Discoveries at the Naples Art Museum

When I lived in New York, I would sometimes wander through the galleries at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, just taking it all in.  On occasion I would come upon a group of students on a field trip and think how lucky they were to live in place where they had the opportunity to grow up viewing the works of all those amazing artists.   (I felt pretty lucky to be able to do this as an adult!)

I was reminded of this last week when I made a visit to the Naples Art Museum.  The purpose of my visit was to see the American Modernism exhibit.  As I entered the Museum, a group of children surrounded a docent who was telling them about an outdoor sculpture.  I didn't pay much attention and marched into the Museum to find out where the modernism exhibit was located.  I was talking with the woman at the ticket counter when the kids entered the lobby and I heard some loud "oohs" and "ahs".  I turned around to see a little girl with one hand over her mouth and the other hand pointing at the Chihuly Icicle Sculpture that is the focal point of the lobby.    Despite the fact that it is approximately 20 feet tall and has around 1000 glass icicles, I hadn't even noticed it!

Rufino Tamayo's
Dos Mujeres en la Ventana (1925)

As I climbed the stairs, I realized that there were groups of children in all of the galleries.  It turns out that the local YMCA had organized a field trip to the Museum for its kids' camp.   It was fun to listen in on the back and forth between the docents and the kids.  In the exhibit on Modern Mexican Masters,  the conversation was about the stories the artists were trying to tell with their work.   The exhibit included art as varied as paintings on tin tiles to paintings done by an artist who was clearly influenced by Picasso.  I personally enjoyed learning a bit about the social realism of Rufino Tamayo, whose work I'd never seen before.  The composition and subject matter of this painting reminded me of Manet's The Balcony, although I haven't found anything to indicate that Manet's work was an influence.

Juan Genovese' Ruta (2010)

I was clearly functioning in a state of oblivion that day because I almost walked through a retrospective of Spanish artist Juan Genoves' work without even looking at it.  The Museum's website shows this Genoves painting, which frankly didn't strike me as interesting in the least.  I was walking through the gallery on to whatever was next when I noticed two women standing inches away from one of the paintings and talking about how amazing it was.  Huh???  

Detail from one of Genoves' works

As I got closer to the paintings, I realized that each of the "people" in the work is an individual glob (that's the technical term) of paint that has been carefully placed on the canvas.  Genoves sometimes adds little metallic accent pieces to the people or shadows to give them depth.   The canvases are quite large (Arcos is approximately 3 feet by 4 feet), and it's hard to imagine how he managed to "paint" the people with such precision.  One of the docents explained that Genoves lays his canvas on the floor and works on the piece from a scaffolding.   I know this picture doesn't really capture the three dimensionality of his work, but it is truly quite amazing. The theme of Genoves' current work is the individual versus the crowd.  Genoves came of age in the era of Franco's authoritarian regime, a time when cultural diversity was suppressed.  With this background, the individuality that his people are imbued with in the midst of the crowd takes on new meaning.

You might have noticed that I haven't said anything about the American Modernism exhibit that I was so keen to see.  It turns out that it wasn't that interesting.   Instead, once I got my blinders off, I was introduced to the work of an artist that was quite unique.  So it was an afternoon of discovery for me and the YMCA kids alike.

Having Tea with Lee (Child, that is)

I'll admit it--I have a thing for author Lee Child.  Or maybe I have a thing for his protagonist, Jack Reacher, and it manifests itself through my infatuation with Lee.  Either way, getting to see Lee up close and personal not once but twice at the Book Expo was a highlight for me.

It goes without saying that I was near the front of the line at the Random House booth to pick up a signed copy of Lee's newest book, A Wanted Man.   Lee was a ticketed author at the Book Expo one year when I was still living in New Jersey, and I left my house around 5:45 a.m. to make sure that I got into the City in plenty of time to be there when tickets were given out at 7:00.  So standing on line with other Reacher fans for 45 minutes was not exactly a hardship, and I have a signed copy of the book in my hot little hands.  The dilemma, of course, is when to read it.  There's a temptation to devour it right away, but then I'll have to wait another year for my next fix (although I do find that re-reading the books is quite enjoyable.)  So I'm waiting until I need a little pick-me-up.  But I digress....

Each year the Expo hosts author breakfasts and lunches each day at which three or four authors talk about their work.  I have never been to one of these events, both because I am really cheap (you have to pay an additional fee to attend) and because they interfere with the business of the day of collecting all of those galleys!   This year, though, I couldn't resist going to the author's tea where Lee was one of the panelists.  (Debbie Macomber and Daniel Handler--aka Lemon Snickety--were also on the dais.)  In fact, it was a perfect way to end the day.  It was at 4:00 when things are winding down and you're more than ready to get off your feet.   I found a seat with a prime view and settled in.

Technically, the topic of the discussion was supposed to be audio books, but Lee didn't have much to say about that aspect of the publishing world. Dick Hill narrates all of his books.  (I just listened to Running Blind and he does a fine job.)  So he regaled the audience instead with stories about the first place Reacher madness took hold--Bulgaria.   Child's popularity in Bulgaria is largely attributable to Slavi Trifonov, a late night talk show host in the mold of Leno or Letterman.  Slavi is one of Lee's biggest fans and talks about Child/Reacher every night on his show.  For years, he made a major push to get Lee to do a Bulgarian book tour.  There were a few reasons this wasn't overly appealing at first blush, including the language barrier, the fact that the population of Bulgaria is smaller than that of New York City, and the fact that Lee's books generally come out in October and, as a big NY Yankees fan, he doesn't like to be out of the country during the World Series.  Slavi sounds like quite the persistent guy, though, and Lee relented and agreed to do a tour one year when the Yankees' hopes for a championship weren't looking promising.

Lee's tales of his time in Bulgaria were quite humorous.  When Lee deplaned onto the tarmac in Sofia, 50 or more journalists surrounded him yelling out questions in Bulgarian.  He was whisked away to a waiting limo, which drove him about 20 yards to the terminal, where he entered the VIP lounge.   Journalists galore were waiting for him there as well, along with his publisher and Slavi's people carrying massive bouquets of flowers.   Having a bodyguard in Bulgaria is similar to having a housekeeper or a lawn guy here in the U.S., and Slavi made sure that Lee had the best--Slavi's own guys.  The guards (whom Lee thinks must have been out-of-work wrestlers) escorted him everywhere during his time there, wearing three-quarter length leather coats which they would periodically open to "reassure" Lee that they were armed.  And of course the vehicle of choice was a bullet proof Mercedes!   Lee's appearance on the Slavi Show was quite an experience, with an interpreter translating the entire interview.  (I watched part of a video on YouTube of Slavi's interview with Dennis Rodman to get a sense of what it must have been like.  Suffice it to say that the guest takes an escalator down onto the stage where a Doc Severinsen-type band plays a welcoming tune.)   It must have been a hoot.

During the Q&A, a woman at my table stood up and asked the question that's on every Lee Child fan's mind--What in the heck are they thinking casting Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher in the upcoming movie One Shot?  (She did ask the question more delicately, couching it in terms of the creative control a writer has over the film version of a book, but everyone--including Lee--knew what she meant.)  For those of you who aren't Reacher maniacs, first, why are you still reading this?  Second, Jack Reacher is 6'6" tall and 250 pounds of muscle.  Notwithstanding the body that Cruise developed for his role in Rock of Ages, it's impossible to envision him as Reacher.  Lee's basic answer was two-fold.  A writer has absolute creative control over the film version of the book in the sense that he doesn't have to sell the rights if he doesn't want to do so.  Point taken.   And if you're going to make a movie, why not make it with a movie star?   Well, we'll see how it turns out (or not--the women sitting near me at the tea said they will not see the movie because they don't want Tom Cruise to taint their image of Jack).   I've penciled the December 21st release date into my calendar.

I could go on and on but you've probably figured out that seeing Lee was a huge treat for me.  If you want to read more about Lee, Reacher, and the books, check out http://www.leechild.com/faqcontact.php.  (At a minimum, take a look at the picture of the mysterious man playing Jack--does he bear any resemblance to Tom Cruise????)   For people who are already fans, there's some interesting info there that I'm betting you don't know.  And if you aren't already a reader of the Reacher novels, get thee to a bookstore or library and start reading.  You are in for a real treat!

Book Expo 2012 - Editors' Buzz Books

The Monday of Book Expo week is like the calm before the storm.  The Expo is a working event for publishers and writers, so I'm sure there's a lot that goes on that day.  For attendees like me, though, the only event of interest is the session at which editors from six different publishing houses share their views about why their upcoming releases are special.  Two hundred books were submitted for consideration as a "buzz" book.  It would be fascinating to know more about how the books featured at this event were chosen.  I don't have that insight to share with you, though, so I'll settle for a recap of the books that were selected.

Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness by Susannah Cahalan (editor Millicent Bennett from Free Press).  Brain on Fire was the only non-fiction book in the group.  It is the story of a New York Post reporter who developed an auto-immune disease that manifested itself through seizures, psychosis, and catatonia.  The disease was ultimately diagnosed and  successfully treated.  Brain on Fire is an expanded version of Cahalan's article about her experience that ran in the Post.  (http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/item_OseCEXxo6axZ8Uyig17QKL)  It doesn't sound up my alley but Bennett has some good credentials as she also edited Colum McAnn's Let the Great World Spin.

A Million Heavens by John Brandon (editor Eli Horowiz from McSweeneys).   A Million Heavens was touted as a "supernatural romance" with an odd cast of characters.  Horowitz, who has also edited Stephen King's books, used the adjectives "funny, sad, strange, peculiar, familiar, and surreal" to describe this novel, which they are hoping will be Brandon's break-through work. (Brandon also wrote Arkansas and Citrus County.)   It sounds a bit out there for my taste but I do like the cover.  Here's a snippet from the book (originally slated to be called The Vigilers) when it was in progress.   (http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2010/07/05/new-fiction-from-citrus-county-arkansas-author-john-brandon/)   Just for a bit of connection, John went to University of Florida and is a huge Gators fan.

In the Shadow of the Banyon by Vaddey Ratner (editor Trish Todd from Simon & Schuster).  In the Shadow of the Banyon is a novel (with autobiographical overtones) about a young girl coming of age in Cambodia during the regime of the Khmer Rouge.  Ratner came to the United States when she was 11 years old and was mute in response to the horrors to which she had been a witness.   Todd compared the book's intensity combined with strong story telling elements to Little Bee, The Diary of Anne Frank, and The Killing Fields.   Definitely not a beach read, but it is on my list.   If you're interested in reading a bit about Ratner and the process of turning her life experience into a novel, check out http://www.vaddeyratner.com/q-a/.

Panorama City by Antoine Wilson (editor Lauren Wein from Houghton Miflin Harcourt). In Panorama City, the 28 year old protagonist thinks--mistakenly--that he is on his death bed and dictates the story of his life to his unborn son.  Wein said the book, "goes down like a chocolate milkshake but has the benefits of a kale soy smoothie" with its references to sources as varied as the bible, mythology, and Cervantes.  Sounds a bit over my head!   Wilson's website is pretty funny, though, as he shares his insights into the writing process and the truth behind his publicity shot.  http://antoinewilson.com/wotwhat/

Shani Boianjiu

People of Forever Are Not Afraid by Shani Boianjiu (editor Alexis Washam from Hogarth).   People of Forever is another novel with autobiographical elements.  It is the story of three young girls who join the Israeli Defense Forces.  The book reveals the juxtaposition of these girls' worries about the kinds of things teen-age girls are concerned about (like boys and movie stars) while dealing with the realities of a military existence.  Last fall 24 year old Boianjiu was named one of the "5 under 35" fiction authors by the National Book Foundation.  (Here's a short interview with her, which is where I found her picture.  She is SO young.  http://www.thetkreview.com/2011/11/08/the-5-under-35-interview-series-shani-boianjiu/)  People of Forever sounds intriguing to me, not least of which because I have friends whose daughter just graduated from high school and is heading to Israel to join the IDF.   I am looking forward to reading this book and comparing it to Sara's experiences.

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce (editor Kendra Harpster from Random House).  Harold Fry and his wife are leading a mundane existence in a small English village when Harold receives a letter from an old friend who is dying.  He writes an immediate response and heads out to the mailbox to mail it when he spontaneously decides to walk 500 miles to deliver the letter in person.   Needless to say, Harold has plenty of time during his journey to think about the past, and he meets some pretty interesting characters along the way.  In an interview with Joyce, she calls it a "coming of (old) age" novel, which I love.  http://www.scotsman.com/the-scotsman/books/former-actress-and-playwright-rachel-joyce-has-made-a-dream-debut-with-her-novel-1-2194169    Harold's story started as a radio play but Joyce realized that she had more to say about his pilgrimage (a word carefully chosen).  The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry was already published in the UK to some acclaim, and I'm looking forward to finding out why.

At the end of the session, I was primed for three days of battling for galleys of books by both authors whose work I enjoy and authors who might join the list of my favorites.  As we headed out the doors of the meeting room, galleys of the books that had just been buzzed were piled up on tables, so I sharpened my elbows and dove in.   It was a great way to ease into the chaos that is Book Expo America.

Book Expo America 2012: A Reader's Paradise

I love to read.  I remember my mother urging me when I was a kid to take my nose out of my books and go outside and play with the neighborhood children (which explains a lot about why I'm such a clutz when it comes to athletic endeavors!)  My taste then, as now, ran to mysteries and thrillers, with Nancy Drew and the Bobbsey Twins series topping my list of favorites.  So it's no surprise that I eagerly look forward to the Book Expo each year with its promise of galleys of books to be released in the next few months and opportunities to meet many of their authors.

Here's how the Book Expo works.   The Expo is held at the Javits Convention Center in New York.  Historically, only people with a connection to the book industry can register to attend, with bookstore owners being the target audience since the objective of the event is for publishing houses to sell their books.  My involvement with adult literacy programs has qualified me to go the last few years.  This model is changing, though, and this year was the first at which "power readers" (i.e., people who want to go to the Expo just because they love to read) were permitted entry on the last day of the event.  My registration fee for the three+ day event was $100, and I anted up an extra $30 to attend an author tea (more about that in a separate post).    And what did I get for my $100?  I can't give you all the specifics right now, as two boxes of books are en route from the Expo as I write, but suffice it to say that I walked away with over 125 pounds of books!

Wendi, Lee and I in a rare down moment at the Expo

It still sounds pretty mysterious, right?  (I know that I couldn't quite grasp it until I actually experienced it.)   The doors to the Expo open at 9:00, at which point hundreds of people rush through the entry as event officials urge us not to run.  (It's actually quite easy to envision someone being trampled if she fell.  Readers aren't generally thought of as vicious, but if you have your heart set on getting the proof of the latest  Jonathan Tropper or James Patterson novel, it's dog eat dog!)    My friend Wendi introduced me to the Expo, and she always does voluminous research in advance of the event so that we have a plan of attack.  We generally head first to the booths of the big publishing houses--MacMillan, Random House, Simon & Schuster and Hatchette/Little, Brown--where there are hundreds of galleys piled up on the floor.  If you've been to the Expo before, you know to bring bags with you to hold your prizes.  (You can get bags there, but you definitely don't want to waste time looking for a bag at the start of the day.)   You know how when you're in a bookstore, you stand and read the back cover of a book and perhaps look at the first few pages to see if you're interested in buying it?  Well, there's none of that there.  You basically just grab anything that looks potentially of interest and move on.  There's plenty of time for sorting later.  After you have as many books as you can possibly carry, you head down to the attendee shipping area where they give you boxes to store your books for the duration.

Once you've made it through the initial mad dash, you can take a slightly more orderly approach to the rest of your day.  Although there are lots of galleys to grab at the start of the day, some of the publishing houses have a set schedule as to when they put specific books out, and if you're not there within the first few minutes, your chances of getting the galley are pretty slim.  Then there are the author signings, which take place both in publishing house booths and in the autographing section (which has 25+ authors signing at any given time.)   For most of the authors, all you have to do to get the signed book is stand on line until it's your turn (subject to availability).   For a few of the hottest names, though, you have to get a ticket.  This year's ticketed authors included Richard Ford (Canada), who has the most incredible blue eyes, and Dennis Lehane (Live by Night).  Tickets are handed out at 7:00 each morning, so you have to make a decision whether you care enough about the book to get to the Expo that much earlier.  We generally arrived around 8:15 and were able to get tickets for the authors whose books we wanted most.    This year I adopted a new strategy for the authors who were signing in the autograph area.  If a popular author was signing from 10-11, people often start lining up around 9:30 and then stand in line over an hour to get their book.  I decided to take my chances and hit the line at the end of the hour, when I often was able to waltz right up and get their signature.   (I was closed out a couple of times, but no real tragedies.)  This strategy is dicier for the in-booth signings, though, so if there was a book that I really wanted (like Lee Child's latest), I would line up extra early and bond with the other fans.  As I scurried around the floor of the convention center, I would often ask people in long lines who they were waiting to meet, and sometimes they didn't know.  I analogize it to food lines in Russia--I don't know what I'm standing in line for, but if other people are doing it, it must be something good.   And I can understand the temptation to do that if you don't have a schedule setting out what you want to get.  Luckily, Wendi's spreadsheets of galley hand-outs and signings helped keep me focused and on track.

Me with Michael Bolton and Wendi

Then there are celebrity signings, which I generally eschew.   First of all, the lines are ridiculously long.  (The line for HGTV star Mike Holmes--Holmes on Homes--snaked from here to eternity as did the one for Kirstie Alley, who apparently doesn't even like to read.)  Second, you often don't even get the book!  People stand on line for whatever amount of time to be rewarded with the signature of the celeb on a postcard or an excerpt.  Mike Isabella of Top Chef  fame and Ina Garten signed recipe cards; again, not worth the wait.  Let me be clear that there are times that all you get from famous novelists is an excerpt of their work.  Junot Diaz has a new book of short stories coming out, and people who attended the author breakfast where he appeared in hopes of getting his new book were disappointed by only getting one story.  And Michael Connelly, always a favorite for thriller fans, was signing an updated version of the first book in his Harry Bosch series that included an excerpt from his upcoming release.  (I'll admit that I stood in line for that one and left it on the tables in the shipping area.  You have to make some choices!)    Having said all that, when I found Wendi waiting on line to have her picture taken with Michael Bolton, I jumped right in.  I dutifully collected his signature on some postcard but have no idea what he was promoting.  He is quite attractive, though (and I definitely think that losing the pony tail was a good idea!)

The impact of e-reading on publishing was not nearly as evident as I expected it to be.  Some publishing houses were making proofs available on Net Galley (http://www.netgalley.com/), but that was generally in addition to the paper copies that were being given out.   Lee (who joined us for parts of the Expo) made an interesting--and funny--comment about people bemoaning the fact that people are not buying physical books as much as they did previously.  He compared it to when Gutenberg created the printing press.  People at the time might have said, "Hey, Gutenberg, what do you think you're doing?  You are going to ruin the art of story telling with this new fangled invention of yours!"   Of course, that wasn't what happened at all.   So, too, the way that stories are shared is changing with the onslaught of Nooks and iPads and Kindles.  But that doesn't mean that books are going away or that fewer people are reading.    I love the feel of a book in my hands, but even I am beginning to understand the appeal of having lots of reading material at your fingertips in one device.

All in all, it was a fun, exciting, and exhausting few days.  Once the dust has cleared and my boxes have arrived, I'll report back on some of the titles that I'm most looking forward to reading.   In the meantime, though, I still have a backlog of titles from last year's Expo to finish, and with only 355 days until next year's Expo, I'm going to be busy!

Let's Go to the Movies!

New York has it all--shopping, theater, museums, night life, more types of cuisine than you can possibly imagine, and probably the best people watching in the world.  This trip, though, my focus was a bit different.  The purpose of my visit was to go to the Book Expo (more about that in later posts).  I came into town a few days before the Expo to hang out with my friend Andrea and decided that each day's activities should include going to the movies.  And so we did!  Back when we were fledgling lawyers, Andrea and I took a movie class at the New School that was taught by Richard Brown.  This was not a film class where you watched Ingmar Bergman movies and analyzed their deeper meaning.  No, it was a movie class.  We went to theaters early Saturday and Sunday mornings (often located in pre-Disneyized Times Square) and watched movies that would be released in the next few weeks.  We would then go to a "class" later in the week at which Brown would interview someone involved with the production of the film.  Sometimes it was a big name actor or a director.  (Andrea remembers Tom Hanks coming to the class when his movie Punchline came out, but my memory bank is running on empty on this one.)  Sometimes, though, it was the composer or the cinematographer or the costume designer, and we got a peek into an aspect of movie making that we often only recognize during the Academy Awards.  Two of my favorite movies from the class were Mystic Pizza (which introduced us to Julia Roberts and her incredible smile) and Cinema Paradiso (a fabulous Italian picture about the joy of the movies).   It was great fun, and one of the things I do miss about living in New York is easy access to both movie theaters and independent films.   This was the week-end's line up.

Moonrise Kingdom   (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MX_BQwa7680).   Do not miss this Wes Anderson movie if you have the chance to see it.   It is quirky and funny and sweet and has an incredible cast that includes Bruce Willis as a small town sheriff, Frances McDormand and Bill Murray as parents of a troubled young girl, and Edward Norton as a Khaki Scout leader    The real star of the movie, though, is newcomer Jared Gilman as a rogue Khaki scout who escapes from scout camp to run away with his true love (played by Kara Hayward).   Honestly, I can't remember the last time I enjoyed a movie so much.  

Bernie  (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XkKjbSxzR4).    This was an odd one. Funeral director Bernie Tiede (played by Jack Black) was the most popular man in town, especially with the older widows.   Marjorie Nugent (played by Shirley MacLaine) was the most crotchety and disliked woman in town.   The movie tells the true story of their strange relationship through a series of interviews with people who knew them.  Spoiler alert:  Don't read any more here if you plan to see this movie!  Ultimately, Tiede snaps and kills Nugent, and the town's residents root for his acquittal.   The movie was funny and well done, but I can't say that I'd recommend paying $13 to go see it (which is the average price of a ticket to the movies here--I frankly expected it to be more!)

Where Do We Go Now? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Te9c2jReOg)   This Lebanese film was written and directed by Nadine Labaki, who is also one of its stars.  It is set in a small village that is half Muslim and half Christian.  The opening scene shows the women of the village dressed all in black walking in formation (with a bit of choreography) to the cemetery to tend to the graves of their husbands and sons and is quite haunting.   The residents generally live together peacefully, but political and social unrest and fighting outside the community threaten to incite the men to violence against one another.  The women conspire to pre-empt this by doing some pretty crazy things (like faking a miracle and importing Ukrainian exotic dancers) to keep the men's minds elsewhere.  It was an interesting movie, but I felt that Labaki wasn't sure what tone she wanted to strike.  I'd call it a "dramedy" but the emphasis was more on the comedic than the dramatic notwithstanding the subject matter.  And I definitely was puzzled by the inclusion of a few musical numbers in the movie (although I'll admit that I'm still humming one of the tunes!)  Wait for Netflix for this one.

The week-end flew by, and it was suddenly Monday morning and time to get ready for the main event--the Book Expo!   Watch this space for my report!