first reads of 2017

Beginning of 2017 feels both lightning fast and that NYE was years ago. Books for me are always a good way to summon memories of the recent time passed. Like, where was I when I was reading that. Something I will need to think about since it's been over two months since I have posted anything here (sorry Chiara). Not that there hasn't been stuff to post but most likely I've seen all of you or you've been a part of it in some way. Perhaps since I gave up Instagram for lent I will be inspired to write more here. We'll see. 

We have a new Christmas tradition in my family adopted from my step mother called "The Book Box".  Book Box entails everyone to buy one book for everyone else. All the books (inscribed in the front cover) are dumped into a box  and then pick them out and have to guess who the book is for and from. It's really fun and then you have a pile of new books to read. Everyone knows I love Doris Lessing so there is inevitably a Lessing book or two in the box for me. This year, upon discovering she had bought me a Lessing I already own, and seeing me coveting my dad's copy of A Rather Haunted Life (not part of the box but on his book shelf) my mom made a last minute stop at the book store so that I could open this as my first gift two days later on Christmas morning. Extremely thoughtful and totally unnecessary but I would be lying if I said it wasn't my favorite Christmas gift. I read it throughout the month and mostly on the trip I took with her and my brother to London and Oxford a couple of weeks later. Surprisingly given that I went to Bennington (where Jackson's husband taught for years and the town in which many of her books were written) I had never read any Jackson before. But now, obviously - I am going through it all. 

Even though I have stacks of Christmas books, after finishing A Rather Haunted Life, I went searching for Jackson's first novel The Road Through the Wall. Two summers ago at a writer's retreat I met a playwright and lyricist who told me she likes to read author's works in the order that they wrote them. Since I was a Jackson virgin I thought I would attempt that experiment here. Jackson said the first novel is the one you write to get back at your parents before you can move on. 

Like most women my age, I have read all of Zadie Smith's novels so obviously it was only a matter of time before I got around to her new one. Adam's parents gave it to me for Christmas. I took it to Rehoboth Beach with me when I went on a solo beach writer's retreat to make a dent in the Unbecoming screenplay. I was there to write but there were definitely hours spent in Pete and Ace's gorgeous sun room lazing and reading instead. It has nothing to do with the screenplay I was writing so couldn't even pretend it was research. It did make me want to rewatch all the old Astaire and Rodgers dance movies that I used to love so much.

Can't and Won't has been on my "to read" shelf for a year and a half. I bought it at Book Court (RIP) in late 2015 and for some reason grabbed it when I was packing my bag for Rehoboth. More procrastination was spent reading this once Swing Time was finished. I loved this book, particuarly when Davis describes the mundane (as she does better than anyone). An apt book to read while I was meant to be doing something else. The best parts for me were the ones describing the way she behaves on the train (and why someone would or would not want to sit next to her) and the great fear that comes right before teaching a class described in a letter regarding a grant written years and years after the grant has been received. Probably because these two I related most strongly to myself.

Going through these I was sure there should be a book between Can't and Won't and Hangsaman as the former was read in Rehoboth and the latter was read in LA but then I checked the calendar and realized I was home for only two days between the two trips. No wonder 2017 is going by so quickly and I am seemingly getting no work done: I am never home. No one's fault but my own - with weeks stretched out ahead of me without a trip I start to get antsy and quickly plan something. Anyway Hangsaman was my re-entry into library books though I doubt it will stick. Mainly because I like to buy books and then decide when to read them later whereas if you have a three week deadline staring you down you have to start immediately regardless of if you'd rather pick something else next. It was mostly read in my tiny AirBnb for ants in Echo Park while a monsoon was pounding on my head and dripping water on the couch from a hole in the ceiling. I did get lots of writing done in LA because that was the point but all writing was for future jobs and nothing for current ones. That has nothing to do with this book obviously just what comes to mind when I think of that tiny studio that I'm fairly sure was converted into a wee apartment from a former laundry room - plus the bathroom tap smelled like rotten eggs. Don't know why I am talking about LA so much when Hangsaman is SO BENNINGTON, reading it made me feel uneasy and I could picture all of the dorms perfectly while reading (colonial houses only based on the time, obviously). Inspired by a girl who disappeared from campus when Jackson's husband was teaching there if any of you former Benningtonians  are in the mood for some dark nostalgia or just to give yourself the shivers then this is the one for you. 

Finally a book that has something remotely to do with Unbecoming while I trudge through the adaptation that I am loving writing but is going slower than any other screenplay. Rebecca Scherm (author of Unbecoming) recommended the Ripley film as a good comp (as did Julie) and so I thought it would be productive to read the novel to understand how many liberties Minghella took to make the screenplay work. The answer is lots. And while I don't plan to deviate quite so much there are some good lessons in maintaining a feeling while changing the facts. But mostly, I have to say, reading this just made me want to plan a summer trip to the Italian coast.