The Story of Beautiful Girl: Rachel Simon

The Story of Beautiful Girl is a 2011 New York Times bestselling fictional novel by Rachel Simon.  The story begins in 1968 on a treacherous, rainy November night at the Pennsylvania farmhouse of a semi-reclusive widow, Martha. Her lonely solitude is abruptly interrupted by the sudden appearance of two disheveled and desperate strangers, Homan, a deaf African American man and his companion, Laynie.  As Martha bravely accepts the stricken travelers into her home she realizes that Laynie may be mentally disabled and that she carries a tiny newborn under her rain soaked blanket. Commotion erupts as the police arrive and take Laynie into custody. Homan is able to escape into the stormy night while the baby remains hidden in Martha’s attic. This cataclysmic night propels the conflict of the story and we follow the characters through four decades of its ramifications. Simon eloquently chronicles these events and the aftermath of the the characters’ attempted escape this night from the nearby Pennsylvania School for the Incurable and Feebleminded. The school provides an element of historical realism to the novel, as it is loosely based on actual mental health facilities of this time period. This was an era in American history when mentally challenged children or those with misdiagnosed disabilities where locked away from society and their families, many times for life.

The Story of Beautiful Girl paints a realistic depiction into the minds of its characters who may appear externally disabled but internally live the same human condition as the rest of us. Simon writes from the unique perspectives of Homan and Laynie and readers observe a vivid internal dialogue.  Martha also lends her voice to the narrative as her life has been irrevocably changed by her chance encounter with Laynie and Homan.

Being inquisitive, I was compelled to do a bit of outside research into historical accounts of state institutions for the mentally disabled. In Q & A at the end of the book, Simon mentions a young Geraldo Rivera’s Peabody Award winning television reports on the Willowbrook State School located in Staten Island, New York in the early 1970’s. Rivera documented the deplorable and atrocious conditions at Willowbrook School and brought awareness to the plight of its residents.  Also, there are two current documentary films, Cropsey (2009) and Unforgotten: Twenty-Five Years After Willowbrook (1996), which reference the chilling conditions at Willowbrook and the aftermath of its closing.

In the opening reviews of the novel, author John Grogan (Marley and Me), writes, “I dare you to read the first twenty pages and not keep going.”  Fortunately, I took his challenge and was pleasantly surprised with an amazing work of fiction most worthy of reading.

Girl Unmoored (2012): Jennifer Gooch Hummer

Girl Unmoored:

What it means to me

I started writing Girl Unmoored when I was ten years old. I know because I still have the original notebook on which I sketched her face and wrote: A Girl Named Apron. I don’t know where the name, Apron, came from but my mother maintains that her name started out as “April.” It didn’t. But I don’t make a big deal about it; I have the notebook.

I never finished the book. Probably because there was no plot. All Apron did was pack up to go live with her grandmother, with no particular reason as to why. That’s the problem with not having a plot; the characters don’t do much.

It wasn’t until after I met my friend Mike that Apron showed up again. My Mike isn’t the same as the Mike in the book, but he too, was a dead ringer for Jesus. My Mike was an actor, although the closest he got to playing Jesus Christ was Rocky Horror, who also had long blond hair that he whipped around a lot. These hair-whipping days were in the early 80’s. Just when AIDS showed up. I didn’t know Mike then, and I barely knew about AIDS.

Girl Unmoored is the story of a girl lost in a sea of grief after losing her mother. When she meets Mike, she’s met her mooring. Although Mike and his cantankerous boyfriend, Chad, don’t know what to do with her at first-Apron just seems to keep showing up, usually with a fat lip-they eventually offer her a summer job in their flower store. And then its smooth sailing for Apron--until she uncovers Chad’s secret. He’s sick and there’s nothing anyone can do to save him. It’s also 1985, when no one really knows how AIDS is transmitted, or who might be at risk.

Suddenly Apron is forced to leave behind the safe harbor of childhood and navigate the stormy seas of a young adult. She knows what her real job is now, and it has nothing to do with flowers. Mike needs her to show him how to let Chad go.

There’s a whole lot of other stuff that happens, with a whole lot of other people—there’s Grandma Bramhall, too busy shopping for the perfect bikini to help Apron; and M, the deluded future stepmother; and Rennie and Mr. Perry, both of whom are about to be exposed for their betrayals—but mostly Girl Unmoored is about friendship. Deep, loyal friendship. The kind that supersedes family. The kind that keeps you anchored when everything else is falling apart. The kind that can save you.

Watching Mike and Chad endure in a world that despises them, Apron begins to understand that sometimes you don’t have to do anything for some people to hate you. Mean is just the way they came out.

This is what Apron learns.

This is what saves her.

I wish my friend Mike was here to read the book. He would have liked it, I think. Especially the part about how well he sang.

--Jennifer Gooch Hummer (December,2011)

Q & A with Chris Chong Chan Fui: Block B (Documentary short film)

Malaysian Filmmaker, Chris Chong Chan Fui, recently exhibited his unique and thought provoking film at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, DC. It was an amazing exhibition called Block B; I hope you will enjoy this Q & A and I thank him for answering my questions.
Website: http://www.tanjungarupictures.com/

Q & A:  Chris Chong Chan Fui

1.       In an online interview, I read that you were originally a student of business and a self-taught filmmaker.   How were you able to make this transition?

CCCF:  The transition from business to film was made blindly. In business, decisions are made with historical data so as to graph a direction of what the future holds.  I took the opposite, and more naïve approach, and believed that the unknown future ahead would lead me to answers of the past.  Moving into manipulating film was out of pure wide-eyed curiosity.  A curiosity much like opening a book of fantasy that leads to a more entertaining and unpredictable realm.

2.       As a child, what were some experiences in your background that cultivated your artistic pursuits?

CCCF:  My childhood was in a fishbowl, as it is now. 

3.       In Block B, your internationally award winning short-film, the setting is a Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) apartment complex.  Please describe the demographics and background of this site.

CCCF: The area, called Brickfields, is a major local transportation hub (mono-rails, trains, and buses), but also an area of red-light prostitution, blind massage parlors, Indian cafés, temples, churches and mosques alike. This is a place where the overriding sounds of the azan (Muslim call to prayer) coming from the mosque compete with the chimes rising from the pooja (Hindu prayers). In effect, this mélange of sounds mimic the disparate voices that comprise the country’s own religious complexities and insecurities. Brickfields is also known as the ‘Indian’ part of town because of the large population of expatriate Indians working in Kuala Lumpur (KL) in IT, engineering, architecture, etc. for 2-4 year contracts. The husbands, who are hired to work in KL, bring their families along. Their wives are usually highly educated, but become housewives in an effort to support the husband’s careers. It was common that the wives rarely left the apartment compound. Only venturing outside with their husbands, and sometimes with their neighbors. Usually  they visit others within the same floor, or from the floors above/below. But they rarely venture far. In a country that highly discriminates against Indian-Malaysians, these residents fall between the cracks because they are expatriate, middle-upper class, highly educated, brought to KL to work. They are self-contained within their own compound, looking at the troubles of Malaysia and the Indian-Malaysians from a distance even though they live in the same area. It’s a community within a community. A detail within a detail. Connected, but distant.

4.       Why did you choose this specific place for the film?

CCCF:  I had lived in this building for two years.  This was my community for that period of time.  This was my sightline.   

5.       What was the artistic process of Block B from start to finish?

Block B is a moving painting.  The project started from a canvas of the monolithic cement building which neither had a personality nor unique features.  The challenge was to allow the different personalities of the building and their stories seep out.  What this meant was to partially choreograph or paint the singular unmoving image of the building into a vibrant ‘moving-image’ using physical movement and varying light sources.

6.       How can individuals in the United States and abroad see more of your innovative work and other international short films?

CCCF:  That’s tough question as it depends on festivals / exhibitors.   Perhaps the website.  

7.       Where do your artistic inspirations come from and how do you hone your creativity?

CCCF:  Normally, I am provoked to create a work.  It is not necessarily an idea because I feel an idea is too casual.  I am provoked like a nagging voice.  A clear nagging voice with no source. 

8.       Who are some of your favorite filmmakers, artists, and authors?

CCCF:  Francis Bacon. 

9.       What are your current projects and how can people outside of Malaysia see more of your amazing work?

CCCF:  I’m sorting that out at the moment.  Hoping to be provoked very shortly. 

Behind the Beautiful Forevers

Behind the Beautiful Forevers (2012) Katherine Boo

February 7, 2012 Random House Publishing Group

In her author’s note, Katherine Boo writes, “Ten years ago I fell in love with an Indian man and gained a country.  He urged me not to take it at face value” (Boo, 245).  Ms. Boo, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, writes a non-fiction account of life in the slums of Annawadi, India called Behind the Beautiful Forevers.  Annawadi borders the international airport in Mumbai and the major trade of its inhabitants is trash collection and resale.  From the beginning of the narrative, readers follow a sixteen year old Muslim named Abdul Husain, who is a veteran and adept trash collector.  Abdul has helped his family survive amongst the 90,000 residents of Annawadi and they are able to build a small business from his industrious endeavors.  Unfortunately, there is dissention among the residents of the slum who are packed so closely together and the Husain family has an altercation with their neighbor, Fatima or “One Leg,” a crippled woman who neglects her children and whose sole pleasures in life are the extramarital affairs she partakes in when her husband is at work.  Boo also chronicles the difficult lives of other young people in the slum including:  scrappy Sunil, charismatic Kapa, and Meena, a young girl of a poor caste who is regularly beaten.  Machu, the only girl going to college attempts to teach the young children of the slum who lack any education.  The books focuses on the effects of modern day globalization on the residents of Annawadi and depicts some of the corrupt elements of the police and politicians.  Educated Manchu’s mother, Asha, is the powerful female slum lord who tries to rise above her caste and succeed in a patriarchal society.  Hunger, poverty, and a daily struggle for survival pervade the piece and readers will become more aware of life in one of the most populated cities in the world. Boo states that she had previously been writing about the poorest residents of the U.S. but observed, “A lack of nonfiction on India” (Boo, 248).  Behind the Beautiful Forevers is a story that will remain with readers long after the book is finished and will bring awareness to the effects of capitalism and globalization in one of the poorest regions of the globe.

*Thank you Random House Publishing for the opportunity to review an advance copy of this book.

Sarah's Key: Tatiana De Rosnay

Sarah’s Key is a novel of historical fiction originally published in June 2007 by St. Martin’s Press which has sold millions of copies worldwide.  A film of the same name premiered in July 2011 starring Kirsten Scott Thomas.  The beginning of the story is set in Paris during the Nazi Occupation of World War II and events revolve around the Vel d’Hiv Roundup of French people of Jewish descent by the French government in July 1942.  Sarah Starzynski is a ten year native Parisian girl of Jewish heritage who is taken with her parents to the Velodrome d’Hiver, an indoor stadium used for sporting events.  Before Sarah is captured, she locks her four year old brother, Michel, in a hidden cabinet and promises to return later that day.  As the plot unfolds, the reader is taken to the present day where investigative journalist, Julia Jormand is given an assignment to write a story on the anniversary of the Vel d’Hiv Roundup.  Julia is an American woman married to a Frenchman and ironically, they are to move into a family flat with ties to the plight of Sarah and her incarceration.  Ms. Jormand becomes immersed in the story of the horrific conditions suffered by the Jewish families at Vel d’Hiv.  Suspense builds as she begins to dig deeper into this relatively unknown historical event and its relationship to the family of her husband, Bertrand Tezac.  She is appalled to learn that the families were kept in the stadium for days without water, food, or proper sanitary conditions and most ended up in the death grip of Auschwitz.  As the graphic scenes of 1942 unfold, young Sarah is desperate to return to her apartment at Rue de Saintonge and rescue her younger brother.  The two story lines evolve into one as Julie Jormand and her family become involved with searching for what became of young Sarah Starzynski.  The author takes readers through Paris, New York, and Italy with vivid the descriptions of a native.  The storytelling is haunting and gripping.  I was unable to stop reading and felt at one with the emotions of protagonist, Julia.  This book is one that readers will find difficult to put down until they have found the final clues to the mystery of Sarah’s key.  Finally, this book will leave you with a need to search for more books on this difficult subject so that we may never forget the atrocities of this time dark time in history.

Q & A with Maureen Orth: Author & Journalist, Special Correspondent for Vanity Fair

1. What inspired you to embark on a career in journalism?

I was so bored with my Masters in Latin American studies classes at UCLA after the Peace Corps that I just flipped through the catalog and J for Journalism was near L for Latin American studies. Thus it began.


2. Is there a specific article that is particularly memorable and why?

I went to Russia and Central Asia and to the Afghan border right after 9/11 to do a long investigative piece on the relationship between terrorism and drugs (VF March, 2002). It was clear to me from my experiences in Colombia that drugs pay for terrorism and no one in the United States or the powers that be in Europe seemed to want to acknowledge this (just as no one in the US is willing to take responsibility for the violent consequences of casual cocaine use.) If we had done so, I believe the last decades’ losses there would have been much less.


3. You've interviewed many notable individuals. Is there one that stands out as extremely intriguing?

Most of the people I have dealt with are pretty layered and complex. I was fascinated by the creativity and fun I had doing Karl Lagerfeld; I was also intrigued by the tragedy of Margaret Thatcher when I got the first interview after she was thrown out of office.


4. What is your process and schedule when meeting a deadline?

First I read all my reporting, then I decide interview by interview what the quotes will be. I discuss the lead with my editor and the overall organization and how many parts the article will fall into. Then, when I feel like I've processed it and can't procrastinate anymore, I start writing. It's easy to keep reporting but it's hard to start writing.

5. How long does it take to write a typical Vanity Fair article?

It really depends on the amount of investigation and reporting necessary. The quickest it’s been from start to finish has been three weeks, some articles can go on for months. But I don't necessarily work on them every day.

6. What are some of the current projects that you are working on?

I have had so much fun this past year doing something different: going all over the world to produce short videos for the 50th anniversary of the Peace Corps that are up on a website I helped create: www.peacecorpspostcards.com. I just got back from Southwest China before Christmas and it was one of the most interesting trips I've ever taken. We shot six videos which will start being posted later in the month around Chinese New Years. I am so proud of the work I see these great Peace Corps kids are doing. This past year I’ve been to Mongolia, Morocco, and Colombia. Also if you go to www.MarinaOrthFoundation.org, you will see the work I am doing that has grown out of my original Peace Corps experience. Three schools for over 1200 children, each with their own laptop. They emphasize English, Technology and Leadership and are located around Medellin, Colombia. I'm also about to start a new article for Vanity Fair.


7. How have you managed a busy career and raising your wonderful son, Luke?

I have been very lucky that I've always had sufficient help and that my late husband, Tim Russert, stayed close to home much more than I did, so that there were very few times when at least one of us wasn't at home. My only theory about rearing children is "you've gotta put in the time." It's pretty hard to have a big job, a big social life and be a good parent. Something's got to give.

8. Can you tell the readers a little bit about your educational foundation?

I mentioned the Foundation above but it gives me the most satisfaction of anything I do. When I was in the Peace Corps way back when, I helped build a school that was named after me -- Escuela Marina Orth. In 2005, I was asked by the Colombians to please help them start the first public bi-lingual school. We became the first school in Colombia to have One Laptop Per Child computers for every student at my old school. Now we have three schools, financed through public-private partnerships involving the Colombian Government, private Colombian funds and private US Funds. For example, Procter and Gamble, General Mills, HP, and Chevron have all contributed to the three schools. We also take US volunteers to teach English in case any of your readers are interested! Please visit the website.


9. What advice would you give someone who would like to pursue a career in investigative journalism?

You need a lot of energy, a lot of curiosity and you can't give up easily. You have to be persistent and keep digging. You constantly have to figure out how to get around people saying no. You have to have empathy so people will give you information. My own personal credo is what I dub the EEEPPP Rule - Energy, Enthusiasm, Empathy, Polite, Prepared, Persistent.


10. Who are some of your favorite authors and journalists?

When I was starting out I read everything by Joan Didion, Norman Mailer and Tom Wolfe. Now I tend to view it article by article and constantly find gems in Vanity Fair, of course! However, two articles I really loved recently were in the New Yorker. One was by Jane Kramer was about the food foraging phenomenon. The other was simply terrific by Ben McGrath about the Dom Bosco High School football team in New Jersey. I also loved Michael Lewis' piece about the Greek Economy in Vanity Fair about a year ago; thought Nancy Jo Sales VF piece on Courtney Love was just fabulous and was very moved by Christopher Hitchens last column in Vanity Fair before he recently died. So many wonderful writers are my friends that naming them all is impossible. I love reading Maureen Dowd and Janet Maslin in the New York Times. I'm just finishing my good friend Sally Bedell Smith's huge biography of Elizabeth the Queen and about to dive into Mark Whitakers' memoir, My Long Trip Home. Larry McMurtry, particularly everything up to and including Lonesome Dove, are cherished favorites too!

An Invisible Thread (2011): Laura Schroff & Alex Tresnioski

An Invisible Thread (2011): Laura Schroff & Alex Tresniowski

Have you ever been in a large city and wandered by someone who was panhandling on the street? We have all had this experience and blindly walked along into our daily lives. In 1986, Laura Schroff did the same but something moved her to return to the disheveled young man she saw on Broadway Ave in New York City. This small act culminated in a twenty-five year relationship between two people who now call themselves family.

In 1986, Laura Schroff was a busy sales executive working for USA Today when she happened upon 11 year old, Maurice, a poor young boy struggling to eat in the projects of New York City. For some reason, Laura went back and asked Maurice if he wanted to go to McDonalds for a meal. Laura and Maurice continued to meet every Monday at a restaurant or for a home-cooked meal for years. At first, Laura’s friends and family struggled to understand this unusual relationship and tried to deter her from becoming involved in the hopelessness of Maurice’s situation. In one scene, Laura is compelled to look for Maurice when he doesn’t show up for a promised trip to a Mets game. She travels with her neighbor to the Bryant, one of New York City’s worst welfare hotels. When she finds him she encounters Maurice’s mother, Darcella, a woman who is severely addicted to crack. This visit and another to Maurice’s school emphasize the need for an authentic and responsible role model for this impressionable young boy. Laura is compelled to be a mentor to Maurice and teaches him many life skills that we all take for granted. Both parties feel rewarded by their situation.

Throughout the book, Laura’s memories of her traditional childhood are shadowed by her own family problems and are mentioned in alternating chapters. This is a writing method that feels engaging and enhances the message of the book.

As the novel progresses, Maurice becomes an important part of Laura’s extended family and attends family gatherings with her during Christmas and Thanksgiving. As an inner city child, he observes common traditional rituals such as eating at a dinner table, riding his first bike, and seeing a parent comforting a child without abuse. As a reader, I wished this constant interaction between Laura and Maurice would continue to the end of the book but life is not always perfect. Circumstances in both of their lives affect Laura’s relationship with Maurice and become a source of pain for both. As a favor to new readers and I will not spoil the plot outcome.

An Invisible Thread was such a pleasure to read. I finished it in nearly a day in my favorite place to read - riding in the passenger seat of our family car. The memoir is not long and if you enjoy my recommendations, please take a few days to dive into this amazing and inspiring book. My New Year’s resolution includes looking outside of my comfort zone for ways that I might help others. Laura Schroff represents an honorable and poignant example that we are all connected and one small act can be monumental!