Everyday I Write the Book

"Normal People Don't Live Like This" by Dylan Landis

Sorry for a long lapse in posting. I started a new job and my daughter has been sick since I last posted, and I just didn't have the time to update the blog. But I am back!

Thanks to everyone who weighed in on my Twilight post last week. Really interesting comments. I can't say I am that much more disposed to read the books, though I have it on good authority that there may be a copy of Twilight headed my way next week. So I will have to see what I think once I pick it up. I was pleasantly surprised by the number of people who weighed in, as well as the range of comments.

On to today's book. [I am still reading A Friend of the Family and really enjoying it. I am so impressed with Lauren Grodstein. Must learn more about her.] So... today's book is one that I read about in More magazine last month. It's called Normal People Don't Live Like This, by Dylan Landis. More said: "This debut collection of linked stories is a clear-eyed account of what it's like to be a teenage girl. Leah Levinson is gripped by the sexual escapades of her classmates and enamored of mean girls (her 'heart sprouted like a seed' when one phoned her.) The tales in this bravura work, set in the 1970s, are timeless: They could easily belong to our daughters' generation instead of our own."

The L.A. Times reviewed reviewed Normal People Don't Live Like This and gave it high marks, saying "As for Landis, watch her very carefully. Once you can create characters like Leah, there's no stopping you." The Katrina Denza Blog said "This is an incredible collection. Landis has delivered with precision, honesty and art, the adolescent female mind. Her sentences, vivid and daring, are honed to the clarity of a mountain stream. The details in her prose will surprise as will her characters even as their actions seem inevitable. I enjoyed the science threaded through the stories as well."

More on Dylan Landis - apparently she is local (lives in here in D.C.), and here is a blog post about what she's reading these days. I am very bummed to learn that she was at Politics & Prose last month and I missed it.

Finally, how great is the title of the book??

To "Twilight" or Not to "Twilight"?

The Washington Post has an article today about women who consider themselves readers of quality literary fiction who avoided the Twilight series, dismissing them as stupid and poorly written, and then finally read them, and then were hooked.

I have to say, I have had no interest in reading them. I like very literal books, and I think the vampire/werewolf part would really turn me off. And they're for teenagers, no?

So, those of you who have read the Twilight books - fill me in. What is so good about them? Am I really missing out? I have to say that the Post article has made me reconsider... a little bit.

"A Friend of the Family" by Lauren Grodstein

I am never surprised to see Jill from Breaking the Spine writing about something that I am interested in, but it was funny tonight to see her post about the same book I was planning to write about: A Friend of the Family by Lauren Grodstein. (Of course, she has read it already, and I haven't). I picked up a copy of A Friend of the Family at BEA last June, and I think I will move it to the top of the TBR list. From Amazon:

In A Friend of the Family, Lauren Grodstein goes to [great] literary heights with a contemporary suburban drama brewing with an undercurrent of violence that, with each turn of the page, takes on the weight of an American tragedy. As the book opens, Peter Dizinoff, a successful New Jersey doctor, is struggling to adjust to the aftermath of his actions as the foundation of his personal and professional life crack beneath his feet. At the center of his troubles is his beloved son Alec, who deflates his father's high expectations when he drops out of college after just three semesters and moves into the apartment above their garage. And when his son begins seeing Laura, the troubled daughter of Peter's best friend who is ten years older than Alec and lives in the tainted shadow of being acquitted for an unspeakable crime when she was 17, Alec's ambivalence to his father's hopes in living a good life turn into a simmering rage. Dizinoff, a man with a clear definition of right and wrong, flips back and forth in time as he narrates the history of events that build their way to a layered, emotionally wrenching climax.

Just from the plot description, this book reminds me somewhat of one that I read a few years ago, Trespass, by Valerie Martin. Similar story about parents watching their dreams for a their child fade away when he becomes involved with someone with a complicated past and a different agenda. (See review here). Beth Fish Reads enjoyed this book: " A Friend of the Family is not a happy novel with easy answers and a clean ending. The characters are multidimensional, and the reader's sympathies change as the book progresses. Grodstein pushes you to question the limits of the trust and faith you have put in your family, your friends, and even your doctors. It's a novel that will make you think."

I am excited to read this!

Shelf Discovery Challenge #1: "Forever" by Judy Blume

I am participating in Booking Mama's Shelf Discovery Challenge (discussed here). The challenge requires participants to read six books from Lizzie Skurnick's Shelf Discovery, a book about the classic young adult books we all read growing up.

My first choice was Forever, by Judy Blume, a book I only read, shall we say, selections of when I was growing up. I remember the book being passed around at camp, where we all read the more colorful parts (such as p. 73 - a page number I've always remembered). I used to think that the world was separated into two different group of girls - those who had read Forever, and those who hadn't. When I went to the library last week, I swear I was embarrassed to check it out. I didn't make eye contact with the checkout person, and I felt like I was using a fake ID to buy wine coolers.

Forever is the story of the romance between Katherine and Michael, two high school seniors in New Jersey. It's Katherine's first sexual relationship, and the book is a good introduction to sex for teenagers. Katherine is responsible (though the book takes place pre-AIDS) and approaches her physical relationship maturely, but realistically. This being a Judy Blume book, other topics are tackled too - depression, death of a grandparent, teenage pregnancy.

I guess we all liked Forever in the early 80s because it wasn't gross (like The Joy of Sex), and it wasn't creepy, and it wasn't preachy. It was informative and told in a relatable tone. Reading it now, though, I found it somewhat unfulfilling. Katherine fell "out of love" with Michael pretty easily after a few weeks around a handsome fellow tennis instructor at summer camp, which made their relationship seem a bit dubious. I realize that they were 18 years old, but I never got much of a sense of why they thought they loved each other. Reading it as an adult, I was definitely struck by how young - and relatively self-absorbed - the characters were.

I am curious to see if I will have the same reaction to the other five books I am going to read for the challenge. I am definitely glad to have finally read Forever cover to cover, if for no other reason than my daughters probably will in due course, and I want to know what they're being exposed to. And, maybe, because I feel like one of the cool kids now.

Thursday Links

Here are some recent book- and writing-related links of interest...

From The Wall Street Journal, an article in which 11 popular authors (including Junot Diaz, Margaret Atwood, Kate Christensen, and Colum McCann (discussed yesterday on EDWITB)) talk about the process of writing and all of the challenges that go along with it. Lots of good tidbits in here.

From The New York Times, an entertaining essay from Colson Whitehead (author of Sag Harbor, discussed here on EDIWTB) about how authors decide which genre to write next.

I heard most of this NPR interview with Zadie Smith, author of White Teeth, on my way home from work yesterday. She was being interviewed about the writing process, and why she hasn't written fiction in a while. One of the most interesting things I heard: "She spends 80 percent of her efforts on the first 50 or 60 pages of a book — and the rest comes 'pretty quickly.' She says she does that to get the tone — the perspective — the way she wants it."

Finally, I liked this New Yorker review of a new book called Cassette From My Ex, by Jason Bitner, a collection of "more than sixty remembrances from a generation of mix-tape masters, anyone born, roughly, between 1968 and 1985 who created a statement of love and taste with a vinyl-to-tape recording apparatus or dual-cassette boom box". The book is actually an outgrowth from the Cassette From My Ex website, where you can write in with your own story of mixtape heartbreak.

"Let The Great World Spin" by Colum McCann

I am finishing up at one job and about to start another, so my life has been a little hectic lately as I try to wind down, clean out, and get organized. I apologize for not posting as frequently this week. And I am sad to report that I haven't been able to get much reading done either.

But here is a quick post about a book I learned about from Gwen at the Literary License blog: Let The Great World Spin, by Colum McCann. Gwen says:

At its core, Let the Great World Spin is a novel about a particular city—New York City—at a particular point in time—the summer of 1974. McCann illuminates his subject through a series of stories that overlap in interesting and sometimes unexpected ways. Tying the whole thing together is Philippe Petit's daring tightrope walk between the newly constructed towers of the World Trade Center, representing the idea that the “core reason for it all [is] beauty.”

I have gotten really interested in the Philippe Petit tightrope walk lately - spurred by this documentary (which I haven't seen yet) and this children's book - and I love the idea that this book is loosely organized around that daring and mind-boggling act.

Reading Matters loved McCann's writing, but felt that the stories didn't always tie together that well. Page 247 agreed:

McCann is a magician with language and I enjoyed the novel just for that,  but  it felt too jumbled up. I don’t know, maybe this chaos was completely intentional and I missed something. I found some characters more true than others, some parts fit, others felt like bits of a jigsaw puzzle crammed where they didn’t belong. It made me sad. I wanted to love all of it and I just didn’t.

Anyone read this yet? Worth it?

"Bird in Hand" by Christina Baker Kline

Thank you, Christina Baker Kline, for getting me out of my reading slump! I just finished Bird in Hand, and I am BACK!

Bird in Hand, which I blogged about here, is about two couples - Ben and Claire, and Alison and Charlie. Alison and Claire were childhood best friends. After Claire and Ben (who were already engaged) met Charlie while they were living in London, Claire set up Charlie and Alison, who wind up getting married too. This book is, at its core, about when happens when Claire and Charlie finally confront the fact that they are with the wrong partners, and that they are in love with each other.

The book opens with a book party and a car accident. The accident and its aftermath are the catalyst for the ultimate destruction of these two marriages, which was already underway. Kline tells this story unflinchingly, taking on the difficult truths that these four people face with sharp detail and brisk pacing. I had a lot of trouble putting it down.  There are no villains here, just four people who found themselves approaching the midpoint of their lives and trying to figure out who they are and what makes them happy, and what sacrifices they are willing to make.

I liked this quote, about Charlie dealing with his wife's accident:

[H]e knew that, really, her culpability wasn't the issue - it was that he'd been on the brink of self-discovery, a quest that had nothing to do with her. It was separate from her, from the children, from their life. But this accident made it impossible for him to pursue it. He felt now, at the edge of a feeling more powerful, more dangerous than he could ever remember having experienced - a bottomless despair.

Kline's a detailed writer - mostly in the description of her characters' interior thoughts and emotions - and I felt like I really knew and understood these four people by the end of the book. I cared about them and could understand what made them act as they did. She also did a nice job of sharing just enough of the past to make the present make sense, through well-chosen flashbacks and memories.

How did I not know about Christina Baker Kline before? I will be reading more of her books! Great read, and highly recommended.

FTC disclosure: Thanks to Morrow for sending me a review copy of this book.

"Standing By" by Alison Buckholtz

I've always been fascinated by military spouses and the challenges they face when their partners are away for long periods of time, often out of reach and facing constant danger. I am therefore intrigued by Standing By: The Making of an American Military Family in a Time of War, by Alison Buckholtz, a book about being the wife of a Navy pilot on active duty. Buckholtz read at Politics & Prose last spring, but I wasn't able to attend the reading.

Many of the reviews I have found online of Standing By are by other military wives who have found a lot in common with the memoir, such as Marrying the Navy.  Here is a guest post from Buckholtz on Blue Star Families about the effect of deployments on children.

One of my favorite parenting blogs, StrollerDerby, wrote about Standing By last spring - here's an excerpt:

The power of Buckholtz's book remains in the stories of her children, Ethan and Esther, the reminder that her story could be ours. In her frankness, she is both eminently likeable and identifiable. She is just a mom. She's careful to assure single parents that she doesn't want to diminish their battles by claiming to be one (she has a partner . . . even if he's thousands of miles away), and yet she is. My already hearty respect for single parents who juggle it all grew with each page. 

Buckholtz is also careful to remain apolitical, making this a book about the military family - not a book about the war. You won't find the names Bush or Obama in Standing By. And as a liberal mother who has always been pro-military personnel but decidedly anti-war, for that, I'm grateful. It let me read about a family and their love.

I'd love to read this.

"Last Night in Montreal" by Emily St. John Mandel

The Indie Next List featured Last Night in Montreal by Emily St. John Mandel in its June 2009 newsletter, and I thought it looked intriguing. From Amazon:

When Lilia Albert is seven, the father she has not seen in more than a year suddenly appears in the middle of the night and steals her away from her rural Canadian home. She is never again seen by her mother or brother. Instead, her independently wealthy dad moves her from one U.S. city to another, along the way educating her in matters both practical and not. Is he a spurned ex-husband who refuses to accept the court's custody decision? Or is he Lilia's savior, taking her away from something awful? When the novel opens, Lilia is a twentysomething Brooklyn dishwasher living with a disgruntled grad student named Eli Jacobs. When Lilia unceremoniously leaves him—a pattern she's perfected—Eli is bereft. As he obsessively searches for her, the story integrates the viewpoints of private investigator Christopher Graydon and Graydon's neglected daughter, Michaela, who has long resented Lilia's looming presence in her family's life. While the plot is occasionally contrived, the fast pacing and unusual characters make this a compelling first novel. Highly recommended for all contemporary fiction collections.

Literary Feline really liked Last Night in Montreal, saying, "Told in third person, the novel flits back and forth between the past and present and between the characters. The changes are subtle, but I had no difficulty following each of the story threads. This is definitely a book that is more about the process, the journey that falls in between the beginning and the end. While certain aspects of the outcome may not be surprising, the way it comes together was completely unexpected. Last Night in Montreal was a pleasure to read. It was beautiful--poetic even--in writing and profound in scope."

Dawn at She is Too Fond of Books also really liked Last Night in Montreal and posted her review here. Amazon reader reviews are also very positive.

Would love to hear from EDIWTB readers who have read this!

Welcome Frugal Mama!

A good friend of mine, Amy Suardi, has launched a new blog, and I wanted to let EDIWTB readers know about it in case you are interested in checking it out. It's called Frugal Mama, and it's about "how to live well on a budget". I think it's an excellent blog - so well-written, very thorough, and full of great tips. Amy lives in Manhattan with three kids, and is very smart and creative in how she manages the family budget.

Great job, Amy! I look forward to reading all of your future posts.