Book Report - Kunstlers in Paradise by Cathleen Shine

The meeting was chaired by Wendy H. 

Those present:  Wendy , Mariannick, Murielle, Barbara,  Beth, Katharine Cl.

Apologies received from Sealia, Jennifer, Betsy, Rosie, Katharine J.  

 

Report prepared by Katharine C

 

Wendy introduced the author, Cathleen Shine, and gave us Shine’s amusing biography from her website:

“As a child, Cathleen Schine dreamed of growing up to become a graduate student. Years later, her childhood ambitions were realized when she entered the University of Chicago’s graduate program in medieval history. There, it was noticed that she had no memory for names, dates or abstract ideas, and she was thus forced, tragically, to abandon her life-long dream. Before this disappointment, however, while on a fellowship studying paleography in Italy, Schine made an important discovery: she liked to buy shoes. So when the welcome of academia was rescinded, Schine was able to pursue a career in this area which was rewarding but short-lived, as she could not get a job. In debt and increasingly desperate, Schine turned to the lucrative world of free-lance writing. Having failed as an intellectual, she discovered her calling as a pseudo-intellectual and went on to write for The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books and Family Circle. She lives in Venice, California.”

 

Wendy then posed a series of the questions to our group:

• Was the lack of detail about Vienna justified?  The consensus was that it was Grandmother Mamie’s decision to put her background behind her. She was also very young when she left Vienna (aged 11) and in her last year there she was in hiding from the Nazis. 

• We agreed that the family were fortunate to leave Vienna (just in time) and also very fortunate to fetch up in CA, with plenty of support from the German film & music community

• We discussed whether Mamie had survivor guilt? Might her WW2 experience be compared with Julian’s, her grandson, who is a “luftmensch” (fabulous word), that is “a person unconcerned with the practicalities of earning a living”.  Wendy N related to Julian in a major way due to her own experience with young people of his age group.

• While the relationship between Mamie and her “dogsbody” Agatha was described as “master/slave”, we enjoyed the droll relationship between the two women, although  Mamie was concerned that Agatha would leave her home (after receiving an inheritance).  The humour of Schine’s writing shone through.

• Was the description of Los Angeles realistic?  Well, it was the secluded, beach area of Venice that featured in the book, full of blossoms, jacaranda trees and the scent of oranges.  Therefore, not realistic. One comment:  “the contrast of the physical beauty of Venice vs. the moral ugliness of America”

• We noted that Mamie’s family were confronted on arrival in Los Angeles in 1939 by the contradictions inherent between the imperialistic,  Parisian architecture of Vienna, versus the graceless mismatch of styles in Hollywood (thatched cottages/beamed tudor homes), appearing Disneyfied.

• Mamie, age 93, refers back to the ‘40’s and ‘50’s, the era of Greta Garbo and other Hollywood greats, but we know nothing of her marriage.  

• While this book takes place during the pandemic, it acts as an agent (a MacGuffin) for the storyline - Julian stuck in LA in his grandmother’s home, not able to go places, the pandemic allows the pace of the book to slow down, while we listen to Mamie tell the story of her life

• Arnold Schoenberg’s 12-tone music (atonality) was briefly described as “the notes the piano leaves in the cracks’.  Further elucidation may be found in Robert Hutchinson’s 34.1 note on Twelve-tone technique, at: https://musictheory.pugetsound.edu/mt21c/TwelveToneTechnique.html

• Is the book about a younger generation, during Covid, unable to get on with their lives, and unable to get out on their own to forge their way into adulthood?  If so, does this mean that we need a crucible of pain (e.g. the Nazis in an extreme case) in order to move forward?  (We didn’t achieve an answer to that question).
• We were asked to consider whether there are parallels between the holocaust and the pandemic.  There was a resounding negative response to this, based on these two very different situations.  Plus, the pandemic affected the entire world;  the holocaust did not.Someone asked if this made Mamie less credible.
• Wendy asked our views on the narrative and how the book was put together.  We noted that Mamie and her friendship with Greta Garbo was recounted as Mamie’s memories, and was private.  She didn’t share her trip to the island with Garbo with Julian  

• Why did Mamie need to  tell Julian her stories?  Was it to connect Julian to his family, both his parents and Mamie?  Well, it kept Julian entertained, and it kept her stories alive for immortality (we know that she anticipates the end of her life - at one point Mamie says she wishes to “fan the spark, while I am down to embers myself”.  It’s also what grandparents do, and it provides a connection with the past.   

We noted the huge generation gap between Mamie (93) and Julian(24).  Mamie is not a good listener, and doesn’t seem to hear what Julian might have to say.  She’s self-absorbed.  

 

Beth gave us a rundown of hoochie-coochers, who were scantily-clad women in the 1920’s

 

Betsy Merceron wrote to the group that Küntslers in Paradise is a book set in her parents’ territory, mentally and physically. As a teen, Betsy’s mother pointed out Schoenberg’s house to her near UCLA, and they used to visit family friends in their rickety Venice houses (now asking $2 million).

 

Sealia wrote that she liked the book. Not in a “I can’t put this down” kind of a way, but in a “this is nice and easy to read” kind of way. While stories about the Holocaust and Jewish trauma are often hard to read, she found this book dealt with it in a lighthearted way that spoke more to hope, moving forward (without just ignoring the past), and mostly about human connection. Sealia loved the way Julian and his grandmother’s relationship shifted as the story continued and that we as the reader picked up on it even when it isn’t explicitly explained. Another theme she liked was that people change people, meaning that your relationships with certain individuals, often met by chance in this story, can change who you are and how you move through the world. She enjoyed the name dropping as well through the story, because she likes those sorts of historical fictions where the plausibility of certain events or people meeting are tied into the story.  She did spend an awful lot of the book worrying that the book was going to end when Mamie died. And she was dreading it! So she was very pleased that the author didn’t end it that way. Haha!  For Sealia, the book treats a difficult subject with quiet humour and lovely storytelling, keeping hope, connections, and humanity at the forefront to push aside despair.