"Lark and Termite"

In a bookstore yesterday, I saw that the novel "Lark and Termite" (Knopf, 2009), by Jayne Anne Phillips, is now in paperback (Vintage, 2010). Seeing the stack of paperback copies reminded me of how much I liked this compelling novel when I read it last year, despite having had some mixed feelings about Phillips' writing in the past. I believe it is her best book so far. It is the story of Termite, a little boy who is very disabled yet has a striking personality and loving temperament, and Lark, his nine-years-older half-sister who loves him dearly and is his main caregiver. Their bond is extremely close, made closer by the fact that they have few reliable and available adults in their lives. Their aunt does as much as she can, but she works long hours to support them and thus is gone most of the time. There is also a powerful back story about Termite's father, who was a soldier in Korea, and whom Termite never met. This is a truly original novel, as well as a moving one, with strong characters, and a sad but inspiring story.

"The Private Lives of Pippa Lee"

"The Private Lives of Pippa Lee" (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2008), by Rebecca Miller, is an eccentric little novel. Pippa, 50ish, has been married to Herb, 80, for 30 years, and they have just moved to a retirement community. Pippa loves Herb but feels out of place and vaguely unsettled in her new home. The story flashes back to Pippa's very troubled relationship with her mother, her adventures and misadventures as a very young woman, and the drama of her early years with Herb. Back in the present, various surprising events ensue, leading to some new beginnings. (I don't want to give away the plot twists.) The tone of the novel is an odd mixture of light and dark, but Pippa is an intriguing character, and the originality of her personality keeps us reading. Although I have a slight feminist reservation about mentioning the following, believing that women shouldn't be identified by the men in their lives, I will tell you that Rebecca Miller is the daughter of Arthur Miller and is married to Daniel Day-Lewis. (I resolved my concerns by realizing that I would have given you this information if the genders had been reversed; besides, the connections are just too interesting not to pass on!) Miller has also made this novel in to a movie, which I haven't seen, but may look for now.

"The Professor"

I seem to be reading more memoirs than ever...hmmm...not sure what that means, if anything... I just finished a new one: "The Professor, and other writings" (HarperCollins, 2010), by Terry Castle. Castle is a professor at Stanford University, but is not the professor in the book's title. The book is actually a collection of essays, but each of them is written through a memoiristic lens. Whether the topic of the essay is the writer Susan Sontag, the artist Agnes Martin, the musician Art Pepper, or the author's mother, the real topic is always Castle herself. This is by design, as the author has found herself tiring of traditional scholarly writing, and choosing to include herself and her life in her writing. This focus does not come across as (very) self-centered or arrogant, but as an exploration of her life and experiences, and of how they shed light on other topics, and vice versa. The longest essay by far (at almost 200 pages) is "The Professor," which describes a lesbian affair Castle had during graduate school, some three decades ago, with a charismatic but destructive professor. The story is full of drama, intrigue, shock, despair, humiliation, and even a bit of humor. Although the affair was short-lived, it had a major influence on the author, and it is only now, these many years later, that she feels ready to process and write about what happened. As she tells the story, we also learn much about Castle's life before and after this episode. She is now a well-known professor, the author of several well-received scholarly books (e.g., "The Apparitional Lesbian: Female Homosexuality and Modern Culture"), and in a long, happy relationship with her partner Blakey. Castle is an engaging writer, adept at weaving her story into the various stories of others included in this collection.

Birthday Thanks for All Things Book-Related

As today is my birthday, I am using today's post to pause and thank all the people and institutions that have allowed me to have a life full of the joys of books and reading. First, I thank my dear parents for reading to my brothers and me, for being role models of people who love to read, and for always making sure we had access to plenty of good books. Next I thank all my teachers, from childhood through graduate school, especially my English teachers and professors. In addition, I thank libraries and librarians, bookstores and those who work in them, publishers, editors, literary critics, book reviewers, and good friends who are fellow readers. Most of all, I thank the writers of all the books I have read over the years. I feel fortunate to live in a time and place that provide abundant access to books, and to have the education and resources to take advantage of these reading opportunities. So I send a huge "thank you" out to everyone involved in the world of books. And I send a special thank you too to those of you who read this blog!

"Tamalpais Walking"

One of the joys of living in beautiful Marin County is seeing Mount Tamalpais from many different angles throughout the county, and in many different lights throughout the day. We live quite close to this lovely landmark, so I was happy to peruse "Tamalpais Walking: Poetry, History, and Prints" (Heyday Books, 2009), by Tom Killion and Gary Snyder. Killion grew up in the shadow of Mount Tam, as it is affectionately known, and has made a series of prints of and from the mountain, many of which are featured in this book; the prints are strongly influenced by the style of Japanese woodcuts. Killion also contributes essays about the history of the mountain. The great poet Gary Snyder, who was affiliated with but also independent from the Beat movement, provides poems he has written over his years of walking Mount Tam. He took the tradition of "walking meditation" from his time in Japan, Nepal, and elsewhere, and began walking up and around Mount Tam in the same meditative fashion, and then writing about it. A few writings from others who often walked Mount Tam, such as Kenneth Rexroth and Jack Kerouac, are also included here. This large, beautifully produced volume is a wonderful weaving together of the prints, the essays, and the poetry. The prints are stunning and the poems are evocative. An added attraction for those of us who have treasured Gary Snyder's writing since the late 1960s is revisiting his poetry in this specific local context. Still another draw, for me, is the good memory of hearing Snyder read his poetry when I was in college. So this book resonates with me on a number of levels. But you don't have to live near Mount Tamalpais to appreciate this gorgeous volume, one that is clearly a labor of love on the part of Killion and Snyder.

"The Three Weissmanns of Westport"

"The Three Weissmanns of Westport" (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2010) is the latest novel by Cathleen Schine, known for her earlier novels "Alice in Bed," "The Love Letter," and "The New Yorkers," among others. Schine has a light, humorous style, while addressing real issues, difficulties, and sad situations (here, divorce, financial troubles, miscommunications among family members, and more). The novel is loosely based on Jane Austen's "Sense and Sensibility," but set in contemporary times, and with its own twists. A mother and two daughters -- here, middle-aged rather than young as in Sense and Sensibility -- are suffering genteel poverty and various setbacks, and move to a cottage provided by a generous, jovial cousin. Both daughters fall in love and are badly let down by their love interests. One daughter, Annie -- who represents Sense -- is responsible and keeps her sorrow inside, while the other daughter, Miranda -- representing Sensibility -- is sulky, dramatic, and self-centered in displaying her unhappiness. The two sisters and the mother love and support and even balance each other. And, as in the original novel, it turns out that each of the daughters actually shares some aspects of the other's character. There are some surprises at the end of the story, adding to the delight and enjoyability of this well-written confection of a novel.

"Something Is Out There: Stories"

Richard Bausch is a writer, like Charles Baxter (see my post of 3/22/10), of whom I have been peripherally aware, but whose writing I have read very little of. He has published eleven novels and eight short story collections, several of which have been well-reviewed, well-received, and in some cases have won awards. A recent positive review of his new collection of short stories, "Something Is Out There" (Knopf, 2010), nudged me to sample his work. On the whole,I enjoyed the stories, and admired Bausch's writing. The stories focus on love, friendship, marriage, family, and all the mix-ups and miscommunications that often accompany those topics. Bausch is able to inhabit the minds of his characters, including women characters, in a convincing way. What stood out for me, in reading these stories, was a sort of mildness that pervades his stories, lulling readers into feeling that not much is happening. I personally sometimes appreciate this lack of overt drama and intensity. The rewarding qualities of Bausch's writing are the subtle undercurrents, the silent questions, the unspoken or indirect interchanges he so skillfully delineates. The import of some of his stories takes a while to sneak up on readers. I don't mean to imply that there are no events or emotions to be found; these are certainly present, and make readers want to keep reading. But the understated style shows that the author trusts readers to fill in some blanks themselves. Although this book is not one that would make me buttonhole my friends and demand that they immediately read it, it is a thoughtful, rewarding collection of stories.