Ge·knit·ics

Like my friend, Ellen, I am a bit late with October’s entry for the book club. I actually finished three books in October, but other demands on my writing time (thesis, manuscripts) took precedence.  As I mentioned in September, this month’s selection was the first book that I checked out using Amazon’s public library lending program. I am enjoying the program, and it is a direct contributor to my increased reading over the last month.

I seem to be drawn to British detective stories this year. Provenance: How a Con Man and a Forger Rewrote the History of Modern Art, describes a con that fooled many experts in the art world for nearly a decade. I was hoping this book would have a bit a of science bent, like they would discover the forgeries through application of the scientific method. Not so much. Instead, curators of particular artists’ work (Giacometti) refused to authenticate the provenance of what later proved to be forged works. In Giacometti’s case, the artist’s wife had no recollection of a particular painting which had been put up for auction at one of the big auction houses, and so would not let the sale go forward.

Once art experts brought the contested works to the attention of authorities, they discovered John Myatt, the forger of the paintings, and John Drewe, one of many aliases used by the forger of the provenances.  Presenting himself as a physicist and patron of the arts, he ingratiated himself into the archives of some of Britain’s most famous art museums, where he falsified records to facilitate the sale of the forgeries.  A detailed account can be found at the Museum Security Network.  To this day, the art world doesn’t really know the extent of the damage caused by Drewe and his cronies, but maybe science could prove helpful here. Myatt told Scotland Yard that he had used a common house paint for many of his works. This type of paint was developed in the 1960′s, years or decades after many of the original artists had died.  Like any good detective story, Scotland Yard got the bad guys in the end, but I was outraged that Drewe was sentenced to only 6 years for essentially destroying part of the British historical record, and in the end only served two years of his sentence.

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My second book for October turned out to be Bad Mother: A Chronicle of Maternal Crimes, Minor Calamities, and Occasional Moments of Graceby Ayelet Waldman, mostly because it was the next e-book to pop out of my queue at the library.  I had put it on hold because the title sounded interesting, and as the mother of a teenager and a toddler, I certainly identified with the subtitle.  I was not aware when I reserved the book that the author had also written this piece for the New York Times, detailing why she loved her husband more than her kids, though I do remember reading it when it was published in 2005. A proverbial shitstorm ensued, including being attacked by the “good mothers” on Oprah. Bad Mother is a collection of essays that Waldman wrote, some for Salon, partly in response to the notion that there is one right, true way to be a good mother. While the reviews of the book on Amazon are critical, I think the book has value for what it is, a chronicle of one woman’s journey through motherhood. Some of the essays are funny, some poignant, some uncomfortable, but I believe collectively they represent a common experience.   Worth a read if you ever feel guilty because your kids wear disposable diapers, you bought their Halloween costume, and you ordered their birthday cake from Target.

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Finally, I downloaded the Yarn Harlot’s new book, All Wound Up. I’ve read all the other books the Yarn Harlot has written, and this amusing little collection of essays was a welcome respite from school and work. I’m at that stage in the semester when actual knitting time is at a premium, which is to say, usually only possible if I get up before dawn on the weekend and manage to sneak out of the bedroom without waking the baby. But I can read about knitting while putting her to sleep at night, and I made it through All Wound Up in less than a week.  While many of the essays deal with the trials and joys of our craft, like this:

… while we know it’s an activity that’s great for our brains, to the uninitiated it may not look like we’re doing much. Well, not much except, at its best, [knitting is] a complex, repetitive, visual, spatial task that develops hand–eye coordination, enhances neural connectivity, and uses both hemispheres of the brain at once.

(No wonder so many scientists are also knitters); but there are also stories about being a wife, mother, and woman in contemporary society. The Yarn Harlot is not just for knitters, she is funny, honest, fallible, and able to laugh at the absurdity of modern life, like having to partially dismantle your kitchen to replace a dead washing machine, or rescue your husband from a parking indiscretion. I highly recommend all of her books, and her blog for that matter, for their consistent ability to give a good laugh.

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There are two books on the slate for November, At Home: A Short History of Private Lifeand Steve Jobs.Happy reading!