Literate Matters

Pick a column, any column

2011-10-02T18:53:00.003-04:00

Choose any Nick Kristof column dealing with the humanitarian crises in Africa, and comment here. Mention the specific column and cite at least two of Kristof's phrases or sentences in your response.
Any questions? Just ask.

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/opinion/editorialsandoped/oped/columnists/nicholasdkristof/index.html?match=any&query=Africa

Summer Reading

2011-09-28T19:39:00.003-04:00

The other night at dinner my wife wondered aloud why anyone, myself included, would assign summer reading? I didn't have a prepared answer, except to say I thought some of the discussions that came out of this year's assignment had been productive. I also thought the two books worked well together, and there is always the fact that likely few if any students would have read either of these books had I not assigned them.
So now I want to hear from those who were required to read them. Tell me what you think about the idea of a summer assignment, and what you thought in particular about the two books in question.

How can readers have such diverse reactions to the same book? Is this a comment about the books or about the readers, and if it is about the readers what does this say about what we as readers bring to the process?

Once Upon A (Michigan) River

2011-09-21T07:54:00.000-04:00

Margo Crane first enchanted readers in Bonnie Jo Campbell’s 2009 short story “Family Reunion.”
Meeting her again in Campbell’s novel “Once Upon A River” is an even larger treat. Margo, the Annie Oakley-wannabe heroine of this latest novel, has been compared to Huck Finn and Odysseus.
These comparisons, though, minimize the decency of the teenage Margo, who is not so much larger than life but rather as unadorned as life. A sharp shooting interloper and outsider in the clannish Murray family of Campbell’s fictional southern Michigan burg “Murrayville,” Margo’s yearnings for family and purpose personify the same fundamental longings recognized by everyone who has experienced family turmoil.
Cast adrift when her mother abandons her and by her father’s inability to understand her untamed impulses, Margo early on learns to fend for herself around the riverside home she shares with her father, just across the water from the Murrays. In part, Margo’s outsider status is sealed long before she is born, as her father, Bernard Crane, is “born the bastard son of Dorothy Crane and Old Man Murray during his bout of infidelity.”
When calamity soon visits, Margo discovers, “For the first time in a year, she was, horribly, part of the family.” The Murrays are expected to rally around the teen at this crucial moment, but she instead lights out along the Stark River in her teak rowboat “The River Rose,” given to her by her grandfather, Old Man Murray.
Campbell’s evocation of the elemental pull of the river on Margo’s burgeoning awareness is consistent as well as convincing. On the first night she spends at home without her father, “She smelled the river in every corner of the house, in every molecule of the air, in every pore of her own body.”
Margo next embarks on a series of sometimes heartbreaking but always heart-rending adventures, involving a cast of low brow characters like Brian and Paul, meth-making brothers who prowl the river for treasure, real or imagined, and Michael, whose river dog Cleo Margo renames “King,” because though a female, she stalks the river like a kingfisher.
Her journey’s purpose, ulimately, is to find her mother Luanne, whom Margo remembers as cocoa butter and white wine. Luanne left her husband and daughter, unable to cope with the closed nature of Murrayville. Rumored to be upstream, in Heart of Pines, Luanne becomes Margo’s destination.
Upstream or down, Margo pilots the banks of the Stark River as she navigates the edges of society. Unwilling to return to the stifling expectations of Murrayville, she instead journeys in and out of trouble, accompanied always by the .22 caliber Marlin rifle she appropriates from uncle Cal before leaving the family decay.
Eventually, in the emphysema-riddled Smoke, his dog Midnight, and his friend Fishbone, Margo finds both purpose and place, though she is no more settled than before, as Luanne remains in still uncharted waters.
“Once Upon A River” captivates as it startles, because Margo Cranes leaves in her wake a tale illustrating the confluence of calamity and connection.
Good Reading.

Alex McKnight Returns in Misery Bay.

2011-09-21T07:44:00.000-04:00

Fictional sleuth Alex McKnight is back and his fans are pleased, but no more so than his creator, Michigan-born author Steve Hamilton.
Returning in his eighth novel, McKnight ventures west from his home base in Paradise, to ominously named Misery Bay, where he is asked to investigate the suicide of a college student, a young man who appeared to have it all, but who instead hangs himself from a large, lonely tree near the shores of Lake Superior.
After a five year hiatus that saw Hamilton publish a second stand-alone novel “The Lock Artist,” Hamilton decided McKnight’s return should have the reluctant hero veer west. “I knew he had never gone west in the U.P.,” Hamilton says. “I knew it was very different out that way; I knew he’d have to wander out that way some time and get in trouble.”
Hamilton knew the only way he could have McKnight find the mystery of the western U.P. was to travel there himself, so he drove the Seney Stretch along M-28, eventually landing in the tiny town of Toivola. When he saw the nearby sign for Misery Bay, Hamilton knew he had found the right spot. “It’s not even on the map, unless you have a really good map,” he says of the bay.
Absorbed in an environment he describes as “forlorn and forgotten, he began to imagine the details of his new project. “ Like any crime writer, I asked myself what’s the worst thing that could happen here,” before fixing on the new book’s entry point, the suicide of a promising young man. He says the location is perfect for Alex’s next adventure, “Because it’s such a lonely place and there’s this big tree overlooking the lake.” The tree figures prominently in the story.
As he has for all his Alex McKnight novels, Hamilton resurrects some other colorful characters, chief among them Jackie Connery, owner of the familiar Glasgow Inn in Paradise, the spot McKnight is likely to be sipping on a cold Molson while waiting for something to happen. Jackie is as taciturn as ever, opening the story by telling some unsuspecting snowmobiler in a pink suit to leave and never come back when the man tramples on the local affinity for Lake Superior.
The first major twist in the story comes when Roy Maven, another recurring character and chief of police in Sault Ste. Marie, calls on McKnight with the hope of enlisting the sleuth’s help. Turns out the dead boy’s father is an old colleague of Maven’s. “Theoretically they’ve always been on the same side, even though they knock heads sometimes, Hamilton says of the tension in the relationship between Maven and McKnight.
As the boy’s father struggles to make sense of the suicide, he turns to his old buddy Maven. “It’s like the ultimate heart-breaking mystery,” Hamilton says of the weight of the suicide. Of the questions surrounding what drove the young man to suicide, Hamilton believes, “It’s almost an impossible question to answer,” which necessarily becomes the novel’s purpose.
Enlisted because he might be more likely to get the boy’s college pals to open up, McKnight reluctantly, as always, agrees to give it a shot, expecting to find little useful information, eventually uncovering more than enough to unravel the details that resolve the case.
Hamilton believes Alex McKnight has evolved since the first novel in the series, the Edgar Award winning “A Cold Day In Paradise,” published in 2000. “He still blames himself for what happened,” Hamilton says, referring to the shooting death of his partner when McKnight was a Detroit police officer, a shooting that occurred 14 years earlier. “When you first meet him, it’s been a few years since all this stuff happened in Detroit and he’s hoping not to deal with it.”
Dealing with it is a major current in the novels. McKnight has moved north to forget, but he can’t. Surrounded by his past, both personal and professional, the retired cop finds he’s constantly being called upon by new friends to help.
Though Alex McKnight took a hiatus, Hamilton did not. Still working his day job at IBM, he also managed to keep writing, turning out stand-alone mysteries in “Night Work,” and “The Lock Artist,” both well received by critics and readers alike. “It’s strange to think of a fictional character as needing a break,” he says of McKnight, “but he really did.”
Hamilton also wanted to take a break from his fictional creation. “I never want it to get easy. You can tell when someone hasn’t burned a lot of calories on a middle book,” he continues, explaining he didn’t want readers to think of him this way.
He believes the experience of the stand-alone books has been helpful. “I hope I became a much better writer having gone through it.” He feels the break from the series was necessary. “That was all I knew, and I sort of had this idea ‘that you need a break or you’d be stuck.’”
Having returned to the series, Hamilton has plans for even more. “I can’t imagine ever not wanting to go back to Alex,” he says. “I’m working on the next book, and it’s Alex. I’m sure I’ll stay with him for the next two.”
About his absence from Michigan, Hamilton says the space is helpful to his writing about home. “If you’re in the minute details every day and you get to look back, you might miss something.” From the distance of his New York home, he believes, “I can look back and know what Michigan is. Without hesitation, Hamilton says, “I know for a fact I couldn’t have written these books if I hadn’t moved away and had a chance to look back.”
Steve Hamilton will be back in Michigan beginning July 12 with a stop in Montague. He will conclude his tour with a visit to the Mackinac Island Public Library on August 26. He will sign books in Traverse City at Horizon books on Tuesday, July 19 from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m.
For more details about his books and his book tour, visit authorstevehamilton.com

Bood, Bones, and Butter

2011-04-17T17:49:00.001-04:00

The success of “Blood, Bones, and Butter” is that chef and restaurateur Gabrielle Hamilton turns her “inadvertent education (as) a reluctant chef” into a memoire as much about food as it is about family dynamics and cultural criticism. That she does this with metaphors concocted as carefully as her handmade salad dressings leaves a pleasant finish on the palate.
The owner of the New York’s trendy though classic Prune, Hamilton has written regularly about food in such magazines as “Bon Appetite” and “Food & Wine.” She has also been anthologized in “Best Food Writing.” Her University of Michigan writing degree does her well in her first book as week.
Raised in the Delaware River valley of New Jersey, Hamilton came up in a house full of older siblings, with an artist father and a French mother who navigated a six burner stove like a practiced dancer. Her mother cooked rustic fare. “She instilled in us nothing but a total and unconditional pleasure in food and eating,” Hamilton says.
The petite blonde cut her restaurant teeth waiting tables at local eatery “Mothers,” before moving to New York and the cultural weight of cowboy chic at the Lone Star Café. Here she learned “working her (expletive) tables,” meant pocketing cash meant for the cash register, then splitting it with the bartender.
Once she learned her lesson, Hamilton embarked on the 1980s odyssey of cocaine and sleeping late. The lesson also soon landed her in jail.
Both ahead of and behind her peers, she eventually enrolled at Hampshire College, intent on regaining some semblance of middle class expectations. Her history kept nagging, however, so Hamilton returned to New York and restaurant work.
Soon came gigs in commercial catering kitchens, where she met plenty of “ever-interchangeable warm (bodies) in a rented chef coat who knew not one thing about what a homemade mayonnaise might be.” The scale of such operations showed Hamilton that what often passed as good food was nothing more than quickly concocted combinations of second-rate ingredients, dressed up with clever presentations. The sheer quantity of the expectations demanded such shortcuts.
Next came a four summers long stint at a Berkshire summer camp, where Hamilton served baked chicken and tater tots by the pan-full, but also insisted on local produce and dairy.
Of her mother-in-law, Hamilton says her eighty-year-old Italian mother-in-law “cooks eggplant that satisfies like meat, grows her own olives, peels apricots from her own trees, and sun dries tomatoes to make her own tomato paste.”
Hamilton makes a fine meal of "Blood, Bones, and Butter."

In Which Brief Stories Are Told

2011-04-17T17:46:00.000-04:00

Ferris State University English professor Phillip Sterling believes Northern Michigan is not easily categorized. Sterling, an accomplished poet, has recently published a collection of short stories, many of which take place in this area.
The prevailing narrative thread in his book of short stories, “In Which Brief Tales Are Told,” is the uncertainty between what is known and what is suspected. In each of the fifteen stories, narrators, some omniscient, some confined, unravel details that often leave as many questions as they answer.
Published as part of the Made In Michigan Series from Wayne State University Press, “In Which Brief Stories Are Told,” demonstrates Sterling’s poetic tendencies in prose narratives. Case in point is “The Small Bridge.” In the span of six pages, Will and his future/ former wife Joy move from an early encounter raking leaves to marriage, then onto divorce, all the while imagining their daughter Artemis, and how the failed relationship reveals their most intimate feelings.
The raking, “no more than stench of death and decay,” serves as an appropriate metaphor for their failed relationship, made only less so by the wonder of their daughter. Here, Sterling’s narrative veers to the heart of the matter, as we learn, “What should be said instead is how little they knew of each other at this point in the story.”
In “An Account in Her Name,” Sterling’s narrative approach is more traditional. A middle-aged woman returns to Northern Michigan to meet a banker about a savings account her long missing sister kept. In the unfurling of events, readers learn that the sister, a teenage lifeguard and swimming instructor at a public beach in Beulah, left a legacy of not only mystery but also insight
Edie, the lifeguard gone AWOL, worked hard at their father’s restaurant, a place he buys in order to move his family north, to escape the sinister possibilities of the city. His family is slow to buy into his dream, though Edie works hard to keep up appearances.
In the span of a summer, Edie disappears while returning North from her studies at Kalamazoo College, unleashing events that bring down the dreams of those around her, including her parents and her sister. When the sister, the story’s narrator, conducts her banking, however, the mystery is at once renewed and reduced.

How The West Was Won

2011-02-28T16:36:00.002-05:00

Revision as history is a dicey business, so when he announces at the end of his new book, “Strange combinations of forgetting and remembrance followed the death of Crazy Horse,” Thomas Powers acknowledges the uncertainty in taking up any long known but little understood story.
“The Killing of Crazy Horse” is Powers’ attempt to explain the 1877 death of one of the most iconic Indians in all of American history. Throughout his investigation, Powers remains steadfast in his purpose not to cast blame but to unravel what has long been hinted at but never before now publicly proven.
That Crazy Horse held a special place of disgust in the white world is easily substantiated. Present in 1876 at the Little Big Horn river in Montana, the Oglala chief was largely seen as the cause of Custer’s last stand. With victory comes the right to tell the story, but with defeat comes the insistence on assigning blame. This blame, though nearly universal in the annals of the government’s explanations about what happened at that Montana outpost, is less clear in Powers’ retelling.
The larger context of the story, however, reaches back beyond this single battle, pointing fingers at a host of characters, both Indian and white, who, through circumstance or conspiracy, combined to find Crazy Horse at Nebraska’s Fort Robinson on the eve of his death in 1877.
Powers is careful to describe the results as “the killing,” though many might conclude or suggest it was murder. What has long been understood is Crazy Horse’s position in the Sioux society. He was a venerated chief, a “shirt wearer,” and a celebrated warrior. What he might not have been was any more responsible for Custer’s death than any of the other Sioux present at the fateful battle in 1876.
The flashpoint that led to the killing of the Oglala chief was undeniably the death of Custer. Powers, as have others, however, demonstrates how Custer and Major Marcus Reno likely erred in their maneuvers to surround and defeat the Indians. Indeed, Powers points out, how Reno faded from involvement when the battle flashed. “About Reno even the word cowardice was being used,” we learn.
Regardless the blame at Little Big Horn, the circumstances surrounding the death of Crazy Horse point to an amalgam of Indians and whites whipped to chaos and brutality not simply by the death of Custer, but by indecision, uncertainty, and cultural clashes that had boiled over once gold was discovered in the Black Hills of the Dakotas, traditional Oglala hunting grounds.
Implicated in this confusion of personalities is Little Big Man, once Crazy Horse’s friend, but at the end his adversary, as well as General George Crook, a veteran of the Civil War who always thought his successes overshadowed by those of Sherman and Sheridan.
Without the published accounts of the mixed blood scouts, those who interpreted between Indians and whites, this story might never have been recounted. The diaries of Billy Garnett and James Bordeaux are most compelling.
“The Killing of Crazy Horse” provides an insightful look at one of the most well known but little understood moments of American history.
Good Reading.

What Are We Fighting For?

2011-02-28T16:31:00.002-05:00

As a precocious kid coming up in the 1970s, I was drawn to the editorial page of the morning newspaper, where I first discovered Gary Trudeau, with his irreverent but accurate portrayal of American narcissism in the form of “Doonesbury.”
Andrews McMeel Publishing has recently issued “40: A Doonesbury Retrospective,” a compendium of every strips published since the comic launched in 1970. Also included are brief chapters by Trudeau on his most significant characters, including Mike Doonesbury, Uncle Duke, Zonker Harris, and others.
At the beginning, Trudeau explains what the book is not. “It’s not about Watergate, gas lines, cardigans, Reagonomics, a thousand points of light, Monica, New Orleans, or even Dubya. None of that.” He is also sure readers will be “relieved” at this news.
Trudeau is confident readers are not interested in “decoding long-expired topical material.” He explains that the book is instead an attempt to show “how it felt to live through those years.” This coffee table sized read includes 13 percent of the 14,000 strips published.
His character’s and his comic strip’s history is all here, nonetheless. The strip began, as most regular readers will already know, while Trudeau was an undergraduate. His first character was B.D., inspired by a college pal. But when syndication came, he knew was necessary to expand his character pool, so soon after, between 1970 and 1974, came the additions of Mike Doonesbury, Mark Slackmeyer, Joanie Caucaus, and intrepid CNN newsman Roland Burton Hedley, Jr.
A quickly noticeable feature of the strip’s evolution is the development of the drawing style and coloration. The first few panels are black and white, the outlines suitably shaded, but less structured and less defined than those of later efforts.
That evolution is also evident in the character’s dialogue. Whereas Mike and B.D. are largely concerned at the outset with what college life might offer, whether there are enough girls to meet a mixers, or the power of campus protest, the acceleration into topics of national significance and lasting impact is remarkable for its historical significance.
Richard Nixon might not make an obvious appearance, but nonetheless, here are Mark, Mike, and B.D. handing out awards to “the men and women who made Watergate a reality.”
Just when it appears Trudeau and his imaginary friends might stay fixed on matters of national significance, however, they veer back toward the ordinary, such as when Mark’s father announces to his still sleeping son, “Yessir, tomorrow’s the first day of college and it’s time to shake down the old man for the upcoming semester.”
Trudeau's most iconic character, however, is Uncle Duke. Modeled on bombastic journalist Hunter S. Thompson, Duke is memorable, whether lambasting his CIA intern for launching a Predator drone, or praising his Samoan aide for mixing a pitcher of daquiris.
For a look back at who we are, check out "40: A Doonesbury Retrospective."
Good Reading.

Lord of Misrule

2010-12-11T11:29:00.002-05:00

Winner of the National Book Award for Fiction recently, Lord of Misrule is an odd book. It isn't so much that the setting or the story arc are unorthodox; the story is set in a broken down horse racing world on the east coast and populated by characters with names like Medicine Ed and Suitcase. What makes the novel unusual, at least in contemporary fiction, is the narration. Where dialogue is concerned, dialect or vernacular has long been acceptable and at times preferable. But in narration, the deal with readers has always been that authors would revert to standard English usage. This is not the case here. The narration is rendered in half syllables, run-on sentences, and dropped suffixes. As well, the dialogue traffics in the relatively modern convention of not using quotation marks. I'm not sure the work isn't influenced by the style of Cormac McCarthy or Mark Twain.
In his slim treatise on the relationship between readers and writers, B.R. Myers, takes to task the new lords of fiction, criticizing McCarthy, Don Delillo, and others for their ventures into the ridiculous. I keep wondering what Myers will have to say about Lord of Misrule. I keep wondering what average readers will have to say as well.

The Golden Mean

2010-12-11T11:22:00.001-05:00

In the early part of Anabel Lyon’s new novel “The Golden Mean,” Aristotle proclaims, “In the ideal state, the education of children will be the highest business of the government.”
That the book takes as its narrative arc the relationship between the famous teacher and his most notable student, Alexander the Great, offers a creative look into their well-known relationship, if not for a careful examination of his maxim.
Approaching middle age, Aristotle is summoned to Pella by his boyhood friend Philip, King of Macedonia. Along with his young and less than worldly wife Pythias, the philosopher embarks on a course that has long been considered a crossroad of history; the teenage Alexander and the aging thinker shadow box through their lessons, sometimes working together, other times at odds.
The novel is much more, however, than the simple amalgam of teacher and student. Aristotle’s heritage shades the story. He longs to return to Athens, to the Academy, where he can put aside the worry of daily life, the quotidian complications of maintaining his household, navigating the pitfalls of marriage, his young wife’s pregnancy, his king’s expectations, as well as his own desires.
This simplicity is not to be, however, as Philip leaves to expand his empire, expecting Aristotle to remain in Pella to provide some ethical stability and philosophical inspiration to his son and his mates. This maturing cadre of aristocrats challenges the old thinker.
For his part, Alexander suffers blackouts while in battle, committing atrocities on the battlefield he is later unable to recall. His behavior, recalled by others, clearly abhorrent, is a counterpointed by Aristotle’s own ignoble foray into battle. He serves with the medics, where he continues to develop his conclusions. He recognizes, “There is, too, the matter of purpose; can one say the soul is the purpose of the body? I feel a wooliness there, a gap in the teeth of my logic.”
Alexander and Aristotle find in each other their own aspirations, but also their own failures. Aristotle wishes for more worldly experiences, but knows these are fleeting, and because of his lineage traced from Socrates, he knows is constantly in pursuit of restraint.
This equilibrium is the golden mean, the balance between access and excess; the tipping point between mania and moderation. For his part, Alexander, raised by an ambitious father and a doting mother, wants for a more cerebral existence, but recognizes his inability to hold temptation at bay. Side by side, the two demonstrate both the height of human possibility, as well as the depth of human suffering.
“The Golden Mean” is Lyon’s first novel. Her writing blends an earthy diction with a

Finders Keepers

2010-11-14T13:47:00.001-05:00

Each summer, my Mackinac Island backyard gives up a few archeological treasures. The site of a former blacksmith shop, the soil is rich with historical castoffs.
Though no one else is ever vying for these finds, Craig Childs’ book “Finders, Keepers” put me in mind of how tenuous is the relationship between searchers and their finds.
Childs, author of “Animal Dialogues” and “Soul of Nowhere,” trades on his experiences of the desert southwest to frame his thesis. However, what might appear obvious to some, namely that the dead do not continue to claim their castoffs, is not as obvious as Childs navigates the ethics of archeology.
“Spitting potsherds” as a youngster, Childs graduated to “unaffiliated backcountry aficionado,” and eventually backcountry guide. All the while, Childs was honing his finding skills, while developing his keepers’ ethos.
His conclusions are derived from his own experiences, as well as the experience of others, both those Childs applauds and those he loathes. One of the latter is Jack Haralson. An insurance salesman, Harelson was also an amateur archeologist, who once dug up “a 2,000-year-old sealed torso-sized basket, heavy with objects inside.” Among the objects inside is “a mummified boy who had been about four years old when he died, and below his leathery corpse was another mummy, that of a girl about ten years old.” Harelson kept the loot and buried the mummies in his backyard. For his pains, he spent eighteen months in prison and a $2.5 million fine.
On the other side of the equation are Emil Haury and Julian Hayden, also archeologists who explored the southwest, also discovered mummified remains, but who donated their finds to science. “The distance between these two ends of the spectrum,” Childs writes, “seems like forever, but it is not.”
Guiding a reporter, who is interested in the subject, Childs confronts the questions of ethics as they search for artifacts in the Arizona desert. “I did not want to force my own ethic on her,” he states. “We want to be the first ones to bridge the gap,” he says, “clearing the dust away and letting in light.” What he understands, however, is “if we opened it, the seal would be broken. It would be forever changed.”
This, of course, is the rub. “There is a difference between finding and keeping,” Childs warns. “The two are often lumped together in one action, but there is a blink that comes in between.” This blink is the territory where Childs finds questions that do not necessarily have clearly defined answers. “We have no single agreed-upon way of treating the past,” he reasons. “Behavior varies from person to person.” This variation can be problematic, causing either derision or adulation.
Childs suggests a direction, courtesy of James O. Young, of the University of British Columbia, who believes, “Artifacts ultimately belong to the cultures that made them…if they are proven to have had a genuine, substantial, and enduring significance to the people. If they aren’t so significant, it’s finders keepers.”

Princess Noire

2010-08-10T14:21:00.001-04:00

By many estimations Nina Simone was the height of cool. She was also the height of narcissism, as well as paranoia and pride.
Simone, the classically trained pianist from Tryon, North Carolina who wanted to be a concert performer but instead became an jazz and blues icon, is the subject of Nadine Cohodas’ biography “Princess Noire: The Tumultuous Reign of Nina Simone.”
A child prodigy born Eunice Waymon to enterprising parents in 1930s South, Simone caught her first musical break when she found the ear of a local white woman who agreed to sponsor the girl. Sent to another local white woman for piano lessons, Eunice progressed quickly. She regularly played her way through the heavyweights of classical composition as a child, demonstrating a keen affection for Bach.
From Tryon, Eunice made her way to Philadelphia, then a summer at the famed Julliard School in New York. Her goal was admission to the prestigious Curtis School of Music, where she intended to study classical piano, then go onto a career on the philharmonic stage.
What happened instead was a simple twist of fate. Cohodas provides a combination of speculation, hyperbole, and legend, retold by those who knew Simone best, to show the trajectory of her subsequent career. Rejected by Curtis, a now teenage Eunice Waymon earned money the only way she could, playing piano wherever she could.
Cohodas suggests the Curtis snub cut Eunice to the quick. “Over the ensuing half century that moment of despair would resurface, sometimes unexpectedly, with all the anguish of a fresh betrayal, and it would shape forever how she viewed her past.”
Over the next 50 years, navigating the civil rights movement, befriending literary luminaries such as Langston Hughes and Lorraine Hansberry, Simone earned a reputation as a champion of black rights, but also as a diva who could subject her audiences to both scorn and diatribe. She rarely started a show on time, and never missed a chance to speak out on race.
“Princess Noire” plumbs these musical and social depths of one of America’s most compelling voices.

Not For Profit

2010-07-14T09:53:00.003-04:00

Martha Nussbaum makes an assertion in her new book that not all educators believe. Her premise is that liberal arts are necessary for a strong democracy, but the shift in the educational paradigm over the past fifteen years or so is toward outcomes that can be measured on multiple choice tests. This is antithetical to the notions espoused in liberal arts classes that counter the student should construct meaning from a variety of sources, presented with the idea that while bias is always inherent, prejudice is to be avoided.
As professor of Ethics at the University of Chicago, Nussbaum no doubt knows first hand the dilemma many students face in classes where the quest is for the right answer rather than for a strong argument. This dichotomy has long vexed educators and students alike, as we play at school, when what is valuable is shunted into a corner because it cannot be quantified.
Building her own argument on the work of Bronson Alcott, Rabindranath Tagore, and others, Nussbaum believes this marginalization of the arts is indeed a "silent crisis." Her remedy? A renewed investment in the arts and in the Socratic Method, which provides a student centered approach to education that is in keeping with the educational theorists she champions, such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Johann Pestalozzi.
Nussbaum goes to great lengths to state that math and science are valuable commodities in the marketplace of education, but argues more vehemently that democracy, with its insistence on providing advantage for all, can only be bolstered with a vigorous infusion of art, music, theatre, history, and literature.

Shadow of the Wolf Tree

2010-07-11T08:46:00.005-04:00

Joe Heywood has a good thing going, and in his new installment, Shadow of the Wolf Tree he keeps it going.
Conservation officer Grady Service and his military buddy Tree are after a bit of r and r on the banks of a remote upper peninsula river when their tranquility is blasted by the work of what appear to be militant eco-warriors. With the discovery of two long dead bodies, the brutal murder of an out state fisherman, and the prospect of a long forgotten gold mine, Shadow of the Wolf Tree quickly catapults Service back to the front lines of environmental law and order.
After recently losing the woman he loved, Maridly Nantz, the aging woods cop now finds himself pursued by his new partner, Tuesday Friday, a new mother and a state trooper. When he figures he has the expectations worked out, he finds his perspective turned sideways, providing for some tension that is neither professional nor imagined.
Tramping through the north woods once again, Grady Service makes his way along the trail of loose ends, piecing together the clues of more than one eco-mystery.
Along for the ride are a host of regular Heywood characters, including the lovable but despicable Limpy Allerdyce, perhaps the Yoop's most notorious game violator. Back too are many of Service's allies, including Captain Lorne O'Driscoll and Simon Del Olmo.
Before its conclusion, Shadow of the Wolf Tree finds Service in typical Heywood form, angling through a messy swamp of convoluted clues, intent on once again restoring order.

A Thousand Sisters

2010-05-11T20:56:00.004-04:00

I can't think of anything clever to say about this new book by Lisa Shannon, save that it has captivated me and become the book I'm recommending to all who read. There is no new history here, as the catalogue of events leading up to the current situation in African Congo is well established. From the days of Belgium's Leopold to the current political configurations, Congo has long been what others dub "a vampire state." The corruption is equalled only by the resources that have long drawn outsiders to this heart of darkness.
Shannon nonetheless finds reason for hope in the stories of Congo's women. Subtitled "The Worst Place on earth to be a woman," Shannon's book chronicles her own odyssey of altruism as she organizes regular Run for Congo Women events around the country. She donates the proceeds to Women to Women, an international aid organization with outreach projects in Congo. Shannon's efforts are noble, but what makes the book compelling are the stories of the women in Congo who have endured years of brutality. In a place where there are no old people because no lives to see 50, Shannon manages to showcase the intersection of hope and despair played out in the daily lives of women like Generose, who lost a leg to marauding Rwandan militants. There is also Marie, a girl of only seven, who suffers from traumatic fistula because she was gang raped at five years old.
The power of Shannon's story is not simply the heartbreak of women like Generose and Marie, but in the resilience of others, who proclaim, "I feel somehow a person in life, a woman in life," because of the commitment of those like Shannon.
A Thousand Sisters is a book that belies clever commentary. Instead it encourages personal involvement.

Everything Old (and Classic) is New Again

2010-04-15T21:48:00.004-04:00

Sometimes the best stories are the oldest stories. Such is the case with Zachary Mason's new collection The Lost Books of the Odyssey, a re-imagined version of Homer's original. Mason, a computer scientist and first time novelist, has hit the mark with this group of stories that take Odysseus from the shores of Ithaka to Ilium, and back again. Rather than wed his new tales too closely to the plot lines of Homer, Mason instead wanders wider as Odysseus makes his way to war and home again.
Mason's best bits come in selections like The Iliad of Odysseus, where the hero, instead of the fully formed epic manifestation of Homer's twin books, animated by equal parts hubris and heroism, shrinks from conflict. Instead of taking up his damaged men to make for Ithaka, this suspect character begins by wondering "whether all men are cowards like me." In quick succession, this Odysseus sneaks through the carnage of the battlefield, stealing away into the night in shame and anonymity. Not the quintessential character of high school classrooms, this new Odysseus is rather a more human configuration.
In Mason's rendering, the story also radiates in widely different arcs. There is no clearly defined point of reference. The collection rather shows Odysseus, whether running toward a challenge or withering in the face of adversity, as a still evolving character, quite a feat for a creation more than 3,000 years old.

Reflection

2010-04-03T08:59:00.003-04:00

I've been home a week now, and am still reeling from the experience of my trip to Ukraine. I returned to school on Monday and was made aware that while I have been changed for the better by my travels and by meeting many new friends, my students did not change and they are basically the people I left back on March 15. This was somewhat of a let down, as I wanted everyone to change with me. This is of course impossible and I must simply revel in the wonder of what I've seen and what I've learned. I must acknowlege the power of the exchange I was a part of and work to keep that wonder and power alive in my own work. The week at home has solidified for me how important such opportunities are.
The final couple days in Ukraine were a marvel, as Halyna, Ievgeniia, and Anastashia and I traveled by train from Lutsk to Kiev, where we wandered the city for hours on a beautiful spring day.
Kiev was incredible. The architecture and the colors knocked me out. Everywhere we turned there were monuments, both new structures dedicated to the relatively recent independence of Ukraine, as well as those more historic, a result of Kiev being one of the oldest cities in Europe.
We saw Independence Square, as well as Saint Sophia's Cathedral, built in the eleventh century. We shopped for souvenirs and ate a hearty lunch. Through it all, the best part was sharing it with new friends. Halyna and Ievgeniia were wonderful hosts through my entire stay; they were there when I arrived and they were there to see me off at Borispol Airport. Throughout they helped me with the language, shared their families and friends, and made certain I was always where I needed to be and that I was comfortable.
Anastashia is hoping to be an exchange student in the U.S. this next school year, and I will be anxious to hear positive news about this.
Still can't believe it is over.

Random Thoughts

2010-03-28T12:10:00.001-04:00

A few random observations:
I had to check in at the same two ticket counters twice each upon my arrival in Kiev because my bag was overweight. While shopping today for a t shirt, we had to buy the shirt, then return to a photo processing store where the shirt will be printed. We had to speak to four different people at the photo shop before we had it right.
I’ve seen Soviet era dump trucks and men sweeping sidewalks with brooms feathered with willow twigs. These men work for the city government. I’ve been in grocery stores where I had to bag my produce, then have someone else weigh it. There are large high rise apartments being built next to small neighborhoods of squat houses, fenced in tight to keep the chickens and pigs from wandering into the street.

On buses, passengers in the back pass their fare to the front, and their change is passed back to them. Riders are given a ticket, but no one ever checks the ticket. At school, all records, including grades and attendance are kept by hand in notebooks that are then shown to parents at parent teacher conference time.
At the school canteen, bread sits on every table through each of the lunch periods, and the canteen is sometimes occupied by nearby construction workers, who find the fare cheaper than restaurants. This summer I’m told the canteen will be repaired, but the school administration will have to ask wealthy parents for assistance with the costs.
That all said, the students might not participate in school organized extra curriculars like our students in the U.S., but these students can often times speak four languages by the time they graduate after the eleventh grade.

Teacher Training

2010-03-28T12:06:00.001-04:00

Another whirlwind day. Two classes at school, including one on diversity and civic education. It seems the English teachers are the teachers who are spearheading discussion of civics, rather than the government or history teachers, as we might expect in the U.S. The teachers tell me this became their task about 15 years ago and they still struggle to get students to understand that citizenship means engagement.
During the lesson, the teachers discussed planning for the future, then showed a short video clip from the U.S. about a high school that organized the building of a handicap accessible playground. The students then discussed how they might do the same in Lutsk, and created an action plan. I worked with a group of boys to answer several questions.
Students then asked me about the student government in the United States. At Gymnasium 18, students have such a government, but it is largely ineffective because it operates outside the normal school day. I explained that our student government is a class, therefore has responsibilities tied to their progress in the class.
Next up was a discussion with eighth grade students, one of whom wanted to know if there were any crack houses near my house. After this lesson, Ievgeniia and Halyna whisked me to another large lunch in the school canteen, and then downtown to a play. I couldn't understand the dialogue, but recognized the emotion and the drama. It was a famous Ukrainian play; a sort of Fiddler on the Roof meets Grease. The end was tragic and that was easy to see, when the love triangle created out of a misunderstanding was broken with the death of one of the girls.
Next was some shopping, which is a completely separate story, then a few groceries, and back to the hotel.

The End, almost

2010-03-26T15:38:00.001-04:00

Sitting in the Amsterdam airport after a nine hour walking tour of Kiev and an all night train trip from Lutsk to Kiev. My internet has five minutes to go, so will simply say there is so much more to report and so many more images to post. Couldn't do either the past four days as the internet at the hotel quit and there was no one to ask, and even if there was couldn't speak the language. What a long strange trip it's been, however. More soon.

Wax Romanovs

2010-03-22T13:50:00.003-04:00

So today after lessons, two of my Ukrainian colleagues escorted me to a wax exhibit of the Romanov dynasty Russia. The figures represented all the czars from Ivan the Terrible through Nicholas II. The final scene depicted Nicholas and his family being assassinated. It was gruesome because it was life like. The eyes for each figure were made by a famous Ukrainian doctor who specializes in prosthetic eyes and teeth. We had a guided tour, but after the guide explained each figure's history in Ukrainian, my hosts explained again in English. The exhibt cost the three of us the equivalent of $6, but then I had to pay another three for the right to take photos. I've forgotten to bring my camera to the public place where I must connect to the internet, so will post some of the photos later. The most interesting figures were Ivan the Terrible, Gregory Rasputin, and Tolstoy.
Later we visited the largest grocery store in Kiev, Tam Tam, which means "there, there." It was the equivalent of a Sam's Club or Costco, except there is no membership fee. At the fish counter there were large oxygenated tanks filled with swimming carp and catfish. You tell the counter person which fish you want, and they scoop it out and clean it for you before wrapping it up and sending you on your way. I was satisfied with some local candy, a few containers of yogurt, some pastries, and of course the local beer.
Tomorrow I'm accompanying a class to a local theatre to see a drama, and while I won't understand a single word, the action will be universal I'm certain. Back in my room later I will watch German television, which broadcasts for part of the day in English, or Ukrainian football, which requires no translation, as soccer is the same the world over.

History

2010-03-21T15:46:00.003-04:00

Another wonderful meal at the flat of a colleague and her family. What was most intersting was discussing Ukrainian history with the family. The parents are my age, so were born under Soviet rule, but witnessed independence and all the turmoil this has brought. Viktor, a local policeman who certainly does prefer independence, did point out however how some public services were better under the Soviets. College for example, was free if you passed the right exams, whereas now, like at home, the student or family must pay a steep price. His son is a first year university student, and for agreeing to work for the government for three years after graduation, the government provides tuition assistance, but does not pay the total costs. Ukraine means "borderland," and it has truly been a changing border for a thousand years. To hear this from the people who live here and know the stories intimately is moving.

Hard to Believe

2010-03-21T04:22:00.002-04:00

Svitlana said many amazing things to me last night. For example, she had to spend a year teaching in Poland several years ago because the Ukrainian government had stopped paying the teachers. Several enlisted with a private organization and traveled to Poland for a year to teach. She told also about how last year she and Sasha could not take their money out of the bank as the government closed the banks. Between them, Svitlana a teacher and Sasha a policemen, they make approximately $500. They bought their flat for $5,500 several years ago. They do not own a car and Sasha often has to pay for the fuel to gas his police car. He sometimes has to take a bus to the village where he is a police officer.
She also told about how in the past the government forbid the teaching of Ukrainian history. "We really don't know our history," she said. The history was not taught, and then was replaced by a government version of the history that had been lost. These are all amazing statements for American to hear. We think of our history as unmalleable.

Cultural Highlights

2010-03-21T03:53:00.003-04:00

Yesterday was the most full day yet. To start, I visited old Lutsk, including Lubert, or Lutsk, Castle. Built in the middle to late 14th century, the structure is a combination of wood and brick and looks out over the city from on high. Nearby is the Cathedral of Saint Peter and Paul, which we were unable to visit due to a funeral.
From the castle, we made our way to the center of the city, where I bought a few souvenirs and simply took in the sights and sounds. Lutsk has an obvious European feel, with few private cars and many busses and trolleys. Women in the latest fashions hurry by, while men dressed in dark colors with serious eyes move more slowly or occupy street corners drinking beer.
We walked along the main pedestrian boulevard, stopping for lunch at a small cafe, where latkes, green salad, and beer for three was just short of $11.
The highlight of the day trip was a visit to the house of a local artist. He is a neighbor of Ivgeniia, my host teacher, but keeps this second house in the city to work on his sculpture. We chatted briefly and walked about his courtyard, strewn with various works of marble and stone in various stages of completion. The house sits at the end of a cobbled street that butts up to the riverbank. The locals call it "The House of Chimera." Our host was disappointed when I couldn't produce American coins, but I do have some in my hotel rooom I'll pass on to him.
After our day, where I was accompanied by Ivgeniia, Gollia, and Andrew. Andrew is the son of one of the English teachers at Gymnasium 18, and he spent last year as an exchange student in Leadville, Colorado.
Next up was dinner at the home of Svitlana, the English department chairwoman, and her family. Her husband Sasha does not speak English, but when he and I discovered our mutual love of fishing, we seemed able to communicate regardless of the language barrier.
The family is impressive, in that Sasha and Svitlana communicate in Russian, while Svitlana and her daughter Anastasia communicate in Ukrainian and English. They treated me to baked Hake and my first taste of salo, a sort of pig fat that is salted and cooled. It tasted like meaty bacon and it was suggested I eat it on a piece of dark bread. There was also plenty of good Ukrainian vodka.
After a long day of sightseeing and much good food and conversation I slept well.

Sights to see

2010-03-20T03:01:00.003-04:00

Yesterday was filled with several hours at school, followed by a trip to the center of the city for a sort of cultural concert. It seems several local government workers were being honored for their efforts, and in between announcing names and giving out certificates accompanied by red carnations, there was dancing, singing, and even an orchestra. Ivgeniia, my contact teacher at Gymnasium 18, was one of the dancers. I was accompanied by Olga and Ilya.
The festivities were colorful, cheery, and loud.
Afterwards, as ever, the ladies accompanied me back to the hotel, with a stop first at a local market, where I bought my provisions for breakfast; some green tea, some yogurt, and a couple pastries. They then walked me to the hotel, where they informed the restaurant staff I would not be dining in, and left me. I spent the rest of the night updating on the internet, watching Ukrainian television and reading Anna Reid's fascinating history of Ukraine, "Borderlands."
Today I am to accompany Ivgeniia and Gollia to a local castle, do some souvenir shopping, then have dinner with Svitlana and her family. Svitlana is the chair of the English department at the school. Her husband doesn't speak English, but her daughter does, so I should be able to communicate just fine.
Am going to try and attach a couple photos here before signing off.

Eastern Rising

2010-03-18T13:25:00.002-04:00

Finally updating from Lutsk, Ukraine. Have been struggling with internet troubles, but they seem to be okay at the moment. The trip in was long and tiring. Pellston to Detroit, to Amsterdam, to Kiev, then Lviv, and finally Lutsk. The trip took some 30 hours with three time changes and daylight changing to darkness, then back through the entire cycle. I am now a phenomenon at Gymnasium 18, where students greet me with part wonder, part awe, and part disinterest. The staff has been incredibly warm, and each day a new teacher becomes my guide. I have been to the bank with one, the supermarket with another, and today to an art museum with two more. I am living in a small hotel that looks more like an office building, but is literally a 200 meter walk from the school.
Each day lunch at school consists of soup, bread, meat, pasta, and cabbage salad of some type. The head of the canteen thought I didn't like her food because I didn't eat it all the first day I was there, but there was simply too much. I have made peace with her now.
My hotel room is small, but comfortable. The television didn't work the first three days, so I read and listened to Ukrainian radio. Music is soothing whatever the language.
Tomorrow more school, more culture, and hopefully more internet coverage.

Eastern Horizon

2010-03-04T17:29:00.003-05:00

Off to the Ukraine in a week, where I'll be reading and writing with mostly middle school students in a school in Lutsk. In the west, the town is staunchly Ukrainian, I hear, unlike its western cousins who are more likely to be pro Russian. After the recent election, however, the entire country might be undergoing a Russian revolution. I will be there two weeks, speaking to students and working with teachers of English. I've been reading Borderlands by Anna Reid for some background. A history of Ukraine, the book winds back to the Cossack period and before, eventually wending forward to the late 20th century.
I'm also slowly working into Taras Bulba by Gogol, as he's the West's version of a Ukrainian classic. This might be more of a plane read, as I've not made it deep into the story as of yet.
Stay tuned.

Dark Evening

2010-03-04T17:18:00.003-05:00

I've been through Idaho, and read much about its wonderful trout fishing. I even met a teacher from Moscow, Idaho who I found to be perfectly intelligent. I am glad to say I have no experience with the Idaho depicted in Brian Hart's new novel Then Came The Evening.
Hart's characters are meth fueled and pain marked, oppressed by family strife that runs deeper than any trout stream and is harder than any mountainside.
When Tracy Doerner shows decides to reclaim his dead grandparent's failing homestead, he finds the work is not as hard as the emotional upheaval he must endure. His father Bandy, incarcerated and without prospects, never knew the son he shared with his estranged and drug addled ex-wife Iona.
When Tracy falls off the roof of the dilapidated farmhouse, the family's sharply divided trajectory angles back on one another, bringing the past to weigh on the future. Bandy, banged up in prison, finds himself drawn to Tracy, the son he didn't know, as well as to Iona, the meth-head who's traded drugs for a shot at restoration.
Hart, a first time novelist, gets bogged down in minutia on occasion, but drags the story out of the dirt long enough to outline believable characters mired in regrettable circumstances.

3000 Year Echo

2010-02-18T17:13:00.003-05:00

Homer is alive and well in David Malouf's new novel Ransom. Told in dispassionate third person, the crux of the tale is the competing emotions of Achilles and Priam. Between them lays the body of dead Hector, killed when Achilles' rage boiled over, pushed to action after the death of his cousin Patroclus.
For his part, Priam is defeated at Troy, worried that his family will think ill of him, and aged in the face of conflict. Taking possession of his son's body drives the old King, hoping he can reclaim some small portion of what has been taken.
The two men come together in a choreography of grief that Malouf orchestrates with a deft touch, the language at once powerful and tender.
That Homer is alive some 3000 years after his death is a testament to the power of story. Any reader, or non reader, who cannot hear this echo, is likely deaf in other ways as well.

Resonance

2010-02-02T18:41:00.002-05:00

What literate male of my age wasn't affected by J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye? The acerbic Holden Caufield, short on patience and long on insight, insinuated himself into the culture as a wit and a wonder. He couldn't abide rules, but he also couldn't abide phonies. Holden, his sister Phoebe, and his acquaintances from Pency Prep established Salinger as the conscience of rebellion from the 1950s on. Holden was a thinking man's malcontent, an intellectual rogue who wanted nothing more than to be left alone, as the world had turned to mush all around him.
Salinger, like his pint sized protagonist, turned away from the larger world as well, settling in tiny Cornish, New Hampshire. The story is well established, though the truth will never be out.
Salinger insulated his life with more than 50 years off the literary map. His passing is a mark that will go little marked after a brief run up of publicity about his most famous character. Salinger could have embraced the world, but in the end his legacy would have been determined the same way, as a result of his work. This is what resonates when the voice has fallen silent.

Lynch Delivers, Finally

2010-01-14T18:28:00.002-05:00

Readers, particularly those in Michigan, have been waiting for several years now for Thomas Lynch's new collection of fiction. Author of poetry and essays, Lynch is well known for his non fiction, particularly that focused on his other career, funeral home director. Lynch's The Undertaking has been buzzing since its publication. A National Book award nominee, Lynch has long promised a work of fiction. Apparition & Late Fiction brings together a single novella and four short stories, all of which showcase Lynch's poetic tendencies. His prose is lyrical and large.
Conclusions will arrive soon about how well his command of the essay translates to his new fiction. Longtime Lynch readers will, however, be pleased to at last have the chance to assess the possibilities.

Happy New Year

2010-01-03T11:44:00.002-05:00

Happy New Year of reading, with new books about Greg Mortenson's ongoing efforts, the centennial of the University of Michigan Biological Station in northern Michigan, some fiction, and a new collection of Wendell Berry poetry. There is never a shortage of good books to read and never a shortage of reasons to open them, particularly this time of year, when the days are short, the nights, long, and the light more appropriate for reading than for running.

Have You Heard The One About The Farmer's Daughter?

2009-12-01T18:04:00.002-05:00

Jim Harrison is nothing if not prolific, no doubt owing to his Scandinavian heritage. So here comes his new collection of novellas, The Farmer's Daughter. A form little practice, the novella is essentially a mini novel, and Harrison's tend to run to a hundred pages, give or take. And the collection brings back old favorite Brown Dog, as well as introducing new settings and new characters.
In the opening selections, Harrison once again adopts the point of view of a woman, this time a comely young woman whose body belies her small town upbringing. Her blossoming outline and burgeoning awareness of the world outside her cramped family is appropriately tense while also providing the typical measure of Harrison optimism.
Set for release just after the first of the year, this collection finds Harrison covering familiar ground, though in ways that will further endear him to his loyal readers, if not winning him new book buyers.

Merry Christmas

2009-11-16T19:38:00.002-05:00

Joel Waldfogel would have us take Black Friday and turn it back into the start to just another weekend, just another season. In his new book Scroogenomics, Waldfogel explains in plainly understood economic language why binge shopping, the sort that drives most folks' holiday surge, is indeed bad for the economy. In Waldfogel's equation, the pleasure derived from a gift received must at a minimum equal if not exceed the price paid for said gift. But when you tear open that lovingly wrapped box from Aunt Betsy to find an argyle sweater, the equation swings wildly out of balance. Aunt Betsy would have been better off spending that money on herself or asking you specifically what you had wanted.
Christmas shopping isn't likely to suffer much from the echo of Waldfogel's publication, but for those who pay attention, there might be a tad more thought given before buying those golf themed pajamas.
Waldfogel won't earn any nods from toddlers or parents intent on out doing the neighbors. Where he will earn some attention, perhaps, is with those who need a poke to push them away from senseless gift giving and toward a more thoughtful approach to sharing with others.

National Winner?

2009-11-09T21:36:00.003-05:00

She might not win the National Book Award next week, but Bonnie Jo Campbell's American Salvage won't lose to a better book. Set in rural southern Michigan, the collection of short stories is a testament to the bittersweet combination of small town loyalties and limited opportunities. Campbell's characters are tainted by the stink of meth addiction, while at the same time marked by the full range of human emotion.
Campbell, author of Women & Other Animals, as well as Q Road, again traffics in damaged lives weighted by unemployment, family dysfunction, and small town sensibilities. The result is an alchemy of powerful disappointment.

Higher Education

2009-10-04T17:57:00.002-04:00

No doubt I'll hear it from colleagues, but the most intriguing new book I've encountered is Blake Boles' College Without High School, where in the author suggests that high school might not be for everyone, and that attending college, even highly sought after competitive colleges, does not require a high school diploma. I think Boles might have something here.
While I don't have experience with high school dropouts attending college, I do have experience with bored high school students. I also know that as Boles suggests, high school is structured to suggest one size fits all, but this is not the case. All manner of bright students are bored to tears by the institutional organization of high school. The daily routine, the class structure, the curricular offerings are all tailored to accommodate a broad swath of students, but this means that little thought is given to allowing students to custom fit their education.
I believe it is important to provide students a broad experience, much as is the case at liberal arts colleges. What I don't believe works is pigeon holing students into taking classes they are uninterested in, or requiring them to simply complete standardized tests to show competence or mastery.
I think, as Boles argues, students should engage in greater adventures while learning where their interests genuinely lie. I think students need more input in their education, and I think high schools must be better able to adapt to the needs of students, rather than the other way around.

The Drug Problem

2009-09-21T21:33:00.002-04:00

While it's been sitting on my reading table for a month now, I've finally started Nick Reding's Methland. What I've discovered is a riveting account of the slow decline of one corn belt town in Iowa, largely due to an abundant supply of illegal methamphetamine. Reding, a working journalist, travels to Oelwein, Iowa to look into the many ways the drug has unraveled the towns folk, regardless their socio economic status.
Just as revealing but equally vexing is the revelation that methamphetamine was at one time legal, manufactured to help soldiers in combat as well as housewives overwhelmed by the doldrums of suburban living. From here, the drug has jumped all manner of societal firebreaks to land on the short list of most damaging narcotics, right up there with heroin and crack cocaine.
Reding interviews law enforcement officials, as well as those who found dealing crystal meth more rewarding, in more ways than one, than working at Wal Mart.
The reporting is incisive, the conclusions disturbing. Crystal meth has enjoyed unhealthy popularity in northern Michigan so this examination of small town Iowa hits closer to home than I'd like to think.

Favorite Read

2009-09-12T09:31:00.002-04:00

A student approached yesterday after class to ask me what my favorite book is. I was unable to answer with anything more than a response about what I've been recently reading. As those who read often know well, singling out one book is nearly impossible. I have had many favorites over the years, starting in high school when I might have said Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo, or Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger. In college I might have quickly responded with titles like Fear and Loathing On The Campaign Trail '72 by Hunter S. Thompson, or Love is a Dog from Hell by Charles Bukowski.
These days it's more likely to be a recent read. I've lauded Born To Run by Christopher McDougall and Going Out Green by Bob Butz. Right now I'm reading The Truth About Love by Josephine Hart and I'm being drawn in completely. Hart, like so many of her Irish and British counterparts has a lyrical style that relies as much on the influences of verse as it does on the twists of fiction. There are several others waiting on my reading table, so no doubt the answer about what is my favorite book will change by degrees in the coming days.
The more important question for me is "what are you reading now?" Because if you're not reading something, always, there won't be any growth in the possibilities.

School's In Session

2009-09-09T21:06:00.003-04:00

School started today, so my classroom is once again filled with students hoping to manage their way through what I throw at them, whether it be the simple tale Of Mice and Men in English I, or the more challenging Inferno of Dante in Advanced Placement Literature. What they also seem to hope is to get by with as little reading as possible. I fully recognize that a sizeable portion of my seniors cut corners on their summer reading. They rely on Sparks Notes, Cliff's Notes, and Wikipedia to find the answers they could find as easily in the actual reading.
I'm always at a loss this time of year wondering why so few students don't take to reading as productive passtime.
My loosely and anectdotally based observations come down to what is practiced at home, and what is promoted in the popular media. There is no denying that booksellers are hurting as people turn away from books. But what are they turning toward? Are the absences left with the loss of literature being adequately filled by television, the internet, or other electronic media? I believe they are not. I believe the dumbing down of our students is largely due to their lack of appreciation for reading. No one ever learned while talking, something many of my students are quite good at. But everyone who reads learns something, whether it be how to make popcorn int the microwave, or how to investigate the relationship between medicine and history. Reading is essential to growth, but alas too many students, at least at high school, are less interested in growth than they are in gain.

Running Hard

2009-08-28T08:07:00.002-04:00

Chris McDougall draws several conclusions in his book Born To Run. He states that running shoes are the most damaging piece of athletic equipment to ever come along, ruining knees and feet in the name of comfort. He suggests that ultra marathon running lowers the risk of cancer, and he even believes that he has proven the existence of persistence hunting, or running down the meat with superior strategy. He argues that Neanderthals gave way to Homo Sapiens because the Neanderthals refused to adapt, refused to take to the run when their large, less mobile quarry were no longer available.
The one conclusion I was waiting for was the connection between the Mexican Tarahumara Indians and the fountain of youth. McDougall shows how the Tarahumara, fueled by a mixture of corn and beans, run great distances with regularity, even into their sixties and seventies. He believes their combination of diet and exercise, along with a tradition born of necessity and resolve, allow them to avoid cancers, heart disease, even arthritis. What he doesn't conclude, though, is that this combination can lead to long life for everyone else. He stops short of claiming this lifestyle is the elusive fountain of youth, but it is a conclusion many of his readers might make. I know I do every time Odin and I take off on a trail run these days, pushing up hills and leaping over dead-falls. We will keep running because as McDougall does conclude unequivocally is that we were all "born to run."

Mystery Solved

2009-08-22T08:52:00.002-04:00

Mardi Link's new true crime thriller Isadore's Secret will be out this week or next, and I've recently finished reading the advance copy. I admit I was captivated right to the end, wanting not only to know if the murderer would be found, but what motive might ultimately be proved, how the tiny Leelanau town of Isadore would recover, and what might become of the several Catholic priests implicated as knowledgeable about the sordid mess. Link, who previously wrote about the murder of the Robison family near Good Hart in 1968, did not let me down. By the book's end I was shaking my head at the unlikely conclusion to the long unsolved crime. My hope now is that others will read the book too and Link will earn some measure of success on her new project. I had never before heard of Isadore, let alone the murder and burial of a pregnant nun under the tiny burg's only church. Link has used her source material well, culling from archives as wide as The New York Times, and as close as the Traverse City Record Eagle. More importantly, she has recreated believably the sleepy hamlet of 1907 and after where the crime occurred.
Smart readers will find this book informative, well written, and disturbing. All good responses to good writing.

Browsing History

2009-08-21T08:58:00.003-04:00

Book lovers are also necessarily bookstore lovers. My two favorites have long been The Island Bookstore on Mackinac Island and McLean and Eakin in Petoskey. That I live in these two locations has seen me visit these two outlets far more than any others.
A good bookstore should have a knowledgeable staff, a varied selection, and a purpose. The de facto purpose of these two notable shops is to offer the widest array of books to the most discerning readers, while also providing an opportunity for education to those less well read. The difference between Island Books and McLean and Eakin and their less successful competitors is the quality of the staff.
Regardless of what I might be looking for, and I rarely have to buy books any more, I know there are folks at either location, such as manager Tamara at Island Books, or my former student Katie at McLean and Eakin, who can both suggest interesting reads and help me find something I might have already zeroed in on.
When I was a student in Ann Arobr I frequented the flagship Borders location on State Street. When it opened, the store generated a buzz because of its size and its determination to provide an unlimited array of choices for the largest possible audience. Borders has, unfortunately, fallen victim to the culture of corporate anemia. Their bottom line became more important than their lofty mission. Just down the street from Borders was Shaman Drum, which was actually more like a neighborhood bookstore should be; a bit smaller, more compact, more ready to adapt when necessary.
This ability to adapt is what has kept Island Books and McLean and Eakin in business and prospering. There are no coffee bars in these stores, no internet cafes where pseudo intellectuals can be seen working on their great works, or where they can hang out all day, being seen but doing nothing.
If you want books and an informed bookstore staff, visit McLean and Eakin in Petoskey or The Island Bookstore on Mackinac Island.

Harrison Bibliography

2009-08-14T08:26:00.005-04:00

Some days feel like Christmas. Such is the case when I get a call from the News Review telling me there are books waiting. Last week one of the titles waiting, and which I was most anticipating was Jim Harrison: A Comprehensive Bibliography. Newly published by the University of Nebraska Press, the heavy volume contains notes on more than 1600 Harrison publications, ranging from his major novels and novella collections, to single poems published in now defunt magazines. In between, are all the works that Harrison fans have come to appreciate. There are the food columns, the book reviews, the politically slanted essays, even lecture notes.
Edited by Gregg Orr and Beef Torrey, the collection, spanning 1964-2008, takes readers through The English Major, Harrison's most recent novel. His newest collection of poetry, In Search of Small Gods, is in here in fragments, but not as an entire work. Included as well are rare book jacket art, hand signed copies of texts, and most importantly explanations of the arc and history of each published piece. Harrison's and DeMott's introduction and preface are nearly worth the effort alone.
This is not going to be a book of interest to the casual Harrison reader. Most folks indeed will struggle to find a use for the collection. But with an introduction by Harrison and a preface from scholar Robert Demott, a long time Harrison friend, those who read all things Harrison will find insight and entertainment here. Oh, and the cover illustration is from Russell Chatham.

Up North Mystery

2009-08-10T09:54:00.002-04:00

Another recent read is Mardi Link's new book Isadore's Secret, set in Michigan's Leelanau peninsula in the little backwater town of Isadore. Link, whose previous novel When Evil Came To Good Hart detailed the unsolved murders of a Detroit area family, has this time turned her attention to the disappearance and then grusome discovery of a Felician nun in 1907. I liked Link's first book, but primarily because I was familiar with the story. Her new mystery, also published by the University of Michigan Press, demonstrates how her writing has matured. The sentences are more precise while also more complex, a feat not easily accomplished. If the story line is less well known, the book, which debuts on September 1, will help shed light on a longtime disturbance in one of the region's most beautiful locations.

What I'm reading now

2009-08-07T09:59:00.006-04:00

I've recently started two new books. The fist is Bob Butz's Going Out Green. Butz, author of Beast of Never: Cat of God begins the new book with an intriquing premise: plan his own green funeral over the course of just twelve weeks. The fact that he is not dying makes the premise a bit of an oddity, but he is a journalist so the story works. Butz is a journalist with a sense of humor. The story's backdrop is mostly northern Michigan, where Butz lives, so many of the locations and sentiments are recognizable to those of us who live here.
The other book I've begun is Born to Run by Christopher McDougall. Also a journalist, McDougall sets off for Mexico in search of the mythical Tarahumara Indians, a tribe from the Sierra Madre mountains said to parley their diet of barbequed mouse and corn beer into an ability to run hundreds of miles at a time over rough desert and mountain terrain wearing little more than sandals and skirts. McDougall predictably finds, so far anyway, that the story is both more and less than advertised. Stay tuned and more importantly, keep reading.

Welcome

2009-08-05T09:27:00.002-04:00

Welcome to the initial entry on the Literate Matters blog. I've been writing a column of the same name for nearly 10 years and can now share more material more often. The purpose of the blog is to talk about what I'm reading and what you should be reading. I'm keenly interested in what you're reading, so please share your thoughts with me as well. Look for my column the second and fourth Thursday of each month in the Petoskey News Review. The last column was about Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, a terrific road novel celebrating its 35th anniversary. Next week's column will be about The River Why, another cult classic that is worth a look more than 25 years after its publication.
Until then, keep reading and keep writing.
Glen