Everfair--The "Utopia" of the " Practical Dreamers"

A frequent objection to utopian literature is that it's boring.  Fiction relies on conflict.  There is no conflict within a perfect society. One way of dealing with this problem is to develop external threats which the utopians must combat.  Yet the big question that undermines the very existence of utopia remains. Is it possible for a society that intends to be utopian to be perfect for all those within its borders? 

Everfair by Nisi Shawl is an alternate history that approaches utopia honestly by attempting to address that big question.  I received a free copy from the publisher via Net Galley in return for this review.

                                  

Nisi Shawl's alternate historical concept is that in the late 19th century part of the Congo that had been colonized by Belgium was purchased from the King of Belgium by an organization of British socialists called the Fabian Society.  The Fabians intended to establish a democratic, cooperative and peaceful society in which individuals of all races could live in harmony, and they intended to do this in the Congo.  Anyone who knows the horrific history of the Congo during this period would be certain that these alternate Fabians who were blithely wandering into a genocidal nightmare must be quixotic lunatics who were bound to be slaughtered.  Yet one of their leaders in this novel refers to the Fabians as "practical dreamers".

In order to get an idea of the Fabian perspective, I read It's fab to be Fabian  , an article that was reprinted in the UK Guardian by 21st century Fabian, Paul Richards.  He discusses their history, and why he thinks that Fabian socialism can work in contemporary Britain.

One thing that I noticed about the Fabians in Everfair is that they were continually assuming that allies or settlers in Everfair with very different cultural backgrounds shared the same attitudes and goals as they did. Without a certain Chinese inventor who evidently wasn't a pacifist like the Fabians, Everfair wouldn't have survived for very long.  So these dreamers weren't  as practical as they thought they were.  I think that the Fabians were a catalyst for change in the Congo, but they weren't the actual changemakers.

My favorite changemakers in Everfair were women.  Bi-racial Lisette Toutournier was able to navigate between African and European factions. Queen Josina's gifts of the spirit built bridges, and kept her royal husband on track toward their mutual goals.  Fwendi's extraordinary  paranormal ability facilitated her talent for espionage.  None of these three women considered Everfair a utopia. 

It was unconscious racism that made Lisette feel like an outsider.   In fact, I believe that the establishment of Everfair was based on the racist concept of "The White Man's Burden".  This is the title of a poem by Rudyard Kipling that promulgated the idea that it's the obligation of Europeans to bring "civilization" AKA European values to Africa.   That's the philosophy that justifies colonialism in a nutshell.  I'm sure that as the rulers who had been displaced by King Leopold of Belgium, Josina and her husband Mwenda, never lost sight of the fact that Everfair was really a colonialist presence.   Fwendi was a beneficiary of Everfair technology, but as an African woman she struggled to be accepted on equal terms.

The Fabians seemed to have perceived their purpose in Africa as benevolent.  Obviously, they weren't conscienceless killers like King Leopold, but they were still European occupiers of African territory.  So what was a utopia to the Fabians, very definitely wasn't one to the characters who were persons of color.

 I value Everfair for its originality, its insight and  the moving stories that it told about a number of well-developed characters.   I consider it a strong candidate for the finest novel that I read in 2016.

                                  
                                       

   



                              

This Above All-- A Girl Portraying Shakespeare's Romeo

This is a review that I wrote for Flying High Reviews. I decided to copy it to this blog, so I could add an additional paragraph about Shakespeare in the context of the novel which I thought my readers would appreciate.

This Above All by Lindsey Roth Culli is a  contemporary YA novel which is a potent stew of Shakespeare, gender, sexuality, religion and growing up in the American Midwest.   I received a free copy from the indie publisher, Curiosity Quills, in return for this honest review.

I have previously reviewed two other Curiosity Quills releases Alice Takes Back Wonderland, a rather wonderful fairy tale mashup and The Heartless City , an alternate history dystopia based on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde which I found compelling and enjoyable.  I expected This Above All to be more conventional compared to those previous outings.  In some ways, it was very much like a standard YA novel, but in others it very definitely wasn't.

                               

The conventional aspect was high school.   I tend to avoid YA novels that take place in high school.   Most of these have predictable character types, dynamics and plots.   This Above All contained those elements.  There were false rumors, bullying and relationships plagued by miscommunication.  Juliet was played by a stereotypical popular mean girl.  It seems that the director of this Romeo and Juliet didn't prioritize chemistry between the leads.

Sexuality was a theme, but This Above All didn't really focus on sexual relationships as is appropriate in a YA novel. While the specter of lesbianism fueled controversy, there was no actual lesbianism. Heterosexual romance played a role in the plot of this novel, but it wasn't predominant.   There was a gay character named Tony, but his life wasn't front and center either.  I read a review on Goodreads that was disappointed that we didn't find out more about Tony's family interactions.   Tony played Mercutio.  If it's true that Shakespeare needed to kill off Mercutio to prevent him from taking over the play, as is stated in this book, it's probably also true that Culli wanted to make certain that Tony didn't upstage Piper, her protagonist.

I felt that the way Piper deals with her real female identity while portraying a male role is the most interesting aspect of this book.  She initially had her doubts whether she could or should be Romeo.  Yet once she became accustomed to the idea, she threw herself into her fictive male identity.   I wouldn't say that Piper is a transgender character.   It seemed to me that Culli wanted to show that it's possible for a girl to play with masculine gender traits in a theatrical context while still retaining a core self-concept of being female.  Piper has more in common with historical women who dressed as men to achieve career goals than with individuals who seek to transition to another gender.

Women becoming fictive men is a concern of Shakespeare--particularly in Twelfth Night and As You Like It.  These plays aren't mentioned in This Above All, but I believe that Piper was definitely following in the footsteps of Viola and Rosalind.   Culli displays knowledge and affection for Shakespeare's work throughout her book without overwhelming us with scholarship. The title itself is taken from a speech made by Polonius in Hamlet.   As someone who loves Shakespeare, I appreciated how the author wove the Bard of Avon into the book.

Piper's fundamentalist Christian family brings religion into the mix of themes.  It is they who stir the cauldron of outrage over Piper playing a male role.  Her pastor father is shown as being sincerely concerned about Piper's spiritual well being.   As I am not a Christian myself, I wouldn't presume to make statements about the true nature of Christianity.   Over the course of the narrative, Piper changes her own views about religion.  She ponders how she can maintain a relationship with God, and comes to her own independent conclusions.   It seems to me that for Piper developing a personal approach to religion is part of the process of becoming an adult.

This Above All is a book that will cause readers to reflect on a number of topics, but I think they will also be moved by the courage of Piper and Tony, and the  chosen family they found in the cast of Romeo and Juliet.   As we have seen in the TV series Glee, communities of performers can be powerful support systems for teens who feel like outsiders in a hostile world.  Anyone who has felt at odds with their families, or with society in general will be able to relate to Piper.

                            

The Cover of This Thriller Would Offend The Protagonist

I decided to purchase Unassimilated by Michael Ben Zehabe from Amazon and agreed to review it for Bookplex because I was interested in the description, but I shook my head over the cover.  This is the first review that I am posting to this blog without a cover because the cover doesn't reflect the content of the book.

Imagine a central character who is a Middle Eastern refugee dealing with PTSD and culture shock.  Then think about how she’ll deal with being thrown into an undercover assignment for the FBI.  Will she sink or will she swim?  I certainly found this scenario intriguing. 

Protagonist Zoe Mousa is a wonderful character. Yet many readers will never find out about her because the cover of this book is so misleading. Perhaps the author thought it might increase sales.  Ben Zehabe may not realize that his cover amounts to deceptive advertising.   It is an appropriate cover for erotica, but there are no sex scenes in this thriller.  Not only this, but it’s a poor representation of the central character’s values.  Zoe prefers to dress modestly in accordance with her upbringing.   Another marketing problem posed by this cover, is that no one will want a post about this book to be going out to their friends’ feeds on social media. I can't even add the book to a shelf on Goodreads without the cover going out on my feed. It could cause problems for my Goodreads friends at work, or in their homes if they contain children.  This is why I won't be reviewing this book on Goodreads.

I wish that Unassimilated had a cover that better represented its content because this novel deals with some important themes.  In addition to the challenges facing immigrants, there is also the issue of technology’s increasing role.  The TV show Mr. Robot has brought the power of hackers to cause disruption to the fore.   The hacking element in Unassimilated caused me to reflect even more on how vulnerable our technology makes us.

Although I found only one typographical error, I need to point out an inconsistency in this novel.   Ben Zehabe doesn’t seem to be aware that the United States has an agency that deals with overseas espionage called the CIA. The FBI is limited to domestic operations.  This is the second time that I’ve seen this error in a thriller.

Zoe makes some serious mistakes in judgement, but I felt that they are very much in character considering her background.    My affection for Zoe deepened over the course of the narrative as I learned her entire story.    I recommend this book to anyone who likes character complexity with their thrill rides. 

                                

   

My Experience With Reviewing For Bookplex

I have been a reviewer for Bookplex  since February 2012.  I posted my first review for them on my former blog here.   My first post on this blog was a review I wrote for Bookplex.

 Today Bookplex has asked their reviewers who blog to post about our experience with them.   Some individuals continue to say that Bookplex reviews are dishonest and that our reviews aren't valid.   They have been saying the same things for as long as Bookplex has existed.  I may not be able to change their minds, but I can tell you the complete truth about the kind of reviews I write for Bookplex.

Those who read my blog know that all my reviews are honest.   I rarely write reviews that are completely positive or completely negative.   Most of my reviews contain some criticism.   This has also been the case with my reviews for Bookplex.  I always mention Bookplex in the reviews that I write for them. So you can locate all of them with a search, but I thought I'd point out a few examples. 

  Here's an example of a review of a Bookplex book that I consider balanced.  It contained some praise for the concept, and the portrayal of Soweto residents.  It also contains criticism of  the protagonist's characterization and mentions editing errors.  I won't say that I've never given a Bookplex book unqualified praise.   Here is the post about the book that I thought was the best that I reviewed for Bookplex in 2015.  I also have an example of a review of a Bookplex book that I considered extremely flawed. You can read that review here .  Please note that even when my review is largely negative, I try not to be harsh or disrespectful to the author.   

I believe that writing reviews for Bookplex has made me a better reviewer.  Bookplex has a number of requirements for reviews. So I need to be much more thorough when I review for Bookplex.  I now take very detailed notes about books as I read them because of my experience with Bookplex.  I now pay much more attention to copy editing errors because a Bookplex review requires me to mention them, and what sort of errors they were.  I also pay more attention to the cover, and whether I consider it effective. That is another required element of a Bookplex review. 

There's definitely a serious problem with fraudulent reviews on the internet.  There are people who write reviews without having read the book.  Such a review would never pass muster with Bookplex.  Bookplex reviews need to be detailed.  I make sure that it's obvious in my review that I read the entire book from beginning to end.  Given the standards that Bookplex has for reviews, I think that Bookplex isn't part of the problem.  It's part of the solution.  

                               

Roses and Rot by Kat Howard

 As a child I instinctively shied away from stories about Faerie.   I liked Tinkerbell in Peter Pan because she was vulnerable.  She was the only one of her kind, and could fade away if people didn't believe in her.  Yet in the tales, the Queens and Lords of Faerie didn't seem to have that problem.  They had immense powers which they would wield unpredictably.  I wanted predictability and dependability in my world. 

As an adult I have often said that I have an allergy to the Fae.  "Seelie" and "Unseelie" were the words that were most likely to precipitate my full blown Fae allergy attacks.   They would make me shudder.  In many stories, these are Fae factions each of which has their own royal court. I have always hated human royal court intrigues.   They're all about the acquisition, maintenance and abuse of power. I find them repulsive, and the Fae version hasn't seemed to be any different.

The last time when I deliberately subjected myself to the Fae was when I read Ink and Steel by Elizabeth Bear because I love fiction about the Elizabethan playwrights William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe.  Once the book began to spend long periods of time in Faerie, I liked it progressively less and less, and the sequel was beyond tolerance for me.  I wouldn't put up with a book focused on Fae machinations for anyone-- not even for Shakespeare and Marlowe.

 I have also been tricked into reading about the Fae.  There is a wonderful fantasy novel about a mysterious people, and the surprise twist is that they are actually the Fae.  It was a very fresh approach, and I loved it. Unfortunately, now that his readers knew they were Fae, the author succumbed to the temptation to tell a very traditional and predictable Fae story in the sequel.  I lost my enthusiasm for that very quickly.

Roses and Rot by Kat Howard is another instance of having been tricked into reading a book dealing centrally with the Fae.   There was no mention of the Fae in the description.  I was hooked by the concept of two sisters at an artists' retreat.  I wouldn't have been tricked at all if I had read the reviews on Goodreads.   On the other hand, if  I had read them, I would probably have avoided this powerful debut novel and that would have been a shame.

                         

As the POV character, the writer sister Imogen, is the most fully portrayed in Roses and Rot.   Her concerns are the central concerns of the book.   Through the lens of Imogen's narration, I didn't see any difference between abusive human parents and the Fae's abuse of  humans residing in places where they have power.  Kat Howard shows the various types of abuse as part of the same continuum.  I believe that she is telling her audience that the identity of the abuser doesn't matter.  Abuse is still abuse, and you shouldn't tolerate it.

I think that the singer/playwright Ariel is the character who takes the strongest stand for freedom from abuse.   It's her independence that gives Imogen the strength to do what most needs to be done.   I really admired Ariel, and at various points while I was reading Roses and Rot I thought that she was my favorite character.  By the way, I would really love to see the rock musical about Joan of Arc that Ariel proposed.  If it was written well and performed by the right cast, it could be one of the greatest musicals of all time.

I liked the statement that this book makes about HEA (Happily Ever After) most.  I think that no one ever really has HEA because we are haunted by unhappy memories that prevent unalloyed happiness.  I have always believed that there are values that are more significant than happiness.  Readers take whatever message relates to their lives most strongly from any book, but the one that reverberates for me most powerfully after I read the final page of this novel is that I'd always rather live with integrity.  That is the value that shines through in the characters that I respected in Roses and Rot.

This is certainly the best book that I've ever read about the Fae.  Faerie is left rather vague.   There is very little time spent there in the course of the narrative.   Kat Howard places humanity and human experience front and center , and that is what makes her book so powerful.

                                     

                             

                                         

The Book of Esther by Emily Barton: A Jewish Joan of Arc in an Alternate WWII

This is a review that I originally wrote for Flying High Reviews.  Yet I wanted to write a more extended version, and thought it would be more appropriate to post here.

The best excuse for an alternate history is that it makes a good story.  There are two types of alternate histories that I enjoy.  One type is an improvement on history.   I really wish that history had gone the way the author describes in the novel.   Some alternate histories that I've come across are dystopias.   These are good stories if they provide a meaningful conflict with some insight into problems that we are wrestling with in our own timeline.   I've reviewed a number of alternate history dystopias recently on this blog.  

The Book of Esther by Emily Barton is an alternate history of the first type.   It would be wonderful if history had gone this way.   Once upon a time there was a Jewish kingdom on the steppes bordering with Russia.  It was called Khazaria.  This kingdom actually existed, but in our universe it was overrun and destroyed during the medieval period.   Its inhabitants scattered throughout Eastern Europe.  Occasionally, you see Jews born with red hair.  They probably have Khazar genes, but the culture of the Khazars has vanished.  Now imagine that the Kingdom of the Khazars was still in existence during WWII and that Jewish refugees fled there.  I was intrigued by this concept and received a digital galley for free from Edelweiss.

                             

The Germans are poised to invade Khazaria.  Esther, the protagonist, doesn't want to stand on the sidelines.  She wants to help save Khazaria from the Nazis. The problem is that the Khazars are Orthodox Jews who expect women to aspire only to marriage and motherhood.   She has an arranged engagement to a childhood friend.  She would be happy to marry him under normal circumstances, but the situation for Khazars is far from normal.  So Esther sets out for the legendary village of the Kabalists ,who are Jewish mystics and magicians.  She hopes to ask them  to change her into a man.   Nothing happens as Esther expects, but she does discover that she can play an important role in saving Khazaria.    This is definitely the sort of female central character that fans of this blog want to hear about.  

Since I am one of the ideal readers for The Book of Esther, I loved it.  It's obviously intended for readers who are very well-educated in Judaism.   Jewish customs and religious terminology aren't explained.   Neither is the structure of Khazar society.   So if you've read about the Khazars, as I have, you will also have a leg up in understanding who is who in this novel.   A glossary and recommended bibliography would have been very useful for many readers who have professed themselves mystified in their Goodreads reviews of this novel.  I'm not sure why Barton would have purposely narrowed her audience.
 
If you're inclined to research the books you read,  I think that Barton's book will reward you for this effort.   Esther is a courageous and intelligent heroine, and there is one rather surprising character that she encounters among the Kabalists.

This novel makes extensive and very interesting use of golems.  These are figures from Jewish folklore who will be recognized by those who encountered one in The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker, a very well received historical fantasy taking place in late 19th century New York.   My main criticism of Wecker's book is that she made it easy to leave the late 19th century concept of women's role unexamined by making her female protagonist a golem. Barton, on the other hand, raises questions about golems that reminded me of how Socrates disturbed the intentions of the Goddess Athena for her robots in The Just City.  This was a time travel fantasy by Jo Walton which I reviewed on this blog  here .  In my review of The Just City I declared myself on Team Socrates because Socrates stood up for everyone's rights.  While reading  The Book of Esther,   I wrote in my notes at one point that I was on Team Golem because Barton gave golems more agency than the robots in Walton's book by allowing golems to express their own perspective.   When golems show evidence of  consciousness, we have to ask ourselves about the ethics of viewing golems solely as obedient servants.  So I thought that The Book of Esther approached golems with more complexity than Helene Wecker had in The Golem and the Jinni where the female protagonist's entire personality was predetermined by the fact that she was a golem.

I decided to bring up one other issue that has been raised in Goodreads reviews of The Book of Esther.  Many people wondered about the rest of the world beyond Khazaria.   They thought that Barton had the responsibility to show us more to develop her alternate world.   They had questions about that world.     Since nothing happened outside of Khazaria in The Book of Esther, I thought that Barton's level of information was appropriate.  I believe that authors should only tell readers what they need to know when they need to know it.   I also thought that Barton's task of developing Khazaria itself was challenging enough without adding the previous alternate history of Europe as a whole.  I admit that when I saw a reference to the Ottomans late in this book, I wondered about how the survival of the Ottoman Empire in this alternate 1942 would have impacted Palestine.   In our universe, the Ottoman Empire was dismembered in 1920.  Evidently, there were differences in how WWI and its aftermath proceeded in Barton's continuity.  Yet it seems to me that it makes sense to answer questions if and when they are relevant to the plot.  There may be a sequel.  If that happens, Barton may find it necessary to answer some of our questions about her world.  

                                 

Judenstaat by Simone Zelitch-- Is a Just Jewish State Possible?

This is the second alternate Jewish state novel that I've read.  The first , The Yiddish Policeman's Union by Michael Chabon, came totally out of left field.  The Jewish State is where?  Alaska? Are you kidding me?  It was certainly imaginative, but it didn't seem at all likely.  Judenstaat at least sounds like it could really have happened in the universe next door, not very far from our own.   So I took this book and its implications more seriously.

                             

Many left of center American Jews are very critical of Israel.  They believe that it should be a more just state.  Let's leave aside the issue of whether there is anywhere that could be described as a completely just state in the real world.  Let us consider whether a Jewish state could be more just if it were not in Palestine. Let us suppose it could be situated in uncontested territory.  If so, where could such a place be located? There were real proposals to establish a Jewish state in Uganda or in Argentina.  Yet Zelitch decided to locate her fictional version in Europe.  In her universe, after the defeat of Nazi Germany, a Jewish state was established on German soil.   Some Holocaust survivors would probably have called it a blood bargain, but the rest of the world would most likely have considered it an appropriate form of restitution for the Holocaust.      

Quite a number of devout Jews believe that Palestine was promised to their ancestors by God, and it is therefore the only place where a Jewish state can exist.  My grandmother's family settled in Palestine in the 19th century.   There were also a community of Jews who made Palestine their home after the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492.  I read about  a family descended from these Spanish Jews in The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem by Sarit Yishai-Levi which I reviewed here .What happened to these Jews in Zelitch's universe?  Did they fall into a black hole? She only tells us that settlement in Palestine was a failure, but doesn't give us any specifics.   There is no mention of Sephardic (Spanish) or Mizrachi (Middle Eastern) Jews in Judenstaat.   It was as if the only Jews in the world were Ashkenazis (German and Eastern European Jews). I found this very troubling because of a pattern of injustice in the Jewish state of our universe.  In modern Israel, Ashkenazi Jews are politically and economically dominant.  American Jews who are opposed to Israel focus on their discrimination against Arabs, but they also discriminate against Sephardic and Mizrachi Jews.   In their absence, the German speaking Jews of Zelitch's Judenstaat discriminate against the Yiddish speaking Jews of Eastern Europe.

Does Zelitch believe that a just society is impossible?  I believe that there is no such thing as a utopia, but that we should aspire toward a society where there is less prejudice, and less bigoted behavior on the part of those who represent our institutions.  The main goal of those in power in Judenstaat seemed to be the concealment of injustice.

I found Judenstaat thought provoking, disturbing and saddening.   It was a difficult read and I can't say that I was glad that I read it.   I'm not sure that I actually needed to read this book, but there may be much more idealistic readers who still believe that utopia is possible, and that solutions to social problems are easy.   They are the ones who should read Judenstaat.