A Couple of Reviews

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

I'm totally lacking behind with posting in general and with my reviews in particular, so I'll try to combine a couple of reviews in this post. I have not been posting for a while, because I spent all too much time in front of the computer and did not take enough care of sitting in an ergonomically good posture plus I spent too much time reading in the metro, both of which are not good for my shoulders and neck, and I ended up getting a bit of a tension neck for a week or so. This is one of those "do I ever learn" things. I know how to avoid this and still... Well, my neck is better now and I'm back on posting. :)

Then on to the reviews:

1. Tariq Ali: Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree

Tariq Ali is a British-Pakistani writer adn filmmaker. See his website for more info about him and his work.

Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree is the first book by him I have ever read, but it will not be the last. Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree is set in Andalusia in 1500. The Christians have reconquered the southern parts of the Iberian peninsula and the Muslim population, the Moors, who for centuries have lived in peaceful coexistance with the local Christians, are unsure of their future. The story concentrates on one Muslim family, the leading family of a village and the people working for them. Ali does a great job in portraying  the cultured, liberal Moors and the intolerance of the Catholic Church of the time. But his portrayal is in no way one-dimentional. Not all Christians in the novel think like the archbishop who wants to make everyone convert to Christianity and who thinks there is no place for either Muslims or Jews in Spain. Also, the religious pragmatism of some of the Moors is well described. Many thought that by converting to Christianity they at least got to keep their land and property.

Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree is a well written and interesting historical novel about an interesting time period in European history. It is part one in Ali's Islam Quintet, five novels about the history of Islam. I'm most definitely going to read the other parts, too.

I read this book for the following challenges: What's in a Name 3, World Religion, and Reading the World

2. Rumer Godden: The River

This was my second book by Godden this year. It's a little book, mere 176 pages, and a very quick read. The book is set in Bengal, India and tells about some months in the life of an English family from the point of view of Harriet, the second oldest of four children. The structure of the book is very simple. The more complex use of flashbacks so prominent in In This House of Brede is absent here. The writing is simple, but enjoyable, crisp and flowing. What starts as a pleasurable story of ordinary life in an English family in India turns suddenly dramatic towards the end. This book was totally different from the only other Godden novel I had read before this, but is solidified my admiration of her writing.

I read this book for What's in a Name 3 and Reading the World challenges.

3. Rumer Godden: Greengage Summer

My third book by Rumer Godden, and another enjoyable read. There was, in fact, quite a lot in common with this book and The River. Greengage Summer is also told by a young English girl, this time second oldest of five children, and again what starts as rather a peaceful story ends up turning quite dramatic towards the end. The mother of the children wants to take them to France to visit some WW II sites, but when the mother is hospitalised due to, I think blood poisoning (the actual reason is not told in the book, only that there was in insect bite), in her leg, the children are left more or less on their own in a hotel, where some intresting persons live and/or work. In the hotel a somewhat mysterious Englishman called Eliot takes the children under his wing. This is a story of growing up, secrets, jealousy, and murder. Another highly recommended read!

I know it is not yet time for Mailbox Monday, but I cannot help mentioning a wonderful addition to my book collection I received today. Valentine's Day just happens to be also my birthday :), so I got a book present from my Dad. Usually he always asks beforehand, which book I would like, but this time he had taken the risk and bought me a special book without asking, if I already had it. Well, I did not, and I was delighted to find that he had bought me Pelaamisen lumo, the book by Finland's number one tennis player Jarkko Nieminen. And it is an autographed copy! Thank you very, very much, Dad! :)

In This House of Brede

I read In This House of Brede by Rumer Godden for the first time quite a few years ago. Right after that I also read another of her books about women religious Five for Sorrow, Ten for Joy. I liked both books a lot and always intended to read more by Godden, but somehow never did. Then some weeks ago, while browsing the DVD-section of Amazon.co.uk I noticed that they had the movie version of In This House of Brede available. I ordered it. Just after my DVD arrived I also read Danielle's review of Godden's The Greengage Summer. I watched the DVD and liked it a lot, and now I wanted not only to read more Godden, but to reread In This House of Brede. In retrospect it was good I watched the film first, because the story had been changed a lot, really a lot! It had been such a long time since I read the book that I had forgotten most of the details. If I had first reread the book and then watched the flm, I would probably not have liked the film nearly as much.

In This House of Brede is a wonderful book. Set in the 1950's and 60's in the Benedictine Monastery of Brede it follows the life of the community of about 90 nuns during a time when society and also the Roman Catholic Church were changing quite dramatically. The book starts with Mrs. Philippa Talbot, a very successful careerwoman, a widow and a convert to Catholicism, saying her goodbyes at work. She is to enter Brede. Through Philippa, and also through various other sisters and nuns of the Brede Abbey, Godden paints a very realistic and very loving picture of the community. These are flesh and blood women with their strenghts and weaknesses striving towards a common goal. Even though Philippa is in a way the main character of the book, it could also be said that the main characher were in fact the community as a whole.

Rumer Godden's writing is beautiful. The narrative moves back and forth in time through the thoughts of the individual women and the things they say. For example in the prologue we follow Philippa from her workplace to her arrival in the village of Brede, where she enters the local pub for a glass (or three :)) of whisky to quiet her nerves and to smoke har last cigarettes, before

"What do you ask?"
"To try my vocation as a Benedictine in this house of Brede."

Then there follows a list of the members of the community at the time of Philippa's entrance and next, in the first chapter, all of a sudden it is four years later and Sister Philippa is nearing her Solemn Profession. I did not remember that the book was constructed this way and felt quite cheated when I first thought that Godden jumped so much forward and was not going to tell us in more detail about Sister Philippa's first few years in the monastery, but I should not have been worried. As the story envolved all was revealed in expertly constructed flashbacks.

I loved the way Godden portrayed the sisters and nuns and all the customs of the community. For example in a traditional pre Vatican II Benedictine Monastery the nuns were called Sister before their Solemn Profession and after that the choir nuns were called Dame whereas the claustral sisters were called Sister even after they had made their permanent vows. Also the entrance ceremony when entering into the novitiate was different for a widow entering than for a virgin. Many customs of religious communities were changed after the second Vatican council in the 1960's, and In This House of Brede tells us also about those changes and how different members of the community felt about them.

In my opinion In This House of Brede is the best novel ever written about a religious community. Godden was able to include so much in the story. There really is everything in there, everything you could think a novel trying to realistically tell about a community of nuns could include: difficulties of older vocations and those entering very young, boyfriends and lovers left behind, personal tragedies, the difficulties to follow the hardest vow of them all i.e. the vow of obedience, healthy friendships between nuns and friendships deemed too particular, new members entering, others leaving, economical difficulties, those who have to learn not to be in charge and those who have to learn to be in charge, the world changing outside the walls of Brede Abbey and the Church itself changing. There really is everything in there and still I loved the book so much that it hardly felt enough! I would have loved to read even more about the House of Brede.

In This House of Brede, whose fictional community was based on the real-life Stanbrook Abbey and St. Cecilia's Abbey, was first published in 1969. The previous year Rumer Godden had converted to Roman Catholicism. While writing In This House of Brede she had, for three years, lived next door to an English Benedictine Abbey. The experience changed her life.

I will count In This House of Brede as my first read in the World Religion Challenge.

World Religion & Reading the World Challenges

I have decided to join two more challenges, both of which I originally found through Eva's blog:

• World Religion Challenge 

• Reading the World Challenge

World Religion Challenge is hosted by Bibliofreak.The challenge site is here. The aim of the challenge is to read books (fiction or nonfiction, poetry, religious texts) about different religions. The challenge runs all through 2010 and there are 4 levels of participation. I have chosen to join The Unsheparded Path, also known as The Don't Tell Me What to Do -path. :) That allows me to choose freely how many books I'll read and about which religion(s).I am a cradle Lutheran and have also read quite a lot about Catholicism. So, I guess, I will be reading something about Christianity also for this challenge (I actually just finished my first book for the challenge. In This House of Brede by Rumer Godden, but more about that in a review later.), but I will try to use the challenge as a means to read more about other religions. As I will be walking the Unsepharded Path :) I don't want to make too many plans about which books to read. There has been, however, this one book sitting in my bookself for quite a while now that I think would be perfect for this challenge and this challenge would also be a perfecr reason to finally read it. The book is The Great Transformation: The World in the Time of Buddha, Socrates, Confucius and Jeremiah by Karen Armstrong. I might also read something else by Armstrong. Years ago I read her memoir of her years as a sister in a Catholic teaching order and have been thinking of reading more by her ever since, but somehow never did. In addition to The Great Transformation (and maybe something else by Armstrong) I will probably read fiction where religion or themes related to religion play an important role. Possible books (three of which are only available in Finnish] include:

• Rumer Godden: In This House of Brede (just finished this one & will count it as my first read for the challenge) [Catholic Christianity]
• Aaron Hamburger: Faith for Beginners [Judaism]
  
• Hermann Hesse: Siddhartha [Hinduism, Buddhism, eastern & western spirituality]
• Juha Itkonen: Myöhemipien aikojen pyhiä [Mormons]
  
• Bahiyyih Nakhjavani: The Saddelbag [Islam]
• Eila Pennanen: Pyhä Birgitta [Catholic Christianity]
  
• Hannu Raittila: Ei minulta mitään puutu [Laestadian religious movement, Christianity]
  
• Ilia Trojanow: The Collector of Worlds [Islam, Hinduism]
  
• You Are Not Here and Other Works of Buddhist Fiction, ed. by Keith Kachtick [Buddhism]
  

These two nonfiction books I have read earlier, but will highly recommend for anyone wanting to know a bit more about Catholicism:

• Elizabeth Kuhns: The Habit: A History of the Clothing of Catholic Nuns
• Nancy Klein Maguire: An Infinity of Little Hours: The Trial of Faith of Five Young Men in the Western World's Most Austere Monastic Order
  

Let's move over to the Reading the World Challenge then. I've been wanting to join some kind of a "reading around the world -challenge" for a while now. Actually I would love to do a challenge where one should read books set in different bordering coutries and in such a way travel all around the world through one's reading, but that would be quite a big undertaking. Reading the World Challenge, hosted by papertigers.org asks the participants to read one book for every continent once a month. See the challenge website here. I have decided to start the challenge this month, but what books to choose that's difficult! Too much choice, all too much! :) Well, the following list is compiled mainly from my TBR list. Maybe this challenge will help me shorten it a bit... I'm hoping  to read maybe more than one book per continent, but we'll see. Here's my list:

Africa:

• Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: The Thing Around Your Neck [Nigeria]
  
• Faarah M. J. Awl: Ignorance Is the Enemy of Love [Somalia]
• Buchi Emecheta: Joys of Motherhood [Nigeria]
  
• Petina Gappah: An Elegy for Easterly [Zimbabwe]
• Naguib Mahfouz: Before the Throne: Dialogue's with Egypt's Great from Menes to Anwar Sadat [Egypt]

Antarctica:

• Caroline Alexander: Mrs Chippy's Last Expeditions [1914-1915]: The Remarkable Journal of Shackleton's Polar-Bound Cat
  
• Beryl Bainbridge: The Birthday Boys
• Vivien Kelly: Take One Young Man
  
• H. P. Lovecraft: At the Mountains of Madness
• Rosie Thomas: Sun at Midnight

Asia:

• Nathalie Abi-Ezzi: A Girl Made of Dust [Lebanon]
• Rumer Godden: The River [India]
  
• Sanjida O'Connell: The Naked Name of Love [Mongolia]
  
• Mahbod Seraji: Rooftops of Tehran [Iran]
• Fan Wu: February Flowers [China]

Australia:

• Wilkie Collins: Ioláni, or Tahiti, as It Was [Tahiti]
  
• Richard Flanagan: Wanting [Tasmania, Australia]
• Janet Frame: Towards Another Summer [New Zealand]
• Apelu Tielu: Forever in Paradise [Samoa]
  
• Kate Grenville: The Lieutenant [Australia]
  

Europe:

• Gurbergur Bergsson: The Swan [Iceland]
  
• Jens Kristian Grondahl: Virginia [Denmark]
  
• Ismail Kadare: The Three-Arched Bridge [Albania]
• Claudio Magris: Danube [Austria, Bulgaria, Germany, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia]
• Herta Müller: The Passport [Romania]

North America:

• Patrick Chamoiseau: Childhood [Martinique]
• Edwidge Danticat: Breath, Eyes, Memory [Haiti]
  
• Elizabeth Hay: Late Nights on Air [Canada]
• Mayra Montero: The Red of His Shadow [Haiti, Dominican Republic]
  
• Luis Alberto Urrea: The Hummingbird's Daughter [Mexico]

South America:

• Roberto Bolaño: By Night in Chile [Chile]
• Gabriel Garcia Marquez: Of Love and Other Deamons [Colombia]
  
• Tomás Eloy Martinez: The Tango Singer [Argentina]
• Colin Thubron: To the Last City [Peru]
• Lily Tuck: The News from Paraguay [Paraguay]
  

As my very own bonus book for the Reading the World Challenge I shall read The End of the Alphabet by CS Richardson.