Review 115: Red Letter Days

Red Letter Days by Sarah-Jane Stratford
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

This book finds us in the mid-twentieth century, shortly after WWII when women went back to the home after building airplanes. In New York we find our main character Phoebe Adler, a self-confident woman making her way was a writer, supporting herself and her sister Mona with health problems that has Mona living in a sanatorium. The red scare is the dominant thrust of the story, and Phoebe finds herself targeted even though she is not political at all. Upon the advice of friends she quickly flees New York after being subpoenaed, and lands in London.

The story also follows another with Hanna Wolfson, also an American in London, although married with two young kids. Her husband has money and helps Hannah set up a studio that soon develops a hit television series. Hannah purposefully hires blacklisted writers, using pseudonyms, and with her new series hopes to subvert the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). Phoebe was advised to seek out Hanna, who hires her temporarily as a script reader on set until she can get established.

While the book is mainly focused on Phoebe we do get some of Hanna’s life. Although she’s a mother of two, she makes juggling her work with her kids and still remain happily married. Slowly we are to realize that Hannah’s husband isn’t feeling the same with remarks about women being a wife and mother, not out in the workplace. This becomes a major undertone in the book, women taking on working roles. We see both women attacked for being in the workforce, more so with Phoebe since she is unmarried.

Even with living in England the Americans are still under threat. Phoebe finds herself being followed. A reporter comes for an unexpected visit to the studio set hoping to catch a known red director. The action keeps everyone on their toes, especially the reader.

Despite all the excitement that keeps going, I found the beginning of the book somewhat on a light breezy tone. I found that odd since the subject matter was anything but. Somehow it didn’t seem serious. As the book progressed that changed. Perhaps it was the main character, Phoebe who liked to make jokes, sort of the smart aleck type, the brainy type that often annoyed. I’m not entirely sure.

Overall I found the book to be well written and engaging. There were times when I had to put the book down, but was quite reluctant to do so.

I particularly enjoyed the author’s note at the end where she detailed what was taken from real life and the bits she made up to make this an interesting read.


Almost made it a five star read, close but have to downgrade slightly.

Thanks to Berkley Publishing/Penguin Random House and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book.

Review 114: Know Your Place

Know Your Place: Essays on the Working Class by the Working Class by Nathan Connolly
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Great essays. Of course some better than others, but overall excellent. Love hearing from different voices and backgrounds.

Thought listing the authors and essays contained would be useful, and listed below.

Introduction
1. Abondance Matanda – The First Galleries I Knew Were Black Homes
2. Laura Waddell – The Pleasure Button: Low Income Food Inequality
3. Yvonne Singh – More Than Just a Dream Land: Why the British Seaside Means So Much to the Working Class
4. Dominic Grace – The Death of a Pub
5. Sylvia Arthur – My Jobs, My Lives
6. Kit De Waal – An Open Invitation: What Happened to Working Class Writers?
7. Durre Shahwar – Navigating Space
8. Sam Mills – The Benefits Cut
9. Andrew McMillan – One of Us: Some Thoughts on Sexuality and the Working Class
10. Wally Jiagoo – Glass Windows and Glass Ceilings
11. Catherine O’Flynn – Heroes
12. Rebecca Winson – Disguised Malicious Murder: The Working Class and Mental Health
13. Ben Gwalchmai – Where There’s Shit, There’s Gold
14. Cath Bore – The Housework Issue (The Other One)
15. Gena-mour Barrett – Living on an Estate gave me a Community I Never Knew I Needed
16. Lee Rourke – Hotpicking: Forging a Path in the Edulations of Fiction
17. Kath McKay – Reclaiming the Vulgar
18. Alexandros Plasatis – The Immigrant of Narborough Road
19. Peter Sutton – Education, Education, Education
20. Sian Norris – Growing Up Outside Class
21. Rym Kechacha – What Colour is a Chameleon?
22. Kate Fox – The Wrong Frequency

Review 113: Becoming

Becoming by Michelle Obama
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Excellent book, perfectly narrated. Already an admired woman, and now even more so.

Definitely recommend this book for anyone, no matter where you are in your politics. This is not a political book. It's about her life.

Review 112: The Widower's Tale

The Widower's Tale by Julia Glass
My rating: 0 of 5 stars

This just isn't working for me. Learning to move on, instead of just powering through.

Review 111: Hayduke Lives!

Hayduke Lives! by Edward Abbey
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

This book seriously disappointed me in many ways. At one point, about to quit going any further, I told myself I wasn't giving the book enough of a chance. Plus I'm generally reluctant to abandon a book I start. It's a problem I'm trying to learn to let go easier, and move on to something else.

Well, I gave Abbey some more room. This book is a sequel to his more popular book Monkey Wrench Gang, and as I remember it was okay, but not great. I think I rated it higher than the book deserved. More for some of the sentiment. Well, this one sank, and far. Maybe, just maybe, it was due to the book being unfinished and published after Abbey died. But I doubt it. The book was awful in the writing.

There were parts of the story that started to be interesting, yet I could not get beyond the characterizations of the people. It would not quit. Everyone was sexualized and it was completely unnecessary. Then there was racial slurs. I cannot believe that this book published in the 1990s was allowed to let this go. There was no reason for it. Surprisingly, I got to around 30% of the book and I could care less about any of it.

Review 110: Men Explain Things to Me

Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I've been meaning to read some of Solnit's works. I have some of her books, and here I finally get to one, a short book of essays. As with most compilations, some are better than others. Overall the work is good. Solnit makes a lot of sense.

The title piece is one of the better essays. In it she describes what she means, and about the word mansplaining. Solnit explains that she did not create the word. She also thinks it's a little more derogatory towards men than she'd like. Solnit also goes on to clarify that she likes being explained something she has no idea about, it's just all those other times that men explain something to a woman when that man has absolutely no idea what he is talking about and disregards the woman who actually does know something about that topic.

Anyway, there's more than this in the book. Glad I read it.

Review 109: Midnight Cowboy

Midnight Cowboy by James Leo Herlihy
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Having not seen the movie, I had no idea about the story line. It is surprisingly sad, with the loneliness of Joe Buck. I found the first part, how he grew up to be the saddest part. How can a boy who is ignored grow up not quite understanding human relationships; how to get along with people? Joe is a very naive man, but does learn, and knows himself at least to some degree. Even before getting to New York he proclaims he is stupid, that he doesn't know a thing. Once in New York his naivety made me so worried for he was clearly going to be taken advantage of, it was just a question of how bad was it going to get.

One thing I enjoyed in this book is the language, the writing. The descriptions are surprising and pleasant to read. Or in my case, listen to as I read this as an audiobook. The narrator did a superb job, with aptly differentiating various characters.

We have foreshadowing, dreams to give us information that Joe doesn't acknowledge in himself. The writing, really, is very good. This is one of those books that would give you more on a second reading. I don't know if I will, I mean some of the subject matter, Joe trying to be a hustler, and such, well, not my typical read. In spite of that this book was a good read. Perhaps I will instead look for another book by the author.