Ava’s Man

Ava’s Man 

by Rick Bragg 

★★★★☆ 

I fell in love with Rick Bragg's writing after reading All Over but the Shouting. In it the Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist wrote about his childhood in the rural hills of Alabama. In Ava’s Man he takes readers back there to tell the story of Charlie, his grandfather.

From the first pages I was completely captivated. His style of writing clicks so beautifully for me. He's writing nonfiction, but he's doing in an in a way that weaves a beautiful tale of the depression era South. You feel like you're there on the riverbank next to Charlie setting trout lines.

We follow Charlie and his wife Ava and their many children from one tiny Alabama and Georgia town to another. You feel the heartbreak when a child is sick, you hammer nails into roofs in the southern heat, and you sip moonshine when the day is done. By the time you finish you have as much admiration for Bragg's grandfather as he did himself. Charlie was a different class of man. He raised a family not because it was his job, but because it was his passion and his love.

BOTTOM LINE: The incredible thing about Bragg’s work is that he makes an ordinary man extraordinary. He makes the reader fall in love with Charlie by unfolding his life through the eyes of his children and neighbors. Charlie was a legend in his community because he was a good man who everyone loved and in the hands of a talented writer that’s all the story you need.

“It didn’t strike the travelers as unusual to see such a large cemetery around such a tiny church, not everybody kneels, but everybody dies.”

Go Set a Watchman

Go Set a Watchman

by Harper Lee 

★★★★☆

 

I just want to start by saying I intentionally avoided articles and reviews of the book that came out before I had a chance to read it. There was way too much talk swirling around this book and I wanted to go into it without any preconceived notions. I actually tried to read it slowly, but it's not long and it's hard to put down. I was so nervous that it would be a disappointment and I'm so glad it wasn't!

Written before To Kill a Mockingbird, Go Set a Watchman is actually set after it. Scout is now in her 20s and living in New York City. She returns home to visit her family to find that not everything is how she left it. I don't want to compare Lee's two books, I think this one stands on its own. But I do love the style of writing that's prevalent in both, it's Harper Lee all over. You fall in love with the characters, particularly Atticus' brother Dr. Finch, who loves Victorian literature. You meet Jean Louise, not as the tomboy Scout, but as a 26-year-old woman who still trying to figure out who she is. 

There are shades of The Help in this book. A girl returns to her Southern roots to find that her friends and some of her family members seem racist in light of her new education and experiences. But Go Set a Watchman's focus is more on how Jean Louise reacts to this than it is about the issue itself. I think this is particularly true when you think about the fact that this was written in the midst of the Civil Rights movement in the 1950s, not in retrospect when we already knew the outcome.

Honestly, I think the story is timeless because the issue itself is interchangeable. If it was written in the early 1900s it might have been about women's suffrage, if it was written today it might have been about gay marriage. The issue is what was being dealt with at that time. The story is about the people it affected and the hard truths you face when you grow up and realize your parents are human beings and have their own flaws.  

It's something most twenty-somethings go through, but it's never easy, especially for someone who has a parent like Atticus who is easy to place on a pedestal. Seeing your parents as real people for the first time is so hard. It's important to think about the context of their lives and the way they were raised when considering their actions. It doesn't justify their actions or beliefs, but it can help you understand them. Giving some context and perspective to their world is so crucial in understanding the people around us, flawed as they may be.

What I love the most is throughout the book everything so personal. We flashback to Jean Louise's childhood. There are glimpses of the To Kill a Mockingbird days and Dill. We see her as an awkward teen, misunderstanding things like pregnancy and periods. We even learn a bit more about Atticus' family history and his relationship with his deceased wife.  

Family provides the eternal conundrum. We love them so deeply, they are a part of us, but that doesn't mean we always hold to the same beliefs. It's the respect that we have for each other that keeps us close.  

BOTTOM LINE: I'm still processing the book and it's one that I'm sure I'll return to again in the future. It's not an easy book to think about, because it forces you to look at your own heroes and wonder about their flaws and how that changes your relationship with them. I really loved it though. The writing, the characters, the frank struggle, self-righteous indignation that it's so easy to feel when you're young. There was such a wonderful balance of nostalgia and new meat of a story. It was all that I was hoping and more.  

"She was afflicted with a restlessness of spirit he could not guess at, but he knew she was the one for him."

"Love's the only thing in this world that is unequivocal. There different kinds of love, certainly, but it's a you-do or you-don't proposition with them all."

"Any reference to her personal eccentricities, even from Henry, made her shy."

"She had never seen a shelter that reflected so strongly the personality of its owner. An eerie quality of untidiness prevailed amid order: Dr. Finch kept his house militarily spotless, the bookstand to pileup wherever he sat down."

"As sure as time, history is repeating itself, and as sure as man is man, history is the last place he'll look for his lessons."

"The only thing in America that is still unique in this tired world is that a man can go as far as his brains will take him or he can go to hell if he wants to."

"Remember this also: it's always easy to look back and see what we were, yesterday, ten years, it is hard to see what we are."

"He was the only person she ever knew who could paraphrase three authors into one sentence and have them all makes sense."

The Mockingbird Next Door

The Mockingbird Next Door

Life with Harper Lee

by Marja Mills

★★★★☆

Like so many other, I’ve always loved To Kill a Mockingbird. In 2011 I took a road trip with the Huz and we visited the Mockingbird museum in Monroeville, Alabama. We got to see the original site where Harper Lee and Truman Capote’s homes were and we even ate at a few local places said to be Lee’s favorites. I think that trip is a huge part of why I enjoyed this book so much.

Reading about the author’s own trips to the same place brought back great memories. Her first person account of getting to know the Lee sisters takes place in the tiny town of Monroeville. We had stayed in the same hotel and ate at the same restaurants. Mills visits Lee’s hometown for a simple article, assuming she’ll never have the opportunity to speak with the infamous author herself. Yet over the course of the next few years she actually becomes friends with the author and rents a house next door for a while. They watched movies from Netflix together and shared the occasional cup of coffee in the morning.

It was like sinking into a porch rocker on a humid afternoon. Mills tells you about the slow, unexpected friendship in a leisurely way that suits the setting. Lee comes across as witty and feisty. If the whole things had been fiction I wouldn’t have been surprised because it reads like such a dream for any fan of TKAM.

Mill’s portrait is exactly how I always pictured Lee would actually be. I’ve heard about the recent complaints about the authenticity of the book. I hope it’s all unfounded. I suppose there’s no way to know for sure, but in my opinion I felt like the author was constantly respectful of the Lees and their privacy. There’s no feel of privacy being evaded or secrets being aired to the public. It’s just a glimpse into their quiet world.

A few years ago I read Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee by Charles J. Shields. It came across as dry and a bit boring. I think the thing that was obviously missing is that irreplaceable spark that Harper Lee herself provides.

I loved the honest way it addressed Lee’s complicated relationship with fame. The sincerity about being proud of her work, but hating the attention and press that came with it. She was honored when she won the Pulitzer, but she still didn’t want to go through the stress of publishing another book.

BOTTOM LINE: A wonderful read for any fan of To Kill a Mockingbird. It’s also a great way to get excited before the release of Go Set a Watchman on July 14th!

The Irregulars and Gods in Alabama

The Irregulars
Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington
by Jennet Conant
★★★★

As a huge Roald Dahl fan, both of his children’s books and adult short stories and memoirs, this nonfiction piece was a no-brainer for me. After being injured during his stint as an RAF pilot Dahl is sent to America to insinuate himself into the political society in Washington D.C. He’s been recruited to work for an obscure British intelligence agency that gathered information in America during World War II. 

Conant tells of Dahl’s liaisons with a gossipy intimacy that makes the book read like a novel. He was a bit of a rake, unfettered by marriage and able to find friends and lovers wherever he went. A wealthy publisher, Charles Marsh, took Dahl under his wing and helped him along in the publishing world, which eventually led to Dahl’s career as an author. Fellow spy and friend Ian Fleming went on to write the James Bond novels.

I love that this book fills in an important gap in Dahl’s life. It picks up where his first two memoirs, Boy and Going Solo, leave off. It explains how he became a writer while also giving the readers fascinating details about his work as a spy.

BOTTOM LINE: A must for fans of Dahl, Fleming or spy novels in the style of John le Carré. It’s not an action packed story, but a look at what went on behind-the-scenes during WWII.



Gods in Alabama
by Joshilyn Jackson
★★★★

For some reason I thought this book was the basis for a Melanie Griffith movie (Crazy in Alabama in think,) so for years I avoided it. It wasn’t until I finally took Sandy’s recommendation and picked it up that I realized the two were completely unrelated. Instead of finding some kooky story about a wannabe actress, I found a thoughtful tale of woman who rebuilt her life after a childhood trauma.

Lena Fleet left her small town home in Alabama after high school and never looked back. After a horrible thing happens to her as a teen, she makes a promise to God and she believes that if she holds up her end of the deal He will too. Lena lives in Chicago and the story of her past is slowly revealed throughout the book as she journeys back to Alabama with her African American fiancée. 

I was so impressed with Jackson’s ability to deal with heavy subject matter; racism, rape, jealousy, abuse, and regret and yet maintain a sense of humor throughout the book. Lena’s relationship with her aunt and her farfetched reasoning behind some of her actions work well because we feel like we know her. We make allowances for people in our lives because we understand that everyone is flawed. Lena is the same, we take her actions with a grain of salt, understanding all the while that there is a bigger story that we don’t understand yet.

Burr, Lena’s boyfriend, is one of my favorite characters in the story. He knows how to push her just far enough without making her shut down. He wants what’s best for her, but he has priorities too and he won’t let me get away with as much as others will. Her Aunt Florence is the same; both individuals are good for Lena because they love her enough to push her.

BOTTOM LINE: I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this one. It’s a great piece of southern fiction, entertaining, with well written characters and a fast-moving plot.  It reminded me quite a bit of The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood.

“God gave us crying so other folks could see when we needed help, and help us.”

Wordless Wednesday: Gulf Coast Shrimp Fest

Gulf Coast National Shrimp Festival 

More Wordless Wednesday here.

Photo by moi.

Wordless Wednesday: Truman Capote Childhood Home

Truman Capote's childhood summer home in Monroeville, Alabama

More Wordless Wednesday here.

Photo by moi.

Wordless Wednesday: Moon Bridge

Moon Bridge in the Bellingrath Gardens, Alabama

More Wordless Wednesday here.

Photo by moi.

Wordless Wednesday: Audubon Bird Sanctuary

Dauphin Island Audubon Bird Sanctuary after a forest fire.

More Wordless Wednesday here.

Photo by moi.

Wordless Wednesday: Fitzgerald Museum

Fitzgerald home and museum in Montgomery, AL

More Wordless Wednesday here.

Photo by moi.

Wordless Wednesday: Alabama Gulf Coast

Alabama Gulf Coast

More Wordless Wednesday here.

Photo by moi.

On the Road Again

The Huz and I have serious love of road trips. In the past few years we’ve trekked out to the South Dakota Badlands, the Gulf Shore in Alabama, Lake Powell in Utah, the Redwoods in California, Crater Lake in Oregon, the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee and Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado to name a few.

So we’re excited about our next big trip. We’re leaving today to meander out to Glacier National Park (see that gorgeous picture above!) in Montana. We’re so excited! We’ll be hanging out in the Twin Cities, camping in Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota and enjoying the beautiful trails in Glacier.

So anyway, I’ll be out of commission for the next couple weeks as we make our way through Minnesota, North Dakota and Montana. I have posts scheduled, but I will probably not be doing great on responding to your comments and commenting on your blogs. I will be enjoying your comments though! I have an iPhone, but won’t have great internet access. So I hope you all have a great couple weeks and I’ll be back soon with fun pictures!

Image from here.

Wordless Wednesday: Vulcan Park

Vulcan Park in Alabama

More Wordless Wednesday here.

Photo by moi.

Wordless Wednesday: Bridge at Bellingrath Gardens

My favorite part of the Bellingrath Gardens in Alabama,
a beautiful overgrown bridge.

More Wordless Wednesday here.

Photo by moi.

Wordless Wednesday: Mockingbird Bird Feeder

A bird feeder outside the courthouse in Monroeville, Alabama

More Wordless Wednesday here.

Photo by moi.

Wordless Wednesday: Dauphin Island

Tall, skinny houses on Dauphin Island

More Wordless Wednesday here.

Photo by moi.

Wordless Wednesday: Alabama Dock

Docks at the Bellingrath Gardens in Alabama

More Wordless Wednesday here.

Photo by moi.

Reading the States: Alabama

Welcome to the first post of my Read the States series! Every Friday I will be posting books and authors that are great representations of a different state. If you have any additional suggestions for this week’s state or any other states, leave them in the comments!

Alabama is known for the Talladega Speedway and the Civil Rights movement, but there are some wonderful literary connections as well. F. Scott Fitzgerald lived there while writing Tender is the Night. Harper Lee and Truman Capote grew up side-by-side in the tiny town of Monroeville. A state so rich with famous authors provides some fascinating reading possibilities.

State: ALABAMA 

Fiction:

- To Kill a Mockingbird* by Harper Lee

- Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café* by Fannie Flagg

- Other Rooms, Other Voices by Truman Capote

- Forrest Gump* by Winston Groom

- Crazy in Alabama by Mark Childress
- Boy's Life by Robert McCammon 
- Gods in Alabama* by Joshilyn Jackson 
- Go Set a Watchman* by Harper Lee 

Nonfiction:

- All Over but the Shoutin’* by Rick Bragg

- The Story of My Life* by Helen Keller

- Scout, Atticus, and Boo* by Mary McDonough Murphy
- The Watsons Go To Birmingham* by Christopher Paul Curtis 
- The Mockingbird Next Door* by Marja Mills
- Let Us Now Praise Famous Men by James Agee and Walker Evans 
- Ava's Man* by Rick Bragg

Authors Who Lived Here:

- Harper Lee

- Truman Capote

- Zelda Fitzgerald
- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Great Bookstores:

Alabama Booksmith - Known for its first edition club.
Beehive Coffee and Books

Literary Places to Visit:
Fitzgerald's House and Museum
To Kill a Mockingbird Museum
Harper Lee and Truman Capote's Homes

*Books I've Read 
Photo by moi.

Alabama Slammer

Our October road trip to Alabama was just fantastic. There’s so much to see there, who knew? I’ve included a few fun photos from the trip and a brief description of what they are below. Seriously though, road trips are the best. You never know what you’ll find along the way.

- The National Annual Shrimp Festival on the beach in Gulf Shores (which we just happened to stumbling upon)

- Noccalula Falls, a 90 ft. waterfall in Gasden

- A Japanese moon bridge in the Asian section of the Bellingrath Gardens

- The wall separating the lots of Truman Capote and Harper Lee’s childhood homes in Monroeville

- Mini golf at a cheesy putt-putt place with The Huz (it’s his favorite)

- Lots of seagulls on our ferry ride from Dauphin Island

- Margaritas, essential to any good trip

- The Alabama Booksmith bookstore in Birmingham

- The courthouse in Monroeville that Harper Lee based To Kill a Mockingbird on (it’s now an awesome museum)

- The Huz at the Parthenon in Nashville, TN (There are almost no photos of him, because he hates having photos taken, so unfortunately I end up in every picture).

- The Irondale Café, the inspiration for the Whistle Stop Café in Fried Green Tomatoes

- F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald’s home (now a museum) in Montgomery

- Dreamland BBQ in Birmingham (tangy deliciousness)

- Our tiny tent and such at one of our camping sites

- The Civil Rights Museum in Montgomery

It was a great trip and if you're ever headed to the Alabama area, I'd be more than happy to give you a few suggestions of places to stop. I still think that ever single state has so much to offer if you're willing to do a bit of research and exploring.

*All photos by moi or the Huz

Tender is the Night

Tender is the Night
by F. Scott Fitzgerald
★★★★☆

When we first meet Dick and Nicole Diver, a glamorous married couple living a life of leisure in the south of France, we know nothing about who they truly are. We see them only through the eyes of Rosemary, a young actress who becomes completely infatuated with them. As she falls for Dick, we see the story begin to spiral towards disaster, but we aren’t quite sure what’s going to happen.

The second section of the book takes us back to the beginning of the story. We learn how Dick, a psychoanalyst, met Nicole because she was his patient. I think this is essential for the success of the story, because it’s important for the reader to understand that Dick knew what he was getting into when he married her. I didn’t become completely attached to the book until that second section. I need the back story in order to feel anything but distant interest in the characters. Once I was hooked I couldn’t looked away from the doomed love story.

(The Fitzgerald's home where F. Scott wrote part of Tender is the Night)

I’ve read The Great Gatsby, This Side of Paradise, and most of Fitzgerald’s short stories, but this one has a level of rawness and beauty that really struck a chord with me. Some of the lines are just so lovely. For example, read the following and just try to tell me that isn’t the most eloquent way to say that someone liked to look in the mirror…

“He was enough older than Nicole to take pleasure in her youthful vanities and delights, the way she paused fractionally in front of the hall mirror on leaving the restaurant, so that the incorruptible quicksilver could give her back to herself.”

This novel was so fascinating because it’s so autobiographical. Fitzgerald talks about Dick drinks too much and Nicole “ruins” his genius and ambition. These are elements seem to come directly from his own life. That’s exactly how Hemingway described what Zelda did you F. Scott. It’s strange to think about writing a book that’s clearly a thinly veiled reference to your own dysfunctional life.

Apparently there are two versions of this book. The original was published in 1934, while Fitzgerald was alive. The revised version was created by a friend of Fitzgerald’s, Malcolm Cowley, using the author’s notes. It was published in 1951. I’m not sure how I feel about that. It’s strange to think of multiple versions of the same book being out there.

A few elements seem to spring from nowhere, but maybe I just missed something. There were a few references to Lanier and Topsy and at first I didn’t realize that they were their children. Also, their alcoholic friend Abe North’s story seemed to peter off until he only merited a mention later.

(A facsimile edition of the original galley proofs of The Great Gatsby
and me inside the Fitzgerald museum in Alabama)

Regardless, it is full of more brilliance than anything else. The writing completely captured me and in the end, that makes the book well worth reading. I think this may be my favorite Fitzgerald novel because it helps explain the tragedy of his own life.

“There were other letters among whose helpless caesuras lurked darker rhythms.”

“I am a woman and my business is to hold things together.” – Nicole

“A schizophene is well named as a split personality ­– Nicole was alternately a person to whom nothing need be explained and one to whom nothing could be explained. It was necessary to treat her with active affirmative insistence, keeping the road to reality always open, making the road to escape harder going.”

p.s. While we were in Alabama last week we got to visit the Fitzgerald's home, which is now a museum, see pictures above. Tender is the Night was written there.

*Photos by me and the Huz

Road Trip!

This week I will be out of town on vacation…woo hoo!!! I love traveling to foreign locales, but time and money are limited this year and so instead we’re staying a bit closer to home. My husband loves road trips and camping and I love visiting new places. So we looked at the states around us and picked one that we’d never been to.

Drum roll please… we’re going to Alabama! I’m a firm believer that every single state has some interesting and unique to offer visitors. With that in mind I started researching Alabama to figure out what we could do there and there’s so much!


We’ll be camping half the time and it turns out there are lots of fun parks with hiking trails and even waterfalls. We’ll be staying one night in Monroeville, where we can see Harper Lee’s stomping grounds, including the original courthouse from To Kill a Mockingbird, which is now a museum. We’re going to visit Civil Rights Museums, the Bellingrath Gardens, and the Fitzgerald’s home and, of course, eat lots of BBQ.

So guys, I won’t have too many posts up while I’m gone because I won’t be keeping track of comments. I can’t wait to catch up when I get back!

Also, anything I should not miss in Alabama?

p.s. For the first time in my life I've bought a car I actually like! Up until now I've driven old beaters (journalist work doesn't pay much), but the above beauty is my new (used) Subaru Forester. We're taking her on out vacation and I think I'm going to name her Scout in honor of her first road trip. Blue is my favorite color in the world and so that was a huge bonus for me.

p.p.s. If any of you love To Kill a Mockingbird, you should watch the documentary “Hey, Boo.” It’s wonderful!

Photos from here, here, here, here and here. Last photo by moi.