Bone in the Throat by Anthony Bourdain

Sous chef Tommy Pagano received his job through the financial connection his uncle has made with a restauranteur in New York’s Little Italy. This financial connection, though, is in the form of a loan via the mafia, and Tommy’s Uncle Sally is squeezing more than just a job for his nephew out of the owner, Harvey. He uses the kitchen to carry out a hit on a fellow mafia member, forcing Tommy to decide if he should rat out his uncle or keep quite in order to save a job he loves.

I picked up this book solely because one of my favorite actors is set to star in the film adaption. It’s not something I would normally read nor would I have inter-library loaned it all the way from Texas. But it was a nice step outside my comfort zone and, for more than one reason, reminded me of a favorite television show.

By the time I reached chapter eight, I had come to the realization that this book might be better presented as an audiobook. The dialogue is very specific to the region in which the story is set and not all together easily understood. It’s a rather acquired taste.

I thought the mystery would be a stronger aspect of the novel, but there is no mystery behind the murder. We know who did it. We know how the body was disposed of. I guess, rather, the mystery comes to whether or not Tommy will rat out his uncle and the fate of some of the other characters, particularly the heroin-addicted chef under whom Tommy works.

There were moments when I considered giving up on the book and other moments where I could not stop reading long enough to rejoin my family to watch television together. In the end, if I had to give it a ranking, I would add three stars and call the book good but not great. Will I see the movie? More than likely, yes. I think the actor set to play Tommy would have great fun in the role.

Book Mentioned:

• Bourdain, Anthony. Bone in the Throat. New York: Villard Books, 1995. Print. 290 pgs. ISBN: 0679435522. Source: Library.

Book Cover © Villard Books. Retrieved: May 25, 2013.

Say You Love Me by Johanna Lindsey

Kelsey Langston was left penniless by her parents’ death now finds herself entirely dependent upon the help of her aunt and uncle. However, her uncle manages to lose both his job and his own fortune, and he turns to Kelsey to help save the family. With little time to secure a marriage, Kelsey agrees to her uncle’s idea of selling at auction to become an indentured mistress to the highest bidder in order to secure her younger sister’s honor and future.

Lord Derek Malory is the reluctant winner of the auction, participating only to save Kelsey from a cruel, abusive man. He hides her away from his family out of fear what the scandal might do to the Mallory name, but in-house scandals change the course of his life and the attitude he has towards his relationship with Kelsey.

This was my first novel by Lindsey and, thankfully, I picked up more than one book by her from the library. The plot may seem a little far fetched, but Lindsey manages to craft an interesting yet surprisingly believable romance novel. The pace at which these two fall in love is rather unusual for Regency romance novels  — either the characters fall in love immediately, or their confession of love are the words on the very last page.

I haven’t read the other novels in this series so there were some confusing moments as I attempted to piece together their stories from the little information I was given in this one. At several times, Kelsey disappears from the story in order to allow readers to see the lives of past characters. Completely unnecessary and distracting when you are trying to read this as a standalone novel.

I suppose the most disappointing aspect of the novel was how rushed the revaluation of Kelsey’s circumstances was to the Malory family and her own aunt. The ending was tied up quickly and perhaps not in the most satisfying way as a result. Overall, though, this was an enjoyable read that I finished in a single night.

Book Mentioned:

• Lindsey, Johanna. Say You Love Me. New York: William Morrow and Company, 1996. Print. 343 pgs. ISBN:0688142877. Source: Library.

Book Cover © William Morrow and Company. Retrieved: May 23, 2013.

Pemberley Manor by Kathryn L. Nelson

According to GoodReads, I tried to read this book in June of 2011 and abandoned it. I suppose I forgot that little detail when I requested it off of PaperBackSwap and then packed it as my only reading material for the two flights home. Whoops.

Within the first fifty pages, it was obvious to me as to why I decided to give up on the book in the first place. There are questionable characterizations and glaring mistakes, particularly the fact that Colonel Fitzwilliam is called “James” rather than “Richard” and Elizabeth is an excellent horsewoman. In my head, Darcy is called Darcy by Elizabeth, but Nelson has her calling him Willie/Will. To each their own, I suppose. The frequency at which he cries or Elizabeth collapses into tears, the moment on his and Elizabeth’s honeymoon where that he flees because he might “loose control”, and the conclusion with Georgina’s courtship and the explanation of a new character’s back story were all more difficult points to swallow, but the true struggle came from Nelson’s presentation of Darcy’s parents’ marriage as an unhappy one.

I cannot recall any textual evidence to dispute this claim, but that was never the impression I received from the original novel. Yet Darcy’s mother and her unhappy marriage becomes the centerpoint of this novel, shifting the narrative to a post-marriage sequel to more a prequel set after marriage. In other words, much of the narrative is focused on the life of characters who were not included in the original text and maybe should not have been included in a novel that attempts to continue the original text. Maybe it would have worked better as a prequel than a sequel, although I am not inclined to fully buy Nelson’s portrayal of Lady Anne and her husband.

One thing I can applaud, however, is the style in which Nelson writes. She does manage to faithfully maintain the word choice and descriptions of the scenery as though her novel was written in the same time period as Austen’s. I was rather surprised by this fact given the issues I had with the novel. Makes me wonder if I would enjoy a non-sequel novel by Nelson sit in this time period.

Book Mentioned:

• Nelson, Kathryn L. Pemberley Manor. Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks, 2006. Print. 456 pgs. ISBN: 9781402212857. Source: PaperBackSwap.

Book Cover © Sourcebooks. Retrieved: May 22, 2013.

 

Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston

Jeanne Wakatsuki was seven years old in 1942 when her family was uprooted from their home in southern California and sent to live at Manzanar internment camp — with 10,000 other Japanese-Americans. Detained after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Wakatsuki and her family were forced to live in the camp for three and a half years despite the fact that the Wakastuski children were born in the United States.

Approximately 110,000 people of Japanese ancestry were removed from the West Coast to ten island camps by August 12, 1942 after President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, giving the War Department authority to define military areas in the Western states and to exclude from them anyone who might threaten the war effort. The Supreme Court ruled in December 18, 1944 that loyal citizens cannot be held in detention camps against their will, but Manzanar camp was not officially closed until November 21, 1945 after Japan surrendered. People of Japanese ancestry were not granted the right to become nationalized citizens until June 1952.

Despite how well-read I consider myself to be with issues pertaining to World War II, the Japanese-American internment camps are a little known aspect of history. I cannot say for certain if this time in history is purposefully ignored (although, I wouldn’t be surprised if that is true) or just unknown, but I have never had a history class mention these camps. I, myself, learned about them at a young age but never found a book on them until now.

The childlike innocence infused into this book despite the passage of time underscores how confusing and unimaginable the interment of American citizens by their own government is. The first section of the book explains life leading up to internment, and I shall not forget the imagine of Wakatsuki’s mother throwing her china on the floor rather than selling it to those acting like vultures, trying to purchase expensive goods for insultingly low prices.

The second part details life in the camp — how the barracks were so hastily built they were not fit for inhabitants — and the third part delves into life after the camp was closed – how the racism and bias towards Japanese-Americans did not end with the closure of the camps. This section becomes more of an internal analysis as Wakatsuki Houston explains how this racism had to permeate her own understanding of who she is and how she should behave, particularly that “you are going to be invisible anyway, so why not completely disappear” (pg. 159).

Book Mentioned:

• Houston, Jeanne Wakatsuki and James D. Houston. Farewell to Manzanar. New York: Laurel-Leaf, 2007. Originally published 1973. Print. 222 pgs. ISBN: 9780553272581. Source: Free bin.

Book Cover © Laurel-Leaf. Retrieved: May 13, 2013.

The Wind Done Gone by Alice Randall

In this “unauthorized pardoy”, Randall asks the question: where were the mulatto (mixed race) children of Tara? Thus, we are given the story of an illgeitimate mulatto woman named Cynara (or Cinnamon, or Cindy), the daughter of Planter (the master of the plantation) and Mammy. But Mammy’s love is reserved for Other, the beautiful yet spoiled daughter of Planter and Lady, and Cindy is eventually sold off by Planter without protest from Mammy. She makes her way to Atlanta to become the mistress of a prominent white businessman named R, who has left his wife behind without a damn.

I picked up this book because while I do love Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind, I know it is not without its flaws, particularly when it comes to romanticizing the South and slavery through characters like Mammy. Randall’s short book is in many ways both a prequel and a sequel to Mitchell’s classic, allowing readers to see the dark sides of slavery and the conflicted position in which women like Mammy were placed as it parallels the well-known story of Scarlett O’Hara. It sort of revels in the darkness and shadows of the original story, piecing together stories and suggesting motives for characters who were outright ignored in the original novel. Miss Priss (Prissy) is resentful of Mealy Mouth (Melanie) for having her brother killed, and it is suggested that Garlic (Pork) had something to do with the death of Planter (Gerald).

Some of the suggestions go to far; almost board on hatred for Mitchell’s original tale. And those looking for a conclusion to the story of R(hett) and Other (Scarlett) will be divided based perception of Rhett’s decision to leave Scarlett — justified or vengeful? But that’s not the point of this book, and I think readers would be misguided to believe that it is. The focus is on the forgotten women and men of Tara, on those who break their backs and their hearts creating the world Mitchell seems to mourn in her novel. In that regard, the book is a rather clever read as it attempts to pick apart the flaws of a one-sided presentation of life in the Antebellum South.

Ironically, the downfall of this book is its association with Mitchell’s book, however unauthorized that may be. It could have been an evocative tale about the struggles of being mixed raced before, during, and after the Civil War, and some of that is well-maintained in this presentation. Yet the way Randall decides to finish off Mitchell’s tale is bound to ruffle some feathers and move people’s focus from what she trying to present to a more defensive posture.

Books Mentioned:

• Mitchell, Margaret. Gone with the Wind. New York, NY: Warner, 1999. Originally published 1936. Print. 1037 pgs. ISBN: 9780446675536. Source: Library.
• Randall, Alice. The Wind Done Gone. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001. Print. 210 pgs. ISBN: 061810450X. Source: Free bin.

Book Cover © Houghton Mifflin. Retrieved: May 10, 2013.