This was a heavy month full of medieval ethics and Southern gothic literature. Even a seemingly lighter memoir left me with weighty questions. Plus, it’s getting real over on Slow Read: The Stand! I’m going to have to add one of my easy reads from my TBR pile for April and give myself a bit of a break.
Purgatorio by Dante Alighieri
Haste denies all acts their dignity.
The March selection for Well-Read Mom, Purgatorio is the second part of Dante's Divine Comedy. I had grand plans to read Inferno, the first part in which Dante descends into hell and works his way up to purgatory, but alas that didn’t happen. I was still happy to engage with any part of this classic written in the 14th century and found it beautifully written and engaging.
I’ve been on a year long journey through the 7 vices and their accompanying virtues so Dante’s journey up the mountain of purgatory and through the seven vices and their accompanying atonement practices was an interesting addition. Every month, I listen to one chapter of Ask of Old Paths: Medieval Virtues and Vices for a Whole and Holy Life by Grace Hamman and then read that vices chapter in Elizabeth Oldfield’s Fully Alive. Just like Grace, Dante begins with pride, the base of the mountain and the foundational vice that centers ourselves instead of God and our fellow humans. What is so enthralling about Dante is this is not an intellectual exercise, it is physically manifest in the acts of atonement they must pursue to reach paradise. So, on the terrace of pride, the souls are bent over under enormous slabs of stone, unable even to look up.
I was particularly struck by the fact that no matter what terrace Dante is traveling on the souls there beg for prayers from the living. When Dante asks one man he knows how he even got to purgatory considering his sins, the man says it’s the faithful prayers of his widow. I think we lose something when we stop praying for those who have died, and while I’m not sure if it shifts the scales of eternal consequence, I’m motivated by the idea that it might.
Overall, I am heartened and even a little inspired by classical approaches to morality and find myself and my thinking expanded by their approach to the eternal questions that humans have been battling with for centuries.
The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers
Her heart was dark and silent, and from her heart the unknown words flowered and bloomed and she wanted to name them.
I am continuing my journey through Southern classics and decided to read another novel by McCullers after loving The Heart is a Lonely Hunter so much. Frankie Adams, another adolescent protagonist, is struggling with the changes she feels internally and how they don’t always align with her external reality. I found Frankie’s frustration and fear so relatable and absolutely adored Berenice, the family’s live-in maid and Frankie’s surrogate mother.
McCullers took five years to write this novel, and the exquisite language is a reflection of the care she took with every word.
It was not yet night. Houses along the street were dark, lights showed in windows. Darkness had gathered in the thick-leaved trees and shapes in the distance were ragged and gray. But the night was not yet in the sky.
A description that makes you realize how little is captured by the word “dusk.” I loved this novel and continue to enjoy my time with all the Southern greats.
Just Kids by Patti Smith
I sat on the floor as Kris Kristofferson sang her “Me and Bobby McGee,” Janis joining in the chorus. I was there for these moments, but so young and preoccupied with my own thoughts that I hardly recognized them as moments.
I’m not a huge Patti Smith fan. So, when this book first came out to much fanfare, I didn’t really consider adding it to my TBR list. However, after reading and loving another musical biography and hearing her on The Ezra Klein Show, I decided to give it a chance.
What. A. Story.
Coming up as an artist in 1960s New York City alongside her artistic soul mate Robert Mapplethorpe, Patti Smith lived inside a truly unique historic moment. I loved her poetic writing and her unflinching assessment of her and Mapplethorpe’s relationship. I loved how she pursued the artistic life in the face of real struggle and also her career success came because of lucky moments (and a very important haircut). As you know, I love memoirs, and this one was fantastic.
The Violent Bear It Away by Flannery O’Connor
“The world was made for the dead. Think of all the dead there are," he said, "and then... the dead are dead a million times longer than the living are alive.”
I didn’t love this book. I didn’t hate it either. The characters are all difficult, and the fanaticism threaded throughout was hard to read. There isn’t a soft place to land in this entire novella.
And yet, Flannery O’Connor does what she always does with her writing - picks you up, shakes you hard, then places you back down and walks away. You’re not quite sure what just happened, but you think you’re probably different as a result.
What I Didn’t Finish
Soul without Shame: A Guide to Liberating Yourself from the Judge Within by Byron Brown
I don't know where I read a recommendation for this book, but I have an overactive inner judge so I thought it might be helpful. I liked the beginning, but then it got very monotonous and very boring. The explanation for what creates our judges was a little reductive and unconvincing, so I gave up.
I worry I am losing the attention span for self-help, a genre of books that I have always found enriching to my life and understanding of myself. Maybe I’m just getting older and wiser and less impressed by these theories? Either way, I haven’t finished one in a long time.
What did you read (or not read) in March?
I read Just Kids and Dante's Inferno a million years ago, but I just want to say I'm still chapped about the latter. We read Inferno in my Medieval Lit class and then we had to write a paper assigning all the other characters we had read over the semester into levels of hell. I GOT A C. This was subjective! I'm still mad.
I'm finishing up A Life: Georgia O'Keeffe in preparation for the MTS Santa Fe retreat next week!