Jezebel of Jazz

The other night I caught the end of a documentary called " Anita O'Day- The Life of a Jazz Singer," and was intrigued by the gritty story of this incredibly underrated singer. The next day I ran over the Library for the Performing Arts and picked up High Times, Hard Times, O'day's biography.

Damn, this lady lived a hard life. Unstable family, money troubles, rape, abusive relationships, prison, alcoholism and a 15 year long addiction to heroin didn't stop her from touring and recording with some of the most popular big bands and innovative trios of her time and developing her singular vocal style. Her biography is written in "hip" jazz prose (hep and cat, etc) and is unflinchingly honest. Billie Holiday ignored her, Benny Goodman was threatened by her, Frank Sinatra applauded her and Charlie Parker admired her.

Addicts are unreliable narrators, but in this case, I didn't really care about which anecdotes were true and which were exaggerated or fabricated. I am in awe of Anita O'Day's life and will appreciate her music all the more knowing the blood, sweat and tears shed to refine her craft.

Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs

I just finished Chuck Klosterman's Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs and man, did it tick me off. The author reminded me of a certain type of dude: know-it-all, horn rimmed glasses wearing, 30ish, sarcastic, obscure-band loving, elitist a-hole. The kind of guy I would inevitably pick up in a gross dive bar in Allston, MA 5 years ago who would dazzle my young naive self with his faux philosophical view of life and vast knowledge of the contents of the bar's jukebox. Ew!

Thankfully, my taste in men has evolved. I am no longer interested in smug smartie pants men and I find their limited and dismissive points of view extremely irritating.  Thus, Klosterman's collection of essays examining pop culture left me with a bad taste in my mouth.

Granted, some of his anecdotes seemed dated as they dealt with "Gen-X" type content (the social ramifications of The Real World, the political value of the Dixie Chicks), but moreover, his assertions came off as sexist, racist  and obnoxious. I can't wait to rip into him at our monthly book club session next week.

Forbidden Love

Now that I've read Alice I Have Been, by Melanie Benjamin, I will never be able to hear Lewis Carroll's Alice stories without remembering the scandal and heartbreak surrounding the book's muse.

In this fictionalized biography, Benjamin examines the life of Alice Liddell, a vivacious little girl being suffocated by the constraints of Victorian notions of girls and girlhood. From an affluent academic family, Alice escapes through innocent outings with a much older eccentric professor (a character based on Lewis Carroll). When their odd and sometimes cringe-inducing relationship is misinterpreted by meddling interlopers, poor little Alice is marred for life. The implications of her victimization are far reaching, costing her true love and happiness.

Poor Alice, another exploited muse.

Verse-atility

Anna Quindlen is one of my favorite writers for her sharp witted pieces in Newsweek and her classic op-eds in the NY Times. I finally read one of her works of fiction, Rise and Shine, and LOVED it. No wonder the lady has a Pulitzer!

The book is the story of a Katie Couric/Diane Sawyer type woman, her social worker sister and the complex relationship they navigate, compounded by scandal and tragedy. Add this to your library queue ASAP.

Make Way for Ducklings!

We are throwing a baby shower for my boss today, who is about to pop with Baby # 2. In addition to the gift certificate we pooled money to purchase (boring), shower guests were encouraged to gift their favorite childrens' books.

After agonizing over my choice, I selected Robert McCloskey's Make Way for Ducklings, which is the tale of Mr. and Mrs. Mallad's search for a home for their young family around landmarks in Boston, MA.

I hope my boss's little ducklings enjoy the story as much as I do!

Your Secret Reading Self

A.S. Byatt visited the 92nd Street Y last week to talk about her newest project, The Children's Book. Byatt read two selections from the book and then engaged in a Questions and Answers sessions with a former colleague, David Ebershoff. In his introduction, Ebershoff recalled another such session with Byatt when she was asked by a fan, " How do you know so much about so many things?"

"I read," she replied.

Byatt and Ebershoff talked at length about the complex characters alive in The Children's Book, including Olive, a wife, mother and writer who pens special stories for each of her children. Byatt talked about how brazen this was for a mother to do; forge a familiarity with her children's "secret reading self." I love this acknowledgment of the clandestine part of reader's identity that is allowed to pursue intellectual and personal curiosities without fear of consequences.

Byatt admitted that as a girl she didn't "like stories about other little girls." Instead of reading what was considered appropriate materials for young girls, her secret reading self was drawn to the dark fairytales and nordic mythology that has influenced her life as a writer and a reader.

What is the What

A few brave souls tackled What is the What, by Dave Eggers in book club this month.

This "fictionalized memoir" described the harrowing journey of Valentino Achek Deng, one of Sudanese refugees called "The Lost Boys" who traveled through their war torn country, battling soldiers from various political factions, armed bandits, not to mention lions and crocodiles to set up new communities in Kenya, and later, the US.

One of the objectives of our book club is to challenge our normal reading lists, forcing us to branch out to read titles we wouldn't normally attempt. This month's selection certainly fell into that category for me, and I'm glad I read it and highly recommend it to anyone who wants to put a human face on the horrific stories that have come out of Sudan and Darfur.

Making Life

"I wanted to be a torch singer," says poet Lorna Goodison. "Sarah Vaughn, Nina Simone . . .their voices are in my work."

Thus, the selections that the award-winning Jamaican writer chose to share at the reading I attended last week where heavily influenced by music. Poems like "I Saw Charles Mingus" and "Apollo Double Bill" celebrate the jazz and R&B of the late sixties but also describe her experience as a woman in her twenties living in New York City, good AND bad.

She also read some very moving poetry dedicated to her son. My favorite lines came from "My Will," in Selected Works.

May you like me earn good
friends
but just to be sure,
love books.

image from a printed review of Goodison's memoir, From Harvey Road, via www.commarts.com

Short and Sweet

I love short stories, and not just because of my criminally teeny attention span. I feel like short stories are more potent, since writers are forced to be concise and pack as much punch as they can into a few pages.

I picked up The Dictionary of Failed Relationships, edited by Meredith Broussard, from my local library and devoured it. There are some heavy hitters who contributed, such as Lucinda Rosenfeld and Jennifer Weiner. My favorite stories involved an ex-stripper and an ex-yuppie. I think we could all write our own versions of this book, oy!