Gore Vidal: A Biography

The Book of the Week is “Gore Vidal: A Biography” by Fred Kaplan, published in 1999. This volume geared toward educated readers describes memorable facets of the life of Vidal, who is a political pundit, playwright and author. He is a colorful character. A distant relative of Al Gore, he helped make Anais Nin a famous author.

Additionally, Vidal engaged in heated political debates with Norman Mailer and William F. Buckley. On one occasion, when Buckley had failed to appear for a scheduled debate, the press asked Vidal where Buckley was. Vidal answered, “Mr Buckley? Oh, he’s at Wallace headquarters, stitching hoods.” Also mentioned in this book is Vidal’s dated screenplay about a martian, that contains a disturbing message about human nature. A unique read, indeed.

Here Comes Trouble

The Book of the Week is “Here Comes Trouble” by Michael Moore, published in 2011. This is a collection of stories from the life of a passionate political activist. The author has used various ways to inform the public of injustices, including running a newspaper, producing a TV show and movies, and writing books and articles.

At the end of Moore’s freshman year at a Catholic seminary, he was asked not to return. It was an academically challenging environment, but he was a good student. He committed no serious infractions.

However, Moore was a frequent questioner of authority, as he had been from a very young age. He grew up in a generation of Americans whose early childhood was still innocent, having been born in the mid-1950’s.  He asked his religious instructors pointed questions such as “Why don’t we let women be priests?” and “Do you think Jesus would send soldiers to Vietnam if he were here right now?” and “In the Bible, there’s no mention of Jesus from age twelve to age thirty. Where do you think he went?”

Moore had changed his mind about becoming a priest, anyway. Read the book to find out about some of the more entertaining episodes in his life, religious and otherwise.

You’ll Never Nanny In This Town Again

The Book of the Week is “You’ll Never Nanny In This Town Again” by Suzanne Hansen, published in 2006. This book recounted the author’s experiences caring for the children of celebrities.

After high school, Hansen received her training at a school for nannies. She knew she was passionate about caring for children. After graduation, an agency placed her in the home of the family of a super-rich Hollywood talent agency executive. Although Hansen bonded with the three children in her care, she was unhappy with the live-in job. The parents created a tense environment, and she lacked the assertiveness to stand up to their petty, controlling attitude.

Nevertheless, Hansen acquired valuable experience that later helped her take care of the kids of movie star Debra Winger, rock star Pat Benatar and TV stars Rhea Perlman and Danny DeVito. She discussed all aspects, good and bad, of being a nanny. There is more to it than meets the eye, regardless of whether the children are offspring of wealthy celebrities. Childcare seems to be an undervalued job in our society.

Little Princes

The Book of the Week is “Little Princes” by Conor Grennan, published in 2010. This the story of a global aid worker who changed many lives for the better over the course of three years.

Initially, Grennan volunteered to be, in essence, a surrogate parent for a couple of months in Nepal in late 2004 at an orphanage, whose name in English is “Little Princes.” However, the children were not truly orphans. Months or years before, a child trafficker had told their parents, living in poverty-stricken rural villages, that if they gave him a lot of money– in some cases, their life savings–  that their children would be fed and clothed well and get an education. Instead, the trafficker sold them into domestic servitude in private homes. Those lucky children had been rescued by a pitifully incomplete patchwork of international child-services organizations or a government official in Kathmandu. “In Nepal, there were no safety nets, no system where all children were cared for in an orderly manner.”

Grennan fell in love with the children at Little Princes, and they, him. He thus returned to be with them after a year’s interlude. He learned of a group that ran homes in Kathmandu, and visited with kids there, too. He, with a fellow volunteer, had a dream to form an organization to have rescued children come to live in their own children’s home.

After the decade-long civil war between the Nepalese monarchy and the Maoists ended, Grennan’s goal became to find the children’s parents and reunite them. In prior years, the Maoists had occupied villages and had been ruthless with people associated with aid organizations. A weeks-long expedition taken on foot in the high-altitude mountains to find the parents, was already fraught with the dangers of death by a fall, illness, marauders, and snow, and even in this day and age– the absence of communications devices (!)

Grennan encountered a traumatic situation, of which he knew not, how many of its like there were. While on an expedition like the one described above, he found out from a postal service worker that the parents of a fourteen-year old kid in a home were alive and well. At some point in the past, the kid had been given their death certificates. Grennan realized the certificates were forged. “Here was a boy who had grown up believing that his entire family was dead… I was struck by how viciously the civil war had torn this country apart.”

Once Grennan started having success reuniting children and parents, the latter were overjoyed to see the former again. “But when they learned that their child was being well taken care of, they were suddenly reluctant to take him or her home. Nepal is a terribly poor country; it is a challenge to support a family.”

Read the book to learn more about the author’s trials, tribulations and triumphs, which include a romantic subplot.