Retirements Change Face of Evanston Libraries

North Branch

By Victoria Scott

Muriel Schwartz says she will miss "the children and the singing and interacting with 3-5-year-olds one way and 6-10-year-olds another."

Retiring this fall after 34 years with the North Branch of the Evanston Public Library, she says she remembers the days of the card catalog, when "you looked up SEX and the card said 'See Librarian.'"

Ms. Schwartz was trained as a teacher and taught at Oakton School before having children. But when the last of her offspring went to school, she yearned to work "someplace where people wanted to be," she says. She learned about a vacancy at the Evanston Public Library's North Branch while she was next door at the A&P.

A storytelling workshop at National College was the impetus for the storytelling workshop she founded with two friends. She shared the gift of her stories with thousands of children at the library and local preschools through the years.

In retirement, Ms. Schwartz says, "I walk a lot. I can read at 2 in the afternoon." And, she says, "I just had my piano tuned. Now I play just for fun. If the fingering is wrong, no one cares."

Still passionate about the value of the branches, she says, "A small branch [library] is a social service agency. We know our patrons; it's a wonderful sharing."

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South Branch

By Victoria Scott

Sally Schwarzlose retired as manager of the Evanston Public Library's South Branch on Sept. 29, lured by the City's early retirement benefits.

She spent 33 years with the library, beginning at the old main building. Having left the field of early childhood education, she earned a master's degree in library science while working in the children's department at the Main Branch.

Ms. Schwarzlose moved to the South Branch 12 or 13 years ago and praises the "community feeling" there, emphasizing the diversity of patrons who come from the homeless shelter as well as from lakefront homes. "They are all there together," she says. Though discussion about closing the branches arises every few years, she says their "value in people's lives is hard not to embrace."

Ms. Schwarzlose sees the South Branch as a library outreach program whose offerings include three Internet stations and a wireless connection. There are children's programs, a monthly book club, books on tape and CD and magazines that can be checked out.
Besides catching up with friends and family in retirement, Ms. Schwarzlose is taking time to savor two long books, "The Golden Notebook" by Doris Lessing and "Old Path White Clouds: Walking in the Footsteps of the Buddha" by Thich Nhat Hanh.

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By Victoria Scott

Back in his childhood no one would have bet on Neal Ney's becoming a librarian. Mr. Ney, who retired last month after 15 years as director of the Evanston Public Library, cites his two reasons for entering the field of library science.

The first reason, he says, was to "discharge my debt to Ms. Milverstead." She taught him to read -- in fourth grade.

Not only did he have "no interest in books" before encountering Ms. Milverstead, says Mr. Ney, but he claims he was also what today would be termed "stupid and ill-behaved" in school.

Then Ms. Milverstead taught him phonics -- from "gum-scented books with gift-wrap paper covers," Mr. Ney recalls -- and set him on a path to reading. But he says he found himself "unemployable" as a liberal arts college graduate in the 1960s - his second reason for becoming a librarian.

He fell upon what he calls the "unobjectionable" notion of a library career. He liked to read, and when he found himself in the Aurora (Ill.) Public Library his senior year of college, he decided "it would be a cool place to work."

He enjoyed his job in the Chicago Historical Society library so much he envisioned spending his whole life in history libraries. "I wanted to be a reference librarian," he says, "and hang out in the stacks and help people." He had no intention of becoming an administrator.

But he became one - in Chicago, then Kankakee, then Park Forest. He arrived in Evanston in 1992 just in time to oversee construction of the new library and formulate policies for it.

Along with the directorships came obligations for fundraising, which, though time-consuming, he terms "pretty exciting. It shows a tangible commitment to library service by the community." In 1998 Mr. Ney says he and the library board furthered the library's financial position by selling a valuable painting. The resulting $2 million endowment has financed increased programming for both children and adults, he says.

In August 2007 the EPL unveiled a redesigned space for children and teens. And Mr. Ney says his proudest accomplishment was perhaps to create the position of children's outreach librarian.

Since retiring, he has taken to the outdoors, riding 500 miles on his bicycle and hiking every Friday last fall.

An avid reader, Mr. Ney admits that the future of the printed word is murky. It "could go any way," he says. His Sony Reader lets him take along many books on a trip. But the batteries also die.

Though he calls the future of physical collections "an open question," he doubts that libraries will disappear. "Most bright, active people will need more than they can buy," he says. "A children's book is still the best introduction to reading." And, he says, communities will still need libraries for meeting and study space - and for "interpreters" like the reference staff and other librarians, whom he describes as "committed to organizing knowledge and providing open access to intellectual resources."

Chess Night at the Library

Evanston Scholastic Chess coaches and families offer Drop-In Chess Night on the first Thursday of the month at 7 p.m. at the Evanston Public Library, 1703 Orrington Ave.

The program is free and open to players of all ages and abilities. Call 847-448-8600.

Film Review

'Margot at the Wedding'

By Brian Murphy

The Boston-based punk-rock band Dropkick Murphys has a song called "The Torch" about a "bitter old man who's done nothing but work."

The song describes the negative impact parents have on the lives of their children, either directly or indirectly. The song continues: "Ignorance is something you can't overcome/But you've passed it on down and that's something much worse/For a bitter young man ... is now taking the torch."

Writer/director Noah Baumbach's films play like classic Woody Allen - neurotic characters desperately in need of therapy, elitist intellectualism substituting for human compassion and settings in or around New York City.

However, unlike Woody Allen, Mr. Baumbach, in his second effort, "Margot at the Wedding," as in his critically lauded debut, "The Squid and the Whale," spends time dissecting the lives of children affected by their parents' infidelities and insecurities and the impact of mental abuse on two generations.

The combination of casting director Douglas Aibel's keen eye for young talent and Mr. Baumbach's deft leadership coaxed mature performances from adolescents such as Owen Kline and Jesse Eisenberg ("The Squid and the Whale") and have struck gold again here with the quiet, unsure and utterly realistic performance of Zane Pais in his debut role.

As Claude, Pais plays a confused, mentally abused young boy whose bipolar mother, Margot (Nicole Kidman), cannot decide whether or not to leave his father (John Turturro) for another lover. In a characteristic incident, Margot, a bitter writer still affected by her own parents' mental and physical abuse, practically begs Claude to wear the cool sunglasses she bought for him at the film's beginning. Near the end of the film, she tells him they make his face look "wide," both confusing and degrading him.

The film is set at Margot's deceased parents' house in upstate New York, where her sister, Pauline (Jennifer Jason Leigh), lives with her daughter, Ingrid (Flora Cross). Pauline is planning a weekend wedding, her second, at the house; she plans to marry boyfriend Malcolm (Jack Black is solid in a low-key role). The setting is ripe for bitter sibling rivalries to thrive: Humiliating childhood stories rise to the surface, highlighting for the children their mothers' unsettling roots and behavioral flaws.

Mr. Baumbach's intelligent script, while peppered with some odd comedic moments, is again firmly grounded in reality and is so psychologically relevant it could be shown to patients in therapy for parental abuse.

Margot and Pauline have resigned themselves to their lives apart, with Margot content in her life in Manhattan. We know they must love each other, and they know one another better than anyone else in the world. That said, they are as vicious to one another as two people can be. They use their children as pawns in their twisted games, bring up childhood tragedies to embarrass one another and try to convince everyone that the other sister is the "crazy" one.

They clearly both have issues. "Margot tried to murder me when we were girls," Pauline mentions during dinner, referring to the time Margot put her in the oven and tried to cook her. Theirs was not a healthy childhood.

Like "The Squid and the Whale," "Margot at the Wedding" deals with a family on the verge of a divorce - and with children dealing with the fallout. In both films, young boys are sexually obsessed with women far too old for them, and it does not take a Freud scholar to figure out the reason. Mr. Baumbach has crafted another astute, symbol-laden film about a bruised family that passes down abuse from one generation to the next.

Rated R for sexual content and language.

Books and Music by Evanstonians, 2007

Evanston is home to many writers, painters, poets and musicians.

In 2007, some recorded albums and others published children's books, short stories and memoirs, sharing with the rest of the world what most residents already know: Evanston is a world-class arts town. Some noteworthy releases in 2007:

"Angles of Refraction" is a collection of original jazz compositions recorded by the James Davis Quintet.

"Crossing Hoffa: A Teamster's Story," written by Steven J. Harper, tells the true story of how the author's truck-driver father faced off with Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa to clean up corruption in the powerful union.

"Further Persons Imperfect," edited by Paul McComas, is a collection of 17 short stories written in the first person by 17 local authors.

"Sugarcane Academy," written by Michael Tisserand, a former longtime resident of New Orleans, tells the true story of a makeshift school set up by Hurricane Katrina evacuees.

"Renewal in the Wilderness," written by John Lionberger, the head chaplain at the Three Crowns Park retirement community, is about the power of experiencing God's presence in the natural world.

"A Poet's Bird Garden," written by Laura Nyman Montenegro, is a children's book that tells the story of a little girl who enlists the help of five poets to retrieve her pet bird.

EYE ON EVANSTON

Recommended Reading

For anyone interested in architecture (and informed about the Evanston public's involvement with any proposed new building in the City), I highly recommend a new book both to read and to give as a Christmas present. It is "Makers of Modern Architecture" by Martin Filler.

Mr. Filler, the architecture critic for House & Garden and a regular contributor to the New York Review of Books, has an art history degree from Columbia University. He writes well and is understandable to the layman. He comprehends the technical intricacies of architecture thoroughly and conveys these complexities to the reader spiced with "behind the scenes" happenings in a truly enjoyable way. I had a hard time putting the book down.

Each of the book's 17 chapters, devoted to one architect, was originally an article in the New York Review of Books. "Makers of Modern Architecture" is organized chronologically. It begins with Louis Sullivan, Wright and Mackintosh and continues with Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier, Alvar Aalto and Louis Kahn, all the way to chapters about Phillip Johnson, Frank Gehry, Renzo Piano.

The book closes with the controversies over the 9/11 site (Daniel Liebeskind) and the question of whether architecture should move, as do the motorized wings at the Milwaukee Art Museum (Santiago Calatrava).

The English star architect, Norman Foster, also gets it. Mr. Filler writes that if Mr. Foster is the Mozart of modernism (according to The New Yorker), then Gordon Bunshaft (of Skidmore Owings & Merrill) is its J. S. Bach - proving that it is entirely possible for an architecture critic to have a tin ear as well as a tin eye.

Mr. Filler has strong opinions to share with the reader. He thinks little of Phillip Johnson and does not hesitate to refer to the architect's Nazi past. Mr. Filler does not hesitate to criticize Richard Meyer, whose conglomeration of Los Angeles mountain-top buildings for the Getty Center is quite unsuccessful. He thinks that Daniel Liebeskind is something of a wimp, but his replacement for the 9/11 Freedom Tower and David Childs of Skidmore Owings & Merrill is a "dreadful designer."

Mr. Filler talks about the work of Mr. Calatrava as "flashy contours, flamboyant engineering effects and mechanical flummery." He shares with the reader the politics of the architect selection process as well as of cost overruns like that of the Getty Center, the cost of which reached $1 billion.

I found two of Mr. Filler's chapters especially satisfying, one about Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown, who deserve all the attention Mr. Filler gives them. Venturi's 1966 book, "Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture," was a seminal work. The other gratifying chapter was about the design work of Charles and Ray Eames, who changed American interiors significantly.

I missed a chapter on the pioneering design work of Skidmore Owings & Merrill and one on Paul Rudolph.

As a Chicago architect I would have liked more than a mention of Helmut Jahn, and I regret that such an outstanding architect as Harry Weese was not even mentioned.

The joy of reading Mr. Filler's book was increased for me by the fact that, despite being a hardbound book with illustrations, the format is small and the book is light enough for me to hold in one hand while resting on my back. That frees my other hand to reach for peanuts, bagel chips or popcorn.

BOOK REVIEW

"Bridge of Sighs"

A Book Review By Sue Brooke

"Bridge of Sighs" is the latest novel by Richard Russo, who won the 2002 Pulitzer prize for "Empire Falls."

At age 60, Lou reminisces about his life and his youth, particularly his painful teenage years. An only child, he was quiet and timid and lived with his family on the wrong side of the tracks in a small New England town. The tannery was the main industry in town, and everyone was used to the idea that the color of the river varied daily with the tanner dye in use.

Lou's father, Big Lou, delivered milk door-to-door, along a route on the right side of town. Big Lou was always the optimist. He treated everyone well and expected the best in return. Lou's mother, Tessa, was more of a realist, and Lou resented that she always looked for the bad side. Tessa could foresee the day when people would not want milk delivered - they would just pick it up at the new A&P food store. But Big Lou maintained milk tasted better out of bottles and that people would not give up such a good thing.

As Lou grew up, he remained an innocent, taking after his dad in many ways. His only friend was Bobby Marconi, who lived next door. But Bobby went to a different school, and sometimes he was not allowed out to play - or at least not allowed to play with Lou. Their fathers did not get along at all. But without Bobby, Lou was afraid to venture out very far. The big kids bullied him, but they left Bobby alone.

This is a novel about friendships and family amid the economic hardships of small-town America and about the American dream. It is about fathers and sons and how parents want for their children a life they never had - or maybe a life like the one they had. It is about people who feel confined by the safe and cautious road and those who are too timid to try. It is also about young love and first friendships and about regrets and anger. The characters tiptoe into those secret emotional spaces we all have, but they do not intrude. This is a book I so enjoyed reading that I never wanted it to end, yet I found the story so compelling I just has to keep reading. "Bridge of Sighs" should win Richard Russo more major awards.