THIS is what writing should be

A month or two ago, I read Ellen Gilchrist's In the Land of Dreamy Dreams...and loved it. Now that I have finished another collection of her short stories (Victory Over Japan), I will repeat myself: I have not read such an adept and amazing short story writer since reading Alice Munro.

A lot of what I come across in my reading travels seems cliche and worn out (in a bad way), in an amateur way (the difference between writers and people who like to write). This is opposed to reading a passage that describes something known that we can all picture, but in an interesting and so simply it was right in front of our faces why didn't we think of it kind of way. For example, here is Gilchrist describing an earthquake:

"At first she thought a cat had walked across the bed. Then she thought the world had come to an end. Then the lights went on."

So simple. It doesn't do more than it needs to. It isn't presumptuous or patronizing. It is real.

My absolute favorite part of Victory Over Japan was a revisit to a story from In the Land of Dreamy Dreams. I saw it and was all, yes(!) Nora Jane! In Dreamy Dreams, Nora Jane fell in love with a boy. This boy turned NJ into his accomplice and they robbed banks. The boy left NJ, but promised to bring her to California when he could. NJ took her life into her own hands, dressed up as a nun and robbed a bar. But now we get to see what happens after a woman follows a boy...

As it is a continuation, there was the added treat of an introduction from Gilchrist:

"When the story ended Nora Jane had successfully completed the robbery and was on her way to California. I wish I could say that Sandy was waiting at the airport when she got there, sleepless and excited and true. I wish that dreams came true, that courage and tenderness were rewarded in the world as they should be. I wish I could tell you that Nora Jane and Sandy lived happily ever after in Sunny California. Alas, that is not the way it happened."

I wish...

"Nora Jane was only practical about love most of the time. Part of the time she was just as dumb about it as everybody else in the world."
Ellen Gilchrist

Booky booky book book(s)

Lately my book reading has consisted of two categories: books I read for me, and books I read to prepare for teaching. This week it was The Group and Brave New World, respectively.

Mary McCarthy's The Group
A novel about a group of Vassar women? Sign me up. After reading The Group, I am officially a Mary McCarthy fan. This novel reads like an instruction manual for being a woman. It discusses everything from contraception, breastfeeding and family relations to marriage, abuse, lesbianism and the paradox of being highly educated and at the same time expected to fit a subservient role. Whew! And yet, it is also a well arcing story of a group of women who meander back and forth to each other while trying to forge their own way in the world. Not to mention the ending, oh the ending! Bittersweet indeed.

And now, for my favorite quote:

"She had discovered a sad little law: a man never called when you needed him but only when you didn't. If you really got absorbed in your ironing or in doing your bureau drawers, to the point where you did not want to be interrupted, that was the moment the phone decided to ring. You had to mean it: you had to forget about him honestly and enjoy your own society before it worked. You got what you wanted, in other words, as soon as you saw you could do without it, which meant, if Polly reasoned right, that you never got what you wanted."

Aldous Huxley's Brave New World
Well well well. In all my English class time I somehow have missed reading Brave New World. Last year I read 1984 for the first time. Apparently I put off reading dystopian literature. I decided to finally undergo Brave New World because at some point I will teach it and OMG there is s-e-x in it. The uncomfortableness created at the extensive talk of the genetic and chemical conditioning and accepted social strata thoroughly pleased me. It made me think, about how we are conditioned now...dun dun dunnn. Huxley surprised me in going the whole savage in a civilized world route with heavy religious overtones. And I must say, this week's reading is 2 for 2 on legit endings.

"The most efficient way of rendering the poor harmless is to teach them to want to imitate the rich."
Carlos Ruiz Zafon

THE LONG AWAITED BOOK POST

O.M.G. I am actually going to marinate on some books I have been reading. Amazing.


First up, I just finished M.C. Beaton's Death of a Gentle Lady (A Hamish Macbeth Mystery). It is fair to say that I super love Hamish Macbeth. When I'm not on my death bed, I finish these books in one sitting. They are like delicious dessert reading. Some might think they are fluffy, but I keep coming back and always look forward to the next time. Hamish is a local bobby in the Highlands of Scotland. He is amazingly adept at solving the large about of murders which seem to pervade his rural area, however has no inclination to move up the police ladder. Hilarity ensues in the form of disaster every time he has to come up with a plan to stay is his demoted, but loved position. Oh yeah, and he loves two women. And might I say that both he and the ladies are worthy of all the love and miscommunication swirling around. I highly recommend the entire series.
Next, is a book which shows what happens when one browses at the Merlo Library. I have made it known that I only ever pick up held materials at Merlo. However, lately I have started to feel guilty. Like maybe if I gave the books a chance...I did this with Elizabeth Berg's The Handmaid and the Carpenter. I know Berg's name, and I thought I had read her...but looking back, I haven't...tricky Berg, tricky. And reading the title I thought, hmmm, something historical maybe? Historical indeed. Try Joseph, Mary and JESUS. I don't know how I didn't anticipate it, but I didn't. Historical fiction is one thing (that I love), but when you are messing around with the Jesus story? There are just so many ways to mess it up.


Next up: Ellen Gilchrist's In the Land of Dreamy Dreams. I will disclose that these are short stories, however, characters meander in an out. I loved loved loved the stories. Obviously, the motif of dreams, reality and the thin line between works its way in to the majority. It was kind of like when I read Alice Munroe (also short stories). I came away both times with immense respect for the author. Kind of like how I write my blog and it is fine and good, but these women are writing stories. Real stories. If you usually stay away from short stories because perhaps you finish the story wanting more of the characters, don't worry, Gilchrist has written other books of short stories with these same characters (Victory Over Japan). Also, the majority take place in the South.


P.S. read Zafon's The Shadow of the Wind. Face lent it to me from his library and it is an amazing page turner about growing up, love, loss, family, wealth, power...everything. Let's just say this: any book that makes me almost miss my bus stop because I am so engrossed gets my stamp of approval.

Happy reading!

"A stranger sees us the way we are, not as he wishes to think we are."
Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Another one bites the dust

I agree with my brother that psychology plays a role in sickness. However, when I walk from my bed to the kitchen for water and am exhausted by the time I get there I think my body is trying to tell me something.

This means I have been resting a LOT the last few days. I would say pshh, I'm not sick, but listen to this: I haven't even had enough energy to read.

Shocking.

Last night was the first time since Tuesday I had been able to hold up a book. So what does this mean? It means that my exercise for the day is going to the dreaded Merlo library to take back all the books which are overdue (even Drood which I haven't even started), pay my fines, pick up my friends (books), and add them to the stack I am trying to read while in quarantine.

"We read to know we are not alone."
C.S. Lewis