The Impossible Knife of Memory
Laurie Halse Anderson, 2014
Viking Juvenile
400 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780670012091
Summary
For the past five years, Hayley Kincaid and her father, Andy, have been on the road, never staying long in one place as he struggles to escape the demons that have tortured him since his return from Iraq.
Now they are back in the town where he grew up so Hayley can attend school. Perhaps, for the first time, Hayley can have a normal life, put aside her own painful memories, even have a relationship with Finn, the hot guy who obviously likes her but is hiding secrets of his own.
Will being back home help Andy’s PTSD, or will his terrible memories drag him to the edge of hell, and drugs push him over? The Impossible Knife of Memory is Laurie Halse Anderson at her finest: compelling, surprising, and impossible to put down. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—October 23, 1961
• Where—Pottsdam, New York, USA
• Education—Asoc.A., Onondaga Community College' B.A.,
Georgetown University
• Awards—Margaret Edwards Award
• Currently—lives in northern New York State
Laurie Halse Anderson is an American writer best known for children's and young-adult novels. She received the Margaret Edwards Award from the American Library Association in 2009 for her contribution to young adult literature.
First recognized for her novel Speak (1999), Anderson gained recognition for her artistic dealings with tough topics embedded with honesty. Anderson’s ability to creatively address often avoided issues allows her to be a safe outlet for young readers. The tough themes of her novels including rape, family dysfunctions, body issues and disorders, and high academic pressures often create controversial discussions surrounding her novels.
Background
Laurie Beth Halse was born to Ronald Frank and Ingrid Halse in Northern New York State in Potsdam. She and younger sister Lisa grew up there, near the Canadian border. As a student she showed early interest in writing, specifically during the second grade. Anderson loved reading, especially science fiction and fantasy as a teenager, yet she never envisioned herself becoming a writer. Despite struggling with math, she thought she would eventually pursue the occupation of a doctor.
During Anderson’s senior year, at the age of sixteen, she moved out of her parent’s house and lived as an exchange student for thirteen months on a pig farm in Denmark. After her experience in Denmark, Anderson moved back home to begin working at a clothing store, making minimum wage. This pushed Laurie to decide to attend college.[4]
While attending Onondaga Community College, Laurie worked on dairy farm, milking cows. After graduating, two years later, with her associates, she transferred to Georgetown University in 1981 and graduated in 1984 with her Bachelor’s degree in Languages and Linguistics.
Early career
Anderson was a freelance journalist for The Philadelphia Inquirer in the early years of her career. She also began writing children and young adult novels. Despite receiving stacks of rejection letters, she persevered and, in 1996, had her first children’s novel published: Ndito Runs, based on Kenyan Olympic marathon runners who ran to and from school each day. In 1998, she published No Time For Mother’s Day, featuring the same characters from an earlier short story, "Turkey Pox."
Anderson also wrote a few pieces of non-fiction early on—a child's book on Saudi Arabia based on her experience working with that country's embassy; and a book about parenting shy children, co-authored with Dr. Ward Swallow.
Young adult novels
In 1999, she published what is arguably her most famous novel, Speak, which became a New York Times best seller and won Anderson numerous awards. It was also a finalist for the National Book Awards. The book was adapted into film in 2004, starring Kristen Stewart, and portrays the book's thirteen-year-old heroine, who becomes mute after a sexual assault.
Other novels followed in rapid succession, all to wide acclaim: Fever, 1793 (2000), Catalyst (2002); Prom (2005), Twisted (2007), Wintergirls (2009).
Historical fiction
In 2000, Anderson's Fever, 1793, set in Philadelphia during the Yellow Fever epidemic, was adapted to state in 2004 at the Gifford Family Theatre in Syracuse, New York. Thank You, Sarah! The Woman Who Saved Thanksgiving, a historical fiction picture book came out in 2002.
In 2008 Anderson issued Chains, about a teenage Revolutionary War-era slave—and the first in her planned "Seeds of America Trilogy." Chains was awarded the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction. The completed trilogy consists of Forge (2010) and Ashes (2014).
Writing
Anderson’s commitment to writing powerful, controversial and intensely serious content within her novels have led her on a journey, acting as a voice for many young readers. “I get amazing letters from readers who tell me that one of my books helped them get through a tough time, and I know this is what I am meant to do.”
Anderson uses her own experience which often intertwines itself into the life of her characters. Because of this blurred line, Anderson often feels the empathy, emotion, and feelings of what her characters experience. With the intensity of encompassing herself in often dark places, Anderson states, “I survive the process of emotional immersion by remembering the kids who write to me, reminding myself how much more difficult it is for the teen readers who are struggling with these issues in real life. At least I have the option of walking away from a story. They do not.”
Personal
Laurie Halse Anderson married Greg Anderson, and in 1985, they had their first child, Stephanie Holcomb. Two years later, they had their second child, Meredith Lauren. The couple later divorced.
Years later, after Anderson had moved away then returned to New York state, she rekindled feelings for a childhood sweetheart, Scot Larrabee. Anderson eventually married, and is still married to Larrabee. Together, they combined their families—Anderson’s two daughters and Larrabee’s two children, Jessica and Christian. (Adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 1/23/2014.)
Book Reviews
Anderson's portrayal of families broken by war, death, divorce and addiction is stark and honest…Despite the heavy subject matter, Anderson's signature wry observations offer just enough comic relief…This book has a lot going on, no doubt. But at its heart is a tough yet fragile girl who wants what we all want: love, friendship and stability. Instead, she lives in a world in which the foundation beneath her feet is constantly shifting, and the relentless challenge to keep balance has worn her out…Anderson's novels (and others often labeled "too dark") speak for the still-silent among us, and force all of us to acknowledge the real and painful truths that are too dangerous to ignore.
Joel Knowles - New York Times Book Review
Andy comes home from the war in Iraq honored for his service, and haunted by it. The war still goes on inside of him and threatens to make Hayley another causality. Laurie Halse Anderson is one of the best known writers of literature for young adults and children in the world.
Scott Simon - NPR Weekend Edition
The Impossible Knife of Memory isn’t always an easy read-Anderson’s gritty, authentic look at PTSD is by turns painful and heartbreaking-but it’s an important one.
Entertainment Weekly
Laurie Halse Anderson has been lauded and awarded for her ability to channel the teenage mind (and heart) dealing with tough issues. In The Impossible Knife of Memory, she takes on PTSD through the story of a girl coping with her troubled veteran dad.
Family Circle
(Starred review.) A riveting study of a psychologically scarred teenager... [T]he only family Hayley has left is her father, a veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, whose horrific flashbacks have brought chaos into their lives.... Hayley’s anxiety about her father’s unpredictable behavior reverberates throughout the novel, overshadowing and distorting her memories of better times.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review.) With powerful themes of loyalty and forgiveness, this tightly woven story is a forthright examination of the realities of war and its aftermath on soldiers and their families. One of Anderson's strongest and most relevant works to date. Grade 9 and up. —Allison Tran, Mission Viejo Library, CA
School Library Journal
(Starred review.) Compelling, powerful, and timely.... This is challenging material, but in Anderson's skilled hands, readers will find a light shining on the shadowy reality of living with someone who has lived through war.
Booklist
Anderson sensitively addresses...physical recovery, grief and survivor's guilt, chemical dependency, panic attacks and suicidal tendencies—that veterans can face when trying to reintegrate. This is less a bravura performance than a solid one, but Hayley's strong, wryly vulnerable voice carries the narrative toward a resolutely imperfect, hopeful conclusion (14 & up) .
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
(We'll add specific questions if and when they're made available by the publisher.)
Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson and the Opening of the American West
Stephen E. Ambrose, 1996
Simon & Schuster
528 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780684826974
Summary
In 1803 President Thomas Jefferson selected his personal secretary, Captain Meriwether Lewis, to lead a voyage up the Missouri River to the Rockies, over the mountains, down the Columbia River to the Pacific Ocean, and back.
Lewis was the perfect choice. He endured incredible hardships and saw incredible sights, including vast herds of buffalo and Indian tribes that had had no previous contact with white men. He and his partner, Captain William Clark, made the first map of the trans-Mississippi West, provided invaluable scientific data on the flora and fauna of the Louisiana Purchase territory, and established the American claim to Oregon, Washington, and Idaho.
Ambrose has pieced together previously unknown information about weather, terrain, and medical knowledge at the time to provide a colorful and realistic backdrop for the expedition. Lewis saw the North American continent before any other white man; Ambrose describes in detail native peoples, weather, landscape, science, everything the expedition encountered along the way, through Lewis's eyes.
Lewis is supported by a rich variety of colorful characters, first of all Jefferson himself, whose interest in exploring and acquiring the American West went back thirty years. Next comes Clark, a rugged frontiersman whose love for Lewis matched Jefferson's. There are numerous Indian chiefs, and Sacagawea, the Indian girl who accompanied the expedition, along with the French-Indian hunter Drouillard, the great naturalists of Philadelphia, the French and Spanish fur traders of St. Louis, John Quincy Adams, and many more leading political, scientific, and military figures of the turn of the century.
This is a book about a hero. This is a book about national unity. But it is also a tragedy. When Lewis returned to Washington in the fall of 1806, he was a national hero. But for Lewis, the expedition was a failure.
Jefferson had hoped to find an all-water route to the Pacific with a short hop over the Rockies-Lewis discovered there was no such passage. Jefferson hoped the Louisiana Purchase would provide endless land to support farming-but Lewis discovered that the Great Plains were too dry. Jefferson hoped there was a river flowing from Canada into the Missouri—but Lewis reported there was no such river, and thus no U.S. claim to the Canadian prairie. Lewis discovered the Plains Indians were hostile and would block settlement and trade up the Missouri. Lewis took to drink, engaged in land speculation, piled up debts he could not pay, made jealous political enemies, and suffered severe depression.
High adventure, high politics, suspense, drama, and diplomacy combine with high romance and personal tragedy to make this outstanding work of scholarship as readable as a novel. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—January 10, 1936
• Raised—Whitewater, Wisconsin, USA
• Death—October 13, 2002
• Where—Bay St. Louis, Mississippi
• Education—B.A., Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison
M.A., Louisiana State University
• Awards—(see below)
Stephen Edward Ambrose was an American historian and biographer of U.S. Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and Richard Nixon. He was a longtime professor of history at the University of New Orleans and the author of many bestselling volumes of American history, including Undauntd Courage (1996).
Early years
Ambrose was born to Rosepha Trippe Ambrose and Stephen Hedges Ambrose. His father was a physician who served in the U.S. Navy during World War II. Ambrose was raised in Whitewater, Wisconsin, where he graduated from Whitewater High School. His family also owned a farm in Lovington, Illinois and vacation property in Marinette County, Wisconsin. He attended college at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he was a member of Chi Psi Fraternity and played on the University of Wisconsin football team for three years.
Ambrose originally wanted to major in pre-medicine, but changed his major to history after hearing the first lecture in a U.S. history class entitled "Representative Americans" in his sophomore year. The course was taught by William B. Hesseltine, whom Ambrose credits with fundamentally shaping his writing and igniting his interest in history.
While at Wisconsin, Ambrose was a member of the Navy and Army ROTC. He graduated with a B.A. in 1957. He also married his first wife, Judith Dorlester, in 1957, and they had two children, Stephenie and Barry. According to Ambrose, Judith died at age 27, when he was 29. A year or two later he married his second wife, Moira Buckley, and adopted her three children, Hugh, Grace, and Andrew. Ambrose received a master's degree in history from Louisiana State University in 1958, studying under T. Harry Williams. Ambrose then went on to earn a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1963, under William B. Hesseltine.
Writing
Ambrose's earliest works concerned the Civil War. He wrote biographies of the generals Emory Upton and Henry Halleck, the first of which was based on his dissertation.
Early in his career, Ambrose was mentored by World War II historian Forrest Pogue. In 1964, Ambrose took a position at Johns Hopkins as the Associate Editor of the Eisenhower Papers, a project aimed at organizing, cataloging and publishing Eisenhower's principal papers. From this work and discussions with Eisenhower emerged an article critical of Cornelius Ryan’s The Last Battle, which had depicted Eisenhower as politically naive, when at the end of World War II he allowed Soviet forces to take Berlin, thus shaping the Cold War that followed. Ambrose expanded this into a book, Eisenhower and Berlin, 1945: The Decision to Halt at the Elbe.
In 1964 Ambrose was commissioned to write the official biography of the former president and five-star general Dwight D. Eisenhower. This resulted in a book on Eisenhower's war years (published 1970) and a two-volume full biography (published 1983 and 1984), which are considered "the standard" on the subject. Ambrose also wrote a three-volume biography of Richard Nixon. Although Ambrose was a strong critic of Nixon, the biography is considered fair and just regarding Nixon's presidency.
His books, Band of Brothers (1992) and D-Day (1994), presented from the view points of individual soldiers in World War II, brought his works into mainstream American culture. His Citizen Soldiers (1997) and The Victors (1998) became bestsellers. He also wrote the popular book, The Wild Blue (2001), that looked at World War II aviation.
His other major works include Undaunted Courage (1996) about the Lewis and Clark Expedition and Nothing Like It in the World (2000) about the construction of the Pacific Railroad. His final book, This Vast Land (2003), a historical novel about the Lewis & Clark expedition written for young readers, was published posthumously.
Ambrose was also a frequent contributor to magazines such as American Heritage.
Television, film, and other activities
Ambrose appeared as a historian in the 1974 ITV television series, The World at War, which detailed the history of World War II. The HBO mini-series, Band of Brothers (2001), for which he was an executive producer, helped sustain the fresh interest in World War II that had been stimulated by the 50th anniversary of D-Day in 1994 and the 60th anniversary in 2004. He was also the military adviser for the movie Saving Private Ryan. In addition, Ambrose served as a commentator for Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery, a documentary by Ken Burns.
In addition to his academic work and publishing, Ambrose operated a historical tour business, acting as a tour guide to European locales of World War II. He was a founder of the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Awards
Ambrose was the recipient on numerous awards:
- 1998—The National Humanities Medal.
- 2000—The Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service, the highest honorary award the Department of Defense offers to civilians.
- 2001—The Theodore Roosevelt Medal for Distinguished Service from the Theodore Roosevelt Association.
- 2002—an Emmy Award as one of the producers for the mini-series Band of Brothers.
- He also received the George Marshall Award, the Abraham Lincoln Literary Award, the Bob Hope Award from the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, and the Will Rogers Memorial Award.
Final years
After retiring, Ambrose maintained homes in Helena, Montana, and Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. A longtime smoker, he was diagnosed with lung cancer in April 2002. His health deteriorated rapidly and seven months after the diagnosis he died, at the age of 66.
Controversy
• Plagarism
In 2002, Ambrose was accused by Tulane Law Professor Sally Richardson and others of plagiarizing several passages in his book, The Wild Blue. Fred Barnes reported in the Weekly Standard that Ambrose had taken passages from Wings of Morning: The Story of the Last American Bomber Shot Down over Germany in World War II, by Thomas Childers, a history professor at the University of Pennsylvania. Ambrose had footnoted sources—but not enclosed in quotation marks—numerous passages from Childers' book.
Ambrose asserted that only a few sentences in all his numerous books were the work of other authors. He offered this defense:
I tell stories. I don't discuss my documents. I discuss the story. It almost gets to the point where, how much is the reader going to take? I am not writing a Ph.D. dissertation.
I wish I had put the quotation marks in, but I didn't. I am not out there stealing other people's writings. If I am writing up a passage and it is a story I went to tell and this story fits and a part of it is from other people's writing, I just type it up that way and put it in a footnote. I just want to know where the hell it came from.
A Forbes investigation of his work found cases of plagiarism involving passages in at least six books, with a similar pattern going all the way back to his doctoral dissertation. The History News Network lists seven of Ambrose's works—The Wild Blue, Undaunted Courage, Nothing Like It In the World, Nixon: Ruin and Recovery, Citizen Soldiers, The Supreme Commander, and Crazy Horse and Custer—containing content copied from twelve authors.
• Factual errors and disputed characterizations
In the 1973 ITV television series, The World at War, episode 25, "From War to Peace," Ambrose made basic factual errors. He underestimated the military US manpower as a percentage of the population and miscounted the population, as well.
In Nothing Like It in the World, about the building of the Pacific Railroad, three Western US railroad historians listed more than 60 inaccuracies and madeup quotes. Others found mislabeled maps, inaccurate dates, and geographical errors.
In the introduction to his biography of Eisenhower he claims that former president approached him to write his biography. But the Deputy Director of the Eisenhower Presidential Center revealed a letter from Ambrose to Eisenhower revealing that it was Ambrose who made first approach.
After Eisenhower's death in 1969, Ambrose made repeated claims to have been with Eisenhower "on a daily basis for a couple years" before his death "doing interviews and talking about his life." However, the former president's diary and telephone records show that the pair met only three times, for a total of less than five hours.
For a fuller account (with references) see Wikipedia under "Stephen Ambrose." (Author bio adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 1/17/2014.)
Book Reviews
Meriwether Lewis, as secretary to Thomas Jefferson and living in the White House for two years, got his education by being apprenticed to a great man. Their friendship is at the center of this account. Jefferson hand-picked Lewis for the great cross-country trek, and Lewis in turn picked William Clark to accompany him. ... Without adding a great deal to existing accounts, Ambrose uses his skill with detail and atmosphere to dust off an icon and put him back on the trail west.
Publishers Weekly
Ambrose...uses the journals and documents...as well as the traditional sources, to craft a careful and detailed biography of Lewis that will stand as the standard account for some time to come. Ambrose not only recounts the expedition Lewis led with Clark but also explains how Lewis came to head it.... [G]eneral readers will also be enthralled by Ambrose's well-written account. —Stephen H. Peters, Northern Michigan Univ. Lib., Marquette
Library Journal
Though principally a biography of Meriwether Lewis, this narrative also provides fascinating portraits of Thomas Jefferson and William Clark, Sacagawea, and other members of the group of explorers who journeyed from the Ohio River to the Pacific Ocean in the years 1803-1806. While scholarly and well documented, this account is at the same time a great adventure story, and Ambrose generates a sense of excitement and anticipation.... An eminently readable resource. Molly Connally, Kings Park Library, Fairfax County, VA
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. In Undaunted Courage, Ambrose gives us an unbiased account of Meriwether Lewis. He presents Lewis as both a hero and a flawed man. How does Ambrose reconcile these two sides of Lewis's character?
2. Discuss the ways in which Undaunted Courage shares a reading experience with that of a novel. Yet how is reading history unlike reading fiction?
3. Compare and contrast the social conventions of Lewis's time with those of our own—in particular the social standing and treatment of women, blacks, and Indians. How much did the harsh physical environment that people endured affect the attitudes of the time in the arena of racial and sexual equality?
4. What small but significant role did women play in the story of the Lewis and Clark Expedition?
5. Discuss the way in which Ambrose clearly depicts the difficulty and confusion that faced both the Americans and the Indians when their paths began to cross. They were different peoples with different ways, and their inability to fully comprehend the other was mutual. Does Ambrose give us a sense of the inevitability of American expansion at the expense of the Indians, or does he suggest and/or imply that there might have been another way?
6. Ambrose brings to life the diversity of Indians in America in the early 1800s. Now, however, there is little trace of the many tribes that Ambrose described. We often consider what the Indians themselves lost, but what does the world lose when a whole culture of people becomes extinct'. Do you think the Indians gained anything from their assimilation?
7. At the end of the book, Lewis commits suicide. What does Lewis's suicide leave the living—both in his own time and ours?Discuss the apparent irony of a man who has endured the hardships, terrors, and rigors of a cross-country expedition, returning a hero, only to commit suicide later?
8. There were many firsts in Undaunted Courage. Lewis was the first white man to explore territory west of the Rockies. York was the first black man these Indians had ever seen. It was the first scientific discovery of many of the floral and fauna specimens Lewis came across during the expedition. What are some other firsts this book reveals?
9. Discuss the importance of Lewis's expedition. Speculate as to why the story of Lewis and Clark has previously been treated rather superficially? Has Undaunted Courage altered your perspective on American history? Why was Ambrose so tempted to go back and reexamine Meriwether Lewis?
10. Beyond its historical significance, Undaunted Courage is a story of a great and exciting adventure. Discuss the various hardships that the expedition endured, as well as the truly wondrous and spectacular sights they encountered. Speculate as to what would be encountered now if one were to follow the same voyage as Lewis and Clark.
(Questions issued by publisher.)
Kill Them Wherever You Find Them
David Hunter, 2014
CreateSpace
357 pp.
AISN: B00HQ16E7O (Kindle)
Summary
After a Level Four bio-hazard lab in Russia is decommissioned, terrorists acquire two deadly strains of Anthrax and Ebola which they modify and weaponize for release in the State of Israel and large cities globally with a significant Jewish population.
In response to this threat, which was uncovered by the Israeli foreign intelligence agency, the Mossad, 'The Project' is conceived as a means of using time itself to assure the two leaders of the terror organization are never born. Jeff Stauffenberg, a former Special Operations soldier from the United States, is selected for his unique background to step back in time, first as an experimental test run in the state of Virginia during the Civil War, to eliminate the head of a deadly racist clan.
His venture in the past, and subsequent movements, are hampered when he is shot in the leg and held by the Confederate Army as a Union spy. As the book unfolds he is able to carry out his objective, returning to current space-time little worse for the wear. Jeff's physical wounds will heal, emotionally he has to deal with his Mormon beliefs and the requirement to kill innocents—ancestors of the terrorists—to complete the second phase.
The initial phase a stunning success, with minimal "ripple effects" in the new time line, Phase Two is put into action. No plan is perfect, complications arise, and the bio agents are released. Heroism, betrayal, love, treason, all interweave with the main characters to bring this story to a riveting conclusion.
Author Bio
• Birth—March 15, 1957
• Where—Arvada, Colorado, USA
• Education—N/A
• Currently—lives in Phoenix, Arizona
David Honaker (pen name "David Hunter") is a husband, father(-in-law), and grandfather (“Guppy”). He served a mission for the LDS Church in Brasil, later spending a few months in the sovereign and independent State of Israel. These and other life experiences heightened his love of, and respect for, different cultures and beliefs and contributed to a deeper understanding of the complex religious-geo-political issues impacting our world.
David is an ardent political Zionist without losing sight of the worth of each individual person to be found on the various sides of the issue. He looks forward to the elusive solution for a permanent peace between Israel and her neighbors in the region, including the Palestinians.
A life-long student of major world religions with a focus on the five Abrahamic faiths (Judiasm, Christianity, Islam, Babi and Bahá'í faiths), geopolitics, languages, physics (especially Quantum, Particle, and Theoretical), mathematics, and all things geek, he interweaves these passions into his books. (From the author.)
Visit the author's website.
Book Reviews
I read constantly and this is the best book I have ever read! I stayed up very late on a work night to keep reading this book; I finished it in less than 24 hours! I've recommended it to my family and friends and even loaned my Nook to someone so they could read it, which I have never done before.
I have not read this genre before, but I will read the other two books in this thrilogy as soon as they're published. The plot is fascinating and takes you on an amazing trip into a world we hope never to meet. The characters are utterly believable and you can easily understand their emotions and what drives them. You love and hate them with your whole heart. You also feel sorry for some.
I was a little afraid of understanding the scientific and geopolitical aspects as I am not familiar with either. It was not a hindrance at all.
Thank you, Mr. Hunter, for the best book I have ever read! I have bookmarked your website and eagerly await the next book!
Lynn E. Stauff, Amazon Customer Review
Discussion Questions
1. Under what circumstances would you put love ahead of country, or would you?
2. The book deals with a terror plot. Terrorism is increasingly commonplace in the world in which we live. To what length would you go to protect your loved ones if you knew a terrorist was living in your midst?
3. This is a question posed in the book to a group of the characters, "If you knew Hitler as a child, and knew what he would be come and what he would do to millions, would and could you kill him?"
4. If you could go back and change something in time, not certain of the consequences in our own time-line, would you do so?
5. Which character resonated with you the most, and why?
(Questions provided courtesy of the author.)
The Kept
James Scott, 2014
HarperCollins
368 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780062236739
Summary
In the winter of 1897, Elspeth Howell treks across miles of snow and ice to the isolated farmstead in upstate New York where she and her husband have raised their five children. Her midwife's salary is tucked into the toes of her boots, and her pack is full of gifts for her family. But as she crests the final hill, and sees her darkened house and a smokeless chimney, immediately she knows that an unthinkable crime has destroyed the life she so carefully built.
Her lone comfort is her twelve-year-old son, Caleb, who joins her in mourning the tragedy and planning its reprisal. Their long journey leads them to a rough-hewn lake town, defined by the violence both of its landscape and of its inhabitants. There Caleb is forced into a brutal adulthood, as he slowly discovers truths about his family he never suspected, and Elspeth must confront the terrible urges and unceasing temptations that have haunted her for years. Throughout it all, the love between mother and son serves as the only shield against a merciless world.
A scorching portrait of guilt and lost innocence, atonement and retribution, resilience and sacrifice, pregnant obsession and primal adolescence, The Kept is told with deep compassion and startling originality, and introduces James Scott as a major new literary voice. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—ca. 1977-78
• Where—Boston, Massachusetts, USA
• Education—B.A., Middlebury College; M.F.A.,
Emerson College
• Currently—lives near Springfield, Massacusetts
James Scott was born in Boston and grew up in upstate New York. He holds a BA from Middlebury College and an MFA from Emerson College. His fiction has appeared in Ploughshares, One Story, American Short Fiction, and other publications. He lives in western Massachusetts with his wife and dog. The Kept is his first novel. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
If not for the author's sparse, elegant prose, twanged with puritanical patois, The Kept might be simply agonizing. Instead, it is a haunting narrative, salvaged by precise language that never overreaches or oversells. Although there are moments when Mr. Scott might have gone lighter on excruciating details—a finger probing a bullet wound, the radiating agony of a cracked fingernail, a body brutally crushed under a block of ice—for the most part, his restraint is an excellent foil for the moral and physical desolation of his story and characters.
Ivy Pochoda - New York Times Book Review
(Starred review.) Scott’s accomplished debut—a dark, brooding tale set in upstate New York in the late 19th century—follows a compulsive midwife who must deal with the tragic consequences of her actions in order to form a family.... [A] work of historical fiction that is both atmospheric and memorable, suffused with dread and suspense right up to the last page.
Publishers Weekly
This taut revenge tale, as gritty as any western, is also an unusual coming-of-age story and compelling saga of twisted secrets…Scott writes with sustained intensity and strong descriptive powers.
Booklist
(Starred review.) The crimes of a benighted woman spark horrific blowback; in its wake, this wrenching first novel from the Massachusetts-based Scott tracks two lost souls in the New York hinterland of the late 19th century.... Scott is both compassionate moralist and master storyteller in this outstanding debut.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
Also, consider these LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for The Kept:
1. How would you describe Elspeth Howell? In the book's very first line, we learn that she has committed sins. How egregious are those sins? Are you able to muster sympathy for Elspeth? Why or why not? To what extent does she change, if at all, by the novel's end?
2. Motherhood is a major concern of the The Kept. How is it explored in the novel? What kind of mother is Elspeth?
3. Caleb is bent on avenging his family's death. What makes Caleb so dangerous in his obsession? Would an older, more mature Caleb be more judicious? Why doesn't Elspeth restrain him?
4. Describe Jorah, husband to Elspeth and father to Caleb. What was his effect on both mother and son? How has his death changed each of them and their relationship with one another?
5. What role does religious faith play in this novel? Why do mother and son reject religion and come, instead, to see themselves as outcasts and sinners? Are they?
6. Talk about the Elm Inn. What happens there that dissuades Caleb from pursuing his crusade? What does he come to understand?
7. To what extent does destiny pervade this novel? Do the characters have any choice in shaping their lives...or are they completely at the whim of a rather harsh fate?
8. What kind of world—upstate New York in the late 19th century—does James Scott present in The Kept?
9. Have you read Cormac McCarthy's The Road. If so, are there parallels between the two books? Where do they differ?
10. Talk about the racial and gender prejudices exposed in The Kept and the way those prejudices underpin the novel's violence.
11. How do the revelations exposed later in the novel change your understanding of the book's opening scene?
12. Is this book simply too grim and brutal to read? Or are there redeeming qualities—hope, for instance—in the story?
13. Does the novel end satisfactorily? Do you envision a different, or better, ending?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
Radiance of Tomorrow
Ishmael Beah, 2014
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
256 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780374246020
Summary
A haunting, beautiful first novel by the bestselling author of A Long Way Gone.
When Ishmael Beah’s A Long Way Gone was published in 2007, it soared to the top of bestseller lists, becoming an instant classic: a harrowing account of Sierra Leone’s civil war and the fate of child soldiers that “everyone in the world should read” (The Washington Post). Now Beah, whom Dave Eggers has called “arguably the most read African writer in contemporary literature,” has returned with his first novel, an affecting, tender parable about postwar life in Sierra Leone.
At the center of Radiance of Tomorrow are Benjamin and Bockarie, two longtime friends who return to their hometown, Imperi, after the civil war. The village is in ruins, the ground covered in bones. As more villagers begin to come back, Benjamin and Bockarie try to forge a new community by taking up their former posts as teachers, but they’re beset by obstacles—a scarcity of food; a rash of murders, thievery, rape, and retaliation; and the depredations of a foreign mining company intent on sullying the town’s water supply and blocking its paths with electric wires. z
As Benjamin and Bockarie search for a way to restore order, they’re forced to reckon with the uncertainty of their past and future alike. With the gentle lyricism of a dream and the moral clarity of a fable, Radiance of Tomorrow is a powerful novel about preserving what means the most to us, even in uncertain times. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—November 23, 1980
• Where—Mogbwemo, Sierra Leone
• Education—B.A., Oberlin College
• Currently—lives in New York New York
Ishmael Beah is a former Sierra Leonean child soldier and the author of the 2007 published memoir, A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier. His first novel, Radiance of Tomorrow, about the aftermath of that war was published in 2014.
Civil War
Beah was 11 years old when civil war overtook Sierra Leone in 1991. Rebels invaded his hometown of Mogbwemo in the Southern Province of Sierra Leone, forcing Beah to flee. Separated from his family, he spent months wandering south with a group of other boys. At the age of 13, he was forced to become a child soldier, spending the next three years fighting for the government army against the rebels.
Beah says he doesn't remember how many people he killed. He and other soldiers smoked marijuana and sniffed amphetamines and "brown-brown," a mix of cocaine and gunpowder. He blames the addictions and the brainwashing for his violence and cites them and the pressures of the army as reasons for his inability to escape on his own: "If you left, it was as good as being dead."
Rescue and transition
Rescued in 1996 by a coalition of UNICEF and NGOs, Beah went to live with an uncle in Freetown, Sierra Leone, where he attended school. That year he was invited to speak at the United Nations in New York. He returned to Sierra Leone, but in 1997 Freetown was overrun by both rebels and the Army, who had since joined forces. With the violence escalating, Beah contacted Laura Simms, whom he had met the year before in New York.
Again, with the help of UNICEF, Beah made his way back to the US. There he lived in New York City with Simms, who became his foster mother, and attended the United Nations International School. He later enrolled in Ohio's Oberlin College, graduating with a Political Science degree in 2004.
Following his 2007 publication of A Long Way Gone, Beah appeared on The Daily Show, telling Jon Stewart that he had found the transition back to civilian life difficult. It was harder to return to society than to become a child soldier, he claimed—because dehumanizing children is a relatively easy task.
Beah credits Nurse Esther, a UNICEF volunteer, with having the patience and compassion required to bring him through the difficult period. She recognized his interest in American rap music and reggae, gave him a Walkman and a Run DMC cassette, and used music as his bridge to his past, his childhood prior to the violence. Slowly, he accepted Esther's assurances that "it's not your fault."
If I choose to feel guilty for what I have done, I will want to be dead myself. I live knowing that I have been given a second life, and I just try to have fun, and be happy and live it the best I can.
Books and recognition
A Long Way Gone was nominated for a Quill Award in the Best Debut Author category for 2007. Time magazine's Lev Grossman named it one of the Top 10 Nonfiction Books of 2007, ranking it at #3, and praising it as "painfully sharp", and its ability to take "readers behind the dead eyes of the child-soldier in a way no other writer has."
In 2009, as a 29-year-old, Beah traveled home to Sierra Leone with an ABC News camera, a return that he describes as bittersweet. Later in February, 2013, he traveled to Calgary and spoke at the My World Conference.|
Beah published his first novel in 2014. Radiance of Tomorrow tells of the difficulty of rebuilding a war-torn community for both the victims of violence and its perpetrators. The novel has received wide praise for its compassion and elegant, nuanced style.
Controversy
The accuracy of the events and chronology presented in A Long Way Gone have been called into question, particularly the claim that Beah became a child soldier in 1993, rather than in 1995 as the timeline of events in Sierra Leone's civil war suggests. (Adapted from Wikipedia. 1/12/2014.)
Book Reviews
Written with the moral urgency of a parable and the searing precision of a firsthand account...There is an allegorical richness to Beah's storytelling and a remarkable humanity to his characters. We see tragedy arriving not through the big wallops of war, but rather in corrosive increments.
Sara Corbett - New York Times Book Review
[A] muted, emotionally nimble story of return and rebuilding.... Beah has a resilient spirit and a lyrical style all his own. Even as a multitude of wearying failures mounts, his characters retain their hopefulness in a way that’s challenging and inspiring: “We must live in radiance of tomorrow, as our ancestors have suggested in their tales,” Mama Kadie tells her neighbors. “For what is yet to come tomorrow has possibilities, and we must think of it.... That will be our strength. That has always been our strength.”
Ron Charles - Washington Post
A breathtaking and unselfpitying account of how a gentle spirit survives a childhood from which all innocence has suddenly been sucked out. It's a truly riveting memoir.
Time
Beah has written an actual novel—his first—not about the [Sierra Leon] war itself, but about its aftermath. What happens when those who have committed atrocities or have been the victims of them return to what is left of their homes?... [A] formidable and memorable novel—a story of resilience and survival, and, ultimately, rebirth. —Edwidge Danticat
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review.) Beah, who broke our hearts with the haunting memoir of his life as a boy soldier (Long Way Gone), will render readers speechless with the radiance of his storytelling in this novel of grace, forgiveness, and a vision of a tomorrow without conflict. —Sally Bissell, Lee Cty. Lib. Syst., Fort Myers, FL
Library Journal
(Starred review.) This first novel from Sierra Leone–born author Beah features characters who face the challenges of returning to normalcy after the horrors of civil war in Sierra Leone. At times, it's hard to discern what predominates, the savagery of war and its aftermath or the promise of the book's title.... Beah writes lyrically and passionately about ugly realities as well as about the beauty and dignity of traditional ways.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. As you read the opening scenes, what did you discover about the reasons Mama Kadie and Pac Moiwa returned to their village, despite the tragedies that occurred there? Do you feel a similar connection to your homeland? How do you feel about your community or homeland?
2. How are the people of Imperi sustained by their relationship to the natural world? When their water supply becomes contaminated, how does this reflect the other contaminations—spiritual, emotional, and physical—of their community?
3. Discuss the role of education in rebuilding Imperi. What fosters the students’ respect for their teachers? How do uniforms and other mandates keep the schools from being truly “public”? Is the principal, Mr. Fofanah, a sinister man or simply a skilled survivor? What accounts for the corruption within the Educational Ministry of Lion Mountain (Sierra Leone)?
4. What choice did Benjamin and Bockarie have when they abandoned teaching in order to work in the mines? How is their friendship affected by their decision? What are the consequences for a society that has essentially no middle class?
5. How did you react to Colonel’s approach to security? For his fellow villagers who survived the atrocities of civil war, what determines the difference between being paranoid and being naïve?
6. How is family life in Imperi distorted by the raiders and the mining company? What do you predict for the “tomorrow” generation of Miata and Abu?
7. What did the novel’s elders teach you about living and leading?
8. Discuss the author’s poetic use of language, which he discusses in the author’s note. What do his colorful images say about the way a community can experience the world?
9. Chapter 8 describes the vulnerability of women as the village itself becomes vulnerable to outsiders. As rape and prostitution rise, parents recall a time when they didn’t fear letting their daughters go out simply to fetch water. How is the power of Imperi’s women transformed throughout the novel?
10. What will be the legacy of villagers like those featured in the novel, even as the modern world threatens to erase their traditions? Is the Western materialism described in the book—from cell phone addiction to flashy cars—ever a positive force?
11. If we read Radiance of Tomorrow as a parable, what is its lesson?
12. F or decades, writers have exposed numerous incidents of devastation wrought by mining. In 2012, particularly shocking headlines appeared when South African police fatally shot more than thirty striking workers during a protest at the Lonmin platinum mine in Marikana. As consumers, what can we do to become agents for change?
13. Discuss Kula’s tale, which forms the novel’s closing scene. As a reader, how would you describe the necessity of storytelling? How did Radiance of Tomorrow enrich your experience of Ishmael Beah’s memoir, A Long Way Gone?
(Questions issued by publisher.)