History of Wolves by Emily Fridlund

Such an unsettling, coming of age story this is. It's the first time I read a novel in which the title has nothing to do with the development of the plot. The story is told from Linda's point of view, a 14 year old girl who lived in Northern Minnesota. She is socially awkward, no friends and a strange relationship with her parents mostly related to a lack of communication. Linda's knowledge of the world is limited because of the remoteness of the place in which she lives and this makes the story so unusual. However, she is a good judge of people, she is highly obsessed with observing people's gestures, activities. At the same time she knows so little about the world especially the grow up world and what should be taken for granted. It is her deep love for nature and her surroundings that allows her to connect with Paul, a 4 year old child she baby sits. Together they participate in games and daily walks in the woods. We learn from the start that Paul dies in peculiar circumstances but we don't know exactly what happens until the end. Other than that, the novel jumps forward and backward in time with a plot that succeeds to maintain the reader's attention. There is also a peculiarity about this novel that I enjoyed so much. It's strongly related to the setting, the atmosphere inside and outside home and characters. All characters within the story seem to be slightly detached from their present and this is not attributed only to their geographical remoted lives. On the surface they seem so ordinary and not very likable, but I've found them so interesting because of that weirdness and detachment. The language is poetical and it makes the writing and the winter descriptions so lovely. The pacing is slow and most of the events happen so quietly that they hardly seem to happen at all. Having said all that I can only say that I thoroughly enjoyed the novel and I recommend it to you all. Did you read it and if so did you enjoy it?

Great poetical stories!

“Maybe if I’d been someone else I’d see it differently. But isn’t that the crux of the problem? Wouldn’t we all act differently if we were someone else?” 

What a disappointment!

I wanted to like this book so much. I had so many high expectations about it. I liked  to idea of the story and the blurb I read on goodreads about it just caught my attention. I love the cover of the novel but that's about it.I've tried to hard to like it, I read 100 pages and then I had to stop reading.The language is so bad and the way the story is put into words is awful.I feel like I am reading a paper written by an 11 years old student who is doing his/her best to write a story by using simple and direct sentences.

"I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide

Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied; 

And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,

And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying"

(Sea Fever by John Masefield)

My reading list: Living the American Dream

My reading list: Living the American Dream: Thank you Netgalley for giving me the opprtunity to read such an amazing book. The story is set before and during the economic crisis of 200...

Living the American Dream

Thank you Netgalley for giving me the opprtunity to read such an amazing book. The story is set before and during the economic crisis of 2007/2008. The main theme of the book is an old one "Follow the American Dream". This time, however the opproach is different and I enjoyed it so much. We see the American Dream from two different angles. On the one hand, we have the Jende Jonga family, Cameroonian immigrants who are desperately trying to get the green card and stay in the USA (New York). On the other hand, we have the Edwards, a wealthy upper class family, living in New York, who show the positive and negative idea of paradise held by the immigrants. 
The Jongas are deffinitely West African in their ideals, cultural practices, and still they wish to give their son and daughter a better life possible. There are so many cultural differences and multi-layered perspectives in this novel. For example, the Edwards, eldest son longs to abandon the law school and leave USA for India in search of spirituality and a better inner life, whereas Jende truly believes that the opprtunity to become a lawyer is the best thing he could give his son. We also notice the contrasts between a family of priviledge and a family with little and the powerful dynamic created between the two. We see the yearnings for home, Cameroon (Limbe town), whilst trying to fit into a new world, the eternal immigrant heart caught up between two worlds. There are so many other interesting themes and issues treated in this novel, the problem of race, violence, man controlling women, marriage, divorce, economic crisis, etc. There is so much pain and grief that traspasses in this novel. The plot is character driven, and the language is simple but wonderful. Definitely a novel that I would love to re read in the future!

This is my favourite page of the novel The Party by Elizabeth Day