My rating: 3 of 5 stars Not bad. The story has an interesting, but not original premise*: Frankie wants to get her parents’ (especially her father’s) approval. Green and naive, she becomes an army nurse and ships off to Vietnam. Why? Her brother’s friend, the wise and dreamy Rye tells her “Women can be heroes”. Gradually she realizes what a serious decision she made but still clings to her dream of making a difference in the world:
Back in the world, when Frankie had told her friendsthat she’d hoped to make a difference over here, hoped to make her family proud, they’d rolled their eyes and acted impatient with patriotism…” p. 52
Once she returns stateside, she has trouble reintegrating into everyday life, suffers from PTSD, and develops other side effects from the trauma. Eventually, after several personal setbacks and near disasters, she starts to heal.
However, I have some issues with the book. Some of the story beats are too coincidental. I won’t spoil the story, but I noticed it early in the book, on page 19, and several other imes. I consider this lazy storytelling. There are also some eye-rolling moments. For instance:
Ethel stood in the midst of the chaos like an Amazon goddess, directing traffic, poistioning the casualties, pointing out what to do with the wounded.”
(p. 26)
Had it always been like this? Had mom always been a shadow woman, held together by vodka and hair spray?”
(p.230)
I will come clean: I really did not like Frankie. There were points where I wanted to throw the book against the wall! I wrote notes to her: “BE ANGRY, NOT DRAMATIC!” but she did not listen to me. She kept making poor choices. Oh Frankie, when will you ever learn! And from my earlier description of him, I didn’t like Rye either. His charm and good looks are just a facade, Frankie!
Also, too much vomiting. Why?! As I have pointed out in previous blog posts, “Once is unnecessary, more than once is a big turn-off for me. Find another way to show that a character is upset. Need I say more?”
In contrast, some passages brought tears to my eyes. For instance, her interactions nursing wounded soldiers and the native children were heartwarming.
Frankie’s interaction with the native children on MEDCAP trips was the only insight into the local life. This seems culturally insensitive, Hannah keeps the story mostly centered on the insulated life of the medical center. From nights of non-stop incoming wounded (known as “MASCAL) bombings, or downtime life for Frankie revolves around the doctors and nurses, blood and guts…all playing out to a soundtrack of late 60’s music.
I was disappointed in the ending. Why must Frankie be saved by a returning, albeit broken prince? Hannah does this in other novels. For a novel that is supposed to be empowering for women, this ending is, in my opinion, contradictory as well as implausible.
It makes for a good book club choice. Some people found the book engrossing, others agreed with me, especially about the ending.
*My final thought: This is a well-intentioned story that is a cross between Mash and China Beach but with less likable, less developed characters.
And there it was: remembrance mattered. She knew that now; there was no looking away from war or from the past, no soldiering on through the pain.”
In 1990, children’s author Rudine Sims Bishop wrote an essay explaining the need for diverse books in classrooms and libraries. Books as mirrors are those in which we see aspects of ourselves and windows in which we can glimpse possibilities and new worlds. They can also be “sliding glass doors” that open us to empathy, new ways of thinking, new ideas, and new possibilities. (Bishop, 1990, Potter, 2023)
Literature is a powerful tool for building empathy, understanding, and compassion in our students.”
(Potter, 2023)
As an educator, I tried to include as many diverse books as possible. (See my blog post “We Need Diverse Books- What’s in your Classroom Library? from July 2020.) As an adult reader, I was comfortable with my favorite genres, some that were mirrors, and some that were windows or sliding glass doors- historical fiction, detective novels, and of course, classics of the “canon”. I often read culturally diverse books published in America. The lives of “so-called minority groups- Latinos, Afro-Americans, Asian- Americans, Native Americans” (Rudine, 1990) provide a window through which I can connect to ways of being American that are outside my experience. They deepened my understanding of what it means to be an American.
Books about Diverse American Communities
The Last Story of Mina Lee, in which a Korean American woman gets to know her mother through the immigrant community her mother left behind.
The Cemetary of Untold Stories by Julia Alvarez and “The Brief and Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao” by Junot Diaz, both tell of the struggles within the Dominican-American communities after leaving the Trujillo regime.
“A Fall of Marigolds” by Susan Meissner tells of a young nurse working on Ellis Island who meets many immigrants whose hopes for the future are dashed when they become sick before entering the United States.
A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines is set in a small Cajun community and tells of the last days of a young black man condemned to death. The book has a strong sense of place and explores what it means to be human in a society that sees you as less than human.
The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford is the story of first-generation Chinese and Japanese teenagers whose lives change after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, as both their communities come under suspicion by not only their non-Asian neighbors but by the government as well. Along with the beautiful love story, I enjoyed the influence of art and music in the story. The writing also evokes a strong sense of place- Seattle in the 1940s.
The Leftover Woman by Jean Kwok is the story of a Chinese woman who leaves her rural village and comes to New York in search of her daughter who was taken from her at birth.
The Manucurist’s Daughter by Susan Lieu is a memoir of a Vietnamese-American woman whose parents were boat people who came to the United States in 1983. The author explores her family’s immigrant experience and the complex reasons her “fierce, successful and feminist” mother felt she needed the tummy tuck that led to her death.
Winter Counts by David Heska Wanbli Weiden is the first book I have read about life on a reservation. It has inspired me to learn more about it. The author provides recommended reading In the “author’s note”. As a thriller, it delivered! The story was well-written and the characters were interesting. The author created names such as “Delia Kills in Water” and Virgil Wounded Horse, and eventually, it becomes evident what the names represent. This added an extra layer of interest for me, as I anticipated the “reveal” for each character. And, a satisfying ending.
About 10 years ago I challenged myself to read more books in translation. As an undergraduate, I read books in French and Italian, including but not limited to Dante, Pirandello, Sartre, Camus, and Voltaire. I found these books to be windows into other worlds, but surprisingly they were mirrors; I sometimes marveled at how I could relate to the feelings and experiences of people from different countries and centuries. I suspect that is why ancient mythology has endured!
Why is this important for adult readers? By reading about other “communities”, we can have a more enriched view of the human experience. We are not as different as we think! As a window, I can learn about life, traditions, music, and culture, in other countries. These books can serve as a sliding glass door- when I read about an interesting dish characters are eating, I have often looked up a recipe and tried to make it! Interestingly, I have also read these books and found them to be mirrors. I see my hopes, dreams, and regrets in the characters who live in settings I may never see. These books are not originally published for American audiences but for their community. Finding commonalities outside our community is a way of building empathy and understanding.
A community that is safe, comfortable, and trusting can be so enticing that individuals can forget about the world outside of their community, or regard other communities with subtle prejudices.” (What is community, and why is it important? 2005)
Where to start? Many classics can be found in translation, such as those mentioned above, as well as these on my desk right now: “The Decameron” by Boccaccio, Anna Karenina by Tolstoy, Notes from the Underground by Dostoyevsky, and The Metamorphosis by Kafka. I would even include Maybe you want something more “modern”.
If you have been following my blog, you may know that I am reading the “Mario Conde” series by Leonardo Padura. This series is set in Cuba circa 1989. Although Conde is a detective, the crimes he investigates are McGuffins that impel him on his journey back to following his dream of being a published author. His obsession with rum, women, rock & roll, and baseball are motifs that set the tone of regret: a sorrowful tale of lost love, regrets, and dying dreams. How many of us have ever felt this way about life?
Some modern books and authors in translation : (this is a short list of suggestions)
The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende (Chile) although 40 years old, still seems relevant. The country is never mentioned, it is a thinly disguised account of Chile in the 20th century and the rise of the Pinochet regime.
A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman (Sweden) I laughed and cried in equal measure as I read this book about the curmudgeonly “neighbor from hell”.
Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands by Jorge Amado (Brazil) This book delves into the fook and culture of Brazil. After Dona Flor’s husband dies, she goes to cooking school and eventually meets a new love…but her late husband has different ideas!
If On a Winter’s Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino (Italy) This is on my TBR. A Goodreads review calls it “a gloriously funny” book about books and readers.
Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel (Mexico) “A Novel in Monthly Installments With Recipes, Romances, and Home Remedies”. And magic realism…
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert (France) While not exactly modern, I recommend this book about a woman who never seems satisfied with her circumstances… especially her love life, which she compares to those in her romance novels. This leads to terrible consequences for all.
Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata (Japan) Shimamura, “an idler who inherited his money” visits the snow country to write, visit the hot springs, and collect beautiful woven cloth. Komako, a young, troubled geisha, falls in love with him, but he cannot return the emotion. It seems he lives his life from afar. This book could be read multiple times and layer upon layer will be revealed.
Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak (Russia) Although you may have seen the movie, I recommend reading this romantic, epic novel about the aftermath of the Russian Revolution.
The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann (Germany/Switzerland) This book, written in 1924, is considered by many to be one of the most important books of the 20th century; I will leave it to you, dear readers to make your own opinion about that. Hans Castorp leaves his “flat-land” home in Germany and travels to a tuberculosis sanatorium in the mountains of Switzerland. What began as a visit became a seven-year stay. The “veil” is drawn and he becomes a hermetic somnambulist, on the “magic mountain”, losing all connection to his former life, only to “awaken” suddenly, like a modern-day Rip Van Winkle.
Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Columbia) “Gabo” (as his fans call him), is one of my favorite authors. Try this shorter novel before delving into the more dense books. Everyone in town knew a murder was to take place, but no one stopped it. Was the murder a “psychological accident” or an act of honor?
Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata (Japan) is a quirky account of Keiko, a young woman who has tried (and failed) to fit in all her life. She finds purpose working in the convenience store, but for friends and family this makes her a “social dropout”. Friends and family pressure her to strive for more…a career, husband, and family. Will these changes make her feel more useful? Can she give up the convenience store?
Drive Your Plow over the Bones of Your Dead by Olga Tokarcsuk (Poland) This literary whodunit novel brings a sense of being in an enchanted European forest. Janina, elderly, solitary, and her friends Dizzy, Oddball, and Good News become entangled in a string of murders in and around a small Polish village. All is not as it seems…
Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter by Mario Vargas Llosa (Peru) This “hilarious, mischievous, and masterful” book recounts an affair that Marito has with his Aunt Julia (by marriage) while working for a radio station with a coworker who is slowly going insane.
Readers may ask why I did not include books written in and about England. I struggled with that as I wrote this post. In short, we are mostly an Anglophilic country when it comes to mainstream society, especially literature. The theme of this post is exploring literature that is more written for communities that are foreign to us, thereby expanding our capacity for empathy as well as our horizons. There are countries in which the national language is English but whose culture is “foreign” to most Americans. I will include some here.
“Foreign” Books published in English:
The Dubliners by James Joyce (Ireland) What is there left to say about this great literary work? Buy it, read it, reflect, and read it again!! Although it has been read and discussed for over 100 years, each reader will have their own relationship with the book- recognizing similar characters, thoughts, and situations in their lives. That’s what makes it timeless!
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (Ireland ) is a beautiful book about what it means to be human…doing the right thing, even when that is more difficult than just looking the other way. It is short and bittersweet, and the ending is perfect.
Red Sky in Morning by Paul Lynch (Ireland) It’s 1832 and Coll Coyle has killed the wrong man. Absolutely engrossing. Beautifully written. The characters endure heartbreaking loss and experience inexplicable violence. The voice of Sarah gives the story unforgettable humanity.
Star of the Sea by Joseph O’Connor (Ireland) In the bitter winter of 1847, from an Ireland torn by famine and injustice, the Star of the Sea sets sail for New York. On board are hundreds of refugees, some optimistic, many more desperate. Also on board is a killer. I couldn’t put it down. It was thoroughly engaging… and never predictable. I highly recommend it.
My Sister the Serial Killer by Braithwaite Oyinkan (Nigeria) The author’s portrayal of a gorgeous, captivating psychopathic killer made this psychological thriller a book I could not put down. It explores family secrets, sibling rivalry, and loyalty. How far would you go to protect those you love?
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy (India) Goodreads describes this as a book that “takes on the Big Themes—Love. Madness. Hope. Infinite Joy”. The beautiful writing sets a strong sense of place in Kerala, a lush and foreboding place. The book also features tragic, memorable characters.
In conclusion, I will close with a quote that summarizes the need to open ourselves up to the experiences of other communities rather than remaining insulated in only those things that are familiar and comfortable:
We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”
I love this book for so many reasons! To start, Susan Meissner is a gifted writer who creates characters that I care about as a reader. In this story, Clara and Taryn are women connected by a beautiful scarf and unspeakable tragedy. Both of their stories take place in New York City; Taryn’s in 2011 and Clara’s in 1911. As a survivor of a tragic house fire, I related to both of their reactions to witnessing historic tragedy: the Triangle Shirtwaist fire, and the 9/11 Twin Tower collapse. Both women retreat into an “in-between place”. This is a common reaction. The book also has a strong sense of place. Having worked in the World Trade Center, Meissner took me back to downtown NYC when writing about Taryn’s experience. Clara, a nurse at Ellis Island, interacts with immigrants suffering from scarlet fever. One of these is a tailor. I thought about my grandparents who came through Ellis Island during the same period, one of whom was also a tailor. This story fleshed out their experience for me.
I also liked how she used Keats’ “Ode to a Grecian Urn” as a means of understanding longing and loss. The poetry book itself is a McGuffin within the story, just to name a few. Lastly, I love scarves. Having lost my collection in my house fire, family members have lovingly shared theirs with me. My new, small collection is dear to me because I can relate each scarf to the person who shared it with me, as do the characters in this book.
This might be what the marigold scarf looked like!
“The word jazz in its progress toward respectability has meant first sex, then dancing then music. It is associated with a state of nervous stimulation, not unlike that of big cities behind the lines of a war.”
(Fitzgerald, 1931)
This is Fitzgerald’s commentary and reminiscences about the carefree and decadent period he had named the “Jazz Age.” It was first published in Scribner’s magazine in 1931. In this essay he
“looks back to it with nostalgia. It bore him up, flattered him, and gave him more money than he had dreamed of, simply for telling people that he felt as they did, that something had to be done with all the nervous energy stored up and unexpended in the War.”
(Fitzgerald, 1931)
This ten-year period started in 1919 with the May Day Riots (which Fitzgerald dramatizes in his short story “May Day”) and ended in October 1929 with the Stock Market Crash.
It was an age of miracles, it was an age of art, it was an age of excess, and it was an age of satire.”
(Fitzgerald, 1931)
The advent of the Jazz Age had its beginnings before the war with an attitude of irony, as explained in this famous quote from “The Beautiful and Damned”
In 1913, when Anthony Patch was twenty-five, two years were already gone since irony, the Holy Ghost of this later day, had, theoretically at least, descended upon him.”
(Fitzgerald & W., 2020) p. 3
As far back as 1915, the car culture allowed unchaperoned youth the freedom to travel unchaperoned. This led to a new freedom for petting and kissing among the teenage crowd- among the wealthier classes. Not only were they petting and kissing, but drinking and gambling! Several stories, such as “The Beautiful and Damned”, “Head and Shoulders”, and “The Jelly Bean” depict a new youthful freedom among the wealthy young during the war years, and who can forget the hijinks of “Mr. In and Mr. Out” riding around NYC after their May Day extravaganza!
When the war was over the pent-up energy, an influx of soldiers looking for fun, easy credit, and the prevailing attitude of “irony” and disillusionment led to the explosion of the Jazz Age. Fitzgerald observed that was
when the wildest of all generations, the generation which had been adolescent during the confustion of the War, brusqely shouldered my contemporaries ut of the way and danced into the limelight”
(Fitzgerald, 1931)
According to Fitzgerald at first, there was a disconnect between the generations. During the start of Prohibition, the elders believed that the younger generation would never know the taste of liquor! Eventually, even the older crowd wanted to get in on the fun. Then, Fitzgerald says, “With a whoop, the orgy began.” (Fitzgerald, 1931)
Keeping up with the “Let’s go!” attitude became tedious and hazardous to maintain. Along with health and money woes, several contemporaries disappeared “into the dark maw of violence.” (Fitzgerald, 1931) He then catalogs several murders and suicides that occurred to friends and acquaintances not during the Depression but during the “age of miracles”, the Jazz Age!
Hulton Archive / Getty Images
I suggest this as an accompaniment to Fitzgerald’s work as it explains his mindset while writing his most famous works. Fitzgerald explores the changing moods of the Jazz Age, from its hedonistic and wild start to its tiresome Middle Age and lugubrious end. And yet he laments,
“it all seems rosy and romantic to us who were young then, because we will never feel quite so intensley about our surroundings any more.”
(Fitzgerald, 1931)
That is a sad observation from a 35-year-old looking back on his “wasted youth”!
Fitzgerald, F. S. (1931). Echoes of the Jazz Age. Scribner’s Magazine, 90(5).
Fitzgerald, F. S., & W., W. J. L. (2020). The beautiful and damned. Scribner.
For a book to have the title, and the cover pictured above, you can imagine what “damned” the beautiful people in the book. But to limit their “damnation” to just alcohol itself would be to oversimplify a very well-written and remarkably insightful novel.
Published in 1922, it was Fitzgerald’s second novel. He was only 25 years old.
Fitzgerald modeled the spoiled characters of Anthony Patch on himself and Gloria Patch on—in his words—the chill-minded selfishness of his wife.”
It was a novel of its tim a probing satire of its time- a probing satire of the Jazz Age, of which Fitzgerald was the self-appointed laureate, and a meditiation of the necissity for a calling or vocation in life.”
The cover of the first edition, March 4, 1922, Charles Scribner’s and Sons
For Gloria and Anthony Patch, “Life, it seemed must be a setting up of props around one- otherwise, it was a disaster.” How to describe these characters? “In 1913, when Anthony Patch was twenty-five, two years were already gone since irony, the Holy Ghost of this later day, had, theoretically at least, descended upon him.” Anthony cannot find something to do with himself, a vocation. He sometimes pretends to “write history” but he is just killing time until he inherits his grandfather’s fortune. Gloria is beautiful, and “darn nice- not a brain in her head.” As she describes herself, she is “like Japanese lanterns and crepe paper and the music and orchestra…she has a streak of cheapness,” but the world is hers while she is young and beautiful. Their exploits are a criticism of the Jazz Age lifestyle in NYC. Parties and drinking are the main pastimes for the couple and their friends.
In the introduction to the Modern Classics Kindle edition, Hortense Calisher writes that
As West writes, “Lack of vocation opens the door to a common problem for the wealthy: alcoholism.”
Liquor had become a practical necessity to their amusement”
(Fitzgerald & W., 2020), p. 271
The Beautiful and Damned is a revealing study of the corrosive effects of drinking on personality and character. Idle and without purpose, Anthony slips into a rhythm of imbibing that blunts his will and robs him of judgement.
(Fitzgerald & W., 2020) p. XIII
It is a slow downhill slide. Although Fitzgerald toyed with alternate endings, he decided to publish this book as a tragedy. Neither character learns anything or changes.
“I showed them,” he was saying. It was a hard fight, but I didn’t give up and I came through.”
(Fitzgerald & W., 2020) p. 435
The book is over 100 years old but still, a relevant and enjoyable exploration of the effects money, beauty, and purpose have on the human psyche. In my next installment, I will elaborate on the misadventures and hijinks found not only in this book but in the Fitzgerald Short Stories of this period.
“Fitzgerald does use works as a juggler might…simple- see through that net a certain iridescence as if they spin up and then home into place…There is not a dead sentence among them, not a moment when Fitzgerald’s magic fails to work.”
Hortense Calisher, Introduction, “The Beautiful and Damned” August 15, 2009 by Modern Library
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