Two Words, One Answer.
stands before
 Stand Before Your God: An American Schoolboy in England $14.95 This book is not just for those educated in private schools, for teens, or for males. This book is about one man's unique experience, but most readers will find aspects of his story that relate to and illuminate aspects of their own stories. I stumbled into this book by chance, and am glad that I read it. It's a quick read, and holds your attention throughout. At the end, I was crying, and to me that's a sign of a good book. There is a blurb on the back of the book from a Vogue magazine review, calling the writing "taut and muscular", and I agree with that description. It's definitely from a male point of view, and though I'm a single female with no brothers, I could empathize with much of it, even if I wasn't too interested in some of the particulars (team sports, military practice, European war cemetaries). I am an American who lived in England for 11 years after I became an adult, and I recognized many of Watkins' references and agreed with most of his perceptions. What I found poignant was his realization at the end of the book that, even though his parents were from the United Kingdom, and even though he'd lived in England from age 7 to 17, and even though he was in the most in-group of the in-group in terms of his educational experiences, he still realized that having been born in the US and raised there from birth through age 6 made him an alien in the UK, and that this would never change, no matter how much he knew about the inner workings of their society or fitted in with the ultra-elites. This observation is simultaneously depressing and liberating, as one can live there for ages and wonder "why don't they like or accept me?", but knowing that there is an inevitable rejection of foreigners, even the youngest, WASP-yish, and most elite, in England/the UK provides some comfort. To me, this book argues against sending children to private ("public") schools in the UK. I know they've changed a little bit since Watkins was a lad. I also know that they produce a certain kind of special person who is multi-layered, often well-educated, socially well-versed, and deeply aware of power, status and class and their machinations and manipulations, and that they frequently provide their students with a social group and set of friends and alumni connections that can be a ticket to a very cosy, privileged lifestyle. However, they also seem to cause the child to develop an ice-cold inner core, a mistrust of nearly everyone, a utilitarian view of the worth of other people (especially those who come from outside that world), and a stunted and bizarre approach to relationships with the opposite sex. Again, I acknowledge that these institutions have changed since Watkins' time, and some have both boys and girls now, and most don't have corporal punishment, fagging, and all the rest of it. But they haven't changed much. This book is moderately slim, and left out a lot of Watkin's first 18 years, including an apparent exchange program experience living with a Prussian family during high school, his concentration on German as his main subject (which apparently was his major at Yale), his relationship with his mother, his writing of a different book that was nominated for a Booker Prize (a very big deal in the UK) when he was a teen, etc. But this reads as he probably remembered it, focusing in on some situations with absolute clarity of detail and dialogue, and making very broad brushstrokes of other situations (such as his father's funeral), which gives it an authentic feel. It is what it is, and it's a lovely thing. I hope that Watkins will write another volume of memoirs, this time of his return to the US, his time at Yale, and the rest of his 20s. (Note: The facts from his teen years that are not described in the book, which I mention above, I read today on Watkins' website.)  Noise Machine $9.90 i found out about this band before this album came out. all they had was an ep titled: Electric Narcoleptic. i forgot all about them soon after. i stumbled back upon them once this album had been released and fell in love with this group. i downloaded this album at first, but later bought it because i enjoyed it so much. its sickening that this band had to come to its demise to early. hopefully they'll one day pick up where they left off. i would of loved to have heard what else they could come up with.  Before They Were Kings, Vol. 1 $14.98 Some of the comedians were funny. the best was DL Hughley. It wasnt that great. |
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