THE YONAHLOSSEE RIDING CAMP FOR GIRLS BY ANTON DISCLAFINI

Horseplay

Anton DiSclafani’s ‘Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls’

By ALEX KUCZYNSKI

Published: June 7, 2013

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The year is 1930 and the country has slid into the Great Depression. Fifteen-year-old Thea Atwell has been ejected from her family home in Florida for doing something very, very bad. Her punishment: to be remanded to the Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. A child of privilege, Thea has grown up in near isolation on a citrus plantation, with her twin brother, Sam, and 16-year-old cousin, Georgie, as her closest companions. Once deposited and uniformed, Thea comes to realize that Yonahlossee isn’t just an elite summer camp but a year-round school and — cue “Hotel California” — she’s not going anywhere for a long time.

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Dan Cassaro

THE YONAHLOSSEE RIDING CAMP FOR GIRLS

By Anton DiSclafani

390 pp. Riverhead Books. $27.95.

This is the promising opening of Anton DiSclafani’s ambitious first novel, which positions a world of horseback riding, romance and Southern snobbery against the backdrop of the country’s worst economic trial. It’s not an easy pairing, imagining girls in polished riding boots sneaking liquor and enjoying liaisons while people in surrounding Appalachia struggle just to find enough to eat. As DiSclafani writes, the school is “an island of rich girls in the middle of the poorest.” Not only that, there are girls at Yonahlossee “who refused to believe or at least admit that the North had claimed victory in the War Between the States.”

One has to respect DiSclafani’s enterprise, even if her efforts fall flat. A former equestrian competitor, she is best when describing equine pedagogy, the minutiae of tack and hoof care, the talk of fetlocks and forelocks, leading her readers to understand why teenage girls can be so enthralled with horses: they require care but also serve as empowerment symbols, providing a shield against fear as well as a socially sanctioned metaphorical outlet for sexual urges. Unfortunately, there’s just so much of this you can handle if you’re not a teenage girl and crazy about horses.

Thea only gradually lets the reader in on all the details of her terrible secret. This coyness prevents us from getting to know and like her, and it makes DiSclafani’s attempts to create drama feel contrived. Throw in the distant mother who has banished Thea, the isolated childhood, the girls in their all-white uniforms and the underlying suggestion of incest and taboo, and everything gets very “Flowers in the Attic.” A further hindrance is DiSclafani’s not always careful prose, as when Thea describes the joy of riding her horse fast on a moonlit night: “I could do this forever, was how I felt; and what else is there to say about galloping?”

While some of DiSclafani’s descriptions of teenage sexuality seem credible, most are either awkward or too vivid for their particular context. At one point, Thea fantasizes about her friend Sissy and Sissy’s secret paramour, Boone: “I thought of Boone gently and urgently kneading her breasts.” Which sounds to me like a bad mammogram, a really bad third date or instructions for how to make gnocchi.

The good news is that the novel finally achieves some forward motion in its muddied final laps, heroically unscrambling a host of plot lines. In the course of all this, Thea will engage in more bad behavior, without exhibiting any remorse or sense of conflict, rendering her even less likable. “I had wanted something very badly,” she calmly explains, “and then I had gotten it, and the getting kept getting better.” She sounds like a middle-aged madam rather than the independent young woman DiSclafani presumably intended.

The book is a cinematic, image-heavy exercise: DiSclafani presents us with luscious visuals like the Yonahlossee girls riding in their radiant uniforms under the tutelage of their German riding coach — or taking silent baths in a room filled with nothing but steamy tubs, each girl in her own tub, servant at the ready with clean white towels. You can practically see the trailer for the Sofia Coppola movie.

There’s a saying in the horse world, often grumbled by parents whose bank accounts have been emptied by the sport’s high cost but who are relieved by the knowledge that their teenage daughters are more obsessed with horses than they are with boys: Horseback riding is the world’s most expensive form of birth control. Apparently, Thea Atwell never got the memo.

Alex Kuczynski is the author of “Beauty Junkies: Inside Our $15 Billion Obsession With ­Cosmetic Surgery.”

A version of this review appears in print on June 9, 2013, on page BR17 of the Sunday Book Review with the headline: Horseplay.

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THE ALCHEMIST BY PAULO COELHO

A recurring dream troubles Santiago, a young and adventurous Andalusian shepherd. He has the dream every time he sleeps under a sycamore tree that grows out of the ruins of a church. During the dream, a child tells him to seek treasure at the foot of the Egyptian pyramids. Santiago consults a gypsy woman to interpret the dream, and to his surprise she tells him to go to Egypt. A strange, magical old man named Melchizedek, who claims to be the King of Salem, echoes the gypsy’s advice and tells Santiago that it is his Personal Legend to journey to the pyramids. Melchizedek convinces Santiago to sell his flock and set off to Tangier. When Santiago arrives in Tangier, a thief robs him, forcing him to find work with a local crystal merchant. The conservative and kindly merchant teaches Santiago several lessons, and Santiago encourages the merchant to take risks with his business. The risks pay off, and Santiago becomes a rich man in just a year.

Santiago decides to cash in his earnings and continue pursuing his Personal Legend: to find treasure at the pyramids. He joins a caravan crossing the Sahara desert toward Egypt and meets an Englishman who is studying to become an alchemist. He learns a lot from the Englishman during the journey. For one, he learns that the secret of alchemy is written on a stone called the Emerald Tablet. The ultimate creation of alchemy is the Master Work, which consists of a solid called the Philosophers Stone that can turn lead to gold, and a liquid called the Elixir of Life that can cure all ills. Santiago learns the Englishman is traveling with the caravan to the Saharan oasis of Al-Fayoum, where a powerful, 200-year-old alchemist resides. The Englishman plans to ask the alchemist the secret of his trade.

As it turns out, the caravan must make an extended stop in Al-Fayoum in order to avoid increasingly violent tribal wars taking place in the desert. There, Santiago falls in love with Fatima, who lives at the oasis. During a walk in the desert, Santiago witnesses an omen that portends an attack on the historically neutral oasis. He warns the tribal chieftains of the attack, and as a result, Al-Fayoum successfully defends itself against the assault. The alchemist gets word of Santiago’s vision and invites Santiago on a trip into the desert, during which he teaches Santiago about the importance of listening to his heart and pursuing his Personal Legend. He convinces Santiago to leave Fatima and the caravan for the time to finish his journey to the pyramids, and he offers to accompany Santiago on the next leg of his trip.

While the alchemist and Santiago continue through the desert, the alchemist shares much of his wisdom about the Soul of the World. They are mere days away from the pyramids when a tribe of Arab soldiers captures them. In exchange for his life and the life of Santiago, the alchemist hands over to the tribe all of Santiago’s money and tells the soldiers that Santiago is a powerful alchemist who will turn into wind within three days. Santiago feels alarmed because he has no idea how to turn into the wind, and over the next three days he contemplates the desert. On the third day, he communicates with the wind and the sun and coaxes them to help him create a tremendous sandstorm. He prays to the Hand That Wrote All, and at the height of the storm he disappears. He reappears on the other side of the camp, and the tribesmen, awed by the power of the storm and by Santiago’s ability, let him and the alchemist go free.

The alchemist continues to travel with Santiago as far as a Coptic monastery several hours from the pyramids. There, he demonstrates to Santiago his ability to turn lead into gold using the Philosopher’s Stone. He gives Santiago gold and sends him off. Santiago begins digging for the treasure at the foot of the pyramids, but two men accost him and beat him. When Santiago speaks to them about his dream vision, they decide he must have no money and let him live. Before leaving, one of the men tries to illustrate the worthlessness of dreams by telling Santiago about his own dream. It concerns a treasure buried in an abandoned church in Spain where a sycamore tree grows. The church is the same one in which Santiago had his original dream, and he finally understands where his treasure is. He returns to Spain to find a chest of jewels and gold buried under the tree, and plans to return with it to Al-Fayoum, where he will reunite with Fatima, who awaits him.

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DREAMS OF JOY BY LISA SEE

Dreams of Joy is organized in four sections -- The Tiger Leaps, The Rabbit Dodges, The Dog Grins, and The Dragon Rises. Joy is the Tiger – romantic, artistic, rash, and impulsive. In this novel, unlike Shanghai Girls, Joy and Pearl are both narrators. Driven by anger at Pearl and May for lying to her about her identity and filled with guilt because of her role in Sam’s death, Joy hastily leaves Los Angeles Chinatown to find her biological father Z.G. and to join the new Chinese society. Finding her father rather quickly in Shanghai, Joy goes with him to a village collective where he is forced to teach art to the peasants. Joy throws herself enthusiastically into the life of the collective and into a hasty marriage with Tao, a peasant artist. Only through motherhood and terrible suffering is Joy able to find her true identity and to exorcise her inner demons. See has written about the difficulty she faced in developing Joy’s character: “At first, Joy was hard to write about because she’s so naïve and stubborn. She makes such terrible mistakes, which, as a mother and her writer, I found hard to watch . . . But what an experience it was to watch her go through all the terrible things she experiences and see her grow up to be a wonderful artist and courageous mother.”^[4]

Z.G. is the Rabbit, frequently hopping away from danger. Although close to Mao himself, the Chairman can’t trust the artist because of his individualistic streak and Western influences. Z.G. has to go to the country as a form of punishment for his subversive tendencies. What brings Z.G. through in the end are his art, his growing love for Joy and his granddaughter Samantha, his friendship with Pearl, and his devotion to May.

The Dog is Tao, the village artist who Joy marries. As Pearl sees it, the question is what kind of Dog will Tao turn out to be. “’A Dog can be violent . . . Is he the kind of Dog you can trust and love, or will he bite you’”.^[5] Unfortunately Joy’s passionate view of Tao as a good Dog turns out to be false. Tao is a poor husband, an indifferent father, and a young man devoted to seeking the main chance, no matter who he has to step over to reach his goals. Even surviving the most desperate of circumstances does not change Tao's character.

Pearl is the Dragon. She is the second narrator of Dreams of Joy and the character See found easiest to write. “I was already so familiar with Pearl’s strengths and weaknesses from Shanghai Girls. Her words just flowed, because I’ve now lived with her every day for over four years.^[6] In Shanghai Girls Mama speaks frequently of Pearl's Dragon nature -- and does so even when she is dying: "'There was a typhoon the day you were born . . . It is said that a Dragon born in a storm will have a particularly tempestuous fate. You always believe you are right, and this makes you do things you shouldn't . . . You're a Dragon, and of all the signs only a Dragon can tame the fates. Only a Dragon can wear the horns of destiny, duty and power'".^[7] Mama's mother love in giving up her life for her daughters becomes the standard by which Pearl judges herself.

If Dreams of Joy is the story of Joy's coming of age, it also describes Pearl's growth through love, courage, and self-sacrifice. She pursues Joy to a China she never knew, living in her old Shanghai home as just another boarder, earning a living by collecting papers, and trying desperately to reconnect with her daughter. If such a pursuit requires painful patience and hard work at a collective farm, so be it. Like her mother before her, Pearl is willing to give up everything to save Joy and her granddaughter Samantha from death. Despite such trials, Pearl endures to the end to find joy in her daughter and granddaughter, friendship in Z.G., a new love with Dun the professor, and reaffirmation of her enduring bond with May. Little wonder that Pearl is radiant at novel's end.

As for May the Sheep, See keeps her offstage for almost the entire novel. She is constantly present, however, through her letters to Pearl and the money and gifts she sends to her sister and Joy. At home May endures much hardship -- especially in the context of the death of her husband Vern. Only when Vern dies does May understand the suffering Pearl experienced after Sam's death. She is also tormented by Pearl's refusal to tell her the state of her relationship with Z.G. Nevertheless, in the end May finds the love she has been seeking her entire life.

Themes[edit source | editbeta]

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From the New York Times bestselling author of Midwives and The Sandcastle Girls comes a spellbinding novel of love, despair, and revenge—set in war-ravaged Tuscany.

1943: Tucked away in the idyllic hills south of Florence, the Rosatis, an Italian family of noble lineage, believe that the walls of their ancient villa will keep them safe from the war raging across Europe. Eighteen-year-old Cristina spends her days swimming in the pool, playing with her young niece and nephew, and wandering aimlessly amid the estate’s gardens and olive groves. But when two soldiers, a German and an Italian, arrive at the villa asking to see an ancient Etruscan burial site, the Rosatis’ bucolic tranquility is shattered. A young German lieutenant begins to court Cristina, the Nazis descend upon the estate demanding hospitality, and what was once their sanctuary becomes their prison.

1955: Serafina Bettini, an investigator with the Florence police department, has her own demons. A beautiful woman, Serafina carefully hides her scars along with her haunting memories of the war. But when she is assigned to a gruesome new case—a serial killer targeting the Rosatis, murdering the remnants of the family one-by-one in cold blood—Serafina finds herself digging into a past that involves both the victims and her own tragic history.

Set against an exquisitely rendered Italian countryside, The Light in the Ruins unveils a breathtaking story of moral paradox, human frailty, and the mysterious ways of the heart.(less)

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SHANGHAI GIRLS is the story of two sisters, May and Pearl.   They are inseparable best friends.

It is a wonderful story of the lives of these two women, their hopes,  dreams,  deep connections and also petty jealousies and rivalries.

In 1937, Shanghai is the Paris of Asia, a city of great wealth and glamour, the home of millionaires and beggars, gangsters and gamblers, patriots and revolutionaries, artists and warlords. Thanks to the financial security and material comforts provided by their father’s prosperous rickshaw business, twenty-one-year-old Pearl Chin and her younger sister, May, are having the time of their lives. Though both sisters wave off authority and tradition, they couldn’t be more different: Pearl is a Dragon sign, strong and stubborn, while May is a true Sheep, adorable and placid. Both are beautiful, modern, and carefree . . . until the day their father tells them that he has gambled away their wealth and that in order to repay his debts he must sell the girls as wives to suitors who have traveled from California to find Chinese brides. As Japanese bombs fall on their beloved city, Pearl and May set out on the journey of a lifetime, one that will take them through the Chinese countryside, in and out of the clutch of brutal soldiers, and across the Pacific to the shores of America. In Los Angeles they begin a fresh chapter, trying to find love with the strangers they have married, brushing against the seduction of Hollywood, and striving to embrace American life even as they fight against discrimination, brave Communist witch hunts, and find themselves hemmed in by Chinatown’s old ways and rules.

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The Lotus Eaters

by Tatjana Soli (Goodreads Author)

3.82 of 5 stars 3.82  ·   rating details  ·  5,583 ratings  ·  1,095 reviews

A unique and sweeping debut novel of an American female combat photographer in the Vietnam War, as she captures the wrenching chaos and finds herself torn between the love of two men.

On a stifling day in 1975, the North Vietnamese army is poised to roll into Saigon. As the fall of the city begins, two lovers make their way through the streets to escape to a new life. Helen Adams, an American photojournalist, must take leave of a war she is addicted to and a devastated country she has come to love. Linh, the Vietnamese man who loves her, must grapple with his own conflicted loyalties of heart and homeland. As they race to leave, they play out a drama of devotion and betrayal that spins them back through twelve war-torn years, beginning in the splendor of Angkor Wat, with their mentor, larger-than-life war correspondent Sam Darrow, once Helen's infuriating love and fiercest competitor, and Linh's secret keeper, boss and truest friend.

Tatjana Soli paints a searing portrait of an American woman’s struggle and triumph in Vietnam, a stirring canvas contrasting the wrenching horror of war and the treacherous narcotic of obsession with the redemptive power of love. Readers will be transfixed by this stunning novel of passion, duty and ambition among the ruins of war.

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In the National Book Award–winning Let the Great World Spin, Colum McCann thrilled readers with a marvelous high-wire act of fiction that The New York Times Book Review called “an emotional tour de force.” Now McCann demonstrates once again why he is one of the most acclaimed and essential authors of his generation with a soaring novel that spans continents, leaps centuries, and unites a cast of deftly rendered characters, both real and imagined.

Newfoundland, 1919. Two aviators—Jack Alcock and Arthur Brown—set course for Ireland as they attempt the first nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean, placing their trust in a modified bomber to heal the wounds of the Great War.

Dublin, 1845 and ’46. On an international lecture tour in support of his subversive autobiography, Frederick Douglass finds the Irish people sympathetic to the abolitionist cause—despite the fact that, as famine ravages the countryside, the poor suffer from hardships that are astonishing even to an American slave.

New York, 1998. Leaving behind a young wife and newborn child, Senator George Mitchell departs for Belfast, where it has fallen to him, the son of an Irish-American father and a Lebanese mother, to shepherd Northern Ireland’s notoriously bitter and volatile peace talks to an uncertain conclusion.

These three iconic crossings are connected by a series of remarkable women whose personal stories are caught up in the swells of history. Beginning with Irish housemaid Lily Duggan, who crosses paths with Frederick Douglass, the novel follows her daughter and granddaughter, Emily and Lottie, and culminates in the present-day story of Hannah Carson, in whom all the hopes and failures of previous generations live on. From the loughs of Ireland to the flatlands of Missouri and the windswept coast of Newfoundland, their journeys mirror the progress and shape of history. They each learn that even the most unassuming moments of grace have a way of rippling through time, space, and memory.

The most mature work yet from an incomparable storyteller, TransAtlantic is a profound meditation on identity and history in a wide world that grows somehow smaller and more wondrous with each passing year.