The Literature Thread
As many of us fly regularly, we may also read regularly on those flights (or elsewhere). So i thought i’d create a Lit Thread.
The lit here doesn’t have to be about TCKs it can be the book you are reading atm, or one you’ve just finished. Or even a place to ask about long loved but forgotten books. Any genre is welcome!
If the book is one of fiction, please provide a synopsis as well as author and title.
I’ll start:
I have recently read “The Queen’s Fool” by Phillipa Gregory.
Synopsis:
A young woman caught in the rivalry between Queen Mary and her half sister, Elizabeth, must find her true destiny amid treason, poisonous rivalries, loss of faith, and unrequited love.
It is winter, 1553. Pursued by the Inquisition, Hannah Green, a fourteen-year-old Jewish girl, is forced to flee Spain with her father. But Hannah is no ordinary refugee. Her gift of “Sight,” the ability to foresee the future, is priceless in the troubled times
of the Tudor court. Hannah is adopted by the glamorous Robert Dudley, the charismatic son of King Edward’s protector, who brings her to court as a “holy fool” for Queen Mary and, ultimately, Queen Elizabeth. Hired as a fool but working as a spy; promised in wedlock but in love with her master; endangered by the laws against heresy, treason, and witchcraft, Hannah must choose between the safe life of a commoner and the dangerous intrigues of the royal family that are inextricably bound up in her own yearnings and desires.
From me: Hannah is a TCK — she often speaks of how she misses Spain, how she is sick and tired of moving countries. Others comment upon her dark skin and eyes and her Spanish accent.
A book that i am trying to find:
I have long been searching for a book set in World War Two in America. I remember details. The protagonist is a young girl (in her early teens) named Frances who is English and has been evacuated to America for the duration of the war. She stays with a rich family who do not care that there is a war happening as it does not affect them. Frances is scared for her brother who is serving in the armed forces and wishes to be back home. She cannot understand why these people have no empathy for others’ suffering. In the end, her brother dies and Frances grows to learn that not all Americans are bad — she is given a necklace with both the British and American flags.
See? I can remeber all that but i can’t remember the author’s name!
January 13th, 2008 at 4:27 am
“The Historian” based on the reviews I’ve seen may not be so good if you already read a good story about vampires. But personally I haven’t read too many stories about vampires and this one is really good. Some find that all the details make the reading a bit tedious but it is that that made me love the book - the details of the stories that date back in time and the events gradually being revealed…just very exciting
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January 17th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
When I was a teenager, one of my favorite books was Kim, by Rudyard Kipling. Kim was a boy who was born British in India during the Colonial times, and he was orphaned young and raised by locals. He basically grew up as a poor hindustani boy who barely spoke English, and at some point the British army discovers him and takes care of him. At the time I did not know what a TCK was, but I loved the book because it was about another TCK. Also, it was full of intrigue, and I like intrigue. That’s all I’ll say about that.
It has been many years since I read it, so I don’t know what I’d think of it now. Hm, maybe it’s time to re-read it.
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January 17th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
i keep starting the poisonwood bible and never finish for some reason. and althoug one dimentional, matthew, i have say unfortunately i have met missionaries like the father was portrayed. of course that is not to say that all or even most missionaries are like that, but yeah, you are right, it sucks they are out there.
one of my favourites is by tsitsi dangarembga, called “nervous conditions”. the book is actually about a girl that is bron and bread in zimbabwe, but there is a side character, he cousin who is tck and repatriated as a teen. the cousin is a well fleshed out character and i totally related to her (even though she becomes bulemic and does some other stuff that i have never been through, it was her desperation and sense of being different and not understanding why i connected with).
i also love the fact that she explores this cousins relationship with her father who kind of acts one way when he was in england, and another in zim. i thin sometimes parents don’t even realise they are doing it, like how when you are living outside your passport country it is ok to speak another language but as soon as you repatriate, even your ‘rents seem not to understand why you don’t speak your mother tongue fluently.
anyway, i’d recommend it. the author is tck too.
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January 20th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
I recently finished “When we were Children” by Kazuo Ishiguro. I know Ayako’s mentioned it before as a TCK novel.
And a TCK novel it really, really is. I feel like Ishiguro goes out of his way to make his main character go through a great many TCK-ish things in ways that don’t necessarily drive the story.
So while there’s a lot of novelty in having a novel focused on a TCK character… It isn’t actually a very good book. It doesn’t read well, the TCKisms don’t seem to have much impact on the storyline, in that the character need not ever have a strong TCK link to Shanghai, that it could have just been about orphans in the UK, or anywhere else.
So while I recommend it on the basis of “Oh that’s such a TCK thing to do!” throughout most of the book, it doesn’t capture me as a reader and I wouldn’t reread it.
On the other hand, I’m reading “Birds Without Wings” by Louis de Berniere, and it’s terrific so far.
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