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LitPicks - February '09
Remembrance of Times Past: Exploring the past—the confluence of events; family and friends; choices made and made for us—is a way we uncover our present selves. This month's works, one memoir and two novels, bring lives into focus through a kaleidoscopic view of years gone by. None of these books is new, but all are personal favorites.
A Lighter Touch | Wonderfully
Written | Great Works
Tender at the Bone
Ruth Reichel, 1998
282 pp.
By Molly Lundquist
The career of Ruth Reichl, one of the country's top food critics and the editor-in-chief of Gourmet magazine, was hardly a given. Her mother's idea of culinary elegance was laying out a buffet of mold-encrusted food or leftovers from Horn & Hardart's automat cafeteria in New York City!
In fact, according to her account, Ruth might have followed the career path of a public health inspector. By 9 years of age she was warning guests away from her mother's toxic offerings, particularly worried about "the big eaters" and her favorite people as they neared the buffet, "willing them away from the casserole."
Unknowingly, I had started sorting people by their tastes. Like a hearing child born to deaf parents, I was shaped by my mother's handicap, discovering that food could be a way of making sense of the world.
Reichl's memoir makes for quick, delightful reading with a good dose of hilarity thrown in. But her story eventually reaches its tender point with her aging parents, particularly her long-suffering father who put up with a good deal from Ruth's zany mother, a diagnosed manic-depressive. To escape, Ruth takes off for distant parts, putting 3,000 miles between herself and her mother, only to be called home occasionally to help get her parents through another crisis.
This is delectable fare served up by Reichl. I recommend it highly—a delightful, fun read. Be sure to see our Reading Guide for Tender at the Bone.
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Charming Billy
Alice McDermott, 1998
243 pp.
By Molly Lundquist
There was something about Billy. Just an alchololic, a typical one, who stretched his friendships thin, strained his marriage, and died in the street. But there was something about him, something special.
The daughter of Billy's best friend narrates this intimate portrait, not just of Billy Lynch, but of the large family of Irish-American cousins who surrounded him and loved him, especially her father, Dennis. Starting with the funeral luncheon after Billy's burial, family members recall what they know.
And most of what they know about Billy centers on his lost love for Eva, a young Irish girl he met in the states after the war but who died on her return to Ireland. It was her death that set into motion the tragedy that defined Billy's life. Or so the story goes....
But life always being different than what it appears is part of what goes on here. Relationships between family and friends, husband and wife are explored with sharp poignancy and insight—as the memories go back in time to the 1940's through the '80's.
Ancient dreams are unearthed and faith is altered, but clan is what binds everyone together.
Gradually, Billy emerges as
his outline gets filled in, yet he still remains something of a mystery.
McDermott gives us no crises, no drama, no high-tension wires to cross. The plot is built by layering memory upon memory. But her story—that of Billy and all the others—is simply and beautifully rendered, with a fair amount of wit. It's a story of ordinariness in all its magnificance. I love this book.
Be sure to see our Reading Guide for Charming Billy.
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Absalom, Absalom!
William Faulkner, 1936
313 pp.
By Molly Lundquist
This is the ultimate book of memory—a family history that tries to piece together the past and come to grips with the present. But memory in this case gets filtered through various characters...so we're never ultimately sure what we get—even though we may think we have it all.
Absalom is the story of Thomas Sutpen, who in
1833 strives to create a dynasty out of a swamp, and who ultimately
self-destructs. The story opens years later as old Miss Rosa Coldfield first tells the story of the Sutpen family tragedy to young Quentin Compson.
But Quentin's father tells him a different version of the same story, one he'd heard years ago from his father, who got it from Thomas Sutpen himself. Get it? We're hearing the story third-hand...so, who knows? Later that fall, Quentin tells the story to his Harvard roommate, who gets in on the act, speculating and creating his own version of what happened. Each telling reveals more and more of the story.
Ultimately, Absalom is about the South, taking on one of Faulkner's major themes: the region's destruction, or self-destruction, through human will, racism, slavery, and miscegenation.
This is a stunning work—exciting, even breath-taking—but very challenging. It is, after all Faulkner. But it's the story that Gone with the Wind never told.Confession: I recommended this book as a LitPick two years ago. Anybody read it then? Darn, I bet not! So it's worth recommending again. It's my favorite (but one) Faulkner novel.
Also, see LitLovers Absalom, Absalom! Reading Guide
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