(4) Gosh, it's difficult to read Jill Soloway's intermittently smart and thoughtful memoir, "She Wants It." It's difficult because Soloway seems so insufferable.
I suppose the world would be a better place if we were all less judgmental. But Soloway abandons her kids on Thanksgiving so she can fly first-class to Paris with her new girlfriend (whom she'll soon dump). Later, she complains that her ex-husband (having recently assumed full Thanksgiving Parent Duties) didn't help with the shitty birthday party she threw together hastily for her younger son. The ex-husband seems like a child, as well--but that doesn't excuse Soloway. Everyone fails, all the time, but if you're writing a memoir, and you have an eagle-eyed editor, you should at least try to have a bit more candor and insight about the dimensions of your own failures.
(3) At last: the book we've all been waiting for! "I'll Be There For You," an in-depth history of the television show "Friends." I never even liked "Friends" all that much, but I must, must know more about the tension between Jennifer Aniston and Kathleen Turner, and I must know about the filming of the opening credits, and about which writer invented the business "Central Perk." That's just how I am wired. I was in seventh grade when this show became a big deal. Seventh grade! Strange, strange world!
(2) I'm excited, also, for Lee Israel's memoir, "Can You Ever Forgive Me?" It's been said that, if you're reading fiction, you want to read about dastardly/charismatic/plotting characters. By contrast, if you're reading a memoir, you want to spend time with a writer whose actual character/personality you can like. Someone fairly admirable. That's not Lee Israel. But I can't stop thinking about her particular "path"--how she was advised to be more "present" and "open" in the world, and how she did actually take that advice (just in a criminal way). Forging letters was a way of being less recessive, awakening from a kind of slumber (a life spent in libraries, with the papers of Fanny Brice).
Also, I have some sympathy for Israel--for the ornery, cantankerous, unpolished, antisocial creature who feels pulled toward typewriters and computer screens. I can relate.
(1) The new season of "House of Cards" begins with Claire plucking a live bird from behind a White House wall. The bird has been trapped. (There are hints of "The Tell-Tale Heart" here). Claire walks with the bird outdoors, and it's unclear whether the bird is dead or alive--and, if it's alive, does Claire plan to kill it? Then: a shock. Claire addresses the camera. She gives a short speech. "There's actually only one kind of pain. Goodbye, Francis. Goodbye, pain." And she releases the bird, who flies away. A little bit of Gothic darkness! A touch of Shirley Jackson in the White House! No one could mistake this show for kitchen-sink realism. I love my soap operas. I'll keep watching.
I suppose the world would be a better place if we were all less judgmental. But Soloway abandons her kids on Thanksgiving so she can fly first-class to Paris with her new girlfriend (whom she'll soon dump). Later, she complains that her ex-husband (having recently assumed full Thanksgiving Parent Duties) didn't help with the shitty birthday party she threw together hastily for her younger son. The ex-husband seems like a child, as well--but that doesn't excuse Soloway. Everyone fails, all the time, but if you're writing a memoir, and you have an eagle-eyed editor, you should at least try to have a bit more candor and insight about the dimensions of your own failures.
(3) At last: the book we've all been waiting for! "I'll Be There For You," an in-depth history of the television show "Friends." I never even liked "Friends" all that much, but I must, must know more about the tension between Jennifer Aniston and Kathleen Turner, and I must know about the filming of the opening credits, and about which writer invented the business "Central Perk." That's just how I am wired. I was in seventh grade when this show became a big deal. Seventh grade! Strange, strange world!
(2) I'm excited, also, for Lee Israel's memoir, "Can You Ever Forgive Me?" It's been said that, if you're reading fiction, you want to read about dastardly/charismatic/plotting characters. By contrast, if you're reading a memoir, you want to spend time with a writer whose actual character/personality you can like. Someone fairly admirable. That's not Lee Israel. But I can't stop thinking about her particular "path"--how she was advised to be more "present" and "open" in the world, and how she did actually take that advice (just in a criminal way). Forging letters was a way of being less recessive, awakening from a kind of slumber (a life spent in libraries, with the papers of Fanny Brice).
Also, I have some sympathy for Israel--for the ornery, cantankerous, unpolished, antisocial creature who feels pulled toward typewriters and computer screens. I can relate.
(1) The new season of "House of Cards" begins with Claire plucking a live bird from behind a White House wall. The bird has been trapped. (There are hints of "The Tell-Tale Heart" here). Claire walks with the bird outdoors, and it's unclear whether the bird is dead or alive--and, if it's alive, does Claire plan to kill it? Then: a shock. Claire addresses the camera. She gives a short speech. "There's actually only one kind of pain. Goodbye, Francis. Goodbye, pain." And she releases the bird, who flies away. A little bit of Gothic darkness! A touch of Shirley Jackson in the White House! No one could mistake this show for kitchen-sink realism. I love my soap operas. I'll keep watching.
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