November 2007 Archives

Reviewed by Renée Bosman, Reference Librarian for Government and Public Affairs and Reference Collection Coordinator

Three Junes is a quiet character study of the McLeod family, told at three points in time over the span of ten years. Each section stands well on its own; indeed, “Collies,” the first part of the book, won the 1999 Pirate’s Alley Faulkner Society Medal for Best Novella. Yet when read together, the stories complement each other and serve to provide multi-faceted portraits of the characters; the reader not only views Paul, the McLeod patriarch, through the lens of his own narrative, but from his son Fenno’s perspective as well.

The novel begins with Paul’s trip to Greece as a recent widower, during which he reminisces about his somewhat flawed, yet very loving, marriage to Maureen. Fenno’s story meanders between his life in New York during the time of Maureen’s illness and his homecoming to Scotland several years later, precipitated by Paul’s death. The third section studies the McLeod men from the eyes of an outsider, an acquaintance of Paul’s who also meets Fenno and one of his brothers through rather unusual circumstances. Yet rather than a too-coincidental and tidy ending, Fern’s impressions lend another dimension to the McLeod men and serve to underscore the themes of choice and ambiguity present in the lives of Glass’s very human characters.

Cabell Library PS3607.L37 T48 2002

Reviewed by Ken Hopson, Manager, Media and Reserve Services

Most Westerners grew up hearing the word Gypsy, understanding it to portray a colorful sort of people who travel in caravans and read palms. In reality, they are an ethnic group of at least 15 million people, properly called "Romani." They have their own language and government, though no home country. Originally from Northern India, the Romani have spent the last millennium migrating to all parts of the world, eventually assimilating into communities where they feel comfortable. Throughout their history, the Romani have faced the xenophobic, which is among the topics approached in this film.

Tony Gatlif , of Romani ethnicity himself, has directed a film that is part personal journey, part love story and part exposé of a misunderstood people. Gatlif won numerous international awards for this film, which employed only two non-Romani actors.

Gadjo Dilo tells the story of Stephane (Romain Duris), a young Parisian, who travels to Romania in search of a female Gypsy singer who is on a cassette tape his father had given him before he died. Taken under the wing of the constantly intoxicated and overly excited Isidor (Izidor Serban), Stephane is eventually accepted by the Romani community and experiences both their jubilation and tribulation first hand. He also finds that the singer he has been seeking may not be the woman on his father's tape, but an altogether different Gypsy, the unconventional Sabina (Rona Hartner) sitting right next to him. This movie will make you happy and sad, offend and enlighten you, and fill your ears with some of the most unique music in the world.

PN1997 .G34 1999

Note: This is a VHS video, available for in-house use only, except for faculty, graduate and honors students. See the VCU Libraries Borrowing Privileges webpage for details.

Reviewed by John Glover, Reference Librarian for the Humanities

Joe Haldeman's The Forever War is a fast, gripping science fiction novel that tries to figure out what the costs are when war never ends, and what that might mean in outer space. If you think Star Wars or Star Trek when you think of SF, this book will broaden your mind. The action takes place on various space ships traveling throughout the galaxy at relativistic speeds, so when the characters return to Earth or their command posts, a hundred years may have passed, though they have aged only a couple years subjectively. The protagonist, one William Mandella, suffers all the agonies that you can imagine someone enduring over his centuries of military service, watching himself become ever more alienated from humanity as it changes and evolves into something new entirely -- and he remains fundamentally a 20th century man.

This novel was published in 1974, and it would have been impossible to read it back then without being reminded of Vietnam. U.S. veterans of that war often returned home to find their fellow Americans much different than they had been when they left, and that sense of dislocation is palpable throughout the book. From the moment it begins, the characters removed from the comforts of Earth, this novel shows you the world that interstellar travelers (military or otherwise) would experience and asks what implications it might have for their humanity.

Cabell Library PS3558.A353 F6