Friday, February 26, 2016

Saint Mazie by Jami Attenberg

In the first half of the twentieth century, homeless men were called bums and a movie patron bought a ticket from a woman who sat in a booth outside the theater. These two facts are the building blocks for Jami Attenberg’s Saint Mazie, a book based on a real person, Mazie Phillips Gordon.  
Mazie was an ordinary New Yorker but she was also a ticket seller with a heart of gold. She sold tickets from the booth in her brother-in-law’s movie theater in The Bowery, home to many poor and disadvantaged people. As part of her job, she sold movie tickets to bums who wanted to get out of the cold, rain, heat and other unpleasant aspects of a New York slum. To some, she sold ten cent tickets; others would be given a bar of soap from her supply in her booth and a ticket on the promise that each would wash his face. She would also give dimes and quarters to her needy customers. Mazie was non-judgmental. She freely gave small change to these men, unconcerned that they would spend the coins on drink. After work, in the wee hours of the morning, she would walk the streets of The Bowery, calling ambulances for men in distress and again passing out small change. Although Jewish, she teamed up with the Catholic nuns who served the poor in the area, united by compassion and empathy.
Jamie Attenberg was inspired to write this book by an old New Yorker article by Joseph Mitchell. Mazie is included in his collection Up in the Old Hotel, and this short essay is also well worth reading.

Friday, February 19, 2016

Awful Ends: The British Museum Book Of Epitaphs by David M. Wilson


This is a unique book, an anthology of tombstone inscriptions. There are a few from literature but most from actual tombstones and cemetery dedications in England and the United States. These epitaphs provide an interesting and often amusing picture of life and attitude toward death from past centuries. Some of the sentiments expressed in these epitaphs are:
Trust in the afterlife--
"He raised with love that fragile flower
To Wake in bliss on high."

Admiration of Virtue--
"...A virtuous and amiable man..."

Expressions of Grief--
"My heart is like cabbage,
A cabbage cut in two..."

But more interesting are the epitaphs that express anger at death or honest appraisals of the dearly departed:
Weakness of the deceased--
"Here lies Peg, that drunken sot
Who dearly loved her jug and pot."

Financial condition--
"Here I like at the Chancel door
Here lie I because I'm poor."

Cause of death--
"His death...which was caused by stupidity of Laurence Tulloch who sold him nitre instead 
of Epsom salts."

Evil deeds--
"...and yet betrayed God's Holy Church for Mammon."

Awful Ends: The British Museum Book of Epitaphs by David M. Wilson is an unusual book of prose and poetry, approval and aspersion, praise and criticism. It must be read to be enjoyed. These few examples are the mere tip of the iceberg.


Friday, February 12, 2016

Me, My Hair, and I: Twenty-seven Women Untangle an Obsession edited by Elizabeth Benedict


We all have it. Some of us love it and others of us hate it. It can be short or long, stick straight, wavy, or Shirley Temple curly. With the added frizz of a humid day, it can make you look like you have a poodle sitting on top of your head. It gets tangled and messy. And don't even get started on the plethora of colors it can be. Hair.

Ask many women and at some point in their life, they're bound to complain about their hair. What's all the fuss about? In the new book, Me, My Hair, and I: Twenty-seven Women Untangle an Obsession, edited by Elizabeth Benedict, the topic of, not only hair, but sexuality, feminism, culture are discussed. The authors, coming from all different races, religions, and socioeconomic backgrounds make the argument that hair is often tied to who a woman is. For Suleika Jaouad losing her hair during chemotherapy made her think back about how as growing up as Tunisian woman she wanted to badly to assimilate that she tried to put blonde in her jet black hair. Hasidic Jew Deborah Feldman begged her bubbe (grandmother in Yiddish) for short hair. When her grandmother said no, Feldman realized the implications hair and the Holocaust had left on her Holocaust survivor grandmother.

Twenty-seven different women all talk about their hair, and as a result this book takes an interesting look at what it's like to be a woman. While each of these women come from different backgrounds, there is one thing they all have in common--their hair.

Friday, February 5, 2016

In the Unlikely Event by Judy Blume


It's 1952 in Elizabeth, New Jersey. World War II has just ended and life in suburbia has just begun, but for residents of Elizabeth, New Jersey the shock and horror of previous years aren't over. In an unlikely event, three passenger planes enroute to Newark airport, crash in the small town of Elizabeth. In the Unlikely Event primarily tells the story of Miri Ammerman, a young woman, trying to figure out life as a teenager. Suddenly her world changes following the three unconnected plane crashes. Although much of the story is told through Miri, Judy Blume weaves together the lives and stories of three generations of family, friends, and strangers as they deal with first loves, marriages, and friendships. The story, which develops around the plane crashes, is so much more than that. It provides a glimpse into the lives of several families, often who try desperately to keep secrets hidden away. It's a close look at the early 1950s when things like sex, racial profiling, and mental illness were the secrets that stayed hidden.

In the Unlikely Event, is Judy Blume's third adult novel. Typically known for writing children's books Blume is as in her element with adult books. Though this is a work of historical fiction, Blume writes what she knows. Having grown up in Elizabeth, New Jersey,  witnessing the plane crashes she writes as if it all happened yesterday. It's hard not to see a little bit of Judy Blume in fifteen year old Miri Ammerman.