Shelf Life Book Reviews

Like watching an old comedian tell the same tired jokes: in other words, slow death

It’s no secret that I consider myself a J Maarten Troost fangirl, or that I raved over his first book, The Sex Lives of Cannibals. So it shouldn’t be a surprise that when I saw a chance to read his sophomore offering, Getting Stoned with Savages, I was overjoyed. Unfortunately, I was soon very, very disappointed. The second book was like a sloppier, more boring version of the first, like watching n old comedian years after his prime tell the same old jokes (I’m looking at you, Jerry Seinfeld).

Genre: nonfiction, travel

Plot: Troost and his wife, Sylvia, head off to the South Pacific islands of Vanuatu and Fiji to have more exciting adventures subdued experiences in Oceania. I feel like I should be able to say more than a one-sentence summary of the plot, but I’m afraid that’s really all there is to it.

Structure: Fourteen chapters with amusing paragraph titles roughly organized chronologically. I liked it better when he organized it by theme, such as “Parasites I Have Encountered in the South Pacific.”

Execution:  I expected this book to be The Sex Lives of Cannibals round 2, packed with uncontrollably funny anecdotes that would leave me in disbelief and hysterics. Instead, it was mostly cynical, self-depricating wit interspersed between lengthy treatises on Oceanic politics. I do not care about Oceanic politics. I want “what strange thing will he eat next?” and “they did WHAT in the ocean?” If I wanted South Pacific politics I’d watch a foreign film or something.

Mildly entertaining (especially his first encounter with kava), it was still an amusing read but certainly not the rapturous adventure Sex Lives of Cannibals was. Whether this is because Troost became more mellow himself or because Vanuatu is just not as jarring as Kiribati, I do not know. I suspect a little of both, honestly, and it does somewhat diminish my expectations for his newest book, Lost on Planet China.

Theme: Fiji, Vanuatu, kava, cannibalism, politics/colonialism, killer centipedes

Read this if you are a more mature person than me and can be stimulated by in-depth accounts of colonialism

2 out of 5 stars

Other works:
Go back and read the review, I mentioned them both!

If you liked this, you  might also like:
National Geographic?

I realized today that it actually might be more practical to make my “weekly stack” posts on Saturday instead of Friday, since I usually go to the library Saturday afternoons and because I can’t resist an awesome alliteration. Plus, if I wanted to be really snooty and draw on my classical education, Saturday honors Roman god, Saturn, who is analogous to Greek god Kronos, the Titan father of Zeus and associated deity of time.  And we all know that reading a book thoughtfully is a time-consuming endeavor.

Today’s library trip was different, and better, because it involved Nick! So, here is our stack divided into his and hers:

His:
The Art of Intrusion: The Real Stories Behind the Exploits of Hackers, Intruders and Deceivers
Saving Face: How to Lie, Fake, and Maneuver Your Way Out of Life’s Most Awkward Situations

Hers:
Autobiography of a Geisha
Evening in the Palace of Reason: Bach Meets Frederich the Great in the Age of Enlightenment
The Strain (it’s actually not that thick, it’s just large print…should I feel bad about taking a large print book if I don’t need it?)
A Study in Scarlet

Unclaimed:
City at the End of Time (we’ll see who actually ends up reading it)

Well, you know what they say: the couples that read together stay together. Ok, I don’t know anyone who says that, but they should, because I look forward to some wonderful Starbucks-fueled evenings when we are each reading in that quiet intimacy that marriage affords.

A shattering view into a forgotten aspect of World War II

One of my favorite things about Shelfari’s new book pages is the section towards the bottom where, like Amazon and my own humble site, readers can suggest similar books. When I looked up The Time Traveler’s Wife, one entry in particular surprised me: what did a book about the Holocaust and French Jews have to do with a time-traveling librarian? Turns out a lot, actually.

Genre: fiction, but I had to remind myself of it constantly

Plot: In Paris, 1942, eleven-year-old Sarah is part of the Vel’ D’Hiv arrests of Jews in Paris. Not knowing of the horror that will inevitably fall on her and several thousand other French Jews, Sarah locks her baby brother, Michel, into a secret cabinet in their apartment. Sixty years later in 2002, American journalist Julia Jarmond is researching the Vel’ D’Hiv events and is shocked to learn that most Parisians have never heard of this event and do not care to remember it. But even more shocking is the ways that these events will shake her and her family to its core.

Structure: Initially the rough, choppy chapters jump between Sarah’s narrative (told in boldface print) in 1942 and Julia’s in 2002. Sarah’s part is told in third person, and Julia’s in first. As the story unfolds, gradually Sarah’s narratives diminish and disappear altogether. The chapters remain rather jarring, however, as they vary in length and close somewhat unexpectedly.

Execution: Brilliant. Mesmerizing. Tragic and beautiful, like Ophelia in the river. There are many, many ways to describe how superbly executed this book is, and I can barely contain myself from gushing about this flawless book. Not only are the events in 1942 described in painful, haunting detail, but the modern Paris comes alive just as well. Perhaps even more compelling, de Rosnay has managed to take an event which should have very little mystery–a Jewish family arrested in World War II–and turns it into a suspenseful rush. I never predicted how the plot would twist and tumble (and that’s saying something, I think, when one reads as much fiction as I do), and still it was carried out with exquisite prose. My one complaint–and perhaps it shouldn’t even be that–is that most of the foreign language phrases used are not translated; perhaps though, this should not be corrected, as it would break the “fourth wall” illusion so perfectly carried out despite the rapidly turning pages. What I found particularly chilling about this book is the contrast of the two families–the Starzinskys, torn apart by war yet bound by love, and the Tezacs, bound by marriage and torn apart by secrecy and pride.

Theme: Paris, New York, Orleans, World War II, Holocaust/Shoah, families

Read this if you have never studied the Vel’ D’Hiv children, or have an interest at all in World War II–it is an unforgettable tale that will put a new face on the war we too often forget to think of

5 out of 5 stars

Other works:
Shockingly, this is Tatiana de Rosnay’s debut novel

If you liked this, you  might also like:
David Guterson’s equally haunting, equally suspensful Snow Falling on Cedars (which also happens to be about World War II and discrimination. I think they’d make nice bookends in WWII fiction)
Jane Yolen’s Briar Rose