I used to listen to the Book Radio Channel. This as a 24/7, 365 internet channel where books and radio serials were read aloud to the subscribers and I liked it. Instead of the same 250 songs in rotation, I got stories. Some were familiar and loved but often they were something new and either way, I was entertained. Imagine, a channel whose programming targeted my special interest! Evidently that interest was too specialized to be profitable because they closed the channel down but not before I found another book worth keeping. Trust Book Radio Channel to read Jasper Fforde’s The Eyre Affair out loud. This fantasy is a bibliophile’s dream. The Eyre Affair is one of those alternate-universe stories but one where Readers are the Cool Guys on Campus. Seriously. Writers are treated like rock stars. The populace likes watching Shakespearean plays (In one place, “Richard III” is watched and performed nightly by a group of Rocky-Horror type devotees) and the Baconites go around witnessing like Mormons. There are other, less-startling ideas like a time-traveling guard and a Crimean war that lasts longer than a century but nothing compares to a public that cherishes books. The…
I miss Anne George. During the early 1990’s, when I was settling into life as an adult, Anne was one of the literary lights in Birmingham, Alabama. She was a local girl who taught for years and wrote poetry and short stories on the side. After retiring from education, her literary career swung into high gear and she made readers and booksellers happy until that day in 2001 when she died, most unexpectedly, during heart surgery. Her passing broke a lot of hearts, including my friend J.’s, who appreciated her as a friend as well as an author. Anne’s poetry was good but what I miss most are her Southern Sisters mysteries. Anne turned Birmingham into the setting for her Southern cozies. Cozies are that sub-set of mysteries that are uncomplicated fun. Any violence is usually off-stage, the detective is normally an amateur and there’s a minimum of grit or grime. Jessica Fletcher is a good example of a cozy’s detective, although the first must have been Miss Jane Marple. Normally, I like mayhem in my mysteries and angst running through all of the characters (hurray for Val McDermid!) but I love Anne George’s Southern Sisters mysteries because she…
Siblings always surprise you. When you are young, siblings are your competition for the limited resources known as Mom and Dad. They are part of the family woodwork and it’s hard to see them outside of their family roles, at least while you’re sharing a bathroom. I’m not sure when I first saw my sister as a grown individual but it probably started when she told me she loved Willa Cather’s, O Pioneers! I noticed this because I had been avoiding Cather’s work for years. Cather is, of course, the novelist of the Great Plains and since we grew up in that area, I had avoided her just to be contrary. There are other prairie writers but Cather usually leads the pack with her stories about the European settlers that came to the Plains and remade their lives on that alien land. The feeling the settlers develop for this land is central in Cather’s O Pioneers! and my sister acknowledged as much when she discussed it. “I read it,” she said, “when I’m homesick.” I decided to give the story a chance. Now it’s a “read-every year” book for me. On the simplest level, O Pioneers! is the story of…
I thought I read a lot until I met J_, We were working in the same law firm and introduced to each other as great readers. But J__ leaves me in the dust. For example, when we first met and ran over lists of our favorite books she added, “And of course, I love A Confederacy of Dunces.” That brought me up short. I hadn’t even heard of A Confederacy of Dunces. If you haven’t, get ready. This isn’t one great story, it’s two. The story behind the story is incredible. This young guy, John Kennedy Toole, writes a comedy novel during the late 50’s and early 60’s while he’s serving in the army. He comes home to his native New Orleans, starts teaching and finishes the draft of the book. He finishes the novel and ships it off to one of the best publishing houses at the time, and the editors indicate they are interested in publishing it. (This rarely happens to a first-time novelist). The book needed work, they said, but they’re interested. So Toole goes back and revises. And revises. And revises. After almost a decade of rewrites and revision, the publisher turns the book down. All…
I love the work of Anne Tyler. Her prose is open, direct, kind and she writes about the people I know. Her characters are the Americans I grew up around, people from the working and upper-middle class who lives are usually defined by geographical boundaries and aspirations. These are not the folks who dream of learning a second language, becoming famous or climbing Everest. These are the middle-class, middle-income, middle everything Americans. (God love us, we can be so boring at times.) Anne sees our faults and our fears and still loves us (especially those from her native Baltimore) but her novels tend to disarrange our neat little worlds. Underneath her open sentences are some serious ideas and I like the way she displays them. Most readers know her more famous books, Breathing Lessons and The Accidental Tourist but my favorite has, I think, the quintessential Anne Tyler title: Saint Maybe. Set in the early 1960’s, the Bedloes are convinced they are the prototype of a American family. They are an established family in a well-settled neighborhood and their youngest son, Ian, seems the most well-sorted of all. His looks, brains and sports ability are all better than average, though…