the unamericans. molly antopol. (198)

i first heard of the unamericans from my friend, lisa.  molly antopol is her friend's daughter, and lisa attended a book party for it.  then, i saw it listed on flavorrpill, so i decided to check it out.

as i mentioned before, 2014 has become the year of the short story for me and i can honestly say this is the best collection of short stories, i have read this year.  yes, i dare say, even better than lorrie moore, well bark, on par with self-help.  in fact, as i read, i had the same feelings of awe and love as i did when i read jhumpa lahiri's interpreter of maladies.  i, became invested in every single story, and each story felt complete.  i read somewhere that each story felt like a novel and that is an excellent description of the unamericans (sorry i feel bad for plagiarizing someone, but i honestly don't know where i read that, but i am letting you know it was not my original thought.)  but this collection was truly great, it will definitely be in the top 5 (it's currently in the top 3) greatest books i have read this year.

surprisingly i enjoyed every story in this collections.  usually, there is one that is awkward and you wonder why it was included, or one that ended too abruptly, or took an odd turned that ruined the story, but this was not the case.  every story was extremely well-written, as i mentioned before, i became invested in every character and their stories.

though there was not a bad story, i will admit that the opening to "retrospective", the final story, worried me.  i thought i was going to become bored, but luckily eva's daughter played a small role.  by the end, with the mention of eva's smile in her paintings, i knew this tale had a tragic ending.    

but again every story was enjoyable in their own way and i as i looked through to find my favorites, i want to list them all.  but i will narrow it down.  highlights for me were "my grandmother tells me this story", "the quietest man", and "the unknown soldier".

"my grandmother tells me this story" is exactly that a story told by a grandmother to a granddaughter that is meddling in things she is too young to be worried about.  the grandmother shared about how she escaped from a uniform factory in nazi-occupied poland and met a young boy who would become the young girl's grandfather.  the grandfather was the leader of a gang of boys, yiddish underground, and though they derail trains and steal, he has a moral compass and only took what was needed.  i do not want to give too much away, but in an attempt to prove herself, the grandmother does something that she regrets and that will haunt her forever.  it is a sad, tale but the one of the boundaries that humans were pushed to during the holocaust.

"the quietest man" is the story of a young playwright and her father.  the father was nervous because his daughter wrote a play about their family and since he was absent during her childhood, he was worried that it will reveal him as a deadbeat dad.  he did not want to be ridicule though he knew that it would be a true portrayal.  however, in the end it was revealed that the daughter's play is actually in tribute to him.  he was part of an anti-government movement in prague and he and her mother along with two others published a journal.  when he was called in for questioning, he did not reveal anyone's name thus earning the nickname "the quietest man."  his daughter hoping to make herself a part of this important event, asked him if she was there during the meetings of those in charge of the journal.  sadly, he lies to her, which broke my heart and just demonstrated what a horrible father he was.  ironically he should have just kept quiet.

"the unknown soldier" is the story of an actor that was blacklisted and served time during the mccarthy era.  he is fresh out of prison and wanting to reconnect with his son.  i won't go into too much detail (i feel like i did on that last one and i really want people to read this collection.)

i can't stress enough that this is the best collection of short stories i read this year.  antopol was national book foundation's 5 under 35 honoree.  she is very deserving of this title and i look forward to seeing more from her.

little failure. gary schteyngart. (171)

when i read the flavorpill post recommending little failure as a must read for january, i hadn't read anything by gary shteynart, (i still haven't read anything by him other than this, my plan to read super sad true love story prior to this was spoiled because this book was due last tuesday.  yup, it cost me about $3.50 to read this book!) but with that cute cover and clever title, i decided to check it out.

even with my lack of familiarity with shteyngart's works, i was still able to enjoy his memoir.  plus it still revealed to me the not so shocking truth that shteyngart's fiction is primarily made up of his life (like all authors). since i have read a couple chapters of super sad true love story, i have to admit i did become confused between what i had read about lenny's parents and shteyngart's actual parents, which make sense because they are one and the same.  it was interesting to see that eunice was based on the korean school girls of his youth, prior to learning this i found her an odd character.  and now with this new background knowledge, i do look forward to reading the rest of shteynart's work, knowing who some of the characters are based on. 

the book was entertaining, it might be as flavorpill claimed, the best memoir i read this year but mostly because i might not read any other memoirs this year.  shteyngart is a great storyteller, very funny and witty.  for those of you that are unfamiliar with his background, shteynart is russian and jewish and immigrated to america with his family at a young age.  his memoir shares: his family history, his memories of russia, his education (from jewish grade school to a prestigious math and science academy to oberlin college), his works, how he became an writer and a family trip back to russia.  i enjoyed the stories of his youth more than i did his tales from college and breaking into the literary world.  i have to admit that he truly was horrible during his return to saturn phrase (but than again who isn't) but i can not believe how one-sided his relationship with his best friend john was, i mean to be honest, i guess i can because i have been the gary in friendships, but imagine my contributions being worth more than my demands.

but back to his childhood, i loved the story of his grandma galya motivating him to write a novel as a child, giving him a piece of cheese for every page written.  i also loved his teacher ms. s who had him read his novel to his class.  it was adorable how excited his class about his novel.  also the subject matter, sci-fi story on one level but a discussion of race relations on another, was quite advance for a child.  also it was interesting to see how his stories as an adult are not that different from his stories as a child.

i also enjoyed seeing the world filtered through his russian immigrant mindset especially pop culture.  for example wondering about "the origins of the white slave alice" on the brady bunch or "is it really possible that a country as powerful as the united states would not be able to locate two of its best citizens lost at sea" in gilligan's island.  the book is filled with gems like this not only of pop culture but american life in general.

and maybe it's because i miss my grandma so much, but i loved reading about his grandmas.  my grandma bea always encouraged me to write and draw pictures like his grandma galya.  my grandma was just like his grandma polya provided my sister and i with the best desserts and snacks.  however, her providing must have came with limits for her.  but two amazing grandmas that reminded me of my one exceptional one!

i also enjoyed reading about his family's trip back home to russia.  his father opening up to him about his time in a psychiatric ward.  in that light, i read his father's comment about his wish that shteyngart was gay instead of seeing a psychoanalyst, as him worried that his son would be mistreated as he was in russia.  also partially because his father must have partly blamed his genetics for his son needing help.  it was crazy to hear how cruel his parents were to him but it was a tough love, something they did to help him survive.  also anger was an expression of love from his parents which shteyngart learned to deal with thanks to his psychoanalysis.

oh and one last thing, that story about his ex that stabbed her ex with a hammer!! that was insane!

all in all, it was an enjoyable read. i wouldn't call it a must read but it's good book to check out, if you like his work.  it has inspired to read the all of shteygnart.  it also inspired me to read nils and the wild geese and the boy from ufo, two books he loved as a child.  i also look forward to reading chang-rae lee's book, native speaker, because he aided shteyngart in getting his book deal (also because his new book has been mentioned everywhere.) and last but not least i have been inspired to one day visit the chesme church, which was a focal point of this memoir and thus shteyngart's life.  it's a truly lovely building:

tales of a fourth grade nothing. superfudge. judy blume (157-158)

i recently purchased a superfudge tee from out of print, which inspired me to revisit judy blume's beloved classics.

since superfudge is a sequel to tales of a fourth grade nothing, my revisit had to start there.

in tales of a fourth grade nothing, we are introduce to peter hatcher and his family, which includes his mom, dad and of course his little brother, two-year-old terror, fudge.  before i go on i have to share that as a kid, fudge's antics were a little annoying, you felt bad for peter (his poor poster board for school!), but fudge was so crazy you couldn't help but like him.  however, as an adult, all i could think of was how did the hatchers end up with such a horrible child!  peter is well-mannered and caring kid.  fudge, on the other hand, is the type of kid i give dirty looks to when i see them misbehaving.  i also silently judge the parent for being a horrible and ignorant person for raising a indecent little monster that will contribute to the world's ultimate demise because only stupid people are breeding (harvey danger reference).  if i was in that movie theater with fudge, would have definitely demanded my money back!  but i mean fudge did have his moments, i thought it was adorable how he wanted to be a bird when he grew up and it was kind of funny how he would only eat if served like a dog.

here are some of my favorite parts. i loved when father poured fudge's dinner on his head, i viewed it bad parenting but didn't stop it from being hilarious.  the story of the birthday party was too much, all i can say is that kids are a mess.  also peter was right about the fat kid not needing a second helping of cake!  the story of the commercial totally reminded me of the full house episode when stephanie steals the commercial from dj.

the one thing that i couldn't believe was the ending!  how did fudge swallow a turtle?!?!? i mean i didn't believe until the x-ray showed it!  i kept on thinking, why are they getting an ambulance there is no way he could have swallowed a turtle, but fudge did.  but i mean it was the perfect ending to the book, peter gets a new dog that he names turtle and fudge lives!  btw kudos to judy blume for starting and ending the book with pet turtles!

*tales of a fourth grade nothing was part of flavorpill's 50 books every parent should read to their kids.

i learned via the dedication, a lot fans asked judy blume for a sequel so she made one, superfudge.

she also did a great job of referring tales of a fourth grade nothing in this one!  

in this book, the hatchers have a new edition to the family, baby tootsie (i loved how peter pointed how his siblings candy inspired names).  when peter found about the baby being on the way, he freaked out! but i mean if you had fudge as a sibling you would too!  aside from the baby, some new changes are that father decided to quit work and write a book and mom decided to go back to work (way to go mom!  she also wanted to study art history, double way to go mom!) and the whole family moves to jersey!

of course fudge is fudge, craziness follows them to jersey.  again i was outraged by some of things fudge did like playing hide-n-seek with tooties.  it freaked me out to imagine him carrying an infant and hiding her in closets!  and of course him kicking his first kinder teacher and calling her rat face though she was totally uptight but still

he should respect his elders!

but fudge did have some great moments.  i could not get over how cute he was about the santa letter writing and then of course telling peter he only pretended for their parents.  also the story of the visiting author and the picture was hilarious.  and fudge's use of big vocabulary words was great too!

i also loved the new people they met in jersey, well except that annoying kid daniel.  i really liked alex but primarily because of his halloween painting!! loved that he was jimmy's dad's painting anita's anger.  how clever! i might have to steal that costume idea from him!  i also liked mrs. muldour and her worm cookies!

and i have to add there were so many things in the book that adult me appreciated.  i got the charm of their jersey home esp the bathtub thought peter hated it.  also their use of the garden and growing organic!  i also liked how the parents were honest with fudge about where babies come from.  

all in all, two wonderful books that have stood the test of time.  i loved them just as much as fourth/fifth grade me loved them!!  can't wait to pick up fudge-a-mania on my next library trip!

the descendants. kaui hart hemmings.

i picked up kaui hart hemmings' "the descendants" at the beale library book sale for $1.  i am not one for movie cover books but figured for a $1, i'll give it a go. i am glad i did.

i didn't see "the descendants" the movie in theaters but i wanted to, especially after all of the awards it won.  i did see it a couple of weeks ago and loved it.  i was surprised by how sad it was, i was in tears at the end.  the trailer was misleading making it seem like a comedic drama with clooney running to his friends house and the little sister in the older sister's underwear.  but it wasn't.  but it was still a wonderful movie and i couldn't wait to read the book.

and of course the book did not disappoint.  it gave more depth to the story and characters but the movie was a great adaption and did the book justice.  i will add that i enjoyed the added bonus of reading it in george clooney's voice since he played matt king.  and random little note, loved how in the book, scottie wore a mrs. clooney shirt which matt did not understand.  i wish they put that in the movie.

of course like any book turned film, i enjoyed the book more, primarily because i enjoyed king's narrative.  he was witty, wise, and utterly clueless at time about how to get his life together.  he was so honest about life, family and love that his faults were endearing instead of tragic.  i enjoyed reading about his dealing with his daughters.  i'm not parent but it must difficult to raise kids today.  i found it sweet yet comedic    how he read up on the blogs and googled for the best child-rearing/dealing with teens methods.  i can imagine myself doing this as a parent and hope that most parents do because let's face it, all parents are clueless.  kids don't come with instruction manuals. he wanted to give his daughters the best and though his methods were odd ie the banana game, letting alex smoke and teaching scottie how to flip off people; he wasn't the worst parent or guardian, i have ever read about. 

 

though i will add that i was worried about scottie.  she just seemed too mature for her age.  i don't know if it was due to her older sister alex or the fact that kids nowadays are exposed to too much sex.  but i was shocked by what came out of her mouth.   i have a 10 year old brother and can not imagine him knowing or saying anything that scottie did.  it was sad that she though she was 10, she wasn't really a child.  i also worried about scottie's desperation for a good story.  her man-o-war story was unbelievable and scary, but then again she had a mother that demanded attention and can lead one to be delusional about life.  i felt bad but was grateful that matt was on track to giving her a more stable environment.

a character i liked more in the books was sid.  i did enjoy reading about his stoner philosophic ramblings in the car but there was a lot more depth to him than in the movie.  we discover that though his father had died he saw it as a blessing because his father had molested his friend.  his ability to forgive his dead father is one of the factors that helps matt forgive his wife for cheating.  even as young as he is, he understands you can't hate the dead but you also can not be ignorant of how they really were.   as a result, in the novel, it is sid that contacts brian's wife to tell her what happen.

it's interesting because though he seemed like silly stoner kid, sid really did help matt through all of this tough time.  what an unlikely source for wisdom on life and death but he provided it.

in the end, matt forgave his wife for her infidelity and was ready to begin a new chapter with his daughters.  i won't go into anything more because hopefully you have seen the movie.  if not, you should and definitely check out the book.

i will add this novel totally made me wish i was in hawaii.  it also gave me a craving for malasadas.