Review: Flight by Sherman Alexie

Flight is a book by Native American author Sherman Alexie, whose writing I was introduced to through the Native American Literature class I took about two years ago at Buffalo State College.  I decided to read Flight for my Native American Literature Challenge, which I created to introduce myself to more works by Native American authors.  It is the story of Zits, a loner teenage boy.  His mom died when he was young, and his dad hasn't been around since Zits was born.  Zits hates being in foster care and constantly runs away or does things to get away from his foster families.  One day, Zits takes things too far and suddenly finds himself traveling through the past, seeing the history of his family and his people.

I bought Flight about a year ago and I cannot believe I waited so long to pick it up.  I connected with Zits and the story immediately and read the book in one sitting.  It's the sort of book I could reread over and over and never get sick of.  The writing is excellent.  It is narrated by Zits, and you'd think that a teenage boy really wrote it.  Even so, the writing is deep in its simplicity.  A lot of what Zits has to say he says in a very harsh, simple, and mocking way, but underneath is a boy who feels lost and is angry and the world because of what it has dealt him.

Flight seems like your average novel about a teenager trying to find his way, but it really covers so much more than that.  A key issue in this novel is one present in a lot of Native American Literature, like in N. Scott Momaday's House Made of Dawn, which I reviewed last year (click title for review).  Zits knows he is different from other teens because of his Native American background, yet he also feels far away from his family's roots.  He doesn't feel like he belongs anywhere.  Another issue that was tackled in this novel is revenge.  Is revenge really worth it?  When Zits goes back in time, he witnesses many heartless acts that make him want to quickly exact revenge, yet he also sees beautiful acts of kindness for the human race, no matter what the ethnicity.  The problems that Zits faces throughout Flight are not uncommon, and I feel that this book could be a favorite among younger readers (and older readers too!).  Other kids going through similar situations can read it and think about how Zits handles himself in different situations, whether or not he does the right thing. 

I absolutely adored the time travel aspect.  It doesn't seem out of place at all in the story, especially because of Zits' reaction to what is happening.  He seems just as bewildered as the reader.  Zits learns so much about himself, about other people, and about revenge and its effects through the time traveling, and his adventures in the past were my favorite part of the story.  I also have a soft spot in my heart for the police officer who tries throughout the book to connect with Zits and get him to realize that he's actually on his side.  Zits just sees him as a bad guy, when in reality he feels bad for the kid.

This is a beautiful story and I highly recommend it.  So many people can relate to Zits, whether they are Native American or not.  Alexie has earned an honored place on my bookshelf because he is able to write a story that tackles tough issues yet is filled with a ton of humor that will leave your stomach sore from laughing.  I can't wait to read more from him.

Now for some of my favorite passages:
Page 22: This guy probably thinks I'm just another stupid street kid.  A dyslexic drone in the social welfare system.  But I'm smart.  Really smart.  Well, okay, maybe not that smart.  I am currently sitting in a jail cell.

People go to jail for a reason.  Well, for a couple of reasons.  They're in jail because they're stupid enough to commit crimes.  And because they're stupid enough to get caught.  And so, yeah, maybe I'm smart but I'm also double-stuff dumb.  Adults are always telling me I don't live up to my potential.

Page 88: -This is what revenge can do to you.
-I lead those one hundred soldiers down the hill toward the Indian camp.
-We are killers.
-As we ride to the bottom of the hill and race the short distance across the flats toward camp, I can feel Gus's rage and grief leaving my body with each hoof-beat, I lose pieces of my rage, until I am left with only my fear.
-I had wanted to kill, but now I just want to stop.
-I throw away my rifle.  I don't want to use it.  But I keep riding.  I am unarmed.  I think I want to die.  I think I want Gus to die.
-I think I want to lose this fight.



Title: Flight
Author: Sherman Alexie
Date of Publication: 2007
Number of Pages: 181
Genre: Fiction
Source: Personal Copy

Back from Vacation and new fiction book about Arthur Rimbaud

I was gone all last week on a family vacation to Cape May, New Jersey.  I had every intention of doing some blogging while I was there, but ended up not having internet access.  We were paying tons of money for a great beach front hotel, and they wanted to charge us $10 a day for wifi.  WTF?????  So basically blogging did not happen.  It was gorgeous (and HOT!) in NJ and I was sad to leave it behind, but I'm also really glad to be back home with adorable chocolate lab.  Plus, when I returned home and we picked up our mail from the post office, this was waiting for me:

It is a fictionalized account of part of the life of French author Arthur Rimbaud, based of course on real life events.  It came out last week.  I preordered it in like January.  When I went on one of my Arthur Rimbaud binges.  Because if you've read this blog for a while now, you should know that I have a very unhealthy obsession with Rimbaud and his poetry.  I discovered this book in January when I was up til all hours of the morning rereading Rimbaud's poetry for the gazillionth time, and then decided to google him to see what other juicy stuff I could find.  This is the same time I discovered that Bob Dylan has a song where he mentions Rimbaud (and Verlaine.  The song is called "You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go", if you're interested), and also the same night I discovered Leo Ferre and his amazingly awesome record of Rimbaud and Verlaine poems put to music.  You might say I have a problem.  And you would be correct.  Anyway, I'm super excited to read this book.  I know a lot of it is going to be fiction, but at least it will hold me over next time I get into one of my Rimbaud binges.  At least until I buy that really nice French biography of his life..

I'm slowly catching up on all of the blogs I follow too :) 

Happy Bastille Day!

This photo has absolutely nothing to do with Bastille Day, but it does capture the France I so love and adore.  It is La Grosse Horloge et le Vieux Port in La Rochelle, my home for 4 months in 2009 <3

50 Best Books for French Majors and Francophiles

How perfect that this lovely list comes to my attention in the middle of the Paris in July event?!

I got a very sweet email from one of my blog readers about this wonderful list of books about France.  The list is separated into sections: Food, Culture, History and Memoir, Fiction, Travel, and Ex-Pats.  Quite a few of these have been on my "to read" list for a while, but there are a ton of books listed that I've never heard of and want to read asap! 

So without further ado, the link to the great list of books:

50 Best Books for French Majors and Francophiles (click to go to article)

Review: La traversée by Philippe Labro

La traversée is a beautifully told story by French author Philippe Labro. I read it in French, and it was my first experience reading anything by Labro. I often feel like I shouldn't praise writing when it's in French, because I'm obviously not a native French speaker and therefore feel like I might not be "feeling" the language quite as well as a native speaker….but I feel the need right now to praise Labro. I LOVED his writing. It was gorgeous. This is sort of an autobiographical novel. The main character (we never get a name, but I pretty much assumed it was the author speaking himself, since he also had an "out of body experience" while in the hospital), retells of his time spent in a semi-coma in a French hospital. While doctors around him are testing him to try to find out what is causing him to be so sick, the main character is left to his dreams and thoughts, and finds himself back in situations he experienced years ago as a young man. He also is fighting for his life, trying to keep at bay the voices telling him that he is going to die. Throughout his struggle in the semi-coma, the main character discovers certain things that give him strength and keep him going. This is a fascinating story about a man who, through illness, discovers what really is important to him and how to keep those things (and people) close to him.

I thought it made total sense that this book was based on the author's own experiences. It truly seems to come from the heart. Sure, some things within the story might be fiction, but the concepts and the things the main character goes through seem so authentic. You just can't make that stuff up. The entire book really is a journey. A physical journey? Well, yes. The narrator finds himself remembering past travels in his youth. But it's also a mental and emotional journey. He is stuck within himself for weeks and is pretty much forced to face facts, and the experience really leaves him humbled. The title of the book itself represents the narrator's journey: "la traversée" in English is "the crossing". This could relate to a lot of things. The narrator crosses continents in his journeys. The narrator comes very close to crossing into the afterlife in the worst days of his illness. And the narrator also crosses over to a better self because of his illness. There is a beautiful passage at the end of the book where the main character is sitting by a fire, just enjoying life and all that it has given him. The fire is so much more than a fire now that he is healed. It represents LIFE. As Labro puts in (though in a much prettier manner), the fire is beautiful, multicolored, irregular, sharp-all the different things that are life. It's not all black and white. It's not all happy. But it is alive, and you've just got to live it.

I was so enamored with La traversée that it left me contemplating it for days. I especially loved the things the narrator discussed as life-savers for him: first, the will to live and resistance. Second, laughing. Third and most important, love and the people who you love and who love you. There are times when the main character is close to giving in and letting go, and then he realizes how selfish he is. After all, he has a wife who adores him, children, friends. As long as he has a say, he won't let himself leave them. I think that's just beautiful.

One of my favorite passages in right in the beginning, at the very start of the narrator's struggle with life and death. He describes hearing two voices in his head: one tells him that death is near, the other that there is so much more life to live.

I believe the translation of La traversée in English is Dark Tunnel White Light. It might be different in different English-speaking countries though?

Here are some fave quotes (believe me, there were a ton! It was hard to narrow them down to post here!). These are rough translations by the way. I can't find my copy of the book at the moment to verify, but I think when I took notes I did just rough translations? Maybe not, I can't remember ha!:
Page 76: The pieces of your life that you see aren't always the most important events of it.
-This quote was really beautiful in context, because the narrator is discussing the images he saw in his out of body experiences. He didn't see himself receiving writing awards. He didn't see himself being praised for directing great movies. He saw himself living daily life, and made him realize what really was important to him.
Page 277: La vie n'est pas un mot. (Life is not a word.)
-As in, you need to LIVE life. It’s not just a word. It's an action. Powerful stuff.
Page 286: La traversee est la vie. (The crossing is life.)
-This refers back to that scene with the fire. Life can be tough, sad, happy, fun. But it's life and you need to take it as it is and live it.

So, I highly recommend La traversée, and I would love to know what you have to say about it if you've read it! Have you read any other books by Philippe Labro?



Title: La traversée
Author: Philippe Labro
Date of Publication: 1998
Number of Pages: 286
Genre: Fiction
Source: Personal Copy

Review: 13, rue Therese by Elena Mauli Shapiro

Here is a quick summary taken from the author's website.  I know I usually summarize books myself, but I can't put it into words quite so nicely:
"Trevor Stratton is an American professor and translator, newly arrived at a Paris university. There, in his office, he discovers a box filled with letters, photographs, and antique objects—a beautiful pair of gloves, a rosary, a silk scarf. Whose life is preserved here? And who has left this mystery for him to find?


The artifacts tell the story of the box’s owner, Louise Brunet, who lived in Paris through both world wars. Trevor is captivated by her tale; her unruly love for a cousin who died in WWI, her comfortable marriage to a man who works for her father, and her passionate attraction to a neighbor in her building at 13, rue Thérèse. But the artifacts tell just a part of the story. Trevor almost deliriously envisions the rest, consumed by thoughts of Louise. Or is it Josianne, his alluring assistant, who rules his imagination?


Memory, passion, and the mysteries of time are entwined in this enthralling novel, a book that transports us not just to Paris but into the mysteries of the past. Elena Mauli Shapiro’s first novel is a masterly exploration, intimate and dramatic, of the stories we imagine about others’ lives and the truths those stories reveal about ourselves."

Basically, I loved this book SO MUCH that there isn't anything I can say about it that will do it any justice whatsoever.  I am telling you now, JUST READ IT.  I adored it.  I read it in like 2 sittings.  What I really loved was the writing and how there are actual photos (yes!) of the items in the box.  It was great.  Elena Mauli Shapiro has such a unique writing style, and she is hilarious a lot of the time too.  What was even better was that after finishing the book, while reading the author information, I found out that all the items in the box were real items. 

So read the book because it is just SO beautiful.  And then read the bit at the end about the author.  I was so emotional, let me tell you.

I know I sound crazy because I'm so excited (still after finishing it like a month ago!) about this amazing book, but I definitely say you NEED to read it.

Now for a few fave quotes:
Pages 60 and 107 both contain proper French business lines to end letters with.  I know they are boring to most, but I took a French business class and had to painstakingly memorize these bad boys.  And let me tell you, they are a lot harder and longer than the typical English "sincerely...". 
-60: Je vous prie d'accepter, Cher Monsieur, l'expression de mes sentiments les plus distingues.
-107: En vous remerciant d'avance et dans l'attente et l'espoir de vous lire, veuillez agreer mes salutations les plus chaleureuses.
-79: Our shell shock and our thousand-yard stare-we are stunned into quiet by the images that cannot be erased and thus erase all else-our gaze so still and so quiet that it can be ignored, if you wish, you do not have to
listen to our silence.
Digging this trench so hard, the muscle fibers in our backs bursting with the hurt of this: our last ditch effort.
Our shell shock and our thousand-yard stare-
I gaze ever farther than that.
For miles and miles I stare, through everything and straight to you.  As I fight, I keep my eyes always on you: I cannot bear the stricken look on your face should you be told that I have died-
Your face-
it is the only reason I am still alive.

Can I also say real quick that I also loved the Moliere references.
Title: 13, rue Therese
Author: Elena Mauli Shapiro
Date of Publication: February 2nd, 2011
Number of Pages: 273
Genre: Fiction
Source: Personal Copy

Review: French Lessons by Ellen Sussman

This review is part of Paris in July :)

French Lessons by Ellen Sussman follows three French tutors and their "students" through one day in Paris.  The tutors basically walk around Paris with the Americans assigned to them and teach them the French language while showing them architecture and culture.  Each individual has some sort of inner turmoil that they can't keep their minds off of during their sessions, and the lessons are in a way a sort of therapy for everyone. 

The book is separated into sections by tutor and student, and we follow each pair throughout their day.  I wasn't really sure how I was going to like the format, but I think it worked out well.  Each pair does their own thing but eventually everyone ends up at the same spot in the end.  Each section also flipflopped from the present time in Paris to something from each individual's past.  For example, the first American we meet is a woman named Josie who has just lost her lover.  While she's on the tour/lesson, she keeps being reminded of things she did with her lover.  I thought the book started off pretty slow, but that may be because I didn't connect as well with Josie and her tutor.  The other sections I enjoyed a lot more. 
I loved the setting of the book.  Sussman captured Paris beautifully, and if you read this book for no other purpose than that, then I think you'll be happy.  I was reminded quite often of my favorite food and beverages from France.  The characters drink cafe creme (jealous!!!) and eat pain au chocolat (whyyyyy the temptation??!). 

One thing I really enjoyed about French Lessons is how each character seems to be having just an ordinary day in Paris, but this day ends up being sort of a turning point for everyone.  Their problems aren't solved, but they all realize something that they need to change, or find some hope for the future and strength to start overcoming their problems.  It also seemed to me like each pair (tutor/student) seemed to help each other unknowingly.  Just being with a stranger who knows nothing about the other's plight seemed to be good for everyone.  The book seems like it's going to be very lighthearted, but once to start reading you realize it's about much more serious emotions like love, loss, grief, and hope. 

I did have some qualms with the book.  It was by no means perfect.  The writing for example wasn't anything exceptional.  There were times when things seemed a little bit unclear.  I also wish that the author had elaborated a bit more on certain things.  The whole premise of book seems a bit "fairytale-esque" at times too.  It's not likely that 3 tutors with problems will get 3 students with problems and sort of solve things on the same exact day.  But this is fiction, so if you don't think too hard about it, it's okay.  I also thought that the writing was a little bit choppy.  Scenes and thoughts seemed to jump around a lot.

I think this is a great summer beach read, especially if you want something a bit more "fluffy" where everything is straightforward.  Like I said above, the setting alone made me want to read this and it didn't disappoint in that respect.  All in all, not a bad book, but definitely not for everyone.

Title: French Lessons
Author: Ellen Sussman
Date of Publication: July 5th, 2011
Number of Pages: 256
Genre: Fiction
Source: ARC from Publisher

These are a few of my favorite French things....

Can't you just hear that song from the Sound of Music playing right now??  To kick off Paris in July, I'm posting a list of some of my favorite French things!  A lot of these photos are actually ones that Twin took when she went to France, because I wasn't smart enough to take photos of a lot of things, like food.

French wine that is sold in the grocery store and is super cheap and super awesome:

Fresh baguette and affordable French cheese:

Cafe Creme:

Bakeries and Pastry Shops:

Things that totally remind me of Emile Zola and the class I took on him:

French money (Euros):



Medieval Architecture:

Some things I don't have photos of:
-Pain au chocolat
-Macarons
-Sitting outside all the time at cafes
-The market
-The language
-The people
-The culture

And the best for last (which my sis and her BF found on a road in southern France......), really awesome tourbus company names:

Welcome to Kelly's France Blog's month-long celebration of Paris in July!!