A Free Life by Ha Jin - Book Review

I really enjoyed this book. Sickness the latter part of the week finally gave me time to finish it. I had interrupted my reading to read my book club book, as well as a book I borrowed from the Country Inn and Suites library. That was the second book I have borrowed from the motel library. I like having a book choice in the lobby. Now to my review -

As I said, I liked this book. Nan Wu is a Chinese immigrant who cannot return to China after the Tiananmen Square incident. An intellectual, poet wannabee, he has to adjust to making a living and surviving in America. He also has a wife and son to support. While their lives are difficult, they do not want to return to China where the whole purpose of the government seems to be to annoy and inconvenience you. But they feel, and are, so vulnerable in the US. They have minimal insurance. They have few friends and their relationships with Americans are often hurt by misunderstanding or prejudice.

I have never read anything else by Ha Jin but I wonder if there is not a bit of autobiography about the book. He too immigrated shortly before Tiananmen. The writing was very sparse. It sounds like what you would expect if Nan Wu had written his own autobiography. I will be looking forward to reading another book by this author soon.

It is interesting to compare A Free Life with The Reluctant Fundamentalist. Both chronicle the adjustments of young male immigrants to the life and culture of America. Both are haunted by unfulfilled romantic entanglements. However, their reactions and choices are different. The never named Pakistani returns home with anger and a desire to destroy. Nan Wu wants to stay and find a way to succeed. He is often ashamed of his desire for financial gain and feels that he has sold out for the never completely attainable American Dream. At the conclusion, Nan has found a compromise, a rather menial job with insurance and a livable wage, where he can finally write his poetry. PRM

I still can't figure out why my last post was so small. I'm curious to see what this one looks like.

Book club book - almost finished. Now I have to decide what food to bring. And prepare or purchase it.

Shoshie and I have been working on crossword puzzles. The Tennessean had the Sunday NY Times and the LA Times puzzles, with solutions, in the paper Sunday. I have almost finished the LA puzzle. I also printed a daily puzzle from the Wash Post. Shoshie worked on that one. She shares my interest in puzzles and games. We do the Jumble almost every morning. Even Noach participates in that. I keep looking for different ways to spice up the homeschooling day.

Every time I blog, I feel the pressure to come up with a clever blog entry title. I may switch to something more prosaic. That should take the stress out of it. I have been pretty faithfully blogging for several weeks now. A technologically-enforced break last week when we didn't have Wi-Fi but otherwise, pretty consistent. PRM

Font experiment

font nl
Times nl
Courier small
trebuchet nl
verdana nl
georgia nl

Back to homeschooling

We went back to work yesterday. There was less whining than I expected. But the expected amount of dawdling. Kids weren't up until almost 11. It is hard to finish if you start so late.

I spent too much time on the computer, trying to catch up with the too many blogs I read. I also need to read my book club book. The next meeting is tomorrow! I started yesterday afternoon and there is a lot to go.

I began to organize an American History course for Yakov to start in January. I am following some of the online APUSH syllabi. I wish he could take the APUSH exam but he cannot get prepared by this next May. He can certainly do the work.

Biology lab this week is genetics. I can't find a really good online tutorial. And I have too many lab options to choose from. Spongebob genetics vs dragon genetics vs pipestem babies. The choices! The decisions to make! There are worse things. PRM

And why is this post so small?

A few pictures

No gathering is complete without that baby. Here with Aunt Shoshie.













A lot of sitting around, often watching the baby. Here my son, Big E, and my brother.













Yakov and my dad.













"Who is that?" Baby with her mom and my mom, her great grandmother.






The food was good, too, but the company was the best! PRM

Home, at last

We just got home. It was a long drive with frequent rain and two separate episodes of thick fog. I am glad to be home. I feel so much more at ease when I am back in my usual routine, dreary as it may be.

I'll post some pictures tomorrow. PRM

Prep for the bigmeal

I drove the kids to my hometown yesterday so we can spend the weekend with my family. My older brother, his wife and their older daughter and her family will be here as well. Best of all, Big E, my oldest son, will be here with his wife and that BABY we all adore. We spent last evening with them. Today they are driving to Memphis to spend this evening with the Big E's dad and his family. They will be back for the feast tomorrow.

Today my SIL and I will be doing some prep. Her daughter will be here about noon. Kim, my niece, can just get things done. She is awesome.

JP flies in tonight. As do thunderstorms. PRM

Weekend Roundup

The sock is finished. It is too thick to wear with any of my shoes. I may look for a thinner yarn and knit a pair after Thanksgiving. Maybe after Channuka.

I took my kugel making on the road yesterday to Religious School. The kids helped make the kugel and then they decorated T-shirts for Hannukah while it cooked. Most of them were willing to sample the kugel when it was done. But the adults got the samples with raisins, the better kugel. Few of the kids would eat the raisin kugel. Lucky grown-ups.

Yakov and Shoshie returned from NO shortly before midnight. As always, they had a great time. And were unrested. They spent Sunday doing tzedakah, mowing yards in the 9th Ward. Apparently the city will do yard care for deserted lots but assess an inflated charge. If the landowner doesn't pay, then his property can be repossessed. Y was in the same area of NO 18 months ago and he said it looked different. Where he saw rotting homes, trucks on porches and other signs of devastation previously, he now saw empty lots. An improvement, surely, but not normalcy.

Biology lab later this morning. I vacuumed yesterday and only need to straighten the bathroom and the kitchen. Guess I'll do that now. PRM

About that sock

I continue to work on it. Especially today. Hours. And hours. But I have turned the heel and am working on the foot. I wish my feet were smaller. And then I have to just do it all again! So cool. I have really enjoyed it.

Yesterday Noach ran a few errands and then I spent 2 or 3 hours getting ready for biology lab on Monday. I will be trying to teach them mitosis and meiosis. They will be able to look at mitotic cells from an onion root tip. I have created some chromosomes to demonstrate both processes. As always I just hope they get something out of the experience.

The religious school kids did the service last night at shul. They did an excellent job. We stayed for the oneg and visited with friends.

PRM

A bit of peace and a new project

Yakov and Shoshie got off to New Orleans mid-day yesterday. Not without incident but nothing too serious. Noach and I went to Velocity and came home to do the rather small amount of schooling that occurred yesterday.

I began a new project. I have looked on with envy the last few years as friends sat with their knitting projects and made such cool stuff. And of course, Danna is involved with knitting on another, professional, level. I want to do that, too! So Noach and I took our 40% off coupons to Hobby Lobby yesterday morning and purchased some yarn and knitting needles.

I know how to cast on, knit and purl but that is about the extent of my skills. I searched the internet for instructions to make socks, my goal for now, and found a site that purported to make sock knitting so easy even someone of my limited skills could succeed. How could I resist?

I worked for hours. I cast on, knitted, purled, screwed up and ripped it out. I must have cast on 10 different times. Maybe more. But I kept at it and NOW I have about 1 1/2 inches of sock top done. I'll take a picture when I get a bit more done. My finger tips hurt but it is so worth it! PRM