164 MAY 2017
Insomniac City by Bill
Hayes, Bloomsbury.
The ways of writer and
neurologist Oliver Sacks were
“not of our time”, writes
author and photographer
Bill Hayes in this tender
snapshot of both a man and a
city. Bill was 48 when, in 2009,
grieving the loss of his partner,
Steve, he left San Francisco to
“reinvent himself” in New York
City. Furnishing his “tree house”
apartment with a desk, chair
and mattress, the laughter-filled
bar downstairs did not help
sleeplessness, but had “an
ameliorative affect on broken
heartedness”. He gazed at the
Empire State and Chrysler
Buildings “like an old married
couple... he in his boxy suit,
she in her filigreed skirt”. Oliver,
75, had never “come out” nor
been in a relationship when
he and Bill fell in love – both
insomniacs, both lovers of
words. Bill didn’t just fall
in love with the “brilliant,
sweet, modest man... prone
to outbursts of boyish
enthusiasm”, he adored him.
They swig wine, listen to Bach
and people-watch, describing
how they walk. Life in the city
that never sleeps ended for
the gentle couple when Oliver
died in August 2015. But if
ever there was a memoir to
celebrate living, this is it. KE5 literary^ MOTHER FIGURES
REVIEWS BY JENNIFER BYRNE, KATIE EKBERG AND LEILA MCKINNON.The French Perfumer by Amanda Hampson, Penguin.
A charming flight of fancy as Miss Iris Turner departs postwar London,
1956 , bound for France and a position as a live-in secretary for a blind
perfumer on the Riviera. Leaving her 17-year job in the civil service and
grilled gammon lunches, she starts drinking Bellinis and dancing the
merengue at nightclubs in a place where wit is at others’ expense and
antiquarian notions of who and who is not proper still exist. Catty party
boy Alexander says her frumpiness reminds him of his nanny. Tyrant
hotel owner Vivian asks her to use the servants’ entrance. Hammond
Brooke may no longer be able to see the Aurelia label of his legendary
perfume, but he senses something unique in his new protégée. Set
against a backdrop of High Society, Grace Kelly and her wedding to
Prince Rainier, it’s light and frothy, but with a very good nose. KE- Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery, 1908.
WHAT: Orphan Anne Shirley was supposed to have been the boy requested
by adult brother and sister Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert to help on their farm.
Matthew dotes on her while gruff Marilla is inclined to send her back.
WHY: Lucy Maud Montgomery’s depiction of an adoptive mother is actually
positive. While Marilla has little patience with Anne, her love shines through;
she knows if Anne is sent away, it will be to a woman harder than she. - To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf, 1927.
WHAT: Mr and Mrs Ramsay and their eight children are at their summer home
in the Hebrides as the First World War creates havoc, and in the finale two of
the now motherless children return to the Scottish island 10 years later.
WHY: Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Ramsay is mother to eight, yet painted as serene
and calm. She dies at the beginning of part two, but is kept as the novel’s
beating heart. She held the family together and lives on in the children’s memories. - Mary Poppins by P. L. Travers, 1934.
WHAT: Born Helen Lyndon Goff in Maryborough, Queensland, Travers created
governess Poppins in London. There were eight books altogether about the
magical nanny who sweeps into Cherry Tree Lane to care for the Banks children.
WHY: The films are more famous, but things were toned down for the screen:
Mary Poppins was far kinder than in the books. Travers adopted a baby boy
from Ireland. The child, Camillus, was a twin but she refused to take both. - Carol by Patricia Highsmith, 1952.
WHAT: Highsmith based the story of Carol Aird, wealthy suburban mother,
and 19-year-old Therese Belivet, New York sales assistant, on her own
encounter with a stunning blonde. The women become lovers.
WHY: There are maternal elements to the relationship, when Therese goes to
Carol’s home, Carol tucks her into bed. Carol loses custody of her daughter,
but Highsmith leaves the way open for a reunion. KE - Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, 1868.
WHAT: Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy’s life revolves around “Marmee” – their father
is at war. Meg moans it’s dreadful to be poor, Jo pines for Pa, Beth is the pet,
and baby Amy is injured that “some girls have lots of pretty things”.
WHY: Mrs March not only raises four girls, she busies herself with charity.
This cheery mother inspires her girls to be better people. “The girls thought
the unfashionable bonnet covered the most splendid woman in the world.”