That Just Happened!

As you may (or may not) know I am participating in the 2010 Social Justice Challenge.   This month’s theme is Religious Freedom. 

As a Canadian, when I think of religious freedom I think of our fundamental right as legislated in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.  Article 2 (a) states we have “freedom of conscience and religion”.  It is so important to us that it is right near the beginning.  As a Canadian I have enjoyed the rights given to me with little thought to why they are important, what would happen if they were infringed upon and the many humans who don’t have this right.  I imagine if any of our rights as Canadians were infringed upon there would be mass protests and revolts, but in countries where there is no legislation, or legislation is largely ignored, people are suffering. 

To me, freedom of religion is not just my right as a Canadian citizen, but as a human being.  I believe all humans have the right to practice religion free from persecution as long as their actions are not harming anyone.  Of course, it is not that simple.  There are many practices around the world that infringe on the safety of others, but are permissible because of their religious attachments.  One example I think of immediately is Female Genital Mutilation.  There is currently a lot of discussion about this act in relation to religion and how there are other interpretations that would satisfy this religious requirement without the brutality currently undertaken today.  (For more information please go to the World Health Organization’s page on FGM).

For this month’s theme I read Anil’s Ghostby Michael Ondaatje (Vintage Canada, 2001, originally published in 2000).   (This also coincides with my personal Governor General Literary Award Challenge.) 

Anil’s Ghost  transports us to Sri Lanka, a country steeped in centuries of tradition, now ravaged in the late twentieth century by civil war.  Into this maelstrom steps Anil Tissera, educated in England and America, who returns to Sri Lanka as a forensic anthropologist sent by a human rights organization to discover the source of the organized campaigns of murder engulfing the island.  What follows is a story about love, family, identity, the unknown enemy and a quest to unlock the hidden past – a story propelled by a riveting mystery.  Unfolding against the evocative background of Sri Lanka’s landscape and ancient civilization, Anil’s Ghost  is a spellbinder.

From the Back Cover

This book follows Anil, and her guide and fellow anthropologist Sarath as they try to determine the origin and identity of a skeleton found in an old burial site.  The location the body was found in suggests military/government involvement, which puts them in a dangerous position.  What struck me the most was the absolute uncooperation of the Sri Lankan goverment to acknowledge the authority of world peace organizations.  They allow them in the country because to not would be equivalent to an admission of guilt, but there is a general disdain for outsiders and a complete lack of help/courtesy. 

Continued Tomorrow…

Urquhart, Jane.  The Underpainter.  McClelland& Stewart Ltd. (1997).

The Underpainter is a novel of interwoven lives in which the world of art collides with the realm of human emotion. It is the story of Austin Fraser, an American painter now in his later years, who is haunted by memories of those whose lives most deeply touched his own, including a young Canadian soldier and china painter and the beautiful model who becomes Austin’s mistress. Spanning decades, the setting moves from upstate New York to the northern shores of two Great Lakes; from France in World War One to New York City in the ’20s and ’30s. Brilliantly depicting landscape and the geography of the imagination, The Underpainter is Jane Urquhart’s most accomplished novel to date.

From the Back Cover

I really enjoyed this book.  I found myself constantly surprised that this was written by a woman, as the book is written very convincingly from the male perspective.  Perhaps it is just a woman’s interpretation of the male perspective, but being a woman myself, I fail to see the flaws.  However, ignorance is bliss and I thought the book was very well written.

Austin is a stodgy old man who finds himself reliving his past through his paintings and his final painting brings the conclusion of his tale. I found the changes between memory and current era were simple and flowed together to create this story.  Austin is not really a man you grow to like, but find you want him to see the error of his ways and continue to read to see if he does.  He is self-involved and cruel to his friends and mistress, often lacking in social graces. He is unable to see the pain he is causing because he views his actions and reactions through his own filter. 

Urquhart wrote a beautiful novel about a man on a quest to find the truth in life, without knowing he is even on it.  Themes are love, friendship and self-awareness.

I read this book for my GG Literary Award Challenge.

Findley, Timothy. The Wars. Penguin Group (2005).   Originally published 1977.

Robert Ross, a sensitive nineteen-year-old Canadian officer, went to war–The War to End All Wars.  He found himself in the nightmare world of trench warfare, of mud and smoke, of chlorine gas and rotting corpses.  In this world gone mad, Robert Ross performed a last desperate act to declare his commitment to life in the midst of death.

Back Cover 

I finished this book last weekend and I am still not sure how I feel about it.  The beginning was so good. I was hooked from the prologue, however, it is difficult to say I enjoyed reading about the atrocities of war.  In particular there are three sexually explicit scenes in the book that were so disturbing to me.  I really dislike reading books, or watching movies with this sort of thing in it.  However, I cannot say it detracted from the power of this book, or that it was put in there to be shocking.

This book left me feeling disgusted, horrified and moved.  Quite the range of emotions, actually.  It was extremely well written and I imagine it was very true to what war is like.  Robert Ross is dehumanized and beat down both physically and emotionally and it is described in such a way that you can really picture it happening.

The point of every book cannot be to leave us feeling warm and fuzzy, as this book certainly does not.  Does the fact that I am left feeling all of these things (including greatly disturbed) mean I am able to give it less that 5 “ehs”?  I don’t think so.  So I am giving this novel

 I wish I could be more descriptive, or decisive about this book, but I really cannot decide how to feel about it. If you are to read it be aware of the graphic nature of this novel.  That being said, it is a very powerful book.  See? Still cannot make up my mind.