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LitPicks - July '09
The Kindesss of Strangers: this month's recommendations revolve around those who unexpectedly stretch out a hand to help strangers — and who, in the process, change not only the lives of those they help, but their own lives as well.
A Lighter Touch | Wonderfully
Written | Great Works
The Cure to Modern Life
Lisa Tucker, 2008
369 pp.
By Molly Lundquist
What was it Good Housekeeping had to say about this novel? Oh, yes—an "emotionally satisfying page-turner": a nicely cliched phrase which pretty much sums up The Cure. But I like this book—a light, breezy read with some good heft to it (okay, more cliche).
A man and woman, Matthew and Amelia, once lovers, are now rivals. The two battle over corporate ethics—Matthew as a top-level pharmaceutical exec and Amelia as an independent medical ethicist. Into the mix are dropped two homeless waifs, 10-year-old Danny and his toddler sister Isabelle, who of course squirrel their way into everyone's affections. The end is hardly surprising, but it's the getting there that makes it fun— it's done with a fair amount of style and aplomb (oops, 'nother cliche).
At stake is what constitutes good and evil, both personal and societal, and the protagonists dig in their heels. It turns out everyone pulls a con job on everyone else to get what they need or want—everyone, with the excpetion of little Isabelle. The fun is having it all come together: the bad guy not so bad, the good gal not so sure of herself, the little boy not so innocent...or so hardened, and a dear friend not quite the moral hero he's touted to be. But we're still left to ponder—where does morality lie—and which morality takes precedence—public or private?
It's an engrossing tale, even laugh-out-loud funny in parts. Lisa Tucker's style, if more than a little Hollywood screenplay-ish (John Cusack, I'm thinking), makes this a perfect Lighter Touch pick— and a super book club read.
Be sure to see our Reading Guide to The Cure for Modern Life.
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The Soloist
Steve Lopez, 2008
304 pp.
By Molly Lundquist
Schizophrenia is an equal opportunity disease, a fact never more evident than its attack on a once brilliant Julliard student turned street musician and homeless man. As author Steve Lopez says toward the end of his wonderful recounting: rich or poor, brilliant or not..
mental illness...shows no mercy and often arrives like an unexpected storm, dropping an endless downpour on young dreams.
Lopez meets 50+ year-old Nathaniel Anthony Ayers on a Los Angeles street corner playing his 2-stringed violin in what sounds to Lopez like a fairly accomplished performance. As a columnist for the L.A. Times, Lopez decides Nathaniel would make an interesting topic for his newspaper column. So he writes his story... gets a huge reader response...and then continues to follow, help, and befriend this oddly charismatic, brilliant, and desperately ill man over the course of two years. He brings us along on the journey.
Nathaniel resists treatment. He'd had his fill 30 years ago—hospitalization, drugs, and electroshock therapy—after having to leave Julliard School of Music. But as Lopez finds out, treatment options today have changed, incorporating not just more advanced drugs but, more importantly, a carefully monitored program to help patients function as productive human beings. The book details the struggle to bring Ayers back into the realm of human activity.
Read this book! It's a great story—about a rewarding friendship between two unlikey individuals. For book club discussions, show clips from the 2009 film, starring Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey, Jr. Or do some research on schizophrenia and the new treatment theories. It would be a great book club meeting—an engaging book and lively discussion!
See our Reading Guide for The Soloist.
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Bartleby the Scrivener
Heman Mellville, 1853
112 pp. ("Bartleby"—44 pp.)
By Molly Lundquist
True story: my boss, an English professor, Ph.D and all, once told me the biggest mistake Herman Melville made when writing "Bartleby the Scrivener" was to write anything after the title. It's not much of a recommendation.
But I've always loved the story—and my students, if not exactly falling in love with "Bartleby," learned to appreciate it and the lively discussions it inspired.
The story's narrator is a Wall Street lawyer who hires Bartleby, a strange, pale, apparition-like man, as one of his copyists. But Bartleby refuses to do what's asked of him—responding always with the enigmatic phrase, "I would prefer not to." Soon the narrator discovers Bartleby spending nights in the office—because he has nowhere else to go.
Although the plot revolves around what to do with mysterious Bartleby, the story's central figure is really the narrator. Much like the butler Stevens in Remains of the Day, Melville's unnamed narrator, while hardly callous, remains dense and uncomprehending—until the end, when he grasps hold of a fragment of his own humanity.
"Bartleby" is a powerful read, rich in symbolic imagery and meaning. It has particular resonance today, given the current crisis from Wall Street and the myopia that led to it.
The story in this Dover edition (cover photo above) is paired with "Benito Cereno," about a slave ship mutiny. Both stories would make for riveting book club discussions.
See our Reading Guide for Bartleby and Benito Cereno.
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