Karen McBride is an Algonquin Anishinaabe writer from the Timiskaming First Nation in the territory that is now Quebec. Crow Winter is her first novel. CBC Books named McBride a 2020 writer to watch.
It's a story of a young Indigenous woman named Hazel Ellis, who has the magical power to cross between the spiritual and material worlds. Following the loss of her father, Hazel returns to Spirit Bear Point First Nation reserve to be with her mother and to reconcile her grief.
An encounter with a pesky old crow — who might be the Algonquin demigod Nanabush — leads her to discover an old magic awakening in the quarry on her late father's land.
books to read: Marrow Thieves /Hunting by Stars
क्यानेडियन लेखकका तिन पुस्तकहरु
करेन म्यकब्रिड अल्गोङ्क़ुइन अनिष्नाबे लेखक हुन्। उनि क्यानाडाको आदिबासी अर्थात फस्ट नेसन तिमिस्कमिंग क्षेत्र जुन अहिले क्युबेक प्रान्तमा पर्छ।
यो एक जवान आदिबाशी महिला हेजल इल्ल्सको कथा हो जो संग भौतिक तथा आध्यात्मिक दुनियामा संगसंगै डुल्ने जादुगरी शक्ति छ। आफ्नो बाबुको मृतु पश्चात हेजल स्प्रिट बियर फर्स्ट नेशन रिजर्बमा फर्किन्छे र आमा संगै बस्छे। त्यहाँ उसले सपनामा एउटा बुढो कागलाइ देख्छे। त्यो काग अल्गोङ्क़ुइन डेमिगड हुन सक्ने उनले बताउछिन। सपनामा आउने कागले आफ्नो बाबुको जमिनको बारेमा गोप्य कुराहरुको बारेमा बताएको हुन्छ।
युरोपियनहरुले आदिबासीहरुको जमिनलाई विभिन्न बहानामा हडेपेको, उनीहरुको बस्तीमा बाटो तथा खानिहरु खनेर त्यहाँबाट लखेटिएको, उनीहरुको सन्ततिलाई रेसिडेन्सियल स्कुलमा जबर्जस्ति लगेर उनीहरुको भाषा, धर्म तथा संस्कृतिलाई नामेट पार्न खोजिएको कुराहरुको बारेमा लेखिएको छ।
लेखकले आदिबासीहरुको बस्ति जसलाई रिजर्ब भनिन्छ त्यो कुनै डरलाग्दो काल्पनिक ठाँउ नभएर यहाँका असली भूमिपुत्रहरु बस्दै आएको ठाँउ हो। त्यहाँ बस्ने मान्छेहरुमा कोलोनाइजेसनले दिएको पिडाको बारेमा कथाहरु बुनेकी छन्। त्यो पुस्तकमा लेखकले एउटा बुढो कागको माध्यमबाट विभिन्न पुस्ताहरुलाइ जोडेको छ। उनीहरुले भोगेको पिडा, आफ्नो छोराछोरीहरुलाइ भन्न भन्न नसकेको कथा लेखिएको छ।
लेखकले आफ्नो बाबुलाई फोक्सोको बिमारीले गर्दा गुमाउनु परेको र आफ्ना सबै दिदि बहिनीहरुमा त्यो समस्या भएकोले त्यो पीडालाई लेखेर भएपनि केहि राहत महसुस गरेकी छन्। आमा छोरीको बिचमा हुने सानातिना कुराहरुले उनीहरु बिचको प्रेम, आत्मियताले एउटा भिन्नै किसिमको अनुभब दिन्छ। आजको यो भौतिकबादी समाजमा छोराछोरी हुर्केपछि बाबुआमा भन्दा अलग बस्ने जुन परम्परा छ त्यसले यो समाजलाई कृतिम बनाइरहेको अवस्थामा हेजल आमासंग बस्न आफ्नै रिजर्बमा फर्किन्छिन। आमालाई खाना बनाउन सहयोग गर्छिन। आमासंगै बाबुको चिहानसम्म पुग्छिन। बाबुको चिहानमा जादा आमाको मुटु भित्रको जलन, शहरीकरणले बिनास गरेको आदिबासी बस्ति र रिजर्ब भित्रको त्यो गरिबिको बारेमा शुष्म रुपमा चित्रित गरेकी छन्। किताब पढ्दै जाँदा आफु त्यै ठाँउमा पुगेको भान हुन्छ।
साथै उनले विभिन्न सन्धि सम्झौताको नाममा आफ्ना पुर्बजहरुलाई ठगेर जमिन कब्जा गरेको विभिन्न प्रमाणहरु प्रस्तुत गर्छिन।
नानाबुस कागले हेजललाई पुरानो स्मृतिमा पुर्याएर आफ्नो बाबुले कसरि त्यो जमिन गुमाएको थियो भनेर जानकारी गराउछ। हेजललाई पुराना चिठीहरुले कसरि सोझा साझा पुर्खाहरुलाई फ्रान्स तथा बेलायतबाट गएका ब्यापारीहरुले ठगेर उनीहरुको जमिन खोसेका थिए भन्ने जनाकारी हुन्छ।
हेजलले आफ्नो बुवा अस्पतालमा हुदा आमालाई लेखेको चिठी भेट्छे जुन चिठीमा उसको बाबुले भनेका हुन्छन," सायद म छिट्टै मर्छु होला। मेरो पैसाले तिमीलाई मन परेको बस्तु खरिद गर्नु। ट्रक बेचेर आएको पैसाले कुनै ठाँउमा भ्रमण गर्नु। जमिन छोरीहरु दिनु। हाम्रा असल छोरीहरुप्रति म सधै घमण्ड गर्ने छु स्वर्ग वा नर्क जहाँ गएपनि।"
हेजलले यो चिठी पढ्दै गर्दा आँशु रोकिदैन। उसले बुवासंग खेलेका, जंगलको बाटो हिडेका दिनहरु सम्झन्छे। यो पुस्तक पढ्दै जाँदा लाग्छ हेजल कति सुन्दर बिम्बहरुको प्रयोग गरेर एउटा जातिको सिंगो इतिहाँस कोरेकी छन्।
To the River
Losing My Brother
In the spring of 2006, Don Gillmor travelled to Whitehorse to reconstruct the last days of his brother, David, whose truck and cowboy hat were found at the edge of the Yukon River just outside of town the previous December. David's family, his second wife, and his friends had different theories about his disappearance. Some thought David had run away; some thought he'd met with foul play; but most believed that David, a talented musician who at the age of 48 was about to give up the night life for a day job, had intentionally walked into the water. Just as Don was about to paddle the river looking for traces, David's body was found, six months after he'd gone into the river. And Don's canoe trip turned into an act of remembrance and mourning.
At least David could now be laid to rest. But there was no rest for his survivors. As his brother writes, "When people die of suicide, one of the things they leave behind is suicide itself. It becomes a country. At first I was a visitor, but eventually I became a citizen." In this tender, probing, surprising work, Don Gillmor brings back news from that country for all of us who wonder why people kill themselves. And why, for the first time, it's not the teenaged or the elderly who have the highest suicide rate, but the middle aged. Especially men. (From Penguin Random House Canada)
२००६ को वसन्तमा, डन गिल्मोरले अनुसन्धान गर्न व्हाइटहोर्समा गएर आफ्नो भाई डेभिडको अन्तिम दिनहरू पुन: निर्माण गर्नुभयो, जुनको ट्रक र काउबोय ह्याटले पहिले डिसेम्बरमा शहरबाट बाहिर युकन नदीको किनारामा पाएका थिए। डेविडका परिवार, उनका दोश्रो विवाहिता, र मित्रहरूले उनको लुप्तिको बारेमा विभिन्न सिद्धान्तहरू राखेँ। केहीले विचार गरे कि डेभिडले चलाएको छोडेर भागेको हो; केहीले बदरचारमा भेटिएको हो; तर धेरैले विश्वास गर्ने थिए कि डेभिड, ४८ वर्षीय उमेरमा रातीको जीवनशैलीलाई छोडेर दिनको कामको लागि तैयारी गर्दै गिएको प्रतिभाशाली संगीतकार, जाहिर गरी जलमा गएको थियो। डनले नदीको छापहरू खोज्ने बोक्दा, डेविडको शव सहित त्यसलाई तळमा खोजिएको छैन। अरुद्धतिर डनको कनु यात्रा स्मरण र शोकको कार्यक्रममा परिवर्तित भयो।
कम्तिमा डेभिड शान्तिको विचार गरिन्छ। तर उनका बचिने मानिसहरूलाई आराम छैन। आफ्ना भाईले लेखेका अनुसार, "जब मानिसहरूले आत्महत्या गर्छन् भने, उनीहरूले आत्महत्या आफ्नो एक वस्त्र रूपमा छोड्छन्। यो एक देश बन्दैछ। पहिलोमा म एक भ्रमित होँँ, तर अन्ततः म एक नागरिक भयो।" यस प्रेमपूर्ण, छानबिनमय, आकर्षक कार्यमा, डन गिल्मोरले हामी सबैलाई बताउँछन् कि मानिसहरूले आफ्नो जिउदा रहने कारणहरूलाई किन आत्महत्या गर्दछन्। र किन, पहिलो पटक, उमेरी वा बृद्धहरूले अत्यधिक आत्महत्या दर नभएको हो, तर मध्यवयस्कहरूले। विशेष रूपमा पुरुषहरू। (पेंगुइन रैंडम हाउस कनाडा बाट)
डन गिल्मरको पुस्तक "तो द रिभर" हाम्रो समाजको अंधकारी कोनामा छवि हो जहाँ अधिकांश लेखकहरूले अन्वेषण गर्न संकोच गर्छन्। पहिलोपटक पुस्तकको जाकिरको पाना पढ्दा, मलाई लेखकको भाईको मृत्यु र सम्पूर्ण सामग्रीलाई उनको मृत शरीरको खोजमा उनको विस्तृत यात्राको बारेमा हो भनेर लाग्यो। तर, पृष्ठहरू खुल्दै जाँदा म लेखन र त्यस्तो विषय 'आत्महत्या' बारेमा लेख्ने साथै लेखन र ज्ञानलाई म आकर्षित भयो।
सबैभन्दा पहिले, डनले आफ्नो भाई डेभिडसँगको अतीतको जिवनको विविध स्मृतिको अभिलेख गरेका छन्। त्यसका बालबालिकामा, उनीहरूले सबै कुरा निरुत्साहित, नम्र, मनोहारी गरेका थिए। परिवारको जीवनी यथार्थमा आधारित थियो। तिनीहरूको माता-पिता क्यालगरी बसेका थिए। बढ्दा देविडले दयाहीन भान्दा अगाडि, लेखक डन भाईलाई छोडेर बिहे गरे। तर दयाले अरुभन्दा भिन्न थिए। उनले संगीत, सञ्चार, मादकपन्नीलाई माया गरेका थिए। उनले विभिन्न ब्यान्डमा सहभागी भएका थिए। पछिल्लोमा, उनले नयाँ सङ्गिनीसँग व्हाइटहोर्समा बसेँ। डनले लेखक बन्नका लागि टोरोन्टोमा बसेँ। बहिनीले सास्केचवानमा बसेँ। परिवार चार अलग-अलग स्थानमा विभाजित थियो। तर माताले त्यसका मध्यस्थले बारेमा डनलाई भन्छिन्।
जब डेभिडले व्हाइटहोर्समा आफ्नो संगिनीसँग मिलेर बस्ने अपार्टमेन्टमा बस्दै, उनले क्लबहरूमा गाउँदै राति धेरै पिउँदै र धुम्रपान गर्दै थिए। उनले आफ्नी संगिनीलाई धेरै छोरेर नयाँ केटाहरूलाई छुट्टै गर्ने गरेका थिए। दिनदिन बित्दै उनीहरूले शारीरिक रूपमा पनि अशक्तिमान हुने थालेको थियो। उनले खूब ठूलो पिउने थालेको थियो। पिउने, मादकपन्नी लिने, संगिनीहरूलाई धोका दिने गरेकोले उनीहरूले आपसी छुट्टै गरेका थिए। त्यसपछि, उनले पिउन र कोकेन लिन बन्द गरे। उनले स्थानिय पुस्तकको व्यवस्थापकको रूपमा एक उचित काम शुरू गरेँ। सबै ठीक देखिएको थियो। दयाको परिवर्तनले क्यालगरीको परिवारमा आनन्द ल्यायो।
एक दिन, डेभिडले अपनो ट्रकलाई युकन नदीसम्म चालाए, जो शहरबाट तीस किलोमिटर दूर थियो। उनले ट्रकलाई किनारामा पार्क गरे, काउबोय ह्याट नदीको किनारमा राखेर तातो पानीमा कदम राखेँ। उनको शरीरलाई जो दाम दिँदो हाटले ढकेलेको थियो। ट्रकबाट तीस किलोमिटर दूरको हाइड्रो ड्यामको पासमा उनको शव भेटिएको थियो। यो उनको आत्महत्याको माध्यमद्वारा जीवनको अन्त भएको थियो।
लेखक डनले आफ्नो ७५ वर्षीय पितासँग आफ्नो खोइएको भाईको खोजीमा व्हाइटहोर्स जानुहुन्छ। उनले डेभिडको नयाँ संगिनी र नजिकैका मित्रहरूसँग भेट्दछन्। अन्तिममा रेस्क्यू तथ्यकोरबाट उनले आशा हार्नुपर्छ जब प्रदर्शनी बाट शवलाई आफ्नो दृष्टिमा आउँछ। आफ्ना भाईको मृत्युलाई मन छूने कथानको सहानुभूतिपूर्ण वर्णनमा, डनले मानिसहरूले आफ्नो जीवनलाई आत्महत्या गरेर समाप्त गर्नु पर्ने कारणहरूको अन्वेषण गर्छन्। उनले क्यालगरीको कवि, तोरोन्टोमा आधारित लेखक एच.एस. भाभरा र त्यसको आत्महत्याको बारेमा पनि बातचीत गर्छन्। उनले मानिसहरूले आत्महत्या गर्दा किन जिउने समयमा हुन्छन् भनेर कारणहरूलाई अन्वेषण गर्छन्। एउटै कारणलाई अनुसन्धान अनुसार आत्महत्या आनुवांशिक छ। यसले खूनमा छ। दोस्रो कारण मानसिक समस्या जस्तै गम्भीर डिप्रेसन वा स्किजोफ्रेनिया हुन सक्छ। तेस्रो कारण आर्थिक छ जस्तै नौकरीहिनता, कर्जा वा अनपेक्षित दंड हुन सक्छ। चौथो कारण सेवाहरूको स्वास्थ्य स्थितिको खराबी, आदिको संक्रमण वा रोगले ग्रस्त हुन सक्छ।
आत्महत्या समाजमा आँचल्छ। जीवनमा अवसर देखेको छैन भने केही लोगहरूले आत्महत्या प्रयास गर्छन्। मृत्युसँग सधैँ विकल्प आउँदछ। अन्य एउटा अनुसन्धानले देखाएको छ कि बहुतै लेखकहरूले आत्महत्या गर्दछन् किनकि उनले लेखनलाई चिकित्सा रूपमा प्रयोग गर्छन्। एकदिन तिनीहरूले जान्छन् कि यो उनीहरूलाई थप्पड़ पर्दैन।
यो पुस्तक मनबाट बोल्छ। यसमा विषयमा धेरै स्रोतहरू छन्। लेखकले आफ्नो भाईको मृत्युलाई न्यायाधिकारी गर्न कई तथ्यांकनहरू ल्याएका छन्।
Thoughts on How Do You Live?
If you could go back and relive your teenage years, thinking about the fights with friends, the love-hate relationship with school, the kind of problems you used to ponder, would you? Would an insight into your teenage mind help you solidify the lessons that you learned (and maybe never verbalized) that make you who you are?
How Do You Live? is a lovely story about Copper. He lives with his mom; his dad passed away when he was little. His uncle (mom’s brother) is a frequent visitor and confidant for Copper. Copper shares many things with his uncle, from his triumphs and thoughts to his vulnerable moments.
I loved the format of this book: each chapter began with Copper as the central character, and then, the narration switches to his uncle writing in a diary, putting words to the thoughts he had while Copper was sharing what had transpired. The intent is to give this diary to Copper eventually and I am a huge fan of chronicling a young life from the lens of an adult, bringing our knowledge of the world and what we have learned to help the young ones succeed. This offers a fantastic analysis of the big things in the little boy’s world and how that all fits into a big picture.
On Life Lessons
Copper is a thoughtful child. He is compassionate and caring and getting to know him through the book was a highlight for me. He feels for his fellow humans and is not afraid to go looking for answers, whether it is to someone’s home or to ask his uncle for guidance. There was a particularly heartbreaking bullying incident towards the end of the book where Copper found himself unable to take any action. I felt Copper’s pain of being a bystander and the tug of war between his body and mind. His mom told him a beautiful story about regrets and what they teach us. I will forever remember that one! It is an example of how we as adults can bring in our childhood to connect with and teach the kids.
There are multiple lessons about life scattered throughout this book. They are delivered, not as a lecture, but in the context of making Copper understand that these things happen and we can all persevere and be better humans. I loved how the concept of finding oneself was phrased. While following rules is important in school, in our adult lives, if we continue to blindly follow rules and never understand ourselves and our values, we would never be able to reach our full potential. This encouragement of the uncle’s for Copper to continue asking questions was beautifully imparted.
On Memories
Copper is a junior high and his classmates and experiences in school got me reminiscing about him. At one point in the book, the kids were listening to the radio and following along a game that was happening live. That reminded me of growing up in India, listening to live cricket matches. Sports always unite people and cast a spell on us that we can imagine what’s happening just from the commentary.
This is a very thorough book! I learned a lot about the world from it, including who built the first statue of the Buddha (did you know there was a Greek influence there?) as well as the life of Napoleon. The uncle has tons of worldly knowledge that he is able to impart to Copper and through Copper, I was able to collect some of that knowledge for myself to pass on.
We Measure the Earth with Our Bodies
By Tsering Yangzom Lama | Goodreads
In the wake of China’s invasion of Tibet throughout the 1950s, Lhamo and her younger sister, Tenkyi, arrive at a refugee camp in Nepal. They survived the dangerous journey across the Himalayas, but their parents did not. As Lhamo-haunted by the loss of her homeland and her mother, a village oracle-tries to rebuild a life amid a shattered community, hope arrives in the form of a young man named Samphel and his uncle, who brings with him the ancient statue of the Nameless Saint-a relic known to vanish and reappear in times of need.
Decades later, the sisters are separated, and Tenkyi is living with Lhamo’s daughter, Dolma, in Toronto. While Tenkyi works as a cleaner and struggles with traumatic memories, Dolma vies for a place as a scholar of Tibetan Studies. But when Dolma comes across the Nameless Saint in a collector’s vault, she must decide what she is willing to do for her community, even if it means risking her dreams.
Breathtaking in its scope and powerful in its intimacy, We Measure the Earth with Our Bodies is a gorgeously written meditation on colonization, displacement, and the lengths we’ll go to remain connected to our families and ancestral lands. Told through the lives of four people over fifty years, this novel provides a nuanced, moving portrait of the little-known world of Tibetan exiles.
Content notes include death of a loved one, colonisation, invasion, infidelity, displacement, loss of culture.
We Measure the Earth with Our Bodies – Review
I grew up so close to Tibet and yet I knew almost nothing about it. Having been to Dharamshala, the city that is home to the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibet, and Tibet’s government-in-exile, I was too young to ask myself then what led to this exile. I am glad that now that I am older and see books that can fill in the gaps in my understanding from the past, I pick them up.
The Story in Broad Strokes
Lhamo is not even ten when her family has to leave their village. She becomes the main caretaker of her younger sister, Tenkyi. I loved seeing them grow up and how protective Lhamo is of Tenkyi. Their mother is an oracle and in the very beginning, it becomes clear how the Chinese view the Tibet people and their spiritual beliefs. Amma is charged with leading the people to safety and over the course of the journey out of Tibet and into Nepal, their group becomes smaller. They lose people to sickness and the days of hunger and uncertainty weigh heavy on all the travellers. Eventually, they are given a place to settle down for the time being. They all had hopes that they would be able to return back home.
For the first half of the book, when Lhamo is young, there is still hope to go back. The people in the community talk about it. Everyone left their homes at different times during the invasion. People try to find their surviving family members in other camps. There is a lot of sadness in this book. The Tibetens have a custom of burying what’s important to them in their home so that it is still there for them when they come back. The people hope that countries like the UK and USA would speak up for them and stop the atrocities done to them.
Nothing happens. Time passes and fifty years go by without going back to the village where the people came from.
The Characters
There were four main perspectives in We Measure the Earth with our bodies
- Lhamo, how she takes responsibility of her sister and the life she builds with her uncle and community in exile in Nepal,
- Tenkyi who is the child everyone has high hopes for. She is one of the few people to leave Nepal and study abroad. The hopes of the family are on Tenkyi and how she will make things better for everyone. Their dreams are now about freedom and living, with not so much hope of going back home.
- Dolma is Lhamo’s daughter and has the opportunity to study abroad in Canada. There she discovers the statue of an old saint that she knows to be of reverence amongst her people. It is one that appears in times of need. I loved this mystical aspect of the book. To believe in something bigger in ourselves and find solace in it. To accept the timing in things.
- The saint becomes the reason for the fourth perspective – that of Sempel, the man Lhamo fell in love with, the father that Dolma does not know.
We Measure the Earth in our Bodies immersed me in its culture, religion and love. In so many ways I felt understood. With the characters, I felt the pain of losing loved ones, the hardships of adjusting to a new country, the pressure of doing well and the peace of making the best of the circumstances. In the rituals for death and prayer, I found my own culture reflected. In Tenkyi I saw my aunt who recently passed away and I am overjoyed in some ways that I can see her in books.
Displacement
This book made me reflect on the loss of culture due to displacement. Things that are commonplace when we are home that we no longer talk about when we are far away. I have experienced this in myself.
I used to think that the way for a culture and language to survive is with its people. This book and to be honest, what I think all indigenous books portray is the importance of land. How without the place that we come from, we are incomplete. Our culture cannot survive the same way in a place that has been given to us when our rightful place has been taken away from us. This is a painful truth that fills me with grief. I am fortunate to have roots in the land I was born in but I am far away now and no longer speak my own language with my own people. I already question what I will be able to pass on to my kids.
Sometimes it is not in our hands though. Some things are too painful to talk about while others make no sense if they cannot be experienced in the true setting. Lhamo and Tenkyi grieved for their mother and her knowledge. Amma did not have enough time to teach them. Leaving their homeland and finding safety somewhere else was the goal. Later, though Lhamo has settled in a camp when Dolma is born and brought up, she too is unable to pass on her history and knowledge to Dolma. Some of it is because of grief – losing her mother so young changed her. And maybe some of it because the land is key to knowledge.
I learned about the smuggling of Tibet artifacts out of Tibet to become part of private and museum collections in the West. I loved that the characters felt a connection to their heritage artifacts and wanted to claim them back for themselves. The bureaucracy to bring back what is rightfully theirs was ridiculous and sadly expected. This line will always haunt me:
“What I do know is that survival is an ugly game, and our objects are all the world really values of our people. Our objects and our ideas. But not us, and not our lives. Whether we’re here for another two hundred years or wiped off the face of the planet, it doesn’t matter to anyone else, not really.”
Samphel in We Measure the Earth in Our Bodies
Thank you for reading my thoughts. There are deeply personal things that I add to my reviews. Reading is not just about the story, it is also an opportunity to reflect on my past and future, beliefs and prejudices. I loved We Measure the Earth with Our Bodies even though it was a hard read. I would go back to it. The audiobook had a full cast which I did not get the time to try out – maybe next time. 🙂
I first learned about South Africa in Geography and History classes back in school. You can guess why it was mentioned in Geography, but History wise, South Africa came up because Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of the Nation of India (where I grew up) practiced law in South Africa before joining the freedom struggle in India. When I was setting out my reads for My History Reading Map, Born A Crime Stories From a South African Childhood is the first one I added in and I am thrilled to share about. Take a look at the synopsis below.
The compelling, inspiring, and comically sublime New York Times bestseller about one man’s coming-of-age, set during the twilight of apartheid and the tumultuous days of freedom that followed.
Trevor Noah’s unlikely path from apartheid South Africa to the desk of The Daily Show began with a criminal act: his birth. Trevor was born to a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother at a time when such a union was punishable by five years in prison. Living proof of his parents’ indiscretion, Trevor was kept mostly indoors for the earliest years of his life, bound by the extreme and often absurd measures his mother took to hide him from a government that could, at any moment, steal him away. Finally liberated by the end of South Africa’s tyrannical white rule, Trevor and his mother set forth on a grand adventure, living openly and freely and embracing the opportunities won by a centuries-long struggle.
Born a Crime is the story of a mischievous young boy who grows into a restless young man as he struggles to find himself in a world where he was never supposed to exist. It is also the story of that young man’s relationship with his fearless, rebellious, and fervently religious mother—his teammate, a woman determined to save her son from the cycle of poverty, violence, and abuse that would ultimately threaten her own life.
The eighteen personal essays collected here are by turns hilarious, dramatic, and deeply affecting. Whether subsisting on caterpillars for dinner during hard times, being thrown from a moving car during an attempted kidnapping, or just trying to survive the life-and-death pitfalls of dating in high school, Trevor illuminates his curious world with an incisive wit and unflinching honesty. His stories weave together to form a moving and searingly funny portrait of a boy making his way through a damaged world in a dangerous time, armed only with a keen sense of humor and a mother’s unconventional, unconditional love.
Content Notes: Some descriptions of violence, including domestic violence.
The Setting: A Brief History of South Africa
In 1910, the Union of South Africa was formed by former British colonies of the Cape and Natal, and the Boer republics of Transvaal, and Orange Free State. It was in 1948 that Apartheid was adopted. Under Apartheid, the population was classified by race. Group Areas Act passed to segregate blacks and whites. Born A Crime is Trevor Noah’s story, covering the last couple years before Apartheid ended and the years after.
Apartheid (“apartness” in the language of Afrikaans) was a system of legislation that upheld segregationist policies against non-white citizens of South Africa. After the National Party gained power in South Africa in 1948, its all-white government immediately began enforcing existing policies of racial segregation. Under apartheid, nonwhite South Africans (a majority of the population) would be forced to live in separate areas from whites and use separate public facilities. Contact between the two groups would be limited. Despite strong and consistent opposition to apartheid within and outside of South Africa, its laws remained in effect for the better part of 50 years.
Apartheid in South Africa
Here is something that I did not know until I read this book – I always thought Apartheid was a segregation policy set by colonizers. I thought that probably in relation to India’s history and how India got freedom from British rule in the late 1940s. I did not even think that South Africa would already have veining European influence. The Afrikaanas, the people of European descent who had made South Africa their home during the colonization, wanted to keep power in their hands.
To see South Africa at a glance, please refer to South Africa profile – Timeline.
Thoughts as I read Born A Crime
Trevor was the son of a black woman and a white man. Though he grew up with his mom’s side of the family, he was labeled as colored. Trevor tells tales of how his existence at his grandma’s house would often to be used as a marker to tell people the way around the neighbourhood. Born A Crime is a heartbreaking and captivating story about trying to belong and finding a place for oneself in the world, inspite of institutional policies, religion and more.
I love the analogies that Trevor used. Even though it was hard to live under Apartheid, Trevor’s mom never left her country. When he later learned that a lot of colored people and their families had take exile outside South Africa, Trevor learning that there had even been the option to leave was something that never crossed in mind.
Imagine being thrown out of an airplane. You hit the ground and break all your bones, you go to the hospital and you heal and you move on and finally put the whole thing behind you—and then one day somebody tells you about parachutes. That’s how I felt.
Pg 31, Born A Crime Stories From a South African Childhood
On Building a White State
The core system of Apartheid divided people into four groups – white, black, colored and Indian (natives). There were further tribes and states for nonwhite groups. Note that this was based purely on skin color, not biology, and sometimes, the definitions were malleable. For example, Trevor explains how the Japanese were categorized under white to keep good relations with them while the Chinese people were considered black.
A white state was a state where only white people lived. A state where the nonwhites would come and help out, do the low level jobs and maintain the city. At night, they would leave and live in poor areas that did not even have proper sanitation.
Trevor recounts this hilarious story about being 5 years old and terrified of the outhouse. One day it was raining and the only other person in the house was his blind great grandmother. Trevor tells us the consequences of his decision to poop on a newspaper in the house rather than face the outhouse. This story is intertwined with the beliefs in religion (the ladies of the community were called to pray for the banishment of the demon whose poop was found in the garbage) and the right to privacy and using the loo without intrusion and the fear of flies.
There are stories like this one where the conditions of the places where nonwhites lived are quite apparent.
On Language and Education
Trevor tells us about his days in school where the kids did not look like him thought of him as being different. It was hard for him to fit in with the black and colored groups because he grew up with blacks though his skin color wasn’t the same. However, growing up with a big family and his mom who wanted him to be able to speak in all languages, Trevor could communicate with the kids. His stories reminded me that we judge people not just by looks but also by language. Meeting someone we can’t understand and talk to changes how we ‘see’ people.
My education in India taught me English. And this is how strong that desire to teach English to the kids was: In Grade 7, I could choose to drop Hindi as a subject and pursue a language like German, French or Sanskrit. English, though I could not opt out of. I speak fluent English. When I first moved to Canada, I was complimented a number of times that my English was better than how people expected. I guess my skin color gave the impression I might not be a fluent speaker? Never mind knowing different languages, something as simple as having an accent can create a divide.
Under Apartheid, blacks were not even taught their regional language. They would usually only be limited to the language they learned at home.
What roles do education and language play in ambitions of the people and their ability to have better lives? Born A Crime, through Trevor’s childhood memories, allows a look into what it means to be able to understand each other, and keep each other safe.
The segregation policy of Apartheid was developed after analyzing multiple racial and religious segregation policies around the world. It is important to look back at what it was like to live under those laws and compare to how we live today without those laws. Are there similarities? Are certain perceptions still in motion without an official law or policy to back them up?
As the first book on My History Reading Map, Born A Crime is a fantastic and engaging place to start learning. It made me think about India, education, language, segregation by color and so much more. Trevor is a captivating storyteller and his mom is a role model I adored. There are childhood stories here that I related to because I grew up similarly. Though I have never been to South Africa, parts of it definitely felt like home.
** Born A Crime Stories From a South African Childhood is out in stores so get a cop
When I still had energy to do the romance challenge Ariel and I had set out for ourselves for this year, one of my picks had been The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak, recommended by my best friend Lauren. A beautiful, immersive tale about love, spiritual, personal and relational, if you guessed that between the leaves of this book, forty rules were woven into the story, you are correct. It wasn’t just the forty rules though that I marked in the book – there was something to be learned from the characters, the setting, the time, almost every aspect of the story had something to offer at some point of time.
One of my friends recently returned my copy back to me. This is how I found it the other evening: sitting on my shelf, waiting for a place to be put back to. I remembered how much I had loved this book, though months later, the story and quotes were mostly a haze. I only remembered the feeling of being understood and guided. I flipped through it, looking for the sentences I had highlighted, and found them to be amazing reminders about life and living. As I read them altogether, I noticed themes that I hadn’t before. In this post, I am sharing what a quick re-read of my highlights revealed to be about the book, but first, let’s get some context about the story with the synopsis and my review.
In this lyrical, exuberant follow-up to her 2007 novel, The Bastard of Istanbul, acclaimed Turkish author Elif Shafak unfolds two tantalizing parallel narratives—one contemporary and the other set in the thirteenth century, when Rumi encountered his spiritual mentor, the whirling dervish known as Shams of Tabriz—that together incarnate the poet’s timeless message of love.
Ella Rubenstein is forty years old and unhappily married when she takes a job as a reader for a literary agent. Her first assignment is to read and report on Sweet Blasphemy, a novel written by a man named Aziz Zahara. Ella is mesmerized by his tale of Shams’s search for Rumi and the dervish’s role in transforming the successful but unhappy cleric into a committed mystic, passionate poet, and advocate of love. She is also taken with Shams’s lessons, or rules, that offer insight into an ancient philosophy based on the unity of all people and religions, and the presence of love in each and every one of us. As she reads on, she realizes that Rumi’s story mirrors her own and that Zahara—like Shams—has come to set her free.
Content notes include Sexual violence, Murder, Violence, Death, Terminal illness, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship.
Review of The Forty Rules of Love
The Forty Rules of Love is a beautiful story set in present time 2008 and also the 1200s. The modern timeline follows a married woman who supposedly has everything. She has 3 kids, one of them is in university, and she is working with a literary agency while her husband pursues his career. They have a house of their own and have been together many years. The manuscript that she has been assigned is a story called Sweet Blasphemy by an author named Aziz. While reading the book, based on the poet Rumi, she realises that she feels stuck and isn’t happy in her life. This book seems to be written to give her courage and take a leap. She starts corresponding with the author and one part of the book focuses on her growth and their connection, first through emails and then in person.
Aziz’s book, Sweet Blasphemy, takes most of the centre stage though. It is told from multiple perspectives – the main character, Shams, a dervish who leads a nomadic life in service to God, his eventual teacher and student (yes, both) and destiny, Rumi, and many others who cross Shams’ path. Shams, in his travels and observations of the world, has come up with forty rules that help live a better life and can get one closer to God. He has received a divine instruction to pass on that knowledge to someone who will be revealed to him in due time.
This book is about love, compassion, romance, human connection, while being deeply rooted in Sufism. A lot of the pearls of wisdom that Shams shares can be applied to life without yearning for God. It’s a story within a story, touching on the status of women in the 13th century and the present day, what love is, how it changes and also how life is constantly evolving, not just by our decisions but also those made by others.
A few months later…
The themes I pondered in my reread:
On the concept of submission and patience
I have talked about the practice of being kind to myself in a post recently and I want to revisit that idea here. The journey of planning a big event like a wedding is a teacher. In everything that has gone well and not so well, I have recognized opportunities to do better the next time, to understand myself and my loved ones and how we can all work together to have the least amount of stress on the day of. By being kinder to others, it is easier to be kinder to myself. But being kind means understanding the concept of submission and practicing that too. I haven’t thought of it that way until I reread these lines from The Forty Rules of Love:
One thing that has helped me personally in the past was to stop interfering with the people around me and getting frustrated when I couldn’t change them. Instead of intrusion or passivity, may I suggest submission? […] Submission is a form of peaceful acceptance of the terms of the universe, including the things we are currently unable to change or comprehend.
Aziz, in a letter to Ella, pg 54
I think submission is a way of letting go of the illusion of control, acknowledging that things will transpire as they do. We can influence people around us, but what they do isn’t something we can dictate, particularly when we want it to be genuine, lasting relationship.
When I sometimes get stuck in thinking about how the future will unfold, how I will react to certain things that might happen, I pause and tell myself whatever happens, in that moment, I would know best. Based on context, emotions, timing, the whole situation will be the best time to know what I should do. Thinking about it ahead of time isn’t going to be make me any better equipped. That is practicing patience and letting things play themselves out. But what is patience exactly? Shams sheds some light in the following rule:
Patience does not mean to passively endure. It means to be farsighted enough to trust the end result of a process. […] It means to look at the thorn and see the rose, to look at the night and see the dawn. Impatience means to be so shortsighted as to not be able to see the outcome.
Shams, pg 74
And to be able to trust oneself and be patient to see the outcome, leads to peace:
True power resides in submission – a power that comes from within. Those who submit to the divine essence of life will live in unperturbed tranquility and peace even when the whole wide world goes through turbulence after turbulence.
Shams, pg 292
On importance of knowing oneself
My twenties have been a learning experience. I left home, completed my education, got a job, met the love of my life and now we are on our way to celebrate our commitment to each other. A lot has happened and a lot is still yet to come. In recent months, I have dug deep into my tastes as well as realized when my expectations have been unrealistic.
As long as I knew myself, I will be alright.
Shams, pg 152
This quote makes me think of the power of decision. When we know something to be true and how we wish to pursue it, there is sense of finality. Knowing myself and why I make the decisions that I make helps me to be able to look back at what I did with clarity. I will not doubt my actions and hence, I will be alright and nothing will waver my faith in myself.
What we need is sincere self-examination. Not being on the watch for the faults of others.
Shams, pg 257
When I have been stressed and unhappy with people, the most liberating feeling has been when I have stopped thinking about their actions and started thinking about mine. Knowing what I know now, what would I do differently in this situation next time?
Books have so much to offer. When I glimpse any teachings for my life from them, I know I have not only found a book I want to go back to again, but one that will provide comfort. The Forty of Rules of Love has gems in the philosophy of love, living and being.
On a personal level, I am working on practicing kindness, submission and knowing myself so it is not surprising that these quotes are the ones that jumped out to me. I look forward to seeing what catches my attention next time I find this book on my bookshelf.
What’s a book you love re-reading? What new things have the re-reads revealed to you?
What do you think life on Mars is like? I am not talking about humans living on Mars, but the natives of Mars themselves. 😛 When you were learning about the planets in the Solar System and Mars for the first time, did you wonder how a being can survive there? Loved Mars Hated the Food provides answers to all your Mars-related curiosities in the most hilarious manner! As part of the first manned mission to Mars, chef, Dix, is meeting up with Martians to survive! Let’s take a quick look at the synopsis.
Dix Jenner, a self-proclaimed slacker, is the first chef to live—and maybe die—on Mars. After an explosion kills his colony companions and leaves him with nothing but his spacesuit, his time on the faraway planet is about to expire… until he’s rescued by friendly Martians Bleeker and Seepa, who smuggle him into their vast underground civilization.
Despite an unfamiliar world of telepathy, strange class dynamics, and really bad food, Dix sets out to make his mark. After opening a cafe—who knew Martians loved espresso?—he starts to notice that responsibility can feel good. Not only that, but he’s got a new romance, and for the first time he actually cares.
Unfortunately, his success attracts the attention of the corrupt and narcissistic Martian Grand Leader. Forced to run to avoid being imprisoned, Dix gets lucky: a NASA rescue mission lands on Mars. But seeing it brings back the dark secret he’s been keeping from himself about the colony’s explosion, and now Dix must choose between returning to Earth or spending the rest of his life in a cell on the dusty red planet where he belongs.
The Short Take
Loved Mars Hated the Food is a humorous novel by Willie Handler about a chef who is sent to Mars and, due to an unforeseen incident, befriends Martians. When Dix finds his human colony destroyed, Martians Bleeker and Seepa come to his rescue. What follows is Dix’s integration into the Martian culture, initiating a way of life that is very different from what he would have had on the rocky red surface of the planet.
While getting educated in the Martian ways, Dix has the opportunity to explain life on Earth to the very curious (scientists) Bleeker and Seepa. Dix uses his skills as a chef and his problem-solving mind that would do anything to eat good food, to keep himself fed and introduce the Martians to his beloved caffine.
There is humor in every chapter and situation but this book is deeper than that. This satirical novel exposes the way we live on Earth, the commercialization and addictions we have, while at the same time, educating the reader in what the living beings on Mars might look like and think of us strange beings. It is a thoughtful read where Dix finds a place for himself on a planet that isn’t his home, tackling the bigger question of what home is.
Themes for Thought
There are three main lines of thoughts that I want to mention about this book.
On the parallel between Martians and Humans
Says the Martian to Dix, being completely upfront about the advantages that taking him in offers to Martian science. I bet our scientists think it, but would never say out aloud. And as clear as Bleeper is about his and Seepa’s intentions to take Dix in and have him live with them, he is thoughtless in other ways… Sounds like humans?
Though there is a social hierarchy and deception in the society, Willie depicts Martians as brutally honest. One of my favorite scenes in the book is when Dix is talking about coffee and wonders out loud why Starbucks has not made it to Mars yet. Todd, the last robot remaining from the mission, is present at that point and explains, “Starbucks is a popular chain on Earth where customers have their names misspelled pn cups that contain overpriced coffee.” There are many such moments in the book where through the Martians, Willie offers a brutal perspective to life on Earth.
On who is an alien
Related to the above is the idea of perception. When the rescue group from Earth lands on Mars and Dix meets up with them, the way his peers and NASA talk about the Martians makes him realize the absurdity of the situation – that humans have landed on Mars and still think Martians are aliens when actually humans are the aliens to the planet!
This is an important lesson because there are always multiple ways of looking at things and Willie, thought this encounter, brings up the idea that we get so stuck in our ways of thinking and terminology, that we forget the context. We forget the present that we are in, where it may no longer match the words that we were using earlier.
On acceptance
Sometimes, we find who are meant to be through the most unexpected ways. We just have to be open to take the opportunity.
Who does not want to be accepted in the society? Who wants to feel like they are a lonely soul who no one likes or cares about? Dix was a slacker for a reason. Ultimately, when he had the chance to shine and take responsibility, he took the leap and became who he was meant to be. In some ways, Loved Mars Hated the Food is about a man making his dream of opening a restaurant come true. It is in the most unlikely of manners but here he is, giving espresso shots to Martians, and running a successful business.
Overall, this was a fun book and offered a unique perspective to space travel. I had a great time reading it and I suspect you will like it too. I am thankful to the author for providing me a review copy of the book. It was fantastic!
** Loved Mars Hated the Food is available in stores so get a copy and let me know what you think! I am sure it will tickle your insides. **
Amazon Print
Amazon Kindle
Stay tuned for my interview with Willie, out tomorrow!
For our October read, Ariel and I picked up The Memory Police by Yōko Ogawa, translated from Japanese by Stephen Snyder. We love dystopian stories and this one offered us a unique perspective on memory, loss and living. Below is our quick discussion about the book. Ariel’s comments are in bold. Let’s take a look at the synopsis and then we will dive into our discussion.
On an unnamed island off an unnamed coast, objects are disappearing: first hats, then ribbons, birds, roses—until things become much more serious. Most of the island’s inhabitants are oblivious to these changes, while those few imbued with the power to recall the lost objects live in fear of the draconian Memory Police, who are committed to ensuring that what has disappeared remains forgotten.
When a young woman who is struggling to maintain her career as a novelist discovers that her editor is in danger from the Memory Police, she concocts a plan to hide him beneath her floorboards. As fear and loss close in around them, they cling to her writing as the last way of preserving the past.
A surreal, provocative fable about the power of memory and the trauma of loss, The Memory Police is a stunning new work from one of the most exciting contemporary authors writing in any language.
Content Notes: Death, loss of memory
The Memory Police – Whole book Discussion
When I was young, I didn’t think much about memory and forgetting. As I got older, I started to notice how I would sometimes intentionally make memories and, when I would have a great day, I would want to document it in some manner. Our phones have made it easier to capture these moments, and I don’t generally worry about forgetting things, but recently, the more we rely on technology, the less things we start to keep in our minds. I hardly remember any cell phone numbers. My phone knows them for me. When you showed me this book, Ariel, I was automatically drawn to the loss of memory, forced loss of memory at that. I was interested to know how this would be executed. Why was this happening? And I am so glad we picked up this book and were able to peel some layers of the mystery! What drew you to this book?
I really appreciate any sort of dystopian book, especially ones that bring something new to the genre. Dystopia novels are a really cool way to see the world through the author’s eyes and what existential hopes and fears they may have in dire circumstances. What did you think of the pacing?
The story was slower than most books I have read but the more I read, the more intentional it seemed. When there is no way to know what will disappear next, everything is a bit surreal. We are in this waiting place, waiting for change to happen, not knowing what it will be. A lot of things were left to our imagination as the reader – what the people looked like, what their life looked like without the things that they had forgotten as well as the challenge of hiding the things that they were told to forget but had not forgotten. There is fear in the atmosphere that our main characters will be caught doing something which they should not be doing, and there is also a sort of rebellion to make life a little different. What did you think of the execution of the premise and the atmosphere in the book?
You know that feeling where you know you’ve forgotten something but you’re not quite sure what it is? There’s this quiet feeling of uncertainty of whether or not you should panic– was it a big thing I’m forgetting? Inconsequential? Until you’ve remembered that thing you’ve forgotten, you exist in that in-between of not-panic and uncertainty. That existence is the experience of stepping into the perspectives of our main character in this book, and it’s unlike anything I’ve ever read.
Our protagonist is a writer and her work in progress is about a girl who is a typist and loses her voice to the typewriter. Relating this to our protagonist’s premonition about loss of certain memories and how the story ends, do you have any thoughts around why this was the particular work of hers that we read? Was there an underlying message there?
I feel as though that story is highly metaphorical. My best interpretation is this: The typist could symbolize humanity, and the typewriter society. Humanity finds its meaning through connection, through community, through culture, through society. But what happens when the society takes all of those things away in such an efficient way humanity is stuck without any other option?
I like how we analyzed this at both those levels through our discussion. 🙂
It was interesting to me how little world-building there is in this story, and I think that it’s very intentional. The Memory Police simply exist and no one questions them. The widespread forgetting happens and no one questions it. It makes for a very interesting premise where we are almost begging for more, but the book just quietly continues on its trajectory.
The origins of memory loss and the memory police are unknown. As someone who wants to know all the whys and hows, I wish the story had gone a bit into it, but I can totally see that making it less mysterious and taking the focus away from the loss of memory itself.
Lived experiences shape us. I don’t know anyone nor have I read any books on Alzheimer’s and other memory loss diseases and I wonder if they affect the personality in the same way as this book showed with the protagonist. Is there dejection and resignation that they will forget people and things and just move on? We saw that in The Memory Police, people burned or got rid of things that they could no longer remember how to use. It’s a form of purging and cleaning that I had not anticipated.
It seems to me that it is more heartbreaking to be the one who remembers and seeing the loved one fading away. We still remember, we still have emotional meaning attached to the memories, while those who forget simply cannot feel the grief of the loss of those memories due to the fact they do not know to grieve their own loss. It brings up so many philosophical questions about the value of experiences and the significance we place on memories of people, places, and the things that surround us.
Concluding thoughts
The Memory Police is a unique book. I enjoyed it for many reasons and am now interested to dive deeper into the trope of memory loss (I am already reading a book which executed it via fading tattoos). It is a slow book and I can see it being a challenging read. Come to it with patience and the right mindset and I’m sure you’ll take tons away from it! Thanks Ariel for choosing this as our buddy read – it has been so much fun to read and discuss it with you! 🙂
Thank you for reading this with me, Kriti! I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who wants a slower dystopia read. There aren’t any grand schemes of rebellion or heroics, but rather the quiet ways that we seek to survive within injustice. That creates a slower pace that feels more literary-fiction than the action that many dystopias seem to subscribe to. Definitely worth the read for me!
That’s all for our discussion for The Memory Police! You know we love describing our reading experience to you! Here is a summary of our read:
posted by Dilip Poudyal @ 3:08 PM
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