Review: THE PIRATE, by Jón Gnarr

The Pirate, by Jón Gnarr. Published 2016 by Deep Vellum. Translated from the Icelandic by Lytton Smith.

In the followup to Gnarr's The Indian and the second in a trilogy of fiction/memoir about 1970s Iceland, a young teen with learning and social difficulties finds himself attracted to punk rock and all it represents as he tries to find his way through school and family life.

Jón is a middle school kid stuck in the middle. At school his fellow students mercilessly bully him while his teachers barely register his presence, and at home his parents struggle in vain to control a child who's experimenting with drugs and drinking. Jón has an especially difficult relationship with his father, a police officer. He finds consolation in music and becomes drawn to punk rock with its heady mix of freedom, rebellion and camaraderie. Instead of going to school he hangs out with other disaffected kids- runaways, dropouts and misfits- where he starts to find community and a purpose.

Gnarr the writer does an incredible job of telling the story from a kid's perspective, showing Jón's naivete and idealism, along with poor judgement, tortured kid-logic and blasé cynicism and emotional detachment. When his grandmother dies, Jón takes it in stride: "She was from another world, a shadowy, ancient world where it was always cold and everyone was wet and either hungry or very ill the whole time. So they tended to die sooner or later." His relationship with his mother is summed up in the opening paragraphs: "She had a downcast expression. 'Come have a chat with me, Jón.' She wasn't angry. I hadn't done anything. I'd even been unusually quiet. But whenever I heard that tone in her voice it meant she blamed me for something, like the time she found cigarettes in my pocket." And his father is just "weird."

Gnarr goes on to describe the intolerable abuse he suffered at the hands of his schoolmates who stalk and beat him daily. He doesn't know what to say to his parents. It's as though the world is split in two, between what goes on inside and outside his home. He makes friends with a bus driver and finds a group of kids to hang out with with issues similar to his own. Little by little he finds some purpose, some things to believe in, rooted in the belief that he's different somehow:

My brain was like a nuclear power plant producing endless ideas and words. The words were three-dimensional, and under each word were sentences, new meanings, possibilities. The words swapped, merged, formed new sentences. the words played on the emotions like harp...But others didn't see me with my eyes. They wouldn't. They just saw me with their eyes. The lived in prison. but I was outside. I was free, but they were closed off...They were blind because they did not see.

Ah, yes, that wonderful child's belief that they know things adults don't, like the adults had never been kids or had utterly forgotten what it was like and are incapable of empathy. It takes a child's narcissism to believe that you know more about what someone else is thinking than they do, and I love how Gnarr replicates this state of mind so perfectly. It stands alone well but would probably be rewarding to read as part of the series too. The Pirate is brilliant, heartbreaking and so true to a kid's brain it's painful sometimes, great for adult readers of adult or YA fiction.

Rating: BUY

FTC Disclosure: I did not receive this book for review.

REVIEW: The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf, by Mohja Kahf

The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf, by Mohja Kahf. Published 2006 by Carroll & Graf. Fiction.

The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf is a enjoyable and moving novel about growing up Muslim in Indiana of the 1970s. Khadra Shamy emigrated from Syria as a child with her parents; her family is very close and part of a conservative religious community including Khadra's African-American friends Hakim and Hanifa. The novel follows her life from adolescence to marriage to early midlife, from Indiana to the Middle East and back again as she sorts through questions of identity, religion and belonging.

I read Tangerine Scarf for my interfaith book club and I think that it was a great choice. It's accessible and provides a lot of cultural and religious information as well as some great characters and fodder for discussion. I expect our meeting next week will be lively and I found it more approachable than some of the older historical fiction we've read in the past.

I also found Tangerine Scarf to be bracingly honest- author Mohja Kahf doesn't sweeten Khadra for a non-Muslim audience, for, by example, giving her political opinions other than those she would most likely hold- even at the expense of (for me) robbing her of a little sympathy when it comes to her views on, for example, Israel. At one point Khadra forms a friendship with an Orthodox Jewish young woman and I had to cringe a little at some of her views even though they make sense given who she is. Khadra's discomfort with some aspects of mainstream American life and identity also struck me as honest and appropriate given the context in which she lives. At the same time, it also made sense to me that she and this young woman would find common ground, as she does with the Mormon family next door- all members of highly structured religions whose observance is as much a lifestyle as a matter of faith.

Having said that, I think Tangerine Scarf is also just a very appealing book about a decent, relatable young woman who deals with questions common to many:

But what if she'd been just a regular Muslim girl trying to make her way through the obstacle course-through the impossible, contradictory hopes the Muslim community had for her, and the infuriating, confining, assumptions the Americans put on her? A girl looking for a way to be, just be, outside that tug-of-war?

That tug-of-war is the center of the book, as Khadra moves between cultures, lifestyles and the different people in her life- who also ask tough questions of themselves. Kahf shows that no one's life is simple, however it may seem from the outside. I particularly liked how Kahf portrays the diversity in the Muslim world and while the book has obvious appeal to those interested in Islam it would also appeal to readers who enjoy character-driven coming-of-age stories with a strong point of view and clear focus. I think young adult readers would also enjoy getting to know Khadra and empathize with her questions about herself and her place in the world. In the end Tangerine Scarf grows into a moving portrait of a self-realization and self-actualization as Khadra learns to love life and herself and begins to balance it all out.

Rating: BACKLIST

FTC Disclosure: I did not receive this book for review from the publisher.

National Reading Group Month

So I hear that October is National Reading Group Month!

Are you in a book club?

I love being in a book club because it encourages me to read outside my comfort zone and gives me the opportunity to talk to other readers about what we're all reading, and meet lots of great people. I've been in several over the years, from suburban library clubs to a college alumnae club to my current club, a religious club called The Daughters of Abraham, which I've written about before. And some of my most memorable reading experiences have come from book clubs, like

• Tender at the Bone, Ruth Reichl's memoir of food and growing up, now one of my favorite reads,
  
• The Translator, a beautiful literary love story by Leila Aboulela, which gave me some insight into the Muslim religion,
  
• Wuthering Heights, which was memorable only because I hated it so much,
  
• Since My Last Confession, by Boston author Scott Pomfret, who even came to our meeting,

and more.

For October, my club is reading Ariel Sabar's incredible book, My Father's Paradise. I'm so excited to talk to them about one of my favorite reads of 2008!

So now I want to hear about your memorable book club reads or experiences. If you want to blog about your book club, please feel free to leave a link so others can find your post, and please leave a comment if you link!