Are You There Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea

#880
Title: Are You There Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea
Author: Chelsea Handler
Publisher: HarperEntertainment
Year: 2007
264 pages

I've never heard Chelsea Handler, and I imagine that timing would play an important role in the delivery of these (I presume) monologues. Handler is at best entertaining, but over-relies on obscenity and scatology for her humor. This is too bad because it's clear that she's smart and observant, which would be sufficient on its own and arguably more enjoyable.

A Queer and Pleasant Danger: The True Story of a Nice Jewish Boy Who Joins the Church of Scientology and Leaves Twelve Years Later to Become the Lovely Lady She is Today

#879
Title: A Queer and Pleasant Danger: The True Story of a Nice Jewish Boy Who Joins the Church of Scientology and Leaves Twelve Years Later to Become the Lovely Lady She is Today
Author: Kate Bornstein
Publisher: Beacon Press
Year: 2012
280 pages

An enjoyable though at times heartbreaking memoir, recounting Borenstein's intertwined journeys in gender, religion, and self-knowledge. It's interesting to speculate about the course of her life if she hadn't been booted out of Scientology, where she seemed pretty happy and productive.

The latter section where she addresses her daughter directly didn't work as well for me. It may still be too close to Bornstein's heart to receive the same slightly distanced, slightly ironic treatment that gave the rest of the book its compelling tone.

In the Shadow of the Banyan

#878
Title: In the Shadow of the Banyan
Author: Vaddey Ratner
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Year: 2012
336 pages

Received as a giveaway from Goodreads First Reads. I don't think I've read a novel set in Cambodia yet, though I've read plenty of non-fiction, memoirs, travel books, and bird guides.

***

After reading: Ratner chose to fictionalize her lived experience rather than writing a straight memoir. While I imagine I'd appreciate her memoir as well, her decision means that she was able to change events for greater narrative coherence, symbolic resonance, and lyricism. In the Shadow of the Banyan is both more clearly structured and more literary than any of the memoirs I've read of the Khmer Rouge time. While the rawness and veracity of the memoirs holds the readers' attention, Ratner comes at the same content as fiction, which opens other possibilities to engage and hold the reader's attention. A strong effort, and I look forward to her future work.

Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World

#877
Title: Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World
Author: Mark Twain
Publisher: Dover
Year: 1897/1979
712 pages

Not quite as enjoyable as Twain's The Innocents Abroad. The latter is more pitched toward travelogue, whereas this is a blend of travel, history, politics, and amusing digressions. This is not to say that it's not a good book, but that it ranges about in a way that readers of Oliver Sacks's Oaxaca Journal may recognize.

Readers who complain of Twain's racism seem to me to be missing the point. Give that this is a man whose childhood was before the US Civil War, he is remarkably respectful and appreciative of the people he meets. What some readers seem to miss is that he exaggerates for effect; that the effect sought is to render the racist/colonial/imperialist perspectives of the majority people absurd through exaggeration; and that he mocks everyone. I'm not suggesting that some of his comments aren't problematic by today's standards, but they are less so than much of what I read in US newspapers.

Tales from the Torrid Zone: Travels in the Deep Tropics

#876
Title: Tales from the Torrid Zone: Travels in the Deep Tropics
Author: Alexander Frater
Publisher:  Knopf
Year: 2007
400 pages

Could be used for Vanuatu in a read-the-world challenge, which is useful because it's both more available and easier to engage with than Grace Mera Molisa's Black Stone, the only other ni-Vanuatu book I've found.

Pretty much what it says--tales from the tropics, not so much a memoir as little memoirs, or pensees, or recollections. The book is framed by stories of bells associated with his grandfather's church. More stories than not take place in or around Vanuatu; others range farther afield. Some of Frater's travels were for work, some for pleasure, and some the circumstances of his birth and family life. Some chapters cohere more effectively than others; some seem very loosely constructed. It's sometimes languid, sometimes torpid. Read a chapter at a time, in a hammock.

The Thing Around Your Neck

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Title: The Thing Around Your Neck
Author: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Publisher: Knopf
Year: 2009
224 pages

I enjoyed this collection of 12 short stories by the author of Half of a Yellow Sun. The audiobook was well-narrated by Adjoa Andoh. Some stories stood out for their content, notably the daily details showing the effects of intra-Nigerian conflicts. Others ably unfolded internal dialogues and emotions that show the strain of balancing different aspects of identity and experience, such as US vs. Nigerian ways of understanding or enacting relationships. What I found most effective, though, was the effect Adichie creates by layering the 12 stories, whose related topics and themes accrue across the collection.

I'd have ended about half the stories earlier to increase tension or uncertainty. Since many already include substantial tension and uncertainty, I'd have wished for a stronger emphasis on language and rhythm at the end of at least several pieces. The endings often seemed deflated, which I do not think was Adichie's intention.

Fifty Shades Freed (Fifty Shades #3)

#874
Title: Fifty Shades Freed (Fifty Shades #3)
Author: E. L. James
Publisher: The Writer's Coffee Shop Publishing House
Year: 2012
551 pages

A big part of my problem here is that I don't like either protagonist. They weary me with their constant conflict, boring emails, and lack of introspection. I don't know why anybody would stay in a relationship with either of them. Throw on top of this the self-consciously "kinky" sex scenes that made me fall asleep, and my general dislike of the romance genre, and there was little to hold my interest. If your idea of hot is calling each other "Mrs." and "Mr." Surname, sniping about birth control, and talking post-coitally about how your fetus will like sex, enjoy.