Boldtype | May 2008


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May 2008:: issue 55

Books This Month
1.	The Fortune Cookie Chronicles by Jennifer 8. Lee
2.	Lush Life by Richard Price
3.	The Lazarus Project by Aleksandar Hemon
4.	Stoner by John Williams
5.	After the Deluge by Kara Walker
6.	The Bishop's Daughter by Honor Moore
	Interview: A.M. Homes Feature: Studs Terkel Book News Credits/About Us

Portraits
This month we recommend books about exceptional individuals and singular subjects. Aleksandar Hemon delves self-consciously into Eastern Europe, Richard Price takes a cross section of New York's Lower East Side, and Jennifer 8. Lee offers a time-lapse snapshot of American Chinese food. We also interview A.M. Homes about her recent memoir, which takes a hard look at the biological parents who gave her up for adoption. We close with an appreciation of Studs Terkel, the legendary oral historian. Portraits can be loving, incisive, comprehensive, or critical — the best ones manage to be all of those things at once.

- Toby Warner, Managing Editor

NONFICTION

The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food by Jennifer 8. Lee


Published:	March 2008
Pages:	320
Publisher:	Twelve
Links: NY Times review LA Times review New York review Book website

“Available everywhere from shacks that sell it alongside hamburgers to highly rated Zagat favorites, Chinese food is one of the most iconic comfort foods in American culture.”

Review
For over a hundred years, Chinese food has transcended religion, race, and picky eaters in American culture. More than a mere cuisine, it has become a cultural phenomenon — it's a Christmas Eve tradition, a midnight indulgence, and a source of fortunes and good advice. Available everywhere from shacks that sell it alongside hamburgers to the highly rated Zagat favorites, Chinese food is one of our most iconic comfort foods.

In The Fortune Cookie Chronicles, Jennifer 8. Lee re-examines this beloved food with a series of questions. How true is American Chinese food to its forebears? Who is General Tso, anyway? How in the world do those fortunes get inside the cookie?

Lee's cross-cultural culinary journey began in 2005, when she learned that 110 second-place Powerball winners — a lottery record — had used the same set of "lucky numbers" from Chinese fortune cookies served in restaurants all over the US, from Montana to Virginia. So many winners bonded by the same picks was a first in Powerball history. After discovering this unlikely statistical coincidence, Lee travels the country to interview the different people who won big off of identical fortunes. Lee then takes her fascination over to China, to see if beloved American Chinese dishes match up to the originals, and, in turn, develops a sort of origin story.

Over the course of this investigation, Lee tells human-interest tales of cookie and chop-suey copyrights, describing the fights that have continued for generations (in and out of court) over the origin and ownership of these edible classics. The book balances history and cooking lessons with Lee's humorous mythbusting expeditions; she delves deep into the transnational world of Chinese food while also chronicling the development of food-delivery services and the rise of popular chains like Panda Express and P.F. Chang's. The Fortune Cookie Chronicles is at once a historical, personal, and culinary tale that ultimately manages to be as savory as its subject.
- Diana Metzger

FICTION

Lush Life by Richard Price


Published:	March 2008
Pages:	464
Publisher:	Farrar, Straus, and Giroux
Links: NY Times review Salon review NPR interview

“Through Price's writerly precision, the Lower East Side itself becomes a central character.”

Review
Though it's almost impossible to find a New York City neighborhood that hasn't become a proverbial melting pot of disparate social, economic, and cultural groups, Manhattan's Lower East Side is a prime example of this ongoing amalgamation. The idealist imagines that these groups intermingle and cohabit the neighborhood happily and peacefully, grateful and even proud of the diversity. The cynic, on the other hand, envisions the neighborhood as a powder keg, with the different groups permanently on the verge of exploding into all-out war.

In his most recent novel, Lush Life, Richard Price finds value in both of these perspectives while traversing the wide gray area between them. The story's effectiveness derives from a cast of characters who represent every conceivable walk of life: detectives who are as different from one another as can be, yet are all somehow born to be cops; stuck-up kids and wannabe gangsters who eventually fall into crime for myriad reasons; immigrants who want to make their money and remain invisible; landlords and businessmen who cash in on gentrification; and, of course, aspiring artists and young professionals who flock to the area for the same ephemeral sense of bohemian coolness. Each of these characters has been affected by the murder of an optimistic young poet/bartender, and their stories overlap in gut-wrenching vignettes. To delineate the plot any further would reveal too much, and, furthermore, the plot is not even the locus of the novel.

Through Price's writerly precision, the neighborhood itself becomes a central character — one that, at times, resembles a Shakespearean tragic hero — in this densely layered lesson on both the complexity of interpersonal relationships and our willingness to ignore them. Despite the dark subject matter, Lush Life is not an indictment; Price doesn't write in order to damn the culture — he is just its loyal documentarian.
- Tom Roberge

FICTION

The Lazarus Project by Aleksandar Hemon


Published:	May 2008
Pages:	304
Publisher:	Riverhead
Links: Author website Salon interview

“Hemon is plainly and ardently in love with the music of English consonants and vowels.”

Review
The genre inaugurated by Jonathan Safran Foer's 2002 novel Everything Is Illuminated has finally found its standard bearer. Like Everything before it, Aleksandar Hemon's The Lazarus Project comprises a mildly successful, yet deeply neurotic author living in America, a character who speaks in a funny patois, an intriguing story of a murdered Eastern European Jew, the author/narrator's journey back to Europe to write a book about the aforementioned Eastern European Jew, existential concern about writing said book, and the crafting of this concern into the very book that the reader is holding. Despite this seemingly formulaic template, however, there are a few worthwhile differences.

The Bosnian-born Hemon came to the English language late in life, and, as a result, he brings a playfulness to his writing that is often absent among that of native speakers (including Foer). Hemon is plainly and ardently in love with the music of English consonants and vowels — take, for instance, the cadence of his "wistful whistle of a teapot" and "sparkling cuff links rhymed with the rings on his wife's arthritic talons," or the idea that uneven street lights can be "arrhythmic."

In terms of narrative tempo, the hero's spiraling journey — which starts in early-20th-century Chicago, fast-forwards to the present day, then wends back to war-torn Sarajevo and time-ravaged Moldova villages — is much less madcap than Foer's seemingly frantic race across Ukraine. Though suffused with melancholy and nostalgia (the genre's recognizable emotional dimples), Hemon's work has more in common with Daniel Mendelsohn's ponderous Shoah-memoir The Lost. That's not to say it's a meditation in stillness — there's still blood, guts, glory, puns, and the precious. And in Hemon's hands, any residual gimmickry left over from his antecedents is overcome through sheer and furious talent.
- Josh Stein

FICTION

Stoner by John Williams


Published:	2006
Pages:	278
Publisher:	New York Review of Books
Links: NYRB review NY Times review

“Stoner deserves to be called a 'perfect novel' — there's not a misplaced word or a trace of contrivance.”

Review
The first thing we ask when a book is recommended to us is, "What's it about?" In many ways, a novel is no different than a pop song: one with a good hook that's immediately compelling and easily distilled fares better in the marketplace than one that's obtuse. That may help to explain why John Williams' Stoner was virtually ignored upon its publication in 1965 and has spent many of the years since out of print. Though a later Williams novel shared the 1973 National Book Award, his portrait of the life and death of a reticent, dutiful English professor might appear to be prosaic, pedestrian, and kind of square.

Expanding the synopsis doesn't help much. The book begins as William Stoner leaves his family's rural Missouri farm, on foot, for the University of Missouri in 1910, intending to study agriculture. After an English class with a professor-turned-mentor, however, Stoner changes his major to literature. Upon graduation, the same professor urges him to continue on as a graduate student. Stoner's life thence until his death in 1956 is driven by the soul-affirming power of books and his farm-bred work ethic — both of which manifest themselves in his dedication to teaching. In the end, it is as a teacher that he finds true meaning: teaching is his sanctuary from the vicissitudes of departmental politics, from a loveless marriage and an ill-fated affair, and from a changing culture and a world at war.

It's hard to imagine a novel this "quiet" being published today (at least by an unknown author), but it's even more difficult to imagine how it was written. There's nothing much that happens that the reader can't already see coming; in some sense we are as resigned to Stoner's fate as he is. And yet the work deserves to be called a "perfect novel" — there's not a misplaced word or a trace of contrivance. In its mission to make a hero of an ordinary man who would be a minor character in any other book, Stoner succeeds beyond all measure. So what's it about? It's about life — aren't all the good ones?
- Chris Parris-Lamb

ART

After the Deluge by Kara Walker


Published:	2007
Pages:	118
Publisher:	Rizzoli
Links: NY Times exhibition review Boston Globe interview Author bio

“Walker creates a context for understanding both her own work and the traditional portrayal of black bodies in American art.”

Review
After the Deluge chronicles the same-titled exhibition Kara Walker organized at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the spring and summer of 2006. With the horror of Hurricane Katrina as its impetus, the collection of paintings and works on paper asks the viewer to reconsider the disaster as the most recent in a series of waterborne tragedies that have contributed to America's racial divide. It was, after all, the Atlantic Ocean that first bore a stolen people to this soil.

In the months after Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast, the media began to use grandiloquent phrases such as "after the deluge" to describe the catastrophe. Walker appropriates this language and its implicit outlook to situate her trademark silhouettes within a continuum of popular portraiture and perception. In turn, she creates a context for understanding both her own work and the traditional portrayal of black bodies in American art and culture.

The volume begins with a richly decorated Kongolese male power figure — a cultural symbol literally plucked from Africa by imperial forces. This sculpture is followed by J.M.W. Turner's painting Slave Ship (Slavers Throwing the Dead and Dying, Typhoons Coming On) (1840), which depicts sailors callously casting the enslaved off a ship during the middle passage. To round out this historical survey, Walker also features the equally upsetting illustration of slaves bludgeoning a ship's captain from John Warner Barber's book A History of the Amistad Captives (also dating from 1840).

These three images serve as the foundation for Walker's silhouettes and collages. In each piece, she magnifies stereotypes about black Americans, depicting them as depraved, lascivious, and cannibalistic animals. At the end of her episodic portraits, Walker then invites the reader to reconsider Bill Haber's photograph of a black woman treading through oily hurricane floodwaters. Walker's survey of the traditional treatment of black Americans ultimately contextualizes the failed response to this most recent tragedy.
- Adda Birnir

NONFICTION

The Bishop's Daughter: A Memoir by Honor Moore


Published:	May 2008
Pages:	352
Publisher:	W.W. Norton
Links: Author website New Yorker excerpt Feminist Review review

“Moore offers insight into two seemingly incongruent worlds, vacillating between the ethos of a religious community and the moneyed family dynasty into which she was born.”

Review
Honor Moore's memoir recounts her experience as the daughter of an esteemed Episcopal priest. Her desire to understand her father — a complicated, aloof man — before his death motivated an exploration of the bonds between family. Moore's story begins as she is caring for her ailing father in New York City and traverses the years between the turbulent '60s and her father's death in 2003.

Bishop Paul Moore Jr. was born into a family of great wealth and privilege — a dynasty of real-estate moguls and the founders of the Diamond Match Company. He received a medal of honor for his time in the military, which included a tour of duty in Guadalcanal, and entered the Episcopal priesthood shortly thereafter. The author's mother, Jenny McKean Moore, was also born into the upper echelons of society and was a writer and intellectual in her own right. Both parents were active in the Civil Rights movement, and much of Moore's childhood was spent in the thick of the political turmoil that characterized that era of activism. As an adult, Moore explored her own sexual identity and was on the forefront of women's liberation in New York during the '70s. Her own intimate relationships with both men and women led to an understanding of the psychological minefield of her parents' marriage, which ultimately dissolved due to her father's bisexuality. In the waning moments of her father's life, Moore discovers warmth for a man of great public stature, but who always seemed to be a distant patriarchal figure.

Moore's humble, poetic writing is as welcoming as it is seductive. She offers insight into two seemingly incongruent worlds, vacillating between the ethos of a religious community and the dynamics of the moneyed family into which she was born. In her attempts to understand her own familial relationships, Moore finds a remarkable voice with which to write the story of her life, and, by turn, her father's.
- Katharine Greder

INTERVIEW A.M. Homes		The Mistress's Daughter is the first work of nonfiction by novelist A.M. Homes. Now out in paperback, the book is an enthralling account of her attempts to reckon with her biological parents, who met when her father was a married businessman and her mother was his teenage employee. Homes approaches her story in a variety of ways, including straight memoir, genealogy, fictional episodes, and even a deposition. She spoke with Boldtype's Toby Warner about the challenges she faced — from her own distaste for memoirs to an overeager New Yorker fact-checker. BT: How did the project that led to this book begin? AMH: After my biological parents returned to my life, I don't think I had a choice about writing their story down. That's my way of dealing with information. I hadn't written autobiographically before this book, and I don't really keep journals, but I have always taken notes on things. As this was happening, I just thought it was so strange, and I knew I had to make a shoebox gesture — to organize this information and put it in a box. I wanted to hold the pieces in place for a while to get used to them. A box is also like a book — something that would hold everything together. BT: There's a section where you describe going through the boxes of your biological mother's belongings after her death. Did being a fiction writer help you at all when you wanted to compose a story from those belongings? AMH: I feel like her belongings contained much less than I thought they would. I really hoped that they would let me get to know my biological mother in some way. What they did tell me was that her life was really tragic, that she struggled with things that were complex, and that the adults who should have helped her didn't. It didn't really help me to construct the narrative, though. What would have been helpful from either parent would be to have heard them tell the stories of their lives. But that never happened. BT: How was the experience of writing this book different from writing fiction? Keep reading »

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FEATURE Studs Terkel: Portraits of a Nation		While anthropologists and Ira Glass might argue otherwise, oral history isn't the sexiest of modern mediums. Recordings are often left in dusty boxes, and transcripts make for awkward reading, while video cameras are ubiquitous as the documentary-making devices of choice. And yet, what do you gain when you lose the lens? Judging from the work of Studs Terkel, a former radio DJ from Chicago who has amassed thousands of hours of oral histories, it's the invaluable sense of camaraderie that bonds the interviewer and interviewee — a sliver of organically preserved history that's branded with individuality, laced with a graceful nostalgia, and flawed by the limits of memory. Terkel's best work is centered on concepts — from race to labor to growing old in the 20th century — but the breadth and scope of his work are also remarkable. The now 96-year-old spent 45 years hosting radio shows, has written dozens of books, and has investigated jazz, theatre, and radio-DJ subcultures to teenage culture and human reactions to nuclear weapons. Terkel approaches themes in American culture from the bottom up, forgoing highbrow academic theory to simply ask people what they think and how they feel. "Did you find yourself in ticklish situations?" Terkel asks an Irish mobster in Hard Times; "You don't recall at any time feeling a sense of shame?" he questions a woman who waited in soup lines during the Depression; and "Are you scared of anything?" he queries an ex-prize fighter. The uninitiated could start with My American Century, a collection of eight oral histories, or listen to Voices of Our Time, a six-CD compilation of his radio interviews; but, unabridged collections such as Hard Times, Working, and Division Street truly capture the majesty of Terkel's work. These projects demonstrate his intricate handling of a subject — respectively, the Great Depression, the psychology of labor, and the history of urban Chicago — and illustrate his multi-angled approach to places and eras. Keep reading »

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BOOK NEWS A few notable bits of recent book news.
Hyperion founder moves to HarperCollins (LA Times)
Hyperion Books founder Robert S. Miller leaves the Disney-owned publishing house for HarperCollins' new digital division.
Making a list, checking it twice (Slate)
The Man Who Made Lists offers a new look at the evolution and fate of Roget's thesaurus in the digital age.
The last laugh (NY Observer)
Novelist and critic Dale Peck and Heroes creator Tim Kring sell an alternate-history trilogy to Crown for $3 million.
IMPAC announces shortlist (Guardian)
The world's largest book prize, the International Dublin IMPAC Literary Award, has announced the nominations for its shortlist.
Soap character's novel comes to life (NY Times)
A book written by a fictional character on All My Children is now on sale, after the show collaborated with Hyperion.
Kindle invigorates ebooks (Guardian)
Amazon's Kindle has boosted the ebooks trade after four months on the market.
Rowling honored at book awards (BBC)
J.K. Rowling receives the Outstanding Achievement Prize at London's 2008 Galaxy British Book Awards.
Díaz wins Pulitzer (Guardian)
Junot Díaz wins the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.
Jailed Chinese writer receives PEN/Goldsmith Award (Bloomberg)
Imprisoned scribe Yang Tongyan will receive the $10,000 PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award.
Canada's oldest bookstore closes (CBC)
Halifax's beloved Book Room closes its doors after 169 years of business.
Blogger gets major book deal (NY Times)
Random House has purchased the rights to a book by Christian Lander, the blogger behind Stuff White People Like, for a reported $300,000.
Love and literary taste (NY Times)
Rachel Donadio examines how reading preferences can affect relationships.


CREDITS Managing Editor Toby Warner Deputy Editor Chelsea Bauch Contributing Editors Jennifer Chen Chris Parris-Lamb Paul Laster Doug Levy Mark Mangan Editors-at-Large Larry Weissman Sean McDonald Contributors Adda Birnir Katharine Greder McKay McFadden Diana Metzger Tom Roberge Joshua David Stein Production & Design Morgan Croney Sascha Lewis Andrew Steinmetz Daphne Yang Cover Art Alec Soth Untitled 04 (detail), 2002 From the book Dog Days, Bogotá Published by Steidl Courtesy D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers All Rights Reserved		ABOUT US Boldtype is a monthly, email-based review of books published by Flavorpill Productions. Our mission is to cover five to seven books each month that are worth reading. No money is accepted from any publishers, writers, reviewers, or marketing or PR companies. In addition to this monthly review of books, Flavorpill publishes a series of online magazines, covering ART, NEWS, MUSIC, and cultural events in six cities — NEW YORK, LOS ANGELES, SAN FRANCISCO, CHICAGO, MIAMI, and LONDON. Coming soon: STYLE/DESIGN and FILM. Subscribe now. MEDIA PARTNERSHIPS Every month, Boldtype presents one exclusive media partner. Click for more information about advertising opportunities on Boldtype and across all Flavorpill publications. FEEDBACK We welcome any and all feedback — comments, criticism, and even effusive praise. To reach the staff at Boldtype, please email us at editor. SUBMISSIONS If you have a book that you would like us to consider for review, please send an email to books or mail a copy here: Boldtype c/o Flavorpill Productions 594 Broadway, Suite 1212 New York, NY 10012

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