Narrative Biographies

Recently I finished reading The Paris Wife, by Paula McLain, a narrative biography of Hadley Richardson, Ernest Hemingway's first wife.  Of course, it was largely fictionalized, as most narrative biographies are, but it still made for an interesting read, and got me thinking of other people whose lives were just too darn fascinating for a standard biography.  People who lived a compelling story, and whose lives would make a damn good book.

I compiled a short list of whom I would want to write about, if I were to write a narrative biography:

• Thomas Jefferson - Sure, he wrote the Declaration of Independence, but what about his time in Paris, during which he fell for Maria Cosway?  How about his flight from Richmond, with Benedict Arnold on his heels?  And then there's the story of how he broke his wrist, and could never play the violin well again?  Whether you love him or hate him, there's no doubt that Jefferson lived a life fit for books.

• Anne, Mary, and/or Deborah Milton - The three daughters of seventeenth-century poet John Milton.  Because Milton was blind when he wrote Paradise Lost, he dictated it to his teenage daughters (the oldest, Anne, was only 16 years old when he finished), who wrote it all down.  Now that must have been an interesting experience.

• Gilbert du Motier, better known as the Marquis de Lafayette - A young aristocrat who directly disobeyed his king by running off to America to fight, and in doing so became like a son to George Washington.  If that weren't enough, he played a crucial role in stirring up the French Revolution, and he witnessed the Napoleonic Era--though he spent quite some time in a French prison.  Now that's fascinating.

• Pedro I of Brazil - When Napoleon's armies invaded Lisbon, the royal family escaped by fleeing to Brazil, then a colony of Portugal.  Pedro was nine years old at the time, so he spent his teenage years away from home, in a strange and wild land--at least, compared to Europe.  Then much of Latin America was going through a period of unrest, as various colonies called for independence.  Pedro grew to sympathize with the Brazilians, and eventually decided to remain in Brazil as its ruler, rather than return to Portugal with the rest of his family.

• Herbert Hoover - Herbert Hoover belongs less in a book and more in an off-Broadway orphan musical.  Only unlike Annie and Oliver!, the story of Herbert! starts in tragedy--and ends in it, too.  Orphaned at age nine, Hoover grew up under unusual circumstances, became America's favorite humanitarian during World War I, then President of the United States--and a short while later when the stock market crashed, Public Enemy #1.  Unfortunately for him, he'll always be remembered as "That guy who botched up the Depression."  A sad orphan story indeed.

Who would you want to write about?  Who would you want to read about?

"Until you've lost your reputation, you never realize what a burden it was or what freedom really is." - Rhett Butler

500 pages into Gone with the Wind, and Rhett Butler is well on his way to becoming my all-time favorite literary character.  Not because he's handsome and charming and smart, while also being the epitome of Southern bad-boy (though all these things help), but because he's entertaining.  Every scene in which he partakes in dialogue, I end up laughing out loud.  His blunt, sarcastic comments keep me turning pages way faster than any of Scarlett O'Hara's wild whims.

But, I'm not so sure if he's earned the title of favorite character.  I can hardly choose a favorite book; selecting a favorite character is ten times harder.  Still, I have a list (though they're not ranked in any particular order), and Rhett has now joined the ranks of:

• Dr. Livesey, the cool-headed, doctor who's kind yet still badass enough to fight pirates in one of my favorites,  Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson.
• Javert, the inspector who devotes his life to arresting Jean Valjean, but eventually has a change of heart, in Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo.
• Uncas, literally the last of the Mohicans, in James Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans.  He doesn't talk much, but his daring deeds to rescue the damsel-in-distress speak for themselves.
• Severus Snape and Sirius Black, both bad-but-actually-good wizards of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series.  Pretty self-explanatory.
• Elizabeth Bennett.  Again, self-explanatory.  Strong despite hardships, smart and tactful, with a good heart.  The famous heroine of Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen.
• Jay Gatsby, the wealthy former bootlegger of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby.  To be played by Leonardo di Caprio in the upcoming movie (SO EXCITED).
• Colonel Aureliano Buendía, the amateur alchemist-slash-war hero of Gabriel García Márquez's A Hundred Years of Solitude, who somehow manages to appear in practically every one of Márqeuz's works.

And plenty more who have earned my favor -- which I don't bestow lightly upon literary characters.  Several months after finishing the books, I'm still debating whether to give the honor to The Hunger Games's Haymitch Abernathy.  I like him--I like him a lot (especially when played by Woody Harrelson)--but I'm not sure if he has earned his way onto THE LIST.

What about you?  Who are your favorite characters of all time?

Una fascinación con ladrones (A fascination with thieves)

Damaso and his wife, Ana, from the 1965 movie, En este pueblo no hay ladrones.

Thieves are sexy.

There is something extraordinarily romantic about their characters when it comes to literature, but I can't quite place it.  Because frankly, if someone tried to rob my house, I'd punch him.

I got thinking about thieves in literature after finishing a collection of short stories by Gabriel García Márquez, a Colombian author most famous for his novel A Hundred Years of Solitude, or in Spanish, Cien Años de Soledad.  Of all the stories, the one that most stuck with me was called "There are no Thieves in this Town" ("En este pueblo no hay ladrones"), which *SPOILER ALERT* begins when Damaso steals the billiard balls from the pool hall, and ends with their return and his capture, while wrongly accused of stealing two hundred pesos as well.  Even though he's not an especially sympathetic character, I found myself rooting for him and his wife, Ana.  And frankly, the final passage left me shaken:

     "What do you have there?" asked Roque.

     Damaso stepped back.  "Nothing," he said.  Roque reddened and began to tremble.  "What do you have there!" he shouted, stepping forward with the bar raised.  Damaso gave him the package.  Roque took it with his left hand, still on guard, and examined it with his fingers.  Only then did he understand.

     "It can't be," he said.

    He was so perplexed that he put the bar on the counter and seemed to forget Damaso while he was opening the package.  He contemplated the balls silently.

     "I came to put them back," said Damaso.

     "Of course," said Roque.

     Damaso felt limp.  The alcohol had left him completely, and there was only a gravelly sediment left on his tongue, and a confused feeling of loneliness.  "So that was the miracle," said Roque, wrapping up the package.  "I can't believe you could be so stupid."  When he raised his head, he had changed his expression.

     "And the two hundred pesos?"

     "There was nothing in the drawer," said Damaso.

      Roque looked at him thoughtfully, chewing emptily, and then smiled.  "There was nothing," he repeated several times.  "So there was nothing."  He grasped the bar again, saying:

     "Well, we're going to tell the Mayor this story right now."

    Damaso dried the sweat of his hands on his pants.

     "You knew there was nothing."

     Roque kept smiling.

     "There were two hundred pesos," he said.  "And now they're going to take them out of your hide, not so much for being a thief as for being a fool."

Rarely do short stories stick with me like that, and this one got me thinking.  Namely, as I've already said, about other literary thieves.  Some of my personal favorites include:

• Jean Valjean -- Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo
• Long John Silver -- Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson
• The Artful Dodger -- Oliver Twist, by Charles Dickens
• Robin Hood - Various

Any others?