The first book is Divisadero by Michael Ondaatje.
Ondaatje has been a favorite author of mine since my undergrad (thanks, John Belshaw). I read In the Skin of a Lion for a history class on the Working Class in early 20th Century Canada. The novel was stunning. After, I sought out The English Patient and Anil's Ghost. Each novel was filled with this flowing, melodious prose that moves with perfect rhythm throughout the lines and pages. I was totally hooked. In particular, I have loved what Ondaatje himself represents for the Canadian Literature Canon. Born in Sri Lanka, Ondaatje immigrated to England and then to Canada in the 1960s. He studied in Canada and has written his entire body of published literature as a Canadian. His work, though often dealing with themes or ideas that many other Canadian authors have dealt with, has a distinct timbre that I have yet to find in the works of Canadians of white, European descent. While I must admit that my knowledge of the modern American Canon is quite limited, I have found that the well-known voices of modern American literature tend to have been born on U.S. soil, while the Canadian Canon seems to have a wider array of 'other' voices that are incorporated and lauded by our literary community. I have heard of these voices being present in the U.S. through my readings, but many have yet to break into the mainstream.
Divisadero is a maturation of Ondaatje's style. His prose is still poetic, but not as long-winded as it has been in previous novels. He has mastered the weaving style of his mysteries; they draw you in quickly and then demand patience as the story unfolds before you. Although my current stack of books to read remains quite tall, I plan to add Coming Through Slaughter to it. I can't seem to get enough of Ondaatje and would love to go back and see where it all started.
I next read Islands in the Stream by Ernest Hemingway.
I started reading this one back in May on a trip to Cuba. At the time I figured if I was going to visit some old haunts of Hemingway's, I may as well get a sense of the man. As it turned out, other reading took precedence during my visit and I didn't start the book until my last day there. I quickly became engrossed in the first part of the book, the story of the protagonist Thomas Hudson, during a summer at his home in the Bahamas. His three sons and a family friend come for a holiday visit and partake in fishing, swimming, drinking and a variety of other beach activities. Although there is nothing shocking or spectacular about the plot line, Hemingway manages to completely enthrall you with his terse descriptions of things and his pointed dialogues. During that trip to Cuba, I only managed to finish Part 1 of the story; I set aside the rest of the book for a later time. I'm actually glad that I did, as Part 2 and 3 are much darker and have a tragic tone overall. I finished up the book during my Christmas holidays, not the best time for sadness but appropriate for the darker season. Going from Ondaatje to Hemingway is truly day and night, if you'll excuse the cliche. Where Ondaatje is flowing and melodic, Hemingway is clipped and clinical. Yet, despite the shortness present in his prose, he still manages to paint a clear picture of the scene, the characters and, surprisingly, the emotions that teem under the surface of the story. I've never read anything of this type that drove me along in my reading. Usually, this type of writing and story would make me snore, but I couldn't put it down.
Finally, in a turn away from fiction, I read Hugo Chavez: Oil, Politics and the Challenge to the United States by Nikolas Kozloff.
I had been dying for more information on Latin American politics. With the current world political climate (dominated heavily in our hemisphere by the U.S., no surprise) I had been finding that media coverage of Latin America has been lacking. As in, non-existant. The only mention of Latin America that I've heard in the mainstream media in the last 12 months has been Barack Obama's condemnation of Columbia during the American Presidential Election campaign. So I was very pleased to pick up this great biography of current Venezualan president, Hugo Chavez. The author, Nikolas Kozloff, is a prolific academic writer who has spent many years in South America and writing about the politics of the region. The book discusses Chavez's influence as a power-broker, using oil as his main diplomatic tool in building a strong, left-leaning coalition of Latin American leaders. Kozloff is very damning of U.S. President Bush and his foreign policy team in their dealings with Chavez. It's not surprising: Bush seems to absolutely hate Chavez and most of their interactions have been extremely hostile. Kozloff's main thesis, though, is that the U.S. government, though they may be loath to do so, really does need to pay attention to Chavez and what is happening in Latin America. At the time it was published, the book stated that there was only one American air base in all of Latin America (located in Ecuador, it is the take-off point for American coca-field eradication efforts in Columbia). If the current political climate stays as it is, it will close this year, leaving the American military with no foot-hold in Latin America. Whoa!! While writing this, I came across a new article by Kozloff written this past May about the redeploying of the American Navy's 4th fleet into the Caribbean. If you don't have time to pick up Kozloff's books (yes, there is another one that I will likely add to my shelf soon), I recommend you click here. In some ways, I hope that Latin America stays off the mainstream media's radar - they never get anything right anyway. I also hope that Obama reaches out to Latin America because there are some amazing things happening there now, and most of us up here in North America don't have a clue what they are!
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