Jack Kerouac, was an American novelist and poet who, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, was a pioneer of the Beat and Counterculture GJack Kerouac, was an American novelist and poet who, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, was a pioneer of the Beat and Counterculture Generation. ON THE ROAD, published in 1957, is his most famous work and chronicles the travels of Kerouac and his friends in the late 1940s and early 1950s back and forth across the United States and finally into Mexico all the way to Mexico City. So what is the Beat Generation? I always thought it related to music and a lifestyle ripe with drugs and sex, but according to Kerouac, "the term Beat describes a state of exalted exhaustion, but is also linked to a Catholic beatific vision, the direct knowledge of God enjoyed by the blessed in heaven." The novel according to Kerouac took him only three weeks to write on a single scroll of paper, with Kerouac on a Benzedrine and caffeine fueled period of creativity. This prompted Truman Capote to sneer, "That isn't writing; its typing!" Kerouac started his book in 1951 and then after much editing, including changing the names of the characters (Allen Ginsberg was called Carlo Marx, William Burroughs was Old Bull Lee, Neal Cassady was Dean Moriarty and Kerouac was Sal Paradise) it was finally published in 1957.
The novel mainly involves Kerouac (Sal Paradise) and Cassady (Dean Moriarty) as they make several road trips across the US and finally into Mexico. The story is told against a backdrop of drugs, alcohol, jazz, and women. I'm sure this was an influence on the young people of America and was a precursor to the Hippie movement of the 60s. The language used in the novel is somewhat cliche now but was probably the first time such terms as "get your kicks," "dig it," "bop music," and "beat" were used in literature. An example: "Then he got his suitcase, the 'beatest' suitcase in the USA. It was made of paper with designs on it to make it look like leather. . .with a great rip down the top." The novel also describes a lot of drug use including the use of Benzedrine (amphetamine), marijuana (called tea), and heroin. Some of the worst use was by Old Bull Lee (William Burroughs) who was a heroin addict and who performed some very strange and dangerous acts including shooting things randomly with a shotgun.
Overall, I thought this was a volume well worth reading. It was very nostalgic and described the crazy period leading up to the sixties probably better than any other piece of literature. It also showed the depravity and hardships of both the travelers involved in the story and many of the people they met along the way. These included a lot of people who were just surviving with little money or resources. I'm glad I finally read this one but I don't think I can look back on the events described with any kind of fondness or desire....more
Pattie Boyd was a model working in London in the 1960s and was fortunate enough to be cast as a school girl in the movie Hard Days Night where she metPattie Boyd was a model working in London in the 1960s and was fortunate enough to be cast as a school girl in the movie Hard Days Night where she met, fell in love with, and ended up marrying George Harrison of The Beatles. This thrust her into the heyday of 60s rock and roll and especially into Beatlemania. As the years progressed, she became less infatuated with George and left him for Eric Clapton who she also married thus becoming the wife of two of rock's icons. Boyd inspired Harrison's song "Something", and Clapton's songs "Layla", "Bell Bottom Blues" and "Wonderful Tonight".
This memoir by Boyd provided a lot of insights into both Harrison and Clapton including the good and the darker sides of both. Both Harrison and Clapton were brilliant musicians but they also drank, used drugs, and were unfaithful to Pattie. Clapton was especially portrayed as a really offensive person who was an alcoholic and kept Pattie away from him so he could have affairs with other women. I know in recent years Clapton has been vilified because of some racist comments he has made and also because of his anti-vaccine stance during Covid.
Boyd also includes in the memoir her life before and after these marriages including growing up in Kenya, the divorce of her parents, and her early modeling career. Later she also became quite well known for her photography, especially her photos of musicians during the 1960s. But her story often meanders and she throws in a lot of information about her trips to various locations around the world, fixing up houses with descriptions of the furniture, her forays into cooking, etc. that don't really provide any meaningful content to her relationships. Overall, I did like that the memoir gave a first hand look into the lives of some of the great rock legends of the 60s, especially the Beatles, but it also was very disjointed and I often got confused trying to keep track of some of the people mentioned -- Pattie had a tendency to throw out a lot of first names throughout the memoir that I could not really remember who they were, family members, friends, other musicians, or ?? Only a mild recommendation for this one....more
Neil Young published this memoir in 2012 and wrote it when he was 65 years old (Young was born in 1945). Young, of course, is the singer-songwriter whNeil Young published this memoir in 2012 and wrote it when he was 65 years old (Young was born in 1945). Young, of course, is the singer-songwriter who started his musical career in the 1960s and played with Buffalo Springfield; Crosby, Stills, and Nash; and Crazy Horse. He is best known however for his solo career and his many critically acclaimed albums including Everybody Knows This is Nowhere, After the Gold Rush, and Harvest.
This memoir was written exclusively by Young and was not edited by a ghost writer as many rock bios are. The narrative is very rambling and goes from one era to another without any chronological order. Young also talks a lot about some of his pet projects including PureTone (later called Pono) which was what Young wanted music to be. It was a portable digital media player and music download service for high-resolution audio. (According to Wikipedia, it met its demise in 2017). He also discusses his prototype for an electric luxury car called LincVolt which was a 1959 Lincoln Continental converted into a more fuel-efficient vehicle. Young talks about other loves including his Lionel trains and of course family and friends. He also seems to have a very love/hate relationship with new technology including streaming services such as Spotify and YouTube. He had this to say about YouTube: "If you forget what you are doing, it shows up on YouTube. If you remember what you are doing, it shows up on YouTube....If snot comes out of your nose while you are playing the harmonica and slithers down the harmonica rack onto your T-shirt, it is on YouTube..."
But he also talks about his love of music from his early days in Winnipeg, Canada, up to when the book was published and his expected recording of a new album with Crazy Horse. He spends a lot of time discussing many of his friends and technicians that worked on his albums and unless you are familiar with them, the names kind of get lost in the telling. His love of family is also very apparent, especially for his two sons Zeke and Ben who were both born with cerebral palsy. At the time he wrote the book he was married to Pegi Young who he also felt great love for (however, they divorced in 2014).
Overall, by reading this book you end up really feeling like you know him. The book is somewhat rambling and Young has a tendency to go off on tangents but I would still recommend this to anyone who lived during the 60s and 70s and who loves the music of that time. Young is a classic!...more
The story of Jaycee Dugard and what happened to her is really sad and heart-wrenching. I remember hearing about this on the news when Dugard was foundThe story of Jaycee Dugard and what happened to her is really sad and heart-wrenching. I remember hearing about this on the news when Dugard was found after being in captivity for 18 years and I really couldn't imagine the horrors she must have gone through. In 1991, Jaycee was kidnapped on her way to catch her school bus in South Lake Tahoe. She was only eleven years old. She was taken by a man named Phillip Garrido using a taser and was assisted by the man's wife, Nancy. They took Jaycee from Tahoe to Antioch, California, and kept her imprisoned in makeshift shelters in the backyard of the Garrido's mother's house there. On her arrival, she was forced to shower with Phillip and a week later she was raped by him. The rapes went on repeatedly over the years and resulted in Jaycee having two daughters by him, the first when she was only fourteen. Garrido not only abused her sexually but also mentally by using guilt complexes and narcissistic behavior toward her. At some points, Jaycee actually felt sorry for him. She survived by caring for her daughters and her pet cats although Garrido got rid of many of them without Jaycee's consent. After 18 years, she was finally freed when Garrido took her and her daughters to see his parole officer. She was reunited with her mother, sister, and aunt, but was unsure of what her acceptance would be. Since then, she had been in therapy and eventually was able to make a life for herself and her daughters.
Jaycee was a very strong person to have been able to survive her ordeal. After her release she started the J A Y C Foundation to provide support and services for families recovering from abduction and the aftermath of traumatic experiences. This book was very enlightening and shows the horrors of what abducted children may go through. However, it really didn't tell the whole story of what happened after her kidnapping and the history of Garrido and his wife and their subsequent prosecutions. There is an article on Wikipedia that provides more details. It is really hard for me to understand the motivations of people that could commit such an atrocious crime; I especially couldn't understand how Garrido's wife would assist him in his depravities. There were times when she could have helped Dugard escape but failed to do so. Overall, this was a very intense and harrowing look at what can happen to young victims of abuse....more
A few months ago, I read and enjoyed Durrell's account of his younger life with his family on the Greek island of Corfu, My Family and Oth⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
A few months ago, I read and enjoyed Durrell's account of his younger life with his family on the Greek island of Corfu, My Family and Other Animals. Durrell was a British naturalist, writer, zookeeper, conservationist, and television presenter. He founded the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust and the Jersey Zoo on the Channel Island of Jersey in 1959. A ZOO IN MY LUGGAGE is an account of one of Durrell's animal collecting expeditions in 1957 to the Bafut region of what is now Cameroon in Western Africa. This expedition resulted in Durrell's founding of the Jersey Zoo.
Durrell spent six months collecting various animals while being the guest of the Fon of Bafut who refers to the local fauna as "beef" as part of the "pigeon English" spoken by the locals there. The book recounts many amusing anecdotes related to the collection of several exotic species. At the beginning of the book while Durrell is on the way to Bafut, he obtained his first animal, a baby black-footed mongoose from a local villager. Durrell had no easy way to transport the animal so he kept it in his shirt where the mongoose proceeded to urinate profusely! This is only the first of many sometimes humorous encounters with animals including lemurs, snakes, chimps, monkeys, and various birds. The book also describes his encounters with the locals including the chief of Bafut called the Fon. The dialog in the narrative includes a lot of the "Pigeon English" which was somewhat distracting and could be perceived as racist by today's politically correctness.
But overall, I did find this quite informative and it definitely provided a few chuckles. There were some great descriptions of animals and birds that I had not heard of before. This included an excursion to observe a rare bird called the Picathartes, which "was about the size of a jackdaw...with a unique head completely bare of feathers: the forehead and top were a vivid sky blue, the back a bright pink, while the side and cheeks were black." [image] Durrell was especially keen on trying to prevent the extinction of animals and worked as a conservationist. This book was published in 1960 and 60 years later, zoos have taken a lot of criticism. The caging of animals and transporting them from their natural environment probably is not the best way to conserve them; however, at the time Durrell had the best of intentions. In his opinion, "zoological gardens should have as one of their main objects the establishment of breeding colonies for these rare and threatened species." I'm not sure how successful Durrell was in achieving some of his goals or what eventually happened to his zoo on Jersey Island although during his lifetime he did receive many honors and accolades for his conservation efforts....more
In 1947, Thor Heyerdahl along with five other men journeyed by raft across the Pacific Ocean from Peru to the Polynesian Islands. This historic voyageIn 1947, Thor Heyerdahl along with five other men journeyed by raft across the Pacific Ocean from Peru to the Polynesian Islands. This historic voyage is documented in Heyerdahl's book Kon-Tiki. The raft was named Kon-Tiki after an Inca god and Heyerdahl believed that people from South America could have reached Polynesia during pre-Columbian times. His aim in mounting the Kon-Tiki expedition was to show, by using only the materials and technologies available to those people at the time, that there were no technical reasons to prevent them from having done so. Although the expedition carried some modern equipment, such as a radio, watches, charts, sextant, and metal knives, Heyerdahl argued they were incidental to the purpose of proving that the raft itself could make the journey.
This was really a great adventure story. I have always admired explorers and adventurers who set out into the unknown putting themselves in peril. The raft did make it all the way to Raroia, a large atoll in the Pacific. Along the way, the men on the raft were able to survive some unlikely adventures and were able to use the spoils of the sea to sustain themselves. Every morning the crew gathered up flying fish which they used as food and also as bait for other fish including dolphin (the fish not the mammal), shark, tuna, bonito, and others. I had never heard of the dolphin fish and at first thought they were eating Flipper's kin. However, I looked it up on google and the dolphin fish is also called Mahi-mahi which I am familiar with. I know that it is a very good seafood. They also encountered a whale shark, the largest fish known, large squid, eels, and an ugly fish called a snake mackerel (Latin name Gempylus) that jumped on board one night into one of the crew's sleeping bag.
The book also detailed Heyerdahl's theory about Polynesia being populated from South America. He describes many of the ruins in South America and how they compare to what is in Polynesia. This includes the stone monoliths on Easter Island and other statues as well as the pyramids found in both places. A rather convincing argument. (Heyerdahl also later traveled to Easter Island and wrote another memoir about his discoveries there called Aku-Aku. I read this one back in the 70s and I probably should give it a reread.)
Overall, a really interesting and educational read. Although the Kon-Tiki raft did crash on a reef, it was salvaged and now resides in a museum in Norway.
Gerald Durrell was a British naturalist, writer, zookeeper, conservationist, and television presenter. In 1935 his family settled on the Greek island Gerald Durrell was a British naturalist, writer, zookeeper, conservationist, and television presenter. In 1935 his family settled on the Greek island of Corfu, where they lived until 1939. The family included Gerald's mother, Louisa, his brothers, Lawrence and Leslie, and sister Margo. At that time, Lawrence or Larry was the eldest at twenty-three; Leslie was nineteen; Margo eighteen; and Gerald was ten. Lawrence Durrell was also a noted novelist best known for his Alexandria Quartet, published between 1957 and 1960.
I decided to read My Family and Other Animals after Susan Hill noted it as one of her favorite volumes of humorist literature in her book, Howards End is on the Landing. The book was written in 1956 from the perspective of ten-year-old Gerald in 1935. It is filled with humorous anecdotes about him and his family most of which have to do with his obsession with observing and collecting the local fauna found in Corfu. These include stories of his collecting a mother scorpion and its babies in a match box that is opened by Larry resulting in scorpions loose all over the dining room; a pair of water snakes left in a bathtub when Leslie is about to bathe; discovering a group of trap-door spiders; bringing home a pair of baby magpies that grow into a pair of talking thieves who ransack Larry's room; a gruesome fight between a gecko and a mantis; and a large gull given to Gerry by a convict which is vicious and loves to bite hands. There are also many funny episodes involving the family and the locals...all of this was quite enjoyable.
This book is the first in a trilogy about the family's life on Corfu. The others are Birds, Beasts, and Relatives and The Garden of the Gods. At some point, I would also like to read these. I have also added the novels of Lawrence as possible reads in the future. I also discovered that the Corfu books were made into a TV series called the Durrells in Corfu that I now want to watch!...more
My wife recently saw the movie version of this book and when I heard her description of it, I remembered that I had had a copy of the book several yeaMy wife recently saw the movie version of this book and when I heard her description of it, I remembered that I had had a copy of the book several years ago but decided to let it go unread. So I decided to check out another copy from the library because the story sounded very intriguing to me. Krakauer mainly uses interviews to piece together the story of Christopher McCandless who in 1992 after graduating from college decides to abandon his family and travel in the West. He ends up hitch-hiking to Alaska and then walking alone into the wilderness near Mt. McKinley where he ended up dying in an abandoned bus that he was using as a base camp. The book details his wanderings in the Southwest along the Colorado River where he tried to canoe down the river to the Gulf of Mexico. He abandons his car after a flash flood contributed to the battery dying. He then burns the cash in his wallet and sets out on foot. He befriends several people along the way and travels north to South Dakota and works for a grain farmer. McCandless liked being around people but not for long periods. He always has a yearning to be alone and his ultimate goal was to travel alone in the Alaska wilderness. Krakauer gives examples of others with similar passions including himself. When he was younger he scaled a mountain peak in Alaska called the Devil's Thumb by himself.
The story of McCandless was very compelling reading. The biggest mystery about his story was how he died. An autopsy indicated he starved to death but how did this happen when he was able to survive for a few months by hunting and gathering in the wild? Krakauer puts forth a theory about eating wild potato seeds that may have contained a poisonous alkaloid. After the book was originally published in 1996, other theories come to light as discussed in the Afterword to this edition published in 2015. Overall, I thought this was a very readable and interesting telling of the McCandless story and I'll be looking out for the movie version. MOVIE TRAILER...more
I remember in 1970 going into a music store where the owner of the store was playing some of the new releases on eight-track tape. He would pull out aI remember in 1970 going into a music store where the owner of the store was playing some of the new releases on eight-track tape. He would pull out a tape, open the wrapper, and pop it into a tape deck. I purchased three of the tapes that he previewed: Chicago II, On Time by Grand Funk Railroad, and Led Zeppelin II. All three of these got a lot of play in my car's eight-track player but the Zeppelin tape was the one that outshined the others. Prior to hearing this, I had not really heard anything by the band but Whole Lotta Love ended up getting a lot of airplay on the local AM radio channels and I became a fan of Zeppelin, buying all of their albums up till Houses of the Holy. After that, I kind of lost interest in them but have always liked their music and the band. [image]
When I heard about this new biography of the group, I immediately put it on the wait list at the library and was able to get one of the first copies ordered by them. And I'm glad to have read this...it really is an in-depth telling of the Led Zeppelin story. The prologue to the book tells of Zeppelin's U.S. debut at The Tea Party in Boston and a young hitchhiker's travel to the show to see them. The hitchhiker was lucky to get into a show and was thrilled at the music he had heard...turns out the young man was Steven Tyler who would later front Aerosmith. The book then goes into the band's founding by Jimmy Page after his stint with the Yardbirds. It tells of Page's interest in the blues and his guitar playing at an early age where he eventually makes it as a session player for many top acts of the 1960s along with John Paul Jones, Zeppelin's bassist and keyboardist. Then there was the search for a vocalist resulting in finding Robert Plant as well as a drummer, John Bonham, who both hailed from the Midlands of England. [image] The book details the recording of each of Zeppelin's albums and describes the songs as well as how they evolved. I found myself using Spotify to play most of the songs as they were described in the book which I thought really enhanced the experience of reading about them. But the book also goes into great depth about the abuses of the band while touring which were mostly alcohol and drug related. The band's manager, Peter Grant, was a large abusive person with a cocaine habit who would threaten anyone who got in his way. Then there was John Bonham, the drummer, who was also a large man and always itching for a fight. He was known for trashing hotel rooms and throwing TVs, furniture, and anything not tied down out of hotel windows. And Jimmy Page's fall into drug abuse was very hard to read about going from cocaine to heroin. Then there were the young underage groupies who flocked to the band. Page was actually dating a 15-year old during the group's early years. And some of the abuses heaped on these groupies were really unbelievable. The antics of the group were very hard to understand. They were making millions but acted like young hoodlums, tearing up hotel rooms and abusing young girls. This behavior seemed prevalent among the rock personalities of the time including the Rolling Stones and others.
The book moves along at a rather fast pace, even though it is over 600 pages of reading. It details all the missteps of the band and the eventual death of Bonham from drug and alcohol abuse which put a Coda to the band's existence. I really thought this was an excellent biography but it did make me less of a fan of the members of the band, especially Page and Bonham. But overall I would still highly recommend this to any Zeppelin fan. It's really a great bio of the band. I also have a copy of Spitz's Beatles biography that has been sitting on the shelf for several years. This has motivated me to hopefully read it soon....more
The Braves have been my favorite baseball team since I was about 10 years old in 1960. Me and my neighborhood friends idolized them, especially Hank AThe Braves have been my favorite baseball team since I was about 10 years old in 1960. Me and my neighborhood friends idolized them, especially Hank Aaron and Eddie Mathews after they won the 1957 World Series against the Yankees and made another appearance in the series in 1958 only to lose to the dreaded Yanks. But we were always loyal to the Braves even when they moved to Atlanta in 1966. And what do you know? The Braves are in the World Series again this year (2021) after beating the Dodgers in the NLCS. The series starts next Tuesday and I'll definitely be watching and rooting for the Braves!
Back in the about 1963 when I was in Junior High School, I read this YP biography of Aaron by Shapiro. I finished reading Aaron's autobiography a couple of days ago which I really enjoyed so thought it would be fun to revisit this old biography. This is one of a series of sports biographies published by Julian Messner for young readers. Many of these were written by Shapiro and include bios of Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, Mel Ott, Jackie Robinson, Warren Spahn, Eddie Mathews, and many others. Messner also published many biographies of historical figures back in the 50s and 60s. I mention this because Messner was actually sued by Warren Spahn who contended that the biography of him by Shapiro "violated all four of the tenants of privacy: invasion, false light, private facts, and appropriation. The author of the book admitted that his research consisted of looking at a few magazine stories and clippings, and that he had made no effort to speak with Spahn himself, his family, his teammates, or any of his friends or acquaintances. Spahn won an injunction against future distribution of the book and $10,000 in damages."
This biography of Aaron seemed to agree pretty much with Aaron's own autobiography but it did include dialog that was probably made up by the author. Of course, this is common in juvenile biographies and it makes them easier to read by young people. And overall, I thought Shapiro did a good job of telling Aaron's story up till 1961 when this was published. It includes his younger days in Mobile, Alabama, his play on sandlot teams and then for the Indianapolis Clowns in the old Negro Leagues, and then his signing by the Braves and his excellent play leading to the 1957 and 58 world series. It did, however, include a lot of detail of specific games (including play by play) and details of players and their positions on the Braves as well as other teams which became somewhat tedious. But for what it is, I mildly enjoyed it. I also have a few other of these old Messner biographies (including the one of Warren Spahn) that I have collected over the years and may revisit at some point....more
Hank Aaron, the immortal home run hitter for the Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves, died earlier this year (on January 22, 2021) of natural causes. Aaron was oHank Aaron, the immortal home run hitter for the Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves, died earlier this year (on January 22, 2021) of natural causes. Aaron was one of my boyhood idols mainly because he was one of the stars of the Braves in 1957 who defeated the dreaded New York Yankees in the World Series. When I was about 10 years old, I and my neighborhood friends were fans of the only sport that mattered back in the late 50s and early 60s: Baseball. And the Braves were our favorite team with Aaron and Eddie Mathews being our favorite players. We collected baseball cards and I wish I still had Aaron's card from 1960 but unfortunately, I must have traded it away at some point. [image] Every year during October and the Major League Baseball playoffs and World Series, I have tried to read something about baseball. This year, given the sad news of Aaron's death plus the fact that the Atlanta Braves are in the playoffs (they currently lead the Dodgers 3-2 and need only one more win to get into the World Series against the Houston Astros), I decided to read Aaron's autobiography that I have had in my collection for several years.
This book was published in 1991 and gives a great accounting of Aaron's long career in baseball as well as his work and activities since he retired in 1976. I remember reading a juvenile biography of Aaron (The Hank Aaron Story by Milton Shapiro) back in junior high school in the 60s. About the only thing I remember from this bio was that Aaron worked on an ice wagon when he was young which helped develop and strengthen his wrists. (I also have a copy of this old biography which I plan on rereading). Indeed, Aaron does mention working on an ice wagon in his autobiography so I guess my memory isn't totally shot! Aaron's story includes his growing up in Mobile, Alabama, and always wanting to play baseball. He eventually gets his chance by playing for the Indianapolis Clowns of the old Negro Leagues. Jackie Robinson was signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947 which paved the way for Aaron and others into the big leagues. He was eventually signed by the Braves and played in their farm leagues, debuting in Milwaukee in 1954. He joined some great players on the Braves including Eddie Mathews, Del Crandall, Warren Spahn, and others. In 1957, Aaron hit a home run that put the Braves into the world series which they won against the Yankees. They returned to the series in 1958 but unfortunately could not repeat as champions. Aaron was never in another series. But he continued with his great play and of course in 1974, he exceeded Babe Ruth's all time record for home runs with his 715th. He eventually hit 755 of them setting the records until it was bested by Barry Bonds. The Braves had moved to Atlanta when Aaron was in pursuit of Ruth and surprisingly he received loads of hate mail with racist comments wanting him to retire and give up his quest for the record. This did not deter Aaron, even when his life was sometimes threatened. He went on to finish his career with some of the best stats ever including a batting average of .305, 3,771 hits, 2,297 RBIs, and 6,856 total bases which is still the major league record.
Throughout Aaron's career, although he was a reserved and quiet individual, he pursued equal rights for blacks and other minorities in the game of baseball. When he was a player back in the 50s and early 60s, Jim Crow laws were still in effect. Aaron and other blacks could not eat at the same restaurants or stay at the same hotels as the white players. This was an incentive for him to be active in the civil rights movement and trying to help blacks in baseball. He was disappointed that blacks were not made managers or put in positions within team organizations. Frank Robinson eventually was made manager of the Cleveland Indians but up until the writing of his biography, Aaron was still fighting for minority positions in baseball. Aaron himself was put into a high position within the Atlanta organization after Ted Turner bought the team but it was a long time coming.
I really enjoyed this biography of Aaron and I'm hoping the Braves make it to the World Series this year (they have a history of choking in recent years). I'll probably be reading some other baseball bios in the meantime. Go Braves!!...more
A few years ago, I watched the TV miniseries Z: The Beginning of Everything which was based on this novel by Fowler. I enjoyed the miniseries and A few years ago, I watched the TV miniseries Z: The Beginning of Everything which was based on this novel by Fowler. I enjoyed the miniseries and had been interested in the Fitzgeralds for years (although I have only read The Great Gatsby by him) so when I saw a copy of this book at a thrift store, I grabbed it. However, it did take me another few years to get to it.
[image]
Anyway, I enjoyed this for the most part. It is a novel told from Zelda's perspective starting with her meeting with Scott in her hometown of Montgomery, Alabama, when he was in the military waiting to be deployed during WWI. Fortunately for him, the war ended before he could see action. But he hadn't forgotten his infatuation with Zelda and soon they were married. Zelda tells of his struggles writing and his unfortunate struggles with alcohol. The Fitzgeralds move to New York and then later head to Europe and become acquainted with the other expatriates living in Paris including Ernest Hemingway. Zelda blames Hemingway for most of their troubles after that. Scott seems to be enchanted by him and Hemingway is really a bad influence on him. At one point Zelda infers that the two of them had a homosexual affair (not sure if this is true or not). As time goes by, Scott struggles with his writing and becomes more and more an alcoholic. Zelda in the meantime wants a career of her own. She really wanted to be a ballet dancer and takes lessons while in Europe. She is offered a place in a ballet company in Italy but Scott vetoes this and threatens to keep their young daughter away from her. Zelda is also a writer and has stories and a novel published which seems to make Scott jealous. She is also an artist and later has a showing of her works in New York. But along the way she has a breakdown and spends many years in mental institutions. She is diagnosed as schizophrenic but she was probably misdiagnosed and may have been bipolar. Scott died of a heart attack at the age of 44 which was probably a result of his alcohol abuse. Zelda also died young at age 47 and her death could have been related to uncalled for treatments at mental institutions.
This was really a quite tragic story. Since this is a fictionalized account, I'm not sure how much of the story is true but I know the author researched her story well using historic documents. In her afterword, she says there are two camps relating to the Fitzgeralds. One camp believe that Zelda was instrumental in ruining Scott's career as a writer while the other blames Scott for keeping Zelda from meeting her potential.
The Fitzgeralds are buried in the family plot at St. Mary's Church in Rockville, Maryland. My family actually lived in Rockville and attended St. Mary's when I was working in D.C. for the government for 13 years. We remember visiting the gravesite which also enhanced my interest in the Fitzgeralds. [image]
At some point, I really need to read more of both Scott and Zelda's works. I have read The Paris Wife by Paula McLain which is a novelization of Hemingway's marriage to his first wife, Hadley, and their time in Paris. Z fits in well with it. But I also need to read Hemingway's memoir, A Moveable Feast to get his perspective on his time there....more
For the most part, I really enjoyed this memoir of Susan Hill's where she decides to take a year and read books that are already on her shelves withouFor the most part, I really enjoyed this memoir of Susan Hill's where she decides to take a year and read books that are already on her shelves without buying anything new. These could be books she hasn't read or books that she wants to reread (most of what she discusses fall into that category). Hill is very well read indeed and her house is apparently overflowing with books she has collected through the years even going back to childhood. She discusses everything from pop-up children's books to very dense literary fiction that most people find unreadable. Examples of this include Proust and James Joyce's Ulysses, a book that I have tried reading more than once and can never make it past the first 50 pages or so. She also discusses detective fiction including the works of Dorothy Sayers which I have been meaning to read more of. And yes, she is a big admirer of Virginia Woolf who she apparently tries to emulate, even going so far as to start a publishing house in the vein of Woolf and her husband. Towards the end of the book she decides to make a list of 40 books that she could read and reread for the rest of her life. This list is quite diverse and includes The Bible as well as works by Dickens, Hardy, Eliot, Trollope, Henry James, Raymond Chandler, and many more.
As I said, I mostly enjoyed this memoir about books. But sometimes I felt that Hill talked most praisingly about books where she had met the author in person. She would discuss how much she liked a certain author and then tell how she had met him or her at a gathering or book panel. In this regard, her criticisms may have been a little prejudicial. But then again this narrative did remind me a lot of my own book collection and the books I still haven't got around to reading that have been sitting on my shelves for years. These include most of Dickens novels, works by Faulkner, the Brontes, Thomas Hardy, George Eliot, Anthony Trollope, E.M. Forster, Dorothy Sayers, and many others. There were also some books that I don't have and had never heard of that I definitely want to read after Hill's recommendations. These include The Bell by Iris Murdoch, The House in Paris by Elizabeth Bowen, In Patagonia by Bruce Chatwin, and My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell. As far as Hill's own works, I have only read The Woman in Black which I did enjoy. I should probably seek out more by her....more
This was a quite interesting account of the scandals that have rocked Hollywood since the early days in the teens and 1920's up until the 1960's. The This was a quite interesting account of the scandals that have rocked Hollywood since the early days in the teens and 1920's up until the 1960's. The stories include sex scandals, drug scandals, murders, and suicides and involve almost all the top Hollywood stars of the day. Included is the death of a young starlet at a drunken party where Fatty Arbuckle is put on trial for murder; the divorce of Charlie Chaplin after he is coerced into an unwanted marriage; the shooting of a Hollywood director on board the yacht of William Randolph Hearst (this incident was made into an interesting movie called The Cat's Meow); [image] the death of Rudolph Valentino; the sexual hijinks of Clara Bow, Jean Harlow, Mae West, Errol Flynn, and many others; and the deaths of Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield, Sharon Tate, and many many more.
I enjoyed this from a somewhat voyeuristic view. But probably the best part of the book were the countless photos that were included of many of the stars and events that are included in the book. I would recommend this for anyone interested in the heyday of Hollywood.
I have been on a reading kick recently with books about African exploration. This book, Dark Safari has been on my shelves since it was originally pubI have been on a reading kick recently with books about African exploration. This book, Dark Safari has been on my shelves since it was originally published in 1990...I remember obtaining it through the History Book Club at that time. Finally got around to reading it after reading some other books about Africa including Into Africa which detailed Henry Morton Stanley's search to find Livingstone and Blood River about a modern day journey to duplicate Stanley's journey on the Congo River. Dark Safari is more of a general overall biography of Stanley and includes not only his quest to find Livingstone but also his subsequent explorations in Africa including his navigation and charting of the Congo River, his work to complete Livingstone's quest to find the source of the Nile, his work for King Leopold of Belgium to establish the Congo Free State, and his expedition to rescue Emin Pasha, governor of the Sudan's Equatorial Province who was standing against the Mahdi Mohammed Ahmed, the Ayatollah Khomeini of the time. Stanley endured many perilous circumstances in these exploits including malaria and other diseases, warring natives, cannibals, treacherous rivers and swamps, and nearly impassable jungles. Many of his crew died along the way or were subjected to horrors and starvation. One of his officers actually witnessed the killing of a young native girl who was then cut apart and eaten by cannibals. Many other atrocities also occurred including beatings and killings of the African porters by some of Stanley's men who were left behind at one point. These experiences as revealed upon Stanley’s return were used as the basis for Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. “The horror, the horror!”
Stanley was far from being a perfect man. He often exaggerated his life and experiences in his books and other written accounts. He was harsh to his men who went with him on his expeditions. He was very shy around women and may have had a hard time communicating with them. He was jilted more than once by women who had promised to marry him. He was instrumental in establishing the Belgian Congo for King Leopold who exploited native workers and had over 3 million of them killed. But to the Victorians, he was the ultimate adventurer as he extended his conquest of the natural world. This was a very encompassing biography of Stanley and provides a lot of historical information from his young days as an outcast in Wales, to his time in the American West and the Civil War, to his exploits in Africa. Very engrossing reading....more
This was a very engrossing narrative of Tim Butcher's harrowing travel across the African Continent following the path of the explorer Henry Morton StThis was a very engrossing narrative of Tim Butcher's harrowing travel across the African Continent following the path of the explorer Henry Morton Stanley in 1874-1877. Butcher is a journalist and correspondent of the Daily Telegraph. Stanley was also a reporter for the Telegraph and in the Victorian era he was probably the world's best-known journalist, famous for tracking down the Scottish explorer, David Livingstone in 1871. Then he made an epic trip across Africa between 1874 and 1877 by mapping the Congo River from east to west. Butcher decides to follow Stanley's route of nearly 3,000 miles. He is warned that his plan is suicidal but sets out for the Congo's eastern border carrying only a backpack and some money hidden in his boots. He makes his way on the back of motorbikes, in dugout canoes, and a ramshackle boat used by the UN on the river. He is helped out along the way by aid workers, missionaries, and even a pygmy leader traveling through very dangerous territory that had become worse and worse during the past century. The Congo has been rampant with wars and killings, corrupt politicians, and local men in charge who only want to steal from everyone.
Butcher's telling of his forty-four day journey is very absorbing in itself but he also throws in a lot of the history of the Congo dating back to 1482 when the Congo River was discovered by the Portuguese explorer, Diogo Cão. He then relates the story of Stanley and how he helped Belgium's King Leopold establish the Congo Free State which he used to exploit the resources of the Congo killing millions along the way. And then the Congo wins its independence from Belgium in 1960 but instead of taking advantage of this, the country is further exploited by ruthless leaders including Joseph Mobutu who established a single-party system and declared himself head of state. At the time Butcher made his trip in 2004, the country had devolved into a mainly lawless and corrupt nation.
Before reading this book, I didn't really know a whole lot about the Congo and its history. This has really motivated me to read more. I have a few books that Butcher mentions in his narrative including the novels The Poisonwood Bible and The African Queen. I also have a nonfiction book about Stanley and Livingstone called Into Africa and the story of King Leopold and his exploitation of the Congo called King Leopold's Ghost. I hope to read all of these in the near future. ...more
The Flame Trees of Thika is Elspeth Huxley's reminiscences of her childhood in British East Africa (what is now Kenya) from 1912 to 1914. She was onlyThe Flame Trees of Thika is Elspeth Huxley's reminiscences of her childhood in British East Africa (what is now Kenya) from 1912 to 1914. She was only six years old in 1912 and must have been a very precocious child with a good memory to be able to write this narrative almost 50 years later. She tells the story of how her parents, Robin and Tilly, moved to Africa to start a coffee plantation on 500 acres between the banks of two rivers near Thika. Her father, Robin, bought the land sight unseen with the faith-based knowledge that the soil was ideal for coffee growing and the expectations of making a fortune a few years down the line. But first, the land had to be cleared and planted during the rainy season. The native people, the Kikuyu, had to be persuaded to help in this task and most of them were very reluctant to do so. But eventually, the land was cleared and a crop planted. Huxley tells the story of living on the land and observing and delving into the culture of the native people and the beauties and hazards of the landscape. These hazards included wild animals and insects including ticks which Elspeth learned to pluck off of her and squash them in her fingers. "There were also jiggas. These burrowed under your toenails, laid their eggs, and created a swollen, red, tormenting place on your toe." And then there were the siafu or driver ants that could attack and eat animals to the bone. [image] But Elspeth learned to enjoy her home in Africa and had a couple of chameleons as pets. She also had a young duiker, a small antelope, that she kept as a pet. It often got into the family's garden and its exploits reminded me a lot of the novel The Yearling. Eventually, the duiker ran off to be in the wild but when it did, Elspeth thought it may have been eaten by the python that lived in a pool in the river. The python was swollen after eating some kind of larger animal but it turned out that after it had been killed, it had swallowed a young goat. She also tells of her white neighbors and their relationships that were probably hard to understand for a six-year old. There were also the eccentricities of some of the neighbors, such as having a velvet upholstered couch and a grand piano in a dirt floored cabin. But mainly this narrative was about living in the wildness of Africa with Mount Kenya in the distance. [image] At the outbreak of WWI, Robin joined the armed forces to fight against the Germans and Elspeth and Tilly returned to England. Elspeth and Tilly did go back to Africa after the war as related in her book, The Mottled Lizard.
I enjoyed this look at the early days of life in Kenya. It was an interesting narrative of a time and place now long gone. There were some disparaging comments made by some of the whites against the native Kikuyu who often viewed them as lazy savages. The "n word" was also used a few times in these descriptions but I think Huxley did this to show the narrow-mindedness of the settlers at the time. Overall, I would recommend this to anyone interested in European involvement in turn of the century Africa....more
It's World Series time again! This year (2020) because of COVID-19, the baseball season was shortened, games were played without fans, and there was aIt's World Series time again! This year (2020) because of COVID-19, the baseball season was shortened, games were played without fans, and there was a different playoff system at the end of the season. The Los Angeles Dodgers are playing the Tampa Bay Rays in the series and as of this date, 10/23/20, the series is tied 1-1. Honestly, because of the shortened season and COVID, I really didn't follow baseball much this year, however, I have been making it a tradition to read something about baseball during the series every year. This year I decided to read this biography of one of my boyhood heroes, Mickey Mantle.
When I was growing up in the late 50s and early 60s, baseball was really the only game that mattered as far as pro sports. I remember some of my best friends in the neighborhood started collecting baseball cards so of course I did as well. This was in 1960 and I still have some of the cards from that year. So was I a Yankee fan? Hell no! The Yankees dominated the sport during the 50s winning seven world championships from 1949 to 1958. And the star of the Yankees during that period was Mickey Mantle who won MVPs in 1956 and 1957 and again in 1962. He also won the Triple Crown (most home runs, best batting average, and most RBIs) in 1956. And so yes, I did admire Mantle with his boyish manners and good looks even though he played for the dreaded Yankees. At that time I was a fan of the Milwaukee Braves who defeated the Yankees in the World Series of 1957. And then the Pittsburgh Pirates beat them in 1960 so I switched allegiances to the Pirates. But deep down, I always admired Mickey Mantle I think more than my favorite Braves players, Hank Aaron and Eddie Matthews and one of my prized possessions was Mantle's 1960 baseball card (unfortunately I must have traded this away). [image] I also remember watching "Home Run Derby" back in 1960. This was a weekly show that pitted two home run sluggers against each other. I discovered that these episodes are currently on YouTube and watched the first episode that had Mantle against Willie Mays. Mantle came from behind to beat Mays in the last inning. Very nostalgic!
As far as THE LAST HERO, I really enjoyed this in-depth look at the life of Mickey Mantle. Mantle was born in 1931 in rural Oklahoma. His father along with his grandfather and uncles worked in the zinc mines there and had little hope of a good life or future. But his father, Mutt, and grandfather were also baseball fans. Mickey was actually named after Mickey Cochrane, a Hall of Fame catcher who played for the Athletics and Tigers. Mutt dreamed of a better life for Mickey that would keep him out of the mines. Luckily, Mickey had the build and desire to be a ballplayer and signed with the Yankees in 1951 eventually taking over for Joe DiMaggio in center field. Mickey worked hard at his profession and when he retired his home run total was third of all time. He also held the all-time World Series home run mark. But his career was plagued by injury and he was known for his after hours drinking and womanizing. Many thought that this was because his father and his uncles did not live past age 41 and Mickey thought he would not make it past his 40s. However, he did make it into his 60s but his career was cut short by his many injuries and the abuse he heaped on his body from drinking. He died in 1995 at age 63 of liver cancer.
This book really hit home for me. Even though Mantle was envied by many, he had a very hard life. He played through injuries and was often in pain. His best friends on the team were Billy Martin and Whitey Ford who often went out drinking with him. He later went to the Betty Ford clinic to get sober but by that time it was too late. He often wasn't a nice guy and could be very vulgar and abusive to fans. Joe DiMaggio didn't really like Mantle and had nothing good to say about him. But in the end, he is still considered one of the all-time greats!...more
This biography of Twain covers events experienced by Samuel Clemens that led to his eventually becoming one of the most revered writers in America, MaThis biography of Twain covers events experienced by Samuel Clemens that led to his eventually becoming one of the most revered writers in America, Mark Twain. The book seems to focus mostly on events that rather traumatized young Clemens including several deaths in his family and citizens of his boyhood home, Hannibal, Missouri but it also includes the exhilaration of Twain's youth and the friends who were immortalized in Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. The book begins with the westward journeys of his grandparents and parents and the arrival of the Clemens family in Missouri just before Twain's birth in 1835. It then follows Twain's days in Hannibal and then on to his experiences as a riverboat apprentice and then towards the end the tragic death of his younger brother, Henry, who was burned and blown into the river after the boiler on a riverboat exploded. Sam's young life was filled with difficulties. His father was distant and moved closer and closer to bankruptcy as he pursued dreams of wealth. His father also owned a slave and slave life was a source of solace to young Sam who enjoyed their stories and songs. Of course this was later used as source material for Huck Finn. "Powers regularly draws convincing links between Twain's early life and events and characters in his fiction, locating Twain's greatness as a humorist in the dynamics of his family, the tragedies that surrounded him, the literary currents of the time and a lifelong love for the varieties of spoken language." [image] I enjoyed reading this biography of Twain's early years and I thought Powers did a very good job of portraying how Sam Clemens became Mark Twain. There were some parts of the story that were somewhat tedious, however. Powers seemed to focus too much on Twain's hardships and the savagery of mid-nineteenth life in the south. He often used the word "demimonde" (which I had to look up) meaning "a group of people considered to be on the fringes of respectable society." I guess he felt that Twain was frequently among these types of people which he used to formulate much of his story lines including humor. I now feel like I need to read some of Twain's classic works that I've never gotten around to including Life on the Mississippi and Roughing It....more
This was a very interesting and compelling telling of the life of Olive Oatman. In the early 1850s, Olive was a pioneer girl heading west with her famThis was a very interesting and compelling telling of the life of Olive Oatman. In the early 1850s, Olive was a pioneer girl heading west with her family on a wagon train with a splinter group of Mormons called the “Brewsterites”, a group headed by James Colin Brewster, who broke off from Joseph Smith's church and who thought Eden was waiting for them at the mouth of the Colorado River. (I was brought up in the Mormon Church in Utah and I had never heard of this group). Her father was anxious to get to the "promised land" and did not heed the advice of others to stay together. He pushed on with his family and got stranded resulting in a massacre by the Yavapai Indians in Northern Mexico. Olive's family were all killed with the exception of her and her younger sister, Mary Ann and one brother, Lorenzo, who managed to escape. Olive and Mary Ann were taken into captivity and made slaves by the Yavapais. After one year, they were traded to the Mohave tribe where they were well cared for. But being assimilated into the tribe meant getting tattooed on the chin, a practice all women in the tribe underwent. Mary Ann died of an illness after two years but Olive ended up being ransomed and returned to white civilization after five years with the Mohave. [image]
Olive's story was sensationalized after her release especially through a book titled Captivity of the Oatman Girls which was ghost written by Royal B. Stratton, a Methodist minister who befriended the Oatmans after Olive's release. His book consisted of narration by both Olive and Lorenzo with an introduction and commentary by Stratton. Stratton omitted, exaggerated, and fabricated information in order to deliver a title that was at once pious and titillating for his publisher. His account differs significantly from Olive's first interviews and even though she was treated well by the Mohaves, Stratton tried to make the Indians look savage and it was essentially a racist narrative against them. So his book really needs to be read with a wary eye for untruths.
Mifflin tries to get to the truth behind the Olive Oatman story in The Blue Tattoo. She did a lot of research using historical documents and letters. She includes what happened to Olive in later years including her marriage and lecture tours where she seems to have made the Indians look like savages even though she was well-treated by them. Overall, I did really find this interesting reading. It provides a lot of historical information related to the Southwest and also includes information about the attitudes of time such as how many abolitionists thought of Native Americans as savages and should be contained or eliminated while at the same time wanting to abolish slavery. She also includes information on early examples of tattooing and how Olive's story has been dramatized and written about down through the years....more
Loading...
