A Wintry Mix

Greetings. I did not mean to take so much time between posts, but I guess recently I’ve liked including multiple reviews in one essay, because I think if a person isn’t interested in one book reviewed perhaps they can find another in the post that they might want to talk about more.  At least that’s my hope.  

Of course, this coming weekend: is the Academy Awards and I’ve seen quite a few of the nominated films, not all but many. We finally saw “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “Green Book,” both of which we enjoyed. I’ve also seen the nominees: “Roma,” “Vice,” “A Star Is Born,” “First Reformed,” “First Man,” “Mary Poppins Returns,” “RBG,” “The Wife,” “BlackKkKlansman,” “A Quiet Place” … still we are missing a few of the others.  With all the sound offerings, it seems it’s been a strong year in movies. Don’t you think?

 I’m not exactly sure what will get Best Picture, but I could see them pulling a “Roma” on us, or “The Favourite” but what about “Green Book,” which might be my pick? And perhaps it’s Spike Lee’s year to win Best Director. The Best Acting categories are also quite interesting. I like Glenn Close’s chances for “The Wife,” but I’m torn a bit between Christian Bale and Rami Malek for Best Actor, though the veteran Bale for “Vice” will be tough to beat. The Supporting Acting categories look strong too.

Do you plan to watch and what are you picks? As an added bonus, the remaining members of the band Queen are scheduled to perform, as well as Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga will sing their song “Shallow,” which should be worth seeing. So we will compare notes about it afterwards. Meanwhile I will leave you with a few reviews of what I finished lately.  

Little by Edward Carey, 448 pages, Riverhead Books, 2018

Edited Synopsis via the Publisher:  This historical novel conjures the life and adventures of an orphan girl in Revolutionary Paris, befriended by royalty and radicals, who would become the legendary wax sculptor Madame Tussaud, known for the wax museum she founded in London in 1835. 

My Thoughts:  Wow I must admit I did not know anything about Madame Tussaud going into this novel or the chain of wax museums today that bear her name, but I picked up the story for its Revolutionary France setting, and boy I was not disappointed. I listened to it as an audiobook and while it was long, I thoroughly enjoyed listening to all of its 14 hours over a couple weeks time. It reminded me of a Charles Dickens tale — perhaps a bit of “Oliver Twist” mixed with “A Tale of Two Cities.” 

The author breathes life into the adventures of the girl — Marie Grosholtz called “Little” — orphaned at age 7, who comes to live with Doctor Curtius who teaches her about casting wax heads. Fleeing creditors, they leave Switzerland and move to Paris, taking up residence in a big dilapidated house shared by a domineering widow and her pale son Edmund. There, Marie becomes a servant banished to the kitchen by the hateful widow, while Dr. Curtius continues to create his wax heads of famous thinkers and people of the day. 

The best part though is when — after a surprise royal visit — Marie manages to get herself invited to Versailles to tutor King Louis XVI’s sister Elizabeth. It’s her time at the palace where things get juicy. Marie rises in her ranks, becoming friends with Elizabeth amid the grandeur, which is amazing for a while but unluckily doesn’t last. In due time the monarchy is overcome by the Revolution and Marie gets imprisoned with little chance of survival. Yikes. She finds herself wasting away locked up, certain for the guillotine. 

Oh you have to read on to see what happens. Marie reminded me of an Oliver Twist-like orphan who you root for and who slowly makes her way in the world … going on to live quite a remarkable life, meeting Napoleon Bonaparte and various others of import along the way.

The audio is read by Jayne Entwistle who does an excellent job as Marie. My only lament is that I missed the author Edward Carey’s illustrations in the hardback edition, which I heard are excellent. Still it’s a great tale that comes to life and spans decades. Apparently it took the author 15 years to write and he got the idea from once working at Madame Tussauds wax museum in London. Here’s an interesting article he wrote about Tussaud in The Guardian newspaper. 

We Cast a Shadow by Maurice Carlos Ruffin,  336 pages, One World, 2019

I liked the semi-satirical construct of this debut novel … set in a near-future Southern city where racial divisions are worse than they are today with fenced-in ghettos and violent police patrols running the streets. A black father, who’s working to get ahead at a prominent law firm, is trying to do right by his biracial son who has dark birthmarks on his face and body. He hopes that if he can get a promotion he can afford to pay for a newly popular medical operation to remove his son’s blackness, giving him he thinks a better life. Meanwhile the father keeps it a secret from his wife who he knows won’t approve. 

The story is wryly told and the infighting at the law firm and power plays made it feel a bit like a sardonic version of John Grisham’s “The Firm” mixed with the racial issues of Ralph Ellison’s “Invisible Man.” The city’s atmosphere, too, feels quite disturbing and unsettling. Yet the father’s preoccupation with changing his son’s face and skin gets rather bleak and exasperating — he seems to go to any length to make it possible — though it’s due to his love for his son to make his life better. Still it’s driving a wedge into his family (and perhaps the reader too). You’ll want to read on to see whether the father will succeed at his law firm, and what will become of his son’s operation and the family. 

 Admittedly when I read Ellison’s “Invisible Man” in the early 1990s I was blown away by it and was very tied to the character’s plight. This novel is obviously influenced by that classic but you feel nowhere near the level of involvement with the characters or the plot. There are episodes within the story that are well done — a costume party at the firm and an event at a plantation that go awry — yet other chapters seem like fillers. It felt a bit uneven in that way. Also I wanted to shake some sense into the father. Still the novel raises some notable questions … about racism in the future, how it shapes us, and how far one is willing to go to protect those they love. I’m glad I read it — particularly because it’s from a new voice and author who seems to have quite a bit to say in a satirical/dystopian kind of way.  

Beautiful Boy:  A Father’s Journey Through His Son’s Addiction by David Sheff, 326 pages, Houghton Mifflin, 2008

I think almost everyone has known someone who’s been affected by addiction … and so this hair-raising journey is familiar to so many. I picked it up because I was interested to finish the book before seeing the movie of it, which came out last fall, and because a couple of close friends of mine lost their lives to addiction, so I wanted to see if the father had the same experience trying to help, or if there was something new to learn. 

All in all, I found the father’s memoir to be a helpful, harrowing exploration of what happened to his son and how it affected him and their whole family. The father seems to tell it in a very open and honest way, chronologically as it happens, grasping at straws at what to do and also doing a ton of research to understand his son’s addiction, which ultimately is a story of: drug relapse and recovery, drug relapse and recovery, drug relapse and recovery, and on, and on, and on for 10 years. 

The amount of time, energy, money, resources, and mental capacity one can go through — as you see in this book — trying to help a loved one overcome addiction is astounding. It is exhausting, heart-wrenching and downright scary. The father notes some pitfalls along the way and what things one should consider and how not to lose sight of the rest of one’s family in the process. He also delves into the particulars of crystal meth addiction and how it’s a particularly horrifying drug that can screw with one’s personality and brain.  

I came away thinking that the father was very doting, caring and attentive to his son throughout his youth, surfing with him endlessly and devoting time with him. The son obviously was very loved and bright but his parents divorced early on and he seems to have become prone to depression. And with addiction there’s no rhyme or reason: it cuts across all families: ones that are loving and close, ones that are not, ones that are privileged, ones that are poor, ones from all walks and races of life. Still this family had the resources to get him into some top recovery centers, though it took a while to get him there. The scariest parts of the book are when the strung-out son’s gone missing for days at a time. Ohh it’s every parent’s worst nightmare. 

I found it to be a pretty effective book — the father isn’t perfect and seems to take responsibility for things he should have done differently; he second-guesses himself about the best approaches and what to do, exploring many facets of addiction in a helpful way. So I guess I was a bit surprised by some of the miffed responses about the book on Goodreads because of the family’s privileged background. It seems some wanted the author to acknowledge that more in the memoir — that his kid was lucky to get help from such recovery centers when those from poorer backgrounds would have been stuck in jail or worse. The socio-economic side of things aren’t overly addressed, so perhaps that’s a valid criticism, though I’ve heard that the son and dad address some of these issues in subsequent books. Hmm. 

That’s all for now. What about you — have you read any of these books, and if so, what did you think?