Tea’s autobiographical novel is divided into two sections which are as different in style as they are in setting. In the first half she captures a momTea’s autobiographical novel is divided into two sections which are as different in style as they are in setting. In the first half she captures a moment of gentrification in San Francisco’s Mission neighborhood as her artistic set, who had replaced poor immigrants, are themselves priced out of their neighborhood by the tech sector. Her story relies on her own experience, living life as an "outlaw" lesbian, hypercritically aware of her marginalized world shrinking around them, and her struggles to write a second book as she indulges in a blossoming addiction to heroin. Tea shares intimate details of her life, her helplessness, and her crushes on rebellious, smart, and intoxicated young women. She vividly captures a snapshot of an artistic community that many cities have lost due to the high cost of living.
The second half of the novel is set in Los Angeles, which is influenced by the mythology of Hollywood and star sightings. Isolated from her community she tries to write about her experiences without hurting anyone’s feelings, a genuine issue for someone who specializes in memoir. Her challenge to be honest or revise her truth, while indulging in copious amounts of alcohol, fades away when she learns that the world is about to end. With nothing left to lose, she looks inward to define her last days and finds fulfillment in a bookstore she inherits. This section is filled with chaos and dreams, suicide and hope, and finally self-acceptance. Tea documents the days leading up to the end of the world, driven by man-made climate change, and is reminiscent of the national gestalt following 9/11, while simultaneously feeling like it is only the fictional characters (inspired by real people) who are facing their end as the reader finishes her novel and closes the book. ...more
Like many others I was absorbed by the high production values, interesting story line, and sublime acting in the Netflix limited series based on the nLike many others I was absorbed by the high production values, interesting story line, and sublime acting in the Netflix limited series based on the novel. While it improved on some aspects of the story, enriching the relationships between the characters and giving Elizabeth Harmon's parents backstory, what it missed—surprisingly—is the actual game of chess. In the US chess is not known as a high stakes competition, but Tevis uses active and engaging language to give the play-by-play for key games, walking the reader through the intricate dance on the board. The game, not her addictions, are the center of the novel. Chess continues to dominate her life and all the mundane aspects of the day-to-day grind fall to the wayside. Also, isolation of an intellectual from American society appears to be a theme for Tevis, and was central to The Man Who Fell to Earth. The story arc of an orphan to international chess prodigy is littered with obstacles, as if her life was itself a game of chess with different characters assisting her to move from pawn to queen to eventually topple the king.
One of the things I respected was the author's decision to not make this book about a woman entering a man’s world and dominating; Beth Harmon herself scoffs at that notion. It is not that she is the best female chess player in the US, she is the best. Period. Why should her gender make a difference? The truth is it shouldn’t, but it would have been controversial in the 1960s in which the novel is set, and possibly still would cause negative reactions today. Wikipedia lists over 1,900 chess grandmasters, only 37 of which are women....more
Reading the description of the alien who comes to earth on a rescue mission, one can't help but think who but David Bowie could have pulled it off? TeReading the description of the alien who comes to earth on a rescue mission, one can't help but think who but David Bowie could have pulled it off? Tevis's novel is part Christ story, part environmentalist warning, and part critique of American society. An alien has come to save humanity and his own race is humiliated and blinded by people who don't listen to or understand him, his own planet has been destroyed by war and pollution and he attempts to avoid a repetition of planetary destruction, and the characters that populate his life are seen as the aliens from Thomas Newman's perspective. His outsider's perspective on society, on the fleeting and short-sighted whims of humans, is the most interesting aspect of the novel. Ultimately, as noted by the author, the book is about the slow descent into addition, how it takes over your life and ruins your dreams and aspirations. Newman, and the other primary characters, Mary-Lou and Nathan, all struggle with alcoholism and are in part destroyed by it. The ending scene in the bar, reminiscent of the final scene in 1984, ends with the lost potential of a freethinking man....more
One thing that I am thankful for is that I do not inhabit the shadowed underworld that Selby paints in Requiem. The barren apartments, evasive conversOne thing that I am thankful for is that I do not inhabit the shadowed underworld that Selby paints in Requiem. The barren apartments, evasive conversations, littered streets, and meaningless lives. The day to day of existing in an ever deepening hole, the bleeding out of the desire to escape replaced by the desperate search for the next fix, the rationalizations and empty promises. The destruction of dreams. The perplexing trap of addiction is presented honestly in these pages without any moral authority that looks down upon these slowly self-destructing people. Selby instead chooses the dark path and plunges down in the hole where millions have gone before. For those who think, “I can handle it,” whatever your “it” might be, this book might be a read as an alarm. What is most tragic in this novel is not the various addictions, but the pervasive loneliness that eclipses any sense of hope in the characters; they lose sight of anything to live for beside their drug of choice. Selby was also ahead of his time equating the effects of street drugs and pharmaceuticals, which have devastated so many lives and continues to do so at alarming costs, both financial and societal. The bleakness of this novel is not for everyone, and readers who can get beyond the lack of punctuation and quotes will be rewarded with vivid writing the captures the language and raw thoughts of people in crisis....more
Tracing the arc of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s marriage to his schizophrenic wife, Zelda, "Tender is the Night" is a tale painfully autobiographic. At timesTracing the arc of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s marriage to his schizophrenic wife, Zelda, "Tender is the Night" is a tale painfully autobiographic. At times fragmented and confusing, the reader may forgive the rough spots for moments of lucidity and self-reflection that are achingly poetic. Thinly veiled in the guise of Dr. Dick and Nicole Diver, the fun, well-heeled “must know” couple who live for the moment, we are witness to the rapid devolution of their psyches and eventual car wreck of their lives. The first section is the most scattershot and uneven but the later portions of the book turn confessional about Dick’s entrapment by his wife’s instability and her family’s insurmountable wealth, his self-destruction through alcohol as a means of escape, and their social ostracism as they become too intolerable to host. There is no irony that their descent into madness is partially due to their frantic life of leisure made possible by unspendable sums of money; it’s enough to make any multimillionaire rethink leaving the bulk of their wealth to their offspring. Although not Fitzgerald’s best, "Tender is the Night" gives us a rare window into the tumultuous life of American’s literary icon, which sadly was tamed down from the even harsher reality they lived, and the complex love he had for his wife....more
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