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Powell's Staff:
Five Book Friday: In Memoriam
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Every year, the booksellers at Powell’s submit their Top Fives: their five favorite books that were released in 2023. It’s a list that, when put together, shows just how varied and interesting the book tastes of Powell’s booksellers are. I highly recommend digging into the recommendations — we would never lead you astray — but today...
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Brontez Purnell:
Powell’s Q&A: Brontez Purnell, author of ‘Ten Bridges I’ve Burnt’
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Starter Pack: Where to Begin with Ursula K. Le Guin
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Customer Comments
Lance Cromwell has commented on (10) products
Writers and Lovers
by
Lily King
Lance Cromwell
, April 16, 2020
I loved this book. Read it twice. Loved it more the second time through. King's touch is so adroit, whether detailing the landscapes of Boston and Cambridge, the constant pace and staff-chatter of a busy restaurant, a flock of geese that Casey passes on her daily route, or the subtle sensations and cues that direct the path of a budding relationship, that it is easy to see it all, right there in front of your eyes. This novel moves along at a good clip, like much of Casey's days, but with recesses of calm. Feathered throughout the novel are exquisite observations about people and how they do what they do in life, in love, and in their work. This is a novel, on many levels, about commitment and love: among people, sure, but most especially about love of one's work, in this case, writing and reading. Casey and her closest writing friend, Muriel are discussing books and King writes "It's a particular kind of pleasure, of intimacy, loving a book with someone." Yes! That resonates with me so deeply, and is shown throughout the book in Casey's (and I suspect the author's) love of a wide variety of writing. Is this a novel for writers and creative people? Definitely! But I do not think it is exclusively so. I would imagine just about anyone can find tons to connect with in these pages. It is REALLY worth the read, and probably for most, a re-read. I wholeheartedly recommend WRITERS & LOVERS! Enjoy!!
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Circe
by
Madeline Miller
Lance Cromwell
, April 16, 2020
I sooo LOVED this book. Subtle, beautiful, powerful... it is an outstanding story that commingles with The Odyssey, and manages not only to flesh out the world of Circe, and make it so incredibly real, and vibrant, but it does that for The Odyssey, as well. I read this book, and then listened to it on audio, and then went back to the audio a second time. Because it's just that good. What a steady, hard-earned climb toward power and self-realization that Circe travels, that echoes what most women have to go through, i think. On many levels this book seems to me to be about the power and magic inherent in women that is earned, that is built, step by step, experiment by experiment, exploration by exploration. I cannot recommend this book more highly. If you dig it, don't miss Song Of Achilles, either. Another stunner. If you are going for both, I might start with the first, and make your way to Circe. But Either way will bear much golden fruit! Enjoy!
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Years That Matter Most How College Makes or Breaks Us
by
Paul Tough
Lance Cromwell
, November 11, 2019
Paul Tough asks insightful questions of people and the culture at large, and writes beautifully. He is among the best and most important writers today who are addressing our education system, both celebrating the wins, and shining a light on the areas that desperately need attention. THE YEARS THAT MATTER MOST, is a profoundly important book that will have you on the edge of your seat. It is stunning from meeting Shannen Torres on page 1, right through to the last sentence. I love that this book looks at all facets of higher education and the chutes our culture pushes young people through, either to go on and succeed, or to dissuade them from attaining further education. We meet a wide range of students, college admissions workers, high-end SAT tutors, economists, psychologists, and math professors who continually are trying to better their first-year Calculus classes. It is an astonishing array of people, which if you've read Tough before, is no surprise, but it is still stunning. For anyone who has recently had a child go through the college process, or seen it from the sidelines, it is harrowing. The stress levels are sky-high, anxiety the norm. The push for post-secondary education has gotten toxic and the process is problematic in many ways. This book is an important step to addressing many of those problems. I hope you gain from reading this book as much as I have!
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The Happiest People in the World
by
Brock Clarke
Lance Cromwell
, November 03, 2014
"The moose head was fixed to the wall, the microphone in its mouth was broken, but the camera in its left eye was working just fine, and as far as the moose head could see, this was just another Friday night in the Lumber Lodge! Perhaps even more Friday night than most Friday nights." Thus begins the wild, excellent, wicked~smart ride that is The Happiest People In The World, and this is anything but "just another" Novel... it is quite definitely more Novel than most Novels. Clarke's most recent work is certainly a book that can hold contradictions, beautifully: It is a lightning fast read, but one that will encourage multiple readings... it is at once a sort of spy novel(but also, not), a playful romp, a darkly & deeply funny literary work, and underneath the fast-paced narrative, a quiet, heart-breaking meditation on the complicated, interlaced relationships that us humans find ourselves in, day~in and day~out. Happiest People is a snapshot of American Culture, as seen by both outsiders of the 'from another country' type, and by the outsiders that are from within this country (which is most of us who vote(or don't) by ballot, or by creative endeavor, or by good hard labor or one kind or another), the policy non-makers, the trend non-setters, the mass of people who are not on the inside, if such a thing exists. On one level, this novel could be suggesting that there is no inside, nobody in-the-know, and that all that we see happening around us, and all that we are personally enveloped in, is a hodge podge of splinter groups acting out their lives along vectors that are sometimes lonely, often paranoid, and sometimes crash into others; and this at every level: government, education, in our homes. A horde of everyday people who have, as Aldous Huxley wrote, "failed to take into account man’s almost infinite appetite for distractions" and who will more frequently than not, ruin ourselves in the name of Love. And as sad as that may be, it is pretty damn funny, too, seen in the right light. Like, say, the light of the Lumber Lodge on a Friday night! Brock Clarke shows us to be the broken, but working (sort of) beings that we are, who see what we think we see, and react accordingly. Were I to set to making a Super Smoothie! of writing that would begin to get at Clarke's creation here, I would have to throw in some (maybe all of) George Saunders for sure, some John le Carré, some Russell Banks, Richard Russo, David Foster Wallace, Alice Munro, Kurt Vonnegut, Andre Dubus, Tobias Wolff, Andrea Barrett, Joanna Scott, David Sedaris, a dollop of Christopher Buckley, 5 or 6 stories from The Brothers Grimm, a bunch of Tony Hoagland poems, and a solid handful of pages from Them, by Jon Ronson; A House In The Sky, by Amanda Lindhout and Sara Corbett; and Driving Mr. Albert, by Mike Paterniti. That's where i'd start, anyway... No doubt, i'd have to work a long time, and throw in a great many more works to really get at the subtlety, complexity, and sheer tastiness of The Happiest People In The World. Like many people who are gifted, but then add to that gift by working really hard, Clarke makes an incredibly layered, complicated work seem effortless, and as such it is easy to read and fun, but thought-provoking, and poignant as well. No small feat, that. This is a book that I have already recommended widely to my friends, but feel it is one to be recommended widely to all of the reading public. Do yourself a huge favor and get a hold of The Happiest People In The World! Enjoy....
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Telling Room A Tale of Love Betrayal Revenge & the Worlds Greatest Piece of Cheese
by
Michael Paterniti
Lance Cromwell
, October 23, 2014
I loved this book. I've now read it twice, and I loved it more the second time around. This is a book that deserves to be read twice - at least! - because it is so rich, so finely layered that it has more to offer than one could possibly extract in a single exploration of its pages. What might well be a tiny nightmare for a marketing executive - there is no neat log line, no ten word summary, no one thing this book is - is what I find to be one of its many strengths. It limns a great tale, is a biography (biographies?!) of sorts, a travel narrative... it is about sumptuous, real food and wine, is a fascinating history, and is a story of its own creation. It even finds time to question and ruminate upon Truth and Memory. It contains multitudes. And while some apparently find this to be a problem (the 1- and 2-star reviewers... I don't get it, but to each his/her own), I submit that this is what makes the book a treat for almost anyone, for there is something for just about anyone in these pages, and for many, there is quite a lot. For me, certainly. I will be recommending this jewel far and wide amongst my reading friends and acquaintances. I was truly surprised to see negative or nonplussed reviews, though, again, to each their own. Maybe some people tore through the pages, in Drive-Thru fashion, checking it off the list, without time to digest? Or opened it up and found that it is not a single-serving, cellophane wrapped, bit of processed engineering, and despaired? At any rate, I am encouraged to see that some of the most thoughtful writers and readers out there - George Saunders, Dave Eggers, Susan Orlean, Elizabeth Gilbert - were similarly swept up and blown away by The Telling Room. One of the truly wonderful aspects of the book, I think, is that Mr. Paterniti so delved into the fabric of the town and the people in this story, that his writing fully reflects the culture that it is about, and as such, the people, town, and story dictate the structure of the book. It is wonderfully digressive, wandering and unfolding like a great conversation in Castile: "If one had an important revelation, or needed the intimate company of friends, one might head to the telling room, and over wine and chorizo, unfolding in the wonderfully digressive way of Castilian conversation, the story would out. On weekends, casual gatherings might last an entire day and night, with stories wandering from details of the recent harvest to the dramas of village life to perhaps, finally, the war stories of the past, all accompanied by copious wine. In this way, the bodega, with its telling room, became a mystical state of mind as much as a physical place." Perhaps the author in this instance, is a modern mystic, subjecting himself to the austerity of years of observance, of seeking, without knowing the precise outcome. The book was a long time in the making, and while the author cites times where this was a frustration, and an obstacle to overcome, it is precisely the thing that allowed for so many layers, I think. Had Mr. Paterniti gone to visit and interview and been the soul of efficiency, knocking this project out, in a year, say, he would not have accomplished the depth of reflection and insight that came with a decade's worth of listening, absorbing, and living. The story begins with a chance encounter with an allegedly 'sublime' cheese - Páramo de Guzmán - but it really takes on life when Mr. Paterniti encounters the Cheesemaker himself, Ambrosio Molinos. A wonderful, larger-than-life character, whose very essence is intertwined with the town of Guzmán as well as his cheese. I'll not take up time and space here to describe the man, for Paterniti has done so beautifully, thoroughly, and respectfully. He comments about Ambrosio: "And although he loved the village as a parent, he always seemed to be seeing it for the first time, through the eyes of a child. Perhaps this was his greatest accomplishment. He bent time until nothing was linear. So everything moved in circles, like the seasons. While clinging to the past, he always saw Guzmán as new and necessary. And he made you see it, too." What was aptly penned in regards to the Cheesemaker, might also be said of the Writer. He may be the parent of the book in your hand (one of them, anyway!), but he comes to the story again and again, with new eyes. And he does make the Reader see it in this way, too. He bends time within the story, dexterously moving between eras, and narrative threads. You see this story, and the people within, throughout many seasons, thereby getting a real look, a true taste. Just extraordinary. Borrowing from one of the many, intriguing footnotes in The Telling Room, I quote Carlo Petrini's Slow Food Manifesto: "Against those, and there are many of them, who confuse efficiency with frenzy, we propose the vaccine of a sufficient portion of assured sensual pleasure, to be practiced in slow and prolonged enjoyment." Three cheers for that sentiment, and for Michael Paterniti's book! I highly recommend reading this wonder, and reading it again (and maybe again), so as to prolong the enjoyment, and absorb all that it has to offer. A huge muchas gracias to Paterniti for giving us such a wonderful, textured book.
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The Telling Room: A Tale of Love, Betrayal, Revenge, and the World's Greatest Piece of Cheese
by
Michael Paterniti
Lance Cromwell
, October 23, 2014
I loved this book. I've now read it twice, and I loved it more the second time around. This is a book that deserves to be read twice - at least! - because it is so rich, so finely layered that it has more to offer than one could possibly extract in a single exploration of its pages. What might well be a tiny nightmare for a marketing executive - there is no neat log line, no ten word summary, no one thing this book is - is what I find to be one of its many strengths. It limns a great tale, is a biography (biographies?!) of sorts, a travel narrative... it is about sumptuous, real food and wine, is a fascinating history, and is a story of its own creation. It even finds time to question and ruminate upon Truth and Memory. It contains multitudes. And while some apparently find this to be a problem (the 1- and 2-star reviewers... I don't get it, but to each his/her own), I submit that this is what makes the book a treat for almost anyone, for there is something for just about anyone in these pages, and for many, there is quite a lot. For me, certainly. I will be recommending this jewel far and wide amongst my reading friends and acquaintances. I was truly surprised to see negative or nonplussed reviews, though, again, to each their own. Maybe some people tore through the pages, in Drive-Thru fashion, checking it off the list, without time to digest? Or opened it up and found that it is not a single-serving, cellophane wrapped, bit of processed engineering, and despaired? At any rate, I am encouraged to see that some of the most thoughtful writers and readers out there - George Saunders, Dave Eggers, Susan Orlean, Elizabeth Gilbert - were similarly swept up and blown away by The Telling Room. One of the truly wonderful aspects of the book, I think, is that Mr. Paterniti so delved into the fabric of the town and the people in this story, that his writing fully reflects the culture that it is about, and as such, the people, town, and story dictate the structure of the book. It is wonderfully digressive, wandering and unfolding like a great conversation in Castile: "If one had an important revelation, or needed the intimate company of friends, one might head to the telling room, and over wine and chorizo, unfolding in the wonderfully digressive way of Castilian conversation, the story would out. On weekends, casual gatherings might last an entire day and night, with stories wandering from details of the recent harvest to the dramas of village life to perhaps, finally, the war stories of the past, all accompanied by copious wine. In this way, the bodega, with its telling room, became a mystical state of mind as much as a physical place." Perhaps the author in this instance, is a modern mystic, subjecting himself to the austerity of years of observance, of seeking, without knowing the precise outcome. The book was a long time in the making, and while the author cites times where this was a frustration, and an obstacle to overcome, it is precisely the thing that allowed for so many layers, I think. Had Mr. Paterniti gone to visit and interview and been the soul of efficiency, knocking this project out, in a year, say, he would not have accomplished the depth of reflection and insight that came with a decade's worth of listening, absorbing, and living. The story begins with a chance encounter with an allegedly 'sublime' cheese - Páramo de Guzmán - but it really takes on life when Mr. Paterniti encounters the Cheesemaker himself, Ambrosio Molinos. A wonderful, larger-than-life character, whose very essence is intertwined with the town of Guzmán as well as his cheese. I'll not take up time and space here to describe the man, for Paterniti has done so beautifully, thoroughly, and respectfully. He comments about Ambrosio: "And although he loved the village as a parent, he always seemed to be seeing it for the first time, through the eyes of a child. Perhaps this was his greatest accomplishment. He bent time until nothing was linear. So everything moved in circles, like the seasons. While clinging to the past, he always saw Guzmán as new and necessary. And he made you see it, too." What was aptly penned in regards to the Cheesemaker, might also be said of the Writer. He may be the parent of the book in your hand (one of them, anyway!), but he comes to the story again and again, with new eyes. And he does make the Reader see it in this way, too. He bends time within the story, dexterously moving between eras, and narrative threads. You see this story, and the people within, throughout many seasons, thereby getting a real look, a true taste. Just extraordinary. Borrowing from one of the many, intriguing footnotes in The Telling Room, I quote Carlo Petrini's Slow Food Manifesto: "Against those, and there are many of them, who confuse efficiency with frenzy, we propose the vaccine of a sufficient portion of assured sensual pleasure, to be practiced in slow and prolonged enjoyment." Three cheers for that sentiment, and for Michael Paterniti's book! I highly recommend reading this wonder, and reading it again (and maybe again), so as to prolong the enjoyment, and absorb all that it has to offer. A huge muchas gracias to Paterniti for giving us such a wonderful, textured book.
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Euphoria
by
Lily King
Lance Cromwell
, June 18, 2014
What a gorgeous, heart-breaking novel, rich with detail and human understanding! Though fiction, it breathes with the lives it describes, and could be taken as anthropological text, not only of the peoples of the times and places it is set(and loosely based upon), but also of us supposedly modern humans who love, hurt, inspire, screw things up, and discover ourselves in others. It is a magnificent read, and one that should light up a broad spectrum of those who love books. It unspools as if on old super-8 stock, but is stunningly clear, too. All scratchy, sepia tones, and shaky, real movements, and riveting in its raw look at things seldom captured in such a way. All too easy to get so caught up in the lives of Nell and Bankson and Fen, that you forget about the technical wizardry of King's laying words down end-to-end, in a structure that is spot-on, and provocative. You seemlessly weave in and out of the two primary narrators' perspectives, and it would seem that you are in different heads, but then, maybe not. Maybe you are exclusively in the head of the anthropologist, who makes it seem like there are objective bits of fact to be seen and explored, but really you are seeing the people, and the culture, as the anthropologist sees them. And this is just many of the incredible facets of this book: that it can put you, fundamentally, in the position of being the anthropoligist. Piecing together the narrative of a people, and of people, from the bits that well up in the river of history. A stunning literary achievement, that is a page turner, too. And oh my god, some of those sentences! Kudos to King for crafting a number of unforgettable, incredibly layered, finely wrought sentences... This would be one of those times where words, or at least my words, cannot even get close to describing... Well, I suppose it is better to let her words wash over you, and arrest you all on their own. Euphoria is such a varied collection of types of love, and care, and passion, but also of carelessness, and ambition, and loathing. This is not a summery love tale, or a bucolic version of long ago folks; it is straight-forward and honest, ripe with disease, and rot, and human failure, as much as it is with sublime intangibles. It is beautiful - absolutely - but beautiful because of the care King takes in her raw portrayal of these peoples, as seen through others' eyes. If I were tasked to choose a painting to cast as perfect analog to this book (which somehow seems apt... not just because of the intriguing cover of the novel, all bright colors and thick-paint-streaks, but because it would be a choice of a very particular vision, a well-thought-out version of a scene or story, as rendered by an artist, with great intuition. A powerfully affecting visual rendering.), it would be truly difficult. You could go so many different ways! The photo-realism of the mid-Nineteenth Century (reacting to the new technology of cameras, to new ways to 'see' and record!)? The earthiness of a Gauguin 'Primitivist' portrait? The electricity and brilliance of a Matisse, both intellectually stimulating in form, and striking in color and kinetic vibrancy? Perhaps the raw, moody emotion of abstraction and subtle color of a Rothko? Better yet, the incredible mash-up (waaay before that was a term) of a painting like Henri Rousseau's "The Dream", painted just before the artist died, and imagined from his avid reading, and visits to the Paris zoo and local hothouses. That one would definitely be in the running... I suppose I might alight on Magritte's "The Titanic Days", completed several years before Nell, Fen and Bankson meet up in Euphoria. Using the age old tools of blues and greys and a myriad of skin tones, and of the story of struggle between a man and a woman (or more likely between 'Woman' and 'Man'), he renders something modern, and eerily beautiful, but unsettling, and maybe a little nauseating. It is nothing if not arresting. My guess is it was long in the making, an elaborate process to realize what appears to be a simple vision, or maybe the manifestation of a bit of a dream. You'd really need the whole of a bunch of museums to even begin to get at all that is in this book, but for a thought-experiment, the sophisticated, inventive simplicity of "The Titanic Days" will do. For me. I'd be curious to hear what painting you would choose.... For this novel inspires conversation and will confound people in their efforts to slot it into a single category, as much as it will cause introspection and reflection. It is one of those things, I think, that people will try to peg, so as to describe to others, but will have to go off into other mediums to sort of give an idea of what the words did to them. But, Lily King's Euphoria, is a book, not a painting, and it is well-worth reading. My guess is, it is well-worth re-reading, and I look forward to my next trip into it, so as to get even more out of this stunning gem of a book. I can truthfully say that about all four of King's books, but this one, even more so. To quote King, quoting Nell Stone, who is talking about her work: "...at that moment the place feels entirely yours. Its the briefest, purest euphoria." That is the experience I had of reading this novel. I wanted it to go on longer, but was amazed by the purity of my elation, my brief euphoria. I urge you to go find a copy and dig in! Enjoy!
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A House in the Sky
by
Lindhout, Amanda and Corbett, Sara
Lance Cromwell
, September 12, 2013
What a stunning book! Not just beautifully wrought, but physically arresting. Like finish-the-book + walk-around-in-a-daze kind of stunning. Amanda Lindhout and Sara Corbett tell this harrowing story with such acuity, and attention to detail, that you feel you are right there with Ms. Lindhout in her many travels, and hardships. And, as such, for the last 20 pages i found myself with tears steadily rolling down my cheeks. It made me at once ashamed to be a man, to be connected in any way to the perpetrators of such evil, and also to be buoyed as a part of the human crowd who do such amazing, heartfelt work, who give of themselves, who love unconditionally. Who literally save people. The book is crafted so incredibly well that I was compelled to keep turning pages... It was a very hard book to put down. Which is saying something, since it takes some fortitude to pick it up... this is not a light story. Brutal at times, excruciating, but shot through with light in the most unusual places. And what light! Just glorious. Going in, I knew the basic story. On top of hearing about it in the news, I read the book jacket, and beyond that, the prologue. There is even a reproduction (in the hardcover edition) of notes written by Ms. Lindhout to her mother while in captivity. So, I knew that Ms. Lindhout was captured in Somalia, knew the length of her captivity, and knew that she made it out alive (the book in my hands being living proof). But as is so often the case, what i thought i knew, i really didn't KNOW. And this is just one of the stunning feats of this book: despite knowing the major points of the story, I was continually surprised, and pulled into this book. You are almost lulled into a beautiful memoir/travelogue mindset in the early chapters, but then there are little prose seeds that remind you where this is going. They are brilliantly placed. They have the effect of creating an ominous tone under the score, that foreshadows the coming evil, ratcheting up the intensity, pulling you more fully into this world. You get in there and ride this taught bow-string of a narrative, and Lindhout and Corbett gradually tighten things, until you are stretched pretty thin, almost snapping... and then they let you fly. I honestly have never read anything that had this kind of effect on me, or at least to this degree. The highs and lows that they not just describe, but pull you into, are truly amazing. Obviously, the story is a huge part of this - what happened to Ms. Lindhout was unthinkable, incredible in the full sense of the word - but the telling of this story: the careful structuring of the narrative, the extremely specific, careful ordering of words - is equally incredible. It is clear that a LOT of work went into this, and the prose just shines because of it. I'm running out of words that mean 'excellent'... So, i'll just encourage you to go read this book. I know it is going to stay with me for a long, long time + I hope you decide to read it + are similarly awed. I cannot imagine that there will be any other book out soon, that will be more thought-provoking, more intense, more love inspiring. Had Ms. Lindhout gone back to Somalia, armed, and brimming with hate and vengeance, I can't say many would blame her. But, what happened instead was this gift of a book, this lesson in forgiveness. In addition to the many other things she has done to help out in a place that desperately needs it, she and Ms. Corbett have put this beautiful book into the world. Many, many thanks.
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Telling Room A Tale of Love Betrayal Revenge & the Worlds Greatest Piece of Cheese
by
Michael Paterniti
Lance Cromwell
, July 30, 2013
I loved this book. I've now read it twice, and I loved it more the second time around. This is a book that deserves to be read twice - at least! - because it is so rich, so finely layered that it has more to offer than one could possibly extract in a single exploration of its pages. What might well be a tiny nightmare for a marketing executive - there is no neat log line, no ten word summary, no one thing this book is - is what I find to be one of its many strengths. It limns a great tale, is a biography (biographies?!) of sorts, a travel narrative... it is about sumptuous, real food and wine, is a fascinating history, and is a story of its own creation. It even finds time to question and ruminate upon Truth and Memory. It contains multitudes. And while some apparently find this to be a problem (the 1- and 2-star reviewers... I don't get it, but to each his/her own), I submit that this is what makes the book a treat for almost anyone, for there is something for just about anyone in these pages, and for many, there is quite a lot. For me, certainly. I will be recommending this jewel far and wide amongst my reading friends and acquaintances. I was truly surprised to see negative or nonplussed reviews, though, again, to each their own. Maybe some people tore through the pages, in Drive-Thru fashion, checking it off the list, without time to digest? Or opened it up and found that it is not a single-serving, cellophane wrapped, bit of processed engineering, and despaired? At any rate, I am encouraged to see that some of the most thoughtful writers and readers out there - George Saunders, Dave Eggers, Susan Orlean, Elizabeth Gilbert - were similarly swept up and blown away by The Telling Room. One of the truly wonderful aspects of the book, I think, is that Mr. Paterniti so delved into the fabric of the town and the people in this story, that his writing fully reflects the culture that it is about, and as such, the people, town, and story dictate the structure of the book. It is wonderfully digressive, wandering and unfolding like a great conversation in Castile: "If one had an important revelation, or needed the intimate company of friends, one might head to the telling room, and over wine and chorizo, unfolding in the wonderfully digressive way of Castilian conversation, the story would out. On weekends, casual gatherings might last an entire day and night, with stories wandering from details of the recent harvest to the dramas of village life to perhaps, finally, the war stories of the past, all accompanied by copious wine. In this way, the bodega, with its telling room, became a mystical state of mind as much as a physical place." Perhaps the author in this instance, is a modern mystic, subjecting himself to the austerity of years of observance, of seeking, without knowing the precise outcome. The book was a long time in the making, and while the author cites times where this was a frustration, and an obstacle to overcome, it is precisely the thing that allowed for so many layers, I think. Had Mr. Paterniti gone to visit and interview and been the soul of efficiency, knocking this project out, in a year, say, he would not have accomplished the depth of reflection and insight that came with a decade's worth of listening, absorbing, and living. The story begins with a chance encounter with an allegedly 'sublime' cheese - Páramo de Guzmán - but it really takes on life when Mr. Paterniti encounters the Cheesemaker himself, Ambrosio Molinos. A wonderful, larger-than-life character, whose very essence is intertwined with the town of Guzmán as well as his cheese. I'll not take up time and space here to describe the man, for Paterniti has done so beautifully, thoroughly, and respectfully. He comments about Ambrosio: "And although he loved the village as a parent, he always seemed to be seeing it for the first time, through the eyes of a child. Perhaps this was his greatest accomplishment. He bent time until nothing was linear. So everything moved in circles, like the seasons. While clinging to the past, he always saw Guzmán as new and necessary. And he made you see it, too." What was aptly penned in regards to the Cheesemaker, might also be said of the Writer. He may be the parent of the book in your hand (one of them, anyway!), but he comes to the story again and again, with new eyes. And he does make the Reader see it in this way, too. He bends time within the story, dexterously moving between eras, and narrative threads. You see this story, and the people within, throughout many seasons, thereby getting a real look, a true taste. Just extraordinary. Borrowing from one of the many, intriguing footnotes in The Telling Room, I quote Carlo Petrini's Slow Food Manifesto: "Against those, and there are many of them, who confuse efficiency with frenzy, we propose the vaccine of a sufficient portion of assured sensual pleasure, to be practiced in slow and prolonged enjoyment." Three cheers for that sentiment, and for Michael Paterniti's book! I highly recommend reading this wonder, and reading it again (and maybe again), so as to prolong the enjoyment, and absorb all that it has to offer. A huge muchas gracias to Paterniti for giving us such a wonderful, textured book.
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Foremost Good Fortune A Memoir
by
Susan Conley
Lance Cromwell
, January 30, 2011
I was simply floored by The Foremost Good Fortune. It was so beautifully written overall, with some absolutely stunning passages and sentences in there. It hit me on all sorts of levels, and as such, I find that it is wholly (and widely!) recommendable. There is something in there for the Traveler, the Parent, the Spouse/Partner, the Reader, the Writer, those dealing with Chronic Illness, and for those who appreciate life's details, well-observed. Congratulations to Susan Conley on a beautiful accomplishment. By the way, the chapter entitled "Clouds or Butterflies" killed me. Absolutely slayed me. What a thing to have happen in the course of a life... I hope I can sidestep sounding sappy when I say that i feel honored to have read this book. i know it is a thing that is out there for the world to experience, but the intimacy and honesty with which it was written, makes me feel lucky to have read it... So, a big thank you to Susan Conley! Odds are, if you read this book, you'll love it !
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