Manhattan Moments: Seeing, Viewing, Reading, Pt. 2

ART OF ALL KINDS

The Whitney Biennial 2022 (Whitney Museum of American Art)

Roughly every two years since 1932, the Whitney has presented a survey of contemporary American art.  This year’s exhibit occupies two floors of the museum and includes more women than some years and, overall, a very diverse set of artists.  Viewing the exhibit, one might ask, what makes something art?  Here is sculpture, painting, film, and all sorts of strange and exotic arrangements.  One floor is white-walled and quite bright.  The other floor is black throughout and very dark.  

Detail of Row Houses…by Rick Lowe

Lots of the works did not appeal to me either aesthetically or otherwise, but I think that is part of the point—pushing beyond what many of us expect.  There were striking pieces like the representation of a woman standing in a sea of spent bullet shells or whimsical ones like the Palm Orchard of yellow trunked palm trees with colored spikes.  Here are a couple examples.

Ishkode (Fire) by Rebecca Belmore
Palm Forest by Alia Farid

POLITICAL HANKY-PANKY

Anatomy of a Scandal (Netflix)

Thanks to my friend, Patricia, I got onto this compelling 6-part series.  Based on a novel by Sarah Vaughan, it’s the account of a British cabinet minister facing trial for a rape charge brought by an associate with whom he had an affair.  James Whitehouse, the politician, is handsome and polished with a picture-perfect family—his blond wife Sophie and two young children.  The attorneys are both women, Angela Regan, for the defense and Kate Woodcroft, very precise and measured as the prosecutor. What is truth?  In the courtroom and in life?  And what constitutes a definition of rape?  

How each of these principals, James, Sophie, and Kate, handles the unfolding scandal and recalls their past histories, provides plenty of fuel for this gripping drama.  Michelle Dockery of Downton Abbey is the impressive Ms. Woodcroft.  For mature audiences.  Recommended!

SPY TURNED DECTECTIVE IN ITALY

Signora Volpe (Acorn)

A British spy on the outs with MI6 decamps to Umbria for her niece’s wedding.  No stranger to intrigue, Sylvia Fox suspects trouble with the fiancé and gets herself embroiled in a complicated criminal case.  Emilia Fox (who starred in the chef restaurant series, Delicious) is masterful as a former spy who finds herself settling into village life midst family and new friends.  

The beautiful Italian scenery is as much a character as are Sylvia’s sister Isabel, her brother-in-law Matteo, niece Alice, and the regional police chief, Giovanni Riva.  Each of the three episodes (only three, alas) is an hour and a half.  The pacing is somewhat leisurely, and there is a warmth and delight to the interrelationships.  Crime yes, but lots of local color too.  Highly recommended!

WOMEN WARRIORS IN THE AIR

A Sunlit Weapon by Jacqueline Winspear

Jacqueline Winspear has now churned out (although they don’t feel churned at all) seventeen Maisie Dobbs mysteries.  This latest one features Jo Hardy, a WWII female pilot who ferried fighter planes and other aircraft to where they were needed.  It was a dangerous exercise and not for those lacking in daring do.  When Jo approaches Maisie about an unsuccessful shot at her plane and another tragic incident, Maisie swoops into action. A soldier is missing and there is a plot to harm First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.  Her sidekick Billy provides reliable assistance, and her family and friends, along with new husband Mark Scott, play their familiar roles.  I thoroughly enjoyed this latest adventure with Maisie.  

Note: All photos by JWFarrington (some rights reserved).

On Screen & On the Page

FILMS AND BOOKS. From a daring adventurer (Gertrude Bell) and a fictional newly minted doctor, Ally Moberley, to a grief stricken father and son and devastated parents to murder and Belgian emigres, I’ve covered a lot of ground in my recent filmgoing and reading.  Much of it has been in international settings too: Persia and the Middle East, England and Japan and also Paris.  A lot of heavy stuff, but some of it (the latest Maisie Dobbs mystery) just enjoyable. A real potpourri!

FILM FARE

Letters from Baghdad

Gertrude Bell was a most remarkable woman. She, more than anyone else including T.E. Lawrence, was responsible for carving out the borders of what became Iraq and for establishing the Iraq Museum to house its antiquities. She traveled on her own to then Persia and other countries in the Middle East becoming knowledgeable about the lands and the native peoples. And she wrote several books.

After WWI, the British government hired her to work with them, the lone woman among powerful senior officials. Many of them had little regard for her initially, but she worked closely with Sir Percy Cox, High Commissioner for Mesopotamia, who was both mentor and protector. Brusque, arrogant and strong-willed, hers was a challenging personality. Thwarted in love, she maintained her close ties with her parents and wrote them wonderful letters.

What is amazing about this film is not only what it reveals about this accomplished, but less well known woman, but the fact that it makes use of very early archival films and is based on her letters and diaries and a biography by Janet Wallach.   The film is in black and white and Tilda Swinton is the voice of Gertrude Bell. Besides portraying a fascinating woman, it’s an absorbing history lesson.

Dean

This is a sweet film written by and starring Demetri Martin. It’s a portrait of male grief as a father and his adult son mourn the loss of their wife and mother. Both are somewhat lost souls, the son more so than the father. The father, affectingly played by Kevin Kline, decides to sell the family home, a decision upsetting to son Dean. Dean is an illustrator, formerly engaged to Michelle, who escapes NY for a job interview in Los Angeles. It’s not really his scene, but he stays with a friend, parties, and is attracted to Nicky, a charming young woman.

The film could have been tighter and shorter, but is worth seeing for how this father and son communicate or don’t. It’s different than how women do it. One final note, the drawings are clever and funny or morbid and all done by Martin.

RECENT READING 

Signs for Lost Children by Sarah Moss

This historical novel from Britain is best read slowly. Set in 1878, it concerns the intertwined lives and separate careers of architect Tom Cavendish and newly minted medical doctor, Ally Moberley. They marry just before he goes on assignment to Japan to oversee building a lighthouse. She, fascinated by diseases of the mind, starts work in an insane asylum in the English countryside. In alternating chapters, Moss presents what each of them is doing. They write letters, but their time apart is long and their young marriage fragile.

Moss’s writing is sensitive and nuanced and she is skilled at capturing the vagaries of weather and scenery and how they echo or inform Ally and Tom’s perceptions of themselves. I found the novel both moving and poignant.

 

The Heart by Maylis de Kerangal

Set in Paris and translated from the French, this is a beautifully written short novel about the death of a young man and all the steps from his accident to the transplantation of his heart. Covering the details of the accident and all of the people (doctors, nurses, technicians) whose lives and actions touch him afterward, it is intense, graphic, and matter-of-fact all at once. The sentences are long and almost unending as they unfurl, and the paragraphs few.

You, the reader, become acquainted with Simon’s parents in their moment of extreme distress and are privy to the medical policies and procedures that lead from them agreeing to donate his organs to the steps involved in making a match, to how the eventual heart transplant is carried out and to whom. I found this a hard novel to read despite its evocative writing.

In This Grave Hour by Jacqueline Winspear

The latest installment in Winspear’s Maisie Dobbs series is set in London just at the start of WWII as England declares war on Germany.  Private investigator Maisie is recruited to investigate the death of a railway worker who also happens to be an immigrant from Belgium.  He came over as a youth during the previous war and stayed to make his life in Britain. Other deaths, presumably also murders, occur and the search for answers widens.

The slate of characters, Maisie’s office staff Billy and Sandra, her friends Priscilla and Lady Rowan, and the detectives and inspectors, McFarlane and Stratton, are familiar from earlier books, but Winspear is good at providing a bit of backstory for new readers. These are mysteries that unfold slowly and precisely, made enjoyable by the force of Maisie’s personality and her fond adherence to the precepts she learned from her mentor Maurice. Good choice to take to the beach.

Note:  Header image at Brooklyn Botanic Garden ©JWFarrington; all other images are from the web, courtesy of PBS Learning Media, French Embassy, and Moss and Winspear’s own websites.

Booknote: Mysteries of Character

GEMMA, MAISIE, AND CLARE

My mother devoured mysteries.  I think when she was raising her four children they were pure escape.  She would read a Crime Club mystery in an evening and then read several more over the rest of a week—all of that required frequent trips to the public library.  I am more selective in which mysteries I like, but I do have a few favorite authors whose series I follow.   These are mystery novels featuring women detectives with these characters evolving over time.  Reading them in the order they were published enables the reader to share in how a relationship, whether it’s with a work partner or a romantic interest, deepens and changes.  For me, this is much more satisfying than a one-off crime novel. The books in these series are also well written.  Each author came to writing after some other career and with considerable life experience and each has won multiple awards for her writing. So, here is my first batch of favorites—for those who know me, there aren’t any surprises!

Deborah Crombie grew up near Dallas, Texas, lived in the U.K. with her first husband, a Scotsman, and then returned to the U.S. and Texas.  She loved England and her contemporary mysteries are set there and feature the Scotland Yard detective team of Duncan Kincaid and Gemma Jones.  The first books focused on Duncan, but then their relationship developed.  They became partners in life and often work together, whether officially or unofficially, on their cases.

The novels are rich with the complexities of children and stepchildren, ex-spouses, unreasonable bosses, challenging colleagues, and yes, murders with few clues.  One of her most recent titles which I just read and enjoyed is The Sound of Broken Glass.  There are at least 17 titles in the series—hard for me to believe I’ve read that many!

The Maisie Dobbs mystery novels by Jacqueline Winspear are mostly set in England in the period from WWI into the 1930’s.  Maisie is a psychologist and private investigator and a somewhat quirky woman taking advantage of the winds of social change.  Author Winspear was born and raised in the U.K., immigrated to the United States in 1990, and now lives in the San Francisco Bay area.  Several years ago, I had the pleasure of meeting her briefly when she was also a guest at an author lunch.

I find Winspear’s evocation of this earlier time in history to be fascinating and believable.  Besides Maisie, her other characters—Maisie’s father, her mentor Maurice, and her friend James Compton—come off the page and I find myself savoring the details of their lives and their interactions.   Currently, I’m reading the very latest Maisie Dobbs, A Dangerous Place, this one set in Gibraltar.

Unlike the other two writers, Julia Spencer-Fleming has always lived in the U.S. and has not strayed too far from home.  She grew up in Plattsburgh, NY as an army brat, went to law school and then practiced law before becoming a successful writer.  She now lives outside Portland, Maine.  Her main character, Clare Fergusson, is undoubtedly one of the more unusual detectives.  An ordained Episcopal priest, Clare has her own church in a small upstate NY town, and previously was a helicopter pilot in the army.  The town of Millers Kill is almost as much of a character as police chief Russ Van Alstyne with whom Clare collaborates.

Almost every book title is a phrase from a Protestant hymn and some chapter titles too, but don’t be put off, there is some church politics in the mix, but these are not preachy tomes.  One aspect of Spencer-Fleming’s work I particularly admire is her willingness to tackle contemporary issues within the context of a murder mystery, be it abandoned babies or the struggles of returning veterans.  You may find, as I do, that her stories stay with you.  One such for me was One Was a Soldier published in 2011.