Does the Dog Die? A Brief Review of Then She Found Me, by Elinor Lipman

I kept hearing about Elinor Lipman and thinking I should read something by her, so I did. Maybe I chose the wrong book, because I thought Then She Found Me was a horrible story about unlikable people, none of whom made sense and one of whom I wanted to reach in and strangle. My recommendation is that you not read it. There are no animals, though, so it’s SAFE for animal lovers.

By the way, I looked on imdb.com and found that the movie plot has almost zero in common with the book, aside from sounding awful.

Does the Dog Die? A Brief Review of Behind the Scenes at the Museum, by Kate Atkinson

My friend Dana gave me this book, saying it was “depressing” and adding that you have to read the last 10-15 pages for it to all come together. I’m going to disagree with Dana this time – for me, Ruby, the chirpy, young narrator, single-handedly keeps Behind the Scenes at the Museum from being depressing. I found a lot of comedy in this book despite the sad and tragic moments, and Ruby is one of the most endearing characters I’ve ever encountered. This is a well-told, intriguing tale of a young girl trying to find out just who she is and how her family history has molded herself and those around her. Her personal history is the Museum of the title, and it’s overflowing. The various mysteries of the book are all eventually explained, but if you are one of these people who can’t stand not knowing, go ahead and flip to the end. I’ll just recommend that you delay that for as long as you possibly can. I made it about halfway through the book before I succumbed.

Descended from a long line of unloved daughters who became bitter, unloving mothers, Ruby has a bitter, unloving mother of her own, Bunty. And Bunty was raised by the bitter and unloving Nell, who was raised by the bitter and unloving Rachel despite being the biological daughter of sad Alicia. These women and their sisters fall for the wrong men, bear children in and out of wedlock, and otherwise live grim, despairing lives. Except … each has a chance to for better, or at least different, lives. That chance is often squandered or snatched away from them in a moment. Sometimes, that moment involves a war. Sometimes, things just go wrong because life is messy. Ruby’s valiant effort to make some sense of life’s messiness and break the pattern, despite some danger of falling into it herself, is only a small part of the plot.

There are mysteries, as I noted above, most of which involve Ruby and her sisters. When your narrator begins with her own conception and doesn’t go much beyond her 16^th birthday, the perspective can be skewed. In Ruby’s case, it’s very skewed. Yet she remains ever the optimist, believing that she is lovable despite the many cold shoulders she encounters at home. I, for one, love Ruby. And it becomes clear that Bunty, a miserable wretch of a mother, has some fight in her, too.

Did I mention that this book is set in the UK? And that Kate Atkinson is possibly the first British author I’ve ever read who didn’t mention London?

 Anyway, I am very sad to say that this book is UNSAFE for animal lovers. There are lots of animal deaths. One of the male characters is in charge of dog messengers used on the front lines in WWI, for example. His experiences are extremely sad and disturbing. Ruby’s family lives upstairs from a pet shop. That’s also extremely sad. Bunty does something vile to a pet (who ends up being rescued). And there are other incidents. If it really disturbs you to read about bad things happening to animals, you don’t want to read this book. Otherwise, if you can get past that, I’m recommending it.

Vacation Part Six: Yellowstone Days 3 and 4

Let’s get the big disappointment out of the way. When Mom visited Yellowstone in 1985, and when Dave and I visited in 1998, one of the most beautiful parts of the park was the Minerva Terrace at Mammoth Hot Springs, which had these beautiful layered pools. But when we visited this time, these pools were all dry. It was really sad, even though the water has apparently bubbled up elsewhere.

So we drove on to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, which provided this shot of the Yellowstone River and its falls:

 

Then we were off to visit the larger part of Norris Hot Springs. Here are some photos, including one of Mom and her trekking pole:

The little geyser below is called Whirligig. I remember watching it for a very long time when we visited in 1998 — it just doesn’t stop:

Then, on Day 4, my camera, which had been acting increasingly flaky, started blurring things. We saw — and I took photos of — elk, pronghorn antelope, mountain goats, bison, and other animals. They were all blurred. I don’t take blurry pictures. I’ll go years without a blur. Then all of a sudden, it’s all blurred. So I’m going to be getting a new camera, and I don’t have much usable from Day 4. But we took a 2.3 mile hike along a portion of Yellowstone Lake, and I do have a couple of photos of that. First is a submerged boardwalk! Yes, there was a warning sign at the beginning of the trail. I still find this amusing.

Mom took this one of me and Dave:

The rest of the photos from the hike are blurry, which is too bad because there are some gorgeous mountains on the other side of the lake.

Years ago I realized that I was perfectly capable of viewing an entire vacation through a camera lens, and resolved not to. The camera breakdown on this trip makes me glad I adopted that approach, because I had a great time with Dave and my mom. I’m glad we did it. Thanks, Dave and Mom.

Next up, a return to book reviews.

Vacation Part Five: Yellowstone Day 2

When Mom visited Yellowstone in 1985, she and my dad just drove in, got a room at Old Faithful Lodge, and stayed 5 days. Now? In-park lodging requires that you make reservations months in advance. Also, Dave and I neither one remember how long we were in the park in 1998, but we did about half again as much as we did this time, so I’m thinking it had to be 5 days minimum, probably 6. Anyway, Mom’s favorite memory was of Old Faithful. So that was our destination on the morning of Day 2.

Old Faithful doesn’t go off every hour the way it used to. Now, it’s anywhere from 80 to 100 minutes. But our timing was perfect: we saw three eruptions. This sequence of photos, from the first one eruption, is typical.

Cool, huh? There are other “geothermal features” near Old Faithful, including this boiling pool.

These things all smell of sulfur, by the way. By time we left the Old Faithful area, it was mid-afternoon. Our next stop was the Norris Geyser Basin, which is my personal favorite. The Basin is divided into two parts. We went into the smaller Porcelain Basin on Day 2. It was chilly that day, making it perfect for the heat generated by Norris’s thermal pools. I just love this area!

The pictures are loading slowly, so I’m going to stop now and blog about the remainder of the trip in my next two posts, probably on 7/23 and 7/26.

Vacation Part Four: Yellowstone Day 1

So this was the main event! Mom wanted to go back to Yellowstone, having been there in 1985. Dave and I were there once before as well, in 1998. Yes, it was time to go back. So we drove from Jackson, WY, through Grand Teton National Park and into Yellowstone National Park. And before I leave the topic of Grand Teton, I want to urge you to drive up (or down) the east side of the park at some point or another. There’s not really anything to get out and do, but wow, the mountains are breathtaking, and you get a completely different view of them.

Anyway … We stayed just outside the north entrance, in Gardiner, WY, at the Gardiner Guest House, a reasonably priced B&B with fabulous breakfasts and charming, informative hosts. I loved this place! There are also some decent-to-excellent restaurants. Our favorite was Pedalino’s Italian restaurant.

But we entered Yellowstone National Park from the south, and all this is towards the north. So let me at least attempt to be linear and go back to where we entered. There were huge fires engulfing most of Yellowstone in 1988, burning thousands of acres of trees. Now, fire is a good thing in that it renews the forests, etc., etc. In 1998, there were all these short little shrubby trees that were part of that renewal, and they were going to grow up and be tall and take over the land where the forests had burned and it was going to be a good thing. And in 2009 … I expected the short little shrubby trees to be taller. Sort of like a 16-year-old kid looks mostly like an adult but not entirely? Well, these trees looked more like 10-year-old kids. Not babies or toddlers, not wee little things that make you think “oh, how cute,” but not out of childhood, either. Sort of in that gangly phase, you know? So there’s this whole park full of gangly-phased young trees. Which is fine and good and the way the world should work. I’m just noting it. You want magnificent, towering evergreens? Go somewhere else. Here, you’ve got mid-sized biodiversity. And maybe not all that diverse, since it seems like the trees that burned propagated themselves quite nicely and there’s mostly one tree species in Yellowstone. That’s all I’m saying. It’s not a criticism or a value judgment.

Okay, so now that I’ve dug that hole for myself, let’s talk about West Thumb. West Thumb refers to the western branch of Lake Yellowstone (or Yellowstone Lake, or whatever its official name is). And here there be geysers! Okay, not so much geysers as hot springs, though there are some geysers there, too. It’s all very pretty, along the edge of the lake:

Pretty, huh? So then we drove up the east side of the park, past a bunch of things we planned to visit the next day, and into a massive traffic jam for … a black bear! Now, Dave and I can drive 2.5 hours to Shenandoah National Park and see approximately two black bears a day. And, ironically, we drove past a very-close-to-the-road grizzly bear shortly past the black bear traffic jam, but the mobs weren’t there.

And I do have to say this, because Dave and I have made avoiding crowds into the First Commandment of vacation planning: June, or at least this June, wasn’t very crowded at Yellowstone. And visitation was up from June of last year, according to the official figures. So if you can’t go in May or September (our previous trip was in September), June isn’t crazy busy there. We were pretty happy with our timing.

Next up: Yellowstone Day 2 (and possibly Days 3 and 4).

Vacation Part Three: The Grand Tetons

Between the Idaho cousins and Yellowstone lies Grand Teton National Park. And so we spent a couple of days there. My camera began dying in the Grand Tetons, and we met our first dud park ranger (ever!) there. When I enter a national park, I like to head straight to the visitor center and discuss trails — trails we’re contemplating, trails we’ve never heard of and the ranger recommends, trails that might be closed because of bear activity or whatever (we encountered “whatever” in Yellowstone), etc. And in Grand Teton, one of the visitor center rangers didn’t want to have that discussion, because he was much more interested in looking at a colleague’s “tetons.” But we managed fine without him. We found out from another ranger that the hike from Jenny Lake to Hidden Falls is classified as “easy.”

And this is where we made our first mistake. There’s easy, and then there’s level. When you’re hiking with  a 76-year-old woman, level is better than easy, and trekking poles always help. But we left our trekking poles in the rental car and set out for Hidden Falls.

We took a boat across Jenny Lake, a smallish body of water at the southern end of the park.

From there, we took a gently ascending trail up about a mile or so to Hidden Falls. This would have been simple had the trail not had scree. But it did have scree, so we ended up holding Mom’s hand to steady her on occasion. Still, Hidden Falls is gorgeous, as you can see:

After descending, we grabbed a quick lunch and headed up to Jackson Lake, which is much bigger than Jenny Lake. There, we had ice cream (who knew Mom had such a jones for ice cream?) and walked along the lake for a bit, this time arming my mother with a trekking pole: 

And there were lots of mountains. Lots and lots of mountains:

 

Then the camera began dying. But before then, we saw a load of beautiful scenery and wildlife (especially pronghorn antelope), got out into the mountains, and stayed at a nice little motel in Jackson, ate well, and probably all three hoped that the rest of the trip would go as well.

Next up: Yellowstone!

Sorry for the Interruption: The Great Camera Crisis of 2009 — Vacation Part Two: Idaho to Wyoming

Now that Dave has recovered some of the pictures I took, I can post them.

This is Stephen, Mom, me, Joyce, and Sam. Please ignore the baby — I don’t believe in posting pictures of minor children but broke that rule this time.

Next, we visited my cousin Sandra. This is a picture of Dave, Sandra’s son-in-law Matt, Sandra, and Joyce standing near Matt’s work area. Matt makes really cool rough-hewn furniture, and I wish he had a website.

 

This is Dave’s favorite picture of Mom, holding one of Sandra’s dogs:

And I just love this picture for the sky:

Last but not least, we visited my cousin David and his family. This is a shot of me, Mom, Joyce, and David, the “just right” cousin:

But then we were off on our own adventures. There is a scenic highway, Route 89, that goes from around Logan, Utah, to near Jackson, WY. I took lots of pictures when we pulled over, and I’ll let them stand alone:

Next up: The Grand Tetons!

We’re on Hold for a Couple of Days

The Camera Crisis of 2009 is in the process of being resolved. Plus, I think linnearly and want to write about the vacation chronologically.

The good news is that I will have Idaho Cousin and Grand Teton pictures by Saturday morning. And that is when I will resume.

Goldilocks and the Three Cousins — Vacation Part Two: Utah and Idaho

Some family history for context: Mom’s younger brother, Ross, married his high school sweetheart, Joyce, when they were both 18. This was back in the 1950s, when such things were closer to the norm. After a few years, Ross and Joyce had a baby, then moved from their hometown in Illinois to Colorado, where they had two more babies. Then they moved to Idaho, the kids grew up, Ross tragically died of cancer in his late 40s, Joyce remarried a nice guy named Sam, the kids married, at least one of the kids divorced and remarried, they all converted from Catholicism to Mormonism, they all had a bunch of children, two now have grandchildren or step-grandchildren, and they all stayed in Idaho. The last I saw of them was in Colorado, when we were all children. Mom stayed in touch with Joyce, however, so when we began planning this trip, a visit to Joyce, Sam, and the Idaho cousins became part of the itinerary.

I wasn’t sure how this was going to go down. I even fretted about it, because I that’s one of the things I do best — fret. But realistically, I figured we’d end up somewhere between a disaster and a fairy tale. It was closer to a fairy tale: Goldilocks and the Three Bears, to be specific. Cousin #1 was too perfect, Cousin #2 was too … something, and Cousin #3 was just right! The cousins are aligned by the order in which we visited them, which is not birth order.

However, first we visited Joyce and Sam. As you may recall from the previous post, Dave and I arrived hellishly late and Joyce had to meet Mom at the airport. So they had a nice morning reconnecting and talking about my late Uncle Ross and bonding and all that, while Dave and I tried to recover from our travel ordeal. We then drove from Salt Lake City to Sam and Joyce’s home close to the Utah/Idaho border, and officially began the “visiting relatives” portion of the trip. I can’t say enough good things about Sam and Joyce as hosts. They were wonderfully generous and cordial. Sam is incredibly easy to get along with, and Joyce fell all over herself trying to make us feel at home.

Then it was off to visit Cousin #1 in Idaho Falls. I have pictures, but there were major camera issues during this trip and so I do not have access to those pictures yet. They’ll be posted eventually, although I don’t post pictures of minor children, so it will just be the adults. So why did I deem Cousin #1 “too perfect”? That’s said with quite a bit of admiration, but also a sense that he’s not someone I’d hang out with if we lived in the same city. Different styles, different values, different modes of being. He’s a good guy, I like his wife, I’m sure the 5 boys — 4 of whom are 8 or younger — will grow up to be delightful young men, etc., etc. But really, their house is astonishingly neat and clean with no household help and all those children. This is mind-boggling. There’s a lot of regimentation in their home, which I suppose is necessary with that many children. Also, Cousin #1 gets Masters degrees as a sort of hobby, and his wife takes Serious Classes. I admire this to no end. They are like Vulcans. And I am no Vulcan. We had a lovely visit, we ate pizza, and I left hoping that one of the other two cousins would be from my planet.

Cousin #2 is from my planet, but we don’t speak the same language. We visited her the next day. She lives in a modular home (used to be called trailers, but they really are modular homes) on a vast ranch with her husband and a few of their children. Two of her sons live in a house that the rest of the family abandoned due to sewer issues, but they come by each night for dinner. And a married daughter with children lives a short distance away. There are many dogs, some of which are “indoor” dogs and some of which are “outdoor” dogs. The younger daughter is 18 and in a 2-year program that will give her some kind of certificate deeming her beyond great with horses. She loves it, and hopes to work on a dude ranch some day handling the horses, possibly in Colorado. Dave and I liked her best, which seemed to throw her because she apparently gets lost in the shuffle and has been reportedly quite active doing the teenage-rebellion thing against her parents. Anyway, I asked her how many horses her immediate family owns, and it’s something like 20. But each horse is owned by an individual instead of there being “family horses.” So her mom has 3, she has 5, one brother has 2, another has 3, etc., up to about 20 total. Cousin #2’s son-in-law hand-builds awesome furniture out of rough-hewn cedar. There will be pictures, I promise.

Then it was off to visit Cousin #3, who was my favorite. He’s the one I’d like to get together with in the future, and he might be coming here in the fall, which would be great! His wife is funny and a bit sarcastic, so I could see bonding with her if I had the chance to get to know them better. He shares my love of cooking and made dinner using cast iron cookware, which is something I’ve gotten into lately. Their house was cozy (“just right”), the one son we met was independent without being annoyingly rebellious (“just right”), and we talked about our lives after dinner without it feeling like an interview with a stranger (“just right”). I wouldn’t exactly call this guy “Baby Bear,” but he matched my “Goldilocks” better than the other two.

Then it was off to Jackson, WY, and the Grand Tetons. That will be the next blog entry, some time early next week. I may even have recovered some of the pictures by then.