I was eagerly looking forward to this book, since it was the only remaing one by Thrity Umrigar that I had not read. Ummm....while there were some things I enjoyed (which I will get to), overall it was an enormous dissapointment.
What was fundamentally wrong with the book in my eyes was the polt - there really wasn't one. The story revolves around Tehima, a recent widow who lives in Bombay, but is staying in suburban Cleveland with her son, daughter-in-law, and grandson. Tehima is trying to decide whether to stay in the States to be near her family, or return home to Bombay. Umrigar seems to think that - plus some side issues that are minor and extremely uninspired- is enough to keep a story rolling for XXX chapters. Well, although I am for unique subject matter, the musings of an Indian woman whiling away her days in a housing complex in the suburbs in December....it just doesn't do it for me. There is nothing there to work with. Will she stay in America or not? Natually, like any major life decision, it's a big one and there is a lot to consider. But....that isn't interesing - it isn't intresting at all.
I found the characters to be lacking, which was really surprising. Normally, I love Umrigar's characters, and I feel character developement is her best skill. Yet, the charcters in Today Be Sweet were unnatural. That these were living, breathing people never became real to me. The dialouge felt like a writing student wrote it. Especaily Shomabr, the son of Tehima. He is a 38 year man, but I just do not hear the men in my life sounding like that. He reads like a middle aged woman wrote him- which is the truth. Furthermore, I didn't like one single character in the book, although I could occasionally warm up to Susan, the daughter-in-law. Tehima was insufferable. Her thoughts and perspectives on America were lazy and so overgeneralized, it is surprising that Umrigar has lived here for over twenty years. Let' see: Americans are obsessed with money, think that good food is fast food, are clean freaks who worship their homes (which are all newly constructd and lacking in character). Tehima would be the most annoying mother-in-law ever! Everything about the lifestyle her son and daughter-in-law have created is unsatisfactory to her. Where they live, the style of house, the neighbors, the neighborhood, the way they spend their money, the way they spend their vacations- and what does she expect? Everyhing in America is compared, in her mind, unfavorabley to India, but guess what? This is America! It's not going to be like India. Dislike it, fine, but quit trying to figure out why the whole country is doing everything wrong acording to you. Trust me, this isn't a patriot's mad attempt to defend her country against anything. Bring on any criticism you like. I know it's not perfct here. But this...this is laziness. It's incorrect.
Take the farmer's market scene, for excample. Here, we have Tehima and her friend going to a farmer's market in Cleveland on a December day. Tehima laments that her son and daughter-in-law shop at the supermarket, where everything is not fresh and has no taste. Well, you are at a farmer's market in Cleveland in December. What fresh fruit and vegetables are you going to get? I guarantee every single thing you touch has been shipped in from someplace - could possibyt be the same place the wretched supermarket uses. But becasue Americans are tasteless, classless sheep who love everything to be dumbed down for us, we cannot appreciate a farmer's market like they have in India. And of course, whenever Tehima sees an unsavory characteristic in her son, it is that America has changed him. Did I mention I don't like this character? Her superiority complex is so annoying it nearly ruins the book. Perhaps Umrigar was not trying to make an appealing character. That very well may be, because she is too skilled of a writer for this to be an accident.
Thre are redeeming qualities to the book. Occasional glimpses into human nature. Lovely passages of writing. Most of the characters, although not appealing, have okay moments - even Tehima. As a Clevelander, I appreciated some references to places I know well. This was an easy read, although I didn't devour it like I normally do with Umrigar's writing. It simply didn't live up to her previous work. Maybe if Umriagr wasn't so good, this book would not be so bad. From a sub-par author, it would do. I am still looking forward to whatever she does next, and would recommend this if you are an Umrigar fan; it's not bad enough to skip if you're interested in her work. In my opinion, the order of her books, from best to worst, is: The Space Between Us; First Darling of the Morning and Bombay Time are tied for second; The Weight of Heaven and finally, If Today Be Sweet.
Monday, November 26, 2012
The Paris Wife
This book is so wonderful, it's only fair to warn you before you read any further - there will be gushing in the review. Unabashed, shameless, gushing. I'm a fairly picky reader, and have read a lot of good stuff over the years, so I consider myself fairly discerning. This book was better than I expected, every bit as good as some of the so-called classics that are out there, a page-turning story with plenty of "drama" going on and still, at the same time, a quiet look at the interior life of one woman.
Okay, let me catch my breath and explain.
The Paris Wife, by Paula McClain, is the fictionalized tale of Hadley Richardson, first wife of Ernest Hemingway. Before Hemingway was Hemingway, she married the unknown witer based on not too much more than dizzying adoration and sex appeal (on both sides). She traveled with him to live as starving artist ex-pats in Paris, she bore his son, she read his stuff and modestly entertained his freinds (folks like Gertrude Stein, so picture that after dinner talk). This is a quiet book about a quiet woman. She was not subserveint per se, just very traditional and supportive of her husband, because he was a genuis and she believed that. The love shared by Hadley and Ersnest is so real, so intimately portrayed, one fairly blushes at being allowed a look into their little story. For Hadley, the small and special life they share seems to be enough. She comes from a somewhat sad and dysfunctional family, and Ernest becomes her best freind, her family. Their life is Paris satisfies her, especially when she begins to seriously study the piano. But Hemingway being the man who we all know would eventually stalk big game in Africa and go fishing off Catalina and be a bullfighting enthusiast and all that - he has less success contending himself with a small life.
What happnes in this book, as even McClain says at the start, is no surprise. We all know the saga of Hemingway and his many wives and sad life. But when coupled with what he says in his own words in A Moveable Feast, this story is as tragic and beautiful and sad and moving as any I have ever read. Becaue he loved her and he never stopped loving her, it makes one take a moment to look at someone who, on the surface, is a simple housewife (ugh, hate that term) and say, "I want to know a little something about her." That is the strength of this story, too; the fact that, had she never married Hemingway, Hadley Richardson would likely be unknown to us today. But she was someone, someone with value, not just the Paris wife, or starter wife, who Ernest traded in when success and fame and money came. She was intelliegent and well read. She loved music and had a sophisticated ear. She was thoughtful and loyal. She never was judgemental, always understanding that men and women have a host of imperfections, and recognizing which of those she could endure, and which she ultimately could not. I identified with her strongly. Her story was a great one, respectfully told by a skilled writer.
Okay, let me catch my breath and explain.
The Paris Wife, by Paula McClain, is the fictionalized tale of Hadley Richardson, first wife of Ernest Hemingway. Before Hemingway was Hemingway, she married the unknown witer based on not too much more than dizzying adoration and sex appeal (on both sides). She traveled with him to live as starving artist ex-pats in Paris, she bore his son, she read his stuff and modestly entertained his freinds (folks like Gertrude Stein, so picture that after dinner talk). This is a quiet book about a quiet woman. She was not subserveint per se, just very traditional and supportive of her husband, because he was a genuis and she believed that. The love shared by Hadley and Ersnest is so real, so intimately portrayed, one fairly blushes at being allowed a look into their little story. For Hadley, the small and special life they share seems to be enough. She comes from a somewhat sad and dysfunctional family, and Ernest becomes her best freind, her family. Their life is Paris satisfies her, especially when she begins to seriously study the piano. But Hemingway being the man who we all know would eventually stalk big game in Africa and go fishing off Catalina and be a bullfighting enthusiast and all that - he has less success contending himself with a small life.
What happnes in this book, as even McClain says at the start, is no surprise. We all know the saga of Hemingway and his many wives and sad life. But when coupled with what he says in his own words in A Moveable Feast, this story is as tragic and beautiful and sad and moving as any I have ever read. Becaue he loved her and he never stopped loving her, it makes one take a moment to look at someone who, on the surface, is a simple housewife (ugh, hate that term) and say, "I want to know a little something about her." That is the strength of this story, too; the fact that, had she never married Hemingway, Hadley Richardson would likely be unknown to us today. But she was someone, someone with value, not just the Paris wife, or starter wife, who Ernest traded in when success and fame and money came. She was intelliegent and well read. She loved music and had a sophisticated ear. She was thoughtful and loyal. She never was judgemental, always understanding that men and women have a host of imperfections, and recognizing which of those she could endure, and which she ultimately could not. I identified with her strongly. Her story was a great one, respectfully told by a skilled writer.
Team of Rivals
Team of Rivals, by noted historian Doris Kearns-Goodwin has been on my bookshelf for years. My mother-in-law gave it to me when it as first published, after she had tried and failed to get interested in the story. It seemed I was doomed to the same fate, finding the large cast of characters to be confusing and just not being in the mood for it. Yet I always went back to this book, knowing that if I could just work through my initial inability to be captured by the story, I would be okay. And finally I did. And it was worth the wait.
The story of how Lincoln rather improbably became the nominee for the White House on the Republican ticket in 1860 is a fascinating one. The tale of what he did after - running a terrific campaign, working past the prejudices of those who saw him as unschooled hick, bringing together warring factions of his party to form unity - this is the stuff that has made the Lincoln legend so compelling to generation after generation. In a time unlike any other, with a country facing civil war, Lincoln was the man for the job. If one is so inclined - and I am - ordained by God, to navigate through what remain the darkest days of our history.
Kerns-Goodwin named her book Team of Rivals because, once elected, Lincoln made the master move of including his former rivals for the nomination as key members of his cabinet. He also maintained a balance in his cabinet that helped to placate the various states in the union and wings of the newly formed Republican party. There were the radicals; men like Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase, who despised slavery and saw the war as a means of ending it. And, there were more conservative men like Montgomery Blair, a powerful figure in Washington whom Lincoln named as Postmaster General, and who remained loyal to Lincoln even after his forced resignation.
Secretary of State Henry Seward emerges as the most capable and ethical "teammate" for the President, as well as being simply a fascinating man. I walked away wanting to read a book about him and him alone, for he was so much what a statesman is imaged as and ought to be. Truly, Seward - who was a passionate anti-slavery advocate with a long, distinguished career in the Senate - was Lincoln's closet confidante, a friend who was often the sounding board for the President and who many times endured criticisms as being the power-behind the throne. Nothing could have been further from the truth - Lincoln was his own man.
Like Seward, Edwin Stanton (Secretary of War) shines in this story. Stanton was not the most likable of men, and he initially treated Lincoln with contempt. However, he quickly understood the genius of Lincoln and came to respect him enormously. The two men had a necessarily close relationship, since after all, the Civil War was happening for the entirety of the Lincoln presicedcy. One sees how they played off each other; Lincoln giving Stanton all the room in world to run his War Department as brilliantly as he did, but ultimately never relinquishing his role as Commander in Chief. It is a fascinating example of judicious use of Presidential power, and an example of what (I think) our founders would have envisioned.
The places these people inhabited during the 1850's and '60's come alive under Goodwin's skilled descriptive powers. One can almost feel themselves there at Kate Chase's elegant dinners or walking from one Department head's home to another's in Washington at twilight. Lincoln with his feet up at the telegraph office or on horseback visiting his beleagered troops is a sight I could easily see in my mind's eye, thanks to Godwin's patient unfolding of scene after scene. She all but lights a fire for us to curl up to while she describes what the men and women of the day were doing. Conversations, moods and conflicts are as expertly rendered as at the hands of the most adept novelist.
It seems that, more than any other president, understanding Lincoln the man is essential in understanding Lincoln the leader. This book focuses on the workings of a war-time administration, so there is some biographical detail of the early Lincoln, Mary Todd and others, but not an exhaustive study, which is good. Anyone already familiar with the life stories of these figures would have no interest in, for example, walking back over the dreary boyhood of Abe Lincoln. But Lincoln's personality and life experiences influenced him profoundly as a leader, perhaps in no way more than his penchance for forgiving and even rewarding those who had done him ill. When things sour between Lincoln and Chase, Lincoln rightly accepts Chase's resignation. Yet he names Chase as Chief Justcice. A picture emerges of Lincoln as a man always thinking, always aware, always able to know where he stands and what will work, but not bloviating about it all the time. Even-tempered and kind, he never grossly asserted himself, but just was who he was and did what he had to do, always thinking of the welfare of those around him. When his beloved son, Willie, died in the White House, Lincoln was consumed with grief, but never once shirked his duties. Goodwin reveals the person Lincoln was and not the myths that surround him. She suggests he was not the depressed man scholars have thought but a complicated mix of cheerfulness, gregariousness and meloncholy. She reclaims the Lincoln marriage from those who would say it was loveless and that Mary Todd Lincoln was a long-mad, nightmare wife. Indeed, their relationship seems to be one of love, loyalty and tenderness.
No historical figure, with the possible exception of Napoleon, has ever been as examined and discussed as Lincoln. And yet Goodwin finds things that are new. To approach the subject in the way she has by lacing together the stories of dozens of men and women, the saga of a bloody war, the moods of a country divided and the character of a man at the center of it, was genius. A master work by a brilliant historian.
The story of how Lincoln rather improbably became the nominee for the White House on the Republican ticket in 1860 is a fascinating one. The tale of what he did after - running a terrific campaign, working past the prejudices of those who saw him as unschooled hick, bringing together warring factions of his party to form unity - this is the stuff that has made the Lincoln legend so compelling to generation after generation. In a time unlike any other, with a country facing civil war, Lincoln was the man for the job. If one is so inclined - and I am - ordained by God, to navigate through what remain the darkest days of our history.
Kerns-Goodwin named her book Team of Rivals because, once elected, Lincoln made the master move of including his former rivals for the nomination as key members of his cabinet. He also maintained a balance in his cabinet that helped to placate the various states in the union and wings of the newly formed Republican party. There were the radicals; men like Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase, who despised slavery and saw the war as a means of ending it. And, there were more conservative men like Montgomery Blair, a powerful figure in Washington whom Lincoln named as Postmaster General, and who remained loyal to Lincoln even after his forced resignation.
Secretary of State Henry Seward emerges as the most capable and ethical "teammate" for the President, as well as being simply a fascinating man. I walked away wanting to read a book about him and him alone, for he was so much what a statesman is imaged as and ought to be. Truly, Seward - who was a passionate anti-slavery advocate with a long, distinguished career in the Senate - was Lincoln's closet confidante, a friend who was often the sounding board for the President and who many times endured criticisms as being the power-behind the throne. Nothing could have been further from the truth - Lincoln was his own man.
Like Seward, Edwin Stanton (Secretary of War) shines in this story. Stanton was not the most likable of men, and he initially treated Lincoln with contempt. However, he quickly understood the genius of Lincoln and came to respect him enormously. The two men had a necessarily close relationship, since after all, the Civil War was happening for the entirety of the Lincoln presicedcy. One sees how they played off each other; Lincoln giving Stanton all the room in world to run his War Department as brilliantly as he did, but ultimately never relinquishing his role as Commander in Chief. It is a fascinating example of judicious use of Presidential power, and an example of what (I think) our founders would have envisioned.
The places these people inhabited during the 1850's and '60's come alive under Goodwin's skilled descriptive powers. One can almost feel themselves there at Kate Chase's elegant dinners or walking from one Department head's home to another's in Washington at twilight. Lincoln with his feet up at the telegraph office or on horseback visiting his beleagered troops is a sight I could easily see in my mind's eye, thanks to Godwin's patient unfolding of scene after scene. She all but lights a fire for us to curl up to while she describes what the men and women of the day were doing. Conversations, moods and conflicts are as expertly rendered as at the hands of the most adept novelist.
It seems that, more than any other president, understanding Lincoln the man is essential in understanding Lincoln the leader. This book focuses on the workings of a war-time administration, so there is some biographical detail of the early Lincoln, Mary Todd and others, but not an exhaustive study, which is good. Anyone already familiar with the life stories of these figures would have no interest in, for example, walking back over the dreary boyhood of Abe Lincoln. But Lincoln's personality and life experiences influenced him profoundly as a leader, perhaps in no way more than his penchance for forgiving and even rewarding those who had done him ill. When things sour between Lincoln and Chase, Lincoln rightly accepts Chase's resignation. Yet he names Chase as Chief Justcice. A picture emerges of Lincoln as a man always thinking, always aware, always able to know where he stands and what will work, but not bloviating about it all the time. Even-tempered and kind, he never grossly asserted himself, but just was who he was and did what he had to do, always thinking of the welfare of those around him. When his beloved son, Willie, died in the White House, Lincoln was consumed with grief, but never once shirked his duties. Goodwin reveals the person Lincoln was and not the myths that surround him. She suggests he was not the depressed man scholars have thought but a complicated mix of cheerfulness, gregariousness and meloncholy. She reclaims the Lincoln marriage from those who would say it was loveless and that Mary Todd Lincoln was a long-mad, nightmare wife. Indeed, their relationship seems to be one of love, loyalty and tenderness.
No historical figure, with the possible exception of Napoleon, has ever been as examined and discussed as Lincoln. And yet Goodwin finds things that are new. To approach the subject in the way she has by lacing together the stories of dozens of men and women, the saga of a bloody war, the moods of a country divided and the character of a man at the center of it, was genius. A master work by a brilliant historian.
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