Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage by Alice Munro

Reading books is sometimes akin to voyeurism – we become privy to the innermost feelings of the characters/authors, their unspeakable longings, untold sadness, unrequited love, and more. And therein lies the immense pleasure and satisfaction of reading, we find kindred spirits and maybe even ways to deal with our own issues.

Alice Munro, the master storyteller, offers ample such opportunities. With an assured and delicate hand, she weaves profundity and clarity into each tale, and I for one, relish every moment of it. Take the title story in this collection for example, a story about Johanna, the spinster who is cruelly tricked into a non-existent relationship, by a pair of teenagers no less (ah, teenagers…).  Is it a story of pride and humiliation, or fate's surprising and mysterious ways? In Munro’s deft hands, it is a tale of serendipity, redemption, and love.

The Sport of Kings by C. E. Morgan

Sweeping, engrossing, deeply regional, and unabashedly melodramatic, this is a book that tries to do a lot, centering on the lives of three generations of a white Kentucky family, with vignettes reaching back to the the dark days of slavery, and ending just before Obama became president. In between, the author sprinkles tidbits of information about horses, racehorses to be exact. I do not think I will ever look at thoroughbred horse racing, i.e., the sport of kings, the same way again – those magnificent creatures, products of ghastly and grotesque inbreeding, stand as symbols of race and race relations in America. The author writes poetically and passionately, the sections on horse races simply crackle with suspense and energy, one can smell the dirt, hear the thundering hooves, and taste the victories and defeat hanging in the air...

This is a compulsive read, almost impossible to put down. And yet, I came away not satisfied. There are books that move you because you are so invested emotionally in the characters, flawed but real people, making you root for them and suffer with them. Here, none of the characters are really likeable, making their travails and tragedies much less resonant. The only character that hooked me from start to finish is the thoroughbred horse Hellsmouth, glorious and fragile, with a heart too big for her own good.

Someone

Child of My Heart

By Alice McDermott

Some writers dazzle, others quietly assert. Alice McDermott decidedly belongs to the latter, but through her lyrical and elegant prose, the characters dazzle, with all their insecurities, shortcomings, and determination. 

Someone, an almost meaningless word for a book title, brings forth its main character Marie and her relatives and friends, as vividly as if they were my own friends and acquaintances. I lived with her, through her, in her Irish American neighborhood in Brooklyn, from childhood to old age, a bittersweet journey of triumph and loss. 

Child of My Heart is a coming-of-age tale of sort, as fifteen-year old Theresa, beautiful and wise beyond her years, navigates South Hampton, Long Island, land of the rich and troubled. A much-in-demand babysitter and dog sitter, she becomes not just an observer, but a participant, in the lives of the children and pets entrusted in her care. How much can a loving and loved teenage girl do, to save/rescue those she loves? And what about her? I could not help but feel an increasing dread as I read on, about Theresa herself, whether she would fall prey as well… It is a tale of love, the tender bond between children and between children and their parents, of young and old love, reciprocated, unrequited, and fleeting…

All of us, at one point or another, must have felt "the inevitable insufferable loss buried like a dark jewel at the heart of every act of love."  Our lives, one hopes, are enriched by such loss. Wouldn’t you rather have loved and suffered, than not loved at all?