Consider Consider the Lobster

As you read this, David Foster Wallace’s Consider the Lobster sits on shelves of bookstores everywhere, unassuming. It is tucked, in all likelihood, between other collections of essays or nonfiction musings or books generally disadvantaged by no exciting, fictional tagline. On its cover is the image of a lobster with one claw outstretched, as if waving, knowing perhaps that the average bookstore-browser needs some extra incentive to pick up a collection of essays, some extra waving-lobster-like encouragement. Note to all bookstore-browsers: give in to the lobster – this one knows what he’s talking about.

I recently watched a Charlie Rose interview with the late (and much younger) DFW, in which they talked about film, education, DFW’s own experience with writing and being a professor. Having seen, and listened, to him speak only reinforces the feeling I got when I read Consider the Lobster:  through his essays, DFW is having a conversation with you. It’s a frighteningly eloquent conversation, but it’s a conversation nonetheless. Reading Consider the Lobster was to picture him telling me, with his trademark bandana, about Updike’s latest book, about the Maine Lobster Festival, even about the US porn industry, if I could keep my puritanism from getting the better of me.

DFW writes with a voice that straddles the fence between erudition and colloquialism; he is at once your most intimidating professor and your student coffee date. And when the time calls, he admits, as any good writer (or professor, or coffee date) should, when he is out of his league. Culinary goings on and lobsters is one such league. 9/11 is another. In describing a television broadcast he watched on the morning of 9/11, he says, in a short sentence describing what I can only imagine all of us feel when thinking of what he refers to as The Horror: “I’m not sure what else to say.”

In general, the word essay summons something dry, academic. These are anything but. Come to think of it, I’d even go so far as to call the word a misnomer: these pieces, some almost unbelievable in their content but all compelling, read like fiction – with observatory notes, compliments of DFW, thrown in for good measure. If it wasn’t for the lobster, there’s a chance I wouldn’t have picked it up. Now, if only someone could come up with a more enticing cover for his 1079-page Infinite Jest.

-Kenzi

Three Days Before The Shooting…

It’s been 52 years since Ralph Ellison published Invisible Man. The year after, 1953, he began work on his second novel, and won the National Book Award for the first. Professional commitments, doubt, and a 1967 house fire got in the way of his work. There was a definite anxiety and concern that this second novel could never live up to the first. In 1994, Ellison died and the novel remained incomplete– thousands of pages, notes, and 80 computer disks. The late 1990s saw a renewed interest and republication of Ellison’s work, culminating in 1999’s Juneteenth, a mere fragment of his second novel. Tomorrow, on the eve of African-American History Month, the entirety of this colossal work will be published. Weighing in at over 1100 pages,  the significance of Three Days Before The Shooting… cannot be overstated. One of the greatest 20th Century minds and a staggeringly powerful author,  Ellison deserves this. We readers are the luckier for having the opportunity.

–J0sh

No Way to Treat a Book?

I grew up in a family that treated its books with respect. We children were admonished not to leave books open, face down lest the spines break. We looked with horror at people who folded the corners of pages to mark their place, or worse, licked their thumbs so their skin would stick to the paper when they turned the page. Still, I admit to being intrigued by the display of books that were cut-up, paper-engineered and refashioned into art object that was in the Dodd Center Reading Room a few years ago. And I am completely taken with this video from the New Zealand Book Council in which scissors have been taken to books. You will want to watch it more than once. Posted by Suzy

10th Annual Culinary Olympics

10th anniversary Ice Sculpture

As a 5 or so year general book employee here at the co-op, I have worked many events for many different groups.  I have had the pleasure of attending events all over the state, as well as the various events that the co-op itself hosts.  The 2010 Culinary Olympics hosted by UCONN Dining Services was without a doubt one of the best events that I have ever had the pleasure of working.  Never before have I worked with such a large group of both knowledgeable and passionate people, and I mean both those involved competing or running the event, and those that came to see the happenings.  Everyone who attended the event; from the young high school students looking to pursue a career in the Culinary world, to the chefs, to the passionate foodies were all in high spirits and eager to experience a day of cooking and culinary experience.  Everyone including myself.

I will admit that I am a closet foodie……ok maybe not so closet.  I love to cook (although according to my husband not very well), I love to bake, and perhaps most important I love to eat.  I am addicted to the food network, and to food network magazine.  I am constantly in search of new recipes, some of which I might actually cook.  Every Sunday I am tuned into Iron Chef America and most evening I have FN on in the background as we go about our chores.  When I was told about this event months ago, I begged my boss to allow me to be the one to work it.  All week I have been anticipating with glee my Thursday activities.  All I can really say is that the day did not disappoint.

Two of the entries for the Recipe contest

Among many other things, there were 3 main competitions. The first was a recipe contest featuring many wonderful dishes including a chocolate cheesecake and Nori wrapped Tuna w/crabmeat.  These were all unique recipes submitted by their creators and they all looked mouthwatering.

Chef Angela Clarke intensely constructing her VW Bug Cake

Another Wonderful Woodstock Cake

The second competition was a cake decorating contest featuring a theme of Woodstock.  The six entries were both creative and amazing, as well as far above anything that I would have been capable of.

My Personal Favorite

The final competition was called Boiling Point, but for those FN fans out there it was basically a cross between Iron Chef and Chopped.  There were 16 teams of 3 chefs competing.  They were given a basket of mystery ingredients and asked to prepare 3 appetizers having to use all of the ingredients at least once in 90 minutes.  The basket included things like crab legs, tomatillos and blue cornmeal. The organizers staggered the starting times of the competitors of this event, so at any point an observer could see several different stages of cooking happening at once.  Though obviously a difficult challenge for the chefs, they awed us all with the ease with which they completed their tasks.  All of the chefs were friendly and informative as they interacted with their audiences.  They shared their tips and experiences with those watching, creating a very energetic and captive atmosphere.

Cookbook Authors Melissa Pellegrino, Matthew Sciaballa & Robert Landolphi

The co-op itself sponsored 2 wonderful cookbook writers to come and attend the event.  Matthew Scialabba and Melissa Pellegrino are a down to earth and outgoing husband and wife team with a passion for Italian food and culture.  They have worked together to create a wonderful cookbook called The Italian Farmer’s Table.  They gave a short, but interesting talk about their work and were then available to autograph books.  I think what impressed me most about this couple was their sheer drive.  They are in their early thirties and have already both traveled abroad and published an impressive cookbook.  I can’t wait to try the recipe on page 272, Torta Di Ciocolatto, otherwise known as Chocolate Cake.

I suppose that I have run on long enough, but I just can’t tell you all enough just how wonderful this event was.  The event is annual, and I for one can’t wait for next year’s event. I only have one complaint…I didn’t get to taste it all!! And  I only have one question…..What do I have to do to be a judge next year?

-Nikki-

“Lo-lee-ta”

The recent  posthumous release of Nabokov’s final novel, The Original of Laura, gave me pause. He wanted it destroyed. His son had an excerpt in Playboy, after The New Yorker refused it. I took a look at it, and decided to wait. Instead, I bought Lolita– Nabokov’s best known work and perhaps one of the 20th Century’s most misrepresented novels. Most people think it’s a lust-filled tale of an overly educated pervert seducing a young 12-year old “nymphet”, the same way Moby Dick is just about a whale.  How wrong they are. It’s about limits and transgressions and passions(unfulfilled and otherwise.) It’s about identities-mistaken,assumed, or eradicated. It’s a snapshot of a very particular time in America, one whose mores still resonate today in television shows like Mad Men.The tale of Humbert Humbert’s obsession with young Dolores Haze is surely one of the most consuming and disturbing love stories ever captured in literature. And guess what… it’s really funny.

–Josh

Some New Russian Literature

Some of my favorite books are by Russian authors. Most of these are written by authors long deceased and epically revered: Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Gogol, Chekov. While these are obviously classics that everyone should have the privilege to read, I have lately been excited to discover some new Russian literature that is in keeping with the tradition of these late greats.

Two of these books are:

“There Once Lived A Woman Who Tried to Kill her Neighbor’s Baby”

by: Ludmilla Petrushevskaya

and

“The Sacred Book of the Werewolf”

by: Victor Pelevin

These books are both amazing. “There Once Lived a Woman who Tried to Kill her Neighbor’s Baby” is a collection of Russian Fairy tales written by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya and translated by Keith Gessen and Anna Summers. Honestly, this is by far the scariest book I have ever read. I italicize that for emphasis–because I really cannot emphasize it enough! It is beautifully written and very distinctly Russian in it’s tone, and completely unlike anything I have ever read before.

“The Sacred Book of the Werewolf,” by Victor Pelevin is masterfully written as well, and also has a very distinctly Russian tone to it’s prose. This book was a New York Times Book Review notable book of the year, and their review calls it “Racy, thought-provoking, and preverse…A joy to read.” The plot involves a two-thousand year old werefox who hypnotizes men for money in modern Russia. It is both incredibly insightful and outrageously funny. In a book that starts out with a sentence like this in the first paragraph: “ I had a dreary, depressed feeling so deep in my soul that I was almost ready to believe I had one” is enough to hook me from page one.

I hope you give these books a shot, they are well worth it! These books prove that Russian literature is still at the top of its game.

Bonnie

Wally Lamb’s Sense of Place

 

If you look at a travel guide to Connecticut, you will find a plethora of restaurant listings for Litchfield and Fairfield Counties,art galleries in Hartford County, and glossy photos of the picturesque hills of the northwestern corner of the state. Mention of the eastern part of Connecticut, if there is any, includes the casinos and the Mystic Seaport and few or no photos. To the New York Times new Metropolitan section, the eastern half of our state is invisible. It’s long been common wisdom that people in Connecticut will drive west, but not east. To many, the Connecticut River Valley and west IS Connecticut.

 

But Eastern Connecticut has Wally Lamb, and novel by rich novel, he is portraying this little piece of the world with a depth of understanding that no travel guide can approach. He describes the rivers, the mill towns, the immigrants and old Yankees, the working class and the professionals, and the generations of citizens that have loved and hurt and healed and cared and laughed here.

 

I love his funny new book, Wishin’ and Hopin.’ I like the story, and I’m fond of Felix, the ten year old main character and his family feels real to me. The book makes me smile and chuckle and nod my head, yes.  But I especially like the tastes and smells and sights and sounds in the book because they are the tastes and smells and sights and sounds of Eastern Connecticut.

 

Thank you Wally for your sense of place. Thank you for caring for these often forgotten square miles that are, in their imperfect way, so much more authentic than the wealthy gold coast that too many others think of when they think of Connecticut. Thank you for probing and understanding, for your honesty.

 

Sure, the rest of the state may dominate the images in the wall calendars but Eastern Connecticut, especially this piece of Eastern Connecticut, lives in literature and if it lives in literature it lives in people’s minds, even those who have never visited.

 

It doesn’t get any better than that.

Posted by Suzy

 

 

 

 

 

Nick Bellantoni on the Hitler Project

I loved to read about archaeologists when I was a kid. I would curl up in the old armchair in our living room and devour exciting accounts of Heinrich Schliemann’s discovery of Troy or Hiram Bingham’s discovery of Machu Picchu. Oh, I thought, what fun it must be to unlock all these secrets from the past.

There aren’t any books yet about our own State Archaeologist, Nick Bellantoni but what great reading such a book would be! Hey Nick, how about a memoir? We want to know about your archaeological adventures. But I suppose, there’s not time for that, with all the work you do.

So for now, here’s clip of Nick on the History Channel.

posted by Suzy

Geno & The Bugliest Bug

Geno walked out onto the floor of the Gampel Pavilion yesterday with a copy of The Bugliest Bug written by Carol Diggory Shields and illustrated by Scott Nash tucked under his arm. Billed as a press conference announcing Geno’s Reading Team, a project with the Connecticut Association of Schools, what actually took place was a lively book discussion led by Geno.

Students from five Connecticut schools attended the event. They had each read The Bugliest Bug as had Geno and players Caroline Doty, Kelly Faris, and Heather Buck. Geno walked back and forth, got up close, and asked the middle schoolers which characters the liked best, and why, and then he discussed the other characters with them and the roles they played in the book and what the book made them think about. He asked them if, like Dilly in the story,  they’d ever done something that they were afraid to do. “Ride a bicycle,” one answered. “Get on a stage.”

“Does anyone speak another language?” he asked and three hands went up, one from a girl who spoke Chinese and two from girls who spoke Portuguese. Geno told the students that when he was in second grade, he spoke only Italian. He learned to read English from setting the Frosty Flakes box in front of his cereal bowl in the morning. He loved Tony the Tiger. And he has been a voracious reader ever since.

Players Caroline, Kelly and Heather joined in the discussion and shared their love of books and reading with the kids. By this time, many of the students had questions of their own. Who was your favorite character? Were you ever afraid to try something?

I’m not sure if many of the young students knew or cared that Geno is the coach of the winning Huskies, but by the end of an hour spent with him, they had each committed to reading twenty minutes a day. And they promised him that they would graduate from high school.

Schools throughout Connecticut will be invited to participate in Geno’s Reading Team. Students will commit to spending 20 minutes a day in “deep reading” (books, not screens). They can read anything they want and any place they want, but a suggested list of books will also be provided plus a reading log. The Huskies will read the same books and make DVD’s discussing them, which will be available to the schools.

Thank you Geno for turning your coaching skills to getting kids to read. And thank you Huskies for helping with this. Now if everyone, young and old, would “read deeply” for twenty minutes a day, imagine what could happen! Posted by Suzy

Homer & Langley and My Dad

Before my dad lost first his sight and then his mind to the ravages of age, he was a great reader. Though an aeronautical engineer who graduated with honors in math and physics from MIT, he read history and fiction, relying on audio books when blindness overcame him. Now, even they cannot hold him. He dwells in his own nightmarish world, seeing things we cannot see.

I write of him today, because I am reading E. L. Doctorow’s newest novel, Homer & Langley based loosely on the true story of the Collyer brothers of the same names.  My dad loved Doctorow and convinced me to read Ragtime, which he thought was one of the great books of all time. I read it reluctantly; annoyed that Doctorow used real historical figures as characters and took great license with their lives. Why not make something up entirely? I protested. Why not write real history? But my dad, the scientist, grounded in facts (he forbade gossip at the dinner table), a man deeply interested in history (one of his other all time favorite books was Barbara Tuchman’s A Distant Mirror), could not understand my objections. He thought Ragtime was brilliant. And so, years later, I realized that it was.

I love history too, and do want to know the facts about the Collyers, but I eagerly picked up Homer & Langley and was immediately drawn into the brothers’ cluttered, complicated and sequestered lives  as imagined by Doctorow.  I am struck by the twin themes of madness and blindness and want very much to talk to my father about these things. It is also a book about history, like Doctorow’s other novels, told with made-up details about real people, but, also like his other works,  fiercely honed by the truth. Doctorow, only five years younger than my dad, has succeeded beautifully with this, his latest book. I hope he gets to write one or two more. Posted by Suzy.