Hunter of Stories by Eduardo Galeano (2015)

The last book by the great Uruguayan writer, a collection of myriad tiny epiphanies about our world.

Nonfiction Review: Hunter of Stories is an inaccurate title. Eduardo Galeano (1940-2015) doesn't just hunt stories, he captures stories and polishes them into little glowing nuggets of truth. This book consists of many, many brief notes, a paragraph or three (rarely more) about political, social, and religious history collected and selected by the Uruguayan writer. Here the parts seem greater than the whole, like standing too close a pointillist painting, but there are many elements I enjoyed about Hunter of Stories. Although Galeano finds his inspiration all over the planet, the greater focus is on America, by which we mean the Americas. Today while "America" is common and widely accepted shorthand for "The United States of," I appreciate how Galeano uses "America" to illustrate the commonalities of our history on this side of the globe, while never forgetting the peoples who were here before the Europeans arrived (taught that Balboa was the first to see both oceans simultaneously, a young Galeano asked, "Miss, were the Indians blind?" His brief stories shine light on history, on corporate greed, the environment, women's rights, philosophy, imperialism, climate change, oppressive governments, and soccer as well as indigenous myths, legends, and tales (some tall). If any of these issues speak to you, you will find a moment of inspiration in Hunter of Stories, something collected just for you and you'll learn something. I did. Some stories are about Phillis Wheatley, Franco, Garbo, Agatha Christie, Lenin, and endless more. It's all about our shared humanity and history. Moments of wisdom: Pepe Barrientos's mother said, "Pity the poor souls who spend their lives comparing themselves to others." Galeano himself describes it as "a will for justice and an urge for beauty, unbound by the borders of maps and time." An indescribable book, you must find it for yourself. [3½★]

Everybody Behaves Badly by Lesley M.M. Blume (2017)

The backstory of how The Sun Also Rises came to be written.

Nonfiction Review: Everybody Behaves Badly is a well researched, well written account of how Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) came to write his best book and the first popular modernist novel. Subtitled "The True Story Behind Hemingway's Masterpiece The Sun Also Rises," it's just that, and notes at the time it was considered virtually unpublishable and "morally sordid." Lesley Blume delves deep into the real people involved and the characters they became. She carefully explains (and insightfully speculates about) what is autobiographical and what isn't. Blume also analyzes the literary and historical significance of Hemingway's first serious novel, clarifying the "iceberg theory" and making the necessary connections to the First World War. She details the checkered publishing history that led up to the The Sun Also Rises, without sugar coating the author's habit of biting hands that he'd formerly kissed: "Hemingway had a little bit of poison for everyone during this time." She also addresses the shades of anti-Semitism prevalent at the time reflected in the novel. Everybody Behaves Badly is exhaustive, educational, and entertaining. Maintaining an all-too-rare level of journalistic integrity, Blume keeps the spotlight off herself while writing a virtual biography of Hemingway's early writing career. This book makes a fine companion to Mary Dearborn's revelatory, stereotype-shattering 2017 biography of the author. Blume notes Hemingway's willingness to "compromise ... an almost aggressively masculine image ... he would not hesitate to challenge that image if doing so would serve his art." Everybody Behaves Badly is an excellent next read for anyone who's recently finished The Sun Also Rises. This is nonfiction that gives the original a run for its money, while letting slip that Hemingway was just a big ol' gossip.  [4★]

Black Betty by Walter Mosley (1994)

Once again Easy Rawlins is hired to find someone in the black community, though this time it's a woman he knew long ago.

Mystery Review: Black Betty is the fourth of the Easy Rawlins mysteries, which began set in the late '40s (Devil in a Blue Dress) and we're now up to 1961 (five years after the previous book, White Butterfly). Along with providing gritty crime thrillers, the series is incidentally a history of black life in America, or at least a black man's life in Los Angeles. Here we learn what life was like then, events concerning King and Kennedy, and even a memory of Huckleberry Finn. We also see the state of rage and mercy in this particular man. He's changed neighborhoods, relatives have left, his family being both a state of grace and a source of sorrow. Easy Rawlins is tough, but with exasperating flaws that will cut him down to size. Mosley continues the legacy of L.A. detectives (Rawlins is a detective, he just hasn't yet admitted it to himself) such as Philip Marlowe and Lew Archer, and does it with a complexity and sensitivity they would've respected, and perhaps they could've even understood the anger. At the same time, the body count here is higher than is comfortable, but may well reflect the time and place, and certainly matches the unnatural greed to be found in America. Mosley writes about all that in Black Betty: "I realized that I'd always be surrounded by violence and insanity. I saw it everywhere ... even in me. That feeling of anger wrapped tight under my skin, in my hands." We see how the rich can control anything, how a wealthy family will do anything to stay wealthy, and how a web of greed can lead to a chain of deaths. Black Betty is another altogether proper installment in the series.  [4★]

Dance of the Happy Shades by Alice Munro (1968)

The first story collection by the Canadian future Nobel laureate.

Book Review: Dance of the Happy Shades seems fresh and new, many of the stories told from the perspective of children moving from innocence to experience, learning about life as things are, and not yet to the point in Alice Munro's later, darker stories where things are not always as they should be. Although the stories are set in rural Canada, she writes of universal experiences, captures those moments of humanity that afflict us all. Written in the Sixties, there is little of that era here, perhaps rural Ontario had not caught up to the cities. The stories are quick and to the point, well-honed and precise. Each detail and tiny observation speaks loud and clear. They're also subtle, letting readers reach their own conclusions, each story its own reward. None of the stories in Dance of the Happy Shades are as simple as they seem at first, yet none are more diffuse or difficult than they need to be. Most collections of short stories, especially first books, are uneven with a few duds spread among the gems. Here there's only one story ("The Office") that perhaps could've been left out. Yet Munro is such a talent I could see some readers picking that as one of their favorites, because talent is evident on every page. In a "Trip to the Coast" a young girl "accepted the rule of her grandmother as she accepted a rain squall or a stomach ache, with a tough, basic certainty that such things would pass." Another story, "Boys and Girls," sheds its layers as the narrator notes: "A girl was not, as I had supposed, simply what I was; it was what I had to become." Dance of the Happy Shades is one of Munro's lesser known collections, a hidden treasure that rewards the finding.  [4½★]

Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick by Zora Neale Hurston (2020)

A new collection of 21 Zora Neale Hurston stories, including eight previously uncollected.

Book Review: Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick is an unnecessarily long title (and it's not about golf), but may bring some attention to the eight recently recovered stories within, and the possibility that more undiscovered stories are out there. Zora Neale Hurston seems to be having a second revival (the first began with her rediscovery by Alice Walker in 1975) with the publication of Barracoon in 2018 and now this new edition of her stories. The previous collection of Hurston's short stories from HarperCollins, The Complete Stories (1995) edited by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., contained 26 works. This new selection has 21 stories, of which eight were previously uncollected, and so contains only half the stories from the 1995 edition. Hitting a Straight Lick contains a variety of stories showing Hurston's wide-ranging talent and versatility: "folklore" stories (she was an anthropologist and folklorist) including a visit from Brer Rabbit and Brer Dog; slice of rural life stories (usually instructional or moral); stories told in a Biblical tone; stories told in bullet points; and her indisputably classic short fiction such as "Sweat" and "The Gilded Six-Bits." Some of the stories seem to be drafts of other stories, some of the same phrases or incidents are repeated in several, and the final story in Hitting a Straight Lick, "The Fire and the Cloud," reads as an excerpt from her penultimate novel, Moses, Man of the Mountain. Most of Hurston's stories were about rural blacks, including her hometown, the all black community of Eatonville, Florida. Little of her work rails against white oppression or concedes that whites were an onerous factor in black life. Hurston's view was that white people were simply a fact of life like bad weather or bad luck. She believed that black culture need not follow white ways, that black people were not deprived or lesser, and that African Americans would be better off going their own way without depending on or grumbling about white people. The villains in her stories are usually other black people, often men. Her career was cut short by her uncompromising independence. One notable element here is how often Hurston writes dialogue in "the idiom -- not the dialect -- of" black people (as she put it). Although it can take a little time to get used to, she felt it provided realism and I believe it followed her training as a folklorist. She let the people speak for themselves. Use of the idiom also provides a stark contrast when the dialogue turns to Hurston's own narration, beautifully and powerfully written. Although I'd prefer a revised "complete" edition of her stories incorporating the new works included in Hitting a Straight Lick, until that day arrives I'm happy to find any recovered fiction by Hurston because we have so little, just four novels, 34 stories.  [3½★]

The Beach at Night by Elena Ferrante (2007)

The first-person account of a child's doll forgotten on the beach overnight.

Children's Book Review: The Beach at Night is Elena Ferrante's children's book, an odd and unsettled kettle of fish. Not necessarily the sure success that readers depend on from her. The premise here, of a beloved doll forgotten on a beach by a little girl, is intriguing and rich with potential. It's also a palimpsest of the missing doll in Ferrante's The Lost Daughter (2006), in which the missing doll is the catalyst for the torrent of emotion that follows. Here the adventure of the lost doll is the story itself, but is very dark and takes a disturbing and frightening turn that can't be ignored. The darkness reminded me of Neil Gaiman's The Ocean at the End of the Lane and the scariness reminded me of The Strange Library by Haruki Murakami, but neither of those had the elements here that will make it difficult for parents and children's story time at libraries. Possibly European children are more mature and are exposed to adult material at a younger age, but American parents would spend more time explaining the language and situations (this is a read-to-your-child kind of book) than on the story itself. Given the scariness, comforting the child may also be required. I can't see The Beach at Night ever being read aloud (without censorship) during story time at a library or book shop. The twist is that the ever-reliable Ann Goldstein apparently translated what is relatively mild language in Italian to English words that would be unacceptable for (American) children in a public setting. Although I've read everything Elena Ferrante has written, I'm not her target audience. So I have to look at The Beach at Night as an interesting experiment, an outlier in Ferrante's body of work, an oddity that isn't quite for children or for adults. But I did love the illustrations by Mara Cerri.  [2½★]

The White Man's Guide to White Male Writers ... by Dana Schwartz (2019)

A tongue-in-cheek introduction to Western white male authors for the millennial hipster.

Nonfiction Review: The White Man's Guide to White Male Writers ... is a novelty, a book no one needs but is amusing, silly, and entertaining. This mild and gently humorous take will raise a few chuckles without ruffling many feathers. Most of the smiles will come at the expense of the humorless, such as those earnest young men who keep telling me I must read Cormac McCarthy (I will! I will!), all in the guise of being written by one of said young men. The target audience for these satirical pieces seems to be those comfortably within their contemporary, politically correct and ironic social media bubble who can happily poke fun at these hapless writers and their acolytes. Most of the information presented in The White Man's Guide to White Male ... is general knowledge, but there was some interesting trivia ("Cormac" is not McCarthy's given name). Dana Schwartz seems most upset by how many wives some of these writers have had, but I'm not sure why she expected the wives to put up with these men for long. It's a short book, well padded with illustrations and cocktail recipes, which can be read in a sitting or even while standing in a book shop. A good gift for that right, literate person in your life. Fun, but not a necessary part of your personal library. In fairness, this book could've been much more pointed about cultural views and attitudes. But then it wouldn't be funny.  [3★]