#600 Sisters of the Rain- J. California Cooper

#600 Sisters of the Rain- J. California Cooper

“Some people say with a smile, ‘You write all love stories.’ Well, I say…I try to write about needs…and Love is our greatest need.”

This quote opens the collection Some Soul to Keep, by the wonderful writer, J. California Cooper. I am looking forward to the six stories in this book. Sisters of the Rain is about progress and family. A dying woman, wants her daughter to learn to read and makes sure she gets to school at least for a month a year. On her death bed she writes a note pleading for the teacher to give her daughter a book so she can continue to learn.

That daughter cherishes that book (a book of geography) and names her own children after things from the book, Egypt, Pyramid, Superior and Africa. Like mother like daughter…she dies leaving a wish that her children stay in school. Superior, her eldest daughter takes the wish to heart and takes a job so she can stay in school.

Her struggle is to keep true to her promise, and her family. She fights shame, degradation, jealousy, and desire to pass on to her children the promise she has tried to fulfill.

Notable Passage: “If you ain’t watching life, you won’t know what to do with the life you got in your hands.”

Rating: 8-8-9-8 Total= 33

#471 Our Lady of Peace- ZZ Packer

#471 Our Lady of Peace- ZZ Packer

Lynnea finally got out of her backwoods Kentucky town…only to end up in Baltimore. Her freelance writing job wasn’t paying enough so she took a teaching program and ended up at a public High School.

Teaching public High School in a poorly funded, weakly supported bad part of a city like Baltimore isn’t as bad as you might think; It’s a thousand tomes worse. It is definitely not the place to go to find yourself, or figure out your own life. Children are self-centered creatures, they are supposed to be that way, that’s their job. If you can’t find a way to keep your own insecurities out of the classroom, things will spiral out of control.

I think that’s what happens to Lynnea in this story. Of course the children should behave, of course they should show respect, and want to learn. But if they don’t, is really isn’t their fault?

Rating: 8-7-7-8 Total= 30

#346 The University of Man- Henry Dumas

#346 The University of Man- Henry Dumas

A watchmaker has learned all there is to his craft. His knowledge has ended.  His precise work has left him stagnant and hungry for learning. “I am run down, tired of chasing the same speck of dust away, weary of winding myself up each morning, tired of squeezing time into metal boxes.”

What follows is a vision quest, in the vein of Voltaire’s Candide or Zadig. At times he seems like a fool or a rube, but he knows that his path is leading him to something:

“It is the quest for knowledge that is holy, not the knowledge itself.”

He meets a man digging near a canal. This man is pure, he is intent, and he is undeterred. Thus the town resents him. Man is afraid of those who try to change the flow of the river. They engage in a conversation, like one of Plato’s dialogues. The topic is knowledge and education.

This story here is what makes Dumas special.

Notable Passage: “The greatest tool of education is the soul. The truly educated man is like a giant stylus etching in the sands of the earth. As he walks, words and songs flow behind him.”

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

#96 A Lecture Tour- Knut Hamsun

#96 A Lecture Tour- Knut Hamsun

A professor in of Literature, in need of money, visits nearby Dram, meaning to give a lecture. He has not announced the lecture, planned the lecture, advertised the lecture, or even rented a hall until he arrives.

As we follow the running of his internal thoughts, we see that the man has a deluded sense of his own grandness and no handle on reality. He is constantly worried about the money he is spending but balancing it out with the impression he is making on the people around him. He wishes to look as important as he thinks he is.

Unfortunately for him, this is not the sort of town that draws big crowds for lectures, as he is told several times:

“We had a Swedish student come last year with a talk about everlasting peace. He lost money on it.”

And even worse luck, there is a big event happening while he is there that will certainly attract a crowd.

“Anti-spiritualist is doing a show at the Workers’ Hall. He has apes and wild beasts with him.”

As expected, he draws nearly no crowd and is generously offered a role in the anti-spiritualist show for the next evening. He is offended:

“Never would I be a party to such vulgarity! A Man has his honor to consider.”

However, need outweighs pride and he, in some convoluted rationality, convinces himself to join the show.

Rating: 8-7-7-7 Total= 29