Feldman's Faves: May 27, 2024

GOOD MORNING EVERYONE

Normally, I use this forum to communicate with this group and to recommend books and PODCASTS that I think are interesting and worth exploring – and I will do that below. HOWEVER, I would be remiss if I did not take this opportunity to warn all of you about J-Lo’s latest project (maybe it’s a movie, maybe it’s a video, maybe it’s a dance recital….not really clear to me, what it is exactly).  Prior to watching “This is Me…Now: A Love Story” (which I couldn’t finish – it was just too painful) I had always thought that Gigli (a J-Lo/Affleck collaboration) was the worst movie of all time. BUT if This is Me is in fact a movie (or even if it isn’t) then this “J-Lo/Affleck collab” makes Gigli look like the Godfather (Parts 1 and 2). One article I read sums it up perfectly, where the author writes, “Casting yourself as the underdog with a self-funded budget of $20 million? Iconic behavior. There is no other celebrity this insistent upon reminding us that she is an artist. To be fair, though, I’ve never seen art quite like This Is Me … Now: A Love Story. It is as if Michael Scott was given an eight-figure budget to make Threat Level Midnight, or if The Room was created by a legion of astrology-obsessed musical theater nerds instead of Tommy Wiseau. Like those films, This Is Me … Now is pure camp most especially because of its creator’s sincere belief in its artistic significance. J-.Lo is the FUBU of pop stars—everything she makes is for Jennifer….”  As a  fan of The Office I take great offense to this description, but I do get it.

I wanted to remind everyone that our summer students are basically done with training at this point (and now know EVERYTHING), so please get them involved in your files as much as you are able.

Finally, I want to wish Shannon a very happy birthday (from yesterday). I hope Aaron bought you an extremely expensive gift….

No them this week – just topics of interest.

TABLE FOR TWO By Amor Towles – For those of you who actually read these weekly notes, you know that I LOVE Amor Towles. My all time favourite novel is still his classic A Gentleman in Moscow. So any time Towles comes out with a new book I am happy.  That said, I am generally not a huge fan of short story compilations – Alice Munro the obvious exception, of course - because inevitably there is often a few that just aren’t compelling or interesting – and so, I started Table for Two with some skepticism (thinking to myself, did Towles just phone it in here) but I was pleasantly surprised to have enjoyed every page of this compilation of stories.  As one reviewer notes, “In the territory mapped by these short stories, those born with access to Manhattan clubs and Maine estates must adjust as circumstances change. Life-jolting chance encounters and money—its absence, its abundance, its magical properties—animate “Table for Two,” Amor Towles’s collection of short stories. The subtitle calls them “fictions.” It’s an affected word choice that sets the table for what is to come. In “The Line,” the book’s wry, touching standout, a Russian peasant who moves to Moscow from the countryside during the early years of Bolshevism unwittingly (and ironically) demonstrates the power of the individual when he queues up for bread and is lavishly rewarded for coming to the aid of some time-pressed comrades. In “The Ballad of Timothy Touchett,” an ambitious young would-be author in late 20th-century Manhattan is buttonholed by a book dealer at the library and soon discovers that his true talent as a writer has less to do with prose than with cons. In “The DiDomenico Fragment,” a patrician art appraiser down on his uppers gets a visit from a gallery owner, who, at the behest of a well-heeled client, is on the trail of a singular treasure. A finder’s fee is involved. So, regrettably, is finder’s greed. And in “The Bootlegger,” a subscription-series ticket holder at Carnegie Hall becomes enraged when he notices that the elderly man in the next seat is taping the performances.

 

Mr. Towles is perhaps best known for his novel “A Gentleman in Moscow” (2016), now an eight-episode series on Showtime. In two other, ahem, fictions, his terrifically engaging debut, “Rules of Civility” (2011) and “The Lincoln Highway” (2021), he chronicled the terrain of the high-born and the high-net-worth, writing with amused and amusing authority about WASP culture and folkways. That world is frequently the ambit of “Table for Two.” At one point in “The DiDomenico Fragment,” for instance, the story’s narrator, one Percival Skinner, is reminded of a cherished custom—running a garbage can up to the top of a flagpole—at the large coastal Maine house where generations of his family gathered until the property was sold off “for all the normal reasons.” Percival knows, too, which Manhattan clubs are most easily breached and just how to go about it. “The Union and the Knickerbocker are rather sticklers,” he notes. But “if you’re wearing a jacket and the old school tie, and are prepared to make the usual excuses, you can expect to be admitted without incident to a university club to which you do not pay the dues. ”But this savvy takes Mr. Towles only so far. Almost without exception, the stories in “Table for Two” are wispy, second-rate O. Henry, with a tone that rarely varies and characters who rarely convince. The stakes never seem particularly high, perhaps because the arch jauntiness of the storytelling trivializes the proceedings. New York, for example, is “the isle of Manhattan.” Protagonists are referred to as “our hero.” Mr. Towles’ narrators pause the action to address the reader: “Did Timothy have any suspicions, you might rightfully ask”; “at this point, nothing would make me happier than to confirm for you, gentle reader, that a painting is just a painting.” They apostrophize: “Oh, what crueler irony could there be for the gods. . . .” And they bloviate: “The road along which a young man discovers what he is capable of is no midwestern interstate. It has no uninterrupted views to the horizon, no painted white lines. . . . Rather, it is a narrow and winding byway crowded with undergrowth and overhung with branches. Along his journey, the young man is presented with sudden intersections.” And so on. And on. Six of the seven stories in “Table for Two” are set at least partly in New York. The outlier is “Eve in Hollywood,” a 1930s-era noir-ish novella that revisits a character from “Rules of Civility.” Despite the glossy settings and boldface names—Olivia de Havilland is a major character—and despite the sometimes deadly doings, only occasionally does “Eve in Hollywood” seem like much more than a self-indulgent brand extension. It doesn’t help that Eve, a cipher in “Rules of Civility,” remains one. Then again, Eve, always ready with a Mickey Finn, prizes action over talk. She’s a rarity here. Leave it to one of Mr. Towles’s characters to sum up “Table for Two:” “If you set the mood and give them a little shove they will pontificate accordingly.” Indeed.” I should have known better than to doubt the incredible Amor Towles. Here is a good review from the NYT - https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/30/books/review/amor-towles-table-for-two.html

Throughline - The 14th Amendment – The history of the US Constitution and each of its amendments is absolutely fascinating to me. The 14th Amendment, adopted after the Civil War in an effort to protect ALL citizens of the United States has a long an sordid history, which Throughline covers in great detail.  Here is an excerpt from the PODCAST itself, “Of all the amendments to the U.S. Constitution, the 14th is a big one. It's shaped all of our lives, whether we realize it or not: Roe v. Wade, Brown v. Board of Education, Bush v. Gore, plus other Supreme Court cases that legalized same-sex marriage, interracial marriage, access to birth control — they've all been built on the back of the 14th. The amendment was ratified after the Civil War, and it's packed full of lofty phrases like due process, equal protection, and liberty. But what do those words really guarantee us? Today on the show: how the 14th Amendment has remade America – and how America has remade the 14th.” https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/throughline/id1451109634?i=1000652070316

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

Jon