Clifford Garstang's Blog, page 39

2019 Reading–January

In 2018 I managed to finish reading 72 books. I know people who read way more than that, but I doubt I’ll be able to match that number this year. Still, it’s been a good year in reading so far, and I wanted to mention some excellent books I’ve read this month.

[image error]I was blown away by Rebecca Makkai’s The Great Believers. In my opinion, this book deserves the critical acclaim it has received (it was a finalist for the National Book Award, for one thing, which is a huge honor). The book is set in Chicago in the mid-1980s against the backdrop of the emerging AIDS crisis and also in 2015 in Paris, with the aftermath of the crisis still being felt. Having lived in Chicago in the early ‘80s, and having visited Paris very recently, both of the settings felt real and familiar to me. It’s a moving story with thematic richness and I recommend it highly. (My appreciation for the book has nothing to do with the fact that Rebecca was working on it at the Ragdale Foundation when I was also in residence there in 2014, although that is memorable for me.)

[image error]I also liked The Friend by Sigrid Nunez very much. It won the National Book Award for fiction last year, but I think its appeal is narrower than Makkai’s novel. It deals with a woman writer whose male friend and former writing teacher has died by suicide, leaving behind a wife and two ex-wives as well as a Great Dane. The book’s narrator takes the dog in and the dog helps her to cope with her grief over the loss of her friend, whom she loved more than she admits. Editors will tell you that books about writers don’t sell, so I guess this will be the exception to that rule.

[image error]Train Dreams by Denis Johnson is a short novel about struggle—against nature, the landscape, and progress. Johnson was an amazing writer and I enjoyed this tough book. The main character is a laborer—he spends part of the book working on railroad bridges—who faces hardships, but is by no means perfect.

[image error]Baby, You’re Gonna Be Mine by Kevin Wilson is a 2018 story collection. I’ve read Wilson’s other books—I first met him at the Sewanee Writers Conference—and this is typical for him. The stories are offbeat, sometimes funny, always devastating. Some real gems here.

[image error]The Sun Does Shine by Anthony Ray Hinton is horrifying. Hinton, a black man from Alabama, was convicted of a murder he did not commit and spent 30 years on death row until with the help of Bryan Stevenson (Just Mercy) he was finally exonerated. There’s no question that this was a form of lynching—the authorities were willing to string up any black man for the crime, evidence be damned.

[image error]Once Upon a Time It Was Now by James Alexander Thom is a book about the craft of writing historical fiction. Mostly Thom is emphasizing the value of research which will help the author to “get it right,” but there are also some good general writing tips.

[image error]Make it Right by Ron Yates (ARC) is a novella and short stories set in Yates’s native Alabama. It’s a fine collection and I was honored that Ron asked me to provide a pre-publication blurb. It’s due out in April 2019.

Cover Reveal: THE SHAMAN OF TURTLE VALLEY

[image error] Forthcoming from Braddock Avenue Books, May 2019

Pre-order now at Braddock Avenue Books.

 

New Book Cover Reveal: January 30

[image error]My first novel, The Shaman of Turtle Valley, will be published by Braddock Avenue Books on May 14, 2019.  And on January 30, the publisher will reveal the book’s amazing cover along with details for how you can pre-order a copy of the book.

I’ll tell you all about the book when the cover is revealed, but in the meantime, a sampling of some early praise:

“With his first novel, The Shaman of Turtle Valley, Clifford Garstang has created a melding of two worlds he knows intimately, and he has done so with the outright surety of a master. ”

~Richard Wiley, author of Soldiers In Hiding, winner of the Pen/Faulkner Award for Best American Fiction

“This is a story about the many kinds of love—beautifully written, unerringly told.” ~Kate Christensen, PEN/Faulkner-award winning author of The Great Man and The Last Cruise

“Garstang’s novel reads like a modern-day version of the Odyssey with a delicious twist: on his return to Ithaca, this Odysseus brings Circe with him.” ~David Payne, author of Barefoot to Avalon

Please come back on January 30 to see the cover and learn how you can pre-order!

High Road Festival of Poetry and Short Fiction

[image error]There’s a new literary festival in town.

For many years, Press 53 has operated its Gathering of Poets in Winston-Salem, NC, and has also occasionally held a Gathering of Writers. New this year, they’ve combined these events into a single, larger gathering, the High Road Festival of Poetry and Short Fiction. Registration is now open for the Festival, which will be held on Saturday, March 23, 2019 (with optional activities on Friday night and Sunday morning).

I will be leading a fiction seminar on self-editing called “From Rough Draft to Final Draft: The Best You Can Make It.” Other fiction seminar leaders include Wendy J. Fox, Marjorie Hudson, Jen Julian, Joseph Mills, and there will be Master Classes with David Jauss and Clint McCown. Poetry seminar leaders include Carlson Wee, M. Scott Douglass, Rebecca Foust, Laura Hope-Gill, Tom Lombardo, Ed Madden, Valerie Nieman, Stacy Nigliazzo, Grace Ocasio, and Jim Peterson, plus Master Classes with Cathy Smith Bowers and Keith Flynn. There will also be readings, one-on-one critique sessions, and a vendor area.

All in all, it looks like a great festival. Winston-Salem is a nice small city with a vibrant arts scene, great bars and restaurants, and a wonderful bookstore (Bookmarks) where the Friday night reading will take place. Join us for this terrific new event!

Ragdale Residency

[image error] Ragdale House

Another month, another residency.

Last month I wrote about my wonderful residency at VCCA-France in Auvillar. After I had scheduled that residency, I was awarded a residency at the Ragdale Foundation in Lake Forest, Illinois, with only a couple of weeks in between the two. I don’t usually do two long trips so close together, but I didn’t have a lot of options, so here I am.

I’ve been to Ragdale before. I had a very productive stay here in 2014 and I’ve wanted to come back. And frankly, the timing worked out better than I thought it would as I’ve been able to continue the momentum I had at the residency in France. I think I’m getting a lot of good work done.

All residency programs are a bit different. Here at Ragdale, there is room for 12 artists and we are scattered among three buildings. Five writers stay in the Ragdale House, a beautiful mansion that overlooks an open prairie that reaches back to the Skokie River Nature Preserve. (I stayed in that house the last time I was here.)

[image error] Barn House at Ragdale

Five artists in mixed genres stay in the Barn House, which is a charming building that also houses the kitchen, dining room, offices and conference room. I’m in the Barn House this time along with two other writers, a painter, and a composer (who is working in a separate building on the prairie called the Meadow Studio). The last two artists—during this session a dancer and a mixed-media artist—are in a 2-unit building called the Friends Studio. Ragdale has fixed sessions, so that everyone is together for a specified number of weeks, allowing us all to get to know each other well. And although we live in different buildings, we have a communal dinner (prepared by Ragdale’s amazing Chef Linda) five nights a week.

[image error]The rest of the time, we’re squirreled away in our studios—for most of us our bedrooms double as our workspace—focused on our projects. For me, that means getting up reasonably early, having breakfast, and then sitting down at the writing desk until a lunch break. I work most of the afternoon, although I like to go for a walk (weather permitting) at some point before dark. I either walk into the village of Lake Forest, with its tony shops, or on trails through the prairie and nature preserve. After dinner, most of us return to work.

My goal for this residency was to come close to finishing a draft of the novel I’m working on that addresses two significant plot problems I had identified. I believe I know how I’m going to deal with those problems, but I can’t declare success until I’ve actually written those solutions into the draft.

I’m grateful to the Ragdale Foundation for providing the time and space to do this work and for creating a comfortable and supportive atmosphere in which to create.

 

Tips for Writers: Knowing Your Characters . . . and Yourself

[image error] The Man Who Invented Christmas

Every year since 2001 I’ve seen at least one performance of A Christmas Carol at the American Shakespeare Center in Staunton, VA. The cast is always different—a different Scrooge, a different Ghost of Christmas Present, etc.—and the theater sometimes tweaks the adaptation so that regulars will have a fresh experience each year when they see this classic holiday play. (One memorable adaptation was the year they used a version set in Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia.)

This Christmas season, for example, instead of using a Narrator, which they have in years past, the narrative function was distributed among various actors, so that occasionally an actor would address the audience directly to convey the expository bits that the Narrator usually delivers. (The program notes suggest that this approach is closer to the original than the version we usually see.) Although there’s something I like about the function of the narrative voice (that’s the fiction writer in me, I assume), this distributed narration worked well for this production. That might be a function of this theater, which uses universal lighting and a lot of audience participation anyway. It’s not unusual for cast members to interact with audience members.

After the show, I intended to look at filmed versions of the play for a comparison, so I hopped on my Amazon Prime subscription. But instead of seeing A Christmas Carol, I stumbled on a movie called The Man Who Invented Christmas, a 2017 film directed by Bharat Nalluri that is about Charles Dickens and the writing of the short book that was later adapted into the familiar play. I doubt the historical accuracy of the story—Dickens is portrayed as nearly schizophrenic, at times cruel to his father and servants, aspects that do make the character more interesting—but what appeals to me about the film is its depiction of the writing process and the change that comes over the character of Dickens.

Dickens is shown as coming off a couple of flops, books that didn’t sell well and were reviewed badly. He’s in debt and under pressure to make some money quickly. His father shows up and needs money. His wife announces that she’s pregnant again, which adds to his worries. He hits upon the idea of writing a Christmas book, but then he can’t quite think of what to write. His publishers tell him no one cares about Christmas, which is a minor holiday in England at the time, so he is determined to self-publish the book (that is, the book he has not yet written). In his wanderings around the city, he catches glimpses of interesting characters—a miserly old man attending the funeral of his business partner, for example—and hears snippets of conversation that grab his attention. (“Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?”)

In his study at home, where he still hasn’t written anything, he speaks out loud to himself, trying out various names for the character of the miser he plans to use as the story’s centerpiece: Scrunge, Scratch, etc. His servant, a young Irish girl named Tara, overhears this and asks what the master is doing. Dickens explains that the character will come to him when he finds the right name. He tries a few more and then utters “Scrooge.” He realizes he’s got it right now, and in fact the character of Scrooge, played by Christopher Plummer, appears in the study.

Dickens then interacts with Scrooge, and to a lesser extent the other characters as well. He’s getting to know them, their motivations and their personalities. Scrooge even accompanies Dickens when he goes around London, which allows the author to learn even more about his character. Dickens has written most of the book at this point, but doesn’t know how to end it, so he’s planning to be done with Scrooge, who begs to be allowed to live, and this is the epiphany that allows Dickens to complete the story. (There’s also a nice scene where Tara, the maid, begs for Dickens to save the life of Tiny Tim, who in an earlier chapter, appears doomed.) The process also allows Dickens to realize something about himself and to make a change for the better, which is the real point of the story.

I recently taught a seminar I titled “The Care and Feeding of Compelling Characters” in which I discussed the need to know as much about your characters as possible as a way of understanding how they would behave in any given situation. To accomplish this, I recommended completing a Character Questionnaire that identifies both physical and personality traits (in excruciating detail). But the next time I give this particular seminar (at the High Road Festival of Poetry and Short Fiction in March), I plan to make some adjustments. It isn’t enough, maybe, to know your character on paper. Perhaps you need to conjure these characters and converse with them, argue with them, travel with them. Only then will you really know what drives them and what they want.

 

2019 Writing Goals

[image error]First things first: Happy New Year! For a lot of people, 2018 wasn’t so great, so I hope 2019 is great for you.

As I said in my January 1 post last year, I’ll keep my New Year’s Resolutions to myself. Personally, I think making resolutions—which I think of as being general lifestyle adjustments—is a fine way to start the year, although unrealistic resolutions can only lead to failure, which, let’s face it, is a bummer. Don’t set yourself up to fail. On the other hand, don’t be too easy on yourself either. Make the resolution something you’ll be proud to have achieved when you look back at the year. As I said, I’ve got a few of these.

Goals, which are more specific, are different from resolutions, in my view, and that’s the subject of this post. As I said last year, goals should be realistic and achievable, but ambitious. I didn’t get everything done I wanted to do in 2018, but that’s okay. I did a lot, and those goals I didn’t complete will be rolled over into 2019, with a few more items added.

Last year I linked to an article on goal setting that I think is still worth looking at, so I’m going to share it again: Personal Goal Setting: Planning to Live Your Life Your Way.

But I’m going to offer another link, too, because for people who are busy—and who isn’t?—achieving goals is probably a question of time management. I’m dependent on two tools, neither of which I use as effectively as I could: a calendar and a to-do list (I use the Google version of both, and they’re on the same screen on my computer). But I definitely could do a better job, so I’m keen explore this page: How to plan the week by creating your Week Map. Take a look and let me know what you think. Will this work for you?

Now, for my 2019 Writing Goals. (You can see my assessment of my 2018 Writing Goals here.)

Finish my novel in progress. This was one of the goals I didn’t achieve in 2018, but I knew it was a stretch. I did make substantial progress, however, and I currently have a draft of 110,000 words. (That’s long, but not extremely long, for a literary novel.) In a residency I did at the end of the year, I did some restructuring of the novel and identified some gaps, so I know more or less what needs to be done. And I’m starting the year with another residency, so that should get me off to a good start. I’d like to finish by the end of the summer.
Query agents with the finished novel. I also didn’t get this done last year, because it depends on the novel being finished. If I finish the novel by the end of the summer, I’ll query agents in the fall. (I don’t currently have an agent. I did have one, but we parted ways last year. My forthcoming books are with small presses, and agents usually don’t get involved because, frankly, there’s not enough money involved for them to invest their time.)
Launch my debut novel. I should probably put this one first because it’s going to happen one way or another. The publisher now has the official publication date scheduled for May 14, 2019, although advance copies will be available before that. There is still a lot to do to get the book out: cover, galleys, circulate review copies, etc. But, barring catastrophe, The Shaman of Turtle Valley will be published by Braddock Avenue Books in 2019. Along with the launch comes a flood of marketing efforts—readings, interviews, appearances, etc. Fortunately, a publicist will be lining those things up, but I’ll necessarily be part of them.
Prepare my story collection for publication. In 2018 I signed a contract with Press 53 for the publication of my third collection of short stories: House of the Ancients and Other Stories. The aim is to bring that out in the spring of 2020, probably around the time of the AWP Conference in March. That means that by the end of 2019 we will have selected a cover, done edits on the stories, solicited blurbs, and done all the associated work of getting a book ready. Not inconsequential stuff. (I signed a contract with Regal House Publishing for a novel to be published in fall of 2020, but my guess is that we won’t turn our attention to edits of that manuscript until early 2020, although I might be wrong about that, since they told me they want the book ready six months before publication date.)
Submit a story to literary magazines. One of the stories included in the new collection—maybe my favorite—is not yet published. Before the book comes out, I’d love to find a home for it in a good literary magazine. That’s one of the first efforts I’ll be making in the new year. As long as I’m working on the novel, I probably won’t take time to write any other stories, but I’d love to place the one.
Write an essay. Last year I said I wanted to dabble in the essay form, and I claimed partial victory there by reading some essays. Not good enough. This year I want to write at least one personal essay and submit it for publication.
Write one or more book reviews. I did a couple of book reviews in 2018 and I do like writing them. Plus, I think it’s part of being a good literary citizen—whether the reviews appear in literary magazines, book review journals, or just on a blog or Goodreads. It all furthers the cause.
Update my Literary Magazine Rankings. I didn’t list this as a goal last year, but it’s definitely part of my writing work. When the new volume of Pushcart Prize winners comes out in early November, I’ll update the rankings and post them. If this is new to you, check out the 2019 Literary Magazine Rankings.

 

2018 Writing Goals: Looking Back

[image error]On January 1, 2018, I published this post: 2018 Writing Goals. Today, on December 31, 2018, it’s time to look back at how I did with those goals. (And tomorrow, January 1, 2019, I’ll be looking at the writing year ahead.)

So, here are my goals for the past year and a report on the status as of today.

Finish Edits on Novel under Contract. DONE! This took longer than I anticipated, but by late summer I had agreed on edits with the publisher and by early fall I was able to approach potential blurb-providers with the final text of the book. So the goal was met. And the current status is that galleys and the cover are being finalized and ARCs will soon be available. We decided to push the official publication date back to May 14, 2019, but otherwise nothing has changed (we’ll still have early copies in March for AWP and other appearances I have planned). Stay tuned for more information about The Shaman of Turtle Valley, forthcoming from Braddock Avenue Books.
[image error]Compile the Anthology under Contract. DONE! This went perfectly according to plan. In the first three months of the year I selected the twenty stories for the anthology and then worked on edits. The manuscript was finalized by late summer and was published in October. Everywhere Stories: Short Fiction from a Small Planet Volume III is available from Press 53 (along with the earlier volumes, of course).
Find a publisher for my novel. DONE! I had two competing impulses here. First, I suspected that the best and quickest route for publication of this book would be a small press (desirable because it won’t be long before I have another novel that I’d like to send to bigger presses), so I started sending it around to some likely publishers. But, second, I also felt that it hadn’t been given a real shot at bigger presses because it had been orphaned when I split from the agent who had started to send it out on submission. Because it had already been out, I assumed I needed to do a major revision and change the title (nobody wants to look at something they’ve already seen). In order to accomplish that, I engaged a developmental editor who gave me the feedback I needed (and, frankly, suspected) and I began to revise with a plan to query agents once the process was done. In the meantime, though, one of the small presses I’d submitted to offered to publish the book in its original form. After I explained the changes I wanted to make based on the editorial feedback, they still wanted to publish it, so we signed a contract and I proceed to do the revisions, which I finished in late summer. Oliver’s Travels will be published by Regal House Publishing in fall of 2020. (The very long lead time is the result of the other books I have in the works.)
Finish the new story collection. DONE! At the end of 2017, I realized I had quite a few uncollected stories that had been published and several unpublished ones as well. It wasn’t quite enough for a book, though, so I needed to write a few more. In February I had the opportunity to head off to VCCA for just five days and that was the most productive five days of writing I’ve ever had. Not only did I finish several new stories, I assembled a manuscript that I was ready to submit. Because Press 53 had published my previous collections, I wanted to give them the first opportunity to consider the new book and we eventually agreed that they would publish House of the Ancients and Other Stories in spring of 2020. I’ve also been submitting the new stories for publication, several of which have been accepted. Only one of those remains unclaimed and I’ll start submitting it again in the new year.
Finish the new novel. NOT Done. I was very optimistic to think that I would finish the new novel by the end of the year, but part of the reason I didn’t was that so many other things were going on with the other four books that I wasn’t able to really focus on this one. I did, however, have a wonderful residency at the end of the year at VCCA France and will be kicking off the new year with another residency (at Ragdale), so I am making progress. The book will get done in 2019, I hope.
Query agents. NOT Done. This one depended on finishing the new novel, which didn’t happen. I do think the novel has commercial potential, though, so I’m looking forward to shopping it to agents when it’s ready.
Dabble in the essay form. NOT Done. I didn’t work on essays this year, but I did read a number of personal essays that I thoroughly enjoyed, so I feel as though I’m preparing to essay an essay or two. (See what I did there?)

I don’t know about you, but it feels like it’s been a pretty darn successful writing year. I didn’t meet the stretch goals, but frankly I did far more than I thought was possible. On to 2019!

My Year in Reading: 2018

[image error]Every year, as a Goodreads user, I set a reading goal for the year. For 2018, my goal was to read 72 books, which sounds ambitious, but that’s 8 fewer books than I logged in 2017. I’ve just barely made it (and 2 of the last bunch of books I finished were chapbooks, so quite short). Still, it’s a lot of books, some of which I liked very much. What follows amounts to my Top Ten for 2018—most NOT published this year, I’m sorry to say.

Fiction

I read a lot of novels and short story collections, of course. It’s part of the job of being a writer, in my opinion, and I don’t worry much about the work of other writers influencing my own. Some of the best from this year’s reads:

Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad: I got my bookclub to read this one because I’d been wanting to tackle it for some time. I read a couple of other slave narratives this year, but this book’s use of magical realism elevates into something beyond. It still has the elements of horror and brutality, but with an ultimate sense of hope for the future.

Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible: Obviously I was a little late to the party here, surprising because I am a Kingsolver fan. But I finally got around to it (actually I listened to the audio book) and except for some minor complaints, it knocked my socks off. Here’s what I said on Goodreads: “This is an incredible achievement, and I am sorry it took me this long to get around to reading (it first came out 20 years ago). I’ve read several of Kingsolver’s more recent novels and consider myself a fan. While I admire this novel greatly, I have two complaints. The first is the character–or caricature–of Rachel Price, the oldest of the Price sisters and the one who seems to have been denied a brain and even a sliver of social conscience. She’s both too stupid and too vile to be believed, although I get that she’s meant to represent an element of society that refused to see what was going on under their noses. The second is the novel’s preachiness. Kingsolver is known for her agenda-driven fiction, and I share her political point of view, but the angle here got in the way of the story sometimes (and probably made the book a lot longer than it needed to be). It reminded me that my knowledge of African history and geography is inadequate, however, and I need to remedy that.”

Jessie Chaffee’s Florence in Ecstasy: I moderated a panel at the Virginia Festival of the Book this year that included this book. I loved it and continue to recommend it to others (usually when I hear they’ve been to or will be going to Florence, but I’ve never been there so knowledge of that city is no prerequisite). Here’s what I said on Goodreads: “Starting with the writing, this is a fabulous book. One feels the protagonist’s struggles but also her presence in Florence, a city that she explores in a way casual visitors do not. The language is transporting. But there’s also something about the character of Hannah, her vulnerability, what she sees and notices and cares about, that make the reader root for her. A wonderful read that I’ll remember a long time, I think.”[image error]

Chris Bohjalian’s The Guest Room: Not only did I get wrapped up in the story, I admired the story-telling structure and, I think, learned from it. Here’s what I had to say about this book on Goodreads: “Maybe 4 and a half stars. My timing with this book wasn’t great. It’s about international sex-trafficking and the horrible book I just finished reading was about domestic child sex-trafficking. I would not have started this novel if I’d known what it was about. Nonetheless, it’s a compelling read for several reasons. First the book begins with big trouble–two deaths are revealed on page 2–and the stakes for the male protagonist just keep getting higher. Second, one has instant sympathy for the sex slave who is at the heart of the trouble. The alternating points of view (with the protagonist’s wife thrown in for good measure) keep the story humming forward. Third, it seems hyper-real. While most of us won’t encounter people like this Russian sex-traffickers, it’s unfortunately not a surprise that they exist, and their tactics are both believable and horrific.”

Janet Peery’s The Exact Nature of Our Wrongs: This is another book I read because I was moderating a panel at the Virginia Festival of the Book that featured the author, and the book went on to win the Library of Virginia’s Literary Award for Fiction. What I enjoyed about the book was the family dynamic, with shifting alliances and stresses pulling in many different directions at once.  

Nonfiction

In large part because of a book club I’m in, I also read a lot of nonfiction. Some of the best of the year:

Peter Hessler’s Oracle Bones: Hessler, now a regular contributor to The New Yorker, is a terrific writer, and this year I read this book and another book of his about China, Country Driving. (I had previously read his River Town, about his experience as a Peace Corps volunteer in China.) The books combine Hessler’s skill as a journalist with his personal experience as a Chinese-speaking foreigner living in China. Here’s what I had to say on Goodreads: “I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Hessler’s writing is both lively and clear, and in this book, he successfully combines his personal experience (as a former teacher and as a journalist in Beijing) with a somewhat more detached observation of historical events. I found a great deal to relate to here, as well. First, he taught English in a Chinese university, and a couple of decades earlier I taught English, also in the Peace Corps, at a Korean university. Second, while my later work took me to Singapore, I became a student of China and the Chinese language, and I found the information about the oracle bones to be fascinating. (I had, of course, heard about the oracle bones, but the book provides more background on the bones themselves and the researchers who worked with them). Third, while working for the World Bank I also was in China at the time of the NATO bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, so Hessler’s discussion of the reaction of his contacts in China at that time was interesting. (We were advised to keep a low profile at that time, which we did.) Fourth, Hessler’s friendship with the Uighur man he calls “Polat” also struck me because of the time I spent in the ’90s in Kazakhstan, a country that neighbors on China’s Xinjiang region. Polat, after he moves to the US, ends up living in my old neighborhood just north of Chinatown in DC, yet another detail to which I could relate. I bought this book shortly after it came out in 2006, but I’ve only now taken it off the shelf to read. Better late than never. Terrific book.”[image error]

Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens: In recent years I’ve been reading about the origins of the species as well as the evolution of language, so I was drawn to this book. Here’s what I said about it on Goodreads: “This is a fascinating and enlightening book, and for the most part is brilliant. Although I’ve read about the origins of homo sapiens and human language, I’ve never thought of it quite as a “cognitive revolution” that separated us from other primates and animals. Still, the early part of the book–the pre-history–is necessarily speculative and is frustrating as a result. Maybe this, maybe that, and if we don’t have any idea then what’s the point of guessing? Similarly, the end of the book attempts to predict the future, with the same speculative and unsatisfying result. In the middle though . . . wow. Great stuff.”

Adam Hochschild’s King Leopold’s Ghost: This was another bookclub selection for this year, and we also included with it a discussion of Kingsolver’s Poisonwood Bible, since both deal with the Congo. The book was shocking, not only because of the atrocities that were committed in Africa in the name of development, but also how woefully uninformed I am about the entire continent. I resolved to read more.

Jon Meacham’s The Soul of America: Like a lot of people, I’m tired of hearing about Trump. I’ve got nothing nice to say about him and the vast majority of my friends feel the same way. His supporters sound ridiculous and misinformed when they defend him. I’m just looking forward to the time when we can start forgetting about him. What I liked about this book was that it is a celebration of moral strength from former political leaders. None of these leaders were perfect, but they worked hard to do the right thing at important moments. While Trump isn’t specifically criticized in the book, his failings are obvious by comparison.

Lawrence O’Donnell’s Playing With Fire: This book is about the 1968 Presidential Election and the events that led up to it. While I knew some of this, there was a lot that I wasn’t aware of. At the time of that election I was a 14-year-old in Peoria, Illinois, and not following current events much. So the detail here was eye-opening.

Visit to Paris

[image error] Cloisters at Moissac

After my recent post about my residency at VCCA France in Auvillar, there wasn’t much more to say. I was writing in my studio every day, occasionally taking a break to visit the village or go to the farmers’ market to shop for groceries. I also had a couple of excursions that I quite enjoyed—one to the Cloisters at Moissac and another to a winery that specializes in Armagnac one to an exquisite restaurant in a neighboring village—but for the most part, my four weeks spent in Auvillar was all about the work. (More about that in a future post.)

But the residency came to an end, as they all must, and it was time to depart. The last time I was at VCCA France, my departure involved a train to Toulouse—just an hour away—and a flight home via Frankfurt. This time, I boarded the TGV (Train à Grande Vitesse or High Speed Train) to Paris. The French do trains very well. The ride was about three hours and was very comfortable. We arrived in Paris at about 4 PM and I walked to my hotel just a few minutes away.

The hotel was not the best part of my Paris visit. I had booked it through Expedia, and while the process of booking was easy, I made the mistake of going for the cheapest hotel possible, when I didn’t really need to. So my room was tiny, with loose doorknobs and burned out lights, a shower stall in which I could barely turn around (what would a larger person do?), and nowhere to sit other than the bed itself. At least the bed—which the hotel informed me was new—was comfortable. And the location wasn’t bad. Next time, I’ll splurge on a nicer place.

My main goal for the Paris visit was to walk around the city, which like most people I find fascinating, visit some museums (research for my work in progress!) and historic sites, and connect with friends. In fact, on the day I arrived, I needed to quickly refamiliarize myself with the Metro because I was going to see some friends in another part of the city. I love the Paris Metro.

[image error] Montparnasse Market

On my first full day in the city, Saturday, I walked. First, as I explored my neighborhood near the Montparnasse train station, I had breakfast (double espresso, orange juice, tartine and a croissant) at a nearby café (I would repeat this every morning during my stay, but at different cafes) and then found a wonderful market—except without a refrigerator in my room there wasn’t much I could buy. I walked all the way down to the Seine to basically just look at the buildings and the people. It was cold and damp, but I found relief at a small Christmas market near Notre Dame where they were selling hot mulled wine for 4 €. That warmed me up nicely.

[image error] Musee du Cluny

The only museum I went to that first day was the small Musée Delacroix, which was interesting to me mostly because the building was Eugene Delacroix’s residence and studio for a time. On another day I visited the nearby Musée du Cluny, which focuses on the Middle Ages, including some amazing Gothic artifacts. (It’s currently being renovated, but large parts of it are still open to visitors.) A highlight of that visit was seeing the remarkable Lady and the Unicorn tapestries.

[image error] Musee d’Orsay

On Sunday I headed directly to the Musée d’Orsay, which is my favorite Paris museum (and I know I share that sentiment with a lot of other people). Arriving shortly after it opened for the day, I didn’t have to wait too long to enter the museum and proceeded directly to the top floor to see the Impressionism and Neo-impressionism exhibit. The museum is known for its Impressionism collection, but it was fascinating to see an exhibit that focused on the evolution of the style. I spent close to five hours in the museum, including my final stop at the special exhibit: Picasso, Bleu et rose. Exhausted, I stopped for a late lunch in a nearby bistro, and then went to a store not far away that had been recommended to me. Deyrolle is unlike any place I’ve ever seen (although I later walked by another store that also had taxidermied animals for sale). Click on the link to see what I’m talking about.

[image error] Centre Pompidou

On Monday I planned just to walk around the Marais district, but as I came close to the Centre Pompidou, I saw that there was a special exhibit on Cubism, so I decided to go in. I’m so glad I did, because it was fascinating, and it was wonderful to expand my understanding of Cubism beyond Picasso. In addition to this wonderful exhibition, I spent a lot of time with the regular 20th Century collection (although I breezed through the more contemporary stuff). This was another very long museum visit, so was too tired to do much else. I did wander around the Marais some, but that was about all I could do.

[image error] Musee Marmottan Monet

Tuesday I had thought I’d visit the famous Catacombs, which weren’t too far from my hotel. Because it was still early, I walked through Cimitière du Montparnasse—stopped at the grave of Jean Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir—and found the entrance. There was already a long line, people talked about having already purchased their tickets, which I had not done, and I decided to bag it. Instead, I crossed the street, hopped on the Metro, and went to the Musée Marmottan to see their fabulous Monet collection. Although I don’t remember it clearly, I think I first went to this museum in 1983 on my first trip to Paris. (While in the galleries, I flashed back to sitting in front of a large Monet water lilies painting, and I think it must have been here.) I took a different Metro line back into the center of the city and landed again in the Marais, so this time I stopped in the old Jewish Quarter at a falafel restaurant. Tasty, and a new cultural experience besides.

[image error] Petit Palais

On Wednesday I was meeting a friend for lunch, but I had time in the morning to visit the Petit Palais, another museum I had not seen before. The building itself is part of the attraction, but there’s also some wonderful art to see there. But I skipped the temporary exhibit—I realized I’d reached my museum limit, and that’s without even attempting the Louvre, which I’ve been to a couple of times on previous trips—and strolled up the Champs Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe. It was a pretty day for a walk—more walking!—but also I wanted to see if there was evidence of the recent anti-government demonstrations that have been in the news. No demonstrators were present, but I did spot some of the damage from the recent “manifestation.” I met my friend at his office and we took the Metro a couple of stops to one of his favorite restaurants, where he is known well. It was a wonderful meal, worthy of its own post (and I wish I had taken photographs of every course). But then he had to get back to work—not sure I could do that after all the wine we drank—and I slowly made my way back to my hotel.

[image error] Arc de Triomphe

Thursday was my travel day. After more than five weeks, I was headed home. I had booked Le Bus Direct from Gare Montparnasse to Charles de Gaulle Airport and got to CDG in plenty of time. I was given access to priority lanes for immigration and security, so that was nice, but the airport staff were nowhere to be seen, so neither the priority lane nor the regular lane was moving. I never found out if this was some kind of a labor action (there had been trouble at airports the previous weekend, I understood), or if something else was going on. United Airlines later sent me a notice that the French authorities had blocked flights from departing—no explanation of why—so they weren’t letting people into the departure gate area.

Eventually, we departed 40 minutes late, which meant we arrived in Chicago 40 minutes late. As we approached Chicago, I checked my United Airlines app to see if there was any chance that I would be able to make my connection to Shenandoah Valley (as my connection was already tight). I saw that United had already rebooked me on the first flight out the next morning. Not ideal, but at least it was a solution that I could deal with. But then just as we were landing I checked again and saw that the connecting flight was delayed by almost an hour, which meant that my connection was back to being tight instead of impossible. There was still hope.

US immigration has become absurd at major airports. When did this happen? I used to travel abroad all the time for work, and I don’t remember such long lines coming home before, but this year and last it’s been awful. I tried to be patient going through the long lines, knowing that I would either make the connection or I’d have to use the backup flight the next morning, but in any event, there was nothing I could do about it. (I did envy the folks who moved fast through the Global Entry line, and I resolved to apply for that program before my next overseas trip.) Eventually (after the long line I was in front of the immigration agent for about ten seconds, no exaggeration), I made it through. My bag was waiting for me, I passed through customs, and rechecked the bag for Shenandoah.

O’Hare has a people-mover train that shuttles passengers from the International Arrivals Terminal to the domestic terminals, so I boarded that and in a few minutes was headed toward security. Fortunately, I have TSA Pre-check and was through the line very fast and on my way to the gate. I checked the departure monitors and saw that the delay for my connection was now two hours, so making it would be no problem at all (in fact, even with the delayed arrival from Paris, I was within a few minutes of being on time for the originally scheduled departure for Shenandoah), so I settled into the lounge to wait. Eventually, we left, had a smooth flight, and I was home.