Friday Five: Books Read in February

1. The Other Slavery by Andrés Reséndez (Marine Books) - If you mention slavery to most people in America, they think of the despicable African slave trade. They may even consider the ongoing trafficking among Asians, Latin Americans and Europeans. While Andrés Reséndez does not for a second diminish these atrocities and horrors, he does want to bring the homegrown slave trade of millions of Native Americans to national and international attention. The book is scholarly and academic following the history and laws (or lack thereof) that he believes are largely unknown and should receive greater recognition. He argues that slavery rather than disease and misfortune is the true reason for the decimation of the indigenous population of North America. Covering Caribbean islands, Mexico and the early territorial governors of the U.S, this powerful thesis is, in the words of a considered review published in the Los Angeles Times, "one of the most profound contributions to North American history [ever] published."



Painting of Indian soldiers from the Coritiba Province escorting Native prisoners, by Jean-Baptiste Debret



2. Takes One to Know One by Susan Isaacs (Grove Press UK) - Corie has retired from her role as a counter-terrorist agent for the FBI to become a wife to federal judge, Josh, and a mother to his daughter, Eliza. Although she still does some consultation work for the FBI, she ostensibly leads the perfect suburban life complete with a dog called Lulu, a ‘cover’ job recommending Arabic literature to a publishing house, and weekly lunch meetings with fellow freelancers at a French restaurant. And she is bored senseless. So, when she suspects a member of the group of being up to no good – he always picks the same seat to watch his car, changes phones often and makes frequent interstate trips – she imagines that he must have a secret life, and she sets out to investigate. Are her instincts, honed by training at the Bureau, correct, or is she desperately trying to create some excitement, and Pete from packaging really is simply bland? I love the fact that some people made donations to Long Island charities by bidding to have a character named after them, which is a great idea. This is a very easy-to-read novel, which combines the excitement of law enforcement with the tedium of suburban domesticity. It may hurry to its conclusion, but the characters are warm and engaging, which makes them enjoyable company.
3. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig (Canongate) - My sister's choice for the family book club, it has an easy-to-read style and an uplifting premise, suggesting that we can all have a second chance at life. It begins with Nora attempting to take her own life because she sees no future and is riddled with regrets, but she gets transported to a magical library where she has a chance to live out all those previous lives she wishes she could have chosen and realises that the one she has isn't so bad after all. And she gets the chance to go back to where she was and live it. It's very nice and tidy and a little bit twee, and completely unrealistic - she still has to return to the life from which there is no future, and most people who consider suicide really have no hope left. It is endorsed by the Daily Mail, which gives us an idea as to what to expect, and is clearly crying out to be made into a Netflix series. 



George Whitman, proprietor of Shakespeare and Company

4. Shakespeare and Company: A History of the Rag and Bone Shop of the Heart edited by Krista Halverson (Shakespeare and Company, Paris) - Shakespeare and Company is an English bookshop in Paris, run by Americans - originally Sylvia Beach and then George Whitman (descended from Walt), who oversaw its move to the left bank of the Seine, in the shadow of Notre Dame, followed by his daughter, also called Sylvia. The bookshop is an icon of Paris, frequented by locals and homesick tourists alike, myself included. This glorious coffee-table book is divided into decades and contains photographs, graphic novel images, copies of newspaper articles, historical content, and the autobiographies of the Tumbleweeds. The Tumbleweeds were people who came to stay for a couple of days and helped out at the shop in return for a bed (or sofa, or place on the floor) and two meals a day; George asked them each to write an autobiography of approximately two pages, which collection he intended to publish. He was an incredible person with an eccentric nature - he 'cut' his hair by singeing it with a candle, travelled the world, and believed that books, knowledge and sharing were the staples of life. 
5. The Museum of Modern Love by Heather Rose (Allen & Unwin) - In 2010, an artist, Mariana Abramović, created an art installation, The Artist is Present, whereby she sat at a table in MOMA opposite visitors to the gallery, who had queued for the privilege - 1,554 people sat with her over 736 hours and more than 850,000 people observed from the sidelines. Marco Anelli photographed all the sitters and published a book, Portraits in the Presence of Mariana Abramović. Both Abramović and Anelli appear as themselves by permission in this novel. The rest is made up. It is a novel about the characters who sat or observed, and how the experience affected them, including Arky Levin, a film score composer whose wife is dying and who has legally requested he doesn't visit, although she permits her daughter to so do. Jane Miller is a recent widow who travels to New York and spends all her time at the exhibition - are all these people now connected? The novel addresses existentialist questions about human nature and art and whether either one can exist in a vacuum or whether we need to relate to common environment and shared experience. It reads like a performance itself and emphasises that its value is in the reader's reaction. 

Mariana Abramović and exhibition goers at The Artist is Present