Links:
Pilot now offers an option to "write" your own emails. 3.24.2011
3.22.2011
Review: Paula McLain's The Paris Wife
Paula McLain's debut novel The Paris Wife explores Ernest Hemingway's first marriage through the eyes of his first wife, Hadley. Those of you who have read A Moveable Feast will be familiar with the characters and atmosphere of The Paris Wife, and McLain offers a complementary perspective to the one Hemingway provides in his memoir. This novel is fiction but at points it reads like nonfiction and the result is a pleasant view of 1920s Paris and of the artists who immortalized it.
The novel starts slowly, and Ernest never quite comes into focus, but Hadley is a reliable narrator and a sympathetic character. Efforts to offer Ernest's perspective through short narrative spurts only obstructs the flow of the narrative, though the reader does benefit from the information. I haven't read much on Ernest's life, but the novel reads consistently with what I know about him. This is an absorbing story, historically accurate, and vibrant in places - particularly the party scenes in Paris - but as a whole it lacks sparkle. Perhaps it's because Hadley's capitulation rankles, the characters aren't entirely believable, or it is because McLain rides the line between fact and fiction too closely. Still, this is sure to be popular with some book clubs and readers interested in a new version of literary history.
If you like this, you might also like:
3.18.2011
Friday's Catch
Links:
The house reputed to have been the inspiration for Daisy's grand abode in The Great Gatsby will be demolished to make way for a new development. Update:
No reviews this week, as I have not yet finished any of the books that I'm reading. Will hope to have profundities for you next week.
This week's haul:
George Eliot's Adam Bede
Miranda Carter's George, Nicholas and Wilhelm: Three Royal Cousins and the Road to WWI
Kim Edwards' The Lake of Dreams
3.07.2011
A Homemade Life and The Romanovs: The Final Chapter
There has a been a flurry of reading in the Red Room Library this week, and I knocked out three books. My review of The Tiger's Wife is forthcoming from BookBrowse, and it is one of the most beautiful, most amazing books I have ever read. It hits stores tomorrow. Please buy it.
Now to the books that I can talk to you about today.
Molly Wizenberg, creator of Orangette, is a delightful writer. Reading her memoir is like having tea with a best friend. At times funny, heart-wrenching, and inspiring, A Homemade Life is a delicious ode to the power of cooking and the virtues of creating a community around the table. The memoir is divided into a series of chronological essays oriented around memory with corresponding favorite recipe, which is provided at the end of each section. (I've already made the chocolate wedding cake. Oh. My. Gosh. So. Good.) This is a quick read that is perfect for a rainy day or afternoon at the beach. This is also perfect if you're looking for inspiration to get back in the kitchen because after salivating over her delicious (and straightforward) recipes, you won't be able to stop yourself running to your stove.
Now to a completely unrelated reading experience. As mentioned before, I am a huge Russian history and literature buff, which has always struck me as amusing because I have no ties to Russia. (Though I do now as a married lady because my husband's paternal grandmother was Russian, and her mother was a Russian ballerina...oh la la!) My excursions into Russia history continued with Massie's 1995 Romanov's: The Final Chapter, a synthesis of the major developments in the history of the family since 1917. Information about Anna Anderson (she was a nut), the discovery of the bones with the subsequent DNA identification, and the Romanov relatives in exile are all included. At times, there is too much detail, but Massie does a stellar job of compiling the facts and assembling them in a readable way. One critic observed that the book reads like a crime thriller, and it no doubt has that atmosphere. This will be of interest to anyone who read Nicholas and Alexandra and wants to know the ultimate outcome or for folks who are generally interested in Russian, especially tsarist, history.
3.04.2011
Friday's Catch
Links:
Updates:
- I finished The Tiger's Wife a few days ago and have had my jaw on the floor since then. To say that it is stunning, doesn't quite explain it. To say that this is a certain international classic, gets closer. The novel hits bookstores March 8.
- Am now reading A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg. I love her intimate-best-friend tone. I feel like she sent me a series of letters, with a corresponding recipe, about her life. A relaxing read that is a perfect inspiration to start cooking wonderfully delicious yummies.
- Also, sunk my teeth into Alison Light's Mrs. Woolf and the Servants. I finished watching Downton Abbey last week and find myself (once again) obsessed with a British great house narrative. The best part of the viewing experience was the final note: "The second season of Downton Abbey is in production." Can't happen soon enough. All this to say, that I am on a 'upstairs-downstairs' tick right now that Light's book will nicely complement.
This Week'
Wizenberg's A Homemade Life
Light's Mrs. Woolf and the Servants
Daniels' Cleaning Nabokov's House
Massie's The Romanovs: The Final Chapter (because one can never, ever get too much of Russian history)
Quote of the week:
from Zadie Smith's conversation with Gemma Sieff (linked above)
"I think once you self-identify as a critic too seriously, all kinds of personal dangers of the ego, if I might put it that way, come into play. I think I’ve been guilty of them myself. You start to feel you need an overarching theory, which to me, when you’re being confronted with books, each of which is so different, which have completely different sensibilities—to approach them with an argument, with a decision, about what kind of prose you’re looking for, what kind of prose you believe in, is already disastrous. And also book reviewing in the everyday practice, the way Virginia Woolf did it, keeps you honest, and keeps you lively."
3.01.2011
Review: Owen Matthews' Stalin's Children
The frustration with Molotov's Magic Lantern has been salved by Matthews' family memoir Stalin's Children. Matthews begins with his grandfather, a henchman of Stalin's until he is put to death during the purges, and proceeds down the family tree to his own experiences living in Russia. Matthews' mother, Ludmilla, was orphaned when her father was arrested, and her survival - through starvation, orphanages, illness - is nothing short of a miracle. Ludmilla encourages Matthews to remember "the good people," the ones who helped others when it was mortally dangerous to do so. This direction lends the memoir a multi-dimensional cast that sheds light on the "real" Russians.
It has been my experience, though I admit I haven't read as much about Russian history as I plan to, that the general historical narrative post-1917 falls into two clumps: party members and non-party members. Both groups act in predictable ways until it seems that there was vengeance in the name of communism on the one hand and concerted ignoring on the other. One wonders where the characters were? Who told the jokes? Did anyone ever let their hair down? Presumably, these things did happen, and though everyone was mindful of the ever-present censor and potential march to a work camp, life happened. The notion of "life happening" in Russia during these horrible years has always been something I've wanted to know more about. Matthews' exploration of his family's tribulations during these turbulent times includes stories of people making dinner, writing letters, taking vacations, answering the telephone. It also includes the amazing stories of people waiting six years to get a beloved from behind the Iron Curtain, orphans set on a floating barge by a desperate orphanage director to keep them safe from the Germans, two sisters meeting after years of separation. In total, it is a portrait of a terrifying world where people lived everyday in the face of great evil, but also great love.
This is not an easy read, and certain moments even brought tears to my eyes, but it is an engrossing portrait of triumph, love, persistence, and good humor. For book clubs, it would provide a fascinating nonfiction counterpart to Russian Winter and Sashenka.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
