Beyond the Image: The Bohemians by Jasmin Darznik

On the site of San Francisco's Transamerica Tower, there once stood a four story building known as the Monkey Block, though its proper name was the Montgomery Building. This area was once the city's notorious red-light district, which went by the name the Barbary Coast, but it was also the center of San Francisco's thriving bohemian culture. 

The Monkey Block was the home for the artists, writers, actors, musicians and others who flocked to the city starting in the late nineteenth century and on into the twentieth. The noted photographer Dorothea Lange became a part of the lifestyle there, after arriving in 1918 from New Jersey. She first was a society portrait photographer but her interests changed and she became known as one of the foremost chroniclers of the Great Depression, taking many indelible images of the plight of the migrants who went west during the period's worst days, and battled the drought of the Dust Bowl along with their lack of money and employment. 

The Bohemians tells a novelized version of her life story in an imagined first person account that incorporates many actual biographical facts, along with the many significant individuals who made up her friends and social circle, along with an ambiguous portrait of her first husband, the artist Maynard Dixon.

One significant fictionalized character is Caroline Lee, a half-Chinese/half-Caucasian woman who becomes her best friend and her partner in her photography studio. Lee is based somewhat on Lange's actual assistant, a Chinese woman named Ah Lee. Ah Lee was rescued as a child by the crusading missionary Donaldina Cameron. Cameron ran an orphanage for Chinese girls who would otherwise have been sold into prostitution or worse in San Francisco's Chinatown before and after the 1906 earthquake. Cameron also makes a significant appearance in the book. 

Author Jasmin Darznik brings together fact and fiction and blends them seamlessly. In addition to this being Lange's story, it is also a homage to San Francisco and its fascinating mix of bohemians, capitalists, politicians and others, admirable and some very much not. It is a vivid trip to a city that is the favorite of many, most of whom know little of its history, but are captivated by its beauty, unique geography and today, celebrated multicultural appeal and tolerance of "alternate" lifestyles.

Runway Revolution: The Battle of Versailles by Robin Givhan

In November 1973, an epic event in the history of fashion took place. Five leading American fashion designers: Bill Blass, Stephen Burrows, Oscar de la Renta, Halston, and Anne Klein, and five renowned French couturiers: Pierre Cardin, Marc Bohan for Christian Dior, Hubert de Givenchy, Yves Saint Laurent and Emanuel Ungaro, presented their work with great fanfare and drama at the Théâtre Gabriel at the Palace of Versailles. 

The showdown between French haute couture tradition and the new trends of American design was intended as a fund raiser for the King Louis XIV Palace, which was badly in need of restoration. It attracted the leading lights of international high society, royalty – Princess Grace of Monaco was in attendance – artists, movie stars and others who were household names of the time. Not only were the designers' collections shown, but there was top flight entertainment from Liza Minelli fresh from her triumph in the movie Cabaret, iconic performer Josephine Baker, and the world famous ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev.

Robin Givhan, the Pulitzer Prize-winning fashion critic for the The Washington Post, presents the backstory and the preparations for the event and dissects all of its historical and social implications in this page turner of a book.

Givhan brilliantly describes how far more was at stake than who were the better designers – the French or the Americans. The early 1970s were an extension of the period of great social and economic change around the world that began in the early 1960s with the coming of age of the oldest Baby Boomers in America and abroad: new trends in popular music and art, changes in the role of women, youth culture, new sexual freedom as a result of the invention of the birth control pill, and the demands of the Black community for equality.

Givhan gives us capsule biographies of the designers, describes the fashion industries and their histories in both France and the United States, introduces us to the leading models, many of whom on the American side were African-American and had remarkable life stories, and weaves in the biography and accomplishments of master publicist Eleanor Lambert, a woman who wove together the all the elements of the event and brought it to life. Altogether, it is a remarkable slice of history. Almost fifty years later, 1973 seems both distant and only yesterday, depending on the age and perspective of the reader, but Givhan recounts that time and the settings for the events so vividly that they feel like elements of an incredible technicolor dream.

I highly recommend this book for readers with interests in social history, fashion as an expression of its time, and anyone who knows Paris or has worked in the fashion and garment industry in France or New York. 

The Grandeur that Was Rome: Eternal by Lisa Scottoline

For Lisa Scottoline's sweeping, superb first historical novel, after many successful and entertaining suspense thrillers/mysteries, she has chosen the subject of Rome under Mussolini prior to and during World War II, focusing on the plight of the Roman Jews and the rise of violent Fascism.

Rome has been home to a Jewish community for time immemorial, and in the pre-war years, many families enjoyed a comfortable life, positions in the professions and the universities. Roman Jews, at least the family she portrays in this novel, saw themselves as an assimilated part of society and as citizens of Rome and Italy, equal to their Christian friends and neighbors.

When Mussolini came to power after World War I, in fact, many Jews embraced him as their leader and joined the Fascist party, which sounds shocking now, in light of what occurred later.

Scottoline's novel follows three school friends, Elisabetta, a beautiful young Catholic girl growing into womanhood, Sandro, a brilliant Jewish mathematician and son of a lawyer and doctor, and Marco, a handsome cyclist whose father runs a popular bar/restaurant, and whose oldest brother is a priest. The boys have been best friends since early childhood and Elisabetta rounds out their trio.

Relationships become complicated when the trio reaches their teen years and both boys fall for Elisabetta, who is drawn to them each for different reasons. The advent of the war and the developments in politics, as anti-Jewish laws are enacted, change everything for Rome and for the three and their families.

When Mussolini joins forces with Hitler and the Nazis invade, things quickly move from bad to worse. Day by day, the noose around Jewish families and the Jewish community is tightened. Jews must leave their homes and professions and are forced into the Ghetto. There is first disbelief, and gradually, greater and greater suffering for the Jews and Italians as a whole. Scottoline has done a remarkable job of breaking down the day-by-day events and conveying the mounting tension and horrific conditions that lead to murders, violent beatings, and a round-up of nearly the entire Jewish population of Rome.

These are all historical facts, but the specifics will be new for many readers, as they were to me. The war destroyed much of the fabric of Roman society, just as it destroyed historic buildings with the bombings. It took decades for the city to revive after so much suffering, but the Jewish community of Italy will never be what it once was, after the deportations and emigration to Israel and the United States. So tragic what we do to each other.

Scottoline's novel is well-paced,  meticulously researched and a fascinating read. I hope she will follow up – perhaps with a novel set in Venice? To be determined...

Half a Quartet: The Saturdays and The Four-Story Mistake by Elizabeth Enright

I've made it a point to re-read some of the classic children's books of mid-twentieth century America – favorites like the Betsy-Tacy series by Maud Hart Lovelace, Beverly Cleary's novels of first love, and now I'm halfway through The Melendy Quartet by the writer and illustrator Elizabeth Enright. 

The Melendy Quartet follows a family of four sisters and brothers: from the oldest down are Mona, Rush, Randy (a nickname for Miranda) and Oliver. The children's mother has passed away (we never learn when or how in the first two volumes), and they live with their beloved father, housekeeper/governess Cuffy and Willy Sloper, the all-around handyman who is handy at many other things as well.

We first meet the Melendys in the Manhattan of 1940, where they live in a somewhat threadbare and rundown brownstone house somewhere on the East Side below Midtown. They are comfortable, but far from wealthy. The Depression has most likely taken its toll on the family finances. We are not quite clear on what the father does for a living, but it requires a lot of typing in his study.

The first book, The Saturdays, takes its name from a plan the children put together to pool their allowances so that each one can take his or her turn with a Saturday afternoon adventure in the city, on her or his own. Each one has his or her interest that they want to follow – Mona loves the theater and aspires to act, Rush is a pianist, Randy wants to be an artist or ballet dancer, and little Oliver (just six) wants only to see the circus. By our standards, it's quite remarkable that the children are allowed to go off on their own, but it feels wonderful liberating to imagine oneself in that milieu. The city was less dangerous in some ways eighty years ago, or so it seems... 

Randy's adventure turns out to have the most consequences for the family (in a good way). When she goes to see an exhibition of paintings, she runs into old Mrs. Oliphant, an eccentric family friend who knew their mother as well as their father. Mrs. Oliphant takes Randy to a wonderful afternoon tea and tells her stories of her youth in France. They become good friends and Mrs. Oliphant becomes a major presence in all of their lives, taking them off for a summer seaside adventure and so much more. 

In book two, The Four-Story Mistake, we learn that the family is moving to a house in the country, most likely "upstate" New York, in a place that is reachable by train. It is now wartime, and there are changes in their lifestyle. Father has a job in Washington, D.C, and the children are in the care of Cuffy and Willy most of the time. 

The Four-Story Mistake is the name for their new house, a large structure with a cupola, several miles from the nearest town. The children must learn how to live in a country setting, but being the intrepid Melendys, they adapt well. Mona, still in her mid-teens, finds a part-time job as a radio actress and goes to the city twice weekly with Cuffy to record, Rush and Randy draw closer by uniting more often in their adventures, and Oliver has fun doing what nine-year-old boys do in the country. 

As a reader with a love for old New York, it was as hard for me as for the Melendys to leave the city brownstone behind, but the new old house has its own glories. We all make the best of it, with many gentle lessons learned, and lots of fun along the way.

A Voice Silenced: Little Girl Blue, the Life of Karen Carpenter by Randy L. Schmidt

What a sad, sad tale...a young life and a great talent snuffed out by mental and physical illnesses. It's well-known that Karen Carpenter died at the age of thirty-two from heart failure brought on by an extreme case of anorexia nervosa. How she reached that disastrous point has been thoroughly traced and documented in this biography by Randy L. Schmidt.

While her older brother Richard's talents were intrinsic to their ultimate superstar-level success, it was Karen's singing voice that captured the attention of everyone who heard it. Her interpretations of songs by composers including Paul Williams, Burt Bacharach, Lennon-McCartney and others were, in many cases, the indelible and definitive versions of those songs and remain so decades after her death.

Schmidt explores the family dynamic of the Carpenter family in great detail. The family unit, consisting of Karen and Richard, and their parents Agnes and Harold, was tight and intense. The children were so controlled by Agnes Carpenter that they continued to live at home well after they were thoroughly adult and incredibly wealthy from their musical success. These circumstances set the stage for Karen's later problems.

Schmidt explains that Richard had a great talent for the piano, playing, arranging and composing music. This was recognized early on by their parents, particularly Agnes, who made sacrifices of all kinds to forward his career, while Karen was treated as a very secondary talent...and child. Nearly all attention was lavished on Richard, and Karen was left trying to please her mother and get some of the love and approval so freely given to her brother. Despite the great success of the duo, and Karen's singular recognition as an extraordinary singer and interpreter of lyrics, it never seemed to be enough, and Karen spiraled down from her early negative feelings into depression, self-doubt and sadness, which manifested itself in her eating disorder, a problem that was not recognized as it is now. In fact, it is because of Karen's death that attention was brought to anorexia and related conditions.

During her career, Karen developed close friendships with fellow singers Olivia Newton-John, Petula Clark and Dionne Warwick. Warwick contributed the foreword to this book. Schmidt interviewed them, along with many others, to obtain intimate details of Karen's troubled life and disappointments, her failed marriage and professional challenges. This chronicle of her life conveys what was truly a tragedy. To be so talented and so successful, yet in so much pain, is a terrible waste and a testament to the necessity for more awareness of mental and emotional illnesses, and better mental health treatment, especially for girls and women.