Irish Author Sara Baume's "A Line Made by Walking" - Art and Sadness which Last Forever

The last line of Irish writer Sara Baume's (b UK) entertaining & intellectual melancholy novel "Art and sadness which last forever" resonate throughout this captivating book.  The novel's narrator Frankie speaks directly to the reader and cuts deeply into the human soul.  Frankie is a 25 yr old art school graduate who has been dealing with a deep sorrow since childhood.  Now at 25, she has cut herself off from social interactions except for her always understanding & supportive mother.   Frankie knows she must accept that her want of artistic accomplishment has not led to creative genius and she must stop her perpetual bereavement for lack of talent.  She is also still grieving the loss of her beloved grandmother.  Frankie persuades her mother to allow her to reside in her grandmother's remote home until it can be sold.  This only leads Frankie further down the rabbit hole of isolation & despair.   She has construed a photographic art project of shooting only animals she discovers in their demise.   With impactful encounters or emotions, Frankie tests her knowledge of artists' works that share a significance.  Baume's cleverly construed novel is an interesting foray into the art world as well as into the troubled pscyche of a very disturbed & self-destructive young woman.  Frankie wants to live her life at the basest level of engagement taking up as little space in the world as possible.  Frankie never achieved the notoriety of artist claim she sought but Sara Baum's "A Line Made by Walking" is an arresting, exceptionally impassioned work that delves plea for art's importance in the world; best art achieves is to uncover what is unrecoverable.  And, thoughtfully considers the worth every individual brings into the framework of humanity.  The last painting that Vincent Van Gogh (VVG) completed depicts with excruciating beauty an angry churning sky, tall yellow stalks, a grass green & mud-brown path cutting through the stalks, tapering into the distance, a line made by walking.  The last words spoken by VVG to his brother "The sadness will last forever."

Judd Apatow's "Sick in the Head" A Fascinating Compilation of His Interviews with Celebrity Comedians

Judd Apatow ("Knocked Up" & "This is 40") was obsessively drawn to comedy as a boy.  His insatiable fascination with comedians led to an audacious drive to connect with his comic heroes & interview them.  As high school student in the early 1980s he sought & graciously received numerous interviews from the humorists & entertainers at the highest echelons:  Garry Shandling, Jay Leno, Jerry Seinfeld, Steve Allen & Martin Short to name just a few.  The comedy legends he interviewed as a teen, he revisits as an adult with a successful career in filmmaking, comedy writing and TV producing.  These  interviews are invaluable and should placed in the Smithsonian Institute & the Broadcast Hall of Fame.  They are invaluable with genuine warmth, mutual respect, helpful advice, intelligence, candor & wit.  The analysis by these comic celebrities of their crafts and work processes are contemplative & insightful.  Apatow's natural ability to converse & elicit information from the most successful & funniest entertainers of the last 3 decades is nothing short of miraculous.  The book has interviews from the funniest people on the planet:  Mel Brooks, James L. Brooks, Albert Brooks, Martin Short, Key & Peel, Steve Martin & Mike Nichols.  There are also many interviews with female comics & writers:  Lena Dunham, Sarah Silverman, Amy Schumer to name a few.  Judd writes an intro for each individual telling us of his admiration for the person & any personal relationship.  Apatow & Sandler were roommates as struggling comics in their early 20's.  The enduring relationships Apatow maintains throughout his career is admirable and the creative genius these artists possess is enviable.   Some of the comics dealt with their own demons and were forthright in discussing.  (Apatow whined too much about being a child from a divorced household.  Boo hoo hoo, get over it).  Regardless, reading these intimate behind the scenes dialogues with comic geniuses is endlessly fascinating.  The craft of writing & performing is revelatory and exceptionally entertaining.  This is as close as mere mortals can get to being included into the camaraderie of comic megastars.  The spirit of generosity & encouragement among these talented artists is magical & heartwarming.  The ability to make others laugh is arguably the most wonderful gift someone can share with the world.  I strongly urge everyone to read "Sick in the Head" and argue these precious recordings be placed into our national treasure troves for posterity.            

Irish Writer Sebastian Barry's "Days Without End" An Endless Odyssey of Grandeur & Devastation

Sebastian Barry (b Ireland 1955) is considered one of Ireland most distinguished authors & poets.  His eloquent stories are mainly set in his native Ireland.  "Days Without End" is a remarkable, historic epic.  Our hero is Irish born Thomas McNulty.  He shares his life story starting with his  sadistic trans Atlantic crossing in a cargo ship to the U.S.  He sails alone as a young man in the early 19th C.  "A man's memory might have only a 100 clear days in it & he has lived thousands."  Thomas must fend for himself in the harsh new world.  Tom's indefatigable human will gives homage to surviving as a victory.  He has a strange & fateful encounter with a young John Cole.  In Cole, he finds a "Friend for a whole life.  We were two wood-shavings of humanity in a rough world."  Together the two journey through an extraordinary odyssey.  They experience the savagery of battle for the Union Army.  After the war they enlist as troopers & ordered to annihilate the Indians.  During the Civil War Tom notes "Killing the Confederates was not like running at Indians who are not your kind but it is running at a mirror of yourself."  After the War, "Our work was to be the Indians.  People wanted rid of them.  Wanted them routed out."  Tom understood they were plain & simple killers; like no other killers that had ever been.  The pain & injustice never set right in their hearts.  Amidst the carnage & mayhem, Tom & John found their passion for each other in an unknown realm as lovers.  They also forged a paternal bond for an Indian girl whose entire tribe was slaughtered by their troops.  Together, they raise her lovingly as their daughter.  Barry is an exceptionally gifted writer.  In "Days Without End, Tom's voice is reminiscent of the free thinking Huck Finn, one who sees the ills in the world but dares to carve his own courageous path of love, friendship and decency.  I strongly recommend this finely crafted & beautifully told tale.  

The Association of Small Bombs by Karan Mahajan-Listed for Nat'l Book Award

Karan Mahajan was born in American in 1984 and raised in India.  His 2nd novel "The Association of Small Bombs" earned him an Anisfield-Wolf Award ('17) and was long listed for this year's Nat'l Book Award.   The ambitious storytelling is told from a cast of characters, from victims to terrorists.  The havoc of the deadly explosions is powerful.  The aftermath of the carnage is felt from the survivors, their families and from the perpetrators.  Frustration, hostility and swift illogical vengeance are at the corrosive center of this devastating novel.  The perpetual quest for reprisal & vindication for violence give this novel its unrelenting pulse.  Mahajan's characters are religious zealots or dissociated people grasping for meaning in their lives.  The prison system is unveiled for its corrupt & horrific systematic  torture.  The novel takes an oppressive position of violence.  The world needs to function through force & brutality.  The ability to make people empathize felt futile.   "I had always thought you had to educate others about your pain, show them how to solve it.  Now I realize you have to make them feel it."  Mahajan refers to 9/11 as a more heroic endeavor in arousing awareness than perpetual bombings that take the lives of fewer people.  The writing is gripping and intelligent.  Still, I found this a burdensome read that left me tattered.  "People say 9/11 was the worst terror attack of all time-was it?  I think the small bombs that we hear about all the time, that go off in unknown markets, killing five or six, are worse.  They concentrate the pain on the lives of a few.  Better to kill generously rather than stingily."  The irrational perpetuating thirst for revenge rather than peaceful discourse of reason proved omnipotent.

Marlena-Troubled Teens' Fast and Furious Friendship

"Marlena" is a novel by Julie Buntin who writes about 2 teenage girls from broken homes who find refuge & in each other.   Catherine "Cat" is 15 when she moves to the desolate MI town with her mother & older brother, Jimmy, after her father abandons the family.  "There aren't words for the catastrophic dreariness of being 15 in northern MI at the tail end of winter."  The move takes her from her privileged private school (on academic scholarship) to the public high school and a rundown home which Cat's mother can barely afford.  Jimmy defers his college scholarship so he can be the breadwinner.  They move across the street from Marlena, 17, who lives in a run down barn with her dad & younger brother, Sal.  Marlena's mom left their family leaving Marlena to care Sal while dad is either making/selling meth or getting high.  We know from the start that this coming of age story ends tragically for Marlena a year after they meet & Cat now as a working woman in NYC has her own battles with alcohol.  Although the novel deals with very harsh issues of drug addiction & sexual abuse it's also about the power of friendship as a teen that overshadows everything else.  "A best friend is a magic thing, like finding a stump full of water that will make you live forever."  A cautionary tale of self-destruction, family dysfunction and the intense bond of teen friendship that is a driving force of youth.

"The Hearts of Men" a Novel by Nikolas Butler-"Lord of the Flies" and the Continuing Adult Saga

"The Hearts of Men" begins in the summer of 1962 with our young hero, Nelson Doughty, a pre-teen at Boy Scout Camp in norther WI.   We feel empathy for Nelson dubbed ignominiously "Bugler"for his bugle playing reveille & taps.  He is either ostracized or tormented by fellow campers.   There's one older boy, Jonathan Quick, who parcels out acts of kindness that Nelson so desperately seeks.  Quick is not the wholesome, decent person Nelson at first believes.  The camp trauma is eerily reminiscent of "Lord of the Flies" with "Bugler" as "Piggy." The novel is most compelling as the reader becomes an onlooker to the cruelties inflicted on Nelson.  The abuse is egregious & the reader, complicit.  The flagrant attrocities are commited under the noses of adults, not on an abandoned island without adults.  Before departing camp, the director tells Nelson he will become a leader of men; he rises above the rabble.  His solicitous behavior sways a naive Nelson to unwittingly betray the older campers.  The atrocious behavior of the boys towards Nelson evokes our sympathy yet it's also off-putting.  The novel's intensity & interest wobbles as the author brings the characters into adulthood. Nelson is at the knot holding the story together.  The author trails Jonathan's adulthood, adultry and parenting.  The blazing beginning smolders into a weary paragon of decency, loyalty and human frailty.  Jonathan does merit a valid parenting tip. "Try to remain silent however long it takes.  Most of the time parenting is like a contractual negotiation.  Let them spill their guts."  Jonathan has a pragmatic perspective on life which at times seems callous & calculating.  But he does try to mentor his son to navigate in a grown-up world.  "It is a difficult thing, you see, to be a good man.  The whole world will try their level best to make you swerve, to bend your principles."  Butler gives marriage a terrible rap but he also lashes out against guns & war.  Trying to conceive what happens to boys who grapple with a "Lord of the Flies"firestorm is intriguing, unfortunately, "The Hearts of Men" implodes in adulthood.  

Lincoln at the Bardo by George Saunders-A Novel Unlike Anything You're Thinkin'

George Saunders (b Amer) is an award winning writing of short stories ("The 10th of December") essays & novels.  His novel, "Lincoln at the Bardo" is a work of genius unlike anything I have read.  I highly recommend this profound theological perusal & anecdotedly footnoted historic study.   It's also a poignant reflection on grief & empathy.  Most assuredly, it's a lyrical affirmation of the wonders of life.  Nonetheless, its multiple narratives by the dead may repel many as macabre.  Perhaps some, believing the religious afterlife sacrosanct, will find the novel impertinent.  I argue the novel's wisdom is its unifying empathy for humanity.  Bardo is a term for the existence between death & rebirth which varies for each individual and determined by the life they've lead & age at the time of their death.  The novel combines factual history pertaining to Pres Lincoln & the Civil War and the President's painful grieving process for his son Willi.  Willi died at age 11 during the 1st year of the Civil War.  Pres Lincoln's personal, abysmal suffering is compounded with the understanding of the suffering the war is inflicting to so many under his command.  "Sorrow was not uniquely his.  All were in sorrow, or had been or soon would be."  Willi is laid to rest by his unconsolable father.  Willi's spirit becomes tethered to an afterlife in the graveyard where he is mentored by fellow spirits who've remained in a state of bardo. These ghostly beings learn from Willi the ability to immerse themselves into the beings of both the living and the dead and by doing so, fully come to understand, admire & respect the the other person.  "One must try to remember that all were suffering "none content; all wronged, neglected, overlooked, misunderstood, and therefore one must do what one could to lighten the load of those with whom one came into contact."  "Lincoln at the Bardot" so eloquently & uniquely speaks to the universal right for freedom and the cruelty of the oppressed.   Saunder's exceptional novel is a eulogy for the shared torment of loss & an ode to the limitless bounty of beauty found in nature & life.