"In the Dream House: A Memoir," by Carmen Maria Machado

Carmen Maria Machado has, in her book “In the Dream House: A Memoir” (Graywolf, 2019), written the powerful, painfully candid, and brave story of her time with a female lover who was wonderful at first but gradually became possessive, cruel, and even violent toward Machado. The story is gripping, immensely difficult to “witness,” and tremendously well written. Machado has given readers a window into the world of domestic violence in the lesbian community, one seldom written about. The stereotype is that women are not (usually) violent, and lesbians are women who love other women and therefore are peaceful and kind. Of course this stereotype is not logical, but it has been the image that many have of lesbian relationships. Machado clearly hopes that by bringing openness to this topic, she will empower others to speak up and to stand up for themselves and for others in this situation. Her dedication, “If you need this book, it is for you,” perhaps says it all. In the course of telling her story, the author describes her time studying creative writing, teaching, and making her way into the literary world. She also tells readers of her background, and includes allusions to various aspects of both literary and popular culture. One interesting aspect of her story is her insights into the world of creative writing programs in the United States. But the main focus is the intense, obsessive, sometimes happy, but increasingly difficult and destructive relationship between the writer and her lover. Although the subject of abuse is difficult to read about, the writing is gripping.

"English Novelists," by Elizabeth Bowen

My dear friend B. recently gave me a book that was perfect for me! (She knows my literary taste very well!) Let’s start with the title – a simple “English Novelists.” Although I have read, enjoyed, valued, and learned from novels from around the world, I must admit that I have always had a very special place in my heart for English novels, by English novelists. Next: The author is Elizabeth Bowen, a longtime favorite novelist of mine. In the case of this book, she is a literary historian and critic as well. Third, the physical appearance of the book: It is a slim book (of 48 pages), with a worn-at-the-corners and slightly-torn dust jacket featuring a drawing of a writing quill. The back cover tells us that this book is part of a series titled “Britain in Pictures,” which includes enticing titles such as “English Poets,” “English Women,” “English Villages,” “The Story of Scotland,” “English Children,” and many more. Inside the front cover, there is a handwritten name of a former owner of the book, apparently a military man with a military address, perhaps a soldier during World War II, taking some time to focus on something he loves – literature – in the midst of the horrors of war. The title page tells us this book was published by William Collins of London in 1942. It is also noted that the book includes “8 plates in colour” and “19 illustrations in black & white,” and indeed these plates and illustrations, scattered throughout the book, are charming. Bowen gives very brief histories of the authors, works, styles, and reputations of several writers, starting with Henry Fielding and continuing with such authors as Daniel Defoe, Samuel Richardson, and Laurence Sterne. Then there are Fanny Burney, Jane Austen, William Thackeray, and Charles Dickens, who are followed by Sir Walter Scott, the Bronte sisters, Elizabeth Gaskell, George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, Rudyard Kipling, Arnold Bennett and a few others. Bowen concludes with E.M. Forster and Virginia Woolf. She sets the context for each new generation of writers, is concisely informative about each author, and offers her own opinions about their works and their places in literary history. A couple of her opinions surprised me, such as her very guarded and hedged praise of George Eliot; Eliot is one of my favorites, but I did understand some of Bowen’s criticisms. In any case, I loved looking at, holding, leafing through and reading this brief but concentrated look at the development of the English novel and its best-known authors. Everything about it came together to make it a very appealing book. It will have a special place on my bookshelves.

"She Said" and "Catch and Kill" -- Two Investigations of Harvey Weinstein

I recently read, one right after the other, with great horror, anger, and sadness, the books “She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story that Helped Ignite a Movement” (Penguin, 2019), by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, and “Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators” (Little, Brown, 2019), by Ronan Farrow. Both were written by journalists, building on articles they had written for, respectively, The New York Times and The New Yorker. Both books focus mainly on the predatory producer Harvey Weinstein’s many years of manipulating and abusing young women, mostly those who aspired to be actresses and hoped he would be able to help them, but then were set upon by him and scarred forever by his behavior. Many of them gave up on their dreams, or kept the stories to themselves for years or decades, damaging their mental and emotional health. Others complained, but realized they had no chance to prove their cases, and ended by accepting settlements and signing contracts never to reveal anything about what Weinstein did to them. The books, especially Farrow’s, also deal with harassment and even rape by other powerful men such as the television news personality Matt Lauer. I thought I already knew a lot about these cases, but the books tell so much more about the great numbers of women affected, the strategies these men used, and the large numbers of their employees and others who enabled them to get away with these crimes for so many years. Weinstein in particular had a vast system and network of people who basically recruited women and brought them to him, and/or protected him. He spent huge amounts of money on organizations such as Black Cube, which gathered intelligence on the women, in order to smear their names if they went to the police or to news organizations. He made friends with other powerful people, and cultivated an image of a philanthropist. There was so much fear and, as with most women who are abused, a sense of hopelessness and even shame for “letting” it happen. But finally in the past few years, a few brave women have spoken out, which gave courage to other women to speak out as well. I enormously admire these women. I also admire the authors of these books, and others involved in the investigation and reporting that was done. They have made a difference, as have the #MeToo and the #TimesUp movements. There is a little sliver of hope associated with these revelations and these forward movements, but as with so many matters relating to the lives of women, and to the feminist fight for women’s rights and equity and safety and dignity, one cannot but feel an uneasy mixture of hope and discouragement. Such terrible damage has already been done, and unfortunately continues to be done.

"Unmarriageable," by Soniah Kamal

Jane Austen’s popularity seems unending (and I am just fine with that!). The tributes include -- along with films, associations, conferences, scholarly articles, merchandise, etc. -- spin-offs, sequels, prequels, and twists on Austen's six completed novels. Some of these are awful, but some of them are quite literary and/or just plain fun to read. A new “tribute” novel is “Unmarriageable” (Ballantine, 2019), by Soniah Kamal. This is a retelling, more or less, of “Pride and Prejudice,” but set in India in the year 2019. It is cleverly done and quite funny. The same gently mocking tone that Austen sometimes employs is found in this novel too. But a serious issue is also addressed. The book focuses on the same situation Austen focuses on: the need for women to get married to survive, as they (especially if they were/are from middle or upper class families) are not raised to, or allowed to, work for money. Although this situation is changing, there is still some of this attitude in India. Besides the economic factor, there is also a societal expectation that a woman will of course want to marry and have children. The Binat family, similar to the Bennet family in the Austen novel, consists of parents and five daughters. (Many of the names in “Unmarriageable” are Indian versions of those in “Pride and Prejudice.”) The two oldest daughters are teachers, a respectable job, but they are understood by their families and others to be teaching only until they marry. Part of the fun of the novel is the small twists on the original story, adapting to current times and to the Indian context. This novel is a charming, funny, and enjoyable tribute to Austen’s best-known and best-loved novel. (P.S. For Austen "followers" in the U.S., consider watching PBS Masterpiece's new presentation of "Sanditon," one of Austen's unfinished novels. The first episode airs tomorrow (Sunday, January 12, 2020).

"Dear Girls," by Ali Wong

Honest, raunchy, outrageous, feminist, fearless, relatable and very, very funny are among the adjectives that describe Ali Wong’s book, “Dear Girls: Intimate Tales, Untold Secrets & Advice for Living Your Best Life” (Random House, 2019). Framed as an extended letter to her two young daughters, it is actually a sort of memoir, with plenty of commentary mixed in. Wong is becoming an increasingly well-known comedian, with her television specials “Baby Cobra” and “Hard Knock Wife,” and actress, with the movie “Always Be My Maybe,” and of course with her live stand-up shows around the country. In this book, she writes of her loving but nontraditional (in some ways) Chinese/Vietnamese/American/San Franciscan family, of her education, her dating and sex life, her married life, her life on stage, her opinions about women’s lives, and much more. A frequent reaction of audiences, and now of readers is “Wow, you can’t say that! (but I am glad you did!)"; she has no fear of discussing body parts and processes, no matter how intimate, messy, or “forbidden-to-talk-about.” Wong is all about breaking barriers and taboos, but always in a way that seems natural and nonjudgmental. Another equally common reaction of readers is being touched by the love underlying so much of what Wong writes about. I of course love the San Francisco setting of Wong’s growing up years (although she now lives in Los Angeles, for career reasons). Wong is very good at exploring/explaining cultural/ethnic/class/gender differences, always with humor and (sometimes slightly, but only slightly, barbed) affection. It happens that she went to the same high school that my daughter did, and they knew each other fairly well there. My daughter has gone to some of Wong’s shows in local clubs, and attests that they are hilariously wonderful. I haven’t seen the shows, but I did see the movie “Always Be My Maybe,” which is funny, touching, and terrific...as is this book.

"Fairyland: A Memoir of My Father," by Alysia Abbott

“Fairyland: A Memoir of My Father” (Norton, 2013), by Alysia Abbott, is a very San Francisco story. The author writes of, after her mother died in an accident when Alysia was two years old, living with her gay poet/writer/journalist/editor father Steve Abbott in the Haight Ashbury section of San Francisco. While her father was becoming involved in the (intersecting) literary and gay and activist scenes in the San Francisco of the 1970s and 1980s, Alysia was very close to him but also hid her father’s gayness from her friends. Tragically, as was far too common in the early 1980s, when Alysia was a young adult, Steve contracted AIDS and eventually died of it. This is a sad yet loving and life-affirming memoir of an unusual (especially for that time period) upbringing. While not being afraid to be critical of some aspects of her father’s parenting, the author writes with great affection for him and great appreciation of all he did for her in difficult and sometimes lonely circumstances as a single gay dad at a time before this situation was common. Besides being a poignant memoir, this book portrays an important and vibrant time in the life of the city of San Francisco: the political, social, and literary movements of the times. Although I was only very tangentially involved in these movements (mostly as an onlooker), I well remember the changes in the city at the time. The university where I taught then and still teach is only a few blocks from the Haight, and the LGBT movement was growing and becoming more public at around the same time as the women’s/feminist movement that was (and still is!) so important to me. I went to some readings and other literary and political events involving San Francisco writers at the time, including some of the beat era. "Fairyland" actually mentions my university, and at least two of its faculty members whom I knew (one a well-known poet); Steve Abbott taught writing there for a few years, but I did not know him. The memoir also mentions the memorable occasion, which I attended, when Alan Ginsberg did a dramatic (at times scatological) reading in front of a packed audience at the Jesuit university; I still remember the mixture of laughter and applause on the part of some in the audience and a kind of stunned silence on the part of others. And of course I knew, as everyone in San Francisco did, some people (almost all gay men) who suffered from and then died of AIDS. I also knew a few admirable doctors and nurses who worked with HIV/AIDS patients despite concerns about possible contagion. Additionally, I knew a few HIV-positive men who lived long enough to benefit from new treatments that kept them alive and relatively healthy for decades more, many into the present. An educator friend of mine falls into this category, and is still teaching at another institution in the Bay Area; he recently posted on social media, on the occasion of a "big" birthday, that he never thought he would reach his current age. Steve Abbott, like far too many of his contemporaries, died a couple of years too soon to benefit from these treatments. His daughter’s memoir of his life honors him and brings him to life for readers.

"March Sisters: On Life, Death, and Little Women"

I, like so many girls and women, read and adored Louisa May Alcott’s novel “Little Women” when I was a child and many times afterward; I also taught the book in women’s literature classes. I was, upon re-reading the novel as an adult, a little put off by how didactic it was about its moral lessons. But I know Alcott felt that, at that time, she had to include such lessons. In any case, this is a novel that continues to be read and discussed and analyzed and celebrated and filmed. (A new film version, directed by Greta Gerwig and with a cast of stars including Saiorse Ronan, Emma Watson, and Meryl Streep, is due out on Christmas Day of this year, and of course I look forward to seeing it.) A new book, “March Sisters: On Life, Death, and Little Women” (Library of America Special Publication, 2019), features four new essays by four well-known contemporary writers on the four sisters in “Little Women.” Each writer focuses on one of the sisters of whom she is a fan, and on the writer’s own relationship to that sister (because we know that we do have relationships with certain fictional characters, almost as if they were “real” people in our lives). Each writer gives us a “fresh” take on “her” character. The authors sometimes also compare or contrast the characters with the originals, Alcott and her sisters, on whom they were loosely based. Kate Bolick writes about Meg; Jenny Zhang discusses Jo; Carmen Maria Machado gives her illuminating view of Beth; and Jane Smiley provides an original, feminist perspective on Amy. Each author has clearly had a long, deep, and personal connection to the novel, and each is generous in sharing her own related experiences. I found all four essays bracing and occasionally provocative, in the sense that they made me think at least a little differently about the four characters, and indeed about the novel itself, not to mention about Alcott. This book will be of interest to anyone who has read, enjoyed, even loved the novel, and perhaps especially to anyone who has thought about which sister is their own role model.