I really have nothing nice to say. I got the jist of this book within the first hundred pages: class and race struggle sucks and no matter what you do you're invisible. I felt like it then just droned on for 500 more pages about that.
I found the nameless protagonist to be immature, annoying and really spineless on more than one occasion. I felt like he was a dumb kid that was vastly unaware about many things, including life and then sort of just got thrown into and out of the struggle in Harlem. By the end, I didn't feel any sympathy for him nor did I care that he felt the need to live underground. He lacked any redeeming qualities.
I apologize to any future class I teach this to.
Score: 0/5 Book Information: The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison was republished by Vintage in 1994 with ISBN 978-0679732761.
Lush and dream-like, Bless Me, Ultima takes us to New Mexico in the 1940s where six-year-old Antonio Marez tests the bonds that tie him to his people and to his past. When a famous curandra, a healer, moves in with Tony's family, he becomes emmersed in a world of the old ways, the pagan ways. For a boy that is on the cusp of making his First Holy Communion, this troubles Tony and often makes him question which God is the right God. Is it the God found in church? Or is it the old Gods, the ones that he finds all around him?
To guide him on this journey of self and of truth, the curandra or la grande, Ultima takes the boy under her wing, bringing him with her to help cure the townspeople of the curses that have plagued them. For such a young boy, Tony is exposed to many things including deep, earthly magic and even murder. He remains strong and resilient in his quest to find the truth and his rightful path.
Told with such language, description and emotion, Bless Me, Ultima is almost written magically, plunging the reader into the mystical world of New Mexico and the culture of its people.
Score: 5/5 Book Information: Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya was published originally published in 1972. This review refers to the 1994 edition published by Grand Central Publishing with ISBN 978-0446600255.
And, the book was made into a movie to be released in 2013:
Written in 1948, The Parish and the Hill became an instant classic. Chronicling the trials and struggles of Irish Americans in 1920's New England, The Parish and the Hill offers a clear view into three generations of the O'Connor family as they fight, drink and work to preserve themselves, their family and their Irish heritage.
Told from the viewpoint of the youngest child, Mary, The Parish and the Hill is a quick read with a strong female at the heart. What keeps the family together even when apart is the mother, who more often than not puts her children and her relatives before herself. With near-saintly behavior, Mrs. O'Connor sticks up for her brothers, her husband and fights to keep her children safe even when they treat her like a doormat. Her strength and love is admirable and is at the heart of this tale of culture clash, immigration and ultimately fighting to survive in a new world while trying to not lose your footing in the old one.
After all, just because one moves to the Hill from the Parish, doesn't mean that you're any less Irish. only a drop in your blood means that you are of Ireland.
Score: 4/5 Book Information: The Parish and the Hill by Mary Doyle Curran was originally published in 1948 by Houghton Mifflin. This review corresponds with the 1986 reprinting by Feminist Press with ISBN 1-55861-396-X.
I have not read a lot of literature involving Native Americans and culture, but I did find Love Medicine and decided to read it. Published in 1984, Love Medicine tells the story of a group of Chippewa living on a reservation in North Dakota. Erdrich chronicles 60 years of the lives of these people.
She opens her novel with the passing of June Morrissey who freezes to death in a snow storm trying to get back to her family. The novel continues in a very conversational way, introducing us to various members of the family and reservation which is reminiscent of Native American culture wherein stories were spoken, not written. Erdrich richly paints the trials and difficulties of living on a reservation, revealing the alcoholism and abusive relationships that plague many of the people that live there.
With younger generations, Erdrich explores what it's like to be an Euro-Indian, wherein the unfairness and often clear resentment of the US government is evident and explored.
What I found difficult of the book was keeping the relationships of the characters in order. There are many affairs and surprises of paternity that occur throughout the book, often times the characters themselves not even being aware of their true parental lineage. I had difficulty keeping it all straight, especially when trying to understand where alliances stood and why.
Score: 3/5 Book Information: Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich was originally published in 1984 with a revised edition having been released in May of 2009 by Harper Perennial with ISBN 978-0061787423.
