Stories morph
A lake, several books, and one big movie
What I’m up to
I’m sitting by a window overlooking Glen Wild Lake in Bloomdale, NJ. We’re here visiting our good friends the Fs, whom we originally met when their daughter joined Lucy’s 4th grade class during the first year of Covid. They were only in Taiwan for a year, but we’ve managed visits every time each of our families travels back and forth to the US/Taiwan.
A few years ago, they bought a house by the lake where D grew up. It’s the most magical place - visitors arrive via kayak, neighborhood parties are sometimes only accessible via boat. Paul started each day with a swim in the lake, and all of us spent hours kayaking, paddle-boarding, and just basking in the sun.
HP also threw us a World Cup party with a whole array of delicious food. We were all very happy that Spain won it in the end. Incidentally, the Spanish team was staying at a hotel just minutes from their other house, so we joined the crowds for an after-game celebration (just missing the team’s return by about forty minutes). We might have stayed, but we had 11:00 PM tickets to The Odyssey: an epic (haha) way to cap off what was already a great day.
Before our trip to NJ, we took my in-laws’ RV down to Tennessee to visit our friends the Ts, former Taiwan colleagues (and current friends, haha) - with the added bonus of also getting to see C, whose visit overlapped with ours. The cool weather followed us down to TN, and we enjoyed a couple of gorgeous days swimming and driving around the “quiet side of the Smokies.” The Ts have an awesome old pickup truck, and we piled in the back while looping around Cades Cove. My friends said the buildings in the old settlement reminded them of Little Women or the Little House series, but all I kept thinking about was Sinners, Cabin in the Woods, and Midsommar. 😅
Earlier in the summer, we visited Paul’s brother’s family in Carlisle, PA; they’re in the midst of a move, so the girls and I got to hang out with the little cousins while Paul helped haul truckloads from the old house to the new house. Lucy and Anna’s cousins are all considerably younger, and hanging out with them scratches our baby/toddler/little kid itch. We got to celebrate the 4th at my in-law’s in-laws’ party house - there was a giant slip and slide, beer on tap, and so much food.
We have loved having Maple Leaf as our home base. Our first weeks here were cold enough for morning fires, and now we can take jeep rides with the top off and swim in the nearby spring. The grandparents are a quick walk (or ATV ride for Lucy, or drive for Anna who now has her license!) away. We’ve made several trips to State College and got to tour the S’s new house, crash a WC viewing party at the H’s backyard, and do a whole lot of thrifting. It’s been a great summer. We've been blessed by our friends' and family's boundless hospitality.
What I’m reading
I read The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout. It’s about a beloved high school history teacher whose affable exterior belies deep-seated unease about the same questions that, I think, many of us share to varying degrees. I’ve pretty much loved everything Strout has written, but I think this is my favorite. The main character reminded me of my own high school history teacher in the best ways, and the specific sadness addressed in the story is real and poignant. Highly recommend, but be prepared to have this stick with you. (Thanks to Libro.fm for advanced audiobook access.)
I also read Partita, by Barbara Kingsolver, who is simply a genius. I’ve assigned The Poisonwood Bible to my AP kids for summer reading and read Demon Copperhead relatively recently. On the surface, Partita has little in common with those books. It’s about music; the protagonist is a music prodigy who claws her way out of difficult childhood circumstances to secure a music scholarship, but encounters someone who - directly or indirectly, you decide - derails her plans. But there are similarities to her previous books. Like the aforementioned masterpieces, Partita is about how the people we love can damage us. All three are also about resilience and how it’s not a given how surviving will look. (Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.)
I am currently reading the sequel to The Time Traveler’s Wife (!!!) by Audrey Niffenberger. I almost wrote “long-awaited sequel,” but to be honest, I never expected there to be one — TTTW’s ending was, I think, aptly disquieting; it’s what made the book stick with me over twenty years. I kind of hate messing with that? This story centers on Alba, Clare and Henry’s child, who shares Henry’s time traveling affliction. What caught me off guard was that the opening scenes led me to categorize the book as dystopian, but then I realized that the dystopian details accurately reflect present-day reality. At this point of my reading, I kind of wish Niffenberger wrote two different books - one about Alba and her closest relationships, and one that serves as a critique of our milieu. Right now I feel like she’s just trying to do too much with too many characters. (Again, thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.)
I also started M’s favorite book, Satantango by László Krasznahorkai, while lying on a pool float on the lake. The book starts with a bleak winter scene in Hungary, and it… does not fit the summer vibes. Will return to this in a more appropriate setting.
What I’m watching
The World Cup. It was one of my favorite World Cup summers. We got to watch games with friends in a wide variety of locations. My two favorite teams — England and Spain — performed so well, and there were many Arsenal players to root for. Highlights were Haaland’s social media presence (I’m going to have to harden my heart once he’s back to representing Man City, not Norway), Merino’s two last-minute goals as a supersub, and of course Cabo Verde’s scrappiness. Another highlight: watching men and women alike fall spellbound to Bellingham, who looks like he belongs in Bridgerton. Lol.
We went to watch Supergirl, which we enjoyed but are also supporting on principle.
And of course, we watched The Odyssey! I read it (and taught it!) for the first time this year, so I was extra excited to see it “cinematized.” Here’s part of my Letterboxd review:
After teaching the book this year, I couldn’t get my head around how Nolan would tackle the story. I shouldn’t have doubted his genius. The changes made for the movie, even the thematic ones, were effective and made sense for the medium and audience. The performances were great, particularly Robert Pattinson, who I’ve realized is now my favorite actor, and Anne Hathaway, who managed to infuse complexity into a character whose headspace remains unchanged for a good part of the movie. Casting was overall very good, even though I initially complained the cast was too stacked.
What I’m thinking about
T - 10 days before we return to Taiwan; this means T - 10 days before we leave Anna on her own for college. Not ready to fully unpack this. But speaking of packing… we’ve started shopping for Anna’s dorm, and it’s really taking me back to when I got on a plane and left home for college on my own. My biggest comfort in sending Anna off is how much I loved college. For us, it’s a sadness because, in a way, we are losing her. But for her, it’s just the natural start of a new adventure. Hoping that’s how it will feel for her.
I’m so sad, though.
Kind of related: I’m also thinking about consumption vs. production. I’m always harping on my kids that it’s important to produce, not just consume. But then I heard someone in book club lament how all her students don’t bother consuming anymore; they just want to produce. Such hubris, she seemed to imply, for kids to think they don’t need to learn from others. I loved that. I love hearing an opposing perspective and immediately having to reframe how I think about something. I hope Anna’s college experiences allow her boundless opportunities to both consume and produce.
What I’m learning
Rest is important.
What I’m digging
Lakes. I love the ocean, but being able to get out of the water and feel clean, not sticky? Amazing.
Bagels with cream cheese and lox.
Still listening to Olivia’s album on repeat.
Paul’s fridge magnet poetry: “She said friend / boy sad.” Lol.
Bye for now!
Kate
(More The Odyssey thoughts below. Scroll down to see it.)
(Warning: spoilers!!):
As I messaged my friend C, “I was amazed when [Nolan] basically created a new theme off snippets from the text, which essentially made the movie a remake of Oppenheimer!!!!” One of the pods I listen to regularly did a deep dive into Nolan’s back catalog and pointed out (loosely paraphrasing here) that his movies all circle the same theme - man is the architect of his own demise - but with widening stakes. (Finding meta-themes as a through-line in artists’ catalogs, like with Kingsolver’s novels, is a fun new exercise.)
My absolute favorite scene was the visit to Circe’s island. The grotesqueness of the transformation was amazing, of course, but I also just loved the eerie stillness of the animals standing watch. It’s convinced me Nolan’s next movie should be a psychological horror film.
I found some omissions sensible (I know “I am nobody” is iconic, but…), but some fundamentally change Odysseus’s characterization. I’m simplifying here, but in the film, Odysseus is complex because of his self-loathing and guilt. In the book, he’s complex because his pride repeatedly clouds his judgment. Both versions share an ambivalence about returning home, but for vastly different reasons. In the movie, Odysseus uses the lotus flower to repress pain; in the book, we’re left wondering why exactly Odysseus doesn’t try harder to escape being Calypso’s sidepiece for seven whole years.
That said, I am not bothered by any perceived “unfaithfulness” in an adaptation, so long as the changes work within the adaptation’s own narrative. (If you’re going to change something, make sure you pull it off.) Stories morph with shifts of perspective and medium, and that’s fine!
I like how Penelope’s anger builds as the movie progresses. Her impatient dismissiveness towards Telemachus adds necessary complexity.
I loved John Leguizamo as faithful swineherd Eumaeus.