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Book of the Week: Born Standing Up by Steve Martin

I thought that this was a very interesting memoir in its approach. This is a book about a particular aspect of a person's life. In this case, Martin tells us from the outset, that he performed stand-up comedy for eighteen years, was incredibly successful for the last four, and then walked away. Right away, he has my interest. He has laid out his story, and now I want to know the details.

It was interesting to me to see how Martin handled his personal life in telling his story. He talks of his relationship with his family and how he resolved his issues with them over the years. He speaks of anxiety attacks. He mentions marriages. But the fulcrum of this book is always the work, how he started as a comic who literally started out doing his act wtih no one in the room (the theory was that passerbys would hear his voice and venture in) to the real problem of figuring out how to do vital comedy with thousands of people in attendance.

Martin's prose felt effortlessly gorgeous, and it was illuminating in the end to read Martin's gracious acknowledgements to his many friends who read the book and gave him feedback while it was in process. It made me wish he would enlist their support again and write more volumes. I want to read more about his career in film. I want to hear about his interest in art. I want to hear about his work as a musician. I would really like to read more about Steve Martin's life and work.

Born Standing Up by Steve Martin

 

Book of the Week: Your Voice in My Head by Emma Forrest

There are some books that come highly recommended and that you begin with great hope and, for some reason, it is not the book for you. This was my situation with Your Voice in My Head.

The book is a memoir about loss. In the book, Emma Forrest writes about two important people to her: her doctor, a man who helped her through bulimia, cutting, and suicide attempts, and her lover, a man she calls GH or Gypsy Husband. Both men left unexpectedly. Dr. R. did not tell his patients that he had cancer. He truly believed that he could recover. GH spoke of having a baby together and creating a family together and then one day flipped the switch and was no longer interested. Emma is left to her own resources.

I ultimately found both depictions of the relationships problematic. In the case of Dr. R, the meat of this story takes place after he has died. He cannot help her with the loss of GH.  Forrest does write about their previous work together, but it feels less immediate, because the book is essentially about how she gets out of this current sadness.  Forrest would often end chapters with testimonials from other patients about how Dr. R.  saved their life. but  these were one paragraph moments. They were big picture generalities. I liked the abstract notion of paying homage to this doctor who evidently was a great help to many people, but it didn't affect me deeply, because i felt like I was always skating on the periphery.

I also wanted deeper reflection on the relationship with GH.  To me, after the relationship ended, there were too many instances of the narrator meeting someone and asking them if GH was sincere when he was with her. Their answer is always the same, "Yes, he really loved you. Then he changed his mind."

 I wanted there to be a progression in the book, where Forrest would think more about the intersection between romance and reality. The highly charged nature of this romance to me seemed destined for a short fuse, unless there was some sort of a transition. She does not seem aware of the fact that they would have needed to have made a shift. She seems to mourn the loss of that phase without realizing that it naturally has a time stamp to it.

Many people love this book. It is being made into a movie.This is the type of book where the reader needs to descend into dark depths and then work the way out until she reaches that light at the end of the tunnel. In this one, I didn't buy the ticket. I watched from outside and chattered to myself.

NOTE: In rereading this piece, I thought that I have to mention that GH is widely assumed to be Colin Farrell. I didn't want to mention it, but it feels strange not to say anything about it as well.

Book of the Week: Still Life by Louise Penny

This is the first book of a mystery series featuring Chief Inspector Gamache, a Canadian investigator. The book is set in Three Pines, a small community where everyone believes they know everyone's stories. The story starts with a murder, a retired school teacher, Jane Neal, is found dead in the woods. Chief Inspector Gamache is brought in to solve the case.

Penny gives us a world of eccentric, small town people. There are plenty of motivations swirling around on who could have killed Jane Neal. Gamache is established as an investigator who takes pride in his work, who expects excellence from his staff, who wants to be a mentor, who, as a city person brought in for this case, wants to understand these people. It was a geniuinely fun read, and I am officially committed to this series. I want to continue to follow Gamache.

Still Life by Louise Penny

 

 

Book of the Week: Elegies for the Brokenhearted by Christie Hodgen

This was one of those books that I wanted to read forever, because the language was so lovely. I also really appreciated its structure. The novel is separated into sections, each an elegy to someone important in the narrator's life who has died. It's one of those books where, although you know the character's fate, you wish there was something that you could do to change the course of the pages. It's one of those novels where when you finish the section, you think, "How will there be someone as interesting, someone that I care about so much in the next section"? There is.

It's an emotional book. It's a smart book. Hodgen has created a qulirky world, but in the center of it, our narrator provides us an anchor. Mary Murphy tells the tale. The story starts off with her childhood and ends when she is an adult.  In her eyes, she is the least interesting person in her world, and in fact, in a way she is. She is surrounded by charismatic, unstable people, larger than life personas who she survives. But she gives the humanity to the book. She infuses those around her, who may have seemed like cartoons without her presence, with ballast. She is able to introduce them to us and to pay tribute to them in such a way that we understand their beauty, that we are truly sad at their passing.

The transition from one passage to another is ingenious, and it's part of the beauty of the book to see the connection between the subject of the section and the narrator and her story. So I will not say any details about who any of these people are and let you have the wonder of discovery as you read this book. This is one of those books that I will definitely read again. It's one of those novels where, when I see a friend who loves to read, I will very enthusiastically say, "Let me tell you about this book."

Book of the Week: The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted and Other Small Acts of Liberation by Elizabeth Berg

I learned about Elizabeth Berg through Ann Patchett. When Patchett was asked who she liked to read, she named Berg as one of her favorite writers. So I had to try one of her books.

When I started this collection of short stories, I worried a bit. Is this going to just be about counting calories? Is it just going to focus on the rebellion of eating things that make no nutritional sense? The first few pages it read that way, but then it shifted and became something genuinely real and touching. Berg pulled off this magician's feat over and over again in these stories. You're lulled into what looks like the mundane and then it becomes specific and moving.

I read these stories while hanging out with a cat. Our landlord is gone, and I said I would hang out with the cat so that she wouldn't be lonely. So I would go down there and crank up the heater and tuck into this book while the cat danced around me and seriously considered my lap, but in the end couldn't make the trip. It was one of those great holiday experiences, being surprised over and over again by the simple reality of the human condition while a cat prances around you.

 

The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted and Other Small Acts of Liberation by Elizabeth Berg

Book of the Week: Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain

I read this book after I heard Anthony Bourdain on the WTF podcast. I would call it a work memoir. It talks of Bourdain's entry into the world of adventurous eating and how that parlayed into him eventually becoming a chef. It's a very entertaining book, and it is also educational. The title is apt. Through reading this book, I do feel that reader really does get a sense of what it would be like to be a chef and what goes on in the kitchen. Some of it is inspiring. The amount of detail that one has to consider, the knowledge, precision, and sheer work that goes into being a chef was spelled out in very believable details. Some of it made me think about the nature of brilliance, and how it is often found in the eccentrics, the rebels, the square pegs of the world. There were words of the wise to the consumer. Never order fish on Monday, as that is the last date it can be used before being thrown out. Be wary of the specials, again, often designed with the idea of what leftover food needs to be used.

At the end of the book, Bourdain explains that the chapters were originally a series of separate pieces, and I would have to say that it did read that way. One thing that I missed about this book was a unifying drive from beginning to end. There were certainly great moments, and I enjoyed the read, but I wanted one great, big through-line that would build upon each other to tell the tale of this chef's work.  That would have made this book complete for me.

Book of the Week: V is for Vengeance by Sue Grafton

I always want to read Sue Grafton's books, because I want to see what she's going to do next. It's an amazing goal to write a twenty-six book series, and I want to see each step.

When I first started reading these books, I wondered how Kiney Mulhone, the private investigator at the center of these books, would ever physically survive. In the first of these books, she suffered so much physical injury through her work that I didn't think she would be realistically able to continue her work.

After a while Grafton eased off on the action, and it became more about Milhone's internal process. I think that was probably my favorite phase of the series so far, where it had to do more with Kinsey's emotional life, how she tried to resolve her family issues and successfully navigate her intimate relationships. I enjoyed her interactions with her neighbor, Henry. I wanted to see what was going to happen to her as a person as she continued to investigate her cases.

It seems that in the past few books, Grafton has wanted to expand her writing universe. These later books have been more about the characters of the cases than they have been about Kinsey. Kinsey's role in the books have been diminished to mainly passages about her detective work. For me, this has always been the weakest part of the books. I have the impression that Grafton does a lot of research on how private investigators do their job, but sometimes to me, the research reads more like a book report rather than being integrated into the story. Some of Kinsey's actions in this book also made me wonder. She bought a flashy car, which she admitted hampered her ability to do her work. There were times when she was unable to get a license plate. She just seems to be more inexperienced than I would think that she would and should be at this point in her career.

And yet, despite my complaints, I will keep reading this series. I am very interested to see how she is developing these different muscles by writing about these criminal worlds. I like it that she is continuing her work wtih integrity. She is working hard to continue to make the books interesting and new. I just want more Kinsey. I would like to see more of how her character would develop from here to Z.

 

Book of the Week: Noah's Compass by Anne Tyler

While reading Noah's Compass, I thought a lot about a writer's terrain. I have read all of Anne Tyler's novels. She has a certain territory that she covers. The books are often set in Baltimore. The characters are often loners and introverted. They are often idiosyncratic, gently quirky. She is a master of this world.

Noah's Compass begins with Liam Pennywell being forced out of a teaching job he has held for many years. Instead of fighting against it, Liam acquiesces to the situation and decides to move across town to a more modest apartment to cut down on costs. He moves wtih the help of his daughter's boyfriend and the one person he considers a friend. At the end of the day, with the job done, they leave Liam who soon goes to sleep and then wakes up in the hospital with a head injury. He has been badly beaten by an intruder.

I couldn't wait to read what would happen next. It was as if Anne Tyler started out in her wheelhouse and then took a sharp left turn. There were several intriguing threads mentioned. His sister suspected his daughter's boyfriend. That seemed interesting. But nothing ever comes out of that, he becomes the standard, sweet, funny figure that populates Tyler's fictional world. There is mention later on of an arrest, and the mother of the young man comes to ask Liam to meet with the boy, to perhaps help him with his sentence. But the meeting never takes place. Again, I think it was a missed opportunity for Tyler to venture outside her world.

What happens instead is Liam becomes involved with a young girl, someone he sees at a doctor's office helping an older man with a head injury. Liam becomes fascinated with the notion of having a "rememberer," someone who would be with him and help him figure out what exactly happened.  It was one of those times when I, as a reader, just wanted to put my hands on the driving wheel and steer away from this story. I wasn't really interested in this romantic relationship. I wanted to read more about this introvert who was in a potentially dangerous situation with not much wits about him at the moment and see how he would survive. I had caught a glimpse of gritty from Tyler—there were bite marks on his hands from the altercation—and I wanted to see more of that side. I wished the boyfriend had been the druggie that he was rumored to be. I wanted to see more of this friend. Was it just that he wasn't a great friend or was something more going on? I wanted to know. I wanted to see Liam come face to face with his attacker. I wanted more of those fleeting glimpses that occasionally tantalized on the page.

Book of the Week Resumes this Week

We had a storm last week, 70-mile winds in the redwood = a big mess. We lost our power and our  Internet service. All my Internet time at wifi cafes was taken up with work. I'm looking forward to writing about a book later this week!

Book of the Week: An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination by Elizabeth McCracken

Sometimes books just demand to be read.

I'm a bit divided with my reading choices for this blog. I think ideally it would encompass a wide range of books and writers. Realistically, although I do like to read many different things, I do have my own particular literary palette. Sometime it's more narrow than broad. So this week I'm back to Elizabeth McCracken, because once I discovered that this book existed, I felt I just had to read it.

That also surprised me. This is a memoir about a particular experience, that of stillbirth. I don't have any children. I would not think that it would be something that I would read about in-depth. But I had recently read her novel, Niagra Falls All Over Again, and I loved the way that she used language. When I read the sample chapter from this book, I had no choice but to continue.

It was an ingenious opening. it took place in a library, long before McCracken was married, long before this pregnancy. She is presiding over an ill attended reading. A couple approaches her. The woman suggests that McCracken should write about children who die. She tells McCracken that her child has died, and then she tells an inappropriate antecdote of her life since her child has died. It is one of those moments that are unfortunately memorable, one of those times where when the author's life boomerangs with that remembrance later on, and this isolated incident, seemingly so trivial and strange, becomes something meaningful

McCracken has a gift for seeing humor in grief. She and her husband were living in France during this pregnancy, a place of great happiness for them prior to this event, a place, she says, where she will never return. Even admidst the bleakest moments, she and her husband seem compelled to find a twist. There is a language gaffe involving nuns and dwarves or a black cat runs out in front of them after they hear the news. ("Too late," her husband calls out to the cat.)

There are things that I had never thought about before, the reality that if your child is a stillborn, that you still have to go through the experience of delivering your child. There is also the decision of seeing the baby, the familiarity of this child now gone. McCracken writes from a position of strength, of grief, of outrage. She possesses that gift from her past life as a librarian. She catalogues ideas and actions. She lists in a very exact manner what happened and why. She is a wonderful guide through this experience.

I do wish the book had been edited more tightly. The story rambles at times, I think, and perhaps it's because the event is so sad that we need to meander a bit and go out of sequence and approach it from all sorts of angles. Sometimes I wanted to dig in my heels and say, "No more circling back. Whoa! Why are we going back here?" and "Do you really want to say that about your friend? I know she disappointed you, but does it need to be in print?"

It was one of those books where I laughed, gasped, and had the audacity to want to make changes. It was a true reading experience, one that I felt compelled to have.