The Paris Wife

 

The Paris Wife by Paula McLain
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I grew up in Idaho and Hemingway was The Author for our state because he died there. Not a lot of literature idols to look up to in Idaho. Weirdly, I've read very little by him. This look into Hemingway's life via his wife Hadley was interesting. I think I learned more about Hemingway than Hadley (even the few Hemingway chapters teemed with more life than the Hadley ones). I saw an author trying to muscle his way into importance and relevance, and get caught up in the chaos of the lifestyles of the artists around him, not realizing that their art had nothing to do with their unconventional relationships and substance abuse (but that these were distractions). Hadley seemed to totally support Hemingway, even to her detriment but I couldn't sympathize with her. She seemed too willing to give up everything, from her comfort to her ambition. McLain tries hard to stick to source material and so doesn't get much beyond the surface of what Hadley must have thought and the anguish she must have felt.

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Ernest once told me that the word paradise was a Persian word that meant "walled garden".  I knew then that he understood how necessary the promises we made to each other were to our happiness.  You couldn't have real freedom unless you knew where the walls were and tended them.

The Count of Monte Cristo

 

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I needed a big book to pass the time on a long plane ride. It was a big book. And it did pass the time in that I promptly fell asleep whenever I attempted to read it, which was actually almost better than reading on a plane ride. I have no idea why this book dragged so for me. There are intricate plans, lover's trysts, betrayal, revenge. Surprisingly little sword play. But the Count was just so-so for me and I never really could get invested. This classic seems to be referred to as a favorite with young men, so I thought it would be more intriguing than I found it to be.

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“We are always in a hurry to be happy, M. Danglars; for when we have suffered a long time, we have great difficulty in believing in good fortune.

was not over the downfall of the man, but over the defeat of the Napoleonic idea, that they rejoiced, and in this they foresaw for themselves the bright and cheering prospect of a revivified political existence.

The only difference consists in the opposite character of the equality advocated by these two men; one is the equality that elevates, the other is the equality that degrades; one brings a king within reach of the guillotine, the other elevates the people to a level with the throne.

You who are in power have only the means that money produces—we who are in expectation, have those which devotion prompts.”

But Fernand was mistaken; a man of his disposition never kills himself, for he constantly hopes.

Plaints made in common are almost prayers, and prayers where two or three are gathered together invoke the mercy of heaven.

misfortune is needed to bring to light the treasures of the human intellect. Compression is needed to explode gunpowder. Captivity has brought my mental faculties to a focus;

the tree forsakes not the flower—the flower falls from the tree.”

If one’s lot is cast among fools, it is necessary to study folly.

“the friends that we have lost do not repose in the bosom of the earth, but are buried deep in our hearts, and it has been thus ordained that we may always be accompanied by them.

Mercury Pictures Presents

Mercury Pictures Presents by Anthony Marra
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Marra's Constellation of Vital Phenomena was a revelation for me. It was amazing. This is a good book--it has well developed characters and it plumbs the idea of what it is to be free, the constructs that keep us imprisoned, whether internal or external, and explores some lesser known history--of Italy, Hollywood, and xenophobia in America. What surprised me is how funny this was. So many subtle and not so subtle comedic situations. Also a few touching scenes. It wasn't phenomenal but it was presentable ;). As enjoyable as an old movie...

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That’s what intimacy is—not a threshold of knowledge but a capitulation to ignorance, an acceptance that another person is made as bewildered and ungovernable by her life as you are by yours.

Every totalitarian knows you cannot change the future, only the past.

The camera conducts history on the bridge. Party members jostle into its frame. More than a witness or participant, it is a choreographer. The lens absorbs light but also emits its own kind of radiance.

Taking a life is murder, the most mortal sin, this much is clear. But taking a death? For that is what Nino would do: steal Vincenzo’s death from his mother. What is the name of this trespass, both murder’s opposite and its equal? Not even Giuseppe, once among the great lawyers of Rome, can name the crime.

it seems to him the allure of photography is the medium’s faith, despite all contrary evidence, that people can see one another at all.

“In my limited experience, mercy is what we choose not to do.”

What troubled Maria—as much as anything else—was the spectacle of a filmmaker pressing her undeniably singular vision into the service of a picture that denied the singularity of individual experience.

Adhering to stereotype is the only way a screen actor makes himself intelligible to an unintelligent audience.”

I know when they offer you a part, what they’re really doing is telling you what you are.”

Queen Anne

Queen Anne: The Politics of Passion by Anne Somerset
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

If you want to know absolutely everything there is to know about Queen Anne, I think it is in here. Somerset even somewhat deftly includes inventory and shopping lists. I did end up skimming most of it, but still feel like I garnered a good amount of knowledge about Anne and the politics of that era. She was regarded as unhealthy, fat, and ignorant and easily manipulated. But Somerset does a good job of countering several of these criticisms. Queen Anne is often shown as having a determination that was not easily swayed in several instances and stood up for what she believed was right, regardless of the politics surrounding her. Somerset also gives modern health theories about her health (possibly lupus?) and why she lost all of her children (so sad!). Queen Anne was obviously a person who loved deeply and as a result those around her often took advantage of her, but once they crossed a line the queen was also just as firm about cutting them off. I'll admit these little dramas were the most interesting parts.

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Mary Coin

 

Mary Coin by Marisa Silver
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a good historical novelization of the depression. Mary Coin is the subject of an iconic photograph by Vera Dare who documented immigrant workers. These are the stand-in names of Florence Owens Thompson and Dorothea Lange. Silver does a good job of painting a picture who Mary is, and the circumstances of immigrant workers during the depression. I also enjoyed the story of Vera who was the photographer. Both of these women were strong in different ways. Silver also throws in Walker Dodge in the present day who has a connection with one of these women that slowly reveals itself. Silver can give herself free reign since she has used pseudonyms and I think she accurately portrayed the conditions of that era, but there is enough similarities to the real-life counterparts (both photographers were married to painters, both subjects had some American-Indian lineage), that it was hard to know what was based on the real characters and what was made up.

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Engineering Eden

 

Engineering Eden: The True Story of a Violent Death, a Trial, and the Fight over Controlling Nature by Jordan Fisher Smith
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is an interesting look into the two different schools of thought in managing wildlife areas--should we try to maintain nature the way we found it when colonists arrived or should we manage it based on what makes it safe and manageable for the uses which civilization has evolved (including tourism). It's a complicated subject and obviously has good and bad points with each school of thought. Smith covers these arguments while also narrating a trial about a bear attack. Should the national park be held responsible for the bear's actions? Or is this part of the danger of interacting with nature? Unfortunately, Smith gets bogged down in a lot of distracting minutiae that doesn't clarify what he is talking about. In an effort to have us get to know the victim, he gets way too involved in who he is and his life before he entered the park. He also gets brings in fire control, deer and elk maintenance, and personnel squabbles which could strengthen his thesis but he doesn't quite tie things together and the back and forth with the trial just doesn't work. However, the question of how we manage wildlife and nature in general is a subject that can be looked at from a lot of different angles and despite Smith's haphazard approach (or maybe because of it?) the complexities and difficulties in trying to do what's best for the natural areas AND for the tourists who enjoy it are revealed.

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For the next half century, the perception that each ecosystem has some preordained ideal state, to which it always seeks to return, informed both ecology and attempts to restore nature in national parks.

because human hands were always unintentionally doing something to nature, they ought to do something carefully planned as well.