New York Books, Part One

[osprey_archer]

I read MANY books on my trip (and also missed last Wednesday Reading Meme), so rather than do a proper Wednesday Reading Meme this week I thought I would start with the three physical books I read over the trip.

I began with the latest entry in Elizabeth Wein’s Girl Pilots of World War II series, The Last Hawk, which I’ve been saving since littlerhymes sent it to me (inexplicably, these books have not been published in the US) because it seemed like the perfect book to read on the plane. It was! Lots of gorgeous descriptions of piloting a glider in the mountains, maybe Wein’s best flying sequences since Code Name Verity.

Otherwise, this is solidly entertaining, although there’s nothing as delightfully off the wall as Princess Anastasia, chain-smoking Soviet flying instructor. The Last Hawk starts with Ingrid writing her story for the Americans after flying over enemy lines to smuggle important information out of Germany (literally she tells us this on the first page), and the rest of the story explains how she got there.

I had intended to buy LOTS of books in New York, but as it turned out, I was cruelly misled (probably by my own hopes and dreams, because I can’t recall anyone telling me this) into believing that the Strand’s 18 miles of books include many USED books. Possibly it does on the fourth floor? But the fourth floor was CLOSED and so my carefully curated list of Ye Old Authors was for naught.

However, my luck improved at the delightful children’s bookstore Books of Wonder, where I found Penelope Farmer’s William and Mary and T. Degens' The Visit. Farmer is most famous for Charlotte Sometimes, in which modern-at-the-time-of-writing Charlotte keeps switching places with a girl who studied at her boarding school decades before, during World War I. This is the final book in a trilogy, the other two books of which are about children who learn to fly.

William and Mary has the same weird atmosphere, although the details of said weirdness are totally different. William and Mary are stuck at boarding school over break, and discover that William’s shell allows them to enter into a variety of sea-themed art objects: a painting of Atlantis, a photo of coral reefs, a sea shanty about fishing, and so forth and so on. It didn’t quite come together for me at the end, but it’s also not a book where the ending really matters. The weird magical happenings are the point.

T. Degens’s The Visit also didn’t quite come together, but unfortunately it is the kind of book where the ending matters. Every year, Kate’s buoyant, vivacious Aunt Sylvia comes to Germany for a monthlong visit. These visits used to be the highlight of Kate’s year… until she found the diary of her long-dead Aunt Kate, and realized that Sylvia was somehow implicated in the first Kate’s death at Hitler Youth camp.

The story is told in alternating chapters: present-day chapters in first person, in which Kate sulks through Aunt Sylvia’s visit, and past chapters in third person, which must be Kate’s imaginative reconstruction of the past based on Aunt Kate’s diary.

The structure really demands a final clash in which Kate confronts Aunt Sylvia about What Happened to Aunt Kate (and maybe also What Were You All Thinking with the Nazism). But the book ends before the confrontation: Kate decides she’ll ask Aunt Sylvia directly, and then the book cuts off. I can sort of see why, because Aunt Sylvia is exactly the kind of charming narcissist who would try to wiggle out of all responsibility, and that’s not a satisfying ending either - but it would be more satisfying than what we get.

I enjoyed all these books (even The Visit, though it's the most flawed of the three), but I don't feel the need to keep them. They are all free to a good home! Let me know if you would like one.

Comments

[sovay]

William and Mary are stuck at boarding school over break, and discover that William’s shell allows them to enter into a variety of sea-themed art objects: a painting of Atlantis, a photo of coral reefs, a sea shanty about fishing, and so forth and so on.

I would have loved that as a child.

[osprey_archer]

I wish I'd discovered Farmer's books as a child. They're still fun as an adult but I think that as a child I would have found them truly transporting.

[oracne]

The Strand used to have a LOT of used/remaindered books on the first floor and in the basement, too...but I haven't been in several years.

[osprey_archer]

It's certainly possible that I missed them! There is SO much there.

On the bright side, this means that I can fulfill my long-cherished plan to visit John K. King Books in Detroit with a still-brimming list of books to look for. Perhaps a short summer trip.

[asakiyume]

Using the seashell to have various sea adventures via art sounds like so much fun! A way of having a bunch of different stories, not even related, necessarily, except that they feature the same protagonists. I can definitely see what you mean when you say that the ending not coming together didn't matter much.

Re: the visit, please spoil me (elsewhere if not here) as to why Sylvia killed the first Kate, or let her be killed, or whatever. And does the book address the Nazism issue? When was it published?

[osprey_archer]

I really love this structure of a series of magical adventures linked by a single magical object. (Edward Eager does this too, and of course he got it from E. Nesbit.) I don't see it very much in children's fantasy these days but you never know! It could always make a comeback.

I don't know how to do a spoiler cut in comments (and honestly I doubt anyone cares about an obscure 40 year old book) but SPOILERS FOR THE VISIT, just in case.

Part of what makes the ending of The Visit frustrating is that the details are not super clear. In the last Kate the first scene, Sylvia accuses Kate of knowing who helped some escaped Russian POWs; Kate (who does know) refuses to divulge the information, and runs off into the woods, where presumably she writes up her final diary entry (ending with this disagreement with Sylvia) and then somehow or other gets shot while the soldiers recapture the POWs.

So MAYBE Sylvia in some way directed the soldiers at her sister, but also MAYBE it was an accident. If we got to see Kate the second ask Sylvia about it, we might have found out, but we don't.

The book was published in 1982 and mostly assumes that the reader is going into it already aware that the Nazis are the bad guys. We do glimpse some atrocities (the aforementioned Russian POWs, who are starving) but the focus is mostly on "My extremely charming and beloved aunt is also maybe a horrible person?? What do."

[asakiyume]

"My extremely charming and beloved aunt is also maybe a horrible person?? What do."

Yeah, that's frustrating.

On the one hand, in real life, real people can be charming some of the time, to some people, and beasts to others ("Who would have guessed he'd be the sort to beat his wife??"), and also, real people can have good qualities and bad ones, and real people can do awful things that they regret dreadfully, or try to bury and never think about, or try to persuade themselves were justified or unavoidable. That's all in the realm of real people we all know something about. Then there's "person is charming but actually a sociopathic narcissist bent on deceiving everyone." I think there are *some* people in the world who fall into that category, but not many, and while they're maybe interesting in a terrifying wandering-monster sort of way, if you're telling a story about *them*, then really you're just telling a kind of a monster story? And monster stories don't really have any wisdom to share other than "Watch out! Anyone might be a monster." Well, okay. Whereas, dealing with real people who have bad sides--that's painful, real, and deep, but you can't tell that story like a sociopathic monster story. .... IMO, anyway.

ETA: This comment is somewhat incoherent and repetitive, indicating that the commenter hasn't had enough sleep and can't really think coherently...

[osprey_archer]

I feel that I must have explained badly, because I don't think the book is arguing that Aunt Sylvia is a full-blown sociopath - rather, she's someone with such great charm that she can often sway people into doing what she wants, and that has made her immature in the way that very charming people sometimes are: she's so used to people reacting positively to her charm and dash that she's never had to learn how to be thoughtful on a deeper level.

So maybe a better way to say it would be "My extremely charming and beloved aunt has maybe also done horrible things?? Or at very least sometimes uses her charm manipulatively." Both Kates adored Sylvia until things went wrong, and the first Kate's relationship with Sylvia went wrong in a very lowkey, relatable teenage way: Sylvia sets up a talent show, and builds her act on the magic tricks that are really Kate's specialty.

[asakiyume]

Oh okay--fair enough! I went tearing off in the wrong direction! (Not your fault though-- you know how it is: someone shares their shopping list and then if it includes peas and you hate peas, you can launch into a tirade about peas when really it's just an item on the shopping list ... okay, this analogy is not the best. BUT ANYWAY! I get what you're saying, and this scenario is one I find more acceptable... sure the author is exhaling in relief to hear it, heh. Oh! And I do actually like peas...)

[teenybuffalo]

The Strand had significant amounts of used books two and a half years ago when I was last there, but I also recall it's been pivoted under new management to focus on bestsellers and its own merchandising, and I fear part of this change is that they may have deemphasized used book sales.

I enjoyed these reviews a lot -- thanks for posting them.

[osprey_archer]

Oh nooooo. New management, why you gotta be like this! They must think they can coast on their own reputation to drive merch sales, but for how long when they've gotten rid of the feature underlying that reputation??