Tag: book-reviews

CHILD ABUSE

The complexity of Freida McFadden’s character relationships diminishes its appeal, but the point of the story is that child abuse takes many forms which often repeat themselves in future generations.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

THE INTRUDER 

Author: Freida McFadden

Narration by: Joe Hempel, Patricia Santomasso, Tina Wolstencroft

Freida McFadden (Author, practicing physician, specializing in brain injury.)

Freida McFadden’s book is a mess. The story is burdened by too many relationship complications. On the other hand, it reveals the hardship children face when raised by parents who lose control of their minds. The base story is about a 12- or 13-year-old girl named Ella. She is being raised by her mother who is a hoarder struggling to cope with life. As a single mother with a young girl, her hoarding complicates her daughter’s life. The house in which they live is a pigsty because of the hoarding. The odor of spoiled fruits and food permeates the clothing that Ella wears to school. Her mother often locks her daughter in a closet when she leaves the house. The closet is dark, cramped, and smelly from the mother’s hoarding mania. She punishes her child with the lit end of a cigarette when her daughter complains about anything.

Child abuse statistics.

Ella dreams of escaping to a better life while coping with school and hiding the trauma she endures with her mother’s mental instability. Ella fantasizes the idea of finding her father who she does not know. She makes friends with a young boy of her age who has anger issues because his father drinks too much and is abusive toward his son and wife. As Ella and the boy become closer, a serious assault incident at school results in the boy being permanently expelled. Ella has lost the support of her best friend and is faced with the instability of her mother’s behavior. Ella wishes for a better life and searches for evidence of her father as a way of escaping and improving her life. That search appears to be a dead end.

Ella’s mother hooks up with a man who becomes a boyfriend with a violent temper.

A fight between the two leads to Ella’s mother being stabbed. Blood from her wounds splatters her daughter from head to foot. Ella sets the house on fire and runs to the woods near her neighborhood where she cowers in a shed. The shed is next to a house rented by a teacher who has been fired by the school that had hired her. There is a storm brewing as Ella cowers in the shed next to the former teacher’s house. The former teacher named Casey, sees a light in the shed and cautiously approaches it to find Ella, a bloody mess lying on the shed floor. Ella is the intruder of McFadden’s story.

The value of this story lies in the reality of children being raised in families that abuse their children through neglect, psychological, or physical abuse.

McFadden’s story is of a neglectful and deranged mother who is incapable of caring for herself, let alone a child. Every child that survives their childhood is impacted by parents whether sane or mentally unbalanced. Most children are raised by single or married parents. Others are taken away by State sponsored childcare facilities or escape abusive parents to live on the street.

How a child responds to their parents or the way they deal with life is like the predictive quality of quantum physics.

How a child responds to how they are raised is unpredictable. That is the substantive meaning of “The Intruder”, a story that keeps one in suspense but does not appear likely to end well. It is a story that many children live in America and presumably in other countries of the world. The complexity of McFadden’s character relationships diminishes its appeal, but the point of the story is that child abuse takes many forms which often repeat themselves in future generations.

LIFE’S JOURNEY

The ending of Emily Henry’s story is a surprise to most who are absorbed and entertained by her tale. Life is complicated because it is filled with luck, achievement, purpose, and loss whether one is rich or poor.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Great Big Beautiful Life

Author: Emily Henry

Narrated By: Julia Whelan

Emily Henry (Author, American writer of NYT’s bestselling romance novels.)

Emily Henry is an entertaining writer who seems to live her own “Great Big Beautiful Life”. Her book is about writers like herself being interviewed by a wealthy American who is searching for a biographer to memorialize an extraordinarily famous family’s life. Henry’s twist is that she has competition with a fellow writer who is a more experienced and successful writer.

The two writers in Henry’s story are in the prime of their lives.

One has been married before, and the other appears to have been intimately acquainted with another writer. Neither potential biographer knows they are being interviewed for the same job. The surprise is that their famous subject hires both writers to compete for the job with a presumption that one will be chosen. The story is partly to tell of a famous and extraordinarily rich families’ complicated lives. “Great Big Beautiful Life” is an imaginative story about family relationship, love, and life’s complexity.

The cleverness of Henry’s story is that one becomes interested in the person being biographed while being drawn into what becomes an intimate relationship of the writers.

Listener/readers become interested in both story lines. The incredibly rich heiress’s family history is a contrast to the middleclass lives of the writers. What Henry shows in “Great Big Beautiful Life” is every human being, whether rich or middleclass face the joys and tragedies of life. The author is not addressing poverty or the poor, but one presumes the difference is qualitative because love, loss, and sorrow is part of every human life.

The passion of the two authors is artfully expressed and reminds one of every human’s experience of love and loss.

Joy and tragedy play a part in every sentient human being’s life. Familial, emotional, social, and ethical relationships are vivified in Henry’s story. Alice is the main character who is the woman writer telling her story of the competition and relationship between her and Hayden in seeking the right to tell the story of Margaret Grace’s “Tabloid Princess” life. Margaret sets the table for the story with a competition for the right to tell her family’s life story. Alice and Hayden begin as competitors, evolve into lovers. and become intertwined with Margaret’s storied life.

Alice and Hayden are ambitious professionals, but both have emotional vulnerabilities that are intensified by the competition for Margaret’s biography. Scandal, family secrets and how they are dealt with in Margaret’s life are part of the story. Alice’s insecurity contrasts with Hayden’s Pulitzer Prize-winning reputation as a biographer.

The approaches of the two hopeful writers of Margaret’s biography are contrasted by the author.

Alice has a human-centered approach to the biography whereas Haden drives for detached objectivity. Alice is concerned with Margaret’s exposure while Hayden seems more driven by belief in accuracy, structure, and verifiability.

The ending of Emily Henry’s story is a surprise to most who are absorbed and entertained by her tale. Life is complicated because it is filled with luck, achievement, purpose, and loss whether one is rich or poor. “Great Big Beautiful Life” is entertainment at its best.

THE ARTIST

Fredrick Backman’s story shows how the best and worst adults come from the admixture of life. “My Friends” is a funny and barely believable story, written by a highly entertaining and accomplished writer.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

My Friends (A Novel)

Author: Fredrik Backman

Narrated By: Marin Ireland

Fredrik Backman (Author, Swedish blogger and columnist, also wrote “A Man Called Ove”.

Fredrik Backman’s “My Friends” is an immensely entertaining story that fulfills the meaning of the word “wry”. A definition of wry is “ironically or grimly humorous”. What “My Friends” shows is that the life of a child is as much luck as innate ability and choice.

The main character of “My Friends” is Louisa, a 17-year-old foster child living on the street. She has a preternatural ability to draw and appreciate a work of art.

Backman’s story infers human beings are born with a genetic inheritance reinforced or discouraged by life experiences. Louisa never knows her father and is raised by a mother who drinks herself to death. Louisa is shunted to a neighbor’s care who abandons her to child services. She escapes into the streets of a city where reader/listeners find her meeting a disheveled and apparently ill person outside an art auction house. Louisa is drawing small red fish on a building wall when she is joined by this stranger who begins drawing skulls on the same wall. This chance meeting changes the course of Louisa’s life.

As luck and circumstance would have it, the artist (Kimkim aka C. Jat) is a painter whose work Louisa has admired over her short years of life. She has carried a post card (which she cherishes) that shows the artist’s famous work that is being auctioned. She does not realize the person she is talking to is the artist.

Monet’s “Water Lillies” as an example of a famous work that has been auctioned several times with the last auction amounting to $65.5 million.

Some days later the artist dies in a hospital with his lifelong friend, Ted, at his side. Ted has purchased the world-renowned painting done by the artist. Ted had bid the highest amount for the work because Kimkim wished to give the work to the young girl he had met painting red fish on the wall on which he was painting skulls. Because of his fame, the painting takes all Kimkim had saved over the years of his life.

A skull painter named Jean-Michel Basquiat is referred to as an artist emulated by Kimkim.

The author has set the table for his story. Kimkim dies and asks his life partner, Ted, to give the painting to the homeless girl. There is a fairy tale quality to the story, but it opens one’s mind to the serendipitous nature of life. Children live lives in a world of other’s making. Formative years of every child range from horrendous to beatific. Louisa is just one example of the happenstance of life for a young girl. It makes one think of the horrendous circumstances of children who are raised in war torn countries or on the streets of the homeless in America or other countries that fail to care for the indigent. Louisa’s story is “every child’s” story that is far from ideal but as real as life in the anywhere world.

There is a fairy tale quality to the story, but it opens one’s mind to the serendipitous nature of life.

The twists and turns of Backman’s story have Ted reluctantly taking Louisa under his wing while she maneuvers to escape and leave the valuable painting to Ted. She returns to the street as an 18-year-old young woman on her own. Louisa leaves Ted asleep on a train car with the boxed painting by his side because she does not believe the valuable painting should be hers. A reader/listener is only half-way through this imaginative story. It is not a book one will put down before learning how it ends.

Backman’s story shows how the best and worst adults come from the admixture of life. “My Friends” is a funny and barely believable story, written by a highly entertaining and accomplished writer.

LIFE’S JOURNEY

Gaige’s writing is crisp, insightful, entertaining, and highly relatable. It gets to the heart of life’s struggles without being judgmental or accusatory.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Heartwood 

Author: Amity Gaige

Narrated By:  Justine Lupe & 5 more

Amity Gaige (Author, lecturer in English at Yale University, 2017 Guggenheim Fellow in Fiction.)

“Heartwood” is a well written, creative, and insightful novel about human fragility. It begins with a lost hiker on the Appalachian Trail. One may recall newspaper articles about this trail where many famous and infamous people have been known to travel. What is less well known is the trail is 2,197-miles long and crosses 14 states. Amity Gaige writes a story of one lost hiker, but it is much more. Of course, it is about search and rescue that reveals how complicated it is to find someone who is lost in a wilderness. In a public hiking trail, at least in the pre-Trump era, national government employees were available to conduct search and rescue services in national parks. There are many local volunteers who aide in these searches, but it is managed by experienced park rangers. Gaige reveals the inner fears and reality of one who is lost in life as well as in a wilderness. The creativity of the author is in her reveal of human nature. All people struggle to live lives that mean something but exhibit physical and mental flaws that get in the way.

There are many ways one becomes lost.

The lost hikers name is Valerie Gillis. The primary searcher is Bev Miller, a lieutenant in charge of search and rescue teams when someone is lost on the Appalachian Trail. Those who are rescued, and those who rescue, live lives of equal unpredictability. (Bev Miller’s mother is in a health care facility for the elderly who are troubled by dementia.) The hiker is seeking solace from her personal life by taking a hike on the Trail with a friend who is a substitute for her recently divorced husband. Her and her friend become separated, and she wanders off the Trail. She becomes disoriented and cannot find her way back to the well-traveled path but, as a trained nurse, she copes with her isolation better than most who might make the same mistake. She keeps her wits about her, but an unexpected event changes the course of her life.

Military training.

The area in which Gillis becomes lost is near a security encampment used to train soldiers for wilderness’ survival. The training is harsh and some of the inductees choose to go AWOL, absent without leave. An AWOL’ escapee who is having a nervous breakdown comes across Gillis. His psychological imbalance influences him to imprison Gillis making her unable to find her way back to the Trail. Eventually, her antagonist leaves but Gillis’s physical deterioration advances to the point of near starvation.

Statue reflecting the “Circle of Life” in Norway.

The author is exploring the idiosyncrasies of life. Many incidents that lead to the rescue of Gillis show how every human being deals with events in life that are beyond their control. One elderly woman who exhibits symptoms of dementia becomes a clue to the location of Gillis. This elderly woman’s life shows one of many circumstances in life that are beyond one’s control. This dementia burdened woman recovers some of her lost faculties to report having talked to a young man who is being treated for psychological imbalance. He tells of meeting a lost hiker in the wilderness. Until that clue is revealed. no one knew the correct area in which to search for Gillis.

There are many human relationship strengths and weaknesses revealed in Amity Gaige’s “Heartwood”. Gaige’s writing is crisp, insightful, entertaining, and highly relatable. It gets to the heart of life’s struggles without being judgmental or accusatory.

VICTIMS

Pedophilia is a terrible crime. Unprofessional exposure of its consequence compounds a victim’s trauma. There are no heroes or heroines in Lisa Jewell’s imaginative story.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

None of This Is True (A Novel)

Author: Lisa Jewell

Narrated By:  Kristin Atherton & 9 more

Lisa Jewell (Author, British writer, born in London, has written several novels.)

“None of This Is True” is a disturbing novel. From a happenstance birthday party at a restaurant, two young women find they were born on the same day in the same hospital. One of the women is a podcaster and the other is a housewife. This chance meeting leads to the podcaster agreeing to create a podcast about the life of the woman who had been born on the same day in the same hospital forty-five years earlier. Both are married with children and husbands but one has a story to tell that only comes clear as the podcast unfolds. The circumstances of her life peak the podcaster’s interest because the woman asking to tell her story had married her husband when he was 43 and she was only 16. The thought of such an age difference makes one instantly dislike her husband which only deepens as the story proceeds.

Definition.

This marriage becomes increasingly shocking as the podcaster’s recordings begin. The story tells of this odd marriage to a husband who often stays out all night either drinking or something worse considering his predilection for young girls. The mother is interviewed by the podcaster who characterizes her as a narcissist who regrets ever having gotten pregnant. She seems to care nothing about the impropriety of her daughter marrying a 43-year-old when she is 16.

Victims.

The story becomes more complicated as the victim of pedophilia appears to steal items from the podcaster’s home. At a half-way point in the novel, the reader/listener realizes the podcaster is out of her depth in thinking her podcast is an appropriate way of dealing with the psychological trauma of a victim of her lived life. One begins to lose their baring on who is guilty for having lived a life of misery and dysfunction. Only the specter of pedophilia seems clearly wrong, but the victim of the pedophilia is raised by an uncaring mother that let it happen. Now there is a podcaster caught in the middle of something way beyond her professional ability who is caught in a growing domestic abuse and psychological nightmare.

The inhumanity of humanity.

This is a terrifying book about humanity. One is drawn into its sordid tale to reveal how inadvertently we can be drawn into the drama of another’s life without qualification for dealing with its complexity. As a reader/listener there are lessons to be learned about one’s limitations and how we can become a part of the problem, rather than a solution. Pedophilia is a terrible crime. Unprofessional exposure of its consequence compounds a victim’s trauma. There are no heroes or heroines in Lisa Jewell’s imaginative story.

AMERICAN LIFE

The relentless harshness of Demon’s life wares on a listener/reader. One has to be invested in Demon’s life adventure to fully appreciate the creative talent of the author.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Demon Copperhead (A Novel)

Author: Barbara Kingsolver

Narrated By: Charlie Thurston

Barbara Kingsolver (Author, American Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, born in 1955.)

Several years ago, I began Barbara Kingsolver’s “The Poisonwood Bible” for which she won a Pulitzer Prize. This revisit to her writing is to see what her view is of a young boy in a broken American family. “The Poisonwood Bible” like “Demon Copperhead” are well written novels but “…Poisonwood…” is about missionary work whereas “…Copperhead…” is about life in America for children who are challenged by poor family circumstances. Both novels are too long though …Poisonwood… is highly acclaimed and rewarded by a Pulitzer Prize. Demon Copperhead is the story of a young boy caught in a welfare system meant to aid mothers who are incapable of caring for themselves, let alone their children.

Kingsolver’s point of view can be understood from different perspectives.

The hardship of raising a child is compounded by circumstances of an unmarried woman with a substance abuse problem. The story of Demon Copperhead explains how incredibly harsh it can be to live in America. Despite America’s reputation in the western world as a land of opportunity, it is viewed by many as a land of excess and inequality. Sweden, Canada, and Germany consider America more critically than other western nations. Kingsolver explores some examples of why America is viewed so differently.

Demon’s parent is a recovering drug addict with poor job prospects whose husband has died and decides to marry a man with anger management problems.

Demon’s mother obviously has personal problems. With a school-age child to raise, and a second marriage created out of her self-inflicted problems, her life is a mess. Addiction returns, and her new husband physically abuses her son. She overdoses, and her son calls 911 to have her rescued. She does not recover, and Demon becomes a ward of the State. Demon is farmed out to a rehabilitation ranch called a foster home when in fact it is more like a slave retreat serving the needs of a hard scrabble farm. Demon’s mother dies from her earlier overdose. Demon is 11 years old with nowhere to go than a neighbor’s family to be watched over while he fulfills his obligations to the rehabilitation ranch. He is essentially a slave to the care of cattle and the harvesting of tobacco when he is not in school.

Harshness of life is generally an uncommon circumstance of life in America, but it shows how harsh life can be whether one lives in America or anywhere in the world.

Demon is characterized as a tough-minded boy who adapts to his circumstances with little choice because of his age and family circumstance. One dim opportunity is the grace of his dead mother’s neighbors that reluctantly allow him to temporarily stay with them after his mother’s death. Demon chooses to search for his birth father’s grave and finds his grandmother in Nashville, Tennessee. It comes as a surprise that Demon’s father comes from a matriarchal family that is a haven for lost human beings.

The relentless harshness of Demon’s life wares on a listener/reader. One has to be invested in Demon’s life adventure to fully appreciate the creative talent of the author. Some will choose to finish Kingsolver’s story to find out how Demon’s life is either resurrected or lost. Others will move on to another book, not out of disappointment with Kingsolver’s creativity but out of fatigue from a story that is too long.

FAME

As a son of a strong mother, one is impressed by Tina Knowles’ character in her enlightening memoir. She shows how women are the backbone of society despite their treatment in a patriarchal world.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Matriarch (A Memoir)

Author: Tina Knowles

Narrated By: Tina Knowles & 4 more

Celestine Ann Knowles aka Tina Knowles. (Author, American businesswoman, fashion designer, and mother of the famous performer, Beyoncé.)

This is an intelligent well-written memoir of the mother of two famous performers, Beyoncé and Solange Knowles. Celestine Ann Knowles is born in Galveston, Texas on January 4, 1954. Her two famous daughters are the singer Beyoncé and the composer, Solange Knowles.

Beyoncé
Mandatory Credit: Photo by Andrew H. Walker/Shutterstock (10569848bu)
Solange Knowles
Black composer & performance artist.

The mother of these two famous women tells a story of what it is to live in the 1950s as a young, poor Black American. Tina (a diminutive of Celestine) Knowles becomes a successful businesswoman, fashion designer, philanthropist and mother of two highly successful women in the 21st century.

Galveston’s in the 1950s.

Living in Galveston, Texas in the 1950s as a person of color is starkly and clearly explained in Tina Knowles’ memoir. Tina’s father works as a longshoreman. His work is sporadic because of a mining accident that ruined one eye and made him hard of hearing which limited the work he could do as a longshoreman. With the aid of his wife, Tina’s mother as a seamstress, their meager income is enough for them to get bye. Tina’s mother is the foundation of the family. Tina grows up as a force of nature before reaching adulthood. She grows up in a family ruled by a “Matriarch” as the power in her family and neighborhood. Even in her pre-school years, as the youngest of seven children, Tina understands her mother is the person who holds the family together and eventually makes Tina the matriarch of her future family.

White American’ opposition to equality in the 50s.

Tina adventured where many young Black children timorously dealt with life in an unfair world. Despite its unfairness, Tina ventured forth.

Tina tells the story of her childhood companions who would not go into an ice cream store in Galveston when white children were being served. Tina ignores their timorousness, goes into the store and is told to get out by the store manager. She finds what her friends were saying is true, but she had to experience it herself. Tina goes to a Catholic school where she is treated harshly by the teachers but continues on to graduate despite their strict rules. Nearing graduation, she becomes ill and is treated by a white physician who presumes she is lying about never having premarital sex. The white physician and an aide strap her down and conduct a physical exam that leaves blood on the table because of her hymen being broken by the exam. Her mother calls the physicians to complain about the treatment of her daughter and takes her to another hospital to find her illness is unrelated to the doctor’s presumptive and unnecessary pelvic exam.

Tina is raised in the time when Black discrimination is finally beginning to change. Brown v. Board of Education is decided in 1954.

Tina graduates from high school, presumably in the early 1970s, and goes on to college. While in high school, she joins a local singing group that is inspired by The Supremes. They call themselves the Veltones. That experience leads her to work in fashion and entertainment. She becomes a designer, and entrepreneur, and eventually the “Matriarch” of her own family. In 1980, Tina marries Mathew Knowles. They were married for over 30 years but divorced in 2011.

In the Knowles’ marriage (1980-2011) they have two daughters, i.e., Beyoncé and Solange Knowles.

Tina Knowles explains how the birth of Beyoncé ignited her ascendence as the “Matriarch” of her generation. From taking care of Beyoncé to remodeling her house to creating her first business, Tina created her own world. Tina built the foundation for her life and raised one of the most famous singers in the world.

“Headliners”–Tina Knowles first business.

At 32 years of age, Tina decides to start a business. With financing from what is to become her former husband, she decides to open a salon. Tina is pregnant with her second child, Solange. Matthew involves himself in Tina’s business in financial ways that challenge its success. Tina starts “Headliners” in the early 1990s to offer make-up and beauty services in Houston, Texas. Beyoncé is now around nine years old while Solange is nearing four or five years of age.

Matthew and Tina Knowles file for bankruptcy.

Her husband, Matthew decides to quit his six-figure job to join Tina in her business. For unclear reasons, the family files for bankruptcy, sells their home, and rebuilds their lives while Tina focuses on her salon business. Tina explains she decides to divorce her husband because of his infidelity and mishandling of their dwindling wealth. She holds her life together by focusing on the burgeoning career of her girls and her salon business. Tina shows herself as the guiding force of her talented daughters. She has become the “Matriarch” that her mother had developed her to be.

Beyoncé’s 2025 concert in London.

Though most interest in Tina’s story may be because of her daughter, Beyoncé, her memoir suggests the “Matriarch” of the next generation of Knowles will be her daughter, Solange. She does not diminish the great success of Beyoncé as an incredible talent who runs her musical productions, but it seems Solange is the worker bee that is driven to become her generation’s “Matriarch”.

Agnéz Deréon (Tina Knowles’ mother, the “Matriarch” of the Knowles’ descendants.)

At the end of Tina’s book, she has reached the age of 70. She maintains a clear picture of the story of her life. Married and divorced twice, she is in charge of her life and appears to influence all who surround her. As a survivor of breast cancer and a firm grasp on life, she uses her strong belief in God and the love of her family to believe the best is yet to come. As a son of a strong mother, one is impressed by Tina Knowles’ character in her enlightening memoir. She shows how women are the backbone of society despite their treatment in a patriarchal world.

MARK TWAIN

Chernow’s biography is a mirror of Twain’s time and life. Chernow implies Twain could see imperfections of society without seeing his own. Twain’s genius to entertain America and readers around the world is not diminished by Chernow’s well written book.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Mark Twain 

Author: Ron Chernow

Narrated By: Jason Culp

Ron Chernow (Author, journalist, biographer, winner of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Biography and the American History Prize for his 2010 book “Washington: A Life”.

No stranger to historical biographies, Ron Chernow has written an interesting biography of the peripatetic humorist Samuel Clemens, aka Mark Twain. Samuel Clemens was born in Florida, Missouri, two weeks after Hailley’s Comet passed Earth in 1835, he died in 1910 when Hailey’s Comet made its closest approach to Earth in 1910. Chernow’s biography explains how Clemens became a steamboat pilot, frontier journalist, author, and American gadfly in his journey through 74 plus years of life.

Chernow’s biography of Mark Twain reminds one of Donald Trump without the power of the Presidency.

Clemens is noted as a stretcher of truth who told stories of his time that illustrated the contradictions of race, slavery, and morality that live through today. Twain is shown to express himself in humorist ways that challenged racial norms and societal conflicts which made some laugh, and others cringe with disgust or anger. Chernow argues Twain’s use of language shaped American literature. He gave American literature a unique voice that blended humor with criticism. Twain humanized the Black community and the iniquity of slavery, but Twain’s upbringing suggests he did not escape the false belief of innate Black’ inequality. Chernow painted a picture of Twain that showed how society was filled with the promise and pitfalls of Americans’ character.

Chernow shows how Clemens reinvents himself, not from formal education but from life experience.

At 21, Clemens begins training himself as a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi river, a highly praised, prized, and well-compensated position. Chernow suggests Clemens found his nom deplume, Mark Twain, based on the language of riverboat pilots. (“Mark Twain” is the 12 feet of depth needed for safe navigation of a riverboat.) As material transport changed after the steamboat era, Twain had to find a new career. He traveled to Nevada with the hope to become rich as a silver baron during the gold and silver rushes of the late 1850s. However, he never struck it rich, lost other people’s money, and turned to earlier work experience in newspapers when he lived in Missouri. He had learned the typesetting business and had written a few articles for the paper in his hometown. He settled in Carson City, Nevada, eventually becoming a journalist. On the one hand his stretching of the truth got him in trouble as a journalist but, on the other, it opened him to another career. His wit and way with words led to a role as lecturer and performer.

Chernow shows Twain changes jobs based on his innate abilities and external events.

The development of mass media, America’s Civil War, the industrialization of America, and the growth of a celebrity’ culture influence Twain’s life and made him a cultural symbol of America in the same way Dickens, Dostoevsky, and Chinua Achebe became symbols of their countries. Twain exemplified American life, its contradictions, its greed, and its biases that were blended into the personal tragedies and experiences of his own life. He turned his life experience into an art that reflected America’s growth as a nation. He became a writer and lecturer.

Chernow explains how Twain did not just read his lectures, i.e., he performs and acts their meaning to an audience.

Twain blends storytelling with satire and theater to entertain his audience. His reputation as a public speaker is made in California, but he becomes a global star. He performs in London, Berlin, and Bombay with what became cultural events about American humor and American foibles. His lectures are folksy with tinges of intellectualism that make him revered, respected, and laughed about by his audiences. Chernow believes he created an image of one who speaks truth to power about imperialism, religion, and human folly.

Chernow does not sugar coat truth about Twain.

Like all human beings, Twain had his blind spots. He was silent about lynching and its immorality, and he was trapped in his vision of racism by treating it as a troubling fact of American life despite his championing of civil rights. At best, he appears to be an agnostic when it comes to religion. There is criticism of Twain’s close relationship with teenage girls that he dismisses as a public concern by saying “It isn’t the public’s affair”. Twain is reckless with other people’s and his own money and investment. He exhibits behavior that suggests a gambler’s view about getting rich quickly. Twain could be vindictive, and melancholic because of his gloomy view of humanity. His family life suffers from his impulsivity and emotional distancing toward his wife and daughters. In one sense, Chernow makes Twain more human by noting he is like most of us except for his insightful sense of humor and talent for extemporaneous public speaking.

The archive of Twain’s letters is in the thousands which spans his entire adult life.

Chernow gathers much of his understanding of Twain from his personal letters rather than his books. He does note a number of Twain’s family members and friends are models for characters in his novels. However, Chernow’s focus is on Twain the man who appears morally inconsistent, a poor manager of other people’s money, and prone to anger when aggravated by other’s opinions. Whether this is fair or not, it describes many people today.

Chernow’s biography is a mirror of Twain’s time and life. Chernow implies Twain could see imperfections of society without seeing his own. Twain’s genius to entertain America and readers around the world is not diminished by Chernow’s well written book.

FICTION’S VALUE

How many thoughts run through one’s mind as they listen or read Hurwitz’s imaginative story? Maybe a movie will be made that simplifies and dumbs down its plot. The point is that fiction begins, regardless of the media in which it is represented, from a writer’s mind who creates a story.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Out of the Dark (An Orphan X Novel–Book 4)

Author: Gregg Hurwitz

Narrated By: Scott Brick

Gregg Hurwitz (Author, American crime novelist, comic book writer.)

In the media lately, there has been the observation that novels are losing their grip on the reading public. A number of recent studies, like that done by the National Endowments for the Arts, show a drop in adult readers of fiction in 2012 from 45.2% of adults to 37.6% in 2022. Possibly more troubling is the 13-year-olds drop from 27% to 14% in a similar time frame. Some suggest it is because of cognitive fatigue and a cultural shift to visual or audio entertainment. There is undoubtedly some truth in that belief.

Empathy, thought, and human insight generated by audiobooks, films, and serialized television generate the same thrill and human understanding as written fictional stories.

However, even though the format has changed, an author’s creation is the source of an idea whether it is converted to a film or audiobook. One can draw as much, if not more, knowledge of the world and human experience from visual and audio input as from reading a book. Books of fiction can be equally impactful from a screen that is viewed or an audiobook that is heard through EarPods.

Fiction begins on the written page whether it becomes a movie or a bestselling audiobook.

Of course, audio/visual actors can elicit different interpretations to an audience of what has been written by its originator but that is true of any person’s perception of what a writer meant in the creation of his/her story. So what? If the visual or auditory results are insightful then the media representation of a book of fiction has value. The point is the impetus of media presentation came from a written document by a writer. Of course, in today’s world, that writer may have his idea enhanced by A.I. but the idea still came from human thought.

Hurwitz’s novel is complicated with many story lines and characters.

Hurwitz’s novel resonates with a view of today’s world. America has a President that was nearly assassinated in his first term of office. This President uses lies in ways that make one wonder about his views and the direction of America. It makes one think about the assassin Hurwitz creates and whether a foolish young man on a roof could become an agent of the government to murder perceived enemies of the state by someone who is out of control. Of course, a majority of voters chose today’s President so maybe lying should not be a criterion for judgement of one’s value as a leader of a democracy.

“Out of the Dark” is a fictional novel that captures a listener’s imagination in a well narrated audiobook.

The story is of an incredibly intelligent, tech savvy, American assassin that chooses to turn his skill to murdering an American President. The President is characterized as a brilliant politician serving his last term of office. A woman secret service officer is interviewed by the President to be the person in charge to protect him from the rogue assassin that has been used by the President to assassinate alleged foreign enemies. Assassination is a crime against humanity. There seems no justification for one nation state to have assassination as a tool of governance. Would assassination of Hitler have erased antisemitism or WWII?

How many thoughts run through one’s mind as they listen or read Hurwitz’s imaginative story? Maybe a movie will be made that simplifies and dumbs down its plot. The point is that fiction begins, regardless of the media in which it is represented, from a writer’s mind who creates a story.

VANISHING WORLD

Murata’s satire infers obsession with sex for pleasure, child rearing collectivization, gender dysphoria, and pregnancy equalization are pathways to societal destruction.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Vanishing World (A Novel) 

Author: Sayaka Murata

Narrated By: Nancy Wu

Sayaka Murata (Author, Japanese novelist.)

Sayaka Murata’s subject is clearly revealed in its title, “Vanishing World”. “Vanishing World” is a provocative assessment of how sexual relationship and sex education has changed. Murata satirically reveals how human reproduction, objectification of life, motherhood, and technology may dehumanize society.

Murata’s fictional story is highly informative in regard to sexual difference and similarity between men and women.

In one sense, Murata’s fictional story is highly informative in regard to sexual difference and similarity between men and women. As a reader/listener, Murata offers a detailed description of the physical difference between the sexes. Many who think they know something about sexual difference will find the author’s candor enlightening. However, her depiction of social relationship is off-putting with a satirical exaggeration of socio/sexual objectification.

Murata writes about a single parent family with a young daughter who lives with her mother and is nearing the age of puberty.

(Though not mentioned in Murata’s story, single family homes in America have grown by nearly 30% in the 21st century.) The main character’s name is Amane and Murata’s story is about Amane’s sexual awakening and how she views social relationship. Amane is infatuated with an animated male character on television. She imagines being married to this character before puberty but holds this character in her mind throughout childhood and later life.

Murata suggests reproduction may evolve into a preferential desire for artificial insemination rather than sexual intercourse between a man and woman.

This idea feeds into a listener/reader’s mind as a diminishment of the need for emotional attachment to the opposite sex for procreation. Sex becomes detached from procreation, evolving into only “hooking up” for sexual stimulation and/or personal gratification. Murata infers desire is no longer needed for procreation but only to experience intercourse as an emotional and physical pleasure. Consequently, it seems perfectly natural to transfer sexual desire to a fictional character because it becomes unnecessary to have emotional attachment to humans when a figment of one’s imagination is available.

Murata creates a bizarre world.

The bizarro world that Murata creates is an extension of a belief that society is becoming less attached to their humanity. Marriage, human relationship, and motherhood are replaced by mindful personal’ inwardness and endless pursuit of physical stimulation without emotional entanglement. By extension, Murata suggests science will create wombs for men so that the difference in sexes equalizes childbirth and care of children. Caregiving becomes bureaucratic and collective because caregiving is no longer personalized.

Murata suggests that a new system of childcare will evolve into collective training camps for working parents who are too self-absorbed to raise their own children.

Collective childcare disconnects parents from the management and development of their children. The sterility of conception by artificial insemination, collective childcare, and social acceptance of multiple sex partners diminishes both familial relations and child development. Birthing and raising children becomes a clinical process, i.e., less personal with both men and women capable of experiencing pregnancy and delivery; all without responsibility or obligation for childcare.

In some sense, this satire illustrates the negative potential of socio/sexual equality.

Murata’s story ends with the birth of their first child from a man who is Amane’s husband. She is torn over not being able to take the baby home because the child is already being “cared for” in a ward meant to raise and nurture all newly born children. A final point is made in the story by a visit from Alane’s mother after the birth. She asks Amane where the child is, and Alane explains the child will not be raised by her and her husband. Alane’s mother is aghast. Her mother falls to the floor and dies without any apparent familial concern for her sudden collapse and presumably, death. The next thing to happen is a visit from one of the children born in this new world. Alane chooses to have sex with him and the story ends.

“Vanishing World” implies 21st century science, organizational bureaucracy, and social change threatens survival of humanity. Murata’s satire infers obsession with sex for pleasure, child rearing collectivization, gender dysphoria, and pregnancy equalization are pathways to society’s collapse.