This week Maine is sunny and Maine is always quiet. Activity besides reading consists mainly of walks around the neighborhood, trips to the general store, and dinners with friends, punctuated by the occasional movie or boat trip. Included in this blog are a few photos of the local scene plus reviews of a new documentary and a compelling novel.
FASCINATING DOCUMENTARY
Andre Leon Talley, a black man, grew up in North Carolina in the 1950’s and 60’s when segregation was still the norm and options for blacks were limited. Raised by his grandmother, his childhood was strongly grounded in the life of the church and the values it represented. From an early age, Talley was drawn to fashion and after earning his degree at Brown University, he began working in Paris, writing and commenting on the fashion scene there. Later he came to New York and worked at Vogue with both the legendary Diana Vreeland and the meticulous Anna Wintour.
Over time, Talley became an icon for others aspiring to a career in the fashion industry. A large man physically, his mode of dress and his style have always been colorful, bold, and uniquely his.
Kate Novack is the producer and director of this excellent documentary covering Talley’s career. She has creatively combined a wealth of archival footage of life in Durham, NC in the 50’s and 60’s and the fashion scene in Paris and New York in the 70’s with interviews with Talley’s contemporaries, colleagues, and friends from his childhood. While racism is an underlying current, it is not dwelled upon. The interviews with Talley himself take place interspersed throughout the film leading up to the 2016 election. The scene on election night is remarkable for its restraint.
On a personal note, Kate Novack is someone I know a bit since she is the daughter of very good friends. The Chief Penguin and I had the pleasure of viewing the film at a special showing at the local nonprofit theater in Boothbay Harbor complete with a Q&A afterward with Kate. It was informative to hear more about the making of this film.
Kate and spouse Andrew Rossi are also the creative team responsible for two other recent documentaries: First Monday in May, and Page One about the New York Times. They are all worth seeing! For more about Kate and the Talley film, here’s an interview by Garage.
SUMMER READING
Timely Novel about the Immigrant Experience
#13 The Leavers by Lisa Ko
This 2017 novel is another one that made multiple best books of the year lists and was also a National Book Award finalist. It’s a vivid portrayal of a Chinese mother and her son who at various points navigate the different physical and cultural worlds of Fuzhou, China and the Bronx. Pregnant by a neighbor she has no interest in marrying, Polly leaves China for New York City where Deming is born. She works first on a factory floor and later in a nail salon. When she realizes she can’t work and take care of him, she soon sends him back to China to live with his grandfather. When he’s older, she brings him back to the U.S.
Deming makes the adjustment to the city, grooves to all its sounds and colors, and is comfortable living with his mother, her boyfriend Leon, Leon’s sister Vivian, and her son Michael who becomes his good friend. Until the day his mother doesn’t come home. Feeling abandoned and rejected when he hears nothing from her, he must then cope with white foster parents, being adopted, and living in suburban upstate NY. Ten years later at 21, having spent the past ten years as Daniel Wilkinson, he seeks to locate his birth mother. The novel alternates between Deming’s life in the United States and his times in China and sections in Polly’s voice about the torture of being deported and the new successful life she builds in her native land.
My only quibble is that it could have been more tightly edited at points to sustain the forward momentum. Nonetheless, it is a richly imagined novel of identity: how does one figure out who he or she is, how does he find a way to believe in himself, what must one do to belong, and what is acceptable behavior and what is selfish. Both Deming and Polly wrestle with the issues of who they are and what living a fulfilling life means. Each is a multi-layered character with Polly being especially complex. (~JWFarrington)
Note: All photos ©JWFarrington.
