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Archive for the ‘Harper’s’ Category

Russell Banks–“Christmas Party” (Harper’s, December 2012)

Posted in Battles, Harper's, Holidays, KEXP 90.3 FM--Seattle, WA, Marriage Trouble, Russell Banks, Short Story on November 29, 2012| 1 Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: BATTLES-Live Sound Check, Crocodile Cafe, Seattle WA, July 5, 2007 (2007).

Although I’ve known that bands do soundchecks for years, I never really knew what they were–did they play full songs?  A bunch of songs?  Don’t they just go “check, check, check?”  Do they just jam (like I’m lead to believe Phish does).  Are they really checking sounds at these thing?  If so, why does every soundcheck I’ve heard sound so good?  How long do they last?  Do they play for real or just mess around?

Well, this soundcheck is 3 songs and lasts about 20 minutes.  The band seems to have a little trouble getting started.  There’s a couple of re-starts for “Tras” but then they rock out.  And they sound great.  Battles plays complex music (math rock).  I’m always impressed when bands like  this play their stuff so well live.  I don’t know why I’m impressed by that, it’s what they should do, but I still am.  After “Tras,” they play “Tonto” and after a little drum fill, they play “Atlas.”  I have no idea what’s going on vocally with “Atlas” but I love it.

Battles is probably a band best seen live, but audio is good too.  The band played a show at the Crocodile Club but a few KEXP listeners were allowed to come to the soundcheck. I couldn’t find this recording on KEXP (I downloaded from their podcast list) but it’s also available on Hiding Behind the Shed–a music blog that I’m going to have to check out more.

[READ: November 27, 2012] “Christmas Party”

Sometimes, It’s really nice to read a very simple story–a story that doesn’t have a lot of plot, just a lot of internal development.

The unusual thing (to me) about this story is that I assumed the characters were a lot older than they turned out to be.  Perhaps I just read the name Harold as an older man’s name.  Funny how that works out.

So Harold Bilodeau’s wife left him a few years ago.  It was a fairly clean break.  He bought out her half of their property and she moved in with a new man, Bud, on the other side of town.  Everything is amicable.  Everybody in town knows everything anyway, so there’s not much judgment.

Except that the town knew more  than we did until the narrator revealed exactly why Harold’s wife left him.  She was sleeping with Bud for several months.  At the very least, the bartender downtown knew that (she was supposed to call his wife when Harold left the bar).  But the bartender revealed the secret to Harold and that set everything in motion. (more…)

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Jonathan Franzen–How to Be Alone (2002)

Posted in Book Reviews, Books about writers, Culture Shock, Death, Essays, Harper's, Jonathan Franzen, Lou Reed, Marriage Trouble, Merzbow, Metallica, New Yorker, Nicholas Negroponte, Paula Fox, Prison, Psychiatry, Research, Scholarship, Sex, Smarty Pants, Sunn O))), Technology, Unlikable main character, War, William Gaddis, Word usage on November 20, 2012| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: SUNN O)))-Flight of the Behemoth (2002).

I hadn’t really heard Sunn O))) until this record (which may not be typical as they collaborated with Merzbow on this one).  I knew that Sunn O))) played loud droney “music.”  And so it is here.  On “Mocking Solemnity” (9 minutes) and “Death Becomes You” (13 minutes) (which meld into each other seamlessly), the songs are mostly slow drones on electric guitar.  The chords are heavy and heavily distorted and they ring out for a few bars–not until the chords die naturally, there is a kind of pacing involved, but for a few bars until the chords are played again (often the same chord).  This is for those who thought Metal Machine Music was too complicated.

On paper this sounds unimpressive (or downright awful, depending) but in reality it is a very physical experience (if played loud enough).

The staticy noise of “Death” melds into track 3 “O))) Bow 1” which adds what sounds like radically modified piano playing a kind of melody.  It’s about 6 minutes and it really changes the tone of the record to suddenly add an atonal racket to the almost calming drone of the bass.  But by the middle of the song, the piano becomes what sounds like a chainsaw.  Merzbow mixed that track and  “O))) Bow 2” which is 13 minutes of the same slow pulsating noise.  It’s not exactly soothing.

The final track is “F.W.T.B.T.” a “remake” of “Metallica’s “For Whom the Bell Tolls.”  I can’t hear a thing that sounds like the original, but that’s what makes a cover interesting.  Although admittedly around the four and a half minute mark there’s some faster chords (for this band anyhow) that could be Metallica-like.  There are also drums (and vocals, although I have no idea what they are saying) on this ten-minute workout.

Not for the faint of heart (or fans of melody).

[READ: November 17, 2012] How to Be Alone

I read most of the articles in this book already.  But I read them over two years ago, so I thought it would be safe to wade into the world of Franzen again.  What I find most interesting about the title of this book is just how many of these articles are about being alone, wanting to be alone or feeling like you are alone.  Obviously that is by design but it seems surprising just how apt the title proved to be, especially given the variety of subjects  his father’s brain, being a novelist, the US Postal Service, New York City.

I’m not going to go into major detail about each article this time, although I am providing a link to the earlier review–my feelings didn’t really change about the pieces (except that from time to time I got a bit exhausted at his…whininess?  No, not that exactly…maybe his persecution complex.  But I will give a line summary about each one just to keep everyone up to speed.  The four pieces that I hadn’t read before I will give a few more words about.

One overall feeling is that when Franzen isn’t writing about the state of the novel (which he is very passionate about) his articles are well researched well documented which is kind of surprising given the state of panic he seems to be in the novel articles.  It’s also kind of funny how out of touch these articles seem (some are almost 20 years old and are kind of laughably outdated), but it’s also funny to see how poorly his predictions panned out.  The death of the novel is rather overrated (just see the success of his own Freedom.

So the book contains: (more…)

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Stephen King–“Batman and Robin Have an Altercation” (Harper’s, September 2012)

Posted in Batman, Black Sabbath, Earth, Harper's, KEXP 90.3 FM--Seattle, WA, New Yorker, Old Age, Short Story, Stephen King, Violence, Wooden Shjips on November 19, 2012| 1 Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: WOODEN SHJIPS-Live on KEXP, August 7, 2011 (2011).

A while ago I reviewed an Earth concert and while I felt like I should have liked them, I didn’t like them as much as I anticipated.  Well, Wooden Shjips (no idea what’s up with that “j”) sounds like I would have liked Earth to sound–a bit faster and yet still ponderous   They play with really distorted guitars and heavy bass, but their songs aren’t terribly fast or anything.   The thing that sets them apart is the keyboard–loud droney keyboards that take a kind of lead role and add a weird sort of retro feel to the heavy proceedings.  Indeed, even the voice is fuzzed out and echoey, making the keyboard one of the few clean sounds in the show.

As befits droney metal bands, all of these songs are long.  The first two “Lazy Bones” and “Black Smoke Rise” are over four minutes while the final two “Home” and “Flight” are over 5 and nearly 7 minutes respectively.

Lazy Bones is dominated by a spacey keyboard riff and vocals that are echoed almost into oblivion, reminding me of a kind of mid 70s Black Sabbath (if Ozzy’s voice was deeper).  The riffs on “Home” and Flight” sounds like we’re in for some real classic rock, but again that droney keyboard (which also sounds retro but in a different way) mixes with the heavy distorted guitar in a new way.  I’m intrigued to hear more from them.

Rock out here.

[READ: November 15, 2012] “Batman and Robin Have an Altercation”

I’m always surprised to see a Stephen King story in say Harper’s or the New Yorker.  Not because he’s not good, but because he’s such a famous genre writer (and he certainly doesn’t need the exposure).   I don’t even think of him as a short story writer, really.  I wonder how he gets his stories in these magazines?  Does he get vetted?

Well, this story was really enjoyable and if I hadn’t known it was Stephen King, I never would have guessed.

The first 3/5 of the story are about Dougie Sanderson and his Pop.  Pop is in an old age home, suffering from Alzheimer’s. They have a routine, which is easy enough for Dougie  to do, even if to his father it’s new every time.  Dougie visits every week, they go Applebee’s, and they come home.  This depends, of course, on how good Pop is doing that day–as long as he’s fairly lucid and isn’t cursing out everyone in sight.

What I appreciated about this story was that Pop has moments of incredible lucidity that can be immediately followed by moments of utter confusion   Like when Pop calls him Reggie (Dougie’s brother who died forty-five years ago in a car accident .  But the moments of lucidity are nice for Dougie–although they’re not encouraging exactly, because most days he guiltily admits that he wishes things would end sooner rather than later.

The Batman and Robin of the title refer to a Halloween costume that Dougie ad Pop wore when Dougie was little.  Indeed, Pop remembers it very well, “Halloween, you dummy.  You were eight, so it was 1959.  You were born in ’51.”  Pop even adds a detail that Dougie didn’t remember: that Norma Forester looked at Dougie and said “trick or treat” and then looked at Pop and said “trick or drink” and offered him a bottle of Shiner’s.  Dougie is silent–amazed at the memory.  Then Pop says “she was the best lovin’ I ever had.”  Dougie doesn’t know whether to believe this or not thinking, “They hurt you….  They may not mean to, but they do….  There’s no governor on them, no way of separating the stuff that’s okay to talk about from the stuff that isn’t.” (more…)

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Kurt Vonnegut–“Chore List of Champions” (Harper’s September 2012)

Posted in Canadian Music, Destroyer, Funny (ha ha), Harper's, KEXP 90.3 FM--Seattle, WA, Kurt Vonnegut, Letters, Marriage (Happy) on November 17, 2012| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: DESTROYER-Live on KEXP, March 19, 2011 (2011).

I enjoyed Destroyer’s Rubies album quite a bit.  And when Kaputt came out it was heralded as a masterpiece.  But I have to admit it’s a little two smooth jazz for my tastes.  The DJ in this interview describes it as being like George Michael (well, really, Wham), but George Michael knew howto write pop hits which made the smoothness more palatable.  This is kind of like extended jams of smooth jazz, which is…disconcerting.

They play two songs from Kaputt, “Downtown,” and “Song for America.” “Downtown” has a ton of cheesey sounding sax (and instrument I am growing to dislike more and more).  “Song for America” eschews much of the sax and is catchy with its pulsing bass line.  They also play “Certain Things You Ought to Know,” from Your Blues, an album I don’t know very well.  The song is kind of slow, but it tones down the cheese somewhat.  And “Painter in Your Pocket” from Rubies, a song I like very much gets a new treatment here.  It’s much more sparse, and I think I like it a little less.  Maybe Destroyer should just remain one album for me.

You can hear it here.

[READ: November 15, 2012] “Chore List of Champions”

Even though I said I was going to put off Vonnegut for a little while (there was certainly some burn out by the end), this letter appeared in Harper’s (and is in his newly released book Letters).

As the intro explains, this is a contract that Vonnegut signed with his then pregnant wife Jane, in 1947.

I think of marriage contracts these days as being crazily offensive and mercenary, as being things that would embarrass right-thinking people.  And geez, in 1947, what could he possibly have been asking.

Well, Vonnegut proves that he was a cool dude all along.  And all of the points in the contract are things that he pledges that will do, couched in his own hilarious manner.

Some examples: (more…)

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Sigrid Nunez–“Worried Sisters” (Harper’s, September 2012)

Posted in Depression, Harper's, KEXP 90.3 FM--Seattle, WA, Marriage Trouble, Neurotics, Short Story, Sigrid Nunez, Wild Flag on November 16, 2012| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: WILD FLAG at SXSW (Mellow Jonny’s Bike Shop), March 15, 2011 (2011).

This is the second set from SXSW that NPR has offered for our enjoyment.  This show is similar to the other SXSW set that NPR has on video.

They play “Something Came Over Me” instead of “Arabesque” but otherwise the setlist is the same.  The band sounds energetic and like they’re having a lot of fun.  There’s an occasional screw up of a line and some of their harmonies sound a little off, but otherwise they sound great.

And they are playing in a bike shop (really).  Carrie says that they are going to buy one of the $3,000 bikes.  I wonder how bummed the owners are that she can’t possibly be serious.  It sounds very good despite it’s being in a bike shop–unless this is sound board magic.

At the end of the set she says they are playing 6 more shows at SXSW, so that explains the two different recordings from SXSW.  You can hear this none here.

[READ: November 15, 2012] “Worried Sisters”

This is a very simple story, one which I found to be very enjoyable.  I like that it is written in second person plural (“Our sister has always caused us grief”).  And I like that there is significant progression in the life of the sister through the very short story (about a page and a half).

In her early childhood, their sister put everything in her mouth (twice ending in the emergency room).  When she became a teen, she ate too much and then too little and dyed her hair until it fell out and generally doubted how pretty she was.  And, of course she wanted to be an artist. (more…)

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Roberto Bolaño–“The Ruin of Amalfitano” (Harper’s, October 2012)

Posted in Harper's, JEFF The Brotherhood, LGBTQ, Meat Puppets, Natasha Wimmer, New Yorker, Roberto Bolaño, Tiny Desk Concert, Translation, Universities, Violence on November 14, 2012| 1 Comment »

SOUNDTRACK:  JEFF THE BROTHERHOOD-Tiny Desk Concert #165 (October 8, 2011).

This was my first exposure to JEFF the Brotherhood, a rollicking duo who blast out the walls of the NPR studios.  The guitarist and drummer play simple, power punk (quite well) and they sound like a whole band, not just two guys.

“Diamond Way” reminds me of the Meat Puppets–echoey lazy-sounding punk.  ANd the oh oh oh oh oh is very catchy.  And then, after describing an NPR host as sounding like Ira Glass–if he were an old woman (and then apologizing if he offended anyone), they play “Bummer”–shirtless—presumably a first for the NPR offices.

“Bummer” is a mellower song and their sound doesn’t sound less full for the mellowess–especially when he kicks on the distortion pedal.  “Bone Jam” is one of my favorites–more ooh’s and the simple but wonderful lyrics “Gonna grind your bones to make my bread.”  It’ s amazing that two guys can sound this good.

[READ: August 17, 2010] “The Ruin of Amalfitano”

Natasha Wimmer has translated yet another posthumous work from Roberto Bolaño, this one called Woes of the True Policeman, due out this month.

This may already exist, but I hope someone is compiling a family tree of all of the Bolaño characters who have appeared in different locations.  For instance, the Amalfitano in this story appeared in 2666, indeed he has a whole chapter about himself.  And we know it’s the same Amalfitano because they both have a daughter named Rosa.  This story is set before 2666 and these fascinating events would shed some light on the state of Amalfitano when we do meet him in the novel.  Of course, Bolaño’s writings don’t seem to follow a conventional strategy so who knows if he intended any of this to be part of the “missing” Part 6 of 2666.

Anyhow, this story is about Amalfitano, but it opens with Padilla who decided to become an artist at the age of 13.  After dabbling in theater and film, he settled on poetry.  By 17, he was a sarcastic angry kid who could be easily provoked to violence (he claims that when fighting Nazis, anything is permitted).

At 18, he published his first book of poetry and when he was 21 he showed the poems to Amalfitano.  Amalfitano was a teacher of Latin America writers at the University.  He liked Padilla’s poetry, although he didn’t much like Padilla who didn’t come to class very much.  But once Amalfitano gave him praise for the poems, Padilla never missed another class. He even invited Amalfitanoto his house for parties.  After many such parties, the two became lovers.

Once the University learned of this, Amalfitano was fired.  (more…)

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Daniel Alarcón–“Extinct Anatomies” (Harper’s, October 2012)

Posted in 20 Under 40, Daniel Alarcón, Dentists, Harper's, KEXP 90.3 FM--Seattle, WA, Sex, Surfer Blood, Travel, Yuck! on November 13, 2012| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: SURFER BLOOD-Live on KEXP, December 1, 2009 (2009).

This performance takes place before Surfer Blood’s debut album came out.  The DJ is amazed at the size of their following (which is indeed quite huge for a band with no record yet).  The band is young and fun and they engage her with stories and joke. They’re a treat to listen to.

And so is the music. “Floating Vibes,” sounds great and it flows seamlessly into “Swim” (their “hit”), which also sounds fantastic here live.

“Catholic Pagans” is a brief rocker which melds into “Anchorage,”  a 7-minute slow burner that ends with a noisy workout.  It’s always great to hear a new band who sounds awesome live.  Here’s where you can listen to them.

[READ: November 13, 2012] “Extinct Anatomies”

Daniel Alarcón is an author whom I feel has been around for a very long time, but that doesn’t appear to be the case.  He was listed as a New Yorker 20 under 30 just two years ago, so he can’t be that old either.  (Indeed, he has released only a collection of short stories and a novel at this point).

Anyhow, this short fiction was really interesting.  The writing style was delightfully straightforward and compelling, despite the rather banal subject matter.  An uninsured musician is in Lima visiting his cousin.  Since he has no insurance in the States, and his cousin is a dentist, he decides to have extensive dental work done by his relative (he had broken his front teeth).  This cousin lived with them in Alabama when they were kids but they haven’t really seen each other much since then.

Back in Alabama, the cousin, who was older, was chasing after girls when the narrative was but 8 years old.  The narrator didn’t understand the flirting that the cousin did on the phone (“Oh, your hair”) and the cousin seemed exasperated about what American women might want.

But again, this somewhat banal story is filled with deception and intrigue.  He tells a lie to his cousin about how he teeth were broken.  And his cousin “ordered X-rays, as if to confirm my story.”   The cousin’s dental assistant is very nice and gentle but is always hidden behind a mask.  So the narrator imagines her as very beautiful.  And after a few sessions he has fantasies about her to take his mind of the procedure. (more…)

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Heidi Julavits–”This Feels So Real” (Harper’s, November 2012)

Posted in Blur, British Sea Power, Catherine Wheel, Harper's, KEXP 90.3 FM--Seattle, WA, Privacy, Romance, Short Story, The Believer on November 9, 2012| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: BRITISH SEA POWER-Live on KEXP,  March 4, 2008 (2008).

The four songs from this set come from Do You Like Rock Music?  It’s the only album I have from British Sea Power, so I found the set enjoyable.  The band seems to specialize in a kind of chanted heavy rock.  This is especially noticeable in “No Lucifer” which has a big chanted chorus (the DJ observes that British fans chant a lot better than America fans–which is very true).

The singer’s voice reminds me a bit of Catherine Wheel (deep and kind of smooth, as opposed to high-pitched and/or screamy) and the music has a kind of Blur feel–very English-sounding.  And yet the band is a bit heavier than Blur and much darker as well.

“Atom” is a speedy blast of borderline punk.  “Down on the Ground” has a very catchy riff and “Canvey Island” has a building swelling sound that I really like.  They would never be my favorite band, but I really like this album.

I also enjoyed that the DJ was sort of fawning over the band since they had gotten about two hours of sleep the night before (after their show).  And I must say they sound pretty fine for having no sleep.  Check it out. 

[READ: November 1, 2012] “This Feels So Real”

Heidi Julavits is one of the founders of The Believer magazine, so naturally I’m drawn to her writing. And I have enjoyed most of her short stories (I haven’t gotten around to reading her novels yet).  But I really didn’t like this one.

It is about a contestant on a romantic reality show who has been kicked off the island (or whatever manufactured location they are supposed to be on).  He, Ryan P (for there is another Ryan on the show), really loves Ashley.  But she has given him the symbol that means she is not interested in him.  And we follow him as his love and obsession for Ashley blossoms.

Ryan says that there is a producer on the show, Chris, who is actually responsible for his departure–that he is the one who executes Ashley’s desires, but Chris seems to suggest that Ryan might want to try again (or so Ryan understands it).  The story then follows Ryan as he follows Ashley (and the other men remaining on the show–including Ryan M, whom Ryan P assumes is really gay).  He tries to avoid the cameras and tries to get closer and closer to his beloved. (more…)

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Ludmilla Petrushevskaya–”Ali-Baba” (Harper’s, November 2012)

Posted in Drinking, Drugs, Harper's, KEXP 90.3 FM--Seattle, WA, Ludmilla Petrushevskaya, Mudhoney, Russia, Short Story, Violence on November 8, 2012| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: MUDHONEY-Live on KEXP, March 14, 2006 (2006). 

I was never a huge fan of Mudhoney.  Of all the Seattle grungy bands, Mudhoney was always near  the bottom for me.  Some of their stuff was great (“Touch Me, I’m Sick” is undeniable) but I never really got into them.

Having said them, this set taken from the Under a Billion Suns album is really good.  It’s more political than their earlier stuff, but the band still sounds heavy and loud and right on.  “Where is the Future” (“Where is the future that was promised us?  I’m sick to death of this one”) really summarizes their sound–slightly off sounding vocals, slightly off sounding verses and a great chorus.  “It is Us” (“I’ve seen the enemy and it is us”) features some of the more extreme vocals moments in the band’s sound.  And then the chorus is surprisingly catchy.

“Empty Shells” sounds like a hardcore song from the 8os, slightly awkward verse and then a gang-shouted chorus.  “Hard On for War” is kind of funny (but yet really not) about how since all the men at war it’s important to have sex with him as much as possible.  (“These lovely lonesome ladies don’t ignore me anymore.  Now I know why dirty old men are always pushing for war.”

As with every other heavy, angry band, it’s always funny to hear them being chatty and friendly with  the DJs.  They’ve been around Seattle forever and are very nice and happy to talk about their upcoming shows.  Mark Arm, incidentally has been interviewed in Metal Evolution, the 11-part series of VH1 that I have been enjoying a lot lately.  And he seems like a funny guy in that documentary as well.  Maybe it’s time to reassess those early CDs.

Hear this set here.

[READ: November 1, 2012] “Ali-Baba”

Ludmilla Petrushevskaya’s last story in Harper’s was called “Medea,” and now she has “Ali-Baba.”  In this one, Ali-Baba is a woman who has a drug and alcohol addiction.  Her mother continually tries to get her help, but this inevitably fails, especially now that the mother is in the hospital and Ali-Baba has free access to the house.

Ali-Baba has sold a few large books from her mother’s library to get some cash and is now out on the prowl at a bar.

Strangely though, this story opens with Victor, a man who has more or less given up on women.  He sees Ali-Baba dancing seductively, but he ignores her, believing that women would have no interest in him.  Eventually they wind up next to each other and they begin talking.  Seeing how unused Victor is to attention, she feels a strange tenderness towards him and even buys the last round.

But she is  especially delighted to learn that he lives alone (and not with his mother).  So she goes home with him. (more…)

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Hanna Pylväinen–We Sinners (2012)

Posted in Boredom, Cars, Decadence, Hanna Pylväinen, Harper's, Kishi Bashi, Religion, Sex, Shoplifting, Tiny Desk Concert on September 20, 2012| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: KISHI BASHI-Tiny Desk Concert #215 (May 10, 2012).

A few days after the concert at the 9:30 Club, K Ishibashi stopped in at the NPR offices to record a Tiny Desk concert.  The Tiny Desk  concerts are always fun–incredibly intimate and always well recorded.  He plays three of the five songs that he played at the 9:30 Club, and while they sound quite the same, there are little differences.

I find it very cool how similar they sound–since most of the sounds he makes are with his voice, it’s quite cool that he has that much control.  But I also like that he varies things a bit (although it sounds like a slightly flat note that plagues “Atticus in the Desert”).

What’s interesting is that although he doesn’t play things very differently, the feel of “I am the Antichrist to You” is quite different in the Tiny Desk setting.  I don’t really understand why, but it sounds very different, and equally wonderful.

Watching the Tiny Desk show is also neat–I’ve never seen anyone strum chords on a violin before.   And watching all of the technical adjustments is very cool too.  I’ve definitely become a fan of Kishi Bashi.

[READ: August 28, 2012] We Sinners

This has got to be the fastest turnover I’ve ever had where I read a short story and then read the author’s novel.  Well, it turns out that “Jonas Chan” was not a short story, but an excerpt from this novel.

The novel is a series of short stories about the same family.  I’m reluctant to brand it one of those connected-short story novels, but I think it really is.  Each chapter has a title and a specific focus and, as the excerpt showed, each chapter can work independently–although having all of the information certainly fills out the story.  (Unless I am mistaken, a few things that really depend upon the rest of the book were left out of the excerpt).

The novel is about the Rovaniemi family.  They are a very traditional Finnish family living in the midwest United States.  More than just Finnish, they practice Laestadianism, a very conservative kind of Lutheranism that is unique to the Finns.  There are nine children in the family (and 11 chapters in the book), and the novel follows them through about 18 years (the youngest, Uppu, is born in the first chapter and the second to last chapter is about her leaving for college.

There’s even a handy family tree:

WARREN  –  PIRJO  (parents)

BRITA  TIINA  NELS  PAULA  SIMON  JULIA  LEENA ANNI  UPPU

There isn’t an overall plot so much as an evaluation of this traditional family and how modern life impacts them.   And wisely, the book opens with the oldest daughter.  This (as opposed to first looking at the parents) allows us to see what kind of difficulties the kids will have with their religion.  We see Brita in school facing a tough decision.  The Laestadian religion doesn’t permit dancing (or TV, or much of anything).  And Brita has to inform her “boyfriend” that she can’t go to the dance because she isn’t allowed.  When Tiina finds out that Brita revealed their religious secret she freaks out that people will know about her too. (more…)

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