Carol's Comments March 2019

Carol’s Comments March 2019

Hello Everyone! Welcome to another issue of Carol’s Comments. After spending a hectic Christmas season with friends and family as well as attending the fabulous Cut!: Costume and the Cinema exhibit at The History Museum, I decided to choose an eclectic assortment of books to keep me company over this topsy turvy winter. 

I first selected Michelle Obama’s incredibly popular bestselling memoir Becoming. Written in a very approachable and candid writing style, Mrs. Obama’s book contains three sections: Becoming Me, Becoming Us and Becoming More. Part 1 describes her early years as a child and adolescent with her brother Craig Robinson growing up in a working class South Side Chicago neighborhood, graduating from Princeton and later Harvard Law School. Part 2 focuses on her relationship and marriage to Barack Obama while Part 3 chronicles the Obama presidency through her unique perspective. 

My favorite part of Mrs. Obama’s autobiography was Becoming Me because it honestly discussed the values instilled in her by supportive parents Fraser and Marian Robinson who stressed the importance of education especially when they encouraged her to attend Princeton and Harvard Law School. I also empathized with the struggles she faced with prejudice and the obstacles she overcome throughout her life - even as First Lady. At times, the book’s straightforward, exceptionally genuine narrative reminded me of Sonia Sotomayor’s memoir My Beloved World which I reviewed in December 2013.

I highly recommend Becoming to anyone who greatly admires the first African-American First Lady and the Obama presidency.

After reading a positive review in The New York Times about French author Anne Serre’s hypnotic Gothic novella The Governesses, I definitely found it very intriguing. Unfortunately, the library didn’t own the book so I hurriedly bought my own copy.

Recently published in the United States and translated by Mark Hutchinson, this weirdly enchanting first novel, originally published in France in 1992, introduces American readers to one of France’s most prolific modern writers. Serre’s 110 page novella begins when Monsieur and Madame Austeur employ three very surreal governesses ,Eleanore, Laura and Ines, to care for their two little boys as ”mistresses of games and pleasures.” Without being overly explicit, this strange entrancing story vividly recounts the ethereal trio’s erotic adventures by describing how the women act like sirens, drawing men into their alluring, sensual trap. The very arousing tale mixes elements of Jane Eyre with a bit of Fifty Shades of Grey. 

Devoid of a traditional plot, Serre’s mesmerizing atmospheric story set in an unknown time and place is more a series of impressions than a classic Gothic novel. The Governesses is a very challenging read that symbolizes desire and loneliness. In fact, Eleanore, Laura and Ines seem more like nymphs in an epic poem composed by Lord Byron than demure Bronte governesses like Jane Eyre or Agnes Grey.

To commemorate J.D. Salinger’s 100^th birthday on January 1, I decided to read Franny and Zooey, one of my favorite novels in high school instead of the more obvious choice Catcher in the Rye.

Salinger’s short novel consists of two short stories originally published in The New Yorker; Franny in 1955 and Zooey in 1957. Set in mid-1950s New York City, Salinger’s book revolves around the intellectually eccentric Glass family, mainly concentrating on the two youngest siblings, 25 year old Zooey (who serves as the novel’s cynical narrator) and his 21 year old sister Franny. The other 5 older Glass children and their parents play a peripheral role in the narrative. The only information the reader learns about them is the parents Les and Bessie Glass were once famous vaudevillians and all their children appeared as contestants on the famous radio quiz show- It’s a Wise Child.

Salinger’s meandering stream of consciousness plot can make it sometimes difficult for the reader to follow. However, despite this existential slant, Franny and Zooey gives the reader a very realistic glimpse into privileged family life in mid-2oth century metropolitan New York.

Since none of Salinger’s novels or short stories had ever been adapted into movies, I wanted to find a film that featured a quirky family that best resembled the neurotic Glasses. I knew I found the perfect choice when I remembered how much I loved Wes Anderson’s 2001 movie The Royal Tenenbaums.

 

Produced and directed by Wes Anderson and an Academy Award nominated co-written screenplay with Owen Wilson, this offbeat movie stars Gene Hackman as the eccentric family patriarch who raises three child prodigies in New York hilariously played by Ben Stiller, Gwyneth Paltrow and Luke Wilson.  Royal’s neglect of his children’s uniqueness basically obliterates their childhood talents.

When Royal discovers he has a terminal illness and only has six weeks to live, he begs his estranged wife Etheline ,marvelously played by Anjelica Huston, to move back home after 17 years to reconnect with his very dysfunctional adult children. After the Tenenbaum children soon realize that their father isn’t dying, this disenchants them even more. 

Anderson’s fractured fairy tale of an irreverent clan of New York eccentrics mirrors Salinger’s quirky unconventional Glass family perfectly. If you enjoy zany understated humor as much as I do, you will absolutely adore this film especially the performance by Bill Murray as Raleigh St Clair and Alec Baldwin’s deadpan narration of the film’s convoluted plot. The Royal Tenenbaums is a worthy substitute for a Franny and Zooey film adaptation.

The books and movie reviewed in this blog can be found at most local public libraries. My readers in St Joseph County, Indiana can visit the St Joseph County Public Library’s web site at sjcpl.lib.in.us for additional information. Thanks for reading! See you all next time.