Feldman's Faves: June 10, 2024

GOOD MORNING EVERYONE

For those of you lucky enough to have been able to watch the Wayne Gretzky led Oiler teams of the 1980’s it was pure magic. This was a dream team – Messier, Coffey, Kuri, Lowe, Fuhr, etc. – before the idea even existed  - and their dynasty was their proof of concept.  I will never forget flying to Edmonton with my dad to go to the West Edmonton Mall so that we could watch the Oilers practice there. The highlight of my life (at that time). So it is understandable to me that all of Canada (given the 30 year Cup drought) and many outside of Canada are jumping on the 2024 Oilers bandwagon.  But a word of statistical caution – in over 75% of the time, the team that wins Game 1 of the Finals wins the  Cup – so let’s hope this historical run ignores this element of history – as Game 1 was not pretty. Let’s go, OILERS!

Just a reminder to make sure to involve our summer students in your deals. They are eager to learn as much as they can this summer and will benefit from all of you guidance and mentorship.

Finally, I want to wish our good friend Jay a very happy belated birthday who celebrated last week exactly as one would expect, drinking “mead” and eating giant turkey legs and jousting with Duncan……

No theme this week – just topics of interest.

SHANGHAILANDERS By: Juli Min – Juli Min’s new novel, SHANGHAILANDERS is a story of a really interesting family.  Based in Shanghai but citizens of the world, the Yang family is wealthy, well educated and cosmopolitan in a way that is almost stereotypical – think of Crazy Rich Asians. When I first picked up the book I thought this story might be full of clichés that are just annoying to read. And it is certainly partially true. However, this book tells a story of family and relationships in a way that really runs deep. It shows how family can be the most comforting and annoying place to be – often at the same time. But it also shows how deep the love and connection can be with family no matter the circumstances. Most interesting is the way Min uses time. Instead of telling the story in a straight linear manner (as one would expect) the story starts at the end and goes back in time. So even though the reader knows WHAT happens the mystery and suspense is created in the HOW. As one reviewer notes, “The year is 2040, and wealthy real estate investor Leo Yang – handsome, distinguished, a real Shanghai man – is on the train back to the city after seeing his family off at the airport. His sophisticated Japanese-French wife, Eko, and their two eldest children, Yumi and Yoko, are headed for Boston, though one daughter’s revelations will soon reroute them to Paris. While the years rewind to 2014, SHANGHAILANDERS rotates perspectives, drawing readers into the shared and separate lives of the Yang family, parent by parent, daughter by daughter, and through the eyes of the people in their orbit. As their world shifts and brings change for each of the Yangs, universal constants remain : love is complex, and family will always be connected by blood, secrets, and longing.” SHANGHAILANDERS is a complex work of creative genius, told not just from shifting perspectives, but also from an unwinding timeline, the book spans from 2040 to 2014, with each subsequent chapter unwinding time just a tiny bit more. Min’s first novel, SHANGHAILANDERS is a breathtaking debut novel filled with family history, peeling back the curtain, giving us a glimpse into the Yang family’s dynamic; toxicity, growth, rejection, and all the layers the meld together to form a family. Beginning and ending with Leo, the patriarch of the Yang family, Min has bookended her work with a man whose chapters hardly revolve around his inner world at all. I found it fascinating that throughout the entirety of the novel, Min chose to only reveal the Yang family through three male-centered chapters, two of which are Leo, the third being the family’s driver – all three of whom serve only to point us back toward the matrilineal family line.

SHANGHAILANDERS is a novel that addresses the fragility of time both in narrative and construct, giving us the smallest glimpses into the years that make up a family, revealing small clues and inward peaks that create the structure the Yangs have crafted their world(s) into. Speaking broadly of time, of bloodlines, and of familial connection, Min paints a much more detailed picture with the narrative, showing rather than telling us that Leo, and likely Yoko as well, has an anxiety disorder that causes apocalyptic dread, that drives his need to see his daughters sinking into independence and stability, that, at times, pushes his family to the brink, threatening to shatter their bubble; that Yuki, the youngest, at sixteen is facing the loss of innocence and the heartache of love lost; that while each family member feels tethered to the other, neither feels the thread of love as connection, that love is not a given. This is a novel filled with longing, with logic, with dread, and the potent, ever present realization that time is a fragile filament that tugs at us all.  I think the most successful aspect of this book is the format, rewinding through the narrative from 2040 until, finally, 2014. Taking us briefly through the years of improved technology, Covid, and finally into those pre-pandemic years where the children are barely formed, where love is new, and anxieties aren’t quite realized yet. Each chapter invites us into a new realm of the Yang family, masterfully written, weaving webs so delicate behind the scenes that we cannot see each thread until the final page has turned. Each chapter left me craving more, desperately wishing the timeline was reversed, that I could follow this family into further detail, into more solid ground, wishing and hoping I would be given glimpses into the characters and storylines I most enjoyed. Alas, with each passing chapter, each character faded, each storyline slipped away, and I was transported to younger versions, the groundwork of each prior chapter laid out ahead of me. The longing I felt. Perfection.” This novel is quite novel……I do like it when writers experiment with form and this “Benjamin Button” approach to storytelling is not easy to do – but in this case, I think that Min did a great job in telling the story in this backwards a@# way….Here is a good review from the NYT - https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/04/books/review/shanghailanders-juli-min.html

WorkLife with Adam Grant - A company is not a family with Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky – The story of Airbnb is well known by many.  It is amazing that Brian Chesky and his team were able to effectively reinvent the hospitality sector in a way that opened up affordable travel (and some not so affordable travel) to so many people.  His style of management, however, is what impresses me the most. He was incredibly transparent and empathetic during Covid when he was forced to lay off a huge amount of staff. But instead of being hated for it he was appreciated. He explained why he was doing it and did what he could to maintain good will with his former and staying employees in a way I have not seen before. While his company has had its struggles of late I do have confidence in his ability to right the ship and sustain his business over the long term. I also LOVE that he rejects the notion that a workplace is a family (e.g., when he says you can’t fire your kids…) but his ideas about community are bang on. Here’s an excerpt from the PODCAST itself, “Brian Chesky, the CEO and cofounder of Airbnb, is firmly in the trust business. His focus isn't only on building a trusted platform for people to rent their homes to strangers — it's on earning the trust of his employees. Adam and Brian discuss how to lead with care in tough times, why it's better to overcommunicate than undercommunicate, what to expect for the future of work, and why a company should be treated as a community rather than a family.”: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/worklife-with-adam-grant/id1346314086?i=1000656161532 

Thank you for your ongoing engagement and participation.And remember to stay safe, stay healthy and to docket daily.

Jon