A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries

One of my favorite films is a little known gem of the iconic duo, Merchant-Ivory. The film,
A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries, is the semi-autobiographical life sketch of Kaylie Jones, daughter of the classic American novelist, James Jones. Ms. Jones, herself an author, penned the text from which the film was made (same title). I read the book after I saw the film and was particularly attracted to the family’s experience of raising ex-patriot children, having had the same experience. Our children were raised in the country of Italy, where they matriculated for many years in Italian schools. The Jones family did likewise, but in the country of France. Where the Jones (Willis) family life takes a particularly interesting twist is in the adoption of a young French boy, whom they call ‘Billy’, after the dad in the film, Bill Willis.

Known for beautiful cinematography, this Merchant-Ivory film, is captivating to look at. The cast of characters are also beautiful ~ Kris Kristofferson, Barbara Hershey, Leelee Sobieski. Such beauty can make it difficult to see, at first view, the ugliness that lies under the surface. When the family returns to the U.S. for medical treatment for the dad who develops a serious heart condition, the process of re-patriating brings about a painful but necessary time of discovery ~ both for the family and for each member individually.

Not wishing to be a spoiler, I will say that the film left me hanging in the sense that I wondered what happened to the young girl and boy in particular, in terms of their future. Did they stay in the U.S. or return to France? What happened to the parents?

The film was produced in 1998, several years after the family returned to the U.S. Just released this month is Kaylie Jone’s actual autobiography, Lies My Mother Never Told Me, which picks up where "A Soldier’s Daughter Never Cries" left off. I read the book in its entirety over the weekend and was not disappointed.

Though Ms. Jones’ memoir does not flinch from sharing very intimate details of her family and their struggles, especially regarding her relationship with her mother, it also contains some interesting detail about her famous father’s writing style, how he wrote, how he developed a story line.

As a war veteran himself, the storylines of From Here to Eternity and A Thin Red Line were written from personal experience. The family had several famous writers as friends: Richard Wright, Irwin Shaw, James Baldwin, William Styron, to name just a few, many of whom were a part of the Jones’ family life in France. Though the life of this woman may seem glamorous, it was not without its pain. It seems she found a kindred spirit in the life of another daughter of a famous writer, Jill Faulkner Summers. She shares this quote from the daughter of William Faulkner:

It was just before my birthday and I knew that Pappy was getting ready to start one of these bouts. I went to him – the only time I ever did – and said, “Please don’t start drinking.” And he was already well on his way, and he turned to me and said, “You know, no one remembers Shakespeare’s child.”

Peyton Place

NPR has a special book segment on its program All Things Considered called My Guilty Pleasure. On the program famous writers talk about the books they love but are embarrassed to be seen reading. A recent segment highlighted a raucous novel of sex, murder and love in a small New England town, Peyton Place, a classic 1956 novel by Grace Metalious. Selling 60,000 copies within the first ten days of its release, it was publishing's second "blockbuster" (following Gone with the Wind in 1936) and remained on the New York Times best seller list for 59 weeks. The main plot follows the lives of three women—lonely and repressed Constance MacKenzie; her illegitimate daughter Allison; and her employee Selena Cross, a girl from "across the tracks,” or as it is called in the book, "from the shacks." The novel describes how these women come to terms with their identity and is an interesting social commentary on 1950’s sexuality.

Less than a month after its release in 1956, the rights to the book were purchased from Metalious for $250,000 and she was hired as a story consultant on the film. The 1957 film drama, Peyton Place, has it all, small-town scandal, a murder trial, adultery, and, of course, lots of love scenes. The narrator of the film, the main protagonist who runs off to New York City after high school hoping to pursue a writing career, talks much of the seasons changing and their relation to love and the human condition. The acting in the film is superb, with Lana Turner cast in the lead female role of Constance MacKenzie, and the costumes are exquisite.

Peyton Place was the second-highest grossing film of 1958, although in the first few months of its release it did not do well at the box office until a real-life tragedy gave it an unexpected boost. On April 4, 1958, star Lana Turner's daughter Cheryl killed her mother's abusive lover, mobster Johnny Stompanato, and was placed in Juvenile Hall. The press coverage of the subsequent investigation boosted ticket sales by 32%, and the film eventually grossed $25,600,000 in the US. A coroner's inquest ruled the murder justifiable homicide, and the district attorney chose not to charge Cheryl with the crime, although he declared her a ward of the state and placed her in the custody of her grandmother. Turner feared the negative publicity would end her career, but it led producer Ross Hunter to cast her in the 1959 film Imitation of Life.

The film inspired a popular primetime television series that aired from September 1964 until June 1969. Here’s a clip from the program featuring a very young Mia Farrow and Ryan O’Neal:

Buona Vacanza!

As an avid NPR listener, I’ve been taken with a small degree of jealously of late as much of the programming this past week has focused on the veritable “V” word ~ “Vacation”. One program in particular highlighted a 2001 publication by author, Cindy Aron. In the book Working at Play, Aron, an associate professor of history, traces the growth of vacationing as a family and social ritual. She examines the tension between the American work ethic and the concept of leisure. Interestingly, I’ve been reading a book that highlights the topic of the American work ethic and leisure. In Death by Leisure: A Cautionary Tale, the author, Chris Ayres, a British journalist, chronicles his return from embedded duty in Iraq with a marines unit, to a new assignment as the showbiz correspondent for a London newspaper. Talk about culture shock! This tell-all opens with Ayres getting the sultry once-over from a beauty in a white bikini at poolside, and everything goes wacky and downhill from there with a bogus assignment to cover singer Michael Jackson, his Neverland estate and his sleepovers. Ayres marvels at the perpetually sunny weather of the sci-fi metropolis, and the Tinseltown crowd of Beverly Hills. Ayres quickly becomes caught up in the whole scene, including getting his piece of the American dream, a house. “I'm a big fan of bubbles ... they're my idea of a good time,” Ayres states in the book, but when the housing bubble bursts, the American dream soon becomes a nightmare. Ayres’ book is a wry, self-deprecating and offbeat look at the excesses of America over the last few years, disguised as an expat’s memoir of life in California. As for vacation travel, this expat offered some inspiration to NPR when listeners were asked to share stories of successful vacation travel at $100 a day or less. Our family vacations involved some serious math calculations as we traveled throughout Europe each summer for more than a decade, pre-Euro days. Camping was the order of the day, in a tent. Meals were prepared over an open fire. There’s nothing like ‘spaghetti alla carbonara’ prepared and eaten ‘al fresco’. If your vacation plans require a passport, our library offers this service. Planning a trip to Italy? Get inspired by watching the film, A Room With a View or better still, read the classic novel by E.M. Forster. And remember ~ "lavoro per vivere, non vivo per lavorare" ~ "work to live, don't live to work". Buona Vacanza!

Unleash Your Inner Bard: Talk Like Shakespeare Today!

O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy father and refuse thy name; Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, And I'll no longer be a Capulet.

A hopeless romantic, my all time favorite love story is Romeo and Juliet. Everyone knows that the story takes place in Italy ~ in the historic city of Verona. Verona is in the Veneto, the northeastern region of Italy where we made our family home for many years.

While living in Italy, I spent a good deal of time in our city library in Vicenza doing research and it was there that I first learned that the true author of Romeo and Juliet was a Vicentino, a man by the name of Luigi Da Porto. In 1530, Da Porto wrote the transcript called Giulietta e Romeo. In the original version, he set the characters in Verona, created Romeo and Giulietta and even created Mercutio, Tybalt, Friar Laurence and Paris. It is a little known fact that Luigi was the original writer and that William Shakespeare only adapted it for stage in England through not much merit of his own. The village of Vicenza (or indeed the people in it) hardly forgave Shakespeare after he took all the credit for the literature of their native son. Da Porto wrote the novel in his villa in Montorso Vicentino near Vicenza. The title of the book was Historia novellamente ritrovata di due nobili amanti ("Newly found story of two noble lovers").

There are several film versions of this greatest of love stories, and although there are aspects of the modernized version starring Leonardo di Caprio that are fascinating to me, I shall forever be enthralled with the classic sixties version of Italian film producer, Franco Zeffirelli.

We can be grateful to Mr. William Shakespeare for his momentous contributions to the English language. Shakespeare is a part of our everyday lives. He coined more than 1,700 words still in use in modern English and his plays influence the way we think about the world we live in. In recognition of Shakespeare’s 445th Birthday, this Thursday, April 23, 2009, has been designated Talk Like Shakespeare Day. Get in on the act and unleash your inner Bard!
http://www.talklikeshakespeare.org/

April National Poetry Month

“Women as Water”

I discovered a wonderful poetry blog recently: http://www.poetryevolution.com/
In one posting the author, Hari Bhajan, reviews the Hindi film, “Water” (which we have at our library). The blog includes a truly poetic comparison of water and women along with a selection of beautiful poems written by women.

WATER: The liquid that descends from the clouds as rain, forms streams, lakes, and seas, and is a major constituent of all living matter and that when pure is an odorless, tasteless, very slightly compressible liquid oxide of hydrogen H2O which appears bluish in thick layers, freezes at 0° C and boils at 100° C, has a maximum density at 4° C and a high specific heat, is feebly ionized to hydrogen and hydroxyl ions, and is a poor conductor of electricity and a good solvent (Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary).

Speaking of the women portrayed in the film, Hari Bhajan says:

I saw these women, as all women are — as water; fluid, ever-changing form, mercurial, emotional, powerful when provoked and as generous as the clouds that pour forth their bounty upon the earth. As everything is a teacher, so water is an endless source of wisdom, its lessons of compassion and of destruction always there to open us to the perfect rhythms of this world, as well as the vastness of its mysteries. Take a hot bath. Swim in the ocean. Drink long and slow from a pure mountain stream. View the movie WATER. Invite your loved one under the quilt with you. Let the tears roll. It’s so, so good for the soul.

Nineteen Minutes

The Centerville community will be participating in the Dayton-wide program The Big Read, and as mentioned in an earlier blog, the book selection which was voted on during the first two weeks of August is New York Times best-selling author Jodi Picoult's book, Nineteen Minutes, a fictional account of a community and family's struggle to come to grips in the aftermath of a school shooting ~ a sad theme, to be sure. Although it is impossible to put a positive spin on such a tragic topic, the book presents the opportunity to discuss how a community can come together to support one another and further lends itself to the important discussion on the very real problem of school bullying. On the author's website she actually highlights how her book was used in the greater Hartford, Connecticut area when 75 high school students came together for just such a discussion. The moderators of the group, working with the state Board of Education, developed an anti-bullying curriculum out of the process. Here at the library, we are in the process of planning Big Read book discussion groups which will begin to meet in March of next year. We plan to host groups here at the Centerville Library in the After Words discussion group, and also at the Woodbourne location book discussion group, Page Turners. Our library will host discussion groups at some outside venues as well. We'll keep you posted.

Deer Hunting With Jesus

Sometimes a snappy book title does just what it’s meant to do: makes you chuckle and then open the cover. Most of us will read the book jacket and then decide whether or not the book has potential merit. I’m a sucker for a catchy title myself, so I jumped at the chance to investigate further Joe Bageant’s story of growing up in rural West Virginia, Deer Hunting With Jesus. The present election cycle once again brings to the forefront America’s cultural distinctions, and this book could not be more timely though published last year. Joe is a great storyteller, but the book is also informative in the vein of Nickel and Dimed and What’s the Matter with Kansas. I love what the publication "Mother Jones" had to say about the book: “Bageant writes with the ghosts of Hunter S. Thompson, Will Rogers, and Frank Zappa kibitzing over his shoulder.” The great literary critic, Marshall McLuhan, suggested that you should choose your reading by turning to page 69 of a book and, if you like it, read it. This is what the author had to say about page 69 of his book: “Well, page 69 is one of the more low keyed pages in a rather gonzo book.” I would agree. The author recently achieved international fame when a Swiss-Italian TV station produced a 30-minute documentary titled, “Joe’s Winchester”. You can view the production on the author’s web page. Since Italian is my second language, I found it particularly enjoyable. However, even if you don't understand the language, the story is wonderfully told.

Buon Appetito!

Beautifully written, The Saucier’s Apprentice is author Bob Spitz’s gastronomic travelogue. Recently divorced, Mr. Spitz sets out on a journey at mid-life, perhaps seeking to find solace in travel and food. His travels take him (and the reader) to some of the finer cooking schools in France and Italy. The author is candid throughout in sharing details of his emotional journey, but thankfully, not in a morose fashion. Along the way, he also shares some wonderful recipes. Having lived and worked in Italy myself for more than a decade, I had the wonderful opportunity to experience firsthand the cuisine of Italy. The author makes the ultimate brutta figura (faux paux) when cooking with Chef Claudio in the Chianti hills of Tuscany. In response to a beautifully prepared braciole, he exclaims, ‘Voila!’ He should have said ‘ecco qua’! Great inspiration for foodies and travel bugs ~ ‘Buon Appetito’ e ‘Buon Viaggio’!