Inflatable Sheep

While I was sick last month and unable to do little else but hold court on the couch, I read. I raided the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Awards lists for good books to immerse myself and make me forget my misery. Struck paydirt and found a few others, that although they didn't make any list, were worth the read.

“The Interpreter of Maladies” by Jhumpa Lahiri (her first book). Each story of this Pulitzer Prize winning collection of short stories is a jewel. Wonderful writing, great endings, and narrated from an Indian perspective. I bought “The Namesake,” a novel, on the strength of her short stories and have promised myself to find out what Chicken Tandoori tastes like.

“Middlesex,” another Pulitzer Prize winner by Jeffrey Eugenides. This story at first glance seemed to be a coming of age story about a hermaphrodite discovering his/her sexuality, but in the end, it was a story about family. Vulnerable, humorous, poignant, this book covers three generations with love. Personally, I found the story of Cal's grandparents to be the most fascinating (I won't give away why). I bought his first book, “The Virgin Suicides,” and hope it will be as good of a read.

I lapped up the last two books of local writer, Gail Tsukiyama, that I hadn't read. “Night of Many Dreams” was pleasurable, but didn't quite hook me. However, “The Samurai's Garden” made up for it. A story about a Chinese teenager who goes to the family vacation house in Japan to recuperate from tuberculosis a few months before the Japanese invaded China. The story, though, is really about the Japanese caretaker and an older woman with leprosy. Touching, quietly told, I wasn't ready for it to end when the boy, who has recovered, goes back to his family in China. I rate book this right up there with her other books that I really enjoyed: “Women of the Silk,” “The Language of Threads,” and “Dreaming Water.”

Also read:

1. “Priestess of Avalon” - the last book of Marion Zimmer Bradly who died while writing it; Diana Paxson finished the book (the life of Constantine's mother, which was a little hard to get into, but once I got in step, it was a good Calgon-take-me-away book)
2. “The Book of Salt” - Monique Truong (a Vietnamese cook travels to France and becomes the cook for Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas; did not quite hold my attention, would have rather it spent more time in Vietnam than in France)
3. “News from Paraguay” - Lily Tuck (the book covered years, but I felt she skimmed through the main characters lives and I was left wondering ‘but how did she feel about that’; in the end, everyone dies, and that alone was worth reading just for the sheer calamity of it all)

Now, off to read “Perfume” by Patrick Suskind, a tale of the “sensual depravity” of a murderer/perfumer in Paris in the 1750's. This would be one of those guilty pleasures reads complete with a naked woman on the cover.