Black Rain by Masuji Ibuse--Literature and War Readalong 2012

I am extremely grateful to Caroline of Beauty is a Sleeping Cat and her Literature and War Readalong for steering me toward Black Rain, an exquisite Japanese novel about the bombing of Hiroshima and the horrifying days and months that followed. Fortunately I was able to download it onto my Nook, because my entire library system (30+ libraries) did not have a single copy.

First off, I think I should say that for decades I have been intensely interested in the effect of war on civilians. My book Women during the Civil War (2004), included dozens of my essays dealing with the effect of the Civil War on women and children. I mention it because I have studied the effect of war on civilians in many, many wars. Yet I find it interesting to note that I have devoted the most extensive study to the effect of war on civilians during the Second World War. It has been a life study, actually, starting at about age 11, though I have never written about it. I should, because there is not an issue that I feel more strongly about.

As an American, my study of the effects of the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on Japanese civilians, who were predominantly women, children, and elderly men, as are all civilians in war, has been horrifying to me. What is even more horrifying are the extremes that our political leaders will resort to to achieve their wartime goals. 

I think the most horrific aspect of Black Rain is the details that relate to the immediate effects of the atomic blast on people and animals, as well as the long-term effects of radiation. I remember reading John Hersey's classic Hiroshima when I was twelve and in the seventh grade, a school assignment. I was rivetted by the account, about what my country had done to the Japanese people, but I wanted more graphic details, curiously enough. I could tell that Hersey was doing his best, but I knew he was holding back. So many Americans believed and still believe, I'm sorry to say, that the atomic bombings saved millions of American lives. My mother told me long, long ago that in August, 1945, like so many millions of American soldiers, my father had been shipped out to wait to board ships and planes for the invasion of Japan. He had his orders. But the bombings turned those orders to dust--or to ash, and the boats turned around to head home.

To me, because of my prior readings, Black Rain was not so much horrifying as it was exquisitely painful in its poignancy. How often I have read diaries and first-hand narrative accounts of civilians who have struggled on, who have overcome trauma, excruciating pain, and devastating injuries and yet have never lost sight of their humanity--to continue to take care of their loved ones, their neighbors, and their communities--even when they have no resources to draw upon. Shigematsu in Black Rain was such a person. I agree with Caroline about the poignancy of his observations of nature and his reactions to the effects of the bombing were fascinating and terribly sad.

This is the inevitable legacy of war. The fact is, there are always far more civilians who suffer than soldiers. And I have enormous sympathy for the latter as well, who, for the most part, have no choice about their futures.

Reading A Little From Lots of Books

After Gone Girl, I've started S.J. Bolton's Dead Scared. Have you read any of her novels? I'm still in the beginning chapters, but I like the premise of the crime and the setting--Cambridge University. At least I can picture the action because I have visited the area twice in my life, once at age 19 and again at 32, on our honeymoon whirlwind tour of Ireland and Britain.

Do you at times feel overwhelmed by the volume of books being published all over the globe each season? I do, I do, I do! I feel it especially because I like to read nonfiction as well as fiction, and the buzz about the (supposedly) new acclaimed books amounts to a roar!

Last night I picked up Jane Fonda's memoir, which I bought at least six years ago. I wanted to read the chapter about the classic film On Golden Pond, in which she starred with Katherine Hepburn and her father, Henry Fonda. Jane produced the film, and did everything in her power to bring the cast together despite the heart disease assailing her father and the limitations of Hepburn. But what is most illuminating are her discussions about her relationship with her father and with Hepburn. Tom Hayden, the legendary radical activist, was her husband at the time, and he was ensconced in a "camp" nearby with legions of his colleagues, much to the disdain of Hepburn, and, I suppose, her father.

On Golden Pond is a movie I revisited while I was "down and out for the count" this year. Thank goodness for the television in my bedroom during that time. I was so moved by it this time, as I reminisced about the relationship of my Aunt Ruth and Uncle Will, twelve years' my parents' senior. This film was their story, and I'm so glad they were alive to see it and declared it "their film" for all of the younger members of the family.

But I also know, from seeing Jane Fonda interviewed about this film, that the daughter character she played was as close as can be to her real-life relationship with her father.  Distant, suffering from a lack of will on both sides to improve things, a long-standing stand-off, if you will. The movie broke some of the ice for them, but not all of it. I can't imagine how Henry managed to maintain such a stolid distance and silence about Jane's considerable theatrical accomplishments. But, like many men of his generation, he found it nearly impossible to express his feelings of love toward his family.

It was Henry Fonda's last film and won all kinds of awards, including the Oscar for Best Picture, I believe.

Now I'm searching for biographies of Woody Guthrie, who is experiencing a vast revival at the moment (very popular among folkies in Edinburgh, by the way!), undoubtedly a result of the Occupy Movement and The 99 Percent vs. The Richest One Percent Movement. I'm hoping to pick up Joe Klein's, supposedly definitive 1980 Guthrie biography tomorrow, but I really want to read Ramblin' Man. It's just harder to get. And Joe Klein, the Newsweek journalist? No one will ever forget that he penned Primary Colors as "Anonymous." Yet, according to reviews over a long period of time, he did a thorough, scholarly-type bio of Guthrie. So I'll check it out.  More later!

What Do You Read When There's No Time to Read?

Yes, I'm going a bit batty. This summer I've had so little time to read. Recovering physical fitness has had to take a priority, as has getting my financial and actual house in order, but I'm happy to report that at least I'm regaining strength and agility sooner than I thought possible.

So the squeeze to read:
I've been suckered in by Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. I downloaded it onto the Nook. Unfortunately, these psychological thrillers have proved addictive lately.

Late this afternoon I've searched for a good interview with Flynn to post here. I'd settle for decent, but even that's been hard to find. How about not too bad?

Clea Koff's Freezing

I've been waiting to read this procedural for a few months. Freezing is the first book in a new series featuring two women who are forensic anthropologists. I think I may have discovered this book on Petrona, but I'm not sure. In addition to review excerpts, Clea Koff's website includes a chapter from Freezing as well as an entertaining description of her favorite mysteries. I'm fascinated by the science of forensics, so I hope to learn more about it, particularly because Clea Koff is a forensic anthropologist.

What's Happened to Me? Preparing to Teach Women's Studies

Yes, I'll be teaching "Introduction to Women's Studies" next semester, in addition to my classes in Children's Literature. The Women's Studies course will be the first class I've taught online, which, I understand from my colleagues, is a great deal of work, especially the first time around.

As I prepare to teach this course, I've been reading a great deal in the area of U.S. women's history, and about the status of modern women from the point of view of economics, American culture, politics, and sociology. I can tell you that my studies have deeply affected me.

I realize and have long been aware that as a woman who has experienced a great deal in four decades of adulthood and who has seen much, much more, that to maintain my sanity, I have had to do what the vast majority of women do, which is to ignore, look the other way, sweep under the rug, and turn the other cheek when it comes to dealing with all the ways this society so boldly discriminates against women and girls, is so blindly prejudiced against women, in the ways it refuses to protect women and girls from violence, and in all the ways it so determinedly stacks the deck against women and girls, most especially against women and girls who live in poverty. Have I used enough cliches this evening? The run-on sentences are marvelous as well. Guess I'll have to work on that later, gator.

Whew! Here are Some Books: In Our Time: Memoir of a Revolution by Susan Brownmiller, Flat Broke with Children: Women in the Age of Welfare Reform by Sharon Hays, Nickel and Dimed:On Not Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich (a spellbinding, must-read, first-person study about women in poverty--the author went undercover, hardscrabble-style, and lived as a woman with zero money--don't miss this--it will change your life!), The Vagina Monologues (fun and enlightening) by Eve Ensler, Appetites: Why Women Want by Carol Knapp. 

Just today I was half listening to the tv news Ken was watching, which was discussing the appalling statistics of women who have been and are being raped, sexually assaulted, and sexually harrassed in the US military. Military brass have been completely ineffectual in controlling this problem.

And have you happened to catch an episode or two of the 26-year-old Lena Dunham's extraordinary HBO series Girls? (Also available on iTunes.) Thank you, Lena, for saying it exactly like it is for millions of young women. And thank you, HBO, for being bold enough to broadcast a program, written and produced by a very young woman, that runs counter to the way Hollywood and mainstream US Television Culture mistakenly portray American women. I salute you!  Bravo and Brava!

Wicked Heat and Mary Gordon

The sudden, scorching heat surprised me by how fiercely it took my body by storm. I have been a dishrag. I tromped downstairs in the mornings at 8am to find the thermometer at 82 degrees on Wednesday and Thursday. Since we've lived here, it's never been so hot so early in the morning.

I'm at the tail end of Rosamund Lupton's Afterwards, and it has been a pure pleasure all the way through. I know I'm going to be looking for her first novel, Sisters, very soon.

To help me through the withdrawal symptoms and panic I experience when I near the conclusion of books I've loved, I've started reading The Love of My Youth: A Novel, published in 2011 by Mary Gordon, now available in paperback. Where was I last year when this novel first appeared? I had no clue, or I would have read it sooner. Miranda and Alex, both in their late fifties, meet again in Rome, where in their early twenties they were passionately in love. Gordon's writing is exquisite, and if you've ever wondered what it would be like to reconnect with a man or a woman that you were so in love with in young adulthood, then I urge you to read this novel.

Mary Gordon is an accomplished American writer and the winner of numerous awards. Her works published by Random House are the titles most widely available, but she has other, equally fine, books published at other houses. If a book about late-middle-aged people seems too old for you, please do try her novel Spending, one of my favorite novels. It's a delicious, literary romp! 

The Struggle to Read & Rosamund Lupton

An "Out of Sync" Life is how it is with me these days. I so want to read more than a bit, but sitting on the couch or anywhere else reminds me too much of the 3 months I was off my feet. So I immediately seek to "do" something, anything at all, aside from an activity that has me sitting in one place. I will say that, as a result, the house is starting to look better than it has in months and months, though much more must be done, before I can rise above my region-wide reputation that I clean house only once every five years.

This summer feels completely different from my 2011 "Summer of the Book," when it was hard to get me to do much else other than read and hike a bit. I stretched my reading horizons far beyond what I had ever experienced. (I'm incredibly nostalgic about last summer.)

Susan, our town librarian, knows all about my reading plight, so she saved a book for me that she declared was one I wouldn't be able to put down. It's Rosamund Lupton's Afterwards, published in the US in the first week of June. Susan read it in nothing flat, and then gave it to me--thank you, Susan! You may recall that Lupton is the UK author of last summer's Sister, which got rave reviews. Did you read it or hear about it, by any chance?

I must admit I find Afterwards an intensely compelling and highly original read. It's a book that's difficult to categorize, but it definitely lands in the psychological thriller department, though I don't know when I've identified with a female protagonist in a thriller more powerfully. I may never have been a mother, but no book has made me feel more like one than Afterwards has.

On to Asa Larsson & Pad Thai

My next read is Asa Larsson's Until Thy Wrath Be Past, a Nook title I purchased last October when Maxine of Petrona (oh, how I enjoy her blog!) gave it an excellent review; in fact, it was one of her favorite titles of 2011. And for some reason, I'm only just getting to it now. But after loving Expats, I'm primed for digging my teeth into more crime thrillers set in Europe.

French Open time: A happy 26th birthday to Rafa, who did not have to play today. (We share the special day, but I cringe to think I'm more than twice his age.) Still! I'm determined to learn how to play tennis this summer. I played a bit in high school, but that was ancient history. I'm sorry to say I can't hope to draw on skills acquired when I was 16. So, is there a book in this? You bet. I'm vowing to read Arthur Ashe's biography Days of Grace this summer. Of all 20th-century American tennis champions, he is the most revered and respected here, because of the way he gently and forcefully brought media attention to the victims of the AIDS epidemic and worked toward breaking down barriers of fear and prejudice about the disease, which, sadly, he acquired via a blood transfusion.

Pad Thai? I'm dying to make this dish and I'm terrified. I understand from most people that the first attempt is rarely a winner. I have all the ingredients, however, and it's a cool evening (58 degrees). So why not give it a whirl? What's the worst thing that could happen? A kitchen catastrophe, I suppose.

Postscript: Thanks to my new cookbook, Quick and Easy Thai (Chronicle Books) by Nancie McDermott, I managed to concoct a Pad Thai that was deliciously edible, though I'm looking forward to doing a lot of tweaking of the recipe in future weeks. Do check out this cookbook--I really like it!

Book Trip to Northshire!

Our Sasha had a bit of expected doggie surgery on Tuesday, so Ken and I found ourselves with time on our hands and no need to hurry home to care for our beloved pooch. So at the last minute we forged forth on a birthday trip for me to Manchester, Vermont, to visit New England's best bookstore, Northshire Bookshop. (To be honest, my birthday is not until June 3, but I'm ready to celebrate any time.)

It's a lovely drive to Manchester, through eastern New York's and western Vermont's beautiful farm country--the landscape so different from our mountainous forests in the Adirondacks. It was a hot humid day, nearly 90 degrees.

At Northshire, I wandered from floor to impeccably organized floor, finding dozens and dozens of books that interested me. It surprised me that I was so clear about the ones I wanted to purchase. My most expensive choice was Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia, 5th edition, published in 2008. In 1971, my older brother Doug bought me the second edition, published in 1967, which I used and adored all through my college years. I have a recently-acquired-library-book-sale-used paperback version of the third edition, which I'm not that fond of, BUT I have extraordinarily high praise for the beautiful hardcover 5th edition I found at Northshire. More than ever before, the fifth edition has a huge emphasis on World Literature and global authors. Perfect for my interests. It was expensive but well worth it as a reference that will be used more than any other in my library.

I will mention one other book I bought that I have already started reading--it's a history of the American forests--and for some reason the title is escaping me at the moment. I think it's American Canopy, with a subtitle I can't recall.

I'm reading the final pages of Expats by Chris Pavone. I have loved it and highly recommend it!