Sunday, August 30, 2020

From current event you couldn't avoid to forgotten history

 

I post this not because I endorse the t-shirt's empirical claims or its politics. I do not. 

Instead, I post it because of the question it elicited from my 13-year-old: "Who's the third guy?"

Oh do I feel old.

Friday, August 28, 2020

Book: The Lost Daughter by Elena Ferrante

 Ferrante, Elena. 2006. The Lost Daughter. Europa Editions.

So I bought this book because I wanted to see what all the fuss was about in regard to Elena Ferrante without taking the time to reader her famous trilogy. The Lost Daughter is short but not at all sweet, and sufficed to convince me that, perhaps unusually, Elena lives up to the hype. The book is a hard look at the conflicts that motherhood engenders (cough, cough) in women of independent mind seeking career success along with parental satisfaction. Though blunt, and not at all soft on its protagonist, the book also evinces a respect for the ever-troubled combination of human ambition and human weakness. Plus beautiful writing.

Recommended.

Bonus Atlantic article on the mysterious Elena, who even her translator has never met.

I am pretty sure I purchased this at Kramer Books just off Dupont Circle in DC

Amazon book page

Barnes and Noble book page

The Bubble on SNL



A bit dated now but still pretty funny.