#310 The Shell Collector- Anthony Doerr

#310 The Shell Collector- Anthony Doerr

Doerr writes in pastel colors. Like another writer covered in this blog, Haruki Murakami, he is able to achieve the sense that you are dreaming the stories he write. Its beyond beautiful, and more important its beyond what you know beautiful can be. The creativity, and imagination, and singular style is breathtaking. Is that enough superlatives to illustrate how much I like this story?

It is simple enough. A blind man lives in a remote lagoon outside Lima, Kenya. He is a doctor of marine biology. He lives his life with his dog, spends his days collecting and marveling at the reef-life. He discovers miracles, and experiences incredible loss. He is merely an observer, as the world looks for meaning and value and narrative, he finds only life.

Notable Passage: “He had never comprehended the endless variations of design…Ignorance was, in the end, and in so many ways, a privilege: to find a shell, to feel it, to understand only on some unspeakable level why it bothered to be so lovely. What joy he found in that, what utter mystery.”

Rating: 10-10-10-10 Total= 40

#301 The Five Wounds- Kirsten Valdez Quade

#301 The Five Wounds- Kirsten Valdez Quade

Amedeo is a criminal, a bad seed, a scourge on the community. He is a 33 year-old out of shape, jobless, useless man, and has a 15 year old daughter that is about to give birth to a grandson. He is about to become Jesus.

It is holy week and the town is preparing for their Calvario, the stations of the cross procession. They chose Amedeo this year hoping that picking the wretched man would bring salvation to him and the community. It is a sacrifice.

The more real the act is the closer to God the portrayer of Jesus gets. The flagellations of the past have gone as far as actually nailing the man to his cross. It can be: “More real even than taking communion…You got a chance to thank Jesus, to hurt with him just a little.”

“If he can up there in front of the whole town and do a performance so convincing he’ll substantiate right there on the cross into something real. Total redemption in one gesture, if only he can do it right”

Amedeo has taken his role to heart, and as the sins of his past flash before his eyes, the more he needs redemption. He is beaten, spit on, bleed, humiliated, and the town knows it made the right choice. For unto us a child is born, and may its sins be washed away.

This is a pretty intense story, but one well deserving of attention. You don’t need to understand the religious nature to feel the emotions of the characters.

Rating: 9-8-9-9 Total= 35

#129 The Teacher’s Story- Gita Mehta

#129 The Teacher’s Story- Gita Mehta

Master Mohan was a humble music teacher. He was once a promising young singer, but on the day he was to record his first record, his pure, young voice broke and he never recovered from that heartbreak. He is liked and respected by just about everyone except his own family. His wife is an angry judgmental woman who resents his failure.

“Everyday his wife reminded him how his voice had not mellowed in the years that followed.”

“Her taunts re-opened a wound which might have healed if only Master Mohan’s wife had left him alone.”

“Although he tried Master Mohan could not stop coughing. It was a nervous reaction to his family’s ability to silence the music he heard in his own head.”

Music was his only solace, his only love, his only reason for living. One day Quawwali singers from Nizamuddin were coming to perform for a weeks worth of concerts. Nizamuddin was where Quawwali music was invented 700 years ago. He went to each night, enjoying not only the music but the break from being judged and insulted by his family:

“The more the singers were carried away by their music the more Master Mohan felt the weight that burdened him lighten, as if the ecstasy of the song being relayed from one throat to another was lifting him into a long forgotten ecstasy himself.”

After one concert he stayed to hear a young boy sing. Imrat was being accompanied by his sister who could no longer take are of him. Imrat had a talent not seen in 500 years:

“Such a voice is not human. What will happen to music if this is the standard by which God Judges us.”

Master Mohan agreed to take the child to his home and become his music mentor. Because his family’s hatred of him, they mistreated the young phenom. So, the Master took his lessons to the park, where people began to gather in large numbers and pay tribute. All of the tribute went to the boy and his sister, and even when he signed a music contract Master Mohan wanted nothing for himself.

This story is a love letter to music, and to all those that love and teach music with passion. Music is religion and love and life. Everything else can be tuned out.

Notable Passage: “He only saw the power of the morning raga and dreaming visions of light he pushed his voice towards them, believing sight was only a half-tone away.”

Rating: 8-9-10-9 Total= 36