It was 1997 when I first came across Jeffrey Eugenides’s novel The Virgin Suicides. I was in my public library browsing through the many sacks when the book’s title made me stop walking. I took it out of the row and was intrigued. I did not want to read the back of the book. Instead, I decided to check it out and take it home. I went to my favorite reading spot at home and opened the first page. I was totally engulfed by the words because I felt like it was a Southern Gothic novel set for teenage girls. I read the whole book in one sitting because it felt like those words on the pages were similar to what I thought I was going through as a pre-teen. Middle school was rough for me because I felt like a loner.
My best friend was books because with books, I could escape and live many lives through someone else’s pages. Jeffery Eugenides captured all of my pre-teen emotions fully in this book. I read the book thrice that year until I finally convinced myself to buy my copy.
It was not until the year 2000 that I was walking by a store and saw the movie post for the movie:
I was surprised that there was a movie made from it. I wonder if the film would capture all of my teenage emotions. Did the movie capture all of the gothic spookiness I felt between the words from the book?
I was able to track down the movie on cable a couple of years later on the Sundance channel. I absolutely loved this movie. It captured many emotions I felt the first time I read the book.
But what stayed with me for a very long time was the soundtrack:
The Air (the score version) and the movie soundtrack stuck with me for the longest time. For most of my teenage years, I had to rebuy both versions of the soundtrack because I played it so much that I made a clear hole out of the CDs. The movie soundtrack introduced me to such artists as Todd Rundgren and 10cc.
And yes, this scene made me fall in adoration for Trip Fontaine:
Even to this day, this movie’s soundtrack and score play in constant rotation in my playlist. Because it captures the eternal feelings of all of my teenage emotions and has a good set of songs!
What movie soundtrack(s) was the soundtrack to your teenage years?
The Criterion Collection is having a spring sale until May 27, 2024. Here are five Criterions that are on my want list!
To Die For (1995):
Spine number 1213. Directed by Gus Van Sant and starring Nicole Kidman and Joaquin Phoenix.
Based on Joyce Maynard’s book with the same title as the movie, this dark comedy revolves around a character named Suzanne Stone, who dreams of becoming famous and being on TV by any means.
Spine number 1227. Directed by Paul Brickman and starring Tom Cruise and Rebecca De Mornay. (this is a preorder date of July 23, 2024). I didn’t watch this movie until three years ago, but it is one of my favorite movies from the 1980s.
Spine number 58. Directed by Michael Powell. Starring Carl Boehm. This movie is one of those films that sticks with you after you watch it. One man’s weird and addictive addiction to voyeurism turns deadly.
Spine Number 277. Directed by Gus Van Sant. Starring River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves as two young swindlers on the streets with no home or attachment to anyone or anything other than the two of them.
Happy Mother’s Day to all who celebrate! Here are some book and movie recommendations to celebrate some fantastic mom characters!
Terms of Endearment (1983):
Starring Shirley MacLaine, Debra Winger, and Jack Nicholson. Directed by James L. Brook, Shirley MacLaine is magical in this as Aurora, and Debra Winger as Emma. They play two personalities that clash constantly but come together as mother-daughter when times become difficult.
Betty by Tiffany McDaniel—I read this book two years ago. It touches on topics such as poverty, violence, and abuse. Betty is one of eight siblings living in a dilapidated farmhouse the town claims is haunted and cursed. Therefore, anyone who lives in it shares those same characteristics as the farmhouse.
Carrie (1976):
Starring Sissy Spacek, Piper Laurie and Amy Irving. Carrie is not like your average teenager. She doesn’t make friends easily and has an extremely strict household.
Mommie Dearest:
Mommie Dearest by Christina Crawford. I read this book every couple of years. I remember when I first read it, I was taken aback by Christina’s shocking claims. However, reflecting back on what I read and the recent claims that have come out about the book, I still wonder which parts were the truth and which were not.
Baby Boom (1987):
Starring Diane Keaton and Sam Shepard. A few years ago, I was in a bad mood and wanted to slip away and watch a funny movie. I turned on Turner Classic Movies and saw this movie was on. It was such a cute and funny movie about J.C. Watt, who is very career-minded; however, everything stops when she learns she has inherited a baby.
The Exorcist:
The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty: Regan and her mother live in Washington, D.C. Her mom is a famous actress currently filming a movie in the area. Everything seems pleasant and wonderful until Regan starts to act weird.
What movies or books do you usually watch during this time?
Nannie Doss had many nicknames: “The Lonely Hearts Killer, the Black Widow, and the Giggling Granny. She was born in Blue Mountain, Alabama, on November 4, 1905. She had four other siblings and had an abusive and micromanaging kind of father. He often did not want Nannie and her sisters to wear makeup or any revealing clothing because he wanted to deter any men from sexually bothering them. Her father also would never allow them to go to social events such as dancing or socializing with other people outside the family. This made her despise him because he forced Nannie to work on the family farm and not go to school, which caused her to have no formal education.
When Nannie was seven, she was on a family trip to southern Alabama. She hit her head on a metal bar while sitting down on a train when the train made a sudden halt. After that accident, she had various headaches, blackouts, and major depression. Nannie said that this accident served as a significant culprit to her mental state when she killed those people.
Growing up, Nannie Doss enjoyed reading her mom’s romance magazines and fantasizing about her future love life. She was particularly fond of the Lonely Hearts section.
Her first marriage was to her co-worker at the linen factory, Charley Braggs, at 16. They dated for only four months before her father gave them consent to marry. After the two got married, her husband was steadfast in wanting to continue to live with his mother since he was her only child.
Charley Braggs’s mother took up an extreme amount of time and attention. The couple had four children and were utterly dependent on Nannie. This resulted in Nannie constantly drinking and smoking, which became a nasty habit. It created a rift between the two and started the blame game of them having affairs, and Charley Braggs would not come home for days on end.
Tragedy struck in 1927 when two of their daughter died due to food poisoning, which caused Braggs to take their other daughter and run away from Nannie. Only the youngest, named Florine, stayed with Nannie and Braggs mom, but she also shortly died. The couple got divorced in 1928 because Braggs was scared of Nannie.
Nannie remarried in 1929 to Robert Franklin Harrelson and moved to Jacksonville with Melvina and Florine. A few months into their marriage, Nannie discovered that her new husband was an alcoholic and had an assault charge. However, this was her longest marriage on record, 15 years.
In 1943, one of her daughters, Melvina, gave birth to a baby girl. She went to visit her mother shortly after she gave birth. Melvina was heavily tired and groggy due to the fact she was given ether while giving birth. She was not sure, but she thought she saw her mother put a hatpin into her baby’s head. However, when she asked her husband and sister to recall what happened, they said that Nannie had informed them that the baby had died, and they saw that she was holding the hatpin when they were told. The couple had another baby shortly after the death of the first one.
The death of their baby drove Melvina and her husband apart to the point that Melvina was dating a soldier. Nannie did not like the soldier and constantly argued with Melvina about it. While visiting her father, Melvina left Nannie to care for her baby, and the baby ended up deceased on July 7, 1945. The cause of death was asphyxia for an unknown reason. However, this did not stop Nannie from collecting a life insurance claim for $500.00 two months after he was deceased.
In 1945 Harrelson raped Nannie, and the following day she put rat poison in his whiskey jar. Harrelson was deceased by that evening.
Nannie went on to marry another husband, Arlie Lanning. They met while commuting through Lexington, North Carolina, through the Lonely Hearts column. They married three days into their relationship; however, Arlie shared traits similar to those of her previous husbands. He was a womanizer and drank heavily, but Nannie would be MIA for months at a time but still played the dutiful wife when she did come home. So, it was no surprise that Arlie Lanning died of supposed heart failure. In Arlie’s will, he left his house to his sister; however, it burned down under mysterious circumstances, but the insurance money was given to Nannie since it was still considered the couple’s home.
Nannie quickly left North Carolina and went to Arlie’s sister’s place to stay. However, Arlie’s sister became bedridden and promptly died under Nannie’s care.
Nannie was still looking for a husband and married Samuel Doss in June 1953 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He was a Nazarene minister who did not like his wife’s romance novels and did not allow them in the house. In September of that year, Samuel was in the hospital with symptoms that resembled the flu; however, he was diagnosed with a severe digestive tract infection. On the mend from treatment at the hospital, he was released from them on October 5. Unfortunately, Samuel ended up passing away on October 15, 1954. Nannie killed Samuel to collect two life insurance that she put on him. The doctor who treated him saw a red flag in that and ordered Samuel to have an autopsy. There was a noticeable amount of arsenic found in his body, and finally, Nannie was arrested.
Nannie Doss admitted to killing her mother, her mother-in-law, four husbands, and her grandson. However, it is believed that she may have killed more than what she pleaded guilty to. Her guilty plea was made on May 17, 1955, in the state of Oklahoma, and she was sentenced to life in prison since the death penalty was not an option due to her sex.
She died in 1965 in Oklahoma State Penitentiary from leukemia.
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