L.A. Women
by Ella Berman
Drugs, sex, rock n roll among friends (3/24/2025)
L.A. Woman by Ella Berman is a book about friendship, addiction, co-dependency and excesses. It drew me in and occasionally threw me out. Lane and Gala are drawn to each other and repeatedly betray that friendship. Lane sabotages Gala’s writing career and completely fails to provide any support after the tragic death of her rocker husband-Gala appears at Lane’s carefully orchestrated Sunday soirees, often high, and disturbs the atmosphere and eventually sleeps with Scotty, Lane’s husband, and financially blackmails him. What is the old adage “with friends like this who needs enemies”.
I found the story very readable but a good editor might streamline some of the repetitive scenes, especially the debauchery surrounding Gala. I got it, she is stunning, brilliant but terribly troubled. I also understand both women came from backgrounds that left them both with scars, but again, I got it. Overall, it is more than a beach read and less than a meaty historical fiction novel. I enjoyed it.
Harlem Rhapsody
by Victoria Christopher Murray
Harlem Renaissance (9/27/2024)
Harlem Rhapsody by Victoria Christopher Murray recounts the story of Jessie Redmon Faust, the literary editor of The Crisis. This magazine, established by her mentor and lover, W.E.B. Dubois, under Faust's leadership becomes the preeminent voice of promising young black writers. The Crisis is both a literary and financial success.
Faust's success in her chosen field is always shadowed by her tumultuous relationship with the much older Dubois who alternately encourages and hinders her professional development. Her mother strongly disapproves of her daughter's affair, seeing it as immoral and a stain on her daughter's brilliance.
This is a wonderful overview of the literary accomplishments nurtured during the Harlem Renaissance. The Crisis provided these very talented black writers with their only hope of being published after being rejected by the white publishing community. Faust is depicted as a very talented writer who also is able to uncover and nurture the talent in her own literary circles. Yer despite her own many professional accolades, she is left conflicted by her affair with Dubois. The scenes when she is with his wife are fraught with the guilt Faust feels. Ultimately, her decision to end the affair feels like the best and only way for Faust to lead a happy life.
The book is therefore both a window into the immense talent nurtured during the Harlem Renaissance and a smaller, but equally important story of how one talented woman must leave a relationship to fulfill her own potential.
We'll Prescribe You a Cat
by Syou Ishida
Cats are the best solution (6/23/2024)
We'll Prescribe You a Cat by Syou Ishida is a delightful and fanciful homily to the healing powers of cats. A "doctor" who might be a therapist with a receptionist, who might or might not previously be a cat, dispenses solutions to a variety of problems by prescribing each patient/seeker a cat. These cats are not permanent solutions and are to be returned in a week. Of course, they all bring solace to the parents lives and families and are never returned. The range of problems solves are often expansive, but the solution remains the same. The cat brings together families and friends to engage in their care and the delight they impart.
I too have a cat who is greatly loved. His healing powers are endless. But even a non cat lover will be touched by this book. It is beautifully written, weaving fantasy and true life together to craft a solution to serious life issues. If only everyone was so lucky to be prescribes a cat!
A Great Country: A Novel
by Shilpi Somaya Gowda
Aspiration meets reality (4/17/2024)
Priya and Ashok, parents of three very different children, recently moved to the upscale gated community of Pacific Hills. This exemplified, especially for Ashok, the culmination of his American dream. When he arrived from India he wanted to give his family stability and a good life. Now he far exceeded those modest dreams.
Over a two week period the family is wracked by a series of events that test their beliefs that America accepts them, that their family is a happy unit and the very value system upon which they built their life.
The author presents her story in short, fraught chapters that capture the pathos all around. This book is an excellent depiction of an outwardly successful immigrant story that suddenly must deals with enormous ruptures in all aspects of their life. The children are important elements of the story as they try, often unsuccessfully, to acclimate to their new upward mobility. It is through there eyes the reader sees the many conflicts. The author draws you into the Shah family as you admire their love for one another and their eventual ability to embrace a new life. Ms. Gowda is an wonderful author who never disappoints her readers.
The Cleaner: A Novel
by Brandi Wells
An interesting concept gone awry (2/15/2024)
The Cleaner by Brandi Wells imbeds the reader into the life of an unnamed office cleaner. Concepts of class, respect and morality are intertwined in this first person narrative.
The Cleaner is at times quite humorous but the incessant sardonic comments are repetitive. The void between the cleaner’s place in life and that of these 4th floor denizens is often harsh. The author missed a chance to explore deeper issues of class by delving into why the cleaner escapes into fantasy.
Finally, a cleaning crew did clean my office for many years. I could not imagine my potential feelings of violation if I became aware my desk and computer being fair game. It certainly soured my assessment of The Cleaner.
Becoming Madam Secretary
by Stephanie Dray
Everything you wanted (or did not want) to know about Frances Perkins (11/13/2023)
Frances Perkins was an extraordinary woman. Stephanie Dray exhaustively highlights her achievements as first a social worker researching and seeking to improve the nutrition of babies and finally as a trusted and effective member of FDR's cabinet. As Labor Secretary, the first woman ever to be a member of any Presidential cabinet, she fought to institute our social security system, rescue Jewish children from Nazi held countries and championed many excellent WPA projects that gave people jobs and dignity. She continued her fight for the rights of workers. She also fought the many men who sought to marginalize her throughout her life.
Dray also shed light on Perkin's personal life. Her lifelong love/hate relationship with her mother. The downward spiral of her once happy marriage as her husband Paul is increasingly depressed and eventually needed to be institutionalized. Her friendships with Sinclair Lewis, Eleanor Roosevelt and millionaire socialite Mary Harriman Rumsey who provided her with both financial assistance and an emotional bond that was the most important in her life. Dray also portrays Perkins struggles, so pertinent to many working woman, to juggle her commitment to be a loving, available mother to her daughter throughout their lives with her commitment to her equally demanding and fulfilling work life.
I was familiar with the important role that Perkins played in the Roosevelt's new deal but learned so much more about her truly consequential role as a social reformer. However, the book is often repetitive and provides overly exhaustive detail, especially regarding her relationships with Paul and Ramsey. I often found I skipped whole pages to avoid some details. Overall, this is an illuminating look at a very important social reformer who broke many glass ceilings long before we characterized her success in that light.
All You Have to Do Is Call
by Kerri Maher
An important plot (6/28/2023)
All You Have to do is Call by Kerri Maher brings light to the underground "Jane" network in Chicago that provided abortions to women just prior to such healthcare being legalized in the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision. A core of extraordinary women volunteered hours and hours to train, organize and keep this enterprise afloat. Safe houses, treatment rooms, ties to sympathetic doctors, politicians, mobsters and police were just a part of the many facets that kept Jane operating.
This book is at its best when it highlights Jane and all it's intricacies. Once the book shifts to the relationships each major character, Veronica, Patty, Margaret and others have with their partners, it becomes somewhat trite. I cared about these women without descriptions of their moribund or active sex lives. An encounter between a former wife and current girlfriend of one of the more disliked male characters seemed unnecessary to the plot. I am sure Maher wanted to personalize these amazing activists but I was fine with being aware there were children, other careers and partners that often took a back seat to Jane.
Overall, this book is far more important and timely now that the Dobbs decision gave States a green light to re-criminalize abortion. These incredible women might have to be our role models.
Zig-Zag Boy: A Memoir of Madness and Motherhood
by Tanya Frank
A mother, son and psychosis, the ties that bind (2/20/2023)
In Zig-Zag boy by Tanya Frank, the author eloquently describes mothering Zach, a young man suffering from schizoaffective disorder As her son becomes more and more detached from reality, Frank must learn to ground herself and manage her own despair. She turns to nature but that calm is often shattered by Zach's increasing inability to cope on his own.
Frank soon learns that psychosis is never cured, only managed. She watches as a variety of doctors prescribe and often over prescribe an amazing number of drugs. The drugs come with multiple side effects that result in Zach refusing to continue taking them.
As readers we come to care about both mother and son, but while Zach's journey is never linear and exudes hopelessness, it is Tanya who we watch with careful hope. She finds other parents who travel her path, she works hard to maintain her relationship with her wife Nance and becomes a docent in a seal sanctuary. Tanya is successful in her endeavors but as she notes she is always afraid. It is this fear that compels her to find yet another treatment option for her son in first California then England.
This book occasionally loses it's way as it careens from one location to another. My head spun as Tanya moves constantly and veers from trying to over manage Zach to seeking to leave him on his own. I soon came to realize that occasional chaos is the definition and essence of this mother's life. It is an old cliché that a parents' happiness is diluted by your most unhappy child. We watch Tanya struggle to overcome that reality. This book brings us along and we learn to care, fear and become invested in the journey. This excellent memoir, written with love, humor and insight brings us into the struggle. It is well worth reading and caring.
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