FRAN LEBOWITZ READER Compilation of Metropolitan Life '78 and Social Studies '81

Fran Lebowitz (FL) is an author and raconteur of witty social commentary.  FL is also ignomoniously known as a writer with an ongoing writers' block.  Her career is experiencing a revival thanks to two recent documentaries breathing life into her caustic humor and astute observations.  "Public Speaking" (2010) and Martin Scorsese's doc. miniseries, "Pretend It's a City" (2021).  Scorsese is a brilliant director who knows to refrain from reining in his subjects.  "Pretend It's a City" begins each episodes with FL glibly walking past the brownstone in NYC where she joins  Martin for banter.  Lebowitz's love for gab, cigarettes and NYC all come to light through her non-stop diatribe.  Fran pays tribute to her beloved city.  She can talk the talk as well as walk the walk.  The streets and subways are tinged in soft hues as we gladly tag along after our formidable guide.  Can she write the wrongs in captious comments of people and things that have come before?  She often stops and thinks about them to voice her, misgivings.  Recently, I had the pleasure of hearing FL speak.  Her onstage intro was brief leaving Fran to take Q&A's from the audience.  Some questions were insipid, and some perceptive.  Regardless, Fran's repartee was fast, clever and funny.  The event piqued my interest to read her early works.  "Fran Leibowitz's Reader" combines her two books from '78 and '81.  I found her writing wanting in alacrity and aptitude.  FL was self-aggrandizing and most egregious of all, dull.  Much of the writing wanes on about not writing.  "As for not writing, well, when it comes to not writing, I'm the real thing, the genuine article."  The same can be said for the vast amount of time spent in bed.  "My schedule could not, at this time, accommodate such a task, seeing as how I was up to my ears in oversleeping." She's known for friendships with celebrities like Martin Scorsese and Toni Morrison.  After hearing FL be entertaining with an audience,  I agreed, with her assessment, she's a contemporary Oscar Wilde.  FL is not reticent letting us know how brilliant she is.  "Gifted though I might be with a flair for international politics, I will renounce the practice of exhibiting this facility to my passengers."  "Even though I am breathtakingly bilingual, I will not attempt ever again to curry favor with waiters."  A meme in her book portrays the snobbish, class society in NYC.  "Wealth and power are more likely to be the result of breeding than they are of reading."  Her massive collection of books is legendary.  Lebowtiz should be esteemed for her relentless rhetoric which works when heard but not through her written word.  If you prefer, sleep is suggested. "Sleep is the consummate protection against the unseemliness that is the invariable consequence of being awake."  

A Calling for Charlie Barnes by J Ferris Fact or Fiction? That is the Question

Joshua Ferris' novel "A Calling for Charlie Barnes," is an ingenious approach to storytelling.  What is fact and what is faction, that is the question.  Ferris was a finalist for the Nat'l Book Award,2007.  NPR named "A Calling for Charlies Barnes," one of the best novels of 2021.  Charlie Barnes is the beloved hero, or so we are led to believe, until we're led to believe otherwise.  Therein lies an enigma baffling to the readers in this beguiling, irksome and riveting novel.  Whose story telling is telling the truth?  Who can handle the truth?  Most importantly, whose in control of the truth?  Charlie's life is first told by an unnamed narrator, later revealed as his son Jake.  Actually, his foster son.  Jake is a successful novelist which does little to ingratiate himself with the family he claims.  He's devoted to Charlie.  Bereft when he learns from Charlie he's been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer; or perhaps self-diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, Jake wants to rally his loving siblings, or civil "step-siblings" round their dad.  Only dad is not revered by his siblings.   In fact, Jerry told dad he was working abroad which is a fraud.  His sis in TX stopped buying their dad's attention getting fabrications long ago.  True, Charlie is a pathological liar and narcissist.  Sis has her dad pegged.  Jake admits his stepdad is something of a joke but also a fucking colossus. "There was no bringing him down, no killing him off."  Charlie has been married twice before his current wife, Barbara.   Not counting his 2nd wife Barbara and a father of three, not counting his 2nd daughter whom Jake feels is a major mistake to include.  Charlie is possessed of a fantastical mind-set owing to the fictional selves and careers he intended to make happen.  Without his many plans and failings, his banal existence wouldn't be worth living. A charmer of women, spinner of tales, he's his own worst enemy due to his stupid pride.  He's a pathetic loser who still manages to win admiration of friends and women and commands the attention of complete strangers he engages in lengthy conversation.  You can't dismiss this colorful chap who dons a rakish hat. The author's extremely clever style and observations are not to be overlooked.  "When we consider the necessarily curated nature of any narrated life, its omissions as well as its trending hostages, if you will, we are forced to conclude that every history, including our own first-person accounts, is a fiction of sort."  How many of us are laden with self-deceptions before getting out of bed in the mornings?  This novel reckons with the assumption there's an essential opposition between truth and fiction.   Truthfully,  I highly recommend this entertaining and deceptively enlightening depiction of fact versus fiction.    

George Saunders' A Swim in the Pond in the Pond-A Master Class in Fiction Writing

George Saunders (b Amer. 1958) is an award winning novelist and short story writer.  "Lincoln in the Bardot" won the Man Booker ('17) and his story collection "Tenth of December won the Short Story prize ('13).  The title, "A Swim in the Pond" is derived from a short story by one of his admired Russian writers.   Saunders shares what he brings to his MFA students.  We get an understanding of what drives a reader of fiction to engage with a story and, what helps perfect fiction writing.  "Art is the place where liking what we like, over and over, is not only allowed but is the essential skill."  He asks his students and us, "How long are you willing to work on something?" believing writing is not a skill that can be taught, only analyzed.  Saunders helps us understand why we are drawn to what we like about a story.  This may seem simple, but it is deceptively complicated.  "Casualty is to the writer what melody is the songwriter: a superpower that the audience feels as the crux of the matter.  "Focus on just one thing, repeatedly, Saunders instructs.  When editing one's writing..."read a line, have a reaction to it, trust (accept) that reaction, and do something in response, instantaneously, by intuition."  Here Saunders is trusting readers to know whether something rings true.  In fact, Saunders quotes critic Randall Jarrell, "What is good is good without our saying so, and beneath all our majesty we know this."  Saunders dissects short stories by Chekov, Tolstoy and Gogol and infuses us with insights as to why our intuition was directing us forward.   Anyone can google how to hit a curve ball but that doesn't necessarily translate into the batting cage.  Being able to instantaneously make decisions on what to swing at and what to strike out mark the differences between a great writer and a good writer.  There are a set of virtues implicit in the craft of  fiction: specificity, efficiency, lots of details, escalating drama and showing purpose.   Learning the mechanics to creating art or hitting a fast ball do not equate to acquiring the aspired to skill.  Still, learning ways to apply a keener eye generally ensures a greater appreciation.  "A Swim in the Pond" is interesting and thought provoking.  It's helped me fathom crucial, as well as inherent creative writing skills.   Moreover, it's lead to greater depth in my reading.