Longbourn

via Goodreads

Longbourn

By Jo Baker

Pub. Alfred Knopf, 2013

It was Jane Austen's birthday yesterday, and this year was the 200th anniversary of Pride and Prejudice! So let's defend Miss Austen's honor, shall we?

I had never read a Pride and Prejudice retelling/sequel until now, and I feel that I was perfectly justified. I thought that this one might be different, since it was the same old story told from the servants' point of view. Granted, there were no vampires, or guitar playing Mr. Darcys. The book was well-researched, and it was nice to get a fresh look at Lizzy Bennet, Mr. Collins, and all the rest. With all that said, I cannot recommend it.

This novel follows Sarah, a servant girl in the Bennet household. Predictably, she doesn't like being a servant, and dreams of adventure and travel and not having to clean other people's clothes. The narrator is omniscient (but only in the servants' minds!), so we get to see Sarah's thoughts of frustration, the humble prayers of Hill, the housekeeper, and the conflicted desires of James, the footman.

James shows up at Longbourn out of the blue and is promptly hired by Mr. Bennet. Sarah finds herself caught up in a love/hate triangle with him and Ptolemy Bingley, a servant on the Bingley estate. The triangle pretty closely parallels the one with Lizzy/Darcy/Wickham, at least for a while.

Why you'll hate it too...

  

• So far this doesn't sound that bad, right? Well, let's just say that this book falls into one of my least favorite genres: the "issue" story.

  It's like a glee episode: they have to fit in bullying, drug abuse, three different types of sexual questionings and an attempted suicide in 45 minutes. They have to address each of these "issues," so the story quality is thrown out the window.

In Longbourn, there's an illegitimate child with one of the main characters from Pride and Prejudice, a married man is revealed -- in the epilogue, no less -- to have a homosexual relationship on the side, and there's a completely unnecessary masturbation scene. I'm no prude, but was Lydia and Wickham's affair not scandalous enough for this author? I just feel like the book got you to expect way more than a soap opera -- and then it was just a soap opera.

• The novel messes with the characters of Pride and Prejudice more than I would have liked. Mr. Bennet is significantly changed. Lizzy is made to be cold and thoughtless in her dealings with servants, which I feel was a bit unjust.

•  The best plot-line was abandoned halfway through. As I said, Sarah finds herself attracted to Ptolemy Bingley, while also having strong feelings for James the footman. Here is a description of her feelings for James: 

  “Already a good way gone towards being properly out of humour with him, she had fully intended to continue in that course until she loathed him heartily. Now, she was obliged to shuffle past him, and nod her thanks, and consider to what degree she had already been uncivil, and if he had warranted it or not.”

 Sound familiar? I think it's rather like many of Elizabeth's thoughts regarding Darcy, and especially like Mr. Darcy's on Elizabeth:

"But no sooner had he made it clear to himself and his friends that she had hardly a good feature in her face than he began to find it was rendered uncommonly intelligent by the beautiful statement of her dark eyes. To this discovery succeeded some others equally mortifying..."

 I think imitation really could have worked in this novel. But, she solves the Ptolemy problem much earlier than Lizzy solves the Wickham problem, and then we're left with strange Twilight-esque lovesickness for the rest of the novel. Plus, any pretense that the novel is about the plights of servants is abandoned in favor of the love story.

Some Praise

• Baker does seem like a very skilled writer. Though she can imitate Jane Austen's prose, she more often opts for very descriptive scenes, which are much more akin to the Bronte sisters. Think moonlight walks and the wind blowing their long skirts around. Here's a great extended metaphor she uses:

“Behind her, in her absence, the house was grinding along, its cogs turning and teeth linking, belts creaking, and there must come a moment – any moment now – when a cog would bite on nothing, and spin on air: some necessary act would go unperformed, some service would not be provided; the whole mechanism would crunch and splinter and shriek out in protest, and come to a juddering halt, because she was not there.”

• Lots of research must have been done for the making of this novel. We get to know about the daily lives of Regency servants: washing the clothes, making lye soap, sweeping the floors, all in loving detail. Sometimes too much detail, but that depends on how squeamish you are.
• We get to know more about the time period, and about why the militia is stationed in Meryton. James the footman fought in the Napoleonic wars, so we get an extended flashback in which he talks about the horrors of the war against the French, fought in Spain.
• We get to know a little bit more about Mrs. Bennet (she has her serious moments) and Mr. Collins.

 In Conclusion...

Just read Pride and Prejudice again. Watch the next season of Downton Abbey. Anything but this. Oh, did I mention that Wickham-haters might actually appreciate this novel? Wickham is -- I'm not kidding -- basically a child molester. Seriously, he tries to seduce the maid, who is like ten years old. Weird, right?

The Book Thief

Via Goodreads

I LOVE this cover. I think it really expresses the mood of the book, even though it may not be quite accurate. Death explicitly says that he avoids wearing a cloak. Anyway, it's better than the boring one with the dominoes on it. That's a reference to a very minor scene in the book.

            The Book Thief           By Markus Zusak

"I am haunted by humans." 

First of all, the book is narrated by Death. I think that is the coolest idea ever and I'm really jealous that Zusak thought of it.

So what is Death like? Well, he's a nice guy actually. It's not the best job in the world, as you can imagine, even though he likes helping people to their final rest. He enjoys seeing the colors in the sky in the moment someone dies, whether it be the blue of day, the black of night, or a fiery, stormy twilight.

Every once in a long while, Death pays attention to one life in particular, seeing how it intersects with the deaths he must attend to.

This story is about a girl named Liesel. Liesel is an orphan; her little brother died right in front of her and her mother disappeared, presumably killed by the Nazis for her communist beliefs.

Liesel is taken in by a German family in a small village, and she learns to love her new family and neighbors: her Papa, an accordionist who teaches her to read; Rudy, a boy with lemon-colored hair and a love for running; and Max, a Jewish man who is hiding in her basement.

Liesel comes to have a special love for books -- especially stealing them -- at a time when the Nazi party burns them in the public square.

Why you'll love it too...

• Yes, it's ANOTHER book about World War II. But it's not focused on a romantic love story, like The Courtship of Two Doctors, The Notebook, or any of the hundred other stories out there. You get to see the home front of small town Germany, where dinner every night is awful soup, where good men hate the Fuhrer, and where whole neighborhoods hide in a basement during air raids. One of the best scenes is Max's imaginary boxing match with Hitler.
• The characters are so lovable. Mama, Liesel's foster mother, is the terror of the entire neighborhood with her sharp tongue and wooden spoon at the ready, but she really cares for Liesel. Papa is amazing. Though he is strict at times, he lets the little girl tag along on his painting duties, he gives up cigarettes to buy her a book, and he stays up with her every night teaching her to read. Rudy finds new and hilarious ways to try and get Liesel to kiss him.
• While he hides in the basement, Max deals with his own personal hatred for Hitler by writing and illustrating some awesome books (and the walls). Liesel is inspired to write her own book, which combines the four "important" books in her life thus far -- including one she stole from a Nazi bonfire.
• You learn lots of German vocab!

Springtime for Hitler

• It is a book about World War II and Death and love. You'll experience TEABS for a number of reasons.
• This doesn't have anything to do with the book, but I'm angry because they're making it into a movie and it looks AWFUL. First, Liesel is way too clean and her hair too perfectly curled in the trailer. Liesel plays soccer every day after school, has a summer "job" climbing fences and stealing farmers' apples, climbs into windows to explore dusty libraries and hangs out in a dirty basement where she paints the walls. And I'm sure they have plenty of time to curl her hair in between air raids and saluting when the troops walk by. Also, I feel like Geoffrey Rush is all wrong for the part of Papa. Papa is supposed to be lovable, yet firm. Geoffrey Rush has the humor, but he's almost too scary. In general, the tone is just wrong. They're making it into some feel-good 1990s movie, when this is a life-changing novel. Grrr. Anyway...

Some awesome samples of Zusak's writing:

 "I have hated the words and I have loved them and I hope I have made them right."

 "I wanted to ask her how the same thing could be so ugly and so glorious, and its words and stories so damning and brilliant."

You'll love every word, I promise!

The Courtship of Two Doctors

I bought this book in September 2012 when I went to a conference in Dallas. I got to meet the editor, Martha Fitzgerald, who is the daughter of the two doctors in question! She compiled all the letters from the two years before their marriage, and edited them for this book. I highly recommend this book as a love story, and a really interesting look at medicine for nurses, doctors, med students and laypeople alike. What's the best thing about it? It really happened.

The Courtship of Two Doctors: A 1930s Love Story of Letters, Hope & Healing

edited by Martha Holoubek Fitzgerald

 The story of Alice and Joe is told through the letters they wrote to each other from 1937 to 1939. The two medical students met during their summer fellowship at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. When the summer ended, Joe went back to school in Nebraska, and Alice returned to Louisiana State University. They corresponded through letters, and their friendship eventually bloomed into true love when Joe visited LA in the summer of 1938.

Love is never easy, but it always prevails, as this book shows so poetically. Alice and Joe go through many trials: a long-distance relationship, disappointments in their careers, serious illnesses, near tragedies, and war looming on the horizon. Although the reader knows that everything turns out alright for them, as evidenced by their daughter editing the book, you can feel the pain, longing, and love in the words these two doctors send to each other.

I loved it when...

• I loved the parts where the lovebirds talked about their love for music. In fact, I put "their song" on my playlist on the sidebar. It's called "Harbor Lights."
• I really enjoyed hearing about their (spoiler alert) marriage preparation! Alice had to take several weeks of classes with a Catholic priest in order to marry Joe in the Church. Joe doesn't force any beliefs on her and is very understanding with any questions she has.

Fun with Banned Books

• With 1930s medicine comes some interesting prognoses. At one point Joe writes, "Got in a rheumatic fever & a premenstrual syndrome on the woman's side." I didn't know that was cause for hospitalization, unless she went into a rage and injured somebody.
• Also, if you get queasy hearing about any kind of medical procedures, read with caution. Needles and blood abound.
• Finally, Alice works in a New Orleans hospital in 1938. Like me, you might be confused for a moment when she starts talking about the "colored men's ward."

  Compare

There are a lot of WWII era love stories out there, but remember that this one is true. Two Doctors doesn't skip straight to the good times, but explores love "in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health." And unlike The Notebook, this relationship is based on more than just attraction. This love comes from shared values and genuine respect. And, thank the Lord, there's NO love triangle.