What I'm Reading Now -- Flux

After finishing Love and Ruin, I struggled to get back into a book.  I read a lot of magazines, watched some TV, did basically anything else I could think of besides starting another book.  Finally, I decided maybe a book of essays was the secret.  However, not finding one in my collection that tickled my fancy, I decided on a book of interviews instead.

Flux isn't just interview transcripts (which under all but the most unusual circumstances would be incredibly tedious), but rather a compilation of interviews into a book about the social, economic, and political situation that women find themselves in today.  Okay, actually the situation they found themselves in 20 years ago, when this book came out.  And since I bought it 10 years ago, I'm pretty much right on schedule in terms of how quickly I read things!

I'm about 40 pages in, and so far most of the interviews are with people in the 25-35 age range.  I'm not sure if that's going to broaden as the book goes on, of if we're stuck in that stage of life for the duration.  If we're stuck there, I am wondering what, if anything, this book will have to say 10 years after I thought it sounded relevant.  If it still has something to say, more power to it, and less power to society for failing to make necessary changes.  If not, more power to me, for getting past it!

Love and Ruin -- Take 2

I struggled a bit with Love and Ruin, but having had some time to reflect on it, I think I like it.  But man, was it hard to read.

***Note: this review contains something akin to spoilers if you don't already know the general outlines of the history of Martha and Ernest's relationship.  If you do, I'm not likely to spoil anything.***

I had a couple of intertwined issues.  One was with the relationship as profiled in the book.  It was suffocating to read about, which I suppose means it was well-drawn on the pages.  I wouldn't necessarily have told you at the time that I thought the book was beautifully written, but it clearly had the desired effect -- or at least an effect; whether or not it was the desired one, I'm not sure.  Here's what it cam down to though: the tension in the relationship between the pure joy, deep love, and functional partnership on the one hand with the constricting jail walls that that very same relationship imposed on Martha were untenable.

And that's the second thread in this intertwined struggle I had.  I was at the part of the book where the relationship begins to sour while S and I were out camping.  I woke up in the middle of one of our nights out with a start, thinking about this book and how trapped Martha was.  She was desperately in love with Ernest, and had also taken on a role in his boys' lives that was important to both them and her.  At the same time, she was struggling with her writing and her career because she couldn't spread her wings.  She was -- I already said suffocating, but I'm saying it again -- suffocating.  And so was I, when I woke up in the middle of the night.  For the second time in my life, I had a reasonably serious attack of claustrophobia.  I flew out of bed, opened the door, and breathed in the cold night air in order to clear my head.  Was the oppressiveness of the relationship in the book that led to my feeling of panic?  I have no idea.  But I do find it quite curious that that's what I woke up thinking about.

So far, it sounds like I didn't like this book, but that's not a complete assessment.  It did take me some time to get into it, but once I did, I made much quicker progress and I couldn't escape (even in sleep) the emotional depth of their relationship.  It's hard to say that such a book is not well-crafted.  So maybe I didn't exactly like it, but it got under my skin in a slightly troubling way.

Happy Turkey Day!

 

What I'm Reading Now -- Love and Ruin

In addition to sending me Educated, K also sent Love and Ruin.

In my time, I have read a bit of Hemingway, though probably not as much as I should have.  What really made me want to read this, though, is that it is a (albeit fictionalized) version of the relationship between him and Martha Gellhorn.  I know a bit about Ms. Gellhorn, though probably not as much as I should (are we seeing a theme here?), but someone whose intellect I admire has a lot of good things to say about the intrepid journalist.  So this seemed like as good an opportunity as any to dive in and see what her fictionalized self is all about.

Maybe it will even inspire me to seek out some non-fiction on the subject!

Happy Birthday, Dad!

 

Movies -- A Recap -- Part X

I was surprised when S wanted to watch Mr. Deeds.  He is not a fan of Adam Sandler, generally.  I am only a fan of Adam Sandler intermittently.  Mr. Deeds was what I would consider one of his usual films.  It was funny, and he plays a guy who's pretty sweet and not super annoying.  Plus, it has a good soundtrack!

One of the best movies we have seen in a while was The Peanut Butter Falcon.  S had heard about it, and it was a pleasant surprise for me.  It's the story of an autistic kid who escapes from the group home in which he lives.  He befriends -- if that's the right word -- a loner and drifter, and they meet up with the caregiver who comes looking for him. It was a real gem, and also has a great soundtrack (though a little more Indie-inspired than Mr. Deeds).

Avengement is for you if you're in the mood for something extremely dark.  The main character, as you learn through flashbacks, has suffered years of abuse in prison.  When he is released, he sets out to take revenge on the folks who put him there.

 

In a complete change of pace from Avengement, and on a much lighter note, we watched Bahubali: The Beginning.  I think it may have been the first Bollywood movie that S had seen.  I explained that in those movies people would periodically burst into song and dance -- but then the movie made me a liar but not really having that.  It did have lots of really intense music, terrible graphics, terrible action sequences, and a lot of confusion, so didn't disappoint in that department.  Against all odds (or maybe because of them) it was entertaining, and there is another one when we are in the mood for it!

Drunk Parents is exactly as dumb as it sounds.  Occasionally a little bit funny.

Movies -- A Recap -- Part IX

Handia (aka, The Giant) is a character study.  It's a bit slow and a bit odd, but sweet.  It's based on a true story, the tale of two brothers separated by a long-forgotten European war.  When the older brother returns home, he discovers that his little brother suffers from gigantism.  The elder brother hatches a plan to tour Europe, hoping to make money to support their family on the curiosity that is his little brother.  Note: subtitled, so not good for multi-tasking.

I forget why we watched Back to the Future.  It might have been because S hadn't seen it.  It might have been because neither of us had seen it in a while.  Either way, it is a classic.  Perhaps most especially, I love that scene near the beginning where Michael J. Fox is listening to The Power of Love on his Walkman and hitchhiking (in a manner of speaking) his way to school.  And of course, Johnny B. Goode!

I have liked Carey Mulligan for a long time.  When Suffragette came up on our list of movies, I was on board.  Overall, the movie was decent.  There were some very touching scenes between the women. The scenes between women and others (mainly men) were especially horrifying, just to see how women were treated.  Despite my love of Carey Mulligan, though, I am not entirely sure why she was the central character in the movie.  She adds some emotional weight, but when you get to the end (which I don't want to spoil), you may also wonder why the movie was about her and not someone else.

Attacking the Devil: The Last Nazi War Crime was picked out by S because he knew I would like it.  History, and a British guy.  What's not to like?  Other than the Nazis, of course.  The movie profiled an interesting little nugget that I didn't know much about.  At its heart, it is the story of an intrepid journalist who will not be put off his story by censure laws or social constraints or anything else.  I thought the call-out to the Nazis, actually, was a little bit of click-bait.  The movie is about the thalidomide babies -- why not give them the credit in the title?  Nevertheless, worth seeing, but difficult.

I don't usually see a movie before I read a book, but I did that with The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.  I think I even have the book, but just haven't gotten around to it yet.  The movie is cute, but entirely predictable.  Should I now bother with the book?

What I Read -- Educated

K sent me a copy of Educated after she had finished up with it.  I saw the reviews when it came out and thought at the time that it looked like something I might enjoy -- as much as a sociological study as anything else -- but then it fell off my radar.  What a treat to have it show up in the mail!

I have not really gotten into the genre of horror/autobiography written by people (usually young women) who have escaped from plural-marriage Mormon families.  Thankfully, though this is a bit of horror/autobiography stemming from a childhood in a Mormon family, it is not plural-marriage focused.  Though themes of emotional, psychological, and even physical abuse surely overlap between the two subject areas, this book comes at extreme Mormonism from the angle of (not surprisingly) education -- and particularly how a lack of education both allows a person to be isolated by others and also itself serves to isolate that person from others.

I was surprised by how suspenseful I found the second half of the memoir.  By that section of the chronology, she has escaped daily life at her family's Idaho compound, but for various reasons she periodically returns.  Each time, a new and looming cloud of dread hangs over whatever is to come.  Like watching a train wreck, I couldn't look away.

Our Souls at Night -- Take 2

Our Souls at Night was classic Kent Haruf.  He uses simple, spare writing to gracefully introduce us to Addie and Louis, two folks living alone, two houses apart, in the latter years of their lives.  Addie knocks at Louis's door with a proposition -- that he come over to spend the night so they can talk, and not be alone.

Nothing is quite that simple.  Haruf explores the reactions of the people in their small town, as well as Addie's and Louis's own family members.  Addie's grandson comes to live with her for a period of time; Louis gets him a dog.  Their cobbled-together little pieces of a family become something solid for each of them.  They grow together and become something important to each other.

Eventually that dedication -- one piece of the family to another -- is what causes the little family to break apart.  True to form, Haruf doesn't oversell the sadness, as he also didn't oversell the happiness.  His two lead characters, through his restrained pen, simply exist in both conditions.  They demonstrate the wisdom and steadiness that comes with years of life, appreciating that neither the best nor the worst time lasts forever.

Very much enjoyed this!