Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

While laid up with a back injury (from gardening, it seems--as Jay pointed out, no good story to tell in that!), I had the chance to read the Pulitzer Prize winning book, Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout. The book takes the form of a series of short stories in which Olive is either featured or makes an appearance of some sort. I found myself looking for her, much as you might look for Alfred's appearnce in a Hitchcock movie. The theme of the book seems to be the emotional loneliness of people, particularly people in less than fulfilling marriages. Each story seemed to feature either a death or a relationship outside the marriage (the latter sometimes being consummated but often not). Olive is a generally unlikable character, with her supremely straightforward manner and inability to say that she's sorry. (Perhaps this latter characteristic reminds me of my own mother in some ways, at least in recent years. Not only is this a trait, but one that both Olive and my mother seem proud of at some level.) There were some aspects of the book that struck a chord--the comparison by Olive of her relationship with her son to the relationship of her friends' with their offspring. While superficially commiserating with her friends, she was actually looking for some solace in the fact that their relationship with their daughter was even more strained than her relationship with her son. The humanity of this trait was striking--isn't this something we all do at some level, whether it be in a game of golf , at the workplace or in relation to our dealings with our significant others?

On a different level, I am interested to find that I am enjoying "real" books more than thrillers these days, although they are definitely a bit of work. Maybe it's the lack of substance otherwise in my life at the moment. Maybe I'm trying to get ready to do a book club (although I still don't know if I could force myself to read other people's selections). Only time will tell.

Family Memories

Whew--it is a hot one today! This summer has been the warmest that I remember. Usually there are very few days when we miss having air conditioning, but there have been more than a few this year. I am hiding out in the basement (aka the "man cave"), where it must be 10 degrees cooler than the rest of the house.

Lying here I am remembering one summer in the Berkshires when it was incredibly warm. We hadn't been married long and were there for a week or two with Scott. We had built the screened in porch to thwart the bugs but hadn't furnished it yet. When the heat set in, we pulled the TV out to the screened in porch with some cushions from patio furniture and continued our movie fest. I think it was Woody Allen that year, one of my least favorites since I just don't get his humor. (No matter how long I lived in NY, I was never going to become a New Yorker.) I think back much more fondly on other summer movie fests, particularly the Godfather series. We were creative with that one, going from the Godfather triology to other mafia movies (Analyze This and The Freshman come to mind). I now think that we might be driven to commit murder ourselves if we were cooped up in that small house for an extended period of time--maybe we'll have the opportunity to find out on our journeys to and from Florida. TTFN.

Glass Castle

My best read this summer has been The Glass Castle by Jeanette Wall. I heard about this book yeas ago from my voracious reading friend Pat Hackett. She told me of the opening pages where a woman is riding in a cab down Park Avenue and sees her mother digging through a trash can foraging for food. Having lived in NY for many years, I could easily visualize the scene and feared that this book would be incredibly depressing. In fact, I found it to be very funny at times and a true tribute to the tenacity of the human spirit. It's also a story about the choices that people make, although it's hard to believe that Jeanette's mother chose to live the way she did without suffering from some type of mental illness--and to choose to subject her children to unsafe, unsanitary and downright bizarre living conditions is unfathomable. At points I found the description of the way that Jeanette was raised to go on too long--it reminded me a bit of my reaction to Augusten Burroughs' Running with Scissors--interesting but a bit wearing over time given its lack of relation (happily!) to my own upbringing.

My enjoyment of this book was enhanced a bit by the fact that I borrowed it from the South Shore Bookmobile and had an opportunity to talk with people there about it. The librarian shared that people's reactions to the book really vary--some find it totally depressing and others find it uplifting. I look forward to sharing this book in the Fall at a reading group in Punta Gorda.

Virgin Post

OK, here's my first attempt at blogging. I figure that if I say I want to start doing some writing of some sort, I might as well try with this. My undertaking: post for the next 30 days. I will be writing about whatever strikes my fancy--be it Chester, golf, bridge, books, adult literacy or something else entirely.

One of my thoughts is to check blogging out as a resource for LV-UC tutors. If I can get it figured out, I can then share the technique with others who can then use it for more advanced classes. There could be a link from our website, which would be cool. And then I had the idea of trying to do the animal idioms post -- I have no idea if it would be possible to do this with pictures but it will be fun to try and figure it out. Any additional types of computer literacy are bound to be helpful for me as I start on the next phase of my life--perhaps a more creative phase (and undoubtedly a less lucrative one!) I am looking forward to exploring the adult literacy program made available through the Charlotte County Public Schools System and finding out about how the lab environment works. I guess it's the same as someone trying to work on their English from home, but with some supervision. The personal touch seems to be so important, though, to keeping people motivated, especially ESL students who may not have much of an opportunity to speak English at home or in their communities. I was always surprised to hear about women who were in our program whose husbands--and children!--were resistant to speaking English at home and helping them achieve their goal of literacy. A kind of suppression almost (which brings to mind A Thousand Splendid Suns, which I just mentioned to my sister yesterday).

That's it for post one. Don't want to go crazy in case I end up somehow losing this! TTFN.