May 27, 2023
The lives of creative individuals inform four books of different genres this week—in memoir, biography, history, and narrative nonfiction. But don’t worry, there is still a delightful work of fiction to discover: the latest from a Russian-born writer based in Berlin with a caustic wit.
Happy Memorial Day weekend!
Melanie Fleishman
Buyer, The Center for Fiction Bookstore
Featured Books
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Barbara Isn't Dying
By Alina Bronsky
Published by Europa Editions
Translated by Tim Mohr
During their long marriage, Walter Schmidt has always left the domestic duties to his wife, Barbara, but one day she takes a fall and suddenly he is in charge. Even his attempt at making coffee is a disaster. What follows is an oddly tender look at what happens when he is forced to reverse roles and become a caretaker to his wife. Bronsky, originally from the Ural Mountains, has said: “Sometimes I do readings and people can’t stop laughing, but I’m reading about pretty tragic things. I think Soviet humor is a desperate humor, rather typical of very different nations, of Jewish people, Ukrainians, and of course, Russians. …just keep laughing, until you are dead.”
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The Story of Art Without Men
By Katy Hessel
Published by W. W. Norton
After listening to a terrific NPR interview with the author, I couldn’t resist delving into Hessel’s wildly readable history of art from the 1500s to current day. Her mission was to rectify the male-dominated art history tomes, and to rescue some of the many, many women artists from obscurity. She does a rather brilliant job after shocking us with statistics that relegate women to the margins of art history and daring us to name a few of them. In addition to better-known artists like Georgia O’Keeffe and Frida Kahlo you will meet countless talented women whose work is extraordinary. Brava Hessel for correcting the record!
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Why Fathers Cry at Night
By Kwame Alexander
Published by Little, Brown and Company
Alexander, widely known as a bestselling poet and young adult writer (and author of the wonderful book for little ones called How to Write a Poem), has penned a memoir about being a father, just in time for Father’s Day. “A boy sealing his familial cracks, repairing romance, and building a monument of love with the only tools he has…” With these words the author takes us through his childhood, his mother’s struggles and recent death, his two marriages, and how his daughters fulfill his life. His unorthodox autobiography, which he dedicates to these two girls, includes poems, as well as recipes like his mother’s prized fried chicken.
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A Life of One's Own
By Joanna Biggs
Published by Ecco
Biggs, who recently joined us for a terrific event at The Center, explores some of our finest women writers’ habits and struggles as they honed their craft, including Plath, Ferrante, Morrison, Woolf, Hurston, and de Beauvoir. It is a feminist’s dream, a revelatory guidebook that will inspire not just women writers, but anyone interested in the lives of artists. Biggs found solace in researching these nine women at a time when she was recently divorced and her mother was suffering from Alzheimer’s. Her book serves as an encouraging example for writers today of the inseparability of life and work.
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To Anyone Who Ever Asks
By Howard Fishman
Published by Dutton
A surprising gem about a (too) little-known woman musician who was active in New York City in the ’50s and early ’60s. Connie Converse has been called the female Bob Dylan and this fascinating biography has brought a deserving artist back into public awareness. Prepare to go down a rabbit hole to learn about this all-but-forgotten singer-songwriter and to listen to her incredible, plaintive folk songs, which she recorded in her kitchen. She struggled with mental health issues (described as “the screaming meemies”), drove off into the sunset and left behind a trove of letters and music. Her disappearance remains a mystery but happily we still have her music.
