This Is How It Begins by Joan Dempsey

"Compulsively readable, This Is How It Begins is a timely novel about free speech, the importance of empathy, and the bitter consequences of long-buried secrets." from the publisher

Only six years ago I saw a Christian church undergo a vicious split. It involved attacking the denomination for a social creed they deemed too liberal and the pastor as heretical for not leading their withdrawal from the denomination. Their main point of contention was over abortion, although they also were vocal about homosexuality.

A majority of the church members left the denomination to start a community church, but first, they tried to take over, then destroy, the church they had been members of for many years. It was shocking how individuals viciously attacked others while
professing a Bible-based faith.

My husband was the pastor of that church. It was that experience that prompted me to request this novel.

This Is How It Begins by Joan Dempsey was an emotional read, full of believable and fully realized characters, doctrinal idealists and victims of prejudice and hate. I loved how characters showed themselves to be different from what we expected from them.

Art professor Ludka Zeilonka had survived Nazi Poland while saving Jewish children and hiding drawings documenting the occupation. She immigrated to America with her husband Izaac, who became the first Jewish attorney-general in Massachusetts. Their son Lolek is the state's most powerful senator, and his son Tommy is a well-liked high school English Teacher, married to lawyer Richard.

Tommy, along with thirteen other teachers, were all fired on the same day. The one thing they have in common is their sexual orientation. Tommy and his family become the target of hate crimes of increasing violence.

Influential Pastor Royce has an agenda and political ambitions. He is supported by radio host Warren Merck in a campaign to restore America to its Christian roots. They are behind the mass firing of teachers. Politically savvy, their defense is that Christian students feel marginalized and pressured against expressing their beliefs while being forced to accept the 'homosexual agenda' promoted by the fired teachers.

Merck is appalled by the rising violence, Tommy beaten in front of his house and his grandparent's home set on fire.

Ludka and Izaac return to their hometown in Poland, an emotional journey into a past they have tried to forget. Lukda finds the Jewish boy her family had protected and learns his devastating secret.

Ludka suffers from post-traumatic stress syndrome. What is happening to Tommy is too much like what she experienced in Poland, too much like how the Holocaust began.

The topic of the novel, sadly, is more relevant today than ever: How can conflicting belief systems learn to live together? What does it mean to be protected under the law?

This is an amazing novel.

I received a free ebook from the publisher in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

This Is How It Begins
by Joan Dempsey
She Writes Press
Publication October 17, 2017
ISBN: 9781631523083

Talking with Joan Dempsey, Author of This Is How It Begins

I had the privilege to converse with author Joan Dempsey whose first novel This Is How It Begins was published October 3, 2017.

By sharing the story of Holocaust survivors whose gay grandchild loses his teaching position over his sexual orientation, Dempsey addresses relevant issues: How can conflicting belief systems learn to live together? What does it mean to be protected under the law?

In the novel, we meet Professor Ludka, an artist who hid Jews in Poland under the Nazis, and her Jewish spouse Isaac. Their son Lolok rose to be the first Jewish State Attorney General, a man who championed gay marriage rights. Their grandson Tommy one of thirteen teachers fired on the same day. The only thing the teachers have in common is their sexual orientation. A local popular Christian pastor and radio show host have plotted to make public education a 'Christian friendly' place. But their careful plans go awry as escalating violence against Tommy reaches his grandparents.

Nancy: When I read your blog post about your personal encounter with bigotry I was very moved and sad. Then I thought about how you had to research radical Christian groups for Pastor Royce and Warren Meck, et. al. And your portrayal was generous.

Joan: Thank you. Warren Meck was the most challenging character to write, but I ended up feeling really good about him. So far I am hearing from readers, especially Christian readers, that I did a good job with the balance. That was certainly my goal.

Nancy: He seemed to have a core value that allows self-judgment and to see the evil in violence used for 'righteous ends.'

Joan: Yes, exactly right. Meck has all the right intentions, and I wanted to really get inside and understand him. It was mostly hard because, like any character, I had to find what made him tick.

Nancy: So there is an objectivity in writing when you are delving into a character?

Joan: Yes, definitely an objectivity. I feel it is critically important to understand the characters on their own terms and keep myself completely out of it.

My closest readers told me at some point that he would have a wife and children. And they were exactly right! Once he had a wife and kids, he came fully alive. Before that, he was eluding me. I think he was just waiting for his family to show up!:-)

Sometimes I need to find something we have in common in order for me to understand more deeply, But that's as far as our similarities go. It's simply a way to enter into the character more deeply.

Nancy: So characters are to be discovered, as opposed to being invented?

Joan: I would say characters are equally discovered and invented. It is a rare character that shows up fully formed. I have had several characters who have done that and it's always a gift. Others are harder work and take longer to figure out. For Warren Meck in particular, what he and I have in common is our love of lobbying and legislation.

Nancy: There are a lot of legal discussions going on, which isn't often encountered in fiction that is not 'crime' oriented.

Joan: This novel started out as a political novel starring Lolek, the state senator. I knew I wanted to write about politics of the Massachusetts Statehouse. I was a lobbyist there for many years, and loved that job. So this novel gave me a chance to relive some of that work and those exciting times.

Nancy: That is something I enjoyed about the novel, there are so many 'sides' that are all part of the story: the Polish/Jewish/Nazi experience; Ludka and the stolen painting of Chopin; the legal battle with Tommy and Lolek--it was very rich, but I did not feel it slowed anywhere.

Joan: I absolutely adore looking at all sides of issues. I am a shades of gray kind of thinker. And as a lobbyist, it's really important to understand where everyone is coming from. I was known for being able to bring disparate groups of people together and find common ground, even when it seemed impossible. I loved doing that!

I'm so glad to hear you feel like it did not slow down. With all that legislative detail, it was definitely a concern. Lots of paring back of prose!

Nancy: We need more people like you, especially in religion and government!

Joan: Thank you. It does drive me crazy to see the dogmatic divisions. Politics is not about drawing a line in the sand but figuring out how you can come to some common understanding. I think we forget that at our peril.

Nancy: How long did you spend writing the first draft; how long to edit?

Joan: I revise as I write. So my "first" draft is really more like a 20th! I cannot pinpoint when I finished the first draft. The whole book took seven years to write.

Nancy: Wow, a labor of love for sure.

Joan: Most of that time I was working full-time and writing in the margins. The final year I focused almost completely on finishing the book. And the first year-and-a-half were largely research.

I sometimes wished that I wasn't so dogged on this book. Think of all the short stories I could have written and published in that time! But seriously, I love the form of a novel and loved spending so much time with these characters

Nancy: Did you have the plot outline before you started?

Joan: No plot outline. I knew that towards the end of the book I would find Ludka crawling through smoke with a canvas under her arm, But I have no idea why. The rest of the plot evolved as I wrote and rewrote.

Nancy: I wanted to mention that early on I noted Ludka had these spiked galoshes. She was so careful about hiding the Chopin. She kept secrets even from Isacc. But I noted those spiked galoshes and then there came the time she went outdoors on the ice without them. That told me something about her. It may be small, but I just wanted to mention it.

Joan: How wonderful that you noticed those galoshes! It's all the small things that add up to a whole novel, and it's a real treat for me to have readers noticing the little things.

Nancy: I thought, so many of these characters had protective secrets. Oskar [whom Ludka had hidden from the Nazis], his son Stanley [who tries to steal the painting of Chopin]. Pastor Royce knowing his followers are using violence. Isacc's needing to pose as a Christian under the Nazis.

Joan: It's funny, because I didn't set out to write about secrets, But that's the magic of fiction. Several readers have mentioned "all the betrayals" and I have found myself thinking, "really?" Ha ha ha! But there you have it. That's what's wonderful about the book getting out into the world.

And of course I do know about all of the secrets and all of the betrayals, but I wasn't so much focused on those. Except of course for Oskar's.

Nancy: Of course under Nazi Germany there was a need for secrets, hiding the Jews, the Chopin, adopting alternate identities. And Pastor Royce and his group had to hide their real motives for firing the teachers.

Joan: Yes, absolutely. You may remember in the opening scene, I wrote that "Ludka was keenly aware of how she appeared to others, not because she was vain or insecure, but because she was long accustomed to the consequences of casting particular impressions."

Nancy: Yes. She and Isacc have a form of PTSD, learned behavior.

Joan: I'm delighted you see all of these connections.

Nancy: I just finished reading The World Spit in Two by Bill Goldstein about 1922 and the birth of Modern Literature, with T. S. Eliot, Woolf, and Forster. And of course, Forster could not be honest about his orientation. Even thirty years ago, twenty years ago, there was pressure to assume a false identity. And so it is wonderful that Tommy is who he is, so healthy.

Joan: There you are! I know. We really have come an awfully long way! And yet... In fact, several agents who really liked the book passed on it because they felt that after gay marriage passed, the dangers would not seem as real. The backlash, against people of color, other religions, sexual orientation. People hate change. And here we are ... they didn't anticipate the backlash!

Nancy: So, seven years ago you would not have anticipated how relevant your novel would be--

Joan: No, I didn't realize quite how prescient I would be. But I did know that bias and prejudice still clearly exist, and likely will never go away. It's so important to be vigilant about this kind of thing.

The Anti-Defamation League has something called the Pyramid of Hate. I will find a link for you. I thought about this a lot while I was writing.

https://www.adl.org/sites/default/files/documents/assets/pdf/education-outreach/Pyramid-of-Hate.pdf

Interestingly, the title of this novel for most the entire seven years I was writing it was Prelude!

But then a literary agent who is a friend told me that was a terrible title and I went back to the drawing board. It didn't take long at all before I came up with This is Tow it Begins. I mean, it's right there in the book, staring out at me!

Nancy: When I was reading the ebook of your novel I was also reading David Samuel Levinson's Tell Me How This Ends Well, in which the near future world is Anti-Semitic. I laughed about how I was reading This is How It Begins and Tell me How This Ends Well at the same time! And both involve gay couples and hate crimes.

Joan: Oh wow! That's fascinating. I just checked it out on Amazon and can tell by the "cartoon" cover that it is a dark comedy. Interesting.

Nancy: What are some of your favorite books? Or, what books made you fall in love with fiction?

Joan: Oh boy! The big question! I fell in love with fiction as a kid. My favorite gifts to get for any event was a stack of books. One of my all time favorites was Harriet the Spy. Like so many other kids of my generation, I was Harriet! I have the notebook and the toolbelt and the desire to spy just like she did. And of course that book is all about learning about other people by spying on them. Which is what fiction writers do.

Nancy: Another thing I have thought about was the role of art in the novel. It brings Ludka back to her home in Poland, and there her illusions about Oskar, the "myth of a man forged from long memory," is broken.

Joan: Yes, her art brings her 'fame' late in life. It brings her home. And most of all it shatters "the myth of a man forged from long memory" as fake.

I was so happy that she came back to her art and began to draw again. I really wanted her to do that, and was so glad when she did. I'd love to see what happens after the end of the book with her drawing! I am not an artist, but I think I might have been one in another lifetime, because pieces of art come to mind fully formed and I just write them down. I love that. Like Alexander Roslin's most famous painting, Prelude 1939. I've had readers Googling it and feeling frustrated that they can't find it! Maybe I should commission someone to paint that painting.

Nancy: And that is where the first title came from--Prelude?

Joan: The first title came both from that painting, and the idea of that bigotry can be a prelude to war. You will see a hint of that on Page 2 in the first full paragraph

Nancy: I like that, bigotry as a prelude to war. And how the students reacted to that painting, what they saw in it, foreshadowed...

Joan: Exactly. The students could see what Roslin intended them to see when he painted it.

*****

You can find Joan Dempsey at
http://www.joandempsey.com/
https://www.facebook.com/joan.dempsey
https://twitter.com/LiteraryLiving
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16485006.Joan_Dempsey

"Beautifully written ... an ambitious and moving debut novel." —LILY KING, author of the award-winning national bestseller, "Euphoria"

“In a time when religious liberty is on trial, [this] is an extraordinarily pertinent novel dripping in suspense and powerful scenes of political discourse … a must-read ....” — FOREWORD (starred review)

“… Dempsey’s fine first novel [is] notable for the evenhanded way it addresses hot-button issues. The result is a timely and memorable story.” —BOOKLIST

“A gripping and sensitive portrait of ordinary people wrestling with ideological passions.” —KIRKUS

Christmas Is...

Christmas Handkerchief Quilt 

Christmas in the secular world begins the day after we give thanks for all our blessings. At least that is how it was; now many retailers start the Christmas sales ON Thanksgiving. It is as if we are grateful one day, and then immediately decide we need more to be thankful for.

As a girl I saw commercials for charities showing poor children across the world, dirty and thin, flies settling on their faces. I would be filled with guilt. There I was with my Barbie doll and paper dolls, crayons and coloring books, the Golden Books on my shelf, and enough food that I was a 'chubby' size. And some child was wishing for a bowl of rice or the miracle of a well with clean water with which to wash her face. I believed I had too much.

Christmas Eve 

We buy gifts to show our love. We buy gifts because it makes us feel good to give. We give things no one really needs, the latest cell phone or PC game, jewelry or a luxurious scarf. We buy because who can resist a great deal, a deep discount, the two-inch thick stack of circular ads in the local paper. We buy because it is expected of us. Because it is tradition.

Christmas music predominates the air waves, and the TV networks show round the clock holiday shows. Hopefully they remind us of what is important.

My favorite Christmas moments include messages of hope and a reminder to love one another. They tear down the profit-driven life and challenge us to reconsider our ultimate concern.

12 Days of Christmas, Betty Alderman pattern

In "It's a Wonderful Life" we are taught that we all matter and that communities that band together thrive both individually and communally.

"Just remember this, Mr. Potter, that this rabble you're talking about... they do most of the working and paying and living and dying in this community. Well, is it too much to have them work and pay and live and die in a couple of decent rooms and a bath? Anyway, my father didn't think so. People were human beings to him, but to you, a warped, frustrated old man, they're cattle. Well, in my book he died a much richer man than you'll ever be."

Charles Dickens's "A Christmas Carol" tore away the facade of profit-driven business to reveal the twin enemies of humanity, ignorance and want:

"They were a boy and a girl. Yellow, meager, ragged, scowling, wolfish; but prostrate, too, in their humility. Where graceful youth should have filled their features out, and touched them with its freshest tints, a stale and shriveled hand, like that of age, had pinched, and twisted them, and pulled them into shreds. Where angels might have sat enthroned, devils lurked, and glared out menacing. No change, no degradation, no perversion of humanity, in any grade, through all the mysteries of wonderful creation, has monsters half so horrible and dread. Scrooge started back, appalled. Having them shown to him in this way, he tried to say they were fine children, but the words choked themselves, rather than be parties to a lie of such enormous magnitude. 'Spirit, are they yours?' Scrooge could say no more. 'They are Man's,' said the Spirit, looking down upon them. 'And they cling to me, appealing from their fathers. This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased. ..."

Christmas Tree kit quilt

Charlie Brown finds Christmas depressing. When Charlie sees beauty in a sad little tree that only needs a bit of love the children reject him as "hopeless". Lucy proclaims, "We all know that Christmas is a big commercial racket. Its run by a big Eastern Syndicate you know." She loves the sound of money. It is Linus who quotes the Bible in "A Charlie Brown Christmas" to remind that the reason for the season is remembering how Jesus came into the world to save us from ourselves.

The Bob Cratchett family in "Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol" exemplifies thankfulness for what we have now, and forgiveness for those who sin against you. Bob teaches by example and offers, "Enjoy with me the miracle of now."

Advent Light

Every year my high school held a Christmas concert that ended with all choirs joining in for "O, Holy Night." It was a moment I anticipated with great eagerness every year.

"O holy night! The stars are brightly shining/It is the night of our dear Saviour's birth.Long lay the world in sin and error pining,/'Til He appeared and the soul felt its worth. 

...A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices/For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.
Truly He taught us to love one another;/His law is love and His gospel is peace.Chains shall He break for the slave is our brother;/And in His name all oppression shall cease."

Blazing Star

I wish you a holiday season that brings hope, peace, and contentment. As Tiny Tim says, "God bless us, everyone."

Bright Christmas

Identity Politics

The current political climate in America has led many to consider how we became a country torn asunder by factionalism and hatred of those who do not think or look or love or worship like 'us.'  There have recently been quite a few books out on Identity Politics and I have read several.

A LibraryThing win, The Splintering of the American Mind: Identity Politics, Inequality, and Community on Today's College Campuses by William Egginton considers how higher education contributes to divisiveness vs. the free exchange of ideas in America. The author considers identity, inequality, and community and how these values have changed in American society over my lifetime.

Egginton argues that identity politics has segregated society and that a sense of community and reasoned conversation must be rediscovered if the American experiment in Democracy is to survive.

His argument calls for a compromise or synthesis between a society dominated by an elite few and the tribal mentality of today.

He promotes a liberal arts education as pivotal to the education of good citizens, in terms of learning to dialogue and reason and communicate. Yet, with college education so competitive and expensive, few parents or students can justify the cost of a liberal education. It's all about money, today, preparing for "economic self-improvement" as Egginton puts it. I saw that even back in the 1970s when I completed my education.

"Listening to each other isn't just some surface fix, it's fundamental to the very idea of liberty that the United States claims to embody." William Egginton, The Splintering of the American Mind

The importance of establishing a nationwide sense of community is of tantamount importance. And Egginton believes it begins on the campuses of our colleges and universities. Emphasized is teaching for empathy and dialogue and communication, finding the universal experiences in literature, learning to tolerate differences, supporting freedom of expression, and creating an educated citizenry able to employ critical thinking and dialogue. A section of Media Literacy caught my attention as something I had used in my volunteer teaching with high school students. And of course, the importance of a groundwork upon which we can all agree.

I was inspired by his hopefulness.

"Yes, American history is a history of slavery, oppression, and extermination. But it is also a history of redemption, coming to terms with our nation's sins, and of overcoming them  on the way to a better future, on the way to, in Abraham Lincoln's words from the blood-soaked battlefield at Gettysburg four score and seven years later, "a new birth of freedom."

"The point is that our history, as full as it is of examples of depravity and corruption, oppression and discrimination, is equally full of stories of altruism and redemption, of the triumph of community over selfishness. These are the stories we need now." 

I was not comfortable with all of his interpretations and arguments. I appreciated his consideration of inequality and the call for reestablishing a common ground based on conversation and empathy.

The Splintering of the American Mind
William Egginton
Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 97816355713

After hearing about the book on NPR my husband suggested I read Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment by Frances Fukuyama.

One thing I appreciated about this book is how the author presents his arguments, explains them, and before he moves on to his next argument restates his case to that point. It really makes it easier for the general reader because this is a theoretical book.

The author offers a brief history of the development of identity from the ancient Greeks through the Reformation, the Age of Enlightenment, and revolutions in France and America to establish the rising concept of individuals' need for dignity and personal recognition. He discusses how democratic governments have failed to "fully live up to their underlying ideals of freedom and equality," with the violation of the rights of the poor and weaker citizens at the hand of the few rich and powerful.

Another aspect he traces is the rise of industrialization and cities which broke down traditional communities. The social upheaval and adjustment to a blended society left a nostalgia for a remembered and idealized past.

He blames the contemporary left for focusing on "ever smaller groups" instead of "large collectivities such as the working class or economically exploited." He also blames the rise of "self-actualization" as a form of narcissism. He sees the rise of Multiculturalism as divisive.

Fukuyama calls for the need of a strong national identity, with an official language and civics classes and shared cultural values. This need not negate diversity. He writes, 'National identities can be built around liberal and democratic political values, and the common experiences that provide the connect tissue around which diverse communities can thrive." He mentions India, France, Canada as countries who have successfully created a strong national identity that embraces a diverse population.

Fukuyama asks, "How do we translate these abstract ideas into concrete policies at the current movement?" He continues, "We can start by trying to counter the specific abuses that have driven assertions of identity," by protecting the rights of minorities and women, and promoting "creedal national identities" based on the ideals of a liberal democracy. He also calls for better assimilation of immigrants.

Identity
by Frances Fukuyama
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN: 9780374129293

My frustration is that the policies presented in these books are not easily or quickly accomplished. Focusing on education will prepare future generations for citizenship if we can hold things together until then.

These books were challenging reads and I am glad I read them. They are interesting as a study of how we 'got to here' but I left with the need for something more to hold on to, something concrete that offers me real hope and surety.

How Beautiful We Were by Mbolo Mbue

One angry woman did everything, and she failed.~from How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue

I read Imbolo Mbue's first novel Behold the Dreamers as a galley and for book club. I jumped at the chance to read her second novel, How Beautiful We Were. 

Was money so important that they would sell children to strangers seeking oil?~from How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue

The novel is about an African village struggling for environmental justice, powerless, caught between an American oil company and a corrupt dictatorship government. 

They are a proud people, connected to the land of their ancestors. They have lived simple, subsistence lives, full of blessings. Until the oil company ruined their water, their land, their air. A generation of children watch their peers dying from poisoned water. Their pleas for help are in vain. 

School-aged Thula is inspired by books, including The Communist Manifesto, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, and The Wretched of the Earth. "They were her closest friends," spurring her into activist causes when she goes to America to study. In America and becomes an activist. Meanwhile, her peers in her home village lose faith in the process and take up terrorism. 

How could we have been so reckless as to dream?~from How Beautiful We Were by Mbolo Mbue

The fictional village, its inhabitants and history, is so well drawn I could believe it taken from life. The viewpoint shifts among the characters.

We wondered if America was populated with cheerful people like that overseer, which made it hard for us to understand them: How could they be happy when we were dying for their sake?~from How Beautiful We Were by Mbolo Mbue

The fate of the village and its country are an indictment to Western colonialism and capitalism. Slaves, rubber, oil--people came and exploited Africa for gain. The village loses their traditions and ancestral place as their children become educated and take jobs with Western corporations and the government.

This story must be told, it might not feel good to all ears, it gives our mouths no joy to sat it, but our story cannot be left untold.~from How Beautiful We Were by Mbolo Mbue

This is not an easy book for an American to read. It reminds us of the many ways our country has failed and continues to fail short of the ideal we hope it is. And not just abroad--we have failed our to protect our children here in America.

I was given access to a free ebook by the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

from the publisher:

We should have known the end was near. So begins Imbolo Mbue’s powerful second novel, How Beautiful We Were. Set in the fictional African village of Kosawa, it tells of a people living in fear amid environmental degradation wrought by an American oil company. Pipeline spills have rendered farmlands infertile. Children are dying from drinking toxic water. Promises of cleanup and financial reparations to the villagers are made—and ignored. The country’s government, led by a brazen dictator, exists to serve its own interests. Left with few choices, the people of Kosawa decide to fight back. Their struggle will last for decades and come at a steep price.

Told from the perspective of a generation of children and the family of a girl named Thula who grows up to become a revolutionary, How Beautiful We Were is a masterful exploration of what happens when the reckless drive for profit, coupled with the ghost of colonialism, comes up against one community’s determination to hold on to its ancestral land and a young woman’s willingness to sacrifice everything for the sake of her people’s freedom.

How Beautiful We Were
by Imbolo Mbue
Random House Publishing Group - Random House
Pub Date: March 9, 2021
ISBN: 9780593132425
hard cover $28.00 (USD)

How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue

One angry woman did everything, and she failed.~from How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue

I read Imbolo Mbue's first novel Behold the Dreamers as a galley and for book club. I jumped at the chance to read her second novel, How Beautiful We Were. 

Was money so important that they would sell children to strangers seeking oil?~from How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue

The novel is about an African village struggling for environmental justice, powerless, caught between an American oil company and a corrupt dictatorship government. 

They are a proud people, connected to the land of their ancestors. They have lived simple, subsistence lives, full of blessings. Until the oil company ruined their water, their land, their air. A generation of children watch their peers dying from poisoned water. Their pleas for help are in vain. 

School-aged Thula is inspired by books, including The Communist Manifesto, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, and The Wretched of the Earth. "They were her closest friends," spurring her into activist causes when she goes to America to study. In America and becomes an activist. Meanwhile, her peers in her home village lose faith in the process and take up terrorism. 

How could we have been so reckless as to dream?~from How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue

The fictional village, its inhabitants and history, is so well drawn I could believe it taken from life. The viewpoint shifts among the characters.

We wondered if America was populated with cheerful people like that overseer, which made it hard for us to understand them: How could they be happy when we were dying for their sake?~from How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue

The fate of the village and its country are an indictment to Western colonialism and capitalism. Slaves, rubber, oil--people came and exploited Africa for gain. The village loses their traditions and ancestral place as their children become educated and take jobs with Western corporations and the government.

This story must be told, it might not feel good to all ears, it gives our mouths no joy to sat it, but our story cannot be left untold.~from How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue

This is not an easy book for an American to read. It reminds us of the many ways our country has failed and continues to fail short of the ideal we hope it is. And not just abroad--we have failed our to protect our children here in America.

I was given access to a free ebook by the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

How Beautiful We Were
by Imbolo Mbue
Random House Publishing Group - Random House
Pub Date: March 9, 2021
ISBN: 9780593132425
hard cover $28.00 (USD)

from the publisher:

We should have known the end was near. So begins Imbolo Mbue’s powerful second novel, How Beautiful We Were. Set in the fictional African village of Kosawa, it tells of a people living in fear amid environmental degradation wrought by an American oil company. Pipeline spills have rendered farmlands infertile. Children are dying from drinking toxic water. Promises of cleanup and financial reparations to the villagers are made—and ignored. The country’s government, led by a brazen dictator, exists to serve its own interests. Left with few choices, the people of Kosawa decide to fight back. Their struggle will last for decades and come at a steep price.

Told from the perspective of a generation of children and the family of a girl named Thula who grows up to become a revolutionary, How Beautiful We Were is a masterful exploration of what happens when the reckless drive for profit, coupled with the ghost of colonialism, comes up against one community’s determination to hold on to its ancestral land and a young woman’s willingness to sacrifice everything for the sake of her people’s freedom.

The Reminders by Val Emmich: Love Victorious Over Death's Oblivion

Memories and remembering are at the heart of Val Emmich's first novel The Reminders. The Beatles music provides the thematic structure. The heart of the novel is love.

Nine-year-old Joan Lennon can't forget anything that has ever happened to her. When her grandmother Joan's Alzheimer's disease took away her memory it frightened Joan to be forgotten. Now she wants to create something so no one will forget her again: she wants to write a song.

Joan's father is a struggling songwriter; her mother works to pay the bills. Her parents have decided to close her father's studio and rent it out; her father will work in his dad's construction business. Joan is despondent. She hopes to win a songwriting contest so her dad can keep the studio.

Joan's parents' friend Sydney has died, and his partner Gavin, a television show actor, underwent a very public meltdown. Joan's mother had introduced Syd and Gavin. They invite Gavin to come stay for a while.

Gavin thinks he wants to forget everything about his true love Sydney. When he learns that Joan can recall every time she met Syd, down to the details of his clothes and conversation, they agree to help one another. Joan will tell stories about Syd. Gavin, who had been in her dad's band, will help Joan write a song.

Gavin's grief over Syd's death is complicated by doubts about Syd's activities prior to his death: he made several secret trips, meeting with a woman he never mentioned. Was their life a lie?

The story is told from Joan and Gavin's viewpoints in alternating chapters which offer a nice balance between Gavin's grief and doubt and Joan's determined, naive, hopefulness.

Joan is beautifully drawn, a lovable, adorable, kid. The book is worth reading just to know Joan! The story is about grief and yet what remains after reading is the joy. I am sure this uplifting book will become a best seller, well beloved by book clubs.

Emmich draws from his career as an actor and singer/songwriter, and his life as a dad, to create a charming and warm story of the power of friendship.

I was excited when Emmich agreed to answer some questions for me in February.

Nancy: What motivated you to write The Reminders? What came first--story, character?

Emmich: The character came first. Specifically, the character of Joan. I was a new father and I was frustrated by the lack of progress I'd made in my life and in my career as an artist. Fatherhood felt like an impediment to where I wanted to go. That finally changed when I attempted to write from the point of view of a little girl. If I wasn't the father of a girl (two little girls now), I probably wouldn't have tried something like that. Once I did, though, all sorts of new possibilities opened up for me, both creatively and as a parent. Drawing on my family life for materials finally put me in a place where I could start to accept my new reality and embrace it.

Nancy: Is the creative act for you an endeavor to, as Joan believes, ensure people remember you?

Emmich: No. I create because I have to create. I feel compelled to. It's probably the only time I feel happy. And at times, it doesn't even feel healthy. It can feel like an obsession or addiction. But after I create something, if I think it's any good, I feel this strong desire to share it with people. I created the thing first for myself--to try to process life and understand it better--but I still feel I need some validation from others. I shouldn't need it. But I do. I crave applause and feedback. I wish I didn't.

The whole idea of being remembered, which is a huge part of the book, is related to the above (and certainly in the book, the two are directly linked), but it's also, for me, a whole separate problem. It bothers me that we're so focused on what's happening today and what will happen tomorrow that the past is often too easily forgotten. I'm certainly guilty of forgetting. And I'm not talking about the distant past only, but even the recent past, as in last week, or yesterday. Now, when someone close to us passes away, which is what happens to the character of Gavin in the book, there's a feeling of guilt that comes with forgetting. Forgetting feels like a betrayal. That's how it feels for Joan. To forget her is unfair, because she would never forget you. But some amount of forgetting is helpful, and even necessary. It allows us to heal. It's a complicated thing, which is why I love the quote by James Baldwin that begins the novel: "it takes strength to remember, it takes another kind of strength to forget, it takes a hero to do both."

Nancy: We know so much these days--the relationship between Gavin and Joan could have been considered suspect. What considerations helped you ensure the purity and healthiness of their relationship?

Emmich: I understand what you mean, but I also hate that I understand what you mean. In other words, it's a shame that's where our minds go. I've always loved stories where two very different sorts of people are placed together. It's a good starting point for conflict and misunderstanding. So I didn't want to avoid that uneasy feeling completely. But in one of my earliest drafts, the character of Gavin was straight and I did find that there were moments between his character and Joan's that felt strained in a way that was distracting from the narrative. Once I decided to make Gavin gay, I found that it relieved a lot of that unintended pressure. Also the fact that Gavin is pining for his lost love and Joan is helping him reach that lost love helps, I think, maintain that feeling of purity that you mentioned.

Nancy: What were the challenges and rewards of writing a book as compared to writing and performing your songs and acting?

Emmich: There are different challenges with each, too many to list here. But I will say that so far writing a novel has been the most challenging thing I've ever attempted in the arts. In terms of rewards, a song can be written in minutes, recorded in a few hours, and uploaded online where it can be streamed instantly. So, it's a much more immediate sense of satisfaction, both with the creative act and the sharing.

Writing long-form fiction is a slog that can stretch for many years. And it's a lot lonelier. I can write and perform songs with others, but a novel is written alone Writing prose is rewarding in a different sort of way than more communal activities like music and acting. Maybe it requires a little more confidence and faith, I don't know. You'll have to ask me this question again when I'm a little farther along. My book still hasn't been published yet. Most people in m life still haven't read it and I've yet to do my first public reading. So, I haven't had much feedback from readers. All this buildup scares me. Wish me luck.

Val Emmich

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

See the trailer at http://ew.com/books/2017/02/14/reminders-book-trailer-val-emmich/

The Reminders
Val Emmich
Little, Brown & Co/Hachette
Publication May 30, 2017
$26 hard cover
ISBN: 9780316316996

To Lay To Rest Our Ghosts by Caitlin Hamilton Summie

Caitlin Hamilton Summie's ten stories in To Lay To Rest Our Ghosts are heartfelt revelations into the universal experience of loss and grief. Told in the first person, each story offers a fully rounded and complex character caught in crisis. The stories are set in the upper Midwest where people 'grew up cold'.
The writing is lovely and evocative, transporting us into another's life and world.

• A girl whose father is a WWII pilot the admits that the war's generals were spoken of as if her family knew them personally. "I knew these men better than my father." 
• A woman's sister dies in a car crash. Their mother had died choking on a peanut butter sandwich. (This is not a joke. I was barely twenty when I met a man whose sister chocked to death on a peanut butter sandwich. I worry about this every time I have a PB sandwich.) The woman misses being close to her brother. She drinks too much. 
• I related to a woman who lasted only six months in New York City, lacking inner city street smarts and an understanding of the rules. My husband and I lived in the inner city for a year and a half before leaving. 
• The fierce need for independence drives a paraplegic to the family's deep woods cabin after his divorce. His brother fears for his safety living alone and pressures him to return.
• A woman visits her grandmother in the nursing home. She is desperately curious about her grandmother's sister, who no one speaks of. Yet that sister's name is embroidered on the family patchwork quilt. The woman asks her mother about this missing family member and is told that the grandmother asked her not to talk about it, "not to carry that particular ghost through the generations." The woman presses for information, battling over who would control the past.
• A man who grew up on a farm grapples with his son's wanting a different life for himself. The son fears his newborn son will never understand who he is without understanding the farm. 
• The death of a grandfather brings division between sisters, one who attended him in his illness and death while the other stayed away. Their own needs drive them apart as they try to find reconciliation.
• A single mother watches her only child, a daughter, leave for college. She had gone to California instead of taking a college scholarship, returning home pregnant. Now she is a mother, learning how to let go.
• An elderly man is bedridden in his son's house, his memory teeming with ghosts. He knows his son and daughter-in-law are getting weary while he lingers on. I was reminded of my grandfather Milo, my grandmother's second husband. He lived to be over 101, outlasting two wives and a daughter and three step-children. He wondered why God did not take him. He was unable to walk and was blind, living in my aunt's home. To have one's mind and a failing body is a horrible fate.
• After a miscarriage, a wife takes a break, leaving her husband to struggle on his own for a few days. He is comforted by a neighbor's dog who has adopted him as a surrogate owner. The neighbors are friendly but keep to themselves. The man realizes he did not even know his own wife's heart. He contemplates loss and grief and how we are all separate and alone in grief.

I purchased this as an ebook and read the stories over several weeks. I love these short stories; they are like a concentrated laser light into the human soul.

Owner of Caitlin Hamilton Marketing & Publicity, promotion for books, authors, publishers, and literary organizations, Caitlin has represented several books I have reviewed, The Velveteen Daughter by Laurel Davis Huber, This Is How it Begins by Joan Dempsey, and Wild Mountain by Nancy Hayes Kilgore. Read an interview with Caitlin about her personal library at David Abram's blog The Quivering Pen.

Tin Pan Alley Sheet Music: Men, Women, and Courtship

My collection of sheet music includes many early 20th c songs that were sung on Vaudeville stages.  Many were written in Tin Pan Alley.

One can learn so much about society in those days from these songs. Let's start what they reveal about men's attitudes toward women. These date from 1909 to 1919.

My Wife's Gone to the Country Hurrah! Hurrah! was written by George Whiting, Ted Snyder and Irving Berlin, published in 1909.

According to an interview with Irving Berlin, the song came to him in a barbershop. George Whiting, a vaudeville actor, was a few chairs down from Berlin who asked him when he needed to be home. Whiting replied, "I don't have to go home, my wife is in the country." Berlin walked out of the shop with those words in his head and soon found them a melody and the chorus worked out. In a few hours the song was completed and two days later it was heard all over the land.

When Missus Brown told hubby, "I just can't stand the heat
Please send me to the country, dear, I know 'twould be a treat"
Next day his wife and fam'ly were seated on a train
And when the train had started, Brownie shouted this refrain:

My wife's gone to the country, hurrah, hurrah!
She thought it best, I need a rest, that's why she went away
She took the children with her, hurrah, hurrah!
I don't care what becomes of me, my wife's gone away

He kept the 'phone a-going, told ev'ryone he knew
"It's Mister Brown, come on downtown, I have some news for you"
He told a friend reporter just why he felt so gay
Next day an advertisement in the papers read this way:

[2nd refrain:]
My wife's gone to the country, hurrah, hurrah!
She thought it best, I need a rest, that's why she went away
She took the children with her, hurrah, hurrah!
I don't care what becomes of me, my wife's gone away

He sang his joyful story into a phonograph
He made a dozen records and I say it was to laugh
For when his friends had vanished and Brown was all alone
His neighbors heard the same old tune on Brownie's graphophone

My wife's gone to the country, hurrah, hurrah!
She thought it best, I need the rest, that's why she went away
She took the children with her, hurrah, hurrah!
Like Eva Tanguay, I don't care, my wife's gone away

He went into the parlor and tore down from the wall
A sign that read "God Bless Our Home" and threw it in the hall
Another sign he painted and hung it up instead
Next day the servant nearly fainted when these words she read:

My wife's gone to the country, hurrah, hurrah!
She thought it best, I need the rest, that's why she went away
She took the children with her, hurrah, hurrah!
Now I'm with you if you're with me, my wife's gone away

He called on pretty Molly, a girl he used to know
The servant said "She left the house about an hour ago
But if you leave your name, sir, or write a little note
I'll give it to her when she comes" and this is what he wrote:

My wife's gone to the country, hurrah, hurrah!
She thought it best, I need the rest, that's why she went away
She took the children with her, hurrah, hurrah!
I love my wife, but oh! you kid, my wife's gone away

He went and bought a parrot, a very clever bird
The kind that always would repeat most anything she heard
So when his voice grew husky and Brownie couldn't talk
While he'd be taking cough-drops, he would have the parrot squawk:

My wife's gone to the country, hurrah, hurrah!
She thought it best, I need the rest, that's why she went away
She took the children with her, hurrah, hurrah!
I knew my book, she left the cook, my wife's gone away

The song was sung by Stuart Barnes, a successful English Music Hall performer whose songs and monologues were usually about marriage and women. He often sang Irving Berlin songs after his monologues. He earned $400 a week in 1909. (Source found here.) He was openly gay.

***

Some men wanted freedom from their women, while others were worried about being thrown over.

 Keep Your Eye on the Girlie You Love by Howard Johnson and Alex Gerber, music by Ira Schuster, was performed by Tin Pan Alley and Vaudeville star Moe Thompson. The March 2, 1917 issue of The Saturday Evening Post has an advertisement for the sheet music and the Pathe recording.

Take a tip from one who knows, all you single men, 
If you've a girl to call your own, Don't ever leave her all alone. 
If temptation comes her way, will she pass it by? 
That's a question, so my suggestion is, Watch her on the sly. 

Keep your eye on the girlie you love, 
There's a beau that you know nothing of, 
Who may be there to call, when you're out of sight, 
Of course, she may not fall, but may be she might. 
Never leave her for more than a day, 
‘Cause there's hundreds that lose ‘em that way, 
So keep your eye upon your girl, Bill, 
If you don't some other fellow will. 

It's a tough thing now-a-days, picking out a girl, 
So when you find your heart’s delight, 
Take my advice and treat her right, 
Girls are fickle as can be, change their minds each day; 
Do a rave to ‘em, be a slave to ‘em, That’s the wisest way. 

Keep your eye on the girlie you love, 
Just be sure that she’s your turtle dove, 
Don’t take a chance and introduce your best pal, 
For if she likes him best, goodbye to your gal. 
She may kiss you goodnight by mistake, 
Call you Clarence, when your name is Jake, 
So keep your eye upon your girl, Bill, 
If you don’t some other fellow will.

***

One way of 'keeping your girlie' was to make love to her at the movies. Couples sitting in a dark room raised the fear of parents who worried about the sexual freedom that might be perpetrated there. Hollywood movie stars had wild parties and scandalous sex lives--evil role models for the young. This was the new world of dating. Courtship no longer took place on front porch swings.

Take Your Girlie To the Movies (If You Can't Make Love At Home) by Edgar Leslie and Bert Kalmar with music by Pete Wendling would have been pretty scandalous in 1919.

The song begins when a boy asks love advice:

When I call to love my girl
Her folks are always there;
That's why I'm blue, 
What shall I do?

The answer is:

Take your girlie to the movies
if you can't make love at home;
There is no little brother there who always squeals
you can say an awful lot in seven reels.

Take your lessons at the movies
And have love scenes of your own;
When the picture's over and its time to leave,
Don't forget to brush the powder off your sleeve.

Pick a cozy corner where it's nice and dark,
Don't catch influenza kissing in the park,
Take your lessons at the movies,
and have love scenes of your own;
Though's she's just a simple little ribbon clerk,
Close your eyes and think you're kissing Billie Burke;
Take your girlie to the movies, if you can't make love at home.

***

Good girls, bad girls--they are all the same according to There's a Little Bit of Bad in Every Good Little Girl by Grant Clarke and Fred Fischer, performed by Brice and King, published in 1917. This sheet music shows Elizabeth Brice and Charles King, performers called some of the "cleverest" in the business. Miss Brice came from Toledo, Ohio and progressed from singing in Sunday School to the town casino.

 This is a truly horrifying song!

Nobody ever sings about the bad girls
Because the bad girls are sad
And everybody sings about the good girls
Because the good girls are glad
Till you've been around 'em once or twice

You can't tell the naughty from the nice

There's a little bit of bad in every good little girl
They're not to blame
Mother Eve was very good
But even she raised Cain
I know a preacher's daughter
Who never orders water
There's a little bit of bad in every good little girl
They're all the same

I had a dream I went to see the devil
There was the devil to pay
He said I'm awful busy on the level
I said the devil you say
Why are you so busy tell me why
He replied and winked his other eye

There's a little bit of bad in every good little girl
They're not to blame
Though they seem like angels in a dream
They're naughty just the same
They read the good book Sunday
And snappy stories Monday
There's a little bit of bad in every good little girl
They're all the same

***

They Go Wild Simply Wild Over Me by Joe McCarthy and Fred Fisher was published in 1917. The song appears in Bullets Over Broadway by Woody Allen.

There is a version for men:

I hate to talk about myself,

But here's one time I must!

Your confidence I'll trust,

I have to speak or bust!

It's funny how I get the girls,

I never try at all;

I seem to hypnotise them,

I'm bound to make them fall!

They go wild, simply wild, over me!

They go mad, just as mad as they can be!

No matter where I'm at,

All the ladies, thin or fat,

The tall ones,

The small ones,

I grab them off like that!

Every night, how they fight over me!

I don't know what it is that they can see!

The ladies look at me and sigh,

In my arms they wanna die!

They go wild, simply wild, over me!

I get so many pretty girls,

I give a few away!

They bother me each day,

They're leading me astray!

There's lots of fellows go with girls

And never get their drift;

I always get the women,

It's just a natural gift!

They go wild, simply wild, over me!

They go mad, just as mad as they can be!

No matter where I'm at,

All the ladies, thin or fat,

The tall ones,

The small ones,

Why, I grab them off like that!

Every night, how they fight over me!

I don't know what it is that they can see!

I can never be alone,

I have to choke the telephone!

They go wild, simply wild, over me!

And for the girls:

I hate to talk about myself but here's one time I must

Your confidence I'll trust, I have to speak or bust

It's funny how I get the boys, I never try at all

I seem to hypnotize them, I'm bound to make them fall

They go wild, simply wild, over me

They go mad, just as mad as they can be

No matter where I'm at, all the fellows thin or fat

The tall ones, the small ones, I grab them off like that

Every night how they fight over me

I don't know what it is that they can see

The fellows look at me and sigh, in my arms they want to die

They go wild, simply wild, over me

I meet so many funny men, no matter where I go

They're waiting in a row, they seem to love me so

There's lots of girlies go with boys but never get their drift

I seem to understand them, why, it's just a natural gift

They go wild, simply wild, over me

They go mad, just as mad as they can be

No matter where I'm at, all the fellows thin or fat

The tall ones, the small ones, why, I grab them off like that

Every night how they fight over me

I don't know what it is that they can see

Why I can never be alone, I have to choke the telephone

They go wild, simply wild, over me

They go wild, simply wild, over me

They go mad, just as mad as they can be

I meet so many kind, I leave a few behind

They love me, they kiss me, why, I guess they must be blind

Every night how they fight over me

I don't know what it is that they can see

I'm very skinny I'll admit but when I when I smile just a smidge

They go wild, simply wild, over me

***

Whatever that guy had in the last song, the man in the next song clearly lacked. To Any Girl by the hugely successful and prolific lyricist Lew Brown with music by the equally successful and prolific Albert Von Tilzer (whose most famous song was Take Me Out To The Ballgame). This song is a lament, for the young lover has no girl to write to. Any girl will do...as long as she cooks and sews and is true.

 I found a picture postal card while on the street today.
A lovesick fellow wrote it, and here's what he had to say,
"O haven't any sweetheart, so I don't know what to do,
I wish I had a girl to send this to.
I won't put on an address, I won't put on a name,
But still I'm going to send it just the same.

To any girl who's feeling lonesome,
To any girl who's feeling blue,
I write these lines today
here's what I have to say
I've got a lot of loving that I'd like to give away,
To any girl who'll love me only
To any girl who will be true,
But if you have a beau,
Is there any girl you know
who's not as lucky as you.

He says he wanta a girl who sews and one who also cooks,
But then he doesn't mention anything about her looks
The boy is not particular,
I think that he's in wrong,
For he'll take any girl who comes along,
He can't expect an answer, 
He doesn't make it plain,
I'll have to read the postal card again. (Chorus) 

***

Harry Von Tilzer, Albert's brother, often worked with Andrew B. Sterling including on this 1915 song, Those Musical Eyes, about Ragtime sex appeal.

Stirling and Von Tilzer are my favorite pair to collect. Learn more about Von Tilzer at The Parlor Songs Academy.

Two big eyes that shine, won this heart of mine,
"Want you near me," they say and sweet is the music they play,
O those great big eyes how they harmonize, 
Even when we're apart, 
They play on the strings of my heart
Ragtime love tunes till I'm almost crazy,
Those "G sharp" eyes they seem to play for me.

Oh, those eyes, those great big musical eyes,
Such "harmony" lies, 
In those sweet "Come and kiss me" eyes
"Say you'll miss me," eyes, 
Roll them, roll them, roll them up to the skies,
Each glance at me, a "Rhapsody,"
Oh, those eyes they say "come on...and spoon!"
Oh, those eyes they play a wedding tune,
Oh, the love that lies and lies, In those musical eyes!

When I'm feeling bad, when I'm feeling sad,
Everything has gone wrong
those eyes, play the cheerfullest song,
They just look at me, strike a chord in "C"
sorrow puts on his hat, 
Those eyes soon will sing in "A Flat"
Every glance starts my heart beating "Forte," (Chorus)