Holler Rat: Kentucky Meets Connecticut in Anya Liftig’s Memoir

/ Lauren / Leave a comment

Meet the author! Anya Liftig will come to the library on Thursday, August 1 at 6:30 pm for a conversation about her memoir. Cheshire residents can borrow the audiobook with Libby, and physical copies will be available for sale at the event. Reserve your spot for August 1st!

Anya Liftig grew up in Westport and graduated from Yale. She was an artist living in Brooklyn before it was cool. You wouldn’t expect her memoir to begin with a relative lying dead in a shack in rural Kentucky, cleaved in half by a piece of construction equipment. But as I learned from my recent reading (audiobook listening, really) of her memoir Holler Rat, Liftig defies expectations.

Liftig’s mother hails from that ramshackle home in Kentucky, and her father is from an upper-middle-class Jewish family in Connecticut. When school ends each year in Westport, the family drives down to the holler to spend summers with Mamaw, the family matriarch. The book initially caught my interest because it straddles the vastly different worlds of rural poverty and New England affluence. I’ve got my own history between those worlds, so I wondered how much of this book would resonate with me personally. Liftig’s narrative was so engrossing that from the first paragraph, I completely forgot about my search for parallels and just settled in to enjoy the ride.

She details medical traumas, cringeworthy adolescent romances, and her family’s quirks (her father plays the bagpipes and her grandmother won’t sell the old Studebaker that’s decaying in the middle of a potato field). Also, there was that time she made out with a dead fish in front of an audience and then put it in a blender and drank it. If it sounds both horrifying and hilarious, that’s a pretty good way to describe the memoir. Liftig moves from story to story with a masterful sense of pace, and her brilliant placement of her performance art pieces within the narrative helped me interpret and appreciate this art genre, which I knew only from parodies. The lead-up to the last chapter is heavy, and you don’t know how it’ll end until you reach the very last word. It’s the best memoir I’ve read recently, and I’m really looking forward to having a conversation with her at the library program on August 1!

It’s worth mentioning a book by another Yale alum and descendant of poor Kentuckians: Hillbilly Elegy, the 2016 memoir by J.D. Vance. This Ohio senator was announced as Donald Trump’s pick for VP candidate only a few days ago. Hillbilly Elegy was a bestseller upon release, but it was criticized for painting broad generalizations and reinforcing negative stereotypes about the rural poor. Now in 2024, it’s not hard to see Elegy as a calculated move from an aspiring politician. (It’s standard political playbook – Barack Obama made a similar move in 1995 when he released his memoir Dreams from My Father right before he ran for senate in Illinois.) Vance’s book is great if you want to better understand his politics, but if you’re looking for a more sympathetic and arguably more accurate portrayal of Appalachia, Holler Rat’s tight personal narrative from a longtime artist is a better pick.

Behind the Scenes: The Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award

/ Sandy / Leave a comment

I never really need an excuse to read. It is my favorite pastime. I typically have an expanding “to be read” list and my nightstand is always covered by an unwieldy pile of books. At the start of this year, however, I was in a reading funk and couldn’t seem to finish any book I started. It was right around that time that I received an email from someone at the Mark Twain House looking for readers to help create the long list for the Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award. The Mark Twain House has been giving the award out since 2016 to works of fiction that “speak with an American voice about American experiences.” I signed up to be a judge, hoping that this commitment to judging at least three titles on the list would motivate me to start reading again.

The list of titles to choose from was long and extensive so I decided to pick a variety of different genres. Crook Manifesto by Colson Whitehead was first on my list but to read that book, I needed to read the first in what will eventually be a three-part series, Harlem Shuffle.  Harlem Shuffle is set in Harlem from 1959-1964. For anyone who has read Colson Whitehead, it is a departure from his heavier works like The Nickel Boys. Harlem Shuffle follows the life of Ray Carney, a furniture salesman in Harlem with a dubious past, desperately trying to live a crime-free life. It is a funny, clever, and breezy crime novel, reminiscent of Chester Himes’s Harlem Detective Series.

The second in Whitehead’s series, Crook Manifesto takes place in the early 70s and the plot is centered around the protagonist, Ray Carney trying to score impossible to find Jackson 5 tickets for his daughter. Crime, violence, and comedy ensue. The two books in the series are both fun reads that give a great snapshot of New York City in the 60s and 70s. Whitehead still manages to portray issues of race, class, and police brutality, particularly during his description of the Harlem race riot of 1964 and the tension between the police and those active in the Black Power movement in the 1970s. There is no date set for the publication of the final book in the series, but I am awaiting its release to see if Ray Carney does eventually manage to stay on the straight and narrow.

The next book I read was a debut novel titled A Haunting in Hialeah Gardens, by Cuban American author Raul Palma. I was immediately intrigued by the title having grown up in Miami. The story follows Hugo Contreras who is mourning the sudden death of his wife as well as dealing with mountains of debt. Deeply immersed in the world of Santeria since he is a Babalawo, Hugo agrees to help the debt collector who has been tormenting him, who is in turn being tormented by a ghost, in exchange for clearing his debt. It is an absurd story, but also a very Miami story. The novel is a modern gothic tale, complete with hauntings, demonic possession, and highly accurate descriptions of the oppressive heat in Miami and endless rows of strip malls. It is scary at times with an ending easily left up to interpretation by the reader and a good read for anyone who wants a different kind of supernatural novel.

The last book I chose to read was Dearborn, a collection of short stories, also written by a debut author, Ghassan Zeineddine. I love short stories as a genre, so I was excited to dive into these ten stories chronicling the Arab American experience in Dearborn, Michigan. The stories were funny, sweet, poignant, and at times heartbreaking. Though focused on Arab American life, the stories often told a greater story about the immigrant experience more broadly. This was the book that I most enjoyed out of all the ones that I read and the one I chose to be considered for the prize’s long list. Zeinedine writes beautifully and I hope he chooses to publish more in the future.

The long list for the Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award is up on their website. Unfortunately, Dearborn didn’t make the list but I am grateful for the experience of being a reader for this prize. I was able to discover novels I might not have read otherwise and it got me reading again.

Save Your Memories

/ Susan O. / Leave a comment

In December of 1983, we didn’t have internet. We barely had personal computers – a 256k machine cost $500, and you had to program it yourself. You couldn’t just save to disk, you had to format the darned thing before you could even use it. Video tape machines cost $600, and DVDs were still a dream. We were on the cusp of the CD player, but the real world still ran on cassette tapes. 

I was no different, with a cassette tape built into my stereo, eagerly recording songs and programs off the radio as they played live. Yes, we still listened to live radio programs back then, whether Casey Kasem’s American Top 40 Countdown, or Radio Mystery Theater, or, on Sunday nights, Dr. Demento, the leading program for off the wall parody and novelty music.

What’s novelty music? Novelty music is a humorous song that doesn’t fit in any other category but entertainment. You know it well. Alvin and the Chipmunks is novelty music. Barnes and Barnes’ Fish Heads. The Purple People Eater. The Monster Mash. Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini. Steve Martin’s King Tut. Anything by Tom Lehrer or Weird Al Yankovic. While it’s a serious industry with all the requirements of mainstream music, and such songs can hit high on the pop charts (The Monster Mash hit #1), novelty music isn’t considered “serious” music. 

On that Sunday, it was the Christmas edition of Dr. Demento, and I threw a cassette in the player and hit record, because, back then, Grandma Got Run Over by A Reindeer was just a basement tape on Dr. Demento, it hadn’t gotten a contract yet. Weird Al wasn’t mainstream, and hadn’t gotten permission from the Kinks yet to record his Lola parody Yoda. On that tape, I happened, by luck, to record a song that in the history of radio may only have been played one time. It was a “bonus” track to fill space, and it was the only time it ever appeared on Dr. Demento. It hasn’t even been uploaded to his website. And it is one of my absolute favorites of underground tapes. In the era of the cold war, that song scared the living daylights out of me.

Cylent Night, by the Scrooge Brothers, tells a short story of the start of World War 3 to the tune of Silent Night, while air raid sirens start in the background and grow slowly louder. Off went the bomb at a quarter to three/ It’s the end of you and the end of me….  Have that hit you out of nowhere when you’re listening to the radio at 10 at night in your basement. In 40 years, I’ve never forgotten a line. And I just happen to have that song on tape. 

But cassette tapes are fragile things. They demagnetize. They fade. They tangle. My very rare basement tape has been bouncing around drawers and basements for 40 years. So what did I do? With the equipment at the Cheshire Public Library AV Studio, I very easily threw that cassette into the player and transferred that song to digital Media. Now I can store it digitally, share it with other Dementoids and Dementites who have never heard it (if you didn’t hear it live, you truly never heard it), even send it back to Dr. Demento. 

We all have those things kicking around our homes. Media changes so rapidly, from reel to reel tapes to 8 Track to cassette to CD to memory stick. We all have Grandma’s vacation slides of the Old Country, with relatives no one ever met. Dad’s wedding videos. That old LP you have that’s never been released on CD (or singles, like Rolf Harris’s Two Buffalos, which Bob Steele used to play on WTIC-AM). Your personal video of MTV’s top 100 countdown of 1985, when music videos were short stories of their own. You can transfer all of them to digital media, right here.

Beware, though – transfers occur in real-time. If you’re planning on transferring that 12-hour MTV countdown, it’s going to take 12 hours to put it onto digital. You might want to do it over a few weeks. But that LP? 40 minutes, you’ll be done.

Call (203) 272-2245 ext. 61245 to schedule an appointment at the AV Studio!

The Delights of Pop Culture

/ Lauren / Leave a comment

It’s an awesome time to be a fan of pop culture. You can listen to podcasters going episode-by-episode through the shows you binge-watched on DVD in college. You can read delightfully bizarre theories about the characters in your preschooler’s favorite TV show. You can gather with other fans at venues like ConnectiCon. And as the main orderer of nonfiction books, I know this is an excellent time to read about pop culture, too. Here are some new and recent books to both entertain you and deepen your appreciation for your show / movie / franchise du jour. 

You Are What You Watch: How Movies and TV Affect Everything by Walt Hickley (2024) 

Did Arya, Maximus, or Chandler have the biggest surge in popularity as a baby name? How many parents start off dead in Disney movies? Is Ash Ketchum a better GM or coach? Find the answers in this book, which is a fun mix of visualized data and writing which explores how mere “entertainment” affects politics, the economy, and even shark populations. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Hickley used to be the Chief Culture Writer at FiveThirtyEight, and it shows in his love of statistics. 

The Blues Brothers: An Epic Friendship, the Rise of Improv, and the Making of an American Film Classic by Daniel DeVisé (2024) 

The saga behind The Blues Brothers is epic, encompassing the colorful childhoods of Belushi and Aykroyd, the comedic revolution sparked by Harvard’s Lampoon and Chicago’s Second City, the early years of Saturday Night Live where the Blues Brothers were born, and the indelible behind-the-scenes narrative of how the film was made. Based on original research and interviews of principals from director John Landis and producer Bob Weiss to SNL creator Lorne Michaels and Aykroyd himself, The Blues Brothers vividly portrays the creative geniuses behind modern comedy. 

On Locations: Lessons Learned from My Life On Set with The Sopranos and in the Film Industry by Mark Kamine (2024) 

Married and with a child, the author takes unpaid gigs to get a foot in the door, and eventually ends up working on all seasons of The Sopranos. The show’s setting and its creator’s insistence on accuracy placed the native New Jersey author in the right place at the right time to become part of television history, and to witness the effects of sudden fame and acclaim on the show’s principal players. Includes many stories about guest stars, as well as the cast, including new tales of James Gandolfini. 

Opposable Thumbs: How Siskel & Ebert Changed Movies Forever by Matt Singer (2023) 

Award-winning editor and film critic Matt Singer eavesdrops on the iconic balcony set of Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, detailing their rise from making a few hundred dollars a week on local Chicago PBS to securing multimillion-dollar contracts for a syndicated series. Their partnership was cut short when Gene Siskel passed away in February of 1999, but their influence on in the way we talk about (and think about) movies continues to this day. 

I Like to Watch: Arguing My Way Through the TV Revolution by Emily Nussbaum (2019) 

In this collection, New Yorker columnist and Pulitzer Prize winner Emily Nussbaum writes about her passion for television beginning with Buffy–as she writes, a show that was so much more than its critical assessment–the evolution of female protagonists over the last decade, the complex role of sexual violence on TV, and what to do about art when the artist is revealed to be a monster. And, she also explores the links between the television antihero and the rise of Trump. The book is an argument, not a collection of reviews. Through it all, Nussbaum recounts her fervent search, over fifteen years, for a new kind of criticism that resists the false hierarchy that places one kind of culture over another. It traces her own development as she has struggled to punch through stifling notions of ‘prestige television,’ searching for a wilder and freer and more varied idea of artistic ambition. 

Best. Movie. Year. Ever.: How 1999 Blew Up the Big Screen by Brian Raftery (2019) 

In 1999, Hollywood as we know it exploded: Fight Club. The Matrix. Office Space. The Blair Witch Project. The Sixth Sense. Being John Malkovich. Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.  Those are just some of the landmark titles released in a dizzying movie year, one in which a group of daring filmmakers and performers pushed cinema to new limits—and took audiences along for the ride. Freed from the restraints of budget, technology (or even taste), they produced a slew of classics that took on every topic imaginable, from sex to violence to the end of the world. The result was a highly unruly, deeply influential set of films that would not only change filmmaking, but also give us our first glimpse of the coming twenty-first century. 

Surely You Can’t Be Serious: The True Story of Airplane! by David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker (2023) (downloadable audiobook) 

An in-depth and hysterical look at the making of 1980s comedy classic Airplane! by the legendary writers and directors of the hit film. With anecdotes, behind the scenes trivia, and never-before-revealed factoids, these titans of comedy filmmaking unpack everything from how they persuaded Peter Graves to be in the movie after he thought the script was a piece of garbage, how Lorna Patterson auditioned for the stewardess role in the back seat of Jerry’s Volvo, and how Leslie Nielsen’s pranks got the entire crew into trouble, to who really wrote the jive talk. It also features testimonials and personal anecdotes from well-known faces in the film, television, and comedy sphere, proving how influential Airplane! has been from day one. 

Titles we don’t have but you can borrow from other libraries in our consortium: 

No Crying in Baseball: The Inside Story of A League of Their Own by Erin Carlson (2023) 

The Coen Brothers: This Book Really Ties the Films Together by Adam Nayman (2018) 

Movies (And Other Things): A Collection of Questions Asked, Answered, Illustrated by Shea Serrano, illustrated by Arturo Torres (2019) 

The Third Place

/ Beth Piezzo, Library Director / 3 Comments

I am currently rewatching my favorite television series of the 1990’s, Northern Exposure. For those not familiar with this program, the show offers viewers a glimpse into the quirky lives of residents living in the small, close-knit town of Cicely, Alaska. In a recent episode, resident bush pilot, Maggie O’Connell, meets up with other locals at the town’s laundromat. Within the drab space, residents share the latest gossip as they plug coins into battered washers and dryers. Upon discovering that one of the machines has destroyed some of her clothing, Maggie decides it is time to buy her own washer and dryer. However, soon after the new set is delivered to her home, Maggie realizes it was not just about washing her clothes but the sense of connection and community the activity brought (remember, this is pre-internet and social media!). She tries calling other residents while her washer is running but they are too busy to talk on the phone. She extends invitations to friends to do their laundry at her house, but they decline. Through her experience, Maggie comes to realize the laundromat functions as the village’s “third place.”

Urban sociologist and author, Ray Oldenburg defines the concept of “third place” as distinct from a person’s “first place” which is their home and their “second place” which is work. The “third place” is defined as an informal gathering spot where members of the community can come together and exchange ideas. Traditionally, these are places such as pubs (epitomized in another great TV show, Cheers), post offices, coffee shops, barber shops or even main streets. According to Oldenberg an important facet of the “third place” is neutrality. All members are welcome to gather and freely express their viewpoints. As such, Oldenburg says “third places” are vital to the success of a democratic society.

By Oldenburg’s definition, libraries can be considered a “third place” in a community. As librarians we take great care to ensure that our buildings, services and collections are free and accessible and that all are welcome regardless of socio-economic status. While today the internet and social media allow people to connect instantaneously without leaving home, there is still a desire for people to connect with others in person.  

Library programs such as book clubs, storytimes, and educational lectures are designed to bring people together to meet and share ideas and points of view. These programs allow people to find support for their challenges from others who are going through similar situations. Throughout my career I have witnessed mothers sharing childrearing strategies in storytime, teens who feel they do not fit in finding a peer group, and adults finding hope from the experiences of others dealing with the same mental and physical health issues. 

It is a common misperception that libraries are only about books. The concept of the library as a “third place” raises the definition beyond a resource for reading or research materials. It extends the organization’s mission to be a place where those who feel excluded elsewhere can find a sense of belonging. Where those who need a respite from life’s challenges can find calm. Where those who thought they were so different from each other can find commonality and connection. It allows the library to play a key role not just, as Oldenburg says, in protecting democracy, but also in helping create a more humane society where all are treated equally and with respect. 

At the end of the episode, Maggie reports that her new washer and dryer are not working correctly and convinces the technician that they need to be sent back to the factory despite his reassurances he can fix the problem onsite. He tells her sending the machines back to the factory could mean she is without them for an extended time (it is Alaska after all) but she insists. In the final scene, Maggie is happily back in the dingy, detergent-smelling laundromat listening to the latest news and finding community with her fellow residents. If you are looking for such a place in Cheshire, I hope you will stop by the library soon and discover all this wonderful “third place” has to offer.