Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore - Robin Sloan

Having just come off of reading Matthew Pearl's tome, The Technologists it seemed a perfect segue to move to a novel that is all wrapped up in the latest techno change within the literary world ... digital literature, smart phone apps, Kindles, website proliferation, media mash that can be overwhelming and so plentiful that one can get lost in the pixels and gigabytes. It is a fact that today's world is fast becoming one of two layers - the virtual and the physical. Today's young people have learned to absorb the use of every new bit of hand-held technology to negotiate both planes of existence, but there are still places where the printed page holds sway.

Those places - bookstores, tag sales, estate auctions and the like - are places where great mysteries and treasures sit. They are just waiting for some person's hands to latch on, for some person's eyes and brains to engage, for some person's soul to become a willing participant in the story told, the question posed, the dilemma debated, the life exposed.

Robin Sloan gives us two characters, Chris and Kat, young residents of the techno-culture of San Francisco trying their best to make it through this latest economic downturn. One character is successfully riding the techno tide and the other has struggled to keep head above water in San Francisco's work world. Chris happens into a small 'hole in the wall' bookstore one day that is a cross between black hole and Diagon Alley. Before he knows it, he's the newest night clerk at Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore. His enthusiasm for using technology to improve business and his curiosity about the intriguing customers that frequent the store and their interest in what lies in the stacks toward the back of the store meld in a fast paced race to solve an ancient mystery, save his employer's reputation, and maybe 'get the girl' ... read on, friends. This is a really fun book!

Sloan has a sharp savvy wit that gives a good chuckle now and then. He weaves the current names and corporate powerhouses into the story, uses the geography of the Bay Area to bring the setting up before your mind's eye, and has techno-speak down and uses it to create a nerdy jargon that moves the computer-esque element of the story right along. At the heart of the story, though, are the books and the type and the Old Knowledge that is a firm foundation for all that has come from it and the heartfelt sense that the power of the word will carry on ... in all its manifestations.

For a neat interview, see NPR's link here

Breaking the Rules - Poetry Jam

Image: ‘The Alarm- Crows’ -  Richard Copello

 

Midwinter Lune

 

Crows perch high

Sun beats blue on black
Grey branches sway

 

Breeze turns cold
Beaks part and chortles rise
Wings spread wide

 

Branches click
Time to disappear
Man noise comes

 

Swooping sounds swish
High-pitched cries echo afar
Black feet dangle

 

Five black crows
Streak a bleak winter field
Looking for warmth

… Susan M-Lindquist – 1/24/13

This lune poem is a contribution to Poetry Jam's weekly writing exercise ... this week's task is to choose a type of form poem and change it up slightly, breaking the rules a bit. Smack dab in the center of this poem is a change from word count to syllable count ... form interrupting form, so to speak. Click here to see what others have contributed ... break your own rules and write something too.

 

Hikikomori and the Rental Sister - Jeff Backhaus

I am not a professional book reviewer, but I know a good story when I read one - an honest to goodness story that can reach into your heart and twist at emotions, making you feel completely wrapped in another person's experience. In this book, I have settled into the grief and guilt and fear that its central character wallows in. Thomas has been slammed by a wrenching experience that he cannot get over, come to terms with, move on from ... so what does he do? He turns his back on life, on wife, on career, on friends, on even the most mundane things. Thomas is hikikomori ... a modern day hermit in his small Manhattan apartment ... with his wife right down the hall. What does she do? She becomes increasingly saddened, angry, desperate, resigned, and finally, proactive. She hires a 'rental sister'. The rental sister, Megumi is a young beautiful Japanese immigrant with her own set of issues, but she becomes the link between Thomas, the world, the wife, the grief, the confrontation, and (is it possible ?) the healing.

This a layered novel that jumps between first and third person narrative, telling a story of emotional trauma, isolation, intimacy, and just what one does for love. No words are wasted and the story flows  in bits and starts, like a faucet that comes on and off, off and on, off and on. There are beautiful sparsely worded images that will make you stop and contemplate, get lost in the thought, take time to remove yourself a bit from the book and go into your head. There are softly sensual passages that demand you contemplate intimacy on the physical and psychological planes. There is a baring of  the different characters' souls that makes your heart ache and makes you need to put the book down for a while, for who doesn't grapple with emotional isolation, guilt, second guessing, denial, and escape at different times in one's life?

This is a good little book. No, I'm no professional book reviewer, but I do know a good story when I read one.

 

Image from Backhaus' website

 

For an interesting take on Jeff Backhaus and his approach to his writing craft, check out Largehearted Boy's post on this book here.  Interesting ... and the music is wonderful.

Boys Without Names - Kashmiri Sheth

 

 

The upper level of the building is cramped with bodies and trays of beads, frames, a smelly glue pot, the rolled up tatters of jute bedding and sundry little personal items. Six young boys work feverishly placing small beads onto blunt needles and then sticking them into position on wooden frames. They work quietly, so as not to raise the ire of their Boss, who sits in an easy chair in the room below. The television rumbles sometimes or the Boss can be heard snoring as he naps the day away. The doors are all locked; there are bars on the windows. From the outside the building resembles a ramshackle warehouse. Inside, though it is a prison of work and deprivation.

Thus, is the story of Gopal and his cohorts. How Gopal comes to this bleak sweatshop in an alley in Mumbai and how his cohorts cope with such a brutal life is the story that Kashmiri Sheth tells. It is, at times, heart-breaking and at others, hopeful. It brings the reader in contact with good people and people who are broken and brutal. Gopal is a resourceful and strong protagonist who never loses hope that he will be reunited with his family, who uses his wits and savvy to survive under circumstances that would make many of us despair.

The issue of child labor and sweatshop evils has come more and more into the public eye, over the past few years, as the commercial consumption remains high and the supply of cheap, but well-made goods streams into the country from third world nations. American consumers, being so far removed from the source of products, can easily buy everything from jewelry to hangbags to picture frames to clothing to fireworks to coffee and never connect their consumption patterns with the practice of slave labor ... slave labor. That's what it is ... in bold black and white. Within our own country, there are wide-spread abuses of  workers within the agricultural fields, as everything from tomatoes to oranges to celery is brought to market. A practice that this nation turned its back on so many years ago continues to this day and we consumers unwittingly (or blythely) ignore its continuance in the blind need to consume without investigating the source of our 'stuff'.

Kashmiri Sheth has put faces and names to the nameless workers who labor every day in sweatshops, in writing this powerful novel. While hers is a book written for a young adult audience, there are plenty more out there to read and think about. There are agencies to investigate and support that work toward economic equality, fair labor practices, humane treatment within the work place, and education of workers. I know I will never look at an inexpensive picture frame again without wondering whose young fingers might have created it.

Kashmiri Sheth traveled to India to research her novel and I am very glad that she did. I can only hope that more people read this book and discuss the important topic of economic justice with their friends and families. I would recommend this book as a family read-aloud, a class or church youth group book club read, or as a scout troop read and investigation project. It is a vivid story that has all the brutal components of the issue without such graphic horrors that it would traumatize kids. It would be a real eye-opener for those ten years and older. An important book ...

 

Saturday Snapshot - Remembering Prague

A couple years ago, my husband and I returned to Europe to visit friends in Germany. One of the junkets that we took with Gundel and Wichard was a train ride to Prague to do a walking tour of the city. It was a lovely time ... just look.

 

Virginia Lee Burton - A Life in Art - Barbara Elleman

Some books from childhood remain indelibly imprinted on our hearts and in our brains. We all have our favorites - One Morning in Maine, Blueberries for Sal, The Little House, Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, The Story of Ferdinand, The Courage of Sarah Noble, The Corgiville Fair, King Bidgood's in the Bathtub, Strega Nona. These are some of my favorites.

Seed of Doubt - Poetry Jam

Seed of Doubt

I held that hand you offered

Warm and strong it was

I looked at dirty knuckles

Fresh from our garden chores

The sun was strong

Sweat beads on your wrist

Misted wiry hairs 

A glass of lemonade? Yes!

One hand brushed damp bangs

Up and away from my eyes

The other dropped my hand

Urging me toward the kitchen

I sat at the table

Legs sticking to the chair vinyl

A cold glass rested before me

A cold hand dropped to rest

Draped between my knees

I freeze

Wait! Cookies!

Your back was turned

I dashed

The screen door clattered

The sun was blinding

My sneakers slapped the sidewalk

The postman cursed my rushing by

I didn't care

My mother called and I ran

Writer's Note:

Often when we are in danger or feel threatened, the experience is remembered in an almost photographic manner. Images and sensations are stilted and bounce back willy-nilly to create the incident. They bounce back square before your eyes or at the center of your forehead, as you close eyes to bring things back. Thus is the incident of my childhood ... was his touch innocent and gentle or was it dangerous? I will never know for sure. I reacted from a gut reaction, having been drilled by parents and teachers early on to flee danger at the first inkling.

Later, I questioned myself. I never, though, allowed myself to be alone in Neighbor John's presence again. He touched my shoulder or guided me through activities in his yard (right across from our yard), but always when Mother was hanging laundry or brothers were playing whiffle ball or friends were jumping rope on the sidewalk nearby. I learned to be cautious, but I always wondered if I really needed to be. It makes me sad to think that I had to be that way with him, but I did.

This poem is part of Poetry Jam's weekly writing exercise ... this week the theme is 'danger' in any of its manifestations. Link to see what others have shared.