Author: Dave Astor

We Were All Kids in the Beginning, Except for Benjamin Button

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Every one of us can relate to looking back at our younger years and remembering the highs and lows of that time. Feeling nostalgia or regret or embarrassment, etc., from an adult perspective. And perhaps getting insight into what helped make us what we are today.

Among the many authors who have explored a fictional character’s past is Haruki Murakami in the rather lengthily titled Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, which I read last week. As a teen two decades earlier, Tsukuru had been part of a group of five close friends when the other four suddenly and completely cut him off without explanation. Tsukuru was devastated, and never quite got over it even into his 30s. Finally, his girlfriend insists that the Tokyo-based Tsukuru try to find out what happened — which leads him to revisit his Japanese hometown of Nagoya and even take a trip to Finland.

Revisiting/analyzing one’s younger years is also a major theme of Cat’s Eye by Margaret Atwood. In that novel, celebrated Canadian painter Elaine Risley is invited back to her Toronto hometown for a retrospective show of her art. That visit brings to the surface many memories of her childhood — which included negative experiences (such as being bullied) and more positive ones.

Harper Lee’s renowned To Kill a Mockingbird novel has its Scout Finch character recount her childhood from an adult vantage point. Nicholas Sparks does something similar in A Walk to Remember, as the middle-aged Landon Carter recalls his teen romance with the gravely ill Jamie Sullivan. In both cases, virtually the whole book takes place in the past, except for the brief later-life framing.

Many other novels chiefly focus on a protagonist in adulthood while offering brief childhood flashbacks to more fully flesh out the character. Elin Hilderbrand’s The Blue Bistro, a book I just finished set mostly in a Nantucket restaurant, does that well.

The recollection-of-childhood approach is different in Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, as the title character uses a first-person narrative to chronologically chronicle her life from girlhood into adulthood. George Eliot does a third-person version of that in The Mill on the Floss as she tells the life story of Maggie Tulliver (and to a lesser extent Maggie’s brother Tom).

A chronological kid-to-adult story line can of course be extended into a series, as is the case with J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books and Jean M. Auel’s Earth’s Children books (The Clan of the Cave Bear, etc). In those two series, the sagas end in early adulthood for the young protagonists.

Another type of approach is in Jamie Ford’s Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, which features Henry Lee in parallel story lines — as a 56-year-old adult in the 1980s, and as a 12-year-old kid seeing his friend Keiko Okabe relocated to a harsh Japanese-American internment camp in Idaho in the 1940s.

Then there’s F. Scott Fitzgerald’s short story “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” in which the title character ages in reverse — from old to young. Kind of a different category. 🙂

Your thoughts about, and examples of, this theme?

Misty the cat says: “Thomas Wolfe wrote ‘You Can’t Go Home Again.’ I’m proving him wrong.”

My comedic 2024 book — the part-factual/part-fictional/not-a-children’s-work Misty the Cat…Unleashed — is described and can be purchased on Amazon in paperback or on Kindle. It’s feline-narrated! (And Misty says Amazon reviews are welcome. 🙂 )

This 90-second promo video for my book features a talking cat: 🙂

I’m also the author of a 2017 literary-trivia book…

…and a 2012 memoir that focuses on cartooning and more.

In addition to this weekly blog, I write the 2003-started/award-winning “Montclairvoyant” topical-humor column every Thursday for Montclair Local. The latest piece — about affordable housing, flooding, public libraries in need of work, a schools superintendent search, and more — is here.

Chase Is Not a Bank When Novels Include Chases

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One way to almost guarantee a satisfying conclusion in a novel is with a great chase scene. Such a scene frequently happens in genres such as the thriller, but also occasionally in more literary fiction.

Chases are exciting; the way they unfold can be quite inventive; and they make eager readers wonder: Will the pursued person (who can be the novel’s villain or hero) get caught or escape? Also, it should be noted that memorable chases might occur in the middle or soon after the start of a novel, too.

I just finished Kate Quinn’s The Rose Code, a terrific/intricate piece of historical fiction about British codebreakers during World War II that stars three unforgettable women. The icing on the cake near book’s end is an on-foot, top-speed, ultra-dramatic pursuit in London of a codebreaker traitor who had ruthlessly framed one of the three women.

Among the most memorable chases in the history of fiction? The pursuit of a terrified Eliza, holding her young son, as she tries to escape from slavery — including an attempt to cross the icy Ohio River — in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

Also quite well known is Victor Frankenstein’s eye-opening, across-the-Arctic pursuit of the creature he created in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.

Hunted Past Reason chronicles the brutal hunt of a fleeing man by another man — with Richard Matheson’s novel inspired by Richard Connell’s decades-earlier short story “The Most Dangerous Game.”

Other novels with unforgettable chase elements — again, not necessarily at book’s end — include Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men, Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley, William Goldman’s Marathon Man, John Buchan’s The Thirty-Nine Steps, and James Dickey’s Deliverance.

Of course, there are novels with car chases, too.

Obviously, chases in fiction don’t always involve just humans. For instance, Captain Ahab and his Pequod crew pursue a certain big white whale in Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick. Also, there are the shark shenanigans in Peter Benchley’s Jaws.

Any other novels with great chase scenes you’d like to mention? Any general thoughts on this topic?

Misty the cat says: “One small step for cat, one giant leap if I were a very small cat.”

My comedic 2024 book — the part-factual/part-fictional/not-a-children’s-work Misty the Cat…Unleashed — is described and can be purchased on Amazon in paperback or on Kindle. It’s feline-narrated! (And Misty says Amazon reviews are welcome. 🙂 )

This 90-second promo video for my book features a talking cat: 🙂

I’m also the author of a 2017 literary-trivia book…

…and a 2012 memoir that focuses on cartooning and more.

In addition to this weekly blog, I write the 2003-started/award-winning “Montclairvoyant” topical-humor column every Thursday for Montclair Local. The latest piece — about neglectful ownership of a lower-income apartment building and more — is here.

Anti-‘Woke’ Folk Should Do a Literary Soak

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Colson Whitehead photo by Chris Close/Doubleday.

The Trump Administration’s countless nasty actions during its first six weeks include a crusade against DEI (Diversity/Equity/Inclusion) in the United States — a crusade that once again shows that Donald and company are white supremacists. They’re also sexist, anti-LGBTQ+, uncaring about people with disabilities, etc.

Their wrongheadedness has meant, among other things, firings of many federal employees who are not white males and crackdowns on merit-based multicultural hiring. Buttressing everything is the Trump Administration’s racist view that Caucasian men are the most competent people for any job — a view proven false time and time again, including when one looks at Trump’s grossly unqualified white male picks for Cabinet posts and other high positions.

Some on the anti-DEI bandwagon acknowledge that racism, misogyny, and homophobia once existed but contend that they’re now things of the past. Yes, things have gotten better, but true equality is still a distant goal. Also, there has of course been much recent backsliding into intolerance “thanks” to Trump, many of his fellow Republicans, some Democrats, and others.

One way people can see the very problematic nature of an anti-DEI attitude is to read novels. Many fictional works spotlight talented characters who are not white males, and often depict the challenges those characters face in a world still teeming with bias.

For instance, I’m currently reading Kate Quinn’s excellent 2021 novel The Rose Code — in which the abilities of World War II codebreakers Osla Kendall, Mab Churt, and Beth Finch are inspiring, as are the struggles of those three young Englishwomen against sexism and being underestimated.

But for the rest of this post, I’m going to only mention novels featuring impressive Black female and male characters who give the lie to alleged white male superiority as they often deal with a LOT in a society that devalues them and too often threatens them.

Just before starting The Rose Code, I read Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 2019 novel The Nickel Boys — and there’s no doubt that African-American character Elwood Curtis is smarter, nicer, and harder-working than any other teen (Black or white) we “meet” in the segregated northern Florida of the early 1960s. But a racist criminal “justice” system sends Elwood to a brutal juvenile reformatory on a charge he’s innocent of, and the results are not pretty — including what we learn in the powerful twist near the book’s conclusion.

But that was more than 60 years ago, you say? Whitehead, who also sets The Nickel Boys in more-recent times, shows how prejudice never completely goes away; it continues to reverberate. Trauma lingers across many a decade (as does a much smaller amount of intergenerational wealth among Black people compared to white people).

A few other memorable characters whose lives were at least partly affected by America’s warped racial dynamics include Joe King Oliver of Walter Mosley’s Down the River unto the Sea (2018), Starr Carter of Angie Thomas’ The Hate U Give (2017), Ifemelu of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah (2013), Kiki Belsey of Zadie Smith’s On Beauty (2005), Celie of Alice Walker’s The Color Purple (1982), Dana Franklin of Octavia E. Butler’s Kindred (1979), Macon Dead III of Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon (1977), Kunta Kinte of Alex Haley’s Roots (1976), John Grimes of James Baldwin’s Go Tell It On the Mountain (1953), the unnamed narrator of Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man (1952), Bigger Thomas of Richard Wright’s Native Son (1940), and Janie Crawford of Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937). I found every one of those novels well worth reading, and I wish everyone trashing DEI would read them, too.

There are of course many bias-slammed Black characters skillfully created by white authors, too. Among them are Donte Drumm, a teen who ends up on Death Row for a murder he didn’t commit in John Grisham’s The Confession (2010); and the also falsely accused Tom Robinson in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird (1960). Hmm…kind of similar story lines, 50 years apart.

Some of the characters mentioned in this post “overcome,” some do not.

Your thoughts about, and examples of, this topic?

Misty the cat says: “The grass will get greener this spring or when I buy a big can of green paint.”

My comedic 2024 book — the part-factual/part-fictional/not-a-children’s-work Misty the Cat…Unleashed — is described and can be purchased on Amazon in paperback or on Kindle. It’s feline-narrated! (And Misty says Amazon reviews are welcome. 🙂 )

This 90-second promo video for my book features a talking cat: 🙂

I’m also the author of a 2017 literary-trivia book…

…and a 2012 memoir that focuses on cartooning and more.

In addition to this weekly blog, I write the 2003-started/award-winning “Montclairvoyant” topical-humor column every Thursday for Montclair Local. The latest piece — about a newly hired township manager, bad sidewalks, and more — is here.

Scotland Is a Land of Notable Authors

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When I finished my fourth Val McDermid novel (Out of Bounds) last week, it occurred to me that I’ve read quite a lot over the years by Scottish writers — who include a number of names you’re sure to recognize.

McDermid (1955-) is a masterful crime author who has impressively created five different series, perhaps most famously the one starring dogged cold-case investigator Karen Pirie. Out of Bounds is the fourth of seven books featuring Pirie.

Then there’s perhaps the most famous detective writer of all: Edinburgh-born Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930), creator of the iconic Sherlock Holmes novels and short stories, not to mention The Lost World and other works. “Elementary” that he would be part of this post.

I can’t go further without mentioning the acclaimed Walter Scott (1771-1832), best known for Ivanhoe and Rob Roy but also the author of lesser-known-but-also-great novels such as Old Mortality and The Heart of Midlothian. A celebrated poet, too, earlier in his career.

Also, Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894), author of classics such as Treasure Island, Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Weir of Hermiston — the last of which would’ve been his masterpiece if he hadn’t died before finishing it.

Plus J.M. Barrie (1860-1937) of Peter Pan fame, Muriel Spark (1918-2006) of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie renown, and Alistair MacLean (1922-1987) of Where Eagles Dare fame.

Among the Scottish authors I’ve yet to read but want to are Alexander McCall Smith (born in what is now Zimbabwe) and John Buchan (I did see the screen version of his The Thirty-nine Steps novel directed by Alfred Hitchcock).

Scottish poet Robert Burns (1759-1796) deserves a big mention, too.

Last but not least, there’s historical-romance author/WordPress blogger Shehanne Moore, an exceptional writer who frequently comments under WP posts here and elsewhere.

Any thoughts on these and other Scottish writers?

In his latest brief video, Misty the cat says: “I turned south after walking west, and it instantly got 10 degrees warmer.”
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/f6nxRPncTIs

My comedic 2024 book — the part-factual/part-fictional/not-a-children’s-work Misty the Cat…Unleashed — is described and can be purchased on Amazon in paperback or on Kindle. It’s feline-narrated! (And Misty says Amazon reviews are welcome. 🙂 )

This 90-second promo video for my book features a talking cat: 🙂

I’m also the author of a 2017 literary-trivia book…

…and a 2012 memoir that focuses on cartooning and more.

In addition to this weekly blog, I write the 2003-started/award-winning “Montclairvoyant” topical-humor column every Thursday for Montclair Local. The latest piece — about Tesla buyer remorse in my liberal town — is here.

News and Mood Can Change Reading Choices

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Rating: five fingers but not even one star. (Photo of Donald Trump by Win McNamee/Getty Images.)

What’s happening in the news and/or in our personal lives can affect the kind of fiction we read — temporarily, at least.

In my case, I’ve been beyond saddened by the election of far-right dictator wannabe Donald Trump as U.S. President in November 2024, his appalling appointments and actions since taking office last month, and the spineless “bending of the knee” to Trump by almost all of his fellow Republicans, some Democrats, a number of media outlets, many large corporations, and so on. Makes me sick.

Plus I’ve been dealing for months with a serious family medical matter, and with my 12th-grade daughter’s positive-but-stressful college odyssey (applications, financial-aid forms, campus visits, etc.).

So, while I usually “consume” a mix of popular fiction and more-challenging literary fiction, I’ve been leaning toward the former in recent months as I seek a mental break whenever possible. For instance, I’ve read a lot of Elin Hilderbrand — whose ultra-appealing books are very readable even as they still often deal with some heavy stuff.

After polishing off six Hilderbrand novels in a row the past few weeks — The Island and Silver Girl were my favorites — I thought I’d try to dip my toe once more into reading something of greater difficulty: Precious Bane by Mary Webb, whose prose is really impressive yet rather a slog to get through with its dialect and other complexities. But I gave up on the highly regarded 1924 book not far into it, which I don’t think would have happened if I were in a different state of mind.

I made a library trip the day I’m writing this (February 13) and vowed to try again to mix things up. Two of the six novels I borrowed did fill the Hilderbrand bucket (it’s nice when one “discovers” an author well into her or his career, which can mean many books to catch up on) but I also took out Colson Whitehead’s intense The Nickel Boys as well as Colorless Tsukuru and His Years of Pilgrimage by renowned literary-fiction writer Haruki Murakami.

The other two of the six will probably fall somewhere between “readable” and heavy: Kate Quinn’s The Rose Code and Val McDermid’s Out of Bounds, the latter an installment of the excellent series starring Scottish cold-case detective Karen Pirie. As for Quinn, I thought her war-soaked The Alice Network and The Huntress were terrific.

Hopefully, I’ll be able to soon return to my love of novels that contain only some escapism. If not soon, eventually. 🙂

In the meantime, I’m also frequently reading the news to stay informed about the Trump administration, but those stories are so painful that I tend to skim them rather than absorb every word.

Getting back to the topic of novels, whenever there’s a villainous character in one I’m reading, I now think of Donald Trump, his toady vice president JD Vance, the administration’s cartoonishly evil unelected advisor Elon Musk (richest man in the world), and others in Trump’s orbit. Trump and his ilk are a bunch of white supremacists who are also misogynist and anti-LGBTQ+, want to make the rich richer, want to shred the social-safety net for the non-rich, are profoundly corrupt, etc. At least I deleted my account last year on the Musk-owned X (formerly Twitter) and will never buy a Tesla as long as Musk owns that electric-vehicle company.

Do your reading choices change because of your mood, things happening in your life, and the political situation in your country/the world?

Misty the cat says: “Last night was a mix of snow, rain, and broccoli. Well, maybe two of those three.”

My comedic 2024 book — the part-factual/part-fictional/not-a-children’s-work Misty the Cat…Unleashed — is described and can be purchased on Amazon in paperback or on Kindle. It’s feline-narrated! (And Misty says Amazon reviews are welcome. 🙂 )

This 90-second promo video for my book features a talking cat: 🙂

I’m also the author of a 2017 literary-trivia book…

…and a 2012 memoir that focuses on cartooning and more.

In addition to this weekly blog, I write the 2003-started/award-winning “Montclairvoyant” topical-humor column every Thursday for Montclair Local. The latest piece — covering topics such as the fate of a 121-year-old firehouse — is here.

In February, There Are Authors Born Between January and March

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I, the feline Misty, realize most novelists celebrate their birthdays with cake. I eat cat food. (Photo by my human Dave, who has informed me that today is not my birthday.)

Hi! Misty the cat here. I haven’t guest-blogged for Dave since December 8, which was two months ago. It was also sort of a year ago: 2024! Four millennia ago, too, because it was 2024 BC (Blogging Cat). Time flies when you’re…swatting a clock off the mantelpiece.

Anyway, Dave can use the break because he recently had a nasty case of the flu as well as various family matters keeping him busy, including explaining to the ghost of his 17th-century ancestor why her on-the-mantelpiece antique clock is splattered across the floor. Or maybe that cheapo clock was purchased for a few bucks this century at Kmart. (“‘Attention, Kmart shoppers.’ Get the hell of here because our chain filed for bankruptcy seven years ago, in 2018.”)

But what topic should I, Misty the cat, discuss today? It occurred to me that authors have birthdays in all 12 months — except October because someone stole a briefcase with Bono’s notes and lyrics while he and the rest of U2 were recording their “October” album in 1981. Anyway, authors have birthdays in the other 11 months, except for those who have birthdays in October, so let’s discuss some novelists who were born in February — this month! (“I’m dreaming of a white…Presidents’ Day…with every Presidents’ Day card I write…”)

Born on February 1 (1918) was Muriel Spark! She’s best known for writing the 1930s-set novel The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, whose title character was the first Amazon Prime customer.

Also born on February 1 (1901) was Langston Hughes, whose debut novel has a title — Not Without Laughter — that contains valuable advice for writing my blog posts. Heck, the only time I’m 100% serious is when my cat-treat container is empty and I consequently wear a mourning veil. Unlike someone marrying on the rebound who wears a basketball net for a veil.

Coming into the world on February 2 (1882) was James Joyce — who, if he had been a cat with nine lives, would’ve written “The Dead” nine times. Rather repetitive.

Ultraconservative icon Ayn Rand’s birthday was also on February 2 (1905). She decried government-run programs, yet hypocritically collected Social Security! Meanwhile, Atlas shrugged after his job as a book of maps was supplanted by GPS. “Turn right at the fountainhead.”

James Michener! Born on February 3 (1907). He wrote so many “doorstop” books that The Doors stopped…being a rock band. But not before one of my cat ancestors sang “Light My Fur” when one of those laser pointers was aimed at her.

Charles Dickens came to be on February 7 (1812). In his immortal words, “It was the best of cats, it was the best of cats,” because what other kinds of cats are there?

Sinclair Lewis was also born on February 7 (1885). He’s known for his 1920s run of excellent novels as well as for the iconic Lewis and Clark Expedition that involved setting a pick for Indiana Fever hoops superstar Caitlin Clark.

Another February 7 (1867) birthday was that of Little House on the Prairie series author Laura Ingalls Wilder. The diminutive nature of that house inspired the tiny green plastic houses used in Monopoly games.

Jules Verne? Born on February 8 (1828). Verne was a science-fiction pioneer, though he didn’t invent the genre. Sci-fi’s inventor was in fact my good friend Garfield the cat, who crafted a spaceship from lasagna and the rest was history.

Also a February 8 (1850) author was Kate Chopin, whose The Awakening novel shocked felines accustomed to napping 24 hours a day.

February 8 (1955) brought us John Grisham, too. His novel The Firm was great, but not quite an accurate representation of my jiggly belly.

Alice Walker was born on February 9 (1944). Given that me and other cats are partially color-blind, I have to take people’s word that Walker wrote The Color Purple.

February 10 (1890) was the birthday of Boris Pasternak, whose Doctor Zhivago is not about my vet. But my vet is welcome to change her name to Doctor Zhivago.

Toni Morrison was born on February 18 (1931). Her masterful work included Song of Solomon, whose initials remind me that I send out an SOS when my humans are gone for more than five seconds.

Amy Tan’s birthday is on February 19 (1952). Her books include The Kitchen God’s Wife, but religion continues to confuse me. What’s God doing in the kitchen? Does God really have a wife? If so, does that couple file a joint tax return? Who’s their CPA (Celestial Pair Accountant)?

The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter author Carson McCullers was also born on February 19 (1917). I know something about hunting, as I illustrate whenever I leave my apartment for my daily leashed walk. Let me know when chasing chipmunks becomes an Olympic sport.

David Foster Wallace, born on February 21 (1962), wrote Infinite Jest. If this post of mine became similarly infinite, could the WordPress blog platform handle that?

Anthony Burgess was born on February 25 (1917). Best known for A Clockwork Orange, but me and other cats aren’t into fruit. Our digestive systems are built for meat, and we don’t have the taste receptors to detect sweetness. Burgess could have written A Clockwork Tuna Melt, but noooo. Sheesh.

Victor Hugo! Born on February 26 (1802). Les Miserables is what happens when someone sticks a fruit platter in front of me.

I’ll end with John Steinbeck, who entered the world a century after Hugo (1902) on February 27. I don’t mean to harp on fruit, but The Grapes of Wrath…really? Steinbeck did also write East of Eden, which is definitely not east of an apple orchard.

Dave will reply to comments because I need to enter the contest for “Best Cat-Written Blog Post Focusing on Authors Born in February.” If I win a cash prize, maybe we can afford to turn up the heat in this damn apartment.

I, Misty the cat, say: “‘The Snows of Kilimanjaro’ have come to New Jersey.” 

My (and Dave’s) comedic 2024 book — the part-factual/part-fictional/not-a-children’s-work Misty the Cat…Unleashed — is described and can be purchased on Amazon in paperback or on Kindle. It’s feline-narrated! (And I, Misty, say Amazon reviews are welcome. 🙂 )

This 90-second promo video for the book features a talking cat that looks sort of like me: 🙂

Dave is also the author of a 2017 literary-trivia book…

…and a 2012 memoir that focuses on cartooning and more.

In addition to his weekly blog, Dave writes the 2003-started/award-winning “Montclairvoyant” topical-humor column every Thursday for Montclair Local. The latest piece — about a plan for seven new pricey homes — is here.

The Ardor Order of Jane Austen

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Fellow blogger Rebecca Budd noted in a post last week (see below) that January 28 was the 1813 publication date of Jane Austen’s classic novel Pride and Prejudice. Rebecca’s piece made me think about how I would rank the six books Austen (1775-1817) is most known for. So here I go with a post that will not end with a wedding, but with the Austen novel that is my favorite.

Milestone: January 28, 1813 Pride and Prejudice published

6. Northanger Abbey: A satire of Gothic fiction with both great moments and so-so moments. Though published posthumously, it was the first novel Austen fully completed — so the authorial growing pains are not surprising. The protagonist is Catherine Morland, whose reading of Gothic fiction feeds her rather overactive imagination.

5. Emma: Many readers would undoubtedly rank this well-crafted novel higher in Austen’s canon, but Emma Woodhouse’s meddlesome nature is rather annoying; she really does need to mind her own business. (I’m surprised Harriet Smith didn’t “unfriend” Emma on Facebook. 🙂 ) But, to her credit, Emma eventually does some growing up by the latter part of the novel.

4. Mansfield Park: The “poor relation” protagonist Fanny Price is sympathetic, but probably the most boring and least charismatic of Austen heroines. Still, the story line and how Fanny fares makes for interesting reading. Bonus: J.K. Rowling named a cat in her Harry Potter series after the Mrs. Norris character in Mansfield Park.

3. Sense and Sensibility: An absorbing look at the Dashwood sisters as they and their widowed mother find themselves in reduced economic circumstances. The first Austen novel published, in 1811.

2. Pride and Prejudice: The favorite Austen work of many, and the novel is indeed quite a read. Its characters of course include Elizabeth Bennet (one of five sisters) and Fitzwilliam Darcy as they navigate an initially challenging relationship. The title of this iconic book comes from a phrase in Fanny Burney’s 1782 novel Cecilia.

1. Persuasion: A concise novel featuring what I think is Austen’s most mature heroine: Anne Elliot. Her relationship with Captain Frederick Wentworth is at first thwarted, but she keeps on keeping on with life during the years of separation.

Your Austen favorites?

Misty the cat says: “‘Journey to the Center of the Earth’ starts with stepping off a porch.” Click on brief video here: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/T9c23Mm3eY4

My comedic 2024 book — the part-factual/part-fictional/not-a-children’s-work Misty the Cat…Unleashed — is described and can be purchased on Amazon in paperback or on Kindle. It’s feline-narrated! (And Misty says Amazon reviews are welcome. 🙂 )

This 90-second promo video for my book features a talking cat: 🙂

I’m also the author of a 2017 literary-trivia book...

…and a 2012 memoir that focuses on cartooning and more.

Also, I write the 2003-started/award-winning “Montclairvoyant” topical-humor column every Thursday for Montclair Local. The latest piece — inspired by a January jammed with local news — is here.

Immigration in Lit Amid the Latest Nativist Snit

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AP Photo/Gregory Bull

With Donald Trump back in the White House, many (mostly non-white) immigrants are threatened with deportation and more. Not just “illegal” immigrants, but “legal” ones, too. Deportation is of course a cruel, messy, expensive, family-shattering process that might wreak havoc on the United States economy.

Immigrants bring many positives to their new country — hard work, diversity, doing jobs many native-born citizens won’t do, etc. And studies have shown that immigrants, whether “legal” or “illegal,” commit fewer crimes than their native-born peers.

Why do so many people want to move to the U.S. or other countries? They might be fleeing poverty or danger. They might be seeking opportunities not available to them in their nation of birth, or seeking to live amid different social mores. And “first world” nations have created conditions in less-powerful countries that increase immigration — including economically exploiting those “third world” countries, sanctioning them or backing their dictatorial leaders, and hurting them with the global climate change that energy-overusing “first world” populations largely cause.

Then there’s the scapegoat scenario — blaming immigrants (not to mention trans people) when the real problems in countries such as the U.S. are oligarchs, billionaires, too-powerful corporations, widening income inequality, etc.

I should add that any country needs some limitations on how many new citizens it lets in. Unfortunately, the over-the-top way Trump is going about things in the United States is not the smart or decent immigration approach — certainly not deserving to be a role model for the rest of the world.

Anyway, now that I’ve blathered on for five paragraphs, it’s time to mention novels with memorable immigrant protagonists. These characters are depicted expertly by their authors, and we can of course relate to these fictional creations for all kinds of reasons — including partly because many of us are descendants of immigrants, or have immigrants in our extended families, or are immigrants ourselves. (I’m the U.S. grandson of immigrants from Eastern Europe, and my adopted younger daughter is from Guatemala.)

Given that the U.S. is a “nation of immigrants,” a number of examples I’ll offer are novels I’ve read with characters who came to America from various countries. But there will be other countries of destination cited, too.

Characters who move to the U.S. are from Nigeria in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah, from Afghanistan in Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, from India in Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake, from China in Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club, from Vietnam in Viet Thanh Nguyen’s The Sympathizer, from the Dominican Republic in Junot Diaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, from Iran in Andre Dubus III’s House of Sand and Fog, from Ireland in Colm Toibin’s Brooklyn, and from Greece in Jeffrey Eugenides’ Middlesex.

Among literature’s examples of immigration to countries other the U.S. are Nigeria to England in Bucha Emecheta’s Second Class Citizen, Bangladesh to England in Zadie Smith’s White Teeth, New Zealand to Australia in Colleen McCullough’s The Thorn Birds, and Morocco to France and back to Morocco in J.M.G. Le Clezio’s Desert, to cite a few examples from those I’ve read.

The immigration themes in these and other novels can be compelling in various ways: the drama of leaving one’s homeland for reasons (some mentioned earlier in this post) such as war, repression, threat of death, poverty, and wanting better opportunities; the culture shock involved in settling in a new place; how the immigrants — and their children and grandchildren — adapt to that new place; nostalgia for one’s former country; negative encounters with those native citizens who are anti-immigrant even though their ancestors might have been immigrants…

As readers get absorbed in all this drama, they also learn a lot about the places the characters left and move to. Learning can go down especially easy in fiction; I’ve read nonfiction books about various countries, but often better understand the history, customs, culture, and other aspects of those nations when reading novels with immigration themes.

By the way, two of Trump’s three wives — including current spouse Melania — were immigrants. And Usha, wife of Trump’s vice president JD Vance, is the daughter of immigrants.

Any immigration-themed novels you’d like to mention and discuss? Any general thoughts on this topic?

Misty the cat says: “There are at least three ‘King of Pain’ novels, but I’m the King of Pane.“

My comedic 2024 book — the part-factual/part-fictional/not-a-children’s-work Misty the Cat…Unleashed — is described and can be purchased on Amazon in paperback or on Kindle. It’s feline-narrated! (And Misty says Amazon reviews are welcome. 🙂 )

This 90-second promo video for my book features a talking cat: 🙂

In addition to this weekly blog, I write the 2003-started/award-winning “Montclairvoyant” topical-humor column every Thursday for Montclair Local. The latest piece — which has a passport theme — is here.

The Good and the Bad Are Half-Ugly (Inside)

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Martin Luther King Jr. (right) and Donald Trump (wrong).

Tomorrow, January 20, will see a mind-boggling juxtaposition of the good and the bad. It’s when the United States marks Martin Luther King Jr. Day to honor the renowned civil rights leader (actually born on January 15) and also when the reprehensible Donald Trump is again inaugurated as President of the United States.

Makes one think of excellent novels I’ve read that have very good and very bad characters and/or dizzying highs and dizzying lows.

Such as Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, in which one of the three brothers (Alyosha) is in the MLK category and another (Mitya) is closer to a Trump type.

Or Wilkie Collins’ The Woman in White, whose characters range from upstanding (such as Walter Hartright and Marian Halcombe) to evil (Percival Glyde and charismatic Count Fosco).

Or Henry James’ The Portrait of a Lady, which features the sympathetic Isabel Archer and the scheming Gilbert Osmond.

Or Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, whose title character deals with the lows of a painful orphan upbringing, an awful boarding school, romantic heartbreak, and homelessness. And the highs of finding some independence and that aforementioned romance.

Or Jane Austen’s Persuasion — in which its protagonist, Anne Elliot, faces romantic loss and romantic found.

Or George Eliot’s Silas Marner, whose title character suffers betrayal and later an unexpected event that turns his life around.

Or Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, in which one character (Eliza) makes a harrowing escape from slavery and another (Tom himself) eventually succumbs to slavery’s awful yoke.

Or Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I don’t think I have to explain that one. 🙂

Good and bad, and highs and lows, are of course part and parcel of real life — and great fodder for making novels more dramatic. If anything, many fictional works enhance the roller-coastering of personalities, emotions, and events. Which Trump would know if he ever read a book.

Though my post concentrated on 19th-century literature, you’re welcome to name novels from any time period that fit today’s theme. 🙂

Misty the cat says: “I jump in windows to avoid Aldous Huxley’s ‘The Doors of Perception.'”

My comedic 2024 book — the part-factual/part-fictional/not-a-children’s-work Misty the Cat…Unleashed — is described and can be purchased on Amazon in paperback or on Kindle. It’s feline-narrated! (And Misty says Amazon reviews are welcome. 🙂 )

This 90-second promo video for my book features a talking cat: 🙂

In addition to this weekly blog, I write the 2003-started/award-winning “Montclairvoyant” topical-humor column every Thursday for Montclair Local. The latest piece — about more lawsuit news in my town and other topics — is here.

Bringing You a Barrage of Book Birthdays

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A toast to novels with significant anniversaries in 2025.

It’s time for my annual first-half-of-January post featuring novels with major round-number anniversaries. I’ll mostly look at novels that are turning 25 (published in 2000), 50 (from 1975), 75 (from 1950), and 100 (from 1925 — a century-ago year with a stellar 12 months of books). I’ll focus on novels I’ve read, and you’re welcome to mention ones you’ve read. 🙂

Where to begin? With Michael Chabon’s 2000-released The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. It stars two male characters loosely based on Superman’s co-creators and other real-life cartoonists, and won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction.

Speaking of awards, 2000 also saw the publication of one of Margaret Atwood’s best: her Booker Prize-winning The Blind Assassin, starring two sisters and featuring a novel within that novel.

In the top tier of her output, too, was Barbara Kingsolver’s out-in-2000 Prodigal Summer, in which separate story lines expertly come together at the end.

There was Zadie Smith’s terrific debut novel White Teeth as well. That turn-of-the-millennium book mixes multicultural interactions, humor, and more.

The year 2000 also saw the publication of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire — the fourth in J.K. Rowling’s blockbuster wizard-world series, and the book that saw the author start to write quite-long-but-still-page-turning novels.

Lee Child’s fourth Jack Reacher novel, Running Blind, appeared in 2000, too — and it’s thrilling like the rest of the series, before and after.

John Grisham was his usual readable self with 2000’s The Brethren, about three ex-judges perpetrating a scam from jail.

And Rosamunde Pilcher’s final novel, the poignant Winter Solstice, came out 25 years ago, too.

Moving backwards to 1975, that was the year of Stephen King’s second novel: the gripping ‘Salem’s Lot. Wow — the still-prolific King’s career has passed the half-century mark!

Plus James Clavell’s very immersive Shogun, set in Japan circa-1600. And E.L. Doctorow’s Ragtime, mixing fictional and real people during the early 1900s. And Judith Rossner’s harrowing Looking for Mr. Goodbar, mixing sex and violence.

In 1950, memorable releases included Ray Bradbury’s short-stories-as-novel The Martian Chronicles, Isaac Asimov’s sci-fi classic I, Robot, Patricia Highsmith’s psychological nail-biter Strangers on a Train, and C.S. Lewis’ children’s fantasy The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, among others.

Turning to novels published in 1925 — 100 years ago! — we can only start with The Great Gatsby. (Leonardo DiCaprio is pictured atop this post in the 2013 movie version of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s iconic book.)

Other iconic or near-iconic titles published in 1925 included Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, Franz Kafka’s The Trial, Theodore Dreiser’s An American Tragedy, W. Somerset Maugham’s The Painted Veil, Sinclair Lewis’ Arrowsmith, and the second installment of L.M. Montgomery’s Emily trilogy. Plus one of Willa Cather’s lesser-known titles — The Professor’s House — and Georgette Heyer’s Simon the Coldheart.

I think the only novel I’ve read from 1875 — a century-and-a-half ago — was The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne. And nothing from 1825, 1775, and 1725, though I’ve read a number of books published not long before or after those years.

Misty the cat says: “Now that I’ve read ‘The Outsiders’ novel, it’s time to go inside.”

My comedic 2024 book — the part-factual/part-fictional/not-a-children’s-work Misty the Cat…Unleashed — is described and can be purchased on Amazon in paperback or on Kindle. It’s feline-narrated! (And Misty says Amazon reviews are welcome. 🙂 )

This 90-second promo video for my book features a talking cat: 🙂

In addition to this weekly blog, I write the 2003-started/award-winning “Montclairvoyant” topical-humor column every Thursday for Montclair Local. The latest piece — about another lawsuit in my town and a couple of contentious Council meetings — is here.