Mar 19 2023

Phoenix Extravagant by Yoon Ha Lee

In Phoenix Extravagant, Yoon Ha Lee transposes the colonial history of Japanese rule in Korea to the Empire of Razan’s conquest of Hwaguk six years before the book’s beginning. Lee uses the framework to tell a story of an artist getting caught up in politics and history, only to discover they had been in it all along, even when all they wanted to do was paint.

Phoenix Extravagant by Yoon Ha Lee

Along the way, he considers questions of resisting, existing under occupation, collaboration, and people who have no choice but to be a part of both worlds. He sketches what artists do in a time of war, what they do to survive, and what they do when one side or another enlists them in their cause. Lee also examines the mixed results of a conquest that brings change and progress with it, how even those most determined to resist the new overlords cannot help but adapt some of their styles and methods. Lee touches on how conquerors can fear distant powers and see themselves as victims, or potential victims, acting in self-defense, a fractal spiral of justifications.

Lee chooses to tell the story from the perspective of Gyen Jebi — the personal name is Jebi — a nonbinary artist in their mid-20s. They start the novel taking an examination in hopes of gaining a position working for the Ministry of Art. It would mean working for the occupiers, but even before the invasion an artist’s life was precarious, and since then commissions have dried up and patrons gotten scarce. They sign their examination work Tesserao Tsennan, a Razanei name they had taken some time earlier for convenience, a hedge against bureaucracy and possibly a stepping stone in the new rulers’ garden. They hadn’t told their sister Bongsunga about it, though, for fear she wouldn’t approve. The two of them are orphans, and Jebi’s older sibling basically raised them, nurtured their art, protected them from some of the harsher aspects of the occupation.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/03/19/phoenix-extravagant-by-yoon-ha-lee/

Mar 18 2023

What It Takes by Richard Ben Cramer

I first read What It Takes in the early 1990s when its subject — the 1988 US presidential election — was, if not exactly fresh in mind, then at least not consigned to the oblivion of an election held decades ago and deemed mostly inconsequential. Cramer’s book made the election not just interesting, but riveting. With a cast of candidates that included George H.W. Bush, Bob Dole, Richard Gebhardt, Gary Hart and Michael Dukakis, that was no small achievement.

What It Takes by Richard Ben Cramer

In 1986 Cramer set out to write a book about men (a woman as a major-party candidate was a long way off in 1988) who had led lives that brought them to the point where they thought not only that they could be President, but that they ought to be. Men who, as Cramer puts it, “made that final turn in the road, who got to the point where they could say, ‘Not only should I be President … I am going to be President.'” (p. viii) It’s quite a book, more than a thousand pages about a mostly forgotten campaign, a book that lives on in journalistic and political circles for the six detailed portraits of men discovering what it takes to be President. One of the blurbs on the back calls Cramer’s approach a mix of Teddy White, Tom Wolfe, and Norman Mailer — dated references by now, but signs that his writing will be up close and personal, with an attempt to capture each candidate’s tenor and voice in the chapters that describe his journey, a journey that for all but one of them will end in a potentially life-defining defeat.

Cramer had extraordinary access to the candidates and campaigns, and the people around them. He notes that “The narratives are based on interviews with more than a thousand people. Every scene in the book has come from firsthand sources, or from published sources that were verified by participants before my writing began.” (p. ix) I am sure that getting in early helped; the interest of a potential presidential biographer was probably also flattering. His Pulitzer didn’t hurt either. What were his aims?

I have tried to tell their stories in two ways—as fairly as I could from the outside, and as empathetically as I could from behind their eyes. In doing so, I have tried not only to show them, but to show what our politics is like—what it feels like to run for President; what it requires from them; what it builds in them; what it strips, or rips, from them. (p. ix)

Cramer keeps his chapters short — there are 130 in the book — so the book moves along briskly. The scenes add up quickly, and they soon gave me a sense of these men’s extraordinary stories as well as the continuous dramas within all of the campaigns, even at their earliest stages. Some bits from the book stuck with me across the nearly 30 years since I read it for the first time, such as his characterization of the Massachusetts press covering Dukakis as “the diddybop Bostons” for their blithe assumption that their city was the hub of the universe, or Cramer’s masterful disquisition of what it means to know something in Washington and how George H.W. Bush, a man known above all for being in the know, managed not to know about the illegal Iran-Contra scheme. But I didn’t pick up What It Takes again for some late 1980s nostalgia, or to marvel at Cramer’s journalistic and storytelling skills. I picked up What It Takes again because of the fourth Democrat whose life and campaign Cramer chronicles: Joe Biden.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/03/18/what-it-takes-by-richard-ben-cramer/

Mar 16 2023

Recipe For Disaster: 40 Superstar Stories Of Sustenance And Survival by Alison Riley

This collection of essays with recipes is absolutely stunning, both visually and in the impact of the stories. Not all the essays come with recipes, which is why I hesitate to call it a cookbook, and some recipes have definitely been more rigorously tested and precisely presented than others. But overall this is an emotionally moving, visually arresting volume that will sit beautifully on the coffee table of anyone starting to entertain again as the pandemic continues to wane.

I say that with some specificity because this is definitely a book that deals with the pandemic, both from the perspectives of relatively average people and from the perspective of restaurateurs like the legendary Alice Waters (who contributes her go-to salad dressing recipe here.) The pandemic disrupted people’s lives in so many ways, and is only one of the many disasters considered in this searingly honest but overall warm-hearted collection.

More prosaic disasters abound ofc, whether they be painful breakups, career setbacks or dealing with difficult parents. A disaster of note, that I felt keenly and pray is only a one-off, was the horrifying realization of the outcome of Election Night 2016, as related by record producer Bob Power. The throughline here with all of these often brief essays is how food comforts and heals, how the simple pleasure of consuming, if not outright constructing, meals at the very least sustains the sufferer, and in the best instances gives us the hope and strength to eventually move on. Sure it’s a fairly obvious thesis — food nourishes body and soul — but it’s also one that we pilots of our human bodies tend to forget: hangry wouldn’t be a thing otherwise. Worse, we often forget that other people have the same issues, too. Recipe For Disaster provides us with the comfort of knowing that other people have also recovered from these ailments, often with the help of the foods and recipes included in this book. And hey, maybe they could help you find your way clear from disaster, too.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/03/16/recipe-for-disaster-40-superstar-stories-of-sustenance-and-survival-by-alison-riley/

Mar 14 2023

Biindigen! Amik Says Welcome by Nancy Cooper and Joshua Mangeshig Pawis-Steckley

What a delightful picture book introducing Native American words and concepts to readers, young and old!

Amik is a young beaver who is excited to host a gathering of her cousins at her river home. Her little sister Nishiime is curious but shy, and vanishes almost as soon as the others begin to arrive. While Amik is a little dismayed at Nishiime’s disappearance, she’s soon busy greeting her cousins, accepting their gifts, and showing them around the dam and surrounding areas. She keeps an eye out for Nishiime the entire time, asking passing animals whether they’ve seen her little sister. Some of her cousins are afraid of some of her scarier animal neighbors, but Amik is quick to assure them that all the animals, even the carnivores, appreciate what the beavers do for the environment.

Nishiime finally turns up as the cousins are preparing to leave, and confides in Amik the lessons she learned that day. They wave goodbye to their cousins, promising to return the visits when Nishiime is older. The book closes with a delightful glossary and pronunciation guide, as well as the information that each cousin’s name came from their respective Nation’s word for beaver.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/03/14/biindigen-amik-says-welcome-by-nancy-cooper-and-joshua-mangeshig-pawis-steckley/

Mar 09 2023

Maybe Swearing Will Help: Relax And Curse Your Ass Off In Cross-Stitch by Weldon Owen Publishing

Back when I was a lass, sometime between fifth and eighth grades, cross-stitch became A Thing at my school. I lusted after the beautiful kits some of the other girls had, and remember in particular running my hand longingly over a sampler kit of yellow roses at a notions store. I’m not sure if my parents ever gave in and let me buy any of them, tho I do distinctly remember miscounting the interior bit on some red roses at some point while working on a cross-stitched piece of my own. I agonized over my mistake — mostly because I didn’t have a lot of thread to fix it with — before realizing that no one could really tell unless they were looking hard for something to criticize.

Going to boarding school cut short my opportunities for working in smaller fiber arts, tho I do remember having an art project with either a loom or similar wooden frame that smacked me in the face after I accidentally knocked it over one night during one of the rural school’s periodic blackouts. I only got back to crafting for myself about a decade later, taking up knitting in an effort to occupy my restless hands. More recently, the pandemic had me and countless others looking into even more crafty pursuits.

So when I got the opportunity to review this book, I absolutely leapt at the chance to take up my old hobby as part of properly evaluating it. The focus of the book — swearing — isn’t going to be for everyone, tho is definitely part of the irreverent aesthetic that began taking hold in mainstream fiber arts around the turn of the century. I, for one, welcome more books like this. As a grown-up, my tastes have definitely changed from the staid romanticism of my tween years. ‘Pretty’ just doesn’t cut it any more for me, especially given how easily this craft in particular lends itself to making statements. I knit in order to keep my hands busy while my brain is otherwise occupied — I’ve been working on a Perpetual Blanket for years now — and I draw/color/paint mostly to illustrate a text or a place. Cross-stitch, on the other hand, is the place I can lean in to being, well, cross. The patterns here encourage that, allowing needleworkers to let go of negative emotions while still honoring them as valid. It’s also gratifying to know that people like the esteemed Dame Judi Dench, in addition to the 13 designers and teams who dreamed up the 24 patterns plus alphabets in this hilarious and extremely helpful book, enjoy a saucy take on the hobby too.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/03/09/maybe-swearing-will-help-relax-and-curse-your-ass-off-in-cross-stitch-by-weldon-owen-publishing/

Mar 08 2023

The Exile by Erik Kriek

This bleak graphic novel follows the Viking-Age return of Hallstein Thordson to his Icelandic home. Seven years earlier, the Althing exiled him for his crimes. Now he’s come back looking, if not for redemption, then at least for rest at his father’s homestead.

Alas, he returns to find his father dead and his stepmother wary of his claim on her and her son’s inheritance. It isn’t that Solveig begrudges him a third of the land. She’s a generous if stubborn soul, but knows that Hallstein’s legal claim is tenuous, given the circumstances of his birth. She’s happy enough to feed and house him and the two other soldiers he brought back with him from his travels tho. Someone has been cutting down her trees, and on an island where wood is more valuable than silver, this is a crime she cannot let stand. Hallstein, Bjarki and Ukko are welcome under her roof so long as they assist in safeguarding the living treasure that she, accompanied only by her nine year-old son and elderly thrall, has trouble protecting on her own.

But Hallstein’s return is far from welcome news to others on the island. His arrival brings the tensions simmering just under the island’s placid surface to a boil. Despite the interventions of cooler, more peaceable heads, war is coming to Iceland once more, a battle that threatens to tear the small society apart. What will the people of this island do in the heat of conflict and, perhaps just as importantly, in its aftermath?

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/03/08/the-exile-by-erik-kriek/

Mar 07 2023

Glitterpony Farm by Tina Connolly & Norm Grock

What an absolutely delightful addition to the Choose Your Own Adventure canon! And, sneakily, a perfect Easter-time read for any kid who loves animals, especially magical ones.

You, the reader, are spending Easter Sunday at your aunt’s place, Glitterpony Farm, at the beginning of spring break. Your mom thinks it’s a good idea for you to get to know this part of your family better. Aunt Jo takes care of lots of animals — even some unusual ones, as she hints — and her daughter Kat helps out. You’re actually just arriving when Kat races up to her mom with the news that she’s needed in town for a vet emergency right now.

Aunt Jo bikes off, leaving you with the somewhat bossy Kat, who seems pretty reluctant to show you the animals. You soon realize why, tho, as you’re taken to see the magical creatures, who quickly land you in any number of hilarious, wholesome hijinks depending on what choices you make while reading this charming book.

The many different adventure paths are a delight for kids of all ages. The book also has the advantage of being not inherently gendered, as “you” the reader have your back turned in all of Norm Grock’s colorful, whimsical illustrations. I loved the kinetic pastels of his art, with plenty of the sparkle promised by the title. The animals are all rendered with an almost infectious joy, even when they’re behaving in ways that are less than ideal.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/03/07/glitterpony-farm-by-tina-connolly-norm-grock/

Mar 05 2023

The Red Prince by Timothy Snyder

How’s this for introducing the subject of your biography?

The Red Prince by Timothy Snyder

Wilhelm von Habsburg, the Red Prince, wore the uniform of an Austrian officer, the court regalia of a Habsburg archduke, the simple suit of a Parisian exile, the collar of the Order of the Golden Fleece, and, every so often, a dress. He could handle a sabre, a pistol, a rudder, or a golf club; he handled women of necessity and men for pleasure. He spoke the Italian of his archduchess mother, the German of his archduke father, the English of his British royal friends, the Polish of the country his father wished to rule, and the Ukrainian of the land he wished to rule himself. He was no innocent, but then again, innocents cannot found nations. … It did not occur to him that someone else could define his loyalties or curb his desires. Yet this very insouciance conceals a certain ethical premise. It denies, if only by the whiff of perfume in a Parisian hotel room or a smudge of a forger’s ink on an Austrian passport, the power of the state to define the individual. (p. 4)

Wilhelm was born in 1895 into the House of Habsburg, though the most recent Emperor in his ancestry was Leopold II, who had died more than a century before Wilhelm’s birth. For most of the intervening years, the Habsburg Empire had only had one Kaiser: Franz Josef. He began his rule in 1848 amid revolutions across Europe, and would continue to reign until Wilhelm was a young man. He died in 1916 not long before another wave of revolutions swept the continent. The long reign — just a tad more than two years shy of 70 years in the event — brought with it the problem of succession. Franz Josef’s only son shot himself. One of the Emperor’s younger brothers had been executed by Mexican revolutionaries in 1867. Here is what Snyder has to say about the next two younger brothers:

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/03/05/the-red-prince-by-timothy-snyder/

Mar 02 2023

Scurry by Mac Smith

What a brilliant addition this is to the subgenre of adventuring anthropomorphic animals!

In a world seemingly abandoned by humans, an alliance of suburban mice and rats finds their supplies dwindling, even as the pickings from the houses around them grow ever slimmer. All scouts sent to the closest city, meanwhile, have failed to return. Leader Orim counsels caution, but more rash elements believe that these scouts have found greener pastures, so to speak, so have abandoned the rest of them. Led by Resher, these breakaway rodents want to strike out for the city as soon as possible in order to secure the food that they’re sure is there.

Talented young scout Wix is firmly in Orim’s camp. When rumors of a food-laden truck arrive back at their base, Wix is sent with a party in search of it, the colony’s final mission for food before acquiescing to Resher’s demands. But Orim’s daughter Pict discovers that Wix’s party is being set up, so rushes to warn him. Before the two friends can return to safety, however, a hawk flies away with one of them, setting them both on an odyssey where they’ll discover that there’s so much more to the world than their safe little suburb, and that sometimes even the smallest of heroes can have the biggest impact.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/03/02/scurry-by-mac-smith/

Feb 26 2023

We Never Talk About My Brother by Peter S. Beagle

How to talk about We Never Talk About My Brother? First, note that it predates Bruno by more than a decade. But then what? Considering the astonishing range in this volume’s nine stories and single sequence of poems? Praising the characters’ odd corners that mark them as real people even when they’re inhabiting the best-known archetypes of myth? Marveling at the settings that Beagle brings to life in quick, indelible strokes of his pen? Counting the laugh-out-loud moments to see if there were more of them than heartstoppers?

We Never Talk About My Brother by Peter S. Beagle

Consider the first story, “Uncle Chaim and Aunt Rifke and the Angel.” The first-person narrator — David, though he is not named until quite late in the story — is ten and a latchkey kid in New York. Most days after school he goes to the studio of his Uncle Chaim, a painter, and just hangs out, reading comic books or “look[ing] through Uncle Chaim’s paintings and drawings, tr[ying] some of my own, and [eating] Chinese food with him in silent companionship, when he remembered that we should probably eat.” (p. 3) And then an angel appears.

It was very sudden: one moment I was looking through a couple of the comic books Uncle Chaim kept around for me, while he was trying to catch the highlight on the tendons under his models’ chin, and the next moment there was this angel standing before him, actually posing, with her arms spread out and her great wings taking up almost half the studio. She was not blue herself—a light beige would be closer—but she wore a blue robe that managed to look at once graceful and grand, with a white undergarment glimmering beneath. Her face, half-shadowed by a loose hood, looked disapproving. (pp. 3–4)

Uncle Chaim is nonplussed and says “I can’t see my model. If you wouldn’t mind moving just a bit?” The angel says he will paint no one else from this day forth. As if a celestial angel is going to push an artist around. “I don’t work on commission. … I used to, but you have to put up with too many aggravating rich people. Now I just paint what I paint, take it to the gallery.” (p. 4) And so it continues for a while, very droll, very Jewish. When the angel shows more of her radiance — “with the vast, unutterable beauty that a thousand medieval and Renaissance artists had somehow not gone mad (for the most part) trying to ambush on canvas or trap in stone” — Uncle Chaim wavers for a moment. “I thought maybe I should kneel, what would it hurt? But then I thought, what would it hurt? It’d hurt my left knee, the one had the arthritis twenty years, that’s what it would hurt.” (p. 5)

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/02/26/we-never-talk-about-my-brother-by-peter-s-beagle/