The Groucho Letters:
Letters From and To Groucho Marx

A Life of Laughter – I’ve the Warner Brothers to thank for many of the earliest laughs I recall. My brother and I grew up watching Looney Tunes cartoons on Saturday morning TV. Our favorite was “Bugs Bunny,” whose character, I didn’t know at the time, was lifted largely from Groucho Marx’s movie persona. After the cartoons, we found ourselves laughing to The Three Stooges and Get Smart and The Dick Van Dyke Show. Years later, like seemingly everyone else in the United States, I loved the TV show “M*A*S*H,” especially Alan Alda’s portrayal of Hawkeye Pierce, another comedy king whose persona owed a large debt of gratitude to Groucho. Of course, I had many other pop culture influences shaping what I considered funny and how I, myself, tried to make people laugh. One childhood summer in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, vacationing with our family, our cousins Bob and Billy Froberg turned my brother and I on to a parody album by Spike Jones and His City Slickers. We played it over and over and over again. Later, in college, the album my dormmates and I all memorized was National Lampoon’s “That’s Not Funny, That’s Sick!” Sometime also in childhood, most likely while watching WGN-TV’s Family Classics, I found myself kid-chortling at the Marx Brothers movies. So, Groucho hooked me early. His wit made me laugh – and the absurdity of his banter made clear sense to me growing up at a time – the 1960s and 1970s – that was increasingly absurd. (One might argue we’ve moved now from absurdity to inanity.) Reading Groucho Marx’s letters brings back the joy of the absurd and the thrill of his wit. I highly recommend reading this book. Who couldn’t use a good laugh or two?

When All the Men Wore Hats: On the Stories of John Cheever
Susan Cheever 

Among the Giants – For me, John Cheever stories almost always convey a sense of sorrow, surprise and seriousness. They depict humans as we are, wounded and wonder-filled, often at the same time. Cheever takes storytelling seriously and his focused intention elevates his tales beyond literature to lasting art. If you can’t tell, I’m a huge fan. And so, I loved his daughter Susan’s reflections here about her father and her father’s work. Susan Cheever is an accomplished writer on her own, not without similar intent. She possesses the ability to see her father with a degree of objectivity that only someone so intimately close could perceive.

John O’Hara Stories: Library of America Edition
Charles McGrath, editor

The Overlooked – Why did it take me 67 years to finally read John O’Hara’s stories? A contemporary of Hemingway and Fitzgerald, O’Hara has had more stories published in The New Yorker than any writer. And still it took me devouring Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Raymond Carver, and John Cheever before I found John O’Hara. I would typically fault my own reading experience, a puzzle with a lot of missing pieces. But in this case, something else is at play. A lot of us might recall the names of some Olympic Gold Medalists. Fewer will recall the names of the Silver Medalists. Only true fans or students of the sport will be able to list the Bronze Medalists. As good as John O’Hara is as a writer – and he’s very good – his work and life have been overshadowed by Hemingway and Fitzgerald and Faulkner, and then later, the other two Johns: Cheever and Updike. Similarly, his stories were seldom included in collections and college texts, and, therefore, less frequently taught. As Fitzgerald famously noted: “An author ought to write for the youth of his own generation, the critics of the next, and the schoolmasters ever afterward.” It’s having your writing taught that ensures lasting fame.

A Place for Us: Gay Life at Chicago's Belmont Rocks
Owen Keehnen

A Home of Our Own – The Belmont Rocks were a special gathering spot for LGBTQ+ people in Chicago – and a special place in my own coming out. Writer Owen Keehnen describes the evolution and the meaning of this small piece of shoreline along Lake Michigan and presents a wonderful oral history of just what these rocks meant to an entire community. The “Rocks era” stretches from about 1960 to 2003. In part, as Owen notes, the Rocks were “a place of empowerment where gay folks asserted their right to be there, their right to exist, and their right to gather outside in the sunlight at a time when gay bars had blacked-out windows.” One night, I enjoyed my first gay kiss on the Belmont Rocks. The lake was calm. The Big Dipper loomed overhead. And with this kiss, my life changed forever.

COMMENTARY: Influential Books

Here are some of the key books that informed and influenced how I think about early childhood work and the Early Childhood Movement. These are the books I brought to my office in Omaha and, two weeks ago, after retiring, brought back to Chicago for my shelves at home.

The books are not in any particular order for the photo, but it’s fitting that “From Neurons to Neighborhoods” is at the foundation of this stack. This definitive study — for the Institute of Medicine and National Research Council — was edited by Dr. Jack Shonkoff and Dr. Deborah Phillips. Published in 2000, this book and new brain imaging scans showing the importance of healthy brain development turbocharged the early childhood field as the 21st Century was just beginning.

“Connecting to Change the World” — Madeleine Taylor and her colleagues opened my eyes to the power and potential of building strong social impact networks.

Businessman and philanthropists Irving B. Harris was ahead of his time in many ways. When “Children in Jeopardy” was published in 1996, I was working at Voices for Illinois Children. Within another year I went to work for Ounce of Prevention Fund, which Mr. Harris had co-founded.

“Beacon of Hope: The Promise of Early Head Start for America’s Youngest Children” was edited by Dr. Joan Lombardi and Mary M. Bogle. Published in 2004, this book still lights the path forward when it comes to ensuring a better start for every young child.

“For Our Babies: Ending the Invisible Neglect of America’s Infants” is another powerful testament to increasing public investments in prenatal care and the earliest days, weeks, months and years of life. Written by Dr. J. Ronald Lally, this book was published in 2013.

The next two books aren’t about early childhood but they greatly shaped my thinking on social movements and how early childhood programs (and K-12 education for that matter) welcome — or fail to welcome — families. “Love on Trial,” by Kris Perry and Sandy Stier, tells the story of their Supreme Court fight for the Right to Marry. Part love story, part legal story about the Marriage Equality Movement, Kris and Sandy’s story offers many lessons for propelling the Early Childhood Movement. “Setting the Table” is by restaurateur Danny Meyer. It might seem like an odd choice to spark imaginative thoughts about early childhood but read the book’s subtitle: “The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business.” I’m convinced hospitality also offers transformative powers in early childhood and all education settings. Coincidentally, Danny Meyer is Irving Harris’ grandson!

Last but not least — “Giving Kids a Fair Chance: A Strategy that Works” features Nobel Prize winning economist Dr. James Heckman arguing for greater investments in early childhood. The slim book also features responses to Dr. Heckman by Geoffrey Canada, Carol Dweck, Charles Murray and others.

This isn’t a complete list of books that shaped my thinking but it’s a great start. What books influenced your thinking?

 

On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century
Timothy Snyder

Ring the Bells that Still Can Ring – With a crooked, bigoted, blundering President like Trump, autocratic tyranny – let’s call it “fascism” – has a stranglehold on the United States of America. Each day brings more Presidential assaults and crimes while the spineless, morality-free Republicans shrug and the witless Democrats scratch their asses. The Digital Revolution has metastasized fear and isolation, deadened minds, enflamed hate in the hearts of millions, rendered journalism largely impotent, and shattered any sense of Common Cause and Common Good. With the crumbling of civic society, business profiteers are blithely, boldly squeezing pay dirt more heartlessly than ever. Religious leaders are quivering, busily trying to remain relevant. So how do we blunt – and dare we even dream of reversing – this tsunami of terror? As we prepare to celebrate the glorious – ahem – 250^th anniversary of our great nation, it looks like our best defense so far is coming from lawyers and judges, comedians, and The People. Timothy Snyder’s “On Tyranny” is a handy, easy-to-digest guidebook outlining ways to resist. In 2026 – and always – “On Tyranny” is a must-read.

Maybe
Lillian Hellman

Maybe Yes, Maybe No – I’ve read this slim book three or perhaps four times before, and a while back I felt a desire to revisit the story. Not for the story’s sake, but for Lillian Hellman’s prose: her voice, her looping phrases and sentences that twist into a sort of backward glance. I was not disappointed. In fact, I felt a similar reaction to re-reading “Pentimento” a few years ago. Say what you will about Hellman and her veracity, it’s the writing I love. Her way with words. A talented way, indeed.

Notes to John

Joan Didion

Literary HIPPA Violation – I picked up this book in New York City, which made the prospect of a “new” Joan Didion book even that much more enticing to read. But in reading this book, it didn’t take me long before I was overwhelmed with unease. Didion’s writing – her microscopic examinations, her meticulous, diamond-sharp critiques – always made me feel uneasy. Over the years, it’s that discomfort which actually drew me deeper into Didion’s writing. But in “Notes to John” the unease was different; it felt, instead, like a violation, an invasion of privacy. These aren’t Joan Didion’s essays; these are her notes about her private analytic sessions with her psychiatrist. Published posthumously without prior knowledge or consent. Of course, I knew that when I purchased the book, and I knew the ethical questions swirling around the publication of the book. But still I jumped in with enthusiasm, which maybe tells you more about me than I care to admit. It didn’t take long though before I stopped and closed the book for good. And perhaps that tells you something else about me too. 

Finale: Late Conversations with Stephen Sondheim

D.T. Max

Putting It Together – You get two books in one here. The first is an edited transcript of five long conversations over a handful of years that New Yorker writer D.T. Max recorded with the great composer Stephen Sondheim. Sondheim’s conversations are not unlike his compositions: erudite, clever, sometimes funny, often insightful, an emotional journey with surprising melodies. Max recorded their conversations with an eye on publishing a major profile on Sondheim in the magazine. That never happened – and why is part of the other book you’ll read in “Finale.” This part of the tale recounts a journalist’s efforts to better understand a revered, reluctant subject in the hopes of publishing the kind of defining profile that would receive standing ovations, to-die-for reviews, and even the box office bonanza rarely seen on Broadway.

 

Novelist as a Vocation

Haruki Murakami

Nice Work If You Can Get It – In these 11 essays, Haruki Murakami reflects upon the path he travelled in becoming one of our time’s great writers. Throughout the book, Murakami’s advice is concrete and practical, and occasionally humorous. Again and again, he underscores the role luck plays in achieving artistic success, emphasizes ways to counter the physical toll a writer’s sedentary life often claims, and celebrates jazz music as a source of inspiration for his writing. He shares opinions and anecdotes about other writers, such as Ernest Hemingway, Raymond Chandler, Isak Dinesen, Natsume Sōseki, and Raymond Carver. (In fact, Murakami was the main translator of Carver’s writing into Japanese. And, by now, Murakami’s own writing has been translated into more than 50 languages. “Novelist as a Vocation” was translated from Japanese into English by Philip Gabriel and Ted Goossen.)  

Is There God after Prince?

Dispatches from an Age of Last Things

Peter Coviello

“Dearly Beloved: We are Gathered Here Today …” – After you finish reading Peter Coviello’s collection of essays, you immediately want to find someone to talk to about them. In my case, I was lucky because I was able to interview the author himself at the 2024 Printers Row Lit Fest, thanks to an invitation from Amy Danzer, who organizes Chicago's annual bacchanal of books. As it turns out, Peter in-person is as engaging as Peter on-the-page. He writes and speaks with great vivacity for the subject at hand (whether it’s music, blended family, friendship, heartbreak, or love.) He and his writing easily shift from provocative to poignant to hilarious to keenly observant regardless of whether he’s writing about Pop songs or existential dread (or both!) This rollercoaster collection of personal essays is interwoven with thoughtful, timely social commentary – and makes for excellent reading.

The World of Mike Royko

Doug Moe

You Say Your Mother Loves You? – Mike Royko was the quintessential newspaper columnist. He told it like it was. His prose could make you guffaw, or weep, or grow angry; sometimes, all three in about a thousand well-crafted words. Over the course of his career, Royko worked for Chicago’s three main newspapers: the Chicago Daily News, the Chicago Sun-Times, the Chicago Tribune. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1972 for commentary. He wrote a modern classic on Chicago politics, "Boss: Richard J. Daley of Chicago." Moreover, with the assistance of a “legman” or two, Royko also consistently produced one of the greatest daily newspaper columns in the country. I, like most people in Chicago, read him regularly. Once, when I was a college-aged student reporter, I saw Royko seated at the end of the bar in the Billy Goat Tavern, but I wisely refrained from speaking to him. Royko loved to drink, and he did not suffer fools (and some fans) gladly. Doug Moe’s loving biography, full of newspaper photographs and family snapshots, is a must-read.

Captain Dalgety Returns: A Ghost Story for Christmas

Laurence Whistler

Boo – “Reading a ghost story on Christmas Eve was once as much a part of traditional Christmas celebrations as turkey, eggnog, and Santa Claus.” As a Christmas gift this year, Gordon and Gale Meyer presented Robert Charles and me with this pocket-sized ghost tale, part of the “Haunted Bookshelf” series from Biblioasis. (The series also is known affectionately as “Seth’s Christmas Ghost Stories" because Seth’s artwork adorns each book.) This is my second plunge into the series – I read Edith Wharton’s “Afterward” a while back. Whistler’s tale is equally engaging as Wharton’s, and it’s great to see this near-forgotten tradition kept alive and kicking … unlike some of the characters in the stories.

Project 562: Changing the Way We See Native America

Matika Wilbur

Spirit and Soul – This is the most spiritual book I’ve read. In 2012, Matika Wilbur set out on a “decade-long art and storytelling endeavor” to photograph people from what were then 562 federally recognized Native American Tribal Nations and relay their stories. I was lucky enough to hear Matika speak in May 2024 at the national Educare Learning Network meeting, hosted by Educare Winnebago. Matika is a superb photographer and storyteller, who shared some of the portraits and real-life stories she gathered during her journey. The photographs are beautiful. The stories are, in turn, hilarious and harrowing. These powerful testimonies and images are now collected in this profound book. Reading “Project 562” takes time. The photographs are worth studying. The stories are worth digesting slowly, too. No book before this has made me feel the book itself has a soul. No book before this has conveyed a true sense of “spirit” or “spiritual” to me. I don’t want to get all “Native American – oh, cool! Let’s dance with wolves” about this, expressing some newly awakened phony-baloney mysticism. But I do believe that by pairing their words and her photographs, Matika Wilbur has artfully channeled the souls of people who are living and people who have passed. Astounding.

Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder

Salman Rushdie

Surviving, Thriving – Salman Rushdie covers a lot of ground in this page-turning book. He recounts, in detail, the August 2022 attempt to assassinate him on stage at the Chautauqua Institution in western New York. He sings of love and free expression. He reflects on the meaning of life, the facts of death. He comes face-to-face with some chilling, murderous ideas and people, and then, a few pages later, makes you laugh aloud. This is a provocative memoir, insightfully told by one of our time’s great writers, and made possible by love – and modern medicine. Not a bad combo.

 

Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction: Tips from Editors, Teachers, and Writers in the Field

Edited by Tara L. Masih

Where are the Snows: Poems

Kathleen Rooney

Today in the Taxi

Sean Singer

Class – One of my all-time favorite writers is Christine Sneed. Her books – “Portraits of a Few of the People I’ve Made Cry,” “Little Known Facts,” “Paris, He Said,” “The Virginity of Famous Men,” and others – are moving, funny, poignant, insightful. So I jumped at the opportunity to study in an online class Christine recently taught. Flash Fiction. Via Stanford. The readings included three wonderful books, “Today in the Taxi,” “Where are the Snows: Poems,” and “Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction.” The class also included conversations with two of the authors, Kathleen Rooney and Sean Singer as well as numerous tips, feedback and practical advice from Christine herself. What’s more, comments from my fellow students – we workshopped each other’s stories – also were encouraging and thought-provoking. If you get a chance to study with Christine, do it.

POSTSCRIPT: “Origin”

Over the past three years, the non-fiction book I’ve recommended most frequently is “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents,” by Isabel Wilkerson. As I wrote in December 2020, “If you think our country is grappling with a race problem or a class problem, think again: As [award-winning author and former New York Times journalist] Wilkerson eloquently argues, we’re struggling with a caste problem.” In the book, Wilkerson notes, “Class doesn’t protect you from Caste.” She also outlines what she calls the “eight pillars of caste,” along the way offering eye-opening comparisons to India’s caste system and the Nazi’s approach to creating anti-Semitic legislation. Now comes the film “Origin” – and it’s even more powerful, more emotional than the book. And the book was plenty powerful and emotional. The movie, written and directed by Ava DuVernay, features Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor as Isabel Wilkerson while she is researching and writing “Caste.” The film packs an even more powerful punch because it not only describes the ideas behind “Caste,” it tells the stories of Wilkerson’s relationships with her Mother, Husband, and Sister. A tour de force, indeed.

My Name is Barbra

Barbra Streisand

The One, The Only – As I began reading Barbra Streisand’s 966-page autobiography, my husband Robert Charles began reading “Paul and Jesus,” by Biblical scholar and Professor James Tabor. Obviously, Robert and I, while reading different books, share a deep interest in the study of Gods. At 81, the record-setting, barrier-breaking Streisand has forged a career filled with multiple achievements and much acclaim – in movies, in music, on TV and Broadway, and as a philanthropist. She describes her rich life with colorful stories in her own distinctive voice. Not to be missed.

All About Me! My Remarkable Life in Show Business

Mel Brooks

The Great Philosopher – At some point, Mel Brooks evolved from the guy who made me laugh uncontrollably (“Get Smart,” “The 2,000 Year Old Man,” both versions of “The Producers,” “Blazing Saddles,” both versions of “Young Frankenstein,” “Silent Movie,” and so on) – to the man who told me and all of us the 10 magical words that unlock the best way to understand the mysteries of life: “The thing you gotta know is, Ev’rything is show biz.” Now, that lyric from “The Producers” reaches beyond good advice; that’s philosophy. Mel Brooks is 97. He’s been around the block more than a few times. He knows – and he has some hilarious stories still to tell, which he does in his 451-page biography. The book is a complete delight.

AROUND TOWN: Chicago Literary Hall of Fame cocktail party, interview

Robert Charles and I love how the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame celebrates our town’s many diverse writers and writing. For the past few years, we’ve hosted an annual cocktail party to introduce the organization to new people, and to make a bit of cheddar along the way. Donald G. Evans, the founding executive director of the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame really helped to turn the idea of the cocktail party into reality and the talented mixologist Ryan Prindle teaches all of the guests how to make three or four different drinks at each event. We started, online and during the pandemic, with “Absinthe Makes the Heart Grow Fonder.” The title and the use of puns – Don’s fun idea – stuck. Subsequent parties have included “The Martini Chronicles” and “The House on Margarita Street.” Earlier this year, we celebrated “The Great Gimlet” at the Colvin House on Sheridan Road here in Chicago’s Edgewater neighborhood. Writer and scholar Michelle E. Moore provided some intriguing insights into F. Scott Fitzgerald’s connections to Chicago. As part of the pre-party publicity, Don penned a lovely interview with Robert and me, for which we’re grateful. Don is a kind and generous man. If you’d like to be added to the invitation list for next year’s party, please just let me or Don know. (Photo by Laurie Proffitt)

Smart Brevity: The Power of Saying More with Less

Jim VandeHei, Mike Allen, Roy Schwartz

Faster, Quicker, Better? – I was approaching my college graduation as a journalism and political science major at Northern Illinois University in the cornfields of DeKalb County, Illinois, when USA Today was first published. The new national newspaper offered shorter stories, more graphics, more color. In part, the newspaper was sold in newspaper boxes that resembled TV sets or the desktop computers of the day. Anybody remember the Commodore 64? For those of us raised, in part, on long-form “new journalism” (Joan Didion, Tom Wolfe, Gay Talese and others) and, in part, by old-school, nuts-and-bolts reporting (“Done in a Day,” City News Bureau, “All The President’s Men,” and so on), USA Today was a flashy, insulting, unwelcomed new kid on the block. “This newspaper doesn’t provide insights or information,” was a common criticism and surely something I, myself, said. “It only appeases short attention spans.” Well, a lot has happened in the past 42 years – and attention spans have not grown longer. Along the way, Stand-Up Meetings have trained us to think on our feet, literally. TED Talks have groomed us to lose track after 18 minutes. PechaKucha has taught us that if it can’t be conveyed in 20 slides, with no more than 20 seconds of commentary per each slide, it’s not worth learning. Oh – and the Digital Revolution has changed … well, everything. In “Smart Brevity,” the founders of Axios describe their formula for condensing and delivering news. There’s more to it than this, but think Clickable Headline, Grabber First Sentence, Bold Subheads, Bulleted Info, Telling Quote, Shocking Number – all in the length of a telegram. Anybody remember telegrams? I’ve learned over the decades to roll with the punches, adapt to new technology, meet readers where they are, keep up with the times. Sort of. I do my best, at least. But my heart still longs for stories, well-told. No matter the length. Stories that open us to new ways of seeing, new ways of knowing, new ways of understanding the world around us and beyond. Yet, I’m reminded of a wry caution from the great actor, writer and raconteur, Peter Ustinov – does anybody remember Peter Ustinov? – when he said, “How we communicate has changed dramatically, but what we have to say to one another hasn’t advanced at all.”

Unscripted: The Epic Battle for a Media Empire and the Redstone Family Legacy

James B. Stewart and Rachel Abrams

Bedrooms/Boardrooms/Bedlam – Which is more revolting? The tawdry, tempestuous tale of billionaire Sumner Redstone, his many lovers, and their fight over his vast fortune? Or the corporate malfeasance of overpaid, entitled male business leaders and their lack of ethics and disregard for sexual crimes? It’s all here in this recap of the Redstone family saga, the downfall of Les Moonves, and the squabbles to control Viacom, CBS, Paramount, and their subsidiaries. But there’s another story, too – and that is the story of Shari Redstone. Belittled and unloved by her reckless, creepy father, Shari Redstone navigates these vulgar, garish familial and professional storms – and comes out here as unexpected heroine.

A Woman’s Battles and Transformations

Édouard Louis

 Change – In this slim volume, Édouard Louis writes movingly of his mother and her transformation from embattled Mom tending to a husband and several children in a Marine Le Pen-loving village in northern France to a woman, with a new partner, rising above her past through her new life in Paris. As always with Louis, he explores the patriarchal, class-structured society and attempts to understand the woman his mother was and is. The book was translated from French to English by Tash Aw.

I Am A Man: Chief Standing Bear’s Journey for Justice

Joe Starita

History – This is an emotional, eye-opening story of the Ponca, and, in particular, Chief Standing Bear’s struggle over several decades to ultimately use the U.S. judicial system to establish some elemental rights for Indigenous People. Why didn’t we learn any of this in school when we were growing up? Because history has its enemies, then and now; namely, fear-driven conservatives who can’t handle the truth. Joe Starita is an acclaimed journalist who tells the story in detail.

Churchill & Orwell: The Fight for Freedom

Thomas E. Ricks

Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat – Joe Wade and I are enjoying a 43-year, ongoing conversation about life, work, politics, food, travel, and so on. We also belong to what I call the Joe Wade Book Club, in which he reads a book of non-fiction history and then tells me all about it over lunch. Well, this most recent time, Joe actually handed me the book to read that he had just finished – and it’s superb. “Churchill & Orwell” is, in part, a dual biography of two highly influential political thinkers, skilled writers, coiners of phrases. The book also is part analysis of political strategy and World War II military strategy, part literary review, part treatise on leadership at the highest levels of government. Finally, and perhaps most important, the book is a timely warning about the continuing battle between fascism and freedom, internationally and here within the United States. And it’s all achieved with the page-turning skill of an accomplished storyteller. 

Thirteen Months: War Memoir with Love

Mike Murray

Grace – This is a hell of a collection of stories, the sweetest and most harrowing book I have read. Mike Murray is a friend, a former U.S. Marine now living in Los Angeles. His stories, lifted from real-life experience, tell the tales of a small unit of marines deployed in Vietnamese villages on the battlelines of war. Mike’s writing conveys humanity with no ego, no self-aggrandizement, no false humility. His work echoes – or maybe its his work I now hear echoing in the works of others – with the best of his literary predecessors: the clarity of Hemingway, the humanity (there’s that word again!) of Vonnegut, the candor and menace of Remarque, and, naturally, the surreal beauty and horror of O’Brien and Heineman. None of these associations entered my mind as I read “Thirteen Months.” I was too transfixed and “locked” into the stories with their on-edge, heart-pounding times under fire, restful times under the sun, playful times with Joe and Be, Vietnamese children growing up tragically quick. “Thirteen Months” was brought to life as a printed book thanks to Mike Murray’s friend Khanh, the daughter of Sy Doan, one of Vietnam’s greatest living writers.

House Arrest: Pandemic Diaries

Alan Bennett

Lord Whimsy – London is a great town for readers and bookstores. Daunt. Waterstones. London Review Book Shop, where I picked up this slim volume by the great Alan Bennett along with books by Edouard Louis and Diane Williams. Bennett has the power to enchant with whimsy and insight – one example: his observation after watching a televised wreath-placing ceremony during the pandemic that just one of Queen Elizabeth’s many triumphs as a nonagenarian is the ability to walk backward. Bennett notes here, too, that his task as a playwright is to move the audience to feel, “Here is somebody who knows what it is like to be me.”

I Hear You’re Rich

Diane Williams

Everything, Everywhere – Reading Diane Williams’ short-short stories is like diving into the deep end of a warm pool when you’re not sure if you’re swimming or drowning or just thrashing wildly to get to the surface. And then: brilliance. Stories such as “To What Beautiful End?,” “Zwhip-Zwhip,” “I Hear You’re Rich,” and “Mother of Nature” rival the punch and the power of the best prose poems. 

 

The Best of Knight at the Movies, 2004-2014: Film Criticism from a Queer Perspective

Richard Knight, Jr.

Fade In – I was a big fan of Richard Knight, Jr. long before I ever met him. I read just about every one of these reviews when they were originally published in the Windy City Times. Richard also has written for the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Reader, and New City. Revisiting his work collected here showed me to what extent Richard’s insights and perspectives on the movies (which I love) have shaped my gay sensibility. I’ve stated elsewhere that in this area, Richard has had the most effect on me since I saw Tallulah Bankhead star in “Lifeboat” when I was 12 years old. That sounds like a joke, but it’s not. Richard’s essays, interviews, and reviews – here and in such books as, “Haunted Houses, Porn Stars, and Toy Collectors: My Encounters with Remarkable People, Places and Things” – have done more to help me better understand my own queer outlook on the world than any other books. And, at the same time, Richard’s work is immensely entertaining. In fact, some of these reviews are more entertaining than the films themselves.

A Subversive’s Guide to Improvisation: Moving Beyond “Yes, and”

David Razowsky

Keeping it Real – I met David Razowsky back in college, at Northern Illinois University in the cornfields of middle-of-the-road, 1980s America. Dave was a fiery kid, a profoundly talented photojournalist working at the student-run newspaper, The Northern Star. I worked there, too, as a reporter and editor. After school, I lost touch with Dave – or David L as we called him at that time. A few years later, we heard he was appearing in a Second City show, which a group of us then saw and loved. I’ve on-and-off followed his career from afar, more closely in recent years since reconnecting via social media. This past March, we met in-person over breakfast at the LA Farmers Market and, in June, we met again very briefly following his terrific performance at Bughouse Theater in Chicago’s Lakeview/North Center neighborhood. If anything, David is even more a fiery kid – mixed now with the wisdom of passing years. His book, “A Subversive’s Guide to Improvisation,” is a must-read. The book recaps the highs and lows of Dave’s “improvised journey” as an actor; describes his approach to acting, teaching, and coaching, complete with exercises; and features some funny and heart-warming scrapbook pieces.

AROUND TOWN: “The Meaning of This Moment” – Remarks at the Swearing-in Ceremony for Judge Edward J. Underhill

In June 2023, I was honored to participate in Ed Underhill’s investiture. My remarks at the event, which was held in the ceremonial chambers of the Illinois Supreme Court:

May it please the court …

Justice Cunningham. Justice Neville. Justice Overstreet. Commissioner Garcia. Other esteemed guests. Friends … Liam … Ed ….

This moment is filled with meaning.

A dream come true. A momentous occasion for someone who has made a lasting impact on each of our lives. A commemoration of an institution designed to deliver justice. A promise. A celebration.

Joining us in this ceremony today – in addition to the many friends and colleagues who are physically present – are the spirits of those who shaped Ed into the person he is and the Judge he is about to become.

Ed’s Mother, Betty. To grow up Irish American on Chicago’s South Side in St. Bede’s Parish is to love and respect your Mother. Betty is here in spirit.

Ed’s Father, Hugo. To grow up Irish-American on Chicago’s South Side is to fear – er, I mean, love and respect your Father. Hugo is here in spirit … And it might be fair to say Hugo is even a bit surprised the kid has done so well!

Ed’s Stepmother, Bernice. Ed’s Brother, Dennis. Ed’s Sister, Mary Beth. And countless more family and friends. They are all here ….

Ed was youngest among his five siblings. 

He grew up at a time – and in a community here in Chicago – where the word “public” meant something powerful.

Ed grew up playing in public parks. He swam at public beaches. He read books from the public library. He rode public transportation. He went to public schools – public elementary school, Adlai Stevenson Grammar School; a public high school, Bogan; and then a public university, Northern Illinois University. 

Ed grew up experiencing – and believing in – the Public Good.

Ed was the first in his family to go to and graduate from college. And it was at Northern where I met Ed. He became my best friend. He’s the best friend of many of us here, which says a lot … It was at Northern, in that public educational institution, where Ed also began to think more seriously and deeply about public service – what it means to live in a community, to be a good neighbor, to build a more just society.

And it was at NIU where Ed also commenced what has become his lifelong study of one of the truly great public servants, Abraham Lincoln.

Ed worked his way through college as a newspaper reporter. And after earning his bachelor’s degree, he enrolled in the NIU College of Law. He graduated with his JD in 1984, and, shortly after, joined one of Chicago’s top commercial law firms, Masuda Funai.

At Masuda Funai, Ed gained more than 38 years of trial experience. (… Later, at Petterino’s, I’ll share the Top 10 Reasons Why Ed is Really Leaving Masuda Funai.) 

He’s been the lead trial counsel in countless jury trials and bench trials – a fierce champion committed to making the strongest possible case for his clients. He’s been a member of the Federal Trial Bar since 1987. He is admitted to practice law in the Seventh Circuit of the United States Court of Appeals, and in the United States Supreme Court.

Over the years, Ed served as a hearing officer for the Judicial Evaluation Committee of the Chicago Bar Association, which means he’s been one of the people who actually screens other people who are running for Judge. He developed an Alternative Dispute Resolution practice and became a court-certified mediator for the Circuit Court of Cook County. For a number of years, Ed mentored West Side high school students from Austin High School in mock trial competitions.

Ed also has served as past president of the NIU College of Law Alumni Board. And throughout his career, he’s written and published scholarly articles on the law, and received many awards – I am particularly proud, and I know Ed is, too, of his efforts to protect First Amendment student-press rights at NIU and elsewhere.

Ed has lived in Bucktown for the past 20 years. Ed and Liam married in 2014. (Judge Flood presided. Always acknowledge the Judge!) August 31 will be Ed and Liam’s 9th wedding anniversary, and they’ve been together even longer than that.

And that reminds me that this moment today carries additional meaning. Another sort of promise. 

June is Pride month for the LGBTQ community – and for those who love us. It’s not to be taken lightly that Ed’s swearing in occurs in June. Just as it’s not to be taken lightly that gains in Justice – for the LGBTQ community … for any of us – are not eternally guaranteed and ensured forever. Democracy demands much from We, The People – and vigilance is just one such demand.

And so, today marks the beginning of a new chapter in Ed Underhill’s life. A chapter that demands an even deeper commitment to Justice. What will that take? Legal knowledge and expertise, yes. Integrity, yes. Compassion, yes. And grace, too.

So, this chapter in your life, Ed, is filled with meaning and immense, new responsibilities in which your decisions will affect the lives of thousands – as well as the fundamental building blocks of society: law and order, opportunity and equity, and fairness.

I know I speak for every one of us when I say, Congratulations, Ed. We’re proud of you.

Never forget this moment – and the promise you make here in this Court. 

The people of Cook County are lucky to have a public servant like you.

We love you.

How to Decorate: A Guide to Creating Comfortable, Stylish Living Spaces

The Best of Martha Stewart Living

Taste – You know what I love about Martha Stewart’s approach to decorating? She creates spaces that are “inviting, warm, and useful.” So many designed and decorated homes always look and feel un-lived in. Stewart’s always look and feel cozy. Of course, that’s all a matter of taste … and to a large extent, as Stewart herself acknowledges, money.

Deep Focus

Robert N. Georgalas

Page-Turning Fun – Nick Borelengio is a fixer who in the summer of 1951 is hired to bodyguard screen siren Anita Holland while her new movie is being filmed in New York City. Hollywood meets New York, and sparks fly. An entertaining read, which also lovingly depicts New York life as a new era begins.

Dear Papa: The Letters of Patrick and Ernest Hemingway

Edited by Brendan Hemingway and Stephen Adams

The True Gen – I have an inexhaustible appetite for all things Hemingway and loved devouring this collection which illuminates Hemingway’s life as a father. Ernest and Patrick, the middle of his three children, shared many passions, from football to boxing to Big Game hunting. Once you set aside the larger-than-life persona, you see Hemingway as complex, as flawed, as any other human. In this intimate exchange of letters we are treated to a tender, loving Papa you seldom find elsewhere.

Saul Bellow: Letters

Edited by Benjamin Taylor

Unexpected – In reading this collection I was surprised mostly by Bellow’s sense of humor. For some reason – perhaps the Nobel Prize? or his connection to the solemn grayness that, for me, is the University of Chicago? – I expected Bellow’s letters to be serious and self-important, with wit, yes, but devoid of even the hint of silliness. Surprise. All of that likely is because I haven’t read Bellow’s novels; I know the stories about Bellow, but I don’t know Bellow’s stories. So – onto the novels. 

101 Things I Learned in Architecture School

Matthew Frederick

Transferable Knowledge – To live in Chicago is to live among architectural treasures. Our town’s buildings offer history and lessons and beauty in every neighborhood and, downtown, on every block. So, it’s easy to develop strong tastes about architecture here without ever having studied architecture. Matthew Frederick’s book helped me understand a bit more deeply the “how” and “why” of architecture – how architectural decisions lead to certain feelings, why some architectural choices appeal to me more than others. Frederick’s easy-to-digest book also offers helpful lessons for writers, proving that much knowledge is transferable from one artistic discipline to another. For example, Louis Sullivan’s quote, “A proper building grows naturally, logically, and poetically out of all its conditions,” applies equally to writing poems, stories, and plays. “All design endeavors express the zeitgeist.” Indeed. And Frederick’s thoughts on the three levels of knowing – simplicity, complexity, informed simplicity – are especially useful for a minimalist writer to consider. So, this book could alternatively be titled, “101 Things Architecture Teaches Us About Writing.”

Starstruck: How I Magically Transformed Chicago into Hollywood for More Than Fifty Years

Michael Kutza

My Kind of Tinseltown – Michael Kutza founded the Chicago International Film Fest in 1964 and, as they say, the rest is history. Here’s Michael’s memoir of his 50-plus years running the festival, rubbing elbows with stars from Sophia Loren to Spike Lee. The book includes ample photos and dishy stories.

 AROUND TOWN: Literary High Life

Stories are how we make sense of life — and our town has a rich literary past, present and future.

Chicago Literary Hall of Fame celebrates it all. Robert Charles and I were thrilled to participate in the organization’s February 2023 party, “The House on Margarita Street.” Hosted by Rita Dragonette at her Streeterville home, the evening featured acclaimed bartender Ryan Prindle, who generously answered questions, offered tips, and shared some cocktail history as he concocted and served three refreshing beverages.

The drinks were inspired by the stories of literary giants Luis Alberto Urrea, Fanny Butcher, and Ernest Hemingway. Donald G. Evans, founder of the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame, got us organized. Kathy Wolter Mondelli and Ryan’s wife, Liz, helped with a couple of the brief literary readings. Michelle E. Moore, accompanied by her usual arm candy, Mark Weissburg, offered some impromptu reflections on Fanny Butcher’s contributions to the world of literature. Robert Charles capped the night with a few magical treats.

“The House on Margarita Street” was our first in-person party after two virtual cocktail parties, “Absinthe Makes the Heart Grow Fonder” in 2021 and “The Martini Chronicles” in 2022. 

What’s up next? Stay tuned.

Last Summer on State Street

Toya Wolfe

1999 – Here is a gripping, powerful story that takes place in a long, hot summer at the end of the 20^th century, a time when the Robert Taylor Homes on Chicago’s South Side are being torn down and “Fe Fe” Stevens is growing up. A time when Fe Fe and her friends, Precious and Stacia, are jumping rope, navigating their young lives in and around 4950 South State Street, and trying to befriend a stranger named Tonya. A time when Fe Fe’s Mother desperately strives to protect Fe Fe and her older brother, Meechie. 

The novel, deeply rooted in reality, is a real page-turner.

Making Movies

Sidney Lumet

Action! – This book on the motion picture director’s craft doubles as an excellent book on the fiction writer’s craft. Among the questions raised and lessons loved:

• On “style” – Lumet argues form follows function, in movies as in architecture (Louis Sullivan’s great axiom). Surely the same holds true for crafting fiction?
• Lumet says one of his first steps as a director is to truly understand the scriptwriter’s intention. Do you have an intention before you begin writing, or do you discover what you want to say as you conjure people and their stories?
• During rehearsals of “Long Day’s Journey Into Night,” Ralph Richardson asked a simple question. Lumet spent 45 minutes answering. Sir Richardson then paused a moment and sonorously said, “I see what you mean, dear boy: a little more cello, a little less flute.”
• Motion pictures are made by a series of still images filmed and viewed at 24 frames per second. So far, I’ve heard this math three times in the past month – described in “The Fablemans,” “Empire of Light,” and here.
• To depict a sense of a room “closing in” on the jurors in “12 Angry Men,” Lumet filmed the start of the movie with a normal range camera lens (28mm to 40mm), then shifted to 50mm, 75mm, and 100mm lenses over the course of the picture. In addition, he shifted from shooting above eye level to shooting at eye level to shooting below eye level as the movie progressed. The final shot, an exterior showing the jurors leaving the courthouse, was made with a wide-angle lens and the camera was moved to the highest above-eye-level position. Writers don’t use cameras and lenses, but we do use point of view and sentence rhythm to manipulate our scenes. Among our tools: first-person narration, second-person, third-person omniscient, third-person limited, third-person objective; and word choice, grammar, and syntax (simple, compound, complex, compound-complex sentences).
• Sometimes a director works around the limitations of the technology of his craft. For example, in filming the prolonged monologues in “Dog Day Afternoon” and “Network,” Lumet had to use two cameras and numerous takes because he had to reload cameras with fresh film during takes as the monologues unfolded. How has moving from oral storytelling to paper and pen to typewriters to computers affected fiction writing? How have the technological and digital changes in publishing affected storytelling?
• It’s in the “cutting” room that a director really crafts the film’s “tempo,” seeing how all of the edits work in relation to each other. It’s in the cutting room, too, that the viewer gets closer to a subject, or farther away, or inside. All of these decisions should serve the story you’re telling. Seems to me that “cutting room” is a useful term for fiction writers, too, and a helpful way to approach editing.
• Film is a highly collaborative art. Fiction writing is less so, a largely individual effort though healthy partnerships with copyeditors, editors and publishers are essential. Both rely on feedback from first audiences and first readers.

The Big Sleep

Raymond Chandler

Fatal Flaws? – In a 2014 conversation sponsored by the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco, Joyce Carol Oates spoke on a panel discussing Saul Bellow with Benjamin Taylor and Peter Orner. During questions-and-answers with the audience, Oates was asked how she reconciled Bellow’s and other male writers’ misogyny with her admiration for their writing. “Oh, well,” Oates replied, “if you’re a woman, and a writer and a reader, if you reject all of the misogynist writers, you’re going to have two or three little people here [to read.]” The same holds true for homophobic, anti-Semitic, and racist work. To read these works doesn’t mean we condone these attitudes (even though the writing often historically has been celebrated). Rather, we read these works in context, an “impure” practice, I realize, that for many on the Left is a deal-breaker. However, I believe many of these offending works in classic literature are still well-worth reading and studying, especially when a reflection or discussion afterward can spotlight and wrestle with the book’s flaws. I hadn’t read “The Big Sleep” in close to 40 years and the book is now 84 years old. I had forgotten the novel’s homophobia, which jumped off the page for me like hard slaps in the face. Did these passages offend me now? Yes. Did they turn me off? Nearly. If Chandler were alive today (he died in 1959, about four months before I was born), would he be as homophobic? Possibly, but not likely. Was Chandler a talented writer? Certainly. Should he be read today? Absolutely. Does the homophobia make “The Big Sleep” a “bad” book? No. Should the homophobia in “The Big Sleep” be discussed? That could only help. Like any discussion about any piece of literature, a constructive conversation about the work’s strengths and weaknesses will further illuminate our understanding of the world around us. Not all flaws are fatal even though the prejudice behind such flaws is untenable.

Save the Cat!

The Last Book on Screenwriting That You’ll Ever Need

Blake Snyder

Fade In – An entertaining, practical guide to screenwriting complete with tools, tips, and some lovely jargon new to me: “Save the cat,” “The Pope in the pool,” “Keep the press out,” and more.

 

Women

Photographs by Annie Leibovitz

Essay by Susan Sontag

Metaphor – After studying this collection of 247 portraits by Annie Leibovitz and reading this essay by Susan Sontag, I began wondering whether all women are performance artists. Emerging from societal expectations and existing within the soul-crushing realities of a culture structured against them while still reaching and expanding beyond the confines of communal norms – each woman is a performance artist, and it must be exhausting. The show never ends.

The Source of Self-Regard: Selected Essays, Speeches, and Meditations

Toni Morrison

Wisdom – To read Toni Morrison is to swim in the fierce tides of her intellect and total command of language. A few excerpts:

“Certain kinds of trauma visited on peoples are so deep, so cruel, that unlike money, unlike vengeance, even unlike justice, or rights, or the goodwill of others, only writers can translate such trauma and turn sorrow into meaning, sharpening the moral imagination … A writer’s life and work are not a gift to mankind; they are its necessity.”

 

 “Do we really mean that the world is the poorer because too few appreciate the finer things? Suppose we did live in a world in which people chatted about Descartes and Kant and Lichtenstein in McDonald’s. Suppose Twelfth Night was on the best-seller list. Would we be happy? Or would we decide that since everybody appreciates it, maybe it wasn’t any good?”

 

 “Literature refuses and disrupts passive or controlled consumption of the spectacle designed to nationalize identity in order to sell us products. Literature allows us – no, demands of us – the experience of ourselves as multidimensional persons.”

 From Toni Morrison’s Nobel Prize lecture: “Oppressive language does more than represent violence, it is violence; does more than represent the limits of knowledge, it limits knowledge. Whether it is obscuring state language or the faux-language of mindless media; whether it is the proud but calcified language of the academy or the commodity-driven language of science; whether it is the malign language of law without ethics, or language designed for the estrangement of minorities, hiding its racist plunder in its literary cheek – it must be rejected, altered, and exposed.”

 

From Toni Morrison’s eulogy for James Baldwin: “I never heard a single command from you, yet the demands you made on me, the challenges you issued to me were nevertheless unmistakable if unenforced: that I work and think at the top of my form; that I stand on moral ground but know that ground must be shored up by mercy; that ‘the world is before [me] and [I] need not to take it or leave it as it was when [I ]came in.’”

 

Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty

Anderson Cooper and Katherine Howe

How the Mighty Have Fallen – Aubrey McClendon and Chesapeake. Richard Fuld and Lehman. Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos. Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX. Elon Musk and Twitter? For me, the rise-and-fall stories of U.S. business leaders makes for fascinating reading perhaps because in the Triumphant Age of Capitalism no one comes closer to the tragic Kings and Queens Shakespeare wrote about in so many plays than the celebrated CEO. Greed. Revenge. Hubris. Shakespeare would’ve loved reading the news pages of today’s Wall Street Journal. “Vanderbilt” tells the story of an early “commercial king” in US history and the subsequent squandering of a once-great fortune by succeeding generations, which, as is so often the case, fail to truly succeed.

Haunted Houses, Porn Stars & Toy Collectors: My Encounters with Remarkable Places, People and Things

Richard Knight, Jr.

Rollercoaster – This rollicking collection of non-fiction by Richard Knight, Jr.– articles and interviews originally published in the Chicago Tribune, the Reader, NewCity, and elsewhere – captures a time, place and slice of life (what is sometimes called, “counterculture”) that makes for a rollercoaster ride of laughter and tears. The time is the 1990s and early 2000s. The place is Chicago. And the lives include a cross-section of people: gay Square dancers, shopping mall pianists, Drag Queens, strippers, ambulance drivers, S&M masters, and more. Along the way, Richard pioneers a style of writing, the “eyewitness chronicle,” which provides a minute-by-minute account of what’s happening to place you solidly in the moment. A must-read.

There Are Places in the World Where Rules are Less Important than Kindness: And Other Thoughts on Physics, Philosophy, and the World

Carlo Rovelli

Making Sense of it All – One of the great teachers I’ve had is Carlo Rovelli, the Italian theoretical physicist who has a lucrative side hustle writing international bestsellers showcasing his wondering, wandering essays. While I’ve never studied in his classroom or even heard him lecture, I have thoroughly enjoyed devouring Rovelli’s reflections on Einstein, Darwin and Marie Curie, and Lucretius, Dante and Churchill – and everyone in-between. Rovelli is particularly insightful when it comes to turning points, or “scientific revolutions,” when new knowledge or new mysteries cause us to abandon old theories. His enthusiasm and utter joy for exploring such disruptions is infectious. He’s also at the top of his game when wrestling with a great paradox, for example: Bruno de Finetti’s thoughts on uncertainty and reliability. Many of these essays were written for newspapers. All were written for lay audiences, non-scientists like me. Each carries a powerful life lesson.

AROUND TOWN: Lewis Black and Kurt Vonnegut

Robert Charles, Joe Wade, Jeff Osman (aka Oz), and I thoroughly enjoyed ourselves on a late-October evening at the Cliff Dwellers chatting with comedian/truth-teller Lewis Black, who also serves as the Board chair of the new Vonnegut Museum and Library in Indianapolis. Black, interviewed later that evening by free speech advocate Sophie Maurer, was funny, fiery and moving. (I asked Lewis before the program if he’d like a refreshing beverage. “No,” he replied, “Not before. Otherwise, the anger is real.”) To prepare for the evening, Joe Wade and I read “God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater,” an early Vonnegut offering and one of his best.

Time for Socialism: Dispatches from a World on Fire, 2016-2021

Thomas Piketty

It’s Not Just the Economy, Stupid – French economist Thomas Piketty is one of the world’s leading authorities on inequality and globalism. Hyper-capitalism and staggering inequality have led him, over the past 30 years, to think beyond capitalism to “a new form of socialism, participative and decentralized, federal and democratic, ecological, multiracial, and feminist.” In this collection of newspaper columns, published mostly in Le Monde between 2016-2021, Piketty examines debt and debt cancellation, taxation, growth, productivity, inflation, wealth, and property. But he examines them through the lens of history and politics, which means he’s examining economic systems shaped largely by colonialism, racism, patriarchy, and climate denial – to use a single word, reality. All of these forces are inextricably linked. They must be acknowledged – and addressed – to do anything about economic inequality.

AROUND TOWN: Legacy Project’s Work – Help Kids Grow Up Feeling Safe, Loved and Accepted for All of Who They Are

 It’s difficult to convey just how important this is. But, thanks to the support of so many friends, Legacy Project has been able to create prototypes of the educational curriculum materials that schools, in Illinois and across the country, will be able to use to help students learn about LGBTQ+ history. At a time when Republicans are vilifying LGBTQ+ people – at a time when LGBTQ+ people are literally under attack – it’s essential that this history, our history, is preserved and promoted and understood rather than ignored, suppressed, or erased.

 The artwork in the new materials is by David Lee Csicsko. Design and product development is by Mercedes Santos and Theresa Volpe.

 So, with the greatest love and eternal gratitude, Robert Charles and I offer thanks again to the people who made this stage of the work possible: Shannon Hunt-Scott, Christopher Chantson, Bela Mote, Randall Albers, Sonya Anderson, Robin Tuthill, Phil Dabney, Lorry Luscri, Susy Schultz, Dennis Spaeth, Sharyl Holtzman, John Tschoe, Thom Clark, Sheila Black Haennicke, Randy Richardson, Mary Nell Murphy, Mary Ann Dewan, Sharyl Fortin, Mark Weissburg, Bill Hale, Gail Gabler, Elizabeth Ward, Susan Strong-Dowd, Nancy Shier, Michelle E. Moore, David Razowsky, Nancy Kilcoyne Maruyama, Teppi Dachman Jacobsen, Robin LeForge, Andy Wade, Julia Borcherts, Tracye Fortin, Anita Victorn, and Behnam Riahi. You are amazing!

 Legacy Project, run by Victor Salvo and based in Chicago, uses the innovative Legacy Walk and Legacy Wall to help make this history more visible. To learn more about Legacy Project’s work, visit: https://legacyprojectchicago.org/

 

 

Pentimento

Lillian Hellman

What Was There for Me Once, What Is There for Me Now – Sometime in the 1980s I fell in love with Lillian Hellman. The plays. The essays. I began reading everything I could by and about Lillian Hellman. Her work – “The Children’s Hour,” “The Little Foxes,” “Toys in the Attic,” “Scoundrel Time,” “Pentimento,” and so on. Her relationship with Dashiell Hammett. Her friendship with Dorothy Parker. Her feud with Mary McCarthy. Her bravery during the House Committee on Un-American Activities hearings. And, then, the accusations of lies and fabrications. And, finally, her last book, “Maybe,” which only raised more questions. So, it was a delight, now nearly 40 years later, to find “Pentimento” among the stacks at Ravenswood Used Books, and to dive back in. It’s all here. The boozy stories, the bawdy tales, Hammett, theater, Julia, and that ultimate survivor, a turtle on Martha’s Vineyard. Given the accusations that still haunt Hellman’s veracity, is it worthwhile to read this book today? I can answer that by recalling Hellman’s own words from the preface: “The paint has aged now and I wanted to see what was there for me once, what is there for me now.” What’s there now for me? The pleasure of Lillian Hellman’s writing – how she tells her stories.