Slouching Towards Bethlehem (Joan Didion): This is a book of articles written by Didion in the 1960s for various magazines and newspapers. She’s a compelling writer and reading her observations and insights, from the perspective of someone in their late 20s/early 30s and at a time well before the internet (not to mention Kennedy and Vietnam and the like), makes for absolutely fascinating reading. The topics are wide-ranging – from lifestyles in the ‘golden land’ (she hails from California); morality; keeping a notebook; and Alcatraz – but I found her essays(?) about remembering her arriving in New York as a 21 year-old ('Goodbye To All That', written in 1967) and one entitled ‘Slouching Towards Bethlehem’ (again written in 1967, after a poem by WB Yeats) particularly entertaining/poignant/revealing. The latter tells of her time spent in San Francisco, living amongst friends and strangers who were pursuing/seeking an alternative lifestyle in which drugs (of all kinds) featured prominently (eg. “The next day I drop by Max and Sharon’s, and find them in bed smoking a little morning hash. Sharon once advised me that half a joint even of grass would make getting up in the morning a beautiful thing”). At times, it almost felt like reading Hemingway (pretentious? moi?!), but there’s only one Joan Didion.
Weird Bristol (Charlie Revelle-Smith): Apparently, this book first started life as a Twitter feed sharing lesser-known facts about the city and gradually developed into the ‘Weird Bristol’ project. The book’s cover describes it as ‘the ultimate guide to a city’s secrets’. Frankly, although it DOES contain some fascinating references to various locations and stories within the city (who could forget the story of the fully-grown lion kept in a cage beside the bar of the Bull pub in Bedminster in 1827, for instance?), much of the book seems to regurgitate stuff that’s already well known… and, to my mind, certainly not everything could be classified under the heading of ‘Weird Bristol’. Interesting, nevertheless.
Wrestliana (Toby Litt): Ruth+Stu gave me this book on the recommendation of Emily+Dan at our brilliant local bookshop, StorySmith Books (how many bookshops do YOU know that would say “your Dad will love this book”?!). Litt’s great-great-great-great grandfather, William Litt (1785-1850), was a champion Cumberland wrestler – a huge man who reigned undefeated in one of the 19th century’s most popular sports, taking home over 200 prize belts. He was also a published poet, a novelist, a gambler and, almost certainly, a smuggler. He ended his life in poverty and exile (in Canada). Toby Litt (who has written twelve novels and short-story collections) eventually decided to write about William Litt after repeated ‘suggestions’ from his father. The resulting book, however, is much more than a biography - it’s also a personal memoir of family and fatherhood and a fascinatingly honest self-analysis of his work as a writer and the role of masculinity in the ‘modern world’ - coloured by his own disappointments as a writer and his experiences of bullying and competitive sport at school. A beautifully-written, compelling book.
Pops: Fatherhood In Pieces (Michael Chabon): Another gift book on personal recommendation from StorySmith Books(!). As you probably know, Chabon is a bestselling/Pulitzer Prize-winning author (to my shame, I’d never previously read anything by him). It’s a series of essays about the joys and struggles of being a father (he has four children): “You are born into a family and those are your people, and they know you and they love you, and if you are lucky, they even on occasion manage to understand you. And that ought to be enough. But it is never enough”. What are you allowed to talk about with your children? When to step in with advice, when to let them make their own mistakes? I found the essays to be beautiful, gentle, wise, respectful and funny. It’s a very special book and I absolutely LOVED it.
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