4 Stars for The Power by Naomi Alderman

The Power by Naomi Alderman takes science fiction to a level of realism that looks like a Francis Bacon painting. The particular Bacon painting that comes to mind is "Study after Velázquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X," painted in 1953. Without the history behind this painting, it is a man who is fading in power. The Power is like that. Men lose their power as women become stronger, shooting lightning with the flick of their fingers. It's beautiful, mesmerizing, but terrifying. I did not see this book as particularly feminist despite the concept, but a book about power and what each individual does with it. I love how Alderman analysis power outside of gender, "The shape of power is always the same: it is infinite, it is complex, it is forever branching." I was also intrigued by the biblical references of the snake(aka skein), the rescue of Israel, and Mother Eve. It definitely makes the reader ponder rooted ideas about the beginnings of power in the same way I did when I read Margaret Atwood's poem, "Quattrocento". Despite, the excellent concept and plot making, I enjoyed Roxy's character the most. She is a Joan Jett bad ass singing Love Hurts through the novel. I greatly appreciated her resilience. Overall, this book was close to a five star review from me, but the beginning dragged with exposition and I did not get into some very onion peeling worth characters until much later. I absolutely recommend this book to men and women because we all need to question what power means to each one of us.

4 Stars for The Cambridge Companion to Margaret Atwood

The Cambridge Companion to Margaret Atwood by Coral Ann Howells was recommended to me by a friend and colleague who teaches Atwood poems to advanced students. I plan to teach The Handmaid's Tale this year and wanted more insight into it. I also want to use more of Atwood's poetry that is not easily accessible with a quick online search. Often students will look up the meaning of a poem or novel and this squashes their initial critical thinking. Generally, I like to read a novel first with only my third eye. 

I enjoyed the essay, Blindness and survival in Margaret Atwood's major novels, by Sharon R. Wilson. Wilson illustrated an insightful approach to novels like Oryx and Crake and Cat's Eye. I will have to read Oryx and Crake now, but I still did not connect with Cat's Eye. I really didn't like the narrator, Elaine, despite the interesting survival journey Atwood presented. I just don't like an emotionless character, even when the writer picked a palette of greys that lead to a marble in a red pocketbook, an insufficient ending. Offred in Handmaid's Tale also seemed void of emotion, but the situation made her character work for me rather than Elaine's. Offred had a reason to become indifferent. Her choices were eliminated. Elaine seemed to have too much choice. 

Novels aside, I also enjoyed Branko Gorjup's Margaret Atwood's poetry and poetics. I adore Atwood's poem, Quattrocento. The line, "The kingdom of god is within you/because you ate it." Gorjup says, "Eve is metamorphosed into a true protean self as the whole of a diverse creation disappears into her and she is a free agent now, alive with possibility."

Eve as a free agent is fantastical. 

I ended up with a four star rating for this, because some of it I did not understand as well as I would have liked on a first read, but I've only read three Atwood novels and a few poems. I will have to change that. 

5 Stars for All the Rage #4 Repairman Jack by F. Paul Wilson

All the Rage #4 Repairman Jack by F. Paul Wilson is not a new generation thing, but more of a catchy title for a new gym filled with psycho steroid driven folks. So far, in the series, Repairman Jack has faced mythical monsters, the otherness, medical miracles, but this 4th book leads Jack to face a new beast - much closer to him. Top five reasons you should read All the Rage:

5. This book is All the Rage and you really can't fully experience it without the other 3 books preceding this one. But, it seriously can be read as a stand alone.
4. Ironic tire in the sky killing.
3. The Ozymandias Prather Oddity Emporium2. There is a Dragon-ovic.1. Loki and shapeshifting

Just Jack, gotta love him! 

4 Stars for Bunny by Mona Awad

Bunny by Mona Awad felt like a ride in Alice's Wonderland except one bunny was a collective whole of a group of privileged paper doll cutouts of girls writing at a school Fitzgerald worthy. Sam, the main character, stands out not like Gatsby more a mirror meditating on the opposite wall gazing at the bunny deciding whether or not to follow it(them) down the hole of truth. A definite plot in this story is deliberately ignored, because where Sam ends up and what she wants is unclear. This is a journey in the mind of a writer and you have to decipher the real from the unreal, characters from real people. This story turns dark with shimmers of light on short blades of grass. The writing is beautiful and very Atwood, so I love it. I enjoyed the odyssey because the writing often made very mundane daily observations amazing. My four star review came from not liking the ending. It felt cliche' in a book that took risk in being anything but.

4 Stars for The Testaments

The Testaments is not The Handmaid's Tale, but it is well-written and has an Aunt Lydia. The Testaments is told in three perspectives, two teenage girls and Aunt Lydia. Aunt Lydia stole the spotlight in this book. Her perspective made her human, and demanded respect. She was a manipulative, clever witch who created her own broomstick from a strand of straw. She is the reason for my four star rating. One star is subtracted for the two teenage girls. The one girl, no names, who grew up in Canada, came across as a spoiled brat who never seemed to understand the lack of freedom the other girl faced. Aunt Lydia, a true survivor of the times, understood all of it. I started out hating Aunt Lydia, and then my hatred grew to indifference out of pity. Aunt Lydia was a victim not just at the beginning, but throughout her life She constantly had to look over her shoulder for the choices she made. She was a much more complicated villain than the cold heated witch I first pegged her for. The  Testaments is pretty predictable, but who cares, after The Handmaid's Tale I needed something hopeful and a little less dark. I needed the good guys to have some leverage. After watching the show, and reading The Handmaid's Tale I needed a branch to pull me out of my quick sand funk. The Testaments is that branch. I highly recommend reading it!

5 Stars for The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

After watching the Hulu series, I became obsessed with this story - again. I read the book over seventeen years ago. My daughter was not born yet and this year she will be eighteen. Anyways, I read it so long ago I couldn't remember how it ended. When I picked the book back up, my intention was to skip to the ending, but I was drawn into the writing - again, lots of active verbs, dynamic imagery reminding me of a city of ashes contrasting great big Gatsby parties. Of course, the parties were the past, the protagonist, Offred was absent from.

Another clever tactic, Atwood gets rid of quotation marks. This is particularly clever for me as I read because the writing flows into the somber mood of going on forever like Nick Drake's Pink Moon. Atwood is a fantastic writer, but not everyone loves her style. I've never cared for Henry James and all of his misplaced modifiers, but I recognize good writing when I see it and I can appreciate him. Still, I can see some folks hating the loss of the quotation marks, but when you are a great writer and know the rules - you can change them.

Picasso did with Cubism. Faulkner did with the typical linear format, and Walt Whitman did it with free verse. Many things are possible when a good story is at the heart of the writing. And this is a good dystopian tale. I feel there are a great many people who feel this to be impossible, and on some level they could be correct. However, there is the nugget of truth that makes this plausible and very, very scary. That same nugget was found in 1984 and Animal Farm. And in real life, women are often envious of other women who can have children when they cannot. This green-eyed-monster lurks in every dark corner where freedom is at stake.

Several years ago, my grandmother was at my house and my husband came in and made himself a sandwich with a glass of milk. Grandma said, "He makes his own sandwich." And for sometime she stared at him. In The Handmaid's Tale, Luke, Offred's husband from the past, is cooking and Offred's mother remarks that women have come a long way. I don't think Atwood forgets that in this book even in a story where women lose their rights - there was a time they had them. It is that understanding and contrast that makes this story good. They had so much to lose.

This book has over 66 thousand reviews and some of them are 1 point stars, but what I find interesting about those 1 and 2 stars are the length of the reviews. Five star reviews are great, but if you make a reader write a five page 1 star - that says something about great writing, great stories, and great characters.

Another praise to her was her painting of the men in the book as thin as paper dolls. If a woman in Offred's position saw them as more, then that could make them human. I don't feel the men were thin, but Offred could not afford to see them as human. She could not fall in love. She could not want. She could not hope.

I highly recommend this book!

4 Stars for The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins

The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins is bizarre. This book is nothing like The Librarian movies. It takes a turn from those with brutal bloody killing and talking animals. Plus, the main character - librarian, Carolyn is way smarter. She knows every language there is to know, and some other stuff that makes living longer possible. At first, her silly, little girl nature made me hate her. I almost put the book down within the first 100 pages. But, then Steve came along and his story was more interesting than Carolyn's. So, Steve kept me hanging in with Hawkin's mad hatter library tale. It did feel a bit like Wonderland and tea time went on forever - thus four stars instead of five. Abut mid-way in the book, Steve became depressing -literally and I started to like Carolyn. Her story  began to unfold, and her courage was unbelievably believable. I enjoy a strong female lead. Carolyn was Lady Macbeth and Juliet all rolled into one, but unlike these notable ladies it was hard to predict her possible tragic or comic/cosmic ending especially when her father might be God, the Old Testament one. The Library at Mount Char is definitely worth the read, excellent if not bizarre story telling that makes you question God's motives, but more importantly your freedom to choose.