What is the worst thing you can do to somebody on this, the great holiday of giving?
It is hard to think of anything worse than making somebody think that they are going to get a particular gift, getting them excited about it, and then letting them know that they cannot have it.
Well, this terrible thing is going to happen when nationally-acclaimed, award-winning poet Alan Shapiro talks about his debut novel, ěBroadway Baby,î on UNC-TVís North Carolina Bookwatch this afternoon at 5 p.m.
Folks who watch and listen to Shapiro talk about his novelís main character, a woman whose hopes for fame in show business for herself and later for her son end in disappointment, will want to rush to the bookstore Monday morning to buy the book.
They will be disappointed. Not with the book, but because the book is not available. It is not scheduled for release until the end of next month.
On the bright side, ěBroadway Babyî is well worth a wait. And if you have a good friend who is a bookseller, he or she might be able to find an early copy just for you.
Miriam Bluestein, the central character, grows up in Boston during the Depression. She is bright, ambitious and star struck. On a trip to New York as a little girl she falls in love with the theatre and wants a stage career for herself. But her mother, her husband and children make her aspirations into an impossible dream.
But, like other mothers we have all known, Miriam projects her ambitions on to a talented child like her son, whom she pushes and pushes towards a performing life.
He tries to resist, but Miriam is relentless.
What is the result? The reader finds out in a ělook-forwardî that is part of the bookís opening chapter as Miriam enters a Broadway theater to see her talented son perform.
ěClutching her playbill she followed the usher through the golden doors and down the carpeted center aisle. She looked at the big stage, the gold-tasseled burgundy folds of the massive curtain, the gigantic tableau of dead stars in postures of woe or ecstasy on the ceiling; she felt enveloped by the excited murmur of the audience all around her, the chaotic sounds of the musicians tuning up. The usher led her toward the stage past row after row of the most elegant people, all radiant as celebrities, maybe some of them were celebrities, who knows? óthey all could see her being led to even better seats than theirs, the seats her son had reserved for her. …Their seats were three rows from the stage, dead center, right in front of Mayor Giuliani!î
This hopeful beginning leads quickly to a disappointment, one that should warn the reader that disappointment will be the theme song for Miriamís story.
Disappointment? Why should anyone want to think about this kind of story in this blessed season?
Even in disappointment after disappointment, Shapiroís story of Miriamís struggle to overcome her challenges can inspire. It reminds us, as we compare our lives with Miriamís, that unfulfilled aspirations are the rule, rather than the exception, for most of us. Our challenge then is to move on, leaving disappointments behind, and, in the spirit of this season, remember and celebrate the many blessings that have come our way.
For some readers, the writing of Alan Shapiro will be what keeps them turning the pages. When great poets like Shapiro write their novels, they bring their powers of wordsmithery to the page. They work with their words so that they do more than simply describe the action, so that the pleasure of reading a good story is enhanced.
All this is to say, donít focus on the disappointment of not being able to buy ěBroadway Babyî until next month. Celebrate the chance to visit with its author this afternoon on Bookwatch.