The similarity pretty much begins and ends with the fact that both careers involve writing. But that’s about as far as it goes. As many other writers, I came to Los Angeles with the intention of making enough money to finance my lifestyle as a novelist. As it turned out, I found that television writing was not only lucrative but a good apprenticeship in the art of story-telling. You learn how to tell a story economically, which is an invaluable skill in fiction writing. And you learn how to write to a deadline. On the other hand, you soon learn that in Hollywood the writer is a fungible element in film making, summarily replaced by another writer when he/she offers resistance to all the “creative” input from directors, studio execs, producers, and actors. You are, essentially, a hired gun, at the beck and call of others – a well-paid hired gun perhaps, to be sure, but one with very little control over the product.
Moreover, there is very little “voice” in screenwriting. In books it is often the way you tell a story and not the story itself that compels readers. I am drawn to language and voice; and with the possible exception of a facility for dialogue (a skill that is almost impossible to teach: I learned how people talk driving a cab in New York in the sixties – an education worth more, in my opinion, than a PHD in Creative Writing) -- these elements are not valued in screenwriting.
Nevertheless, Hollywood has allowed me the wherewithal to travel a great deal, to perfect the craft of story telling and, ultimately, to reinvent myself as a novelist and have both careers mutually reinforce each other. I’m not sure I would have succeeded in one without the other.
The sprawling narrative of five siblings, born in the 1940’s, beginning on the day John Kennedy was shot and ending on 9/11. Between these two iconic dates, we follow the fortunes, love affairs, marriages, divorces, successes and failures of the Pearls, an immigrant Polish-Jewish family, from the Lower East Side of New York, to Long Island and beyond.
The oldest, Jackie — a charming, womanizing attorney — drifts into politics with help from the Nassau County mob. His younger brother, Michael, a gambler and entrepreneur, makes and loses fortunes riding the ebb and flow of high-risk business decisions. Their sister, Elaine, marries young and raises two children before realizing that she wants more from life than being merely a wife and mother and embarking on a new life in her forties. Their sensitive and brilliant half-brother, Stephen, deals with the growing consciousness that he is gay in an era that was not gay friendly. Stephen goes to Vietnam as a medic, comes home, becomes a writer, and survives the AIDS epidemic of the eighties. The baby of the family, Bobbie, high-strung and rebellious, gets pregnant at Woodstock, moves to San Francisco as a single mother during the “Summer of Love,” then winds up in Los Angeles as a highly-successful record producer.
When I was given the opportunity to read a new Peter Lefcourt book, I jumped at the chance. Now granted, I've only read one of his books before, but that book is one that I've read countless times. I can't even remember the first time I read The Dreyfus Affair, but it was love at first read. I was enamored with the characters, the humor, and the way the author was able to write this compelling love story but make me laugh, cry, and regain my faith in my fellow man all at the same time. So when the chance to read An American Family came up, it was a no brainer. I had to do it.
Once I had done it, I found myself comparing it to another book that I read for the first time when I was in the 5th grade. If I was sick and at my grandparent's house, I would pick up whatever book was available for me to read. Because of that, I read a lot of books I should never, ever admit to reading. One of those was Family Album by Danielle Steel. It was a book I fell in love with, and probably need to reread sometime soon, for a lot of the same reason I loved An American Family.
Both books follow a family through the decades as they got through trials and changes. They both deal with the 60's counter culture and the Vietnam War. They both focus on the individual members of the family as they grow up, fall in love, and mess up throughout their lives. Now the families are from different ethnic, economic, and social backgrounds, but I loved them both. But where they both hooked, then and now, is how they dealt with one of the brood growing up gay in a culture that wasn't ready to deal with it. both Lionel Thayer and Steven Perl are characters that will remain close to my heart for a long time to come (possible FFC posts). Steven and Lionel, though going through different circumstances, were characters that I could find a bit of myself in. They were the kind of characters I needed to read about as a teenager. I needed to know that it was possible to grow up gay and know that I could live a happy life. A lot of the books I found back then, high school, were on the opposite side of the spectrum. So it's nice to know there are characters, written by straight men/women, who affirm being gay and not make it a burden for the character.
Now I don't want anyone to get the idea that I'm basically saying both books are identical and that if you read one, you read them both. That's not the case at all. The two authors have completely different styles and they focus on two different aspects of the family. Since Danielle Steel is primarily a romance author, that's where her focus stayed throughout the book. Family Album chronicles the love lives of the character, and the dynamic between the family was secondary. An American Family does the opposite. It focuses on the dynamics between the siblings, their father, mother/stepmother, and great uncle. It's the romantic relationships outside the main family unit that get second billing. Of course Peter Lefcourt brings his own style and wit to An American Family that I loved in The Dreyfus Affair. It's the way he writes those relationships that makes this a book that may remind me of another, but stands out on it's own. You may be able to get a hint of the relationship between Nathan, the father and his second wife Marylin, from this excerpt.
Maybe Marilyn’s life hadn’t been perfect, but whose was? You made the best of things. She had married Nathan, knowing full well that he was not Prince Charming. He was almost ten years older than her and had three small kids. But he made a living and he didn’t drink. And he had brains. He could speak Polish and Yiddish, as well as English.
Nathan’s problem was that he needed to be prodded to do things. It was she who had to convince him to buy the house in Garden City, right after the birth of Roberta, in 1950. If it had been up to him, they would have stayed in the apartment in Jackson Heights and had the kids double up in the bedrooms. They had scraped together the down-payment for the $19,900 wood frame house on Stratford Drive, which was now worth close to $30,000.
I would like to thank Kate for inviting me on the BookTrib tour. Please visit the tour page to visit the other participating blogs.
I've been meaning to tell you guys about my upcoming staycation for a while now, but I've been so busy getting other stuff done, that I totally forgot about it. Not the vacation part, just telling you guys about it. This year I am taking the 22nd through the 27th of June off. Which means no responsibility, no work, no brain power used at all. I already have some of my activities planned, but we will see what I end up doing.
Now for what that means for the blog. I don't take a lot of time off, which I think I need to make more of an effort to do, so when I do, I tend to stay away from the computer. And as much as I love this blog and love you guys, that most especially means stay off the blog. I don't want to do anything that even remotely smells like work, and sadly, writing posts smells like work. Now the blog won't go quiet for those six days though. I asked some great bloggers to write up a post on anything subject that screams summer to them. So for five days, you will be treated to some interesting posts.
You may have noticed that I said for 5 days you will be blessed by some great guest posts. Well what about the 6th day then? I'm so glad you asked. I didn't decide to take that day off until after I had already lined up the guest bloggers, so on Wed. I will have my last FFC post for the month. And speaking of FFC (Favorite Fictional Character) posts, I have invited another 9 of my favorite bloggers to feature their favorite characters during the months of July and August. I've already received some of them, and I'm really excited for the characters I've seen so far.
So I hope you guys come back over the next week and see what your fellow bloggers are up to.
Now while I'm gone, I will be thinking of you guys. I haven't quite decided what I'm going to do yet, but my three year blogoversary is coming up next month. I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to do to celebrate, but I'm sure a giveaway will be in order. I'm thinking I'm going to include a book or two along with some mementos of my staycation.
Have a great week and I'll see you guys when I get back!
One of the great pleasure in life is finding a good book and falling in love with characters that you want to be. They are the characters that makes you green with envy over what they get to do and see. You wouldn't really trade them lives, but you would be willing to step into their shoes for the period of time the book details. It could be a romance that you would want for yourself or the adventure you would do anything to go on. It may even be the house they live in, the family that surrounds them, or their best friend that makes you want to be them. Whatever the case, it's those characters that keeps us coming back for more, over and over again.
As a kid, I would have done anything to trade places with Claudia and Jamie Kincaid. The eleven and nine yard old stars of the wonderful book, From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Koingsburg, are two kids that got to live a dream of mine. I haven't been to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, but who wouldn't want to live in any museum. I can get lost in a museum for hours, doesn't matter how big or small. I may have seen every exhibit 50 different times, but the magic I feel when I walk through the doors, never leaves me. I'm always in awe of what the human race can achieve, and I feel better about our future when I leave.
Of course the fact that they got to live in a museum because they ran away from home never seemed to bother me. Claudia is one of those kids that is probably too smart for her own good, and thinks her parents don't show her enough respect. She doesn't think they appreciate her or her intelligence so she comes up with a plan to runaway. She ropes her brother into the scheme, because unlike her, he saves his money. He has a little over $20 on him, which Claudia knows she will need. So they set out to visit the museum, and hide in the bathrooms in order to stay overnight.
This is where the book hooked me, they got to play in the fountain and used the money to buy stuff they needed. They got to sleep in an antique bed, that my brain always assumed a king slept in. But most of all, they get to wander around by themselves and see the museum in a way that the rest of us don't get to. They live with the art and antiques in a way that I'm still jealous of to this day. When the stumble upon the statue of an angel, Claudia is determined to solve the mystery surrounding it. So not only do they get to live in a museum, they get to solve a mystery, how frickin lucky is that.
The rest of the book details their search for the identity of the artist who created the statue and how it came to be in the museum. It takes them out into the real world, which they do hesitantly. They know once they leave the museum for good, they will be sent back home soon after that. The mystery and the secrets it holds are worth the risk, so they set out to find Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, the woman who donated the statue to the museum.
I'm not going to ruin the story for those of you who haven't read it, but once they arrive at her house, the fun gets started all over again. I would have done anything, at 12 years old, to dig through those files. Of course the fact that my parents missed and worried about me would have nagged at me, as it did the kids, but I'm pretty sure the mystery would have had me engulfed as well. I will say that the family is reunited at the end, and everybody lives happily, and wiser, ever after.
I couldn't find a clip of the 1995 TV version of the movie, which is the picture I used, but I did find a clip of the Ingrid Bergman movie.
In the spring of 1918, the Spanish flu epidemic spreads, killing millions of soldiers and civilians across the globe. Overwhelmed by the constant flow of wounded soldiers coming from the French front, battlefield nurse Bess Crawford must now contend with hundreds of influenza patients as well. But war and disease are not the only killers to strike. Bess discovers, concealed among the dead waiting for burial, the body of an officer who has been murdered. Though she is devoted to all her patients, this soldier's death touched her deeply. Not only did the man serve in her father's former regiment, he was also a family friend.
Before she can report the terrible news, Bess falls ill, the latest victim of the flu. By the time she recovers, the murdered officer has been buried, and the only other person who saw the body has hanged himself. Or did he?
Working her father's connections in the military, Bess begins to piece together what little evidence she can find to unmask the elusive killer and see justice served. But the tenacious and impetuous nurse must be vigilant. With a determined killer on her own heels, each move she makes may be her last.
I need to cop to two different things right now, the first of which I feel horrible about. For some strange reason, I had it in my head that this review was supposed to go up today, the 15th. After looking at my schedule though, I realized it was supposed to be posted on the 12th. I haven't done this before, so I wanted to apologize to everyone up front for not having this done on time. The second admission I must make, is that for the bazillionth time, I have started a series well past the first book. I really don't know why I do it, what makes me decided I want to jump in on what in this case is the 4th book. Now I need to go back and read the other three, otherwise I'm going to feel as if I'm doing the character of Bess Crawford a disservice. She is one of those characters that I fell in love with from the start, and I would never want to hurt her feelings by not going back and reading the other books.
Earlier this week I posted another review that is classified as historical fiction and I mentioned that the only part of that genre I seem to enjoy are mysteries set in the past. It doesn't seem to matter the era, year, or culture that is being explored, if there is a murder, sign me up. If there is a plucky amateur detective investigation the murder, sign me up even faster. I would just put the blame on the fact that I'm a mystery lover anyway, but I'm not sure if that would be the right reason. But don't ask me what else it could be, cause I have no clue. I'm just going to set back, relax, and enjoy.
Much like the Maisie Dobbs books, there is a gentleness and calmness about the writing that I find refreshing and unique in a mystery. Now that might not make much sense given the fact that the book starts in a French field hospital, with maimed and dying soldiers all over the place. Only in these two series have I ever found authors who are skilled enough to enmesh their readers into such a horrific and well realized setting, without making the reader feel overwhelmed by the violence. The miasma of despair that would naturally follow a plot and setting such as this is missing. Reading the horrors of war and watching Bess investigate a murder, which puts her own life in danger, never felt bogged down. I was relaxed and optimistic the entire time. Now I'm not so sure this is the reaction the authors were looking for, but I'm not going to complain.
Evey setting, every character is well drawn and fully imagined by the authors. At no point in time did something jump off the page and feel unauthentic to me. Everything felt right for the period and the characters never acted out of character. Both of those characteristics are blessings to a reader, and sadly blessings that don't always occur in a mystery novel. I'm really curious to see if this is a pattern that continues with the other books. I already have the one that occurs before this one, but haven't gotten started on it yet. But if it is anything like this one, I'm going to love it.
I would like to thank Trish of TLC Book Tours for the opportunity to read/review this book. Please visit the tour page to read other reviews.
It's said that if the ravens ever leave the Tower of London, then the Tower will crumble and the kingdom will fall. Resurrected sorcerer Matthew Swift is about to discover that this isn't so far from the truth...
One by one, the protective magical wards that guard the city are falling: the London Wall defiled with cryptic graffiti, the ravens found dead at the Tower, the London Stone destroyed. This is not good news. This array of supernatural defenses - a mix of international tourist attractions and forgotten urban legends - formed a formidable magical shield, one that could protect London from the greatest threat it has ever know. But what could be so dangerous as to threaten an entire city?
Against his better judgment, Matthew Swift is about to find out. And if he's lucky, he might just live long enough to do something about it..
After about 27 months, I finally got around to reading the sequel to A Madness of Angels. I wish I could tell you a valid reason why it seems to take me forever to read the next book in a series, but I can't. I know most people, when the really enjoy the first book in a series, want to read the next one as soon as possible. Now sometimes we have to wait if the next book isn't out yet, but for the most part, if the book is out, it will be the next book read. That's not how I work for some strange reason, nope, not me. I get distracted way too easily to ever do such a smart, logical thing.
Now that I've read The Midnight Mayor, I'm really hoping I don't take as long to read the third book in the series. This one starts off much the same way A Madness of Angles did. Matthew Swift is once again waking up from a trauma, not really aware of where he is. He is forced to run though because he is being hunted down entities consisting of hoodies and a thumping beat that is controlling them. They won't stop coming, no matter how many electric cables he rips out of the ground to entangle them, they keep coming. It's only once he is able to capture one in an empty beer bottle, that he seems to get a respite and be able to gather his thoughts. He thinks somebody tried to kill him, but doesn't know why. Little does he realize what's about to happen.
He seeks sanctuary from an old friend, only to have her killed and turned into a pile of paint. Through some rather interesting twists and turns he discovers that the old Midnight Mayor has been killed. Of course, The Midnight Mayor is supposed to be a myth. A magical construct that protects London from those who want to destroy her. What makes it even worse is those who worked for the old mayor, thinks Matthew is the one who killed him. Add in the wrinkle that Matthew is not the new Midnight Mayor and must figure out what's threatening his city, before London is brought to it's knees.
I love the magic of this version of London. It's gritty, mechanical, and the only way magic would actually exist in world such as ours. It's a world where the congealed grease from restaurants will ooze out of the street grates, becoming a gelatinous blob able to engulf anything in it's wake. It's a world where the idea of the street sweepers takes on mythic proportions. It's a world where neon lights, telephone conversations, and graffiti hold power unlike anything else. But it's also the magic of old London. It's the dragon that guards the gates, it's the idea of what a city is and what the loss of that identity could cause. It's the city that Matthew loves and will do anything to protect.
