Feminist, Activist, Writer and Heroine Dr. Nawal El Saadawi

My friend C.C. sent me a link (http://video.nytimes.com/video/2011/02/03/opinion/1248069611811/undaunted-in-tahrir-square.html) to a short New York Times video showing the now 80-year-old Dr. Nawal El Saadawi -- physician, writer, feminist, activist, and heroine -- at one of the protests in Egypt, celebrating and cheering on the protesters. I have read her publications over the past 25 years or so, and am a great admirer of her and her work. El Saadawi was one of the first women in the Middle East to speak out courageously about the situation of women, and she was often shunned and even imprisoned for her views. But she has kept writing and speaking up, apparently undaunted, and seeing her on the video with her obviously undimmed passion for freedom and equality is inspiring and moving. El Saadawi has written many books: novels, political/social nonfiction, autobiography/memoir, and more. One of her most famous books, her novel "Woman at Point Zero," had a major impact, with its brave and frank portrayal of how women's inequality often leads to abuse and desperation. I am in awe at the courage, strength, persistence, and passionate pursuit of freedom and equity personified by this great woman writer, Nawal El Saadawi, and I write about her here in order to honor and thank her.

We DO Judge a Book by its Cover

A 1/30/11 San Francisco Chronicle review by Seth Lerer of a book about J. D. Salinger noted with interest Salinger's "control over the cover design of his book ["Catcher in the Rye']...[He] 'instructed Bantam on what typeface to use, the precise size and kerning of its characters.'" Apparently Salinger "'even mailed a swatch of the exact color he wanted used for the book's cover....To this day, Salinger's design arguably remains the most beloved and cherished book presentation in American literary history.'" I find this fascinating. It is true that certain individual book covers are iconic. Certain trade paperback series covers are also evocative, to me, of classics read in college classes: the Penguin Classics, for example, or the Riverside Editions, or Vintage Books. I can still see in my mind's eye the piles of books bought for certain literature classes, with their crisp and familiar cover designs. Certainly book covers elicit certain emotions and visceral reactions, and publishers know that covers can make a difference in sales. To me the cover is part of the whole physical, tactile, visual, multi-sense experience of holding and reading a book. The design may be iconic, may be vivid, may be subdued, may be minimalist; whatever it is, it is a part of the character and identity of the book.

Book "Haves" and "Have-Nots"

There was an article by Chip Johnson in the San Francisco Chronicle Friday (1/28/11) about the opening of a beautiful new public library branch in a "beleaguered" part of Oakland. This library will serve, among others, two nearby elementary schools. As Johnson tells it, students "couldn't contain their joy when librarian Derrick DeMay opened up a box and showed them the new [books] inside." The article points out that many of the students do not have books in their homes. This is a feel-good story in that these kids will now have more access to books. But it also underlines the sad truth that the U.S. is increasingly a country of "haves" and "have-nots" in more ways than one. There is not only a huge and increasing economic gap, but there is a gap even in something as seemingly basic as access to books. Kids in middle-class families have casual, easy access to hundreds of books, at home and from bookstores and libraries; children from poor families, often immigrant families where the parents speak little English, may have very few such opportunities to hold, read, borrow, or own books. I am thrilled to hear of children's enthusiasm for books, but it breaks my heart that it is such a rare event for them to hold books in their hands. It is also shameful that a country that has billions to spend on wars, and that enacts increasingly generous tax breaks for the rich, cannot ensure that all children have ample access to books, which are the portal to knowledge, expansion of horizons, and a better future, and which should be a birthright for every child.

Reading Group Discussion Questions - Helpful or Not?

The publishers of many current novels hope to be chosen by the thousands of reading groups across the United States and elsewhere. They promote the novels to groups with "Readers' Guides" (usually in the back of the book) that include interviews with, or special messages from, authors, as well as with discussion questions. If I pick up one of these novels, I enjoy reading the material from or about the author, but I often find the discussion questions simplistic, even inane. To be fair, the questions are occasionally helpful, thoughtful and provocative...but not usually, in my experience. I don't know if the questions are written by the authors or by someone in the publishers' offices. I can't decide if the publishers (and/or authors) are condescending to their readers, or if my opinion about the discussion questions is the minority one. As I wrote about on 1/26/10, I have been in a wonderful reading group myself for 35 years, and I don't remember our ever using such published discussion questions in our meetings. (In the spirit of full disclosure: my recent academic book also includes discussion questions, but the reason in that case is that the publisher and I hoped that the book would be assigned as a textbook in university classes. However, I acknowledge that it is quite possible that some readers might find those discussion questions -- written by me! -- simplistic or inane as well!)

"Rescue" Rescues and Absorbs an Exhausted Me

I wrote on 2/8/10 about "middlebrow" novels that are somewhere between serious literary fiction, on the one hand, and genre fiction/beach reads on the other. Anita Shreve is one of the masters of this type of novel; I have just read her most recent one, "Rescue" (Little, Brown, 2010), in one big gulp (perhaps 3-4 hours of almost nonstop reading). It was the perfect book for me after finishing an exhausting first week of classes, advising, and other beginning-of-the-semester duties: it grabbed and kept my attention, it "went down easy," and it distracted and refreshed me without making any demands whatsoever. It has all the qualities of most middlebrow fiction: a straightforward, easy-to-follow and somewhat dramatic (sometimes melodramatic) plot, with a couple of big crises; a likable main character; somewhat formulaic language; predictable plot turns; heart-tugging scenes; and a satisfying conclusion. I do not mean to imply that creating such fiction is easy; I know it is not. And, as I said in my 2/8/10 post, I am grateful for authors such as Shreve who have provided me reliable reading pleasure over the years. Oh, and as to what actually happens in the novel? Boy meets girl in unusual circumstances, they are very happy for a while, they have a beautiful baby girl, their serious problems separate them, boy steps up and raises the daughter into her teenage years...and then...well, I don't want to give away too much, but let's say there are some tough times but it all works out....

"The Empty Family: Stories"

Colm Toibin is becoming one of the greatest contemporary writers of fiction. I loved his novel based on Henry James' life, "The Master." I also loved, and wrote about here, coincidentally exactly a year ago on 1/28/11, his novel "Brooklyn." Now I have just finished reading his new short story collection, "The Empty Family" (Scribner, 2011). These beautiful, raw, touching, unique stories take place in Ireland, Spain, England, and the United States. I found something to admire and savor in every one of the stories. Many of them are about immigrants and temporary wayfarers in other countries than their own, and about the conflict between a person's being drawn to his roots in his home country, on the one hand, and on the other hand, his wanting or needing to live in other countries, either for work or out of a kind of desperate need to get away from home and explore new places. Toibin himself is Irish and now lives in both Dublin and New York. He is also one of the first and few leading mainstream literary writers to write about gay relationships and gay sex. He wrote in somewhat veiled terms in "The Master" about the possibility of Henry James' being gay but celibate; in this collection he writes much more explicitly about gay sex in a few of the stories. The longest story (68 pages), "The Street," is about two Pakistani men working in Barcelona, Malik and Abdul, who gradually become close and then lovers. The story is told with much sensitivity to the delicate position these men are in: they have to hide their relationship because their fellow countrymen would not understand and might ostracize them and even take away their livelihoods if they discover the affair. Malik and Abdul and their co-workers feel homesick for their country, and hardly ever go out of their Pakistani area of the city; they are under the thumb of the man who brought them over from Pakistan and who controls their jobs, housing, and freedom. So their love is a kind of beautiful if secret miracle that helps them endure everything else. This book is full of exact descriptions and piercing insights, as well as of tender understanding of the vulnerability of the characters.

The Pure Joy of Reading

Sometimes in the process of careful analysis, measured comment, and finding the right adjective to describe a novel or a character, I lose track of celebrating the pure JOY of reading. Of course analysis and comment are useful and important too. But what I want to celebrate today is the laugh-out-loud, smile-to-yourself, feeling-so-very-lucky aspect of reading. I feel so fortunate, so privileged, to have constant access to the best that literature has to offer: beautiful, sensitive, and creative use of language; compelling stories; characters that readers can relate to, care about, cheer on or boo, and learn something new from; profound insights into life and human nature; a connection with the past, present, and future of humankind; and that lovely sense of whole worlds opening up in front of one. What an abundance of joy!