How Much of these Hills is Gold?

How Much of These Hills is Gold?

By C. Pam Zhang

This is a version of the Western told from the point of view of Chinese laborers. The book opens with the
two central characters, Lucy and Sam, trying to figure out how to bury their Ba, Mandarin for father. He'd taken to drink since their mother died, and did not last long after that. They try to follow their mother's directives about burial, searching and searching for a "home" in which to bury him. But they can't find one, or at least not one to Sam's liking. So the best they can do is mummify him, and carry him around as they search the hills.

Which is pretty much what the book is about: There is no "home" for people "like" Lucy and Sam in America. They are constantly othered, despite the fact that Ba, no matter the assumptions made about him, was actually born in this land. And so for Lucy and Sam, and their mother, it is a different west that holds their dreams -- a west beyond the Pacific Ocean, back in China.

Meanwhile, in the United States, nothing is as it seems. In fact, the US is never mentioned, perhaps a commentary on the fact that the land actually belongs to someone, or something, else. Sam is, in fact, Samantha. Ma is not dead -- she took off in the dead of night. Friends are not friends. There is no happy ending in this land of gold and golden dreams.

I loved the writing in this book. It was enthralling. The plot, too, kept you reading. But it was pretty clear from the outset that there would be no happy ending. We know at the outset, for instance, that Ba will die. So when we read of the family's good fortune to find some gold, enough to get them back to China, there is no joy in it. We know it will eventually taken from them. And when Lucy and Sam seem poised to head back to China, together, we wait for the other shoe to drop, and it does. 

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

 The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (YA Adaptation)

By William Kamkwamba

Erin picked this up for Kes to feed his burgeoning reading habit, but I'd just finished a book, had heard of it,

and so gave it a shot.

It's been a long while since I've read non-fiction. My reading these days is largely escapism, so a tale is what I need. But this book had me hooked. It is quite the dramatic story. 

A boy born to poor farmers in Malawi is thirsty for knowledge. But when a famine hits his country, there is no money left for school fees. So he takes learning into his own hands, visiting his primary school library for books. He has become fascinated with dynamos, small devices that create electricity with the turning of a wheel. His home, like most in his village, has no electricity, and he wants to change that. If Harnessed correctly, it could be life changing and offer insurance against future famine. 

One day, in a book, he discovers the concept of a windmill, and he realizes it could be used to turn the wheel of a dynamo much like a bicycle's wheels. So he sets off to build one, visiting local scrap yards for whatever materials he can. He builds a small windmill as proof of concept, and powers a radio. So he goes bigger, eventually erecting a windmill at his family's house. People think he's crazy. But soon enough, his whole house is wired and electrified. His family no longer goes to bed at 7 pm; they have conquered the night.

Somehow, this invention is discovered by the outside world. Media attention follows suit, and William's life trajectory changes dramatically. He delivers a TED talk, goes back to school, and eventually graduates from Dartmouth, pledging to spend his life helping his countrymen in Malawi. Inspiring stuff.

The Intiutitionist

 The Intiutionist

By Colson Whitehead

I think I stumbled on this one while looking for The Hobbit at the Woodstock Library. There was an array of

Colson Whitehead books, and I thought this one looked interesting.

It takes place in a kind of alternate Jim Crow United States, one where elevators hold, well, an elevated position in society. Elevators are given the credit for the progress of American cities, allowing them to build up and therefore modernize. They hold a certain mystique. To keep them running properly, there arises a cadre of elevator inspectors, replete with badges, who rival the Police in terms of power and prestige. There is, however, a rift in these ranks, a philosophical schism in how to properly inspect an elevator. There are the empiricists, whose work centers around the physical inspection of the mechanical workings of the elevator. And then there are the intuitionist, who seek to become one with the elevator as they ride it, feeling any troubles rather than seeing them.

Lila Mae Watson is an intuitionist -- and she is never wrong. Until one day when an elevator she had just inspected at a new city building crashes to the bottom of its shaft. No one is hurt, but a scandal ensues. It is all the more troubling because it is an election year, and the two candidates represent the two elevator inspection schools. Rumors abound. Was it sabotage? And then, out of the blue, there appears in the mailboxes of many prominent elevator people portions of a notebook once owned by James Fulton, the most revered elevator theorist in history. The papers hint at a "black box", a perfect elevator, and both sides rush to find the rest of the plans.

Lila Mae becomes something of a pawn in this battle, until she reveals what the reader has been thinking all along: It's just a big joke. James Fulton invented impiricism to see if anyone would believe him. And they did. And then, strangely enough, he did. It's a little like Bob Dylan's Nashville Skyline, where he disguised his voice to see if anyone would still buy the record and it became beloved. 

I really liked this book. It is a wry commentary on race and mass delusion disguised with a plot that keeps you reading.