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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."