What I'm Reading

"Woman with a Book" by Vanessa Bell

"What are you reading?" I ask my friends all the time and they ask me. Everyone is in a book group and we're all talking about books. I am happy to say that during the last few months I have made some serious inroads on my ever-growing stack on my nightstand. And it feels so good! I recently finished four books that I wanted to share with you. They are an eclectic group -- each one is very good and different from the others.

Vanessa And Her Sister by Priya Parmar

At first glance, an historical novel about Bloomsbury sounded intriguing. Though I wondered what more could be said as there has been so much non-fiction material about Bloomsbury over the years -- biographies, memoirs, diaries and letters. But there was one voice that hadn't been heard from even though she was probably the most admired member of the group. That was the voice of the artist Vanessa Bell. She was reserved -- early on her sister, the writer Virginia Woolf, pronounced that she, Virginia, was the writer and Vanessa was the painter. She didn't keep a diary, write a memoir or send many letters. But fortunately the other more verbose members of the group wrote about her. She plays a big part in many of their memoirs and letters. Consequently there was a great deal of source material available for a novelist to drawn upon to invent a diary for Vanessa Bell.

This is what Priya Primar has done in her new novel about Vanessa Bell and the early days of the Bloomsbury Group. It consists entirely of invented diary entries, letters and telegrams, a format that works very well. The book captures the essence of this beloved woman and for the first time gives us an idea of how she probably felt about several big issues: dealing with her brilliant and emotionally fragile sister, the writer Virginia Woolf; learning about the affair between her sister Virginia and her husband Clive Bell; and being an artist during the early days of the modern art movement that was exploding in Paris and London. She was in the middle of it all and somehow managed to stay centered. She also managed to live at Charleston Farmhouse with the love of her life, the artist Duncan Grant, for fifty years. It was there that they created art together, painting in their studio and glorious garden. They also decorated the entire house with their artwork.

I finished this book with tears in my eyes. Choosing to write about the early years (1905-1912) in the lives of these two sisters just before both their careers were about to be take off gives the book a poignancy for anyone who knows the outcomes. And focusing on the fraught relationship between Virginia and Vanessa tells the Bloomsbury story in a new way and gives it an unexpected freshness. Be sure to pay attention to the two letters that frame the book. I had to go back and reread them to understand their significance. Parmar includes an addendum that lets us know what happens to all of these people in later years. Don't miss this book, whether you are a fan of the Bloomsbury Group or not. I loved it.

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante

I only recently learned about Elena Ferrante. I read an excellent article in the New York Times and knew I had to read one of her books. She is an Italian writer whose identity remains a mystery; she publishes under a pseudonym and fiercely guards her privacy. "My Brilliant Friend" is the first book in what is known as her "Naples series." It is about a young woman named Elena -- her childhood and adolescence in the rough neighborhoods of Naples. It is also about her intense and competitive friendship with her friend Lila.

This book took me a long time to get into because of the raw and violent nature of its story. But once I dropped my resistance I felt the power of the author's theme: a friendship between two women that seems unbreakable despite the most difficult odds. I became fascinated by their story of growing up in the working classes of Naples in the 1950's amidst poverty, danger, and violence. And the serious challenges of being a woman in that environment. The two women at the center of the book are polar opposites in many ways and it is the mysterious chemistry that holds them together as friends that is the essence of this novel. It is intense and at times disturbing, but you get the sense that this is an honest depiction of life as it was. This is definitely not cozy fiction, but one that will startle you with its brutal honesty and enlighten you about the rich and complex lives of the women in this culture. I am so glad I read it. 

Americanah  by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie  

An excellent book about the immigrant experience and race, "Americanah" tells the story of a Nigerian woman Ifemelu and her Nigerian boyfriend Obinze who seek to leave Nigeria for America. After meeting in high school and falling in love, they are both determined to get out of their country which is falling apart under military rule. Ifemelu makes it to America on a student visa, wins a fellowship at Princeton and eventually becomes the author of a successful blog about race. Many of her blog posts are included in this  novel and it is her sharp and witty voice that is the soul of the book. However, before she becomes successful, she undergoes the harrowing experience of searching for gainful employment in America. After many rejections, she reluctantly accepts a job of which she is so deeply ashamed that she must hide it from Obinze. It ultimately causes her to end their relationship.

In the meantime Obinze is unable to get to America post-September 11 and goes to London instead where he holds mostly menial jobs. He eventually returns to Nigeria, finds financial success, gets married and has children. But he is never really happy as is unaware of why Ifemelu has broken off their relationship. She comes back as well and settles into life in Nigeria. They both have trouble settling in as they are changed and one of the big themes of this book is the difficulty of fitting back into their culture after becoming an "Americanah." This immigrant saga is a love story as well as a meditation on race. It manages to be very funny as well as sharp in its social commentary. It is thought-provoking on so many issues and beautifully written. I highly recommend this one.  

And finally, if you are looking for something light and delicious, look no further than "Pomfret Towers" by Angela Thirkell. Reading her books is like drinking a glass of champagne. These comic novels are set in the fictional English county of Barsetshire, a landscape that Angela Thirkell borrowed from Anthony Trollope. They are about bright young things falling in love amidst ancestral country homes and English eccentrics. Along the way, there is enough comedy and social satire to make you laugh out loud. In the tradition of Jane Austen, each book ends with an engagement.

Most of the action in "Pomfret Towers" takes place during a country house weekend. The Earl of Pomfret has decided to open up his grand house to his neighbors for a house party. His guests of honor are two charming young people: the shy Alice Barton and her brother Guy. They are the children of Mr. Barton, a prosperous local architect and his wife Mrs. Barton, a writer of historical fiction. If you read Angela Thirkell enough, you will notice that there are often writers, editors and publishers in her books. And they are usually the source of comedy. It is as if she is poking fun at her own profession with these characters. In this book she also includes Mrs. Rivers, a writer of romance novels and her publisher Mr. Johns.

Mrs. Barton has decided that this weekend is the time for young Alice to learn to socialize. Alice is terrified of the experience, but makes the effort. It will be a turning point for her. The other guests at the house party are:  Julian Rivers, an arrogant young artist; Roddy and Sally Wicklow, an extremely likable and outdoorsy brother and sister; and Giles Foster, nephew and heir of the present Lord Pomfret. Everyone wonders which lucky girl will catch his eye. And although Alice is anxious about the weekend, by the end of it she breaks out of her shell, makes new friends, and falls in love. As in most of Angela Thirkell's books there are several endearing characters who help smooth misunderstandings and solve problems along the way. They will make you smile. "Pomfret Towers" is a total delight.

Gratitude List

Mother's Day flowers  

 This week I want to borrow an idea from one of my favorite bloggers -- Miranda Mills of Miranda's Notebook. If you are looking for inspiration in styling your wardrobe, cooking great meals, making a cozy home, finding beauty in your surroundings or going to fabulous places and events in London, her beautiful blog is a wonderful resource. Every Friday she writes a gratitude list and this week I wanted to do one as well. I have so many things to be grateful for.

First, my family--

 I have the most thoughtful family. On Friday of Mother's Day weekend, the door bell rang and there were four flower arrangements for me. It turns out that my husband and my daughters had separately ordered flowers from my favorite florist Hollyflora to be delivered on Friday and they all arrived at the same time! It was so much fun to decorate the house with Mother's Day flowers.  

The scent of flowers perfumed each room

And the beauty of the arrangements reminded me of my wonderful family


Second, the Garden Conservancy--

A garden in Santa Monica

 I am very grateful for the Garden Conservancy. Do you know about this organization? They do the most wonderful work sharing and saving outstanding gardens throughout the country. Last weekend they held their Open Doors Garden Tour here in Los Angeles and I was able to visit several incredible gardens in West Los Angeles. The photo above shows a lily pad pond at a house in Santa Monica. We could have been at Giverny. Only on this day in May does the Garden Conservancy open the "doors" for us to see the secret gardens in our city. It is always amazing to discover these garden sanctuaries. Have you been to the Open Doors in your city? Go here to learn more.

The roses in Julie Newmar's garden.

Julie Newmar has one of the most beautiful and prolific rose gardens; she even has a rose named after her.

This charming vegetable garden is part of a large property that includes a rose garden, a great lawn, a swimming pool and a fabulous pool house and outdoor kitchen. They all exist behind a house in a neighborhood that I drive by all the time. I marvel that these beautiful gardens exist in Los Angeles and that their owners have put so much time, love and energy into them. Without the Garden Conservancy, we would never see them or learn so much about gardening.


Third, the Morgan Library in New York--

"A Certain Slant of Light: Spencer Finch at the Morgan"

I love the Morgan Library and Museum. Every time I am in New York I visit and feel grateful that this wonderful place exists. This time I noticed the beautiful courtyard with its colorful panes of glass and their reflections. I discovered that it is a special installation by American artist Spencer Finch. Inspired by the Morgan's great collection of medieval Books of Hours, he applied films of color to the windows in the four-story, glass-enclosed Gilbert Court to to make a kind of calendar based on the movement of the sun. This amazing installation is up until August 23. If you are in New York, be sure to stop by to see this; it is so inspiring. As I looked up, I was reminded of the soaring imaginations that went into the writing of each and every book contained in this fabulous institution. In addition to its impressive collection of books and manuscripts, The Morgan also has fascinating exhibitions. One of my favorites was The Little Prince a couple of years ago.

Fourth, tea and scones with my book club--

Image via here

I am in a couple of book clubs and each one has the most wonderful women. I have always thought that the members in a book club are more important than the books. If you have the right combination of enthusiastic, curious and open-minded people, good books and exciting discussions will naturally follow. This month we read Vanessa and Her Sister by Priya Parmar. It's about Vanessa Bell, Virginia Woolf and the early days of the Bloomsbury Group. (review to follow) The lovely woman who was hosting our meeting decided to have an English tea for the occasion. She made delicious scones, delicate tea sandwiches and served tea that she brought home from Fortnum and Mason in London. Amazingly, she had just returned from a trip to England where she visited Charleston, the home of Vanessa Bell, and showed us her photos. It was such a special meeting and everyone was touched by all the trouble she had gone to.

Fifth, the world of blogging--

I am so grateful for the world of blogging and the amazing people I have met because of it. When I was in New York last month, I met fellow blogger Gail Gallagher, a talented artist who paints in the Hamptons. She writes a lovely blog about the vibrant art scene in the Hamptons. We had made a date to meet for a glass of wine at my hotel. Something came up and she needed to reschedule; we weren't sure we would be able to get together. In the meantime, she dropped off a package for me at the hotel. When I opened it the next day, I found this beautiful little seascape that she had painted. I was so touched. Fortunately we managed to get together the following morning for a cup of tea and I was able to thank her in person. I now have a new friend in New York and a beautiful painting to remind me of her. Go here to see Gail's blog Painting in the Hamptons  and her art.

I hope you had a good weekend and a wonderful Mother's Day!

Making Connections

"The Memoir Club" by Vanessa Bell
E.M. Forster sits on the far right
This painting hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in London

In the novel Howards End, E.M. Forster famously advised us to "only connect." Right now I am making fascinating connections between two books, both of them related to E.M. Forster. One is Where Angels Fear to Tread, Forster's first published novel. The other is Vanessa and Her Sister, an historical novel about Vanessa Bell, Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury Group. I dash from one to the other, connecting the dots.

First, Vanessa And Her Sister --

Vanessa And Her Sister by Priya Parmar is about the relationship between the painter Vanessa Bell and her sister the writer Virginia Woolf. In 1905 when the novel opens they were known as the Stephen sisters. Because Virginia was a writer of novels, essays and short stories, it was in her nature to write a prodigious number of letters and keep a diary. Consequently, we know a great deal about her inner and outer life. Vanessa is harder to know. She was not a wordsmith like her sister; her means of expression was canvas and paint. Although her paintings can be seen and her published letters read, there is no diary to reveal her inner life. There is nothing to tell us how she felt when she had to deal with her emotionally unstable sister. Or if she felt overwhelmed by the burden of acting as mother to her three younger siblings -- Virginia, Thoby, and Adrian -- after the death of both parents. There is very little record of her thoughts about the circle of friends who would become known as the Bloomsbury Group or the modern art explosion that was happening in Paris. If only we had more of her words.

Priya Parmar has given them to us in her novel Vanessa And Her Sister. After doing meticulous research into Vanessa's life as well as those around her, she invented a diary for her, as well as a series of postcards, letters and telegrams. It is astonishingly effective. There is an authenticity about these invented documents that rings true, capturing the essence of Vanessa's personality. They illuminate the inner life of this woman who has been relatively unknown until now. She was the glue that held the two groups together, both family and friends. I am halfway through this wonderful book and am impressed with the authentic portrait the author has created.

It is in the story of the Bloomsbury friends that E.M. Forster makes several appearances. Here is a thumbnail sketch of how the Bloomsbury group was formed:

In 1904, after the deaths of both parents, Vanessa moved her family from their childhood home in Hyde Park Gate to the then bohemian neighborhood of Bloomsbury. It was here in the drawing room of their London townhouse that her brother Thoby's friends from Cambridge began to visit and soon established regular at home nights. This group included Maynard Keynes, Lytton Strachey, Desmond MacCarthy, Clive Bell and E.M. Forster. Vanessa and Virginia were the hostesses. Vanessa would eventually marry Clive Bell and Virginia would marry Leonard Woolf, one of the Cambridge friends who was working as a civil servant in India. Lytton would write to him planting the seed for a courtship of Virginia upon his return. Most of the men had been members of the Apostles, an elite, strictly by invitation, all-male debating society of the brightest young men at Cambridge. At 46 Gordon Square in Bloomsbury, they would continue discussing life, art, and friendship.

Here is a scene of a typical Bloomsbury gathering from Vanessa's fictional diary in Vanessa And Her Sister:

"...the drawing room was freckled with several more of Thoby's Cambridge friends, looking the way I always imagined Thoby's rooms at Trinity must have looked, with the intellectual young men draped all over the furniture. Their talk rang out with their affectionate university names for each other: Goth, Mole, Strache, Saxe.
Lytton Strachey had curled farther into his chair and was looking endearingly rumpled, with his round spectacles perched low on his nose and his frizzy red beard even bushier than usual. He was scolding sweet-tempered Morgan Forster about his novel.
'That was indecently quick, Mole, Lytton said dramatically. 'You are meant to suffer, to pine, to ache, to burn. How is the work meant to be art if it arrives with no pain?'
This winter Morgan completed his first novel. It is to be published in the autumn. Everyone talks about writing a novel -- Lytton, Desmond, and of course Virginia -- but Morgan has actually done it."

The book was Where Angels Fear to Tread which is the second book I am reading. It is about a young English widow Lilia, who travels to Italy and falls in love with a handsome but penniless Italian. Her English in-laws are horrified and send Lilia's brother-in-law Phillip to put a stop to this romance and bring her home. By the time he arrives in Italy it is too late as the couple have already married. When a baby is born, the family wants it to be raised English. What follows is a collision of cultures which is at times very funny and also very moving. Forster pokes fun at the hypocrisy and snobbery of Edwardian England and writes lovingly of Italy. Here is another passage from Vanessa And Her Sister:

"'Mole, you have outdone us all!' Lytton said, pulling Morgan to him for a waltz. I stood and pushed the other dining chairs so they would not get knocked over. Round and round the table they went in small uneven ellipses. Maud fetched more place setting and brought back the soup tureen.
'Remarkable! Mastery of material! Keen insight! Mole! This is brilliant!' Thoby said, reading fragments aloud. Virginia, brittle and still, was silent.
'I don't like the title,' Morgan said, as Lytton released him from their dizzying waltz.
'You wanted Monteriano?' I asked. It was the fictitious name he had chosen to conjure the very real towered city of San Gimignano. I think it does capture the cadence and height of that hillside town.
'The Manchester Guardian called the title mawkish -- awful,' Morgan said fretfully, folding and unfolding his neat slim hands.
'Well, I think it is splendid,' Virginia said, unexpectedly. Thoby and I looked at each other, surprised. When Virginia says splendid, that is rarely what she means."

And so I learned that Monteriano, the fictitious Italian city at the center of Where Angels Fear To Tread, was based on San Gimignano. And that Forster wanted Monteriano to be the title of the book. I love connecting the dots. And there is more...

Last week I went to a fascinating lecture on Where Angels Fear To Tread. I learned so much about the book as well as Forster's life. Here are a few highlights:

Forster's great-aunt left him a generous sum of money which meant that Forster never had to get a job and was able to develop his writing skills. Lucky for us. Our lecturer described this bequest as the equivalent of a MacArthur genius grant. Forster's leisure time allowed him to travel to Italy and hence the idea for the book was formed. Its original title was "Monteriano," but a friend advised him to switch it to Where Angels Fear To Tread, which comes from a quote by Alexander Pope: "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread." Good choice since it sounds so much more intriguing. And this book, as our lecturer reminded us, is a story of fools rushing in.

We had a great discussion of Where Angels Fear To Tread, looking at its social satire as well as its moral complexity. We talked about the juxtaposition of two societies: England and Italy. And how Phillip changes from one part of the book to another. He begins as a romantic, retreats into his Englishness, and then comes to embrace the charms of Italy. Our opinion of Gino, Lilia's Italian husband, also changes by the end of the book. At first we suspect his motives for marrying Lilia, but by the book's end we come to admire him. Nothing is black or white in Forster's books; they are filled with complicated characters and psychological depth. I left the lecture with a greater understanding of why Forster's Bloomsbury friends would be so impressed with his accomplishment. Where Angels Fear To Tread would be considered a magnificent first novel for any writer.

I love taking a literary journey from one book to another and learning something new. In this case, E.M. Forster was the common denominator. What a difference a title can make!