just kids. patti smith. (313)

patti smith's just kids has been on my to-read list forever.  i even have a copy of it on my kindle.  however, i never got around to reading it, even thought everyone was raving about it when it first came out.  however, with her new book m train, coming out, i decided it was time for me to finally read just kids.

i hate to admit this, but i'm not familiar with any of her music.  i do know that her first album is horses. and i did hear her once at the santa monica pier for a free concert (we were on the beach, so i didn't see her).  sadly, i can't name one of her songs, nor recognize any.  actually, i can recognize, "because the night", but that is only because my boss played it for me once, when i told her i was reading this memoir.

even with a lack of music knowledge, and i apologize, because i know it makes me a total poser, but i absolutely loved this memoir and adore patti smith.  so much so that i got a ticket to see her talk next month for lapl's aloud series.  her story is amazing and she has such a beautiful spirit, one can not help but love her after reading this work.

oh and i have another faux pas, i didn't know who robert mapplethorpe was prior to reading this as well.  i know i am an terrible soul.   i did enjoy learning about his life and work in this memoir.  though i have to admit i'm not sure i would have the stomach for some of his s&m photography.  though i loved the tie rack that he had made for patti, it was beautiful.  i am sure i would have loved his necklaces, as well.

what i loved most about "just kids" was that patti smith was in new york during a very exciting time.  this memoir is filled with incredible stories.  patti and robert lived at hotel chelsea. prior to this work, i only knew it as the place were sid stabbed nancy, but it has a richer and less graphic history.  the people that she ran into while living in that hotel was incredible.  i loved reading about her interactions with william s. burroughs and salvador dali at the chelsea hotel.  and it's crazy because majority of the people she mentioned in her stories are people that i admire and think of as living in the past, but really it was not that long ago, i mean dali was alive during my lifetime.  granted, 6-year-old me was not a fan of his work when he died, it's odd to think we were on the earth at the same time.  this type of realization is what made patti's adventures in new york, so exciting for me.  the same went with her and robert's visits to max's kansas city and hanging out with people from warhol's factory.  what a cool scene to be apart of, though patti never felt she belonged until she got her keith richard's hair cut.  she was right in the heart of all of the exciting art and music that was being created in new york during that time.

here are some of my favorite stories that patti shared:
-when allen ginsberg mistook her for a boy and hit on her by offering to give her money for a sandwich
-hanging out with janis jopling and telling her that she looked like a pearl
-talking to hendrix outside of an art opening

but it wasn't just the celebrities stories that were incredible, but just being in new york.  it's incredible how patti came to new york with absolutely nothing and made it work.  i wish i had that kind of courage, but now i am too old to know better.  i should have moved to new york when i was young.  though i don't know if i would have had what it takes to survive in new york.  patti shared how her first days in new york were spent living on the street and searching for a food with a man she met.  i don't know if i could have done that. the memoir was also filled with her scraping money together to eat and pay rent.  it wasn't easy, but then again i think that was a part of being new york at the time (and to some extend that holds true today).  quick digression, it was also a very different new york.  a much grittier place than it is now.  it was funny to read about times square as a place for gigolos, considering how commericalized it is now.  i mean on one hand, it's great, but sad to think that CBGB's is now a john varvatos boutique!

i feel like i'm doing a poor job describing why this work is so amazing, but you really have to just read it for yourself.

i guess what makes just kids outstanding is her relationship with robert.  it reminded me of my twenties with my best friend.  he and i would roam around los angeles, looking for open bars, and always finding adventure.  it took me back to a carefree time of just enjoying life.  furthermore, it reminded me how important it is to have a friend that understands you.  it was beautiful to read about how patti and robert inspired each other with their art.  they produced their best work when they had each other in mind.  their relationship was special and i am glad that patti smith decided to share it with all of us.

this memoir really is great and i highly recommend it, even if you aren't familiar with her music or her poetry.  this work will fill your heart and have you smiling to yourself.

again i'm sorry for this bad write up, i feel like i didn't capture what made this memoir great without recounting everything that happen and in that case you just need to read it.  i will close with one spoiler, where the title came from.  one day, patti and robert were in washington square, when a woman told her husband to take a picture of them, thinking they might be artist. and his reply was, "oh, go on . . .they're just kids."

re jane. patricia park. (301)

i picked up re jane after seeing it in a post on book riot.  a retelling of jane eyre with a half-korean, half-white/american protagonist!  i was in!

oh and if you read my previous post, and wondering why i was am okay with this retelling and not the last novel i read, was because park did take all of her storylines directly from bronte, instead, she took the overall structure, but wrote her own book.

before i start, if you ever read my post on jane eyre, you know that i loved it, but i did have issue with rochester being the only person ever talked with so i felt bad that she had no other experiences other than him.  though i mean their love was true, i still always wondered you know.  i didn't have this issue with re jane though i was shocked at times by how sheltered jane was but while during bronte's time all women were that sheltered, park made sure her jane was aware that she was.

just like jane eyre, re jane, started off with an orphan named jane that lived with family members that treated her poorly.  jane hoping to escape her uncle, sang, went to to work as au pair for a family.  the rochester of this work was ed farley, the father of the adopted girl, jane was in charge of.  and just like jane eyre there was a wife, but while rochester's was locked away in the attic, this wife, beth, was not crazy (well not in the same way as rochester's first wife) that worked in the attic.  i have to say the fact that ed and beth were married, made me very wary of jane falling in love with ed.  whereas i gushed over rochester and jane's budding romance in jane eyre, i was really uncomfortable about ed and jane's, though it did make me hungry for heroes.  even though park set up beth as an insensitive and overbearing wife and mother, i still was upset with jane for trying to be a homewrecker.  i was grateful that park stopped ed and jane from having sex (the tip doesn't count for me), because i would not have been able to go on with the book.  as you know from other books, i don't like cheaters.  anyway, that is really where the parallels between the two books stop.

i will add that park did include nods to jane eyre, having jane address the reader as a reader and jane's first job was to be at a company named lowood.  i thought these little details were cute.

back to the story, the climax of the novel, is when jane and ed decide to finally have sex, as i mentioned before it didn't happen.  on the night that they were to meet and try it again, jane decided to go to korea to see her grandfather on his deathbed.  the day she decided to leave . . . 9/11.  so as i read, i couldn't really gage the era, i figured it was now.  however, after a mention of the twin towers and the backstreets boys and of course this, i knew.  i have to add, i feel like a lot of books have been alluding to this, which is fine, it must be mentioned especially if a work is set in new york.  however, i feel like it shouldn't be used as a device to cause a drastic change, i think jane could have left on any day and the novel would not have lost anything.

okay, so jane went to korean.  she learned more about who she is, which she needed.  she even became engaged to a guy, but thanks to her aunt and this soap opera realized that she still loved ed.  so she came clean to everyone, ed about her love, beth about their affair, and returned to nyc.  however, once back, she realized just how different she and ed really were, and yes, dear reader, they broke up.  which i actually appreciated, i mean they were at different stages in their lives and also there was so much more she needed to experience.  i mean i was fine with jane eyre ending up rochester, because i mean what else was there for a single girl to do, then to be an old maid.  luckily, though nowadays, we have so many options.  it was great to see jane end up as an independent woman!

a greater part of the novel, aside from this kind of love story and self-discovery, was race, culture and identity.  to start jane was mixed, her mother was korean and her father was america, due to this she felt like an outcast.  people spoke and thought poorly of her mother.  in addition to this, she never felt like she fully identified as a korean.  it was the same situation for the child she was in charge of, devon.  devon was a chinese girl adopted by two american parents.  at school, she felt like an outcast due to her mixed cultured background.  her mother, beth, tried to keep her immerse in chinese culture but she still was not accepted by her fellow chinese students. being mixed and being americanized culturally, i understood how both of them felt uncomfortable among people with the same racial identity as them.  there was a scene in which jane and devon got moon cakes and devon became uncomfortable because although she looked chinese, she wasn't culturally chinese and couldn't speak the language.  i used to feel the same way as a kid, i look filipino but was not raised culturally filipino and did not learn the language, so when i am around alot of filipinos i do not know, i feel uncomfortable.  like jane and hopefully devon, you reach a point where, it doesn't really matter if your own people judge you, you have to learn to be happy with who you are.

in addition to this, i have to add that at the beginning i had mentioned how jane's family was mean towards her.  in jane eyre, her family was outright abusive.  however, in re jane, it was more of a cultural difference which made the reader and jane initially believe that her uncle hated and took her for granted.  its tough because as an outsider, we tend to judge without really knowing, this is what occurred when beth and ed tried to tell jane that she didn't have to obey her uncle (ironically, ed was doing the very thing he critiqued jane's uncle of doing, being controlling).  however, we gradually begin to see that jane's uncle is not a bad guy at all, he made sacrifices for her and he always made sure that she was taken care of even when she tried to push him away.  and in the end, the reader realizes when jane does that some things were lost in translation that maybe what she took as an insult was actually him trying to help her improve or actually meant as a compliment.  in the end, it was great to see her make peace with her uncle and culture.

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 odd woman and the city. (296)

i picked up vivian gornick's the odd woman and the city because it was on flavorpill's list of must read for may.  they wrote:

A wonderful and clear-eyed memoir of Gornick’s time in New York City that doubles as an appreciation of friendship — which more and more avails itself as the most important theme of our time.

i had never read anything else by gornick, but i liked the title and a memoir about nyc sounded interesting.  i must add that now i do want to read her other works, esp the feminist one.  she also inspired me to check out charles reznikoff's poetry after reading his poems in this work.  i might also check out the george gissing novel that inspired the title.

so even with being unfamiliar with her work, i found this work to be a delight.  it's a memoir but more like a journal.  we get tidbits about her life, friendships, and what i loved most vignettes from her life in new york city.

i must admit that it made me wish i loved in nyc.  as i read about the streets of new york, i regretted that my images were from memories from visits and not from living there.  none the less, the little scenes i read made me fall in love with nyc.

i loved the story of the man and the woman on the subway discussing the christian's hatred of jews.  the woman sharing, "after all, it the romans who killed him.  why don't they blame the italians."  the story of the boy and his father signing on the subway made me smile.  the boy deformed and as gornick at first surprised by his look later saw his beauty.  i also felt her frustration about the man on the bus talking too loudly on his phone.  i think good bus ettiquette is a lost art and am always silently angry at people who play music or talk loudly on a bus.  and the end, i loved the evasdropping she shared with us, esp these two conversations:

"when i was young, men were the main course, now they're the condiment."

and 

"i didn't realize you were such good friends.  what did she give you, that you miss her so?" "it wasn't what she gave me . . . it was what she didn't take away."

so many delightful and insightful things one hears.  i also learned that i shouldn't judge my friend markley, for all the evasdropping he does in nyc.

the work also focused on friendship.  she shared different friendships of hers, especially her friend leonard.  she examined why she was friends with particular people. n she also shared a handful of stories of authors and their friendships, looking at what draws people to each other. but in the end, the work is really about loneliness, as flavorpill noted.  it's actually more about finding solitude versus loneliness.

as she discussed, she discovered whole reading edmund gosse's memoir, father and son, that "one is lonely for the absent idealized other self, but in useful solitude i am there, keeping myself imaginative company, breaking life into silence,

filling the room with proof of my own sentient being."  

and this i feel is the heart of the memoir.  in solitude and keeping herself company, gornick wandered around and enjoyed new york city.

the work also had some beautiful life lessons that i didn't pay attention too because it became too wordy for me.  however, one day when i am older, i will revisit this work but for not will take the lessons that i saw best for me.  

the purple coat. amy hest. amy schwartz. (272)

in honor of children's book week, i decided to check out one of my favorite books as a kid, the purple coat. in my memory serves me correct, i saw the purple coat on reading rainbow and had to have it!  i have a copy, which i think i may still own (hopefully it's in storage).

before i start, doesn't that look like tim gunn hosting mini project runway?

the purple coat tells the story of a little girl, gabrielle.  she needed a new coat for the fall and since her grandfather is a tailor in the city, he makes one especially for her.  quick note, love that penn station gets some love in this book (poor neglected station.)

gabby wanted a purple coat, but her mom said no.  every year, a navy coat is made for her.  however, her grandpa came up with the idea to make a reversible coat!  one side purple and the other navy, so that everyone is happy!

and yes, i always wanted a reversible coat after i read this as a kid. 

this is new york. m. sasek. (212)

i checked out this is new york to read with the girls i baby-sit.  i had found these random new york coloring fans at the goodwill and needed a book to go along with coloring the fans.  i decided upon this is new york.

this is new york was originally published in 1960 and this new edition was published in 2003.  the book shares the sights and sounds of new york back in the 1950's.  some things are outdated is the empire state building being the tallest building in new york, but thankful most has stayed the same. 

it's a delightful book that i recommend you check out if you love the big apple.  the illustrations are great!! one day i hope to take my future child to new york and share this book before the trip.

here are my favorite illustrations:

of course, times square!!

macy's!

trinity church which is the oldest church in nyc.  (on my to-do list.)

harlem.

park ave.  this reminded me of my friend ivan, last time i was in nyc, he took me on walking tour which included park ave and grand central terminal.  he explained to me that he wants the MetLife building torn down because it ruins this view.  i agree with him and this drawing just reinforces my support!

i love the water tanks!

the guggenheim.  which i have yet to go to!

but yes check out this book, it's a delight!

& sons. david gilbert. (167)

*

i checked out david gilbert's & sons, after reading about it on flavorwire's list of 15 best novels of 2013:  

of course, my love for salinger being the reason for my reading.  and i have to say its quite ambition to channel salinger for a character but gilbert's novel was well written and one that i assume salinger would not have hated.  but i can not sing its complete praises, wonderful prose, yes, but the storyline made a disappointing turn at the end.  (yes, there will be spoilers in this post.)

but lets start with some praising.  as i mentioned before expectations are set high when salinger is alluded to for a novel and gilbert did not disappoint.  he was witty and filled with wonderful allusions and imagery.  for example:

just a week earlier, the temperature sulked in the teens, the windchill dragging the brat into newborn territory.

(how clever!)

 

a.n. dyer's eulogy for his dear friend charlie toppings:

what are we in this world without our friends if family is the foundation then friends are its crossbeams it's drywall it's plumbing friends keep us warm and warmhearted friends furnish and with a friend like charlie topping i was never without a home. . . whenever i was need of succor--succor. . . i could count on charlie.  he was an unlocked door with something smelling good in the oven.  he was the fire in the fireplace, the blanket draped over the couch, the dog at my feet.  he was the shelter she. i was the storm.

(so sweet!)

and:

the bubbles in the champagne shimmied up the flutes, a hundred phony smilies breaking the surface, like some esther williams routine . . .

(i always adore an esther williams reference!)

and last but not least

every act of memory is an act of imagination.

(which is true, our minds fill in the gaps and so our memories are more imagination than actual recollection.)

the story is narratored by philip toppings, and his likability was on par with the awkward affection one feels for holden caulfield.  both are at low points in their life they differ in that i was hopeful that holden turns around, whereas with phillip i was just creeped out by him.  he went from pathetic yet insight godson of a.n. dyer to single white female.  i didn't care for his character and though i guess he was important because he revealed that & (a.n. dyer's novel in the book) was about dyer's dominance and abuse in their friendship and also for the letters that started different sections.  but other than that his creepy stalker behavior took away from the story of dyer and his son.  though i guess in the movie adaption of the book, he would make for a good point of view.

random digression, i could see this as a wes anderson movie, quirky family, absent father (weird cloning story), and creep neighbor.  bill murray as a.n. dyer, adrien brody and jason swartzman as richard and jaime, and owen wilson as phillip toppings.  not sure who would play andrew, guess he would have to look like a young bill murray.  (hollywood should make this happen!)

and now that i mentioned it the whole cloning storyline was not my cup of tea if it was true.  it is my cup of tea, if was some crazy story a.n. dyer made up to justify how he had ruined his life.  though towards the end of the novel it felt like it was to be true.  

and in the end, i didn't like andrew dying.  it just seemed so random and out of place.  its intent seemed more like a convienent way to finish up the story.  it was really great up until that point and then it fell apart for me and i started to lose interest. 

but i mean still check it out.  it is a good story and well-written and maybe you will enjoy the ending more than me.

and before i close i have to add.  this novel made me long for new york.  so many locations were mentioned that i could plan a whole tour of the city based on it.  my next trip out i will definitely hit up the frick!  and do central park proper, i mean i haven't even seen the alice in wonderland statues.  oh and i love love loved when andrew went to the met looking for jennie.  what an adorable game!!! i am going to do that someday.  call someone i am dating and tell them what museum, i am at and then say that i am staying in front of my favorite work of art and see of they can find me!  but seriously the whole time i read, i wished that i was in new york!

*forgot to take a picture before i returned the book.

new york, i love you.

while walking through central park, last saturday, my cousin apollo and i started talking about the vignette in "new york, i love you" with the boy that takes the girl (the bff in "juno") to prom and she is in a wheelchair.  they have sex thanks to a belt in a tree in central park.  and in the end, it turns out that she isn't in a wheelchair but just a method actress!  we couldn't remember any other ones other than the one with natalie portman and the odd one with shia labeaouf.  i mentioned hoping that netflix had it so you can imagine how happy i was when it was at the library! so of course i checked it out!

i didn't see "new york, i love you" in theaters, i either rented it or caught it on tv.  i love "paris je t'aime" so had high expectations for this, though it wasn't as good as "paris" i still enjoyed it.  i will say i forgot how many good and newish actors were in this:  justin barba, bradley cooper, orlando bloom, christina ricci, rachel bilson, james caan, blake lively, maggie q, and ethan hawke.

i won't discuss all the vignettes, just my favorites.

the prom one is definitely my favorite.  and i forgot james caan was in it! he was the perfect new york dad, i mean he is sonny.  i loved when the kids are rushing back and stressed cos it is way past curfew but all he is concerned with we're the yankees!

i loved the one with natalie portman as the hasidic jew and her hindu business partner and their fantasies of marrying each other.  all of the banter on diets was  funny.  also discovered thanks to wikipedia this this vignette was directed by mira nair who directed "monsoon wedding" which is a favorite of mine!

the shia labeouf, though confusing, there's a yahoo answer about it.  i still think it is beautiful.  my interpretation is this the older woman was going to attempt suicide by jumping out her window but labeouf was her guardian angel, preventing it from happening.

i also adore the one with cloris leachman.  that little old couple is too cute trying to get to coney island to celebrate their anniversay.  i hope i find someone that i can grow old with.  

i enjoyed the orlando bloom one for its references to the dakota.  i made sure to go pay my respects to john lennon by going to the dakota and listening to my favorite beatles songs.  i also loved the literary references.  note to self:  i need to read "crime and punishment" and "the brothers karamazov".  also what is with bloom and falling in love with girls over the phone (see: "elizabethtown").

and last but not least loved how the ethan hawke one was so tongue-in-cheek.

also loved all fillers.  i want a boyfriend like justin barba that will surprise me with a trip.  i laughed every time bradley cooper got in a cab.  also maggie q at the cleaners hilarious.

i will add the ending was cheesy.  i liked the paris ending more.  but a great complication and i will check it out anytime i miss nyc.