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galileo
Citizen
Username: Galileo
Post Number: 231
Registered: 7-2001
| | Posted on Friday, July 14, 2006 - 12:02 am: | 
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Sunday's magazine section story titled "A Family History in Rewrite" talks about an old New England family.One family member ,Eliza Minot, has lived in Maplewood 5 years,is expecting her 4th child and her 2nd novel,The Brambles" will be published next month. It's an interesting read and is on the Time's Web page. Always nice to see Maplewood and its residents in print. We certainly have many interesting and talented people living here. |
Hamandeggs
Citizen
Username: Hamandeggs
Post Number: 335
Registered: 8-2005
| | Posted on Friday, July 14, 2006 - 6:13 am: |
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Such a funny article, though! I've read the first book and I'm not making a comment about the meat of the piece, but there were a lot of facts and then disclaimers in the article. The first one was when the reporter told us that the writer doesn't have childcare, except for the nine hours during the week when she does. So those nine hours are what? Then the reporter wrote that most writers spend that much time trolling Amazon for their sales figures. Huh?
Again, the book sounds interesting, though the article was puzzling. |
mjh
Supporter
Username: Mjh
Post Number: 677
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Friday, July 14, 2006 - 6:55 am: |
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I thought it was weird too!
I kept thinking "where's the rest of it?"
Did it have a point somewhere that I missed? |
mim
Citizen
Username: Mim
Post Number: 636
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Friday, July 14, 2006 - 9:51 am: |
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I thought it strange too -- so unflattering to the whole family! Is this a case of 'ANY publicity is good publicity'? |
shestheone
Citizen
Username: Shestheone
Post Number: 296
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Friday, July 14, 2006 - 11:20 am: |
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thank goodness you're all saying this. i thought i had missed something in the article. |
Dave
Supporter
Username: Dave
Post Number: 10102
Registered: 4-1997
| | Posted on Friday, July 14, 2006 - 11:30 am: |
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Quote:‘‘I think I need to take it more seriously if I want to make a living at it,’’ Eliza said with a straight face, speaking of her writing career with a puzzling lack of ambition or resolve. ‘‘I take it seriously in the sense that I do it, and I don’t like when it is really bad. I don’t want to be embarrassed by my writing, or offend people who are close to me.’’ Sipping a cup of iced coffee, she added: ‘‘I certainly feel that what I write is not original. It is nothing new or different from a lot of other writers.’’
!!! |
Mr. Big Poppa
Citizen
Username: Big_poppa
Post Number: 778
Registered: 7-2004
| | Posted on Friday, July 14, 2006 - 12:11 pm: |
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Not much of a sales person.... |
ess
Citizen
Username: Ess
Post Number: 2673
Registered: 11-2001
| | Posted on Friday, July 14, 2006 - 12:23 pm: |
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Definitely makes me want to run out and buy the book.
Coincidentally, The Brambles was a recommended read in this month's issue of Glamour magazine. That's right, Glamour magazine. |
algebra2
Supporter
Username: Algebra2
Post Number: 4151
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Friday, July 14, 2006 - 12:29 pm: |
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Eliza is a very nice person, also she is a neighbor and friend to many. I'd hate to have hurt feelings on a local message board. |
Pippi
Supporter
Username: Pippi
Post Number: 2576
Registered: 8-2003
| | Posted on Friday, July 14, 2006 - 12:40 pm: |
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I have not read anything by Eliza Minot, but I very much enjoyed "Evening", by her sister Susan.
I am off to read the NY Times article. |
gertie
Citizen
Username: Gertie
Post Number: 11
Registered: 6-2006
| | Posted on Friday, July 14, 2006 - 12:42 pm: |
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My sense is she didn't have her editor with her during the interview. |
Soparents
Supporter
Username: Soparents
Post Number: 2079
Registered: 5-2005
| | Posted on Friday, July 14, 2006 - 12:50 pm: |
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I haven't read the article, nor know of the person, but looking at the quote Dave posted, it comes across that the writer was really quite spiteful...
Sipping a cup of iced coffee? and speaking with a straight face?
I feel badly for "Eliza". As said, I have no idea who she is, but this was pretty low.
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Bob K
Supporter
Username: Bobk
Post Number: 12145
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Friday, July 14, 2006 - 1:21 pm: |
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Some people just sit down and write. Quite a few of these people are excellent writers and have something to say to the rest of us. Other people who write have worked out a philosophy and a whole persona about being a "serious" writer. A few are good writers, but most aren't.
I didn't read the article and our copy of the Sunday paper is already on its way to the homosote factory, so I really shouldn't commnet, but I suspect that the NY Times reporter was put off by an unassuming woman who writes, apparently, very good fiction, has kids she cares for herself, doesn't wear black maxidresses exclusively, dye her hair purple and hang out in literary "salons" in NYC. |
Dave
Supporter
Username: Dave
Post Number: 10104
Registered: 4-1997
| | Posted on Friday, July 14, 2006 - 1:23 pm: |
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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/09/magazine/09MIN.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slog in
It's really not a story about a book or a writer, but how a family uses keyboards and publishers to work out emotional scars while creating new ones. Frankly, I think I'd rather read more work by the article's author who seems to have a clearer sense of her surroundings than her subjects. |
Hamandeggs
Citizen
Username: Hamandeggs
Post Number: 337
Registered: 8-2005
| | Posted on Friday, July 14, 2006 - 1:46 pm: |
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Well, no, Bob K. Most of the article was wildly flattering, and the writer credited her with taking care of her kids w/o childcare (except when she has it, as the writer mentioned -- so a point prob best left out). The writer was also disparaging of other writers, saying that they spend about 9 hours/wk looking themselves up on amazon.com. (Again, a point that some editor might have caught.)
Is it very good fiction? I read the previous book as a book group read. Does she wear black maxidresses? She wore a black dress in the photo.
I don't know what the writer was up to here. I figured it was just a plant piece for the new book and that seems accurate.
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Dave
Supporter
Username: Dave
Post Number: 10106
Registered: 4-1997
| | Posted on Friday, July 14, 2006 - 2:26 pm: |
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Most of the article was wildly flattering? Are we reading the same article?
Quote:Sam Minot’s ‘‘Strange Poverty of the Rich" does not rank as literature, or even as an above-average example of expository writing, but as we spoke on the phone that night, it became clear that he considers his own work inherently superior to that of his publicly acclaimed siblings. ‘‘Susan’s books seem sort of romantic," he said disapprovingly. ‘‘They have to do with topics that to me aren’t very substantial. Some of them are good. Some of them are boring. I’m more into reading something that is going to give me a true message or teach you a lesson, rather than just wringing your hands and wondering about a time in the past when you kissed some man in a sail closet."
Sam seems no more impressed by the literary gifts of his sister Eliza. Asked about her work, he said, ‘‘I wouldn’t read it if she wasn’t my sister."
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Pippi
Supporter
Username: Pippi
Post Number: 2577
Registered: 8-2003
| | Posted on Friday, July 14, 2006 - 3:16 pm: |
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The article is not very flattering at all. I am going to read the first chapter of the book, as posted on NY Times. The flattering part of the article is that the author thinks that Eliza Minot's new book is good. Isn't that what the point should be?
That's most important to me...I don't know the people in the article and I am generally not interested in the familial relationships of people I don't know...I just need to know if I want to read the book.
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Bob K
Supporter
Username: Bobk
Post Number: 12148
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Friday, July 14, 2006 - 3:19 pm: |
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This should teach me not to open my trap before doing a little research. 
Dave, thanks for the link |
Dave
Supporter
Username: Dave
Post Number: 10110
Registered: 4-1997
| | Posted on Friday, July 14, 2006 - 3:31 pm: |
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'The Brambles'
By ELIZA MINOT
Let's keep him," said Florence. They were about to sign the lease. "He looks like he likes it here."
In the flowerbed, a small cement statue, two feet tall, robed, bearded, in mid-step looks down at the rounded rim of the swimming pool. In one hand he holds a spade, in the other a plume of kale or chard [not an omniscient narrator?]. The house's previous occupants had left him. Or maybe the occupants before them. A frost of green moss along an eyebrow. Part of a finger fallen off. Coin-sized circles, charcoal gray, of lichen.
"Saint Fiacre," said Arthur. He'd recently seen an article on him in one of the gardening magazines. "Also known as Fiacrius, I believe. Fiachra."
"Mmm," said Florence. She was already tearing up some weeds in the raised bed next to her hip.
"The patron saint of gardeners," said Arthur.
"And women who can't conceive," said Florence, bent over, uprooting tall grasses. "And taxi drivers."
Arthur laughed. "Nonsense."
"And potters, tile makers . . . hemorrhoids."
"Hemorrhoids get to have a saint?"
"That's what one of your magazines told me," she said. "I read it on the john." She stood up straight. "Do you think we could bring out a part of that rambler rose? Plant it right here?" She shimmied her arm up, a move from one of her dance numbers a long time ago, to demonstrate where. "A trellis?"
Arthur stood at the pool's edge, watching the water's surface get spackled with light. "I don't see why not," he said.
Florence surveyed the place, massaged her chin with her thumb and forefinger, playing the part of someone surveying, considering, left behind a soul patch of dirt underneath her bottom lip [ugh]. "Can't we put bulbs in the freezer to pretend winter's happening?"
"Certainly," said Arthur.
"Those other roses," continued Florence, "the sweet midget ones, could be over there."
"Dwarf. Of course," he said.
Florence looked up to see him standing at the edge of the pool as if he might upend it. "Look at you," she said. "You'll never step foot in that pool."
"It's remarkably clean."
"It better be clean."
"I'm not looking forward to keeping it clean."
--
(I stopped reading here; between coin sized circles covered in lichen, truncated fingers, hemorrhoids, reading on the john, dirt under her lower lip and clean pools it was getting way too scatalogical for me) |
dave23
Citizen
Username: Dave23
Post Number: 1861
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Friday, July 14, 2006 - 3:31 pm: |
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An unusually good article for the Times Mag, but as badly edited as all the rest. It should have been twice as long as it was. In fact, it probably was at one point. |
Virtual It Girl
Citizen
Username: Shh
Post Number: 4759
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Friday, July 14, 2006 - 4:57 pm: |
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I'm with Algebra. I know Eliza, not well, but our kids are in camp together, and I feel uncomfortable with this thread. Mostly, I suppose, with the critiquing of her writing, but I guess if you are a writer you get used to that.
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MeAndTheBoys
Citizen
Username: Meandtheboys
Post Number: 4182
Registered: 12-2004
| | Posted on Saturday, July 15, 2006 - 12:21 pm: |
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I know Eliza well and she is a really great person. I didn't read the article nor have I read her writing (but think I will now), but if the article seems to imply that she is something other than a genuinely nice, unassuming person, it was dead wrong. As we speak, she has three kids age 5 and under, and is expecting her 4th in August. If any human being on earth can handle 4 little kids with ease and grace, it is Eliza (which is probably why she's having 4). I know firsthand her dilemmas with childcare and am continually amazed at how well she juggles kids and work and home.
I can not say enough nice things about her. |
Hamandeggs
Citizen
Username: Hamandeggs
Post Number: 340
Registered: 8-2005
| | Posted on Saturday, July 15, 2006 - 1:32 pm: |
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I think most of us are commenting on the article rather than its subject, since the article was actually about the whole family but was written (or edited) in a puzzling way. I don't think anyone is saying anything negative about our neighbor.
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ess
Citizen
Username: Ess
Post Number: 2691
Registered: 11-2001
| | Posted on Saturday, July 15, 2006 - 3:05 pm: |
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The article itself was certainly not "wildly flattering". Additionally, I saw it as just as bad as Deborah Solomon's other pieces in the Magazine. I cannot stand her interviews.
I don't think that Deborah Solomon deliberately was unflattering toward Eliza Minot. Eliza came off as modest and self-deprecating. The rest of the siblings she interviewed were more churlish.
I read one of Susan Minot's earlier novels (I think it was "Monkeys") and I recall at the time thinking it was completely overrated and not very good, anyway. However, given that Eliza Minot is a neighbor, I will look forward to reading her new novel. |
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