Ladies Day
Through the years several popular memoirs of harrowing experiences turned out, at least in part, to be faked. That isn’t the case with Meredith Hall’s Without a Map, published in 2007, told in non-linear form. Living in a small New Hampshire town in the mid ’60s, she became pregnant at 16 after a single sexual encounter. Four months later she was expelled from high school. Worse, her mom, divorced, until that time an exemplary mother, sent her to live with her father. He ordered her to remain indoors at all times. Despite these betrayals, she never expressed anything but love for her parents and her child, who was taken from her immediately upon birth and put up for adoption. Fortunately, she was accepted into an out of the way progressive high school and graduated in ’67, the same year I did. The narrative then evolves to an odyssey that includes a walk across Europe and the Middle East. It is a look at the mystery of life, existential without being intellectual. Understandably, this loving human being is a haunted soul who suffered psychological isolation. I know things were different back then, but I felt such anger toward her parents. Many would argue that things have now gone too far in the other direction. Whatever. This is terrific work. I have two quibbles. It is often repetitive. I realize that people who suffer such indignity would often go over the same ground constantly, but it can become tedious in literature. The other negative is the omission of her relationship with the father of her two boys. They divorced. I wondered if she were saving that for another memoir. Turns out she published a novel in 2020, Beneficence, that Amazon categorizes as Women’s Divorce Fiction. Anyway, Without a Map, a NY Times Best Seller, is first rate. Its 230+ pages, which includes a lengthy prologue, read like a lot less. The writing is solid, non-literary, real. 150 users at Amazon have rated it, forging to a consensus of 4.3 on a scale of five. I’ll go with four. Hall graduated from college at 44 and began writing. She has had work published in major publications.
Last night, Movies!, channel 5–2 on over the air antennas in NYC, aired an interesting double feature in prime time in its Noir to Die For series: The Unsuspected (1947), directed by Michael Curtiz, and Drive a Crooked Road (1954), directed by Richard Quine. I was surprised by the first from the opening credits. Joan Caulfield received top billing above Claude Rains. Although the name was vaguely familiar, I did not recall any of her credits. There are 40 titles under her name at IMDb, including two forgotten TV series in which she starred, one of which, My Favorite Husband, lasted three seasons, 88 episodes. Her most significant film credit is probably Monsieur Beaucaire (1946), starring Bob Hope. She began as a model. She also did theater. After she stopped acting, she became a successful businesswoman. She passed away at 69 in 1991. As for the film, its plot was outlandish but fun, and the supporting cast, Audrey Totter, Constance Bennett, Hurd Hatfield and Fred Clark, did a great job of selling it. Here’s the star:
Diane Foster, real name Olga Helen Laruska, of Ukrainian descent, was born in Canada. There are 65 titles under her name at IMDb. Although she never starred in her own series, she made one-shot and multiple appearances on TV’s most popular shows. Her last performance was in 1966 on The Wild Wild West. She then focused on raising her three kids from two marriages, and her art. She passed away at 90 in 2019. As for the film in question, which stars Mickey Rooney, it’s a solid crime story. To my chagrin, I nodded off during the last 15 minutes, which I’ll catch up to if it’s aired at an earlier time. Here’s a shot of Foster. Unfortunately, I was unable to find any pictures of her paintings:
So Pelosi wants to stage another coup through the 25th amendment. I’ve said this before: one Trump is worth more than the thousands of political hacks coast to coast, Democrats and Republicans. We’re still a Democratic Republic, at least until November.
It was a most unusual session of the floating book shop on this gorgeous day. Of the eleven sales, none were in Russian. Eight were by Stephen King, including the first three volumes of The Dark Tower series; Red Rabbit by Tom Clancy, Just One Look by Harlen Coben, and The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. My thanks to the buyers.
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