Finding Nouf by Zoe Ferraris

Finding Nouf is set in Saudi Arabia, which adds a different dimension to the traditional murder mystery. It would seem impossible to investigate a crime if you cannot talk to half the population. This is the situation that Nayir ash-Sharqi finds himself in when he is asked by a friend, Othman Shrawi, to investigate the death of Othman’s sister, Nouf.

Nayir is caught in a difficult spot. He is a very observant Muslim and cannot be seen in the company of an unmarried woman. He is even uncomfortable looking at women. His first meeting with Katya Hijazi is surprising to him. “There would of course be female examiners to handle the female corpses, but seeing one in the flesh was a shock. She wore a white lab coat and a hijab, a black scarf, on her hair. Because her face was exposed, he averted his gaze, blushing as he did so.” However, Nayir finds that he really needs Katya’s help to investigate Nouf’s death and has to figure out a way to work with her.

The story goes back and forth illustrating Nayir’s discomfort with Katya and Katya’s unhappiness at some of the traditions in her country. Here she finds it unpleasant to sit with her dad on their front step: “The day crowds were gone, the souk vendors’ carts were folded away, and now the local residents wandered by, some of them waving of calling greetings to Abu, others avoiding him for fear of seeing Katya’s unveiled face. She counted them as they passed – the men who wouldn’t say hello to a friend because she was there, because looking at her would have been as dangerous as staring at the sun – and she got to four before she went inside.”

The mystery itself is interesting and worth reading. There are unexpected revelations as the life of a wealthy, but unhappy, 16 year old is investigated. I found myself pretty interested in the descriptions of the way of life. Zoë Ferraris is an American who spent time living in Saudi Arabia with her former husband and has significant insight into that life. The plight of Nayir as an orphan from Palestine living in Saudi Arabia is also intriguing. He really wants to be married, but he cannot meet women on his own and does not have the necessary relatives that can make introductions.

Bendites will appreciate a scene involving Nayir and roundabouts. I am looking forward to more from this author.

Indignation by Phillip Roth

If you have never read Phillip Roth, his new book, Indignation, is a good place to start. It is relatively short, but long enough to give you an idea of his style. Indignation is the story of Marcus Messner, a young man growing up with the threat of the Korean War hanging over him. Marcus is the son of a New Jersey kosher butcher and his wife who also works in the butcher shop. Marcus’s father grows very paranoid and becomes difficult to live with causing Marcus to transfer to a small college in Ohio. The story focuses on Marcus trying to adapt to this very different environment.

Here Marcus is trying to pysch himself up after an unfortunate meeting with the dean: “Chapel is a discipline, I informed my eyes—eyes that, to my astonishment, looked unbelievably fearful. Treat their chapel as part of the job that you have to do to get through this place as valedictorian—treat it the way you treat eviscerating the chickens.”

A fact about Marcus is revealed fairly early in the novel that caught me by surprise, if you have read other reviews you will know what this is, but I am not going to mention it here. It does alter your reading of this coming of age while adjusting to college novel. Roth does a good job of illustrating what it would be like as a young man to go to college knowing that if you drop out or have to leave for any reason you will be going to war. Here the students at the school are scolded by the president of the college: “Four thousand young men like yourselves, dead, maimed, and wounded; between the time we beat Bowling Green and the time we upset UWV. Do you have any idea how fortunate, how privileged, and how lucky you are to be here watching football games on Saturdays and not there being shot at on Saturdays; and on Mondays, Tuesday, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Sundays as well?”

This book certainly puts a spin on problems college students have these days – at least no one is facing the draft if they fail. My favorite Phillip Roth book and one of my favorite books of all time is The Human Stain, which is also set at a college, but focuses on the problems of an older professor.

On Beauty by Zadie Smith

This novel by Zadie Smith tackles many different issues. The Belsey family is at the center of the novel. Howard, the dad, was born and raised in England and is now a professor at a liberal arts college near Boston. Smith gets the college atmosphere just right. An example is this excerpt where Howard is starting off the beginning of the year: “ ‘Any questions?’ asked Howard. The answer to this never changed. Silence. But it was an interesting breed of silence particular to upscale liberal arts colleges. It was not silent because nobody had anything to say – quite the opposite. You could feel it, Howard could feel it, millions of things to say brewing in this room, so strong sometimes that they seemed to shoot from the students telepathically and bounce off the furniture.”

Howard’s wife, Kiki, is black and they live in a house near Boston that her grandmother inherited. They have three children, two of whom are in college and one is in high school. Their lives become entangled with the Kipps family. The Kipps’ family lives in England and Howard and the father, Monty, have an ongoing academic feud. Smith accurately portrays the anguish and importance attached to a few words in a paper: “ Three months on they clanged, they stung, and sometimes they even seemed to have an actual weight- the thought of them made Howard’s shoulders roll forward and down as if someone had snuck up behind and laden him with a backpack filled with stones.” The Belsey’s oldest son, Jerome, becomes briefly entangled with Victoria Kipps while in London, and then everyone’s life becomes even more complicated when Monty Kipps is invited to be a visiting lecturer at the same small college as Howard.

Smith’s descriptions of place throughout the book are very expressive. Here she describes the weather in England: “ It is drizzly, and the wind will blow; hail happens, and there is a breed of Tuesday in January in which time creeps and no light comes and the air is full of water and nobody really loves anybody, but still a decent jumper and a waxen jacket lined with wool is sufficient for every weather England’s got to give.”

There is a lot more to the book than I can go into here, but the diversity of the characters and, for example, how the Belseys deal with their mixed marriage and its troubles or how their youngest son, Levi, is trying to find his way as a relatively privileged young black man are all treated in detail. The daughters in the story, Zora Belsey and Victoria Kipps, are intriguing, but not particularly likable and it is somewhat hard to empathize with them. They both end up in Howard’s class to complicate matters. The wives, Kiki Belsey and Carlene Kipps, have an surprising relationship, especially considering the differing sides their husbands take in most matters politically and on campus.

The most interesting parts of the book for me are the academic descriptions of life at a small college. In some ways this novel reminds me of Straight Man by Richard Russo, which is one of my favorite books. Both books are set at small colleges, are pretty humorous at times, and well worth reading.

Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson

Snow Falling on Cedars is one of my all-time favorite books. This book has everything: a great setting, a mystery, romance, a clash of cultures, and resentment stemming from treatment during WWII.

The book primarily takes place on a fictional island in the San Juan Islands. I grew up near there so it brings back memories of my trips to the islands, but it also has the slightly different and exotic culture of living on an island. It is a mystery and an intriguing one: How did a local fisherman drown? That brings in the fishing culture. “Thus on San Piedro the silent-toiling, autonomous gillnetter became the collective image of the good man. He who was too gregarious, who spoke too much and too ardently desired the company of other, their conversation and their laughter, did not have what life required. Only insofar as he struggled with the sea could a man lay claim to his place in things.” (pg 39)

And, it is set right after WWII. The main suspect in the murder is a Japanese-American man who was sent to a camp and lost his strawberry farm during the war. When I first read this book I had no idea that had happened in the Pacific NW. The book starts in the courtroom with the trial of Kabuo Miyamoto and flashes back to other time periods and is told from various third person points-of-view.

A reporter, Ishmael Chambers, recalls his teenage love for Hatsue, who is now Kabuo’s wife. Guterson does a good job of capturing this first love amid the rainy island beauty. “Ishmael lay down with his hands propping up his chin and looked out at the rain. The inside of the tree felt private. He felt they would never be discovered here. The walls surrounding them were glossy and golden. It was surprising how much green-tinted light entered from the cedar forest. The rain echoed in the canopy of leaves above and beat against the sword ferns, which twitched under each drop. The rain afforded an even greater privacy; no one in the world would come this way to find them inside this tree.” (pg 111) Then Hatsue is sent away to a camp and Ishmael is drafted into the war.

In the present time they are all back on the island and the man Kabuo is accused of killing has taken over what was to be the family’s strawberry farm. It is an interesting look into the time after the war and how people may have reacted when those interred came back home. If you didn’t read this book when it came out, make sure to pick it up now. I am looking forward to reading his most recent book, The Other.