The USA

What is happening to the U.S.A?
This is what I have been wondering since the last decision of the supreme court on abortion.
Now, I understand that some people might be pro-choice, however, what I don't understand is the supreme court's latest decision.

If you have not heard what hapenned recently, the supreme court allowed the states to make abortion illegal. Which was not for a state to decide since 1973 with the case of Roe vs Wade.

Why is this such a big problem?

Well, in this case, the problem is that the constitution was not followed. Indeed the first amendment states that no law should be made based on religious beliefs. However, the ban of abortion goes against science. Just by looking at the numbers we can see that it does not make sense.
Indeed, you may take a look at these yourself:
-estimated: 8times per hour a woman die from illegal abortion
-the rate of abortion is equal in places where it is legal and illegal
-Effects on women who were denied abortion: they are less bonded to their children and have less monitary ressources to care of both their child and themselves
Now if you even just take a quick look at these numbers, you will realise that banning abortion is not helpful at all.
This decision was then based on religious and personal beliefs over science.

Now let's take a quick look at what the second amendment says. To put it in a nutshell, it states that every citizen should be able to carry a firearm. This second amendment is used a lot by people who are pro guns. So we are told that it's okay to breach an amendment of the constitution in order to put people with uteruses in a position of danger but not to protect chidren from deadly weapons?
This is extremely worrying, especially when we see the numbers of school shootings that could have been avoided by a simple law making it harder for a person to acquire a deadly weapon. Each day 12 children die from gun violence in America and still no one is taking action.
Now I would recommend for you to go on "genzforchange" account on tiktok or instagram in order to learn more about all of these problems. You can also sign petitions and try to spread awareness.

What are your thoughts on this subject?

Iconic series : "Malcolm in the Middle"

Dear Charlie,

I hope you all are doing well! This is my first article on the blog and I am going to speak about my favourite series (I mean the only one I have ever watched, shame on me) :

Sorry, this one is not for the “My Wife and Kids” fans lol ! “Malcolm in the middle” is one of the most iconic series in the 00’s (already twenty years old !!), but I was way too young (or not even born yet) at the time, so I never watched it until … quarantine ! It was available on “6ter”, in French unfortunately, and I watched the seven seasons with my family.

The series was created by Lindwood Boomer and as you may already know, the story is about an American stereotypical family of six (the parents and their four sons). It is quite realistic and I love the silly humor it has. Here is a little description of the characters :

 

Malcolm is obviously the main character. He is played by Frankie Muniz and is eleven years old at the beginning of the series. He is very smart and egocentric.

Reese, a bit older than Malcolm, is the "silly bully", and according to me, the funniest ! He is good at cooking too. He is played by Justin Berfield.

Then there is Dewey, the youngest. Malcolm and Reese are jealous because he is Lois’ favourite and they often hit him. But he is also smart and, later, we discover he is a great pianist.

Their parents really love each other. The mother, Lois, runs the house, and she terrifies everyone when she is angry. She sometimes feels lonely as the only woman in the family. The father, Hal, is immature and really close to his sons. He often does stupidities with them. They are played by the famous actress and actor Jane Kaczmarek and Bryan Cranston.

(The latter also played in “Breaking Bad” (don’t spoil me I haven’t watched it yet !), and a lot of people say both of the series are related. I love this theory lol)

 

And finally, Christopher Masterson played the role of Francis, the oldest and extremely turbulent brother who was sent to a military school by his parents.

There are a lot of other characters but I let you (re)discover them 😉

My favourite episode is the fifth of the sixth season (titled “Kitty’s Back”).

Here is the music of the generic if you are nostalgic : https://youtube.com/watch?v=J8y8Ziwswe0www.

I hope I made you want to (re)watch the series, and if you already saw it, then tell me what you thought about it !

Finally, I would add : Reese graduated high school, so can we !

Bye Charlie !

Happy Thanksgiving! (slightly delayed)

Hello everyone,
I know many of you 1ere students experienced your first North American Thanksgiving in early October in Ottawa and as honorary Canadians must believe I'm beyond late.
I've also had to experience this great feast 2 years ago in Ottawa and enjoyed it very much but frankly, as far as I'm concerned, Thanksgiving is meant to be in late November and  the Canadians are much too early. (They told it's because of the snow...)

I know that a few of you in the OIB community  have also just celebrated it.
Like me, you might  have had to wait for Saturday (It's difficult to celebrate this holiday on a Thursday in France)  but it was worth it: was splendid!

As a person who wrote her PHD on Native American history, I'm well aware of how controversial this holiday can be and I fully agree that on hindsight the Native Americans would have been much better off to let these first Pilgrims starve rather than saving them by bringing food and teaching them the way of the land.

However,  it is also a very special moment for family and friends I treasure and look forward to and I've chosen to see it as a moment of hope and a very appropriate time to have a look at my life and realize how lucky and thankful I am.

Besides, the eating is real good and that doesn't hurt, does it?
If  you love cooking and eating like me I can share some great Thanksgiving-themed not necessarily very traditional  recipes
I'll hopefully get over my food coma and see you tomorrow!

Take care,
Mrs. C

The Great Gatsby

                                               THE GREAT GATSBY
                                                       book review


"Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had." this is the opening quote of the book and I think it says a lot about it since the main character, Jay Gatsby doesn't come from a wealthy family but he still found a way to make his way up to the top. He is very famous for his parties and people talk a lot about him since they don't know much about him and most of the time they criticize him. The story is written from an outsider's point of view, unlike most books, which is really interesting because you do not know the past or thoughts of the main character. F. Scott Fitzgerald created Nick for this story to link the characters in the book together, as Nick is Gatsby's neighboor and Daisy's cousin, it is through him that we meet all the characters. It is the story of a man who comes back from World War I and tries to get back with his pre-war sweetheart. It may seem like a cliché love story at first but as the story unfolds you learn new things about the characters and realise there is more to it than what meets the eye. It is a story about the American dream. In chapter 6 we learn about Jay Gatsby's less than wealthy past, which makes him seem like someone in pursuit of the American Dream but we also know very quickly that Gatsby is very wealthy, that he is doing well in life. That is when the love story comes in, Daisy (his sweetheart) would be his personification of the American Dream. She was his before but now it is as if he is running after her, trying to fix things when she is out of his reach, married.
It is overall a good book, easy to read and well written. The author F.Scott Fitzgerald is an American novelist, also a short story writer, who uses diction, syntax, rhetorical strategies such as similes (e.g: "there was something gorgeous about him, some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life, as if he were related to one of those intricate machines"). I would recommend the book to someone who is looking for a book fairly easy to read and not to long but which still has good content and stays really interesting the whole time.
There has been several cinema adaptations of this book the most recent one sould be The Great Gatsby with Leonardo DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby from 2013.

Hello Hello.
I haven't written in a long time. So today I am going to talk about my amazing trip to New York this summer (Sorry for the delay). New York is one of my favorite cities (with San Francisco). It is so lively and colorful, it's just splendid. I went there when I was 8 which is quite a long time ago and I didn't remember much from from it. But the one thing I knew was that I loved it and that I had to go back when I would be older. So last year I convinced my parents to let me go there this summer with my boyfriend. It was the first time that I travelled internationally with only my boyfriend. I wasn't too excited for the plane ride but it went fine even though it took us 15 hours to get there.
We arrived there at night and seeing all the city lights, I just knew I was going to have the best 10 days of my life. Our hotel was 5 minutes away from Times Square which was perfect.
So the first day, we walked and walked and walked and visited almost everything. We went to Times Square, Wall Street, 9/11 Memorial, Brooklyn Bridge, High line and Herald Square. We were just dead at the end.

The next day we went to the statue of Liberty. The view was just stunning. And we went to the top of the rock. These two places had the best views of New York that's for sure. 

We were also extremely lucky to have a beautiful weather. 

Like most tourists we went to go see a musical on Broadway. When I was 8 we went to go see The Lyon King, and I had such a good memory of it that I had to go see another. This time we chose to go see A Bronx Tale. It was really good. It was the story of a small neighbor hood and one white young men falls in love with a black women which was badly in their period of time. And adding to the love story there is the story of the Mafia which brings a bit of action and suspense. If you ever get the chance to go, I highly recommend it. And just to say even my boyfriend loved it even though he hates musicals so if that's not a recommendation... 

Even if we walked a lot, we ate a lot too. We tasted all of New York's best burgers. So after all I got fatter but what ever, eating is life. 

We also did the NBC studios tour. Unfortunately, Jimmy Fallon was on vacation so we didn't get the chance to see his show which would've been a dream come true. However, we went to go see his studio as well as the studio of SNL which were both surprisingly very small. 

And I can't forget the best place to go shopping which is Woodberry Outlet just one hour away from New York. Everything over there is so cheap compared to the regular store prices, it was incredible. 

So I have to say that going to New York with just my boyfriend was a DREAM COME TRUE. 

Almost Famous

Almost Famous is a movie directed by Cameron Crowe in 2000. The story is very interesting and is, I think, showing a really realistic image of the youth in the 70's. There are no words to describe how much I like this film, but I’ll try!

William Miller (Patrick Fugit), a 15 years old boy, is passionate about writing reviews and articles about music, especially rock. Living with his uptight mother, his dream is to become a rock journalist. Hired by the Rolling Stone magazine to write an article about a band called Stillwater, William's dreams are coming true. He goes on tour with the band, where he meets a mysterious but popular groupie, whom everyone knows as Penny Lane (Kate Hudson). He also becomes friends with the lead guitarist, Russell Hammond (Billy Crudup), who is hesitating about trusting him or not.

Sometimes comic, sometimes really sad, this film is all about rock and roll, love and friendship. An excellent insight into the music world of the 70's.

Obviously, the plot may not seem particularly original, but the acting, the amazing soundtrack, are really good. The author is also bringing up questions about journalistic ethics, as the band keep rejecting and laughing at William because of his “profession”. As soon as the movie starts, they ask him to “make them seem cool” to the world in his article, and the moment he starts telling the truth, the Rolling Stone magazine accuses him of being a liar, and his friends (the band) stop trusting him.

By far, one of the best things in this movie for me is the soundtrack and the love of music is transmitted by every character (except maybe William's mother). The Who, Simon And Garfunkel,   Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, so many references to rock bands, shown as the gods of the time.

To conclude, I would say that Almost famous is realistic and touching, and one of the only honest films about rock and roll. It sometimes made me feel as if I was on tour with the band (or at least I wish I was).

You should watch it !

I Learn (Marseille/New York). The exhibit is about to start!

Dear Charlie,

To mark this occasion we're invited at  the exhibit opening on Wednesday, January 18 @ 4:00. I'll be taking a group of 21 students to represent the 3 year groups. (7 X3)
 Priority will be given to those of you appearing in the exhibit or having lent an object that will be appearing but the others can come too. If you're interested, please let me know asap.
We will of course all be coming back later to visit the exceptional exhibit at leisure.
https://www.facebook.com/events/154840185005274/

A film projection will also be organized so those of you who have not been able to watch the film and would like to see it are more than welcome to come at 5:00
https://www.facebook.com/events/1202997056486858/

If you are available and keen on human geography fan, you can also come to a debate in French comparing NYC and Marseille as cosmopolitan cities.
https://www.facebook.com/events/1671091479849198/

Happy Independence Day!

A little American cupcake to celebrate July 4th!

Enjoy!

Hey Charlie,
I might be ruining all the happy mod around here but I just came up on something that really sacred me. I'm still in a state of shock when I think of it. Just like when I read the part on ''the masses'' in Hannah Arendt's book, The origins of totalitarianism, or 1984 by George Orwell, I felt disgusted by humanity and became really pessimistic. I hope we can change something in this world.

 

Coming up: Another documentary movie night organized by the school on Monday, March 7th

Dear Charlie,
I know we have  all been very busy lately and still have much on our plate:  Mock IGCSE exams (Seconde), TPE (1ere) and mock OIB exams (Terminale) so at first I did not mention the upcoming event but then I had second thoughts.
I know many of you enjoyed I learn America and a certain number of you might be tempted to take a break recommended by the school.
 If you're interested in discovering another documentary movie ( I promise I won't make a project out of it this time) and are free then , you are kindly invited to come and watch Ellis Island on Monday, March 7th  at  5:45 p.m.
See you?
Mrs. C.
.

RIP Harper Lee

 

Dear Charlie,
Do you remember the post I wrote about Harper Lee?
http://oibstcharles.blogspot.fr/2015/02/the-harper-lee-controversy.html?view=mosaic#!

Well, almost a year after  I am  sadly writing a new post on her - I wish I wasn't- to announce her death.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/20/arts/harper-lee-dies.html?_r=0
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/feb/19/harper-lee-author-to-kill-a-mockingbird-dies-alabama
If you haven't read her books (there are only 2 of them) you should.

Nudge at the Seconde: there are great trial scenes in To Kill a Mockingbird, you might want to see how it is done and compare the novel and the play we are studying
Nudge at the Première students: Harper Lee was keen on depicting the essence of American small town ( just like a Canadian writer we know well) and as fate would have it died at Monroeville.
Nudge at the Terminale students:  You should read her books, they're thought-provoing classics yet  a quick and easy read and will provide a nice change from our dear J.D. so that you can get back to him with a refreshed mind.

If you want only to read one, I would recommend To Kill a Mockingbird. I read the controversial Go Set  a Watchman since my first post. It's interesting and well-written but the first one is better in my opinion.

Enjoy your read!
Mrs. C.

A quick reminder. Special event. We need you!

Dear Charlie,
I hope to see you at the first session of the documentary film/debate evening organised by the new English/History Geography cinema club in the presence of the American consulate, open to all the students of the school and I believe of particular interest for the OIB crowd.
The first film shown will be I learn America
http://ilearnamerica.com/ 
The film is really worth seeing.
It will be followed by a debate and you will certainly want to debate.
Besides, I've just found out that we will have the privilege  of meeting and debating with Mrs Annie Polland , Vice President of the Lower East Side Tenement Museum in  NYC
https://www.tenement.org/

I'll be there and I  hope that even if the event is not mandatory, I  will see you and many OIB students for this special film and  special guest straight from America on MONDAY, DECEMBER 14th at 17:45 in the  "Salle Polyvalente". The event should last until 7:45 or 8:00 P.M.
I'm counting on you.
Mrs. C.

Malcolm X's movie

Hello Charlie,

During the hollidays I watched the movie Malcolm X.
And do you want to know someting ? I love it !
It's true that I am really interested about the segregation in America and I'm feeling concerned about that because of my origin, and the fact that my mother is white and my father is black.
 (I'm so proud of that)!
I liked this movie about Malcolm X because it is like a biographie of his life. And his life is far from common.
Even at the begining of his life, he looks like a charismatic and a wild person.
His name was at the beginning Malcolm Little.

Macolm  and his best frien Shorty

He was a delinquent. He schamed regularly to get money. He became a gangster with Shorty. He burgled with him and his white girlfriend a rich white couple's house. They were arrested and sentenced for 8 to 10 years of prison. 

At prison, he met Baines who tried to help him to stop his addiction to cocaine but Malcolm was a son of a priest and was suspicious of Baines because of his faith in Islam. But day after day, Malcolm find his faith in Islam because of a sentence of Baines "In Islam, God is black". 

He began to think about how God was represented, and he noticed that God was always represented like a white person in Christian religion. He began to ask to himself "Why God could not be black ?".

He became muslim definitivly because of a letter of Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the "Nation of Islam". Elijah Muhammad said to Malcolm  "I went to give you something that nobody can take out of you : the feeling of your own value". 

Malcolm changed his last name because he thought that it looked like a slave name. He chose the letter X because we use this letter in mathematics to designate an unknown number.

He became then Malcolm X.

Malcolm X on the left, Baines on the right.

Malcolm X became an important Imam.

At the beginning his speech was pretty radical. He believed that black and white people could not live together. And it will be an obligation that Blacks or Whites should be stronger than the other group. He was totally in opposition with Martin Luther King, who was christian and fighted for the union of black and white people.

At the end of his life, he was surprised and amazed by the welcom of Arabs during his pilgrimage to La Mecque. He realised then that everybody can live together, and there is no differences between populations. His ideas began to become like his erstwhile "enemy" Martin Luther King, who lamented a lot Malcolm X's death.

Malcolm X at La Mecque

He Married a woman, Betty Shabazz who believed a lot in his husband's conviction and fight.

His wife

The actress who act his wife

Two of his children

He was murdered during one of his speech, after a conflit with Elijah Muhammad and his demission in the "Nation of Islam".

One of his speech

His funeral

Malcolm X is such a great movie that everybody should watch (and watch again if you ever did it).

Thanks for reading.

Be yourself,

Amma

"The Help" by Kathryn Stockett

This story is set in Jackson Mississippi in the early 1960s.At that time in Missippi, African-American maids worked for white people and were often mistreated. Kathryn Stockett, a white woman from Mississippi, shows the tensions that existed between the women in her home town, Jackson. It mostly tells the story of a 22 year old universtiy graduate, Eugenia « Skeeter » Phelan, who has the dream of becoming a writer. She starts off, by writing for the Jackson newspaper, then chooses to write a book on something much more meaningful to her, about the maids of Jackson Mississipi with their point of view on having to work for white women.

She first finds two black maids Aibeleen and Minny, who are willing to help her with her book. Aibeleen is a quiet and reflective women, whom had recently lost her son. Minny is a fiesty and energetic women who has six kids, but has a rough husband who beats her once in a while. Both of them have known each other for a long time. They tell their breathtaking stories of having to work for white women and to raise white kids, all their lives. Then they help Skeeter find other maids to tell their stories for her book. They find 12 black maids who agreed to telling their stories.

In this book there are three first-person narrators: Aibeleen Clark, Minny Jackson and Skeeter Phelan. Aibeleen and Minny being two black women, they tell their stories in African American English, different from how Skeeter tells her stories. All their stories are fascinating and very interesting to read. Some will leave you bitter and make you tear up while others will leave a smile on your face. The book is written with much details to help you visualise the scenes.

This book is honestly my favrite book that I have read so far. It transmits a lot of emotion from sadness to happiness and laughter. I strongly recommende it to the ones who haven't read it and you sure won't be disappointed. This book has also won numerous awards and honors like the New York Times bestseller. It's an outstanding book that can't be left unread. 

debate club follow-up, 2

Ben Carson (again), last week. European history might not be his strong suit...

Debate club follow-up

Here's an extract from Wednesday's Daily Show, about Republican candidate Ben Carson's view on mass shootings and gun laws.

Get More: Comedy Central,Funny Videos,Funny TV Shows

American experience

Hello everyone!

I wanted to share with you the amazing experience I had this summer! I went in a host family in the US with the program "immersion totale" proposed by Calvin Thomas.
I was with the Bywater family in Washington state in a very little town called Tenino, near Olympia. Jody and Cheri Bywater have 4 children: Brittany (23), Cassidy (20), Bailey (17) and Andrew (15). Here's a picture of them:



from left to right: Andrew, Bailey, Cassidy, Brittany, Jason (brittany's boyfriend), Cheri and Jody.
 

Most of the time I stayed with Bailey because she was my exchange student (sort of) and she had a car so she took me everywhere with her that was awesome!
I did a lot of things while I was there so I'm just going to tell you 2 of my best memories.
The first one is when we went to the beach in a town called Ocean Shores with Bailey's grand mother and one of her friend (Bailey's).
The water of the ocean was so cold we couldn't take a bath so we just wet our legs but that was still a lot of fun!

 

 

We then went to Portland and that was amazing! This city is beautiful and very clean (no gums or trash on the floor!!). We went to an ice cream shop called "salt & straw" which has the weirdest flavours I've ever seen like "goat cheese marionberry habanero" or "strawberry honey balsamic with cracked black pepper" and last but not least "pear and blue cheese". Yes americans are crazy!

 

 

 

 

Here's the link to Calvin Thomas' website: http://www.calvin-thomas.com/  You should check it out they have a lot of different programs all over the world and it's a very enriching experience especially for us in OIB. It helped me a lot because I'm not used to hear and speak English at home or watever so to be forced to speak and hear English everyday for 4 weeks made me progress in my understanding and my way of speaking English. Sincerely it was the best summer of my life!

 

That's it for me! I hope you enjoyed!

bye!

Amandine.

 

 

Literature at the Alcazar next Saturday

   Read and write

 Lying Under (another) Apple Tree....

Dear Charlie,
 It's going to be hard to choose which conference  to go to next Saturday at the Alcazar.
Indeed, at 3:30, there's a conference on Toni Morrison, Joyce Carol Oates and Louise Erdrich ( 3 fascinating American women/writers and their perspective/s on Us society.
 For more details, click here

The conference and the passages the speakers will be choosing will (sadly) be in French, but I strongly recommend that you go back to the original texts at some point.

It's hard to sum up Toni Morrison in a few lines. She is a literary icon, winner of the 1993
Nobel Prize in Literature. To discover her bestsellers, click here
I would recommend any of her books, by you might want to start with her Trilogy,
Beloved, Jazz and Paradise
  
http://www.goodreads.com/series/109788-toni-morrison-trilogy
Btw, Beloved was adapted into a movie by  Jonathan Demme featuring Oprah Winfrey and Dany Glover.

 
You can also go back to an article, I wrote about her on the blog
http://oibstcharles.blogspot.fr/2015/04/toni-morrison.html

As you know, "Big Mouth and Ugly Girl"  by Joyce Carol Oates was one of the book club choices last year and some of her Young adult novels are on the summer reading list we provide our newest OIB members , so some of you are likely to have read some of her works.
She also wrote many bestsellers. Have you pick
A word of warning to the sensitive souls, the plot and atmosphere of her works are quite dark and depressing.
I would recommend Foxfire: the Confessions of a girl gang.


http://www.nytimes.com/1993/08/15/books/outlaw-girls-on-the-rampage.html 
The novel was also adapted into a 1996 American movie by Annette Haywood-Carter featuring Angelina Jolie.


  

 And I know those of you who are great fans of Wilde, will be delighted to find out that she wrote an essay on one of his works. The Picture of Dorian Gray: Wilde’s Parable of the Fall

And to Finish, Louise Erdrich. Most of you must be less familiar with her but I doubly recommend her because she is a very gifted Native American writer and she is from Minnesota (;p)
To find out more about her, click here
To get to know her,  here are two poems I particularly like.

I Was Sleeping Where the Black Oaks Move 

We watched from the house

as the river grew, helpless

and terrible in its unfamiliar body.   

Wrestling everything into it,

the water wrapped around trees

until their life-hold was broken.

They went down, one by one,

and the river dragged off their covering.

Nests of the herons, roots washed to bones,   

snags of soaked bark on the shoreline:   

a whole forest pulled through the teeth   

of the spillway. Trees surfacing

singly, where the river poured off

into arteries for fields below the reservation.

When at last it was over, the long removal,   

they had all become the same dry wood.   

We walked among them, the branches   

whitening in the raw sun.

Above us drifted herons,

alone, hoarse-voiced, broken,

settling their beaks among the hollows.

Grandpa said, These are the ghosts of the tree people   

moving among us, unable to take their rest.

Sometimes now, we dream our way back to the heron dance.   

Their long wings are bending the air   

into circles through which they fall.   

They rise again in shifting wheels.   

How long must we live in the broken figures   

their necks make, narrowing the sky.

Turtle Mountain Reservation     

For Pat Gourneau, my grandfather

The heron makes a cross

flying low over the marsh.

Its heart is an old compass

pointing off in four directions.

It drags the world along,

the world it becomes.

My face surfaces in the green

beveled glass above the washstand.

My handprint in thick black powder

on the bedroom shade.

Home I could drink like thin fire

that gathers

like lead in my veins,

heart’s armor, the coffee stains.

In the dust of the double hollyhock,

Theresa, one frail flame eating wind.

One slim candle

that snaps in the dry grass.

Ascending tall ladders

that walk to the edge of dusk.

Riding a blue cricket

through the tumult of the falling dawn.

At dusk the gray owl walks the length of the roof,

sharpening its talons on the shingles.

Grandpa leans back

between spoonfuls of canned soup

and repeats to himself a word

that belongs to a world

no one else can remember.

The day has not come

when from sloughs, the great salamander

lumbers through snow, salt, and fire

to be with him, throws the hatchet

of its head through the door of the three-room house

and eats the blue roses that are peeling off the walls.

Uncle Ray, drunk for three days

behind the jagged window

of a new government box,

drapes himself in fallen curtains, and dreams that the odd

beast seen near Cannonball, North Dakota,

crouches moaning at the door to his body. The latch

is the small hook and eye.

of religion. Twenty nuns

fall through clouds to park their butts

on the metal hasp. Surely that

would be considered miraculous almost anyplace,

but here in the Turtle Mountains

it is no more than common fact.

Raymond wakes,

but he can’t shrug them off. He is looking up

dark tunnels of their sleeves,

and into their frozen armpits,

or is it heaven? He counts the points

of their hairs like stars.

One by one they blink out,

and Theresa comes forth

clothed in the lovely hair

she has been washing all day. She smells

like a hayfield, drifting pollen

of birch trees.

Her hair steals across her shoulders

like a postcard sunset.

All the boys tonight, goaded from below,

will approach her in The Blazer, The Tomahawk,

The White Roach Bar where everyone

gets up to cut the rug, wagging everything they got,

as the one bass drum of The Holy Greaseballs

lights a depth

charge through the smoke.

Grandpa leans closer to the bingo.

The small fortune his heart pumps for

is hidden in the stained, dancing numbers.

The Ping-Pong balls rise through colored lights,

brief as sparrows

God is in the sleight of the woman’s hand.

He walks from Saint Ann’s, limp and crazy

as the loon that calls its children

across the lake

in its broke, knowing laughter.

Hitchhiking home from the Mission, if he sings,

it is a loud, rasping wail

that saws through the spine

of Ira Comes Last, at the wheel.

Drawn up through the neck ropes,

drawn out of his stomach

by the spirit of the stones that line

the road and speak

to him only in their old agreement.

Ira knows the old man is nuts.

Lets him out at the road that leads up

over stars and the skulls of white cranes.

And through the soft explosions of cattail

and the scattering of seeds on still water,

walks Grandpa, all the time that there is in his hands

that have grown to be the twisted doubles

of the burrows of mole and badger,

that have come to be the absence

of birds in a nest.

Hands of earth, of this clay

I’m also made from.

 

For more poems

 

As for her novels, I would recommend

 Love Medicine

http://www.nytimes.com/1984/12/20/books/books-of-the-times-162267.html

  Tracks

http://www.nytimes.com/1988/08/24/books/books-of-the-times-indians-displaced-by-time-and-loss.html

the Antelope wife

http://www.nytimes.com/1998/04/12/books/a-web-of-beadwork.html

 the Painted Drum.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/11/books/review/the-painted-drum-off-the-rez.html 

The plague of Doves

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/29/books/29kaku.html

 but I believe you may tempted to read any of her books.

To make a choice, go to a bookstore (you know which one Mr. Leah would recommend ;p) pick the book up, look at its cover and read a few pages or read a few reviews or let the author's feedback inspire you

 

 

     

 

For those of you who are interested in Native American culture and writing and enjoyed Sherman Alexie. (He was also a feature of our book club)  you must definitely give Erdrich a try but you will find their voices are very different. 

He resolutely follows the warrior song and path, while Louise Erdrich follows the slow, weaving and enthralling steps of the grass dancer

 

 

Enjoy and see you on Saturday!

Mrs. C.