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Jan
28
The Bare Necessities—Karen Abbott (AMERICAN ROSE)
2011 at 5am Posted by Rebecca Joines Schinsky
The Bare Necessities is a series in which authors and book industry professionals share annotated reading lists of books they love.
Karen Abbott is the author of Sin in the Second City and American Rose: The Life and Times of Gypsy Rose Lee, a fantastic biography of “the most private public woman in the world.” American Rose reads like a striptease as Abbott slowly reveals several parts of the story of this woman who is “as fascinating as she is timeless.” I adore Abbott’s stories about bawdy women in history, and I’m thrilled that she’s here today with her Bare Necessities.
My background is in journalism, so I spent the first eight years of my career writing about people and places in the present. I followed Kobe Bryant during his rookie year with the Lakers, hung out with Philly’s erstwhile mob boss, “Skinny Joey” Merlino, and—strangest of all—befriended a trailer park-dwelling divorced mother of two who penned a how-to murder manual. But when my grandmother relayed a tale about an aunt who disappeared in Chicago in 1905, I immersed myself in the past and have dwelled there happily ever since.
My contemporary novelist friends talk about the importance of place in crafting a book’s mood, and for me, as a writer of historical narrative nonfiction, this translates into investigating every aspect of the time period—from the proper method of donning a corset, to the weight requirements of early burlesque performers, to the clandestine marketing methods of Prohibition-era speakeasies. I always appreciate a book that pays meticulous attention to historical detail, and here’s a selection of my favorites:
Paris Trout by Pete Dexter, published by Random House.
I’ve been a fan of Pete Dexter’s since my journalism days. Back in the 1980s, Dexter had been a Philly journalist himself, writing a popular column for the Philadelphia Daily News that evoked the city’s nuances and idiosyncrasies with such brutal, pinpoint honesty that he nearly was killed on the job by a furious mob of baseball bat-wielding thugs. After that incident Dexter turned to fiction, and Paris Trout—the winner of the 1988 National Book Award—is one of my top ten favorite novels of all time. Set in Cotton Point, Georgia in the 1949, Paris Trout opens with the title character, a respected white businessman, fatally shooting a 14-year-old black girl, and then examines the myriad ways this crime gnaws away at the social fabric and denizens of this small town. Dexter has a note-perfect ear for dialogue and local idioms that never patronize or veer into cliché, perhaps since his knowledge of the time and place was gleaned firsthand; he spent part of his childhood in Milledgeville, Georgia (the real “Cotton Point”) and this horrific crime was one of his earliest memories.
Slammerkin by Emma Donoghue, published by Harcourt.
The author of the recently published and bestselling Room penned this tale of obsession and murder back in 2001. Based on a true story, Slammerkin yanks you back to 18th century England, where Mary Saunders, age 14, is driven to commit horrible deeds by her desperation to secure the trappings of a better live—in particular, her lust for “fine clothes.” Donoghue is a masterful alchemist of mood; the book is both relentlessly gloomy and a colorful, spirited romp, and exacting period details abound on every page. I was uncomfortable eavesdropping on Mary’s encounters with her johns (or “cullies,” in the prostitution jargon of the time) and tagging along to gory public executions, and yet I couldn’t bear to be left behind.
Satan’s Circus by Mike Dash, published by Crown.
I’m a regular reader of author Mike Dash’s blog and it seems I’m not alone; Dash recently won a Cliopatria award, bestowed by the History News Network, for a post about a bit of Ethiopian lore involving the electric chair. The judges lauded Dash for weaving together a variety of themes into an “engagingly told, entertaining, and ultimately important historical tale,” and the same could be said of all of Dash’s five books. I have a particular fondness for Satan’s Circus, which I read during researching American Rose to get a flavor of municipal corruption in early 20th century Manhattan. Dash’s dry wit, voracious research, and flawless eye for atmospheric detail make this true tale of murder and vice read like the very best noir fiction.
Time and Again by Jack Finney, published by Simon and Schuster.
This illustrated novel relates the time-traveling adventures of a man named Simon Morley, who journeys back to Manhattan in the year 1882 to take part in a confidential government project. Finney’s skillful, vivid tour through Old New York does double duty; since Simon hails from the year 1970, he’s able to provide visceral observations about exactly what has changed—and remained the same—between then and now. I found myself identifying immediately with Simon’s “sense of wonder, staring at the strange clothes and vanished backgrounds, at knowing that what you’re seeing was once real,” and, even more, his ultimate decision to settle into the past for good.
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LOVE Karen Abbott and love her choices. Plus, I want to see a copy of that manual
Jennifer-Girls Gone Reading´s last [type] ..Need A Little Lovin’ Grab Some Heroine Love!
I love all of these books. Hurray! Can’t wait to pick up American Rose
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Rebecca Schinsky and Ellen F. Brown, FountainBkstore. FountainBkstore said: How appropriate! RT @bookladysblog: The fabulous Karen Abbott reveals her Bare Necessities: http://bit.ly/gBSgJx [...]
Thank you for these ‘book cameos’. I really fancy reading American Rose … and I love the cover – very flamboyant!
I have yet to read any of these books, but now I am feeling inspired to pick at least one of them up because they all sound so fabulous.
Jennifer´s last [type] ..Contemplation Corner- Lacking Focus
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