Is It the Author or the Book?

Yesterday at the library, a friendly-looking woman saw me checking out a novel by Jennifer Weiner. She enthusiastically pointed at the book and said, "Oh, I LOVE her!" I naturally asked, "So this book is good?" She replied, "Oh, I haven't read anything she's written, but I saw her on the 'Today' show and she was fantastic!" I of course nodded and said something innocuous like "Great!" But I went away wondering about admiring authors as personalities without actually reading their books, or apparently even planning to. (The woman hadn't even said something like, "Now I want to read her books," or "I'm planning to read her new book as soon as I have time.") It was as if seeing and hearing the author, especially on TV, where she was framed as a sort of celebrity, was enough. Obviously there is nothing essentially "wrong" with this. And in the interests of supporting and preserving authors and publishers and good literature, it could be argued that any exposure of authors is good for the overall cause. But this concept of "loving" the author without reading her work seemed odd and a bit sad to me.

"The Pleasing Hour"

After my ambivalent review on 7/23/10 of "The English Teacher," by Lily King, you may be surprised that I then read the same author's "The Pleasing Hour" (Grove, 1999). Despite my ambivalence, I was impressed enough with King's writing, as well as with good reviews and a listing as "A New York Times Notable Book of the Year," to read her earlier novel, "The Pleasing Hour." I enjoyed the book, and was reminded of King's talent at creating intriguing, if usually somewhat damaged, characters. She is also very good at showing very viscerally the deep, inescapable influence, whether acknowledged or not, that one's family of origin has on one's life. Relatedly, King's characters often have lost a family member, frequently a mother, young. In this novel, a young American woman, Rosie, who has gotten pregnant in order to give her infertile sister a child, then in sorrow needs to get far away from her sister and the child. She goes to Paris as a nanny, and becomes entangled in the life of the family she works for. The mother in that family, Nicole, is beautiful and seemingly impossible to know much about, but it turns out she has her own sad tale of childhood loss. Gradually their two stories come together. Although the two main characters, as well as the father of the family, Marc, are sometimes less than admirable and sometimes less than likable, King makes us understand and feel empathy for all of them as creatures of their upbringings and circumstances. The stories of the three very individual children of the family, Rosie's charges, are also compelling.

"Red Hook Road"

"Red Hook Road" (Doubleday, 2010) is a wonderful new novel by Ayelet Waldman. Yes, the same Ayelet Waldman who wrote "Bad Mother," which I posted about on 7/18/10; Waldman, also the author of a mystery series, is a very versatile writer. "Red Hook Road" begins with a tragedy: a young couple is killed in an automobile accident just an hour after their wedding in a small town in Maine. The rest of the novel tells the stories of the survivors: the families of the bride and groom, who have had an uneasy relationship in the past, and now struggle to find a way to co-exist, and to keep going. Waldman has a gift for portraying her complex, interesting, and often surprising characters. The mother of the bride and the mother of the groom are perhaps the most interesting, but the bride's sister and the groom's brother are also compelling, as they make major decisions about their lives, and gradually find some solace in each other. The bride's grandfather, an aging world-famous violinist, has his own story, and is a figure of dignity and hope. Another emblem of hope for the future is a young girl, an adopted cousin on the groom's side, who proves to have great musical talent, a talent which is nurtured by the bride's grandfather and mother. By the end of the book, several years after the terrible accident, events bring more loss but also hard-won reconciliation, peace, and even joy to the survivors. This novel is an example, to me, of a classic great novel: well-portrayed and varied characters that readers will care about, a compelling story including some side stories, a real sense of place, wonderful details, realism, reflections on social class and other issues, love, loss, hope, and more. Highly recommended.

2452 Pages of Literature by Women

I write in praise of “The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women: The Tradition in English” (Norton), edited by Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar. I bought, dipped into, marveled at, enjoyed, and then taught from the first edition (1985) and second edition (1996); it is now in its third edition (2007). It is hard to remember now what a thrilling breakthrough it was for women (and men!) readers to have new access to so many women writers starting in the 1970s, and then to have this magnificent collection of those writers' works all in one place. Granted it is incomplete: no book can cover all the great women writers, and choices had to be made about which of each writer's works to include. The book is bulky, the pages are tissue thin, and the print is small, but all in service of cramming more writers (almost 200) into those 2452 pages! And granted the collection is limited to literature in English, but it is very diverse geographically and ethnically, and it is a glorious precedent for other collections that have been published since, including those of literature in other languages or translated from other languages. Whose work do we find in the Norton Anthology? Everyone from Margery Kempe in the Middle Ages through many living writers such as Jamaica Kincaid and Eavan Boland. There are stories, poems, plays, and even a few whole novels, including (in my battered 2nd edition) "Jane Eyre," "The Awakening," and "Sula." The book also includes good introductory material for each time period, and useful informational headnotes as well as "selected bibliographies" for each author. This book is a wonderful addition for anyone's bookshelf!

How I Decide What to Read

People sometimes ask me how I decide what to read; here are some answers. Sometimes friends tell me about a book they loved, and/or think I will enjoy. I often browse in bookstores and libraries. I always watch out for new books by my favorite authors. However, the most common way I learn about new books, and choose what to read, is by reading many book reviews in many publications. For example, I subscribe to The San Francisco Chronicle, The New York Times Book Review, The New Yorker, New York, San Francisco, The Atlantic, The Nation, The Progressive, Ms., Threepenny Review, The Women's Review of Books, and Vanity Fair, all of which publish book reviews. I also get publications from some local bookstores, notably Book Passage and Books, Inc., with suggestions of recommended new books. If I see a review of a book that looks as if I would like it, I immediately jot the title down and, most often, request it at my local library. Or if it looks like a must-have/must-keep book, I go to a local independent bookstore and buy it. If a book looks as if it could be interesting, but I am feeling ambivalent about it, I often wait to run across another review, or look up reviews online, before I decide if I want to read it. In other words, I always have my antennae up, looking for great new titles to read!

"The Mechanics of Falling"

Bursting with unique and yet somehow very recognizable characters, "The Mechanics of Falling and other stories" (West Word Fiction, 2009), by Catherine Brady, is a wonderful collection of engrossing short stories. Most of the stories are set in or near my "home town," San Francisco, which is always an added pleasure for me. Two words kept occurring to me while reading this collection. One was "dense": the stories are intense and full, with no wasted words. The other was "uncoiling": each story gradually - or sometimes suddenly - uncoiled itself into a revelation, a new understanding. Highly recommended. And I am proud to say that the author teaches at the same university I do.

On another note: It has been exactly six months today since I started this blog. I have been very much enjoying writing it, and hope to continue for some time to come. Thank you, Mary, for suggesting it. And thank you, all of you who have been reading it, either occasionally or regularly. Additional thanks to those who have commented, either on the blog site or in emails to me (vandricks@usfca.edu). If you like the blog, please keep reading, and please tell your friends, family, and reading group members about it.

Too Painful to Read? Your Call...

"The English Teacher" (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2005), by Lily King, is a novel about some very painful events, starting with the revelation of a traumatic event and continuing with the destructive effects that last for years after. The author bravely gives us a not-very-likable main character, Vida, and when we understand why she is the way she is, we (or at least I!) feel very sorry for her but still have trouble connecting with her. This paradox may be why I alternately raced ahead with the book and then stopped dead, resisting reading further, and then gradually became re-engaged with the story. Several of the other characters are very sympathetic, particularly the other main character, Vida's teenaged son Peter; the author's portrayal of Peter's feelings and experiences is extraordinarily astute. This is also a compelling and at times touching story of the attempted melding of two families when Vida marries a man with three children. In summary, the story is painful but rewarding, so I can't simply recommend it without reservations; I can say, however, that it ends on a hopeful note.