Kris' Picks

There are two kinds of short stories I can’t abide: stories about whiners and stories so post-postmodern there is no heart inside. These stories are neither; rather, each one is a perfect gem of human pathos: quietly absorbing, a tad outside one’s comfort zone, but oddly familiar, like old family photos discovered at the bottom of a desk drawer. I liked them a lot, maybe you will too.

A chance meeting with a mysterious Portuguese woman jostles Raimund Gregorius loose from his safe world of teaching ancient languages at a Swiss lycée and propels him into a bookstore where he has a second chance meeting, this time with a Portuguese text, whose author, the late Amadeu de Prado, was a doctor and member of the Resistance in Lisbon. Gregorius travels to Lisbon to immerse himself in the life of this enigmatic figure who demanded life be anything but predictable, who questioned the meaning of everything, from the words we use up in daily banalities to life itself. Gregorius learns Portuguese, a language he finds both alive and unreliable, to understand Prado’s writings. He interviews friends and family, studies the writings and deeds of a dead man, clinging almost, to Prado’s life and thoughts as if his own salvation depended upon it. Texts within texts, people who are not as they seem, and a story rich with pathos make Night Train to Lisbon the kind of book you read slowly and savor, underlining or copying out passages as you go. I absolutely loved this book.

Reading this compassionate account of life on the socio-economic bottom rung is like watching a train wreck: you feel compelled to read on through the decade LeBlanc spent following single mother Lourdes, her daughter Jessica, would-be in-law Coco, their children, friends and boyfriends. They live in a world of jails, welfare offices and housing projects where they negotiate their constantly dashed hopes. This brilliant book rubs the patina right off the American myth of equality for good.

Growing up in the Jim Crow--era South, Frankie Freeman learned lessons about discrimination. She walked places rather than take the segregated streetcar; she felt hurts and vowed privately never to forget. But in her loving family, she also learned positive lessons about living: work hard, get an education, fight injustice, and make a difference. Freeman took all these lessons to Hampton Institute, to Howard University law school, then to her career as a St. Louis civil rights attorney, winning a landmark victory in the area of fair housing. In 1964, she became the first woman appointed to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, leaving in 1979 to serve as inspector general of the Community Services Administration. During these years, she was also St. Louis Housing Authority general counsel--and lost her job amid bitter controversy stirred up by a commission hearing in St. Louis County. This memoir tells the story of Frankie Freeman's life and career. There were high points, such as meetings with President Lyndon Johnson, historic commission hearings, and her national presidency of Delta Sigma Theta sorority. There were also difficult times, such as the illness and death of her husband and son. Through it all, she continued to fight for what she believed in; she kept her faith--and carried on.