95 Books In 2006, George W. Bush read 95 books. We will do better.

61. Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote

I’m reading a book called Real Phonies: Cultures of Authenticity in Post World War II America which references Capote’s Holly Golightly as a “real phony.” I’d never read (nor seen the film, for shame) Breakfast at Tiffany’s, which I mentioned to a visiting friend who happened to have brought the book with her, so she left it for me. This version includes three short stories at the back: House of Flowers, A Diamond Guitar and A Christmas Memory. Breakfast... wasn’t what I’d expected. I found it to be a light and easy read, and Holly was both realer and more sympathetic as a character than I’d been lead to believe. But then, I have a soft spot for flighty young women. House of Flowers & A Diamond Guitar are also entertaining, light, cinematic, and the end of A Christmas Memory made me cry. But then, I like to cry.

62. Body Breakdowns: Tales of Illness + Recovery. Edited by Janis Harper

It’s hard for me to parse out my general irritation with this book from my general irritation of the Baby Boomers as a people. It’s like they’re the first generation ever to suffer through aging and impending mortality. I want to shake them. Get over yourself! Your parents were the Great Generation for chrissakes! You can bet they never figured they’d live forever!

I was also mighty annoyed at (most) of the essayists’ conflation of aging with bodily decay, which to me ignores the fact that illness and disease can strike at any age and that many young/er people bear fatal and non-fatal illness with humour and grace. There are a few essays by younger (thirtysomething, my age) writers facing chronic conditions which even the score a bit. Perhaps the book needed a different title, or a subtitle related to aging, which might have framed it more accurately. Jane Silcott’s “Ghosts”, on chronic pain, is good, reflective of the concept of the illness narrative. Dennis E. Bolen’s “Anger” is angry in that privileged-straight-white-male-never-encountered-difficulty-before way, and sexist (he describes a female acquaintance as “worldly, tired, formerly ravishing.” And you were formerly ravisher, I suppose?), as is J. Cates “How to Survive the System: Tips for Boomers.”  Cates refers to clinic staff as “invariably short, blonde, slightly overweight girls of twentysomething” and then later says “Don’t believe anything these bimbettes tell you. They are not on your side.” (Emphasis his.) How did that get past editing, I’d like to know?

Crystal Hurdle’s “Tied with Black Grosgrain Ribbon: Letters to the Insurance Adjuster” is wryly funny and editor Janis Harper’s “Finding an Ending” has poignancy and heart. Would that more of the book be made up of voices like Silcott, Hurdle and Harper.

-Nikki