Salon.com > Hillary Frey http://www.salon.com Wed, 30 May 2012 12:15:55 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Best nonfiction of 2006 http://www.salon.com/2006/12/14/nonfiction/ http://www.salon.com/2006/12/14/nonfiction/#comments Thu, 14 Dec 2006 12:00:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/books/awards/2006/12/14/nonfiction Political books -- from Frank Rich's media critique,"The Greatest Story Ever Sold," to Lawrence Wright's 9/11 investigation, "The Looming Tower" -- stole much of the spotlight on nonfiction this year. But the books that captivated us most in 2006 told stories: of family, of food, of a double life. We promise they'll entertain you -- and surprise you, too.

"Sweet and Low: A Family Story" by Rich Cohen

Cohen's maternal grandfather, a former short-order cook, invented the sugar packet and Sweet 'n' Low, the artificial sweetener that made him a millionaire. Cohen's mother was disinherited by her own mother, and his Uncle "Marvelous" Marvin, who took over the company, got into trouble with the FBI -- a little thing they call tax evasion and criminal conspiracy. Then there's Aunt Gladys, who hasn't stepped out of the family home in Midwood, Queens since the Nixon administration, yet still manages to pull all the strings. With this book, Cohen aims to nail down what really happened in his clan's highly mythologized saga. His digressions on the history of, say, Brooklyn or sugar or the Walburg banking dynasty, might strike some as padding, but he describes it all with an economical, pugnacious wit that never falters. The heart of the book, though, is a long, complicated and darkly funny family feud encompassing intrigues, sabotage and widely divergent stories about what really happened and when, and of course, who it can all be blamed on.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2006/12/14/nonfiction/feed/ 5 Best fiction of 2006 http://www.salon.com/2006/12/13/best_fiction_2/ http://www.salon.com/2006/12/13/best_fiction_2/#comments Wed, 13 Dec 2006 10:00:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/books/awards/2006/12/13/best_fiction Africa, race and 21st century global paranoia are the prevailing themes in our favorite books this year -- less a reflection of the immediate moment than of the way ideas and events slowly make their way through the imaginations of talented writers and emerge, transfigured, long after the headlines have turned yellow. Literature, as Ezra Pound put it, is news that stays news. We expect that people will be reading these books for many, many years to come.

"What Is the What" by Dave Eggers

The unusual provenance of this novel -- Eggers has written it in the first-person voice of a real man, Valentino Achak Deng, and all of the events in the story are true, although not all of them happened to Deng -- is complicated. The result is sublime simplicity, the ego-less conveyance by Eggers of Deng's plain-spoken, gentle, world-weary but never hopeless voice. One of the Lost Boys of Sudan, Deng saw his village destroyed by Arab militiamen as a little boy and fled alone into a chaotic landscape before joining a troupe of similarly dispossessed boys on an epic journey on foot to a refugee camp in Ethiopia. Hunger, thirst, lions, crocodiles and soldiers on both sides of Sudan's civil war harried all of them and killed some. Deng finally made it to the promised land of America, but we know from the start that it proved to be no paradise. The novel's framing device -- Deng imagines telling his life story to thieves who beat and bind him while robbing his house and to the jaded officials who deal with the crime's aftermath -- is inspired; instead of making him pitiful, this silent appeal emphasizes Deng's remarkable, ineradicable dignity.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2006/12/13/best_fiction_2/feed/ 7 Best debuts of 2006 http://www.salon.com/2006/12/12/debut/ http://www.salon.com/2006/12/12/debut/#comments Tue, 12 Dec 2006 13:01:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/books/awards/2006/12/12/debut The fixation on first books often seems misplaced. (And we've fudged the distinction a little ourselves, since our choice for best nonfiction debut has been writing a fiction comic strip for years.) Still, there's nothing like spotting talent in its first white-hot bolt from the gate, which is definitely the case with our fiction selection. The best thing about both of these writers is that we expect them to be moving and delighting us for decades to come.

Fiction:

"Special Topics in Calamity Physics" by Marisha Pessl

This year, from the sea of debut literary novels, Marisha Pessl's "Special Topics in Calamity Physics" emerged with all the noise its title portends. A sprawling, ambitious and hilarious coming-of-age story, "Calamity Physics" is narrated by 16-year-old Blue van Meer, a prodigious and precocious young woman who rattles off references to books and movies with the speed of a Gilmore Girl and wins us over with the ever-gimlet eye she casts on school, boys and the confused adults that surround her. "Special Topics" follows Blue through her senior year as the new kid at a private school, where she's swept up with a group of glamorous odd-duck students in the thrall of an eccentric and charismatic film teacher. There's teen stuff (romances, jealousy); grown-up stuff (a terrific send-up of the academy); and mystery stuff (murder, secret societies), all of which combined make for a thrilling ride. But Pessl dazzles most at the end, when she weaves every silken thread in her book together for a surprise ending that marks her not only as a clever entertainer, but a genuine, and talented, new novelist.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2006/12/12/debut/feed/ 7 Salon Book Awards http://www.salon.com/2006/12/11/authors_picks_2/ http://www.salon.com/2006/12/11/authors_picks_2/#comments Mon, 11 Dec 2006 13:00:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/books/awards/2006/12/11/authors_picks For most of Salon's existence, we've come to you in December bearing a list of our favorite fiction and nonfiction books of the year. We'll do that this year, too, but this time around things are going to be a little different. Instead of one big day devoted to celebrating our favorite titles, there will be five. That's right, a whole week of books, starting today.

Why? Well, it's clear that you love to read about books. Some of the most popular Salon stories of 2006 have been reviews of new books (see Andrew O'Hehir's examination of Nora Vincent's gender-bending memoir "Self-Made Man" and Laura Miller's take on Laura Kipnis' provocative tract "The Female Thing") or interviews with authors (see Steve Paulson's conversations with Richard Dawkins and Karen Armstrong). Douglas Wolk's monthly column on graphic novels always draws a crowd (especially his piece on Alan Moore's racy "Lost Girls"), and the Literary Guide to the World has brought book lovers from all over the globe to Salon.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2006/12/11/authors_picks_2/feed/ 20 L is for lame http://www.salon.com/2006/08/22/l_word_2/ http://www.salon.com/2006/08/22/l_word_2/#comments Tue, 22 Aug 2006 12:00:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/feature/2006/08/22/l_word When "The L Word" premiered on Showtime two and a half years ago, I was intensely curious about it -- all those gorgeous women, and all of them in that mesmerizing city of cars, canyons and hot tubs -- Los Angeles! But I was too nervous to admit my excitement to anyone else, let alone watch it in company. I guess I was a little too curious, and slightly ashamed of how eager I -- a straight girl in New York -- was to drink in Jennifer Beals, Mia Kirshner and, my god, the outrageously sexy Katherine Moennig, making out (and doing so very much more) with other women.

However, thanks to the multiple airtimes -- and my roommate's bedtime of 10:30 -- I could sneak watching it on my own, free of embarrassment. Eventually, as I was able to own up to my love for "The L Word," I discovered -- perhaps unsurprisingly to the rest of the general population -- that all women with access to Showtime were obsessed with this show. Gay, straight, very straight -- it didn't matter. Everyone had someone to crush on -- Moennig's womanizing, androgynous Shane; Leisha Hailey's too-cute, and very bisexual, Alice; and, in that first season, Karina Lombard's Euro-trash femme fatale Marina. Jenny (Kirshner) was that women so many of us wondered if we were: straight, until we met the right (or very, very wrong) woman.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2006/08/22/l_word_2/feed/ 26 What is the Literary Guide to the World? http://www.salon.com/2006/06/15/intro_9/ http://www.salon.com/2006/06/15/intro_9/#comments Thu, 15 Jun 2006 12:05:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/books/literary_guide/2006/06/15/intro A few years ago, I went to Delhi to visit a friend. On the long flight to India, I worked my way through the American magazines I was bringing as a gift, and Ian McEwan's "Enduring Love" (very good airplane reading). Once I had settled in my friend's white-tiled apartment in the quaint Nizamuddin district, I wanted to take in something that seemed better suited to my destination. Not a travel guide -- those I had already read and dog-eared. Rather, a book that could thrill and educate me all at once, a book that would enhance my visit rather than distract me from it.

My friend handed me a beat-up paperback edition of "City of Djinns: A Year in Delhi" by the British writer William Dalrymple. The taxiwallahs, the shrines, the Khan market immediately came to life in a whole different way. Dalrymple, whose book I toted all over Delhi, became my traveling companion -- pointing out the sites, teaching me Delhi's complicated and storied history, cracking jokes that were much funnier in India than at home. Dalrymple, even more than Mr. Vijay, who ran our very necessary car service, showed me the city. His book was indispensable -- and a delight.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2006/06/15/intro_9/feed/ 24 Series wrap-up: “Everwood” http://www.salon.com/2006/06/06/everwood_2/ http://www.salon.com/2006/06/06/everwood_2/#comments Tue, 06 Jun 2006 15:26:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/review/2006/06/06/everwood A few weeks back, I wrote about what was supposed to be the series finale of "7th Heaven" -- a show I was happy to bid farewell to, as it was possibly the worst thing on television (including "Yes, Dear"). At that time, news of the upcoming merger of the two major teen-oriented networks, the WB and UPN, was well known, although the fall lineup for the new channel, the CW, hadn't been finalized. "7th Heaven" was out, though; the cast was too expensive to keep on after 10 years and, after all, the WB had just aired the series finale. It looked like "Everwood" -- the small-town family drama set in Colorado about a widowed doctor trying to reconnect with his kids -- was in, and had possibly secured the very desirable 8 p.m. Monday night slot that had for so long belonged to the Camdens. It looked to me like there might be justice in the world after all.

Um, apparently not. "7th Heaven's" sappy finale so completely kicked ass in the ratings -- it was the most watched hour on the WB this whole season -- that the CW decided to resurrect it. In giving it new life, executives had to sacrifice another. And sadly, for many, many loyal viewers, it was "Everwood" that got the ax.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2006/06/06/everwood_2/feed/ 16 Series wrap-up: “7th Heaven” http://www.salon.com/2006/05/09/7th_heaven/ http://www.salon.com/2006/05/09/7th_heaven/#comments Tue, 09 May 2006 18:30:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/review/2006/05/09/7th_heaven Season finales serve up so many cliffhangers, tragedies and twists that they often end up doing exactly the opposite of what they should; instead of teasing you on to the next season, they leave you exasperated, rolling your eyes, wondering why you ever watched the stupid show in the first place. Series finales, obviously, are a different kind of thing. The final episodes of family dramas -- as with many sitcoms -- are always filled to the brim with heartwarming surprises, flashbacks and (of course!) the ever-pleasing reunion of characters past: Last night's last episode of the WB's "7th Heaven" was no different. The show was remarkable only in that it was so very predictable. Although it did offer one juicy treat -- the brief return of Jessica Biel (as Mary Camden), Esquire's Sexiest Woman Alive, in a ridiculously prim outfit -- "7th Heaven's" finale was indistinguishable from pretty much every other cheesy episode of its 10-season run.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2006/05/09/7th_heaven/feed/ 18 Will South Dakota outlaw abortion? http://www.salon.com/2006/02/22/south_dakota_3/ http://www.salon.com/2006/02/22/south_dakota_3/#comments Wed, 22 Feb 2006 16:41:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/life/broadsheet//2006/02/22/south_dakota The New York Times reports today on the battle that's been heating up in South Dakota over a bill that would outlaw nearly all abortions in the state. The bill is expected to be voted on today; if it passes in the Senate, and is signed into law by Republican Gov. Michael Rounds, South Dakota will be the first state to have adopted such a restrictive ban on abortions. There's some chance that the bill will flop -- according to the Times, the Senate is "closely divided." If it passes, we may finally see a rematch of Roe v. Wade in the Supreme Court. Broadsheet will keep you posted on what happens.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2006/02/22/south_dakota_3/feed/ 2 “The Best People in the World” http://www.salon.com/2006/02/22/tussing/ http://www.salon.com/2006/02/22/tussing/#comments Wed, 22 Feb 2006 13:00:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/books/review/2006/02/22/tussing Early last summer, a story called "The Laser Age" appeared in the annual Debut Fiction issue of the New Yorker. My eyes might have scanned right over it in the table of contents if it hadn't been for the tantalizing subhead some genius stuck in: "Dating your teacher." However, instead of the Updike-esque, coming-of-age story I'd expected (and looked forward to), Justin Tussing's piece offered something different, and better: a quiet look at an awkward, if bizarrely reasonable, relationship between a 17-year-old boy and a lonely young woman set in 1970s Kentucky, in a small town on the Ohio River. "The Laser Age" didn't resolve the relationship between Thomas and Alice, the schoolteacher. But it hinted at all the amazing things to come from Tussing's stunning, beautiful first novel, "The Best People in the World."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2006/02/22/tussing/feed/ 8 Oprah’s revenge http://www.salon.com/2006/01/27/oprah_14/ http://www.salon.com/2006/01/27/oprah_14/#comments Fri, 27 Jan 2006 11:58:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2006/01/27/oprah Today, Oprah Winfrey found herself in a position she has never been in before: having to apologize to her audience. "I regret that phone call," she said during a live taping of "The Oprah Winfrey Show" in Chicago. She was referring to her Jan. 11 phone-in to Larry King, during which the daytime queen expressed support for Oprah's Book Club author James Frey, who was under the initial round of fire for having fabricated parts of his mega-selling memoir "A Million Little Pieces." "I left the impression that the truth does not matter," she said. "To everyone who has challenged me about this book -- you are absolutely right."

Good for Oprah, right? Admitting being wrong, as Oprah has no doubt counseled guests on her show many times, isn't an easy thing to do, especially in front of millions of people. Yet, in the wake of this week's New York Times reports casting even wider doubts on the veracity of Frey's memoir, she didn't have much of a choice. Besides the Smoking Gun's initial investigation showing that Frey (to whom I am not related) lied about time he spent in jail and various run-ins with the law, some employees at the rehab center Frey attended have come forward to dispute his portrait of life there. No doubt her many, many followers (and admirers like myself) have been waiting for Oprah to finally pronounce James Frey a fraud, and to distance herself both from the flimsy book that she made into a phenomenon, and from the lying man she made into a hero.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2006/01/27/oprah_14/feed/ 155 What did Oprah know? http://www.salon.com/2006/01/24/frey_7/ http://www.salon.com/2006/01/24/frey_7/#comments Tue, 24 Jan 2006 18:42:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/life/broadsheet//2006/01/24/frey Broadsheet lost a little bit of love for Oprah Winfrey the other week when she called in to the "Larry King" show to weigh in on the controversy over James Frey's mega-bestseller book club pick, "A Million Little Pieces." Still, we weren't all that surprised when she stood by the book and blamed the publisher for any confusion over whether "AMLP" should qualify as nonfiction. What else could Oprah do?

However, in light of a new report from the New York Times today, we'd like to hear from Oprah again. Intrepid reporter Edward Wyatt has uncovered evidence that Oprah might have known there were problems with Frey's book from the beginning -- not just with the question about jail time raised by the Smoking Gun, but with the actual meat of his story: his horrifying rehab experience.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2006/01/24/frey_7/feed/ 4 What will Oprah do? http://www.salon.com/2006/01/09/frey_4/ http://www.salon.com/2006/01/09/frey_4/#comments Mon, 09 Jan 2006 20:01:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/life/broadsheet//2006/01/09/frey This isn't standard Broadsheet fare, but since this blog is about news that affects women, and since Oprah has an unprecedented amount of cultural power over American women, I felt compelled to bring to your attention the storm brewing over Oprah's last book pick, James Frey's bestselling memoir "A Million Little Pieces." Oh, you just finished reading it too? Then please, please read on.

I wrote a piece a few months ago about Frey's memoir; in short, I was disappointed that Oprah had chosen what I felt was a pretty crappy book after promoting so many excellent works of fiction over the years. I also suggested that perhaps debating a memoir -- in this case, an addiction memoir -- took away from the very idea of what a book club should inspire: a discussion of literature. I conjectured that Oprah and her followers would dissect Frey's life, the causes and effects of his problems, rather than look at his book as a piece of work. Sure enough, Oprah has been urging her readers to send in stories of how Frey's book "saved their lives."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2006/01/09/frey_4/feed/ 13 Will young women put their eggs on ice? http://www.salon.com/2006/01/06/fertility_2/ http://www.salon.com/2006/01/06/fertility_2/#comments Fri, 06 Jan 2006 15:38:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/life/broadsheet//2006/01/06/fertility The Guardian has this report today on fertility clinics in the U.K. preparing to extend their services to "have it all" couples. Meaning, before too long, fertility treatment isn't going to be just for people struggling to conceive. Rather, as busy couples and single women continue to delay having children, fertility clinics will help them by preserving eggs -- and sperm -- from young men and women for use at a later date. No doubt clinics are hoping to tap into a burgeoning market.

"The great problem we've got now is you can't have your cake and eat it," Dr. Simon Fishel, director of the CARE Fertility Center at the Park Hospital in Nottingham, told the Guardian. "What's going to happen, and we're going to make it happen, is that a lot of people will start using IVF who don't have a fertility problem. It will take a few years to come about, but that paradigm shift will happen."

However, Virginia Bolton, a consulting embryologist at the assisted-conception unit at Guy's Hospital in London, says not so fast. She told the Guardian it will take a real shift in young women's thinking before such a practice becomes widespread and popular. "People don't start really thinking about it in their 20s because then, the world's your oyster. But society may well change. We may take it as given that we put our eggs on ice," she said.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2006/01/06/fertility_2/feed/ 3 Hot girls park hot cars! http://www.salon.com/2006/01/05/valet/ http://www.salon.com/2006/01/05/valet/#comments Thu, 05 Jan 2006 16:26:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/life/broadsheet//2006/01/05/valet Another story from the "we aren't sure what to make of this" department: Today, the Los Angeles Times has a short business piece about the sale of Valet Girls, an all-female, Malibu, Calif.-based valet parking service, to California Girls Valet Parking of Beverly Hills.

The business aspect of the piece isn't very interesting (the company sold for $400,000). But some of the quotes are pretty priceless. Turns out that as valet parkers, "women are just better than men," according to California Girls owner Brad Saltzman. Clients, Saltzman says, would rather put their vehicles in the hands of wannabe actresses and models in teeny outfits than "acne-riddled teenage boys in red vests." Ouch!

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2006/01/05/valet/feed/ 10 Women look into the future (of the media) http://www.salon.com/2005/12/30/media_women/ http://www.salon.com/2005/12/30/media_women/#comments Fri, 30 Dec 2005 21:19:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/life/broadsheet//2005/12/30/media_women Broadsheet wants to give props to Rachel Sklar at Fishbowl NY for, well, just being really awesome. Today, she notes that her employer, Mediabistro, published an article called "2006: A Media New Year" which offered media predictions from a eleven industry critics and experts -- all of whom were male!

"Now, I have no doubt that the omission was unintentional," writes Sklar. "But that is still unacceptable, especially when there are so many intelligent, savvy, qualified and witty women who know the industry and have smart, informed opinions. It's also an appalling message to send to the thousands of people who visit Mediabistro every day."

Right on. To correct the balance, Sklar offers "2006: The Year in Media Predictions," as made by a "bevy of smart, expert industry observers and participants who also just happen to be female." The commentary is great  often hilarious. (Broadsheet's own Lynn Harris kicks off the list.)

We're out, soon. So happy New Year, Broadsheet readers! Send us new tips for '06 at broadsheet@salon.com

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2005/12/30/media_women/feed/ 0 In South Africa, ritual and legislation collide http://www.salon.com/2005/12/30/vaginal_inspection/ http://www.salon.com/2005/12/30/vaginal_inspection/#comments Fri, 30 Dec 2005 14:22:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/life/broadsheet//2005/12/30/vaginal_inspection The New York Times has a report today on the fight going on in South Africa over the ritual vaginal inspection of girls. The South African parliament recently passed a law that would ban most inspections, saying that the revered Zulu custom is unscientific, discriminatory and possibly emotionally damaging (girls who are determined not to be virgins are often stigmatized by their communities). To many Zulus, though, the inspections are a way of delaying sexual activity in girls, which in turn might help to halt the spread of HIV.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2005/12/30/vaginal_inspection/feed/ 10 Ethiopian girls run for their lives http://www.salon.com/2005/12/29/runners/ http://www.salon.com/2005/12/29/runners/#comments Thu, 29 Dec 2005 13:31:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/life/broadsheet//2005/12/29/runners The Washington Post has a truly awesome story today about Ethiopian girls who are running - literally - to improve their lives. For years Ethiopia has been producing some of the most accomplished runners, though women have only begun to compete - and win - at the same level as men. But now, girls are catching the craze, realizing that running is not only fun and a practical skill (fast girls can outrun boys and men who might harass or attack them) but it might also offer a path toward controlling one's destiny.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2005/12/29/runners/feed/ 1 Prostitute patrons fight sex trafficking in Turkey http://www.salon.com/2005/12/28/sex_8/ http://www.salon.com/2005/12/28/sex_8/#comments Wed, 28 Dec 2005 19:46:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/life/broadsheet//2005/12/28/sex The Independent has an interesting story today about the latest front in fighting sex trafficking in Turkey: brothel customers.

In May, the UN Organization for Migration set up a hotline, staffed by multilingual operators, for women who have been forced into sexual slavery to call for help. But rather than hearing from desperate women, the operators are hearing from men -- Turkish men, who want to pay for willing prostitutes rather than reluctant ones. In fact, 74% of calls to the hotline have been from men; and in the past six months, more than 100 women have been rescued, and Turkish police have broken up 10 sex trafficking rings.

"I've been very surprised," Marielle Lindstrom, head of the IOM in Turkey, told the Independent. "We haven't noticed this anywhere in Europe. Turkish men seem to have an old-fashioned view of women. They don't mind using prostitutes, but they want the woman to be doing this willingly. If she's found not to be doing it willinglyit affects their pride."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2005/12/28/sex_8/feed/ 13 Straight, no chaser http://www.salon.com/2005/12/27/drinking_5/ http://www.salon.com/2005/12/27/drinking_5/#comments Tue, 27 Dec 2005 14:37:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/life/broadsheet//2005/12/27/drinking Last week, the BBC online published a funny, first-person piece about the dangers of binge drinking for young women. Reporter Nicky Taylor gave herself over to the pint, and committed herself to going out multiple nights a week over the course of a month to see what would happen if she infected herself with what Tony Blair has called "a new British disease."

Taylor's findings are hardly surprising. At first, after a few drinks, she becomes a bit of an exhibitionist; three weeks in, she writes, "I was running on half-battery." At the end, she's "developed central obesity," and is forced to wear her maternity clothes. Scarier, she'd taken up smoking again, and had also increased her chances of liver disease, cancer and alcohol addiction.

"If you're left thinking that my five-night-a-week binge was extreme," she writes, "remember, it's only what 8.2 million people do in Britain every week." Who knows what the numbers are like for Americans, but everyone could learn a little something from Taylor's essay. At the very least, it will remind you to have a bite to eat before you head out to the bars. When she gives in to the mantra "eatin's cheatin," and restricts herself to "nuts and two packets of crisps" for the night, the results are not pretty.

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