My review of Terri Cheney's book, "Manic: A Memoir" is in today's Birmingham News.
"Very little insight is given to these embarrassing situations until late in the book. Chapters resemble cocktail stories, with small doses of horror and humor. But in the end there's a payoff. Cheney wraps this string of situations into a thematic bow that makes complete sense."
Read the rest here.
Jethro told me that this post didn't make much sense. Allow me rephrase it.
The economy is tanking. What effect is that going to have on the arts?
Here's one possibility. I bet we'll be seeing more of this kind of thing. I don't know how you're going to prepare for it, but I'm planning on paying off my debt and sticking to a budget. (Thanks Scott)
What It Felt Like: Living in the American Century
by Henry Allen.
Pantheon Books
pg. 176, Copyright 2000.
Henry Allen's book, "What It Felt Like: Living in the American Century" is a fabulous book. Starting with 1900, each chapter is dedicated to a decade's worth of memories, product name-dropping, and random dialogue. Allen picks an underlying theme with ties each of these elements together.
In books like these, it's usually the earlier part of the decade that gets short shrift. The writing sparkles in the chapters which the author remembers. In this case, Allen's best work is done in the first few chapters. His voice is dispassionate, allowing readers to feel the full effect of the words. "You stand at attention in restaurants whenever the band plays, 'The Star-Spangled Banner,' which it does a lot, and there's a punch in the nose waiting for any man who doesn't. Sauerkraut becomes 'liberty cabbage.' German measles are 'liberty measles.'"
Renaming words was a 1910-1920 phenomena, which as you remember, played out again nearly 90 years later. Such patterns are subtly underscored throughout the book. Greed and rampant materialism appear and then disappear; waiting for each generation to discover it anew. And they always do.
From the 60s onward, the book takes a more dour tone; paranoia and narcissism laced with disappointment. Greed makes life simple in the 80s, but scheduling life becomes complicated. And the 90s, the "Whatever" decade in which technology imposed itself on relationships. In this book, he sees America as a lonely place - by choice. "Memoirs replaced novels as the fashionable sport. Internet games and chat rooms replaced social life, even offering the change to change your identity and sign on as someone else."
Allen allows readers to reach their own conclusions about the American Century. But with this evidence, it's hard not to be worried about the future.
I'm late in posting this but...
My review of "Final Journeys: A Practical Guide for Bringing Care and Comfort at the End of Life" by Maggie Callanan was published in the Birmingham News.
"Sensitively written, Callanan outlines in precise detail what a family should know about saying goodbye to a loved one. It is a deeply compassionate and moving book."
Read the rest here.
Let's see... Gas is at $3.35 a gallon on average across the U.S. Foreclosures cripple American families. In places like Ohio, one out of ten people are receiving government aid. Do I have to mention Bear Stearns? You know, the company that got bailed by the Fed, invoking a Depression-era law and making economists everywhere incredibly frightened for our future.
Oh yeah, and have you noticed rising food prices and higher energy costs? During the first quarter of this year, 232,000 jobs were lost in the U.S. Economy's first quarter. Only 80,000 jobs were lost last month alone. The Iraq War has cost over $500 Billion.
Not to be a downer, because I would certainly love to pretend that I live in a completely different time and place. You know, the one that allows me to maintain a high credit card balance and not pay it off... But it seems typical of our present society to believe that there are no limits to resources like money or the environment.
In light of the economic circumstances of our country... You know, people getting thrown out of their jobs and their homes... People begging for gas money - and actually using it for gas money... Is there a way to talk about government funding for the arts without feeling out of touch with what's happening?
Seriously. Help me out here.
From Project 1968:
Cities Keep A Fragile Peace
"Racial violence unleashed by the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., has struck more than four-score American cities in a destructive orgy of staggering proportions. Since King's assassination in Memphis Thursday night, including the Palm Sunday national day of mourning proclaimed by President Johnson in honor of the fallen civil rights leader, at least 85 cities were visited by violence."
There are 19,900 federal troops and 30,109 National Guard on patrol throughout America. More than 2,000 are injured, 8,879 arrested and 29 people are dead. Chicago, Baltimore and Washington are the hardest hit.
(United Press International. Appeared in the Kingsport Times - Kingsport, Tennessee)
I reviewed Pamela Aye Simon's "The Book of Blah: Random Thoughts for Boring Days" several weeks ago for the Birmingham News.
“Simon's book is filled with free-verse poetry on the peculiarities of modern life. Her topics are diverse, ranging from technology to clothing, diet and the aging process…The theme throughout the text is of loss and compromise. The narrator is conflicted between her inner life and external circumstances. This underpinning accounts for the sadness that occasionally overwhelms these verses.”
Officially, it falls under the “humor” category, and that was my main quibble with it. Books like “The Book of Blah” are tough to categorize – not quite humor, not quite literary, not quite… You get the idea.
The free verse form fascinates me because of its economy - taking the most important words in the sentence and cutting out the rest. I think my eyes do that quite naturally. Using too many words dilutes the impact of a statement.
Anyway, read the review here.
For those who are keeping up with Project 1968, I wanted to let you know that the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. happened in the evening, around 7 p.m. Janine and Amy wrote their entries in the afternoon, so they are unaware of what is in store for the country several hours later.
Like what actually happened, both characters will be wrapped up in the events surrounding Dr. King's death for weeks to come. Interviews, book discussions and other supporting documentation will be posted.
It's not just one day anniversary in their world.
The entries are set to go live at in the mid-afternoon today. Be sure to stop by.
Head:Sub/Head got my attention today with his post talking about Amazon's new sales policy. It seems that Amazon will not allow books published through Lulu, iUniverse or other print-on-demand service to be sold through their site.
Why on Earth would they ever do that? Because they have their own in-house print-on-demand service - BookSurge. Of course, they will sell books published through BookSurge.
To verify the story, I checked with a few of my own online sources - including a self publishing group. For awhile, there was some debate about whether or not this new policy was rumor. But then someone provided a link to the Wall Street Journal story, and ergo, it appears that it is true.
For those who still think that self publishing is the same thing as vanity printing, it is not. It has reached a level of respectability.
Bill Mize, author of the Denton Ward and Monty Crochetti Mystery Series was nominated by the Private Eye Writers of America for The Shamus Award in 2001. Who was his publisher? iUniverse. It was the first print-on-demand book to be nominated for a major award.
Since that time, Lulu and others have come on the scene, producing attractive, quality books. Newspaper editors have a difficult time separating the "real published books" from print-on-demand books. If you don't know the signs, you'd never know the difference.
So what does this mean for the industry? In general, doors are opening for print-on-demand books. I think that there will be a backlash of monumental proportions. The Wall Street Journal suggests that Amazon's business will go up. That's highly doubtful. I can easily see Indy publishers and print-on-demand authors banding together to come up with a new way to get their work to the marketplace. And of course, let's not forget about boycotting Amazon.
As for me and Gasp, I have often linked to Amazon when talking about a book. We'll see if that continues.
Scott Walters was kind enough to be interviewed for Project 1968.
By the way, I had no idea that the man has three college degrees - including a PhD in theater-related subjects. And if that's not enough, you can purchase a book he co-authored off of Amazon.
Gosh, how long have we all been conversing with him via blog... I had no idea.
