The House of Blue Leaves

The House of Blue Leaves

by John Guare

I do allow the Tisch students to provide a “favorite play” but continue to encourage them to read more books.  Actors need to read them!  The House of Blue Leaves by John Guare is set in Queens, NY and takes place during the 1965 visit of the Pope to NYC.  The lead character, Artie, is a songwriter hopeful by night and a zookeeper by day. He is caught between his supportive girlfriend, Bunny, and his ‘crazy’ wife, Bananas, who is struggling with schizophrenia and needs to be institutionalized (though she keeps avoiding it).  As Artie focuses on getting to Hollywood, we are introduced to his successful friend, Billy, who handles Hollywood talent.  As Artie returns from attending the Pope’s visit, we learn that his son has gone AWOL from his service in Vietnam as he attempts to bomb the Pope.  The story captures much of the ‘lunacy’ (my words) centered on the war and what happens when the pressure of being asked to serve is matched with the family pressures of a mother challenged with mental illness.  Use of humor and family challenges make for a ‘can’t put down’ play. Love Anne Meara (comic actress from the 70s-90s) in the role of Bunny.

To Live

To Live

by Yu Hua

A really moving story in this RA Favorite book: To Live by Yu Hua.  A man tells the story of his adventures strolling the countryside to collect popular folk songs.  He runs across an old man, Fugui, ploughing the fields with an ox singing an old folk song about not wanting to marry the emperor’s daughter, which made the narrator laugh.  Fugui was yelling at his ox, calling it various names while the song-collector watched and laughed.  The old man came over and engaged him through a series of curious questions.  Fugui was then asked about the ox’s various names and he proceeds to tell his life story.  The story Fugui tells captures forty years of gluttony, gambling, prostitutes, more gluttony, marriage, loss of family, friends, and then a moment of recognition of what gifts he truly has…. and then more bitter loses that occur after every high moment in his life, culminating in his life on the fields, which he still loves.  In the backdrop of the story are the various government changes and uprising of the Chinese through the civil war and how the leadership changes with a communist government affect the community in which he lives (and his family situation).  But the real essence of the story is forgiveness, love, and living in the moment with your family being always front and center.  A beautifully crafted story that will resonate with me for decades to come.  It is already one that I believe may be what I use to discuss at the end of the year banquet.

Emotional Intelligence 2.0

Emotional Intelligence 2.0

by Travis Bradberry & Jean Greaves

Another fun and informative read in Emotional Intelligence 2.0 by Travis Bradberry.  Always good to learn some skills that can help you manage your initial emotionally-charged reactions. A great reminder that we can control many of our guttural responses to the environment... and to others we live and work among.  The book starts with a ‘test’ to rate your emotional intelligence, which you get to do again at the end of the book.  Bradberry provides an introductory story of a surfer who has to respond to a potential shark attack as he is out to ride the waves.  It is through managing his emotions that he escapes without injury.  This serves as our guide to handling our emotions in any given situation.  Through self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and relationship management, we can become more successful in our relationships AND be healthier.  He provides fifteen self-awareness strategies:

Quit treating your feelings as good or bad

Observe the ripple effect from your emotions

Lean into your discomfort

Feel your emotions physically

Know who and what pushes your buttons

Watch yourself like a hawk

Keep a journal about your emotions

Don’t be fooled by a bad mood

Don’t be fooled by a good mood, either

Stop and ask yourself why you do things you do

Visit your values

Check yourself

Spot your emotions in books, movies, and music

Seek feedback

Get to know yourself under stress

OK, so look this list over. Is there anything that would make you not think this is great practice?  It’s a great reminder that we can be better IF we really want to be better in our relationships with others.  Excellent read.  Pick it up!

Educated

Educated

by Tara Westover

Happy Anniversary to my wife!  29 years.  And finished the book Educated by Tara Westover.  It is her memoir, the story of growing up in the mountain region of Idaho with Mormon parents who decided to home-school her. This decision was based on her father’s belief that the schools were teaching students lies and sins, including his other children.  Tara grew up in a very abusive family situation, certainly emotional/verbal abuse from her father, and physical/emotional/verbal abuse from one of her brothers.  The book moves from her hard work on the farm/mountain for her father to her college education with a scholarship to Harvard and Oxford, where she earned her PhD.  Tara acquires a formal education but also learns about how the abuse affects her emotional development.  It is a hard book to get through.  As a first-generation student, I would have liked a bit more about the struggles in her pursuit of education.  Clearly the abuse issues are important as well. She needed to validate that these things happened to her but also show that others in this situation that there are ways to move past a life of abuse.  It is the NYU first-year student read this year – so glad I read it.

Pedro Paramo

Pedro Paramo

by Juan Rulfo

Finished a classic Latin American book, Pedro Paramo, written by Juan Rulfo.  It is a difficult story to understand initially until you recognize that it goes from past to present throughout and involves various first-person narrators.  It begins with Juan Preciado traveling to find the whereabouts of his absent father, whom his mother asked to visit while she was on her deathbed.  She noted that his father had much debt to pay to her and that her son should inherit it.  While on his journey to Comala (the village in Mexico), Juan meets a man named Abundio who offers to take him to the village of his father.  When he gets there, he is told to meet with an elderly woman who is a native of the land.  She informs him that the man he was traveling to find is dead and that the land is full of spirits from the past.  We learn of several stories from the various spirits, including Pedro Paramo’s leadership of the village, his womanizing ways and how the one woman he loved rebuffs him, which culminates in him turning his back on the village.  This ultimately leads to the ‘death’ of the village as his true love has no interest in him.  If one can get through the back and forth stories, it is a beautifully written, full of sadness and unfulfilled dreams.  A book that inspired many writers in Latin America.

The Miseducation of Cameron Post

The Miseducation of Cameron Post

by Emily Danforth

Finished reading Emily Danforth’s The Miseducation of Cameron Post. It is the coming of age story of Cam Post, a 12-year-old who begins to identify her feelings with actions towards other young girls.  Her first experimentation occurs and she later learns her parents have been killed in a car accident.  There are a number of girls who come into and leave her life during this age of experimentation.  The problem Cam faces, growing up in an ultra-conservative Montana town, is that she and her good female friend, Coley, get caught in a moment of passion. Unfortunately for Cam, Coley lies and tells her mother that Cam seduced her.  Coley’s mother brings her to the local Protestant minister to confess ‘her sins’, which leads him to inform Cam’s grandmother and aunt, her new guardians.  Cam is subsequently sent away to “God’s Promise”, a full-time school that ‘treats’ young people to no longer have homosexual tendencies. The rest of the story focuses on the school and the various issues among the students, one who later seduces Cam.  In the end, Cam and two of her peers go on a hiking trip to the site of where Cam’s parents were killed.  She makes peace with herself and her parents' death.  OK.  I’d say the story is important, but I have to say, it didn’t flow well for me.  It seemed somewhat “over the top” and I never really connected with the disjointed aspects of the story.  Kind of like a story about ‘shock’ therapy but didn’t allow for the reader – me in this case – to really connect with the pain and despair of the main character.  A choppy story that didn’t bring in the characters very well.  Not the best ‘coming of age’ story that I have read.  There are better, though I’m not sure many from a female perspective.

Men Explain Things to Me

Men Explain Things to Me

by Rebecca Solnit

Finished another RA favorite book, Men Explain Things to Me, by Rebecca Solnit.  It is a series of essays that she wrote over a number of years compiled and published in 2014, which helped re-ignite the latest movement for female equality and voice. Essays range from reflections on Virginia Wolff to emphasizing the role men play in the physical abuse of women. She is given credit for the term "mansplaining", though she refutes that she created the term. The book came out prior to the #metoo movement, but it has been used as a resource to share the troubling issues related to sexual harassment and sexual assault.  Her essays go deep into facts of female abuse around the world with specific examples used to emphasize her points.  It is a deeply troubling series of facts shared that leads one to realize - when will the abuse stop??  Solnit does not only try to educate men on the facts – she reminds the reader that there are men who serve as allies as well.  But men need to lead the charge on educating other men on the serious issues related to physical abuse.  The essays on their own are well-written and compel the reader to action.