Review of Let's Take the Long Way Home

Gail Caldwell, winner of the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Criticism for her work as book critic for the Boston Globe, documents her friendship with fellow writer Caroline Knapp (Boston Phoenix columnist and author of Drinking: a Love Story) in a beautifully written and insightful memoir. Their bond began over their love of dogs and was cemented over additional shared experiences such as the writing life, athleticism, and past struggles with alcoholism. They both lived alone in the Cambridge area. Although this memoir focuses specifically on a friendship, it also contains mini-biographies of the two women.

Caldwell writes: "That our life stories had wound their way toward each other on corresponding paths was part of the early connection. Finding Caroline was like placing a personal ad for an imaginary friend, then having her show up at your door funnier and better than you had conceived. Apart, we had each been frightened drunks and aspiring writers and dog lovers; together, we became a small corporation."

Knapp died in 2002 at 42 of lung cancer, less than two months after her diagnosis. Most of the book is dedicated to their friendship before she fell ill. But inevitably, Caldwell must deal with the end of her friend's life. Caldwell has insightful things to say about grief, such as, "Maybe this is the point: to embrace the core sadness of life without toppling headlong into it, or assuming it will define your days. The real trick is to let life, with all its ordinary missteps and regrets, be consistently more mysterious and alluring than its end." The book contains excellent writing about the strong bond between individuals as well as reflections on life and loss.

Review of Imperfect Birds

Anne Lamott is a talented writer of fiction and nonfiction. I had not read a book by her in awhile, so I was looking forward to her newly published novel, Imperfect Birds. She explained the title in an interview in the May/June issue of Writer's Digest: "It's a line from a poem by Rumi. The line is, 'Each must enter the nest made by the other imperfect birds,' and it's really about how these kind of scraggly, raggedy nests that are our lives are the sanctuary for other people to step into . . ."

She returns to characters from her previous books Rosie and Crooked Little Heart. Seventeen-year-old Rosie has lost control. Defiant of her mother Elizabeth and stepfather James, she takes a variety of drugs and gets caught up with a guy who encourages the drug use. Elizabeth is reluctant to alienate her daughter through disciplinary actions and thereby her relationship with James suffers as she keeps secrets from him. James is the only character I consistently cared about in this book, despite him not having center stage like Rosie and Elizabeth.

One thing that bothered me about Elizabeth: why doesn't she have a job? Because she is depressed and is a recovering alcoholic? The author's point of view about this issue is unclear. Since Elizabeth and James do not have enough money at hand to send Rosie to rehab, they have to dip into money from her college fund. At one point, Rosie thinks how annoying it is that all her mother does is lounge around the house and putter in the garden when everyone else has to work.

Lamott's sensual descriptions (particularly of food) in the book remind me of one of my favorite authors, Francesca Lia Block, who does that well and also sets her novels in California. There were quite a few lines and passages that were so insightful or well-written that I wrote them down in my journal. This is an uneven novel with some beautiful writing.

The Female & Male Brains

I recently came across this quote from actress Kim Cattrall: "I'm dating again, but I know nothing about men. They remain a mystery to me, other than that they are predictable."

The differences between the female and male brains make for fascinating stuff. Louann Brizendine, M.D. wrote books on each one. She notes: "Much of the conflict that exists between men and women is fueled by unrealistic expectations that stem from failing to grasp each other's innate differences."

We know the stereotypes: women are emotional and men are not; women are more empathetic; men always have sex on the brain; women can't read maps; women are more verbal and men are more visual. But what kind of biological basis is there for these widespread perceptions?

The books follow an identical format, first laying out the parts of the brain that are different between women and men and then the hormones that affect each. Taking readers through the successive stages of life, the books also include chapters on emotions, sex, and love.

Here are just a few juicy bits of information from the books:

• "Sexual thoughts float through a man's brain every 52 seconds on average, and through a woman's only once a day." It's even worse than we thought!
• "Men use about 7,000 words per day. Women use about 20,000." More verbal indeed.
• "An innate skill in observation . . . comes with a brain that is more mature at birth than a boy's brain and develops faster, by 1-2 years."
• Men often do not register that a woman is upset until she bursts into tears: ". . . tears nearly always come as a complete surprise--and extreme discomfort--to a man . . . Tears in a woman may evoke brain pain in men. The male brain registers helplessness in the face of pain, and such a moment can be extremely difficult for them to tolerate."
• "Men are used to avoiding contact with others when they themselves are going through an emotionally rough time. They process their troubles alone and think women would want to do the same."

I thought I would learn more from The Male Brain, but I learned a lot from The Female Brain. The books have extensive notes and references, yet are fully accessible to the average person. Some of the author's cited research findings in The Female Brain have come under fire, but not being in that field, I couldn't say. I recently read a review of an upcoming book, the author of which is critical of Brizendine's findings on the female brain. That could lead to an interesting ongoing dialogue.

Farm Sanctuary

Animal rights is an important cause to me. I went vegetarian over a decade ago and never looked back. Ideally, I would be vegan and we'll see if I take the plunge in the future. In Farm Sanctuary, animal rights lobbyist and cofounder and president of Farm Sanctuary Gene Baur covers the significant legal victories he has achieved, stories of animal rescues, and the ugly truths of factory farming in the U.S. Even if you think you know all of the cruel practices involved in factory farming, Baur brings more of them to light. Each chapter ends with a profile of a rescued animal and that animal's unique story.

Baur is doing great work, and has achieved so much, yet laments repeatedly in the book that he can only save a small percentage of the nation's farm animals, which are adopted out or housed at one of the organization's two farms in Watkins Glen, New York and Orland, California. Obviously not being able to save more animals both dismays him and fuels his motivation to continue his advocacy. The rescues, combined with what he has done in changing hearts and minds about animals and food (as the subtitle says) make for an impressive list of accomplishments.

The Unit vs. Never Let Me Go

I recently read The Unit, by Ninni Holmqvist (translated from the Swedish by Marlaine Delargy) and Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro. The dystopian genre to which these books belong has fascinated me since I was introduced to 1984 back when I was a high school sophomore.

I recommend both these titles to book groups. Although there are similarities between them, my favorite is definitely Holmqvist's debut novel, The Unit. A lot more seems to happen in that book than in Never Let Me Go, which is a quieter read and zeroes in more closely on a tight-knit trio of friends.

Both stories are set in societies (in Sweden in the near future and Great Britain in the late-1990s, respectively) where certain members are considered dispensable and are sacrificed for the good of others. Dorrit, the protagonist of The Unit, is wiser to what is going on than the friends of Never Let Me Go, who try to figure out the full scope of their situation for the entirety of the book.

Both Dorrit and Kathy, who narrates Never Let Me Go, become involved in bittersweet love affairs that greatly complicate matters. How does one reconcile love while on a fast track to the end of life? Does society trump the individual?

Thoughts on This Book is Overdue!

I hope people besides librarians are interested in reading Marilyn Johnson's This Book is Overdue! because she says how librarians are adapting to a changing world and why their services are still valuable. Libraries need this kind of support! I read her book not because I wanted to congratulate myself on my chosen career but rather to see how she might influence public views of the profession. I was aware of many of the specific library trends and librarians that Johnson discusses (the Connecticut Four--love the title of that chapter: "Big Brother and the Holdout Company;" librarian bloggers; the strong librarian presence on Second Life; among others) but the public at large likely is not.

This is a fun book on librarianship, for the most part, with anecdotes about a colorful array of librarians. Johnson got the idea for the book when she was researching obituaries for her first book, The Dead Beat, and found that--according to her--librarians were some of the most interesting people out there.

A whole book praising librarians may be a bit much, as Johnson does not tie the book together as well as she could have. I remain a mix of worried and hopeful about whether American culture is going to embrace librarians well into the future. We certainly have a significant advocate and ally in Marilyn Johnson.

South Park takes on book banning

Tonight's episode of South Park trod on literary territory! I think the only other time they've done that was when they skewered the A Million Little Pieces Oprah fiasco (which was great--Towelie and A Million Little Fibers!). So in this episode, after speed reading Catcher in the Rye because of its mystique as a banned book, the boys are disappointed and immediately pen their own story which they make as offensive as they can dream up. Cartman's reaction to Catcher in the Rye: "It's not obscene, dude. I'll show them [expletive] obscene!"

The boys' "book" ends up getting discovered and although people are utterly repulsed by it, they praise it as a great contribution to literature (i.e., worthy of the Pulitzer Prize) and read all sorts of interpretations into it that, of course, the boys had no intention of conveying. South Park's creators love making fun of pretension throughout our culture!

Of course, many of us are bewildered with the continued banning of books from school and public libraries. This South Park episode helps highlight the absurdity of book banning--how dated and hopelessly subjective it is. The boys inevitably get fed up. Books, they conclude, invite their own meaning: "That's why we should forget books and stick to television!"