David Schwinghammer's Blog
April 26, 2021
The Red Comet
I was familiar with Sylvia Plath because I read THE BELL JAR and later did a report on her for a woman's literature class where I was exposed to ARIEL and her poetry.
At first I was reluctant to order the book because it's almost a thousand pages long and it hadn't been that long wince I read THE MIRROR AND THE LIGHT, equally daunting.
I was surprised I wasn't seeing a bio of one of the greatest writers of the 20th century on the best seller's lists. It may have something to do with Heather Clark's analysis of practically every poem Sylvia ever wrote, including the high school stuff. When she finally got to the good stuff, she would quote a few lines, which is an injustice to the poet in my view. The reader could use an appendix.
Sylvia was a driven person, but she had a rather split personality. She wanted to be a famous poet and novelist but she also wanted to be a wife and mother. She often referred to career women as barren in her poetry. Her fanatical drive got her in trouble early when she got an internship at MADEMOISELLE. Remarkably she was assigned to work with the managing editor. But she was disappointed in the magazine's main purpose, selling make-up and other gunk to women. When she returned home, she went into a funk and became so depressed she actually tried to commit suicide, which led to a stint in a sanatorium and, believe it or not, shock treatment. She had nightmares for years about that.
Sylvia was publishing poetry in high school (try that some time) mainly in the women's magazines, but once she got to Smith she got the occasional poem in POETRY magazine and even the ATLANTIC. The NEW YORKER was a lifelong goal which accomplished repeatedly just before she died.
Upon graduating from Smith she got a fellowship to Cambridge in England where she eventually met Ted Hughes, the great poet. He had no idea how to get a poem published until he met Sylvia. He was her dream man at first, and they were a team, reading and criticizing each other's work. They were married for six years; again Sylvia was her own worst enemy. She was jealous of every woman Ted met. When he brought home a sixteen year old girl whom he was mentoring, Sylvia wouldn't let her in the house. When Ted worked with an older woman at the BBC, she blew up. Heather Clark implies Ted wasn't cheating until after he left her.
By then they had two kids. She tried to get an au pair to help her with the kids so she could write in the mornings; that worked for a while, but she just couldn't stand to live without Ted no matter how much she denied it. She did establish a relationship with Al Alvarez, the leading literary critic in England, who loved her work. But England was even more sexist than America when it came to female poets. When Alvarez published his anthology of leading young poets, no women were in it. Sylvia and Anne Sexton made the second one. He thought she was better than Ted.
Sylvia is often viewed as a confessional poet, but she was a lot more than that. She bared her soul in her work. She wrote about depression, infidelity, motherhood, mother hatred and sex. Outrageously THE BELL JAR, a female CATCHER IN THE RYE wasn't published in America until 1971, eight years after she died. It was one of the best-selling books of the 20th century, and it's still selling.
Ted, Alvarez and others tried to diagnose why Sylvia committed suicide. Ted and his girlfriend Assia Wevill got most of the blame, but I think it was really deja vu all over again, to quote Yogi Berra. She thought that if she met her soul mate and got a book published her life would be great. Instead her husband left her and the book didn't sell until she was gone. She couldn't live with that.
At first I was reluctant to order the book because it's almost a thousand pages long and it hadn't been that long wince I read THE MIRROR AND THE LIGHT, equally daunting.
I was surprised I wasn't seeing a bio of one of the greatest writers of the 20th century on the best seller's lists. It may have something to do with Heather Clark's analysis of practically every poem Sylvia ever wrote, including the high school stuff. When she finally got to the good stuff, she would quote a few lines, which is an injustice to the poet in my view. The reader could use an appendix.
Sylvia was a driven person, but she had a rather split personality. She wanted to be a famous poet and novelist but she also wanted to be a wife and mother. She often referred to career women as barren in her poetry. Her fanatical drive got her in trouble early when she got an internship at MADEMOISELLE. Remarkably she was assigned to work with the managing editor. But she was disappointed in the magazine's main purpose, selling make-up and other gunk to women. When she returned home, she went into a funk and became so depressed she actually tried to commit suicide, which led to a stint in a sanatorium and, believe it or not, shock treatment. She had nightmares for years about that.
Sylvia was publishing poetry in high school (try that some time) mainly in the women's magazines, but once she got to Smith she got the occasional poem in POETRY magazine and even the ATLANTIC. The NEW YORKER was a lifelong goal which accomplished repeatedly just before she died.
Upon graduating from Smith she got a fellowship to Cambridge in England where she eventually met Ted Hughes, the great poet. He had no idea how to get a poem published until he met Sylvia. He was her dream man at first, and they were a team, reading and criticizing each other's work. They were married for six years; again Sylvia was her own worst enemy. She was jealous of every woman Ted met. When he brought home a sixteen year old girl whom he was mentoring, Sylvia wouldn't let her in the house. When Ted worked with an older woman at the BBC, she blew up. Heather Clark implies Ted wasn't cheating until after he left her.
By then they had two kids. She tried to get an au pair to help her with the kids so she could write in the mornings; that worked for a while, but she just couldn't stand to live without Ted no matter how much she denied it. She did establish a relationship with Al Alvarez, the leading literary critic in England, who loved her work. But England was even more sexist than America when it came to female poets. When Alvarez published his anthology of leading young poets, no women were in it. Sylvia and Anne Sexton made the second one. He thought she was better than Ted.
Sylvia is often viewed as a confessional poet, but she was a lot more than that. She bared her soul in her work. She wrote about depression, infidelity, motherhood, mother hatred and sex. Outrageously THE BELL JAR, a female CATCHER IN THE RYE wasn't published in America until 1971, eight years after she died. It was one of the best-selling books of the 20th century, and it's still selling.
Ted, Alvarez and others tried to diagnose why Sylvia committed suicide. Ted and his girlfriend Assia Wevill got most of the blame, but I think it was really deja vu all over again, to quote Yogi Berra. She thought that if she met her soul mate and got a book published her life would be great. Instead her husband left her and the book didn't sell until she was gone. She couldn't live with that.
February 2, 2021
The Sun Collective
As Harry Brettigan is riding the light rail on his way to the Mall in Bloomington, Minnesota, he is struck by the number of homeless people also riding the train. He refers to them as “Victims of Capitalism” and has a great deal of empathy for them.
Later he and his wife Alma are at Minnehaha Falls enjoying the view when they notice a joyful couple, the young man blowing bubbles and the girl trying to kick them out of the air. They are enchanted. Harry remembers them spreading leaflets at the Mall. They belong to a ideological group called the Sun Collective. Ultimately they learn the Sun Collective is out to do something about the homeless and victims of our wolfish society. They sponsor community outreach programs like community gardens, a co-op bank and campaign for affordable housing. The young people are Christina and Ludlow.
Another plot thread involves Harry and Alma's son, Tim, a former theatrical actor, who has spurned his career and become a member of the homeless community as well.
Eventually Alma goes to Sun Collective meetings, something Harry is cynical about. In his mind these ideological groups ultimately lose their lofty goals and try to impose them on others, much as Marxism did. We see Ludlow veering in that direction.
Harry is a former engineer, having built bridges for his career. He is glad he wasn't involved in the building of the 35W bridge that collapsed in Minneapolis. He's kind of a sad sack who breaks out in tears more than once. But he truly loves his wife and wants his son back.
There are several twists and turns later on. We are asked questions such as “Is violence ever justified?” Christiana, influenced by the Sun Collective, also does something shocking to herself that ultimately turns out for the good.
I would recommend THE SUN COLLECTIVE not so much for the story, but for the big questions it asks and examines.
Later he and his wife Alma are at Minnehaha Falls enjoying the view when they notice a joyful couple, the young man blowing bubbles and the girl trying to kick them out of the air. They are enchanted. Harry remembers them spreading leaflets at the Mall. They belong to a ideological group called the Sun Collective. Ultimately they learn the Sun Collective is out to do something about the homeless and victims of our wolfish society. They sponsor community outreach programs like community gardens, a co-op bank and campaign for affordable housing. The young people are Christina and Ludlow.
Another plot thread involves Harry and Alma's son, Tim, a former theatrical actor, who has spurned his career and become a member of the homeless community as well.
Eventually Alma goes to Sun Collective meetings, something Harry is cynical about. In his mind these ideological groups ultimately lose their lofty goals and try to impose them on others, much as Marxism did. We see Ludlow veering in that direction.
Harry is a former engineer, having built bridges for his career. He is glad he wasn't involved in the building of the 35W bridge that collapsed in Minneapolis. He's kind of a sad sack who breaks out in tears more than once. But he truly loves his wife and wants his son back.
There are several twists and turns later on. We are asked questions such as “Is violence ever justified?” Christiana, influenced by the Sun Collective, also does something shocking to herself that ultimately turns out for the good.
I would recommend THE SUN COLLECTIVE not so much for the story, but for the big questions it asks and examines.
December 25, 2020
American Gospel
I first heard of Lin Enger after I read his brother Leif Enger's hit novel, PEACE LIKE A RIVER. He teaches English Lit at The U of Minnesota Moorhead, right next to Fargo. He was at least as good as Leif.
The review I read of AMERICAN GOSPEL implied that Enoch, the major character who predicts the Rapture was a lonely old man. Enoch is far from that. He has a vision during a heart attack during which he sees his son Peter above him ascending into Heaven.
Peter is probably more of a major character than Enoch. He is a failed baseball player who spent eight years in the minors and is now counting on a journalism career to make his mark. He doesn't believe in the Rapture, but he sees his chance as the media is giving Enoch a lot of attention. He has a secondary goal. He hopes to see his ex-lover Melanie at the Last Days Ranch, his father's property. Peter and Melanie had a child together when she was fifteen, and he was eighteen. Enoch and Melanie's parents insisted they put the child up for adoption. Peter and Melanie hope to see their son at the Rapture event which Enoch predicts will occur on August 19, 1974.
Melanie thinks Enoch saved her life when a bull stepped on her chest. He prayed and she survived. She is now an actress with a new movie coming out. Both Enoch and Peter hope that Melanie's appearance will draw a crowd. Melanie believes it actually might happen. She's fed up with Hollywood and her stage door mother, Dollie who left her husband and took Melanie to California to live with her sister. She got her commercials then parts in moves and eventually an agent.
Enoch isn't a bad person, but he's setting himself up for a terrible humiliation and Peter is determined to save him, mainly because his son Willie (Named after Willie Mays?) wants him to. Enger provides an appropriate ending.
The review I read of AMERICAN GOSPEL implied that Enoch, the major character who predicts the Rapture was a lonely old man. Enoch is far from that. He has a vision during a heart attack during which he sees his son Peter above him ascending into Heaven.
Peter is probably more of a major character than Enoch. He is a failed baseball player who spent eight years in the minors and is now counting on a journalism career to make his mark. He doesn't believe in the Rapture, but he sees his chance as the media is giving Enoch a lot of attention. He has a secondary goal. He hopes to see his ex-lover Melanie at the Last Days Ranch, his father's property. Peter and Melanie had a child together when she was fifteen, and he was eighteen. Enoch and Melanie's parents insisted they put the child up for adoption. Peter and Melanie hope to see their son at the Rapture event which Enoch predicts will occur on August 19, 1974.
Melanie thinks Enoch saved her life when a bull stepped on her chest. He prayed and she survived. She is now an actress with a new movie coming out. Both Enoch and Peter hope that Melanie's appearance will draw a crowd. Melanie believes it actually might happen. She's fed up with Hollywood and her stage door mother, Dollie who left her husband and took Melanie to California to live with her sister. She got her commercials then parts in moves and eventually an agent.
Enoch isn't a bad person, but he's setting himself up for a terrible humiliation and Peter is determined to save him, mainly because his son Willie (Named after Willie Mays?) wants him to. Enger provides an appropriate ending.
September 26, 2020
We Ride Upon Sticks
WE RIDE UPON STICKS is a reference to a field hockey team from Danvers, Massachusetts, once known as Salem City of Salem Witchcraft trials fame.
The Danvers Falcons are really tired of losing. They're at a hockey camp losing their first scrimmage in embarrassing fashion when their goalie, Mel Boucher, starts spouting witchy incantations. By the next scrimmage rolls around she has recruited some of her fellow players and they beat a highly ranked team.
The more they win, the more girls sign on until the whole team is “enchanted”.
Some parts of the book are a bit annoying. One of the captains, Jen Fiorenza, has really big hair. It's the eighties, and most of the girls do. Author Quan Barry refers to the crown of her head as “The Claw” and treats it as if it had a mind of its own. I can't imagine what that might look like. Mel Boucher also has a mole that takes on a life of its own. Enough already.
When they are confronted with a tie game, the girls get worried that they need more than just chants. If good tidings lead to more good deeds, would it be too farfetched to argue that witchcraft demands bad behavior? They go a little overboard; one girl even accuses a male coach of diddling one of the girls. Another, “Little Smitty” spray paints the Danvers trophy case and blames it on a future opponent. It appears to work, all the way to “states” as they call it in field hockey heaven.
There are other oddities on the Danvers Falcons. There's a Girl Cory and a Boy Cory. Even the girls think Boy Cory may have problems with his sexual identity. Barry goes a bit overboard in respect to sexual aberrations; the school bully is closeted; one of the moms is having a lesbian affair. During a reunion one of he daughters claims there are seventeen different sexual orientations.
I always like an epilogue; the one in the book happens thirty years after the trip to states, and we find out if the girls won or lost the championship game. The ending to the game is a bit hard to believe.
One thing Barry does really well is capture the rapport on a girls' sports team. It's sometimes goofy and sometimes funny and mostly always daunting. She should know; according to the acknowledgments, this is a fictional account of her own 1989 field hockey team.
The Danvers Falcons are really tired of losing. They're at a hockey camp losing their first scrimmage in embarrassing fashion when their goalie, Mel Boucher, starts spouting witchy incantations. By the next scrimmage rolls around she has recruited some of her fellow players and they beat a highly ranked team.
The more they win, the more girls sign on until the whole team is “enchanted”.
Some parts of the book are a bit annoying. One of the captains, Jen Fiorenza, has really big hair. It's the eighties, and most of the girls do. Author Quan Barry refers to the crown of her head as “The Claw” and treats it as if it had a mind of its own. I can't imagine what that might look like. Mel Boucher also has a mole that takes on a life of its own. Enough already.
When they are confronted with a tie game, the girls get worried that they need more than just chants. If good tidings lead to more good deeds, would it be too farfetched to argue that witchcraft demands bad behavior? They go a little overboard; one girl even accuses a male coach of diddling one of the girls. Another, “Little Smitty” spray paints the Danvers trophy case and blames it on a future opponent. It appears to work, all the way to “states” as they call it in field hockey heaven.
There are other oddities on the Danvers Falcons. There's a Girl Cory and a Boy Cory. Even the girls think Boy Cory may have problems with his sexual identity. Barry goes a bit overboard in respect to sexual aberrations; the school bully is closeted; one of the moms is having a lesbian affair. During a reunion one of he daughters claims there are seventeen different sexual orientations.
I always like an epilogue; the one in the book happens thirty years after the trip to states, and we find out if the girls won or lost the championship game. The ending to the game is a bit hard to believe.
One thing Barry does really well is capture the rapport on a girls' sports team. It's sometimes goofy and sometimes funny and mostly always daunting. She should know; according to the acknowledgments, this is a fictional account of her own 1989 field hockey team.
August 20, 2020
The Pull of the Stars
THE PULL OF THE STARS is especially appropriate considering what we're going through now with the Covid-19 pandemic.
The novel is set in 1918 Ireland during WWI and the Spanish flu epidemic. Julia Power is a nurse working in a hospital ward for pregnant women who have the flu. At the outset she is an underling to a sister who rules with an iron fist. She is not allowed to drive her bike to the hospital and must take the tram part of the way.
In short order the sister is moved to the maternity ward and Julia is on her own. She can't do it herself and begs for another pair of hands, which turns out to be Bridie Sweeney, who claims she's already had the flu, but she has no nursing experience and has really never been in a hospital. She is an orphan who is still living with the nuns. Another important cog is Dr. Lynn, a radical obstetrician who was a member of the Irish uprising. She's wanted.
Julia starts losing patients almost immediately. A woman has died before she got to work. One of her patients has been pregnant twelve times seven of which lived. Julia is critical of women being enslaved to pregnancy in 1918 Ireland. Another woman is rich or at least well off. She wants to leave. Now. It's not long before a seventeen-year-old pregnant girl shows up. She's worried that her husband will be mad because she'll miss work.
Julia is a good nurse and Bridie is an able helper who learns fast, but the women seem to be dying no matter how hard Julia works to help them. Dr. Lynn must deliver one child via forceps, and Julia dreads what can happen.
Most of the book is set in the maternity/flu ward but we know that Julia has a brother, Ted, who is apparently suffering from shell shock; he can't talk anyway, but they manage to communicate. The book might be better if we would get an occasional respite from the grisly goings on in the Julia's workplace, and the Ted situation might be it. Julia and Bridie do establish a relationship on the roof of the hospital after their shift.
Another theme of the book is how badly the poor, especially the orphan poor are treated in 1918 Ireland. The night sister treats Bridie like she's a derelict.
The ending is both sad and uplifting. At first I thought it was too abrupt and a little unrealistic, but once I had time to think about it, it was perfect.
The novel is set in 1918 Ireland during WWI and the Spanish flu epidemic. Julia Power is a nurse working in a hospital ward for pregnant women who have the flu. At the outset she is an underling to a sister who rules with an iron fist. She is not allowed to drive her bike to the hospital and must take the tram part of the way.
In short order the sister is moved to the maternity ward and Julia is on her own. She can't do it herself and begs for another pair of hands, which turns out to be Bridie Sweeney, who claims she's already had the flu, but she has no nursing experience and has really never been in a hospital. She is an orphan who is still living with the nuns. Another important cog is Dr. Lynn, a radical obstetrician who was a member of the Irish uprising. She's wanted.
Julia starts losing patients almost immediately. A woman has died before she got to work. One of her patients has been pregnant twelve times seven of which lived. Julia is critical of women being enslaved to pregnancy in 1918 Ireland. Another woman is rich or at least well off. She wants to leave. Now. It's not long before a seventeen-year-old pregnant girl shows up. She's worried that her husband will be mad because she'll miss work.
Julia is a good nurse and Bridie is an able helper who learns fast, but the women seem to be dying no matter how hard Julia works to help them. Dr. Lynn must deliver one child via forceps, and Julia dreads what can happen.
Most of the book is set in the maternity/flu ward but we know that Julia has a brother, Ted, who is apparently suffering from shell shock; he can't talk anyway, but they manage to communicate. The book might be better if we would get an occasional respite from the grisly goings on in the Julia's workplace, and the Ted situation might be it. Julia and Bridie do establish a relationship on the roof of the hospital after their shift.
Another theme of the book is how badly the poor, especially the orphan poor are treated in 1918 Ireland. The night sister treats Bridie like she's a derelict.
The ending is both sad and uplifting. At first I thought it was too abrupt and a little unrealistic, but once I had time to think about it, it was perfect.
August 10, 2020
Camino Winds
Ever since James Patterson began hiring ghost writers to co-write his books, other best-selling novelists have been accused of doing the same thing when their books don't meet readers' expectations. That might be the reaction to Grisham's latest.
One reason might be is that Bruce Cable, the protagonist of CAMINO WINDS, is not a lawyer, and he doesn't come to life as does the one in A TIME TO KILL, still his best in my humble opinion. Bruce is a book store owner who caters to best-selling authors and goes beyond the call of duty to promote them. He is having a party for one of them when Hurricane Leo hits the island and one of his writers, Nelson Kerr, is killed in the process.
One of Bruce's employers, a college-aged kid named Nick, is a budding Sherlock Holmes and soon determines that Nelson was murdered. Kerr's new novel has been completed and Bruce is named the literary executor. He is intrigued by the theme of the novel: nursing homes are keeping non-responsive Alzheimers patients alive in order to keep getting their Medicare payments.
Eventually the FBI is involved, and this is where Bruce disappears for long periods of times, not that he ever jumped off the page in the first place.
These nursing homes are part of a conglomerate that makes millions off the elderly. What Nick suspected turns out to be true, and Bruce's investigative team and the FBI convince orderlies to prove it.
The best advice I ever got about plotting a novel was “Just Say No”. Making it hard to solve your story problem increases suspense. Would an orderly working at a nursing home readily agree to risk his/her life to find the drug the bad guys are using to keep terminal patients alive? They might need that job, and we're all good at rationalization.
No, eventually this book isn't realistic. I just didn't believe it and Nick was the only likable character.
One reason might be is that Bruce Cable, the protagonist of CAMINO WINDS, is not a lawyer, and he doesn't come to life as does the one in A TIME TO KILL, still his best in my humble opinion. Bruce is a book store owner who caters to best-selling authors and goes beyond the call of duty to promote them. He is having a party for one of them when Hurricane Leo hits the island and one of his writers, Nelson Kerr, is killed in the process.
One of Bruce's employers, a college-aged kid named Nick, is a budding Sherlock Holmes and soon determines that Nelson was murdered. Kerr's new novel has been completed and Bruce is named the literary executor. He is intrigued by the theme of the novel: nursing homes are keeping non-responsive Alzheimers patients alive in order to keep getting their Medicare payments.
Eventually the FBI is involved, and this is where Bruce disappears for long periods of times, not that he ever jumped off the page in the first place.
These nursing homes are part of a conglomerate that makes millions off the elderly. What Nick suspected turns out to be true, and Bruce's investigative team and the FBI convince orderlies to prove it.
The best advice I ever got about plotting a novel was “Just Say No”. Making it hard to solve your story problem increases suspense. Would an orderly working at a nursing home readily agree to risk his/her life to find the drug the bad guys are using to keep terminal patients alive? They might need that job, and we're all good at rationalization.
No, eventually this book isn't realistic. I just didn't believe it and Nick was the only likable character.
July 31, 2020
Too Much and Never Enough
Much of what Mary Trump reveals in TOO MUCH AND NEVER ENOUGH has already been said during her interviews.
Most of the book centers on what Fred Sr. did to Mary's father, known as Freddie in the family. Fred had been grooming Freddie to take over the business, but Freddie just wasn't tough-minded enough. Freddie loved flying and got in on the ground floor when Howard Hughes's TWA took off, but his drinking eventually nixed that outlet. Fred never forgave him and Freddie died at age 42 of alcohol related heart failure. According to Mary, Fred saw himself in his number two son, who was self-promoting and “brash” as the press tagged him. Mary insists he was really a fraud in every respect, that Fred enabled him. Fred had concentrated on Brooklyn; he needed Donald, who was very press conscious, to get a foot in the door in Manhattan. Donald's two great successes, the Hyatt and Trump Tower, were really possible only because of Fred's tax finagling and other connections. She points to Trump's failures in Atlantic City. One casino was not enough; he built two more, but he didn't understand that they were competing against each other. Fred knew nothing about casinos, and the only way he could help him was to buy chips he would never use.
Towards the end of the book, she finally throws a bomb. Fred died in 1999, and according to his will, Mary and Fritz, Freddie's two kids were cut off. Fred's business manager recommended a lawyer as Freddie had owned twenty percent of Fred's rental business. Donald, Maryanne, Elizabeth and Rob, Fred's remaining children insisted Fred's properties were only worth thirty million, and Mary and Fritz's lawyer seemed to agree. Something stinks in Denmark. It did; Donald eventually insisted they sell that cash cow, and it sold for $700,000,000. Donald got $170 million. Do the math. How much would Freddie be owed? Sounds like fraud, right? Eventually Mary would give THE NEW YORK TIMES Donald's tax records from the settlement, and Maryanne, who was now a judge, had to resign her position, but she still got a fat pension.
Basically what Mary hammers away at is that The Donald is just doing as president what he's always done: self promotion, lying, seeking revenge from anybody who doesn't kowtow to him and lying almost every time he opens his mouth, but she doesn't mention 18-20,000 lies as we've been hearing from Washington Post fact checkers.
Most of the book centers on what Fred Sr. did to Mary's father, known as Freddie in the family. Fred had been grooming Freddie to take over the business, but Freddie just wasn't tough-minded enough. Freddie loved flying and got in on the ground floor when Howard Hughes's TWA took off, but his drinking eventually nixed that outlet. Fred never forgave him and Freddie died at age 42 of alcohol related heart failure. According to Mary, Fred saw himself in his number two son, who was self-promoting and “brash” as the press tagged him. Mary insists he was really a fraud in every respect, that Fred enabled him. Fred had concentrated on Brooklyn; he needed Donald, who was very press conscious, to get a foot in the door in Manhattan. Donald's two great successes, the Hyatt and Trump Tower, were really possible only because of Fred's tax finagling and other connections. She points to Trump's failures in Atlantic City. One casino was not enough; he built two more, but he didn't understand that they were competing against each other. Fred knew nothing about casinos, and the only way he could help him was to buy chips he would never use.
Towards the end of the book, she finally throws a bomb. Fred died in 1999, and according to his will, Mary and Fritz, Freddie's two kids were cut off. Fred's business manager recommended a lawyer as Freddie had owned twenty percent of Fred's rental business. Donald, Maryanne, Elizabeth and Rob, Fred's remaining children insisted Fred's properties were only worth thirty million, and Mary and Fritz's lawyer seemed to agree. Something stinks in Denmark. It did; Donald eventually insisted they sell that cash cow, and it sold for $700,000,000. Donald got $170 million. Do the math. How much would Freddie be owed? Sounds like fraud, right? Eventually Mary would give THE NEW YORK TIMES Donald's tax records from the settlement, and Maryanne, who was now a judge, had to resign her position, but she still got a fat pension.
Basically what Mary hammers away at is that The Donald is just doing as president what he's always done: self promotion, lying, seeking revenge from anybody who doesn't kowtow to him and lying almost every time he opens his mouth, but she doesn't mention 18-20,000 lies as we've been hearing from Washington Post fact checkers.
July 15, 2020
A Thousand Moons
A THOUSAND MOONS is set after the Civil War in west Tennessee. Remnants of Quantrill's raiders are still extant and causing havoc.
The main character is Winona Cole a Lakota Sioux orphan, rescued by two former Union soldiers, Thomas McNulty and John Cole. At the beginning of the book Winona is more or less engaged to a store clerk named Jas Jonski, but on her way home from her job with a local lawyer, she is attacked and apparently raped. She doesn't remember who did it, but she has a bad feeling about Jonski. She lives on a farm with two freed slaves Tennyson and Rosalee, her adoptive parents and Lige Magan, the apparent owner.
The next twist occurs when Tennyson is mugged and beaten, losing his ability to talk. Tennyson knows all the old songs and has a wonderful singing voice, or had anyway. Lawyer Briscoe wants to send him to school.
The story then shifts to a planned attack on the renegades who have been assaulting and sometimes killing freedman. Winona, whose mother was a warrior, decides to join in the fight. Tennyson gives her his Spencer rifle, which she ultimately loses when a renegade girl, named Peg, also an Indian, shoots her in the arm. Winona was dressed as a boy and Peg mistook her for the enemy. Winona is a powerfully attracted by Peg.
Eventually the renegades gain political power, and Winona is charged with murder. A man she had once rejected is now the sheriff.
This book is mostly about objectification of Indians. Why else would her fiancee attack Winona when all he needed was a little patience? The sheriff also knows Winona didn't murder anybody, but she's just an Indian.
An irritating aspect of Sebastian Barry's style is the accent he gives just about every character in the book. It just gets in the way of the story. If you aren't good at it, don't do it.
The main character is Winona Cole a Lakota Sioux orphan, rescued by two former Union soldiers, Thomas McNulty and John Cole. At the beginning of the book Winona is more or less engaged to a store clerk named Jas Jonski, but on her way home from her job with a local lawyer, she is attacked and apparently raped. She doesn't remember who did it, but she has a bad feeling about Jonski. She lives on a farm with two freed slaves Tennyson and Rosalee, her adoptive parents and Lige Magan, the apparent owner.
The next twist occurs when Tennyson is mugged and beaten, losing his ability to talk. Tennyson knows all the old songs and has a wonderful singing voice, or had anyway. Lawyer Briscoe wants to send him to school.
The story then shifts to a planned attack on the renegades who have been assaulting and sometimes killing freedman. Winona, whose mother was a warrior, decides to join in the fight. Tennyson gives her his Spencer rifle, which she ultimately loses when a renegade girl, named Peg, also an Indian, shoots her in the arm. Winona was dressed as a boy and Peg mistook her for the enemy. Winona is a powerfully attracted by Peg.
Eventually the renegades gain political power, and Winona is charged with murder. A man she had once rejected is now the sheriff.
This book is mostly about objectification of Indians. Why else would her fiancee attack Winona when all he needed was a little patience? The sheriff also knows Winona didn't murder anybody, but she's just an Indian.
An irritating aspect of Sebastian Barry's style is the accent he gives just about every character in the book. It just gets in the way of the story. If you aren't good at it, don't do it.
July 7, 2020
Valentine
It's hard to know if author Elizabeth Wetmore has a problem with men in general, marriage or whether it's the oil boom in Odessa, Texas that attracts the “scum of the earth” that bothers her.
Three of the women characters want out of their marriage or their pregnancy. Gigi leaves her nine-year-old daughter. The narrator explains that Gigi was one of the women who “made it out alive”. Mary Rose is married with a child. She aborts the second child without telling her husband and gets pregnant again four months later. Karla gets pregnant by an unknown man; she can't handle the obligation, but also can't find a doctor or a clinic to handle the abortion until it's too late. She loves Diane more than she thought was possible. She turns out to be the toughest of them all.
The story starts when fourteen-year-old Gloria Ramirez is raped by one of the oil field roughnecks. She's pretty beat up but she makes it to a nearby house where Mary Rose happens to live. She has her daughter call the cops while she faces down the rapist with a shotgun.
Gloria's mother is an illegal Mexican, although Gloria was born in America. When it comes to a trial she gets little sympathy. Mary Rose receives threatening phone calls. Mary Rose's husband doesn't want her to testify. She has little choice. The girl is only fourteen years old!
A subplot involves Gigi's daughter, Debra Ann, who's a real sweetheart. She notices this little guy who's living in a sewer pipe. She leaves him a note, asking if he needs anything. They become bosom buddies and she helps him get his truck back which has been repossessed by a friend. Debra Ann is the type of girl who has imaginary friends. Corrine, an older lady whose husband has died, is aggravated when Debra Ann tries to talk to her. Her husband, Potter, always talked to Debra Ann as if she was an adult and got quite a kick out of her imaginary friends.
All of these characters eventually relate, mostly because of the rape. Corrine is suicidal because of her husband's death, but in a weird way the rape and the trial save her life. And she tells Debra Ann she can ring her bell anytime, and she'll always answer.
Three of the women characters want out of their marriage or their pregnancy. Gigi leaves her nine-year-old daughter. The narrator explains that Gigi was one of the women who “made it out alive”. Mary Rose is married with a child. She aborts the second child without telling her husband and gets pregnant again four months later. Karla gets pregnant by an unknown man; she can't handle the obligation, but also can't find a doctor or a clinic to handle the abortion until it's too late. She loves Diane more than she thought was possible. She turns out to be the toughest of them all.
The story starts when fourteen-year-old Gloria Ramirez is raped by one of the oil field roughnecks. She's pretty beat up but she makes it to a nearby house where Mary Rose happens to live. She has her daughter call the cops while she faces down the rapist with a shotgun.
Gloria's mother is an illegal Mexican, although Gloria was born in America. When it comes to a trial she gets little sympathy. Mary Rose receives threatening phone calls. Mary Rose's husband doesn't want her to testify. She has little choice. The girl is only fourteen years old!
A subplot involves Gigi's daughter, Debra Ann, who's a real sweetheart. She notices this little guy who's living in a sewer pipe. She leaves him a note, asking if he needs anything. They become bosom buddies and she helps him get his truck back which has been repossessed by a friend. Debra Ann is the type of girl who has imaginary friends. Corrine, an older lady whose husband has died, is aggravated when Debra Ann tries to talk to her. Her husband, Potter, always talked to Debra Ann as if she was an adult and got quite a kick out of her imaginary friends.
All of these characters eventually relate, mostly because of the rape. Corrine is suicidal because of her husband's death, but in a weird way the rape and the trial save her life. And she tells Debra Ann she can ring her bell anytime, and she'll always answer.
June 26, 2020
Heaven and Hell
Ehrman reaches all the way back to Homer and Plato to find out what thinkers thought about Heaven and Hell. In those days it was a matter of whether the Soul or the body was more important.
Around two hundred years before Christ the Jewish faithful were angry. Israel and Judah were being increasingly punished because sinners among the faithful had made God angry. The Babylonian Captivity really took the cake. The faithful wanted sinners, like the Roman emperors, punished. Previously Jewish holy men had little to say about the afterlife other than Sheol, a kind of nothing happening place the dead went to which wasn't much fun at all.
Jesus was all about the Judgement Day where the faithful would live on Earth, only an Earth without disease, wars or mosquitos. Sinners would be flushed, done away with. No eternal torture.
We can blame Paul for the idea that you had to accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior in order to inherit Super Earth.
Still Christian martyrs wanted to see sinners suffer and increasingly we moved toward a Heaven in the sky and eternal torture for sinners like Nero, who turns out to be the 666 mentioned in Revelation.
When Constantine converted to Christianity, the Romans were no longer the bad guys, so those who wanted revenge turned their eyes on their fellow Christians who were sinners.
Near the end of the book, Ehrman addresses Reincarnation and the thinker Origen who argued that everyone would be saved. After all God loved his children. Why would he subject any of them to eternal damnation and torture? But they would have to go through some kind of Boot Camp, such as Purgatory in order to be saved.
This is not an easy book to read, mainly because Erhman limits himself to the Heaven and Hell thing, and he repeats himself a lot. I thought the spooky stuff in Revelation would be fun, but somehow Erhman made it boring. But we did find out that the anti-Christ was Nero and that the Beast was the Roman Empire. Oh, yeah, most of these guys, including Paul, thought that the Messiah would come again in their own lifetimes or shortly thereafter. Ehrman isn't the same ornery self he was in JESUS INTERRUPTED, though. He doesn't say the Rapture is stupid, but he might as well have.
Around two hundred years before Christ the Jewish faithful were angry. Israel and Judah were being increasingly punished because sinners among the faithful had made God angry. The Babylonian Captivity really took the cake. The faithful wanted sinners, like the Roman emperors, punished. Previously Jewish holy men had little to say about the afterlife other than Sheol, a kind of nothing happening place the dead went to which wasn't much fun at all.
Jesus was all about the Judgement Day where the faithful would live on Earth, only an Earth without disease, wars or mosquitos. Sinners would be flushed, done away with. No eternal torture.
We can blame Paul for the idea that you had to accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior in order to inherit Super Earth.
Still Christian martyrs wanted to see sinners suffer and increasingly we moved toward a Heaven in the sky and eternal torture for sinners like Nero, who turns out to be the 666 mentioned in Revelation.
When Constantine converted to Christianity, the Romans were no longer the bad guys, so those who wanted revenge turned their eyes on their fellow Christians who were sinners.
Near the end of the book, Ehrman addresses Reincarnation and the thinker Origen who argued that everyone would be saved. After all God loved his children. Why would he subject any of them to eternal damnation and torture? But they would have to go through some kind of Boot Camp, such as Purgatory in order to be saved.
This is not an easy book to read, mainly because Erhman limits himself to the Heaven and Hell thing, and he repeats himself a lot. I thought the spooky stuff in Revelation would be fun, but somehow Erhman made it boring. But we did find out that the anti-Christ was Nero and that the Beast was the Roman Empire. Oh, yeah, most of these guys, including Paul, thought that the Messiah would come again in their own lifetimes or shortly thereafter. Ehrman isn't the same ornery self he was in JESUS INTERRUPTED, though. He doesn't say the Rapture is stupid, but he might as well have.
