I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: LATETIA SADLER–“There’s a Price to Pay for Freedom (And It Isn’t Security)” (2012).

What a treat to see Latetia Sadler as the song of the day from The Current (Minnesota Public Radio).  Latetia Sadler is the voice of Stereolab.  She has a new album coming out called Silencio and this is the first single.

It’s hard to say whether or not the song “sounds” like Stereolab, because Stereolab sounds different all the time.  But this is definitely not your bubbly Stereolab.

The song opens with some dreamy slow synths which morph into some dreamy guitars.   There’s no vocals for over a minute (which makes it seem like it might be an instrumental.  When Latetia’s voice comes in (backed by a deep male voice (very un-Stereolab) the music pulls back almost entirely and Latetia’s peculiarly inflected words [ree-uh-li-TEE] come to the fore.  It’s hard to believe that such a dreamy song would be about what the title suggests it’s about.  But how about this for a stinging (if oblique) final line: “Happy to identify with a reflection in merchandise.”

I prefer Stereolab’s bubblier music to their more dreamy, languid songs.  This one is nice, and because of her voice, it’s intriguing.  But I’d need a beat more oomph to want to get a whole record.

[READ: July 6, 2012] “An Abduction”

Tessa Hadley is rapidly turning into one of my favorite authors.  I only know her from reading New Yorker stories and I really must expand beyond these glossy pages.

This story was really fantastic.  I loved how the title has one meaning–the obvious meaning, which is even stated in the story–at the beginning, but by the end, the meaning changes to something else.

And what a great opening to a story: “June Allsop was abducted when she was fifteen, and nobody noticed.”  Shocking!  Then Hadley contextualizes this oversight: “This happened a long time ago, in Surrey, in the nineteen-sixties, when parents were more careless.”  Hmm.

So Jane was home from boarding school–her older brother was studying for college, her younger sister was not yet in boarding school and still had friends locally.  So, yes, Jane was bored.  She tried her best to have fun, but was really stumped.  When her father drove down the driveway past her and she accidentally hit his car with the ball from her Jokari set (paddle ball), the only fun she was having was destroyed.  Her father drove off in a huff.

Driving past him on the road was a two-seater convertible with the top down and three long-haired boys driving.  Her dad scowled at them, but paid them no mind.  Which is a shame as they are the abductors of young Jane.

What I liked about the story was that it changed perspective throughout.  Not in a disconcerting way but in a fill-in-the-gaps way.  So, suddenly we meet the abductors–three boys in college staying at one of the boy’s parents’ house and having a grand old time.  They slept till 4PM, stayed up all hours and were now out looking for women.  And there was Jane.

The abduction is not forceful and is entirely voluntary.  Even though she has no idea what she’s doing or where they are taking her, she hops in happily.  Their first act is to shoplift from an off-license and their second act is to start drinking (Jane feels bad about the shoplifting).  Jane has some wine, but they are careful not to force any on her.  Then they head back to the house.  One of the boys suggests they go swimming.  Jane, after some alcohol and feeling uninhibited, is about to take off her clothes when Fiona, one of the boy’s sisters comes home and offers Jane her bathing suit.  The mood is killed.

Except that with young, wild teens, it never is.  And Jane has been lusting after Daniel the whole trip–he’s beautiful and carefree–easy going and smart.  And she can’t take her eyes off him.  Neither can Fiona.

The rest of the scene plays out in expected and unexpected ways.  We see what happens from Jane’s point of view, with some perspective from the other kids as well.  The abduction is not as horrible as it could have been, except that it is devastating to Jane.  And, so I’m not leading anyone down a seemingly inevitable path–she’s not forcibly raped or tortured or anything like that.

All of the story takes place in about 20 hours.  Except for the last two sections.  And I loved this bold move as well.  We suddenly jump to Jane as an adult.  And then Daniel as an adult.  And what I found fascinating about the ending is that you have identified with Jane and you feel badly for her, especially when the ending explains in more detail the impact of this one incident.  But when you hear about what happens to Daniel, you kind of want to hate him, but Hadley not only lets him off the hook, more or less, she actually makes him a kind of sad character as well, even sympathetic.  It’s a great twist and a great story.

And again, the title has such a perfect double meaning by the end.