Austen's Lady Susan: Shout Out to Chinua Achebe

I finally saw the latest movie rendition of Lady Susan by Jane Austen.

At first, I have to admit I was disappointed. I wanted more Pride and Prejudice. More Sense and Sensibility. I was even ready to be endeared to another Emma. 

Lady Susan is not that.

Think Jane Austen meets Oscar Wilde, that's more like it. It's almost farcical, it's so ridiculous. 

Then I realized: that's the point. Jane Austen deconstructing herself. 

So I got over looking for what I was looking for, only to find Austen's brilliance. Now I need to read the novella itself. 

Chinua Achebe was right. Things fall apart. Even Jane Austen. 

Fever by Mary Beth Keane

If you like historical fiction, well written and well researched, try Fever by Mary Beth Keane, about Mary Mallon aka Typhoid Mary, who was one of the most widely publicized cases of asymptomatic typhoid. I didn't believe the hype (book jacket? blog? Amazon review?) that I read the Keane could make Mary a sympathetic character, but she did.

What I liked the best was that the book was also a commentary on the New York City in the early 1900's, as well commentary on the emerging application of scientific germ theory.

And I liked this, in the voice of Mary herself:

"All I can say is that I thought I was doing the right thing, but I was doing the wrong thing, and it was a theme that repeated itself often."

From a literary analysis point of view, her boyfriend Alfred was such a perfect symbol/foil to the disease itself. Neither her boyfriend or her disease were something she could live with or without, but both the boyfriend and the disease were bad for her. Toxic, sometimes benign, sometimes dangerous.

It was a well constructed novel. Some adult content.

But overall, well done.

Meet the Patels, you can Netflix it.

My friend Mariann recommended that I watch Meet the Patels, a movie about Ravi Patel, age 30, whose Indian parents are trying to arrange a marriage for him. So Ravi and Geeta (his sister) made this autobiographical documentary to chronicle it. Full of lore. Full of folk.

It's like My Big Greek Fat Wedding, in that everyone, who has ever felt any pressure from their parents to GET MARRIED ALREADY, will relate to it. You don't have to be Indian because familial advice/passive-agressive "helpful"suggestions/fretting is universal.

My personal dating culture didn't include biodata sheets, but I'm sure there are members of my family who would think we should try it. And I could relate to the singles conferences, oh boy, could I ever. The name in the move is just different: Patel Matrimonial Conferences, but it's a singles conference. The Moo Moo Here games were the same. I could smell the cologne and perfume wafting around just watching it. It was all coming back to me, even though the movie had Indian faces.

It was painful, it was funny, it was real. I laughed and cried.

I think it's one of those quirky movies that probably isn't for everyone. If you weren't single for very long, you won't get this movie. But if you've been there, you've been there, and you will get it, Indian or not.

I'd love to use this in the first week of a college folklore class. I'd have my students watch this movie and Arranged, and by the next class, there would be plenty to discuss.

P.S. Mariann, the shot of the disgruntled parents on the couch after he tells them: Classic.

Laurie King's Mary Russell books

Back in 2005, my first son was born. Finding myself sitting in a rocking chair tending a baby for large portions of a the day, I happily rocked the baby while reading every novel in Laurie King's Mary Russell series. At the time, I think I read the seven novels that King published in that series to that date. The baby and I were both blissfully happy with this arrangement.

A few years later, second kid was born and I was too busy watching kid one to be able to read and rock with kid two. Years passed, and here came kid three and then kid four and I forgot to pay attention to what King was publishing.

So now kid four is 2 years old and my mommy brain is starting to un-blur. To blissfully find that in my King reading hiatus, King has published more books.

In the past three weeks, I have read four of these novels I didn't even know had been published. Because all my kids are sleeping at night and still "need" early bedtimes so I put them to bed and then I can stay up and read. (My kids aren't stupid---they are going to figure this out sooner or later. It's summer. They have no school. It's still light at bedtime. Yet: Oh Look! 8 o'clock! Time for bed!)

I've read The Murder of Mary Rusell, The Language of Bees, The God of the Hive, and I'm almost done with Pirate King.

Bliss. Good writing, great characters, marvelous plots. I'm totally hooked.

Pirate King has been fun for me as well because in my early 20's,  I spent seven months in Lisbon, where Pirate King is partially set. King's descriptions of the Portuguese persona and Lisbon winter weather has been delightful---alternating between poignantly perceptive and so-funny-it-makes-me-snort.

If you are looking for a summer read, or any read, discover or re-discover this series.

Brooklyn by Colm Toibin

One summer read I'd recommend for your summer 2016 list is Brooklyn by Colm Toibin. I recommended it to a friend of mine who told me she was going to see the movie but someone told her "Read the book first!"

Purist.

I saw the movie first and then read the book, and no literary sand shifted under my feet. But, hey, to each her own.

Brooklyn is the story of a Eilis, a young Irish immigrant who comes to Brooklyn in the 1950's. In the movie, I adored the genre viewing: the clothes, the shoes, the music, the 50's depiction of New York. The actors were all chosen well and the movie was adapted from the novel quite nicely.

The book was well written and the dialogue and characters are well done.

A great tale, in either format, of an immigrant and the long term consequences of her choices.

My only warning is that there's adult content in both the movie and the book. I just skip through it, but I passed my copy of the book along so my voracious reader kid wouldn't stumble upon it. My guess is that will be a book club read for my book club eventually, and I'll just borrow another copy.

Worth reading? Yes.
Good characters, writing, plot, and historical value? Yes, yes, and yes.

I think Atticus is the reason readers rebel against Watchman

One of the things we didn't discuss in book club is why people who spoke out against Watchman got so upset. I have my own theory that it's because Mockingbird fans are moved by the characters and the plot (and the old Gregory Peck movie for that matter) and they don't want anyone to mess with it. Mess with their view of what Atticus is in particular. People want a hero, and in Watchman, Atticus is just an arthritic man trying to survive in a changing society.

It's like reading about Dumbledore in a nursing home with dementia. No! No! It can't be! That's the not the Dumbledore or Atticus that I know!

That's what I think is going on in the public psyche. Which is what happened with Scout in Watchman. Zeus came down from Mt. Olympus.

Readers didn't like it. Huh. Neither did Scout. Which makes the public's reaction to Watchman a fascinating study in reader response. Wayne C. Booth, the author of The Company We Keep, would be having a field day.

And there I go, analyzing like a graduate student.

You can take the English graduate student out of the library, but you can't take the library out of the graduate student. Ah well, book club works for now.

Go Tell a Watchman

It's my turn to be the hostess for my book club this month and the book is Go Tell a Watchman by Harper Lee. I missed all the hoohah about the controversy involving the publication of Watchman, missed the NPR commentary, missed the call from purists calling for boycotts of the book.

I just saw it at Costco and bought it. (Where was I? Oh, there I was at Costco for bread, milk, and bananas. Again.)

When I read it, it seemed off. Not like I remembered Mockingbird. Which is why I volunteered for the book club assignment. So I read Watchman first, then re-read Mockingbird, and back to Watchman one more time.

I think the two books provide an interesting basis for comparison. I think it's obviously a draft---Scout is too TOO. Too intense. Too upset on a dime. Too self-righteous. That would have all been ironed out with a good editor. I liked Uncle Jack in there, I hadn't really noticed him before. I thought the barnacle-on-your-parents-morality was the whole point. And I liked reading what Lee intended first of all, that she changed as she decided on Mockingbird's final draft.

Writing is a process, after all, and works take on attitudes of their own. Sometimes even authors write it in a way they don't necessarily like, but it's what the text calls for. It's this weird The-author-is-in-charge-oh-wait-no-the-text-is thing. Writing a text like that is like trying to potty-train a strong-willed three-year old. Some compromises have to be made on both sides. Since the Watchman flashback  trial ends in acquittal and the Mockingbird trial does not, Lee obviously had to do some compromising.

In writer speak, that's called "revising".

Basically, my To Kill A Mockingbird world did not shatter, really it didn't. I think the world of freshman English can go on teaching Mockingbird and assign Watchman as extra credit. I don't think Watchman will be the universal classic that Mockingbird was, but I'm not sure it was ever meant to be that.

All in all, I'm looking forward to book club tomorrow to see what other readers think. I thought it was good.