Book Review: Sin Eater

 
By Megan Campisi

• Pub Date: 2020

• Genre: Historical Fiction, Dystopian Fantasy

• Where I bought this book: Bookmatters, Milford, Ohio 

• Why I bought this book: The term "Sin Eater" caught my eye 

• Bookmark used: Hell hath no rage greater than a woman scorned

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    Let's get this out of the way: A sin eater is a woman, "unseen and unheard," who hears confessions of the dying and then literally consumes their sins by way of eating symbolic foods. By doing so, she cleanses their souls and takes on their damnations.

     It's not a career one seeks out, nor one that holds a high position in society. Rather, the woman is shunned, neither looked at nor spoken to, and must live apart, to be summoned only when sought out by the dying's kinfolk.

    It's occurred in cultures across time and space, but mostly in Great Britain around the 16th and 17th centuries. That's convenient for this novel, because it can add some kings and queens and palace intrigue, and set in a place that looks like an alternative Tudor England.

    It's an original, imaginative tale, centering around 14-year-old May Owens, an orphan and petty criminal who we first meet while she's in a crowded, dank prison cell, mostly for being poor. She's singled out for retribution by the judge (for reasons that become clear later on), and eventually sentenced to be the town's sin eater.

    An iron collar is locked around her neck; her tongue is burned with her mark, and she is sent off to work. She receives no instructions, and must find her own way and her own home.

    Poor and uneducated, May in nonetheless a resourceful, brave, and cunning character. She finds the older sin eater in town, and starts working and learning from her. But when they hear the dying confession of a royal courtier, and see an unaccounted for food at the eating, they find themselves in the thick of a palace scandal.

    The older sin eater refuses to eat a deer heart, not having heard the sin it represents, and is taken away to the dungeon. May doesn't know what it represents, but having seen the repercussions of refusing to eat it, does so.  But she recognizes that someone is plotting something; she seems to be a pawn in their game, and her life is in danger. So she decides she must, somehow, determine the what the hell is going on amongst the gentry.

    The royals sound much like a certain Tudor king and his court. The deceased King Harold II bears a strong resemblance to Henry VIII, what with his six wives, a new religion, and the lack of a male heir. Instead, his eldest daughter Maris, (Mary?), a Eucharistian, takes the throne and orders everyone to return to the old faith. But then Bethany, who, (like Elizabeth), is the daughter of the second wife, Alys Bollings, (Anne Boleyn, later executed for treason) became the Virgin Queen and returned the people to the new faith.

    As May explains it:

Maris ... was Eucharistian. She made everyfolk go back to the old faith and burned you if you didn't. She was known as Bloody Maris, even though it should as been Ashes Maris, since folk were burned not bloodied. ... (W)hen she died, her sister, Bethany, became queen. And what faith was she? Why, new faith. So she made everyfolk go back again to the new faith. Back and forth, back and forth. But it was no jest. Purgers came house to house to beat you if you didn't go along with the new faith. ... And the fighting's still not done. But now it for which suitor will win our queen, become king, and get his heir on her.

    The best parts of the book show the character of May, her growth, her kindness to the downtrodden, and her desire to tweak authorities. The palace intrigue, not so much.

    May is compared to Eve -- the woman who brings all evil into the world, according to the Christian Bible -- and the book itself has been compared to works such as Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, Alice in Wonderland, and the play The Crucible, by Arthur Miller. I'm not sure about the first two, and don't know enough about the third, but all contain bloody authoritarian leaders who force women to suffers the sins of others, so maybe there's something there.

Book Review: Big Girl Small Town

 

•  Author: Michelle Gallen

• Where I bought this book: Half Price Books, Florence, Ky. 

• Why I bought this book: It was a novel about Northern Ireland that seemed intriguing 

****

    Majella O'Neill exists in an out-of-the-way border town in Northern Ireland. She works in a chip shop, and took up smoking so she had excuses to take breaks.

 

   Otherwise, she's a loner, an introvert, and an observer of people.

    She doesn't like her job -- it's a greasy dead end, but it's the best she can do on the Catholic side of Aghybogey. She doesn't really like people, her town, her customers, fashion, makeup -- oh, heck, she doesn't like a lot of things. So many, in fact, that she maintains a detailed, numerical list of such things.

    She does enjoy a few things: the TV show Dallas, which she watches on video every night. Her greasy free nightly meal from the chip shop. Sex. And drinking in the pub.

    The novel is mostly about Majella's observations of her town, its people, and her interactions with the customers. Gallen is exhaustive in reviewing her conversations, even when they are identical every night. She make this clear -- she has similar discussions with the same people every night, and not only does she reiterate them, she reminds you these are the same discussions she always has with the same people.

    Such is the flaw of an otherwise methodical novel that tries to give you the sense of  a small town in Northern Ireland after The Troubles. It does a middling job on the tedious daily life, but larger details -- such as Majella's relationship with her grandmother, Maggie, whose violent death is portrayed more as sort of a minor point -- are glossed over.

    Nonetheless, it's an interesting and surprisingly quick read.  

Book Review

 New York, My Village, by Uwem Akpan

• Where I bought this book: The Book Loft, Columbus, Ohio
• Why I bought this book: It has a map

****

    My indelable memory of the Biafran War is the Catholic Charities "relief campaign" that used pictures of starving African children with bloated stomachs to raise money.

 

   That's it. I knew nothing about the reasons for the war, or even where in Africa Biafra was.

    So I was hoping this book would help me learn just a little bit about the war, and just as important, what happened and what is happening now. 

    It kinda did. But it also taught me the war has a long background, involves colonization and other crimes committed on the African peoples, and pretty much boils down to why any war is fought -- hatred, discrimination, jealously, and control.

    Briefly, and I hope I get this right: Biafra is a small province in the south of Nigeria. Northern Nigerian tribes, particularly the Hausa-Fulani, dominated. In 1967, representatives of the Igbo tribe in southern Nigeria, based in Biafra, claimed they controlled the south and proclaimed their independence.

    It did not go well. There's a reason you don't hear of Biafra anymore. It's no longer a country, and hasn't been since 1970.

    In this fictionalized account, Ekong Udousoro is a book editor, and he receives a fellowship to intern at a small publishing company in New York City. He is part of the Annang, who also lives in southern Nigeria, but have had little control to the dominant Igbo. Or as Ekong puts it, his group is a minority within a minoiry. 

    This book is an account of his months learning the book publishing industry, coupled with memories of the war -- which actually happened before he was born, but which has shaped his family, his village, and himself.

    But it's also about his family relationships -- which are confusing; his troubles and joys adapting to living in Hell's Kitchen -- ugh! far too much information on bedbugs and his problems with them; his relationships with his landlord, the man he is subletting his apartment from; the racism he confronts on the job and in book publishing; his difficulties getting along with his new neighbors, and much, much more.

    It's really too much. He covers too many issues, confusing us on many occassions, and spends far too much time on the damn bedbugs. (And even when you think he is done with that, they come back! I was ready to toss the book across the room at this point.)

    Still, at its heart, the book's theme is about how we complicate our lives by dividing ourselves in too many groups -- by color, ethnicity, religion, jobs, community, and so much more. In short, perhaps we are all minorities of a minority.    

Black Friday: Books and tea

Although I am far from a shopping aficionado, I did have my own little excursion this Black Friday.

I drove some 60 miles from where I was visiting at my brother's house in upstate New York to my favorite small town -- Millerton, N.Y. -- to partake in tea and books.

My first stop was, of course, Harney & Sons tea shop. It's a great tea company with its headquarters in town, and it has a store/restaurant right on Main Street. While waiting for a table where I would soon order a cuppa and snack on scones, jam, and clotted cream, I perused the small shop and put in my semi-annual tea order.

Afterward, I strolled across the street to one of my favorite bookstores in the country, Oblong Books & Music. This store is a gem. It has a children's toy and book shop downstairs. Climb the stairs, past the Harry Potter Wall -- or enter from around the corner -- and you will find one of the widest array of books in the smallest of spaces. OK, it's not that small, but it is cozy.

And here is what I love about it: Instead of carrying dozens of copies of best sellers or books by authors one can find at your local Wal-Mart, the store will have a few volumes by hundreds of different writers, both well-known and those waiting to be found. I discovered the Irish writer Kevin Barry here. Last year, I found a compelling book, Submission, by Michel Houellebecq, on its shelves.

This year, I was pleased to find The Obama Inheritance in the store. Ever since I heard the review on NPR recently, I have searched in several bookstores but have been unable to find this treasure. All the stores claimed not to carry it, and I began to wonder: Was the book that told stories about the various conspiracy theories surrounding President Obama a conspiracy in itself? Barnes & Noble did confirm it existed, but mysteriously told me it was unavailable -- even on its website.

But now I hold a copy in my hands, and I am eager to start reading it.


But that's was only part of my haul. I also picked up Artemis, a story of moon colonization by Andy Weir, the author of Martian; Elmet, a Man Booker Prize finalist, by Fiona Mozley; and A Line Made by Walking, by Irish novelist Sara Baume.

The next day, while treating my daughter to her visit to The Drama Book Shop in midtown Manhattan -- where she hauled in her own collection of books -- I picked up Uncommon Type, the collection of short stories written by actor Tom Hanks.

Yep, I believe in shopping small and shopping local -- even if that local shopping is hundreds of miles from my home.

A trip to the Boston Marathon

So, I spent a few days last week up in Boston, watching the Marathon, exploring bookstores, and seeing the sights. Unfortunately, time did not allow for a full viewing of the available bookstores. But I did enjoy the marathon and other activities, and here are some of the thoughts I came away with.

Boston is a long drive: On the way back, I broke the 1,000-mile-a-day barrier. I drove 1,000.1 miles from our hotel in the suburb of Braintree, Mass., to drop off my daughter at college in Morehead, Ky., and then home to Edgewood, Ky. It took 19 1/2 hours, from 4 a.m. to 11:30 p.m.Two of those hours were spent sitting in a traffic jam in Nitro, W.Va.

 My mileage, just down the block from my home in Edgewood, Ky.

The MBTA: What a great public transportation system. The trains run constantly, and the routes are easy to navigate.

The Charlie Card:  I love the fact that the system's pass, which you can buy anywhere, for any amount of cash, and use it to pay your fare, is named after the old folk song, "Charlie on the MTA"  Signs in every station explain the history of the song and its connection with the system.

Mile 17: The purpose of my family trip was to see my daughter run the Boston Marathon. We decided to watch from the Newton Fire Station at the corner of Route 16, where the runners turn onto Commonwealth Avenue just after the 17-mile mark. It was a great choice -- just before Heartbreak Hill, two-thirds of the way through, and my daughter was happy to see familiar faces. It was easy to get there on the MBTA, had a nice, but not overwhelming crowd, and snacks and portaporties were available at the fire department.

  The elite men -- including winner Geoffrey Kirui (far left) and runner-up Galen Rupp (middle) -- just past Mile 17

Crazy streets: While the public transit was great, the surface streets are incomprehensible. Narrow and winding, with five- and six-way intersections, it's easy to get lost, and easy to understand the city's massive traffic problems. We chose not to drive in the city. Another good choice.

Compact city: It is, however, a great walking city. A couple of miles and you can see many of the attractions, from Fenway Park, to the Boston Commons, to Faneuil Hall, where I bought some tea at a store named Revolutionary Boston.

                                   The Irish Famine Memorial, not far from Faneuil Hall

My Thai Vegan Cafe: A great little restaurant we found in Chinatown, as we wandered around after the Marathon. My younger daughter, a vegan, was happy. She could eat everything on the menu, including the chocolate cake.