“We get the Dialectic fairly well.”

Posted on November 29, 2023 by Kate Stover

Why would a poem written in 1940 be included in The Best American Poetry 2023?  W. H. Auden’s brilliant poem about contradictions wasn’t published during his lifetime because he questioned its value. Auden was a great poet who doubted his greatness. Even when he won awards, such as the Pulitzer Prize in 1948 for The Age of Anxiety, he questioned his skill. He was an anxious nail-biter who held back much of his work. Many of the writers I know also suffer from self-doubt. From what I’ve seen, it’s easy to become your own worst enemy when you question your worth.

Auden, W. H. “We Get the Dialectic Fairly Well.” The Best American Poetry 2023, Elaine Equi, guest editor, David Lehman, series editor, Scribner Poetry, 2023, pp. 5-6.

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“I’ve spent my whole life studying her . . . because I always want to do whatever I can in any given moment to make or keep Mom happy.”

Posted on November 20, 2023 by Kate Stover

What happens when a stand-up comedy routine becomes a memoir? In this case, it becomes a best-seller. This book started as a one-woman show about growing up trying to please a mother who was her best friend and controller of everything from showers to diet to wiping after using the toilet. After the pandemic closed down live performances, McCurdy infused comedic timing into her memoir. Dark humor is woven into the descriptions of abuse. She tells how she learned that things done in the name of love were wrong. Expert use of tone, perspective, and timing make this book extraordinary.

McCurdy, Jeannette. I’m Glad My Mom Died. Simon & Schuster, 2022, p. 89.

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“Memories are then replaced by different joys and sorrows, and unbelievably . . . you are positive that this is all you’ve ever wanted in the world.”

Posted on November 6, 2023 by Kate Stover

This novel makes us ask: which versions of our memories are to be believed? Is it really true that the protagonist has all that she’s ever wanted? Is she hiding something? From whom? I disagree with the reviewer who described this novel as “bucolically simple.” What about the reference to the ending of King Lear – “Never, never, never, never, never”? Think about it! Ann Patchett surprised me by delaying important information that I hadn’t anticipated — information that made me go back to the beginning and see clues that are scattered like shards of glass. Don’t underestimate Ann Patchett!

Patchett, Ann. Tom Lake. Harper, 2023, p. 116.

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“Where does the road to ruin start?”

Posted on October 31, 2023 by Kate Stover

This Pulitzer Prize-winning novel is written as a recovery journal by a young man in Appalachia who was born to a single mother experiencing addiction. It’s the story that author Barbara Kingsolver wanted to write for years because every family she knows in her part of Appalachia has lost someone to addiction. But how could she make this difficult story captivating? She turned to Charles Dickens for inspiration. He wrote about a young victim of the industrial revolution about 175 years ago, and Kingsolver reimagined Dickens’ plot and characters, keeping the fast pace, pathos and compassion. I love this modern masterpiece.

Kingsolver, Barbara. Demon Copperhead. Harper, 2022, p. 332.

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“…I see in the flashlight beam, a world of dust . . . massing, revolving back, splitting into twos and threes and lonely ones—”

Posted on October 26, 2023 by Kate Stover

The poet Rasma Haidri continues, “and I know I orchestrated this fugue of spheres.” I love the way hope infuses this poem – and many of the poems – in this collection. We see stories about people who are looking for greater happiness, and who are finally able to change their perspectives. New possibilities emerge, as in this poem, which ends with these lines, “As I watch, everything changes: dust specks settle into one flow, from solos to chorus, and this, too, I know I conduct.” Bravo! This book is about the power that comes from realizing you can change your life.

Haidri, Rasma. “Trust.” Blue Like Apples, Rebel Satori Press, 2023, p.43.

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“Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show.”

Posted on October 16, 2023 by Kate Stover

Because we all make questionable decisions from time to time, it’s only natural to wonder if we are our own worst enemy, or if we are the hero in our life, or something in between. Many memoirs begin with this question.  However, this book is not a memoir: it’s a novel written by Charles Dickens. Interestingly, he writes about things that he experienced: being sent to a boarding school where boys were whipped, working in a factory at age 12, becoming a court reporter, writing best-selling novels. So…was he a hero in his life? That’s a hard question to answer.

Dickens, Charles. David Copperfield. Penguin Classics, 1996. First published 1850, p. 14.

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“I live on the boundary of the outside and the inside.”

Posted on September 29, 2023 by Kate Stover

I’ve always believed that the best way to take the pulse of a bookstore is to check out the display on the front table. Instead of best-sellers, this bookstore featured Czech poets – a treat for someone like me who knows virtually nothing about the literary traditions of this country. Oxford scholar Kathryn Murphy observes the presence of symbolism, surrealism, the avant garde of the 1920s and 1930s, as well as folk tradition. There is a shared mistrust of the conventional markings of time and boundaries. Many of these poems feel haunted to me, and ready to glide off the page.

Hejda, Zbyněk. “A Dream.” Six Czech Poets, edited by Alexandra Büchler, Arc Publications, 2007, p. 35

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“I had lost my self-confidence where you were concerned, had traded it for a boundless sense of guilt

Posted on September 14, 2023 by Kate Stover

I’ve been thinking about Kafka’s story about turning into an insect this week, and why he would write a story about a young man who shamed his family by turning into a useless cockroach. A Czech bookstore had a book-length letter that Kafka wrote to his father, which was never sent. Is it fact or fiction? I don’t know.  It describes a young man whose father frequently threated to beat him. Sometimes he would stop with the strap in mid-air, and other times he would strike. The boy was supposed to feel gratitude when spared, but instead he felt ashamed.

Kafka, Franz. Letter to Father. Vitalis, 2022, p. 42.

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“One morning, when Gregor Samsa woke from troubled dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a horrible vermin.”

Posted on September 11, 2023 by Kate Stover

This story about a man who turned into a type of insect has been called surreal, humorous. a horror story, neurotic, and “the greatest short story in the history of literary fiction.” I visited a museum devoted t0 Kafka in Prague. It was the weirdest, most unpleasant museum I’ve ever been in. Its mission is to evoke the feelings of depression and paranoia and loneliness that run throughout Kafka’s work. As I walked through the maze of small hallways – which were painted black – I found myself hurrying to get to the end. It was powerful, but one visit will suffice.

Kafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis. Translated by David Wyllie. Classix Press, 2009. Originally published in 1915, p.7.

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“Then she leaned over and bit him hard on the cheek.”

Posted on August 31, 2023 by Kate Stover

Even though this biography of novelist Barbara Pym was picked as a “Best Book of the Year 2021” by the London Times, the Guardian, and the Daily Telegraph, I was initially reluctant to read it. I didn’t want to learn things that would make me think less of one of my literary heroes. (What if she turned out to be boring?) Fortunately, I was in for a pleasant surprise: she was more interesting and more spirited than I imagined. I never could have imagined that Barbara was a biter. This book is “clever, funny, and full of surprises.” I savored it.

Byrne, Paula. The Adventures of Miss Barbara Pym. William Collins, 2021, p. 68.

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“I expect you to beat the odds. That’s my gift to you, in fact, that gift of expectations.”

Posted on August 17, 2023 by Kate Stover

At the end of this novel, Peter Sullivan tells the hard-scrabble students in his English class that he believes in them and expects them to succeed, even if no one else has ever had faith in them before. What a wonderful gift! In fact, in the closing pages, we realize that many of the characters – even the ones with the most strikes against them – have managed to climb out of the holes that they were in. This may be the most affirming novel I have read. Charles Dickens – known for subplots, humor, and ghosts – would love it. So do I.

Russo, Richard. Somebody’s Fool. Knopf, 2023, p. 430.

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“I have learned,” said the Philosopher, “that the head does not hear anything until the heart has listened, and that what the heart knows to-day, the head will understand to-morrow.”

Posted on August 4, 2023 by Kate Stover

Interesting ideas sparkle throughout this novel. Here are two examples: “Curiosity will conquer fear even more than bravery will” and “…for life may not be consecutive, but explosive and variable, else it is a shackled and timorous slave.” It was written a hundred years ago by an Irish poet and novelist who was inspired by the visionary poet William Blake. The language in this book is often luminous. It sold very well, which allowed Stephens to move to Paris, where he became close friends with James Joyce. Can you imagine their wild conversations? I bet sparks lit the air.

Stephens, James. The Crock of Gold. First published in 1912. This edition was independently published in 2022, p. 102.

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“You make the path boldly and follow it fearfully.”

Posted on July 27, 2023 by Kate Stover

The last word of this sentence stunned me. The Annie Dillard I know is one of the boldest writers. Could she experience fear when writing? She does. She says, “In your humility, you lay down the words carefully, watching all the angles.” Then, she looks for parts that look “soft and careless.” If it’s weak, it has to go. Cutting is hard because it requires admitting you are capable of not-great work. At the heart of her writing process lies this contradiction: she must be confident enough to be visionary, and humble enough to recognize when she misses the mark.

Dillard, Annie. The Writing Life. Harper & Row, 1989, p. 3.

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“Fiction . . . is not dropped like a pebble upon the ground, as science may be; fiction is like a spider’s web . . .”

Posted on July 20, 2023 by Kate Stover

Virginia Woolf continues, “attached ever so lightly, perhaps, but still attached to life at all four corners. Often the attachment is scarcely perceptible; Shakespeare’s plays, for instance, seem to hang there complete by themselves.” It’s only when the web is torn in the middle, says Woolf,  that we see that the webs are fragile, the work of “suffering human beings” who are attached to houses, money and health. This is part of her answer to her question, “What conditions are necessary for the creation of works of art?” Her exploration – supported by  metaphors, poetry, reasoning, and imagination — will astonish you.

Woolf, Virginia. A Room of One’s Own. Harcourt, 1989), p. 41.

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“It’s quite therapeutic going through the archives.”

Posted on July 11, 2023 by Kate Stover

Some memoirists want to record their history, others wish to tell great stories, and others, like Pamela Anderson, want to make sense of their lives. She is more interested in exploring “Who am I – when I’m alone?” than in the events that made headlines. She looks for answers in books by Joseph Campbell, Plato, Anaïs Nin, Kahlil Gibran,  and Rainer Maria Rilke. The attachment-parenting theorist Jean Liedloff  gave advice on raising her sons that her parents couldn’t offer.  Yes, she experienced violence and trauma, but  her legacy is her “invincible heart.”  She writes, “My imagination has been my savior.”

Anderson, Pamela. Love, Pamela. Deyst, 2023, p. 8.

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