Theology, Nihilism, and Self-Help or I'm a Sinner, It's Hopeless, Happiness is Possible

 

    I listened to the audiobook of Deeper: Real Change for Real Sinners by Dane C. Ortlund. It is read by Dane C. Ortlund. He has a soothing voice even at 1.75x faster than normal. In Deeper, he addresses sin in the Christian life. For me, it can be a never-ending source of defeat and despair. Ortlund shines the love of Christ into the hopelessness of sin. He manages to comfort, challenge, and instruct. Reading theology stretches me mentally. Deeper increased my understanding of God's love and commitment. 

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    When I start a book, even if it turns out to be one I don't like, I usually finish it. I am a completist. About halfway through The Passenger by Cormac McCarthy, I quit. Here are some reasons why: no plot, no hope, and no point. In a cynical frame of mind, I would say I wasn't smart enough to read this book. If I understood what McCarthy was trying to do, perhaps I would marvel and be amazed. His characters don't have dialogues. Instead, they talk to each other in soliloquies, beautiful soliloquies. Halfway through, the characters' hopelessness became overwhelmingly depressing, and I stopped reading. I realized I need forward movement to stay engaged in a book. 

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    My anecdote to The Passenger was to read the opposite. This morning I finished reading The Happiness Project Or Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun by Gretchen Rubin. It was a surprising book. One surprise was how much I liked it--quite a bit. Another surprise was its genuine hopefulness. I like self-help books or, personal growth, as they're now called when they are practical and applicable. Give me steps, not platitudes; research and reasoning, not guessing and good thoughts. Rubin trained as a lawyer and loves to think about an issue deeply. She wrote the book, not because she was unhappy, but because she wanted to be happier about all she had--think family, health, and necessities and not Mercedes-Benz and billions--and applied herself in a studied, focused way to achieve more happiness. It has the usual platitudes: be yourself, satisfaction starts with you, but how; what does that look like? I found it a worthwhile read. It has prompted self-examination around the area of happiness for myself and others. Rubin is also an aphorism machine. Here are some I liked.

"One of the best ways to make yourself happy is to make other people happy. One of the best ways to make other people happy is to be happy yourself." 

"What you do every day matters more than what you do once in a while." 

"The days are long, but the years are short." 

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Anonymous Swimming Assasins or Odd Books I Read This Week

 This was a week for odd books. 

 

    The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka starts with the thoughts of a community of swimmers. Otsuka leaps from swimmer to swimmer describing their thoughts and pool philosophy. Then, the pool develops a mysterious crack. The swimmers perseverate about how to interpret the crack. Some explain it away, and others say it's a sign of imminent collapse. Finally, the story narrows to a particular swimmer, Alice, who has dementia. Otsuka mirrors well the pain of dawning knowledge that a loved one's mind fissures and its vital functions diminish. The book itself is short, but the story feels entirely told. 

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    Becoming Duchess Goldblatt: A Memoir by Duchess Goldblatt. To fully appreciate this book, you need to be on Twitter. I'm not, but I did enjoy the book. A fictional character--an alter ego--was created on Twitter anonymously. It is a famous 82-year-old author who is sharp, pithy, insightful, creative, and uplifting. The unknown author tells the twin tales of why she created Duchess Goldblatt and what Duchess Goldblatt has accomplished. Also, Lyle Lovett. Because I'm a curious person, I was irritated that the identity of Duchess Goldblatt wasn't revealed, but I enjoyed the isolation of pain turned to into an opportunity to creatively make connections.

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    Here is the premise of Deanna Raybourn's Killers of Certain Age, four women in their late 50s, early 60s are retiring from their forty year job as elite assassins. However, their employers, "The Museum," intends more permanent plans for them. Raybourn has created a globetrotting escapade as the women seek to stay alive and discover how they became targets of their own organization. I found it breezy and fun. A good book for gloomy January. 

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Tigers and Trust

       Maggie O'Farrell's writing is atmospheric and immersive. The way she writes seeps into the cracks in my brain, and I'm experiencing what her characters are living. This is hard because she loves a tortured, disregarded, lonely, prickly main character. The Marriage Portrait presents Lucrezia de Medici, who became Duchess of Ferrara at fifteen and died at sixteen. There is debate about her death. Most believe she died of tuberculosis, and a minority hold her husband killed her. O'Farrell produces a fierce character who struggles like a caged tiger for freedom from her sociopathic husband. The book opens with Lucrezia declaring her husband has brought her to an isolated hunting lodge to kill her. The story moves between her early life and her current situation. It's a tense dance of thinking there is no way she survives, but the more I know about her, the more I want her to. 

    I read a review that condemned the book as being "overwrought." I could see his point, and at times, when reading, I wondered why spend space describing minutia? My conclusion is O'Farrell sees it that way. Her style in The Marriage Portrait reminds me of Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert. One's persons lush and verdant is another's overgrown eyesore. 

 Review: maggie-ofarrell-marriage-portrait.html

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    This was a week for historical fiction. Trust, by Hernan Diaz, takes place in America and Europe in the early 29th century and revolves around a wealthy, reclusive couple. Reading Trust was like opening a Russian nesting doll. Each subsequent doll is similar and, yet, unique from the previous doll. The are four narrators, and each one reveals more of the central couple. In the book, themes of money, patriarchy, and media are unpacked in living color. Diaz writes convincingly in several different voices; his plot and characters display a sophisticated talent. As a result, this book is both substantive and surprising. 

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Before Cell Phones, But After Dinosaurs

    I love having goals! My book goal for 2023:

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    Dinners with Ruth: A Memoir of the Power of Friendship by Nina Totenberg was a book gem. For about fifteen years, I didn't have a television, and besides reading, I would listen to the radio. So I remember hearing the voice of Nina Totenberg on NPR. But, of course, this was also before cell phones and podcasts, you know, when dinosaurs roamed the earth. 

    The book is 50% about Ruth Bader Ginsberg and 50% about Nina Totenberg's life. It was eye-opening to hear about life as a reporter in the 1950s and onward. She does talk about the early days of NPR and the coterie of women that supported and encouraged one another. Ruth Bader Ginsberg is one of my heroes--smart, feisty, and persistent--what's not to like? Totenberg has a well-developed talent for storytelling and many fascinating stories to tell, like breaking the Anita Hill story and the story of her father's stolen violin. 

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    The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith is a lovely, captivating book. It takes place in Africa in the country of Botswana. The protagonist is Mma Ramotswe. Her father has died, and she takes her inheritance and buys a house, and starts a business--a detective agency. I have been reading this series since the early 2000s, and McCall's characters evolve for better and worse, but the Mma Ramotswe continues to solve mysteries large and small. She celebrates being a "traditionally built lady" and African. I read a review that described the book as a love letter to Africa. I must mention that the book about Precious Ramotswe, an African woman, is written by a white man who lives in Scotland but was born in Africa and has also lived many years in Botswana. In a time of debate about who gets to tell the story of others, Smith's own love of Africa shines out. He has a comprehensive knowledge of the food and culture. When I read this series, I can almost smell the dessert. 

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The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street by Karina Yan Glaser is a book in the same category as All of a Kind Family and The Penderwicks. It centers on family and children solving big problems. Even though it is a children's book, it is a well-told story with satisfying, exciting characters. A family with two parents, five children, a dog, a cat, and a rabbit have lived in a brownstone in Harlem, New York, most of their lives, but their mysterious top-floor landlord has refused to renew their lease. So December 31st will be their last day in their beloved home unless they can convince "The Biederman" to let them stay. How will they do it? You can probably guess where the story goes, but Glaser takes a circuitous, charming route to get there. This is a series, and I'm planning on reading them all.

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