Love?

I'm not telling you anything that you won't read on the back of Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez if I begin by telling you that it is a story about love.  But unlike any other love story that I have read, this one spans decades, without a kiss, and apparently without the knowledge of one of the participants.  Love starts off with a boy, Florentino, flirting with a girl, Fermina.  Fermina's father learns of the flirtation, and tries to put an end to the relationship.  Instead, Ferminia outgrows it herself, and tells Florentino that it is over.  Well, it was over for her.

When Fermina marries another man, Florentino vows to wait for her.  I am still not telling you anything that you won't read on the back of the book if I tell you that when Fermina's husband dies, 51 years later, Florentio shows up at the wake to try to rekindle the old flame.  Isn't that romantic?

To put this story in today's terms, think of a guy who asked you out while you were a sophmore in high school, who you flirted with and exchanged notes or texts, but who you did not go out with.  Then think of him spending the next 51years of his life thinking about you, and waiting for your husband to die, even though you hadn't thought of him since you graduated from high school.  Isn't that really more creepy than romantic?

Love is an enjoyable book, but I am not sure if it is accurate to classify it as a love story, even though Florentino surely would.  It is more a comparison of two lives, one of which is lived in a conventional way, and one of which is lived while waiting for something else to happen.

While reading Love, I had a dream that I was "skiing" down an icy ski hill with my high school boyfriend.  I put "skiing" in quotes, because instead of using skis, I was riding a snowboard with a razor scooter-like handle bar, and he was riding a motorcycle.  I am sure that Freud would have something to say about us racing down a slippery slope.  What I have to say is that my snow-scooter was *AWESOME* and if anyone ever manufactures one, I will be first in line to buy it.  Maybe that will be what I grow old waiting for.

Next Up:  The White Queen by Philippa Gregory

Still Listening to:  The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy  I am really enjoying this CD.  The voice of the reader, Stephen Hoye, is so much like that of an older attorney who is "of counsel" to my firm that I actually looked to see if it was the person I know doing the reading.  The murder does not occur until the third disc of eleven, with the first two and a half discs being all about two police officers who I assume will be involved with the investigation.  The story is so good, that I was not bored, even just hearing about random police officers' lives.  Stephen Hoye's voice is perfect for this book, in that he can talk about someone being "an ace detective" or someone paying "a double sawbuck" and sound genuine.  I think that if I was reading the book, the 1940's investigator lingo would have turned me off, but hearing it in Hoye's voice is really keeping me interested.

Credit Where it is Due

In recent years, letters that an employee of Tiffany Studio sent to her family members have surfaced.  These letters indicate that a woman named Clara Driscoll, who worked for the studio, may have been the designer behind Tiffany's famous lampshades.  This discovery is the foundation of Susan Vreeland's new novel, Clara and Mr. Tiffany.

Clara and Mr. Tiffany is written as sort of an expose' where the reader is supposed to get the idea that Louis Tiffany really didn't have so much to do with his famous Tiffany glass, particularly the lampshades. Although I don't know for sure because I found the picture above at Google images, the lamp that is pictured looks very much like a lamp described in the book as being designed by Clara.

Clara is petulant about the fact that she doesn't get more credit for her work, even when she is named as the designer for a certain work that won a prize at the Paris World Fair of 1900.  But actually, the idea of an employee being responsible for art credited to someone more famous is nothing new.  We had never heard of Clara Driscoll prior to about 2008, but we had not heard much about any other designer who worked for Louis Tiffany either.  Likewise, we have not heard about the jewelry designers who worked for Louis Tiffany's famous father, Charles Tiffany, at his little shop, Tiffany and Company.  Another example is the famous sculptor, Auguste Rodin, who actually didn't sculpt.  He designed the statutes and busts, but then would hire unnamed no ones to physically carve the stone to fit his vision.  So really, what could Clara expect?  A Clara Driscoll lamp would have never sold as well as a Tiffany, but now, thanks to Vreeland and the others who uncovered her role, the "Driscolls" will probably be among the most valuable of the Tiffanys.

While Clara is complaining about not getting her due, she reveals a good deal about the progressive ways of Louis Tiffany, which are much to his credit.  For instance, Clara was able to work at Tiffany Studio because unlike the other glass studios of the time, Tiffany believed in hiring women.  He even paid them the same as the men, causing the men to strike in protest.  If Vreeland is accurate, he also hired the physically disabled, homosexuals, and people in interracial marriages.  While he battled his demons, Clara has to concede that without Louis Tiffany, his materials, his teachings, and his funding, she could not have been a glass designer, and certainly would not have been in charge of an entire department in such a well known company. 

The Afterward reveals that many of the more minor characters, including most of the people who lived in Clara's boarding house, were also real people who went on to attain various degrees of success and anonymity. If this boarding house existed today it would be very tempting to pack up and move in.  The house was full of people who cared for one another, and entertained each other by performing plays or reading poetry in the evenings.  The men's favorite poet was Walt Whitman, and if I hadn't already read Leaves of Grass I certainly would have added it to my TBR list after reading Clara.

Next up on CD:  The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy

Almost done reading:  Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

The Book Group Report - 7

My book group met tonight to discuss The Persian Pickle Club by Sandra Dallas.  The consensus was that it was a good story.  We had a little disagreement about whether the narrator, Queenie, was truthful.  This had to do with whether what she says should be taken literally, or whether at the end she says something to deliberately deceive both Rita and the reader. We also discussed how this was a book set in the time of the Great Depression, but published in 1996, and read by us in 2011.  We wondered if we, as readers in 2011, could relate more to the characters than the original readers in 1996 could have.  As I've discussed before, we know now that squatters are people in the real world, and we really didn't get that in 1996.

Next up:  Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann.  I have read this book already, and I really liked it.  The premise is that the author takes a day on which a crazy but forgotten event occurred in New York City, and adds other characters.  He then shows the reader other things that could have happened in the City that day that were significant to the characters, but likely would have been overshadowed in the news by a wild stunt.  I think it worked really well, and I'm anxious to know what the other book clubbers thought of it.

Almost done listening to:  Clara and Mr. Tiffany by Susan Vreeland

Still reading:  Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez