White Dog Fell from the Sky
by Eleanor Morse
So I had a really rough day today. I'm feeling overloaded at work and disorganized in how I'm working, which of course makes the overload worse. I'm also feeling pulled in too many directions. My kids are all young adults and fairly independent, but it's summer and they are around a lot ... and I want to see them and spend time with them ... but see my previous comment about overload. It's hard to focus on one thing for any extended period of time, and as the day goes on, I can feel my stress ... and blood pressure ... creeping up and up. On days like this, I am so grateful to escape into the world of books. Not just the one that I'm reading, but the whole darn world of them.
I soothed myself this evening with a good hour surfing Goodreads and Amazon, thinking about what's coming up soon in my literary trip around the world. I wrapped up with ordering three new books ... for Bulgaria, Cameroon, and Canada! Oh, and I sent my very nice son David out to bring home ice cream for dinner. Feeling much better now!
But let's get back to the line-up ... Botswana! I read White Dog Fell from the Sky, by Eleanor Morse. I can't recall where I picked this up, but it's been on my shelf for a while now, just waiting for Botswana to get to the top of the list. When the time came, I picked it up, read ten pages, and put it back down. In the opening scene, there was a coffin, a desperate man escaping from something, and a mysterious white dog that appeared out of nowhere and began to follow our protagonist everywhere he went. I thought, at first, that White Dog was a spirit of some kind, and I didn't think I was going to like the story line. Thank goodness I picked it back up because this was seriously an outstanding story, well written and engaging, and so compelling in how it addressed apartheid, isolation, and escape. No spirits were involved. Just genuine human beings, flawed and frantic to make the best life possible, crossing all kinds of border and boundaries in the name of friendship and decency. The dog was just a plain old white dog ... symbolic perhaps of the unexplainable connection and loyalty that sometimes grows between two beings and becomes something we cannot imagine being without.
In the middle of apartheid South Africa, a young black medical student, Isaac, flees for his life, crossing the border (in an empty coffin) into Botswana, where he knows only one person and has nothing but the clothes on his back. His friend, Amen, also left South Africa to escape the racial violence that plagued the country. Unlike Amen, who channeled his anger into joining a revolutionary organization, Isaac wanted only peace and the opportunity to make a living. He meets Alice, a lonely American woman who came to Botswana because of her husband's job, and he becomes her gardener despite not knowing the first thing about growing plants and flowers. While trying to create a space of beauty and serenity outside of Alice's home, Isaac is in tune with what is happening inside the home ... namely that there is discord and unhappiness and the two rarely both spend the same night in the house. Both Isaac and Alice are trying to identify and understand themselves during a time when nothing around them makes sense. Dealing with painful things, like exile or marital strife, are made so much worse by the loss of everything familiar and known.
I soothed myself this evening with a good hour surfing Goodreads and Amazon, thinking about what's coming up soon in my literary trip around the world. I wrapped up with ordering three new books ... for Bulgaria, Cameroon, and Canada! Oh, and I sent my very nice son David out to bring home ice cream for dinner. Feeling much better now!
But let's get back to the line-up ... Botswana! I read White Dog Fell from the Sky, by Eleanor Morse. I can't recall where I picked this up, but it's been on my shelf for a while now, just waiting for Botswana to get to the top of the list. When the time came, I picked it up, read ten pages, and put it back down. In the opening scene, there was a coffin, a desperate man escaping from something, and a mysterious white dog that appeared out of nowhere and began to follow our protagonist everywhere he went. I thought, at first, that White Dog was a spirit of some kind, and I didn't think I was going to like the story line. Thank goodness I picked it back up because this was seriously an outstanding story, well written and engaging, and so compelling in how it addressed apartheid, isolation, and escape. No spirits were involved. Just genuine human beings, flawed and frantic to make the best life possible, crossing all kinds of border and boundaries in the name of friendship and decency. The dog was just a plain old white dog ... symbolic perhaps of the unexplainable connection and loyalty that sometimes grows between two beings and becomes something we cannot imagine being without.
In the middle of apartheid South Africa, a young black medical student, Isaac, flees for his life, crossing the border (in an empty coffin) into Botswana, where he knows only one person and has nothing but the clothes on his back. His friend, Amen, also left South Africa to escape the racial violence that plagued the country. Unlike Amen, who channeled his anger into joining a revolutionary organization, Isaac wanted only peace and the opportunity to make a living. He meets Alice, a lonely American woman who came to Botswana because of her husband's job, and he becomes her gardener despite not knowing the first thing about growing plants and flowers. While trying to create a space of beauty and serenity outside of Alice's home, Isaac is in tune with what is happening inside the home ... namely that there is discord and unhappiness and the two rarely both spend the same night in the house. Both Isaac and Alice are trying to identify and understand themselves during a time when nothing around them makes sense. Dealing with painful things, like exile or marital strife, are made so much worse by the loss of everything familiar and known.
When Alice sets off on a business trip into Botswana's countryside, she leaves Isaac in charge of the house. When she returns, she find the house empty, Isaac missing, and White Dog alone and starving. During the few weeks Alice was gone, she had experienced a whirlwind romance and dashed hopes when tragedy struck unexpectedly. Stinging from her own loss, she nonetheless endeavors to find out what happened to Isaac, who meanwhile, has found himself dealing with the aftermath of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
This is a brilliant novel about immigration, identity, second chances, and compassion. It's about the human response to great love, great disappointment, and great turmoil. I'm so glad I didn't give up on this one!
Next up for the blog is Brunei. You may wonder about what happened to Brazil! Well, back in 2016, when I was going out of order for a while, I read Snow Hunters by Paul Yoon, set in Brazil. It was an okay story, but I didn't love the book so I thought about trying another book set in Brazil and picked up Ways to Disappear by Idra Novey. Totally not my cup of tea ... so in the spirit of "so many books, so little time," I ditched it, gave myself credit for Brazil, and am moving on to the tiny country of Brunei.
Next up for the blog is Brunei. You may wonder about what happened to Brazil! Well, back in 2016, when I was going out of order for a while, I read Snow Hunters by Paul Yoon, set in Brazil. It was an okay story, but I didn't love the book so I thought about trying another book set in Brazil and picked up Ways to Disappear by Idra Novey. Totally not my cup of tea ... so in the spirit of "so many books, so little time," I ditched it, gave myself credit for Brazil, and am moving on to the tiny country of Brunei.
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