From Mudie's Lending Library to Bookswim

A 1/31/11 New Yorker article, “The Borrowers,” by Patricia Marx, discusses the many things that can be rented these days, including designer clothes and bags, works of art, baby equipment, kayaks, robots, and even family members and friends (e.g., someone to act as one’s parent, spouse, or platonic friend, as needed; one resourceful, if less than ethical, student rented fake parents to meet with his college dean during his disciplinary proceedings). What caught my eye, however, was that books can be rented as well. I knew, working at a university, that textbooks could be rented. But in addition, according to Marx, anyone can subscribe to Bookswim, which operates something like Netflix, delivering your chosen books to your mailbox. Apparently we have come full circle from the days of Austen and, a little later, the Victorians, when subscription-based lending libraries, such as the famous Mudie’s Lending Library, were common, especially among the middle and upper middle classes. Many young women, especially, paid their guinea a year subscription fee to be able to borrow the latest novels, one at a time. Such membership-only libraries existed in Austen’s Meryton and Sanditon, among others of her settings. From Fanny Burney’s and Jane Austen’s subscription libraries to Bookswim: "what goes around comes around”? But the idea that only some people could afford to buy or rent books back then reminds me of one important and democratic difference (besides that nowadays the book rentals take place on the Internet!) in the present: nowadays we are fortunate to have free public libraries where everyone can afford to borrow books.

"The House on Q Street"

"The House on Q Street" (John Daniel, 2002), by Ann L. McLaughlin, is the story of the family of an American atomic physicist during World War II. As the father works on a secret wartime project (you can guess which one) with very mixed feelings and increased anxiety and guilt, the mother and two daughters feel increasingly deserted by him, and have to continue their own lives mostly without his presence. The main character, Joey, is ten years old at the beginning of the story, in 1942, and we watch her and her older sister Maddie grow up as they adapt to living in a new house in a new city (Washington, DC) and going to a new school, with secrets and changes all around them. Their mother suffers, and drinks too much for a while, but does better when she takes a job at a center for soldiers; Maddie is angry at her father and acts out a bit as a young adolescent; and Joey becomes attached to some of the military men and women who rent rooms in the family house, finds fulfillment as an actress in school plays, especially "Antigone," and tries to bring everyone together, make everyone happy, and fix what sometimes seems to be a broken family. The novel shows, in a way not often seen in American literature, how hard the war was even for those safely in the United States mainland. The main draw of this book, however, is the character of Joey, whom the author portrays with such authenticity, such understanding, that she jumps off the pages and has readers pulling for her and for her family to regain a normal life and to find happiness and fulfillment.

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....