The Hunters

The Hunters: Two Short Novels by Claire Messud
2001
Weight: 13.6 oz
Method of Disposal: Giving Away

Neither one of these stories mirrors anything that is happening in my life or that has happened in my life and yet, it seems it taps into the general malaise I have been feeling lately, and it was easy to drift in and out of.  I was tired and sad, and sometimes it was unclear to me what was fact or fiction in my own life, and I still do not know what does and does not matter or how to change any of it or if I still can.

This book contains two stories.  One is about a woman who immigrates to America after suffering horrific injustices and then becomes a housekeeper.  In time, her husband who is loves and admires dies, her son grows older and marries a woman she cannot stand, her grandchildren grow older, and she seeks comfort in a relationship she has formed with her last client, who she cleans the house of and cares for and who becomes her only confidant.  There relationship blurs the lines of employer/employee, but it is not quite friendly.  It felt easy to find space in the heart of this woman and to sit there with her ache even though I have never experienced anything like the character did and does.  I have not endured war, lost family members, started over, lost a husband, had children, had grandchildren, cleaned other people's houses, and yet this is the power of fiction.  I felt it, as if it were an inescapable truth.

The next story is about a lonely woman living in a part of London she has disdain for.  She is sad and completely self-involved, even as people gently try to nudge their way in.  She tries to be polite, but she also tries to push them off.  Her mind wanders, and she makes stories and reaffirms her opinions and beliefs.  Eventually, she pulls herself out of the muck and looks back.  I suppose I can relate to the self-involved muck, but she never shows me how to get out!  Of course, that is not really what this story is about.  We see her afterwards, with a partner, a new life, and see her looking back on that year of her life in London.  We live in our heads.  We have tunnel vision.  Sometimes the world seeps in and you get a glimpse outside yourself.  Sometimes that glimpse is jarring.

Poisonwood Bible

Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
1998
Weight: 3.3 lbs
Method of Disposal: Lending Library

I finally got back around to the Poisonwood Bible.  I always swore I would, but I always picked up something else.  Reading The Bean Trees is what did me in.  I got a little addicted to that book, and I wanted to feel that way again.  Not to mention, you always hear about The Poisonwood Bible.  People love it, and it is likely Kingsolver's best known book. 

It did not give me the same feeling as The Bean Trees!  I am sure that is sacrilegious and says nothing good about me.  I know the other is the first in a series, and I have not yet read the others.  It is not as well rated.  I had never heard anyone talk about it.  I know. I know.  I just loved the characters. 

I was less in love with the character development in this one, but it was not because it was bad.  I loved how it developed, but it was slower and matured as the characters grew up.  Poisonwood spanned a longer period of time.  It allowed you to see the characters as a silhouette of themselves or a stereotype and then you grew to know them deeper over time without you even really noticing it at first.  You hated them, but then you understood them.  You maybe pitied them or grew to worry about them.  At some point, some of them even became likable.  With The Bean Trees, the character development almost whacks you in the face.  Here is your lead girl!  Isn't she strong?Isn't she rough and tumble?  What is she going to do?  No, really, what is she going to do??  Not to mention, now is the time to talk about immigration.  Just like it was all those years ago when Kingsolver wrote the book.

I suppose that now is also the time to talk about Evangelists--that scourge on humanity.  Oh, the world is a devolving and darkening place.  Sometimes it seems like we are all evolving and getting better together and sometimes it seems like we will never stop repeating our mistakes until we force ourselves into a position where we do not get the chance to try again.  That irrevocable line we cannot cross but are always getting closer to, according to The Scientists.  And when I say THE scientists, I mean the vast majority that see Global Warming happening all around us but are at a loss as to how to stop it.  That line.  There is a line in The Poisonwood Bible too--a different line.  You know from the start it is coming and there are times when you think it has arrived and you are wrong.  The tension builds and builds. 

If you have not read it, give it a shot.  I would love to know what you think.