2023-11-21 06:46:01
At first I couldn’t read at all. Nothing. After that I could only read books that I have already read and in which no disaster happens except that you think you may have ruined everything with Darcy but after two more pages you will find out that you didn’t ruin anything, on the contrary. Then I got the book ״ארמון הנייר״ of Miranda Cawley Heller (Techelet publishing house, translation: Tal Artzi). This is the first book that Kawli Heller, 61, has written, and she came to write it after years in which she was the vice president and head of the drama department at HBO. During her time and with her help, huge series were produced there such as The Secret, The Sopranos, Deep in the Earth and Big Love, and since I love books written by female journalists who became authors, I will also mention that before her glittering career on television, she was the literary editor of Cosmopolitan magazine. More in the namedropping department: Kawli Heller comes from a family of artists and writers and is married to screenwriter Bruno Heller, and in addition to these desirable gossipy details – which for me are enough to try to start reading a book, since I’m convinced that people only know how to write about themselves – I should mention that the now translated Paper Palace comes to us after starring for Two years on the New York Times bestseller lists, after Reese Witherspoon chose it for her reading club and after HBO bought the rights to the television adaptation (Cawley Heller is currently working on a script for a miniseries).
What is the book about? It is an “engrossing family saga, rich in content and complex characters”, to quote the review from the Evening Standard. Technically the book focuses on 24 hours in the life of fifty-something Elle Bishop who spends the summer with her family in their crumbling summer house in the wilds of Cape Cod, with jumps back in time and an important decision she has to make.
In the “thanks” at the end of the book, Mirdana writes:
“In my youth, when I first tried to write fiction, my grandfather Malcolm Cowley gave me advice that I have kept in my heart ever since: the only thing important to know, he said, is thatEvery good story needs a beginning, middle and end, and the end should lie in the beginning.״
But what about us (meaning me) and the plot. Kawli Heller’s writing brings to life not only the characters (my favorite character: the heroine’s mother), but also the houses, the tableware, the wine bottles, and the bathing suits and towels hanging to dry on the branches next to the outdoor shower.
On days like these, and not on days like these, the book should come with a trigger warning: on the goodreads site, alongside all those who gave the book five or four stars, there are readers who gave it one shocked star and others who abandoned it very quickly due to an almost casual treatment of trauma and sexual violence. And in the words of Reese Witherspoon:
TW: Please note that this book contains sexual assault and these scenes are referenced frequently throughout the story
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I’m not one of those ass-in-chair writers. Sometimes I’ll write all day every day, and sometimes weeks will go by
Miranda Cowley Heller answers the question of how long it took her to write the book (six years) in an interview with The Guardian.
(Sorry, but is there a dumber question than how-long-took-you-to-write? It takes as long as it takes).
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This is a book of the sentences-that-you-want-to-mark-on-almost-every-page genre:
01
“The best advice my mother gave me: There are two things in life you never regret – a baby and swimming.”
02
“Walking around her like she’s God’s gift to the human race. You see that no one taught her not to show off.’
“Strange, really,” I say on my way to the kitchen to put the plates away. “Confidence. She must have had supportive parents.’
03
“Many times I fantasized about surviving alone on a desert island. I will subsist on fish; I will build a house on the tree at a high height so that no wild animal can reach me; will become very strong. In my fantasy, somehow a copy of “The Complete Writings of William Shakespeare” is always washed ashore, and since I have no other way to pass the time I read (interestingly) every sentence. Circumstances of fate force me to finally become the most successful version of myself.’
04
“It’s a British thing: to revel in a duty, to exercise your civil right to swim in a cold, hostile lake in the middle of a public park just because you Can.״
05
“Just because you don’t like conceptual art doesn’t mean the whole world is wrong.”
“I have only one thing to tell you about it: the statue of Michael Jackson and Bubbles.”
06
“Never ask a saxophonist to do a man’s job.”
07
“My mother’s panacea for all pain is, ‘If you’re depressed, sort out your underwear drawer.’
08
“Really,” Mom dismisses my words dismissively. “You came out just fine. Who knows what would have come out of you if your father and I had stayed married. Must be some kind of stuffy and happy little girl. Maybe you were a hotel manager. Divorce is good for children.” She gets up and starts to take some forks left over from the dinner table. “Unhappy people are always more interesting.”
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Be kind and considerate with your criticism… It’s just as hard to write a bad book as it is to write a good book
It was Malcolm Cowleypoet, writer, literary critic, historian and grandfather of Miranda Cawley Heller (the one who gave her the writing advice that turned into the list of acknowledgments at the end of the book).
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Each and her Cape Cod.
If you want I’m still here
Light years away from you
I’ll get back to you in a moment
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#book #read #paper #palace