A Good American by Alex George

Sometimes, just sometimes, a book just grabs the reader by the lapels and never lets go. Such was the case for me with A Good American. I opened it on a rainy night in January and was immediately engrossed in this multi-generational story of an immigrant German family.

It’s 1904 Germany, and Jette Furst has fallen in love after hearing Frederick Meisenheimer’s wonderful singing through a garden hedge on one of her walks.

They meet face-to-face and fall in love, but Jette’s socially conscious mother disapproves of the poor young man with no real prospects and disowns her daughter because of the relationship. The young couple fall pregnant, and knowing that her mother will not accept this situation, Jette and Frederick decide to embark for a new life in a new land. Bound first for New York, they find themselves en route to New Orleans and then through a chance encounter, they end up in to the small town of Beatrice, Missouri – where there is a thriving German immigrant community. As with all unexpected changes in course, this move will create a new path for their lives, the lives of their children, and grandchildren.

Told through the voice of their Grandson, the family story is told of four generations of Meisenheimer’s with gentle humor and and heartbreak. I loved one of the early scenes where Fredrick hires a man in a bar to teach him English over the course of the few weeks they have left in New Orleans. Fredrick is a good student and soon is excitingly speaking his new language, only to discover when they arrive in Missouri, that no one will converse with him and they actually turn their backs in disdain. Finally someone explains that the rascal teacher taught Fredrick Polish as a prank – which was met with hostility given the beginnings of WWI in Europe.

Mr. George enthralls with his story of the Meisenheimer family; their struggles, successes, talents, love, sorrows, family secrets — at the same time he weaves in the major historic events of the 20th century which impact their new country. The family has musical talents throughout the generations, so even during the bleakest times, the family can fall back on the joys of their music.

The book does has it flaws so be prepared for an excessively (and in my opinion), unnecessarily violent lynching scene. And when the story draws to a close and we are reading the adolescent grandson’s own story there is an overabundance of masturbation scenes. I’m not a prude, and I understand puberty, but I found it excessive.

But in the end, I was able to put aside these flaws because Mr. George is a fine storyteller — and he tells his story – as all good storytellers do – with a gripping narrative, well developed characters, and a keep-turning-the- pages plot. It’s a rich and highly relatable story of an immigrant family — quite possibly a similar story for any our of families.

What was most compelling about A Good American is the depiction of the struggles to live the American dream and assimilate. This is a perfect time to read this story, when I fear we have forgotten that we are, and always will be — a nation of hard working immigrants with dreams of a better life all trying so hard to be good Americans.

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I also recommend Finding Your Roots on PBS. Took me awhile to warm up to the somewhat slow pacing, but now I find the show fascinating. Much like Antiques Roadshow, but then again, I’m an antique myself.

Happy Anniversary

Happy Anniversary to my one and only.

Still making me laugh every day.

Still my best friend.

Still the cutest guy in town.

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The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

When I read this quote in the New York Times Book Review: Absorbing …exactly what’s wanted in these troubled and troubling times, I made a point to put a hold on The Midnight Library from the library. My turn came up in early January, and I thought great timing – the book got great reviews, is on the best seller list, and I decided a dose of fantasy was in order.

Trigger warning – this book deals with suicide, which Mr. Haig handles with hope, but a bit simplistically.

Similar (but yet different) to Life After Life (one of my favorite books of last year), The Midnight Library takes on the possibility of living a life over and over again – but with the twist of what if you could view every possible outcome of your life?

The book opens with Nora Seed, who finding her life sad and hopeless decides to end it all. However, life, and the universe, isn’t finished with her yet. Instead she finds herself in a vast library with endless books all of which contain different versions of the life she could have lived. The librarian is none other than her beloved librarian from high school — Mrs. Elm.

This “midnight library” is a place of infinite shelves where all the books are variations of your life. But it is best described by Mrs. Elm:

Between life and death there is a library, she said, the shelves go on forever. Every book provides a chance to try another life you could have lived. To see how things would be different if you had made other choices.

Together they look at her ‘Book of Regrets’ and Nora agrees to choose various books, and finds herself inhabiting the bodies of a number of different versions of herself, all living lives that could potentially have been hers.

As Mrs. Elm goes on to explain,

Every life contains many millions of decisions. Some big, some small. But every time one decision is taken over another, the outcomes differ. An irreversible variation occurs, which in turn leads to further variations.

After each life lived, Nora returns to the library – not having found the right life and her Book of Regrets changing after each.

Like most humans, while I have loved and still love my life, I sometimes wonder if I had done things differently — what my life might be like. If I’d stuck with music or gone to a different college…the ‘what if’s’ kept me reading The Midnight Library.

Nora has fascinating, but unbelievable alternate lives to choose from — she was an Olympic swimmer, a glacierologist, a doctor, and a rock star. I found myself wondering where is the boring office job life?

Okay, by now, you can tell I didn’t enjoy this book as much as I hoped to. With the ‘trying on these lives in search of a better one’ concept — the ending was clear from the third life she inhabited. I also found it very unsettling that Nora has no idea who the people are in these alternative lives nor does she know her role. I found it annoying having to wade through how lost and confused Nora was every time she enters a new life.

Nora was an interesting character, tightly wound and intense which made some of her dialogue clever. As here:

You’re overthinking this Nora,” said Ravi, “I have no other type of thinking available”.

To be a human was to continually dumb the world down into an understandable story that keeps things simple.

Then the book just got plain old sappy. With such statements as: ‘Never underestimate the big importance of small things.’ And, this slap-in-the-face advice to someone contemplating suicide; ‘Now go on, live, while you still have the chance.’

I finished The Midnight Library only because I wanted to see if I had predicted the ending correctly (I had) and because my book was due to expire digitally in a few hours.

I came away with many unresolved issues, the most important of which was that the author entirely skipped over the consequences of inhabiting other lives. Nora’s actions while inhabiting her alternate lives would have real world consequences for another version of her life.

The concept of consequences is what makes time travel/parallel lives books so fascinating – as with A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.

Life After Life did an excellent job of consequences, as did Mr. Haig’s other book which I enjoyed much more How to Stop Time.

Read any of those books instead.

Fran Lebowitz

Back — way back – with a brand new MBA in Marketing and Advertising, I longed to work in New York City. Madison Avenue was the mecca for advertising agencies (no, not like Mad Men, in the 1960’s I’m not that old). But after taking a look at the salaries (pitiful) and the NYC rents (astronomical), Husband and I decided I should look at other advertising positions in more reasonable locations. Ended up here in San Francisco, which back then was still affordable. Now I’m happiest just visiting, but have never lost my love of New York City. Sssh – I used to watch Sex and The City just to see the New York scenes and locations.

Recently, a friend told me about a new Netflix documentary staring Fran Lebowitz and Martin Scorsese.

Before I go on, in case you don’t know, Fran Lebowitz is a NYC icon. She moved from New Jersey to New York in her 20’s with jobs taxi driving, belt peddling, and apartment cleaning (“with a small specialty in Venetian blinds”). At twenty-one, she began a column called “I Cover the Waterfront,” for Andy Warhol’s Interview magazine. Then she published two books of essays — Metropolitan Life and Social Studies – both wonderful. She never really wrote anything else and has since made her living on the social commentary speaking circuit.

I adore Fran (who has been compared to Dorthy Parker – another favorite of mine) she is snarky, complaining, smart and very funny. I always remember right after 9/11 Fran was interviewed and said she was on the phone with a friend after the first tower was hit and when the second tower was similarly struck, Fran said to her friend; “it’s a terrorist attract” and her friend replied, “oh Fran you are always so negative”.

But as usual, I digress – back to the show. First watch the trailer HERE and then come back. I wait right here…

Trust me, this is well worth your time. I watched all seven episodes over the last week or so and loved each and every moment. Martin and Fran are friends and their chemistry is delightful. He asks great questions and then stands back and lets her go. She does complain about her fellow New Yorkers, about the lack of good bookstores, New York real estate ~~ but she also loves music and good art. On music she says ” It’s like a drug that doesn’t kill you”.

But this documentary series stole my heart with her musings on reading (she’s a devoted reader), buying books (her library boasts 10,000 books) and the love of all things bookish. One of her famous quotes I had as a postcard on my bulletin board for years. “Think before you speak. Read before you think.” The last episode is all about libraries and her love of books. I may re-watch that one…or perhaps the whole series again.

Her books are hard to find and a quick look on-line shows ridiculous prices. I stupidly got rid of my original hard backs …

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…in favor of a paperback collection which includes both books and one of her other writings.

I highly recommend watching Pretend it’s a City and then on your next venture into a used bookstore (whenever that may be) try and locate her books. Or of course, you can always find them at your local library. You’re in for some chuckle out loud reading.

I’ll leave you with some of my favorite Fran Lebowitz quotes:

“When you leave New York, you are astonished at how clean the rest of the world is. Clean is not enough.”

“To lose yourself in a book is the desire of the bookworm. I mean to be taken. That is my desire.”

“Now, nature, as I am only too aware, has her enthusiasts, but on the whole, I am not to be counted among them. To put it bluntly, I am not the type who wants to go back to the land; I am the type who wants to go back to the hotel.”

“As a teenager you are at the last stage in your life when you will be happy to hear that the phone is for you.”

And a personal favorite:

“In real life, I assure you, there is no such thing as algebra. ”

2021 Early Days

It’s been rainy and damp since New Year’s day. I know it’s nothing compared to living where it’s been snow, then rain, then ice – brrr

This is what I’ve been doing each morning ~~

Call me decadent, but I’ve been getting a cup of tea and going back to bed snuggled under the duvet, rain on the windows and reading my book.

I’m fortunate that I don’t have to attend any Zoom meetings or make any phone calls, so am taking advantage.

I could grow accustomed to this habit.

Here’s what I’m reading and I’m loving it.

2021 seems a great time to get into a multi-generational immigrate family tale. This one is about a German immigrant family and it’s at turn funny and heartbreaking.

I’ll tell you all about it…after my tea.