February 2022 – Ann S. Epstein Writer

Bad Dad Tale: To Die For

Agamemnon, Greek Trojan War commander, sacrifices his daughter to win victory at sea. When the goddess Artemis, pissed he’s killed her sacred stag, calms the waters at Aulis and stalls the fleet, Agamemnon appeases her by sacrificing his beautiful daughter Iphigenia, even convincing Iphigenia that submitting to death is an act of heroism. For the story of another bad dad, read The Great Stork Derby, based on an actual contest in which a husband pressures his wife to have babies for cash and, fifty years later, learns the true meaning of fatherhood. Read more about the book in NOVELS.

Agamemnon kills his daughter Iphigenia to mollify the goddess Artemis

Toronto, 1926: A husband pressures his wife to have babies for a large cash prize

Learn History Through Fiction: Little People on Tour

In the early decades of the twentieth century, touring “midget troupes” performed throughout Europe and Russia. One troupe, the Royal Russian Midgets, composed of poor peasants with few other opportunities, toured the world, often exploited by managers and venue owners. Their last stop was the U.S., where they retired in 1941 after purchasing land in Sweetwater Estates just off Florida’s Tamiami Trail. The community thrived until the last house was torn down in 1970. Read the novel A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve. to learn about another group of exploited little people from Eastern Europe, the Leopold von Singer Midgets, who played Munchkins in The Wizard of Oz. Find out more about the book in NOVELS.

Touring troupes of little people were popular in the early 1900s

A fictional biography of the actor who played the Munchkin Coroner in The Wizard of Oz

Must Chekhov’s Gun Go Off?

“If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall, then in the following one it should be fired” (Anton Chekhov). French feminist filmmaker Céline Sciamma, profiled by Elif Batuman in The New Yorker (February 7, 2022), says that while patriarchy insists “conflict is the natural dynamic of the storyteller,” she moves beyond that dictum. In Sciamma’s movies, situations that would typically elicit an explosive conflict are met with acceptance, even agreeableness. Yet her films sustain dramatic interest. (Disclaimer: I haven’t seen Sciamma’s films, only read about them.) Comments Batuman, “Perhaps Sciamma is on to a secret that nobody else has guessed: you don’t actually have to shoot Chekhov’s gun.” I wondered whether writers could likewise make their characters say “No problem” instead of “No way!” It was akin to inverting Tolstoy’s observation and declaring, “Every happy family is happy in its own way.” As a feminist myself, I applaud Sciamma’s sensibilities, but I can’t imagine eliminating conflict from my narratives. My work rarely features physical violence, but conflict, conveyed through words, gestures, and body language, is key to character development and plot. A gun may not be fired, but someone is bound to shoot off their mouth or fire off a letter. So, my view is that what makes a creative product “nonpatriarchal” is how conflicts are resolved. Read more of my thoughts about writing in REFLECTIONS.

Why writers write: “A word after a word after a word is power.” – Margaret Atwood

Bad Dad Tale: Witty and Shitty

As a caseworker at a homeless shelter, Nick Flynn, author of the memoir Another Bullshit Night in Suck City, meets his estranged father, a self-proclaimed poet and ex-con who served time in a federal prison for bank robbery. If Flynn weren’t such a funny writer, the book would be too painful to read. For the story of another bad dad, read The Great Stork Derby, based on an actual contest in which a husband pressures his wife to have babies for cash and, fifty years later, learns the true meaning of fatherhood. Read more about the book in NOVELS.

Finding your estranged father … in a homeless shelter

If a Tree Falls in the Forest …

Reviewing Lost in the Valley of Death, a biography of trekker Justin Alexander Shetler, Michael Paterniti considers the inherent contradiction of a solitary seeker compelled to write about his exploits on social media, and asks “the most telling spiritual question: If you don’t post about a profound experience, did it really happen?” (The New York Times Book Review, 02/13/22). I pondered the literary corollary, “If you don’t send your manuscript into the world, are you really a writer?” which is akin to “What’s the difference between a job and a hobby?” I’d say the latter is solely for personal satisfaction whereas the former also entails an external reward — publication, good reviews, reader appreciation, even (least likely) income. I called myself a writer only after I began submitting my work. Were I to stop, would I no longer use that label? Or, once a writer, always a writer? Ditto an artist. “Writer” and “artist” are the jobs I list on my tax returns, whereas “developmental psychologist” disappeared after I retired in 2015. Life has enough unnecessary dichotomies that I hope never to be faced with “hobby versus vocation.” For more thoughts about the literary life, see REFLECTIONS.

What makes an event, or a creative act, real?

Why writers write: “To survive, you must tell stories.” – Umberto Eco

Bad Dad Tale: Ha-Ha! (It Hurts)

Frank Conroy’s hilarious memoir Stop Time portrays an insane father, grifting stepfather, and ambivalent mother. Conroy raises himself, but beneath his funny-man exterior, the scars run deep. For the story of another bad dad who leaves scars, read The Great Stork Derby, based on an actual contest in which a husband pressures his wife to have babies for cash and, fifty years later, learns the true meaning of fatherhood. Learn more about the book in NOVELS.

Silencing Female Novelists: Jewish and Others

Novels by female Jewish immigrants, many written a century ago, are largely unknown. As noted in a New York Times article “How Yiddish Scholars Are Rescuing Women’s Novels From Obscurity”, Yiddish works by men such as Sholem Aleichem and Isaac Bashevis Singer were translated and popularized, but publishers dismissed women’s fiction as insignificant or unmarketable. Fortunately, a growing body of translations is being produced by Jewish feminist scholars who scroll the microfilms of bygone Yiddish newspapers and periodicals where the novels were serialized, and comb through archived card catalogs for women who were poets or diarists to see if they were also novelists. Scholars hope the newly translated novels will enrich the teaching of Yiddish — the mamaloshen or mother tongue — and provide this missing perspective. Alas, bias in the publishing industry hasn’t changed. The voices of women, especially those from diverse backgrounds, are still under-represented compared to men (roughly 30% to 70%). For more thoughts on writing and the literary world, see REFLECTIONS.

A century later, Yiddish female novelists are being translated, published, and heard

Why writers write: “Every secret of a writer’s soul, every experience of his life, every quality of his mind, is written large in his works.” – Virginia Woolf

Learn History Through Fiction: Beatle Meets Munchkin

On February 9, 1964 at 8 PM EST, 73 million people watched the BEATLES on The Ed Sullivan Show. Later that night, RINGO STARR met the actor who played the MUNCHKIN CORONER in The Wizard of Oz at Grossinger’s Hotel in the Catskills, where the Munchkins were holding their 25th reunion. REALLY? To find out, read A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve., a fictional biography of the actor Meinhardt Raabe. Learn more about the book in NOVELS.

America meets the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show

Fictional biography of the actor who played the Munchkin Coroner in The Wizard of Oz

What I’m Reading: Small Forgotten Moments

My Goodreads and Amazon review of Small Forgotten Moments by Annalisa Crawford (Rating 5) – Relentless, Intense, Vivid. Annalisa Crawford’s novel Small Forgotten Moments is the story of Jo, a young artist plagued by an elusive character named Zenna whose image unconsciously dominates her work. Who is this mysterious child-woman, endearing one day, menacing the next? Jo, an amnesiac whose memory goes back no farther than three years, is desperate to find out. So is the reader. In describing Jo’s frustrating and frightening journey to unravel this knot, Crawford’s writing is as fearless as a gothic horror tale. She vividly evokes the hole of amnesia, a demon’s relentless drive, death by drowning, and the omnipotence of a child’s magical thinking. As a fiction writer myself (see my Amazon author page and Goodreads author page), I admire Crawford’s courage and willingness to make readers squirm. Withholding spoilers, I can say that Zenna’s identity is at once surprising and, given the deftly placed clues, inevitable. Though Jo’s case is freakish, Small Forgotten Moments is ultimately about the universal need to break free of whatever haunts us.

Writing as fearless as a gothic horror tale

Why writers read: “Books taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who had ever been alive.” – James Baldwin

Bad Dad Tale: Your Command is My Wish

Abraham in the Old Testament is ready to sacrifice his son Isaac when God orders him to do so as a test of faith. An angel intervenes at the last minute and Isaac, bound on the altar, is freed and replaced by a ram. Some commentators excuse Abraham, saying he knew God wouldn’t really make him kill his son. But Isaac wasn’t clued in and grew up traumatized. Read about another bad dad in The Great Stork Derby, based on an actual contest in which a husband pressures his wife to have babies for cash and, fifty years later, learns the true meaning of fatherhood. Learn more about the book in NOVELS.