My Amazon and Goodreads review of Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson (Rating 5) – Burning Children as Burning Bush? What will become of ten-year-old twins, their mother dead, unwanted by grandparents, and ignored by a rich and politically powerful father, now remarried, who rejected them years ago? In Kevin Wilson’s Nothing to See Here, the girl and boy are further handicapped by a genetic affliction whereby they spontaneously combust. The fire doesn’t harm them, but incinerates whatever else it touches. Enter twenty-eight-year-old Lillian, a poor but smart layabout, called on by the twins’ stepmother to look after them. Despite the children’s fanciful condition, the novel is a realistic examination of what it means to be a parent. What is the metaphor here? Do the burning twins represent the rage within all children, adults too, for the injustices committed by their parents? This book has no good ones. Parents are absent, indifferent, manipulative, or downright cruel. But that interpretation is too facile. A better analogy of something that burns without being consumed is the Burning Bush in Exodus. Moses alone sees it. A reluctant leader, he is nevertheless asked by God to deliver his People from slavery to the Promised Land. Moses accomplishes the impossible because he has faith. Not blind faith; he is full of doubt, especially self-doubt. Yet Moses stumbles along because God chose him and besides, who else will do it? So it is with Lillian. After a lifetime of messing up, she has no reason to believe she can take care of these damaged children. Yet, Lillian has the passion and guts to try, without deluding herself that she’ll do a perfect job. As a writer myself (see my Amazon author page and Goodreads author page), I was impressed by Wilson’s ability to make the bizarre believable, and the insurmountable attemptable, the very skills that parenthood demands.
E.L. Doctorow Advises “Be Brave. Be Kind.”
As an idolizer of E.L. Doctorow, a fellow graduate of the Bronx High School of Science (albeit 15 years later), and a writer who, like Doctorow, aims to blend fact and fiction until they are indistinguishable, I was delighted and encouraged to read the commencement address he gave to our alma mater’s class of 2011. Among his words, still resonant nearly a decade later: “The human quest for knowledge, for knowing everything there is to know, will always face that expanding circumference of darkness. That is what makes learning such an adventure. You will find that in the world great progress is made in some ways, like curing disease, like inventing robotic devices, going into space, while in other ways, as in our wars, our brutalization of others, our pollution of the natural world, we are faltering. It is possible that our great technical achievements notwithstanding, our moral natures are not keeping up, that we have the brains but not always the hearts to do the right thing. But there is always hope, and there is always the next generation coming along to make things better. We older folks are waiting for you. … If I were a clergyman, I’d cast a blessing. But I’m a writer, so I say: Be brave. Be kind. Take good care of yourself. And carry it on.” Read Doctorow’s entire speech A Master Storyteller’s Advice for Graduates: Be Brave. Be Kind. reprinted in The New York Times. See more quotes from some of my favorite authors in REFLECTIONS.
What I’m Reading: The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
My Amazon and Goodreads review of The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead (Rating 5) – The Truth, Push, and Hope of Fiction. Colson Whitehead’s The Nickel Boys would have had hit me regardless, but because I was reading it when yet another African American was murdered by the police, it whipped me as thoroughly as the book’s protagonist was beaten at the Florida reform school that gives the novel its title. Elwood Curtis, the impressionable and idealistic black teenager at the story’s center, tries to hold onto the inspiring words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The pain of his inevitable disillusionment must be buried for him to survive, while it simultaneously acts as an irrepressible force that drives him to achieve and prove his white tormentors wrong. Yet only by confronting his past and calling out the abuse, can the truth literally be unearthed and the seeds of change sown. Whitehead’s writing is unsparing, whether he is probing the minds of his characters or the horrors of the scenes he depicts. What he leaves unsaid is perhaps more vivid than what he says; readers don’t have the option of turning away. As a writer myself (see my Amazon author page and Goodreads author page), I was in awe of both his courage and his craft. In a time that calls for systemic and collective change, one wants to believe that this fictional account of one individual defying the odds can become a reality for multitudes. Yet, nearly six decades after The Nickel Boys is set, racism’s realities remain devastating. Does Whitehead’s story offer a glimmer of hope? The power of fiction is that it can not only moves us within, but also propel us out onto the streets. The Nickel Boys forces us to ask why we haven’t taken that step, and whether we finally will.
Welcome Words from Eleanor Roosevelt: The Encouraging Thing
Words can inspire. Words can heal. In times of crisis, we seek enlightenment and comfort from the words of our leaders. Here are the wise and compassionate words of a true leader, Eleanor Roosevelt: THE ENCOURAGING THING.
Essay on Cultural Appropriation Published in SPILL IT!
My essay “Theirs or Ours? Who Owns Culture? Appropriation on the Docket” is now online in the May 2020 issue of Vine Leaves Press SPILL IT! The essay decries blanket accusations of cultural appropriation and argues that culture belongs to everyone. Examples are drawn not only from creative pursuits, but everyday life such as what we cook, the music we listen to, the clothes we wear, and how we celebrate special occasions. Please use the buttons at the bottom of the essay to share and voice your opinion. Find more of my thoughts about writing in ESSAYS and REFLECTIONS.
What I’m Reading: The Glass Hotel: A Novel by Emily St. John Mandel
My Amazon and Goodreads review of The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel (Rating 3) – All Surface. The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel is promoted as a “Bernie Madoff” novel, the story of a Ponzi scheme that robbed investors of their life savings. In fact, only the last third of the book focuses on the crime and its fallout, while even those pages are a missed opportunity to probe the mind of an individual who blithely sustains such a fraud for decades. Other than a few paragraphs in which we hear the lame, and patently untrue, justification concocted by his sleek lawyer, the criminal remains a cipher to us. So do the rest of the characters: the poor but beautiful quasi-trophy wife who remains willfully unaware so she can relish the perks of wealth; the various enablers; and the victims. Mandel is a good observer of details, but her portraits are all surface. This hotel’s glass is a one-way mirror, reflecting outward and denying entry. As a reader and fiction writer (see my Amazon author page and Goodreads author page), I believe it’s that entry into the human mind that makes a book worth checking into.
The Blue Nib: The Write Life Publishes “Revival”
I’m happy to announce that my essay “Revival” was published by The Blue Nib in its online feature The Write Life at https://thebluenib.com/revival/. Here’s the log line: “Revival” investigates the literary and psychological reasons why writers revisit and revise very old stories they once considered finished, refuting the charge that it’s because they have nothing new to write about. Read more at my website on the page ESSAYS.
Amid COVID-19 Learn History Through Fiction: Flummoxed by Spanish Flu: A Recap
For the past month, during the COVID-19 pandemic, I’ve posted quack remedies recommended during the 1918 Spanish flu outbreak. Here’s an alphabetical recap of the most outlandish: breath mints, camphor balls, hot sulfur fumes, malted milk, massages, onions, paw paws, petroleum jelly, sneezing, toothpaste, vinegar baths. Your favorite(s)? Read more about the deadly Spanish flu pandemic a century ago in On the Shore (1917-1925), a tale of conflict between generations in a Lower East Side immigrant family (see NOVELS).
Amid COVID-19 Learn History Through Fiction: Father John’s Cough Syrup Remedies Spanish Flu
Father John’s Cough Syrup, which had been used to treat colds since 1855, claimed to be effective against the 1918 Spanish flu. Its non-alcoholic cod liver oil base containing glycerin, sugar, gum arabic, licorice, and flavoring oils was promoted as a “nutritive tonic to combat diseases of the throat.” It didn’t help, but at least it didn’t harm. Read more about the deadly Spanish flu pandemic a century ago in On the Shore (1917-1925), a tale of conflict between generations in a Lower East Side immigrant family (see NOVELS).
Amid COVID-19 Learn History Through Fiction: Hot Sulfur Fumes Fend Off Spanish Flu
A dangerous quack remedy during the 1918 Spanish flu outbreak was to “inhale smoke from sulfur and brown sugar heated over hot coals.” Read more about the deadly Spanish flu pandemic a century ago in On the Shore (1917-1925), a tale of conflict between generations in a Lower East Side immigrant family (see NOVELS).