Blue Nights by Joan Didion

Joan Didion is a woman of many credible novels. She is known for her literary journalism and personal stories told in methods of coping with tragic accidents. Her memoir, Blue Nights is a perfect example. Blue Nights is a National best seller and displays Didion's life and emotions during tragic times in which even writing can not fully grasp the mourning and desperation she felt. 

The picture to the left displays not only the cover photo of Blue Nights but an image of Joan Didion and her daughter Quintana Roo. Quintana Roo is Didion's adopted daughter who passed away. She is apart of the heavy subject matter that is represented throughout the writing in Blue Nights. The experience of Quintana's death along with Didion's husband, John Dunne, is expanded throughout the memoir to not tell, but show, how Didion got through it. BLue Nights helps to show how to cope, and how she managed to live her life afterwards with so much tragedy. Everyone close to her was taken away and surprisingly enough this memoir is not about her grieving through this process, it displays her regret. Didion carries so much regret that was revealed after the death of her daughter and regret that is dwelled upon and expanded every day. She makes many references to these ideals and thoughts throughout the memoir which in all makes it that much more powerful and relatable. 

Joan Didion Displays her regret of this experience through the ideals of memories and faliur. She focuses heavily on the importance of specific subjects such as love or children and then not necessarily contradicts it, but expresses her mindset of regret she felt. Here are a few examples in the text of Didion's powerful language used to display her inner regret through memories and fear of failure

"Their actual subject was this refusal even to engage in such contemplation, this failure to confront the certainties if aging, illness, death. This fear.(54)"

"What if I fail to take care of this baby? What if this baby fails to thrive? What if this baby fails to love me? And worse yet, worse by far, [...] What if I fail to love this baby? (58)"

"Memories are by definition of times past, things gone.[...] Memories are what you no longer want to remember. (64)"

These few quotes simply demonstrate Didion's overall meaning with this memoir and in which directions she took it too. She clearly in mourning the death of her loved ones, expressing her emotions, displaying her vulnerability, showing us her inner thoughts, and is letting her readers in on the regret and the blame she places upon her self. She consistently asks herself; Did I do enough? Could I have done more? Is this my fault? Why? What did I do wrong? By telling her memoir in this way rather than simply showing her grief not only makes this read mesmerizing  but relatable as well. We all experience emotions of which are not always positive and tend to blame ourselves, regret the past, dwell, question, and wonder why. With this memoir Didion reaches out to so many who not necessarily experienced death of a child or a loved one, illnesses or tragedies but regret. Naturally as humans we dwell on the past of what could have been and Didion contemplates these ideas with the use of her lyrical language, vivid images and  personal experiences. There is no doubting that this memoir was a Nation Bestseller. After reading Blue Nights it is vividly clear as to why. 

Farm City: the Education of an Urban Farmer

Think living in the city means you need to grocery shop to get food? Think again. Novella Carpenter took her apartment near downtown Oakland and the vacant, overgrown lot next door and became an urban farmer. She recollects the tales and trials of life on the farm in Farm City: education of an urban farmer. Over the course of the book she finds community within her rough and tumble neighborhood through a series of up and downs ranging from a home grown and slaughtered Turkey for Thanksgiving, to the theft of her prized, under ripe watermelon, all intertwined with stories from her mother’s days on a farm in Idaho, and history facts on the plants and animals that cycle through her deck and squatter lot.

            Readers that have enjoyed The Quarter-Acre Farm: How I Kept the Patio, Lost the Lawn, and Fed My Family for a Year, and Urban Farm Handbook: City Slicker Resources for Growing, Raising, Sourcing, Trading, and Preparing What You Eat should be able to find a good few days read in Farm City as it offers information on Carpenter’s trials, errors, and successes.

            Every word from Carpenter’s pen reads as though she were just telling the story face to face. Here she relays the time she discovered that slugs were destroying her treasured watermelon vines: “I know there were more slugs – bigger slugs, the mothers and fathers of these babies… later in the day, as the sun set, I drank a strong cup of tea and strapped on my head lamp. Prepared for hand-to-hand combat, I went slug hunting.” She attacks each challenge with similar gusto and humor, handing each tale to the reader with equal parts enthusiasm, pride and concern, though not without a fair share of self mockery, sarcasm, and heart felt reflection.

Life in GhostTown, Carpenter’s neighborhood, in Oakland is comparable to the Wild West with gun fights and a sense of general lawlessness, despite the frequent scream of sirens. On her dead end 28^th Street, (the 2-8) she adds a little farm living to the mix of already colorful characters. Bobby lived on a farm in Arkansas and offers advice about slaughtering her pigs, while trying to avoid getting the car he lives in towed away. Lana (anal spelled backwards as she introduces herself) loves animals and helps with the set up the garden. It is with these people and others that Carpenter shares her bounty, hardships, and stories. At times I sat wondering if I really cared about the historical significance of the turkey, and why this information was being fed to be, but in the end I remained thankful for the information and the interesting way the community reacted to her growing homestead.

            At the start of her urban farming adventure she has a tally on her fridge that reads “4 chickens, 30,000 bees [approximately], 59 flies, 2 monkeys [me and my boyfriend Bill]” and over the course of the book she acquires several more chickens (for meat this time), ducks, geese, turkey, rabbits, and the biggest project of all, the pigs. The book is split into growing stages of the farm: Turkey, Rabbit, and Pig respectively. Each of these also explore the history of the animals as well as relate back to stories that her mother repeatedly tells, a trait that she understands the more she works on her little farm.

Novella Carpenter’s roots go back to a farm in Idaho. As the daughter of two hippies determined to live off the land, she was raised with that self-sustaining lifestyle and it stayed with her to this day. She and her boyfriend Bill still live in Oakland in a homestead referred to as GhostTown Farm. She runs a blog about the goings on and interacting with other inventive urban farmers and has co-written other works such as The Essential Urban Farmer and Don't Jump! The Northwest Winter Blues Survival Guide. She received a Degree from in English at the University of Washington Seattle, an attended the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. She had already appeared in Mother Jones, salon.com and the San Francisco Chronicle’s website SFgate.com before starting her blog about GhostTown.

Whether you enjoy the idea of a woman farming in Oakland, want to learn farm history facts to impress your friends at parties (there’s always that one person right?) or want to grow your own farm and don’t know where to start, Carpenter’s Farm City has the seeds and sunshine you need. It is a warm reflection on community, childhood, family, and good old hard work. All in all, if you are looking for in depth, step by step instructions on running a farm, there are many other books to look for at your local library. However, for a broader scope, or a hobby, this book is just enough to get even the biggest city folks to consider growing tomatoes on their balconies.

Book Review: "Atlas of Remote Islands"

Atlas of Remote Islands: Fifty Islands I Have Never Set Foot On and Never Will

By: Judith Schalansky

Every review I have read about this book says it is amazing. There is a definite consensus that people find it to be beautiful, intriguing, and haunting. It even won the award for the most beautiful German book. The author, Judith Schalansky, is from Germany. When she was a child, she was fascinated by atlases. Until she was nine, East Germans were not allowed to leave their country with the exception of the Olympic team. It shocked her that on the map her country was as "pink and tiny as my smallest fingernail." She is very critical of the way maps are made and of their content. She writes, "The first atlas in my life was called Atlas für jedermann...I didn't realize then that my           

atlas - like every other - was committed to an ideology...I found out later, when I had to 

memorize the rivers and mountains of a home country that had more than doubled in size. Ever since then, I have not trusted political world maps, in which countries float on the blue ocean like vivid scarves. They grow out of date quickly and give barely any information apart form who is currently running which scrap of color." This book was originally published in German, all of the illustrations and design was done by Schalansky herself. She brings up deeply thought provoking ideas about the politics behind land ownership, the "merciless generalization, these maps tame the wilderness," and what has happened/happens on islands that are so remote they are often not included on the map. Her preface is entitled Paradise is an island. So is Hell. Interesting, because we often consider islands to be a desirable vacation getaway. She researched fifty of these remote islands, the second part of the book displays her illustrations and details about the islands. Some of the islands have chillingly frightening histories, written about in her poetic language. Of Lonely Island near Russia, she writes, "Loneliness lies in the centre of the Kara Sea in the northern Arctic Ocean...it is cold and barren." St. Kilda near the United Kingdom, was evacuated in 1930. Two-thirds of the new-born babies were dying within seven to nine days from an unknown illness. In my opinion, the most interesting island is Rapa Iti. Schalansky tells the story of a six year old boy named Marc who is "visited by dreams in which he is taught a completely unknown language." No researcher had ever heard it, or could figure out what language it was. As an adult Marc runs into a war veteran who remembers hearing the language on a very remote Polynesian island. In 1968 the island Fangataufa was used to test the first French hydrogen bomb. The residents had to be evacuated due to radioactive contamination and no one was allowed back for six years. On Pukapuka, "the young people...meet at the far edge of the beach once darkness falls. There they fight, dance, sing, and sleep with each other. Sex is a game, and jealousy has no place." I enjoyed these seemingly otherworldly, historical, and often strange stories. This is a good book to have on the coffee table, to ponder while laying on the couch wrapped in daydreams.

---Sara Moss

Inside The Hood: A Review of Gang Leader For A Day

  This shocking book written by Sudhir Venkatesh, opens the door to a part of America that many people have only seen from the perspective of the news and media. As a graduate student at the University of Chicago studying sociology, Venkatesh born in India and raised in Southern California, wanted to get his own look into the Chicago's inner city.

Ready to ask his survey question “how does it feel to be poor and black?” Venkatesh foolhardily set out to the projects. He stumbled upon the Robert Taylor Homes run by the drug dealing gang the Black Kings. Venkatesh begins surveying residents before ending up held hostage by the Black Kings in a stairwell of the Robert Taylor Homes for twenty four hours. Serves him right for being so naïve. After the Black Kings finally come to the conclusion that Venkatesh is not a Mexican gang member they let him go, but not before he is able to kindle a relationship with the leader of the Black Kings.

Venkatesh begins hanging out with the gang leader, J.T. As Venkatesh begins to shadow J.T. and learn more about him, they develop a complicated relationship and J.T. unlocks more and more secrets into their life. J.T. soon reveals to Venkatesh that he is a college graduate himself and quit his job to lead the Black Kings. He’s a smart, charismatic, leader that has much in common with Venkatesh, but due to his different life situation he must live entirely different, yet they grow and mature together. J.T. learns from Venkatesh and Venkatesh from J.T.

After most of a decade at the Robert Taylor House Sudhir Venkatesh uncovered many workings of that world unknown to many. The gang helps protect and support the residence with it’s rich profits off selling crack cocaine and in return the residence pay a fee to the gang. He developed relationships with the gang members, landlords, and residence. This allowed Vankatesh to compile a wealth of information, even a thorough report on the economy of the Robert Taylor Homes. Vankatesh begins to perhaps feed off the adrenaline rush off this second life he is living as he begins to take part in gang activity. He assists wounded residence after a drive by shooting, goes to parties at huge drug lords houses, and even gets a kick in on a man who is being handled by the gang for abusing a girl. He also interviewed hundreds of different people from all different walks of life during his time there.

This book is a great read because it helps to put life into perspective, and is an eye opener to how horrific some people are living in America. We are so focused on helping people in need in other countries when we have such sick problems in our own country. The people living at the Robert Taylor Homes could not even rely on the government to help them, they instead payed a 150 person gang to supply them things necessary for them to live.

I was impacted by the strong family values that the residence showed. It illustrates humans survival nature when they’re down and out and humanized the hustler and the dope fiend. Elderly stateswomen living in the Taylor House would not allow any child to go unfed or uncared for. The gang played a huge role in caring for the residence too. If someone needed some money to put food in their stomaches, or was being harassed and mistreated by a boy friend the gang would take care of it. Government officials including police would not step foot near the Robert Taylor Homes so it was up to J.T. and the Black Kings to keep order in the projects.

If you ever wondered about the taboo lifestyle of poor African Americans in the inner city now is your chance. This book is sure to open your mind up about the hardships of America and even question your country and the government. You cling to your seat on every chapter as Venkatesh risks his life, and is even allowed by J.T. to be gang leader for a day.

Going Insane

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

            Reading this memoir will make you feel like you’re going slightly insane.  Not the type of insane where you fall in love with a sibling and want to kill your parents, but rather, the type of insane that stems from the monotony of everyday life.  The type of insanity that you feel when you do the same things day in and day out.  Seeing the same people but with different faces.  Doing the same activities, just in different places, and so on.  Through his vivid, albeit unique, imagery, Eggers gives us a glimpse of the world through his eyes.  A world in which his peers have no idea about how to deal with death because they have not encountered it.  A world where everyone is simple, plain, boring, when compared with his own richly tragic past.

            After the loss of both of his parents within a few short weeks of each other, 32 days to be precise, to cancer ( John Eggers from brain cancer, and Heidi Eggers from stomach cancer), Eggers inherits the responsibility of raising his eight year old brother, Christopher (Toph), at the age of only 21.  Eggers had been hoping to complete a degree in journalism at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, yet his goals were put on hold due to his family’s misfortune.

            As soon as all of the arrangements for his parents were attended to, mostly by his older sister Beth and older brother Bill, he takes Toph to the healing sunshine of California, where Beth and Bill both aid in the parental responsibilities.  In California, Eggers transforms himself into all of the personalities he feels Toph needs in his life, as well as fulfilling some of the stereotypes that a young 20 something “should be.”  He attends parent teacher conferences, attempts at family meals, waits with the “other mothers” at games, has mock father-son heart to hearts, on top of being the slacker, living in near squalor, who founds a satirical magazine (Might) which mocks the stereotypical assessment of 20 something’s, particularly by the media.

            Thusly, it would not be unreasonable to say that Eggers is one of the most capable cynical authors of “Generation-X.”  The entire piece is a self deprecating, and yet freeing experience that culminates into one particularly powerful and emotional scene.  Throughout the book, Eggers occasionally mentions that they had not given his parents a proper burial.  His parents had decided (to the great surprise of their children) to donate their bodies to science.  Once picked up, Eggers had no inclination to keep track of their cremains.  As chance would have it, a few years after the move to California, he returns  to Illinois. 

“This trip is about the fact that things have been much too calm in San Francisco- I am making enough money, Toph is doing well in school- and thus completely intolerable.  I will return home and look for ugly things and chaos.  I want to be shot at, want to fall into a hole, want to be dragged from my car and beaten.  Also, I have a wedding to go to.”

            While there he confronts all of the troubles that he neglected to acknowledge in California.  He visits his house, finds old friends, and tracks down his mother’s cremains, though albeit, by accident.  The pinnacle of his heartbreak and ultimate revelation through utter honesty is the moment when he decides how best to honor his mother with a proper good-bye.

“How lame this is, how small, terrible.  Or maybe it is beautiful and glorious.  I can’t decide if what I am doing is beautiful and noble and right, or small and disgusting.  I want to be doing something beautiful, but am afraid that this is too small, too small, that this gesture, this end is too small-  Is this white trash?  That’s what it is! We were always so oddly white-trashy for our town, with our gruesome problems, and our ugly used cars, our Pintos and Malibus and Cameros, and our ‘70s wallpaper and plaid couches and acne and state schools- and now this tossing of cremains from a gold tin box into a lake?  Oh this is so plain, disgraceful, pathetic-  Or beautiful and loving and glorious!  Yes, beautiful and loving and glorious!”

Review of Haruki Murakami’s Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche

Haruki Murakami first made a name for himself as a fiction author.  Knowing that he had already published thirteen fiction novels and received the Franz Kafka Prize from the Czech Republic in 2006, the Kiriyama Prize for Fiction in 2007, the Jerusalem Prize in 2009, and the International Catalunya Prize in 2011, I believed he could tell a story. I was delighted at the prospect of seeing how a fiction writer would manage to get people to provide him with accurate and realistic depictions of the five separate terrorist attacks which were simultaneously carried out on different subway lines of the Japanese underground by members of the Japanese New Religious group, Aum Shinrikyo. The results of hours of interviews were Murakami’s first non-fiction book, Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche. 

Underground was first published in Japan in 1997 and then translated to be released in Great Britain in 2000. Murakami admits in a footnote on the first of two prefaces that he was inspired to cover the terrorist attack which shocked Japan in 1995 after reading an article in Ladies Home Journal. The second footnote explains the toxicity of Sarin gas, the biological weapon 25 times stronger than cyanide, which was used on the unsuspecting Japanese public. Murakami’s prose is formal, but flows as if he is dictating his thoughts rather than committing pen to paper. His introductions of each survivor of the attacks are descriptive and empathetic. What makes the story, however, are the various points of view the story shifts from. Murakami’s narration is subtle and honest, however, the first person narration provided by the accounts given to him provide the reader with a much deeper connection to the incident when they feel as if they are being told the recollection personally. 

The piece is initially organized in sections of survivor testimonials by subway line, with vivid first person descriptions of both a self diagnosis of sarin poisoning by a doctor on a train car and the gripping horror of going from coughing spasms to fits of blindness and overwhelming sickness which lasted months in certain cases. I was also shocked at the diversity of people Murakami found to interview. Doctors, an executive director of a building, a towel/rubber cord manufacturer (on his birthday!), fish salesman, and a Scottish jockey turned riding coach are only a few of those whose lives were deeply impacted by the terrorist attack on the train. Oddly enough, an overwhelming majority of those directly afflicted by the attacks still considered Japan to be one of the safest countries in the world. Their hatred was directed towards those who perpetrated the attack. The members of Aum Shinrikyo, however, were not concerned with the thoughts of the temporal world at the time, rather, they were focused on the positive end results prophecised to them by Aum’s leader, Shoko Asahara. 

Mr. Haruki Murakami went back to his publishers sometime after Underground was published with the intention of unveiling the mystery which surrounded Aum Shinrikyo. Little is understood about the group’s affiliation with the attacks as a whole. It is understood that they were planned by the highest members of Aum, but the organization has since changed it’s name to Aleph in the attempts to foster a newer, more positive identity. Part two of Underground , “The Place That Was Promised”, is Murakami’s attempt to uncover the depth of Shoko Asahara’s influence on the religion which was based around him. Asahara routinely gave his followers LSD, slept with the women of Aum he found attractive, and had brainwashed his followers to a point where “when Asahara was going anywhere follows would lay down their clothes for him to walk on”. While Murakami does his absolute best to shield his bias from the events described , he confesses to the degree of difficulty he encounters when doing so. 

Hakuri Murakami set out to document the events which occurred in the Japanese Underground system on March 20th, 1995. When the story didn’t seem finished, he went back and dug deeper into the Japanese New Religion that was Aum Shinrikyo. His delicate presentation of the traumatic incidents which unfolded in a matter of less than two hours and affected over five thousand people were brought to life through the vibrant memories of the hell on earth the survivors he spent time with relayed to him. 

Terrorist groups have the tendency to fascinate us. Acts of terrorism committed on members of the group’s own society are especially unique. The cultural differences between Japan and America make for an additional delight as one turns the pages of this story. However, I believe this story should be read slowly and in parts. The perspectives of each person are so vivid that they deserve our full attention. Attention I will be paying much more of when I re-read Haruki Murakami’s Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche.