Two Rare Birds

Karen Essex had so much élan and verve when I met her at the recent Historical Novel Society’s conference that I couldn’t wait to get one of her books. She had a great deal of marketing savvy and cast a steely eye on the publishing scene. I wasn’t sure whether I wanted her work to be as excellent as she seemed, or whether I was actually filled with envy and hoping to be able to feel superior to a creature of publicity (oh really I’m above all that. I wish.)

Essex has written two biographical novels about Egypt, Kleopatra and Pharaoh, but I happened to stop in at the local and massive Little City Used Book Sale and there, in a pristine cover, was her book Leonardo’s Swans. It was Fortuna, as one of her characters would say. This book (344 pages, Doubleday) is a fictional exploration of the lives and relationships of two incredibly gifted and powerful women who were also sisters: Isabella and Beatrice d’Este. Both were patrons of the arts: Isabella supported Andrea Mantegna and many others, while Leonardo da Vinci did what some consider his best work while under the patronage of the Duke of Milan, Beatrice’s husband Ludovico Sforza. Leonardo’s Swans does an excellent job re-imagining what might have been the psychological truths and interpersonal relationships among these people based on the known facts. This is what the best historical fiction does: helps us to see as living people those who are frozen in artistic styles that look like no one we know, or who have accomplished deeds (or descended into infamy) that we, on the surface, can hardly imagine.

Essex makes these women so human that you can almost think of them as members of your book club or someone you might have lunch with. Also, they both seem so accessible that I had to keep reminding myself that these were two of the most powerful and influential women of their own (indeed of any) time. During the period the story covers, both Isabella and Beatrice were only in their late teens and early twenties. Maybe speaking several languages and being well read in the classics can produce this, but it’s still very hard to believe that teenagers could achieve the levels of intellectual, political and artistic sophistication that these women apparently did. The details of their lives are better than any complicated family saga, and I polished off the book in a few very late nights.

While I highly recommend this book for either a long day at the beach, a time when you are stuck in an airport for twelve hours (that’s where I cracked the covers) or in front of a fire with a nice afghan cradling you, I must say that certain aspects of the book made me angry at her publishers. First, the cover. The hardcover has a very sensuous nude reproduction of a painting by Cesare da Sesto of Ledo and the Swan. This is purportedly a copy of a lost Leonardo. While the theme of the painting is certainly part of the book, so many other great paintings are mentioned in the book that the reader craves to have them at hand while reading. Leonardo painted very few portraits of contemporary women, and four of them are integral to the plot of this book: Cecilia Gallerani ( a mistress of Ludovico Sforza), the gorgeous Lady with an Ermine, which toured the U.S. several years ago; La Belle Ferronière, reputed to be Lucrezia Crivelli, another mistress of Ludovico Sforza; a portrait of Beatrice (Ludovico’s wife—busy guy) and a sketch of Isabella, who spends most of the book consumed with envy of the oils of the others. (The other two non-religious portraits are, of course, the Mona Lisa and Ginevra de’ Benci, the only Leonardo in the U.S., at the National Gallery in Washington.) The paperback version has another beautiful painting, but not of these ladies.


My other (minor) gripe is that I spotted two paragraphs (or their very near cousins) that were each repeated in other sections of the book. After my own experiences with editing, I can well understand how multiple revisions and edits can make that happen. Still, I’d have been happier if someone caught that. It may not be noticeable unless you are reading through the entire book in two sittings, as I did, while stuck sleeping on the floor of an airport at 1 am.

Ludovico Sforza and Isabella d’Este aren’t exactly household words, and unless you have a particular interest in the Renaissance, you may not have run across them before. But once you read this book, they’ll seem like fascinating people from your past. As indeed, they are.

Bag the Sudoku

I will never understand how people can waste their time doing Sudoku or the myriad of other puzzle books I saw displayed at several airports last weekend. Maybe I’ll make an exception for crosswords, as you actually might learn something and build your vocabulary. But so often these are touted as ways to keep your brain alive, stave off the effects of aging, and sharpen your reactions, blah, blah, blah. So, I make a modest proposal: let’s all learn at least one other language!

Americans are simply woeful about this. There are plenty of reasons why: Europeans have access to all sorts of media in other languages, speakers of other languages who wish to do business in our world use English as the lingua franca (a term that should give ample warning in itself of how languages can diminish in importance), and Americans are pretty much isolated from daily opportunity to use other languages. But of course, all these excuses fall apart if we ask one simple question: why aren’t most of us English speakers at least conversant in Spanish? Although Spanish is ubiquitous in nearly every major city of the U.S., the knowledge of it by non-native speakers certainly is far from routine.

So, this is a pitch for considering learning a language—really learning, reading newspapers, novels, listening to newscasts from other parts of the world, with their often very different take on world events and policies. Not only will it keep your brain alive, but it will give you increased social opportunities to interact with people outside your own small community. And maybe, just maybe, it can make a small strike for world peace. I’ve never met anyone who could thoroughly study a language, and the cultures it represents, and still maintain prejudice or loathing for the people who speak it. The complexities of understanding bring respect.

Newspaper Implosion

The seeming collapse of newspapers reminds me of the children’s story about the grain of rice, where the heroine asks the mean king to pay her with double the rice she has each day, beginning with one grain of rice. Of course, by the end of thirty days, she has a massive amount. So, too, the newspapers, but in reverse; for years they’ve been in trouble.

Because I took a hiatus from writing during the time I was raising and homeschooling my daughter, I have the Rip Van Winkle experience of returning to the “world” with a frame of reference 15 years old. But even when I was freelancing features 15 years ago, I heard all the same comments, “We can’t hire freelancers—we’re struggling to keep our full time reporters employed” or “We have to cut back on editorial, the ads just aren’t there” or “We can’t figure out how to make money on the internet.” Sound familiar? It’s clear to me that newspapers had plenty of warning, and that a new business model was called for long ago.

I’m positive I don’t have all the answers, but I do have a few ideas.

Freelancers vs. full-time
Here’s one where newspapers, some magazines, and many corporations still haven’t seen the forest for the trees. Maybe publications should consider that what they really need is a tiny core staff and a phalanx of freelancers—just the model that newer and more successful media uses. What they’d get is fresh, diverse style, a plethora of ideas, and a bench of people with their ears to the ground. Freelancers get variety, working conditions that can be tailored to optimum personal performance, and the opportunity to pursue passions and develop expertise.

Business costs
It’s no news by now that the elephant in the room is benefits. Even lean and mean companies are sinking under the weight of health care costs. Serious full-time freelancers are also crushed by the costs of individual healthcare. A change in healthcare policy could make a tremendous difference for individuals, start ups, and any struggling business. But we all know that, don’t we?

Reaching the audience
In their desperate attempt to clutch at readers who have moved to the internet, newspapers have transformed themselves into Life Magazine—full of pictures, little content. In doing so, I believe they’ve lost their core audience: READERS! Myself, I’ve gone from reading two newspapers a day to reading two on Sunday and the Economist the rest of the week. The book The Long Tail ought to be required reading for any publisher. The masses have moved elsewhere for entertainment and information about their interests. Newspapers are going after the wrong market.

It will be interesting to see how marketers of consumer goods are going to reach a mass audience without newspapers. Not only is readership down, but it’s easy to tell from six feet away that so is advertising—newspapers and many magazines are about half as thick as they once were. Add to that the proliferation of cable stations and it begins to seem like we are living in a “long tail” world. We are already seeing the proliferation of ezines, targeted websites, and (ahem) blogs. But I’m going to miss the sense of common conversation, exposure to stuff I didn’t know would interest me, and the pleasure of sitting on the porch with a cup of coffee and the paper. The computer screen just isn’t the same.