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Nadine Feldman, Author

celebrating strong female characters and whatever else strikes my fancy

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Happy Labor Day!

September 7, 2020 by admin

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.

Filed Under: books, Coronavirus, unions Tagged With: fiction, Labor Day, workers, workers rights

A Truly “Delicious!” Book

January 31, 2020 by admin

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.

Filed Under: books, fiction Tagged With: fiction, foodie novels, good reads, women's fiction

Delight!

March 26, 2019 by admin

When the Fair Folk, the Fae, the Fairies, showed up in the manuscript for Factory Girl, my first impulse was to shoo them away. I had an idea of what the story was about, especially since it is based in part on an actual life.

But the magic of the Fae will not be denied. As with other stories I have written, the story that wants to be told will stomp its feet and hold its breath until I pay attention. Woe be to me when I do not!

As I have finally surrendered to this development, I have moved beyond researching Scottish folk tales and into the play of it. I ordered fairy houses and other delights for my new garden. I am enjoying The Faerie Handbook: An Enchanting Compendium of Literature, Lore, Art, Recipes, and Projects by the editors of Faerie Magazine (now called Enchanted Living). Yes, there is a magazine! Who knew? I’m also reading Faeries by Brian Froud and Alan Lee, filled with art and essays about the Fair Folk.

These new activities are activating something unusual in my ordinarily serious nature: delight. At 60, it appears I am finally reclaiming the joy of childhood.

Yesterday I added some text to Factory Girl where Jane sprouts wings for the first time. It was an extraordinary moment for me. Jane’s life is filled with challenges, and Factory Girl takes a hard look at life in industrial 19th-century Scotland. The magic of Factory Girl does not diminish the harsh realities or even make them easier to bear. Rather, it is about the curious thing that happens in our lives when great sorrow and great joy coexist side by side with each other.

Delight is not about ignoring the suffering of the world. It is about finding that which is beautiful so ugliness does not consume us. It is about finding joy that resides within us even when life is hard. It appears I still have much to learn from the Fae. I’m so looking forward to share with you what they are sharing with me!

Filed Under: books, Faeries, writing Tagged With: fae, faeries, Fairies, fey, fiction, novels

Happy New Year!

January 2, 2018 by admin

Hello to anyone who might be reading! It’s been so long since I blogged that I don’t know if anyone is still out there…but here I go anyway.

I don’t normally get too excited about a new year. I am not one for a list of resolutions. But this year I sprang out of bed with hope and joy. I’m not alone. As I cruise social media, I see a lot of posts where people are willing to entertain the thought that this can be a good year.

Last year I stumbled a bit. Though I kept on working on two different novels, I lost motivation to reach out consistently to readers. Part of it is my own life: we are moving cross-country yet again, and finally sold a house that’s been on the market for a long time. We are scheduled to close January 31, so the end is in sight.

Though I won’t get into politics in this blog, I also found myself depressed and deeply concerned about the state of our country. Regardless of what side of the political aisle we are on, we are ever more aware of the flaws in our system that must be addressed if we have the courage to do so. And that’s all I’m going to say, I promise. But in this past year we have also seen an energized electorate as people recognize that we must stay engaged…and that gives me hope.

Despite all of this, I continued to write, to do my work. I will write more about my projects in future posts. What I have learned is, whether or not there is a market for my books, I have to write. It’s how I do life. It’s how I stay reasonably sane.

If you haven’t “liked” my Facebook author page, I invite you to do so. I do minimal promotions, and mostly write about books I am reading or other odds and ends. Visit me at https://facebook.com/NadineFeldmanAuthor. I’m also on Twitter at @Nadine_Feldman.

Thanks for reading, and happy new year!

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: books, fiction, reading, women's fiction, writing

The Butterfly Garden #bookreview #fiction

July 25, 2017 by admin

What a sweet title! One would expect a lovely story about a group of women sipping tea in a butterfly garden. Yet this butterfly garden is unlike any other. This garden is created by a serial killer who decorates his young, lovely victims with butterfly tattoos.

I’m not even sure why I bought The Butterfly Garden. I always read the descriptions and it’s unlike me to purchase something so grisly and disturbing. But I’m glad I did.

Author Dot Hutchison begins the story in a police station where a young woman called Maya is being questioned. Maya is a tough young woman who isn’t exactly forthcoming at the beginning, so there is some question as to whether she is somehow complicit in a series of gruesome murders performed by a man known only as The Gardener. Drip by drip, word by word, she tells the story of the Garden and the young women in it: women The Gardener kidnapped, tattooed, killed, and preserved because butterflies have a short life span.

The Gardener has a lot of contradictions. He can be charming, loving even. In fact, everything he does is out of love, even when he’s at his most twisted and brutal.

The interplay between Maya and the detectives, Hanoverian and Eddison, helps bring the story to life. Through the telling of the story, we learn more about these detectives and what motivates them to continue working in a field that can be exhausting, frustrating, and draining. Since The Butterfly Garden is the first in a series, one presumes we will continue to follow the detectives in future books.

This type of story normally isn’t my cup of tea, but I have to say I liked it very much. Maya emerged from her cocoon, as it were, as the story unfolds, and I found myself aching for the lost years (and lives) of these fictional characters.

Filed Under: books, fiction Tagged With: books, crime novel, fiction

The Queen of the Night #bookreview #fiction #opera #historical

June 6, 2017 by admin

The Queen of the Night by Alexander Chee is a tale of an opera singer, told in an operatic style. A work of fiction that includes real historical figures, The Queen of the Night features Lilliet Berne, an opera singer with a powerful but delicate voice. She is given an opportunity to perform an original role, but realizes it is written by someone who knew her, complete with her difficult past. Only four people could have betrayed her, and she sets out to find out who that is.

While Lilliet seeks out her betrayer, we learn what a survivor she was. A lesser woman would have broken down at many points along Lilliet’s journey, but she prevails, over and over and over again. She finds her way through constant reinvention, including her name, which she took to erase her humble roots. Chee expresses with great tenderness the difficulties of being a woman in Lilliet’s time. In fact, I was astounded at how well Chee seems to understand a female’s plight.

I’ll confess to some disappointment at the ending, but it is…well, operatic. It’s not the ending I would have chosen, but it feels right for the story, and kudos to Chee for staying true to what needed to happen. I’m no expert on opera, but I have seen a few productions, and The Queen of the Night has influenced me as I now seek out more opera, and books to learn more about the craft of opera as a storytelling medium.
My disappointment aside, I loved this book. Lilliet is a fascinating woman of incredible strength and fortitude. The tone is luxurious, the language as lovely as Lilliet’s voice. Though I finished this book several weeks ago and have read many novels since, it has stayed with me. I strongly recommend!

Filed Under: books, Uncategorized Tagged With: book review, fiction, historical fiction, opera

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