Author: annsepstein@att.net
Ann S. Epstein is an award-winning writer of novels, short stories, memoirs, and essays.
What I’m Reading: My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh
My Amazon and Goodreads review of My Year of Rest and Relaxation (Rating 2) – Zzzzz. Critical accolades woke me to read Ottessa Moshfegh’s novel My Year of Rest and Relaxation. As a writer, I relish making unlikable characters interesting, if not sympathetic, and eagerly anticipated this challenge as a reader. Alas, Moshfegh’s privileged narrator has none of the above mentioned virtues. Nor does she offer unique or redeeming insights into the everyday beauty that ameliorates life’s pain. She’s as trite and tedious as the mindless state of unconsciousness rendered by her Rite Aid warehouse of medications. The reader’s boredom is not even relieved by complex secondary characters; their nastiness wallows in stereotype. While Moshfegh has a good eye for detail and is in command of her craft, the elaborate shell she creates here is hollow. Emerging from the slumber induced by this novel won’t leave readers feeling refreshed, but with a sour taste best relieved by vigorous tooth brushing and starting the new day with a more worthy book.
Learn History Through Fiction: Female Circus Performers Were Early Suffragettes
Women joining the labor force at the turn of the 19th century played a major role in turning the public tide in favor of women’s suffrage. Among them were women who worked for the circus where, unlike other fields, their pay was commensurate with that of male performers. In 1912, at the same time women staged a massive march in New York City to promote the 19th Amendment, the Barnum & Bailey’s Circus Women’s Equal Rights Society was founded. The circus was then the most popular form of entertainment in America which magnified the volume and reach of their voices. Read more about the fight for women’s suffrage in On the Shore (see NOVELS).
Learn History Through Fiction: Clean Enough for You?
The job description of a Navy janitor or cleaning woman circa WWII listed over 100 chores with sub-tasks. For example: Clean windows, glass partitions, and mirrors with soapy water or other cleaners, sponges, and squeegees. Mix water and detergents or acids according to specifications to prepare cleaning solutions. Clean chimneys, flues, and connecting pipes. Requisition supplies. Set up, arrange, and remove decorations, furniture, ladders, and scaffolding to prepare for events such as banquets and meetings. Spray insecticides and fumigants to prevent insect and rodent infestation. Read more about the work performed by a Navy cleaning woman before, during, and after WWII in Tazia and Gemma (see NOVELS).
Learn History Through Fiction: Hollywood Hawks
Hollywood played a prominent role during World War Two, producing movies to promote propaganda and boost morale. Among those released by the War Activities Committee of the Motion Picture Industry were Women in Defense (1941) with Katherine Hepburn and written by Eleanor Roosevelt and The Battle of Midway (1942), directed by John Ford and academy award winner for best documentary. There were also cartoons featuring the seven dwarfs and Popeye, as well as films warning soldiers of the dangers of venereal disease films. Read more about Hollywood and WWII in A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve. (see NOVELS).
Learn History Through Fiction: The Threaded Needle Test
An Italian tradition (superstition) used a threaded needle test to determine the sex of an unborn child. (1) Thread an ordinary sewing needle with a foot-long thread. (2) Hold the end of the thread. (3) Dangle the needle six inches above the expecting mother’s stomach. (4) Observe the needle’s motion. If it moves in a circle, the baby is a girl. If it moves back and forth, it’s a boy. Sometimes a ring was substituted for the needle. Read more about pregnancy and childbirth 100 years ago in Tazia and Gemma (see NOVELS).
TAZIA AND GEMMA Book Reading and Signing
I’m doing a Tazia and Gemma book reading and signing at Nicola’s Books on Wednesday, October 17, at 7 PM, Westgate Shopping Center, 2513 Jackson Avenue, Ann Arbor. See the Facebook event page https://www.facebook.com/events/349495879111737/ and Nicola’s calendar https://www.nicolasbooks.com/event/ann-s-epstein-presents-her-historical-fiction-novel-tazia-and-gemma. Learn more about the book at http://www.vineleavespress.com/tazia-and-gemma-by-ann-s-epstein.html and see the trailer on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lijLhwR2Yb0. Hope to see you and your friends on October 17th.
For a complete list of my publication events see NEWS; to read more about my books see NOVELS.
Learn History Through Fiction: Ike’s Greatest Disappointment
Reflecting on his life, President Dwight David Eisenhower, a.k.a. Ike, said, “Not making the baseball team at West Point was one of my greatest disappointments, maybe the greatest.” He did make the football team (he was a varsity starter as a running back and linebacker in 1912), but after he broke his leg, he turned to coaching and other sports including gymnastics and fencing. Ike famously played a lot of golf during his presidency. Read more about 1950s culture in A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve. (see NOVELS).
Learn History Through Fiction: Hallmark the First National Advertiser in U.S.
Hallmark, founded in 1910 as Hall Brothers greeting cards (by siblings Joyce, Rollie, and William), changed its name to Hallmark Cards in 1954. The company introduced gift wrap in 1917 and added “Hallmark” on the back of its cards in 1928 as a sign of quality. Hallmark was the first company to advertise nationally, beginning in print with Ladies Home Journal in 1918 and then on radio with Chicago’s “Tony Wons Radio Scrapbook” in 1928. Read about how an inventive greeting card designer wooed a young Italian immigrant 100 years ago in Tazia and Gemma (see NOVELS).
What I’m Reading: Far From the Tree by Andrew Solomon
My Amazon and Goodreads review of Far From the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity (Rating 3): Exhaustive but Exhausting. Defying the adage that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, Andrew Solomon explores families in which a child lands yards away. Given that all children fall at least some distance from the parental trunk, the book is also valuable to a general readership. Balancing skepticism with openness and compassion, Solomon asks whether differences should be seen as illnesses or identities, curses or blessings, limitations or spurs to growth. When, if ever, is treatment warranted? There are no easy answers for individuals or a diverse society as a whole. The book’s main drawback is that it should have been edited down. A lot. By relating each of the hundreds of stories he collected, Solomon blurs them into an indistinguishable mass. Better to have chosen a few or crafted composites. By contrast, Solomon’s last chapter, about the creation of one family — his — is the most memorable. Although he is telling his own story, it is the least self-indulgent writing in the book.
