![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Monday: zoom book group and zoom birthday
Aug. 17th, 2020 11:00 pmI had a delightful Monday book group chat on zoom, followed by a sing T. Happy Birthday impromptu zoom with family (my sister and R.’s sisters, and MIL). That was my sister’s very first zoom! It went fine. She had to figure out where the turn the video on button was.
I walked with M.
Our book selection this month was _How to Catch a Frog_ by Heather Ross. 3 of the 4 of us did not care for it. I felt like I got a lot out of it, altho it is not a book I would have chosen (when people pick a book and then wind up not liking it! Oh well!) and I am not planning on rereading it. I was a little annoyed because there is no ebook, even tho it is a very current book (maybe 6 years ago or so?). The author is an artist (primarily fabric), and her illustrations are throughout the book and while I am not certain, I suspect the entire book design is hers.
Because the author is clearly only ever so slightly younger than me, the larger context (her country, the years as they go by) of her life is very familiar to me. Because I live in Mass and have lived in NH, the local context of her life has some familiarity as well — right down to having been to a wedding at Blueberry Hill Inn.
In many ways, this episodic / story / essay form of memoir is the story of extensive, intergenerational neglect within a larger context of wealth and privilege (really, the story of New England, in sooooo many ways). While we see this very much from the author’s perspective, we get glimpses of the abandonment of her mother and her aunts and uncles in boarding schools, and an even tinier glimpse of the constant travel of her grandfather for work in his younger years. In a very familiar way, this neglect and lack of healthy attachment transforms in many ways: to addiction, failed relationships, artistic endeavors that are frankly kind of nuts at times, and inspiring in their beauty and ambition in others.
Basically, a little bit of a meat grinder!
The good news is that her twin gets it together pretty quick, and provides loving background support early and consistently, and she builds long term friendships that eventually help her create her own family life. Here’s hoping the terrifying neglect and irresponsibility end with her.
I walked with M.
Our book selection this month was _How to Catch a Frog_ by Heather Ross. 3 of the 4 of us did not care for it. I felt like I got a lot out of it, altho it is not a book I would have chosen (when people pick a book and then wind up not liking it! Oh well!) and I am not planning on rereading it. I was a little annoyed because there is no ebook, even tho it is a very current book (maybe 6 years ago or so?). The author is an artist (primarily fabric), and her illustrations are throughout the book and while I am not certain, I suspect the entire book design is hers.
Because the author is clearly only ever so slightly younger than me, the larger context (her country, the years as they go by) of her life is very familiar to me. Because I live in Mass and have lived in NH, the local context of her life has some familiarity as well — right down to having been to a wedding at Blueberry Hill Inn.
In many ways, this episodic / story / essay form of memoir is the story of extensive, intergenerational neglect within a larger context of wealth and privilege (really, the story of New England, in sooooo many ways). While we see this very much from the author’s perspective, we get glimpses of the abandonment of her mother and her aunts and uncles in boarding schools, and an even tinier glimpse of the constant travel of her grandfather for work in his younger years. In a very familiar way, this neglect and lack of healthy attachment transforms in many ways: to addiction, failed relationships, artistic endeavors that are frankly kind of nuts at times, and inspiring in their beauty and ambition in others.
Basically, a little bit of a meat grinder!
The good news is that her twin gets it together pretty quick, and provides loving background support early and consistently, and she builds long term friendships that eventually help her create her own family life. Here’s hoping the terrifying neglect and irresponsibility end with her.