Minds: A Literary Implosion – Book This
You’re Not You
Author: Michelle Wildgen
St. Martin’s Press / ISBN# 0-312-35229-8
274 pps / $23.95 (paperback from Picador Press, ISBN # 0-312-36952-2 / $14.00)
Wildgen, a former Stow, Ohio bookworm, masters her first novel with the tightest story I’ve read in years. As strippingly honest as Ethan Hawke, with the simple elegance of Kent Haruff and a touch of Jennifer Weiner’s wit. No padding, no redundancies, just impeccably good writing with incredible insight into the life of a woman with Lou Gehrig’s disease. With respect and empathy, Wildgen takes us into the home and oh-so-personal life of Kate, a rapidly declining, well-to-do sufferer of the disease and Bec, the happenstance caretaker who stumbled into the job that inevitably becomes her life, if only temporarily.
Bec was just looking for a change. Her go-nowhere love affair with a married professor, her flailing college career and mundane job all send her seeking a better meaning to life. She finds that and more via servitude and living by proxy as a home health aide. At first, Bec’s ineptitude and embarrassment of the situations she is assigned tarry her edification. But Kate’s own patience and sincere gratitude soon segue to Bec’s niche in her new endeavor.
Bec has to translate, in first person, for Kate’s strained whispers, emoting the intent of origin, (hence, the title), tend to all her hygienic needs and take on all household tasks. When Kate tells her husband to move out, in lieu of just accepting his seeking sexual release elsewhere, Bec moves in and takes over everything.
A close, (yet not too close), relationship evolves with a bonding that steps just to the side of professionalism. Kate’s wealth is evident and her generosity abundant, frequently lavishing Bec with spontaneous perks. Kate also has several close friends, concerned parents and a realistic outlook to her encroaching end. Strict instructions are given and taken when her time comes. When Kate does pass, Bec is left in a lost state of identity until she finds diverted fulfillment in a cooking job garnered by the palatable masterpieces prepared in Kate’s employ. Though Kate remains a ghost in Bec’s life, she is neither haunting nor unwelcome.
* As an added bonus, there are several great cooking tips thrown into a couple kitchen scenes.
To purchase this book from Barnes & Noble, visit www.BarnesandNoble.com/booksearch
Visit the author’s website at www.michellewildgen.com
Vol 5 Num3 book review...
Akron’s “Better Half”
Women’s Clubs and the
Humanization
of the City, 1825–1925
Author: Kathleen L. Endres
The University of Akron Press / ISBN #1-931968-41-1
232 pps (with index & bibliography) / $27.95
The title (almost) says it all. This book is a very detailed telling of the numerous women’s clubs that helped shape Akron and set the precedence for the cultural, societal and humanitarian benefits we reap today. Like the old adage…behind every successful state is a good women’s club.
This book gives us club formations, members (the more important ones) and accomplishments. Very historical in more ways than just tea settings, it delves into the history of clubs in general, going back to the early 1700’s when they were mostly formed to protest some inane tax or law.
Initially, most of these women’s clubs were auxiliaries to men’s club and served as an outlet for women of means to feel they were contributing to society, but they soon evolved into much more. But isn’t that just like a woman to patch up a city with just a spool of thread? Endres examines a plethora of women gathering with the intent to do good. (Well, except for the Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s.)
The clubs took on causes such as war aid, welfare, separate holding facilities for juvenile lawbreakers, city sanitation, better education, day care, a children’s hospital, and the arts. Seems we gentler folks always get the right job done, eh?
Who knew there could be so many clubs formed for so many varied causes in one city? Sure the book spans a few years, but this is awe inducing!
Endres’ book presents a good historical accounting of the formation of both Akron and Women’s Suffrage. A generous sprinkle of photos of noted eras are also included. I personally got a kick out of the 1915 YWCA Basketball Team shot! Nice uniforms!
Visit www3.uakron.edu for additional info and to order the book.
Vol 5 Num2 book review...
The Passion of Mary Magdalen
Author: Elizabeth Cunningham
Monkfish Book Publishing Company
ISBN #0-9766843-0-6 / 620 pgs. / $29.95
The passion, indeed. Based on Celtic anthropology and Biblical texts, Cunningham elaborates a fiery, redheaded Druid Priestess of Isis as Maeve, the star of this novel. Actually, it’s in Druid school that Maeve first meets and falls in love with Esus (Jesus). In an almost Romeo and Juliet vein, their lives are torn apart by dire circumstances and they both set out on quests to reunite. Maeve’s journey is forefront and via a botched rescue/escape, she is thrown into slavery and sold into prostitution. Here she triumphs (naturally) and gains popularity from clients and coworkers, especially one Joseph (no, not that Joseph). Discovering that Joseph knows Esus, Maeve is now even more determined to find him again.
Battling with the uncertainty of being an actual Priestess and loyalty to her “Domitia” (Madame), Maeve ventures out and is soon exiled from the brothel that she called home and is forced into a rich bitch’s servitude where Mauve becomes everything to a woman who soon becomes her best ally.
Eventually, we transgress into the awaited reunion of Esus & Maeve. Esus is with his Disciples, who take none too kindly to Maeve’s elite status with their Lord. When they get married (of course they do!), there are grumblings aplenty.
Throughout, Maeve is like Ghandi—her peacefulness prevails. She is also like Dorothy Parker, acidic and tenacious. Throw in a mix of healer, shape–shifter and seer and you’re beginning to get an understanding of this fascinating character.
There is really an entire host of characters I am leaving out for sake of space, but if you read the Bible, you’ll know them. Maybe not this way, but you’ll recognize them. The passion is abundant, the trials are endless and the conclusion, inevitable, but the details are delightful. And maybe this is the real story. C’mon, hasn’t the Bible been edited down by men and then reedited by other men throughout the centuries? In light of The Da Vinci Code, recently resurfacing Gospels, and Catholic rethinking, there really may be a grain of reality in this book. Who knows? If North Korea blows nearly all of us up and this is the only book to survive, would we then worship Maeve? Would you?
Visit www.monkfishpublishing.com/books/MaryMagdalen.htm to learn more or to order the book.
CAUTION: Contents under pressure. May explode if read improperly. (i.e. it contains SEX!)
For more resources on women authors and poets, visit www.womenwriters.net
