Blue Nights by Joan Didion

The writer Joan Didion knows all about grief, its many forms and its many machinations, it has struck repeatedly those she has known and loved and often at a very young age. Her husband John Gregory Dunne died at their dinner table while daughter Quintana was in the ICU Unit at John Hopkins Hospital seriously ill, Joan wrote a magnificent book called The Year of Magical Thinking which described in a heart wrenching yet beautiful, exquisite, prose the path that that first year took her down and how she survived it.
This book tells the interweaved, interconnected story of the life and early death of Quintana against the backdrop of her parents story,their shared lives and the joys, challenges, fears and overwhelming love that the adoption of Quintana brought to their lives, a life that as Joan tells it was privileged, not always easy but on balance could truly be called well lived. Although Quintana`s death at 38 could hardly be called fair and  her life certainly wasn`t long, it was packed with experiences that could only have bequeathed to her a rich tapestry on which she hoped to paint the rest of that life with her husband Gerry.
Didion`s description of how the rug was pulled out from under Quintana on the cusp of a new life, newly married and suffused with a rare happiness tells us with startling clarity how cruel the fates can be, how unexpected can be the hand of death and how powerless we really are to prevent it.
Didion paints her own portrait of loss and in words that dance on the page, they are carefully chosen and they are purposeful, many are not easy to read, their poignancy can bring tears but oh how she shares the life of Quintana with an honesty and rare bravery, she links it so beautifully with other lives ended early such as Natasha Richardson and  with the lives of family and friends many still living all who contributed, good, bad and indifferently to Quintana`s and her parents lives.  As much as she shares death, she shares life. As a young woman I wouldn`t have read or understood Joan Didion with much alacrity but now with a dose of maturity I have read her writing and been enhanced by the lessons she has shared, to say this book gets you thinking is an understatement. Would Joan Didion see herself as a Teacher of Life Lessons, probably not but she is and she has much more to share. Brilliant, touching, moving and elegant, the thought I am left with is  that as Joan writes she realises, the fear we are left with is not for what we have lost but for what we still have to lose. So true whatever our own experience.

In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson

Larson writes Non-Fiction at its best and in his latest book In the Garden of Beasts he takes us into Pre War Germany as seen by Ambassador William Dodd and his family who in 1933 at the behest of Franklin D Roosevelt find themselves living in a Germany that in a devious and conniving manner is marching towards a war that would not start for another 6 years.
Dood a Professor from Chicago whose life and experiences fall well out of those who normally fill these Offices is none the less a very canny man who is unafraid to speak his mind and confront the dawning horror and violence that marks the Nazi regime, the Jewish people start to be marked and persecuted,the press is a tool of censorship and Nazi propaganda, ordinary Americans are attacked in the street beaten senseless and flayed and yet despite Dodds repeated warnings,the Administrations reactions are lukewarm at best, Dodd realises that Hitlers professions of wanting peace are a misleading at best,his intention is tobuy arming time and not motivated by a desire to avoid engaging in conflict. Dodds summation of Hitler, Himmler,Goring and prove with time to be spot on and eventually a bloodbath ensues that changes the world for ever.
Dodds daughter Martha is a very flamboyant character who enjoys the cafe society and social whirl that Berlin offers, she indulges herself in numerous flirtations and affairs but fails to arouse anything but cursory interest from Hitler himself, Dodds wife and son are secondary characters who fail to fully engage the reader but there are plenty of others who do.
This book covers the 1st year of Dodds Ambassadorship and it paints a vivid portrait of a time where beauty still existed but with a dreadful undercurrent of fear, where friends became foes simply to survive, where suicide was often a valid option and where choices, chances and survival often depended on the flip of a coin, who you knew and whether or not you could change your ancestorship,vicious in fighting was the norm, power could slip in an instant and for a whole generation of Jewish people death became an all encompassing reality.
A book that is well written,moving,touching and horrifying all wrapped up with an understanding of human nature and motivation that left me stunned.

The Paris Wife by Paula McLain

This wonderful novel which has as its focus Ernest Hemingway and his first wife Hadley Richardson is a winner on every level.
Smart, sassy, rich and colourful, there is not a moments boredom on any page.
Set in Paris in the 1920s the book is so deeply layered that you can smell the grittiness, touch the reality and find yourself beguiled by the magic of characters vast, talented, gifted and shallow, no one who walked through the pages of this book came away with their innocence intact. We see through the eye of Hadley Richardson the rise of Hemingway and the development of his great gifts, equally we see the darker side, the less delightful aspects of his character that have been evidenced in later generations of Hemingway's. With Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound and the Fitzgerald's playing pivotal cameos, the nightclubs and the Jazz age, this is a book that envelopes you in its warmth, it hums, it vibrates and you know that sooner or later everything that Ernest and Hadley have binding them together is going to fall away in an unavoidable loss of true love, a love that left Hemingway by far a better writer for having had it, while a lesser man for losing it.
I am not a huge Hemingway fan but I have read a number of books about Hemingway and his various wives and this is by far the best. Those that love Hemingway the writer have a lot to thank Hadley Richardson for.
This book will be out in N.Z. soon, its well worth buying.

A Ticket to the Circus by Norris Church Mailer

This is one to keep your eye out for especially when its in paperback.

From humble beginnings in Arkansas, Norris rises to the lofty positon of Normal Mailers 6th wife and what a glorious ride she takes us on both getting to Norman and after she is married to him and not for one moment does she lose her sense of humour. From highs to lows and back and forth, she never stops and he sure as hell doesn't, there are times in this book when you would like to throttle Norman Mailer other times you wanna hug the little guy.

As well as living her life and managing his, all the kids, ex wives and writing a darn good novel (A Wind Chill Summer) she keeps her humanity in tact and never loses her dignity, even if the Bill Clinton stories are a bit tacky.

Sadly both she and Norman are now dead but both had lives well lived and the cast of characters that dip and dive throughout this book make it well worth reading! If you have never read Norman Mailer try The Executioners Song, one of his best and don't try her second novel, it wasn't anywhere near as good as her first.