Tidy Tidbits: Grandparenting & Forster

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Part of this past week was devoted to the delights of grandparenting so this is a shorter post.  I continue to be amazed and impressed at what a not-yet-3 year old comprehends, expresses and imagines.  There is a steady stream of conversation, lots of singing (all the verses of “London Bridge Is Falling Down”—even ones I didn’t know plus a verse in Japanese—and her own made-up songs), and many play scenarios from having a birthday party to going to the beach.  We actually went to the beach for real and she was thoroughly engrossed in building a sand castle and stepping just enough into the water for the waves to tickle.

At Grandma and Grandpa’s house, she was always ready to “help” so I had her assistance in measuring rice, stirring soup, and then setting the table.  In the kitchen, she would position the fold-up stool (a great invention, by the way) just so at the counter and pop up to help.  We also read books and a new one about a bear and a duck called Good Night Already! was requested over and over as in “Again, again.”

The four days passed all too quickly.  I’ve stored up memories, hugs, and the sound of her voice until the next visit.

This Week’s Book

Arctic Summer by Damon Galgut  Arctic

I was attracted to this novel for its promised portrayal of E.M. Forster.  I enjoy historical novels about artists and writers and thought Colm Toibin’s The Master about Henry James was itself masterful.  But, despite its nomination for the Man Booker Prize, I’m finding this book slow going, especially the opening chapters.  Forster’s travels to India and back, around England, and then to Egypt are sometimes hard to separate making for a muddled story line, but do show him gathering impressions and insights for his later novels, particularly Passage to India.  The book gets better farther on and is primarily a novel about the hurt and anguish of unrequited love as Forster, in his early thirties, comes to terms with his homosexuality.

I am persevering and having passed the midpoint will complete the book.

 

Tidy Tidbits: Boyhood, McEwan & Chocolate

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This Week’s Movie

Boyhood

I loved Boyhood. We watched it almost in one sitting with only a short break and it was so real.  It’s fiction, a scripted story, but because of its pace, it seems like a documentary.  Mason, the boy, is amazing, but there is something satisfying about watching the parent actors, Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawk, age too over the twelve years.   Being a mother, I was reminded of situations when my son was a teenager.

Boyhood is considered groundbreaking, but there is some precedent in Michael Apted’s Up series.  Apted has filmed the same group of people every 7 years since there were seven years old; the latest installment released several years ago captures them at the age of 56.  The difference is these are individual interviews about what has happened in their lives since the last filming and they are great social and life history. Boyhood creates the daily life of one young man continuously over 12 years.  It is fiction, but feels true.  Up is real people, but it is their reflections on events, not the events themselves.  I’m a fan of both.

One critic I read also examined the role of Mason’s sister, Samantha, and stated that she went from being quite vocal in the early years to getting quieter and less present and that this indicated something about the upbringing of girls.  So I watched Samantha more closely than I might have otherwise, but don’t agree with that critic’s assessment.  Samantha is not the focal point of the film to begin with and I don’t think she got lost.

This Week’s Book

The Children Act by Ian McEwan

I have now read several novels by Ian McEwan and find his writing to be concise and pointed.  Compared to some authors, his works are short to moderate in length.  There are no long descriptions, but rather short, pithy sentences that conjure up in the reader’s mind a person’s appearance or delineate a character’s feelings.  He is particularly good at shame and embarrassment.   Judge Fiona Maye in this his latest novel is walking home from work contemplating her feelings about her husband’s recent departure.

“She went slowly along Theobald’s Road, still holding off the moment of her return, wondering again whether it was not love she had lost so much as a modern form of respectability, whether it was not contempt and ostracism she feared, as in the novels of Flaubert and Tolstoy, but pity.  To be the object of general pity was also a form of social death.  The nineteenth century was closer than most women thought.  To be caught enacting her part in a cliché showed poor taste rather than a moral lapse.  Restless husband in one last throw, brave wife maintaining her dignity, younger woman remote and blameless.  And she had thought her acting days ended on a summer lawn, just before she fell in love.”

Childless Fiona is an intriguing character; I was drawn into her personal and professional life and the family law cases she must adjudicate.  Although I figured out much of the ending, I could sympathize with the approach she took in the Jehovah’s Witness case, the crux of the novel.  She is an appealingly imperfect human.

chocolates Sweet Treats

Valentine’s Day is this week which brings to mind candy hearts and flowers, but especially chocolate.  When I was a child, candy was a special treat and fancy boxes of chocolates something rare.  I have fond and tasty recollections of the special candies my parents received for their birthdays.  My grandparents would send them each a box of Gilbert Chocolates on the appropriate days in February and April.

The box was white and more square than rectangular with a green banner on it.  This was the era of milk chocolate and Gilbert Chocolates were milk chocolate that had tiny bits of nuts in the chocolate surrounding the caramel or cream center.  The favorite collection in our house was called Panama.  With four children eager to share in them, I’m not sure how many pieces my folks actually got for themselves!  I was pleased to discover that the Gilbert company, founded in 1900, is still doing business in Jackson, Michigan, with an expanded line including truffles, fudge, dark chocolate, and of course, the Panama Collection.  The web is wonderful!

Tidy Tidbits: Movies, Music & Charleston

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Movie recommendations:  Before the holidays, we saw several of the Oscar contenders and I would recommend them all.  This is a season of men, all of these films portray famous or infamous males, all but one no longer here.  I’ve listed the films in order of my preference.

Imitation Game.  Alan Turing was a genius and his codebreaking achievements secret for many years.  Benedict Cumberbatch is wonderful in the starring role although I’ve since read in a New York Review of  Books article that the portrayal of Turing is skewed and that he was not quite as freakish or nerdy as the film makes out.

The Theory of Everything.  No question, Eddie Redmayne as Stephen Hawking is simply stunning.  Hawking’s accomplishments coupled with the sweet and bittersweet love between him and Jane make this film refreshing and a joy to see.

Foxcatcher.   We lived in the Philadelphia suburbs when these events happened and so it was essential to see the film.  A lot of wrestling scenes and a bit slow, but Steve Carell gives a creepy and compelling performance as John DuPont.

Mr. Turner.  I didn’t love this film, but found it worth seeing.  Turner communicates mostly by grunts so there is not much in the way of meaty dialogue and the narrative arc is shallow to almost non-existent.  Nonetheless, you get a sense of Turner’s place in the artistic society of the time.

This Week’s Book

Charleston by Margaret Bradham Thornton.

This first novel draws strongly on the author’s own experiences.  Thornton grew up in Charleston, she edited Tennessee Williams’ notebooks and he is referenced in the novel, and the main character spends a lot of time doing historical research.  The book is a testament to the pull of the South and the history and charm of Charleston (readers who know Charleston’s streets and sights will be more engaged) and Charleston society.  It’s a familiar plot–girl attached to boy, girl re-encounters a past love, and girl must decide whether her heart lies with the new love or the old.  But there is a surprise twist which I won’t divulge.  I would characterize this as a pleasant diversion, a bit like indulging in a slice of Lady Baltimore cake on a summer afternoon.

Sarasota Spot

We continue to be impressed with the cultural offerings in our area.  The Music Mondays series charms, informs and delights us with conversation and performance from a different artist each week.  And last Thursday’s Sarasota Orchestra concert was over the top.  Put together a masterful rendition of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.4 given by pianist, painter, composer Stephen Hough, add in Elgar’s Enigma Variations (all 14 of them) under Anul Tali’s expressive conducting and you have a wonderful evening!  We enjoyed it as much as or more than some San Francisco Symphony concerts!

“Book Happy”

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As a child, I was entranced by my grandfather’s study.  Grandpa and Grandma lived on a quiet leafy street in a big brown house that always smelled warm and cozy and I felt embraced by it the moment I entered.  The study was a very small room.  There were bookcases on every wall and the desk was overflowing with papers and more books.  There were even stacks of books on the floor.  Other than the public library, it was more books in one place than I’d ever seen.

There was just enough room to turn around in and pivot to look at the shelves.  I was allowed to go in and just look which I did.  I couldn’t have been more than eight at the time and was already an avid reader.  These were books mostly about literature (Grandpa being a professor at the university) and while I wasn’t ready to read them, I liked gazing at the spines and pulling out an occasional volume here and there to inspect it.  The room smelled of paper and ink—slightly dusty—and I would spend long moments just contemplating the scene.  As I grew older, I spent more time here and would even read a few pages or an introduction.  Struck by all these books which Grandpa obviously cherished, I dubbed him “book happy.”

When I was a teenager, my grandparents moved to a split level house on the other side of their town.  With its new house fresh paint smell, it was spacious and modern and slightly standoffish, but Grandpa’s study on the ground floor was expansive—two to three times the size of the old one.  Here too there were bookcases lining the walls, a large desk, and the ever present stacks of books and papers on every surface, floor included.  This room was lighter and brighter than his old study, and I passed the time here as well, always welcomed into his lair by my grandfather.

Today, I have my own small study—not as many bookcases as Grandpa had, but still a wall of shelves including the New York edition of the works of Henry James, given to me by him and one of my treasures.  I do own a Kindle Paperwhite and I do appreciate the convenience of having many books on it when I travel, but there is a sameness to books read on a device. They all look alike.  At heart, I’m a lover of paper books and an acquisitive one at that.  I gave away hundreds of books before moving, but will continue to buy books going forward.  I like the feel of a book, that tactile experience, and I derive visual pleasure from the design and color of book jackets and the variety of fonts on the page.  I think it’s fair to say I’m “book happy” too.

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Movie of the Week:  I can’t recall if I ever walked out of a movie before, but this week I did. Given all the press “Birdman” was getting, we decided we should go see it.  Even beforehand, I didn’t particularly care for the premise.  I suffered through not quite an hour before I suggested we leave. Fortunately, my husband was in agreement.  I didn’t like any of the characters, thought the language was overly vulgar, and found the narrow corridors of the film’s setting dull and tedious.  I couldn’t take a second hour.  A woman I overheard the week before said she found the movie “weird,” but she didn’t say “don’t go to it.”  Anyway, not a winner for me.