a fortunate age. joanna smith rakoff. (300)

i picked up a fortunate age after reading smith-rakoff's blurb on the back of emma forrest's your voice in my head.  it sounded like a book i would be interested, twentysomething trying to make life happen in nyc.  in fact, i was shocked that the work didn't make it onto flavorpill's list of books to fill your the 'girls'-shaped hole in your life.  it seemed like it was girls but in the nineties.  however, after reading the book, i discovered why it was probably off of the list, this work is simply mary mccartney's the group (which was on the list) but with the characters' names changed and set in the nineties.  it was such total plagiarism that i had to give it a one star on goodreads and wrote this review:

Rakoff more like ripoff!  I had deja vu the entire time I read this novel, I felt like I had read it before and in fact, I had.  Instead of reading this, you should just read Mary McCarthy's "The Group".  This book is an "homage" to it but really, she just took McCarthy's novel and changed the character's names and the decade to the 90's.  The whole time I was reading, I kept wondering how this book was ever published, I mean it should be illegal to copy another author's like Smith Rakoff did.

i mean i get that authors will allude to other works or do retellings, even fan-fiction is fine since you are simply taking character's names but writing your own work, but what smith rakoff was just plain copying.  i mean how did her publisher and editor let this book see the light of day?  were they just banking on the fact that the group is kind of dated and current readers have never read it?  i mean i will say that most of the goodreads reviews either didn't mention the group, or admitted to never reading it.  but still, i can't believe that this book was allowed to be published.

in addition to that, i can't help now but i think of smith rakoff has a coattail writer.  last year, she came out with a book about your time with j.d. salinger, which i was tempted to read, but didn't since he was a recluse.  but it seemed like she used his name to sell her book, i mean it was called my salinger year.  and after reading this, i can't help but accuse her of stealing from mccarthy.

but seriously just read the group, instead of this.  i hate to waste so much time on this novel, but have to call out this copycat.

lily and tuck were kay and harald.  both kay and lily's wedding opened the book, as their deaths closed it.  just like kay, lily became the breadwinner, and just like harald, tuck, was a horrible husband.  tuck cheated on caitlin, a character that was exactly like norine, the girl that harald cheated with.  i even think caitlin's justifications for tuck's cheating were the same ones that norine used.  just like harald, tuck had kay committed must like lily, and both claimed their wives were hysteric.  the only difference was that kay may have committed suicide while lily died from the flu.  however, both husbands were  unwelcome guest at the funerals.  i also have to add both husbands were arrested after involvement in a protest that took place in a hotel.

beth was dottie.  both had a sex adventure at the  beginning of their story.  where as dottie lost her virginity, beth just had some weird sex.  though beth ended up marrying the person she had sex with, just like dottie, she had second thoughts about her marriage.  both women worried about still being in love with her first love (for dottie this was the man she lost her virginity too.) both women had close relationships with their mother and got advice from their moms on this matter.

emily was polly, both were the poor ones of the group and have a family history of mental illness.  they both have affairs with married men who are separated from their wives.  however, these men's wives still have power over them, in original gus' wife had him see a psychoanalyst while curtis' wife made him join AA, in the end, both men return to their wives.  just like polly's dad who suffered from mental illness went to live with polly, emily's sister who suffered from mental illness went to live with emily.  everything is fine and dandy when they move in, i even think polly's dad, like emily's sister help make improvements around their apartment.  both become socialist/communist, and started to be a financial drain.  however, emily and polly both end up marrying doctor's they meet due to this drain on money, polly married the doctor she met donating blood, emily married a doctor that helped her when she got injured as her second job (this doctor she had met previously when trying to get help for her sister.)

sadie was a blend of priss and helena.  she was helena because both discovered about their best friend's affair.  she was priss, because she struggled with motherhood, though while priss struggled to get her baby to breastfeed, sadie couldn't get her son to stop.

and caitlin is norine, both had affairs with married men and then justified it with politics.  they also both end up divorcing their husbands then remarrying rich jews.  both show up and make a sense at the funerals of the women whose husbands they slept with.

tal was lakey.  the one that everyone was in love with, and just like lakey spent most of the novel, aboard.  i kept on expecting tal to come out in the end just like lakey did, showing up at the funeral with her lesbian lover.  but i guess smith rakoff figure to cut back on some of the copying.

don't know who dave was, but i mean smith rakoff needed to have one character of her own.

ps i also didn't like how lightly she treated 9/11.  i mean the fact that she mentioned it in emily's storyline explaining that her sister came in two days after that seemed odd to me.  i also wonder if travel to nyc was stopped due to 9/11 and if so, then she should have had emily's sister come in a different time.  

the group. mary mccarthy. (213)

mary mccarthy's the group was listed as one of the books to fill the girls-shaped void in your life.  the cover (different from the one i read) had a blurb from sex and the city author candace bushnell, which i found a little silly since the group was written back in the 1950s.  however, i learned via wikipedia that an editior had suggested that bushnell write an updated version of the group which became sex and the city.

sex and the city is very reminiscent of the group.  unfortunately, with all the progress that women have made, we are still fighting the same battles as the generations before us.  one likes to think that our mothers can not understand what we face today but in fact they faced the exact same issues (this was demonstrated in the novel with dottie and her mother.)

the group is set in the 30's and follows the lives of a group of women, kay, dottie, helena, norine, libby, priss, polly, pokey and lakey, who became friends while at vassar college.  the novel spans 10 years of their lives, opening with their attendance of kay's wedding and sadly ending with her funeral.  throughout the ten years, they encounter all sorts of issues related to love, family, career, and sex, and as mentioned before the issues are not outdated and are still relevant today.

before i go on, i want to clarify that the group is #richwhitepeopleproblems, which is it is clearly aware of.  the characters are aware that they have money which results in very different experiences from most people. there is an attempt to have a poor character, polly, her being on scholarship was always mentioned, but her family used to be wealthy, so she doesn't really count.  she did donate blood for money but the fact that she was able to get a line of credit, demonstrated that she wasn't that badly off.  this critique can also be made of sex and the city and it was made about girls.  however, as i have defended girls in the past, some female issues transcend class and i, as a women, have always been able to identify though i am a women of color and poor.

the first issue that made me laugh due to it's relevance to today was dick's talk with dottie about sex and love.  dottie, a virgin, was warned by dick brown, the man who she lost her virginity to not fall in love with him, because women always do.  it made me laugh to read it because times have not changed because this myth is still around today.  i was virgin when i entered college and it seemed like every guy i ever hooked up and that i considered losing my virginity to, always seemed hesitant because they didn't want me to fall in love with them.  looking back there are two of them i am glad i didn't lose my virginity to either one of them. one of those two i did eventually sleep with and for the record there was nothing he did that would result in my loving him forever.  lol.  and for the record, i did not fall in love with the man that i lose my virginity to.  he is a swell guy (all of a sudden i'm from the 30's too) and interesting, and am glad i lost my virginity to him but i did not fall madly in love with him because of this act.  so there goes that.  we, women need to put an end to this myth!  i mean in the end, dottie did reveal that she loved dick, but she wasn't in love with dick brown but the idea of dick brown and that is something i am guilty of doing.  i spent the greater part of my twenties in love with someone but realizing now that i wasn't in love with the true him but this ideal him i had created in my head.  women turning men into myth is not a myth but we, women, always falling in love with our virginity takers is a bunch of bs.

the other thing that i found interesting from dottie and dick's relationship was how birth control was capable of implying so much about a relationship.  it was shocking to see how kay's husband, harald, explained how dick's requesting and keeping her diaphragm at his home could define their relationship status.  it is ridiculous that dottie was fitted and everything yet she couldn't store her diaphragm in her own home for fear of it being found by a roommate.  it was also crazy to consider how when people were infidel, their lover usually stored the diaphgram at his home.  imagine having a man in control of something so personal.  thank god today women can hold onto their own birth control, i can't imagine living in an era in which a man would be responsible for something that i use to regulate my body, oh wait, i take that back, because birth control is still an issue for women today.  (see:  hobby lobby)  but it is nice that we can keep our birth control in our homes, bathrooms and purses.  and it is progress that we women can hold condoms in our purse, no need relying on the man to ensure safe sex, we can do it ourselves!

another issue that the group covered was breastfeeding. when priss was in the hospital with her son, she had to deal with the her husband who wanted her to breastfeed and the hospital that wanted to give the baby formula.  priss' husband, a pediatrician, explained the reasons for the baby being breastfeed and he was right, the baby was putting weight on at a good rate.  also it would be good for his immune system.  however, the hospital wanted to put the baby on formula because he wasn't sleeping through the night and waking up hungry and thus disrupting the maternity ward.  poor, yet weak, priss feeling pressure from the doctor and nurses ended up giving her son formula.  i found myself frustrated for priss not having a backbone, but i mean hospitals are intimidating.  i'm always lost with hospital jargon and usually just go with what the doctor says because it's less confusing that way.  so i can sympathize with priss there.  however,  i for one plan on breastfeeding my child, i don't know if its the generation i am apart of it but i can't imagine giving my child, formula.  i don't have children so i'm not sure what the world's stance is on breastfeeding, i mean it should be widely accepted right?  though formula companies are still in business.  the current issue we have is people being upset about women breastfeeding in public.  this is the current hot item when it comes to breastfeeding, but i think most people agree it should be done, just in private.  i also want to add that i will allow my child to cry because as my grandma always told us, it's good for their lungs.  grandma bea would have agreed with priss' husband on that one!

last but not least it was great to see a lesbian in the story and of all people, lakey!  the most glamorous of them all.  and kudos to her for finding herself a lover and staying abroad so that she could live the life that she wanted without judgement.  i was not expecting her to be a lesbian but it was a nice surprise.  it was also nice to see the group not being too judgmental and treating lakey and her partner like any other couple.

aside the women issues that were covered, it was a interesting read just in terms of drama.  we, women, like to fill our life with drama, that is not a myth!  though it isn't gender exclusive, my friend peter, is a shining example of a male that loves drama.  lol  (i doubt he reads my blog but if he does, sorry.)  but there was drama in this book.  i for one, could not stand nordine!  i can not believe that she slept with kay's husband?!?!? and her justification for it was ridiculous!  i also couldn't believe the psychiatrist's explanation that her husband's impotency was because he could only get it up for "fallen women".  and as much as i was upset with nordine for sleeping with harald, i can't believe that helen didn't say anything.  what a bad friend!  if someone was cheating on me, i would want my friend to tell me!

also before i go on, i have to address the psychoanalysis mentioned in the novel.  i am all for people seeing a psychologist because mental health is important. however, it was a different beast back then.  it was disgusting to see how nordine used it to justify her affair.  and polly's lover's estranged wife used it to manipulate him back into a relationship.  also it was shocking to read how the girls stopped polly from marrying a boy because his family had a history of mental illness since her father was bipolar and they were worried due to that.  i mean its nice that they were so considerate but it seems odd for that to be an issue.  sex and the city did touch on this when carrie dated her high school sweetheart (played by david duchvony) while he was in a psych ward, but i feel back then you were considered ill for the lost ridiculous reasons (see:  girl, interrupted.)  though i will add i know someone that was dating someone who had an episode with mental illness and i advised against them dating unless he got help.  so yeah i guess i don't know, maybe the girls were right.

back to the novel, the group is timeless and a must read for women of all ages, though probably best to be read in your twenties.  however, it is filled with experience and lessons that are relevant at any age.

and as for filling my girls' void i couldn't imagine hannah in this world because she is too neruotic, maybe she would be nordine. lol  but marnie and shosh would definitely be comfortable in this world.  oh and jessa would definitely be lakey.  

how should a person be? sheila heti. (187)

i can't recall how i came across how should a person be? by sheila heti.  i thought it was via lena dunham's instagram but when i went to look for it, i did not see it there.  however, i know that i read this because of lena just not sure where i read her endorsement.  i did google "lena dunham how should a person be?" and articles about lena and sheila being friends came up, so i didn't make up this connection. (correction made 5.7.14:  ha!  just saw that i found out about this book because it was on flavorpill's 10 books that will fill

the girls-shaped hole in your life article for season 1.  so yeah this is now i discovered this novel.)

i will admit that i was also excited because of the miranda july blurb on the front.  i had high expectations for this book, especially with its description as "a novel from life".  life is one of my favorite nouns, i'm always "sorting out life", "figuring out life", "getting life" together, so "a novel from life" had to be interesting.

and interesting it was, amazing, not so much.  i am not familiar with heti or her life, but this book read just as though it was her life.  i mean from the viewpoint of the writer, it is quite daring, to just record your life via a tape player and then let the world read about the personal lives of you and your friends. as an expression of the self, i find it quite beautiful and artistic.  however, from the viewpoint of the reader, i can't help but feel cheated.  its quite narcissistic and lazy of heti to just use your life so blatantly.  i know, i know, author's use their lives as the basis for their works, which makes sense, however, this was too direct.  i like to be able to read between the lines instead of having it all put out in the open like this.  but again i have to say kudos to heti for her honesty.

the novel as the title suggest is about how should a person be? though specifically it's about how heti should be.  its hard to apply this work to yourself, unless you are a) a writer or another form of artist or b) hang out with a bunch of artists.  this is why miranda july's blurb is true for her, but random person on goodreads who bitched about july's blurb couldn't relate.  i am neither though i do appreciate art and go to museums and galleries, i never have to question who am i and what am i trying to project into the world via my art.  i mean as general question of life, yes i do ask myself (minus via my art), but in the specific way that heti was addressing these questions in her book, i became bored.  i am sure that i could have taken the discussion between margaux and heti about their expressions of their selves in their art and applied it to my life but that required too much thinking.  i mean i am sure the struggle is real for artist, but i felt like just create your art and who gives a damn about how it is perceived.  i am not an artist so this might just sound mean but i was tired of the bitching especially when heti did all she could to avoid writing her play.  then she created this novel based on margaux's encouragement and allowance to use her words in a work, which kind of felt like a cop-out.  really heti couldn't put a play together?

heti is a great writer, i just wasn't interested in her life so directly.  i mean there were some hilarious parts.  for example, "we live in an age of some really great blow-job artists.  every era has its arts form." i also enjoyed the eavesdropping of the girls as at the deli, "what is american cheese anyway? i heard of them say.  her friend replied, 'i think it means there is a chemical in it." and "he was in the tech industry, and she once told me that the had asperger's syndrome.  then she reassured me that silicon valley boys aren't so bad to sleep with because they've read all the manuals." i am now tempted to sleep with some silicon valley boys. and "we tried not to smile, for smiling only encourages men to bore you and waste your time." we have all been there when at bars.

and i must admit there was some beauty:

in their quest for a life without failure, suffering, or doubt, that is what they achieve:  a life empty of all those things that make a human life meaningful.

but for the most part, it was just about heti's insecurities.  to a certain extend it was just girls season 3.  heti and hannah are pretty much on in the same.  in girls, adam plays the part of margaux.  they are both writers struggling with their art from while in a relationship with an successful artist which results in issues in their relationship.  but whereas i could enjoyed this season of girls because there were other characters distract me from hannah's narcissism, there wasn't anyone interesting in heti's novel.  the friend suffering from depression after the ugly painting contest (really?), the hair salon (seriously she felt that deep of a calling there?!?!),  and the asshole she hooked up with (i know sex can be amazing but was his really worth the verbal abuse?!?!?!).  okay i can admit i was a bit intrigued by the asshole, not because of the sex, but because i was in disbelief of the way he talked to her.  i will also add the dinner party discussion about the men going to africa was great.  that is how i feel about bono being in africa and all of his projects.  it's like really bono you have millions and millions of dollars and you are asking me to donate money for a cause so you can feel better about yourself?

maybe i just wasn't in the right head space for this, though i am just as lost as heti is about how a person should be.  in the end though i feel like the she did watching the handball match.  here i though this novel was going to stand for something like the match, but in the end, just like they didn't know what they were playing, heti didn't really know what she was writing.   (that sounds so harsh but really, this book should have just been a blog, one more time, the honesty of it was beautiful, but in the end, i really wasn't that interested in her life.)

foxfire: confessions of a girl gang. joyce carol oates. (186)

i picked up foxfire after i discovered that joyce carol oates was giving a talk at the new york public library during my trip.  i decided to read it in preparation for her talk.  i chose this one out of her catalog because it was also listed on flavorpill's list of books to fill the girls void in your life.  they wrote:

This novel — the tale of a riotous 50′s girl gang in Upstate New York led by “Legs” Sadovsky – won’t exactly approximate the world of Girls, but if we know anything about Hannah, it probably reflects some corner of her secret fantasies (we know it reflects a few of ours). Not to mention the book’s portrayals of young female friendships and bonding — they may be outlaws, they may get in trouble, but these girls love each other.

as seen in the above description foxfire is about a girl gang set in the 50's and i have to admit that due to the time period i difficulty visualizing the setting for the book.  my mind kept on visualizing the time period as the 70's.  i think of the 50's as such a wholesome era even though it probably wasn't, certainly not in this book.  i then started to visualize the setting of girl, interrupted once legs went into red bank correctional facility for girls.  i then also started to see angelina jolie as lisa from girl, interrupted as legs.  you have to agree with me that jolie would have been perfect as her for if there was a movie adaption of foxfire. (omg!!!! i just googled and discovered on the foxfire wikipedia page that a movie was made in 1996 and guess who played legs?!?!?!? angelina jolie!!!!!!!  lol, i swear to god i had no idea that this movie existed when i read this book and made the above comment!)  (also i just looked and the trailer for the jolie film set place in the 90s, but there was another film that i just saw the trailer for that was made in 2012 that looks like a better adaption of the book.)

back to the novel, so living in a gang-infested community, resulted in my disapproval of foxfire.  i understand how gangs are created by individuals from broken homes in attempt to have a family.  gangs are where they find the love they lack, but the violence and crime that are a result of gangs is inexcusable.  

i was quite frightened of foxfire toward the end.  the petty crimes that foxfire started off with, painting that pervert teacher's car and protesting the animal store were invigorating to read about especially since they were girls with limited rights and voices, yet here they were standing up against injustice.  oates created such great imagery for their antics.  i imaged the girls in cat and dog masks ala breakfast at tiffany's protesting outside of the pet store.  i also enjoyed the scene at the train tracks with the painted car.  i have admit that based on these acts, teenage me would have wanted to join foxfire but everything beyond that was too extreme for me. 

i, like maddy, would have bailed.  the turning point for me was when they attacked maddy's uncle, yes he deserved it, but the wildness that occurred as they beat him was frightening.  up until then everything seemed like a fair punishment but their beating of him went too far.  i mean he did deserve it, trying to molest his niece, but i think the lost of self and mob mentality is what scared me. all the other crimes that followed pushed me into the adult category of the book, i started to view foxfire as hoodlums.

before i go on, i have to add that oates created some serious twist and turns in this book.  there were times that i was reading and was like omg!  i can't believe this is going on or what the f***!?!?!  the story was definitely entertaining and intriguing though i wasn't 100% on foxfire's side.

though i must admit that hoodlum an extreme term for legs.  she was definitely a diamond in the rough.  she was a good kid born into a poor situation, as demonstrated in father's story of her birth.  legs was truly unwanted, which given this background sheds light on her wanting to create the foxfire commune and care for her half-sister.  this side of legs makes it difficult to paint her as a harden criminal.  she was very generous as giving what money (regardless of where it came from) to others.  she was compassionate, not being racist towards blacks and befriending the ex-priest.  her heart was in the right place, but due to her lack of proper upbringing she went about things the wrong way.

for example, the hooking, though in a certain light a great means of exploiting men who exploit women, however, it was extremely dangerous.  the girls were lucky that majority of their hooking did not end up like maddie's.  as a female, it was great to see the girls turning the tables on the men that they hooked but being a watcher of "law and order: svu", i only thought of how those hooking attempts could have gone wrong.  even the idea of the foxfire homestead ,which can be seen as the girls finally creating the type of home they never had, is an example of legs' good intentions that were not execute according to plan.  (which is something we will see again and on a larger scale.) as a youth, its a great dream to live with your best friends, i mean college was a blast for me,  however, all i could think as i read that legs was going to turn into charles manson, which she kind of did.  my hippie tendencies causes me to think communes can be lovely places, however, logic tells me that it is one step away from helter skelter.

in the end, legs turned into a crazed cult leader, overwhelmed by a desire for money and to an extend power, she ended up making a stupid (for lack of a better adjective) plan.  in an attempt to get money, legs decided to kidnap and hold for ransom the rich father of her friend, a good christian girl that she met through a program at the correction facility.  they kidnap him and hold him for ransom but due to his faith in god (believe it or not) he does not succumb to fear and thus the girls do not get their money. in the end, a reckless error made by a young girl (in the end they are all just children) shot him, foiling their ransom plan.  due to this, legs becoming a fugitive, some believed she survived though she is claimed to be dead.

foxfire was a very entertaining read, but not necessarily my cup of tea.  maybe it's because i am just too much of a goodie too shoes because unlike flavorpill, i was more appalled than secretly wishing i could be apart of foxfire.  it was sad to see legs end up the way she did.  i did admire her free-spirit and grab life by the balls mentality, but in the end, she turned into a monster.  as a female, i was disappointed to see legs go out like that.  shouldn't we, girls, be allowed to be as reckless as the boys yet still have a place for us in society? though i must admit that legs ending had to be just as mysterious as she was, i mean, i can't imagine her in some 9 to 5 functioning like a proper societal women.  in my eyes, she was in that photo for cuba.  i mean that ending makes the most sense.  legs still inspiring hope for the girls of foxfire.

ps for those of you who are wondering, i did not see joyce carol oates when i was in nyc.  i decided to try to win lotto tickets for kinky boots instead, which i did win!

bad behavior: stories. mary gaitskill. (164)

bad behavior was originally on my to-read list because flavorpill told me that it would fill the girls-hole in my heart after season 1 was over.  but something else caused me to add it to my library list.  as i read i thought it was the short story, secretary, i loved the movie so thought maybe i had read on flavorpill it was based on it.  but it turns out after googling it was on flavorpill's list of "50 incredibly tough books for extreme readers".  according to flavorpill:

i think i am pretty tough girl and now i have read a book that proves so.

to start this was an excellent fill for my girls void.  i saw adam in a romantic weekend and an affair, edited.  connection could be written by future marnie about hannah, while other factors would be future hannah on marnie.  maybe shosh would become the prostitute in trying to be, now that she is "deflowered but not devalued".  and jessa's free spirit was in both magdalen and lily in heaven.

the story, secretary, which the movie of the same name was based on was disappointing.  i loved the film with maggie gyllenhaal, and james spader, especially since this movie proved my theory that spader is sinister sexy.  spader is capable of giving you the best sex of your life then kill you once he was done!  what i disliked about the story was the ending.  for once in my life i preferred the hollywood ending, how the secretary and her boss found love in a hopeless place.  it was great how the character in the short story found the strength to stop the abuse but i preferred how her film counterpart found strength in being dominated.  she was a better character in the movie versus the book.

the stories as a whole were interesting.  it made me secretly wish that i had been a prostitute at some point in my life (see: diablo cody's book about her year as a stripper.)  i also recognized my life in her characters.  i sadly fell in love with the asshole in an affair, edited, my asshole was an attorney as well.  he also did not recognize my love for him as anything more than puppy love.  all of her characters that looked back on friendships lost reminded me of my life and how many times i was a bad friend.  i i found connection honest and on pointe about how we perceive friendships.  i had one friendship though fun was filled with arguments in which the dialogue in connection reminded me of, accusations of who used who and who was more selfish.  last but not least the final story heaven left me regretful for my future, worried about how my life will turned out and whether my parents will be disappointed in how i turn out.  i also realized what a great teen i was, i didn't do any drugs or stay out like lily and magdalen.

overall, an excellent read especially for women.  it reminds me of girls on its portrayal of the worse parts of her lives.  i will add that i did discover it on a list from flavorpill of the 20 books every woman should read in her twenties, i was late for that list but still was able to identify with bad behavior. (and yes this last list is part of my reading goal for 2014.)

you don't love me yet. jonathan lethem. (60)

this was one of the books flavorpill recommended to fill the girls' void. flavorpill admitted that it isn't totally "girls" cos it takes place in LA instead of nyc, but the LA was its selling point for me!

i love movies, shows, and books with an LA setting cos i love pointing out landmarks that i have been too. (btw: i give some legit "entourage" and "(500) days of summer" tours around LA). and joanthan lethem did not disappoint.

LA landmarks mentioned:

right of the back, i knew i would enjoy this book because the book opens in a museum and in my head it was the lacma. jeff koons' three ball 50/50 tank is alluded to which can be found in the bcam at lacma. though this is not a direct reference because the book was published in 2007 and the bcam did not open until 2008 but talk about a good prediction!

the happy/sad foot clinic sign on sunset is mentioned as well. it its an oracle for lucinda, she consulted it for directions with life's pressing questions (apparently beck believes in it's power to according to the sign's facebook. yes the sign has a facebook! when i told my friend danny about the mention in the book he told me about the facebook. check it out: www.facebook.com/happyfoot.sadfoot)

restaurants were also mentioned. hugo's restaurant in weho was a destination for its oatmeal fritters. i have been to hugo's for it's pasta mama (as recommended by susan feinger on the best thing i ever ate) but did not know about it's oatmeal fritters and googled and yea the book gave the exact description of that dish. neptune's net in malibu is where the book ends. and a great fish tacos place is mentioned and since this is pre-ricky's fish tacos, i am assuming it is "the best fish tacos in ensenada" on sunset. lastly lucinda has a cuban sandwich at cafe tropical and i've gotten a quick bite from there cos my friend karen lived down the street, they put abuelita in their mochas!  so being a true angelano at heart, i will say lethem did LA well.

the novel is the story of a girl, lucinda, her band and an odd affair she has with this older guy, in the late 90s. i assumed it took place today but one character is using this "new" thing called email and at one party (which i will detail later) people use walkman's instead of ipods.  but i mean life hasn't changed too much in LA so this book was pretty contemporary.

as odd as this may sound, i liked the "art" in the book more than anything else about it. lucinda works at a gallery for her ex, falmouth and he made some great art. he did an installation involving a complaint line. he put up flyers around LA with a hotline number and set up a gallery space where people took calls and accepted complaints.  i was hoping that the number would be real, the back cover had a flyer with a number, which i called but sadly nothing. but still a cool concept, i imagined an exhibit of the complaints.  complaints written up on cards and placed side by side on a museum wall.   the compliant that stood out to me was "nobody told me about aging/moisturizer/death". the complaint line is how lucinda meets carl but we will get to that later.

falmouth's second installation was a silent party called Aparty. so there are parties known as silent discos where attendees wear wireless headphones that are linked to the deejay so everyone is dancing to the same music but an outsider can not hear anything. cool, huh? falmouth's silent party was similar. but since it was back in the 90's, everyone brought walkmans and danced to their own music. i liked this idea more because then you get all kinds of dancing to all kinds of music. and considering this was pre-ipod days in which we can make playlists with a couple of drags and clicks, so that meant people had to make mixed tapes or CDs specifically for the party or could have cheated and used the radio. i like the idea of people moving to their own groove at a party.

the description of the party also captured the essence of hipster/silverlake/echo park parties. how you hear about some thing from a friend of a friend (or an email list) about a gallery opening or a free show and everyone shows up for the free booze. and then it turns into this huge thing with a long line and just chaos.  (i will say i have a pretty good track record in which i somehow magically get into places sans being on a list or standing in line for hours.) so that was a good description of LA-hipster life (not that i'm a hipster.)

the story in a nutshell is that lucinda meets a this older guy (who is really good and giving orgasms) via the compliant line and their conversations and his words become the songs for the band.  there are a bunch of other little side stories like lucinda's most recent ex kidnaps a kangaroo from a zoo, and the band is on the verge of "making it" after playing the silent party.  i think carl the complainer had some interesting theories on love which will be quoted below.  but did it fill my void?  not really, i didn't identify with lucinda like i did with the girls from girls.  but if you love LA and a music geek, i think you would dig this book.  so check it out.  

ps another LA-esque aspect was a radio deejay, Autumnbreast, who is an LA legend who plays all the "it" bands and used to hang with all the great bands of the 70s.  i think he is based upon kroq's rodney on the roq (the studio in the book was in culver city which is where kroq is).

quotations:

i will say that i was gross out by the older guy cos he seemed sloppy and fat versus hot old like dermont mulroney in new girl.  but he did have some great thoughts on love:

"I have this condition called monster eyes.  I find something not to like and it becomes enormous, it becomes the whole world." (how he finds fault with the ones he loves)

"Nostalgia, except it's not just regular nostalgia.  More like nostalgia vu. Longing for longing, instead of for the thing in question."

"'I don't think it counted for that much one way or the other.  We were only one another's astronaunt food.'
'What's astronaut food?'
' You know, stuff in little packets that you keep lying on the shelf.  Everyone has some lying around.  The people you imagine you might be with but you know you never will be.  The people who if you're in a couple but you're a little bored or restless you meet them for  a coffee alot and the other half of your couple isn't thrilled about it.  Or if you're single, they're the people you're keeping on a mental list just so you don't feel like there aren't possibilities.  Friends who are almost more than friends but really, they're just friends.  Astronaut food, bomb shelter provisions.  If you were ever going to have anything with them it would have happened already. Sometimes you even fall in bed with them but it doesn't count for much.  It's always a mistake to try to get any nourishment out of that stuff.  But not a big mistakes.  That's the beautiful part, the stakes are low.'"

"Only as a friend of mine use to say, you can't be deep without a surface."

"All thinking is wishful."

"Pour love on the broken places."

"'I'm not drunk.'
'Your eyes are X's.'"

the emperor's children. claire messud. (59)

have you seen girls?

if yes, omg! don't you love it?!?!

if no, it's a show on hbo. kinda like the urban outfitters generation version of sex and the city, but twentysomethings with a lot less money.

i'm new to girls and haven't seen the complete first season. my cousin apollo told me about it a while back but who has premium cable nowadays? well actually my cousin erin does, so i watched three girls episodes when i stayed with her. i will say that the first episode was kinda ehhh but by the third i was hooked, i even tweeted "all adventurous woman do. #girls". (though the best quote from that episode is one my friend markley always quotes: "what happens to the stuff around the condom?!?")

anyway since the series ended, flavorpill listed books to help fans fill the girls' void in their life. and yes i decided to add those to my reading list.

http://www.flavorwire.com/302791/10-books-to-fill-the-girls-shaped-hole-in-your-life

it was kinda kismet that i found claire messud's "the emperor's children". i was browsing the classic section trying to sort out what to read and was like why is this contemporary book in this section? fastfoward like a day or two and its on the list for girls so picked it up. (spoiler alert: if you have not read this, i do kinda spoil it for you. so stop here. well you can read this next paragraph but stop after that.)

"the emperor's children" follows the lives of three friends (danielle, marina, and julius) "on the cusp of their thirties" (the back of the book says this) who are trying to sort out life in nyc. it was comforting to see my fellow age group-ers with their shit not entirely together. marina was back at home with her parents (granted she did have a book deal) and julian wasn't settled career-wise and worked for a temp agency. though they still managed to live glamourous nyc lives on someone else's dime (marina on her parents and julian had a sugar daddy or a rice queen, julius was asian-who i pictured as my friend keith.)

the book has about six different story lines that intertwine and overlap. and they all involve marina's famous journalist/activist father, murray thwaite except julius, he was in this odd relationship in which he was domesticated like a chinese wife minus the bound feet. he also experienced this crazy gruesome fight in a gay club (which i visualizes as bablyon from "queer as folk.")

so marina's storyline involved her odd relationship with her father, the book she needed to write and her way too quick marriage to a horrible aussie that wanted to destroy her father via his new magazine. danielle has an affair with said father. which i found kinda hot but only cos i want an affair with an old man (though single and not my friend's dad.) then there is bootie ("like shake your?" as julius would say), marina's fat cousin who at first i cared for like one would a lost puppy. he had given up on traditional education and was going to educate himself by reading books from the library and writing essays. anyway in the end he ends up just going slightly crazy screwing over his uncle.

it was a good read, not great. the issue i had, was the use of 9/11 to resolve all of the issues in the book. i was left with too many questions. we never find out if the aussie was evil or was going to publish bootie's article. it also got murray off the hook with his affair. and i get that life paused for new yorkers but for me it felt like a cop out. maybe if i read it in 2006, i would be of a different opinion. also at the risk of sounding unamerican, it could also be because i was not deeply affected by 9/11. in my defense i was on the west coast. the distance can account for something. while reading bradbury's "the martian chronicles" i came across a passage that paralleled my indiffference to 9/11. father peregrine explains:

we heard about the wars in asia. but we never believed them. it was too far away. and there were too many people dying. it was impossible. even when we saw the motion pictures we didn't believe it.

i was unable to relate due to the distance. here all this was going on in nyc but life in delano, ca went on pretty much the same. furthermore, i was also young and at a very exciting period in my life. two weeks after 9/11, i was to start my first year of college so my life was full of hope not bleakness.

so did this fill my girls void? not really, it's kinda like hannah and the gang in 5 years. i could see hannah as danielle for some odd reason. it was a good read but i didn't fall in love with any of the characters except for julius (apparently i am a literary fag hag too). also julius
inspired me to read "war and peace" because he was always trying to sort out if he was a natasha or a pierre.

quotations:

"but he was already thirty, and the question was how?"