The Human Stain

written by Philip Roth

When this book caught my eye at the library, some murky corner of my memory told me that I'd heard of it (or was it just the movie by the same name?)... anyway, I vaguely remembered it being acclaimed by ... someone, I don't know who. After reading the back cover, I was intrigued enough to check out the book: it details how a dean at an upper-crust New England university gets ousted for purportedly being a racist, despite the fact that his secret and shocking personal history "would astonish his most virulent accuser." In a nutshell (spoiler warning!), he's actually black — but because his skin and features are not profoundly African-American, he has spent most of his adult life passing himself off as a white man with Russian Jewish roots.

Kind of an interesting premise, but I generally did not like this novel. One reason was that Roth's writing felt quite laborious to me (sentences spanning several lines - enough to send a technical writer running)... but the bigger reason I disliked it was because there was just too much offensive vulgarity. And before you accuse me of being too prudish, I need to say that yes, I do get the fact that modern literature usually has a hefty dose of sexual themes. But this book just contained far too much desperation and sleaze for me. The main character, Coleman Silk, reminded me a lot of the protagonist in Disgrace, by J.M. Coetzee: an intelligent, mature, seemingly respectable man who, just under the surface, is disturbingly immoral. Still, like the Coetzee book, there were some pockets of great writing that did make me want to keep reading.

Of note:

• I could not get a clear picture of Faunia Farley, Coleman Silk's mistress. She seemed like an utterly unknowable character in this story. Maybe that was the way the author intended it? She was, after all, a woman with a very troubled life and appeared (to me at least) to have some incredibly complex social problems. Maybe her unknowableness was an intentional reflection of that.


• There is a really brilliant section of the book in which Faunia observes and contemplates crows. I know it sounds funny, but I found it to be such a profound and symbolic passage. And then Roth artfully closes the loop on the symbolism by bringing it back in near the end of the book. It was very cool. You have to read it to understand what I mean.


• Coleman Silk has a colleague at the university, a Pariesienne-born female professor, who takes up way too much of this book. She is a sub-plot that feels very unnecessary to me, and the long sections on her foibles really drag.


• Also unnecessary was any mention of Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky. I'm not sure why that had to be a backdrop to the story. It was annoying.

Bottom line: I wouldn't recommend this book. Am I getting cranky? I haven't read any real you-must-read-this books lately...

Once Removed

written by Mako Yoshikawa

I am not above being drawn to a book by its cover. The art on this novel's front, along with its title, made me curious, so I checked it out from the library in hopes that it would be a good summer read. After a few difficult starts (my fault, not the book's - life is just too busy sometimes to get engrossed in a new book without some effort!) I re-started and finished this book while Jay and the kids and I were visiting my in-laws in Maryland.

The story is mainly about a whole bunch of conflicted women. Two of them are stepsisters (Claudia and Rei) and though they forged a deep relationship as children when the dad of one married the mom of the other, the parents divorced when the girls were both 17. The girls consequently drifted apart. The book picks up 17 years later when they rekindle their relationship. The main thread of the novel, though, is not really about Claudia's relationship with Rei, but rather the tension between Claudia and Hana (Rei's mother and Claudia's stepmother).

Of note:

• One of the reasons I found it hard to get engaged in this book from the beginning is because there is such a complicated web of relationships to keep track of: the two sisters, their own natural parents, the parents' former spouses... and then there's also a persistent romance between Claudia and a married man, so you'll need to keep track of his wife and children in the mix. Interestingly, though, this kind of complexity is a reflection of real life, with so many of us being part of blended families and step-relationships.


• The title is clever, given the story line. And like I suspected, the art on the cover does have some significance to the story.


• Rosie (Claudia's natural mother) feels like a flat, incomplete character to me. Even though her role becomes bigger toward the end of the book, we never really get a clear picture of what kind of person she is.


• On the other hand, the author portrays Henry (Claudia's natural father) with great clarity. Her descriptions of his mannerisms and personality were really vivid.


• The author draws interesting parallels between Hana as the "other woman" who broke up Claudia's parents' marriage, and Claudia's own relationship with Vikrum, a married man. I especially found it intriguing that both of these illicit relationships were intercultural.


• There is a lot of looming, unresolved drama surrounding Hana's experience as a girl when she witnessed the Hiroshima bombing. The novel implies that Hana's choice to keep her experience a secret is what led to her marriage dissolving. Huh? I don't get that.


• The back cover of the book is full of hyperbolic adspeak, particularly the last paragraph, which claims that the novel "Tak[es] us from the exotic Japan of the 1940s and '50s, to the verdant English countryside, to the urban streets of Boston..." Come on now! The book is about relationships, not locales! In fact, I had to think hard to remember what part of the book even took place in the "verdant English countryside."


• There are big (and sometimes painful) observations here regarding love, marriage, devotion, and betrayal.