Kay's Bookshelf

The book is mostly autobiographical (the authors admits that she has modified some events and also invented some, meaning it’s not 100% so), and the place where I think this shows best is in the characters:
they are tridimensional, ready to jump off the page, and most of all always surprising. None of them is perfect and none of them is terribly flawed. Take Mary for example — she is really trying to do her best for herself and her little family, but she gives in to temptation every now and then (the temptation to spend too much money on clothes, temptation to swallow more pills than she should, or even the temptation to ignore the warning signs surrounding Dan). This doesn’t make her a bad person, of course, it only makes her real. The same can be said about Dan — he has a lot of secrets and treats some people bad (Mike and his parents, for example), but he’s also trying to be the best husband and father he can be, and he also readily accepts the fact that he’s been wrong about things, trying to make them better. Although we may be tempted to see him as the villain it the story at times, truth is he is not a bad guy, just misguided every now and then (lots of nows and thens, I’ll give you that, but his “core” is definitely not bad). Speaking of flawed yet good characters Mary’s parents are also part of this category — they divorced when Mary was young and had quite a colorful past since (many marriages, a suicide attempt, among others). They have left their children with a few emotional scars along the way, and yet, when Mary needs them most they put aside their differences and come to the rescue.

I have really liked what the author was trying to do with her book. After sending it to no less than 16 publishers and having it rejected by all of them (though I don’t quite understand why), she didn’t give up her dream. Instead she gave up some of her hopes (the ones turned false, given that no one seemed to want to publish her book), even organizing a formal funeral for them — and then chose to turn her weaknesses into strengths and chose self-publishing. Adding, to my amusement, a badge of honor on the cover, stating the book’s grand achievement, “Awarded Sixteen Rejections from Prominent NYC Publishers“. While at first sight one might conclude from the above that well, it must be a really bad book, truth is it isn’t (or at least I for one didn’t find it so). Either way, I really admire the author for following her dream to the end :)

I was particularly amused by the double meaning of the title. It refers, as it is probably obvious, to the plots each of the Murphy family members conceived, trying to hide money and family secrets as best they could from each other. But there is also a more literal meaning: one of the most prized possessions of the two elder Murphys was… a cemetery plot. Not just any cemetery plot: to its owners it was so important that they only allowed there the relatives they absolutely liked. They even held ceremonies when yet another family member was granted the honor. In the end it all got perhaps a bit chaotic:

Turning around, I stared at the distant cemetery marker, remembering how I’d once mentioned to Minnie that if all the invited guests were interred together, it would be almost impossible to make sense of the relationships.
“Someone would have to write a book”, she’d said.

And you know what? I think this is it — this is the book Minnie was talking about, a book written to (among other things, of course) help make sense of all the relationships in the family plot (hence the title :P ).

What I liked most: The scene when Ralph is taken to the hospital and his relatives put up a sign with some details about him near his bed (“Hi! My name is Ralph. Next week I turn 90. [...]“), and a bowl of candy — in order to make the hospital staff consider that there is an actual person they’re dealing with (even though they are perhaps tempted to see him as yet another patient), plus the candy to get him extra visits from the staff. I have found it to be a very endearing gesture (and the candy was a nice touch too, I bet the hospital staff appreciated it).

What I liked least: Perhaps surprising for a book rejected so many times but there’s nothing I didn’t like about it. On the contrary, it is by far one of the best self-published books I have ever read. No weird turns of phrase and no errors of any kind (that I could find, of course).

Recommend it? Yes, I have actually liked it :) Simple writing and to the point.

See also:
Author’s site (including a video of the funeral she organized for her often rejected book)

Amazon Affiliate. If you click an Amazon link and buy something, I receive a small percentage of the purchase price.

Popularity: 4% [?]

I think Hesse described Harry’s two conflicting sides (man and wolf) very well, very convincing, to the point of fascinating at times. Nevertheless while I (partly?) understood the way Harry saw life, his inability of enjoying (or bearing) the monotony of daily events, the duality of his character (the way he saw it), and so on, I couldn’t say I managed to identify myself with him – I’m probably too much a member of the bourgeoisie for that. I did find Hermione a very interesting character though, especially as described by Harry at one time – as life itself, one never knows what to expect the next moment. On the outside Hermione is the very opposite of Harry, as she seems to take pleasure in the minutest aspects of life, while everything mundane usually makes Harry feel like a misfit – but deep down both of them are exactly alike, and that’s probably what brought them together in the first place.

I have found quite interesting the part about the treatise on the steppenwolf – both because of the weirdness of the situation (Harry receiving from a random stranger a book about him), and because of its being a book in a book in a book (the treatise is quoted in Harry’s diary which in turn is quoted in the actual book)).

As a bit of fun trivia, I couldn’t help noticing that Harry’s initials (H.H.) are the same as the author’s. Also, Hermine is the feminine version of the name Herman. I wonder if this means that in a way the author identified himself with both of them, rather than with Harry alone (after all Hermine herself wishes to die one day, same as Harry, possibly same as the author)(I must say I don’t know very much about Hesse himself). Speaking of the author, there are some autobiographical elements in this book, most noticing the fact that at the time the book was written Hesse was himself separated fro his wife. He has also taken dance lessons from a woman (Julia Laubi-Honegger) and participated with her at a masked ball in the winter of 1926 (the book was published in 1928).

What I liked most:

When I see one of those sweet and silly Saviors or St. Francises and see how other people find them beautiful and edifying, I feel it is an insult to the real Savior and it makes me think: Why did He live and suffer so terribly if people find a picture as silly as that satisfactory to them! But in spite of this I know that my own picture of the Savior or St. Francis is only a human picture and falls short of the original, and that the Savior Himself would find the picture I have of Him within me just as stupid as I do those sickly reproductions.

It does make a lot more sense in the context – especially as the very same idea was also presented as referring to Goethe, with a lot more detail too. However I cannot say I relate as well to the Goethe part, as I must confess I have never given much thought about what he looked like and/or how he should be portrayed. That’s why I chose the above mentioned part because that is the one I can relate to a lot better.
I have also liked what Pablo said about there being no use in only talking about music, no matter how passionate one might be on the topic; playing the music is the thing to do. I have found interesting the part where Harry decided to go home and commit suicide, but at the same time he kept avoiding his place and roaming the streets because he actually feared death. I was absolutely captivated by everything that happened in the magic theater – the favorite part being the one where Harry is allowed to relive all his missed love occasions, this time setting things right and acting the way he should have been.
My most favorite quote of all was this:

You are to live and to learn to laugh. You are to learn to listen to the cursed radio music of life and to reverence the spirit behind it and to laugh at its distortions.

What I liked least: There were too many words at times, especially in the first half. Well, to be honest it might be my fault, it might be that I have a too short attention span. Perhaps it’s 50/50 :)

Recommend it? Yes.

Quotes on Harry:
Said by landlady’s nephew:

As for others and the world around him he never ceased in his heroic and earnest endeavor to love them, to be just to them, to do them no harm, for the love of his neighbor was as deeply in him as the hatred of himself, and so his whole life was an example that love of one’s neighbor is not possible without love of oneself, and that self-hate is really the same thing as sheer egoism, and in the long run breeds the same cruel isolation and despair.

Said by himself:

I am in truth the Steppenwolf that I often call myself; that beast astray who finds neither home nor joy nor nourishment in a world that is strange and incomprehensible to him.

From the treatise:

What he had not learned, however, was this: to find contentment in himself and his own life. The cause of this apparently was that at the bottom of his heart he knew all the time (or thought he knew) that he was in reality not a man, but a wolf of the Steppes.

Written by the same author:
Siddhartha

Amazon Affiliate. If you click an Amazon link and buy something, I receive a small percentage of the purchase price.

Popularity: 5% [?]