Category: Nonfiction

This is a book I’ve wanted to read for a long time, starting back in 2006 when I suffered the loss of someone very dear to me. I opted instead, that year, to read Year of Pleasures by Elizabeth Berg, about a widow recovering from the death of her husband. I’m so glad I made that decision, because The Year of Magical Thinking is not the handbook on grief that I hoped it would be. It is Joan Didion’s stream-of-consciousness outpouring, one that is disjointed, random, and very personal.

Personal is fine. There’s nothing wrong with personal, and I’m sure this book was extremely cathartic for her to write. However, the title doesn’t fit anywhere in the content and, while there are some profound thoughts about loss, they are sparse. Instead, there is also a lot of zigzagging and digging up old memories. So I have to wonder, if anyone but Joan Didion wrote this book, would it have even been published?

The reviews are very mixed. Some people applaud the disjointed writing style, saying that it is exactly how one feels after losing a spouse or partner. This is true. I wish she had explored that more, the way loss lives rent free in your mind while you’re trying to carry on with life. Other reviewers are annoyed at Didion constantly referring to her upper-class lifestyle, having been married to John Gregory Dunne, and the fabulous places she lived, visited, and dined. I agree. After being bombarded with off-the-mark anecdotes about Delmonico’s, the Beverly Hills Hotel, high-end private schools, and vacations that are beyond the reach of the common man, I found it refreshing when she talked about grabbing a burger at McDonald’s. But it wasn’t enough to buffer the very obvious showiness of privilege, which often eclipsed the tragedies she experienced in a very short amount of time. Was the end goal to appear relatable or to relate her loss? We will never know.

So, unfortunately, it didn’t have the sensitive, healing effect I expected. I didn’t find it magical, memorable, or thought-provoking. But her ardent fans will probably find it very interesting.

7/10 Stars

Back in the early 1980’s two things were happening simultaneously. 1. A Canadian writer named W.P. Kinsella was launching his new book called Shoeless Joe 2. A struggling actor from Ohio named Dwier Brown was trying his hand at acting. While Kinsella’s book gained traction, Brown’s career, aside from playing “Stuart Cleary” in The Thorn Birds and being cast in a few plays, did not.

Their stories merged in 1988 when Shoeless Joe was adapted to screen as the beloved film, Field of Dreams, with Kevin Costner, then at his career apex. Dwier Brown was cast as John Kinsella, Ray’s (Costner’s) father. It’s a small but pivotal role, set in the day’s “magic hour,” making the viewer realize that Field of Dreams is about so much more than baseball.

When it was complete, not much was expected of Field of Dreams. Yes, it had Burt Lancaster in his final role and the incomparable James Earl Jones as Ray’s unlikely road trip companion, but no one could’ve guessed that this quiet little film would become the juggernaut that it is today. The Lansing farm in Iowa, where Dreams was filmed, still draws thousands of fathers and sons every year hoping to recapture the magic as they “have a catch” on that famous baseball diamond in the middle of a cornfield. A diamond inspired by the mystical phrase “If you build it, he will come.”

While Dwier Brown’s role is small–he appears in some early photographs and in the last five minutes of the movie–its impact on his life has been enormous. It is this impact that his book, If You Build It, is based. Part autobiography, part behind-the-scenes of the film, Brown sensitively shows how his whole life led up to that role and the part it would play in years to come. He also adds anecdotes, snapshots of the many times that people would recognize him and share their own personal stories. Stories of men and their dads watching the movie together, feeling their bond strengthen, and stories of estranged fathers and sons feeling the need to reconnect and forgive, inspired by the movie’s message.

That is what makes this book so special. It does not focus heavily on ideal father/son relationships. It acknowledges the honest truth that all parent/child relationships are complicated, including Ray and John in the movie, Dwier Brown and his father, and his father before him. As a daughter who had a complicated relationship with my father, I found this extremely refreshing. The book is beautifully written, with a rhythmic fluidity and plenty of heart-tugging tidbits that keep your interest until the very end.

Being familiar with the film is very helpful, but not completely essential, to read If You Build It. I recommend watching the movie and reading the book, in that order. Both are very much worth your time and will restore some of your faith in family and its potential.

9/10 Stars

Just like there are talented musicians on YouTube who you will never see in a large venue or at the Grammys, there are actors with witty charm who can hold their own with the biggest names and never quite become big names themselves.

Enter Michael Wilding, best known (sadly) as Husband #2 of Elizabeth Taylor. Their marriage lasted a bumpy 5 years, where he sacrificed a very promising British film career to follow his young bride to America. He is the father of her two sons, Michael Jr. and Christopher. But Hollywood didn’t quite know what to do with him, and his star faded like a blinking light bulb, while Taylor’s became stratospheric.

I went down a rabbit hole a few months ago that led me to this autobiography of an actor who is so self-effacing and charming, I began a quest to find his films. It isn’t easy. Most are unavailable or Region 2 DVDs (Europe,) but I did manage to find a few, especially his starring turns with Anna Neagle (wife of Herbert Wilcox, who is the father of Wilding’s coauthor.) They were the Tom Hanks/Meg Ryan of their day and the films I did find with the two of them are positively delightful. (Spring in Park Lane and Maytime in Mayfair, both with the same main cast, on DVD only. I found them on eBay.)

Unlike Elizabeth Taylor, whose childhood was anything but conventional, Michael Wilding came from a stable family whose parents allowed him to explore his interests. This led him on a fascinating life journey through four marriages and a myriad of film and TV genres, putting him in the company of some exceptional people like Noel Coward (check out In Which We Serve, on Amazon streaming–it’s excellent) and Alfred Hitchcock (I liked Stage Fright, but found Under Capricorn tiresome.)

Despite being saddled with epilepsy, Wilding remained dignified and roguish until the very end, which came too soon. Other films I’ve enjoyed are The Law and the Lady with Greer Garson, The Glass Slipper with Leslie Caron (skip the ballets, trust me,) and the semi-campy Torch Song with troublesome Joan Crawford. These last three, plus his films with Anna Neagle, are his best.

What I liked best about The Wilding Way was that he never once plays a victim of circumstance, always taking responsibility for his failures. There is a breezy grace to the way he moves onscreen and in his life, never taking it too seriously. A cross between Cary Grant, Danny Kaye, and Laurence Olivier. An impressive (and fun) mix.

8.5/10 Stars