Tag: friendship

Truth and Beauty

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Patchett, Ann. Truth and Beauty: A Friendship. Read by Ann Patchett.

Reason read: December is a time for gifts. This is one I give to myself. Confessional: I read Lucy’s autobiography a long time ago. I was supposed to read Truth and Beauty directly afterwards for comparison. I may have to return to the review I wrote for Autobiography of a Face.

In a nutshell: this is the story of an unconventional friendship. Ann Patchett was befriended by the charismatic and neurotic Lucy Grealy when they were students at Sarah Lawrence College. From the age of nine, Grealy suffered from Ewing carcinoma of the jaw which left her terribly disfigured. She endured over thirty surgeries and multiple rounds of chemotherapy. Throughout her life, Lucy didn’t know who she was without her illness, her cancer, her surgeries. Due to her low self esteem, Grealy overcompensated by seeking out people to adore and worship her. She thrust her personality onto anyone who would listen, daring them to love and accept her. Confessional: I don’t know what to make of Truth and Beauty. There is a sheen of jealousy that lightly covers the entire narrative. It is if Patchett wants to paint Grealy as a self-centered narcissist while Patchett is the unconditional, sane, patient, all-loving friend. By sharing Lucy’s letters and hardly ever her own replies, Patchett skillfully makes the relationship seem off-balance and schizophrenic. Grealy’s low self-esteem forces her to constantly seek approval and love affirmations from Patchett. The two may have been friendly before they became successful writers, but Patchett’s word choices convey hints of resentment towards Lucy’s fame and even towards Lucy herself throughout the entire story. Every compliment comes across as backhanded and contrived, as if Patchett really wanted to say Lucy used her debilitating disease as a means to be coddled and cared for by everyone around her. I got the nagging sense that Patchett only tolerated Lucy and her illness because she knew Grealy’s story was a gold mine. In truth, I have no doubt there was affection shared between the two writers but I feel it was a more honest relationship before the drive to publish and the desire to be famous kicked in.
As an aside, I lost track of how many times Patchett referred to Grealy’s height and weight, as if she was envious of Grealy’s childlike stature.

Author fact: I am reading three books by Ann Patchett. Oddly enough, Bel Canto is not on the Challenge list.

Book trivia: There are no heartwarming photographs of any kind.

Playlist: the Talking Heads, Kylie Minogue, Rush, and Leonard Cohen.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Other People’s Shoes” (p 182).

League of Frightened Men

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Stout, Rex. The League of Frightened Men. Farrar & Rhinehart, Inc. 1935.

Reason read: I kicked off the Nero Wolfe series because League of Frightened Men begins in the month of November. I will continue to read the series in honor of Rex Stout’s birth month in December.

While in college, years ago, a fraternity of men pulled a prank that left one of their brothers horribly handicapped. The fraternity men spend the rest of their lives trying to make amends to Paul Chapin, until years later, one by one, brothers are winding up dead or missing. Has their scarred-for-life brother finally decided to seek revenge? It certainly seems that way when poems appear after each death, cryptically pointing the finger back at the group and the accident suffered so long ago. Nero is hired to find a missing fraternity brother and stop the killings before the entire league of frightened men is wiped out.

Because I will be spending a lot of time with Nero Wolfe, I thought I would keep track of his traits. For example, here is what I know so far: Nero likes beer for breakfast. He is considered obese. He has lived at West 35th Street in New York City for the last twenty years (thirteen alone and the last seven with his sidekick, Archie) and it takes an act of god to get him to leave his apartment. Nero is an avid reader and likes tending to his orchids. His right hand man, Archie, is a long time friend and they yell at each other and bicker like an old married couple. As an aside, Archie drinks a lot of milk; almost as much as the beer as Nero puts away.

As an aside, be forewarned! There are several examples of unflattering name calling that, by today’s standards, would be considered politically incorrect.

Line I liked, “You must not let the oddities of this case perplex you to the point of idiocy” (p 158).

Author fact: According to Wikipedia, Rex Stout died in Danbury, Connecticut.

Book trivia: League of Frightened Men was first serialized in the Saturday Evening Post.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the long awaited chapter called “Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe: Too Good To Miss” (p 226).

Boy Meets Boy

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Levithan, David. Boy Meets Boy. Alfred A. Knopf, 2003.

Reason read: August is the new back to school month. Since most of Boy Meet Boy takes place in a school, read in honor of lockers everywhere.

The world inside Boy Meets Boy is the fantasyland where we all want to live, or at least visit whenever the mood strikes us. A place where kindness reigns supreme and hate just does not seem to exist. At. All. Main character, Paul, is unlike any teenage boy you will ever meet. He is sensitive, smart, funny, romantic, thoughtful, and a serious empath. His environment is a high school where students, dissatisfied with clubs of the cultural norms, create groups like the Joy Scouts, the French cuisine club, and the Quiz bowling team. The janitors are closet (pun totally intended) wealthy day traders. The parents form groups like P-FLAG (Parents and friends of lesbians and gays). The town itself is ultra-accepting – there is a bar called the Queer Beer bar where straight guys sneak in to hit on lesbians. It’s like a paradise for the LGBTQ community: the perfect world where everyone is welcomed and joyfully accepted. Even insults are always playful and harmless. The quarterback can also be the homecoming queen – shoulder pads and manicured nails come together in one character, Infinite Darlene. Cheerleaders can afford Harleys. Mothers make pancakes that resemble the topography or states or continents. Imagine that.
But. In order to have an interesting story, you need conflict. Right? The conflict is love and all of its broken hearts. Paul was once dumped by Kyle. Now Kyle wants Paul back, but only after Paul has started something with a new boy, Noah. Noah has been burned himself. So when Noah finds out Paul kissed another boy, he’s a goner. Now Paul wants Noah back while Kyle chases Paul. Then there is Ted who was dumped by Joanie for Chuck. Somehow, Paul tries to mend all these hearts, including the ones he has no business mending. The big question is, will he win Noah back or will Kyle win his heart?

Author fact: Even though David Levithan wrote a long list of books, I am only reading Boy Meets Boy for the Challenge.

Book trivia: I could easily see this being made into a movie.

Music: Dave Matthews Band’s “All Along the Watchtower” (but not really DMB) and “Typical Situation”, “One More Day”, Depeche Mode’s “Personal Jesus”, “We Are the Champions”, Cole Porter, Pink Floyd, “Bizarre Love Triangle”, “I Will Survive”, “She’s All Mouth”, Elvis’s “Love Me Tender”, “Heartbreak Hotel”, “All Shook Up”, Ella Fitzgerald, PJ Harvey, Erasure’s “Always”, Indigo Girls, Chet Baker’s “Someone to Watch Over Me”, Beatles, “If I Had a Hammer”, “Time after Time”. “It’s Always You”, and “Let’s Get Lost”, and “Michael, Row the Boat Ashore”.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Best for Teens” (p 23). Interestingly enough, Pearl thought Boy Meets Boy was more appropriate for boys than girls.

Pride

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Cary, Lorene. Pride: a Novel. Nan A. Talese Publisher, 1998.

Reason read: Pride is what some would call “chick lit” which I also call “beach reads” and since August is the last good month to visit the shore…

The friendship of four women. Each one of them has issues, both public and private. Roz (Rozzie) is the wife of a successful politician who has now set his sights on a higher office. At the same time as battling cancer, Roz is trying to be a mother to a difficult teenager and supportive of her husband’s ambitions. What she can’t get behind is the fact he has been having an affair with one of her best friends. Arneatha is an Episcopal priest locked in grief after losing her husband. She struggles to find herself in a world without him. Tam is the equivalent of Steve Martin’s wild and crazy guy. She does not take her sex life or career seriously. Audrey is a recovering alcoholic is struggles everyday with lure of addiction. And speaking of Audrey, Lorene Cary painted a fuller picture of Audrey with more colorful detail than any of the other women. It was if Cary knew Audrey best.
Pride is a testament to friendship. Like a pride of African lions, the women of Cary’s novel need to stick together in order to survive.

Quote to quote, “And the drums kept pounding like I love them” (p 318). Amen.

Author fact: Cary also wrote The Price of a Child which is on my Challenge list.

Book trivia: this should be a movie.

Playlist: “You Are So Beautiful to Me”, “My Funny Valentine”, “America the Beautiful”, “Maple Leaf Rag”, Otis Redding, Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra, Boyz II Men, James Brown, LL Cool J, “Zip-A-Dee Doo Dah”, Piaf, Mahalia Jackson, Lena Horne, Michael Jackson, “Four O Clock Blues”, James Brown, Bong Crosby, “Only the Lonely”, Duke Ellington, “His Eye is on the Sparrow”, Peggy Lee’s “Is That All That There Is?”, Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song”, “Getting to Know You”, Rachmaninoff, the theme from Family Matters, the theme from Magic Flute, and “Claire de Lune”.

Nancy said: Pearl includes Pride in a list of books to consider.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “African American Fiction: She Say” (p 13).

White Teeth

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Smith, Zadie. White Teeth. Quality Paperbacks Direct, 2000.

Reason read: February is Immigration month. Whether it be Bangladesh, Britain, Jamaica, or the good old United States of America, we are all immigrants of some kind.

Hang onto your hats! White Teeth is a roller coaster ride, sure to rid you of your spare change with all of its twists and turns. Within the pages of White Teeth Zadie Smith takes you deep inside the concept of cultural identity through her characters and their dialogue. As an aside, I want to know how Smith conjured up these characters with such perfection. Where did they come from? People like Magid Mahfooz Murshed Mubtasim practically jump off the page, they are so real. I can’t give it away, but that final scene with the gun!
White Teeth is like a four-room banquet with endless amounts of food choices. At times I felt overstuffed dealing with all the characters and their various dramas, but I don’t discredit Smith’s storytelling. She was culturally spot on with little details like the tag for Levi’s jeans. What exactly does “shrink to fit” mean anyway? I could see how someone would be confused, especially if English isn’t their first language.
All in all, White Teeth was a fun ride, worthy of all the accolades.

Author fact: Smith has written a bunch of stuff since 2000. I am only reading White Teeth for the Challenge.

Book trivia: White Teeth has won numerous awards and been adapted to television and the theater.

Playlist: “As Time Goes By”, Barbra Streisand, Bay City Rollers, Beatles, Bob Dylan’s “My Back Pages”, “Born to Run” by Bruce Springsteen, “Buffalo Soldier”, Canned Heat, Chuck D, Diana Ross, Donny Osmond, Englebert Humperdinck, Elvis, Johann Sebastian Bach, “Waterloo Sunset” by the Kinks, Madonna, Michael Jackson, “Purple Rain”, Ringo Starr, Roger Daltry, Scott Joplin, “Sexual Healing”, Slick Rick’s “Hey Young World”, the Small Faces, and the Who.

Nancy said: Pearl did not say anything specific about White Teeth.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “First Novels” (p 88).

White Boots

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Streatfeild, Noel. White Boots. Illustrated by Milein Cosman. Puffin Books, 1963.

Reason read: Noel Streatfeild, if you couldn’t tell by her first name, was born on Christmas Eve. Read in her honor.

Who doesn’t love Noel Streatfeild’s “Shoes” books? Whether you read the British version (White Boots) or the American (Skating Shoes), either is just as cute. Ten year old Harriet is a frail child, recovering from a long illness that has left her legs “cotton-woolish” and weak. Her doctor prescribes exercise to rebuild her muscles. He knows just the sport, ice skating. There at the rink Harriet meets a girl her age, skating sensation Lalla. Lalla’s father was a world famous skater as well but died in an accident. His sister is tyranically determined to make her niece the next star on ice. Seeing that Harriet is a good influence on Lalla’s training, Harriet soon starts taking ice skating, dance and fencing lessons to keep Lalla engaged. I think you can see where this is going.
This is a story of opposites attract. Lalla is beautiful and wealthy. Harriet is plain and poor. Lalla’s skating prowess prompts her to be shallow and selfish. Harriet’s lack of privilege leaves her hungry for friendship. Harriet has a loud, loving, and large family while Lalla only has her nanny, her prim and proper aunt, and a home-schooling governess.
This is also a story of acceptance. Just because you have a world class athlete for a father doesn’t mean you have inherited the genes. All Lalla’s life she has been pushed into believing she had to be the skater her father was. She had been given every advantage to fulfill that expectation except she lacked one thing. Talent. Along comes a nobody of a girl. No fancy clothes. No world class father. No money to buy premier lessons. But Harriet did have one thing. Ability.
As an aside, times have changed. In today’s world it is incredibly rare for a sibling to start a paper route just to support his sister’s recovery. What kid does that? Alec is a smart brother. He knows exactly how much he will earn from delivering papers and he also knows how much the skate rental will cost. His business sense drives him to save the two extra shillings to put towards his father’s failing business. Again, what kid does that? I enjoyed the side story of the garden very much.

Confessional: when Streatfeild was setting up the family’s history of poverty, I couldn’t keep up with who lived in which house.
Father Christmas only has six tiny reindeer?

Author fact: Noel Streatfeild was born on Christmas Eve.

Book trivia: Originally published in 1951 in the United States as Skating Shoes.

Playlist: “Where the Rainbow Ends”, “The First Nowell” (Streatfeild’s spelling, not mine), “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing”, and “O Come All Ye Faithful”.

Nancy said: Pearl said Streatfeild is best known for her shoe books.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Fantasy For Young and Old” (p 83). The “Shoe” books should not be included in this chapter because they are not fantasy. Pearl only mentions them because of The Fearless Treasure, which I have not been able to find.

Cat’s Eye

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Atwood, Margaret. Cat’s Eye. Read by Kimberly Far. Random House Audio, 2011.
Atwood, Margaret. Cat’s Eye. Anchor Books, 1998.

Reason read: Atwood was born in the month of November. Read in her honor.

Atwood is clever in describing typical friendships between girls with the simple line, “we think we are all friends”. Young Elaine Risley has all the angst of a young girl growing up in the bullseye of bullying; something that haunts the adult Elaine when she returns back to her childhood city of Toronto to put on an art show. Elaine confronts the painful memories of the various traumas of her childhood with every passing landmark. Most prominent from her childhood are three girls who at turns tormented and loved Elaine with equal parts malice and warmth. As with all young friendships, Elaine was an easy target. She was desperate to please; bullied into thinking she was never good enough for the friendships she begged to have. One of the saddest moments for me was when Elaine contemplated suicide, not because she wanted to end her life, but because she knew how much her death would please an enemy.
As a teenager, Elaine discovered she had a sharp tongue which becomes her best defense and her most valuable weapon. Her enemies fall away not because they leave her, but because she lets them go.
As an adult, Elaine learns that the monsters of our youth can shrink to the harmless size of dust balls under the bed; their teeth and claws can dull upon adult scrutiny. But not all of them go away, especially when you do not want them to.

As an aside, Atwood seems to have an affinity for the nail polish color, “Fire and Ice”. Several different characters wear it.

Simple yet devastating lines, “She thinks I am happy” (p 161), “Murder ought to be a more ceremonial occasion” (p 266), and “There’s too much old time here” (p 453).

Author fact: Margaret Atwood has long been one of my favorite authors.

Book trivia: Cat’s Eye is a type of marble design. Back in the day everyone had marbles. Elaine carried one as a talisman.

Setlist: “Skye Boat Song”, “Scots Wha’ Hae”, Frank Sinatra, Betty Hutton, “Hearts Made of Stone”, “Moonlight Sonata”, and “There Will Always Be an England”.

Nancy said: Pearl describes the plot of Cat’s Eye.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Women’s Friendships” (p 247).

Bay of Noon

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Hazzard, Shirley. The Bay of Noon. Little, Brown and Company, 1970.

Reason read: the Battle of Oranges takes place in February.

There is a secret in Bay of Noon. My eyes did a double read when the words “I am in love with my brother” floated past my face. Did narrator Jenny mean what I think she meant? Is that the secret every reviewer alludes to when writing about Bay of Noon? Hazzard drops hints like pebbles disturbing tranquil waters.
In addition to being a story about a woman fleeing a dark secret, Bay of Noon is about the power of friendship. In the end, the reader is left with this question: do years of disconnection matter if the bonds of relationship are stronger than any prolonged length of time?
Confessional: None of the characters were likeable to me and maybe that was the point. I really did not care for Justin. His refusal of plain speak was annoying. Circumventing addressing matters of the heart the way he did would make me walk away. What I did love was the vivid descriptions of the Mediterranean. It made me hunger for all things Italy.
Bay of Noon has been called a romance novel and I guess in some ways it is, but I didn’t like any of the couples and I never really felt any of them were actually in love.

Author fact: Hazzard was Australian but wrote a great deal about Naples.

Book trivia: Bay of Noon was originally published in 1970 but found life again after being republished in 2003. It was shortlisted for the Lost Man Booker Prize in 2010.

Play list: Hazzard has many opportunities to mention songs of musicians by name through all of the dancing, signing, and listening to the radio, but she doesn’t.

Nancy said: Pearl called Bay of Noon “most likely autobiographical” (Book Lust To Go p 148).

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust to Go in the simple chapter called “Naples” (p 146).

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe

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Flagg, Fannie. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe. McGraw Hill, 1987.

Reason read: August is Friendship month.

After reading Fried Green Tomatoes you will swear you just made a whole bunch of new and memorable friends. The characters will stay with you long after the last page. At the heart of Fried Green Tomatoes is the story of a friendship between two women. Mrs. Threadgoode, living out her old age in a nursing home, befriends Evelyn who is only there to visit her ailing mother. Held captive by the incessant chatter of Mrs. Threadgoode, middle aged and weary Evelyn is introduced to 1930s Whistle Stop, Alabama and its ecclectic community. The more Mrs. Threadgoode talks, the more Evelyn wants to know what happened next. She begins to visit more and more, bringing gifts each time. Between the present day nursing home and the flashbacks is Dot Weems and her weekly “Whistle Stop Bulletin” full of town gossip and humor. Despite its feel good narrative, startling examples of bigotry and violence are a reality. The very real thorns among the roses. But, back to the heart of Fried Green Tomatoes – the characters: Tomboy Idgie Threadgoode was by far my favorite. She is passionate, wild, and carries a great sense of humor and love in her heart.

Author fact: I had to look this up to confirm Fannie Flagg was an actress, screenwriter, director, comedienne, as well as author.

Book trivia: Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe was made into a well-known movie starring Kathy Bates as Evelyn and Jessica Tandy as Ninny Threadgoode.

Playlist: Art Tatum’s “Red Hot Pepper Stomp”, Bessie Smith’s “I Aint Got Nobody”, “Big Rock Candy Mountain”, “Buffalo Gal, Won’t You Come Out Tonight?”, Count Basie, Cab Calloway, Ethel Waters, Hank Williams, “I’m going Home on the Morning Train”, “I’m in Love with the Man in the Moon”, the Inkspots, “In the Baggage Car Ahead”, “Jingle Bells”, “Life is Just a Bowlful of Cherries”, “Listen to the Mockingbird”, “Nola”, “On the Good Ship Lollipop”, “Red Sails in the Sunset”, “Sheik of Araby”, “Smoke Rings”, “Stars Fell on Alabama”, “Sweet By and By”, “Tuxedo Junction”, “Wedding March”, “When I Get to Heaven, I’m Gonna Sit Down and Rest Awhile”, and “White Birds in Moonlight”.

Nancy said: Pearl mentioned Fried Green Tomatoes as another book exploring women’s friendships.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Women’s Friendships” (p 247). Also in More Book Lust in the chapter called “Southern Friend Fiction: Alabama” (p 205).

Little Life

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Yanagihara, Hanya. A Little Life. Penguin Random House, 2015.

Reason read: two reasons really. One, because I needed a book for the Portland Public Library Reading Challenge in the category of “A book published in the last ten years [I] think will be a classic.” Two, because my sister sent this in the mail. If you know the book then you know it is over 800 pages. I can’t believe she mailed it to me. I (selfishly) would have waited until she was in town if the roles were reversed.

To be one hundred percent honest, A Little Life disturbed me though and through. While on the surface the story follows the lives of four college friends, they all have serious issues that border on all-out tragedy. Living in New York and trying to make a go of different careers, it is terrifying to watch their weaknesses chew them up and spit them out one by one. At the same time, there is something unnervingly beautiful about their friendships despite vastly different upbringings. At the center is Jude. Beautifully broken Jude. At times I wanted to hurl his story out the window in seething frustration. He doesn’t want to talk about his life. He is a mystery. He can’t talk about his parents of ethnic background for fear of betrayal. He can’t navigate stairs and needs an elevator. He cuts himself to the point of suicidal. He’s not white and doesn’t mention his childhood. He’s always in pain, wearing leg braces or using a wheelchair. His injury is not from an accident but something deliberate. He is a glutton for punishment beyond human sanity. He went to same law school as his friend Malcolm’s dad. He is the most beautiful of the group; and the most sly. He doesn’t like to be touched. Yet, he is a loyal-to-the-core friend. Like a many-layered onion, the reader peels back the mystery that is Jude. When you get to his core you’ll wish you hadn’t. The abuses he suffers are so numerous and varied; each one more horrifying than the next that you have to ask yourself, how much trauma can one soul take?
Jude’s loyal and loving friends:
Willem: He is always hungry. He is good looking but not as beautiful as Jude. He is from Wyoming and both of his parents are dead. He’s not a big drinker or drug user. He works in a restaurant and his brother, Hemming, is disabled. He’s also an actor who, in the beginning, gets mediocre parts. His fame is a source of wonderment.
J.B (Jean-Baptiste): Like Willem, he is always hungry. He lives in a loft in Little Italy and works as a receptionist. He fancies himself an artist that works with hair from a plastic bag. His mother pampers him ever since his father died. Internally, he competes with his peers. He is sleeping with Ezra and has an artist studio in Long Island City. He is the proverbial “I don’t have a drug problem” denying man. He can’t give up his college days. They all can’t.
Malcolm: He never finishes his Chinese takeout, but he always orders the same thing. He lives with his parents and has a sister named Flora. He is taking a class at Harvard.
Digging into the meaning of friendship there was one concept that had me rattled. The potential for friends to outgrow one another. I have experienced it and Dermot Kennedy wrote a whole song about it, but I don’t think anyone has written about it so eloquently as Yanagihara.
Here is another confessional: this took me ages and ages and ages to read. There is a lot going on with many, many characters. Like extras in a movie, these people don’t amount to much, but at the time they were introduced I couldn’t be sure. I wanted to commit every single one to memory, but the parade of people was dizzying: Andy, Annika, Adele, Ana, Avi, Alex, Ali, Charlie, Carolina, Caleb, Clement, Clara, Dean, David, Dominick, Ezra, Emma, Fina, Findlay, Gabriel, Gillian, Harold, Hera, Henry, Isidore, Jansz, Jason, Jackson, Joseph, Jacob, Julia, Kerrigan, Lawrence, Luke, Lionel, Liesl, Lucien, Laurence, Merrit, Massimo, Marisol, Meredith, Nathan, Oliver, Peter, Phaedra, Pavel, Robin, Richard, Roman, Rhodes, Sally, Sonal, Sullivan, Sophie, Topher, Thomas, Treman, Zane. I could go on and on.

Quote to quote, “He could feel the creature inside of him sit up, aware of the danger but unable to escape it” (p 138).

Playlist: Haydn Sonata No. 50 in D Major.

Author fact: Yanagihara graduated from Smith College. Too cool.

Book trivia: Little Life is Yanagihara’s second book.

Pasta Mike

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Cotto, Andrew. Pasta Mike: a novella about friendship and loss. Black Rose Writing, 2021.

Reason read: as part of the Early Review Program for LibraryThing, I was chosen to review this book.

As soon as I saw the mention of Talk Space in Cotto’s book, I knew this would be a hard read. While Pasta Mike is supposed to be fictional it reads as one hundred percent reality. The first person narrative makes the reader feel as though Cotto himself is sitting down and talking, talking, talking about his best friend, Mike. Like a one man play or a nonstop monologue, it read so real that I refused to believe any of it was imagination. Grief is a hard mountain to climb and Cotto does not shy away from the struggle or the damage that struggle can do. The writing flows easily and fast and, in my opinion, Pasta Mike was over too soon. Cotto could have filled one hundred more pages with memories of Mike.

Playlist: Frank Sinatra

Testament of Friendship

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Brittain, Vera. Testament of Friendship. New York: Seaview Books, 1981.

Reason read: I dropped the ball on finishing Brittain’s trilogy. I was supposed to read this in August. Woops.

As both Carolyn G. Heilbrun and Vera Brittain noted in her introduction and preface respectively, the recording of a friendship between women is rare. Both Heilbrun and Brittain cited the Biblical relationship between Ruth and Naomi as being one of the few female friendships not only documented but widely accepted. Brittain set out to record her sixteen year friendship with Winfred Holtby and produce a detailed biography of a woman who died too soon, “She seemed too vital and radiant a creature for death to touch” (p 1). Indeed. It is stunning to think what Holtby could have accomplished when you think she was writing poetry by the age of eight and by age eleven was published. [Okay, okay. So her mother paid to have the poems published.] She was the Charlotte Bronte of her time. On a personal note, I think women should celebrate their friendships more often. This prompted me to reach out to friends I’ve known for nearly 40 years.

Author fact: Brittain was the author of 29 books. I am only reading the three Testament books for the Challenge.

Book trivia: Testament of Friendship does not contain any photographs. Too bad.

Setlist: “Fight the Good Fight,” “Give Me the Moonlight,” “Because,” “Until,” and “K-K-K-Katy.”

Nancy said: Pearl didn’t say anything specific about Testament of Friendship except to say that it continues the trilogy Brittain started with Testament of Youth.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Living Through War” (p 154).

Last Friend

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Ben Jelloun, Tahar. The Last Friend. Translated by Kevin Michel Cape. New York: Penguin Books, 2007.

Reason read: Ben Jelloun was born in the month of December. Read in his honor.

In 1950s Morocco, schoolboy Ali meets Mamet (Mohammed) for the first time after a school yard fight. Their personalities and views on life could not be further apart. They are opposite in every way. Mamet has to fight every aspect of his life: rebelling against the Communist party sexually; betraying his religion with food and drink; ignoring his culture by committing adultery. To compensate for feeling inferior he is full of unnecessary bravado. Yet, their differences make them curious friends. Best friends at that. Without knowing it, they protect each other time and time again. Over the span of thirty years and many trials and tribulations, their relationship deepens into a profound bond; one even their wives find hard to accept. It is as if Ali and Mamet’s separate relationships orbit around their singular connection. Despite moving apart Ali and Mamet remain close until a misunderstanding and an even larger betrayal comes between them.

The lines I loved, “Friendship begins with sharing secrets” (p 16), “I discovered that ideology indoctrination can bind even an intelligent mind” (p 26), “In friendship, as in love, everyone needs an element of mystery” (p 51), and “I found myself walking down a boulevard under a cold sun, considering different scenarios to protect our friendship from the tragedy of death” (p 154).

As an aside, I never thought of Bob Marley as a misogynist.

Author fact: Ben Jelloun also wrote This Blinding Absence of Light which I read almost a year ago.

Book trivia: There is a scene in a Bette Midler movie where a mother picks a horrendous fight with her daughter in order to force her daughter to live her best life. While the fight is extremely painful to the daughter, she is able to pick up the pieces and move on. The final scene of the movie is of her getting married while her mother watches from a distance. I don’t remember the name of the movie, but The Last Friend could be a movie with a similar scene…

Nancy said: Pearl doesn’t say anything about The Last Friend specifically, but she mentions the translation by Linda Coverdale is “superb.” I didn’t read that version.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “North African Notes: Morocco” (p 161).

Second Summer of the Sisterhood

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Brashares, Ann. The Second Summer of the Sisterhood. New York: Delacorte Press, 2003.

Reason read: to finish the series started in May in honor of Birds & Bees month.

Carmen, Tibby, Lena, and Bridget are back for another summer wearing “The Pants.” Carmen continues to be a brat. I think she is supposed to be seen as the fiery Puerto Rican. In The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants she threw a rock through a window because she was mad at her dad for having a girlfriend and starting a new family. In Second Summer of the Traveling Pants it’s her mom’s happiness she can’t bear to witness.
Tibby’s situation was a little more believable. Away at college and desperate forget a friend who died of leukemia, she shuns her old life and adopts the crappy attitudes of a couple of loner kids in her class. This, I know a little something about. Sadly, I am guilty of changing my personality to impress new people.
Bridget is away in Alabama, working for her estranged grandmother and trying to escape an unfortunate event in The sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. Gram thinks Bridget is a lonely girl named Gilda and with Bridget’s weight gain and dyed hair Grandma is easily fooled.
Lena has the simplest yet most complicated story. After leaving Greece she couldn’t stand to be away from Kostos so she broke up with him. Doesn’t make sense, but that’s perfect teenage logic for you. Who hasn’t done something dramatic thinking it was the only choice? Kostos accepts the breakup until he sees Lena and professes his undying love for her…until something else happens.
All four girls have moments when The Pants don’t work for them. The magic just isn’t there and they have to rely on growing up to see the solution. the real magic happens when they begin to see their mothers as human beings.

Author fact: Brashares has also written nonfiction. None of it is on my Challenge list.

Book trivia: Second Summer did not do as well as Sisterhood. Sequels are a hard nut to crack.

Nancy said: Pearl included Second Summer of the Sisterhood in a list of “teen-pleasers.”

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Best for Teens” (p 23).

Jamesland

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Huneven, Michelle. Jamesland. New York: Random House, 2003.

Reason read: October is Mental Health Awareness month.

The theme for this book is crazy. Seriously. Every character has their own special brand of crazy. Alice Black think she’s going crazy after confronting a deer in her living room in the middle of the night. Former crazy talented head chef Pete Ross knows he’s going crazy after attempting suicide a few times for no apparent reason. Unitarian minister Helen Harland has her own brand of crazy dealing with a mean-spirited church administration who gave her a lukewarm performance evaluation. How these three meet and deal with their separate brands of crazy is the heart and soul of the story. They are completely different people and yet. Yet! Yet, they bond over the insanities (my word) in their lives.
Alice Black is trying to get over a breakup with a married man. As she struggles to make sense of the lies (“For sure I’m going to leave my famous-actress wife…”) she befriends Helen in the hopes of understanding the meaning of a frightened deer in her living room. Helen is desperate for any kind of friends and has a habit of pulling anyone and everyone, including the wife of Alice’s affair, into her orbit. She hopes they help her make sense of her life. Then there is divorced and messy Pete who still lives with his mother, who still lives under the thumb of his mother. Helen insists on keeping him in her crazy circle of friends.
At the center of all this drama is Alice’s great-great grandfather, William James, Henry James’s lesser known brother. He is the key to spiritual awakening, with the help of a crazy medium, of all three.

Quotes to quote, “Walking in such public areas made him feel more acutely the lunatic at large” (p 257) and “It counts as an honor to cut up a euthanized hippopotamus” (p 379).

Author fact: Huneven also wrote Round Rock, which is not on my Challenge list.

Book trivia: I could see this as a movie.

Nancy said: Pearl didn’t say anything specific about Jamesland but in the intro to the chapter she said some of the books “have unexpected depth” I think she was talking about Jamesland.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Just Too Good To Miss” (p 132).