FRIDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2010 BOOK WORLD
‘Stranger’: Leaps of faith in trying times “S
by Carolyn See
tranger Here Below” is a novel about civil rights in the ’60s, the onset of the Vietnam War and
the legacy of various American religions — religions that may have died out but still influence how we live. The author, having made that first, ambitious set of choices, sometimes lives up to her materi- al and sometimes does not. “Stranger Here Below” is about Origi- nal Sin — whatever it is that made us aw- ful to begin with. The book takes its title from the grand old hymn: “I am a stran- ger here below, / And what I am ’tis hard to know; / I am so vile, so prone to sin, / I fear that I’m not born again.” The story is about good people trapped in a world that really is vile, really is prone to sin. The ability to recognize what is good, and then to identify with that goodness, is all too often far harder than it seems. In 1961, two girls enroll in Berea, a small liberal arts college in the Bluegrass region of Kentucky. The campus is close to what’s left of Pleasant Hill, a Shaker community. The Shakers have all died ex- cept for one very late-coming convert, Sis- ter Georgia, who lives alone in the desert- ed buildings, still worshiping in her own
unique way — whirling, dancing, shak- ing. Over on campus, the two freshman girls gaze warily on an academic civiliza- tion that is entirely new to them. Mary Elizabeth Cox, a naive African American, is not the first black student to have enrolled at Berea, but she is still one of only a few dozen. Her father is a strict Christian preacher; her mother has always been strange. Mary Elizabeth is the first person in her family to go to college. Her roommate, a good-na- tured, rawboned blonde named Maze, short for “Amaz- ing Grace,” is also the first of her family to go to college, but she comes from a very differ- ent world. She’s a mountain girl whose mother, Vista, grew up in a bleak little place. Vista was seduced by a Swed- ish coal miner who deserted her the day after their wed- ding. Vista has been forced to fend for herself and her child through the years. Mary Elizabeth and Maze are both scholarship girls. Mary Elizabeth is a bril- liant pianist, coddled by faculty and ad-
STRANGER HERE BELOW
By Joyce Hinnefeld Unbridled. 268 pp. $24.95
ministration alike. Maze’s strong suit is traditional weaving; the college main- tains a “weaving cabin” where students churn out artifacts that generate income for the institution. But both girls carry disturbing subconscious in- heritances. Maze’s mother has worked hard for years, but has finally been rescued by the mysterious Sister Georgia, who announces that she needs a caretaker. Mary Elizabeth’s situation is more problematic. Her mother still carries the mem- ory of a lynching that causes her to experience increasing- ly severe nervous break- downs. The author, Joyce Hinne- feld, seems to be suggesting that it’s all very well to say that our national wounds are well on the way to being healed, that the races are fi- nally getting along, but if atrocities have happened to
you or someone you know, they’re hard to get over. The suffering is simply too much. Meanwhile, the Vietnam War is sneak- ing up on everyone. The undergraduates
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argue about it, but the war isn’t real to them. Maze, by this time, has been turned on to the possibility of a different life. She’s seen crumbling Shaker journals that list the sect’s secret herbal remedies, and she realizes that if the Shakers lived off the land, the same thing is possible for herself and her classmates. She becomes conversant with Sister Georgia’s spiritual beliefs — beliefs that have kept her spir- itually safe and comforted all these years. But the thing that kept the Shakers from surviving was a strictly enforced mandate against sexual activity. Maze’s friends consciously and subconsciously consider that. Will their nascent back-to-the-land movement be corrupted by sex? Maze ponders this as she watches Sis-
ter Georgia living through her last days, serenely and spiritually attuned to the world. What if Maze and her friends in- deed went back to the land, farmed, made their own clothes, preserved their own food; what if they, like the Shakers, sim- ply elected to ignore the larger questions inherent in American life? Behind this plot, there’s a strong anti-
patriarchal feeling. It’s the good guys against the generals, the politicians, even Mary Elizabeth’s bossy Christian father. These men want life to be a certain way, their way, and these young people, if they
know what’s good for them, should bend their wills to that same purpose. But it should be said that within this
lofty plot and cleverly imagined charac- ters, the author allows herself some sur- prising weaknesses. Sister Georgia, for in- stance, is an interesting fictional con- struct, but a self-indulgence. She doesn’t really belong in the story and gets stuck with long chapters that the author seems to have inserted just because she wanted to. The book could have used a severe edi- tor.
What really is good for us? The world, as the old hymn says, is “vile, so prone to sin. . . . All feeling sense seems to be gone.” We’re left to fend for ourselves, to pay attention to the bits of education that seem right for us, and hope against hope that we’re choosing the right path.
bookworld@washpost.com
See regularly reviews books for The Post.
Sunday in Outlook The dark art of mathematical decep- tion. In pursuit of the world’s biggest waves. The rescue of Michael Vick’s dogs. The story of the King James Version. And the many delusions of American foreign policy.
Vargas Llosa, finally on the Nobel map
essay from C1
of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual’s resistance, re- volt, and defeat.” For years, the gossip was that Stock- holm would never recognize him because his politics were conservative, though many of his positions — on gay rights, for example — have been to the left of center. In 1990, he ran for president of Peru as a candidate of the right, in a fiercely contest- ed race against Alberto Fujimori. When he lost in the election, he angered Peruvians by taking Spanish citizenship. In 1997, when President Fujimori was in the full flower of his regime, Vargas Llosa’s book “Making Waves” was nominated for the National Book Critics Circle award for literary criticism. I happened to be on the board of directors of the NBCC at the time. We received a call before the awards cer- emony from a Peruvian who wanted to know exactly where Vargas Llosa would be sitting. Flustered to learn that Vargas Llo- sa would not be in an assigned seat, the caller slammed down the phone. As it turned out, Vargas Llosa was in Europe at the time and could not attend the event at New York University. When I called Vargas Llosa to tell him about the call, he said, “Oh, the Fujimoristas do that to me all the time. They just want to scare the hell out of me.” Three years later, he produced his masterwork, “The Feast of the Goat,” a blistering account of the last days of Do- minican Gen. Rafael Trujillo’s evil empire. For all his bracing work decrying totali- tarian strongmen, Vargas Llosa is no radi- cal revolutionary. He has been described as an intransigent neoliberal, a man with unshakable convictions that his country and people need strict economic disci- pline, membership in the world market and tough austerity measures at home. It wasn’t always so. Vargas Llosa began his career, as did many budding writers of his generation, as an unabashed leftist. A supporter of Fidel Castro, student of Marx- ism and member of a secret communist cell, he moved to Paris in the early 1960s, where he fell in with a circle that included
Nobel committee appreciates what authorities didn’t always
by Jacqueline Trescott
Mario Vargas Llosa, the Peruvian writer and literary giant in the Span- ish-speaking world, was awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize in Literature, the Swedish Academy announced Thurs- day. Vargas Llosa, 74, whose body of work includes more than 30 novels, essays and plays, is the first South American writer to win the coveted prize since Gabriel García Márquez, the Colombi- an storyteller who is much better known in the English-reading world than Vargas Llosa. García Márquez won in 1982. In part because of the spotlight Gar-
MARTIN MEJIA/ASSOCIATED PRESS
ONE OF US:Students in Lima, Peru, learn about fellow countryman Mario Vargas Llosa, winner of the 2010 Nobel Prize in Literature.
García Márquez, Carlos Fuentes and Julio Cortázar. But his sentiments quickly changed when the Castro regime impris- oned the outspoken poet Herberto Padilla. As time passed, Vargas Llosa became con- vinced that socialism and liberty were im- possible bedfellows and, by the 1980s, he was saying so unequivocally, in speeches and essays that left no doubt that he had strong political aspirations. But politics, he later admitted, was a thankless, punish- ing pursuit, “bringing to light the absolute worst in a person.” The two decades since that failed presi- dential run have been remarkably produc- tive for Vargas Llosa. He has written no fewer than 15 new books and firmly estab- lished himself as the most successful and prolific Latin American writer of the past quarter-century. The Nobel is only the most recent laurel in a career that has earned him the Cervantes Prize, the Prince of Asturias Award, the Planeta and count- less honors around the globe. But he has always been far more read within the Spanish-speaking world than outside it. He has titillated his readers by marrying his aunt and then writing about it; marry- ing his cousin and writing about that, too. In truth, he has written as easily about love as he has about tyranny, as nimbly
about rabid dictators as about powerless artists; he has given us “Vargas Llosa light,” in delightfully erotic (thinly veiled autobiographical) stories, and “Vargas Llosa dark,” in elaborately researched and profoundly illuminating historical novels. In November, he will add yet another of these to his burgeoning opus: “The Celt’s Dream,” about Sir Roger Casement, the in- defatigable battler for civil rights. But perhaps the most winning aspect of
Vargas Llosa’s career is his deep and abid- ing humanity. Generous in friendship, un- failingly curious about the world at large, tireless in his quest to probe the nature of the human animal, he is a model writer for our times. It is such a pleasure for me to write at last: This year, the Nobel Prize in Literature goes to an indisputable winner.
aranam@washpost.com
Marie Arana, a former editor of Book World, is the author of “American Chica,” “Cellophane” and “Lima Nights.”
ON WASHINGTONPOST.COM To watch video of the announcement, hear audio
of Mario Vargas Llosa discussing the prize, and see photos of other Nobel Prize winners, go to
washingtonpost.com/style.
cía Márquez drew to South American literature, Vargas Llosa’s best-selling work has been widely translated in English, French, Swedish and German. Like many Nobel laure-
ates, Vargas Llosa has writ- ten works that his country’s authorities didn’t appreci- ate. “The Time of the Hero,” released in 1963, described some of his harsh experi- ences in a military acad- emy, and school officials burned 1,000 copies. In their tribute to Vargas Llosa, the Swedish Acad- emy cited a theme of “the individual’s resistance” in announcing the honor. The prize was given, offi- cials said in a statement, “for his car- tography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual’s re- sistance, revolt and defeat.” When a representative of the acad-
clude “The Green House,” “Conversa- tion in the Cathedral,” “Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter,” “A Fish in the Water: A Memoir,” “The Feast of the Goat” and “The Storyteller.” He has been praised for his unblemished examination of hy- pocrisy, most often training an eye on Peruvian society and politics. But he has also produced humorous work and detective stories. Vargas Llosa, who was born in Are- quipa, Peru, spent some of his early years in Bolivia, but his family re- turned to Peru in 1946. His ambitions to be a writer were op- posed by his father, who sent him to military school. Leaving Peru for a while, Vargas Llo- sa worked as a language teacher and journalist in France. When he returned, he became heavily involved in the country’s politics and in 1990 became a candidate for president. He lost in a runoff and returned to writing. In the phone conversa-
Nobel Prize winner Mario Vargas Llosa.
tion Thursday, Vargas Llosa discussed what writers should do. “I think writers are citizens, too, you know, and have the moral obliga- tion to participate in the civic debate, in the debate about the solutions to the problems that societies face,” he said. “That doesn’t mean that I think that writ- ers should become profes- sional politicians. ...I nev- er wanted to become a professional politician. I did it once because the sit- uation in Peru was deeply, deeply seri- ous.” His other honors include winning
emy reached Vargas Llosa on Thursday morning, the newly minted laureate sound surprised and reflective. “Writ- ing has been such a fantastic pleasure for me all my life that I cannot believe that I am honored and recompensed for something that has been a recom- pense in itself, you know?” he said in a transatlantic phone conversation. Some of his best-known works in-
the Cervantes Prize in 1995, the highest literary honor in the Spanish-speaking world. Vargas Llosa is teaching this semes-
ter at Princeton University. The announcement continues the drought for American writers. No American has won the literature prize since novelist Toni Morrison in 1993.
trescottj@washpost.com
His affair could open door to truth, courage “gotcha.” Should I wait for counseling to
bring this up so there is a witness there? Aware but don’t care
Surely you don’t mean to imply that CAROLYN HAX Dear Carolyn: My husband is having an affair. I have
many forms of proof (did not need to search that hard). She works in the same company. I’m not surprised; he was texting her while we were on vacation with my family. I have not confronted him yet. Instead of his actually owning up to it,
NICK GALIFIANAKIS FOR THE WASHINGTON POST
I’m expecting him to say, “Well, can you blame me?” He has asked/pushed hard to go to counseling. I have agreed and told him to set up the appointment, but he has not. Sadly, I’m not really bothered by it. But if it begins to affect our children there will be hell to pay. I have several copies of e-mails over the past six months, including one where he calls my family pathetic (not sure what he based that on, except they are mostly intellects and he feels inferior). That bothers me more than the affair itself. I’m sure he thinks I am unaware. The immature part of me just wants to say
your raging contempt for your husband hasn’t begun to affect your children? There are two possibilities here, each with a different answer. The first is that you mean exactly what
you’ve written. In that case, you need to lock the immature part of you in the bathroom till the coast is clear, and then tell your husband what you’ve discovered. Then you need to say you can’t blame him (no, you can’t), because he hasn’t gotten anything from you that even remotely resembles affection for years. Then you need to say it’s (long past) time for you both to be honest, like the adults you (allegedly) are, and decide what’s best for your kids at this point. The second possibility is that you’re deeply hurt, and you’re lashing out in a misguided attempt to shield your sadness, disappointment and humiliation over the failures of your marriage that have culminated in your husband’s affair. This possibility may be a long shot,
granted. But you’re saying “I don’t care” and then squaring yourself for a fight — when a true “I don’t care” is all about not fighting anymore. Even if what you’re feeling is a passionate dislike, that’s still
passion, and that’s still having feelings for him. In that case, you need to recognize
that you’re not so much the victim of his actions as the willing, somewhat twisted beneficiary of them. You’re hiding behind him: By agreeing to counseling but letting him fail to make the appointments, and by remaining passive as you watched him crave attention to the point of seeking it elsewhere, you’re letting him be the bad guy. Could it be that this long, passive
goodbye feels easier to you than taking the emotional risk of admitting your feelings, admitting your failings and trying to save your marriage? If so, I hope you’ll start admitting all this before it’s too late. Either way, the only move you have
left that’s solidly in the best interests of your kids and your marriage — and your integrity — is for you to find your courage and tell your truth, wherever that happens to lead.
Write to Tell Me About It, Style, 1150 15th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20071, or tellme@
washpost.com.
ONLINE DISCUSSION Carolyn Hax’s weekly Web chat is at noon at www.
washingtonpost.com/discussions.
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