Reading Round-Up: Bring On The History
By Staff in Arts & Entertainment on Feb 8, 2012 6:40PM
By: Maggie Hellwig
The pickings are slim this month in the book pool but, two novels are poking their head out of the water begging to be read. Both of our picks this month appear to be interested solely in the art of historical storytelling, but in the best ways possible.
No One is Here Except All of Us
By Ramona Ausubel
Ramona Ausubel’s debut novel is a story about Lena, a Romanian girl, during the surrounding terror of World War II. The novel begins in 1939: Lena is 11 years old when a survivor of a nearby bombing arrives in their small town. From that moment on, the villagers opt to start everything over from scratch - forming their own utopia away from all of the destruction. Lena grows up in the village, marries, and gives birth to two sons. As her youthful point of view matures throughout the novel, so too does the illusion of safety which the town clings to. Cloaked in an admirable but naïve chimera, there are apparent gaps in the villagers’ account of the war, and events that they have confronted with denial. The New York Times refers to Ausubel’s viewpoint of the War as being similar to Jonathan Safran Foer’s slant in Everything is Illuminated. Both authors, determined to keep the histories of their heritage alive, adopt a “fablelike” style but remain truthful in their intentions.
A Good American
By Alex George
This novel takes an interesting angle on what it means to be “American.” A brother and sister immigrate to the States in 1904 to get away from their censorious mother. Neither Jette nor Frederick speaks a word of English, but hop on a boat headed straight for New Orleans. They end up in Beatrice, Missouri and situate themselves within a rather colorful group of characters, ranging from a minister to a teenage boy trapped in a giant’s body. The chronicles of Jette and Frederick are narrated by their eventual grandson, and map out the siblings’ lives, hallmarking them with historical moments in American history. A Good American sounds a bit reminiscent of Daniel Wallace’s Big Fish, with tales of epic proportions made complicated by familial relation. George’s slant is a more historical, with a distinct purpose in mind, exploring what it means to be an outsider, especially within one’s own country.