The Problem with Li-tra-cha

Walter Benn Michaels claims so-called "literary writers" need to make their work more about class issues and the social order of contemporary life. Michaels says they should follow the lead of David Simon, who examined such issues in the HBO show The Wire. (That's really something when a literature professor says novelists should follow the example of television writers. Particularly television writers in "crime genre." In publishing circles, many consider "literary" fiction different and somehow better than "genre" fiction. Plus, at one time, television was considered inferior to books, i.e., the "Boob Tube." Am I over killing my point about the irony? Probably. Oh, well.)

I loved The Wire. It was a great show. But I'm not sure that means we all have to emulate it. There are many types of great books. Some of them focus on class issues and contemporary social order--some of them don't. Some of them are overtly political--some of them aren't. And the ones that deal with personal or timeless issues aren't necessarily self-indulgent or boring. Besides, people who write on class issues and society are fully capable of doing so in a self-indulgent and boring way. (Read any Ayn Rand lately?)

Maybe what we're really talking about here is writing a good story. Whether it's on politics, social order, personal problems, economics or whatever. Literary novels (whatever that term means) are most memorable when they tell a good story. Regardless of topic or theme, good story rules. That's why we read books.

Singleton Hippie Art, The Psychedelic Sea, The Original

Psychedelic Sea(C) Singleton 2009SOLDHe followed the sound,guitar strings and tambourines,southern voices in the wind...knowing thatthere in the nightcrowdhe would find me,barefooted and gypsy dressed,dancing in the ocean spray...Full moons,martini moons,and a gazillion empty moonshave passed...And I gothere still...a mermaid ghost...dancing on the dunes,at the edgeofapsychedelic sea....And in

The E-Book Effect

I got a laugh out of this column by David Pogue on "antique e-books." I mean you gotta love the idea of an e-book that's more than a month old being an "old e-book" (as opposed to an "ancient e-book," which would be between two to five months old--any older than that, well, check your local museum). And I love the notion of the Lamenting Corner--no bemoaning allowed. (No bemoaning aloud, that is--sorry, sorry, couldn't resist . . .) Thanks to the Reader's Advisor Online for this.

Meanwhile, the NY Times asks, "Is a Book Still a Book on Kindle?" or "With Kindle, Can You Tell it's Proust?" That second question is a fair one, and it's about more than just impressing other people with what you're reading. E-books will eliminate serendipitous conversation based on observing the covers of books other people read. When I was commuting by subway and train, I used to love it when people noticed me reading a book and commented on it. (Usually to say how much they had enjoyed it, too.) However, e-books still aren't the norm. So we haven't completely lost those random opportunities to connect. And I still can't see myself curling up with a Kindle at the end of the day. But, hey--that's just me.

'The Poisonwood Bible' Evokes Emotions Buried or Never Felt

Review of THE POISONWOOD BIBLE (Brilliance Audio on CD Unabridged 2004)
By guest blogger Star Lawrence
Author, Barbara Kingsolver; read by Dean Robertson

Everyone has told me for years that I should read Barbara Kingsolver, so naturally I never had. Then, on a quick library run for disks and not liking female readers too much for reasons I have described elsewhere, I grabbed this book because it looked long and was read by Dean Robertson. Funny about that—Dean is a woman, and with her rapid, ironical and slightly twangy delivery, is the best thing about this book—except for the fantastic writing.

Even if you were not alive during the Congo uprisings in 1959 (I remember reading about this), THE POISONWOOD BIBLE will capture you into a family story so engrossing you won’t want to leave your characters . . . your friends, almost your own siblings. My own father was dominant, bossy, a little scary and always completely correct in everything he said or did. Just ask him—or he would tell you, anyway. Nathan Price is a dogmatic preacher, who bustles his "whither-thou-goest" Georgia wife and four daughters off to Africa on a missionary trip that alters all their lives forevermore. He made me think of my father. His quiet wife, who provides only glimpses of her inner life and any regrets or signs of rebellion, made me wonder what my mother had been thinking all those years of our childhood.

But enough about me. You will thrill to the racing poetry of Kingsolver's dry wit and descriptions of Africa and a small village in upheaval as forces of man and nature try to claim and reclaim the rampant lushness and bounty of that continent.

As the decades march on, the four daughters and their mother struggle to cope with a central tragedy. "Life marks you," the mother murmurs, with typical understatement. They go their separate ways, two staying in Africa and two going back to the United States. Wait, someone is missing. Yes, someone is. Actually, two people, don't forget the preacher.

If you like big "saga" type "listens," this is the one for you. Sixteen hours well spent. Not counting the hours you will spend thinking about it afterward.

Star Lawrence is a writer in Chandler, AZ, and can be reached at jkellaw@aol.com. She's a frequent contributor to The Book Grrl and authors the blog Do the Hopey Copey, a humorous how-to guide to handling the recession.

Hippie Singleton Art, Peace~Let it Shine

Peace, Let it Shine(C) Singleton 2009Sunrain....the light early morningglitter of a lazysunstretching...her wispy golden armsreaching,blonde locks cascading upward,caught in the suddenstatic electricity of a new day...Peace rises...And while the nightrolls over,covers his headwith the thickwarm blanket of yesterday,I salute the sunand embrace the second chancetoday brings...Original hippie

'Sliver of Truth' Gets Under Your Skin

SLIVER OF TRUTH (Shaye Areheart Books 2007)
Author, Lisa Unger

The prologue to SLIVER OF TRUTH starts out looking like a book that should be called "Scenes from a Marriage." A ho-hum marriage, at that. Told in third person from the wife's point of view, we hear her gripe about her husband (internally). She's a journalist. He does something else (something that doesn't matter). But all that changes by the prologue's end.

Chapter 1 puts the reader in the protagonist's head. And it's written in first person (Ridley Jones' point of view--more on her later). The story starts with a scene like something out of a nightmare. Ridley's running . . . it's dark . . . she's in Potter's Field in the Bronx. She's chasing someone . . . there's a pain in her side, fire in her lungs . . . she has a gun. She's going after this shadowy person. Someone else tells her, "Ridley, don't do it. You'll never be able to live with it." The chapter ends . . . well, read it and see for yourself.

Chapter 2 is where the story really starts. You have to love an opening line like, "I bet you thought you'd heard the end of me." ("But I've barely heard the first of you," I thought, and kept going.) Starting this book is like walking into a movie roughly halfway through it. Reading those first few chapters was like having someone catching me up to what's gone before, while I was watching what's taking place. A bit discombobulating at first. (I kept thinking there was too much telling, not enough showing.) But once I settled in, what followed was . . . amazing.

Ridley Jones, at some point before the story begins, has learned that the people she's always known as her parents are actually foster parents. She was placed with them by an organization called Project Rescue. This organization was founded by her beloved late Uncle Max, who was--get this--actually, her real father. These few sentences may help save some confusion for you upfront--but not all, because there's Jake, another Project Rescue child, with whom she has an on-and-off relationship. And some other guy named Christian Luna who's killed, for reasons I could never figure out. (None of these things I'm telling you are spoilers. This is all in Chapter 2, believe it or not.) Somehow all this truth comes out after a photo of Ridley is taken rescuing a small boy from getting run over by a van. A photo that makes her famous. (Still in Chapter 2.) I can't remember all the details, all of it came at me so fast and furious, I found myself turning back after reading several pages and saying, "Now, who's Jake? And what's this got to do with Project Rescue? And what does Christian Luna have to do with all this?"

But like I said, after I kind of got an understanding of what was going on, the book really gripped me and never let me go--sometime after the FBI questions Ridley about a series of photos of her in which a shadowy figure keeps appearing. They think the shadowy guy is her Uncle Max, but her Uncle Max is supposed to be dead. But then Ridley gets these weird phone calls with just static and breathing, then the caller hanging up. Plus there's a spooky scene in her uncle's apartment (really creepy!). Lisa Unger's eye for detail and her ability to build suspense with it, really got under my skin. And next thing you know, people are dying. And Ridley ends up in trouble over her head.

I read somewhere that thrillers and suspense stories should have a roller coaster storyline. But this narrative wasn't a roller coaster. It was more like a freight train. Barreling downhill, full throttle. With no brakes.

And not only is it a great thriller, but it's a great meditation on our recollections of people from our past. How they really are, who we want them to be, and the differences between the two. Every time I started reading this book, I had to tear my eyes away to set it down. (It was torment waiting to pick it up again.) It made me want to stay up reading all night.

To say that Ridley goes through hard times is pretty much the understatement of the year. The plot takes her through quite a few twists. I'll admit--I was expecting some of them, but that's only because I watch Damages (a show that's probably spoiled all thrillers for me for life).

Thing is, the book is more than a thriller. It's about a woman who's looking for answers about herself and this Uncle Max she loved and thought she knew, but didn't. It's about memory, identity, choices and all sorts of heavy stuff like that.

Unger manages the delicate balancing act of telling a story with suspense and thrills, while exploring a woman's shattered psyche as she learns the truth and is put through her paces.

And it's a truly great read. You just have to get through that beginning, where it's like walking into the middle of a movie. (I suppose it might have helped to read BEAUTIFUL LIES first.)

More Fun Stuff

I thought this was pretty interesting: a perfume called In The Library. (What does it smell like? Old books?)

And how fun is it to trick people into reading classic literature through misleading covers? (You gotta love THE GRAPES OF WRATH.)