This book was originally published in 1929 anonymously, because it was a scandal. The fact that a writer would write about a woman who has multiple affairs and is clearly promiscuous was unheard of, so the writer was protected with an anonymous publication.
I could not stop reading this incredible and seminal book for the main reason that the language is so fresh. It was unlike any other vintage or antique novel that I’ve read, and I’ve read a few, as I collect antique books.
The main protagonist in the book is a woman, a woman writer who has recently been divorced by her husband, also a writer. The issues she writes about, as a woman, are utterly timeless. The scene where she admits she’s been unfaithful to her husband (they are both young and in their 20s) and he acts as if he doesn’t care, saying: “And I thought you were always such a clean woman,” but then retreats into their bedroom and sobs facedown on the bed, are universal and entirely human in their scope. The regret that they both end up feeling from the passage of time and from the falling out of love is also timeless. I was mesmerized while reading this lovely and important book. I kept wondering how it could have been written in 1929.
The language, so modern, so entirely American, is what captured my interest. I was lucky enough to buy a lovely 1929 sixth edition of the book, and I treasure it. In many respects, this is a book that should have been as big as The Great Gatsby, but, of course, that could never happen, given that the author was a woman and the publishers knew that.
Still, it was a HUGE bestseller, and eventually, the name of the woman writer became known, Ursula Parrott. The book is also basically autobiographical, detailing her first marriage to New York Times reporter and journalist Lindesay Marc Parrott and their on and off again love, which spanned decades. While reading the book, you look for connections to their real life. A mesmerizing read.
An instant bestseller when it was published anonymously in 1929, Ex-Wife is the story of a divorce and its aftermath that scandalized the Jazz Age—and still resonates today.
It's 1924, and Peter and Patricia have what looks to be a very modern marriage. Both drink. Both smoke. Both work, Patricia as a head copywriter at a major department store. When it comes to sex with other people, both believe in “the honesty policy.” Until they don‘t. Or, at least, until Peter doesn‘t—and a shell-shocked, lovesick Patricia finds herself starting out all over again, but this time around as a different…
Nick Flynn's book was a book I knew about for a long time, but never seemed to have the time to read. The book is a lovely memoir about how an abandoned son struggles to come to terms with the man his father has become and how that man from a wealthy and affluent family could abandon him and his older brother. Nick Flynn is surprisingly compassionate when he shares the sad and sordid reality of his father’s failed, alcoholic life.
This is one of the most moving memoirs I’ve ever read, and it comes highly recommended. Probably the most moving part of the book is how honest and apathetic Nick Flynn seems. He writes about his mother, who struggles for decades and never complains about the horrible family who never acknowledged her or her two sons, knowing that their son, Jonathan Flynn, was the boy's father. You read it and see how the ties that bind can sometimes strangle.
When Flynn loses his mother to suicide, when he’s only 22 and has just graduated from college, he writes simply: “I can’t stop crying,” and the reader is left feeling so sorry for Nick Flynn that you just want to find him and hug him and make him a big bowl of hot soup. I was surprised at how angry the book made me. His father was such a zero, and his mother was simply exhausted by life. What you come away with is a huge level of compassion and melancholy for Nick Flynn. You want him to be okay, cared for, and loved.
Nick Flynn met his father when he was working as a caseworker in a homeless shelter in Boston. As a teenager he'd received letters from this stranger father, a self-proclaimed poet and con man doing time in federal prison for bank robbery. Another Bullshit Night in Suck City tells the story of the trajectory that led Nick and his father onto the streets, into that shelter, and finally to each other.
I haven't enjoyed a book more, been intrigued by a book more, or learned something from reading a book more than while reading this book. I got into this book fast and furious. It's a novel about a cop and a clown girl and many things in between!
I'm married to a man who used to be a cop, and since I recognize that about half the police officers out there are good people and the other half aren't, this book, shall we say, was right up my alley. The dialogue between Nita the Clown and Jarrod the cop is really good. Very believable, convincing, and true.
In a nutshell, the book is outstanding and a standout, and for the life of me, why the book has not been made into a film remains a mystery. But I realize that in today's world, it might not pass the sniff test for being politically correct, as this book is about a clown and a cop, or more respectfully... a "police officer," as the main character rightly observes. I loved that distinction, and if you read the book, you'll 'get' the reference, too.
It's funny, it's sad, it's full of unexpected moments because, at the core, Nita, the main character, is probably one of the most unreliable narrative voices I've ever encountered, and yet, she's also entirely likable. The book contains many truths about society and how we perceive ourselves and each other. The fears we have, the way others try to sabotage innocence so they can destroy the lives of the young and turn them into their own miserable lives in the “Baloney” towns of the world.
The dynamics between Nita the clown and Rex, her on-again, off-again boyfriend, are true to life. She loves him too much, thinks he's noble when he's not, and idolizes him too much, which is typical of young women before they come to intimate knowledge of their anger. Sometimes it takes real strife to get in touch with your anger as a woman when the stark light of reality shines a light on the joke you have become to others in your midst.
Without giving away what happens, this is a complex novel that is also full of funny scenes that you can see in vivid Technicolor details. The prose is beautiful. The bar scene and the summersault on the pool table? The fire scene at night, with the dry grass in the backyard catching on fire? The stalkers and the Clown fetishists, I never knew any of that. So in a very real sense, this book has opened my eyes to a whole subculture I never knew anything about. Clown Prostitutes? I had NO idea.
The last chapter is EXCEPTIONAL. Every word. It's clear this section was important to Drake and that she worked on it a lot. There is some editorializing that goes on but I can't say I disagree with anything Nita says. I read the final chapter, and I have to say I was quite moved by it. There is so much I saw in this book that I've seen in the real, gritty, tough world. I loved Baloney Town, which reminded me in EVERY way of 1970s NW Portland, when it was basically a slum. All in all, this was such a damn good book. I enjoyed it SO much and will read it a second and perhaps even a third time. And it comes highly recommended!
Clown Girl lives in Baloneytown, a seedy neighborhood where drugs, balloon animals, and even rubber chickens contribute to the local currency. Against a backdrop of petty crime, she struggles to live her dreams, calling on cultural masters Charlie Chaplin, Kafka, and da Vinci for inspiration. In an effort to support herself and her layabout performance-artist boyfriend, Clown Girl finds herself unwittingly transformed into a "corporate clown," trapping herself in a cycle of meaningless, high-paid gigs that veer dangerously close to prostitution. Monica Drake has created a novel that riffs on the high comedy of early film stars most notably…
My book is about the lost restaurants that Portlanders continue to miss, remember, and long for. Delve into the Rose City's colorful and tumultuous past through the memories, meals, and recipes that put these bygone restaurants on the Portland map.
From The Quality Pie, a favorite of Portlanders from all walks of life, to the River Queen, which enjoyed a long and storied life as a working vessel before becoming a stationary restaurant on the Willamette River, visitors and locals alike have enjoyed a unique variety of Portland eateries. This book will give readers a tour of Portland's shuttered cafés, diners, and grand dining rooms and help readers understand the complex histories behind those places.
