A Work in Progress

Beginning of the Week Mailbox Surprises

Monday was a very good mail day--book mail!  And not just one parcel but two!  My July NYRB Classic selection arrived.  Way back in March I added Linda Rosenkrantz's Talk to my wishlist and a little patience and good luck has indeed brought me a copy.  I've not done so well this year with reading my NYRB subscription books as they have been released (but that's okay, their moment will come--there is no rule that they must be read the moment they are pulled from their mailer), but I do think I am going to start this one right now.

Published in 1968, Talk is a novel made up entirely of dialogue.  I think I will wait to write about it until I have read a bit and can give you a teaser, but the blurb on the back cover reads in part:

"Talk is the hilariously irreverent and racy testament to dialogue: the gossip, questioning, analysis, arguments, and revelations that make up our closest friendships.  It's the summer of 1965 and Emily, Vincent, and Marsha are at the beach . . ."

Somehow it seems like the perfect July read, much like yesterday's A Hundred Summers was a perfect beach book.

My second parcel contained the first volume of Dorothy Richardson's famous quartet (at least Virago published the series of novels in four volumes) Pilgrimage.  I had ordered the first two volumes after I read a short story by Richardson, but they went missing in the mail and so had to search for another copy.  The books are somewhat rare and can be very pricey.  I'm not sure how I will manage to fill out the remaining three books to complete the set.  Do you see that postcard sticking out of the book?

I love it when I find some little ephemera in used books I buy--especially something as cool as this postcard, which will remain in the book as my bookmark!

I feel a little like a voyeur (and now I am making you one, too, since I am sharing the back side of the postcard), but as the book came from England and it is unlikely that either the giver or recipient will ever have a clue that they even lost the card . . .  I wonder what she meant by the note?  Do you think the book belonged to Sarah or Angeline?  There is a story behind this card, which unfortunately I will never know, but it is fun to imagine.

As for the book . . . I am so interested in Dorothy Richardson, though I am the tiniest bit intimidated by this novel.  I loved her short story and it was very accessible, but this sounds like something else altogether.  This is what Virginia Woolf had to say about it:

"There is no one word, such as romance or realism, to cover, even roughly, the works of Miss Dorothy Richardson . . .  She has invented a sentence we might call the psychological sentence of the feminine gender . . . proving that the novel is not hung upon a nail and festooned in glory, but on the contrary, walks the high road, alive and alert, and brushes shoulders with real men and women."

I'd call that pretty impressive coming from Virginia Woolf!  As for the blurb:

"The magnificent novels that comprise Pilgrimage are the first expression in English of what was to be called 'stream of consciousness' technique, predating the work of both Joyce and Woolf, echoing that of Proust with whom Dorothy Richardson stands as one of the great innovatory figures of our time.  These volumes record in detail the life of Miriam Henderson.  Through her experience--personal, spiritual, intellectual--Dorothy Richardson explores intensely what it means to be a woman, presenting feminine consciousness with a new voice, a new identity."

That sounds pretty amazing.  I think I don't mind that my first order went missing since I found such a cool surprise inside the book.  Maybe it was meant to be?  I have been a little too indulgent of late when it comes to book ordering, so I wonder what treat will come in tomorrow's mail?

A Hundred Summers by Beatriz Williams

Although I haven't made one in a few years I frequently like to make a list of beach books--my lists have a little twist to them as they aren't meant necessarily to be books you can read at the beach but stories that have a strong seaside element in their setting.  A Hundred Summers by Beatriz Williams gets an automatic 'go to the top of the list' award and has the added bonus of being not only a perfect beach read but a perfect story with an enviable seaside setting.  It has all the elements I love--interesting characters with the main characters being quite likable (most of the main characters that is), a plot that moves with along at a nice clip, well written with a most perfect setting, a good drama and at its heart a love story.  I could imagine myself there as I was reading.  Sand between my toes, sunshine in my face, morning dips in the ocean.  Pure and perfect escapist reading, but all nicely done, too. 

There is one set of characters with two parallel stories running in tandem.  There is the here and now of Seaview, Rhode Island 1938 where Lily Dane and her family have been summering for as long as she can remember, and 1931 Dartmouth and New York City where Lily is a college student inseparable from her best friend Budgie.  Lily is pretty and smart and just a tad more serious than Budgie who is a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants whirlwind.  Budgie is beautiful and vivacious and a little fearless, too.  She's the sort of girl who attracts the star football player and isn't afraid to live it up.  Lily has a quiet wild side that only occasionally surfaces, more of a 'good girl' who might be convinced to do something out of character but thinks twice about it first. 

It's through Budgie and her beau Graham Pendleton that Lily meets Nick Greenwald.  Graham is as handsome as his name implies, but Lily has eyes only for Nick when she first sees him on the football field.  Tall and dark with curly hair and intense eyes she falls for him at first sight.  The story opens with their first meeting as Budgie cheers on Graham, no second glance at Nick who is tackled and injured.  But he meets Lily and the two click and all seems right with the world.  The only hurdle in their way is the fact that Nick is Jewish and Lily isn't and neither family seems particularly pleased by the match.   

Fast forward seven years and Lily is returning once more to Seaview with her mother and younger sister, Kiki, who seems more like her own daughter than a sister.  As a matter of fact it's questionable whether Kiki really is only her sister as the two are together more often than not.  And then there Budgie, who is also returning to Seaview with her new husband, Nick Greenwald.  The same Nick that Lily shared what appeared to be a passionate romance with years before. She is coming to open up her family's home to ready it for her new married life--only the best of the best, but it's all scandalous and the families of Seaview close ranks around Lily knowing something of their past together.  Seaview is a respite and happy place for Lily Dane, but she does wonder what the draw is for Budgie.  The two girls grew up and spent their summers together at Seaview, but there is more at play between the two than what is on the surface. Seaview is a town that has seen more prosperous days.  It may be a familiar and comforting place to return to for some, but not everyone and is less of a draw for the young.

"For whatever reason, my generation hadn't taken up in our parents' houses in Seaview, as everyone generation past, filling the narrow lanes and tennis courts with screaming young children and moody teenagers, with sailboats racing across the cove and Fourth of July floats festooned in contraband impatiens.  I could understand why.  The things that attracted me back to Seaview every summer--its old-fashionedness, its never-changingness, its wicker furniture and the smell of salt water soaked into its upholstery--were the very things that turned away everyone else.  You couldn't satisfy your craving for slickness and glamour and high living here at the Seaview Club.  During Prohibition, the liquor had been replaced by lemonade and now that gin and tonic were back in their rightful places, the young people had moved on."

Except Lily Dane. 

The two threads of the story, of course, will eventually converge with perhaps a surprise or two along the way and plenty of pacy drama culminating in one sultry summer where passions flare and the stormy, tumultuous lives of the characters is matched by a perfect storm that will come crashing down on Seaview.  I thought the plot would follow a predictable arc and it more or less did, but Williams had a card or two still up her sleeve.  It was for me quite a satisfying read, which I thoroughly enjoyed.  As a matter of fact I had to then have all her other books (save for the newest just out and only in hardcover) and Overseas (her first novel) now sits next to my bed ready to find its way into my bookbag.  Perhaps it will be my Fourth of July treat!  On to my list of (hopefully) reliably good, favorite comfort reads goes Beatriz Williams. 

Short Story Sunday: After the Ball

I must be feeling especially nostalgic lately, because I have been thoroughly enjoying the short stories I have been reading of late, most notably by Elizabeth Parsons (must give you a gentle nudge again about her) and this weekend's story by Sally Benson.  Benson was a screenwriter and a prolific short story writer whose work appeared in The New Yorker.  Probably her most famous film is Meet Me in St. Louis, which I'm afraid I've never seen.  But I had heard of Sally Benson before and I own a BOMC edition of her famous novel Junior Miss, which I see was also adapted to film.  Needless to say after reading "After the Ball" I will dig out my copy of Junior Miss (now OOP).

Sally Benson's story is not exactly hard edged satire or a story showing great depth, but as stories go, she was a great observer of the social scene and "After the Ball" is really quite charming.  I came across Twenty Grand Short Stories when I was browsing for a few new short story anthologies to draw from.  I had found a list of contributors and the book seemed promising, but I had no idea that the stories were chosen with a young adult audience in mind.  The collection was published in the early 1960s when there was no YA genre--at least not in the very popular form as it is today, so authors included are heavy-weights that you might not automatically think of in terms of a younger audience--Dorothy Canfield Fisher, William Saroyan, Dorothy Parker, Katherine Anne Porter, John Steinbeck and Sinclair Lewis among others. 

Not all the stories are actual short stories but some are excerpts or chapters from novels (this being a publication originally by Scholastic Magazine, which they are careful to note they do not approve of).  The brief introduction is interesting to read since it was written in the 60s and the editor, Dorothy Canfield Fisher, refers to her own youth some fifty years prior.  I like these sorts of books since they give a view onto a world long gone and changed.  The stories selected are meant to show teen readers life of the college student or college age youth.  It will be interesting to think of the stories in those terms.

I envy young people their youth, but I have no desire to be a  young person today.  I only want their stamina perhaps.  As I was reading Benson's story, I could only think that some things really don't change.  While the details might be drastically different, the situation is not all that new.  Benson's story is an excerpt or chapter from her 1938 novel Emily.  It's a pretty common scenario and I saw it not so many years ago with my own niece.  A young woman wants only to be older, to appear older, to hang with an older crowd, even while she is still really not much more than a child--and those who she would realistically be more comfortable with (and probably have more in common) are the very people she most disdains.  And that older crowd?  Had they known, or when they find out she is passing herself off as older and more mature than she is?  They drop her like some little kid who keeps following them around.

"No one could have guessed her age seeing her drive around town in the cream-colored convertible coupe, with its top down.  Her lipstick matched her nails and blended with the color of her dress; rust polish with green, red and white, or brown, rose with pastel shades.  She was perfect from her smart well-fitting  sandals to her seemingly endless supply of small felts.  Her manner was perfect, too.  She spoke in a tired, low-pitched voice, and she looked at the very person she was addressing as though he were very, very far away."

Norma is just sixteen but looks older and can pass herself off as part of that hipper crowd much to the chagrin of her mother.  She has worked things out so that she and her mother are summering in a different beach town with more opportunities for her to test her independence which is a little bit laughable seen from the vantage of age, but is still something we all go through in one way or another.  This is a gentle sort of read and there is a minor (though maybe not so very minor to Norma!) moral dilemma.  It was pleasant, gentle reading and just what was called for on a hot summer's afternoon.  I'll definitely read more from this collection and I think I'll be on the look out for other anthologies like this--not YA collections per se, but collections that are out of print now but have good authors nonetheless represented--whatever the topical slant may be.

I have to put in a good word for "An Afternoon" by the way.  I've been reading the stories in the collection and have loved each one.  It's such a pity that Elizabeth Parsons is no longer read.  I've even gone into the archives of The New Yorker and printed out the stories that don't appear in the book so there will be more to look forward to later.  I'll write about the collection as a whole later--I am reading it at leisure rather than gulping it down.  I've been eyeing a few other collections that are by contemporary authors, or are recently published collections with older stories, but I will save those for another day.  I'm not sure where my short story will take me next weekend--prepare for a surprise.

* * * * *

I have to admit I've been feeling pretty "meh" lately about the stories I have been reading in the most recent issues of The New Yorker--nothing is quite grabbing me of late, but I am very pleased with Louise Erdrich's story "The Flower".  You can read it in full here and let me know what you think!  The Q&A with Erdrich is here.  Flower is the name a young clerk gives to an eleven-year-old Ojibwe girl who is bought by a trader.  The clerk, Wolfred is not much older than the girl.  He has come from out east since he is a younger son and there is no room for him in his family's business.  The mother of flower, once a beauty, has had a harsh life and shows the scars from it.  It being the 1830s it is not such a surprise that this would go on, that these women, this girl is likely to lead a life of misery.  Flower is perhaps worse off than others, since under all the dirt and muck that covers her, she is also a beauty.  And Wolfred knows what might happen, so as soon as he cleans her up, he muddies her once again to try and keep her safe.  Safe for a Native American child at the time meant being pulled from everything you know and being inserted into the world of the white man, which brings its own problems with it.  What is better, to give up all you know for a little safety, or be left to a world that is quickly disappearing for your tribe?  It was a beautifully told story.  How have I not read Louise Erdrich yet?  I have a number of her books.  Have you read her?  Do you have a favorite?  A recommended place to start?  As always I am thankful for short stories as a way to taste more authors' work!

Westward Bound, or Literary Travels

Guess where I might be going this fall? 

It's all still in the thinking/planning stage, but I might be going to Glenwood Springs, Colorado, which is about three hours west of Denver.  It is another resort town known for its hot springs.  The twist on this year's plan is to travel there by train--the California Zephyr to be exact.  Apparently the scenery is something between Denver and Glenwood.

"The scenery changes dramatically departing Denver as the train climbs the Rocky Mountains. After going through the Tunnel District then crossing the Continental Divide via the 6.2 mile-long Moffat Tunnel under James Peak, the tracks follow the Colorado River for several hours. Passengers can see the transition from a narrow, whitewater river to a much wider stream past Glenwood Canyon and Interstate 70 toward Grand Junction."

Glenwood sounds like it might be a colorful town to visit.  Colorado in general has such an interesting history.

"Glenwood Springs was originally known as "Defiance", a name sometimes still used by local teams or businesses. Defiance was established in 1883, a camp of tents, saloons, and brothels with an increasing amount of cabins and lodging establishments. It was populated with the expected crowd of gamblers, gunslingers, and prostitutes. Town Founder Isaac Cooper's wife Sarah was having a hard time adjusting to the frontier life and in an attempt to make her environment somewhat more comfortable, persuaded the founders to change the name to Glenwood Springs, Colorado, after her beloved hometown of Glenwood, Iowa."

It would be a short vacation, but a mostly relaxing one which I hope would include lots of walking, relaxing in the hot springs and many hours of reading!

Of course I'll have to look for books set in Colorado--one of my favorite standby authors is Sandra Dallas and while I won't be going to the Rockies this time, I really do need to read Isabelle Bird.  I will have to revisit my list of books about Colorado here.  And since I have never been on a US train (I have traveled by train abroad and loved it), it would be fun to read stories set on trains as well.  I even have a list of novels dealing with train travel here.

Of course suggestions are always welcome--both for reading and traveling (I think a few of you might be Colorado residents who know Glenwood?).  I will likely go in September so I have lots of time to think about it.  It's always nice to have a change of scenery to look forward to, don't you think?  Especially when the scenery is as nice as it is Colorado!

A Few More Books for the Wishlist

You can always tell when it has been an especially long or busy or hot (today!) day for me when I share a list of new and forthcoming books.  As a matter of fact I seem to have had lots of them this spring judging by how frequently they seem to be popping up this year.  In today's case it is a matter of a long day and a hot day.  I was going to write about another book I've recently finished, or maybe something new I have started or even something new I have bought, but somehow each idea seems to require more thought and effort than I seem to be in possession of at the moment.  I always seem to have energy to think about books I am looking forward to however.  You don't mind too much, do you?  Here are a few books that I have added to my wishlist (I actually went through and did a 'weeding' of titles not too long ago, so I have room to add new ones . . .).

Early One Morning by Virginia Baily -- This is a forthcoming Virago title that seems to be getting lots of notice.  I am still a great fan of WWII literature, but I am more hesitant these days to pick up books focusing more on the Holocaust aspect of the war.  "Two women's decision to save a child during WWII will have powerful reverberations over the years."  The setting, however, is Rome and it is a Virago, so I suspect I will be adding this one to my shelves.

Let Me Tell You: New Stories, Essays, and Other Writings by Shirley Jackson -- Previously unpublished works selected by her family and just in time for Carl's RIP reading this fall!  "For the first time, this collection showcases Shirley Jackson’s radically different modes of writing side by side. Together they show her to be a magnificent storyteller, a sharp, sly humorist, and a powerful feminist."

The Song of Hartgrove Hall by Natasha Solomons -- Do you know I think I own all of Solomons' books but I have yet read one of them.  Sheesh, maybe I should go, right this minute, and pull one off the shelf and rectify that?  (Any excuse will do for me, you know . . .).  I can't resist the sound of this one, though: "Natasha Solomons’s breathtaking new novel has it all: a love triangle, family obligations, and rediscovering joy in the face of grief, all set against the alluring backdrop of an English country estate."

The Only Street in Paris: Life on the Rue de Martyrs by Elaine Sciolino -- Don't you wish you could click your heels together three times and wish yourself away to Paris?  I do!  "Sciolino reveals the charms and idiosyncrasies of this street and its longtime residents―the Tunisian greengrocer, the husband-and-wife cheesemongers, the showman who’s been running a transvestite cabaret for more than half a century, the owner of a 100-year-old bookstore, the woman who repairs eighteenth-century mercury barometers―making Paris come alive in all its unique majesty."

Thirteen Ways of Looking: Fiction by Colum McCann -- Oh, yay, short stories!  "Deeply personal, subtly subversive, at times harrowing, and indeed funny, and yet also full of comfort, Thirteen Ways of Looking is a striking achievement. With unsurpassed empathy for his characters and their inner lives, Colum McCann forges from their stories a profound tribute to our search for meaning and grace. The collection is a rumination on the power of storytelling in a world where language and memory can sometimes falter, but in the end do not fail us, and a contemplation of the healing power of literature."

The Swans of Fifth Avenue: A Novel by Melanie Benjamin -- Last year I had the very good fortune to hear Melanie Benjamin speak!  Her new book sounds wonderful!  "The New York Times bestselling author of The Aviator’s Wife returns with a triumphant new novel about New York’s “Swans” of the 1950s—and the scandalous, headline-making, and enthralling friendship between literary legend Truman Capote and peerless socialite Babe Paley."  Love the cover of the book, too!  (Oooh, a teaser for this year's upcoming Litfest, but not happening until October . . .).

Bohemians, Bootleggers, Flappers and Swells: The Best of Early Vanity Fair edited by Gradon Carter -- I want this one now--it is exactly the period I am interested in.  " Offering readers an inebriating swig from the great cocktail shaker of the Roaring Twenties—the Jazz Age, the age of Gatsby—Bohemians, Bootleggers, Flappers, and Swells showcases unforgettable writers in search of how to live well in a changing era. Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter introduces these fabulous pieces written between 1913 and 1936, when the magazine published a Murderers’ Row of the world’s leading literary lights."  But, darn, I have to wait until November!

The Lake House: A Novel by Kate Morton -- It's been a while since I picked up one of her books.  She is a great vacation read.  I wish I had a vacation to plan for and could take one of her books along.  Hmm.  Maybe something is in the works.  "Living on her family’s idyllic lakeside estate in Cornwall, England, Alice Edevane is a bright, inquisitive, innocent, and precociously talented sixteen-year-old who loves to write stories. But the mysteries she pens are no match for the one her family is about to endure . . .  One midsummer’s eve, after a beautiful party drawing hundreds of guests to the estate has ended, the Edevanes discover that their youngest child, eighteen-month-old Theo, has vanished without a trace. What follows is a tragedy that tears the family apart in ways they never imagined."

Sweet Caress by William Boyd -- Another one I want rightnow.  Must learn patience.  Or maybe go pick up an unread book already on my shelf by him.  "In Sweet Caress, Amory Clay comes wondrously to life, her vibrant personality enveloping the reader from the start. And, running through the novel, her photographs over the decades allow us to experience this vast story not only with Amory's voice but with her vision. William Boyd's Sweet Caress captures an entire lifetime unforgettably within its pages. It captivates."

Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee -- Okay, this one is actually not on my wishlist per se.  I am curious about it, but I am not sure I will read it.  I loved To Kill a Mockingbird.  But some stories should be left as they are.  Even if it is the author herself who has written the sequel?  Good question.  I will wait to hear what other reader's think, but I might just leave this happy memory in my mind as is.  Will you read it?

I have more books on my wishlist.  Newly added books, that is.  I always seem to have more books.  But I will save them for another hot, busy, tired sort of day.  Ten new books seems a nice round number of titles to ponder.

Longbourn by Jo Baker

This was the 'hook' for me: 'If Elizabeth Bennet had the washing of her own petticoats,' Sarah thought, 'she would be more careful not to tramp through muddy fields.'  I don't remember where I first read that quote but it appears on the back cover of Jo Baker's Longbourn.  Instant visual--how many times have I seen the Colin Firth version of Pride and Prejudice?  More than I can count, and I can vividly recall most of the scenes including the one of Elizabeth 'tramping through muddy fields' in order to go to her sister Jane.  And yes, 'positively Medieval' as Miss Bingley notes--all that mud!

Longbourn is a reimagining of the Pride and Prejudice story from the point of view of the servants, and it is historical fiction at its finest.  At least it was for me.  I rarely will read spin-offs or reinterpretations of much loved stories--especially anything by Jane Austen.  (Or Daphne du Maurier . . .).  Sorry, have to skip the zombie version or modern day take or continuation of the story--what came after, even if there might be some good ones.  But good reviews by readers I trust tempted me and then that quote was the clincher.  It is a retelling that works, since it is not about Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy.  While the familiar story is running in the background, mostly off stage and fewer details rather than major events, it is what happens below stairs that is the real focus of the story.  

The only liberties that Baker took in telling this story were in giving names to those 'ghostly presences' in Austen's novel.  The underlying skeleton of the story is all Austen and the rest Baker has made up.  It is plausible and in some cases perhaps a little eyebrow raising without being outrageous or unlikely.  This is mostly the housemaid, Sarah's story, but Mrs. Hill is there, as is young Polly, and Mr. Hill, and when a new footman arrives (a luxury Mrs. Bennet is sure will impress the neighbors), the household--below stairs, of course--is thrown into an uproar.

James Smith seems an unlikely candidate for footman, since he seems more a tramp than a servant, but criticism is dismissed by Mrs. Hill and to work he goes.  He is a quiet man, keeping mostly to himself and a cause of much speculation by the other servants.  It's not as though there are many opportunities for a housemaid like Sarah to socialize or meet young men, though she does have another potential suitor (the term used in the loosest of senses) when Mr. Bingley's footman, a man of color from one of the family's sugar plantation arrives.  She falls for one man and is wooed by another, but a real romance is a challenge and nothing is ever (as in life) as easy as you hope it will be.

Since nothing is known about the Longbourn servants, Baker is able to create their own unique stories and histories with as much drama and flair as anything that is going on upstairs.  Austen may not have had much to say about the Napoleonic Wars, but it comes alive in these pages.  All sorts of twists and turns take place and the characters' lives are fleshed out--their wishes and heartaches.  When hearts are broken belowstairs the difference in circumstances and outlook between the different classes comes into sharp focus.  While the servants are keenly aware of what happens upstairs and down, the Bennets have no clue about the lives of those belowstairs.  Servants are all but invisible--the lives they lead and jobs they fill are for the use and whims of their masters.  If you thought there was drama in the story of Pride and Prejudice, there is just as much for their servants! 

I really enjoyed Longbourn.  I realize it might not be for everyone, and it is perhaps not a story that should be overly scrutinized or compared and contrasted with the classic novel, but if you are looking for good storytelling with a new slant on a familiar story, and a little entertaining escapism you could do much worse than Longbourn.  I have heard that movie rights to the novel have been sold and I am immensely curious to know which actors might be chosen to fill the roles.  I think this is Jo Baker's break out novel, but she has several other books available.  I will most certainly be watching for more by her.

New Arrivals: The Short Story Edition

I really loved the short story I read by Elizabeth Parsons a few weeks ago--so much so that while I could not find much about her life, I did find a collection of stories, An Afternoon, by her and indulged in a copy which happily arrived in today's mail.

I'm afraid it is long out of print, but my copy began its journey in the hands of another reader--Agnes McCarthy back in 1946 when this collection of seventeen stories was first published.  There was a time when I would have been disappointed to find only a used copy and not a nice, shiny new one, but now I am very fond of books like this.  Considering its age it is in very good condition and I like the idea that Agnes, whoever she was and wherever she lived enjoyed the stories before me.

There is not much in the way of biographical information but here is a bit from the back cover:

"The seventeen stories here collected are related in mood, pervaded with the shimmering air of a summer afternoon, each story capturing  deftly a sensitive and lonely person in a heightened moment when the whole inner life has reached a climax.  Particularly in her portraits of women and children and young girls does the author give us a sharp vision of the life that is lived in private."

Doesn't that sound wonderful?  It does to me and I want to crack open the book right this minute and begin reading!

"Elizabeth Parsons adds a new name to that interesting list of women writers who have made the short story their special and effective medium.  Katherine Mansfield, Katherine Anne Porter, and Eudora Welty, among others, would recognize her kinship."

I know the other writers who are mentioned and at least two of the three are still widely read, but how did Elizabeth Parsons fade from view?  I am eager to see if her others stories are as good as the story I have read by her.  Maybe she is someone who deserves to be rediscovered?  Maybe she would even be a candidate for Persephone Books?  Hmm.  Whatever her fate, I know I am happy to have this book in my hands!

Next really good find--my library has a copy of 40 Best Stories from Mademoiselle 1935-1960 edited by Cyrilly Abels and Margarita G. Smith.  I had it so long on my desk I thought it would be worth just owning my own copy to have on hand at home.  This collection is a sampling of stories from the now defunct magazine covering twenty-five years by female and male authors.  Is there such a thing these days as a women's magazine that actually has short stories in it?  Or have short stories fallen by the wayside and become a thing of the past--how sad.

Mademoiselle published some heavy-weights by the way--Alberto Moravia, Shirley Jackson, James Baldwin, Elizabeth Bowen, William Faulkner, Nadine Gordimer among others.  I've had the collection for a short time but have not yet read from it.  Soon, I hope, since I am moving around in my short story collections each weekend once again.

And lastly two easy to find short story anthologies.  I love these sorts of collections.  I did a little browsing and came up with Great American Short Stories edited by Wallace and Mary Stegner, which is a survey of American short stories and might be fun to read in order since they are presented by publication date--". . . .twenty-six of America's most celebrated writers provides a comprehensive survey of the origin and growth of this literary form"--from Washington Irving to Hortense Calisher.

American Short Story Masterpieces edited and with an introduction by Raymond Carver and Tom Jenks is a heavier sampling of more modern short story writers like--Anne Beattie, E.L. Doctorow, Richard Ford, Gail Godwin, Grace Paley and John Updike.  Lots of authors I "know" but have never read.  I have always thought short stories are an excellent introduction to a new-to-me writer. 

I'm still waiting on one more anthology, which is out of print but looked like it had a nice selection of stories, too--Twenty Grand Short Stories edited by Ernestine Taggard and published in 1962. 

Now I have lots of new material to choose from.  You can expect to hear about one (or maybe even more) stories next weekend!

Short Story Sunday: Two by Ring Lardner

After last weekend's short story success I am going to spend a little more time with Short Story Masterpieces edited by Robert Penn Warren and Albert Erskine or perhaps another anthology of classic short stories.  There are so many authors to explore--some I have heard of but never read and some completely new to me.  I see lots of familiar names of authors whose works have been widely anthologized, and my mood is turning me in their direction at the moment.  Ring Lardner falls into that first category.  Isn't Ring (short for Ringgold) a cool name?  I think he is best known for his sports writing and his satirical stories about a number of topics including sports, marriage and theater.  Interestingly the two stories I read indeed focus on the latter two subjects. 

The second story I'm going to tell you about is from an older, out-of-print collection called The Scribner Treasury: 22 Classic Tales published in 1953.  The Scribner collection actually has a little biographical information.

"Among that talented group of magazine-fiction writers who live the years 1914-1929 a special brilliance in the annals of American letters, there was no better story-teller than Lardner and none whose darts of satire struck deeper into the rhinoceros hide of a generation complacently devoted to mammon (otherwise known to people like me who had to look this word up--greed)."

"Up to the time of the publication of How to Write Short Stories (1924), his reputation had been that of a sports-writer with a difference--a man with the gift of vivid language, an ear for the turns of common speech, and a refreshingly humorous approach to such ancient American sanctities as the game of baseball."

From the two stories I've read this weekend I see that his work is satirical and ironical and at times really pretty funny.  I wonder if other readers might think his writing is "dated"?  Not the actual writing style but the dialogue perhaps, or the characterizations?  I had heard of Lardner before, but this was my first opportunity to read him.  He captures the feel and flavor of the era as well as conveys the speech and colloquialisms of those years.  Both stories are from the 1920s.

"Liberty Hall" was published in Lardner's collection Round Up in 1924 and is narrated by the wife of a famous and successful music composer who is not allowed to be at his ease while on a short holiday.  He loathes nothing more than being recognized and fawned over.  And more often than not, or that is comfortable anyway, he and his wife are roped into doing things they would prefer not.  Dinner tonight?  No, not possible?  Okay, tomorrow then.  Or maybe next Tuesday or August 4 . .  .  No does not seem to be an acceptable answer to his fans.

"My husband is in Atlantic City, where they are trying out 'Dear Dora', the musical version of 'David Copperfield'.  My husband wrote that score.  He used to take me along for these out-of-town openings, but not anymore."

It's the reason for that 'not anymore' that the story is being told.  The Drakes actually have an "emergency exit" for those times when they have agreed to lunch or drinks or dinner at someone's home and then discovered they are "caught" in an agonizing situation--gushing or irritating fans or over familiarity or awkwardness.  Mr. Drake often uses a lost filling or a necessary rewrite comes up at the last minute or telegram calling him back to New York in order to get out of a social event that turns out to be excruciatingly annoying. 

Mr. Drake seems easily (and often) annoyed, but it's hard to blame him really.  They make an exception for the Thayers.  They had seemed so normal at first.  The couples just seemed to click.  And yes, there was that invitation that could not be turned down.  Dates compared and decided upon.  A break is not a bad thing and the Thayers assure Mr. Drake he will get a proper rest--no work allowed.  True to her word Mrs. Thayer keeps the Drakes, in particular Mr. Drake, from any semblance of an enjoyable long weekend.  You've met her sort before--she is always right.  No cream in your coffee, Mr. Drake?  But surely this can't be true!  You've never tasted my cream . . .  When Mr. Drake asks to use their piano so he can jot down a tune going through his head she is sure he is simply trying to repay her many kindnesses by giving her the pleasure of playing for her.  No, no, you really mustn't--please just rest and keep away from that piano!

"If only we could have spent all our time in the guest-room.  It would have been ideal."

It was "painful" (though highly amusing) to read about the Thayers' sort of hospitality!

In "The Golden Honeymoon" from the Scribner collection, yet more satirizing of a very long marriage (fifty years together) celebrated by taking a second honeymoon trip to beautiful, sunny Florida.  Curiously the story first appeared in Cosmopolitan in 1922 (I wonder what Cosmo readers would think of it now!).  What are the chances that "Mother's" old beau and his wife would happen to be staying at the same hotel!  This story is narrated by the husband ("Mother" threw me off--I really did think he was writing about his mother at first until I realized "Mother" is his wife).

It's an interesting portrait of a long marriage.  You get a sense of class and culture by the language used in the narration of the story.  Although I liked the first story a tad more, I found this second one just as amusing and it elicited more than one out-loud guffaw from my own lips.  The husband is an interesting observer of the foibles of those around him.  The two sets of couples are into their seventies, long accustomed to each other yet their interaction is most illuminating--there are a few "what ifs . . .", of the sort you come across from pairs who have a very long-standing relationship. 

To give you a flavor of the writing style--and I could so well imagine the old gentleman saying this--the two couples had been playing cards together (keeping in mind they are vacationing in Florida):

"After the game she brought out a dish of oranges and we had to pretend it was just what we wanted, though oranges down there is like a young man's whiskers; you enjoy them at first, but they get to be a pesky nuisance."

There is a bit of a competitiveness going on between the two pairs--particularly the men seeing as one had formerly been betrothed to the other's wife.  Card games and checkers and even pitching horseshoes.  And the insults fly fast and furious--well, sort of furious anyway.

"'Well, checkers ain't much of a game now anyway, is it?' she [Mrs. Hartsell, the wife of the former beau] said: 'It's more of a children's game, ain't it?  At least, I know my boy's children used to play it a good deal.'

'Yes, ma'am', I said.  'It's a child's game the way your husband plays it, too'."

Hah. 

Ring Lardner is pretty darn amusing and a good find.  I am not much into sports so sports writing would never be much of a draw for me, but I will happily pick up another short story by Ring Lardner.  If you are looking for something light and amusing but a story written with a wry eye, do check him out.  I wonder who I should read next.  So many wonderful possibilities in my collections . . . I have a whole stack of them sitting by my bed even as I type.

This Weekend's Reading

I have a longish weekend to look forward to as I am taking an extra day off from work on Monday.  As always I have a stack of reading material to fill my time with, though strangely I tend to get in more reading during the work week than on weekends.  That doesn't mean I can't try, however, to read more.  Finally, after a wait of several weeks my May issue of World Literature Today arrived, which is a double issue focusing on "New Hebrew Writing"--right up my alley and I can't wait to begin reading properly.  On first glance there seem to be lots of new-to-me authors to discover.  And there is this week's New Yorker to peruse and a story by Ben Marcus to read.  And as you see, I even have some of my favorite chocolate to enjoy while reading . . .

I have been a little bad this week, as I ordered several new short story anthologies to add to my always growing collection.  It is always nice to have new material to draw from (new being new-to-me rather than newly written or published--though I like that as well).  When they arrive I will be sure and share titles with you.  Francis Wyndham is still close at hand, but I liked last week's story so much I have decided to read a few more from Short Story Masterpieces edited by Robert Penn Warren and Albert Erskine.  As a matter of fact I have already read this week's story (couldn't wait . . . ).  It's a secret until Sunday--I might even chose another story--either by someone else in that collection or another by the author whose work I have just been introduced to and will soon be telling you about.  

And then there are a few new additions to the reading pile . . .  Why have I no self control when it comes to picking up new reads?  As another blogger has noted--'I can't stop starting new books'!  I was updating my Century of Books page and decided I need to pick a year and find a book to read for it.  It has been ages since I read anything by Anita Brookner.  I binged on her when I was younger, collected nearly all her books, and then haven't picked up any of those unread novels for ages.  So, Providence it is, and Thomas suggested reading Benjamin Constant's novella, Adolphe, alongside.  I can't pass up a temptation like that (especially since it was already on my shelves) and it has made me very curious now about the parallels between the two stories. 

How could I forget what a fantastic writer she is?

And then in my online (new books) meanderings this past week I discovered that mystery writer Clare Langley-Hawthorne has a new book out!  I loved the first two Ursula Marlow mysteries set in Edwardian England and was anxious for the next, but unfortunately Penguin who was her publisher at the time must have dropped her from their list.  After a five (or so) year hiatus she has published Unlikely Traitors, which I, of course, didn't hesitate to order.  It actually came out last year--how did I miss that?  Her books are in a similar vein as the Maisie Dobbs novels, though still very different.  Ursula is a young woman of good family, an heiress, but a militant suffragette and independent thinker.  She shows a lot of moxie and is quite likable so it was easy for me to decide I should reread those first two books before picking up the newest.  So, I am in the middle of Consequences of Sin and enjoying it as much as I did the first time.  I already have The Serpent and the Scorpion lined up to read as soon as I finish rereading the first.  Nothing like having a new mystery to read soon as an incentive to picking up those in progress books rather than letting them languish.  I have 'lost' more than one mystery series due to publishers dropping them so am thrilled to see a new book out and fingers crossed there will be more!

And then there will be the last few episodes of Outlander to watch before I return the first half of the first season to the library, and I will be definitely watching Poldark on PBS this Sunday!  Lots of bookishness for me this weekend.  As it is forecast to be nice and hot and a little too toasty to spend much time outside, I hope to spend more time than usual with my books. 

However you plan on spending your weekend I hope it includes some good reading along the way!

All Passion Spent by Vita Sackville-West

More often than not Virago Modern Classics (of which I am an enthusiastic collector) turn out to be very special reads.  I am not sure I have ever read a VMC that I didn't fall madly in love with or at least very much admire.  Vita Sackville-West now joins those happy ranks for writing a novel that is not only still timely, but elegantly and eloquently told.  According to some it is her best novel.  All Passion Spent is a story I am not sure I would have appreciated as a young woman (not enough experience definitely or understanding of older women's lives), but it is a story that resonates with me now.  It is dog eared and pencil marked and will be one I revisit some day.

Upon the death of her husband Lord Slane, former Viceroy of India with a brilliant university career and a seat in the Cabinet amongst his many accolades of a long life well lived, Lady Deborah Slane reflects back on her own life.  She asks herself, "but what was happiness?  Had she been happy?"  A woman of eighty-eight, Deborah, is not a woman anyone would think of with pity.  A Vicereine.  A successful husband who was dedicated to her and a brood of children to care for.  Her parents groomed her to marry well, and she did.  What matter of the plans she had for herself, which must then be set aside for the greater good of her politician husband and her family.

And now her husband is dead and her children are perplexed by her behavior.  Finally she can live just for herself, please herself.

"Mother was wonderful, but what was to be done with Mother?  Evidently, she could not go on being wonderful for the rest of her life.  Somewhere, somehow, she must be allowed to break down, and then, after that was over, must be stowed away; housed, taken care of."

She has always been utterly feminine and pliant.  It was even thought that perhaps she was just a pretty face with an empty head.  A beautiful woman to have on your arm, but a politician's wife?  She shocks her grown children by not allowing them to stow her away and 'take care of her'.  As a matter of fact, for the first time in her adult life she has freedom.  This hint of independence is an outrage, almost a manifesto to her children.  When she tells them she plans on taking a house in Hampstead, a house she has chosen and visited--'on her own'--they're flummoxed.  Not only will she take this house, but she will live on her own.

"I am going to become completely self-indulgent.  I am going to wallow in my old age.  No grandchildren.  They are too young.  Not one of them has reached forty-five.  No great-grandchildren either; that would be worse.  I want no strenuous young people, who are not content with doing a thing, but must needs know why they do it."

She wants her space and her freedom and her solitude, but not so much her children.  Instead the friends who gather around her are an unlikely ill-assorted group, and unsurprisingly, a group frowned upon (as unsuitable) by her children-- her maid who has stood by her side for most of her life, the owner of the house she rents, a carpenter/coffin-maker who works as her handyman, and a man from her past life in India.  They love and appreciate her in a way her children cannot understand.  As a matter of fact Deborah is ready to get rid of all the accoutrements of her younger self--all the money and 'things' that her children are so greedy to have but are disappointed not to be the recipients of.

This is a story filled with reminiscences and truths and much wisdom.  Not much happens even though it is the accounting of a life, yet it feels like time has been traveled and distances crossed.  It is at times elegiac but representative of what we all go through--though perhaps for the time and place, for a woman all the more disappointing.

"Henry by the compulsion of love had cheated her of her chosen life, yet had given her another life, an ample life, a life in touch with the greater world, if that took her fancy; or a life, alternatively pressed close up against her own nursery.  For a life of her own, he had substituted his life, with its interests, or the lives of her children with their potentialities.  He assumed that she might sink herself in either, if not in both, with equal joy. It had never occurred to him that she might prefer simply to be herself."

Her dream was to be an artist, which as a wife and mother was out of the question.  Like so many women through time her own dreams were thwarted and suppressed.  How many women have given up their own dreams to take care of others?  Now I wonder about the woman who wrote this book and about the life she led.  She knew.  She must have experienced it, yet I think she managed to pave her own way and carve out a life of her own that was fulfilling.  At least I hope so.  I will read more by (and about) Vita Sackville-West.  If I could, I would happily press this book into your hands!

I have to share one of the poems that VSW used on a page separating sections.  This is lovely, too:

Her heart sat silent through the noise
And concourse of the street;
There was no hurry in her hands,
No hurry in her feet.

--Christina Rossetti (another woman who knew, too, and must have dared anyway . . .)