Books reviews, current events, and other musings

Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones is an account of how the family and friends of a murdered 14-year old girl cope with the situation, as told by the deceased teenager in heaven. Despite the contrived settings of the novel and my inclination to dismiss the supernatural, it worked quite well. The depiction of heaven is attractive, as Susie Salmon, the girl, watches over her survivors on Earth, interacts with other dead people, and conjures up comforting surroundings for herself. The first half of the book grabs you, as Susie’s loved ones struggle to deal with her murder and move on. Things stall a bit later on, though that’s partially to due to my frustration in her family’s difficulty in getting on with their lives. The Lovely Bones is one of the best novels I’ve read in years.

The Next Fifty Years: Science in the First Half of the Twenty-First Century, is a collection of 25 essays by various science writers. Some essays are better than others, with a few authors wimping out and talking about current research instead of the future, but the overall quality is much better you find in most anthologies. The subjects include mathematics, physics, astronomy, chemistry, biology, psychology, and computer science. The essays were clear and informative without spending too much time on the basics. Also, after reading the most appealing essays, I can proceed to books by their authors, such as biologist Robert Sapolsky and psychologist Alison Gopnik.

Al Franken’s Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them is a mixed bag. Franken’s discussion of the right-wing media isn’t that exciting, since I don’t watch Fox News, but it’s good to know what their viewers are exposed to. Several of his topics were familiar from the liberal books and blogs that I’ve read, but there’s nothing wrong with hearing them again. The strongest part of the book was Franken’s description of Paul Wellstone’s memorial service and how the right-wingers distorted it. Many of Franken’s jokes fall flat, but he has some choice lines, such as “Clinton-hating was to the Bush White House what terrorism-fighting was to the Clinton White House.” It’s a very fast read – I got through it in a weekend – and it serves as a lighter companion to the more draining Bush-bashing books by Paul Krugman and Molly Ivins.

posted by Julian at 11:25 PM

In The Mommy Myth, Susan Douglas and Meredith Michaels explain how American media and commercial culture fosters what they call the “New Momism”. According to this New Momism ideology, motherhood is an all-encompassing role that demands exacting, unachievable standards from mothers. Meanwhile, society provides scant support for mothers struggling to raise children under increasingly challenging circumstances.

In a couple of ways, the book was removed from my personal experience. As a childless guy, the perils of motherhood aren’t something I can relate to. Also, I’m not exposed to many of the cultural influences the authors discuss: local news, women’s magazines, Martha Stewart, Dr. Laura, etc. Their analysis of TV shows that I’ve seen, for example, was more interesting than the other topics. Though I can empathize with people facing different concerns, the book’s message would resonate a lot more with its target audience.

Still, the authors convinced me of their basic hypothesis. The media presents two extreme views: the super-involved perfectionist celebrity moms vs. the negligent welfare mothers, pressuring mothers to strive for the impossible standards of the former. Television and magazines exaggerate the risks that children face, while proclaiming that your child will fall behind and have problems unless she receives nonstop attention and a full assortment of consumer goods.

As one complaint, the authors dismissed what I view as a logical response to the difficulty in raising children: choosing not to have any. They challenged one cultural myth – that motherhood should supercede everything else in a mother’s life – while accepting the myth that all women should be mothers. Also, I was aggravated by the self-righteous tone when discussing social spending for mothers, even though I totally agree with their desire to increase such spending.

Half of the chapters were full of over-the-top hyperbole, while the other half were reasonably well written. After glancing at an excerpt from Susan Douglas’s Where the Girls Are, it’s clear that she wrote the better chapters. Meredith Michaels wrote a Nation article called The Belly Politic, and the annoying chapters of The Mommy Myth had similarly cloying titles.

For my perspective, the analysis of motherhood in the media was too verbose compared to what they had to say. For a superior analysis of related issues, read Ann Crittenden’s The Price of Motherhood about the economic angle and Susan Faludi’s Backlash regarding media treatment of women.

posted by Julian at 6:15 PM