September 8, 2023 • 27 mins
Amy kicks off Season Four of the podcast with a discussion of the literary novel The Librarianist by Patrick deWitt and the memoir You Could Make This Place Beautiful by poet Maggie Smith. The Librarianist is the story of retired librarian Bob Comet. Hoping to fill a void in his life, he volunteers at a senior's centre. Amid a community of strange peers, Bob reflects on his past and his character is revealed. You Could Make This Place Beautiful is a firsthand account about the breakdown of a marriage and the rebirth of a person. Told through gorgeous prose, the memoir is sad, funny and hopeful. Amy also discusses the Netflix comedy Fisk and the podcast I've Had It.
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Unknown (00:00):
Good bones. Life is short, though I keep this from
my children. Life is short, andI've shortened mine in 1000
Delicious, ill advised ways 1000deliciously ill advised ways
I'll keep from my children. Theworld is at least 50% Terrible.
And that's a conservativeestimate, though I keep this
(00:21):
from my children. For everybird, there's a stone thrown in
a bird. For every love child, achild broken, bad, sunk and
Lake. Life is short, and theworld is at least half terrible.
And for every kind stranger,there is one who would break
you, though I keep this from mychildren. I'm trying to sell
(00:41):
them the world. Any decentrealtor walking you through a
real shithole chirps on aboutgood bones. This place could be
beautiful, right? You could makethis place
(01:12):
Hello, welcome back to the RedFern book review. I am your
host, Amy Mair. And I'm happy towelcome you back to the podcast,
and the very start of seasonfour. I'm so excited to be here.
And I've spent all summerresearching and reading and
every time I watch a show,listen to a podcast or read a
(01:35):
book, I think about you thelistener and whether what I'm
reading or listening to would besomething that would be of
interest to you. And so whatwe're going to do today is a bit
of a book report of sorts. I'mgoing to talk to you about a
couple of books that I read overthe summer months. And also I'm
(01:58):
going to talk to you about ashow which you may have, in fact
watched and a podcast that I'menjoying. And so the books that
we're going to read today arethe first one is The
Librarianist by Patrick DeWitt.
And the second one is a memoir,called You Could Make This Place
Beautiful by Maggie Smith. Andthat's Maggie Smith, the poet
(02:22):
and not the actress from DowntonAbbey, or Dame Maggie Smith. And
the poem that I read at the topof the podcast is Maggie's most
famous poem that actuallychanged her life and probably
led to was the final straw inher marriage. So we'll get to
that in a minute. But let'sstart by talking about some
(02:45):
things that I enjoyed listeningto and watching over the summer.
So the first thing I have tostart with is Fisk. And if you
haven't already seen it, pleasewatch it. It's on Netflix. It's
super fun, quirky, to say theleast comedy about a sad sack
corporate lawyer. And she's justbeen fired from her job and
(03:09):
Sydney and doesn't really knowwhat to do. And she's also
recently divorced. So she goesto a recruiter and ends up
getting a job working for a veryodd law firm called goober and
goober, located in Melbourne,Australia. So this is just a
super fun comedy following Helentutor, tutor Fisk is her name.
(03:32):
So that's her last name, theshow is her name. And it stars
kitty Flanagan who wrote thisshow alongside her sister, and
she's a big star in Australia.
I'd never heard of her before.
But she's a comedian. And Iwould say this is a bit of the
office meets Boston Legal. Andeach episode is a bit of a
(03:55):
standalone where the very smallquirky law firm has equally
quirky clients. And it's abrother and sister team Gruber
and Gruber, that run the place.
And the man is kind of a grump.
And the woman is she lost herlicense to practice law. So
she's just the office managerand just kind of in everybody's
(04:18):
way, and my favorite characteris a guy who basically is the
receptionist but calls himselfthe webmaster, which is a super
outdated term and just uses thisall the time. And I was talking
with my friend Mia who ismarried to an Australian and I
was telling her I was like Ijust love this so much and I
(04:41):
think I love it more than theaverage British comedy. And she
said, Well, that's because it's,it's more and mature. So kind of
with the Australians, nothing'soff limits. And I think you'll,
I think you'll really enjoy itfrom Helen wears like a super
baggy brown suit every day. Itlooks terrible on her. And she
(05:05):
does it just because it's easy,and she doesn't have to worry
about it. And downstairs fromher office, there's a super cute
cafe. And one day she was beinga bit obnoxious to somebody in
the cafe who happens to be theowner. And so now she gets
banned from there and can neverget her morning coffee. So
(05:29):
there's kind of a running gagthat everyone else has to kind
of go get her coffee every day,whether it's a client, or
someone else who works in theoffice. So check that out if you
want to laugh, and there is aseason two. Netflix hasn't
bought it yet, but I'm sure thatthey will. So I'm looking
(05:52):
forward to that. Okay, so thenext thing I want to talk about
is a really fun podcast calledI've had it podcast. And it
stars two best friends fromOklahoma City, Jennifer Welsh,
and Angie pumps, Sullivan pumpsas her nickname. They've been
friends for 23 years. And theyare kind of Bravo TV stars.
(06:15):
There's, they have a show, andI'm not sure if it's still
running. But it was called SweetHome Oklahoma, starring Jennifer
Welsh as an interior designerjust kind of talking about her
daily life. And, and she wouldmake appearances as her best
friend. And they're just reallyfunny. They swear a lot. And
(06:38):
they make a lot of fun of theirmiddle age, mom life. And they
just complain the whole timeabout whatever they can complain
about the PGA, they think thewhole thing needs to burn to the
ground. They complain abouttelevangelists. They hate the
word. Bless your heart. Theyhate that term. And they think
(07:02):
true crime is ridiculous. And II love this. They say I watched
Dateline, I have to admit, I'mgoing to help myself here. But
one of them says I'm part of theproblem. So I can't say anything
but good things. And the otherwoman says, I mean, I kind of
have a low key crush on Datelinehost, Keith Morrison, there's
(07:26):
something soothing about hearinghim talk about murder, I could
just ease into my bed and justfeel ultimately relaxed as he
talks about homicide. It'sreally effed up. So that's kind
of the tone of it. And I wouldjust say this is a podcast, if
you're just looking for like atotal escape. It's clever. It's
(07:49):
funny, I love their OklahomaCity accents. But it's, it's not
going to change your world.
It'll just be a really fungiggle. And of course, like the
best of podcasts, you feel like,you know them and that you're,
they're your friend, and you'rekind of there with them. So I
(08:13):
recommend that they also haveguests on to who go ahead and
complain with them. So okay,let's talk about the books. The
first book I'm going to talkabout is the librarian list,
which is actually not a realterm, I had to double check
that. So Patrick DeWitt is theauthor. And he is best known. He
(08:36):
wrote a book called The SistersBrothers, which many of you will
know about. And it's a wittyWestern about a pair of sibling
assassins, and I will compare itto a Coen Brothers. Kind of, if
the Coen brothers were to writea book, that's what it would be
like. She he also wrote a bookcalled The French accent. And
(09:00):
it's a comedy of manners about awidowed Manhattan socialite
who's just burned through herhusband's inheritance and takes
off to a friend's apartment inParis to escape with her son
with her adult son. And then hewrote another book called under
major domo, and it's a sort ofGothic adventure. And so this
(09:24):
book is different yet again. Butwhat it how it's United is he
has this very clever, I wouldcall it droll sense of humor.
So, so clever and so so funny.
But you're not necessarilylaughing out loud, but you're
just like, it's just, it'sabsurdist. It's really funny.
But he's written this book, andit's been called a quiet book,
(09:47):
which I've come to discover. Iactually enjoy quiet books. And
not a whole lot happens in thisbook, but I do recommend it. So
I'm going to tell you a bitabout it and you can decide if
it's for you. So what it's aboutit's about a guy named Bob
comment. And he's a retiredlibrarian. And he has a pretty
(10:10):
boring life. He lives in a mintcolored house in Portland,
Oregon. And he takes a dailywalk, he doesn't have any
friends. And he was alibertarian for many years
didn't make any friends there.
But as his life is all aboutorder, until one day, that
(10:32):
changes, and what happens, he'sat the 711. And he sees this
wacky woman staring at powerdrinks, like in the case. And
she's wearing matching pinksweatsuit, bright white
sneakers, a mesh back baseballhats, a pair of dark sunglasses,
and she's standing like astatue. And so he looks over at
(10:54):
the cash person and says, Whatis this person, okay. And for
some, the guy's like, I don'tthink so. And so what ends up
happening is he gets this womanout of the store, follows her
out of the store, and gets herback to
the retirement home where sheactually lives. And there's this
(11:16):
hard charging woman who runs theplace. And there's this total
cast of wacky, more wackycharacters. And through a series
of events, Bob starts tovolunteer at this retirement
home, and it completely changeshis life. And so my whole take
on the whole point of thisretirement home, is just a way
(11:37):
to have a whole slew of sidecharacters, which is what I
think Patrick Patrick strengthis, is creating this kind of
people that just kind of comeand go and have wacky
conversations and move throughthe scene with Bob kind of as a
senator as a straight person.
And this book reminded me of twothings. It reminded me a bit of
(12:01):
David Copperfield, with DavidCopperfield as the straight man,
and all these crazy charactersswirling around them. And it was
also sad. And this book is kindof sad as well. And it takes
place in the early aughts. So2005 2006, and he's at this
point, a bob is 71 years old.
(12:26):
And that's kind of when his lifechanges with this retirement
home. But a lot of the book isReflections on his past. So he
has a pretty sad backstory,where the one woman that he
loves, and fell in love with andmarried, ends up leaving him for
his very best friend, and thosewere actually his only two
(12:47):
friends. So there's a lot ofdiscussion of that. But you're
gonna say, why would I read thissad book? I think you'd read it.
Because you're Patrick DeWittfan, and you want to see what
else he's been up to. I thinkyou'd read it, because it's just
a fun. It's fun, but is it? Iwould give it I'm gonna give it
(13:12):
a four out of five. And if youlike a lot of action in your
books, I probably wouldn't readthis. I just find him so clever.
A little bit about PatrickDeWitt also just did I mention
that he is from BritishColumbia. And he now lives in
Portland, Oregon. And I actuallywant to try and have him on the
(13:34):
podcast, but he has no socialmedia presence. What whatsoever,
I found him hard to track down.
So I wasn't able to reach him.
But I was laughing because I'mlaughing now because he is from
British Columbia. And wheneverI, whenever there's someone from
(13:54):
Canada, I always have to tell myfriend from Kansas City,
Jennifer Kraus, oh, they'reCanadian, older from Vancouver.
And so she's always teasing methat everybody's from Vancouver.
But he in fact is from BritishColumbia. So I would give it a
four out of five. And that'sthat. Okay, so now we're gonna
(14:15):
move over and talk about a bookthat I just absolutely love,
love, love. And so the openingat the top of the podcast, you
heard me read a poem that kindof changed Maggie Smith's life.
And what this is, is this is amemoir, called you can make this
place beautiful. And a littlebit about Maggie Maggie was
(14:39):
trucking along as a poet, whichis probably a pretty hard way to
go making her art in the middleof Ohio, in Columbus. So she
calls herself she says I livedin the heart of the heart. So
Ohio is a heart shaped state,and Columbus is in the middle of
the heart. So she lives inBexley. And it was interesting
(15:03):
because as I was reading along,and I didn't know for sure until
it was done, she's talking abouther college and I'm thinking, I
think she went to my school. AndI found out later she did. So
she's a graduate of OhioWesleyan, which is a small
liberal arts school, 30 minutesnorth of Baxley. And that was
(15:23):
fun, so I could relate to thatexperience that she had there.
And then she just talks a lotabout little landmarks around
Columbus. She talks aboutLundy's, which is a really nice
restaurant. And Germantown,which is a quaint neighborhood
or Lundy's is also located. Andwhat also struck me, she talks
(15:47):
about this a lot. She'sessentially from a flyover
state. And I also grew up in aflyover state, Kansas City. And
it's the kind of state that youdon't think about going there on
vacation you don't really talkabout. But she loves it. It's
it's talks about family, herfamily's from their parents, or
(16:09):
their sisters or their she haslots of friends that are there.
And I just really kind ofappreciate that she's not from
New York, she's not fromChicago, she's from Ohio.
Another thing about this book,she does talk about the
pandemic, I feel like I shouldgive a pandemic warning when
(16:32):
pandemic as a topic of a book,because I find probably like me,
you don't always want to hearabout the pandemic, because you
kind of want to put that behindyou. But I found that her
marriage started to unravelduring the pandemic. And there's
some sort of fun moments in it,in that there's this fun scene
where she is bopping around onrollerblades in her driveway
(16:57):
with her best friend wearingsome wacky outfits. And just
finding a way to have a goodtime when you can't see or talk
to anybody. So I thought it wasa good way to treat sort of the
pandemic. So what this book isabout, she actually wrote a book
a few years before. And it wascalled Keep moving. And it was
(17:22):
sort of musings on the end of amarriage. And this one was a
little more specific. And it's amemoir about the end of her
marriage. But really why I likedthis book. There's two reasons I
like it for incredible writing.
So clever. It's veryexperimental. And people have
compared it to Rachel cos. AndDeborah Levy. So I would, I
(17:46):
would agree with that. It is sheis a poet. And I would say it's
like poems strung together and avery cohesive pattern, kind of
like a really good old fashionedalbum. And each chapter, there's
a very clever title that tellsyou what, what it's about. And
(18:13):
some of the chapters are oneline. Some of them go on for
several pages. Some of them arequotes. Some of them are her
speaking what seems likedirectly to you, which is quite
powerful, almost like a, a Greekchorus. And what I also liked
about this book is she makes itvery personal. But she doesn't
(18:35):
make it a towel all. So thisisn't a book where she's
trashing her husband, he doesnot come across very well in
this book, but she keeps a lotof things private, and just is
more mining, the emotions thatshe's having during that time,
which is basically that she'sbroken open and has no choice
but to reinvent herself. And sothis book is really about hope
(19:00):
and reinvention. But the way itstarts is her husband who's a
lawyer comes home from abusiness trip. And he gives his
son she's got two different twochildren together, gives his son
a pine cone and kind of goes offto bed. And for some reason,
something just didn't sit rightwith her. And she decides and
(19:22):
what she says is against kind ofher character or better judgment
to go through hishis bag. And in his bag in his
travel bag, she finds apostcard. And the postcard has a
woman's name, a woman's address.
And in it he writes aboutwalking on the beach with her
(19:48):
and finding a pine conetogether. And he gave the same
pine cone to his son. And sofrom there, she's not really
sure what she's reading. Sheknows what she's read, but can't
really believe that her lifejust kind of implodes. And from
there, it's kind of just thislike series of vignettes. But
one of the things, and thereason why I started with this
(20:14):
poem good bones is she believesthat this poem, essentially was
the final kind of end of ourmarriage, because before she got
this postcard, this poem waswritten in 2016. And up to that
point, she was the primarycaregiver. And looking after the
kids and fitting in her poetry,and her husband was a lawyer, a
(20:37):
corporate lawyer, and wassuccessful. And then when good
bones came out, it just was likea Zeitgeist. And what happened
was Meryl Streep ended upreading this poem, out loud, and
in events. And on the show,Madam Secretary, this poem was
also read, it blew up onTwitter, she all of a sudden had
(21:02):
all these requests to speak. Andshe was becoming famous and at
least famous from a poetstandard. And it's pretty hard
to be a famous poet. So thenwhat was happening is she needed
more childcare, she needed to goout of town. And she feels that
their ecosystem change, therewas a change in kind of a power
(21:25):
dynamic between them. And whileshe keeps it fairly vague, it
doesn't sound like the poemended her marriage, but it was
sort of that final straw or hermarriage couldn't survive, just
sort of a change incircumstance. And I what I
wanted to end with, there were acouple of things I also wanted
to mention, I love thisbeginning quote, that she starts
(21:49):
the book with, she says, I amout with lanterns, looking for
myself, by Emily Dickinson. Ijust love that. And then I
wanted to finish by talkingabout one of the things that
Maggie has learned about herselfabout not seeking approval from
others, which the older we get,the more we know, I think often
(22:13):
women to stereotype have moretrouble with that, learning that
lesson. But the older you get,the easier it is. And I
subscribe to her newsletter. Andher newsletter is mainly to talk
about how to be a better writer.
But this came into my inbox andI just thought, oh, I have to
share it with you because I justthought it was so great. And so
(22:34):
this is what she said. She said,she talks about how she went
online and against her betterjudgment was reading comments
about her and her writing. Andpeople had super strong
reactions to her in her opinion,and that some people just hate
her work. And some they find itsuper annoying, and some love
(22:58):
it. And she uses the phrase shesays one person's yuck is
another person's yum. And shesays as I was writing you could
make this place beautiful takingrisks with both form and
content. I suspected for everythat for every reader who attach
certain craft choices. Therewould be a reader who chafe at
(23:20):
those same choices. The directaddress the vignette that
vignettes, the meta aspect ofthe narration, the privacy
boundaries, I knew all of thesewere love it or loathe the
choices. All of this is to say Iknew I was writing a book with a
strong flavor, but I love strongflavors, blue cheese, smoked
(23:43):
kalamata olives, smoked anythingreally, very dark, bitter
chocolate, very black, bittercoffee, chili, crisp, Rose
lemonade, dill, pickles, hotcurry, and Imperial IPA. I find
these things delicious. But Ialso completely understand how
(24:03):
they might taste terrible toother people. Taste is
subjective, you're not foreveryone. Your work is not for
everyone. So be it. And withthat, I want to conclude the
first episode of the new seasonof The Red firm book review. And
thank you so much for joining.
(24:26):
And I just wanted to give you alittle preview about some things
coming up. We've got a reallygreat season planned. Next week,
I'm super excited. I've got alocal author on Iona Whishaw,
who in her third act in her 60sstarted writing murder
(24:46):
mysteries. And she writes theElaine Winslow mystery series,
and they're set in World WarTwo. And they're really fun,
especially if you love LouisePenny, where it's like a murder
mystery set and a small Canadiantown, I think you'll really
enjoy this. But what's reallyinteresting is the main
character, Elaine Winslow was aspy during World War Two. And it
(25:10):
turns out that I own his mom wasa spy during World War Two. And
before that her grandfather wasa spy. So such interesting.
That's such an interestingbackstory. later this fall, I'm
going to have Pam weathers onwho's a journalist, turn ya
author. And she talks about thepower of why novels, sometimes
(25:34):
we want to like, get back to ourentertain, although I'm not sure
that I do. But just kind ofrecall those strong emotions
that you have when you're ateen. And when life is a lot
simpler, but in some waysharder. And oh, I can't wait in
October with Susan Mathesonback, who has the bedside table,
(25:58):
book blog, and she always comeson every fall and does a fall
preview. So that's something tolook forward to. So thanks so
much for tuning in. Be sure tocheck out my Instagram at Red
Fern book review. And also, youcan check out my website at Red
Fern book review.com and leaveme a positive review on Apple
(26:23):
podcasts. And I look forward toconnecting with you more this
fall. And I will talk with yousoon. Thanks for listening. Bye
Good bones. Life is short, though I keep this from
my children. Life is short, andI've shortened mine in 1000
Delicious, ill advised ways 1000deliciously ill advised ways
I'll keep from my children. Theworld is at least 50% Terrible.
And that's a conservativeestimate, though I keep this
(00:21):
from my children. For everybird, there's a stone thrown in
a bird. For every love child, achild broken, bad, sunk and
Lake. Life is short, and theworld is at least half terrible.
And for every kind stranger,there is one who would break
you, though I keep this from mychildren. I'm trying to sell
(00:41):
them the world. Any decentrealtor walking you through a
real shithole chirps on aboutgood bones. This place could be
beautiful, right? You could makethis place
(01:12):
Hello, welcome back to the RedFern book review. I am your
host, Amy Mair. And I'm happy towelcome you back to the podcast,
and the very start of seasonfour. I'm so excited to be here.
And I've spent all summerresearching and reading and
every time I watch a show,listen to a podcast or read a
(01:35):
book, I think about you thelistener and whether what I'm
reading or listening to would besomething that would be of
interest to you. And so whatwe're going to do today is a bit
of a book report of sorts. I'mgoing to talk to you about a
couple of books that I read overthe summer months. And also I'm
(01:58):
going to talk to you about ashow which you may have, in fact
watched and a podcast that I'menjoying. And so the books that
we're going to read today arethe first one is The
Librarianist by Patrick DeWitt.
And the second one is a memoir,called You Could Make This Place
Beautiful by Maggie Smith. Andthat's Maggie Smith, the poet
(02:22):
and not the actress from DowntonAbbey, or Dame Maggie Smith. And
the poem that I read at the topof the podcast is Maggie's most
famous poem that actuallychanged her life and probably
led to was the final straw inher marriage. So we'll get to
that in a minute. But let'sstart by talking about some
(02:45):
things that I enjoyed listeningto and watching over the summer.
So the first thing I have tostart with is Fisk. And if you
haven't already seen it, pleasewatch it. It's on Netflix. It's
super fun, quirky, to say theleast comedy about a sad sack
corporate lawyer. And she's justbeen fired from her job and
(03:09):
Sydney and doesn't really knowwhat to do. And she's also
recently divorced. So she goesto a recruiter and ends up
getting a job working for a veryodd law firm called goober and
goober, located in Melbourne,Australia. So this is just a
super fun comedy following Helentutor, tutor Fisk is her name.
(03:32):
So that's her last name, theshow is her name. And it stars
kitty Flanagan who wrote thisshow alongside her sister, and
she's a big star in Australia.
I'd never heard of her before.
But she's a comedian. And Iwould say this is a bit of the
office meets Boston Legal. Andeach episode is a bit of a
(03:55):
standalone where the very smallquirky law firm has equally
quirky clients. And it's abrother and sister team Gruber
and Gruber, that run the place.
And the man is kind of a grump.
And the woman is she lost herlicense to practice law. So
she's just the office managerand just kind of in everybody's
(04:18):
way, and my favorite characteris a guy who basically is the
receptionist but calls himselfthe webmaster, which is a super
outdated term and just uses thisall the time. And I was talking
with my friend Mia who ismarried to an Australian and I
was telling her I was like Ijust love this so much and I
(04:41):
think I love it more than theaverage British comedy. And she
said, Well, that's because it's,it's more and mature. So kind of
with the Australians, nothing'soff limits. And I think you'll,
I think you'll really enjoy itfrom Helen wears like a super
baggy brown suit every day. Itlooks terrible on her. And she
(05:05):
does it just because it's easy,and she doesn't have to worry
about it. And downstairs fromher office, there's a super cute
cafe. And one day she was beinga bit obnoxious to somebody in
the cafe who happens to be theowner. And so now she gets
banned from there and can neverget her morning coffee. So
(05:29):
there's kind of a running gagthat everyone else has to kind
of go get her coffee every day,whether it's a client, or
someone else who works in theoffice. So check that out if you
want to laugh, and there is aseason two. Netflix hasn't
bought it yet, but I'm sure thatthey will. So I'm looking
(05:52):
forward to that. Okay, so thenext thing I want to talk about
is a really fun podcast calledI've had it podcast. And it
stars two best friends fromOklahoma City, Jennifer Welsh,
and Angie pumps, Sullivan pumpsas her nickname. They've been
friends for 23 years. And theyare kind of Bravo TV stars.
(06:15):
There's, they have a show, andI'm not sure if it's still
running. But it was called SweetHome Oklahoma, starring Jennifer
Welsh as an interior designerjust kind of talking about her
daily life. And, and she wouldmake appearances as her best
friend. And they're just reallyfunny. They swear a lot. And
(06:38):
they make a lot of fun of theirmiddle age, mom life. And they
just complain the whole timeabout whatever they can complain
about the PGA, they think thewhole thing needs to burn to the
ground. They complain abouttelevangelists. They hate the
word. Bless your heart. Theyhate that term. And they think
(07:02):
true crime is ridiculous. And II love this. They say I watched
Dateline, I have to admit, I'mgoing to help myself here. But
one of them says I'm part of theproblem. So I can't say anything
but good things. And the otherwoman says, I mean, I kind of
have a low key crush on Datelinehost, Keith Morrison, there's
(07:26):
something soothing about hearinghim talk about murder, I could
just ease into my bed and justfeel ultimately relaxed as he
talks about homicide. It'sreally effed up. So that's kind
of the tone of it. And I wouldjust say this is a podcast, if
you're just looking for like atotal escape. It's clever. It's
(07:49):
funny, I love their OklahomaCity accents. But it's, it's not
going to change your world.
It'll just be a really fungiggle. And of course, like the
best of podcasts, you feel like,you know them and that you're,
they're your friend, and you'rekind of there with them. So I
(08:13):
recommend that they also haveguests on to who go ahead and
complain with them. So okay,let's talk about the books. The
first book I'm going to talkabout is the librarian list,
which is actually not a realterm, I had to double check
that. So Patrick DeWitt is theauthor. And he is best known. He
(08:36):
wrote a book called The SistersBrothers, which many of you will
know about. And it's a wittyWestern about a pair of sibling
assassins, and I will compare itto a Coen Brothers. Kind of, if
the Coen brothers were to writea book, that's what it would be
like. She he also wrote a bookcalled The French accent. And
(09:00):
it's a comedy of manners about awidowed Manhattan socialite
who's just burned through herhusband's inheritance and takes
off to a friend's apartment inParis to escape with her son
with her adult son. And then hewrote another book called under
major domo, and it's a sort ofGothic adventure. And so this
(09:24):
book is different yet again. Butwhat it how it's United is he
has this very clever, I wouldcall it droll sense of humor.
So, so clever and so so funny.
But you're not necessarilylaughing out loud, but you're
just like, it's just, it'sabsurdist. It's really funny.
But he's written this book, andit's been called a quiet book,
(09:47):
which I've come to discover. Iactually enjoy quiet books. And
not a whole lot happens in thisbook, but I do recommend it. So
I'm going to tell you a bitabout it and you can decide if
it's for you. So what it's aboutit's about a guy named Bob
comment. And he's a retiredlibrarian. And he has a pretty
(10:10):
boring life. He lives in a mintcolored house in Portland,
Oregon. And he takes a dailywalk, he doesn't have any
friends. And he was alibertarian for many years
didn't make any friends there.
But as his life is all aboutorder, until one day, that
(10:32):
changes, and what happens, he'sat the 711. And he sees this
wacky woman staring at powerdrinks, like in the case. And
she's wearing matching pinksweatsuit, bright white
sneakers, a mesh back baseballhats, a pair of dark sunglasses,
and she's standing like astatue. And so he looks over at
(10:54):
the cash person and says, Whatis this person, okay. And for
some, the guy's like, I don'tthink so. And so what ends up
happening is he gets this womanout of the store, follows her
out of the store, and gets herback to
the retirement home where sheactually lives. And there's this
(11:16):
hard charging woman who runs theplace. And there's this total
cast of wacky, more wackycharacters. And through a series
of events, Bob starts tovolunteer at this retirement
home, and it completely changeshis life. And so my whole take
on the whole point of thisretirement home, is just a way
(11:37):
to have a whole slew of sidecharacters, which is what I
think Patrick Patrick strengthis, is creating this kind of
people that just kind of comeand go and have wacky
conversations and move throughthe scene with Bob kind of as a
senator as a straight person.
And this book reminded me of twothings. It reminded me a bit of
(12:01):
David Copperfield, with DavidCopperfield as the straight man,
and all these crazy charactersswirling around them. And it was
also sad. And this book is kindof sad as well. And it takes
place in the early aughts. So2005 2006, and he's at this
point, a bob is 71 years old.
(12:26):
And that's kind of when his lifechanges with this retirement
home. But a lot of the book isReflections on his past. So he
has a pretty sad backstory,where the one woman that he
loves, and fell in love with andmarried, ends up leaving him for
his very best friend, and thosewere actually his only two
(12:47):
friends. So there's a lot ofdiscussion of that. But you're
gonna say, why would I read thissad book? I think you'd read it.
Because you're Patrick DeWittfan, and you want to see what
else he's been up to. I thinkyou'd read it, because it's just
a fun. It's fun, but is it? Iwould give it I'm gonna give it
(13:12):
a four out of five. And if youlike a lot of action in your
books, I probably wouldn't readthis. I just find him so clever.
A little bit about PatrickDeWitt also just did I mention
that he is from BritishColumbia. And he now lives in
Portland, Oregon. And I actuallywant to try and have him on the
(13:34):
podcast, but he has no socialmedia presence. What whatsoever,
I found him hard to track down.
So I wasn't able to reach him.
But I was laughing because I'mlaughing now because he is from
British Columbia. And wheneverI, whenever there's someone from
(13:54):
Canada, I always have to tell myfriend from Kansas City,
Jennifer Kraus, oh, they'reCanadian, older from Vancouver.
And so she's always teasing methat everybody's from Vancouver.
But he in fact is from BritishColumbia. So I would give it a
four out of five. And that'sthat. Okay, so now we're gonna
(14:15):
move over and talk about a bookthat I just absolutely love,
love, love. And so the openingat the top of the podcast, you
heard me read a poem that kindof changed Maggie Smith's life.
And what this is, is this is amemoir, called you can make this
place beautiful. And a littlebit about Maggie Maggie was
(14:39):
trucking along as a poet, whichis probably a pretty hard way to
go making her art in the middleof Ohio, in Columbus. So she
calls herself she says I livedin the heart of the heart. So
Ohio is a heart shaped state,and Columbus is in the middle of
the heart. So she lives inBexley. And it was interesting
(15:03):
because as I was reading along,and I didn't know for sure until
it was done, she's talking abouther college and I'm thinking, I
think she went to my school. AndI found out later she did. So
she's a graduate of OhioWesleyan, which is a small
liberal arts school, 30 minutesnorth of Baxley. And that was
(15:23):
fun, so I could relate to thatexperience that she had there.
And then she just talks a lotabout little landmarks around
Columbus. She talks aboutLundy's, which is a really nice
restaurant. And Germantown,which is a quaint neighborhood
or Lundy's is also located. Andwhat also struck me, she talks
(15:47):
about this a lot. She'sessentially from a flyover
state. And I also grew up in aflyover state, Kansas City. And
it's the kind of state that youdon't think about going there on
vacation you don't really talkabout. But she loves it. It's
it's talks about family, herfamily's from their parents, or
(16:09):
their sisters or their she haslots of friends that are there.
And I just really kind ofappreciate that she's not from
New York, she's not fromChicago, she's from Ohio.
Another thing about this book,she does talk about the
pandemic, I feel like I shouldgive a pandemic warning when
(16:32):
pandemic as a topic of a book,because I find probably like me,
you don't always want to hearabout the pandemic, because you
kind of want to put that behindyou. But I found that her
marriage started to unravelduring the pandemic. And there's
some sort of fun moments in it,in that there's this fun scene
where she is bopping around onrollerblades in her driveway
(16:57):
with her best friend wearingsome wacky outfits. And just
finding a way to have a goodtime when you can't see or talk
to anybody. So I thought it wasa good way to treat sort of the
pandemic. So what this book isabout, she actually wrote a book
a few years before. And it wascalled Keep moving. And it was
(17:22):
sort of musings on the end of amarriage. And this one was a
little more specific. And it's amemoir about the end of her
marriage. But really why I likedthis book. There's two reasons I
like it for incredible writing.
So clever. It's veryexperimental. And people have
compared it to Rachel cos. AndDeborah Levy. So I would, I
(17:46):
would agree with that. It is sheis a poet. And I would say it's
like poems strung together and avery cohesive pattern, kind of
like a really good old fashionedalbum. And each chapter, there's
a very clever title that tellsyou what, what it's about. And
(18:13):
some of the chapters are oneline. Some of them go on for
several pages. Some of them arequotes. Some of them are her
speaking what seems likedirectly to you, which is quite
powerful, almost like a, a Greekchorus. And what I also liked
about this book is she makes itvery personal. But she doesn't
(18:35):
make it a towel all. So thisisn't a book where she's
trashing her husband, he doesnot come across very well in
this book, but she keeps a lotof things private, and just is
more mining, the emotions thatshe's having during that time,
which is basically that she'sbroken open and has no choice
but to reinvent herself. And sothis book is really about hope
(19:00):
and reinvention. But the way itstarts is her husband who's a
lawyer comes home from abusiness trip. And he gives his
son she's got two different twochildren together, gives his son
a pine cone and kind of goes offto bed. And for some reason,
something just didn't sit rightwith her. And she decides and
(19:22):
what she says is against kind ofher character or better judgment
to go through hishis bag. And in his bag in his
travel bag, she finds apostcard. And the postcard has a
woman's name, a woman's address.
And in it he writes aboutwalking on the beach with her
(19:48):
and finding a pine conetogether. And he gave the same
pine cone to his son. And sofrom there, she's not really
sure what she's reading. Sheknows what she's read, but can't
really believe that her lifejust kind of implodes. And from
there, it's kind of just thislike series of vignettes. But
one of the things, and thereason why I started with this
(20:14):
poem good bones is she believesthat this poem, essentially was
the final kind of end of ourmarriage, because before she got
this postcard, this poem waswritten in 2016. And up to that
point, she was the primarycaregiver. And looking after the
kids and fitting in her poetry,and her husband was a lawyer, a
(20:37):
corporate lawyer, and wassuccessful. And then when good
bones came out, it just was likea Zeitgeist. And what happened
was Meryl Streep ended upreading this poem, out loud, and
in events. And on the show,Madam Secretary, this poem was
also read, it blew up onTwitter, she all of a sudden had
(21:02):
all these requests to speak. Andshe was becoming famous and at
least famous from a poetstandard. And it's pretty hard
to be a famous poet. So thenwhat was happening is she needed
more childcare, she needed to goout of town. And she feels that
their ecosystem change, therewas a change in kind of a power
(21:25):
dynamic between them. And whileshe keeps it fairly vague, it
doesn't sound like the poemended her marriage, but it was
sort of that final straw or hermarriage couldn't survive, just
sort of a change incircumstance. And I what I
wanted to end with, there were acouple of things I also wanted
to mention, I love thisbeginning quote, that she starts
(21:49):
the book with, she says, I amout with lanterns, looking for
myself, by Emily Dickinson. Ijust love that. And then I
wanted to finish by talkingabout one of the things that
Maggie has learned about herselfabout not seeking approval from
others, which the older we get,the more we know, I think often
(22:13):
women to stereotype have moretrouble with that, learning that
lesson. But the older you get,the easier it is. And I
subscribe to her newsletter. Andher newsletter is mainly to talk
about how to be a better writer.
But this came into my inbox andI just thought, oh, I have to
share it with you because I justthought it was so great. And so
(22:34):
this is what she said. She said,she talks about how she went
online and against her betterjudgment was reading comments
about her and her writing. Andpeople had super strong
reactions to her in her opinion,and that some people just hate
her work. And some they find itsuper annoying, and some love
(22:58):
it. And she uses the phrase shesays one person's yuck is
another person's yum. And shesays as I was writing you could
make this place beautiful takingrisks with both form and
content. I suspected for everythat for every reader who attach
certain craft choices. Therewould be a reader who chafe at
(23:20):
those same choices. The directaddress the vignette that
vignettes, the meta aspect ofthe narration, the privacy
boundaries, I knew all of thesewere love it or loathe the
choices. All of this is to say Iknew I was writing a book with a
strong flavor, but I love strongflavors, blue cheese, smoked
(23:43):
kalamata olives, smoked anythingreally, very dark, bitter
chocolate, very black, bittercoffee, chili, crisp, Rose
lemonade, dill, pickles, hotcurry, and Imperial IPA. I find
these things delicious. But Ialso completely understand how
(24:03):
they might taste terrible toother people. Taste is
subjective, you're not foreveryone. Your work is not for
everyone. So be it. And withthat, I want to conclude the
first episode of the new seasonof The Red firm book review. And
thank you so much for joining.
(24:26):
And I just wanted to give you alittle preview about some things
coming up. We've got a reallygreat season planned. Next week,
I'm super excited. I've got alocal author on Iona Whishaw,
who in her third act in her 60sstarted writing murder
(24:46):
mysteries. And she writes theElaine Winslow mystery series,
and they're set in World WarTwo. And they're really fun,
especially if you love LouisePenny, where it's like a murder
mystery set and a small Canadiantown, I think you'll really
enjoy this. But what's reallyinteresting is the main
character, Elaine Winslow was aspy during World War Two. And it
(25:10):
turns out that I own his mom wasa spy during World War Two. And
before that her grandfather wasa spy. So such interesting.
That's such an interestingbackstory. later this fall, I'm
going to have Pam weathers onwho's a journalist, turn ya
author. And she talks about thepower of why novels, sometimes
(25:34):
we want to like, get back to ourentertain, although I'm not sure
that I do. But just kind ofrecall those strong emotions
that you have when you're ateen. And when life is a lot
simpler, but in some waysharder. And oh, I can't wait in
October with Susan Mathesonback, who has the bedside table,
(25:58):
book blog, and she always comeson every fall and does a fall
preview. So that's something tolook forward to. So thanks so
much for tuning in. Be sure tocheck out my Instagram at Red
Fern book review. And also, youcan check out my website at Red
Fern book review.com and leaveme a positive review on Apple
(26:23):
podcasts. And I look forward toconnecting with you more this
fall. And I will talk with yousoon. Thanks for listening. Bye
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