“Commonwealth,” Ann Patchett
Set between Chicago, California, and Virginia, Patchett’s story follows the breakup of two families and what happens afterwards–when a mother and a father from two separate families fall in love, and decide to get divorces and combine their families in the most heartbreaking way possible for almost everyone involved (except for them, of course). Told through one of the daughter’s (Franny) perspectives, with shifting narratives in both the past and present, “Commonwealth” is at the same time jovial and melancholic, and in the end resigned: the children resigned to their parent’s (bad) choices, the parents resigned to the effects of their (bad) choices, and everyone resigned to Franny’s decision to tell their story to a famous author who then writes it into his next novel. Talk about meta.
“The Portuguese: A Modern History,” Barry Hatton
Filled with his own stories and also slightly offensive stereotypes, Hatton’s account is at the same time both personal and general; offering perspectives from the outside and within. He starts with what the Portuguese term the ‘Age of Discovery’, a somewhat pleasant name for what was really colonization in all its ugly forms, and continues up to the modern day economic crisis (the book was published in 2011). He also gives quick cultural glimpses to what makes Portugal Portugal, and the Portuguese people Portuguese: popular foods such as the codfish and pasteis de Belem, or Belem pastries; designs seen everywhere, like the azulejos, or brilliant blue tiles decorating churches; and sports, like soccer–Ronaldo, anyone? While I have no complaints about his book, it does indeed give a nice overall history and a general sense of the country, the best thing would be, of course, to see it for yourself. 😉