annsepstein@att.net

Bad Dad Tale: All-Around Atrocious

Many bad dads are also bad husbands, sons, or siblings. Abraham, who is willing to sacrifice his son Isaac, also pimps his wife Sarah to Pharaoh to protect himself. Agamemnon not only sacrifices his daughter Iphigenia, he forces Clytemnestra to marry him after killing her father. And Cronus kills his own father, then eats five of his six newborn children to prevent them from doing unto him what he did to his daddy. For the story of another bad dad, spouse, son, and brother, 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.

Bad father, bad husband, bad son, and bad brother

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

Learn Women’s History Through Fiction: Lysol for Contraception

In the early 1900s, the most popular douche was Lysol. It was made with cresol, a compound that caused inflammation and burning, but marketed to women as safe and gentle for maintaining “dainty feminine allure.” Doctors recorded hundreds of Lysol poisonings and scores of deaths from uterine irrigation. Read about a young, poor, and unwed pregnant Italian immigrant 100 years ago in the novel Tazia and Gemma (see more about the book in NOVELS).

Lysol was marketed to women as a safe contraceptive

A mother flees a fire; a daughter seeks her father

Bad Dad Tale: What’s Going On?

Reverend Marvin Gay Sr., a violent and philandering alcoholic, never got along with his oldest son, Marvin Gaye. The Motown legend even added an ‘e’ to the end of his name to distance himself from his father. On April 01, 1984, following a protracted family row, the Reverend shot and killed his son with a gun the singer had bought for 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 meaning of fatherhood. Read more about the book in NOVELS.

His father fatally shot Motown legend Marvin Gaye

Learn Women’s History Through Fiction: The Swoosh of Scissors

Composer Julia Wolfe sought the right scissors — dozens of pairs — for the New York Philharmonic’s 1919 premiere of her oratorio “Fire in My Mouth,” which commemorates the 1911 Triangle Waist Company fire that killed 146 garment workers, most of them young immigrant women. Wiss manufactured the scissors that made the satisfying “swoosh” sound Wolfe wanted to memorialize their work and death. Read about a survivor of the fire and her daughter in the novel Tazia and Gemma (see NOVELS).

Immigrant garment workers at Triangle Waist Company

The swoosh of scissors in Julia Wolfe’s oratorio “Fire in My Mouth”

Learn Women’s History Through Fiction: 20,000 Rise Up

In November 1909, 23-year-old labor activist Clara Lemlich Shavelson led a strike of 20,000 women to protest working conditions in New York’s garment industry. Male union leaders opposed the strike, but three months later, factory owners agreed to a 52-hour work week and recognized the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU). One holdout was the Triangle Waist Company, where a 1911 fire killed 146 workers, mostly young Jewish and Italian immigrant women. Read about a survivor of the fire and her daughter in the novel Tazia and Gemma (see NOVELS).

Bad Dad Tale: Can’t Beat ‘Em? Eat ‘Em

In Greek mythology, Cronus was the leader of the Titans, divine descendants of Gaia (Mother Earth) and Uranus (Father Sky). At his mother’s request, he overthrew his father by castrating him with a sickle and throwing his testicles in the sea. Told that his own sons would in turn overthrow him, Cronus devoured his first five children at birth. When his sixth child, Zeus, was born, his mother Rhea hid the child. Once grown, Zeus used an emetic given to him by Gaia to force Cronus to disgorge his other children. For another (less gruesome) bad dad story, 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.

Sixth child Zeus made father Cronus vomit up his five older siblings

What I’m Reading: The Sentence

My Goodreads and Amazon review of The Sentence by Louse Erdrich (Rating 3) – Too Much, Too Soon. What is The Sentence by Louise Erdrich about? The novel meanders through crime and punishment, love, a large Native American cast, the pandemic, George Floyd’s murder, a bookstore ghost, and a line of rugaroos. By the end, you’ve consumed a whole sheet of half-baked cookies and wish you’d eaten only two fully baked ones. The current events, still raw, were even more so when Erdrich wrote about them. Writers, myself included (see my Amazon author page and Goodreads author page), choose different genres to serve different ends. Journalism is a contemporaneous report; memoir recaptures thoughts and feelings experienced in another moment. Fiction imagines and reflects, processes enhanced by time and distance. In her haste to comment, Erdrich feeds readers a lump of indigestible dough. She should have stuck to writing about that ghost, whose sections alone bring the book to life.

An indigestible mishmash of characters and events

Why writers read: “Know your literary tradition, savor it, steal from it, but when you sit down to write, forget about worshiping greatness and fetishizing masterpieces.” – Allegra Goodman

SMOL 2022 Book Fair Event: Unhappy in Its Own Way

Please join me and five other Vine Leaves Press authors for our event at the SMOL 2022 Book Fair, titled “Unhappy in Its Own Way,” featuring novels and memoirs about dysfunctional families. The virtual session is on March 24, 2022 at 5:00 PM Eastern Time and the event is FREE and open to all via the Zoom webinar link. See a complete description on the SMOL Fair Events page. I’ll read and answer audience questions about The Great Stork Derby, in which a husband pressures his wife to have babies for a large cash prize, with disastrous results. I’ll also act as the event moderator. Thanks for attending! Please spread the word.

Six authors present an event on dysfunctional families at the SMOL 2022 Book Fair

A story about a family that proves Tolstoy was right

Bad Dad Tale: Forever Yours

In Die Walkure, Wotan, King of the Norse Gods, strips his daughter, the Valkyrie Brunhilde, of immortality for disobeying him. He ultimately grants her eternal protection, but audiences eternally struggle to decipher the plot in Wagner’s four linked Ring operas. For an easier-to-follow 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.

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.