Month: August 2015

Crossing to Safety-Wallace Stegner

/ a literary explorer

In the past year I have become a huge Wallace Stegner fan-The Angle of Repose was probably my favorite book read in 2014. Crossing to Safety is a deeply absorbing and as Stegner referred to it a “quiet book”. The story of the friendship of two couples is told in the span of a day. Larry and Sally Morgan and Sid and Charity Lang meet in Wisconsin young and starting their academic careers-they share a love of literature. They are the combination of Eastern intellect (The Langs) and Western intellect (The Morgans). Larry is the dedicated and ambitious writer and Sid the hidden poet /at heart good teacher/lacking drive- Sally the supportive spouse and Charity the exacting partner. You follow them through summers in Vermont (a true east coast tribal affair),WWII, a year in Florence and ultimately the last day back in Vermont to visit a dying friend.

There are successes and tragedies-moments of intense emotional clarity and compassion and moments of exactitude and manipulation but through it all there is an abiding friendship. Early on you learn of Sally’s polio later you learn of the Lang’s generosity in their support. You identify with Larry’s drive, Sid’s kindness, Sally’s motivation to not be a burden, and Charity’s relentless desire for the best for her loved ones. Interspersed are some extremely funny moments-Moe one of the Lang’s son-in-laws and a highly respected and published economist refers to the Lang women as a pride and perhaps everyone should recognize it as such and why that is alright with him and some extremely touching ones-Larry’s still wanting to throttle the Doctor that nearly cost him both Sally and his daughter during their daughter Lang’s delivery even twenty five years after the fact.

Stegner effortlessly has the reader evaluate the importance of ambition and success, what it is to be bound to another, can adversity deepen a relationship and how perhaps the inner workings of a lifetime together should only be the province of the participants. He shows us that life is quiet and complicated and that there is beauty in simplicity and nature. Crossing to Safety is the type of book that you take with you into your day and are the much better for it.

The Blazing World-Siri Hustvedt

/ a literary explorer

Immediately from the title you know that your heroine will be an exceptional and controversial character. “The Blazing World” was the title of a work by Margaret Cavendish, the Duchess of Newcastle. While Margaret Cavendish published under her own name a rarity in the 17th century for a woman- Siri Hustvedt’s heroine Harriet Burden decides to utilize 3 male artists as her “masks” to expose the art world’s dismissiveness towards female artists through an equation of her work-their name.

The novel reads like an exhibition catalog with varying viewpoints, interviews, personal remembrances and fabricated criticisms. You follow Harriet through her marriage to Felix Lord the philandering Uber Art Dealer, lukewarm reception to her exhibitions, motherhood, marginalization, widowhood and her decision to morph her art into a quasi-collaborative process taking on a certain amount of persona from her male mask. Harriet is quoted in the book as utilizing the “masculine enhancement effect”.

Philosophical references play a crucial part in the narrative. Rune’s work The Banality of Glamour is a direct reference to Hannah Arendt’s attributed statement of the Banality of Evil when discussing Eichmann. Rune is Hannah’s “Third Man” and by far the most successful and destructive of her collaborations.

The book is much more complex than a simple straight art narrative exposé in the style of the Guerilla Girls. Harriet has a lot of rage towards the men in her life-a distant father, secretive husband and duplicitous collaborator. I liked Harriet. Yes she is deeply flawed, but she is also loving and creative and interesting and I look forward to exploring more of Hustvedt’s work.

The Best Day the Worst Day: My Life with Jane Kenyon-Donald Hall

/ a literary explorer

I stumbled onto this memoir ( thank you Oyster books!) and basically finished it in one sitting.  For those unfamiliar with Jane Kenyon and Donald Hall -they  are both poets, married for 23 years and sadly parted because of Jane Kenyon’s untimely death.   Even though an unexpected illness does take up a large percentage of the memoir what I found so moving was that it was the story of a happy marriage, of two incredibly bright/funny/engaging individuals. I loved  Donald Hall’s description of how as a couple they dealt with giving joint readings-Donald Hall for most of their marriage being the more well known of the pair.  Their solution was an A/B rotation with some amusing results.  It is easy to romanticize the idea of two poets living together in a New England Farmhouse, but what I liked so much about this book was the stark reality of life as a couple and as working poets.

Although it is never easy to read a memoir of loss-this memoir is both parts cathartic and uplifting.  I am still touched by their commitment to each other and their writing.

The Green Road-Anne Enright

/ a literary explorer

Anne Enright’s most recent novel The Green Road is an engaging and punishing narrative. You meet the Madigans an Irish family from County Clare at a critical moment-an announcement is made at a Sunday dinner. You then are given a glimpse into their lives and meet them all together again as they grudgingly reconvene at a Christmas dinner some 25 years later. What was particularly interesting to me was that when you meet the Madigan children-Dan (the ex- Priest ?), Constance(the home maker), Emmet(the missionary) and Hanna(the would be actress) you are introduced to only the potentially pivotal moments in their lives – they have reached the point of change, a decision must be made or potentially tragic moment overcome. I thought this would be disconcerting since it wasn’t a straight narrative but just a captured moment albeit one that included depth but I realized I had a very clear picture of who they were, the choices they made and the approval sought.
The Christmas get together is relatable on so many levels-the childhood alliances, the festering resentments, the miscommunications, the manipulations and the glue that binds them all together as the Madigans. Here the narrative thread is continued and even though many of the scenarios are unresolved they felt complete.
To me Enright is one of those writers that makes you wince and laugh at the same time. She is clear and concise and always seem to hit it out of the park each time she publishes.

Remembrance of Things Past or In Search of Lost Time

/ a literary explorer / 2 Comments

Although I enjoy Balzac and Flaubert I must admit I have always avoided Proust.  Along with Trollope, this summer I made the commitment to start Remembrance of Things Past.  My initial inclination was to answer wryly when asked what I was reading that I was definitely on my way to losing time but within a few hours I knew how absolutely wrong I was.  Now 2 novels in- Swann’s Way and Within a Budding Grove completed and starting Gueramantes Way, I would not be doing the works justice by limiting them to the narrow confines of a man’s memories  from his childhood to adulthood and the sometimes inane prejudices of period french society.  The remembrances are richly told, characters are developed and frailties and prejudices exposed.

In the first two installments the narrator experiences his first  two loves (Gilberte-Swann’s daughter and Albertine), watches Swann  “a bon vivant” love /loathe/marry and travels from Combray to Balbec.  As much as I love the narrator the secondary characters such as Aunt Leonie and her competition with her maid, Uncle Adolphe and his “actresses”, Bergotte and Saint-Loup and their opinions of the french aristocracy are vivid and compelling.  So far on this Proustian journey the one thing that keeps me turning the pages is simply the gorgeous dialogue and for that I have to especially thank C.K. Moncrieff for not losing any of Proust’s Proustness.

Birds of America: Stories

/ a literary explorer

Lorrie Moore does an excellent job of exhibiting our flaws in a very painful yet acceptable narrative. Themes of loss, betrayal, infidelity and anger are handled deftly and each vignette feels complete-although I did occasionally have to put the stories down and take a deep breath. She has the talent to cut a little to close to the heart of the matter and as the reader I found I at times wanted to push back and ask for the traditional Happily Ever After. Like Bark I appreciated the use of birds as a narrative link in the stories whether it was actual birds, associated sounds or symbolic elements. As in her previous works that I have read-she stays with you and causes you to evaluate motivations and responses.

The Greatest Knight

/ a literary explorer

I have to admit I love a good chivalrous tale and when it is a true story even more enticing.  The life of William Marshal is quite literally the stuff of legends-young captive of King Stephen, impoverished younger son, tournament champion, loyal to 5 Angevin Kings and instrumental in the Magna Carta. I first learned of William Marshal through Elizabeth Chadwick’s two works The Greatest Knight and Scarlet Lion-this non fiction work is as engrossing as the fictionalized accounts. Granted Marshal is an exceptional character to work with but  Thomas Asbridge does a great job of presenting a balanced view of his life and even when done you are still in awe of the subject.