Dreaded newscasts and endless loops of Christmas jingles (you know, that tinny, badly arranged, flat, featureless cacophony of sound) you hear in all the public places, has me longing for John Cage’s Silent Prayer, “a piece of uninterrupted silence” that he intended to sell to Muzak as “an attempt to break through the din of mid-century American culture . . . and to present the beauty that comes out of stillness.”
While Cage didn’t complete Silent Prayer, we do have 4’33" (that is four minutes and 33 seconds of an orchestra not playing anything).
How much more delightful it was to sit after dinner and compile my winter reading list. A few chocolates, glass of mulled wine and a CD playing 4’33”. Bliss.
To whit, the pile (you ask for it):
The Life and Opinions of Maf the Dog, and of His Friend Marilyn Monroe
Andrew O’Hagan
“Marilyn took me everywhere. We had a lot of fun going up and down the avenues. . . . If she brought out the actor in me then it might be said that I brought out the philosopher in her.”
So the narrator Mafia Honey (Maf, for short), a Maltese terrier given to Marilyn Monroe in 1960 by her friend Frank Sinatra.
Epitaphs to Remember: Remarkable Inscriptions from New England Gravestones
Janet Greene
This is a surprisingly funny little book comprised of over 200 inscriptions, dating from the seventeenth century to the mid-1950’s it offers a unique look at our culture’s perspective on life and death. For those of us who’ve been known to traipse around old cemeteries on sunny afternoons, this book is a must-have.
97 Orchard: An Edible History of Five Immigrant Families in One New York Tenement
Jane Ziegelman
Jane Ziegelman set out to tell the remarkable true story of the Age of Migration in America from the intimate perspective (on the food prepared in the cramped kitchens) of five families of different ethnicity's-German, Irish, German Jewish, Russian-Lithuanian Jewish, and Italian-all occupied the same tenement building in New York’s Lower East Side sometime between 1863 and 1935. This read will be a delectable combination of cultural and culinary history.
The Lost German Slave Girl: The Extraordinary True Story of Sally Miller and Her Fight for Freedom in Old New Orleans
John Bailey
The Question of Sally’s identity and right to be free was brought to trial, ensnaring the best legal minds in Louisiana, the cream of New Orleans society, and the sizable German immigrant population. Over the course of several months, the drama and tension generated by the case captivated the entire South. This is a first-rate thriller, only more amazing for being true.
Clive’s recommendation
The Gardens of Kyoto
Kate Walbert
“I had a cousin, Randall, killed on Iwo Jima. Have I told you?”
The story begins with Ellen’s affectionate relationship with her pensive cousin Randall, who, as a teenager, is killed in World War II. Shortly after Ellen receives a package that includes the boy’s diary and his most treasured book, The Gardens of Kyoto. What she discovers within each volume affects her profoundly as she comes of age in 1950’s America.
Whether your holiday is Christmas, or another, or none at all, I have suggested for you the words—and the silences—that may bring you joy.
2 comments:
Thank you.
How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book.
Henry David Thoreau – Walden
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