DAWA: THE STORY OF A STRAY DOG IN BHUTAN – Kunzang Choden

Next installment of Tommi Reads the World – we’re in the Bs.

Country: Bhutan
Title: Dawa: The Story of a Stray Dog in Bhutan
Author: Kunzang Choden
Language: English
Translator: None
Publisher: Riyang Books 2016, originally published 2004

Dawa is the story of a street dog.  While I’ve never been to Bhutan, I did study in Thailand where street dogs, or soi dogs, were everywhere.  It took me some time to adjust to seeing these dogs that belonged to no one and everyone all at the same time, and I fought the urge to put them all in my suitcase upon my return flight home. My mother is likely still surprised I didn’t get stopped trying to smuggle one out of the country. (I’ve included a picture of one of “my” soi dogs that I saw nearly every day for close to five months.) 

These dogs, and the fragile relationships they cultivate with residents, tourists, and monks is something special to me.  When I saw that Dawa was about a stray street dog, it was an easy selection for my Bhutan work.

Dawa is a slim work written in English that was first introduced in Bhutan as an English textbook for high school students. The novella follows Dawa, a yellow brown dog born of meager means.  Dawa was the smallest in his litter and was misshapen due to malnourishment. His name was Koto, or Crooked.  When he decided to claim his narrative and improve his lot, he changed his name Dawa Koto, or Crooked Moon – the imperfect and the perfect.  And he became a leader.

Dawa understands Dzongkha, the national language, which puts him at an advantage over other dogs. He is actually a translator of many languages who has been reborn as a dog, and he continues to have a zest for adventure and languages.  He becomes determined to learn how to speak the most perfect Dzonghkha, which requires studying the monks to model their speech.

Dawa has numerous adventures and meets many dogs along the way – pampered pets, guard dogs, and other street dogs. (Apparently “Tommy” is a popular name for dogs in Bhutan – both male and female.) When he realizes he has the dreaded mange, Dawa decides to go on a pilgrimage to a cave rumored to have cured a man of leprosy.  His zest for adventure, knowledge, and life is a constant driving force, and Dawa lives a full and beautiful life.  Through his eyes, he takes us to Bhutan – and that is what makes this simple book about a stray dog beautiful.

Read this book.

NAMED OF THE DRAGON – Susanna Kearsley

“We don’t let any of them die, in Wales – Merlin and Arthur and Owain – we keep them close by and asleep in the hills, to be wakened if ever we need them.”

Susanna Kearsley is a bestselling Canadian novelist who has been consistently publishing since the early 1990s.  I believe she writes mostly in a blend of mystery, thriller, paranormal, and romance genres, but I’d never read her before now.  My mother picked up Named of the Dragon (Sourcebooks 2015; originally published by Victor Gollancz 1998) because she said “it looked like me.”  She wasn’t wrong; she seldom is. It’s been on my TBR for years at this point, and I finally cracked it open.  Man, am I glad I did.

Named of the Dragon is an intoxicating read.  Set in Wales and steeped in Arthurian legend and prophecies, the novel follows Lyn, a book agent, on Christmas holiday with one of her authors, a wild and beguiling children’s book author, Bridget, in Angle, Wales.  They’ve been invited by Bridget’s boyfriend, renowned author James Swift, to his family house in Pembrokeshire.  It’s an old property, full of history and ruin.  Lyn wants to sign James and see the ruins, so she goes.  Also at the home is James’ brother, Christopher.  In the adjoining home is Elen and her infant son, Stevie.  Elen is thought to be quite mad, but those in Angle have rallied around her following the death of her beloved husband. The true feather that would be in Lyn’s chapeau if she can get him, is grumpy playwright Gareth Gwyn Morgan, who is also in Angle and friends with the Swifts and Elen.

It’s been almost five years since Lyn gave birth to Justin, the baby who didn’t make it.  When she delivered, she heard him crying but the nurses told her it was not her baby.  Her dreams are haunted by his cries, and she is uncomfortable around prams and babies.  She did not know about Elen and Stevie when she agreed to come on holiday.  Once she arrives, she dreams of a woman in blue with a curly haired child that she must save. Elen is dreaming of the same woman, and Elen believes that Lyn is Stevie’s protector.  Elen believes that a dragon in the tower wants to take her son.  Lyn realizes that her dreams and Elen’s fears are not only linked but are mirroring Arthurian legends and prophecies.

So, who is the dragon and why do they want Stevie?  Can Lyn really save him, and will she find and soothe the crying baby in her dreams?  And what of Gareth? Can she sign him or are they destined to not get along just by virtue of their names? Or will Tennyson prevail and have Lynette with Gareth in the end?  It’s a very atmospheric and intoxicating read, likely best read when the air bites and the carolers sing.

Read this book.

JOLLOF RICE AND OTHER REVOLUTIONS – Omolola Ijeoma Ogunyemi

“…oga dinma, oga dinma, it will be okay. Today. Tomorrow. Someday.”                

Omolola Ijeoma Ogunyemi’s Jollof Rice and Other Revolutions: A Novel in Interlocking Stories (Amistad 2022) is my favorite kind of short story collections – the kind where the stories weave in and out of each other, building the reader’s connection to a full cast of characters.  With themes of infertility and child loss through both death and distance, the collection is primarily one of women.  (With the exception of “Reflections from the Hood of a Car,” which centers on police brutality and discrimination in Nigeria and later the US.)  At its heart, are Nonso, Remi, Aisha, and Solape – four young friends in boarding school.  Two are involved in a revolution.  Two are arrested.  One dies.  Their young attempt to effectuate change at their school and the consequences that spill from it touch their lives as they grow up.

My favorite story is likely the first – “Fodo’s Better Half,” which is set years before the incident at the school and involves a beautiful and talented woman who is infertile but who greatly desires to have a family.  Her outside the box approach clashes with the Western world’s growing hold on her country, and she flees with Uchenna, a boy she considers her son who is of no blood relation.  (Uchenna is Nonso’s uncle and he appears in another story as a much older, and richer, man.)   “Goody Goody,” about a mother’s aging grief and how she holds on to the memory of her daughter is also a favorite. The last story, “Messengerna,” is an interesting departure from the other stories as it takes a rather futuristic and bleak look at America in 2050; it’s an interesting book end to the collection that starts in 1897.

I’m trying to make a better effort to read more short story collections, and interlocking remains my favorite way to go unless I’m going to piecemeal a collection.  Since, I don’t read in short bursts, that doesn’t work best for me.  I really enjoy Nigerian literature (though it will always make me hungry!), and this was a very “easy” collection.  While I’d have loved to see hundreds of pages of Nonso, Remi, Aisha, and Solape, I know that wasn’t the intent here.  For a short story collection, this was well done as is.

Read this book.

THE AS*TROBIOLOGISTS – Olga Gromyko

Next installment of Tommi Reads the World – we’re in the Bs.

Country: Belarus
Title: The As*trobiologists Volume 1
Author: Olga Gromyko
Language: Russian
Translator: Shelley Fairweather-Vega
Publisher: Cyborg Protection Union Ltd. (2021)

Kissed with the spirit of Futurama meets Firefly, Olga Gromyko’s The As*trobiologists is a hilarious space adventure.  I imagine some of the humor is lost in the translation, but this translation is still hysterical. This was the first in the series – I’m not sure how many have been translated yet, but I really need to find out what happens to these two ship crews.

One ship consists of Stanislav, a retired space commando, whose friend gets him really drunk and convinces him to buy a ship.  While intoxicated, he not only buys the ship, he signs a contract to finance it, staffs it, and winds up booking a job.  The job is to take a group of astrobiologists to a remote planet for research purposes.

The other ship consists of Roger and his motley pirate crew.  They’re looking for other treasures and subsisting off of the turquoise chickens stolen in their last attempt.  The remote planet  has the potential to be a huge pay day.

There is at least one battle cyborg (who is it?!?!), dangerous redheads, and a “big-busted blonde in a bikini” that serves as the computer program that operates the ship.  There’s also turquoise chickens, a remote controlled fox that is part of Stanislav’s ship’s entertainment (that gets lost and Roger’s crew thinks it’s real – making for some fun sections), and a navigator who eats nothing but chips and condensed milk. There’s also pot and an unauthorized (and untrained) pet that gets lost and dies in the air vents of the ship.  Did I mention that this is hilarious?

If the first volume is any indication – this is a well-written,  ridiculous and absolutely delicious candy read.

Read this book.

THE VANISHING HALF – Brit Bennett

“You could never know who might hurt you until it was too late.”

I finally got around to reading Brit Bennett’s The Vanishing Half (Riverhead 2020) – it was likely the most hyped on my TBR that had just been sitting there for ages, and it was on my “Must Reads” for 2024. (Yes.  I have a TBR and then I have a small “Must Reads” from that TBR.  I have a book problem.  It is what it is.) I tend to shy away from hyped books because I almost always feel let down.  Did The Vanishing Half let me down?  Yes and no.

I feel like at this point everyone knows what the novel is about – very light skinned twins from a town of nothing but light skinned folks run away – one becoming white passing and walking away from everything and everyone she’d ever known, and the other falling in love with the blackest man she could find before fleeing back to her hometown with her “blueblack” child after her husband becomes abusive.  Stella and Desiree are two parts of one whole, and this novel is how they shattered and how generational trauma and their choices affect their children.

My biggest disappointment with the novel is that every single character is a shimmery mirage of underdeveloped lives.  Desiree and Stella watched their father be dragged from his bed and lynched in the front yard by men who looked like them but who were white.  It is that moment that alters and forks the road the twins will travel. Desiree realizes that it doesn’t matter how light skinned she is, she will always be black.  Stella realizes that there is safety and “freedom” in whiteness, and she will forsake everything for it.  But the impact of that moment isn’t given much flesh, and neither Stella nor Desiree is fully developed.  Desiree has considerably more flesh, but it’s still lacking. If it was the intent for Stella to be underdeveloped and “vanishing,” she really shouldn’t have been given any sections – especially not the sections with Loretta.  There were just too many missed opportunities to build them up.

I have a similar complaint with Jude and Kennedy.  Much like her mother, Kennedy is underdeveloped but given space for development. Jude’s relationship with Reese, who is transgender, is also just a shell of what it could be.  Reese’s top surgery is a huge part of the novel and of Jude’s character, it is why she goes to med school!, but it’s just glossed over.

My favorite character is likely Early, a dark-skinned man who met the twins as a teen.  He becomes a “hunter,” working for a loan shark to find people.  He’s ultimately hired by Desiree’s husband after she runs away, and he finds himself reconnecting with this light skinned girl now a woman who had been forbidden to him as a teen and who now has a child darker than him.  His relationship with Jude, from sneakers to mystery novels, has so much heart but it’s buried in characters begging to have more flesh on their bones.

I liked the novel, I really did. I think it’s very palatable and accessible to most readers.  But I love a family saga, and I want it to be twice the size it is.

Read this book.

BEKA LAMB – Zee Edgell

Next installment of Tommi Reads the World – we’re in the Bs.

Country: Belize
Title: Beka Lamb
Author: Zee Edgell
Language: English
Translator: None
Publisher: Heinemann Educational Books (1982)

While published just after Belize’s independence, Zee Edgell’s Beka Lamb is set in the 1950s.  The novel covers mere months in the life of a 14-year-old girl living in a country fighting for a voice; it’s as much a political novel as it is a coming-of-age tale, and 1950s Belize was really when the fight for independence began in earnest with the formation of PUP (People’s United Party).

Beka’s grandmother attends the party meetings and marches, often bringing Beka with her, whereas Beka’s father struggles to maintain a neutrality that will best benefit his family and his people.  But it’s Beka’s mother and her silent struggle to grow roses like those found in “English gardens” that beautifully captures the impact of colonization and a changing landscape seeking freedom.

Beka’s best friend is the 17-year-old Toycie.  Toycie’s mother had left her with Miss Eila, who didn’t have children of her own, and fled to the United States.  Miss Eila didn’t have much, but she had plenty of love. Driven by that love, she somehow managed to find the funds to enroll Toycie in the convent school and to get her music lessons.  Toycie was brilliant, but she gets kicked out of school when she becomes pregnant.  The novel opens just after her death, and Beka is out of sorts that she couldn’t give her beloved friend a wake.  What follows are flashbacks or memories of the proceeding months leading up to the hurricane and Toyce’s untimely death.  These memories serve as her “wake” and a way for Beka to grieve and let Toycie go while finding a bit of her country’s voice in her own.

Read this book.

YOU DREAMED OF EMPIRES – Álvaro Enrigue

Álvaro Enrigue’s You Dreamed of Empires (translated by Natasha Wimmer – pub date 1/9/2024, Riverhead Books (thanks for the gifted advanced copy!)) is a fever dream of a reimagined meeting between Hernán Cortés and Moctezuma in 1519.  Edgar Allen Poe once wrote “all that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream,” and this novel, with a touch of madness and hefty dose of psychedelics, feels like you’re reading a novel in a dream within a dream.  Toss in the modernity of the writing, and you can’t put this story that takes place over a single day down.

Cortés is boring.  Horribly so.  But his captains, his translators, especially Malinalli, even the stable boy, Badillo, are vibrant and captivating.  (The horses and their destruction as well as Moctezuma’s fascination with them are some of my more favorite parts of the novel.  My favorite part is likely Captain Caldera trying to eat between two priests who reek of sacrificial blood and being unwashed.)  Moctezuma, much like Cortés, slips into the background with his sister (and wife) the Aztec princess, Atotoxtli, stealing scene after scene.

This is a novel of worlds colliding with a reimagined outcome. Moctezuma welcomes Cortés and his men to Tenochititlan.  They are given rooms in a palace that is a labyrinth to most of them while awaiting the actual meeting with Moctezuma, and they start to question if they are guests or prisoners.  Conquering the city becomes second to just getting out of the palace.  Enrigue takes this would-be conquest and adds a little pizzazz in the form of a hallucinogen – the end result is a heck of a unique novel.  The names make it a little bit difficult initially but stick with it.  I promise.

Read this book.

QUIXOTIQ – Ali Al Saeed

Next installment of Tommi Reads the World – ringing in 2024 with the Bs.

Country: Bahrain
Title: QuixotiQAuthor: Ali Al Saeed
Language: English
Translator: None
Publisher: iUniverse Inc. (2004)

Finding a novel in English from Bahrain was extremely difficult, and QuixotiQ was one of very few options.  Had this not been part of my reading challenge, I’d have DNF’d just a few pages in. The problem isn’t so much with the plot, which has potential to have some good bones, but with the writing itself. While it is admirable that Saeed drafted this novel entirely in English, at best a second language for him, that choice was the downfall of the work.  It is littered with grammatical errors, clunky and awkward phrasing, and a heck of a lot of telling instead of showing.

Guy Kelton and Patrick Roymint are two extremely unhappy young men.  Patrick takes a job at the urging of his girlfriend and ends up elbows deep in the seedy underbelly of Okay County as a drug runner. Guy is struggling with how his life didn’t end up how he’d hoped, and he is driven to madness and violence.  As the novel unfolds, their chaotic lives and those of Patrick’s girlfriend, Mandy, and her best friend, Christina, bleed in and out of each other as lives are lost and secrets are revealed.

The novel would have benefited from being initially written in the language that comes naturally to Saeed and translated by a talented translator.  It also would have benefited greatly from a skilled editor who has experience with works written not in the author’s primary language.  As it stands, I cannot recommend this novel.

THE BULLET SWALLOWER – Elizabeth Gonzalez James

“I think a person knows when their parents are gone for good, when the people that brought them into existence have gone out.  I think the air gets heavier or the light changes, something like that.  I haven’t seen the sun get dimmer yet.”

One of my highly anticipated 2024 releases was an early release through BOTM, and you know I snatched it up lickety-split. Elizabeth Gonzalez James’s The Bullet Swallower (Simon & Schuster 2024) is Lonesome Dove meets One Hundred Years of Solitude,and it is 249 pages of near perfect storytelling, making it my first five star read of the year.  It’s going to be hard to top this one.

When Antonio Sonora is born, his soul is marked for hell as the family is “in arrears” due to centuries of horrific acts. Death does not take him, deciding to wait and watch the baby grow up.  By 1895, Antonio has proven himself to be good with a gun and attracted to trouble, like the Sonora men who’d come before him.  But he’s a bad guy with a mostly good heart, and when he decides to rob a train in Laredo to better provide for his wife and children, you’re going to root for him.  When he is shot, Death decides yet again not to take his soul, and Antonio becomes a most wanted man – El Tragabalas, Bullet Swallower.

In 1964, a strange woman shows up at Jaime Sonora’s home with a book about the Sonora family.  Jaime, a famous actor living a relatively charmed life, is curious, and against his father’s wishes, he reads the book.  Not long after, a strange man emerges from the shadows and Jaime welcomes him like an old friend, despite his father’s insistence that the man’s presence in the home is neither safe nor wise; the Sonoras have a debt to pay, and Death will eventually collect.

This is a story of original sin, of family, of adventure, of legends and immortality.  It’s a western gilded in magical realism, and I loved it.

Read this book.

PROPHET SONG – Paul Lynch

“Something solid has begun to come loose, it is her heart sliding like gravel.”

In what has been a rather lackluster Booker longlist, I find myself a bit surprised at Paul Lynch’s Prophet Song (Atlantic Monthly Press 2023).  It’s a novel that tastes like something you’ve read before, only a little more pretentious, and one of a few I just wanted to stop reading several pages in.  And this, dear friends, is why I don’t DNF a book; as pretentious as  I think the writing is, the novel doesn’t ultimately suffer from it and the story is one that thrives in that grey area of what we believe could never happen and the fact we know too sure that it can, has and will – different faces, different places – because what happens in Lynch’s dystopian Dublin is happening and has been happening all over the world.  In short, while Western Lane will always be the winner in my heart, I get the hype here.

The novel opens with Irelands newly formed secret police showing up at Eilish’s door to question her husband.  He is ultimately taken, and the reader watches Ireland fall apart through the disbelieving eyes of a scientist, wife, daughter, and mother.

When Eilish’s husband is taken, she believes it is only temporary because she never believes that her Ireland will fall to a tyrannical rule that would deny her husband the right to an attorney.  Even after she learns they are killing children, her disbelief trails the novel like a deserted puppy.

While the fall into tyrannical rule tastes familiar, the focus on Eilish and a more domestic approach is what elevates the novel.  From dealing with a father slipping further into the shadowy arms of dementia to just trying to ensure her children have lamb and normalcy for Easter, to not wanting to leave the country until she has her husband at her side, Eilish is every daughter, mother, wife, woman.

Read this book.

Booker Count: 11 of 13