For 3 1/2 months this spring/summer I was without internet or television. I had not realized previously that I spent (wasted?) so much time on electronic diversions. I suddenly found I had several hours more each day to amuse myself. I have always read every day, but without an alternative I read EVEN MORE. At the end of May, I finally got my books out of storage, where they had been for almost 4 years, so I began selecting from my own collection and re-reading. (Why keep a book if not to read it again?) I kept a list of the books I read (46) these three summer months and now I intend to write several groups of short reviews, mainly for my own benefit.
This first group I read right after I moved in and unpacked. Moving is a tense and busy time, so I was prompted to read escapist literature.
THE LITTLE COUNTRY by CHARLES de LINT (1991) Second reading
A mysterious book with magical powers is at the center of the conflict between a young female folk musician and a rich psychic. She has it and he wants it. Meanwhile, a witch shrinks a young girl into the size of a mouse. Adventure ensues. This is all rather predictable and the book reads at a Young Adult level. This is one I will put in a box to take to sell at Half-Price.
LITTLE, BIG by JOHN CROWLEY (1981) Fourth reading
This is one of my favorite escapist reads. It's about the strange Drinkwater family, who believe that they have a Destiny which involves the world of Faerie, and when I read about it, I absolutely believe it, too. This is a must-read for anyone who is at all capable of suspension of disbelief.
THE FOLK OF THE AIR by PETER S. BEAGLE (1977) Second reading
Another book about Faerie. I looked on my bookshelves for Beagle's best book, The Last Unicorn, but I must have lent it to someone. This one is a bit less immersive, but it is better than most of a similar vein. You are asked to believe that some of the people who participate in Live Role Play re-enactments actually have the magical powers they pretend to display. I almost believed, but not quite.
MYTHAGO WOOD by ROBERT HOLDSTOCK (1984) Third reading
LAVANDYSS by ROBERT HOLDSTOCK (1988) Third reading
Two brothers enter a magical wood where the mythical creatures of our collective unconscious come to life. I really liked these the first time I read them, less the second time, and this time I found many faults. The books do have a fairly original premise, so they are interesting as a one-off read for fans of fantasy.
THE PRYDAIN CHRONICLES by LLOYD ALEXANDER (5 short novels)(1964-66) Second reading
These are actually children's book (about middle school level). I think I intended them for my grandchildren and failed to pass them on. They follow Taran, an assistant pig keeper, from youth through maturity. He lives in a magical land and joins in the fight against the evil wizard Arawn, joined by a princess, a dwarf, a bard, and a man/beast helper (similar to Gollum of Lord of the Rings fame). The story is loosely adapted from Welsh mythology. I would highly recommend these for ages 10-14.
TITUS GROAN by MERVIN PEAKE(1946) Second reading
GORMENGHAST by MERVIN PEAKE(1950) Second reading
I love words and the way they can be put together to create an atmosphere and mood; Mervin Peake offers a veritable feast. He writes with a painter's eye, and his created world of Gormenghast Castle is visual to the mind's eye to the extent that I have even dreamed of it. His characters do Dickens one better; they are exaggerated and sometimes grotesque, but they are real. The story is suspenseful. The villain is deliciously evil. The hero is flawed, but learns from his experiences. The third volume of the Gormenghast series, Titus Alone, was written while Peake was suffering from diminished mental facility due to Parkenson's. I have not yet had the courage to read it, because I don't think I could bear the anguish of the dimming of his powers.
ROCANNON'S WORLD by URSULA LeGUIN(1966) Second reading
PLANET OF EXILE by URSULA LeGUIN(1966) Second reading
CITY OF ILLUSIONS by URSULA LeGUIN(1967) Second reading
These three shortish novels are bound together in a volume called Three Hainish Novels. They are not, however, three parts of one story, but three distinct plots all taking place in the imagined Hainish universe. The first one, Rocannon's World, takes place when the planet is first being studied by the League of All Worlds. Rocannon is an ethnologist who goes on a quest across the planet to alert the League of All Worlds to a threat from an invading species. In Planet of Exile, on another Hainish planet, indigenous humanoid natives and settlers from Earth live an uneasy separate existence until drawn together by looming danger. As in Game of Thrones, Winter Is Coming! The third volume, City of Illusions, takes place several centuries later, back on Earth, where a descendant of a character in Planet of Exile arrives with no memory of his past. His quest to learn his identity and then to overcome the Earth's new masters, the Shing, form the plot. These are LeGuin's first novels and are not as accomplished as her later efforts, but they are better-than-average science fiction/fantasy.
THE CHILD GARDEN by GEOFF RYMAN (1989) Second reading
In a world of the future, life-spans have been halved, global warming threatens, people are genetically engineered for their jobs, and children are instantly educated through the introduction of viruses. Milena, the central character, is immune to the viruses and has to learn everything the old-fashioned way. She falls in love with a genetically engineered female who looks like a polar bear. And so it goes. This book contains too much and thus loses any focus. This one will go to Half-Price.
Sunday, September 9, 2018
Thursday, September 6, 2018
THE ENGLISH PATIENT by MICHAEL ONDAATJE (1992)
A few weeks ago I reread Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms, which took place in wartime in Italy and tells of the love affair between an American volunteer ambulance driver and an English nurse. The English Patient is also set in wartime in Italy and includes a loves affair between an Indian bomb demolition expert and a Canadian nurse. There the similarity ends. This book is so much more than Hemingway's effort, in so many ways. It is so much better that they shouldn't even be included in the same category. I would consider The English Patient as a modern classic. (I am obviously not a Hemingway fan. I believe he is greatly overrated, and I have never understood why he is highly regarded.)
Gathered in a half-ruined convent as World War II is ending are a young Canadian nurse and her patient who is too burned to be moved. He is thought to be English, even though he insists he cannot remember who he is or where he came from. Then an Italian thief who had once been a friend of her father's hears of her plight and joins them. As the armies retreat, bomb and landmine disposal crews arrive, and an Indian Sikh attached to the British army comes to stay at the convent, as well. There each of their stories unfold. As they try to deal with the burdens war has left, they come to an erasure of national and partisan interests and relate to each other as individuals....until events intrude to remind them of their differences.
This author is a poet as well as a novelist, and this reads like a blending of the two. (In contrast, Hemingway's prose, sometimes described as "lean and muscular," sounds like a first-grade reader.) Ondaatje paints pictures with his words, and the entire novel has a dream-like tone, reflecting the surrealism of the time and place. It is a brief pause outside of a harsh reality.
This novel is an adventure, a mystery, a romance, and a philosophical novel all in one. It won England's Booker Prize in 1992, and in 2018 was awarded the Golden Booker Prize as the best winner of the award in 50 years. It is one of the best novels you will ever read.
(If you saw the movie, you got only a small piece of the story, and not the thrust of the book at all. It was a good movie, but it was not reflective of the book's contents.)
Gathered in a half-ruined convent as World War II is ending are a young Canadian nurse and her patient who is too burned to be moved. He is thought to be English, even though he insists he cannot remember who he is or where he came from. Then an Italian thief who had once been a friend of her father's hears of her plight and joins them. As the armies retreat, bomb and landmine disposal crews arrive, and an Indian Sikh attached to the British army comes to stay at the convent, as well. There each of their stories unfold. As they try to deal with the burdens war has left, they come to an erasure of national and partisan interests and relate to each other as individuals....until events intrude to remind them of their differences.
This author is a poet as well as a novelist, and this reads like a blending of the two. (In contrast, Hemingway's prose, sometimes described as "lean and muscular," sounds like a first-grade reader.) Ondaatje paints pictures with his words, and the entire novel has a dream-like tone, reflecting the surrealism of the time and place. It is a brief pause outside of a harsh reality.
This novel is an adventure, a mystery, a romance, and a philosophical novel all in one. It won England's Booker Prize in 1992, and in 2018 was awarded the Golden Booker Prize as the best winner of the award in 50 years. It is one of the best novels you will ever read.
(If you saw the movie, you got only a small piece of the story, and not the thrust of the book at all. It was a good movie, but it was not reflective of the book's contents.)
Tuesday, September 4, 2018
TYPEE by HERMAN MELVILLE (1846)
Although this was on my bookshelf, I don't recall ever reading it before. It is Melville's first book, and was the most popular during his lifetime (to his dismay). It is supposedly a true account of the author's captivity for about a month by the Typee natives on one of the Marquesas Islands, although there is some indication that he took parts of his material from accounts of other early mariners.
As an adventure story in an exotic locale, this account was popular particularly with a younger audience. I wonder what they made of the thinly veiled sexual content. I imagine they were titillated. I found Melville's criticisms of the "civilizing" efforts of Christian missionaries to be particularly interesting. In a scenario that has been repeated many times before and since, the efforts of governments and missionaries to turn native populations into mirrors of their own ideas and customs resulted in the degradation of the supposed beneficiaries. According to Melville, the Typee were happier and more harmonious than those in more "civilized" situations, even though they happened to be cannibals on occasion.
Though this account is well written and displays Melville's budding talent, it in no way prepares the reader for his great masterpiece, Moby Dick, or for his last book, Billy Budd. I believe it to be beneficial reading for admirers of Melville, but as general reading to be of little interest for most people.
As an adventure story in an exotic locale, this account was popular particularly with a younger audience. I wonder what they made of the thinly veiled sexual content. I imagine they were titillated. I found Melville's criticisms of the "civilizing" efforts of Christian missionaries to be particularly interesting. In a scenario that has been repeated many times before and since, the efforts of governments and missionaries to turn native populations into mirrors of their own ideas and customs resulted in the degradation of the supposed beneficiaries. According to Melville, the Typee were happier and more harmonious than those in more "civilized" situations, even though they happened to be cannibals on occasion.
Though this account is well written and displays Melville's budding talent, it in no way prepares the reader for his great masterpiece, Moby Dick, or for his last book, Billy Budd. I believe it to be beneficial reading for admirers of Melville, but as general reading to be of little interest for most people.
Saturday, September 1, 2018
THE ASSOCIATION OF SMALL BOMBS by KARAN MAHAJAN (2016)
Yet another depressing novel set in India, this one is unique in that it humanizes both the victims of violence and its perpetrator. Beginning with the detonation of a small car bomb, the author tells the stories of the Kashmiri man who built and planted the bomb, of the family of two brothers who were among the victims, and of a boy who narrowly escaped the blast which killed his two friends. The repercussions of this rather insignificant event (in comparison with acts of greater violence with more victims) extend forward for years. Mahajan seems to be indicating that the turmoil in India is daily escalated by even small events and that it is perhaps unsolvable.
To tell the truth, I read this just before I moved in mid-May, and when I set out to write this review, I had forgotten much of the plot and had to look back in the book to refresh my memory. I don't think my senior-memory is entirely responsible. I think this is just a very forgettable novel. This was a finalist for the 2016 National Book Award, so it impressed many people.
To tell the truth, I read this just before I moved in mid-May, and when I set out to write this review, I had forgotten much of the plot and had to look back in the book to refresh my memory. I don't think my senior-memory is entirely responsible. I think this is just a very forgettable novel. This was a finalist for the 2016 National Book Award, so it impressed many people.
Friday, August 31, 2018
THE NINTH HOUR by ALICE McDERMOTT (2017)
The Ninth Hour begins with a suicide and ends with a murder. In between is a story of survival against the odds, of the kindness and harshness of nuns of the Catholic church, of the questioning of religious belief, of the inheritance of the sins of our fathers, of sex and sensuality, and of love.
When a soon-to-be Irish father, who has recently become unemployed, commits suicide, his pregnant wife and soon-to-be daughter are rescued from destitution by the charity of Catholic nuns. The newly born baby, Sally, is reared in the basement of the convent, where her mother has been employed. The novel, narrated by the Sally's children, traces the family history, particularly in its involvement and interactions with their Catholic upbringing.
McDermott writes with grace and assurance, and thus this is a very readable story. The characters never becomes stereotypes and seem totally human. Both the compassion and the restrictiveness of the Catholic religion, particularly among the devout Irish, is portrayed with sensitivity.
The Ninth Hour was a finalist for the 2018 National Book Critics Circle Award. It is not one I will ever read again, but it was pleasurable the first time.
When a soon-to-be Irish father, who has recently become unemployed, commits suicide, his pregnant wife and soon-to-be daughter are rescued from destitution by the charity of Catholic nuns. The newly born baby, Sally, is reared in the basement of the convent, where her mother has been employed. The novel, narrated by the Sally's children, traces the family history, particularly in its involvement and interactions with their Catholic upbringing.
McDermott writes with grace and assurance, and thus this is a very readable story. The characters never becomes stereotypes and seem totally human. Both the compassion and the restrictiveness of the Catholic religion, particularly among the devout Irish, is portrayed with sensitivity.
The Ninth Hour was a finalist for the 2018 National Book Critics Circle Award. It is not one I will ever read again, but it was pleasurable the first time.
Thursday, August 30, 2018
DARK AT THE CROSSING by ELLIOT ACKERMAN (2017)
This timely novel centers itself on the border between Turkey and Syria. Haris Abadi, the protagonist, is an Iraqi-born American citizen whose idealism has prompted him to try to cross into Syria in order to join the fight for freedom against the regime of Bashar al-Asad. As he encounters barriers and betrayals, he begins to question his own motivations, feeling as he does that he is a citizen of nowhere. He is eventually joined in his quest to cross by a Syrian women who has fled her country but wishes to return to seek her lost daughter.
Dark at the Crossing is valuable in that it provided an insight into the plight of the Syrian people in a war that seems endless. Abadi's story, however, is more problematic. His motivations come across as muddled and he never seems to take on a real presence in the story. Perhaps the author intended that to be so to underscore his themes. Nevertheless, the result is that the book provides little emotional involvement.
Dark at the Crossing was a finalist for the 2018 National Book Award. It is interesting on an informational level, but it was not a pleasurable read for me.
Dark at the Crossing is valuable in that it provided an insight into the plight of the Syrian people in a war that seems endless. Abadi's story, however, is more problematic. His motivations come across as muddled and he never seems to take on a real presence in the story. Perhaps the author intended that to be so to underscore his themes. Nevertheless, the result is that the book provides little emotional involvement.
Dark at the Crossing was a finalist for the 2018 National Book Award. It is interesting on an informational level, but it was not a pleasurable read for me.
LESS by ANDREW SEAN GREER (2017)
It surprised most when Less was awarded the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Literature. It most assuredly surprised Amazon and Barnes and Noble, because neither had the book available at the time. It was not until more than a month afterward that the book became available for shipment. In our era of so many social and political problems, most praised novels are dead serious. This one is lively, marvelously funny, warm-hearted, and even has a happy ending. I don't see it as an IMPORTANT book, but it is very rewarding to read.
Arthur Less is a second or third-tier writer whose boyfriend of some years is about to be married to someone else. He is nearing 50 and is feeling suddenly old and alone and a failure at life and love. In order to avoid being around for the upcoming wedding, he accepts some of the numerous invitations which come to writers of his less-than-elevated status, which will take him literally around the world. He has never felt more sorry for himself.
So begins Less's picaresque misadventures in Mexico, Italy, Germany, Morocco, India, and Japan. A dog eats his favorite suit; he is locked out of his room and ends up hanging from the sill of a window; he mistakenly thinks he is fluent in German; and so on. Some of this verges on farce, but it is always funny, and the author's compassion for his character always shines through, so that the reader becomes quite fond of Less and wishes him well.
Underlying the comedy is a serious current concerning such matters as the fear of commitment to love, the fear of growing old, and the fear of professional failure. Arthur Less's journey takes him not only around the world, but also to a new outlook on life.
I highly recommend this novel.
Arthur Less is a second or third-tier writer whose boyfriend of some years is about to be married to someone else. He is nearing 50 and is feeling suddenly old and alone and a failure at life and love. In order to avoid being around for the upcoming wedding, he accepts some of the numerous invitations which come to writers of his less-than-elevated status, which will take him literally around the world. He has never felt more sorry for himself.
So begins Less's picaresque misadventures in Mexico, Italy, Germany, Morocco, India, and Japan. A dog eats his favorite suit; he is locked out of his room and ends up hanging from the sill of a window; he mistakenly thinks he is fluent in German; and so on. Some of this verges on farce, but it is always funny, and the author's compassion for his character always shines through, so that the reader becomes quite fond of Less and wishes him well.
Underlying the comedy is a serious current concerning such matters as the fear of commitment to love, the fear of growing old, and the fear of professional failure. Arthur Less's journey takes him not only around the world, but also to a new outlook on life.
I highly recommend this novel.
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