January Jots: Reading & Viewing

BOOKS: LITERARY & MYSTERIOUS

Dayswork by Chris Bachelder and Jennifer Habel

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

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)

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)

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.)