The Picture Bride

 The Picture Bride by Lee Geum-yi, translated from the Korean by An Seonjae 320 pages

I am familiar with mail-order brides but have never heard of “picture brides.”  That is what attracted me to this book.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, a large number of Korean men left for Hawaii, then a United States territory. They worked the sugar cane fields and became successful. Some even owned land, a dream of all Koreans. When it came time to take a wife, the men depended on matchmakers back home to help them find the perfect woman. The men would send a picture and a letter to the matchmaker. Basically, it’s 1918 Korea’s version of today’s dating apps.

“In 1918, three Korean picture brides sail to Hawaii, based only on photos of their husbands-to-be. Hongju, looking for real love, discovers her husband is 20 years older than his photo; Songhwa, escaping her home life, finds her husband is an old drunkard. Willow’s husband, Taewan, looks just like his photo. But the matchmaker lied when she said he was a landowner, and she could go to school.”

That is what hurt the most. Willow is intelligent and longs for an education. It was the only reason that she consented to the marriage. As the years go by, Willow dutifully cares for her husband, their children and his father.

As 1918 slides into 1919, Willow’s husband gets involved with the Korean Independence Movement. He is gone for years, leaving Willow to manage on her own. She does have her two friends, Songhwa and Hongiu, counsel as they struggle to survive.

I wish I had read the Author’s Notes and the Translator’s Notes first. It might have made a difference in reading this novel because I felt lost most of the time.

“The Picture Bride” receives 2 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

 

The Children's Blizzard

“The Children’s Blizzard” by Melanie Benjamin   368 pages

January 12, 1888, it was a balmy day in Minnesota. It was blessed relief for the immigrant homesteaders following a nasty cold spell. Heavy coats, mittens, scarves, clothing were all left at home as children made their way to their one-room schoolhouse. 

As the close of the school day neared, children, and even the teachers, were eager to get outside and enjoy the sunshine. As they prepared to go home, black clouds raced into the area with hurricane-force winds, heavy snow mixed with icy pellets, and the temperature plummeting.   

As they noticed the impending storm, some of the children ran outside, determined to get home before it. Others lingered behind, unsure what to do. Teachers weren’t really sure either. Send the kids home and hope they made it or take shelter in the schoolhouse and pray that the storm would either blow over or not be as severe as it appeared. 

Melanie Benjamin’s latest novel focuses on the storm and its aftermath. The two main protagonist of the story are Raina and Gerda, two schoolteachers who made the opposite decisions. At Gerda’s school, she kept the children inside. Raina had her children tie themselves together with the girls’ apron strings and out they headed. No one lived too far away, and Raina was sure they could all make it. One group of children froze to death; the other suffered deaths and frostbite. 

The story opens on that warm day several hours before the storm hits. The storm is the novel’s antagonist. It is a formidable foe bent on claiming as many lives as possible. I didn’t realize how many different ways a wordsmith like Benjamin could describe the storm. 

While the storm may have been the main character, the heart of the story is the life of immigrant homesteaders. It is a story of the people who settled the Great Plains and their daily struggles to survive.  

Benjamin based her story using actual oral histories of the survivors, but the characters are fictional. It is based on the store that hammers the Great Plains on that January day in 1888. The actual storm took 235 lives, many of them children, and many were not found until spring.  “The Children’s Blizzard” is a compelling and heartbreaking story. It receives 6 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world. 

 

The Beauty of Your Face

 Shirley J.         Adult Fiction      Life in America for a Pakistani Family

The Beauty of Your Face by Sohar Mustafah   300 pages

This is the tale of a Palestinian family living in Chicago.   WAhile her parents still hold to the old ways of their Palestinian culture, Afaf, her sister and brother are being brought up in two cultures, American at school and Palestinian at home.    When her older sister goes missing it tears the family apart.    Her mother is never the same aqain and her father tries toembrace Islam and coerce the remaining children in the household to do so, too.    Afaf has tried to fit in at school to the point of going overboard with the boys until one day she too embraces Islam.    Her life forever changes So many things happen even a shooting at the school she grows up to become principal of terrifying moments seen through her eyes.   A good story with lots of twists and turns.   I would recommend this to middle-schoolers on up.  A  good introduction to life in multi-cultural households and the religion of Islam.        

Zombie Baseball Beatdown

Zombie Baseball Beatdown by Paolo Bacigalupi, 292 pages

“While practicing for their next baseball game, thirteen-year-old friends Rabi, Miguel, and Joe discover that the nefarious activities of the Delbe, Iowa, meatpacking plant have caused cows to turn into zombies.” I didn’t really like this story much.  However, I can see why this is popular, especially with boys.  It’s a gory horror story for grade school that is also humorous.  It’s perfect for the right reader.  I’m just not that reader.

American Street

American Street by Ibi Zoboi     324 pages

From Goodreads:

On the corner of American Street and Joy Road, Fabiola Toussaint thought she would finally find une belle vie—a good life.

But after they leave Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Fabiola’s mother is detained by U.S. immigration, leaving Fabiola to navigate her loud American cousins, Chantal, Donna, and Princess; the grittiness of Detroit’s west side; a new school; and a surprising romance, all on her own.

Just as she finds her footing in this strange new world, a dangerous proposition presents itself, and Fabiola soon realizes that freedom comes at a cost. Trapped at the crossroads of an impossible choice, will she pay the price for the American dream? 

Wow, this book really packs a punch! I did not have any idea the book would end up where it did. Zoboi does an excellent job of slowly building tension, of taking a single issue and branching it out, weaving it into a network of issues so tangled that you, the reader, can't imagine what the best path would be to take. You can only sit back and hope that Fabiola makes it out okay, and preferably gets her mother back. The writing is excellent, every character with strong, distinct voices creating a tightly woven fabric of family, because, after all, it's what you you do for fam.

I cannot say I enjoyed reading this book because it was so sad. I don't like reading sad books. But it's an important look into immigrant life in America, and of a particular city that has suffered much at the hands of gentrification. Fabiola's story is powerful, evocative, and it demands reading.

The Ninth Hour

The Ninth Hour by Alice McDermott       256 pages

This book opens on a winter afternoon in a small tenement apartment. A young Irish immigrant sends his wife on an errand and then, closing the gaps in windows and doors, opens the gas taps. In the aftermath of the resulting fire, Sister St. Saviour, a nun, appears to direct the way forward for his young widow and unborn child.  This thread of the nun, the young widow, and the child, is followed through the story, over years, and weaves it way into the lives of other characters.

This story, set in the early part of the twentieth century, spans decades, although the story is never belabored or boring (at least, I didn't think so because I settled in with this book and just kept turning the pages).  I enjoyed how the author wove the stories of the characters together, and the characters, themselves, were so clearly outlined that they were easy to imagine.

Admittedly, this book was on my TBR list, although I didn't anticipate I'd get to it anytime soon. However, my husband gave me the book on Christmas Eve and I wound up settling in and really getting into the story. I deliberately read slowly (or at least tried to) and by the end, even though it was a good ending, I was disappointed that I had reached the last page. If I had known the book would be this good, I would have grabbed it as quickly as I could have and not put it off to read in the next few months.   

No Comfort for the Lost: A Mystery of Old San Francisco

No Comfort for the Lost: A Mystery of Old San Francisco by Nancy Herrimann  384 pages

This is the first novel in the “A Mystery of Old San Francisco.” Author Herrimann introduces readers to his two main protagonists. First is Crimea veteran Celia Davies. She came to the States with her husband, Patrick, who promptly signed onto to a sailing vessel and has disappeared.

Celia, a recent immigrant from Great Britain, feels for the Chinese immigrants who often live in squalor. She opens a free clinic for the prostitutes, funded by her late uncle. She lives in the uncle’s house with her half-Chinese niece and an opinionated housekeeper. I believe the housekeeper was designed as comedic relief, but it missed the point.

When one of her patients, and a women Celia considered a friend, is found dumped in the Bay, Celia vows to find justice for Li Sha. She works, often to his dismay and in opposition of, with Detective Nicholas Greaves. Celia is more often than not, getting in way and continues to find herself in dangerous situations that could prove fatal to both herself and Nick.

No Comfort the Lost takes place in 1867. Herrimann does an excellent job in providing atmospheric details without cluttering the book with unimportant information. For me, the book lacked tension. I never felt that Celia and her entourage were in any real danger. I also felt that many of the situations were the same, just located in a different part of the city.

I did like how Herriman tackled immigration---most of San Francisco hated the Chinese and were ready to revolt, burning Chinatown and sending the foreigners packing. Give readers a look at how foreigners were viewed a hundred and fifty plus years ago.

I give No Comfort the Lost 3 out of 5 stars.

Still Here

Still Here by Lara Vapnyar   320 pages

In her seventh novel, author Lara Vapynyar deals with the immigrant experience and identity, specifically a person’s online identity after his or her demise.

The novel centers around four Russian immigrants, friends since their school days. Now in their mid-40s, the four have come to the crossroads that often plague the lives of the middle-aged. The friends---Vica, Vadik, Sergey and Regina---all live in New York City.

Sergey and Vica are married and have a son, Eric. Sergey is constantly being laid off from his job as a financial analyst. Vica works as a medical technician at a local cancer treatment center. Just after the story opens, the couple split. Sergey goes to stay with Vadik and decides to devote all his time to developing an app that he calls “Virtual Grave.” The idea is that the app will peruse a person’s emails, text, voice mails, etc. to continue to recreate his or her online presence after death.

Vadik  is a programmer and is single. He lives the bachelor life, dating woman after woman. I thought he was the lesser drawn of the characters. He had been in love with Rachel, but there were two Rachel’s in Vadik’s life, referred to as Rachel 1 and Rachel 2. I found that utterly confusing.

Then there is Regina. A famous literary translator back in Russia, she spends her days grieving over her lost career and her mother. She’s marred to Bob, a wealthy American. Readers never get to see Bob except in passing and when he shows up, it is sometimes confusing because I always had trouble remembering who he was.

The book seems less to do with app and how it would than it does the four trying to navigate the daily struggle of life. I also had trouble in remembering who Vica and Vadik were…I kept getting them confused.

The story didn’t grab me. I plodded along with, much like the characters do in their lives. The book was okay, but I’ve read better books that deal with the same subject (virtual life after death) that were much better. I did like all the literary references. I give Still Here 3 out of 5 stars.

I received this book from Blogging for Books in exchange for this review.

Audacity

Audacity by Melanie Crowder, 389 pages

Clara is a young Jewish girl whose family has escaped the Russian pogroms in the early 1900s and come to America.  In Russia, Clara was interested in learning but her family felt that education for a girl would be a waste of time.  Clara’s role was to learn to be obedient and to find a good husband.  Clara hopes that in America things will be different.  She wants to become a doctor.  She realizes quickly that nothing will change how her family feels but that she may be able to make her own decisions.  Forced to work in a factory sweatshop, Clara still finds time to attend classes but also realizes that she is interested in the unions that some of her coworkers are trying to organize to create better working conditions.  Despite her family’s objections, Clara becomes instrumental in the organization effort.  Told in a series of poems, this book is loosely based on the real life of Clara Lemlich, a young Jewish woman originally from Russia, who fought valiantly for the worker’s rights and the establishment of the unions.  Although books in verse are still not really my thing, this was a good story and a lot of teens will like the fact that, because of the format, it is a quick read.

The Madman Of Piney Woods

The Madman Of Piney Woods by Christopher Paul Curtis, 363 pages

This book is from the perspective of two boys; Benji, an African Canadian boy from Buxton and Red, and Irish Canadian boy from Chatham.  At the beginning, the two boys don’t know each other at all and the stories are simply about their separate lives.  We get to learn a lot about them.  Benji has a younger sister and brother who are extremely gifted at woodworking and he wants to be a writer and a journalist.  Red’s mother died when he was young and his grandmother, who had a hard life growing up and actually abuses Red somewhat, lives with him and his father.  Both boys are aware of the legend of the Madman of Piney Woods, although Red has a different name for him, and both boys have a healthy fear of him.  However, both of their lives change when they actually meet the man and each other.  This is a very good reality story for kids who like historical fiction.

The Tyrant's Daughter

The Tyrant’s Daughter by J.C. Carleson
295 pages

Laila always lived a privileged life as the daughter of the ruler of a middle-eastern country but now that her father has been assassinated and the rest of her family has fled the country and is living in the United States, everything has changed.  Although she likes some parts of living in the United States, she doesn’t really understand everything.  Items like breakfast cereal, which was a luxury where she grew up, is available freely in the United States and everyone takes it for granted.  Laila, now that she can access the internet, has been finding out information about her father that she never knew and didn’t want to know.  She had no idea that her father was a major source of the turmoil in her country.  Meanwhile, her mother has been working with the United States government and speaking with Laila’s uncle, the one responsible for her father’s death.  Laila doesn’t know what her mother is up to, but knows that she wants her little brother, Bastien, who is only 7 years old, to be in charge of their country, as he should have been.  An interesting peek into what the life of a dictator’s family might be like, especially after the ruler is overthrown, a lot of teens who like stories that open new worlds might like this book.

Ice Cream Queen of Orchard Street

The Ice Cream Queen of Orchard Street by Susan Jane Gilman
506 Pages

Malka Treynovsky comes to American from Russia with her family in this rags to riches story and reinvents herself several times during the course of her life.  As she becomes Lillian Dunkle, the ice cream queen, she continues to seek acceptance and never recovers from the abandonment by her parents. 

This novel was entertaining and interesting from a historical point of view.  While you never really warm to the main character, you appreciate the point of view.  Recommended for readers who like historical novels and strong women characters.