Review: Divided Lives: The Public and Private Struggles of Three American Women by Elsa Walsh

Walsh has chosen three American women on the cusp of major decisions in their lives to represent all women and the challenges facing them personally and professionally in the late nineties in the US. I have had this book on my shelf probably since the time about which Walsh was writing but never made the time to read it until now which is a shame.

In the introduction, Walsh details her belief that there are six different areas in which women need to find balance in their lives in order to be happy. Happiness is not having it all or balancing merely the personal and the professional but must also take into consideration a sense of self, a sense of place, and time for self in addition to the more obvious feelings about her job, relationship with a partner, and relationship with children.

To illustrate her point, Walsh followed and interviewed three succesful women over several years: Meredith Vieira, Rachael Worby, and Alison Estabrook. A chapter is devoted to each woman, her challenges, the roadblocks she faced in trying to balance family and work, and the resolution of the major decision facing her at the time of the interviews. Each of these three women are incredibly talented and from the outside they seem to have everything they could ever want. But each of them sacrifices something of herself in pursuit of the perfect life. Walsh's descriptions of the women is in depth and sympathetic. Some of the references are a bit dated given when the book was written. For instance, we know far more about Vieira's tv career now than when she agreed to be Walsh's subject. And a little bit of research will tell the reader that all of these women have gone on to become even more respected and celebrated than they were during their tenure as Walsh's interviewees.

Walsh offers no quick answers to the balance it takes to make a woman's divided life whole but her examination of these three women's lives highlights the difficulty everyone faces in trying to do so. This was a pretty easy and quick read with the interviews being straightforward narratives and only the introductory note to readers and the concluding chapter trying to tease out the deeper meanings in the particular stories. And interesting read, I'd be curious to know if women are still facing the challenges that were the hallmark struggles in this book.

Review: As Sure As the Sun by Anna McPartlin

Harri Ryan has a panic attack and ends up at the hospital instead of at the altar. This is the second time she has missed her own wedding and fiance James can't take a third try, having packed his belongings and left before she even returns from the hospital. But Harri's panic attacks seem to be connected to something a lot deeper than just cold feet. What Harri learns when she confronts her parents changes her whole life and also that of her twin George. In full fledged retreat from her family, Harri must learn who she is and how she will go forward with the information they've given her.

Harri's story is interwoven with the diary of a young teenaged girl who lives with an abusive step-father and a broken mother. The connection between the two tales builds gradually, easily becoming clear to the reader early on. It is to McPartlin's credit that this transparency doesn't change the reader's desire to hear the outcome of both Harri and Liv's stories. And she still manages to give a neat and unexpected twist to the outcome.

For the most part, I was caught up in the story but it did run on a bit more than I would have liked. I'm also not certain that I think Harri's panic attacks could be traced back to this old scandal and the secretive way it was buried given her age when it occurred but I suppose the unconscious does some crazy, unexplainable things. Even if I don't buy the origins of Harri's panic attacks, I still think that McPartlin has managed to capture the essence of panic attacks and of debilitating depression. And it's hard not to root for Harri to overcome both in order to win back James. His character is not present enough in the book to feel complete but Harri's family and the way that they each react not only to the revelation but to her response is eminently believable. Each of them suffers and each of them deserves pity, just as she does, working through their shared new reality. The book is well-written and deals with a darker subject than the chick-lit cover would indicate and I liked it for the most part even though it took me longer than it should have to get through it.

Review: What We Eat When We Eat Alone by Deborah Madison and Patrick McFarlin

Not exactly a cookbook and not exactly a narrative non-fiction account of food lovers, this has aspects of both things in its composition plus charming and appealing illustrations (not of the food but rather the situations). Madison and McFarlin apparently spent years asking people what they eat when they eat alone, even before they came up with the idea of creating this book from the answers. Each chapter ends with recipes culled from the responses and scaled to serve one or at most two people. They look at but don't come to many meaningful conclusions about the differences between how men and women cook for themselves. They offer up the things they think everyone should learn to cook before they are grown. And they discuss the motives behind meals, the themes they ran across amongst solo cooks, and the comfort foods that hark back to childhood.

The stories told in the book started to feel rather repetitive as I read along. And I have not yet tried any of the recipes, although a few piqued my interest. But be warned that the recipes are heavily weighted towards southwestern food (perhaps because they live in NM or perhaps because southwestern fare is fairly easy to cook for one) and they pre-suppose a proximity to a wonderful market in which to obtain fresh and oftentimes tough to find ingredients in so many other corners of the country. Mostly I liked leafing through the book and savouring the quirky illustrations more than actually reading the text. It might inject some needed variety in the menus of someone eating alone though. At the very least, it will be something with which to while away a solitary meal.

Review: Lamentations of the Father by Ian Frazier

A collection of short, humorous essays, I found this when I was cruising the Humor section at the bookstore, a section I rarely venture into. The Atlantic Monthly published the title piece of this book as "among the best writing ever to appear in the 150 years of the magazine" claims the back of this slim book. And once I'd read it (again as I'd seen it on the internet before), I had to agree that it was truly a work of wonder. This and Cursing Mommy were the most hysterical bits in the collection, although I claim to bear no resemblance to the cursing mommy herself (despite the breadth of good Anglo-Saxon words in my childrens' vocabularies). There were a few essays that didn't cause me to crack a smile but overall, this was a fun, quick read, easy to dip into and a nice palate cleanser when reading weightier stuff.

Summer Reading Challenge

I might have failed dismally at the Spring Reading Challenge but I am always game to try again. This one is hosted by A Southern Daydreamer Reads. As I do with all seasonal challenges that allow me to create my own list, I resolve to finish all the books I currently have in progress for this challenge. This might be a bit complicated this go round as several of them are still drying out. But I'll stick to tradition and if I fail, I'll blame it on the books' condition instead of myself. If I complete it, well, I can just feel smug. Win, win I think! So without further ado, here's my list:

1. As Sure As the Sun by Ann McPartlin
2. The Far Pavillions by M.M. Kaye
3. Atmospheric Disturbances by Rivka Galchen
4. Caenus and the Quiver of Artemis by Christopher Ledbetter
5. A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains by Isabella Bird
6. What We Eat When We Eat Alone by Deborah Madison and Patrick McFarlin
7. The Big Rock Candy Mountain by Wallace Stegner
8. Divided Lives by Elsa Walsh
9. Lamentations of the Father by Ian Frazier