I’ve called this column “The Books that Follow you Home” and for these first two months I’ve focused on the books but during “this festive season of the year” to quote my hero, Dickens, I must admit I’m thinking about the other noun in the title, Home. Home is, of course, a big part of the culture of Christmas but it means different things to different people. To some, home at Christmas is a decorated house, the bigger the better, that is bursting at the seams with family, friends and presents to mark the occasion. To others, it’s a small place, where they live very quietly and alone. Home can be an apartment, a ship, a trailer or even just a box but it’s as sacred and wonderful as Windsor Castle or The Breakers because it belongs to you. In a scary, changing world, home is the place where you can be yourself without apology and there’s no reason to be afraid because you are protected when you are between these walls. When home is a good place the very walls seem to warm and comfort you like a comfortable sweater. It’s when architecture becomes a friend. All of this…
People interested in books are fascinated by first lines. Their favorites usually include the evocative “Last night I dreamt I went to Manderly” and Orwell’s line about the clocks striking 13 and of course, “Happy families are all alike.” These are great first lines. Whether they fill less than an line (“Call me Ishmael”) or take the entire paragraph, first sentences grab the reader’s attention and set the tone of the book all at once and they make the next line seem inevitable. My favorite first line comes from a book few people know or love but for a rip-snorting, gut-grabbing sentence, it’s one of the best I’ve ever seen. Let me clear my throat, I’ll share it with you…. “Mister Deck, are you my stinkin’ Daddy?“ That, ladies and gentleman was the voice of T. R., the heroine of Larry McMurtry’s novel, Some Can Whistle. (You could tell the young lady was from Texas, right?) This furious young voice is directed at Danny Deck, a failed novelist, and retired sitcom writer who is spending his middle years retreating from the active life that made him rich and unhappy. Part of this retreat is fueled by overexposure to the…
We all know the plays I’m talking about, right? The characters are usually family or very close friends and they enter the play facing hardship or strife. Conflicts may be aired but the True Meaning of Christmas finally gets through and everyone remembers the Reason for the Season and makes up in time to unwrap presents. Cue the Figgy Pudding and Curtain, we’re finished. Well, those don’t do it for me. I watched “Father Knows Best” episodes when I was a kid and those happy families on the stage only added to my confusion and neurosis. I’ll take the dysfunctional Plantagenet family in “The Lion in Winter” for Christmas instead. They show me I’m not insane. James Goldman’s”The Lion in Winter” is a fictional take on the real life Plantagenet family and their problems in 1183. The patriarch, Henry had been King of England nearly thirty years by then and time was catching up to him. It was time to reflect on his accomplishments, (he reigns over England and controls a good bit of France) think about retirement and (to quote Lear) ” shake all cares and business from our age, conferring them on younger strengths.” At least that’s…
Years ago, when my sister and I were first getting acquainted as adults (a process quite different than growing up together) we discussed a book called Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. Barb and I agreed it was very good but my sister added, “It doesn’t compare to the author’s first book, The Silver Crown.” I had missed that kid’s book and couldn’t imagine how anything could approach the charm of NIMH. “Try The Silver Crown and see” Barb said. “You’ll like it, it’s scary as all get out.” As usual, my sister was right. The Silver Crown is, I suppose, a modern fairy-tale. A young girl, Ellen Carroll, wakes on her birthday to find a crown made of dense silver material beside her bed. She takes the crown outdoors to enjoy some solitude and returns to find her home afire and her family gone. As the day goes on it becomes very clear that the fire was the first step in someone’s campaign to capture Ellen and her crown. Ellen has to run and stay one step ahead of her enemies in order to survive. It isn’t easy. The thing is, while The Silver Crown has some very…
I’m not an aeronautic groupie or a science nerd. As a kid, I resented the moon-shot flights of Mercury, Gemini and Apollo for preempting my Saturday Morning Cartoons and although I appreciate their accomplishments, I still prefer reruns of Underdog. Engineering advancements just aren’t my thing. Nevertheless, I get hot under the collar every time I re-read Greig Stewart’s Shutting Down the National Dream: A. V. Roe and the Tragedy of the Avro Arrow and I’m not even Canadian. It’s a little known story that should be memorized by everyone in the fields of science, business and government and kept in a folder marked, “Don’t Let this Happen to You.” The Avro Arrow is a tragedy of waste. It’s post World War II and most of Canada is getting used to the idea of the Cold War and their unenviable image as USA’s dull neighbor to the north. A few Canadians don’t agree. The most important of these is C. D. Howe, an engineer and businessman who became Canada’s “Minister of Everything” during World War II. (Look up his biography in Wikipedia, the man was amazing.) He talked Crawford Gordon Jr. into becoming the general manager of Avro Canada,…