Kim's pick

OK, I am going to choose a book, but consider this George's pick, and he can have my turn next month. I've been pondering what you said, G, about dropping out of the club,and here's what I concluded: If you are living a life that prohibits you from reading even one book a month, then you have to change your life. In your case, that means you'll have to quit nursing school. There. A solution. You can thank me later.

In any case, my pick is "The Bridges of Madison County."

Kidding.

I actually gave this a lot of thought. I toyed very seriously with "The Name of the Rose." I even went to Borders last night and bought it, but I decided it was too long and that its dense ramblings about the history of Catholicism and monastic orders probably would not be of general interest. It's a really fun story, though. So I'll give it more thought, and maybe it will turn up as my next pick. I also thought about a short story collection by Ellen Gilchrist or an E.M. Forster novel, but my last book was British, so I passed on that.


What I came up with is John Kennedy Toole's "A Confederacy of Dunces," which is very comic, very American, and, as you'll see, a very touching tribute to New Orleans.

A fallen woman

From kc:

The scene where Evelyn tripped carrying the milk was very telling regarding her role in the family. All the bottles break. She lies injured in the shattered glass and spilled milk. And everyone either just stares or runs away. No one helps her. It's like the whole family is paralyzed by the notion that the CAREGIVER needs CARE. What are we supposed to do? Normally in a situation like this we'd go get mom. And there's even a sense that they are a bit upset with her for putting them in this predicament. Finally Evelyn ASKS for help and the family slowly (and somewhat incompetently) responds. The scene is really, really well-written, and it adds immeasurably to our understanding of the family dynamics.

Evelyn is unique in the household, and, despite the huge family, is fundamentally alone in many ways. Her husband is an unreliable contributor, both financially and emotionally. So many of the burdens that come with raising a family fall squarely and soley on her. And not only does she not get the credit she deserves, but she has to endure her husband acting like a baby because her winnings make him the object of ridicule at work; instead of feeling gratitude from him, she has to constantly soothe his self-pity.

That's why, for me, it was so damn poignant when she made some friends among the Affadaisies. It was almost like she recaptured part of her youth, and she was suddenly in a situation where she was being nurtured by others, as well as nurturing them, and she really thrived. Her connection with the woman in the iron lung was especially touching in this regard because they both were trapped by circumstances, either literally or figuratively, and that backdrop made the freedom they felt in each other's company especially sweet. Evelyn's many travails in trying to meet her friends were almost Odyssean. She was trying to get "home" (where she intellectually belonged) and kept getting thwarted by the monsters and Sirens that were needy kids, money woes, domestic emergencies and car trouble.

Another scene, one of my favorites in the book, that highlighted her uniqueness was when she won the grocery shopping spree and she was immediately drawn to a bunch of expensive, exotic food. The family was sort of horrified. Tuff writes:

No one was going to eat the caviar.
"Do you know that U.S. Army research has shown a relationship between intelligence and a willingness to eat unfamiliar foods?" Mom said.
Except for Mom, nobody would eat the lobster either — it was just too different from fish sticks.

A pregnant woman

From kc:

I was very touched by the revelation at the end that Evelyn "had" to get married, as evidenced by the grey dress and weird wedding date. The same thing happened to my mom, and to this day she has never told me that she "had" to get married. The shame that attended an unwed pregnancy stayed with her, even though she herself, like Evelyn, would never judge another woman for that. Evelyn even tells Tuff "not to judge" somewhere in the book. And I remember my mom telling me that "getting pregnant is not the worst thing" that could happen to a girl, and I think it was her way of countering all the idiots who acted like it was, of making her daughters not feel Dorrie's desperation in "A Kiss Before Dying."

I think Tuff had a persistent sadness about her mom's life, even though it was also a source of great joy and inspiration to her. She knew that in another world her mother could have been a professional writer, could have traveled all over, could have afforded new girdles, or wouldn't have felt compelled to wear a girdle at all! could have ended up with a man who was a better companion in life. And yet she has this beautiful admiration of how her mother began her married life by being trapped (by the pregnancy) and made more of her fate than most people could imagine. She lived her life.

Evelyn and Tuff in 1996
It also has struck me that Tuff grew up to be a lesbian. And I could see the generous-hearted Evelyn, if she knew, submitting a poem to the local paper: My kid is gay, and that's OK.

A lucky woman

In addition to her witty commercial jingles that kept her family fed and clothed, Evelyn had a lot of help along the way — the grocery store manager who let her take two clerks on her shopping spree, the bank accepting written word of her contest win versus the payment due to keep her house, and I got the impression that at least one of the contest "detectives" who visited was glad to award the prize to the family in need. I couldn't decide what made her so fortunate — would she be treated so kindly today? But I also thought she had this contagious sense of benevolence, and maybe it rubbed off on other people besides her family. Sort of an "It's a Wonderful Life" kind of person.

True?

How much of the book do you think is true?

Our turn

Let's try our hand at contesting! How are your haiku skills?

I found two good-looking haiku contests, one from ThinkGeek.com and one from SpaIndex.com. The ThinkGeek haikus must be geeky or techy, and the Spa Index haikus must be tranquil. The December theme is "ice or snow."

OK, everybody go enter. And be sure to post your entries here for our perusal.

Kelly Ryan

Evelyn and Kelly on their wedding day

What did you think about how Terry portrayed her father in the book? Was she too easy on him?

First of all

What was your favorite contest entry?