Then and Now

                I just finished racing the book "The Diviners" by Libba Bray. Bray is one of my favorite authors as she conquers the world of historical fiction with a surprisingly current and relevant to readers today. This is what makes historical fiction great, the idea of an almost fantastical time where things weren't quite as they are today but still relatable. From reading last books from Bray and other Historical Fiction authors such as the wonderful authors of the American Girl books that I thoroughly perused as ages 7-10, I know that problems of today often correlate closely with the problems of those in years past. For example, although Samantha wanted a china doll in the year 1907 and I wanted a Tamagachi in the year 2009, we still had to beg our respective elders for the toys and be "good" in order to earn them from our parents. The same goes for books as I grew older. Although Grace was trying to earn money for new shoes in victorian london and I was trying to earn money for eating lunch out in 21st century new york, we both felt the unfairness of job options available to a 12 year old and the little monetary gain that could be earned.

                  This brings us to my current book, "The Diviners." The Diviners takes place in the "roaring '20s" in New YOrk. A girl named Evie arrivers from small town Alabama ready to take in the wonders and pleasures of New York. A boy named Memphis works for the Boss of Harlem, collecting illegal lottery tickets while taking care of his younger brother Isiah. A chorus girl named Theta is hoping to forget her past with the help of closeted Henry, her "younger brother." And a giant of a man named Jericho is used to hiding his secrets, until he meets a girl who could untie them all. And all across the city murders are occurring. Murdeurs that correlate with a secret extremest religion, founded long ago who sought to bring hell and the anti-christ, the "beast" onto Earth. The murders are gruesome, arranged like texts in the book of Revelations to the tune sung creepily by the murderer.

"Naughty John, Naughty John, Does his work with an apron on, Cuts your throat and takes your bones, sells 'em off for a coupla stones."




And it is only the aforementioned people, with their extraordinary powers such as seeing into the future or becoming invisible can help.

                 

           Funnily enough I likened this experience to High School, or what is going to be the high  school experience for me. New York City is huge, scary and inviting all rolled up into one irresistible package. Like the characters in the book, I am drawn to the opportunities and sights the city affords, things I will see in my journeys to schools in Manhattan and the like. The book starts off not telling us how these characters are related to each other, just that they are all special and hoping to make it in New York. I think that this relates to the many students across New York City, all different and all hoping to go to the school they want, to become someone special and more than they already are. No matter what time we find characters in, they all want to succeed and hope NYC will help them get there. The gifts that each character has in the books also relate to the students of my year. We are all talented in some way, be it artistically or academically or even something that can not be measured. We all have something about us that makes us unique.

                Its true, times have changed. We now ride in subway cars as opposed to trolleys on the street. But one thing is for certain, people, at least not on the surface, have changed very little

The Perfect Summer

       When Zachary Beaver Came To Town    by Kimberly Willis Holt is about a thirteen year old boy named Toby and one life changing summer. Toby lives in Antler the, "boring-est town in the world." And he can't wait for summer. But even though school has let out Toby still has some troubles, despite the care free warm months he imagined. Among them are his best friend Cal's brother Wayne, who joined the army, whether the "amazing" Scarlet Stalling will ever like him, if his mom is ever going to come home and the self proclaimed "fattest boy in the world," Zachary Beaver.

       Toby, though he thinks of himself as normal, helps many people in small ways that add up to something greater. And the way he does this is even more impressive. For even though Toby has a lot on his mind, he manages to overcome his own feelings in order to give someone the help that they need. For example, Toby has a huge thing for Scarlet Stalling, but when her ex-boyfriend Juan comes dejectedly asking for help, he orchestrates a rendezvous between Scarlet and Juan to get them back together. I think this is because Toby recognizes that Scarlet will never like him in that way, and that she does however like Juan. Toby wants Scarlet to be happy, so he does the thing that will make her (not him) happy. Its a selfless guesture, but one Toby has resigned himself to. And because of this, he can't enjoy their happiness, he gets no reward, furthering his suspicion that life will never let him have the one chance at a perfect summer.

          Another example is Toby and Zachary. Toby and his friend Cal were pushed together with Zachary by the town Sheriff, but they began to genuinely like Zachary. Yet, Zachary has been nothing but abrupt and mean to Toby and Cal. I infer that this is because he is not used to people actually wanting to do things with him and does not know how to act around Toby and Cal, or because he suspects that they actually do not want to hang out with him, but are being forced to. Its easier to push someone away then to let them in and get hurt. Sure you might never have a real relationship but you will also never get hurt. However, despite Zachary's grumbling and insults, Toby still helps Zachary get Baptized, a lifelong goal of his. I think that Toby recognizes Zachary's fear of people actually liking him, because he has no one who ever has, his parents died. Toby wants to make Zachary see that people can be good and that Zachary isn't just a lonely freak.

           Toby also helps people in seemingly small ways,when he plays catch with the old crazy Judge, he furtively steps forward so that the Judge can catch the ball, making the Judge smile for once in a long time. Toby also writes letters to Wayne in the army, pretending to be Cal so that Wayne will get the news of home that he asks for as Cal refuses to write to Wayne. Toby sees what people need and helps them, but he cannot help himself. The one problem Toby hasn't solved is how to deal with his mothers absence.

         Toby's mom Opalina, went to Austin to win a country singing contest. Toby doesn't know how to deal with her absence, and his touchy on-edge dad. Toby doesn't know how to help himself out of the mess that is closest to home, even though he can help everyone else. This often happens with oneself, its easy to see everyone else's problems if you try hard enough, and helping them comes naturally to Toby. The problem is, he can't see his own problem, can't identify it, so he can't solve it.

           Control is a tricky thing. It is something that many desire, but it is also something you can never truly have. Life is always going to change, there are always more surprises and variables out there. The world is fraught with distrust and imperfections but its the only reason to live. Toby thinks he didn't have the perfect summer because all of his carefully controlled plans didn't work out. But what if it was? When Toby stands at the edge of the pond, sopping wet and muddy, he says "There is a rip in my pants, just where they always ripped and Mama used to fix them, and I know she never will. But when I look around and see the ways the sun looks on the water, I feel for once like I am happy."

Collateral

                 When I was eight years old, I got sent to a different world. My mom kissed my cheek, told me I was going to be fine and left me in front of the door. This gateway, portal sucked me in with the spoken words, "Shalom Rachel!" And so began what I felt like was a dual life. It didn't matter that this world was across the street from my school or that it physically existed on planet Earth, in Park Slope, Brooklyn NY. I seemed to leave Zoe Fruchter behind whenever i transversed the boundary that seemed to surround PSJC, my other world. The temple (PSJC) made me feel small, the sheer weight of religion and tradition bore down on my eight-year-old shoulders like a yolk. I had a different name, Rachel, a different family, Yonina, Yakov and Leah and different friends and teachers. The food was different, kosher, the customs were different, even the alphabet was different. In my other world I was Zoe Fruchter, daughter of Lev and Jill sister of Ella. In my other world I was smart, in this one I could not read or write. In my other world I had friends, I was outgoing and I prospered like a flower bathed in sun synthesizing all information and experiences, with all of the materials I needed. Here I was minuscule, unimportant, an outsider who nibbled on fake Oreos in the bathroom because there was no one to play with. I was a flower in the winter, isolated, devoid of my societal nessecities bending under the weight of the frost. The two places were so different I distinguished them as separate universes.
                     Religion is odd like that, it makes you unsure of who you are, of why you even exist on this planet. Of whether you even have any power to change who you are the actions you take in your life. Religion makes you question all that you once held certain in your life. Judaism gave me a new name, language and culture. Later I would learn how to integrate these things into pre-existing life, but at eight it felt uncannily like I changed every time I kissed the mezuzah on the arched doorway and entered hebrew school.
                 Hannah, in A Time Of Angels by K. Hesse is weighed down by her religion. Growing up in plague ridden Boston at the time of World War II, Hannah is weighed down enough as it is. She pretends to be a boy as to keep a job as a paper boy (adolescents who hawked news headlines in order to sell periodicals to the public), evading the groping hands of her supervisors and waking up at dawn to provide for her haphazard family consisting of her beloved sisters Libbie, Eve, her Tanta (aunt) Rose and Rose's companion of sorts Vashti. Hannah mothers her sisters in spite of hardworking Rose's insistence that she leave it to Vashti, who Hannah believes to be "like a buzzard" or parasite that sucks the life out of everything that she knows to be good about the narrow world that is all that Hannah knows.
                However, Vashti is not the worst thing out in Hannah's world, influenza is a threat much worse than any one person and when Hannah's cherished Tanta and sisters fall prey to it, Hannah is left alone with Vashti, the one person in there family who is selfless enough to send Hannah away from flu riddled Boston, to the country where the plague cannot touch her no matter how much her blood family pleads for her to stay with them. When you love someone, it is the hardest to let them go. You want them so badly that you cannot send them away, even though it is the very pinnacle of love: letting go.
                  So Hannah is alone, on a train to be entrusted into the care of a strange family, she turns to her faith her religion. The fact that it was so hard for her to do this. She "wrestled with the unknown force, whose magnitude of decision and aftermath seemed of greatest weight and caused the greatest of terrors to a girl who survived only by focusing on the path just in front of her."She is torn because her closest person, her aunt told her to pray to God for deliverance but Hannah is not sure if she can. By choosing to accept religion, you are choosing to accept that you are not in control of your life anymore. Hannah has survived her harsh world purely relying on her own wits and talents, to give up this control is like betting your life on something. You are completely at a loss for jurisdiction concerning yourself, but you have something to blame when things go wrong.
                   Hannah is at a loss for what to do, she wants to respect Tanta Rose's memorie but cannot bring herself to relinquish her firm belief that she can decide her fate. But subconsciously, she transcends into a dream world. She begins to see angels everywhere saying "powers once unknown to me now look like the works of a phantom hand, one that cradled Tanta Rose..." in other words, God. Hannah describes her acceptance of a higher power and joining a new society and seeing a new world. I think that Hannah had to completely let go of what she had known before in order to survive her present. The past was weighing her down. And the idea of religion was weighing her down because it was bonded with the past. Yet be releasing her past as the thing that shaped her essence of self, she could embrace a belief that could lift her away from her loss.
                  So although I am not sure whether I have accepted God I understand what Hannah means when she describes religion being a different world. Its such a controversial and relative thing, the cause of so many conflicts, yet some say it heals. Its something so different from everything else that it becomes, in a sense, a different existence.

Blame it on the alchohol

                 Recently I have been reading the book Winter's Garden by Kristen Hannah. Hannah focuses on a topic that in the past has been kept very close to the chest of the former Soviet Union. It is a story of dread, of hope, of starvation, of war, and above all, of desire. The desire to tell control your life, the desire to keep someone you love from hurt and harm, the desire to finally be free of whatever shackles that this material life chains you with. This is the story of Anya Whitson. The story that she is reluctantly telling her daughters. So she begins, Anya was not born Anya Whitson, she was gifted the name Vera Petrushka of Petr Valinokas, a seemingly ambiguous man who wanted to be a poet, wanted to make a difference under the oppressive rule of Stalin, the premier of the Soviet union, posed in such a substantial position of power that he captures and kills off all who dare defy him in even their choice of occupation. This is the world that Vera comes of age into.
                  Yet Vera is not afraid of Stalin, sure she knows she is not to do anything that might jeopardize herself or her family in the slightest, minuscule bit but she continues her life as it would be without him. She becomes a carefree adolescent, she falls in love, takes care of her sister. And above all, she is happy. That is Vera's ultimate defiance towards Stalin. Stalin is like a black hole, sucking in every star, anything that might shine against his darkness. He extinguishes that light in most people. Although they say they are in defiance of him, he has broken them. They have winked out. But not Vera, Vera is kept out of the black hole because her light shines on. But, alas, she is not invulnerable to the light of others. Vera's father is arrested under the unforgiving streetlights in front of their sparse home and Vera knows, deep inside that he will not come back. And so, she too becomes just another of Stalin's broken toys, her happiness and innocence destroyed because he has broken into her life and her bubble has popped.
                 So that is Vera Petrushka, but who is Anya Whitson? Why did she change her name and what isn't she telling her daughters about her past? This is what is going through the mind of Nina Whitson, Anya's daughter. Nina is a war photographer she uses her photos as a cathartic way for her to both help other people and distract herself from the loneliness she feels without her father, who has died recently and the fact that she is practically estranged from her mother and her sister Meredith. So Nina is used to investigating the facts. She is used to hunting down every single frame and shot until she has a compete clear picture of what has happened. And not only that, Nina is used to her photos being published, she relishes the idea of exposure, the fact that now everyone can know about the horrible things that take so much effort to hunt down, to triangulate the locations the names of things people want to keep covered up. So it comes at no surprise that Nina is the one to try to uncover her mother's hidden story. She needs to know the reason her mom can barely look at her, the reason she doesn't laugh, the tragedy or insanity behind the garden she plants in the winter when only ivy blooms. And Nina is used to getting her way.
                   So how does she find out what changed? What changed after the night Vera's father was captured in order to make this carefree girl into who Nina sees before her, a cold women with snow white hair, a woman who's age is unknown, who doesn't seem to love her own children. Just how much light could Stalin siphon off without killing the frail woman? Nina finds a way to get her mother to tell the rest of the story.

Get her drunk.

             Not really something one anticipates from such a poignant and sensitive story. How does alcohol play a part in this play set in the Soviet? Does it melt the ice that surrounds Anya? Or does it penetrate her deeper and deeper into the despair and semi-madness NIna and Meredith already see in her? Over their daily shot of alcohol Anya begins to open up to her daughters, but is it the truth? Anya is spinning tales and stories about knights and gardens that bloom in the winter, princes and snow bridges and ballerinas who can fly. How do you discern what is real or fake in this myriad of fairy tales? If Anya finally telling her story, how she changed that night and who she became? Do these fairies lead to something greater? Or is Nina just searching a woman who has fallen down the rabbit hole? Meredith, NIna's older sister sums it up perfectly when NIna asks her why her mother is seemingly insane

"Blame it on the alcohol."

Age Divided

             I recently read the book "Cuba Turns 15" by Maria Osa. The book follows Violet Paz, a 15 year old Sophomore at the huge impersonal Tri-dist high school. Violet has two best friends, bubbly and hippy-like Leda Londquist t the serious and driven Janell Henry. Violet is spotted by her ax-like teacher, Mr.Axelrod as funny and is put on the speech team for original comedy. At the same time, her traditionalist grandmother and Polish mother are planning her a quincenera, or coming of age ceremony for a `15 year old girl. Violet is doubtful of having her quince, but she gradually comes around to it, as well as to the idea of exploring her Cuban Heritage.  I think that the reason that Violet decides to join the speech team and explore her heritage is because of her quince.
           Before Violet decided to accept her quincenera as something that she wasn't going to fight and something that she actually wants to do, she feels like she is 5, as she says, "a little girl still running home when the bell rings" She doesn't want to do anything at her school in terms of activities and doesn't want to involve herself in anything outside her comfort zone. Also, she tries to avoid mentioning anything that even remotely involves Cuba, a subject she knows that her dad doesn't want to talk about. However, after she accepts her quincenera role and responsibilities she decides to stick with speech team and her competition speech becomes better and better. Also, she begins to explore her Cuban heritage, no matter what her dad says. A quincenera and any coming of age ceremony is about accepting your responsibilities and becoming serious about her life. I think that Violet is realizing that she has a responsibility not only to herself but to the world to let loose and explore who she really is.
             In conclusion, Violet became more risk-taking and open after she accepted the responsibilities of a quincenera. But I think that the quincenera was just a nudge that Violet needed to realize the responsibility she had to herself to be happy, and the responsibility to the world to show them what a great person she really was.