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BURNING QUESTIONS – Margaret Atwood

Posted by Daniel on October 21, 2022
Posted in: MEMOIR, NON-FICTION, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

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Burning Questions is a collection of essays, speeches, book reviews, book forewords, and other non-fiction miscellany from the pen and wit of the incredible Margaret Atwood. Collected works starting from 2004 and on up through 2021, the range of material here is so vast it practically defies description.

It is most fascinating to see the different ways in which Atwood talks to people.  In all cases, she appears to reaching out directly and speaking to a specific audience. But the way in which she speaks to them varies – not so much by year (the way the book is organized) but by audience.  To the audience reading an intro or a review, she speaks very differently than the way she does to an audience which she is addressing live.  This makes sense, of course. But even in her live addresses, she approaches differently depending to whom she is speaking.  Again, this makes sense but it’s something that is really only noticeable because of the volume of work collected here.

Nearly all the pieces were good, bordering on great. It shouldn’t be a surprise to me that someone whose fiction I have been reading for some 40, years (yes, I was reading Atwood before The Handmaid’s Tale was first published and when it was published, I bought and read it within the first week [the title of one of my short plays, produced in Upstate New York, came from a line in The Handmaid’s Tale])- and reading because I like them so much – that I would also like what the author has to say through her non-fiction. And I do.  We’re very much on the same page, ideologically and politically.

When so many pieces are so good, it’s often difficult to choose a favorite, but I identified only one of the works here with a note in my Kindle, remarking simply:   “Fantastic”  That piece is “Polonia” (from 2005) and is a response to the question “What advice would you give the young?” Here Atwood’s talents are in full force.  Her wit, her wisdom, her way with words. She’ll make you chuckle while you think, “Yeah, yeah, that’s exactly right.”

This is not really the kind of book you want to sit down and read straight through, cover to cover (though you could).  This is the kind of book you keep next to you, on a coffee table, or end table, or night stand, or in the bathroom magazine rack, and you read a piece here or there when you have a couple of spare minutes. You will feel better, enriched. And keep a highlighter next to you because you’re going to want to take note of all the nuggets of wisdom that come from these pages.

And whether you’ve only just discovered Atwood or you’ve been reading her works for years, this is a great collection to have.

Looking for a good book? Burning Questions is a collection of short, non-fiction pieces (essays, speeches, reviews, etc) by Margaret Atwood. It is full of wit, wisdom, and insight and worthy of being in your home.

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

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Burning Questions: Essays and Occasional Pieces, 2004 to 2021

author: Margaret Atwood

publisher: Doubleday Books

ISBN: 9780385547482

hardcover, 496 pages

WRITERS & THINKERS – Daniel Fuchs

Posted by Daniel on August 18, 2022
Posted in: NON-FICTION, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

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Well … this was … interesting.

When I was in college (some 40 years ago!) I really enjoyed reading literary criticism. Researching an author and/or a book and writing papers was one of my favorite parts of getting an English degree (minor).  When I saw this book, Writers & Thinkers by Daniel Fuchs, those happy memories came flooding back and I wanted to relive some of that time. One of my favorite authors from that period, Bernard Malamud, is featured in a couple of the essays here and that definitely was the deciding factor in my wanting to give this a read.

And what I came away with was … does anyone read literary criticism for anything other than writing papers for school?

Fuchs addresses this to some degree in his Preface (an essay in itself):

Literary critics are sometimes asked to explain the kind of criticism they write. This is one such occasion. Though I have never been particularly concerned with methodology, my interest is in the character of the writer, in the illumination of the salient details of what he wrote, and in related problems of cultural definition. These essays are written in a Morningside Heights style.

This kind of criticism has had two tendencies, public and scholarly, with some of the critics in between or, as the case may be, moving with relative ease from one to another. The New York intellectuals in their heyday of the forties, fifties, and first half of the sixties were later thought of as public intellectuals, meaning, for one thing, that they addressed public issues that came within their intellectual purview.

…

The essays in this book, though primarily extrinsic, give due attention to artistic particularity. They are detailed but not formalist, focusing rather on how the particulars illustrate cultural and psychological realities. They are, in this sense, thematic. They are cultural criticism with no political program. … Writers and Thinkers is a collection of essays, but given the alternative space of a book on a single subject, I think that establishing the detailed relation of significant pattern to the primary ground of personal and cultural motive is even more important. D.J. Enright, in a Times Literary Supplement review of my Bellow book, said that my only fault as a critic was that I explained too much. Though I side with cultural criticism, I have often observed in it a shortcoming, a sort of condescension in actually referring to the particulars of an art work, or even to the work at all. To me, the critic is somewhat analogous to the conductor of an orchestra: the reader often responds to the critic’s ability to illuminate detail, to generate the drama of particulars. To this extent I am sympathetic to the close reading or practical criticism enterprise.

So, to Fuchs, to get the most of our reading experience, we should be guided by a ‘conductor’ to make sure we ‘get’ what we’re supposed to?

This makes some sense, and it’s what my university professors were teaching us … how to read literature – how to understand what we were reading and to think critically on our own.  Do we really need someone else’s voice – specifically Daniel Fuchs in this case – telling us what to look for and what might ‘really’ be going on? For me, the answer is ‘no.’

It doesn’t help that even here in these critical essays we’re very clearly getting an opinion and we have to take that into consideration.

Malamud is writing about failure in a time when America is moving toward “success.” (Of course, success brings failures of its own and failure may be a form of redemption.). … It is as if Malamud missed the boat, missed the great American Jewish turn to affluence for better or worse that Bellow’s vibrant prose records so brilliantly. Too often Malamud sings in the veynedich (tearful) cantorial style. It is moving but somewhat outdated. Bellow moves on to the wider energetics of contemporary American harmonics, thriving in the dialectical air between assonance and dissonance. The Bellarosa Connection is a case in point. For Malamud the Holocaust evokes the tearful past. Bellow brings the Holocaust into the pleasure-ridden present.

Perhaps it’s because I am much more of a fan of Malamud’s work than Bellow’s, but I found this to be humorous – almost outrageous. First, Fuchs counters the first sentence with his parenthetical response, and then doesn’t want to go too far and actually make a strong statement but follows it with “It is as if…”.

Were I still in school and writing papers on Malamud or Bellow or Hemingway I might use this as a resource for quoting in my paper, but given that this is criticism of books and authors that are no longer topping the book sales charts, its value is limited.  I’d like to see some new literary criticism on authors that are still connecting with readers with new books.  Where is the Anne Tyler criticism?  Margaret Atwood? Stephen King? Seanan McGuire?

There is no question that there are books from the 1920’s, 30’s, 40’s, 50’s, etc that are still relevant and important to today’s readers.  But are new criticisms of these books equally relevant? That is, I suppose, up to each of us as readers.

Looking for a good book? Writers & Thinkers by Daniel Fuchs is a collection of essays by the author. Though I have, in the past, enjoyed reading literary criticisms of authors I admire, I failed to find relevance for these essays.

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

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Writers and Thinkers: Selected Literary Criticism

author: Daniel Fuchs

publisher: Routledge

ISBN: 1412856914

hardcover, 272 pages

THE DOVER ANTHOLOGY OF AMERICAN LITERATURE, VOLUME I – Bob Blaisdell, editor

Posted by Daniel on October 6, 2021
Posted in: NON-FICTION, OTHER, SHORT FICTION, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

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I never thought I’d read a book like this once I graduated from college, but here I am, delving into the past and reading an assortment of classic, American works.

For a bibliophile such as myself, I find that there are more classic works of literature that I want to read, but because of all the new books I also want to read, there is just not enough time.  Enter an anthology such as this that provides pieces of longer, classic works. Editor Bob Blaisdell has collected a strong selection of works that really capture the early days of the United States from a literary perspective.

I was familiar with many of the works included here (and have previously read a few of these) but by no means  was I even aware of all of these. If you know me or have been subscribing to my blog, then it should be no surprise that my least favorite works here are the poems. (Sorry poetry fans … I just don’t care for poetry.)

Generally speaking, my favorite works here are those by Indigenous authors.  Powhatan’s “Why Should You Destroy Us, Who Have Provided You with Food?” is really powerful and I’m disappointed that this was not required reading when I was in school.  Likewise, “We All Belong to One Family” by Tecumseh shows thinking far ahead of his own time.

Of course there’s a theme among the Indigenous authors and Red Jacket, Sagoyewatha continues on this theme with two pieces, “You Have Got Our Country, but Are Not Satisfied” and “We Are Determined Not to Sell Our Lands.”

The works are arranged by initial publication year, but it’s a little ironic that just before Red Jacket’s essays are excerpts from the Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

The last author represented in this volume is Abraham Lincoln. We often don’t think about the great speeches of our past political figures as literature (or at least I don’t), but in addition the his Gettysburg Address and his Second Inaugural Address, we also have the opportunity to read from his first debate with Senator Stephen A. Douglas and his “Meditation on the Divine Will.”

Something I probably should have read by now, but have not, is Herman Melville’s Moby Dick and I appreciated these select chapters.

This is hardly a quick read but it’s a really great way to expose yourself to some of the great classic literary works spanning more than 200 years during the founding years of the United States.

This book includes:

Cherokee Creation Stories (James Mooney)
“How the World Was Made” (1897–1898)
“The First Fire” (1897–1898)
Powhatan
“Why Should You Destroy Us, Who Have Provided You with Food?” (c. 1609)
Anne Bradstreet
The Author to her Book (1650)
To my Dear and loving Husband (1650)
Before the Birth of one of her Children (1650)
Upon a Fit of Sickness, Anno. 1632. Aetatis suae, 19 (1650)
To the Memory of my dear and ever honoured Father Thomas Dudley Esq; Who deceased, July 31,             1653. and of his Age, 77 (1650)
In memory of my dear grand-child Anne Bradstreet. Who deceased June 20. 1669. being three years         and seven Moneths old (1650)
To my Dear Children (1650)
In my Solitary houres in my dear husband his Absence (1650)
“As weary pilgrim, now at rest” (1650)
The Prologue [to The Tenth Muse] (1650)
Benjamin Franklin
    An Apology for Printers (1731)
    From Poor Richard’s Almanack (1733–1758)
    Excerpts from Autobiography (“Arriving at moral perfection”) (1793)
Jonathan Edwards
    Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God (1741)
Phillis Wheatley
    On Being Brought from Africa to America (1773)
    On Imagination (1773)
    To S. M., A Young African Painter, On Seeing His Works (1773)
Thomas Paine
    From Common Sense (1776)
J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur
    Letters from an American Farmer : Letter III: What Is an American (1782)
Sarah Wentworth Morton
    The African Chief (1792)
Meriwether Lewis and William Clark
    From Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804–1806)
Red Jacket, Sagoyewatha
    You Have Got Our Country, but Are Not Satisfied (1805)
    We Are Determined Not to Sell Our Lands (1811)
Tecumseh
    We All Belong to One Family (1811)
    Father!—Listen to Your Children! (1813)
Washington Irving
    Rip Van Winkle: A Posthumous Tale of Diedrich Knickerbocker (1819–1820)
James Fenimore Cooper
    Chapters 3, 17, 29 and 32 from The Last of the Mohicans (1826)
    Catharine Maria Sedgwick
    Chapters 4–5 (Vol. 1) from Hope Leslie; or Early Times in Massachusetts (1827)
William Lloyd Garrison
    To the Public (1831)
Black Hawk
    Farewell to Black Hawk (1832)
Nathaniel Hawthorne
    Young Goodman Brown (1835)
    Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment (1837)
    Chapters 5–6 from The Scarlet Letter (1850)
Ralph Waldo Emerson
    Nature (1836)
    Self-Reliance (1841)
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
    A Psalm of Life (1838)
    The Wreck of the Hesperus (1839)
    Beware! (1839)
    The Rainy Day (1841)
    The Slave’s Dream (1842)
    The Day Is Done (1844)
    The Arrow and the Song (1845)
    The Ladder of Saint Augustine (1850)
    The Children’s Hour (1859)
    Paul Revere’s Ride (1860)
    Killed at the Ford (1866)
Edgar Allan Poe
    William Wilson (1839)
    The Tell-Tale Heart (1843)
    The Raven (1845–1849)
    Annabel Lee (1849–1850)
Frederick Douglass
    Chapters 6–7 from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. Written by                     Himself (1845)
Margaret Fuller
    Educate Men and Women as Souls (c. 1845)
    Woman in Poverty (1846)
Francis Parkman
    The Oregon Trail: The Buffalo Camp (1848)
Henry David Thoreau
    Civil Disobedience (1849)
    From Walden, or Life in the Woods (1854)
Herman Melville
    Chapters 1, 10–12, 28, 36, 41, 65–66, 87, 110, 128, 133–135 from Moby-Dick (1851)
Harriet Beecher Stowe
    Chapters 7–8 of Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852)
Walt Whitman
    From Leaves of Grass (1855)
    The Wound-Dresser (1865)
    Cavalry Crossing a Ford (1865)
    A March in the Ranks Hard-Prest, and the Road Unknown (1865)
    A Sight in Camp in the Day-Break Grey and Dim (1865)
    Not Youth Pertains to Me (1865)
    O Captain! My Captain! (1865)
P. T. Barnum
    The American Museum (Chapter 9) from The Life of P. T. Barnum Written by Himself (1855)
John Greenleaf Whittier
    Brown of Ossawatomie (1859)
    Ein Feste Burg Ist Unser Gott (Luther’s Hymn) (1861)
    Barbara Frietchie (1863)
Harriet A. Jacobs
    From Chapters 17–18, 20–21, 29–31, 40 in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861)
Julia Ward Howe
    Battle Hymn of the Republic (1862)
Louisa May Alcott
    Obtaining Supplies (1863)
    A Day (1863)
Abraham Lincoln
    First Debate with Senator Stephen A. Douglas (Ottawa, Illinois, August 21, 1858)
    Letter: To Jesse W. Fell (December 20, 1859)
    Meditation on the Divine Will (c. September 2, 1862)
    Letter: To James C. Conkling (August 26, 1863)
    Gettysburg Address (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, November 19, 1863)
    Second Inaugural Address (March 4, 1865)
Index of Authors

Looking for a good book? The Dover Anthology of American Literature Volume 1, edited by Bob Blaisdell is a tremendous collection of early American literature and if you don’t have time to read all the original works found here, then make sure to get this collection on your bookshelf.

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

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The Dover Anthology of American Literature, Volume 1

editor: Bob Blaisdell

publisher: Dover Publications

ISBN: 9780486780764

paperback, 672 pages

THE DELIGHTFUL HORROR OF FAMILY BIRDING – Eli. J. Knapp

Posted by Daniel on August 20, 2021
Posted in: NON-FICTION, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

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I was immediately attracted to this book because the title pretty much defines me. I was raised by an avid birder and my older brother might rival author Eli J. Knapp for obsessive birder behavior and my own children might think of me as too obsessive for their tastes (if they only knew…).

I am a little conflicted on this book. It is presented as a book-length work of non-fiction, and judging by the title, about family birding and the struggles (or “delightful horror”) of birding as a family. The non-fiction part is correct.

The book reads as though it is a series of essays, all about various aspects of a personal experience birding, and then loosely connected to make one long narrative. At first I found this jarring … wondering how we got from story A to story B, but once I decided to read this like a series of individual essays, I found the reading easier because I wasn’t always trying to connect the different people in a story.

But as to the ‘family’ part … I guess, if you roughly consider your family a wider audience – particularly, say, your students if you are a university-level teacher – then maybe yes, we can find some family birding here, but this title implies something that really isn’t delivered.

And, again looking at the title, I’m not quite sure where the ‘delightful horror’ is. Is it because I am also a birder (though not nearly as obsessive) that I don’t see the horror? Or is it because there really isn’t anything horrific here and it’s just hyperbole to sell the book? I am not sure.

To the stories themselves … Knapp is a delightful storyteller and he clearly understands that his passion is on the obsessive side and pokes a little fun at it. Occasionally we get some good information about some specific birds that Knapp is chasing in one of his essays. For the very casual birder, I think these little scientific insights are good, but for the more faithful, these might be superfluous.

At times this is clever and entertaining and I know birders who will recognize themselves here at various stages and I was really hoping I might find a book that I could share with some birding friends, but as my reactions is a shrug of the shoulders and an “eh” this turns out not to be a book that I’d eagerly give to fellow birders.

Looking for a good book? The Delightful Horror of Family Birding by Eli J. Knapp has a misleading title, but the series of essays within may appeal to some and dedicated (i.e. “obsessive”) birders will recognize themselves herein.

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

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The Delightful Horror of Family Birding

author: Eli J. Knapp

publisher: Torrey House Press

ISBN: 9781937226916

paperback, 200 pages

THE GLASS TEAT – Harlan Ellison

Posted by Daniel on March 3, 2021
Posted in: ENTERTAINMENT, MEMOIR, NON-FICTION, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

As a teenager I was completely and utterly enthralled with Harlan Ellison and his writing. I’ve read everything he wrote that i could get my hands on.  I met him at book signings and conventions and easily rated him as my favorite author.

Ellison’s anger and angst and pomposity was fun, or at least identifiable for the teen me. And over the past few years I’ve purchased his entire catalog of available works in digital format so that I can read them again.  This is perhaps an unusual place to start, this collection of essays since it was his fiction that first attracted me, but in many ways it was my reading The Glass Teat that first got me interested in reviewing.  Long before I started this book review blog (which I’ve been doing for eight years now!) I’ve been a reviewer of art shows for a local paper, a reviewer of books for West Coast Review of Books magazine, and a reviewer of live theatre for a Los Angeles newspaper, and I can pretty much trace it back to my having read this book.

The Glass Teat is a collection of essays and reviews from Ellison’s column of the same name in a Los Angeles newspaper where he reviewed and mostly disparaged the current slate of television shows (current from the late 1960’s to mid 1970’s mind you).

A few things struck me on this reading.

1) This doesn’t stand the test of time too well.  The programs he talks about are now fifty years old.  Do we really care that in 1968 Ellison thought that:

The two shows that really tell us where it’s at are The Outcasts and Mod Squad. These are the shows that dare to take the enormous risk of utilizing black folk as heroes. These are the shows that win the title hands-down for this being The Year Of The Shuck.

Not only are the shows out of date, but the idioms Ellison uses so frequently are also out of date.  Ellison wrote to the people, here and now, of his time.  He spoke to them as if he were one of them (he’d take issue with my “as if”) but 50 years later, we are not one of ‘them’ (even if we were back then).

2) I was a little surprised at how often Ellison’s supposed television review column devolved into rants.  Rants about the television industry were probably in line with the topic of the column.  Rants about how he was treated by other industry insiders was marginally in line with the column theme. Rants about politics, “the Man,” and ‘square’ school administrators who don’t approve of his language and aggression when visiting high schools seemed a bit outside the parameters of a television review column.  But it’s Harlan Ellison.  He pretty much did whatever he wanted and if he got shut down for not playing by the rules, it would just give him something more to rant about.

3) And my last impression here was noticing just how egotistical Ellison was.  It’s certainly no secret he thought highly of himself, but it really comes through in these essays where he is wronged and maligned by others who don’t recognize him when he’s right.  It’s kind of made me wonder about my younger self – the one who really ‘dug’ this guy.

Despite my above comments, I generally enjoyed reading this – mostly from a nostalgic point of view. But I really look forward to re-reading Ellison’s fiction.

Looking for a good book? The Glass Teat is a collection of mostly television reviews and essays by Harlan Ellison. Those who remember television in the 60’s and 70’s may find it fun to look back on what one cantankerous writer thought of television programs of the day.

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The Glass Teat

author: Harlan Ellison

publisher: Open Road Media

ASIN: B00J90EQ5M

Kindle Edition, 279 pages

THE HIDDEN MACHINERY – Margot Livesey

Posted by Daniel on January 14, 2019
Posted in: NON-FICTION, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

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I was not at all familiar with Margot Livesey before reading this. When I requested this book I was on a bit of a kick to read books about writing (if you’ve been following my blog you can probably recall a few titles that have been reviewed here). I was also attracted to the very unusual nature of the cover for this book.

I felt a connection to the author very early on when she writes:

Because we come to reading and writing so early—as a life skill, not an art form—people often overestimate their own abilities as fiction writers. “Oh, yes, I’m thinking of writing a novel,” my fellow passengers tell me on planes and trains. As soon as we consider Serena Williams playing tennis, or Yo-Yo Ma playing the cello, we recognize the absurdity of thinking that one can easily move from audience member to performer. No one would imagine that all they had to do was listen to music and then they’d be able to play at the Village Vanguard, or visit the Metropolitan Museum regularly and then paint a masterpiece.

How succinctly she puts it!   I’ve heard other authors say this, but never quite so simply and smartly.  That she also makes the distinction between writing as an art form and (as she puts it) a ‘life skill’ makes tremendous sense, and this is something I have not previously run across.

I absolutely adored the essay “Mrs. Turpin Reads the Stars: Creating Characters Who Walk off the Page.” “I am character handicapped,” Livesey writes and notes that not being able to write vivid characters is akin to golfers who can’t putt or drummers with no sense of rhythm. And yet, judging by the characters I see in so many books, there are plenty of character-handicapped authors out there. But this seemingly simple essay has more depth to it than most books.  This essay alone is worth the price of the book and should be required reading in high school and college writing courses.

From her recognition of what she doesn’t do well with thoughts on how to rewrite and overcome her own deficiencies, to writing prompts and rules (i.e. “Every character should have something I absolutely do not share: perfect pitch, the ability to recognize edible mushrooms”) this essay – a personal reflection on writing – is packed with tremendous advice for writers of all levels.

“Neither a Borrower Nor a Lender Be: Paying Homage” is a wonderful essay touting the case for borrowing or ‘re-imagining’ stories. There’s a fine line between re-imagining and plagiarism, but Livesey’s arguments are worth considering.

I could quote at length from this book.  So many times I read, then re-read a sentence or a paragraph because there was so much power, so much truth in the words, and I highlighted my digital copy in almost systematic fashion.  When I was done reading my digital ARC I immediately put a hard copy in my online shopping cart.  I want this book handy to be able to call upon it time and again.

Looking for a good book? Anyone even slightly interested in writing should own a copy of Margot Livesey’s The Hidden Machinery.

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

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The Hidden Machinery: Essays on Writing

author: Margot Livesey

publisher: Tin House Books

ISBN: 1941040683

paperback, 302 pages

THE ESSENTIAL ELLEN WILLIS

Posted by Daniel on December 20, 2018
Posted in: MEMOIR, NON-FICTION. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

I knew nothing about Ellen Willis before venturing into this book but I enjoy reading essays (yes, I’m that guy) and I was drawn to Willis’ profile and record.

I’m not sure how to describe Willis, based on her writing. Any label I give her would only box her in to a confine too small for who she really was.

It also seems too small to say that I was highly impressed with the essays here, but I was.

The essays here encompass an incredible range – from eras (the 1960’s to the 2000’s) to topics (from radicalism to music to feminism to peace and hope and beyond) – and all are intelligently composed and carefully articulated. This is the writing of a smart, cultured, modern woman (and I mention her gender not to dismiss her in any way but because I think her gender plays a crucial role in her observations).

At times the writing was dated.  We can see the influence of the cultural thinking in the way she expresses herself on issues in the 60’s up even through the 90’s. Perceptions sometimes change with cultural changes.  Yet it also becomes all-too-apparent that we maybe don’t change enough as humans. Styles may change. What’s acceptable by perception may change. But we don’t change.  I couldn’t help but see too many comparisons to today’s politics and revolutions when reading her observations from twenty, thirty, even forty years ago.  How sad.  How frustrating and very sad.  I wondered what she would have to say in today’s political climate and about the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh (I was just finishing this book during this debacle).

I loved her insight.  “How did the sixties happen in the first place?” she writes,

I’d argue that a confluence of events stimulated desire while temporarily muting anxiety. There was wide-spread prosperity that made young people feel secure, able to challenge authority and experiment with their lives. There was a vibrant mass-mediated culture that, far from damping down the imagination, transmitted the summons to freedom and pleasure far more broadly than a mere political movement could do.

Man, that made me think… a wide-spread prosperity that made young people feel secure.  I’d never heard nor read anyone put it quite that way, and yet it feels spot on.  And what a tremendous contradiction then – feeling comfortable let them rebel. Yeah.

On sex she sums up:  “When women discuss sex in public, male prerogatives and male hypocrisy come under scrutiny. And that makes a lot of journalists (especially male journalists) nervous— not because sex is trivial, but precisely because it isn’t.” This had me wondering what she would have made of the #metoo movement.

When discussing music, one of my favorite observations was:

Watching men groove on Janis, I began to appreciate the resentment many black people feel toward whites who are blues freaks. Janis sang out of her pain as a woman, and men dug it. Yet it was men who caused the pain, and if they stopped causing it they would not have her to dig.

And just when I was thinking that everything she wrote was heavy (and most of it is) I came across her essay “Handle With Care: We Need a Child-Rearing Movement” that I agreed with whole-heartedly.

This isn’t light reading.  It took me a long time to read through this collection because every essay can’t just be read, it has to be absorbed. It has to be considered, and that takes time.

I’m sorry that I wasn’t aware of Ellen Willis when she was actively writing and I’m sorry that she’s gone because I think she’d have some very valuable things to say about the ‘Teens.

Looking for a good book? If you like intelligent, socially relevant non-fiction, the The Essential Ellen Willis really needs to be on your reading list.

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

* * * * * *

The Essential Ellen Willis

author: Ellen Willis

editor: Nona Willis-Aronowitz

publisher: Univ of Minnesota Press

ISBN: 081668121X

paperback, 536 pages

WALKING HOME GROUND – Robert Root

Posted by Daniel on October 30, 2018
Posted in: NON-FICTION, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

I was drawn to this book on a couple of different levels.  First was the three authors listed … John Muir is a name I know from my interest in our National Parks and my time spent in Muir Woods and Yosemite National Park; Aldo Leopold, whose Sand County Almanac is still an environmentalists bible; and August Derleth – an author with whom I am familiar primarily because of his work writing dark fantasy/horror stories and his friendship with noted horror author, H.P. Lovecraft, but who also wrote a great deal of historical fiction and non-fiction nature books about the region of Wisconsin in which he lived.

I was also drawn to this book because of its environmental nature and because of the region – Wisconsin – while not my home, a neighbor where I have spent a bit of time.

Robert Root is an author of several books, though I am not familiar with any of his other titles. His motivation for the book is that he had recently moved to a small town in Southeastern Wisconsin and he wanted to get to know his new home and chose to explore the areas previously walked by some famous authors before him.

I’m not quite sure what to make of the book itself.  It’s not quite a book of reflections … thoughts while spending time in the outdoors … such as we might have had with Sigurd F. Olson books. It is not quite a natural or environmental survey of specific parts of Wisconsin.  It is not quite a biography of three writers or an autobiography of one. It is not quite a prose or poetic map of geologic regions.  And it is all of these things at the same time.

I can’t say that I learned a lot here, but I enjoyed the relaxing pace that Root delivers.  He walks the home ground today and waxes about what the area looked like in the past, based on Muir’s, Leopold’s, and Derleth’s writings. It is an interesting way of reminiscing while reflecting on loss and and the environmental impact of today.

I wouldn’t go out of my way to make sure to read this book, but should you pick it up and it looks interesting to you, then definitely give it a read.

Looking for a good book? Walking Home Ground by Robert Root is a unique mix of environmental, natural, and historical reflection in the modern area. Most interesting is getting to know the ‘home grounds’ of three popular, literary individuals.

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

* * * * * *

Walking Home Ground: In the Footsteps of Muir, Leopold, and Derleth

author: Robert Root

publisher: Wisconsin Historical Society Press

ISBN: 0870207865

paperback, 224 pages

AMERICAN MYTHS IN POST-9/11 MUSIC – Daniele Cuffaro

Posted by Daniel on February 2, 2018
Posted in: NON-FICTION. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

This is a highly unusual book and it is put together and reads much more like an English class final paper at any liberal arts college in the U.S. more than it does a critical book, examining the role of myths in music, post the 9/11 tragedy.  In fact, author Daniele Cuffaro tells the reader right up front what the book will be about (“This book will concentrate on American singers who reacted to the events, and whose music refers to, or was inspired by, the events of 9/11.”) in his introduction. And in the “Conclusion” Cuffaro tells us what we just read: “This study has aimed to show how historical mythic ideas, such as the myth of the innocent nation, the myth of the chosen nation, the frontier myth, and the powerful role of religion in the myth of the Christian nation, have not disappeared from today’s American society. ”  Just like a college paper.

And that’s fine.  I’ve read a few college papers in my time and if they’re done well or have an interesting topic they can be good reads.  I enjoy reading non-fiction because I like learning something new.

But at one-third of the way through the book, we haven’t gotten to the topic yet.  That topic mentioned in the introduction?  Not yet.  First we have to get a primer on ‘myths.’  “Part One – Myths and Heroes.” Cuffaro analyzes the definitions of ‘myth’ and shares the definitions of other writers.  We get more than a few “thus” and “therefore’s” along the way, further making this read like a final essay.

And once we’ve been informed on Myths and Heroes, we have to get through the first section of “Part Two – Post-9/11 Country Music” which is “Historical Survey: How Country Music Became the Authentic Sound of the U.S.A.” before we get to examining the first of the singer/songwriters (Alan Jackson).  And here I am disappointed by the dry writing.  Take for example:

A clear image in which faith and family are linked together by love, appears in the last verses that precede the two final refrains in which Jackson states that if you went home and clung to your family you should thank God that you had someone to love (ll. 44-45). These lines summarize the connubial relationship between the individual and the family as a divine gift. Moreover, according to the author, the deep presence of God in family life belongs to tradition. Alan Jackson does not sing this openly, but it is possible to work this interpretation out from the text. … The author never specifies where he was educated, but, thanks to the patriotic references in the text, the context, and, in part, the general assumption that country music mirrors American authenticity, the audience automatically assumes that this place is America.

Toby Keith, Charlie Daniels, and Darryl Worley are studied, and Bruce Springsteen is given a third of the book just to himself.

But at the end of the day (and the end of the book) I don’t feel any richer or more informed on the subject.

Music plays an important role in expressing what is sometimes hard to express.  Folk music, especially in the 1960’s, took off as a means of expressing a generation’s fear and anger over an unpopular war.  So it’s not surprising that musicians took to their art to help capture and express the fears and anger over a tragedy of such grand proportions as 9/11.  But examining the songs, line by line does not help us get at the heart of the songs, and the myths are necessary as symbols to which the songs speak.  Did we really need a 170 page book to say that?  I think Cuffaro summed it up nicely with his sentence in the conclusion (which was not the conclusion to the book but probably could have been):

“America was hurt, and rendered vulnerable so the whole nation had to recover in unison.”

Looking for a good book? American Myths in Post-9/11 Music by Daniele Cuffaro is nothing more than a term paper, bound and sold as a book, which could be okay, except that it reads like a term paper … a bit dull and flat.

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

* * * * * *

American Myths in Post-9/11 Music

author: Daniele Cuffaro

publisher: Sparkling Books

ISBN: 1907230335

ebook, 176 pages

SHAKESPEARE ON PAGE AND STAGE – Stanley Wells

Posted by Daniel on October 12, 2017
Posted in: ENTERTAINMENT, NON-FICTION. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

There is no end to the number of books one can find on the works or study of William Shakespeare.  The name ‘Stanley Wells’ is certainly familiar to anyone who’s read critical essays on Shakespeare.  This book, Shakespeare On Page and Stage, is a collection of some of Wells’ essays on the Bard, his work, and performances of his work.

And mostly we’re left with: meh.

Some of these essays were interesting and from some I learned a thing or two, but the bulk of them really didn’t add anything to my knowledge or appreciation of Shakespeare’s plays.  The book collects essays in four basic themes: 1) Shakespearian Influences, 2) Essays on Particular Works, 3) Shakespeare in the Theatre, and 4) Shakespeare’s Text.

While most of this is not new information, I confess I did enjoy the ‘Influences’ section.  For some reason I am extremely interested in reading some of the source material for Shakespeare.  Was it inspiring, or convenient?  We’ll never know.

I also happened to be reading the essay “Staging Shakespeare’s Ghosts” at about the same time that I saw a production of Richard III in which the ghost were featured quite prominently, and so this particular essay really stood out for me.  I hadn’t really thought about it before, but the supernatural definitely plays a big role in many of Shakespeare’s plays.

There were a few essays that dealt with particular performances which held no fascination or interest for me.  A live performance is a fleeting thing, meant to be observed in the moment.  All the reports, the talk, the writings after the fact won’t make me appreciate what someone once did on the stage.

The entire last section, dealing heavily with Wells and his work as an editor, more-so than with Shakespeare’s work, held no appeal at all.

There’s a lot of material here in this book, and there’s bound to be something that will appeal to someone who has an interest in Shakespeare, but over-all this just doesn’t stand up to some of the other Shakespeare criticism I’ve read over the years.

This volume contains the following:

Introduction by Peter Holland
I. SHAKESPEARIAN INFLUENCES
1. Shakespeare: Man of the European Renaissance
2. Tales from Shakespeare
II. ESSAYS ON PARTICULAR WORKS
3. The Failure of The Two Gentlemen of Verona
4.The Taming of the Shrew and King Lear: A Structural Comparison
5. The Integration of Violent Action in Titus Andronicus
6. The Challenges of Romeo and Juliet
7. Juliet’s Nurse: The Uses of Inconsequentiality
8. The Lamentable Tale of Richard II
9.  A Midsummer Night’s Dream Revisited
10. Translations in A Midsummer Night’s Dream
11. The Once and Future King Lear
12. Problems of Stagecraft in The Tempest
13.‘My Name is Will’: Shakespeare’s Sonnets and Autobiography
4. Shakespeare Without Sources
15. Shakespeare and Romance
III. SHAKESPEARE IN THE THEATRE
16. Boys Should be Girls: Shakespeare’s Female Roles and the Boy Players
17. Staging Shakespeare’s Ghosts
18. Staging Shakespeare’s Apparitions and Dream Visions
19. Shakespeare in Planché’s Extravaganzas
20. Shakespeare in Max Beerbohm’s Theatre Criticism
21. Shakespeare in Leigh Hunt’s Theatre Criticism
22. Shakespeare in Hazlitt’s Theatre Criticism
23. Peter Hall’s Coriolanus
IV. SHAKESPEARE’S TEXT
24. On Being a General Editor
25. Editorial Treatment of Foul-Paper Texts: Much Ado About Nothing as Test Case
26. Money in Shakespeare’s Comedies
27. To Read a Play: The Problem of Editorial Intervention
28. The First Folio: Where Should We be Without it?
29. The Limitations of the First Folio
Afterword by Margreta de Grazia
Notes
A Select Bibliography
Acknowledgements
Index

Looking for a good book? Stanley Wells is a noted Shakespeare scholar and his collection of essays, Shakespeare On Page and Stage, provides some insight into the playwright and his work, but nothing here is too earth-shattering or revelatory but instead is a rehash of knowledge but with Wells’ take on it.

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

* * * * * *

Shakespeare on Page and Stage: Selected Essays

author: Stanley Wells

publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

ISBN: 0198786549

hardcover, 300 pages

WHAT IS A SUPERHERO? – Robin S. Rosenberg & Peter Coogan, editors

Posted by Daniel on July 17, 2017
Posted in: ENTERTAINMENT, GRAPHIC NOVEL, NON-FICTION, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

You can hardly turn around today without seeing a movie or television show featuring a superhero and they’re often on the covers of magazines and there are novelizations of their stories.  And of course there are the comic books and graphic novels from which many of them sprouted.  But what is a superhero?  Such is the general question asked and addressed in the collection of essays edited by Robin S. Rosenberg & Peter Coogan.

There is a strong collection of writers included here, musing on what makes a superhero and the social issues surrounding a society’s reasons for having superheroes.  The collection includes essays from those who might understand the genre the best – writers of superhero stories such as: Stan Lee, Dennis O’Neil, Kurt Busiek, Joe Quesada, and a few others.

I was impressed right out of the gate with Peter Coogan’s article, “The Hero Defines the Genre, the Genre Defines the Hero.”  I’d like to quote from the article but the truth is I would simply copy the eight pages and reprint it – the article was packed with thoughtful reflection and commentary.  Coogan clearly understands the modern mythology of superheroes.

I did a lot of comic book reading in the 1970’s so it’s no surprise that talent from that era has a big impact on me.  And perhaps it’s because of this that I found Denny O’Neil’s article, “Superheroes and Power,” so meaningful.  After all, who should know how to write about superheroes and their power than someone who did it so well?  His words can be applied not just to superheroes, but to any character who is worth writing about.  I really appreciated his comment:

A writer fails the genre when a story depicts superheroes who are weak or do not use their powers. What makes a character interesting (both superheroes and other types of characters) is what he does to solve problems. You give him a knotty situation and he gets out of it. Well, by definition, superheroes use extraordinary physical means.

While I’m only pointing to two articles, this is one of those rare collections in which there are no duds.  Every essay is thoughtful and well articulated.  I gained some insight and felt that I left the book smarter than when I started.  I like that feeling.

This book contains the following:

Foreword – Michael Uslan
“Introduction: What Is a Superhero?” – Robin Rosenberg & Peter Coogan
Super and Hero: Powers and Mission
Section Introduction
“The Hero Defines the Genre, the Genre Defines the Hero” – Peter Coogan
“We Could Be Heroes” – Will Brooker
“What is a Female Superhero?” – Jennifer Stuller
“Straddling a Boundary: The Superhero and the Incorporation of Difference” – Clare Pitkelthy
“Save the Day” – A. David Lewis
Context, Culture, and the Problem of Definition
Section Introduction
“Superheroes and the Modern(ist) Age” – Alex Boney
“Heroes of the Superculture” – Richard Reynolds
“Superhero by Design” – John Jennings
“The Experience of the Superhero: A Phenomenological Definition” – Dana Anderson
“What is a Superhero? No One Knows—That’s What Makes ‘em Great.” – Geoff Klock
Superheroes Need Supervillains
Section introduction
“Why Supervillains?” – Paul Levitz
“Superheroes Need Supervillains” – Frank Verano
“Superheroes Need Superior Villains” – Stanford Carpenter
“Super and Villain: A bad guy with superpowers” – Curtis Deis
“Supervillains Who Need Superheroes (Are the Luckiest Villains in the World)” – Andrew Smith
“Sorting Out Villainy: A Typology of Villains and Their Effects on Superheroes” – Robin Rosenberg
From the Experts: Comic Book Writers Define the Superhero
Section Introduction
“More Than Normal, But Believable” – Stan Lee
“Making the World a Better Place” – Jeph Loeb
“Nobility of Purpose” – Danny Fingeroth
“Superheroes and Power” – Dennis O’Neil
“The Importance of Context: Robin Hood Is Out and Buffy Is In” – Kurt Busiek
“Superheroes Are Made” – Tom DeFalco
“Extraordinary” – Joe Quesada
“The Superprotagonist” – Fred Van Lente
“Superheroes and Supervillains: An Interdependent Relationship” – Ivory Madison

Looking for a good book? The collection of essays, What Is a Superhero? edited by Robin Rosenberg and Peter Coogan is a thoughtful reflection on superheroes – who are our modern mythological figures.  The book is highly recommended.

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

* * * * * *

What Is a Superhero?

editors: Robin Rosenberg & Peter Coogan

publisher: Oxford University Press, USA 

ISBN: 0199795274

hardcover, 175 pages

1984 IN THE 21ST CENTURY – Lori Perkins, editor

Posted by Daniel on July 7, 2017
Posted in: NON-FICTION, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

Well, it didn’t take long for someone to put out a collection of essays relating George Orwell’s 1984 with the Donald Trump presidency.  Of course it’s been the lingo in the press and on social media since Trump won the U.S. election and editor Lori Perkins, who writes in her introduction of having had affection for 1984 for a long time, has pulled together a series of previously published short articles and essays reminding the reader of the similarities between Trump’s political bureaucracy and the famous world of ‘big brother.’

Most of the essays are very short. A couple of Kindle-pages in length for some of them.  And actually, most of them don’t really offer any new insight or comparisons.  Anyone who spends time on Facebook will encounter much of the discourse that is here (though perhaps without the vehemence and inciting rhetoric).

None of these essays/articles stood out as exceptionally keen or insightful – as I say…this discourse is already taking place on social media and in various presses (which is where these come from).  But the advantage is that Perkins has gathered a number of them and brought them together.

One of the more interesting, or at least daring, articles was “Why Orwell’s Sudden Best-seller 1984 is More Applicable to Obama Than Trump” by Jay Strongman.  One of my least favorite pieces (surprisingly, perhaps, given my ‘other’ job in the professional theatre, was “Orwell in America — The Play” by Joseph Sutton which, first of all, was only the beginning portion of the play, and secondly, wasn’t all that interesting.

And of course there’s no small part of this that is taking advantage of the tremendous, sudden interest in Orwell’s 1984 and the sitting U.S. presidency of Donald Trump.  Thanks to ebooks and print on demand, it’s much easier for writers/editors/publishers to get books in front of the reading public very quickly.

This volume contains the following:

Introduction by Lori Perkins
“George Orwell and the Self-Preventing Prophecy” by David Brin
“1984 Was the Catalyst of Our Conversation” by David Jester
“How 1984 Can Decode Trump’s First 100 Days” by Alexander J. Urbelis
“Big Media is Big Brother” by Mike Siegel
“Controlling The Present: How 1984 Predicted ‘Alternative Facts’ and ‘Fake News’” by Marc W. Polite
“Trump is not Orwellian: He is the Distractor-in-Chief” by Matt Bai
“Why Orwell’s Sudden Best-seller 1984 is More Applicable to Obama Than Trump” by Jay Strongman
“1984: The Facts on the Ground are Emotions” by Alan Saly
“Sure, It’s “1984” Again—And I Know It” by Perry Brass
“Goodbye My Safety Blanket” by Stephen B. Pearl
“Archie Andrews’ Orwellian Adventure” by Tim Hanley
“Big Brother Sam” by Boze Hadleigh
“The Year of My Dystopia” by Tracy Lawson
“1984 and Walden: A Time and a Place in Two Volumes” by Tamara Rose
“What We Desire Must Be Valued” by Rona Gofstein
“George Orwell Through the Looking Glass” by Melli Pini
“Why Don’t You “Like” Me?” by Maximilian Ximenez
“2017 Should not be 1984” by Sherri Donovan
“Orwell’s 1984: Are We There Yet?” by Sean Fitzpatrick
“Teaching After Trump” by Melissa Febos
“Why We Teach 1984 Today” by Ruth-Terry Walden
“They Love Big Brother by Aaron Zwintscher
Feminism in George Orwell’s 1984” by Tara Lighten Msiska
“Orwell in America—The Play” by Joseph Sutton
“Coming to a Theater Near You, Again” by Adam Birnbaum and Dylan Skolnick

Looking for a good book?  If you are a fan of George Orwell’s 1984, or concerned about how much like 1984 our political system has devolved to, you may enjoy the insight, thoughts, and concerns expressed in the series of brief essays collected by Lori Perkins in 1984 in the 21st Century.

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

* * * * * *

1984 in the 21st Century

editor: Lori Perkins

publisher: Riverdale Avenue Books

ISBN13: 9781626013605

paperback, 180 pages