Jeffrey Toobin's "American Heiress"-Patty Hearst Kidnapping-Napping is a Better Use of Your Time

"American Heiress The Wild Saga of the Kidnapping, Crimes & Trial of Patty Hearst" by Jeffrey Toobin should have made for intriguing reading & resolution of what during the 1970's, came to represent the turmoil, economic collapse, rampant depravity & social unrest in our nation.  As iconic an image Patty Hearst holding a machine gun & wearing a black beret remains for many, she has become all but forgotten by anyone born after 1980.  Toobin (b NYC 1960) is an author, attorney & legal analyst for the New Yorker & CNN.  Toobin would be thought to be someone to shed light on the mystery of whether Patty was a mere patsy, unjustly convicted and sentenced, or a willing participate in felonious crimes committed as a member of the Sybanese Liberation Army (SLA.)  The SLA doesn't  resonate today although it was among the militant groups & cults such as the Black Panthers, Charles Mason & James Jones.  Toobin is the author of "A Vast Conspiracy," (00) an investigation into the lurid sex scandals of Pres Bill Clinton.  "American Heiress" tries to be titilating with sexual alliances within the SLA but became tedious along with TMI on individuals in the SLA, the group's movements & helter skelter planning and the minutia of an era overflowing with corruption & disillusionment.  The Hearst kidnapping in 1973 became emblematic of the political culture for the country during Watergate, the Middle East Crisis, civil unrest & the evacuation in Viet Nam.  The Hearst operation was one of the largest & most complex kidnapping investigations in the history of the FBI.  An interesting fact now  forgotten, the coverage of the Hearst kidnapping was the 1st, live national news event broadcast.  What wanted to discover from Toobin's legal viewpoint, was Hearst's guilt or innocence.  Patty was quoted from her autobiography, "The real choice he {DeFreeze} was offering was to join them or be executed."  Toobin stated that Patricia kept asking to be released but "her evolution from empathy to sympathy was gradual but that evolution did take place."  This was mid-way through a turgid biography I had already lost interest in prior to Patty's capture & media, courtroom circus.  DeFreeze, the self-appointed SLA leader's motto was  "Death to the facist insect that prey upon the life of the people."  However, most people don't have any knowledge of the SLA, Patty Hearst or whatever the Hell this meant.   Napping, rather than reading the kidnapping of Patty Hearst would've been time better spent.

British Booker Prize Winner Julian Barnes' "Flaubert's Parrot" for Literary Highbrows

Julian Barnes (b US 1946) is a talented author of novels & non-fiction.  "The Sense of an Ending" received the Man Booker Prize in 2011.  It's soon to be released as a major motion picture. "Levels of Life," (2013) was a memoir exploring his grief over the death of his wife and an intriguing historic triptych.  His unique writing style and humanistic interest are brave, brilliant and deeply stirring.  "Flaubert's Parrot," (1984) is an esoteric, unique form of writing that pays tribute to a writer whom Barnes is obviously in awe.  It's also an attempt at sharing the artistic process of researching & writing a biography with interest & integrity.  Unfortunately, the book reads like a thesis for a Ph.D which became utterly tedious & too buried in minutia pertaining to Flaubert's life, loves, fascinations & peccadilloes.  I chose the book because of my affinity for Barnes' writing & my appreciation of Flaubert's "Madame Bovary" without knowing much about the French author.  I was bored by an overwhelming girth of knowledge about Bovary.  He was presented in various scenarios as rather pathetic with numerous health issues & social pecadilloes.  (His friendship with George Sands was illuminating.)  Barnes juxtaposed the reader into the mindset of a writer focusing on a historic figure,  "So you can take the novelist either way; as a pertinacious & finished stylist; or as one who considered language tragically insufficient."  And with a complicit wink, Barnes quips "all biographers secretly want to annex and channel the sex-lives of their subjects; you must make your judgement on me as well as on Flaubert."  Barnes shares TMI regarding what we want to believe or not about Flaubert's sexual affairs.  I still greatly admired Barnes apt ability for blurring the lines between fiction/non-fiction & creating his own unique & brilliant genre.  However, for "Flaubert's Parrot" unless you have an incessant yearn for a glut of information on Flaubert this novel doesn't fly high in my esteem.  Still, I understand Barnes' homage to a literary genius.  Barnes often quotes from Flaubert's masterpiece "Madame Bovary."  "Language is like a cracked kettle on which we beat out tunes for bears to dance to, while all the time we long to move the stars to pity."

Booker Prize Winning British Author Graham Swift's Mothering Sunday-A Romance

Born in the UK (1949) Swift is a prolific & honored literary figure. His novel, "Last Orders" received the Booker Prize (1996) & made into a movie starring Michael Caine.  "Mothering Sunday-A Romance" is a tender reflection of an affair between a housemaid, Jane Fairchild, & a young aristocract, Paul Sherringham, from a neighboring manor.  This deceptibly diminutive story possesses a fleeting magical aura.  The year is 1924,  post WWI in England.  There's been immeasurable loss & grief permeating the fringes of society trying to recuperate.  It's noted, "WWI suited all business" yet the times were yielding to another age where sticklers for class designations were crumbling.  The blurring of class distinctions still maintain barriers.  "Mothering Sunday" refers to Sundays, the day off for the servants used by most to visit their mothers.  Jane Fairchild is the name given her at the orphanage where she was raised with kindness & education.   She recognizes the freedoms allowed by not having severed ties. This plank sheet lays the groundwork to shape the opportunities for a future without constraints.  Still, her life begins at 14 as a housekeeper.  She is now a young woman in her early 20's & employed as a maid for the Upleigh family.  The Upleigh's & Sherringhams have lost sons in the War & much of their wealth but cling to the appearance & decorum of the aristocracy.  Jane is drawn to books (barely read) at the Upleigh estate & to the handsome & virile Paul who is betrothed to a woman of his station.  Jane's irreverence, curiosity & sexual emancipation are admirable traits although we sympathy arises for her life in service & her subservant role as a sexual diversion.  Graham' artful narrative of a fleeting affair is blended with the art of self-discovery & empowerment.  Jane's tale is told in flashback with a wink to secrecy.  Her reveals are pedaled at a leisurely & enticing pace.   Jane's love for reading flourish & she beomes a successful & revered author.   A writer's thrust is to capture the stuff of life, to capture the very feeling of being alive.  Swift's "Mothering Sunda-A Romance" is  an exquisite ode to self-awakening.

The Truth about Death by Robert Hellenga - A Novella Rift with Grief & Romance with Lots to Tell Yah

Hellenga is a crafty storyteller with lofty goals of grappling with death, religious convictions and life's meaning.  Hellenga has the midwestern sensibilities of his MI, WI, IL upbringing mixed in with a wanderlust for living abroad (especially in Italy.)  Nine stories intertwine around families dispersing and converging.  Families coping with grief together and alone as is demanded by the nature of mourning; particularly the sudden & unexpected loss of a child.  Despite the seemingly macabre themes, this poignant & clever collection is overflowing with fleeting romance, sumptuous meals, absorbing art, humor & life's perfidies.  The 1st story beings with an undertaker embalming his own father & having his daughter at his side learing the mortuary business with the intent of becoming a partner.  When you feel the stories sliding under the grim reaper's scythe, there will appear a detour (possibly by bus) embarking on an uncertain & hidden route.  The unexpected joy ride is filled with surprises, intrigue and desperation.  There's an unremitting melancholy to the stories but they are doused with gayiety and irreverence.  The final story is the most troubling.  A mother loses her young daughter suddenly & loses her grip on reality requiring hospitalization.  Mournfulness is not the prevailing tone or meme of this cerebral & eccentric novella.  Hellenga is a prof in IL, was educated at the Univ of MI & spent ample  time living abroad.  His writes elegantly with stories that resonate leaving one with a hearty appetite for taking a succulent bite out of life.