Reunion with Old Friends

I feel like I just spent time with old friends after completing Ellen Gilchrist's most recent short story collection, Acts of God.  Initially, I was a bit disappointed in the book. Some of the stories felt a bit like fluff stuff. For instance, "Collateral" - about a single mother in the National Guard who helps out after Katrina - seems too much like chick lit.  But by the time I got to "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor," and saw Anna Hand's niece had a starring role in this story about terrorist attacks in London, I felt right at home.  And in "The Dogs," I got to hear from good ole Rhonda Manning, who is up to her old tricks. "The Dissolution of the Myelin Sheath" was a beautiful story about a woman taking her life in her own hands. "A Love Story" was a gem of a short, short story. And it just got better with the final two stories in the collection - "Jumping Off Bridges into Clean Water"  and "Hopedale: A History in Four Acts." All the stories in this book are centered on people dealing with natural and unnatural forces which are beyond their control - hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, disease, death - all acts of God.  And Ellen Gilchrist's unique voice - down to earth, honest and so real - make each one of these situations feel genuine and true. The stories feel like they are being told on the front porch.

Since finishing this book, I've been thinking a lot about why I adore the writing of Ellen Gilchrist. First, I think she is a master of the short story. Second, her characters are accessible. They are my people. One character in "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor" who was a Jackson, MIssissippi society lady said, "I'm not interesting. I'm a cliche inside a self-fulfilling prophecy inside a stereotype." Whoa, Ellen nailed it with that line. I know that woman and many others like her.  Not only does Ellen Gilchrist write about my people, she also writes about my places - Jackson, New Orleans, the Mississippi Gulf Coast, the Delta. Her characters populate my world and I feel like I'm with old friends.  Ellen Gilchrist's books are among the very short list of books I actually re-read. I relate to her characters even now, 31 years after I started reading them. I received my first Ellen Gilchrist book, In the Land of Dreamy Dreams, from my dear friend Beth in 1983. I guess you could say Ellen's characters and I have grown into middle age together.

Best Books First

“Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all.”

― Henry David Thoreau, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers

Thoreau was right. There are so many books to read that sometimes I feel overwhelmed and I am definitely not going to waste my precious time with books that are not the best. So I follow Thoreau's advice and read the best books first. Recently, I've enjoyed The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh, Carry on Warrior by Glennon Doyle Melton, Flora and Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo and The Great Unexpected by Sharon Creech. Two children's books, one essay collection, and one novel. 

I'm calling Carry on Warrior an essay collection, but it's really a collection of blog posts by my new hero, Glennon Doyle Melton. Her honesty and skilled storytelling echo Anne Lamott, my favorite truth teller.  She says, “I used to numb my feelings and hide, and now I feel my feelings and I share them. I’m not afraid of my feelings anymore. I know they can come and they won’t kill me. And that they can take over for a little while if they need to. But at the end of the day, they’re just guides. They’re guides to tell me what the next right thing is for me to do.” Read her blog, Momastery, and you'll want to read this book. More later about the other books…

"The Word" from Word, Wisconsin

“What I do know is that God loves us, completely, every one of us, all the time, and upon that single fact the hundred billion stars are hung. That love is both the source and the cause of all life.” Those words from David Rhodes’ Driftless are one of my favorite book lines ever. And I’ve underlined millions of lines in books over the years. Driftless is one of those rare books that I read with no preconceived notion, no idea what the book was even about. My wonderful friend Beverly recommended it for our book club and I downloaded it on my Kindle and read, never even having seen the book in a store or library.  It was a delightful surprise.

Published in 2008, Driftless is a series of connected chapters about the different characters in a very small town in the driftless zone of Wisconsin. Driftless is a geological term referring to the fact that the retreating glaciers at the end of the Ice Age somehow missed this area, creating a unique topography.  The town portrayed in the book – Word – is also unique, and also bypassed by the modern world in many ways.  A central figure emerges like Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kitteridge to connect all the characters in the novel.  The enigmatic July Montgomery reaches out to each character in different ways, but seems to understand what each person needs most. As a reader, I was deeply involved in and connected to each character. July Montgomery was more in the background of each person’s story.  As the narratives began to overlap, each person in the book was equally important to me and July’s importance becomes more clear. I won’t say more, but if you liked Olive Kitteridge, you will love this novel. It’s not a religious book, even though my opening quote in this review might make you think that. It’s a book about humanity and hope and redemption and community.

David Rhodes is a highly skilled writer and I can’t believe I’ve never heard of him. I learned that he wrote three critically acclaimed novels thirty years ago and then disappeared after a motorcycle accident left him paralyzed.  Driftless is his first book since the accident. I hope to see many more "words" from this intriguing author.

In case you’ve been wondering what I’ve been reading this year (since I’ve been sporadic on this blog), here is a list. I want to review several of them, but you’ll have to wait. Starting with the most recent (before Driftless), I’ve read The House Girl by Tara Conklin, The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd, Proof of Heaven by Eben Alexander, Still Life with Bread Crumbs by Anna Quinlen, Wild by Cheryl Strayed, Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter, The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt and Wonder by R. J. Palacio. I’ve only reviewed Wild, but I’d love to tell you about Wonder (amazing!!) and The Night Circus. But that will have to be another day! Happy reading!

The Journey Through Fear

I just finished the book, Wild by Cheryl Strayed. I know I'm way behind in reading this memoir by woman who hiked the Pacific Crest Trail several years ago, but I'd heard that the book was ordinary and whining.  So I thought it could wait. But I have to say Wild was well-written, poetic in places and inspirational. I love stories about ordinary people who do amazing things and that is just what this book was about.

Cheryl Strayed hiked 1,100 miles from the Mojave Desert to the southern border of Washington State woefully unprepared for the ardor and hardships she would face as a woman alone in the wilderness.  The book is about that hike, but - more than that - very much about grief and loss. Strayed hikes the trail alone to face all of her weaknesses and she emerges a much stronger woman, healed in so many ways. 

At one point, she says, “I knew that if I allowed fear to overtake me, my journey was doomed. Fear, to a great extent, is born of a story we tell ourselves, and so I chose to tell myself a different story from the one women are told. I decided I was safe. I was strong. I was brave. Nothing could vanquish me.” 

Recently selected as a Giver for World Book Night in April, Wild is the book that I will be giving away for free to 20 women - light or nonreaders - here in Houston. I know that the book will inspire them as much as it did me.

Mystery and Beauty in NYC

 My love of New York City and my love of books are intertwined in my heart. I grew up reading my most beloved books set in New York City - Eloise, Harriet the Spy, Lyle, Lyle Crocodile and From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankenweiler. So it’s no surprise that every time I visit NYC, I pay homage to the fictional city of my childhood and the book lovers paradise I know as an adult.

On a visit to the city early in December, everything I did was part of my interwoven love of books and New York City. It all started with a visit to The Frick Collection to see the Dutch Masters Exhibit. There I saw The Goldfinch, which inspired the new bestseller by Donna Tartt.  I’m enjoying reading that book right now and having seen the painting has enhanced my pleasure in this amazing book.

Later that same day, I visited the Metropolitan Museum in honor of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. The Egyptian tomb brought back memories of Claudia and Jamie’s adventures in the Met in E.L. Konisgberg’s book.  I read the book to my older daughter before taking her to the Met when she was ten.

I finished this literary NYC day with a top-notch production of Twelfth Night. This repertory performance with the amazing Mark Rylance used reproductions of the costumes and instruments actually used in that time. And the words of Shakespeare never fail to disappoint and amuse.

The highlight of my next day was the Broadway production of “Matilda the Musical” based on the Roald Dahl book is about an extremely smart little girl who loves books. The play espouses the idea that reading books is revolutionary. Surrounded by book lovers young and old, we all cheered on the irrepressibly intelligent Matilda. I was in my element.

I capped off this literary visit on my last morning with a visit to the New York Public Library to luxuriate in the Reading Room and visit a special exhibition called “The ABC of It: Why Children’s Books Matter.”  This wonderful exhibit pretty much summed up my visit. From Goodnight Moon to Where the Wild Things Are to The Phantom Tollbooth to Harriet the Spy, old friends from my childhood surrounded me. I spent at least an hour enthralled by the history of children’s books and all the fine specimens on display.

A visit to the reading room at the Public Library was my last stop. My photo here doesn’t do justice to this palace of the book.

This city and its books mirror “all the mystery and the beauty in the world,” as F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote of New York in The Great Gatsby. 

In Peace, Charlotte Zolotow

I woke up this morning to the sad news that children's book author Charlotte Zolotow died at age 98. She was something special and her books reflected her sensitivity and awareness of children's deepest feelings. My mother read me her books and I read them to my children and they will surely read the books to theirs. Mr.Rabbit and the Lovely Present, Big Sister and Little Sister, I Like to Be Little, Over and Over, Someday are all books I treasure. She inspired me as a child and continues to touch my heart as an adult.

The obituary in today's New York Times says that she was an awkward shy child with a back brace, black eyeglasses and orthodontic braces. "She found solace in books and determined early to be a writer," the obit says. In addition to her children's books, she was also an editor and brought books like the Newberry-award-winning Sarah, Plain and Tall to millions of young readers. 

Zolotow was honest and straightforward with children because as she once said, "We are all the same, except that adults have found ways to buffer themselves against the full-blown intensity of a child's emotions."

I pulled out my copies of her books and the pages are worn and the covers torn. These books have been loved.

Rest in peace, Charlotte Zolotow.