Days of Whine and Roses: Liz Maverick’s book, ‘What a Girl Wants,’ doesn’t begin to ask for enough.

Chick Lit Crit

Oh baby, where is thy sting?

By Hannah Strom-Martin

When it comes to chick lit, Bridget Jones’s Diary is to the genre what The Lord of the Rings is to fantasy: an unsurpassed example of the form all imitators must look upon with despair. Pour on the plucky, bumbling heroines, lather yourself up in angst and go shoe shopping, but never again will the plight of a working-class singleton be captured with quite the same combination of wit and poignancy as Helen Fielding’s eternal heroine.

This, of course, can’t stop a girl–or even a guy–from trying.

The most recent crop of chick lit has it all: the painful physical comedy, the packs of interchangeable best friends, the attempts at wry social commentary. But rather like a bad cosmopolitan, these layers fail to coalesce into a intoxicating whole. I waited 160 pages for a plot to form from the various threads in Lucinda Rosenfeld’s Why She Went Home (Random House; $23.95), only to find myself still jumping with its protagonist from one botched project to the next.

Lead character Phoebe Fine can bumble with the best of them, but what exactly is she bumbling toward? Ditching the life of a New York working girl for the dismal familiarity of her parents’ house in New Jersey, Phoebe bounces everywhere from a series of truly repugnant dates with a symphony conductor to a crazed scheme involving the selling off of her neighbor’s trash, with never a hint of a goal materializing. The realization that she hates her life hits religiously every 30 pages and vanishes again, washed away by a series of bad drinks and one-note characterizations. Will Phoebe ever reconcile with her (frankly horrifying) family? Will she ever have the courage to get laid? Do I even care?

With Phoebe’s lackluster exploits still slogging through my head, Dan Allan’s meditations on the world of cybersex, lisa33 (Viking Press; $21.95), is perhaps more thrilling than it has any right to be. Think of it as chick lit for guys. Allan’s protagonist, Tag (ha!), has the same unsatisfied domestic and sexual longings as his female peers and chooses cybersex as his way of coping.

This is already years beyond Phoebe, but aside from its spicy language and a truly funny take on the unstructured, multichanneled discourse of sex chat rooms, the novel–written entirely in the form of chat-room transcripts and e-mail messages–never takes off. Though Tag and Lisa (Tag’s online paramour) exchange histories and sexual fantasies, they remain in the end the same people they were at the beginning: unable to commit, miserable with their lives and making readers wonder along with them just what their exchange was supposed to mean.

Allan, at least, is able to talk frankly about modern sexual malaise. In Liz Maverick’s What a Girl Wants (New American Library; $21.95), the heroine, Hayley Jane Smith, is too . . . shy? proper? wimpy? to call a penis by its proper name. Here it is referred to as “his business,” a dangerously vague and sophomoric term to use when one is penning the exploits of a sexually hungry woman in her mid-20s. Maverick is no Erica Jong.

Though this author’s sweetness and empathetic characterization makes her by far the most likable of the three, one cannot help but long for the days when Jong’s Isadora Wing first made her appearance, flawed psyche and raging sexuality in hand.

Our new chick-lit heroes and heroines seem crippled by their ability to find sexual release, but their creators skirt the issue, veiling hunger in trite descriptions of groping–usually brought on by drinks or a bad day at the office. As a twenty-something singleton, it is distressing to see the search for sexual fulfillment represented by so bland and ordinary a cast, or worse, pawned off to the supporting players–one-note wonders with names like Suz and Emily whose only purpose seems to be to cheapen sexuality with their heaving breasts and tight leopard-skin pants.

For my money, I’ll take Fear of Flying any day–or even Kushiel’s Dart (Tor’s Fantasy; $7.99), the new fantasy blitzkrieg by Jacqueline Carey. Though Carey’s heroine is a sexual masochist, she is still that creature all chick-lit divas wish they could be: a strong, sexy misfit who never complains about shoes.

From the May 5-11, 2004 issue of the North Bay Bohemian.

© Metro Publishing Inc.

American Visions

One pundit’s call for a new and improved progressive America

By Arianna Huffington

The following selection is excerpted from Arianna Huffington’s latest book, ‘Fanatics and Fools: The Game Plan for Winning Back America.’ Huffington appears at Book Passage on Friday, April 30, to read from and discuss her vision for a new America.

We are, undoubtedly, a nation divided. And a nation divided cannot stand, let alone move forward. But it can, paradoxically, as we’ve seen in the last three years, move backward.

Great social movements are not sparked by subtle shifts in policy or retooled versions of familiar proposals. Nor are they sparked by attacks alone. Ushering Bush out of the White House in November will take more than a critique of his failed policies–and more than a new and improved prescription-drug plan for senior citizens.

We need to offer an overarching moral vision for America that is the alternative to the conservative movement’s Leave-Us-Alone Coalition. My response to the Leave-Us-Alone Coalition is simple: Sorry, no can do. We are all in this boat together. And the fact that there isn’t a hole at your end of the boat doesn’t mean you are safe.

The vision of all of us in the same boat together is the founding vision of this country. Even before there was a United States of America, when John Winthrop landed in Massachusetts Bay in 1630, he stood on the deck of the Arbella and gave a speech that gave voice to what would become the central American creed: “We must bear one another’s burdens . . . we must be willing to abridge ourselves of our superfluities, for the supply of other’s necessities.”

This is the heart of what this country is about. And the exact opposite of the Republican messianic vision of national salvation through ever bigger tax cuts. But let’s not fool ourselves. This call to worship at the church of tax cuts, while very destructive, has also proven incredibly alluring: it’s clear, it’s broad, and it’s accessible.

That’s why we must present a bold alternative vision that is equally clear, broad, and accessible. One that answers a larger question than simply, “Do you want to keep more of your money?”

Just after Christmas, I was having dinner at a noisy Japanese restaurant in New York with some close friends. Their 11-year-old son is passionately committed to George Bush’s reelection. Constantine engaged me in debate with an enthusiasm I could only admire.

“Arianna,” he said with the enchanting optimism of an 11-year-old, “I’m going to convince you that you should support Bush in November. Here are two questions you have to answer. The first question is: Are you for more or less taxes? The second question is: Do you want to fight the war on terrorism?”

My first thought was, hats off to George Bush. He and his team have done such a masterful job of framing the 2004 election that even an 11-year-old can be perfectly on-message. The Democrats cannot win in November if that remains the framework for the election.

We need to change the questions, not just give the correct answers. And the questions have to be about what kind of America we want to live in.

This is what I would ask Constantine–and Americans of all ages:

“Do you want to create an America where your taxes guarantee you a safe neighborhood, a good school, healthcare and a safety net if you stumble?”

“Do you want to be safe in your own country, or do you want to waste precious lives and resources on military adventurism?”

“Do you want to live in a country where our leaders respect us enough to tell us the truth?”

“Do you want to create a country where programs for the most vulnerable are not the first to be cut when times are tough?”

“Do you want to live in a country where the number of poor people is getting smaller rather than larger?”

“Do you want to create a country where hard-working Americans are put first–and ‘trickle-up’ not ‘trickle-down’ is the economic order of the day?”

“Do you want to live in a country where huge industrial companies can’t buy the right to pollute our air and water?”

“Do you want to create a country where the rules are the same for the rich as for the poor?”

There are four overarching elements to this vision of America: (1) It’s based on the values that have served as the foundation for every great social breakthrough in American history. The Emancipation Proclamation. The 19th Amendment. The New Deal. The Voting Rights Act. The Clean Air Act. The Americans with Disabilities Act. These are all milestones on our journey toward a just society, and they all represent values held dear by most Americans. Values not founded on questions of right or left, but on questions of right or wrong. These milestones were all once considered unthinkable–until society realized they were right. And inevitable.

(2) This vision responds to the real hunger in this country to be part of something larger, something better. I believe the country is so longing for this that I consider an appeal to idealism the sleeper issue of 2004. Instead of censoring, editing, mitigating and homogenizing the progressive message to appeal to the 4 percent to 6 percent of swing voters, we must let the message be bold, inspiring and appealing to the 50 percent of voters–100 million of them–who have given up on voting. Instead of slicing and dicing our message, let us appeal to the better angels of all Americans, including those who are now sitting on the other side of our House Divided.

We are all–even the very best of us–a mixture of good and evil, of self-interest and generosity. For our movement to change America, we need to appeal to what is best in people, and trust that they will respond. This trust, and the reason I am so optimistic about this vision, is because of my ultimate faith in human nature. Goodness, empathy and engagement in building community often begin in small steps. And then people begin to see themselves differently.

But remember, for years, for decades now, our leaders have pandered to our baser instincts and our empathetic muscles have atrophied. Even after 9-11, when the longing to be called to a large, collective purpose was paramount, all we were called to do was to go shopping. But the generosity, selflessness and courage that emerged on Sept. 11 are still very much part of who we are.

(3) In politics, he who controls the language defines the political debate. We need to take back from the Bush Republicans certain magical words that they have appropriated and perverted: “responsibility,” “values,” “family,” “security,” “strength” and, yes, “morality,” which the right wing has reduced to sexual morality. Look at Wal-Mart, which considers itself so moral it made a huge fuss of pulling three men’s magazines off the shelf at the same time it treats women like second-class citizens, fires workers who try to unionize and is being sued in 30 states for refusing to pay overtime. We’ve come to the point where laddie magazines are immoral but cheating your workers is not.

We have to change this. And we need to start by taking “responsibility” back from the grossly irresponsible GOP. President Bush wants the nation to believe we can carry the burden of a worldwide war on terror and the Iraqi occupation while giving the richest among us a multitrillion dollar tax cut and the drug companies a huge new prescription drug benefit without cost containment. We can’t, of course, and we need to make sure Americans realize that before they vote in November. If we win this battle, then we’ll win the battle on taxes, a word that has become a synonym for evil. Because in a society where social responsibility thrives, education, healthcare and opportunity for all are not something we get to if we can, but a moral imperative.

When we articulate this vision, we move the game to our field. Right now, we are playing on George Bush’s and Karl Rove’s home turf, and therefore, we are playing defense, especially on the question of values, and particularly family values. We need to take back family values and we need to take back the language of patriotism–wrestling the flag from the hands of the Republicans who have desecrated it by using it to advance their tribal interests.

(4) The civil rights leader John Lewis once said: “When Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated, something died in America. Something died in all of us.” If that something is to be reborn, we must first dredge up something too long forgotten in our politics: heart. We must appeal to the compassion and goodness of America, and stir the souls of the people so that once again they will believe in the possibility that our country can change–rapidly and profoundly.

“In every dark hour of our national life,” said FDR, “leadership of frankness and vigor has met with the understanding and support of the people themselves–which is essential to victory.” And now, at this crucial point in our nation’s history, it is we, the people, who need to take the lead, challenging ourselves and each other to live by the values that came to the fore in the wake of 9-11: generosity, selflessness and courage.

These, of course, are very big dreams, but anything smaller guarantees the reelection of George W. Bush.

Arianna Huffington reads from and discusses ‘Fanatics and Fools’ at Book Passage on Friday, April 30, at 1pm. 51 Tamal Vista Blvd., Corte Madera. Free. 415. 927.0960.

From the April 28-May 4, 2004 issue of the North Bay Bohemian.

© Metro Publishing Inc.

Flighty: Walker activates bird spirits in her new book.

Soul on Ice

Alice Walker’s new novel a New Age mess

By Joy Lanzendorfer

The novelist Alice Walker has led an interesting life. When she was a baby, she raised her church a small fortune by winning beauty contests. Her brother accidentally shot out her eye with a BB gun when she was eight years old. When she had an illegal abortion, the pain of that experience brought her first book of poetry, Once. And of course, Walker won a Pulitzer Prize for her controversial 1982 novel The Color Purple, which was made into a movie by Steven Spielberg.

Twenty-two years later, now comes Walker’s newest novel, Now Is the Time to Open Your Heart (Random House; $24.95), which the author will read from at Sonoma Country Day School on Tuesday, May 4, to benefit the Sonoma County Book Fair.

Sadly, the new novel doesn’t live up to Walker’s reputation. As the New York Times said in its review, if the novel didn’t have Walker’s name attached to it, it’s hard to imagine it would have been published at all.

Walker says the book came to her during a trip to Mexico after a long creative dry spell, but it feels more rooted in her Northern California home in Mendocino–and not in a good way. Now Is the Time to Open Your Heart is a book populated with the kind of California New Age characters the state is known for, and they spend most of the book spouting New Age philosophy reminiscent of Carlos Casteneda’s books of the 1970s.

The main character, Kate Nelson, aka Kate Talkingtree, is a middle-aged, African-Indian-American writer and “to some extent a public figure,” who has been married multiple times and has dabbled in Buddhism as well as some New Age spirituality. Kate is the sort of person who says things like “The moment I stood in front of any one of his paintings . . . my bird nature became activated.”

Kate has been dreaming of dry rivers, so she departs on a spiritual and physical journey to find out what this means. She travels first down the Colorado River and later the Amazon. At the Amazon, she takes hallucino-genic drugs under the supervision of a shaman, throws up repeatedly, wears diapers and has long conversations with the Grandmother spirit, who is the plant-life embodiment of Mother Earth.

Meanwhile, her partner, Yolo–whom Kate leaves because he doesn’t also dream of dried-up rivers or spend his time “wondering, pondering, nagging the question really, What does this mean?”–goes to Hawaii and starts a spiritual journey of his own.

Like many of Walker’s books, the heroine’s journey is supposed to reflect a woman’s triumph in personal authenticity, despite gender and racial boundaries, but much of the book’s philosophy rings hollow. Kate and Yolo say that the “world will be blown to bits . . . before people of color get their fair share,” and yet they live privileged lives in which they dash off to long retreats where other people take care of their every needs.

For a book about personal connection with nature, Kate is oddly disconnected from her surroundings and body. Despite descriptions of plants and rivers, nothing in the book brings either the Grand Canyon or the Amazon to life. Kate never seems to find her spiritual journey difficult or frustrating because she is Wise. We know this because Kate has Wise thoughts such as, “She had an instinctive understanding, perhaps from birth, that people and plants were relatives.”

Kate asks Wise questions, too: “If you see a human being, really see them, how could you kill them?” She is so Wise, in fact, that Grandmother has nothing much to teach her. After a couple of intensive drug trips where Kate soaks up Grandmother’s knowledge, Grandmother is done with her. Now it is Kate’s turn to help other people on the retreat who are not as Wise as she.

All this Wisdom makes Kate a bore. Though she goes on a journey, she doesn’t change. If anything, the journey seems to confirm that she was right about everything she believed in the first place. Yolo, on the other hand, does change from a cocky, sassy black man to a mushy, spiritual character much like Kate. Unfortunately, he loses something in the process.

And that’s exactly what’s wrong with Now Is the Time to Open Your Heart. With the didactic philosophizing, the New Age haziness and the glaring oversights, the story gets lost. It’s too bad Walker didn’t draw more from her own life instead of her politically correct philosophies, because that would have been interesting.

As it is, though, the most exciting point in the book for me is when Kate goes into the Amazon for a swim after deciding “not to worry about piranhas or crocodiles, but to concentrate instead on her inner peacefulness.” For an instant, I found myself hoping that a giant crocodile would jump up and she would have to wrestle with it for dear life.

No such luck.

Alice Walker reads from ‘Now Is the Time to Open Your Heart’ on Tuesday, May 4, at Sonoma Country Day School, 4400 Day School Place, Santa Rosa. 7pm. $10; free with Copperfield’s purchase. 707.823.2618. She also appears at Book Passage on Thursday, May 6, at 7pm. 51 Tamal Vista Blvd., Corte Madera. Free. 415.927.0960.

From the April 28-May 4, 2004 issue of the North Bay Bohemian.

© Metro Publishing Inc.