Lost & Found
This great shot of Hollywood legends came up last night in a youtube photo array. The artist is Jane Russell. The subject is obvious. They co-starred in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953). Photo from Google Images:
Born in New Haven in 1954, Susan Daitch has carved out a successful literary career, publishing six novels and a short story collection. A graduate of Barnard, mom of one, her work has appeared in literary magazines of note. She teaches at the university level. I just finished The Lost Civilization of Suolucidir, her sixth book, published in 2016. It’s a non-linear story of the search for what is believed to be the final destination of at least a few of the lost tribes of Israel, a remote area of Iraq near borders shared with Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan, buried by an earthquake. The novel profiles three groups who discover what may be it, the action set pre-WWI, pre-WWII, and circa 2010, the latter headed by a young Brooklyn guy. Very early in the narrative I sensed it was going nowhere and that the story would be unsatisfying. I stayed with it because I wanted to see if I could read something difficult. It is as dense as any novel I’ve ever read, filled with digressions, its 310 pages, minus a few blanks, reading like considerably more. It is not without interesting moments, but they are buried, like the city itself, beneath an avalanche of minutiae. Make no mistake, this is the work of a keen mind, aimed at those on her intellectual or literary level. Why she chose to assign the difficult to pronounce name of the city is beyond me. “Suo” is defined as “in his/her own right — used especially following the title of a noblewoman to specify that she holds the title independently of her husband.” Most folks know what “lucid” means. “Ir” is the Spanish verb for “go.” My guess is that Soulucidir means “unclear.” The prose and dialogue are solid, although the editor missed more errors than is usually found in a book. Daitch has received grants, fellowships and literary awards. 16 users at Amazon have rated The Lost…, forging to a consensus of 3.4 on a scale of five. I don’t feel comfortable rating it, as it may simply be a case of the point being beyond my grasp, although there is little in the narrative I didn’t understand. I usually wait a day between reads. I’ve already dived into the next, wanting to put distance between myself and The Lost Civilization of Suolucidir. It wasn’t a total loss. I cherry-picked one excerpt: “Do you think, she asked, children made paper airplanes before actual planes were invented?” I would say yes. Photo from GI:
This story gets more amusing. Headline from nypost.com: “Nebraska teacher, 45, caught naked in car with teen is married to a Harvard-educated government official.” Anyone surprised?
Nice work if you can get it. From NYP: “I was an electrician, now I’m a professional Jeff Bezos lookalike — and my life is lavish, too.” Life never ceases to fascinate. Suddenly I have the weird feeling I’ve mentioned this before.
A last-minute rush put the Anti-Inflation Book Shop over the top on this gorgeous day. My thanks to Dave, who donated another cook book; and to the young man who overcompensated me for Heaven Is for Real: A Little Boy’s Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back by Todd Burpo & Lynn Vincent, and Eternal Companion by Swami Prabhavananda; and to the young woman who bought Power by Jackie Collins, Carolina Moon by Nora Roberts, Catch Me If You Can: The True Story of a Real Fake by Frank W. Abagnale & Stan Redding, Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously by Julie Powel and The Color of Water by James McBride; and to my Constant Benefactress, who purchased Killing Jesus by Bill O’Reilly & Martin Dugard, which she will read a second time; and to Marty, NYPD retired, who took home Coincidence by yours truly. His dad was also a cop. When asked one day how his shift went, Marty said it was taken up largely by five traffic accidents. His dad remarked that he must have cleaned up. Marty didn’t know what he meant. In the old days, ‘70s, cops had a deal with pick-up drivers that garnered five bucks a pop. These days the desk sergeant works from a list in which the companies called are rotated in order to prevent fraud. Marty’s dad said: “Get atta heah!” To his dying day, Marty’s dad didn’t believe it.
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