The New York Public Library

For my birthday, my daughter surprised me with a flight to New York, along with two nights stay in a hotel, and tickets to see "Jersey Boys."  We spent three days in total self-indulgence: eating, shopping, and sight-seeing.  It was a wonderful trip and the quality time with my busy daughter (mother of two) was the best part of it all.  But one of the real thrills for me as a librarian was seeing the New York Public Library.  If you know libraries at all, your mind has already conjured up the image of two lions guarding the steps of the Stephen A. Schwarzman building.  Stepping into the library, it was suddenly 1911 again, the opening year of the library. We walked along the mosaic floors through halls of heavy carved paneling.  There were beautiful murals on ceilings and old wooden tables with individual lamps.  Although I love the library I work in, with its computer workstations and trendy patterned carpeting and furnishings, the NYPL is the library of my dreams. Leather bound books, people reading newspapers on sticks (I didn't really see the sticks but I bet they were there!), and the warmth and comfort of being around readers.  It was Library Heaven.  

I flew to London Ontario last week on business. On the plane I selected "Room," a novel I had downloaded to my IPad quite a while back. I can honestly say this was one time that I wished for a longer flight.

The writing seemed a little odd and confusing at first because the narrator is a 5 year old named Jack. As the pages turned, or in my case, scrolled, I realized that Jack and his mother were being held captive by "Old Nick" in an 11 by 11 foot room. I won't reveal any more about this truly mesmerizing story only to say that this is a work of amazing intelligence and creativity. Read this and you will have Jack in your head for weeks. There is a lot of "feel good" in this book as well as tragedy, love, and surprise. And there was an additional surprise for me; author Emma Donoghue lives in London and is a personal friend of the collegues that I met with there. Perhaps these connections will be of benefit for MUSE members further down our literary road.

Olive Kitteridge

Olive Kitteridge is the common denominator in Elizabeth’s Stroud’s collection of 13 short stories.  Sometimes Olive is the lead character, other times she’s simply a supporting actress waiting in the wings in the salty seaside village of Crosby, Maine.   

Stroud goes against convention and presents us with a lead character that is, by all accounts, unlikable.  Descriptors would include abrasive, insensitive, large in physique and presence, outspoken, flawed yet fascinating.  Despite the hard shell, each of the stories unpeels another layer of Olive.  The reader witnesses Olive’s growing understanding of herself, her family and the small-town life around her.

The novel Olive Kitteridge won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2009 and was listed as “Best Book of the Year” by numerous publishers including The Washington Post, The Plain Dealer, and Library Journal.  The acclaim, in my opinion, is deserved.  In these powerful stories we find ordinary people trying to grapple with what life has dealt them; anorexia, cheating spouses, suicide, and even less serious daily irritations or delights.  Through love and acceptance they find relief.   

Reading these stories is like wearing an invisible shroud and slipping into the homes of our neighbors, i.e. people we claim to know but really don’t.  And how about those neighbors that you can’t tolerate?  Perhaps they are like Olive, unlikable, at least until you slip into their lives and view the world through the lens of their experiences.  Maybe they too become more endearing…just as Olive does in the last story. 

Kent State University’s MUSE Group will discuss this novel on March 1, at 6:30 in the Main Classroom Building, 400 Fourth Street, East Liverpool.  MUSE is free and open to the public.  Refreshments will be served.  Call 330-382-7421 for additional information

MUSE Group, Blair Memorial Library, Kent State, East Liverpool

All seats were taken around the large conference table for last night’s MUSE group.  About half the participants were there to discuss Stieg Larsson’s triliogy, the other half were there to learn about the books for future reading.  These are books that provide lots of material for discussion and the readers eagerly expressed their strong opinions, especially about the main characters.  Without exception, they loved Lisbeth Salander, noting her spunk, her sense of fairness (or shall I say revenge), her ability to compensate for inadequacies such as her size, her unique appearance, and her lack of concern for public opinion.  Remember that MUSE is free and open to all.  The next gathering is March 1 and the discussion is on Olive Kitteridge. 

Larsson's Millennium Trilogy

If you haven't read or heard of the Millennium Trilogy then perhaps you have been living under a rock for the last 6 years.  Stieg Larsson's best selling crime novels, translated from Swedish, include The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked A Hornet's Nest.  Perhaps you do have some literary awareness, have read the series and yearn for more by this author… sorry! Larson died just a few months after the first novel was released in 2004

Larsson witnessed a violent sexual assault on a young girl when he was only fifteen and, as an adult, expressed regret that he did not intervene.   The girl's name was Lisbeth.  He titled his first novel "Men Who Hate Women" and made Lisbeth Salander the protagonist. The U.S. publication was re-titled The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.  Sexual violence against women is prominent through this title as well as the sequels. 

Central to all of the stories are the characters Salander, the girl who..., and middle-aged Mikael Blonkvist, an investigative journalist for the political magazine Millennium (hence the Millennium trilogy).  Salander is a petite, young, antisocial, private investigator with a penchant for learning, revenge, and computer-hacking.  An unlikely team, Salander saves Blonkvist's life in the first novel and he, in turn, rescues her in later stories.

Be aware that The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo begins with a tedious explanation of Blonkvist's fall from grace due to his exposé of the Wennerstrom affair.   A hundred pages later, if persistence prevails, the story captivates as Blonkvist accepts a free-lance assignment for octogenarian Henrik Vanger.  Vanger charges him with solving the disappearance, some 40 years prior, of his beloved heiress niece. Salander gets involved and of course the inevitable love affair occurs as they go about turning the Vanger world upside-down.

Novels two and three are actually Part A and Part B of the same story.  Early on in The Girl Who Played with Fire, a triple murder takes place and Salander is accused.  She goes underground as a massive mob-mentality man hunt ensues.  It is in this book, that the tragic and abusive upbringing of Salander is revealed.  The novel comes to a close as Blonkvist rescues the severely wounded Salander from a grave.  Part B, The Girl Who Kicked Hornet's Nest, begins with Salander locked away in a hospital and fighting for her life. Despite the fact that Salander has proven her innocence in the triple murder, the courts believe she still has to answer for other misdeeds.  Blonkvist orchestrates a happy ending by revealing the true identity of her father and exposing “The Section,” the secret government agency that protected her father at the expense of Salander’s well-being.

If you are searching for a book with literary merit, one that will be taught in literature classes ten years from now, pass these by.  If you are looking for a good read, a page-turner, a well-crafted crime mystery, then head to your nearest library, borrow copies from a friend, or download them to your e-reader.   The over abundance of characters with unfamiliar Swedish names is a challenge, especially in the last novel with its extensive cast of policemen, politicians, special investigators, and journalists.  Also, Larsson tends to dwell, at times, on minor and tedious details, such as what they had for dinner or what groceries Salander would buy.  

Swedish versions of the movie have been released.  Apparently an American version is already in the making but it is uncertain how the movies can be improved other than to remove the subtitles.  The movies are true to the story and feature superb acting by actors and actresses unknown to American viewers.  The screen versions, having removed the mundane descriptions of groceries and meals, come across a bit darker and more violent and sexually explicit than the novels.

The Millennium book series will be the topic of discussion at Kent State University at East Liverpool's MUSE Group on February 8 at 6:30 in the Main Classroom Building.  MUSE is free and open to the public and refreshments (wine, soft drinks, and hors d’oerves cheese) will be served.  All three books will be discussed and it is recommended that participants read, at least, “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” before attending.  To receive additional information about the program or to get on the MUSE Group mailing list, call 330-382-7421.