"Brad's Status" - Review

"Brad's Status"
Ben Stiller has quietly become the Woody Allen of the "yearnest" American. That is, those who want to do well and be well, but still wish for the traditional trappings of success, fame, money and respect. Much like Allen's characters, his characters are caught between who they are and who they think they should be. This is an honest and not- too-saccharine look at how you determine for yourself when you are sated

"The War Between the Tates" by Alison Lurie

When I read pre-20th century novels, I enjoy learning about tea cups and carriages and primogeniture. With equal pleasure, I've just read a novel about a less distant time when people made coffee in a pot over a hot flame, abortions were illegal and everyone read their horoscope. Welcome to 1974 and "The War Between the Tates". It's about a family divorcing - the parents from  each other, the kids from the parents and the parents from the kids. (No, they are not the same thing.) It is a finely observed novel about the manner and mode of family. The mother misses the young incarnation of her teen kids whom she now despises and watches the woman she sees in the mirror grow more and more powerless each day. The father decides that he can take the kids in limited doses and that there's no good reason why he can't have a wife and a mistress.  The wife complains about the financial power and freedom that men have, but at the same time considers men who don't have money or who don't exploit that power as unworthy of her. The wife is more aware than Betty Draper is, but not by much. She is more discontent and more free, but still doesn't see that she is part of her own problem. (I wonder if I would have seen it had I read this in the seventies.) 
The plaint of the 40 year old, upper-middle class, American divorcee may seem pedestrian. But in the hands of the Pulitzer Prize winning author, Alison Lurie, this book becomes a folk song for the women who become wise well after the choices that define their lives have been made.
Some critics say that the description of the college setting and the discussion of social issues don't hold up well. I disagree. She is writing in the near aftermath of the 60's. With our 2017 ears we should listen to how a contemporaneous author heard it. The sounds of the the disconnect between the establishment's love of drink versus the youth's worship of pot, the fringe, the new age book stores and the call of California communes - it is all here.
Recommended for people who like "the way we live now" types of novels like "Freedom" or novels about the older female condition - like "Mrs. Dalloway", "Wife" or "Olive Kitteridge".

"Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin"

"Autobiography of Ben Franklin"

The best parts are his warm and nostalgic descriptions of walking up and into Philadelphia from the wharf area for the first time and buying bread at the Quaker meeting house. If you've been on those streets you can just imagine it! He was an old school opportunist - what we call an "entrepreneur" today. Fun to hear his rendition of the rather casual start of Univ of Pennsylvania. He does before finishing and didn't include much of his personal life. Truly would have been interesting to hear more about his fascinating life from him.