Nadine Feldman, Author

celebrating strong female characters and whatever else strikes my fancy

books

Book Review: The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah

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I wasn’t sure I wanted to read The Four Winds. The Great Alone was such an incredible novel, and I thought, how can she top it? That might be impossible, after all. Still, I couldn’t resist. The subject matter was compelling: the struggles of a family during the Dust Bowl.

The story centers around Elsa Wolcott, whose early life was defined by an illness and, in her family’s opinion, a lack of attractiveness. Expected to live at home and tend to her parents in their later years, Elsa had different ideas. Readers will find a young woman defined by both a deep sense of inadequacy and an innate wildness that will give her strength to endure tremendous hardship, though she won’t recognize the latter in herself for some time.

As in The Grapes of Wrath, Elsa will find herself migrating to California with her children to escape the Dust Bowl, where instead of finding milk and honey, she finds more hardship and bigotry. Californians weren’t impressed with the increasing numbers of migrants seeking work, so not only is work limited, but the pay continues to drop.

Hannah describes the conditions in excruciating detail. As someone who just finished writing a historical novel, I was impressed with her ability to take us there, not just as observers, but to help us truly feel the suffering and hardship of these difficult times.

In this painful reality, Elsa finds her inner strength, and that is the real beauty of this story. She is a reminder of the lengths most women will go to for their families, especially their children. I think I cried more during the small happy moments and the occasional humanity than the most difficult times.

I found the beginning a bit slow, and it felt as if the parents and future husband could have been more nuanced. Elsa seemed a bit like Cinderella, and the family a bit too much like the wicked stepmother and stepsisters. However, this part of the story was necessary to set up Elsa’s worldview, so I can forgive it. Elsa, Lareda, and Elsa’s in-laws are far more developed and interesting, and the story really picks up when Elsa leaves home.

The Four Winds is, sadly, too relevant for our times. The treatment of migrants, the inequality, the sense of endlessness of the Depression…all of these are visible now. In addition, the environmental crisis of the time, the Dust Bowl, is a sad reminder of what happens when we don’t care for our planet, and we see that in our current climate crisis. What is astounding to me is how long these travails went on…we are a year into a pandemic and going bonkers, while the main part of this story spans six years. How our fellow Americans endured this is beyond me.

Some reviewers have complained about the “political agenda” of the book, particularly the role of Communists in trying to organize the workforce. Yet what was she supposed to do, write them out of history? They were there, and they were trying to help. I did not see Hannah as “advocating for Communism,” as some reviewers believe. In fact, she uses Elsa to voice deep concerns and reservations about the philosophy. At the same time, by respecting their role in seeking better working conditions for the migrants, she reminds us that people are far more complex than Twitter would have us believe.

I highly recommend The Four Winds, and hell, anything else Kristin Hannah writes.

Forgotten Women Writers: P. L. Travers

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It may be St. Patrick’s Day, but we’re also still in Women’s History Month! So today I’m writing about P. L. Travers, author of the Mary Poppins books. Though Travers grew up in Australia, her father was Irish, and while in her twenties she moved to London, often visiting Ireland in the decades she lived there.

When I was a little girl, enchanted by Marie Poppins the movie, I had no idea then that there were books, several of them, in which a very different Mary Poppins existed. (Too be fair, I was five.) This Mary Poppins was vain, cranky, and mysterious.

Turns out Travers hated the movie and went toe to toe with Walt Disney himself during its making. Did you see Saving Mr. Banks? Those tears at the end weren’t that she loved the movie, though that’s what the film might have led you to believe.

As a fellow writer, this realization broke my heart. Travers is not the first or last author to dislike the movie adaptation of a book, but I guess this was the first time I thought about how devastating it must be to see your baby contorted into something you never intended.

Recently, curious about Travers and wanting to learn more about her life, I read Mary Poppins: She Wrote by Valerie Lawson. Travers started out as an actress, then turned to writing. In an age when women were mostly housewives, Travers carved out a successful career that led to the Mary Poppins series. She was outspoken, often abrasive, and impatient with small talk. In other words, my kind of gal.

Turns out she and I have a lot in common. We share, unfortunately, a lot of anxiety and odd ailments. Like Travers, my life has been an ongoing spiritual search, and we both came across some charlatans along the way. And also like Travers, later in my life I have become deeply fascinated with fairy tales and am delving more into their history. That was an odd parallel I didn’t expect!

Deeply private, Travers didn’t want a biography written about her. Though Lawson does her best, she can’t penetrate Travers’ deeper thoughts and feelings because Travers took all that with her. So if we want to know who she was and what matters to her, I suspect the bread crumbs are in all her books. Best get reading.

If you enjoy this blog, please consider purchasing one of my novels. Information is available here. The Factory Girl and the Fey is coming October 2021! Details coming soon.

Happy Labor Day!

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In the world of the upcoming novel Jane, the Factory Girl, mill workers grind it out 14 hours a day, five days a week, then 10 hours on Saturdays. Sundays are the only day off. Even children work long hours, though less than the adults. Workers were often asked to work in unsafe conditions, and wages could be cut at the whim of the mill owners.

It’s hard for me to grasp what that world was like. They say “write what you know,” and there’s no way I can truly know what day-to-day life was like for my great-great grandparents, to whom I gave fictionalized lives in this book. My own existence is cushy in contrast. Even when I did hold a full-time job, I never had to work under those conditions.

On this Labor Day, let us remember that the development of unions provided safer environments, reduced work hours, and provided protections to workers to keep their jobs.

Recently in New York City, the Teachers Union was able to successfully postpone school openings until later this month to create a better environment to protect students, teachers, and staff from COVID-19.

My late father was a union worker. Thanks to the union, he was paid a decent wage that allowed him to provide for his family. My younger brother belongs to the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

Unions aren’t perfect. In some cases, they have taken on their own corruption. And at times it appears police unions, while valuable, have protected rogue cops who use excessive force. As with all organizations, unions have their flaws and must be held accountable when they go too far.

Yet unions are at risk in these uncertain times. The existence of unions has benefitted even non-union workers, so let us today pay homage to unions and all they have provided. We don’t want to go back to the days of Jane, the Factory Girl.

The Dutchess is Keeping Me Sane (Sort of)

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I’ve made it no secret that I’m not fond of social media. I have stopped and started Twitter accounts so often it’s impossible for anyone to find me. Too often I find myself getting into arguments with strangers (who may not even be real people). I’m trying again, this time hoping to avoid that fate by limiting who I follow, especially in the political realm.

Upon my return to Twitter, my stepdaughter Sarah told me about one Duchess Goldblatt and sent me a link to a New York Times article about this mysterious, sage, and very anonymous persona that has hooked thousands of followers.

The Duchess, for the ten people who don’t know who she is (I am late to the party) is a fictional 80-year-old author who lives in the equally fictional Crooked Path, New York. She dispenses cleverness and wisdom in every post. She is a major fangirl of Lyle Lovett, and over time the feeling has grown mutual.

Duchess Goldblatt recently came out with a memoir, Becoming Duchess Goldblatt. She has written the book as the person behind her creation. In stories both funny and sad she tells of a life that had fallen apart: losses of job, marriage, and friends in a short period of time. The Duchess started as a way to help her cope, and ended up helping her heal.

Though I knew little about the Duchess before buying the book, I was enthralled with the writing. It’s an easy read, but I still found myself putting it down from time to time to absorb her words. It’s likely I’ll browse back through it another time or two. Despite hiding behind a fictional character, the author behind the Duchess is an incredibly authentic human being.

The Duchess says her Twitter feed is a refuge for the broken-hearted. For me, her feed and her book have provided a bit of light in these dark times. As we continue to tend to ourselves and each other, we need to find that light wherever we can.

A Truly “Delicious!” Book

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The reading gods are continuing to smile upon me as I work through a trove of novels that are absolutely wonderful! I don’t often get a streak like this, and many times so-called must reads don’t flip my button at all.

This week’s selection is Delicious! A Novel by Ruth Reichl. This is her first novel, but she’s written a lot about food in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and more. She’s published non-fiction books as well, and I’m now eager to read all of them! So it makes sense that her first novel would be about, well, food.

Billie Breslin is a young woman with a perfect palette who doesn’t cook. We don’t know why, though I promise, all will be revealed. She has dropped out of college to take a job at Delicious!, a food magazine.

As Billie struggles to create a life for herself far from family, she builds a friendship with Sal and his wife Rosalie, making his cheese shop her second home. Then there’s Sammy, the eccentric and fabulous travel writer, and Jake, the owner of the magazine. Oh, and let’s not forget Mr. Complainer, a regular customer of Sal’s!

It’s hard to write more without adding a lot of spoilers, so I’ll just add that there’s a whole subplot devoted to certain letters addressed to James Beard, who in this novel once ran Delicious!. These letters, and the story that is revealed from them, are in my opinion the meat of the book.

Billie’s past will break your heart. But along the way, there is a lot of joy, friendship, and community, plus the smells and tastes of food that will make you hungry while you read. Yes, there are recipes at the end.

One More Walk with Julia

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She looked sad as she moved to the front of the room. For a moment I thought I saw tears in her eyes. Turns out I was right. As author and teacher Julia Cameron took the stage, she opened by telling us about a long-time colleague of hers who had died two days before. She asked us to send prayers and then bravely began the weekend workshop.

This is the level of authenticity I have respected and admired for more than twenty years. Julia has written more than forty books, and she has never tried to present her life as perfect. In her searing memoir Floor Sample, for example, she details her challenges with mental health issues. Yet her honesty never feels self-serving or pitying. It’s life, baby, and the cure for the pain is self-compassion and making art. On that she never waivers.

Having practiced The Artist’s Way all these years, I have experience firsthand how it changes lives. When I first pulled the book off the shelf in the summer of 1997, I was a writer who didn’t know how to start writing. Previous attempts had resulted in a great deal of creative wounding, even from so-called writing teachers.

Seeing Julia again (my third time), I was still surprised at how the simple tools of Morning Pages, Artist Dates, and fill in the blank exercises could pull so much out of me. Late in the weekend I felt breathless, stripped bare. Several days later, I am still processing what happened, noticing subtle and not-so-subtle shifts…everything from deciding to order a decent blender to digging in deeper to my novel-in-progress.

As a long-time veteran, I was pleased to meet so many people who were new to the book. Some had been given a copy years before and felt like the time is now. I was able to share the many changes life had brought as a result of doing this work: several books, with more in process; a college degree at age 45; multiple new interests, including gardening; an amicable divorce (a direct result of doing Morning Pages); and a happier, healthier marriage.

For an entire weekend I got to have “real” conversations with people, tossing aside small talk and pretense in favor of what was in our hearts. We laughed, we cried, we hugged, and we rooted for each other’s success, regardless of our chosen art form(s).

At the end of the weekend, I felt renewed. And Julia no longer looked sad. Her blue eyes were bright and merry in spite of her grief.

For me, the workshop was a chance to see the master in action once again, and to bring my love and gratitude. I came to The Artist’s Way because I wanted to write. What I gained was that and so much more.