The Handmaids Tale

by Margaret Atwood
Along the ideas of The Children of Men, The Handmaids Tale is set in a future where fertility rates have dropped. In this case a small percentage of women do have viable ovaries and they have become the Handmaids. This tale is told first-person from a Handmaid herself, from observations on her current state of affairs to recollections of how the world got this way.
Essentially the religious fundamentalists came to power and women are not allowed to read, or write, speak ill of the government, or have much identity at all. Above all they are not allowed to have sex outside of the monthly "ceremony" to get pregnant. Handmaids are shuttled from one couple to the next trying to get pregnant. If a Handmaid becomes pregnant she has the baby, the Wife keeps it, and the Handmaid is moved on to the next couple.
There's a lot of talk about this society being for the women's "protection." Birth rates declined apparently because of too many abortions and too many abortions came from having too much sex, and having too much sex came from women being harlots. So a government took over where these things were regulated and the men are in charge. Of course if this is the religious right then women, being the cause of original sin, are the enemy. And like most strictly regulated societies there is a underworld of rebellion and revolution. There is even a controlled underworld-the Jezebels, whores who are detained by the government.
This story is told so well by Ms. Atwood. It is a short book but every word is chosen carefully and the telling is very concise. It's chilling to think the world could become like this, but it's also comforting to know that the human sense of rebellion will never die.

Embracing The Mess

A recent New York Times article explaining why it's not so bad to be so messy.....
I recently had a massive cleaning of my apartment-one of those where scrubbing on hands and knees is involved. After weeks of solid work where I was a) not home much and b) didn't have time for cleaning if I did, the place had gotten disaterously filthy.
I'm quite happy with the state of affairs at the moment. Things are clean but the closets, desk, and under the bed are a moderately organized jumble. I was thinking about reorganizing over my vacation but I think instead I will Embrace the Mess! And just keep an eye on it so it doesn't get too out of control.

Good News

J.K. Rowling has announced via her web site that the final Harry Potter Book will named Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Sounds good and creepy. This is so exciting!

I, Elizabeth

by Rosalind Miles
Queen Elizabeth is one of my favorite historical figures. An unmarried woman, pale skin, red hair, promoter of plays, what's not to like? But despite the intriguing subject matter it took me forever and a day to finish the book. The beginning was great, good period detail, Elizabeth's rise to the throne is frought with political intrigue. Unfortunately I had the problem I usually have with all historical royal subject matter. (Fiction or Non) Keeping the names straight, and figuring out who is related to who. Fortunately there is a character index in the back and a family tree in the front to help sort things out. Miles blows full steam ahead through Elizabeth's formative years and the first half of her reign, but she really runs out of gas towards the end.
The novelization is primarily focused on Elizabeth's private life and the handful of men named Robert she falls in love with. (OK-they aren't all named Robert-but it seems like it.) The love of her life being Robert Dudley Lord of Leicester. The lust of her life being Robert Devereaux Earl of Essex. (Stepson of Robert Dudley) Elizabeth did not marry either man for a variety of reasons, mainly because they were already married to others. In the case of Robert Earl of Essex he was half her age. What's sad is in this novelization the Earl dupes the Queen with his flirtations in his own quest for power and the throne, and she pretty much falls for it. (An amorous relationship between the two was never proven but highly specualted.)
Confused? Me too.
The writing get's pretty sloppy as Elizabeth ages. Which I suppose could be intentional. That all the Roberts are running together in the old Queen's mind as well as in the narrative. I had to do a lot of flipping back and forth to the trees and lists to figure out what was going on. It breaks up the flow of reading and I don't care for that. I had high hopes for this book I confess myself disappointed in Elizabeth's character being bamboozled by a pretty young thing. Overall a great beginning ended with a lousy finish. But I did come away with a great quote on being a smart woman:

... those of us whom God has made to think and feel, who are strung out like harps along the wires of our own nature, why, we are rarer music and must content ourselves with smaller audiences.

And Another Thing...

The Animal Quiz is even more fun...it sort of explains the Harry Potter obsession.

You're an Owl!

Old and wise, you have a thirst for knowledge and a reputation for
making the right decision. This can be a lot of pressure sometimes, but you seem
so relaxed and unruffled that it never seems to show. You always keep your eyes
wide open and fixed on your next objective, or on the Harry Potter books, which
you love. The only question you ever ask is "Who?"


Take the Animal Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

Book Quiz

The Blue Pyramid Book Quiz is suprisingly insightful....

You're Cat's Cradle!

by Kurt Vonnegut

You believe quite firmly that free will deserted you long ago and far
away. As a result, it's hard to take responsibility for anything. Even though you show
great potential as a leader of a small 3rd world country, the choices are all made ahead
of time. You're rather fond of games involving string. Your fear of nuclear weaponry is
trumped only by your fear of ice.


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

The Looking Glass Wars

By Frank Beddor
So after the publication of Harry Potter the market has been saturated with Young Adult Series. People's interest has also piqued with this trend, which is a good thing-I'm all for getting folks to read more. I recently heard about The Looking Glass Wars and after a little hunting around found it at a local library. It is written by Frank Beddor who is interestingly enough a Hollywood producer stunt skier who was in Hot Dog: The Movie. I really loved the book and am excited for the next in the series.
The conciet is that Alyss (correct spelling) is a real girl from a real Wonderland. She is heir to the Heart throne and has the strongest imagination in Wonderland, therefore destined to become a great queen. Her Aunt Redd takes over Wonderland in a violent coup. Alyss escapes through the Pool of Tears and ends up in Victorian London. She eventually meets and befriends Lewis Carroll, tells him her life story, which he publishes but with significant dramatic liscence. The book has many references to the original books, like Alyss's tutor Bibwit Harte which is an anagram for "White Rabbit." And the caterpillars are hookah smoking soothsayers for the royal family. I always enjoy clever things like that.
What's really interesting about the book is that it has trailers and a soundtrack. Check out the website www.lookinglasswars.com. There are a few illustrations in the book but many more on the website. All of them have a very sci-fi feel to them, which is so different from our usual perception of the Alice in Wonderland world.

Marie Antoinette...DITCHED!

by Antonia Fraser
Poor Marie Antoinette first she get's beheaded, and now I've ditched her. First it should be said that I rarely ditch books, although the majority of the books I have ditched have been non-fiction. In this case the subject matter was interesting. The writing style just did not grab me. I found I could easily put the book down and leave it in the corner for a few days (or weeks). If I ever procured a copy I probably could get through it over the course of a few months, but the book had to be returned to the library.

Update

Sadly I have been unable to update Ye Olde Bloge for the last (gasp) three weeks as I have been so busy with the costume world. I did manage to finish The Looking Glass Wars a couple weeks ago but have not even had time to blog. I've been designing costumes for a holiday extravaganza of a cabaret and the current show at the Yale Rep is huge. I've been getting no sleep, therefore have very little time to read, yadda yadda. But soon I'll be back in the swing of things and hopefully finishing I, Elizabeth and Marie Antoinette. Also looking forward to trying out Margaret Atwood and the Outlander series. I can't wait for Christmas break...

Lisey's Story

By: Stephen King
My favorite author is Stephen King. I don't see him as a simply horror writer but as a craftsman of Americana. His latest novel has been earning rave reviews from everyone and he's been making the rounds of interviews and getting great press (check out the podcast!). In my quest to live frugally I've been good about not buying books, utilizing the libraries, and waiting for paperback editions. However I will make exceptions for Stephen King. His last novel Cell I managed to wait, I checked it out from the library, and I haven't even gotten to his pulp paperback The Colorado Kid. So when I heard Lisey's Story was on it's way out I thought it could wait. It turns out I couldn't, lucky for me.
What happened was we did this play at the Rep called Eurydice, which was an amazing production and I am so proud to have been a part of it. My friend Linda saw the show and in turn has been inspired to sketch and blog about one of the central themes of the play which is messages from beyond the grave.
And here I will quote from her blog because she describes the idea better than I can: "Before Eurydice dies the first time, her dead father writes letters of advice and love to her from the underworld, and sends them up into the world of the living, though she doesn't see them. Later Orpheus sends her letters of music of despair from above, stuffing them into the ground. "I'll give this letter to a worm. I hope he finds you." The letters in the play manifest in the world they were sent to on actual sheets of paper. But it got me thinking. What if all these synchronicities, these funny coincidences that feel so much like personal correspondence, were actually messages from my lost loves? My grandfathers? My grandmothers? My friends? My father?"
As it turns out Lisey's Story is also about messages from beyond the grave. And I thought, (In keeping with synchronicity) I have to read this book right now when it's relevant to my immediate artistic life. So off I went to Borders with a 40% off coupon and a week later here we are.
Lisey's Story is a portrait of a marriage, and the grief one feels when one partner has died and the other must go on. Instead of using messenger worms Scott Landon has left a scavenger hunt (a bool) for Lisey to remember him by so she can move through her grief in stages, and as in all King novels no one can be just left alone to do what needs doing. In Lisey's case it's dealing with her sister's depression and psychotic break and dealing with a psycho who wants her dead husbands manuscripts. Interestingly as we see her look back on her 25 year marriage she has not only been the good woman behind her successful man, but she has also been his salvation. We come to find that while she saved Scott on numerous occasion he pays his due by saving her from beyond his death and letting her know that she was the one secret to his success and he knew it and appreciated it. The second secret is a place called Boo'ya Moon. An alternate reality where Scott could go to escape his troubled childhood, recover from his wounds, and find fresh ideas. It contains a 'pool where we all go down to drink, to swim, to catch a little fish from the edge of the shore; it's also the pool where some hardy souls go out in their flimsy wooden boats after the big ones. It is the pool of life, the cup of imagination.'
I am so impressed by the language of this book which is mostly written in the shorthand of Scott and Lisey's marriage, it has lot's of babytalk but it stays the course. I am so impressed by the metaphor of Boo'ya Moon, which we all have seen even if we only visit it at night when we are asleep. I am still astounded by the similarities to Eurydice. A pool of inspiration that hypnotizes in Boo'ya Moon, and the river of forgetfulness in the Underworld. Orpheus and Eurydice are Scott and Lisey, the famous man and the woman behind him. A Nasty Interesting Man tries to seduce Eurydice and a nasty nutcase named Dooley tries to harm Lisey. Even the Chorus of Stones in Eurydice appeared in Boo'ya Moon as the Lotus Eaters, 'Dip yourself in the river!' 'Be Quiet! We want to watch the Hollyhocks." I am floored by the fact that these two different stories are the same yet totally different. Told through specific poetic language, yet again totally different. And they both made me feel sad, but happy to experience something so beautiful. This is what Linda means by synchronicity and I am truly touched by it...

"I will give this letter to a worm, I hope he finds you."

"I will holler you home"

All Hail the Pop of King!

In this week's Entertainment Weekly, Stephen King hails the spoken word in his regular feature "The Pop of King". In addition to his defense of the audio book genre as a whole, he lists his Top 10 favorite audio listens. I have heard a couple but not all of the books on his list, though I trust his judgement. Seriously, Uncle Stevie says: make this mix CD, I made it and loved it. Uncle Stevie: says watch Lost, and now my obsession knows no bounds. Uncle Stevie: says do not read The Historian it's just terrible, and after Garth concurred, I won't even consider it. (Note that Mr. King refers to himself as Uncle Stevie in his articles. This is not to be confused with my actual Uncle Stevie who lives in Massachusetts and is a lovely man with a fantastic Navy tattoo on his forearm that says "Mom". Seriously, he really does. And I doubt he'd like The Historian either.)
Uncle Stevie asked for feedback in the comments section on ew.com and which has inspired my personal Top 10 as follows...
10. The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis read by Michael York
9. The Cell by Stephen King read by Campbell Scott
8. The Gunslinger by Stephen King read by George Guidall
7. The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan read by Kate Reading and Michael Kramer
6. Dry by Augusten Burroughs read by the author
5. Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx read by Campbell Scott
4. Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris read by the author
3. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkein multi-voice production produced by BBC Radio
2. His Dark Materials series by Philip Pullman multi-voiced production produced by BBC Radio
1. Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling read by Jim Dale.

The list above obviously leans towards the fantasy world, what can I say I'm a sucker for escapism. Fantasy and young adult books also lend themselves more to being told out loud. I particularly enjoy the multi-voice productions, and Mr. Dale is so talented he makes you feel like Harry Potter is a multi-voice production. Mr. Jordan's Wheel of Time is such a huge epic that I find I have to listen to parts of it just because 11 books at 700+ pages each book is so overwhelming. I find Campbell Scott is a wonderful reader and extremely diverse, Brokeback and the Cell were completely different performances. The items by the authors are particularly hysterical, no one else could nail the narrative as well as Mr. Sedaris and Mr. Burroughs do with their own respective works. (Interestingly Mr. Frey does NOT read his A Million Little Pieces...hmm...curious.)
And a special award goes to...
The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown read by Paul Michael. Not because it's good but because it's unintentionally funny due to it's reveal of Mr. Brown's writing flaws and Mr. Michael's silly French accents.

Misery Memoirs Love Company

In today's morning blog reading Grumpy Old Bookman had some interesting info on WanderingScribe a woman who claims to have been living in her car all the while blogging about her homeless life and her quest to get a book deal. WanderingScribe has now received said book deal from Harper Collins UK. However even though Miss Anya Peters (WanderingScribe's nom de plume) is a self proclaimed writer, Harper Collins has decided to have famed ghostwriter Andrew Crofts step in and help. I took a looky-loo at the WanderingScribe site and boy do she have a tendency to ramble and her writing content is pure drivel.
Quote: "I would rather sleep in my car through every winter there is, than have anyone know how deep the absence of love is."
How very bohemian of you.
Not to mention I detect an odor of James Frey Bullshit in the air. Enter what is now referred to as The Misery Memoir. Basically the idea is write about your miserable life, and a big publisher gives you money, and the publisher markets your book like crazy, and people read your book, and if your really lucky Oprah will pick your book for her book club and then you'll make millions! And if they find out you're lying Oprah will publicly flog you. (She will also attempt to publicly flog your publisher but that won't go nearly as well.)
Oddly enough after the Oprah incident part deux, the market was flooded with memoirs. Notably the two who are my favorites are the ones who were established long before the Frey incident. David Sedaris and Augusten Burroughs have published a handful of books each and I find that their dry, sardonic presentation lends itself to the memoir as feeling more truthful. Information is merely presented for the reader to take as they will. They see the humor and irony in their crazy lives as opposed to Frey and Peters who take a "poor me" approach.
So is Anya Peters, Wandering Scribe the real deal? This remains to be seen. There is a lot of speculation that she's not, but proving this is difficult since we are not privy to her real name. But it is good that folks like the Wanderingego are looking to watchdog this before publication, and before millions of readers and Oprah are once again duped. (Seriously, Oprah has made it clear she does not like being duped.) My take is I don't think it's fair that someone gets to tell huge lies and then is rewarded for it. And I think publishers need to be more accountable for the accuracy of the books they publish. This fakery has always happened but has become far more commonplace in the last few years. Again it raises the question what is fiction, what is memoir, what is nonfiction, where is the line, and who decides? Given all the prepublication controversy over Abandoned it's certain that Oprah, Queen of All Media won't be touching this one with a ten foot pole.

The Corrections

By: Jonathan Franzen
This book has been incredibly interesting to read, due to the hype surrounding it. First off there's the famous Oprah incident, and subsequent debate over what is "literature", and what is "popular fiction", and whether the Queen of All Media gets to decide which is which. Second, as I sat reading it in the Green Room, this book more than any other drew comments from passers by. "Ohmygod that's my favorite book!" "Oh that book is sooo good but it's really depressing, especialy if you have elderly relatives." "I love that book! It really nails the character of the midwesterner. Are you from the midwest?" And so on.
So I was curious, was this a good piece of literature? The answer is yes. Was I going to see myself and my family in these characters? Kind of, but (thankfully) not really. After finishing the novel I think of it as an alter reality in which my family could have turned out like this had my parents stayed married and grown old together. In effect, miserable and co-dependent.
And I wonder if I would have been more involved in the book had I not heard these opinions from others.
That is not to say I didn't find the book engaging. At times incredibly funny and by turns incredibly sad. I also found it to be a good picture of society today, and not only for midwesterners. Frantzen taps into the materialism of America with a nice touch of the absurd. From Chip's desire to impress his parents with his New York life-so he steals a salmon filet, to Edith's obsession with her baby Jesus advent ornament made of a walnut, the characters are constantly striving for more and as usual for American's it is never enough. The culmination is Edith's (the matriarch's) desire to have one last Christmas in St. Jude. Which happens-but not in the Norman rockwell card that was envisioned.

Real Simple

I've just finished this month's Real Simple Magazine. I subscribe to three magazines, Vanity Fair, Real Simple and Entertainment Weekly. Unfortunately due to the financial cutbacks I need to make I am only keeping the Vanity Fair subscription. This is beacause it is only $12.95 and it seems to be the last journalistic endeavor not controlled by the GOP.
I rarely ever read the editors note at the front of the issue but for some reason this issue I did. It's goes on about the little patience the editor has for folks who stress about having the "perfect holidays." I have to say I agree. There is no reason to quelch all of our enjoyment during the season of joy by freaking out about something that will not be important 6 months from now.
And the editor goes on to say "...I would be lying if I said I didn't feel a bit overwhelmed, too. A few years ago a friend who has spent most of his life in therapy told me that if your depressed, it means your are facing a decision....and the holidays are nothing if not one giant decision making minefield."
I was struck by the idea of depression meaning you are facing a decision-and subsequently stalling out in depression-land because you don't want to deal with said decision. I decided long ago no more traveling on airplanes during the weeks of Christmas and New Years. I decided long ago to take holidays as they come. To not overplan as you are inevitably dissapointed in the fact that your plans have gone astray. I decided long ago to plan for christmas gifts early to avoid holiday shopping. Subsequently the last three years have been better than ever and I find myself looking forward to the holidays as opposed to dreading them.

Son of a Witch

By Gregory Maguire
Shame on you Gregory Maguire. As if you didn't have enough money from the publication of Wicked, and other fairy tale retellings, and your children's books. And let's not forget Wicked the Broadway musical, which if you're smart-you negotiated residuals. So now you further capitalize on the success of Wicked that you write a sequel. Folks were skeptical, but I believed in you. I believed that you had been so clever in all the other books of yours, you'd be clever with this too. And have to say I am sorely disappointed.
Mr. Maguire spends 350 pages essentially telling us that Liir is indeed the son of Elphaba. Now while it is not explicit in Wicked it is implied and I came away with the understanding that Liir was Elphaba's son. While Son of a Witch does have Mr. Maguire's sardonic voice (which I love) I was constantly thinking it would get somewhere and it never really did. It constantly fell short for me, which I'll admit is the point of Liir's life really-that it never really lives up to Elphaba's. But then why write a book about it?
Now it's certainly not as bad as some sequels (cough...The Lost World) and I don't feel my time was completely wasted. But I wouldn't recommend it to anyone other than a die hard Maguire fan.

Specimen Days

By: Michael Cunningham
The author of The Hours brings us another threesome of characters with lives centered around a piece of literature. In this case it is Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass. I enjoyed the book and I love Michael Cunningham's language, it's so lyrical. The three stories are always about a man named Simon, a woman named Catherine, and a boy named Luke. The POV changes with each story, as do the ages, races, and deaths of each character. One story is set in 19th century industrial New York, one is New York today, and one is New York of the future. Writing the future is tricky business and despite my initial skepticism, Cunningham does an excellent job of telling the story without jumping to much into the sci-fi realm. The thing with a future world (or a fantasy one) is that you often have to spend a lot of time explining the world to the audience. Cunningham does this very succintly and boy do I appreciate that. The only thing I didn't care for was in the future story the planet is also now inhabited by refugee aliens that look like lizards. Which unfortunately for me initially brought up images of the GEICO Gecko. (Who want's free pie and chips?) Fortunately I got over it.

Empire Falls

By: Richard Russo
Richard Russo deservedly won the Pulitzer for this book about the residents of a small town in Maine. My usual literary connection to Maine is through the eyes of Stephen King. Needless to say Russo's Maine is quite different but no less compelling. In a dying factory town the characters struggle to get by in a story revolving around Miles Roby and his family. Through present day and flashbacks we see Miles's struggle to escape a small town life.
Coming from a smallish city in a rural area I can relate. When you first leave it is a fight to stay away. It always seems as if something is conspiring to suck you back in. I think most people stay in those situations because it's the easy thing to do. It's harder to make life work without a support system, and hometowns usually have that in abundance. It's sad to see Miles fall back into Empire Falls over his mother's illness when she fought so hard for him to get out. But when he finally sees how much she really sacrificed for him it affects him enough to change up his own life to secure his daughter's future.
Today we live in an age where communication is faster than ever and I think it's going to become easier and easier for people to break their molds. Amen to that.

And speaking of Harry Potter...

Recently I went out for lunch with my freind Melissa and we stopped in at the Yale Bookstore for some browsing. She was looking for a birthday gift for a friend and this brought us to the Italian Literature section of the bookstore. Her friend has been studying Italian for the last few years and Melissa had previously purchased HP and the Sorcerers Stone in Italian for her. We didn't find any of the other Harry Potter's but we did find Sorcerers Stone with this curious cover.
My question is, what the hell is on Harry's head? A rat hat? And is that supposed to be Scabbers lying next to him looking drunk? I understand the dancing chess pieces, but these rats perplex me.
Any ideas?

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

By: J.K. Rowling
Ahh...Harry Potter. One of my favorite book series ever. What can I say I'm a sucker for an epic hero story. This was my second read of Half Blood Prince, with assistance by Jim Dale on audio book. If you have not heard the Harry Potters on audio read by Jim Dale-you are missing out. There's a reason he's won a Grammy Award. (Well, and a Tony too for that matter.)
In this book we discover more about Voldemort and Snape. It is still unclear who's side Snape is really on. My theory is he's out for himself, many references are made in all 6 books about how Slytherin's are always out for their own ends. Which means being a Death Eater will get you nowhere.
Part of me wants Book 7 NOW, and part of me wants to wait. I love the journey that I and so many others have taken with these books and I will be sad when all is said and done.

The Children of Men

By: P.D. James
In September I went to see The Black Dahlia, which was not nearly as exciting as it should of been. However there was an excellent preview for a movie called Children of Men. As I often do when I see a good movie preview I wondered if there was a book involved somewhere in the life of the story. As it turns out the movie originated from a novel of the same name by P.D. James. I immediately retrieved it from the West Haven library and devoured it in three days.
By the year 2021 everyone on the planet has become mysteriously infertile, there is no one under the age of 18 left alive on the planet. Society is crumbling, England is run by a dictator, and Theo (incidentaly the dictator's cousin) a washed up professor is coerced by a group of revolutionaries to join them on their crusade. Their crusade being the protection and hiding of a pregnant woman.
The story zips along despite a strange writing style. James flips from Theo's first person diary to third person action with no real rhyme or reason. But the story and characters are compelling enough to overlook my issues with story structure. It's an interesting thought, the idea of everone becoming infertile. What struck me the most was the way society had just become so beaten down. "No children. No future. No hope." is the move tag line and an apropriate description of the attitudes of the society.
I cannot wait to see the movie. It has to be better than Black Dahlia.

Ladies and Gentelmen...

For your reading enjoyment...My Book Blog. Here are the answers to the classic small-talk question "What are you reading?" Although I usually hear this question at work and people there are genuinely interested. Recently, during the last show at the Yale Rep an actor told me he had never seen a person read as fast as I do. And I do read fast. If left uninterrupted I average about 100 pages an hour. During the last show I finished 5 novels, 2 plays and I am halfway through another novel. Granted I didn't have much to do during the show so I had more reading time than normal.

I rarely read only one book at a time. I have the book I read before bed, the book I read at work, and occasionally the audiobook I listen to on my ipod in the car or even when I'm ironing at work, or cleaning the house. As a book nerd one of my favorite things to do is read the book when I can sit down, and then synch up the audiobook to listen to as I go about my day. I can then conceivably be involved in a book for all my waking hours!

Along with being an avid book reader I am also an avid blog reader. These little windows into people's lives are fascinating to me. It also allows me to keep up with friends when we are too busy to talk to one another. I have long wanted to start my own but stalled on the idea of writing about my life, which is not that exciting. So I thought why not share the books I've read in a blog.

So what am I reading? Stay tuned to find out. Check out my favorite book reading links to the right and let me know what you're reading in the comments section. Happy reading...