Nevermore: Worst Hard Time, Frog with Self-Cleaning Feet, Tell Me Everything You Don't Remember, Codename Villanelle

Reported by Lauren

            Natural disasters, international spies, and funny animals are just a few of things our Nevermore members discussed at the last meeting. 

            One reader shared her review of The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl by Timothy Egan, a study of what has been called “the greatest environmental disaster ever to be visited upon our land.” This nonfiction book describes the perils of living in the High Plains during the Great Depression while dust storms decimated crops causing residents to starve.  These stoic, hard-working farmers refused to abandon their homesteads, surviving on little to nothing.  Our reader declared it was so much worse than she had ever imagined or been taught. She strongly encouraged everyone read to it, as the threat of natural disasters brought on by climate change due to technological advances is still timely. 

Our next reviewer shared The Frog with Self-Cleaning Feet by Michael Bright. Another nonfiction work, this book highlights fun facts about various animals in the wild, including what they eat, how they camouflage and defend themselves from predators, and even how they bathe and use medicinal plants and herbs to heal themselves. Our reader remarked, “Humans are so boring! We only know how to use our two hands, while these fantastic animals are so creative.” She wished she could read and discuss it with a friend, as she caught herself laughing out loud and saying, “This is unbelievable!” She highly recommended we all check it out.

Two of our members had read Tell Me Everything You Don’t Remember: The Stroke That Changed My Life Forever by Christine Hyung-Oak Lee. Ironically neither of them could remember the full title! Author Christine had a stroke at just 33 years old. Her doctor recommended that she keep a diary or journal to help rebuild her memory. This memoir is the result. One reader loved the book, saying that it was really like being inside the mind of stroke victim. The writer jumps around in time, repeats things, and doesn’t always remember details. She found this realistic and endearing; however our other reader disagreed. She didn’t like the time jumps and memory lapses, and found the whole thing repetitive and unnecessary in some places. It was tough for her to even finish. We were all amused to see how two people could interpret the same book so differently.

On a fictional note, one reader is currently engrossed in Codename Villanelle by Luke Jennings, the first in the series of novels on which the award-winning BBC America mystery series Killing Eve is based. Villanelle is a Russian orphan turned assassin; Eve is a British Intelligence Agent assigned to track down a killer (Villanelle). The cat-and-mouse game between the two women is extremely interesting so far – our reader promised to keep us posted! She also took the sequel, Killing Eve: No Tomorrow.

To wrap up our meeting, we discussed one of the latest titles in the self-help genre, Girl Stop Apologizing by Rachel Hollis. Hollis is a successful blogger, author, motivational speaker, and mom. In this novel, she presents strategies other like-minded women can use to reach their own goals and find success, whatever that looks like to them. Her main point is to stop apologizing for your dreams, and do whatever you need to do to reach your goals. Through funny anecdotes and various lists, she advises women to stop allowing others’ doubts to keep you from living your best life. While our reviewer didn’t find any of the information new or ground-breaking, it was a nice reminder to be yourself and stay the course, even when daily life seems overwhelming. Three out of five stars!

The Nevermore Book Club meets every Tuesday at 11:00 am in the Frances Kegley Meeting Room at Bristol Public Library.  New members welcome!

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

Reviewed by Ambrea

Simply put, The Grapes of Wrath tells the story of the Joad family and their desperate flight to California in the midst of the Dust Bowl.  After being forced off their land by the owner, who sold his land to the bank, who in turn sold it to a corporation—and so on and so forth—the Joads are making their way to the west coast in the hopes of a better life.

Although the novel is primarily concerned with the Joad family and their flight across the country, several chapters—I have heard them called “bridge chapters”—describe the overall experience of the families forced to flee their homes after the Great Depression began.  These “bridge chapters” not only connect the Joad family to the larger, collective experiences of these migrant people, they also introduce the reader to a more intimate portrait of suffering, terror, and desperation these people felt and experienced.

When I began reading The Grapes of Wrath, it captured my attention for one simple reason:  it kept me on the edge of my seat.  I was constantly wondering if the family would make it to California, if they would endure—if they would ever survive the journey.  On some level, this book made me wonder if happily-ever-after even exists.  It depicts some of the worst human behavior, some of the worst human suffering as people try to survive and make a better life for themselves.

Honestly, Steinbeck’s novel broke my heart—and then it came back to stomp it in the dirt.  As Steinbeck once wrote in a letter to his publisher, “I am not writing a satisfying story.  I’ve done my damndest to rip a reader’s nerves to rags, I don’t want him satisfied.  And still one more thing—I’ve tried to write this book the way lives are lived not the way books are written.”

And Steinbeck succeeds brilliantly.

The story of the Joad family occurs during a particularly chaotic time in American history.  It’s a decade when stock markets plunged and banks went under; when dust choked nearly half the country; when war—or an eviction notice—constantly loomed on the horizon, like the dust storms of Oklahoma and Arkansas; when economic hardship became the norm and exploitation of the poor, weak, and desperate happened regularly.

In The Grapes of Wrath, people suffer.  They’re treated as less than human—and may even become less than human through the fear and loathing of others, through their own tired desperation—and they die.  In short, Steinbeck succeeded in writing a book that will “rip a reader’s nerves to rags,” but he also succeeded in creating a hallmark piece of American literature that’s sure to rattle readers and make us think.