Book Review: RASH by Lisa Kusel

Title: RASH

Author: Lisa Kusel
Publisher: WiDo Publishing
Read: February 2019

Expected publication: out now

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟

Book Description:

Writer Lisa Kusel, while living comfortably in her California home, feels an unsettling lack of personal contentment. When she sees a job posting for a new international school in Bali, she convinces her schoolteacher husband Victor to apply.

Six weeks after his interview, Lisa, Victor, and their six-year-old daughter, Loy, move halfway around the world to paradise. But instead of luxuriating in ocean breezes, renewed passion, and first-rate schooling, what Lisa and her family find are burning corpses, biting ants, and a millionaire founder who cares more about selling bamboo furniture than educating young minds. Not to mention Lisa’s fear that one morning she might see the Dengue Fever rash on her young daughter.

RASH is an unfiltered, sharply-written memoir about a woman who goes looking for happiness on the Island of the Gods, and nearly destroys her marriage in the process. For anyone who has ever dreamed of starting over in an exotic locale, this is a poignant reminder that no matter where you go, there you are.

My musings:

I don’t normally read a lot of memoirs. Lisa Kusel’s book Rash made me reevaluate that choice, because there is something infinitely touching about someone sharing their life story with you, the good, the bad, and the downright ugly. As I laughed, cringed and shuddered my way through Lisa’s honest and vivid account of her year in Bali, I related on many levels to her story. For us, the thing that would fix all of life’s problems was a three-year stint travelling around Australia in a caravan with two kids under five. I wish that I could be sitting around the campfire with Lisa and compare notes, because what a laugh that would be!

Who would give up the comfort of their life in California, uproot the whole family and move to a little tropical island in Indonesia? Someone looking for a change. Change is good, right? A change of scenery may even fill that hole of chronic discontent in our heart that niggles that there must be more to life. So when Lisa found an advert looking for teachers to help set up an innovative new school in the tropical rainforest of Bali, it was like a dream come true. Her husband Victor applied for the job, and soon the whole family set off to embark on their new adventure.  But life is usually not that simple, and Lisa and her family soon find out that their tropical paradise is not what it was supposed to be.

I loved Lisa’s candid writing style, her self-deprecating humour and her warts-and-all approach in describing her “seachange”. There are no enlightened moments with Balinese medicine men or serene rides through lush rainforest on an old-fashioned bicycle to the gentle tinkle of windchimes. Instead, her days are spent squashing giant killer ants that threaten to carry off her daughter in the middle of the night, hiding under layers of netting to escape swarms of dengue infected mosquitoes and scraping thick mould off bamboo furniture and walls to the deafening sounds of gamelan music as she is reflecting on her crisis-stricken marriage. There were quite a few funny moments, too, like Lisa’s standoff with a protective male monkey, which I related to from our own personal experiences in Bali – I never forget the time when my husband tried to fend off the fang-bearing killer monkey with his thong (the flip-flop kind, not the underwear) whilst his womenfolk fled in panic. Lisa, if you had indeed spent some time in Kuta with those beer-swilling Aussie rugby teams you may have learned some life-saving thong combat action!

Whilst Lisa spends many lonely, miserable days in the country she had hoped would be the answer to all her problems, she reflects on the eat-pray-love phenomenon and questions herself on her lack of Gilbertian enlightenment. Having been to Bali I can see that living in a rather basic bamboo hut in the middle of the Balinese rainforest without some of the conveniences we take for granted would look a lot more serene in a movie (or the Green School advertising clip I found on Youtube) than in real life. I appreciated Lisa’s honesty as she shared her struggles every step of the way, and the way her Western views regularly clashed with the different cultural practices she is faced with in her new home. Her inner probings to explore her capacity for unhappiness are relevant in our society today and made for some reflection on my part whilst I was reading her honest account. I have read somewhere before that characters in books never seem to eat or pee – well, Lisa has it all in her book, which makes it all the more relatable! What also made this book speak to me is that I knew most of the places Lisa talked about in her story – we may even have aooommmmhed on neighbouring yoga mats during a yoga session at the Ubud Yoga Barn without realising it. 

Summary:

All in all, Lisa Kusel’s memoir is a poignant account of a woman searching for happiness and contentment in a far away land, only to find that all her problems have followed her. Written with honesty and humour, Rash will appeal to everyone who has ever dreamed of escaping it all. I hope that Lisa and her family have found contentment in their new life in Vermont and that the year in Bali is but a distant memory that ultimately brought them closer together. If nothing else, it made for a damn good read!

Thank you to the author for the free electronic copy of this novel and for giving me the opportunity to provide an honest review.

Bookclub Read (book vs movie discussion): MAO'S LAST DANCER by Li Cunxin

Title: Mao's Last Dancer

Author: Li Cunxin
Narrator: Paul English
Read: January / February 2018

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟1/2

Book Description:

The extraordinary memoir of a peasant boy raised in rural Maoist China who was plucked from his village to study ballet and went on to become one of the greatest dancers of his generation.

From a desperately poor village in northeast China, at age eleven, Li Cunxin was chosen by Madame Mao's cultural delegates to be taken from his rural home and brought to Beijing, where he would study ballet. In 1979, the young dancer arrived in Texas as part of a cultural exchange, only to fall in love with America-and with an American woman. Two years later, through a series of events worthy of the most exciting cloak-and-dagger fiction, he defected to the United States, where he quickly became known as one of the greatest ballet dancers in the world. This is his story, told in his own inimitable voice.

My musings:

Mao’s Last Dancer was our last bookclub read, and apparently I have been living under a rock, since I had not heard of the book OR the movie! Since a lot of my reading is escapist and a means to disengage from real life problems, I seldom delve into autobiographies – and am finding that I may be missing out! Li Cunxin’s account of his life, from a childhood in rural, poverty stricken China to his rise to fame, was interesting, humbling and inspiring in equal measures. It certainly provided a lot of material for our bookclub discussion. Personally, the one message that stood out most for me was how loving the Li family was, and how they looked out for each other. Living in unimaginable poverty, there was always plenty of love to go around, and each family member was willing to share what little they had with others. I found this so refreshing and humbling, living in a society where we tend to accumulate and hoard possessions and compete with each other, and where families are often fractured and family values lost as a result of this. Whilst the poverty and constant struggle for survival in Li Cunxin’s childhood sounded horrendous, it may have also set the foundations for his resilience, determination and inner strength that ultimately formed the cornerstones to his success.

Whilst I initially thought the story was off to a bit of a slow, rambling start and could have done with some careful editing, I found the small facts of Li Cunxin’s childhood and the political background fascinating. I’m a total numpty when it comes to ballet, but this posed no obstacle to my enjoyment of the book, as the underlying message could have been applied to any sport, or even any career where someone overcomes personal challenges through sheer gut and determination to become the best in their field. Through all the pain and hardship Li Cunxin endured, he always held out for the goal to achieve something better and to make his family proud. Li Cunxin never complains about anything, dispassionately recounting tales of hunger and hardship that would make our toes curl. It is this positive, hopeful outlook and his stoicism that ultimately makes him succeed where others have tried and failed.

On our bookclub night, we watched the movie to compare it to the book, and I found that the film skipped over two of the most memorable moments in the story for me: the time teacher Xiao prompts Li Cunxin to confront the bullying behaviour of another teacher (which taught him to confront problems head-on); and the moment Li Cunxin realises that communism isn’t the perfect ideal he had been forced to believe all his life. A few of us found that the movie missed some of the messages that stood out for each of us individually in the telling of the story, so whilst the movie was ok, I recommend reading the book first!

I listened to the audio version of this book, and credit must go to Paul English for his wonderful narration – I really appreciated his accurate pronunciation of the many Chinese names, which would have made me flounder in the printed version.

Summary:

All in all, Mao’s Last Dancer was an interesting and humbling read that will appeal to anyone looking for inspiration and hope. Containing fascinating historical details of life under Mao, a strong armchair component, and hidden messages in its pages that will mean different things to individual readers, Mao’s Last Dancer made for a perfect bookclub read.

Book Review: HOW TO SPEAK CHICKEN by Melissa Caughey

Title: How to Speak Chicken

Author: Melissa Caughey
Publisher: Storey Publishing
Read: November 2017

Expected publication: Today

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟1/2

Book Description:

Best-selling author Melissa Caughey knows that backyard chickens are like any favorite pet — fun to spend time with and fascinating to observe. Her hours among the flock have resulted in this quirky, irresistible guide packed with firsthand insights into how chickens communicate and interact, use their senses to understand the world around them, and establish pecking order and roles within the flock. Combining her up-close observations with scientific findings and interviews with other chicken enthusiasts, Caughey answers unexpected questions such as Do chickens have names for each other? How do their eyes work? and How do chickens learn?

My musings:

I am not called “the crazy chook lady” for nothing, so of course I absolutely had to read this book! After decades of keeping our own backyard chooks, who are a much loved part of our family, I have done a fair bit of reading on the subject and have quite a few “how to” chicken related books on my shelves. However, How to Speak Chicken is delightfully different. Instead of giving advice on keeping chickens, it delves into the subject of how chickens communicate, and how we can get more out of our flock if we are able to understand their language.

The author’s love for her flock shines through on every page, as she shares both her own insights as well as latest research findings about how intelligent chickens really are. I found it utterly fascinating, even though I had suspected that there is a lot more to these lovable creatures than we give them credit for. Did you know that chickens can remember up to 20 members of their flock, and have a unique call (or “name”) for each one of them, including you (once you have been accepted into their flock)? Can you tell when they are warning you of a perceived danger from the ground as opposed to danger from the air? Have you ever suspected that chickens can sleep with half of their brain still wide-awake and alert for danger? I didn’t, but ever since reading about chicken communication I have been a lot more attuned to the call of my own hens and how they “chat” with their sisters and members of our family. I watched in fascination as the new puppy was initially greeted with a “danger from ground” alert, but is now accepted with soft clucks as she sniffs around the chook pen.

If you are a chicken lover, or have a chicken lover in your midst, this delightful book would make a perfect Christmas present. The charming and uplifting pictures of various chickens provide a colourful backdrop to the interesting information contained in its pages. Despite being informative, the text is easy to read and devoid of the scientific lingo that tends to exclude some readers – this is a book that can be read and enjoyed by the whole family. Full of love for our feathered friends, How to Speak Chicken was both one of the most informative as well as uplifting books of the year for me – I loved it. So much that I have dominated a few lunchtime conversations with “did you know that chickens .....” Hopefully friends and family will either share my enthusiasm or learn to forgive me!

  

Summary:

I highly recommend How to Speak Chicken to any chicken lover or anyone who is still sitting on the fence about them – apart from learning to appreciate the intelligence of these loveable backyard creatures, the fun and fascinating facts contained in the book will make you a star of any dinner conversation (just ask my family ;).

Thank you to Netgalley and Storey Publishing for the free electronic copy of this novel and for giving me the opportunity to provide an honest review.