts for its unique exploration of historical and contemporary China and eerie supernatural theme. It seems sort of wrongly creepy to also have recipes in the book, but at the same time a fitting tribute to the traditional Chinese means of feeding of those who return from the afterlife.

From Compestine's interview in the San Francisco Gate:
"When I was growing up during the Cultural Revolution, I would fantasize that ghosts would eat up all the kids who picked on me at school and the people who put my father in jail," she recalls. "I wished a ghost would take revenge on them, that there was this invisible power that could come and help me. Then one night last year, I read a story about mistreated mental patients in China, and I thought, who would help them? Then I thought: the ghosts, naturally."
The stories are brief with unexpected developments (and this coming from someone who was OBSESSED with traditional ghost stories as a kid), touching on everything from the building of the Great Wall and the politics of powerful families, to organ donation and corruption in monasteries.

The endnotes at the end of each story give a nice context, adding a bit of substance to what is otherwise just ghosty fun. I won't lie, the recipes make for a weird fusion (e.g. one of the tofu recipes comes a story about a lobotomizing surgeon eating live monkey brains), but it's a great way to present these themes to reluctant readers in small, ahem... bites.

(Also, the pictures are very scary!)

Friday, May 14, 2010

Voices-- Ursula K. Le Guin


People, this blog project is so cool in that it's inspired so many conversations with friends (old and new), and resulted in so many interesting recommendations. About 20 minutes after meeting K, who does a stint at this neat place, we had an animated conversation about young adult novels and she sent me home with some books and a list. K, you are awesome!

Voices represents my first project foray into fantasy. I have never been much of a fantasy reader, but Le Guin is much-heralded in the literary field and in my homeland (the beautiful Pacific Northwest), so it was a fitting choice. The work is interwoven with the politics of oppression, the preservation of culture, and the power of storytelling-- all very compelling.

The second book in the Annals of the Western Shore series is narrated by Memer, a "siege brat" and orphan who grows up in the care and tutelage of the Waylord. Under Ald occupation, a monotheistic religion is imposed in the city of Ansul and all written literature ordered destroyed, but the Waylord's house has tended alters and a secret library where people have brought their books for safekeeping. Memer struggles with her rage against the occupiers and her destiny as a reader; things come to a head with the arrival of storyteller Orrec and the rebirth of a collective consciousness among the people of Ansul.

I tend to struggle with fantasy, mixing up the fictional names of people and places, and missing important details in magical concepts. Before I realized it, I was in the thick of the plot in Voices-- not fully understanding it, but fully wrapped up in the action. Reviews indicate that it is not necessary to read Gifts (the first book in the series) to appreciate Voices, but perhaps I will in order to deepen my appreciation for the universe Le Guin has created.

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Wintergirls-- Laurie Halse Anderson



I was introduced to Laurie Halse Anderson's writing when I read her incredible novel Speak in a college young adult literature class. I recently found Wintergirls at the library, read the back, and lowered the bar because the plot description sounded so overdramatic... but man. Anderson's prose takes no prisoners, and this book does not disappoint.

Lia is a high school senior. She has divorced and distant parents, an eating disorder, and now a dead best friend. She and Cassie knew each other since they were little, and supported each other in everything, including the race to the bottom. Lia and Cassie hadn't spoken to each other in weeks when Lia got a late-night phone call. She turned off her phone, and in the morning she sees that Cassie called her 33 times. By that time, Lia has already learned that Cassie is dead.

Although we can assume why Cassie died, following Lia's thought process is the true horror. Even when she can be honest about the role she played in Cassie's life (revealing of relationships between teenage girls, sorry to say), even when she has moments of clarity about the destructiveness of her anorexia, she cannot normalize her relationship with food or her weight. Anderson offers her reader incredible insight, but this book is not for the faint of heart.