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
Previously posted at the SJCPL blog
