Knife by Salman Rushdie “Language was my knife.”

 

 

We would not be who we are today without the calamities of our yesterdays. (p.38) 

Knife, by Salman Rushdie, was surprisingly accessible to me because Midnight’s Children was somewhat of a challenge. I am neither a writer, nor a victim, but I have been greatly intrigued by his account of being stabbed on August 12, 2022, in Chautauqua, New York. Rushdie’s life was irrevocably changed; for one thing,  he has not been able to see out of his right eye since.

But, that doesn’t mean he has lost his insight. Using his fondness for free association, he draws connections that are not readily apparent. Take, for example, the description of his attacker:

My Assailant, my would-be Assassin, the Asinine man who made Assumptions about me, and with whom I had a near lethal Assignation…I have found myself thinking of him, perhaps unforgivably, as an Ass. However, for the purposes of this text, I will refer to him more decorously as “the A.” What I call him in the privacy of my home is my business. 

This is such beautiful alliteration, sentences that I would love to show the students in my class if I was still teaching. There are many more passages throughout this book which made me pause and stick a flag onto the page I was reading.

Taking us back in time, before the knife attack, but after the coronavirus onslaught in 2020, he and his new wife, Eliza, go to Italy.

Italy felt like a miracle, wrapping us in an old friend’s warm embrace. 

“Of course!” I say in my heart. “That’s exactly what Italy does!” 

And, I’m intrigued by the way he extrapolates on the usage of a knife. A wedding knife, he writes, is part of a ritual which joins people together. A kitchen knife is an essential part of cooking, and a Swiss Army Knife is a helper. 

Language, too, was a knife. It could cut open the world and reveal its meaning, its inner workings, its secrets, its truths. It could cut through from one reality to another. It could call bullshit, open people’s eyes, create beauty. Language was my knife.  

As he slowly begins to recover from the brutal stabbing, Salman Rushdie contemplates the meaning of freedom. 

I was in no state to talk about freedom. It was a word that had become a minefield. Ever since conservatives started laying claim to it (Freedom Tower, freedom fries), liberals and progressives had started backing away from it toward new definitions of the social good according to which people would no longer be entitled to dispute the new norms. Protecting the rights and sensibilities of groups perceived as vulnerable would take precedence over freedom of speech, which the Nobel laureate Elias Canetti had called “the tongue set free.” …The First Amendment was now what allowed conservatives to lie, abuse, to denigrate. 

It is hard for me not to take offense at Rushdie’s intense scorn for those who don’t adhere to his political persuasion. I have thought a lot about the paragraph above, gaining a fresh perspective towards what Rushdie calls the “perceived vulnerable,” and resentment that he believes conservatives “lie, abuse, and denigrate.” 

I cannot imagine a more appropriate city for Salman Rushdie to admire than New York. He described himself as a city boy, and where else, besides Los Angeles, could such a liberal person be content? He explains the joy of coming home, watching the World Cup on television, and finding the “news better in many ways. (Not the real news, which was full of insane gun violence and equally insane Trump and Trumpublicans, as usual.)”

He feels free to criticize conservatives, which he does liberally throughout the book, as any man without a strong faith would do. But, I don’t call him a Demonrat. I read his book, open to his ideas and compassionate about his suffering. Many of his observations I found powerful and brilliant. Yet I close the book knowing that I could never recommend it to my book club. There is too much political fodder to be thrown about, which is not nearly as interesting, to me, as recovering from an attempt on his life.

“Words are the only victors,” he writes. It is a lovely thought for writers and readers, alike. But, words are what Rushdie believes in, whereas I believe in the Lord. And therein lies our ideological difference, like a knife which divides.

Sunday Salon: Looking forward to Summer

Tomorrow is the first day of aquatics at Centennial Beach. It is my favorite day of Summer, because the water is never fresher, never cooler, than on this day. It is before the bus loads of campers come, jumping into the water with skin that has last been bathed who knows when. But, let’s not think of that…let’s think of the quarry-turned-pool that my brother and I have been swimming in since we were wee ones. It is glorious! 

Speaking of wee ones…that would not have been a normal part of my vocabulary had I not just finished Tana French’s book, The Hunter. Now I have an Irish dialect going pleasantly through my mind. I feel that I have been living in the small, fictional town in which her latest book is set, Ardnakelty; if it weren’t for the community of villagers, it would be great. Only a few are noble; the rest seem like small minded, malicious, gossipers. It is the perfect setting for a murder, and more complicated issues regarding relationships, written as only Tana French can. The Hunter is the second book set in Ardnakelty, with ex-policeman Cal Hooper, following The Searcher. It is the first book of my 20 Books of Summer. 

I am currently reading Salman Rushdie’s Knife, thoroughly transfixed by his tale of being stabbed in New York just before giving a speech on the safety of writers. In an America which is unlike any I have known before, I do not take our freedoms lightly. I do not even assume we have any of the rights we always did.

But, as Readerbuzz does in her own post, it is better to share three happy things of the week:

1. The low, steady thrum of the cicadas has a surprisingly calming effect on me.

2. My Canadian mother loved her Chicago-style hot dog which we ate on Memorial Day, which was an utter surprise to me. (She doesn’t like most American food.)

3. I have finally determined, once and for all, which journal system is the one I am most content with. More on that in an upcoming post.

May your new week be filled with joyous wonders, and Summer surprises.

 Sunday Salon posts are hosted by Readerbuzz here.

Memorial Day weekend begins, but first the cicadas…

Can you hear the cicadas where you live? When I’m cycling down the bike path, or walking along the river, there is a persistent thrum almost like alien spaceships on The Twilight Zone episodes we watch every New Year’s Eve. These aren’t locusts, I’m told, the insects of the eighth plague from which Pharaoh begged Moses to be free. These are specific broods of cicadas, and that is about all I want to know about them.

When I went to the public library to pick up a few books I had on hold, the children’s section had free coloring sheets from the Illinois Extension of the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. Always appeasing the child within, I picked up a few pages and happily spent the morning with it and my colored pencils.

But, there is a more serious aspect to this weekend. Memorial Day brings a somber mood to me. I grew up with the Vietnam War very up close. Our neighborhood suffered the loss of several young men, in what seems a cruel, and pointless war. (Aren’t they all?) Some of my dearest friends went to college so they would not be drafted. 

My father came home from the Korean War. My son escaped the war in Afghanistan when he was a Marine.  But, so many have not come home, have not escaped. I remember their sacrifice. This is not a weekend for only enjoying  picnics and parades. It is to remember that we are the country which is the land of the free, and the home of the brave, because of those who have fought to keep it that way. May we always remember.

Twenty Books of Summer. Or, Looking Forward To Fulfilling This Year’s Reading Events from the Blogging World.

 

One of the best things about blogging sporadically, as I have been doing, is coming back to the beloved events which continue on each year. I have spent the most joyous evening comprising my list for 20 Books of Summer, which happily include books for other challenges, as well as books promised to review for publishers, and books I’ve simply been longing to open.

For Paris in July 2024, I’ve chosen to read:

The Postcard by Anne Berest

The Paris Novel by Ruth Reichl

and

Paris to the Moon by Adam Gopnik, which is a reread for me.

For A Year With John Banville, I’ve chosen to read:

The Sea by John Banville

For Reading Orwell 2024, I’ve chosen to read:

1984 by George Orwell 

And for Moomin Week I’ve chosen to read:

Moominsummer Madness by Tove Jansson

And now we come to books I’ve promised to review for the publishers who sent them to me, including:

youthjuice by e.k. sathue

The Night of Baba Yaga by Akira Otani

Tasmania by Paolo Giordano

We’ll Prescribe You A Cat by Syou Ishida

The Lost Boy of Santa Chionia by Juliet Grames

Catalina by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio

The Backyard Bird Chronicles by Amy Tan

Women And Children First by Alina Grabowski

And for these books which have caught my eye and I’ve purchased on my own:

Her Side of The Story by Alba De Cespedes (because I loved Forbidden Notebook)

Long Island by Colm Toibin

The Hunter by Tana French 

I Am Homeless If This is Not My Home by Lorrie Moore

The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster, as I have never read it and was saddened to read of his death on May 7, 2024 at age 77.

If you’ve been counting, this is only 19 books. The 20th will be the book of Revelation, last book of the Bible, in preparation for Bible Study Fellowship International this Fall. We will be studying this book during the 2024-2025 year, for which I am so honored to lead a group of women. 

And so, as my grandfather would say after finishing a hearty meal, “That oughtta hold you!” Indeed, I think it shall. Except, how will I wait until June to begin?

Robert B. Parker and Spenser. Oh, that they still lived.

“Nothing makes a thriller look better than the International Booker Prize longlist this year.”

I found this thought, while flipping through my Hobonichi, written this March. While it may surprise you that I found the list of books chosen to contend for the International Booker Prize 2024 less than inspiring, it should not come as a surprise to learn of my passion for thrillers. Mysteries that are well written, that is. Mysteries like those written by Tana French, or Ken Follett, or most especially, Robert B. Parker.

I’d refer you to posts I’ve written about Robert B. Parker’s Spenser series, but they’re all deleted. So, I’ll have to tell you here, briefly, that Spenser is everything I love in a man.

He is brave and strong and courageous. He has integrity and compassion and excellence. He is witty and tender and tough all at the same time. Parker gives us a complete picture of this character, so real he seems born of flesh to me.

But, I also love that Parker speaks of things long gone, which I remember clearly. Like eating at a Hamburger Hamlet, or a kid turning on the television, and waiting for it to warm up before watching My Three Sons. I like being reminded of the styles in decades past, such as the horrible polyester suits with white leather belts, or mini skirts and jumpsuits. It’s such a wonderful, nostalgic gift to me.

I have read all of the Spenser books before, but this time, I am rereading them in order. Starting from the very first, The Godwulf Manuscript, (which, frankly, isn’t nearly as developed as the subsequent books in the series) and working my way to the very last Silent Night, which is the fortieth book.

Along the way we meet Hawk and Susan Silverman, Rachel Wallace and Paul Giacomin. Their relationships deepen and develop as we go along, and I am in my element, spending time as if with friends. As soon as I put down my iPad, I will pick up book number eight, A Savage Place. But, it will be hard to surpass what may be my favorite of all, which I have just finished: Early Autumn, in which Spenser assumes responsibility for a fifteen year old kid, rejected by his parents, to help him grow into a man of his own.

Ten Unread Books on My Shelves That I Want To…Plan To…WILL…Read.

If you are new here, you will discover that the books I am most passionate about are the ones which are in translation. The books that have been translated from their original language into English offer me perspectives and insights that I do not often find in books which are typical best sellers in the States. Books in translation give me a virtual trip, a true escape, and for all of these reasons, I reach for them over and over. Here are some of the ones I’ve most recently purchased, but laid aside as I read the longlist for the International Booker Prize 2024 longlist:

(Clicking on the image will take you to the publisher’s link for each title.)

Might I add that I am particularly eager for Her Side of The Story by Alba De Cespedes, above, as Forbidden Notebook by her “ticked all my boxes”. 

Have you read any of these? Have you even heard of any of these? You can be sure I’ll write about them at some point on my blog, if any seem to particularly catch your interest.

Find Top Ten Tuesday links for this topic here.

Sunday Salon for April 21, 2024

It is gorgeous here, in Illinois. So often, Spring is gone in an instant, overcome by rain or freezing temperatures. But, this year I am relishing the daffodils, the tulips, the Redbuds, and the Bradford Pear trees. Everything is a harbinger of hope, and fresh beginnings; no wonder April 1 was once the start of the New Year.

I have a new beginning myself, returning once again to Blogger. Wordpress said I was out of space, and so I came back to where it all began in 2006. This time, there are no old posts, only new ones yet to be written.

We had dinner with my son last night, in his new apartment. He cooked us Wild Caught Salmon, and grass-fed beef, with a side of stir fried vegetables. This son of mine, now age 33, brings to fruition this verse: “Train up a child in the way he shall go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.”  ~Proverbs 22:6 I struggled to believe this when he was in High School.

I have so enjoyed the 1937 Club this week. There are many books I did not get to, such as Ali and Nino by Kurban Said, or The Nutmeg Tree by Margery Sharp. I wanted to reread The Hobbit, and On The Banks of Plum Creek. But finishing the longlist for the International Booker prize longlist has taken precedence, and I was lucky to squeeze in How Then Do You Live? by Genzaburo Yoshino.

I’m off to read the reviews written for books published in 1937, left on Kaggsy’s site, as well as other posts for the Sunday Salon. May your new week be as beautiful as it is here.

How Do You Live? by Genzaburo Yoshino, translated from the Japanese by Bruno Navasky (#1937 Club)

 

I am coming in hot, with only a day to spare, for the 1937 Club this week. Having finished all that I can of the International Booker Prize 2024 longlist, it was a lovely thing to open How Do You Live? Published in 1937, it is a Japanese classic written for young readers. 

“Academy-Award winning animator Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, Howl’s Moving Castle) has called it his favorite childhood book and announced plans to make it the basis of his expected final film.” -inside cover flap

Like all the best books written for children, this book is perhaps more appreciated by adults. I remember opening A Wrinkle in Time when I was 12, and again when I was 23, and how much more meaningful it was to me the second time around. This is not to say, of course, that these books don’t strike us profoundly in our formative years.

Neil Gaiman writes, in his forward, that if had been given it as a small boy, he “would have found it puzzling or even dull: a book-length essay about how we live our lives, interrupted by the story of a pre-war schoolboy in Japan dealing with friendship and bullying, or a story about growing up, bravery, cowardice, social class and finding out who you are…In How Do You Live?, Copper, our hero, and his uncle are our guides in science, in ethics, in thinking. And in the way they take us, through a school story set in Japan in 1937, to the heart of the questions we need to ask ourselves about the way we live our lives.”

Those are very interesting topics to me:  being bullied, being brave, being a friend. They were as a child, they are now, for who isn’t looking for the best ways to live their lives?

Copper, nicknamed after Copernicus by his uncle, searches to find his way with his uncle’s help. Copper’s father has died, and he lives alone with his mother, but his uncle is a marvelous role model and friend. Through discussions and letters, he carefully considers how it is that we live. How, indeed, Copper can make wise choices.

Consider these quotes:

Even among adults, the human tendency is to think about things and form judgments with ourselves at the center remains deep-rooted.

No, when you are an adult, you will understand this. In the world at large, people who are able to free themselves from this self-centered way of thinking are truly uncommon…Most people slip into a self-interested way of thinking, become unable to understand the facts of the matter, and end up seeing only that which betters their own circumstances. (p. 21)

and this:

So when I see that you hate that which is low-minded, crude and prejudiced, and that you show respect for an honest, brave spirit - how shall I put it? That comes as a tremendous relief. (p. 45)

Well, I think you see my point. In between stories of Copper’s life, at school and with his friends, we read these beautiful lessons which cause me to think about my own life. How, then, am I living it? 

 

 Thanks to Kaggsy and Simon, who offer this week’s 1937 Club. 

 

April…the start of something fresh.

When Hobonichi released their April start planners, I was confused. Why start the year in April? And then I learned that Japan’s school year, as well as their fiscal year, begins in April to accommodate the needs of their agricultural sector.

For me, the start of the new year has always been September, since that is when the new school year begins in the States. But, I am perfectly willing to adopt a fresh beginning any time it is needed, and one of those times is now. 

I have been absolutely lousy at leaving comments on blogs. And, I have been sporadic, at best, in writing new posts. Since most of the space allotted to me for free at WordPress is now used up, I think the best thing to do is reach for a new beginning once again. Over here, where I began in 2006. 

You won’t find any of the old posts here. I’ve deleted them all, in an effort to truly begin anew. No more stories of my teaching days, or waiting for my son to come home at 3:00 a.m. We’re past that now, and I have new stories to tell. Like the new blooms in front of an old evergreen, it is time to blossom here. Again.

Welcome back.