About Schmidt by Louis Begley - 9 out of 10

 

About Schmidt by Louis Begley

 

9 out of 10

 

The main thing here is that I identify so much with the main character, it makes me remember the quote ‘there is a fantastic number novels, so that they've just about exhausted the possibilities of life. All of us are enacting events that have already been written about in some novel or other. Effect is very disturbing 😐 when you do tumble to it'

 

Nevertheless, there are huge differences, in occupation, geography, scheme of things – I do not have a Winnebago, and no matter how mysterious the ways of God are, that will not be a thing…albeit, ‘we shall see, in the words of the Zen Master from https://realini.blogspot.com/2017/06/charlie-wilsons-war-written-by-aaron.html

Charlie Wilson’s War has this figure who keeps saying ‘we shall see’, no matter what happens, the good turns into bad and vice versa, About Schmidt was such a resplendent work that I named my cat from a personage there - Ndugu – the wrong choice it turns out, because my feline was female and the fictional boy was male

 

Warren Schmidt writes to this orphan in Africa, giving him some money, not much, just under one hundred dollars as I recall, through a charity, and he keeps sharing with the child what happens to him, his retirement, then the death of his wife and the loathsome discovery, that she had had an affair with Ray, his best friend

This autobiographical saga is stopped when a sister of the Order of Mercy or whoever is caring for the African orphans there explains to the correspondent about this situation, that this is a boy, unable to grasp the significance, if there is any, of all that he had been told, funeral, disappointment, fears, chagrin and so on

 

This is an extraordinary combination, you could have had an endless lament, depression and frankly, little reason to read though – or share the experience through the magical movie based on the book, as I did, admiring once again, maybe the last spectacular film of the glorious Jack Nicholson – an opus that would have been so sad

Instead, there is so much humor that last night, when I watched the first part of the motion picture, I laughed again at the exalting performance of the one who used to be the best thespian in my book, along with our very own Geroge Constantin https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/07/peer-gynt-by-henrik-ibsen-calling.html

 

One scene that comes to mind – nay, there are a few – is when Schmidt is holding his daughter, and then the would be son in law comes along, the way the parent looks at this intruder is outstanding, a combination of puzzlement, Contempt https://realini.blogspot.com/2016/11/contempt-by-alberto-moravia.html

 

Randall is quite a catch, I mean Warren is right in being skeptical, after all, this young pretender comes to his soon to be father-in-law, at the funeral of his spouse no less, and proposes…an investment, be assured, it is not a pyramidal scheme, no Ponzi, although you can double or triple your money in one year!

 

-          Really!

 

The relationship with his spouse is another source of jocularity and tragedy, she is the dominant figure, Schmidt seems hopeless in some ways, and that is another parallel I see here – take this episode of the other day, when one of the fools residing in this gated community repeated his shtick, with his grandiose Porsche

In fact, it is a she, but no matter, she had been parking her SUV near my garden, keeping the engine running on idle for more than one hour, and repeating the beano for days, I told the wife, and then she wants me to address the issue on the WhatsApp group that gathers the people here, to ask for an end to this

 

But I say, how come, we have this other idiot, right next door, with a functioning business, some five or seven cars delivering spices, who does this every week day, many times, cold or hot, he has the engines running, because he does not give a fuck, first, then he wants cold or whatever inside, so what about him?

This has been going on for over fifteen years, it is not just for days, but then you have a subjective attitude and said something more, so I get back a harsh, violent, maybe deserved considering what I did in the past rebuttal along the lines of ‘old fool, fuck you, you never do anything when asked, lazy bum that you are

 

Games People Play https://realini.blogspot.com/2013/09/games-people-play-by-eric-berne.html is a quintessential psychology work by Eric Berne, and you find there the most popular game – IIWFY aka If It Weren’t For You, spouses, partners blame the other for whatever failures they score, when the truth is different

Let me just mention another thing that happens recently, unconnected with Schmidt that it is – we have had elections, the far right idiot came in first and we had the ‘chance’ to meet some of his supporters in the sauna, Oh My God, they are terrible -almost like MAGA in the US – stupid, vulgar, abject, one of them went on about LGBTQ+, the sensible candidate mentioned some measures there, and this bombardier went on about being approached by some gay guy at the spa, a preposterous lie, first he is ugly as hell, then he is packed with muscles, would someone risk offending Mike Tyson, well, maybe, I hear he does not punch anymore…

 

Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

 There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

 

Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works

 

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’

 

‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’

 

“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”