MONSTERS-A Fan's Dilemma-Remains Unclear after Reading

Claire Dederer poses an interesting conundrum, how to separate the art from the artist when the artist is known to have been hideous and committed serious offenses. This is a compelling question as one may seek dispensation to appreciate works done by an artist known for committing sexual or physical assault, child endangerment. Or someone who is a womanizer and treats others with cruelty and utter disregard. This prescient topic weighs heavily on us in today's woke world with a continuous list of talented celebrities being outed for their bad behaviors.  Dederer narrows her monstrous subjects to males which is one sided but necessary to conform to her thesis.  And, further restricts judgements for the rare few where  true genius is applicable. Her thesis asks if genius merits accommodations or hall passes for the individual's actions.  Dederer seems to waffle rather than commit to a conclusion.  She does imply quashing the artist's freedom to act without consequences would inflate artistic freedom and the artist's psyche. The term genius is not a term dispensed without gravitas. The adjective is reserved for an iconoclastic group for whom unequivocal esteem is owed. (Of course, this too can be debated.) Taking examples from the various art forms of music, film, literature and visual arts Dederer honed in on Michael Jackson, Woody Allen, Ernest Hemingway and Pablo Picasso.  She further asserts, "We are excited by their ass-hole-ness...We want the asshole to cross the line, to break the rules. We reward that rule-breaking, and then we go a step further, and see it as endemic to art-making itself." This assumption is where I part ways with Dederer's dissertation. But, it's imperative to note there are degrees to which bad-ass behavior is tolerated. In no way is criminal behavior to be exonerated for the sake of great art, rather legal actions would be merited. And, the paradigms for Hemingway and Picasso's womanizing do not do justice to disavowing their contributions. Having read MONSTERS, the issue is not resolved as to how to appreciate great art created by geniuses who nonetheless are mere mortals. Although, it doesn't require an Einstein to solve this enigma. I argue great art stands on its own merits and should be viewed as its own entity. Not, to be diminished. But, the dispensation of negating illicit and degrading behaviors must not be disregarded.  Society is too quick to hand out accolades and too quick with its condemnations. For the film that doesn't receive an Acad. Award, does it change the work in any way? Of course not. Music, literature, art doesn't change like Dorian Gray's portrait in the attic but the stains on human nature are notable nonetheless.  

Comedian Daniel Tosh-Pulls No Punches

Last night before a sold out house at Santa Rosa's Luther Burbank Theater, Daniel Tosh was in top form as he wielded the crowd with his wit to laugh at the absurdity from both sides of an issue. Known for his sardonic take on current political and social issues, Tosh took aim at hot topics including abortion, vaccines, political parties, black athletes, police brutality with a no holds barred, brash approach. Tosh's topical material was well crafted and cutting-edge. It felt totally organic and original. Tosh started out gently and built-up to a comical crescendo. He said he planned to switch his career from comedy to magic. He gave a sealed envelope to one person and asked another to name a number from 1-100.  The number chosen, 99, was not the 54 in the sealed envelope. Tosh poked fun at the ridiculous choice of 99, then came down on "54" for not choosing 99 to save the joke. He often made himself the butt of the joke, "This all proves that magic is stupid." His modus operandi through his non-stop, spell-binding routine that pushed back at the absurdity of opposing views. His routine flowed effortlessly for well over an hour with precise timing and circuitous material which was sardonic, sensible, irreverent and redemptive.  His overriding attitude of disdain was never off-putting. He steered the audience to ironic and hilarious observations that still allowed the audience to feel safe and sane regardless how inane or contentious the joke. Tosh told the audience it was his job to go there...and go there he did. He claimed, "I'm willing to lose half my audience," and I for one, took him at his word.  His wife's pregnancy with 3 fetuses was cause for high-fiving after learning 2 of the 3 fetuses had become non-viable. A seriously funny discourse ensued that crossed pedophilia with life beginning at fertilization. His poignant goodnight kiss on his daughter's birthmark led to a cringeworthy punchline that struck you in the gut and the funny bone. Tosh was for abortion just not pro, pro-choice for women. He appreciated how cop's get trigger happy, "I was a lifeguard and I admit to blowing the whistle when not necessary." The litany of people he's okay with getting shot include fans who try to enlist their sections in cheers and people who drive around speed bumps.  His candid take  mocked his own wealth and the virtues of having money as far outweighing being poor. Tosh's contemptuous outlooks delivered without rancor were altogether clever, thought provoking and hilarious. Tosh contemporary outtakes showcase him at the top of his game and destined for fame.  Daniel Tosh tells it like he sees it and pulls no punches. My hunch is he's a formidable funny man for the ages. Catch him whenever, wherever you can. 

sardonic sarcastic sensible irreverent redemptive 

Kelly Link's The BOOK of LOVE-Something to Love for Everyone Thus for No One

The author of The BOOK of LOVE, Kelly Link, is a Pulitzer Prize nominated short story writer. In her debut novel, she spun a multi-genre novel into a cornucopia of characters and plots. The book begins bewitchingly then morphs into a bewildering mess and far less transfixing. The pastiche of genres and themes include young adult fiction, fantasy, romance, magic, coming-of-age, family dysfunction, racism and racial stereotyping, good versus evil and plenty of sex.  Not to say a mixed concoction can't be intoxicating, but, here too many ingredients did spoil the brew. The genesis of the plot has a lot to convince you to imbibe this elixir of intrigue.  Three teens somehow arrive in their high school at midnight with a dawning dread. There's a unifying realization they somehow were dead. But, somehow are back from the dead to talk about it. Their unease and puzzlement as to what happened and their sense of second chances offers up a lot of an enticing spell.  Mo, Daniel and Laura are the teens from a small, coastal town called Lovesend.  The convoluted plot entails the three who knew each other as classmates, neighbors and band mates. It continues to revolve around a myriad of tasks they must complete to compete for the prize of remaining alive.  All three are learning to tame magic powers they've obtained while releasing their liscivious libidos. Cursed mortals that had been granted immortality are complicating matters and creating terrifying problems for the teens.  Meanwhile, Laura and her sister Susanna are constantly at each other's throats. Daniel and Susanna spend as much time as possible having sex.  Mo finds his lover who unfortunately is hexed and not as he appears. There's more drama on the home fronts;  the sisters' father return after a long abandonment. Mo mourns the death of his grandmother who died while he was dead. And, Daniel's younger half-siblings offer chaos and charm.  Link tries to utilize her short story writing skills to combine all the different characters and twists but there's too much to contain and feel sane.  I wished for a change of pace in my reading but this was too dizzy to decipher and too far-fetched to sustain. Link failed to pull a rabbit out of her hat.  Don't read that!  Read in lieu of The BOOK of LOVE, GET IN TROUBLE instead.

GRIEF is for PEOPLE- Sloane Crosley Mires the Loss of Her Friend and Her Trinkets

Sloane Crosley is a renowned writer of humorist essays that have garnered literary awards, and fans for her wry, observational sense of humor. "GRIEF is for PEOPLE" is deeply personal and introspective as she mourns the loss of her friend, Russel Perrault who killed himself.  Perrault hired her at Random House. From there, the relationship evolved into much more. Crosley describes Perrault as "my favorite person, the one who somehow sees me both as I want to be seen and as I actually am, the one whose belief in me over the years has been the most earned (he is not my parent), the most pure (he is not my boyfriend), and the most forgiving (he is my friend)'. Crosley navigates her grief away from painting Perrault as a saint as she quickly counters. "There are, of course, days when he is not my favorite person, days when I would pay him to be a little less like himself."  Crosley's memoir is more clever than maudlin, more delightful than depressing, yet it is all of that and more.  Perrault's unexpected suicide coincides with a burglary of her jewelry and treasured trinkets stolen from her apartment from the spice case purchased during a flea market trip (one of Perrault's favorite pastimes) enjoyed together where he cajoled her into purchasing the item "meant for her." The exhuming of relevance between a robbery and the death of a loved would seem to bear inconsequential significance. Crosley's deft skills as a writer and sleuth expose the crossroads and the disjunction between the two events.  "In the case of the burglary, there is a bad guy, there is a potential for restitution and there is a potential for fairness. Not so for a suicide." Joan Didion's memoir "The Year of Magical Thinking" is often referred to as Crosley convinces herself her obsession with regaining her possessions is sound. "If the necklace can come home, then everything will be just as it used to be." Nonetheless, Crosley pursues the villain who robbed her of mementos and looks back for an understanding why her beloved friend would chose to end his life which are both responsible for extracting her happiness and security.  Crosely doesn't gloss over her depression but neither does she let us wallow in morbidity. She illustrates Perrault as complex, convivial with an infectious dash of  exuberance. As the layers of Perrault's character are removed and Crosley contends with life going forward, we're uplifted peering through the sharp lens of her inconsolable loss and unflappable spirit. Looking back with somber acceptance of Perrault's heartbreaking decision, Crosley asks him, "How come you didn't see the great wheel of the world and find a different spoke? Were you so jaded and impatient? Weren't you curious about what would happen tomorrow and the days after that?"

Percival Everett JAMES-Jim Narrates His Harrowing Escape with Huck

Twain's novel The ADVENTURES of HUCKLEBERRY FINN is one of the most iconic books of the 20th C. Having read the novel as a young teen, I was swept away by the odyssey of Huck and Jim on the MI river and taken with the friendship between Huck, a young white boy and Jim, a Blackman living as a slave. As much as I admired Huck for befriending Jim and abetting him as a runaway despite being raised to view blacks as subhuman, unworthy of compassion, the gravitas of Huck's rejection of these vile norms and his courageous rejections of them didn't strike me with as much pain as being witness to Jim's agony through his eyes, mind and conversations with Huck. Jim's humanity bellows in anguish and resounds with dignity as he attempts a harrowing escape north looking out for himself and Huck who's fleeing an abusive father.  This book deals a with Jim's abilities to read, write and speak in a dialect that aligns with the grammar and elocution of whites. The burden of illiteracy and speech denoted inferior, is a form of subjection that perpetuates enslavement. The inner strength and moral certitude of Jim comes through his selfless acts and conversations with Huck who looked to him for comfort and guidance. Hucks asks Jim, "How I s'posed to know what good is. Way I sees it is dis. If'n ya gots to hat a rule to tells ya what's good, if'n ya gots to hat good 'sprained to ya, den ya cain't be good. If'n ya need sum kinda God to tells ya right from wrong, den you won't never know." Attention is focused on literacy as it signifies freedom. Jim realizes, "The power of reading made itself clear and real to me. If I could see the words, then no one could control what I got from them. It was a completely private affair and completely free and, therefore, completely subversive."  Jim was met with bafflement from those, including Huck and fellow slaves in regards to his non-slave talk and his literacy skills. One of the many poignant and deeply disturbing experiences involves another slave George who aided Jim in risking his life to swipe a pencil stub he asked for. George beseeches Jim to write his own life story, understanding how oppression is maintained by keeping slaves illiterate. The sovereignty embedded in writing is also the power to record history and dispense knowledge. Everett's novel works as a daring odyssey of survival against all barriers. The most egregious obstacle is systemic racial hatred and the barbaric of human slaves. Huck's dawning realizations and Jim's convictions provide simple truths without preaching by reaching deep into one's soul. "How kin one person own another person? Dat be a good question, Huck." Jim considers "A man who refused to own slaves but was not opposed to others owning slaves was still a slaver, to my thinking." And, Jim's assessment of evil did not apply to whites only. "Bad as whites were, they had no monopoly on duplicity, dishonesty or perfidy." Twain's "HUCK FINN" stands as a classic tale and testament to the horrors of slavery woven into an adventure experienced within a coming of age novel. JAMES expounds on this tale in a broader and more honest manner.  I strongly urge reading both great literary works as testaments to the scope of humankind's attributes, from the most divine to the most sinister.  

Anthony Veasna So's AFTERPARTIES-Published Posthumously-CA/Cambodian Families Who Fled Communist Killings

Anthony Veasna So's parents escaped Cambodia's the communist regime to northern CA along with a community that provided their children a safe haven in which to thrive. So's combined short stories in AFTERPARTIES is a wry exposure of the malaise of inertia that permeates the first generation of American Cambodians blessed with opportunities that seem to go awry. Living with the omnipresent lament of their parents and elders it was often heard, "We escaped the Communists. So what are boys like you doing?" The lame outcomes never achieve expectations or its desired efforts. Pressure to produce proves overbearing as the majority of young people, more so for young gay Cambodians, and most  succumb to the status quo, "Guys who never left our hometown, who stayed committed to a dusty CA free of ambition or beaches." embedded in these stories are quirky, likable characters whose self-awareness and acknowledgements of their families' antiquated customs, create endearing stories of generational and social divides. The Cambodian genocide shrouds all 11 stories. In the first story, "Three Women of Chuck's Donuts" a single mother of two girls brings them with her to her flailing donut shop. She's plagued by the menacing presence of a Cambodian patron she fears will harm her and her daughters  having located her. The young girls use their imagination to construct their own stories about the man that are far more innocuous and entertaining. In "Superking Son Scores Again," a young Cambodian who was hailed as a badminton star is now the proprietor of a languishing grocery store where the younger Cambodian boys gather. The former star is exposed as a gambler who drives his family business into debt but not before the younger boys enlist him as coach in their triumphant badminton competitions. There is a jocular warmth to all the stories along with the love and respect deeply enshrined in their culture. Many a similar amusing refrain is heard in all households, "Ba, you gotta stop using the genocide to win arguments." The only story in darker, more somber mode is the last in the one, "Generational Differences," It's a clever social commentary on the mass shooting based on the 1989 mass shooting in an elementary school with a major Cambodian student body. In the tragic aftermath, Michael Jackson came to the school to provide support while receiving a major public relations promotion. Throughout, So's deft writing provides a keen perspective from within the lives of first generation Cambodians in CA looking outside their communities while deeply entrenched in their's. The Cambodian mother and teacher who worked at the school during the massacre explains her feelings, "Through my frustration, my clenched teeth, I didn't have the words to say those years were never the sole explanation of anything; that I've always considered the genocide to be the source of all our problems and none of them."  

Daniel Mason's Magical Historic Traverse in NORTH WOODS

NORTH WOODS is an enchanting traverse through the woods in western MA that spans centuries from  early colonial days to near present day. What transpires is unhurried and unexpected stories of inhabitants of the same home and the surrounding woodlands. Each succession reads independently of the preceding story. All are enchanting and delightful in unique fashion.  Starting with a lusty young couple having abandoned their confining lives in Puritan New England to start anew on their own. Their emancipation and ardor are met with a violent demise at the hands of the "Natives". Daniel Mason is a masterful writer who depicts the land as artfully alive as his various characters. Each varying tale stands independently, yet much is gained noting the passage of time and the discoveries of relics that reveal more of what befell those who claimed the same, yellow house in the woods as home. The stories all share a profound connection with their surrounding woods. Many characters encounter a macabre demise that if not surprising, is deeply mournful. The Osgood twins is a delightful tale of sisters who resourcefully manage their father's apple orchard alone after their father enlists to fight in the Revolution.  We delight in their daily lives and devotion to one another until it becomes something more sinister. A later tale is of a painter and his illicit love for a famous writer related in an epistolary fashion through letters he composed to his male lover. The eloquence of these letters begs an answer to how they came to be found within the painter's home. The reader delights in the treasure of findings. Answers appear at later, unexpected dates becoming  all the more rewarding in their discovery.  The last story, and the most intricate is a widowed mother dealing with the anguish of a son diagnosed with schizophrenia. As in each story, the moral norms and behaviors of the time period are presented along with the ever changing landscape. Mason writes with a flourish filled with crisp descriptions that elicit tactile responses along with what the characters are experiencing. Minor characters play major roles and transient beings become more prominent. All the unexpected journeys are to be celebrated.  Solid roots are planted from which multifaceted branches expand into new realms organically. This is a sumptuous novel of ephemeral  beauty. "The young saplings she remembered from her childhood had matured into a forest of their own. Nothing like the old woods that lay beyond the stone wall, but still remarkable, this sense of reclamation." I wholeheartedly encourage journeying into NORTH WORDS.

The SIX-NonF First Six Women Astronauts-Should be Interesting but for Naught

Loren Grush is a reporter for Bloomberg News covering space travel and a host for the online show "Space Craft". Her parents were both NASA engineers and she grew up around Space Shuttles and Nasa astronauts. "The Six" focuses on the first women to be selected as astronauts and given the opportunities to travel into space. The subjects promised an exciting foray into a new frontier. Unfortunately, Grush's book is a grueling read as it delves overridingly into the minutiae of details about the women's personal lives outside the space program.  The repetitive meme is on the glass ceiling broken by these women. This trope feels trivial in today's world and the missed opportunities for what the experiences were like would've been far more compelling but were buried under copious anecdotes of little note. Grush's concluding comment resonates along with the style of her reporting which was shamefully fawning and wearisome. "They didn't have any women {astronaut} role models. They were doing it for the first time. For those of us who followed, we had the role models. So that made us more comfortable, more confident, and more welcome." Even the chapter on the Challenger explosion in '86 which carried an educator for the first time into space was centered askew. There was nothing revelatory. Furthermore, this catastrophic disaster was presented with little emotional impact. There is nothing exciting to stimulate or encourage young people to venture into careers as engineers or astronauts. Whereas there were many topics Grush might've examined. For instance, I'd wanted to know more about the training required, and first-hand interviews from these women were flagrantly missing.  What did it feel like in space for these women and what did they think they contributed, gained and found most difficult. Moreover, Grush unfairly spoke for the astronauts in the program following the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in Jan. '86, which made them sound petty. "Grief gripped their hearts and uncertainty hung heavy in the air. Underlying the sorrow, each astronaut thought the same thing, but they didn't dare say their fears out loud: Could this be the end of the Space Shuttle program?" As a reporter in the aeronautics field, Grush was grounded in inconsequential details. She failed to gather interviews from any of the surviving women or people with first hand accounts to make a soaring account about trailblazing women in space travel and exploration. 

NonF Matt Haig's "Reasons to Stay Alive"

Matt Haig is a journalist, writer of Y/A novels and novels. His novels are magical, whimsical and profoundly life affirming, In Haig's autobiographical book REASONS to STAY ALIVE, he candidly talks about the debilitating depression he's suffered. Furthermore, he offers pragmatic suggestions that helped him cope through his dark abyss of despair, how he staves depression's downward gravitational pull and reasons to be grateful he's found in simple and astonishing moments. Haig muses, "I think life always provides reasons to not die, if we listen hard enough. Those reasons can stem from the past-the people who raised us, maybe, or friends or lovers-or from the future possibilities we would be switching off." Perhaps, the single most sagacious contemplation for not committing suicide "is this option isn't flexible." Everyone's experiences are unique, yet knowing there are others stricken with the malady of malaise and "knowing that other things work for other people" combats the pain and provides rays of comfort.  Honest, heartwarming and hopeful best describes "Reasons to Stay Alive." It's never tricky and never strikes the tone of a self-help book. It reads like an intimate conversation that is redeeming without being self-righteous or off-putting.  Rather, it's sobering. He confides an omnipresent crevice that one has to be leary, lest you fall. Haig is most helpful when noting tools he's called upon. Furthermore, he shares his joys and wonder with what he would've missed out on had he given into his desire, not to stop living per se but to end an overbearing anguish and withdraw from misery. Haig's description of his depression is enlightening.  "You don't feel fully inside yourself. You feel like you are controlling your body from somewhere else. It is like the distance between a writer and their fictional, semi-autobiographical narrator. The center that is you has gone. It is a feeling between the mind and the body, once again proving to the sufferer that to separate the two as crudely as we do is wrong, and simplistic. And, maybe even part of the problem." Haig reasons those in the throes of depression "clam up and don't speak about it, which is a shame, as speaking about it helps. Words spoken or written are what connects us to the world, and so speaking about to people, and writing about this stuff, helps connect us to each other, and to our true selves."  Here are a few sage pieces of advice he's listed. "Shower before noon. Be kind. Look at trees. If someone loves you, let them. Don't worry about the time you lose to despair. The time you will have afterward has just doubled its value. If the sun is shining and you can be outside, be outside."  My advice is to read Matt Haig novels and his memoir, "Reasons to Stay Alive". 

Poet Jesse Nathan Recites Poetry at 222 for a Fortunate Few

Jesse Nathan's poems have appeared in The Paris Review, the Yale Review and The Nation. He was named winner of the 2024 New Writers Award in Poetry. Nathan's a prof. of literature at UC Berkeley. Luckily for me, I heard him recite from his debut poetry collection, "Eggtooth" with an intimate few at The 222 on Saturday.  Saturday night in the town of Healdsburg had a lot going on, including a free concert by the Healdsburg Symphony in a tribute to the music of John Williams. I sneaked in late to hear the last few selections from the all brass and percussion orchestra conducted by Ken Collins. I was already jubilant from Nathan's poetry reading. Nathan shared his split childhood, having been born and raised in Berkeley and then moving at 11 with his parents and brother to rural Kansas.  His mother's Mennonite family has lived on farmlands in Kansas for several generations. The culture shock made Jesse a bit of an oddball outsider with his long hair and city garb. Thankfully, life was filled with unsupervised exploration with his brother and cousins as they roamed freely along the creeks and rural fields. The wide open spaces were a welcome if not daunting adjustment to his new life in farm country. Nathan's mother and her family are all Mennonite and his father Jewish. Nathan said, "This gave me another duality in addition to splitting my time between Berkeley and my family in Kansas" to grapple with which "made art out of not, not being able to create art." Nathan read with his rich, soothing voice, from his poems elaborating upon his immersion in nature and an affinity for the sparse array of trees. I found his lyrical poetry resplendent with wonder.  I've captured several phrases from the various poems that resonated with me which I have spliced together to create a whole from fractured fragments. 

As if a shadow had a shadow - Her breasts went flying and froth became her hair - To eat one's fortunes raw - Words pay not all, speak so I can see your arguing voices - light appears cuspid - His noiseless blooming, mouth open to the murk - Where sleep doesn't house sleep beyond the trees - The grass is hissing don't breath that sigh - Dinosaur bones got planted by God to amuse us - Always bit parts he asks, Always - there's an accuracy but no precision - Use me like an egg tooth, use me sustained to sing and fly - each message returned to the ether, our alcove of meanwhile. 

K Lipionka's The LAST PLACE YOU LOOK- First Rate Female Private Eye Takes No Prisoners

THE LAST PLACE YOU LOOK is a crime novel with a tenacious female investigator whose unorthodox style, solves crimes by thinking outside the box. Roxane (spelt with one n) is nobody's fool. She likes her whiskey, women and working outside the law. She's a no holds barred broad who wisely trusts herself and her instincts searching for missing persons and solving murder mysteries. Roxane is the daughter of a beloved, former cop who died in the line of duty. And, as much as Roxane admired her late dad, she's got her own methods for doing things, which has served her well. Well, at least until now. Roxanne is contacted by the sister of a convicted double murderer, Brad Stockton. Brad has maintained his innocence in the grisly slaying of the parents of his high school sweetheart, Sarah. His execution is scheduled just weeks away. Brad's sister believes her brother is innocent. She's desperate to find the real killer and exonerate her brother before his execution date. Brad's sister, hires Roxane in desperation and offers her some leads into the investigation. The story takes place in a small New England town where everyone knows one another. The memory of Sarah's disappearance (and presumed death) along with her parent's double murders still shrouds the town's populace and police. I found the pace of the case circuitous but Roxane kept me curious with her indefatigable determination to follow-up on all tangential leads. Her injuries lead her search for the disappearance of another young teen whose MIA may or may not tie in with the Stockton case. The author's characterization of Roxane as both dogmatic and tender, renders a fascinating detective. Roxane's queer and hetero-relationships, family dysfunction and independence all add up to a detective the reader wants to uncover. She comes up against police brutality who warn her away from her sleuthing which discovered the bodies of two other women who had gone missing. While Roxane's investigation goes awry. She's arrested, then fired. Still, she's undeterred to help find the teen she recently met who's missing.  As Roxane sees it, "I'm the world's worst detective. I set out to prove this woman {Sarah} was still alive, and instead I found {another} body. I was supposed to be helping my client's brother get out of jail, but instead I think I might have implicated him in another crime." I think things get tied up a little too neatly at the end, wrapped in a bow tied up in  a cloying bow of coincidences on top.  Nevertheless, once I started reading, I just couldn't stop. In fact, I'm going to look into other books by Lipionka's in her series featuring her feral, crime solving sleuth.   

Author Jason Mott Discusses His Novel HELL of a BOOK

Actor Morgan Fairchild and world renown choreographer, Bill T. Jones share the view that Black History Month is divisive, dismissive and should be discarded. I share this view, also.  I argue Black History is American history and that dedicating a month is a divisive and insulting placation.  But, now I have a reason to be grateful as Jason Mott gave a virtual talk for northern CA libraries yesterday i/h/o Black History Month. Mott discussed his award winning novel HELL of a BOOK.  I've read this 2001, Nat'l Book Award Winning Novel and concur with its inference as being a unique and amazing read. The novel  depicts the complex African-American experiences, its fraught racial relationships and multi-faceted contributions to society and the arts. Mott was a disarming and delightful raconteur and shared surprising  stories as to the book's unforgettable title, its genesis stemming from the George Floyd murder and its beguiling segue into an encounter with Nicholas Cage. The title resulted from a dare by his editor with whom he has a close working relationship. Mott admitted his inability to title his own books. This was Mott's fourth novel. His previous novel, THE WONDER of ALL THINGS is magically realistic as it examines responses for protecting a child's power to provide healing or for destroying this gift for the greater good. HELL of a BOOK is a pastiche of absurdist and biting, social commentary. Mott tells his reader at the start this is above all, "a love story." There's much to love in Mott's writing and storytelling which is comedic, mystifying, heartwarming, gut wrenching and a harsh depiction of the reality that men of color are killed frequently at the hand's of law enforcement.  One of the questions asked of Mott pertained to his paradoxical 'love story' epitaph. His candor and cogent answers were satisfying and the difference between "open ended" and "unanswered questions" was clarified.  I urge readers to read not only Mott's novels which have garnered literary honors, but his award winning poetry collections as well. Mott described himself as a shy introvert and a loner; someone who requires plenty of downtime to recharge after being on his book tours. He was gracious and comfortable wearing a baseball cap, hooded sweatshirt and dazzling smile. The hour went by quickly with clever, pre-selected questions pertaining to his book and writing styles culled beforehand from the various library branches. I would have enjoyed spending more time with this engaging author's broadcast on a big screen in our welcoming local, Healdsburg library. Admission, of course, was free along with complimentary popcorn and flavored water drinks.  (Attached: my review of HELL of a BOOK on my blog:  Mindel's Kindle for the Rogue Reader)

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Audre Lorde's Biomythography ZAMI a NEW SPELLING OF MY NAME

If you've never heard the term "biomythography" you're not alone. The term was coined by the book's author, Audre Lorde, who defines the genre as combining history, biography and myth-making. Having read Lord's work "Zami a New Spelling of My Name," (Zami) I would define it as LGBTQIA  literature based heavily on the writer's life.  Zami is from the Carriacou Island for women who work together as friends and lovers.  The story reveals the evolution of a woman, Audre, coming into her own while honing her craft as a poet and a writer. The vivid childhood depicts Audre as the youngest by a decade of three daughters; thus an outsider to her sisters, parents and then her peers. Legally blind since birth, Audre is shunned by school mates and berated by teachers.  Audre stirs our sympathies for her loneliness and admiration at her resilience.  Her transition to adulthood is arduous. She experiences abandonment including the suicide of her only high school friend. The story mirrors many facets of Lorde's life: her immediate family, education at Hunter, and leaving home at an early age. Lorde's writing is a zeitgeist of an era. She covers racism as when her family was refused service at a lunch counter in D.C.  Major events at the time include McCarthyism, the Rosenbergs' executions, Elvis Presley's rising popularity, use of lobotomies to quell deviant behavior, the spread of polio and its eradicating vaccine.   Audre first finds work at a factory outside of NY. She saves money to travel to Mexico where she feels liberated for the first time. "I started to break my lifelong habit of looking down at my feet as I walked along the street." The trials and tribulations rumble through her later years.  However, the banalities of daily life are varnished in a glossy writing style that elevates events into an arena of loftiness.  Lorde claims, "I choose to push speech into poetry, the mattering core, the forward vision of all our lives." The elegance of her prose merits consideration to the plights of being a woman, black and gay. "Being women together was not enough. We were different. Being gay-girls together was not enough. We were different. Being Black together was not enough. We were different. Being Black dykes together wasn't enough. We talked about how Black women had been committed without choice to waging our campaigns in the enemies' strongholds, too much and too often, and how our psychic landscapes had been plundered and feared by those repeated battles and campaigns,"  Holding "ZAMI" back from being solely a bio of social protest is its tender and fiery love affairs. "We had come together like elements erupting into an electric storm, exchanging energy. sharing charge, brief and drenching. Then we parted, passed, reformed, reshaping ourselves the better for the exchange. I never saw Aferkete again, but she remains upon my life with the resonance and power of an emotional tattoo." The turgid unfurling of Zami's life luxuriates in its awakenings and acknowledgements making it worth devoting time to plow through.  

Jonathan Rosen's The BEST MINDS-Memoir of a Friend Whose Mind Becomes Shattered

The BEST MINDS is a memoir by Jonathan Rosen which is his account of his relationship with a childhood friend, Michael Laudor, who suffered from mental illness in his 20s. Laudor tragically murdered his pregnant fiancé, Caroline Costello during a psychotic episode and was found not guilty due to insanity. Rosen and Laudor grew up in New Rochelle in the 70s going to the same local schools, shul and Yale university. The commonalities in their Jewish households mirrored each other where they roamed freely in and out of each other's homes and lives for decades. The myths, mysteries and science of schizophrenia and mental illnesses are examined in Rosen's deft writing and first-hand experience with a friend whose mental illness struggles lead to the murder of his longtime, pregnant girlfriend and the destruction of two grieving families.  Rosen first captivates the reader with his gift of recollection of his boyhood pastimes in intellectual households in West Chester, NY.  Neither Rosen or Laudor were athletically prone and tended to pursue their own rivalry in academics and reporting, vying for the coveted position of editor for their school's papers. Their friendship surged and waned as many friendships tend to do but their logistics and family connections kept them if not close, at the very least connected. There is a pounding thrust of impending disaster for the horrific crime which covered the front page of the NY POST for weeks in the aftermath of the brutal slaying.  Furthermore, there's Rosen's beseeching quest to examine his own life alongside the highly, promising life of Laudor that becomes frayed and completely shattered.  Rosen's research into mental illness, the treatments for or lack thereof and his factual reporting of events opens the reader into a disturbing and unfamiliar world. The enduring friendship between the two men and any obligations it entails is examined in a forthright and compelling manner without being pedantic or judgmental.  Named as one of 2023 best ten books of the year, "The Best Minds" is both an enlightening work of non-fiction while at the same time, an enigma for the limited understanding for dealing with mental illness and what preventative measures can be enlisted to protect those suffering and their caretakers.  Overall, it's a thoughtful accounting of a tortured relationship and a profound consideration of the meaning of friendship. 

The MIDNIGHT LIBRARY-A Read for the Beach of Sliding Story Scenarios

The MIDNIGHT LIBRARY by Matt Haig is a novel with a reprised premise that tries to be deeply philosophical and falls short.  Still, MIDNIGHT is a light fare that can be enjoyed with its fantastical plot in which its main character shifts through various lots in life.  Nora Seed is the protagonist who felt her life was going nowhere, with no one to share.  Her beloved cat just died leaving her bereaved and believing she was without any incentive to live. Haig is a British journalist and author of fiction, non-fiction and Y/A novels. Some of his writings reflect his personal experience with severe depression as in the MIDNIGHT LIBRARY. Nora Seed attempts to end her life taking an overdose of barbiturates and finds herself in a mystical library. "Between life and death there is a library. And, within that library, the shelves go on forever. Every book provides a chance to try another life you could have lived...had you done anything different." Haig uses gimmicks that are over-wrought.  Naming his protagonist Seed is an example where the metaphor to branch out or be reborn is redundant. While Nora is in her purgatory state she is assisted by a woman whom Nora calls Mrs. Elm (another name play on limbs). Mrs. Elma is a doppelgänger for a Mrs. Elm who was the kindly librarian from her childhood with whom she played chess. Chess is another overly used simile for making various moves which lead to differing outcomes. Still, Nora makes some exhilarating choices as to lives in which to slide into with varying outcomes. Some of the more surprising choices involved becoming a glaciologist landing in the Arctic, pursuing music and becoming a world renown rock star and going through with the marriage to the fiancee she ended the relationship with.  Even more intriguing is how Nora copes in these new life scenarios she's thrust without the knowledge or skill sets that would've been garnered for the people and abilities she needs and would've learned had she lived this life all along. This makes for extremely awkward circumstances as in not having any connection to the husband and child she finds herself in bed with or being thrust on a world stage about to perform. Her adapting to new circumstances is often amusing especially when considering what life Nora might choose to experience next or chose to remain in. Nora discovers in her journeys,  "Life is strange. How we live it all at once. In a straight line. But really that's not the whole picture. Because life isn't simply made of the things we do, but the things we don't do too. And every moment of our life is a kind of turning." Nora gained solace realizing, "We spend so much time wishing our lives were different, comparing ourselves to other people and to other versions of ourselves, when really most lives contain degrees of good and degrees of bad. Sadness is intrinsically part of the fabric of happiness." Haig includes numerous quotes from philosophers including Camus, Thoreau and David Hume although this doesn't elevate The MIDNIGHT LIBRARY to literary fiction. MIDNIGHT LIBRARY delivers an enjoyable fantasy having multiple sliding door plots but it's not quite as clever as it aspires. The take-away for me came from the faux Mrs. Elm who said, "Sometimes the only way to learn is to live."   

Louise Erdrich THE SENTENCE-Power of Words to Haunt/Harm/Heal

Louise Erdrich is a highly acclaimed novelist, poet and Y/A author and a major literary figure of the Native American Renaissance; focusing on Indigenous characters and political issues pertaining to Indigenous Americans. Her writings have earned her numerous prominent awards including the Nat'l Book Award (The ROUND HOUSE 2012), the Pulitzer Prize (The NIGHTWATCHMAN 2021) and the Pushcart Prize for Poetry 1983. Her writing in a broad spectrum of her writing styles is impressive for their scope, skill and social commentary. The brilliant novel THE SENTENCE combines multiple genres that include literary fiction, Native American Renaissance, social reform and philosophy. The story hovers around a ghost story which is haunting, harrowing, humorous and at times, somewhat cheeky. This being said, Erdrich is a master storyteller unraveling a myriad of captivating characters, serves as a zeitgeist for the pandemic and a clarion call for social reform. The issues amplified include racial injustice, climate change, mass incarceration and the erasure of Indigenous people.  "We've endured centuries of being erased and sentenced to live in replacement culture," bemoans Tookie. The epitome of police brutality and racial persecution was witnessed on live TV as George Floyd gasped for air calling for his mom. There's a panoply of paragraphs that are worth quoting. My favorite is "Books contain everything worth knowing except what ultimately matters." Erdrich is a true bibliophile and an owner of an independent bookstore in MN.  Her store's mission is to serve her community as well as advocate for Native American literature, artists and issues. We're introduced to the central heroine, Tookie  as she attempts a brazen body snatching for her lover who duped her into moving a corpse laden with dope in a stolen van. She's busted and given a lengthy sentence behind bars.  Books are Tookie's saviors while in prison. She tells us, "Native Americans are the most over-sentenced people currently imprisoned. The more I found out people's sentences, the more random I realized sentencing even is." Tookie, her family and the bookstore where she works are located near Floyd's murder and where mass protests began followed quickly by the immolation of local businesses. Tookie and her family watched the news via cell, TV and in person before getting tear gassed and forced to disperse. "There was a sentence people were chanting all over the world now. I can't breathe."  The bookstore Tookie worked at was miraculously shielded from destruction and flourished during the pandemic and protests. This absorbing novel is held together by gossamer threads of a ghost story that torments Tookie. She would've questioned her sanity except her co-workers corroborated sensing the same manifestations. Erdrich appropriate's Hitchcock's gimmick for including himself in his work even as she condemns the appropriation of Indigenous culture.  She ups the appropriation ante by placing a copy of THE SENTENCE on the pile of books by Tookie's bedside.  Erdrich's brilliant writing blazons with poignancy and poetry. Her novel valiantly argues words have infinitesimal potential. The book taken by Flora takes up residence posthumously to haunt Tookie who believes, "The book had its own volition and would force me to reckon with it, just like history." However,  we are reminded of words shortcomings. The omnipotence of written word fails at stopping a bullet, removing the knee strangling Mr. Floyd, or of making a fire. Nonetheless, word  possess the power to ignite one's heart and soul. I've yet to mention Tookie's arresting office, Pollux, the man whom Tookie marries after she serves her time. It's Pollux and Jarvis Pollux's grandson to whom Tookie surrenders her heart.  "I {Tookie} have a dinosaur heart, cold, massive, indestructible, a thick meaty red. And, I have a glass heart, tiny and pink, that can be shattered."  THE SENTENCE accomplishes so much and does so using only words.