Review: When We Were Young and Brave (by Hazel Gaynor)

My Rating:  3 stars

My initial reaction when I finished reading this book was one of disappointment – not because the book was bad or anything like that, but rather, I had gone into this one with certain expectations and in the end, felt completely let down.   This is mostly my fault, as I realize now that if I had read the premise more carefully, or had done a little research going in (which I typically do with historical fiction but didn't with this one due to time constraints), it should've been pretty obvious that the expectations I had about the story would not have been warranted.

Set in China starting in 1941, the story revolves around Chefoo School, a British-run school for children of missionaries (mostly from Europe, Australia, and the United States) that functioned very similarly to a boarding school, where the children were taken care of mostly by the teachers and the staff and would only see their parents a few times a year.  The story is narrated in alternating viewpoints by Elspeth Kent – one of the teachers at the school – and Nancy Plummer, who started attending Chefoo School at 8 years old.  When war breaks out and Japanese forces invade China, the school comes under the rule of the Japanese Imperial Army.  With guards watching their every move, the students and staff become enemy prisoners whose lives constantly hang in the balance. Later, when the army takes over the school to use as a training base, everyone is forced to relocate, first to a rundown housing complex, then to internment camps where they remain through the end of the war.  In the face of numerous challenges and hardships living in the midst of war, it is the bond that forms between these students and teachers that sustain them through the most difficult of days as well as through lifetimes. 

For me, the mark of good historical fiction is its ability to make the reader feel like we've been transported back to a particular time and place – the truly great works go a step beyond in that they make us feel like we are actually living the characters' realities and experiencing what they go through first-hand.  Unfortunately, with Hazel Gaynor's latest book, When We Were Young and Brave, I did not experience what I usually do reading historical fiction (which is definitely an issue, since historical fiction is one of my favorite genres to read).  The biggest problem I have with this book is that the portrayal of time and place in the story was not strong, which made it difficult to feel transported.  The setting of the story was in China during Japanese Occupation in the 1940s, but to be honest, I felt like the story could've taken place anywhere during that same time period and it still would've been essentially the same story, as there were basically no cultural elements to speak of in the story outside of a handful of references to Chinese cities and also two Chinese servants who worked at the school.  The ambiguous way in which the setting was portrayed in the story is actually one of the things that bothered me the most.   But again, it goes back to my sensitivities perhaps being different from other readers due to my cultural background and familiarity with this particular period of history.  To put it more clearly -- given the location and time period in which the story takes place, I was expecting there to be a certain amount of historical and cultural relevance that would've tied the story to the setting in a more significant, meaningful way – but that didn't happen with this book, which is the main reason why I felt disappointed.  Despite the knowledge going into this one that the story was based on true events, I still couldn't help wondering, at numerous points while I was reading, why the author would choose to set the story in China during World War II when, technically, neither element was truly significant to the story. 

The other area where I felt let down was the lack of emotional depth to the story.  Perhaps because of the above-mentioned issues I had with the sense of time and place, I felt like it was difficult for me to get into the story.  Each chapter was narrated from the characters' first-person point of view, which normally would make it easier to empathize with the characters, but yet, throughout the entire story, I didn't really feel much for the characters, despite the ordeals they endured.  To me, the way the story was told, it felt emotionally detached, as though the narrators were reciting facts rather than a lived experience. Of course, that's not to say that the story wasn't important, as I'm a strong believer that all stories — especially personal stories — are significant and important in their own way.  But I think the way the story is presented matters as well and in this instance, the story as presented didn't really work for me.  

With all that said, there were things that I did like about this one and the reading experience wasn't all bad, which is why I ended up rating this one 3 stars despite the issues I had with it.  And it definitely hasn't put me off from reading this author's other works, as I truly feel that this was just an instance of this particular book not being right for me.   Hopefully the next one will work out better.

Received ARC from William Morrow via NetGalley

Review: The Lazy Genius Way (by Kendra Adachi)

 

My Rating:  3.5 stars

This week has been a bit of a struggle for me reading-wise due to some personal issues I’ve had to deal with that has been a huge drain on both my time and energy.  Prior to this issue cropping up, I had started Kendra Adachi’s The Lazy Genius Way and since it’s a relatively short book, I figured I would be able to finish it quickly.  In hindsight now, I realize that was wishful thinking, as I ended up slogging through this book and taking way more time than I should have to finish it.  Just to be clear though, this is one of those situations where it’s me, not the book.  In general, non-fiction books always take me a longer time to get through, mainly because I feel that I have to grasp and absorb each detail in order to make the reading experience worthwhile – unlike fiction where I don’t need to make a conscious effort to remember every detail, just enough to get into the story and its characters.

In any case – even though it took me longer than I would’ve liked to read, I did enjoy Adachi’s book overall.  In addition to being well-written, one of the things I appreciated most about this book is that it doesn’t follow the traditional “preachy” self-help book path -- you know, those books that always come across as though the author  (usually an academic) is trying to persuade you to live your life a certain way because they (supposedly) know more than you do.  With her book, Adachi takes the opposite approach in that the main message is about doing what matters to you, NOT what matters to someone else.  Using her own experiences as examples, she lays out 13 principles she lives by that help her “be a genius about what matters and lazy about what doesn’t.”  I found the advice practical and the way Adachi went about conveying it was engaging enough to keep me interested in what she had to say.

With all that said however, the sticking point for me is that, unfortunately, a lot of what was talked about in the book didn’t resonate with me.  Technically, this isn’t the book’s fault – it’s more I don’t have much in common with the perspective that Adachi writes from (white, middle class, Christian wife and mother), plus I consider my personal situation a bit unique, so it was hard for me to see how some of the principles fit into my life.  With self-help books, resonance to the subject matter is absolutely important for me, so much so that when I’m not able to relate to a lot of the book, I feel like I just wasted my time reading it.  Of course, this is not to say that timing could’ve played a role as well, since, as I mentioned earlier, I’m going through some things right now where my frame of mind may not be as receptive to books like this at the moment. 

Overall, I would still recommend this one, as I feel that, as far as self-help books go, this is definitely a good one.  Also, I don’t doubt the usefulness of Adachi’s advice or the fact that the Lazy Genius method does work for many people, it’s just I’m not able to see the relevance and application to my life as it is at this moment.  I do want to try listening to Adachi’s Lazy Genius podcast at some point though to see if perhaps that format will work out better for me.

Review: Before the Ever After (by Jacqueline Woodson)

My Rating: 5 stars

 

Jacqueline Woodson is a renowned author whose works I've been wanting to read for a long time, but unfortunately, never got around to doing so.  Luckily for me, a few days ago, my library hold for Woodson's newly published novel, Before the Ever After, came through, so I decided to clear my schedule and read it immediately.  Since I jumped into this one so quickly, I didn't realize it was novel-in-verse format until I opened up to the first page.   I had just finished Elizabeth Acevedo's The Poet X last month, which was my very first time reading a novel-in-verse, and seeing how much I loved that experience, it made me even more excited to get into this one.

 

At the center of this story is 12-year-old Zachariah Johnson Jr., or ZJ, as he is known to all his friends and family except his dad, whose special nickname for him is "Little Man."  As a charismatic and talented pro football superstar, ZJ's dad is everyone's hero --  a man beloved and admired by millions of people, from sports fans across the country to the neighborhood kids in the Maplewood, New Jersey town where the family lives.  ZJ loves and adores his dad, but at times, he can't help but feel that he is living in his dad's shadow, even though his interest is in music and creating songs rather than playing pro ball like his dad.  Aside from his parents, the only other people who see and love ZJ for who he is are "his boys":  best friends Darry, Ollie, and Daniel -- together, they are the Fantastic Four and no matter what happens, they are there for each other.  Everything is going well – until it doesn't.  ZJ starts to notice his dad behaving strangely – he gets headaches a lot and seems to be angry or agitated all the time, but worst of all, he's gotten forgetful to the point that he has trouble remembering his son's name.  ZJ's mother explains that his dad's behavior is due to all the head injuries from his football career, though his dad's doctors seem to be trying to figure things out still.  When his dad's condition starts to fluctuate more frequently – one minute, he is the dad who sings with ZJ and always has a big grin for his Little Man, but the next minute, he is staring into space and is unable to remember his surroundings – ZJ struggles to come to terms with the realization that this is his family's new "ever after."   As ZJ tries desperately to hold on to the happy memories of the past, he gradually learns to face this new reality with the love and support of his family and friends.

I'm not a sports fan whatsoever — in fact, my knowledge in this area is so limited that I can barely tell one athlete apart from another (my friends who are into sports often tease me about getting teams and players mixed up, sometimes even across disciplines).  Given this, I normally would not pick up a sports-related book to read, but in this instance, I decided to go for it because 1) the author is Jacqueline Woodson (see first paragraph for further explanation) and 2) the premise sounded interesting, plus this is a short book (less than 200 pages) so it would be a quick read for me.  In the end, I didn't have to worry, as the story turned out to be more about the sports players and their families rather than the intricacies of the sport itself (though with that said, without football as the central theme, the story probably would not have worked as well as it did).

Those who are familiar with my book reviews know that I can be quite stingy when it comes to rating a book 5 stars.  I sometimes go with gut reaction, but more often than not, it takes a lot of careful reflecting and pondering (and at times, agonizing) on my part to reach the "this deserves 5 stars" point.  Well, this book captured my heart from the start!  I loved nearly everything about this book — from the moving story to the endearing characters to the realistic depictions of society and human interactions (ie: the sacrifices we make for our loved ones to live a better life), to the struggles of having to deal with a debilitating illness from the eyes of children, etc. what I especially loved though was the Fantastic Four — the friendship between the four boys was so genuine and sweet — the way they were always there for each other regardless of what happens, how no words need to be spoken, just being who they are and keeping each other company, their friendship warmed my heart and always managed to put a smile on my face!  At the same time, this book also made me cry, with ZJ watching his beloved father deteriorate right before his eyes and losing all the memories of their happy times together — the scene where ZJ's dad forgets who his son is, and ZJ's emotional reaction to it, absolutely broke my heart! 

Jacqueline Woodson has won many awards for her works and now after finally having read one of her books, I definitely understand why.  With this book being novel-in-verse, the writing is sparse, yet still packed such a punch.  I admire the way Woodson is able to craft such a heartfelt, emotionally poignant story populated with endearing, unforgettable characters so beautifully, yet also sparingly.  While I wait for Woodson's next book,  I can't wait to go back and explore as much of her backlist as possible!

Review: The End of the Day (by Bill Clegg)

My Rating:  3.5 stars

I don't remember how I ended up getting an advance copy of Bill Clegg's The End of the Day, as I'd never heard of this author before, despite the fact that his book prior to this one, titled Did You Ever Have a Family, was quite popular and well-received back when it came out (which I haven't read yet but intend to at some point).  When I first read the vaguely-worded summary to this book, I was definitely intrigued, as it sounded like an interesting, albeit complicated story.   As I started reading, I already knew early on that this would be a character-driven story, which was fine by me of course, since those are the types of stories I usually enjoy most.  Given both of these elements, along with the fact that the writing was quite good, I truly thought I would end up loving this one.  Now that I've finished, I can say that, while I did like this one overall, I didn't love it like I initially thought I would.

 

For me, the strongest element of this story were the characters, all of whom were realistically-drawn in a way that, though most of them were unlikable, I couldn't help still rooting for them.  Part of this, I believe, is due to the way the author structured the narrative, with each chapter told from the alternating perspectives of each character. I felt that this worked well in the sense that I really got to know each character – through their respective backstories, I was able to understand their struggles as well as the nuances of their relationships, which made it easier for me to relate to them.  If I had to describe it, I would say that this was an in-depth character study on the complexity of human relationships, which is the part of the story that appealed to me the most given how much I usually enjoy character-driven stories.

 

With that said however, the problem I had with this book is that the author made the story way more complicated than it needed to be, which had the effect of making the reading experience exhausting and a bit frustrating.  While I liked that the story was told from multiple characters' points of views, with each chapter providing a new "revelation" that brings us (the readers) closer and closer to "the truth" of the defining event that happens, what I didn't like was how long it took to get there.  For me, the story was really slow and drawn out and meandered way too much – at times, there were inexplicably long, exhaustive descriptions of things that seemed to not have anything to do with the story and ended up bogging down the plot rather than advancing it.  The closest analogy I can think of to describe the experience is going on a road trip where the person driving decides to take the scenic route, but drives at a painstakingly slow 20 mph so everyone in the car can truly admire and enjoy the view – yes, the view is lovely and we see some interesting things, but after 5 exhaustive hours of it, I feel like that kid in the backseat of the car repeatedly asking "Are we there yet???" 

 

Indeed, this was quite the reading experience for me – on the one hand, I wanted to keep reading because I was invested in the characters and was curious to see what happens to them, but on the other hand, I just wanted the story to end already.  I think that if it hadn't taken so long to get to the point, I definitely would've enjoyed this one so much more.  Even though this book didn't completely work for me, I'm still interested in reading Clegg's previous work, especially Did You Ever Have a Family, which so many of my friends seemed to love.

 

Received ARC from Gallery / Scout Press via NetGalley.