Citi (Washington)

It’s as hard to describe this existentialist urban apocalyptic examination of male privilege as it is to describe its poetic / dramatic / novelistic form. Both the form and content pop off the page, as Washington the poet keeps the language off balance and the plot (if it’s not insulting to call it that) moving along.

I’ve heard about RA Washington ever since I moved to the area, but this was my first real experience with is writing. And it won’t be my last. My next encounter will probably be this book, again. It makes a book like Denis Johnson’s Jesus’ Son look absolutely tame.

http://guidetokulchurcleveland.com/

http://www.clevescene.com/cleveland/the-so-much-more-than-a-book-guy-ra-washington/Content?oid=4337285

http://redgiantbooks.com/

The Autistic Brain: Helping Different Kinds of Minds Succeed (Grandin and Panek)

I was fortunate to have the opportunity to hear Ms. Grandin speak at a conference and was impressed not only by her life story, but also by her ability to make the science of her story – namely the science of autism – accessible to my non-scientific mind. I also liked her attention to language. People with autism do not have better or worse minds, just different ones. And we need to speak of and work with their strengths, and not dwell on or even disparage their differences. Grandin combines her story, which is not a static one (she continues to volunteer to be part of studies in order to learn more about what new efforts can say about the brain), with anecdotes and research to present a compelling case for how we – those of us who work with people with autism – need to adjust our own thinking in order to understand someone with a different mind. It can’t just come from those who have a personal stake in the game. There’s a great story here about a father of an autistic child who persuaded his employer (Walgreen’s) to hire more people with autism. When it worked out well for Walgreen’s, they replicated the set-up. Such efforts must come from everyone.

If you are thinking about this book, you probably have some reason to want to learn more about autism. As someone new to the subject, I found Grandin to be an excellent guide.

We Are Not Ourselves (Thomas)

And that’s it, isn’t it? We are not ourselves. We always want to be someone, something, somewhere else. In Eileen’s case, it’s about real estate, a kind of Dreiser-lite version of trying to move up and out (of the city) in a way that forms the quietest echo of the Revolutionary Road era.

But Eileen forgets the old notion that if you want to make G-d laugh, then make a plan. Something happens on her way to that place (sorry, Mr. Joel), and she and her son (perhaps Thomas himself) have to deal with it. Along the way, we see the difference between perception and reality over and over again in the form of real estate – a house, for example, that is only renovated in areas guests are likely to see.

I’m being glib; I know that. So much of this book felt so very obvious – at least until that plot twist happened that I don’t want to spoil. The notion of real estate took on some subtler shades – the body as real estate, the mind as a kind of property. So, the book is pretty slow going until then. Then it becomes interesting though rarely compelling. And it certainly could have been shorter.

I’ll be curious to see what Thomas does next. But it might take some time and persuasion before I read it.

The Life of an Unknown Man (Makine)

There are parts of the first part of the novel that feel formulaic, even self-indulgent. Shutov, an older man, an under-appreciated writer, living in Paris with a younger woman. Her departure leads him to return to Russia, in search of a woman from his past. He finds her, her son, and the unknown man. And, having been left in charge of the unknown man, by Vlad (the son mentioned above who is also a publisher of sorts), he begins to learn the life of the unknown man. This is where the story – impressive but familiar – really takes off.

The unknown man tells Shutov his story – his life as an actor, a soldier, a citizen, and finally a teacher. The life he shared with Mila, a remarkable woman herself. It is here where Makine’s purpose becomes clear. Russia, the new Russia, represented by the ceremony taking place, by Vlad, by the new freedoms and money, has changed. But Makine is not romanticizing the past by telling us the story of the unknown man. There is no beauty in the war, the blockade, the purges, the cruelty. There is only beauty in the gestures of love – of saving a small portion of bread for your spouse, for teaching a young child to sing.

Makine’s prose, translated by Geoffrey Strachan, is wonderful. The scenes are vivid. An intersection covered by ice. A cemetery. A small portion of bread.

https://www.graywolfpress.org/author-list/andrei-makine