What blows my skirt up

Two or three years ago, as I was walking past a cart stacked with a new shipment of books for the library, a portion of a familiar pink and white checked cover caught my eye. I pulled out The Lonely Doll by Dare Wright and as I flipped through it, I suddenly remembered that I had read it and another one in the series called Edith and Mr. Bear at my grandparents' house when I was little. I loved these books because they were unlike any of the other storybooks I'd seen and I continued to re-read and love them long after I'd moved on to books far above that reading level. I think this was mostly because of the black and white photographs that were the book's illustrations. Reading it from the distance of many years and an adult perspective, I was struck by how sad and dark that first book was.

It's no surprise then that I grabbed our copy of The Secret Life of the Lonely Doll: The Search for Dare Wright by Jean Nathan when it came in. The author, much like myself, suddenly remembered The Lonely Doll and went in search of a copy. Her search led her to the author and to Dare's odd family and strange life. Separated from her father and brother at a very young age, Dare grew up with her mother who was a talented artist, but she never got over the trauma of losing half her family. It didn't help that her mother was emotionally neglectful and then, as Dare got older and kept trying to please her, smothering and possibly even sexually abusive (friends commented on how they slept in the same bed and suggested that there were sexual overtones to their relationship). When Dare was finally reunited with her brother when she was in her late 20s, they developed an overly intense relationship as well. She had no end of admirers and suitors, but from the picture Nathan paints, it was probably that she never had a sexual relationship with any of them. She and her mother inhabited a kind of fairy world, with Dare almost infantilized, where they apparently thought nothing of taking photographs of each other in the nude or of staging elaborately costumed scenarios to photograph.

Dare was an actress and a model, but her true calling and success came as a photographer. Edith, the star of her enormously successful children's books, was her childhood doll that she altered to resemble herself, with blonde hair, an upturned nose, and gold hoops for her ears. Little Bear and Mr. Bear were thinly veiled stand-ins for her brother and father. Of course, in this happy family that she created for her books, there was no Mrs. Bear, which perhaps suggests that even if she didn't ever break free from her mother (and, in fact, deteriorated physically and mentally quite rapidly after her mother's death), subconsciously she wished very much to do so. Viewed in this light the books are even darker than I'd thought.

The second short novel I read this weekend was The 25th Hour by David Benioff. Spike Lee made this into a great movie and I've been interested to read the source material since I saw it. I have to say he did a fantastic job getting the story onscreen. This is the story of Monty's last night of freedom before he goes to jail for seven years on a federal drug conviction. Knowing the ending kind of took away from the suspense of wondering what would happen to Monty - would he get killed by his boss? Would he commit suicide or run away instead of going to jail? But the book is less about the mystery than it is about the friendships and relationships that Monty has. I loved the characters - Benioff makes Monty sympathetic and conversations between the other characters bring up big ideas about the fairness of drug sentences and who is to blame for the drug problem in this country. And I love that New York City is as much a character in the book as the people are.

I read two short books this weekend, the first of which was Goat by Brad Land. This one moves quickly and the story is pretty brutal. It begins with the author's abduction and beating and doesn't get much cheerier. After going back to university, he decides to pledge the fraternity his younger brother is in to try and regain the bond he feels they've lost because of his experience, and the humiliation and physical stress he endures during the hazing takes a toll on him and his brother and has tragic consequences for a friend.

The university I went to hadn't had fraternities or sororities for over 20 years, so that whole subculture is pretty alien to me. I can't imagine putting yourself through that kind of torture just to be a part of a group. I guess I'm just not a joiner by nature, but still. I know there are some that aren't bad, and I'm sure it's another instance where the only coverage we see is of the extreme cases, but just the fact that this kind of ritual abuse occurs and is perpetuated by all involved is crazy.

I put Crossing California by Adam Langer on my list because Daisy liked it so much. I've been pretty busy, so it's taken me a long time to read it. Usually I get impatient if I think it's taking me too long, but I didn't feel that way with this one because the characters were so entertaining and the ups and down of their lives too compelling to give up on it. I just had a discussion about wealth and snobbery with my mother yesterday, which made me think again about the divisions that can occur over just a couple of city blocks and about how this book outlines that so clearly. And from one restrictive religious upbringing to another - I appreciated the love and humor in that aspect of the book and recognized the similarities there.

Sunday I read The Narrows by Michael Connelly, which got rave reviews when it came out earlier this year. I agree that it's probably his best to date and it's certainly better than his last one I read. There's a little bit of amusing meta-commentary on the Clint Eastwood movie made from one of his previous novels - he incorporates his characters' reactions to the film, blending fiction and real life nicely. The mystery is nice and twisty, with a great showdown at the end. While Connelly isn't one of my favorite writers in the genre, this book is strong and jumps him up a spot or two in my list. Okay, maybe not that much, but it does ensure that I'll read his next one, hoping that he can continue to improve.

The Radioactive Boy Scout by Ken Silverstein was a quick little read; an expanded magazine article really, but very interesting and a little scary in the way that only non-fiction can be. It's the story of a kid who was obsessed with chemistry and little else. He had a tremendous ability and curiosity and managed to teach himself enough over the years to build a nuclear breeder reactor in the shed in his mom's backyard. It was producing enough radiation that it required the EPA to come clean it up and bury the remnants in a nuclear waste dump. The scariest thing was how relatively easy it was for him to gain not only the knowledge and techniques he used, but also the materials and elements he needed. Sadly, instead of recognizing his drive and ability and channeling it into more productive paths, the adults in his life dismissed his interest as a destructive hobby and consistently underestimated his abilities.

The Egyptologist by Arthur Phillips took me forever to read because real life kept intruding. I suspect this was actually a good thing because most of the characters in the book are unlikable and I might have gotten too annoyed with them (despite my love of unreliable narrators) to finish if I'd been reading faster. The time I took allowed me to appreciate the humor of the characters and the story in small doses without being overwhelmed. The book is about an archeologist in the early 1920s, who is searching for the tomb of a rather pornographic pharaoh only he seems to believe really existed. Mixed in with his pompous journal entries and hysterical musings on his anticipated achievements are letters from his fiancee and reminisces of a retired private investigator in the 1950s relating how he solved a double murder during the same years. Shortly after I finally got a chance to really sit and devote some time to it, the book turned delightfully dark and twisted and became even more fun to read. I've read reviews of this book that have said that the ending is unexpected, but they must really underestimate the intelligence of the average reader, because I had guessed the supposed twist from the very beginning. This didn't take away from the story much though, because the way the truth is revealed is so great.

I'm finally back online after a week of no internet access. I've felt so disconnected but working overtime has kept me plenty busy. Right before we went down, I finished Rule Britannia by Daphne du Maurier but didn't have a chance to list it here until now. This isn't one of her best, but it's a fun read. Written in 1973, it imagines an alternate world where the UK has dropped out of a grand European Union to form a combined country with the US called USUK, complete with a new flag and plans to essentially make England a giant history themepark. This involves the sudden appearance in England of what looks an awful lot like an occupying force from the US. The book concerns an aging actress, her 6 adopted boys, and her granddaughter reacting to the invasion of Cornwall with a less than favorable response. The book is dark, but funny, and all too ironic given the current world situation.