A Love Affair Between -- A Woman and a Park?

I seem to have become an Ayelet Waldman fan. On 7/18/10, I posted about her book on motherhood, "Bad Mother." On 7/28/10, I wrote about her novel "Red Hook Road." Now I have just finished listening (in my car, as usual) to the audio version of her novel "Love and Other Impossible Pursuits" (Random House, 2006; Books on Tape, 2006); I enjoyed it. It is set in New York; the main character, Emilia, is a Harvard-educated lawyer who is married to a man -- Jack, another lawyer -- with whom she fell head over heels in love, despite the fact that he was married when she met him. The couple suffers the tragic loss of their newborn child, and Emilia falls apart. She also has trouble with her role as stepmother to the young (ages 3-5 during the course of the novel), very precocious William, as well as with William's mother Carolyn, who is of course Jack's ex-wife. Emilia is both likable and maddening; she suffers, she is snarky, and she causes much drama, including screaming fights with various people, notably her father, whom she is still angry at because he divorced her mother a few years earlier. Emilia is a character who is so smart in so many ways, yet so blind about her relationships. I won't tell you how it all works out, but it is good reading. One aspect that sets this novel apart is Emilia's lifelong love affair with Central Park, which is not only the setting for many scenes in the novel, but a sort of main character as well. I enjoyed the detailed descriptions of the park; they weren't guidebook-like, but instead blended naturally into the storytelling.

Magazines That Question the Status Quo

The mainstream press in the U.S. is still woefully inadequate, and biased in favor of the status quo. Newspapers are better than radio and TV news, but still lacking. I am very grateful that there are magazines dedicated to giving readers a fuller and more critical (in the sense of not accepting official statements and representations at face value) coverage of national and world news. For this great service, I thank, commend, and recommend the following magazines, among others: In These Times, Mother Jones, Ms. Magazine, The Nation, The Progressive, The UTNE Reader, and Z Magazine. Most of these also have websites that give a sense of the types of articles published in the magazines.

Anthony Bourdain Returns

Some of you have likely read Anthony Bourdain's 2000 bestseller about restaurants, "Kitchen Confidential." That behind-the-scenes description of restaurant kitchens and the restaurant world was funny, snarky, and a bit frightening. His new book, "Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook" (HarperCollins, 2010) is a bit mellower, as Bourdain by his own description has renounced the on-the-edge life he used to live, has settled down with his new family, and has a calmer, more tolerant attitude toward life. He still has a wicked tongue, though, and hasn't given up his racy vocabulary either. This new book is a mixed bag, more like a collection of short pieces than a coherent whole. Some of the pieces are pretty thin, but a few -- especially portraits of specific individual chefs and/or their restaurants -- are fascinating. My favorites -- although I don't always agree with Bourdain's opinions -- are his descriptions of Alice Waters (of the iconic Chez Panisse restaurant in Berkeley), Thomas Keller (of the French Laundry restaurant in the Napa Valley and Per Se in New York), Grant Achatz (and his famous Chicago restaurant, Alinea), Alan Richman (food and restaurant critic/writer), Erik Hopfinger (and the TV show, Top Chef), and David Chang (of the New York City Momofuku restaurants). There is also a riveting description of Justo Thomas,the man in charge of preparing upwards of 700 pounds of fish every day at the New York restaurant, Le Bernadin, considered by many to be the best seafood restaurant in the USA. If you are interested in the restaurant world, you will find much to enjoy in this new Bourdain volume; you can skim over the weaker pieces that seem a bit like "filler." And if you are looking for other books about that world, you may want to look at my 2/4/10 post with its annotated list of some of my favorite books about food, restaurants and chefs.

Great Fiction as an Antidote to Loneliness

The late writer David Foster Wallace said that really good fiction can make readers feel less lonely. This comment really struck a chord in me. Almost any decent fiction can absorb readers, entertain them, inform them, involve them, pass the time for them, and more. But only great fiction can make readers feel truly connected (echoes of E. M. Forster) to the characters, as if they were real, and to their thoughts, emotions, dilemmas, fragilities and strengths. And through and beyond the connections to characters, readers of great fiction then feel connected to something larger: to humanity itself, to all the inhabitants of this earth, in a spiritual, even transcendent way. Thinking about this, I am reminded yet again of the amazing gift that great writers and great literature provide to readers, and to humanity.

The Mitford Sisters

The five Mitford sisters, born and raised in an upper class family in early 20th century England, had an unconventional childhood dominated by an eccentric father. They were bright, but went in completely different directions. Nancy Mitford (1904-1973) was the author of amusing, gently satirical, often somewhat autobiographical novels about the British upper class, such as "The Pursuit of Love," "Love in a Cold Climate," and "Don't Tell Alfred." I have thoroughly enjoyed these delightful novels and have read some of them more than once over the years. Jessica Mitford (1917-1996) was a one-time Communist and longtime leftist who worked for civil rights and did much investigative reporting, most famously on the American funeral industry, in a book titled "The American Way of Death." She spent much of her life in Oakland, California, and I was fortunate to hear her speak and to meet and chat with her a little at the reception afterward at my university. Two of the other sisters, Unity and Diane, went in the completely opposite direction, being politically of the British Fascist Party and both close friends of Hitler's. Only the fifth sister, Deborah, led a fairly "normal" life. It is startling to see how one set of sisters, who despite everything, remained (mostly) close to each other, went in such shockingly different directions.

Separate Literary Prizes for Women -- Good or Bad Idea?

In my post yesterday, I quoted A. S. Byatt as saying that women who write smart, demanding novels are seen as unnatural. In the same Guardian online article, and elsewhere, Byatt was quoted as disapproving of the Orange Prize, a British prize for women writers. I can see Byatt's point about its being demeaning to have a separate prize for women, but I disagree with her. Since the playing field in literature, like that in most areas, is still not completely level, I am in favor of anything which helps to highlight great literature by women writers. I am equally in favor of the many other targeted prizes, such as those for British Commonwealth writers, those for writers of certain nationalities or ethnicities, and those for writers under thirty.

A. S. Byatt Speaks Her Mind

According to the Guardian UK online (8/20/10), the esteemed English novelist A. S. Byatt recently stated that women who write "smart, demanding novels are perceived by critics as strange and unnatural." As a feminist, I am aware of and alert to slights of, or mistreatment of, women, including women writers. However, as a reader of many book reviews and critical pieces, I don't really see this as a widespread issue any more, although it clearly was in the past. Perhaps in England, where Byatt lives, this is more true? Or perhaps she is sensitive because although her novel "Possession" was highly praised and is her best-known novel, her recent novel "The Children's Book" received mixed reviews? I personally liked "Possession," but abandoned "The Children's Book" after a few chapters. I am of course willing to admit that Byatt knows more about this than I do, both from her own experience and from being a part of the literary world, but I can't decide whether she is right about this topic, or whether it is her own issue, so to speak.