NYT and Oprah Following Vineyard Bookgroup

New York Times

September 19, 2008

"On Friday’s edition of “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” Ms. Winfrey announced her latest book club pick: “The Story of Edgar Sawtelle,” the debut novel by David Wroblewski, below, which came out in June and was warmly received by critics. The story, influenced by both “Hamlet” and the works of Stephen King, is about a mute boy with a deep connection to the dogs bred at his family’s Wisconsin kennel. “I think this book is right up there with the greatest American novels ever written, I really do,” Ms. Winfrey said. The book was a popular summer read and was ranked ninth on the most recent New York Times best-seller list, where it has held a place for 13 weeks. “When you read it, you will understand why I had to choose it,” Ms. Winfrey said. The endorsement is likely to make the book even hotter, and throughout the day on Friday it was slowly moving up the top-selling book lists on both Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com."

What can I say? You saw(telle) it here first.

Homewrecker

Well I will admit that Housekeeping was a near perfect book and 20 years later Gilead was a quiet masterpiece. But Home is not so great. It's the same quiet sorts of people, 'religious folk' in the same small town Gilead. But there is nothing compelling or true about it as Gilead. The new minister character Reverend Broughton instead of seeming saintly seems just like an idiot. When he starts to apologize to his wastrel son Jack who got a woman pregnant and then left town 20 years ago, for his not baptising the baby he is just a martyr not a human being.
The language too is a bit sanctimonious, people don't drink water they drink "good cold water" (is there bad cold water?). I don't know, maybe from a Christian perspective you would hallelujah the Reverend and his daughter as they practically trip over themselves trying not to judge or blame Jack but to me they just look like suckers. Maybe Ms. Robinson should take another 20 year hiatus between novels. It worked the other time.

My Dog Tulip is a Bitch

Perhaps I was so traumatized by the reading of My Dog Tulip by J.R. Ackerley that I forgot to post about it. Anyway I think this is the antidote to all those cute dog books out there. Ole J.R. spares us nothing....from the joys of Tulip's impacted anal glands we pass on to a grueling chapter on her coming into heat and then just when I thought we could go no further.... finding her a mate and hearing about their sexual dysfunction. J.R. is like Dr. Phil right there guiding them at all times, he can't even let her do that alone! There is something a tad unnatural in J.R.'s love for Tulip

I began to suspect something nasty in the woodshed when I read this moving passage :

"There came a day, however, when we were walking in Wimbledon woods and she suddenly added my urine, which I had been obliged to void, to the other privileged objects of her social attention. How touched I was! How honored I felt! "Oh Tulip! Thank you," I said."

Tulip is apparently a very high strung possesive dog which while J.R. tut-tuts in company, in secret I believe he is overjoyed about. Someone loves him and looking at J.R. on the cover I believe she may be the best he can get. Needless to say: it is not a healthy relationship.

Travels With Alice

OK, so Calvin Trillin is like David Sedaris for oldsters. His persona in Travels With Alice is much the same character as the Sedaris formula playing always the innocent with the wrong end of the stick. Alice is his Hugh, superior and all knowing, and...deeply loved. It's one of those books you put down and wistfully wish someone would love you that much and immortalize you , I want to be Sedaris' Hugh, John Bayley's Iris or Trillin's Alice. Also it's one of those books when you wish you had enough money for the eternal vacation in the South of France that Trillin is always on. Send me there and I SWEAR my blog will be funny too. Please?

Brother, I'm Dying

I had read Edwige Danticat a long time ago and thought her writing a bit too self conscious and ----dare I say it?---lyrical. But someone told me to read Brother I'm Dying and I did and rather liked it. It's a memoir of Danticat's father and uncle; her father goes to the States with her mother and leaves her behind with her younger brother at her uncle's in a poor neighborhood in Haiti. The uncle is a very good person, a pastor in his church and very close to his brother. The whole tone of the book is dispassionate and precise: no preciousness, no lyricism.

Unlike most current memoirs there is no incest or abusiveness, just loving and responsible adults caught in a terrible economic and political situation. It's actually quite good for giving a picture of growing up in Haiti. The odd thing is that the focus is primarily on the men and the women, her mother and her Aunt Denise, are giving scant attention. I imagine she has a memoir planned about the women and the absence was deliberate. The book serves as a just tribute to the two men in her life though.

Of Webs and Butter

Since we were in Maine, E.B. White country, I thought the spider who made this web may have been one of descendents of Charlotte and her web. Alas, I was unable to verify it for literary historical purposes.

Also while in Maine we bought some heavy cream at the little farm stand and made our own butter. Basically the recipe calls for heavy cream and a pinch of salt and a jar to shake it in. With the leftover buttermilk we made pancakes the next morning which those not on a diet covered with pats of our homemade butter. It prompted an interesting discussion on the chicken and egg theory.

I'm sorry we didn't make our no-knead bread to go with the butter. It's the sort of thing the River Cottage people would have approved of. But this is a very nice cookbook for kids or adults . It's British (I think you knew that by looking at their rather poncey names) and written with the same sensibility as Jamie Oliver.

Kidnapping, Runaways and Mistresses

Yes, I've been reading children's lit again. Well, I know why kids don't read Kidnapped anymore. Great story but the language is impenetrable. All the Scottish dialect is exhausting to read. With dialect you can't read it in a normal way, you have to manufacture a little "reading aloud" voice inside your head and sound it out loud. But with this I sat on the beach whispering out "Ah, but I'll begowk ye there! cried the gentleman" in my best Scottish burr....and still had no idea what it meant.
From kidnapping children to runaway children....on a recent drive Olivia and I listened to the audio version of From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler which I adored when I was young. Claudia and her younger brother run away and live in the Metropolitan Museum for a couple of weeks and solve a mystery of an unattributed statue. When I was young I loved the book and Olivia loved it too the other day. But this time I had a different reaction, while Claudia and her brother were taking baths in the fountain and sleeping in the antique beds I was sick to my stomach thinking of their parents worried to death about them. This had never occurred to me when I was young, all the adventure had gone out of it for me. Just the horror left!
Someone on the Nancy Pearl book podcast, which I am fond of, mentioned Madensky Square by Eva Ibbotsen as being a book she often re-read, Nancy Pearl raved about it too (she raves about most books actually, she just loves them all in their own little way). Anyway it seemed to be out of print and classified as a Young Adult novel by the library system. I duly ordered it and duly received my gravy stained copy from the library. Not sure what the young adults are up to these days but perhaps the story of a turn of the century Viennese dressmaker who is quite happily a mistress to some sort of Field Marshall will inspire them. It is actually a cozy little book and quite innocuous.