Small Matters : A Year in Writing

Rating:
Summary: And 'Matters' is a Verb as well as a Noun
Review: From the photograph on the cover of this important little book - a small child standing by his RadioFlyer reaching for a California orange on his backyard tree - to the collection of weekly newspaper columns to the final musings of memoirs, author Joe Woodward enters an arena of writing that immediately thrusts him into the company of Mark Twain, Jack Smith, Susan Sontag and other names which will doubtless surface to other readers as they slowly enjoy the thoughts of a quiet Everyman.

Joe Woodward (again, notice this is not a "Joseph" Woodward who addresses us) writes from his home in Claremont, California, words gleaned from a weekly column in the LA Times sectional newspaper for his area, about the kinds of issues that folks in the homier locations outside the city gates of the megapolis of Los Angeles face and incorporate into their modus operandi of daily living. Woodward feeds the fires of public resentment about racial profiling accusations of the protectors of the city, about the noise from the freeway that burrows into the calm sought in the periphery of the city, allows his own emotions to surface and share about the extended super market strike that affected both workers and shoppers alike. These things may sound like 'small matters' in the milieu of Iraq and tsunami and train derailments/drive-by shootings/suicide bombers etc. But if you read his core responses carefully, you will find that Woodward uses these 'minor issues' of his columns to carefully mold his readers' thoughts as to what things in our lives are important. These issues, while not equal to the major events internationally, these issues do 'matter': these issues reflect how the individual relates to his immediate environment and that immediacy that shapes global coexistence.

Alert! This is not just a series of crises that afflict one suburban location: for every bit of anger or sadness there is a partner celebration of the little things (other small matters) that make life joyous. Woodward knows how to celebrate as well as how to tackle human foibles and corporate emulsification. To this reader he uses his Claremont focus as a microcosm: lift your eyes from the pages and glance over the newspaper and the metaphors become obvious.

Small towns, whether isolated in the prairies of the great Midwest or conjoined with the panoply of suburbia around great cities with increasingly ill-defined cores, are special places quiet enough and walkable enough to know neighbors, care about personal tragedies down the block, support grassroots revolutions against loss of schools or community grocery gatherings or parks or peaceful air. And like the other writers who have this Norman Rockwell way with words, Joe Woodward proves in this little matter of a book that he is a man of sound gifts as a writer, an observer, an entertainer, and a pickle barrel philosopher. This is a 'first book' that pleads for subsequent writings. Highly recommended reading. Grady Harp, January 2005

Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: Small Matters , A Year in Writing is a great collection of columns and memoirs about growing up and living in Southern California. The author uses great language to describe his outlook on interesting events. A must read that definetly deserves to be read.

Rating:
Summary: What a pleasure to read!
Review: This book is so much fun to read! The chapters are quick and easy to get into. They offer insights into suburban life through an interseting use of language. I particularly enjoyed the stories at the end about the author's childhood. This book has the kind of writing that you remember like Anne Lamott or Anna Quindlen.

Rating:
Summary: The Lemon Festival was sweet
Review: This is a series of journalistic columns by author/journalist Joe Woodward. He's a Californian, yeah, that's right, one of those. I am sure my conservative friends and I would normally get into a good row with Mr. Woodward--but he makes his points about what's wrong with life in California eloquently. He writes about the first-time-homebuyers' assistance program. Hey, if you find a house for under $170,000 and are low income, you just might qualify. Sad to say, the median price of a home in his area is over $300K and bidding wars are happening on every house. Oops! And rents are over $1200. Where ARE people who don't earn six figures going to live? Hmmm. And he laments about the result of Prop 13 --the voter mandate to reduce property taxes that came about to keep homeowners on fixed incomes from having to sell their homes to pay rising property taxes but ended up with more inequities as the result. Million dollar properties pay less than $2000 a year in tax, while the community contributes less than 20% of the cost of running the schools. Yes, I agree with Mr. Woodward here--it's a problem.

But what I enjoyed more than the journal columns were the short stories and memoirs. One, about Mr. Woodward's mother, who came from Georgia and goes home again to see the house where she grew up was amazing. And the short story about the Lemon Festival Princess runner-up left me wanting more, much more of Joe Woodward's fiction.

If you live in California and like to read good journalistic essays on life on the Left Coast, this should appeal. I enjoyed it.