Reading Wednesday
Aug. 6th, 2014 02:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brigdhWhat did you just finish?
Delhi by Khushwant Singh. This book is... complicated. It's half set in the modern-day (or, well, in some vaguely 1960s-80s sort of modern-day) and half set in various time periods in Delhi's history. The modern-day sections concern a journalist who seems to be a barely fictionalized version of Singh himself, and are mostly concerned with navel-gazing about his relationship with a hijra prostitute (hijra is a gender category in South Asia that includes what, in Western terms, would be trans women, intersexed people of any gender, and sometimes gay men). The history sections are generally more interesting, as they focus on famous events in Delhi's history - saints, poets, wars, architectural achievements, and so on. Singh is the kind of guy who really wants you to think he's shocking; there are endless sex scenes of all varieties, as well as an entire section about farts, but it's all really just a bit immature and not that entertaining. I have no problem with sex scenes, obviously! But there's this sense that Khushwant wants you to react with "Tee hee, he said sperm! How bold and primal and erotic!" when it's... not any of those things. The history was good, though.
A Free Man of Color by Barbara Hambly. (I don't think anyone on my flist actually needs me to recap the premise of this, do they?) Some thoughts on reading this for the third(-ish) time: I'm always amazed by how much of the book is the opening scene at the ball. If you count it all the way out until Ben leaves, it's almost 30% of the entire book. Which seems incredible! It doesn't feel that long when you're reading. It's a fantastic device on a Doylist level, though: the ball is such a great microcosm of New Orleans society, and it lets Hambly introduce pretty much all of the characters (the only ones of any importance who aren't in this scene are Livia and Olympe, I think), as well as set up all the information about Madeline, Angelique, and the railroad which will be relevant later. I also like the gradual way the backstory about Ayasha is dropped in; by the time Ben explicitly says his wife is dead, it feels like you already knew it.
I like Hannibal's introduction a lot. Immediately in the first few pages, he and Ben are swearing at each other, looking out for each other, and sharing a drink (in public, even!). I wish we knew more about their early relationship, the three months between Ben's arrival in New Orleans and here (though they're not entirely trusting yet; Ben does lie to him about Madeline's presence). I do wonder if Hannibal and Minou knew each other before Ben connected them. Some of their scenes together seem like they're old friends, and in some they seem relatively new.
I also wish we knew more about Herr Kovald - Ben's childhood music teacher. He amuses me greatly. I would totally love more backstory on him in a future book. And speaking of background characters who show up again, Granville the banker is at the opening ball too! (He's Henry VIII.) And he's with the Metoyer sisters! However, I don't think we ever see Clemence again? Maybe I've forgotten. I like her and wish we could find out what happened to her.
Going back to beginning of the series, it surprised me how angry Ben is in this book. I suppose because so much of the racism and other problems feel new to him. It's interesting how... foreign he feels, too, cut off from the people around him. Especially when he goes to the voodoo dance. He's really afraid and ashamed in that scene, though he gets used to that sort of passing fairly quickly. He's really good at manipulating perception and language and even clothing or posture later on in the series, but here he's so awkward and uncomfortable with it.
Angelique is SUCH an absolutely unlikeable character, but I find it really fascinating that we get these little hints of a tragic backstory for her, after she's dead. And it doesn't really make her sympathetic, but it's almost enough to understand, or see where she might have been coming from.
The scene overnight in the prison is such a work of tense horror. It's great, too, to hang over Ben's head as a threat whenever he thinks he might go to prison again.
My favorite section of the book is where Ben leaves New Orleans. The language is just absolutely beautiful – especially the descriptions of the landscape and of the isolated people. It's also so tense, with the time ticking down until Peralta shows up, and then the chase and Ben being held captive.
Some smaller things I noticed:
“No,” said Hannibal. His dark eyes clouded. “Too many women who have been ... injured like that ... don’t find anyone.”
I like to head-canon that Hannibal's thinking about Rose here. It's not necessary – he certainly has reason to know plenty of women who've been raped - but he does already know Rose at this point.
I also was surprised to catch Hannibal saying "You really thought the police would investigate the murder of a colored woman if the leading suspects were all white?" – it's more aware than he generally seems, this early in the series (though on the other hand, he does always seem more conscious of sexism than racism). It's also more cynical, in a very bitter way, than he usually seems.
There's more about Shaw's family in this book than I'd remembered. Apparently he really doesn't like his dad! It's interesting for how much of a major character Shaw is, how very little we know about his backstory.
I really like Ben's little jealous twinges at Peralta, that the father puts his family ahead of justice. It does make me wonder what Ben would do in that situation. There's been a couple of books where someone Ben loved was accused of murder (Olympe in Graveyard Dust, Hannibal in Days of the Dead), but Ben never really suspects them. I'm not sure what he would do if he did have to choose between love and justice. It would depend on the exact circumstances, probably.
(This is totally copy-pasted from a post on ffa; it's here if you're interested in reading the discussion. But if you're not used to ffa, note that the post has since closed, so there's not much point in adding further comments.)
The Freedom Maze by Delia Sherman. A YA (I think maybe Middle Grade, actually?) novel about a 13-year-old, Sophie, in 1960 rural Louisiana who is magically transported back in time to 1860. This book is a bit younger than I usually read, so it was hard for me to get into at first; Sophie's POV was almost too naive for me. But I ended up really enjoying the book. The setting and history and characters are all great, and I liked the references to larger issues (voodoo, rape, sugar-cane making, Compair Lapin/Br'er Rabbit) which are brief enough not to be distracting if you don't get them, but deepen the world if you do. I particularly liked how complicated the question of race is in the book: in 1960, Sophie is white – or at least, is assumed to be white by herself and her family. But in 1860, she's black, assumed to be the child of one of the men of the plantation family and a slave, and by the time she's spent a few months there, Sophie herself is identifying as black and seeing others as "those white ladies". And then in the climax of the novel, she has to "pass" for a white woman (IS IT EVEN PASSING? I DON'T KNOW THIS IS SO COMPLICATED I LOVE IT). Really well-done.
What are you currently reading?
Fever Season by Barbara Hambly. This time, Ben fights CHOLERA! And Delphine Lalaurie, who is possibly scarier.
The Weight of Heaven by Thrity Umrigar. A novel about an American couple whose son has just died (suddenly, unexpectedly, very young); they move to India in an attempt to make a new start at life. Shockingly, it does not go well.
Delhi by Khushwant Singh. This book is... complicated. It's half set in the modern-day (or, well, in some vaguely 1960s-80s sort of modern-day) and half set in various time periods in Delhi's history. The modern-day sections concern a journalist who seems to be a barely fictionalized version of Singh himself, and are mostly concerned with navel-gazing about his relationship with a hijra prostitute (hijra is a gender category in South Asia that includes what, in Western terms, would be trans women, intersexed people of any gender, and sometimes gay men). The history sections are generally more interesting, as they focus on famous events in Delhi's history - saints, poets, wars, architectural achievements, and so on. Singh is the kind of guy who really wants you to think he's shocking; there are endless sex scenes of all varieties, as well as an entire section about farts, but it's all really just a bit immature and not that entertaining. I have no problem with sex scenes, obviously! But there's this sense that Khushwant wants you to react with "Tee hee, he said sperm! How bold and primal and erotic!" when it's... not any of those things. The history was good, though.
A Free Man of Color by Barbara Hambly. (I don't think anyone on my flist actually needs me to recap the premise of this, do they?) Some thoughts on reading this for the third(-ish) time:
I like Hannibal's introduction a lot. Immediately in the first few pages, he and Ben are swearing at each other, looking out for each other, and sharing a drink (in public, even!). I wish we knew more about their early relationship, the three months between Ben's arrival in New Orleans and here (though they're not entirely trusting yet; Ben does lie to him about Madeline's presence). I do wonder if Hannibal and Minou knew each other before Ben connected them. Some of their scenes together seem like they're old friends, and in some they seem relatively new.
I also wish we knew more about Herr Kovald - Ben's childhood music teacher. He amuses me greatly. I would totally love more backstory on him in a future book. And speaking of background characters who show up again, Granville the banker is at the opening ball too! (He's Henry VIII.) And he's with the Metoyer sisters! However, I don't think we ever see Clemence again? Maybe I've forgotten. I like her and wish we could find out what happened to her.
Going back to beginning of the series, it surprised me how angry Ben is in this book. I suppose because so much of the racism and other problems feel new to him. It's interesting how... foreign he feels, too, cut off from the people around him. Especially when he goes to the voodoo dance. He's really afraid and ashamed in that scene, though he gets used to that sort of passing fairly quickly. He's really good at manipulating perception and language and even clothing or posture later on in the series, but here he's so awkward and uncomfortable with it.
Angelique is SUCH an absolutely unlikeable character, but I find it really fascinating that we get these little hints of a tragic backstory for her, after she's dead. And it doesn't really make her sympathetic, but it's almost enough to understand, or see where she might have been coming from.
The scene overnight in the prison is such a work of tense horror. It's great, too, to hang over Ben's head as a threat whenever he thinks he might go to prison again.
My favorite section of the book is where Ben leaves New Orleans. The language is just absolutely beautiful – especially the descriptions of the landscape and of the isolated people. It's also so tense, with the time ticking down until Peralta shows up, and then the chase and Ben being held captive.
Some smaller things I noticed:
“No,” said Hannibal. His dark eyes clouded. “Too many women who have been ... injured like that ... don’t find anyone.”
I like to head-canon that Hannibal's thinking about Rose here. It's not necessary – he certainly has reason to know plenty of women who've been raped - but he does already know Rose at this point.
I also was surprised to catch Hannibal saying "You really thought the police would investigate the murder of a colored woman if the leading suspects were all white?" – it's more aware than he generally seems, this early in the series (though on the other hand, he does always seem more conscious of sexism than racism). It's also more cynical, in a very bitter way, than he usually seems.
There's more about Shaw's family in this book than I'd remembered. Apparently he really doesn't like his dad! It's interesting for how much of a major character Shaw is, how very little we know about his backstory.
I really like Ben's little jealous twinges at Peralta, that the father puts his family ahead of justice. It does make me wonder what Ben would do in that situation. There's been a couple of books where someone Ben loved was accused of murder (Olympe in Graveyard Dust, Hannibal in Days of the Dead), but Ben never really suspects them. I'm not sure what he would do if he did have to choose between love and justice. It would depend on the exact circumstances, probably.
(This is totally copy-pasted from a post on ffa; it's here if you're interested in reading the discussion. But if you're not used to ffa, note that the post has since closed, so there's not much point in adding further comments.)
The Freedom Maze by Delia Sherman. A YA (I think maybe Middle Grade, actually?) novel about a 13-year-old, Sophie, in 1960 rural Louisiana who is magically transported back in time to 1860. This book is a bit younger than I usually read, so it was hard for me to get into at first; Sophie's POV was almost too naive for me. But I ended up really enjoying the book. The setting and history and characters are all great, and I liked the references to larger issues (voodoo, rape, sugar-cane making, Compair Lapin/Br'er Rabbit) which are brief enough not to be distracting if you don't get them, but deepen the world if you do. I particularly liked how complicated the question of race is in the book: in 1960, Sophie is white – or at least, is assumed to be white by herself and her family. But in 1860, she's black, assumed to be the child of one of the men of the plantation family and a slave, and by the time she's spent a few months there, Sophie herself is identifying as black and seeing others as "those white ladies". And then in the climax of the novel, she has to "pass" for a white woman (IS IT EVEN PASSING? I DON'T KNOW THIS IS SO COMPLICATED I LOVE IT). Really well-done.
What are you currently reading?
Fever Season by Barbara Hambly. This time, Ben fights CHOLERA! And Delphine Lalaurie, who is possibly scarier.
The Weight of Heaven by Thrity Umrigar. A novel about an American couple whose son has just died (suddenly, unexpectedly, very young); they move to India in an attempt to make a new start at life. Shockingly, it does not go well.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2014-08-06 09:27 pm (UTC)i've found 1-4 to be tremendously hard to read, precisely because of freshness and strength of ben's anger - he's an outside protagonist trying to adjust again to an injustice and helplessness of his new surroundings, and this resonated harshly and terribly (especially since the historical setting robs the story of the comforting veneer of fantasy). by book 5 this kind of... wears off, i think? you adjust, ben adjusts, and i kinda settled in the story and could focus on the tropes and iddy bits rather than general creeping ARGH of what was going on.
no subject
Date: 2014-08-07 01:08 am (UTC)he's an outside protagonist trying to adjust again to an injustice and helplessness of his new surroundings, and this resonated harshly and terribly
Yeah, wow, I can see that. It is an awful situation, and you know he's not going to make a big difference - he's not going to end slavery or change the law or anything like that - so his only victories have to be on the level of individuals or just finding some sort of everyday happiness. And that can be satisfying, sometimes, but especially in these early novels where he hasn't built much of a family yet, there's just not much hope for anyone.
no subject
Date: 2014-08-20 04:32 am (UTC)I loved one of her books so much--it was about all these fantastical creatures that lived in NYC--and hunted for any kind of continuation (she had a short story so I hunted that down and read the story connected to the novel) and anyway at one point I actually sent fan mail (via email) to her. This would have been me at, er, fifteen or sixteen and it was probably quite pompous or weird but she actually emailed me back a lovely reply and it has cemented my love for her ever since. It was a really, really delightful novel and finding out that the author was so nice was so amazing for younger me.
no subject
Date: 2014-08-21 02:39 am (UTC)And that's such a sweet story. I've met her a few times myself (she lives here in NYC, as you could probably guess from the book you read) and she is a really wonderful, kind person.
no subject
Date: 2014-08-22 04:59 am (UTC)She wrote a sequel????? Pardon the excess punctuation, omg I need to get that novel.
Aww, I'm so glad! That is so cool you got to meet her. Was it a con sort of thing or something? Either way, living in NYC seems to be good for meeting authors--it seems like so many live there!
I also really do need to read Swordspoint. I remember reading Thomas the Rhymer ages ago and really liking it too.
no subject
Date: 2014-08-22 06:27 pm (UTC)You should! I loooooove Swordspoint; I wrote a ton of fic for it.