Book of the Day Roundup: March 14-18, 2022
Hakim’s Odyssey
Book 2: From Turkey to Greece
Fabien Toulmé
Hannah Chute, translator
Graphic Mundi
Hardcover $29.95 (264pp)
978-1-63779-008-3
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon
A Syrian refugee experiences financial difficulties, family separation and loss, and a dangerous sea crossing in this second volume of Hakim’s Odyssey.
Forced to flee Syria, Hakim now lives in Turkey with his wife, Najmeh, and his in-laws. He has a son, Hadi. But the employment situation is bleak, and Najmeh’s father decides to buy a fake passport and go to France. Once he’s settled, he sends for his wife and daughter; Hakim remains in Turkey with Hadi. The separation is meant to be short, but unexpected problems stymie Hakim and Hadi’s hopes for a reunion with their family. They’re forced to make a frightening, illegal boat crossing into Greece.
Hakim’s arrival in Turkey is summarized in three pages of expert, condensed storytelling. The succinct writing also conveys the details of Hakim’s plight in Turkey: caring for his young son alone, learning about the death of his father, and the hazards of dealing with smugglers. The book captures Hakim’s emotional turmoil and doubts through visuals that are both dynamic and subtle, as when, in successive panels, he pounds his mattress in frustration before curling up on the bed in despair.
Hakim is an everyman, but he also cuts a heroic figure, displaying intelligence and resilience. This second volume of Hakim’s Odyssey is an incredible story about maintaining hope despite facing overwhelming odds.
PETER DABBENE (February 27, 2022)
When I Sing, Mountains Dance
Irene Solà
Mara Faye Lethem, translator
Graywolf Press
Softcover $16.00 (208pp)
978-1-64445-080-2
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon
Cobbling together the story of a place from local lore, fairy tale remnants, and natural memories, Irene Solà’s novel When I Sing, Mountains Dance is intoxicating.
Homesteads dot a mountain high in the Pyrenees, climbing up to a village whose residents have weathered wars and tragedies, knit together by the myths and memories of their shared pasts. Among the village’s generations of healers, poets, butchers, and giants, there dwell spirits and sprites who interact with the populace. In one age, lightning strikes a moody farmer, whose foraged goods then feed the ghosts of women accused of witchcraft; the farmer’s wife, once a city dweller, has to reconstruct her future in the wake of her loss. The space opened by her mourning is filled by the witches’ musings, which themselves give way to the memories of the woodland fauna, and of the mountain itself; later, the farmer’s children encounter new challenges as they traipse into the modern age.
The novel’s poetics are of a primordial sort, encompassing both geographical upheavals and the detritus left behind by outside conflicts. A girl struggles with her uncommon coming of age, pulling dead grenades from the river and pretending that the couple she spies on is magical; disaster befalls friends out on a hunt. Visitors arrive, romanticizing the locals; the locals resist their clumsy inveigling, knowing that visitors fade.
Though the story shifts with each chapter, musing on the gifts and limitations of life on the mountain from various perspectives, it always flows back into a traceable line. Happiness and sorrow are complex prospects in these wilds, where history only passes through; and even as the mountain dwellers cling to the heirlooms of their singular place, the mountain itself anticipates their eventual dispersion. When I Sing, The Mountains Dance is an uncommon novel set in a singular place.
MICHELLE ANNE SCHINGLER (February 27, 2022)
Mushroom Rain
Laura K. Zimmermann
Jamie Green, illustrator
Sleeping Bear Press
Hardcover $17.99 (32pp)
978-1-5341-1150-9
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon
Watercolors and digital paints in every hue under the stormy sky are used to tell the story of an underappreciated forest dweller: mushrooms. Dreamy illustrations portray a variety of mushrooms with an eye for detail, and the titular “mushroom rain” is a stunning spread of star-speckled droplets splashed against a gray-and-blush sky. The book provides educational information about varieties of mushrooms and the creatures that eat them, as well as activities for budding mycologists to have some fun with fungi.
DANIELLE BALLANTYNE (February 27, 2022)
Dear Queer Self
An Experiment in Memoir
Jonathan Alexander
Acre Books
Softcover $19.00 (180pp)
978-1-946724-46-5
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon
In Dear Queer Self, Jonathan Alexander zeroes in on the turbulent years of his early adulthood, during which he came to terms with his sexuality, recreating them with the help of hindsight. Adapting a creative approach and “inhabiting the space between the real and the imagined,” his radiant memoir takes the form of wry, concise letters to his younger self, illumining the queer scene of the 1980s and 1990s.
Alexander grew up shy in the American South. He was aware that his Uncle Glen was gay and perhaps died of AIDS, and he sought to distance himself from this—even dredging up a false memory of sexual abuse under the care of a counselor. During his college years, he dated men and women. A literature scholar focusing on poets, including Wilfred Owen and Walt Whitman, he married a woman in 1993, but continued to fantasize about men. After he came out as bisexual, he divorced; he had his first long-term gay relationships.
The narration is a triumph, establishing instant intimacy. Alexander serves as simultaneous director, guide, and archivist. He describes his drunken escapades and masturbatory habits in raw detail. There is a laser focus on a compact span of time—evoked by the pop songs that give each of the short chapters their titles—and scenes set in gay bars and university classrooms are cinematic and rich.
The retrospective point of view emphasizes the interplay of then and now: “Future you will blush at the pretentiousness” of a lecture that Alexander gives, for instance. Here, coming out is the start of a new life, representing a complete change in one’s perception by others. From passing as straight to attending Pride parades and championing queer studies on his campus, the book commemorates this total identity shift.
Dear Queer Self is an intense, daring coming-of-age—and coming out—memoir.
REBECCA FOSTER (February 27, 2022)
Come As You Are
Jennifer Haupt
Central Avenue Publishing
Hardcover $27.00 (320pp)
978-1-77168-225-1
Buy: Amazon
In Jennifer Haupt’s keen-edged, intimate novel Come As You Are, an intense, imperfect bond yields to more expansive resilience.
Skye and Zane first meet in 1987. Growing up in 1990s Seattle, they watch their offbeat city become an indie culture mecca, with grunge hyped into chic fashion and record label scouts prowling the clubs, looking for the next Pearl Jam or Nirvana.
Skye and Zane plan to go to Los Angeles, where Zane can become a rock star, and artistic Skye can sketch “Picasso-esque portraits.” But then Skye’s sister dies, and Skye and Zane’s friendship deepens. After Skye’s unexpected pregnancy, the responsibilities of parenting overwhelm Zane, and he abandons Skye and their daughter.
Skye’s emotional vulnerability alternates with her need for independence. After Zane leaves, she moves to Albuquerque, where she raises their daughter, Montana, and works at a local casino. She also becomes engaged to Aaron, another casino employee and an aspiring environmental lawyer. When Zane insists on seeing Montana again, Skye feels pulled from her more purposeful future with Aaron, and back toward her bittersweet history with her first love.
Skye’s relationship with Zane is developed with compelling complexity. Beyond the heady allure of their shared experiences, there are darker recollections of Zane’s selfish behavior. As the narrative shifts, Zane’s troubled perspective is also included: he tries to overcome his addictions and make amends for the past.
Seattle is at the center of Come As You Are, with vibrant memories of mosh pits, flannel shirts, and “loud-and-proud misfits” sharing “a world where nothing mattered but the music.” But the novel’s lovely descriptions of New Mexico’s cloudless skies and sagebrush are freer. There, Skye can allow Zane to be part of her life, while still finding her own well-earned peace.
MEG NOLA (February 27, 2022)
Barbara Hodge
