No Telephone to Heaven

This is one of the Book Club selections for the Learning Community.



Gotta say-- I didn't particularly enjoy this book. I expected more than it was. The character development was really interesting, but the flow of the novel was just off to me. I don't like it when I don't know what the overall structure will be. I don't want predictability, but I do want to know if it will be about a different character or a different movement in the book or whatever. When it shifted to another part, I couldn't tell you why it shifted or who it was now about or even why I should care.



The most interesting character in the book was Harry/Harriet and he/she never got a section of her own. She/he did at least get to have his say more than once.



There is much to the book in terms of identity, race and gender (our themes for the class). Jamaica had much going on with different color lines. The fairer the skin, the more wealth and power. They had labels for the different gradations. Most of what was going on with Clare seemed to be because she felt guilty that she was fairer skinned than her mom and sister and she seemed to be mad at the fact that she could "pass." Like most people, Clare seems to think about things like our themes without realizing she's thinking about those things. It seems like she thinks around them. I think that's quite natural. It's not like people who are daydreaming all of a sudden say to themselves, "Ok, I'm going to think about my race right now and what impact that it has had on my life," but they might find themselves thinking about something else and it trails into the race area of thought without race being officially the target of the thought.

Interesting that this book has some overlap with She's Not There (transgendered character) and How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents. Ok, it's been a long time since I read the Garcia girls book, but I seem to remember it being divided into sections in the same way that No Telephone is. Of course, I wasn't bothered by the Garcia girls division the way I was this one. I think it was the poems and quotes in the beginning of each new section. (My apologies to Tony here...) "I'm not going to lie to you" I didn't get them. Half the time they were in a different language. The other half, they were obscure poetry. I suppose I would understand them more if it were my second time reading the book, but for a first read...Nope. Didn't get it.

The violence also got to me. Why was the Christopher chapter in the book where it was? Harry/Harriet said the thing that happened to him/her had no bearing on how he/she turned out, but did it? The part with Bobby brought home something I already knew about war: the soldiers who return need more than physical healing. There are mental/emotional scars that will be open for a long time, possibly forever.

That reminds me...the book isn't essentially a bad book. The author obviously has skill. It's just that the meaning of everything is unclear to a first-time reader. I think that some things should be discernible on a first read or who's going to read to the end? It's fine to have deeper meanings embedded in the text, but if there are no surface meanings and connections, then it's like wandering through an unfamiliar house in the dark. Sure, you know that's a couch and that is an end table, but what the heck is that weird freaky shadowy thing over there? Is it important? Is it not as weird as it appears right now? Who knows until the lights are turned on, you know?

This reveals another thing about me. Deep down...well, actually not that deep down....Anyway...I was going somewhere with this--- ah, yes. I was going to tell you or myself or whomever that I am not a poetry person. I have always valued prose far about poetry. It's because I don't like images coming at me here and there without background or explanation. That's really how I felt about this book. It's like poetry. It may even be good poetry, but the fact that it has complex images presented side by side with other complexities and leaves it all up to me wasn't enjoyable to me.

I'm curious to see what the Book Club people think about it.