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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 10, 2015)
GRAB BAG book shelf • glimpse • wildlife • pop culture • words • q&a • food • fun NW BOOKSHELF Shively Just fi nished: word nerd By RYAN HUME By RYAN HUME “Fortune Smiles: Stories” by Adam Johnson >ݕDܼvli@ noun 1. John M. Shively: (1804- 1893) This Kentucky-born, Oregon pioneer is responsi- ble for platting a signifi cant swath of Astoria based off a land claim he made in 1844. Even though the claim was disputed by the Hudson’s Bay Company and Shively fl ed east, the area is still known colloquially as “Shively’s Astoria.” On March 9, 1847, he was appointed postmas- ter of Astoria and returned to open the fi rst post offi ce west of the Rocky Mountains out of his house on the hill at Fort George. In 1849, he chased riches to California during the gold rush, leaving his post unattended. As he returned to Astoria the following year, he lost all of his earnings in a shipwreck only to fi nd that he had been replaced as postmaster by John Adair. He served as a surveyor and road commis- sioner for Clatsop County and regained some of his for- tune in the 1850s when gold was discovered in southern Oregon. He died in 1893 after having been interred in an Astoria hospital for fi ve years 2. Shively Park: A 12-acre, wooded park with trails, covered picnic shelters, a small play area, and various ruins, like the last remnants of the Weinhard-Astoria Hotel, which succumbed to the 1922 fi re. Once the site of 1911 Centennial Celebration, replete with a replica of Fort Astoria, an Indian Village, an amphitheater and fountains, much of Shively Park’s former glory has gone to spoil by time and inattention 3. Shively Hall: a small Random House, 2015 meta-narrative details in the otherwise dev- astating “Interesting Facts,” it is still a testa- ment to his talent that the subjective horror of that story can stick on a person, as trained as a drone’s eye. Recommended For: Fans of George Saunders, Charles Yu, Phillip K. Dick, Gary Shteyngart, and any sci-fi readers looking to discover likeminded beings on the literature shelf. Vlautin — Portland resident, author of “The Motel Life,” and an all-around local favorite — as it was rooted in familiar terrain. Recommended For: Cropp recom- mends this novel — told in a natural, comfortable cadence — to anyone work- ing with or around troubled teens, or to any teenager who wants a break from sci- ence-fi ction and other genre fantasies. “The Gates of Evangeline” by Hester Young G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2015 Other books: “Lean on Pete” by Willy Vlautin Harper Perennial, 2010 Photo by Dwight Caswell The entrance arch of the Weinhard Astoria Hotel was all that remained after the 1922 downtown Astoria fi re. The arch was relocated to Shively Park and still stands. community hall at Shively Park with a capacity to seat 50-plus. Origin: Shively Park was named in honor of Astoria’s fi rst post- master in 1899. Shively is an Americanization of the Swiss and German surname, Schäublin or Schauff ele, which rose out of the Middle High German, shoup, meaning a “straw bundle,” with the addition of the diminutive suffi x –lin. Literally translating to “little bundle of straws,” the nickname was applied to skinny or gaunt persons. The Shively variation fi rst appears in U.S. immigration documents dating back to the late 18th century. “In line of offi cial business, Shively had received from the Postmaster Gen- eral on March 26, 1847, a contract to transport all of the mail from Indepen- dence, Missouri, to Oregon…. Leaving Independence about the end of April, the Shivelys reached Astoria in the fall of 1847. The new Astoria postmaster lost no time in setting up the post of- fi ce in a downstairs bedroom of his home, a house he had purchased from the Rev. Ezra Fisher…. Astoria was the distribution mail center for the entire Northwest, including the present states of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and part of Montana, but the offi ce was handi- capped by lack of transportation facili- ties and roads.” —Edith M. List, Howard M. List and J.M. Shively, “John M. Shively’s Memoir, Part II,” Oregon Historical Quarterly, Vol. 81, No. 2, Summer 1980, P. 188-189 “My dog and I enjoy our walks in Shively Park, during which we may not meet another soul. Hidden behind one of Astoria’s reservoirs, off the road to the dump, Shively Park seems forgotten.” —Dwight Caswell, “The faded glory of Shively Park,” Coast Weekend, Nov. 19, 2015 Plot Notes: In “Nirvana,” a program- mer artifi cially reanimates a recently assas- sinated president, who becomes his only real confi dant while his paralyzed wife slips further away from him, obsessed with a certain Northwest band whose singer chose an early exit. In “Interesting Facts,” a breast cancer survivor alternates between rage and pathos as she views her family and a world that has moved on without her. And in the title story, Johnson revisits the Korean Peninsula, this time to watch the fate of two defectors from the North as they come to terms with their indecipherable new lives in the South. Take Away: In this collection of six long and intense stories, Johnson confi rms that we do indeed live in the future right bleeping now, though the prognosis is still out on if we are any better off for it. With his fourth book — his fi rst since taking home the Pulitzer in 2013 for his previous, North Korea-set novel, “The Orphan Master’s Son” — Johnson plows headlong into his evolv- ing theme of how technology and other overwhelming, invisible forces shape and mitigate individual human experience, and he grabbed a National Book Award for this collection in November to boot. These sto- ries are dark, sometimes painful even, but, when it’s working in sync, as it does in “Nir- vana,” the title story and “Hurricanes Anon- ymous,” Johnson’s shifting prose, his spot-on imagery and his bursts of humor make even the most tragic premise undeniably human. When it doesn’t exactly compute, like the Recommended By: Buddy Cropp of Godfather’s Books in Astoria Plot Notes: When 15-year-old un- derdog Charley Thompson moves from Spokane, Washington, to Portland, things get tough. When his father dies, things get even tougher still. Why You Should Read: Cropp latched on to this moody, coming-of-age novel by Recommended By: Lisa Reid of Lucy’s Books in Astoria Plot Notes: Led by dreams about chil- dren in peril, New York journalist Charlotte “Charlie” Cates, having recently lost her own child, is drawn to Louisiana, the Deveau family and an infamous 30-year-old miss- ing-child case. Why You Should Read: Reid off ers up this pulse-pounding debut, recently named one of Publishers Weekly’s Best Books of 2015, as it was one of the few books she read recently that kept her guessing all the way to the end. Recommended For: Those who will enjoy a Southern Gothic family epic puz- zle-boxed inside of a spooky whodunit. ART CARDS, ARTISAN CRAFTS, GALLERY & WORKING STUDIO 1133 COMMERCIAL ST. ASTORIA 503.468.0308 December 10, 2015 | coastweekend.com | 21
