Karen
A mixture of a memoir of the author growing up grieving her father, an artist and heroin addict, who died when she was an adolescent, and a journalistic investigation of her father through his relationships with friends and family members, and his art. This book is heart wrenching, but also a very beautiful and brave attempt to come to terms with complicated love and grief.
The text is illustrated with black and white photos of the art of Joseph Schactman and family photos of the author with her mother and father.
A mixture of a memoir of the author growing up grieving her father, an artist and heroin addict, who died when she was an adolescent, and a journalistic investigation of her father through his relationships with friends and family members, and his art. This book is heart wrenching, but also a very beautiful and brave attempt to come to terms with complicated love and grief.
The text is illustrated with black and white photos of the art of Joseph Schactman and family photos of the author with her mother and father.
Even though some brutal stuff happens in this novel, I'd still call it gentle. Patrick DeWitt treats his characters, all weirdos in their own ways, with tenderness, even though life doesn't.
Bob Comet, retired librarian, ostensibly someone who reads about life instead of living it, finds a confused old lady at the 7-11 and returns her to the senior center where she resides. His experience at the senior center inspires him to ask the manager if he could volunteer there, and she reluctantly agrees. She tells him that most of the volunteers they've had gave up quickly, because they couldn't cope with the residents.
As you might guess, Bob Comet perseveres at the senior center, with some ups and downs. In the process, we learn about his past: his failed marriage, his failed friendship, his youthful adventure as a runaway, and the significance of the Hotel Elba in his life.
Although I liked this book, it does teeter on the edge of the "loveable, quirky old folks" trope AND it plays dangerously with the "librarian who reads instead of living" stereotype (though I would argue it doesn't really buy into that last one). It also has more than a tinge of melancholy.
Even though some brutal stuff happens in this novel, I'd still call it gentle. Patrick DeWitt treats his characters, all weirdos in their own ways, with tenderness, even though life doesn't.
Bob Comet, retired librarian, ostensibly someone who reads about life instead of living it, finds a confused old lady at the 7-11 and returns her to the senior center where she resides. His experience at the senior center inspires him to ask the manager if he could volunteer there, and she reluctantly agrees. She tells him that most of the volunteers they've had gave up quickly, because they couldn't cope with the residents.
As you might guess, Bob Comet perseveres at the senior center, with some ups and downs. In the process, we learn about his past: his failed marriage, his failed friendship, his youthful adventure as a runaway, and the significance of the Hotel Elba in his life.
Although I liked this book, it does teeter on the edge of the "loveable, quirky old folks" trope AND it plays dangerously with the "librarian who reads instead of living" stereotype (though I would argue it doesn't really buy into that last one). It also has more than a tinge of melancholy.
This is a behemoth of a book at 645 pages. It's very readable history of ACT UP New York, with interviews from surviving members of ACT UP, pages of photos, and appendices for primary source documents. Unlike some histories, this one contains the personal voice and perspective of the author, who was also an active member of ACT UP. Schulman covers ACT UP's meeting format, the affinity groups and other interest groups that formed, planning and execution of actions, and the tensions that formed between the group of ACT UP members who would meet and work with government and pharmaceutical companies and those who carried out the disruptive protests and actions in the streets (and workplaces, and churches, and news organizations...). It was completely fascinating.
This is a behemoth of a book at 645 pages. It's very readable history of ACT UP New York, with interviews from surviving members of ACT UP, pages of photos, and appendices for primary source documents. Unlike some histories, this one contains the personal voice and perspective of the author, who was also an active member of ACT UP. Schulman covers ACT UP's meeting format, the affinity groups and other interest groups that formed, planning and execution of actions, and the tensions that formed between the group of ACT UP members who would meet and work with government and pharmaceutical companies and those who carried out the disruptive protests and actions in the streets (and workplaces, and churches, and news organizations...). It was completely fascinating.
This is a good old fashioned melodramatic thriller set mostly in the fictional town of Ruffano, Italy. Armino Fabbio, a tour guide for a Genoan tour company, has a chance encounter with an old woman who reminds him of the nurse who took care of him as a child in Ruffano. When she is later murdered, he leaves his job and sets off for Ruffano to see if he can verify if it really was Marta, his old nurse. As he comes back to the town he left as an 11 year old boy in the chaos of the end of World War II, he is drawn into the intrigues between factions at the university that threaten to engulf the whole town, and he finds that his family drama is at the center of them.
I was instantly drawn in and read this compulsively in two sittings. The melodrama hit the spot. I especially appreciated the mirroring of the town's (fictional) historic drama between medieval Dukes Claudio and Carlo that is essential to the plot.
This is a good old fashioned melodramatic thriller set mostly in the fictional town of Ruffano, Italy. Armino Fabbio, a tour guide for a Genoan tour company, has a chance encounter with an old woman who reminds him of the nurse who took care of him as a child in Ruffano. When she is later murdered, he leaves his job and sets off for Ruffano to see if he can verify if it really was Marta, his old nurse. As he comes back to the town he left as an 11 year old boy in the chaos of the end of World War II, he is drawn into the intrigues between factions at the university that threaten to engulf the whole town, and he finds that his family drama is at the center of them.
I was instantly drawn in and read this compulsively in two sittings. The melodrama hit the spot. I especially appreciated the mirroring of the town's (fictional) historic drama between medieval Dukes Claudio and Carlo that is essential to the plot.
I appreciate this novel for giving me the opportunity to put "spontaneous combustion" in my tags.
Fallon Kazan and her two brothers, Ovid and Terrence (sometimes known as Cosmo), are adults dealing with the fallout of their mother's apparent spontaneous combustion in the Chilean desert when they were on a family trip as children. Their relationships with each other are turbulent, and Fallon and Ovid have trouble building lives for themselves in the world. Their father, Walter, is a passive man who doesn't know how to help them and may not even think it is his role to help them. This is the state of things in the beginning of the novel. When Ovid has a crisis, things begin to shift in the story. Fallon is led to set off on a journey of discovery in the very car her family was driving in Chile when her mother disappeared in a flash of fire.
In many ways this is a conventional story of adult siblings navigating the aftermath of trauma from their childhood, coming to new understanding of what happened to them, and learning to trust themselves and each other. It was the unexpected elements of the story that made it fun to read. The hints of magical realism in Blue Woman Burning add to the sense that the world of the Kazans is seriously off kilter. Eustacia's over the top personality repeating itself in Ovid, her obsession with him, and his behavior after her exit from their lives suggests not just family drama, but family horror. Fallon's experiences and the people she meets on her epic journey are imaginative and build meaning within the story. I really liked being surprised over and over by what happened next.
I do wish that the character of Walter, their father, had more development. I had so many questions about him. He had enough of a personality to persuade Eustacia not to name her daughter Fallopia and her son Ovum, but almost nothing is said about his reaction to Eustacia's fiery exit. Is his passivity and helplessness in later life because of that or something else? Despite these questions, I really enjoyed the book.
I appreciate this novel for giving me the opportunity to put "spontaneous combustion" in my tags.
Fallon Kazan and her two brothers, Ovid and Terrence (sometimes known as Cosmo), are adults dealing with the fallout of their mother's apparent spontaneous combustion in the Chilean desert when they were on a family trip as children. Their relationships with each other are turbulent, and Fallon and Ovid have trouble building lives for themselves in the world. Their father, Walter, is a passive man who doesn't know how to help them and may not even think it is his role to help them. This is the state of things in the beginning of the novel. When Ovid has a crisis, things begin to shift in the story. Fallon is led to set off on a journey of discovery in the very car her family was driving in Chile when her mother disappeared in a flash of fire.
In many ways this is a conventional story of adult siblings navigating the aftermath of trauma from their childhood, coming to new understanding of what happened to them, and learning to trust themselves and each other. It was the unexpected elements of the story that made it fun to read. The hints of magical realism in Blue Woman Burning add to the sense that the world of the Kazans is seriously off kilter. Eustacia's over the top personality repeating itself in Ovid, her obsession with him, and his behavior after her exit from their lives suggests not just family drama, but family horror. Fallon's experiences and the people she meets on her epic journey are imaginative and build meaning within the story. I really liked being surprised over and over by what happened next.
I do wish that the character of Walter, their father, had more development. I had so many questions about him. He had enough of a personality to persuade Eustacia not to name her daughter Fallopia and her son Ovum, but almost nothing is said about his reaction to Eustacia's fiery exit. Is his passivity and helplessness in later life because of that or something else? Despite these questions, I really enjoyed the book.
Sometimes you're in the mood for a book about a woman marooned on an island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, battling bears, starvation, and her own demons. If that's you right now, this is your book. Best of all, this novel is based on a true story.
In the novel, Marguerite de la Rocque's parents die when she is a young girl, and her care is left to her unscrupulous kinsman Roberval. Roberval speculates with her inheritance and loses it, so Marguerite's house and lands are rented out and she and her small household are packed off to live in an outbuilding. Roberval's moods are unpredictable and he seems to take pleasure in keeping Marguerite off balance, so we quickly understand that he isn't just unscrupulous with money, he's an all around bad guy. There's no recourse for Marguerite. She's at his mercy and no one is going to hold him accountable for taking her money.
When Marguerite comes of age, Roberval brings her and her nurse Damienne to his house in La Rochelle, and from there on board his ship sailing to New France, where he has been declared viceroy. On the voyage, Marguerite falls in love with his secretary, August, and when Roberval discovers this, he maroons the pair of them (and Damienne) on an island there, with their belongings and some supplies. The story moves from maddening injustice to Robinson Crusoe, as the castaways figure out how to take care of themselves alone on the island, and then to heartbreak as hardships set in.
The theme of religious faith and questioning in this book is handled so well. Marguerite compares her faith to that of her companions and finds herself lacking because she doesn't passively accept her lot, but chafes against her restrictions and tries to make things better for herself. She feels unhappy, complains, and asks for what she wants, while her closest female companions pray much more, and don't complain. Marguerite does experience a dark night of the soul in this book, and while she doesn't come out of it behaving more like those companions, she has more maturity and steadiness than she did before.
A really worthwhile read!
Sometimes you're in the mood for a book about a woman marooned on an island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, battling bears, starvation, and her own demons. If that's you right now, this is your book. Best of all, this novel is based on a true story.
In the novel, Marguerite de la Rocque's parents die when she is a young girl, and her care is left to her unscrupulous kinsman Roberval. Roberval speculates with her inheritance and loses it, so Marguerite's house and lands are rented out and she and her small household are packed off to live in an outbuilding. Roberval's moods are unpredictable and he seems to take pleasure in keeping Marguerite off balance, so we quickly understand that he isn't just unscrupulous with money, he's an all around bad guy. There's no recourse for Marguerite. She's at his mercy and no one is going to hold him accountable for taking her money.
When Marguerite comes of age, Roberval brings her and her nurse Damienne to his house in La Rochelle, and from there on board his ship sailing to New France, where he has been declared viceroy. On the voyage, Marguerite falls in love with his secretary, August, and when Roberval discovers this, he maroons the pair of them (and Damienne) on an island there, with their belongings and some supplies. The story moves from maddening injustice to Robinson Crusoe, as the castaways figure out how to take care of themselves alone on the island, and then to heartbreak as hardships set in.
The theme of religious faith and questioning in this book is handled so well. Marguerite compares her faith to that of her companions and finds herself lacking because she doesn't passively accept her lot, but chafes against her restrictions and tries to make things better for herself. She feels unhappy, complains, and asks for what she wants, while her closest female companions pray much more, and don't complain. Marguerite does experience a dark night of the soul in this book, and while she doesn't come out of it behaving more like those companions, she has more maturity and steadiness than she did before.
A really worthwhile read!
The lifelong friendship of Leah Hanwell and Natalie (Keisha) Blake takes place against the backdrop of Willesden, a working class borough in the Northwest of London that is home to Irish, South Asian, and African immigrants. The two girls lived there with their families as children, did well enough in school to go to university, and have both made it "out" of the neighborhood as adults, but are still very much rooted there. Although the action of the novel centers around Leah, Natalie, and a young man named Felix, Willesden itself is arguably a character in its own right. Its shops and restaurants, alleys and bus stops, parks and churchyards are populated with people who are struggling, joyful, weary, gentle, violent, philosophical, etc. There are some truly delightful scenes that depict the character of the place.
Although I enjoyed the novel, I didn't understand the structure of it. The central section (and the longest), called Host, tells the story of Leah and Natalie's friendship from its beginning when they were girls to a point where Natalie comes to a crisis in her adult life, in 178 sections ranging from as short as one sentence to as long as several pages. The sections before and after Host are fairly traditional narratives, so this read to me at first like notes for the backstory of the novel. After a while I got used to the different pace and structure of that section and it didn't feel so disjointed anymore, but I still wonder about the reason for the style change.
Anyway, if you like novels about female friendship, give this one a try. The two main characters are excellent and their friendship is real.
The lifelong friendship of Leah Hanwell and Natalie (Keisha) Blake takes place against the backdrop of Willesden, a working class borough in the Northwest of London that is home to Irish, South Asian, and African immigrants. The two girls lived there with their families as children, did well enough in school to go to university, and have both made it "out" of the neighborhood as adults, but are still very much rooted there. Although the action of the novel centers around Leah, Natalie, and a young man named Felix, Willesden itself is arguably a character in its own right. Its shops and restaurants, alleys and bus stops, parks and churchyards are populated with people who are struggling, joyful, weary, gentle, violent, philosophical, etc. There are some truly delightful scenes that depict the character of the place.
Although I enjoyed the novel, I didn't understand the structure of it. The central section (and the longest), called Host, tells the story of Leah and Natalie's friendship from its beginning when they were girls to a point where Natalie comes to a crisis in her adult life, in 178 sections ranging from as short as one sentence to as long as several pages. The sections before and after Host are fairly traditional narratives, so this read to me at first like notes for the backstory of the novel. After a while I got used to the different pace and structure of that section and it didn't feel so disjointed anymore, but I still wonder about the reason for the style change.
Anyway, if you like novels about female friendship, give this one a try. The two main characters are excellent and their friendship is real.
I was in middle school when Ronald Reagan was elected and a teenager when AIDS was an epidemic. I remember Angels in America coming out and people talking about it, but this is the first time I've read it. Reading and talking about drama is not my forte, but this play (these two plays?) put me back in those times. Although I remember that expectations around masculinity and femininity were rigid and the stigma against being gay was absolute, it's easy to intellectualize it now and forget the feeling of airlessness and stricture the sexual politics of the time had. Not that these issues are all in the past....
In 2025 putting these issues, and the intimate details of the lives of gay men with AIDS, on stage doesn't seem daring, however relevant it might still be. But in the early 1990's it must have been radical. Reading this play now, I am thankful to Tony Kushner and everyone else who insisted on talking about the lives of gay men during the AIDS epidemic, about the lives of gay and lesbian and transgender people in general, and on putting those issues in front of Americans. This play brings the hypocrisy, denial, shame, and racial and sexual bigotry that lurked behind the US's official policies toward gay men in particular out into the light of day, and let some air into the room for everyone to take a breath and see a little more clearly. If we were willing.
I was in middle school when Ronald Reagan was elected and a teenager when AIDS was an epidemic. I remember Angels in America coming out and people talking about it, but this is the first time I've read it. Reading and talking about drama is not my forte, but this play (these two plays?) put me back in those times. Although I remember that expectations around masculinity and femininity were rigid and the stigma against being gay was absolute, it's easy to intellectualize it now and forget the feeling of airlessness and stricture the sexual politics of the time had. Not that these issues are all in the past....
In 2025 putting these issues, and the intimate details of the lives of gay men with AIDS, on stage doesn't seem daring, however relevant it might still be. But in the early 1990's it must have been radical. Reading this play now, I am thankful to Tony Kushner and everyone else who insisted on talking about the lives of gay men during the AIDS epidemic, about the lives of gay and lesbian and transgender people in general, and on putting those issues in front of Americans. This play brings the hypocrisy, denial, shame, and racial and sexual bigotry that lurked behind the US's official policies toward gay men in particular out into the light of day, and let some air into the room for everyone to take a breath and see a little more clearly. If we were willing.
This is a great anthology of folktales from around the world and many different cultures featuring women and girls as heroines who solve problems and rescue others with their wisdom, intelligence, and courage, and who make their own destinies instead of having them made for them by others. Each story has a brief commentary (1-2 short paragraphs, half a page at most) by the author at the end. I found the commentary a little uneven, but it's a small enough part of the book that it's easy to ignore. There are end notes and an index in the back, along with a list of selected "further reading," including picture books, young adult books, and secondary literature.
Overall, I really enjoyed this!
This is a great anthology of folktales from around the world and many different cultures featuring women and girls as heroines who solve problems and rescue others with their wisdom, intelligence, and courage, and who make their own destinies instead of having them made for them by others. Each story has a brief commentary (1-2 short paragraphs, half a page at most) by the author at the end. I found the commentary a little uneven, but it's a small enough part of the book that it's easy to ignore. There are end notes and an index in the back, along with a list of selected "further reading," including picture books, young adult books, and secondary literature.
Overall, I really enjoyed this!
