Underfoot in Show Business

Hanff, Helene. Underfoot in Show Business. New York : Little, Brown & Co, 1960. Print.

First Sentences:

We'll begin with the law that governs the life of every one of the 999 from the day he or she first arrives in New York, which was first explained to me by a stage manager named Bill Flanagan. Flanagan's law of the theatre is:

               "No matter what happens to you, it's unexpected."

Description:

Helene Hanff, author of Underfoot in Show Business, is probably best known as the author and main character of her book, 84 Charing Cross Road.  But prior to this memoir of books and correspondence with a rare book dealer in London post-World War II, Hanff was an aspiring playwright in New York City. Her day-to-day hopes, meetings with producers and agents, struggles to find money to live, and interacting with friends in similarly tenacious circumstances in the theater world now are all wonderfully recollected in this delightful memoir.

Hanff entered a play-writing contest sponsored by the Bureau of New Plays with three submissions. She was later contacted by Terry Helburn of The Theatre Guild, a high-end group that produced new plays. Helburn told Hanff at their first meeting that "Your plays are terrible....Just terrible!....Never mind. You have talent." She had picked Hanff's plays out of the contest submissions (which Hanff did not win) and decided to help Hanff rework those plays so the Guild might produce them. 

So Hanff was enrolled in the Guild's seminar for new playwrights, which once included Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller. But the four current Guild-produced plays, including one by Lee Strasberg, all flopped, so Hanff's pieces never saw the stage. But she now had an in and was off and running.

Thus begins a world of Hanff where she took any sort of job that left time for writing (waitress, secretary, and play-reader who recommends works for production). These jobs leave time for daily visits to agents who send her scripts to producers. These producers in turn express interest in her new work, then, after weeks of inquiries from Hanff, reveal to her they had promptly forgotten about them. There's even a chapter explaining this process called, "If They Take You to Lunch, They don't Want Your Play."

Meanwhile, Hanff and her struggling actress friend Maxine learn to explore New York with little or no money. She explains how they sneak into every movie or play. For plays, they waited outside in the cold for the intermission, then mixed in and followed the real theater-goers inside, locating vacant seats to enjoy the second half. Sneaking into movies involved attending to the last showing and then walking in after the box office and ticket takers had closed for the night. One time, they even paid full price...with US mail stamps stolen from Hanff's office. Maxine came up with these plans due to her "unflagging imagination and the nerve of Naploeon."

One of Hanff's jobs entailed stuffing envelopes and mailing 10,000 publicity notices for the new American Folk Opera, "Away We Go." The title was changed at the last minute to..."Oklahoma."

It sounds fine to you: you're used to it. But do me a favor and imagine you're working in a theatre and somebody tell you your new musical is to be called "New Jersey." Or "Maine."

Then, after folding and stuffing several hundred press releases publicizing this play with its new title, it was decided that "Oklahoma" need an exclamation point. Since the title "Oklahoma" appeared three times in each press release, Hanff had to add 30,000 exclamation points by hand to the new releases.

She loved being an outside reader in 1947 where she read and summarized a play or novel every day and two on the weekend, receiving $6 per each summary. She explains how she can read (i.e., "skim") works to allow time for her own writing. One book, which appeared in three volumes, allowed her to double her usual fee:

What I read during that nightmare weekend--taking notes of all place names, characters' names and events therein--was fifteen hundred stupefying pages of the sticky mythology of J.R.R. Tolkien....and phoning several friends to say good-bye because suicide seemed so obviously preferable to five hundred more pages.

Of course, things eventually improve for Hanff but not in the theater world. Rather, she begins writing scripts for the new medium, television. Maxine got a job as the Blue Cheer detergent girl and convinced Hanff to take a job writing weekly Ellery Queen mystery stories at $200 a show. The difficulty was each show could only have five characters: Ellery Queen and his father, the murdered character, and two suspects, as well as two "five-liners" who could only speak five lines.

As you might guess, I loved immersing myself into the theater world of the 40's and 50s and beyond. Hanff is a exquisite tongue-in-cheek writer who clearly views her life and those around her with a clever, caustic, and very humorous eye. If you enjoy great writing, intimate look into the world of struggling playwrights and theater production, as well as life in New York City for struggling artists, then Underfoot in Show Business is definitely for you.

  

[If this book interests you, be sure to check out:]

 Hanff, Helene. 84 Charing Cross Road

Hanff, a struggling, poor writer, wants to buy classic rare books unavailable in the United States, so contacts a used book dealer in London. Their witty, intelligent, and personal correspondence is delightful to read. 

 Happy reading.

Fred

[P.S. Click here to browse over 500 more book recommendations by subject or title and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader.]

 

You Can't Win

 Black Jack. You Can't Win. New York : MacMillan 1926. Print.

First Sentences:

I am now librarian of the San Francisco Call. Do I look like one?

 

Description:

Hardly the opening sentence for the autobiography of a lifelong criminal, a thief who spent the greater portion of his life either stealing, incarcerated in jail, or on the run from police. But such is the start of this fascinating memoir from the author/criminal Jack Black in his 1926 book of detailing his life of crime, You Can't Win. Interestingly, this was a favorite book of William S. Burroughs, author of Naked Lunch, as well as several other Beat writers.

Black was born in the late 1800s and, after his mother died when he was 10, lived with his father in a hotel. Because his father traveled often for business, Black was placed in a Catholic school for four years until he aged out and returned to the hotel life. Unsupervised by his father for weeks, often months at a time, he obtained small jobs like collecting bills for the milkman and minding a tobacco shop (which the owner used as a front for illegal gambling). These jobs brought him in contact with former Civil War soldiers, drunks, gamblers, prostitutes, bums, thieves, and others who were, in his words, "bad men." 

 

At 20 he left "home" and began life as a "Yegg," that is, a beggar/thief, who hitched rides on trains, robbed homes, held up people by gunpoint, blew up safes, and was constantly on the lookout for "coppers."

My background is crowded with robberies, burglaries, and thefts too numerous to recall. All manner of crimes against property. Arrests, trials, acquittals, convictions, escapes. Penitentiaries! I see in the background four of them. County jails, workhouses, city prisons, Mounted Police barracks, dungeons, solitary confinement, bread and water, hanging up, brutal floggings, and the murderous straitjacket. I see hop joints, wine dumps, thieves' resorts, and beggars' hangouts. Crime followed by swift retribution in one form or another. I had very few glasses of wine as I traveled this route. I rarely saw a woman smile and seldom heard a song. In those twenty-five years I took all these things, and I am going to write about them. And I am going to write about them as I took them - with a smile.

After Black left home for the road, he met up with various other wandering men with colorful names such as "Smiler," "Foot-'n'-a-half George," "Salt Chunk Mary," "Soldier Johnnie, and "The Sanctimonious Kid." They taught him through example how to determine a source of money to steal, painstakingly prepare for all contingencies, investigate escape routes, execute the plan, and hopefully hop on a nearby train, leaving nothing behind of your presence in the town. All clothes used in a crime episode were always immediately discarded and any rental rooms cleaned out. Guns, seldom used except in stick-ups as a threat, were often thrown away as well, as they were cheap and readily available in those days. 

But the risks Black undertakes are high. Even with careful planning, things often go wrong. Statistically, burglars are successful only one in five attempts and are often shot at by homeowners or attacked by household dogs. Safes need to be exploded, the sound often raising the owners' interest and subsequent capture of the thief. Train guards were a constant threat as they were known to savagely beat up or even kill anyone they found jumping onto their trains for a free ride.

It was a grim life as well. Several of his fellow thieves were killed during a job with him. He was often jailed, waiting trial for months until shipped to a penitentiary for long-term sentences. He was betrayed by several people through their perjury in court, resulting in his convictions when there was little proof he committed the crimes. He endured solitary confinement, 30 lashes with a whip, and being bound up in a full-body straight jacket, a then-recently invented device that often drove prisoners completely insane after only a few hours trussed up in it.

He does meet people who are kind to him, whether fences, fellow prisoners, lawyers, judges, or simply people sympathetic enough to him to help him obtain legal help. He was even assisted in escaping several jail cells by friends who smuggled in files for him to saw through window bars. Once, he sawed for several nights under the nose of his drunk jailer. In several jails, he was given books from the prison library and passed the empty hours in his cell reading voraciously.

There is some ironic humor in several of his experiences. He and two partner picked the lock of their cell, left the jail and blew up a safe, hid its contents, then went back to their cells, achieving the perfect alibi. Once after two months' planning, Black blew a safe containing the local miners' weekly pay, but the exploded safe fell forward onto its door, thus preventing Black from opening it. He once buried a stash of stolen money in a vacant lot, only to return months later to claim it only to find a building had been constructed over his hiding place. In prison, he ordered cheap jewelry from mail order catalogs, then sold them at a profit to visitors who were told the items were "stolen stuff" smuggled into the jailhouse.

Although Black was twenty-five year thief, an opium addict, and Faro gambler, he brought an honesty and clarity to his world and the people he encountered. He was a thinker, whether in planning a job or wondering at length about the influences on a man which shapes his life, and how much one can control his own destiny. His writing in this autobiography is straightforward, thoughtful, and full of details that bring his world, the people he encountered, his jobs, and his personality into sharp focus.

Black does eventually give up his criminal life, kick his addictions, and secure lawful employment as a librarian no less. And with his former life behind him, he wrote this book. 

While this may not sound like an attractive read, believe me Jack Black is a wonderful writer with a compelling story to tell. You Can't Win paints a historical picture of the society of the late 1800-early 1900s that is both vivid and revealing.  I found this book tremendously engrossing and gets my highest recommendation for everyone.

The thought of turning to the right, squaring myself, and starting anew never entered my mind. Probably youthful egotism, which is nothing but confidence born of ignorance, whispered to me that I could beat a game I knew to be wrong and full of dangers....I knew I was wrong, and yet I persisted....I thought in terms of theft. Houses were built to be burglarized, citizens were to be robbed, police to be avoided and hated, stool pigeons to be chastised, and thieves to be cultivated and protected. That was my code; the code of my companions. That was the atmosphere I breathed. 

[If this book interests you, be sure to check out:]

 Lowrie, Donald. My Life in Prison

In the early 1900s, the author, after stealing a watch and purse valued at about $100 is sentenced to 15 years in San Quentin prison. In this fascinating book, he recalls his life as a prisoner, from food to riots to friendships and the strait jacket punishment that drove men insane. Brilliantly recorded, shocking at times, and revealing of a world, both positive and negative, that few of us know about. (Previously reviewed here)

 Happy reading.

Fred

[P.S. Click here to browse over 500 more book recommendations by subject or title and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader.]

An Unsung Hero

Smith, Michael. An Unsung Hero: Tom Crean - Arctic Survivor New York : Gill Books, 2000. Print.

First Sentences:

Thomas Crean was born on 20 July 1877 at Gurtachrane, a remote farming area a short distance to the west of the village of Anascaul on the Dingle Peninsula, in Ireland's County Kerry....The Contrast with the hostile, frozen Antarctic Continent where Crean would carve a remarkable career could hardly be more stark.

Description:

I've always been drawn to non-fiction memoirs, biographies, and re-tellings of explorations, adventures, resourcefulness, and survival under difficult conditions. How do these people overcome the obstacles they face daily? Where do they get the strength and will to press on? Sometimes I even wonder how I would have fared should I have been alongside these brave people (No question here, I would have done poorly and given up at a very early stage).

 

Thomas Crean is not a man who gave up. While his name is not familiar to most of us, I was given his biography by friends who visited a museum in Ireland dedicated to his exploits. He was a survivor, a conqueror of more than a few death-defying situations, and someone truly respected by the great Arctic explorers of his time, enough so that they requested him accompany them on several dangerous expeditions to that unknown world.

 

Thomas Crean was a shipmate with Ernest Shackleton on Robert Falcon Scott's ambitious  voyage to explore for the first time Antarctica, an "unknown and hostile territory." This was to be a hugely dangerous but prestigious and widely popular undertaking.

The Discovery expedition to one of the world's last unconquered spots had aroused huge interest in the English-speaking world. It was regarded by many as something of a virility symbol for Britain at a time when the Victorian age had finally drawn to a close, and the Empire was under severe strain in places like South Africa and Ireland.

Thomas Crean, an Irish seaman assigned to another ship helping to outfit Scott's Discovery for the expedition, was chosen to replace a discharged Discovery crew member at the last minute and thus gained a spot on the voyage and an introduction to the Antarctic. Although Crean proved popular with mates and officers alike, it was Scott himself who doomed the voyage.

[Scott] determined that the expedition would use traditional British methods of traveling, which meant man-hauling sledges across the ice, rather than the more suitable dogs and skis. Dogs were quicker, hard working and at worst, could be eaten by the other dogs or the explorers themselves.

Once in Antarctica, instead of dropping off a small group of men to explore and map local areas while the Discovery wintered safely in New Zealand, Scott chose that everyone would spend the winter safely iced up in -40 degree weather for nine months to await the "warmer" season when exploration was possible. Thus Crean and his shipmates were introduced to the cold, inhospitable land, making forays over the ice on day trips, hauling massive sleds with supplies by their own strength after their Siberian horses proved unable to walk, much less pull sleds over broken ice fields. The horses quickly died and were eaten.

Man-haulers during this era were plagued by the intense, cold, frostbite, blizzards, hurricane-force winds, snow blindness, life-threatening-crevasses and one final indignity -- they were always thirsty and hungry....The British...took special pride in the ability to cope with hardship, the test of real men pitted against the worst the elements could throw at them. ...They gloried in the hardship and seemed unable or unwilling to adapt to more modern, less arduous methods of travel, such as dogs and skis.

Crean became one of the best of these man-haulers, never weakening in his responsibility to not let his piece of harness go slack, and encouraged other haulers to keep them going and alive. They covered an average of only 6-12 back-breaking miles a day. Roland Amundsen, a rival explorer also trying to be the first to reach the South Pole at the same time, was familiar with travel on ice. He studied the natives in Norway and, using their proven methods with dogs and skis, and was able to cover 60 miles a day without men hauling the sleds. Guess which man made it to the Pole first and which one died on the cross-continent trip back?

Crean survived this ill-fated voyage and undertook two other Arctic trips with Ernest Shackelton, including the famous disastrous trip where Shackelton, Crean and crew were so badly iced in that their ship, the Endurance, broke up into pieces. Some of the men, including Crean, were forced to haul boats miles over the ice to the open sea and then try to row hundreds of miles without instruments to seek help for the men left behind.

Crean also, when a fellow crewmate was disabled on an multi-day exploratory trek, volunteered to go get help by jumping on floating ice floes to work his way back to their base camp. He even survived falling into a deep crevasse, using only his physical strength and willpower, an incredible feat.

Adventure after hair-raising encounter with challenges, death and despair fill the pages of An Unsung Hero, forcing readers to marvel at Crean's perseverance, strength, and positive attitude. It's a detailed examination of the outdated British methods of exploration and unqualified leaders and crew, life of men stuck on a ship for months of sunless cold, as well as the personal triumphs for those who flourished when facing hardships.

It's a page-turner of a story of an extraordinary man and his survival in the last glorious age of exploration where the world breathlessly followed the progress of brave men, hailed their triumphs, and mourned their defeats. And Tom Crean was in the middle of it all, and survived to tell of these exploits and the men who endured them. Highly recommended, of course.

  

[If this book interests you, be sure to check out:]

 Lansing, Alfred. Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage

Classic, minutely-detailed, and gripping account of Ernest Shackleton's ill-fated adventure to cross the Antarctic. One of his most trusted crew members was Thomas Crean, chronicled in the above book.

 Happy reading.

Fred

[P.S. Click here to browse over 500 more book recommendations by subject or title and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader.] 

The Man Who Listens to Horses

Roberts, Monty. The Man Who Listens to Horses: The Story of a Real-Life Horse Whisperer. New York: Random House 1996. Print.

First Sentences:

It all dates from those summers alone in the high desert, me lying on my belly and watching wild horses with my binoculars for hours at a time. Straining to see in the moonlight, striving to fathom mustang ways, I knew instinctively I had chanced upon something important but could not know that it would shape my life. In 1948 I was a boy of thirteen learning the language of horses.

Description:

It's not often you read about someone who observes conditions, comes up with a theory of how to improve the situation, and then successfully puts those techniques into practice. It is even more rare when the discoverer is a thirteen-year-old boy who patiently learns a secret and then successfully employs his new-found idea into practice in thousands of cases over the next decades, even demonstrating itin front of the Queen of England.   

 

Such a tale belongs to Monty Roberts and his fascinating work understanding the training of wild mustang horses as detailed in his autobiography, The Man Who Listens to Horses: The Story of a Real-Life Horse Whisperer. He was a horseman almost from birth, growing up on a ranch where his father was a nationally-acclaimed horse trainer. Monty won his first riding trophy at age four and gathered in more throughout his childhood, culminating with two national championships with his Cal Poly San Luis Obispo College rodeo team. He appeared in hundreds of movies as a stunt double starting at age four, later riding as Roddy McDowell, Mickey Rooney and Elizabeth Taylor (in National Velvet), Charleton Heston, Tab Hunter, and a "city-slicker" named James Dean. Monty was hired to train Dean to resemble a cowboy and they became great friends and business partners, so close that Dean's agent made his first call to Monty from the car wreck that claimed the actor's life).

 

What started Monty's career in horse-training centered on two situationss. First, he daily observed his father use age-old techniques of dominating and beating wild horses to "break" them and make them manageable. Monty felt there could be a more humane way of accomplishing this conditioning of wild, independent mustangs.

 

Second, at age thirteen he volunteered to round up several hundred wild horses for use in a local rodeo where contestants try to saddle and ride untamed animals. (These "untameable" horses afterwards were sold cheaply for slaughter at a meatpacking establishment.) Monty used his horse-gathering trip to learn how wild mustangs, a notably silent creature who rarely made noises in the wild, communicated with each other to keep order and unify their herd. This grouping of numbers was vital to the horses to protect themselves from predators, something a lone horse could not hope to accomplish alone on his own.

 

Monty watched while the dominant herd female dealt with a young troublemaking horse by making disapproving, direct eye contact, ear position, and turning her body away from him as a shield. This forced the recalcitrant animal to retreat yards away from the herd. The lead female maintained eye contact and body position for hours and even days, warning the other horse not to rejoin the herd until it was submissive. Submission was shown by the chastised animal lowering his head, making chewing motions, and sticking its tongue out.

 

Employing these mannerisms of disapproving eye contact, body position, and gentleness, Monty developed a technique he call "Join-Up" (rather than "breaking") for taming wild horses. He found by using unusual subtleties which mattered greatly to horses, he could train an unridden horse to calmly accept a bridle, saddle, and rider within 30 minutes, a task that took experienced horse trainers like his father several brutal weeks of aggressive restraint and beatings to accomplish.

Keeping my mouth closed invited the horse's discomfort, opening it slightly was fine. Opening a fist on the side of my body away from the horse drew him in, while opening a fist close to him sent him away. Fingers open stirred one response, fingers closed another. Hands above my head with fingers splayed provoked true panic....All this matters as the horse reads my body language and I red his....I can now enumerate about one hundred or more signs the horse will respond to.

Monty demonstrated his Join Up techniques on wild and unruly horses throughout America, even coming to the attention of Queen Elizabeth, a noted horse-lover. He gave the Queen several demonstrations and toured the British Isles to promote his gentle method. He even used his techniques to train wild deer and goats near his ranch, and got them to respond to his presence and instructions.

 

I really loved this book and was entranced by the man and his experiences on every page. He is such a great story-teller about a life full of adventure, observation, failures, and successes. I learned so much about horses and the "Equus" language Monty observed and was able to duplicate countless times for recalcitrant, untamed horses worldwide. He was a fearless rodeo rider, a dedicated husband and father, and a successful horse ranch designer and manager.

 

Truly, this is a man, a life, and a revolutionary technique worth reading about. Highest recommendation.  

  

[If this book interests you, be sure to check out:]

Hillenbrand, Laura. Seabiscuit: An American Legend

Wonderful, compelling history of the discovery, training, racing career and worldwide publicity of one of America's most-winning horses. 

 Happy reading.

Fred

[P.S. Click here to browse over 500 more book recommendations by subject or title and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader.]

The Last Policeman

Winters, Ben. The Last Policeman. Philadelphia : Quirk Books. 2012

First Sentences:

I'm staring at the insurance man and he's staring at me, two cold gray eyes behind old-fashioned tortoiseshell frames, and I'm having this awful and inspiring feeling, like holy moly this is real, and I don't know if I'm ready. I really don't, 

Description:

Sometimes I am attracted to a book by the setting alone, hoping to see how major characters deal with foreign, often threatening situations caused by their environment and the forces faced. Such books include The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum (stranger in a magical land); The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury (evolving human settlement of Mars); Seveneves by Neal Stephenson (Earth's moon blows up on the first page and humans have 18 months to figure out how to preserve some form of mankind); and even Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchel (living in a Civil War-torn country).

 

Ben Winters' The Last Policeman is exactly such a book. Here is the situation: Earth scientists have discovered a monstrous-sized asteroid heading for earth and are 100% certain it will hit Earth in six months with the destructive force that killed the dinosaurs. 

Hearing this news, people have reacted differently, from quitting jobs, pursuing Bucket List adventures, delving into drugs to leave the world high, and more and more commonly, suicide.

 

In this world of small town Concord, New Hampshire, Detective Hank Palace narrates the tale of how he tries to preserve his sense of order and justice. Recently promoted to Detective (since so many police officers above him had simply left the police department), Palace finds himself in his dream job. But he is surrounded by fellow officers who are unwilling to make any effort to confront crime. 

Detective Palace, nonetheless, doggedly pursues a new case, the suicide of a man found in a MacDonald's bathroom. Palace believes this, his first murder, is not a suicide as all appearances point to. Fellow officers, the Police Chief, the coroner, and even the victim's sister all feel this is merely one of a huge number of self-inflicted deaths, an act easily explained by the hopeless despondency felt worldwide.

 

But Palace is not to be deterred. There was no phone found on the body, an expensive belt was used in the hanging, and the location was an unusual one. Palace digs in, exploring seemingly minor leads and people to understand who this man was, his work, his relationships, his emotions, and any possible reasons to do away with himself.

 

Working in this highly tense environment, Palace is in contact with people who demonstrate they have no hope left, have religious convictions of salvation, feel they have uncovered highly secretive plots, want to lead believers to safe underground compounds, and even those who dream of space travel to the secret moon colonies the government has hidden from the world.

 

Crackpots, fanatics, dreamers, rebels, and even a few ordinary people who accept their inevitable fate are part of people Palace must interrogate to try to wring out of them the circumstances of this man's life and whether Palace's theory of murder is any more than just a fancy. And all this occurs in a world with unreliable phone service, businesses shut down, gasoline unavailable, and when friends, colleagues, and everyday people you meet one day are gone forever the next day from their jobs, homes, or life itself.

I would characterize the mood, here in town, as that of the child who isn't in trouble yet, but knows he's going to be....He's sullen and snappish, he's on edge. Confused, sad, trembling against the knowledge of what's coming next, and right on the edge of violence, not angry be anxious in a way that can easily shade ito anger.  

Clever, twisty, completely unexpected, and totally involving, The Last Policeman is a gripping, fascinating deep dive into a world so foreign, yet so possible, along with the people who have to plan and then undertake the manner of how they will live out their final days.

 

Best of all, there are two more Detective Palace books available (Countdown City and World of Trouble). Of course, I immediately borrowed these from the library and absorbed them. One is set with only three months before Earth's destruction, and the last one takes place with only a few weeks to go. They both were fantastic, but you must start with The Last Policeman. It's a delightful, thought-provoking, wild ride.

[If this book interests you, be sure to check out:]

 Stephenson, Neal. Seveneves

In the first sentence, the Earth's moon blows up and scientists worldwide predict the debris will begin raining down on Earth in 18 months. It is up to the combined resources of the world to somehow address this situation and try to survive this cataclysmic disaster to preserve the human race. It's simply the best sci-fi novel ever. (Previously reviewed here.)

 Happy reading.

Fred

[P.S. Click here to browse over 500 more book recommendations by subject or title and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader.]

O Pioneers

Cather, Willa. O Pioneers. New York : Everyman's Library. 1913. Print.

First Sentences:

One January day, thirty years ago, the little town of Hanover, anchored on a windy Nebraska tableland, was trying not to be blown away. A mist of fine snowflakes was curling and eddying about the cluster of low drab buildings, huddles on the gray prairie, under a gray sky. The dwelling houses were set about haphazard on the tough prairie sod; some of them looked as if they had been moved in overnight, and others as if they were straying off by themselves, headed straight for the open plain. 

Description:

Right from the openng sentences, O Pioneers! by Willa Cather pulls readers into the windswept tiny settlement of Hanover, Nebraska at the turn of the nineteenth century. One cannot help but picture the desolation, the cold, and the emptiness that surrounds the people who are trying to scratch out a new town and solidify their own lives against tremendous obstacles. They are immigrants, German, Bohemian, Czech, and Swedish, who are shaped by the land as much as they try to wrestle the same land to work for them.

This novel first brought author Cather to the attention of the literary world as it sparingly recounts the courage, fortitude, and resourcefulness of one woman, Alexandra Bergson, a Bohemian daughter with two younger brothers. 

As her father began to weaken with a long illness, he turned over the operational decisions of the farm to his eldest daughter, Alexandra. His decision was constantly challenged by her two strong but less-mentally capable brothers who did the heavy work in the fields and felt they should have more say in the land's future. 

 

After the father's death, the acreage was equally divided among the three siblings with each having completelcontrol over a segment. But is is Alexandra and her section which succeeds, further evoking the complaints and envy of her brothers. Faced with natural forces of drought and stubborn soil, as well as the doubts of her two brothers over her management ideas, Alexandra definitely became a force to be reckoned with.  

Years pass and Alexandra began to make the farm flourish and even expand. But there is a cost. She becomes isolated from the one man who clearly loves her and courts her to no avail. She is simply too busy dealing with the everyday challenges and decisions of a struggling farm, as well as planning for its future.

How terrible it was to love people when you could not really share their lives!

O Pioneers! is the first of Willa Cather's Prairie Trilogy series (along with My Antonia and Song of the Lark), all set in the plains of Nebraska in the early 1900s. (She eventually won the Pulitzer Prize for One of Ours). I have only read My Antonia and had the same admiration and warm feeling about the Nebraska land, the time, and the families. My Antonia is an equally absorbing novel which follows the lives of two children who grow up together on the prairies. I recommend both books for lovers of great writing, setting, and characters. 

[If this book interests you, be sure to check out:]

 Young, Carrie. Nothing To Do But Stay

Memoirs of a woman living alone on the prairies of North Dakota after her husband died. The enthralling stories of her keeping a household, raising children, and surviving by cooking for field workers make this book a wonderfully engrossing read with my highest recommendation.   (Previously reviewed here.)

 Happy reading.

Fred

[P.S. Click here to browse over 500 more book recommendations by subject or title and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader.]

The Odyssey

Homer, (trans. by Emily Wilson). The Odyssey. New York : W.W. Norton 2018. Print.

First Sentences:

Tell me of a complicated man,

Muse, tell me how he wandered and was lost

when he had wrecked the holy town of Troy, 

and where he went, and who he met, the pain

he suffered on the sea, and how he worked

to save his life and bring his men back home.

He failed, and for their own mistakes, they died. 

Description:

A brilliant opening stanza. It is intimate, friendly, almost conversational, just like "Call me Ishmael" is. It's a summary of what's to come, enticing readers to learn more about the adventures, hardships, mistakes, and death in the coming stanzas. Who could resist telling the Muse to please continue immediately?

Best of all, you might notice that this telling is written as poetry, even employing iambic pentameter (you know, with each line's syllables following the rhythm of da-dum, da-dum, da-dum, the same as in Shakespeare's works). It's the most natural imitation of human speech, quite an accomplishment for Emily Wilson in her translation of The Odyssey by Hoimer.

And boy, is this telling of his adventures a lulu of a read. Many people are familiar with the story of Odysseus wandering around for 20 years trying to get back home to Ithaca after his triumph at Troy. But most may not be aware of the depth and complexities of his story found in this 12,000+ line epic poem.

Starting with the main figure, Odysseus, whom Wilson translates from the ancient Greek as a "complicated" man. He has violently sacked Troy, killed many people, and exists by the grace of Athena, his protecting goddess, who saves his skin in many instances. 

He has willingly faced known dangers, endangered his crew, and even allowed them to be killed by the whirlpool to distract the six-headed Scylla who eats one crewman with each head at the same time. He risks Poseidon's anger by blinding the sea god's son, Polyphemus, and then taunts the monster after. And he deliberately kills all the suitors of his wife Penelope who were free-loading for years off his estate. After that slaughter, he immediately kills15 slave girls from his household who had befriended the suitors. All with no remorse whatsoever.

He is clever in extricating himself from tight situations, able to lie to friends and foes alike, assume disguises to trick members of his own household, including his faithful wife, and live for years on his way back home as a virtual sex toy to both Circe and Calypso.

Throughout the poem, the gods play vital roles. On every page, one god or another helps, hinders, ignores, or downright tries to kill Odysseus and his crew. Messages are sent regarding the fate of Odysseus between Zeus and Athena via Hermes, the messenger god. Sacrifices are constantly made of hundreds of oxen, sheep, lambs, and other animals to thank, appease, or ask favors of various major and lesser gods. Whatever event occurs, Odysseus and all other figures reason that the outcome is due to the capriciousness of major and minor gods, or else due to human errors in their sacrifices or for not praising the deities enough. Gods, throughout The Odyssey, are a constant force in even the smallest of incidents.

But the action is tremendously gripping. Bloodshed is everywhere, and Odysseus holds no regrets or second thoughts for the men and beasts he has slain. It is simply part of his world in his mind, necessary actions required in order to return to his home and re-establish his world with his wife and estate.

Wilson, a professor of Classical Studies and also Ancient Greek at the University of Pennsylvania, has created an extremely readable translation of this epic. From the opening stanzas, she brings Homer's (or whoever created The Odyssey) saga to life in language that is both powerful and descriptive, yet never cluttered with jargon or pomposity. One can almost hear someone dramatically reciting this story around a campfire while listeners sit in rapt attention. The words pull you deep into the thoughts, actions, and consequences of each event, both good and bad.

I loved it, truly, and will probably re-read it again soon. While I haven't seen the Christopher Nolan film yet, I know I will find it falling short of the power, depth, and characters of this Wilson translation. But that okay with me. After all, what movie has ever matched the original book source material? I will go to the film with an open mind, but will undoubtably compare the two re-tellings and revert to Wilson's translation as the epitome of the story. Highest recommendation. 

[If this book interests you, be sure to check out:]

 Tolkien, J.R.R. The Lord of the Rings

The most breath-taking, page-turning, mythological quest novel ever (Previously reviewed here.)

 Happy reading.

Fred

[P.S. Click here to browse over 500 more book recommendations by subject or title and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader.]

 

Mostly True

O'Neill, Molly. Mostly True: A Memoir of Family, Food, and Baseball. New York : Schribner 2026. Print.

First Sentences:

Every one of my five brothers was born to play ball. For a long time it wasn't clear which of the boys would make it to the major leagues, but we had no doubt that The One was among us. We were the chosen. I do not recall a single moment of my childhood in which I was not imagining my family;'s life -- or my own -- as an epic tale. 

Description:

Author/chef/restaurant critic Molly O'Neill was raised in Columbus, Ohio, the first of six children. Unfortunately, in her eyes, all five of her siblings were rough and ready boys. Each time her mother informed her that she was pregnant, they both tried everything they could think of to produce a girl. Yet the inevitable hospital call from her father was always the same: "You have a new little brother."

 

While her youngest brother, Paul, because a Hall of Fame player with the New York Yankees, Mostly True: A Memoir of Family, Food, and Baseball, is not a baseball book. The vast majority of the memories recounted are about Mollie, the narrator, as she survives living with her rowdy family of men and her once-wealthy, fastidious mother. 

 

Early on, Mollie is allowed to help her mother prepare complicated meals and desserts for the family including a fresh pie every day. Together, they also cooked lavish delicacies for last-minute parties hosted by a rich uncle living nearby who her mother dreamed would repay them with wealth one day for all these special meals (Spoiler alert: he didn't). When left on her own, Mollie continually let her curiosity and creativity take command in the preparation of various dishes...not just a few of which ended in splendid disaster.

 

As O'Neill grew into her college years, perfecting her culinary explorations and expanding her menus, she looked for a career that would allow her to keep preparing food. Meanwhile, she worked two jobs, volunteered, kept up with feminist literature, and attended anti-war rallies. She cooked every night for her roommates and a dozen or more friends who spontaneously stopped by for meals. 

 

She eventually landed in an Italian eatery in Provincetown, preparing salads and triumphing over the obstacles intentionally put in front of her by the owner who disliked her, such as lugging cases of products to storage. Shucking oysters was her Waterloo, struggling and struggling with the task until finally mastering it, earning the other cooks' respect.

 

Other restaurant stops followed, as well as a long friendship with Julia Child. A few of her articles on cooking gradually gave her a stellar culinary reputation and subsequently a job as food critic for The Boston Globe. Soon she was authoring her own cookbooks.

 

Of course, there is space for stories about her childhood with her brothers, watching with embarrassment as they terrorized the neighborhood with their yelling and flying balls. One neighbor refused to give back errant balls until he eventually packed to move and returned boxes of balls which he had collected. Her brothers even went through a period where they decided pooping in neighbors' yards was a thing, and encouraged this activity with other neighbor children. Each night after coming home from work, Mollie's father had to go to one or more neighbor's house to settle their complaints. 

 

The brothers regularly showed up at friends' houses and subtly coerced other boys to practically give away valuable baseball cards or risk the wrath of five O'Neill boys: 

[Their implied "consequences" left Pat] with a museum-quality collection of ten thousand cards and left most kids in Beechwold lousy with doubles of players who never made it past their rooking year....Pat was the brains. Mike was the muscle. Kevin and Robert were the foot soldiers.

Once, through her distraction, Mollie almost allowed her five-year-old brother, Paul, be killed by a car. Although instructed not to cross the street unless holding his hand, she had been absorbed in exploring a leaf fort in the park. Paul, seeing her, darted across the street to meet her and was hit. Eighteen hours of surgery to remove brain shards fixed him up. Of course, Mollie lied to her mother about what had happened:

"The nuns made me cross the street...They wouldn't let me stand there. I told him to wait for me. It's not my fault."

[Mollie noted] Of course, I had a distinguished history of lying to my mother. I lied to ease her worries, I lied to make her laugh. I lied to entertain us both. Under normal circumstances, I lied without compunction, without a second thought, and with significant elan.

Such are a few of the delightful recollections of O'Neill about her family life in Ohio and later in other cities. It's an engrossing memoir of the ups and downs of family, rebellion, goals, triumphs and failures as Molly climbed the ladder from eldest child to college radical to short order cook to critic and writer. Her inside thoughts, funny, wise, and always confident, are fully shared with us lucky readers as she tries to figure out and tackle each step in her life.

 

I loved it and highly recommend it to anyone who loves wry humor, family relationships, culinary arts, and simply great, warm, humorous writing. 

[If this book interests you, be sure to check out:]

 Jackson, Shirley. Life Among the Savages

The really very funny memoir of the family life of this author who, despite her raising of children, still found time to write spell-binding novels and short stories (Previously reviewed here.)

 Happy reading.

Fred

[P.S. Click here to browse over 500 more book recommendations by subject or title and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader.]

  

Treasure Island

Stevenson, Robert Louis. Treasure Island. New York : Oxford Press. 1883. Print.

First Sentences:

Squire Trelawney, Dr Livesey, and the rest of these gentlemen having asked me to write down the whole particulars about Treasure Island from the beginning to the end, keeping nothing back but the bearings of the island, and that only because there is still treasure not yet lifted, I take up my pen in trhe year of grace 17--, and go back to the time when my father kept the "Admiral Benbow" inn, and the brown old seaman, with the sabre cut, first took up his lodging under our roof.

Description:

Yes, hard to believe but I had never before read Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson (not counting my beloved Classics Illustrated comic book version). But I was inspired to read this adventure tale after recently watching the film, On Golden Pond , where Henry Fonda tells his bored grandson that he needs to read this book immediately. I can't go against Henry Fonda, so picked up a copy.

 

And it's every bit the page-turned that I had hoped for. Sure, the language can be stiff from the era it was written in and the age it depicted. But the action was first rate. Treasure, pirates, marooning, the Black Spot, a peg-legged captain, and a young adventurous boy. Who could ask for more?

 

For those unfamiliar with the tale, young Jim Hawkins comes in possession of a map to the nefarious pirate Captain Flint's treasure from a mate who was on board Flint's ship when it was was buried (along with the six men who buried it and were immediately killed by Flint). Others, of course, want the map, but Hawkins avoids them and sails as cabin boy on a boat commissioned by a wealthy ship owner and a doctor to seek the treasure.

 

Unfortunately, their crew is recruited by silver-tongued Long John Silver, their first hire as ship's cook. Unbeknownst to the owners and the ship captain, Silver hires dastardly men from Flint's pirate crew. Their plan is to find the treasure, dig it up and put it onboard, then mutiny and kill the ship's owners, captain, doctor, and anyone else who doesn't agree to their plan.

 

Silver is a true leader of men, but also can quickly change allegiances when his plans don't work out. Is he a good guy or bad? Depends on how the wind blows and who seems to have the upper hand in the fate of the treasure and control of the ship.

 

I was hooked, from the plot to the characters and setting, and even to the formal language. The novel certainly keeps you guessing as to whom to trust, who will turn traitor, what plans will succeed or be thwarted, and how will everything work out in the end, all the components of a great story.

 

So pick it up and give it a whirl. You'll be able to tell in the first few pages whether or not this is the novel you can spend time with. I for one was all in and enjoyed taking myself to an age long ago, experiencing the thrill of hunting for treasure, and meeting some very dasterly people. 

[If this book interests you, be sure to check out:]

Dumas, Alexandre. The Count of Monte Cristo

Adventure, treasure, revenge, love, evil-doers and wrongful imprisonment all come together in this classic novel, another page-turner of adventure.

 Happy reading.

Fred

[P.S. Click here to browse over 500 more book recommendations by subject or title and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader.]