FEATURE
Battle Hymn of the tiger Mother
by Amy Chua All parents want to do what’s best for
ginning the happy couple shared a hard- drinking, fast-living and exciting life in Jazz Age Paris with the fabled “Lost Genera- tion” (Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald). Although great fun for a while, when a child came along that lifestyle soon took its toll on the tradi- tional notions Hadley held of family and monogamy. Despite an extraordinary bond between the couple, a deception would finally lead to the unraveling of everything the duo fought valiantly to retain. The Paris Wife is a tale of love and loss, that paints a fascinating pic- ture of living in Paris in the scintillat- ing 1920s, as well as a portrait of a once sheltered woman who be- comes a wife, and eventually her own person. (The movie Midnight in Paris comically
and loosely covers this same period in his- tory and is a “fun go-see-do” after reading this novel)
the Double Bind by Chris Bohjalian
(Author of the The Midwives) After being attacked while riding her
bike through Vermont’s backroads, for- merly outgoing student Laurel Estabrook withdraws into her photography and a job at a homeless shelter. While working there she encounters Bobbie Crocker, a man with a history of mental illness and a box of photos he won’t share with anyone. When Bobbie dies suddenly Laurel is cer- tain that the photos hide a dark family se- cret, and embarking on an obsessive search for the truth she is led far from her old life and into a potentially dangerous situation. Although this novel is literary fiction, it is plotted like a mystery and readers familiar with F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” will find a correlation that makes this unusual work a read that often seems like a book within a book.
their children. In her book Amy Chua, pro- fessor of law at Yale Law School, sends the message that strict, uncompromising val- ues and discipline are what makes children raised by Chinese parents successful. While western mothers may praise a child for every squiggle drawn, Chua learned from her parents to accept nothing less than the best. According to Chua, “Chinese parents demand perfect grades because they be- lieve that their child can get them. If their child does not get them, the Chinese par- ent assumes it’s because the child didn’t work hard enough.” The “Tiger Mother” – whom Chua sees as a type of Chi- nese parent – is cruel to be kind. The cru- elty isn’t fun,
she insists, it is hard work. It doesn’t tear a child down it
demonstrates a parent’s respect for their child’s toughness and po- tential. But al- though it is hard to argue with her par- enting results, Chua
does admit that while her book started out to be a story of how Chinese parents are better at raising children than western ones, it turned out to be about a bitter clash of cultures, a fleeting taste of glory and how she was humbled by a 13-year- old.
All Over but the Shoutin’ by Rick Bragg Author Rick Bragg grew up in poverty
in northeastern Alabama. The second of three sons of an alcoholic, abusive father and a loving mother, he seemed destined for either the cotton mills or the peniten- tiary. Instead, he became a prize-winning journalist for the New York Times. This poignant memoir paints a beautiful picture of the warm and happy moments the author enjoyed with his mother and family even as she struggled to provide for them after they’d been abandoned. At the heart of this story is a mother who went without a new dress for 18 years, picking other people’s cotton so her sons could have school clothes, and her chil- dren wouldn’t have to live on welfare alone. Bragg describes his hometown as “a place
where grandmothers hold babies on their SANCLEMENTEJOURNAL 11
– who never had a romance – write so convincingly of love and heartbreak with- out ever having experienced it herself? Mixing facts drawn from Alcott’s personal letters and journals with fiction, Kelly O’- Connor McNees imagines a love affair that would threaten Alcott’s writing career and inspire the story of Jo and Laurie in Little Women. In this story, stuck in small town New Hampshire in 1855 Louisa finds her- self torn between a love that takes her by surprise, and her dream of independence as a writer in Boston. The choice she must make comes with a steep price, one she will pay for the rest of her life. This superb and thoughtful read will hook lovers of his- tory and of Alcott as well. b
laps under the stars, and whisper in their ears that the lights in the sky are holes in the floor of heaven. That this is a place where the song ‘Jesus Loves Me’ has rocked generations to sleep, and heaven is not a concept, but a destination.” With beautiful words and phrases like these, Bragg brings home the love and suffering that lie at the heart of every family. It is a read not soon forgotten.
the lost Summer of louisa May Alcott
by Kelly O’Connor McNees Millions of readers have fallen in love
with the novel Little Women. But the ques- tion remains; how could Louisa May Alcott
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