Reading books and not writing about them is very frustrating for me. I especially want to remember the wonderful ones, and I want to tell my friends about them. But life keeps zooming along and my writing energy has gone toward other projects. Briefly, here's four really good books I've read over the last several months:
The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon by Richard Zimler
I was turned onto this book by a fascinating article in Poet & Writers Magazine. Zimler described how this novel was turned down by twenty-four American publishers but became a best seller in Portugal where Zimler had moved to research and write his novel. After Portugal it was sold all over Europe and Brazil before any American publisher would take a look at it.
Having an interest in Kabbalah, the Jewish mystical path for spiritual awakening, and a past-life resonance to that place and time, I found that once I started reading it, I could not put it down and stayed up half the night to finish.
The story
of The Last Kabbalist is an intriguing murder mystery that must be solved
by a member of a family of Jewish mystics. This is a detailed historical
novel, too, describing the horror and perils of the Jewish persecution
in Spain and Portugal in the late 1400's and early 1500's. It includes
the struggle to save Jewish manuscripts from destruction plus acts of conscience
and acts of survival as Jews choose conversion to Christianity or torture
and death.
Death
of a Red Heroine by Qiu Xiaolong is a modern detective novel but with the
setting in 1990's Shanghai, China, I was introduced to the specifics and
technicalities of daily life in that foreign culture. There are perils
beyond the policework for Inspector Chen. Political landmines are
present everywhere whether it's the identity of the victim of the crime,
romance with a person of the wrong background, and, as a poet, his writing
which could be interpreted as subversive. This is a unique and wonderfully
written book.
Someplace to be Flying by Charles De Lint
A mysterious
plot involving the mythical 'animal people' is revealed through a huge
cast of wonderful characters in this urban fantasy. Charles
De Lint is one of my favorite fantasy authors.
Best writing book I've read lately:
The
Forest for the Trees: An Editor's Advice to Writers by Betsy
Lerner
Encouraging,
practical, and professional - I own this one and will re-read it soon.
(c) 2000 Marcia M. Sacks
Book
Journal archives: November 1999;
March
2000 ; April 2000; May
2000;
