Category Archives: Life reflections

The Monday Book: BOBCAT AND OTHER STORIES by Rebecca Lee

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World Book Night books tend to be a mixed bag. For those unfamiliar, WBN is an annual celebration of Shakespeare’s birthday, in April, when people sign up to give away a box of twenty books. About 30 different titles are among the giveaways, a mix of new releases, recent bestsellers, and classics.

Also some older, past-best sellers. Last year, we had one giver bring his box back and say, “Forget it. I can’t pay people to take this book.” Ouch, man….

So this year, I was wary of the selection. But as often happens, a few people didn’t pick up their boxes, so we opened them and set them out on a WBN shelf inside our shop door, with a note, “Please take!”

And when Jack and I fled to our cabin for a little R&R over Memorial Day weekend, we grabbed a copy of each. One of these was BOBCAT AND OTHER STORIES, a slim volume that came out in 2013, by Rebecca Lee.

What a pleasant surprise! Literate, feminist-oriented, mostly academic-setting stories that circle the human condition in amazing ways. Lee’s writing is insightful, packing information into tight little sentences. She never insults her readers with too much symbolism or other written equivalents of “see, here’s what you should think about this character, dear little readers.” In fact, her stories are a lot like looking at a puzzle with one piece missing, and her story is the hole defining that piece. Less is more with this writer.

The title story is about a Manhattan dinner party involving authors, a shared editor, spouses and lawyers. It’s pure dead brilliant in capturing the way life hits you from behind while you’re focusing on something else. I also got a big kick out of the subtle author jokes. Yeah, at the drop of a hat we will expound our themes ad infinitum. We know; go ahead; make fun of us….

“The Banks of the Vistula” was one of the funniest (as in oddest) stories about plagiarism ever. “Slatland” turned the wronged wife theme on its head. But my favorite was probably “Min,” exploring the new way in which men, women, arranged marriage, East and West are not so much colliding as just sliding around each other these days. The American protagonist in “Min” is best friends with the Hong Kong-American title character, and winds up choosing his arranged-marriage bride, a Philippine nanny who thinks he’s a creep. The juxtaposition of power relations, history, and basic human feelings in this story provokes the kind of laughter that you later analyze: uhh, should that be funny, or more sad?

Lee’s stories prove that it’s a mad, crazy, mixed-up world where almost every traditionally-defined relationship between people, ethnicities, and nationalities is now up for grabs. Which makes the stories something between scattershot, slapstick and searing.

 

OK, That was FUN!

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DSCN0400Nothing clears the air like a good murder. So we had one last night at the bookstore–although I thought I might have to kill someone before it began.

It started badly: the victim (a secret to the rest of the participants) hadn’t gotten his character information, nor asked us to send it again. He arrived knowing nothing of what he was to do in his complex role.

The girl detective and her mom were detained by a few road adventures and pulled in ten minutes after start time – but we hadn’t started because another character with a big important part thought it was Saturday night, as he explained when my husband called him to ask, “Dude, WTH ARE YOU?”

In the midst of it all, Our Good Chef Kelley hauled me into the kitchen with a crestfallen look on her face. One of the desserts she’d made for the killing had failed – and the plot needed all three.

So Jack raced to Food City to buy a cake while the rest of us did some impromptu introductory activities waiting on the last character, and the victim locked himself in the bathroom to read through his part.

DSCN0402And then it all just came together. One woman used a fake French accent, and the first time she turned “Li’l Bubba” (the victim’s nickname) into “Leetil Boo-Boo” the group fell out laughing. The girl detective had to outline the body, and as she rounded his bum, the victim said, “Hey, that tickles!” Chalk and guffaws flew everywhere.

There were insider jokes (How many Mullinses does it take to change a light bulb?) as Garden Club President Lady Smythe was exposed as a fake from Bold Camp (uhhh, sorry, but Bold Camp is just too hard to explain if you don’t live here) and Guy Smiley’s oration from GOD BLESS THE CROOKED ROAD OF AMERICA was funnier each time he re-started it. (So was the aging ingenue’s audition line, “I don’t know nothing about birthing no babies.” Her husband in real life is an OB-GYN.)

And there were obvious jokes. Annie DoGood, chief protestor, held up a sign demanding “Reusable sanitary napkins” just as everyone was tucking into their dessert jellies. You never saw so many spoons hit the table at once. (But she had others. “Equal rights for cows” during the cheesecakes was generally acclaimed as the crowd favorite.) And then the rival chefs–Kellie Piercing of Third Time’s the Charm Cafe versus Lisa Cupcake of Gerry’s Deli: serving Big Crooked Road for forty years–bonded over a turkey baster.

DSCN0405At least, we think it was turkey baster….

The gang sorted Bulgarian prefab chocolate sauce from Bavarian chocolate sauce, and the poisoner got caught– except there were two poisoners working independently, and oh, who cares, it was ever so much fun!

Besides our terror that the whole thing was falling apart at the opening, some of the characters had arrived in full stress mode. One had a nasty altercation with her daughter’s coach. Another has such a high-powered job, a stress-less day would signal a coup d’etat. A third has been dealing with the terrible illness of a loved one.

So it’s true what I always say: nothing beats stress like a good murder. And last night’s was a real hoot. Just ask Leetil Boo-Boo.DSCN0403