Approximate Date: A sunny afternoon in early August, 2005
Author: Paula Kamen
Condition of Mr. Segundo: More of a complainer than usual, but feeling either paternal or pathological.
Subjects Discussed: Balancing memoir and microhistory, Chronic Daily Headache (CDH) and its recent medical classification, newspaper articles that perpetuate an unlived life, writing a book while suffering from CDH, the specific denomination value of Ms. Kamen’s marble system, throwing drugs at the problem, doctors who prejudge women patients based on appearance, Freud’s unfortunate legacy of “hysteria,” covert examinations, clarifying the “Not tonight honey, I’ve got a headache” myth, Oliver Sacks’ failure to expand his migraine definition, comorbidities, mortality as a motivating factor for medical focus, working-class CDH sufferers, the difficulties of getting disability, chronicbabe.com, being denied a major television appearance because the incurability of CDH was “too depressing” for viewers, the stigma of memoirs, the difference between physical and psychosomatic pain.
The Call by Yannick Murphy: The always interesting author of Here They Come and Signed, Mata Hari returns with a novel that whips up a worldview from a rather quirky set of limitations: namely, the call logs that a veterinarian maintains as his son is unexpectedly put into a coma and an unforgiving economy denies him work. What emerges is a surprisingly optimistic, often funny, and very moving account on how one family uses acceptance and forgiveness as a way to atone for hard knocks. (
Birds of Paradise by Diana Abu-Jaber: Forget Franzen and Eugenides. If you're looking for a social novel that counts, Diana Abu-Jaber is the author you're looking for. Building from the free-form exploration of consciousness and identity in Crescent and the gripping procedural structure of Origin, Abu-Jaber's latest novel is her finest, equally fluent with gutterpunk culture and smarmy real estate men. It has been suggested by The Washington Post's Ron Charles that you will likely gain some pounds while reading this novel. This is certainly true. Abu-Jaber's description of food is so precise that it often made me want to do more cooking. But I very much admired the way in which Abu-Jaber presents all her characters as unwitting victims of rough capitalism, which permits them some dignity even as they perform terrible acts.
The Last of the Live Nude Girls by Sheila McClear: This memoir isn't so much about the decline of the Times Square peepshow, as it is about one young woman's efforts to pull herself up by by her bootstraps when presented with few economic options. Filled with self-introspective candor and a quiet dignity, McClear's story is one that might befall any of us in these volatile times. While McClear does get back on her feet, her book leads one contemplating the terrible fates of other young women now moving to New York and falling into deadlier vocations. (