Liquid Fire on A Busy Day

March 28, 2009 / still a dreamer / 2 Comments

applejuice Having a children’s book Mentoring Workshop on the horizon is both exciting and a bit stressful. There’s lots to do and prepare for — in this case a NJ SCBWI Mentoring Workshop — prepping my portfolio to the best I have it so far, getting ready my first pages, critiquing my group’s MS’s, and seeing if I can complete one more illustration for my portfolio before the big day. Of course, the daily demands of my clients do not lessen any.

With a mind charging about like a runaway train, I suddenly was stopped in my tracks and noticed something – beautiful, simple and wonderfully distracting. My glass of apple juice on the dining room oak table had become a crystal of liquid amber filled with fire.

Note to self – never get so crazed that you don’t see these amazing visual moments.

The Mermaid Chair – Part 2

March 8, 2009April 25, 2009 / still a dreamer

mermaidchair What a terrific read! In The Mermaid Chair, Sue Monk Kidd has given us a tale of a woman searching for her lost soul. Jessie Sullivan, the main character, tells us her story in first person … that of a woman deeply restless in her marriage, lost and unhappy. She is called back to the place where she grew up, Egret Island, by friends of the family on the occasion of her mother having taken a meat cleaver and chopped off one of her fingers.

Once at the island, the plot really unfolds with this bizarre mystery, Jessie’s unforeseen attraction to a monk, her struggle with her relationship with her husband of many years, the riches of female friendship, and the mermaid chair itself. Not the least of it all, is the magnificent description of place.

For the duration of this book, I was immersed in the physical life of Egret Island, an imaginary place off Charleston, South Carolina. Monk has nothing short of an exquisite use of words in describing the island, the marshes, birds, and sultry air. I am truly in awe of her ability to bring me to a place that lives and breathes so, that surrounds me while I read. For this, I was sorry when the book ended … I loved being there.

With a richness of characters in the women – Nelle, (Jessie’s mother), friends Hepzibah and Kat, and Kat’s daughter, Benne- The Mermaid Chair weaves the mystery — what caused her mother to brutally attack her own body this way? And then, how is Jessie Sullivan attracted to a monk? Brother Thomas/Whit is also wonderfully drawn, as is Jessie’s husband Hugh. While Jessie struggles, searching for answers in her own life as well as for her mother, she paints. And paints, in ways she’s never seen herself do before.

The Mermaid Chair is described as a coming-of-middle-age novel, which could sound kind of ho-hum unless in the hands of a very skilled writer. Have no fear – Sue Monk Kidd is that writer. It really is a book I couldn’t put down and was reading past the hour when I should have been asleep. It simply has everything … a deep mystery, love and passion, the bond of female friendship and a search for one’s soul.

When all is said and done, other than Monk’s exceptional writing, the most compelling comparison I could make between The Mermaid Chair and The Secret Life of Bees, is that I truly never knew how it was going to end. And that’s a good thing.

Smoke Signals & The Business of Fancydancing – Sherman Alexie Makes Movies

March 1, 2009March 16, 2009 / still a dreamer

Having recently read The Absolutely True Diary of A Part-Time Indian, and checked out a few YouTube videos of Sherman Alexie, I am interested in reading more. But already in a different book, I decided to put two of his movies in my queue. About a half week ago, I watched Smoke Signals.

alexie-smokesignals I liked Smoke Signals; I was left thinking about a number of things afterwards — the characters, their situations, how the story was told. The two main characters, Victor Joseph and Thomas Builds-the-Fire, grew up together on the Spokane Reservation, bonded by Victor’s alcoholic father having saved Thomas when his doomed parents tossed him out the window of their home, engulfed in flames. Victor and his mother are abused by the alcoholic father, who although he loves them, will not give up drinking and leaves the rez. Sometime later, he passes away, and Victor wants to make the trip to Phoenix to pick up his father’s ashes. As Victor is unable to afford the trip, Thomas offers to pay if he can go along. Victor is troubled and angry, Thomas, nerdy, always optimistic and forever telling intricate stories. Their trip becomes one of discovering friendship, and for Victor, learning who his father really was, forgiveness and understanding.

Something I liked about Smoke Signals, (based on The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, Alexie’s short stories), was how I could relate to the characters. The movie touches upon universal themes, yet watching it, I distinctly felt that I was watching and learning about another culture. Which I was. Much like watching the Maori in Whale Rider, I was aware of the similarities in what we all, as humans, go through, yet the differences in cultural beliefs and how the Indians go about solving some of their problems. Alexie makes clear what the issues really are on the rez. It gave me a lot to think about.

The Business of Fancydancing, based on Alexie’s poetry, was quite different. One of the successes of Smoke Signals for me was that I could really relate to Victor and Thomas. In Fancydancing, the main characters Aristotle Joseph and Seymour Polatkin are defined, yet for me, Alexie failed to create them as fully rounded characters deserving of my empathy. I believe one of the problems is the film has far too many special “techniques” or whatever one would like to call it. I get the metaphor of Seymour fancydancing, and other characters dancing in simpler blankets or more traditional Indian dress intermittently throughout the movie, but overall, there were just too many different moviemaking techniques jostling my sensibilities around. From the periodic one-on-one interviews with Seymour, to the washed-out-lighting home camera effects from the past, to Mouse playing violin in the background, or Aristotle singing in Seymour’s ear – the constant jumble of treatments really took away from the continuity of the story. And I wanted to like this movie.

Alexie’s point is well-made about how hard it is to leave the rez, and how resented Seymour is for having left and made a success of himself. It is said the stories he tells in his poems are actually Aristotle’s experiences, and that he lies. In fact, Seymour admits to lying in the interview sections, and is seen doing so later in the movie. Called back to the rez from Seattle for Mouse’s funeral, Seymour confronts his past, and those still living there. The Business of Fancydancing is interesting, but not cohesive. The violent roadside scene with the young man needing assistance seemed dropped in to make a point about Indians’ anger at the white man, but out of place.

For me, the best development of the characters was sacrificed to the use of too many distractions. It was hard to feel truly empathic towards them as I did in Smoke Signals. Aristotle had problems, sure, but I wasn’t helped to like him. Was that Alexie’s intent? Seymour had many conflicts, but I think I could have liked him a lot more, too. If I had to rate both movies I’d probably go for 4-5 stars for Smoke Signals and maybe 2 for The Business of Fancydancing. Because Alexie has access to the mainstream media and the opportunity to bring the message of the American Indian to moviegoers, it was disappointing that the message got lost in the shuffle.

I do intend at some point to read both of Sherman Alexie’s books that these movies were based on. He’s still got my attention.

The Mermaid Chair – Part 1

February 26, 2009 / still a dreamer / 2 Comments

seashell2 Here’s a fine case of not judging a book by its cover, or better said, an author by her previous book. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd was going to be a hard act to follow. There isn’t a soul I know who didn’t think Bees wasn’t one of the best books they’d read in a long, long time. When The Mermaid Chair arrived on the scene, there seemed to be a consensus that, before even reading it, Kidd’s new book would not be able to compare to The Secret Life of Bees.

I am almost through The Mermaid Chair, and I think it’s amazing. It’s not long into the book before you forget who wrote it, what she wrote previously or anything like that. And that’s my advice for anyone wanting to read The Mermaid’s Chair — go in letting go of any preconceptions and ideas of comparing. The book, to me, is so totally different from Bees, it deserves to be read solely for its own merits, (as does any book, really), and enjoyed for the rich story it is.

I’ve become immersed in place alone in The Mermaid Chair. More when I’m done ….

The Absolutely True Diary of A Part-Time Indian

February 12, 2009March 13, 2009 / still a dreamer / 3 Comments

parttimeindian Here’s where I’ve hitched my star – writing and illustrating children’s books – picture books, chapter books. Yet belonging to a writer’s group and SCBWI, in the company of readers and writers of other children’s genres, I find myself being drawn to those I don’t write… MG and YA fiction. And what a draw it is. My local librarian and I were discussing some of our mutual interests, and she recommended the YA novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. I was just blown away by this book and can’t wait to read more by its author.

Although I have a fair amount of factual information about what life is like on an Indian reservation, I, as a white person in a predominantly white culture, cannot possibly know the daily challenges and ongoing pain of rez life. Sherman Alexie, a Spokane Indian, brings this to light in a way that is both tragically sad and wryly funny. I actually found this to be, on the one hand, one of the saddest books I have read in a long, long time, as the main character, Arnold – known as Junior on the rez – loses family member after family member to the direct or indirect results of the alcoholism that is epidemic there. Yet the comic style in which Alexie writes can at times make one not quite realize fully the tragedies he’s describing. Quite a feat. I was quickly drawn in to Junior’s first person narrative beginning with his severe health problems up to age 7 and his continuous struggle to survive and ultimately make something of himself. Along with my feeling his pain, I could not help but cheer him on and/or comfort him, through everything he experiences.

When Junior receives his 7th grade math book to find his mother’s maiden name written inside, he knows he has no choice but to leave, to go off-rez to an all white school 22 miles away. Here he truly starts a new chapter of his own life. Although deeply resented by his entire tribe for it, Junior leaves the reservation to make a future for himself, and in this move, becomes a phenomenally brave main character.

Junior’s character is insightful, honest, humble, (if not self-effacing like any typical teenager), and in spite of a life infused with hardship, incredibly funny. While he describes the problems and pain that are simply life on the reservation, he never fails to also describe the love and devotion of his family, his best friend Rowdy, and his tribe. I found Alexie’s style of relating such profound hurt mitigated with clever wit to be amazing, and I truly could not put this book down.

Last night, I looked further into the author, Sherman Alexie, finding some very interesting videos, among them, one of his receiving the 2007 National Book Award. I watched another of his being interviewed on a PBS station, where he revealed how autobiographical The Absolutely True Diary of A Part-Time Indian really is – almost entirely. To watch Alexie was to better understand his character and his book. He began as a poet and wrote short stories and a few screenplays as well. (He wrote the screenplay for Smoke Signals, a movie based on one of his short stories.) This is Alexie’s first YA novel. He discussed in the interview how thrilled he was that so many teens resonated with Arnold/Junior. Not just teens, I’m sure. He already added this fan to his base in just one book, and I look forward to reading more from this terrific author.