Political Junkie that I am

As usual, I found my own Christmas present and presented my family with the bill.  I pre-ordered Love and War by Mary Mataline and James Carville from Amazon and finished it last night.  I wanted to read it to understand how two political polar opposites could live together as I will affirm, I could never envision myself doing and have actually checked potential mates off my marriageable list for such a divergence.

Maybe meeting each other so late in life, definitely sharing the same career, and eventually figuring out that a home base and raising kids is more important than most other things has kept them together.  I was also surprised at the fact that they were actually married three times:  first in a raucous NoLa wedding on a Thanksgiving when everyone assumed it was some kind of political stunt over 20 years ago; a vow renewal on their 10th anniversary; and finally in a small Catholic church, exactly 100 years to the month of when James' grandparents were married after Mary converted.

It is the latter part of the book I loved the most.  Granted, political junkie that I am, I loved the insights of both campaigns and their friendships with the powers and wannabees from both parties, but the reconciliation and comfort of a home in New Orleans, a commitment to to rebuild this wondrous city to what it was pre-Katrina, and the flavor of partying that pervades NoLa was what I enjoyed the most.

I cannot fathom how the managed to avoid each other during the Gore/Bush Florida recount and the visceral hatred and accusations that ensued.  But on the other hand, I cannot appreciate Mary's idolization of Dick Cheney.  In fact, I am strained to even understand her devotion to Poppy Bush.  I just cannot idolize any particular politician of either party.  To me, they are all flawed and bear no resemblance at all to Founding Fathers and 18th Century political philosophers.

I was surprised to find quirks about Mary that even I would find impossible to live with:  a menagerie of cast off feral cats and rag tag dogs, and even pet rats, her preference to run the air conditioner while opening all the windows and lighting a fire in the fireplace would drive me to distraction.  Here I only expected to find James' traits annoying.  Towards the end, he acknowledges there are certain basic family concerns that tend to make a father and husband a tad conservative.

Yes I have plenty of dogeared corners of quotes I wanted to lard my review blog with, but perhaps another day.  Other readers are in the queue to read the book and I am fried from my own political intrigue lately to write much more than this.  So I will revisit this blog another day to add those wonderful religious and personal slants that resonated.

By the way, the one slant that I will cede Mary won hands down, is the book alternates with sections, in different type fonts, of Mary's and Jim's view of what is happening in their lives.  Mary writes better, more humorously, more cleverly, but just as politically extremely.  I agree with the final tally:  Democrats love humanity but hate individuals, Republicans favor doing favors for individuals rather than pontificating about mankind.

It Pays to Re-request Books that You don't Pick up at the Library

So it was with Lillian and Dash by Sam Toperoff.  The hold expired when I was savoring Brave Genius for weeks on end.  (Unbelievably, the fine was only $3.60.)  And the real life Nick and Nora was still waiting on the shelf for me.

I love Thin Man movies with William Powell and Myrna Loy as the Nick and Nora and from my point of view, there are never enough film festivals of these wonderful double entendre repartee movies.   But I have never read anything by either Lillian Hellman or Dashiell Hammett, let alone never heard of Toperoff.  Toperoff's books are not to be found in our library network and even on Amazon his reviews can be counted on one hand despite having written books with interesting titles about the Pittsburgh Steelers, Marilyn Monroe and James Dean.  Meanwhile, I have reserved a copy of the Thin Man and a collection of Hellman's plays

This biographical novel is a segue for me, still looking for stories stuffed with lust yet with intelligence and wit.  But, it is a wonderful contrast to Brave Genius as well.  Dash's involvement in WWII was basically an attempt to recapture his youth, not anything that was motivated by higher values; Lillian seemed manipulated, first by movie producers and Hemingway to film the Spanish Civil War and then by FDR and his son to do a propaganda piece that was very pro-Russia.  Both ended up before HUAC, bizarre given their arguments about FDR

Lillian and Dash had years of separation in their decades long love affair:  she filming the war in Spain and Russia, he enlisting in his late forties and being shipped off to Alaska, she writing for Broadway plays, he trying to get work and stay sober in Hollywood.  Dash was married, Catholic and easily tempted, as was Lillian, but Jewish.  Her writing flourished under his advise.  They did the 21, he won $23,000 at the '41 Santa Anita Handicap.  I am easily lost in fantasy of a love story with painful lows and dizzying highs

Did Hammett or Toperoff write the letters to Lillian?  Does every man say the same things to the woman he loves the most?  "To never see you again is a fate I deserve ... still I can't imagine living out my live -- our lives --and never again spending an evening with you ... To never see you again would be impossible for me.  So how and when becomes the issue, and those are entirely up to you.  I'll wait ..." and again "I miss your face.  I miss your brains.  I miss you.  I have always missed you."  Such simple words stop me cold.

It's Easy to Keep a New Year Resolution on January 1

Finished the first book of 2014 today, with the sound muted on the LSU Bowl game and the designated chef struggling in the kitchen to defrost a chicken to no avail.  Thankfully, the grocery stores stay open on 1/1.

So I even read The Plague by Camus.  The story is heavily philosophical, and the pestilence much more than a metaphor.  Maybe Camus' existentialism is a bit preachy but not out of character with the narrator Rieux.  I really liked those parts but was affronted when he used a conversation with another character to interject an off theme discourse against capital punishment.  With that included, the novel seemed a bit too much a personal propaganda or diatribe.

I also didn't really like the sermons of the Jesuit priest, but I have my family-related biases of course.  With Rieux defining his life by the service of work, the Catholic overlay, no more a biblical overlay of the purpose of suffering and the Eden curse of work, did not get adequately reconciled.

That said, I will still venture to read more by Camus.  Cannot find a copy of Monod's Chance and Necessity in the library network and one of the books I ordered through Alibris has been cancelled.  I was thinking the other night of St Exupery's biography that I read several years ago, yet another valiant Frenchman.  Maybe I should stick with the French as a theme for this upcoming year.

One additional thought, like many others today not only figuring out new year's resolutions, I looked at my horoscope for the upcoming year.  I am most interested in how upbeat my work and career is supposed to be at least through the first several months.  Like Camus, I define myself by what I do, do day in day out, and am so much more grateful the past year, that my daily efforts and attempts are noticed and appreciated, unlike those years in my former job.

Well the TV is still on mute but the coverage has shifted to the Rose Bowl.  Surprised to see some empty seats.  Version two of dinner is being prepared and the dog is quiet.  Nice beginning to '14.  Now if the blizzard just doesn't materialize tonight.

So this will be the 2014 log of books read

January 1:  The Plague by Albert Camus
January 5:  Lillian and Dash by Sam Toperoff
January 22:  Love and War by Mary Matalin and James Carville
February 5:  Thankless in Death by J D Robb
February 5:  The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammet
April 12:  The Paris Wife by Paula McLain
April 12:  Wild Things by Dave Eggers
April 12:  Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
April 12:  12 Years a Slave by Solomon Northup