Notes from December's Not Fiction Book Discussion

We ended our 2008 discussions with Maira Kalman's The Principles of Uncertainty, an illustrated journal of a year of her life originally published as a monthly blog for the New York Times. Many of us were surprised that such a whimsically illustrated book could address existential questions. Kalman asks, "How are we all so brave as to take step after step? Day after day? How are we so optimistic, so careful not to trip, and then do trip, and then get up and say O.K." Even more boldly, she asks, "What is the point?" We agreed that her affectionate portraits of the people and things she encountered during that year are her answer to her questions--she finds meaning in the variety of life around her and in the very act of observing and recording that life. A few readers found Kalman's observation of people and things to verge on compulsive collecting. And a few also felt that this collecting and describing took the place of the meaningful personal detail usually found in a memoir. However, other readers appreciated the quirkiness and variety of her catalogs. They also felt that her reticence about the details of her personal life conveyed much about her experience of loss and grief over the death of her husband, Tibor Kalman, and mother, Sara Berman, which she mentions only by insisting that she cannot speak of those losses. The title of Kalman's book asks readers to consider what the principles of uncertainty are for them--the unavoidable facts of change and loss, the possibility of continuing on with hope and humor in spite of these facts. As we face a new year filled with both uncertainty and possibility, we can keep in mind Kalman's closing advice, gleaned from a World War II propaganda poster: "Keep Calm and Carry On."