Arts & Entertainment

Sharing Her Wisdom

Acclaimed writer Judith Viorst will speak at the opening
meeting of the Greater Detroit Chapter of Hadassah.

Suzanne Chessler

Special to the Jewish News

T

here doesn't appear to be
anything unexpected about
the way writer Judith Viorst
is fast approaching her 80th birthday, a
time humorously captured in her latest
poetry book, Unexpectedly Eighty (Simon &
Schuster; $17).
Viorst just keeps on writing.
Besides releasing this new rhymed reflec-
tion on entering another era, she also is
releasing a new children's book, Lulu and the
Brontosaurus (Atheneum; $15.99).
When Viorst is done with her book tour,
which includes a stop in Metro Detroit, she
will continue with yet another children's
book and think up a fresh long-term project.
The author introduces her releases as the
featured speaker for the opening meeting
of the Greater Detroit Chapter of Hadassah
Tuesday, Oct. 5, at Congregation Shaarey
Zedek in Southfield, where Susan Yorke will
be honored as former chapter president.
"I'm going to speak about all of the stages
of life, mostly of women but a lot also apply-
ing to men',' says Viorst, whose book credits
include relationship nonfiction as well as
fiction."That's why my talk is called 'From
Single to Seventy and Even Beyond.'
"I'm going to look at single life, single from
the point of view of somebody who was

single in the 1950s, which had a whole other
set of concepts of womanhood, and move on
to getting married and the inevitable clash
between the expectations and realities of
married life.
"I'll talk about dealing with the kids and
hitting the first age crisis of the 40s, and I'll
go ahead decade after decade. I will cover the
years from the 20s to the 80s, and that's a lot
of ground."
Viorst, who bases her writing on the expe-
riences of her own family and friends as well
as studies and work connected to graduat-
ing from the Washington Psychoanalytic
Institute, will explain how her latest age-
related poems approach living with a certain
amount of grace as the decline of everything
declines even more.
"The book shows the importance of
feeling grateful for everything from good-
enough health to a beautiful sunset to a
wonderful Sunday,' she says. "It also gives
an understanding that although happiness
may not be spelled out in blazing capital let-
ters and exclamation points, there's a lot of it
around if people look in the right places."
Viorst, married to political writer Milton
Viorst, has brought her three sons into the
characterizations of some 20 children's
books. Her latest came about with the inspi-
ration of two grandsons, who asked her to
keep telling them stories on a dreary sum-
mer day.

"I'm totally and shamelessly in love
with this book:' she says."I got a great
deal of pleasure writing it. I found a
Judith Viorst
voice I never knew existed in me with
which to write it.
when you have two choices — homicide or
"My heroine is a major pain in the butt,
laughter. You might as well laugh.
a little girl who wants a brontosaurus for
"I try to find the common themes in
a pet and who learns a thing or two as she people's lives and write about those. When
goes out to find one."
I'm writing about marriage, child-raising,
Viorst, whose interest in poetry came
getting older, it's a reflection of the experi-
through her mother, started writing her
ences of the women with whom I'm going
own poetry when she was 7. She began
through life as we walk, talk, moan and
getting published after some coaching
compare notes."
from her husband.
Viorst is based in an office on the sec-
"I took the advice writers have long given
ond floor of her Washington, D.C., home,
— write what you knob' explains Viorst,
working near her husband's office, con-
who was a longtime columnist for Redbook.
nected by intercom.
"I started writing about being a nice Jewish
"I'm very good about multi-tasking, and
girl from New Jersey who graduated from
I set goals for myself' says Viorst, a hos-
college and moved to Greenwich Village hop- pice volunteer who reads a book a week.
ing to live a wild life but getting advice calls
"I feel very Jewish, and I'm very pleased
every day from her mother.
that our two sons who have married non-
"I moved on to writing about some of the
Jewish women are going to raise their kids to
struggles of marriage. I think I developed
be Jews. I feel glad to belong to a synagogue,
my real sense of humor after I got married
and I feel glad to be Jewish. I think we're very
because there are moments in marriage
interesting people." E

The Greater Detroit Chapter of Hadassah begins its opening session with
boutiques at 10 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 5, at Congregation Shaarey Zedek, 27375
Bell Road, in Southfield. Luncheon is at noon, raffle tickets for prizes will be
available until 12:30 p.m. and Judith Viorst speaks at 1 p.m. $25 speaker only;
$55-$65 speaker and lunch. (248) 683-5030; www.detroit.hadassah.org .

Jews

4

Nate Bloom

Special to the Jewish News

TV Premieres

•

Debuting Thursday, Sept. 23, are My
Generation, at 8 p.m. on ABC, and $#*!
My Dad Says (pronounced "Bleep My
Dad Says"), at 8:30 p.m. on CBS.
Generation is done in the form
of a documentary about a group of
Generation Y young people from
Austin, Texas. The premise is that
we see their (filmed) lives during
their high-school senior year (2000)
and, again, in 2010.
Playing rich kid
Anders Holt is British
Jewish actor Julian
Morris, 27, who had a
recurring part on ER.
$#*! My Dad Says
is based on the
Julian Morris
best-selling memoir

38

September 23 • 2010

Sh*t My Dad Says
(HarperCollins; 2010)
by Justin Halpern, 29.
Halpern's father,
retired San Diego
radiologist Sam
Halpern, is a very
blunt-talking
man,
Justin
befitting
his
incredible
Halpern
climb from a poverty-
stricken childhood on a Kentucky
tobacco farm. The younger Halpern
failed as a screenwriter and had to
move back home a few years ago.
On a lark, he began twittering his
father's often comic – and almost
always saucy (but to the point) –
observations and advice. His tweets
acquired a huge following, and a book
followed.
William Shatner, 79, plays the
Sam Halpern character, named Ed
Goodson in the series. The TV series

-3,

focuses on Ed's reaction when one of
his two adult sons moves back in with
him. Legendary TV director James
Burrows, 69, an incredible talent who
co-created Cheers, was brought aboard
to direct the show's pilot.

At The Movies

Catfish, opening Sept. 24, is a docu-
mentary by 20-something first time
filmmakers Ariel Schulman and Henry
Joost. It began with a plan to do a film
on the life of
Schulman's
brother Yaniv
(called "Nev"),
who is a bit
older than
Ariel.
The film
took
an odd
Yaniv and Ariel
twist
when
Schulman with Henry
Nev
revealed
Joost

that he'd become online friends with
a young girl living in rural Michigan.
The filmmakers (and reviewers) have
emphasized that to disclose what they
found out about this Michigan family
would ruin the genuine thriller aspect
of the film. Suffice it to say that many
people do not accurately represent
themselves to online friends.
Opening the same day is Wall Street:
Money Never Sleeps, the sequel to
1986's Wall Street. Michael Douglas
reprises his Oscar-winning role as
Gordon Gekko, an amoral high-stakes
financier. As the film opens, Gekko has
just been released from a lengthy pris-
on term and is looking to re-establish a
relationship with his daughter. In this,
he finds an ally in his daughter's fiance,
played by Shia LaBoeuf. The excellent
cast includes Susan Sarandon, Josh
Brolin, Frank Langella, Carey Mulligan
and Eli Wallach.

❑

