Tuesday, April 30, 2013

The Unofficial "Gilligan's Island" Handbook

1988, undated later edition, from Warner Books
Joey Green
The Unofficial Gilligan's Island Handbook: A Castaway's Companion to the Longest-Running Shipwreck in Television History
Bought new for $8.95
Very worn paperback
B

This is the first but far from the last of the TV books I have by Green, whose sense of humor, attention to detail (he calls it a "dangerously obsessive regression"), and ability to draw out the people who made the shows are all admirable.  The timing of the book is significant, since Cult TV called GI a "cult classic" in 1985, and the year after the publication of this book, Jim Backus died, followed soon after by Alan Hale, Jr., and Natalie Schafer.  And the book came out seven years after Green's favorite of the three TV-movies, the one with the Harlem Globetrotters, Martin Landau, Barbara Bain, Scatman Crothers, etc.  Green's ratings (one to four life-preservers) are generally on target, as when he picks the Hamlet and Mosquitoes episodes as among the best, although I suppose it could be argued that a "best of" Gilligan's Island is a dubious concept.

I grew up watching GI and seem to have had a crush on about half the cast, most especially the Professor, which may be to blame for my dating so many geeks as an adult.  And yet, I haven't felt like buying the show on DVD.  I have a few episodes on VHS, but much of the series isn't that much fun, as Green's ratings suggest.  The Brady Bunch was a different matter, but we're a couple years off from my first Brady book.  The best Sherwood Schwartz quote here is when Green points out, as he often has cause to, something on the show that doesn't make sense.  Schwartz: "Actually, that particular sailor [who brought Zsa Zsa to the Island] had a coronary and died, if you want to know the underlying truth."  Schwartz's own Inside Gilligan's Island is mentioned towards the end, as he was then seeking a publisher.  He found one, and we'll get that "official" version in 1994....

Monday, April 29, 2013

Who's in Charge Here? 1988

1988, Bantam edition, from later that year
Gerald Gardner
Who's in Charge Here? 1988
Possibly bought newish for $3.95
Worn paperback
C+

This is about as good as the one from '80, not quite as good as the one from '84.  For one thing, the Chappaquiddick jokes (two in this volume) are pretty stale.  Did Teddy even run for President in '88?  Of course there are a lot of other Democrats (and one or two jokes are about the great number), including sex-scandal-era Gary Hart; Al Gore offering his "Kennedy impression"; and perhaps not surprisingly more of Jesse Jackson than of Michael Dukakis, but even (Senator) Paul Simon is featured more than the front-runner.  Dick Gephardt is compared in appearance to both Ron Howard and Pat Sajak, although the latter joke is poorly phrased.  (Vanna turns the letters, not the wheel.)  The British royal family jokes are getting more bitter, as in Diana's "I keep the children."

I only spotted Dan Quayle once, such a missed opportunity, but this was originally published in July.  There are Ollie North jokes though, and other references to Iran-Contra.  Bob Dole appears more than before I think, his mean streak emphasized.  The Nancy Reagan episode of Diff'rent Strokes contributes a still, though that would've been more timely in '84.  Ronald Reagan and George Bush's conflicts with respectively Sam Donaldson and Dan Rather are referenced.  And as usual we see some shots of the ex-Presidents, mostly in groups.

The Brontës: Charlotte Brontë and Her Family

1988, 1990 Fawcett Columbine (Ballantine) edition
Rebecca Fraser
The Brontës: Charlotte Brontë and Her Family
Bought newish for $12.95
Worn paperback
B

As the title suggests, the focus here is mostly on Charlotte, but Fraser does a good job of showing us father Patrick, brother Branwell, and sisters Emily and Anne, as well as Charlotte's various friends and acquaintances.  (I thought sweet Ellen and feisty Mary were great.)  As I noted previously, Fraser quotes Elisabeth Barrett Browning about as much as Forster does, and she quotes heavily from the writing siblings she profiles, including their letters.  She points out the contradictions between the quiet lives and the wild fiction, and the reactions of their contemporaries to both aspects.  Fraser comes by her biographical skills partly through heredity.  She's the granddaughter of Lady Longford, who wrote the 1965 biography of Queen Victoria, and the daughter of Antonia Fraser, who wrote the 1969 Mary Queen of Scots bio and The Wives of Henry VIII, coming up in 1992.

As I read this book, I couldn't help thinking of what James Tully would do with the same material, especially Arthur Bell Nicholls's prickly personality, in The Crimes of Charlotte Brontë, which I'll discuss under 1999.

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Elizabeth Barrett Browning: The Life and Loves of a Poet

1988, undated later edition, from St. Martin's Press
Margaret Forster
Elizabeth Barrett Browning: The Life and Loves of a Poet
Original and purchase price $13.95
Worn paperback
B-

Forster says that one of the purposes of this book was to make Browning's poetry better known to modern readers.  This is ironic considering, one, she probably quotes only about as much of it as Rebecca Fraser does in the Brontë group biography coming up next; and two, EBB* comes across as unappealing in this and in Forster's novel about EBB's loyal maid Wilson, Lady's Maid (1990), which I've read but don't own.  In fact, the way EBB treated both Wilson and her previous maid, Crow, was shabby, even by Victorian standards.  And EBB purported to be a feminist and a "democrat."  Still, the "life and loves" do make for interesting reading-- everything from her relationships with family, friends, and of course Robert Browning, to her use of opium, to her spoiling of her son and dog.  And, yes, the poetry isn't bad, but I haven't read a whole poem of hers since my late teens.

*As Forster notes, there's no good term that covers the poet's whole life, and I'm not going to call her Elizabeth.

What Do You Care What Other People Think?

1988, first edition, from W. W. Norton
Richard P. Feynman as told to Ralph Leighton
What Do You Care What Other People Think?: Further Adventures of a Curious Character
Original price $17.95, purchase price $3.98
Hardcover in good condition
B

I consider this about equal to Surely You're Joking, although it's less anecdotal and more serious.  We here learn more about his first wife Arline, who was a curious character in her own right.  We also find out about the forthright Feynman up against NASA bureacracy during his work investigating the Challenger explosion.  His friend Leighton gathered and organized his stories in preparation for publication, as Feynman's health grew worse.  Feynman died of cancer in February of '88, and Leighton's introduction is from March.

I found "Appendix F," Feynman's controversial contribution to the Challenger report, a bit dull, although the rest of the book, even the more technical parts, held my interest.  I definitely recommend reading the earlier book before this one, since otherwise you may find some of his references, as well as the chronology, confusing.

Friday, April 26, 2013

Corruptions of Empire

1988, updated from 1987 edition, this edition from Verso
Alexander Cockburn
Corruptions of Empire: Life Studies & The Reagan Era
Bought newish for $16.95
Very worn paperback
B+

Like Noam Chomsky, Cockburn is interested in both language and justice.  But, while there's certainly a lot about politics in here, this book also offers his "life studies" (including stories of his Communist father, author of Beat the Devil) and whimsy that's a bit like Roy Blount, Jr.  This collection of writing covers roughly '76 to '88, from his emigration from the U.K. (he was born in Ireland) to the middle of the '88 presidential campaign.  In December 1984 he published a hilarious piece on "the new stand-up toothpaste dispenser" as "harbinger of Reagan's America, newly erect," managing to combine mainstream politics with sexual politics and of course marketing.  I'll narrow down three paragraphs to my favorite quote:  "I don't know how feminists feel about having to grab hold of a dildo every time they clean their teeth, but the plain fact is that the new road to gum pride in Reagan's America comes by way of the simulacrum of a male Caucasian sexual member, or-- if you want to be overdetermined about it-- of a nuclear missile."

One of Cockburn's influences is interestingly P. G. Wodehouse, who appears in a couple of the longer pieces, and whose style pops up in phrasing like (I don't remember the exact quote) "the dustbin of h."  While Chomsky is concerned with the Newspeak abuse of language, Cockburn seems to have a love-hate for bad writing, as when he brilliantly gives a cliched-tour of the world, e.g. "Hong Kong, a time bomb, but also a listening post."  A good chunk of the book is columns from the time of Iran-Contra, and even now his glee is delightful.  He says of one of Reagan's spring 1987 ramblings, "This is fun to read, particularly if you rearrange it in blank verse, but it suggests a high score on the Alzheimer graph."  Vicious, yes, especially since Reagan was later diagnosed as having Alzheimer's, but believe me I needed such viciousness when I first read this book during the post-Reagan years.  (And in fact, in the early 2000s I read the Reagan quote as "poetry" at a women's open-mic.)

We'll get to see Cockburn be vicious against Bush, Sr. and Clinton in The Golden Age Is in Us: Journeys and Encounters, 1987-1994, coming up in 1995....

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

The Culture of Terrorism

1988, apparently first edition (at least in paperback), from South End Press
Noam Chomsky
The Culture of Terrorism
Bought newish for $14.00
Slightly worn paperback
B

This obviously isn't a book I read often, as the condition and subject matter indicate, so I was pleasantly surprised by how good it still is.  His premise is that the U.S. under Reagan (and to a lesser degree Carter) was a terrorist state, in that the government funded terror squads (particularly in El Salvador and Nicarauga) that injured and killed local residents.  He also looks at how the U.S. press (for the most part) supported this by accepting the government's terms (both terminology and standards).  I was most interested in the discussion of Orwellian language, "Newspeak," as in the definition of "democracy."  His combination of cynicism and compassion is as welcome now (a dozen years after the aftermath of 9/11) as it was to me as an idealistic, left-leaning young woman trying to find alternative views in the literal and figurative desert of inland Southern California.  I wouldn't have owned this book in '88 but I was then listening to KPFK and I definitely bought the book within five years of its publication.

There are some slightly dull patches but he doesn't get bogged down like Rogin.  The next book coming up is by Alexander Cockburn, and it's not surprising that they quote each other.  I prefer Cockburn's book, for reasons I'll discuss in that place, but that's no slight on Chomsky.  Until the bookcase gets redistributed (I'm still not sure if I'll be moving 1991 over), this book for now is a fine ending to its shelf.

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Gracie: A Love Story

1988, undated later edition, from G. P. Putnam's Sons
George Burns
Gracie: A Love Story
Original price $16.95, purchase price unknown
Worn hardcover
B-

As the title suggests, Burns talks about his much-missed late wife.  Having watched some episodes again in the last few years, I think their 1950s TV show holds up remarkably well (much better than their friend Jack Benny's show).  Unfortunately, some of Burns's jokes in this book fall flat, bringing it down from a potential B.  I did enjoy reading about his life with Gracie, on and offstage.  He was 92 at the time this book came out and would make it to the 100 years he'd joked about since the '70s.  He survived Gracie by 32 years, but it's clear from this book that she was always on his mind, even when he achieved late-life solo success (as God among other characters).  Although some might see the "Gracie Allen character" (as distinct from the real woman) as a dumb blonde (she actually had black hair but dyed it for the movies), I think her twisted logic was brilliantly surreal.  And although I wouldn't call Burns a feminist per se, there's no doubt that he didn't mind being his wife's sidekick. 

The book could be stronger-- funnier, more detailed, less bitter against Jack Benny's wife, etc.-- but it's definitely worth reading, especially if you're a Gracie fan.

The Cat Who Sniffed Glue

1988, 1989 Jove Books edition
Lilian Jackson Braun
The Cat Who Sniffed Glue
Probably bought newish for $4.99
Very worn paperback
B

I can't remember when this is supposed to be set, but Qwill is "about fifty" and the weather is nice enough to walk around in.  It must be fairly soon after Knew Shakespeare, since Arch Riker starts publishing The Moose County Something.  (They hold a contest for a new name, and the placeholder wins.)  Arch is still charmed by grumpy Amanda Goodwinter, and they become engaged.  Meanwhile, Qwill is seeing Polly Duncan (they were snowbound at her place in the last book), and even bought her a car for Christmas.  (So this must be at least January '86.)  She has a jealous streak, and there are a lot of women for her to be jealous of in this entry, including Cokey Wright from Danish Modern.  The cats are also jealous, Koko especially (he still resents Ms. Wright's nickname), which seems to contradict Lori Bamba's theory that cats go for humans of the opposite sex.  (Is Koko gay?  Or misogynist?  What is Braun saying?)

The mystery involves the Fitch twins (who appeared briefly in earlier books) and, yes, glue, although the drug angle is a red herring.  The novel has acts and scenes, including an intermission, but is otherwise not in play format.  The Fitches are going to be in a play with Qwill, and the director is decorator Fran Brodie, another of Polly's rivals, as well as daughter of the sounding-board chief of police.

Although Braun is still at the top of her form (again, the mystery might be obvious in retrospect but is handled well enough), I can see the first signs of rot, due to Qwill being "one of the most eligible bachelors in town."  When Qwill visited the library in the previous book, "four friendly young clerks rushed to [his] assistance.  Young women were always attracted to the man with a luxuriant moustache and mournful eyes....Furthermore, he was the richest man in town."  Too much time is spent on Qwill's attractiveness, due to his wealth or not, and although Braun is keeping it just in bounds for the moment, it will eventually bring him to Gary Stu status.  He'll be beloved by every one in town (except for the murderers), and it'll be grating.  But for now, it's OK.

Monday, April 22, 2013

The Cat Who Knew Shakespeare

1988, Jove Books edition from later that year
Lilian Jackson Braun
The Cat Who Knew Shakespeare
Probably bought newish for $4.99
Paperback in pretty bad shape
B

In this book Qwill has been living in Moose County for about 18 months (more like 16 or 17), and we actually get calendar dates, like Monday, Nov. 11th.  That date fell on a Monday in 1985, for the first time since '74 and, with the R.R. reference in Post Office, this seems a reasonable year.  (The references to videotape in this book and the next show it's unlikely to be 1974 or earlier.)  True, he's "age fifty or so," and Qwill was "over forty-five" in Danish Modern, but maybe he was 47 or 48 then.

Speaking of Danish, Harry Noyton returns, only to die in a car accident with Gertrude "Gritty" Goodwinter, wife of newspaper-printer Senior (who's bumped off), mother of newspaper-publisher Junior.  (Speaking of Goodwinters, Dr. Melinda has left town, but Qwill gets a new love interest, Polly Duncan, of whom more later.)  This is not the only Cat Who to reference Shakespeare, but this time it's mostly Hamlet that Koko's dropping clues about.  The mystery seemed pretty obvious this time, especially after rereading Shakespeare a year and a half ago, but I'll cut Braun some slack since I was still entertained.

A slimmed-down Hixie also reappears, and while she's still unlucky in love, she's unsinkable and will become a fixture, including on the revamped newspaper....

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Firefly Summer

1988, 1989 Dell edition
Maeve Binchy
Firefly Summer
Original price $6.99, purchase price 99 cents
Very worn paperback
B

This is Binchy's best and longest so far, although the title is more misleading than Echoes.  It actually covers four years, with only the last summer (1966) as the one with any fireflies, and that's because Dara Ryan finally sees them (in France) after hearing about them from American Kerry O'Neill.  Kerry's father Patrick is a wealthy American whose impoverished father left Mountfern forty years ago, shortly before the local estate was burned down.  This was 1922 and the Irish were achieving their independence from the English (and the Anglo-Irish, like the Fern family).  Patrick wants to rebuild the estate as a hotel, while also finding his roots in the area, although no one remembers his family.

This story is mostly about the intertwined lives of the Ryan and O'Neill families.  Patrick's proposed hotel threatens the livelihood of the Ryans' pub.  Kate Ryan, Dara's energetic and forthright mother, doesn't notice signs on the construction site and is hit by a bulldozer, breaking her spine.  Less tragic but still dramatic, Patrick's vain but charming children (not just criminal Kerry but "good girl" Grace) break the hearts of Dara and her twin Michael.

Since this is Binchy, we do get a whole cast of villagers and outsiders, most notably Fergus the lawyer with the unobtrusive crush on Kate; and puppyish Maggie, whose death made me cry.  The characters are much realer in this book than usual for Binchy, although still a bit off, noticeably the Americans.  (Kerry never seems American or in his late teens.  And why do the O'Neills use a phrase like "mark your card," as in "tip you off"?)  I noticed that some reviewers on Amazon and elsewhere are bothered by the ending, but honestly, compared to Light a Penny Candle, it feels plausible and unrushed, even if there is a sense that it could've gone on to the next summer.  (Kate, her husband, and her doctor may not be worried about her pregnancy, but I am.)  Still, I think it's to Binchy's credit that we want to keep going a bit further.

As for the title, Dara learns that fireflies are too exotic for the Irish climate, suggesting that not only the O'Neills but Patrick's glamorous girlfriend, a divorced Jew, can't thrive there.  I don't think Binchy is entirely xenophobic-- the novel is more complex than that-- but there is a thread of cosy/nosy/local vs. exotic/threatening/foreign running throughout.

This edition has a "preview" of Silver Wedding, which I don't own, so the next Binchy will be the Very Famous Circle of Friends in 1990....

Saturday, April 20, 2013

More Dykes to Watch Out For

1988, possible first edition, although bought "new" about a decade later, published by Firebrand Books
Alison Bechdel
More Dykes to Watch Out For
Original/purchase price $9.95
Slightly worn paperback
B

When Lewis's downbeat Sunday's Women: Lesbian Life Today came out about a decade earlier, I think a comic like this was not yet imaginable.  Not only Bechdel's main characters, but seemingly all the supporting and one-time characters are lesbians.  Her universe would become more diverse, and perverse, as time went on, but it would remain dyke-centric.  Even the use of the word "dyke" is telling, the term not only reclaimed but normalized.  As the title suggests, this is the second collection, although if I remember correctly from reading (but never owning) the 1986 collection, the Dykes were then more generic, rather than the regular cast that Bechdel introduces thirty pages in and would stay with for two decades.  (The strip went on hiatus in '08.)

Reading this collection this time (and as the condition suggests, I don't read DTWOF all that often), I was pleasantly surprised by how good the artwork is.  In fact, the writing has probably evolved more than the art, although some characters have changed their looks over the years (notably Lois).  There's a certain self-consciousness about Bechdel's writing, not the lesbian aspects so much as the narrative aspects, like she wasn't sure how readers would take to what she later described as "half op-ed column and half endless, serialized Victorian novel."  It's hard to imagine the older, more confident Bechdel as apologizing for Mo's whining, or the cliffhangers.  But she was only 26 when she did the earliest comics here, maybe 27 when she introduced "Mo & Lo."  And it's interesting to see how her same-age protagonists deal with the mid- to late-'80s, including Iran-Contra.  Although this isn't the first of my books to mention AIDS (that would be Call Me Anna, since that was one of the social/political issues that Patty Duke was an activist about), it's definitely the first of my books to show the disease's impact on dating, ironic since (as some of the characters point out), lesbians were (and are) relatively low-risk.  Even celibate Mo worries about it, although carefree Lois doesn't much.

The other two main characters are Latina Toni and black Clarice (Mo's ex).  They've been a couple for awhile (and will remain together, through ups and downs), and this adds relationship diversity as well as ethnic diversity.  Mo loses her celibacy to sensible, overweight Harriet, and there's no doubt that Bechdel offers body-image diversity as well.  Mo and Lois work in a bookstore owned by Jezanna, who's overweight and black.  There's also a minor character, Naomi, who's Jewish and overweight.  My favorite character, Sparrow (Asian bisexual) doesn't show up till later. 

I found myself more inclined to keep reading when I finished this collection than I ever did with Pogo or Doonesbury, although they're each in different ways "half op-ed column and half endless, serialized Victorian novel."  (Maybe it's that I relate somewhat more to dykes than to swamp animals or perpetual college students.)  But I am trying to stay chronological here.  So we'll wait till 1990 for New, Improved! Dykes to Watch Out For....

Friday, April 19, 2013

John Lennon: My Brother

1988, 1989 Jove Books edition
Julia Baird and Geoffrey Giuliano
John Lennon: My Brother
Bought new for $3.95
Worn paperback
B-

John Lennon's half-sister (named after their mother) recalls "memories of growing up together," although there was a seven year age difference and he mostly grew up at Aunt Mimi's.  I enjoyed seeing the way he came across to his two adoring little sisters (Jacqui was born in '49), as well as the memories of their mum.  But I felt like there ironically wasn't enough of John or young Julia.  They fell out of touch a few times (partly due to Yoko, who comes across as just as jealous and possessive as she was in the Pete Shotton book), but Julia doesn't say all that much about what she was up to in the meantime, other than getting a job as a teacher, marrying, and having kids.  I did like the part where Julia visits Paul in London in the late '80s, to get his recollections, but it's not as if there's a shortage of books with Paul quotes.  It's appears that Julia's shyness and lack of assertiveness couldn't even be overcome in the book she was writing, a problem Cynthia Lennon didn't have.

Baird and co-author Giuliano had a falling out over her 2007 book Imagine This, which I haven't read and which he claimed was based on this book.  I'm not sure what he contributed to this book, other than "A Lennon Chronology," which has information that, again, could easily be found elsewhere.  He's written several controversial books about the Beatles as solo artists-- I think I read part of a McCartney one once-- and I'd just as soon she'd written this on her own.  Or if she had to have a co-author, why not older cousin Leila, who seems to have no problems in voicing her opinions?

At the time this book came out, Julia had not yet met Yoko, Sean, or her own half-sister "Victoria," although she found out about the girl's existence in the mid-'80s.  The elder Julia had an affair with a soldier during the war, and gave the resulting baby away.  At the time this book was published, little was known of the girl, except that she was thought to have been adopted by a Norwegian couple.  "Victoria" grew up as "Ingrid Marie Pedersen," and Julia and Jacqui didn't meet her till 2005.  So in a way I'd like to read Imagine This, even if it is just an updated version of this book.

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Cat's Eye

1988, 1989 Bantam edition
Margaret Atwood
Cat's Eye
Original price $5.95, purchase price 49 cents
Very worn paperback with splitting spine
B

There's an incident in Lady Oracle where Joan's "friends" put her in danger by a ravine.  It's played for dark humor, even though the girls aren't really her friends.  Or maybe because they aren't her friends, it's less painful.  Here the incident at the ravine is just one of many painful scenes young Elaine Risley's frenemies put her through.  The book is a difficult read for that reason, but it also adds realism, not unlike the believable pain of Her Mother's Daughter.  I think that is a much better novel, much more fully developed (not just because it's longer, since this is no slender book), particularly in the sections on the heroine's adulthood. (Atwood rushes through Elaine's life after the first year or so of college,)  I will say that I loved the Risley family, sane eccentrics in the sense that they've all got their unusual interests and (except for Elaine) don't care about conformity, which oddly makes them more normal (balanced) than the dysfunctional families of Elaine's "friends."  I also enjoyed reading about Elaine's paintings, in much the same way I enjoyed Anastasia's photography in the Marilyn French novel.

Atwood surprised me (yes, even on this rereading) by having Elaine not just finally stand up for herself, but also find compassion for her tormentors.  As a child, I was hassled and criticized by people who seldom pretended they were doing it for my own good, so I was able to distance myself somewhat.  Carol, Grace, and ringleader Cordelia actually seem to think they're trying to improve Elaine, although I wouldn't say they're without malice.  Atwood writes, "Little girls are cute and small only to adults. To one another, they are not cute. They are life sized."  That reminded me of Margaret Kirkham:  "...Everyone who has much to do with them knows that girls are not really much like angels anyway."

I'm not saying girls are worse than boys.  (The verbally cruelest kids at my elementary school were boys.)  But sometimes it's easier to forgive boys and men.  As Elaine suggests, we sometimes hold them to a different (often lower) standard.  She forgives her ex-husband and sees the two of them as something like war survivors, even if they were on opposite sides.  The problem with Cordelia is that Elaine isn't sure who's on which side, and who won, if anyone did.

Female friendship will get even more complicated in the next Atwood novel, The Robber Bride (1993)....

Sunday, April 14, 2013

The Skeptical Feminist

1987, 1988 Harper & Row edition
Barbara G. Walker
The Skeptical Feminist: Discovering the Virgin, Mother & Crone
Bought newish for $9.95
Worn paperback
C+

I never took to this book like I did to Walker's Encyclopedia, and rereading it I can see why.  The first third, "The Virgin: Intimations," is easily the best, as Walker tells of her childhood and youth, although she's awfully vague about the details (years, names, towns, etc.).  After that, she drops any pretense of autobiography and for the "matron" and "crone" sections offers her opinions on men, women, and religion.  She again seems to see men as very inferior to women; it's not just a matter of preferring "men's religion" to women's.  I also didn't like the couple chapters with her "sounding board" friend who in their dialogue always gets the worst of the argument.

She does have a point that any "new" religion should avoid the errors of the past, like silly superstitions, but I'm afraid she herself slips into some errors that I've seen others (mostly but not only Christians) make in their proselytizing.

This is my last and twenty-fifth book for 1987, breaking 1978's record of 21 books.  This record will probably but not necessarily stand.

Friday, April 12, 2013

Empire: A Novel

1987, 1988 Ballantine edition
Gore Vidal
Empire: A Novel
Bought newish for $4.95
Very worn paperback
B-

This, what would turn out to be the middle novel in the Narratives of Empire series, is about as good as Vidal's other 1980s contribution, Lincoln.  We're back with the Sanfords, half-siblings Blaise and Caroline, who are the grandchildren of Charlie Schuyler.  John Hay is the other main character, Lincoln's youthful secretary now a frail but imperialistic Secretary of State for Presidents McKinley and T. Roosevelt.  There are some inconsistencies of age-- not just in comparison to Washington, D.C.-- but within the novel itself, which spans 1898 to 1907.  James Burden Day, the father-in-law of Blaise's son Peter about forty years later, is here the lover of both Caroline and briefly (at Caroline's urging) Blaise, although there's no sense of this in WDC, but then Vidal may not have imagined that twist the 20 years before he wrote this entry.  More than in the other novels of the series so far (although definitely less than in Julian and some of Vidal's other works), homo- and bisexuality are at least considered. 

However, as with Lincoln, even the sexual subplots didn't draw me in, beyond what they mean for the overall genealogy of the series.  (Caroline has daughter Emma by Jim Day, who stupidly thinks it's her husband's.  And sophisticated if somewhat inexperienced Caroline seems a bit stupid to not do anything about her pregnancy until the fifth month.)  Most of the characters seem very dry, not just arch, but disembodied, despite physical descriptions.  When Caroline towards the end reads her grandfather's journals (in essence, Burr and 1876), it only reminded me of how much better those novels were.  Perhaps Vidal would've been better off sticking to one perspective, and a first person at that.  He seems too removed, and so do the characters-- many events are mentioned weeks or months after the fact-- so that even when they feel emotion, it came across as flat.  (At one point, Caroline weeps and doesn't realize it till her soon-to-be-ex-husband hands her a handkerchief.)  Still, there are moments I really liked, mostly to do with Teddy and/or his daughter Alice.

John Hay-- who came across a lot worse in Rogin's book on demonology-- died in 1905, so he of course won't be back in the later novels, but we'll return to Blaise, Caroline, Jim, and luckily Teddy in Hollywood (1990).

Thursday, April 11, 2013

It Was Twenty Years Ago Today

1987, undated later edition, from Simon & Schuster
Derek Taylor
It Was Twenty Years Ago Today
Original price $9.95, purchase price $2.00
Worn paperback
B

Long-time Beatles associate Taylor, who died of cancer a decade after this book was published, looks back at not just Sgt. Pepper and the Summer of Love, but the whole kaleidoscopic year of 1967.  This book was sort of a spin-off of a twentieth-anniversary television documentary he worked on, so there are lots of quotes from Paul, George, and others who were there (most but not all of them recognisable names).  The book is very rambling, going back and forth across time, but the charm, humour, and optimism of both Taylor and those times come through.  The photos, some in color, add much to the book, and I like that they're not all the usual pictures.  (The shot of Janis Joplin and Grace Slick singing together is great, and balances out a bit the mostly male focus.)

Reading the book right after Great Cosmic Mother, I can definitely see "pagan" strands in the 1960s, from bright colors to catchy music to free love to pacifism.  I also found this book made the '60s and the participants (even Norman Mailer!) more appealing than my other "looking back" books, especially Generation in Motion (1979).  Not that Taylor ignores what was bad about the decade, but he has a point that '67 was the high (yes, in every sense).  One thing that surprised me was how inclusive Taylor was, not sneering at the Monkees, and even giving Bob "Gilligan" Denver a moment to shine.  (Denver and other celebrities supported the "kids" in '66's Sunset Strip riots.) 

Taylor has some deservedly harsh things to say about the 1980s, from cocaine (as in the SNL book, a drug that brought out much worse qualities in people than marijuana) to money-grubbing.  So the book is a product of its time as much as it is a nostalgia trip.

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

The Great Cosmic Mother

1987, 1991 HarperCollins edition
Monica Sjöö and Barbara Mor
The Great Cosmic Mother: Rediscovering the Religion of the Earth
Bought new for $17.95
Worn paperback
B

This was always my favorite "Goddess book."  The authors are intelligent and funny, tough and kind.  This is one of the books where some of the best stuff is in the Notes (like Adamson's Marx Bros book).  One of the points of the book is that sexuality, spirituality, and politics need to support each other.  So they criticize not only "radical feminists" who don't believe in ancient Goddess cultures, and Marxists who think all spirituality is oppressive, but also apolitical Wiccans.  (Sjöö would go on to write New Age & Armageddon, which we'll look at in 1992.)  This book went through several revisions, from when it began in the mid-1970s as a pamphlet.  This edition has new introductions-- including Mor's experience as a bag lady when she went off welfare but had not yet been paid by the publisher-- and some lovely color versions of Sjöö's paintings.  I think it's more of a book of the 1980s than the '90s or the '70s, remarks about the Reagan administration and all, although the couple references to polyester were already dated by '87.

The book does have flaws, if fewer than those of Walker's Encyclopedia or Davis's First Sex, and some of the other books that it builds on.  Sometimes they'll admit "we just don't know," but that doesn't stop them from speculating and jumping to conclusions.  Is it true, for instance, that myth is based on truth?  What about myths that serve propaganda purposes?  (As in the demonology Rogin examines.)  And while I can understand why they feel that the destruction of a sacred tree deserves the punishment of your intestines wrapped around the tree, at least as preferable to unpunished enviromental ravages, it's a bit like when they (and Walker) argue that occasional human sacrifice is preferable to large-scale war.  Yes, but not good enough.

It is interesting that they see some of the excesses of paganism-- like castration of priests-- as the products of the transitional time, when both sides (matriarchy and patriarchy) were going to extremes.  And I do appreciate that they're much more sympathetic to men than Davis and Walker were.  They see men as also having a stake in Goddess-cultures, past, present, and future.  This was one of the first books I read that gave me hope that men (other than my then-husband) could rebel against the sometimes virulent machismo of this culture.

Reading the book this time, my favorite chapter was "The Machine," as they talk about different aspects of modern culture.  Not that the early chapters weren't good, but I'm less interested in what hypothetically happened millennia ago than it what this all means today.  You'd think that that aspect would be more dated, but (polyester aside) things haven't changed all that much in the last quarter-century or so.  (The fact that they reference Transformers is of course amusing.)  For one thing, we're more addicted to technology than we were then.  And, yes, I'm as guilty as anyone.  One of the things about this book I've always appreciated is they don't let anyone off the hook, but they also understand how hard it is.  Even though I'm less into politics and spirituality (though not sex) than I was in my 20s (and much of that has to do with middle-age, post-9/11 burnout), I think they're much more on the right track, or spiral, than most of their peers.

Monday, April 8, 2013

"Ronald Reagan, the Movie" and Other Episodes in Political Demonology

1987, undated later edition, from University of California Press
Michael Rogin
"Ronald Reagan, the Movie" and Other Episodes in Political Demonology
Original price unknown, purchase price $17.50
Good condition hardcover with worn dustjacket
C+

While the title essay and some of the other material is interesting and occasionally thought-provoking, the book is dull at times, especially in Chapter 4, "Partisanship and the Group Interest."  By "demonology" Rogin means the making of other groups into evil symbols, not just "The Evil Empire," but Indians, blacks, Jews, Catholics, women, etc.  He sees this as an important part of mainstream politics (not just of the Right).  He looks at movies of the Cold War (Reagan's and others), as well as in detail at The Birth of a Nation.  He also examines the U.S. government's treatment and language towards Native Americans ("great white father and red children").  And he discusses the king's (or president's) two bodies, the way that the ruler's health is symbolic of the nation's (and vice versa).  I wish the book was as good as its illustrations, including the haunting cover, of a giant Ronnie on a screen waving at worshipful Nancy at the '84 National Convention.

Friday, April 5, 2013

Hatchet

1987, 1996 Aladdin edition
Gary Paulsen
Hatchet
Bought new for $4.50
Slightly worn paperback
B

There's an odd very 1980s-backlash subtext to this book-- "Adulterous wives are getting divorces and leaving children to fend for themselves"-- but 13-year-old Brian's knowledge of "The Secret," after he witnesses his mother kissing a strange man and his dilemma of whether to tell his father are just the background to the story.  Narratively, his parents have to get divorced so that he can be traveling to visit his father in Canada and get in a plane crash and have to survive on his own in the woods, with nothing but the title object and his wits.  It's like the set-up for Island of the Blue Dolphins, although Brian doesn't bond with animals at all to the extent that Karana does.  (He's also stranded for weeks rather than years.)  With both books, the coping, the inventions, and the awe about nature are what matter.  When Brian is, towards the end, able to retrieve the survival pack, he feels like the sleeping bag, cooking pots, and so on are amazing luxuries.  He's been finding food, shelter, and fire on his own for so long.  He's rescued soon after, so we don't know how he'd deal with, for instance, his mixed feelings, about the gun he now has.

Well, I guess people who've read Brian's Winter (1996) know.  It's an alternate novel, showing what would've happened if Brian hadn't been found at that point.  I've never read it, or the three other Brian's Saga books.  The two or three times I've read this book, I've enjoyed it-- much more than I do most preteen boys' fiction-- but somehow it's not a book that stays with me.  That said, I've never read O'Dell's Zia (1976), about Karana's niece, either.

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Man of the House

1987, 1988 St. Martin's Press edition
Tip O'Neill
Man of the House
Possibly bought newish, for $4.95
Very worn paperback
C+

I wanted to like this book more than I did, but it has some of the flaws of the Donaldson book, without many compensations.  Although O'Neill was 74 at the time this book came out (he died in 1994), he says very little about his first forty years, and almost half of the book is set during his decade as Speaker of the House.  Like Donaldson, he doesn't say very much about his family, which in his case may be partly due to his living away from them most of his time as a Representative.  I learned much more about his Washington roommate Rep. Boland than I did about wife Millie.

I also felt like too much of the book was spent on describing deal-making.  Granted, this is a big part of politics (especially Massachusetts politics), but it's only here and there that I got a sense of O'Neill having higher values than horse-trading.  Even his opposition to the Vietnam War was more pragmatic than idealistic.  I suppose that explains his success, but it doesn't make for inspiring reading. 

Yes, he offers some insights into the many presidents and other figures he knew, but I found his belief in JFK's liberalism laughable and surprisingly naive.  I don't believe that Kennedy was going to pull back from Vietnam, or that he was deeply concerned with civil rights.  On the other hand, I did like O'Neill standing up to Reagan, even when Tip started to receive insults and death threats as a result.

A marginal recommendation, if you're interested in politics and/or the 1970s and '80s, but even more than with the Donaldson autobiography, don't expect the whole man.

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Archie & Edith, Mike & Gloria

1987, possibly first edition, from Workman Publishing
Donna McCrohan
Archie & Edith, Mike & Gloria: The Tumultuous History of All in the Family
Original price $7.95, purchase price $6.99
Worn paperback
B-

This is the first but far from the last of the books I own to take this particular approach to a television show: chapters on the making of and its cultural impact, miscellany, and then an episode guide towards the end.  All in the Family was one of those shows that I grew up with as a child of the 1970s, but already by '87 it was very dated.  (In fact, the 1977 episode "Mike and Gloria Meet" gets much of its humor by showing how different the early '70s looked.)  Norman Lear's magic touch had worn off-- Paul Rodriguez, star of A.K.A. Pablo jokes here, "I like to think of myself as the man who ruined Lear"-- and the nature of sitcoms had changed significantly.  Still, you could very well argue that AitF was the big game-changer, that if you had to pick one show (or at least comedy show) that there is a before and after of, it's the one.

Back when I had Netflix (a gift from a friend), I found their search engine woefully primitive, so I gave up on trying to get movies from them and instead got early seasons of M*A*S*H and AitF.  The former, with the exception of the classic "Captain Tuttle" episode, was not nearly as brilliant as I remembered.  But I found myself laughing at Archie, Edith, Mike, and Gloria.  Yes, the way they handled feminism in the early days was wincey, but the writing was overall good.  And thirty years on, I still loved Watergate humor.

McCrohan does a pretty good job of capturing what was special about the show.  There are times when her writing could be tighter (less redundant, sharper), but I liked her even-handedness.  There were disputes about the show not just among the public and the media, but by those who worked on it.  She presents the different sides, but doesn't take one herself.

When I watched the show as a kid, I thought of Archie as elderly.  It was a shock to find out as an adult that his character was born in 1924 (a year before my father, the same year as Jimmy Carter), so he was 46 when it started (a year older than I am now).  As a '70s kid, I thought all the bigots were old and would soon die off.  Carroll O'Connor (a liberal in real life) lived until 2001.  Jean Stapleton is still alive at age 90 although retired.  Rob Reiner and Sally Struthers quickly aged almost beyond recognition, and became at least equally well-known for respectively directing and "Do you want to make more money? Of course. We all do!"  And little Danielle "Stephanie" Brisebois?  She co-wrote the earwormy "Pocketful of Sunshine."

Anastasia's Chosen Career

1987, 1988 Yearling edition
Lois Lowry
Anastasia's Chosen Career
Original price $2.95, purchase price 99 cents
Very worn paperback
B-

I forgot that I own this, which is odd since I enjoyed it more than 1984's Anastasia, Ask Your Analyst.  It felt like there were fewer loose ends.  The main action takes place in one week-- I think it's Spring Break-- where Anastasia takes a modeling course and meets a bookstore owner.  She makes friends with the other students, particularly with Henry (short for Henrietta), a Sassy Black Girl®.  I found both girls' use of the insult "turkey" wincingly dated for the late '80s.  (Even in the late '70s, it was an overly ubiquitous term on kids' TV programs.)  Still, I liked their friendship, and the scenes with the bookstore and modeling school, as well as Anastasia's family, were nicely done.  This is Book #7 of the series (following 1985's Anastasia on her Own and 1986's Anastasia Has the Answers), and yes, she's still a 13-year-old 7th-grader.  Her parents watch Hill Street Blues, which would leave the air that Spring, but maybe it's not actually set in '87.  Cosby Show is another show that's mentioned, so it must be at least '84.  There's less "mature content" than in Analyst, although there is a boy who likes to talk about chest hair and other embarrassing matters.

As far as I know, I don't have any other Anastasia Krupnik books, but I obviously wouldn't swear to it.  I do know I've got Number the Stars coming up in 1989.  And with this entry, the 1980s have passed the 1970s to be the most prolific decade I've reread.

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Reagan's Reign of Error: The Instant Nostalgia Edition

1987, expanded and updated version of 1983's There He Goes Again, from Pantheon Books
Mark Green and Gail MacColl
Reagan's Reign of Error: The Instant Nostalgia Edition
Original price $6.95, purchase price $3.95
Slightly worn paperback
B-

Unlike Ducovny's Nixon book, Green and MacColl (and their contributors) don't just show how Reagan contradicted himself.  They also provide the facts that contradict Reagan's-- I'll try to be polite-- imaginative statements.  And unlike Pat Brown's 1976 book on Reagan, this book didn't anger me.  Oddly enough, I found myself feeling sorry for Reagan.  At some points, I was convinced he was mentally ill or incredibly naive.  Yes, I think Nixon was a bit crazy, but he was also wily, which you can't say about poor old Ronnie.  Unless he really was an amazing actor!  That would anger me. 

I'm not sure what the "instant nostalgia" of the subtitle refers to, unless they mean nostalgic for the time before Reagan, or at least the time before Iran-Contra made more people see through him.  (Donaldson's book was the first of the books I've read to mention the scandal, although obviously that wasn't the main focus.)  Certainly, Reagan was nostalgic, while also plagued by a notoriously bad memory.  (They quote New York Magazine's classic question, "What did Reagan forget, and when did he forget it?")  Maybe he was nostalgic for the past he imagined.  This book got me thinking more about Reagan's viewpoint than anything else I've read so far, maybe because so much of it is quotations from him.  On the other hand, I don't think I could stomach a book written by him.

Monday, April 1, 2013

Her Mother's Daughter

1987, 1988 Ballantine edition
Marilyn French
Her Mother's Daughter
Original price $5.95, purchase price unknown
Very, very worn paperback
B+

This is a definite improvement over The Women's Room and The Bleeding Heart, although like them it tells many life stories.  Here though, the focus is on four generations of one family, not just the mothers and their firstborn daughters, but mostly.  The main perspective is that of Anastasia: daughter of Belle, granddaughter of immigrant Frances, mother of Arden (and Billy and Franny).  Anastasia struggles with how Frances's and Belle's unhappiness has impacted her life, among others.  Like Mira in French's first novel, Anastasia is unhappy as a 1950s housewife, but she finds adventure as a globe-trotting photographer.  Arden ironically lives a life not unlike Frances's and Belle's earlier in the twentieth century, when she lives on a hippie commune.  (She has to take care of three small children without modern appliances or hot water.)

I nearly loved this book when I was younger (which is true of a lot of the B+s), and it has extra meaning to me in middle age, even though my mother died when I was three, and I'll never have children.  It's a much "realer" book than so much of the fiction I've been reading lately.  Like Anastasia's photos, it's constantly zooming in and out, from groceries to war and back again.  I believed in these characters, ached for them, gloried for their occasional triumphs.  I also believe that it's the first time that French sees how men are victimized by society, perhaps less than women, but their pain is real, too. 

I don't agree with French (or is it Anastasia?) that women's problems are mostly due to men, because what about the problems that Belle creates?  Also, while I can relate a lot more to Anastasia's "screwing around years" than I could when I was younger (not that I was ever promiscuous to her extent, but certainly more than I was when I first read this book as a monogamous wife in my early 20s), I don't like how she cheats on Toni, who at that point is the first good man she's been involved with.  Yes, she's pressured into the marriage-- and into bearing Franny-- but it's not as if they've had an open marriage.  (It's sort of "don't ask, don't tell.")  The other issue I have with the book is that the character of Clara-- a lesbian friend who falls for Anastasia when they're both in their 40s-- although mentioned often in passing, isn't really developed.  (I thought until fairly late in the book that she was Anastasia's psychologist, and this is a reread!)

Still, it's a very rich, gripping novel, one of the few of its length (over 750 pages) that I didn't feel fidgety during.