June Reads

My June reads were a mixed bag of topics, writing styles, re-readable words and un...

Pianos and Flowers - Alexander McCall Smith.  Unrelated short stories, each inspired by a photo.  Not his best work, to my mind.  I missed the development of characters you come to love that he creates so well in his other works.

Ordinary Life - Elizabeth Berg.  Short stories that deal with a wide variety of topics, from death to cancer, to failed marriages, to aging, to the mixed up mess that relationships can be.  Some were excellent.  Others were okay.

The Year of Magical Thinking - Joan Didion.  Had not known Ms. Didion before this read.  Interesting, if somewhat strange, woman.  Her heartache and confusion at the loss of her husband are palpable.  What appears to be name dropping, a gentrified and star filled lifestyle are a bit much for someone who simultaneously claims to have been without and appreciative only of art and the simple life, are distracting and disconcerting.  Still, her writing is addictive.  As follow up, I watched The Center Will Not Hold, a documentary about her done by the son of her brother-in-law.  It was a generous portraiture, but shared the breadth of the work that Joan and her husband, John Dunne, had produced in their life times.  It also presents Didion as one who lives her life somewhat disengaged; an observer.  This article in The New Yorker shares an anecdote that spoke loudly to me as well ~ The Most Revealing Moment in the New Joan Didion Documentary  Such detachment and the view of life as a stage undoubtedly makes a good reporter and story teller.  But, it leaves a lot of questions, too.

Blue Nights - Joan Didion.  As if one loss was not enough, she writes, though more briefly, of the loss of her daughter, whose illness began just before the death of her husband and whose eventual passing took place only 2 years later .  Most of the medical aspects made little sense to me if we are talking about the death of a perfectly healthy 37-39 year old from flu followed by a head injury and pancreatitis, though Didion is not explicit in many of those physiologic details.  Perhaps this article fills in the missing gaps ~  Is Joan Didion in Denial About Her Daughter's Alcoholism?  It is clearly Didion's choice as to what she prefers to share.  Perhaps there is just too much pain in her daughter's life and death to hear within her heart, much less put on the printed page.  I have no idea how one would survive the losses she endured in such rapid succession.  This report from NPR, notes the honesty with which she did acknowledge some of her experiences with motherhood ~ Sorrowful 'Blue Nights': Didion Mourns Her Daughter  Not sure we could be friends, but I do admire this formidable woman.

Blood, Bones & Butter - Gabrielle Hamilton.  Read as the mother of a chef, who reported that it included the most accurate description of brunch in a busy kitchen ever written.  I wanted to like this and its chef/author more than I did.  However, some of her stories seemed implausible.  Maybe my world is/was too sheltered.  But, still.  What makes for a good yarn can imperil the whole when you claim to be telling events as they really happened.  Or maybe I'm just a Doubting Thomas.

When Breath Becomes Air - Paul Kalanithi.  Painfully beautiful.  If this story doesn't make you appreciate every breath, I don't know what will.

How We Die:  Reflections of Life's Final Chapter - Sherwin Nuland.  A re-read for me, having first read these pages at the age of 40 following my initial diagnosis of Melanoma Stage IIIb.  It still demonstrates truth and integrity.  Much like learning that chicken doesn't simply materialize as cellophane wrapped skin, bone and feather free blobs of meat on a plastic tray, death doesn't come conveniently processed either.  Nuland makes it clear that death, a natural and unavoidable part of life, often includes pain and misery with an "easy death" being one of magical thinking. Death should be looked upon with neither horror nor the false expectation of falling into a fairy tale slumber.  Through his honest telling of his experiences with death and disease, we are left with the natural aspect of what it is, what modern medicine can and cannot do, the strength of the human spirit, and yes - hope.

Kitchen Confidential - Anthony Bourdain.  Crazy ass stories of the back of the house, running restaurants, and the life of a chef that, this time, ring true.  He does not get out of his scrapes and drug use magically or make tons of money serving drinks in a New York bar in the 80's as Hamilton reports.  He pays the price - in lots of ways.  A re-read because my chef is reading it.  I miss you, Tony.

A strange collection of words perhaps, but that was where my thoughts were floating in June.  Short stories about random moments that make up life.  Books about death that point to better ways to live.  Tales and lessons from those who feed us.  ~ les