The Uncoupling by Meg Wolitzer

"Had she known this was happening to her, she would have been shocked, for she was not the kind of person to be frequently overcome by anything. Common colds had rarely felled Marissa Clayborn; sad movies tended to leave her tearless. Yet when the spell came for her, she was as susceptible as the rest of them."

The Uncoupling by Meg Wolitzer is the story of what happens when the new drama teacher at Stellar Plans High School chooses Lysistrata- a comedy by Aristophanes in which women stop having sex with men in order to end a war- as the latest school production. Coincidentally, a strange spell becomes cast of the females in the high school community so that they to stop having sex leaving their husbands and boyfriends puzzled. Both sides become confused over what is going on, but the lack of sex has an unexpected impact on all of the lives it touches.

Before I picked up The Uncoupling I decided to read Lysistrata so I'd know what the novel was referencing. Although reading the classic play first is definitely not necessary, it's a quick and funny read and I'd certainly recommend it so that the discussion of it is easy to understand. Although Wolitzer uses Lysistrata as inspiration for her novel, her story has nothing to do with war, or the voluntary turning away that the women in the play do. That was the most distinct differences for me, women in Lysistrata choose not to have sex, while women in The Uncoupling have no desire for it. Wolitzer uses this premise to address questions about the role of sex in a relationship and clearly shows the relevance that a play written so long ago can still have.

The Uncoupling has a sense of humour, although I would not call the book particularly funny, it is more that the situations the characters are in at times is so absurd and their reactions so human that as a reader you can't help but smile. I also found it intelligent, the novel is not particularly serious but Wolitzer writes with a mature wit and clear understanding of human interactions and feelings. Some of the issues Wolitzer delves into include what relationships really mean to a person, what value they have, and how they change when sex is no longer a part of them. Reflecting on life without a partner, once character says:

"When you were on your own in life, even a short car trip with a dish beside you became a concern. If you had a steady boyfriend beside you, however, you just handed him the dish and said “Here”, and he sat with it on his big lap, or else you sat with it on your lap while he drove you to your shared destination."

The Uncoupling is a light but enjoyable read with a slightly mystical feel which would be a great book for a time you want to relax. The premise itself was interesting and relevant although the spell itself was my least favourite part of the novel. The message that Wolitzer seems to be trying to send through causing the characters to give up sex because of a spell was expected and not that exciting- sex is an important part of a healthy relationship. Although I did appreciate the hint of whimsy that the spell brings into the world Wolitzer created, I never really felt like I believed in her reality and the result was that I was often distanced from that aspect of the story and at times even found it silly. Fortunately, this hindrance was made up for by the strong characters Wolitzer created and her ability to perfectly capture the suburban world where they live. The novel has a slow-start but it gives the reader an opportunity to learn the backstory of the characters involved which makes you more invested in them working things out in the end. Overall, although I wasn't won over by the premise of the novel I loved Wolitzer's writing and the realistic characters which made The Uncoupling an enjoyable experience.

Release Date: April 5th, 2011
Pages: 288
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This review was a part of TLC Book Tours. Click here to read what other tour hosts thought. For the purpose of this review I was provided with a copy of the book which did not require a positive review. The opinions expressed in this post are completely my own. 

Lysistrata by Aristophanes

"Yes, we’re going to save you, whether you like it or not."

Lysistrata is a classic play written in 411 BC by Aristophanes which centres around a woman named Lysistrata who frustrated by an ongoing civil war organizes the women of Athens to take matters into their own hands. Lysistrata persuades the female population not to have sex with their husbands until a treaty has been signed and the war is over. Faced-paced and filled with shocking behaviour and comments this sex comedy has managed to stay both relevant and humorous over the years.

Lysistrata definitely managed to shock me, at times I could hardly believe I was reading a classic Greek play. Not only do men walk around with large, painful erections on stage but there are references to masturbation, sex toys, and all sorts of other sexual humour that honestly made me blush a little at times.

What I particularly loved about the play was the cleverness of it, the characters are constantly making puns, sexual and otherwise, like when Lysistrata says she has summoned the women regarding something larger and another character looks intrigued and asks her if it is thick also. As outlandish as the play is at times, it is also intelligently written and the dialogue flows smoothly and enjoyably. Even though sex is the first thing that comes to mind when discussing the play, it's also not just about sex. Here's one example of a conversation that is both clever and still relevant:

Lysistrata: If only you had common sense, you would always do in politics the same as we do with our yarn.

Magistrate: Come, how is that, eh?

Lysistrata: First we wash the yarn to separate the grease and filth; do the same with all bad citizens, sort them out and drive them forth with rods — they're the refuse of the city. Then for all such as come crowding up in search of employments and offices, we must card them thoroughly; then, to bring them all to the same standard, pitch them pell-mell into the same basket, resident aliens or no, allies, debtors to the State, all mixed up together. Then as for our Colonies,you must think of them as so many isolated hanks; find the ends of the separate threads, draw them to a centre here, wind them into one, make one great hank of the lot, out of which the public can weave itself a good, stout tunic.

Clearly, there are many reasons why Lysistrata has lasted so long as a play. The only issue I had reading it was that it felt rushed and came to a resolution too quickly. I do think if I ever saw it performed live that the pacing would probably be better, but I read the entire thing at a similar speed (I'm pretty sure that's how everyone reads?) and so the play felt heavy on the beginning and light in the middle, with some odd pacing going on near the end. I'm also perpetually skeptical of the use of a chorus in a play but that's a personal preference and I realize that traditionally they have been very popular.

Overall, Lysistrata is both a shocking and humorous play. In addition to some lewd behaviour and clever innuendo, Aristophanes makes an interesting comment on politics and Lysistrata certainly leaves a lot of possibility for discussion when it comes to the role of the females. Ultimately, this is one easy to read and easy to recommend classic play and while it may make you blush, it will certainly make you laugh as well.

Release Date: 411 BC
Pages: 64
Source: Free Ebook
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In My Mailbox (March 27th-April 2nd 2011)

After a calmer week last week, my mailbox was certainly busy this week! I'm starting April with a wonderful batch of books to read.

{For Review}

Zen and Xander Undone by Amy Kathleen Ryan (Thomas Allen & Sons)
The Lipstick Laws by Amy Holder (Thomas Allen & Sons)
The Other Side of Blue by Valerie O. Patterson (Thomas Allen & Sons)
Underground by Antanas Sileika (Thomas Allen & Sons)
The Needle: Poems by Jennifer Grotz (ARC) (Thomas Allen & Sons)

A few cute YA books arrived for me that I am looking forward to reading. The Needle I've already read and loved, I'll have to spurge for a finished copy at some point.  I'm halfway through Underground and will likely finish it today, it's historical fiction inspired by the author's own family and tells a love story of two people working in the underground resistance of Lithuania during the mid-1940s.

The Intimates by Ralph Sassone (D&M Publishers Inc.)
Taller When Prone: Poems by Les Murray (D&M Publishers Inc.)
Volt: Stories by Alan Heathcock (D&M Publishers Inc.)
Rain: Poems by Don Paterson (D&M Publishers Inc.)
Double Shadow: Poems by Carl Phillips (D&M Publishers Inc.)

I was really excited for the three collections of poetry that arrived in my mailbox this week. They will hopefully all be featured throughout April during National Poetry Month although the month is filling fast. The Intimates is a story about two people who become each others "human diaries" which sounds incredibly interesting as does Volt, which is a collection of realistic short stories.

Please Look After My Mom by Kyung-Sook Shin (Random House Canada)
Flip by Martyn Bedford (Random House Canada)
Touch by Alexi Zentner (Random House Canada)
Russian Winter by Daphne Kalotay (TLC Tours)
Thoughts Without Cigarettes by Oscar Hijuelos (ARC) (TLC Tours)

Please Look After My Mom was a best-seller in Korea which is pretty cool and I don't think I have read any Korean fiction before so I am excited to read it. Flip is YA and supposed to be really good, about a guy who wakes up in somebody else's body six months after he remembers going to bed; however it's not a Freaky Friday story but more about questioning who you are and what your identity really is. Touch is supposed to be incredible, a story that takes ahold of your imagination and your heart, it's by a Canadian author and takes place over three generations in Northern BC, so I am definitely curious to read it. Russian Winter is historical fiction and Thoughts Without Cigarettes is a memoir and both for blog tours and sound interesting so look for reviews for those in the coming months.

Overall it was a busy but lovely week for my mailbox. I definitely have my reading lined up for me.

How was your mailbox this week? Feel free to leave links in the comments so I can visit back.

March Reading Wrap Up 2011

Apparently 26 is my lucky number. Here it is for the third month in a row. 

1. The Postmistress- Sarah Blake (March 1 2011)
2. Die for Me- Amy Plum (March 2 2011) 
3. Wither- Lauren DeStefano (March 4 2011)
4. Lysistrata- Aristophanes (March 5 2011) 
5. The Raising- Laura Kasischke (March 5 2011)
6. The House on Salt Hay Road- Carin Clevidence (March 8 2011)
7. The Uncoupling- Meg Wolitzer (March 10 2011) 
8. This Gorgeous Game- Donna Freitas (March 11 2011) 
9. The Unbearable Lightness of Being- Milan Kundera (March 12 2011) 
10. As Long as the Rivers Flow- James Bartleman (March 13 2011) 
11. Imaginary Logic- Rodney Jones (March 15 2011)
12. The Needle- Jennifer Grotz (March 16 2011) 
13. Is- Anne Simpson (March 17 2011) 
14. Boyfriends with Girlfriends- Alex Sanchez (March 18 2011)
15. The Long Goodbye- Meghan O'Rourke (March 18 2011) 
16. A Day in the Life of a Smiling Woman- Margaret Drabble (March 19 2011)
17. New Selected Poems: 1984-2004- Carol Ann Duffy (March 20 2011)  
18. The Beauty of Humanity Movement- Camilla Gibb (March 22 2011)
19. The Running Dream- Wendelin Van Draanen (March 23 2011)
20. The Gathering- Kelley Armstrong (March 25 2011) 
21. Hotel Iris- Yoko Ogawa (March 26 2011) 
22. Blood Magic- Tessa Gratton (March 27 2011) 
23. Nobel Genes- Rune Michaels (March 27 2011)
24. House Rules- Jodi Picoult (March 29 2011) Audiobook
25. A Fierce Radiance- Lauren Belfer (March 29 2011)  
26. The Adults: A Novel- Alison Espach (March 31 2011) 

It was a decent month when it came to reading. In particular I loved getting a chance to read some poetry again, I plan to pick of a lot more poetry books in April for National Poetry Month, I've already got about 10 to choose from on my shelves. I managed to stay caught up pretty well, I'm less than a week behind since I still have to review the five most recent reads. I was also really excited to finally finish House Rules, an audiobook that is about twenty hours long, just in time for March to be over. I am officially sticking to shorter audios from now on since I only listen to them when I am doing something repetitive at work like preparing soil and I didn't like how long it took to finish this one. With that in mind I'm planning to listen to the Wake/Fade/Gone by Lisa McMann in April, each of which is only about 5 hours or less. 

Some March Stats:

• Adult Fiction: 11/26
• Memoirs: 1/26
• Young Adult: 8/26
• Short Story Collections: 1/26
• Poetry: 4/26
• Plays: 1/26
• Audio Books: 1/26
• Favourite Adult Book of the Month: The House on Salt Hay Road by Carin Clevidence
• Favourite Poetry of the Month: The Needle by Jennifer Grotz
• Favourite Memoir of the Month: The Long Goodbye by Meghan O'Rourke. I realize it is cheating because I only read 1 this month but it was incredible and deserves a place here anyway. 
• Nearly Favourite Books of the Month: Wither by Lauren DeStefano, Blood Magic by Tessa Gratton, Lysistrata by Aristophane, The Raising by Laura Kasischke, The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen, The Beauty of Humanity Movement by Camilla Gibb

Overall it was a good month for reading and I'm already excited to delve into April's offerings. How was your March reading-wise? Feel free to leave recommendations in the comments.

The Needle by Jennifer Grotz

Admittedly, I love poetry, but the first thing that attracted me to Jennifer Grotz's latest collection, The Needle, was the strange and odd imagery on the cover but I was lucky it did because the contents were equally unique in a beautiful way. Grotz's skill lies in the tiny details and moments she captures. In the title poem, "The Needle" she stitches together various memories, describing a bee feeding thoughtfully from a sugar bowl and "the glint of blond down/on his knuckle as he/ crushed a spent cigarette". Universal across the collection is this attention to the minute, the vivid details. In "Landscape with Town Square" she writes:

And afterward, the wet and gleaming square seems slowly rubbed dry
By the bolt of blue-gray velvet the sky unspools above.

And each word feels perfect and intense, I fell in love with the image of the bolt of velvet being unspooled by the sky, imagery which connects, intentionally or not, quite well with the title of the collection. In the poem "Late Summer" Grotz describes with perfect imagery how beside a man "blooms a large gray rose of pigeons / huddled around a dropped piece of bread." and the reader and see the shape of those birds as they spread and grow like a flower.

Grotz captures both the internal and the external with equal ease, apparently having lived in Poland much of her collection is inspired by Kraków with the city itself becoming its own character in the story she is telling. The square which she mentions in "Landscape with Town Square" is Kraków Town Square. In "Alchemy" she discusses the transformations that can take place in the city, such as "When a pebble becomes a bright coin on the sidewalk", ultimately ending with the memorable lines:

One's fate in this city is to come and become and be overcome.
In each of us a mad rabbit thrashes and a wolf pack howls. 

Just as Grotz's poetry overcomes the reader, taking them into her bright world. On the tram in "The Nunnery" where she sits next to a nun "wearing a Members Only jacket". Later, Grotz takes the reader back to Town Square, in "Boy Playing Violin" where a young boy plays his instrument on the corner, awful noises coming from his violin, his bowl empty as he competes with a puppeteer. Grotz once again brings the Town Square to life, but this times it is the busy noise:

a city square populated by potbellied men 
with cameras strapped around their neck,
their well-appointment wives accessorized with gobules of amber,
and by lovers holding hands, oblivious,
and by waddling pigeons chased endlessly

At other times, Grotz just as expertly looks inwards, such as in "The Window at Night" where she describes her body, saying "My face is not a democracy- the eyes are tyrants / and the ears are radical dissenters." and capturing the inequality of disproportion so many people obsess over when they look in the mirror and all the various emotions found in the subtleties of expression, eyebrows whisper and "anger hides in the jaw", bringing each aspect of the face to life.  

Grotz also deals with the deeply personal subject of her brother's death in poems such as "Silence" and "The Eldest", where she begins "After my brother died, I stared out the window", both of which are heartbreaking in their simplicity and clear portrayal of loss and the feeling of being left behind. In many instances it feels as if the reader has been let in on a private moment, on a conversation Grotz is having with herself such as in "The Mountain" where she discussed what it means to be Jennifer, "that to be a Jennifer meant to chase endlessly after desire / or else to try to live without it."
  
The beauty Grotz captures in The Needle is ethereal, and at times it seems she is writing of another world, such as in "The Ocracoke Ponies" where you can just feel the sunlight and the twitch of the ponies' manes, soaking it up even as she reminds you:

That's not dream, it's not even sleeping.
It is the nature of sleeping to be unaware.
This was some kind of waiting for the world to come back. 

Or in "Sunrise in Cassis", where Grotz writes:

This is the hour when the moon is a fishhook
steadily pulled up out of the liquid sky
into some drier realm.

Lines which just ooze imagery of the kind that makes the book such an incredible collection, full of the beautiful and unique. Ultimately, The Needle not only captures the feeling of a city but also the feelings of a person inside it; with composed expertise and attention to the tiny details Grotz lets the reader into a vivid and incredible place- her mind.

Release Date: March 24th, 2011
Pages: 80
Source: Netgalley
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