LARRY’S SUMMER GROWN-UP READS (not beach reads)

Summer 2024 had me reading a range of fiction and nonfiction, new and old, short and long books, funny and sad,  some more engaging than others. 

 

AGE IS A FEELING by Haley McGee (script)

This play was performed in London (2022), at the Edinburgh Fring Festival (2022) as well as for a run in London (2022.23). Haley Mcgee perfomredt the play to Toronto at the Soulpepper Theatre in the spring of 2024. It was a knockout performance of a beautifully written monologue in which the actress skips through the decades telling stories of life and death, ambition, dreams, chance and ageing. “Inspired by interviews with hospice workers, conversations with mystics and trips to the cemetary, Age is a Feeling is a gripping story that wrestles with the glorious and melancholy uncertainties of humna life. A covert rallying cry against cynicism and regret, it’s an uplifitni exploration of chance, morality and living with verve.” (back cover). One of the conceits of the show is that cards are randomly picked by an audience member, each card displaying a noun (e..g., oyster, hospital, eggs, teeh, plane, diner) . When picked, that story gets incorporated into the performance. The written script contains all the stories. Presented in the second person, Age is a Feeling touches the heart and encourages you to think about your own life journey, your personal narratives, during and after experiencing the text, in the theatre or on the page.

Excerpt (p.11)

You want to slow time down

Log every memory

Heed every lesson

Know everything

But you can’t

You don’t get to know everything

And no one gets to know everything about you, not even yourself

 

THE BEE STING by Paul Murray

This book has been staring at me from my bookshelf for the past several months and I was determined to get to it because of some terrific reviews I read and the fact that it was shortlisted for the Booker Prize (2023) and especially because it’s by an Irish author. If truth be told, I’m sort of intimidate by books over 500 pages but I spent the month of August with tbis 643 novel and even though I read it rather slowly, I didn’t give up. The story is set in Ireland in 2008 and covers the woes of the troubled Barnes family. Dickie, the father’s business is going under and he  spends time in the wods building an apocalyse-proof bunker. His beautiful wife is getting fed up with the marriage and is tempted to have an affair with a cattle farmer named Big Mike. The daughter Cass, once top of the class is floundering and ends up binge-drinking before heading off to university life in Dublin. 12 year-old PJ has  plans to run away from home. Murray loops past and present time together in this sprawling novel divided into first section. The first focuses on Cass and her devout friendship with Elaine. The second section is devoted to Imelda’s life and is  written without periods or commas  representing a stream of consciousness telling of Imelda’s life. The next section deals mostly with Dickie, failing businessman, cheating husband and gay adventures. The Age of Loneliness section shines a light on each of the main characters in the present time in second person narrative. The novel wraps up in episodic adventures where the characters meet up on a dark and stormy night.  I didn’t find this story of family, trauma, sexuality, climate change, sexual awakening, regrets and dreams to be as outstanding as others have felt but I don’t regret spending August 2034 with the Barnes family as their journey was quite intriguing and somewhat comedic.  The Guardian review (May 23, 2023) claims, “You won’t read a sadder, truer, funnier novel this year.” I’m not sure I agree. 

 

BLACKOUTS by Justin Torres

This book had much intrigue for me: Knockout reviews (“a historic feat of literature”, “uniquivically brilliant, bold and structurally inventive:, “erotic and beguiling” , “enigmatic and spine-tingling.”, Winner of the  2023 National Book Prize for Fiction,  a hybrid of fiction and nonfiction, a story about a senior gay character (Juan Gay) and a younger character (Nene), to children’s book illustration and a multi-modal formats (Blackout poems, fascinating photographs, scientific research) but alas, I didn’t enjoy Blackouts.  Juan \ wants to pass on a project to Neme to restore and preserve the groundbreaking book Sex Variants: A Study of Homosexual Patterns. As the two characters have conversations in a place called the Palace (an institution of sorts), narratives of past joys, loves, parents, and sex are filtered throughout. I like my storytelling a bit more clearer than what is presnted here and found myself plodding along, despite the unique, well-researched creative writing. Despite the accolades, this was not a great summer read for me. I skipped pages. I stopped 2/3 of the way through. I may however, read We The Animals, Justin Torres’s first book which is apparently sensational I hope so. (It’s only 125 pages).

 

BLESSINGS by Chukwuebuka Ibeh

From the very opening of this novel, I cared about the character of Obiefuna who his learning to deal with his gay sexual awakenings . The story is set in Nigeria and teh sensitive Obiefuna is considered the black sheep of his family. When his father witnesses an intimate episode between his son and another boy, he sends him off to boarding school. A large chunk of the narrative unfolds in the school with a strict hierarchy exists amongst the students and Obiefuna tries to keep his secrets hidden at the same time as exploring other episodes of intimacy intimacy found amongst his peers. For much of the book, storytelling alternates between Obiefuna’s life and his mother, Uzoamaka, a devoted mother who must contend with the harsh views of her husband. The final section of the novel unpacks the political climate of Nigeria that is on the verge of criminalizing same-sex relationships. Obeifuna’s identity becomes more dangerous, especially since he has found a loving partnership with an older man. The writing is unfussy and elegantly relates the heart and mind of a young adult Nigerian boy, who is determined to be live in a place and time that prevents him from being true to himself. I really really enjoyed reading Ibeh’s beautiful debut novel.  

 

THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON by F. Scott Fitzgerald (short story, 1922)

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a  curiouser and curiouser  tale of a man who ages in reverse from his birth in 1860  at 70 years old until his reaching infancy. The narrative skips over the the character’s  life highlighting significant event over seven decades as Button grows  grows younger and younger. Episodes include: his birth as an old man who is already capable of speech, taking over the Roger Button & Co. Wholesale Hardware, enrolment in Yale College, a fading marriage, the birth of his son, enlisting in the Spanish American war, becoming a football hero, and enjoying life in kindergarten until he ends up spending time as a baby in crib. Believe or not, Fitzgerald makes the impossible seem possible. How will those in Benjamin’s life treat who are aging themselves treat Benjamin as he grows younger and younger? How will Benjamin physically, mentality and emotionally adjust to the different stages of a life lived backwards? This short story was first published in Collier’s Magazine, May 27, 1922,    The story was also released as a movie in 2008 starring Brad Pitt and received 13 Oscar nomations.  It has also been transformed into a musical in London England which I look forward to seeing in 2025 (that’s why I chose to read this story at this time). At approximately 40 pages, the story is quite short, especially since, in the stand-alone published version I read,  there are large white spaces in between paragraphs. It was subsequently anthologized in Fitzgerald’s Tales of the Jazz Age (which I look forward to reading). 

 

DAYS AT THE MORISAKI BOOKSHOP by Satoshi Yagiswa 2010; translated from the Japanese by Eric Ozawa (2023)

I, of course, would be drawn to reading stories set in bookstores. This is a charming story about a twenty-five year old girl who comes to live with her Uncle Satoro who has been running the Morisaki Bookshop which has been in the family for generations. Jilted by a lover, Takako reluctantly ends up living rent free-room above the shop and is slowly drawn into the world of books. She is drawn, too, into the humble world of her eccentric uncle who’s wife, Momoko, left him five years earlier.  This is a charming story of trust, secrets, infatuation and the importance of reading books that can inform – and change – our lives. Sequel: More Days at the Morisaki Bookshop (2024). 

 

EMPOWER YOUR VIBE: Igniting Your Passion, Purpose, and Brand to Unleash Your Unstoppable Best Self by Marnie and Rena Schwartz (nonfiction)

Marnie and Rena Schwartz are two dynamo business women who have, since 2002 run a non-competitive dance school.  Marnie and Rena are twin sisters and their wisdom and passion feed off each other. They are creative. They are talented. They are smart. With their recent release, Empower Your Vibe, the Schwartz twins share their knowledge and expertise with operating a business with the goal of teaching others how to turn dreams into reality. The book is divided into three sections I. Growing Your Brand 2. Building Your Business Brand and 3. Expanding Your Brand and this organization helps readers to consider how to develop and add power to those who enbark in the business world. Such chapter headings as ‘Dancing Through Life’; ‘Creating our own VIBE’, ‘Clarifying Your Philosophy[ ‘Inventing and Marketing – Building a Brand for Your Product’ give evidence of Marnie and Rena’s journey while at the same time offers insights into the components of ‘unleasing your unstoppable best self’.  A useful feature that appears throughout under the heading “Questions to Ask Yourself” inspire reflection.  The opportunity to download the ‘ Empower Your Vibe Journal’ is a a bonus feature. Bravo to Marnie and Rena for sharing their world and their work to help others. Helping others is what these two women live for.  Each page of this book comes from authentic, biographical experience. Bravo!

 

WE THE ANIMALS by Justin Torres (2011)

“We The Animals is. a stunning exploration of the viscerally charged landscape of growing up, how deeply we are formed by our earliest bonds, and how we are ultimately propelled at escape velocity towards our futures.”(book jacket blurb).

The critical success of Blackouts (which I wasn’t enamoured with / See above), led me to read the first book by Justin Torres, a novella at 125 pages which received much praise when it was released 13 years ago.  The setting is the 1980’s; in rural upstate New York. The book is presented as a series of chapters each with a short story feeling. with each vignette, the protagonist  recounts the trials and tribulations of three troublesome brothers,   living in a house while their mother (white) sleeps off her graveyard shift and their abusive father (Puerto Rican) is presented as  a model of masculine toxicity. This is a semi-autobiographical tale of brotherhood, childhood, and growing into an identity that we can accept and believe in. The protagonist says of his brothers: They’d bleed for me… They smelled my difference (being gay).  I was fascinated with most of the brothers’ stories, however wild they often seemed. 

 

WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? by Alice Munro (short stories) /1978

No need for me to sing the praises of Alice Munro.  Upon her death, I decided to reacquaint myself with some of her work and purchased Who Do You Think You Are? a collection of stories centred on Rose and her stepmother Flo. Rose is determined to escape the poor small town life of Hanratty and we learn about her university life, her crumbling marriage, her divorce, her affair and her life as an actress.  Each story is carefully painted with details of atmosphere, character, conversations and  inner thoughts. No doubt that Munro was masterful at making the ordinary seem extraordinary as she exposes the circumstances and heart of her characters. With the recent exposure of her stepdaughter’s story of sexual abuse that was kept hidden, the opening story, “Royal Beginnings”, the story of ‘royal beatings’ by a physically abusive father is particularly chilling. While reading this book over a weekend, I found myself looking at my day to day events and encounters with others with a microscopic, reflective lens much like the award winning-author did in her writing. Alice Munro makes us wander and wonder  wander. Such is the power of her writing, and I will delve into other titles over the next few months. 

 

SHOUT OUT

EARTH by John Boyne

John Boyne, a favourite author, will always get a shout out from me. Most recently publications include a quartet of short novels. Water is the first in “The Elements” series and Earth, released in the spring of 2024, is the second. Although we first met Evan Keogh with his departure from small Island Irish home in the first book Earth can be considered a stand-alone title. It is the powerful story or a rape trial centred on two talented footballers.  Evan, an extremely handsome gay man who was a witness to a sexual encounter from his talented egoistical teammate, Robbie. The truth of what happened could threaten Evan and Robbie’s careers. Alternating chapters deal with the unfolding of the trial as well as stories of Evan’s own gay experiences, his family relationship and his sorrow of never fulfilling his dream or being an artist or worth and sorrow of never finding true love. This was a book I didn’t want to put down, as I judged and questioned – and was fascinated by  -Evan’s life choices and circumstances. Of course, I can’t wait for the next title, Fire to be released later in the year.