Month: October 2020

17
Oct
2020

The Falconer

I just finished reading ‘The Falconer’, Dana Czapnik’s debut novel and I loved it. Salman Rushdie has been a supporter of Czapnik and it shows in her splendid prose that immerses one in 1990’s New York City.

It’s the story of 17-year old Lucy Adler, a self proclaimed ‘pizza-bagel’ (half Jewish, half Italian). It’s written in the first person as we follow Lucy in her senior year in the private school where she doesn’t fit in at all. “But I’m a girl, and I’m really tall and I don’t have Pantene-commercial hair and I’m not, let’s say, une petite fleur, so everyone just assumes I’m a lesbian.”

We first meet her on the basketball court – she is an outstanding player – with her childhood friend and crush, Percy. Through his references to French nihilism and the moral bankruptcy of his banker father, we quickly glean that Percy is an aspiring existentialist determined to disavow his upper-class roots. Lucy turns a blind eye to Percy’s hypocrisy, his escapades with other more “womanly” women, his desire to go to San Diego upon graduation since, according to him, the girls there are “the way they should be,” and his strange bouts of jealousy as she secretly negotiates her ability to be both boy-obsessed and a tomboy. It is via the prism of her relationship with Percy that Lucy begins to forge her way through and against the current of normative gender roles.

Lucy loves her basketball and the descriptions of the game are some of the best I’ve read. Czapnik’s descriptions of the New York of the 90s are captivating and fun to read.

Lucy’s coming-of-age is tempered by her constant brush-ups against the constrictions society places on her sex. Happening upon “The Falconer,” a bronze of a boy in Elizabethan dress releasing a falcon in Central Park, Lucy is envious that statues of boys depict them in action poses while women are either demure nudes or Alice in Wonderland. “Don’t you wish they made statues of girls like that?” Lucy asks Alexis. “Just some girl having unapologetic fun.” Alexis replies: “I never apologize for the fun I have. And neither do you.” Reader, beware: Spending time with Lucy is unapologetic fun, and heartbreak, and awe as well.

‘The Falconer’ is a New York Times ‘Editor’s Choice’. I loved it and I think you will too. Give it a try.

Posted by Tom in Books, Literature
10
Oct
2020

Verdi!

Today is the birthday of Giuseppe Verdi (October 10, 1813), one of the most wonderful of opera composers. Even if you’re not a fan of opera, you will recognize some of his music and, by the time you finish this post, may even like it! Verdi was a strong supporter of the ‘Risorgimento’ – the Italian unification movement. Much of his music was in the spirit of the movement and Verdi himself was considered a representative of the ideals.

There are certain of his pieces that I like a lot. His third opera, Nabucco, is the story of the conquest of Israel by Nebuchadnezzar and their exile and enslavement. The chorus, Va pensiero, known sometimes as ‘The Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves’ has, in my mind, a beautiful, haunting quality as they dream of their homeland. If you want to sing along, the text can be found HERE.

In 1851, Verdi composed ‘Rigoletto’, a tragic story revolving around the Duke of Mantua, his court jester, Rigoletto and Rigolleto’s daughter Gilda. One of the most famous aria in the opera is ‘La donna è mobile’ (woman is fickle) sung by the duke. I’m sure you’ve heard the melody:

Another of my favorites is from La Traviata which was first presented in 1853. It’s the story of a famous courtesan and a young man who falls in love with her even though she already has a wealthy lover. There is, of course, a duel and later, Violetta, the courtesan, falls ill and dies in the young mans’ arms. My favorite piece from this is, of course, the drinking song.

I don’t want to make this too long so I’ll close with ‘Aida’. The Khedive of Egypt commissioned Verdi to write an opera to celebrate the opening of the Suez canal. The result was ‘Aida’ and this triumphal march.

Happy birthday, Giuseppe!

Posted by Tom in opera
04
Oct
2020

Jean-François Millet

Today, October 4, is the birthday in 1814 of Jean-François Millet, French Realist painter. He was born into a farming family and, as a boy, worked on the farm mowing, making hay, binding the sheaves, spreading manure, threshing, winnowing and so forth. Much of his work reflects his life on the farm and the lives of peasants.

The Gleaners

This painting, The Gleaners, is one of his most famous. It depicts three peasant woman engaged in the backbreaking activity of gleaning – gathering the leftover grain missed by the farmer after harvest. Gleaning by the poor and homeless was a legal right in parts of Europe for many years. Millet tried to display the repetition and fatigue in the peasants’ daily lives. Contrast the meager amounts they have gathered with the farmer’s huge stacks of grain on the horizon.

I like this painting; I like the light and contrast of the women against the light background. I think he does a good job of representing their backbreaking labor and the miserable return they get. This particular painting is hung in the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. Go and see it next time you are there. You can find images of many of his other paintings in Wikimedia Commons by clicking HERE.

Posted by Tom in Art
02
Oct
2020

The Heart Goes Last

I just finished reading ‘The Heart Goes Last’, a novel by Margaret Atwood. Atwood is justly famous for her dystopian novels and that are rich in character but sometimes flow slowly. This one is different.

The Heart Goes Last can only be described as a rather kinky dystopian novel with some lead characters that have the internal monologue of a tape on an endless loop. It’s quite funny in parts and well-written and it’s clear she had some fun with this one.

Stan and Charmaine are victims of a vast economic collapse, living in their car and scrambling for gas and food money. When a prosperous planned community offers an escape from post-apocalyptic misery, they don’t question the details. That’s just as well, since the details of Consilience don’t follow any rational logic. The thriving city is built around Positron Prison, and residents like Stan and Charmaine are expected to alternate months as support staff and prisoners, with each group providing work and a rationale for the other. Consilience promises a meaningful life of luxury, in complete isolation from the outside world. The catch, of course, is that once you enter, you can’t leave; it’s the roach hotel of the postmodern world.

Charmaine and Stan love it at first. The months in the slammer aren’t too bad – Stan tends chickens and Charmaine has a job administering medicine. Things get complicated when Charmaine becomes obsessed with the guy part of the couple who inhabits their house when Stan and Charmaine are in prison. Also, she discovers that her ‘medicine administration’ is simply a death cocktail for the unlucky recipients.

Like all dystopias, there are big brothers spying on everyone and so forth but that’s not important. Things get a bit crazier when they get involved with an underground movement to bring down the rulers of the place and the ‘possibilibots’ which are basically very advanced sex robots. Stan escapes disguised as an Elvis sex robot and, if possible, things get a little crazier.

Atwood is a highly talented and gifted writer and she has fun with this. I imagine you will too even though it has its flaws. Give it a try! https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/30/books/review-margaret-atwoods-the-heart-goes-last-conjures-a-kinky-dystopia.html

Posted by Tom