In April 2018, Mark Geradot's affair with a beautiful, much younger woman would not have garnered headlines except Geradot's scorned wife relinquished hell's fury. Jennair Geradot's scenario was not unique except she commited the unimaginable. Jennair staked a high tech espionage surveillance of her philandering husband and his mistress, carried out the heinous murder of her replacement and then killed herself. Should we care? The answer is yes. Not for its salacious and gruesome details but because it's a true story told by Geradot which others can learn from and prevent such tragic outcomes. "My intent is in no way to exploit what had happened but to set the record straight, shine a light on mental health, on guns and hopefully humanize the two women I loved and give them both the respect they deserve." It must be noted Geradot receives remuneration for giving the two women he reportedly loved and there's blame to be levied against his deceitful behavior. Should Mark feel guilty? This is a question he poses for himself and for which I answer with a resounding, yes! Needless, Mark's illicit behaviors are not illegal, nor punishable by stoning; thankfully. Mark's behaviors didn't abet his wife's murderous action but he's guilty of not abating his wife's anguish while pursuing his love interest, Meredith, his boss. Mark's recounting of his young relationship with Jennair, their happy but tumultuous married life is driven with the foreknowledge of its disastrous ending. Furthermore, the posthumous investigative journey he pursues on the months of his ill-fated new city, new job and new, improved lover is jaw dropping in scope. It's hard to conceive Jennair was able to pursue her vengeance without Mark noting flagrant warnings signs of her mounting psychosis. Mark professes to have been unaware he was in an abusive relationship with Jennair. He does concede, " I do regret having carelessly wounded Jennair so deeply, for not recognizing her sickness nor the depth of the wounds I'd caused and not foreseeing the lengths to which she would go to relieve her pain and exact her revenge. " Mark seeks to connect with Jennair's psychiatrist and divorce coach after her suicide. Jennair's psychiatrist refused on ethical grounds but Sheila, Jennair's coach agreed. After sharing stories from his married life, Sheila queried Mark. "She asked, almost rhetorically, you were in an abusive relationship. You know that right? Me? In an abusive relationship? I would never say that." I say this is a shameless exercise for Mark to shed guilt and express remorse, regardless of how disingenuous it seems.
Friday, July 15, 2022
LAWN BOY Banned in FL Schools Y/A Coming of Age
Book banning is shameful and outrageous. It attacks the very foundations of learning, freedom of expression and erodes the capacity to think independently. Banning of books in schools, or anywhere is the demise of democracy. LAWN BOY by Jonathan Evison is a Y/A coming of age novel. Michael "Mike" is a teen living with his single mother and mentally challenged brother on a reservation. Mike speaks to the reader of his struggles to get ahead when it's barely possibly to stop from falling behind. This is an American Dream story told from a young voice reminiscent of Huck Finn or Holden Caulfield. Like these two iconic literary characters, Mike is an outsider burdened with responsibilities but endowed with kindness and perspective are well beyond his years. Mike's indefatigable spirit and loyalty is admirable and at times, cringe worthy. Lesson for youung as well as old is the ability to question one's affirmations. "Maybe loyalty was conditional, after all. Maybe my burgeoning sense of self, my developing identity as a socially engaged, newly gay, working-class half-Mexican topiary artist demanded such wholesale sacrifices as leaving my old friends in the dust." The novel's hero asserts his self- homosexuality. This is likely the reason this literary novel is banned in some states. Mike's journey discovery is within a world far less than accepting of deviating from a misguided perceived norm. Tending lawns is how Michael earns a living. It's mostly enjoyable work if it weren't for the clients. "The tasks were mostly satisfying...a heady mix of concentration and abstraction....The only downside of landscaping was the clients, specifically, those that went out of the way to let you know your place." Mike's quips on the wealthy, elitist treatment of those assumed to be beneath them are hilarious and shaming. As he contemplates what's limiting himself he questions, "If he was only willing to think beyond the confines of his experience, if he could summon the courage and wherewithal to break the patterns that defined him. If only he could believe in himself. And I was beginning to." Mike's burgeoning self-determination causes us to root for his success. "I never wanted to be the guy that leveraged himself at at the cost of everything else." As it turns out, "I'm mowing your lawn on my terms now. I'm making my own rules and punching my own clock. I'm blazing my own trail." There's much to admire from Evison's inspiring book It's a stentorian voice for independence. "Maybe the biggest lesson I've learned, in art and in life, is that when the questions become too numerous and the considerations begin to feel a little overwhelming, you just have to look away for a minute and regather your vision for the thing, try to see it the way it originally came to you." Ban book banning. Put this on top of your reading list.
Tuesday, July 5, 2022
A LIE SOMEBODY TOLD US ABOUT YOU- Abortion's Impact on an Intact Couple
"Shame is the lie someone told you about yourself," according to Anais Nin. Peter Ho Davies appropriate this quote for the title to his sensitive novel which uncovers the aftermath of an abortion on a married couple. Peter Ho Davies' tender and stirring novel is narrated in third-person from the vantage of the father. A young couple are counseled on the pre-natal exams of their fetus, determined as female. A possible genetic disordered laden this couple whether to terminate the pregnancy. Deciding to terminate, the regret, guilt and contemplation following the birth of their son afterwards drive the father's feeling towards his wife, son and himself. The overriding emotion is one of guilt for the daughter they didn't have and guilt towards the fierce love felt for the son they have. "He is the child of abortion and the end of regret. We had an abortion and then we had a child. But also: we had a child and then we had an abortion. The koan of their lives." Life is messy and complicated. The couple are advised by several teachers they should have their son tested for autism. Testing is something viewed with anathema and is deferred although both parents observe their son's social awkwardness and physical delays. The resentment towards the son's coordinated classmates who rush pass and ignore him feel lethal to the father. He choses to volunteer at a health clinic that provides abortions. He stops working there because the animosity felt towards protestors at the clinic was as a murderous rage. "He realizes with a dull pang, the antis, who are the only ones who can absolve him, forgive him. Because they believe he's a sinner, and secretly he agrees. That's why he hates them really-because they won't." This perceptive novel doesn't defend or argue for abortion rights. It opens our hearts and minds to the powerful feelings following the procedure which is not made lightly. The author's aim is not to clarify political or emotional reasoning, rather, to have the space to regard his feelings. "Later he will understand that all these feelings-his, his wife's-just won't fit between the lines, between the sides. In the political box. He doesn't want to argue about those feelings to defend them or justify them, he just wants to be left alone to feel them." His wife tells him, "It's not really regret, you know. It's grief." I highly recommend this absorbing and intelligent novel.