Obituaries

I love to read the obituaries. For obvious reasons, they are an important vehicle to knowing what is going on in one's community. I often spot a friend's family member or an old co-worker who has died. I can more fully understand the story of my town that unfolds every day.

But in addition to that, obituaries are fascinating reading. Small stories of people's lives. Who were they? What did they enjoy? Who loved them? Who did they love?

In the olden days, the cause of death was always printed in the obituary but in the early 80's papers stopped the practice --probably driven by relatives who in the era of AIDS were embarrassed to have the cause of death publicly proclaimed. Cause of death became a private matter.

I love the long obituaries of women who you think never worked outside the home and there you find out they ran the PTO and the church bazaar and attended a book group and drove for meals on wheels and were active in the local historical society. I love reading professor's obituaries that list all the places to which they traveled and the books they wrote. I love the sweet tributes to young people who die. Touching people's lives for a small time but teaching them so much about the shortness and fragility of life.

People live such rich and full lives. I recently read that when George Harrison died the London Telegraph devoted 6 pages to his obituary. When Bob Hope died they devoted 2 pages to his. Most of us truly have a life story that could fill at least that much.

So, my early reviewer book for the month--interestingly enough is The Economist Book of Obituaries. This is a beautiful hardback book of 200 obituaries published by the Economist since 1994. This book is a obituary lovers dream and the writers of these mini-biographies painted fascinating portraits of famous and near famous people.

It is best read as a series of short biographies and it is fun to leaf through and pick out interesting ones. I have read about Brooke Astor and Alex the Parrot. I read the obituary of Steve Irwin and the guy who coined the term WASP.

If you like obituaries--you will love this beautiful book filled with well written stories of the famous and the near famous. If you like to write--take a turn at writing your obituary. What would you like it to say about you?

Who is Joan Didion?

As a freshman in Journalism School more than 20 years ago, one of my professors produced a list of journalists, known for the literary style of their writing. He told us to begin reading these men and women. I noted that I had never heard of most of the names on the list and I also promptly forgot about it to go on to whatever was occupying my time in college. Imagine, time for reading, in college!?

The name Joan Didion was on the list and it has haunted me ever since. I saw her name everywhere and on everything. I began to understand she was a prolific writer but had no curiosity about her other than to note she must be pretty old.

Recently, I was reading someone's "top five books that changed my life" and here was a curious title: We Tell Ourselves Stories in Order to Live by Joan Didion.

It was this very provocative title that finally prompted me to check out a book from the library. We Tell Ourselves Stories in Order to Live is a non-fiction collection of 7 of Joan Didion's books which were compilations of her long essays and journalism pieces written since the mid 1960's.

She writes of celebrities (John Wayne and Joan Baez and Howard Hughes) and the hippy culture of California and scandalous murder trials. Her writing is clear and her stories are tightly woven. The writing has a kind of 1960's feel to it--the style and the topics and at times it feels like a there are a few too many acid trips, but it is important writing and as the stories travel on through the years her writing stays fresh and original.

The title of the book aptly describes the power of storytelling to heal, to entertain, to inform and to paint a compelling portrait of the world we inhabit. We DO tell ourselves stories in order to live.

Ms Didion won a National Book Award for her most recent book The Year of Magical Thinking. This is the account of the year after her husband of 40 years died and her daughter was gravely ill. Joan Didion was in her 70s when she wrote this. I am finally reading my college reading list, about 20 years late.

Discovering Didion's work after all these years is really a perfect illustration of how the perfect book arrives at your door just when you need to read it. What books have you read at the right time?

Soldiers Heart: Reading Literature Through Peace and War at West Point

I am part of an early reviewer program. Once a month, a website that I belong to, posts a list of about 40-50 books that publishers are offering for early review. I request the ones I think I would like to read and at the end of the month I am notified if I get a book. The publisher mails me a free book and in return I write a review and post it on the website www.librarything.com

There is no expectation that I write a positive review--only that i read and write about the book. For awhile I was getting a new book every month. I got to read some really good books and a few dogs. One--a terrible mystery--I could not get through and thus, I did not write a review, but for the most part, I read and wrote about everything that I was sent.

After about 6 months of not getting selected to review a book, I received Soldier's Heart by Elizabeth D. Samet. Soldiers Heart is an English professor's memoir about her life teaching the cadets at West Point about literature and poetry.

Here's the funny thing about the book: it is not a new book. It has been on the market since 2006 and has won several prizes. I can't figure out why it is an early review. It might be because the book was just released in paperback with a new afterward by the author, but really, it has been out for awhile and has been fairly well received.

How do I know this? Well other than the fact that it says so on the cover of the book I received, it turns out I already bought the book when it first came out in hardback!. I actually bought the book as a gift for my mother two years ago for Christmas.

The idea itself is fascinating. Lets take a look at West Point--the place where army officers are trained to go to war--and hear an expert tell how soldiers learn to appreciate poetry. How do officers become "warrior-poets"? The book illustrates perfectly one of the lessons I am always trying to teach my advisees: the liberal arts teaches someone to think. If I were on the battlefield, I would feel more comfortable if the man or woman I was following thought critically about his situation-largely as taught by reading and writing.

Ms Samet is an excellent writer. He work is infused with lessons taught and learned through poetry and prose. She examines West Point from the point of view of courage and faith. She examines the experience of women at West Point and tells of hearing about 9/11 and some of her students who were killed in Iraq.

I do not think the new afterward added much to the work but overall, readers should find this story of life at West Point a compelling one.

The memoir is a lovely thing and I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in seeing the inside of this military academy or is interested in the power and beauty of a liberal arts education.

Thanksgiving Reading

I am off to Ohio and Kentucky for Thanksgiving festivities. I brought three books with me. The first, which I finished quickly, was the new book out by Malcolm Gladwell called Outliers. If you have read either of Mr. Gladwell's books then you will know his observations and essays on modern life and ways of thinking are fascinating. He knows how to tell a story.

Gladwell has a general theme--in the case of Outliers the theme is "what makes someone successful?"--then he he writes a series of stories and parables and case studies to illustrate his theme. Blink is about the power of intuition in making decisions. The Tipping Point is about how fads and ideas become popular.

Outliers, Gladwell's most personal book, keeps to the style of the previous two works. He writes about surprising ideas and interesting ways of looking at things. It will help you to understand the Beatles and Bill Gates and math in an entirely new way. I now know that the secret to success is 10,000 hours. I've only got about 9,000 more to go.

The second book I brought which I am halfway through is called "Soldiers Heart: Reading Literature Through Peace and War at West Point." by Elizabeth Samet. More on this later. I will review it as part of an agreement with an early reviewers program that I am a part of. (Free books in return for a review!)

The third book is a biography of the great etiquette expert Emily Post. I may not get to this in the wake of Black Friday shopping and a wedding later tonight.

But really, read Outliers. You'll be very happy you did. Then check out Gladwell's other two books. Available all over any bookstore and I am sure one can check them out after a short wait at the library.

Steve Martin Two-fer

I have always been interested in artists who can successfully cross genres. What is more interesting than a ballet dancer who likes to sing in a jazz band or a poet who can write short stories? It is interesting to see what an artist is like in another field. This is what first drew me to the novella Shopgirl by Steve Martin which I picked up for .25 cents at the Red Cross Book Fair.

One glance at the book jacket and I knew, yup, it was that Steve Martin: comedian, actor and general all around funny guy. I have always like Mr. Martin. His movies are generally feel good experiences and he has a kind and likable personality. I saw the movie Shopgirl several years ago and did not remember it very well, so I thought I would read the novella.

Not long after I bought the book I saw Martin interviewed on The Daily Show. John Stewart reminded the audience of Mr. Martin’s memoir Born Standing Up in which he recounts his life as a stand up comedian and how he got his start in the business. I decided to go on an all Steve Martin reading bonanza.

Shopgirl took place almost exclusively in the character's heads. The thoughts and actions and motivations of each character were first and foremost on the writer’s mind. Sure they went out to dinner, but they had few conversations and seemed to exist in a sort of dreamy, quiet world. It felt like everyone whispered and cried and sulked. It was a love story of sorts, and I can’t say I liked it, but it was an intriguing book. I think the movie may have been better.

I enjoyed Born Standing Up much more. Steve Martin is well educated and very smart and from this it is easy to see how he became a successful comedian. It is a lot of hard work, meeting the right people and being in the right place. Martin told a mostly chronological tale of how he got his start and what some of his early influences were. It was a compelling read that brought home how difficult the stand up life is. He talked about his years on Saturday night live and writing for the Sonny and Cher show. The most profound and revealing parts of this memoir are when he discusses his relationship with his parents. It felt like a tiny part of the whole story, but it many ways it loomed very large. These short sentences and remembrances of his parents were always moving. Perhaps what is most telling about this memoir is that Martin is not extraordinary in his drug use or his being abused or abusing people. He only behaves outrageously as a part of his act, but not as a fellow citizen of the planet. He just is a good hard-working man, and he can write well about how he got to where he is.

So there you have it—a pair of Steve Martin books. Now I’ll have to rent The Jerk.

In case you were wondering who I was voting for...

Bob Gonyea gets credit for the photo. Thanks Bob!

Loving Frank by Nancy Horan

I took a break from reading memoirs this past week to read a lovely work of historical fiction that was highly recommended to me by Sweetcakes.

I had to refrain from looking up Frank Lloyd Wright on the internet or learning anything about his real life as the story unfolded as I was tempted to do. Several readers warned me that it would spoil the end of the book for me.

This heartbreaking story was meticulously researched by Nancy Horan. She read newspaper accounts of the time, biographies of Frank Wright and Mamah Borthwick and also histories of early feminism. As I writer, I know that capturing this kind of story on paper is one of the most interesting and challenging to write. Ms. Horan has taken a true story of love, rebellion, feminism, tradgedy and social mores and imagined all the scenes that may have happened between the two lovers and the children and the spouses that were involved. It was a fascinating story and if you have not read it, I highly recommend it. Thanks Sweetcakes!

If you do not know the story of what happened to Frank and Mamah at Taliesen--read the book first and then go to Wikipedia for the story.