A Work in Progress

Food in Literature: A Thursday Thirteen

From a Tuesday teaser to a Thursday thirteen.  It's just been that sort of week!  And since I am still thinking of last weekend's wonderful culinary conference, books with food as a prominent theme have been on my mind.  I always like prolonging a good literary experience, so I thought it would be fun to come up with a list.  One of my (well, maybe my only one) favorite food writers is M.F.K. Fisher!  I highly recommend her whether you are a 'foodie' or just someone who likes really good writing.  She's wonderful on both counts.

So, here are a baker's dozen (of course!) of books to make your mouth water.  I've read quite a few of these and have the rest on my bookshelves.

Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel -- I read this book when it first came out and loved it.  I should really reread it someday.  And I very much enjoyed the movie adaptation, too.  "Earthy, magical, and utterly charming, this tale of family life in tum-of-the-century Mexico became a best-selling phenomenon with its winning blend of poignant romance and bittersweet wit."

Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradal -- Of course this is a recent acquisition of mine!  "Each chapter in J. Ryan Stradal's startlingly original debut tells the story of a single dish and character, at once capturing the zeitgeist of the Midwest, the rise of foodie culture, and delving into the ways food creates community and a sense of identity. By turns quirky, hilarious, and vividly sensory, Kitchens of the Great Midwest is an unexpected mother-daughter story about the bittersweet nature of life--its missed opportunities and its joyful surprises."

The Coincidence of Coconut Cake by Amy E. Reichert -- This one just screamed out to me--'perfect holiday/vacatio' read.  So I am holding it in reserve for next month.  "You’ve Got Mail meets How to Eat a Cupcake in this delightful novel about a talented chef and the food critic who brings down her restaurant—whose chance meeting turns into a delectable romance of mistaken identities."

Delicious! by Ruth Reichl -- I have several of Reichl's books--her memoirs and now this novel.  I think I need to mentally put her on my 'must read this year' list for 2016.  "Reichl’s vivid descriptions of food will have readers salivating, and an insider’s look at life at a food magazine is fascinating. Her satisfying coming-of-age novel of love and loss vividly demonstrates the power of food to connect people across cultures and generations." (Library Journal).

Sister Age by M.F.K. Fisher  -- I have only read Fisher's essays, so I am very curious what her fiction would be like.  "In these fifteen remarkable stories, M.F.K. Fisher, one of the most admired writers of our time, embraces age as St. Francis welcomed Brother Pain. With a saint to guide us, she writes in her Foreword, perhaps we can accept in a loving way "the inevitable visits of a possibly nagging harpy like Sister Age" But in the stories, it is the human strength in the unavoidable encounter with the end of life that Mrs. Fisher dramatizes so powerfully."

Bread Alone by Judith Ryan Hendricks -- I admit that when I read this I found the main character somewhat prickly and not always likable (not that you have to like the characters you read about of course), but I have always held on to the book with the idea that I might reread it someday.  I think there were several sequels and so I might explore those books eventually, too.  "In this engaging novel, Hendricks creates a compelling narrator whose wry, bemused and ultimately wise voice hooks the reader. Even though Wyn's story is predictable at times, this is a well-written, imaginative debut."

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, Fannie Flagg -- One of my all-time favorite books and movies!  I even visited the location where the movie was made, and ate at the Whistle Stop Cafe--friend green tomatoes of course.  If I can ever find the pictures I might even share them here someday.   "Folksy and fresh, endearing and affecting, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe is the now-classic novel of two women in the 1980s; of gray-headed Mrs. Threadgoode telling her life story to Evelyn, who is in the sad slump of middle age. The tale she tells is also of two women--of the irrepressibly daredevilish tomboy Idgie and her friend Ruth--who back in the thirties ran a little place in Whistle Stop, Alabama, a Southern kind of Cafe Wobegon offering good barbecue and good coffee and all kinds of love and laughter, even an occasional murder."

Crescent by Diana Abu-Jaber -- "Sirine, the heroine of this 'deliciously romantic romp' (Vanity Fair) is thirty-nine, never married, and living in the Arab-American community of Los Angeles. She has a passion for cooking and works contentedly in a Lebanese restaurant, while her storytelling uncle and her saucy boss, Umm Nadia, believe she should be trying harder to find a husband. One day Hanif, a handsome professor of Arabic literature, an Iraqi exile, comes to the restaurant. Sirine falls in love and finds herself questioning everything she thought she knew about Hanif, as well as her own torn identity as an Arab-American."  This one really appeals to me at the moment and I might even start reading it sooner than later if I can find where I put it!

Chocolat by Joanne Harris -- Another favorite (both book and movie again).  I think I have read it at least four times now and will happily read it again.  It is a definite turn to comfort read for me.  I have read a couple of the sequels, which were pretty good, but none can compare to the magic of this story for me.  "  In tiny Lansquenet, where nothing much has changed in a hundred years, beautiful newcomer Vianne Rocher and her exquisite chocolate shop arrive and instantly begin to play havoc with Lenten vows. Each box of luscious bonbons comes with a free gift: Vianne's uncanny perception of its buyer's private discontents and a clever, caring cure for them. Is she a witch? Soon the parish no longer cares, as it abandons itself to temptation, happiness, and a dramatic face-off between Easter solemnity and the pagan gaiety of a chocolate festival."

La Cucina by Lily Prior -- Another novel I read years ago and was a keeper for me!  "Sumptuously appointed, celebratory and sensuous, this debut novel is a mouth-watering blend of commedia dell'arte and Greek tragedy. Prior cooks up a cinematic yarn full of characters so rich you'll fear they're fattening, but readers will be sure to splurge on this saucy tale chock full of sex, recipes and murder. Born in 1915, Rosa Fiore grows up on the family farm in the Sicilian village of Castiglione with six older brothers and her younger Siamese twin siblings, Guera and Pace (war and peace)."

On What Grounds by Cleo Coyle -- The first in a long standing mystery series set in a coffeehouse!  Very comfy cozy and light reading.  Must get back to these books.

The Irresistible Blueberry Bakeshop & Cafe by Mary Simses -- "Ellen Branford is going to fulfill her grandmother's dying wish--to find the hometown boy she once loved, and give him her last letter. Ellen leaves Manhattan and her Kennedy-esque fiance for Beacon, Maine. What should be a one-day trip is quickly complicated when she almost drowns in the chilly bay and is saved by a local carpenter. The rescue turns Ellen into something of a local celebrity."  I started this one and was enjoying it, but I got sidetracked.  Another perfect fluffy holiday read.

Pomegranate Soup by Marsha Mehran -- "Infused with the textures and scents, trials and triumph,s of two distinct cultures, Pomegranate Soup is an infectious novel of magical realism. This richly detailed story, highlighted with delicious recipes, is a delectable journey into the heart of Persian cooking and Irish living."  I love the sound of this one (as yet unread, so something to look forward to).  Wouldn't it make a great movie, too?

Interestingly, of my lists I like to come up with, there are a fair few of these that I have not only read, but have read multiple times.  Hmm.  Food and books, books about food . . . what does that say about me?  If you have a favorite food novel of course you must share!

Teaser Tuesday: Mrs. Robinson (Again!)

I know I already shared a teaser from Mrs. Robinson's Disgrace just last week, but the more I read the more disturbed I get in thinking about a woman's situation in Victorian England.  It is both fascinating reading and slightly repellent.  I can only shake my head in dismay when reading some of the things I have read.  I can't help but share one more excerpt, which I shall not comment on.  It stands on its own and you can make up your own mind.  You will probably have a good idea just what I think about all this:

"The treatments for sexual monomania were various.  Some physicians, following the phrenologists, targeted the cerebellum: the Scottish alienist Sir Alexander Morison claimed to have cured an erotomaniac governess aged twenty-two by applying leeches to her shaven head, then douching the back of her skull with cold water.  Bennet recommended injecting the vagina with a pump syringe, and subjecting the whole body to hip baths, deep baths and showers.  Storer suggested that the sufferer should be treated with sponge baths, cold enemas and borax douches, refrain from sexual intercourse and literary pursuits, sleep on mattresses and pillows stuffed with hair, and abstain from meat and brandy.  Locock advised the application of electricity to the pelvis of the afflicted woman, or of leeches to her groin, labia, uterus or feet.  A London surgeon relieved at least one patient of her sexual feelings by removing her 'enlarged' clitoris, an operation reported in the Lancet in 1853."

I wonder what the pillows and mattresses stuffed with hair were supposed to do?  No wonder women went "mad".  Subjected to this sort of treatment I would go a little mad, too.  I find reading about the period really interesting and then thank my lucky stars to be born now rather than then.  Whatever would those Victorians think if they caught a glimpse at Fifty Shades of Grey and the movie and the spin-offs . . . 

I'm nearly finished reading.  Part of me wants to read something more about the period and part of me wants to choose something entirely different.  I am coming up to the last couple of chapters, including the verdict of the trial.  Dare I wish for a happier outcome for Mrs. Robinson?  I hope to write about the book soon.  There is certainly lots of interesting things to share with you!

Read It and Eat Culinary Conference

This weekend my public library hosted a culinary event, Read It and Eat.  I wasn't able to attend last year, so I was excited to go hear speakers both local and National talk about the Midwestern food scene.  It was wonderfully presented and very well attended and they managed to pack quite a lot in to four hours on a beautiful fall afternoon. 

I tried very hard not to be tempted by the books on sale and vowed to leave with just a good experience and hopefully some new stories and interesting knowledge but as you will see below I caved in and left with a new book.  A little memento and one I can enjoy now to prolong the experience, right?

I arrived late so I missed the first part of author Summer Miller's talk.  She is a local food writer whose work has appeared in many national publications. If you are curious (I am and will be reading some of these later) you can check out some of her recent work.  She has a new cookbook that was just released this past spring and which I will be borrowing from the library (I am an enthusiastic eater but cooking is not one of my talents alas--I have weeded so many of my old cookbooks, but I might want this one after I take a closer look), New Prairie Kitchen: Stories and Seasonal Recipes from Chefs, Farmers and Artisans from the Great Plains.  If her cookbook is as good as the talk she gave, it will likely be one I will indulge in after all. 

 Summer Miller has children and so is very practical to her approach when it comes to food and cooking.  If there is one thing I took away from the afternoon it is that each speaker noted that while the food experience is important, the whole foodie movement should be less about the meal than the fact it is food that is bringing people together--friends, families and communities.  Several speakers mentioned that when it comes to cooking that failing is okay, too, and it is the idea that the less important than the conversations we have with each other over a good meal.  Of course all the things you would expect--local food, good food is important.      

I also found it interesting (and very true) that modern society has forgotten what real food actually tastes like.  So much of what we eat is pre-packaged and doesn't always use natural ingredients.  You might see picture of blueberries on a yogurt container and the color is blue, but that it isn't always actual blueberries you are eating.  If you tasted it without seeing a label you might only get the sense of sweetness rather than whatever fruit it is pretending to be.  We are losing something when we choose to eat at chain restaurants.  It might be comforting to know you can walk into whichever fast food place you choose in any US state and the food will be uniform, but well, the food will be uniform.  We have created a taste that isn't made from ingredients that are locally grown and picked in season, and I think this is very true.  Of course I am not saying it anywhere near as eloquently as any of the speakers did, but I'm sure you know what I mean.

There was lots of sampling throughout the day made by local chefs.  I am not much of a meat eater, but I did sample the Kolaches and, yes, they were delicious. 

A local chef who is also an instructor in culinary arts at a local community college spoke about the history of Midwestern cooking, which was, of course, fascinating.  It was a lively and entertaining discussion.

Another local chef gave a demonstration on how to break down a whole chicken (which I admit I have never done and may never have a chance to do).  He made it look so simple, and I suspect that with a little experience it is pretty simple.  Again he reiterated that it is not just the food, but that some of the most memorable meals he has had with friends were at least as much (and likely were more so) about the conversation than what they were eating.  It isn't the food so much (and it is okay to have failures in the kitchen!) but the fact that it is a good meal that brings us together.

I've seen J. Ryan Stradal's Kitchens of the Great Midwest around, but I had not gotten a chance to pick it up and take a good look at it.   He was such a good speaker and the reading he gave blew me away (and was so funny) that I had to buy the book.  You can tell he writes from the heart.  His mother, who passed away before his book was published, was such an inspiration to him that you get a real sense of what she meant to him in the excerpt he read.

Part of the book's blurb reads: "showing the ways in which food provides us with both comfort and community, Kitchens of the Great Midwest is by turns quirky, hilarious, and heartbreaking.  This is a novel about one girl's extraordinary farm-to-table success story, about mothers and daughters, how food becomes the common language of our lives, and the bittersweet nature of life itself--its missed opportunities and joyful surprises."

Sounds good, doesn't it?  It falls in perfectly with the day's theme.  Stradal lives in LA now, but he is originally from Minnesota and I envy him the research he did while writing the book (much of it involving sampling the food landscape of the midwest).  I can't wait to read it!  Wouldn't it be fun to "eat along" with the book?  Eat the foods the characters are eating or cooking?  But I might have to give Lutefisk (the title of the book's first chapter) a pass.

Short Story Sunday: Whip Hand

Another story (two actually) by Elizabeth Jane Howard from her Mr. Wrong collection.  I did, by the way, break down and pick up the second of the Cazalet Chronicles books, Marking Time, though I am just dipping into it now and again rather than reading it in earnest (for now anyway).  The first short story was quite long and the second quite short.  The story's title will give you come clue as to what Howard is taking as her subject.  Whip hand means a dominating position, someone who has an advantage.  In both stories actually, I like how Howard takes the story's title and throws it on its head in the telling.  In one case it is a character who gains an advantage they didn't start out with and in the other the story takes on a surprising meaning at the end.

So, "Whip Hand".  Kathy at Catching Happiness read this collection and in particular reading "Whip Hand" was, she thought, the creepiest of the stories in the collection (we had been chatting about RIP books/stories) and now that I have read it, I must agree.  While it is not overtly a ghost story or a story of some sort of haunting, it is in its way very disturbing.  Some of the scariest stories, really, don't involve a ghost at all.  In this case the story involves a young girl and her mother, the girl being a budding actress and the mother a stage mother.  But this is not a pleasant or happy relationship and you do wonder what it might be like for some children who are put on stage (or on TV) at an early age.  Whose desire is this fulfilling?  Child or parent?

"'She's ever so natural, as you can see.'  Mrs. Bracken recrossed her legs so that Mr. Big (as she privately called each film-director she encountered) could see her ankles to better advantage.  'Has simply no idea that she's not like other children'."

Hmm.  Well, that's certainly the case in a very disturbing way.  Fern doesn't quite realize that her life is not like that of other children, though she knows that in her own life, something is most decidedly amiss.  Fern doesn't look her age and her mother makes sure that everything she does--how she speaks and how she dresses--makes her appear younger than she really is.  It is an unhappy existence for the girl.  She is kept on a very strict diet while her mother eats and drinks as she pleases. 

When Fern comes across a stray dog and brings him into the house, her mother begrudgingly allows it.  To make the situation as unappealing as possible, however, she tells Fern that any food that she gives the dog must come from Fern's already skimpy meals.  The dog, however, is so hungry and grateful for whatever morsels that he gulps it all down in one bite.  The dog's own hunger mirrors Fern's yet he offers her unconditional love and affection despite the slim pickings.  No wonder Fern gives him whatever she would otherwise subsist on.  In the end, the dog is the instigator of change in Fern's life.  She tips her world on end, but I won't tell you how.  It is a disturbing portrait of a mother preying on her daughter's talents and abilities. 

In "The Proposition" the reader is led to believe the proposition is romantically inspired yet the twist at the end reveals something far darker and more sinister.  With a name like Robin Boston-Crabbe, a handsome young man who drives a Mercedes it's not surprising all eyes turn to him when he enters a room.  Even his own eyes drink in his own image.  It is almost a game of words that he plays with others, a perilous line he walks between getting what he wants and being booted out on his rear. 

I've four more stories to read in the collection so I should have no problem to finish by year's end or even sooner.  Next up is "The Devoted" about a family Christmas.  The timing is just about right, but I wonder what sort of family holiday this one will be?  Elizabeth Jane Howard has a wry eye but you never know just what to expect.  A happy reminiscence, something melancholic or dark and sinister.  This is what I love about short stories--you never know what you are going to discover when you begin reading!

Exit Wounds by Rutu Modan

There is lots to like about Rutu Modan's graphic novel Exit Wounds (translated from Hebrew by Noah Stollman).  Aside from the fact I am always pleased to read a work in translation, in this case (even more pleased) to read a work of Israeli fiction, I have finally gotten around to reading a genre that is high on my list of types of literature to explore but I never seem to get around to. I've only read a very small handful of graphic novels and I always forget how very cool they actually are, especially with one like Exit Wounds that is so very well done.  This is a story I fell into quite easily and became curiously wrapped up in.  Even if this is literally labelled as a comic (Entertainment Weekly called it the "best comic of the year"), it felt in no way fluffy.  How strange to think I came to feel very sympathetic towards a comic book character, but I did.

The story is set in modern day Tel Aviv, and while it is very much an Israeli story, the feelings the characters are dealing with are universal.  In 2002 (the year of the Second Intifada when there was so much violence and many suicide bombings) Koby Franco is contacted by a female soldier.  A suicide bombing had taken place in Hadera and one of the victims remains unidentified.  Numi, the soldier, is sure the unidentified victim is Koby's father, with whom he has been estranged for a number of years.  Koby is dismayed and annoyed to hear this, particularly since Numi is not forthcoming about what she bases her claims on.

This is almost a mystery really, with the problem to be solved the discovery of the identity of the victim of the bombing.  The one clue is a scarf found at the site of the bombing.  A scarf well known by Numi and belonging to the dead man, the man she is sure is Koby's father, and the man with whom she had been having an affair.  Koby eventually agrees to help Numi on her quest to find answers.  A simple blood test is the only thing that needs to happen, but it turns out that the murdered man has already been buried so the quest takes on a different hue when they must go and ask questions.  Sometimes the answers reveal hard truths to both searchers.  For Koby--why did his father leave him.  He seemed to just disappear from his life.  And for Numi, what happened to her lover.

You get a real sense of what Koby and Numi are like.  Koby, living now with an aunt and uncle and driving a family cab is angry and resentful.  And Numi is a woman spurned by her much older lover.  Numi is an especially sympathetic character.  The daughter of wealthy parents, her sister and mother are beautiful and popular and Numi is tall and gawky.  Her fellow soldiers jokingly call her the Giraffe.  The two personalities come together and clash and collide and click and then part.  This is in a sense, a very unusual love story, yet a very realistic one.  The characters aren't beautiful, they are often angry or sad, and this search both brings them together and pushes them apart--very much like real life wherever you live and whatever language you speak.  The mystery is solved in an unexpected yet wholly satisfying way. 

I won't tell you what happens to Koby and Numi, but I will give you a little virtual nudge to go find a copy of Exit Wounds for yourself.   The illustrations are great and there is a Q&A at the end of the book which is very illuminating.  Modan was inspired by actual events, a suicide bombing victim which was never identified (how is it possible that someone can go missing in such a way, that no one can claim knowledge of them), yet she fleshed out the story with pure invention.  Now I want to read her other graphic novel, The Property.  I really like graphic novels and hope not so much passes once again before I read another. 

Death on Site by Janet Neel

I've added Detective Chief Inspector John McLeish and Francesca Wilson to my list of interesting and likable sleuths to follow.  Death on Site, published in 1989 is actually the second mystery in a series that consists of about seven books.  Janet Neel appears to have published her last novel in 2005.  I am never sure if this is a good thing or not--I now have half a dozen books to look forward to reading (without the added 'frustration' of falling behind as the author publishes ever more books . . . that I can't keep up with), but once I am finished reading, I'm finished reading. 

I was hesitant to share the cover illustration of my book.  The title, while somewhat descriptive is not especially catchy but the cover design is downright cheesy.  The paper edition came out in the early 90s.  My how far we've come in terms of jacket illustrations!  Looking at the cover, what sort of crime do you think happens in the novel?  How was the victim murdered?  And what on earth does "on site" mean anyway?

Don't let the illustration put you off.  Behind that cover lurks some very good writing, wonderful characterization and a very solid detective story.  This is traditional, old school mystery-story-telling that is long on reality and short on showy-twisty gimmicks that are often just a dime a dozen.  My only annoyance was self-inflicted as I thought I had picked up the first book when in actuality the scene was set and characters introduced in Death's Bright Angel, for which Neel won the CWA's John Creasy Award for best first crime novel in 1988.  (I shall be backtracking now and returning to her first book).

This isn't exactly a cozy mystery, since DCI John McLeish is a tried and true detective, so nothing amateurish here.  Francesca is his partner (romantically speaking) and a civil servant who has an issue with serious commitment and an independent spirit.  She is also infinitely able when it comes to her job.  She can be very no-nonsense and knows lots of the right people when it comes to getting things moving along efficiently. 

When I realized I was jumping into an already established mystery series/relationship, I might have turned back and dug out the first book, but I was already hooked.  I had begun investing myself emotionally into the lives of Francesca and John and was intrigued by the mystery.  This is not a breathless sort of read where you are constantly on the edge of your seat, but it is a gentle crime-solving story, a puzzle.  The actual murder doesn't take place until well into the story though there are hints along the way, so Neel gets you attached (even if you might not particularly like him) to the victim.  You get to know Alan Fraser, a mountain climber, and his mates, as well as the woman who loves him, her family, her fiancé and by the time he exits feet first you feel a sort of attachment.  Well, if not exactly an attachment since he wants only to climb mountains and not get tied down to any woman, you have been treated to a very well set up mystery where nearly everyone might have committed the crime and you have to find out who did it!

The story opens in Scotland where Francesca and John are having a holiday.  They met in the first book and have a romance going but Francesca, divorced, isn't quite ready to make another commitment.  John truly is on holiday and doesn't want to have his reputation follow him about so it is hush-hush that he is a detective.  They happen to be out hiking one day when Francesca spots Alan Fraser climbing one of the mountains some distance above them.  And then there is a person in a yellow slicker.  And then suddenly the climber has plummeted down the side of the mountain.  John is sure it will not be a rescue mission, but he sends Francesca for help and he climbs up to what he believes will be a body.  As it turns out, and by sheer luck, the climber is still alive and not terribly hurt.  Foul play is not assumed, just a case of very bad luck.

The bad luck, or rather foul play, follows Alan Fraser to London where he takes a job on a construction site (the "site" in the title), and when he falls again, he is not so lucky.  And then the fun begins.  Who is the murderer?  The spurned lover?  The fiancé of the spurned lover?  The angry parents?  The climbing partner who is vying for a spot of a climbing team going to the K6 (a spot more likely to go to Fraser since he is the better climber, more photogenic and charismatic)?  Or is there something underhanded and illegal going on in the construction site that Fraser is a part of and something went wrong--he maddened the wrong person. 

This is all why I kept reading rather than slipping the book back into the pile and reaching for the first book instead.  I want to know more about Francesca and John and Francesca's very close and very musical family.  Will the pair get together permanently?  What was the case that John was working on in the first book that caused them to meet?  And, well, I do love a well-plotted and very solid detective story.  This series has just a little bit more since the DCI is joined by such a wonderful female character-outside the detective world yet an integral part of the story.  This is one I can warmly recommend. 

Teaser Tuesday: Mrs. Robinson's Disgrace

I remember now why I don't keep a diary.  Granted, my life is pretty boring and I have no hidden crushes on married men that I would likely have a desire to write about, so maybe it wouldn't matter in any case.  Did I catch your attention?  Diaries.  Married men.  Desires to write about.  How could I pass up a book that claims to be a true-to-life Madame Bovary, a nonfiction tale chronicling a "scandalous trial that rocked Victorian England"? 

I have been trying to read more books from my own bookshelves and this one caught my eye over the weekend, Mrs. Robinson's Disgrace: The Private Diary of a Victorian Lady by Kate Summerscale.  Victorian England sounded appealing as a subject matter at the moment and I don't mind adding another nonfiction to my (rather poor this year) list of books read.  Besides, I've read and enjoyed Summerscale before with The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher.  She tells a good 'story' when it comes to this era.  And as nonfiction goes, I tend to be a very slow reader, but this reads very much like a novel. 

In 1858 English courts began granting divorces to the middle classes.  Previously only an an act of Parliament could sever a marriage (at least legally).  In June of that year a very scandalous case was brought forth.  Henry Robinson petitioned the court for divorce from his wife for committing adultery.  The main piece of evidence?  Her diary, in which she wrote about her secret longings and passions for a family friend, a married man.  It must have been quite juicy considering Gustave Flaubert's novel Madame Bovary had been banned from being published in England, yet poor Isabella Robinson's diary (nearly in its entirety) was being read out in court.  Talk about painful and humiliating!

I've only read the first few chapters of the book, which is lots of scene setting, and Summerscale is very gifted at scene setting.  We all know Victorian England's reputation for being an oppressive place, particularly for women.  Add to that the misinformation (well, based on what little they knew scientifically) Victorian had about the health and psyche of women, and this is a scandal just waiting to happen.  I say poor Isabella, and that's how I think of her at the moment anyway, though I suspect my opinion won't change much as I read on into the book.

Isabella Robinson was a widow and remarried.  It was not an especially happy marriage.  What money she had her husband demanded she turn over to him (her father had settled some on her in particular so she would not be completely at her husband's mercy, yet in the end she still was) and as the years pass she believes Henry married her only for her money.  She was a deeply unhappy wife and mother and began keeping a diary to be a "friend in loneliness and in sickness, a companion and confidant."  It is hard not to be sympathetic towards Isabella as my teaser will show:

"Isabella, like many nineteenth-century women, used her journal as a place in which to confess her weakness, her sadness and her sins.  In its pages she audited her behaviour and her thoughts; she grappled with her errors and tried to plot out a path to virtue.  Yet by channelling her strong and unruly feelings into this book, Isabella also created a record and a memory of those feelings.  She found herself telling a story, a serial in daily parts, in which she was the wronged and desperate heroine."

I think we all know where this is going to lead, but I am quite happy to let Summerscale be my guide in this journey.  I wonder what happens to a woman in this situation?  Simple divorce (well, nothing simple about it at that time) and the loss of her children to her husband?  Loss of her money.  What else?  Surely it wasn't a crime what she did, though it is surely a crime what happened to her.  I expect this will be a most illuminating (and likely maddening, too) read.  I am hoping to make quick work of this book, and indeed it is a page-turner.  I'll report back my findings!

And Now for the Hard Task of Choosing

This is what happens when you think about something for too long!  I thought I had a plan for Caroline and Lizzy's German Literature Month, but you know how it goes and how moods change on a whim.  Several whims ago, I had thought Ernst Lothar was my author of choice, but I have reconsidered.  I still do want to read him, but as the book is pretty massive and my reading time seems limited (and then there is still the clean up list), I will try and choose a book that seems more reasonable in length that I can really manage to finish this month.

I have a story collection I want to at least dip into and then one of these books is surely calling my name.

The Ghost-Seer by Friedrich von Schiller - It's a classic, written in the 18th-century.  Of course it is all in how you look at it.  It's a German classic written in the 18th-century!  Even with just over 100 pages it may be more challenging than I think seeing how it is a "fascinating, experimental and deliberately fragmentary work."

The Lord Chandos Letter and Other Writings by Hugo von Hofmannsthal is a collection of stories and this is one I will most definitely dip into. 

The Artificial Silk Girl by Irmgard Keun - Less than 200 pages and written in the 1930s it was hugely popular when it was published.  It is a "rare portrait of the life of a young German woman at a time when the force of modernity in the Western world was at its most potent."  It is a very strong contender!

The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum by Heinrich Boll - I have read Boll before and have meant to read more of his work.  Just over 100 pages this sounds quite intriguing.  "Turning the mystery story on its head, Heinrich Boll begins his novel with the confession of a crime, drawing the reader into a web of sensationalism, character assassination, and unstoppable violence."

Léon & Louise by Alex Capus - The story begins in 1918 about two lovers who get separated, each believing the other is dead.  They reunite decades later but Léon has remarried.  It seems to have gotten very good reviews.

The Hunger Angel by Herta Muller - She is a Nobel winner (as is Boll) who I have long meant to read.  This sounds good but very heavy as it depicts the "landscape of the dispossessed".  It is the story of a seventeen-year old boy who is deported to a Russian labor camp. 

So, I'll start with the story collection and then ponder which novel to choose using the always scientific method of reading the first page or two and seeing which one grabs me. 

So many books, so many reading plans and now so few days left in the year.  My how 2015 has flown by.  I blinked and there it went!

Short Story Sunday: Summer Picnic

The last set of short stories for the year!  I am hoping to get through these three collections of stories in the coming weeks, though I am not sure I will get to write about each one.  I've already told you about most of the stories in the Andrea Barrett collection, Ship Fever.  I only have the novella left at the end of the book.  I was so taken with the story I read by Elizabeth Parsons earlier this past summer that I ordered her one collection which is sadly out of print.  I have since dipped into it, but I have never gotten around to writing about the stories, but hopefully I can pick out a few of my favorites to share later.  And why read just one story by Elizabeth Jane Howard, especially when I liked it so much.  It seems a perfect collection to return to, and going by the two stories I read this weekend, I think it does indeed very much suit my mood at the moment! 

I read "Mr. Wrong" for one of my RIP stories and it was nicely atmospheric.  "Summer Picnic" is a very short story, but a perfect morsel of a story, which I thoroughly enjoyed.  So much so that I went on and read the next one as well.  If you have read Howard's Cazalet Chronicles (I liked the story so much it made me go and pull the second volume, Marking Time, from my shelves--I had started to reread the quartet in anticipation of the last last volume--number five actually--time to get back to the story I think) you'll know the sort of story she writes so well--a family drama with interesting characters and great insight into the minds of women in particular.  The story is both a reminiscence of one woman and the coming of age of another--one old and one young.  It's a story about young love and loves past-over but not forgotten.  It is a lovely story both hopeful and elegiac. 

"The illusion that eating in the open air constitutes at least one aspect of the simple life is ancient and enduring, but now, if the contents of all three cars were unloaded on to the lawn and somebody who didn't know about the picnic was asked what it was all for, they might equally have thought it was the blitz, or a bazaar, or the result of some mysterious crisis like the Mary Celeste."

The family is obviously of a certain class--the class that has nannies that look after children and knit while supervising their young charges on a family picnic.  The sort of family that might at one time planned a picnic to rival all others with cold-roast birds and claret and an entire Stilton cheese.  The sort of family that wants their daughter to marry well but will allow inclusion into the family of a commoner. 

Well, that is what a family with several generations looks like.  It is the grandmother who once dined so well, so much so that the grandchildren could never imagine such a spread:

" . . . with quantities of fruit the perfection of which seemed mysteriously to have vanished today--with the handsome man and good dinner-table conversation.  It was better now to be very old, or the age of that granddaughter escaping into the woods to discover whether she liked being kissed."

The grandmother remembers just such an event in her own life.  This is such a lovely slice of life, a reminiscence of a time past but well imagined and an event enviably wished for now but never to happen at this point in life.  But then this is why there are such short stories and why they are so well appreciated by this reader!  I always find it a mark of a really good writer to be able to tell such a story, that feels so complete where you feel like you have learned something or been somewhere, and it is done in such an economy of words and style.