Biography

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WHY WE WRITE – Meredith Maran, editor

Posted by Daniel on January 3, 2019
Posted in: NON-FICTION. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

There’s no shortage of books about writing and hopeful writers will devour not only ‘how to’ books, but books by and about ‘famous’ authors to hopefully glean that little nugget of information that will lead the hopeful onto a path of publishing and fame.

In Why We Write, editor Meredith Maran has collected short bios and Q&A’s with twenty writers of varying styles. Anyone picking up this book is likely familiar with most of these authors, if not all of them.

The book really offers nothing new except that the common mantra (“I write because I can’t imagine doing anything else”) comes straight from the individual.

We see here that writing is tough.  It’s a hard job and a publishing contract doesn’t mean instant success. Only those truly new to writing will be surprised by anything offered here. That’s not to say that there weren’t little moments that I found delightful.  For instance … while I’ve never read anything by Armistead Maupin, I enjoyed his little truthful moment:

I don’t mean to say that I don’t have those glorious moments when I look at a paragraph and find it every bit as graceful and illuminating as I wanted it to be. I’ve been known to do a little jig around the room when that happens. The problem is, I can’t let myself proceed until I’m thoroughly happy with that paragraph. Every writer’s manual on the planet tells you to just spill it all out and polish it later. I haven’t been able to do that since the late seventies, when I was writing the serial on carbon paper, choosing my words and moving on immediately because of the daily newspaper deadline. The word processor, as much as I can’t imagine life without it, has only made me pokier, since it enables me to polish endlessly. At best, I’ll write only a page or two a day when working on a novel. I want my books to read like a brisk run through the woods, so my job is to get the obstacles out of the way. That takes time and sweat. A lot of people assume that a fast read is a fast write. Oh, if only that were true.

Or Mary Karr’s words of wisdom: “Most great writers suffer and have no idea how good they are. Most bad writers are very confident.”

And for all the advice offered here (which, honestly, isn’t that much) Kathryn Harrison (another author here whom I’ve never read) boils it all down: “It’s good to have talent and discipline, but there’s really no substitute for discipline.”

There are twenty authors here and each gets 10-11 pages which includes a short bio, a vital stats (including awards), a bibliography of their works, a few paragraphs that read like responses to questions, and a “Wisdom for Writers” bullet-point list. It all comes across as pretty generic. Most of these writers are pretty busy with whatever projects they are working on and they likely shot off their responses without a great deal of in-depth thought … or at least that’s how it comes across.

There’s nothing ‘bad’ or ‘wrong’ here. It’s a pretty average book that I wouldn’t steer you away from nor would I encourage you to read it.

The authors included here are:

Isabel Allende
David Baldacci
Jennifer Egan
James Frey
Sue Grafton
Sara Gruen
Kathryn Harrison
Gish Jen
Sebastian Junger
Mary Karr
Michael Lewis
Armistead Maupin
Terry McMillan
Rick Moody
Walter Mosely
Susan Orlean
Ann Pratchett
Jodi Picault
Jane Smiley
Meg Wolitzer

Looking for a good book? Why We Write, edited by Meredith Maran, is a collection of material, including some very brief essays from working writers on why they write. It’s pretty safe fare and not likely to provide much insight.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

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Why We Write: 20 Acclaimed Authors on How and Why They Do What They Do

editor: Meredith Maran

publisher: Plume

ISBN: 0452298156

paperback, 228 pages

MONK! – graphic novel

Posted by Daniel on October 8, 2018
Posted in: GRAPHIC NOVEL, MEMOIR. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

GRAPHIC NOVEL WEEK

Youssef Daoudi’s Monk! is about as close to jazz music in literary form as you can get.

On the surface, this story is relatively simple – this is a biography of jazz genius, Thelonius Monk. But just as any life in general and the life of a black jazz musician in the 1940’s-1960’s decades is hardly simple, this book weaves a circuitous path to tell the story.  Our narrators are Monk and Pannonica de Koenigswarter (a baroness who had been a long-time friend a patron to Monk) in other-worldly, often depressing, scenes, recalling various important moments in a life filled with important moments.

This book is clearly a labor of love and it wouldn’t surprise me if it had taken an extremely long time to put together, getting each nuance and each frame of art just right.  And yet there is an unmistakable sense of improvisation here as well, just the way jazz would be played. But make no mistake – it’s just the sense of improv – this book is tightly written.

As with the story, the art is … jazz. There’s a looseness in the art that mirrors the “flexible rhythmic understructure” (from the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th edition definition) of jazz.

I will say that when I first started this book, the style of art was just a little off-putting for me – a little confusing.  But I set it aside and came back to it a few days later and was much more open to the infusion of jazz in both the art and the story.

I’ve listened to plenty of Monk’s music, but my knowledge of his life was next to nothing before reading this. It’s a fascinating story and the platonic(?), long-term relationship with Pannonica is odd and lovely and one can’t help but wonder what Monk’s music might have been like without this support, this muse, in his life.

This is not only one of the best graphic novels I’ve read in some time, this is one of the finest books I’ve read, period. Give it a read.

Looking for a good book? Monk! by Youssef Daoudi, is a graphic novel about Thelonius Monk and is a remarkable achievement in blending biography, art, and the sense of Monk’s jazz, into one book.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

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Monk!: Thelonious, Pannonica, and the Friendship Behind a Musical Revolution

author: Youssef Daoudi

artist: Youssef Daoudi

publisher: First Second Books

ISBN: 1626724342

hardcover, 352 pages

MY LUCKY LIFE – Dick Van Dyke

Posted by Daniel on May 23, 2018
Posted in: ENTERTAINMENT, MEMOIR, NON-FICTION, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

There aren’t very many performers/actors that I admire as much as I do Dick Van Dyke. I grew up watching this man.  On television it was The Dick Van Dyke Show and then The New Dick Van Dyke Show.  On the big screen it was Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.  His talent, to me, was about as big as it could possibly get. And so I really looked forward to this autobiography.

Van Dyke doesn’t shy away from some of the troubles he had though his career – his battle with alcoholism was moderately well-known – and he doesn’t get maudlin about it.

I don’t know how much of Dick Van Dyke’s life a career were known before, but, not being much of a Hollywood industry follower myself, a fair amount of what Van Dyke writes is news to me.  His start on The Dick Van Dyke Show and how it came to be named after him was fascinating.

While I don’t mind a Hollywood book that isn’t a ‘tell-all’ sleazy style of book, Van Dyke goes almost too far in the other direction.  He certainly preserves his image as a clean-cut guy (like a real Rob Petrie or a real Dr. Mark Sloan) who has had some struggles. But he also comes across as a bit of a Pollyanna – wide-eyed and innocent to the darker side of Hollywood.

It is nice to see that there are still ‘good’ people in Hollywood, with a strong moral ethic.  I have to say, though, that sometimes it felt as though Van Dyke underplayed a few things in his past in order to keep his image clean.  While he admits to some marital strife and a divorce and remarrying, he mentions but glosses over the fact that he had an extra-marital affair.  He’s not quite the clean-cut angel he would like to be.

This certainly didn’t do anything to dispel my notion of Dick Van Dyke as being one of the few performers I admire. He’s a heck of a talent and by all accounts, a heck of a nice guy to boot.

As a side note, though I’m sure he wouldn’t ever remember it, I met Mr. Van Dyke (sort of).  I was a mail-room employee of an entertainment company some thirty years ago.  I saw him sitting in the lobby of the company, waiting for a meeting with one of the producers.  Though I saw and met a lot of well-known actors come through the doors, this was Dick Van Dyke, and I was willing to risk my job and I walked over, extended my hand, which he took and shook, and I said, “Mr. Van Dyke, I just wanted to say thank you for all the wonderful years of entertainment you brought to me.” (I didn’t get fired, and I don’t think anyone knew I did it except for the receptionist (a friend) and my buddies in the mailroom.  But I’ll repeat it now:

Mr. Van Dyke, I just wanted to say thank you for all the wonderful years of entertainment you brought to me … and now to my children as well.

Looking for a good book? My Lucky Life in and Out of Show Business is an autobiography by Dick Van Dyke that reads a little passively and perhaps a little too idealized from the authors point of view, but is informative and provides some insight to a nice guy we’ve almost all seen and loved.

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My Lucky Life in and Out of Show Business

author: Dick Van Dyke

publisher: Crown Archetype

ISBN: 0307592235

hardcover, 287 pages

SHORT NIGHTS OF THE SHADOW CATCHER – Timothy Egan

Posted by Daniel on May 9, 2018
Posted in: ENTERTAINMENT, MEMOIR, NON-FICTION, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

My only regret with this book is that it took me so long to read it.

Edward Curtis was a photographer in the very early days of photography.  Apprenticed as a photographer in St. Paul, Minnesota, he later moved to Seattle and became interested in photographing Native Americans.  He was often and long supported by Theodore Roosevelt and trusted by many Native Americans who gave him access to their daily lives and rituals, which he documented with his cameras. His book, The North American Indian (backed financially by J.P. Morgan) was to become almost the definitive work on America’s Natives and would span twenty volumes and remains one of the only records of the early Native Americans.  Curtis also is credited with making the first “narrative documentary” film (In the Land of the Headhunters aka In the Land of the War Canoes).

Author Timothy Egan has clearly done his research in preparation for this book as he follows Curtis’ travels quite closely and draws from multiple sources to suggest attitudes and motivations.

I was touched by the way so many Native American tribes welcomed Curtis and allowed him to document some of their most private ceremonies in addition to their daily lives.  And I was caught up with Curtis’s drive and motivation.  He definitely moved swiftly and his motivation was high when he had the full support of Roosevelt and/or Morgan, but when times were tough and lean (and they were, especially near the end of his life) his interest was strong enough that he looked for ways to continue with his work.  He was almost as much a salesman as a photographer (which, unfortunately, is often the case).

In so many ways, it seems that Curtis was so passionate about creating his masterpiece – the twenty-volume The North American Indian – that it was his down-fall.  He spent so much time , energy, and money on it, to get as complete and perfect as possible, that he ignored too many other things in his life.

Egan does point out that Curtis did sometimes stage his photos.  We seem to think of this as somewhat of a cardinal sin today (despite the fact that so many photographers now ‘photoshop’ their pictures), but we don’t take in to account the quality of the equipment or the speed in which photos were taken around the turn of the century.  Those weren’t ‘point and shoot’ days.

My Kindle ARC copy of the book did include some photographs, though I wished there more – what was there was impressive, but it only scratched the surface of what exists as Curtis’s collection.

I very much liked Egan’s research and narrative here.  I found the subject of Edward Curtis quite fascinating, and his subject – the ‘Indians’ of North America are still an under-represented people in our history books.

This deserves reading.

Looking for a good book? Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher by Timothy Egan is a remarkable history/biography of Edward Curtis – a photographer who documented Native Americans at the turn of the twentieth century.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

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Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis

author: Timothy Egan

publisher: Mifflin Harcourt

ISBN: 0618969020

hardcover, 370 pages

IRVING BERLIN, THE IMMIGRANT BOY WHO MADE AMERICA SING – Nancy Churnin

Posted by Daniel on April 20, 2018
Posted in: CHILDREN'S, MEMOIR, NON-FICTION. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

This children’s picture book about one of America’s greatest songwriters – who wasn’t actually born in the United States of America – is an absolutely marvelous biographical tribute. Author Nancy Churnin somehow manages to tell the entire Irving Berlin life story in thirty-two gorgeously illustrated pages, hitting the highlights, catching the struggles and the passions of the young man who gave us songs such as “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” “Easter Parade”  “White Christmas” and “God Bless America.”

Although I had heard it before, I had forgotten that Irving Berlin never took any money, personally, for “God Bless America” but instead donated the proceeds to Girl and Boy Scouts.

Churnin captures the spirit of the American Dream – that America is a land of infinite possibilities and that you can do or be anything or anyone if you want it badly enough and work for it.  Who would have guessed that a Russian immigrant child would become one of America’s greatest song-writers?

James Rey Sanchez is the artist for the book and his work is a tremendous complement to the book.  The art reminds me of the stylistic animation from the United Productions of America and Warner Brothers studios of the 1950’s.  It is very eye-catching and children will have a lot to look at and not be bored while parents read the book out loud.

Looking for a good book? Irving Berlin, the Immigrant Boy Who Made America Sing by Nancy Churnin and James Rey Sanchez is an all-around wonderful book and should be in every library in the country and on as many family bookshelves as possible.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.

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Irving Berlin, the Immigrant Boy Who Made America Sing

author: Nancy Churnin

artist: James Rey Sanchez

publisher: Creston Books

ISBN: 193954744X

hardcover, 32 pages

EYE SEE YOU – Angelo Madrigale

Posted by Daniel on April 5, 2018
Posted in: ENTERTAINMENT, NON-FICTION, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

I grew up in the 1960’s and remember quite well the psychedelic posters of Peter Blake and Victor Moscoso and Wes Wilson and Peter Max and others. I haven’t stayed interested in the psychedelic pop at scene over the past fifty years, but when I saw the style of art that Oliver Hibert was doing, it certainly caught my eye and reminded me of my visits to my brother’s dorm or early apartments.

There are some similarities, of course.  The use of solid colors, bright and bold, definitely feel like a throw-back to the 60’s/70’s psychedelic era.  Hibert has his own style, of course, and there are a couple of themes that run through his art constantly.  Hibert appears to be obsessed with the human eye, and with the vagina.  It is a rare piece of art that doesn’t feature one or the other – or both – in it.

These images were repeated so many times, in so many ways, that it grew monotonous and when a piece of art was featured that didn’t contain a colorful eyeball or strange vagina (often with teeth), it would catch my attention for being different.  I loved the painted guitar, and the use of flowers to create a skull (“Scream The Last Scream”) for instance.

I am not surprised, and not impressed by the idea that his work is featured on acid tab sheets, leading to the belief that the only way to truly enjoy this art is to be on an acid trip. And what, I wonder, would a psychologist make of all the headless female bodies in this work?

This is the kind of art that I can take only in small doses.  Seeing something here or there, with the bright, loud colors, would make me stop and look, and maybe enjoy.  But a book of this art is a lot to take in for the casual art fan.  Only those already into Hibert’s art are likely to find this book of serious interest.

There is a small of biographical information about Hibert within the pages, but it is pretty slight – keeping the mystery of the man behind the art a curiosity.  But perhaps the most telling thing about Hibert and his art was his admission that he was raised as a Jehovah’s Witness and that “Everybody was scary and evil to us, so we stayed home, making art and playing video games. That’s helped mold me in a lot of ways, maybe most importantly growing up with everything being taboo, whether it’s music, art, nudity, all that stuff.”

Looking for a good book? Eye See You: The Art of Oliver Hibert by Angelo Madrigale is is a look at the art of a modern pop artist whose style is a throwback to the psychedelic 60’s with an unusual propensity for giant eyeballs.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Edelwiess, in exchange for an honest review.

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Eye See You: The Art of Oliver Hibert

author: Angelo Madrigale

publisher: Schiffer Publishing

ISBN: 0764354434

hardcover, 176 pages

FINDING BIX – Brendan Wolfe

Posted by Daniel on March 12, 2018
Posted in: ENTERTAINMENT, MEMOIR, NON-FICTION, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

I first became aware of Bix Beiderbecke when I heard him on a tune played on Public Radio and I immediately went out to purchase a few CDs that featured his horn.  I enjoy listening to a Beiderbecke song, but part of that comes from the fact that I’ve been a fan of jazz music since I started listening to music (closing in on half a century). I would not consider myself to be a Bix fanatic, however.

I was expecting this to be a Bix Beiderbecke biography – it’s sub-titled “The Life and Afterlife of a Jazz Legend” after all – but it’s not quite a biography … and it’s a little more than a biography?  Mysterious?  Yeah … so was Bix.

What author Brendan Wolfe appears to do is track down all the various things written (and said) about Bix and put them into perspective – separating fact from myth as much as possible.  This seems to be a tremendous challenge because Bix was a bag of contradiction and an empty canvas (except when he was playing).  In fact the descriptions that stood out to me were when he was described with a blank expression.

“It was only when I looked at his face,” (guitar player Eddie) Condon wrote, “and saw the absence there that things got cold and tight around me and I stiffened my drink.”
The same blank expression – what Condon described as “the absence” and what (Ralph) Berton dubbed his “private astronomy”- that marked Bix…. We can’t help but wonder where he’s off to and, if we could, would we want to follow him there?

Later Wolfe clever writes: “But he had stopped listening, his face now a Bixian shade of blank.”

What we discover through Wolfe’s book is that Bix was an enigma – which does not deter (maybe even helps) his legion of fans. Convention/conferences/festivals take place annually in honor of this musician who burned out in his late 20’s almost 90 years ago. Wolfe attends a Bix-Fest in Racine, WI where fans re-enact Bix and Hoagy Carmichael listening to The Firebird Suite. To his fans, Bix was a living legend – a god – and they have an explanation for everything or willing denial for anything too terrible.

But I think the best analysis of Bix comes from jazz pianist and Bixophile Brad Kay who Wolfe quotes:

I think the reason why Bix Beiderbecke is the most punctiliously documented jazz musician is precisely because he was so slippery and indefinable as a person. … Who he was doesn’t really matter a bit as far as I’m concerned. I mean, he was a poor, confused guy who was in the grip of a demon somehow. … He was simply possessed by the music. It dwelled in him. It was an entity. It was above and beyond, separate from and not connected to any real human life.

…Bix, even at the end, sat at the piano and played the same incredible, marvelous, inventive, original stuff, and then (Eddie) Condon looked at his face and he saw the absence there, the dead eyes. … And it’s easy to see why legends accrue to him because you know he was definitely in the grip of something. he was staring into space. The music was just coursing through him and volition, desire, a definable goal – none of this had anything to do with that.

And Kay sums it up nicely: “He spent most of his life just trying to be a regular guy, which he was anything but.” And these descriptions offered up by Kay make the most sense and I wish Wolfe had ended his book with these keen insights.

But this is the biggest problem with the book … the random revelations. Wolfe gives the reader the story in chronological order … not chronological in terms of Bix’s life, but in terms of what Wolfe discovered and when.  Or so it seems at least. And this takes us on some strange tangents.  Wolfe even recognizes this. “Admittedly, I’ve lost the thread of our narrative a bit” he writes, early on in the book.

The information here about Bix Beiderbecke was quite interesting, but the relating of it was too much of a jumble to really have the impact that could have had.

Looking for a good book? Finding Bix by Brendan Wolfe is an interesting look at how a legend is created when biographical information is difficult to come by and often contradictory. The book examines other sources and personal insight, but the narrative is as jumbled as Bix’s life.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.
All quotes come from an Advance Reader’s copy of the book and the published edition may reflect changes, corrections, or updates.

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Finding Bix: The Life and Afterlife of a Jazz Legend

author: Brendan Wolfe

publisher: University of Iowa Press

ISBN: 1609385063

paperback, 272 pages