Reading Addict

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I hate to drive.  It’s an enormous waste of time with all that frustration and irritation while not being able to read.  I honestly have a license plate surround that says “I’d Rather Be Reading.”I am holding out for teleportation or the Floo network, barring those options, a car and driver.   

Audio books do seem the obvious solution but I was a late convert as I could never get the hang of cassette tapes.  When I finally got a car with a CD player, I began on an audio adventure with the gold standard of audio books the Harry Potter series narrated by the incredible Jim Dale.  The narrator makes or breaks an audio book.  Here are some of my standouts  

Bird, Sarah.  The Flamenco Academy.I am about as ethnic as a Cheerio- but the passion of the flamenco and Dona Carlota’s stories fill the center of the novel, revealing much about dance, Gypsies, and New Mexican culture made me want to dance and eat green chiles.  Narrator Alyssa Bresnahan’s softly accented reading compelled me. 

Gaiman, Neil.  The Anansi Boys.Gaiman creates a kaleidoscopic journey deep into myth that is at once startling, terrifying, exhilarating, and fiercely funny. I love this author and although this book is not one of my favorites the narrator (Lenny Henry) was so talented that I really enjoyed the experience. 

Goldberg, Myla.  Wickett’s Remedy.This is a fully orchestrated/narrated audio play of sorts about the 1917 influenza epidemic and a patent cure. The shop bells and telegraph effects take getting used to as do the whisperings of dead people commenting and contradicting on the narrative.  

Kostova, Elizabeth.  The Historian.Sometimes I listen to books that I could not read in print for whatever reason.  The length of this book intimidated me but I devoured the audio book whole, driving aimlessly about town to finish a CD.  The Romanian accents add immeasurable to the story of a young girl embarking on a harrowing journey across Europe to find Dracula. 

Martin, Steve.  Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life. Martin’s memories are perceptive and emotionally honest even though he confesses early on that while writing this book, he felt some events in his life seemed to happen to someone else and “I often felt like a curious onlooker.” Martin’s writing is spare, concise and evocative, and he’s a smooth and limber reader. Audio is the only way to truly appreciate this book. 

Vowell, Sarah.  Assassination Vacation.Vowell narrates her own books and sucks on Helium.  This native Oklahoman has the voice of a kewpie doll while she takes us on a trip through history and also across present-day America, exploring the paths of the men who snuffed out the lives of these presidents, everywhere making incisive and insightful connections.   

I am now that car that almost misses the change of a traffic light because I am “reading.”  It’s okay, you can honk.  I understand. 

It has been said that great times make great men. Well, the Great Depression certainly was a ‘great’ time, at least in its historical significance, and no doubt it did produce some great men, or at least some great stories about ordinary men, tales that often are elevated to an almost legendary stature. Maybe it’s because we as Americans have an appreciation for people who never give up and pull themselves up by their own bootstraps, or maybe it’s because, when they had lost everything else, their land, their living, sometimes even their families, the poor folks who lived through this worst, hard time still had their stories.  

Over the last few years, I’ve read a handful of books set during the Great Depression that have made me wonder if and how I would be able to survive such tough times. The first was the biography Ava’s Man by Rick Bragg. In it, Bragg tells the story of his grandfather Charlie Bundrum, a man he never met, but whose greatness had lived long after him in the stories told by the people who knew him. Charlie was a moonshiner and jack of all trades who did whatever he could to feed and clothe his family. Charlie was illiterate but wise, tough as nails and yet devoted to his wife and seven children, and despite his extreme poverty, he maintained a dignity that was not arrogant but generous. Because the man’s life is told through the eyes of an admiring grandson, it’s easy to see the bias in the story, but it’s that same bias that makes it such a grand tale. 

Next up came Rilla Askew’s Harpsong, a novel about a drifter and his young wife as they travel around Oklahoma and its neighboring states riding the rails and camping in Hoovervilles. Told primarily through the eyes of the 14-year old bride Sharon, the story follows her and her husband, Harlan Singer, a virtuoso on the harmonica, whose search for an old man named Profit could very well be the search for his own redemption, and whose folksy wisdom and bank robbing exploits become the stuff of local legend. 

And lastly, my most recent read on this era was the novel Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. Gruen’s main character, an elderly Jacob Jankowski, begins his tale as a student with a bright future following in the footsteps of his veterinarian father. However, when both of his parents are killed suddenly, Jacob, in a daze, hops the next train that passes through town. Upon discovering that the train belongs to a traveling circus, he finagles his way into a job caring for the wide variety of exotic animals on the show. Soon enough though, he takes on the new task of rescuing a feisty and not so helpless damsel in distress from her sadistic husband, who also happens to be Jacob’s boss. Being a circus man, Jacob knows how to sell the audience a good yarn, even if some of the details might be embellished. 

I don’t know if I’d have what it takes to survive the ordeals, real or fictional, that these men faced. One thing I do know though is that if I did make it, I’d have some great stories to tell.

I recently saw the brilliant film adaptation of Richard Yates’ novel, Revolutionary Road and, like so many works exploring conformity, dissent, the incapability to escape the choices one makes, I was mesmerized.  It lodged itself in my head, like a splinter, slowly working deeper and deeper to my core.  I was a bit rattled.  The film brought to mind other great works of art that address this dreadful part of the human condition.  The existential itch to find the greenest grass, to casually cast aside any impediment to fully realize one’s dreams, has plagued artists since landlords began demanding rent, since food required the exchange of currency, since the notion of ‘compromise’ entered the human consciousness.           

There is a slew of great books and films that deal with this very theme.  Below are the novels and movies that had the greatest effect on my life, which caused me to pause and consider my decisions.  While the impact isn’t always a positive one, it is sometimes wonderful and insightful.  Through brilliant lyrical language and powerful metaphors these writers produce a result, as do all great works of art, which evokes a myriad of feelings, often too complex to limit to short synopses.

American Beauty—At my mother’s suggestion, I saw this film when it debuted in the theaters.  I felt at the age of 17, I could see my midlife crisis just over the horizon.  Sam Mendes would go on to direct Revolutionary Road, honing his ability to direct films that evoke malaise, and intelligently using metaphor as a commentary on the individual’s desire to break the bounds of imposed conformity.

Seize the Day by Saul Bellow—I read this while tending bar in a dank, dirty, beer soaked basement.  My life felt better after reaching the end.  This novel represents the inverse.  The protagonist never fully reaches his potential, never making the right decisions, and having to live with the consequences of being a totally ineffectual individual.  Bellow’s insight predates the ennui so often characterized by Generations X and Y.

Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett—a play in which two characters wait for a third, Godot, who never arrives.  The play invites a multitude of different interpretations.  The ambiguity is not helped by the fact that Beckett has refused to indulge in commenting on any of the interpretations (he famously told an actor “it’s symbiosis, Peter, it’s symbiosis”).  My favorite thematic interpretation deals with the existential questions.  Godot’s absence is more powerful than the other characters’ presence.  And it doesn’t really matter who Godot is; these two characters are simply waiting.  Waiting for something. Waiting for change. Waiting for redemption. Waiting for opportunity. Waiting for success.  Waiting for the something that never arrives.  Ahh…such is life, sometimes.

Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis—This book just might be the most famous, well known novel exploring conformity, and the emptiness of the middle class.  This book is too good to give a short synopsis here.  I will simply add my two cents’ worth…..if you’re at all interested in the above works, by this theme in art at all….GO READ IT NOW!

So one day you and the neighbor are getting together for burgers and hot dogs in the back yard, rockin’ out to Van Halen’s 1984 album and watching the kids put on their floaties and snorkels for a quick dip in the pool. . . and the next day his decomposing corpse is shuffling aimlessly about the yard, begging for brains and drooling over your miniature schnauzer.

It happens, people.

If you’ve been fortunate enough to survive a crushing attack of neighborhood zombies—and you want to keep sweet little Fluffy from being the next meal for Steve the Rotting Clerical Worker—you need to seriously consider educating yourself on the habits of the Undead.  If it’s a mild zombie attack, you’re in luck.  They’re fairly stupid little beasties, and it only takes a headshot to knock ‘em out of the park.  Vampires?  That’s a whole different scenario, folks.  It’s time to stock up on some garlic and crucifixes—and pray that the sun doesn’t set before you slam home a sharpened table leg into the heart of this vile creature.   Do it, and do it fast—he’s been casting wicked glances at your sweet little innocent teenage cheerleader for weeks now.

Wait, did you hear that?  Sounds like someone moaning and shuffling around in the garage.  You should hurry up and get to reading. . . this list should give you a good base for dealing with the Undead.