Hamilton: The Revolution by Lin Manuel-Miranda and Jeremy McCarter

Hamilton: The Revolution by Lin Manuel-Miranda and Jeremy McCarter
Narrated by Mariska Hargitay
Published April 2016 by Grand Central Publishing
Source: audiobook from my local library

Publisher's Summary:
Lin-Manuel Miranda's groundbreaking musical Hamilton is as revolutionary as its subject, the poor kid from the Caribbean who fought the British, defended the Constitution, and helped to found the United States. Fusing hip-hop, pop, R&B, and the best traditions of theater, this once-in-a-generation show broadens the sound of Broadway, reveals the storytelling power of rap, and claims our country's origins for a diverse new generation.

HAMILTON: THE REVOLUTION gives readers an unprecedented view of both revolutions, from the only two writers able to provide it. Miranda, along with Jeremy McCarter, a cultural critic and theater artist who was involved in the project from its earliest stages--"since before this was even a show," according to Miranda--traces its development from an improbable perfor­mance at the White House to its landmark opening night on Broadway six years later. In addition, Miranda has written more than 200 funny, revealing footnotes for his award-winning libretto, the full text of which is published here.

Their account features photos by the renowned Frank Ockenfels and veteran Broadway photographer, Joan Marcus; exclusive looks at notebooks and emails; interviews with Questlove, Stephen Sond­heim, leading political commentators, and more than 50 people involved with the production; and multiple appearances by Presi­dent Obama himself. The book does more than tell the surprising story of how a Broadway musical became a national phenomenon: It demonstrates that America has always been renewed by the brash upstarts and brilliant outsiders, the men and women who don't throw away their shot.

My Thoughts:
First things first: listening to it instead of reading it is a mixed blessing. Hargitay does a terrific job of reading this book and listening to it may be the only way I'm going to get to it any time soon. But...no access to those photos, notebooks, or emails. I would love to check out the physical book now so I can see those things.

It's always astonishing how much goes into a musical production, how many people are involved, how many choices have to be made. While Hamilton is absolutely Manuel-Miranda's baby, getting this show to the point it's at now was very much a collaborative effort.

The choices made by those putting Hamilton together were, perhaps, even more challenging than most. For example, costumes. You've got a show set in the late 18th century but the musical score is modern. How do you blend both? Paul Tazewell made the decision to dress the cast in period costumes from the neck down and from the neck up things would be modern. It's a small choice but all of those small choices came together to blend the time periods of the story and the music.

I've never read (listened) to any other book that explains how a musical was made and came to Broadway so I don't know how common or unique all of the little changes and tweaks and influences were for Hamilton. Even after the show had been playing off Broadway for some time, Lin Manuel-Miranda was still making changes to the music. He took out an entire number and replaced it. He tweaked The Schuyler Sisters after listening to the three ladies then playing the Schuyler sisters singing R&B in their dressing rooms.

Fans of the show, particularly those who have seen it performed, will enjoy this insight into all it took to make Hamilton the hit it is; it will also likely appeal to fans of musical theater. Hamilton is a musical about a revolution and its aftermath which truly is, itself, a revolution. 

Life: It Goes On - October 28

I hope you're enjoying as beautiful a fall weekend as we've been enjoying! Given that we've had snowstorms by this time of year some years, we are very happy to be able to have the doors open, spend time soaking up the sun, and to get the last of the yard work done for the fall without having to be bundled up. You all know how much I love the sunshine and I think we may even get to eat birthday dinner on the patio!

Last Week I:

And this is how autumn
came to be known as fall

Listened To: I finished Roxane Gay's Bad Feminist yesterday. Have to admit that it made me more than a little uncomfortable at times. I have The Hate U Give back so I can finish that this week.

Watched: Football, volleyball, baseball - it's a good time of year for sports lovers!

Read: I'm toiling away at Being Mrs. Lewis. The story is interesting enough but there is just so much description of the land, the buildings, the look of people. I've starting skimming at this point or it may take me another week to make myself get through this one.

Made: Stuff peppers, peach crisp, and a new pumpkin dip - it's all about fall when it comes to eating around here lately. Tonight I'm making twice-baked potatoes and cinnamon homemade ice cream to go with the steaks The Big Guy is grilling.

Enjoyed: Happy hour with friends the other night, movie night with my book club, and nice afternoon/evening with my parents yesterday to celebrate my mom's and my birthdays.

This Week I’m: 

Planning: Nothing. Oh, that's not true. I'm starting to plan Christmas decorating. I've been following more home decor IG accounts and blogs and those ladies are starting to talk holiday decorating. But I've also been watching The Cozy Minimalist course for winter and she has me entirely rethinking what I've done previously.

Thinking About: Taking a day off this week just to get somethings done around here that don't get done day to day.

Feeling: Like I need to make my own 40 Bags In 40 Days. Maybe I'll just designate November to get 30 bags out in 30 days. All of this "stuff" is weighing heavy on me and I know how much better I'll feel if I lighten up around here.

Looking forward to: Going to see the movie RBG tomorrow night and celebrating our 36th anniversary on Tuesday.

Question of the week: I made that pumpkin dip for a food day at work. What's your go-to when you have to take food to work?

Love and Ruin by Paula McLain

Love And Ruin by Paula McLain
Published May 2018 by Random House Publishing Group
Source: my copy courtesy of the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review

Publisher's Summary:
In 1937, twenty-eight-year-old Martha Gellhorn travels alone to Madrid to report on the atrocities of the Spanish Civil War and becomes drawn to the stories of ordinary people caught in the devastating conflict. It’s the adventure she’s been looking for and her chance to prove herself a worthy journalist in a field dominated by men. But she also finds herself unexpectedly—and uncontrollably—falling in love with Hemingway, a man on his way to becoming a legend.

In the shadow of the impending Second World War, and set against the turbulent backdrops of Madrid and Cuba, Martha and Ernest’s relationship and their professional careers ignite. But when Ernest publishes the biggest literary success of his career, For Whom the Bell Tolls, they are no longer equals, and Martha must make a choice: surrender to the confining demands of being a famous man’s wife or risk losing Ernest by forging a path as her own woman and writer. It is a dilemma that could force her to break his heart, and hers.

My Thoughts:
I first read about Gellhorn in McLain's previous book about a Hemingway wife, The Paris Wife, which looked at Hemingway's first wife, Hadley Richardson. I wonder if McLain felt herself fall down a rabbit hole once she started researching for the first book or if she had all long intended to write about her as well. Hadley's story was as much about Hemingway as it was about Hadley. Martha's story is her own; Hemingway just happens to make her both ridiculous happy and insanely unhappy for the majority of it.

Gellhorn met Hemingway when she was just 28. He was 37, already divorced and married again with three sons. It didn't matter. Their friendship became much more under the heightened emotional condition of reporting on the Spanish Civil War. He was passionate, adoring, and a fierce advocate of Gellhorn's writing. They married after almost four years of mostly living together because, according to McLain, Hemingway wanted it. Gellhorn balked but she loved Hemingway too much to tell him no, even as she could see that he was starting to want something from her that she couldn't give him.

As in The Paris Wife, McLain tries to explain how Ernest Hemingway became the man he was and she makes him out to be a very devoted father. But it's not enough to make me change my opinion of the man. She also paints him as a man who had to be the center of attention where ever he was, whomever he was with. He was a slob, had a terrible temper, and was unforgiving.

In McLain's hands, Gellhorn is a young woman who is determined to be a writing and even more determined to bring the plight of people in war-torn lands to the public's attention. She wasn't a saint; Hemingway was not the first married man with whom she had an affair. But one gets the impression that she could have been just the woman for Hemingway if he had been willing to give her the space she needed, just as he expected his space.

The book is mostly written from Gellhorn's perspective, but there are occasionally passages of Hemingway's internal thoughts. Maybe McLain thought that was the best way to give readers information Gellhorn would not have known but it was a little jarring. Sometimes I grew tired of the back and forth of Gellhorn's thoughts about the relationship. But the war reporting scenes are extremely well written, showing how a reporter can both be terrified but also unable to leave.

McLain makes me want to learn more about this woman who spent 60 years reporting from war zones all over the world just as she make me want to learn more about Beryl Markham after reading her Circling The Sun. Gellhorn was so much more than just the third wife of Ernest Hemingway.

Movie Review: The Hate U Give

It may be too soon after seeing this movie for me to write this review. I've only been home from the theater about a half hour and I'm still reeling from it. I am absolutely wrung out. When people say something gave them "all the feels," their talking about something that's done to them what The Hate U Give just did to me.

It's a movie with a teenage lead character and a far amount of the action revolves around Starr Carter's experience at school and with her peers. But The Hate U Give's appeal is far wider than the young adults the book it was based on was aimed at. Amandla Stenberg is incredible as Starr - her face is so amazingly expressive and her skills make you forget she is an actress inhabiting a character; she simply is Starr.

My book club went together - a group of white, middle-age, middle-income women. We would not appear to be the target audience for this movie. But maybe we are. Maybe this movie is a great first step for people who have no concept of what it's like to live in the world with brown skin. The movie opens with Maverick Carter teaching his very children how to act if they are pulled over by the police, something I don't believe it ever occurred to my parents to teach me. Starr and her siblings attend a private school, almost exclusively white. To be accepted there, Starr creates Starr 2, the persona she inhabits when she's in school and around the friends she makes there. The white kids can use black slang; it makes them cool. Starr cannot; it makes her ghetto. When Starr's friend is killed by a policeman, the police and the media want to make the story about the fact that he deals drugs. They don't want to understand that he has been forced into that life by the lack of jobs for a young, black man who needs to be able to support and care for his family. At the end of the movie, one of my friends said, "that really gives you a lot to think about." Yes, it absolutely does.

Beside all of that, this is a movie about family, seeing inside of people, and finding your voice. It can be quiet and intimate, it is often laugh out loud funny, it is sometimes rage filled, and so frequently tense that one of my friends watched toward the end through her fingers. The movie ends with hope. And maybe, if enough people go to see this movie who need to be made to think about these issued, there really will be hope that we can all learn to understand each other better.

Go see this movie. It's an important movie that doesn't get too caught up in its own importance.

We Have Always Lived In The Castle by Shirley Jackson

We Have Always Lived In The Castle by Shirley Jackson
Published 1962 by Amereon LTD
Source: bought for my Nook

Publisher's Summary:
Alone since four members of the family died of arsenic poisoning, Merricat, Constance and Julian Blackwood spend their days in happy isolation until cousin Charles appears.

My Thoughts:
How's that for a succinct review? The problem is, this summary doesn't really give you a feel for this book. How about the first paragraph instead?

"My name is Mary Katherine Blackwood. I am eighteen years old, and I live with my sister Constance. I have often thought that with any luck at all I could have been for a werewolf, because the two middle fingers on both my hands are the same length but I have had to be content with what I Had. I dislike washing myself, and dogs, and noise. I like my sister Constance, and Richard Plantagenet, and Amanita phalloides, the death cup mushroom. Everyone else in my family is dead."

Guys, I have no idea why I haven't read We Have Always Lived In The Castle. And now I'm kind of sad that I can never read it again for the first time. It is an amazing blend of darkness and light. Jackson toys with her readers as Merricat, and her Uncle Julian, slowly reveal the Blackwood family history. The writing is incredibly vivid - the Blackwood home, the land around it, and the nearby village itself all become characters in the book.

"All of the village was of a piece, a time, and a style; it was as though the people needed the ugliness of the village, and fed on it. The houses and the stores seem to have been set up in contemptuous haste to provide shelter for the drab and the unpleasant and the Rochester house and the Blackwood house and even the town hall and been brought here perhaps accidentally from some far lovely country where people lived with grace. Perhaps the fine houses had been captured - perhaps as punishment for the Rochesters and the Blackwood and their secret bad hearts? - and were held prisoner in the village; perhaps their slow rot was a sign of the ugliness of the villagers. The row of stores along Main Street was unchangingly grey...whatever planned to be colorful lost its heart quickly in the village."

Merricat might be called precocious; she is certainly childlike in many ways. But there is a depth and a darkness to her the kept me wondering about her throughout. She is certainly one of the most interesting characters I've read in a long time and I think she's going to stay with me quite a while. She has an innate awareness of imminent peril, a belief in unnatural powers, a deep appreciation of the land around her, a profound love for her sister, and desperate need to maintain order and ritual.

I don't often reread books (almost never, actually) but I'm seriously thinking that this book needs to be reread every year about this time. I can't read it again for the first time but I'll still be happy to pick it up and savor Jackson's story again.