Readerville

Found Forms

Flashback | Readerville.com, February 2003
The Odd Shelf #57
By Gayle Brandeis

I am not a formal person. I rarely brush my hair, rarely make the bed. I don’t like being boxed in to tetrameter, into a three-act structure, in my own work. I’m a huge fan of found forms, though — I love finding existing shapes in nature, in culture, and wrapping words around them. (My book Fruitflesh is structured around the growing cycle; my Dictionary Poems collection found its form in Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate). I love when other writers blow the dust off old, often taken-for-granted, structures and make something new. Here are a few examples.

The Armchair Gardener

The Odd Shelf #78
By Karen Templer

I enjoy reading about gardens nearly as much as I enjoy gardening; which is to say, immensely. I’m as big a voyeur about gardens as I am about homes, so I love a big, glossy picture book. (Bonus points if it has multiple shots per garden.) But I am also drawn to essay collections, memoirs, how-to, you name it. Though gardens are year-round entities where I live, the first week of summer is high garden time, and, as such, a prime opportunity to share some of my favorites from a very long shelf.

Disasters I Have Relished

Flashback | Readerville.com, April 2002
The Odd Shelf #38
By Katharine Weber

From my earliest childhood, I have been fascinated by reports of people in horrific situations large and small. In fifth grade, when everyone else was writing about Lewis and Clark, I did a report on the Donner Party expedition. When I visited my Evanston relatives, I insisted on being taken to see historic Chicago Fire sites. I knew every knowable detail of the night the Titanic sank long before Leonardo Di Caprio was born. Why? Perhaps my rather unpleasant childhood compelled me to crave descriptions of scenarios that made my own life seem comparatively safe and organized. (My favorite moments in the relatively sunny Little House books were the near-starvation in The Long Winter and the near-death in the “Fever and Ague” episode.) Bring on the cannibalism, the destruction, the nightmare scenarios! At least it didn’t happen to me! Whistling in the dark.

A Glimpse of Europe

The Odd Shelf #77
By Paul Dry

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, when my wife I were young parents raising our two daughters, a handful of books drew my attention. It wasn’t until after I’d read them that I noticed they had something in common. But first, the list:

Reimagining Henry James

The Odd Shelf #76
By Gayla Bassham

Who knew the life of Henry James would be such a hot commodity in the twenty-first century? The author known for long, discursive turns of phrase seems an odd fit with an era known for acronyms and emoticons. But since 2004, at least a half-dozen novels and short stories have been centered on James’ life and work. And pity poor Michiel Heyns, whose 2004 novel about James was never published because Colm Toibin and David Lodge had beaten him to the punch.

Fiction with a Spanish Accent

The Odd Shelf #75
By Kat Warren

For reasons many at Readerville tire of hearing, I’ve a penchant and a half for English-language fiction in which Spanish words and phrases enrich the text with lilt and grace. Do not take this to be comparable to erudite literature in which entire paragraphs of Greek or Latin are presented to the reader, who is then expected to translate on the fly. Most readers can’t, so we get all huffy about language stuff. No, this is the judicious use of words and phrases here and there that communicate to the reader that the world in the story is parsed in a different language — one redolent of accent and attitude.

Trailing the Totalitarian Novel

The Odd Shelf #74
By Mara Wiley

The dystopian genre is as time-honored as Prada at the Oscars, with standards like 1984 and Brave New World drawing attention and triggering knockoffs with each high-heeled dig into that red carpet. But A-list dystopian novels of mid-20th-century fame aren’t quite enough for me. My fascination with oppressed individualism and the horrors of absolutism has me looking into the shadowy cordoned-off rows below the award podium. You know, to the “friends and family” section — the grandfathers, cousins and eccentric uncles of these dystopian icons. If "done to death" is the word on totalitarianism in literature, I deleted the memo, because when it comes to roasting The Man, I just can’t get enough.

South of the Border

The Odd Shelf #73
By Paul Clark

If Mother’s Day is a holiday dreamed up by greeting card manufacturers and flower shops, Cinco de Mayo, like St. Patrick’s Day and Oktoberfest, might easily be a holiday dreamed up by American bartenders. It’s not even a federal holiday in Mexico. No matter — Americans will flock to Mexican restaurants today, and sales of margaritas and tequila will spike. As the following list demonstrates, however, in popular literature Americans and Europeans have a variety of experiences — many of them bad — when they travel to Mexico. If your Cinco de Mayo revelry makes it difficult for you to concentrate on a book, rent the DVD! All but one of these books has been made into a movie.

Little Book, Big Punch

The Odd Shelf #72
By Sarah Rocklin

I love a sprawling multigenerational family saga; love multi-volume fantasy epics. I number Moby-Dick and War and Peace among my favorite reads ever. But lately, just by chance, I have read a number of slender little volumes, most of them small both in page number and in physical size. These are books for slipping into a pocket, for reading one-handed while standing on the subway, for toting with ease back and forth to work. But their small size doesn't indicate insubstantial contents.

Steampunk

The Odd Shelf #71
By Kaethe Douglas

The Victorian era isn't my favorite by a long shot, but the rigidity of its cultural roles makes it mighty fun to play with. I think the repression of the individual gave rise to the delightful flowering of the adventurous genres, bringing us horror, mystery, science fiction and fantasy in abundance. More recently, storytellers are returning to this milieu, for bespoke computing and aether-ship swashbuckling and the sheer thrill of removing stupidly impractical long skirts in order to do something. ... continue reading

Biography in Fiction

The Odd Shelf #70
By Carl Rollyson

Half the drama of biography occurs within the biographer. Yet how many biographers include themselves as characters in their books? Norman Mailer could do so in Marilyn because he had already established himself as a character in earlier work. But for most biographers, the idea of dramatizing themselves, or inventing a persona for a biography, is anathema, since they dread the hostility that would greet their self-advertisements. Just ask Edmund Morris! So we turn to fiction for the skinny on biographers. The trouble is, novelists often use fiction as a form of revenge on biographers — a case in point being William Golding's The Paper Men, which features a callow biographer rooting through his subject's garbage. The novelist's retaliation against biographers begins, of course, with Henry James' classic, The Aspern Papers, narrated by a guilt-ridden biographer who has cravenly insinuated himself into the life of the late Jeffrey Aspern's mistress, Miss Bordereau. What follows is my top ten list of those novels that augment and adjust the portrayals of what James Joyce was pleased to call "biografiends." ... continue reading

What Our Mothers Read

The Odd Shelf #69
By Kat Warren

Depending on your age (and, doesn't everything), your mother and aunts may have wafted through their days wearing these perfumes:

Shalimar
Chanel No.5
Arpege
Joy
L'Air du Temps
Je Reviens

And they might have read the following books. My mother surely did. ... continue reading

Irish Writers You Probably Haven't Heard Of, Yet

The Odd Shelf #68
By Jack Long

For such a small island, Ireland has made a disproportionate contribution to world literature, especially in the short story form. Ask anyone familiar with the genre and I'm sure they can name at least one famous story by an Irish author. But what of the present (and future) state of the Irish short story, or Irish fiction in general? Which new writers have the temerity to cut turf on a sacred bog of rich literary history containing the likes of Joyce, Wilde, Trevor and McGahern, and can show a command of the narrative form and lyrical sweep of their poetic predecessors? I'm always on the lookout for work by new and emerging Irish writers, something fresh and novel that mines new territory. Fortunately, I've not been dismayed, and in fact have been quite surprised at the quality of what I've discovered.

Picking my favorite stories from this eclectic group has been a Literary Crogah Patrick. There's such a wealth of good writing. But after much reading and pondering I've come up with this list of the best stories from five authors whose work I felt could be distinguished from the others. Although you probably haven't heard of these writers, there's a good chance you will. Rest assured, Irish writing is in grand fettle and flourishing ahead into the 21st century. ... continue reading

Fully Committed: Restaurant Books

The Odd Shelf #67
By D.G. Strong

"Adam and Eve on a raft and wreck 'em! " "Groundhog and fifty-five on number seven!" "Dough well done with cow to cover!" With pre-written dialogue like that, I don't know why there are so few good books set in the restaurant world. The things should practically write themselves! But they don't and there are precious few restaurant books — especially novels — that really get the rhythm of restaurants right. I guess writing about restaurants is a little bit like writing sex scenes: You really have to know your stuff or it sounds like you've never experienced it. I keep these precious few restaurant volumes on a little mental Odd Shelf and I'm always looking for more. ... continue reading

Women and Watergate

The Odd Shelf #66
By Nancy Sirvent

Once upon a time, in 1972, five men were caught burglarizing the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington DC and arrested. No one knew they were paid, or by whom, until a resentful former FBI man surreptitiously tipped off a couple of young guys from The Washington Post who followed a trail of macho mischief that led them to All the President's Men, and ultimately to the President himself. There were firings, betrayals, official Senate hearings, revelations, prison sentences and, ultimately, a Presidential resignation.
        This fascinating story unfolded from 1972 through 1974, alongside some of the most influential events in women's contemporary history. During those years, the ERA was passed by Congress, Roe v. Wade made abortion legal, Eisenstadt v. Baird gave single women the right to use contraception, Title IX banned sex discrimination in schools, Ms. Magazine was launched, and the book Our Bodies, Ourselves was first published. Adolescent women of that time, of which I was one, knew that they were coming into adulthood on the cusp of a great shift in what it meant to be female in America.
        It is in that context that I fell in everlasting love with Watergate. It is a great story in U.S. history, full of good guys and bad guys, heroic actions and outrageous vindictiveness. It made great TV and hilarious comedy, influenced American language (the word Watergate itself is a fine example), remade the art of journalism, and forever changed U.S. politics and culture. What I love most about Watergate, though, are the many other Watergate stories: the ones that have been forgotten, the ones that have been deemed irrelevant, unseemly, or unimportant. Not surprisingly, many of these stories involve women. ... continue reading

Biographies I Have Most Enjoyed

The Odd Shelf #65
By Kat Warren

I used to think people read biographies of those who appealed one way or another, or because the subjects were famous or interesting or brilliant at whatever it was they did. (Ruling, writing, composing, building, painting, making money, doing good, making justice, inventing, discovering...) Many read about people who make history and/or waves but I discovered some time ago that I'm willing to read just about any biography so long as it is well written. Case in point: Anne De Courcy's gripping biography of Diana Mosley whose fascist politics and anti-Semitic notions revolt me. 

I was surprised to learn I could enjoy biographies of subjects I don't like, or hadn't heard of, or had been only vaguely aware of. My ongoing affair with biography has shown I'll read about almost anyone. What matters is not the subject so much as the blend of subject and writer. It takes a particular combination of brilliant researcher and fetching writer to pen a powerful and compelling biography and that's what you'll find on this list ... continue reading

Buddhist Novels and Zen Interpretations (cont.)

The Odd Shelf #64 | Part Two
By Richard L. Pangburn

• Finding Joy in Joyce: A Readers Guide to Ulysses by John P. Anderson
One of my all-time favorite volumes of lit crit. A line-by-line study with over 600 pages, this sparkling work uses a custom blended tonic of Christianity and Buddhism in its interpretation. Jesus and Buddha, side by side.

• Siddhartha, Journey to the East and the later novels by Hermann Hesse
Popular before World War II, the author faded into obscurity before he won the Nobel Prize in 1946. Still, he did not become popular again in America until his books were reprinted in the mystic 1960s, and he remains in print. I like his obscure novels best, if only because they are more literary and require more thought.

• Lost Horizon by James Hilton
This 1933 novel gave readers an overview of the compassionate philosophy of Buddhists; however, it also featured a western materialist conception of eternal life rather than an inward eastern spiritual one. Utopia is not to be found outside in the material world. Still, I like the novel as a literary metaphor. Lost Horizon and the 1934 movie made from it did much to enhance the mystique of Tibet. Shangri-La became a synonym for contentment. Your kisses take me to Shangri-La, the song goes. Peggy Lee made a lovely recording of that song in 1946 and after the movie was remade in 1954, the song was covered by The Four Coins, The Lettermen, Bobby Vinton and a host of other singers. ... continue reading

Buddhist Novels and Zen Interpretations

The Odd Shelf #64 | Part One
By Richard L. Pangburn

Buddhism is the most secular of religions. It is practiced in various forms in the United States today, often by Christians and Jews as an auxiliary to their original belief systems. The basic principles are universals which sometimes occur to individuals even though they may never have studied Buddhism, nor even have heard of it before. Small wonder, then, that there are so many Buddhist interpretations of classical literature. ... continue reading

Like Mother, Like Daughter

Flashback | Readerville.com, March 2001
The Odd Shelf #5
By Sarah Rocklin

A group of mothers of fourth grade girls in my neighborhood got together and created a Mother-Daughter Book Club; three years later, it's still going strong. My daughter and I dropped out for a time, but found we missed the camaraderie and rejoined. Choosing a book that the girls and moms will enjoy but that is meaty or problematic enough to stimulate interesting discussion can be tricky, but we're getting better at it. Here are some of the hits. ... continue reading

Indulging My Inner Bad Girl

The Odd Shelf #63
By Peggy Hailey

Although I try to project a normal, wholesome image to the world, one glance at my bookshelves tells a different story. Behind closed doors, I'm a very bad girl indeed, addicted to the worst kinds of cheap thrills — the more lurid or depraved, the better. Curious? Step a little closer, so I can whisper in your ear: ... continue reading