About this title: Ms. Beatrice Hempel, teacher of seventh grade, is new--new to teaching, new to the school, newly engaged, and newly bereft of her idiosyncratic father. Grappling awkwardly with her newness, she struggles to figure out what is expected of her in life and at work.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Description: Good. Former Library book. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Like New. May be shiny, in some instances dust jackets are not included, no missing pages, no damage to binding, may have a remainder mark. read more
Description: Good. 2009-Paperback----Used-Good-Hall Street Books proudly ships from Brooklyn, NY. All orders are processed and shipped within 24 hours, M-F. 100% money back No-Worry guarantee with expedited delivery and delivery confirmation available. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Date Published: 2008-09-08
Description: Like New. 2008, 1st ed. HB w/ DJ. LIke new, unread, faint edge wear to DJ else unmarked. A National Book Award finalist in 2004, Bynum returns with an intricate and absorbing collection of eight interconnected stories about Beatrice Hempel, a middle school English teacher. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Mariner Books
Date Published: 2009-09-18
ISBN-13:9780547247755ISBN:0547247753
Description: Like New. Pre-release ARC book with same cover and publisher stickers. Shelfwear from storage in box with other books. Great Copy. Ships Lightning Fast. read more
"I wish Sarah Shun-lien Bynum was more prolific. I thoroughly enjoy everything she writes: Somehow the mundane becomes thoroughly magical in her hands! I picked this up on a Sunday afternoon and put it down that night, having ignored dinner, Sunday night football, and all of the standard Sunday night activities in order to read just one more page, which of course turned into the entire book. Chapters had been previously published in various magazines, which is how I came across this gem of an author, and you could read this book in chunks, but why would you want to? Definitely recommended for all those going through their third-life crisis, battling the not-so-exciting life of being a grown-up."
"Ms. Hempel is a teacher who frequently contemplates ways to honorably leave her profession and escape her students, co-workers, parents, and dull life in general. She seriously considers falling on the ice and breaking several limbs. She thinks about going back to school and getting her Master's. And she is jealous when a colleague becomes pregnant and gets to leave the school (and students) behind.
The story is slow at times and Bynum tends to jump around. Her characters (other than Ms. Hempel) are forgettable. However, the ending does somewhat offer redemption for an otherwise mediocre book. Several years after the main events of the book take place, Ms. Hempel finally realizes the positive effect she had on her students and even becomes nostalgic for her teaching days."
"I liked a lot of things going on in the background of this book. I liked the narrative decentering, for instance in the prolonged reference to the main character as Ms. Hempel, and the way that one timeframe rapidly shifts to another. Instead of a journal style or constructed memoir, there is a sense of unreality here that feels more intimate than those common forms. And, more importantly these aspects of the book contribute to its main theme of identity, but in a very sophisticated way which many other books, like memoirs, only get at by discussing directly--which makes the memoirist seem apologetic or defensive. I could see that the materials are all here for a memoirist to rewrite, but that book would be so much less imaginative and pleasing to read. And that is what really stood out. This book is fun and sophistcated at the same time. I read it in three days on the subway, but it didn't feel light or poofy.
Finally I have to say that I am reaching the age when writers who are getting published are from my generation, and it is such a relief (who knew?) to have cultural allusions that I instantly recognize instead of pressing the noodle down every few pages to figure out."
"I went into this with high hopes, based on several reviews I'd read and was majorly disappointed.
That may be due to the fact that I read 3/4 of the book without realizing these were individual short stories and not chapters. In fact, I only discovered my error when I went back online to read some additional reviews.
An innocent mistake, I suppose, but nowhere in this book does it specify that these are short stories. Not in the front flap, back flap, back cover. The only place it is mentioned is in the author's acknowledgments at the end when she mentions that one of these stories was previously printed elsewhere. Was I meant to assume that these were stories due to the use of the word "Chronicles" in the title?
As a result, I spent most of the time I was reading trying to figure out why things seemed disjointed and why there was a complete lack of story arc. Once I realized my error, I re-read some of the earlier chapters and I still wasn't bowled-over.
I enjoyed some of the insights into childhood nostalgia in one of the later "stories" where Ms. Hempel--facing the prospect of her mother turning her childhood bedroom into a room in her new B&B--ruminates that yes, indeed she would like the room preserved as a shrine to her youth. I remember feeling a similar sentiment as my own parents turned my room into an office as I was still pulling out of the driveway after moving out.
Other than that, I was largely disappointed by this book."
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