‘Cinderella’ rises from the ashes

May 13, 2014

“In both darker and lighter versions of fairy tales, a woman’s suffering is demanded in exchange for true love and happily ever after,” Roxane Gay wrote in “The Marriage Plot” for the May 11 New York Times’ Week in Review section.

That may be, but not all fairy tales are created equal. Take “Cinderella," on Broadway in its Rodgers and Hammerstein incarnation. She’s not waiting for Prince Charming to rescue her. Rather she goes out to find the man who will appreciate her for who and what she really is.

Rossini’s operatic version, “La Cenerentola,”goes the Brothers Grimm and Rodgers and Hammerstein one better.

(Michael) Sam to the Rams and May madness

May 12, 2014

Kudos to Michael Sam and the St. Louis Rams, who’ve decided to take a chance on one another. Sam, the University of Missouri defensive end who came out before deciding to test the NFL Draft, was the 249th pick overall, with just seven left before the final round. But hey, he got in, celebrating with tears and a kiss for his partner that went viral. (I, of course, have been following this story with great interest as my upcoming novel “In This Place You Hold Me,” the second in my series “The Games Men Play,” is about a quarterback’s search for identity – sexual, racial, familial and national – in the beautiful, brutal world of the NFL.)

Sam asked to be judged on his merits, and, to their credit, the NFL and the Rams have done just that. Let’s hope his teammates and opponents, the press and we fans can do the same.

And forget March Madness. They should call this merry month May Madness.

The equine Ali-Frazier – Affirmed and Alydar

May 10, 2014

Amid California Chrome’s quest for the Triple Crown of Thoroughbred racing – which continues May 17 with The Preakness at Pimlico Race Course in Maryland – comes Linda Carroll and David Rosner’s juicy new book “Duel for the Crown: Affirmed, Alydar, and Racing’s Greatest Rivalry” (Gallery Books, $26, 360 pages). It tells the story of two coppery 3-year-old colts – laidback Affirmed out of upstart Harbor View Farm in Florida and high-strung Alydar out of Calumet Farm in Kentucky, the New York Yankees of Thoroughbred dynasties – who in the spring of 1978 offered racing fans and the general public alike two very different approaches, the authors write:

“Despite their similar chestnut coloring and their shared bloodlines as descendants of the great Native Dancer, Affirmed and Alydar boasted the kind of clashing styles and complementary personalities that fuel the most enduring rivalries. Off the track, the refined Affirmed was as relaxed and easygoing as the regal Alydar was macho and aggressive. On the track, their contrasting styles forged the equine equivalent of Ali the Boxer versus Frazier the Slugger. Affirmed, graceful and swift like Ali, was the classic frontrunner, gliding with the precision of a stopwatch and flicking his ears to alert his precocious jockey (Steve Cauthen) to an impending challenge, while Alydar, brawny and bullish like Frazier, was the classic stalker, gearing up to unleash his come-from-behind knockout punch. The classic confrontation was so close that it would all come down to one champion’s indomitable will to win.”

Indeed, they would race each other 10 times in 14 months, with Affirmed usually gaining the upper hand, er, hoof. But it wasn’t easy.

Art imitates life for NFL-bound Caraun Reid

May 8, 2014

In the Too Funny Department, Caraun Reid – a defensive tackle who graduated from Princeton, sings and plays guitar – may be picked as early as the third round of the NFL Draft. Why is that funny? Because as a novelist struggling to create believable athletic protagonists, I have worried about making them too intellectual and cultural (like me). Then along comes Reid to demonstrate I had nothing to worry about, that God is the best writer and that we shouldn’t be so quick to assume that a jock can’t be a brainiac as well.

But then, I already knew that. In my upcoming novel, “In This Place You Hold Me,” deeply troubled star quarterback Quinton Day Novak attended Stanford where he studied classics. Who’s going to believe this? I thought. Until the Jonathan Martin hazing incident broke, and it turned out, yep, he went to Stanford and majored in classics. You can’t make this stuff up.

May 18: Reading Genet at The Lionheart

May 7, 2014

It’s a perfect pairing when you come to think about it: I’ll be reading from my new novel “Water Music” May 18 at The Lionheart Gallery in Pound Ridge while the gallery is hosting “Purging Genet,” an exhibit of David Hutchinson’s paintings, drawings and sculpture that were inspired by the writings of the perverse gay writer Jean Genet.

Perverse doesn’t begin to describe the late French novelist (“Our Lady of the Flowers”), playwright (“The Maids”) and memoirist (“Prisoner of Love”). An abandoned child and reform school student-turned-thief, male prostitute and convict, Genet sought redemption and transcendence through degradation. He was one of the authors I flirted with as a voracious young reader. And while he remains a bit outré for my tastes, I have to wonder if there isn’t a bit of Genet in the games my men play.

Hutchinson, a Pound Ridge resident, considers the play between words and images in color-coded paintings and ink drawings that layer translations over the original French, creating new patterns that “purge” the original.

Cinderella males: Jason Collins and California Chrome

May 5, 2014

The greatest story in sports is the Cinderella story, in which the player – perhaps he or she is even of the four-legged kind – comes out of nowhere or overcomes tremendous obstacles to triumph. Indeed, the reason the Cinderella story is a cliché is because we’ve seen it time and again and love it so.

In my new novel “Water Music,” the Cinderella man is Iraqi tennis prodigy Alí Iskandar, who withstands war, abuse, uncertainty and even a jealous rival to become world No. 1. And though his friends and lovers – Alex, Daniel and Dylan – have more materially to begin with, they, too, face real challenges in the quest to be the best. Maybe that’s why sports feature so many story lines of perseverance. Sports not only represent a way out for the athlete, but they attract the kind of people who already know what it’s like to be in it for the long haul.

At the moment, we’re being treated to several Cinderella tales, not the least of which features Joyce DiDonato and Juan Diego Flórez at The Metropolitan Opera. But I’d like to concentrate here on two superb athletes – Brooklyn Nets’ center Jason Collins and Kentucky Derby winner California Chrome.

The run for the roses and the trouble with horseracing

May 3, 2014

Time once again for the Kentucky Derby (6 p.m. tonight). Tara and Johnny will be there, presumably to talk fashion, not horseflesh. And there will be the usual breast-beating about whether the Cinderella winner – it’s always a Cinderella winner, with California Chrome this year’s front-runner and feel-good story, though some like Wicked Strong – will go on to become the first horse since Affirmed in 1978 to win the Triple Crown.

A confession: I’ve always loved horseracing, particularly the Triple Crown, which is at the heart of “Criterion,” the third novel in my series, “The Games Men Play.” As a child, I once memorized all the Triple Crown winners. My favorite is Affirmed, a racehorse so smart that you could call him by name and he’d come to you. Or so Lou Sahadi, his biographer, once told me. There’s just something about that select club of excellence, its distinctive personalities and the way the horses thunder around the track, all that sleek power and speed. Plus, they’re beautiful animals.

But beauty often goes hand-in-hand with brutality – at least in my books, which deal with the world of sports.