Book Review: "Everything Beautiful Began After" by Simon Van Booy

I fell in love with Simon Van Booy's mesmerizing short story collection, Love Begins in Winter, when I read it in 2009, and it was among my favorite books of that year. His first novel, Everything Beautiful Began After, approaches love and relationships in a wholly different way, and although it didn't resonate with me as much as his short story collection, Van Booy's writing continues to transfix me.

Rebecca is a former flight attendant and an aspiring artist on the run from life. George is a loner and student of foreign languages who spends most of his days drunk and wishing for companionship. Henry is an archaeologist who has never allowed himself to get completely close to someone because of a tragedy that happened in his childhood. The three young people meet in Athens one summer, and their encounters with each other change their lives profoundly. This is a story about the peculiarities of friendship, the beauty of love, the overwhelming paralysis that accompanies grief and fear, and finding the courage to embark on a new start.

This book was beautifully written and tremendously compelling, yet I didn't feel as much of an emotional connection with the book in its entirety. Each of the characters were complex in their own way, but despite the range of emotions and events that affected each, I never quite warmed to them, and I found the crisis that one character went through toward the end of the book to be a bit excessive. But Van Booy's storytelling ability kept me reading because I was blown away by his use of language. I definitely liked this book, but didn't quite love it as much as I hoped I would. It's worth a read, but read Love Begins in Winter first.

Why Bother With Modifiers?

Enough said.

Customer Disservice...

When I was in college I managed a bookstore. There were few better jobs for a bibliophile like me—we were able to borrow books, the longer I worked there I started having regular customers ask me for recommendations on what to read, and I had the opportunity to talk about books all day long. (Plus, I could wear jeans every day, and the store hours were pretty accommodating to someone going to school full-time.)

These were the days before the "super stores" came to the DC area, so we didn't have to worry about clients going to Borders or Barnes & Noble, and ours wasn't a store built for congregating or reading—you browsed, found a book, paid, and left. (The one exception to that rule was during lunchtime, when the government workers would stand in the magazine section hiding their copies of Playboy, Penthouse and Hustler in legitimate magazines.)

For years after I graduated from college and held numerous stress-laden "real jobs," I used to dream of one day working at a bookstore again. Little did I realize that the advent of the bookstore-as-library concept championed by Barnes & Noble and Borders, coupled with the growing selfishness and entitlement of customers, would shake me from my idyllic thoughts.

When I decided to concentrate on being a personal chef full-time in 2004-05, I took a job at a local Barnes & Noble in order to have a regular income and health insurance. I learned fairly quickly that this wasn't the perfect job it once was—book displays were determined by corporate, so there was little creativity involved; my knowledge of books wasn't prized by our store manager, so I spent a great deal of time shelving maps and travel books, or magazines, instead of working with "real" books; and I often found myself supporting the nearly-always-shorthanded café staff, making lattes, serving cheesecake and mopping floors.

Oh, and the customers truly sucked the joy from the job. People would come into the store, grab a gigantic stack of books or magazines, read them in the café, at tables throughout the store, or even on the floor, and then leave them there. I literally would put the same magazines away time and time and time again. (My tenure at the store was during the whole Brad Pitt/Jennifer Aniston/Angelina Jolie scandal as well as the breakup of Britney Spears' and Jessica Simpson's marriages, so I grew quickly tired of their faces on the cover of every magazine.) Customers felt entitled to leave stuff wherever they wanted; they'd set up their laptops in the middle of an aisle, and allow their kids to roam free and pull stuff off the shelves. (Anyone assigned to straighten the kids' area at the end of the night would want to cry nearly as much as the person in charge of the newsstand.)

Not that the job was all torture, mind you. Apart from those people who never wanted to do anything or didn't show up for their shifts, I worked with a really fun group of people, many of whom read books and loved talking about them. And there was many a time where a group of us were laughing hysterically at one thing or another, usually the behavior of customers.

So it was with great fondness when I saw the list of bookseller grievances that came from Borders' employees as their stores closed. While some of these may seem petty to those who never worked in a bookstore, many of these hit the spot, and my memory bank. (When people would call the store and say, "I wanted to know if you had a book," my sarcastic reply after the call was ended was, "Oh, we're fresh out of books, but we can sell you a lovely calendar.") And more than one person asked for "the book by that guy," "the book with the blue cover that was on that table last week," or "the one they talked about on the internet last night."



Here's the list:

++ We hate when a book becomes popular simply because it was turned into a movie.

++ It confused us when we were asked where the non-fiction section is.

++ Nicholas Sparks is not a good writer … if you like him, fine, but facts are facts.

++ We greatly dislike the phrase "Quick question." It’s never true. And everyone seems to have one.

++ Your summer reading list was our summer reading NIGHTMARE. Also, it’s called summer reading, not three days before school starts reading.

++ It’s true that we lean to the left and think Glenn Beck is an idiot.

++ We always knew when you were intently reading Better Homes and Gardens, it was really a hidden Playboy.

++ Most of the time when you returned books you read them already — and we were onto you.

++ "Limit one coupon" did not mean one for every member of your family — this angered us. Also, we did know what coupons were in distribution that week.

++ It never bothered us when you threatened to shop at Barnes & Noble. We’d rather you do if you’re putting up a stink.

++ "I was just here last week and saw this book there" meant nothing to us. The store changed once a week.

++ When you walked in and immediately said, "I’m looking for a book," what you really meant to say is, "I would like you to find me a book." You never looked. It’s fine, it’s our job — but let’s be correct about what’s really happening here.

++ If you don’t know the author, title, or genre, but you do know the color of the cover, we don’t either. How it was our fault that we couldn’t find it we’ll never understand.

++ We were never a daycare. Letting your children run free and destroy our section destroyed a piece of our souls.

++ Oprah was not the "final say" on what is awesome. We really didn’t care what was on her show or what her latest book club book was. Really.

++ When you returned your SAT books, we knew you used them. We thought it wasn’t fair — seeing that we are not a library.

Believe me, I don't excuse those in customer service who are rude, but I will say that working at a bookstore these days was a brutal job, only as far as dealing with the public. But it was fun...

Despicable We...

I know we are a society built on the freedom to express your opinions, and it is often the difference of opinion that leads to progress. But lately I have been appalled at the growing lack of respect and civility that characterizes our country, and worry about what the future holds based on the behaviors that I've seen, from our elected officials, "regular" citizens, and our youth.

Much news coverage has been devoted to recent incidents at the Republican presidential candidate debates over the last several weeks, including one audience cheering about uninsured people dying and another booing a gay soldier. While many of the Republican candidates have been forced into condemning these behaviors, it is clear from their tepid reactions they saw little wrong with what happened.

But even more appalling than the growing disrespect those in the political arena show each other and the citizens of our country is a recent incident that took place in a suburb of Buffalo. As I wrote last week, 14-year-old Jamey Rodemeyer committed suicide after years of being bullied for being gay. His suicide came even after he recorded an "It Gets Better" video to try and rally others who felt as he did.

At a homecoming dance Jamey's sister attended shortly after her brother's death, some of his anti-gay schoolmates mocked and cheered his suicide.

Jamey's mother said, "She was having a great time, and all of a sudden a Lady Gaga song came on, and they all started chanting for Jamey, all of his friends. Then the bullies that put him into this situation started chanting, ‘You’re better off dead!’ and ‘We’re glad you’re dead!’ and things like that."

In an interview with Anderson Cooper last night, Alyssa Rodemeyer talked about the incident at the homecoming dance. She said, "The bullies ran from the dance when they realized they were going to get in trouble."

To date, school officials have done nothing. And you know they were there to watch the jeering, so they were aware of at least some of those involved.

Too many teachers, coaches, and other school administrators have stood idly by when children are bullied, especially because they are gay or perceived to be gay. It's not enough that no intervention occurred in all the years Jamey was bullied in school, but again, they refused to intervene while these same bullies jeered his suicide.

Who puts these ideas in these children's minds? Who tells them to think that it's not only right to undermine a person's self-worth until the point he sees no other option but suicide, but then applaud the decision?

This is so, so wrong. I shudder to think how many more lives will be irreparably damaged or lost because of disrespectful, disgusting behavior on the part of children and adults.

We can do better. Why don't we?

Book Review: "The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern

Magical. Incredibly compelling. Romantic. Boy, I loved this book.

Erin Morgenstern's debut novel follows the magical Cirque des Rêves, a circus full of dazzling and fantastical amazements. Marco and Celia, two brilliant magicians, are locked in a competition that neither of them understand, and that only one of them can survive. They use the circus as the epicenter of this competition, creating spectacles more incredible than the next. And as the two fall deeper in love, they learn just how enmeshed with the circus their lives are—and how the lives of all of those involved will be affected by whatever decisions they make regarding their future.

I thought this was a terrific book. I was completely taken with Morgenstern's creation of the circus and all of the people involved, both behind the scenes and within it. And this is a circus like no other. Don't think this is a story about clowns and lion tamers and trapeze artists—this is a story with a strong emphasis on magic and illusion and manipulation of reality. I fell in love with the characters and was truly disappointed when I was finished, although I couldn't help but race through the story. I'm sure this will be made into a movie at some point, but I'd encourage you to read the book first. If you enjoy these types of stories, you'll fall in love with the book just like I did.

If it Gets Better, Why Does it Keep Getting Worse?

This occurred earlier this week but I didn't have time to post about it until now.

My heart is breaking over last weekend's suicide of 14-year-old Jamey Rodemeyer, a gay teen from the Buffalo area. He took his life shortly after returning from a family camping trip, and his suicide is attributed to years of bullying because of his sexuality.

"I always say how bullied I am, but no one listens," he wrote on his blog September 9. "What do I have to do so people will listen to me?"

In the months prior, he routinely blogged about school bullying and thoughts of suicide in between upbeat posts about his pop star idol Lady Gaga and the ordinary types of teen rants typical for kids his age.

To demonstrate the amazing beauty of Jamey's spirit, even as he battled bullying in his own life, in May he recorded a video for the It Gets Better Project, to try and encourage other teens struggling that life was still worth living. It just kills me to watch this video.



I know that for every suicide that finds its way into the public eye, there are a dozen children who commit suicide every day because they are bullied for being different, even when they themselves might not really know what their differences are. And I continue to be frightened by the conservative turn our society seems to be taking, especially when it comes to the way people are treated relative to their sexuality, or what is perceived to be their sexuality.

But regardless of your views, it is not okay for a teenager or preteen or anyone to take their own life because they feel they have nowhere else to turn. And it is not okay for them to be abused, physically or emotionally, because of their differences.

Why can't we teach our children this lesson? How hard is it to get teachers and school administrators to recognize what is going on in front of their faces and take action? Ignoring it makes the problem worse; it does not make it go away.

Let's try not to lose another Jamey Rodemeyer. Can't we allow these kids to live their lives so in turn they can grow up to be adults with full, loving hearts?

We can't waste another minute. My heart goes out to Jamey's family and friends, and all I can say is, rest in peace, Jamey Rodemeyer. You left this world a little more compassionate than it was to you, and for that, all of us should truly be grateful.

A Sad Goodbye...

"Life is a series of hellos and goodbyes, I'm afraid it's time for goodbye again."

—Billy Joel

One of the worst things about growing older is losing those you love and having to say goodbye to them, often unexpectedly. (A friend of mine from high school recently said, "The only time being a grown-up pays off is when I want an extra cookie, watch a dirty movie without fear of getting caught, or get a drink.")

Today we said goodbye to my great-aunt Eileen, who passed away Tuesday night at after suffering a massive stroke following heart surgery last week. She was 85 years old.

Aunt Eileen was an absolutely terrific person, who never stopped living life to its fullest every day. As many of her generation, she was never shy about sharing her opinions and telling you exactly how she felt, but she was also never shy about sharing her love and her heart with those she cared about. For as long as I can remember, she was a tremendously warm and welcoming person, and always made W feel like he truly was a part of our family when she saw him.

She taught school for more than 30 years on Long Island, and loved to talk about books and other intellectual pursuits with me. I remember as a child, she would always give me workbooks and other study materials she thought would be helpful, and was always happy to talk things through. She believed you should never stop learning, and took classes and attended workshops throughout her life.

Her greatest love, of course, was her family. My uncle Jack died approximately 20 years ago, but she never let widowhood stop her. She had four terrific children—Allyn, Larry, Roberta, and Cindy—whom she loved as fiercely as she did all of her grandchildren—Bobby, Philip, Ian, Barbara, Debbie, Ross, and Cole. And she was over the moon with her nearly two-year-old great-grandson, Jackson.

But her love and her generosity of spirit didn't just stop with her immediate family. I remember she sent me a card when I had my gall bladder removed in the late 1990s, and also sent a card and checked on me when I started chemotherapy for cancer in late 2002. She was always happy when any family came together, whether for a special occasion or just an everyday encounter.

I was lucky to see my aunt in July when we celebrated my grandmother's 89th birthday. She was completely happy, healthy, funny, and opinionated as always. It's the perfect way to remember her.

Rest in peace, Aunt Eileen. Thank you for your love, your spirit, your intelligence, and for being you. I will miss you with all of my heart.