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

Gianna:


Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg


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"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.)

Days of Love...and Lack Thereof, Day 10

Gianna:

Do I seem like an Austen fan? Well, try to adjust because I really am. Mansfield Park, Emma, and her last complete work Persuasion are among my favorites. Austen began work on Persuasion when she knew she was ill. It's shorter than her previous books (and presumably written very quickly), and arguably her most romantic book.

Everyman's Library has lovely hardcover editions of Austen's work, which should make the list for an excellent Valentine's gift for your naked book lover...if all goes well.

Liz:

First, I can't stand Jane Austen.  

Moving on.

Since Gianna chose a classic today, so will I.  An American Tragedy is Theodore Dreiser's greatest achievement and a perfect example of the naturalism period in American literature.  Drawing from his journalism background, Dreiser used a real case as inspiration for his novel.  

Clyde is a young man with great ambitions.  He grew up with poor, religious zealot parents, but chooses to turn his back on his upbringing and pursue the American dream--upward mobility through work.  Clyde finds himself a job as a foreman in a textile factory in New York, where he supervises the girls who sew shirts.  He pursues a worker named Roberta and she agrees to sleep with him so that he won't betray her (their relationship, of course, is against company rules). When people have sex, they can get pregnant. Clyde won't marry Roberta because she's poor and would interfere with his desire for wealth and status. So he drowns her. And then he's sentences to the electric chair.  God, I love this book. 

Days of Love...and Lack Thereof, Day 9

Gianna:

No list of romance is quite complete without a little Joni Mitchell. I was going to offer a short clip of myself doing a Joni medley…nothing too jazzy, just the hits...when it was pointed out to me that Random House had actually published her complete poems and lyrics and singing wouldn’t be necessary.  My first thought was, well actually when you have pipes like mine, singing is necessary. I can’t not sing. Those of you who are also blessed with the gift know what I mean.

Joni Mitchell is the greatest songwriter of her generation. What? Are you kidding me? What about Dylan, what about Lennon/McCartney? What about Randy “Short People” Newman? Well to that I say; second, third and fourth.

You want a little romance, a little sex, and a little sadness? "Blue." It’s all in there. Its Mitchell’s most personal, most accessible, and most heartbreaking. You want more, pick up Joni Mitchell: The Complete Poems and Lyrics. Call me; we can sit on the phone and cry.

Link to a great interview with Morrissey and Joni

http://jonimitchell.com/library/view.cfm?id=678&from=search

(I have a signed print of her self portrait hanging in my living room by the way.)

Liz:

Oh Precious.  It's so hard to be you.  

What's an (anti) Valentine's Day list of books without Push by Sapphire, the basis for the award-winning movie Precious?  Precious is morbidly obese.  Precious is illiterate.  Precious is pregnant with her second child and the father of both children happens to be Precious's father too.  Precious's mother is pretty much the embodiment of evil.  Precious's first child was born with Down Syndrome.  Still, amid the misery, there remains a glimmer of hope for this down-and-out inner city girl who's never had a break in her life.  After being thrown out of her school for being pregnant, she's enrolled in a special school and discovers a world of friends, books, and a teacher who cares about her.  She learns to read and she learns to write her story.  And then she finds out that her rapist father gave her AIDS too.

What I'm neglecting to mention here, though, is that Push is beautifully written, and though the story is bleak, it is ultimately a story of survival and hope.  Of love.  Of strength.  I liked the movie too.

Days of Love...and Lack Thereof, Day 8

Gianna:


The Lover

Marguerite Duras

I’ve noticed that many of our “romantic” books are actually very sad or even devastating books. I would like to continue that trend with today’s choice of The Lover by Marguerite Duras.

This is a “fictional memoir;" I don’t know if the reason it's “fiction” is a legal issue or if Marguerite had some memory lapses when recalling her youth. Doesn’t matter--it’s a beautiful book. The writing is absolutely stunning, told not in chronological order but almost in a dream state. The book is just over 100 pages; you’ll read it in one sitting.

Indochina, the last months of France’s colonial empire, Duras recalls her life growing up in Saigon, poor, living in an abusive home. She discovers the power of desire, or more appropriately, of being desired, at an early age. She writes of her passionate and volatile affair with a wealthy Chinese man in his mid-twenties while she was just fifteen. She is detached and even cruel throughout the affair. He is kind, helps provide for her family (although it is clear to him that she does not love him), and falls in love. It isn’t until years later that Duras realizes her feeling for this man (who goes unnamed in this book, by the way), and that is where the book actually begins. It's not as scandalous as it sounds...well, it is somewhat scandalous but it's an incredibly well-written love story.

Liz:

Okay, fine.  I admit it.  I'm single, I'm cantankerous, and I pretty much hate happy people.  I think babies are, as a rule, ugly.  All those convicts that Gianna tries to recruit for the Date a Liz Before Death Row campaign are probably smart in turning down such an opportunity.  No one wants to rub my feet.

I'm going to pretend that I'm like you people and actually pick a love book that is neither creepy nor involving acts that are felonies in most states.  Every now and then I catch a virus and sniff a whiff of compassion for all of you people, and that must have been what happened when I read One Day by David Nicholls.  One Day is charming--the love story of Dex and Emma following 20 years of their lives, one chapter for each year on July 15th.  They are friends, estranged acquaintances, pals in relationships with others, and then soul mates.  One Day is moving, funny, and full of compassion.  This book tells a wonderful love story, but one that still resonates with people who are normally too cool to read love stories (looking at you, Nick Hornby hipster kids).  For a brief moment my heart grew three sizes....and then I went back and reread Hitler's Willing Executioners.  I'm back to hating people again.  And I'm still single.

Days of Love...and Lack Thereof, Day 7

Gianna:


Written on the Body

You want sexy, we’ll give you sexy. If there is one thing you know about me and Liz…we know sexy. [Actually, since I wrote about bestiality yesterday, I'm not claiming any expertise on this subject.] We also know lazy [now that is true], so for today’s romantic valentine we offer a previous snippet on a book we both love, Written on the Body by Jeanette Winterson

Jeanette Winterson

If you are like me and the thought of reading a love story has always made you cringe a bit, give this a read. This one sneaks up on you. You don’t realize it until you’ve finished, but you’ve just read a very sexy, beautiful, simple, love story. It’s also heartbreaking, so gentlemen get your hankies out. [Is that what the boys are calling them these days?]

It is everything I love in a novel. It is intense, passionate, lyrical, fresh, and doesn’t have a sliver of cliché.
It is the book I go to when I just need a quick fix of something less ordinary. [Yep, we all know that last sentence is a euphemism, right?]

Written on the Body is the story of an affair between a married woman and an unnamed narrator. We don’t know if the narrator is male or female, but in the end it does not really matter. The book is a gorgeous and original meditation on love.

Liz:

You know how some books and movies take classic Shakespeare and riff on the plots, like Shakespeare in Love and Rosencrantz and Gildenstern Are Dead?  Let's talk about John Fowles and The Collector. This novel takes characters based on those in The Tempest, specifically Caliban and Miranda.  A deranged man goes from collecting butterflies to, well, collecting the woman of his dreams, his Miranda.  He is a Caliban--brutal, incapable of empathy, and monstrous.  He reduces his victim to the equivalent of a pin-up through horrifying psychological abuse.  The Collector is one of the most disturbing books I've ever read.  Naturally I loved it.