Recommended Reading - a Meme

This meme has been making the round of bookblogs lately. I don't know where it originated, so unfortunately I can't give proper credit. However, I think it began as a "books I've read this year" meme. I've chosen to use it more as a general "reading I recommend," and not just novels, but I've also included three plays and one non-fiction title. Makes it easier! Also, instead of the usual list form, I've put it into paragraph form.

     I began the day by Lying Awake before breakfasting with Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont and admiring [her] Room with a View. On my way to work, I saw Emma and walked by The Priory to avoid Crossing Delancey, but I made sure to stop at 84, Charing Cross Road.
     In the office, my boss said, "Faster! Faster!" and sent me to research An Academic Question. At lunch with The Rector's Daughter, I noticed The New House in Mansfield Park. Then on the journey home, I contemplated Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks because I have an Invitation to the Waltz and am drawn to Dancing at Lughnasa. (Then again, I also contemplated A Month in the Country, because I have Urgent Longings and am drawn To the North.)
     Settling down for the evening in The Echoing Grove, I studied a Letter from New York by The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street before saying goodnight to The Tortoise and the Hare.

Lying Awake  - Mark Salzman
Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont  - Elizabeth Taylor
A Room with a View  - E. M. Forster
Emma  - Jane Austen
The Priory  - Dorothy Whipple
Crossing Delancey  - Susan Sandler
84, Charing Cross Road  - Helene Hanff
Faster! Faster!  - E. M. Delafield
An Academic Question  - Barbara Pym
The Rector's Daughter  - F. M. Mayor
The New House  - Lettice Cooper
Mansfield Park  - Jane Austen
Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks  - Richard Alfieri
Invitation to the Waltz  - Rosamond Lehmann
Dancing at Lughnasa  - Brian Friel
A Month in the Country  - J. L. Carr
Urgent Longings  - Thomas J. Tyrrell
To the North  - Elizabeth Bowen
The Echoing Grove  - Rosamond Lehmann
Letter from New York  - Helene Hanff
The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street  - Helene Hanff
The Tortoise and the Hare  - Elizabeth Jenkins

Christmas Time Movies!

     On this past Thanksgiving Day, I remembered that on Thanksgiving weekend 1994 I went to the cinema twice to see the new but old-fashioned romantic comedy called Sleepless in Seattle. At the first viewing, I remember my sister whispering during the Christmas dinner scene near the start of the film, "Oh, it's Niles!" Not having yet seen Frasier, I had no idea who Niles was. Nowadays, of course, one of the reasons I watch Sleepless is to see David Hyde Pierce in his two brief scenes.

     Another main reason I watch Sleepless, at least during Advent and the Christmas season, is for its Christmas scenes at the beginning—even though it's all very secular, it's still jolly, and I always love Meg Ryan singing "horses, horses, horses" with the radio.

     Besides Sleepless in Seattle, there are numerous other movies I love to watch specifically at this time. It might surprise you that It's a Wonderful Life and Miracle on 34th Street (any version) are not among them. I think there are two reasons for their omission: 1) they're both on TV ad nauseum around Christmas time, and 2) I've always disliked following the crowd. "What's your favorite Christmas movie?" Seven times out of ten, the answer is It's a Wonderful Life. The other three times, it's Miracle on 34th Street. (Those are my own arbitrary statistics; don't go quoting them.) While I concede they are both wonderful films, I'm just ornery and choose to march to my own drummer boy. Pah-rrum-pum-pum-pum.

     So here, in random order after the first four, is my Christmas viewing list—most of these films are not specifically about Christmas, and some are emphatically non-religious (yes, I still retain some of my pagan past when it comes to movies), but all have Christmas scenes in them.

The Bishop's Wife - probably my favorite Christmas film
     (Cary Grant, Loretta Young)
The Shop around the Corner - probably my second favorite Christmas film
     (James Stewart, Margaret Sullavan)
White Christmas - probably my 3rd favorite Christmas film
Come to the Stable  (Loretta Young, Celeste Holm) - probably my fourth favorite Christmas film

Little Women 
     1933 (Katharine Hepburn)
     1994 (Winona Ryder)
     1978 (TV mini-series w/ Susan Dey)
     [Don't like the 1949 version with June Allyson and Elizabeth Taylor!]
Meet Me in St. Louis  (Judy Garland, Margaret O'Brien)
The Trouble with Angels  (Hayley Mills, Rosalind Russell)
Holiday Inn  (Fred Astaire, Bing Crosby)
Sleepless in Seattle
Desk Set  (Katharine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy)
When Harry Met Sally ...
84, Charing Cross Road  (Anne Bancroft, Anthony Hopkins)
Love Affair  (1939, Irene Dunne, Charles Boyer)
     and its 1957 remake An Affair to Remember  (Cary Grant, Deborah Kerr)
Falling in Love  (Meryl Streep, Robert de Niro)
The Holiday  (Kate Winslet, Cameron Diaz)
Love Story  (Ryan O'Neal, Ali MacGraw)
You've Got Mail
Love, Actually
Christmas in Connecticut  (Barbara Stanwyck, Dennis Morgan)
Holiday Affair  (Janet Leigh, Robert Mitchum)
Never Say Goodbye  (Errol Flynn, Eleanor Parker)
A Christmas Carol  (just about any version)
The Tangerine Bear  (animated - David Hyde Pierce voices the Cuckoo)

For something emphatically religious, and therefore most truly about Christmas:
The Nativity Story

Wise Counsel from Mother Teresa

"We must not drift away from the humble works, because these are the works nobody will do. It is [sic] never too small. We are so small we look at things in a small way. But God, being Almighty, sees everything great. Therefore, even if you write a letter for a blind man or just go sit and listen, or you take the mail for him, or you visit somebody or bring a flower to somebody—small things—or wash clothes for somebody, or clean the house. Very humble work, that is where you and I must be. For there are many people who can do big things. But there are very few people who will do the small things." ~ Blessed Teresa of Calcutta

 

Lent is not the only time for penitential works. Advent, also, is a time of penance and preparation, though, really, works of penance and service should not be confined only to these seasons. We can do a great deal just by making someone's holiday season, no matter what their faith, a little easier or more pleasant. There may be someone in your own family, or right next door. Just one little good deed a day can go a long way toward making the world a better place.

From My Big Orange Book: Robert Frost

     I met this poem via a choral arrangement by Randall Thompson which we sang in high school. I immediately loved both text and musical setting, and have since considered the poem to be one of my favorites of all time.

"Choose Something Like a Star"

O Star (the fairest one in sight),
We grant your loftiness the right
To some obscurity of cloud—
It will not do to say of night,
Since dark is what brings out your light.
Some mystery becomes the proud.
But to be wholly taciturn
In your reserve is not allowed.
Say something to us we can learn
By heart and when alone repeat.
Say something! And it says, 'I burn.'
But say with what degree of heat.
Talk Fahrenheit, talk Centigrade.
Use language we can comprehend.
Tell us what elements you blend.
It gives us strangely little aid,
But does tell us something in the end.
And steadfast as Keats' Eremite,
Not even stooping from its sphere,
It asks a little of us here.
It asks of us a certain height.
So when at times the mob is swayed
To carry praise or blame too far,
We may choose something like a star
To stay our minds on and be staid.

A helpful analysis of this poem

A beautiful performance of Randall Thompson's setting, accompanied by stunning images taken from Hubble.

On the Saving Grace of Writing

     How many articles and interviews do we read about comedians or actors known for their comedic genius, in which the journalist expresses surprise at the celebrities' real-life personality? How many times are we told that So-and-So is actually quite shy and retiring, nothing like the So-and-So we see on the stage or the screen? The journalist usually goes on to say that the celebrity was painfully shy as a child, but found humor to be a useful sort of mask behind which to hide his shyness. He became the "class clown" in high school and college, and that image helped forge a career, got him out into the world in a way he otherwise might not have done. Yet he remains, at the core, shy. He may very likely suffer from social anxiety disorder.

     Speaking as one who has long suffered from S. A. D., I have found writing to be my saving grace; not a "mask," but a means through which I can reveal who I really am, whether it be on this blog, in my journal, in my poetry, or in letters and even on Facebook. Leticia in person may appear to be quite different. She may not have much to say for herself, may be a poor conversationalist, may even retire into a defeated silence. But that's not really Leticia. Only her family and very closest friends can know the real Leticia in person.

     In Elizabeth Taylor's short story "The Letter Writers," a man and woman who have for years known each other only through correspondence finally meet at the woman's house. She is pathetically wracked with worry, knowing how much he enjoys her beautifully written, lively letters, that he might find the writer to be quite ordinary and dull, not at all what he imagined. Indeed, when he arrives at her door, her cat has just upset the lobster she intended to serve for lunch; she is unkempt, harried, and completely distraught. For the rest of the afternoon, she never recovers herself from that initial meeting. Moreover, the neighbor whom she had so colorfully portrayed in her letters shows up, and proves to be nothing more than a tiresome busybody. The visit is, in short, a disaster for both correspondents. But do they stop writing each other? No. Each has grown too fond of the other that leaps so vividly off the page; it is a peculiar kind of friendship, to be sure, and some readers might conclude it isn't a friendship at all, only delusion. I see it as a true friendship, because through writing, without the constrictions and tensions that a conventional, flesh-and-blood friendship can sometimes impose, they are free to be truly themselves.

     I know what it's like to be able to relax through the written word. I've poured out more of myself on the page than I have to any human being. I am grateful to be able to write.

    

The Short Story Reconsidered

     First of all, let me say that this is not a book blog, nor am I in any shape or form a literary critic. Everyone who knows me knows that I love reading as an educational activity and as sheer entertainment as well as companionship, and also that I love the physical book, period. Most of all, I read for love of language.

     However, since this is a blog about my different perspectives on life, and since reading has formed and continues to form many of those perspectives, I do feel obliged to write about books from time to time, including my personal opinions of, and reactions to, same.

     The novel has always been my favorite literary form. Years ago, I bought a volume of short stories by Laurie Colwin, a writer whose novels I rather liked at the time, in an attempt to widen my horizons; however, I didn't really "take" to the form, so naturally assumed afterward that I never would. I should have known that tasting only one writer's stories does not form a good basis for judgment, but in my defense, I felt there were certainly enough novels to keep me happily occupied for the rest of my life, so who needs short stories, anyway?

     I have loved the novels of Elizabeth Taylor for many years now, ever since Virago first began reissuing them, so when Nicola Beauman's biography of Taylor came out a few years ago, I immediately bought and read it. Beauman praises Taylor's short stories highly, as do many other critics and authors, proclaiming her a master of the form. According to Beauman, Taylor likened the short story to the lyric poem in arc and movement. Since I am a poet, this comparison struck a loud chord in me and prompted me to give short stories another chance—and whose stories but Taylor's would serve me better in that capacity?

     I recently finished reading her collection The Blush and absolutely loved all the stories in it. I now have a genuine appreciation for the difficulty of writing what are essentially, to me anyway, novels in miniature, of cramming so much information and impact in so few pages. And to do so with as much grace, humor, perception, and seeming ease as did Elizabeth Taylor is nothing short of astonishing; that she is able, with just one little tale, to elicit so many varying reactions from me—amusement, sympathy, indignation, surprise—is enough to erase forever my former indifference toward the form. I feel I am now ready to sample another author—another Elizabeth, perhaps? Elizabeth Bowen?

A Painting I Love

William Orpen
"The Window Seat"