Emma Thompson: By the Book

The actress and author of a new children's book, "The Further Tale of Peter Rabbit," has contemplated throwing the writer Michel Houellebecq across a room.

What book is on your night stand now? 

"Mary Poppins," by P. L. Travers. "Dancing to the Precipice," by Caroline Moorehead. "Bring Up the Bodies," by Hilary Mantel. I've always got two or three on the go. 

What was the last truly great book you read? 

"Wolf Hall," by Hilary Mantel. It was a marvel. 

Any literary genre you simply can't be bothered with? 

Horror. I can't manage it. I become — well — horrified. Self-help books have a similar effect. 

A young, aspiring actress wants your advice on what to read. What books do you suggest? 

"A Strange Eventful History," by Michael Holroyd, because it's so interesting about the discipline of acting. Any biography on Marilyn Monroe, just to convey the pointless destructiveness of fame. 

What's your favorite Shakespeare? 

"King Lear." The most humane portrait of the human condition I know. 

If you could require the president to read one book, what would it be? The prime minister? 

The president — any president — could usefully acquaint him/herself with Walt Kelly's cartoon strip of Pogo Possum living in the swamps of Georgia. Very perspicacious about politics. The prime minister might revisit Geoffrey Willans's "Molesworth," which is so illuminating about the character and habits of little boys. I am not being rude. Both president and prime minister have to deal with a great quantity of childish behavior. 

What was the last book that made you cry? 

I was on holiday years ago with "Corelli's Mandolin." Rendered inconsolable and had to be put to bed for the afternoon. 

The last book that made you laugh? 

In Wells Tower's first collection of short stories, there is a description of a mouse emerging from behind a fridge eating a coupon which made me laugh for a good 10 days. 

The last book that made you furious? 

In Michel Houellebecq's "The Elementary Particles," there's a passage on cruelty which includes a granny, a little boy and a pair of secateurs. I hurled the book across the room and would have hurled Michel too, had he been in reach. 

Name a book you just couldn't finish. 

"Les Misérables." I agreed with him on all fronts and finally just became sort of exhausted. 

What were your favorite books as a child? Did you have a favorite character or hero? 

All of Joan Aiken, Alan Garner, Leon Garfield and John Masefield. In particular — "The Wolves of Willoughby Chase" (Aiken), "The Weirdstone of Brisingamen" (Garner), "The Box of Delights" (Masefield) and "The Strange Affair of Adelaide Harris" (Garfield). 

As far as heroes — from the age of 10, it was Sherlock Holmes. Before that, probably Asterix. 

What's the best book your mother ever gave you to read? 

I had my heart broken for the first time when I was 16. My mother gave me "War and Peace," which, in three volumes, soaked up a lot of the tears. 

If you could meet any writer, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you want to know? 

I wasn't sure how to answer this one so I discussed it with my 12-year-old daughter. She suggested Plato. I was impressed. So Plato it is. I think I'd want to ask him how he'd imagine life had changed by 2012. 

Have you ever written to an author? Did he or she write back? 

I wrote to René Goscinny when I was 7 or 8, a fan letter about Asterix. He wrote back, saying that he was very proud to have made a little English girl laugh.

You're organizing a literary dinner party and inviting three writers. Who's on the list? 

Sappho, for a bit of ancient gender politics; Aphra Behn for theater gossip; and George Eliot because everyone who knew her said she was fascinating. All women, because they know how to get talking about the nitty-gritty so quickly and are less prone to telling anecdotes. I'd have gone for Jane Austen if I weren't convinced she'd just have a soft-boiled egg and leave early.

What's the best book by an actor you've ever read? 

I've never read a book by an actor. I was brought up by actors. All my family are actors. I'm an actor. Give me a break. 

Of all the literary adaptations you've acted in, which is your favorite? 

I love "Remains of the Day" — Ruth Prawer Jhabvala adapted Ishiguro's book so brilliantly that both film and book lose nothing and gain so much. Tony Hopkins is at his best. Selfishly though, "Sense and Sensibility" must take precedence because there's nothing to compare to the experience of acting something you've spent five years adapting whilst convinced that it will never be made. 

What's the best movie based on a book you've seen recently? 

"The Social Network." I admired it in a kind of breathless fashion. 

If you could play any character from literature, who would it be? 

I've plumped for Barnaby Rudge since I've been in love with him for 35 years and he could just as easily be played by a girl as a boy. I'd like to explore my inner idiot. 

PS. My daughter suggested Peter Rabbit.

20 Sep, 2012

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Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/23/books/review/emma-thompson-by-the-book.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
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Inside the List

HEAD FOR THE BORDER: The new king of the hardcover nonfiction list is, no surprise, Mark Owen — or, as he's known to his friends (and the rest of America by now), Matt Bissonnette. A former member of the Navy SEALs, Bissonnette is the author of "No Easy Day," which enters the list at No. 1 and describes, among other things, his role in the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. The book (written with Kevin Maurer) has received admiring reviews — in the daily New York Times, Janet Maslin called it "an exciting, suspenseful account" — but it has also stirred anger among special operations forces, who adhere proudly to a code of silence. Breaking it means Bissonnette is unlikely to be included in future SEAL reunions, one retired Navy officer told The Washington Times: "The guys who run their mouths are typically not invited back." But Bissonnette hasn't let the critics keep him down. He sat for a recent "60 Minutes" interview (heavily disguised, inset) and told Scott Pelley the first thing he did upon returning from the mission was visit a Taco Bell drive-through.

"You were part of the team that killed Osama bin Laden," Pelley said, "and the first thing you do when you get back to the United States is go to Taco Bell?"

"Two tacos and a bean burrito," Bissonnette replied. "It's routine."

NOT NEUTRAL: Zadie Smith's fourth novel, "NW," hits the hardcover fiction list at No. 8. Smith isn't a fast writer; it's been seven years since the release of her previous novel, "On Beauty" (also a best seller), and in 2009 she declared, "I don't write unless I really feel I need to." So expectations for "NW" were running high. But reviews so far have been mixed. On NPR's "Fresh Air," Maureen Corrigan compared the story to "a stalk of late-summer corn that's blighted at its very tip . . . four-fifths ripe, golden deliciousness, one-fifth barren cob." In Bookforum, meanwhile, the Book Review's own Parul Seh­gal liked it better: "Smith's fiction has never been this deadly, direct or economical," she said, calling "NW" a "subtle investigation into the intersections of race and class." How subtle? Smith told NPR she intentionally avoided race labels for all her characters but the white ones. "I grew up reading a generation of American and English people like Bellow, Updike or Amis," she said. "Everybody's just neutral unless they're black, then you hear about it: the black man, the black woman, the black person. And, of course, if you happen to be black, the world doesn't look that way. . . . I just wanted to try and create, perhaps, a sense of alienation and otherness in this person, the white reader, to remind them that they are not neutral to other people."

THE MISTER: "Publishers print nothing but sex novels now," Guy Patin reputedly complained — in 1657. One wonders what he'd make of the trade paperback list, where E. L. James's "Fifty Shades" books still hog the top three spots. We know what E. L. James's husband, Niall Leonard, makes of it anyway: Life goes on. "Commentators can conjure ridiculous royalty figures out of the air," Leonard wrote in The Guardian recently, "and imply that our afternoons are spent in an infinity pool with trained dolphins bringing us goblets of chilled Bolly, but in real life the dog has to be walked and the kids have to be fed." Leonard's own novel, "Crusher," has just been released, and he acknowledges that his ties to James help draw interest. "But, like most novelists, I'm hardly going to refuse publicity," he wrote. "I'm not a masochist. And that's all I'm going to say about our sex life."

By GREGORY COWLES 20 Sep, 2012

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Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/23/books/review/inside-the-list.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
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ArtsBeat: Elmore Leonard to Be Honored by National Book Foundation

Fall is awards season in the publishing industry, and on Wednesday the National Book Foundation announced the recipients of its annual lifetime achievement awards. The medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters will be presented to the novelist and screenwriter Elmore Leonard for his work in fiction. "For over five decades, Leonard's westerns, crime novels, serialized novels and stories have enthralled generations of readers," the foundation said in a statement. Harold Augenbraum, the executive director of the foundation, said Mr. Leonard has produced "vibrant literary work with an inimitable writing style."

The foundation also announced the 2012 Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community, which will be presented to Arthur Sulzberger Jr., the publisher of The New York Times and chairman of the Times Company, "for his continuing efforts through the New York Times Book Review and online book coverage to ensure an ongoing conversation about books in American culture." For more than a century, Mr. Augenbaum said in a statement, "The New York Times has been central to America's book culture."

Both awards will be presented at the National Book Awards ceremony and dinner on Nov. 14 at Cipriani Wall Street. Finalists for National Book Awards in fiction, nonfiction, poetry and young people's literature are expected to be announced on Oct. 10.

By JULIE BOSMAN 20 Sep, 2012

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Source: http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/19/elmore-leonard-to-be-honored-by-national-book-foundation/?partner=rss&emc=rss
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ArtsBeat: Audio Project Offers Four Months of ‘Moby-Dick’

The actress Tilda Swinton and 134 other readers are lending their voices to the "Moby-Dick Big Read," an online audio version of Herman Melville's epic novel.

The chapters will be available as free downloads, a new one appearing on the Web site each day until mid-January alongside a related image by a contemporary artist.

The author Philip Hoare and the artist Angela Cockayne came up with the idea, having previously teamed up in 2011 to present a whale symposium and exhibition at Peninsula Arts, a public arts program at Britain's Plymouth University. Mr. Hoare's book "The Whale," a wide-ranging cultural and natural history of the animal, won the BBC's Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction in 2009.

"The digressive nature of 'Moby-Dick' really suits the medium of going online," Mr. Hoare said. "The book was never edited. It's quite analogous to a kind of blog, really."

The democratic list of readers includes celebrities like Ms. Swinton, John Waters and Stephen Fry as well as fishermen, schoolchildren and a vicar. The youngest is Cyrus Larcombe-Moore, a 12-year-old who contributes a few lines of dialogue to a chapter read by his teacher, Tom Thoroughgood.

The list also includes Prime Minister David Cameron. "That happened at the very last minute," Mr. Hoare said of Mr. Cameron's participation. "I'm glad it hadn't happened before, because it would have unbalanced the project in a way." The organizers had difficulty finding a chapter for Mr. Cameron that didn't have "some kind of coded message," political or otherwise. They settled on Chapter 30, "The Pipe."

"Even that — they may say he's condoning smoking," Mr. Hoare said.

According to Mr. Hoare, 40 percent of the artworks were made specifically for the project, but many of the pre-existing works had been made with the book in mind. "It's extraordinary how many contemporary artists have been inspired by 'Moby-Dick,' " he said.

The artists and readers all contributed their efforts free of charge.

Mr. Hoare said every entry has been recorded save two, including the last chapter, because "there's a possibility it might be a really big name."

Big Read follows another recent obsessive treatment of the book, "Moby-Dick in Pictures," in which the illustrator Matt Kish created an original work to correspond with each page of the novel. A work by Mr. Kish (inset) will accompany Chapter 76 in the Big Read.

A version of this article appeared in print on 09/19/2012, on page C3 of the NewYork edition with the headline: 'Moby-Dick,' Bit by Bit, on the Web.

By JULIE BOSMAN 19 Sep, 2012

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‘Almost Home,’ by Joan Bauer, and More

As any reader of middle-grade novels knows, it's a cruel, viciously uncertain world out there, and all too often the adults in a child's life are more a source of harm than help. Sometimes a child can trust no one but the loyal dog at his side. Together, they will survive and conquer.

Three new books for children explore this time-honored theme: "Almost Home," by Joan Bauer; "Buddy," by M. H. Herlong; and "The Dogs of Winter," by Bobbie Pyron. All pursue similar premises: children on their own against hostile surroundings, with no one to rely on for trust, friendship and — in the most extreme moments — physical safety, other than their pets. While they are all retellings of the well-worn "boy and his dog" tale, young readers will find fresh drama and pathos to engage them in each of these stories.

The best of them is "Almost Home," which skillfully tells the tale of precocious and street-smart Sugar Mae Cole. Born in the back seat of a Chevrolet, Sugar becomes a fairly typical sixth grader, growing up poor but stable with her single mother, Reba, in a small house that Sugar's grandfather helped them buy before his death.

Sugar's deadbeat gambler father is such a nonpresence in her life that she calls him "Mr. Leeland." And her mother, while loving, is weak and broken, delusional that her former husband will return to rescue her. Sugar knows who the real grown-up is in this relationship. "It's not fair, but sometimes a kid has to act older than their age," she says. "You just pray hard to know what to do."

The one pillar of stability is her teacher, Mr. Bennett, who encourages her to write poetry, and write it honestly. Sugar expresses in verse what she can't otherwise: that parents can sometimes be selfish and unworthy of a child's trust.

But not even Mr. Bennett can protect her from what is to come. Sugar's mother has fallen behind on the mortgage payments, and her father has gambled away what little equity they had.

Amid this tumult, a neighborhood girl shoves a puppy into Sugar's arms and urges her to take him or else the girl's father, who abuses the dog, will dump him at a shelter. Thus begins Sugar's descent into homelessness, with the emotionally damaged dog, Shush, at her side. Their journey takes them into shelters and parks, group homes and foster care, alongside her mother, who descends into deep depression and involuntary commitment.

The central questions that will keep readers turning the pages of this searing story are: Will the broken Sugar find her way home, in both the physical and metaphorical sense, and will she heal and become whole again?

In "Buddy," 12-year-old Tyrone, known as Li'l T, will grapple with similar questions, though the upheaval in his life is caused not by dysfunctional parents but by the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Li'l T lives in a strict but loving home in New Orleans. He desperately wants a puppy, but his parents cannot afford one. Then one Sunday as the family drives to church, a stray dog darts in front of their car and is struck. The boy nurses him back to health, and the two become inseparable.

But when Katrina arrives, the family has no choice except to leave Buddy behind as they flee the city. Days turn into weeks and months, yet Li'l T never stops hoping or searching for his canine friend. He learns Buddy was rescued from the flooded home after the storm, but has no clue as to the dog's whereabouts.

What makes "Buddy" memorable is not just the tale of a boy's fierce love for his dog but its harrowing portrayal of one of this nation's most traumatic natural disasters. From start to finish, "Buddy" is a testament to the human capacity to endure, to find hope in the sodden ruins of destroyed lives. There is tragedy here — death and displacement and depression, and readers will push forward not just to learn if and how the boy and his dog reunite but also if and how the family will survive.

"The Dogs of Winter" is the least sophisticated of the three books, suffering from stilted dialogue and two-dimensional characters. But the story, inspired by news accounts, still packs plenty of punch. Parents should be warned that the subject matter is harsh. Five-year-old Ivan's mother is beaten to death by her alcoholic lover while the boy huddles in a closet. Ivan then finds himself on the streets, coatless (and eventually shoeless) in subzero temperatures, fending off thugs, addicts and predators of every stripe. He cannot trust the police or social workers, who simply want to eradicate the problem of street urchins. His only allies are the feral dogs that adopt him and, time and again, rush to his defense.

At every turn, Ivan learns the same hard lesson: Human beings will hurt you. Only dogs can be trusted. Of course, the reader knows that the "love" of a dog isn't enough. Children need the love of parents and siblings and friends. The real question hanging over this dark story is whether the young dog boy will find that love and trust in the end.

John Grogan is the author of "Marley & Me," the middle-grade book "Marley: A Dog Like No Other" and a series of illustrated children's books.

By MARILYN STASIO 18 Sep, 2012

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‘Breasts,’ by Florence Williams

The breast milk of the writer Florence Williams contains a striking level of perchlorate, a key component of rocket fuel. This does not, however, invest her with superpowers, as it might if she were a comic-book hero, or even make her special. Rather, as she explains in "Breasts: A Natural and Unnatural History," her mammary glands are no different from those of most American women. In the year 2012, breast-feeding still passes many good things from mother to baby: vitamins, minerals and "a solid hedge of extras to help ward off a lifetime of diseases." But the practice also typically transfers "paint thinners, dry-cleaning fluids, wood preservatives, toilet deodorizers, cosmetic additives, gasoline by-products, rocket fuel, termite poisons, fungicides" and varieties of flame retardants, one of which, Penta-BDE, was banned by the European Union because of its chronic toxicity to humans.

George Silk/Time & Life Pictures — Getty Images

DDT is sprayed around a model to show that it won't contaminate her food, 1948.

BREASTS

A Natural and Unnatural History

By Florence Williams

Illustrated. 338 pp. W. W. Norton & Company. $25.95.

"Breasts" is less a primer on anatomy than a catalog of environmental devastation akin to Rachel Carson's 1962 classic "Silent Spring," which detailed the impact of industrial chemicals — notably, the pesticide DDT — on animal life. But Williams, who cites Carson as an inspiration, has written a far scarier book. Carson examined birds and fish. Williams looks at us.

Breasts are made of fatty tissues that absorb "pollutants like a pair of soft sponges," she writes. They are malignancies waiting to happen. The incidence of breast cancer worldwide has doubled since 1940, and continues to rise. Because of various factors, which might include obesity and industrial contaminants, breasts are arriving earlier and becoming larger, often to the point of grotesqueness. Brassiere manufacturers who once made cups in sizes A to D have had to extend their range to H and KK.

For generations, male thinkers and opinion-shapers from Sigmund Freud to Hugh Hefner have enshrined the female breast as a locus of eroticism and nurturance. In "Breasts," Williams upends that perspective. She shows us our breasts as museums of deadly detritus — monstrous, menacing, potentially lethal. Breasts, the columnist Dave Barry once said, exist "to make males stupid." Today, when used for nursing, they could be making our children stupid: "Toxins in breast milk have been associated with lower I.Q., compromised immunity, behavioral problems and cancer."

Williams begins her tale in a more innocent time, long before breast milk became contaminated. She reports on anthropologists who have scoured fossil records for when and why breasts developed in the first place. Her research is far from armchair: she interviews, for example, a seal-lactation expert in Antarctica, a biologist who studies frozen "infant feces" at Boston College and an Australian dairy scientist who applied techniques from mining technology to measure human milk production.

Where lesser writers might gag or flee, Williams homes in, leavening her bleak overall message with macabre asides. For instance, Sir Astley Cooper's "On the Anatomy of the Breast," published in 1840, prompts an entertaining digression on grave-robbing. Back when Cooper was writing, she observes, "it was easier to scrounge up dead people's organs." But Britain's Anatomical Act of 1832 put an end to the fun, requiring dissectors to be licensed and restricting the availability of corpses.

Williams's account of the 1970s epidemic of "Tijuana silicone rot" — the gangrene and fatalities caused by illegal injections of silicone — is also queasy and wry. Free-floating in the body, silicone was a versatile killer. It caused embolisms and lodged in brains or lungs. In 1962, the same year that "Silent Spring" was published, a Houston surgeon first inserted the silicone bags into the breasts of a woman who had come to him to get a tattoo removed. She accepted the breast augmentation in exchange for an ear tuck (the cosmetic procedure she really wanted). But silicone implants proved fragile and often burst, and patients with burst implants began reporting ailments that ranged from joint pain to lupus. In 1992, after the F.D.A. issued a moratorium on the implants for most patients, Dow Corning, their maker, declared bankruptcy and entered into a $3.2 billion class-action settlement with 170,000 women, the largest class-action settlement at the time. (Subsequent studies, however, have not linked silicone implants to any disease; the moratorium was lifted in 2006, and today's market for silicone implants is strong and growing.)

M. G. Lord's most recent book is "The Accidental Feminist: How Elizabeth Taylor Raised Our Consciousness and We Were Too Distracted by Her Beauty to Notice."

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: September 14, 2012

An earlier version of this review erroneously stated that before a 1992 F.D.A. moratorium for most patients, burst silicone implants caused "ailments that ranged from joint pain to lupus." While such ailments were indeed reported by women with burst implants, subsequent studies established no link between the implants and any disease, and the moratorium was lifted in 2006. The earlier version of the review also contained a sentence erroneously stating that most breast augmentation today involves saline implants; in fact, silicone implants far outsell saline implants.

By M. G. LORD 16 Sep, 2012

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