Wednesday, March 30, 2011

"First Light"

I wrote about Charles Baxter's novel "Feast of Love" on 3/22/10; one of several reasons I liked the book was its setting in Ann Arbor, Michigan, because I once lived in the AA area. I recently picked up, and read on the plane to and from a conference in Chicago, one of Baxter's older novels, "First Light" (Penguin, 1987), which also takes place (mostly) in Michigan, but this time in the Saginaw/Bay City area, where my parents and other family members once lived. There are two unusual characteristics of this novel. First, it starts in the present and moves backward in time, throughout the lives of the main characters all the way to early childhood, gradually revealing the roots of their relationships and choices in life. Second, the two main characters are brother and sister, a relationship seldom focused on in literature. Hugh was frequently told by his parents to take care of Dorsey, his younger sister. He always felt responsible for doing so, especially after their parents died young. The lives of the two siblings are very different; Hugh is a car salesman who dropped out of college, stayed in his parents' town and house, is in an unsatisfying marriage, and is the father of two young girls. He is reliable and caring, but there are moments when he is envious of Dorsey, who is an accomplished astrophysicist married to a loving but unfaithful actor, mother to a deaf son who is very well-adjusted, and moves around the country. There are various subplots, but the heart of the story is the sort of sibling dance between Hugh and Dorsey, and Baxter keeps us interested in their relationship and their stories.

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

The Art Institute of Chicago

Today's blog post has little to do with books or reading, but I enjoyed visiting the Art Institute of Chicago today so much that I want to write about it. At the end of a professional conference, I took time to spend a couple of hours at this marvelous museum. I first went there with my friend Mary during our college years, and have been there a handful of times since, but not recently. This time, as always, I made straight for the Impressionist rooms; the collection is large and quite wonderful. Then on to the photography exhibit, focusing on the work of Margaret Bourke-White, Walker Evans, and Berenice Abbott; Abbott on changing New York, Bourke-White on the South during the Depression, and Evans' iconic photographs published in James Agee's book "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men" were highlights. I am always especially drawn to the faces... Then a stop in the Asian art section, especially to visit the sculptures from South India, where I lived and went to school as a child; these are immensely evocative for me. After a few other stops in this vast museum, I ended with a tour of the Thorne Miniature Rooms, in which rooms from European and American history are portrayed on a very small scale. And there I found my connection to books, justifying this blog entry: at least three of the rooms were libraries!

Saturday, March 26, 2011

What I Read Online

Most of us spend enough time online now to count it as part of our daily reading. I try to limit my time online, but I see that it has gradually crept up over the past few years. Below is what I usually read online.
Daily:
1. E-mail, of course! This includes personal email, email related to my university, email related to my academic work, email from various organizations I belong to, etc.
2. Facebook. I know there are pros and cons, but I enjoy being in touch with so many people from different parts of my life. And my FB friends alert me to various news stories and social/political issues as well.
3. The New York Times. I read the headlines, and read a few articles in more detail.
4. InsideHigherEd. This is a sort of newsletter for academics.
5. The Writer's Almanac. I have written about this before; this comes from NPR; there is a daily poem, and some information about a couple of different authors or other literature-related topics.
6. Michael Bauer's blog on restaurants and issues related to dining out. Bauer is the San Francisco Chronicle's restaurant critic.
Sporadically:
1. Blogs by my USF colleagues.
2. Other restaurant blogs (besides Bauer's).
3. The Huffington Post.
4. Other political blogs and websites when I am alerted to them by my FB friends.
5. Blogs that let me catch up on what's happening on my guilty-pleasure TV shows that I don't actually have time to watch.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Conference Reading and Writing

Since it is conference season for me, I have been thinking of all the types of reading and writing that go into professional conferences. Each type or genre has its own requirements, its own peculiarities. First, those who hope to present papers must either be invited or submit proposals. Proposals usually include a 200-300 word summary and a 50 word abstract for the program. If one’s proposal is accepted, then the paper itself needs to be written. The classic conference paper is about 20 minutes long, and is read aloud, sometimes with a few added improvisations along the way. Papers are usually accompanied by power point slides and/or handouts and/or reference/resource lists. Variations on the classic paper include the plenary or keynote speech (longer, more prominent), the colloquium/panel (comprised of several papers and often a response from a discussant), the workshop (more hands-on), the brief research report, the poster session, and the facilitated discussion group, all with their own writings and readings. Other conference related writings/readings are the various conference calls for proposals, announcements, reminders, the conference program (often a fairly thick, handsome book), and numerous flyers found around the conference site (more calls for papers for more conferences, announcements of meetings, etc.). Then there is the vast exhibit hall where publishers exhibit their books, especially new books. I have found that it takes me a couple of hours to go through the hall, and I usually buy (or when fortunate, am given) several new books. And more writing everywhere: the message board, lists of tours and local restaurants, signs on the doors of conference halls and rooms, and more. As befits an academic gathering, attendees are surrounded with language throughout the whole process. I find myself appreciating and enjoying most elements of this onslaught of words. And although I am too busy at conferences to read much else (a quick look at the daily newspaper and at my email is about all I manage), if I want my daily dose of reading in one form or another, I only have to look around me at the conference site.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

"Play It As It Lays"

When I think of “Play It As It Lays” (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1970), by Joan Didion, as I actually have fairly often over the years since I first read it, I think of her iconic, anomic portrayals of Los Angeles, and in particular of the indelible scenes of the main character Maria’s aimlessly driving the Los Angeles freeways for hours and days at a time. Didion’s characters, connected to or on the fringes of the movie business, seem for the most part to be a sad bunch. Her locales in and around Los Angeles (as well as in Las Vegas) are sad and depressing as well. Having just read (and written about here on 3/21/11) another California book, Alice Adams’ “The Last Lovely City,” I was struck by the contrast. Adams writes of the beauty of San Francisco, and of comfortably affluent, quietly strong, get-on-with-it women; Didion never focuses on the beauty of her Los Angeles surroundings, and writes of lonely, depressed-despite-their-affluence-and-even-near-fame women. Granted, Didion’s book was published in 1970 and Adams’ in 1999, a time period during which women’s lives and opportunities opened up dramatically. But although both books are clearly of their time periods, those time periods are not the main point. Not surprisingly, the almost elemental, depressing scenes of “Play It As It Lays” stay with the reader longer than the more nuanced, more purposely ordinary scenes in ”The Last Lovely City.” And Didion’s characters, the people surrounding Maria, mostly seem to lead empty lives, as well as being highly unlikable. It seems that unhappy always trumps happy in literature, at least in terms of lingering in the reader’s mind.

Monday, March 21, 2011

"The Last Lovely City: Stories"

I have mentioned before that I enjoy the late San Francisco writer Alice Adams' fiction. I read most of her fiction in the 1980s and 1990s, but haven't read much of her work for some years now. However, on a recent trip, I re-read one of her short story collections, "The Last Lovely City" (Washington Square Press, 1999), and thoroughly enjoyed it. I admit I took it partly because it is a slim paperback that I picked up at the library sale, perfect for slipping into my carry-on bag for the airplane. But reading Adams' work again reminded me how beautifully she writes. She makes it look effortless, so much so that her work is in danger of being undervalued. But besides loving the gorgeous descriptions of San Francisco (where I work) and Marin County (where I live), I was impressed by her portrayals of strong but understated women. Her women characters are mostly middle-aged, and almost always middle or upper middle class, sometimes with professional careers (for example, one main character who appears in several stories is a psychiatrist) and/or sometimes married to men with professional careers. They live comfortably. Some might dismiss them for those reasons. But Adams does not allow us to label or stereotype these women. They are not perfect by any means; however, they endure difficulties but (mostly) take them in stride, make a minimum of fuss, and get on with their lives. They live through love affairs, breakups, marriages, divorces, moves, and other life changes. Adams writes about these with great insight but with a very light touch. I am now planning to go back and re-read some of her other fiction.

Friday, March 18, 2011

"Infinite City: A San Francisco Atlas"

One of my Christmas gifts was the book “Infinite City: A San Francisco Atlas” (University of California Press, 2010), by noted San Francisco essayist and environmentalist Rebecca Solnit. It is a lovely, fascinating book that is hard – no, impossible! – to categorize or adequately describe, and well worth reading. Each chapter has a theme from San Francisco history and culture, illustrated with a beautifully drawn and colored map showing places that relate to that theme, along with other drawings and photographs, and accompanied by an essay either by Solnit herself or by another notable San Francisco writer. The themes are far from predictable, and there are fanciful but meaningful juxtapositions that are illuminating as well as great fun to read. For example, the map in the chapter “Monarchs and Queens: Butterfly Habitats and Queer Public Spaces” shows these two sets of places within San Francisco and how they overlap, and is illustrated with butterflies and a gorgeous drag queen in butterfly mode. The essay accompanying this chapter is written by my USF colleague, the noted poet Aaron Shurin, and is a masterful, moving, inspiring mini-history of gay and queenly history and places in San Francisco. He ends the essay as follows: “This is a map of a place people come to for wingspread and wigmaking, for monarchial identity and queenly conversions, for animal nature and long morning light; for soul.” A few other chapter titles will give you an idea of the breadth and originality of the themes: “Green Women: Open Spaces and Their Champions”; “Truth to Power: Race and Justice in the City’s Heart”; “Poison/Palate: The Bay Area in Your Body” (gourmet locations juxtaposed with hazardous locales); “Who Am I Where? Quien Soy Donde?: A Map of Contingent Identities and Circumstantial Memories”; “Dharma Wheels and Fish Ladders: Salmon Migrations, Soto Zen Arrivals…” and many more. The book is beautifully made, clearly a labor of love. “Infinite City” is obviously of particular interest to those of us who live and/or work in San Francisco, and to all who love the city. But I believe it will also be of interest to anyone who is interested in culture and social issues, as well as to those who love maps, atlases and wonderful writing. Further, it will appeal to those who believe in books as powerful cultural, artistic, and social forces.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Successful Library Bookstore Raises Funds for Library

“S.F. library nonprofit stores a success story” is the title of a 3/14/11 story in the San Francisco Chronicle. What a promising title! And sure enough, this is a positive, uplifting story –- something we all need these difficult days –- about the Readers Bookstore, the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library’s used bookstore in beautiful Fort Mason, in a gorgeous setting by the Bay (one of my favorite places in San Francisco). This bookstore received 750,000 donated books last year. It operates like a used bookstore, but with lower prices, and the sales last year brought in $1.2 million to help support the library and its programs. People are happy to donate their books to such a good cause. One 79-year-old woman who collects books from her neighbors twice a month and donates them says, “It’s spreading books around. It’s keeping books alive. And everything we can do to keep libraries in our civilization is good.” Well said.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

"You Know When the Men Are Gone"

Two days ago, I wrote about a memoir of an Army wife. I have now just finished a fictional counterpart to that book, a collection of short stories on the same theme: military families. The book is “You Know When the Men are Gone” (Amy Einhorn, 2011), by Siobhan Fallon, who is herself a military wife whose husband was twice deployed to Iraq. These linked stories tell of the pain felt both by soldiers fighting in terrible conditions and worrying about their families back home and by those families themselves worrying about their soldiers, meanwhile struggling to make semi-normal lives for themselves while their husbands and fathers are far away. And then when there should be a happy ending – when the men come back – there is often new pain as a couple finds themselves strangers who cannot understand each other. One story’s title, “You Survived the War, Now Survive the Homecoming,” encapsulates this sad irony. Let me note here that in this book, the soldiers are all men and the ones waiting and coping (or not) at home are all women; obviously in real life, this is not always the case, but it is the most common situation by far. Fallon’s characters are very well-drawn and believable, and her stories are wrenching but well-told. The stories alternate between the everyday struggles and the harsh and sometimes tragic special circumstances that happen to so many military families. There is a vividness and immediacy to the stories that is impressive. Some of the stories are inventive and surprising; one, for example, tells of a deployed soldier so eaten up with fear that his wife is unfaithful to him that he secretly comes home on his leave and hides in the family basement to spy on her. Most of all, this book, like the Burana memoir I wrote about on 3/13, gives us insight into a world about which most of us have little idea. We know the broad outlines from news reports, but these stories take us behind the scenes to a painful, complicated place that should be more widely known.

Monday, March 14, 2011

Why I Like Professional Conferences

I will attend two professional conferences soon, and I am very much looking forward to them. This topic may seem unconnected to the focus of this blog – books and reading – but for me, conferences are seamlessly intertwined with my reading and writing life. Conferences provide an opportunity to meet with and hear from writers of articles and books I have read, and to share my own ideas that I am writing about. Almost everyone who reads – a solitary occupation – likes to discuss what she or he reads with others, whether it be with family, friends, book groups, people at independent bookstore readings, or colleagues at conferences. The act of sharing and discussing what one has read helps us to clarify our understanding and share our pleasure in new ideas and creative ways of expressing them. Below are some reasons that I enjoy conferences:
1. I learn from my colleagues at academic sessions, in hallway conversations, and over coffee and meals.
2. I am able to share my own ideas and research with others, both by giving papers and by talking informally with various people.
3. I am happy to be part of a community of scholars, and am reminded of how fortunate I am to be part of it.
4. I am happy to be with colleagues from all over the world whom I have gotten to know over years of attending conferences, and to meet new colleagues as well.
5. I like to roam the Book Exhibits hall, browse, see what new books are out, and buy a few to take home.
6. I enjoy visiting or re-visiting interesting cities, and experiencing the pleasure and invigoration of being in a different place.
7. I am away from my regular routine; as much as I really love my regular routine at home and work, a change of pace is always good. And I always come back energized (tired, yes, but energized!)
8. Once each day’s sessions are finished, I love the camaraderie of going out to dinner with colleagues/friends, and sharing our ideas and lives in a more informal way.
9. I always come back with new ideas for my teaching and research.
10. And one more way conferences connect to my reading life: I have several hours on the plane each way to read!

Sunday, March 13, 2011

"I Love a Man in Uniform"

The title "I Love a Man in Uniform: A Memoir of Love, War, and Other Battles" (Weinstein, 2009) perhaps sounds a bit flip and humorous, and that is certainly author Lily Burana's tone for much of the book. But it soon becomes obvious that humor is her way of dealing with her deep insecurities and fears. This tell-all writer (she earlier wrote a memoir about being a former stripper) and now army officer's wife becomes paralyzed by her childhood traumas, which are now exacerbated by adapting to the new customs and fears that a military wife has to endure. Not only does she fear for her husband's safety, but she initially also finds life in the military confining and claustrophobic. It is a huge contrast to her former life as a sophisticated, liberal writer, used to living in New York and other havens for artists and nonconformists. However, she gradually seeks help, deals with her fears, becomes mentally and emotionally healthier, saves her marriage, and becomes appreciative of what the military does. In other words, she learns to live her life, seeing and taking advantage of the positive aspects, and finding ways to deal with the negative aspects. As she comes to know and be supported by many other military wives, she particularly praises these quietly courageous women for their strengths and adaptability, and the way they bravely keep everything going behind the scenes. There is a certain dissonance throughout this book between the cynical, flip tone the author sporadically maintains and, on the other hand, the darkness she struggles with. But Burana comes across, ultimately, as a strong woman who faces down her fears, and doesn't hide who she is; I came to admire her. I also came to admire her husband. In addition,I found the portrait of military life, especially the depictions of living on the grounds of West Point, very interesting; the book provides a window into a life many of know little about.

Saturday, March 12, 2011

The Power of Poetry

The Palestinian-American poet/novelist/essayist/anthologist Naomi Shihab Nye, who has done so much to broaden and diversify the world of America poetry, beautifully describes the power of poetry as follows (Thanks to The Writer's Almanac, 3/12/11, for this quotation):

"To me the world of poetry is a house with thousands of glittering windows. Our words and images, land to land, era to era, shed light on one another. Our words dissolve the shadows we imagine fall between."

Friday, March 11, 2011

Memorable Settings of Novels

On 3/6/11, I wrote about memorable characters in novels; today I write of memorable settings, whether fictional or real, in novels. Some are houses or estates; some are cities. Most have positive connotations, some do not. But all linger in my mind even many years after reading the novels in which the settings are portrayed. Below are some examples:

-Barton Cottage (in Sense and Sensibility)
-Longbourn, Netherfield Park, Pemberley (in Pride and Prejudice)
-Mansfield Park (in Mansfield Park)
-Hartfield, Donwell Abbey, Highbury (in Emma)
-Bath, Northanger Abbey (in Northanger Abbey)
-Lyme, Bath (in Persuasion)
-Lowood School, Thornfield, the moors (in Jane Eyre)
-Wuthering Heights, Thrushcross Grange, the moors in Yorkshire (in Wuthering Heights)
-Cranford (in Cranford)
-Wessex (in Hardy's novels)
-Dublin (in Ulysses, The Dubliners)
-New York City (in Wharton's novels)
-Long Island (in The Great Gatsby)
-Nebraska (in My Antonia)
-The Dakotas (in Giants in the Earth)
-Prince Edward Island (in Anne of Green Gables)
-The March family house, the Lawrence family house next door (in Little Women)
-London (in Mrs. Dalloway)
-Howards End (in Howards End)
-the Marabar Caves (in A Passage to India)
-Paris cafes and bars (in The Sun Also Rises)
-Yoknapatawpha County (in Faulkner's novels)
-Malgudi (in R. K. Narayan's novels)
-Los Angeles (in The Day of the Locust)
-Los Angeles (in Joan Didion's work)
-Salinas, Monterey (in Steinbeck's novels)
-San Francisco (in Alice Adams' novels and stories)
-San Francisco (in Armistead Maupin's novels)

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

International Women's Day

As today is the 100th anniversary of the founding of International Women's Day, I want to acknowledge and thank all the brave pioneer women in many different fields who took risks and broke barriers, leading the way for the rest of us in ensuing generations. I especially want to give tribute to the great women writers over the years who wrote and published despite all the obstacles put in their way.

Monday, March 7, 2011

Guest Blog: Movie Versions of Books

My friend Mary and I were emailing about the new movie version of "Jane Eyre" that has just come out. We were thinking about why we do or don't like movie versions of books. In my case, even though I know I may well be disappointed, I usually can't resist a movie based on one of my favorite books. So, for example, you will find me watching every single movie or TV version of Austen's novels. I liked Mary's comments on the topic, so I persuaded her to let me publish them here as a guest blog post. Thanks, Mary!

Mary's comments:
I find that in general, if I have read the book I am less likely to like a movie made from it than if I have not read the book. There is usually just so much in a book that a movie can't possibly include it all. Especially hard I think is translating the "voice" of the narrator or the inner thoughts of characters. It can be irritating to have nuanced characters (of whom I have formed pictures in my mind) come clunkily to life in a movie. Occasionally the movie maker will change the plot or at least ending of a popular book--maybe so moviegoers who've read the book will be motivated to see it if it might offer something new? Having said that, there are a few movies that capture the book so perfectly--somehow getting in enough of the essence of the movie--that the book and movie become almost seamless in my memory. One that always comes to mind is To Kill a Mockingbird. I read and loved the book before I saw the movie, yet in my mind Atticus Finch looks and sounds exactly like Gregory Peck! And sometimes a very good movie can be made out of a not great book--The Godfather comes to mind.

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Characters Lodged in My Mind

Certain characters from often-read and well-loved novels are so vivid and fully-formed, as if they are people I know personally, that they seem to have taken up long-term residence in my mind, and I often find myself thinking of them. Below is a list of some such characters.

-Elizabeth Bennet, Emma Woodhouse, Anne Elliot, Fanny Price, and Elinor and Marianne Dashwood (all from Austen’s novels)
-Jane Eyre (from Jane Eyre)
-Dorothea Brooke Casaubon (from Middlemarch)
-Becky Sharp (from Vanity Fair)
-Miss Matty Jenkyns (from Cranford)
-Tess Durbeyfield/D’Urberville (from Tess of the D'Urbervilles)
-Anna Karenina (from Anna Karenina)
-Emma Bovary (from Madame Bovary)
-Jo, Meg, Beth, and Amy March (from Little Women)
-Lily Bart (from House of Mirth)
-Countess Ellen Olenska (from The Age of Innocence)
-Isabel Archer (from The Portrait of a Lady)
-Antonia Shimerda (from My Antonia)
-Clarissa Dalloway (from Mrs. Dalloway)
-Dr. Aziz (from A Passage to India)
-Margaret Schlegel Wilcox (from Howard’s End)
-Lucy Honeychurch (from A Room With a View)
-Edna Pontellier (from The Awakening)
-Kurtz (from The Heart of Darkness)
-Anne Shirley (from Anne of Green Gables)
-Jake Barnes (from The Sun Also Rises)
-Benjy Compton (from The Sound and the Fury)
-Rose of Sharon Joad Rivers (from The Grapes of Wrath)
-Emmeline “Lucia” Lucas (from the Mapp and Lucia novels)
-Holden Caulfield (from The Catcher in the Rye)
-Dean Moriarty (from On the Road)
-Moses Herzog (from Herzog)
-Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom (from Rabbit, Run)
-Celie (from The Color Purple)
-Mira (from The Women’s Room)
-Sula (from Sula)

Saturday, March 5, 2011

"Vanishing, and Other Stories"

As a former Canadian who still feels quite connected to Canada, I am always glad to find and read fiction by Canadian writers. In the case of "Vanishing, and Other Stories" (Harper Perennial, 2009), there is the added interest factor that the stories are set on Vancouver Island, where I have relatives, and which I visited a couple of years ago for the first time in a long time. We enjoyed our visits with relatives, and were struck again by the beauty of the island. The author, Deborah Willis, works in a bookstore in Victoria, as she writes about in an interesting interview at the end of the book. She also cites fellow Canadian Alice Munro as her biggest influence, and that influence is definitely discernible in these stories. As readers of this blog know, Munro is one of my most-treasured writers. The stories in "Vanishing" are intriguing, very readable, and revealing about the complexities of (mostly young) people's lives and relationships. Willis is particularly insightful about family relationships, and about the things we know and don't know about our family members. Of course Willis doesn't fill Munro's very big shoes -- who does? -- and her stories lack Munro's stories' absolute groundedness and solidity. But they are strong, rewarding, and enjoyable stories. I am very glad that I have read them, and will look out for her future fiction.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

"Clara Mondschein's Melancholia"

“Clara Mondschein’s Melancholia” (MacAdam/Cage, 2002), by Anne Raeff, is a beautifully written book, dense with reading pleasures. This may sound like an odd thing to say about a novel about Holocaust survivors and their descendants. But the emphasis in this novel is on the living, and on the pure force of life. The title character, Clara, was miraculously born in, and survived, a German concentration camp in World War II, and has ever after experienced bouts of melancholy, or as doctors would call it now, depression, by which she is often immobilized. Although she is the title character, Clara is not the main character. The two main characters are Clara’s mother, Ruth, and daughter, Deborah. Their two voices alternate as they tell the stories of the three generations of women. Clara, in the middle generation, tends to be indistinct and somewhat mysterious, although we understand that she suffers from the well-known syndrome of lifelong psychological effects of being a Holocaust survivor, or the child of survivors. It seems that Clara’s indistinctness is intentional on the part of the author, because the true stories here are those vividly told in the distinct, original, and -- in different ways -- very appealing voices of Ruth and Deborah, characters who practically jump off the page. These two also love, feel comfortable with, and learn from each other. Each of the two has a deep inner strength and resilience that allows her to overcome hardship and to dive into life and savor it. I want to repeat that the writing is beautiful. The author shows complete control of her material; readers immediately know they are in good hands, and continue to feel that sensation throughout the novel. Highly recommended.
 
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