Feldman's Faves: November 20, 2023

GOOD MORNING EVERYONE

For those of you who went to the Bills game yesterday, I hope today is not too rough. Wondering if anyone actually made it to the game, i.e., past Nando’s tailgating food emporium. I know I never did in the years that I attended. And oh, that bus….

On the other end of the health and wellness spectrum, good news for my fellow Pelotoners who enjoyed Matt W’s TWO HOUR ride - they will do a new one every quarter – something to look forward to for other lunatics like me.

Finally, for those of you celebrating US Thanksgiving, I hope your Turducken is delicious this year.

No theme this week – just topics of interest.

WESTERN LANE By: Chetna Maroo – I was drawn to Chetna Maroo’s debut novel when I read a review that described the author’s use of squash as a device to help Gopi (the 11 year old main character) and family deal with the untimely death of her mother. Before I had “old man knees” I loved playing squash with my dad and have great memories of us watching squash, and in particular Jahangir Khan (the Michael Jordan of squash) play in Toronto in the early and mid-1980s. Kahn is featured prominently in the novel and so that nostalgia was really nice. More importantly, Maroo was nominated for this year’s Booker Prize because of the way she tells the story of a family dealing with the tragedy of losing their mother/wife and having to make unimaginable decisions as a way to survive this ordeal. As one reviewer notes, “Chetna Maroo’s debut novel begins a few days after 11-year-old Gopi’s mother’s funeral, which leaves Gopi and her two older sisters in the care of their father. Gopi practices squash every day at Western Lane, a sports centre just outside London. The book ends with her playing the final of the Durham and Cleveland squash tournament. The arc is a Hollywood staple: tragedy, sporting trial, potential triumph. The tension is heightened by squash-obsessed, emotionally uncommunicative Pa; fearful Aunt Ranjan is the obstacle that stands in Gopi’s way. There is a love interest, Ged, whose mother intervenes at just the right moment for the plot (and the wrong moment for Gopi). Given all this, you might expect Western Lane to feel formulaic, but it doesn’t. It feels like the work of a writer who knows what they want to do, and who has the rare ability to do it. Gopi is attuned to subtle details that offer clues to the inner lives of the adults around her: Pa’s failure to fix a radiator, low voices in the garden at night, a spilled glass of chaas. She becomes aware that Aunt Ranjan and Uncle Gavan, who have no children of their own, want her to live with them in Edinburgh. Pa is distracted. Gopi can’t be sure he won’t agree. Maroo also pays attention to communication outside language. Gopi is attracted to Ged’s stammer because “it seemed like you were drifting close to him in the silence”. When Gopi occasionally remembers something about her mother, it is visceral – watching Wimbledon while eating strawberries with sugar. She and her sisters aren’t fluent in Gujarati, which their mother spoke much better than English. The language barrier meant they “pulled at her, pushed into her, made ourselves physical in her presence”. In her mother’s absence, Gopi makes herself physical on the squash court. Gopi cares how her feet fall on the court, the curve of her arm through the air, how close she can keep to the “T”. She loves listening to the “sound from the next court of a ball hit clean and hard”, which has an echo “louder than the shot itself”. With Pa, she spends hours “ghosting”, which means playing with something crucial missing – the ball – in a practice that seems more significant “than a rehearsal or drill”. They stay up late to watch the same video of the great Pakistani champion Jahangir Khan over and over again. These activities all explore aspects of Gopi’s grief. Maroo also takes it for granted, as Gopi does, that squash matters. Just as important to the novel, and just as vivid, is the almost inexpressible experience of a human body negotiating a transparent box, the heightened awareness that “Jahangir had for a situation, his sense for what was going on behind him”. To navigate the sport’s punishing constraints, Gopi learns, you “have to find the shots and make the space you need”. There is a parallel with the tight enclosure of the short novel. Maroo has a talent for making the space she needs for emotional complexity by way of physical description. “There was a sullenness about her,” she writes of eldest sister Mona, “a tightness in her muscles, and a refusal of ease or rhythm in her movement.” This conveys all the tensions – between care and resentment, responsibility and envy – that play out over the course of the story. Before the tournament, Mona spends money she’s earned herself on a new racket for her youngest sister. It’s made of metal rather than Pa’s preferred wood. Pa is outwardly positive, but Gopi reads his “eyes and body”: “He was telling us that in one day we had exposed him, left him behind, left him wide open to whatever was coming for him.” Pa is searching for something more than Gopi can provide, and Gopi knows that this makes him vulnerable. In order to win, she needs to remember what he has taught her, and go beyond what he can express. In the unlikely arena of a high-pressure tournament match, she finally discovers a place where “no one was rushing me, and if I wanted to, I could think”.” I hope Maroo wins the Booker when it is announced later this month. She definitely has my vote. Here is a good review from the NYT - https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/07/books/review/western-lane-chetna-maroo.html

Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend - Please Don’t Destroy (with Special Guest Paul Rudd) Live at the Brooklyn Academy of Music – This show celebrates the five year anniversary of my all-time favourite PODCAST, which they broadcast live from BAM. If I ever need to embarrass my daughters by laughing out loud (e.g., on a plane or the subway) I just have to listen to my “good friend” Conan (yes, I realize that sounds delusional). In this episode we meet the guys from Please Don’t Destroy, who are hilarious and about to become major break-out stars (Paul Rudd also stops by). Here is an excerpt from the PODCAST itself, “Comedy trio Please Don’t Destroy feels too young to be Conan O’Brien’s friend. Ben, John, and Martin sit down with Conan to discuss bringing their act in front of Lorne Michaels, their unique group dynamic, and playing with the evolution of sketch comedy. Plus, Paul Rudd drops by with a special treat for Conan, and the Chums take audience questions about turning into a chair, Halloween costumes, childhood crushes, and more.” https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/conan-obrien-needs-a-friend/id1438054347?i=1000634589339

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

Jon