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The horrendous atrocities of war and the delicate strength of the human spirit are all wrapped up in this novel about the firebombing of Tokyo during World War II.  THE GODS OF HEAVENLY PUNISHMENT is a work of art and beauty and I will read it again to ease the tensions which continue to cross my mind and disrupt my awareness.

“I dare you to read this and not be swept up. THE GODS OF HEAVENLY PUNISHMENT is shocking and delicate in equal measure.”  Debra Dean, author, of THE MADONNAS Of LENINGRAD (on the book jacket)

This is the story of Yoshi and how war and a host of people will direct her experience of war and lead to her survival.  She is the daughter of a Japanese builder who has worked with an Architect to change the skyline of Tokyo (Yep! Frank Lloyd Wright’s Imperial Hotel is part of the story) and her mother who is the granddaughter of a Samurai Warrior who has a troubled past; she speaks many languages fluently.  It is the story of the architect who builds the new vision, then works on its destruction and how he knows Yoshi.  It is the story of Cam a fighter pilot who has wanted to fly an airplane his whole life; he is one of the downed pilots after an initial bombing raid.  On this list of Yoshi’s journey, I must include Billy who was born in Japan and returns as an occupation soldier for the rebuilding process.

I do not read the book covers or the promo pages that come with the tour book I agree to review.  I find that those words often color the read for me and I think they often tell far too much of the story line and cancel my minds ability to imagine and discover.  I quite often read each book twice, as I did for THE GODS OF HEAVENLY PUNISHMENT.   The second read looks through eyes of what research the author acknowledges and the personal notes on hopes and expectations for the book and thanks to the editors and publishers.  This novel was extensively researched and then rendered with a divine stroke of the pen to give the reader a crystal understanding faceted with elegance and grace.  The book jacket uses the word meditation to describe this story telling and I would have to agree.

All the shocking horror of war and that experience is right there and in one page you know it, and by the next page the reader is moving on and integrating the disgust and shock into the child’s growth and understanding.   How could we ever have another war?  This story does not leave the mind; it stays put.

“Jennifer Cody Epstein depicts the firebombing of Tokyo and concurrent events in unflinching but delicately rendered detail.  Immaculately researched and deeply imagined, this is an astonishing novel whose battles and intimate encounters alike carry the force of electric jolt.  I have never read anything else like it.”  Angel Davis-Gardner, author of BUTTERFLY”S CHILD (book jacket)

TLC online book tours and W.W. Norton & Company sent me a preview copy to review.  Thank you very much for this honor and privilege to read this book.  I am sure I will read it for a third time.

If you only read one book in 2013 make sure it is THE GODS OF HEAVENLY PUNISHMENT

If you purchase anything from Amazon or Powell’s from this site, I will receive a few beans in my bucket.  Thank you.  Donations also welcomed.

Related Reading:
A Constellation of Vital Phenomena
Hannah Coulter
Thirty Days With My Father (PTSD)
The Bequest of Big Daddy

When I first began reading A CONSTELLATION OF VITAL PHENOMENA I thought I would describe it as stream of consciousness style writing or a vintage Russian Novelist’s style, and then when I would talk about the book, folks would say “I don’t want to read something like that!”  How could I share that I was fascinated by the story and was diving into the words head first only to be tossed over heels by the emotional depth and drive of the story line.  I did have to wrap myself up in a blanket as I was cold as winter in several sections of this amazing read.

CONSTELLATION is Anthony Marra’s first novel, but he has garnered prizes galore for his writing.  He is under 30 and has already completed undergraduate work; the Iowa Writer’s Workshop and won numerous awards; he works at Stanford University.   He has done a great deal of travel and study to write this story and produce this novel about 2 back to back wars in Chechnya which is quite a read.

The story takes place over 5 days in December 2004 most action centers around Hospital #6 and the last remaining doctor practicing and becoming an amazing surgeon.  Sonja, the London trained Russian physician, is the only doctor left in the hospital which used to have 500 doctors on staff.  She and a 79 year old nurse amputate, sew up, heal, and deliver babies in this building.  They have both lost a sister and are grieving, mourning, and healing. Sonja is saving lives.

The book is about war, death, disappearances, cold, hunger, fear, refugees, prostitution, slavery, illness, realities, torture and an eight year old girl.

The book is a mined field and you must learn the route and warning signs.  There are so many metaphors and symbols and truths all rolled around fantastical adjectives and swear words to satisfy any reader that the existence of the many is always, always in turmoil.  The problem-solvers and the creative are the most fluent of the survivors.

The book is a love story.

An arborist, a historian, a failed doctor all love this child and do everything within their power to save this child’s life.   “She is safe.”   She is hope.  She is future.

Reconstruction is fully on the shoulders of the survivors who were not discovered as they risked.  The world hardly knows that they are a part of this planet; until their distress is played out in Boston.

How can we as people keep continuing to make war?  How can we as human beings continue to allow torture; especially that for which we turn a blind eye? This book will leave you breathless and asking questions; ignite your circuits.

This book is about the ugliness of war and the tremendous loss when humanity is forfeited and the goal is to enjoy the pain and suffering of a defeated country with no one coming to its aid.  This is a story about the ordinary people in a small village surviving, healing, and overcoming the atrocities of WAR which are so plainly revealed to the reader and how love is the vital phenomena of living. How love overcomes our worst trials and fears.   We all need to read A CONSTELLATION OF VITAL PHENOMENA.

Related Reading:
A Dual Inheritance
The Myths of Happiness 
When Women Were Birds 
The Dressmaker of Khair Khana

 I received a Kindle proof copy of A CONSTELLATION OF VITAL PHENOMENA from TLC books and Hogarth Publishing.

If you purchase anything from Amazon or Powell’s   from this site I will receive a few beans in my bucket.  Thank you.  Donations also welcomed.

Powell’s also has signed copies of this novel available and is the STAFF PICK of the MONTH.

A Complicated Marriage:  My Life With Clement Greenberg is a memoir written by Janice Van Horne starting with her at age 21 and just graduating from Bennington College and moving into her first apartment in New York City.  The book opens at a swish party describing Van Horne, surroundings and the guests.   This is the moment when she meets Clement Greenberg, the now famous art critic.  It is the start of the era of  Modern Art and this body of work.  Most of the artists are still at the “starving” artist’s stage but those on Greenberg’s friends list are going to be the top of the line big names and money makers of this particular period of time.

One is going to glimpse into the lives of some of these artists but that is actually part two of the book.  The first part of the book is about how Greenberg, the much older man, and Van Horne  get married and then spend weekends with all these artists at the artist’s homes.  7 major players get their own chapters including Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner. Greenberg is good friends with these two people the connection is examined.  The Greenberg’s have a rather large collection of the paintings and sculptures of the artists, which some people said were bribes for great reviews by Greenberg. The book is not actually a biography of Greenberg; I do think art history majors would enjoy parts of this book about his personal life and friendships because it offers a different perspective.

One of the primary currents of the story is how a young girl with no plans, no great ambitions, and an open marriage learns to define herself and find a life purpose.  She is not much of a cook, they do not have a regular income, and she is not a caregiver/traditional woman.  Actually she is a German heritage child, who has been abandoned by alcoholism and departure by the men in her early life, who has a rather “airy” beautiful mother, and extended family which attacks and loudly distances themselves from her for marrying a Jew raised in the Southern United States.  She has married someone who actually loves her and is willing to care for her, likes her brashness, and insists that she handle the money in their lives.

She notes often that there are artist’s wives who handle their partner’s businesses and estates well, and there are those which fall down on the job and let other’s steal from the artist.  This management turns out to be her strong talent and in hindsight her real career and gives her the opportunity to pay for analysis, acting classes and be in the theater, an editor of Madison Avenue magazine, a play write, and finally the person who establishes the collection of her spouse and his papers are prepared for becoming a part of a historic era and a library.

I could really identify with Van Horne’s journey to her authentic self and when through a terrible Ponzi scheme she and her daughter lost nearly all their funds and future, I was happy she was able to testify in court and get some satisfaction along with her credit rating restored including an opportunity to move forward.  After years of affairs, divorce and remarriage, she finally understood the kind of caregiver she could become and took charge of that role as Greenberg was dying.  I believe she must be near 80 as she is writing her volume, and she is still very much in control, but less tense and insecure as a person.

A COMPLICATED MARRIAGE was a good read and I am positive those who like to figure out what is going on behind the scenes and the gossipy side of life will love this book.   I got a bit tired of the New York, power trippy, snobby analysis of other people and how they lived their lives. It was shallow reading and name dropping.  I really could not connect with her perception of poor/poverty that she experienced.  Yes, I suppose having to make curtains, purchase clothing from SEARS, and going to all the correct schools through Bennington College (the most expensive college in the nation) on scholarship was hard to deal with in her context of wealth and entitlement; and yet, there was always money for cars, education, society and lots and lots of alcohol – not to mention art and trips to Europe as the lecturer’s bored wife.

If you like memoir and learning about the art scene of the 50s and 60s, A COMPLICATED MARRIAGE is a read you will enjoy.

If you purchase anything from Amazon or Powell’s this site, I will receive a few beans in my bucket.  Thank you.

I was provided with a proof copy of this book by TLC online book tours and Counterpoint Publishing.

Related Reading:  Under the top tab Recommended Reading you might also find more books you wish to read and enjoy.

On Reading Memoir
Confessions of Joan The Tall
When Women Were Birds
Wild

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IN THE GARDEN OF STONE is one of the nicest reads I have had in a long time.  It is just full of the most wonderful details of nature, and my mind was able to bring me right to the path and let me integrate the experience like a refreshing walk;  a little vacation, which slowed my pace and refreshed my spirit.

I was experiencing a tremendous windstorm which was transitioning the chill of spring into the heat of summer when I sat down to read this saga about an Italian immigrant’s family working the coal mines and living in a company shanty town called WAR.  The first and second generations were living in the dark and could not see another way, and they condemned those that tried and then returned.  They seemed to hope for the same life that they were experiencing right down to the plain un-nourishing food they were eating.  When in 1924 a young railroad man discovers a miner’s daughter, age 16, who is capable of learning to dream.  They are wed and move away to build a house/home and a magnificent garden as the ones which were built in ancient Italy.  The man, who went to Italy and became a stone mason, has a dream and a good heart.

The son is the connecting bond to all the other stories of all the characters of this saga which carries the reader to 1973 and the expectation of a great-grandchild.  Each chapter focuses on a period of time and individuals which will make the story move forward.  The characters are so well developed as though they were the focal point of a short story, and then they disappear and reappear in the next stories/chapters to complete the picture.   The characters are so crucial to the evolution of this family saga and how they integrate finally into their new culture and society.  Many are still stuck in the old ways today, afraid to come out of the mines and we definitely understand how love and a “strong hand” can guide one up and out of the dark places individuals reside.

Susan Tekulve teaches writing at Converse College in Spartanburg, South Carolina and her novel IN THE GARDEN OF STONE makes a fine contribution to Southern literature. Her writing style is gentle and deep; she is not afraid to expose the painful pivotal moments of life. I know I will read this book again.

You ‘all, I can just see you in the garden, with a cool drink in hand, and flowers on the air enjoying this book in the summer heat while wandering the hills of Virginia with the folks in this story.  Am I right or am I right?

 I received a proof copy of this book from TLC online book tours and HUB CITY Press. It is a lovely, lazy summer afternoon read and I am so pleased to have been given the opportunity to read this story.  It is the winner of the South Carolina First Novel Prize.  The publishers are offering a giveaway of IN THE GARDEN OF STONE to a commenter on this blog site or Facebook.

If you purchase anything from Amazon or Powell’s from this site, I will receive a few beans in my bucket.  Thank you.  Donations Welcome.

Related Reading:   Under the Recommended Reading tab are many books I have reviewed and which you might also enjoy reading.
The Paper Garden
 Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
The Clover House
The Bequest of Big Daddy

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