The Accidental Tourist

1985, 1986 Berkley [sic] edition
Anne Tyler
The Accidental Tourist
Possibly bought newish for $4.50
Very worn paperback
B

In my review of Earthly Possessions, I quoted the line, "We have been traveling for years, traveled all our lives, we are traveling still."  And I compared it to the message of Celestial Navigation, in which being unable to travel even off your own block means that you miss out on life.  Here the message is more ambiguous than in either earlier novel.  The main character, Macon, comes to think of himself as always married to his estranged wife Sarah, even as they split up for good.  So in a sense they're still traveling "together," even when they're separate.  Meanwhile, he decides to return to the quirky, irritating but brave and lovable Muriel.  The title refers to Macon's series of travel guides for people who hate travel or anything unfamiliar, including Macon, although he changes under Muriel's influence.  There also people, and pets, moving back and forth from one household to another, so that they're tourists even in different neighborhoods of Baltimore. 

There are other echoes, sometimes distorted, of earlier novels, like the eccentric family living in the big old house, and the brothers who interfere with romances.  Macon's family is very particular in their ways (and though I'm less of a grammar Nazi, I do agree with them on "disinterested"), but very likable, so it's believable that swinging single publisher Julian (who's a bit like the agent in Celestial Navigation) would want to marry Macon's sister Rose and even move in with her and the two oldest brothers.  I did have some issues with Muriel following Macon to Paris, but she comes across as less of a stalker than Morgan in Morgan's Passing.  Neither of Macon's romances are perfect, but I can see why he's drawn to these two very different women, and vice versa.  At the time I first read the book, I didn't know how it would end.  (I hadn't seen the movie yet, and it may not have even been released at that point.)  I like that Macon recognizes how passive he's been, and that from now on, although his journey will be more spontaneous, he will also take a more active role in getting to his destination.

Breathing Lessons coming up in 1988....

Paradise Postponed

1985, 1986 Penguin edition
John Mortimer
Paradise Postponed
Possibly bought newish, for $4.50
Very worn paperback
B-

I think I saw the Masterpiece Theatre adaptation first, in '86 or '87.  I loved it at the time but haven't seen it since.  I do know I used to really enjoy this book, and when I first started it this go, I was inclined to give it a B.  But after awhile, I felt like much of the characterisation was thin.  (For instance, it seemed like I knew Agnes better in the miniseries.)  Also, now that I know Rev. Simcox's secret-- the book is a mystery, but not like Mortimer's more famous Rumpole stories-- the hints dropped along the way feel flatter than they once did.  And I felt dislocated in the chronology, not so much in the going between past and present (the latter Thatcherite England), but in the jumps of the past.  I would think a year had passed but it was actually three or five, or vice versa. 

All that said, the novel does have some great lines, and it is fun to follow the rises and falls and interweavings of the various families.  Oddly enough, it most reminded me of Austen and Rowling, the former because it is (despite trips to London and L.A.) primarily "three or four families in a country village," the latter because the line on the back cover, "All was well in the village of Rapstone Fanner-- until the Rector died" reminds me of a line in or about Casual Vacancy.  This village is more corrupt than Austen's, less than Rowling's.  There's no one to really identify with, except maybe Mrs. Simcox or son Fred, but Mortimer does humanise even the unpleasant people.  I wish the book was either deeper or more satirical (like Jane Smiley perhaps), but like the characters, I've learned to settle for what I get.

Speaking of time, it's time to look at the stats again.  First of all, thank you to all of you who have been reading about "My Poor Aunt" and other posts this month, so that the reading stats will be in the top four of the months so far.  (Eight more clicks and it'll be the top month.)  And I've read 100 more books since Doonesbury's Greatest Hits (1978).  At the time I'd given out

1 F
4 F+s
2 D-s
5 D's
11 D+s
16 C-s
26 C's
103 C+s
164 B-s
118 B's
43 B+s
7 A-s

I haven't read anything really dreadful lately, but I did give out another 3 C-s, 10 more C's, and 23 more C+s.  Nearly half, 44, of the new grades are B-s.  I gave 19 B's but only one B+ (Growing Up) and no A-.

The Reign of the Phallus

1985, 1993 University of California Press edition
Eva C. Keuls
The Reign of the Phallus: Sexual Politics in Ancient Athens
Original price $18.00, purchase price $3.95
Worn paperback with broken spine
C+

Keuls not only looks at sexism in Athens of the fifth century B.C., but she tries to solve an ancient mystery: who destroyed the herms (phallic statues of good luck) the night before a planned invasion of Sicily?
( http://www.historum.com/blogs/okamido/455-alcibiades.html )

She argues that women, who had relative freedom during the annual rites of Adonis, committed the vandalism as a feminist/pacifist protest against macho militarism.  I find that her conclusions are not well supported-- there are a lot of leaps-- but the book is interesting as a "What if?" and as a gallery of art, mostly from vases, much of it pornographic, if oddly whimsical.  I think she overexaggerates the oppression of women in Ancient Greece, not that it didn't exist, but I don't believe it was as all encompassing as she presents.  (It's as if someone said that women had absolutely no rights or freedom in Victorian England.)  And one leap that especially bothered me was that she assumes that worship of the phallus added to male power but the earlier worship of the "female principle" had no effect on society.  Why?  I'm starting to feel like the mid-1980s led some female writers to a particular form of despair, as if men are naturally bullies and women naturally victims.  (This edition is a slight revision, but mostly of the bibliography and illustrations, so I don't see it as a product of the '90s.)

Ironically, her solution to the mystery is the most plausible aspect of the book.  I still recommend it but reading this book twice is enough for me and I won't be replacing my copy.

State of the Art

1985, first edition, from Dutton
Pauline Kael
State of the Art
Original price $12.95, purchase price $6.95
Worn paperback
B-

Pauline Kael made me drop out of college.  Not directly-- we never met-- but as a sophomore I checked out a lot of her books from the library, and she was so much more intelligent and sarcastic than anyone on campus, that (along with a few other reasons) I decided that I could probably learn more on my own than in school.  A quarter century later, I'm certainly not as influenced by Kael as I was-- we part company on feminism and gay issues, not to mention violence in films-- but I still get a kick out of some of her reviews.  I found this collection less fun than Rex Reed's, but every once in awhile there's a great line, like this one after the novelization of Rambo being a "love letter to Rambo's weaponry," including how to order it:  "I can hardly wait for my set to arrive."  Or this:  "Downtown Prague does just fine as eighteenth-century Vienna.  It was fine as Dresden in Slaughterhouse-Five and as Hanover in Saraband and in many other roles, but I can't remember its ever being cast in a good movie." 

Not that it's all snark.  Sometimes she celebrates the joy of movies, as with Prizzi's Honor.  Still, as the back cover blurb says, "State of the Art" is less sexually suggestive than her past titles because movies weren't as fun in the 1980s as they were before.  This collection covers 1983 to 1985, so it was good to see she gave positive reviews (if not complete raves) of two movies I just rewatched recently for their 30th anniversaries, Yentl and Zelig.  But overall, there's a lot in here that I didn't care about, so I can't give her a higher grade.  We'll see how I feel about her take on the later '80s movies, when we get up to Hooked (1989)....

Cult TV

1985, St. Martin's Press edition from later that year
John Javna and various contributors
Cult TV: A Viewer's Guide to the Shows America Can't Live Without!!
Original price $14.95, purchase price unknown
Very worn paperback
C+

As you might guess from the double exclamation mark in the subtitle, Javna's writing is much gushier and less intelligent than Peary's, and so I can only marginally recommend this.  It is interesting to get a mid-'80s look at television, a time when we could all believe that "eventually, all of the old TV shows will be on the market."  That didn't happen with VHS or DVD, and it won't happen with Blue-Ray.  (Try getting a last season of some programs that have devoted, if not cult, followings, like The Bob Newhart Show or Mork and Mindy.)  But it was true that many shows from the 1950s onward were available, and I think this homey quality, as well as the relatively inexpensive repeat viewings, made/makes cult TV a different beast than cult movies.  If you're sitting in your living room reciting favorite lines with friends and family (or alone), it's nothing like watching a movie at midnight in a theater. 

The book isn't arranged alphabetically or chronologically or by genre, even within sections.  The main sections are as follows:

• Lost Cults, shows that had followings in their day but not so much later, e.g. Davy Crockett; Ben Casey and Dr. Kildare; Mod Squad; Upstairs, Downstairs.  (Though with the recent popularity of Downton Abbey, I wonder if people are rediscovering UD.) 
• Cult Classics, ones everyone knows that may or may not have been popular in their day (I Love Lucy yes, Star Trek no), but picked up fans in syndication.
• Underground Cults, which sounds redundant, but seem to be shows that have more "limited followings," like Blake's 7 and Super Chicken.
• Prime Time Cults, which are '80s shows that, other than (at that time) David Letterman, all had great ratings, so I don't think they're cults in Peary's sense, but in Javna's sense of some people loving them, even if to make fun of, like Dynasty.
• Future Cults, twelve shows that Javna predicts will develop strong cults.  Some are on the money (Green Acres, Police Squad, I Spy), while others are way off.  (Kate and Allie?  Not that I know of.)  Interestingly, although Gilligan's Island was already a Cult Classic, Javna wasn't the only one to fail to predict that within five years the other Sherwood Schwartz show would have a very devoted cult.

Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman

1985, 1986 Bantam edition
Richard P. Feynman as told to Ralph Leighton, edited by Edward Hutchings
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman: Adventures of a Curious Character
Original price $4.50, purchase price unknown
Worn paperback with a lot of yellowing
B

Feynman is a good storyteller, and his life makes for good stories.  He's possibly the most down-to-earth Nobel prize winner ever, and he was probably a very good teacher.  He talks about science (not just his field of physics), as well as his experiments with music and art, gambling and safe-cracking.  There are times when he's amoral, which is unsettling, but he seems to acknowledge it.  To take the second biggest example, he "learns" that women (at least some of the women who hang out in bars) like to be treated like dirt.  He doesn't become abusive, but he is rude, and yes, he gets laid.  And when he works on The Bomb, he treats it just like another of the puzzles that have fascinated him since his childhood when he fixed radios.  (He's curious in more than one sense.)  One of his colleagues tells him that he has no obligation to be socially responsible, which eases his mind when he briefly has doubts.  I can't say I admire him, but he's definitely interesting, and at least he's not hypocritically pretending to be moral.

I liked this book enough to get the "sequel," What Do You Care What Other Think?, which we'll get to in 1988 (the year he died).  As its title suggests, Feynman is equally individualistic in that book.

It's an Aardvark-Eat-Turtle World

1985, 1986 Laurel-Leaf edition
Paula Danziger
It's an Aardvark-Eat-Turtle World
Original price unknown, purchase price $1.98
Slightly worn paperback
B-

Yes, this is about equal to The Divorce Express, but unfortunately it works better as a stand-alone.  Phoebe seems completely out of character, and bratty.  Rosie is a likable enough narrator, her puns replacing Phoebe's now forgotten anagrams, although I sometimes feel like Danziger is rushing through issues/topics-- "Divorce!  Living together!  Remarriage!  Racism!  Young Love! Friendship!  Canada!"  The title is one of her more contrived ones, since it has to do with a dog (Aardvark) eating a turtle, and they aren't even the pets of the main family.  And again, she's over-idealizing Woodstock, and failing to humanize the "superstraights," Phoebe's mother and stepfather.  I do like that the theme is that life, especially family, isn't perfect, but it's worth working at.  There are moments of realism but also moments of ABC After-School Special.  Again, she's writing of and to younger teens, although Phoebe does some off-page "making out."  Rosie's interracial (and international) romance with Phoebe's Canadian stepcousin is more innocent and nicely done, although they say "I love you" far too soon.  (Even Blume's Danziger in Forever would tell them to slow down emotionally.)

There are a few non-1960s pop references, but there's not really anything to show that three years have passed in the real world since Express.  It seemed like the six years between The Cat Ate My Gymsuit and There's a Bat in Bunk Five (which if I remember correctly also had a kid sister from another book, maybe Pistachio Prescription) offered more than double the cultural change, but it's been a long while since I've read them.

I should note that my copy has a far more fan-servicy cover than other editions, with the girls wearing long shirts and apparently no jeans/slacks/skirts.  It's creepy considering they're supposed to be 14.  Other editions wisely play off of the moving and/or friendship themes.  (The Express cover shows the girls at a bus stop, Rosie trying to cheer up Phoebe.)