Reading, writing...that's what I do.

Elizabeth Strout’s Latest Novel: THE THINGS WE NEVER SAY

Elizabeth Strout is ONE AMAZING WRITER. Starting with her novels, AMY and ISABLE, ABIDE WITH ME, she went on to create OLIVE KITTERIDGE, which won her the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2009. But even if she had not had that prestigious start, Strout would have forged ahead, a village of her characters constantly speaking to her, enabling her to keep writing one amazing book after another. I have read all of them.

Her most recent award, THE STORY PRIZE, was given for her novel: ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE…a collection of interconnected short stories set in Amgash, Illinois—the imagined rural, impoverished hometown of imagined author Lucy Barton from Strout’s, MY NAME IS LUCY BARTON. 

The book introduces us to new characters, revealing why Lucy left the town and its confining culture to move to New York, where she created a new life and began to write stories analyzing and revealing the memories of these people and their circumstances. When Strout writes from the point of view of Lucy Barton, there is a sadness and loss of connection that Strout might have experienced in her own life. Those novels include: MY NAME IS LUCY BARTON, and TELL ME EVERYTHING, LUCY BY THE SEA, THE BURGESS BOYS. But with the love of her older characters still fresh and alive, Stout then gave us: OLIVE AGAIN, and OH,WILLIAM.

Now in this latest book, she is exploring and developing characters in a totally different environment, but with the same interior writing. We truly KNOW Strout’s characters, because she slowly peels away the elements they are hiding: their fears, mistakes, longings, and confusions. And so…

THE THINGS WE NEVER SAY 

A brief summary: The novel’s main character is Arti Dam, a history teacher, liked and honored by his students, who lives and works in costal Massachusetts, but who secretly fights his personal fears, brought on by feelings of isolation, despair and the occasional desire for suicide. We gradually learn that these events are related to past sorrows in his life. Arti might be named for the “art” of finding one’s way through sorrow and worry, through memories that create confusion. Because what is life? What is MY LIFE? And most particularly, how can Arti get closer to his estranged son, after an accident that caused a death?

And yes, we might admire a character who approaches each day with the desire to communicate with his students. But that cannot heal the worries and the fears that Artie is struggling with. Secrets make people fearful. Secrets make people lonely. Maybe this amazing writer is speaking to many of us….how are you doing in life today? What fears are you forced to hide? What truths are you denying? And if you are denying your individual truths…why are you doing so?

Reading always helps us SEE our own true selves. At least I believe this. Thus, maybe Elizabeth Strout has a message for all of us….because this novel is also set against the backdrop of the 2024 election. Wow! 

Let’s ask ourselves…what things do we need to say, do we need to share with those we love? And do we need to share them NOW?  A question to consider. 

Thanks for reading.  

MISSING SADIE MAE

When I was growing up, there really wasn’t room in the bank account for our mother, Jinni, raising three children on her own….to provide us with a pet. But regardless of our slim funds, Jinni always managed to keep us happy. There was the occasional bowl of gold fish, and our turtle we named IKE. But being desperate to be like the other children in our neighborhood, we devised a way to take Ike out onto Wood Street, where he soon after died, probably because you can’t pull a slow turtle down a sidewalk and expect him to enjoy it. 

But then, after awhile, there was a major change, there was PETER FRITZ, a gold-colored canary. We set up a wire birdcage in the corner of our dining room, opposite where Jinni had her typewriter and table of the necessary things one needs type insurance policies and thus raise we three children. 

This was a very big deal for Jinni to allow us to have this PET. All our friends had dogs–but Jinni made it very clear that dogs cost money and would require more work on our part. SO…we settled for the bird…this after Bill and I tried to walk a turtle down Wood Street by tying a string around his neck…truly not a cruel act on our part….we just desperately WANTED A PET.

And then our dream came true, we had this lovely canary, we all eagerly awaiting a lovely song to proceed from his throat. But maybe Peter Fritz (named because I wanted to call him Peter, and my older brother John wanted to name him after the musical conductor Fritz Reiner, a common thread in our family, using names that no one else would ever use, one gold fish named Igor, after Igor Stravinsky…) But this is totally okay! We  were always a music loving family, my father having one of the first phonographs that allowed him to also record our voices. And this became a true miracle, his encouraging voice also being  recorded (though I refused to speak)…so that when our father died a year later…wow, we had his amazing deep voice recorded. But that death also meant that when I came home from high school and found Peter Fritz lying on the floor of his bird cage, I called my mother at her office, begging her to do something. But there was nothing to do. The bird had died, but even so, we will offer our profound human love to a bird, a cat, and very often a dog, who we somehow believe will be with us forever.

And then….much later….there was Sadie Mae, the beloved pet of our daughter Christie and her family…a poole mix, the first dog I ever truly loved my entire life…Sadie Mae, who died this week. And now we are all missing her, remembering how sweet she was, how protective she was and so caring of Christie’s children. A dog who learned about love from her family, and thus from the very beginning showed us how she LOVED HER PEOPLE, her people always loving her back. Sadie creating a game with me when she discovered a newly purchased bag of apples and sent them rolling along Christie’s kitchen floor. It became a game that I would struggle to win. Sadie loved it. And the time I had brought dark chocolate to the house, and somehow she got up on the counter and I found her trying to eat it. This required a trip to the vet…but we were fortunate and Sadie was okay. 

Sadie of the LONG LIFE. Sadie of the GOOD LIFE. She will be missed forever….puppy, charmer, lover, and giver into her old age. And if you know the phrase A Dog’s Life to be one of goodness and love….Sadie certainly had A Dog’s Best Life.   

Mama, Did He Take a Bus?

My brother Bill Pfordresher died this year, and now that it is Father’s Day once again, I remember this story. It is an eternal story, part of our family, part of our lives.  

We were a family of five…until my father died of a massive coronary at the age of 45, leaving my mother Jinni with a six, three and three-month old, Bill. And though this was truly part of his very early life, Bill gradually learned about fathers, and thus began to ask why he didn’t have one…later, hearing more family conversations, asking if he did have a father, had he gone to heaven? Certainly, Bill was hearing those words in our home, and being wise for his age, only three or four, he was trying to figure things out.

So one day (our mother said she was ironing in the kitchen) Bill came in with a question: “Mama, did he take a bus?”  

In our family, the story is legend, because our wise and amazing mother Jinni, knew exactly what Bill was asking. She also knew the importance of truth…that it is linked to trust. And that very day, Jinni did what she had done with John, who was six when our father died, and later with me who had been only three…she drove Bill to the cemetery, doing her best to explain heaven, death, sorrow and love…loving attempts to help a child understand where his father had gone.  

REUNIONS  

And now it is only days since Bill died and left us…the youngest of the three, life unpredictable, life always a pattern of sorrow and joy. Surely Jinni our mother, and Al our father….were there to great him. Surely, Bill no longer has questions, his body free of the weight of illness…his new life one of peace and understanding. 

Bill did not take a bus…but after enduring illness and death…he is now free to live beyond human bonds. We miss him, cry for him. He taught us how to love, to have faith, to sing when you are sad, to always look for joy and happiness. 

Bill was a gift of joy to Rita, his wife, to me, my brother John, my mother and so many others. Now he is with both of his parents and many friends who went before him. I like to think there are guitars in heaven, Bill will once again finding freedom and joy as his fingers create new and heavenly music. 

PS This post is only normal in length…it being impossible to include all aspects of Bill’s amazing and wonderful life. 

Harvest Moon Neil Young Also, ON and ON Can you guess the artist?

Remembering a Friend, a Writer….Gone Too Soon

Amy Sue Nathan’s bio on Face Book reads: Writer of novels, lover of cats, morning coffee, good chocolate, and bold lipstick. Occasional crafter, loyal friend, adequate cook, proud mom to 2 awesome adults.

Yes to all of this….but Amy was so much more…a writer of wonderful novels. 

Amy and I had both lived in Flossmoor, Illinois, but we did not know each other until the publication of her first novel: The Glass Wives. It was a time when my husband and I were leading busy lives, first moving to Des Moines, Iowa, then later to Westlake Village, California. But I kept in touch with Amy, following her amazing career. Then on a visit to Chicago, we met for dinner at Fresh Starts, a celebrated eatery in Flossmoor, Illinois, where both of us had lived at one time. Life is full of coincidences.

Amy had already published THE GLASS WIVES and was working on THE GOOD NEIGHBOR. We talked about writing, family and our goals. Amy encouraged my work and shared some of her writing process.

Latter, when she was conducting online classes for writers, I was right there, sending her my work, appreciating her analysis, her always right to the point comments. Amy was tireless, wise, often using events in her own life to fuel her fiction. She also knew how to step away from reality, creating stories with endings that better served her joys and sorrows, loves, hopes and desires. I read all of Amy’s novels, reviewing most of them on this blog…the last being WELL BEHAVED WIVES.

I miss Amy, often wondering if she left us with an unfinished novel, a work with the same amazing storylines and characters she always brought to life on the page. Thus…here is some of her work:  

Her debut: THE GLASS WIVES: Evie and Nicole Glass share a last name, and the same husband. When a tragic car accident ends Richard Glass’s life, this changes the two women’s lives and thus os their children. Then Evie sees a silver lining–she can rid herself of Nicole once and for all. But Evie wasn’t counting on her children’s bond with their baby half-brother. She wasn’t counting on Nicole’s desperate need to hang on to the threads of family. Thus considering the financial aspects of the situation, Evie agrees to share living expenses–and her home–with Nicole and the baby. But when Evie suspects that Nicole is determined to rearrange more than her kitchen, Evie questions who she can trust. She must also ask: what makes a family? 

THE GOOD NEIGHBOR

When small lies have big consequences…”Things are a little rough for Izzy Lane. Reeling from the wreck-up of her marriage, the newly single mom moves back to the Philadelphia home she grew up in, five-year-old Noah in tow. A difficult transition is helped by one of her best friends-and her elderly neighbor, Mrs. Feldman-Izzy feeling like she’s stepping closer to her new normal. Then her ex-husband shows up with his girlfriend, causing to invent a boyfriend of her own. Life gets complicated, though Izzy continues to blog about this new love. What’s the harm in a few made-up stories? But when friends want to meet the mysterious “Mac,” someone online suspects Izzy’s a fraud, a real-life guy catching her eye, Izzy realizing the stakes are high.

Twelve-year-old Shayna– talented, persistent, and adorable–persuaded “Aunt Tee” to return to Chance, Ohio, to photograph her father’s wedding. Even though it’s been six years since Shay’s mother, Celia, died, Teddi can hardly bear the thought of her best friend’s husband marrying someone else. But Teddi’s bond with Shay is stronger than the hurt.

A former beauty queen facing the secrets of her past must make choices for the sake of her family’s future. In the summer of 1951 all seemed possible. Betty Stern was an eighteen-year-old knockout working at her grandparents’ lakeside resort, the perfect place for Betty to prepare for bigger things. She’d head to college in New York City and a career as a fashion editor would flourish. But first, she’d enjoy a wondrous last summer at the beach falling in love with an irresistible college boy and competing in the annual Miss South Haven pageant. Then, Betty’s future was limitless. Decades later, the choices of that long-ago season still reverberate, Betty, now known as Boop. But when her granddaughter comes to Betty with a dilemma that echoes Boop’s memories of first love, broken hearts, and faraway dreams, it is time to face the past. Life is now her family, her own happiness. In reconciling the life she once imagined with the life she’s lived, Betty will discover it’s never too late for a  second chance. The last book of Amy published was WELL BEHAVED WIFES, wonderful! 

Her books are available on Amazon. 

SONGS of My Life

Music!!  It is part my me, part of my family heritage. 

My mother sang in the choir at St. Barnabas in Beverly Hills, Chicago. Her sister, my aunt Lucia Rausch, was the choir director and to my older brother John (who spent hours listening to Wager operas in our dining room and waving a baton to conduct the music)…this was not new to our family.  

Music calms as well as inspires. In my last post I wrote about swinging and singing… would you like to know what I was singing? Well in that early time it was:  I’m Just A Girl Who Can’t Say No….I’m in a terrible fix. I always say come on let’s go, just when I ought to say nix. From the musical comedy, OKLAHOMA. 

Readers today probably only know MY FAIR LADY, MUSIC MAN, CINDERELLA, SOUND OF MUSIC etc because your children or grandchildren are once again presenting these wonderful shows. 

As each one appeared on broadway, my aunts bought the record and very soon I learned all the lyrics and sang them from my swing. (see last week’s post) 

I did not get the winks or laughter from the adults when I say some of those lyrics…but I will always be grateful that they were mature and didn’t create some silly rule that would limit sexuality in songs. My mother referred to some of that culture when we did talk about sex. 

And she always said…LOVE MAKES THE WORLD GO ROUND. I used that with my own children, before realizing it was time to talk about sex. In our society today, they often know a lot, though in a confusing and unclear way. And sex has always been part of song…raunchy, tender, angry, sorrowful, it’s all there. 

If you son or daughter is belting out a current pop hit…you might stop and ask them what the song means. They might know the details and again, they might not know. Terminology changes. Ways to describe having SEX cannot be counted. 

It is always part of the challenge of parenting, especially when they act like they know EVERYTHING there is to know about SEX. But I guarantee, they do not. 

Thanks for reading. 

Sweet Baby James, Fire and Rain, Mean Old Man, Sweet Caroline, October Road, God Have Mercy ON Us,