After reading The Heart of the Matter, I really needed something a bit lighter. Unfortunately, with my poor planning, I had no light choices. Rather I moved on to The Fixer by Bernard Malamud, set in 1911 during the period of virulent anti-Semitism in Tsarist Russia. It tells the story of Yakov Bok, Jewish handyman, who moves to Kiev after his wife leaves him. Not following the Jewish traditions, he ends up working for a member of the anti-Semitic Black Hundreds Society (his reasoning makes sense in the book) and living in a area forbidden to the Jews. When a boy is found with his blood drained, Yakov is blamed and immediately arrested. That is the the first few chapters of the book of course. Most of the novel takes place in prison, as Yakov fights against the conspiracy against him.

Yakov has no choices. Acccused of “ritual murder” by people who have no understanding of the Jewish faith and in fact do nothing but distort the truth (some understand and choose to lie anyway), he must stand strongly as forces move against him. Malamud won both a Pulitzer and the National Book Award for this work and it’s easy to see why. The power of this tale really affects you. Bok refuses to confess to a crime he didn’t commit and not because he wants to remain on the high moral ground. He does not come across as too moralistic. Instead, Malamud makes him realistic. How can he not bow under the cruel pressure the government puts him under? It’s a message we should really listen to today.

Continuing with the social satire and prophecy, I read Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood next. Wow. It’s equal parts funny, scary and heartbreaking. The narrator Snowman recollects a time similar to ours (though slightly in the future), a time when a boy named Jimmy loved a girl named Oryx and a genius named Crake. As the story unrolls, you learn what happeded to the world in which Snowman lives. The best part (or the worst) is that it’s not too far-fetched.

Atwood has an amazing ability to make her science fiction completely believable. I could not put this book down. I started in one day in the evening and all through the next, while snorkeling and seeing things I have never seen before, I was thinking about this book. And one of the best things about this book is that Atwood keeps you guessing until the end. This is a 2 thumbs up book in my opinion (in fact, all of the books I read were 2 thumbs up).

The final book I read, and perhaps my favorite, is Collected Stories by Richard Yates. How I got this far without reading this brilliant man is beyond me. Seriously, I want to run out and get copies to give to everyone I know. Revolutionary Road, supposedly is best book, has moved up on my TBR list. I was actually remind of Z.Z. Packer while reading his stories (yes, I realize that she would have been influnenced by him rather than the other way around, but I read her first).

They both have this wonderful, simple realism in their writing. Most of the stories take place in an America that is trying to recover from WWII. The soldiers are back and attempting to find their way back to normalcy. The veneer of a happy life is in place, but it’s slipping. The characters find their lives unfulfilling and full of disorder. He can get into the mind of any character. I do not think I can adequately explain what is so great about Yates’ writing. Just run out and buy anything he’s written. I swear you won’t regret it.

To end this long post, I read some great books while in Belize. I wish I had more time to read during ‘real life’. Maybe it’s time I devote more time to just sitting down with a good book.

Finding oneself stranded on the island in the South Seas may be a dream for some people. Melville certainly thought so, or so it seems at first. In Typee, which is largely autobiographical, the narrator is a crewman on a whaler, who has been out at sea for six months. Under the fist of a cruel captain, our ‘hero’ decides it best to jump ship while anchored at the Marquesas. He and a companion from the ship find themselves in the clutches of the Typee, renowned for their cannibalism. Yet the ‘savages’ turn out to be gentle and good-natured for the most part.

Melville clearly has problems with his own civilization. He compares and contrasts the so called ‘gentle’ behavior of the English against the ‘savage’ behavior of the Typee, and the Western society comes out looking the worse. His own experiences with the missionaries in the South Seas soured him on the belief that the societies could co-exist. In the end, however, the Typee are not the idyllic society as he first thought. The narrator realizes eventually that he is not permitted to leave—-no matter what (he has a very bad ailment that they cannot treat, but won’t let his companion return with medical help). Part sociological treatise on the daily life of the islanders and part journal of an escape gone wrong, Typee has an enduring appeal. One of the best reasons to read this book is to see the native islanders before Western culture has a chance to influence them too much.

The exoticness of the setting of the novel is what brought me to my next read. Well, that and the fact that I’ve been dying to read Graham Greene since I heard Michael Gorra and James Wood discuss him months ago. I chose to read The Heart of the Matter after learning that it takes place in an unnamed country in Africa (I often follow themes when I read on vacations. I read all of Dumas’ works while traveling through France years ago. That’s why I now have a cat named d’Artagnan). Set during WWiI, the novel’s ‘hero’ Scobie, assistant police commissioner, seems to get not pleasure from love. Married to Louise, who suffers from depression, his pity for her has replaced the love he once felt. When she leaves for South Africa (to get away from it all apparently), he meets Helen, recently widowed when her ship is torpedoed and sinks. They fall into love. But the love is reminiscent of the ‘love’ he feels for his wife. Meanwhile Wilson, new to the town, also in love with Scobie’s wife, keeps tabs on Scobie. And there is Yusef, the shady smuggler who blackmails Scobie. Weaved into the story is plenty of Catholic guilt.

The plot sounds complicated, but this amazing book has the power to hold you as you must find out what happens to all the flawed characters. No one comes off unscathed in Greene’s novel. No one is sympathetic. Rather, most are pathetic. But you can understand Scobie’s personal crisis. I am not doing justice to this great work. Another great thing about the edition I picked up was the James Wood introduction. I waited to read it after I had finished. It illuminated the novel. Adding more Graham Greene to my TBR list is a must.

Stay tuned tomorrow for the rest of my vacation reads!