"From One Mind to Another Mind" - after reading Tom Piazza

(Available at Powells.com and elsewhere)

I add books to my "Books Wanted" list and sometimes don't read them until years later. Of course, I could easily solve this by using my library card. I haven't done that yet here in Seattle, despite my lack of space and the wonderful Central Branch that's not far from me.  

Devil Sent the Rain: Music and Writing in Desperate America came out in 2011 and I bought it used from Powell's a few weeks ago. I'm glad I did, because if I'd gotten it from the library, I'd have had to repeatedly restrain myself from scribbling in the margins and underlining passages (my copy is defaced beyond reselling now, even if I didn't plan to keep it forever).  

Tom Piazza's writing is the kind that moves me the most - passionate, well-reasoned yet unapologetically feisty, full of wondrous passages - the kind of book I know I'll revisit, if not use as reference. My blog title is taken from the intro, in which Piazza briefly addresses the argument as to whether or not the written word is "doomed." Piazza says it's not and never will be: "In the private space shared by the writer and the reader, one individual soul encounters another and a spell is cast, created by both of them."  The spell worked powerfully in this case.

Part One consists of essays on music, quite a few of which first appeared in the Oxford American (no surprise that it's my favorite magazine).  "True Adventures with the King of Bluegrass" details a crazy few days spent with Jimmy Martin.  I was so captivated by these escapades (and awed by Piazza's patience) that reading this was like watching a piqaresque film. My ignorance of Martin's music didn't affect my enjoyment of the essay, and he's now first on the list of musicians whose music I want to hear.

Carl Perkins is next.  It's reprehensible that I'm not familiar with his music and only know it from Beatles covers - he was one of their idols, and I knew that. One of the reasons I bought the book was to learn, and learn I did.  (After reading the essay, I pulled up a few U-Tube videos where Perkins plays with George Harrison and others - great voice and presence.) I'm sure Piazza would forgive my ignorance knowing he's incited enough interest for me to want to discover these musicians.  He's a fellow explorer - one of his essays is an absorbing one about visiting a flea market.  After hours of fruitlessly perusing boxes of 78s, he hits the jackpot. The literal blues he felt earlier in the day disappears and he excitedly returns to his ever-patient wife, who's been sitting outside reading the newspaper for hours. (The love and understanding between the two of them is a quiet melody underlying this essay).

I have many books on Dylan, many albums and CD's, have seen him perform several times (most memorably, with Patti Smith), love his music and have long considered him a genius. Did I gain new insights from Piazza? Yes, and a strong desire to get my hands on the DVD The Other Side of the Mirror: Bob Dylan Live at the Newport Folk Festival, 1963-1965 (the booklet notes were written by Piazza and are reprinted in this volume).

Piazza is a resident of New Orleans. Many of the pieces in Part Two deal with issues and feelings raised by Hurricane Katrina and the political and psychological havoc during and after the storm.  His love for the city's music, culture, and people pervade each of these essays. These pieces are the author's way of questioning "whether there was an opposing magic to counteract the enormous undertow of all that imagery, all that appeal to easy, comforting answers" that appeared in the national dialogue post-9/11. As a resident, Piazza has an insider's view and understanding of the city (he was also a writer on HBO's Treme) and knows the vital importance of giving evacuees the choice of returning and rebuilding their lives in ways that will work for them and aren't dictated by politicians and duplicitous outsiders. Reprinted here is a telling exchange between the author and an affluent evacuee who wrote in response to Piazza's book on New Orleans (book info below). Priceless. Amazing how Piazza remained respectful as he bit back.

One of the joys of my life is discovering an author, new to me, that connects so strongly that I immediately want to read more of his/her work. Why New Orleans Matters is now at the top of my Books Wanted list. I admire Piazza's knowledge, his courage, his writing talent, his empathy, his honesty and his insight.   Again, from Piazza's intro: "words, direct from one mind to another mind, will be there to stretch the strings taut between the private consciousness and the public drama and play a tune, or a symphony. " Meeting Tom Piazza's work was tune and symphony both.

In 1997, shortly after Dylan released Time Out of Mind, he was chosen to be a Kennedy Center honoree, along with Lauren Bacall and others.  Each honoree invites someone of their choice to write an encomium for inclusion in the program.  Dylan chose Piazza.  Need I say more?

Bernadette Holds Up the Sky

 One of my favorite books read in 2014 was Where'd You Go, Bernadette.
 
I read it again yesterday, needing something light-hearted after two extremely depressing books:

 and         

Both these books were on my "Books Wanted" list, and I requested and received them for Christmas. Although I was somewhat prepared for the heaviness of Half the Sky, I had completely forgotten that We Are Not Ourselves deals with a father's early-onset Alzheimer's and the effects of that terrible disease not only on him, but on his family and friends.  If I'd remembered that, I probably wouldn't have read the two books back-to-back (and then watched the Roger Ebert documentary. . .)

After that, I returned to Bernadette and enjoyed it just as much as when I first read it.  That's not to say that I wanted to blow off what I'd learned from the two heavier books.  On the contrary - after finishing Half the Sky, I went online to see what I could do, and am researching women-focused nonprofits here in Seattle for  job openings.  In my job search over the past several months, I've applied at nonprofits, but was not focusing solely on them.

I'd always admired Nicholas Kristof's column in The New York Times.  He's frank and brave and makes the problems he discusses real by focusing on the personal.  He always has sincere empathy for the people he visits, writes about, and tries to help.  The book, co-written with his wife Sheryl WuDunn, held the same matter-of-fact intensity as his column.

The title comes from the Chinese proverb "Women hold up half the sky."  There are several areas of focus in the book, all concerning female oppression:  trafficking/prostitution, rape, and maternal mortality/disease.  These problem areas exist due to cultural devaluation of women, and the way out of these horrors is education.  Some of the statistics are horrifying, as are some of the individual stories.  The resilience of these women, though, is amazing.

Kristof/WuDunn do not just list stats and tell stories, but also offer solutions.  This is one book that, although you may not want to read it, you should read it and then figure out what you can do to help.  One thing we should all be doing is pressuring our government to ratify CEDAW, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination.  It is unbelievable and appalling that the United States, which regards itself as an enlightened nation, refuses to ratify this  "because of Republicans' concerns that CEDAW could nibble away at American sovereignty by surrendering authority to an international convention.  These concerns are absurd." (p. 246).  CEDAW was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1979 and 185 countries have approved it - but not the U.S. The solutions Kristof/DuWunn discuss, including education of girls, family planning, micro-finance, and female empowerment, would be fostered by our ratification of CEDAW.

I love the George Bernard Shaw quote that opens Chapter 3:  "Reasonable people adapt themselves to the world.  Unreasonable people attempt to adapt the world to themselves.  All progress, therefore, depends on unreasonable people."

I heartily agree with the authors that improving the lives of others improves our own at the same time.  I know from personal experience that the times I felt best about my life were when I was actively helping others.

My one disagreement with the book is the lack of dismay over the Pentecostal boom in the U.S.:  "We thus regard the Pentecostal boom with some suspicion, but without doubt it also has a positive impact on the role of women." (p. 143).  I say, "Huh?" In the next paragraph they say, "On Sundays, women come together and exchange advice on how to apply community pressure to bring wayward husbands back into line."  I wrote in the margin here:  "Wow - ain't that somethin'?"

We Are Not Ourselves was hard for me to read not only because I read it immediately after finishing Half the Sky, but because there were so many reminders of what my dad experienced when he had dementia.  The wife is walking her husband upstairs when he stops and can't move another step.  She struggles to help him raise his leg and move forward.  A similar episode happens when he's in the shower, and she can't get him out.  His struggle with numbers echoed Dad, who had been so facile with math before his illness, as did his difficulties driving, and the danger he became behind the wheel, his intense stares.  It was heart-rending to read how the father/husband, who had always been internal to begin with, tried to keep his illness from his family until he couldn't any longer.  I did find it unbelievable that the wife, who had been a nurse for many years, wouldn't have wondered about Alzheimer's sooner than she did, based upon the problems her husband was having.

So yesterday I returned to Bernadette and was immediately enraptured with her spot-on picture of life in Seattle (example:  "Hovering over me was the Chihuly chandelier.  Chihulys are the pigeons of Seattle.") and her clever, warm-hearted depiction of a smart, quirky family.  Bee and her mom (Bernadette) are huge Beatles fans, and the Abbey Road singalong in the car (Bee surprised that her mom knows not only all the words, but the instrumental parts as well) further endeared them to me.

The many blurbs in the front of the book say "laugh-out-loud funny" and this is one of the very few books that made me literally guffaw.  I absolutely love it!  We need to teach women and girls all over the world to become as self-confident as Bernadette, Bee and the devil/angel neighbor Audrey.  They could hold up the sky by themselves.