The Writer's Life: The Writer's Life 6/10

Born in Dublin, the late Maeve Binchy had a terrific literary career. She began as a teacher, moved on to journalism, and finally to books. She wrote 16 novels, novellas, numerous short story collections, a play, and four works of non-fiction. Her work has been translated into 37 languages and sold more than 40 million copies. Three of her novels were adapted to the big screen. She wrote scripts for TV and radio plays. She was awarded for lifetime achievement by both Britain and Ireland. She passed away at 73 in 2012. I just finished one of her story collections, The Return Journey, published in the late '90's. The 14 pieces all have to do with travel. She focuses on relationships, not only mates but parents and children, and demonstrates insight into the psyche. I enjoyed two stories in particular. The Wrong Suitcase is about a man and a woman with the same initials who leave an airport with each other's bag. In order to make contact, they must go through the contents, and both are contemptuous of what they find. Yet when they make the exchange they are smiling and civil to each other, as many people would behave. In A Holiday with Your Father, a thirtyish divorcee laments not being able to get close to her dad, who is in all else exemplary. She tries to get him to accompany her on a week-long business trip to Paris in which she will have much free time, but he resists, so set in his ways is he. The frustration is palpable. My only quibble with the book is that I thought some pieces needed polishing. There are also the inevitable oddities that differentiate UK and American English. Still, The Return Journey goes miles beyond conventional romance, and Binchy never strays from decency. I don't recall a single cuss in the 200+ pages. 181 readers have rated the book at Amazon, forging to a consensus of 4.1 on a scale of five, a bit too high in my estimation. It has been reprinted and is still selling modestly, its ranking 750,000+ among the 13 million or so titles listed at Jeff Bezos' behemoth, one that no doubt makes living authors envious..

I know I'm not up to snuff on modern pop culture, but I'm feeling even more out of the loop after the suicide of chef Anthony Bourdain, who I knew nothing about other than his name. There were four page spreads on him in the NY Post the past two days. RIP, sir.

There are many yahoos in the sports press. Some, writers desperate to legitimize the NFL kneeling protesters, are linking Tim Tebow to them. If you think the protests are okay, just say so. Don't twist the truth. He was not protesting anything. He was praying. How I hope Tebow makes it to the major leagues just to hear his detractors' whine and rant. It once seemed he had zero chance to have a significant career in MLB. Now I'd say it's 5%. Of course, the way the Mets are going, he may get a September call up. That might be the only thing that would draw fans to the ballpark... Also in sports, certain writers are accusing NBA finals MVP Kevin Durant of having ruined the competitive balance of the league by signing with the already powerful Golden State Warriors a couple of years ago. In effect, they're taking shots at him for wanting to win. Get over yourselves.

My thanks to the Frenchman, who bought a pictorial on Cro Magnum man and Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville; and to the young woman who purchased Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ by Daniel Goleman; and to Ira, who selected Reader's Digest Scoundrels & Scalawags and another work of non-fiction on oddities; and to the young mom who treated her son to an entry in the The Bad Guys series by Aaron Blabey. The highlight of the session was getting to know more about Vitaly, a middle age immigrant from Russia, who grew up in northern Siberia, inside the Arctic Circle. He was the middle child. His two sisters are still there. His dad was a coal miner, his mom a nanny. He spent ten years in the Soviet army. I always enjoy speaking to him because he's trying so hard to learn English. Here's a pic of what it's like in winter in that part of the world - frozen eyebrows!