Revanche, a 2008 film written and directed by Götz Spielmann, is good. Very, very good. It's a film that feels weighted every moment, like something inevitable and awful will happen, despite the characters' best of intentions. And so it goes: In a seedy area of Vienna, an ex-con man Alex works in a brothel where he meets and falls for Tamara, a Ukranian hooker. In an attempt to protect Tamara, pay off her debts that keep her tied to the brothel owner, and take her away with him, Alex plans a bank heist. But Alex's encounter with a rural cop and later the cop's wife leads them all toward a different conclusion, one that uncovers human frailty in the face of love loyalty, and revenge.
The film premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival in February 2008 and won a number of awards. It was nominated for the 2009 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide (Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl Wudunn) on Sunday
 |
Take Meena Hainsa, an Indian Muslim. She was kidnapped, trafficked, sold and kept enslaved in a town in Bhihar, near Nepal's border. She like many girls from poor village families in Nepal, India, and Cambodia are taken to town by middlemen with promises that they will work as fruit sellers. Instead, they are sold to brothels. And even if there was a chance to escape--where would they go? Their own family would not even take them back after learning their daughter lost their virginity, was taken by men.
Given the subject matter, I struggled with the brunch I would pair with the book club's discussion of the book. The women, who come from countries in sub-Saharan Africa, from Cambodia, Thailand, and India, are vastly different in terms of language and culture. Yet, all come from economically impoverished backgrounds and so the idea of serving opulent food was at odds with the women being represented in our reading. Playing host for such a book was proving more difficult than I thought.
So as I drove home from a busy morning downtown, I stopped at the new Whole Foods grocery store in Inner Bay in Seattle. Whole Foods, wholesome foods, and then I knew what I would cook. The book is about subsistence, the raw elements of human nature are all we have left when we find ourselves abandoned. And it is their strength of character that makes these women survive when all seem against them.
Subsistence is simple. Subsistence is fresh. Subsistence is to satisfy basic needs. So, I chose the egg. I cooked simple french omelets. Cheese. I shredded a bit of cheese on top, a small luxury: Morbier A.D.C. raw Mile, Les Trois Comtoi. Apparently morbier cheese is known for how it is treated. During the cheese processing, beer, water, or wine is poured over the rind and so the cultured cheese takes on a kind of nutty flavor.
I used salt and pepper to flavor the omelet and a little butter. The very basic of basic seasons. I bought a loaf of fresh bread from Whole Foods as well. Heated in the oven so the crust was flaky. Then despite extra carbohydrates, I fried potatoes as well, adding a little salt and pepper as well as garlic for spice.
On the table I had fresh grapes and strawberries, and a bit of watermelon. I made a pot of Darjeeling tea as well as brewed some coffee.
Bread, egg, potato, fruit. Of course the meal was a luxury far more than many of the women in this book had.
Those of us who read the book know that it was a stroke of luck that we were born here in the US versus in the small villages of Ethiopia, Congo, or Cambodia. But the crux of a book like this is to realize that we have the capacity to help, to change things on a small scale or even a large scale. A book like this opens the world wide to knowing why and how.
Nicholas Kristof's columns in the New York Times
Nicholas Kristof's channel on YouTube
Sunday Brunch Menu
French omelet with Shredded cheese: Morbier A.D.C. raw Mile, Les Trois Comtois
Potatoes seasoned with salt, pepper, and garlic
Bread
Butter and French Cantalet cheese
Goat cheese
Strawberries
Red grapes
Watermelon
Coffee
Darjeeling tea
Thursday, April 15, 2010
HOW TO INTERVIEW SOURCES FOR NON-FICTION WRITING (and How to Tell When They are Lying) with Charles R. Cross
I am thrilled to work in a job where a great deal of my time is spent writing. And in order to write, I have to interview a fair number of people. So, for this reason (as well as to be in the same room as Charles Cross), I went to Charles R. Cross's How To Write Like I Do workshop on interviewing at 826 Seattle.
Charles Cross is author of seven books, including Led Zeppelin: Shadows Taller Than Our Souls and Heavier Than Heaven, his biography of Kurt Cobain. A writer who knows how to interview people to be sure. http://www.charlesrcross.com/
So here are a few of the tidbits I gleaned from two precious hours under his tutelage.
Prepare
1. Write a wish list of interview subjects. (Cross says his list may be 12 people for a magazine article and 300 people for a book)
2. Do informational interviews to find out "who else to talk to."
3. Make up a matrix of who to talk to when, as in at what point in the writing do you need that critical information or after you have some critical information that you need in order to gain valuable perspective from a particular person
Asking for the interview
1. Don't pay them. Offer to buy them lunch.
2. Make them feel like they are essential to the story being told.
3. Be prepared to do the interview when you make the call to ask for the interview. Have the tape recorder ready to go, questions ready, pen and paper at hand.
4. If they're famous or have done other interviews, read and listen to everything the person has said and don't ask the same questions.
5. If don't reach them, record the date of the call and when to call back. Never give up. Never get mad or take it personally if the person doesn't call back.
During the interview
1. Be friendly, but stay professional at all times. In other words, control the interview. Ask the questions you need to ask.
2. Record the interview.
3. Listen attentively. Never underestimate the power of silence.
4. Ask a question repeatedly in different ways until you get the answer you need. But don't get testy, mad, or defensive.
5. Practice the Columbo technique: act dumb but never act like you know as much as you do, as in don't act like you've never heard it before.
6. If anything is controversial, let the person you are interviewing bring it up.
After the interview
1. Transcribe the interview
2. Go back to people when you find out new information.
3. Choose wisely what you use.
4. Capture the essence of someone's voice.
October 5, 2009 Ron and Don of MyNorthwest.com interview Charles R Cross
Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage (Elizabeth Gilbert)
By the best-selling author of Eat, Pray, Love, the sequel, Committed takes us with Elizabeth Gilbert as she comes to terms with a life-changing decision. In fact, she's committed to the decision. Committed to a significant other, ring or not. Committed to make marriage vows, like them or not. In this most recent book, Gilbert meditates on her reluctance to marry Felipe, a Brazilian man she had been dating and living with for two years.He is the same man Gilbert fell in love with at the end of the sojourn she chronicles in Eat, Pray, Love, now being made into a motion picture with Julia Roberts and Javier Bardem.
Gilbert is not alone in her decision not to marry, as it is shared by her significant other. It is that they are forced to make this choice when no other is left available. Felipe is permanently blocked from returning to the US after "overusing" his tourist visa, according to the Homeland Security guard that "deports" him back to Australia, where he has citizenship but no longer a home, and hasn't had a home there in over ten years.
So for nearly a year, the two of them travel from one cheap hotel in Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, or Indonesia to another. All the while, Gilbert researches the history of marriage in the Western world and interviews married women, not all of them Western. She interviews a Hmong woman in Vietnam as well as her own mother and grandmother to find out if they were happy to be married and if they were okay with whatever they gave up in getting married.
Gilbert's book interested me, not only because I thoroughly enjoyed Eat, Pray, Love, but because as a single woman Gilbert's own age, I, too, have thought a great deal about marriage, its benefits and detriments. And in comparison, other kinds of commitment that don't involve an exchange of vows and a signed, witnessed piece of legitimacy. For as Gilbert discovers in her research, and I have read and heard before, studies show marriage benefits men much more than women. Women who marry are more likely to be depressed than their single sisters; they are less healthy in general; and they don't make as much money or go as far in their careers. The inverse of all of these is true for married men. They are richer, healthier, and more successful when compared to their bachelor brothers.
Albeit, I have no statistics or studies to back me up, I'm going to go out on a limb so say that not all single men are like my good friend Scott who dines out more often than he uses his own kitchen. And not all single women are akin to the Cosmopolitan-drinking, weekends-on-the-town with Carrie and friends on Sex and the City. Because unlike these women, I like to cook. As do many men I know. Likely all of us for the same reason. We like really good food, and food worth eating does not come from a box or a carton that is reconstituted with oil and water or nuked in a microwave.
Here's another tidbit that women reading this may recognize. For a great while, I found myself reluctant to admit I liked to cook, because what often followed was a comment that my liking to cook would make me a good wife (and note here that I know full well that this comment was always meant as a compliment), but it was a comment that I never took lightly. For what I heard, nice or not, was that my culinary aptitude was akin to a job qualification, or was it a designation?
So, I was relieved that Gilbert was not the chief cook in her book, or was that purposeful? She purposely mentions that it is her boyfriend, Felipe. I can name a number of men that cook delicious food, but I can also imagine that not a one of them have been told that he would make a good husband, based on his skill in the kitchen. Because a woman who cooks is akin to a woman that cares for a man and her children. That's how I would interpret the comments I received. A caretaker. Someone who brings comfort as well as sustenance to those she loves. Gilbert has no inclination for children, unwilling as she is to make the sacrifices she sees her own grandmother and mother made in marrying and starting families.
So, if I were to cook or to dine, I would not choose the caviar and champagne moments associated with marriage proposals. For Gilbert, like me, does not take the decision to marry lightly. Rather it is a decision mulled over, journalled about, researched, and talked about endlessly into the night. And in times of stress and strife, what do we normally turn to? Comfort food would be "it" for me. Mac 'n cheese, of course. Cheesey, creamy bowls of macaroni noodles. Or a bowl of minestrone and a long fresh baguette. A glass of Beaujolais. Food that stirs tastebuds, brings back memories of the cozy kitchens we felt at ease in. Because for all the hesitation I have to be a mother, I loved being mothered. Does this make me "unwomanly or unnatural or selfish," adjectives Gilbert uses to describe the attitude some may have toward women who are not dying to have children or get married? I certainly hope not.
Because the truth is I would readily invite my whole neighborhood over for a Friday night cocktail or a Saturday barbecue of grilled salmon. And my nephew knows he has got me wound around his little finger when it comes to spending time with him. Because I have never for a minute doubted the joy that children bring.
More on Elizabeth Gilbert: http://www.elizabethgilbert.com
Monday, April 12, 2010
826 Seattle: HOW TO INTERVIEW SOURCES FOR NON-FICTION WRITING
Tuesday, April 13, 2010 - 7PM
HOW TO INTERVIEW SOURCES FOR NON-FICTION WRITING
(and How to Tell When They are Lying) with Charles R. Cross
How to Write Like I Do Adult Writing Series at 826 Seattle
One of the most important skills for any writer to learn is how to properly interview sources. Often, aspiring writers put excessive amounts of energy into crafting prose, ignoring the quality of the source material used to create their thesis. For a biography, interviews are usually the foundation upon which a book is built, but they are also vital to journalism, memoir, script writing, and historical fiction. For Charles R. Cross’s 2005 book, Room Full of Mirrors: A Biography of Jimi Hendrix, he interviewed 325 people—and a dozen of them were liars who could have scuttled the book, and history, without proper interviewing truth-seeking techniques. In this one-night workshop, Cross will address some of the basics of interviewing techniques, but he also will discuss how to determine the validity of subjects—an increasingly important aspect to writing in an era of fabrication and scandal.
BUY TICKETS AT BROWN PAPER TICKETS!
ABOUT CHARLES: Charles R. Cross is the author of seven books, including Led Zeppelin: Shadows Taller Than Our Souls released in October 2009 by It/Harper Collins. Heavier Than Heaven, his biography of Kurt Cobain, won the ASCAP Award for Outstanding Biography in 2002 and is presently being made into a theatrical film. Cross was editor of The Rocket, the Seattle music magazine, from 1986 through 2000. His writing has appeared in numerous magazines including Rolling Stone, Esquire, Playboy, Spin, and Spy. His writing has also appeared in dozens of newspapers including the London Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Seattle Times, and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. He lectures and teaches at a number of colleges on both journalism and pop culture. He has taught interviewing techniques at a number of writing workshops, and he occasionally is hired by law firms to present this class.
HOW TO INTERVIEW SOURCES FOR NON-FICTION WRITING
(and How to Tell When They are Lying) with Charles R. Cross
How to Write Like I Do Adult Writing Series at 826 Seattle
One of the most important skills for any writer to learn is how to properly interview sources. Often, aspiring writers put excessive amounts of energy into crafting prose, ignoring the quality of the source material used to create their thesis. For a biography, interviews are usually the foundation upon which a book is built, but they are also vital to journalism, memoir, script writing, and historical fiction. For Charles R. Cross’s 2005 book, Room Full of Mirrors: A Biography of Jimi Hendrix, he interviewed 325 people—and a dozen of them were liars who could have scuttled the book, and history, without proper interviewing truth-seeking techniques. In this one-night workshop, Cross will address some of the basics of interviewing techniques, but he also will discuss how to determine the validity of subjects—an increasingly important aspect to writing in an era of fabrication and scandal.
BUY TICKETS AT BROWN PAPER TICKETS!
ABOUT CHARLES: Charles R. Cross is the author of seven books, including Led Zeppelin: Shadows Taller Than Our Souls released in October 2009 by It/Harper Collins. Heavier Than Heaven, his biography of Kurt Cobain, won the ASCAP Award for Outstanding Biography in 2002 and is presently being made into a theatrical film. Cross was editor of The Rocket, the Seattle music magazine, from 1986 through 2000. His writing has appeared in numerous magazines including Rolling Stone, Esquire, Playboy, Spin, and Spy. His writing has also appeared in dozens of newspapers including the London Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Seattle Times, and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. He lectures and teaches at a number of colleges on both journalism and pop culture. He has taught interviewing techniques at a number of writing workshops, and he occasionally is hired by law firms to present this class.
Short Stories Live: A Mother's Tale, Sunday, May 23, 2010, 4 – 6pm
Downstairs at Town Hall, enter on Seneca Street
Your mom deserves more than a day—let’s make May Mother’s month and celebrate with this rich afternoon of classic short stories. On the program: "Eleanor’s Music" by Mary Gordon, a 2007 Best American Short Stories selection; the remarkable allegory "A Mother's Tale" by James Agee; and Cynthia Ozick’s chilling, compact Holocaust story "The Shawl." Program directed by Kurt Beattie. Presented by Town Hall with A Contemporary Theatre.
Advance tickets are $13/$10 Town Hall members, seniors & students, at www.brownpapertickets.com or 800/838-3006. $15/$13 at the door. Late seating is not guaranteed.
Your mom deserves more than a day—let’s make May Mother’s month and celebrate with this rich afternoon of classic short stories. On the program: "Eleanor’s Music" by Mary Gordon, a 2007 Best American Short Stories selection; the remarkable allegory "A Mother's Tale" by James Agee; and Cynthia Ozick’s chilling, compact Holocaust story "The Shawl." Program directed by Kurt Beattie. Presented by Town Hall with A Contemporary Theatre.
Advance tickets are $13/$10 Town Hall members, seniors & students, at www.brownpapertickets.com or 800/838-3006. $15/$13 at the door. Late seating is not guaranteed.
LEARN MORE:
www.acttheatre.org
www.acttheatre.org
Science: Lee Hood: Genomics 101, Wed, May 5 at 7:30 pm
Science: Lee Hood: Genomics 101
Wednesday, May 5, 2010, 7:30 – 9pm
Town Hall, Great Hall, enter on 8th Avenue
Institute for Systems Biology co-founder Lee Hood and his colleagues recently published a groundbreaking paper detailing the first whole genome sequencing of a family. Expected to boost the power and impact of genetic research, the study offers the first direct estimate of the human intergenerational mutation rate and pushes researchers closer to discovering the role genes play in diseases. Hood will recap the Human Genome Project, tie it into recent research, and discuss where this technology is headed. Presented as part of Seattle Science Lectures, with Pacific Science Center and University Book Store. Series sponsored by Microsoft.
Tickets are $5 at www.brownpapertickets.com or 800/838-3006, and at the door beginning at 6:30 pm. Town Hall members receive priority seating.
LEARN MORE:
www.systemsbiology.org
Read about genome sequencing in The Seattle Times
And in The New York Times
Wednesday, May 5, 2010, 7:30 – 9pm
Town Hall, Great Hall, enter on 8th Avenue
Institute for Systems Biology co-founder Lee Hood and his colleagues recently published a groundbreaking paper detailing the first whole genome sequencing of a family. Expected to boost the power and impact of genetic research, the study offers the first direct estimate of the human intergenerational mutation rate and pushes researchers closer to discovering the role genes play in diseases. Hood will recap the Human Genome Project, tie it into recent research, and discuss where this technology is headed. Presented as part of Seattle Science Lectures, with Pacific Science Center and University Book Store. Series sponsored by Microsoft.
Tickets are $5 at www.brownpapertickets.com or 800/838-3006, and at the door beginning at 6:30 pm. Town Hall members receive priority seating.
LEARN MORE:
www.systemsbiology.org
Read about genome sequencing in The Seattle Times
And in The New York Times
Seattle Poetry Slam, Sun, April 25, 7 – 9:30pm
Sunday, April 25, 2010, 7 – 9:30pm
Town Hall, Great Hall, enter on 8th Avenue
The Seattle Poetry Slam’s biggest show of the year will feature World Poetry Slam Champion Joaquin Zihuatenejo as well as the top eight performance poets in Seattle competing for a spot on the 2010 Seattle National Poetry Slam Team. Each year, more than 500 poets from 50 cities converge at the National Poetry Slam Championships, this year in St. Paul, Minn. Since 2000, Seattle has had a strong presence at this competition, regularly placing among the top 10 teams; last year, Tara Hardy, Karen Finneyfrock, coach Daemond Arrindell, Greg Bee, and Maya Hersh brought home the second-place trophy for the “Group Piece” competition.
Advance tickets $15/$12 earlybird/$10 under 21 at www.brownpapertickets.com or 800/838-3006.
LEARN MORE:
www.seattlepoetryslam.org
On YouTube
Town Hall, Great Hall, enter on 8th Avenue
The Seattle Poetry Slam’s biggest show of the year will feature World Poetry Slam Champion Joaquin Zihuatenejo as well as the top eight performance poets in Seattle competing for a spot on the 2010 Seattle National Poetry Slam Team. Each year, more than 500 poets from 50 cities converge at the National Poetry Slam Championships, this year in St. Paul, Minn. Since 2000, Seattle has had a strong presence at this competition, regularly placing among the top 10 teams; last year, Tara Hardy, Karen Finneyfrock, coach Daemond Arrindell, Greg Bee, and Maya Hersh brought home the second-place trophy for the “Group Piece” competition.
Advance tickets $15/$12 earlybird/$10 under 21 at www.brownpapertickets.com or 800/838-3006.
LEARN MORE:
www.seattlepoetryslam.org
On YouTube
David Remnick, Mon Apr 19 at 7:30 pm
When New Yorker editor David Remnick writes a book, he doesn’t shy from big topics, or big subjects. His 1994 book Lenin’s Tomb, about the collapse of the Soviet Union, won the Pulitzer Prize; he’s also the author of King of the World, the story of Muhammad Ali during the civil-rights movement. His latest book, The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama, charts the president's evolution from a confused young man to an icon of hope. UW Communication Professor David Domke will discuss the book with Remnick. Presented by Seattle Arts & Lectures.
Tickets are $15 general/$30 patron, at www.brownpapertickets.com, 800/838-3006, or at the door. A reception with Remnick for patron ticketholders will be held from for more information.
Tickets are $15 general/$30 patron, at www.brownpapertickets.com, 800/838-3006, or at the door. A reception with Remnick for patron ticketholders will be held from for more information.
Black Female Pioneers in the Old West , April 15, 7-9:30 PM
There are some saucy tales to be told as this generation moved from emancipation to madams, mothers, cowgirls, and society ladies. Despite oppressive circumstances, by grit, they thrived.
Northwest African American Museum
2300 S Massachusetts St
Seattle, WA 98144
April 15, 7-9:30 PM
Buy Tickets ($7) @ http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/72065
Northwest African American Museum
2300 S Massachusetts St
Seattle, WA 98144
April 15, 7-9:30 PM
Buy Tickets ($7) @ http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/72065
Monday, April 05, 2010
Hunger, a film (Steve McQueen)
Hunger is a film about the 1981 Irish hunger strike by the Irish republican prisoners in Northern Ireland. Written by Enda Walsh and Steve McQueen, who also directed, it premiered at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, and won the Caméra d'Or award for first-time filmmakers.
The imagery in this film is haunting. The naked, bony bodies of the proud, defiant men. The ugly brutality of the conditions. The visceral pain. The hunger epitomized in the starving body of Bobby Sands. A film that is riveting and difficult to watch.
Writing prompt: Write a scene in which one of the characters is furiously angry and powerless against the forces at work in the scene or other characters.
Saturday, April 03, 2010
Hunting and Gathering (Anna Gavalda)
I lucked out big time when I was invited to join this book club. Not only do we talk about intriguing books, but the food we eat to accompany the conversation is worthy of a five-star restaurant. So, henceforth, I will review books from this book club alongside the menu.
March 14, 2010
Perhaps most perfect is the most recent book club read: Hunting and Gathering by Anna Gavalda. I say the "most perfect" as food is central to the gained intimacy of the characters, and an amicable setting for friends to gather and discuss books.
Around our real table, Carol proudly admitted to using Volume 1 of Julia Child's original cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. And it sounded like she and her husband spent many hours following the recipes to a tee, complete with all the butter. It wasn't the first time. The book looked well worn, with stains like bookmarks on favorite recipes.
On each of our plates, Carol had placed a menu:
Potage Parmentier (Leek and Potato Soup, blogged about here: http://cookinginpajamas.onsugar.com/Mastering-Art-French-Cooking-Potage-Parmentier-aka-Leek-Potato-Soup-3462687)
Salade avec Sauce Vinaigrette (Salad with French Dressing, the dressing copied here: http://bad-girls-kitchen.blogspot.com/2010/04/sauce-vinaigrette-french-dressing.html)
Quiche a la Tomate, Nicoise (Fresh Tomato Quiche with Anchovies and Olives, and I thought I didn't like anchovies. How wrong I was!)
Quiche aux Champignons (Mushroom Quiche)
The dessert, Carol added, had been too much after cooking the other dishes for most of the day. So, instead, after the meal, she pulled out frozen containers of lemon and raspberry sherbet.
Carol had cooked French food because the book of the month, Hunting and Gathering, had been originally published in French as Ensemble, C'est tout. It was Anna Gavalda's fourth book. It's the story of a oddball group of four characters brought together despite their history, baggage, and circumstances in a timeless apartment where they are all little more than temporary squatters.
Camille Fauque, the central character, is a failed artist. Anorexic thin, we meet her when she has given up all hope and resolved to get by as a cleaning woman at night. Yet, living with Philou and Franck and eventually Franck's grandmother, Paulette, she finds herself wanting to find her way back.
Philou, the endearingly tall, awkward and stuttering fellow that Camille invited over one evening for dinner, becomes the catalyst that eventually brings Camille into the apartment after he finds her deathly ill. He comes from an aristocratic family, but has little affinity for them. His interest lies in by-gone centuries, and he opts to sell postcards on the street.
Franck is a womanizing, seemingly selfish and conceited fellow, who works six days a week as a chef. And yet, he becomes essential to the nourishment Camille needs for her transformation. She requests the food he cooks so that she will "be warmer and more appetizing," she says.
(An interesting idea--that good food can make us more lovable. All the more reason for us to talk about a book around a meal!)
The three, led largely by Camille, kidnap Franck's doddering grandmother, Paulette, from the public home to live with them in the apartment. Paulette is slowly slipping into dementia, but "with it" enough to recognize Camille needs a house as much as a home. She is by far my favorite character, especially after she comes into her own, teaching Camille how to plant and care for a garden.
(Again-food! Subsistence and life force, but thanks to birthplace and privilege, a taste-bud buffet stringed chemically to our feel-good meter.)
But why oh why was the French title translated into "hunting and gathering?" The French, "ensemble, c'est tout," translated imperfectly, is "together, that's everything," a more accurate title, if you ask me. Living together, despite squabbles and irritations, is infinitely better than living alone. And that friends, dear, dear friends, can provide a sense of belonging when family is absent or cancerous.
If my one gripe is that the ending is too predictable, I have to still admit that I kept reading with the same fascination 'til the end. Probably because a skeptic like me expects failures too often. Failed relationships. Failed love. Failed careers. And each one of these characters has failed. Failed in big ways. And still, these characters find solace in each other, making me realize that human compassion, love, and hope survive calamity. So long as there are others and that they stay together. That's everything.
Now a motion picture, starring Audrey Tautou. Trailer for the movie at: http://www.huntingandgathering.com.au/
PS Stay tuned. Half the Sky by Nicholas D. Kristof of The New York Times is up next. And I'm the chef. Any suggestions for menu items?
March 14, 2010
Perhaps most perfect is the most recent book club read: Hunting and Gathering by Anna Gavalda. I say the "most perfect" as food is central to the gained intimacy of the characters, and an amicable setting for friends to gather and discuss books.
Around our real table, Carol proudly admitted to using Volume 1 of Julia Child's original cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. And it sounded like she and her husband spent many hours following the recipes to a tee, complete with all the butter. It wasn't the first time. The book looked well worn, with stains like bookmarks on favorite recipes.
On each of our plates, Carol had placed a menu:
Potage Parmentier (Leek and Potato Soup, blogged about here: http://cookinginpajamas.onsugar.com/Mastering-Art-French-Cooking-Potage-Parmentier-aka-Leek-Potato-Soup-3462687)
Salade avec Sauce Vinaigrette (Salad with French Dressing, the dressing copied here: http://bad-girls-kitchen.blogspot.com/2010/04/sauce-vinaigrette-french-dressing.html)
Quiche a la Tomate, Nicoise (Fresh Tomato Quiche with Anchovies and Olives, and I thought I didn't like anchovies. How wrong I was!)
Quiche aux Champignons (Mushroom Quiche)
The dessert, Carol added, had been too much after cooking the other dishes for most of the day. So, instead, after the meal, she pulled out frozen containers of lemon and raspberry sherbet.
 |
| Anna Gavalda |
Camille Fauque, the central character, is a failed artist. Anorexic thin, we meet her when she has given up all hope and resolved to get by as a cleaning woman at night. Yet, living with Philou and Franck and eventually Franck's grandmother, Paulette, she finds herself wanting to find her way back.
Philou, the endearingly tall, awkward and stuttering fellow that Camille invited over one evening for dinner, becomes the catalyst that eventually brings Camille into the apartment after he finds her deathly ill. He comes from an aristocratic family, but has little affinity for them. His interest lies in by-gone centuries, and he opts to sell postcards on the street.
Franck is a womanizing, seemingly selfish and conceited fellow, who works six days a week as a chef. And yet, he becomes essential to the nourishment Camille needs for her transformation. She requests the food he cooks so that she will "be warmer and more appetizing," she says.
(An interesting idea--that good food can make us more lovable. All the more reason for us to talk about a book around a meal!)
The three, led largely by Camille, kidnap Franck's doddering grandmother, Paulette, from the public home to live with them in the apartment. Paulette is slowly slipping into dementia, but "with it" enough to recognize Camille needs a house as much as a home. She is by far my favorite character, especially after she comes into her own, teaching Camille how to plant and care for a garden.
(Again-food! Subsistence and life force, but thanks to birthplace and privilege, a taste-bud buffet stringed chemically to our feel-good meter.)
But why oh why was the French title translated into "hunting and gathering?" The French, "ensemble, c'est tout," translated imperfectly, is "together, that's everything," a more accurate title, if you ask me. Living together, despite squabbles and irritations, is infinitely better than living alone. And that friends, dear, dear friends, can provide a sense of belonging when family is absent or cancerous.
If my one gripe is that the ending is too predictable, I have to still admit that I kept reading with the same fascination 'til the end. Probably because a skeptic like me expects failures too often. Failed relationships. Failed love. Failed careers. And each one of these characters has failed. Failed in big ways. And still, these characters find solace in each other, making me realize that human compassion, love, and hope survive calamity. So long as there are others and that they stay together. That's everything.
Now a motion picture, starring Audrey Tautou. Trailer for the movie at: http://www.huntingandgathering.com.au/
PS Stay tuned. Half the Sky by Nicholas D. Kristof of The New York Times is up next. And I'm the chef. Any suggestions for menu items?
Thursday, April 01, 2010
Writing Prompt with video
An elderly couple walked into the lobby of the Mayo Clinic for a checkup and spotted a piano. They've been married for 62 years and he'll be 90 this year. Describe the moment right before they started playing.
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