Antigone Books

CHERYL

The premise of this imaginative and thought-provoking book is what would happen to our planet if the human race disappeared without a trace.

How soon before the forests and jungles flourished again? Would the toxic pollutants in the atmosphere and water ever go away?

Alan Weisman imparts science and our shameful ecological history with measured eloquent prose. He begins by exploring what the earth was like before us. From there he travels the world detailing the far-reaching effects of our reckless race to extinction.

I tried not to get too sad or depressed while reading this book but wasn't altogether successful. We certainly have made a mess of things.

It's hard to describe this amazing novel. It's got art history, Jewish mysticism, Russian history, a love story, a mystery-even a stint in Vietnam. But, miraculously, Horn pulls it all together in this beautiful, complex, sweet, sad, and hopeful novel.

"In nineteenth-century China, in a remote Hunan county, a girl named Lily, at the tender age of seven, is paired with a laotong, "old same," in an emotional match that will last a lifetime. The laotong, Snow Flower, introduces herself by sending Lily a silk fan on which she's painted a poem in nu shu, a unique language that Chinese women created in order to communicate in secret, away from the influence of men. As the years pass, Lily and Snow Flower send messages on fans, compose stories on handkerchiefs, reaching out of isolation to share their hopes, dreams, and accomplishments. Together, they endure the agony of foot-binding, and reflect upon their arranged marriages, shared loneliness, and the joys and tragedies of motherhood. The two find solace, developing a bond that keeps their spirits alive. But when a misunderstanding arises, their deep friendship suddenly threatens to tear apart".

This is my favorite short story collection of the year (which calls itself "a novel in stories"). The stories follow (though not chronologically) Grace Hanford from her fatherless childhood through her years at an all-girls college to adulthood in New York City. Grace is a character I enjoyed spending time with because she is witty, insightful, slightly self-absorbed, but honest and determined.

One of my favorite stories, "The Old Economy Husband," lays out Grace's life in Greenwich Village, where she's lived long enough to watch the UPS man go gray. While ghostwriting an etiquette book, she recognizes she has relinquished her earlier theories about love and chosen a man "who made me feel like my fiercest, most clear-hearted twelve-year-old self."

I should mention that the stories manage to create a captivating portrait of New York City which was enjoyable to me (a former New Yorker).