Memoir & Biography.

Some people are so outside the realm of normality that they almost seem to be a different type of human.  Their lives can make for fascinating biographies. Paul Erdös was just such a person.  Born in Hungary in 1913, he soon took to numbers.  At age 3 he would calculate how many seconds his parents' friends had lived.  Paul Hoffman's The Man Who Loved Only Numbers chronicles the bizarre life of Erdös.

Considered to be the most prolific mathematician in history, Erdös co-authored nearly 1500 scientific papers.  During most of his adult life, he traveled from university to university, or conference to conference, living out of two suitcases.  He never owned other possessions, did not have a home, and gave away money he didn't need.  Often, he would simply show up on a colleague's doorstep unannounced, spending a few days or weeks solving research problems before moving on to another city.  

Hoffman's interviews in the math world uncovered some great stories.  Later in his life, Erdös apparently needed an operation to correct his dimming vision, but delayed surgery because he was reluctant to lose precious work time.  He finally agreed to the procedure only when he mistakenly believed that he would be able to work during surgery.

In honor of his work and life, mathematicians humorously developed the Erdös number.  Erdös himself was awarded the number 0.  Erdös co-authors are awarded the number 1.  Co-authors of co-authors, the number 2.  And so on.  A low Erdös number is considered to be a great distinction (Steven Hawking, Bill Gates, Noam Chomsky and J. Robert Oppenheimer are 4's; Einstein a 2).  Hank Aaron jokingly has a 1 after co-signing a baseball with Erdös.  And, of course, a few mathematicians have tried to auction their Erdös numbers on Ebay.

Merry Hall By Beverly Nichols

In 1946 Mr. Nichols longed to escape post-war London, so he went looking for a small Georgian House, not too far from the city, with about 5 acres of land where he could create a garden.  He found Merry Hall.  It fit all his requirements, and he bought it, even though the Georgian lines of the building had been ruined by remodeling and additions, the interior was in shambles, the five acres were mostly weeds and nettles, and the gardener who came with the house was devoted to all the mistakes of the former owner.  With the help of his incredibly efficient factotum, Gaskin; the reluctant but expert aid of the gardener; the company of his cats, One and Four; and the occasional interference of neighbors, he turned Merry Hall into his dream house and garden.  He tells the story with classic deadpan British humor.

You don't have to be a gardener to enjoy this book.  (My favorite garden activity is to recline gracefully in the shade on a hot day with a cool drink and a good book.)  You do need to be prepared for strong prejudices, mostly about plants, but also about women and what Nichols considers the lower classes, and accept that he was a creature of different times.  He brings the best of those times alive most enchantingly.

The Elfish Gene: Dungeons, Dragons, and Growing Up Strange, by Mark Barrocliffe

I did not grow up in England, rather here in Maple Valley, but I did meet my English husband at a Dungeons and Dragons party, and I feel a strong connection to this book on a few levels.  I'm an anglophile and a geek and rather proud of it now, although it caused pain earlier in life when I didn't fit in, so I can vividly relate to this biography of another fantasy misfit.

Growing up in England, Mark Barrocliffe was smitten at the age of twelve by the allure of the new fantasy role-playing game, Dungeons and Dragons, a game in which you can create the character of your dreams and destroy the enemies of your nightmares, but almost assures you'll never get a date.  The enthusiastic boy immersed himself in the worlds of elves and orcs, wizards and warriors, of magic light and dark; of gaming sessions that would last anywhere from hours to days and where the final goals were to kill the Goblin King, save the fair maiden, and loot an amazing Frost Wand, to be used in the next game.  Barrowcliffe speaks with uncompromising clarity of the choices he made as a teen and why, of the odd, lonely, and equally strange young men he met through gaming (very few girls play), and the effect such a youth had on later life and his relationships.  The game consumed him to the point it drove his parents to distraction, drove some real friends away, and surrounded Barrowcliffe with other slightly broken people with the same goals; occasionally cruel boys who'd sit in a damp basement for hours eating junk food and rolling twelve sided dice, rather than going on a beach holiday with friends.  If you've lived the nerdy life of fantasy role-playing before it was popular, have been in situations where you haven't fit in but long to, or are just curious about that crazy D & D you've always heard about, this book will lure you into one young man's world of obsession and adventure, and what some might call his subsequent escape.

Lost in Place: Growing Up Absurd in Suburbia, by Mark Salzman.

Picture a 13-year-old boy, small for his age and not athletic, in the 1970's.  Are you uncomfortable yet? Meet Mark Salzman, the author of this satisfying memoir, on the cusp of adolescence.  One day Mark goes to a kung fu movie and finds his true vocation.  He decides to pursue the life of a Zen monk, with all the passion that "is possible only when you don't yet have to make a living, when you are too young to drive, and when you don't have a girlfriend."  What does that look like, exactly?  Well, his parents won't let him shave his head or quit junior high to wander the world, but he does the best he can.  He transforms the basement into his vision of a Buddhist temple, with lots of incense and knick-knacks from the Oriental gift shop in his small town.  He borrows his father's bathrobe and orders a bald-head wig from an ad in the back of a comic book.  His sister says he looks like an eggplant, but nothing distracts Mark from pursuing his dream.

Mark's dedication to kung-fu carries him through high school and dumps him out of the other side. This is the 1970's, years before there was a variety of martial arts studios in every town.  The only martial arts class he can find is taught by a man who is more drill sergeant than sifu, fueled more by alcohol and rage than by spirituality and equanimity.  Mark gives it his all anyway, and faces a chasm of loss and regret when his dream implodes.

By turns hilarious and poignant, this is an honest, big-hearted memoir.  

For many years, each fall - The King County Library System has offered a Book Group Gathering and invited members of book groups to get together and learn about the resources the library system can offer to help organize, support, and energize book groups. 

On Saturday, September 26, over 130 people gathered, (mostly women) at the KCLS Service Center for this year's program. With Nancy Pearl offering wonderful ideas for organizing, sustaining and controlling book groups, refreshments and prizes donated by the North Bend, Snoqualmie and Fall City Friends of the Library, and a busy morning of programs, it was huge success.

One of the most interesting items not on the agenda was an opportunity for spontaneous book sharing when one of the speakers had an emergency and couldn't make it. People raised their hand, stood up and gave a title their book group had read, and a very brief book talk.

 

The most wonderful part of this experience was the passion that surged through the room, as someone suggested a title, if others had read it, there was an audible sigh, nods and once in a while, even a shake of the head. The point wasn't to convince others that this was THE book their group should read, but to offer suggestions, endorsements and above all, to share a love of books, stories and literature.

 

We agreed to compile the list of suggestions and post it to our blog.

 

The Color of Lightning - Jiles, Paulette

Fieldwork - Berlinski, Mischa

Little Bee - Cleave, Chris

Mountains Beyond Mountains - Kidder, Tracy

A Far Cry from Kensington - Spark, Muriel

The Poisonwood Bible - Kingsolver, Barbara

 

Architect Frank Lloyd Wright was the subject of scandal in upper-class Oak Park, Illinois. Edwin and Mamah Borthwick Cheney had commissioned Wright to design their home. A romance sparked between Mamah and Frank and an affair quickly blossomed. Both felt obligations to their respective families, so rather than divorce, each separated, to reunite in Europe. For years, they traveled and lived together, each inspired by their own intellectual pursuits. When they returned to the United States, they settled in Wisconsin, in Taliesin, one of Wright's structural masterpieces.

Cheney is conflicted between her desire to be with Wright, and societal expectations placed upon her. Critics of their relationship were open in their distaste for her ethical decisions. Because she was the other woman, Cheney was vehemently accused of homewrecking, more so than Wright. Her narration reflects her guilt and eventual acceptance of her choices

This novel is part historical fiction, part biography, and reflects a dedication on Horan's part to research a relatively unknown part of Wright's romantic past. Beautifully written, Loving Frank exudes a graceful flow, introducing the reader to the beauty and complexity of their illicit affair.

While many of his Brown University classmates were leaving to study abroad in Europe, Kevin Roose was packing his bags for Lynchburg, Virginia.  An agnostic who lied about his religious beliefs on his application, Roose was studying for a semester at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University bible school. For the next few months he would follow "The Liberty Way", the school's forty-six page code of conduct that prohibits watching R-rated movies, drinking, smoking, cursing, gambling, dancing, and anything beyond holding hands. When his History of Life exam read "True or False: Noah's Ark was large enough to carry various kinds of dinosaurs", he answered True.  During spring break he preached the gospel in Daytona Beach bars, on Friday nights he attended bible study, and on Sunday mornings he sang on national television in the front row of Falwell's church choir. He was undercover at what Falwell called "Bible Boot Camp", hoping to connect with his evangelical peers.

The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner's Semester at America's Holiest University is not an attack on the many friends Roose met during his semester; rather it's an attempt to understand a culture that was completely foreign to him. The kindness of the students and faculty helped him feel at home at Liberty, and it was interesting to see how the author's own beliefs changed during his evangelical immersion. His attempt to bridge the God Divide in our country is a welcome break from the shrill voices on our radios and televisions.

Shakespeare's Wife by Germaine Greer

Little is known about Shakespeare's wife, Anne Hathaway, but that doesn't stop scholars from trying to figure her out. Many have decided that she must have been the worst of wives, a shrewish, ugly woman who drove her husband off to London. She was, after all, eight years older than Shakespeare and he only left her his second-best bed in his will (they ignore the fact that she would automatically receive 1/3 of his estate). But Germaine Greer looks at Anne Hathaway from a decidedly feminist perspective. She analyzes the documents of the era, especially those pertaining to life in Stratford. This examination brings Elizabethan England to life, revealing a culture vastly different from our own.

Greer presents the possibility of an Anne Shakespeare who was a partner to her husband and a success in her own right. Anne, she points out, was a good catch. Her family ran a successful farm and she had a dowry. Elizabethans married in their mid to late twenties, so at twenty-six, she was no spinster. Will, on the other hand, was underage and from a family in debt up to their ears. He had no occupation that we know of until he went to London. In short, Will got a deal. Women like Anne often ran businesses and farms, usually with their husbands, but sometimes independently. Cottage industry products, like knitted hose and lace, were usually produced by women, as were foodstuffs like beer and cheese. Many men of Shakespeare's class traveled to London on business and stayed away for long periods at a time. They didn't take their families. London wasn't a healthy place for a wife or children. Their lives in the city didn't necessarily reflect on the families they left behind either; what happens in London stays in London and all that. Greer's portrayal of an industrious Anne who supports the family while Will pursues his career is convincing and inspiring. This Anne is no shrew or sad, deserted wife. She is an active, intelligent woman, capable of winning the Bard's love and worthy of keeping it.

While a bit academic, readers interested in history, women's roles or Shakespeare will find plenty of tidbits in this book to keep them reading. And it will give you a whole new perspective on "women's work".

Even if I wasn't interested in the Asian culture, the cover of this book would have caught my eye:  a Chinese monk, clearly in deep contemplation, strolling along carrying a Burger King bag.  However, having been to China several times and read many books about it, it was fascinating to see another perspective on a country of such contrasts.

In his book American Shaolin, Matthew Polly is adept at capturing these interesting juxtapositions.  For example, he is just a skinny kid from Kansas who is forced into a challenge match with a kung fu master and a Princeton dropout who ends up living with Shaolin monks and sharing their brutal physical workouts.

When Polly decided to leave school and pursue his dream of studying at the Shaolin Temple, no one thought it was a good idea.  When he arrived in China and couldn't even find the Temple at first, he didn't think it was such a good idea either.   However, as he overcomes aching body parts and cultural miscues, Polly discovers more and more about the mysterious group of monks who invented Zen Buddhism, as well as the individuals in the group, and he discovers even more about himself.

His experiences are at times funny, at times shocking, at times frustrating, and at times downright scary, but his telling is always readable and he makes you appreciate the Chinese proverb, "Talk does not cook rice."  A lot of people say they are going to drop everything and pursue a dream, but instead they stay put and become emotionally starved.  Matthew Polly didn't just talk about his dream, he lived it, Burger King and all.

I recently started re-visiting the Egg and I by Betty Bard MacDonald. I was sparked to read it again by a friend who stayed at the Betty MacDonald farm (now a bed and breakfast) on Vashon Island.  I'm determined to stay at the farm, myself, but wanted to re-read her books again to fully prepare.

Betty MacDonald Moved to Seattle when she was 10 (or 11) years old in 1918. She was married and moved out to a chicken farm in the Olympics in 1927.    The Egg and I is a wonderfully funny account of her years as a new wife on the chicken farm (she later remarried and moved to Vashon Island). 

The racist comments aside, you'll find her writing very funny.  It's also fascinating to read about the Pacific Northwest as a wild frontier in the 20s and 30s... an interesting piece of history.

You might also enjoy Betty Macdonald other memoirs: Anybody Can Do Anything (about her time as a single parent during the Great Depression), The Plague and I (about her time in a sanatorium with tuberculosis), and her famous Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle series for young readers.