POLITICS—BRITISH STYLE
If you’re fed up with the American political scene, here are two video offerings for an English change of pace.
Margaret (Amazon Prime)
This 2-hour production traces the wheeling and dealing and backroom haggling that transpired in November 1990 and resulted in Margaret Thatcher’s ouster as British prime minister. Think lots of older white men all angling for their continued place in the sun (i.e. the Cabinet) or for more, the prime ministership itself. Lindsay Duncan is strident, determined and even occasionally screechy as the indomitable Margaret while Roger Ashton-Griiffiths is appropriately deferential and caring as her long-suffering spouse Denis. Very entertaining, although some might find Duncan’s portrayal of Thatcher caricaturish. Released in 2009.
A Very British Scandal (Netflix)
In three parts, this mini-series chronicles the calamitous career of MP Jeremy Thorpe beginning in 1961 with his affair with a young lower class man named Norman Scott. This was when homosexual relations were still illegal in the U.K. Thorpe set Scott up in a flat and wrote him affectionate letters. Scott later made the letters public and talked freely to any and all about their relationship. How Thorpe dealt with this threat to his rising career and the lengths to which he went to try and silence Scott are so extreme and farfetched as to seem unbelievable. But all true. This slice of British politics stars the usually impeccable Hugh Grant as Thorpe with Ben Whishaw as the charming, flaky, and appealing Scott.
SUMMER READING
#10 Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
I found Ng’s first novel, Everything I Never Told You, masterful and poignant. This one is even better, excellent, in fact. Ng gently skewers life in the perfect suburb of Shaker Heights, Ohio, during the Clinton era. And she “gets’ and skillfully portrays the foibles, frenzies, and frustrations of teenage life. The Richardson children, Lexie, Trip, Moody, and Izzy are well intentioned (except for Izzy) and appropriately self-centered. Outsiders Pearl Warren and her mother, Mia, a rootless, talented artist, who rent an apartment from the Richardsons, are different, and each child is attracted to one or both of them.
They become catalysts for upheaval when Mia champions a Chinese woman whose baby is slated for adoption by the wealthy, white McCulloughs, close friends of Elena Richardson and her husband. Newspaper reporter and busybody Elena runs a well-ordered household and lives a mostly rule-following life. Lacking in self-awareness, she uses her reporting skills to investigate Mia and reaps much more than she bargained for.
With a punchy opening sentence: “Everyone in Shaker Heights was talking about it that summer: how Isabelle, the last of the Richardson children, had finally gone around the bend and burned the house down,“ this novel about motherhood, art, and how we live in society will linger in your memory long after you’ve finished it. For more about Ng and her upbringing, here is a link to a 2017 interview. (~JWFarrington)
#11 Love and Ruin by Paula McLain 
Paula McLain writes historical novels about intriguing women, women who are notable in part because they are the wives or amours of famous men. In essence, she writes love stories. I first read The Paris Wife about Ernest Hemingway’s time in Paris and his marriage to Hadley Richardson, wife #1. It was good, particularly for its depiction of the literary scene and all the famous writers who congregated there in the 1920’s, but not great. I did not read Circling the Sun about Beryl Markham, but was attracted to this latest novel by the very positive press it’s been getting. And it didn’t disappoint.
Martha Gellhorn was an accomplished and noted war correspondent who covered all the major 20th century conflicts from the Spanish Civil War to the Second World War to Vietnam and even Panama in her early 80’s. She was the first journalist and the only woman to be on the beach in Normandy. She was also Ernest Hemingway’s third wife and reputed to be the only woman who stood up to him.
Effectively told primarily in Gellhorn’s voice with two wars as backdrop, it’s a gripping and graphic account of the turmoil of battle and the tempestuous relationship between two intense individuals. Gellhorn’s desire to accede to the demands of marriage fights with her strong determination to forge ahead in her own career as a writer and journalist. As a reader, I also gained a better understanding of the Spanish Civil War through this novel. (JWFarrington)
#12 From the Corner of the Oval by Beck Dorey-Stein
Probably most of us didn’t realize until recently that there are stenographers assigned to the president to transcribe his every public word. I certainly didn’t until I read about this memoir by Ms. Dorey-Stein. She worked for President Obama for five years and stood in the shadows recording and then transcribing.
She has a fresh voice and an enduring sense of wonder at being where she is: witnessing history, traveling on Air Force One to U.S. cities and countries around the world, and living in a very special bubble. For the twenty-somethings who support POTUS, it’s a life fueled by alcohol and constrained by the demands of being available 24/7, but ripe with opportunities for affairs and hook-ups.
Reading Dorey-Stein is a bit like being on a careening roller coaster as she shares her doubts and insecurities and details her relationships with boyfriends and work colleagues all the while demonstrating her ability to write. She matures and becomes more confident over these years, and I appreciated the up close view she provides of living and working in such a rarefied atmosphere. A quick read that will either entrance you or drive you nuts with all the boyfriend angst! I was entranced and always rooting for her to have good sense. (~JWFarrington)
Note: Header photo ©JWFarrington. Book jackets from the web.
