Book six: The Days of Anna Madrigal by Armistead Maupin.

Say it isn't so, Armistead Maupin! You've threatened that past books in the Tales of the City series were the last.  But this time you seem serious. And (SPOILER ALERT) with Anna Madrigal's final transformation complete, it seems the story may have run its natural course. But it doesn't have to be the end.

I'm talking, of course about Armistead Maupin's most recent novel, The Days of Anna Madrigal, the purported last novel in the "Tales" series. I'm a long time Tales of the City fan.  I've read all of the books in the series at least once.  (Well, except for this last which I listened to the audio book, performed delightfully by Kate Mulgrew. But I intend to read it as well.) I just recently finished listening to all of the audio books, many of which were just released last year. I've watched both the BBC and the Showtime TV series multiple times. I'm one of a limited number of people to have seen the musical based on the first two novels. With all these experiences under my belt, I can honestly say The Days of Anna Madrigal is the best installment since Tales of the City and More Tales of the City.

The fact that this installment is so good makes sense. After all, Anna Madrigal really is the central character of the entire story. Sure, some might argue that either Mary Ann Singleton or Michael Tolliver are the central characters.  There's probably more of a case to be made for Michael since he plays a prominent role in all the books. But it's Mrs. Madrigal who is the catalyst of the story.  Mary Ann's abrupt decision to move to San Francisco is just like any other naive, midwestern woman moving to the big city.  It's only with the magical, mysterious ways of Anna Madrigal that the story becomes enchanting.

Felix and Me with Armistead Maupin at a book signing
at the King's English bookstore.

The Days of Anna Madrigal finds the grand dame in her 90s.  After suffering strokes she is more frail than in previous stories, but certainly no less timid. Her wise, witty, and surprising remarks are as enchanting and hard edged as ever. And her power as literature's greatest transgendered character has only strengthened.  It's amazing that Mr. Maupin created this character in the 70s, a time when cultural attitudes about the LGBT community were much more sinister than they are today. The book seems to recognize this fact and offers a touching tribute to the courage of Mrs. Madrigal.  It is also a tribute to Maupin's dedication to breaking through cultural boundaries well ahead of his time.

New to this volume in the Tales saga is the use of flashbacks.  The reader is regularly taken back to Anna's childhood when she was a he named Andy. This literary device is perfect for this installment. As I deal with aging parents, I'm fascinated at the way their youth becomes increasingly more prevalent and important. This book conveys an honest sentiment of aging in a modern world. It also provides insight into Anna's mysterious secrets.

While many elements of the book feel fresh and unexpected, The Days of Anna Madrigal still delivers on all those literary delights that you expect from Armistead Maupin. There's all that brilliant dialogue. There are plenty of short, delicious lines that end each chapter and drive you onto the next, making the book immensely readable. There are the crazy plot twists that are completely ridiculous but somehow totally believable. And then there are the adventures.  This time there are two delightful and emotional adventures.  First, a return trip for Anna to her hometown of Winnemucca, Nevada where some of the story's long-standing secrets are revealed.  The second is the ultimate Tales of the City reunion at Burning Man of all places. The result is a novel that is as charming, laugh-out-loud funny, and moving as any in the series.

But just in case Mr. Maupin is listening to this fan, I'd like to suggest that this doesn't have to be the last. There are plenty of stories I'd still like to here.  Take Jake and his new boyfriend.  We have to know what happens to them. And what about Shawna? Oh, and how about the new generation of transgendered characters?  Couldn't one of them take over the mantle left by Anna?  All I'm asking Armistead, is that you consider it.

Until then, you should definitely read The Days of Anna Madrigal.

Book Five: Art on the Block by Ann Fensterstock.

I can't remember the exact year I first traveled to New York City.  It must have been 16 or 17 years ago. What I can remember is how much I fell in love with the city. I was there for work where we were helping a client host a press event at the Equitable Tower very near Times Square. I still remember walking into the lobby of that building and being overwhelmed by the massive work, Mural with Blue Brushstroke by Roy Lichtenstein. That moment fueled an already developing love for modern and contemporary art. Just a year or two later, I set a goal to visit NYC every year for the rest of my life. Those annual visits have resulted in some amazing art experiences.

It's no surprise then, that in my let's-read-books-about-art phase I was drawn to Art on the Block: Tracking the New York Art World from SoHo to the Bowery, Bushwick and Beyond by Ann Fensterstock. This book tracks the rise and fall of art communities in and around the Big Apple. And it's a fascinating tale.

From SoHo to the Lower East Side and Alphabet City; Brooklyn to Chelsea, this book shows how the art world is almost always a step ahead of the realities of political movements and cultural trends.  Oh, and this book should be a must read for city planners everywhere. Want to rehabilitate derelict or crime-ridden neighborhoods? Bring in the artists, the musicians, the misfits. They're surprisingly adept at fueling gentrification.

Ann Fensterstock is a delightful, friendly writer who takes a subject that could be snooty and makes it accessible.  Sure, she drops names so frequently it gets a bit annoying.  You know those biblical passages where so and so begets so and so? There are plenty of those passages in this book.  I recognized a lot of the names but there were moments when I had no idea what Ann was talking about.  But I forgive her this because as an art fan, this book was super fun.  And it helped me understand why I love and respect many of the artists I do.

If you're not a fan of art, skip this book.  But if you have even a passing interest in the worlds of modern and contemporary art, this is a fantastic read.

Book Four: The Monuments Men by Robert M. Edsel and Bret Witter

Thank God for historians.  I love it when historians bring to life an interesting story that seems like it should be common knowledge and yet has somehow been lost to time.  Such is the case with The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History by Robert M. Edsel and Bret Witter.  I listened to the audiobook which was performed by Jeremy Davidson. This is a story I feel like I should know about and yet I'd never heard about this smart moment in American and European history.

The Monuments Men tells the story of a small band of "soldiers" (Many from the US with additional soldiers hailing from Great Britain and France) who are tasked with finding, retrieving, and protecting Europe's great monuments and works of art.  There was a reason this was important.

We all know that Adolph Hitler was evil.  This book only adds to that perceptions.  It reveals that Hitler's evil is based in greed.  And the Nazi's were greedy not only when it came to world domination, but also when it comes to their desire to steal Europe's great art treasures, particularly those owned by Jews.  It's this information that made me like this book.  I follow the art world faithfully and the return of art works stolen by the Nazis is an ongoing battle.  Even many upstanding museums have ultimately returned famous works to the people or institutions from whom they were stolen by the Nazis.  What I didn't know about is how extensive the theft by the Nazis was and that the US government put in place a team (albeit a surprisingly small team) to help combat the looting of Europe's cultural heritage.  That's a pretty great story.

I didn't like the chaotic way in which this story is told.  There are a lot of characters and places in The Monuments Men and the writers struggle to create a story that isn't confusing. At the beginning of almost every scene, I struggled to remember which characters were in play and how they related to previous stories. This difficulty is even more surprising considering the fact that I was listening to the audiobook which gave me the added benefit of Davidson's voices to help remind me of which character or place we were talking about. This chaos detracted from the fascinating information included in the book.

The most important thing I took away from this book is that we haven't learned a lesson from this moment in history.  The Monuments Men were a short-lived military group.  It seems to me that this should be a permanent group in the US military.  It might help prevent the looting that we've seen in places like Iraq.  I agree with the Monuments Men; evil wins when wars result in the destruction of our cultural heritage.

Book Three: Living and Sustaining a Creative Life by Sharon Louden

Here is the idea behind Sharon Louden's Living and Sustaining a Creative Life: Ask 40 working artists to tell, in their own words, how they live their lives of creativity.  Since I'm starting 2014 off reading books about art and artists, this seemed like the perfect book to read. And while I see the value of this book, it left me with the impression that being an artist sucks.  Maybe that's true, but as an outsider, I might prefer not to know that.

Sure this book has its place.  It's a place which strikes me as largely academic.  It might be valuable as a text book for art students planning a life-long career as an artist. For the rest of us, the book might come across as too academic.  Or maybe it's just a little redundant. Many comments from various artists were very similar. Here are the things this book will tell you about being a working artist:

• Studio time is important and you have to protect that time.
• Having gallery representation has it's pros and cons.
• You can be a successful artist without having gallery representation.
• But probably, you want gallery representation
• Whether it's teaching, moonlighting at galleries or art moving companies, or being involved with a non-profit organization, you'll probably need to supplement your career as an artist with other paying work.
• Support from family and friends is an important part of being a happy, working artist.

What this book doesn't explore is how artists get to a place where they are creating meaningful work. Maybe it's because I recently read Eric Fischl's Bad Boy which does a brilliant job at helping readers understand how artists develop their ideas.  Creative process may have been intentionally left out of the scope of this collection of essays.  But for me it was a glaring omission.  As I consider increasing the time I dedicate to making art, understanding how other artists develop their perspective is just as valuable as understanding how to survive life as an artist.

A memorial trip to Nancy Holt's Sun Tunnels.

Relaxing at Nancy Holt's Sun Tunnels

On February 8, 2014 Nancy Holt died. There are lots of reasons to like Nancy Holt. There's the fact that she shunned the traditional art world and its fascination with museums and galleries, refusing to force her work to be confined by walls. There's the fact that she and her husband Robert Smithson (creator of Spiral Jetty) chose to place their most famous works in remote areas of Utah; Utah of all places! And there's the fact that in the world of Earth Art, a field dominated by powerful male perspectives, Nancy Holt not only held her own, she rose to a place of significant prominence. And God knows the art world can use more independent, powerful feminist voices.

In celebration of her life and to mark her passing, I decided a weekend trip to Holt's most famous work, Sun Tunnels, was in order. A trip to Sun Tunnels is no small effort.  It's about a four hour drive from Salt Lake City and finding it can be tricky. I recommend visiting this website for detailed driving instructions including photographs that help you navigate key turns.  Believe me, once you've left the highway and are navigating the dirt roads of Utah's West desert, it can be difficult knowing where you need to go.

While the drive is long and takes you through some fairly remote areas, it creates an experience that I think is a key part of all great Earth Art.  It forces the viewer to leave behind the noise of urban life and embrace a different canvas.  The expansiveness of the American West is a great visual release that overwhelms with its vastness. And it's a great way to prepare for the vision of an artist like Holt.

Utah's vast West Desert as dramatic back drop.

It's surprising that Nancy Holt is able to corral those big, overwhelming vistas and make them something more consumable. Sun Tunnels succeeds because it delivers on Holt's desire to capture the universe and make it personal.  By framing and organizing our views of the world around us, Holt changes our relationship to the environment and our universe. We are somehow able to understand the infinity of nature in a very personal way.

I enjoyed this trip so much, I'm considering a return for the summer solstice, when the rising and setting sun is aligned perfectly with two of the  tunnels.

Felix looking all "James Bond" wandering through the Sun Tunnels.

Smithson's Spiral Jetty gets more attention than Sun Tunnels, and certainly more visitors.  But I'm not sure that's fair.  I'm glad both works are here in Utah, making the state something of an Earth Art mecca. Holt's work has aged beautifully over the last nearly 40 years and the intent of the sculpture seems more powerful now than it did the first time I saw it over a decade ago. I'm guessing Holt is pleased with her effort to create this intriguing work.

If you're a resident of Utah and you haven't visited Sun Tunnels, the trip is well worth the effort.

But enough talk, here are a bunch more photos from my most recent visit.

Nancy Holt's Sun Tunnels framing the landscape.

Nancy Holt's Sun Tunnels framing the landscape.

Nancy Holt's Sun Tunnels framing the landscape.

Nancy Holt's Sun Tunnels framing the landscape.

The vastness of Utah's West desert juxtaposed with Holt's
Sun Tunnels. And the Jeep we rented to make the trek.

A concrete wreath we laid at the outskirts of
Sun Tunnels in memory of Nancy Holt.

Detail of the brass ribbon on the memorial wreath.

Interacting with Sun Tunnels amid the vastness of
Utah's West desert.

Interacting with Sun Tunnels amid the vastness of
Utah's West desert.

Book two: The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt.

Holy crap! This book lives up to the hype.

Donna Tartt's novel The Goldfinch has gotten so much attention I couldn't not read it.  Particularly when all my favorite "Best Books of 2013" lists came out and this book found itself at the top of most of them. Normally, all that hype means that when I finally get around to reading the book, it just can't live up to the expectation.  But The Goldfinch does, in spades.

I listened to the audio book.  And while the book is brilliant, it certainly didn't hurt to have it performed by David Pittu.  This audio book clocks in at over 32 hours.  The fact that Pittu was able to invent such riveting character voices and maintain their consistency over time is nothing short of miraculous. I never lost interest in the book even with its extreme length.  In fact, I frequently found myself looking for activities that would allow me to get back to the audiobook.

Spend any time reading reviews or stories about this book and the term "Dickensian" will come up repeatedly.  That's a claim that is bandied about way too often and is almost always undeserved. But Donna Tartt has delivered a novel that offers the epic sweep and cautionary morality that makes the novels of Dickens so tantalizing.  And rather than just make the claim, I'll offer a couple of examples.

The Characters
Like Dickens, Donna Tartt has created characters that are unforgettable.  They are so well crafted, that by halfway through the book, you can tell who is speaking just by the dialogue of the character.  They are also complex.  Almost every character in this book brings kindness and truth to the story as well as evil and deception.  There's Theodore "Theo" Decker, the 13-year old protagonist of the book who just happens to steal a priceless painting from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  His mother dies in the process. Over the next decade and a half, we follow Theo as he deeply disappoints with his devious actions. And yet somehow Theo always redeems himself.  There's Mrs. Barbour, a wealthy socialite who agrees to take Theo in.  Initially she seems cold and heartless despite her kind gesture.  But as you get to know her, she seems less sinister.  Boris may be my favorite character in the book.  He's helped greatly by the Russian accent given to him by David Pittu.  The kid is Trouble with a capital T.  And yet, he's a philosopher who seems hell bent on doing "the right thing."

Not every character in the book has a darker side.  I positively loved James Hobart (Hobie), the quirky old man who befriends Theo and teaches him about antiques and the art of restoration. Just as the story seems to spiral out of control, Hobie's kind and gentle confidence appears to restore a sense of calm.

The themes.
I love literature with strong, cleverly delivered themes.  It makes it easy to write an A+ term paper if you find yourself in a college literature class. But it also makes the read more rewarding.  Like most of Dickens' work, this is a moral tale.  It hits on universal themes that punch the reader right in the gut and remind us that we all might need to assess the nature of our truest intentions.  Many of the themes themselves are reminiscent of Dickens. Like Wemmick's conversations in Great Expectations, this is a story about "portable property." It's a treatise on the value of things, particularly the value of art. And it makes a strong case for our society's willingness to assign astronomical values to paintings.  But unlike Wemmick, this small, valuable object turns out to be not easily converted to currency.

Good and bad. Right and wrong. These are the central themes of The Goldfinch.  Also themes found frequently in Dickens.  Like Dickens, this book reminds us that what is legal frequently may not be what is moral.  And vice versa.  Boris may have put it best, "Because if bad can sometimes come from good actions, where does it ever say anywhere that only bad can come from bad actions. Maybe sometimes, the wrong way is the right way. You can take the wrong path and it still comes out where you want to be." I can relate to that.


The Art.
This really has nothing to do with Dickens.  But as I recently posted, for the first part of 2014 I'm focusing on books that reference or are about art. The Goldfinch is a love letter to history's great painters and craftspeople. And Tartt writes beautifully about the magic and power of art. Take this passage where through the words of Theo, Tartt gives an eloquent treatise on the true meaning and value of art: "I've come to believe that there's no truth beyond illusion. Because, between reality on the one hand and the point where the mind strikes reality, there's a middle zone, a rainbow edge where beauty comes into being; where two very different surfaces mingle and blur to provide what life does not. And this is the space where all art exists, and all magic. And I would argue as well, all love."

I recommend The Goldfinch with no hesitation.  And it easily warrants a top-notch rating of five Jeffies!

Book reviews are back. Book one: Bad Boy by Eric Fishl.

A few years ago, I wrote a post about each book I read that year.  I didn't do it the last year or so and I miss it.  It's nice to be able to go back and remember the books I've read, particularly since I frequently can't remember details of past reads.

So, for 2014, I'm going to return to writing posts about each book.  New for 2014, I'm going to also write posts about the audio books I listen to.  More and more I seem to be consuming spoken audio content, whether podcasts or audio books.  It's a great way to experience information in interesting ways.  I figure I might as well include audio books in the complete list of books I'll consume this year.

Also returning for 2014: THE JEFFIES!  That's right, the official Art Lobster rating system hasn't been used for quite sometime.  But it's about to return. And an updated look is in the works.

One last note before I talk about today's book.  I've decided to start 2014 off with a return to some of my interests that I might not have focused on as much in the past year.  One of those interests is the world of fine arts.  So for the next couple of months, I'm only reading books that have some element relating to art or artists.  Which is the perfect segue to this review.

The first book of 2014 is Bad Boy: My Life On and Off the Canvas by painter Eric Fischl.  This memoir co-written by Michael Stone tracks Fischl during his initial entrance into the art world and through his rise to prominence during the art world of the 70s and 80s.

I loved the opening of the book which finds the artist in a drug and alcohol fueled haze following the opening of a one-man show at New York's famed Whitney Museum of American Art.  It's an intense scene that leads the reader to believe he or she is in for a typical memoir about another "Bad Boy" artist who's life is consumed by addiction and vice.

But that's not what this book is about.  Although Fischl does have moments in his life where drugs, sex, and other vices seem to take over, he ultimately exercises control over those demons and moves on to explore more interesting tensions in his life.  The "Bad Boy" in this book is far more interesting.  Sure he questions his past and struggles to figure out how his artistic life fits into a larger narrative. Bad Boy transcends the tired cliches of the tortured artist consumed by abuse and insecurity.  This is an exploration of how an artist pushes the boundaries of expressing the human condition through art.

The book offers plenty of insight into what it takes to move the history of art forward.  Take this passage, "All artists have to find ways to lie to themselves, find ways to fool themselves into believing that what they're doing is good enough, the best they can do at that moment, and that's okay. Every work of art falls short of what the artist envisioned. It is precisely that gap between their intention and their execution that opens up the door for the next work."

Bad Boy is at its worst when Fischl repeatedly and bitterly berates the current generation of superstar artists including Jeff Koons and the Young British Artists (YBAs), from Damien Hirst to Marc Quinn.  The criticism seems disingenuous since these artists are are doing something very similar to what Fischl considers the secret to his success; breaking the rules of the art world. Fischl would have us believe that only painters (and maybe sculptors), working alone in their studios can truly create great works of art.  While I marvel at painters and their ability to move us emotionally, I don't agree with Fischl on this point.

Well written and unexpectedly engaging, this book is a great read for an art fan like me.  But with plenty of celebrity name dropping and a smart, emotional story structure, this book would be interesting to anyone who likes a good memoir.