YA Fiction: The Jumbee by Pamela Keyes

Publisher: Dial
Date: October 14, 2010
Format: hardback
Acquired: from BookTrib Review Crew
Read: for review (disclaimer: I received my copy of this book in return for an honest review.)
Pages: 385
Reading time: five days

Aspiring actress Esti Legard has lived her entire life in the shadow of her father, a famous Shakespearean actor and author. When he dies of cancer, Esti decides to reinvent herself by attending a theater school in the Caribbean for her senior year. Little does she expect, however, that her attention will be torn between two very different men in a retelling of Gaston Leroux's Phantom of the Opera. Alan is an enigmatic young actor who brings out the best of Esti's talent - but refuses to meet her face-to-face. Their tutoring sessions are carried out in the dark, and Alan will not allow Esti to learn anything of his past or why he remains hidden to the world, though regarded by the island's inhabitants as a jumbee, a ghost. Then Rafe, Esti's childhood friend, arrives back on the island, bringing his bad-boy reputation and becoming a wedge in Esti and Alan's odd relationship.

The Jumbee has a lot of stuff going on: retelling a classic story, Shakespeare, Caribbean folklore, young adult interest, and romance. In many cases, this would be too much for one novel, but Keyes successfully pulls off the blend. Keyes' writing itself isn't anything spectacular - just your typical YA author - but she manages to mix together a variety of different elements to make an interesting, unique retelling. No one element is accentuated too much over the others. To readers who have read Leroux's novel or watched the movie, The Jumbee is obviously a retelling. Yet Keyes' book is not self-consciously a retelling; it sticks to the general plotline but adds enough detail and development to allow it to stand outside of the Phantom-inspired canon. Readers who are not familiar with the original story will have no problem reading and enjoying this novel. I particularly enjoyed the story from the perspective of the "Christine" character, who came off rather weak and idiotic in Leroux's book. Not so in Keyes' adaptation, where readers get to see how "Christine" falls for the two guys and is conflicted in her emotions, identity, and desires.

The Shakespeare parts of the story act more as cute-sy elements as Esti and Alan communicate through quotes. Yet readers are able to grasp the characters' reasons for their Shakespearean devotion, and it ends up serving as a cohesive element. Likewise, Caribbean folklore becomes a necessary aspect of The Jumbee as Alan's origins and place in the community are gradually revealed. There's even a hint of post-colonial racial conflict involved. The romance and love triangle come off well, unlike in many books where it seems to fall flat. Despite these varied aspects to the story, however, I was never completely drawn into it. Enjoyable, yes; memorable, no. A good read, but not one that will stand out to me after a few months or years. The action was too slow in developing, the writing didn't stand out enough, and too little creep factor was involved to allow The Jumbee to become one of my favorites.

German Lit Month: After Midnight by Irmgard Keun

Publisher: Melville House
Translator: Anthea Bell
Date: 2011 (1937)
Format: paperback
Acquired: won from Beauty is a Sleeping Cat
Read: for German lit month
Pages: 150
Reading time: five days

From GoodReads: Sanna and her ravishing friend Gerti would rather speak of love than politics, but in 1930s Frankfurt, politics cannot be escaped--even in the lady's bathroom. Crossing town one evening to meet up with Gerti's Jewish lover, a blockade cuts off the girls' path--it is the Fürher in a motorcade procession, and the crowd goes mad striving to catch a glimpse of Hitler's raised "empty hand." Then the parade is over, and in the long hours after midnight Sanna and Gerti will face betrayal, death, and the heartbreaking reality of being young in an era devoid of innocence or romance. 


My review: I was expecting After Midnight to be one of those novels that's not that interesting by itself but sticks in your mind later as a reflection of its times. I'm looking at Mephisto (Klaus Mann) and A Tomb for Boris Davidovich (Danilo Kis) here. Not so for Keun's novel of Nazi Germany, however. I enjoyed the novel while I was reading and still had that feeling of this-is-great-because-it-expresses-pivotal-history. Keun's narrator, Sanna, is deceptively naïve. She's young and all absorbed with romance and social relationships and then, boom, she mentions some aspect of Nazi control that's recently come to dominate Keun's characters' lives. The growing effects of Nazism on everyday German society accelerate quickly throughout the novel, with Sanna's life being turned upside down within the course of the two days covered by the story. Like the aforementioned novels concerning authoritarian governments, After Midnight very clearly expresses the life-changing (and life-annihilating) properties of said governments. Unlike the other novels, the central character of After Midnight is one with whom readers can better identify because, at least on the surface, she's just like any other young adult. After Midnight also covers a fairly full spectrum of German lives, from intellectuals to children to Nazi sympathizers to the average people just caught up in it all. The novel even has a satirical character who, like Shakespeare's jesters and other jokesters, is there to provide some comedic relief along with a clear view of what, exactly, is going on. Only this is a book about Nazi Germany, so there's very little relief to be found in these scathing, depressed denouements that will only end in tragedy.


On Germany: "One dreadful day, revenge will come, and it won't be divine revenge, it will be even more atrocious, more human, more inhuman. And that atrocious revenge which I both desire and fear will necessarily be followed by another atrocious revenge, because the thing that has begun in Germany looks like going on without any hope of an end. Germany is turning on her own axis, a giant wheel dripping blood" (p 143). - What I consider to be the most powerful passage of the book.

In My Mailbox #15

I apologize for being lax in posting these past two weeks. So much for having more reading time in November! In my defense, though, I have completed Burmese Refugees (for review) and After Midnight (for German lit month) and will be posting my reviews of these soon, as well as a pre-scheduled review of The Jumbee. I have to take a break from the German books to read a GoodReads First Look win, but then I'll be back with Lotte in Weimar and The Threepenny Opera.

This week's books for review:
Eruption (Supervolcano #1) by Harry Turtledove (publisher)
The Dragon Turn (Boy Sherlock Holmes #5) by Shane Peacock (LibraryThing Early Reviewers)

Won:
After Midnight by Irmgard Keun (thanks, Beauty is a Sleeping Cat!)

And all of these are wins from Ticket to Anywhere:
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
Eve by Anna Carey

Sorry the titles are backward; I took the photo with Photo Booth on my Macbook and have no idea how to turn it around.

German Lit Month: Kick-Off

Today's the first day of German Lit Month, hosted by Lizzy's Literary Life and Beauty is a Sleeping Cat! I have a fairly modest stack of translated books to read during November, but I'm looking forward to seeing what German literature has to offer. Though I've read some Goethe, all of these authors are new to me.

The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
Lotte in Weimar by Thomas Mann
The Threepenny Opera by Bertolt Brecht
Parzival by Wolfram von Eschenbach
Grimms' Fary Tales by the Grimm Brothers

And After Midnight by Irmgard Keun, which I won from Beauty is a Sleeping Cat, should be arriving soon.

I'm currently reading Lotte in Weimar. Based on the fact that it's taken me two weeks to get halfway through it, I doubt I'll get to/make it through The Magic Mountain by the end of the month. Still, that leaves five books for four weeks of reading.

What are you reading for German lit month?

In My Mailbox #14

The stressful time of marching season + school + college apps is almost over!!! I'm hoping I will have more time now to read more than three or four books in one month, especially since they keep coming in the mail...

Next month, I'll be reviewing some books that, well, came for review, and I'll also be participating in a German lit month event (all books will be read in translation).

Happy Halloween!

For review:
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (publisher)
The World We Found by Thrity Umrigar (publisher)
Wild Abandon by Joe Dunthorne (GoodReads First Look)

Won:
Flashback by Dan Simmons (thanks, Three Boys and an Old Lady!)
Esther Waters by George Moore (thanks, OWC_Classics!)
Down the Mysterly River by Bill Willingham (thanks, vvb32 Reads!)
The Woman Who Heard Color by Kelly Jones (thanks, Marjole in Book Blog!)

From Random Buzzers:
Vixen (The Flappers #1) by Jillian Larkin
Brain Jack by Brian Falkner

Mooched:
Gothic Readings: The First Wave, 1764-1840 ed. by Rictor Norton

Purchased (used):
Scarlett by Alexandra Ripley

Don't you love the cover of The Night Circus ARC?

Sci-Fi, I Robot: To Protect by Mickey Zucker Reichert

Series: first in authorized spin-off series to I, Robot by Isaac Asimov
Publisher: ROC
Date: November 1, 2011
Format: hardback
Acquired: from publisher (it appeared on my doorstep one day)
Read: for review (disclaimer: I received my copy of this book in return for an honest review.)
Pages: 385
Reading time: six days

From GoodReads: 2035: Susan Calvin is beginning her residency at a Manhattan teaching hospital, where a select group of patients is receiving the latest in diagnostic advancements: tiny nanobots, injected into the spinal fluid, that can unlock and map the human mind. Soon, Susan begins to notice an ominous chain of events surrounding the patients. When she tries to alert her superiors, she is ignored by those who want to keep the project far from any scrutiny for the sake of their own agenda. But what no one knows is that the very technology to which they have given life is now under the control of those who seek to spread only death...


My review: I should start by saying that I've never read I, Robot or any other science fiction book by Isaac Asimov. That said, I faced no confusion with reading a spin-off series which can apparently stand alone even if readers have no experience with Asimov's books.


To Protect sets up an interesting character in an interesting plot. The first half of the novel is concerned primarily with the beginning of Dr. Calvin's psychiatry residency, and the psychological details included in the plot are fascinating. I was a bit befuddled as to what so much psychiatry was going to contribute to the sci-fi aspects of the book, but I eventually figured out how it was introducing Calvin's personality and work, essential components of the development of her involvement with and understanding of the nanorobots. Reichert forms her story well, complete with emotional upheavals, dramatic events, romance, and some unexpected twists. I found Reichert's writing, at times, to be a bit melodramatic, but overall I enjoyed To Protect and am looking forward to seeing what will develop in the next books of the trilogy. I think I'll pick up a copy of I, Robot, too, while I'm at it.

YA Fiction: Pretty Little Liars by Sara Shepard

Series: Pretty Little Liars #1
Publisher: HarperTeen
Date: 2006
Format: paperback
Acquired: borrowed from a friend
Read: for Teen Book Club
Pages: 286
Reading time: three days

From GoodReads: Three years ago, Alison disappeared after a slumber party, not to be seen since. Her friends at the elite Pennsylvania school mourned her, but they also breathed secret sighs of relief. Each of them guarded a secret that only Alison had known. Now they have other dirty little secrets, secrets that could sink them in their gossip-hungry world. When each of them begins receiving anonymous emails and text messages, signed only by A, panic sets in. Are they being betrayed by some one in their circle? Worse yet: Is Alison back?

In one sentence: a poorly written mystery used as an excuse to write preppy, preposterous teen drama. I'm assuming Shepard was primarily writing for other preppy, melodramatic teens, because I could barely identify with her characters. I came close when they were describing their junior-year issues with school, college preparations, and high academic expectations, but the similarity ended there. Ms. Shepard, if you throw around designer names, I have no idea what you're talking about, and it's irrelevant to characterizations and plot development. If you describe a rural farming Pennsylvania town as one with twenty+ room mansions and prep schools, I think you're crazy. If the first book of your mystery series consists primarily of girly prep-school drama that defies my expectations of how teenagers actually act (and I'm a teenager, I should know), I'm never going to pick up the rest of the series.

It wasn't all bad. There were some really exciting moments to the story, when the mystery part decided to peek its head around the four girls' relationships. (With regards to relationships, Hanna's and Emily's seem realistic but not Spencer's and Aria's.) Other than that - meh. There are both better mysteries and better romance-drama novels. I'm not planning to pick up the rest of the series. There's, what, nine books currently out and more planned? I don't feel like it's worthwhile to invest my time in a series that just keeps getting more and more drawn out. From what my friends (who, incidentally, have enjoyed the books) have told me, the storyline continues to get more twisted, to the point of seeming unrealistic and preposterous (spoiler alerts: multiple As, long-lost twins, and, guess what, more drama).


Maturity Factor: Language and sexual situations.