edwinbcn's Reading Journal 2012, Part 2

084. The Poseidon adventure
Finished reading: 23 June 2012



A number of films have been released about disasters with ocean liners, but The Poseidon adventure by Paul Gallico, first published in 1969, seems to be one of the very few novels featuring the sinking of such a big ship. The book forms the basis for the 2006 film Poseidon.

On the second day of Christmas, the S.S. Poseidon is hit by a tsunami in the Atlantic Ocean rolling the ship over and killing most of the staff and passengers aboard. The event occurs so sudden that no distress signal is sent, no life-boats are launched and all bridge staff is instantly killed. The ship remains afloat upside down.

Survivors in the dining hall are stunned and helpless, until a priest, Scott, rallies them and a small group of passengers, the oddest medley, decides that they have to attempt escape. This means that they have to climb up through the upturned ship to reach the hull.

It is a struggle against all odds. No-one knows how long the ship will remain afloat, how long lights will stay on, whether there is a way out, how to emerge, and whether or not they will be rescued, even if they make it to the surface. There are no assurances. The obstacles are formidable.

Creativity, courage, team work and ingenuity make them succeed. Frayed nerves lead to tremendous frustrations, but Scott is able to keep his flock together, and they brave many moments they would not believe they could. They meet others on the way, who seem doomed. A child is lost. Before reaching safety, two members of the team die: sacrifices to a wrathful God.

Scott is no ordinary priest. He shows that faith in God is necessary, but not enough, and man must make his own way to safety.

The end of the book presents various interesting dilemmas. The little group struggled so hard, made offers and goes through humiliation. They believed their ordeal was justified to ensure their unique survival. Are they disappointed to see they are not the only survivors? Their lot is in stark contrast with the other survivors who emerge in evening dress, even the drunkards who cared for nothing and drank themselves into a stupor, while the little group struggled to survive.

Odd is the message that the priest, Scott, and another survivor in the little group are homosexual. This message comes all the way at the end. Is it to prove that gay people can be brave, or count among the bravest?

The adventure is very well told, and exciting. The religion theme plays a minor role in the story, although one could easily feel that the priest, Scott is God (Gott). This somewhat religious theme, and the questions raised at the end, would be unusual in contemporary fiction. However, they do make the book a touch more interesting than the ordinary adventure story, by asking what is the meaning of our struggle?



Other books I have read by Paul Gallico:
Mrs Harris goes to New York
The foolish immortals

I didn't even know that The Poseidon Adventure was based on a novel! I always thought of it as a movie from the 1970s (must predate the 2006 movie you mention).

085. Der Jäger von Fall
Finished reading: 24 June 2012



Der Jäger von Fall (1883) is a homeland novel by the German author Ludwig Ganghofer.

The novel opens with the dramatic fire on the farmstead which leaves Lenz, Maria's brother, and orphan, and a simpleton. Maria, or Modei, is betrothed to the hunter of Fall, Friedl, but as the hunter does not return for two years, she has a child with a local poacher, called Toni. Upon his return, Friedl discovers that Toni is the illegal poacher, and must arrest him. However, in an attempt to arrest Toni, Toni's brother Blasi is accidentally killed, but Toni blames friedl and seeks revenge. On his way to the village, Toni encounters Lenz, and in a fight between them, Lenz kills Toni.

Der Jäger von Fall was a very difficult read, because it is written in German Bavarian dialect. Careful reading makes it possible to understand the language, but the story did not really interest me, and I could not really follow the details of the story line. The opening chapter, describing the fire was impressive, and some of the hunting scenes, including the chase of the poachers by hunter were impressive, and evoked some of the mountainous highlands. However, the action seemed unnecessarily slow.

Hi Rebecca. Maybe the 2006 film is a remake of the earlier film? My edition of the book is the 2006 film tie in.

Per Wikipedia, Gallico wrote the novel in 1969. The US movie appeared in 1972, with a 1979 sequel called "Beyond the Poseidon Adventure." Then there were apparently two recent remakes, one in 2005 called "The Poseidon Adventure" and one in 2006 called just "Poseidon." Here is the Wikipedia disambiguation page. I remember, but never saw, the 1972 movie, but was completely unaware of all the others or, as I said, the novel.

Enjoyed your review of Sweeny Todd. I love the musical but was unaware of the book so added it to the wishlist.

Excellent review of The Poseidon Adventure edwin, I also did not realise it was based on a book. I have seen the film a couple of times, but not recently and there certainly seem to be strands in the book that did not feature in the film.

Hahaha, right Barry! At the end of the book they all strip (completely!) naked. I suppose they don't in the movie.

Which would be a pity, because the contrast it creates with the other survivors emerging in evening dress on opposite sides of the hull plays an important role in raising existential questions.

I remember the original Poseidon Adventure movie. I can't imagine Ernest Borgnine, Shelley Winters and Red Buttons doing a nude scene! I know I've seen the novel somewhere, but did not realize it was by the Paul Gallico who wrote the "Mrs. Harris" novels. Obviously from your review the novel is more of a serious literary work than one would assume from the film. I'll keep an eye out for it.

I've also put Sweeney Todd on my Kindle list.

I remember Paul Gallico from school - one of the books the class library had was The Snow Goose, which was very well known at the time. Probably because it was about Dunkirk - since it was written in 1941 it may have the first fictional response to that event.

Re the film, The Poseidon Adventure - it fitted in with the spate of disaster movies in the 1970s where a small group of people were trapped and had to find their way to safety. These were big-budget films; there was a later film called Raise the Titanic of which on the producers quipped it would have been cheaper to lower the Atlantic.

Wow. Reading in the Bavarian dialect! I remember that after I'd been in Germany a year and had worked very hard to become conversant in German, I attended a dinner where I was seated next to an elderly Bavarian priest. I understood maybe one word in twenty.

You can have a try:

„Ah na! Ich bin allweil a verstandsams Weiberleut gwesen. Ich hab allweil begriffen, was für a kostbars Gut die Gsundheit is. Aber du warst der Unverstand. Du Leimsieder, du gsundheitsfeindlicher! Gar net a bissl ebbes hast dir traut. Gar nix, gar nix, noch viel nixer als gar nix. Mach Reu und Leid und sag aufrichtig, ob’s wahr is oder net!“

or this:

„Amal, auf’n Abend zu, is wieder a Fremder in d’ Hütten kommen, a magrer, langer, langer, endslanger Kerl –“

„Jöises“, staunte Philomen, „der is ja so lang, dass er gar nimmer aufhört!“

„Rappenschwarze Haar hat er ghabt und zwei Mordstrumm Augen wie brennheiße Glutbrocken –“

„Net schlecht!“, warf Binl ein. „Dös wär einer für der Punkl ihr Gsundheit gwesen.“

„Und der hat gsagt –“ Punkl fiel ins Hochdeutsche. „Üch habe ain Verlangän.“

Gor schüttelte den Kopf. „Wann er die Alte gsehen hätt, glaub ich kaum, dass er’s gsagt hätt.“

„Üch habe ain Verlangän, hat’rrr gsagt, gäbet mür zu ässen und zu drünken! Und da haben ihm die zwei Sündhaften wieder Wasser mit Steiner geben. Und selber haben s’ die größten Brocken Kaas verschluckt.“

In Monika rührte sich die barmherzige Seele. „Dö müssen schön Magendrucken kriegt haben.“

„Und auf amal –“ Geheimnisvoll ließ Punkl den Zeigefinger kreisen. „Auf amal, da fangt er zum Lachen an, der lange, lange Lange –“ Sie ahmte mit tiefer Stimme ein diabolisches Gelächter nach. Es klang, wie wenn ein Rehbock schreckt. „Und gsagt hat er:

Heut auf d’ Nacht
Werds alle umbracht.
Zwei werden gschunden grausi,
Den dritten schmeiß ich durchs Hüttendach außi!

Und wie er’s gsagt ghabt hat, da is er verschwunden – fffft – weg is er gwesen.“

Den Mädeln wurde gruslig zumut, und Monika konstatierte: „Dös war der Tuifi.“

„Jöises“, fieberte Philomen, „wird’s da nach Schwefel gstunken haben.“

„Dös kannst dir denken!“, nickte Punkl. „Und in der Nacht, wie’s auf zwölfe gangen is, da kommt a schauberhafts Unwetter.“ Ihre Hand machte eine flinke Bewegung im Zickzack. „A Blitz fahrt abi, und nacher tut’s an Kracher –“

086. Selected short stories
Finished reading: 24 June 2012



More so than the novels, Virginia Woolf's short stories are difficult to read. One reason for that, is that in the stories, particularly in this early collection titled Monday or Tuesday she was looking for a new form. Her writings take the form of an experiment. Another reason is that Woolf's view of the world is idiosyncratic. This makes that her writing has a very particular feel to it; Woolf's style is not easy to follow. A moment of inattention, and the reader may be lost, having to retrace steps and reread to catch the thread. Finally, in her work Woolf makes many references to people and events of the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Century; without knowing what she refers too, even in fiction, the stories are difficult to understand, or it is hard to see the significance. For example, in the story "A society" there is a reference to a publication in 1920 by the Edwardian author Arnold Bennett, who posed that women were intellectually inferior to men. However, the reference in the story is very vague, and it requires an annotated edition (such as the Selected short stories) or quite some research in the library to pick up such allusions.
A short story collection such as Monday or Tuesday might be difficult to start reading Virginia Woolf, but for people who have already read some of the later novels, the collection is very rewarding. The collection is very typically Woolf, including all features of her style and themes. It contains the stories “A Haunted House”, “A Society, the title story “Monday or Tuesday”, “An Unwritten Novel”, “The String Quartet”, “Blue and Green”, “Kew Gardens” and the well-known “The Mark on the Wall”.
In addition to the eight stories, as originally included in Monday or Tuesday, the Penguin Modern Classics edition includes other early and signal stories such as “Solid Objects”, “In the Orchard”, “A Woman’s College from Outside”, “The Lady in the Looking-Glass: A Reflection”, The Shooting Party”, “The Duchess and the Jeweller” and “Lappin and Lappinova”. Many of these stories are rather short, do however expound Woolf’s unique style, and form a nice complement to the eight stories of Monday or Tuesday.

Highly recommended, but difficult to read, and therefore I would suggest to read an annotated edition such as in the Penguin Modern Classics series, rather than a free download. An additional advantage is that the Penguin edition reprints the woodcut illustrations by Woolf's sister Vanessa Bell. The Penguin edition however is not just an annotated edition, but seems to be overdoing things a little bit, taking the shape almost of a scholarly edition. While academic readers might find the long introduction and extensive notes by Sandra Kemp very useful, the overall effect on the leisurely reader might be quite contra-productive. The 15 stories in the book take up barely a hundred pages, including illustrations. The introduction is 26 pages long, with no less than six pages of notes following the introduction. These are notes to the introduction. At the back of the book, there are another 18 pages of clarifying notes annotating the stories themselves. So on a total of less than 100 pages of prose, there are 50 pages critical apparatus



Other books I have read by Virginia Woolf:
A room of one's own
Orlando
Jacob's room
Mrs. Dalloway

Intriguing review, Edwin -- I've only read a couple of short stories by Woolf (those that get anthologized in textbooks), so I'll have to pick this one up.

Yeah, I'm not going to be picking up anything in the Bavarian dialect soon! Although, I did recognize the little song you quoted, although not those words, clearly, as the actual song is a gentle children's lullaby.

I do like gsundheitsfeindlicher, though, and will try to make use of it in conversation.

087. The plain man and his wife
Finished reading: 28 June 2012



Arnold Bennett was a very prolific writer, perhaps the most successful Edwardian author. He was a self-made man, originally from very humble origins. His success and self-confidence led him to the conviction that he could often do things better than other. At the height of his career he published a number of non-fictional works advising readers how to improve themselves. Bennett wrote two guides for aspiring writers: How to Become an Author in 1903, and The Author's Craft in 1913. His own credo about authorship was expressed as follows: "Am I to sit still and see other fellows pocketing two guineas apiece for stories which I can do better myself?"

He also wrote several books advising common people on how to improve themselves. These range from titles such as Self and Self-Management, Mental Efficiency, to guides on developing literary taste (Literary Taste: How to Form It ) and how to change one's life-style in such a way that the emerging class of white-collar workers might make more of life.

The most well-known, and still read, of these is How to Live on 24 Hours a Day (1910). This short work may be so popular still because it is so recognizable and so practical. Everyone wastes time doing nothing, which could in a very simple manner be turned into time well spent. By getting up a bit earlier, and systematically devoting increasing amounts of time, up to an hour and a half each evening to reading Great Literature, rather than the newspaper, improve self-discipline, reflect on life and on the Great Literature one has read, and develop an interest in art, etc, anyone can improve and rise above themselves.

Less well known, but written in the same vein is The plain man and his wife, written in 1913. Unfortunately, this work is much less accessible than How to Live on 24 Hours a Day.

The plain man and his wife consists of four parts which may reluctantly be called chapters. Rather, the first two and the last two parts seem to belong together, while all apparently deal with the question how man is to make more of life.

The first two parts describe how "everyman" in a sense is a plain man, who craves to make the most of life, wanting to get more out of it. The main tenet is that modern man has no time, is preoccupied with work and cannot make the most of life and find pleasure. The main advice is to take a hobby: any hobby, which gives you pleasure.

The plain man and his wife is written throughout using the third person singular (usually he), which makes the book of little personal interest. The tone is jocular and cold, wry. Chapter 3 is a kind of allegory, describing the lives of two plain men with very different tempers, Mr Alpha and Mr Omega, and Chapter 4 describes the life of the plain man and his wife, Mr and Mrs Omicron. The tone and style of this little book are distanced, and the book is much less readable as a result.



Other books I have read by Arnold Bennett:
The gates of wrath
How to live on twenty-four hours a day

Interesting reviews of the Arnold Bennett and the Virginia Woolf, both books out of the main stream of literature. You certainly seem to be travelling down the byways edwin.

Good advice for people wanting to read the Virginia Woolf short stories and you are so right about the need to keep your concentration when reading her.

Very nice reviews of Selected Short Stories and The Plain Man and His Wife, Edwin. I'll pass on both books, though.

A fascinating angle on Arnold Bennett. I've read The Old Wives' Tale and heard of Clayhanger and Anna of the Five Towns, but I would never have imagined that he was the author of self-help books.

There is a biography of Arnold Bennett waiting to be read on a shelf here. Your review, just moved it up the pile. Thanks!

It's not actually waiting to be read on the shelf, it is on the shelf waiting to be read.

088. Shear
Finished reading: 30 June 2012



So far, I have read three novels by Tim Parks, Europa, Destiny and most recently, Shear, and mainly been disappointed. The novels seem muddled, with apparently an interesting premise, interesting setting and some interesting ideas, but it just does not come out. For instance, Tim Parks's Italy isn't Italy. There is so little attention for the surroundings that, although there are indications that the novels are either set in Italy or "a Mediterranean country" there is no feel for Italy. Unfortunately, the same happens with the characters in the book. The same lack of attention to describe the characters, so that we do not get to know them. The action in the novels is violent, but unfocussed. Overall, my experience reading Parks so far has been that the books are boring, and after reading it isn't clear what they were about, and by the end of the book one does not really care to find out any more.

Shear then occurs when ‘pressure is applied in at least two different and not diametrically opposite directions.’

In the novel Shear the main character is apparently subjected to various strains of stress. Peter Nicholson is sent to a quarry to investigate and write a report. A worker has been killed. The conflicting interests are the postponement of work pending the investigation and the quest to uncover the truth about what happened to the worker, who was hit by a piece of rock. While his employer originally wanted him to investigate, they later tell him to drop the case, while the owners of the quarry are uncooperative throughout: stress mounted as the widow of the worker appears on the scene and keeps spurring Peter on with the investigation. The discovery of the piece of bloodied rock that killed the worker and closer examination of its structure, reveal that much more trouble is hidden behind the accident. The three conflicting interests drive Nicholson to despair.

But even on page 178, Nicholson says: "I don't understand why I was sent here. I was told to find something at all costs. Now it seems everybody knew there was nothing to find. Even the Australians."

This is after Nicholson has uncovered the suspicious rock, and the widow has been killed. Nicholson's ideas about the death are muddled. He claims to have seen her in the morning; she is said to have committed suicide the night before; the next day, he suggests the quarry workers have killed her by pushing her onto the saws.

Beside the battle of conflicting interests at work, Peter Nicholson's attention is also torn between three women. Unfortunately, none of these women are described very clearly, and their relations with Nicholson remain sketchy.

The setting of the novel is in a quarry, and a lot of technical vocabulary to describe the machinery, work operations, etc is used, as well as geological terminology. This creates an image of harshness, hard, cold and mechanical. A source of additional stress is the racket caused by cutting the slabs of granite. There is a strong contrast between the quiet of the sound-proof quarters and the overwhelming din on the work floor.

It is possible that the author wants the reader to be in Nicholson's head only, and make the reader blind to nuances, hence the lack of characterization and description, other than that of the quarry, which is described in great detail. However, it makes the novel less interesting to read.

The muddled structure in worsened by the fact that all action in the novel takes place in just five days. Is all this pressure meant to put strain on the reader?

On the blurb the novel is presented as a mystery. The mystery part of the killed worker is obvious enough, but the mystery is more about what is going on in Nicholson's mind. Perhaps the label psychological thriller would be more applicable.

The end of the novel is puzzling. How does Nicholson know what he is apparently looking for, and then why does he fail to know it is a bomb that will kill him, detonating as he grabs it. Why must he find it before the saw finished cutting the slab? Is his death an accident, murder or suicide?



Other books I have read by Tim Parks:
Europa
Destiny

I have a couple of Tim Parks novels on my shelf and I think they will stay there after reading your review of Shear. I think I would have trouble getting though all that stuff on the machinery and the quarry. Thanks for the review.

I don't know Parks' fiction, but it does surprise me that he'd fail at conveying "Italy", because that's exactly why in the past I've recommended Italian neighbors, the first (I think) of his memoirs of life in Verona. I absolutely hate the whole genre of "Anglos basking in golden Tuscany/Provence" olive oil lyricism, so trust me when I say that Parks' book is nothing like that--his Italy is the real Italy, at least in those memoirs. (The book was pressed on me by an Italian woman married to an American as an example of a non-touristy view of Italy from a foreigner.)

Incidentally, I seem to remember Parks later divorced his Italian wife, which must have been very traumatic, considering they've been together at least ten years and had two (I think) children. The reason I mention this is that I was surprised by the very bitter tone in the next book of his I picked up (also non-fiction). I haven't read anything by him since except for the occasional review in New York Review of Books.

In sum, although it's been about fifteen years since I read Italian Neighbors, I'd still recommend it, especially to those curious about how most Italians actually live, and aren't just seeking House Beautiful lifestyle porn for the rich retirees.

>24 LolaWalser:

Having given your comments some thought, I guess the short answer is that I am not interested in "the real Italy". When reading, for me the couleur locale is an important part of the reading experience and pleasure I get out of a novel. Probably close to 20 years ago, I had a discussion in the same vein, when I praised my then favourite author Evelyn Waugh for the enchanting experience of his novels, e.g. Helena, preferring Waugh over Graham Greene, which led my friend to the sneer that I preferred background detail to character. So many years later, I must say I have grown into liking Greene, but do not always the particular couleur locale in Greene's novels.

As for Italy, I must say I am interested in the cultural construct of Italy in our minds and novels by e.g. E.M. Forster etc. Currently, I am reading The Water Theatre by Lindsay Clarke, which is largely set in Italy, and which calls up the cliché image of Italy: a contessa in a Renaissance style villa and a white sports car, a Franciscan brother, Fra Pietro who plays the lute, a British travel writer and his lanky Italian male lover, etc.

I am not really interested in Italy. A few years ago, I bought 40+ novels with the intention of learning Italian to a reading level, but I abandoned that plan. I just do not want to take on another language + its whole literature, which I will then want to explore. I am simply shutting it out.

In my criticism of the novels of Tim Parks, the absence of Italy is not the main point. For all I care he lives in Italy and sets his novels in the UK or anywhere else for that matter. However, Parks does write about Italy, but I can't find it back in the books. The absence of Italy is illustrative of the other short-comings of his novels, namely lack of description: no character development, and description which is so sketchy that the reader cannot follow the story, and failure to attract and keep the readers' interest and attention.

With all three books of Parks' I have read so far, Europa, Destiny and Shear, I basically lost interest after about 80 pages.

I still own, and will read Cleaver and Italian neighbours.

089. Forecast: turbulence
Finished reading: 30 June 2012



The recent history of Australia begins as a penal colony, and when Australians investigate their family history there is no way to tell what they will find. What they may find may be very disturbing: their forebears may have been murderers, thieves or other type of lewd folk. Forecast: turbulence by the Australian author Janette Turner Hospital consists of nine short stories and a memoir. In the memoir, "Moon river" she describes a brief history of her family, that is, of her great grand-father, her grand-father and her parents. Great-grandfather Charles Henry Turner had abandoned his family, wife and infant son, for unknown reasons "crushing debt, sexual scandal, embezzlement?" in 1877 (p. 216). Grandfather Turner, the abandoned son, discovered him in Brisbane, having come through New Zealand and Sydney, and found his father there practising "drunken law". Places are connected with violence and and personal histories of disaster, shame and ruin.

The title story "Forecast: turbulence" (the eighth story in the collection) is perhaps the most startling. A mother calls her daughter telling her "Are you sitting down?" (..) "I think you'll need sitting down" before breaking the news that her "father has made contact". The last they had known about him was his return from the war, his need for (face-) altering surgery (to be patched up), a lot of medication, he did not return to his family as "there was a woman, another woman, who had been haunting him" and he needed 'a new start of life". When Stacey, the daughter, meets her Dad, she fails to recognize him: he has had a transgender operation.

The other stories in the collection are similarly disturbing, centred around very problematic family backgrounds, and often criminal or runaway parents. A runaway father who shows up unexpectedly at a marriage ceremony: "Dad" (..) "You've got a nerve" (..) "I should tell you to bugger off". In other stories there are "seas of blood", suicides, fathers running away from the law, child abduction and paedophelia. In "The Prince of Darkness is a Gentleman" a father stages plays as schools, casting his own daughter as Ophelia; "he was so good with the boys". The grownup children in the stories often hear the truth about their fathers whispered or from the newspapers, as Jodie in "The Republic of Outer Barcoo" has a complete archive on the exploits of her father.

In line with the subject matter, characters in many of the stories use rude language, which not all readers might appreciate. Themes of the stories and the collection as a whole are disturbing: freakish and weird.

There are many references to the weather, especially "turbulent" weather conditions such as hurricanes. While as a metaphor for disturbance, violence, unpredictability and disasters causing major devastation, or simply great forces blowing you away or off your feet, this element is interesting, it is also sometimes distracting. The insistence of quasi-meteorological titles for each story, and the connection of weather conditions to emotions in the fifth story, "Hurricane season" is contrived.

Altogether, an interesting collection of stories not everyone will find a pleasure to read.

Nice review of Forecast: Turbulence. Now the weather is something we are all interested in.

"Now it seems everybody knew there was nothing to find. Even the Australians." That's it. Tim Parks is off my list. Thank you for the scathing review.

I haven't tried Parks's fiction (guess I won't) but his blog posts in NYRB are quite good. http://www.nybooks.com/contributors/tim-parks-2/#tab-blog

090. Kurnovelle
Finished reading: 30 June 2012



After twenty years of marriage, a woman finds herself out of place. Her teenage daughter tell her she does not need to take efforts to raise them. She neglects house-holding, and when she suffers inexplicable pains in all limbs it is decided that she should spend some time in a sanatorium. At first, she can think of nothing but going there with her husband, but eventually goes there alone. The three-week stay at the sanatorium benefits her above expectations. She is refreshed physically, mentally and spiritually. Glances and attention from men at the hotel raise her awareness of herself, and she breaks off her stay, with longing for her husband, eager to return home.

Back home she is baffled by the fact that nothing there has changed. She has changed, but at home nothing has. She initiates sex with her husband, only to find him jealous, irritated asking her whether she has takes lessons with other men in the art of love. Long discussions in bed lead to the conclusion that she is no longer in her place. She leaves her home, and in the following weeks finds ever increasing hostility among her husband and two daughters. However, her new with her consciousness she knows her judgement is right.

They had been so happy when they got married, Adam and Eva, their names made them destined for each other, their bedroom paradise with a painting of the Garden of Eden on all four walls. It took Eva twenty years to find out she had been nothing but a pet animal.

Immerhin hat es zwanzig Jahre gedauert, mein Leben als Haustier. (p. 131)

Kurnovelle by the Swiss author Hanna Johansen deals with unhappy love. With snidy irony, the marriage and attitude of the husband are analyzed. It is surprising that for all the positive effects of feminism, there are but few books of this kind around.

While in some ways the book is very feminine, the theme and the irony make it readable for a much wider audience, men and women alike.

Intriguing reviews of Forecast: Turbulence and Kurnovelle, Edwin. I suspect these books might be hard to find, as very few LTers show them in their libraries.

091. The apple tree
Finished reading: 30 June 2012



One of his five best stories is what Nobel Prize winner John Galsworthy called The apple tree, a short novel published in 1916.

It is a beautifully written Romantic story, that begins when Frank Ashurst and his wife Stella stop for a rest in the countryside near Torquay, and a wayside grave triggers a flashback to a hiking trek Frank made as a young man through the area.

Twenty-six years earlier, Ashurst and a friend wandered when Ashurst hurt himself and was taken in by some common people at a farm to recover. During his stay he fell in love with the daughter of the family, called Megan. It is only with the greatest hesitation that Megan, betrothed to a loutish local boy, opens her heart to Ashley, who willfully seduces her to kiss under the apple tree. When he leaves, he promises Megan that he will be back to marry her.

However, in Torquay he meets Stella who is also very beautiful, and besides, Stella is of a much better social standing than Megan. The story portrays his struggle to break his promise, rationalizing his decision, and eventually marrying Stella. With deep regret, he gives up his first love, Megan. His second love, while not as passionate, develops naturally, and the class difference between Megan and Stella makes him realize, a marriage with Megan would have been foolish.

At the time, Ashurst could well imagine how unhappy Megan would have been, waiting for his return in vain. The discovery of the wayside grave drives home the shock and deep regret of abandoning his first love. He asks an old man about the grave, and hears how heartbroken Megan waited and finally killed herself over grief.

The apple tree is not merely a beautiful and tragic story. Clearly, Ashurst's marriage with Stella is far from ideal, and part of his regret for his first love, Megan, is that he might have been happier with her. Ashurst's regret is not just about what he lost: he feels guilty of breaking Megan's heart, and in now further burdened by her suicide. But while Ashurst's love for Megan seemed pure enough, there were constant reminders of their inequality. Much of the love affair was initiated by Ashurst, who in all matters seemed more knowledgeable, more mature. Their love was not as pure as it seemed, instead it was tinged by Ashurst's intellectual deliberations, his pity for Megan and his aristocratic condescension. After all, it was but a bit of play. More than about love, The apple tree is a novella about class.

Hi Linda.

I read some pretty off-beat stuff, but am always surprised to see other people adding copies to their libraries.

Forecast: Turbulence was published in 2011. Its author Janette Turner Hospital is moderately popular, at least among members of Club Read. Several members have read and reviewed other books by Janette Turner Hospital. She publishes since the 1980s, but I suppose it takes a while to become known overseas. I am sure there will be more readers later on.

I do not think there is an English translation for Kurnovelle. Its author, Hanna Johansen, Swiss, mainly works as a translator and writer of children's books. Kurnovelle seems to be her only or one of very few works for mature readers. The style of writing is quite far from main stream. It was a book one has to get into: the title suggests that the time at the sanatorium is pivotal, but that part of the story, which takes up almost half of the novel, is only to position the story. While reading that part, I wasn't sure whether I would like it. However, the second part is sublime. But two copies on LT shows that the book, first published in 1997, is far from popular among German readers.

I'm always looking for recommended works by Nobel Prize Laureates that I have not yet read. I'm adding this one to my wishlist. Thanks Edwin.

092. Kindergeschichten
Finished reading: 1 July 2012

Published in English as:

The short stories in Kindergeschichten are like children's stories, and if they are read by children, they would be children's stories. Why shouldn't adults read children's stories? Or are they stories, cleverly disguised as children's stories.

Reading Kindergeschichten is refreshing. The short, simple sentences, onomatopoeia, repetition, etc are like poetry.

The main character in the stories is somewhat ridiculous in his disbelief of well-known facts. His impossible plans, and his stubborn resolve. Just like children.

Children are never described as stupid. Readers can be like children within these stories and recapture some of that freedom, reading along.

Kindergeschichten by the Swiss author Peter Bichsel is a very small booklet, of just about 84 pages of large print. It was published in an English translation as There is no such place as America.

Thanks for the excellent reviews of Kurnovelle and The Apple Tree, Edwin. I've just downloaded the free version of Five Tales: John Galsworthy onto my Kindle, which includes The Apple Tree.

Good tip about the free download darryl and an excellent review edwin.

093. Wolf Hall
Finished reading: 10 July 2012



The first glimpse the reader has of the main character of the historical novel Wolf Hall is that he is floored, "knocked full length on the cobbled of the yard" with his cheek pressed in the mud. There is blood and grime.

This opening typifies the novel. The epigraph tells us to expect comic scenes rather than tragedy, as the perspective is turned away from the elevated to the lowly; the stage is set to exhibit private dwellings rather than the objects suited for kings. This does not mean that Wolf Hall is a comedy. It merely indicates that the focus is on a commoner, Thomas Cromwell, more than on the king, Henry VIII.

The low perspective is not only applied to the choice of subject matter and style, it is also applied to all historical characters, who are described in such a way to bring them down from the pedestal upon which history has placed them, and describe them more in terms of human beings. Thomas Cromwell, in most history books described as an unlikeable character is portrayed as an uomo universalis well-versed in the arts of war, court and kitchen, his taste and cooking showing him to be a bit of a gourmet. Henry VIII, generally remembered as a tyrant, is described as a somewhat shy and hesitant ruler, concerned with Cromwell's health he visits him at home. Anne Boleyn is shown to be a clever schemer, while Thomas More comes down to us through the novel as a cruel torturer and religious fanatic, quite the opposite from the humanistic idea one might have of him. Towards the end of the novel Thomas More's façade of stoicism is broken by the fear of his impending execution at the stake.

A sound knowledge of the historical period certainly helps understanding the story, although appendices provided with the book are very helpful and sufficiently help the reader from loosing track, although it may still be useful to look up some of the minor characters.

Wolf Hall is a bit of a misnomer, as none of the action takes place at "Wolf Hall", and this place, hardly features in the story. The plot of the novel is a rather free interpretation of the rise in power of Thomas Cromwell, apparently setting the stage for a description of historical events in later sequels. As a result, the novel has no real core. Historically, Thomas Cromwell is a minor character, but in the novel he is the main character. However, Cromwell does not initiate or enact any (great) events. All the while, all the reader is given to digest is court intrigue and the machinations of power. Fascinating, but at times a bit boring.

Despite the attempt to show the main characters in the novel as human beings, they remain historical effigies. There is no real character development, and each of them lacks a sense of personality. None of the characters is memorable, surprising or recognizable. They are merely a collection on cameos -- not much more than the historical figures they enact.

What is memorable about the novel are the very sharp descriptions of the burnings at the stake, but very little else. Apart from this element of fear, the historical facts being what they are, the novel offers little to impress the reader.

no, can't agree with you about Wolf Hall edwin. It may lack some character development but it more than makes up for this by a vivid depiction of historical events around Cromwell. It brought the period to life for me and the writing at times is extraordinarily good

>39 baswood:

In a historical novel, the historical events are given, so in determining how impressive the novel is, one has to subtract or ignore the historical events. Many people are impressed by historical novels because of the greatness of the historical period.

In some historical novels there is a plot which is separate from the historical background, but in Wolf Hall that is not the case. The plot is the history of that period.

In most historical novels, the historical events form the background to a different plot with fictional character. These fictional characters are created by the author and must be infused with character to make the novel work, otherwise they are just cardboard, flat characters.

In some fictional works of the past, contemporary with the period of the novel, circa 1520, characters were intentionally nothing but emblems, such as Felicity, Liberty, Measure and Magnificence. Our attention is drawn to this in the second epigraph to Wolf Hall.

In Wolf Hall the characters are fictionalized historical characters, and in the fictionalization, the historical characters are humanized. What I mean to say is that historical characters are basically flat characters, so fictionalized historical characters must be infused with character, i.e. personality, to make the well-rounded persons in the novel.

In my opinion, only Thomas More is successfully "humanized" at the end of the novel, when his mask cracks and his fear becomes palpable. None of the other characters impresses or interests me in any way.

Just checked Amazon and Chapters for Forecast: Turbulence after reading your review. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to be available in Canada yet. I did order Orpheus Lost though. Janette Turner Hospital is on my list of favourite authors and I am always excited to find a book by her that I don't have. In this part of the world, it usually means digging through dusty shelves in out of the way used book stores. Great review.

ETA I also appreciated your thoughts on historical novels, even though we don't agree on Wolf Hall.

Some really fascinating reviews, Thanks, Edwin.

In Wolf Hall Mantel seemed to be channelling Thomas Cromwell, a distraction that prevented me from becoming immersed in the book. I share your qualms about the fictionalizing of historical characters. I made the mistake of following Wolf Hall with Ford Madox Ford's The Fifth Queen, in which the same people have quite different motives and personalities. Ford made no pretence that his characters were historically accurate, which was at least honest.

Thanks, Pam. I seemed a bit lonely in my negative criticism of Wolf Hall. Much will depend on subsequent volumes. It is also very tempting to read more about the period and the major players in the novel. I would probably like reading The Fifth Queen by Ford Madox Ford.

094. When a man marries
Finished reading: 22 July 2012



When a man marries is a high-speed comedy which does not keep all that well together. Jim, a painter - good for nothing, married Bella but was left by her before the year was out. He lives off his aunt Selina's allowance (doubled since he married Bella), and fear that his aunt might slash the allowance if she finds out about the divorce, he pulls off a comedy of manners to fool his aunt, presenting his best friend Kit in the role of Bella, whom the aunt has never seen.

A comedy of that sort would not be difficult to keep up for the duration of an evening's dinner party, but as the Japanese butler is suspected of having smallpox, all members of the party are quarantined within the house for a whole week. The servants having run off, the dinner guests find themselves quite literally helpless, and unable to cook or even boil an egg.

The novel is a bit of a stage comedy with characters running in and out of rooms, hiding in closets, etc. Partially hilarious, involving some stark racism, the novel is reminiscent of P. G. Wodehouse.

Principally known as an author of detective and mystery novels, Mary Roberts Rinehart does include some elements from that genre into When a man marries, such as a string of pearls that goes missing, but the novel is mainly a comedy of manners.

095. Letters from a self-made merchant to his son
Finished reading: 1 August 2012



The autobiography of Benjamin Franklin is a biography presented as an instructive, exemplary guide to young people how to develop a successful lifestyle. It has been a steady best seller ever since its publication.

Letters from a self-made merchant to his son by George Horace Lorimer is written in the same vein. It was a best seller in its time, 1902, but is now largely forgotten. The book consists of 20 letters by a father to his son, counseling him on major issues is life. It's subtitle reads Being the Letters written by John Graham, Head of the House of Graham & Company, Pork-Packers in Chicago, familiarly known on 'Change as "Old Gorgon Graham," to his Son, Pierrepont, facetiously known to his intimates as "Piggy."

Contrary to Franklin's Autobiography, which appeals to the audience at large, Lorimer's Letters are of more specific interest to the so called nouveau riche upper class of "captains of industry". John Graham, the pork-packer, counsels his son on the relative merit of postgraduate education, frugality and various other virtues. The latter part is concerned with the question of choice of a wife. The first candidate, a spoilt daughter of a vastly rich family is resolutely rejected by father Graham, as she would soon wreck the family. The ultimate counsel is that a man needs a proper wife to take care of him, and then all should be well.

Much of the advice given by Graham to his son is, and would still be, sound, but the overbearing didactic tone of the father's voice in the letters is a bit straining. Despite its apparently different audience, Letters from a self-made merchant to his son is close to The autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, in the sense that it gives very practical advice on matters which are immediate and close to people's experience. In that aspect it is much more direct than for example Arnold Bennett's How to Live on 24 Hours a Day or The plain man and his wife which were published only a few years later, but approached lifestyle from much more elevated plane, aiming for higher values and more abstract goals. Bennett, though of humble origins, aspires to higher, aristocratic values, while Lorimer represent the much more practical class of self-made new millionaires, which was so much despised by Bennett.

Interesting reviews of two traditional books from the early 20th century.

096. Invitation to the waltz
Finished reading: 4 August 2012



Invitation to the waltz is a very carefully composed "time-piece" which describes life, especially social relations during the second decade of the Twentieth Century.

Very little happens in the book, which is composed of three parts. Part one, describes the homely life of Olivia and her sister Kate Curtis, and Olivia's birthday, and her errands in the village to have a dress made. There are various descriptions of her encounter with the common folk in the village they live. The folk from the village are typically weird, the way only British people can be characterized by British novelists.They are just the most lovely, queer creatures. Part two describes the preparations for the ball, and Part three, the longest, describes various characters from the wider vicinity.

Attending the ball, at which Olivia makes her coming-out party as a débutante, having just reached her seventeenth birthday about a week earlier, the reader is given a glimpse into Edwardian and subsequent decade showing a still very traditional class society. The Curtis sisters belong to the middle to upper middle class, and are clearly not among the most popular guests. Poor Olivia is mostly standing alone or asked to dance by men she would rather shun. The structure of the story resembles the order of dances and engagements to dance as on a dance card, allowing for a moment-by-moment encounter with various attendants to the ball. The characterization of various (young) men and women in this fashion is entertaining, and creates a close-up of a kaleidoscopic picture. Their conversation reveals a great deal about social etiquette and morals at the beginning of the Twentieth Century, such as the following statement: It takes a man to teach a woman how to dress. (p. 199)

Parties being parties, apart from social conventions, quite a number of aspects are remarkably similar to present-day social events, and Invitation to the waltz could be read as a somewhat stiff memory of a school party. Little jealousies, girls trying to get close to the most popular guys, bragging boys, even a social misfit completes the picture.

An interesting read for the contemplative reader with an interest in the first quarter of the previous century.

good review of Invitation to the Waltz Edwin. Did you pick up a job-lot of early 20th century English novels from somewhere. Some fascinating reads.

Nice review of Invitation to the Waltz. I've run across Lehmann's name a few times, and it sounds like she's an author I should add to my library.

>49 baswood:

haha, well, yes and no. Most second-hand books in China are books from that period, and I have quite a stack of those. In addition, Chinese publishers love printing out-of-copyright books to make a buck.

Letters from a self-made merchant to his son was published as a volume in a series of American Best Sellers, that is to say novels which made it onto the Publishers Weekly lists of bestselling novels in the United States (Listomaniacs please refer to the Wikipedia item for those lists). I bought all six volumes in the series published so far, and the book by Lorimer is the first I finished reading.

When a man marries is a cheap reprint in another series by a Chinese publishers.

Finally, I read Invitation to the waltz for the Rosamond Lehmann Reading Week 23rd to 29th July 2012 of the Virago Modern Classics Group.

arriving late and now going to sit in the corner...have a bit of catching up to do.

Caught up now. Entertaining reviews. Funny, when I read Wolf Hall, I convinced myself up front that I should not read as history, but as fictional characterizations placed within historical personages. Somehow, that seemed to work better for me.

Hi, still lurking here. I didn't know Gallico wrote The Poseidon Adventure. He's also the author of the YA-book Thomasina about a resourceful cat and I loved it, although I'm not a cat-lover. Wolf Hall's still on my shelves, I must get to it rather sooner than later.

> 40

Very interesting thoughts on plot and fictionalization of characters in historical novels. I was thinking that if the reader has very little or no background on the real life figures and the period a historical novel is set in, then he may read a historical novel just like any novel. If it is the novelist's intent to present a revisionist version of the story and characters, perhaps a satire or send-up or plain parody, then perhaps a background may be useful.

Kurnovelle is a book I would like to read but I don't think the two sentences I remember in German are enough to get me through it, :(
Invitation to the Waltz is being added to the wishlist, though.

097. Stargirl
Finished reading: 5 August 2012



Stargirl is a novel about adolescence. Adolescence is a period when the personality is formed, or crystallized. Fads and fashions are part of that development, and young students' behaviour is known to pass through phases. Non-conformism is often a characteristic of that development. "First love" another.

Susan Caraway, the "stargirl", is a girl unlike any other. Most readers may have known a girl like her at high school, although the stargirl is the novel is highly unusual. In fact, she seems to be an exaggerated, larger-than-life version of such a girl, compounded of many characteristics usually found in such students: alternative clothing, a white rat, a philosophical mind-set, alternative life-style, being different in every way, etc.

The students through whose eyes the story is observed and told, Leo Borlock, is receptive to "stargirl's" behaviour and being because he is an ambitious, young students with a creative touch, running a school TV channel. He can't help himself but fall in love with stargirl.

The message of Stargirl is somewhat ambiguous. Many readers will be infatuated with the character of "stargirl" and adult readers may wish or assume that "stargirl's" behaviour will remain part of her permanent personality. However, the novel clearly suggests that "being stargirl" is a phase, a temporary phenomenon, which can be shed like a snake's skin as a stage in an ongoing development. Once the stage is passed, it will not come back.

Stargirl is by all means an interesting story, although its subtleties may be lost on the target audience of young adults. By force of choice, it may be assumed that the story exults this particular life-style form of non-conformism over other forms, a choice never made explicit in the novel. However, the magic lingers, and leaves a lasting impression, on Leo at least.

Unfortunately, the Chinese-English bi-lingual edition published by the China Astronautic Publishing House in co-operation with Random House, is riddled with typos, which are a real affront to readers.

Interesting edwin. The Stargirl series seems to be very popular with the Young adults.

>58 baswood:

My heart was not in the reading of it, Barry, generally, I avoid YA lit. I bought it with a pile of other books, all in plastic wrapping, without close inspection.

I think children's book may have a function, but Young Adult literature is rather useless. "Young adults" (an odd term in itself) ought to read regular literature. I will probably invoke some anger left and right, but, seemingly old-fashioned, I tend to look down on adults who read YA lit or "graphic novels" for that matter. Last year, I could barely suppress my sarcasm for a colleague who read what was referred to as graphic novels, which in my eyes were only strip books.

I will shortly write a review of The alchemist by Coelho, which, in my opinion, should be classified as Young Adult literature, which usually it isn't.

Edwin on Coelho...now that's something to look forward too.

but Young Adult literature is rather useless

With you there. There was a whale of a thread on the topic not too long ago around here--any chance you've seen it? I'm afraid we are in a small minority!

I'm with the "down with YA Literature Party"

It's the label I object to the most.

I did some shopping this past summer for books that were assigned reading for a couple of families of children. The books for the 8-year-olds were in the "Young Adult" section. Those for the 14-year-olds were in the "Teen" section. So we grow out of adulthood and back into it? (Actually the way some teenagers behave I can almost believe it.)

I'm all for calling a "young adult" a "child," and for calling a "graphic novel" a "comic book."

I'm looking forward to your review of The Alchemist. It was one of those school reading assignments I acquired, and I read it out of curiosity before passing it along. It was assigned to a 14 year old.

98. Tarzan of the Apes
Finished reading: 11 August 2012



"Do fingerprints show racial characteristics?" he asked. "Could you determine, for example, solely from fingerprints whether the subject was Negro or Caucasian?"

"I think not," replied the officer, although some claim that those of the Negro are less complex."

"Could the finger prints of an ape be detected from those of a man?"

"Probably, because the ape's would be far simpler than those of the higher organism."

Tarzan of the Apes (1912) is a popular work of fiction, available in many cheap and freely downloadable editions. Unfortunately, the source of the text in such editions is not always clear. Although many editions claim to be "complete and unabridged" they may actually be edited or altered. While such editing for political correctness may be an understandable choice for publishers, it is quite unsettling to know and see that the freely downloadable version available from the Project Gutenberg is in fact a censored edition, a fact stated nowhere. Indeed, an overview of the editorial choices strongly suggests that the freely downloadable version of Tarzan of the Apes at the Gutenberg project is in fact not based on an edition in the public domain, but most likely taken from an edition which should still be protected by copyright.

The edition of the Shanghai-based publisher World Publishing does not give any information about the origin of the text. However, this edition must be based on a very early text version, which is either very close to the original text, or possibly based on the original text, with some minor editorial changes by the Chinese publisher. A quick survey, using Jerry L. Schneider’s essay “Tarzan the Censored” as a reference, shows the limited extent of censorship in the Chinese edition. Schneider made a concordance or an early, hardback edition by A.L. Burt, circa 1915 and compared it with a censored edition published by Ballantine (1969) and Grosset & Dunlap (1973). Schneider’s research indicates that editions published between 1915 and 1963, appeared unedited, and apart from typological errors, identical to the original version, which editions published after 1969 were edited for political correctness.

The Chinese English-language edition follows the censored editions by capitalizing the words “Negro” and “Negress”. Likewise, it follows the censor describing the following scene as ... frightened child the huge woman ran to bury her face on her mistress’ shoulder. (Chapter 13, p. 133) rather than the original ... frightened child the huge black ran to bury her face on her mistress’ shoulder.. (Chapter 13, p. 178).

However, the Chinese edition does not follow the censored editions in polishing away the “vernacular” of Esmeralda. Censored editions reproduce Esmeralda’s speech in standard English, as for instance in the following polished and shortened version: ” "Oh, Gaberelle, I want to die! " ... "Let me die, dear Lord, don't let me see that awful face again." (Chapter 18, page 149) versus the longer original ” "O Gaberelle, Ah wants to die! " ... "Lemme die, deah Lawd, but doan lemme see dat awrful face again. Whafer yo' sen de devil 'roun' after po ole Esmeralda? She ain't done nuffin' to nobody, Lawd; hones' she ain't. She's puffickly indecent, Lawd; yas'm, deed she is." (Chapter 18, page 245) and retained in the Chinese edition (Chapter 18, page 186).

Schneider’s essay does not refer to the fingerprint passage (in the Chinese edition in Chapter 26, page 277). In the Chinese edition, the answer of the officer is longer, most likely as in the original edition, namely: "Do fingerprints show racial characteristics?" he asked. "Could you determine, for example, solely from fingerprints whether the subject was Negro or Caucasian?"
"I think not," replied the officer, although some claim that those of the Negro are less complex.", while more recent, censored editions (including the edition on the Gutenberg project), simply reproduce it as follows: "Do fingerprints show racial characteristics?" he asked. "Could you determine, for example, solely from fingerprints whether the subject was Negro or Caucasian?"
"I think not," replied the officer."

Reverberating with colonial sentiment of superiority of the white race, much like in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, Tarzan of the Apes is much less focused and constitutes a jumble of ideas, including references to Darwinism, Social Darwinism, and the technique of fingerprinting, which was still relatively new at that time. Besides, the plot is fraught with melodramatic events and features, such as treasure hunt, reminiscent of the adventure novels of Stevenson. Besides the allusions to the supremacy of the white man over the natives in the African forest, the rivalry between Robert Canler and Tarzan over Jane Porter resembles the fight of the great apes over a mate more than anything else.

Tarzan of the Apes is remarkably readable, and quite enjoyable for a light superficial read, the story familiar to most. A reading is still attractive, to purge all cultural constructs built overhead by media and film. Descriptions are very beautiful, and the familiarity with the story makes for a very quick read. Nonetheless, some story elements are still quite surprising, such as Tarzan’s long acquaintance with d’Arnot, and his mastering the French language, before and over English.

99. Nimm dein Leben in die Hand. Erzähler unserer Zeit. Nr. 4
Finished reading: 18 August 2012



Nimm dein Leben in die Hand. Erzähler unserer Zeit. Nr. 4 is a collection of ten short stories by nine German authors, all published between 1945 and 1964. The publication, collected and edited by Rosemarie Rigol was aimed at German high school students. The introduction suggests that the theme of all stories is that of heroes, not in the sense of great men famed for heroic deeds, but the simple heroism of small acts by mostly young people, or teenagers. It is this kind of heroism which is needed, according to the introduction, to shed and free oneself from opinions and habits of old, and go a new road.

By far the best, and most impressive story in the collection is perhaps "Die Waage der Baleks" ("The Scales of the Baleks") by Heinrich Böll. In this story, a young man has the courage to expose the social injustice which has existed in his village for more than three generations.

Of particular interest, as it clearly reflects the poverty and scars of the Second World War within Germany, seem the first story in the collection. The title of this story by Paul Alverdes is given as "Die dritte Kerze" (The Third Candle"), however, this title seems to be either wrong, as that story was not published until 1966, or the title of the story was changed to the much more appropriate "Die Schlittschuhe" ("The Skates"). It is the story of a young man, possibly an orphan, who in great poverty accepts a harsh job. Unasked he borrows a pair of skates from his equally harsh landlady, and enjoys a wonderful afternoon which makes him forget all his troubles. However, he looses one of the skates and retrieving it becomes immersed in the ice-cold water, ruining his uniform. Back home, the old woman understands, and accepts him, almost as warmly as her lost son. The story breathes the atmosphere of grim poverty of the post-war years in Germany, the loneliness of individuals who have lost relatives.

Another story of deep poverty is the second story in the collection by Willy Kramp entitled "Das Geburtstagsgedicht" ("The Birthday Poem"). In this story progressive poverty shows how a family has less and less money to buy birthday presents for their children, until to their deepest shame, none is left to buy a present for their youngest daughter. However, their fear of deep humiliation before their daughter is dispelled by her light-hearted acceptance of a poem as a gift, followed by a torrent of "free things in life" to create happiness.

According to the colophon, and bibliographical references, Nimm dein Leben in die Hand. Erzähler unserer Zeit. Nr. 4 was published in 1964. However, the biographical information about the authors on the final three pages include the fact that Kasimir Edschmid died on 31 August 1966 in Vulpera (Switzerland), which means it wasn't actually printed and distributed until late 1966 or early 1967. Perhaps this explains the confusion over the title of the first story by Paul Alverdes.

100. Een verlangen naar ontroostbaarheid. Over leven, kunst en dood
Finished reading: 24 August 2012



Dutch and Flemish writers have a strong tendency to explain rather than write original philosophical thought. Een verlangen naar ontroostbaarheid. Over leven, kunst en dood is a volume which collects a number of essays about Blanchot, Wittgenstein and Freud describing and explaining what is mostly well known to well-educated readers. These essays were all written in 1993, the year in which they were also collected and published in book form. They are complemented by a number of shorter essays about literature, which were originally published between 1986 and 1988. This loose structure, and varied content, makes for a book which lacks focus and unity. The essays and contributions to this book are of little interest, neither separately, nor in book form.

101. Romankunst als levensschool. Tolstoi, Balzac en Dickens
Finished reading: 25 August 2012



At a glance, Tolstoi, Balzac and Dickens are equally large, impressive authors, who each deal with social circumstances in the Nineteenth Century. However, in this essay, the Dutch author Henriëtte Roland Holst clearly demonstrates that first impressions deceive. Dickens' prose is analyzed as lacking in the theme of love, while mainly focusing on a caricature of social circumstances, leaving out many facets which would present a more realistic image. The work of Balzac, especially in his La Comédie Humaine series which aimed at providing a kaleidoscopic overview of humanity, actually mainly focuses on the French bourgeoisie. Thus, surprisingly, it is the aristocratic Tolstoi who is the most capable of the three great writers to picture man from all walks of life.

An interesting, though somewhat dated, essay with a singular focus.

102. Flatland. A romance of many dimensions by A. Square
Finished reading: 25 August 2012



Flatland. A romance of many dimensions by A. Square is a Victorian novel which is celebrated for the wrong reasons. As a social critique it is almost unreadable, its message buried under an incredibly thick cover, of mathematical reasoning. Just at the time when the book was about to slip into obscurity, a revival of interest occurred which focused on the book's mathematical reasoning.

For readers without a passion for mathematics, the book is dense and very unattractive.

103. Fifth force assembling
Finished reading: 25 August 2012



Fifth force assembling is a highly charged spy novel, which revives the spirit of the Cold War. A team of Russian special operations agents attacks and penetrates into an underground secret military installation in Minnesota. Their aim is to steal and transmit important data, and destroy the installation. The data is part of a top-level classified military project, and the attack on the mine shaft housing the installation is immediately brought to the attention of the President. Caleb Quinn, Colonel (retired) must at all cost prevent the theft of the data.

Banking on spy novels of the Cold War era, Fifth force assembling brings a number of plot elements to the fore involving ethnic relations, going back to the origins of the Russian state, involving a branch of the Khazars.

The American author of Fifth force assembling, John Uldrich holds degrees in Political Science and Asian Studies. He has published in the US, but remains a relatively unknown author. Fifth force assembling was first published in a hardback edition in Shanghai, China in 2000.

104. The water theatre
Finished reading: 26 August 2012



Iris Murdoch has often been named as one of the last great novelists writing in the tradition of the Nineteenth Century. Nowadays, few novelists can set up a story with a wide scope and present an authentic personal philosophy. Readers interested in that type of writing may enjoy reading The water theatre by Lindsay Clarke.

At University, working class Martin Crowther strikes up a friendship with middle-upper class Adam Brigshaw. Adam is soon bored with Martin, but Martin becomes a friend of the family, developing intense relationships with all family members. This friendship lasts, and is tested over the roughly forty years the story develops, from the late 1950s till the beginning of the new century.
Martin is captivated by Hal Brigshaw, the father, who becomes his mentor, and shapes both his political life and career as a journalist. At the house of the Brigshaws, he meets Emmanuel, a political activist, who, upon his return to British Equatorial Africa becomes the countries champion of its independence, and first President. The Brigshaws move there. Hal Brigshaw, being appointed advisor to the President, is swept up by power and status of his position, while stays on as a bored expat, and Adam marries a young woman from Emmanuel’s hometown. It is in Equatorial Africa (now South Sudan) where Martin begins his career as a journalist, and the family ties to the country will bring him back there many times.
The Brigshaw family are a peculiar lot of two strong, and clashing personalities, namely, Hal and Marina, and two weak personalities, Adam and their mother, Grace. Antagonizing forces split the family, and Martin is caught up in the cruel play between the family members, Adam’s disinterested and eventually hostile friendship, Marina’s coyness in youth and anger later on, Hal’s left-wing politics, and the lewd 60s sexual moral of Grace. Martin bounces between loyalty and betrayal to various family members. His total preoccupation with the family prevents him from sustaining a relation with his wife. However, despite all, even after forty years Martin remains loyal to each member of the Brigshaw family, and pledges to bring the family back together at Hal dying request. It is this quest which puts him and his loyalties to the test.

The water theatre is about the need for people to discover and realize themselves. A lifetime may not be enough, but for help and some luck. The novel, while contemporary, breathes some sentiment of the 1960s and 70s in the background, although its theme is eternal. This theme is explored in different modes in different characters, whether by overcoming anger (Marina and Adam), ambition and lust for power (Hal and Emmanuel), or adoration (Martin). The road to self-realization is littered with pitfalls and traps, such as adultery, betrayal, ambition, fame, etc. Many if not most people are blind to what keeps them from self-realization, a blindness made physical in the character of Marina. Ultimately, deep loneliness, discovered in oneself, or imposed, in the form of the experience in "the water theatre", force the truth about oneself.

The water theatre is a profound and sincere story. Characters and plot are intriguing, interesting, and create an original backdrop for the story to develop. The intricate engagements between the characters over the years are entirely convincing. An enticing read.

105. Ernst Jünger
Finished reading: 26 August 2012



In the post-war years, almost all German writers who had lived through the Nazi-war period were by definition suspicious, a suspicion which was prolonged into the next generations, leading even to the confusion between the Nobel Prize winner Hermann Hesse and the war criminal Rudolf Hess, among some Dutch people. The simple fact that German writers, born, sometimes many years before the war, often had no choice, seemed irrelevant. Not everyone could or would flee from Germany. Thus, the German writer Ernst Jünger, who served in the Wehrmacht and was stationed in occupied Paris, was long considered a German author to be shunned.

Therefore, short biographies such as these, written by Yves de Smet were valuable to provide much needed background information about authors. Published in the series "Ontmoetingen. Literaire monografieen" Ernst Jünger appeared as volume 44, together with biographies of numerous other authors of all possible nationalities, not merely focusing on Germany.

One might wonder whether in the time of the Internet, such publications of barely 57 pages would still be worthwhile. The answer would probably be yes. Free multiple-author Internet publications may never become as authoritative as a biography written by a single, expert author, verified and published by a renowned publisher. While a lot of information is available on the Internet in English, less is available in Dutch.

On the other hand, the style and focus of such minor publications, --this volume appeared in 1963 -- may be dated, and new insights can only be included in more recent publications.

However, this volume offers an extensive biography followed by an annotated bibliography of Ernst Jünger's work.

You have given us a whole series of interesting reviews, Edwin. I am particularly glad to see your positive review of The Water Theatre, as I have that on my Kindle TBR list.

106. Wierook en tranen
Finished reading: 27 August 2012



In an attempt to escape from the war, and cross over into France from Belgium, a family is caught up and confronted with war violence they might never have encountered had they stayed at home.

The story begins with Waldo Havermans and his father and mother cycling ahead of the German invasion of Belgium to cross the border into France. However, the border is closed and the refugees are bombed by a German war plane. Waldo's parents are both killed in the attack. Waldo is taken to a hospital, where a Belgian soldier picks him up to take him to a refugee camp near the coast. At a resting point, Waldo meets Vera, a school friend. They decide to stay together, and find their way home. Traveling through the countryside, the danger of Germans and the war surrounds them. Encounters with a local farmer and Vera's uncle are much less warm and friendly than expected. Fear and danger are around every corner. Uncle Andreas turns out to be a collaborator with the Nazis. Eventually, they are picked up by four Germans, and taken to a small forest where Vera is raped and murdered.

The story is narrated by the ten-year-old Waldo, who does not really understand death. Various allusions to sexuality, girls' giggling in the back of an army vehicle, Uncle Andreas exploits with a prostitute seen through a key hole, and the rape of Vera, left to die, are over an above young Waldo's comprehension. The war machine and the infernal German soldiers are seen as all powerful and inescapable, chasing Waldo all over the country, and catching up with death and destruction. The omnipotence and omnipresence of evil leads Waldo to the sinful conclusion that God is responsible for the evil he has seen and the death of his parents and Vera.



Other books I have read by Ward Ruyslinck:
De stille zomer

Wow, what a torrent of arresting reviews, Edwin! I am especially heartened to see The Water Theatre getting such a good write-up from you, as I'm thinking of reading it later this year / early next year. Thank you!

Great stuff edwin, I especially enjoyed reading your account of some of the publishing history of Tarzan of the Apes and the highlighting of issues that can occur with free books from Gutenberg project.

I have taken note of The Water Theatre

107. Theodore Roosevelt's letters to his children
Finished reading: 27 August 2012



It is an incredible fact of life that only about 15 years ago people would write, send and receive hundreds of letters per year, while nowadays a letter written in long-hand is a rarity. Generations of children are growing up without receiving a letter, either from parents or friends.

Theodore Roosevelt's letters to his children is a collection of letters written by President Theodore Roosevelt to his children between 1898 and 1911.



The Roosevelt Family in 1903 with Quentin on the left, TR, Ted, Jr., "Archie", Alice, Kermit, Edith, and Ethel.

The Roosevelts had a large family. Despite his busy work as President, Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt kept up a regular correspondence with his children, sending individual letter to Ethel, Ted, Jr., Kermit, and Archibald, "Archie". The letters are rarely about Roosevelt's work as President. They mainly address topics of interest to the children, at different ages, such as their reading of Dickens, and holidays. Many letters contain beautiful references to natural history.

Theodore Roosevelt's letters to his children were a bestseller in the United States, and are still very readable today.

108. Jeugdherinneringen
Finished reading: 29 August 2012



J.J. Voskuil was a Dutch writer. Although most of his work was autobiographical, containing many references to his personal life, and travel diaries about hiking in France were published, little was known about the author prior to his student years, described in his first novel Bij nader inzien. The details, known to refer to the author are also somewhat exaggerated, as they appear in the life of his alter ego Maarten Koning in the various novels, published in his life time and posthumously.

In 2010, two years after his death, Jeugdherinneringen appeared at Van Oorschot Publishers. This small volume, a mere 60 pages, contains two autobiographical essays, describing Voskuil's earliest youth, previously published in 2007, and a longer essay focusing on his youth and the activities of his father, which was first published in 2001.

Very little autobiographical material has come out about the author, whose biography has not been published. This small publication will disappoint many, who are looking for autobiographical details which might shed light on Voskuil's career as an author.



Other books I have read by J.J. Voskuil:
Het Bureau, Vol. 7. De dood van Maarten Koning
Het Bureau, Vol. 6. Afgang
Het Bureau, Vol. 5. En ook weemoedigheid
Het Bureau, Vol. 4. Het A. P. Beerta-Instituut
Het Bureau, Vol. 3. Plankton
Het Bureau, Vol. 2. Vuile handen
Het Bureau, Vol. 1. Meneer Beerta

>71 edwinbcn: - I was glad to see your review of The Water Theatre since it's part of a new series being put out by NYRB. Nice analysis.

Fascinating review on the various Tarzan editions. I do enjoy reading books from that era, books which could be read by many members of the family in an era before marketing tags for different age groups, but this is one I haven't read. Also interesting what does and what doesn't get past the censors.

I checked out books by Ward Ruyslinck and it looks as if it may be possible to get them in English, so I will also try that.

Lastly, among all the other great reviews, The Water Theatre looks like a must. I will look for the NYRB version.

ETA How did you like A Perfect Execution?

Enjoyed you latest round of reviews.

>

I have expanded my review on The water theatre to include a description of the plot. i did not have time for that last week.

A perfect execution was a great read. I will write a review in due course. It is a (psychologically) complicated story, and I think the other reviewer did not quite get it.

109. The provincial lady goes further
Finished reading: 29 August 2012



The provincial lady goes further, also published as The provincial lady in London describes the further exploits of "the provincial lady". As in the first volume, the mock diary consists of the same banter as in the first volume in the series, Diary of a provincial lady. This second volume describes how the provincial lady enters the literary establishment in London. As a new, published author, she is invited to literary lunches and parties, where she meets various pretentious authors and would-be-authors. Apart from social calls, the diary lists the author's daily musings and reading, children and still grumpy husband.



Other books I have read by E.M. Delafield:
Diary of a provincial lady

110. De lente, een veldslag. Voorjaar in Grindelwald
Finished reading: 4 September 2012



De lente, een veldslag. Voorjaar in Grindelwald is a collection of very short impressions of nature in the Grindelwald area of Switzerland. While some descriptions are beautiful, they are interspersed with other descriptions of the touristic attractions, and the small publication is rather uninteresting.



Other books I have read by Koos van Zomeren:
Het verhaal
Een jaar in scherven

111. De brug
Finished reading: 5 September 2012

Published in English as

The Dutch author Geert Mak has written several books about history and sociology of cities and rural communities. De brug is a portrait of the Galata bridge in Istanbul, describing the history of life and business of the people of Istanbul on the bridge.

The book is not very inspiring. The long literature list at the end of the book suggests that it was inspired more by reading than by actual experience of the place. It was published in March 2007, barely half a year after the Nobel Prize was awarded to the Turkish author Orhan Pamuk, whose work forms a much more authentic description of the city of Istanbul.



Other books I have read by Geert Mak:
De goede stad
De engel van Amsterdam

112. A perfect execution
Finished reading: 6 September 2012



Very little is known about the British author Tim Binding other than that he was born in Germany in 1947. A perfect execution, published in 1996, was his second novel.

The story of A perfect execution is somewhat convoluted, as if the reader is half blind, and can only see part of the story, while the other half id obscured. The duality in the story makes the reader see the story mainly from Jeremiah Bembo's perspective, a perspective which is also "halved" as Bembo lost an eye at an early age. Out of Bembo's field of vision are at least his cousin, his wife and her acquaintances and a large part of his own life, his normal life, when is he not Solomon Straw.

Jeremiah Bembo, his cousin and his wife, Judith, all grew up together in rural England, in the Buckinghamshire town of Aylesbury, where Bembo's family run a very successful trade as market gardeners, a business he will later take over. During the summer holidays the children make extra money with their Punch & Judy show, with Bembo's cousin as the puppeteer.

The scene seems idyllic enough, until one day it is all destroyed by an German bomber, ironically not through bombing, but as the plane crashes into and utterly destroys the glass houses. A piece of glass hits and gets lodged into Bembo's eye, initially distorting his sight, and later the loss of the eye. In his distorted view, Bembo sees the German pilot as the victim of the cruelty of the British youths. He cuts the pilot, who is suspended in the air, hanging from the treads of his parachute, down and mercifully kills him.

This event, which destroys the basis of their existence, leads to Bembo's choice to become Britain's executioner. To protect his identity, he adopts the name Solomon Straw, a name which reflects the way he sees himself as the personification of wisdom, with echos of division in halves and the lack of other qualities, as his heart turns as cold as his glass eye.

Bembo's cousin embarks on a career as a successful entertainer, eventually making fame on television, and running into various problems and scandals.

Jeremiah Bembo alias Solomon Straw enters upon a career unlike any other man, his aim to perfect the killing. After his marriage with his wife Judith, "Judy" he identifies with Mr Punch (of Punch and Judy). This identification with the puppet, dangling from the ropes, not unlike the German pilot, seals his fate. The question remains who is the cruel puppeteer.

Ethel, a friend of Bembo's wife outside his field of vision, is harassed and murdered, and it is Solomon Straw's call to execute the murderer, young Danny Dancer. Willing to make his last execution perfect, Solomon fails and makes several mistakes. He is not in perfect control. He is a plaything at the hands of cruel fate, failing to see things clearly, as once Oedipus had failed to see and pierced his eyes.

Perhaps not a perfect novel, A perfect execution is an impressive achievement. The disjointed, convoluted way of telling the story is somewhat difficult to follow, but the story is certainly compelling. The scenes in the car are creepy, and psychologically convincing. The murderer, the puppeteer and the hangman: one remains unknown.

A Perfect Execution sounds like an unusual novel, Edwin, and your excellent review is certainly intriguing. But I'm not sure that I would do very well with the subject matter.

Thanks, Linda. You are right, the story is a bit peculiar, and the book is a strange mix of cruelty and violence: just imagine the ingredients of Punch & Judy, murder, sexual harassment , a hangman, etc. The story is also very much told from the point of view of men.

Excellent review of a multilayered story. A Perfect Execution was my first introduction to Tim Binding. I read it from the library when it first came out and it still haunts me.

Since then I have read In the Kingdom of Air, which was also an excellent book, and Island Madness which wasn't quite as well written. It is surprising that he isn't better known. Even in LT he seems remarkably underrepresented.

Very interesting review, and sounds like an interesting book. I had never heard either of it or of Tim Binding, so your point is well taken, Sassy.

Thanks, Sassy. You are right. There is quite a bit more to the story, but I did not want to spill the beans in my review. It is very cleverly crafted.

It is surprising how little the author is known. For example, there is no Wikipedia page, and I could not really find any other biographical information on the Internet. Picador, with which my paperback edition was published, is a very good publisher, so this invisibility is unusual. Perhaps the author wants less exposure for privacy reasons.

I must say, though, that the flap text, and some reviewers categorize the book somewhat wrongly, by suggesting that the book is a mystery or thriller. It is much too literary for that. There is a sense of mystery, but it would be wrong to put A perfect execution in that category.

Excellent review of A Perfect Execution

Perfectly executed review. :p

113. The provincial lady in America
Finished reading: 7 September 2012



At a mere 107 pages, The provincial lady in America is the least substantial part of E. M. delafield's tetralogy The Diary of a Provincial Lady. This is the result of the diary starting on July 7.

This volume starts with the receipt of a contract for the issuing of "the provincial lady's" book in the United States, and an invitation to travel to the States at the invitation of her publisher. The publication of a book marks the next step in her career, a natural progression from the previous volume in the series, The provincial lady goes further.

In The provincial lady in America, the author (character) remains her same old naive, modest self, and the diary consists of much of the same chatter as the previous volumes. However, the American diary is a bit more readable than the previous installments, because the author's travel itinerary provides a sense of narrative structure.

Like the previous volumes in the tetralogy, The provincial lady in America can be read as a still frame of life in the United States at the time, in the late 1930s, specifically with the regard to the literary scene, as the reader can follow through the author's reading. There are some minor references to the developing political situation in Europe.

I enjoyed reading this volume a little bit better than the previous installments.



Other books I have read by E.M. Delafield:
Diary of a provincial lady
The provincial lady goes further

114. De tien vermakelijkheden van het huwelijk
Finished reading: 8 September 2012



Hieronymus Sweerts, whose Koddige en ernstige opschriften, op luyffens, wagens, glazen, uithangborden en andere taferelen (1682) belongs to the Dutch canon, is the author of De Tien Vermakelikheden des Houwelyks, Spots-gewijze beschreven door Hippolitus de Vrye, Weduwenaer. Amsterdam, Jeroen Jeroensz., 1678. It is a sample of Dutch renaissance literature, which describes the snares and entanglements of marriage in a lightly, humoristic way.

The scope of the work is not limited to marriage, but starts from the moment the partners are engaged and describes the subsequent stages, such as engagement, buying furniture, social obligations, pregnancy, preparations for birth, early motherhood, etc. The book is not particularly humourous; to modern readers it is hard to see what would be funny, and the booklet reads more like a treatise on morals surrounding the married state. Much of its content is not very surprising, although it clearly illustrates the origins of some Dutch proverbs. The book is somewhat dull.

De tien vermakelijkheden van het huwelijk was published in the Griffioen series, by Querido publishers to make Dutch classical literature more accessible to the general public. It is published with an explanatory afterword which explains the publication history and significance of the work.

Unfortunately, there is no tradition of publishing classical Dutch literature in the Netherlands. Publishers and Editors seem pedantic and contemptuous of the readership. As a result, very few works are published, and when they are published, they appear in modernized spelling, shortened and without notes. De tien vermakelijkheden van het huwelijk would probably have been a much more interesting publication if it had been published in the original Seventeenth Century Dutch, and with extensive notes.

115. The snows of Kilimanjaro, and other stories
Finished reading: 9 September 2012



I was rather disappointed to find out that The snows of Kilimanjaro, and other stories is an anthology, consisting of 18 short stories taken from various short story collections.

Most stories in this collection are very short, consisting of dialogues about very down to earth topics. I enjoyed the little discussion about the merits of Hugh Walpole and G.K. Chesterton in "The Three-Day Blow".

Most stories are a pleasure to read, but are hardly memorable.



Other books I have read by Ernest Hemingway:
A farewell to arms
Men without women
For whom the bell tolls
Death in the afternoon
Fiesta. The sun also rises
The old man and the sea
A moveable feast

116. Why manners matter. The case for civilized behaviour in a barbarous world
Finished reading: 9 September 2012



Why manners matter. The case for civilized behaviour in a barbarous world by Lucinda Holdforth is a very light-weight essay about manners. There is another edition which has the subtitle: Why Manners Matter: What Confucius, Jefferson, and Jackie O Knew and You Should Too. The author describes herself as " a speech writer, writing consultant and author".

Although the author claims that Why manners matter rises above the mere complaint about the decline of good manners in the world, what most other publications would, the tone of this book is also mainly set by that same litany of complaint. The essay brings together a wealth of snippets of information about historical views on manners, in Wikipedia-style fashion, worthy of every high school kid's essay writing.

In her search for delightful details the author regularly misses the point and digresses the borders of good taste, about which she is supposedly writing.

The book is clearly the product of a childish mind, ill-researched and circular reasoning. A book full of platitudes, adding nothing to the discussion at hand.

117. The alchemist. A fable about following your dream
Finished reading: 10 September 2012



In times of secularization, it is clear that many people seek other sources of spirituality. Or, each quarter of a century, or so, a literary work will inspire a generation. The alchemist. A fable about following your dream has all the characteristics of being such a book.

If The alchemist is the cult book of the last quarter of the Twentieth Century, then what a lamentable state we have reached. The book is utterly lacking subtlety. I cannot imagine why this book is not classified as Young Adult literature.

The story is of all times, but the telling is the crudest. It is quite remarkable, and perhaps ironic, that the author chose to set the spiritual journey in Northern Africa, and the Godhead addressed is Allah. For the spiritual quality, this makes no difference, as Islam is as valuable a guide to spirituality as any other religion. Published well before the end of the century, without the least flicker of what dramatic reversal the new century would bring, the highlighting of Arabic spirituality is at least interesting.

As a book of spirituality, The alchemist has certainly made its mark. However, in literary terms it is a very poor achievement. The ultra-short sentences give the reader a staccato-like headache. Everything is spelled out for the reader, leaving little left for the imagination. Its shortness is its only blessing.

118. De eerste steen
Finished reading: 11 September 2012



A friend of the family, teacher at a school in a small Dutch community, is revealed to be a paedophile, and have abused a 13-year old pupil at school. The outcome of the story is clear from the beginning, and therefore lacking in suspense. The story teems with the suggestiveness that the child provoked the teacher, concluding with the observation that the narrator, a girl of the same age, had "whatever he had done to Dini, secretely also wanted ." (p. 61)

The story was first published in an anthology, Gaat u vooral met een goed boek naar bed, of in ieder geval met iemand die er een gelezen heeft, published in 2007.

119. Winter in the blood
Finished reading: 13 september 2012



Together with other authors such as N. Scott Momaday, Leslie Marmon Silko and Gerald Robert Vizenor, James Welch was one of the first American Indian authors to spur a Renaissance of Native American literature in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Published in 1974, Winter in the blood juxtaposes the depressing contemporary life of the Native American main narrator, living in a reservation in Montana, with memories harking back to the narrator's youth, when the people in the community stood close to nature. In his life, the narrator moves from bars to motels, from drinking to meaningless sexual encounters, a life of drunkenness, void of essence. The flashbacks evoke powerful images of nature, but cannot reconcile the main character with his identity as an American Indian, because they are mere references to the death of his father and younger brother. Through their deaths he feels cut of from his true identity.

The depth of the narrator's identity crisis is best characterized by the following citation from the novel:

The distance I felt came not from the country or people; it came from within me. I was as distant from myself as a hawk from the moon. (p. 2)

120. Faserland
Finished reading: 27 September 2012



Christian Kracht's debut novel Faserland has been characterized as plagiarism of Brett Easton Ellis's work, which seems a rather pointless accusation. Rather, Faserland is a novel about the state of the nation, wholly in the tradition of German literature.

Kracht's generation has grown up being highly critical and self-accusing, always apologizing for the deeds of the older generation. The ascent of the new generation of writers concurred with the spread of consumerism, which has obliterated any form of authentic identity. Instead, from Germany's northernmost Sylt to the south, Bavaria and the Bodensee, Germany is a homogenous scene of drugs, parties and materialism, at least in the eyes of the younger generation, as seen by the youthful main character in the novel.

The novel shows the life of the rich, a life of emptiness, dominated by money and famous brand names. For all its bleak perspectives, the novel is still able to convey a sense of humour, even when characters commit suicide, a feature perhaps most striking of pop culture.

An excellent characterization of our life and times.

Your reviews represent a real mixed bag Edwin.

I have been extremely busy since the end of August, so thicker and more interesting books take longer to finish. Every now and then I get into a slump, and seem to finish only some smaller books. So far, this year, I hadn't read that many books in Dutch, German and French.

There's that Coelho review, very entertaining.

The alchemist had been on my TBR pile for ever. Originally, I bought a copy in Spanish, when I lived in Barcelona, in 1991. This copy remained unread, and when I was of a mind to learn Portuguese, I bought a copy in that language. However, I abandoned my plan to study Portuguese. Then, I was given a deluxe edition of The alchemist in English, which I gave away. Finally, I picked up the paperback edition at a Bookcrossing swap point, in Peter's Tex-Mex in Beijing.

Can you imagine owning four different editions, before reading and finding out what fluff you've been sheltering all those years. Now, they will all go.

Oh thats a great story about The alchemist edwin

Peter's Tex-Mex in Beijing? Is that our contribution to the balance of trade? I've been enjoying your reviews, Edwin.

Hoping very much that Peter's Tex-Mex is better than the Tex-Mex restaurants I've encountered in London and Munich. I'm not hopeful, since it should really be Pete's Tex-Mex.

And while I have been known to discover that I owned two copies of the same unread book, you get to count yours as different books, being in different languages.

121. What I talk about when I talk about running
Finished reading: 29 September 2012



The title of Haruki Murakami's memoir, What I talk about when I talk about running, seems unnecessarily long and clumsy. It was modeled after the title of a collection of short stories, What we talk about when we talk about love by Raymond Carver. It's somewhat cyclical, repetitive structure is indicative of the structure of the memoir.

Referring to the composition of the memoir, the author suggests that he wrote it intermittently over a number of months in 2005. This may be true and untrue. The first five chapters and chapter 7, were written between 5 August and 31 October 2005. Chapter's six, eight and nine were written in June, August and October 2006. The foreword and afterword were written in July 2007. Written intermittently, indeed. The quality of all chapters is somewhat varied. Some may have been written or rewritten for publication, possibly with this title in mind, while others may have been occasional pieces or even diary entries. This is not explained. However, as a result the books has a very weak structure, and is repetitive.

The book is not very focused. Besides running, it talks about a lot of other things. Biographical data about the author's life before he started writing, were interesting to read, describing how he ran a bar and gradually developed his career as a writer. He writes about his own writing as well as translating the work of Raymond Carver into Japanese. Many descriptions of his running are set in the United States, particularly referring to the NYC Marathon. There are some interesting observations on how he developed the skill and endurance to run a marathon.

A light, entertaining, somewhat unbalanced read.



Other books I have read by Haruki Murakami:
1Q84

122. Grand Hotel Solitude. Taferelen uit de adolescentiejaren
Finished reading: 4 October 2012



Between 1988 and 1993, the Belgian author Eric de Kuyper published five volumes of fictionalized memoirs: Aan zee: taferelen uit de kinderjaren (1988), De hoed van tante Jeannot: taferelen uit de kinderjaren in Brussel (1989), Mowgli's tranen (1990), Grand Hotel Solitude: taferelen uit de adolescentiejaren (1991) and Bruxelles, here I come: nieuwe taferelen uit de Antwerpse en Brusselse tijd (1993). They roughly describe the author's youth between 1944 and 1961.

Grand Hotel Solitude. Taferelen uit de adolescentiejaren, the fourth volume, is situated in Antwerp, where the family moved in the 1950s. It describes the main character as a young man, aged 15 or 16, in 1957 / 1958, around the time of the World Expo in Brussels.

As with previous volumes, the author has chosen to give the main character as particularly "childish" voice, which, at times, gives the impression that the main character is only 12 years old. While this is a possibility (in a fictionalized memoir the age of the main character need not be the same as the author, who was born in 1942), nonetheless, the character's experience seems to suggest that his real age should be around 16.

The novel describes the difficulties of the main character developing his identity as gay during the harsh, prohibitive 1950s, the years before Stonewall. Beside these struggles, there is the development of his interest in the cinema, and friendship with a classmate.

Despite the "childish" voice, this volume is more attractive than previous volumes, focusing on life in Antwerp in the late 1950s.



Other books I have read by Eric de Kuyper:
Aan zee: taferelen uit de kinderjaren
De hoed van tante Jeannot: taferelen uit de kinderjaren in Brussel
Mowgli's tranen
Bruxelles, here I come: nieuwe taferelen uit de Antwerpse en Brusselse tijd
In de zon uit de schaduw
Aantekeningen van een voyeur

123. Fates worse than death. An autobiographical collage
Finished reading: 5 October 2012



Most writers shun bringing their family members, wife and children, into the picture. Not Kurt Vonnegut. In Fates worse than death. An autobiographical collage there are several references to his wife and children and their wonderful achievements. Or pride themselves on knowing celebrities.

As in the preface: The adjacent photograph by Jill Krementz (my wife) shows me with the great German writer Heinrich Böll (like me and Norman Mailer and James Jones and Gore Vidal a former Private in the Infantry). Referring to himself three times in one sentence.

Fates worse than death seems a somewhat lazy memoir. Especially the opening chapters are very conversational. The humour does not ring true. Chapters are connected by picking up the thread, focusing on a snippet of information mentioned in the previous chapter.

Having read little by this author, Kurt Vonnegut seems a one-theme author. The photo facing, preceding, the preface refers to the Second Word War, as does the last photo, on the last page of the book, showing the author roaming the German countryside, just after the war. The whole book is mainly about the author's war experience.

There are various asides from the main theme, referring to himself and the world at large in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Actually, after the first 80 pages or so, the tone of the book becomes a little bit more serious, and more interesting, although the aura of self-aggrandizing remains.



Other books I have read by Kurt Vonnegut:
A man without a country. A memoir of life in George W. Bush's America

124. Uncommon danger
Finished reading: 7 October 2012

Published in the US as

Taking anything across the border for anyone spells trouble, especially if for high payment. The British journalist Kenton takes the offer, as he has just lost all his money gambling. The following day, when he tries to deliver the envelope and collect his fee, he finds the agent murdered.

Upon inspection, Kenton discovers that the envelope contains a number of photos, which, in the wrong hands could lead to a war on the Balkans, and the rise of Fascism in the region. Obviously, other people are after the photos. On the one hand, a group of dangerous criminals lead by Colonel Robinson, in the pay of Western oil companies, versus Andreas Zaleshoff and his beautiful sister Tamara, secret agents from Moscow. Kenton is kidnapped and tortured by Colonel Robinson, but rescued by Zaleshoff. Trusting neither faction, and looking for a scoop to make a great story, he escapes and, being looked for by the Austrian police, crosses into Czechoslovakia to look for Colonel Robinson in Prague. He is caught up by Zaleshoff, and they decide to take on Robinson together, an attempt they barely escape from with their lives.

It is a gripping story, somewhat reminiscent of, but preceding as Uncommon danger was published as early as 1937, some of the stories of James Bond and the oil interest in the Balkan region. The story is ingenious and exciting, while the reader's natural sympathy is with Kenton, and absolute amateur of espionage.

Excellent reading.



Other books I have read by Eric Ambler:
The mask of Dimitrios
Cause for alarm

125. Vertraagde roman
Finished reading: 7 October 2012



It is not widely known that Vertraagde roman (1982), together with Kaplan (1986) and Hoffman's honger (1990), by the Dutch author Leon de Winter constitute a trilogy about the tragic life of the diplomat Felix Hoffman.

Vertraagde roman is the first volume. The story is about a Dutch author looking for information about the Jewish diplomat Felix Hoffman. He travels in Hofman's footsteps, trying to retrace his life.

The author's search for the life of another is a metaphor for the search after his own life. His doling after Hofman an escape from his own.

Incidentally, Vertraagde roman contains the key to understanding the title of Hoffman's honger , the title of the third volume of the trilogy, and by far the best known. The last sentence of chapter 13 and the first paragraph of chapter 14, suggest how an author constructs parts of a novel:

Bedankt, dacht de schrijver, dat was een cadeautje van de werkelijkheid, Pension Lust.

Maar nog steeds geen letter, geen komma. Alleen voornemens had hij verzameld. Het enige dat hij had was een plan voor een roman over een ambassadeur. Die man had honger. Die man leed aan slapeloosheid. Maar hoe zou die roman zich ontwikkelen?

The lack of focus and vagueness, not knowing or able to see the novel as part of a larger project, makes it difficult to appreciate. However, the novel reads very quickly.



Other books I have read by Leon de Winter :
Supertex
Serenade

Enjoyed your review of the Eric Ambler novels. I read The Mask of Demetrios some time ago and thoroughly enjoyed it, so I can now add a couple more Ambler's to my wish list

Vonnegut's most famous, Slaughterhouse 5, is on WWII, but other books go other places.

#113 "looking for information about the Jewish diplomat Felix Hoffman - Is the Felix Hoffman different from the controversial inventor of aspirin? Anyway, great review.

》114

Thanks, Barry. I found The Mask of Demetrios the most interesting so far, but also enjoyed the other two book by Eric Ambler.

>115 dchaikin:

Interesting connection. No, I don't think they are the same. The Dutch character in the novel is described as a Dutch Jewish diplomat. No mention is ever made of a medical career. His name is spelled with one "n" at the end: Felix Hoffman The German inventor of aspirin was called Felix Hoffmann, with double "n" at the back of his name.

126. Pramoedya Ananta Toer. Essay en interview
Finished reading: 19 October 2012



As a result of Dutch colonialism in Indonesia, relations with that country and some of its political leaders, as well as writers have been strained over the past sixty years. As a young man, Pramoedya Ananta Toer resisted the Dutch oppressors, and was imprisoned by the Dutch in the final years of the anti-colonial struggle. Pramoedya was sympathetic with the Communists and joined the left-wing writers' guild Lekra. This choice later led to friction with the new Indonesian authorities, resulting is a ban on his books, destruction of manuscripts and many decades of imprisonment. Ironically, during these years, Pramoedya's books were translated and published in the Netherlands.

Pramoedya Ananta Toer. Essay en interview is a small publication, consisting of a biographical essay and an interview held with Pramoedya Ananta Toer in 1991. The essay and interview sketch a life of struggle and many years of imprisonment and torture, which Pramoedya had to endure. Manuscripts of some of his best known works were confiscated or destroyed several times, leaving the author no other possibility but to compose his works orally, and later, have manuscripts smuggled out.

Pramoedya Ananta Toer was often cited for, but never actually won the Nobel Prize. He remains on of Indonesia's greatest writers of the Twentieth Century.

127. Lettres de mon moulin
Finished reading: 21 October 2012

Published in English as

The episodes in Lettres de mon moulin by Alphonse Daudet are not to be seen as short stories, but rather as a precursor of the column, short contributions depicting little anecdotes and characterizations of rustic life, mainly in the countryside. The people portrayed are often curates and priests. Some of the little stories are set in Paris, for example Le portefeuille de Bixiou. All stories excel in detailed descriptions of the characters and the landscape.

I was not familiar with Pramoedya Ananta Toer, but now am curious about him. Sounds like he had a difficult life.

》120

Yes, I suppose Pramoedya Ananta Toer might be a very interesting choice for the Reading Globally group's second quarter reading of 2013, April- June: Southeast Asian literature.

That is, if the group wants to steer away from China and Japan, which are not properly considered "Southeast Asian". Pramoedya Ananta Toer was probably the greatest modern literary author in Indonesia.

I agree with you, he would be an excellent author to read for the Southeast Asian theme. Have you read his memoir, The Mute's Soliloquy?

>122 deebee1:

I haven't read any yet; I read the short biography + Interview as an introduction to this author. In March I bought Pramoedya Ananta Toer's This Earth of Mankind which I want to read.

128. According to Queeney
Finished reading: 28 October 2012



According to Queeney is another understated historical novel by Beryl Bainbridge. It is set in 18th Century London, describing the last 20 years of Samuel Johnson's life, particularly focusing on Dr Johnson's relations with Hester Thrale, and her daughter Hester "Queeney" Thrale.

Compiling books on family members and friends was the fad of the day during the second half of the 18th Century, when the genre of biography was still taking shape. Parents documented the landmarks in the lives of their children in "Baby Books", "Children's Books" or "Family Books". Friends compiled "Table Talk Books" collecting facts and anecdotes about their friends and acquaintances. Samuel Johnson was the topic of several biographers, even during his lifetime.

The most famous of Johnson's biographers is John Boswell. However, it is wrong to believe that Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson is a reliable biography. The work is highly biased, in which Boswell is described as correcting Johnson's quotations and many other "facts". In effect, Boswell's Life is only a story or version of Johnson's (real) life. In other words, it is Johnson's life according to Boswell.

John Boswell did not like Hester Thrale, who became one of Johnson's best friends during the last 20 years of his life. Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson is particularly concerned with the last 20 years of Johnson's life, but the episode with Hester Thrale is largely omitted. Was is jealousy? Certainly, there was an element of envy, and Boswell saw Thrale as a literary competitor, knowing that she was compiling her own scrap book on the life of Johnson.

Hester Thrale kept a diary, referred to as the Thraliana, which she initially kept as a diary, but which, came to be her compilation of anecdotes on the life of Johnson. After Johnson's death, she published her correspondence with Johnson, together with this account in 1786 under the title Anecdotes of the Late Samuel Johnson, LL.D. During the Last Twenty Years of His Life. Contemporaries of Samuel Johnson slashed the work as lively, though very inaccurate and artful. It was a disappointing, sensational account of Johnson life according to Hester.

Hester Thrale's daughter, also named "Hester Thrale" nicknamed "Queeney" by Johnson, grew up becoming an intellectual diarist and literary correspondent in her own right. Like her mother, she corresponded with Samuel Johnson whom she had known as a friend of the family since her earliest youth, and with whom she was as close as an uncle. Her letters were not published during her lifetime, but were published in 1934 as The Queeney letters. Being letters addressed to Hester Maria Thrale by Doctor Johnson, Fanny Burney and Mrs. Thrale-Piozzi

It is likely that Queeney, like her mother, beside her correspondence, kept a diary and compiled anecdotes about Samuel Johnson, but these were never published. Had the been compiled and published, they might have given us another glimpse of Johnson's life according to Queeney.

Beryl Bainbridge novel According to Queeney can be read as this fictional version of Johnson's life. The novel reads like a biographical account of Johnson's life, with apparently very unremarkable. The narrative chapters are interspersed with letters by people requesting Queeney for biographical details about Johnson's life, which Queeney seems reluctant to give. In her position as a close friend of Johnson, also particularly spanning the last 20 years of his life, Queeney must have possessed a wealth of information on Samuel Johnson, a treasure, which, unlike her gaudy mother, she seemed very unwilling to share.

Thus, Bainbridge's novel is a very understated biography of Johnson. Hardly worth reading.



Other books I have read by Beryl Bainbridge:
Another part of the wood
English journey, or The road to Milton Keynes
Master Georgie
Sweet William

I'm becoming quite a Beryl Bainbridge fan, and am planning to read this, although I'll take your warning seriously.

>125 rebeccanyc:

I am just not a great fan of Bainbridge to the extent of wondering whether I simply miss all that others find great about her. Perhaps you need a particular type of background knowledge or view to appreciate her books.

129. The Collected Works of Billy the Kid
Finished reading: 31 October 2012



The Collected Works of Billy the Kid by Michael Ondaatje is a rather small book, consisting of poems, and prose fragments, some styled as newspaper columns. I think the charm of the book is that it evokes a kind of feeling, somewhere between romance, smut and violence, around a character little is known about for fact. I think everyone has heard of Billy the Kid, but no-one knows much about him or his story, and very little is known from reliable sources. Much of what appears to be known is just conjecture or legend. The book seems to operate well on that edge of the poetic imagination.

I did not find The Collected Works of Billy the Kid representable of Ondaatjes work. In the afterword it is explained that this was his first work, and is based on his youth fascination with the Wild West.



Other books I have read by Michael Ondaatje:
The English patient
Anil's ghost

#126 I like the way Bainbridge doesn't tell you everything and you have to read between the lines, but it takes some getting used to. The Birthday Boys is the most straightforward novel of hers I've read.

Nice reviews of According to Queeney and The Collected Works of Billy the Kid. I'll definitely pass on both books, though.

Message #129 is beyond bizarre.

Edwin, Enjoyed reading your background to According to Queenie. There were so many unreliable witnesses around Sam Johnson that we will never get a reliable portrait of the great man of literature.

I enjoyed Bainbridge's novel about Johnson and his circle of friends. She is adept at mixing fact and fiction in her historical novels, so much so that the fiction a can seem like facts, but somehow she keeps everything very readable if a little lightweight at times.

130. The Samurai ethic and modern Japan
Finished reading: 31 October 2012



In 1970, Yukio Mishima committed ritual suicide after a failed coup. The intentions of the coup, and Mishima's political views at the time, are hard to understand to Western readers, who have interpreted Mishima's actions as those of an irrational madman.

The Samurai ethic and modern Japan bring together four, rather disjointed essays or collections of notes, which may provide a cultural or philosophical underpinning for Mishima's ideas in the years leading to his death.

The book has the subtitle "Yukio Mishima on Hagakure. Hagakure refers to a compilation of commentaries published in Japan in the early Eighteenth Century as The Book of the Samurai. It seems that this book is predominantly associated with the warrior code, known as "Bushidō" or "the way of the warrior" with special emphasis on the warrior's readiness to die.

The meme of willingness to follow a lord in death originates in China, and was also found in the earliest annals of Japanese culture. The ancient tradition of xunsi (殉死) following a lord into the grave was outlawed in Japan as early as the Seventh Century BCE, but retained its fascination.

However, this "warrior code" must be seen in a much broader context of a practical and moral guide of the samurai. Over the centuries the class of samurai developed into a veritable form of aristocracy, and the Hagakure came to encompass a must broader life philosophy, similar to The Book of the Courtier.

The Samurai ethic and modern Japan are not a translation of the Hagakure, which is described as a much larger work in eleven volumes (p. 36). The four "essays" of very unequal length and scope, one of which merely indicated as an appendix, consists of notes which Mishima made for several undisclosed occasions. There is a lot of overlap between the four sections of the book, some repeating observations or ideas in exactly the same words. Rather than a volume of essays on Hagakure, the book should be seen as a scrapbook.

Yukio Mishima was a very well-read author, very well-versed in Western literature, as well. The scrap book forms a testimony to his long dedication to understand and apply the moral principles of the samurai code to his own life, to shape his life as that of a Japanese traditional gentleman. The code stresses dignity, appropriacy and honor. There are many references to links with Western culture, such as epicureanism, hedonism and nihilism. There are aphorisms and sections prescribing proper conduct with other people and on a variety of occasions. There are also many references to Chinese and Japanese culture, and references to other works interpreting Japanese culture, such as The Chrysanthemum and the Sword.

The Samurai ethic and modern Japan only contains Yukio Mishima's reflections on the Hagakure Analects, but offer no interpretations. Thus, while the book apparently tells the reader a lot about Japanese culture, by the end of the book one is no wiser as to Mishima's motives, or how elements of the books connect with episodes in his life and work.

The Samurai ethic and modern Japan seems mainly very interesting to the reader who is seeking to understand the Japanese Mind in general.



Other books I have read by Yukio Mishima:
The sailor who fell from grace with the sea

131. The Love Letters of Dylan Thomas
Finished reading: 1 November 2012



The Love Letters of Dylan Thomas is a small volume of 84 pages, containing 35 letters written over the period between September 1933 and June 1953. They are a selection from a larger volume of letters, available as The Collected Letters of Dylan Thomas, with the same publisher.

This selection of The Love Letters of Dylan Thomas is a strange and disappointing publication. In a very short (1.5 page) introduction the apparent unnamed editor describes the book as "just a short selection" which gives its readership a glimpse of Dylan Thomas' life "in a way that is almost incomprehensible to the lost email generation." (p. v)

Love letters are a form of letter writing which is often infused with magic, and they are often considered to belong to the most beautiful among an author's letters "binding the reader by the spell of his words" (p. v).

The problem with The Love Letters of Dylan Thomas is that it does not define what are love letters and what not. Hence, the volume presents letters to nine different women. Some of these letters do not appear to be love letters at all.

The most creative and passionate letters are the first nine letters to Pamela Hansford Johnson, written over a 2-year period from Sept. '33 till Dec. '35, before het met his wife. Throughout the book, there are 15 letters to his wife Caitlin MacNamara. These letters are interspersed with incidental letters, usually just one or two seven other women. One of these is a letter to Edith Sitwell in March 1946. The unnamed editor characterizes this letter as "an attempt to rekindle a profitable friendship".

In 1952, Dylan's wife intercepted an unfinished and unsent letter to Marged Howard Stepney, whom the editor describes as rich and generous to Dylan Thomas. He apologizes to Cait saying that the letter was dirty and cadging and lying, and that he wrote it because I wanted to see what foul dripping stuff I could hurt myself to write in order to fawn for money.

The picture that emerges of Dylan Thomas is that of a cad, who entices women for money and influence, or simply some attention while away from home.

However, this image is possible only created by the clumsiness of the unnamed editor of the book, who fails to recognize that a successful author may get dozens of letters from admirers, and that a letter addressed to a woman with opening words such as "my love" or "my dear", etc. may express love or simply deep-felt attachment or friendship, while his wife's jealousy is probably an overreaction.

The editor describes Dylan's letter to his wife as an attempt to smooth her disgusted feathers. Disgusted feathers?

Perhaps it was a wise precaution of the editor to appear unnamed; an editor, who perhaps also belongs to the lost email generation.

Two fascinating reviews edwin, both of which seem to have been frustrating reads to a more or lesser extent.

The Samurai Ethic and Modern Japan would probably be essential reading for anyone interested in Mishima, but your review has highlighted the issues surrounding the book - excellent stuff.

>134 baswood:

You are right, Barry. In both cases, I felt uneasy with the editing of the book (neither book has an editor).

The Samurai Ethic and Modern Japan has a short "Translator's Note" by its translator Kathryn Sparling. Its contents are indeed very interesting, but the nature of the four pieces is that they are very fragmented, with a lot of overlap between them. Nonetheless, its contents are fascinating. My relatively low rating of the book takes this lack of presentation into account.

The Love Letters of Dylan Thomas or course just really angers me. Some of the letters are beautifully written, but a thoughtless publication like this is unforgivable. It just shows how stupid some publishers are, and eager to make some quick money.

132. The Dean's December
Finished reading: 2 November 2012



It was in the early 1980s that left-wing optimism made place for no-nonsense neo-liberalism. Sympathy for a Marxist ideology and humanist view of society, fostered for about a decade since the late 1960s, disappeared without trace, and sympathizers went into hiding or transformed. The Dean’s December by Saul Bellow traces that transformation.

The Dean’s December tells the story of Albert Corde, a former journalist, now Dean at a University in Chicago, who travels with his wife to Bucharest to attend to his dying mother in law. The reality of life in Bucharest is not utopian. It is hard for Corde to come to terms with the fact that one man, the Colonel, can decide about simple matters, such as whether or not to obtain permission to visit the dying mother-in-law in hospital. The reality of Bucharest is inhumane and harsh. Corde concludes that this is a lesson he is taught, a lesson about the human condition. In Communist countries, it is the government that sets the pain level for you. In the United States, it is very different, muses Corde, because it is a pleasure society which likes to think of itself as a tenderness society. In conservative capitalism this harshness is smoothed over by explanations that whoever should die are those who are disadvantaged, (…) or come from a backward section of the country. (p. 275).

During his career as a journalist, Corde passionately wrote about the social injustice he observed in his hometown Chicago. His sympathy is particularly with that black underclass, (…) which is economically redundant (…) falling farther and farther behind the rest of society, locked into a culture of despair and crime.(p.206) They are a part of society that has been written off.

Corde’s message does not earn him any honours. Rather, his analytical powers are derided and he is slandered for a traitor, writing about such problems in his city.

Much of the philosophical theme of the book doesn’t emerge until the last quarter of the book, although the first part of the novel plays an important role to build up to that. What is most on Corde’s mind at the beginning of the novel is a court case about a murder trial involving two black students at his own university. Corde is convinced that the case is misrepresented, and that the black students do not get a fair trial. There is no room for the “reality” of the case. The idea that the death of the white student was not premeditated but the result of an unfortunate accident does not fit the view of the case, or, as Corde observes with ordinary consciousness you can’t even begin to know what’s happening”. (p. 266)

With nothing at hand, and meeting an old school friend in Bucharest, Corde has not much other to do than to contemplate this case, and his career as a journalist and academic, barely realizing and “incapable of grasping the full implications of world transformation”. Reality didn’t exist “out there”. It began to be real only when the soul found its underlying truth. In generalities, there was no coherence—none. The generality mind, the habit of mind that governed the world, had no force of coherence, it was dissociative. It divided because it was, itself, divided. Hence the schizophrenia, which was moral and aesthetic as well as analytical. (p. 266)

The Dean’s December is a novel with an uneasy message. It describes a situation in American society, which remains unresolved, and which, in the waning of the hegemony of the United States will present itself more on the foreground, as the American Dream makes way for the American condition. The Americans haven’t seen any real pain yet. The American character doesn’t even exist yet. It’s still kicking in the womb.

The Dean’s December seems to have a limited readership. It was published at the time of the ascent of neo-liberalism, and perhaps therefore ignored. However, the tremendous scope of the novel, and the prediction contained in it, about the formation of the American character and the undecided outcome of the American condition, a novel written by a Nobel Prize winner, must mean that there will be a future re-assessment of its value, at a time when Americans have to come to terms with every man’s inner inner city. (p. 207).

133. Letter from an unknown woman
Finished reading: 3 November 2012



Letter from an unknown woman (1922) is a novella written in the form of a long letter. Purport of the letter is the sickly adoration of a young woman for a successful novelist. In the letter, the woman claims to have grown up in the house where the novelist lives, and proclaims that she has loved him from the first day she had known him. The long letter describes her life-long stalking of the novelist, who was however, unaware of her existence. The woman also claims to have slept with him, as a prostitute, like the many, many women in his life, whom she had seen passing on the stairs.

The woman also claims to have borne the author a child, a son, who died in the 1918 Flu Pandemic, to which the woman is about to succumb.

In her letter, the woman repeatedly writes that she has remained in obscurity because she does not want to trouble the novelist, but obviously she does. The letter is not moving. Rather, as the woman's claims become more bold, even suggesting that the novelist's servant had recognized her, the reader starts wondering whether she might be insane. The way she is pressing herself upon him, anonymously, leaves the author impotent to fend for himself, unable to refute or deny.

The novella does not give the reader even a glimpse of the style of writing of the novelist character; it merely describes his hedonist lifestyle. The letter, whether truthful or not shows the power of the written word, the power of fabulation, to penetrate his privacy. It demonstrates the weakness of women, but, ultimately also their power, which is a useless power, however.

134. How to read and why
Finished reading: 4 November 2012



When I bought this book, How to read and why by Harold Bloom, I mistook the author for Allan Bloom, whose The closing of the American mind I had so much enjoyed reading many years ago.

Discovering the confusion over authorship was not what subsequently upset me, upset being an understatement. Like many other reviewers, I am simply angry about the deceptive title. How to read and why purports to be a book which might give some guidance on HOW to approach world-class literature, and discuss WHY literacy is of value. However, these questions are barely dealt with, other than an 8.5-page section consisting of the most obvious platitudes why reading is important.

Instead, the book consists of listings of all novels, story collections, poems, etc which the author deems essential reading. Some of his choices are questionable, and apparently made only upon his eminent authority as an expert.

135. Hinterlassene Schuhe
Finished reading: 7 November 2012



Hinterlassene Schuhe, which freely translates as "Left-behind Shoes" is a novel by the experimental Swiss psyciatrist and novelist Jürg Schubiger (1936).

The novel starts with the somewhat unsettling episode of a man, who empties out his shoes and then drops them into a ravine. He then drives off in his car, and arrives, without shoes, at a boarding house, where he takes a room, and has dinner with the proprietress and her daughter. Upon his departure, the woman gives him a pair of shoes, which belonged to her deceased husband.

From the opening pages, the reader knows that the main character is a murderer. Hence, his irrational behaviour is somewhat explained.

Next, the man picks up a woman at a filling station. It gradually becomes clear that he has no place to go. He drives his car, picks up women, and finds shelter in boarding houses and the like. There is a tension in the pages of the book. References to the dead man's shoes, contribute to a sense of impending danger.

Unfortunately, the author is unable to maintain this power of suspense. Nothing happens, and the book merely consists of a chain of such chance encounters, and the initial tension slips away.

Very disappointing after such an initially interesting beginning.

136. The lonely Londoners
Finished reading: 10 November 2012



Sam Selvon (Trinidad, 1929) is credited with the title of "the father of black writing" in the UK. Soon after his own arrival in London, he started chronicling the life and experiences of other Caribbean immigrants into Britain. His works are characterized by the use of the typical vernacular of the immigrants.

Published in 1956, The lonely Londoners was the first of his London novels. It shows Moses Aloetta as the pin in a network of immigrants from Trinidad, Jamaica, etc arriving in the UK and finding work and accommodation, initially through Moses. This structure enables to author to present a kaleidoscopic image of the experience of various individuals coming ti London, and being met by Moses. Each immigrant is described with wit and excellent characterization.

Unforgettable is the arrival of Tolroy's family at Waterloo Station. Expecting to meet a single family member, Tolroy is baffled by the arrival of his whole family, including an auntie, nicked Tanty.

Moses' is not much better off, as he receives yet another acquaintance (people he has never met, referred to him) with the arrival of Henry Oliver Esquire, alias Sir Galahad, completely destitute without any luggage or even warm clothes, let alone money.

The adventures are described warmly and entirely authentic. The quaint vernacular of the immigrants enhances this sense of authenticity, fun and creates the sense of a closely-knit community. The greatest difficulty for the immigrants is how to shed their home culture of happy-go-lucky laid-backness and substitute it instantly with a much needed urban savyness required to fit into the fast-pacing reality of metropolitan London.

Having read Moses ascending (1975) a few years ago, I must say that The lonely Londoners offers a much more authentic, and in many ways more optimistic and pleasant read than the former.

The lonely Londoners is a light and very enjoyable read. Highly recommended.



Other books I have read by Sam Selvon:
Moses ascending

137. Mara. Eine Erzählung
Finished reading: 12 November 2012



Anyone will have thought of or made the casual observation that it might be interesting to know the life history of some ancient object, whether a book, a diamond, or a Stradivarius violoncello. That is exactly what Wolf Wondratschek does in the novel entitled Mara. Eine Erzählung. But how interesting is that really?

We do not cringe at the narrative voice of Pinocchio because he is a boy, or at least, he looks like and wants to be a boy. But a violoncello, Mara, that tells its life history in the form of a first-person narrative, is a bit embarrassing.

The author, or his editor, may have felt something like that as well. After about 80 pages, there is a marked change of focus, from narration about the life of the object, to narration about the life of some of its owners. These 80 pages, from pp. 89 - 167 are uninspired and boring.

On page 167, the focus returns to the life of Mara, or rather, to a description of its death.... and resurrection. Photographs of the complete destruction of the violoncello, and a final photo of Heinrich Schiff playing "The Mara" in 1997, show the reader that "Mara's" story is based in reality.

138. Eros en de vrouw van de filosoof, ofwel, Plato voor beginners
Finished reading: 13 November 2012



Maarten Looij, born in 1928, started writing after a life-long career as a teacher. His books form an exploration of his personal interests, and are therefore free from ambitions other than the writing of a pleasant and informative work.

Eros en de vrouw van de filosoof, ofwel, Plato voor beginners is the fruit of the author's interest in Greek philosophy. It explores and explains the basic philosophy of Socrates and Plato to readers who are new to these authors.

Particular interest is paid to the position of women in Greek society at the time of Socrates, and Socrates wife, Xanthippe. This makes the book more valuable and interesting than most other introductions into Greek Philosophy.

The lonely Londoners sounds a bit of a find Edwin.

Nice review of The Lonely Londoners, a book I loved when I read it a couple of years ago.

Enjoyed these last nine reviews...what a mixture. Some fascinating, some to avoid. I have five novels by Saul Bellow, all unread, but The Dean's December is not one of them. Sounds like one worth reading.

Great reviews, Edwin. I also enjoyed The Lonely Londoners, and I'm eager to read more of Sam Selvon's work. I have How to Read and Why, but I don't think I'll get to it anytime soon.

139. Going back
Finished reading: 13 November 2012



Going back is a wonderful novella that transports the reader back to the nostalgia of golden bough of youth when all summers are one hay-making and raspberry-time and lanes tented over with leaves and the tipping hillsides bleached pale where they have cut the corn (p. 52).

Jane goes back to the home where she lived as a seven-year old girl in the English countryside during the Second World War. Among many sweet memories, there's a marring one about running away from home with her brother Edward.

More than the actual visit, Going back is about remembering, bringing back memories of growing up at that special time, and thinking about the people, friends, her brother and especially, also, her father.

Going back was originally conceived as a children's book, however, later on Penelope Lively rewrote it for adult readership. Inevitable, on LT the two versions are listed together and tagged as children's literature, as a result of which many readers will miss this precious novella.



Other books I have read by Penelope Lively:
Next to nature, art

140. Pawels Briefe. Eine Familiengeschichte
Finished reading: 14 November 2012

Published in English as

Pawels Briefe. Eine Familiengeschichte is Monika Maron biography of her family, spanning about a century from 1879 till the end of the Twentieth Century, the history of three generations of a Jewish family in Central Europe.

Sixty-odd pages into the book Maron quotes the German sociologist / philosopher Niklas Luhmann: Die Komponenten eines Lebenslaufs bestehen aus Wendepunkten, an denen etwas geschehen ist, das nicht hätte geschehen müssen. Das beginnt mit der Geburt. (p. 66).

The Marons are a family that originated from Kurow, near Lodz in Poland. In the 1920s the grandparents wanted to move to the United States, following acquaintances who had, but did not. Instead, they moved to Berlin and settled in the Neukölln area, where grandfather Pawel is described as an active member of the Communist Party, at a time when the then emerging Nazi Party started marching.

The rise to power of the Nazis leads to the persecution and destruction of the Jewish population in Germany and Poland, and by 1942 the grandparents are no longer alive. Monika's mother, Hella, Polish and half-Jewish is protected and survives the war in war-ravaged Berlin, where Monika grows up as "ein Kriegskind".

The third part of the book describes the author's life an career growing up in the German Democratic Republic (DDR). After Hella's second marriage in the 1950s, the family falls apart, and Hella loses sight of her brothers and sister.

Pawels Briefe. Eine Familiengeschichte is of interest to readers who are interested in the holocaust and Polish and German history. The title prominently refers to "Pavel's Letters" while, in fact, these letters play a very minor role in the book. The letters are not mentioned until page 112, and on page 120 the author mentions that many letters are lost. No letters are printed in the book. The author writes that the letters were her starting point to work on this family history.

The book is, of course, also a partial autobiography of the author, Monika Maron, and it is an interesting source on the history of the German Democratic Republic (DDR). As the first generation survivors of the holocaust gradually disappears, their children are likely to carry on describing the terrible fate of their parents and grandparent. The historical divide may produce a somewhat different type of description of that period. On the other hand, in this respect Pawels Briefe. Eine Familiengeschichte is somewhat ambiguous. The tree-partite structure of the book could be seen as a logical divide to describe the history of three generations, grand-parents, parents and children. However, by implication, this structure suggests that Monika's life in the GDR is another "thing that should not have happened". By extension, the author portrays herself as a victim, which balances unevenly with the fate of her parents and grand-parent.

Going Back sounds terrific. I'm intrigued by Pavel's Letters, which is available in English on kindle, but the seems very obscure. Outside your review, I can't find much information on it.

>149 dchaikin:

I suppose, books remain obscure because there is a certain lack of interest in them, even though that may be unjustified. Another reason may be, that the book has not had enough exposure. Pavel's Letters was published in German in 2009, so the English translation may have only been on the market for less than two years.

Pawels Briefe. Eine Familiengeschichte is different from other Holocaust literature in various aspects. Firstly, we are entering an era in which most first generation eye witnesses and survivors cease publishing as a result of old age and natural death. Holocaust literature written by this generation of writers can be regarded as scar literature, focusing very strongly on personal experience of the inhuman system and the horrors of the concentration camps. To many readers this type of writing defines the holocaust experience.

The holocaust story will continue to be told for many more years to come. Not all first generation victims and witnesses were able to tell their story. It is very likely that over the next decades, personal accounts, diaries and memoirs, written over the past six decades will be published.

Children growing up in a family, with one or both parents being first generation survivors will go on and tell the story that was imprinted on them by their parents. However, to them these stories will increasingly be regarded as "family history" as in the subtitle of Monika Maron's book. This second or third generation will most likely describe the holocaust experience of their family in a broader context, involving a greater share of history leading up to and following the "Third Reich" period, and into describing their own lives.

The end of the "Third Reich" and the Fall of Berlin, also marked the creation of the German Democratic Republic. Germans who ended up living in so-called East Germany often could not tell their story. In addition, the failed experiment of the Socialist German Democratic Republic (DDR) is seen by some as a direct result of and prolongation of the horrors of the Second World War. Since the Fall of the Berlin Wall and the Unification of the two Germanies in 1991, especially in the past ten years, have seen a steady stream of (auto-)biographies describing authors' youth during the "Third Reich" and subsequent life in the DDR, viz. Günter de Bruyn's two-volume autobiography Zwischenbilanz. Eine Jugend in Berlin (Vol. 1) and Vierzig Jahre. Ein Lebensbericht (Vol. 2) (my review).

Readers of Monika Maron's Pawels Briefe. Eine Familiengeschichte expecting a traditional book about the holocaust will be disappointed. There aren't many details of horror, and Maron's grandparents simply vanish out of the picture. The title of the book, Pavel's Letters is somewhat misleading, if readers would expect primary source, authentic letters. There are no letters in the book. Pawels Briefe. Eine Familiengeschichte is of interest to readers who can appreciate the evolution of historical writing about the holocaust, and who are interested in the continuity of German history before, during, and after the Second World War.

141. Haanvroeg
Finished reading: 17 November 2012



The small, promotional publication of Haanvroeg consists of a single story lifted from the book Eindelijk volstrekt alleen (2008) in which it was published as a story or part under a different title, namely Wim Aaij. This publication history complicates the appreciation of Haanvroeg in two ways. Firstly, L.H. Wiener's work is often classified as a hybrid between a novel and short story; this raises the question to what extent Haanvroeg can be appreciated in isolation. Then, the title is hard to explain. The original title is much more apt.

L.H. Wiener is a relatively unknown, marginalized Dutch author. The publication of Eindelijk volstrekt alleen coincided with the 40th anniversary of his career as an author. The book takes the form of a tempestuous thunderstorm, an explosion of anger at all an everything around the main protagonist, to liberate him from his past and everything that has made him who he is. It is a veritable outburst of dissatisfaction with his current life, and the Dutch literary landscape of date.

Much of Wiener's work is described as autobiographical, which may mean that the first person narrator is the author. Haanvroeg is the biography of his authorship. It describes how he developed as an author in close rivalry to another young man from his small Dutch hometown, a rivalry in which he felt the other was superior; however, the other, "Wim Aaij" prematurely dies from cancer, and Haanvroeg is also an hommage to this dead friend and colleague.

In Haanvroeg Wiener vents his anger vis-a-vis the contemporary literary scene in the Netherlands. He refers to another Dutch author (whom?) as follows:

'Ronny Basart, weet je nog? Heeft in 1997, precies dertig jaar nadien, een dikke roman uitgebracht, De laatste lach, en daarmee zijn schrijversambitie meer dan waar gemaakt. Alleen al vanwege de pagina's 252-254 van zijn boek, waar een hilaries mortiervuur aan benamingen voor het mannelijk geslachtsdeel plaatsvindt. Ik had mij toen reeds lang van hem afgewend, hetgeen niet wegneemt dat dit boek zonder meer het predikaat 'meesterlijk' verdient, maar ja, veel te moeilijk en te literair voor het Kluun-publiek.
(p. 47/48)

An more in general he shows his disgust for chick-lit and any form of literature in which immediate gratification is celebrated over literary style, as follows:

Seks verkoopt, altijd. Een mooie kont op het omslag, of zo'n rooie ronde pijpmond en de kassa rinkelt. Dat gaat nooit over. Mijn nieuwe boek heet 'Eindelijk volstrekt alleen', een dodelijke titel natuurlijk, commercieel gesproken. 'De meisjes van 6 gym alfa' is veel beter. Of wat dacht je van 'Diana's lillende lippen', of 'Babettes bolle billen'.
Ik zou rijk kunnen worden, als ik een kut had en niet kon schrijven. (p. 53/54).

There is too much anger in this book.

The Samurai ethic and modern Japan sounds like a great way to gain some insight into that time period of nationalism and militarism that led up to the various campaigns of expansion in the Pacific and Asia. Also, what led to so many of the public suicides in their defeat.

#150 - I'm interested in everything in your last sentence, will keep the book in mind.

Intrigued bye the parts of the review of haanvroeg that I can read.

142. The Prague cemetery
Finished reading: 21 November 2012



The Prague cemetery is a very complicated novel, that can certainly be read at different levels. The main overarching theme is deceit and conspiracy.

More than most writers, Umberto Eco knows that what is visible to the eye and the truth concealed beneath can be miles apart. Most European readers would consider 19th Century history to be well-documented, and would not expect any major surprises to spring up in the historiography of the late 19th and early 20th Centuries.

Nonetheless, Eco demonstrates that we know very little and possibly understand even less about a substantial layer of late 19th Century underground culture. With roots tracing back hundreds of years to the Templars, Rosicrucians and Freemasons, the late 19th Century was a hotbed of spiritualism and satanism, that most modern readers have very little knowledge of. In The Prague cemetery layers upon layers of intertextuality are there to explore the depths of these secret societies, as the lives of real characters and numerous references to interconnected real books form an labyrinth of secret knowledge and revelations, very similar to the interconnectedness of information on the Internet. If one were to look up all references, one could spend ages in this kaleidoscopic labyrinth.

Beside the innumerably possible alleys to follow up on secret societies, The Prague cemetery describes a wealth of historical episodes, particularly French and Italian. The historical references in the novel reach back to shortly before the unification of Italy into a unified state, at a time when Italy consisted of a massively fragmented conglomerate of independent cities, kingdoms and small states. This strong infusion of Italian history may be very significant to Italian readers, it is at least an interesting diversion to other readers.

All these confusing episodes should be read just like that, they are a diversion, as the epigraph at the beginning of the novel reminds the reader:

'Since these episodes are necessary, indeed form a central part of any historical account, we have included the execution of one hundred citizens hanged in the public square, two friars burned alive, and the appearance of a comet--all descriptions that are worth a hundred tournaments and have the merit of diverting the reader's mind as much as possible from the principal action'.

The epigraph is a little bit like the news in the newspapers, nowadays. A multitude of little, meaningless facts, part to divert and part to endear. The overwhelming richness of information, and the apparent transparency, supposedly as a result of the media scrutinizing the governments, etc, is meant to make contemporary citizens believe that all cards are on the table. However, it is obvious to increasing numbers of people that this is not true. While corruption may play a larger role in a country such as Italy, where specifically a politician such as Berlusconi owns the media, and manipulates the newsfeed, people in other countries are also increasingly suspicious about the relations between the government’s actions above board and what is hidden from sight. There is a growing unease over the possible existence of modern secret societies which may conspire to effect changes in society and modern history. Conspiracy theories abound on the Internet, with myriad links to true or seemingly true events, people and motives.

The Prague cemetery fuels this sense that there is more to reality than meets the eye. A persistent theme in the novel is that nothing is what it seems to be.

“A good secret agent is lost when he has to deal with something that has already happened. Our job is to make it happen first. We’re spending a substantial amount of money organizing riots on the boulevards. It doesn’t take much: just a few dozen ex-convicts, with several plain-clothed policemen. They’ll destroy a few restaurants and a couple of brothels singing “La Marseillaise”, they’ll burn down a few kiosks, and then our uniformed police arrive and arrest everyone after a semblance of a fight.”
“And for what purpose?”
“To ensure that decent citizens are kept in a state of fear, and to convince everyone that tough measures are needed.”(p. 271)

The main character of the novel, Simone Simonini, claimed to be the only exclusively fictional character, is fiercely anti-Semitic. His anti-Semitism is very thickly laid on, to such an extent that one might wonder whether some Jewish readers would not frown at the starkly anti-Semitic sentiments expressed in the first 80+ pages. Many novels from the period between the 1870s to 1940s are now deemed unsuitable reading for expressing such strong anti-Semitic feelings. In late 19th and early 20th Century literature and the media, this sentiment was heart-felt, and expressed freely, whereas since the Second World War and the Holocaust this type of discourse is more or less taboo. In modern news media discourse, the place of Jews has been taken by Muslims, and the novel seems is strongly suggestive of drawing parallels between conspiracy theories and demonization of Jews and Muslims.

This Simone Simonini is described as being a lawyer and his main source of income is forging documents and falsifying contracts. The effect of falsification of documents is that history is (re-)created or changed. False documents are drafted, along with all other acts of a notary, such as proving will, gifts, property transactions, and other contracts. … what I produce are not forgeries, but newcopies of genuine documents which have been lost or, by simple oversight, have never been produced, and which could and should have been produced. Thus, and in meddling with the secret service, Simone Simonini has his hands firmly in the course of history. One of the main outcomes of all this forgery on his part, is the suggestion that Simone Simonini had his hand in the production of the document known as Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which led Hitler and the Nazi Party on their quest to exterminate the Jewish race in the Holocaust.

Without doubt, Simone Simonini is the most fascinating character in The Prague cemetery. With regard to this character, the author writes that the only fictitious character in this story is the protagonist, Simone Simonini (…) but on reflection, even Simone Simonini, although in effect a collage, a character to whom events have been attributed which were actually done by others, did in some sense exist. Indeed, to be frank, he is still among us. (p. 560) These remarks about the protagonist Simonini can be found at the end of the novel, on a number of pages, which are ambiguously named to be “useless learned explanations”. While most readers will feel tempted to explore the backgrounds of the many “real” characters in the novel, this so-called fictitious character, deserves much more attention.

In the Italian language, the suffixes, -e, -ino, -etti, -etto, and –ini are diminutive forms of a root which may thus form the basis of a large number of Italian surnames. Hence, stripped of Italian suffixes, the name of the main protagonist can be reduced to Simon Simon, which would double as Simoni. Searching to attempt a match to a historical character, which could stand in for this “Simoni”, the most likely candidate would be Simon Magus, also known as Simon the Sorcerer. Simon the Magus is known under different names, and there is considerable historical confusion about who he was. Most references are in apocryphal works and writings by ancient Christian writers. There is one reference to Simon in the bible, 8:9-24:

"After the Lord was taken up into heaven the demons put forth a number of men who claimed to be gods. These not only escape being persecuted by you, but were actually the objects of worship - for example Simon, a Samaritan from the village called Gittho, who in Claudius Caesar's time, thanks to the art of the demons who possessed him, worked wonders of magic, and in your imperial city of Rome was regarded as a god, and like a god was honoured by you with a statue in the River Tiber between the two bridges. It bears this inscription in Latin, SIMONI DEO SANCTO. Almost all Samaritans, and a few from other nations too, acknowledge him as their principle god, and worship him." ( Eusebius)

It was later proved that the reference to the statue in Rome, bearing the inscription “SIMONI DEO SANCTO” consists of a confusion, the statue being properly inscribed to “SEMONI SANCUS”, or Semo Sancus, who was the god of trust (fides), honesty, and oaths. This ancient Roman god protected oaths of marriage, law, commerce, and contracts in particular. Upon the signing of contracts and other important civil acts, swearings in his name were used, and the etymology of some words such as "sanctity" and "sanction" goes back to the name of this god. The temple dedicated to Sancus stood on the Quirinal Hill, which is one of the Seven Hills of Rome. It is now the location of the official residence of the Italian Head of State, who resides in the Quirinal Palace; by metonymy "the Quirinal" has come to stand for the Italian President, in casu Sylvio Berlusconi.

The many different textual sources for information on Simon the Magus contain quite different descriptions of him, casting doubt on whether they all refer to the same person. Simon Magus, or Simon the Sorcerer is regarded as the source of all heresies. At a later date in the Christian era there were accusations hat he was a demon in human form, stories which eventually may have become a possible inspiration for the Faust story. Simon the Magus sometimes referred to himself as Christ. In the myth of Simon and Helen, it is described how God descended in the form of Simon Magus, For as the angels were mismanaging the world, owing to their individual lust for rule, he had come to set things straight, and had descended under a changed form, likening himself to the Principalities and Powers through whom he passed, so that among men he appeared as a man, though he was not a man, and was thought to have suffered in Judaea, though he had not suffered.

In The Prague cemetery it is not Abbé Dalla Piccola who appears in the dreams of Simone Simonini, but Simone Simonini who appears in the dreams of Abbé Dalla Piccola. How else can Simone Simonini be said to be “still among us?”



Other books I have read by Umberto Eco:
Foucault's pendulum
Travels in hyperreality
Five moral pieces

A truly fascinating review of The Prague Cemetery, which I have yet to read although it has been sitting on my TBR for over a year now. Despite the fact that you only gave it 2 1/2 stars, your review makes me more interested in reading it sooner. In particular, I was interested in the comment you made that "the late 19th Century was a hotbed of spiritualism and satanism, that most modern readers have very little knowledge of" as I have just encountered this for the first time in several books I've read very recently, specifically The Damned and The Stammering Century.

143. You went away
Finished reading: 22 November 2012



You went away by the Canadian author Timothy Findley is an immensely sad novella. Starting point for the story is a shoe box with discarded family photos on a flea market. The photos tell a story, the story, the novella, is, of course, imagined, what could have been. A story which is dated between September 3, 1939 and August 16, 1942.

It tells the story how a family falls apart, because of the war. In the opening chapters, the family is described as very happy; as the war approaches, the family father, Graeme, volunteers. The army brings out the worst in him, as he starts drinking, and soon becomes an alcoholic, abandoning his family, and sadistically teasing his wife. Mother 'Mi' (Michael) thus driven away from him develops a more than platonic affection for Graeme's room mate, who is killed in a flight accident in which Graeme may have had a hand.

You went away contains very little narrative, and consists largely of dialogue, especially very short sentences, or even just single words. This creates a sense in the reader of being very close to the characters.

The story is very tragic, and some scenes are outright shocking, such as the loss of the family's daughter, Bonnie, which is almost burnt into my retina.

Oddly, while truly sad, the writing style gives the reader a feeling of long summer days with field larks chirping high in the sky. This makes a dramatic story readable.



Other books I have read by Timothy Findley:
Spadework

144. Eigentlich möchte Frau Blum den Milchmann kennenlernen: 21 Geschichten
Finished reading: 22 November 2012

Published in English as

21 very short, rather boring stories about loneliness.



Other books I have read by Peter Bichsel:
Kindergeschichten

I also love your review of The Prague Cemetery which is on my kindle waiting to be read.

Superb review of The Prague Cemetery. I started it in September on holiday, but it was the wrong place and the wrong time. I wondered if I would ever go back to it. Now I believe I will. It seems much more like a November or January book.

You've also captured the spirit of Timothy Findley beautifully. I haven't read that one, but his works always linger in the mind.

>148 edwinbcn: I know I have a TBR Monika Maron novel lurking somewhere and will have to find it now.

Looking forward to your new thread.

The Prague Cemetery After that fascinating review, you only rate the book at 2.5 stars?

>155 rebeccanyc:, 160

I rate the book while reading, and then adjust the rate after finishing the book. The reviews are written afterward.

The low rate for The Prague Cemetery reflects that it was a struggle to get through the book, and I often nearly lost interest. All those historical descriptions, and all the in-depth descriptions of very complicated satanist and spiritualistic secret societies, etc make for very tiresome reading. Initially, any reader will try to make sense of all it all, until you realize, perhaps with the epigraph in mind, but for me the realization came after about 300 pages, that all those descriptions are highly intellectual fluff. At least, it's fluff to me. I did not like Foucault's Pendulum, which has the same fascination with secret sects and spiritualism; structurally, I find that The Prague Cemetery is much better written.

I think I can write a good review, even though I did not particularly like a book, as for instance with Pavel's Letters, which was essentially also very boring to me, except that I was a little bit more interested in the topic. However, when you start thinking about a book, you have to consider a great many other points of view, and taking structure, content, language, viewpoint, and genre into account, more interesting points may show up.

145. Too loud a solitude
Finished reading: 23 November 2012



For thirty-five years now I've compacted waste paper.

Almost every chapter in Bohumil Hrabal's short novel Too loud a solitude begins with a sentence to that effect. It is spoken by a man who looks back on his life, a non-descript man, who has led an uneventful life.

As much as his life has been a treadmill, it also symbolizes permanence. Observing the flow of young people on Charles Square, each with a star of genius on his forehead and sparkling vitality in their eyes, we sense that the stolid Hanta is looking back on his own youth. It is not clear how Hanta ended up in his cellar, doing his monotonous job of compacting paper, but the fact is that that's what he has been doing all his life.

Thirty-five years is a life-time, till retirement, which stands at 62 years of age in the Czech Republic. Thirty-five years also stands for continuity, as counted back from 1975, it points to a beginning in 1940, or thereabout, the years of the occupation of the Czech Republic by the Nazis. In the minds of many East-European intellectuals, the end of World War Two saw a seamless continuation of dictatorship, from the ultra-right to the ultra-left, which they put forward as the ultimate insult to their Communist rulers.

In many ways, Hanta stands for everyman, a traditional Czech man, firmly rooted in Czech culture, savouring his Pilsner Beer, proud of his city and country. In the grayness of everyday life, its dull monotony, he looks for moments of beauty. To Hanta, reproductions of paintings are as beautiful and valuable as the originals of those paintings. His fascination with books is more determined by their outside appearance, than by their contents.

Bohumil Hrabal may have written the novel to protest censorship in the Czech Republic. Ironically, Too loud a solitude applies as much to his day as to ours. Hanta tries to save beautiful, antiquarian books, which have been discarded by libraries. The same type of destruction of the same type of books is taking place on a worldwide scale, as old, paper-based books everywhere are discarded and destroyed.

Books have been destroyed forever, a fact all the more visible in cities with a long history, like Prague, where book burnings have taken place in all ages. However, no matter how aesthetically beautiful, books are only reproductions; they are only paper. Paper can be recycled endlessly, while books remain.

Wow! Great review of Too Loud a Solitude. You did a great job of interpreting the book in an understandable way for those of us who have not read it. You made the book sound interesting, and I will have to wish list it.

>163 fuzzy_patters:

Thanks fuzzy! You may like to read Too Loud a Solitude along with the themed group read for East European Literature in the Reading Globally Group. It is a nice example of Czech literature.

146. Erasmus
Finished reading: 25 November 2012



In 1923, at the height of his fame as a historiographer, Scribner commissioned Johan Huizinga to write a biography of Desiderius Erasmus, to be published as the third volume in Scribner's series Great Hollanders (Volume 1 was William the Silent by Frederic Harrison and Volume 2 was Vondel by A.J. Barnouw. In 1919, Huizinga's seminal work, The Waning of the Middle Ages had appeared in Dutch, and in 1924, it was first published in English. Huizinga's biography of Erasmus, was scheduled to be published in the same year, in March 1924.

Huizinga wrote each chapter in Dutch, which was then sent to New York, to be translated by
Frederik Jan Hopman into English. The English-language edition appeared first, followed in the same year by the Dutch edition, published by Tjeenk Willink in Haarlem.

For many years, Huizinga's biography on Erasmus was considered to be the best in the field, and despite its age, it is still considered one of the best.

The Dutch edition, published by Ad Donker in 2001 is a luxury edition, containing all known portraits of Erasmus in large, A5-size full-colour photos, as well as reproductions of all known etchings, and photos of (commemorative) coins bearing his portrait, facsimile (cover) pages of all his works, and other photos of objects from his heritage, statues, etc.

In 1928, Huizinga had objected to a similar type of publication in Germany, claiming that in such a publication the illustrations would be considered more important than the text. Huizinga is right in that assertion, as even I was often distracted by the illustrations during my reading. In the Dutch edition, that happens because the text is printed in columns, undoubtedly a concession to the unusual size of the book.

Huizinga's Erasmus is not a very thick book, the original edition was published having just 276 pages. What made Huizinga's book so unique was that he had consulted all known correspondence of Erasmus for bibliographical details. In 1936, Huizinga added and verified this concordance by consulting with the 12-vols Opus Epistolarum Des. Erasmi Roterodami by Percy Stafford Allen and Helen Mary Allen (Eds.) published between 1906-1958, containing all known and preserved letters by Erasmus.

Erasmus by Johan Huizinga is a very readable biography. Highly recommended.

>150 edwinbcn:

of interest to readers who can appreciate the evolution of historical writing about the holocaust, and who are interested in the continuity of German history before, during, and after the Second World War.

Last year, I read Wolfgang Koeppen's A Death in Rome which is part of a trilogy he wrote in the early 1950s about how German people dealt with the aftermath of the Nazi regime, with characters that represented perpetrators as well as victims. Since then I've been looking for further reading about this period in Germany. Something like Pavel's Letters would seem to provide a portrait of this period, which seems quite patchy still for Western readers.

>162 edwinbcn:

Great review of Too Loud a Solitude.

147. Forbidden colours
Finished reading: 6 December 2012



Even in that moment I could not believe that my interior beauty was consonant with Yuichi's exterior beauty. Socrates' prayer to the various gods of the place on that summer morning when he lay under the plane tree on the bank of the Ilissus River, chatting to the beautiful boy Phaedrus until the day cooled, seems to me the highest teaching on earth: "Pan, first, and all the gods that dwell in this place, grant that I may become fair within, and that such outward things as I have may be at peace with the spirit within me."
The Greeks had the rare power to look at internal beauty as if it were hewn from marble. Spirit was badly corrupted in later times, exalted through the action of lustless loathing. Beautiful young Alcibiades, drawn by the internal, love-lust wisdom of Socrates, was so aroused by the prospect of being passionately loved by that man as ugly as Silenus that he crept in with him and slept under the same mantle. When I read the beautiful words of Alcibiades in "The Drinking Party" dialogue, they almost bowled me over: "It would be embarrassing to tell men of intelligence that I did not give my body to someone like you--even more embarrassing that to admit to the uncultured multitude that I had surrendered to you. Much more!" (299-300).

This long citation comes from the Japanese novel Forbidden colours by Yukio Mishima. It shows that the key to understanding this complex novel lies in the understanding of Mishima's ideas about Greek philosophy.

In Forbidden colours an old novelist, Shunsuke Hinoki, wants to take revenge on women, as he feels women have scorned him throughout his life. To effectuate his revenge, Shunsuke has devised a plan in which he will use an irresistibly beautiful young man, Yuichi Minami, to drive women mad with love, and lust, and jealousy. He encourages the young Yuichi to marry Yasuko, and thus destroy her life. He later carefully plots to set other women up against each other, and foment jealousy. Partially successful, the novel develops to explore myriad other human relationships of lovers and friendship. Choosing Yuichi, Shunsuke did not know that Yuichi is gay. Regardless of his sexual orientation, Yuichi is a able to develop true love for his wife Yasuko, while this relation is not governed by lust. For lust, Yuichi turns to anonymous lovers whom he picks up cruising; he does not develop relationships with these young men; in the gay scene of Tokyo, under the eyes of his gay acquaintances, Yuichi appears a very restraint and chaste young man, never giving in to flirts of foreigners or other Japanese men. However, when he meets Count Kaburagi in this scene he develops an extended, sexual relationship with him, despite the fact that he is not attracted to the old man. With Shunsuke, the other old man in his life, he develops a long-term, asexual friendship. The clearly heterosexual Shunsuke's is oriented towards women in his lust, but ultimately decides that his true friend must have been the Narcissistic Yuichi.

Thus, in Forbidden colours Mishima paints all possible human sexual and friendship relations. Shunsuke would obviously stand for Socrates, while Yuichi, takes the role of a young Japanese Phaedrus. In as much as Mishima was fascinated by Greek ideals of love, he must have been shaped by, or have tried to reconcile these Greek ideals with Japanese cultural patterns. The famous chariot parable from Plato's Phaedrus in which the soul is described as a chariot drawn by complementary forces, a good horse and a bad horse, would be very well compatible with Japanese Zen Buddhist views of Yin and Yang, which could help explain the balance achieved between lust and restraint.

It is surprising to see how a young Japanese novelist could be influenced so profoundly by classical Greek literature, at an age just about 70 years into the opening up of the Japanese mind to Western culture.

Forbidden colours is a very long novel, and sometimes plot lines are vague, or even nearly forgotten. It is a very poetic novel, with often many beautiful descriptions. The novel is of special interest to gay readers attempting to understand the complex and hidden gay relations in Asian societies, and it beautifully explains how gay Asian man may truly find fulfillment in marriage, and starting a family.



Other books I have read by Yukio Mishima:
The Samurai ethic and modern Japan
The sailor who fell from grace with the sea

148. Wanderungen im Norden
Finished reading: 8 December 2012



An uninspired report of the author's holiday with his family in Sweden.

149. Wachsender Mond, 1985 - 1988
Finished reading: 10 December 2012



Wachsender Mond, 1985 - 1988 consists of the diaries of Luise Rinser of the second half of the 1980s. There are four parts, 1985, 1986, 1987 and 1988, but within each part entries are not dated; there are few references to general facts, so passages are hard to date. When these diaries were written, Rinser (1911) was well into her seventies. This is reflected by the fact that the diaries, less than previous volumes, focus little on politics, surprisingly, also less on religion. There is more room for contemplation of life, art, literature, and religion (contemplative).

There are various references to perestroika in the Soviet Union, the German Democratic Republic and China, about student rebellion in 1986 (p. 127) and later, in 1988, about Rinser's trip to China. (p. 189 ff).
Rinser offers the interesting thesis that people in North Korea are very happy, but that this fact is twisted and misrepresented in the media. Her views of das real existierendes Sozialismus in these countries cannot be explained away by suggesting she would be a "fellow-traveller". They are hard to combine with her deep-felt religious ideas, although she seems milder in this volume of her diaries. The diaries are very well-written, and the content and reflections are moderately interesting, possibly more to future readers who will be less familiar with the 1980s.

There are also various reflections on the Nazi period. Luise Rinser's own explanations about her position in the Nazi period have always been viewed with scepsis, but she was given the benefit of the doubt. After her death, her last life companion, José Sánchez de Murillo published a her biography Luise Rinser-Ein Leben in Widersprüchen (Transl. Luise Rinser-A Life of Contradictions in which he says "She lied to all of us."

This means that in all her writings after the war, all diaries and all reflections on the war period, Rinser always lied. This makes it very difficult to read the diaries with serious interest.



Other books I have read by Luise Rinser:
Die gläsernen Ringe. Eine Erzählung

150. Im Dunkeln singen, 1982 bis 1985
Finished reading: 17 December 2012



Im Dunkeln singen, 1982 bis 1985 consists of the diaries of Luise Rinser of the first half of the 1980s. There are four parts, 1982, 1983, 1984 and 1985, but within each part entries are not dated; there are few references to general facts, so passages are hard to date. When these diaries were written, Rinser (1911) was in her early seventies. She is still very active, traveling all over the world to visit symposia, and quite fierce and outspoken in various political matters, and a missionary-driven outlook on religion.

Probably the most amusing episode is her visit to a peace conference in India, which turns out to be organized by the Moon sect.

There are also various reflections on the Nazi period. Luise Rinser's own explanations about her position in the Nazi period have always been viewed with scepsis, but she was given the benefit of the doubt. After her death, her last life companion, José Sánchez de Murillo published a her biography Luise Rinser-Ein Leben in Widersprüchen (Transl. Luise Rinser-A Life of Contradictions in which he says "She lied to all of us."

This means that in all her writings after the war, all diaries and all reflections on the war period, Rinser always lied. This makes it very difficult to read the diaries with serious interest.



Other books I have read by Luise Rinser:
Die gläsernen Ringe. Eine Erzählung
Wachsender Mond, 1985 - 1988

151. This is water. Some thoughts, delivered on a significant occasion, about living a compassionate life
Finished reading: 26 December 2012



This is water. Some thoughts, delivered on a significant occasion, about living a compassionate life consists of the text of a lecture delivered by David Foster Wallace to the 2005 graduating class of Kenyon College.

In the lecture, Wallace tries to outline what could be a possible meaningful life: not greed, not power, not vanity, not consumerism.

The really important kind of freedom
involves attention, and awareness, and
discipline, and effort, and being able truly
to care about other people and to sacrifice
for them, over and over, in myriad petty
little unsexy ways, every day. (p. 120)



Other books I have read by David Foster Wallace:
Consider the lobster, and other essays
The pale king

152. Affinity
Finished reading: 29 December 2012



Affinity, Sarah Waters' second novel is seriously flawed. In this novel of suspense, the author tells a story, and attempts to pull off a chute at the end of the novel. However, a successful chute is a a sudden realization on the part of the reader to see a hidden aspect of the story, which was cleverly concealed and create a sudden moment of epiphany or elation. This intended effect totally fails in Affinity, because the reader has not received sufficient information in the first 300+ pages, and the "surprise" is revealed by the author in the last part of the novel.

In fact, Part 5 of the novel can be read as a synopsis of the novel, preceded by 300 pages of distraction, full of inessential details. The first four parts of the novel are ultimately so meaningless, that many readers will lose interest after about 200 pages, wondering where the novel is going. The distraction in the first 300 pages is strengthened by the capricious, unpredictable and utterly meaningless jumping forward and backward in time, over a period of about three years.

Readers who skip the first 318 pages, and only read Part 5, will miss very little. Part 5 would read very well as a shortish short story of barely 30 pages.



Other books I have read by Sarah Waters:
Fingersmith

I'm not caught up here, but want say that your review of The Prague Cemetery is one your best ever, and that's not light praise. Thanks for posting that. The book is now on my mental radar.

153. Don't fall off the mountain
Finished reading: 29 December 2012



Don't fall off the mountain is the first autobiography by Shirley MacLaine (1934), describing her youth, early career and travels up to about 1965.

Shirley MacLaine, sister of Warren Beatty, describes her youth of hardship and hard work to achieve success. Early in her career she was asked to stand in for an actress who had to give up her role in the musical The Pajama Game in 1954, and MacLaine, totally unprepared, and quite unexpectedly performed so well, that she was immediately rocketed into stardom, and signed a contract with an agent. In the same year she married Steve Parker, whom she had met in 1952.

In 1955 she started her film career in a movie by Alfred Hitchcock. For her role in this film and subsequent films she won several awards, bringing her fame and wealth.

They lived for a while in Tokyo, where their daughter Stephanie Sachiko Parker was born. However, with Steve permanently living in Tokyo, and Shirley unwilling to settle in Japan and take on the role of house wife, she started dividing her time between work in Hollywood, and her husband in Japan; a long-distance relationship that gradually took on the character of not just being physically long-distance, but spiritually as well.

Her work, preparing for roles in films, took her to study up-close the life and work of prostitutes in Paris (for the film Irma la Douce) and travels to China, the Southern States, and Thailand.

Gradually, MacLaine started spending more time traveling, to discover her own identity and open her mind. This lead to extensive travel to live with a Masai tribe in Kenya, and travels to India and Buthan.

In the final chapters of Don't fall off the mountain (the title refers to her husband's warning to be careful in the Himalayas) MacLaine describes her sojourn in Buthan and the military upheaval in Buthan, which indicate that this part of her travels must be dated to 1964 /5.

An interesting and sincere, well-written biography, which is also interesting from the point of view of anthropological notes about Japan, prostitution in Paris, the Masai of Kenya, and the history of Buthan. As Buthan is and was a very closed country, in may well be that Shirley MacLaine is one of the very few, if not only, Western eyewitness of the political upheaval in that country in 1964/5.

Much more interesting than I had anticipated.

154. Korea. A walk through the land of miracles
Finished reading: 30 December 2012



Simon Winchester launched upon his career as an writer, after retiring as a journalist. His first three books all dealt with experiences he had gathered during his years as a journalist, describing his travels in the Southern States, Northern Ireland and his POW Diary during the Falkland War. Following those books, he wrote three travelogues, situated in Mainland China, Hong Kong and Korea, and a failed science-fiction novel. He is best known for his science biographies.

In 1988, Winchester published Korea. A walk through the land of miracles. The Leitmotiv of the travelogue is the story of Hendrick Hamel, whose journal Verhaal van het vergaan van het jacht de Sperwer, En van het wedervaren der schipbreukelingen op het eiland Quelpaert en het vasteland van Korea (1653-1666) met eene beschrijving van dat rijk (Transl. Hamel's Journal and a Description of the Kingdom of Korea, 1653-1666 is the earliest Western description of Korea.

Hamel's journal is worthy of attention by readers who enjoyed David Mitchell's recent novel The thousand autumns of Jacob de Zoet, which describes a similar series of historical exploits of the Dutch in the Far East. In 1653, on their way to Dejima, the Dutch vessel 'De Sperwer' (the Sparrowhawk), was shipwrecked on the south coast of Korea. The 36 surviving Dutchmen were marched off to the imperial palace in Seoul. They spent 13 years in Korean custody, before Hamel and seven crew mates managed to escape to Dejima. According to Winchester, Koreans with blond-streaked hair and blue eyes, found in the southwest of the Korean peninsula are descendants of these Dutch prisoners.

Simon Winchester set out to walk the same route as the Dutch sailors used when they were marched to the capital. Each chapter starts with an excerpt from Hamel's journal. Originall, Winchester planned to walk the whole length of the peninsula, crossing the demilitarized zone and into North Korea, up to the Yalu river, from whence he intended to cross over into China. However, the epic trail finishes at the DMZ, as Winchester find the prospect of crossing over too daunting.

The first chapter of Korea. A walk through the land of miracles very muddled, describing ponderously about his plans, and rather distracting to-and-fro-ing between his previous visits to both Koreas. Subsequent chapters are written in a journalistic style, reporting experiences with local informers. It isn't clear whether Winchester spoke Korean. The description of Korea is marred by the many technical details of Winchester's kit, preparations:

I bought myself a stout Lowe rucksack and one of those canvas-and-velcro purses in which you keep all your valuables suspended from your neck. I dug my New Balance boots (last used a year before to clamber along the Crib Goch ridge in North Wales, and thus well worn in) out of a cupboard. I bought bars of Cadbury's Fruit-and-Nut chocolate and sachets of instant coffee and the inevitable slabs of Kendal Mint Cake (brown, not white).

This goes on for a page or so, and seems rather wordy, full of unnecessary details. During the trek, most details and descriptions are also of glass, concrete and glitter, describing modern Korea, as it was emerging in the 1980s, more than anything else.

Winchester's Korea. A walk through the land of miracles is probably attractive reading to readers who like the style of the Lonely Planet Guides, very hands-on and very close to the local population.



Other books I have read by Simon Winchester:
Pacific nightmare. How Japan starts World War III
The map that changed the world. A tale of rocks, ruin and redemption
Outposts
The meaning of everything. The story of the Oxford English Dictionary
A crack in the edge of the world. America and the great California earthquake of 1906
Krakatoa. The day the world exploded. August 27, 1883

155. Rheinsberg – ein Bilderbuch für Verliebte
Finished reading: 31 December 2012



Rheinsberg – ein Bilderbuch für Verliebte is a very light-hearted novella by the German author Kurt Tucholsky. It describes the weekend trip of a couple-in-love, Wolfgang and Claire, from Berlin to spend a few days in Reinsberg, a small town about 75 kilometres north-west of Berlin.

The unmarried pair of lovers, Wolfgang and Claire, travel as if they are a newly wed pair, adopting the name Mr and Mrs Gambetta. They spend the weekend sightseeing, visiting the Castle, making a boat trip on the lake, and going to the cinema.

They are elated and naughty, the way young lovers playfully fool everyone around them, while sharing their secret together. On the train, Claire makes herself appear a young coy mistress to the comportly huntsman sharing their compartment, and vis-a-vis the medical student Lissy Aachner they pretend to belong to the landed gentry of the local countryside denying any knowledge or understanding of life in the big city. The most remarkable about this short novella is the language used by the two lovers: overly sweet, mixed with irony and sarcasm, the language of a lover's couple.

The story may be based on the author's weekend trip to Rheinsberg with his girlfriend Else Weil in August 1911, the year before publication of the novella. Tucholsky married her in 1920, for a short marriage which was dissolved in 1924.

That's it folks. 155 books and 155 reviews.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

See you over at Club 2013

edwinbcn's 2013 Books

I am spending an evening with your latest postings on your thread.

First up, thanks for recommending the Johan Huizinga biography of Erasmus: Johan Huizinga. I loved his The Waning of the Middle Ages and did not realise that he had written a biography of Erasmus. I have ordered it tonight.

I have that Shirley Maclaine book somewhere, I must dig it out

Nice pictures

Happy New Year Edwin and I will catch up with you on club read 2013

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