The Bard with a Thousand Faces

My dad did not understand why I had to read William Shakespeare. I was fourteen and reading Julius Caesar for English class. I was lucky; my teacher had a Master's degree in English and explained all the jokes and helped us understand what we were reading. Four years later he taught King Lear in World Literature class. I liked Shakespeare.

Shakespeare's words pervade our conversations and his stories are adapted into modern retellings. Consider King Lear, the inspiration for Akira Krosawa's film Ran and the novel A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley. Or The Taming of the Shrew, the basis for the musical Kiss Me Kate and the movies Ten Things I Hate About You and John Wayne's McLintock! Bernstein's musical West Side Story is an updated Romeo and Juliet. The Forbidden Planet sci-fi classic movie is based on The Tempest.

It is more amazing to know that Shakespeare has crossed bigger language barriers than archaic to modern English. World's Elsewhere: Journeys Around Shakespeare's Globe follows Andrew Dickson on five trips across world cultures to explore the legacy and reinvention of Shakespeare across cultures.

Dickson went to Danzig, where actors performed Shakespeare in the 16th c. We learn how German Romantic culture--and the Nazis-- claimed the Bard as their own, and how today German professional troupes perform more Shakespeare plays than in the UK.

Shakespeare's plays and the Bible were often the only books found in American pioneer homesteads. Traveling actors performed his plays in mining camps. Henry Folger amassed the largest collection of Shakespeare Folios and manuscripts in the world, more than in England.

Where ever Britain had colonies, they brought Shakespeare. His stories have been reinvented for 150 films in India!

My favorite journeys to read about were to South Africa and to China.

Dickson goes on a quest to learn about the Robben Island Bible, a cheap complete works that was passed among the prisoners of the island penal colony. Thirty-six inmates inscribed their signatures in the book, including Nelson Mandela. Mandela signed his name to the highlighted text from Julius Caesar "Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once..." Dickson also searches for Solomon Tshekisho Plaatj, a journalist and political activist who was the first to translate Shakespeare into a African language. Dickson's journey into contemporary South Africa while researching translators from the Boer War and Apartheid eras is a fascinating read.

Shakespeare in China may seem strange and doubtful. Translation issues alone are horrendous, plus the plays were repressed during the Cultural Revolution. Amazingly China is experiencing a surge of interest in the Bard, with so many traveling to Stratford-in-Avon in homage that the nearby airport has set up direct flights from Beijing. I was very taken by the story of Zhu Shiqiu whose life work was translating the plays. He lost his manuscripts three times, starting over until he had finished 31 at the time of his death.  Dickson discovers how the Cultural Revolution shut down Much Ado About Nothing; twenty years later the original actors brought back the play, same scripts, same costumes, same choreography.

Dickson struggles with questions of what Shakespeare means: a bridge of shared humanity, or a free-floating symbol whose ownership could be claimed?

Read Dickson's blog here: http://worldselsewhere.com

I received a free ARC through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

World's Elsewhere: Journeys Around Shakespeare's Globe
by Andrew Dickson
Henry Holt
$35 hard cover
Publication date: April 5, 2016
ISBN:9780805097344

Forgeries and Fakes: The Last Painting of Sara de Vos

Ellie was a twenty-six-year-old grad student working in art conservation when she was asked to make a copy of a 17th c painting by a female Dutch painter. The copy is her masterpiece. Ellie is complicit when the original painting is stolen and replaced with Ellie's copy. 

The painting's owner Marty recognized that his heirloom had been replaced with a forgery. He hired a private detective who leads him to Ellie. Marty assumes a fake identity to get close to Ellie. Each is hiding a truth, but find themselves drawn to each other. Their deceptions bring ruin into both their lives.

Forty years pass and Ellie and Marty are reunited when he loans his painting to the exhibit she is curating. Marty is full of regret as he faces coming death. Ellie's complicity haunts her; she knows she has built a house of cards and is certain her youthful indiscretion will be revealed.

The Last Painting of Sara de Vos by Dominic Smith is related in three time periods, tracing the history of a painting over four centuries. The struggles and losses of Sara de Vos, a painter during the Dutch Golden Age, is told interspersed between the storyline of Marty and Ellie in the late 1950s when Ellie forges Sara's painting, and in the 2000s when Ellie and Marty are reunited.

I enjoyed reading this book. The writing is beautiful with lovely turns of phrases and memorable epigrams. Rooms 'bloat with darkness', a lie 'comes effortlessly, a deadbolt sliding into a groove." Ellie 'tries to uncover a breadcrumb trail of moral failure" in her history. 

There is psychological depth to Marty and Ellie as they struggle with moral decisions and their consequences. Regret, Marty says to Ellie, doesn't eat you alive; it keeps you alive. Marty's reflections on old age are darkly humorous. I do wish there had been a fourth time period in the novel; the missing 40 years would have been profoundly interesting, a time when Marty and Ellie hit rock bottom and had to rebuild their lives.

Sara de Vos was inspired by a real Dutch female painter. Sara's paintings are vividly described. Descriptions of the craft of painting in the 17th c and when Ellie makes her copy reveal the fatal flaw in Ellie's forgery. 

To read more about Dutch female painters of the 17th c. check out

Three Women Painters of the Dutch Golden Age

I realized I had read this author's book The Mercury Visions of Louis Daguerre some years ago and had enjoyed it.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

The Last Painting of Sara de Vos

Dominic Smith

Farrar, Straus, and Giroux

$26.00 hard cover

ISBN: 9780374106683

Publication Date: April 5, 2016

Smoke the Donkey; A Marine's Unlikely Friend

Hee Haw. This is not an April Fool's Day joke. Over $10,000 was spent to get a donkey from Iraq to the States. Fourteen months later the donkey died. Hee Haw.

It is crazy. In what world do people spend nine months tangled in bureaucratic tape and paperwork for a donkey?

Well, the Marines never leave a man behind.

It all started when Fobbits in Iraq presented Col. John Folsom with a donkey. He had joked that if the men ever found a donkey to bring it to him. Folsom was an animal lover and finagled the means to keep and provide the homeless waif, who happened to really like stealing the men's cigarettes, even lighted ones. Hence, his name--Smoke. Folsom discovered that Smoke had an integral role to play in the soldier's lives. Smoke became classified as a therapy animal. To the Marines he was a battle buddy.

When Col. Folsom returned stateside he provided a home for Smoke but after a while he decided to bring his battle buddy to the States. No easy task. But once secured in the U.S.A. Smoke became a great therapy animal for Marines with PTSD, a star promoter, and a real American icon with his own Facebook page. Sadly, his early neglected years left their mark on his health.

The story of Smoke is one more instance proving animals can break through our emotional fences and help us heal and find wholeness.

Written by Col. Folsom's wife Cate, an editor and news writer, the book includes primary sources and details of every step of Smoke's journey out of Iraq. Smoke and Folsom are the heart of the story. I started out enjoying the book but it bogged down when Smoke retreated to the background. I found myself speed reading through the middle.

The story does raise an interesting ethical question: Can we justify costs based only on longevity or also by impact on lives? For those who loved Smoke, what he brought to their lives was priceless.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Smoke the Donkey 
by Cate Folsom
University of Nebraska Press
Publication April 1, 2016
$24.95 hard cover
ISBN:9781612348117

Have a Day? Make a Quilt!

Quilters are always looking for fast and easy projects for gifting. We want patterns that are adaptable to different fabric choices, interesting yet simple, and with no-fail instructions.

In 24-Hour Quilting Projects Rita Weiss offers twenty quilts of all sizes that can be constructed in a day--or less! Most are pieced patterns based on traditional blocks including the Log Cabin, star variations, nine-patch, and pinwheels. She includes several quilts that combine appliqué and piecing. Each pattern tweaks the traditional block for an interesting twist.

Also included is a full page color photograph of the completed quilt, materials and yardage lists, step-by-step instructions for making blocks, borders, and completing the quilt, and a useful color picture layout of the competed quilt.

I especially was impressed with her general quilt making instructions with great information for beginning quilters. Her rotary cutting guide is detailed with lots of photographs and includes instructions for right and left handed persons, She also has guides for 'stitch and flip' methods, chain piecing, binding, fussy cutting, and appliqué.

Originally published in 2005 24-Hour Quilting Projects is now republished by Dover Publications. The fabric choices and colors in Weiss' projects reflect her preference for bright colors and the prints of 2005. For instance, her Angel Fantasy includes a print of angels which is no longer available, but today's quilter can choose one of the wonderful new prints available as a feature fabric.

I received and ARC through NetGalley for an unbiased review.

24-Hour Quilt Patterns
Rita Weiss
Dover Publications
Publication Date: March 12, 2016
$19.95

Shipwrecks and Rescues at Big Sable Point

We lived along Lake Michigan for seven years. Summer along the shore is lovely. The sand cliffs and beaches facing the blue lake are beautiful.

sand dunes south of Ludington, MI

Mears State Park beach at Pentwater, MI

Living along the lake all year round means enduring wicked winters. We had 130+ inches of snow our last year in Pentwater; 93 inches our first year in Montague was considered a light winter. The blowing wind and surf is a continual background noise. 

We tried going to the beach during a storm. The sand blew into our nostrils and mouth and down to the roots of our hair. Once was enough. See a YouTube video of waves at Ludington here and videos of lake storms here and here.

Lake Michigan near Pentwater during Hurricane Sandy, early October

Reading Storms & Sand: The Story of Shipwrecks and the Big Sable Point Coast Guard Station by Stephen, Grace, and Joel Truman I remembered those few minutes we spent along a stormy coast and I pitied and admired the men who endured truly harsh storms.

Big Sable Point sits on a jut of land--actually sand dunes-- a two mile walk north of Ludington. Inland and behind is Hamlin Lake, a resort area. The lake was enlarged when lumber baron Charles Mears built a wood dam in 1856. His lumber mill stored the wood in the lake, which was then shunted downriver to Lake Michigan were it was loaded for shipping. When the dam broke, the life saving station men arrived to rebuild.

All along West Michigan the lumber barons cut down the old forest growth, the tall White Pines, and ships took the lumber south to build Chicago and north and through the lake to Buffalo. A hundred years ago the forests were pretty well lumbered out in the state.

But during the lumber boom the lake was teaming with ships. And with sand bars and bad weather, ice and snow, mechanical breakdowns, and captains trying for one more late season run, there was a desperate need for life saving stations along the Lake Michigan shore.

The Truman's book presents the history of the Big Sable life saving station and the men who served there with illustrative stories of their rescues. We follow the men's careers and get to know them.

Someone had to patrol the beaches day and night, in all weather. Someone had to look from the watch tower, peering into fog, rain or snow, looking for a light or flag signally distress. The men needed to bring boats to the water's edge when heavy ice and snow deeply buried the shore. In early days the men oared the boats out.

We read about distressed ships with men clinging to the mast rigging in brutal weather. For hours. In plain and subtle language, the stories reveal true heroes, men 'doing their duty' in dogged persistence, regardless of their own safety.

We learn how technology and improvements made the work quicker, but nothing could change the irresistible power of nature's fury.

The life saving stations were rolled into the Coast Guard. As ship technology changed there were fewer accidents and less need for the life saving stations and they were closed. Today the surviving stations and lighthouses have become tourist attractions, enjoyed for their scenic beauty. The Trumans have reminded us of the tragedies and triumphs of their forgotten history.

I received a free book from the author in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Storms & Sand: A Story of Shipwrecks and the Big Sable Point Coast Guard Station
Stephen, Grace, and Joel Truman
Pine Woods Press
$29.95
ISBN: 978-0-9854636-9-4

The African American Experience in 1851

Two new books set in 1851 address the African American experience. Chasing the North Star by Robert Morgan offers readers insight into the dangerous journey North made by escaped slaves; The Parker Sisters: A Border Kidnapping by Lucy Maddox explores how that safety was compromised by the Fugitive Slave Act.

The story of a runaway slave's grueling journey, Chasing the North Star is by Robert Morgan, the author of Gap Creek. Teenage Jonah is pampered and protected by his owner's wife and secretly allowed to learn to read and write. When his master discovers Jonah with a book he assumes it is stolen. Punishment is dealt and feeling the injustice of his position Jonah determines to run away. He is an innocent in the ways of the greater world. He meets Angel at a Jubilee, a 'fat girl' who serves as her master's mistress. Angela decides to follow Jonah. She knows he needs her, not only for her people savvy but also as a link to his people and his past. The road from North Carolina to freedom in Ithaca, NY is rife with danger and deprivation.

Inspired by Morgan family oral history, the novel is well drawn and the characters memorable. There is of course violence. Although Jonah and Angel were both house slaves and better provided for than field hands they suffered indignities and cruelty. Jonah was whipped unjustly and Angel fattened up to be her master's sex slave. They also suffer psychological violence and natural catastrophe. Everyone they met on their journey know they are escaped slaves, and that puts Jonah and Angel in their power.

Morgan is a good writer and readers will be swept into the book by both his characters and the story line.

The Parker Sisters: A Border Kidnapping by Lucy Maddox is a nonfiction exploration of the 1851 kidnapping of two free black sisters from Chester County, PA, which is just above the Pennsylvania-Maryland line. Quakers had settled the area before William Penn. Quakers as a group were not active abolitionists, and those who were had to work under cover. Slavery was illegal in Pennsylvania but residents obeyed the law concerning the Fugitive Slave Act  which made it mandatory to return escaped 'property' to their Southern owners. Abolitionists were detested as lawbreakers. Pennsylvanians also were incensed by the kidnapping of freemen to be sold as slaves in the South, another breaking of the law.

The life of a free person of color in rural Pennsylvania was one of isolation, working for European descent farmers for little pay.

Elizabeth Parker was kidnapped and sold to a New Orleans woman. She was sent on the streets to sell flowers and candy, slept on a feather bed, and was surrounded by others of her color. She was not unhappy in spite of her loss of freedom. When she was arrested for breaking the 8 pm curfew she played her trump card and confessed she was a free woman kidnapped into slavery. Her sister Rachel Parker was also kidnapped and her employer and other Chester County farmers followed to bring her back; the farmer she worked for was later found dead. After several exhumations it was determined that he was murdered.

Their kidnapper claimed they were the Crocus sisters who had escaped from their owners. The girls remained in prison for a year awaiting the trials that would settle their identity.. African Americans were legally bared from testifying in court for others of their color. Their identity had to be established by members of their home community, against the word of those who benefited from her sale.

Maddox uses trial records and primary sources to reconstruct the kidnapping of the Parker sisters. Their story brings to life the legal, political, and personal ramifications of the Fugitive Slave Act.

I received a free ARC from the publishers through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Chasing the North Star
by Robert Morgan
Algonquin Books
Publication Date: April 5, 2016
$25.95 hard cover
ISBN: 9781565126275

The Parker Sisters
by Lucy Maddox
Temple University Press
Publication Date: February 1, 2016
$28.50 hard cover
ISBN:9781439913185

The Summer Before the War by Helen Simonson

"I may be progressive, but I would never hire a pretty teacher." 

On the eve of WWI, with the death of her scholar father, Beatrice must find her way in the world and accepts a position as Latin teacher in Rye, England. Used to traveling across Europe and staying in top-notch hotels, she is reduced to three pair of gloves, a shabby room, and one hot bath weekly. To keep her position she must battle prejudice and ancient class snobbery. Beatrice is intelligent and highly educated. And vastly under valued and unappreciated. Her new world is peopled by two young men, cousins and best friends although opposites, grand dames who rule society, and powerful titled men willing to do anything to protect their "good name".

I was swept into the novel, in love with the Austenesque quips and nods. "A country living room holds no terrors for me," Beatrice remarks. Beatrice has much in common with Fanny in Mansfield Park in her worthiness and powerlessness. A proposal scene matches the ridiculous Mr. Collins or Rev. Elton. True love grows between friends who are perfect equals. It begins a novel of social manners, which I dearly love to read.

Then war breaks out. The horrors of war come to reside in their village. Men are pressured to enlist by white feather-bearing girlfriends, fathers, and career mentors. Grand houses are prepared for hospitals, but only to house convalescents of the best quality. The city provides for Belgium refugees including a professor and his beautiful daughter Celeste, who are much lionized. While Beatrice is socially alienated, Celeste is smothered with dresses and invitations.

The final indignation comes when the publisher refuses to allow Beatrice to write the book about her father's work and gives her manuscript to a male writer. She had hoped to earn a little income from the book and begin a career as a writer.

Although very entertaining, the plot develops slowly as Beatrice endeavors to make it on her own. In the middle the plot leveled off and was not progressing, but part four was a roller coaster ride. The role of women, class prejudice, and the ill conceived idealization of war are addressed. Additionally, darker aspects of life 100 years ago appear when Celeste's victimization in war makes her a social pariah and the deep bound between two college chums brings forced separation, with tragic results.

The world of 1914 is presented in detail and will delight historical fiction fans. Set 100 years after Jane Austen, and 100 before the present day, one can note that class and gender issues have advanced more in the last 100 years than in the previous century. The Great War altered the world irrevocably, for better and worse.

I received a free ARC from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Advance praise:
Annie Barrows (The Truth About Us and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society) : "At once haunting and effervescent...as lingering and lovely as a long summer sunset."
Paula McClain (The Paris Wife and Circling the Sun) :"...[a] radiant follow-up to Major Pettigrew's Last Stand..vividly drawn...like a Jane Austen for our day and age, she is that good..."

The Summer Before the War
by Helen Simonson
Random House
Publication: March 22, 2016
$28.00 hard cover
ISBN: 9780812993103