I’ve finished several books in the last few months, and I just realized that they are all non-fiction. Weird, considering I hardly ever read the stuff. I tend to find made-up things infinitely more interesting than real life. However, I’ve found a few exceptions.
First, I read “Typhoid Mary,” by Anthony Bourdain (yes, the guy from the food network). For some reason, I’ve had a weird fascination with Typhoid Mary for some time. I read a book review (perhaps of this very book) in the Washington Post probably 15 years ago and that piqued my interest, though I never read the book. Anyway, I was at the library looking for Anthony’s new book, which wasn’t there. In fact, the only one stocked by him was this one, so I checked it out. It’s a skinny book and a quick read. Frankly, even though I do love the cocky and irreverent Bourdain, I wasn’t very impressed with this book. It was interesting enough and I feel like I have a firm grasp on the few details of the case that are generally known. The things I didn’t like about this book were: 1) Even though he claimed to bring the unique viewbook of a cook (Mary was also) a cook, except in a few instances, I don’t think he really pulled this off. 2) He made some strange assumptions about how Mary may have reacted to certain things. Of course, she may have had the feelings he prescribed to her - to me, they seem more like emotions a cocky, easily offended New Yorker named Anthony bourdian may have felt. And 3) I think his research was lazy. There, I said it.
Second up: Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, by John Berendt. I know I’m a decade or so behind the bandwagon on this one, but I was going to Savannah so I thought this would give me a good feel for the city. It did! I really enjoyed this book. It’s like a novel, but basically true. I have learned that some things in the book were a bit creative – for example some of the relationships did not exist, and some of the timeline was a bit skewed. That bothers me a bit, but I certainly understand wanting to mold true events into a neater and plusher version. The story was good, the descriptions and character depictions were excellent, and the timing was impeccable. I finished this 2 days before I got to Savannah, and then visited many of the places in the book, and even met one of the characters in person.
And 3rd, while I was on vacation and had just finished Midnight, I had a sudden hankering for some chick lit. I tend to read quite a lot of books by women, and when I hit a string of men, I get a little bit of withdrawal. After Bourdain and Berendt, I needed a good dose of estrogen, so I went to Barnes and Noble looking for something good. Though I had already given myself mental permission to buy something silly or even trashy, I ended up buying a biography of Cleopatra by Stacy Schiff. I already had an interest in Cleopatra, and it was written by a woman, so I thought this qualified as good chick lit. It’s VERY good. She seems to make a point to say what is known and what is likely or unlikely, rather than speculating and pulling it off as fact. She also quotes historians who have written about Cleopatra and says who is most likely to be telling the truth based on their agenda and time period ,etc. Her descriptions are wonderful and they make me want to go to Egypt. Of course, it wouldn’t be anything like Cleopatra’s Alexandria, and besides, it’s probably not the safest place in the world right now.
On antoher note, I’ve gotten into the bad habit of watching movies based on books I’ve just read. They’ve been pretty disappointing (Garp, Midnight, etc). Most of the film, I say to Jon “yeah, that didn’t happen in the book,” or “wrong!” or just an irritated sigh. However, last night I watched “The Door in the Floor,” based on John Irving’s “A Widow for One Year.” In this one, they took the intelligent step of not trying to cover the whole book. They took the first 3rd of the book and made that a story in itself (which it really was). I thought it was quite good.
Not sure what I”ll read next, but probably something lovely and made up. I’m thinking a trip to the library is in my future.
