January: Reading & Reviewing Part 3

I feel like one of those marathon runners who finally stumble across the finish line a week after all the other participants have gone home. Maybe I should make a rule for myself that I can't go on to the next book until I've written a review for the one just finished.

11. An Angel At My Table (autobiography) - Janet Frame. Wow, Janet. Even her quirks had quirks. I'd had this on my TBR for over a year, but had put off reading it because it was the second of a three-volume autobiography. I'd still like to read the other two, but this one is where the real meat, the drama of her life is. I'll write more in a separate blog post since I did it as part of the book/movie challenge.

12. The Rough Guide To Classic Novels (nonfiction) - Simon Mason. As far as book-buying is concerned, this is the best-spent money for the month of January, because I'll be referring to this brilliant little gem over and over again for years. Mason's book could have been a real snoozer, but he shakes it up with recommendations from all over our big blue marble. He also runs the gamut from old to new. In addition, there's a thumbnail suggestion about "where to go next". Mason helpfully mentions the best edition or translation and just when you thought that it couldn't get any better, he gives you a movie tie-in analysis. This is my introduction to the Rough Guide series; I'm truly impressed.

13. Caucasia (novel) - Danzy Senna. This novel is also known as From Caucasia, With Love. It's the mid-1970s. Birdie and her sister Cole are the offspring of a biracial marriage. Cole resembles their African-American father while Birdie has her mother's light skin and Caucasian features. When the parents split, Birdie goes with her mother and Cole goes with her father. Birdie and her mother go underground, living on the run for a couple of years since Birdie's mother may face jail time for questionable activities. Senna keeps that element of the subplot deliberately murky.

Senna's style is compulsively readable, but I was distracted by the bad editing of the edition I read. Stupid, minor stuff that could have easily been cleaned up like referring to actress Hattie McDaniel as "Hattie McDowell", anthropologist Margaret Mead's last name was spelled "Meade", awkward grammar and there's a mild anachronism with the TV show What's Happening. I'm sure that this nitpicky stuff was cleared up in future editions. Another thing that annoyed me was that Birdie seems to be the only one in her family -- immediate and extended -- who has any brains or drive. (It must be a sign of age that I'm growing to despise The Tale Of The Plucky Child. Call me Curmudgeon.)

After finishing this novel for Talya's book group, I thought I was done with Danzy Senna, but I was wrong. As I told Talya in a recent message, I discovered a memoir Senna published last year called Where Did You Sleep Last Night? in which she struggles to untangle the skeins of her father's confusing history. I can't help but wondering how Danzy's story compares with Birdie's.