Gold Boy, Emerald Girl

cover page

I read this book awhile ago but couldn’t blog on it due to a blogger’s block that settled gradually and now refuses to budge. It was like entering this phase where I could only look at the topics just piling up but not get a single sentence out of my mind onto the paper. What’s even worse is I feel the block strongest whenever I attempted to complete my post on this title.

Gold Boy Emerald Girl dwells on the nondescript daily goings on in the lives of modern day China’s working-class men and women. The book as a whole deals with a combination of situations/emotions ranging from loneliness and despair to the characters’ never-ending quest for love and happiness while each story simply highlights one or more of these situations. The highlight of the book though is a short story titled “Kindness” which talks about Moyan, a 30 plus math teacher. Moyan goes through the emotions that are associated with being an adopted daughter and a biological orphan. Things don’t seem to get any better during her mandatory service in the army either. Emotions if any are displayed only during her schooling throwing me as a reader into a sense of despair for Moyan’s lack of reaction to the stimuli surrounding her.

The other stories presented are – A group of elderly widows start a detective agency out of boredom and also in hopes of helping women spy on their cheating husbands. An old teacher attempts to reach out to a perfect stranger who has been sued by his daughter for abandoning her and her mother. A happily married couple discover discontentment in their otherwise perfect marriage. And so on!

This book hits 2 major points at a high level – one is the clash between the modern and traditional values, and the other is how the emotions shape the thoughts leading to the trade-offs that people choose. I admire Yiyun Li for describing all these and much more in great detail weaving in plenty of thought to ponder upon. You can choose to analyze the stories in-depth or absorb it at face value. And if you’d like to know more about this book, do read Eva’s review for it helped me make the decision on adding/leaving this book to my TBR list. I believe that its definitely worth a read!

The Virgin Blue

Set in France, The Virgin Blue revolves around 2 protagonists – Ella Turner and her ancestor Isabel du Moulin or Isabel Tournier. Ella Turner is excited to settle in France and to the amusement of her husband, she embarks on a project to reconnect with her French relations. However, she begins to dream about the color blue, the shade worn by the virgin Mary.. In a parallel universe i.e. 16th century France, Isabel du Moulin or La Rousse is forced to give up her religion and marry the local bully Etienne Tournier, one of the descendants of the Huguenots clan. Its a tumultuous period as a wave of religious persecutions sweep across the country. The story switches between past and present like a pendulum clock showcasing Ella and Isabel’s lives, their personalities and similarities in their situations.

Chevalier’s meticulous research and knowledge of the old world shine through her articulate sketch of Isabel’s life, as she transports her readers instantly transported to France and to Isabel’s side, watching her go about her daily duties from the bylines. Turns out that the author’s inspiration came from her own family history – Tracy Chevalier is a descendant of the French Huguenots of the Cevennes region. She drew inspiration from her sister’s move to France, as represented by Ella Turner’s relocation. What followed is Chevalier’s own adventure which contributed the bulk of content for this book.

While the story’s backdrop is an amalgamation of many events that occurred in the 16th century France, the most noteworthy are: The St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre. There is one another aspect that is subtly described through Isabel’s life, that of the Human sacrifice…the later part of the story does constantly refer to the hearth of the house often throwing sinister hints of what lies beneath the hearth. More info can be found on the author’s website. Another theme that is a constant in the current fiction is that of relationships – marriage, adultery or finding love again. Having come across this theme in quite a number of books this year, I couldn’t help being annoyed by Ella’s demeanor at times probably when it came to the disastrous turn her relationship takes. As for Isabel, she could’ve chosen to reject the Tourniers or even flee from them but it doesn’t appear to be so. Instead she appears to have adhered to the family principles and suffered both mentally and physically for her choices. Again Chevalier has portrayed 2 extremities of the spectrum – A woman with a loving husband chooses a rustic life in France with a French dude whereas her ancestor chooses a life of fear, unhappiness and despair in order not to retain the sanctity of her marriage.

Setting aside these facts, I can only say that this book was a fast paced read for I completed it in a day. The Virgin Blue is well worth adding to your library for its unique blend of history and fiction not to mention a powerful story.

Girl with a Pearl Earring

Set in the 17th century Delft, Holland, Girl with a Pearl Earring centers around Johannes Vermeer’s painting Girl with a Pearl Earring, now displayed at a museum in Hague. The novel begins with a young girl named Griet being employed as a maid in Vermeer’s household in Delft. Griet’s efficiency at work and her ability to understand the color palette endears her to Vermeer while raising the ire of his wife Catharina and the rest of the household. The only person in the household who seems to understand Griet is Maria Thins, Vermeer’s mother-in-law.

Narrated by Griet, the novel chronicles Griet’s life in the Vermeer’s household, her dilemma at finding herself attracted to her master, the constant clashes with Catharina and finally, becoming an unwilling subject for a painting commissioned by Vermeer’s patron. How does all this attention bode for Griet and what becomes of her forms the conclusion of course.

I couldn’t think of a better to summarize the highlights of this novel than as below -

Vermeer’s life – Very little is known about this elusive artist and his personal life. So Chevalier tried to present an insight into Vermeer’s life by building the painting around a fictional maid while retaining Vermeer’s inner thoughts and personality as vague and secretive.

Baroque period and its effect on artwork - Constant references were made to the fact that Vermeer was an artist from the Baroque period. This was a period where art acquired a new definition with artists being given the freedom to paint/depict ordinary people and their daily tasks or an ordinary landscape in their artwork. Griet makes this observation in a indirect way by comparing the contrasts between the paintings displayed in Vermeer’s house vs. the subjects painted by the artist himself.

And finally there is the question of the genre itself as it is a historical fiction where romantic undercurrents are subtle yet strong as painted between Griet and Vermeer. While the characters do not succumb to their desires owing to their stations in society, their feelings are constantly conveyed their demeanor and expressions. The inspiration again seems to have been derived from the painting itself…through the expressions of the unknown girl. As for character analysis, Tracy Chevalier has created a most amazing array of people with a distinct set of characters that bring a sort of balance to the novel…like the layers bring depth and life to a painting. Definitely worth a read!

Cat Among the Pigeons

Cat Among the Pigeons is probably my most favorite of the Hercule Poirot series. Yes I’ve read Miss Marple’s Murder at the Vicarage but that didn’t make as great an impression as this title did. And just yesterday, I finally got to watch the movie as well although the deviation in the plot was a tad bit of a disappointment.

Set against the backdrop of Meadowbank school the revolution at Ramat lays heavy upon this plot. The ruler of Ramat and his friend/confidant Bob Rawlinson are murdered by the rebels. Rumors are abound that the jewels of Ramat have reached Meadowbank through Jennifer Sutcliff, Rawlinson’s niece. Cut onto Meadownbank, the scene opens with the summer term where Miss Bulstrode and her teachers are busy welcoming new and old students. The atmosphere though is rife with an implied sense of doom. As term starts, Jennifer Sutcliff confides in Julia Upjohn her best friend and tennis partner about the robbery at her home. While Julia suspects that this maybe due to the Sutcliffs’ association with the Ramat events, Jennifer dismisses it as usual. This is soon followed by a murder at Meadowbank where the Sports Pavilion is ransacked and its sports mistress is murdered. The school’s image takes a further hit with the occurrence of 2 more murders involving the deputy headmistress and the french mistress . Julia pieces together the events and reaches out to Poirot for help. The question becomes – who is the cat among the pigeons?

As always Ms. Christie has woven a beautiful plot with its unique set of characters making this story unlike any other. The difference truly lies in the fact that she picked something as innocent as a school and its students everyday humdrum and turned it into a atmosphere befitting a crime scene. The participants are not the usual aristocracy or the police but regular students who are caught in the middle yet make it out alive. My favorite character apart from Poirot here is Julia Upjohn – her quickness for grasping the kinks in a situation, her knowledge of the general and foreign affairs coupled with her quick wittedness and common sense makes one believe that she is a detective in making. On the whole a brilliant novel worth a re-read and a special place in the private collection!

Bluebeard’s Egg

I was drawn to Margaret Atwood‘s writing through through my friend V’s review of The Blind Assassin. And again I found Bluebeard’s Egg and Cat’s Eye at NPL.

Bluebeard’s Egg is a collection of stories with each story highlighting a mix of themes. As with Pearl S Buck’s books the themes center around family, marriage and relationships, sexuality, childhood memories and the protagonists’ current situations. And at times these come packaged with a WWI /WWII backdrop.

So what’s different in this collection you say? Here’s a crux of the stories I managed to read -

Significant moments in the Life of my Mother – Explores a young woman’s musings on her mother’s narration of her life and family especially those related to her father and grandfather.

Hurricane Hazel – Presents a very interesting take on relationships from the memories of a young lady as she narrates her first date and the aftermath of breaking up the relationship. This is just the beginning of a string of unsuccessful relationships.

Loulou – Loulou is a successful pottery artist who strangely houses & supports her ex-husband and lovers in addition to her current husband and believe it or not all happen to be poets. A fling with her accountant gives her a new perspective to her otherwise mundane life.

Bluebeard’s Egg – Sally muses over her relationship with her husband and best friend. Again the narration is centered around Sally marriage, her husband’s supposed indifference and dependence on her and then the focus shifts to Sally’s husband’s perspective which highlights that he is not as dumb as Sally assumes him to be. The theme of reminiscing about a relationship would’ve crossed every woman’s mind at some point in her marriage or relationship.

And there are many more stories…some of which were easy to get through while some required that I force myself to turn the pages. Short Stories are certainly interesting in the sense, the plot is short, quick and ends on either a happy/ sad/ mixed note…most often mixed though. But then unlike the novels or novellas you won’t know the characters that well to empathize with them a lot unless the story is a narrative. In the case of this particular set, the uniqueness lies with the diversity of themes portrayed here. The modulation of narration varies and so does the intensity of emotions portrayed through the narrations…happiness, loss, acceptance, of desire and dreaming for better life.

My favorite is “Significant Moments in the Life of my Mother”…a story that made me reminisce me of the childhood memories that my mom shared with me and still shares. We are continents apart and although we speak to each other on a daily basis, this book reminded me of all those days we chatted & laughed over cups of coffee or over lunches/dinners…thing I miss the most.

Verdict? Its a great book to read and acquire for your book collection. As always filed it away for future acquisition.