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Rayya Elias’s book is an autobiographical account of a life draped in drug abuse, hard partying and sexual exploration. The tale begins in Elias’s childhood home of Syria, and we travel to Detroit and then New York City, with Rayya as she learns who she is, who she isn’t and who she is going to become.
After completing this story, I found myself inspired by Rayya’s honesty, openness, and, although I myself have never suffered from addiction, I was inspired by her strength and determination to beat her addiction amidst relapse after relapse. Luckily, I was able to ask her a few questions spurred from the pure truth Rayya shares.
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CAROLANN: I have never read such an honest and open biographical account. This is a no-holds barred, honest and totally open story. Nor do you hide or seem shamed by your past. Have you always had this type of open personality or has beating addiction allowed for you to become so very open?
RAYYA: I’m just learning not to use shame as a tool to beat myself up for the things from my past. Part of becoming comfortable in my own skin has been to be brutally honest with myself, that’s the only time real change happens. I was blunt and open before I got clean but honesty takes work. The first step was accepting my addiction and working to stay one step ahead of it, and only then could I start working becoming authentic.
CAROLANN: If your parents were still alive would you still be able to be so honest?
RAYYA: I’m not sure if I could have been this brutally direct if my parents were still alive. I have such a deep love and respect for my mom and dad, and even though they knew most of what was going on with me, it would’ve been very hard for them to see it on the page.
CAROLANN: Have you received negative or positive responses from friends and family for your honesty?
RAYYA: Yes, I absolutely have received negative feedback from both, which is why I wouldn’t let anyone read the manuscript until it was in the final stages of production. There is always going to be someone who gets upset about a memoir, but this is my journey and my experience–I take full responsibility.
I recommend this book to anyone who is feeling a little bit beaten by the world. And if you still aren’t sure you want to read this book, meet Rayya and she will change your mind – she did mine.
RECOMMENDABILITY: 4 {out of 5} stars | ★★★★☆
REPETITIVE READABILITY: 2 {out of 5} stars | ★★☆☆☆
RATING: 4 {out of 5} stars | ★★★★☆
{This novel was gifted to Her Literary Salon by Penguin/Viking Books.}
As you can guess from the title of this memoir, this book is about a mother on welfare. The book’s author, Barbara Morrison was raised in a family that abhorred the idea of welfare, and looked down in disgust upon those whom collected it. Additionally, Morrison is not the stereotypical ideal of a welfare mom being college-educated, raised in an affluent neighborhood, and having lived through a generally pleasant childhood. She was a women who fell in love, got married, got pregnant, and then got smacked in the face with reality. Her happily ever after came crashing down around her s Morrison’s husband left her with a newborn son, pregnant with a second child, unable to work, unable to find child care, and unwelcome by her affluent parents.
In ‘Innocent’, Morrison writes an open and candid account of her time as a welfare mother. Her account is blunt, and realistic, and without flowery language or excuses – she simply tells her truth as she lived it. Morrison speaks with a true mother’s love about her boys, Justin and Jeremy, and the hard decisions she made in order to care for those boys. In the end, this story was more a story of a mother’s love than of a mother on welfare, and the story was much more memorable due to that distinction.
When I first started this book I had very clear ideas on welfare – largely that I do not agree with welfare as it is utilized today. Since I am so personally against welfare as a tool for my own personal livelihood, I was that much more interested in Morrison’s first-hand account and the new perspective she could offer. And, although, as I read this novel I repeatedly argued with myself that I might make different decisions in order to remain off welfare, Morrison felt she had no other option but to apply for aid and illustrates her story with integrity and pride. While my opinions on the institution of welfare have not changed greatly, my feelings on the people who rely on welfare have been enlightened by Morrison’s honesty.
RECOMMENDABILITY: 3 {out of 5} stars | ★★★☆☆
REPETITIVE READABILITY: 1 {out of 5} stars | ★☆☆☆☆
RATING: 4 {out of 5} stars | ★★★★☆
{This novel was gifted to Her Literary Salon by the author, B. Morrison.}
Edith Hamilton’s, ‘Mythology’ (originally published in 1942) is a best summarized as an intensive collection of ancient mythological stories including all those stemming from Roman, Greek, and Nordic superstitions. Hamilton summarizes the works of famous historians Virgil, Ovid, Euripides, Aeschylus, and Sophocles – to name but a few – comparing the different versions of the same tales told by this myriad of storytellers, and sharing the most clear version of ‘fact’.
A prodigious fan of mythology, I was interested to read through a complete collection of these long ago and sometimes forgotten tales. As Edith Hamilton was an educator, scholar, and long-standing Bryn Mawr headmistress described by the New York Times as one who best, ‘brought into clear and brilliant focus the Golden Age of Greek life and thought’, who spent her life researching and disseminating information about Classic Greek and Roman literature, at a time when scholarly pursuits were not largely pursued by women, I figured her book was the best place to begin.
If you are interested in learning about mythology, this is the book for you. Hamilton succinctly and with great pains towards accurate research, summarizes what seems to be an entire century of belief and superstition. Although the writing was a little dry and best described as ‘educational’, the amount of knowledge and historical explanation squeezed into this 500 page book was immensely eye-opening.
What was most amazing to me was how many modern day – and at times multi-million dollar earning – blockbuster movies and series can be linked back hundreds and hundreds of years to the myths held within these pages – i.e. Marvel blockbuster ‘Thor’, Japanese animation ‘Sailor Moon’, and Amazonian princess ‘Wonder Woman’. Hamilton’s book is educational, informative, and immaculately researched; but I fear I can not call it exciting, although the stories held within, if written in a different and more fantastical way, could surely become so.
RECOMMENDABILITY: 5 {out of 5} stars | ★★★★★
REPETITIVE READABILITY: 1 {out of 5} stars | ★☆☆☆☆
RATING: 3 {out of 5} stars | ★★★☆☆
‘Just Kids’ is Patti Smith’s homage to her friend and onetime lover, photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, describing in shockingly honest detail the tumultuous relationship that they had with each other, art, life, and New York City.
‘I’m sure there were downs as well, but my memories are served with nostalgia and humor.’Patti and Robert met by chance, and in the end shaped and forever changed each other’s lives. While I have heard this story described as romantic by other readers and friends, in my mind this story is more gritty than romantic – so if you decide to flip through these pages, be prepared for in-your-face reality.
Because of the aura of New York at the time of Patti’s youth and the art scene that Patti and Robert were a part of, a myriad of infamous characters – Janis Joplin, Andy Warhol, Jimi Hendrix, and others – flow in and out of Patti’s life and add a surreal aspect to her story. And while this book is largely a love story to Robert’s, as well as her own personal youth, the novel was also infused with a deep love of New York City – a New York as it was before Giuliani cleared and cleaned up 42nd Street.
In the end, can I say I liked this book? Well, sure I did. Patti is a beautifully poetic writer and she lived an exciting life. However, throughout the whole of the tale, all I could think of – within my inner monologue of thought – was that I was just not cool enough to be reading this story. For example, Patti speaks of Robert ‘hustling’ along Forty-Second Street. It took me several more chapters to ascertain that by hustling she meant prostitution – here I thought the man was dancing in the streets doing the ‘hustle’ or something of that sort and not selling himself for rent money. And the way they lived – in filth … without bathrooms and thus urinating in cups, skipping meals, sleeping upon dirty mattresses covered in lice – is something that disgusted me and although helped paint the landscape, also turned me off in regards to being able to, or even wanting to, relate to Patti and Robert. This book was the quintessential ‘rock ‘n’ roll’ manifesto; I, however, am most definitely not able to relate or be defined as such.
RECOMMENDABILITY: 4 {out of 5} stars | ★★★★☆
REPETITIVE READABILITY: 1 {out of 5} stars | ★☆☆☆☆
RATING: 3 {out of 5} stars | ★★★☆☆
‘… Say, rather, your big, splendid venture.’ {Edna St. Vincent Millay}I admit to having little previous knowledge of Edna St. Vincent Millay. I had never read her poetry through all my years of schooling, or studied her at all really, but then again not many female poets were explored in my small high school. Several months ago I happened across one of her poems within the pages of a larger poetry collective, and fell in love with the whimsy, wit, and musicality of this poetess. That poem was ‘First Fig‘ and through the course of reading this biography, I learned that ‘First Fig’ became a sort of chant for the flappers of the ’20s. I also learned, that although Edna St. Vincent Millay looks the part of innocent school girl for most of her life, she was in fact quite a vixen and temptress in disguise.
Edna St. Vincent Millay – referred to by her closest friends and family as simply Vincent – was raised by her single, impoverished mother cloaked in the understanding that she was special. And as such, Vincent seemed to dismiss the regular norms of life and stability – and lived exactly she as she wanted with little regard to who was caught or hurt in her wake, all in the name of living for her art. She had many lovers – male and female – and never stopped in collecting these lovers even after and all through her marriage. Vincent was constantly battling bankruptcy and later in life, addiction. Vincent took whatever she could out of life and threw a party whenever possible.
Vincent lived her life in Maine, New York, and Paris – starting her career first in the Village, New York City with her sister Norma. Shortly after she moved to her first place in NY, Vincent sent along a memorable missive to her sister urging her, ’So come on out, my dear old sweet Sister, – & we’ll open our oysters together.’ And together Norma and Vincent lived and loved – and learned to accept the world and behaviors of the city.
Over time, Vincent replaced the closeness she had previously shared with her mother and two sisters – Norma and a very envious, Kathleen – with her husband and lovers. Vincent spent many years sharing her poetry over the radio and through tours – something that I have the utmost trouble picturing for the idea of a poetry tour seems to be the last thing that would interest youths today – but was a huge success throughout the depression years of the 1930s. Writing poetry straight up until the day of her death – a death marred with question of possible suicide – Edna St. Vincent Millay seems to truly have lived for the written word. Below is a segment of one of my favorite Millay segments.
Biographer, Nancy Milford, writes a truly amazing story and takes her time – and much research – to lead you into the life of this very complex woman. She attempts to portray Vincent as she was – a woman who was emotional, changeable, brilliant, and at times quite selfish. Milford allows her story to be enhanced through Vincent’s correspondence and her poetry. I honestly do not think I have ever enjoyed the style of a biographer more – although this tale did seem to drag in the final few chapters, I would recommend this biography to anyone who has a little inkling of love for poetry. I am quite anxious to read Milford’s other biographical effort – her analysis of F. Scott’s wife, Zelda Fitzgerald.
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