Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

I just finished reading Mockingjay, and I can't stop thinking about it.  If you have not read the first two books in the Hunger Games Trilogy, read no further.  I'll do my best not give anything away, but I don't want to ruin this amazing trilogy for anyone who may not have read it yet.

In web video posted on Borders Book Club, Suzanne Collins reveals her inspiration for the Hunger Games.  Channel surfing on late night TV, she was struck by the irony between her choices of entertainment - reality programs and 24 hour news footage covering the Iraq war.  Collins grew up with her father fighting in Vietnam, and her view of war is very authentic, very raw. War is not a sanitized nightly news bite with statistics of casualties.  It is personal for her, and this is very evident in all three of her books, but particularly in the third.

A lot of people die in this book. The events of the first two books escalate into rebellion and full scale war.  And Collins holds nothing back.  Innocent lives are lost, on both sides of the fight, as each tries to gain victory.  Katniss finds herself struggling with some very important questions about what she will do to survive, how far she can she go to destroy the Capitol and still remain ethical.  How far the rebellion can go before the their fight becomes less about survival and more about kiling for the sake of total victory.  Collins creates certain situations in the war that hit far too close for comfort, given our county's current involvement in two wars half a world away.  Children die.  There are scenes in the book that make the end of Harry Potter look like a happy romp through fantasy land.  It feels so authentic that I found myself even more profoundly disturbed than when I read the end of the first novel even though, in my opinion, the Hunger Games depicted more graphic violence.

In this, Collins has accomplished her goal:  to make her readers, young adult or no, consider the effect the news media (and perhaps even our own government's censorship of the media) is having on us ordinary citizens.  To make us consider what war really means.  To appeal to our sense of decency and compassion even as Katniss struggles to maintain hers.

Readers will be gratified to know that Collins finally does answer, once and for all, the Gale vs Peeta question.  However, it is not the focus of the book, and the love triangle plays itself out in ways that, while realistic and true to the characters, are still entirely unpredictable.  This book is about war, not romance.  It is an examination of how love can be twisted and manipulated in the face of corrupt power.

I cannot speak highly enough about the impact of this book. It is disturbing, but for all the right reasons.

The Big Love by Sarah Dunn

The Big Love is Sarah Dunn's first novel, and by most counts a good debut. It's a chic lit book, a story about love and relationships. More specifically, it's a story of one woman's mission to overanalyze both. As one review I read mentioned, the book has a witty, Sex & the City vibe, treating humiliating situations with humor and flair, all the while delving into the phsychology of modern dating.

While at times I found Dunn's main character, Alison, a bit shallow and self-absorbed, I was also intrigued by the character because of her upbringing. Through Alison, Dunn introduces into the discussion of love an aspect of character that most chic lit writers avoid at all costs - religious upbringing. Alison was brought up as a conservative Protestant and, though she no longer practices the religion of her youth, still finds that it colors most of her attitudes and decisions regarding the opposite sex. Having experienced a similar upbringing, I can certainly relate, and I found it refreshing to have romance discussed in such a completely open way. I got the impression that Dunn used Alison as a conduit to express many of her own attitudes on love and religious upbringing (although I doubt Dunn, or anyone, could be as obsessively neurotic about the issue as the character Alison seems to be).

I think for most people it's true that religious upbringing informs the way we view all of our relationships, particularly romantic ones. Dunn not only acknowledges this, she dives strainght into the analysis of it. Of course, the book is about more than religion and romance. At its heart, it's a novel about finding love.

The novel begins with Alison's steady boyfriend of 4 years leaving her for another woman. What follows is Alison's search for love and happiness, when everything she thought she wanted disappears. In dealing with this massive blow to both her pride and her happily-ever-after future, Alison discusses, in brutally honest fashion, her attitudes and herself, which makes for entertaining reading, particularly if you can relate to her. At one point in the novel, she admits that "I do suffer from an affliction in which I believe that all of my male friends are secretly in love with me." Who among us women has ever had that thought, at one point or another? And who of us has ever been brave enough to admit it?

Dunn's approach to the age-old trope of falling in love is a modern breath of fresh air. I found a few of the plot points a bit weak, but overall The Big Love is a mindless, entertaining read, with some fresh twists thrown into the chic lit genre. Enjyable for a lazy Saturday afternoon.

My Rating: 3 stars

Re-readability Rating: 1 star

The Red Tent by Anita Diamant

The Story of Dinah takes up an entire chapter in the book of Genesis, and yet it is rarely mentioned in modern Christian traditions. In fact, though I spent the first 18 years of my life dutifully following Protestant Christianity, I had never heard of Dinah, daughter of Jacob, until I picked up The Red Tent. The novel re-imagines the story of Jacob through the eyes of women, in the process painting a fascinating picture of women in antiquity.

The backbone of Diamant's narrative employs several often ignored Old Testament anecdotes involving the women surrounding Jacob. After finishing the novel, I actually dusted off my Bible and read some of the chapters n Geneiss from which Diamant gleans her material. Sure enough, many of the stories were there. Diamant does change a few details. For example, she completely discards the idea that Jacob had to wait seven years before marrying Rachel, then another seven when he found he had been tricked into marrying Leah. She does this, most likely, to advance the plot, although I consider it an improvement, as I always found that particular detail of the Biblical story difficult to believe. Also, in Diamant's story, all four of Jacob's wives - Leah, Rachel, Zilpah and Bilhah - are sisters by the same father. Diamant characterizes the relationship between Leah and Jacob as a passionate partnership, rather than a distasteful marriage. However, the primary arc of the story, and the details involving Jacob and his sons, are largely unchanged. Jacob gets very little face time throughout the book, and events are never told from his point of view. This story is about the women and their lives together.

The Red Tent includes several details about women in Genesis that are either glossed over or completely ignored in modern religious tradition. For example, the fact the women worshipped and treasured the gods of their childhood is, for doctrinal reasons, never metioned in Sunday schools, but is a prevalent characteristic of womens' lives throughout the book. Diamant also fills in the details of female tradition and day-to-day life in ancient times, culminating in the tradition of the red tent. The red tent exclusively serves the women as an abode of rest and fellowhip during their monthly periods. It fosters female community and companionship, and allows Diamant to weave a beautiful and nuanced narrative for her characters.

The entire novel is told from Dinah's point of view, divided into the three parts. In the first part, Dinah relates the stories told to her by her four "mothers", encompassing the tales of the four wives of Jacob and their early experiences. Part II tells Dinah's story from childhood, culminating in the events of Genesis 34. In the final part of the story, Dinah relates her experiences in Egypt, and tells of her family there. If you are unfamiliar with the story of Dinah, I highly recommend reading Diamant's novel first, then comparing it with the Biblical text afterwards. I found that this made the impact of the story all the more powerful.

*Note: According to Bart D. Ehrman, a Biblical scholar and professor, the evoltion of the New Testament Biblical texts can be charted through surviving documents. In some passages, we have proof that the words of the passage were changed by the scribe copying the document, likely to have the text better represent their interpretation of the meaning. Ehrman is a New Testament scholar and, to my knowledge, make no claims about the book of Genesis. However, after reading The Red Tent, I began to think of the events in the Biblical version of the story, particularly the use of the word "rape". I'm inclined to think that either the word "rape" was later inserted, or that the meaning of the word has changed since the story was written. What do you think? Am I forcing my own interpretation onto the text? Or do you think Diamant's fictional story is a better representation of events?

My Rating: 5 stars

Re-readablity Rating: 4 stars