Book Reviews
The Occasional Reader Book Review by Sally Lura:
The Audacity of Hope by Barak Obama
In March, 2005, just after the national election
when George W. Bush was reelected to a second term in office, I had the
good fortune to visit my family in Florida. During that visit, I
overhead a conversation between a doctor and a hospital technician
about the recent reelection of George W. Bush and their impression of
the other presidential candidates. In voices too loud to ignore,
they dismissed the Democratic candidates with a wave of a hand, and
both laughed heartily when one of them said, “Those lawyers!
They’re ambulance chasers.”
Well, we all agree it’s a free country, but
Barak Obama, a thoughtful, African-American lawyer, whose credentials
are an arm long, including Harvard Law Review and teaching
constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School, has plenty
to say about how to redirect the enormous energies and potential of
modern America. I haven’t heard any references to medical reform,
but I’m sure Obama could handle it.
In an easy, engaging style, Obama lays the
groundwork for his new book, The Audacity of Hope. He emphasizes the
common creed all Americans share. He calls it “the glue of common
values that holds us together: empathy, individualism, and
equality.”
In the chapter, “Opportunities,” Obama
identifies the critical areas in America that demand national
attention: education, which startlingly has the highest dropout rate in
the industrialized world; increased aid to Research and Development
Labs; investment in the energy infrastructure; and improved health
care. There is an especially impassioned discussion on the
alarming collapse of the two-parent households, as well as several
other social issues desperately in need of the attention.
Obama’s chapter on “Values,” is
thoughtful and well balanced. He suggests all would be better served if
we took a breath before we spoke. “Our democracy might work a bit
better if we recognized that all of us possess values that are worthy
of respect: “If liberals at least acknowledged that the
occasional hunter feels the same way about his gun as they feel about
their library books, and if conservatives recognized that most women
feel as protective of their right to reproductive freedom as
evangelicals do of their right to worship.” This invitation to
search for common ground in American politics, to work together on
problems we all agree are in need of attention, suggests a middle
ground in American politics. A very readable and thought provoking book.
The Occasional Reader Book Review by Sally Lura:
The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards
Do you believe that sometimes good intentions can
justify a lie? How does someone know if a shrug of the shoulders
signals “I don’t know” or “I won’t
tell”? What if not telling seems like the right thing to
do? Kim Edwards’ novel, The Memory Keeper’s
Daughter, opens the door just a crack on the question, “To tell
or not to tell,” and a ferocious tornado rushes in.
David Henry is a doctor, a photographer, and a devoted
family man, but one winter night, he makes a decision that shifts the
ground beneath him forever. During a fierce snowstorm, Dr. Henry
accompanies his wife to the hospital where she is about to deliver a
baby. Because of the storm, Dr. Henry is forced to deliver his
own twins. The first born, a boy, comes out squealing and kicking, but
the second child, a girl, is a Down Syndrome baby. The doctor,
believing it for the best, gives the baby to the nurse to take to an
institution.
This quick decision and his wife’s ignorance of the
baby girl’s birth set in motion consequences and repercussions
that seem to spin out of control.
Edwards’ powerful style creates a sense of
urgency and intimacy. In one scene, Caroline, the nurse who has
taken the baby, is caught in a terrible snowstorm, and she is forced to
back up slowly on the shoulder of the road to get to the closest
exit. In reverse, she carefully passes a long line of stalled
cars.
“It was strange, as if she were passing a
train. There was a woman in a fur coat; three children making faces; a
man in a cloth jacket smoking, She traveled slowly backward in the
softening darkness like a frozen river.”
Edwards’ story is a page turner about love,
lies, and good intentions. A scope worthy of the ancient Greek
storytellers when well intended decisions incurr chaos and suffering.
It is also about love, bravery, and the human capacity to endure and
thrive in spite of all obstacles.
The Occasional Reader Book Review by Sally Lura:
The
Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult
Jodi Picoult’s
new novel, The
Tenth Circle, is a bit like a family who has to make a trip to hell
and
back. The story is a daring mix of comic strips, Dante’s circles
of hell, and a
teenager on the run. It may seem an unlikely plot, but this story is a
first-rate page turner.
Daniel Stone, a
native Eskimo who
grew up in Alaska, is a comic strip
artist who
lives in New York City
with his family. The story alternates between the vivid and amazing
comic
strip, “The Immortal Wildclaw” and the lives of the Stone
family. Daniel’s art
is not comic book gory; it is incredible, even transforming, and the
comic
strip powerfully supports the main plot.
Daniel’s wife,
Laura, teaches
Dante’s famous classic, The Inferno at a local college,
and Daniel’s
comic book art includes visions of Dante’s ten circles of hell.
If you love Jodi
Picoult’s
novels, and I don’t know anyone who doesn’t, this is a
gripping story of a
family’s journey. They do all travel
and
change, but not necessarily together and not without transformation.
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