Category: Nonfiction
The Girl Who Loved Camellias by Julie Kavanagh
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
The little known, riveting story of the most famous courtesan of her time: muse and mistress of Alexandre Dumas fils and Franz Liszt, the inspiration for Dumas’s The Lady of the Camellias and Verdi’s La Traviata, one of the most sought after, adored women of 1840s Paris.
Born in 1824 in Normandy, Marie Duplessis fled her brutal peasant father (who forced her to live with a man many years her senior). Julie Kavanagh traces Marie’s reinvention in Paris at sixteen: as shop girl, kept woman, and finally, as grand courtesan with the clothes, apartment, coach and horses that an aristocratic woman of the time would have had. Tall, willowy, with dramatic dark hair, Marie acquired an aristocratic mien, but coupled with a singular modesty and grace, she was an irresistible figure to men and women alike. Kanavagh brings her to life on the page against a brilliantly evoked background of 1840s Paris: the theater and opera, the best tables at the cafés frequented by society figures, theater directors, writers, artists–and Marie, only nineteen, at the center of it all. Four years later, at twenty-three, she would be dead of tuberculosis.
I first heard of Marie Duplessis because of my love of opera. She was the inspiration for Dumas’s The Lady of the Camellias, which was the inspiration for my favourite opera of all time, La Traviata. After watching an amazing version of La Traviata with Anna Moffo in the lead role, I wondered how close her interpretation was to the real Marie Duplessis. Then I began to wonder who Marie Duplessis the person was, not just the character writers, painters and musicians have made her into over the decades.
Although Duplessis only lived to the age of 23, Julie Kavanagh was able to give us a very in-depth, detailed look at her life. Not only that, she provided context for Marie’s rise from simple but pretty farm girl to one of the most sought-after courtesans in Paris’ demimonde. She was a complex woman who could be both unbelievably selfish and petty but at the same time, caring and genuinely kind to the people around her. Money ran through her hands like water to feed her wardrobe and her general lifestyle but at the same time was known to give generously to charities and was very religious in her later years. If she were a mere character in a novel she’d probably be called unbelievable and contradictory, but Kavanagh’s highlighting of her contradictions really humanized Marie for me. She became a living, breathing person instead of this distant legend.
As it says in the blurb, from a very young age Marie was likely sexually abused and when she fled from the countryside she had no illusions about what a wonderful place 1840s Paris was for lower class women. She clawed her way up the unofficial courtesan hierarchy, first being a grisette (a lover to somewhat poor university students) and then a lorette when she found an older, wealthier patron. And then, finally when the simple Alphonsine Plessis caught the eye of a young duke, she was transformed into Marie Duplessis, the irresistible courtesan. It was not an easy path and Kavanagh talks about her struggles in fairly stark language that brings home the idea that while being a courtesan could be glamorous at times, there were many times it was not.
What I especially liked about The Girl Who Loved Camellias was the postscript that detailed the sale of Marie’s estate to pay off her debts and the introduction where Marie’s cultural impact is discussed. Of course, most famously there’s the book The Lady of the Camellias and Verdi’s opera La Traviata but there have also been films and even ballets about her life. Even though few people today actually know her name, Marie Duplessis lives on in the beautiful works of art she inspired.
My favourite thing about this biography is that while Julie Kavanagh goes into detail, she does not get encumbered by it as so many biographers do. While she includes the text from some letters pertaining to Marie’s life, she does not get bogged down in detailing Marie’s correspondence. Instead, she includes short quotes where it’s relevant (which seems like common sense but sadly all too few biographers do this, preferring to include every single scrap of correspondence they can find pertaining to their subject). She gives historical context to Marie’s life but again she doesn’t get too bogged down in irrelevant details. Basically, she tells a detailed but interesting story about a woman who packed quite a lot of living into just twenty three years.
If you’re looking for an interesting biography that’s a fairly fast read, I highly recommend The Girl Who Loved Camellias. It’s one of the best biographies I’ve ever read.
I give this book 5/5 stars.
The More You Do The Better You Feel by David Parker
(Cover picture courtesy of Amazon.)
Are You A Human Ostrich?
Do you stick your head in the sand at the thought of dealing with a task that seems boring, complicated, or unpleasant? Do you pay your bills late because the last time you balanced your checkbook was more than six months ago? While working on a task do you keep thinking you should be dealing with a different task?
- Is your living space messy and your life unorganized?
- Do you clean up only when family or friends will be visiting-only to let your place fall back into untidiness after they’ve gone?
- After you’ve cleaned for visitors, do you tell yourself “it doesn’t count!” because you weren’t doing it for yourself?
- Have you stopped having visitors over because you’re ashamed of your mess?
- Do you worry you’ll feel embarrassed if the landlord, a plumber, or a repairperson needed to visit your place?
- Do you constantly compare yourself to people who seem to “have it together?”
- Does your habitual procrastination leave you feeling depressed and anxious?
- Do you know the 25 characteristics and behaviors of the human ostrich?
- Are you concerned that your child or someone you care deeply about is becoming a habitual procrastinator?
[Full disclosure: I received a free paperback from the author at Book Expo America 2015 in exchange for an honest review.]
I am a habitual procrastinator. I have been since I was in middle school because I could always get away with a good mark despite doing my work late the night before (especially essays for English). And I never really grew out of that habit. Instead, it’s migrated to take over other things in my life like cleaning and other generally unpleasant tasks. So when I met David Parker at BEA offering a copy of his book, I was quite willing to give it a try. And I did, several months ago.
So why didn’t I review it until now? Surprisingly, the answer is not procrastination.
The answer is that I’ve virtually cured my procrastination since reading it in beginning of June. Of course I’m not perfect (and this book does not expect perfection) but I have really, really improved from where I was. It was especially helpful while I was preparing for my big move in the middle of August and needed to do an insane amount of inventory and cleaning. I’m not the sort of person that believes powerfully in self-help books, but this one is definitely one that worked for me.
David Parker starts the book describing his own procrastination and habitual procrastinators will end up nodding along. “Yes, I definitely do that…I also think [x] negative thing whenever I don’t get things done”, etc. He then describes how procrastination becomes a habit and then how it absolutely takes over your life. Then in the second section of the book he goes on to describe how to take steps toward curing your procrastination using his J.O.T. Method™ (Just One Thing Method).
I didn’t follow the instructions exactly but the idea of writing done just one thing, doing it and then crossing it off appealed to me. I’m sure it seems so simplistic and ridiculous to people who don’t sufer from procrastination but for me it really did help. I could see what I was doing and I finally had motivation to do it just so I could cross off that item. As time moved on, I made longer and more sophisticated lists where I was doing several things every day in order to get my life back together. For example, I began vacuuming every Friday night before I went online so that I didn’t keep leaving the vacuuming until someone was coming over or until it was so filthy I couldn’t stand it. Again, this may seem very simplistic but I can’t describe what a relief it was to finally be doing something—and to have the motivation to do that thing.
Of course your procrastination won’t disappear overnight and it may take several months like mine did but it is such a relief to act like a normal adult now. I’ve finally said goodbye to my awful middle school habits and have taken responsibility for my life. It’s easy to fall back into the trap of procrastination, but Parker also deals with that in his book. If you fall off the horse, get back on again and don’t beat yourself up about it. He has very practical solutions for dealing with the negative self-talk all of us procrastinators have. And if you’re someone who is close to a procrastinator, there’s also a chapter for you to better understand and support them on their journey to ending procrastination.
Basically, this is a pracitcal no-nonsense approach to ending procrastination. It’s written in clear language that everyone can understand and it actually helped. I think that’s really all you can ask for in a self-help book, right?
I give this book 5/5 stars.
Night by Elie Wiesel
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
Night is a work by Elie Wiesel about his experience with his father in the Nazi German concentration camps at Auschwitz and Buchenwald in 1944–1945, at the height of the Holocaust and toward the end of the Second World War. In just over 100 pages of sparse and fragmented narrative, Wiesel writes about the death of God and his own increasing disgust with humanity, reflected in the inversion of the father–child relationship as his father declines to a helpless state and Wiesel becomes his resentful teenage caregiver.
Penetrating and powerful, as personal as The Diary Of Anne Frank, Night awakens the shocking memory of evil at its absolute and carries with it the unforgettable message that this horror must never be allowed to happen again.
When you read about the Holocaust, Elie Wiesel is one of those survivor names that keeps cropping up again and again because of the amazing things he went on to do later in life. While I was researching his story I noticed that there are actually two versions of Night: one from 1982, translated by his publisher at the time and another one from 2006 that was translated by his wife (who translated most of his fictional novels). I decided to read the most recent one because of the introduction where he mentioned that he was now able to correct and revise some of the details that had gotten lost in translation in the first edition. Because of that introduction I believe this one is the more faithful translation when compared to the original Yiddish manuscript and decided to read this 2006 version.
One of the things that really struck me about Night when I started reading it is the sparse but beautiful prose Elie Wiesel uses. He describes things in a way that ensures they’re ingrained in your memory but never really gets flowery about it. I can still picture the scene of the ghetto emptying day by day until Elie’s street is called for transport. I can picture the horrific burning ditch that greeted Elie and his father when they arrived at Auschwitz and learned the truth: their denial of the horrors a fellow townsman had warned them of might very well be their undoing. It’s really stark prose and it drives home the horrors of all that he witnessed in his months-long stay at various concentration and work camps, first at Auschwitz, then Buna and then to Buchenwald where he and the rest of the prisoners were liberated in 1945.
While the prose and descriptions are stark, you really do get a good sense of his mindset as he adjusts psychologically to his situation. At first he’s still pretty naive and horrified by what he witnesses but by the end you can tell that he’s lost some of that humanity, that sense of the importance of every single life. And who wouldn’t, given the circumstances? He takes his readers on a journey through the loss of his faith in a benevolent, almighty God and how his father kept him alive for so long despite Elie’s lack of will to live at times. It really does hit you hard; this little book of just 115 pages packs one heck of a punch and it does leave you wondering what sort of humans could carry out such horrible deeds. There aren’t really any adequate words to describe my feelings after reading this book but it’s a combination of sadness, happiness, numbness, despair, confusion and hope. I think every reader will have a different emotional experience.
If you’re the sort of person who is interested in history in general, but particularly in survivors’ accounts of the Holocaust, Night is definitely a must-read. Elie Wiesel is a master writer who can pack such an emotional punch in so few words that sometimes his story will leave you breathless. I can’t recommend this book enough.
I give this book 5/5 stars.
Bursting the Atmosphere: What Happens When Rain Falls Up by Robert Ben Mitchell
(Cover picture courtesy of Amazon.)
Nostradamus and the Bible foretell the end of times. In school we learn that five billion years from now the sun engulfs and incinerates the Earth. Recent headlines say asteroid 1950 DA might wipe out all life on Earth if it collides with us in 2880. But what if none of this matters? What if none of this can harm us, because what if all life is gone from Earth before the year 2100? Using both thermodynamics and the Ideal Gas Law, Robert Ben Mitchell explains how global phase change (not global warming) is the ever present danger that might very well be the end of the world as we know it.
Author’s Note: “For those who seem a little intimidated at this point by words like thermodynamics and phase change, do not run to find your high school or college physics books just yet. In some ways, I fully understand your trepidation in engaging in an ivory-tower discussion about such a lofty topic. That fear notwithstanding, I was once told by a professor of mine that if you can’t explain your ideas at eleven o’clock in the evening to the graveyard shift waitress who is serving you coffee at an all-night diner, then no one is ever going to understand what you are talking about. So drop your books and pick up your aprons, because I am going to try and make this explanation easy to understand.”
[Full disclosure: I accepted a free ebook from the author in exchange for an honest review.]
Global warming, climate change, global phase change…call it what you will, normally I would not touch the topic with a ten foot pole on my blog. In part because I don’t have a good background in environmental science and also because despite the overwhelming evidence that it does exist, the climate change controversy invites some heated debate to put it mildly. I honestly didn’t think it was worth it until I got a review request from Robert Ben Mitchell asking me to review this relatively simple yet scientific explanation of why we should all be a little more worried than we are about climate change. I was a little reluctant but I decided to give it a go.
As promised in the Author’s Note in the blurb, this is not an overly complicated highly technical book. Your average high school student could read this book and understand the science behind it quite well because the author is able to explain the science in a more accessible way. He doesn’t dumb things down so much as use regular language to explain the concepts behind climate change and add in statistics that present to us the fact that it is a clear danger to human life as we know it. Even if you have little or no science background I think you’ll find his explanations very easy to understand and at the end of every chapter there’s a bullet point summary of all of the concepts discussed so the information sinks in much better. Overall it simplifies things without talking down to readers but there are some times where I did feel like I was being spoken to like a child. That creeps into the information rarely but it definitely is there.
One of the things I liked very much about Bursting the Atmosphere is that the flow is very logical, organized and none of the sections are overly long. This is the kind of book where you could read a section when you have fifteen minutes to spare at lunchtime and then go back into it at dinner without getting confused. Robert Ben Mitchell organizes things in a logical fashion: first he talks about the controversy surrounding climate change, then he goes into the science of it and then he uses the science he just explained to extrapolate his findings to what might happen if something isn’t done soon. He does point out that life on earth will be extremely difficult for millions if not billions of people but it’s never done in a sensational 24 hours news like manner. That doesn’t make it any less terrifying, however.
Really, if you’re looking to understand the science behind climate change and really don’t have a strong science background, this is the book for you. It’s not overly data heavy but there are places where you can fact-check everything the author presents and he cites his sources quite well. It’s a well-written analysis of climate change and it is definitely accessible to the average person. Sometimes he talks down to his readers but those instances are rare and don’t really detract from the arguments and data he presents. All in all, it’s a pretty good if terrifying look at the possible future of our planet.
I give this book 4.5/5 stars.
Marie Antoinette: The Journey by Antonia Fraser
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
France’s beleaguered queen, Marie Antoinette, wrongly accused of uttering the infamous ‘Let them eat cake,’ was the subject of ridicule and curiosity even before her death; she has since been the object of debate and speculation and the fascination so often accorded tragic figures in history. Married in mere girlhood, this essentially lighthearted, privileged, but otherwise unremarkable child was thrust into an unparalleled time and place, and was commanded by circumstance to play a significant role in history. Antonia Fraser’s lavish and engaging portrait of Marie Antoinette, one of the most recognizable women in European history, excites compassion and regard for all aspects of her subject, immersing the reader not only in the coming-of-age of a graceful woman, but also in the unraveling of an era.
One of the historical figures that I’ve never liked was Marie Antoinette. To someone like me who is incredibly bookish and curious about the world around me I just could not connect with a woman who hated reading and seemed to only care about the insular court of Versailles. I had bought this biography about her on sale for just about $2 so I decided I’d give Marie Antoinette another chance. Antonia Fraser is a noted historian so I thought that if anyone could make me feel an ounce of sympathy for the woman she could.
And in the end, Antonia Fraser was the one who changed my mind about Marie Antoinette. Let me explain.
Marie Antoinette was the last girl in a long series of children birthed by the formidable Maria Teresa (more commonly known as Maria Theresa but Antonia Fraser uses the former spelling), archduchess of Austria and Holy Roman Empress. She was given a mediocre education at best until it was decided she would be the next queen of France and then poor Marie was supposed to learn everything there was to know about the French court, customs and language in just a couple of years. For someone who was functionally illiterate until the age of 10 or so because of an incredibly lazy governess, this would be no mean feat but I was actually surprised at how much she succeeded. Marie Antoinette was not a party girl as is commonly depicted. No, she was more of a lonely wife dealing with the humiliation of the whole court knowing that her husband Louis could not perform his manly duties (which of course was her fault). Louis was kind of a useless sort of a man, more interested in hunting and tinkering with his locks than learning about politics and how to run the state or even how to properly bed his wife. (As a side note: how one could stay totally innocent about sex in Versailles of all places, I’ll never know.)
So Marie Antoinette turned to her circle of friends and one of her weaknesses was gambling; she lost massive fortunes gambling with courtiers as was expected. When the regime’s fiscal crisis became apparent she started dressing more plainly but was rebuked by her fellow courtiers and the French people for not honouring the dignity of her role by dressing elaborately. No matter what she did, she was in a no-win situation and for that I really feel for her. Sure, she made some huge political miscalculations, particularly with encouraging Louis to hold fast against the tide of the Revolution but I just can’t hate her for her lack of political sense when she was never taught history or politics in any meaningful way. Marie Antoinette was not a smart woman, but that’s hardly a crime meriting a death sentence as well as the nearly universal condemnation of history.
Antonia Fraser’s strength as an historian is the fact that she can both tell a good story and analyze it and the results of people’s actions without boring her reader or focusing too much on the story-telling. Her writing is clear and to the point and when she injects her opinion into the narrative, she backs it up with evidence and logic extremely well. She even manages to shed some light on the bizarre and still mysterious Diamond Necklace Affair that so hurt Marie Antoinette’s reputation among the French people. The only real caveat I have about her writing is that it helps to have a bit of knowledge about common French phrases. She does usually translate the phrases but sometimes they are just put into the writing and it’s left to readers to figure things out. Usually you can figure things out because of the context, but it’s much easier if you’re like me and have had at least a little bit of a background in French, however basic.
Marie Antoinette: The Journey is a very well written biography of a woman who has been characterized as a villain for over two hundred years. As it says in the blurb, Marie Antoinette was an ordinary princess born into an extraordinary time that she was not equipped to handle. Not everyone can be Eleanor of Aquitaine and change the course of history so dramatically through daring and intelligence; Marie Antoinette was no Eleanor of Aquitaine. And can we really fault her for being rather ordinary? No. Even someone like me, who characterized her as a rather stupid woman was able to feel sympathy and understand her dilemmas much better because of Antonia Fraser’s work. She’ll never be one of my favourite historical figures but thanks to Fraser she’s definitely one that has been rehabilitated in my mind.
I give this book 5/5 stars.