Belgium: In the Company of Angels

In the Company of Angels

by N. M. Kelly

I have been unable to sort out my thoughts and, ... well, feelings ... about this slim little tale that is so unusual and perplexing.  I finished it well over a week ago and have read a couple of other books since then, but this one has not been far from my thoughts.  I can't say that I liked it, but the fact that I keep thinking about it suggests something about its quality.  There is some inherent resonance.  I can't decide if it was magical or macabre.  Or maybe it was both.

The plot is hard to describe since you're not entirely clear what is happening for much of the story.
Marie-Claire, a young Jewish girl who is living peacefully with her grandmother after the death of her parents, is the sole survivor when her village is bombed during World War II.  Or is she?  And that is the question around which the story slowly spins and over which I cannot stop mulling.   In the beginning chapter, she is plucked from the rubble of her grandmother's home and secreted away to a convent in a small Belgian village.   The nuns who save her, Mother Xavier and the postulate Anne, both have painful histories of proximity to evil that conflicts with the light and goodness inside them.  They intend to keep her hidden until she can be smuggled to safety, but strange things begin to happen, and no one is sure if they are miracles or something else entirely.

The story is full of contradictions.  There's Anne's romance with a Nazi lieutenant, who later believes her dead and finds himself shooting across an open field at a runaway Jewish child and the nun who is sheltering her, not realizing that he's trying to kill the woman he loves.  And Remy, the village chocolate maker who secretly delivers truffles to the convent each week, each batch more bitter than before as the war continues and he realizes that life will never be the same.  Marie-Claire is innocent and child-like, not cognizant of the mysterious and miraculous phenomenon that follow her to the convent.  And I'm just not sure what to say about it all, other than to borrow words from an author and reader, L.K. Rigel, who reviewed it on Amazon and on Goodreads.  She captures it well by saying, "... like poetry, each word, phrase and image is loaded with deep meaning. This eerie, sweet, sad, horrible and beautiful story is loaded with small feasts for the imagination. I can speak for the book's haunting quality; the characters have not left me yet."

I found myself thinking a lot about imagination while I was reading this.  Do you ever wonder how someone conceives a story and imagines it into existence?  I think about this all the time, especially while reading something especially wonderful or, like this one, especially creative.  While reading In the Company of Angels, I wanted to understand why Kelby wrote it, what happened to plant the seeds of this strange story in her mind, and what she hoped her readers would take from it.  There isn't much written about this book other than comments offered by readers and one short review that I found on Publisher's Weekly.  I feel there must be something profound behind this one, but if so, Kelby doesn't appear to be telling what it is.  So I'll add that to the list of mysteries within the pages of this story.  I'm not sorry I read it, but I'm not sure what to do with it either, other than to leave it spinning around in my own imagination.

Belarus: Your Mouth is Lovely

Your Mouth is Lovely

by Nancy Richler

 



So this was an absolutely delightful surprise of a story and a great reminder of why I'm doing this little challenge ... to push myself to pick up books I might otherwise neglect.   Your Mouth is Lovely follows the life of Miriam, from the moment of her birth in a Belorussian schtetl, through her traditional upbringing, and into her adolescence during the Russian Revolution.  Miriam is our narrator, writing from her Siberian prison cell to the daughter who will never know her.  Except for occasional interludes from the present, we follow Miriam's journey chronologically, growing with her and gaining insight with her as she leaves behind the village's old ways and embraces the passions of her own generation.

Her early days are marked by the tragedy of her mother's death and the uneasy awareness that her birth had been insufficient to instill in her mother the will to live.  Her father, Aaron Lev, leaves her in the care of a foster mother, Lipsa, who envelopes Miriam into her warm, nurturing household and loves her dearly as her own brood of children.  Seven years later, Aaron Lev collects her when he remarries Tsila, a woman reputed to be of sour personality but who also loves Miriam as her own.  These early contrasts in Miriam's life set the stage for what lies ahead.  Things begin to change in the village ... younger women are rejecting the superstitious ways of the past, refusing to marry men chosen by matchmakers, disappearing and resurfacing years later in nearby cities with jobs and strange new ideas.  Still young and sheltered, Miriam accepts things at face value, believing what Tsila and her father tell her, not challenging or questioning what has always been.

Tsila's younger sister, Bayla is one of the women who disappears.  With one foot in the old world, Bayla is betrothed; with one foot in the new, her engagement goes on for years with no sign of nuptials ahead, and she disappears with her fiancé, Lieb.  When Tsila becomes ill, Miriam, now 16, sets off for the city to bring Bayla home.  She finds herself in an exhilarating new world where she lives and works among the young revolutionaries who are standing up for socialist reform in opposition of the Tsar and the government.  At first, Miriam involves herself not for her own ideology, but for the sake of her newfound freedom, independence, and friendship.  Slowly, without even realizing that it's happening, she comes to understand that those things she values, that make her life vibrant and enrich her days, are the very things for which the revolutionaries stand.  Her arrest is as inevitable as her emerging awareness of the world around her.

The female characters in Your Mouth is Lovely were spectacular.  I loved them all for their richness, their honesty, and their heroism during a time in history that was pivotal for all women.  Each one struggled in her own way to navigate the changes necessary to protect themselves and their loved ones and to accept that old ways of thinking would have to be left behind.  I found myself thinking a lot about "Fiddler on the Roof," a musical I performed in during high school but whose meaning, other than my excitement at playing a role I coveted, was mostly lost on my teenage self.  "Fiddler" tells the story of a father, Tevya's efforts to understand the changes going on in Russia and its surrounding areas during a time of contentious politics, religious persecution, cultural reform, and social change.  Tevya has five daughter, each of whom confronts his traditional ways of thinking by asserting herself and forcing him to change and grow.  Your Mouth is Lovely serves as a wonderful companion, telling the tale of the women's perspective ... the mothers, sisters, daughters, friends, and most importantly, through Miriam's voice, the budding female adolescent who is trying to understand and define herself when nothing around her makes much sense.

Highly recommend this one.  Bravo, Nancy Richler ... I'll be looking for more by this author.



Happy, Joyful 2016!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

 

This morning, the very first of a whole brand new year, I counted up the countries I've covered in this blog so far ... 16 ... and decided I need to take it up a notch.  My theme for the year 2016 is JOY!  And books top the list of things that feel joyful to me.  Writing about books has proven to be harder than I anticipated, and finding the right book to read for a specific country is downright impossible sometimes.  But as 2016 gets underway, I will endeavor to embrace and enjoy ... joyfully ... the entire process. 

I've selected all of the titles I plan to read for the rest of the "B" countries.  No, you can't have a sneak preview.  You'll have to wait until I read them and write about them.  But here's what I can tell you:

Belarus - I really struggled to find a book I was excited about for this tiny, former Soviet country.  Once identified, I had to special order it, and it's taking its time getting here.  Now that I'm thinking about, all of the smaller Soviet block countries are challenging for me, perhaps because search engines may pull them up as "Russia" but I'm searching on the nation's current name.  I could use help here, so if anyone has suggestions of books set in this part of the world, please share. 

           

Belgium - Harder than I thought it would be, but I'm happy with my choice.           

Benin, Bhutan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Burma  - Excited about these!

Belize, Bolivia, Brunei, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burundi -
Found some, but open to ideas. Email me if you have any suggestions!


The process of searching for these books was a lot of fun.  I spent several hours digging through web sites and following links and trying different combinations of words in Google.  Occasionally, I'd look up and realize an hour had passed, feel guilty, and then remind myself that it's okay to spend time on what bring you joy. 

I'm still reluctant to set a timeframe for myself when it comes to this book-reading journey, but I would like to do better than 16 books in 12 months, especially since I read nearly 60 in all of 2015.  Perhaps my word of the year should be "discipline?"