Carol's Comments December 2013

Carol’s Comments December 2013

By Carol Rusinek

          Hello Everyone! Welcome to another issue of Carol’s Comments. I am a volunteer at the River Park Branch.

          As autumn approached, I realized that I hadn’t read or reviewed any biographies of memoirs, my favorite type of nonfiction in two years! So after watching a fascinating 60 Minutes profile about Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, I decided to read her new memoir My Beloved World.

          Sotomayor’s book primarily concentrates on her personal life from 1962 through 1992 rather than her tenure on the Supreme Court. Using a very approachable, informal writing style, Sotomayor meticulously describes how she had to overcome many adversities such as juvenile diabetes, living in the Bronx public housing projects and enduring her father’s alcoholism and untimely death during her childhood and adolescence. All these experiences significantly shaped her and gave her the self-confidence and courage to pursue her dream of becoming a lawyer and eventually a federal district court judge. Moreover, Sotomayor graduated from Princeton and Yale Law School mainly due to her own stubborn perseverance and fierce determination, a supportive mother who valued education and affirmative action.

          This very inspirational memoir shows that anyone can fulfill their goals despite seemingly insurmountable hardships if they believe in themselves and receive encouragement from family, teachers and friends. Ultimately, My Beloved World is an uplifting tribute to the human spirit.

          I stayed pretty obsessed with everything about Dorothy Parker after finishing Ellen Meister’s delightfully whimsical novel Farewell Dorothy Parker over the summer. I quickly immersed myself in Parker’s Complete Stories and Complete Poems which featured an insightful introduction by biographer Marion Meade. All this binge reading compelled me to tackle Meade’s definitive 1988 biography, Dorothy Parker: What Fresh Hell Is This?

          Meade’s well researched and exhaustive biography extensively chronicles Parker’s fascinating and rather decadent life by comprehensively detailing her unhappy childhood, two failed marriages, her literary, play and screenplay writing career, battles with alcoholism and involvement with radical politics. The book’s most enjoyable chapters focus on her years as Vanity Fair’s very opinionated and outspoken drama critic when she became the only female charter member of the Algonquin Round Table formed by New York Times drama critic Alexander Woollcott in 1919.

          For the next ten years, Parker traded witty literary barbs and wisecracks with such literary greats as her best friend Robert Benchley, Robert Sherwood, Ring Lardner, Jr., George Kaufman and Edna Ferber. This constant daily camaraderie helped her develop her acerbic wit and eventually become America’s most famous (and most quoted) critic especially during the 1920’s and 1930’s.  Dorothy Parker truly epitomized the flamboyant atmosphere of the Prohibition era in New York City.

          Furthermore, Meade intersperses excerpts from Parker’s poems, short stories and literary reviews throughout the book to show the reader how her life experiences profoundly influenced her writing. Despite the biography’s lackluster second half describing Parker’s later years, Dorothy Parker: What Fresh Hell is This? provides an revealing glimpse into Dorothy Parker’s remarkable yet tumultuous literary and personal life.

          After reading Meade’s biography, I remembered seeing the 1994 biopic Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle a few years ago. Not wanting to leave the 1920’s literary scene quite yet, I decided to re-watch it.

Directed by Alan Rudolph and starring Jennifer Jason Leigh, the movie effectively dramatizes Dorothy Parker’s reign as America’s literary darling in the 1920’s and 1930’s, her constant struggles with alcoholism, depression and failed personal relationships. Despite Jason Leigh’s uneven, affected and overly dramatic performance, Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle authentically captures the ambience and witty banter of the Algonquin Round Table during its heyday.

          Many of my loyal readers know that one of the first books I reviewed in this column was Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. So when I read a wonderfully candid New York Times Magazine article about Elizabeth Gilbert’s personal and professional life where she talked extensively about her new novel, The Signature of All Things, I rushed to the River Park Branch to put a hold on it before its October publication date. Although Gilbert’s new bestseller isn’t technically a biography or memoir, I figured I could take a fanciful literary detour since Gilbert had written one of the most popular memoirs of the 21^st century.

          Set primarily in early to mid-19^th century Philadelphia, The Signature of All Things focuses on Alma Whittaker, daughter of the self-made and unscrupulous entrepreneur Henry Whittaker. Intellectually curious and fiercely self-reliant since childhood, Alma  becomes a botanist despite 19^th century conventions mainly due to strong encouragement from her father, an amateur naturalist himself.

For 25 years, Alma stays content with a productive, yet solitary life. Then in 1848, she falls in love with Ambrose Pike, an unconventional botanical illustrator. Unfortunately, she must suffer through an ill-fated marriage filled with tragic consequences.

After her father’s death in 1851, Alma leaves her sheltered life behind and escapes to Tahiti and Amsterdam to reinvigorate her botanical studies along with uncovering long buried family mysteries. This odyssey helps her discover her life’s true passion and purpose.

Gilbert’s uses an unusually evocative writing style reminiscent of Charlotte Bronte’s to recount her heroine’s extraordinary life. Part multi-generational family saga, part love story, The Signature of All Things is an incredible adventure story of spiritual self-discovery.

I enthusiastically recommend this book even if you’re not an Elizabeth Gilbert fan. I loved this enthralling novel so much that I plan to re-read it very soon.

All books and the movie reviewed in this column are available at all SJCPL locations. For more information, visit the library’s web site at www.libraryforlife.org . Thanks for reading!  Happy Holidays!

Previously posted at the SJCPL blog
 

Carol's Comments September 2013

Carol’s Comments September 2013

By Carol Rusinek

Hello Everyone! Welcome to another issue of Carol’s Comments. I am a volunteer at the River Park  Branch.  Summer can be an especially adventurous time for reading. So this year, I decided to explore an eclectic assortment of books I wouldn’t normally select.

The first book that caught my attention while browsing the River Park Branch’s new fiction section was Farewell Dorothy Parker by Ellen Meister. This delightful story focuses on introverted movie critic Violet Epps who tries to emulate her muse, the acerbic literary icon Dorothy Parker when writing her very opinionated and witty movie reviews.

One day while visiting New York’s famous Algonquin Hotel where Mrs. Parker once presided over lively discussions at the legendary Algonquin Round Table with other regarded writers like Robert Benchley and Edna Ferber, Violet steals an irreplaceable guest book from the 1920’s.

When she opens it, Dorothy Parker’s ghost magically emerges from the book. The outspoken and irrepressible critic decides to totally inhabit Violet’s world and give her the self-confidence she needs to live a more fulfilling and happier life. Along the way, Violet’s mischievous mentor cleverly helps her gain custody of her niece Delaney and be more assertive in her romantic relationships and career.

This charming and very funny novel is the perfect summer escape. With its fast-paced snappy dialogue, it reminded me of a surreal Gilmore Girls episode or an Isis Crawford Simmons Sisters mystery. I just loved it!

Next I wanted to read a coming of age novel set during my own adolescence. After finding outstanding reviews in The New York Times and Entertainment Weekly about Meg Wolitzer’s new bestseller, The Interestings, it looked like the perfect choice.

Wolitzer’s book centers around fifteen year old Jules Jacobson who meets and befriends five very creative and offbeat teenagers at a performing and fine arts summer camp in 1974. As the plot unfolds, the story primarily concentrates on Jules’ very close 35 year friendship with privileged Ash Wolf, wildly creative and successful boy-genius animator Ethan Figman and musical prodigy-turned mechanical engineer Jonah Bay.

This very nostalgic book brilliantly captures the vulnerabilities and aspirations of each character. The story realistically shows how unexpected experiences and coincidences can dramatically alter life choices.

Filled with very quirky and multifaceted characters, Wolitzer’s serious literary writing style is very reminiscent of John Irving’s fiction. While her characters are very unconventional, they aren’t as weird as those found in Irving’s novels like The World According to Garp or The Hotel New Hampshire.

Anyone from the later years of the Baby Boom generation should enjoy this emotionally charged, thought provoking book. I highly recommend it.

I’m not usually attracted to books and movies about the Muslim world. But after one of my friends enthusiastically encouraged me to read The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, I decided to try it.

Set against the backdrop of modern Afghanistan’s political turmoil between 1975 through 2001, Hosseini’s wonderful coming of age novel focuses on the special friendship between twelve year old Amir and the household servant’s illiterate son Hassan. However, their relationship is severely tested when Amir blatantly ignores Hassan’s desperate cries for help during a brutal assault by a neighborhood bully and Amir’s subsequent unforgivable betrayal of his loyal friend.

After immigrating with his father to the United States, Amir has a chance for redemption many years later when he receives a fervent plea from his father’s business partner Rahim Khan to return to his war ravaged homeland to find and rescue Hassan’s young son Sohrab from certain death under Taliban rule.

This incredibly heartbreaking yet uplifting story touched me so deeply because it demonstrates that through loyalty and love, anyone can be forgiven for past mistakes. I’m sure this unforgettable novel will become a modern classic. The Kite Runner should be required reading for every high school and college student.

After finishing The Kite Runner, I eagerly watched the 2007 film adaptation almost immediately. Unfortunately, the movie really disappointed me.

Directed by Marc Forster, this very weak film version lacked sincerity and realism because it omits many crucially important details depicted in Hosseini’s book. Told in flashback, David Benioff’s sketchy screenplay uses excessive, distracting subtitles especially during the first hour which takes place entirely in Afghanistan. This was totally unnecessary in an Irish produced film.

Although I generally don’t like gratuitous violence in movies, the director softened many violent scenes which lessened the film’s dramatic impact by diminishing the brutality and repression currently happening in Afghanistan. At times, I felt like I was viewing a very clumsy, pedestrian and forgettable TV movie. I strongly suggest skipping this movie and reading Hosseini’s marvelous book instead.

All the books, television programs and movies discussed in my column can be found at all SJCPL locations. For more information, visit the Library’s web site at www.libraryforlife.org . Thanks for reading! See you all next time.

Previously posted at the SJCPL blog

Carol's Comments June 2013

Carol’s Comments June 2013

By Carol Rusinek

Hello Everyone! Welcome to another issue of Carol’s Comments. I am a volunteer at the River Park Branch.  Shortly before this year’s One Book, One Michiana event ended, I really missed spending time with my favorite authors and topics. So for the next few months, I indulged in some serious comfort reading.

The first book I couldn’t wait to snatch up was The Secret Keeper, the latest bestselling novel by my all-time favorite author Kate Morton. Set primarily in World War II and present day England, the book centers on well-respected actress .Laurel Nicolson and her mother Dorothy. After Laurel witnesses a horrific event as a teenager in 1961 that she has kept secret for fifty years, she desperately tries to unravel the mysteries in her mother’s past that led to that fateful day. During her investigation, she uncovers her mother’s complex friendship with Vivien Jenkins and Jimmy Metcalfe. She also learns how pivotal decisions her mother made in 1941 led to disastrous consequences that irrevocably changed the trio’s lives forever.

Like her other three novels, Morton uses her signature writing style that alternates between time periods and character perspectives to narrate the story. This unique literary technique helps the reader better understand the characters’ personalities and motivations.

As with her other novels like my particular favorite, The Forgotten Garden, The Secret Keeper has an incredibly satisfying surprise ending that the reader could never imagine, This spellbinding story was so engrossing that not even the new season of Mad Men could distract me. As always, Kate Morton’s fabulous storytelling never disappoints me!

Over the past six months, I became obsessed with the 1920s again. For instance, I watched Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris whenever it aired on Encore and played the soundtrack constantly.

When I discovered in Entertainment Weekly that Baz Luhrmann’s new film version of The Great Gatsby starring Leonardo DiCaprio would be released in May, I searched for a book similar to Paula McLain’s The Paris Wife, the fictional biography about Hadley Hemingway which I adored in 2011. After reading positive reviews in The New York Times and Entertainment Weekly about Z: a Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler, I knew this book would soon return me to the Jazz Age’s literary world.

In Fowler’s mesmerizing, fast-paced novel, Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald acts as the principal narrator. She recalls her tumultuous 20 year relationship with F. Scott Fitzgerald beginning with their whirlwind courtship and marriage in 1920, then their wild escapades in New York, Paris and Hollywood and finally ending with Fitzgerald’s struggles with alcoholism and her own descent into mental illness.

Fowler’s captivating book also describes Zelda’s intense disapproval of Ernest Hemingway’s controlling, obsessive friendship with her husband as well as her own little-known writing career. The author offers a sympathetic and poignant portrait of Zelda Fitzgerald, an unconventional, vivacious and often misunderstood woman who truly embodied the Jazz Age spirit but was unfortunately trapped in a doomed marriage.

Although I liked The Paris Wife much better than Z, both books provide an insightful glimpse of the woman behind the successful writer. To learn more about Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s extraordinary lives, I strongly recommend reading Zelda, the definitive 1970 biography by Nancy Milford and Fitzgerald’s 1934 novel Tender is the Night which stunningly portrays the couple’s combustible marriage in fictionalized form.

I love classic TV, especially situation comedies from the 1960s and 1970s. My all-time favorites are That Girl and The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Marlo Thomas and particularly Mary Tyler Moore were my role models because I always dreamed of having a career and living in my own apartment one day.

So after reading an excerpt of Jennifer Keishin Armstrong’s upcoming book, Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted: And All the Brilliant Minds Who Made The Mary Tyler Moore Show a Classic in Entertainment Weekly this Spring, I couldn’t wait to check it out. In fact, I was the first person to place a hold on it in the SJCPL system before it was published!

Armstrong extensively chronicles the development of the series initially as a comeback vehicle for Ms. Moore to the groundbreaking and acclaimed television show it became. Devoid of sensationalism, this entertaining book reveals how writer/producers James L Brooks and Allan Burns provided a nurturing environment especially for their female writers to create episodes and endearing multidimensional characters that portrayed the modern woman in a realistic yet humorous way. By the time the series ended in 1977, not only did Mary Richards become an enduring feminist heroine but The Mary Tyler Moore Show remains a beloved television classic that still significantly influences today’s TV female characters.

Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted is very fun to read because it’s filled with enlightening and hilarious anecdotes. For instance, my favorite chapter involved the sitcom’s pilot episode. When a disastrous initial taping before a studio audience almost ruined the program’s chances of ever airing, the show was ultimately saved when the writers added a positive comment about Rhoda Morgenstern to a secondary character’s lines.

Armstrong’s irresistible book is essential reading for all Mary Tyler Moore Show fans as well as pop culture enthusiasts like me. It’s so enjoyable, I couldn’t put it down!

 All books reviewed in my column can be found at all SJCPL locations. For more information, visit the Library’s web site at www.libraryforlife.org . Thanks for reading! See you next time.

Previously posted at the SJCPL blog

Carol's Comments March 2013

Carol’s Comments March 2013

By Carol Rusinek

          Hello Everyone! Welcome to another issue of Carol’s Comments. I am a volunteer at the River Park Branch. Even though I have a Bachelor’s degree in History, U.S. military history especially the Civil War never really appealed to me. The only books about the Civil War I ever enjoyed were Stephen Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage and Gone with the Wind. So when the St Joseph County Public Library chose Michael Shaara’s The Killer Angels as this year’s selection for its 4^th annual One Book, One Michiana campaign happening from April 1 through May 11, I approached the book with some trepidation.

          In his Pulitzer Prize winning novel, Shaara intricately chronicles events leading up to the Battle of Gettysburg as well as the three day battle itself occurring from July 1 through July 3, 1863. This compelling book gives the reader a realistic account of Gettysburg by alternating between the viewpoints of key military figures of the Union and the Confederacy; the most notable being General Robert E Lee and Lieutenant General James Longstreet for the Confederacy and principally Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain of the Union Army’s  Maine  Division. This literary technique successfully reveals the humanistic side of these historical icons by exposing their fears, vulnerabilities, aspirations and doubts about the war’s purpose.

          The author also includes a detailed foreword that introduces all the principal military personnel involved for both sides as well as an epilogue which discusses the fates of those men after the war. Furthermore, the novel dramatically depicts the destruction, tumult and tremendous casualties suffered by Confederate and Union troops during the pivotal Civil War battle. Despite being a rather difficult book to read at times, The Killer Angels remains the seminal work about Gettysburg.

          After finishing The Killer Angels, I decided to watch Gettysburg the 1993 film adaptation so I could better understand the book’s rather complex plot. Written and directed by Robert F Maxwell, this visually spectacular movie meticulously re-creates every aspect of the Battle of Gettysburg. In fact, Maxwell’s screenplay literally duplicates the novel’s scenes and dialogue so much that the viewer feels totally immersed in the battle.

          This historically accurate movie stars Tom Berenger as General James Longstreet, Jeff Daniels as Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain and Martin Sheen as a somewhat miscast Robert E Lee. The most notable and hauntingly convincing performance is Sam Elliott as the Union’s Major General John Buford.

          Running nearly 4 ½ hours long and filmed at the original battlefield site, Gettysburg stands as a magnificent cinematic tribute to this monumental Civil War battle. Everyone should see this movie to fully understand the overwhelming sacrifices made for freedom.

          Since I’m not a big Civil War enthusiast, I was very glad to learn that the library had selected Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker by Jennifer Chiaverini as the companion book to The Killer Angels.

          In this well researched and very readable historical novel, the author vividly recounts the unlikely friendship between the freedwoman seamstress Elizabeth Kendrick and Mary Todd Lincoln. Through this remarkable relationship, Mrs. Kendrick witnesses firsthand the Lincolns’ personal and political trials and triumphs during the Civil War years along with Mrs. Lincoln’s steady decline after her husband’s assassination. This highly entertaining book paints an exquisite portrait of Elizabeth Kendrick’s extraordinary life.

          Although set in a different time period,  Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker reminded me a lot of the 1979 miniseries Backstairs at the White House. I also plan to watch Steven Spielberg’s award winning film Lincoln not only for Daniel Day-Lewis’ and Sally Field’s stunning performances as Abraham and Mary Todd- Lincoln but to see Gloria Reuben’s portrayal of Elizabeth Kendrick.

          If you enjoyed this book as much as I did, don’t miss author Jennifer Chiaverini’s lecture and book signing on April 29 from 5-8pm at the Main Library’s Multimedia Room. F or more information about this event and other programs and activities sponsored by the library and other local community organizations, visit the SJCPL’s web site at www.libraryforlife.org/onebook  Thanks for reading! See you all next time.

Previously posted at the SJCPL blog