The Mother-Daughter Dim Sum Book Club

So a friend asked if I would help her just-graduated-eighth-grade daughter with "Literary Analysis." It seems the girl garnered low marks in that category on a recent assignment, and I was to be the possible solution. Could you think of anything more unpleasant than getting together with your mom's friend to be grilled on "Literary Analysis"? I can--being the mom's friend who has to do the grilling!

Since we both have daughters around the same ages, I suggested instead that we just get together casually and talk about a book. Better yet, we pair my favorite thing--reading--with my very-close-second-favorite thing: eating.

Presenting the Mother-Daughter Dim Sum Book Club! Why dim sum? Because it's awesome and also because, a couple years ago when I asked my teenager if she wanted to do a mother-daughter book club, she said unhesitatingly, "No way." I haven't been her mother for 14.75 years, however, without knowing that she, like me, will do just about anything for food.

That's what I'm talking about

The picture above is from our most favoritest dim sum place in the whole world: the Great Mall Mayflower Seafood Restaurant in Milpitas, California. If you go there, may I recommend the seaweed salad, the turnip cakes, the pork dumplings, the char siu bao, the stir-fried broccoli rabe with oyster sauce, and the little custard tarts. My mouth waters as I type...

There's no Mayflower up here, sadly, so it is my friend's duty to locate the nearest wannabe Mayflower. Then, and only then, will I impart my vast and inspiring knowledge of Literary Analysis and How to Go About It. Everyone has their price.

The fun thing today was picking the books and giving them a quick re-read/skim. They had to be appealing to teenagers. They had to have some of the goodies Literary Analysts look for: setting, character development, conflict, a little symbolism/foreshadowing, and something to discuss and debate. They had to be, for my personal sanity, NOT dystopian YA fiction where the girl spends her time kicking a**, being ordinary yet somehow unspeakably amazing, and fighting off whichever element of the love triangle she was not currently into.

That left three books.*

*Kidding. But it did narrow the field considerably.

The victors?

Dreadful cover, I admit. Would you want to read such a book, if you were a teenage girl with any aspirations to hipness? But don't judge a book etc. etc.

If you've read my blog at all, you know Maud Hart Lovelace is one of my absolute most beloved authors of all time, so much so that I dragged my kids on a Literary Dream Tour last year to her old stomping grounds of Minneapolis and Mankato, Minnesota. The Betsy books are my favorite, but Emily's tale lends itself to more Literary Analysis. Emily is a high school grad for whom college is not an option, despite her hunger for knowledge. Instead, she has to watch her friends and cousin head off to the Next Stop in Their Exciting Lives, while she stays home to keep house for her grandfather. Depression ensues. But not for long. Soon Emily finds she can continue to grow and learn and blossom. So we have a conflict. We have character development (big time). We have symbolic setting. We have even a significant allusion to another literary work. Hooray!


Then comes another cover in profound need of an update. Ha! I'd better tell the daughters to get these books on Kindle, or I don't know if even the dim sum will hold them.

Teenagers have to read lots of WWII nonfiction in high school, for good reason, but they'll never be assigned Corrie ten Boom's awesome memoir because it's too Christian. However I think her voice is as valid as any other survivor's, and she has moving, powerful, thoughtful things to say that are still applicable in our world and time. Interestingly, she is a contemporary of Emily of Deep Valley, only she lives in Haarlem, the Netherlands, and this story takes place in her fifties.






Finally we will tackle

Yes, it's long, but I first read an abridged, textbook version my freshman year of high school, and even an abridgement holds up remarkably well. We lose a few--okay, a lot--of symbolically heavy descriptions of things, but there's enough left that there's still PLENTY to discuss. That is, I'll let the girls choose to read either the full tome or a decent abridgement (i.e., not a graphic novel or an I Can Read version). And we can celebrate finishing by watching a movie version (after our requisite dim sum)! Win-win-win.

Anywho, if you'd like to follow along yourself or with your own daughters/cousins/nieces/neighbors/friends, I'll post questions and points here as we go along. I figure we'll get through the first two books in July and the biggie in August.

One last, unrelated tidbit: University Book Store Bellevue has posted the details on my upcoming event here. But if you don't feel like clicking on the link, I'll be reading from The Naturalist and signing both it and A Very Plain Young Man on Saturday, June 28, at 5:00p.m. Hope to see you there!

Literary Dream Tour, Part 6: Betsy-Tacy in Minneapolis

The book as I knew it

I've been dragging my feet on this last post, but after dumping a new book after reading only one paragraph, I figured the time was now. As I've always said, why read historical fiction, if you could read something by someone who actually lived it? Someone like Maud Hart Lovelace?


Last post I filled you in on the Betsy-Tacy houses and doings in "Deep Valley" (a.k.a. Mankato), Minnesota, but, as all readers know and mourn, after "Betsy" graduated high school the "Ray" family left Deep Valley and moved to Minneapolis, never to return!

While the Rays' house, which Betsy lived in for all of one week after Betsy and the Great World, now lies under a park, I was happy to learn it was the only house that no longer exists. It also surprised me how nearby the other Betsy houses were. You could see how Betsy and Joe could walk home on those clear winter nights.

The Bow Street Apartment!

Remember the darling place Margaret finds them in Betsy's Wedding? Here is the very building! Of course MHL changed the street names, but from this angle you can see the upstairs bay window that looked out into the elm, and by which MHL wrote.

Another view of the inspiring window

 Of course, after "Aunt Ruth" came to live with them, the Willards needed more spacious digs, and they moved to the "Canoe Street" House:

With a porch big enough to dance on!

I had my own adventure in front of the Canoe Street House--remind me never to buy a Chevy Malibu because I couldn't see a thing out the back window. Which meant, when I was parallel parking, I didn't spy the parked car behind me. Didn't even know it existed until the telltale CRUNCH!! There was a pedestrian eyewitness who minded his own business and walked on, and my nine-year-old asked why we didn't just drive off, but you'll be pleased to learn I left a note on the windshield, torn from my rental car map of Minnesota. Honesty was rewarded when the owner called me a couple days later to say, Never mind about it. It doesn't look that bad. That's just part of living in the city. Did I mention how I love Minnesotans???

The things I go through, for Betsy.

We also stopped by the Violent Study Club house on Aldrich, where they had such fun until the insufferable Rocky came and ruined everything with his blow-hardness. (Sorry about the picture quality--had to take it on the phone.)

If you're ever in Minneapolis and want to see the Betsy sites, addresses can be found here. There were more houses even than we got to, but these are the book sites.

Neither MHL nor the fictional Betsy spent all that long at the University of Minnesota, but we did a campus drive-by for the sake of those few months and walked across the bridge over the Mississippi connecting the two chunks of campus. Surely she or Delos Lovelace did too, at some point...?

I learned later that this was the very bridge from which poet and U of M professor John Berryman jumped to his death in 1972, so wherever you go in Minnesota, you travel in the footsteps of famous literary folk.

Speaking of which, with all the hoopla of Baz Luhrmann's new version of The Great Gatsby, imagine the thrill when we headed over to St. Paul's historic Summit Avenue neighborhood to lay eyes on the house where F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote This Side of Paradise.

Love this cover!

The thirteen-year-old wouldn't bother to get out of the car and come look, so here's what she missed:

Note this particular child's awe

Not only that, but just down the block was a neighbor with one of those giant metal chickens. A two-fer, sightseeingwise!

You wondered who bought them, and now you know.

And finally, I end our Literary Dream Tour with Fitzgerald's neighbor, easily in trick-or-treat range. Sinclair Lewis was the author of Main Street, Babbitt, and Elmer Gantry, which got made into a 1960 Burt Lancaster movie.

Now that's a movie poster!

The Lewis Domicile

In a fit of zeal I downloaded Lewis' Main Street to my Kindle, but I didn't make it through. It all went downhill, interest-wise, after the unhappy female protagonist throws her crazy "Chinese" party. Don't ask. Whatever grudge Sinclair Lewis bore Minnesota and Minnesotans, I don't sympathize. I loved every minute and look forward to going back in the future. Shine on, Star of the North!

Literary Dream Tour, Part 5 (BetsyTacy Land)

Okay, whew! I'm finally getting back to recording our momentous literary dream tour, and speaking this morning to an elementary moms' group about Raising Book Lovers was just the kick in the pants I needed.

When last we spoke (or I wrote and you read), we were in Walnut Grove, Minnesota, checking out Laura Ingalls Wilder's beloved Plum Creek. After stopping to peer up at Pa's church bell, we had to hightail it out of town because Walnut Grove is motel-less. We spent the night in glorious Springfield, Minnesota, home of--uh--a place with great milkshakes. Because our private Betsy-Tacy tour wasn't scheduled until 11:00 a.m. the following morning, we drove leisurely the next day and stopped in New Ulm, the Leavenworth of Minnesota. Only, their town is real German, instead of Washington 1950s faux German. Nor was New Ulm only about the bakery we found--it's also the location of Wanda Gag's house!

 

It's just me, but I might call it "The WANDA Gag House"

Wanda who? you ask. Wanda, this Wanda:

What can I say? Minnesota is Literary Land. Border to border. (We'd already stopped in St. Paul to see F. Scott Fitzgerald's house and Sinclair Lewis', and I'd been reading Lewis' Main Street at night, which is set in the more northern town of fictionalized Sauk Centre. But who cares about those two?)

Well, my GPS led me astray--choosing the wrong Center Street in Mankato and landing us miles out of town and potentially late for our tour! Imagine the shrieking and frantic phone-mapping and apologetic voicemail messages left! Imagine us bumping top-speed down a dirt road, trying to reconnect to pavement, and seeing everything--private tour, newspaper interview, dream vacation--going up in a cloud of sand and gravel! This could all have been avoided if Mankato would just rename Betsy's street "Hill Street," like it is in the books. Just another helpful tip.

It turns out we were only six minutes late, and we pulled up to find two tour guides, The Free Press reporter Dan, and the newspaper photographer all waiting on Tacy's porch for us.

Tacy, like all Minnesotans in winter, isn't big into landscaping

Squee! See the porch? Too bad I forgot to take a picture of the bay window, from which Mrs. Kelly/Kenney could see the picnic bench on the little hill. Tacy's house holds the gift shop and tons of photographs and memorabilia. No idea how they fit so many kids in there. In the picture above, you can see the upstairs bedroom window. That bedroom belonged to all the girls, so it was the one through which Tacy dangled the thread tied around her foot and connected to Betsy's foot and bedroom window. Directly across the street from each other!

Like I said, no pressure to keep up with the Joneses on yard work

The tour (of Betsy's house) was pure awesomeness. Having just re-listened to Betsy-Tacy on the drive over, the scenes were fresh in our mind. There was no question or reference or allusion Guide Bob could stump us with. We knew all about colored sand and the backyard maple and playing paper dolls by the stove and Everything Pudding! And unlike in Walnut Grove, the Betsy-Tacy houses are chock full of actual belongings. The piano, Mr. Ray's chair, Maud Hart Lovelace's table from their married life, MRS. RAY'S BRASS BOWL!!! The curators have done a splendid job of restoring the houses to period structure and decoration, so much so that they were featured on PBS's Hometime. We could have stayed for hours. I considered bribing them to take us upstairs. As it was, we settled for plundering the gift shop (I got a CD of piano music from the books!) and taking pictures.

The window through which Betsy watched Tacy move in

The piano! "Howdy, Cy! Mornin', Cy!"

The beaded curtain! We just needed our paper dolls and Lady Jane Grey.

The porch

The commemorative bench!

We hiked partway up the now-developed Big Hill to see where Little Syria used to be. Sadly, Betsy's high school house (and the high school itself) are long gone, and the sites buried under a parking garage for Mankato State.

Of course I bought a walking guide, so we could check out other houses from The Crowd: childhood Winona's, Carney's, Mrs. Chubbock's, Tony's, and Tib's!

Still chocolate-colored. Need to trick-or-treat in Mankato so I can see inside.

Finally it started to rain, and we were starving, but altogether it was my favorite morning of the trip. In the afternoon we visited the Maud Hart Lovelace wing of the library and walked around Sibley Park.

The glass pitcher

The library also had a big binder of MHL press clippings with lots of articles and pictures to page through, as well as all her books, both for children and adults. Awesome.

Who knows if I'll ever get back here? I did tell Sue and Susan at the houses that, for the next Betsy-Tacy Convention, they should have a Betsy hairdressing session, and a Betsy dancing one. We shall see...

And the crowning moment of our childhood Betsy portion was the article that appeared in The Free Press the next day. Winona and Betsy would be proud. Not only did our little visit make the front page, with hilariously unflattering picture above the fold, but we shunted dead Margaret Thatcher to the sidebar!

Literary wonderland, indeed. Thanks for reading! I'll have one more post sometime--this one covering the places from Betsy's Wedding.

Literary Dream Tour, Part III

We're in the single digits now, and it's time to update you on our latest pre-departure news.

1. The great Laura Ingalls Wilder dilemma faces us: we've been listening to On the Banks of Plum Creek in the car as we drive hither and thither, and we only have about 3 hrs left of Cherry Jones' masterful reading. Now, 3 hrs is almost exactly how long Mapquest estimates it will take us to drive from Minneapolis to Walnut Grove. So we should eject the disc and save the rest for our trip, right? Of course. Except the boy, who disdained going on a "girl-book" trip, wants to keep listening. Uh-huh. He is particularly interested in hearing the chapter "Town Party" because we just heard about Laura and Mary going to school with the dreadful Nellie Oleson, and we are all fascinated and drawn to the dreadful Nellie Oleson like rubberneckers to a five-car pile-up. Plus, Cherry Jones does such an awesome job, someone should give her the audiobook equivalent of an Emmy.

Her "Oh, Charles!"es are perfection!

So far I've managed to avoid the issue by not having all three kids in the car at once, but I don't know how much longer I can delay...

2. What do the great Laura Ingalls and Betsy-Tacy have in common besides Minnesota? Locusts, of course. I've driven the 13YO nuts by moaning about the coming infestation every time Pa buys something new and tells Caroline, "Don't worry, Caroline! Just look at that wheat! Once I harvest it we can pay for the house/pay for the horses/buy new dresses/buy anything, period!" Oh, Charles.

From FineArtAmerica.com. Because nothing says Fine Art like a Locust

If you recall, I was reading that book on the locust plagues of the 1870s-1880s, which excerpted LIW at length, but it also went on to quote Maud Hart Lovelace (!), her Gentlemen from England in particular. Not only that, but, when Aunt Ruth moves in with Joe and Betsy in Betsy's Wedding, she regales Betsy with stories of "fires, blizzards, [and] grasshopper plagues...Aunt Ruth loved disasters." It occurs to me that Aunt Ruth would have been about LIW's age. Very cool.

3. And why oh why has no one exploited the Downton Abbey - Betsy-Tacy connection? Same bat time, almost the same bat place, if you count the London chapter in Betsy and the Great World. All the things women love about Downton can be found in the Betsy books: hair, elaborate clothing, suffragettes, women speaking their minds, WWI. Great World and Betsy's Wedding have so many, many period details that someone should hop on the bandwagon and bring them to the screen. (Only please don't let HBO or Showtime do them, or Betsy would constantly be having to rip off her top and  do the nasty with Mr. O'Farrell, Marco, Bob Barhydt, and any other man thrown in her path...)

I got so curious about all the references to songs and dancing that I discovered this book from the Maud Hart Lovelace Society:

When the kids see this, they'll dump the Xbox and run to the piano!

Too bad there doesn't seem to be a CD included because heaven knows I do not have Julia's or Carney's or even Betsy's piano skills to bring the songs to life, and how dearly I would like to hear "Howdy, Cy!" (Did find this link to a plodding, dirge-tempo piano version--can't imagine Julia playing that to wake anyone up..!)

For the curious, I discovered this whimsical video of dances from Betsy's married era:

Although they describe it as dances from the 1920s, they're actually from the WWI period.

"Certainly the Crowd danced--in smart hotels as Mr. Bagshaw's guests, in their homes entertaining Mr. Bagshaw, and, when the weather turned hot, at country clubs and leafy lakeside places Mr. Bagshaw was aware of. They danced the merry one-step and the swaying, gliding tango and the maxixe and the hesitation." (Betsy's Wedding)

 The ancient, worldly Mr. Bagshaw was the one who praised Vernon and Irene Castle for bringing the culture "out of the turkey-trot-bunny-hug vulgarity." Imagine Tib doing the bunny hug! So sad that no one learns to dance anymore. At Easter dinner my niece told me her middle school incorporates square dancing into every semester of P.E., and everyone loves it. I'm telling you: Downton Abbey Dancing Lessons. Million dollar idea, and you can have it for free.

You're welcome.

Stay tuned.

Literary Dream Tour, Pt 2

A couple thrilling updates for you all, in the Laura Ingalls Wilder and Betsy-Tacy department. I count fifteen more days until we leave for Minnesota, but we've been making steady progress preparing.

First off, for all you Maud Hart Lovelace fans who devoured the Betsy-Tacy books (including the spin-offs Winona's Pony Cart, Carney's House Party, and Emily of Deep Valley), I recommend you drop everything and give this one a try:

That cover artist might not be a Lois Lenski or Vera Neville, but the story inside is fabulous. Now I have to add at least a drive-by of Fort Snelling and Pig's Eye Park to the itinerary. Set in the 1820s and 1830s around Fort Snelling, at the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers, Early Candlelight is peopled with soldiers, fur traders, Sioux and Chippewa Indians, and the DuGay family. Love interest Jasper Page had more than a hint of Delos Lovelace in him, and I found the love story unpredictable and satisfying. Can't wait to try more adult fiction from this woman!

The 9-year-old and I have re-read our way up to Betsy In Spite of Herself, so we're on track there. I'd forgotten how humorous the books are and how well Lovelace captures the mindset of each age. The 9YO skipped a bit through Heaven to Betsy because she deemed the Essay Contest "boring" (!!). I grant you, the Philippines don't light my fire either, but there is no skipping over any possible mention of Joe Willard for this reader.

As for the 13YO, she hasn't picked up a single LIW or Betsy-Tacy book, to my disgust, but she did submit to sitting through Episodes 1 and 2 from Season One of Little House on the Prairie. I must confess: we howled through it.

A rare pic of Pa with shirt on

When Pa fell out of the tree for no discernible reason, it called for replays and re-enactments. My husband and I agreed we hadn't laughed that hard since the skit in Portlandia where Fred and Carrie are giving instructions to the housesitter. Good stuff. Now the only problem is that there are so many episodes and so many seasons, that we can only hit a couple more highlights before the trip. If you have a favorite episode, preferably with something ludicrous happening in it and Pa with his shirt off, let me know in the comments.

With Plum Creek on my mind, I picked up this book from the library:

and sure enough, Lockwood quotes the whole scene in On the Banks of Plum Creek where the Ingalls' see the cloud of pestilence approaching and then have to flee inside, ripping locusts from their hair and clothing and crunching them underfoot. I had no idea what a scourge these insects were throughout the 1870s and 1880s before they mysteriously disappeared. Swarms consumed 50 tons of vegetation a day, leaving famine and ecological devastation in their wake, just as we read in LIW.

And one final note, coming full circle to Betsy-Tacy, after my first post on the Literary Dream Tour, a reporter from The Free Press in Mankato contacted me about doing a story on our visit! We'll see if anything comes of it, but how cool would it be to be mentioned in the very newspaper that Winona's dad used to edit? That's like a rip in the life-literature continuum! When worlds collide, baby.

Thanks for tuning in! Now if I can just get some more writing done, in between all this reading...