Category: Books

Tidy Tidbits: Read, Watch, Get Ready!

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BOOK OF THE WEEK

While You Were Out:  An Intimate Family Portrait of Mental Illness in an Era of Silence by Meg Kissinger

Author Kissinger (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

Meg Kissinger, a noted journalist who spent several decades covering mental illness issues, bares her soul and that of her family in While You Were Out, a candid and raw account of her family’s travails.  Children of the 60’s, she and her seven siblings lived with alcoholic parents and a mother who was also subject to depression.  Life in their household was chaotic yet punctuated by moments of fun and levity.  Problems were never discussed and no one’s behavior or issues was ever really questioned. 

When several of Kissinger’s siblings had their own mental health problems, treatments were tried, but nothing much changed, and there was no chance to query or understand the what and the why.  Even after a self-inflicted death, no talk or therapy was undertaken.  

This can be a hard book to read at points.  To her great credit, Kissinger presents each of her siblings as a multi-dimensional individual with pluses and good traits as well as shortcomings.  It is a tribute to her own strength of character that Kissinger navigated through this thicket of surrounding illness to create the successful life and journalism career she has.  Highly recommended! (~JWFarrington)

MY LATEST VIEWING

POLITICS OF FARMING AND BIG AGRICULTURE

Circles of Power (PBS Passport)

Journalist Lansel (Liberation)

Circles of Power, a recent French series (2022), is sometimes more like a documentary than a drama series.  Claire Lansel is an investigative journalist for Quotidienne, a daily newspaper.  When a class of school children visits a grain silo in the north of France, several of them become overwhelmed and collapse.  Thus begins a focus on what caused their sickness.  Small independent farmers, a large agricultural cooperative, the minister of agriculture, union leaders, and a rabble-rousing group of young environmentalists are all players in this many-threaded story.  I wondered if it were based on real incidents, but couldn’t find an answer to that.

This is a drama of painstaking research and difficult interviews with affected individuals, many afraid to speak out. Add in mothers with sick babies and the human side plays out against the politics of likely corporate greed.  The pace is measured with lots of scenes of Claire driving through the countryside, but it kept my interest as I rooted for the “good guys” to prevail.  

NEW ADVENTURES AHEAD

(Zazzle from Pinterest.com)

Next month, the Chief Penguin and I will begin a new adventure.  We will move to a retirement community in North Carolina.  We didn’t anticipate making this kind of move this soon, but the right opportunity presented itself and we accepted.  

Now, we’re deep into downsizing: identifying which furniture pieces will work and in which rooms; going through decades of scrapbooks and memorabilia deciding what can go, what to digitize, and what to just toss; winnowing down and culling kitchen equipment (how many fry pans does one need?); reviewing cherished fine china and glassware to either pass on to family or give up; and making umpteen lists about what to take in the car, which vendors need to be notified, and so on.  Some of it is a process of reducing “clutter,” although one would never call these “precious” items clutter! 

We look forward to living in an urban area where we will be able to walk to stores, restaurants, parks, and the public library.  And a first-class bakery!  We will have family nearby, and, as long as we can, we will travel both here and abroad.  And yes, I plan to continue Jots & Jaunts (www.jauntingjean.com) with regular posts once we get settled.  I’m not signing off yet!

Note: Header photo of ibises on the hunt ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved.)

Tidy Tidbits: Page, Screen, & Plate

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RECENT READING: WIVES IN THE 1960’S

Absolution by Alice McDermott

Author McDermott (Macmillan.com)

Set in Saigon in 1963, Absolution focuses on the lives of several wives of Navy officers.  Tricia, just 23, has only been married a short time to lawyer Peter on loan to navy intelligence.  She is taken up by the somewhat older, more sophisticated Charlene, mother of three.  Charlene is forceful, attractive, and domineering and has gathered around her a small group of women to do her bidding.  While society views their primary functions as motherhood and being a good helpmate to their husbands, Charlene has ideas about how to do good and raise money to help the local population.  Employing the talents of a local native seamstress and acquiring a bunch of newly released Barbie dolls, Charlene involves Tricia and others in her charity schemes.  

These events are re-lived sixty years later through the eyes of now senior citizen Tricia and Rainey, Charlene’s daughter (a child at the time). They have reconnected through letters.

I think what McDermott tries to do in portraying a little known aspect of American servicemen’s wives in Vietnam is laudable, but I found this novel hard to like.  Charlene is an unsympathetic character, and Tricia is too easily led until the packed punch of the culminating event. The details of 1960’s life were familiar and convincing, but I expected something more from the renewed connection between Tricia and Rainey, some better reason for retrospectively sharing their memories of that time.  Why did Rainey become significant to Tricia?  For me, it wasn’t clear.

The novel has received significant praise; I give it a qualified recommendation.

VIEWING DELIGHTS 

NEW YORK HIGH SOCIETY

The Gilded Age Season 2 ($ Amazon Prime et al)

Gladys Russell with her parents (TVInsider.com)

Julian Fellowes is masterful!  Creator of Downton Abbey, screenwriter for Gosford Park and The Chaperone among others, his latest drama, The Gilded Age, is both fun and insightful.  Set in 1882 in New York, it follows young Marian Brooks’ entrance into high society with its battles between old money (Mrs. Astor and the van Rhijns) and new (Bertha and George Russell).  Marian is a niece of the van Rhijns, and she and her Aunts Agnes and Ada live across the street from the Russell family.  

A young woman’s goal then was to conduct herself discreetly and find a promising rich man to marry.  Marian breaks with convention by teaching watercolors at a school and is good friends with Peggy Scott, Aunt Agnes’ Black secretary.  Add in Peggy’s parents, and her work as a journalist, and one gets a view of a Black middle class on the rise.  Historic events such as the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge and steelworkers threatening action add richness. They also document the social changes afoot.  

I thought this season was even better than the first one, and I loved the fashions.  The hats are something else! There are 8 episodes, and a third season is planned.   Highly recommended! 

COURAGEOUS FIGHTER PILOTS

Masters of the Air (Apple TV+)

B-17 bomber (AVweb.com)

This is not my usual fare, but the Chief Penguin and I are watching it together on our big TV.  Produced by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg among others, Masters of the Air, a World War II series is getting rave reviews for its technical effects.  This account of the perilous missions carried out by the American pilots and crews of the 100th Bomb Group is harrowing, finger-biting, and compelling.  Risking daytime raids over Nazi Germany, the ten men in each plane never know whether they will get shot down, lose an engine and limp back, or need to bail out of a flaming plane into enemy territory.  Some missions were successful, and bombs were dropped on the correct target; others failed and some, but not all the men, returned to base still alive. 

Two majors known as Buck and Buckley, very different in style and temperament, are the lead characters.  With them and their men, one feels the physical and the emotional challenges they face in carrying out these missions.  

Based on a book of the same name, the series has nine episodes and is being released weekly.  Three episodes are currently available.  Recommended for WWII fans!

DINING NOTE

Duval’s on Main Street in downtown Sarasota reliably delivers fresh fish and nicely prepared meals.  We had lunch here earlier this week with graduate school friends visiting from Michigan.  Service is friendly and efficient and the food very good.  Our group enjoyed superior clam chowder, a twisted ahi tuna sandwich, salads, and a shrimp po’ boy.  

January Jots: Reading & Viewing

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BOOKS: LITERARY & MYSTERIOUS

Dayswork by Chris Bachelder and Jennifer Habel

(Boston Globe)

Dayswork is unlike any other novel I’ve read, and I loved it.  Written in a style that consists of two-to-three-line paragraphs followed by bursts of conversation and quotes from other writers, it’s quirky, fun, thoughtful, and literary, all at once.  

A woman academic stuck at home during the pandemic is researching Herman Melville’s life, work, and marriage.  Simultaneously, her husband is also around, referred to occasionally, and at one point, quarantining in their basement.  

In the process of her work, we learn about Melville’s writing struggles after the success of Moby Dick, his intense friendship with neighbor Nathaniel Hawthorne, his possible abuse of his wife Lizzie, and his neglect of their children.  Interspersed are quotes and notations from modern critics like Robert Lowell and Elizabeth Hardwick, or contemporaries like Emily Dickinson, along with comments about the work of other Melville biographers including one known initially only as the Biographer.  His identity is finally revealed at the end.  

Like going on a scavenger hunt with many clues, one stray comment about an event or a person inevitably leads to additional information about that action or person.  Overall the novel is a treasure trove of strands that come together to form a more rounded portrayal of Melville, the author and the man, while she reflects on the tumultuous marriage of Lowell and Hardwick as well as her own marriage choices.

The authors, Bachelder and Habel, are respectively a novelist and a poet, and married to each other.  This is their first joint work.  Highly recommended for fans of Melville and what constitutes a creative life! (~JWFarrington)

The Maid by Nita Prose

(Amazon.com)

A bestseller in more than forty countries and optioned to become a movie, The Maid starts out as simple story of the daily life of a lowly mostly invisible hotel worker.  Molly lives alone, doesn’t have friends, and still misses her deceased grandmother who raised her.  At first, I didn’t like this book. I thought it was dully written, and I was exasperated by Molly’s complete lack of awareness of the situations in which she was putting herself.  Yes, she is different and appears to be on the autism spectrum, which might be some justification for the slow pace. Then it picks up and becomes gripping.  One wonders how Molly, all alone, will cope with being accused of crimes she mostly didn’t commit.   

Prose is a book editor in Canada whose second novel, The Mystery Guest, also featuring Molly, was published late last year.  The other readers in my book group also found The Maid slow going, but we had a good discussion about Molly’s character and whether her later actions are believable.  A light read that might be good for an afternoon.

MOVIE–FRAGILE FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS

May December (Netflix)

Gracie & Joe (People)

Borrowing from a legal case in the 1990’s of a teacher (Mary Kay Letourneau) who had sex with her 13-year-old student, May December focuses on a similar couple and their children 25 years later.  Husband Joe, who initially comes across as an overgrown kid, is thirty-six.  Wife Gracie, now in her 50’s, is needy, overbearing, and seemingly so naïve.  Their twins are getting ready for high school graduation and leaving home for college. They live in an elegant house in Savannah with a pool under construction in the backyard.  Who made or inherited the money for what appears to be a very comfortable lifestyle is never made clear.

Elizabeth Berry, a well-known actress, visits them as research for playing Gracie in a new film.  Elizabeth questions Joe and Gracie and the kids and interviews their friends and Gracie’s first husband.  She insinuates herself into their lives and both causes and exposes cracks and fissures in what first presented as a placid surface.  

More is revealed about Joe and Gracie’s past, and the viewer and Elizabeth are left to wonder what is true and what is not.  Who is credible?  Who is the predator?  Or as Gracie blurted out at one point, “Who is in charge?”  Is this a case of delayed acceptance of one’s personal responsibility?  

Without revealing too much, there’s an early scene at Joe’s teenage workplace, where the viewer gets a foretaste of the danger that lies ahead.  Later, we see Joe begin to emerge from his cocoon as he shares a poignant moment with his son on the roof.  

Discomfiting, unfathomable, and yet strangely absorbing, it is powerful stuff.  Not a film for everyone, but one that will stay with me.  Julianne Moore as Gracie and Nathalie Portman as Elizabeth are superb as Elizabeth mirrors Gracie’s gestures and intonation.  (~JWFarrington)

TV–PALATE CLEANSER

All Creatures Great and Small, Season 4 (PBS Masterpiece)

Carmody (uk.finance.yahoo.com)

This season of All Creatures is both more serious than previous ones and simultaneously stickier with syrup.  World War II is present and being called up is looming for James.  Siegfried hires a sort of office manager, an attractive woman he met on the dance floor, and James presses for some additional help with Tristan away serving his country.  They take on vet student Richard Carmody, a knowledgeable nerd who is socially inept.  

Meanwhile, Helen and Mrs. Hall cope with changing circumstances that are both welcome and challenging.  The scenes with Mrs. Pomphrey are always fun, and in most episodes, things come out right in the end.  Enjoyable!

Note: Header image of January sky ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved.)

Tidy Tidbits: Winter Pastimes

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MOVIES—MEN AT WORK, PHYSICS & MUSIC

Oppenheimer ($5.99 on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, et al)

Einstein & Oppenheimer (Digital Spy)

Oppenheimer, one of the big films of 2023, is an almost mesmerizing portrayal of one individual’s huge impact on history.  Physicist Oppenheimer was a complex man and an intriguing one.  Brilliance, coupled with ego and drive, propelled him in overseeing the development of the atomic bomb.  This invention led directly to the end of World War II and, initially, accolades for Oppenheimer.  To what extent, Oppenheimer carefully considered the level of destruction use of the bomb would wreak is a question one can debate.  

Several years after the war, he was accused of being a Communist and a security threat. Based on the biography, American Prometheus,the film is multi-layered and nuanced in its depiction of Oppenheimer and those involved in the Manhattan Project.  And the special effects are stunning.  Highly recommended!

American Symphony (Netflix)

Suleika & Jon (Variety)

Until I read reviews of American Symphony, I had not heard of Jon Batiste.  He’s a composer, pianist, pop performer, and winner of numerous awards.  In this film, produced jointly with Higher Ground Productions (the Obamas’ company), the viewer experiences the creation of the musical piece of the title. Simultaneously, it follows the travails of Batiste’s wife Suleika Jaouad as she copes with a recurrence of leukemia.  Batiste is a dedicated and hard-working composer, but he is also tender and supportive of Suleika.  

I enjoyed parts of Jon’s creative process and admired her for her bravery and her willingness to share the raw as well as the joyful moments of her treatment.  Overall, I’d give the film a mixed review.  I thought it was unnecessarily long and would have edited out some of the composition scenes.  

As a side note, Suleika’s memoir Between Two Kingdoms about her earlier cancer journey was published in 2021.   I read it when it was released and included it in a blog post in Sept. 2021.

READING—GRIEF & LOVE

Lost and Found: A Memoir by Kathryn Schulz

Memoirs are one of my preferred genres, so I approached Lost and Found expectantly.  It is both emotional and scholarly in tone.  Schulz focuses on grief and love.  Besides detailing how and why we lose or misplace objects and citing a range of research articles about loss, she delves into her grief over her father’s death and describes his long physical and mental decline.  Anyone who has lost a parent or other loved one can relate to this section.  

Her other main topic is love and how one goes about finding one’s true love or life partner: what makes two people click and how does one arrange to have the right circumstances at hand for this to happen.  Schulz had a long search, sometimes fraught with self-doubt, before meeting her right person and then settling down together.

I confess to skimming some; I was more interested in her personal experiences than I was in the scientific explanations for loss and love.  My response may be colored by being older than the author with several decades more life experience.  Overall, I give it a qualified recommendation.  

LOCAL CULTURE—GREAT MUSIC

The Sarasota Orchestra was in fine form on Friday night for their first concert of the season at Neel Performing Arts Center in Bradenton.  Their playing was spirited with all sections performing strongly.  This concert, under the baton of guest conductor Miguel Harth-Bedoya, included a recent work by composer Clarice Assad, an impressive rendition of Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini by pianist Stephen Hough, and Elgar’s Enigma Variations.  All fourteen of them, each variation clearly delineated one from the other.  It was truly a great night for our local musicians.  Bravo!

Note: Header photo is of ducks over a pond in California in Jan. 2014 ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved.)