Photo: Ilana Panich-Linsman

CREATIONS

YOUR VENTURES IN THE ARTS AND MEDIA BY KARA PETERS

Murder Abroad

In CARTWHEEL (Random House), the second novel by Jennifer duBois, A06, Lily Hayes, a privileged American college student doing a semester abroad in Buenos Aires, is accused of murdering her roommate. As Lily is pilloried in the press and pleaded for by her family, the case—like Lily herself—becomes a Rorschach for attitudes that complicate justice. At its heart, this psychologically astute page-turner probes the instability of perceptions.

“When I was in college, I studied abroad in Prague. I think I drew from that experience in thinking about Lily’s exuberant ineptitude when she first arrives in Buenos Aires. She’s in love with the country and vain about her knowledge of Spanish without realizing there are limits to what she knows. I think the experience of being totally enraptured by a place but completely annoying to everyone around you is pretty typical for study-abroad students, but it becomes something that has deeper implications for how Lily is perceived.

I was looking for a city that an American student might fall in love with, and I wanted a language she might study and be arrogant about her skills in, as Lily is, to her detriment, when she is interrogated. I also wanted to set the book in a Catholic country to explore what it says about a young woman if she’s sexually active and how that plays into people’s perceptions of her and the crime she’s accused of. On top of that, the fraught history between America and Argentina became an interesting axis to explore the resentment of American entitlement. The prosecutor sees this as the latest in a long line of criminal behavior by Americans.

I was inspired by the questions I found myself thinking about in the wake of the Amanda Knox trial. How do people of intellect and goodwill look at the same person and situation and come to radically different conclusions? I wanted to explore the idea of a person who serves as a blank slate for other people’s interpretations—as a vessel for notions about things that are broader and more abstract, like class, privilege, and the role of young women abroad. Casually, I was intrigued not just by the divergence of opinions but the certainty of them. People just knew she was innocent, and an equally fervent contingent just knew she was guilty. When people talk about the case, they’re not really talking about the case. It’s inevitably tied to something else.

The details of the trial didn’t particularly interest me. I only did enough research to create a convincing sketch. It’s presumptuous to try to speak to a universal experience—as a writer, you’re just trying to authentically imagine what one person went through. Creating that specificity through which to access broader themes is what fiction should do.”

SUMMER BOOK BONANZA

A Poet’s Revolution: The Life of Denise Levertov (University of California)

A critic once wrote that Denise Levertov was “fitted by birth and political destiny to voice the terrors and pleasures of the twentieth century.” As fate would have it, she spent several years (1973–79) of that tumultuous century as a professor of English at Tufts. In this insightful biography, one of her students, Donna Krolik Hollenberg, G86, traces the late poet’s creative development. Born in Britain in 1923 to intellectual parents, Levertov was educated at home and developed a passion for poetry as a child. She served as a civilian nurse during World War II, and in 1948 moved to the United States, where she befriended poets such as William Carlos Williams and Adrienne Rich, joining their ranks as one of the major figures of late-twentieth-century American poetry. In Hollenberg’s view, Levertov’s work is animated by the idea of “revolution”—not just of the political type embraced by the activist poet, but in the transformation that followed her conversion to Christianity and the subsequent spiritual awakening of her verse.

The Skeleton Crew (Simon & Schuster)

Sherlock Holmes was one of the first sleuths to upstage the police, but he was in a class by himself; even Watson didn’t help much. Today, crowdsourcing allows a global network of armchair detectives to pool their deductive acumen in an attempt to reunite more than 40,000 unidentified dead people—stowed around the country in freezers and evidence rooms, buried in potter’s fields, and cremated—with their identities. Armed with little more than their laptops, these hobbyists sift through newspaper archives, missing persons listings, facial reconstructions, and oodles of other evidence to crack decades-old cold cases. With scientific curiosity and sharp detail, Deborah Halber, G96, penetrates their colorful and curiously competitive subculture. (She recounts one such case—not included in the book—in “The Bodies in Singing River” in this issue.)

Returning to Shore (Carolrhoda Lab)

When her fastidious, status-conscious mother leaves for her honeymoon with husband number three, fifteen-year-old Clare is packed off to Cape Cod to spend the summer with Richard, the biological father she hasn’t seen in twelve years. Quiet and unassuming, he spends his time trying to save the endangered northern diamondback terrapin, an endeavor as painstaking and tentative as Richard and Clare’s budding relationship. Corinne Demas, J68, has written a young-adult novel with tenderness, subtlety, and a plot refreshingly free of teenage romance. As Clare begins to appreciate the courageous turtles that bury their eggs in protective sand and return to sea, she comes to understand why her father left her and how his struggles will shape her maturing values.

The New Southwest: Classic Flavors with a Modern Twist (Hippocrene)

Meagan Micozzi, J98, moved to Arizona from the East Coast and found herself on a different culinary planet. She eagerly explored the Southwest’s bold fusion of Mexican, Native American, and American flavors, and this collection of eighty original recipes reflects her newfound love of ingredients like canela (Mexican cinnamon), cotija and Oaxaca cheeses, agave nectar, masa harina (corn flour), and dozens of varieties of chilies. Classic favorites like Navajo fry bread, tortillas, and salsa verde are featured alongside quirky inspirations like sweet-glazed avocado doughnuts, stacked squash enchiladas, fancified Frito pie, and caramel-soaked Mexican chocolate pancakes.

The Animals: A Memoir (Saddle Road)

Between 1955 and 2002, Carol Houlihan Flynn, professor of English emerita, owned and lost eleven cats, five dogs, twenty-seven pigs, two goats, twenty-five newts and salamanders, and countless chickens, ducks, and rabbits. Her wry, original memoir explores how her relationships with the animals—the forbidden childhood pet, the ill-fated foray into pig farming as her marriage collapsed, the violent cat enacting suppressed family rage—have helped her create meaning from life’s pits and pinnacles, and how, ultimately, they taught her about being human. She writes, “For the animals are all, every one of them, down even to the smallest newt, born out of our desire for love. And that is where the problem lies.”

FILM/TV/STAGE

Live Your Dream: The Taylor Anderson Story

The documentary by Regge Life, A74, the Distinguished Director in Residence at Emerson College, paints a portrait of a young woman from Richmond, Virginia, who was teaching English in Ishinomaki, Japan, when the devastating tsunami and subsequent nuclear disaster hit. Taylor Anderson lost her life, but her generous spirit left a lasting impression on all who met her. A tribute to the very Japanese values of resilience and persistence, Live Your Dream chronicles Taylor’s story from childhood to the catastrophic events of March 11, 2011. Available from Global Film Network Inc (globalfilmnetwork.net).

5 Runners

Boston Globe arts reporter Geoff Edgers, A92, codirected this documentary profiling the five men and women who were taking their final steps to the finish line as the first bomb exploded at the 2013 Boston Marathon. The film follows the runners as they reflect on the events of that day and doggedly pursue their goal of completing the 2014 marathon. View the film at bit.ly/5_runners.

Saving the Children

Harry Radlife, A71, F73, captured the story of one of World War II’s unsung heroes, 105-year-old Nicholas Winton, in a CBS News 60 Minutes segment he produced called “Saving the Children.” Winton was a successful London stockbroker who went to Prague in 1938 and started an organization to aid Jewish children at risk from Nazi persecution. Dubbed the “British Schindler,” he oversaw the rescue of 669 children, many of whom had parents who would die in Auschwitz, and placed them with British families. Winton remained mum about these activities for years. In 1988, his wife, Grete, found a list of the children and the British families who took them in. “I work on the motto that if something’s not impossible, there must be a way of doing it,” Winton told 60 Minutes. The segment, which aired on May 4, can be viewed at bit.ly/RadlifeChildren.

Damaged Care

High health-care costs and HMOs set the feet of at least two musically inclined physicians tapping. The Rodgers and Hammerstein of the hospital set, Barry Levy, A66, and Greg LaGana have been performing their musical spoof Damaged Care since 1996, and in April brought the show to Don’t Tell Mama, a Manhattan nightclub. In addition to various health-care conferences, they’ve tickled funny bones off-off Broadway, on Capitol Hill, and at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. More at damagedcare.com.

NOTEWORTHY

MOLLY ANDREWS, J81, combines scholarly research with personal experience in Narrative Imagination in Everyday Life (Oxford), which examines how story and imagination work together in various arenas, including education, politics, and aging. Among other provocative questions, she asks if it’s possible to truly understand others who have very different experiences of the world.

At 205 pounds, SUSAN R. CUSHING, D81, tried everything to lose weight, but nothing worked until she addressed the root cause of her problem: food addiction. In Fat No More (Richer Life), Cushing shares her history of obesity and how she manages to maintain an 85-pound weight loss.

No Alligators in Sight, by KIRSTEN B. FELDMAN, G93, is a coming-of-age story about two neglected kids, Lettie and Bert, struggling to get by in a tiny town on Cape Cod. When they’re shipped to their estranged mother’s house in the Florida swamps, they learn hard lessons about their family and themselves.

Driven by his philosophy of treating the whole patient, pain management expert REZA GHORBANI, A88, M92, offers practical solutions for combatting pain in Secrets to a Pain-Free Life. Rather than anesthetizing patients with endless chemical cocktails, he explores a variety of natural treatments, from diet and lifestyle changes to herbal remedies.

NANCY HARDAWAY, J73, a former CEO and leadership consultant, departs from the buzzword-crammed management genre with The Awareness Paradigm (Merrimack Media), a novel that invites readers into the minds of four fictional leaders attempting to revive an economically depressed city.

Geography is destiny, according to AIYAZ HUSAIN, F06, F11, in Mapping the End of Empire (Harvard). He shows how American and British postwar strategy in the Middle East and South Asia rested partly on popular notions of geography. For example, U.S. officials viewed the Mediterranean as a European lake of sorts. As a result, Husain argues, they considered Palestine an extension of Europe and failed to foresee the ramifications of situating a Jewish state there.

Forever Young (Liv Mas Press), by SCOTT KYLE, A89, and Karyn Langhorne Folan, is a fast-paced romantic thriller about an everyman who discovers a rare power that Hollywood A-listers and billionaire businessmen want to tap into. Meanwhile, he’s desperate to find the mysterious woman who captivated him on an ill-fated plane ride.

It’s hard to believe that one of the world’s culinary capitals was once a small seaport city with a mere six municipal food markets. In Urban Appetites (University of Chicago), CINDY LOBEL, J92, looks at how the social, political, and economic changes of the nineteenth century transformed New York into a foodie paradise.

From a Muslim archivist in Timbuktu who preserves the memory of a rabbi to Indian Ocean islanders who maintain the Jewish cemetery of escapees from Nazi Germany, WILLIAM F.S. MILES, F81, F82, F83, documents Afro-Jewish Encounters (Markus Wiener) in a collection of new and revised essays.

In her debut young-adult novel, Tales from My Closet (Scholastic), JENNIFER ANNE MOSES, J81, weaves together the stories of Justine, Bianca, Becka, Polly, and Anne. Each girl has a unique voice and a different fashion issue that accentuates the trials of adolescence.

Whether you’re looking for a position in government, education, or an NGO, Working World (Georgetown), by SHERRY LEE MUELLER, F66, F67, and Mark Overmann, is a valuable reference guide to careers in international affairs. Perfect for idealistic Tufts students or alumni looking for a meaningful career change.

Soccer may be the world’s sport, but in Latin America, it’s also politics, passion, and history, not to mention a powerful rallying point for national unity. JOSHUA H. NADEL, A93, looks at how Fútbol! (University Press of Florida) has shaped the destinies of Argentina, Honduras, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile, and Mexico.

The fictional Smithfield University is teeming with drama, from the sociology professor who finds out his provost paramour is pregnant, to the president courting a donation from an eccentric ice cream magnate. WILLIAM G. TIERNEY, A75, mines his long career in academia for Academic Affairs (Dog Ear), a warm-hearted novel about complicated lives and loves in the university microcosm.

Poetry Corner

Complicity (McClelland & Stewart)

The fourth collection by the award-winning poet Adam Sol, A91, looks at how we operate in a world compromised by inequality and disordered priorities. “Notes Found in a Copy of A Midsummer Night’s Dream” juxtaposes Shakespeare’s lines with a letter intended to assure the recipient—and the writer—that what happened last night wasn’t rape. “Poem for Noah Posner,” one of the young victims of the Sandy Hook school shooting, considers the absurdities in our treatment of atrocity.

City Song

Who’s seen the phantom boy
    who used to drum pennies against metal gratings
        down here by the switching station?

Where could he be, now that I finally
    have something to show him,
        after months of marching past

on my way to strategy meetings and lunches?
    I used to shrug
        at his pathetic entreaties,

suggesting that I had nothing to give him that day,
    not today,
        and the shrug satisfied both of us.

He would smile and say, “Nice day,” or “Cold one,”
    and I would take that for
        a metaphysical forgiveness.

In this way we achieved an understanding,
    a sort of communion between men,
        an agreement to accept

that we would never touch each other.
    But here I am,
        I have walked this strip of sidewalk

for two hours in search of him
    because I think I found his dog behind my building,
        half buried in leaf oatmeal.

Bones so thin they could be syringes.

Excerpted from Complicity. Copyright © 2014 Adam Sol. Published by McClelland & Stewart, a division of Random House of Canada Limited. Reproduced by arrangement with the Publisher. All rights reserved.