Reading With Robin at Word For Word at Bryant Park

Bryant Park, located right behind the New York Public Library, hosts a fabulous literary series each summer. Word For Word features authors in conversation about their works on Wednesdays during the lunch hour, and a few weeks ago I saw a really terrific program.

Robin Kall, who hosts a radio program Reading With Robin, hosted four authors talking about Family Drama in Fiction.

Kall, Dubow, Genova, Hughes, Thomas

Charles Dubow, who wrote Indiscretion, a book I really liked, is back with Girl in the Moonlight, a love story about "a first love that lasts a bit too long." It has compelling characters, and he said "the moral of the story resonates with me, hopefully with you too."

Lisa Genova, whose novel Still Alice, was recently made into a heartbreaking movie that won the Oscar for Julianne Moore, is back with Inside the O'Briens about a family dealing with the diagnosis of Huntington's Disease, a fatal neurodegenerative disease that is passed on genetically. She says it is about "how to find hope in a hopeless situation." I read it and it is amazing. (My review is here.)

Mary Beth Hughes' The Loved Ones is "essentially a story about a marriage." Set in 1969-70, a couple who lost their son two years ago are trying to find their way back to each other amidst problems with their 13 year-old daughter, and a brother who is trying to involve them in an embezzlement scheme.

Matthew Thomas' We Are Not Ourselves was on my list of The Most Compelling Books of 2014, and as Robin stated "is destined to be a classic." His story is about a Irish immigrant's daughter born in the 1940's who aspires to become middle class and achieve the American dream. He says it's about "how to deal with life with grace." (My review here.)

Kall asked some great questions of the group, including asking what kind of eavesdropping they did as part of their writing. Genova is from a large Italian family (she is the 26th grandchild!), a group she called "loud and boisterous", so there were plenty of opportunities as a child to listen.

Thomas declared that he was "an inveterate eavesdropper", claiming that as a writer he is always listening to the story being told off to the side.

Hughes's father is one of 12 children and she has 72 first cousins, so she always was surrounded by people talking. Now that she is a writer, her aunt is always telling her that she "has a lot of stories."

Dubow comes from a small family, and he was born with a stutter, so always listened much more than he talked.

Kall then asked what determined the time period setting of their novels, which was a good question I hadn't heard much before.  Thomas said he told a "story of time and place." It needed context, and called it a historical novel, not one "shot through with cell phones."

Hughes said that setting was very important to her story, calling it "Mad Men-esque" in 1969-70 when women's consciousness groups were beginning, and what that meant to the teenage daughter.

Genova's novel had to be set after 1993, when the gene that causes Huntington's was isolated. The fact that genetic testing is available is a key plot point in Inside the O'Briens.

Dubow needed to set his novel at the beginning of the AIDS crisis, when AIDS shaming was prevalent, as that is important to his plot as well.

When Kall asked if any topics were off-limits, Genova burst out with "Hockey. I'm not writing about hockey", which elicited chuckles from the audience.

Thomas said "this sounds like a challenge", then said he would "stay away from something that was unnecessarily painful to others." Dubow said he would not write about something he knew nothing about, while Hughes would "find it difficult to write about dance."

Kall said that some of her favorite family drama authors are Jonathan Tropper and Phillip Roth and asked the authors to name some of the favorites. Hughes loves Penelope Fitzgerald, saying that Blue Flower and Gate of Angels were favorites.

Thomas believes that everything is family drama, and called out Alice McDermott (one of my favorites) as well as the Russians, like Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky.

Genova liked All The Light We Cannot See, last year's Pulitzer Prize winner, and Dubow also cited the Russians, along with William Faulkner and James Salter's The Light Years.

Kall closed with a fantastic question- "What is the hope for your families in your book?" Hughes has great hope for her character Lily, " a beautiful spirit with great faith."  Thomas hopes that his character Eileen has grandchildren and learns to "feel the joy and forget the things that drove her and that she is more present in the moment."

Genova hops that her characters, who face chronic health issues can "be present to love, and the feel the gratitude of the joy of today.

Robin Kall was a wonderful moderator and this was one of the best Word For Word events I have attended. The rest of the summer schedule is here.

You can follow Robin Kall here.

New in Paperback- We Are Not Ourselves by Matthew Thomas

We Are Not Ourselves by Matthew Thomas
Published by Simon & Schuster ISBN 9781476756677
Trade paperback, $16, 656 pages

One of the books that was getting the most buzz at last year's Book Expo was Matthew Thomas' debut novel, We Are Not Ourselves. The 600 page tome delves into the life of Eileen Tumulty Leary, a girl born to Irish immigrants in 1941.

Her father, called Big Mike, was the man that all of the guys in the neighborhood turned to for advice and a drink. Big Mike spent much of his time at the local bar, holding court and drinking whiskey. The Tumultys lived in a two bedroom apartment, sharing one bedroom with three single beds and the second bedroom belonged to Mr. Kehoe, a quiet boarder.

After Eileen's mother became pregnant and miscarried, she spent months in the hospital. Upon her return home, she was a different woman. She began to drink, and it was up to Eileen to care for not only her father, but now her mother as well. It was a big burden for a young girl.

Eileen knew the way out of her troubles was getting an education. She was smart and worked hard to become a nurse. Her goal was to get into the middle-class. She knew the key to this was marrying a man who shared her dreams. She wanted a man with her father's best qualities:

"She wanted to find a man who was like him, but who hadn't formed as hard an exterior; someone fate had tested, but who had retained a little more innocence. Someone who could rise above the grievances life had put before him. If her father had a weakness, that was it. There were other ways to be strong. She wasn't blind to them.

She wanted a man whose trunk was thick but whose bark was thin, who flowered beautifully, even if only for her."

Eileen found that man in Edwin Leary, a research scientist. After a rocky first blind date, they fell in love and married. Eileen felt sure that they were on their way to being solidly middle-class American. They both had good jobs, and buying a home wouldn't be far behind.

She believed that Ed would climb the ladder at work, and when he was offered a job working for a pharmaceutical company, making a lot more money, she was bewildered when he turned it down.  Ed wanted to teach students at a local college. He also worked endlessly on his research, leaving Eileen and their young son Connell alone for long stretches of time.

It began to dawn on Eileen that maybe Ed didn't want the same things she did. She wanted to keep moving forward, he was content for things to stay the same. The eccentricities she had noticed while courting and thought romantic had "curdled into pathologies. What had been charmingly independent became fussy and self-defeating."

After years of this stasis, Eileen became determined to buy a home. Their neighborhood in Queens was becoming much more diverse, the Irish residents moving away. Eileen looked at homes in Bronxville, closer to her and Ed's work and a place where there was more space.

She found a dilapidated home that needed a great deal of work to make it livable, and after many arguments and Ed saying he was never leaving Queens, she insisted and they bought the house. Soon after, it became apparent that Ed's eccentricities and rages were more than personality quirks; there was something wrong.

Ed was diagnosed with early Alzheimer's. Their world changed overnight and everything Eileen had worked and hoped for was gone. Their place in middle-class America was in jeopardy. Ed had to hide his condition from his employer in order to make it to retirement in 18 months where he would made $1400 more per month than if he left his job now.

Eileen had to make sure she kept her job for ten more years to get to retirement. She saw a lawyer friend who advised her to divorce Ed in order to keep her assets separate, and then Ed would be eligible for Medicaid. What an indictment of the American healthcare system that this is the best option.

Eileen is determined to care for Ed at home, and that becomes increasingly difficult. She hires a man to care for him during the day while she works, and comes home to care for him at night.

We Are Not Ourselves tells not only Eileen's story, but it is ours too. We want what Eileen wants: love, family, satisfying work, a home of our own, our part of the American dream. We are willing to work hard for it, but along the way things happen that can derail our lives. How we deal with the bumps along the road, big and small, will define us.

I loved this beautiful, sad, heartbreaking novel. Eileen is not a perfect woman; her inability to show affection for her son caused both of them much pain. But when the chips were down, Eileen showed her true colors. She did what most us do: step up, soldier on, and do the best we can, even if that sometimes wasn't enough.

There were so many things that made my heart hurt here. When Eileen's mother is on her deathbed after years of sobriety, she tells Eileen that she wishes she hadn't stopped drinking. She would have given everything she had away for another drink. That just killed me.

Eileen's relationship with her son was a heartbreaker too. Connell couldn't step up when she needed him to, and he was willing to throw away everything Eileen and Ed had worked for and hoped for him.  Eileen's rage and disappointment is palpable on the page.

We Are Not Ourselves is the kind of book that you savor as you're reading, devouring it all and occasionally closing the book to contemplate the beautiful language and story. And when I finished it, I wanted to open it again and start re-reading it, wanting to experience it again and yet regretting that I will never read this stunning book for the first time again. But I know this will be a book I turn to again and again.

Frequently books that have such hype can't possibly live up to the expectations. Do not fear, We Are Not Ourselves not only does that, but exceeds it.

rating 5 of 5

We Are Not Ourselves by Matthew Thomas

We Are Not Ourselves by Matthew Thomas
Published bySimon and Schuster ISBN 978-1-4767-5666-0
Hardcover $28, 640 pages

One of the books that was getting the most buzz at this year's Book Expo was Matthew Thomas' debut novel, We Are Not Ourselves. The 600 page tome delves into the life of Eileen Tumulty Leary, a girl born to Irish immigrants in 1941.

Her father, called Big Mike, was the man that all of the guys in the neighborhood turned to for advice and a drink. Big Mike spent much of his time at the local bar, holding court and drinking whiskey. The Tumultys lived in a two bedroom apartment, sharing one bedroom with three single beds and the second bedroom belonged to Mr. Kehoe, a quiet boarder.

After Eileen's mother became pregnant and miscarried, she spent months in the hospital. Upon her return home, she was a different woman. She began to drink, and it was up to Eileen to care for not only her father, but now her mother as well. It was a big burden for a young girl.

Eileen knew the way out of her troubles was getting an education. She was smart and worked hard to become a nurse. Her goal was to get into the middle-class. She knew the key to this was marrying a man who shared her dreams. She wanted a man with her father's best qualities:

"She wanted to find a man who was like him, but who hadn't formed as hard an exterior; someone fate had tested, but who had retained a little more innocence. Someone who could rise above the grievances life had put before him. If her father had a weakness, that was it. There were other ways to be strong. She wasn't blind to them.

She wanted a man whose trunk was thick but whose bark was thin, who flowered beautifully, even if only for her."

Eileen found that man in Edwin Leary, a research scientist. After a rocky first blind date, they fell in love and married. Eileen felt sure that they were on their way to being solidly middle-class American. They both had good jobs, and buying a home wouldn't be far behind.

She believed that Ed would climb the ladder at work, and when he was offered a job working for a pharmaceutical company, making a lot more money, she was bewildered when he turned it down.  Ed wanted to teach students at a local college. He also worked endlessly on his research, leaving Eileen and their young son Connell alone for long stretches of time.

It began to dawn on Eileen that maybe Ed didn't want the same things she did. She wanted to keep moving forward, he was content for things to stay the same. The eccentricities she had noticed while courting and thought romantic had "curdled into pathologies. What had been charmingly independent became fussy and self-defeating."

After years of this stasis, Eileen became determined to buy a home. Their neighborhood in Queens was becoming much more diverse, the Irish residents moving away. Eileen looked at homes in Bronxville, closer to her and Ed's work and a place where there was more space.

She found a dilapidated home that needed a great deal of work to make it livable, and after many arguments and Ed saying he was never leaving Queens, she insisted and they bought the house. Soon after, it became apparent that Ed's eccentricities and rages were more than personality quirks; there was something wrong.

Ed was diagnosed with early Alzheimer's. Their world changed overnight and everything Eileen had worked and hoped for was gone. Their place in middle-class America was in jeopardy. Ed had to hide his condition from his employer in order to make it to retirement in 18 months where he would made $1400 more per month than if he left his job now.

Eileen had to make sure she kept her job for ten more years to get to retirement. She saw a lawyer friend who advised her to divorce Ed in order to keep her assets separate, and then Ed would be eligible for Medicaid. What an indictment of the American healthcare system that this is the best option.

Eileen is determined to care for Ed at home, and that becomes increasingly difficult. She hires a man to care for him during the day while she works, and comes home to care for him at night.

We Are Not Ourselves tells not only Eileen's story, but it is ours too. We want what Eileen wants: love, family, satisfying work, a home of our own, our part of the American dream. We are willing to work hard for it, but along the way things happen that can derail our lives. How we deal with the bumps along the road, big and small, will define us.

I loved this beautiful, sad, heartbreaking novel. Eileen is not a perfect woman; her inability to show affection for her son caused both of them much pain. But when the chips were down, Eileen showed her true colors. She did what most us do: step up, soldier on, and do the best we can, even if that sometimes wasn't enough.

There were so many things that made my heart hurt here. When Eileen's mother is on her deathbed after years of sobriety, she tells Eileen that she wishes she hadn't stopped drinking. She would have given everything she had a way for another drink. That just killed me.

Eileen's relationship with her son was a heartbreaker too. Connell couldn't step up when she needed him to, and he was willing to throw away everything Eileen and Ed had worked for and hoped for him.  Eileen's rage and disappointment is palpable on the page.

We Are Not Ourselves is the kind of book that you savor as you're reading, devouring it all and occasionally closing the book to contemplate the beautiful language and story. And when I finished it, I wanted to open it again and start re-reading it, wanting to experience it again and yet regretting that I will never read this stunning book for the first time again. But I know this will be a book I turn to again and again.

Frequently books that have such hype can't possibly live up to the expectations. Do not fear, We Are Not Ourselves not only does that, but exceeds it.

rating 5 of 5