I Feel Pithy Book Blog

What Was She Thinking: Notes On a Scandal

This is one of the books I read for a freelance project I've been working on. I enjoyed it so much, I thought I would share it with you guys. I had never heard of Zoe Heller prior to ordering this book. Boy, have I been missing out. She's on my list of authors to check out the next time I hit the library.

What Was She Thinking is the story of a teacher named Sheba who has an affair with her underaged student. Or, at least that's what I thought when I first picked up the book. It really is very deceptive. The narrator is a woman named Barbara who is also a teacher at the same school. Barbara claims she wants to set the story straight about the affair. So she tries to explain everything that happened from the beginning. Instead of learning about Sheba's motivations, though, we learn just how parasitic Barbara's nature is. We also learn how easy it is for Barbara to betray Sheba if it suits Barbara's needs.

If you haven't read this one, definitely check it out. It's hilarious and mean and evil and sarcastic and smart and I cannot say enough about how good it is.

Grace Notes

This one was a huge surprise to me. Bernard MacLaverty is an Irish author. I'd heard of him but never got around to reading anything he'd written. This one is about an Irish composer named Catherine. She is returning to Ireland for her father's funeral after a long estrangement from her parents. She is also dealing with postpartum depression. She hasn't told her parents about her child mainly because she is unmarried and has left the father.

What I loved about this book was how well MacLaverty knows the subject matter. Not to sound sexist, but I never expected a man to be able to describe that type of depression so realistically. If I didn't know he was a man, I would think that the author had first hand knowledge of postpartum depression. Its a very touching and uplifting book. Definitely worth a read if you haven't explored Irish fiction.

I'll be posting more book reviews soon. So, keep reading and donate a book to the Oasis Youth Shelter why don't you.

I'm not quite sure what I was expecting. I haven't seen the movie. I only knew that Steve Martin was doing a movie based on his novella, Shopgirl. So, when I saw the novella in the library, I decided to check it out. I'm not sure if I am surprised or if I kind of always knew. Steve Martin is good. The book isn't perfect. But, that just makes it more enjoyable. The real issue is how to separate Steve Martin from the work in question. Which then leads to other issues like whether or not one should separate the work from the author.

Leaving those issues aside, I have to say that I was surprised. I was surprised that a man of Martin's age, wealth and experience could so effortlessly capture the character of Mirabelle. Mirabelle is a shy, lonely, young woman. She is still caught in a post-collegiate malaise that is amplified by her clinical depression. Mirabelle works as a "shopgirl" in the gloves department of Neiman Marcus. She has no motivations to move up in her department. She looks at her job as just a job and her real calling is art. She spends many evenings drawing and others forcing herself to go out. These are things she does to keep her depression at arms' length while also taking medications. These things also help her keep a semblance of a "real life." There is an overwhelming sense that Mirabelle is simply waiting.

She meets Jeremy, a caricature of a slacker, at the laundry mat. Mirabelle's interest in Jeremy is simple. He is interested in her and that is enough to make him attractive. After some bumbling attempts at a "relationship" with Jeremy, Mirabelle meets Ray.

Ray is in his fifties. He is suave, wealthy, and preoccupied with sex. He has a plan for seduction and is honest about not wanting to commit to her. His honesty is a part of his seduction. It allows him to free himself when he is done without regret that he has hurt anyone. Mirabelle hears something different in his honesty. She hears that he loves her but is afraid. The two dance around each other both misinterpreting what the other wants from the relationship. While Mirabelle waits, Ray searches. Ray is looking for an "appropriate" woman to have a real relationship with. He sees Mirabelle as a pleasant distraction until he finds the right woman to share his life with. He doesn't allow himself to believe he cares for her.

As I said earlier, I was surprised by Martin's dead on characterization of Mirabelle. He truly understands the depths of true clinical depression and its symptoms. What's more intriguing is his understanding of a woman who is so far from him in age, wealth, and social status. This is where those pesky issues of separating the writer from his fiction come into play. Is Martin describing something autobiographical? If so, does it really matter?

I'm thinking that while it probably does matter, it really shouldn't. It is obvious that no matter what, Martin knows these characters. Even his caricatures are given subtle layers of depth. There is a sense that he truly knows the life of each character and has brought them all together to share with us for his own purposes. Which should be enough. But, the part of me that watches Biography wants to know more about where these characters came from.

Shopgirl is a good and surprising read. The surprise, for me, will always be that Steve Martin wrote it.

Now, I guess I have to see the movie.

Letters from Pemberley the First Year is another of what I like to call Jane Austen fan fiction. This book is a compilation of letters written by new Mrs. Elizabeth Darcy to her sister Jane.

The novel is a fast and enjoyable read. Its author Jane Dawkins doesn't set out for historical accuracy as she is no expert in either the period or Jane Austen. She simply wishes to entertain based on her love of Pride and Prejudice (Bantam Classics), as well as other works of Jane Austen.

Dawkins peppers Elizabeth's first year at Pemberly with familiar characters. Many of the characters, though renamed, are easily recognized from other works by Jane Austen. It becomes a fun game identifying them based upon Elizabeth's descriptions.

Overall, its an enjoyable novel. There are a few rough spots where the language doesn't come across just right. Some of the phrasing in the letters is awkward. But the basis of the novel is well thought out. While I never really pictured Elizabeth as a character who would be shy or reticent about anything. I did understand the premise that Elizabeth, so recently separated from her family and suddenly mistress of a large household would doubt herself.

The idea that many would think Mr. Darcy married beneath him would surely haunt her as she made her mark upon society and her new household. It is in this area that Dawkins really shines. Elizabeth's pride does not allow her to back down from the challenge of proving that she is good enough. Which is what I would expect from the Elizabeth of Pride and Prejudice (Bantam Classics). However, this Elizabeth shares her fears with her sister and in these letters we see how lonely it must have been for her to leave her family behind and start this new life with the man she loved so dearly.

This novel is an introduction to the new Mrs. Darcy, Mistress of Pemberly. While the spirited light hearted Elizabeth Bennet is still there, she is changed as one would expect. I have only one personal gripe about the novel. It is composed of 25 letters from Elizabeth to Jane. I wish that we could have read Jane's replies to her sister. Which left the novel feeling incomplete. However, having just discovered that Dawkins has written a sequel to her sequel entitled More Letters From Pemberley: 1814-1819: A Further Continuation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, it is entirely possible that the novel was left incomplete on purpose.