A Woman of Salt
By Mary Potter Engel
Counterpoint Press

The influence of Mothers on the formation of their children's psyches can never be over-emphasized. This influence, if possible, is more clearly etched upon the psyches of girl children because the expectations of one woman for her nearest doppelganger can be daunting. If the Mother in question is an unforgiving Calvinist who sees her imagined sins reflected in the eyes of her progeny, the psychological bias can be damning and long lasting.

"A Woman of Salt" is a trip through the tormented spirit of Ruth VanderZicht, a woman nearing mid-life, who was raised by such a mother. Ruth still wants nothing more than to be loved and accepted by a parent who's version of caring consisted of enumerating Ruth's various transgressions; who made Ruth hate and fear her body and ultimately herself. If only, Ruth thinks, she could separate her "dirty" body from her clean mind — which wants only to find the solace in finally facing her God — she would be delivered. Yet she fears facing this harsh God of her strict childhood training, worrying that she, like Lot's wife, would only be turned into a pillar of salt if she finally stopped running and turned to face her authenticity.

Part novel, part theological treatise, Mary Potter Engel's book features lyrical passages that evoke the heartbreaking beauty and pain of living through the complexities of our primary relationships. That said, much of the book also seems bogged down by her principal literary invention, that of alternating the story with constant midrashim about the old testament story of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. At first this device seems compelling, but its use begins to slow the story, never allowing it to achieve a satisfying dramatic climax.

Appeared in "Boy, are my arms tired!" January 2002 © Suzanne Rush 2002

Juniper Tree Burning
By Goldberry Long
Simon & Schuster

The recollections of so-called Gen-X, the children of the confused, ever-adolescent Baby Boomers, have begun to surface during the last decade. Some of the snapshots of "hippie" parenting are more harrowing than groovy. "Juniper Tree Burning," is one such story.

Juniper/Jennifer, the protagonist and narrator, with the heart of a Republican and the training of a Druid, tells her tale of growing up in rural, Northern New Mexico with urban parents who have chosen "back-to-the-land" poverty. Juniper paints a hideous picture of what happens when the narcissistic needs of adults overshadow the urgent and real needs of children.

Juniper's parents are guilty of buying drugs when there is no food; not providing adequate clothing, medical help or shelter; having a callous disregard to their children's place in society; and for saddling both Juniper and her younger brother, Sunny Boy Blue, with idiotic names. Juniper's struggle to appear normal as an Anglo in an otherwise-Hispanic community; as the child of parents who take peyote and worship in a sweat lodge while all her classmates are Catholic; as someone dressing from the Goodwill box when the other kids have new clothes —and all this with parents who are either high or so wrapped up in their own consuming and violently dysfunctional relationship that they don't care — is heart-rending.

But Goldberry's Long's well-written tale is as much about grown-up Jennifer still struggling with creating normalcy in the wake of her brother's suicide, as it is a flashback to the "good old days" of hippie yore. Adult Jenny finally runs away from home and makes a cross-country journey which is equal parts seeking her future and running from her past.

A fine first novel, "Juniper Tree Burning," works on every level. It makes one realize that as hard as the Boomers strained to separate from their own upbringing, many of them only succeeded in producing progeny who disdain and reject them, much as they did their own parents.

Appeared in "Boy, are my arms tired!" November 2001 © Suzanne Rush 2002

The Broken Places
By Susan Perabo
Simon & Schuster

I was looking forward to reading Susan Perabo's debut novel, "The Broken Places." Her book of short stories, "Who I Was Supposed to Be," published last year, was brilliant. The stories were original and filled with fantastic twists that entertained and shocked in just the right proportions.

"The Broken Places," is the tale of a small town fire fighter, Sonny, who saves a teen punk from a collapsed house and subsequently becomes a national hero. In the main, the story follows the puzzling personality changes that overcome Sonny during the aftermath of the rescue. Told from the viewpoint of Sonny's preteen son, Paul, we watch Sonny's withdrawal from his family and community while he forms an inexplicable bond with the teen he saved, swastika-tattooed, chain smoking Ian.

Ultimately the story moves too slowly toward the inevitable Perabo twist. This is where we finally find out what really happened in that ruined farmhouse — in the dark, between the fireman and the teenager. My imagination must be more sinister than Perabo's, because the punch-line seemed too mild a reward for the long, serious, plodding build-up.

"The Broken Places," would have made a better short story than full-blown novel. Without 90 pages of narrative leading up to the pay-off, the book's shocking revelation may have actually felt like a surprise. It's not a bad work of fiction, but Perabo's previous writing is so superior that I can't help but leave this novel feeling disappointed. In light of the nation's recently found reverence for firefighters, the subject matter of this book and the timing of its release may combine to create a disappointing debut.

Appeared in "Boy, are my arms tired!" November 2001 © Suzanne Rush 2002

The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio
By Terry Ryan
Foreword by Suze Orman
Simon & Schuster

During the 1950s, when it was difficult to purchase a can of green beans or open a Redbook magazine without finding an entry for a jingle contest of some kind, Evelyn Ryan of Defiance, Ohio, became the queen of the prize winners. Responsible for a brood of 10 and a ne'er-do-well alcoholic husband, she learned she had to bring home the bacon, cook it up in the pan, and use her limerick-writing prowess to win ever more cured meat.

As told by her daughter, Terry, Mrs. Ryan's story is that of a woman with an indefatigable spirit who persevered by using her wits to survive a pre-feminist era lifestyle that was as rewarding (as a mother) as it was difficult (as a wife). Mrs. Ryan won trips, cars, appliances, watches, televisions, clocks and thousands of dollars in cash. Amazingly, the prizes and money always arrived just when most needed.

Where others in her position — with mouths to feed and a husband who drank away his paycheck and mortgaged the house behind her back — would have crumbled under the pressure, Mrs. Ryan would just sharpen her pencil, stand at the ironing board, and write. The book is sprinkled with examples of her work, like the ditty she scribbled for Hormel's "Spammericks" contest: "The boat and the basket went over the dam/But Dad is our hero — he rescued the Spam." Clearly she was as optimistic as she was witty.

Despite Terry Ryan's plodding narrative style, and the residual resentment about her childhood that oozes from much of this record, the book is well worth reading. Read it both for the portrait of a frustrated writer and poet who found a voice and an audience, and for the fascinating historical glimpse into a time when Madison Avenue cleverly developed a cadre of mostly-unpaid, housewife copywriters. Come to think of it, doesn't that describe Samantha Stevens?

Appeared in "Boy, are my arms tired!" October 2001 © Suzanne Rush 2002

Not Your Mother's Life
Changing the rules of work, love and family
By Joan K. Peters
Perseus Publishing

Who could resist a title like this one? Unless, of course, you actually want to have a life like your mother had. But then you probably don't read self-help manuals anyway. Academic and author, Joan K. Peters, has produced a guidebook, of sorts, for the Generation X and Y woman who doesn't want to play by "The Rules."

In it she had theorized that for a woman to have a life she enjoys, she has to do some planning in advance, since the life that just happens is not as fulfilling as the life that is methodically striven towards. Peters uses numerous examples of women's lives, from interviews she has collected, to illustrate how planning everything from what you do for a living to whom to choose to mate with can make or break your chance for happiness.

While the concept of choosing a mate who is supportive, or taking a job you care about that has good benefits and hours, is not revolutionary, it's always useful to have an updated look at the options. What is different now in the workplace, an area she stresses heavily in the book, is the number of opportunities for choice heretofore unavailable. Do you want money, decent hours, a life outside of work, child care or a child-friendly employer? All of these are things Peters suggests you question yourself and your potential employers (and partners) about before you settle in to a career.

A lifelong feminist of the old order, Peters is a pragmatist about women's place in society. Though women continue to make gains in the areas of authority, respect and remuneration, it is still not a level playing field. She counsels knowing the territory, personal or professional, before making commitments.

If anything, this book is flawed by the same element which hinders much current non-fiction. That being a reliance on treating the "new economy" as if it is still on the rise, rather than a bubble that has, for the time being, burst. Many of the life examples she puts forward, of women working at dot-coms, calling their own shots, already seem dated. One wonders how many of those women are still employed at the jobs they had a year ago, and if they are not, what kind of choices they are able to make now.

While the best laid plans may go awry, it is also true that practice makes perfect, and everything in life is filled with obstacles that could not be foreseen. Peters counsels that women take a hard look at the course, choose their shoes wisely, and make a run for the gold.

Appeared in "Boy, are my arms tired!" November 2001 © Suzanne Rush 2002

Smashmouth
By Dana Milbank
Basic Books

It is to his credit that Dana Milbank, White House correspondent for the "Washington Post," has been able to craft such a lively book from two years of covering the tiresome US presidential campaign of 2000. Milbank spares no player's dignity in this diverting look at a leap-year spectacle that derives most of its laughs ironically.

What we don't already know from having watched CNN obsessively during those years are the insider tidbits only a reporter on the road could reveal. Things like the fact that Gore's campaign staff saved money, and lost precious sleep, during the costly campaign by sharing hotel rooms. Or the inside dish on which candidate served the best food to the press corps. Apparently the vote was as close with members of the press between Gore's and Bush's caterers, as it was with the public for the policy-makers themselves.

The trick for both was to feed the press as many carbohydrates as possible to render them so somnolent at deadline that it took the poison from their journalistic barbs. The trick for Milbank, it seems, was to keep his edge so that he could milk the maximum laughs from this tired road show and write a book that reads like a particularly smart episode of Comedy Central's news spoof, "The Daily Show." Like the campaign it follows, "Smashmouth" is not about substance, but about style.

We all know how the story ends. However entertainingly this slice of history has been told, it will probably take some time before anyone wants to read about a dreary campaign that ended with the Supreme Court deciding who became the leader of the free world. It really isn't that funny.

Appeared in "Boy, are my arms tired!" November 2001 © Suzanne Rush 2002

Paradise
By Larry McMurtry
Simon & Schuster

Larry McMurtry, best known for his novels that have been committed to film — like the western saga, "Lonesome Dove," and the mother-daughter tear-jerker, "Terms of Endearment" — has written a beautiful, if brief, memoir, "Paradise." The book is a study in contrasts, equal parts a South Pacific trip diary and a dissection of his parents' unhappy marriage.

On the eve of this mother's mortal passage McMurtry takes a freighter voyage to Tahiti and the remote Marquesas Islands — the very heart of Gauguin's painterly heaven. This balmy south seas destination could not be further from the hard-scrabble east Texas landscape of his boyhood. The two disparate locations allow him to delineate the differences between his parents' close-your-eyes-and-think-of-Lubbock sexuality, and the island voluptuousness that lured many of Captain Cook's crew overboard permanently.

He paints a vivid picture of shipboard life surrounded by a band of bored, European tourists. They jump the boat each day to have their pictures taken with the sensual natives, and judge each destination by the quality of souvenirs to be had. By contrast, McMurtry often opts to stay aboard and watch the proceedings from deck, or better still, keep to himself by reading the scanty offerings left by former passengers in the ship's library. (He finds Didion's "White Album," a bit bleak.)

Not much, happens in this story, yet the lyrical writing and the depth of his contemplative first person discourse stays with the reader long after McMurtry closes this short, satisfying tale.

Appeared in "Boy, are my arms tired!" Septmber 2001 © Suzanne Rush 2001

The Blue Nowhere
By Jeffrey Deaver
Simon & Schuster

"The Blue Nowhere," a phrase which refers to the cyberspace which the reader inhabits during much of this novel, is the kind of book that could be characterized as guilty pleasure. Jeffrey Deaver, author of "The Bone Collector," weaves a suspenseful, if workmanlike, murder mystery in the world of computer hackers.

The story follows the adventures of a Silicon Valley police team devoted to computer crimes, as they track a hacker who has taken the frightening step of moving from the world of cyber-murder games, to real-life murders. Phate, the disturbed programming genius, tracks his prey online, discovers their Achilles' heels and moves in for the kill. He proves difficult to thwart, as his ability to transform himself into any personality he chooses, through social engineering, makes him a profiling nightmare.

The police are aided in their pursuit by a jailed hacker, Wyatt Gillette, who could use some time off for good behavior. He is also so addicted to computers that he would do almost anything to get his preternaturally developed hands onto a keyboard.

No one is who they seem to be in this world. And even when they are it is difficult to tell the white hats from the black. This is not literature, yet ultimately, what makes this mystery worth the read is the insight it provides into the psychology of computer hacker culture, a tantalizing world many have never glimpsed.

Appeared in "Boy, are my arms tired!" Septmber 2001 © Suzanne Rush 2001

Scandalmonger
By William Safire
Simon & Schuster

If you're accustomed to obtaining your U.S. history from novels, this one will be a refreshing palate cleanse after Gore Vidal's campy series. It may even inspire you to read actual nonfiction in the form of the best-selling John Adams biography.

James Thomason Callender, plays the central role in this story of politics and intrigue in our young nation at the end of the eighteenth century. By trade, a scandalmonger — or journalist who is willing to dig up the dirt on such patrician luminaries as Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson — Callender is portrayed as a bitter pawn in the struggle for democracy as we know it.

Like his modern counterparts at the "National Enquirer," he uncovers sexual affairs, fraud in the U.S. treasury and miscegenation at Monticello and does not hesitate to publish his findings and subsequent opinions about these matters. Unlike today's tabloid journalists, it is his zeal for the truth which is his ultimate undoing — whether or not it is the truth he is being financed by one political party or another to reveal.

Well written, complex and credibly researched, this novel takes time to unravel, but is worth the effort. This is the spoonful of sugar you may need to make the history go down.

Appeared in "Boy, are my arms tired!" Septmber 2001 © Suzanne Rush 2001