Patricia Garry

Book Review: Jane and the Madness of Lord Byron

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This volume, with Jane Austen cast as the detective, by Stephanie Barron, is eerie and hard and with several instances of real violence. And with George Gordon, Lord Byron, cast as the anti-hero. Of all the series, this is the toughest and most hard-boiled.

Knowing Stephanie Barron as being a stickler for detail (all these mysteries are set in days and times when Jane really was in each of the various cities and areas of England), I just checked Wikipedia for Lord Byron. And it turns out he really was as awful – nearly a monster – as Barron depicts him. Violent is one of the key words throughout the wiki info.

And violent he is in this book, all charm one moment, and violent in word and deed the next. His treatment of women would have him in prison today. Perhaps those powerful and beautiful poetic works would not have been written.

We also get an intriguing picture of the death and mourning rituals in Britain at that time, and get to see the seaside at Brighton at high season, with all of the highest crust of society bathing in their weird machines – dipping into the ocean without actually being seen. Much fun in that social commentary – how the rich do Brighton.

Lord Byron does not turn out to have been the actual murderer of the young woman who is the victim in this book. The answer as to who did it is quite shocking.

Another great work from Stephanie Barron, whose voice in the book is totally Jane Austen’s – in tone, in thought, and in detection.

Book Review: Jane and the Barque of Frailty

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This mystery, as with all the mysteries by Stephanie Barron featuring Jane Austen as the detective and cultural commentator, is just excellent. Turns out the Barque of Frailty is an Edwardian code for mistress, perhaps call girl, way higher on the social scale than a prostitute.

And Jane, in this book, actually develops a friendship with one of the leading such women of her day, and is kind and reciprocal, in the heavy and all-in-code way of conversations at that time. It is interesting – and not surprising – that there were entire salons of these women, attended by men of the nobility and upper classes, to drink and flirt and make their choices. While the culture itself twisted itself into pretzels to pretend no such thing was happening.

And, of course, it turns out that one of the guys who pretended to be entirely above it all – not like those other men over there – was likely the killer, though the question was not quite concluded by the end of the book. Jane, as is usual in these mysteries, is seen as an older spinster (in her late 20s) by many other characters, with the few, the discerning, recognizing her true worth.

And I recognize that paragraph as carrying the same tone as the book, and nearly written in Edwardian code. I fear I have been infected with the Jane virus.

Book Review: Jane and His Lordship’s Legacy

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The eighth in the Jane Austen as detective series by Stephanie Barron, this one begins with Jane’s great grief over the loss of Lord Harold Trowbridge, which occurred at the same moment that they declared their love for one another.

Jane’s grief is her own private torment, her mother and sister never having approved of that friendship which had grown deeper and richer. As this volume opens, Jane and her mother are just moving into a home owned by Jane’s older brother, Edward, who is extremely wealthy, where the rest of the family is decidedly not. The village of Chawton is already disposed not to be kind to the Austens, even more so when one of Jane’s first actions is to find a dead body in the cellar.

In the second major happening in this book, an ancient solicitor from London, a representative of the Duke of Wilborough, shows up at the door asking for Jane. He delivers to her a carved Bengali chest filled with all the journals, letters, diaries and other papers of Lord Harold, second son of the Duke, with the willed request to turn them into a memoir. The solicitor also points out that there have been many attempts to steal the papers.

Jane’s wealthy brother owns most of the village, another brother is a London banker, with a branch in the area, a third the rector at a nearby church, and yet a fourth, the ship captain from the previous novel is also involved. A villager also claims to be the real owner of the village and of Edward’s wealth, and has thus turned the village against them. Another young man of mysterious parentage, Julian Thrace, is resident at several houses in the area, including Stonings, the seat of the Earl of Holbrook, Freddie Vansittart, an old friend of Lord Harold Trowbridge.

It being an English village, everything is tangled up with everything else, and several more deaths are piled on that original first body found in Jane’s cottage cellar. All is untangled, and the book ends with a letter found in the recovered chest – a love letter from Lord Harold, and thus Jane’s peace returns.

Book Review: Jane and the Ghosts of Netley

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This is the seventh of the Jane Austen as detective series written by Stephanie Barron, though it is only subtitled as: Being a Jane Austen Mystery. This one also involves Lord Harold Trowbridge, as several others do. And this one comes very close to a real romance, which I’m sure is / was a great relief to most of us.

Rather more violence than usual in these books – and to me all the characters seemed drawn even more strongly than usual. The Napoleonic Wars were still going on, and there had been bitter battles in Portugal. Many of the book’s characters had ties to Portugal, spies and counterspies among them. Several key and wonderful characters are lost in this book – just a trigger warning!

It is very exciting, and includes a lot that you might want to know about how duels were actually carried out. As always, an excellent book.

Book Review: Jane and the Prisoner of Wool House

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Still in my Jane Austen addiction, and really enjoying Stephanie Barron’s Jane Mysteries. Jane the the Prisoner of Wool House, Being the Sixth Jane Austen Mystery, is another excellent one. This time, we are in Southampton, and Jane’s brother, Frank, a post captain in the Royal Navy, is a key figure – and Wool House is where the navy keeps it prisoners. Frank’s best friend, another captain, is due to be hanged, with Frank receiving the captaincy of that ship. And a French prisoner may hold the key to his guilt or innocence.

So much great history in here – the Napoleonic wars, the colonization of India, England’s intricate class rules, and the very authentic voice of Jane as she works her way through all the intricate parts of this mystery. Plus the intricate household relationships – Jane’s mother and sister, her sister-in-law and occasional glimpses / mentions of brothers, their families, friends of rank and those without rank. And of much rowing over the ocean, with a very large amount of dampness all around.

This is a very fast paced mystery, even thought Britain’s strictures sometimes have Jane watching the clock and noting how much time she has been kept out of the action. Her mind, of course, has been going full speed ahead at all times. And all the pieces of the mystery fall into place, fairly satisfactorily.

Changing Your Mind for Better Health

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In a conversation with a friend of mine last week, I realized she had the conventional belief system about health, and that therefore her health probably would not rise to be better than her expectations. She would need several different kinds of medicines and treatments to maintain a reasonable level of health, and the whole medical establishment to provide those treatments. There are some changes she can make for herself, but mainly, in her belief, her health depends on others.

She knows, for instance, that knees and hips wear out and have to be replaced. She knows that genetics is extremely determinant in what diseases we get, who we are and what we can do. She pretty much feels, with most of the country, that without the medical system, we all would be sick much of the time. And as we age, we can expect to be sicker.

I am just not able to be there. My belief is that my health largely depends on my choices and behaviors, not those of others. And I don’t actually believe in the benevolence of the medical system. It exists to serve itself – to employ folks who feel a need to be useful to others, to work hard at research into more and more arcane possibilities, to pat people on the head and say – ‘If you do this we can save you’ or, later, ‘I am sorry, there is nothing more we can do, and here is what you are facing.’

And, largely, when life has been spent eating American food while couch potatoing, the only thing that can be done is to make a radical change at that end – what we eat, what we talk about, how we move, what we think, how we provide love and nourishment to our bodies and minds. Often too late to make those moves, but they can make the end better.

In my belief / experience system, I find that eating low on the food chain, and the cleanest food possible, is the best medicine. Moving around – yoga, walking, running, standing while working – not only brings joy / mood elevation – but keeps the body happy and limber as well. My medicine is vitamins, especially the Bs and C, herbs, spices like turmeric. I consult Prescription for Nutritional Healing and Heal Your Body for ideas and possibilities, and then pay attention when my intuition nudges me one way or another.

But mainly and importantly, I look at the out-of-balance symptom my body is presenting, and walk meditatively with it, asking what it is trying to tell / teach me, what lesson is there for me to learn. I don’t argue with that symptom, or try to ignore it (usually) – I accept it, pay attention to it, learn more about it, and what various resources tell me about it – including google and perhaps wiki.

I am careful not to adopt it, name it as part of my self-definition, make it a permanent part of myself. I visualize my life totally without whatever the symptom, and smile at those images. I love myself in any case, and appreciate my body – its strength, its beauty – and affirm those qualities. My self-care includes putting myself first on my priority list, giving myself treats and presents, making myself happy – often by helping and giving to others, of course, because there is such joy in that.

Health is much more in our hands than we often believe. Trusting ourselves, staying calm and peaceful, using medical and spiritual resources as needed, moving along step by step, we can get better and stay better. And always have more fun!

Further Travails

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Danny’s Foot

My other two sons and I, plus their father (who actually was there a week longer), spent a week in DC’s Prince Georges Hospital, mostly in the Critical Care waiting room, after Dan’s accident. On our second last day, Dan was moved upstairs to a sort of step down unit. The waiting room was worse, but the hospital room gave us more time and privacy. We had been talking to Danny all the time, but now there was not a room full of folk and tons of equipment around.

Brian and I were starting conversations with him – Bri noticed Dan’s left foot moving, and started asking questions about a plumbing problem he had been working on. Dan was signalling yes with his left foot, so Bri switched to yes / no questions. After that problem was solved, I started telling Dan about the new baby arriving soon in the family – Patrick and Annie were expecting a baby boy, to be named August Patrick McNamara, in the next few days. I said to Dan ‘Of course, you don’t know Annie.’ His foot became very agitated, and I realized he did know Annie – he had met her the year before at Patrick’s college graduation celebration. When I said that, Dan answered with a very emphatic and strong Yes movement of his foot. That afternoon left us very hopeful.

Dan’s Planet Leaving

Dan had been in the hospital exactly 4 weeks, minus 4 hours, and was each day showing more signs of waking up. Moving his head toward the speaker, opening his eyes on command, seeming to track conversations. He had had another and final surgery on his leg, his other physical wounds were healing fast, he was mostly off the ventilator, had a stomach tube for feeding, and a tracheotomy for breathing, so he did not have all that apparatus around his neck and face.

Donna was researching rehab centers, and we were making plans to return to DC, expecting a long rehab therapy program for Dan. Sunday morning, June 12, right about noon, Danny, still in a coma, reached up to his throat – probably a tickle or the feeling of a cough – and pulled out his trach. The staff could not get it back in. And just like that, our beloved Danny was gone from the planet.

It was awful – and even more awful having to tell folk. I really appreciated Facebook for making it faster and easier.

Danny’s Memorial Service

Danny’s Memorial was held just outside of northeast DC where he lived (Riverside, College Park, Cheverley, Lanham) on Saturday, June 25. The night before, most of Donna’s family and those of us from Cincinnati, had dinner at one of Dan’s favorite places, and the lunch following the service was at another such place, where Kyle’s college graduation celebration had been held.

Danny loved and lived in tie-dye T-shirts, so Donna found a website with lots of choices, so we could each have a tie-dye shirt for the service. Mine, of course, was a bright and beautiful spring green. She, grandson Kyle, and her family found pictures of Danny, and we found some here – so there were easels up with pictures of Dan all around the room. Donna had chosen a gorgeous urn – that deep green with bronze, Japanese raku.

Donna’s uncle, a Baptist minister from North Carolina, led the service. A lot of Danny’s and Donna’s and Kyle’s friends were present – well over a hundred folk, I expect. Donna had selected Dan’s and her favorite music, prepared a wonderful program, and even found a woman who embeds seeds in small paper hearts, so they can be planted outside and grow in honor of Dan.

Executives from Donna’s office had managed to find tie-dye ties to wear. And grandson Kyle had a friend tie-dye a polo shirt for him.

Many of Dan’s friends spoke, a multicultural mix with different ages coming up. Son Terry spoke about Danny saving him from drowning in the ocean, about all his memories of Dan. And then came up again a few speakers later to tell everyone how glad he was that his brother Danny was surrounded by so many great and wonderful friends in DC. Brian also spoke, giving a truly beautiful appreciation of Dan and his special qualities – especially a gift for happiness.

I was totally unable to speak, and just wept on Brian’s shoulder most of the time. After the service, Jerry, Brian, Terry and I just held on to each other in a circle. Then we got Kyle and brought him into the circle. I felt Danny surrounding and holding on to all of us.

Eddie Goldstein’s Service

The week before Danny’s service, one of Brian’s best friends was in hospice care, dying of pancreatic cancer – Brian spent most of that week with Eddie. When we flew back from DC on Sunday morning, we went straight to Eddie’s service in Northern Kentucky. It was also beautiful, and brought us back in touch with a lot of the old neighborhood.

Donna and Kyle

Life is hard for Danny’s wife, Donna (36 years of marriage!) and son Kyle, 30, now. They are working to keep the business going and to keep their lives together. Donna has quit her job and is working in DC Supply now – Danny’s (Crum – that’s the DC) plumbing supply business, where Dan was the outside guy and son Kyle was the inside guy. They are just taking it one day at a time.

Barb’s Visit

My friend Barb waited a couple of months to come in from Minneapolis, and was here last week. Another friend of hers came in from Toronto, and yet another close friend hosted us and fed us a fair bit of the time at her condo in Hyde Park. A trip to another friend’s farm, interesting shopping, talking late, late, late – and eating lots and everywhere. A great and relaxing and regenerating visit. Thanks, Barb!

Brian and I

Brian and I are spending more time together than usual – we both have very busy lives, which intersect at community / politics / development lines, but which haven’t always left us a lot of time together. We are now scheduling each other in, especially with visits to 2-1/2 month old August, and tonight to Lumenocity, Cincinnati’s special laser light celebration.

More Travails

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My Beloved Son Danny Has Left the Planet

I am so sad today and getting sadder. My beloved Danny died shortly after noon yesterday, June 12, 2016. It is so hard.

After a truly awful car /motorcycle wreck, surgeries, a coma, we had been expecting a long rehab, and facing those challenges. Instead, we are facing different challenges. Danny, his wife and his son were/are in DC. Donna and Kyle will be having a memorial service for Danny sometime in the next few weeks, so we will be flying to DC once that is set.

Our Beloved Danny

Patricia Garry and Brian Garry and family, inspired by the Jewish tradition of sitting shiva, invite you to an open time of friendship and community in memory of our beloved son and brother, Daniel Jerome Crum. We will be gathering from 4 p m to 7 p m, Thursday through Sunday, June 16 – 19, at Patricia’s home, in Eden Park / Walnut Hills. Please feel free to come when you can, and stay as long as you wish.

There’s plenty of on street parking or you can park around the circle at the Twin Lakes Overlook. There is also a parking lot next to our building that is not used nights and weeks, so feel free to park there as well.

The Travails of My Oldest Son, Danny

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The Travails of My Oldest Son Danny

On Mother?s Day, May 8, 2016, son Danny called me from his car, as he and his wife were driving to downtown DC to a concert by the Danish group, Lukas Graham. Danny?s wife, Donna, had won the tickets, and they were to have their pictures taken with the band before the concert. We talked most of the way through the drive, then while driving around the venue to get the lay of the land and see the size of the crowd, and then through the process of finding a parking place. A fun conversation, with Dan saying at the end, as always ? ByeI Love You, running it all together.

The next Sunday morning, the 15th, I woke at 6 a m with a dream in my head that I titled Trekking in Nepal ? to get to safety. A very strange dream ? Many, many people walking into the mountains in Nepal. Men, women and children walking along trails, carrying nothing. Nepali volunteers at the trailheads, giving people a meal before they start. Then walking ? some of the trail is good, some is treacherous. Mostly green, beautiful ? but we are walking away from something not good. If you are not up and moving early, you can miss the meal. I am walking with a group of people I know. That night, I set out a glass to catch a liquid / the dew? It rains overnight. The glass has caught the brown liquid, but the rain has diluted and overflowed the glass. And I slept too late and missed the food.

I was totally puzzled, had no sense at all of the meaning. But Nepal is a wonderful home place for me, and I have missed it since my only trip there years ago.

My friend Ed Kluska, an astrologer who also teaches meditation, had announced a Theta heart meditation class for 1:30 to 2:15 p m that afternoon. At just about 1 pm, I decided to give myself a welcome break and attend. I left there, feeling very much in the flow of the Universe, stopping at Clifton Natural Foods on the way home.

And just about the time I walked back into my condo here in Cincinnati, a young woman in Washington, D. C. ran her car into my beautiful son Danny on his motorcycle, not paying any attention on that beautiful and clear and dry Sunday afternoon, and not seeing him at all.

Danny had a great state of the art helmet, and thus no brain injury. Plus the wreck was half a block from a fire station, so EMTs were on the scene in minutes, and Prince Georges Hospital was very close. Danny was unconscious, with a smashed pelvis, nearly destroyed left leg, and major road rash ? which is what the damage is called when skin slides over the road at a high rate of speed. Lots of other smaller injuries showed up over time ? a lacerated bladder, and kidney stress among them.

Danny had major surgeries on Monday, for the pelvis and for the left leg, which had a number of breaks. We family members here in Cincinnati heard about the wreck on Monday morning. By Tuesday evening, we ? me, my ex and our two other sons – were flying to DC. At that point, Danny was in a medically induced coma.

We spent the next seven days mostly in the waiting room of the Intensive Care Unit of Prince Georges Hospital in Hyattsville, Maryland. Danny?s medically induced coma ended on Wednesday or Thursday. But not his own personal coma, which continues. Though on Tuesday, May 31, he opened his eyes briefly, responding to his brother-in-law and his father. We were rejoicing. Then nothing more. Friday June 3, he had what hopefully will be the last surgery on his left leg. Today, Sunday, June 5, he had his eyes open and appeared to track people in the room. So we may be on the road to recovery at last.

His physical body has and is healing fast. It is amazing, though, how that fades from importance, awful as his injuries were, with this continuing coma. Most days, there has been no step forward. Now for the last several days, there has been a small step forward, and then a retreat back into the coma.

Hopefully, this week, the path to healing will solidify, so that we can see our Danny returning.

Book Review: Jane and the Stillroom Maid by Stephanie Barron

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I just finished this book – Jane and the Stillroom Maid, Being the Fifth Jane Austen Mystery, by Stephanie Barron, published in 2000. This series just keeps getting better and better. Jane has turned 30, a fact which is much on her mind, and which clearly puts her beyond the bounds of ever being married, in the culture of that time.

However, in this volume, back again is Lord Harold Trowbridge, the second son of a duke, a spy, diplomat and mediator for his country around the globe, and one of Jane’s closest friends and sleuths. Jane is very attracted to him, but realizes in her head, not her heart, that in this stratified society such an attraction would horrify most people. Jane is a lady, but not of the nobility.

This strand, and much else about the culture of the early 1800’s in England, as Napoleon raged over the continent and threatened Britain, is a big part of these mysteries. A stillroom maid, for instance, was in many ways an apothecary / druggist, working with herbs and other substances for healing and health, as well as preserving and canning vegetables and fruits. The surgeon in this part of Derbyshire is also a blacksmith – and there are many other anomalies sprinkled throughout all of this series. Which is part of what makes them all so fun.

Stephanie writes with Jane’s voice effortlessly – in thinking, in conversations, in her relationships with her mother, sister and others who come and go from book to book. And these are terrific puzzlers, with many clues to the numerous possible killers in each book. This book, for instance, brings in the Masons and their practices, whose members are drawn from the upper classes across the country. The clues point in many directions. I figured it out early, and then was distracted by all the other possibilities, and decided I was wrong. It is great to be fooled by a true master.

The Cincinnati Public Library has all these books – and so does your nearest bookstore. Go for it!