Fruits & Stuff
Menton, France, sculpture made with oranges and lemons, 91st lemon festival, photo by Sébastien Nogier/EPA, posted at theguardian.com:
Born in Glen Cove in 1951, Thomas Mallon grew up on Long Island in what he describes as “the kind of happy childhood that is so damaging to a writer.” He earned a Bachelor’s at Brown and a Master’s and Ph.D at Harvard. He is Phi Beta Kappa. He taught English for more than a decade at Vassar, writing all the while. He has had eleven novels published, specializing in historical fiction, and seven works of non-fiction. He was the editor at Gentleman’s Quarterly in the ‘90’s and contributed articles to other magazines of note. I just finished Dewey Defeats Truman, published in 1997. Set in Owosso, Michigan, Dewey’s hometown, it is a portrait of the lives of several of its citizens in the months leading to the 1948 presidential election, which produced, arguably, the biggest upset in American political history. Although it lacks the psychological insight of the best chroniclers of the human condition, it captures a great deal. The characters are interesting, especially the widow who lost her elder son to WWII and has retreated to the comfort of statistics, and a high school go-getter. Fortunately, the candidates are in the background. I usually stay away from political fiction, but the setting was the hometown of one of my college roommates, so I was unable to resist, and Harry S. Truman is one of the few Democrats I’ve ever admired. To my satisfaction, this was more about the average person than bigshots. I enjoyed this thought from a conversation between a potential couple: “…hoping this might pull the pin from the grenade.” Here are two quotes from a crusty vet of the Spanish-American War: “Son, one can’t undo anything.” And: “…The past is not a matter of time. It’s a place. Somewhere just out of reach.” And a thought from the female lead, a woman approaching 30 who works in a book store: “…How thin was the rope attaching us to this world?…” 29 users at Amazon have rated Dewey.., forging to a consensus of four on a scale of five. I’ll go with 3.5. The prose and dialogue are solid, although I would not categorize the 355 pages of the large paperback an easy read, which is perhaps more a reflection of my state of mind at 74. There is a benign homosexual situation. Mallon, gay, renounced the Republican party when Trump ascended. I guess he prefers the rule of spendthrift RINOs. He has received several literary awards. Photos from Google Images:
The 1948 polls were as wrong as all but the so-called internal polls are today. Here’s the breakdown:
Electoral vote: 303–189
States carried: 28–16, others 4
Popular vote: 24,178,347–21,991,292–1, others 176,023
Percentage: 49.6%-45.1%
Let this be so. Headline from foxnews.com: “Trump admin ditches NYC’s congestion pricing: ‘Slap in the face to working class’.”
Sad news out of Borough Park, Brooklyn. From FN: “Anti-Israel protest in NYC devolves into violence and mayhem.” Fear not — Schmuck Schumer is on the way — not!
Barranquilla, Colombia, statue of hometown girl Shakira, photo by Jesus Rico/AFP/Getty Images, posted at theguardian.com:
There was just enough sunshine to sustain the Anti-Inflation Book Shop for half a session. My thanks to Movie Buff, who bought Cross Fire by James Patterson.
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