Fell into the Picoult trap again this week when I was at the library looking for something to read, in a hurry I should add as Annie was in the car waiting. So once again if you've read one of her books you've read them all. Small town characters, one of them shockingly accused of a crime that he or she didn't commit. Family crisis ensues, big trial takes up the last 3rd of the book with the defense attorney becoming a major character... all coming together in a shocking ending and always, always an aquittal of the wronged defendant. And the topic is always provocative and often timely. Whether it's organ donations, school shootings, teenage suicide or in this case teenage rape (with some witchcraft thrown in), she changes the names of the characters and the topic but little else.
And not only is the story predictable, so is her writing... a few of her favorite phrases include: 'he shrugged on his coat', 'she tucked into her meal' and 'she padded down the hall'.. all used to excess.
Can't promise I won't pick her books up again, I will admit they are page turners. But next time I'm in a rush at the library I'm heading for 'staff picks' my new favorite section.
This book has been much talked about in the past few weeks. The New York Times has reviewed and mentioned it several times and authors such as Jodi Picoult have criticized the newspaper for giving so much attention to this one particular (male) writer. The popularity and 'hotness' of the book seemed to reach a frenzy when Obama was photographed coming out of a book store on Martha's Vineyard with a copy under his arm... 2 weeks before it's publication date!
So as a big fan of Franzen's last book "Corrections" written about 9 years ago I was anxious to read this one. He is nothing less than genius at getting deep into the minds and psyches of 'average' middle class families, who of course are completely disfunctional on many levels. This is the story of Patty and Walter, who met in college. She was a basketball star chasing after Walter's roomate, a guitar playing womanizer who threw her aside so that she could fall into sweet Walter's arms.
The story of their marriage is the story of this book. The characters are beautifully developed. Their friend Richard (guitar player) who Patty never quite gets over, son Joey and daughter Jessica are characters who we are bound to care about and live through years of pain with, all in one brilliantly written novel. Franzen has a talent for developing his characters, for good or bad, so that you care for them and want to know what kind of people they will become when the story ends.
This was a looong one to read in a week... 560 pages.. but well well worth the effort. Definitely on my list of one of the year's best (so far!)
I picked this book up in the bargain section of Barnes and Noble a while ago, and it sat on my shelf for a while more after that. When I bought it, it sounded like a moving story – Radziwill was the wife of Anthony Radziwill, Jackie O’s nephew, who died three weeks after John Kennedy Jr. After that, I kept thinking it might be too morbid, and I was afraid to read it.
When I finally picked it up again, I read it right after One Day, which centered on the date July 15th. Ironically, this book centers on the next day, July 16th, which is the day John Kennedy Jr.’s plane went down. But to say this is all it is about would be to limit it, and to put the focus too much on him; this is instead a loving portrait of his cousin, Anthony. I should say outright that I am not a huge Kennedy fan. Nothing against them, but just kind of oversaturated with all of them. I do however appreciate their place as an American sort of royalty, and, in this frame of mind, it is easy to feel a loss when reading this book.
What I was not prepared for was Carole’s hilarious family story. The outrageous stories of her family could fill up an entirely different, much happier book.
Since Anthony’s death was almost completely overshadowed by the deaths of John, Carolyn and Lauren, it is not surprising that I knew very little about Carole and Anthony. Had I heard more about her then, I probably would have liked them all better. After all, who could resist John Jr. asking his cousin, “Who would have thought we would have ended up with a couple of Caldor girls?” Carole, it turns out, grew up near here, in Suffern, NY. The places she worked (Caldor and Wendy’s in Ramsey) were all familiar. Carole met Anthony while working for ABC – having had a successful news career without the Kennedy name to help her. I was impressed while reading that she deliberately tried not to drop names, though, given her own career and the family she married into, this was probably not an easy task. Instead, she would refer to “Diane and Mike”, or “Joan and Pete”. I learned later they were Diane Sawyer and Mike Nichols, Joan Ganz Cooney (founder of Children’s Television Workshop) and Peter G. Peterson (former US Secretary of Commerce). I did find odd one reason she found John Jr. so charming — that, when he introduced himself, he said, “John Kennedy” and left off the “Jr”. Was there someone in his circle at that time who didn’t know him? I‘m pretty sure he didn’t need to add the last name.
So, I will not get into the marriage almost completely consumed by cancer, or the incredible sadness of that unexpected and unfortunate tragedy in the air. This offers a completely different perspective. Radziwill is not harsh – she is not dishing dirt here. Her portrait of the family is loving and respectful. She is not in their thrall, so she does not gush, except really about Carolyn Bessette, whom she apparently bonded with early on. She is the girl from the wrong side of town, who earned her place by taking on a heroic task. She married a person who was sure to die, and helped him live as much as possible in the short time of what remained.
I've never read "Fever Pitch", "High Fidelity" or "About a Boy", but I liked the movies pretty well, so when I read the review of "Juliet, Naked" and found out that the author, Nick Hornby had written those 3 novels, I was curious enough to hit "Buy now with 1-click - you can be reading this on your kindle within 30 seconds - send to Janie's Ipad" (this has nothing to do with the book - its just a comment on the millions that Amazon must be making off of impulsive shoppers like me).
LT
Here's the plot: As the book begins, the 2 main characters (an unhappy 40ish couple from a lifeless and timeworn English seaside village) begin a pilgrimage in the USA to visit sites that were supposedly significant in the life of a rock star named Tucker Crowe who has been in hiding for the last 20 years.
Duncan and Annie, the travelling couple, visit a toilet stall in a dark Minnesota bar, among other places to try to uncover the mystery behind Crowe's disappearance. Duncan is the stalker-like fan who fancies himself as the world's leading "Crowologist", aided by his blog and a handful of other Crowe fans worldwide who spend many hours analyzing the lyrics, music and known behavior of their idol.
As their trip progresses, Annie becomes more and more sick of Duncan's obsessive behavior and total lack of interest in doing any sightseeing not related to Crowe. Upon their return home, an unexpected new release of demos from Tucker Crowe is waiting in their mailbox. Duncan, anxious to one-up all of his blog followers by announcing the new release, listens to the CD once and posts an extremely positive review.
Annie has also heard the CD and quietly posts her own review on the website, disagreeing with Duncan. As their relationship deteriorates and ends, Annie gets a response to her review from the artist himself, Tucker Crowe, agreeing with her assessment.
I'm not great a synopsizing the messages within novels, so I'm just going to quote the NY Times Review of the book, which says it pretty well for me:
All three characters have dark views of themselves, and Hornby relies mainly on their self-criticism to make you smirk. Tucker, finding himself corralled into a series of reunions with his estranged children, thinks he’s becoming an expert on “paternal reintroduction” and wonders whether he should run classes. Annie tries to work out an algebraic equation that can tell her exactly how many real years she’s wasted with Duncan. Yet Hornby still gets you to sympathize with each one’s earnest quest for some belated emotional maturity.
Nick Hornby is again having fun with — making fun of — an obsessive music fan. What’s different now, 14 years after “High Fidelity,” is that fans live out their obsessions on the Internet, a place where distances shrink, time collapses, and it’s very easy to get lost. Hornby seems, as ever, fascinated by the power of music to guide the heart, and in this very funny, very charming novel, he makes you see why it matters.
'Gift' is a book I've read a few times and is fun to pick up after spending a summer on the beach. Lindbergh wrote this in 1955 after spending a solitary 2 weeks in a cottage by the beach. As a mother of 5 and wife of the famous aviator, she treasured her time alone with nothing but a few clothes, some books and her pen and paper. She writes about the overwhelming life of being a mom, and the 'trappings of modernity', which in the mid 50s included housework, being a good wife and mother.
One of the reasons why I enjoy re-reading this book, I think, is how much I envy and enjoy her ability to take those 2 weeks off, purely for herself, with no obligations or responsibilities. She writes: "The beach is not the place to work; to read, write or think. I should have remembered that from other years. Too warm, too damp, too soft for any real mental discipline or sharp flights of spirit. One never learns. Hopefully, one carries down the faded straw bag, lumpy with books, clean paper, long over-due unanswered letters, freshly sharpened pencils, lists and good intentions. The books remain unread, the pencils break their points and the pads rest smooth and unblemished as the cloudless sky. No reading, no writing, no thoughts even - at least not at first."
She writes a lot about relationships and marriage, partnerships and of course, making time for oneself. A lot of this is dated but still worth a read. At only 130 pages it's a quick one.
And I LOVE getting my Poetry journal every few months. It's filled with wonderful writings from current poets. In the July/August issue one poem "The House of Time by Stephen Edgar really stuck with me. In the poem he sees the life he has lived as rooms in a house:
A moving book, in three dimensions he could wander through At will, at any point, now, since, before, To feel, to listen and to look - A house, or suite Of rooms around a circling corridor, And waiting there, he knew, Were all the peopled days he'd not repeat.
(his rememberance of a 'lost' lover was particularly moving)
He recognized at once the face Of one who five years hence he would have bound As closely to him as a Siamese twin. How recklessly he would replace That loving care. Absorbed, now, in the dream of skin on skin, He whispered the profound And destined promises s she'd never share.
Love these poetry 'moments' I have every month with this publication.
Here is the reason why I love to be in a book club:
Someone picks a book they love, or thinks they’re going to love, and then they put it out there, and hope we share in their excitement. This month I read West with the Night. I had heard of Beryl Markham in a vague sort of way; basically I knew she was an aviatrix. The book is not new (written in 1942), but I had never heard of it. And, if it weren’t for my book club, I probably would never have read it. Instead, I got a copy at the library (still have those 84 books to read on my shelf), and, since the cover did not seem compelling, I waited quite a few days before finally cracking it open. (Full disclosure – I finished ten minutes before I left for the meeting).
I loved this book. The woman was amazing. I wanted to be her. She fought lions, trained horses, flew airplanes. Who wouldn’t want to be her? I think it should be required reading for teenage girls who feel they are not given the chances they deserve. Beryl Markham had no mother, and was raised in East Africa by a father who preferred to consider her his contemporary as opposed to his daughter.
Her writing is, in most places, pure poetry. The closest thing I can compare it to is Toni Morrison’s, but Morrison's writing was just too beautiful for me that it became a distraction. The writing also reminded me of Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s The Little Prince, and even more, Wind, Sand and Stars. I don’t know if it’s the similar topic of flying, or just writing about the thing you love. Do not read this book if you are looking for romance. She apparently had plenty of that, but this is not a book for that subject. This is, according to critics, the utopian view. Which brings me to the next part,
Here is the reason I hate the internet:
Because I read the book so late, I was lucky in that I avoided any google searches on this topic. It is apparently a hotly debated one, whether or not Markham even wrote this book herself. You can do your own research online. I refuse to come down from the high I got reading this book. I say, just let it be. This is not James Frey lying about rehab. Nobody got hurt, and it happened too long ago to interview the witnesses. Supposedly her third husband wrote it. So what? Maybe he loved her, and wanted her to look good, so he gave her adventures the words she did not have. I am tired of snopes! Let’s be naïve and trusting for a little while longer. This is an amazing book, a complete delight; a story of adventure that will give you chills. How could you not enjoy this, as she begins her historic solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean:
“We are bound for a place thirty-six hundred miles from here — two thousand miles of it unbroken ocean. Most of the way it will be night. We are flying west with the night.
So there behind me is Cork; and ahead of me is Berehaven Lighthouse. It is the last light, standing on the last land. I watch it, counting the frequency of its flashes — so many to the minute. Then I pass it and fly out to sea.”
If you need more than that, take Ernest Hemingway’s word for it, not mine:
"Did you read Beryl Markham's book, West with the Night? I knew her fairly well in Africa and never would have suspected that she could and would put pen to paper except to write in her flyer's log book. As it is, she has written so well, and marvelously well, that I was completely ashamed of myself as a writer. I felt that I was simply a carpenter with words, picking up whatever was furnished on the job and nailing them together and sometimes making an okay pig pen. But [she] can write rings around all of us who consider ourselves writers. The only parts of it that I know about personally, on account of having been there at the time and heard the other people's stories, are absolutely true . . . I wish you would get it and read it because it is really a bloody wonderful book.”
I picked this up for my summer “beach read”, and it was that and a little bit more. As I was reading, I couldn’t get past the idea that this was sure to be a movie soon, and the quote from Nick Hornby on the cover seemed to confirm this. This idea produced the odd effect of me casting the characters as I read.
It’s true, you can almost hear Hugh Grant’s voice every time Dexter Mayhew speaks. (You know it’s a beach read with a name like that.) Emma, of course, could be Renee Zellweger, or whatever young actress is considered the new Renee Zellweger these days. Ok, I guess Hugh Grant is too old too, but can Bradley Cooper do an English accent?
Dex and Em meet cute — and a little sheepishly — on the night they graduate from the University of Edinburgh. Emma Morley, the brainy, working class girl, is way out of Dex’s league, but he is attracted to her, and we are heartened that the privileged cad is kinder than we thought. We are not really given all of the details until later, but we assume that they’ve gotten drunk and spent the night together, perhaps, as Emma hopes, chastely. Dex, despite his initial instincts, does not run away the morning after. They spend what turns out to be an awkward and yet wonderful day together (July 15th), and then they part, not sure whether they will see each other again. Their paths cross in different contexts over the next twenty or so years, and the letters they send echo the strange friendship they have developed.
What sets this book apart from the typical “boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back” formula is the device the author uses to give us glimpses of their relationship. Each chapter takes place on July 15th, in each of the subsequent years. Sometimes we learn about what has happened in the interim, but more importantly we see specifics about that particular day; where they are, what they are doing. As time passes, the day develops a deep significance to both of them. I liked this format, though it did make me wonder how it would translate into what I believe is the inevitable movie.
The book has many flaws, but the banter between the characters is wonderful. You feel their pain in their constant sarcasm and deflecting comments, but they are hilarious at the same time. No two people could possibly have this many great comebacks, but I don’t care, it’s a novel. Plus, I love to read the words “posh”, and “does he fancy me” and pretty much any other cute expressions that you would find in a novel that takes place in England. Read this one for a fun story that may even surprise you.
LT
