Summer Book Club: The Wind Done Gone

I got a copy of The Wind Done Gone by Alice Randall and am a ways into it.  This is a re-telling of Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind.  I haven't read this book, so it's hard to make some of the connections.  Randall's main character Cynara, or Cindy, or Cinnamon was born a slave to the character of Mammy (same in the book and the film).  The books appears to take place after the war, after the death of Scarlett and Rhett's daughter, and after Reconstruction.  The characters most of us know by name are given pseudonyms, and it takes a little while to get it all straight. Mammy is Mammy, Rhett is R., Scarlett is Other.  I still have not made connections between some characters in the book and the ones I know from the film, and I'm not sure if that's because I haven't read Mitchell's novel.

[I now see I could easily figure it out from the wikipedia entry, but now I feel lazy.]

The main character does not have a parallel in Mitchell's novel.  There is no point you can attach her to to fill out her character.  She is one of the many unnamed children that may have gone hungry when their mothers were separated from them, to wet-nurse for whites' children.  Through her eyes we see the other side of Tara that the film's romanticized and racist version doesn't show.

This isn't just a retelling, but goes on with the story after reconstruction.  You see Cynara, once a slave of Tara, in her own house in an Atlanta neighborhood, visited often by her lover, R.  The book so far deals with the relationship between Cynara and her mother, Mammy.  How does Other (Scarlett) fit into this?  She and Cynara have the same father, and are thus half-sisters.  Mammy is Other's caretaker, and her relationship with Other is what hurts Cynara the most.  The rivalry between Cynara and Scarlett has little to do with the fact they share a lover-- it's mother's love that is held so dear.

I'm looking forward to finishing this book, which is a pretty fast read.  It's very lyrical and wandering, to the point that I didn't care that I had no idea who the characters were yet, because it was just so beautiful to read.

Want to join the Summer Book Club?  Scoot on over to Freeze Dried and check it out.

Blogs talkin' about The Wind Done Gone:
Racialicious  *  Race Matters *  Dar Kush  * Everything and Nothing

Summer Book Club!

Freeze Dried has started a summer book challenge for June over at her blog.  Here's what she's got to say about it:

Come up with a list of books that you want to read by June 30, 2011. The list could be as short or as long as you'd like. Those books gathering dust on that shelf there? You want to put those on your list. The ones you're already reading? Perfect, throw them on there too. And feel free to pull from my booklist on the sidebar.

The goal is to write one post a week about the book / books that you have read during the week. If you haven't finished a book before your post it due, that's cool beans!, post anyway - talk about your thoughts on the book so far.

Ping me so I put you on the blog list again.

I think it's a great idea now that J and I have time to read (well, I've always had it, but reading together is awesome).  Once I figure out how to put the little list up on my sidebar, I'll get cracking.  We're halfway through the second book in George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire, A Clash of Kings, and I'm about to start Alice Randall's The Wind Done Gone, a reinterpretation of Gone With the Wind.

Scarlett O'Hara and Mammy.  Image from Popular

 I haven't read Gone with the Wind, but growing up in the South and having seen the movie a few times, I think I can skip it.  If it's between reading "American Classics" and trying something by a marginalized writer, I'll go with the latter.  Gone with the Wind is pretty solidly in the American consciousness, so it's like I was born with it in my harddrive.

More to come!  I need to do a little write-up on Vox, the classic phone-sex novel by Nicholson Baker.  It's more awesome than it sounds.

How many applications?

J has finished eight applications in the past two days. He is a powerhouse.  I'm much better prepared for the future job hunt after my big job application, but helping him proofread and nit-pick on words is good practice.  I like to be a part of things, and this is more fun than scanning a dozen Google alerts for applicable job listings every day. (Anyway, I'd usually ignore the qualifications if it was in a cool city.)

We finished Game of Thrones last night, and it was so awesome at the end I cried.  Not because it was sad, but because it was the end of the book, but because the ending and what happened to one of my favorite characters was so amazing, terrifying and cool I couldn't hold it in.  And that is why I love reading.

For those of you not into reading 4,000 pages of this series, you can watch it on the TV, or on the secret internet.  The title sequence alone gives me shivers.  From a maker's perspective, this thing is intricate as fuck and so beautiful (even if it is just CGI).  It looks real enough for me.  If you are geeky enough to read an interview about the making of a title sequence, here ya go.

Mists, Bells, Soccer Balls

Lazy Sunday!  We spent another morning in the coffeeshop, me reading The Mists of Avalon (so perfect for being snowed in!) and J editing chapters.  I love to look over at him scribbling on pages of crazy science, witnessing him slowly coming to the end of this stressful time.  The road our house is on is almost unfrozen, but was too small for the snowplow to get past.  Instead, it tried to come through, pushed up an impassable ridge of snow, and backed out again.  I should be thankful I haven't had anything to do that requires the car.

So, other than reading today I've done a fat lot of nothing.  I recently found an old baoding ball necklace I bought when I was a pre-teen, and have been twirling it around my fingers while I read.  It is the most beautiful sound in the world (hear it here).  I did some internet sleuthing and figured out how the bell works.  Here's what it looks like on the inside:

I also found out that the study of bells is campanology.  I'll add campanologist to my list of dream professions with candy designer, parade float maker and professional direction-giver.

Tomorrow I have promised my wonderful new library friend that I will play on a soccer team with her.  I think it is only 2 or 3 games, but I'm concerned that my inability to play soccer, as well as the below-freezing temperatures may impact my drive to win. That drive is pretty low, anyway.  I was a goalie long, long ago, but it's going to take more than me watching a few youtube videos to prevent me from embarrassing myself.  Seriously, if you toss a pen at me I duck.

Tomorrow get ready for a guest post from my Ghost of Christmas Future, Freeze Dried.

The internet was listening to my thoughts....

And it appears that Noomi Rapace, who played Lisbeth Salander in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (they made an American version?) is on the shortlist for A PREQUEL TO ALIEN OMFFFGGGGGGGGGG  DJAOADJFA;DJFAIEJ;AEJAIJA ;JE; AJ IJ;FIE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I never know when something awesome is happening until it's just there, which is nice for immediate gratification.  I was trying to see if my blog would ever show up on a google search, trying Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Jane Eyre, AND Ellen Ripley (the answer is no) and I found this post.  I am so happy right now.  If I was to get a bad decision tattoo of a face on my back, I would get Ellen Ripley.

I read books!

I've gone to the gym three times this week, and since I overdid it on squats (trying to impress a new friend, silly I know) so I think I'll take today off.  I was having a really hard time at the beginning of the week letting the sads get to me, but I've kept myself too busy since then to get down.  It also helps when I am reading a book-- make that TWO books that have me taking longer 15-minute breaks than I should: Jane Eyre and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

I started reading Jane Eyre when I was 15 or 16, but got distracted by other things.  Then in my senior year of college, I was in a Women in Modernism class (woefully unprepared) where we read Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea.  Not only was I completely adrift in modernist and feminist theory, it was a novel from the perspective of Rochester's first wife in Jane Eyre.  Since I had never read the first book, I was not exactly sure how to grasp the second. So, I am reading that first classic and going back and reading Wide Sargasso Sea.  I'm surprised how much I like it, but if you'd ever seen me watching a Jane Austen film adaptation, you can imagine I'm slack jawed with anticipation or talking out loud to the characters.  I started reading it again with the awareness of how mental illness and race is treated in it, and I feel bad about how much I am enjoying it (not the racism or ablism).  From a feminist perspective, Jane is in turn very independent and knows who she is, but her attachment to Rochester is kind of gross if you step back and look at it.  But, as patronizing as he speaks to her, when he called her his "little mustard seed", it makes my heart wiggle.  Humans are strange things.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was a really great movie, and is an even better book.  I am so happy it's a trilogy.  I will admit I was a snob at first, avoiding it because it sounded like a trendy Young Adult novel about one more mysterious beautiful lady who is magic, ignoring her as a person and casting her as a mystery*.  Not so!  Lisbeth Salander, the books' female protagonist, is neck and neck with Ellen Ripley right now.  I am glad she exists.  She is smart, independent, and flawed. Bad shit has happened to her.  She's reacted in ways that I do not agree with but understand.  The books are about murder, dysfunctional families, ethics, journalism, mysteries, technology and a little romance.  I cannot recommend them enough.  I'm excited about a weekend with no plans and this and Jane Eyre in my hands.

Once I get up the front steps of my house (with my legs killing me from those damned squats) I will post myself on the couch and not get up until Monday morning.

*The original title in Swedish is Män som hatar kvinnor, which translates to "Men who hate women".  It's interesting to see how things get changed for an American audience. I think that would have perked my ears.

"Where you go, I will go"

If I'd have been drinking while reading this e-book I just downloaded, my keyboard would be fried.  I turned up Veenstrateam.com in a search for "trailing spouse" on twitter, and found an e-book called We're moving where? ...Surviving Life as a Trailing Spouse.   From the cover, I am guessing this book may be a little outdated:

They are moving to a place where they cannot buy edible eyewear! Or turtlenecks!  It is also (and not to offend religious people, it was surprising) slanted towards "Godly career women" of the Christian faith.  I had no idea, I thought it was just a Kalamazoo real estate website!

Godly business women know that if their husbands’ job transfers are in God’s will, then they will follow Ruth’s example and say, “Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay” (Ruth 1:16). Yet faith never comes without risk, and leaving a successful career behind to become a “trailing spouse” is always a step of faith.

I had to sign up for a download and get to it through my email, so hopefully I don't have a bunch of Kalamazoo spam.  But you know what?  Maybe I'll look through it and see if there are any helpful tidbits I can share.  Love that jacket, Ruth.

Traveling Spouse!

It was staring us in the face!  You're always an accompanying spouse (they are too), a trailing spouse sounds fucking dreary, but if you are going from one place to another, you are a TRAVELING SPOUSE. What bad connotations does that have?  I just started reading Robin Pascoe's Culture Shock this morning, and when she said "traveling wife", it just clicked (after crossing out "wife" and adding in "spouse").

I'm reading the 1992 version, and though there's a 2000 edition, I am still amazed that in this day and age, wives are still the majority in traveling "with".  What is with this frigging world?  I know I'd still have issues with my situation, but if it wasn't so common for the woman to be accompanying, I think I'd feel less neurotic about it.  Let's all take a moment and hope/pray really hard that our children/our friends' children will have to look back on us and wonder why we were all so weird, divided and unequal.  I want them to squint in frustration trying to understand the things we did and the world we had to live through.

But, anyway, I am happy with traveling spouse.  But should we take a poll?  I've added one on the right, so have at it.  Hopefully there are as many readers as there are choices.

"Trailing Spouse" and "Resentment"

Those are the search terms that are raking in all my page views! That's kind of sad, but heck, maybe I'm helping?

We had a good talk last night about who he was going to write to first, and he told me about a researcher he'd never mentioned before, in a town he'd never really set down as something he wanted to do. But he was genuinely interested in working with this person, had met them, told me about the town. It started sounding good-- really good, especially since he looked happy about it.  It's a city! I've never lived in a real city. And it's one that is affordable. The new wardrobe may come into play.

I started reading Diplomatic Baggage by Brigid Keenan yesterday.  No, I'm not the spouse of a diplomat, but we've got some of the same issues. Ok, I have not been the editor of a popular newsmagazine in England, but I'm not just lolling about.  Luckily, it's really funny.