It’s been a while since I’ve done an “Under the Radar” post. In these posts, I highlight fantastic books I’ve come across that don’t get the hype they deserve.
On to the 5th installment!
“I believe that many more miracles take place in the world than we think. You only need to know how to see - how to follow a thread, how to follow the links in a chain of events, not rejecting something merely because it’s improbable, neither jumbling the facts nor forcing your own explanations on them.”
Female Russian author Teffi is a real treat and Subtly Worded, which is a collection of short stories, is such a fun and interesting read. Subtly Worded includes both fiction and non-fiction. This collection includes her accounts meeting both Rasputin and Leo Tolstoy. Teffi’s writing is witty, precise, evocative and at times, down right hilarious. We also get glimpses of Revolutionary Russia. In the short story “Petrograd Monologue”, the narrator cannot stop thinking about how hungry she is. Teffi’s commentary on Rasputin is the highlight to this collection for me. Her descriptions of him are so eerie and mysterious. There is even a more philosophical piece that focuses on old age, death and reflections of one’s life. Fans of Russian lit - this is for you!
“I like what’s uncertain - what’s imperfect. I like what - what breaks out behind the features and is suddenly there and gone again.”
The Weather in the Streets by, Rosamond Lehmann has lived in my head rent free since I read it last year. This is a novel about an adulterous relationship between Olivia Curtis and the married Rollo Spencer. Olivia and Rollo, childhood acquaintances, cross paths in adulthood and quickly pursue a relationship. Rosamond eloquently portrays the reality of leading a double life and the damage that adultery inflicts on the parties involved. Lehmann’s writing is poetic, descriptive, evocative.
She will often meander from 3rd person to 1st person in the same paragraph and it’s so elegantly done, that I didn’t even realize what she was doing. As one could assume from the title, weather plays a significant role in the narrative. Lehmann is constantly describing the weather and uses this as a device to foreshadow immediate events to come. I was also surprised to detect an existential undertone throughout the book.
“She had been a child then, in the first embrace of belonging, equating love with order and homogeneity, identifying color as the core of character. Now, through falling in love with Meade, she had been forced to admit that identity is not inherent.”
The Wedding by, Dorothy West is a novel about a prominent black family that is preparing for the wedding of one of their own - Shelby. However, Shelby’s fiancé is a white jazz musician, Meade. Instead of focusing on the relationship of Shelby and Meade, the narrative goes into the family tree of this prominent, northern black family and how, through their lineage, as slaves to a family of doctors and socialites, living in well-to-do areas of New York City. This novel could have easily been a story about the complexities of interracial relationships, however, West goes deeper and explores the complexities of race, colorism, and classism from multiple perspectives. She calls everyone out - black and white. Shelby comes to the realization that “color” and race really have no bearing on a person’s character. Society boxes people into categories, based simply on their outward appearance. People are people and all groups of people have issues because all groups of people are comprised of fallible human beings. It’s when people with a conscious and a desire to do good, regardless of what they look like, come together is where good change happens.
Have you read any of these novels and if not, are you interested in picking any of these up?
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