Carol's Comments November 2024

 

Carol’s Comments November 2024

 

Hello Everyone! Welcome to another issue of Carol’s Comments. Over the last five months, I’ve read lots of books, mostly nonfiction. Unfortunately, I just couldn’t find a fascinating theme for my blog’s next issue. Finally, I decided to feature an unconventional assortment of a Pulitzer Prize winning novel and two very popular bestselling memoirs I hoped my readers would enjoy. 

 

After watching Nicole Kidman receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Film Institute on Turner Classic Movies this summer, I noticed that the network was broadcasting many of her classic films, most notably The Hours. I had seen the film when it was originally released in 2002 but didn’t really understand its rather nonlinear plot. Since then, I had read many novels and nonfiction about Virginia Woolf and The Bloomsbury Group including the novel Vanessa and Her Sister by Priya Parmar and Young Bloomsbury by Nino Strachey so now I thought I would better understand the film.

Directed by Stephen Daldry with a screenplay written by David Hare based on Michael Cunningham’s Pulitzer Prize winning1998 novel, the movie features three separate stories and women: Virginia Woolf in the 1940s played by Best Actress Oscar winner Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore as Laura Brown, a 1950s housewife dissatisfied by society’s constraints on women and Meryl Streep as Clarissa Vaughn, a modern 1980s woman planning a party for her beloved friend Richard. When I watched this beautiful but realistic movie a second time, I fully understood the plot’s irony.

After seeing the film adaptation, I definitely wanted to read Michael Cunningham’s original Pulitzer Prize winning novel. The book also has three distinct storylines revolving around three unique women living in three different time periods: Virginia Woolf in the 1940s writing her classic novel Mrs. Dalloway. Laura Brown, a 1950s housewife searching for more fulfillment in her tedious life while reading Mrs. Dalloway and Clarissa Vaughn, a liberated 1980s woman planning a party for her dear friend Richard who suffers from AIDS. In Cunningham’s magnificent novel, the irony and tragedy of the three central characters becomes even more apparent especially in the powerful way they are all connected to Woolf’s novel Mrs. Dalloway. I highly recommend The Hours to all readers especially those who enjoy modern literary and historical fiction.

 

Except for Prince Harry’s intriguing memoir Spare, I usually don’t review celebrity autobiographies in this blog. However, while browsing through Vanity Fair’s May 2024 issue, I noticed and read an excerpt from actor/producer Griffin Dunne’s upcoming memoir The Friday Afternoon Club.

I knew I had to read it when it would be published in June so I quickly put a hold on it at the library. I had to wait quite awhile for the book after its release because the library only ordered four copies. Due to very positive reviews in the New York Times, The New Yorker and other reviews along with being on the New York Times and Amazon Bestseller Lists for several weeks, the library ordered 11 more copies. By late August, I eagerly checked out a copy.

Subtitled A Family Memoir, Dunne uses a very genial and informal writing style to comically and casually recount his own misadventures growing up in a very unconventional family- his father movie producer and later crime reporter Dominick Dunne and his mother aspiring actress Ellen Dunne. Griffin and his younger brother Alex and sister Dominique spent their early childhood years in New York City where his father became literary rivals with brother author John Gregory Dunne especially after he married acclaimed writer and essayist Joan Didion, Griffin’s favorite aunt.

Then in the late 1960s, the Dunne family move to Beverly Hills, California. There Griffin decides to pursue a fledgling acting career along with his younger sister Dominique.

My favorite chapters in the book focused on Griffin’s enduring friendship with Carrie Fisher especially when they both shared an apartment in Manhattan at the Hotel des Artistes while Fisher was filming the small sci fi movie Star Wars.

Griffin Dunne’s writing style is so authentic, witty and unsensational that I felt like he was chatting with me while reading this book.  Despite his freewheeling lifestyle as a struggling young actor, Dunne produced and starred in his first film the now classic After Hours directed by Martin Scorsese in 1985.

The memoir’s most riveting section centered on his 22-year-old sister Dominique’s brutal murder by her ex-boyfriend in 1982 and the subsequent murder trial that irrevocably and tragically changed the family- especially his father’s career forever. After the trial ended, Dominick Dunne became Vanity Fair’s crime reporter and victims’ activist until his death at age 83 in August 2009.

The book’s last 125 pages were so compelling and captivating that I finished Dunne’s memoir in one evening. I highly recommend The Friday Afternoon Club to anyone who loves celebrity memoirs. It’s definitely a very addictive read!

 

I’ve love television personality Ina Garten ever since I accidentally discovered The Barefoot Contessa on the Food Network one afternoon in 2002. While reading a very entertaining and extensive profile about Ms. Garten in The New Yorker’s September 9^th issue, I learned that her long awaited memoir Be Ready When the Luck Happens would be published on October 1^st. I knew I would read it and probably buy a copy since I already own three of her 13 bestselling cookbooks: Barefoot In Paris, Cooking for Jeffrey and Modern Comfort Food. Somehow, I did control myself and instead picked up a copy of Garten’s memoir at the library when my hold became available.

Garten takes a nonlinear approach with her fascinating memoir by starting the book in 1978. Bored with her job at the Office of Management and Budget drafting nuclear energy policy documents at the White House, she starts browsing through the Sunday New York Times and spots an ad for purchasing a specialty food store in the Hamptons. Her husband Jeffrey encourages her to look at it and she becomes the new owner of The Barefoot Contessa at age 30! With Jeffrey’s love and support, she follows the motto attributed to her beloved husband that appears at the beginning of the book- “Do what you love. If you love it, you’ll be really good at it.”

Then the memoir moves back to 1965 when 17-year-old high school senior Ina Rosenberg meets Jeffrey Garten, a Dartmouth sophomore. They eventually marry when she turns 20 in 1968. Ina feels very happy to escape from her parents because she grew up in a very restrictive household environment. For instance, her father, a surgeon, who expected perfection from Ina and her older brother, had a volatile temper. She suffered lots of verbal, emotional and physical abuse from her father and cold indifference from her mother. Her parents essentially raised Ina and her brother Ken as only children.

In 1978, running The Barefoot Contessa specialty food store took a toll on the Garten’s marriage. For a brief period, they separated. Fortunately, Ina realized she needed Jeffrey’s love, support and encouragement. They have been happily married for 56 years.

My favorite chapters of this wonderful memoir include Ms. Garten writing her cookbooks, working with the Food Network to produce and perfect The Barefoot Contessa TV series especially during the pandemic, starting a new interview/cooking show Be My Guest in 2022 and buying a Paris apartment with Jeffrey- a dream finally come true- in 1999.

Filled with many photographs chronicling her personal and professional life, Be Ready When the Luck Happens is a must read for all Ina Garten and Barefoot Contessa fans. I highly recommend it!

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.org for additional information. Thanks for reading! Enjoy the holidays and see you all next time.