steven03tx's 2011 reading: part two

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steven03tx's 2011 reading: part two

Dieses Thema ruht momentan. Die letzte Nachricht liegt mehr als 90 Tage zurück. Du kannst es wieder aufgreifen, indem du eine neue Antwort schreibst.

1StevenTX
Bearbeitet: Jul. 19, 2011, 11:14 pm

Part one is here.

2StevenTX
Bearbeitet: Dez. 27, 2011, 9:19 am

Reading summary for 2011

Top 5 books
Germinal by Emile Zola
The Story of the Stone (or The Dream of the Red Chamber) by Cao Xueqin
The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky
The French Lieutenant’s Woman by John Fowles
The War of the End of the World by Mario Vargas Llosa

Most unique books
The Sufferings of Prince Sternenhoch by Ladislav Klima
69 Things to Do with a Dead Princess by Stewart Home

Least favorite books
The Last Battle by C. S. Lewis
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
No More Mr. Nice Guy by Howard Jacobson

Authors’ nationalities/ethnicities read

The Americas
American
Argentinian
Canadian
Peruvian

Europe
Belgian
Czech
English
French
German
Irish
Italian
Norwegian
Polish
Portuguese
Romanian
Russian
Scottish
Serbian
Spanish
Swedish

Africa
Egyptian
Kenyan
Libyan
South African
Sudanese

Asia and Oceania
Australian
Chinese
Indian
Iranian
Japanese
Kyrgyzstani
Pakistani

3StevenTX
Jul. 20, 2011, 12:18 am

I'll start this thread off by reporting a bit of good fortune at the used book store today. Among other items, I bought a copy of Mirror Dance by Lois McMaster Bujold off the clearance shelf for 85 cents. When I got home I discovered it was a signed first edition that should probably have sold for 100 times as much. This makes at least six autographed books that I've serendipitously acquired this way.

4Jargoneer
Jul. 20, 2011, 7:22 am

Felt the same way as you about Soldiers of Salamis. Initially I thought it was going to be one of those novels that end up being more about the writer and writing but it really gained depth and power as it progressed. It ended up being one of the best novels I have read. I have the new book on loan from the library, The Anatomy of the Moment, but haven't got round to it yet - it attempts to do the same thing with the failed Spanish coup of the 1970s. (When I saw that Cercas was coming to the Edinburgh Book Festival and booked my ticket right away so I am looking forward to hear what he has to say about his approach to writing).

Re Borges - I love Labyrinths but other collections I have read by him haven't grabbed me so much - not that are bad they just aren't near as good. Labyrinths strikes me as Borges' greatest hits collection.

5labfs39
Jul. 20, 2011, 10:57 am

#3 I love serendipitous finds. It has rather spoiled me to buying books at full price.

The Path to the Spiders' Nests sounds unusual and with an intriguing child narrator. Unfortunately my library doesn't carry it. I'll have to keep my eyes open for a copy.

6Jargoneer
Jul. 20, 2011, 11:23 am

I think we should all be grateful that Calvino didn't manage to write a follow-up novel to The Path to the Spiders' Nests and that failure resulted in him reassessing his whole approach to literature. I'm sure he said somewhere he stopped trying to write what he thought he should write and started to write what he wanted.

7StevenTX
Jul. 24, 2011, 10:42 am

84. The Recognitions by William Gaddis
Finished 23 July 2011



First published 1955
Included in The Western Canon
Included in 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die 2006 & 2010 editions
A "must read" in Cult Fiction: A Reader's Guide
An "honorable mention" in The Novel 100
Included in The Modern Library: 200 Best Novels in English Since 1950
A "going further" selection in The New Lifetime Reading Plan
Included in the Guardian's "1000 Novels Everyone Must Read" under "Nation"
One of Larry McCaffrey's "20th Century's Greatest Hits"
Essential reading in The Rough Guide to Cult Fiction
Recommended in The Salon.com Reader's Guide to Contemporary Authors
Listed in St. Mark's Bookshop's "Additional 100 Greatest English Language Novels of the 20th Century"
Listed in Time Magazine's "All-Time 100 Novels"

A massive and difficult but often humorous book. I can't begin to do justice to it with a simple description nor claim to have understood more than a fraction of its depth of meaning. Halfway through, I discovered an online reader's guide at http://www.williamgaddis.org/, and that helped a lot.

"Everyone has that feeling when they look at a work of art and it's right, that sudden familiarity, a sort of . . . recognition, as though they were creating it themselves, as though it were being created through them while they look at it or listen to it and, it shouldn't be sinful to want to have created beauty?"

Other books I have read by William Gaddis:
A Frolic of His Own

8baswood
Jul. 24, 2011, 1:47 pm

Something to read again steven or are you just glad you got through it?

9StevenTX
Jul. 24, 2011, 3:51 pm

It's something I should read again, but--considering how much else there is yet to be read--probably won't.

There are those who say it's best to read only the very best books, and read them over and over, but that isn't for me. I've re-read a few books in recent years, but they were either shorter works I'd first read long ago, or something my reading group was doing.

10StevenTX
Jul. 28, 2011, 9:44 am

Rabbit at Rest by John Updike
Finished 27 July 2011



This is the fourth and final novel in the once-a-decade Rabbit series. It is set in 1989 against the backdrop of the end of the cold war, the Lockerbie bombing, and growing economic anxiety. Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom, now 56, is semi-retired. The novel opens in Florida, where he and his wife now spend the winters in a condo they are buying. Free, at least for now, of financial worry, Rabbit still has two major problems on his mind: the heart disease he has developed from years of poor diet and lack of exercise, and the increasingly erratic and secretive behavior of his son Nelson, who has now taken over management of the family's Toyota dealership back in Pennsylvania.

Rabbit at Rest follows the same formula as the preceding volumes: family crises, marital infidelity, and lots of sex (though the latter is largely in Rabbit's imagination due to his age and poor health). The novel is also loaded with cultural references, moreso than its predecessors. Unfortunately, Rabbit at Rest is almost double the length of any of the three previous volumes, not because the plot requires it, but because it is fairly bloated with nostalgia. Updike seems only too aware of the iconic stature of his series and takes us too often down Memory Lane, giving a virtual recap of the three previous books.

Although I would say that the final volume is the weakest of the four, the tetralogy as a whole is a remarkable achievement and highly recommended. Each novel, written in present tense in "real time," is a veritable time capsule capturing the news, the popular culture, and the mood of its time. Rabbit Angstrom--petty, prejudiced, weak-willed and indolent--is far from being a hero. Nor is he "everyman." His life is too eventful, especially his sexual escapades, to be in any way typical. But he is, in a sense, a distillation of the dreams and anxieties of Americans in the second half of the 20th century.

Other books I have read by John Updike:
The Witches of Eastwick
Rabbit, Run
Rabbit Redux
Rabbit is Rich

11GCPLreader
Jul. 28, 2011, 11:00 am

I'm glad to hear your endorsement for the series. I've been dying to read it.

12baswood
Jul. 28, 2011, 2:23 pm

I also think it is a great series. I remember enjoying the nostalgia in the last novel and Updike does a good job in eliciting the readers sympathies in Rabbit. It is a long time since I read them all though.

13kidzdoc
Bearbeitet: Jul. 28, 2011, 5:25 pm

I need to get to that quartet, too. Thanks for giving me a good reason to read it!

14katiekrug
Jul. 28, 2011, 7:12 pm

Ditto what Jenny and Darryl said.

15StevenTX
Jul. 31, 2011, 7:28 pm

Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre
Finished 31 July 2011



This Booker Prize winning novel by an Australian author is set, oddly enough, in a small town in Central Texas. It is a dark comedy and satire told by a teenage boy accused of being an accessory to mass murder. The author initially makes fun of the middle class mannerisms and aspirations of the townspeople, but the novel gradually becomes more of an attack on America's media culture.

Maybe I'm just grumpy in my old age, but outlandish silliness isn't funny to me, just pointless. There is plenty of clever wit and few little gems of wisdom in this novel, but as the plot became ever more madcap, I enjoyed it less and less and was just glad it wasn't longer than it was.

16labfs39
Aug. 1, 2011, 12:00 am

Despite being a Booker Prize winner, I think I'll pass on this one.

17StevenTX
Aug. 1, 2011, 8:28 pm

Tea of Ulaanbaatar by Christopher R. Howard
An Early Reviewer selection, finished 1 Aug 2011



Having recently visited a traveling exhibition of artifacts from Genghis Khan's Mongolia, I was thrilled to be selected to review this ER title on modern Mongolia. It did not disappoint. Howard, who served in the Peace Corps in Mongolia, provides a vivid picture of a country in post-Soviet collapse. Rampant crime, gangsterism, alcoholism, prostitution, and abject poverty contrast with fashionable hotels and glitzy night clubs.

The plot in which an American Peace Corps worker gets involved with a previously unknown and seductively dangerous drug is both interesting in itself and as a metaphor for the perils of cultural contamination. my review

18labfs39
Aug. 1, 2011, 9:22 pm

Thumb and wishlist!

19kidzdoc
Aug. 2, 2011, 3:11 pm

I'll continue to pass on Vernon God Little, even though I'd like to be able to say that I've read all of the Booker Prize winners.

I've also thumbed your reviewed of Tea of Ulaanbaatar and added it to my wishlist.

20StevenTX
Aug. 2, 2011, 4:02 pm

Darryl, don't let my review stand between you and the goal of reading all the Bookers (something I'd like to do as well). I have little taste any more for comedy, but 20 years ago I probably would have loved a book like this. The Booker judges obviously did.

21StevenTX
Aug. 5, 2011, 8:27 pm

The Story of the Stone, Vol. 3: The Warning Voice by Cao Xueqin
Finished 4 August 2011



The story of Bao-yu and the Jia family continues, but, as the subtitle suggests, there is trouble in paradise.

Three things continue to surprise me about this 18th century Chinese novel. The boundaries between masters and servants are unusually flexible, even though the servants are technically just slaves. The level of education and financial power of women is much higher than I would have expected. And instead of the veneration of the elderly you typically associate with Asian cultures, there is a cult of youth that rivals our own in its disdain for the elderly.

22labfs39
Aug. 5, 2011, 10:28 pm

#21 Curious. Is it a good translation?

23dchaikin
Aug. 5, 2011, 10:41 pm

Hi Steven, just poking in because I've been quiet...I'm following and enjoying.

24StevenTX
Aug. 5, 2011, 11:09 pm

#22 > Of course I can't address the fidelity of the translation, but in readability I would give it an A+. The English is modern, informal and fluid, but without any inappropriate modern colloquialisms. I've often found this to be a difficult book to put down.

I may have explained this earlier in conjunction with one of the previous volumes, but there is no definitive Chinese version of the novel because the author died leaving it incomplete, unpublished, and apparently in various inconsistent draft manucripts. The translator, David Hawkes in this case, is also an editor, having selected the version--one completed by Gao E--and reconciled various gaps and inconsistencies by incorporating material from other versions. Hawkes' goal for the Penguin translation was readability rather than fidelity to any particular Chinese edition.

What I've read so far are the 80 chapters completed by Cao Xueqin. The final 40 chapters of this edition (vols 4 and 5) were written by Gao E, allegedly from Cao's notes, but that is a matter in dispute. It will be interesting to see if the style is noticeably different.

25StevenTX
Aug. 6, 2011, 8:55 pm

The Wonderful O by James Thurber



Another children's book that I read just because it is on the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die list and will now pass along to my grandchildren.

This is a clever story about a group of pirates who take over an island looking for treasure. The pirate leader, named "Black," has an obsessive hatred for the letter "O." He bans the use of the letter and orders the destruction of anything with an "O" in its name.

"A man named Otto Ott, when asked his name, could only stutter. Ophelia Oliver repeated hers, and vanished from the haunts of men."

The novel (first published 1957) is chiefly about the pleasures of language, but there is also a clear call for freedom of speech. Though it is presented as children's literature, readers younger than high school age would probably need adult help with The Wonderful O because of the advanced vocabulary (e.g. "nocturnal somnolence") and the references to figures from mythology and folklore.

26labfs39
Aug. 7, 2011, 12:07 am

Isn't there a book out now where the author leaves certain letters out of the text? I can't think of the specifics...

27StevenTX
Aug. 7, 2011, 9:11 am

Are you thinking about A Void by Georges Perec, first published 1969, written entirely without the letter 'e' (except in the author's name)? There may be others in the Oulipo school that did something like this, but A Void is the most well-known.

28GCPLreader
Aug. 7, 2011, 9:17 am

Steven, thank you for bringing this book to my attention. Labs might be thinking of Ella Minnow Pea, the cute gimicky novel of a dystopian society that outlaws letters over time and they are subsequently stricken from the novel.

29StevenTX
Aug. 7, 2011, 9:31 am

I'm sure you are right, Jenny. I hadn't heard of that one (or much else written in the last 40 years, it seems).

30lyzard
Aug. 7, 2011, 8:54 pm

or much else written in the last 40 years, it seems

Brother! :)

31labfs39
Aug. 10, 2011, 2:21 pm

Thank you, Jenny, it was Ella Minnow Pea, and thanks too Steven for the heads up about A Void. It is certainly an interesting concept.

32GCPLreader
Sept. 4, 2011, 5:18 am

Steven, you okay? where are you? what are you reading? :o)

33StevenTX
Sept. 5, 2011, 2:45 pm

Jenny, thanks for your concern. I had a heart attack earlier this year, but it only became apparent a few weeks ago how much damage there was and what limitations this would impose on me. That sent me into a bit of an emotional tailspin for a while, but I'm adjusting and things are looking up. I've decided to get back into action here on LT, but it will take me some time to catch up with my postings.

34baswood
Sept. 5, 2011, 4:26 pm

Sorry to hear you have not been well. Hope you get back on track soon steven

35dchaikin
Sept. 5, 2011, 4:46 pm

Steven - I'm really sorry to hear about your health issues. Wish you well.

36labfs39
Sept. 5, 2011, 5:46 pm

Take care of yourself, Steven, that's the most important thing. I hope you have some good books to tide you through. I may understand a little bit about the limitations issue. My surgeon called it "changing my lifestyle expectations". It's a hard thing to hear.

37GCPLreader
Sept. 5, 2011, 6:03 pm

Oh Steven, so good to hear from you. Please take it easy and follow all your doctor's advice. Great to hear things are looking up-- remember that this bookish community of friends is here for you. :o)

38kidzdoc
Bearbeitet: Sept. 6, 2011, 4:14 am

I'm very sorry to hear about your MI, and I hope that your health is improving.

39StevenTX
Sept. 6, 2011, 8:16 am

Many thanks to all of you. If someone wants to know the details of my condition, I can just tell them to read Rabbit at Rest. Fortunately the treatment options have advanced in the last 20 years. Now I can add my testimonial to those who warn you never to ignore persistent chest pain, no matter how mild. If I hadn't let a nurse talk me into going to the emergency room when I did, I'd be browsing the shelves of that great bookstore in the sky right now.

40StevenTX
Sept. 6, 2011, 8:29 am

90. The History of the Siege of Lisbon by Jose Saramago
Finished 12 August 2011



First published 1989
Translated from the Portuguese by Giovanni Pontiero 1996

Raimundo Silva is a professional proofreader living a solitary and monotonous life in Lisbon. As he is proofreading a work about the siege of Moorish-held Lisbon in 1147, a sudden flash of rebelliousness causes him to insert the word "not" in the narrative, reversing the decision by a group of Crusaders to interrupt their journey to the Holy Land and help the Portuguese win the city. It is an act that will transform his life in ways he could never expect.

This novel was totally contrary to my expectations, and perhaps that's why I didn't get as much out of it as I probably should. It isn't--as I for some reason expected it to be--a work of magical realism in which history itself is changed by Raimundo's act. Nor does it pursue that ever-popular literary theme, "the power of language." Instead it is about history itself and the uncertainty that underlies our supposed understanding of events.

I definitely recommend the novel, but it may not be the best place to start in reading Saramago.

Other works I have read by Jose Saramago:
Baltasar and Blimunda

41dchaikin
Sept. 6, 2011, 9:22 am

I've missed these kinds of reviews. Glad your posting again. I believe I'm also exploring history itself, the story verse the reality. It's not clear to me yet though. I'm reading History : A Novel by Elsa Morante.

42rebeccanyc
Sept. 6, 2011, 9:39 am

Sorry to hear about your health problems, and wishing you success in adapting to your changed circumstances. I really liked The History of the Siege of Lisbon too, and it was my first Saramago; it's made me want to read more by him, but I haven't gotten around to it yet.

43edwinbcn
Sept. 6, 2011, 12:25 pm

Hi Steven, glad to see that you feel well enough to get back to LT. I had noticed that you switched your profile to private, so I thought you needed some rest and I did not add any comment. But now its all so much more clear. My best wishes for the coming months of recovery.

44StevenTX
Sept. 6, 2011, 1:54 pm

91. The Wandering Falcon by Jamil Ahmad
Finished 13 Aug 2011



An Early Reviewer selection
First published 2011

The Wandering Falcon is a portrait of the land and people of Pakistan's frontier with Afghanistan, the "tribal areas" that have so often been mentioned in recent news. The book is a collection of short stories linked by the appearance of Tor Baz, the "falcon," an orphan who is ignorant of his origins and meanders from one region to another.

The stories depict various aspects of the lives of Pakistani tribesmen: A young married woman runs away with her lover, knowing they will spend the rest of their lives being hunted by her husband and father. A group of villagers go about the routine business of kidnapping townspeople for ransom. An old man recalls his role in the struggle for supremacy in Asia between the British and Germans in the First World War. A man sells his daughter for a pound of opium. And in the most memorable story, a tribe of nomadic herders who migrate between Afghanistan and Pakistan each season finds the border closed and a troop of soldiers barring their way.

The Wandering Falcon is a vivid depiction of a harsh and unforgiving land of impoverished people, but rich in tradition, with its own laws and customs, its own notions of love and honor. This is a very enlightening and entertaining book.

45StevenTX
Sept. 6, 2011, 2:34 pm

92. Libra by Don DeLillo
Finished 15 Aug 2011



First published 1988

Libra is a fictionalized account of the Kennedy assassination, offering a conspiracy theory in which the CIA--as is revealed in the opening pages--will play a significant role. Chapters alternate in point of view and time, telling the stories of Lee Harvey Oswald, Jack Ruby, and various fictional characters with CIA ties.

The principal point of this novel is not to advance a particular assassination theory, but to show through example how difficult it can be to understand an historical event or the motivations of a complex personality. In this respect, Libra bears some resemblance to Jose Saramago's The History of the Siege of Lisbon reviewed above.

For a native of Dallas like myself, the Kennedy assassination is a painful topic, so I approached this book with trepidation, expecting not to like it. Nonetheless, I found it well-written and enlightening, even though it was irritating not to know how much of the material on Oswald and Ruby was based on fact. If nothing else, Libra is certainly an apt cautionary tale about giving too much power and autonomy to intelligence agencies. The next government they topple, the next leader they assassinate, may be your own.

Other books I have read by Don DeLillo:
White Noise
Underworld

46StevenTX
Bearbeitet: Sept. 26, 2011, 12:43 am

93 & 94. The Story of the Stone (or The Dream of the Red Chamber) by Cao Xueqin and Gao E
Volume 4: The Debt of Tears
Volume 5: The Dreamer Wakes

Finished 22 & 24 August 2011

   

Version completed by Gao E first published 1792
These volumes translated from the Chinese by John Minford

Two-thirds of the way into this landmark novel we experience a change in both author and translator. Both changes are noticeable, but they do not detract significantly from the continuity or enjoyment of the story.

As I've probably mentioned earlier, there is no "definitive" edition of this novel, just as there is no "official" title. Cao Xueqin (1715?-1763) died leaving various manuscript copies, none of them without gaps or inconsistencies. Gao E (1740?-1815) undertook to finish and publish the novel. He said he was using Cao's notes for the final 40 chapters, but some experts dispute this. In any event, Penguin decided it was the best and most rewarding version, and scholars such as Clifton Fadiman have agreed with them.

The bottom line is that if you read another edition of the novel, you won't have any of the material in these final two volumes, which is unfortunate. Not only do they make a grand and fitting end to the story of the Jia family, but they also reveal household customs as well as political, commercial, and religious practices that aren't seen in the earlier volumes. Gao E's writing is, in general, less lyrical than Cao Xueqin's, but these volumes are faster paced and more eventful, and at the end of Volume 4 there is an unforgettable wedding scene that shouldn't be missed; it has enormous emotional impact.

The Story of the Stone is the saga of a great family in decline. In that respect it resembles such great novels as Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann, The Makioka Sisters by Junichiro Tanizaki, and The Cairo Trilogy by Naguib Mahfouz. But it is also, more than any of these, a love story and a tale of spiritual awakening.

47dchaikin
Sept. 6, 2011, 10:54 pm

#46 - I get the sense you got more out of these then the previous volumes. Enjoying your reviews.

48labfs39
Sept. 6, 2011, 11:15 pm

#46 I've been enjoying the running commentary on the Story of the Stone. It sounds fascinating. Thank you too for adding other sagas in the same vein. I've bookmarked your post.

49baswood
Sept. 7, 2011, 5:45 am

Nice to see you back steven posting those excellent succinct reviews

50StevenTX
Sept. 7, 2011, 10:13 am

#47 - I wouldn't necessarily say that I got more out of the two final volumes. I was mainly trying to make the point that, while purists may say that they aren't legitimately part of the novel, they still make an apt, entertaining, and informative conclusion. The writing in the 80 chapters written by Cao Xuequin is definitely superior than the 40 by Gao E, and I preferred David Hawkes's translation to John Minford's. Cao leisurely and poetically builds the characters and setting, while Gao gets to tear it all down with one crisis after another, so it's inevitable that the concluding volumes are faster moving. They are also much shorter, which largely explains why I was able to read them back to back.

One aspect of The Story of the Stone that I failed to mention is how it exemplifies the philosophical split in Chinese culture between the traditions of Confucianism on the one hand and Taoism and Buddhism on the other. Throughout the novel there is tension between Jia Bao-yu, the teenager who is the central character, and his father, Jia Zheng. Sir Zheng typifies the virtues of Confucianism: civic duty, family responsibility, attentiveness to ritual, studiousness, material prosperity, class consciousness, and career ambition. Bao-yu, on the other hand, has Taoist leanings. He loves nature, prefers lyric poetry over philosophy, disdains wealth, is egalitarian, believes in the supernatural, and has no ambition whatsoever.

51zenomax
Sept. 7, 2011, 11:05 am

Steven - I was in Blackwell's in Oxford (UK) yesterday and saw the above edition (in all volumes) sitting there in front of me, bold as brass.

Based on your reviews I was tempted to buy, but given that I had just bought 5 books at the other 2 bookshops I had visited earlier in the day I thought it prudent to hold fire. But thanks to your reviews the temptation remains!

52StevenTX
Sept. 7, 2011, 2:47 pm

#51 - Only 5 books in 3 bookstores? I could never restrain myself that much! Maybe that's why my wife no longer lets me out of the house alone :)

53StevenTX
Bearbeitet: Sept. 26, 2011, 12:42 am

95. Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels
Finished 24 August 2011

 

First published 1996
Winner of the Orange Prize

Jakob Beer is a seven-year-old Polish Jew who manages to escape when his family is rounded up by the Nazis. He is taken in by a Greek geologist named Athos who happens to be working in the area. Athos smuggles Jakob back to his island home in Greece, where he keeps the boy in hiding until the war ends, at which time the two of them emigrate to Toronto.

Jakob is haunted by the memories of his family, especially the uncertain fate of his sister Bella, a pianist. Under Athos's tutelage, he becomes a scholar and professional translator, but eventually decides to express his feelings as a poet.

This is a beautifully written, poetic novel full of geological and meteorological metaphors relating the earth we see and feel to our memories and moods. It captures much of the flavor of village life in Greece, as well as in the immigrant communities of post-war Canada. I wish I could say more about it, but I have difficulty relating to the idea of an otherwise healthy person being caught for a lifetime in the emotional grip of a childhood loss--not that it doesn't happen, of course.

54detailmuse
Sept. 7, 2011, 3:29 pm

Stopping by to say hello and join the well-wishes! I'm interested in Updike's Rabbit books and you're pulling me closer. I connect them with Heller's Something Happened or Lewis's Babbitt, is that appropriate? I also want to say I enjoy when you mention other titles you've read by an author, I'd like to start doing that.

55StevenTX
Bearbeitet: Sept. 26, 2011, 12:41 am

96. 69 Things to Do with a Dead Princess by Stewart Home
Finished 25 August 2011

 

First published 2002.

The novel's principal narrator is a student named Anna Noon, attending university in Aberdeen, Scotland. She meets an older man who calls himself Alan. He has a flat full of books, and when he has read the last of them, he plans to die. In the meantime, Alan is visiting all of the neolithic stone circles in southwestern Scotland, accompanied by a ventriloquist's dummy named Dudley. Anna joins Alan in his excursions, in his literary explorations, and in his extensive whiskey drinking. More than anything else, however, the two have sex... with each other, with Dudley, with friends, with total strangers, in private, in public, and in Anna's dreams.

69 Things to Do with a Dead Princess is a crazy parodic pastiche of styles and genres. It shifts from travelogue, to literary discussion, to purple-prosed erotica. There is a four page bibliography of works on the stone circles of Scotland, for those who may be interested, and what Alan had to say about his reading was so interesting that more than once I stopped to add a book to my wishlist (along with other works by Stewart Home).

56GCPLreader
Sept. 7, 2011, 4:03 pm

Steven, stop-- go back into hiding. My wishlist just can't handle your excellent recommendations! :oP

57StevenTX
Sept. 7, 2011, 4:46 pm

No way! Seven more to go, then I'll be caught up and can go back to reading (and reading everyone else's logs and adding to MY wishlist).

58labfs39
Sept. 7, 2011, 4:53 pm

Thanks for the great review of Fugitive Pieces. Onto the list it goes!

59StevenTX
Sept. 7, 2011, 5:16 pm

97. Snakes and Earrings by Hitomi Kanehara
Finished 27 August 2011

 

First published 2005
Translated from Japanese by James Karashima

The narrator of this short novel, 19-year-old Lui, describes herself as a "Barbie-girl" when she meets Ama, a moody young man sporting flame-red hair and, among other body modifications, a split tongue. Lui is so fascinated by Ama's tongue that she gets him to help her start the process by getting her tongue pierced. He brings her to Shiba-san, a sadistic tattoo artist. The three form a dark, and ultimately deadly, romantic triangle.

"I wanted to live recklessly and leave nothing behind but ashes in this dark, dull world," says Lui. This is a story of nihilism and despair, of young people who can touch reality only through pain. The writing is quite good, and this novel should appeal to those who enjoy Ryu Murakami, Bret Easton Ellis, or Dennis Cooper.

60lilisin
Sept. 7, 2011, 5:20 pm

Yes I've heard interesting things about Snakes and Earrings and have even seen a few clips of the movie. I'm interested in reading it since yes, Ryu Murakami does intrigue me and I do feel he made this genre much more pervasive.

61baswood
Sept. 7, 2011, 5:55 pm

69 things to do with a dead Princess sounds good. I have not noticed it on the 1001 books to read before you die etc. but I have added it to my to buy list.

62StevenTX
Sept. 7, 2011, 6:51 pm

#61 - I learned about 69 Things to Do with a Dead Princess from The Rough Guide to Cult Fiction.

Though Snakes and Earrings is what I would call cult fiction as well, I learned of it from the Bloomsbury Good Reading Guide to World Fiction.

Maybe I should go back to posting these "list linkages" to my reviews.

63StevenTX
Sept. 7, 2011, 7:29 pm

98. The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid
Finished 28 August 2011

 

First published 2007
Included in 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die 2010 edition
Shortlisted for the Booker Prize, the IMPAC Dublin Award, and the James Tait Black Award

In a marketplace in the city of Lahore, a bearded Pakistani man accosts a solitary American. Reassuring the nervous American that he means him no harm, Changez, the Pakistani, proceeds to tell his life story, beginning with his arrival in America to attend college at Princeton.

A brilliant and hardworking student, when he graduates Changez lands a position with a prestigious financial firm. He soon begins a relationship with an heiress named Erica, convivial but sexually frigid, haunted by the scars of a past relationship. Knowing that failure means a return to Pakistan and poverty, he continues to climb the professional and social ladder until September 11, 2001, when Changez sees on television the attack on the World Trade Center... and smiles.

Changez interrupts his reminiscences with comments to the nameless American about the scenes around them, reinterpreting images that he knows the foreigner will take as threatening or distasteful. In this gradual and meaningful fashion, the novel addresses the West's prejudices and misconceptions about the Muslim world. This is an unapologetic work that explains the source of some of the bitterness directed at America. It is also an excellent and captivating piece of fiction.

I would add, however, that the word "Fundamentalist" in the title is a bit misleading. There are no religious motivations behind Changez's feelings, only ones of cultural alienation and economic exploitation.

64labfs39
Sept. 7, 2011, 7:54 pm

I don't know if you are interested, but Cushla started a thread about The Reluctant Fundamentalist. It would be great if you wanted to share some thoughts there.

65StevenTX
Sept. 7, 2011, 8:05 pm

Thanks. I've starred the thread and will keep up with it.

66StevenTX
Sept. 7, 2011, 8:43 pm

99. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
Finished 1 September 2011

 

First published 2005
Shortlisted for the IMPAC Dublin Award
Listed in the Bloomsbury Good Reading Guide to World Fiction for New York

Another 9/11-related novel, this one more directly tied to the event itself. There are multiple narrators, the principal one being Oskar Schell, a nine-year old boy whose father died in the collapse of the World Trade Center. Oskar is an emotionally fragile but brilliant child, prone to obsessive behavior, and the tragedy has only accentuated these traits. He is on a quest to find the lock that fits a key he found in his Dad's closet, his only clue being the word "Black" on the envelope.

The other occasional narrators are Oskar's German grandparents whose narratives recount their survival of the fire-bombing of Dresden during the Second World War, their immigration to New York, and their strange, broken relationship.

Everywhere you turn in this book you feel you are wandering into and out of the pages of another novel. Oskar's flaky grandparents with their weird afflictions and relationships could only have been born in Garcia Marquez's Macondo before stumbling into Kurt Vonnegut's Dresden. Oskar, meanwhile, beats his tambourine like a namesake of Oskar in The Tin Drum before setting off on a quest inspired by The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Is there any genuine feeling or meaning behind this collage of borrowed postmodern elements and devices made louder and sillier? There were some clever turns and touching moments, but on the whole I felt more manipulated than inspired by Foer's construction.

67labfs39
Sept. 7, 2011, 9:12 pm

Although there are several other reviews of this posted, I would love to see yours there as well. I want to give you a thumb!

68StevenTX
Sept. 7, 2011, 9:27 pm

100! The Scar by China Miéville
Finished 3 September 2011

 

First published 2002
Second novel in the Bas-Lag series following Perdido Street Station
Winner of the August C. Derleth Award
Winner of the Locus Fantasy Award
Shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke, Hugo, Philip K. Dick, and World Fantasy Awards
Included in the Guardian's "1000 Novels Everyone Must Read" under Fantasy and Science Fiction

The Scar is a hybrid science fiction and fantasy novel, incorporating magical elements in a largely rational setting that implies--but does not offer--a scientific explanation for apparently supernatural events. The world of Bas-Lag, where technology has reached the level of our late 19th century, is incredibly rich in sentient species and exotic, often dangerous, beasts.

The events of The Scar take place immediately after those of Perdido Street Station and involve a new setting and cast of characters. It isn't necessary to have read Perdido Street Station insofar as the plot is concerned, but I strongly recommend that you do so for the sake of the additional background on the different intelligent races of Bas-Lag.

The story begins with Bellis Coldwine, a professional linguist, having to flee her native city of New Crobuzon because she is implicated in events that took place in Perdido Street Station. She takes passage in a ship bearing a load of convicts being forcibly emigrated to a distant colony. Their journey is soon interrupted, however, when the ship is seized by a pirate vessel. Bellis, the convicts, and the other passengers are born away to one of the most remarkable cities on Bas-Lag: Armada, a secret floating metropolis made up of ships and boats that the pirates have brought and chained together over centuries. Bellis is told that, like all their former captives, she is now a free and equal citizen of Armada, only that under no condition will she ever be allowed to leave or communicate with the outside world. Bellis refuses to resign herself to perpetual exile, but soon her personal concerns are overshadowed by the cataclysmic events that her ship's capture has set in motion.

The Scar is an excellent novel, addressing social and psychological issues with a maturity and balance that avoids stereotypical characters and predictable outcomes. The literary inspiration of Moby-Dick is evident, but Miéville's Ahab is not one of the central characters. I am eager to read more of Miéville's work.

69StevenTX
Sept. 7, 2011, 10:04 pm

101. Doctor Glas by Hjalmar Söderberg
finished 3 September 2011

 

First published 1905
Translated from the Swedish by Paul Britten Austin 1963
Included in A Lifetime's Reading: The World's 500 Greatest Books
Included in the Bloomsbury Good Reading Guide to World Fiction under Sweden

Doctor Glas is a novel in the form of a diary by Tyko Gabriel Glas, a Stockholm physician. He lives a solitary and embittered life, and we soon learn that, though his is approaching middle age, the doctor is still a virgin. As a youth, Glas did break through his shyness long enough to form a passionate attachment to one young girl, only to have her die of accidental drowning days later. Since then he has only been able to find himself attracted to women who are in love with someone else.

The latest such woman is Helga Gregorious, the young and beautiful wife of an old and loathsome parson. It is not, of course, the detestable minister with whom Helga is in love, and, ironically, she comes to Doctor Glas for help. She admits to having a lover, and begs Glas to invent a medical impediment that will spare her the unwanted nightly attentions of her husband. Glas is desperate to help the woman he loves, even though it will only help her fly to the arms of another man. But is he desperate enough to consider murder?

The anguished internal debate of this dysfunctional personality make for a taut and suspenseful narrative. The sexual candor of this short novel are remarkable for something published in 1905, as are its observations on such topics as abortion and euthanasia. I'm surprised that it isn't better known.

70StevenTX
Sept. 7, 2011, 10:21 pm

102. The Death of Napoleon by Simon Leys
Finished 5 September 1911

 

First published 1986
Translated from French by the author and Patricia Clancy 1991
Winner of the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize
Included in The Rough Guide to Cult Fiction

This simple little novel explores the notion that Napoleon did not die on St. Helena, but was secretly returned to France. However, his planned reception went awry, and he landed alone, unrecognized, and penniless. What would his thoughts have been? How would he have lived? How differently might he have seen his legacy?

I will admit that I may have missed something in this book, but what I read seemed to be excellent material for a short story, but rather thin soup for a novel. It was entertaining enough, but I didn't come across any fresh insight into Napoleon himself or the accident of historical greatness.

71StevenTX
Sept. 7, 2011, 10:56 pm

102. Stick Out Your Tongue by Ma Jian
Finished 5 September 2011

 

First published 1987
Translated from Chinese by Flora Drew 2006
Shortlisted for the Kiriyama Prize
Included in the Bloomsbury Good Reading Guide to World Fiction under the category "Hong Kong/Korea/Taiwan/Tibet"

Stick Out Your Tongue is a set of five linked short stories incorporating material gathered in the author's travels in Tibet. The first story describes a "sky burial" in which the body of the deceased is dismembered into bite-sized pieces and fed to wild birds. (You can see some rather gruesome pictures of this in the Wikipedia article on the topic.) The second tale takes place on the desolate shores of a salt lake high in the Himalayas. Next comes the tale of a Tibetan herdsman who, while dining on a dish of yak blood, begins with "I drank from my mother's breast until the age of fourteen. Her milk never ran dry.... I was sixteen when I first slept with my mother." The remaining stories are no less shocking.

The Chinese government allowed Stick Out Your Tongue to be published, only to ban it later as "pornography." In an afterword written from exile in 2005, Ma Jian says that his stories depict the way Tibet has been impoverished and its culture warped by Chinese domination. I find it difficult to see the connection. Neither poverty nor communism created the "sky burial," nor were either responsible for the bizarre and inhuman rituals practiced in a Buddhist monastery as depicted in the final story.

While I can't see the political statement the author says he is making, this is still an unforgettable book that makes me see Tibet in a new, unflattering light. I want to read more about the region, as well as more by Ma.

Anyone who likes this book should also enjoy The Wandering Falcon by Jamil Ahmad, an Early Reviewer book I read just a few weeks ago. What Ma does for Tibet, Ahmad does for the tribal regions of Pakistan.

72arubabookwoman
Sept. 8, 2011, 1:01 am

Gregorius: A Novel by Bengt Ohlsson tells the story of Dr. Glas from the pov of the pastor. I have read Dr. Glas, and own Gregorius but have not read it.

Best wishes with your health issues, and it's good to see you back and reviewing.

73labfs39
Sept. 8, 2011, 2:38 am

I'm curious to learn how much of Ma Jian's book is fact. It's classified as fiction, not a travelogue or anthropological study. I looked at some reviews on The Independent and the Guardian, and they use words like "mythical" and "literary truth", which makes me even more curious. When reading it, did you have a sense of what was real and what was literary? Intriguing review, btw.

74baswood
Sept. 8, 2011, 5:04 am

Oh you are back with a bang with your reviews steven. The Scar is one of my favourite sci-fi fantasy books and one of the few of that genre I would consider re-reading. I also thought Perdido Street Station was brilliant. China Mieville is indeed a fine writer. I have added Doctor Glas and Stick out your tongue to my to buy list

Great reviews

75StevenTX
Sept. 8, 2011, 10:44 am

#72 - Thanks for the info on Gregorius. I have added it to my wishlist.

#73 - Good question. Obviously the sky burial story is based on fact. The one involving prolonged nursing followed by incest certainly could have happened. One of the stories, however, involves a tale of the supernatural, yet it could have been an accurate rendition of a legend Ma heard in Tibet to explain an event that has another possible and rather sordid explanation (one that becomes obvious when you read the story).

The final story in the collection, however, is the zinger. It depicts openly celebrated initiation rites in a Buddhist monastery that involve sexual acts and deadly physical ordeals. The story is presented as the background to a cup the narrator purchased in a market--a cup made from a human skull. Nothing indicates, however, whether the practices he describes took place five years ago, or five hundred.

In Ma's words, "In Tibet, religion permeates every grain of earth. Man and God are inseparable, myth and legend are intertwined. People there have endured sufferings that are beyond the comprehension of the modern world." So I suppose he would say that these stories are culturally true even if they are not historically factual.

#74 - Well I'm all caught up now, so no more reviews until I do more reading. I'm currently enjoying The White Tiger.

76rebeccanyc
Sept. 8, 2011, 10:45 am

#72 I've read both Doctor Glas and Gregorius. I found DG grim but compelling, and G fascinating for the spin it put on the earlier work. I think you would have to be very familiar with DG, as I presume many people in Sweden are, to appreciate G.

The Ma Jian sounds intriguing. I went through a contemporary Chinese literature mini-phase several years ago, but have yet to read anything by him.

As for the Jonathan Safran Foer, I have an aversion both to him and to most 9/11 fiction, so I was interested to read your review but not encouraged to read the book.

77StevenTX
Sept. 9, 2011, 11:54 am

103. The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
Finished 8 September 2011

 

First published 2008
Winner of the Man Booker Prize
Included in 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die 2010 edition

Most you have probably already read this novel, so I don't feel that I need to say very much about it. In brief: It is the story of a self-described Indian entrepreneur and murderer, addressed to the Premier of China in anticipation of his visit to Bangalore, depicting the narrator's rise from poverty to prosperity.

The White Tiger gives us a shocking look at poverty, corruption, and class division in today's India. It shows that the country's new-found prosperity is reserved for an elect few under a social and political system that keeps the mass of the population in poverty and ignorance. Bribery and extortion by police and political leaders are a way of life.

Interestingly, Balram, the narrator doesn't place the blame for India's problems anywhere but on Indians themselves. Nor is there a prescription for change. "This is how it is," the novel simply seems to say, "and don't believe our government when they say otherwise." And it is all the more frustrating because there is no one to blame and no way out.

This is both an entertaining and an important book, but India is such a huge and complex country that I don't think you can develop a fair understanding of it based on any single work.

78StevenTX
Sept. 10, 2011, 10:42 am

104. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
Finished 9 September 2011

 

First published 1968
Shortlisted for the Nebula Award
Included in 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die 2006 & 2010 editions
Recommended in Classics for Pleasure
Included in the Guardian's "1000 Novels Everyone Must Read" under Fantasy and Science Fiction
"Recommended" in The Salon.com Reader's Guide to Contemporary Authors
Included in St. Mark's Bookshop's "Additional 100 Greatest English Language Novels of the 20th Century"
Included in 500 Essential Cult Books under "Incredible Words"
A "must read" in Cult Fiction Reader's Guide
Recommended in The Rough Guide to Cult Fiction
Included in the Bloomsbury Good Reading Guide to Science Fiction and Fantasy
Included in James Wallace Harris's "Classics of Science Fiction"
Included in David Pringle's List of "Greatest Science Fiction Novels"
One of the SF Book Club's Top 50 Fantasy and Science Fiction Books
One of SF Lists's "Top 100 Sci-Fi Books"

I read hundreds of science fiction novels back in the 1970s, and this is one I certainly should have included, but for some reason I never picked up anything by Philip K. Dick. Now, of course, it's impossible to read the novel without constantly comparing it with the movie "Blade Runner" that it inspired, perhaps the best science fiction film of all time, and one that ages exceptionally well. There are key differences, however, and the more I could put "Blade Runner" out of my mind, the more I could appreciate Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?.

The setting is San Francisco in the early 21st century. (How remote that must have sounded in 1968!) A nuclear war (no one knows who started it or who won) has left large tracts of the earth barren and lifeless. Much of the population has emigrated to new colonies on Mars and elsewhere to avoid the radioactive dust and the resultant genetic damage. To assist those emigrants, a line of androids has been developed that are virtually indistinguishable from humans. But these androids are meant as servants for colonists only, and are forbidden on Earth. Some manage to escape servitude, however, and flee to Earth where they hope to blend in with the remaining population. Rick Deckard is a bounty hunter working with the San Francisco police and charged with hunting down and killing those escaped androids.

Much of the novel centers around the concept of empathy as the characteristic which defines human beings. This is the basis for the test Deckard administers to detect androids. It is also the basis of a new religion, Mercerism, which is evangelized by means of electronic devices in every home that let individuals share their feelings collectively through the conjured image of a beleaguered Christ or Buddha-like figure named Mercer. Deckard's emerging empathy for the androids he is hunting becomes the central theme of the story.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is really a fusion of science fiction and noir crime fiction. For all his inner conflict, Rick Deckard is still a tough-talking, heat-packing cop. There are characteristic (but not excessive) amounts of alcohol, tobacco, violence and sex. The women are all beautiful and tough-talking, but troubled and unpredictable.

For all the ideas and plot turns the author throws out, this could have, and probably should have, been a longer book. There are a few inconsistencies and places where the narrative is so sparse that you want to tell the author to stop and consider the implications of what just happened before rushing on. So this wasn't quite the blockbuster novel I was hoping it would be, but it helps to consider it as a piece of thoughtful allegory rather than an attempt at a believable and coherent narrative.

Other books I have read by Philip K. Dick:
The Man in the High Castle

79labfs39
Bearbeitet: Sept. 11, 2011, 10:36 am

I'm extremely curious now to know what the connection is between Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and a sci-fi novel by John Scalzi (author of Old Man's War) called The Android's Dream and centering around a lost sheep. I haven't read it yet, but I think I had better read Do Androids Dream first, as I'll probably miss allusions otherwise. It's hard to believe the similarities are coincidental.

Edited to fix touchstones.

80rebeccanyc
Sept. 11, 2011, 11:00 am

I love the title of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? but I'm not sure it's a book I would enjoy.

81StevenTX
Sept. 11, 2011, 11:35 am

#79 - I hadn't heard of that one. You would have to assume, though, that the android/dream/sheep reference is intentional.

82labfs39
Sept. 11, 2011, 5:53 pm

I picked up The Android's Dream because I enjoyed Old Man's War. Have you read it? Android's Dream has been sitting on my shelf unread for eons.

83StevenTX
Sept. 11, 2011, 9:18 pm

No, I've had Old Man's War on the wish list I carry around with me to used book stores, but I haven't run across a copy yet. I'll keep looking.

84dchaikin
Sept. 11, 2011, 10:32 pm

Catching up, a very rich collection of reviews you have been pouring out here. Way back in post #53, Fugitive Pieces, that's on my wish list now.

85labfs39
Sept. 12, 2011, 1:50 am

I hope you are able to find a copy of Old Man's War soon. I don't read a lot of sci-fi, but I rank it up near the original Ender's Game trilogy.

86stretch
Sept. 12, 2011, 10:04 am

Your review of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? reminds me that I have add more Philip K. Dick to library. Do far all I have is the Man in the High Castle still unread. Also the discussion on followup books is just about all my wishlist can take at this point.

87StevenTX
Sept. 14, 2011, 10:22 am

Last month I read 69 Things to Do with a Dead Princess by Stewart Home (see post #55 above). It was full of intriguing references to books and authors, some familiar, many others new to me. So I decided to go back through the book and construct an index to the titles mentioned--easy enough to do since they were italicized. The list below includes every book mentioned by title and author's full name, excluding the 4-page bibliography on prehistoric stone circles in Scotland. The number in parentheses is the page number containing the reference.

Not all these books are discussed at length, of course. In the case of the Kathy Acker titles, for example, they are just titles read off a shelf with no further comment (except the narrator's implied enthusiasm for that writer). And in some cases the chapter's narrator has very negative things to say about the book.

I was going to put touchstones on all of these, but the list is so long I don't think that's practical, so I'll just touchstones the ones that get more extensive treatment in the novel or that I'm particularly interested in looking up.

Acker, Kathy - Blood and Guts in High School. (16)
Acker, Kathy - Bodies of Work. (16)
Acker, Kathy - Don Quixote. (16)
Acker, Kathy - Empire of the Senseless. (16)
Acker, Kathy - Eurydice in the Underworld. (16)
Acker, Kathy - Great Expectations. (16)
Acker, Kathy - Hannibal Lecter My Father. (16)
Acker, Kathy - In Memoriam to Identity. (16)
Acker, Kathy - Literal Madness. (16)
Acker, Kathy - My Mother: Demonology. (16)
Acker, Kathy - Portrait of an Eye. (16)
Acker, Kathy - Pussy, King of the Pirates. (16)
Allan, Jay - Bloody Casuals: Diary of a Football Hooligan. (73)
Arato, Andrew & Eike Gebhardt - (eds.) The Essential Frankfurt School Reader. (57-58)
Aubrey, John - Brief Lives. (150)
Baigent, Michal & Richard Leigh - The Temple and the Lodge. (52)
Ballard, J. G. - Cocaine Nights. (47-48)
Barber, Stephen - Antonin Artaud: Blows and Bombs. (139)
Barris, Chuck - Confessions of a Dangerous Mind: An Unauthorized Autobiography. (91)
Baudrillard, Jean - Cool Memories. (22)
Baudrillard, Jean - Symbolic Exchange and Death. (170)
Beard, Steve - Perfumed Head. (47-48)
Bobarzynski, Anthony - Stasi Slut. (25)
Bonaparte, Napoleon - How to Make War. (96)
Boswell, James - the Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides. (62)
Bracewell, Michael - The Crypto-Amnesia Club. (17)
Bracewell, Michael - Missing Margate. (17-18)
Bracewell, Michael - Saint Rachel. (17-18)
Brottman, Mikita - Meat Is Murder: An Illustrated Guide to Cannibal Culture. (90)
Brown, Norman O. - Life Against Death. (170)
Bruen, Ken - The Hackman Blues. (55)
Buckley, Jonathan - The Biography of Thomas Lang: A Novel. (104-105, 110)
Burns, Christopher - About the Body. (71-72)
Burns, Christopher - The Condition of Ice. (71)
Burns, Christopher - The Flint Bed. (71-72)
Burroughs, William S. - Naked Lunch. (148)
Campbell, James - Paris Interzone: Richard Wright, Lolita, Boris Vian and others on the Left Bank 1946-1960. (122)
Carlyle, Thomas - The French Revolution. (77)
Carlyle, Thomas - History of Frederick the Great. (77)
Clover, Clarence J. - Men, Women and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film. (90)
Davidson, Doris - The Brow of the Gallowgate. (74)
Davidson, Doris - The Road to Towanbrae. (74)
Davidson, Doris - Time Shall Reap. (74)
Davidson, Doris - Waters of the Heart. (74)
Deleuze, Giles & Felix Guattari - Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. (169)
Derrida, Jacques - Of Grammatology. (22)
Derrida, Jacques - Writing and Differece. (104)
de St Jorre, John - The Good Ship Venus: The Erotic Voyage of the Olympia Press. (119)
Drummond, Bill - Annual Report to the Mavericks, Writers and film Festival. (148)
Drummond, Bill & Mark Manning - Bad Wisdom. (92)
Eliot, T. S. - Four Quarters. (56)
Farina, Richard - Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me. (47)
Forbes, John Foster - Giants of Britain. (83)
Fromm, Erich - The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness. (4, 7, 11)
Fromm, Erich - The Art of Loving. (4)
Fromm, Erich - Escape from Freedom. (4)
Fromm, Erich - The Revolution of Hope. (4)
Fromm, Erich - To Have or to Be. (5)
Fukuyama, Francis - The End of History and the Last Man. (7)
Gane, Mike - (ed.) Baudrillard Live: Selected Interviews. (23)
Gibbon, Lewis Grassic - A Scot’s Quair. (151-152)
Gilroy, Paul - The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness. (33-34, 171)
Gordon, Mary - The Rest of Life. (163)
Gosse, Edmund - Father and Son. (147)
Graham, Barry - Before. (26)
Graham, Barry - The Book of Man. (26)
Graham, Barry - Of Darkness and Light. (26)
Halle, Louis J. - The Ideological Imagination. (11)
Haraway, Donna - Primate Visions: Gender, Race, and Nature in the World of Modern Science. (23)
Harris, Frank - My Life and Loves. (106-107, 109, 112)
Healy, John - The Grass Arena. (147)
Hebdige, Dick - Subculture: The Meaning of Style. (21)
Hegel, G. W. F. - Phenomenology of Spirit. (7)
Herzen, Alexander - From the Other Shore. (7)
Howard, Dick - (ed.) Selected Political Writings of Rosa Luxembourg. (21)
Hugo, Victor - Les Miserable. (7)
Hunter, Jack - Eros in Hell: Sex, Blood & Madness in Japanese Cinema. (90)
Hyde, H. Montgomery - A History of Pornography. (126, 129)
Jay, Bee (Stanley Barker Johnson) - And It Came to Pass. (64-66)
Jay, Bee (Stanley Barker Johnson) - Ardvreck’s Shame. (64)
Jay, Bee (Stanley Barker Johnson) - The End of the Rainbow. (64-65)
Jay, Bee (Stanley Barker Johnson) - Highland Pearls. (64)
Jay, Bee (Stanley Barker Johnson) - Scotland’s Shangri-La. (64)
Jay, Bee (Stanley Barker Johnson) - Sunset on the Loch. (64)
Johnson, B. S. - Aren’t You Rather Young to Be Writing Your Memoirs. (40)
Johnson, Paul - Intellectuals. (45)
Ker, John - The Memoirs of John Ker. (129)
Kindersley, Tania - Goodbye, Johnny Thunder. (36)
King, John - England Away. (18)
Kingsmill, Hugh - Frank Harris. (105)
Kraus, Chris - I Love Dick. (21-23, 27, 38)
Lenin, V. I. - Left-Wing Communism, an Infantile Disorder. (36)
Lewis, Matthew G. - The Monk (133)
Lewis, Wyndham - Enemy of the Stars. (104)
MacKenzie, Compton - Whiskey Galore. (100)
Mannix, Daniel - Memoirs of a Sword Swallower. (149)
Martin, Martin - A Description of the Western Islands of Scotland. (61)
Martin, Martin - Voyage to St Kilda. (61)
Marx, Karl - Capital. (45)
Marx, Karl - The Class Struggles in France. (7)
Marx, Karl - The Eighteenth Brumaire. (7)
Mason, Peter - The Brown Dog Affair. (56)
Mason, Simon - Death of a Fantasist. (155)
McCrum, Robert - The Fabulous Englishman. (79)
McCrum, Robert - In the Secret State. (76)
McCrum, Robert - A Loss of Heart. (78)
McLean, Duncan - Blackden. (74)
McLean, Duncan - Bucket of Tongues. (72)
McWilliam, Candia - Debatable Land. (163)
Murray, Sarah - A Companion and Useful Guide to the Beauties of Scotland. (62)
Okely, Judith - The Traveller Gypsies. (12)
Payne, Gril - Deep Cover: An FBI Agent Infiltrates the Radical Underground. (35)
Pennant, Thomas - A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland. (62)
Pennant, Thomas - A Tour of Scotland in 1769. (61)
Philips, David - No Poets’ Corner in the Abbey: The Dramatic Story of William McGonagall. (37)
Owen, Jane - Camden Girls. (162-163)
Plant, Sadie - Zeroes and Ones. (23)
Q - Deadmeat. (33-34)
Quinn, Niall - However Introduced to the Soles. (2)
Rand, Ayn - The Fountainhead. (17)
Rayner, Richard - The Blue Suit. (150)
Reage, Pauline (Anne Desclos) - The Story of O. (108, 120)
Reynolds, Anna - Insanity. (163)
Rogers, S. A. B. - Four Acres and a Donkey: The Memoirs of a Lavatory Attendant. (66)
Rolfe, Frederick (Baron Corvo) - Hadrian the Seventh. (110)
Rose, Gillian - Judaism and Modernity: Philosophical Essays. (171)
Royle, Nicholas - Counterparts. (81)
Rühle, Otto - Karl Marx, His Life and Works (46)
Rühle, Otto - The Struggle Against Fascism Begins with the Struggle Against Bolshevism. (46)
Scott, Andrew Murray - Alexander Trocchi: The Making of the Monster. (118)
Screeton, Paul - Quicksilver Heritage. (83)
Sebald, W. G. - The Rings of Saturn. (95)
Shepherd, Nan - The Quarry Wood. (153)
Sinclair, Andrew - The Breaking of Bumbo. (164)
Sinclair, Andrew - In Love and Anger. (164)
Sinclair, Andrew - Last of the Best: The Aristocracy of Europe in the Twentieth Century. (164-165)
Sinclair, Andrew - My Friend Judas. (164)
Sinclair, Andrew - The Need to Give: The Patrons and the Arts. (165)
Sinclair, Andrew - The Red and the Blue: Intelligence, Treason and Universities. (165)
Sinclair, Andrew - The Sword and the Grail. (165)
Spengler, Oswald - Decline of the West. (7)
Symons, A. J. A. - The Quest for Corvo: An Experiment in Biography. (105)
Thomas, Donald - A Long Time Burning: A History of Literary Censorship in England. (129, 133)
Tillman, Lynne - Absence Makes the Heart. (27)
Tillman, Lynne - Cast in Doubt. (27)
Tillman, Lynne - Haunted Houses. (27)
Tillman, Lynne - The Madame Realism Complex. (27)
Tillman, Lynne - Motion Sickness. (27)
Tillman, Lynne - No Lease on Life. (27)
Trocchi, Alexander - Cain’s Book. (107, 109, 111)
Trocchi, Alexander - The Carnal Days of Helen Seferis. (109)
Trocchi, Alexander - Invisible Insurrection of a Million Minds: A Trocchi Reader (ed. by Andrew Murray Scott). (109)
Trocchi, Alexander - Man at Leisure. (109)
Trocchi, Alexander - Sappho of Lesbos. (109)
Trocchi, Alexander - School for Sin. (109)
Trocchi, Alexander - Thongs. (107, 109-111)
Trocchi, Alexander - White Thighs. (109, 126)
Trocchi, Alexander - Young Adam. (109, 111)
Waugh, Mark - Come. (47-48)
Webster, Jack - A Grain of Truth: A Scottish Journalist Remembers. (56)
Williams, Conrad - Head Injuries. (47-48)
Wordsworth, Dorothy - Recollections of a Tour Made in Scotland A.D. 1803. (62-63)
Zalcock, Bev - Renegade Sisters: Girl Gangs on Film. (90)

88labfs39
Sept. 14, 2011, 3:39 pm

Wow! This is an awesome list, Steven. I wonder if there is another place you can post it where everyone can know about it.

89StevenTX
Sept. 15, 2011, 9:35 am

I wondered that too. I can't use tags without adding all these books to my own library, and I don't want to do that. Maybe a Common Knowledge field for "Lists and Bibliographies," similar to the one for "Awards and Honors," would be a good way of sharing this type of information. It would also keep people from using "Awards and Honors" inappropriately, which I know has been a concern.

Of course this list is not something of major importance, just a little project to satisfy my curiosity.

90StevenTX
Sept. 15, 2011, 11:40 pm

105. Jamilia by Chinghiz Aitmatov
Finished 15 September 2011

 

First published in Russian 1957
Translated by James Riordan 2007
Included in the Bloomsbury Good Reading Guide to World Fiction for Kyrgyzstan

Jamilia is a stunningly beautiful novella whose only flaw is being so short that we must all too soon leave it behind.

The story takes place on a collective farm in the author's native Kyrgyzstan, then a part of the USSR, during the Second World War. All of the able-bodied men are away at the front, leaving to the women, children, aged and disabled the arduous job of bringing in the annual harvest of grain so essential to the nation's survival. The narrator of the story is a teenage boy, Seit, a budding young artist who has temporarily given up his studies to take over as the man of the family.

Seit has a crush on his slightly older sister-in-law, Jamilia, whose soldier husband, at last report, was recuperating in a distant hospital from unknown causes. Jamilia is a vivacious and assertive young woman, totally unlike any that Seit has known. Seit becomes both her defender and admirer, until passion takes matters in a direction that neither of them can predict or control.

True to his artistic inclinations, the narrator's descriptions of the steppes and valleys of Kyrgyzstan are sumptuous and enticing. There are only a few hints about the customs and characteristics of the Kirghiz people. Nor is there much said about collective farming or the Soviet system. The focus is on the people and the land, making Jamilia a story of timeless appeal.

Chinghiz Aitmatov's writing won accolades from both the USSR and West, and he seems to have flourished under both communism and capitalism, being both an adviser to Mikhail Gorbachev and, before his death in 2008, the Kirghiz ambassador to the EU and NATO. Though his earlier works were in the Kirghiz language, he wrote Jamilia and most of his later works in Russian. An earlier English translation of Jamilia is available free online at http://www.angelfire.com/rnb/bashiri/Stories/Jamila.html.

91kidzdoc
Sept. 16, 2011, 3:15 am

Fabulous review of Jamila, Steven. Thank you for that link to the free version of it; I'll probably read it next week.

92rebeccanyc
Sept. 16, 2011, 10:17 am

Sounds like a fascinating book.

93labfs39
Bearbeitet: Sept. 16, 2011, 10:47 am

This one's been on my list for a while, but my local Indie store doesn't have it. Maybe I'll see if they can order it. Btw, I love how you are adding photos of the author beside the book cover. Thanks.

ETA: I wanted to give you a thumb, but your review isn't posted. You might think about it; it's a lovely review.

94baswood
Sept. 16, 2011, 1:13 pm

Great review of Jamila steven. I will bear this in mind for my book club as its got two additional advantages: its free and its short.

95StevenTX
Sept. 16, 2011, 1:41 pm

#93 - Okay, I've posted a review of it. Thanks for the reminder.

I'm glad you like the author photos. I started simply because I couldn't resist the temptation to include a photo of the lovely Ms. Kanehara. But then I had to continue, or my motivation would have been all too obvious.

96labfs39
Sept. 16, 2011, 4:12 pm

:-) too funny

97StevenTX
Sept. 16, 2011, 8:50 pm

106. Bonjour Tristesse by Françoise Sagan
Finished 16 September 2011

 

First published in French 1954
Translated by Irene Ash 1955
Included in 501 Must-Read Books under "Modern Fiction"
Included in 500 Essential Cult Books under "Young Cult"
Included in 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die 2006 & 2010 editions
Listed in the English PEN's "Bigger Read"
Included in the Guardian's "1000 Novels Everyone Must Read" under "Love"
One of Le Monde's 100 Books of the Century
A "key work" in the Bloomsbury Good Reading Guide to World Fiction under "France"

The narrator of this novel is a 17-year-old girl named Cecile who lives with her widowed father Raymond and a succession of the father's younger mistresses. Father and daughter are happy in their libertinage, and look forward to spending an idle summer on the Riviera with the latest mistress and boyfriend. Then Anne Larsen enters the picture. She is Raymond's age, mature, poised, composed, dignified, and disciplined--all the things Raymond and his typical lovers are not. Cecile sees that Anne is a threat to their self-indulgent lifestyle, so she plots to break up the developing relationship between Raymond and Anne.

Without sensationalizing it, but just as though this is how everyone lives, Bonjour Tristesse depicts life on the Riviera as we've all probably wished at one time or another to live it. Sun, sailing, sex, liquor, night life, fast cars, and no responsibilities.

What is most remarkable about the novel is how well it captures Cecile's complex and confused state of mind: how she loathes herself for what she is doing and begins to hope her plans will fail even as she is still carrying them out. Françoise Sagan was only seventeen herself when she wrote this, her first and most successful novel.

98StevenTX
Bearbeitet: Sept. 16, 2011, 10:12 pm

I had a very successful trip this afternoon to Half Price Books' "mother" store. Several of these are recommendations from other Club Read members:

Beautiful Losers by Leonard Cohen
Rice by Su Tong
The Great Man by Kate Christensen
The Place of Dead Roads by William S. Burroughs
Reading in the Dark by Seamus Deane
The History of Luminous Motion by Scott Bradfield
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell
The Dream Life of Sukhanov by Olga Grushin
Leaving Tabasco by Carmen Boullosa
A Dead Man in Deptford by Anthony Burgess
Wolf Totem by Jiang Rong
Insatiability by Stanislaw Witkiewicz
Dreams of the Abandoned Seducer by Alicia Borinsky (I seem to be the only one on LT who owns this, even though it was on a list of "Challenging Books All Students Should Read")

99labfs39
Sept. 16, 2011, 10:41 pm

Great review, and great haul! What is the Half Price "mother store"? I will sometimes drop by the Half Price Bookstore in the University District and browse their $3 and under shelves. I've gotten some finds there, including most recently a fascinating book called The Homecoming Party, which I loved.

100StevenTX
Sept. 16, 2011, 11:05 pm

#99 - Half Price Books, as you may know, is the largest used bookstore chain in the country. It started back in the '70s as a single store in Dallas in an old laundromat just down the street from where I was going to college at SMU. That original store has relocated a few times and now occupies a building about the size of a Kmart, but they still call it their "mother store." Their fiction & literature section is so huge that more than once I've spent three hours there and only made it to "K." I go to several of their neighborhood stores on a regular basis, but it's always a special treat to hit the "big mama."

101baswood
Sept. 17, 2011, 5:43 am

Excellent review of Bonjour Tristesse, another book to think about getting.

102labfs39
Sept. 17, 2011, 2:44 pm

#100 So how many books did you pick up in three hours in A-K? ;-)

103StevenTX
Sept. 17, 2011, 6:06 pm

107. Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
Finished 17 September 2011

 

First published 1970
Listed in Time Magazine's "All-Time 100 Novels"

I'm not the intended audience for this novel about an 11-year-old girl facing the anxieties of puberty, so I won't have much to say about it. I picked it up to complete the "All-Time" list, and now I'll pass it on to my granddaughter. I wish all young people were given the opportunity to make up their own minds about religion as Margaret is in the novel.

104StevenTX
Bearbeitet: Sept. 20, 2011, 9:14 pm

108. The Home and the World by Rabindranath Tagore
Finished 20 Sep 2011

 

First published in Bengali 1916.
English translation by Surendranath Tagore 1919.
In 1913 the author was the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Included in 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die 2010 edition
Included in the Guardian's "1000 Novels Everyone Must Read" under "Nation"
A "key work" in the Bloomsbury Readers Guide to World Fiction

The setting for this landmark novel is Bengal in 1908. A movement for India's independence from Britain has gathered momentum using a form of protest known as swadeshi, a boycott of European goods to further India's economic self-sufficiency. However, in the household of Nikhil, a wealthy landowner, deep philosophical divisions have arisen over swadeshi.

The novel is narrated in rotation by its three principal characters. Nikhil is a sensitive and compassionate man. As much as he want's India's freedom, he would not purchase it at the cost of innocent lives. Nikhil makes sacrifices himself in support of swadeshi, buying poor quality locally-made goods even though they are more expensive, but he will force nothing on others. Nikhil's philosophy of self-denial is put into words by his old tutor:
We think ... that we are our own masters when we get in our hands the object of our desire -- but we are really our own masters only when we are able to cast out our desires from our minds.

Opposing Nikhil is his old friend and houseguest, Sandip, a man with unlimited ambitions who sees himself as India's liberator and does not hesitate to sacrifice the welfare of others to achieve his ends.
And yet get it I must; how, I do not care; for sin there cannot be. Sin taints only the weak. I ... am beyond its reach. Only a commoner can be a thief, the king conquers and takes his rightful spoil.

Between Nikhil and Sandip is Nikhil's wife, Bimala. Her life is that of a normal, retiring Hindu wife until she overhears Sandip. His words ignite in her the fires of patriotism and ambition.
The very next day I saw Sandip and madness, naked and rampant, danced upon my heart.

It doesn't take Sandip long to realize that Bimala is the key to his gaining access to Nikhil's resources.
We are men, we are kings, we must have our tribute. Ever since we have come upon the Earth we have been plundering her; and the more we claimed, the more she submitted.... Likewise, by sheer force of our claims, we men have opened up all the latent possibilities of women. In the process of surrendering themselves to us, they have ever gained their true greatness.

In beautiful, poetic prose the subtle but forceful battle for the heart and mind of Bimala, as for all of India, is carried out between the two men and their opposing philosophies.

105baswood
Sept. 21, 2011, 5:24 am

Excellent review of The Home and the World. I had never heard of Swadeshi before.

106StevenTX
Sept. 21, 2011, 4:51 pm

109. A Tomb for Boris Davidovich by Danilo Kiš
Finished 21 September 2011

 

Short story collection first published in Serbo-Croatian 1976
English translation by Duška Mikić-Mitchell 1978
Included in The Western Canon
Included in 500 Cult Books under "Cult Classics"
Included in the Rough Guide to Cult Fiction
Listed in English PEN's "The Bigger Read"

A Tomb for Boris Davidovich is a collection of short stories with a common theme, that of an individual being forced to convert or confess, usually by the very ideology in which he fervently believes.

Most of the stories are set in the 20th century and involve Soviet communism. Revolutionaries are suddenly and mysteriously arrested, imprisoned, tortured, and forced to confess to invented crimes. Their real crime is simply having been too pure or too popular to be tolerated by those in power. None of these stories is set in Kiš's native Serbia. Instead they take place in Poland, Russia, Ireland, Spain, and France. The French story is set in 14th century Toulouse and depicts a pogrom against the Jews. The parallels between the forced conversion of Jews in the Middle Ages and the forces extraction of confessions in Stalin's Gulags are obvious and deliberate.

These are grim and bitter stories, more about the dark side of human nature than about politics. I think it would be a mistake to characterize them as anti-communist (or anti-Christian, in the one case), especially considering that Kiš's work was published and honored in communist Yugoslavia. In his afterword William T. Vollmann says that the unnamed villain in every case is J. V. Stalin, but that might be an oversimplification in the other direction. For me it seems that the message here is that evil ensues whenever our ideology, be it political or religious, overshadows our basic humanity.

107rebeccanyc
Sept. 22, 2011, 9:51 am

I've had this on the TBR for decades! I'll really have to get to it.

108StevenTX
Sept. 22, 2011, 9:49 pm

110. Erewhon by Samuel Butler
Ebook finished 22 September 2011

 

First published anonymously 1872
Included in The Western Canon
Included in 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die 2006 & 2010 editions
Included in The Guardian's "1001 Novels Everyone Must Read" under "Fantasy and Science Fiction"
Included in The Rough Guide to Classic Novels

Erewhon is a remarkable book. Like Gulliver's Travels, it takes a young Englishman among the unusual people of a previously undiscovered land for the purpose of satirizing the country he came from.

The novel begins and ends with the narrator's arduous journeys to and from the hidden land of Erewhon. The bulk of the book, however, consists of a description of Erewhonian customs. In some cases the satire is delivered by an inversion of European practices. Erewhonians, for example, severely punish those who dare to exhibit physical deformity and disease, but they show great sympathy and consideration for those who suffer mental and moral lapses. Rob your neighbor and your friends will come round to wish you a speedy recovery, but come down with the measles and you'll be thrown in prison. In different but equally clever ways, Butler satirizes religion, education, spiritualism, and other institutions.

The most striking chapters in Erewhon deal with machines. The narrator quotes an Erewhonian scholar's paper that warns against the evolution of a machine intelligence that may come to dominate its creators:
There is no security... against the ultimate development of mechanical consciousness, in the fact of machines possessing little consciousness now.... Reflect upon the extraordinary advance which machines have made during the last few hundred years, and note how slowly the animal and vegetable kingdoms are advancing.

He makes the frightening observation that the advent of machine intelligence may be as unrecognizable to us as the evolution of animal intelligence was to plants. It is for this prophecy, rather than for the nature of Erewhon itself, that the novel might be classified as dystopian. For the most part, it is hearty and clever satire in the vein of Swift and Rabelais but availing itself of the discoveries of Darwin.

Other books I have read by Samuel Butler:
The Way of All Flesh

109StevenTX
Sept. 23, 2011, 5:59 pm

111. Weep Not, Child by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
Finished 23 September 2011

 

First published 1964.
Included in The Rough Guide to Classic Novels

Weep Not, Child is the coming of age story of a young man named Njoroge, whose promising future is threatened by civil unrest that brings divisions within his own community and family.

The setting is the author's native Kenya during the 1950s at a time when the native African population was pressing for equality and eventual independence from the British colonial overlords. At the beginning of the novel there is talk of a general strike to protest the low wages for African workers. When this is put down, guerrilla warfare gradually develops, and the uprising becomes known as the Mau Mau Rebellion.

As the more prosperous black families side with the white government, communities are torn apart. Njoroge and his childhood friend Mwikaki, his landlord's daughter, find themselves on the opposite side of the dispute in the manner of a Romeo and Juliet. And when his elders are implicated in the Mau Mau movement, Njoroge's cherished hopes for an education are threatened.

Weep Not, Child is a rather grim story of the fragility of the individual confronted with entrenched powers and prejudices. In some situations it is impossible to be simply an innocent bystander. One thing that surprised me in this novel was the impact of World War II on East Africa. Apparently the casualty rates among Kenyan soldiers serving in the British army were so excessive as to be a major cause of resentment in the post-war years, while military service gave a generation of Kenyans the training and confidence they needed to rise up against the British.

This is a powerful and memorable novel. My only criticism would be that it rushes too quickly through so many events, telling a story in fewer than 150 pages that should have warranted a fuller treatment.

110StevenTX
Sept. 24, 2011, 5:42 pm

112. Beowulf translated by Seamus Heaney
Finished 24 September 2011

 

Little needs to be said about the literary or linguistic importance of this work. Most of us read at least parts of it in high school. What is stunning, though, is how entertaining it is to read in the beautiful verse rendition by Seamus Heaney.

Beowulf has a surprisingly modern feel to it because so many of the story elements and narrative techniques that we encounter over and over have their origins here--at least within the English tradition: the terror that stalks by night, the idea of defeating the enemy's attack then following him to his lair for an even greater battle, the king's ambitious but craven adviser, the discovery of great treasure and powerful weapons left behind by a forgotten and superior civilization, fire-breathing dragons guarding hoards of gold--all of these staples of fantasy and adventure fiction are descended to us through Beowulf.

Another interesting aspect to the poem is the way a pagan legend has entered the Christian canon through the poet's skillful reinterpretation. The anonymous Beowulf poet, a Christian Saxon, acknowledges that Beowulf and his contemporaries are pagans, but has them praising a single God and looking forward to Heavenly rewards.

111baswood
Sept. 25, 2011, 6:23 pm

Seamus Heaney's translation is excellent, but its a great story anyway. You might think about reading Grendel by John Gardner - the view from the monsters side. Its a fine book.

112GCPLreader
Sept. 25, 2011, 7:54 pm

oh yes, I took Barry's recommendation and did the Beowulf/Grendel one two punch-- so much fun.

I'm still chuckling about your recent read of Judy Blume. I can't tell you how incredibly important that book was to me when I was a pre-teen. How fondly I still remember "I must, I must, I must increase my bust". :o)

113StevenTX
Sept. 25, 2011, 9:05 pm

#111 - Barry, I did read Grendel aeons ago (like I read Beowulf when it was still fresh and didn't need translating), but don't recall much about it. I've seen gazillions of copies at the used books store lately, which means it must be required reading at the local high school. I'll pick one up the next time I'm there.

#112 - Jenny, I don't dare say anything in response to "I must, I must..." except that I enjoyed your comment.

114StevenTX
Sept. 30, 2011, 5:04 pm

113. Arrow of God by Chinua Achebe
Finished 30 September 2011

 

First published 1964
Included in Harold Bloom's The Western Canon
Included in 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die 2006 & 2010 editions
Listed as "recommended" in The Salon.com Reader's Guide to Contemporary Authors

Arrow of God takes place around 1920 in the Igbo region of Nigeria. The principal character, Ezeulu, is the chief priest of the principal god of a community of six villages. He is a powerful, just, and prosperous man whose leadership is well-established. But no community is without its conflicts, and no important man is without his enemies.

Ezeulu faces the added challenge, however, of dealing with an increasingly intrusive British presence. Having suppressed all armed resistance, and having gotten through the First World War, the British are eager to get on with their self-appointed role as civilizers and missionaries. In ways they can't begin to predict or understand, their demands on Ezeulu and his village precipitate catastrophic changes that threaten the very individuals the English think they are helping.

The contrast in world views between the Igbo and the English is superbly portrayed in how Ezeulu and Captain Winterbottom, his British counterpart, see their surroundings. To the English, Africa is a land of oppressive heat, invasive insects, and dangerous diseases. It is a place to be conquered, put in order, tolerated (with the help of copious amounts of gin), and made the stepping-stone to a comfortable retirement back in England. To the native, however, it is a complex web of spiritual forces, folklore, social customs, and natural elements that must be appeased through sacrifice and ritual, not overcome.

Arrow of God is an illuminating portrait of Igbo culture, showing the internal logic and respectfulness behind practices and values that mystified the outsider. The novel is not a diatribe against the English, being even somewhat sympathetic with their frustration at trying to interact with people whose motives are completely alien. It is, instead, a testament to the inevitable suffering that occurs when the values and traditions of one society are imposed on another.

Other books I have read by Chinua Achebe:
Things Fall Apart

115rebeccanyc
Okt. 1, 2011, 7:21 am

I really need to get to Achebe. Thanks for an excellent review.

116StevenTX
Okt. 1, 2011, 8:45 am

114. Baise-Moi by Virgnie Despentes
Finished 30 September 2011

 

Baise-Moi is the fast-paced story of two women whose alienation from society finds expression in a spree of random violence. Nadine, who is shy and submissive, works as a call girl. Manu (short for Emmanuelle), crude and aggressive, has performed in porn videos. Both women are heavily dependent on drugs and alcohol. When pushed beyond the breaking point by the combined effects of poverty, violence, drugs and sexual exploitation, they each turn to violence themselves. A chance meeting leads to a brief but euphoric partnership of crime, intoxication and sex.
Shut yourself out from the rest of the world, get over the hurdle. Be the worst that's in you. Put a gulf between you and everyone else. Make a mark. They want something for the front page, she can give them that.
Although it's certainly valid to take this novel as a protest against sexual exploitation, I think it's more of a broader statement of alienation in a culture that thrives on vicarious sex and violence (which, ironically, the novel provides in abundance). The mood, message and content are similar to the works of Bret Easton Ellis, Ryu Murakami, Michel Houellebecq, and Dennis Cooper.

117Poquette
Okt. 1, 2011, 2:06 pm

Steven, I have just now for the first time read through your thread. So many of your reviews and comments make me want to read some of these books which have not been on my radar screen. I seem to be marching to a different drummer at the moment. But this thread exemplifies what is wonderful about LT in general and Club Read in particular. I may have to make some adjustments. ;-)

118StevenTX
Okt. 1, 2011, 3:06 pm

Thanks, Suzanne. And speaking of marching to a different drummer, this is a perfect time to introduce a marvelous quote I just ran across from The Notebooks of Don Rigoberto by Mario Vargas Llosa. The character Don Rigoberto is speaking in a chapter titled "Diatribe against the Sportsman."

"I know of no lie more base than the phrase taught to children: 'A sound mind in a sound body.' Who ever said that a sound mind is a desirable goal? In this case, 'sound' means stupid, conventional, unimaginative, and unmischievous, the vulgar stereotype of established morality and official religion. Is that a 'sound' mind? It is the mind of a conformist, a pious old woman, a notary, an insurance salesman, an altar boy, a virgin, a Boy Scout. That is not health, it is impairment. A rich, independent mental life demands curiosity, mischief, fantasy, and unsatisfied desires, which is to say a 'dirty' mind, evil thoughts, and the blossoming of forbidden images and appetites that stimulate exploration of the unknown, renovation of the known, and systematic disrespect toward received ideas, common knowledge and current values."

119Poquette
Okt. 1, 2011, 3:43 pm

Different drummer indeed! Which do you suppose he hates more: sports or conformity? Or maybe in his view one is a function of the other.

120StevenTX
Okt. 1, 2011, 6:45 pm

Here's an extended quote from that same chapter that will help answer your question:

“I understand that {on the occasion of various sporting events you are} glued to the television set… You yell at the top of your lungs, turn red in the face, howl, wave your arms, or become depressed with every triumph or failure of your idols, as befits a loyal sports fan. More than enough reasons, Senor, to confirm my worst suspicions regarding the world in which we live, and to classify you as a brainless, mentally defective shithead…. Yes, it’s true, in your atrophied intellect a light has come on: I consider the practice of sports in general, and the cult of sports in particular, as radical forms of the imbecility that brings human beings close to sheep, geese, and ants…. The only sports I do not find ridiculous are those of the table (excluding Ping Pong) and the bed (including, of course, masturbation). As for the rest, contemporary culture has transformed them into obstacles to the development of spirit, sensibility, and imagination (and, consequently, of pleasure). And above all, of consciousness and individual freedom. In our time nothing, not even ideology and religion, has contributed so much to the rise of contemptible mass-man, a robot full of conditioned reflexes, or to the resurrection of the culture of the tattooed primate in a loincloth which lies concealed behind the façade of modernity, as the glorification of physical exercise and games by our society."

Then comes the paragraph I quoted earlier. There is much more, of course, but this captures the essence: sports as the new opiate of the masses.

Being the lone heretic in an otherwise sports-crazed family and community, I'm very sympathetic to Don Rigoberto's views.

121Poquette
Okt. 1, 2011, 7:00 pm

LOL!

122StevenTX
Bearbeitet: Okt. 4, 2011, 9:21 am

115. The Politics by Aristotle
The 1912 translation by William Ellis (ebook)
Finished 1 October 2011

 

The Politics is basically a treatise addressing the question "What type of government should we have?" To a large degree it is a response and refutation of Plato's The Republic, which should ideally be read first. Aside from the practical question of government itself, it is first worth noting the fundamental difference in the way these two men think. Plato (always quoting Socrates) attacks the problem top-down, ignoring experience and observation and thinking only of the ideal. Aristotle, in contrast, is a bottom-up thinker, looking around him and deciding what works and what doesn't. So instead of coming up with one ideal form of government, he classifies states into six fundamental types and gives us a set of recommendations for each type.

Aristotle's analysis makes for rather dry reading, and his conclusions are undramatic. The best form of government, he asserts, depends on the customs, economic status, and even the geography of the city being governed. In some cases a monarchy is best, in others an aristocracy, in other a democracy, etc. In all cases, however, the best government is that which is led by men of virtue and addresses the happiness and well-being of its people. He goes on to give advice for maintaining good government, selecting wise leaders, avoiding sedition and rebellion, and even selecting the appropriate location for a new city based on the type of government it will have. (Democracies, for example, thrive best on the plains. Oligarchies need hills, monarchies a natural citadel.)

As much as Aristotle's thought is at the root of modern political science, what is most striking in The Politics are the assumptions he makes which are completely at odds with modern ethical systems. He begins his book with a defense of slavery, then continues to explain how women are naturally subservient to men. Aristotle supports exposing (i.e. killing) children with birth defects, saying "let it be a law that nothing imperfect or maimed shall be brought up." He proposes that men should marry at age thirty-seven, women at age eighteen. The final chapters are devoted to the education of children (i.e. boys) and go into such unpolitical (to our way of thinking) issues as what types of music should be taught and whether painting is a manly subject.

Where Aristotle seems most relevant is when he addresses the notion of a government of mixed forms--e.g., oligarchical in one branch or function, democratic in another--and why this may be desirable. Examples of this in the U.S. government are easily recognized: the judiciary, where judges are appointed by experience and merit, is an aristocracy. Juries, however, where members are chosen by lottery, are democratic. Elected representatives, who are invariably persons of wealth, form an oligarchy. It is in these details that you can most clearly see how The Politics is a cornerstone of our modern ideas of government.

Other works I have read by Aristotle:
The Nicomachean Ethics

p.s. Don Rigoberto (see #120 above) would love this quote: "for it is impossible for the mind and body both to labour at the same time, as they are productive of contrary evils to each other; the labour of the body preventing the progress of the mind, and the mind of the body."

123lilisin
Bearbeitet: Okt. 2, 2011, 5:37 am

I thought the quote was "a sound mind makes a sound body"? That would certainly change his argument.

As for the sports vs conformity argument, I know I've had this debate before on other threads but I must say I've never really understood the battle of the "intellect" versus the concept of sports. For people who tend to hail the art and physicality of sex, I find it interesting that they cannot see the same in a sport. Although some might retort yes, in a match of pure wrestling perhaps with the grasping and panting of two men battling over who is the strongest. But really, sports isn't purely about strength. A wrestler might be the strongest man in the world but if he can't work his mind to find the weakness in his opponent he will never win.

I am not a watcher of American football (although soccer is my passion) but I was able to appreciate an analogy I once heard which made me come to understand the game more. My brother's friend said that it was like a game of chess. The coaches are the players and at their disposal, as a chess player as his king, queen, pawns and rooks, a coach has his field of players. And play by play, as a chess player moves his pieces, a coach moves his to approach his goal. In any case I found this analogy intriguing.

But sport does not mean a lack of intelligence and one does not need to be a brute to enjoy the sport of well, sport. And even if one decides to take on a brute-like persona, is not could for the mind as well to feel the passion of a crowd, appreciate the precision of a pass, the beauty in the stamina of a player.

At the end of all, what is his praised masturbation than a simple wank of an extremity at a frenetic pace? Not much intellect required for that.

(Forgive any typos. I'm in France right now and have switched over to my French brain.)

124StevenTX
Okt. 2, 2011, 10:51 am

The "diatribe" is the voice of a character who is defending his lifestyle as a fastidious, lecherous dandy, so I wouldn't take its arguments too seriously. There is also a long passage I didn't quote about sports in ancient Greece which admits some of the points you make about the aesthetic side of sports. I chiefly admire the passage in favor of unconventional thinking that I first quoted.

If I were to take up Don Rigoberto's cause, I would make a distinction between personal fitness and recreational sports, on the one hand, and spectator sports on the other. I used to be a big fan of many sports, but gradually came to see that the people I was cheering for, and helping to make wealthy, were all too often the type of persons with whom I would never have chosen to associate. Granted there are some thrilling moments, mental challenges, and graceful movements in sports. But I can't help thinking about the way athletics often detracts from education, the children who suffer physically and mentally because of a parent's vicarious ambition, riots in stadiums and cities over sporting events, and communities that spend billions of dollars on stadiums for professional sports teams instead of parks or public transportation.

125Poquette
Okt. 2, 2011, 11:16 am

I understand your point about cheering for people with whom you probably would not choose to associate. I lived most of my life in San Francisco and was a Forty Niners fan. But I didn't become one until Coach Bill Walsh took the reigns, and it was his brilliant strategy and tactics that captured my fancy. Lilisin's point about American football having similarities to a chess game strikes a chord because at some point I realized that I was really a fan of the coaches more than of the players. All of this is probably beside the point. The dark humor surrounding Don Rigoberto's tirade is really what you are trying to share, and one can just picture it. Makes me think I would enjoy The Notebooks of Don Rigoberto.

126kidzdoc
Okt. 2, 2011, 3:32 pm

Nice review of Arrow of God, Steven. I'll be on the lookout for it next weekend.

127StevenTX
Okt. 7, 2011, 6:49 pm

116. I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed) by Alessandro Manzoni
An anonymous translation from the 1909 Harvard Classics edition
Finished 7 October 2011, previously read in 2002

 

I Promessi Sposi, published 1825-26, was one of the first of the new genre of historical novels, and remains one of the very greatest. The story takes place in the Duchy of Milan in the years 1628-1631. It begins in a small village near the town of Lecco on the shore of Lake Como where two happy young people, Renzo and Lucia, are about to be married. But a wealthy and powerful libertine named Don Rodrigo has his eye on Lucia, and blocks the wedding. His machinations soon force the two lovers to take flight, seeking refuge in separate convents but eventually becoming caught up in the monumental and tragic events which would overtake their country.

Milan, at that time, was a possession of the Spanish Habsburgs and an active participant in the conflicts of the Thirty Years War. As the story opens it is also plunging into a desperate famine that will lead to civil unrest. No sooner does the famine begin to ease than the bubonic plague appears, brought apparently by a column of German mercenaries. By 1631 the plague will kill approximately half the population of Milan and its environs.

Manzoni was a thorough and careful historian. By the clever device of presenting the story of Renzo and Lucia as a discovered manuscript by an anonymous author, he is able to clue the reader in to which parts of his novel are fact and which fiction. On critical issues he even discusses and footnotes his sources. I Promessi Sposi is excellent history as well as being an enormously entertaining and moving novel. Its descriptions of suffering, endurance, piety and devotion are unforgettable.

It's worth noting that the events in Dumas' novel The Three Musketeers take place in France at the same time as those of I Promessi Sposi in Italy.

128baswood
Okt. 8, 2011, 6:14 pm

Steven, I Promessi Sposi, looks very interesting. Thanks for bringing this to our attention. I note that it is available from the gutenburg project as a free download.

Where did you discover it?

129StevenTX
Okt. 8, 2011, 8:52 pm

I first read I Promessi Sposi in 2002 in preparation for a vacation to Italy (albeit a different part of the country). I probably picked the title from the list of Italian literature in Harold Bloom's Western Canon. It has since appeared in other lists such as 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die, but usually under the translated title of The Betrothed. I've used the Italian title because that is how it appears on my copy, even though it's a translation.

I wouldn't normally have re-read the novel this soon, but it was the monthly choice for my non-LT reading group. The translation that I read is old enough to be in the public domain, but it isn't the same as the one on Gutenberg. There may be newer translations that are more readable, but I wasn't motivated to go in search of one.

130Poquette
Okt. 9, 2011, 3:22 pm

I Promessi Sposi sounds very interesting. It is one of those famous books I had never heard of, although I have read through Harold Bloom's Western Canon. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that it did not register on my radar screen. I Promessi Sposi takes place during a fascinating era, and that factoid about The Three Musketeers is intriguing. I may have to add this to the TBR.

131StevenTX
Okt. 9, 2011, 4:38 pm

117. The Man Who Loved Children by Christina Stead
First published 1940
Finished reading 9 October 2011

 

Ït is clear from the first pages that Sam Pollit, The Man Who Loved Children, is destined to be a unique and unforgettable character, but his true nature--though it is never hidden from the reader--only gradually comes into focus. He is jolly, gregarious, witty, clever, industrious, and affectionate. He likes nothing more than to be involved in a big family project with his large brood of children about him, all speaking a silly language together that shows he wants nothing more than to be one of the kids. The only dark shade in this picture is his shrewish wife Henny (Henrietta), who carps at Sam endlessly. When the couple first rage against each other, it is hard to believe that our wonderful Sam could ever be angry at anyone, so this must, we think, just be some bizarre family ritual.

Sam is a naturalist working for the government in Washington, D.C. The time is the Great Depression, though the word "depression"is never mentioned in the book. Coming from a modest family and with a small income, Sam is dependent to a degree on his wife's family, a fact Henny won't let him forget. But money is of no consequence to Sam, the perennial idealist and optimist. He sees himself as a great thinker with a vision of the future driven by the wonders of science, unimpeded by history or material concerns. He can't understand or accept why anyone would fail to share his vision or accept his wisdom.

The eldest of the children, named Louie, is Sam's daughter and the only child by his deceased first wife. Gradually we see that Louie is the focal point of the novel. (She is based on Stead's own childhood.) Louie's unattractive and clumsy nature disgusts her socially ambitious step-mother, who calls her "that ugly, fat pig." Her solitary nature and love for poetry confuse Sam, who accuses her of filling her head with a lot of useless nonsense. Torn apart by the adults' perpetual fighting, Louie becomes even more careless of her appearance, solitary in her habits, and absorbed in her poetry. Meanwhile the family descends further into poverty, adding more stress each day to their relationships.

I didn't find this a pleasant novel to read. Sam's ceaseless baby-talk to his half-grown children is annoying, and the way the couple fight over--and in front of--their children is disturbing. But it is a masterful piece of writing in the way the characters are developed and revealed and in the way the tension and hostility are portrayed.

132dmsteyn
Okt. 10, 2011, 2:03 pm

The Man Who Loved Children sounds very interesting. I read Jonathan Franzen's review of it sometime last year in The New York Times, and have been meaning to look into it ever since. Thanks for the excellent reminder!

133GCPLreader
Okt. 10, 2011, 5:29 pm

Steven, I read a couple of hundred pages of TMWLC last year (also based on the Franzen recommendation), but it never would take-- know what I mean?

134StevenTX
Bearbeitet: Okt. 10, 2011, 8:23 pm

Jenny, yes, I was 2/3 into it before I really got interested in where the story was going. I wouldn't have minded its being about half as long as it was.

135StevenTX
Okt. 10, 2011, 9:13 pm

118. Raise the Red Lantern: Three Novellas by Su Tong
First Chinese publication 1990
English translation by Michael S. Duke 1993
Finished reading 10 October 2011

 

The three novellas in this collection take place in southern China in the first half of the 20th century. They are not directly linked to one another, though two of them take place in the same fictional village. The first and longest story was originally given the English title "Wives and Concubines," but after a movie was made from it titled "Raise the Red Lantern," the publisher adopted that title for the novella as well as the collection.

"Raise the Red Lantern" is the story of Lotus, a college student, who comes home one day to find that her father has killed himself because the family business has collapsed. Her family decides to sell her to a wealthy man to be his concubine. The story opens with Lotus arriving at her new home, where she will be the master's fourth wife. What is immediately shocking about this story is how well and quickly Lotus adapts to her new situation, taking pride in becoming the master's favorite bed partner. She is prepared for a jealous reaction from the other wives, but not for the direction from which it comes, its intensity, or the dark secrets that will be uncovered.

"The Nineteen Thirty-Four Escapes" is a family saga in miniature of the Chen family as it disintegrates during a year of famine. The author uses magical realism in this story to good effect to encapsulate the emotions, traditions and superstitions that are invoked in a series of tragic events. It is a grim story in which the central character realizes "that evil is a large part of the original nature of the human race; it is as natural as the movements of the sun and the moon."

"Opium Family" is also the story of a family, this time headed by wealthy landlord. It begins in 1930 as the fortunes of Liu Laoxia are on the rise due to his decision to make opium his principal crop. But Liu is fated to be less successful in family matters, with a series of stillborn or defective children. He is secretly aware that his only healthy son was actually fathered by one of his laborers. The family's moral decay is almost complete when the Communist Revolution comes in 1949 to sweep away what's left in a series of bizarre and violent events.

These are bitter and savage stories of the darker side of human nature and a social system in its death throes. Through the symbolic devices of magical realism, Su Tong makes you feel the weight of centuries of injustice and oppression.

136labfs39
Okt. 12, 2011, 1:55 pm

Sorry I've been away so long. You have been doing some amazing reading, and writing. I am particularly interested in Raise the Red Lantern, which I think I saw recently in a used bookstore. I looked at it, but put it down because I generally prefer chunky novels. After reading your review, I'm kicking myself. I'll have to go back and see if it is still there.

137katiekrug
Okt. 12, 2011, 5:07 pm

Hi Steven - I was not familiar with Raise the Red Lantern but it is now on my wish list. I believe there is a film of the same name...?

138Mr.Durick
Bearbeitet: Okt. 12, 2011, 5:12 pm

The movie, Raise the Red Lantern, came out when China had recently relaxed its restraints on the arts and when Westerners were just learning that there were other voices out there to be paid attention to. I saw it in a theater when it was in regular distribution. As I remember there were people who normally watched mainstream American movies but who were open to a little bit of a challenge who liked it. I liked it; it was people being horrible to one another until somebody crashed.

Robert

139katiekrug
Okt. 12, 2011, 8:32 pm

Thanks, Robert!

140StevenTX
Okt. 13, 2011, 11:23 am

119. Empire of the Senseless by Kathy Acker
First published 1988
Finished reading 13 October 2011

 

Empire of the Senseless is a scream of rage against many of the values and practices of Western society. It is a sequence of dreams, recollections, and imaginings by two characters, Abhor and Thivai, female and male.

Race and gender are the prevailing themes of the novel. There are scenes of incest, rape, repression, torture, and degradation in various and vivid contexts to deplore the prevailing culture's attitude towards women and minorities. Most of the novel takes place in Paris, where the author places us in an alternate present in which Algerian immigrants have risen and taken control of the city. Their leader, François Mackandal, was actually the leader of an 18th century slave revolt against the French in Haiti. There are also direct and savage references to multi-national corporations, Ronald Reagan, and the CIA.

Acker's writing is filled with literary allusions, and in one lengthy scenario Thivai, as Huck Finn, with his friend Mark as Tom Sawyer, pretending to be pirates, take a boat journey down the Seine with Abhor (who is black) as the runaway slave Jim. Abhor is jailed and abused. Her response to this is to write the following, which summarizes the novel's sense of helpless rage:
Everytime I talk to one of you, I feel like I'm taking layers of my own epidermis, which are layers of still freshly bloody scar tissue, black brown and red, and tearing each one of them off so more and more of my blood shoots in your face. This is what writing is to me a woman.

Even though I love you, Mark, because you're a man I hate you. I'll explain why....

You two collaborated in keeping me in jail by planning escapes so elaborate they had nothing to do with escape. That's western thought for you.

This is what I'm saying: you're always fucking deciding what reality is and then collaborating about these decisions.

It's not that I agree with you that I'm a wet washcloth. It's that I don't know what reality is. I'm so unsure, tentative, tenuous, lonely, uncertain from loneliness, anguished, sad that I'm not certain enough to fight the decisions I should.

I guess I'm going to get into more and more messes cause that's the way I am, but I hate all of you.

Kathy Acker's violent, provocative, and sometimes senseless writing is certainly not for everyone. Imagine a more overtly political, feminist, William S. Burroughs.

Other books I have read by Kathy Acker:
Blood and Guts in High School
Great Expectations

141baswood
Okt. 13, 2011, 12:14 pm

Excellent review of Empire of the SenselessSteven.

142labfs39
Okt. 14, 2011, 12:50 pm

Not a book for me, but a great review.

143dmsteyn
Okt. 14, 2011, 3:30 pm

I tried reading this book during my first year at university (I was, um, going alphabetically, and started with Acker) but it just did not work for me at the time. Perhaps something to look into again.

144StevenTX
Bearbeitet: Okt. 14, 2011, 7:11 pm

How long did it take you to get to Zola? :)

I don't know if anyone would classify Kathy Acker's works as great literature, but they are a vivid and forceful expression of a point of view that challenges much of what Western society considers normal, wise and proper. Much of what I read is like that. I don't always agree with the author, but I enjoy the experience of literature that transgresses the rules and conventions of its time. (Others would say I'm just a dirty old man.)

145StevenTX
Okt. 14, 2011, 8:16 pm

120. Nadja by André Breton
First published 1928
Translation from the French by Richard Howard 1960
Finished reading 14 October 2011

 

When it comes to the visual arts, Surrealism is something we readily recognize, even if its meaning and purpose are unclear. Knowing next to nothing about the movement, I was curious to see what the literary counterpart to a Dali painting would be like.

Nadja opens with a lengthy prologue in which Breton describes some of the literary and personal influences which went into the book. The "fiction" part of the novel occupies barely 80 pages, many of which are photographs. Then comes an epilogue in which the author relates his feelings upon completion of the work.

The story of Nadja is very simple. André Breton himself is the narrator. He is walking a Paris street on a gloomy October day when he is struck by the appearance of a young woman's eyes. He immediately approaches and engages her in what becomes a long conversation, learning that she prefers to call herself "Nadja." This leads to almost daily rendezvous, even an overnight outing, all with the evident approval of Breton's wife. The writer is simply fascinated by Nadja's outlook on life and her way of perceiving things, which, of course, is in perfect accord with his previously published Manifesto of Surrealism (of which he lends Nadja a copy).

Breton's philosophy, as exemplified by Nadja, is a disdain for what is conventional, with a very casual attitude towards material necessities. It is to fascinate oneself in details and coincidences, looking for meaning in the symbols of everyday life as one would look for meaning in dreams. To me it seems that surrealism is almost a form of mysticism, only a mysticism driven by aesthetics rather than any belief in the supernatural. At first it sounds silly to impose meaning on an object or event where there is no rational basis except a desire for it to mean something. But aren't our notions of Love and Beauty also examples of meanings imposed by our emotions in defiance of any objective criteria?

I've put Manifestoes of Surrealism at the top of my wishlist, and hope to learn more about the Surrealism movement.

146baswood
Okt. 15, 2011, 3:24 am

Excellent review of Nadja Steven, I like your thoughts on Surrealism.

147kidzdoc
Okt. 15, 2011, 9:47 am

Greateek. review of Nadja: I"ll look for it, and Manifestos of Surrealism, at City Lights this week.

148StevenTX
Okt. 16, 2011, 11:21 pm

121. The Notebooks of Don Rigoberto by Mario Vargas Llosa
First published 1997
Translated by the Spanish by Edith Grossman 1998
Finished reading 16 October 2011

 

The Notebooks of Don Rigoberto is a sequel to In Praise of the Stepmother, which absolutely must be read first. I can't say anything about the plot of the one without giving away the ending of the other. The format, however, is somewhat different, consisting largely of the fantasies and editorials Don Rigoberto has collected in his notebooks. Art continues to be the underlying theme of the story, with the life an works of Egon Schiele (especially the one pictured above) playing a major role. If you enjoyed In Praise of the Stepmother, you will be delighted by the sequel. If you haven't read In Praise of the Stepmother, my review of it here may help you decide if you want to. These books aren't at all like Mario Vargas Llosa's other novels.

Other books I have read by Mario Vargas Llosa:
The Time of the Hero
The Cubs and Other Stories
Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter
The War of the End of the World
Death in the Andes
In Praise of the Stepmother
The Feast of the Goat
The Bad Girl

149rebeccanyc
Okt. 17, 2011, 8:46 am

As a big fan of Vargas Llosa, I'm glad I read a lot of his other books before I read In Praise of the Stepmother and The Notebooks of Don Rigoberto because I wasn't as enthusiastic as you are. I did like the second book better than the first.

150StevenTX
Okt. 17, 2011, 10:15 am

I remember reading your review. I think I enjoyed the first book slightly more because of the freshness of the concept and the way each chapter stood apart from the rest like a series of paintings in a gallery, yet they combined to make a satisfying whole. What I liked best about the second novel was Don Rigoberto's amusing tirades against such things as sports, patriotism, bureaucracy, and (surprisingly) pornography. For all the hyperbole there were some good ideas there. I wish I had read something like this forty years ago. (But I say that about a lot of books.)

I'm debating whether to read another Vargas Llosa this year. If so, it would probably be The Green House. Other possibilities are: The Storyteller, Conversations in the Cathedral, The Way to Paradise, and The Real Life of Alejandro Mayta. Have you read any of these? Any recommendation?

151rebeccanyc
Okt. 17, 2011, 12:40 pm

I've read The Green House, The Storyteller, and Conversation in the Cathedral. Of these I think I liked The Green House best, although it was incredibly difficult to follow, because of its depiction of life in the jungle. Conversation in the Cathedral is great, and considered by many to be his masterpiece (although I prefer The War of the End of the World. I was least thrilled by The Storyteller, which I found a tad didactic in places, and which doesn't have the scope of some of MVL's work, but I did enjoy it. I also own This Way to Paradise and The Real Life of Alejandro Mayta and hope to read them in the not too distant future.

152StevenTX
Okt. 18, 2011, 10:34 pm

Thanks, Rebecca. As you know, we're taking a major detour to Camelot with some Arthurian group reads, so I may not get back to Vargas Llosa any time soon, but when I do, it will the The Green House.

153StevenTX
Okt. 18, 2011, 11:04 pm

122. The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527)
First published posthumously in 1532
E-book with undated translation by W. K. Marriott
Finished reading 18 October 2011



Machiavelli's The Prince is a book of advice for monarchs of all types--from hereditary princes, to conquerors, to usurpers--on how to manage their domestic and foreign affairs so as to stay in power as long as possible. It is a work without religious, moral or ethical foundations...
...because how one lives is so far distant from how one ought to live, that he who neglects what is done for what ought to be done, sooner effects his ruin than his preservation.... Hence it is necessary for a prince wishing to hold his own to know how to do wrong, and to make use of it or not according to necessity.
Nor is there any priority for the prince other than retaining and enlarging his power. The welfare of the prince's subjects is of importance only insofar as it benefits the prince himself who, says Machiavelli, should prefer to be feared than loved.
Because this is to be asserted in general of men, that they are ungrateful, fickle, false, cowardly, covetous, and as long as you succeed they are yours entirely.
The primary tool a the prince should use is war.
A prince ought to have no other aim or thought, nor select anything else for his study, than war and its rules and discipline.
Machiavelli's advice is based upon his not very successful career as a diplomat, his study of contemporary events, and his readings of the history of the Greeks and Romans. He gives good examples to back up the points he makes, but one example does not make a proof, and some of his logic is as faulty as the following:
and as there cannot be good laws where the state is not well armed, it follows that where they are well armed they have good laws
Many philosophers have thought better and deeper than Machiavelli, but few have spoken with such brutal candor about the world as they saw it rather than as they wished it to be.

154baswood
Okt. 19, 2011, 7:09 am

Steven, Good review.The Prince, Niccolo Machiavelli is one of those books that I have had on my radar for some time. I wonder if some of the false logic is down to a poor translation, anyway I hope to get to it next year.

155StevenTX
Okt. 19, 2011, 1:32 pm

The Prince is quite short and easy reading. It's interesting to compare it with Aristotle's The Politics which I read earlier this month. Both start out exactly the same way by classifying the types of states and then analyzing what governing strategies are best for each type. They each cite examples from the present and past to make their case. But their goals are different, as Aristotle wants what is good for the state as a whole, while Machiavelli looks only at what is best for the one individual who rules it.

Next up in the political philosophy queue: Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes.

156Poquette
Okt. 19, 2011, 3:22 pm

I read The Prince many years ago, and could probably stand to reread it. I've learned so much since then and my own politics have changed dramatically. Interesting thoughts comparing Machiavelli with Aristotle, Steve. That could make for an interesting discussion.

157rebeccanyc
Okt. 19, 2011, 3:37 pm

I read The Prince in college. If I got my copy off the shelf, I could look at whatever notes I wrote in it at that time, because I have no recollection of it other than I read it.

158StevenTX
Okt. 21, 2011, 11:31 pm

123. The River Between by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
Published 1965.
Finished reading 21 October 2011.

 

Ngũgĩ 's first two novels both depict a native African community torn apart by the influence of British colonialism. In Weep Not Child the author writes of a specific time and place, makes reference to historical persons and events, and establishes his novel in the context of broader events.

The River Between, in contrast, is an intimate look at a single community in isolation, examining the impact of a single issue: the introduction of Christianity and its opposition to the practice of female circumcision.

The community in question is a pair of villages of the Gikuyu people in modern-day Kenya. The early Christian converts are treated as curiosities until the missionary leaders and their followers take a belligerent stance against female circumcision, a rite that is central to both individual and tribal identity. A young man named Waiyake, educated by the missionaries but faithful to tribal beliefs, realizes that only through education and political power can the Gikuyu hope to fight back against whites who are taking their land. He searches for a way to unite Christians and traditionalists.

The River Between is a look at the difficulty of seeing a common cause amid the fears and animosities generated by historical change.

Other books I have read by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o:
Weep Not Child

159StevenTX
Bearbeitet: Okt. 28, 2011, 9:53 pm

124. Arthurian Romances by Chrétien de Troyes
Written 1170-1182
Translation by D. D. R. Owen
Finished reading 28 October 2011



I won't attempt to match baswood's outstanding review of this work. Each of the five romances was a pleasure to read, with no two being alike.

One surprise was how little King Arthur himself figures in these "Arthurian" stories. He stands as a symbol of the ideals of chivalry, but his rôle is chiefly that of a generous host and sponsor. His various knights are the ones who set forth to meet danger and prove their valor. Arthur doesn't even stir from his court when his own wife is kidnapped. In four of the five romances his kingdom appears to be rather nebulous, enjoying a wide reputation but little real power. In Cligés, however, the least mythical of the romances, Arthur is depicted as the king of all of Britain plus Brittany, with enough military might to contemplate an amphibious expedition against the Byzantine Empire.

In addition to being fine entertainment, the Romances show us much about the evolution of folklore as they incorporate elements from various Celtic and classical sources, including Virgil and Ovid. They also show the evolution of Chrétien as a writer, with the characters becoming more complex and realistic in each successive tale. My favorite was Yvain, the Knight with the Lion but had Perceval been finished, it would probably have surpassed the others.

160baswood
Okt. 29, 2011, 4:22 am

Thanks for the plaudit steven and I am glad you enjoyed the Arthurian Romances. My favourite tale was also Yvain and the Lion, which came together really well. It will be interesting to compare these tales with Parzival when we get to it next month.

161rebeccanyc
Okt. 29, 2011, 10:16 am

Glad you enjoyed the Ngugi -- his later work gets more complex than these earlier works. Looking forward to reading the Arthurian Romances myself before we start Parzifal; have to finish two other books first, or maybe I'll make them my subway read once I finish the one I have now.

162labfs39
Okt. 29, 2011, 11:49 am

I'm curious to know: are you choosing a particular translation of Parzival for your group read? If so, which?

163StevenTX
Okt. 29, 2011, 11:58 am

#161 - I still have three more books by Ngũgĩ that I'm hoping to read before the end of the year for Author Theme Reads, as well as a slew of novels by Vargas Llosa. I'm trying to become more active in the "group reads" here on LT, but it's filling up my reading calendar and shopping list at an alarming rate. Will Author Theme Reads soon be picking authors for next year? There seem to be only three of us participating in that group at present.

Before we get to Parzival I'm hoping to read The Mabinogion and The Song of Roland. They are both fairly short.

I bought a copy of The Romance of the Rose yesterday (another baswood recommendation), but that will come after Parzival, along with Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Le Morte d'Arthur.

164StevenTX
Okt. 29, 2011, 12:05 pm

#162 - I have the Penguin edition translated by A. T. Hatto. I didn't compare translations; it's just the edition I happen to own because I ran across it a few years ago in a used book store.

165rebeccanyc
Okt. 29, 2011, 12:44 pm

#162 I have an edition that includes Parzival and Titurel because that's what I found on Amazon. It is translated by Cyril Edwards.
#163 Author Theme Reads does seem pretty moribund. It is lilisin who organizes it, but she hasn't been around it either. I'm more concerned about Reading Globally, where I've been coordinating the theme reads there for the past year since there hasn't been much participation in the current theme read and since I haven't gotten much feedback about how to improve them despite posting a thread on that topic. Next week I'll start asking for ideas for next year's Reading Globally theme reads and I guess I'll see how much interest there is.

166Poquette
Okt. 29, 2011, 2:15 pm

I am just starting Arthurian Romances – thanks again to Barry's excellent review – in preparation for Parzival later on. I too have the Penguin Classics edition of both although I was very tempted by the Parzival and Titurel. We'll see how it goes.

167lilisin
Okt. 29, 2011, 6:20 pm

Unfortunately as much as I love my group it is hard to come with ways to keep it active. But I'm currently just happy to see it is serve as a source of inspiration for now since I'm not available to actively monitor it right now. For the past months I have been studying for a big exam in December and doing job searching all in Japanese so I've had to put much on the back burner. I'm thinking I just going ahea and making next year a purely Japanese author read. I feel that that could be quite interesting plus I know I'd be able to participate more then. Thank you both though for continuing to participate.

168StevenTX
Okt. 29, 2011, 7:07 pm

#167 - Well, coincidentally, I was planning on nominating Haruki Murakami for the year-long author if we kept the same format. I am very fond of Japanese literature.

Good luck on your exam and job search.

169StevenTX
Okt. 30, 2011, 12:26 am

125. The Song of Roland, author unknown
Composed in Old French c. 1130-1170
Translation by Glyn S. Burgess 1990
Finished reading 29 October 2011



The Song of Roland is an epic poem celebrating the heroic death of Roland, a Frankish knight and nephew of Charlemagne, in a battle against Saracen forces in Spain in 778. The poem is loosely based on historical events, with the scale and importance of the battle being enlarged many-fold until it becomes a titanic and conclusive engagement between the forces of Christianity and Islam.

The poem begins with Charlemagne having campaigned for seven years in Spain, subduing all the country except the city of Saragossa and its king Marsile. Knowing that his forces cannot stand against the Franks, but that his enemy is eager to end the war and return home, Marsile pretends to submit to Charlemagne, giving him gifts and hostages. But Marsile finds an uexpected ally in Charlemagne's camp, the emperor's brother-in-law Ganelon who nurtures a deep hatred for his own stepson, Roland, who is the greatest and most feared of the Frankish knights. Ganelon helps Marsile plan an ambush of the Frankish army's rear guard as it marches back to France, then arranges for Roland to be in command of the rear guard detachment.

The Song of Roland is contemporary with the development of the Arthurian legends, and there are some obvious similarity in the themes of chivalry and the stylized descriptions of knightly combat. The Roland epic, however, bears more resemblance to The Iliad, with its prolonged and gory battle scenes, than the more personal Arthurian Romances. Unfortunately, there are no characters in The Song of Roland who even approach the depth of an Yvain, a Lancelot, or a Gawain, to say nothing of an Achilles or Odysseus. Roland, his compatriots, and his enemies are all simply straightforward fighting machines, purely good or purely evil depending on the side for which they are fighting.

The translation by Glyn S. Burgess into modern English is very smooth and easy to read. This is an important work of literature for historical reasons, even if it isn't exceptional by aesthetic standards, and it's short enough to read in an afternoon.

170baswood
Okt. 30, 2011, 5:25 am

Good review of The Song of Roland. It has convinced me that I do not have to rush out to buy this. A book that I will read if I come across it, but no great rush. I see that you have The Mabinogion on your book shelf, which may be a more interesting proposition.

I was wondering if you had come across Porius by John Cowper Powys?

171StevenTX
Okt. 30, 2011, 10:57 am

I may have been a bit hard on Roland, but it was a let down after reading Chrétien. It was composed at the time of the Crusades and no doubt served to inspire the troops with its sense of Christian destiny and invincibility. The anonymous author's exaggerations can be a bit comical at times: he (or she) has Charlemagne conquering England and Scotland, he puts almost a million men on the battlefield in Spain, and his favorite method of ending a battle between two men is for the victor to cleave the other in half from helmet to crotch, through armor, shield and saddle, and halfway through the horse.

I put Porius on my wishlist after seeing the reviews and discussion of it here, but I haven't run across a copy yet. (Nor have I ready anything else by Powys.)

So far I've read the first story in The Mabinogion, "The Lady of the Fountain." It is essentially a shorter version of "Yvain, the Knight with the Lion." I'm reading the ebook from Project Gutenberg, translated 1838 by Lady Charlotte Guest with some corrective notes added in 1902. It may not be the most accurate translation, but it's beautifully written and has some nice illustrations.

Here is Yvain (spelled Owain in the Mabinogion) fighting the giant with the lion coming to the knight's aid. In Chrétien's story the giant has four captive brothers, but in this version there are only two as we see in the background.



172baswood
Okt. 30, 2011, 12:41 pm

Brilliant steven

173StevenTX
Okt. 31, 2011, 11:26 pm

126. Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
Published 1993
Finished reading 31 October 2011

 

Red Mars is good old fashioned "hard" science fiction where the author takes his science seriously and crafts a story that is a perfectly plausible extrapolation of current-day technology. It is also well informed and rich in depth on the political, social, and psychological levels. And, not least, it is a great epic story of exploration, conflict, love and loss.

The story begins with the launching of the ship carrying the first permanent colonists to Mars. They are 100 scientists, engineers and specialists, mostly Americans and Russians, under United Nations jurisdiction. Even before they arrive, they have split into camps over the issue of whether and how aggressively they should attempt to modify the climate of their new home to make it more agreeable to human habitation. Eventually the decision is taken out of their hands as the multi-national corporations--the true villains of the novel--rush aggressively into the full-scale exploitation of the mineral-rich planet. As more colonists are rushed to the scene and living conditions deteriorate, a crisis looms.

One of the strengths of the novel is the way the author tells the story from the perspective of different characters, in each case illuminating the situation according to that character's specialty or personality. Each chapter has its own protagonist, reflecting the focus of events at that time (e.g. scientific, technical, political, social, or interpersonal). Some readers may not care for the absence of a central sympathetic figure, but I think it is what make a novel of this scope move and inform as well as it does.

Red Mars is the first of a trilogy, continuing with Green Mars and Blue Mars.

174Poquette
Nov. 1, 2011, 3:01 am

Steve, Red Mars is my all-time favorite science fiction novel, with Green Mars and Blue Mars not far behind. I was totally gripped by it when I first read it back in the mid nineties. What is truly amazing about it is how much of the technology that was speculative at the time has come to pass. The AIs that everyone toted around caused me to think at the time: I want one of those! And now we have iPods and iPads and an Internet that contains pretty near all of the world's knowledge. Kim Stanley Robinson wrote about the Martian landscape like few people are able to write about even earth, much less a planet that had been visited only by satellites. Sorry to go on and on, but Red Mars is that kind of a novel. Glad you liked it.

175StevenTX
Nov. 7, 2011, 9:35 am

127. Omensetter's Luck by William H. Gass
First published 1966
Finished reading 6 November 2011

 

Stormy weather is looming, both literally and figuratively, when Brackett Omensetter shows up in the small Ohio town of Gilean with all his worldly possessions, plus his pregnant wife and two daughters, piled high and precariously in an open wagon. Without the least show of concern, Omensetter counts on luck to find a place to live before the rain comes, and on then finding a job to pay for it. His radically different outlook on life will cause a profound disturbance in this isolated and homogeneous community.

Omensetter's Luck is set in an unspecified time, perhaps the late 19th or early 20th century, before the coming of the automobile. Though Brackett Omensetter is the focal point, the novel is chiefly told from the perspective of two of his neighbors. The first, Henry Pimber, Omensetter's closest neighbor and landlord, is a weak and sickly man married to a stern and prudent woman whose joyless values epitomize those of the community. Pimber is first appalled, then secretly enthralled, by Omensetter's carefree and hedonistic ways.

Most of the novel, however, focuses on Jethro Furber, the town's Methodist minister and a relative newcomer himself. Even before Omensetter's arrival, Furber's personality is troubled and deeply divided between his theological calling and his sexual obsessions. He is as apt to sing bawdy songs or compose obscene limericks as he is to quote scripture, and he stuns his congregation by introducing priapic pagan metaphors into his largely incoherent sermons. To Furber, Omensetter's fabled luck verges on witchcraft, and his sybaritic philosophy is both a threat and a temptation.

Using stream of consciousness and bereft of quotation marks, Omensetter's Luck is a challenging book to read, nor can its content be reduced to a single theme. It is a powerful and unsettling look behind the veneer of conventionality at the basic human elements of love, lust, faith and hope. Works of a similar nature include The Recognitions by William Gaddis and Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy.

176baswood
Nov. 7, 2011, 2:04 pm

Good review of Omensetter's Luck steven, another book to think about checking out

177StevenTX
Nov. 10, 2011, 3:11 pm

128. The Mabinogion
Welsh folk stories dating from the 14th century or earlier
Translated 1849 by Lady Charlotte Guest
Edited and annotated 1902 by Owen M. Edwards
Electronic publication from Project Gutenberg
Finished reading 10 November 2011



The twelve tales comprising the Mabinogion are from a variety of medieval sources and traditions, ranging from pagan Welsh folklore to Christian Arthurian romances contemporary with those of Chrétien de Troyes. The oldest of the tales, the Mabinogi proper, depict the founding of Celtic dynasties in England, Wales and Ireland. They are so full of magic and monsters as to be more mythology than folklore. The Arthurian tales bring us forward into the Age of Chivalry and Catholicism, with somewhat less magic but more bloodshed.

For the most part, the Mabinogion is rather dry reading. It is tightly packed with events, but lacking in emotion, character development, or suspense. I was well into the book before reading that Guest's translation was bowdlerized and considered inferior, otherwise I would have picked a more modern and faithful translation.

178baswood
Nov. 10, 2011, 5:00 pm

Steven, I am halfway through the Mabinogion and I have similar thought as you about it. Some of it (the early tales of Welsh heritage) feel very old - very medieval, while the Arthur stories read like poor copies of Chretien de Troyes.

I am also reading the Lady Charlotte E Guest translation.

179StevenTX
Nov. 13, 2011, 12:33 am

129. Maldoror and Poems by Comte de Lautréamont
Written 1868-69
Author's real name: Isidore Lucien Ducasse
Translated by Paul Knight
Finished reading 12 November 2011

 

Maldoror is a prose poem consisting of nightmarish images of the thoughts and actions of its eponymous character who is the embodiment of evil. The author rambles more than not, often directly addressing the reader to describe the plan or intent of what he is about to write. Much of the work is anti-religious, addressing the Creator in vulgar, mocking or accusatory modes, often using the ideas and vocabulary of science and mathematics. The idea of this perplexing work appears to be to introduce an aesthetics of evil or, at best, amorality, with such jarring phrases as "as beautiful as the trembling hand of an alcoholic." There are some memorable surrealistic images throughout the book, but it strength seems to remain in how it is written rather than what it says.

The two short "poems" at the end of the volume are actually essays that, despite the introducer's efforts to claim the contrary, seem to attack the very notion of having such a work as Maldoror. They call for a return to writings of simple moral instruction, and assert that virtually all fiction and poetry is worse than garbage.

This odd book has more than a few haunting images but didn't mean much to me as a whole.

180StevenTX
Nov. 17, 2011, 9:45 am

130. Schindler's List by Thomas Keneally
Published 1982 as Schindler's Ark
Finished reading 16 November 2011

 

It is difficult to speak of Schindler's List as a book because the emotional weight of its subject matter is often overwhelming. For those who may not have read the book or seen the film, I'll just say briefly that this is a "non-fiction novel" telling the true story of Oskar Schindler, an ethnic German businessman from Moravia, who ran a factory in Cracow Poland during the Second World War using Jewish slave labor from the Cracow ghetto and, later, from a nearby labor camp. Schindler's factory was essentially a front for an operation to save as many Jews as possible from extermination. Thousands survived the war only because of his efforts, his personal sacrifices, and the enormous risks he ran, yet nothing in this fun-loving, hard drinking, promiscuous man's personality or background explains why he should have even cared about the victims of the Holocaust, much less given everything he had for them.

To explain why Schindler's List is presented as a work of fiction, the author writes "To use the texture and devices of a novel to tell a true story is a course that has frequently been followed in modern writing. It is the one I choose to follow here--both because the novelist's craft is the only one I can lay claim to, and because the novel's techniques seem suited for a character of such ambiguity and magnitude as Oskar. I have attempted, however, to avoid all fiction, since fiction would debase the record, and to distinguish between the reality and the myths which are likely to attach themselves to a man of Osckar's stature."

The result is a work that is probably more cautious and understated than had it been pure non-fiction or fiction. Given the overpowering nature of the material, understatement is probably a good thing, as it allows us to focus on one man against the backdrop of the murder of millions.

Aside from the enigma of Schindler and the plight of those he tried to rescue, the book gives a vivid picture of the Nazi régime in operation. Far from being the efficient, clockwork operation of popular imagination, it was rife with corruption in the civilian, military, and private sectors. By greasing the right palms, Schindler was able to amass and spend a fortune while running a factory that produced virtually nothing. One shudders to think what might have happened if the Nazi home front had been managed with a fraction of the professional efficiency which characterized the Reich's combat troops.

Any story of the Holocaust is a story of the absolute worst in mankind, and taking positive feelings away from its reading is a challenge. The answer to this is in a Talmudic proverb quoted on a ring made for Oskar Schindler by those whose lives he saved: "Whoever saves one life, saves the world entire."

181labfs39
Nov. 17, 2011, 4:51 pm

Fabulous review of Schindler's List, Steven. I've read the book a couple of times and seen the movie, but never fail to be moved. It gives one hope that even in the face of evil, good still exists in the most unlikeliest of places.

If you are interested in reading another perspective of Schindler and his work, you might try The road to rescue : the untold story of Schindler's list by Mietek Pemper. Pemper was an inmate of the camp and assistant to Amon Goth, the camp's director. Pemper meticulously details his work for Goth and his interactions with Schindler (Pemper supplied the lists to Schindler). I would link to my review, but don't know how to. Anyway, I think it's an interesting book written by a peculiarly precise man.

P.S. I would give you a big thumb's up for your review, but I can't find it.

182StevenTX
Nov. 17, 2011, 6:07 pm

Thank you, Lisa. I remember Mietek Pemper very well from the book. I did not know, however, that he had written his own memoir.

I actually hadn't considered posting my write-up as a review, but since you like it so much, I have now done so.

About 30 minutes after I posted my thoughts on Schindler's List I was taking my wife to the dentist, pressed for the floor in the elevator, and happened to notice the manufacturer's name: "Schindler." It was an eerie and unsettling moment.

183baswood
Nov. 17, 2011, 6:14 pm

A thumb from me too steven, excellent review

184labfs39
Nov. 17, 2011, 7:14 pm

You know, I haven't read Schindler's List since reading Pemper's memoir. I really should so that I can compare Keneally's portrayal of Pemper with the memoir. I received The Road to Rescue as an ARC though LT in Sept. 2008. I was hoping the book would make a bigger splash than it did. I think part of it may be Pemper's personality. He is so detailed, precise, and focused on numbers, that his story is not touching in the way Keneally's book is.

185StevenTX
Nov. 17, 2011, 10:20 pm

131. The Last Nude by Ellis Avery
An Early Reviewer selection, to be published January 2012
Finished reading 17 November 2011

 

The Last Nude tells the story of the painter Tamara de Lempicka, a Polish aristocrat, and her relationship with Rafaela Fono, the Italian-American girl who modeled for de Lempicka's most celebrated paintings.

Most of the story is told through the voice of Rafaela, a half-Jewish teenager, raised in New York City, who winds up penniless on the streets of Paris after fleeing an arranged marriage. Prostitution is the only prospect for Rafaela until a chance encounter with Tamara de Lempicka leads, not only to a stunningly successful artistic partnership, but to a torrid love affair between artist and model.

The artistic milieu of Paris in the 1920s is vividly and convincingly portrayed. De Lempicka moved among a circle of artists, writers, émigrés, and adventurers who experimented as boldly with drugs and sex as they did in their chosen art. But greed, jealousy and betrayal were ever at hand and cast a shadow over Rafaela and Tamara just as the rise of Fascism was casting a shadow over Europe.

The final pages of the novel give a retrospective from Tamara's point of view during her life's final years in Cuernavaca, Mexico. They complete a moving portrait of this glamorous, haughty, but troubled artist.

186labfs39
Nov. 17, 2011, 11:54 pm

Another good review, Steven, but after finishing the massive Van Gogh: The Life, I think I need a break from troubled artists and their love affairs. ;-)

187edwinbcn
Nov. 18, 2011, 4:04 am

The Last Nude sounds very interesting. Hopefully it will be included in the spring selection at local bookstores here. Thanks for the early review.

188kidzdoc
Nov. 21, 2011, 3:40 pm

Great reviews of Schindler's Ark and The Last Nude, Steven. I'll definitely get the former book, and probably the latter one.

189GCPLreader
Nov. 24, 2011, 9:11 am

The Keneally is now on my tbr list-- thank you. What's on the menu for your Thanksgiving?

190StevenTX
Nov. 24, 2011, 10:34 am

Hi Jenny. My Thanksgiving menu is the traditional turkey and dressing, courtesy of my daughter-in-law who loves to cook. (Actually I think she does the cooking just so she can have her "Yankee" dressing made from white bread instead of my wife's traditional Southern cornbread dressing.) In any case, all I have to do is show up and eat.

It's also my grandson's birthday, so we're probably having a turkey-shaped birthday cake. It's been a confusing experience wrapping presents for Thanksgiving.

Readingwise, Parzival is the main course. I hope to finish it tonight if the turkey doesn't make me too sleepy. Parzival's quest for the Gral (not the "Holy Grail"--that was a later transformation of the legend) is most appropriate for the day, since the Gral is, among other things, a cornucopia furnishing unlimited food and drink.

Happy Thanksgiving to all the U.S. Club Readers!

191kidzdoc
Nov. 24, 2011, 3:36 pm

Happy Thanksgiving, Steven!

192StevenTX
Nov. 25, 2011, 6:13 pm

132. Parzival by Wolfram von Eschenbach
Written early 13th century
English prose translation by A. T. Hatto first published 1980
Finished reading 25 November 2011

 

In the late 12th Century, Chrétien de Troyes wrote a series of five Arthurian Romances that are among the earliest extant tellings of the legends of King Arthur and his knights. The last and potentially the greatest of these five, "Perceval, le Conte du Graal" remained unfinished. A few years later, Wolfram von Eschenbach, a German knight, took on the challenge of retelling, expanding, and completing Chrétien's story. The result is a vigorous and entertaining epic poem titled Parzival, which is rendered into modern English prose in the Penguin edition by A. T. Hatto.

Parzival is a young man raised in rural obscurity by his widowed mother, a queen who has placed herself in voluntary exile to guard her only child from any influences that would lead him to follow in his father's footsteps--a career of knighthood, chivalry, wanderlust, and ceaseless peril. Of course her efforts fail, for as soon as Parzival happens to see a group of knights, he knows it is his destiny to become one of them. He seeks out King Arthur, the maker of knights, but almost immediately bumbles into one conflict and misunderstanding after another. His ignorance and näiveté would prove his undoing were it not for his extraordinary good looks and physical prowess.

Parzival's wanderings soon become an allegory for the quest for Christian salvation. Along the way he encounters a divine object called the "Gral." (This is the antecedent of the "Holy Grail" of later legend, but it is not any sort of cup.) Initially unworthy of the Gral, Parzival must redeem himself through his fidelity to the courtly ideals of love and courage before seeking the Gral again. Under the codes of chivarly, devotion to one's sweetheart and success in combat were the surest signs of righteousness, so this is how the young knight must prove himself.

In parallel to Parzival's quest are the adventures of Gawan, Arthur's nephew and the foremost knight of the Table Round. Gawan sets forth from Arthur's court at the same time Parzival goes in search of the Gral, only Gawan is out to clear his name from an undeserved slander. His journey is the secular, often humorous, and occasionally bawdy counterpoint to Parzival's more serious mission.

Wolfram's writing in this translation is lively, playful, occasionally sexy, and surprisingly modern in its development of plot and character. He makes an obvious effort to draw from, not only Chrétien's "Perceval," but all of the Frenchman's romances and other sources as well. To understand these references, it is best--but by no means essential--to read the Arthurian Romances before Parzival.

193StevenTX
Bearbeitet: Nov. 25, 2011, 9:41 pm

133. Willie Masters' Lonesome Wife by William H. Gass
First published 1968
Finished reading 25 November 2011



Willie Masters' Lonesome Wife is a short piece of experimental fiction metaphorically representing Language's plaintive cry to the reader not to be ignored, taken for granted, or under-appreciated.

There are multiple narrations, often parallel on the same page and set apart by typography, some fragmentary, and in various voices. The principal, and only identified, narrator is Babs Masters, a former stripper, Vaudeville actress, perhaps prostitute, and now the neglected wife of Willie Masters. Through typographic gimmicks and other devices (including photographs such as the one on the cover) this novel throws itself upon the reader's attention the way the stripper bares herself to the audience, but to what end?
These words are all I am. Believe me. Pity me. Not even the Dane is any more than that. Oh, I'm the girl upon this couch, all right, you needn't fear; the one who's waltzed you through these pages, clothed and bare, who's hated you for her humiliations, sought your love, just as the striptease dancer does, soliciting male eyes for cash and feeling the light against her like a swelling organ. Could you love me? Love me then . . . then love me . . . Yes. I can't command it. Yet I should love, if ever you would let me, like a laser burning through all foolish ceremonials of modesty and custom, cutting pieties of price and parentage, inheritance and privilege, away like stale sweet cake to sick a dog. My dears, my dears . . . how I would brood upon you: you, the world; and I, the language.

This is a very interesting work, more of a prose poem than a novel, that readers who like metafiction or experimental fiction will probably enjoy as I did.

Other works I have read by William H. Gass:
Omensetter's Luck

194dmsteyn
Nov. 26, 2011, 3:50 pm

I have been meaning to read something by Gass ever since I read his wonderful introduction to The Anatomy of Melancholy by Burton. Perhaps not this one... have you considered reading The Tunnel?

195StevenTX
Nov. 26, 2011, 4:24 pm

Yes, a non-LT reading group I'm in read Omensetter's Luck earlier this month (see msg 175 above) and we discussed doing The Tunnel as a follow-up, but I think its size and complexity make it an unlikely "squeeze in." So I decided to just do Willie Masters' Wife on my own instead. I have The Tunnel but probably won't get to it anytime soon.

196baswood
Nov. 26, 2011, 5:16 pm

Excellent review of Parzival Steven. I fully agree with your final paragraph. I am just starting chapter 12 and so I should finish it in a couple of days. It is an entertaining read.

197dchaikin
Nov. 26, 2011, 9:26 pm

Catching up. I read Schindler's List in some kind of state of depression and the book just seemed to drive further down into it. It was like a kind of feedback loop, the worse I felt the more I wanted to read that particular book, and the reading then made me feel even worse. Anyway, great review. Lots of other interesting reviews here too.

198StevenTX
Bearbeitet: Nov. 26, 2011, 11:47 pm

134. Small Island by Andrea Levy
First published 2004
Winner of the Commonwealth Writer's Prize, Whitbread Book of the Year, and Orange Prize
Finished reading 26 November 2011

 

Small Island is the story of two Jamaicans who immigrate to England in 1948 and the English couple who become their landlords. The Jamaicans, Gilbert and Hortense Joseph, are both well educated but unable to find suitable employment after World War II. Their marriage is one of convenience, not affection, as they each need the other to be able to emigrate. Thinking England will be a land of opportunity, they find it instead a country still struggling to shake off the devastation of war. It is overcrowded, shabby and dirty; there are shortages; jobs are scarce; and, worst of all, racial prejudice seems to have only deepened after the defeat of Hitler.

The novel is told in four voices, with each chapter bearing the name of its narrator. It also leaps back in time, with about half the chapters being designated as "Before." In such flashbacks we learn that Hortense's upbringing as the illegitimate child of a wealthy man has left her spoiled and haughty, but without family support. We also follow Gilbert's service in the R.A.F., his first visit to England, but also his first experience as the victim of racial prejudice at the hands of the English civilians and, more viciously, the American G.I.'s.

The English couple are Queenie and Bernard Bligh. Queenie is the unlettered daughter of a butcher, but as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside. Free of prejudice, she meets and befriends Gilbert during his wartime stay in England. A chance encounter after the war leads to her renting a room to Gilbert at a time when few other English will welcome a black man into their homes. Her husband, Bernard, is still away at the time. A timorous, awkward, narrow-minded bank clerk, Bernard is a poor match for Queenie. It is with relief that she has seen him go off to war in India.

Queenie's and Bernard's experiences provide a vivid picture of England at war: the Blitz, the buzzbombs and rockets, the shortages and social disruptions. In India Bernard is caught up, not only in the battle against the Japanese and the tropical climate, but in the post-war conflicts between the Indians and British, between Hindus and Muslims, and between political factions within his own army. The racial prejudice inherent in Britain's colonial empire is the other face of the treatment Gilbert and Hortense are subjected to back in the Mother Country.

Small Island is a rich and moving novel, spiced with humor and peopled with engaging, believable characters. Andrea Levy gives us an insightful, balanced and yet uplifting look at the evils of racial prejudice, the shattering experience of immigration, and the horrors of war.

199dchaikin
Nov. 26, 2011, 10:54 pm

#198 - not an easy book to review, IMO. There's a lot to cover. Well done.

200StevenTX
Nov. 26, 2011, 11:47 pm

Thanks, Dan, and welcome back. You've been missed.

201kidzdoc
Nov. 27, 2011, 9:07 am

Very nice review of Small Island, Steven.

202Jargoneer
Nov. 27, 2011, 9:43 am

I don't really understand the praise Small Island gets. Obviously it is about important issues - race, war, gender - but it is so middle-of-the-road; cliched plot and characters, and heavy-handed. It reads like Levy has taken previous narratives on the same subject, simplified them, smoothed out anything challenging or interesting to produce a reader-friendly "worthwhile" novel.

203dchaikin
Nov. 27, 2011, 10:28 am

J - that seems a little harsh, but I tend to agree with your points. It felt, to me, a little like a movie script.

204GCPLreader
Nov. 27, 2011, 8:41 pm

so happy to hear you loved Small Island. I really enjoyed it and the Masterpiece Theatre film I saw afterwards on PBS--fabulous Queenie! The novel has one of my favorite quotes from recent years: "Her face was so pretty wearing merry, I wanted to kiss it. But no, no, no, no. Don't get carried away, man. One thaw is not the summer."

205StevenTX
Nov. 28, 2011, 6:37 pm

135. The Story of Venus and Tannhauser by Aubrey Beardsley with John Glassco
An unfinished novel first published posthumously 1907
Ending by John Glassco published 1958
Finished reading 27 November 2011

 

Aubrey Beardsley is principally known as an illustrator associated with the Decadence and Art Nouveau movements of the very late 19th Century. Near the end of his short life, however, he undertook to write a novel based on the legend of the medieval German Minnesänger Tannhäuser and his visit to the Venusburg, the underground haven of the goddess of love. Beardsley died, however, in 1898 leaving the novel a little more than half finished. A fragment was published by the author during his lifetime, but with the name of Venus for some reason changed to Helen. (There is at least one instance in the text where he forgot to change it back to Venus.) A bowdlerized version of the entire (but unfinished) work was published posthumously in 1907, then an uncensored edition in 1927. The Wordsworth Classic edition features an ending supplied by the poet John Glassco based on Beardsley's notes. Of the novel's 140 pages, the first 80 are Beardsley's, the final 60 Glassco's.

The story follows the legend of Tannhäuser as depicted in Wagner's opera of the same name, but with considerable erotic embellishment. With little preamble, Tannhauser, a knight, stumbles upon an ornate portal leading into an underground fantasy land. It is the Venusburg, where the goddess and her retinue spend eternity wining and dining, entertaining one another with various musical and stage productions, and, of course, having lots of sex. Tannhauser immediately becomes Venus's favorite, and spends weeks in non-stop debauchery. Eventually, though, he becomes bored and takes his leave of paradise. He is scarcely back in the world of reality before he is smitten with shame and remorse for his sins which are so great, he is told, that only the Pope himself could possibly grant Tannhauser absolution.

Beardsley illustrated his own work, of course, and started writing the novel as though it were a description of the pictures rather than the other way around. Early in the novel he spends pages describing a single scene in full detail--hair styles, clothes, furniture, decorations--then bolts through the ensuing action in a few sentences. There is virtually no dialogue. As the novel progresses, though, the style becomes more balanced with equal attention to plot and setting. It continues this way through Glassco's ending. The erotic passages are extreme in their variety and perversity, but described with brevity and delicacy. Beardsley uses mostly French terms for bodily parts and functions. It is unclear how serious we are meant to take Tannhauser's repentance, since this part of the novel is Glassco's and not Beardsley's, but this is a novel meant to stimulate the senses, not the intellect.

206baswood
Nov. 28, 2011, 7:35 pm

Excellent review of The story of Venus and Tannhauser I can see the medieval connection, but it sounds like a fun read.

207dchaikin
Nov. 28, 2011, 9:21 pm

Wonderful review, Steven.

208StevenTX
Nov. 30, 2011, 8:03 pm

136. The Lais of Marie de France
Sequence of 12 short stories in French verse, late 12th century
Translated into English prose by Glyn S. Burgess and Keith Busby



The twelve brief stories in this work all deal with courtly love in one form or another. They are set in France or England, with a very clear sense of geography. Each of the tales also, however, has at least some element of magic. In one story, for example, a nobleman is cursed by becoming a werewolf once a month--something he tries to keep secret from his wife.

All of the stories involve secret or forbidden love affairs, usually adulterous. Typically the hero is a knight and the object of his love is kept in strict seclusion by her jealous older husband or father. The rituals of love follow the patterns of courtly romance found in the Arthurian legends, but more often than not come to tragic ends.

One story, in fact, is Arthurian. In "Lanval," the knight of that name has a mysterious and beautiful lover who gives herself to him on the condition that he must never speak of their love. Arthur's queen attempts to seduce Lanval, and when he rejects her, becomes quite spiteful in taking her revenge.

An interesting oddity of the stories, considering that the author was a woman who identifies herself by name in the stories themselves, is that hardly any of the female characters are given names. They are usually just "the lady," "the damsel," or "the queen."

This is quite an enjoyable little book that nicely complements the contemporary epics I have been reading lately.

209baswood
Dez. 1, 2011, 12:21 pm

Good review of The Lais of Marie de France steven. It is certainly one I want to get to soon. Did the translation work for you?

210StevenTX
Dez. 1, 2011, 1:38 pm

Yes, the translation was fine. Just as with our other recent reading it was a prose translation of a work in verse. In formality and language Marie is about midway between Chrétien de Troyes and Wolfram von Eschenbach. The material is similar to that of the Canterbury Tales or the Decameron.

211rebeccanyc
Dez. 1, 2011, 5:13 pm

The Lais of Marie de France was recommended to me by three different people here on LT after I reviewed the Arthurian Romances, so it's definitely on my TBR, although I'll be venturing in other directions after I finish Parzival.

212StevenTX
Dez. 5, 2011, 12:10 am

137. Rickshaw by Lao She
First published in Chinese 1936 as Lo-t'o Hsiang Tzu
Translation by Jean M. James 1979

 

Hsiang Tzu is an orphaned village boy who has come to Beijing, as so many millions have done before and since, looking for work. In the 1920's the rickshaw is still the primary means of urban transportation, and Hsiang Tzu's great size and strength, youth and good health, make him a natural for the job of rickshaw puller. He both enjoys and excels in his work and dreams of the day when he will own his own rickshaw.

But fate has many lessons in store for Hsiang Tzu. Renegade soldiers, corrupt police, and the seductive boss's daughter will have their turn at confounding the young man's ambitious plans. Gradually beaten down, Hsiang Tzu nonetheless clings to his belief that honesty, clean living, and hard work will bring rewards.

Lao She was a champion of left-wing causes in nationalist China. In Rickshaw he repeatedly deplores capitalist greed and "Individualism's blind alley," implying that China's poor can only receive justice through collective action. He would seem to have been a natural prophet for the Communist revolution. Tragically, though, he was either murdered or forced into suicide during the Cultural Revolution. Nonetheless he provides an exceptionally vivid, yet balanced, picture of urban poverty.

The novel has been translated into English under three titles. The first translation, by Evan S. King in 1945 under the title Rickshaw Boy is heavily modified and bowdlerized. The James translation, which I read, is beautifully rendered and claims to be faithful to the original. It does, however, use the now-discarded Wade-Giles romanization. There is a newer translation, published in China, using Pinyin and titled Camel Xiangzi.

Lao She was an admirer of Charles Dickens, but I find his more explicit and humorless brand of realism closer to that of Émile Zola. Highly recommended.

213dchaikin
Dez. 5, 2011, 12:26 am

Never heard of this, and it yet sounds quite important, unusual I would guess. Great review.

214baswood
Dez. 5, 2011, 3:19 am

Excellent review of Rickshaw, Lao She steven

215kidzdoc
Dez. 5, 2011, 5:43 am

Very nice review of Rickshaw and comments about its author, Steven. I'll add this to my wish list.

216rebeccanyc
Bearbeitet: Dez. 5, 2011, 12:30 pm

Sounds fascinating, and something I'll look into for the Reading Globally theme read on China and Its Neighboring Countries, if not sooner.

In recent years, a modern version of the rickshaw with young men on bicycles pulling carriages that people can sit in has appeared in the tourist areas of NYC. Even though I know it provides work for these men, there's something about it that makes me feel extremely uneasy.

217StevenTX
Dez. 5, 2011, 2:07 pm

#216 - The pedicabs are used for tourists in Beijing as well. I went there on vacation last year and rode one into a hutong neighborhood exactly like the one described in the novel. The way the guy on the right in the picture is dressed suggests this is just a part-time job for many of the drivers. In smaller cities I saw pedicabs used for general transportation, but not in Beijing.

This is definitely a novel I'll recommend for the Reading Globally theme. The only Chinese novelist of equal prominence to Lao She from the Republican era is Ba Jin, and I'll try to read his novel Family before our discussion begins.



218kidzdoc
Dez. 6, 2011, 7:38 am

>216 rebeccanyc: London also has pedicabs, particularly in the West End and Soho. I took this photo between sets outside of Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club two years ago:

219labfs39
Dez. 6, 2011, 8:17 pm

And here's a very chic pedicab in Salzburg in August:

220StevenTX
Dez. 6, 2011, 10:05 pm

138. No More Mr. Nice Guy by Howard Jacobson
First published in Great Britain 1998
First U.S. edition 2011
Finished reading 6 December 2011 as an Early Reviewer offering

 

Television critic Frank Ritz is being thrown out of his own house by his partner, Melissa Paul. Melissa writes feminist pornography for a living, and she can no longer concentrate with Frank in the house. So he takes his laptop computer and his portable television on the road, going from hotel to hotel across Britain revisiting scenes of his past life. Frank, we learn, has been obsessed with sex since childhood, and if he isn't spending the night with a girlfriend or a friend's wife, it's with a prostitute. But now, at age 50 and having a mid-life crisis, he isn't sure at all what he wants or what he needs.

Unfortunately the novel has something of an identity crisis itself. It goes in too many directions for there to be any meaningful development of any single theme. Are we concerned with Frank's age, his sexual identity, his attitude towards women, his unfulfilling career? Or is this about society in general, sexual hangups, women's attitudes towards men, towards themselves? There are some interesting observations on all of these topics--in between the raunchy sex scenes--but if and how Frank develops as a character is just as puzzling as what the title, "No More Mr. Nice Guy," has to do with anything in the story.

Howard Jacobson's The Finkler Question is an excellent and thoughtful novel. Its success has evidently led to the wider release of Jacobson's earlier works. No More Mr. Nice Guy in no way measures up. Readers who like Philip Roth will be on familiar ground with Frank Ritz's sexual anxieties, but it's an unconvincing, unfunny novel that just doesn't say much.

Other works I have read by Harold Jacobson:
The Finkler Question

221baswood
Dez. 7, 2011, 2:27 pm

kidzdoc had a similar response to No more Mr Nice Guy. It sounds like Mr Jacobson should be embarrassed by this re-release.

222StevenTX
Dez. 9, 2011, 4:11 pm

139. The Artist of Disappearance by Anita Desai
First published 2011
Finished reading 9 December 2011 as an Early Reviewer offering

 

The Artist of Disappearance is a collection of three short novellas, each set in India and revealing in some fashion a sense of loss at the cultural transformations taking place in that country.

"The Museum of Final Journeys" takes place in a remote region where a young apprentice government official has been assigned for his first posting. All seems dull and dreary to him until he learns of an all-but abandoned estate housing a most remarkable private museum.

"Translator Translated"has an urban setting. A school teacher's chance encounter with an old classmate leads her to realize that her knowledge of the Oriya language make her a natural choice to translate some of its literature into English for wider exposure. She is unprepared, however, for the political and personal strife this will bring.

"The Artist of Disappearance" returns to the countryside, this time the foothills of the Himalayas, where a lonely, broken man haunts the burnt ruins of his once grand family mansion on a private search for beauty in the common objects and creatures of nature.

These are simply, poignant stories that will make you want to stop for a closer look at the simple treasures of life before they pass away.

223labfs39
Dez. 9, 2011, 9:28 pm

Have I mentioned how much I enjoy the author photos that you include in your reviews? I haven't read any of Anita Desai's books, despite having a couple on my shelves. I need to rectify that.

224StevenTX
Dez. 9, 2011, 9:35 pm

Thanks, Lisa. I just link them from the LT author page or, in a couple of cases, Wikipedia so that I'm sure they're ones it's legal to use.

I have a couple of Anita Desai's books around too which, sadly to say, I haven't read yet. This collection I received as an ER selection isn't likely to be considered one of her major works, but it does make me want to read more by her.

I have, however, read her daughter Kiran's book The Inheritance of Loss, which is wonderful.

225labfs39
Dez. 10, 2011, 12:08 am

So many books, so little time!

226rebeccanyc
Dez. 10, 2011, 5:02 pm

I read something by Anita Desai so long ago I'm going to have to check my catalog to see what it was! It was Clear Light of Day, and I remember enjoying it, and I have several more, I see, that I haven't read. I ddin't realize Kiran Desai was her daughter, and I was underimpressed with The Inheritance of Loss.

227kidzdoc
Dez. 10, 2011, 8:34 pm

Nice review of The Artist of Disappearance, Steven. I'm glad that you also enjoyed it.

228katiekrug
Dez. 10, 2011, 9:04 pm

My ER copy of The Artist of Disappearance arrived a couple of days ago. Nice review, Steven. I am looking forward to this one.

229StevenTX
Dez. 13, 2011, 10:03 pm

140. Tristan by Gottfried von Strassburg
(with fragments of the 'Tristan' of Thomas)

Composed in German verse ca. 1210
Translated in English prose by A. S. Hatto
Finished reading 13 December 2011

 

The earliest known forms of the legend of Tristan and his ill-fated love for the Irish princess Isolde date from around 1150. Numerous variations of the story exist, but around 1210 it assumed its classic form at the hands of the poet Gottfried, of whom little is known except that he hailed from Strassburg.

The story begins with a brief history of Tristan's parents. His father, Rivalin, is the ruler of Parmenie, a region described as being between Brittany and Normandy, his mother, Blancheflor, is the sister of King Mark of Cornwall. Born of a secret union between the two and soon orphaned, Tristan is raised in ignorance of his noble origins. Chance leads him to Cornwall where he becomes a favorite of King Mark before it is revealed to one and all that Tristan is the king's nephew.

The next phase of the story is familiar to any who have enjoyed Richard Wagner's opera "Tristan und Isolde." After having fought a duel to free Cornwall from having to pay tribute to the King of Ireland, Tristan is sent to Ireland to solicit the hand in marriage of the king's daughter Isolde for his uncle Mark. Through a combination of bravery and trickery, Tristan is successful in bringing the princess back with him, but Isolde makes no secret of her hatred of Tristan for having killed her uncle in combat. This changes dramatically, however, when the two accidentally drink a love potion and fall hopelessly in love with each other.

Tristan's dilemma is that he cannot betray his uncle and king by denying Isolde to him, yet he cannot refrain from loving Isolde. The result is years of subterfuge and scandal as Tristan and Isolde carry on an affair under Mark's nose. Their first challenge, however, is to somehow hide from Mark the fact that his bride is no longer the virgin she was advertised to be.

Compared with other romances of its time, Gottfried's Tristan touches very lightly on the elements that characterize the Age of Chivalry. There is less emphasis on knightly behavior, the pageantry of jousting tournaments, the rituals of courtly love, or religious piety. Instead the focus is on the nature of Love itself and the lengths to which it will drive those afflicted with it. The author's attitudes towards society and religion are surprisingly more modern than medieval.

Gottfried based his poem on one by a man named Thomas, and several times insists that he is being as true as possible to his source. The last part of Gottfried's Tristan has not survived, but, oddly enough, ONLY the final part of Thomas's "Tristan" is still in existence. So the editors have pieced the two together to tell the complete story. The transition from one author to the other is surprisingly smooth, possibly because it is the work of the same translator, though Thomas's writing is perceptibly more succinct and less colorful than Gottfried's. A. S. Hatto's translation in both cases is highly readable prose.

230dchaikin
Dez. 13, 2011, 11:57 pm

Love the cover - naked, busted...and in prayer? Enjoyed your review of yet another medieval work I had never heard of before.

231StevenTX
Dez. 14, 2011, 12:22 am

Yes, the cover is interesting--apparently chosen by the publisher for its erotic appeal. The back cover says only "The cover is adapted from a woodcut in an early edition Tristan (British Museum)." It appears to show an accusing angel, a repentant Isolde in a state of dishabille, and a sleeping Tristan. However, no such scene appears in the story (at least not in Gottfried's version).

232dchaikin
Bearbeitet: Dez. 14, 2011, 8:50 am

"dishabille" is my new word for the day. :)

233baswood
Dez. 14, 2011, 9:17 am

Excellent review of Tristan, Gottfried von Strassburg. I keep coming across references to this legend in other stuff I am reading and so it is becoming a must read now. It goes straight onto the to buy list.

I notice the translation is by A S Hatto who is the same guy who did Parzival.

234StevenTX
Dez. 15, 2011, 9:52 pm

141. Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood
First published 1988
Finished reading 15 December 2011

 

Cat's Eye is the first person story, told in chapters alternating present and past, of an artist and her childhood in Toronto. There is no central event or idea in this novel, just a number of overlapping themes: memory, relationships, aging, and how we confront and construct our past. Yet it is quite captivating, beautifully written, thoughtful, and moving. I'm sure much of it is autobiographical.

Other novels I have read by Margaret Atwood:
Surfacing
The Handmaid's Tale
Alias Grace
The Blind Assassin

235StevenTX
Dez. 17, 2011, 11:28 am

142. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie
First published 1926
Finished reading 17 December 2011

 

Except for the Sherlock Holmes stories I had not previously read any British-style mysteries, so this was a new experience for me. It was an intriguing puzzle, but too contrived for my taste. I enjoyed Sherlock much more. I intend to read a bit more in the genre, but I don't see myself becoming a fan.

One thing I did like about the book was it's portrayal of English society in the 1920s, a time when 19th centujry prejudices were still fashionable but class barriers were eroding.

236baswood
Dez. 17, 2011, 2:18 pm

steven, I believe that The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is considered to be one of her best stories, although I am no expert.

237rebeccanyc
Dez. 17, 2011, 3:06 pm

I read a lot of Agatha Christie when I was about 12 or 13 years old, and haven't read any since. I do still live Sherlock Holmes, which I first read when I was even younger.

238StevenTX
Bearbeitet: Dez. 21, 2011, 8:47 am

143. Euripides II: The Cyclops, Heracles, Iphigenia in Tauris, and Helen.
Translations by William Arrowsmith (1 & 2), Witter Bynner (3), and Richmond Lattimore (4)
Finished reading 20 December 2011

 

Euripides is the most modern and down-to-earth of the Greek tragedians. His heroes are as often ridiculous as noble, he regularly takes the side of the common people against the aristocracy, and he is openly skeptical about the gods, even as he uses them to manage some of his rather contrived endings. This collection of four plays may contain his oddest works, but they are no less enjoyable for being unconventional.

The Cyclops is actually a comedy, technically a "satyr play." It tells of Odysseus's escape from the cyclops Polyphemus, embellishing Homer's account with lots of drunken banter.

Heracles is a nightmare of a play. The great hero comes home from his twelve labors to find that Lycus, the usurper of Thebes, is about to put Heracles's entire family to death to eliminate any potential rivals to his rule. Heracles arrives just in time to kill Lycus instead, but then is immediately driven insane by Hera. He relentlessly hunts down and murders his wife and children, then has his sanity miraculously restored so he can realize what he has done.

In Iphigenia in Tauris, the daughter Agamemnon thought he sacrificed to permit his fleet to set sail for Troy has actually been magically transported to Tauris, a barbarian city in the Crimea. Here she must serve as a priestess, enticing unsuspecting travelers to their deaths. One such traveler, however, is her own brother Orestes, being hounded across the face of the earth by the furies for having killed his own mother. Will the two learn one another's identities in time to avert another tragic murder?

And in Helen another bit of magic transportation has taken place. Helen, it seems, was never abducted from Sparta by Paris and never set foot in Troy. Instead, angry Hera spirited her away to Egypt, putting a fake Helen, a spirit made of air, in her place. For seventeen years Helen has sat by the Nile bemoaning the fact that her reputation has been ruined and wondering what has happened to her husband Menelaus. But just as she's about to be forced into marriage with the Egyptian king, a shipwrecked Greek shows up in rags. Of course, it's Menelaus. It's up to Helen to convince her husband that she's the real Helen, then to plot a daring escape. It strikes them both that, as Troy's Helen was just a phantom made of air, the entire war and all its misery and death was for naught. (A modern version might substitute "weapons of mass destruction" for the ephemeral Helen.)

In Menelaus's parting prayer is the wish that the gods would give a little help here and there, but leave off mucking with the fates of men and nations:
O Zeus, renowned as father and wise among the Gods,
look down upon us. Grant us surcease from pain,
and as we grate the shoal-rocks of catastrophe
reach us your hand, touch only with your fingertips
and we are there, triumphant, where we wish to be.

239labfs39
Bearbeitet: Dez. 21, 2011, 1:30 am

I love your review of Euripides II. I read some of these in college, and reading your reviews made me laugh in a way that reading the plays did not! I love the prayer you quote: touch only with your fingertips is beautiful and reminds me of Michelangelo's fresco The Creation of Adam.

ETA: You should post your review as there aren't any at this point, and yours is so well done.

240rebeccanyc
Dez. 21, 2011, 8:27 am

Someday, I would love to get back to reading some ancient Greek literature; haven't read any since high school.

241baswood
Dez. 21, 2011, 8:52 am

Excellent review of Euripides II steven.

Lisa #239 as good as touch only with your fingertips is, the translator could have used with a light touch on the tiller instead. It has the alliteration and carries on the nautical theme from the shoal-rocks in the line above.

242StevenTX
Dez. 21, 2011, 8:52 am

Lisa, I didn't post my review until this morning because the cataloging of this edition is a bit muddled and the touchstone was pointing to an entry showing the editor as the primary author. I've found the right touchstone now, and my review is in place. Thanks for your comments.

243dchaikin
Dez. 21, 2011, 9:09 am

#242 and it now has at least one thumb. Fascinating stuff, and fascinating prayer.

244labfs39
Dez. 22, 2011, 12:20 pm

>241 baswood: The nautical translation is nice too. I like touch only with your fingertips because it evokes the tenderness of touch, in addition to the idea of gentle guidance. We tend to touch things we love with our fingertips. Do you read Greek, Barry?

245baswood
Dez. 22, 2011, 7:14 pm

#244 er no.

246GCPLreader
Dez. 24, 2011, 9:43 am

merry christmas, Steven!

247StevenTX
Dez. 24, 2011, 6:07 pm

Merry Christmas, Jenny, and to one and all.

248StevenTX
Dez. 25, 2011, 11:29 am

144. The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens
First serialized 1838-1839
Finished reading 24 December 2011 (ebook)

 

The title character of this novel begins the story as a young man of good education and modest fortune, unused to the idea of work and responsibility. His circumstances have changed, however, with the death of his father and the discovery that the family is ruined. Moreover, they are deeply in debt to Nicholas's uncle, Ralph Nickleby, a vile and penurious usurer. Nicholas and his beautiful sister Kate must go through excruciating trials of endurance and conscience as they are exploited by their evil uncle and the web of deceit he weaves around them.

Like most of Dickens's novels, Nicholas Nickleby is a mixture of humor, melodrama, and social commentary. The abuses on which he focuses here is the institution known as Yorkshire schools. It seems that young English boys whose presence their parents found inconvenient were often dumped in these home-based schools for years where they were treated more as household drudges than students. As a humorous counterpart to the author's scathing treatment of these schools, he treates us with a light-hearted satire of the English popular theater.

Nicholas Nickleby is a very good novel and worth reading. It isn't quite in the same class, however, as David Copperfield or Bleak House. The characters are memorable but lack development, and the plot relies more heavily on unlikely coïncidence. Nonetheless it has some suspenseful and touching moments and, in the character of Ralph Nickleby, one of the coldest villains of Victorian fiction.

Other books I have read by Charles Dickens:
The Pickwick Papers
Oliver Twist
David Copperfield
Great Expectations
Bleak House
A Tale of Two Cities
Our Mutual Friend

249GCPLreader
Dez. 25, 2011, 4:06 pm

I'm up for some new Dickens next year. Should I do Nicholas or Bleak House?

250labfs39
Dez. 25, 2011, 6:25 pm

Nice tantalizing review of Nicholas Nickleby, Steven. You are accruing many Dickens titles under your belt. I must keep to my plan and read at least two more this year. Not being a reading planner, this is a commitment!

251StevenTX
Dez. 25, 2011, 7:49 pm

#249 - I would say Bleak House. Nicholas is a little simpler and shorter (not that it's short at 720 pages), but Bleak House is better and worth the extra effort. You may also appreciate the strong female characters in Bleak House. The women in Nicholas Nickleby are very stereotyped.

252StevenTX
Dez. 25, 2011, 8:09 pm

Found under the tree this Christmas Day:

A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami
Asphodel by H. D. (Hilda Doolittle)
Young Turk by Moris Farhi
By Night in Chile by Roberto Bolaño
Wonderful Fool by Shusaku Endo
Callirhoe and An Ephesian Story by Chariton and Xenophon of Ephesos
Ice Trilogy by Vladimir Sorokin
How It Is by Samuel Beckett
Extinction by Thomas Bernhard
The Origin of the Brunists by Robert Coover
A Night at the Movies by Robert Coover
The Unwalled City by Xu Xi
The Trial of Gilles de Rais by Georges Bataille
To Live by Yu Hua
Brothers by Yu Hua

All of these were from my wishlist, so there are no surprises except in which ones the givers chose. Many of them were on the list because of forthcoming topics groups such as Reading Globally and Author Themed Reads.

253StevenTX
Bearbeitet: Dez. 25, 2011, 10:58 pm

145. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
First published 1843
Finished reading 25 December 2011 (ebook)

 

Perhaps no book ever written is less in need of a synopsis than this one thanks to the countless theatre, film and TV adaptations it has inspired.

Dickens appears to have taken some of the key characters from Nicholas Nickleby--the miserly old usurer, his noble nephew, and his impoverished clerk--and given them a completely new twist in this timeless novella.

The image of Dickens above is from 1842, so this is roughly how he looked when he wrote A Christmas Carol at age 31. Already a celebrity, he had just returned from his first tour of the United States and Canada.

254baswood
Dez. 26, 2011, 6:48 am

Finding time to read and to post on LT on Christmas day is pretty impressive steven. A nice touch to be reading a Christmas Carol on Christmas day. Happy reading for the new year.

255rebeccanyc
Dez. 26, 2011, 3:54 pm

#251. I've been meaning to read Bleak House for a while Maybe in 2012. Haven't read Dickens since I was in school.

#252. Ice Trilogy will make my list of my top books for 2011. I've had Brothers on the TBR for a couple of years now, and will probably read it for the Reading Globally read.

256StevenTX
Dez. 26, 2011, 10:59 pm

146. Petals of Blood by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
First published 1977
Finished reading 26 December 2011

 

Petals of Blood opens with the arrest of Godfrey Munira, a schoolteacher, as a suspect in the murder of three African brewery executives in the Kenyan town of Ilmorog. As Munira makes his statement to the investigator, the history of this once-tiny village unfolds and with it the lives of Munira and others.

The principal time frame of this complex novel is the mid 1960s to early 1970s, comprising Kenya's early years of independence from Great Britain. Through the lives and thoughts of the inhabitants of Ilmorog we see the exhilaration of freedom turn to disillusionment as Kenya's native rulers and businessmen simply maintain the pattern of exploitation that the English established under colonialism. The villagers, in the face of drought and famine, organize collective action to seek relief, only to see those in power try to turn the misfortunes of others to their political and financial advantage. Every attempt at local initiative or free enterprise is crushed by those who have sold out to American and European corporate interests.

Ngũgĩ's political message is so pointed and direct that he was imprisoned after the novel's publication. The author does quite a bit of preaching, which stands somewhat in the way of the novel's working as a piece of fiction. He doesn't recommend specific action steps other than to follow the teachings of Lenin and Mao and the examples of Cuba, Angola, Mozambique, Egypt, and other socialist states.

This is an important and memorable book with a message well worth heeding. As a novel, however, I didn't find it as enjoyable as Ngũgĩ's earlier less convoluted works.

Other books I have read by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o:
Weep Not, Child
The River Between

257Nickelini
Dez. 26, 2011, 11:13 pm

I agree that Bleak House is probably better then Nicholas Nickleby; however, I think you forgotten one important thing about NN--it's really funny in parts. I guess Bleak House had some funny parts too, but I found NN very funny. Maybe it was just me. They were both good.

258baswood
Bearbeitet: Dez. 27, 2011, 4:56 am

Excellent review of Petals of Blood, although it does sound a depressing read. However I note it was published in 1977, which would have made it very controversial at the time and probably a brave piece of writing.

259rebeccanyc
Dez. 27, 2011, 7:56 am

As I noted elsewhere, I enjoyed Petals of Blood more than you did, Steven, although it's a while since I read it and I don't remember it in detail, except that it was very darkly satiric and that it focused on theater as well as politics and village life. Along with a play he wrote at about the same time, I Will Marry When I Want, that apparently touched on similar themes and that I haven't been able to get my hands on, this is what got him thrown in jail.

260dchaikin
Dez. 27, 2011, 10:32 am

Great reviews of Dickens and Ngugi.

261StevenTX
Bearbeitet: Dez. 27, 2011, 10:34 pm

deleted -- with apologies to Barry who had already commented upon it

262baswood
Dez. 27, 2011, 7:04 pm

great stuff steven, true Christmas spirit.

263StevenTX
Dez. 28, 2011, 12:38 am

147. Matigari by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
First published in Gĩkũyũ in 1986
English translation by Wangũi wa Goro 1987
Finished reading 27 December 2011

 

Matigari is a political novel in the form of a parable. It is set in an unnamed African country, obviously based on the author's native Kenya but doubtless applicable to other lands. Matigari is a former independence fighter who emerges from the forest long after the war has ended, buries his AK-47 at the foot of a tree, and goes in search of the fruits his victory has won.

He goes to claim the house built by his own hands, but finds such houses are still in the hands of the Europeans and their toadies. He goes to the factory where he once worked only to find that black workers are still at the mercy of foreign investors. He sees children fighting over scraps from a garbage dump and living in an auto junkyard. He sees, and rescues, a woman being assaulted by police. Everywhere he goes, Matagari asks, "Where is truth and justice?"

Matigari becomes an instant legend. Is he the second coming of Jesus? Or is he a liberator of a different kind? Eventually Matigari himself, asking "where may truth and justice be found?," is told to find this miracle worker named Matigari--he is said to be a giant!

The novel is divided into three parts, with the central section a rather heavy-handed but occasionally funny satire of government propaganda and news doctoring. In the third part, however, Matigari renounces peaceful means, declaring "Justice for the oppressed springs from the organised armed power of the people." Ngũgĩ is clearly calling for an armed Marxist uprising to overthrow the corrupt government which is nothing but a puppet for continued American and European imperialism.

To understand the issues raised in Matigari that are specific to African history, Kenyan in particular, it might be best to first read other works by Ngũgĩ such as Petals of Blood which have direct historical and social references. However, there is much in Matigari that is universal--the tendency, for example, of people to wait for a savior rather than taking direct action to end injustice. It is also disturbing to ponder how many of the abuses and injustices Ngũgĩ ascribes to Kenyan society and its dysfunctional government may actually be present to a surprising degree in what we call "free" societies.

Other books I have read by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o:
Weep Not, Child
The River Between
Petals of Blood

264baswood
Dez. 28, 2011, 5:08 am

Excellent review steven.

265rebeccanyc
Dez. 28, 2011, 1:04 pm

I really enjoyed Matigari too; I liked the satire, the way it was never exactly clear who Matigari was, and the combination of aspects of the oral tradition with modern writing.

266StevenTX
Dez. 29, 2011, 10:15 am

It's unlikely that I'll finish any more books by the end of the year, so it's time to wrap up this thread with my...

Reading summary for 2011



Top 5 books
Germinal by Emile Zola
The Story of the Stone (or The Dream of the Red Chamber) by Cao Xueqin
The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky
The French Lieutenant’s Woman by John Fowles
The War of the End of the World by Mario Vargas Llosa

Most unique books
The Sufferings of Prince Sternenhoch by Ladislav Klima
69 Things to Do with a Dead Princess by Stewart Home

Least favorite books
The Last Battle by C. S. Lewis
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
No More Mr. Nice Guy by Howard Jacobson

Statistics for books read
146 works
124 physical volumes
12 e-books
3 re-reads

121 novels
14 short story collections
5 non-fiction
4 epic verse (including prose translations)
2 drama collections

117 different authors
81 first-time authors
88 male (75%)
26 female (25%)
3 anonymous

Authors with multiple works read
7 Mario Vargas Llosa
7 C. S. Lewis
4 Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
4 John Updike
3 Philip Pullman
2 each: Colette, Charles Dickens, Euripides, William H. Gass, André Gide, Witold Gombrowicz, Graham Greene, China Miéville

Works read by author's nationality
31 England
29 United States
17 France
7 Peru
5 Germany
4 each: China, India, Italy, Kenya
3 each: Australia, Greece, Poland
29 other

Works read by original language
79 English
20 French
11 Spanish
6 German
4 each: Chinese, Italian, Russian
3 Greek
2 each: Arabic, Japanese, Polish
1 each: 9 others
46% were works in translation

Works read by date of first publication
2 5th Century BCE
1 4th Century BCE
1 11th Century
3 12th Century
2 13th Century
1 14th Century
1 16th Century
3 18th Century
1 1800s
1 1810s
1 1820s
2 1830s
2 1840s
2 1850s
2 1860s
2 1870s
1 1880s
1 1890s
4 1900s
2 1910s
8 1920s
4 1930s
4 1940s
18 1950s
16 1960s
9 1970s
15 1980s
13 1990s
18 2000s
6 2010s

Rather surprising here that I read a book from every decade since 1800.

Favorite book covers

       

267labfs39
Dez. 29, 2011, 1:12 pm

I love these lists, Steven. Thanks for sharing yours! I began working on mine last night, but won't post it until Saturday, giving me plenty of time to plagiarize some of your categories. ;-)

268kidzdoc
Dez. 31, 2011, 6:02 am

Superb review of Matigari, Steven; I'm glad that you also enjoyed it, and your review makes me appreciate it that much more.

I enjoyed your summary of your reading year, and I think I'll copy your idea of the favorite book covers of the year. I know that The Sense of an Ending (UK edition) will be amongst my top five.

269rebeccanyc
Dez. 31, 2011, 8:22 am

Really enjoyed the book covers too. I have to learn how to do that. And of course I enjoyed your thoughts, too.

270baswood
Dez. 31, 2011, 12:35 pm

Steven from your summary I was surprised to note that you read as many books from the 1950's as you did from the 2000's, but this is probably because you are following the 1001 best book recommendations.

271StevenTX
Bearbeitet: Dez. 31, 2011, 6:53 pm

Yes, that's part of it. Also, seven of those books were the volumes in the Chronicles of Narnia, so that inflates the 1950s a bit.

69 of the works I read in 2011 were from the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die list--slightly fewer than half of my total reading. In some cases that was a deliberate choice, in others cases (e.g. group reads) it just happened that a book I would have read anyway was from the list.

All of the books from the 2010s were Early Reviewer books.

272StevenTX
Jan. 1, 2012, 1:13 am

273edwinbcn
Jan. 1, 2012, 10:57 am

It seems I missed out on Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o. I wasn't paying real attention because the name looked so extraneous. Realizing he is a writer from Kenya, I would be interested, as my interest is moving towards that continent. However, it will be difficult to come by books of such authors. At least, you among others here have introduced this writer very well.

Happy New Year!