annsepstein@att.net

What I’m Reading: The Book of Mother

My Goodreads and Amazon reviews of The Book of Mother by Violaine Huisman (Rating 3) – Caricature in Lieu of Character. In The Book of Mother, a French novel by Violaine Huisman, the 30-year-old narrator, who shares the author’s first name, attempts to humanize the larger-than-life mother with whom she and her older sister are obsessed. Alternately smothering them with affection and verbally abusing them, Maman Catherine is a domineering, devouring figure. But as the book meanders to its half tragic, half celebratory end, Catherine never emerges as more than a caricature. Her loves and lovers, her passions and pains, fail to arouse the same devotion in readers that they do in her daughters. As a writer myself (see my Amazon author page and Goodreads author page), I’m not concerned with making my characters likable, but I insist on making them engaging. Catherine is ultimately tiresome. If she remains a mere cutout, even more disappointing is that Violaine and her sister remain ciphers. The opportunity to make Catherine “real” through the personas of the two women forever bound to her is squandered. The Book of Mother has been touted as a bold and courageous novel but I found it tepid and lifeless, traits which the drama addicted Catherine would have abhorred.

Why writers read: “Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.” – Frederick Douglas

Bad Dad Tale: AWOL 8X

Barak Obama, Sr., the President’s father, was a Kenyan economist who married an American anthropologist, with whom he had a son. She divorced him three years later. The boy didn’t see his father again until he was ten, and never again after that. All told, Obama, Sr. had four wives and eight children, all raised by their mothers. He died in a car crash months after his last child was born. History’s verdict: “He led a reckless and troubled life.” 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 value of fatherhood. Read more about the book in NOVELS.

An absent father; a son with great presence

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

New Essay on “Hope” Published

See my latest SPILL IT! essay titled “Is Hope Hopeless?” “Hope” (noun) is a desire for something to happen, a wish for things to get better, or a dream or aspiration. Hope is also a feeling of optimism — trust, reliance — that what is desired will happen. “Hope” (verb) is to have that positive, expectant feeling. The virtues and futility of hope have been debated since ancient times. Today, faced with seemingly insurmountable problems, dystopian hopelessness is on the rise. Is this despair justified? Can it even be healthy? Or does hopelessness endanger individual well-being and pose a threat to society? Read the essay and choose your side. [Note: I wrote the essay several months ago, before the invasion of Ukraine and the recent Supreme Court decision. My position on hope hasn’t changed, but it’s hard to maintain these days!]

Bad Dad Tale: The Family Business

Michael Corleone in The Godfather reluctantly takes over from his father Vito to help his family. He lies to his wife and hides the truth from his kids. His ruthlessness comes back to haunt him, however, when “the family business” — The Mafia — results in his daughter’s death. 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 value of fatherhood. Read more about the book in NOVELS.

Accounts payable in the “family business”

Bad Dad Tale: Fascist Father

The subject of Sylvia Paths’s poem “Daddy” is a predator and a Nazi who should be renounced, but also the father of a woman who loves him. Plath’s line, “Every woman adores a Fascist” indicts both the reader and him. 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 value of fatherhood. Read more about the book in NOVELS.

Sylvia Plath: A daughter torn between love and hate

Hurry! Relax! Read!

Hurry, relax, and read the boxed ebook set Love, Loss, and Secrets Across America and Beyond: Three Gripping and Emotional Historical Novels before my new novel One Person’s Loss is released in three months on September 22, 2022. Read more about each book in NOVELS.

Bad Dad Tale: Chollywood Chutzpah!

Pop star Britney Spears’s father Jamie controlled her life, abused her, and squandered her money through a 13-year conservatorship until a new lawyer petitioned to remove him. Britney finally danced her way to freedom, but her father is demanding she pay his legal fees! 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 value of fatherhood. Read more about the book in NOVELS.

Bad Dad Tale: First a Drink

In John Cheever’s story “Reunion,” a boy who hasn’t seen his father in the three years since his parents divorced, has one hour to spend with him in Grand Central Station. The dad spends that time in search of a drink and the hour ends without their having talked at all. The boy says, “That’s all right, Daddy,” but they never see each other again. 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 value of fatherhood. Read more about the book in NOVELS.

A father prioritizes his booze over his boy

What I’m Reading: Italian Bones in the Snow

My Goodreads and Amazon reviews of Italian Bones in the Snow: A Memoir in Shorts by Elaina Battista-Parsons (Rating 5) – You Want to Be Her Friend. The memoir Italian Bones in the Snow by Elaina Battista-Parsons seamlessly interlaces prose and poetry to introduce readers to a free-ranging author who is strong-willed, opinionated, adventurous, and sensitive. She is an unapologetic sensualist who refuses to tone down her lust, a woman neither too afraid to reveal her imperfections nor too shy to brag about her strengths. This honest self-portrait offers penetrating observations but instead of boring down directly, Battista-Parsons approaches her subjects at a slant. Her reflections draw offbeat and intriguing connections between objects, places, events, and character traits. For example, in a piece on color, she identifies herself as a “green” person and brilliantly uses shades of green to elucidate the stages of life. As an author myself (see my Amazon author page and Goodreads author page), I often search for the right metaphor to represent a feeling or thought. Here, instead of treating color as a mere adjective, Battista-Parsons treats it as an entity in itself. Her associative mind operates with the kind of primary thinking we associate with childhood. That playfulness is especially on display in her poetry. What makes Battista-Parsons a disciplined adult, however, is that she then works hard to polish each image to perfection. Readers will find it liberating to meet this bold creature who is equally frank about her reverence for the women who raised her and the admiration she in turn engenders in men. You want to run beside her well-muscled legs along the Jersey shore and inhale her energy. You want to be her friend. It’s easy. Just pick up her book.

Why writers read: “To find words for what we already know.” – Alberto Manguel

Bad Dad Tale: Bloody Awful

In Titus Andronicus, Shakespeare’s most violent play (14 murders total), no one is a good guy. But patriarch Titus comes off as the worst for killing his son and then his daughter, who has already been raped and mutilated. Predictably, this is one of The Bard’s least performed plays. 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 value of fatherhood. Read more about the book in NOVELS.