The Man Who Wrote the Perfect Novel--John Williams, Stoner, and the Writing Life

I was fascinated by the life of author John Williams as told by Charles J. Shields in The Man Who Wrote the Perfect Novel. Learning about William's life and influences helps me to better understand and appreciate his work. 

I discovered William's book Stoner after purchasing a Kindle when I received an email of ebooks on sale. I was drawn to the novel by the cover, a detail of Thomas Eakins's painting The Thinker, Portrait of Louis H. Kenton. And I was drawn by the description of the novel.

I loved Stoner and it became one of my all-time favorite novels. It was about this time in 2013 that Stoner was labeled "The Greatest American Novel You've Never Heard Of" by Tim Krieder in the New York Times.

On December 23, 2013, I reviewed Stoner on my blog and this past winter I reread the book with my local library book club. I raved about Stoner so much that my son bought me Augustus as a Christmas gift, the book for which Williams won the National Book Award in conjunction with John Barth's Chimera.

Who was this man, this John-Williams-not-the-composer, this writer who I never heard about? I read Barth in an undergraduate college class, including his Chimera. Why had I not heard of Williams before?

I was very pleased to read the e-galley of The Man Who Wrote the Perfect Novel by Charles J. Shields, which answered my questions, how Williams was overlooked and later rediscovered, and how readers and book clubs have brought Stoner to its proper place in the canon.

Williams shared attributes with his protagonist Stoner; they both came from humble roots and grew up poor and worked in academia. Both were smitten with language and poetry. Both had unhappy marriages and an affair (or more, for Williams). Both stayed true to their ideals. Both died without the recognition they deserved.

But in other ways, Williams was very different from his character. Stoner stuck with his one, failed, unhappy marriage; Williams married multiple times. Williams thrived in an academic network based on alcohol and drinking. Williams's father abandoned his family and his stepfather was a drinker who was lucky to snag a New Deal job. And whereas Stoner never completed his thesis, Williams published three novels after several failed attempts.

The literary influences on Williams were diverse, from pulp magazines filled with adventure and romance to Thomas Wolfe. Williams was inspired by Eugene Gant in Look Homeward, Angel. (Wolfe was my favorite as well when I first read him at age 16.)

Seeing the movie A Tale of Two Cities starring Ronald Coleman impacted Williams also, and he tried to channel Coleman's style and panache, down to the thin mustache.

Williams became involved with theater (as did Wolfe before he turned to novels). He then discovered Conrad Aiken and psychological fiction, and then Proust, altering his writing style.

Dropping out of college, Williams became a radio announcer and jack of all trades in radio broadcasting. A whirlwind romance sped into marriage. Then, in 1942, faced with the draft, Williams enlisted in the air corps and became a radio technician. He ended up on planes flying over the Himalayas to bring supplies to General Chaing Kai-shek. He received a 'Dear John' letter.

In 1945 Wiliams returned to the States and found work at a radio station in Key West, Florida. Here he wrote his first novel, Nothing But the Night, "steeped in psychological realism" and filled with pathologies. He sent the manuscript to Wolfe's last editor Edward Aswell of Harper and Brothers, who rejected it.

Alan Swallow of Swallow Press in Denver, CO also found much to critique in the novel but also saw in Williams a spark of genius. Swallow was part of the New Criticism movement. He suggested that Williams come to the University of Denver. Williams was admitted and then was married a second time. His writing still suffered from "a lag between thought and emotion." Marriage No. 2 also ended and soon after Williams married a third time.

The work and philosophy of Yvor Winters, who held to a classical style of writing over the modern tendency of self-expression and obscurity, influenced Williams and he declared himself a 'Winterarian." Williams realized his writing was "overwrought" and embellished.

Williams turned his attention to the myth of the West and began researching for a novel about a young Romantic who experiences the real West. The book was promoted as a Western, a dismal and fatal choice that upset Williams. It never found its proper audience.

John had several affairs, including a woman who became his next, and last, wife. Meanwhile, he was working on the novel that became Stoner. The literary world was going in other directions, but Williams stuck to his ideals. Bestsellers included The Moon-Spinners by Mary Stewart and Daphne du Maurier's The Glass Blowers. Up and comers included Saul Bellow, Ken Kesey, and Thomas Pynchon. Stoner was "unfashionable." It lacked emotion, was too understated.  Williams's agent warned his book would never sell well. That wasn't his goal. The novel was quite overlooked for a year when a review finally hailed it.

Williams began thinking about "the paradoxes of power" and about Cesar Augustus. By this time, in the late 60s, the counterculture was making its mark on academia. In 1971 Stoner was republished. In 1972 Augustus was finally published and won the National Book Award in 1973. Williams' drinking was becoming a problem but he started on a new novel set during the Nixon years. A lifelong smoker, he was on oxygen. He won awards and his books were brought back into print. In 1986 at a farewell dinner Williams read from his manuscript, a book he couldn't finish. In 1994 Williams died of respiratory failure.

But his novels kept popping up as new readers discovered them. In 2006 the New York Review of Books Classics reprinted Stoner and "Stonermania" took the literary world. The novel was first popular in Europe, Waterson named it Book of the Year in 2013. In America, readers began sharing the book with each other.

Williams was a complicated man with a complicated personal life. Like his protagonist, he stuck to his ideals. He learned to write the hard way, by writing unsellable novels before writing the novel that would sell a million copies worldwide.

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

*****

from the publisher:

Charles J. Shields is the author of Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee, a New York Times bestseller, a Literary Guild Selection, and a Book-of-the-Month Club Alternate. His young adult biography of Harper Lee, I Am Scout, was chosen an ALA Best Book for Young Adults, a Bank Street Best Children's Book of the Year, and a Junior Literary Guild Selection. In 2011, Shields published And So It Goes: Kurt Vonnegut, A Life, a New York Times and Washington Post Notable Nonfiction Book of the Year.

The Man Who Wrote the Perfect Novel is an expert uncovering of an American master who deserves the larger audience this biography will help give him. With his characteristic insight into the ligatures between life and art, and in his own enviable prose, Shields brings Williams into full-color relief. This is a major accomplishment by a major biographer, a gift for which Williams’s admirers will be most grateful." -William Giraldi, author of Hold the Dark and The Hero’s Body

"Charles Shields’s biography of John Williams is every bit as impressive as his subject’s book, the not-so-underground classic (and international bestseller) Stoner, a gripping and compulsively readable tale of an ‘unremarkable man.’ Shields brilliantly recreates Williams’s outwardly ordinary life as an English professor eager to balance his scholarship with a creative writing career, revealing fascinating psychological depths in a man who on the surface doesn’t seem to have any. The reader is carried along by this masterful, finely honed biography."-Mary V. Dearborn, author of#xA0;Hemingway: A Biography

"A masterful depiction of the generation of burnt-out alcoholic American writers who survived WWII. Shields comes about as close as humanly possible to recreating the crucible of chance, devotion, genius, and circumstance that produced ‘the greatest novel you have never read.’ His brisk, fluent biography will change this." -J. Michael Lennon, author of Norman Mailer: A Double Life

The Man Who Wrote the Perfect Novel
by Charles J. Shields
University of Texas Press
Publication Date: October 15, 2018
ISBN: 9781477317365, 1477317368
Hardcover $29.95 USD

The Library Book by Susan Orlean

I remember when I first heard there was a place where one could borrow all the books one wanted to read.

My elementary school, Philip Sheridan, was brand new and filled with recently published children's books. There was a small library in my second-grade classroom and after the teacher read a book out loud to the class I would borrow it and read the book myself. Then I started to pick up other books, like the biography of Robert Louis Stevenson which I read over and over. I knew his book of children's poetry A Child's Garden of Verses--now I knew there was a man behind the words.

When the teacher said there was a whole building of books called a library I went home and asked my mother if she would take me to the library.

She said I was too young and a year passed before we walked down the road to the Sheridan Parkside Library and I got my first library card. It was so hard to choose my three books! I borrowed Follow My Leader, which our teacher had read to the class, a history of Australia because I had an Australian pen pal, and D'Aulaire's Book of Greek Myths.

Wherever we moved, I continued to frequent libraries. And when our son was born, I would put him in the stroller and walk to the local library. As a preschooler, he would borrow 15 books a week. As a high schooler, he volunteered at the library resale bookstore. I joined book clubs at the local library wherever we moved. I made friends with librarians at the smaller libraries and the staff would know us. But I had never given much thought about everything that goes on to make a library run.

I had enjoyed Susan Orlean's book Rin Tin Tin: The Life and Legend and that motivated me to want to read The Library Book. As I read it I found myself thinking about the many libraries in my life, appreciating them more and more.

Orlean begins with stories of libraries in her life growing up and how she wanted her son to have the same experience. Going to the Los Angeles Central Library, one of the most beautiful buildings she had ever seen, she learned about the April 29, 1986 fire that destroyed a million books.

Why don't we remember this event? Chernobyl took over the news that week.

Orlean's book is a history of the Los Angeles Central Library, the investigation into the fire, the extraordinary work to save the books, and an exploration into the role of libraries in society today.

When investigators can't determine the cause of a fire it is considered arson, and then comes the search for the person who started the fire. The case centered on Harry Peak, a fabulist with a deep need for attention.

We meet the memorable people who make the library run and see how the library functions in today's society as a democratic, open, public space. The LA library has developed outreach programs to the homeless and unemployed and offers a safe place for teenagers.

Libraries everywhere are changing to meet the needs of its community. Digital books audiobooks are available to download to electronic devices. In our small suburban city full of young families the library has intergenerational coloring days, reading to pets, speakers and concerts, Lego days, movies, card making, scrapbooking, magic shows, and of course book clubs and summer reading programs.

I enjoyed the book as history and for its insights into an institution sometimes considered outdated, but which the Millennial generation has embraced. Most of all, I am grateful that Orlean has made me better appreciate librarians and library staff for their contributions.

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

The Library Book
by Susan Orlean
Simon & Schuster
Pub Date 16 Oct 2018 
ISBN 9781476740188
PRICE $28.00 (USD)

Up North and Back

This past week we took a trip 'Up North', which is an area in Michigan demarked by an invisible line but which is universally agreed (by Michiganders) to be where there is more wilderness than shopping malls. 

We traveled about four hours from Metro Detroit to Baldwin, in the middle of a state forest. We stayed overnight at the Red Moose Lodge on the Pere Marquette River, perhaps the only visitors not there for the Salmon fishing.

The Pere Marquette River in Baldwin, MI

We spent a few minutes sitting beside the river, from which a fish now and then jumped with a splash.

We dropped off the innards of my husband's Victrolia and Edison Disk Player with the only repairman in the state. I stopped at the Fabric Peddler quilt shop in Baldwin and picked up a panel and matching fabric. My sudden interest in panels is from reviewing Creating Art Quilts with Panels by Joyce Hughes. I can't wait to try her techniques out on these large flowers!

Next, we stopped in Farwell at the Elm Creek craft and garden shop. We bought a patio set of two chairs and a table that fold up. Perfect for our front yard garden! I found another panel I had to get.

At the Surry Road quilt shop in Clare, I bought some fabric for a special project.

We then headed to West Branch where my brother has a log cabin, complete with Indian, outside of town.

The trees were coming into full color when we arrived.

 Every day we headed into town to the West Branch library for the WIFI.

The cozy sitting area in the West Branch library

And of course, we shopped at their fantastic used bookstore. I found some goodies. I had Armor Towle's Rules of Civility on ebook but prefer to read 'real' books. Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann has been on my TBR list, and I have heard a lot about Elena Ferrante's My Brillant Friend, and I love Andrea Barrett's writing. The Val McDermid rewrite of Northanger Abbey just looked like fun. And the William Maxwell stories was on the FREE shelf!

I stopped at Aunt Effie's Craft Closet in downtown West Branch, where I found friendly service and terrific selections.

This wall was just the SALES fabrics! There are tables of fat quarters and precuts and walls of bolds of fabric. They offer machine quilting and classes. One group is working on the Bee-autiful quilt from MODA, which I made last year.

I saw the cutest fabric on sale. I snapped a pic and sent it to my Gamemaster son, who also loved it. So the next day I returned and bought fabric to make him a quilt.

 We also stopped at the wine store.

We had rainy days, and after our daily treks into town, we stayed in the cabin reading books. We ate out for lunch and then had soup for dinner.

At the Lumber Jack restaurant, we had the most delicious bread pudding after a pot roast. The decor is quite Up North, down to the vestibule greeter.

 We love the food at the China Inn.

We hit a few of the antique shops. In the Potato Barn Anqitue Store, I found sheet music for One Meat Ball, a song my mother used to sing! It came out when she was thirteen years old.
I did not know that it was sung by Josh White and was from Cafe Society.

The lyrics go like this:

A little man walked up and down

and found an eating place in town.

He looked the menu thru and thru

To see what fifteen cents could do.

One meat ball, one meat ball, 

He could afford by one mean ball.

He told a waiter near at hand

The simple dinner he had planned,

The folks were startled one and all

To hear that waiter loudly all,

One meat ball, one meat ball,

Hey! This here gent wants one met ball!

The little man felt ill at ease

And said, "Some bread, sir, if you please!"

The waiter's voice roared down the hall,

"You get no bread with one meat ball!

One meat ball, one meat ball,

You get no bread with one meat ball!

The little man felt very bad,

But one meat ball was all he had.

Now in his dreams he hears that call,

"You get no bread with one meat ball,

One meat ball, one meat ball,

You get no bread with one meat ball.

It was very quiet at the cabin, but one day deer ran through the yard. Every day the colors grew more intense.

We bought bread at the bakery in town, successfully avoiding the doughnuts and sticky buns and blueberry pie. Outside, we met the local vet.

South of town, coming off the expressway, one can see the water tower which is painted yellow with a Smiley face, the most popular tourist attraction seen on the road Up North.

The land is hilly with fields and farms and pockets of trees and open land.

While driving we listened to a book on tape, Siracusa by Delia Ephron.

When I got home I had two books waiting for me. One was Haruki Murakami's newest novel, Killing Commendatore-- a surprise package from A. A. Knopf! I must have won some giveaway.

 And Dover Publications sent me My First Book of Sewing, which I requested for review.

I read non-review books while away: Marlena by Julie Buntin while away (review to come!), Stephen Fried's book on restauranteer Fred Harvey, Appetite for America, and started Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann.

While away, NetGalley informed me that I was approved for In the Eye of the Hurricane by Nathaniel Philbrick! I have enjoyed all his books. Also on my NetGalley shelf are All the Lives I Never Lived by Anuradha Roy, The Perilous Adventures of the Cowboy King by Jerome Charyn, Big Bang by David Bowman, and Daughter of Molokai by Alan Brennert. I read Brennert's Honolulu years ago and have Molokai on my Kindle to read before the new book. From Edelweiss I have Learning to See by Elise Hooper.

Also, while away I got the good news that I had won a special Book Club win: A Skype visit with author Wiley Cash to discuss his novel The Last Ballad. My feet were hardly touching the ground for a whole day! WILEY CASH! You can read my reviews on The Last Ballad here, and A Land More Kind Than Home here.

Coming home we drove out of the clouds and into the sunshine! The trees had some color, but mostly we saw green. We stopped for lunch in my husband's hometown, driving by his childhood homes and school.

It was nice to be away for six days, but even nicer to be home again! I have some sewing to do!

WWI Vintage Sheet Music: Mostly Comic Songs About Army Life

Many WWI songs were about the boys leaving home, family and girls, and adjusting to army life. Some are sentimental, but most are comic songs.

They Were All Out of Step But Jim by Irving Berlin, 1918, has a marvelous cover by Barbelle and was sung by Blanche King. Hear it sung by Billy Murray here.

Jimmy's mother went to see her son

Marching along on parade

In his uniform and with his gun

What a lovely picture he made

She came home that evening

Filled up with delight

And to all the neighbors

She would yell with all her might

[Chorus]

"Did you see my little Jimmy marching

With the soldiers up the avenue?

There was Jimmy just as stiff as starch

Just like his father on the seventeenth o' March

Did you notice all the lovely ladies

Casting their eyes at him?

Away he went

To live in a tent

Over in France with his regiment

Were you there, and tell me, did you notice?

They were all out of step but Jim"

That night little Jimmy's father stood

Buying the drinks for the crowd

You could tell that he was feeling good

He was talking terribly loud

Twenty times he treated

My, but he was dry

When his glass was empty

He would treat again and cry

[Chorus]

***

There's a Vacant Chair in Every Home Tonight. 1917, by Alfred Bryan and Ernest Breuer, was illustrated by Barbelle. I am sure it brought tears to many a mother. Listen to a recording here.

In ev’ry mansion, ev’ry cottage all throughout the land, 
There’s a mother heart that’s feeling blue. 
Her darling boy is missing, he was gone with sword in hand, 
To make our country safe for me and you. 
In ev’ry mother’s eye there is a tear. 
And on her lips a prayer could you but hear. 

Refrain: 
There’s a vacant chair that’s waiting there in ev’ry home tonight. 
And a lonesome mother’s dreaming by the fire burning bright. 
She is thinking of her gallant boy who is fighting for the right. 
There’s a vacant chair in ev’ry home tonight. 

Verse: 
She fondly gazes at his picture hanging on the wall, 
Seems but yesterday he went away. 
Her dear lips keep repeating he’s the bravest boy of all. 
I’m lonely but I’m proud of him today, 
And oft she murmurs to herself alone, 
I hope that I’ll be here when he comes home.

 Refrain

***

This comedy song makes fun of the Irish. Where Do We Go From Here by Howard Johnson and Percy Wenrich, 1917 was performed by the Klein Brothers. The Klein brothers had a vaudeville act in which one spoke gibberish. Asked what it meant he replied, who cares as long as they laugh? 

I can't identify the illustrator, but it shows a smiling soldier coming through a broken wall with the war behind him. Listen to a recording here.

Pad-dy Mack drove a hack up and down Broad-way,

Pat had one ex-pres-sion and he'd use it ev-'ry day,

An-y time he'd grab a fare, to take them for a ride,

Pad-dy jumped up-on the seat, - cracked his whip and cried:

Chorus:

"Where do we go from here, boys? Where do we go from here?"

An-y-where from Har-lem to a Jer-sey Cit-y pier,

When Pat would spy a pret-ty girl, he'd whis-per in her ear:

"Oh, joy! Oh, boy! Where do we go from here?"

One fine day, on Broad-way, Pat was driv-ing fast,

When the street was blown to pie-ces by a sub-way blast,

Down the hole poor Pad-dy went, a-think-ing of his past,

Then he says, says he, I think these words will be my last:

Chorus

"Where do we go from here, boys? Where do we go from here?"

Pad-dy's neck was in the wreck, but still he had no fear,

He saw a dead man next to him and whis-pered in his ear:

"Oh, joy! Oh, boy! Where do we go from here?"

First of all, at the call, when the war be-gan,

Pat en-list-ed in the ar-my as a fight-ing man,

When the drills be-gan they'd walk a hun-dred miles a day,

Tho' the rest got tir-ed, Pad-dy al-ways used to say:

Chorus

"Where do we go from here, boys? Where do we go from here?"

Slip a pill to Kai-ser Bill and make him shed a tear,

And when we see the en-e-my we'll shoot them in the rear,

"Oh, joy! Oh, boy! Where do we go from here?"

***

It's a Long, Long Way to Tipperary is one of the most well known WWI songs. Written by Jack Judge and Harry Williams, 1912, it came out of the British Music Hall. "The Sensational Irish March Song Success" also features Paddy. Listen to a recording by John McCormick here.

Up to mighty London
Came an Irishman one day.
As the streets are paved with gold
Sure, everyone was gay,
Singing songs of Piccadilly,
Strand and Leicester Square,
Till Paddy got excited,
Then he shouted to them there:

Chorus
It's a long way to Tipperary,
It's a long way to go.
It's a long way to Tipperary,
To the sweetest girl I know!
Goodbye, Piccadilly,
Farewell, Leicester Square!
It's a long long way to Tipperary,
But my heart's right there.

Paddy wrote a letter
To his Irish Molly-O,
Saying, "Should you not receive it,
Write and let me know!"
"If I make mistakes in spelling,
Molly, dear," said he,
"Remember, it's the pen that's bad,
Don't lay the blame on me!"

Chorus

Molly wrote a neat reply
To Irish Paddy-O,
Saying "Mike Maloney
Wants to marry me, and so
Leave the Strand and Piccadilly
Or you'll be to blame,
For love has fairly drove me silly:
Hoping you're the same!"

Chorus

***

A popular Canadian WWI song was K-K-K-Katy, 1918, by Geoffrey O'Hara, Army Song Leader. Hear Billy Murray sing it here. Read about the composer here.

Jimmy was a soldier brave and bold
Katy was a maid with hair of gold
Like an act of fate, Kate was standing at the gate
Watching all the boys file on parade
Kate smiled with a twinkle in her eye
Jim said "M-m-meet you by-and-by!"
That same night at eight
Jim was at the garden gate
Stuttering this song to K-K-K-Kate

[Chorus
K-K-K-Katy, beautiful Katy
You're the only g-g-g-girl that I adore
When the m-m-m-moon shines over the cow shed
I'll be waiting at the k-k-k-kitchen door

K-K-K-Katy, beautiful Katy
You're the only g-g-g-girl that I adore
When the m-m-m-moon shines over the cow shed
I'll be waiting at the k-k-k-kitchen door

[Verse 2]
"No one ever looked so nice and neat!"
"No one could be just as cute and sweet!"
That's what Jimmy thought
When the wedding ring he bought
Now he's off to France the foe to meet
Jimmy thought he'd like to take a chance
See if he could make the Kaiser dance
Stepping to a tune all about the silv'ry moon
This is what they hear in far off France

[Chorus]
K-K-K-Katy, beautiful Katy
You're the only g-g-g-girl that I adore
When the m-m-m-moon shines over the cow shed
I'll be waiting at the k-k-k-kitchen door

K-K-K-Katy, beautiful Katy
You're the only g-g-g-girl that I adore
When the m-m-m-moon shines over the cow shed
I'll be waiting at the k-k-k-kitchen door

***

Another well-known WWI comic song is Irving Berlin's Oh! How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning, 1918, with another Barbelle cover. It was performed by Bob Hall.

Berlin wrote the comic song after he was conscripted into the army as part of a fund-raising show. He never saw combat. Listen to a recording by Arthur Fields here.

The other day I chanced to meet a soldier friend of mine, 
He’d been in camp for sev’ral weeks and he was looking fine, 
His muscles had developed and his cheeks were rosy red, 
I asked him how he liked the life, 
And this is what he said:

[Chorus] 
“Oh! how I hate to get up in the morning, 
Oh! How I’d love to remain in bed; 
For the hardest blow of all, 
is to hear the bugler call; 
You’ve got to get up, 
You’ve got to get up, 
You’ve got to get up this morning!

Someday I’m going to murder the bugler, 
Someday they’re going to find him dead; 
I’ll amputate his reveille, 
and step upon it heavily,

And spend, the rest of my life in bed.

[Verse 2] 
A bugler in the army is the luckiest of men,
he wakes the boys at five and then goes back to bed again; 
He doesn’t have to blow again until the afternoon, 
If ev’ry thing goes well with me I’ll be a bugler soon.

[Chorus] 
“Oh! how I hate to get up in the morning, 
Oh! How I’d love to remain in bed; 
For the hardest blow of all, is to hear the bugler call; 
You’ve got to get up, 
You’ve got to get up, 
You’ve got to get up this morning!

Oh! boy the minute the battle is over, 
Oh! boy the minute the foe is dead, 
I’ll put my uniform away and move to Philadelphia,

And spend the rest of my life in bed.

***

I Don't Want to Get Well by Harry Pease and Howard Johnson, music by Harry Jentes, 1917, is another comic song about army life. The cover shows a wounded soldier cared for by a pretty nurse while out the window combat ensues. Listen to a recording by Van & Schneck here and by Eddie Cantor here.

 I just received an answer to a letter that I wrote, 
From a pal who marched away. 
He was wounded in the trenches somewhere in France 
And I worried about him night and day. 
“Are you getting well,” was what I wrote. 
This is what he answered in his note: 

Refrain: 
“I don’t want to get well. I don’t want to get well. 
I’m in love with a beautiful nurse. 
Early ev’ry morning night and noon, 
The cutest little girlie comes and feeds me with the spoon
I don’t want to get well. 
I don’t want to get well. 
I’m glad they shot me on the fighting line fine. 
The doctor says that I’m in bad condition 
But oh oh oh I’ve got so much ambition. 
I don’t want to get well. I don’t want to get well 
For I’m having a wonderful time."

Verse: I showed this letter to a friend who lives next door to me 
And I heard him quickly say “Goodbye, pal, I must be going.
 I’m off to war, And I hope that I’m wounded right away.
 If what’s in this letter here is true,
 I’ll get shot and then I’ll write: (chorus)

***

Come On Papa by Edgar Leslie and Harry Ruby, 1918, with another great Barbelle cover. Eddie Cantor may be pictured on the cover but he may not have performed it. Hear an orchestral version here.

Another comic song that again portrays war as a fun adventure. Meet nurses. Meet girls. 

Sweet Marie in gay Paree 
Had a motor car;
It filled her heart with joy,
To drive a Yankee boy;
On the sly, shed wink her eye,
If one came her way,
She'd stop her motor car
And then she'd say:

chorus:
Come on papa
Hop in ze motor car
Sit by mama
And hold ze hand
You start to raise for me
What zay call ze deuce
I'll be so sweet to you
Like ze Charlotte Russe
Come on papa
Beneath the shining star
Bounce your babe upon your knee
I'll give you a kiss like ze mademoiselles do
Each time you ask for one
I'll give you two
Comme ci comme ca
And when you're in ze car
You love mama
Oo-la-la, Oo-la-la
Come on papa

Yankee boys make lots of noise,
When they're in Paree;
They like to promenade
Up on ze Boul-e-vard;
They all know Marie and so,
Any time she's near,
They knock each other down,
Each time they hear: (chorus)

Death in Paris by Emilia Bernhard: A Cozy Mystery

Sometimes I need a 'sherbert 'book between the heavy main courses in my reading life, something light and sweet and undemanding but entertaining. This month I tried out my first 'cozy mystery.' I thought they were merely mysteries without explicit gore and sex, a kind of anti-noir story. It turns out that a cozy mystery involves likable amateurs who care about people and are on a quest to seek justice. The villains are not horribly evil and always receive their just deserts.

Death in Paris by Emilia Bernhard is the first in a series of books each set in each arrondissement of Paris. American ex-pats Rachel Levis and Magda become amateur sleuths when Rachel's long-ago lover is discovered dead in his soup, a glass of Rose' on the table. Rachel is convinced someone murdered Edgar, and that the guilty party drank Rose', which Edgar abhorred and had called "sugary vinegar."

Edgar's will requested that Rachel organize his library of rare books after his death and so she has inside access to his home and meets the other beneficiaries of his will.

There are four reasons behind murder, Rachel recalls: Theft, jealousy, fear, and revenge. Edgar's ex-wife, his son, his assistant, and his former lover all benefited from the will financially. Also, of course, the butler is among those Rachel and Magda investigate.

There are twists and turns, and much self-doubt by Rachel, as new evidence, and even deaths, turn up.

It was a fun read with interesting characters. Readers who have been to Paris will enjoy the place descriptions.

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

Death in Paris
by Emilia Bernhard
Thistle Publishing/Crooked Lane Books
Publication Oct 9 2018
ISBN 9781683317685

Paint-By-Number Quilts: 4 Animal Appliques with Vintage Style by Kerry Foster

Have you always wanted to make a pictorial quilt? Learn new skills with

Paint-By-Number Quilts by Kerry Foster. Foster offers patterns to make four animal quilts that are too cute to resist.

Fabulous Fox shows how to use preprinted fabrics for an effective background.

First, she covers what tools and materials you need then she shows you how to choose fabrics. She offers two applique techniques: prepared-edge machine applique, prepared-edge hand applique, and fusible applique.

This bear quilt has the look of a vintage park travel poster!

I was interested in the first technique which I have not tried. Using freezer paper and glue, the sections of the image are built up then placed on the background fabrics. The applique can be machine or hand stitched. A numbered color chart correlates to the pattern and yardage by color is given. Instructions for assembling the applique include illustrations.

The off-white background suggests a wintry day. Note how Foster outlines the antlers.

The projects include a Racoon Mug Rug, pictured on the cover of the book. It is just adorable and measures 10" x 9". The Grizzly Bear Wallhanging measures 45" x 32 1/2".  Fabulous Mr. Fox Wallhanging, 37 1/2" x 46 7/8" is one of my favorites. The Whitetail Stag Wallhanging measures 18" x 29."

The section on Finishing includes notes on how to quilt the noses, antlers, and eyes, create a 'furry' look, and how to quilt backgrounds.

In 32 pages we get all the instructions needed to create our own versions of the quilts!

Kerry Foster, from her website

Visit Kerry's blog at
https://pennydog.com/blog/

Visit the Blog Tour for the book at
https://www.ctpub.com/blog/paintbynumber-quilts-blog-tour/

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

PAINT-BY-NUMBER QUILTS: 4 Animal Appliqués with Vintage Style
Kerry Foster
Format:
 Book ($19.95)
eBook ($17.99)
8.5” x 12”
32p booklet + pattern sheets, color
ISBN: 978-1-61745-538-4
UPC: 734817-112549
(eISBN: 978-1-61745-539-1)

A Cloud in the Shape of a Girl by Jean Thompson

Women hold a family together. They plan the social activities and family gatherings, act as a buffer between butting heads, ease the high emotions of family conflict, and provide the meals for the family table that brings generations together.

It is not an easy job, or an easy life. Especially in families afflicted with personality disorders, addictions, mental illness, anger issues, conflict--or even with the usual garden variety issues common to all families.

A Cloud in the Shape of a Girl by Jean Thompson is about three generations of women who have struggled with holding the family together even when their personal dreams are sacrificed for their family. The characters, Evelyn, Laura, and Grace, are vital and distinct while recalling to mind our own mothers and daughters.

It is a heartbreaking story that spans from WWII to the present, each generation of women hoping to find self-fulfillment and true love yet putting the interests of others first.

Each woman who reads this novel must ask herself in what way has she repeated her mother's life, in what ways has she sacrificed her dreams, and if it was worth it in the end. And do we make these choices out of societal or familial expectation or out of the love we have for our children?

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

A Cloud in the Shape of a Girl
by Jean Thompson
Simon & Schuster
Pub Date 09 Oct 2018
ISBN 9781501194368
PRICE $26.00 (USD)