This Burns My Heart

This Burns My Heart (September, 2011)

This Burns My Heart is a compelling novel of historical fiction written by author, Samuel Park, an Assistant Professor of English at Columbia College in Chicago. Dr. Park has explained that the inspiration for the novel came from his mother, a Korean immigrant to the United States.  The novel is multifaceted but overall, a love story which encapsulates the hardships Koreans faced in the 1960’s in the aftermath of the Korean War.  As a reviewer, I became engrossed in the struggles of the female protagonist, Soo-Ja, an independent and spirited young woman battling the conventional standards imposed on Korean women during this time period. As a writer and a male, Park has a talent for delivering a narrative from a female perspective. Some common themes in the novel include the complex choices people must make in life and the idea that some doors which seem closed may someday open again. Also, Park illustrates the wisdom and knowledge we will only truly gain with age.

As a young woman growing up in post-war Korea, Soo-Ja dreams of traveling to Seoul, the populated capital, to become a diplomat. Her loving but extremely traditional father squelches these aspirations and she decides to find her freedom another way. Beautiful Soo-Ja embarks on an unhappy and difficult marriage to Min Choi, a young man who has diligently pursued her for his own reasons.  In the interim, Soo-Ja is caught up in the activism of the young people of Korea and makes the acquaintance of Yul Kim, a young rebel and doctor whose true love will haunt her for decades. The novel follows the lives of the three characters beyond the 1960’s with the ever evolving Korea as the backdrop.  It also describes perhaps Soo-Ja’s greatest love, that of her daughter, Hana.  It is a maternal love that will propel her decisions and influence the events of the story.  Anyone who has been a parent or child will relate to the complexities of this most profound relationship.

The novel spans over twenty chapters but readers will be engrossed and involved in Park’s fascinating plot.  When I finished reading the novel, I was truly sad to say goodbye to Soo-Ja and a sequel or film of the novel are definitely hopes for this reader. Thank you Dr. Samuel Park for your hard work and time in writing such a complex and intriguing novel that I plan on recommending to all the voracious readers I know.

Room (2010); Emma Donoghue

Room, a fictional novel by Emma Donoghue, is unlike any book I have ever read. Perhaps inspired by recent current events about children held captive for years in isolation, the novel explores this tragic phenomenon from the perspective of a five year old protagonist. Young Jack has spent the first five years of his life inside the four walls of a small shed protected by his devoted mother from Old Nick, the captor who impregnated her. Surprisingly, Jack has led a relatively contented upbringing in this sheltered world due to the resilience of his brave, unnamed mother. As he reaches his fifth birthday and becomes more curious about the outside world, his mother realizes these circumstances cannot continue and the plot becomes more compelling. She creates a plan for escape that will leave readers captivated and unable to stop reading until they learn the outcome of the characters' final fate. Donoghue used her own son for inspiration and Jack is a very realistic storyteller who infuses the magical prose of a child. As a mother, I was awed by the description of the strength of maternal love even in such extreme circumstances. The book has won numerous awards and is nominated for the prestigious Man Booker Award.

As a reader, I had heard many favorable reviews but was reluctant to delve into such troubling subject matter. A fellow voracious reader and great friend told me she read it in one sitting and was unable to sleep until she finished this book. I began reading and also felt compelled to read it uninterupted. This novel became a wild ride and I have not been so engrossed in a book in quite some time. If you are a lover of fiction, you will not be disappointed by Room and Ms. Donoghue deserves her accolades for such an unusual and extremely unique piece of literary art. Please leave some comments - I would love to discuss this amazing book with other readers!

Q & A: Author and Professor, Robert Bausch

1. What inspired you to become a writer?


Mostly reading. And storytelling. My family was big into storytelling. IN fact, all of my brothers and sisters are wonderful storytellers. Our gatherings are a blast because we sit around and tell and re-tell funny stories. My father was the best storyteller I ever saw. He acted out all the parts, remembered whole conversations and just kept everybody laughing.

I wrote my first novel--one I never published--when I was 14. I was in the eighth grade. It was a novel about the Civil War. That's all I read about. I read no fiction at all to speak of. I remember the Hardy Boys, Sherlock Holmes, The Bobbsie Twins. I loved a book called The Wahoo Bobcat, and one about a cougar called "Yellow Eyes." I read "The Call of the Wild," and "White Fang." But mostly I read nonfiction: Douglas Southall Freeman's four volume biography R. E. Lee, Henry Steele Commager's History of the Civil War, Shelby Foote's The Civil War: a Narrative. I read all of Bruce Caton's books: Glory Road, Mr. Lincoln's Army, A Stillness at Appomatox. The list is longer than I can include in this e-mail. If it was about the Civil War, and it was published between 1957 and 1963, I read it. My grades went deeper and deeper into the alphabet, but my parents didn't overreact to that--as long as I was passionate about something, and devoting my time to it, they let me fail in school. Not failure that made it so I'd have to repeat a year or anything, but they didn't make a big fuss when I brought home 'D's instead of 'A's. In the 9th grade, my English teachers convinced me pretty quickly that I had nothing of any value whatever to say, and I didn't start writing again (except for a few long letters to my mother) until I was 26 years old and just out of the military. My English teachers meant well, but they did not respond to anything I had to say. They simply corrected what I wrote, graded it and gave it back. I'd get a 'C' because I didn't use commas' correctly (I still don't) or because I had one sentence paragraphs.

Rubbish.

I thought that was tone of voice. I thought it was clever to say something that everybody believed, then have a one sentence paragraph that identified clearly how I felt about that idea, and then a new paragraph presenting an alternate idea. I remember my teacher telling me it was both a sentence fragment, and a one sentence paragraph and taking off twenty points. I had read enough by then--remember I loved reading and I'd read lots of histories and such--that I KNEW she was wrong, but I didn't argue with her. I just stopped listening. My grades, all the way through school were bad. I barely made it. I like to tell my students that my report card read like a guy who stutters trying to say Dog.



2. What is your process for beginning a new novel? Can you explain your writing habits?


I write, or try to, every day. When I begin a novel, I start with a character—somebody I have a vague notion about, and I put her or him in a situation and see what happens. Sometimes it develops nicely and I keep at it. Other times I go back and change the situation. Or tweak the character. Whatever happens in the book I am writing should happen because of something in my character’s make up—in who she is, or who he is. What kind of person have I created? I don’t want anything happening in the plot to serve the story or my attitudes or my spleen or any of my appetites. I want what happens to happen because of the character. If the writing isn’t going well, and I can’t think of the next thing I want to say, I’ll turn off the monitor and write blindly, looking at my reflection in the monitor. If I’m using a laptop, I’ll put a piece of cardboard between me and the screen. If I can’t SEE what I’m writing, I can’t judge it, or edit it, or in any way let the critical side of things interfere with creation. I have to let the creation take place first. I need that critical side though, because one of the worst things you can develop as a writer is allegiance to earlier drafts. You have to be willing to let go, to have the critic come back and with a savage pen, DO something with the dross produced in the creation. I believe ANY day I write, whether or not it goes well, is a GOOD day. And days when I DON’T write are anxious and frightful and not very much fun, unless I have planned and chosen a day off. I like those. I do not like any day I plan to write and don’t. It is always five o’clock on a damp November day in my soul when that happens.



3. How do you balance being a full-time college English professor with your writing career?

I don’t get a lot of sleep. I work on Saturdays, Sundays, Fridays—Monday afternoons, Wednesday mornings; almost never on Tuesday or Thursday because I teach all day, both days and Tuesday nights. I think I’m a better teacher of writing when I’m writing. I don’t often borrow from one to pay the other, but it has happened. I’ve had to stall things in a class because of where I am in a novel—near the end, comes to mind; or editing for publication. Those things can take away from the teaching, but I really do work hard not to let that happen. When I have grading to do, late in the semester, I almost never work on Wednesdays, Saturdays or Sundays. Those days are reserved for grading. Sometimes I’ll do both. I’m never, ever bored, or sitting around wondering what to do. I live every day as though sleep is the wrong thing to do; I never go to sleep until I can’t possibly stay awake any longer. I get up, usually, with the sun. I like mornings for the fresh coffee and the Washington Post. I am a champion napper. I can lay down on the couch, close my eyes and be sound asleep in seconds. Sleep for an hour or so and then I’m ready to go late into the night and early morning.



4. Can you discuss a few projects that you are currently working on?

I’m in the last stages of a novel called As Far as the Eye Can See. That is to say, I’m polishing the third draft and will read it one more time and tweak it one more time before I send it anywhere. Last summer I finished a novel called The Legend of Jesse Smoke. It is with my agent now, and he’s trying to place it with a publisher. I have another book I wrote two years ago called, The Strange Case of the Silent Girl. Or, In The Fall They Come Back. I haven’t made up my mind about its title. I have not been able to place it, so I’m waiting to sell one of the others so I can then perhaps get that book into print. Right now I’m in the worst place a writer can be: My last book, Out of Season, did not do well. In fact, it sold so poorly, they cancelled the paperback on it. Those numbers are what publishers look at. So, the reality is, I may have published my last novel while I’m alive. It is heartbreaking sometimes to think about it, but that’s where I am. The first thing a prospective publisher does these days is go on his computer banks and he can find out how many books I have sold; if they don’t like what they see, they don’t really care how good the book is. They won’t buy it. But I am going to keep writing them, by God. It’s who I am.

5. What would you consider to be your best work and why?

That’s really a hard question to answer. It’s like trying to decide who your favorite child is. I don’t really have a favorite child. I’m proud of all of them, and I guess I have to say I’m proud of all my books and stories. There’s not much I’d do differently, to tell the truth. What’s out there is out there, and has to stand on its own. I can tell you that A Hole in the Earth really surprised me for how well it did. And I think The Gypsy Man was perhaps the most intricately engineered work I’ve ever done. But as I said, I can’t pick a best work.



6. Explain how you create your characters. Are they mostly imagined or do they come from personal interactions?


I am proud to imagine and create characters. Perhaps they are composites of folks I have known, I don’t know; I’ve been as keen an observer of people as my limited insight and intelligence will allow. But mostly I like to invent. Create people from images and dreams and just thinking when I first see them, or when they first come into a work. I’ll change sometimes later in the drafting, but usually the characters I create remain who they are all the way through the work.



7. What is your most valuable piece of advice for someone about to embark on a writing career?


Read. Read as much and as often as possible. Read poetry, lots of poetry—it helps with descriptive metaphor, figurative language, economy, precision. Read history, biography; read the history of ideas; philosophy. Read the great novels, short stories and plays of the Russians, the French, the English, the Americans, the Latin Americans, the Spanish. You have to know the world; the more you know, the more you will have at your disposal when you’re trying to write. Read more than one book at a time. I read six or seven. Sometimes even more. I read IN each book, each day. Reading all those different voices will keep you from sounding like other writers; you’ll sound like yourself and only yourself. And it’s not hard to do—after all, we know many different people and if we see them everyday, we don’t have to be reminded about what is going on in their lives. It’s the same thing with reading several different books at once. If you do it every day, you have no trouble keeping up with what’s going on in each of them. If you want to be a writer, you have to read more than you write, more than you watch TV, more than you do almost anything. The more you see the language in print, the more you can navigate its extraordinary mixture of sounds and the beauty of its ideas in your own writing.



8. How do you get touch with your creative self?


I lower my standards and just produce a text. That’s what happens when I turn off the monitor or cover the screen. Other times, when it’s going well, I don’t need to do anything but show up at the keyboard, with a hot cup of coffee.



9. What was the inspiration behind a few of your novels?


Almighty Me was inspired by a conversation with my brother in law. We used to go to a fishing camp in Canada every year, and one night, sitting by the fire, smoking my pipe and drinking whiskey, I wondered out loud if Christ trimmed his beard. In all the likenesses of him his beard is perfectly quaffed. He was GOD. Certainly he knew about air conditioning, and plaque, and how to avoid ever having a tooth ache. In fact, couldn’t he insure that he would suffer none of the horrific inconveniences of the Middle East in 30 A. D.? My brother in law wrote a poem called “Christ Trims his Beard,” and I went home and started thinking about what would happen if a man got God’s power now—if we had another go at a Christ. Would HE trim his beard? I had a ball writing that book. It was originally titled Spanking the World. At first I had Christ himself coming back. He was terrified when he saw all the folks wearing crucifixes, the churches with crosses. He thought he’d come to a place that hated him completely—sort of like what it would do to Abraham Lincoln if he came back and everybody was wearing a small derringer around their necks, and churches had big pistols on top of them; or if John Kennedy came back and all the churches had high powered rifles on their roofs and folks wore little symbols of that around their necks. But eventually it worked out that it was a man, and automobile salesman no less, who is GIVEN god’s power.

My first novel, On the Way Home was inspired by a student of mine who had been captured by the Viet Cong during the Viet Nam War. They kept him underground and tortured him mercilessly. He asked me what he could possibly do with his hate. I wrote a short story about his experiences and when Harpers magazine rejected it, the editor there told me that I had not dealt with my “veteran’s pain” in the story. So I used that story as chapter one, put a piece of paper in the typewriter and began chapter two. That became my first novel and what it developed into was the problems my character has adjusting to new life with his mother and father in Florida. It becomes about love and not hate at all. It’s also about fear.

Most of my novels, though, have been inspired by, merely, the desire to produce another one. It’s like a new car. You like it for a while, but then, after some time, your admiration wanes. It doesn’t smell new anymore. The thrill of driving it is gone. It’s just your car. It may stay that way for years, but you always look forward to buying another new one. It’s the same with a novel. Eventually, you gotta have a new one.



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


My brother Richard Bausch, George Garrett, Alan Wier, James Dickey, William Faulkner, Herman Melville, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Robert Penn Warren, Anne Beattie, Howard Norman, Ernest Hemingway, Joyce Maynard, Elinor Lippmann, Jane Hamilton, James Jones, William Maxwell, Ron Rash, Joyce Carol Oates, Harper Lee, Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Anton Chekhov, Tom McGuane, Kaye Gibbon, Alan Gurganis, Flannery O’connor, Richard Dillard, --oh, the list is endless. I love the work of all of these writers. I have left off as many as are on this list. I could write a brief essay about each one and why I love his or her work. And this is only the fiction list. I loved Shelby Foote, Henry Steele Commager, Bruce Catton, David Halberstam, Walter Isaacson, Nathaniel Philbrick.. it’s a long list. I love the philosophy of David Hume, and Voltaire; the work of John Paul Sartre.

I know this list is long, but truly, if I had to go to a desert island, I could not take any less than these guys and their books with me.



I hope all this hasn’t bored you too awful much.

Q & A with Susan Jane Gilman

Q & A: Susan Jane Gilman (UNDRESS Me in the Temple of Heaven)


1. What was your inspiration for writing a memoir on your trip to China and how long did it take to complete?


What gets me started on a new book is usually a sense of outrage. Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven came about largely in reaction to what was going on in the world around me.

First, I’ll back up: In 1986, when I was fresh out of college, a classmate and I planned this epic journey around the globe based on a placemat at the International House of Pancakes.

Since we wanted to boldly go where no one we knew had gone before, we decided to kick off this trip in the People’s Republic of China. In 1986, China might as well have been North Korea: it was a nation in lockdown, removed from the world, with almost no tourist infrastructure. My friend and I spoke no Mandarin and knew nothing about Asia, but we figured Hey: we were bright, bold, and American – so how hard could it be?

Well, of course, we found out. As soon as we arrived in China, we quickly we began to unravel.

What began as an ambitious lark became a fairly harrowing, traumatic, and embarrassing story. I was reticent about ever writing it -- at least as nonfiction.

But then, 20 years later, things began happening in our culture that compelled me to react.

In 2003, I heard President Bush describe our impending invasion of Iraq as “a cakewalk,” I turned to my husband and said, “’Cakewalk’? Is he kidding? That sounds like something stupid I would’ve said as a 21-year-old at the IHOP.” As the war escalated, I also heard more and more about soldiers – 19, 20 years old – coming home with mental problems after being thrust into a completely alien environment.

At the very same time, a spate of bestselling books began coming out with plots along the lines of:

“After my heartbreak, I decided to heal myself by renovating a villa in the Mediterranean. To recuperate from my divorce, I thought, why not eat a lot of pasta, then go to an ashram?”

We Americans seemed to regard whole nations and cultures as little more than venues for personal makeovers or national enrichment.

And so, I felt compelled to debunk our romantic myths of swaggering Americans who simply tromp into a foreign country and prevail.

I felt a responsibility to tell the other side of travel. I knew first-hand that being a stranger in a strange land can be achingly lonely, unnerving, and ridiculously difficult. I wanted to write not about the soldiers, cowboys, and adventurers who triumph, but of the naïve, ignorant, freaked-out Westerners like me -- who bungle into a place, make a mess, offend people, have their egos handed to them on a platter, and are lucky to get out alive.

Although the book took about three years to write from start-to-finish, it was actually two decades in the making, seeing as it was a true story that happened to me back in 1986. It took a while for me to summon both the courage and the proper perspective to tell it. In order to recount the story, I not only used the journals I’d kept during my travels, but I returned to China 19 years after I had had to flee with my friend. There, I retraced my steps. I returned to Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, Guilin, and Yangshou.

I also tracked down several of the people who were also instrumental in saving our lives in China.

2. What was your writing process and schedule?

 The process was simple: stick my ass in the chair. Stay there. Then open a vein. I wrote from 10-6 p.m., five days a week. Before a draft was due, I’d rent an apartment in the mountains for a couple of weeks, hole up all alone – no Internet, no sweet husband, no phone – and work around the clock. I’d read the manuscript start-to-finish, then revise it methodically. I’d tend to get up at 8, be writing by 9, take a break at 3, continue writing 4-7 p.m, eat dinner, then work until 1-2 a.m. I need concentrated intensity for a project.

3. Can you share some details as to why you decided to pursue writing as a craft?

When I was eight years old, after my parents had tucked me in to bed, I’d hop up, run over to my window, and stare out at all the other housing developments in our neighborhood. I’d dream up stories about the other kids who lived in them. When I was ten, I started writing these stories down in “books.” I’d get these little notebooks from Woolworth’s and draw a line across the page. On the top half, I’d write stores, and on the bottom, I’d illustrate them. These tales were designed to rock the very foundations of modern American literature. They had titles like “Bunny House,” “The Picnic” and “The First Day of School.”

I loved to draw, too, and for a while I thought I’d be an artist. But by the time I reached junior high school, I’d grown wise and shrewd. I realized that I’d have an easier time making a living as a writer than an artist – though that’s not saying much.

Then in high school, I had an amazing Creative Writing teacher – and he really sealed my fate. He told me, “Miss Gilman, you’ve got a gift. Send your work to the Village Voice.” And so I did. And they published me! I was sixteen years old. I made $200 – more money than I’d make from a piece of my writing until I was 30. This teacher sent my poetry to national contests. I won prizes. I was off, I was running. My amazing teacher and I stayed friends for the rest of his days. Every time I had a success, I shared it with him. When I first made the New York Times’ Bestseller list, he was the first person I called. He was hugely instrumental in my becoming a writer. You might have heard of him. He had a bit of literary success himself later on (wink). His name was Frank McCourt.

4. On your journey to China, did you keep a detailed journal that helped you recall events and details?

Yes. That’s the beauty of knowing you want to be a writer early. You keep copious notes. Unfortunately, I was 21, 22 at the time that I traveled through China, so a ridiculous amount of ink was spent not on the country, but on obsessing about boys back home. Good God. Some of the entries go on for pages about some guy I’d slept with before I left – Oh, is he still thinking about me? Will he write? – and then, almost as an afterthought: by the way, I’m writing this by the Temple of Heaven in Beijing. Reading the journal now, I could bang my head against the wall. So much for epic literature. But that’s what preoccupied me then: sex, love, longing. It’s a wonder I managed to record anything insightful about China at all. But I did. Eventually I got around to it.

5. How did you decide on such a creative title for the book?

 The title was initially inspired by the sailor I had a brief fling with in China, who told me he’d like to take my clothes off in the Temple of Heaven (Note: the Temple of Heaven is China’s most famous, landmark temple – Beijing’s equivalent of Notre Dame.)

I liked the suggestiveness of “undressing in the Temple of Heaven.” On one hand, it promises a wild, rebellious fantasy,on the other, a dressing-down full of danger, nakedness, desecration, and vulnerability. This pretty much sums up the thematic conflict in my book:

My friend and I went to the People’s Republic on a romantic impulse, hoping to impress the world with our derring-do. Instead, we found ourselves in a foreign land, completely stripped of everything: language, cultural understanding, our status in the world, our physical health, our sense of self, our sense of direction, and even the most rudimentary ability to communicate. All our weakness were laid bare.

“Undressing in the Temple of Heaven” was good, but it didn’t roll off the tongue. I went out dinner with some editors, and one of them said, “I love your declarative titles. Make this one declarative, too.” So “Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven” it was

6. Are there any key scenes that you feel most contribute to the overall character of the memoir?

 I’m too close to it to tell, frankly. But readers write me all the time saying how moved they were by both our arrival in Hong Kong, and then by entire second half of the book, starting with our visit to Johnnie’s hometown in rural China. After that, they say, they couldn’t put the book down. Some have been terrified for us. Some have been angry at our naïve behavior. Some have felt enormous compassion. Many tell me that even at the book’s harrowing climax, they’ve laughed out loud. This is all good. I wanted to make China come alive for everybody and evoke emotional responses. If you have a laugh at my expense, so much the better.

7. What was the aftermath of the trip? Can you offer any advice to novice travelers looking for an adventure overseas?

I can’t tell you the aftermath of the trip because I don’t want to ruin the ending of the book for readers. But I will offer advice to travel virgins.

First: By all means, go! Travel the world! Barring war zones and places for which the State Department has issued serious travel warnings, figure out what your comfort zone is, then step outside of it a mile or two.

That said, do some homework beforehand. Read about the culture, history, and current political system of wherever you’re going. If you’re female, be aware of how women are treated and how women travelers may be regarded (Generally, it’s a good idea to leave the shorts at home and get some gauzy cotton blouses to throw over the tank tops).

Above all else, learn a few words of the local language. I’ve found “thank you” to be the single most important phrase to know, with “hello” and “please” running a tie for close second. Just by making an effort, you’ll be treated infinitely better as a foreigner anywhere.

You do not need to be fluent. I’m talking about absolute basics. Carrying a phrasebook is fine. You will not risk looking like an idiot (you already do) – you will look like you are trying to communicate, and this will be enormously appreciated. It is a sign of respect.

It is crucially important for anyone when traveling – but particularly us Americans – to be humble and polite when interacting with the locals. This sounds so simple and obvious, but so many Western travelers ignore it, it’s staggering. They don’t say “hello,” or “do you speak English?” or “please.” They either bark at people gruffly, or start pantomiming insultingly, and they get annoyed when the concessionary “hamburger” or “apple pie” on the tourist menu isn’t on par with those back home. They act boorish, then wonder why the locals treat them with contempt.

I’ve even seen “uber-cool” backpackers do this, and it’s hideous. Avoid ignorant arrogance at all costs. And if you want mostly hamburgers (or, conversely, to stick to your vegan diet) above all else, stay home.

Always remember that you are guest in someone else’s country, and that how you interact with them will likely color the way they view Americans in general. Be flexible and polite. Always err on the side of your most straitlaced, moral inner self. And don’t get freaked out if you feel freaked out and anxious. That’s par for the course. Travel is about relinquishing control. It’s much harder than it looks!

8. How did this event change you as a person?

 I am not naturally adventurous. As I write in the beginning of “Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven,” my immediate impulse upon arriving in a foreign country is usually to freak out, curl up in a fetal position, and go home. But since I didn’t back then in Hong Kong, I’ve gotten more adept at overcoming my fears. I travel the world regularly now. I am still always anxious – but I override my own internal programming.

9. You are currently living abroad. Can you comment on your experience as an American living in a foreign country?

I write a blog, “A View from A Broad” in which I document all sorts of experiences, insights, cultural faux pas, and spectacularly humorous stupidities (on my part) as an American living and traveling overseas. I cover everything from offending the British to going to sex museums in Prague to trekking through Morocco to the glories of the American Weather Channel. Please check it out via http://www.susanjanegilman.com or www.susanjanegilman.blogspot.com

10. What projects are you working on at this time and who are some of your favorite authors?

 My three published books are nonfiction. Now, frankly, I think I’ve had it with reality. It’s time to try a novel. I’ve started sketching out two different stories, one comic, one serious. I oscillate between the two depending on my mood: it’s probably manic-depression-as-applied-to-literature. But neither will be titled “Bunny House” or “The First Day of School.”

As for favorite authors, there are too many to name. But the writers who initially inspired me as a teenager were the three John's: Cheever, Updike, and Steinbeck, along with Dorothy Parker, Toni Morrison, and Truman Capote. Those six were seminal. And Frank McCourt, of course.

Walking Papers: Francesco Clark

Few memoirs have moved me as emotionally as the book, Walking Papers, which was written by Francesco Clark. In the late 1980's, Francesco was a twenty four year old man enjoying a dazzling post college life in New York City. He was about to begin a lucrative job at a public relations firm after a successful stint at Harper’s Bazaar Magazine. One night in May, Francesco escaped the city for his summer rental in the Hamptons and decided to take a late night swim. This evening would prove to be pivotal and life altering as he accidently dove into the shallow end of the pool, hitting his chin and shattering his spine. Francesco was told that he would never walk again or function independently. The book graphically chronicles Francesco’s recovery process as a C4 quadriplegic and his coming to terms with the ramifications of his injury. Buoyed by the undying love and support of his close knit Italian American family, Francisco struggles to regain movement and is fearless in his determination to explore experimental surgeries and therapies. As a reader, I was astounded at the apathy and negativity of his doctors and therapists who told Francesco to simply accept his new life. This story moved me to tears and ignited a desire to assist people such as Francesco in my own small way. Readers learn that in the era of technology and stem cell research that a spinal injury does not necessarily lead to a life in purgatory. Ultimately, Francesco Clark has flourished in the years since his injury and is carrying the torch as an Ambassador for the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation. He is also a successful entrepreneur of a skin care line which proceeds benefit the above foundation. I hope you will read this amazing memoir because you will be changed as a human being by reading this exceptional story of one person’s mission to survive. You will be grateful for your own blessings and  Francesco’s memoir may inspire you to give to others. Finally, books such as this one are the reason I write on this blog; hoping to promote a love of reading and compassion for others through the written word.

Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven (2009); Susan Jane Gilman

The year is 1986 and before they are about to graduate from Brown University, two friends hatch a plan one night at The International House of Pancakes to embark on a backpacking journey around the world. Susan Gilman and Claire Van Houten are idealistic and well read, naive to the rigors of world travel in a time before the Internet. Susan states, “In the scheme of human history, 1986 is not long ago. And yet as we made our lists, the foreign countries we were naming seemed a lot farther away than they do now" (11). The first country on the list is the People's Republic of China, newly opened to foreign travel after decades of Communist rule. As readers, we become deeply immersed in the dichotomous relationship between the tall, willowy Connecticut WASP, Claire, and the practical, occasional hypochondriac and Brooklyn bred, Susie. The girls embark enthusiastically but are unprepared for the primitive conditions as well as the language and cultural barriers they encounter. As the journey continues, they begin to experience real physical and mental difficulties as well as problematic interactions with Chinese officials as they venture into areas that are considered off limits. Susie relates these experiences in witty and humorous prose. "Claire and I trudged on, seething in silence. We were in the middle of a Chinese wonderland of geology, botany, and agriculture, but all I could focus on was a catalogue of personal grievances" (196). Highlights of the memoir for this reader were the colorful characters who assisted them along the way: Jonnie, a well spoken Chinese native; Eckhardt Grimm, a handsome German traveler; and Sandy Fenton, the Canadian nurse who becomes a real super hero to the girls. This book reminded me of another favorite, Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer. In comparison, Susie and Claire are young American college graduates attempting to conquer the world and unfortunate events unfold. Yet in this memoir, Susie's practical, dark humor carries the reader through as the journey ubruptly ends. I intend to read the rest of Gilman's work because she has such a unique method of writing, that you ultimately become lost in her story.

   

Orange is the New Black (2010); Piper Kerman

One of my favorite movies is Shawshank Redemption and perhaps that explains my fascination with prison tales. Orange is the New Black is an introspective memoir by first time author, Piper Kerman, chronicling her 13 month experience with the United States prison system. Can you remember some of the mistakes you made in your early 20’s? Kerman paid dearly for hers. As a recent graduate of Smith College, an all girl’s school, Kerman dabbled in a lesbian relationship with Nina, a woman with ties to a drug smuggling operation. She traveled the world in high class fashion and eventually ended up smuggling money to Paris as a payback to Nina. Completetely shell shocked by the endeavor and against her Connecticut WASP upbringing, Piper Kerman fled to a new life in San Francisco, fell in love with a wonderful man, Larry, and invested her time in a traditional marketing career. Fast forward ten years later and Piper is named in a lawsuit with the drug cartel purportedly being called out by Nina. The rest of the novel explores Piper's incarceration in a Danbury, Connecticut prison for women and the cast of characters she meets. The plot unfolds in a unique way as the protagonist is surprised at the generosity and kindness in the women she meets. Darker moments occur as she perceives how utterly defenseless she is to the extreme power of the prison guards and her terrifying trip on Con Air (the prison airline system). Piper comes full circle and is imprisoned with Nina as one of her only allies while waiting to testify about someone she has never even met. Kerman could be a sister or friend and her writing provides a cautionary tale for young women who wish to rebel and defy the straight path in life. Some major themes I discovered in the memoir included revisiting your past and paying penance, unlikely places to find true friendship and love, and how powerless one can feel inside the prison system. I hope you will read this wonderful nonfiction work over the summer and ultimately analyze the current prison system in the United States.