I found a list I made last year of the books I'd read to date in 2010 (back in October or November, I think).
I'm surprised to see that I didn't blog about some of these books:
Heart and Soul
The Elegance of the Hedgehog
Rumspringa: To Be or Not to Be Amish
Voice of the Violin/The Shape of Water by Andrea Camilleri
Evelina by Fanny Burney
Faceless Killers/The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The Woman in White
March by Geraldine Brooks
The Men and the Girls by Joanna Trollope
Till You Hear From Me by Pearl Cleage
Let me start with Pearl Cleage's Till You Hear From Me. Pearl Cleage is an African-American writer and academic, currently living in Atlanta, and the author of What Looks like Crazy on an Ordinary Day (an Oprah Book Club book).
Till You Hear From Me is, I guess, a topical novel. The heroine is originally from the South; she's worked on the Obama campaign and she hopes to get a call from the White House offering her a position there. The days have turned into weeks and the weeks into months and she hasn't heard anything yet. Her father is a crusty old soul, separated from her mother, and currently, not really speaking to her, either. While she loves her father very much, and admires him, she's also more than a little angry at him for being bossy and unforgiving, among other things.
Suddenly, a friend of the family calls with an urgent request that our Ida rush home and look after her father, who may be losing his mind: he's embarrassed himself publicly by making some insulting remarks about Hispanics.
Ida reluctantly returns and, meets an attractive but duplicitous man, a childhood crush, who really means her some harm. Along her journey, Ida is reminded of the values she grew up with, the comforts of friends and family, and to trust herself that she is all right alone.
Even last year, the novel seemed a little dated and the situations contrived but I believe that Cleage aimed to make a point about black culture before and after the Obama election: that there is no reason to ignore the achievements of a past that was heroic because it was really dangerous and every reason to embrace the future with its promise both of opportunity and continuing challenges.
Skillful characterization and some of the storyteller's arts are not Cleage's strengths, but she has something to say and I respect that. More so because I agree with her message: she is reminding all of us not to forget the past but to embrace the future which can be much harder than it sounds.
March, by Geraldine Brooks, is a beautifully written novel, with strong and very thoughtful characterizations, and some violence.
It's the story of Mr. March, from Louisa May Alcott's Little Women. To me, it's really the portrait of a marriage. And, the view of that marriage expressed by Mrs. March seemed to me to be a little too modern to be quite believable. However, it's not meant to be historical fiction.
Rumspringa: To Be or Not To Be Amish is a nonfiction account of the Old Amish practice in this country of letting young people do what they want -- whether it's drink, smoke, do drugs, have sex, go to live in the big city -- in order to give them a chance to decide whether they are ready to be baptized into the Amish community as adults. This period is also one in which some Amish use their freedom to look for a spouse. The Old Amish community is very unforgiving, on the whole, to adults who have transgressed the code of the community once they have been baptized, so making this decision is important and very difficult for some.
Without question, my favorite book last year was Evelina, by Fanny Burney. I read it with a friend who proclaimed it utterly charming, and I agree with her. Evelina's innocence is both comic and painful; her lack of romantic feeling is somewhat underwhelming; the characters who are meant to present to us how not to behave are drawn broadly, and are somewhat annoying. I also enjoyed the scenes of London life. Burney's work clearly influenced Austen, and may have been the single most important influence on Austen. What is most important to me about Evelina, however, is the beauty of the writing. For weeks after I read Evelina, my speech and my writing were affected. I could wish my writing were affected more.
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh
Just finishing reading Delivering Happiness and I have to say that it satisfies two of my top criteria for a book I would recommend: it's a light read. I read it in two or three days. To me, that's definitely a plus. Another definite plus: It's only 246 pages long.
Hsieh talks about his childhood, education, and lifelong interest in both making money and avoiding things he doesn't like, whether it's working with people who don't get the company culture or practicing the violin. Arguably, that is a model for success: play to your strengths, avoid your weaknesses. (See Daniel Pink's graphic novel, Johnny Bunko.)
Hsieh also talks about his lifelong interest in having fun, whether it's playing a practical joke on his boss or organizing a really great party.
At times, I wondered if the culture of Zappos, with its emphasis on practical jokes, fun and weird stunts (bald and blue, for instance) and its organizing of social fun and personal growth for its employees, was a conscious or unconscious effort to recreate the tribal feeling of college.
This book contains encouragement, it says, for folks who want to revolutionize the culture of their companies. (When it comes to customer service, I certainly agree that there is a need for a revolution.) I also think that writing this book was another inexpensive way to promote the company and I went on the Zappos website after reading the book.
The book is organized into three sections. "Profits" talks about his childhood button-making business, college, and the creation and sale of LinkExchange (when Hsieh was 24), and the beginning of Zappos.
"Profits and Passion" talks about the struggles to grow Zappos to the point where it was profitable, and the mistakes Hsieh and his co-workers made and the lessons they learned. In the aftermath of the dot com implosion and 9/11, Hsieh slashed his marketing budget and to grow his business, began to emphasize selling more to existing customers rather than trying to attract new customers. This led to the decision to open their own warehouse and to emphasize customer service to win loyalty from customers.
"Profits, Passion and Purpose" talks about the sale of Zappos to Amazon and incidentally discusses the importance of having a board and investors who are "on board" with the company culture and its goals and objectives. Hsieh undertook speaking engagements at conferences to help promote the Zappos brand and discovered along the way that there were folks who passionately interested in applying some of Hsieh's management techniques in their own practices, at their own companies. In his description of the announcement of the sale to Amazon to his employees he said:
"It wasn't just about the Kindle or the bonus. Those were just .. bonuses .. The moment signified far more than that. The unified energy and emotion of everyone in the room was not just about my own personal happiness, and not just about the happiness of Zappos employees. We were about much more than just profits and passion. Collectively, this marked the beginning of the next leg of our journey to help change the world."
And, I think that if Zappos continues to grow, Hsieh's model does have the potential will change the world -- to persuade managers that company culture matters -- if Zappos can prove that its success will outlast that of say, Borders.
You should read this book if:
1. You enjoy reading memoirs by successful businesspeople.
2. You enjoy reading leadership books because you hope to learn something that will help you in your own career.
3. You are interested in justifying your existing concern for excellent customer service.
4. You are interested in justifying your existing concern for treating employees well.
5. You are interested in motivation.
6. You are a big fan of Zappos and/or Tony Hsieh.
One of the things that struck me after reading the book was that although Hsieh talked frequently about giving excellent customer service and empowering Zappos' staff to provide it, he didn't talk in much detail about how to do it. He does talk about the fact that you could order an item with rush delivery by midnight and find the item on your doorstep by 8 am the following morning. I can't argue with the excellence of that; he explains that the warehouse is run in such a way that when the order comes in, the picker goes to get it immediately, rather than waiting for orders to collect (which would be more efficient, and cheaper, but would cause customers to wait longer for their items).
This question interests me because I used Zappos twice. I ordered a pair of shoes and when they arrived they were the wrong pair of shoes. I called customer service; they offered to pay for the return of the wrong shoes and invited me to order again. When the new shoes came, they were exactly like the first pair of shoes -- and not the shoes I had ordered. Then I was done. Financially, I was whole. I hadn't paid for shipping. But I'd spent time packing up the shoes and returning them and I'd spent time on the phone with the customer service rep who had not solved my problem. I actually see that as an important function of customer service representatives.
It came up in another context in my reading, recently. In Tom Peters' recent book, The Little Big Things: 163 ways to pursue excellence, he tells a story of an American equipment manufacturer who sold factory equipment to a company in China when trade with China had just opened up. The client reported that the equipment didn't work. Staff members from the American company got on a plane and went to China to fix the problem. They went to great lengths to fix the problem; they apologized for the problem; and they maintained their relationship with their client.
Perhaps these two authors are defining what "customer service" is differently; I'm more comfortable with Tom Peters' ideas.
If you wanted to learn how to teach your own staff to give excellent customer service, you wouldn't get that information by reading this book.
On page 152, Hsieh mentions again that Zappos' customer service orientation was developed as a way to build buzz -- word of mouth -- to compensate for the advertising and marketing they just couldn't afford:
Hsieh does provide a revealing email exchange between a customer service representative and a customer that suggests that part of providing excellent customer service is actually acting like a salesman: flattering the customer's ego, being responsive to the customer's concerns, and even mirroring their behavior.
Hsieh touts the ability of his employees to offer free shipping as a perk to win and keep customer loyalty. He said that offering free shipping was expensive but it was, in his view, a marketing investment. I believe that that's true, actually, but think that simply providing folks with the shoes that they want and need is also central and he doesn't explicitly talk about that.
This book was published in 2009 and I'd love to read an update of the company's history to date. I've read that Hsieh "bought" the company back from Amazon. (Amazon's purchase was something between a merger and a sale; Zappos' investors were paid with Amazon stock.)
Hsieh talks about his company's culture, which includes treating customers, vendors, and employees well, as a key ingredient to its success. He presents part of the book as a call to arms, encouraging others to learn from his example and use these lessons in their own businesses, existing or yet to be born. I think that another real purpose of this book is to continue to promote the Zappos brand. Now it's not so much about the product but about the company's culture.
To me, that's not bad. A lot of people, including myself, are excited about behaving in ethical and transparent manner and still having success in the form of profits. Company culture is often neglected - rarely discussed and instead intuited by employees, and not always in a way that serves management and stockholders well. And I strongly agree with Hsieh on his exhortation to recognize your employees early and often, by saying things like "Thank you" and "you did a great job" publicly.
Here's a list of the Zappos core values, taken from their website:
Zappos Family Core Values
As we grow as a company, it has become more and more important to explicitly define the core values from which we develop our culture, our brand, and our business strategies. These are the ten core values that we live by:
Deliver WOW Through Service
Embrace and Drive Change
Create Fun and A Little Weirdness
Be Adventurous, Creative, and Open-Minded
Pursue Growth and Learning
Build Open and Honest Relationships With Communication
Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit
Do More With Less
Be Passionate and Determined
Be Humble
My comment is that it's pretty hard to argue with these values; they seem self-evidently good. I find myself thinking that some of these "core values" help to "incentivize" (sorry!) employees with fun and acceptance rather than money, and I see that if you can succeed in doing that you can create greater stability for your company and avoid always using money to motivate your employees. If you're a fan of Daniel Pink's work Drive, you'll probably agree with him that money is not the only motivator. I continue to puzzle over the value of "weirdness," and I wonder if its virtue is that it fosters acceptance.
Hsieh talks about his childhood, education, and lifelong interest in both making money and avoiding things he doesn't like, whether it's working with people who don't get the company culture or practicing the violin. Arguably, that is a model for success: play to your strengths, avoid your weaknesses. (See Daniel Pink's graphic novel, Johnny Bunko.)
Hsieh also talks about his lifelong interest in having fun, whether it's playing a practical joke on his boss or organizing a really great party.
At times, I wondered if the culture of Zappos, with its emphasis on practical jokes, fun and weird stunts (bald and blue, for instance) and its organizing of social fun and personal growth for its employees, was a conscious or unconscious effort to recreate the tribal feeling of college.
This book contains encouragement, it says, for folks who want to revolutionize the culture of their companies. (When it comes to customer service, I certainly agree that there is a need for a revolution.) I also think that writing this book was another inexpensive way to promote the company and I went on the Zappos website after reading the book.
The book is organized into three sections. "Profits" talks about his childhood button-making business, college, and the creation and sale of LinkExchange (when Hsieh was 24), and the beginning of Zappos.
"Profits and Passion" talks about the struggles to grow Zappos to the point where it was profitable, and the mistakes Hsieh and his co-workers made and the lessons they learned. In the aftermath of the dot com implosion and 9/11, Hsieh slashed his marketing budget and to grow his business, began to emphasize selling more to existing customers rather than trying to attract new customers. This led to the decision to open their own warehouse and to emphasize customer service to win loyalty from customers.
"Profits, Passion and Purpose" talks about the sale of Zappos to Amazon and incidentally discusses the importance of having a board and investors who are "on board" with the company culture and its goals and objectives. Hsieh undertook speaking engagements at conferences to help promote the Zappos brand and discovered along the way that there were folks who passionately interested in applying some of Hsieh's management techniques in their own practices, at their own companies. In his description of the announcement of the sale to Amazon to his employees he said:
"It wasn't just about the Kindle or the bonus. Those were just .. bonuses .. The moment signified far more than that. The unified energy and emotion of everyone in the room was not just about my own personal happiness, and not just about the happiness of Zappos employees. We were about much more than just profits and passion. Collectively, this marked the beginning of the next leg of our journey to help change the world."
And, I think that if Zappos continues to grow, Hsieh's model does have the potential will change the world -- to persuade managers that company culture matters -- if Zappos can prove that its success will outlast that of say, Borders.
You should read this book if:
1. You enjoy reading memoirs by successful businesspeople.
2. You enjoy reading leadership books because you hope to learn something that will help you in your own career.
3. You are interested in justifying your existing concern for excellent customer service.
4. You are interested in justifying your existing concern for treating employees well.
5. You are interested in motivation.
6. You are a big fan of Zappos and/or Tony Hsieh.
One of the things that struck me after reading the book was that although Hsieh talked frequently about giving excellent customer service and empowering Zappos' staff to provide it, he didn't talk in much detail about how to do it. He does talk about the fact that you could order an item with rush delivery by midnight and find the item on your doorstep by 8 am the following morning. I can't argue with the excellence of that; he explains that the warehouse is run in such a way that when the order comes in, the picker goes to get it immediately, rather than waiting for orders to collect (which would be more efficient, and cheaper, but would cause customers to wait longer for their items).
This question interests me because I used Zappos twice. I ordered a pair of shoes and when they arrived they were the wrong pair of shoes. I called customer service; they offered to pay for the return of the wrong shoes and invited me to order again. When the new shoes came, they were exactly like the first pair of shoes -- and not the shoes I had ordered. Then I was done. Financially, I was whole. I hadn't paid for shipping. But I'd spent time packing up the shoes and returning them and I'd spent time on the phone with the customer service rep who had not solved my problem. I actually see that as an important function of customer service representatives.
It came up in another context in my reading, recently. In Tom Peters' recent book, The Little Big Things: 163 ways to pursue excellence, he tells a story of an American equipment manufacturer who sold factory equipment to a company in China when trade with China had just opened up. The client reported that the equipment didn't work. Staff members from the American company got on a plane and went to China to fix the problem. They went to great lengths to fix the problem; they apologized for the problem; and they maintained their relationship with their client.
Perhaps these two authors are defining what "customer service" is differently; I'm more comfortable with Tom Peters' ideas.
If you wanted to learn how to teach your own staff to give excellent customer service, you wouldn't get that information by reading this book.
On page 152, Hsieh mentions again that Zappos' customer service orientation was developed as a way to build buzz -- word of mouth -- to compensate for the advertising and marketing they just couldn't afford:
What's the best way to build brand for the long term?
In a word: culture.
At Zappos, our belief is that if you get the culture right, most of the other stuff -- like great customer service, or building a great long-term brand, or passionate employees and customers -- will happen naturally on its own.
Hsieh does provide a revealing email exchange between a customer service representative and a customer that suggests that part of providing excellent customer service is actually acting like a salesman: flattering the customer's ego, being responsive to the customer's concerns, and even mirroring their behavior.
Hsieh touts the ability of his employees to offer free shipping as a perk to win and keep customer loyalty. He said that offering free shipping was expensive but it was, in his view, a marketing investment. I believe that that's true, actually, but think that simply providing folks with the shoes that they want and need is also central and he doesn't explicitly talk about that.
This book was published in 2009 and I'd love to read an update of the company's history to date. I've read that Hsieh "bought" the company back from Amazon. (Amazon's purchase was something between a merger and a sale; Zappos' investors were paid with Amazon stock.)
Hsieh talks about his company's culture, which includes treating customers, vendors, and employees well, as a key ingredient to its success. He presents part of the book as a call to arms, encouraging others to learn from his example and use these lessons in their own businesses, existing or yet to be born. I think that another real purpose of this book is to continue to promote the Zappos brand. Now it's not so much about the product but about the company's culture.
To me, that's not bad. A lot of people, including myself, are excited about behaving in ethical and transparent manner and still having success in the form of profits. Company culture is often neglected - rarely discussed and instead intuited by employees, and not always in a way that serves management and stockholders well. And I strongly agree with Hsieh on his exhortation to recognize your employees early and often, by saying things like "Thank you" and "you did a great job" publicly.
Here's a list of the Zappos core values, taken from their website:
Zappos Family Core Values
As we grow as a company, it has become more and more important to explicitly define the core values from which we develop our culture, our brand, and our business strategies. These are the ten core values that we live by:
Deliver WOW Through Service
Embrace and Drive Change
Create Fun and A Little Weirdness
Be Adventurous, Creative, and Open-Minded
Pursue Growth and Learning
Build Open and Honest Relationships With Communication
Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit
Do More With Less
Be Passionate and Determined
Be Humble
My comment is that it's pretty hard to argue with these values; they seem self-evidently good. I find myself thinking that some of these "core values" help to "incentivize" (sorry!) employees with fun and acceptance rather than money, and I see that if you can succeed in doing that you can create greater stability for your company and avoid always using money to motivate your employees. If you're a fan of Daniel Pink's work Drive, you'll probably agree with him that money is not the only motivator. I continue to puzzle over the value of "weirdness," and I wonder if its virtue is that it fosters acceptance.
Friday, July 22, 2011
What I've been reading lately
I haven't quite succeeded in finishing Too Close to the Falls although I did sneak ahead and read, what was for me, a hair-raising final chapter.
When I start a new book before finishing an old one, there's a good chance I'll never get back to the old one. I'll say this: there are at least three wonderful chapters and a variety of things I find remarkable about this childhood.
I'm currently reading Delivering Happiness by the CEO of Zappos. It's a really fun read and I'm about halfway through having begun it yesterday.
I'm also just finishing up listening to SuperFreakonomics which was very entertaining. Before that, I listened to Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers. I really enjoyed listening to that book, much more than any other audiobook.
Before that, I listened to a little of Daniel Pink's Drive, and I hope to get back to that soon.
When I start a new book before finishing an old one, there's a good chance I'll never get back to the old one. I'll say this: there are at least three wonderful chapters and a variety of things I find remarkable about this childhood.
I'm currently reading Delivering Happiness by the CEO of Zappos. It's a really fun read and I'm about halfway through having begun it yesterday.
I'm also just finishing up listening to SuperFreakonomics which was very entertaining. Before that, I listened to Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers. I really enjoyed listening to that book, much more than any other audiobook.
Before that, I listened to a little of Daniel Pink's Drive, and I hope to get back to that soon.
Sunday, July 17, 2011
The Shape of Water and the Voice of the Violin by Andrea Camilleri
I read both of these books last year and never got around to blogging about them. I got started on these when I browsed the remainder table at Borders and found Voice of the Violin there for only $4; I'd heard of Camilleri's series before, from a serious fan, and I loved the cover which seemed to convey that white Mediterranean sun particular to Italy (whoever the artist is who is creating the covers for this series in translation, he or she has my thanks -- the covers are wonderful).
I actually read Voice of the Violin first although it is the third or fourth book in the Inspector Montalbano series; it inspired me, however, to want to read The Shape of Water the first (and I found the enigmatic title increased my interest). I did enjoy it more than Voice of the Violin and I think that's because what I enjoy in a mystery is everything but the mystery and there's plenty of characterization, local color, and history to entertain me in the first novel.
Andrea Camilleri, the author of these books, intrigues me as well and that is part of the fondness that I feel for the novels: he was born in 1925, and success of the kind that he enjoys now came relatively late to him -- he published the first of the Inspector Montalbano novels, The Shape of Water, in 1994. Although he had had some success as a serious novelist, I'm going to guess that the reason for the great popularity of the first novel were some sly observations about Sicilian life, love and politics, much discussion of delicious food, a good ear for local slang and a detective, who, like the best detectives, is deeply feeling.
The Shape of Water starts with the discovery of the body of a local politician in a compromising position by two local garbagemen down at the town dump. No one except the Inspector is interested in solving this crime; the coroner rules the death natural rather than criminal. Along the way we learn a great deal about Sicily and its garbage, which I enjoyed hugely. I think there's a kind of bumptious quality to this book missing in Voice of the Violin. (I'm happy to report that the bad guys get theirs.)
Voice of the Violin is another murder mystery that opens with a traffic accident caused by Montalbano's irrepressibly goofy police driver. The failure of the other owner in the accident to respond to the note Montalbano leaves behind arouses his suspicion and he very shortly discovers a murder. The dead woman's friends and family constitute a very motley and somewhat surprising crew: the widower, who knew of and countenanced the victim's infidelities (or did he?); her lover, an attractive man from out of town. The solution to the mystery comes about through inspiration as improbable as any in a Sherlock Holmes story.
According to the Kent District Library's database, "What's Next?" (kdl.org, from Kent, Michigan), Camilleri's Inspector Montalbano novels in English are as follows:
Inspector Montalbano series
1. The shape of water - CAMILLERI, ANDREA
2. The terra-cotta dog - CAMILLERI, ANDREA
3. The snack thief - CAMILLERI, ANDREA
4. Voice of the violin - CAMILLERI, ANDREA
5. Excursion to Tindari - CAMILLERI, ANDREA
6. The smell of the night - CAMILLERI, ANDREA
7. Rounding the mark - CAMILLERI, ANDREA
8. The patience of the spider - CAMILLERI, ANDREA
9. The paper moon - CAMILLERI, ANDREA
10. August heat - CAMILLERI, ANDREA
11. The wings of the sphinx - CAMILLERI, ANDREA
12. The track of sand - CAMILLERI, ANDREA
13. The potter's field - CAMILLERI, ANDREA
I actually read Voice of the Violin first although it is the third or fourth book in the Inspector Montalbano series; it inspired me, however, to want to read The Shape of Water the first (and I found the enigmatic title increased my interest). I did enjoy it more than Voice of the Violin and I think that's because what I enjoy in a mystery is everything but the mystery and there's plenty of characterization, local color, and history to entertain me in the first novel.
Andrea Camilleri, the author of these books, intrigues me as well and that is part of the fondness that I feel for the novels: he was born in 1925, and success of the kind that he enjoys now came relatively late to him -- he published the first of the Inspector Montalbano novels, The Shape of Water, in 1994. Although he had had some success as a serious novelist, I'm going to guess that the reason for the great popularity of the first novel were some sly observations about Sicilian life, love and politics, much discussion of delicious food, a good ear for local slang and a detective, who, like the best detectives, is deeply feeling.
The Shape of Water starts with the discovery of the body of a local politician in a compromising position by two local garbagemen down at the town dump. No one except the Inspector is interested in solving this crime; the coroner rules the death natural rather than criminal. Along the way we learn a great deal about Sicily and its garbage, which I enjoyed hugely. I think there's a kind of bumptious quality to this book missing in Voice of the Violin. (I'm happy to report that the bad guys get theirs.)
Voice of the Violin is another murder mystery that opens with a traffic accident caused by Montalbano's irrepressibly goofy police driver. The failure of the other owner in the accident to respond to the note Montalbano leaves behind arouses his suspicion and he very shortly discovers a murder. The dead woman's friends and family constitute a very motley and somewhat surprising crew: the widower, who knew of and countenanced the victim's infidelities (or did he?); her lover, an attractive man from out of town. The solution to the mystery comes about through inspiration as improbable as any in a Sherlock Holmes story.
According to the Kent District Library's database, "What's Next?" (kdl.org, from Kent, Michigan), Camilleri's Inspector Montalbano novels in English are as follows:
Inspector Montalbano series
1. The shape of water - CAMILLERI, ANDREA
2. The terra-cotta dog - CAMILLERI, ANDREA
3. The snack thief - CAMILLERI, ANDREA
4. Voice of the violin - CAMILLERI, ANDREA
5. Excursion to Tindari - CAMILLERI, ANDREA
6. The smell of the night - CAMILLERI, ANDREA
7. Rounding the mark - CAMILLERI, ANDREA
8. The patience of the spider - CAMILLERI, ANDREA
9. The paper moon - CAMILLERI, ANDREA
10. August heat - CAMILLERI, ANDREA
11. The wings of the sphinx - CAMILLERI, ANDREA
12. The track of sand - CAMILLERI, ANDREA
13. The potter's field - CAMILLERI, ANDREA
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
What the Dog Saw and Other Adventures by Malcolm Gladwell
Some readers were no doubt disappointed in this collection of articles first published in the New Yorker. I feel something close to astonishment by how interesting and entertaining I find some of these pieces, even though I’ve read many of them before.
I love Gladwell for all the reasons that he's been so celebrated: he’s a wonderful storyteller, with a nose for interesting stories that can appeal to a wide variety of people. Most of all, I love his work because, so often, he turns received wisdom on its head (e.g., gut instinct is actually reading facial expressions) or points out that the Emperor is wearing no clothes (job interviews are really about finding that spark of chemistry, a “de-sexualized date,” and are poor predictors of employee performance).
My favorite pieces are:
"True Colors: Hair Dye and The Hidden History of Postwar America?” which takes us into a past in which immigrant women used hair color as part of their assimilation into American culture and the successful selling of that and other products to women as their ticket to success;
“Cesar Milan: The Movements of Mastery,” for its insightful portrait of Milan and most importantly, for what the article contains about the messages we send through our physical movements and how adept dogs are at reading them;
and
“Most Likely to Succeed:
How do we hire when we can't tell who's right for the job?” in which Gladwell shows us a little bit of the difference between a good teacher and a bad one, explains why the stakes are so high and then goes on to explain that it’s very hard to predict who will be a good teacher and suggests that young teachers be hired as apprentice/trainees, heavily mentored, and that tenure not be granted automatically. When I first read this article, I was stunned by its audacity but I see now that teacher training is moving in this direction.
Some additional thoughts:
I'm now on a non-fiction reading jag (or, perhaps, a non-fiction listening jag, as I've been listening to Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, Jane's Fame, Drive by Daniel Pink, and Superfreakonomics by Stephen Leavitt and Steven Dubner on compact disc); also a few months ago, I watched the documentary Waiting for Superman.
Some time later, I was asked by someone about the merit of Waiting for Superman, and I said I liked it, and tried to tell this guy something about it -- as I attempted to summarize the movie, I saw that while the movie is a really affecting story, what it was really saying was that the quality of many of our urban schools is just appallingly, unacceptably bad. It occurred to me for the first time that perhaps the filmmaker was saying that the quality of teaching was unacceptably low, and I wondered if I agreed with that.
I have felt in the past that teachers were incorrectly blamed for the poor performance of their students; that the single most important predictor of academic performance is the socioeconomic status of students' parents. After thinking about what Gladwell says about the many factors that contribute to the success of individuals (success isn't all that individual), what Leavitt and Dubner say about changes to the teaching professional since 1960 (as more professional fields have opened to women, teaching has become a less attractive choice at the same time that the wages of teachers, relative to those of other professionals with similar amounts of education, have dropped markedly) have made me realize that while it may be entirely true that the socioeconomic status of parents being the single most accurate predictor of student success is entirely true, that doesn't mean that other factors can't affect the outcome or that they haven't affected outcomes.
Perhaps it is true that the quality of teaching has dropped over the past few decades and that, in those same few decades, middle-class parents have stepped forward to provide enrichment activities on weekends and over the summer.
I do accept Gladwell's premise that some teachers are better than others; I think I wasn't fully convinced that differences in the quality of teaching could make such a difference until I was told that in Depression, a job teaching school was a good job, stable and secure in a horrible economy and as a result, some very bright and very well educated people entered public education and stayed there, not to mention the bright and capable women who remained there in part because there were not many other professional choices. Ultimately, as Gladwell points out in his piece on the difficulties of predicting performance, it's not intelligence, or education, or kindness, or "loving people," as young people used to say in job interviews, that makes a good teacher but some combination of qualities and perhaps good training and supervision. I would love to see a longitudinal study of new teachers. What's the difference between a teacher who lasts only one year, who lasts three years, and another who lasts ten years? What causes a teacher who lasts for ten years to leave the profession? I'd love to know.
I love Gladwell for all the reasons that he's been so celebrated: he’s a wonderful storyteller, with a nose for interesting stories that can appeal to a wide variety of people. Most of all, I love his work because, so often, he turns received wisdom on its head (e.g., gut instinct is actually reading facial expressions) or points out that the Emperor is wearing no clothes (job interviews are really about finding that spark of chemistry, a “de-sexualized date,” and are poor predictors of employee performance).
My favorite pieces are:
"True Colors: Hair Dye and The Hidden History of Postwar America?” which takes us into a past in which immigrant women used hair color as part of their assimilation into American culture and the successful selling of that and other products to women as their ticket to success;
“Cesar Milan: The Movements of Mastery,” for its insightful portrait of Milan and most importantly, for what the article contains about the messages we send through our physical movements and how adept dogs are at reading them;
and
“Most Likely to Succeed:
How do we hire when we can't tell who's right for the job?” in which Gladwell shows us a little bit of the difference between a good teacher and a bad one, explains why the stakes are so high and then goes on to explain that it’s very hard to predict who will be a good teacher and suggests that young teachers be hired as apprentice/trainees, heavily mentored, and that tenure not be granted automatically. When I first read this article, I was stunned by its audacity but I see now that teacher training is moving in this direction.
Some additional thoughts:
I'm now on a non-fiction reading jag (or, perhaps, a non-fiction listening jag, as I've been listening to Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, Jane's Fame, Drive by Daniel Pink, and Superfreakonomics by Stephen Leavitt and Steven Dubner on compact disc); also a few months ago, I watched the documentary Waiting for Superman.
Some time later, I was asked by someone about the merit of Waiting for Superman, and I said I liked it, and tried to tell this guy something about it -- as I attempted to summarize the movie, I saw that while the movie is a really affecting story, what it was really saying was that the quality of many of our urban schools is just appallingly, unacceptably bad. It occurred to me for the first time that perhaps the filmmaker was saying that the quality of teaching was unacceptably low, and I wondered if I agreed with that.
I have felt in the past that teachers were incorrectly blamed for the poor performance of their students; that the single most important predictor of academic performance is the socioeconomic status of students' parents. After thinking about what Gladwell says about the many factors that contribute to the success of individuals (success isn't all that individual), what Leavitt and Dubner say about changes to the teaching professional since 1960 (as more professional fields have opened to women, teaching has become a less attractive choice at the same time that the wages of teachers, relative to those of other professionals with similar amounts of education, have dropped markedly) have made me realize that while it may be entirely true that the socioeconomic status of parents being the single most accurate predictor of student success is entirely true, that doesn't mean that other factors can't affect the outcome or that they haven't affected outcomes.
Perhaps it is true that the quality of teaching has dropped over the past few decades and that, in those same few decades, middle-class parents have stepped forward to provide enrichment activities on weekends and over the summer.
I do accept Gladwell's premise that some teachers are better than others; I think I wasn't fully convinced that differences in the quality of teaching could make such a difference until I was told that in Depression, a job teaching school was a good job, stable and secure in a horrible economy and as a result, some very bright and very well educated people entered public education and stayed there, not to mention the bright and capable women who remained there in part because there were not many other professional choices. Ultimately, as Gladwell points out in his piece on the difficulties of predicting performance, it's not intelligence, or education, or kindness, or "loving people," as young people used to say in job interviews, that makes a good teacher but some combination of qualities and perhaps good training and supervision. I would love to see a longitudinal study of new teachers. What's the difference between a teacher who lasts only one year, who lasts three years, and another who lasts ten years? What causes a teacher who lasts for ten years to leave the profession? I'd love to know.
Monday, July 4, 2011
The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: the last career guide you’ll ever need by Daniel H. Pink and with art by Rob Ten Pas.
This is a manga-inspired graphic novel that is shelved with the career guides, and quite rightly - it's a useful book. I love it.
What I love about is its accessibility. It’s non-threatening, non-challenging, highly entertaining and has some real, but easy-to-understand wisdom to convey.
Johnny Bunko is what I think of as a low-level functionary. He’s so much like me at a younger age. He’s miserable in his job and his status at the bottom of the totem pole isn’t helping.
Saddled with another assignment that will mean another all-nighter for him, he says, “I can’t believe I have to re-check the numbers on every one of these statements .. what am I doing here? I’m bored .. I’m uninspired .. I feel like I’m wasting my life .. there has to be a better way!” (Is this beginning to sound like an info-mercial?)
He snaps open his chopsticks to begin eating his take-out sushi, a supernatural creature appears, floating in the air.
She says her name is Diana, and she’s a cross between Pippi Longstocking and Ariel. She’s got some news for Johnny: “The problem is, when it comes to work, you’re as clueless as a cucumber.” She tells Johnny she will appear each time he snaps open one of the six pairs of chopsticks he picked up at the sushi place down the street; each time she visits him, she’ll teach him one career lesson. Along the way, she offers him some advice that will help him in the here and now; part of the fun of the story is that, with Diana’s help, Johnny does get a plum (but tough) assignment: that’s how he learns about making excellent mistakes.
Lesson one: There is no plan.
Life is too complicated for that; things change, sometimes very rapidly.
While there is no plan, you still need to make smart career choices. You can choose to do something for instrumental reasons, because you hope it will lead to something else; or, you can do something for fundamental reasons, because you enjoy it or finding it fundamentally valuable. These folks usually make decisions that work better for them.
This naturally leads to lesson two:
2. Think strengths, not weaknesses.
Instead of trying to make yourself into something you’re not, make career choices that play to your strengths.
3. It’s not about you.
To be successful, you have to serve your client. Well. As an employee, your client is your boss. Make her (or him) look good. Help your teammates to succeed.
4. Persistence trumps talent.
(Boy, was I relieved when I read that one.) Or, as Woody Allen put it, “Eighty percent of success in life is just showing up.” (At least I understand that one: I’ve never understood “Hope is the thing with feathers” but I believe it’s true.)
5. Make excellent mistakes.
We all make mistakes. But some people are so afraid of making mistakes that they allow their fear and insecurity to prevent them from expressing themselves, using their creativity to solve problems, and, frankly, living.
Diana asks Johnny to look up his last name in the dictionary. Bunko is a verb and its definition is “make a mistake from which the benefits of what you’ve learned exceed the costs of the screw-up.”
6. Leave an imprint.
Diana again: “Truly successful people deploy them (the other career lessons) in the service of something larger than themselves.”
What I love about is its accessibility. It’s non-threatening, non-challenging, highly entertaining and has some real, but easy-to-understand wisdom to convey.
Johnny Bunko is what I think of as a low-level functionary. He’s so much like me at a younger age. He’s miserable in his job and his status at the bottom of the totem pole isn’t helping.
Saddled with another assignment that will mean another all-nighter for him, he says, “I can’t believe I have to re-check the numbers on every one of these statements .. what am I doing here? I’m bored .. I’m uninspired .. I feel like I’m wasting my life .. there has to be a better way!” (Is this beginning to sound like an info-mercial?)
He snaps open his chopsticks to begin eating his take-out sushi, a supernatural creature appears, floating in the air.
She says her name is Diana, and she’s a cross between Pippi Longstocking and Ariel. She’s got some news for Johnny: “The problem is, when it comes to work, you’re as clueless as a cucumber.” She tells Johnny she will appear each time he snaps open one of the six pairs of chopsticks he picked up at the sushi place down the street; each time she visits him, she’ll teach him one career lesson. Along the way, she offers him some advice that will help him in the here and now; part of the fun of the story is that, with Diana’s help, Johnny does get a plum (but tough) assignment: that’s how he learns about making excellent mistakes.
Lesson one: There is no plan.
Life is too complicated for that; things change, sometimes very rapidly.
While there is no plan, you still need to make smart career choices. You can choose to do something for instrumental reasons, because you hope it will lead to something else; or, you can do something for fundamental reasons, because you enjoy it or finding it fundamentally valuable. These folks usually make decisions that work better for them.
This naturally leads to lesson two:
2. Think strengths, not weaknesses.
Instead of trying to make yourself into something you’re not, make career choices that play to your strengths.
3. It’s not about you.
To be successful, you have to serve your client. Well. As an employee, your client is your boss. Make her (or him) look good. Help your teammates to succeed.
4. Persistence trumps talent.
(Boy, was I relieved when I read that one.) Or, as Woody Allen put it, “Eighty percent of success in life is just showing up.” (At least I understand that one: I’ve never understood “Hope is the thing with feathers” but I believe it’s true.)
5. Make excellent mistakes.
We all make mistakes. But some people are so afraid of making mistakes that they allow their fear and insecurity to prevent them from expressing themselves, using their creativity to solve problems, and, frankly, living.
Diana asks Johnny to look up his last name in the dictionary. Bunko is a verb and its definition is “make a mistake from which the benefits of what you’ve learned exceed the costs of the screw-up.”
6. Leave an imprint.
Diana again: “Truly successful people deploy them (the other career lessons) in the service of something larger than themselves.”
Sunday, July 3, 2011
The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman
I am raving about this book, primarily because it combines originality with great writing skill and sharply drawn characters -- and because I picked it up to divert myself for five minutes only to put it down again after I'd read the whole book four hours later (with tears rolling down my cheeks because I was very moved by the love of Oliver Ott for his dog). To me, this book has it all - brevity, great style, great characters - and, it's set in Rome!
A group of colorful characters put out an American-language newspaper in Rome. The book deals with each character in turn, giving each one their own chapter. You don't realize that you're interested in a character until you've read their chapter, after which you feel you could not do without it.
Two folks have told me that their favorite character was the Italian woman who is the paper's most passionate reader. Reading the paper is, for her, an elaborate and carefully observed ritual. She alone gives the paper the respect it really deserves.
Women do not come off well in this novel. (I know the author will do a better job, next time.) I felt entirely rewarded for my devotion by Oliver Ott's devotion to his Schopenhauer.
SPOILER ALERT: If you love dogs, even other people's dogs, you might prefer to skip the second half of the chapter about Oliver Ott.
A group of colorful characters put out an American-language newspaper in Rome. The book deals with each character in turn, giving each one their own chapter. You don't realize that you're interested in a character until you've read their chapter, after which you feel you could not do without it.
Two folks have told me that their favorite character was the Italian woman who is the paper's most passionate reader. Reading the paper is, for her, an elaborate and carefully observed ritual. She alone gives the paper the respect it really deserves.
Women do not come off well in this novel. (I know the author will do a better job, next time.) I felt entirely rewarded for my devotion by Oliver Ott's devotion to his Schopenhauer.
SPOILER ALERT: If you love dogs, even other people's dogs, you might prefer to skip the second half of the chapter about Oliver Ott.
Saturday, July 2, 2011
The Devil's Star by Jo Nesbo
I was interested in this novel because a librarian I know is promoting Nesbo as the author to read after you've read the Millenium trilogy by Stieg Larsson (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, etc.).
Nesbo's mysteries (in addition to working as a musician, he writes a children's series) are a series featuring a police detective with possibly the best name ever: Harry Hole.
The Harry Hole series is: The Redbreast, Nemesis, The Devil's Star, The Redeemer, and The Snowman. I think there are two earlier novels, Bat Man and Cockroaches, that have not yet been translated into English. (Bat Man is available in German as Der Fledermausmann.) Usually, I feel that it's important to read the first work in a series, if only because there's so much exposition about the character and the character's background that you miss if you pick up a book later in the series. In this case, I started in the middle, and it may have affected how I perceive the novel.
Harry Hole is a very sympathetic, if troubled, character. He's described as an alcoholic and unstable by his police colleagues. When the first in what turns out to be a series of killings takes place, Harry's commander is chagrined when he discovers that, because everyone else is out on vacation except for his star detective, Tom Waaler, he'll have to call on Harry even though Harry's been out on "vacation" that his boss is pretty sure is one long, long bender.
Like so many detectives, Harry is haunted. He's haunted by the loss of his mother and his sister and by the death of a female colleague, and these feelings are reawakened by the stress he feels as a result of his breakup with Rakel.
Harry has been a drinker for a long time, however. He knows where all the bars in town are; one of his favorites has the delightful name of Underwater.
Besides trying to solve the murder, trying to get Rakel back (harder for Harry because wooing isn't really on his radar), and coping with his night terror, Harry's got another major problem: his colleague, Tom Waaler, is someone he suspects of involvement in the death of his colleague and now he has to work closely with him. If he wants to keep his job. Being a detective is pretty important to Harry Hole, but he's not sure if it worth the price if working with Tom Waaler is part of that price.
The geography of Oslo, and its history, turns out to be important factors in the story. As is so frequently the case, there's a Nazi in the story although his role is not a large one. If you're put off by foreign names, foreign words and foreign place names, especially, this is not the novel for you. If you're game, however, or know Oslo, you'll enjoy the map provided.
Usually, police procedurals do not interest me very much but I will say that Harry's attempts to put together the minimal clues at his disposal not only were creative but really engaged my interest.
I appreciate mysteries very often for their setting and description and The Devil's Star kept my interest by including some interesting facts about pentagrams, diamonds, and the history of building techniques in Oslo.
Nesbo's mysteries (in addition to working as a musician, he writes a children's series) are a series featuring a police detective with possibly the best name ever: Harry Hole.
The Harry Hole series is: The Redbreast, Nemesis, The Devil's Star, The Redeemer, and The Snowman. I think there are two earlier novels, Bat Man and Cockroaches, that have not yet been translated into English. (Bat Man is available in German as Der Fledermausmann.) Usually, I feel that it's important to read the first work in a series, if only because there's so much exposition about the character and the character's background that you miss if you pick up a book later in the series. In this case, I started in the middle, and it may have affected how I perceive the novel.
Harry Hole is a very sympathetic, if troubled, character. He's described as an alcoholic and unstable by his police colleagues. When the first in what turns out to be a series of killings takes place, Harry's commander is chagrined when he discovers that, because everyone else is out on vacation except for his star detective, Tom Waaler, he'll have to call on Harry even though Harry's been out on "vacation" that his boss is pretty sure is one long, long bender.
Like so many detectives, Harry is haunted. He's haunted by the loss of his mother and his sister and by the death of a female colleague, and these feelings are reawakened by the stress he feels as a result of his breakup with Rakel.
Harry has been a drinker for a long time, however. He knows where all the bars in town are; one of his favorites has the delightful name of Underwater.
Besides trying to solve the murder, trying to get Rakel back (harder for Harry because wooing isn't really on his radar), and coping with his night terror, Harry's got another major problem: his colleague, Tom Waaler, is someone he suspects of involvement in the death of his colleague and now he has to work closely with him. If he wants to keep his job. Being a detective is pretty important to Harry Hole, but he's not sure if it worth the price if working with Tom Waaler is part of that price.
The geography of Oslo, and its history, turns out to be important factors in the story. As is so frequently the case, there's a Nazi in the story although his role is not a large one. If you're put off by foreign names, foreign words and foreign place names, especially, this is not the novel for you. If you're game, however, or know Oslo, you'll enjoy the map provided.
Usually, police procedurals do not interest me very much but I will say that Harry's attempts to put together the minimal clues at his disposal not only were creative but really engaged my interest.
I appreciate mysteries very often for their setting and description and The Devil's Star kept my interest by including some interesting facts about pentagrams, diamonds, and the history of building techniques in Oslo.
Saturday, June 25, 2011
What I've been reading lately
I've just finished The Devil's Star by Jo Nesbo (he wrote the Snowman, currently on the bestsellers list). I've also just finished She Got Up Off the Couch and Other Heroic Acts from Mooreland, Indiana which does feature heroic acts although that may seem improbable. Yes, I admit, I found the title irresistible.
I'm currently reading Too Close to the Falls by Catherine Gildiner. I've just finished the chapter called Roy and I'm sorry that Roy departs at the end of the chapter -- it's hard to believe that subsequent chapters can top that one.
And, before I forget -- before finishing The Devil's Star I read A Jane Austen Education: How Six Novels Taught Me about Love, Friendship, and the Things Really Matter, by William Deresiewicz. I can't say enough about this book - I loved it!
I've read all six of Austen's novels and Persuasion, my favorite, twice. Reading this book, I learned so many things about the novels and about their appeal.
Loosely speaking, it's a memoir. Deresiewicz tells the story of his youth, using it as a frame to discuss the novels. This permits him to give real-life examples of ideas and themes presented in Austen's novels and to show Austen's genius lies in using her skill as a storyteller to answer: how should we live? An example is his discussion of Anne's situation in Persuasion; her family does not value her but she eventually finds a sense of family in a circle of friends that includes Navy friends of the man she was once persuaded not to marry, Captain Wentworth.
And, I almost forgot, I read Tom Rachman's The Imperfectionists. That's a book that has earned its popularity - it's very well written, entertaining, and a fast and easy read. And - it's set in Rome. I'd forgotten how attractive I find a novel set in Rome, and I'm happy to report that this novel deserves its own post as well.
I'm currently reading Too Close to the Falls by Catherine Gildiner. I've just finished the chapter called Roy and I'm sorry that Roy departs at the end of the chapter -- it's hard to believe that subsequent chapters can top that one.
And, before I forget -- before finishing The Devil's Star I read A Jane Austen Education: How Six Novels Taught Me about Love, Friendship, and the Things Really Matter, by William Deresiewicz. I can't say enough about this book - I loved it!
I've read all six of Austen's novels and Persuasion, my favorite, twice. Reading this book, I learned so many things about the novels and about their appeal.
Loosely speaking, it's a memoir. Deresiewicz tells the story of his youth, using it as a frame to discuss the novels. This permits him to give real-life examples of ideas and themes presented in Austen's novels and to show Austen's genius lies in using her skill as a storyteller to answer: how should we live? An example is his discussion of Anne's situation in Persuasion; her family does not value her but she eventually finds a sense of family in a circle of friends that includes Navy friends of the man she was once persuaded not to marry, Captain Wentworth.
And, I almost forgot, I read Tom Rachman's The Imperfectionists. That's a book that has earned its popularity - it's very well written, entertaining, and a fast and easy read. And - it's set in Rome. I'd forgotten how attractive I find a novel set in Rome, and I'm happy to report that this novel deserves its own post as well.
Sunday, June 12, 2011
A Drink Before the War by Dennis Lehane
I had long been wanting to read something by Dennis Lehane (I'd heard him speak about his work as a social worker in Boston on NPR as part of the publicity for the Clint Eastwood-directed Mystic River, based on Lehane's novel of the same name), and something or things that he said moved me and I made a mental note that I wanted to read Lehane sometime. Moonlight Mile is on the bestseller lists now, and I’m sure that prompted me to be interested in this novel.
I chose this novel because it was the first in a series and I think it’s generally better to read the first book in the series first. Well, now I have.
Did anyone else read this novel?
I found the first four chapters or so a bit of a slog. Perhaps that’s a rookie finding his footing: I think this was Lehane’s first novel. In fact, I accidentally skipped a few pages in what I think was the fourth chapter and when I realized I had, I said to myself, "That's okay. It was boring, anyway." I thought his portrait of the Irish pols was utterly cliched and somehow unengaging. If his point was that these old-time politicians acted like they were members of a street gang, I got his point.
However, there were some other things I liked very much about this novel. I liked the portrait of the two black sisters; his attempts to both understand and manipulate them remind me of some things I have experienced. Because this is new to me, in the larger context of my life, I admire Lehane for bringing it to life on the page: the hopelessness, the wariness and lack of trust.
Lehane's portraits of Patrick and his feelings about Angie, his work partner and obsession interest, seem weaker to me, probably just because I did not find them as engaging. But, I did find Angie to be a strong and complicated character, and found something in her complicated relationship with her husband rang very true. Patrick loves Angie but is unable to woo her. That makes their relationship a kind of platonic office romance, but Patrick thinks of it constantly and I think his obsession exhausts him.
Somehow, “A Drink Before the War,” was a title that initially made me think of espionage. When you come to the scene in the novel from which that phrase is taken, you’ll see how very far it is from menace disguised by good manners.
I think one could get swept up in the staggering rising action as the novel draws to a close and miss that it raises some very troubling questions. I see that there are themes in Lehane’s work and I admire his attempt to grapple with questions and issues I find too overwhelming to contemplate for very long.
One other point I'd like to make: right now I'm reading Jo Nesbo's "The Devil's Star." It's set in Norway and the detectives in it look to America for information about the patterns and behaviors of serial killers. I find myself thinking about the violence in The Reliable Wife and in this novel and find myself wondering, is violence among us, even within the family, the natural consequence of unbearable pressures?
6/13/2018
I think if you liked this book, you would probably also like The Whites by Richard Price (writing as Harry Brandt) and Brighton by Michael Harvey. When people ask me what kind of book I like, I never know what to say, but I think this is the kind of book I like: urban setting with sharply drawn characters.
I chose this novel because it was the first in a series and I think it’s generally better to read the first book in the series first. Well, now I have.
Did anyone else read this novel?
I found the first four chapters or so a bit of a slog. Perhaps that’s a rookie finding his footing: I think this was Lehane’s first novel. In fact, I accidentally skipped a few pages in what I think was the fourth chapter and when I realized I had, I said to myself, "That's okay. It was boring, anyway." I thought his portrait of the Irish pols was utterly cliched and somehow unengaging. If his point was that these old-time politicians acted like they were members of a street gang, I got his point.
However, there were some other things I liked very much about this novel. I liked the portrait of the two black sisters; his attempts to both understand and manipulate them remind me of some things I have experienced. Because this is new to me, in the larger context of my life, I admire Lehane for bringing it to life on the page: the hopelessness, the wariness and lack of trust.
Lehane's portraits of Patrick and his feelings about Angie, his work partner and obsession interest, seem weaker to me, probably just because I did not find them as engaging. But, I did find Angie to be a strong and complicated character, and found something in her complicated relationship with her husband rang very true. Patrick loves Angie but is unable to woo her. That makes their relationship a kind of platonic office romance, but Patrick thinks of it constantly and I think his obsession exhausts him.
Somehow, “A Drink Before the War,” was a title that initially made me think of espionage. When you come to the scene in the novel from which that phrase is taken, you’ll see how very far it is from menace disguised by good manners.
I think one could get swept up in the staggering rising action as the novel draws to a close and miss that it raises some very troubling questions. I see that there are themes in Lehane’s work and I admire his attempt to grapple with questions and issues I find too overwhelming to contemplate for very long.
One other point I'd like to make: right now I'm reading Jo Nesbo's "The Devil's Star." It's set in Norway and the detectives in it look to America for information about the patterns and behaviors of serial killers. I find myself thinking about the violence in The Reliable Wife and in this novel and find myself wondering, is violence among us, even within the family, the natural consequence of unbearable pressures?
6/13/2018
I think if you liked this book, you would probably also like The Whites by Richard Price (writing as Harry Brandt) and Brighton by Michael Harvey. When people ask me what kind of book I like, I never know what to say, but I think this is the kind of book I like: urban setting with sharply drawn characters.
Monday, April 25, 2011
My new favorite book: A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick
My new favorite book is a book I read for my book club, A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick. The edition I read is the special book club edition and has book club discussion questions and an interview with Goolrick. I found the interview with Goolrick fascinating. He said that Ralph and his mail-order bride are both based, in different ways (obviously?) on him and I would guess that that hint of autobiography in the action and characterization is part of what gives this book its power, and well as Goolrick's mastery of structure, action, and style.
I like this book because I feel that there's a lot of rich psychological insight, both in what the characters say and how they see their world. Something that Ralph says was also identical to something my father said once; I also feel that it's more true to the nineteenth century than some other historical fiction I've read lately (although perhaps not very) and it's brilliantly plotted. The action is compelling, and it moves fast. It's almost true that to say that I did not put the book down once I started it: I read the book in one evening.
The bare skeleton of the plot is that a wealthy man in nineteenth century Wisconsin advertises for a wife. I suspect there are quite a few books that have that basis plot outline. Goolrick does so much with this. I don't want to spoil the ending for you in case you haven't read it but I'll say that the plot offers some twists that I didn't anticipate, and offers characters that are passionate, desperate, self-contradictory, capable of change and incapable of change, in a narrative that is full of drama -- that doesn't seem contrived.
It is an ideal book to be made into a movie and I read that the rights had been sold to Columbia Pictures. For those of you who have read the book, who do you think should play the leads? One writer suggested Bette Davis and Claude Rains and that should give you some indication as to the incendiary nature of this novel.
I like this book because I feel that there's a lot of rich psychological insight, both in what the characters say and how they see their world. Something that Ralph says was also identical to something my father said once; I also feel that it's more true to the nineteenth century than some other historical fiction I've read lately (although perhaps not very) and it's brilliantly plotted. The action is compelling, and it moves fast. It's almost true that to say that I did not put the book down once I started it: I read the book in one evening.
The bare skeleton of the plot is that a wealthy man in nineteenth century Wisconsin advertises for a wife. I suspect there are quite a few books that have that basis plot outline. Goolrick does so much with this. I don't want to spoil the ending for you in case you haven't read it but I'll say that the plot offers some twists that I didn't anticipate, and offers characters that are passionate, desperate, self-contradictory, capable of change and incapable of change, in a narrative that is full of drama -- that doesn't seem contrived.
It is an ideal book to be made into a movie and I read that the rights had been sold to Columbia Pictures. For those of you who have read the book, who do you think should play the leads? One writer suggested Bette Davis and Claude Rains and that should give you some indication as to the incendiary nature of this novel.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Squirrel Meets Chipmunk by David Sedaris
Something funny is always welcome, and Sedaris is known for his comic writing. I looked forward to reading this book because I thought it would short, funny and very hip. (I hadn't read much Sedaris before this; I'd read part of Dress Your Family in Coruroy and Denim.) But if you think you'd like to read Sedaris, I strongly recommend "Santaland," the story of Sedaris' stint as an elf in Macy's "Santa" department.
It's a collection of short stories that might be described as up-to-date fables. While Sedaris said that he did not think most of the stories had "morals," like Aesop's Fables, my take is different -- I thought that all the stories were really written with a very strong point of view about modern life.
This is book is described as a "modern bestiary," so it might be worthwhile to explain what a medieval bestiary, of "book of animals" was (part entertainment, part moral instruction).
The Canadian website "bestiary.ca" offers the following explanation:
I think Sedaris presents these stories for our edification in only a tongue-in-cheek, thoroughly post-modern sort of way. His gaze is unflinching and unsentimental; his satire of human nature and human conduct is strong.
My favorite story in the collection was the one titled, "Squirrel Meets Chipmunk." The squirrel and chipmunk have a wonderful romance until they run out of things to talk about and the chipmunk's family insists that she break off the relationship. Years later, she associates her vague memory of their courtship with the regrets she has about any beauty she failed to appreciate. It's one of the gentler stories.
"The Grieving Owl," also interested me greatly. The title character is an owl who grieves for his lost mate; he explains that he's given up telling folks about his loss because, as one seagull pointed out, that story of loss "is a real buzzkill." The owl captures prey (a rat, for instance) and insists that they answer his questions because the owl has real curiosity and a real thirst for knowledge. Because the owl has been associated with wisdom ("wise old owl, a symbol for the Greek goddess Athena), that makes sense in a traditional way. But there's plenty to offend, disturb, gross out and amuse in this story.
It's a collection of short stories that might be described as up-to-date fables. While Sedaris said that he did not think most of the stories had "morals," like Aesop's Fables, my take is different -- I thought that all the stories were really written with a very strong point of view about modern life.
This is book is described as a "modern bestiary," so it might be worthwhile to explain what a medieval bestiary, of "book of animals" was (part entertainment, part moral instruction).
The Canadian website "bestiary.ca" offers the following explanation:
In the Christian west, it was commonly believed that the natural world, the so-called "book of nature", had been arranged as it was by God to provide a source of instruction to humanity. This idea was based, at least in part, on biblical verses ..Animals were said to have the characteristics they do not merely by accident; God created them with those characteristics to serve as examples for proper conduct and to reinforce the teachings of the Bible. As the pelican revives her dead young after three days with her own blood, so Christ "revived" humanity with his blood after three days in the grave. .. ..All of Creation was said to reflect the Creator, and to learn about the Creator one could study the Creation.
I think Sedaris presents these stories for our edification in only a tongue-in-cheek, thoroughly post-modern sort of way. His gaze is unflinching and unsentimental; his satire of human nature and human conduct is strong.
My favorite story in the collection was the one titled, "Squirrel Meets Chipmunk." The squirrel and chipmunk have a wonderful romance until they run out of things to talk about and the chipmunk's family insists that she break off the relationship. Years later, she associates her vague memory of their courtship with the regrets she has about any beauty she failed to appreciate. It's one of the gentler stories.
"The Grieving Owl," also interested me greatly. The title character is an owl who grieves for his lost mate; he explains that he's given up telling folks about his loss because, as one seagull pointed out, that story of loss "is a real buzzkill." The owl captures prey (a rat, for instance) and insists that they answer his questions because the owl has real curiosity and a real thirst for knowledge. Because the owl has been associated with wisdom ("wise old owl, a symbol for the Greek goddess Athena), that makes sense in a traditional way. But there's plenty to offend, disturb, gross out and amuse in this story.
Sunday, April 17, 2011
True Confessions - I'm reading Michael Caine's From Elephant to Hollywood
Billingsgate Fish Market Image: Tom Curtis / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
From Elephant to Hollywood is, I shamefully admit, just the sort of thing I like. Michael Caine's memoir is literate, thoughtful, more than a little sentimental, thoroughly respectable, without a harsh word for anyone but a few charmingly self-deprecating anecdotes.
Caine is actually the author of two other books, What's It All About, about his earlier career and Acting in Film, meant to explain what he knows about naturalistic acting for the camera. On Amazon, I see that it is paired with other acting technique books which I take to mean that actors read it to improve their technique.
Michael Caine is a storyteller and I greatly admire his interest in literature -- no surprise, really, because after all, I like that sort of thing too.
The enthusiasm he shows for his friends, his family, and the people who have helped him in his career is winning and probably a good template for anyone who wishes also to be successful.
I have read the first half of the book and the end of the book -- as I often do, I lost my place and somehow lost a big chunk of the middle. Having read the end of the book, I am startled to discover how many of his recent films I've seen: Sleuth, as directed by Kenneth Branagh, Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, Inception, The Prestige, Children of Men, The Quiet American, and Miss Congeniality.
One of the anecdotes I enjoyed most was the story of how he met his wife. It's a charming story that conveys both the storyteller's sense of himself as the darling of the gods and his immense good fortune to find a much-loved wife. One thinks of Homer.
His description of his father helped me to understand my own world. Although his father lived through the voting in of Labour after the war and the new opportunities for health care and education provided by Labour, his father remained unchanged in his firm belief that no one could help him. I found Caine's explanation of that psychology very helpful to me in trying to understand my own life; and I see that Caine presented a huge contrast to his father in his belief in the possibility of becoming a success.
Caine is a fine storyteller, and he tells a story so perfectly shaped I'm almost embarrassed to repeat it. Caine's father worked as a porter (I think) at the Billingsgate Fish Market on the north side of the Thames, the site of a centuries-old fish market. In 1982, the market was relocated to Canary Wharf and the Victorian building housing it was converted into a banquet hall.
There, Caine subsequently attended a party given by a wealthy friend. The strangeness of the journey that led him to be present at a luxurious party in what had been his father's workplace struck him and he shed a tear. Princess Michael of Kent asked him if he was all right and he told said it was only that his allergies were acting up.
At the end of the book, Caine offers a list of ten favorite films. After reading this list, I checked out No. 10 from the library because I'd never seen it and I did think it was wonderful. I love that even with his list he's giving a mention to something fine and helping to ensure it will find an audience. In reverse order then, his personal top ten favorites are Tell No One, the 2006 French thriller (distributed in the US by Music Box Films, a local company), The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Gone With the Wind, All That Jazz, The Maltese Falcon, Some Like It Hot, Charade, On the Waterfront, The Third Man, and Casablanca.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)