Book 6 "The Girl You Left Behind" & 7 "How to Run a Traditional Jewish Household"
I have hit a road bump in my reading. Neither were books that I particularly enjoyed so they went dreadfully slow and I avoided reading them rather than rushing through, as I normally do with books I love.
The first one, I thought I would really like, and didn't. It was "The Girl You Left Behind" by Jojo Moyes, the same author as "Me Before You". I figured that her writing style would carry over and that she would develop the characters in the novel. Some writers are great like that such as Agatha Christie. I could read 10 Agatha books in a row and not get the least bit annoyed with them! But Moyes didn't keep a standard writing style and the story was flat and really didn't do anything for me.
The story begins in 1916 Peronne, France where the Germans occupy the small town and start rationing the portions of food, housing and everything to the people of the town. There are sisters, one named Sophie, who is the protagonist. They manage a small restaurant but since the war began they don't have any food or money. Both have husbands in the army and they are left alone. Along comes strolling a German Kommendant, he eyeballs the sisters and has his attraction on Sophie. He approaches them asking them to cook every day for his soldiers, and they understand, that they will get some scraps of food to feed their children. The Kommandant falls in love with Sophie, particularly a painting of her that her husband made. She wants her husband to come back from the war so offers to give the Kommandant the painting in exchange for her husband. The giant German invites her to bring her painting to his room where he wants to take more than the painting in exchange for her husband. Sophie agonizingly endures sleeping with the Kommandant, all the while making faces and crying, so he gets offended and throws her out naked and cold into the night.
The next day she is taken away by soldiers to a truck and to a work camp. As she is dragged away the entire town screams "Putain!" (whore)....lovely, right?
Fast forward to...oh..2007 lets say. This woman< Liv, has the painting of Sophie. It was a wedding gift from her now dead husband. She meets and sleeps with a handsome man, Paul, who turns out to be a detective of stolen German art. He immediately recognizes the painting of Sophie and wants to return it to the family of Sophie. They fight, she gets a lawyer, she gets crazy and travels to France to find proof that it wasn't stolen. She wins the legal battle, looses her house, and moves in with Paul.
In the end it turns out that Sophie was somehow taken to her husband at her request of the German Kommendant.
I really didn't care for this story. Here are 3 reasons why:
1. The author tried to write about war life from the perspective of a French woman in the 1910's. I'm sorry, but it is nearly impossible to authentically imagine what that was like if the author is British. the cultures and time are too distant to really grasp the meaning of things. I found her style to be patronizing.
2. There was no linear story here. Too many things happened that really didn't connect with a main idea or theme.
3. Why did the women all get themselves in trouble sleeping with men?
Couldn't there be other ways the author could have made them get in trouble? It just didn't do women any favors to write that. For petes sake, Miss Marple, heroine and detective extraordinaire of Agatha Christie's novels, never flashed anyone her underpants, let alone let someone in them to get herself into trouble.
Book 6: "The Girl You Left Behind"by Jojo Moyes
The first one, I thought I would really like, and didn't. It was "The Girl You Left Behind" by Jojo Moyes, the same author as "Me Before You". I figured that her writing style would carry over and that she would develop the characters in the novel. Some writers are great like that such as Agatha Christie. I could read 10 Agatha books in a row and not get the least bit annoyed with them! But Moyes didn't keep a standard writing style and the story was flat and really didn't do anything for me.
The story begins in 1916 Peronne, France where the Germans occupy the small town and start rationing the portions of food, housing and everything to the people of the town. There are sisters, one named Sophie, who is the protagonist. They manage a small restaurant but since the war began they don't have any food or money. Both have husbands in the army and they are left alone. Along comes strolling a German Kommendant, he eyeballs the sisters and has his attraction on Sophie. He approaches them asking them to cook every day for his soldiers, and they understand, that they will get some scraps of food to feed their children. The Kommandant falls in love with Sophie, particularly a painting of her that her husband made. She wants her husband to come back from the war so offers to give the Kommandant the painting in exchange for her husband. The giant German invites her to bring her painting to his room where he wants to take more than the painting in exchange for her husband. Sophie agonizingly endures sleeping with the Kommandant, all the while making faces and crying, so he gets offended and throws her out naked and cold into the night.
The next day she is taken away by soldiers to a truck and to a work camp. As she is dragged away the entire town screams "Putain!" (whore)....lovely, right?
Fast forward to...oh..2007 lets say. This woman< Liv, has the painting of Sophie. It was a wedding gift from her now dead husband. She meets and sleeps with a handsome man, Paul, who turns out to be a detective of stolen German art. He immediately recognizes the painting of Sophie and wants to return it to the family of Sophie. They fight, she gets a lawyer, she gets crazy and travels to France to find proof that it wasn't stolen. She wins the legal battle, looses her house, and moves in with Paul.
In the end it turns out that Sophie was somehow taken to her husband at her request of the German Kommendant.
I really didn't care for this story. Here are 3 reasons why:
1. The author tried to write about war life from the perspective of a French woman in the 1910's. I'm sorry, but it is nearly impossible to authentically imagine what that was like if the author is British. the cultures and time are too distant to really grasp the meaning of things. I found her style to be patronizing.
2. There was no linear story here. Too many things happened that really didn't connect with a main idea or theme.
3. Why did the women all get themselves in trouble sleeping with men?
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| This would have been a better cover. |
Couldn't there be other ways the author could have made them get in trouble? It just didn't do women any favors to write that. For petes sake, Miss Marple, heroine and detective extraordinaire of Agatha Christie's novels, never flashed anyone her underpants, let alone let someone in them to get herself into trouble.
One of my goals this year was to alternate one novel with one non-fiction book on a topic I know little of in hopes that I would learn something useful. I like household books that are filled with tips on how to do laundry, and always wanted to know how one is supposed to exactly run a household. There are manuals for everything in life. When I went to college in Bob Jones University, SC I took a class on "Home Economics" where the "professor" taught us how to keep a house clean, host a dinner party, look decent for your husband and speak like a lady. Damn if I could remember the last part! Just kidding, but I wish I would have learned a million other things that just aren't explained in life. So I have an affinity to housekeeping manuals hoping to find the answers to my questions. "When do you shut up in an argument?" is one of them. Another, "If you are working, when do you clean the floor and how often?" That one always gets me. I don't want to clean on weekends (they are for going out or relaxing), weeknights (I'm too tired from work and driving in traffic), or mornings (just put my make up on, hello!) so that rules out all of my available time...but I need a clean floor and love a good clean floor so usually it happens on Sunday evening but ideally it should happen on Friday morning at 11, just before the weekend starts so the entire weekend it smells lemony fresh.
Anyway, back to the Jewish Household Manual. I really liked it. I learned so much about a different religion (Orthodox in this case) and ways of doing things and reasons. The book is stacked with information so here are 5 things I learned:
1. Shabbat: My brother has gone to Shabbat dinners in Poland and raves about the entire fish he is served. Shabbat is the Lord's day in Orthodox traditon. It is awesome! It starts on Friday at sunset and ends on Saturday at sunset. What happens to prepare for it is so cool. So the rabbis decided that you should not start fire, tear fabric, work, or cook on Shabbat. In preparation for it the women cook, cook, cook, the kids pre-tear toilet paper (funny), clothes are cleaned and the best things are laid out. This inspired me to make one very special thing for Sunday. Take pudding for example, make it only for Sunday dessert. Yum. Or make sure all of my chores (washing the floor) are done by Sunday so I can use that day to really relax, learn, pray or spend time with my family.
2. Taharat Hamishpachah: I think I spelled that right. So. the Orthodox Jews have laws of purity during a woman's cycle, called niddah. This means that women and men have separate beds (awesome), where the woman can stay in her own little bed undisturbed. Once it is over she and her husband can't sleep together for another 7 days, total 12 days at least of sleeping separate. On the night of the 7th "clean" day she goes to have a special bath called a mikvah where she is inspected, then bathed, nails clipped, hair brushed, and sent home to hanky-panky. I think it is a good system. This tradition ends on the 14th or so day of a woman's cycle and usually when she is on her best behavior.
3. Speech: there are many laws pertaining to speech. There are prayers one must say for many things to give thanks, when wearing a particular new item, when one's family is in danger, when a baby is born. These ritual prayers happen daily. Also, gossip is forbidden and is equated to socially killing a person in front of his or her enemies.
4. Kosher food: wow, there are so many rules! Kosher food must be approved by a rabbi. You can't cook meat and dairy together or even use the same containers. You can't eat meat or dairy within a 6 hour period of each other. You can't use utensils for meat that you used for dairy. Fruits are generally kosher so ordering them in a restaurant is, well, kosher.
5. Circumcision (Brit Malah): baby boys must be circumcised on the 8th day after their birth and at this time he is named. It is commanded that they must. A clamp, yes, a metal clamp pulls the outer layer of the itty-bitty new born wee-wee then cuts the foreskin off. Blood must be drawn. If the baby bleeds too much the Mohel, penis chopper, may suck the blood off...this has given a few babies herpes and is usually not allowed. If a boy has not been circumcised for whatever reason, it must be done without pain killers and blood must be drawn. I find the whole thing really nauseating to think of. Poor little babies with their little baby penises. After the whole chopping of the wee-wee the baby gets some wine on his lips to soothe him and a big feast is had.
There were many more interesting things I learned and I am sure I won't remember it all but I did take away some good inspirations: pray more over little things just as much as the big, make something nice for dessert for Sunday, and gossip less.
I'm really hoping to read something I love soon but it just seems to be one of those dry stages when book after book is not satisfying. The book I am reading for my booclub now is also not as good as I hoped because the protagonists last name is one of my previous boss who was not the nicest person in the world. Maybe I will throw in an Agatha Christie in there, she never fails to get me hooked.
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