Category: Books

Books: Three Novels and a Memoir

JWF Leave a comment

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Pope Gregory III designated November 1 as All Saints Day. The evening before was dubbed All Hallows Eve which later became Halloween. Whether you honor saints or celebrate with pumpkins, skeletons, ghosts and candy corn, have a wonderful day!

FLIGHT AND SO MUCH MORE

Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead

I’ll start right off by stating that I loved this novel!  The characters are complex and fascinating, the writing is rich in detail, but not overdone, and I quickly became immersed in it.  Over one hundred years, these characters and their descendants connect and overlap and impact one another.  Marian and Jamie Graves are twins.  Their father, Addison, a ship captain, saves their lives and his own when his ship is sinking.  Their childhood is a strange one in Missoula, Missouri as their father disappears and they are raised by their alcoholic Uncle Wallace.  Marian is enthralled when she meets a barnstorming flying couple and becomes determined to learn to fly. 

 Enter the dangerous and seductive Barclay McQueen who wants to possess Marian but grants her wish for flying lessons.  With shorn hair and in trousers, Marian looks more male than female and uses this to her advantage.  She makes air deliveries for McQueen’s business and later delivers fighter planes in England during WWII.  And she works toward making an ambitious and arduous flight over the North and South Poles.

Interleaved with Marian and Jamie’s stories are chapters set in the present day.  Hadley Baxter is an actress who’s been selected to play Marian in a movie about her life.  Echoing Marian’s experiences, Hadley too was raised by a single uncle, and like Marian, she would like to take better control of her life.  This is Hollywood with a steady stream of gossip and lots of celebrity hook-ups.  

Marian is a pilot, Jamie becomes an artist, and Hadley wants to take herself and her craft more seriously.  Who these individuals love or lust after and how they experience race and gender combine for a wide-ranging romp through the history of the 20th century.  I found the Hadley story not as compelling as those of Marian and Jamie, but overall was impressed, engaged, and amazed at how Shipstead put together the various puzzle pieces.  I found the ending unexpected, but very satisfying.  It’s a marvelous novel and so deserving of its nomination for the 2021 Booker Prize!  As one of the best books I’ve read this year, I highly recommend it.  (~JWFarrington)

Footnote:  My book group’s discussion brought forth a host of differing opinions.  A few individuals actively disliked the novel.  Some thought Marian was too self-centered; others thought her extreme self-focus was due to her dysfunctional childhood.  Probably Jamie was the most liked character with Eddie and perhaps Ruth close seconds.  All of us agreed that the Hadley story, while necessary for the plot, was less interesting overall. 

Adam Stern (hmhbooks.com)

THE LIFE OF A RESIDENT

Committed:  Dispatches from a Psychiatrist in Training by Adam Stern

A graduate of Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse, Adam Stern arrived at Harvard for his psychiatry residency feeling seriously outclassed.  This memoir of his four years details his interactions with various patients both in the hospital and in private practice, but he also shares the challenges of arranging a social life on a resident’s demanding schedule.  It’s a quick read and he’s a good writer. 

 I gained a better sense of the contrast between hospital psychiatric admissions and private practice. If you’re interested in medicine and mental health cases, then you should find it engaging.  (~JWFarrington)

SNOW ON THE Great Plains

The Children’s Blizzard by Melanie Benjamin

This is a novel about the tragic 1888 blizzard in Nebraska and Dakota that took the lives of hundreds of school kids.  At times it reads more like a documentary than a novel as the characters are not as well developed as you might expect.  Two sisters, Gerda and Raina, daughters of Norwegian immigrants, are teachers in schools three hours apart.  They make different decisions about how to respond to the midday temperature drop and the arrival of heavy snow.  One sister is hailed for her efforts, the other castigated.  

Gavin Woodson, a somewhat jaded young reporter, provides an overarching view of the depths of the tragedy. He travels around after the storm visiting families, witnessing the devastation, and hearing firsthand accounts of the lives of those who froze.  If you know little about this event, this novel graphically puts you there in the cold and snow.

Benjamin is also the author of several other historical novels I’ve read including The Aviator’s Wife and Mistress of the Ritz.

Melanie Benjamin (penguinrandomhouse.com)

HANDMAIDEN TO ROYALS

Service to the Queen by Tessa Arlen

Marion Crawford, aka Crawfie, was a dedicated governess and companion to Princess Elizabeth and her sister Princess Margaret beginning when they were young children through their late teens.  Away from her home in distant Scotland, Marion sorely missed her mother and then her fiancé as she carried out her duties in London.  The girls’ mother, Queen Elizabeth, known to most of us as the Queen Mother, was a dominating individual. She expected and demanded loyalty and obedience (some would rightly say too much) from those in her service.  

What suspense there is hinges on whether Marion will ever marry George and how her service to the queen will end.  The novel is rather flat but would still be of interest to those who are keen to know more about the princesses’ upbringing.

ADDENDUM

After reading The Personal Librarian, I bought tickets to visit the Morgan Library.  It’s a grand and sumptuous place, elaborately decorated.  I enjoyed gazing around Morgan’s office with its monstrous desk opposite an equally imposing fireplace.  Belle Greene’s large office is also a lovely space, no longer an office.  There are tiers of closed book stacks, but selected rare items are on display for closer viewing. In the new spaces designed by Renzo Piano in 2006, there are several exhibits to explore.  The Chief Penguin and I last visited the library when Renzo’s glass cubes were new, so it was fun to return.  I recommend a visit!

Morgan Library interior showing tiered stacks and stained glass windows

Note: Library photo and cover photo on Maui ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved). Shipstead photo courtesy of bookpage.com

Fall Potpourri

JWF Leave a comment

NEW BEGINNINGS

As the saying goes, you can’t go home again.  But you can go visit.  We spent a wonderful day in Bethlehem at Lehigh University celebrating the inauguration of Lehigh’s 15th president, Joe Helble.  The campus looked lovely, and the ceremony had the requisite pomp prompting misty eyes.  The Chief Penguin and I were pleased to see and chat with so many former colleagues and friends.  The experience was simultaneously a trip down memory lane and a day of optimism for the future.  Go Lehigh, cheers for the Brown and White!

RECENT READING–SUPER LIBRARIAN

The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray

Belle da Costa Greene (history net.com)

Marie Benedict writes novels focused on strong women, usually ones who have been ignored by history or not fully appreciated.  I’ve read several of her works, but this one stands out as one of the best.  Bella da Costa Greene was initially hired by financier J. P. Morgan to catalog and document his library of rare manuscripts and books.  Over time, her role expanded.  She became his chief negotiator and agent in the purchase of new items, even traveling to England and the Continent solo.  Their relationship was a close one, both professionally and personally, and after Morgan’s death, she was named the first director of the library.  All of this would be remarkable enough for the early 20th century when few women had such prominent positions, but Greene had a big secret.  Born Black, she had lived as a white woman since her teens.  Benedict and Murray’s novel depicts the stresses and challenge of maintaining this façade at a time of more rabid racism.  

This book will delight my librarian friends and is a welcome tribute to one woman’s determination and accomplishments.  Partly due to her efforts, the Morgan Library transitioned from a strictly private library to a library and museum open to the public.  Now I need to make another visit!  (~JWFarrington)

COMPELLING LIVE THEATER!

To Kill a Mockingbird

After a long Covid hiatus, Broadway is back.  The other evening, we went to see To Kill a Mockingbird, and it was simply marvelous!  The entry lines for checking vaccination status moved along efficiently, and masks were required in line and everywhere in the theater.  Theater staff enforced mask wearing, citing individuals with a reminder if they weren’t complying.  We had third row seats and the hall was full.

Like many, I first read Harper Lee’s novel when I was a teen and then again later in life.  I recalled upright Atticus Finch and Scout, his curious, frisky little girl.  Set in the 1930’s in a small Alabama town, multiple strands are interwoven with the main plot.  Atticus’s willingness to defend an innocent Black man against death penalty charges is consistent with his belief in the goodness and decency in everyone.  Later, his belief is tested when events spin out of control.  His two children, Jem and Scout, and their friend Dill don’t always understand or agree with him, but they defend him.  It’s a powerful play, set in a different time, yet with messages that resonate today.  Despite its seriousness, there are occasional bits of humor, often provided by the children acting as chorus and interpreters.

Jeff Daniels as Atticus and Cecilia Keenan-Bolger as Scout are both superb, while Michael Braugher is convincing in his Broadway debut as the accused Tom Robinson.   Highly recommended!  (~JWFarrington)

CRAFT IN THE KITCHEN

Fanciful Halloween pumpkins

Clementines for Halloween

My older granddaughter loves to bake, but she also enjoys just puttering in the kitchen and inventing creative ways to make edible food items.  In anticipation of Halloween, she devised a clever way to showcase clementines as jack o’lanterns.  

Peeled clementines are decorated with a banana slice and some green colored yogurt for the top and the stem.  Eyes, nose, and mouth are devised from slices of prune glued on with molasses or honey.  Sprinkles or other decorative touches can also be incorporated.  This was a fun activity for both granddaughters and me.  E also has her own blog, but since it’s available by invitation only, I’m unable to share the link.  Suffice it to say, she wrote a detailed recipe complete with a photo. 

Note: Header photo of Lehigh’s University Center (Packer Hall) and clementines ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved). 

Tidy Tidbits: A Novel & A Film

JWF Leave a comment

A FORTHCOMING NOVEL

INDIAN WOMEN AND RELIGIOUS POLITICS

Honor by Thrity Umrigar

Thrity Umrigar (esalen.org)

I received this novel as an Advance Reading Copy (ARC) through BookBrowse, an e-mail newsletter that I recently discovered.   It will be published in January 2022.  I devoured the book in a day and a half and loved it!

Indian American journalist Smita reports on gender issues and travels the world to do so.  As a favor to a colleague, she returns to India after 20 years away.  Initially she does not realize that she will be covering the verdict in a trial of two Hindu brothers who maimed their sister and murdered her Muslim husband.  Through her main characters, author Umrigar presents several differing perspectives on India.  The reader is kept wondering for most of the novel why Smita has such a scornful, negative view of her native land.  Affluent Mohan, a professional man, lives in Mumbai and loves it despite its complexities.  Meena, the severely injured wife and mother, lives in a poor village and chafes under her brothers’ dictates.  She challenges what is deemed allowable behavior for a Hindu woman by working in a factory and then marrying Abdul.

The novel unfolds slowly as Smita travels with Mohan, filling in as driver, to interview Meena and several others.  Smita questions why she feels so hateful toward her country while simultaneously both resenting and appreciating Mohan’s decency and kindness.  The concept of “honor” and what it means whether one is Hindu or Muslim plays out against violence, corruption, love, and sympathy in a multi-faceted society.

Some years ago, I read The Space Between Us, another novel by this author about class differences between two women.  I thought it was very good, but this new novel is more powerful.  (~JWFarrington)

A RECENT FILM

LOVE IN THE 1960’S

Last Letter from Your Lover (Netflix)

Jennifer & Boot (refinery29.com)

Based on a novel of the same name by JoJo Moyes, this romantic drama is schmaltzy, but good entertainment.  Jennifer Stirling is trapped in a loveless marriage, controlled by her husband and constrained by the times.  Enigmatic throughout, but elegant in dresses, hats, and gloves, she attracts the attention of reporter Anthony, aka Boot, O’Hare, and they begin an affair.  Decades later, one of his letters turns up in a newspaper archive.  Young reporter Elly Haworth makes it her mission to identify the correspondents.  

Of the principals, Jennifer is the least substantial character, and one wonders what other than her beauty has kept Boot’s interest.  I watched this while on the treadmill and it kept me moving!  (~JWFarrington)

Note: Header image of woman reading courtesy of readersdigest.co.uk

Tidy Tidbits: Gander, Oxford, New York

JWF 2 Comments

This week’s blog brings together several compelling works. One is a musical related to 9/11 while the other two are books. One book is a wonderful novel about the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary, while the other is a cancer memoir, painful yet ultimately redeeming.

POWERFUL VIEWING: Remembering 9/11

Come from Away (Apple TV+)

Plane on the tarmac at Gander (appleinsider.com)

I doubt there is anyone of a certain age who doesn’t recall where he or she was on September 11, 2001. Come from Away (2013) is a musical about the passengers whose planes were diverted to Gander, Newfoundland, and how they were embraced by the local residents.   Unabashedly energetic, even boisterous, it is also a compelling and heart-tugging perspective on five days of confusion, chaos, and community.  Folks of different religions, nationalities, and cultures were thrown together at a tragic, uncomfortable time.   

Members of the cast play multiple roles, switching back and forth from Gander community leaders to one of the many passengers.  Standouts for me were the female airline pilot played by Jenn Colella based on the real Beverley Bass; Joel Hatch as the mayor of Gander; and Beulah Davis, chief organizer and comforter, played by Astrid Van Wieren.  There is conflict, craziness, and coming together.  I found watching it an uplifting experience.  A live Broadway performance was filmed for this production and is aired with no breaks or intermission.  Highly recommended!

RECENT READING

THE LANGUAGE OF WOMEN

The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams 

Author & her book jacket (betterreading.com.au)

I loved this novel and read it in just a day.  If you love words and their meanings and how they are used, you too will be fascinated.  Author Williams wondered how gender affects the use and understanding of words.   Given that the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary was largely the work of older white Victorian men, she crafted a novel that reflects first a child’s, then a young woman’s participation in the creation of the dictionary.  Some of the characters such as Dr. James Murray, the chief architect, and several of the male lexicographers are historic figures. So is Edith Thompson, a historian who contributed definitions and quotations for many thousands of entries.

The novel focuses on Esme, a child of six, who hides under the sorting table collecting the occasional stray definition slip of paper. Over the course of publication of all the fascicles from A-B to Z , Esme becomes a woman.    Esme spends hours in the Scriptorium where the work is carried out.  As she gets older, she becomes involved in sorting mail, then checking quotes at the Bodleian and other libraries, and eventually taking on some editing and correction duties.  Lizzie, the household maid of all work, takes care of Esme and a friendship develops.

Esme is curious and full of questions and begins to wonder why some words, particularly those spoken by the lower classes, but not written down in books, are not to be included in the OED.  She gets a graphic education in colorful language from Mabel, a down-at-the-heels vendor in the local market and creates her own slips with quotations for these less than polite terms. An only child whose mother has died, Esme leads a sheltered life until she meets actress Tilda and her brother Bill, encounters the suffragist movement, and delivers pages to the typesetting room at the press where she meets Gareth, a handsome young compositor.

The novel relates the laborious process of releasing the letters of the alphabet in sections from 1888 to completion in 1928 alongside the coming-of-age of Esme from age six to middle age.  For Esme, the treatment of the suffragettes is disturbing, while the exodus of men to war means more work coupled with an all-consuming worry for their safety. How Williams weaves in the suffrage movement and the impact of WWI add to the richness of this story. But, some readers may be surprised at the ending and question if the author wraps things up too neatly.

Esme is not a common name. I wondered if Williams chose it as homage to J. D. Salinger’s notable story, For Esme with Love and Squalor, about a 13-year-old girl and a soldier during the Second World War.  

Like the process of compiling a comprehensive dictionary, this novel unfolds slowly and gradually.  I was committed to it from the first paragraphs.  Highly recommended!  (~JWFarrington)

CANCER AND BEYOND

Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted by Suleika Jaouad

Author Jaouad (latimes.com)

Cancer memoirs often take one of two forms.  Either they are an account of battling and surviving the medical aspects of cancer or they are one individual’s experience and reflections which end just before death.  Ms. Jaouad’s memoir is somewhat different in that she was diagnosed with leukemia at age 22, just after completing college.  It was a delayed diagnosis, and she was by then very sick. She underwent massive chemotherapy treatments, endured numerous hospitalizations due to infections, and ultimately required a bone marrow transplant, a long and arduous process involving months of isolation.  

The medical details in the first part of her memoir are graphic, frightening and often unpleasant.  Yet she writes about them with candor, humility, and even occasional humor.  She was blessed with loving parents and an unbelievable new boyfriend who re-arranged his life to be her primary caregiver.  

What is perhaps more appealing is part two in which she attempts to regain a sense of normalcy.  All treatments are over, and she’s deemed able to travel and work again.  Yet her immune system is still, and may always be, fragile.  She tires easily and finds it difficult to focus and apply herself without the goal of the next medical procedure.  How to be normal again is not something the medical team has covered.  

Probably what saves her, or at least provides emotional and intellectual sustenance, is a solo cross-country journey she undertakes.  Dubbed the One Hundred Day Project, it is to visit individuals who wrote or e-mailed her after she published a regular column in the New York Times. Meeting these almost strangers, Jaouad gains perspective on herself and reflects on how she was often self-centered and needy in some of her relationships.  I found this section of the book satisfying as she finally goes beyond her four years of treatment and comes into her own as a more well-rounded person.  I wouldn’t recommend this book to everyone, but some readers may find her journey amazing and her sprightly writing a gift.  (~JWFarrington)

Note: Header photo of morning clouds ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved).