Days of Love...and Lack Thereof, Happy Valentine's Day!

Gianna:

I am embarrassed to say that this was just added to my list a week or so ago at my girlfriend’s urging, and of course I knew it had to be number one. And maybe you think it's cheating because I am once again technically choosing a short story, but rules like laws are meant to be broken...like bigamy, sodomy, and stealing beer from the Pump and Munch (it’s a real place).

"The Bear Went Over
the Mountain" was made into
a terrific movie.

Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage consists of nine extraordinary stories. If you haven’t read Alice Munro, this is a great jumping off point; it's one of her finest collections, and she without doubt is one of the best writers working today (and if you ever meet anyone who disagrees with that, unfriend them on Facebook immediately).

Alice Munro

For this blog I am going to focus on "The Bear Came Over the Mountain," the beautiful story which anchors the book.

Grant and Fiona are at a crossroad. Although they have had an imperfect marriage, (Grant has had short meaningless affairs with students and even a yearlong affair with a colleague’s wife) he does love Fiona.

Gianna's sweetie Natasha

When she begins showing signs of Alzheimer’s disease, she finally takes complete control of her life and marriage. She insists on moving to a nursing home when the disease robs her of the ability to care for herself. Grant finally agrees although it is clearly not what he wants. As the story moves forward Fiona begins to change in ways that Grant is not expecting, including falling in love with another man.

Where Alice Munro succeeds the most in her stories is in her complete grasp on humanity. She paints sweeping portraits with such gorgeous concise language that you are convinced that she was born to write.

Natasha's sweetie Gianna.....oy.

Liz:

Now I could have picked a sappy love story or epic lovey dovey saga or poignant tale of tragic love; it is Valentine's Day, after all.  But let's be honest: I ordered pizza tonight and sang "My Furry Valentine" to the cat this morning.  I have to be true to me and my ennui.  I will turn back to my witchy, wordy goddess, my JCO.  She communes with my bleak, soulless interior void.

Zombies are a hot topic these days, just behind vampires in the proliferation of undead books of the last few years.  The Joyce Carol Oates take?  Well, she's dark.  Zombie is about a man's quest for love.  He meets people in bars and invites them home...where he lobotomizes them with an ice pick, turning the victims into zombies.  It's a sick man's way of keeping his lovers from abandoning him (until, of course, the brain trauma knocks them down for good).  Oates based her novella on the Jeffery Dahmer case, her way of trying to understand the mind of a serial killer.


Happy Valentine's Day from Book Land!

Days of Love...and Lack Thereof, Day 19

Gianna:

Well we are nearing the end, but have no fear (of commitment), my last two choices are pretty great. In fact my last two books are by writers I don’t talk about nearly enough; they are both brilliant, and much to Liz’s liking…one is a Canadian (Liz likes geography like she enjoys her men…cold and distant).

Elizabeth McCracken has several excellent books under her belt: a story collection entitled Here’s Your Hat, What’s Your Hurry, a truly inspired novel called Niagara Falls All Over Again, a heartbreaking memoir, An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination. Finally she is the author of a book that makes my top, oh, I don’t know… twenty?: The Giant’s House: A Romance.

Elizabeth McCracken

In short (no pun intended…seriously it's not intended), set in the early 1950’s, Peggy falls in love with James. Here are a couple of details. Peggy is twenty-five when she meets eleven-year-old James. James has a very rare endocrine disorder, which causes him to grow at an alarming and dangerous rate; his lifespan will be drastically cut short. Peggy is a lonely librarian (before attending the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, I am almost certain McCracken was a librarian) who has been disappointed by life, and certainly, love. James and Peggy, each in their own way, are social outcasts. They each have a curiosity beyond that of their small, unchanging town. In their ten year platonic relationship, Peggy raises funds to build James a proper house, proper furniture, and even has a car built to suit his needs (he reaches 8 ft tall and is over 400 pounds). She adores his strange but loving family and finally feels at home. A bit of a twist from here so I won’t spoil the read, but please give The Giant’s House a chance; it's one of the most original, moving, thoughtful books I have read. [And secretly Gianna LOVES tall people.]

Liz:

I think if Gianna can select a short story ("Brokeback Mountain"), so can I.  "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is required reading.  Period.  A husband loves his wife so much that he takes her to the country to undergo a rest cure about she struggles with depression.  He's so loving, see?  His beloved has the run of an upstairs room in a country house, a room with the ugliest fucking wallpaper ever conceived.  It's not his fault, of course.  He didn't design the house interiors.  And besides, the doctor thinks this rest cure is restorative.

Anyway, our heroine spends days in her room and subtly she begins to see patterns in the wallpaper.  And then she sees the figures in the paper creeping.  And then she herself is creeping.  She's crazy with love!  (Or she's just crazy, driven insane by the well-intentioned men in her life who don't listen to her.)

Guess what!  I'm still single!

Days of Love...and Lack Thereof, Day 18

Gianna:

Harold and Maude

Before anyone gives me a hassle let me just say that I know it was a movie first, then a novel. I don’t care, it's an easy way to get my favorite (well, second favorite movie) in my top five Valentine book list.

Maude is on the left, with the 'fro.

Harold and Maude are the cutest, sweetest, sexiest couple ever (and this novel…well, movie has a great soundtrack, it makes you want to date older….way older).  Editions of this book can be pretty pricey, but you have to have it on your shelf. Okay, don’t read, just see the movie. It’s a win-win.

Also, meet my girlfriend’s Valentine gift from me….Harold and Maude. [I think Gianna's trying to replace Zorro as our official mascot.  I also think that Zorro would destroy Harold and Maude.]

Liz:

Not enough people have read Waiting for Columbus by Thomas Trofimuk.  Seriously, this book should have been a huge bestseller and every book group out there should have read it.  It's not too late.  Find a copy, read it, and then feel free to let me know how grateful you are.

Columbus is a guy who was found floating in the ocean off the coast of Spain, naked, mentally ill, believing that he's the famous explorer.  Except he can't be Christopher Columbus because it's the present day.  He's sent to live in a Barcelona mental hospital and though doctors try to engage him, he's resistant to treatment.  Then he begins to tell his story--or Columbus's story anyway--to Consuela, a nurse there.  (Oh, and he's still naked.  He hates to wear clothes.)  As his story unravels, his real life begins to come forward.

Yeah, this is another Liz-selected book about a mentally ill protagonist, but I swear that there is a love story here.  And it's a terrific read.  I promise.

Days of Love...and Lack Thereof, Day 17

Gianna:


I can't believe you even considered celebrating a Valentine's Day without Pablo! What is wrong with you? Do you know nothing of romance, of love, of getting laid? Listen, it's not too late to save face. Pick up a copy of Pablo Neruda's 100 Love Sonnets (I mean, it's in English and Spanish...it's one language for free!). 

"When I die, I want your hands on my eyes:
I want the light and wheat of your beloved hands
to pass their freshness over me once more:
I want to feel the softness that changed my destiny."
--Neruda

I know...guaranteed to get things going.

Liz:

Earlier today a pal suggested that Gianna might have a better grasp of this theme than I do.  Humph.  Apparently he doesn't appreciate the awe-inspiring, loin-quivering appeal of Darth Dick Cheney.  But fine.  I'll pretend I'm Gianna.

I can't believe you even considered celebrating a Valentine's Day without Atwood!  What is wrong with you?  Do you know nothing of romance, of love, of getting laid?  Listen, it's not too late to save face.  Pick up a copy of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale (I mean, it's got graffiti written in Latin...it's one language for free!).

Who doesn't want to read about the reversal of feminism and the forced sexual enslavement of the dwindling number of fertile women in the world?  Offred, (get it, "Of Fred?") is the handmaid of a wealthy couple, a servant with no control over her body and no rights.  Her job is to produce children.  It has been religiously decreed by the theocracy that has taken control of the country.  Atwood's book is shockingly prescient, and if she'd managed to include a reality TV series about Offred's tribulations on TLC I'd call her a modern Nostradamus.  

I know...guaranteed to get things going.

Days of Love...and Lack Thereof, Day 16

Gianna:

My first girlfriend and I had a song. Actually, we had two because we couldn’t agree on what “our” song was. I can’t for the life of me remember what song I brought to the table because her song won. I don’t know how or why, but whenever I hear (and you really must sit down for this as the nausea will set in, trust me), but whenever I hear the REO Speedwagon song (yep) "I Can’t Fight This Feeling," I think of Lucy. We also had a breakup song and God help me but I think it was "After the Love is Gone" by Chicago.  There were some songs in between but those two are the ones I remember best. [Gianna won't date me because our song would be sung by the Muppets if I got to choose.]

Rob Sheffield

And of course there were other relationships (just a couple, I’m lovable really!), and there were songs...well playlists really. "The Beautiful South" reigned supreme in my  second relationship (I was now in charge of relationship playlists, something I will never relinquish). And after that it was pretty much all Tori Amos. It's okay, things got better.  I suspect if things went south in my current relationship it would be all Adele all the time. When I get in trouble for something, I make a mental list of which order I will put the songs in on my iPod. I like to be prepared…plus I am a fatalist.

Love is a Mix Tape by Rob Sheffield. It’s the true and tragic love story told through the memory of this sweet couple’s songs.  Rob and Rene’s love story is set to music, as it should be. Oh, and trust me, their songs are much better than mine. Nirvana, Missy Elliot, Pearl Jam, REM, and Pavement make appearances.

Here is Rob talking about Rene and his book.

http://www.randomhouse.com/crown/mixtape/

Liz:

Alright Star Wars lovers, you all know that Darth Vadar is the sexy hunk of the series.  Who wants the wimpy rebels when you could have the alpha male dark lord?  Speaking of the dark side....

I'm sure this is the ONLY blog
that features Dick for
Valentine's Day.
You're welcome.

Nothing says "Baby, I love you!" like Dick Cheney, and I highly recommend The Dark Side by Jane Mayer.    In order to understand the last decade of US foreign policy The Dark Side is a must read.  Jane Mayer exposes policies and Constitutional....stretching perpetrated by Darth Cheney and his imperial army of lawyers and strategists.  Here's how the wars were sold, here's how the concept of homeland security was exploited for political means, and here's how torture was rationalized.  Here's how America became the evil empire even while attempting to combat violence.

My Valentine's Day plans, by the way, include wallowing in self-pity and throwing eggs at people walking into restaurants.  Maybe I'll leave copies of The Dark Side on their windshields too.

Days of Love...and Lack Thereof, Day 15

[The post is late today because people are horrible, horrible drivers.  You want road rage?  Try driving over 160,000 miles in the last five years without so much as a ticket and yet always getting stuck behind you people and your stupid wrecks and rubber-necking. I'm bitter.]

Gianna:

Annie Proulx....
...needing moisturizer

Close Range: Wyoming Stories is one of my favorite collections, and I hold even more affection for it than The Shipping News (which Proulx was awarded the Pulitzer and National Book Award). [Book nerd trivia: Close Range was a finalist for the Pulitzer.]

These stories are written with grace, precision, grittiness, and an incredibly keen sense of place. You may sit down with this collection with the intention of dipping in, reading just one story, but you will continue. You will dive into "Half Skinned Steer," "Job History," then "People in Hell," and you won’t want to put the book down. A few hours later you will be rewarded with the final story, one of the most beautiful love stories, most tragic stories you will ever come across: "Brokeback Mountain."

You can purchase the full collection entitled Close Range, or you can opt for just "Brokeback Mountain," which Simon and Schuster published to coincide with the Ang Lee film.

[I don't know how to quit Gianna.]

Liz:

You know what writer never received enough love from US audiences?  Beryl Bainbridge.  Never heard of her?  I rest my case.  The Bottle Factory Outing was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and won the Guardian Fiction Prize and it's...well, let's just say that it's my kind of book.  

Inspired by the time that Bainbridge worked in a bottling factory after her divorce, The Bottle Factory Outing tells the story of Brenda and Freda, flatmates who work together at the factory.  At the company picnic, Freda--the more outgoing of the two--hopes to make a love connection with her coworker Vittorio.  She even had a dream about their future relationship.  Brenda, on the other hand, is hoping just to avoid the company perv.  The short novel takes place over the course of the afternoon of the picnic, and Freda's premonitions hold weight, but not in the way she hopes.

Love sucks.  Love kills.  Love this book. 

Days of Love...and Lack Thereof, Day 14

The clock's ticking.  I hope Gianna is getting me something really special for Valentine's Day.

Gianna:

Waiting by Ha Jin

Set in China in the early 1960’s, this beautiful novel spans twenty years. Army doctor Lin Kong married the woman his family had arranged for him to marry. She has been a loyal wife, raised their daughter, and cared for his dying parents. But he does not love her; he never has. He loves Manna, and it is she who he dreams of marrying. On a trip home Lin asks his wife Shuyu for a divorce. She agrees but once they reach the courthouse, she refuses. This goes on for years. Lin asks for a divorce, she agrees, but then will not divorce him. All the while he is waiting to marry the love of his life and his dear friend Manna. [Gianna relates to this book because I keep refusing her advances year after year.]

Ha Jin

Finally a changing China passes a law making it legal to divorce a spouse if you have been separated for many years (I think in the book it's something like 18 years), and since he is rarely home due to the army he is granted a divorce.  He is finally done with the waiting and can be happy. I won’t tell you how this National Book Award winning (and Pen/Faulkner winning) story turns out, but it's good.

I highly recommend this novel, and you know what, you actually can’t go wrong with Ha Jin in my opinion; he’s an amazing writer. His best books are Waiting, War Trash (Pulitzer finalist and Pen Faulkner winner), The Bridegroom and A Free Life. 

Liz:

Cracks by Sheila Kohler

I admit that I have a fondness for stories set in schools, from Dead Poets Society to The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie to Special Topics in Calamity Physics.  I think that the emotional incubator of the classroom amplifies tensions and relationships.  Cracks is one of those books.

Cracks focuses on the specially selected group of girls at a boarding school in South Africa.  They all maneuver for their coach Miss G's favor, but the balance of power shifts when the new girl, Fiamma, arrives at the school.  Decades later, the girls of the swim team return to the school for a fundraising weekend....that is, the girls still alive disappear.  Slowly the story of the one who disappeared begins to unravel.  Girls can be evil.  Excellent.

Days of Love...and Lack Thereof, Day 13

Gianna:


Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg


....


.......


............


.................

"Suck it Prop 8" - Ruth and Idgie

[True story: Gianna and I ate dinner together tonight since she was in Houston for some sales calls.  We ordered dessert to go.  When she dropped me off at my car, I realized that my slice of Italian cream cake was still in her car as she drove off.  That crazed person honking and flashing her brights on Bissonnet at 8:34 pm tonight?  That was a woman who loves her cream cheese frosting.  It's good cake.  Anyway, I am not going to comment on Gianna's entry for today.  You can ask her about it if you want.  In fact, I dare you to fill up our Facebook page with comments!]

Liz:

When I was in college I had to take four semesters of a foreign language.  I chose German because my high school friend Jon was learning German and I like 20th Century history.  It turned out that I really hated studying  the language...perhaps because my German I and German IV professor was Turkish (German was her second language, English her third) and every time she was tired or had a cold she'd slip into Turkish.  I never knew what the hell she was saying.  One semester we were given a passage from a story to translate to English.  I spent all weekend trying to make some sense out of the thing.  There was a guy and he was sitting at a door and he couldn't go through the door and what the hell?  Anyway, the next semester, for a world literature class, I read Kafka's The Trial. 

Kafka has a place among the greats of world literature, but this is the guy who also wrote about a man transforming into a roach.  Love story?  Not so much.  On the other hand, if you really want to confound your lover, give him/her The Trial (and if you secretly hate your lover, give a copy in German).  

Days of Love...and Lack Thereof, Day 12

Gianna:

In Evening by Susan Minot, sixty-five year old Ann Grant only has weeks to live. Surrounded by family, she begins to talk about her life, crisscrossing the years from her childhood, to her three unsatisfactory marriages, to the death of her son.

Susan Minot

She is perceived by friends to be extraordinarily private, in complete control of her life, and perhaps even a little cold. Ann begins to describe a passionate (but ultimately doomed) affair when she was twenty-five, a weekend that ends in tragedy and changes her life forever yet she considers these to be the happiest of her life and where she found the only true love she has known.

This is my favorite of Minot’s books; it is in my opinion the most complete work of fiction she has done to date. Speaking of which, this woman needs to write another book. It’s been forever since her short novel Rapture. 

Liz:

If I were to name my all time favorite books--and I'm sure that I have somewhere in this blog in the last six months, I would always, always pick Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway in the top tier.  I don't know why, exactly, but this book spoke to me. It's beautifully written, and it's also full of longing and what-might-have-beens.  I love this book, but it is most definitely not a love story in the traditional sense.

I also liked the movie version
of Mrs. Dalloway. 

Clarissa Dalloway is going to throw a party, and she's going to buy the flowers herself.  She spends the day planning her party and reminiscing about the young woman she once was and the loves of her life that she turned from in order to marry the steadier Richard Dalloway.  She chose the businessman over the artist, over the unconventional girl/girl relationship.  As she plans her party, Clarissa begins to believe that a failed party will signal the failure of her life, and that perhaps she should end it.

Interwoven with Clarissa's day is one for Septimus, a World War I veteran who cannot shake the post-traumatic stress he developed when he saw his friend killed, when he saw hundreds of soldiers die in the trenches.  Septimus is facing commitment, and he too faces his own mortality.

Mrs. Dalloway is an amazing book.  I love this book.  Nothing says "Happy Valentine's Day" like a book about contemplated suicides and fractured lives, right?

Days of Love...and Lack Thereof, Day 11

Gianna:

When my Princess Lizzy wants a Bronte on the list, she gets it (unlike when she doesn't want an Austen on the list). She is the Catherine to my Heathcliff, the Agnes to my Grey (can't recall anything specific about this novel), the Jane to my Rochester, and the Mr. Darcy to my...

wait...(nerd joke).

Tough choice picking a favorite Bronte novel, it's like choosing my favorite infomercial. Actually, that's pretty easy; The Magic Bullet. I wish we could all get together and watch it on the big screen. [Huh. I had you pegged as a fan of the Shake Weight.]

Charlotte, 19th Century Babe

I could take Anne out of the picture (Oh, I am back to the Bronte gals) because she died so young, but then again that could also shoot her straight to the top of the list. I also should point out that I am going to base very little of this on actual literary merit...or at all. Now Charlotte was a cold stone fox so if I were to judge by looks--and let's be honest,everything should be--she would be number one. Emily was incredibly anti-social and when it comes to anti-social ladies I am powerless...if only she were a hopeless drunk, she would be a shoe-in for first place. Nothing like a shut-in boozer. [It's why Gianna loves me.]

Agnes Grey, Wuthering Heights, or Jane Eyre. I read Agnes Grey so long ago that I can't recollect what it's about besides old-timey babysitting...or was it homeschooling? Anyway, it's out. Jane Eyre is effing Jane Eyre so it's the the winner right? No, because you know what Wuthering Heights has that Jane Eyre doesn't? A cool song named after it.

Yep,  that settles it. Wuthering Heights wins best/romantic Bronte novels. Oh, and plus it's the novel most like The Ghost Whisperer! 

[This whole entry makes my head ache.]

Liz:

What's more romantic than a Greek classic?  How about the updated version.  Riffing on Oedipus Rex, David Guterson's retelling is dark, funny, and even though you sort of know what's going to happen, are you going to tell me that you're going to stop reading BEFORE the main character kills his daddy and sleeps with his mommy?  You're just not...and if you are, perhaps you're reading the wrong blog.  

Ed King is indeed a retelling of the Sophocles classic.  Ed is basically a Bill Gates character, but his life is derailed when his father dies in a car wreck and then, well, he marries his mom.  And yes, they consummate that marriage.  Your valentine will love you for thinking of him/her when you think of this book.

(I really think I've missed the point of this love book theme.)