I forgot how much I loved Jack Kerouac! What a great book On the Road is. Such sweet poetry in his descriptions of people and places. The trip into Mexico (in the last part of the book) sings.
It's funny, I read this book years ago and did not care for it - even as I was reading and loving his other works. I had get past Dean Moriarity and his many, many sins. What a guy he was. Turns out he (in real life, Neal Cassady) was muse for two authors of two other Time 100 books, as well: Robert Stone modeled Hicks (the psychopath) after Cassady in Dog soldiers and Ken Kesey based the character, Randall Patrick McMurphy on him.
And I probably needed to forgive Kerouac his sins too. It's hard to watch him (as the narrator in On the Road) drinking so hard, knowing that that habit will be the cause of his death. I gravitated instead to other his other more sober books -- like Big Sur, but On the Road has all of the same great writing as those other books, and the same positive (and positively) manic energy that is hard to beat. Five stars in my book!
Sunday, May 27, 2012
Sunday, April 8, 2012
1984
I found 1984 almost as frightening as my initial reading of it at age 17. It certainly came more alive for me this time around as I was reminded of Iran and in particular of Marina Nemat's description of life there in Prisoner of Tehran. Her experience of being watched, trying to have a lover and most of all her time in prison was similar in many ways to Winston's. That said, nothing comes close to the sheer horror of living with Big Brother watching. Oh my.
I'm glad I dusted this one off and had another "go" at it as part of reading through the Time 100 list.
Next books: I'll try to finish two books I put aside: Gone With the Wind (just 125 pages of Scarlett remaining, I will get through this book, yet) and Rabbit, Run - I just couldn't watch his foolishness and had to put it down. I may have to throw in some lighter reading to get through them.
I'm glad I dusted this one off and had another "go" at it as part of reading through the Time 100 list.
Next books: I'll try to finish two books I put aside: Gone With the Wind (just 125 pages of Scarlett remaining, I will get through this book, yet) and Rabbit, Run - I just couldn't watch his foolishness and had to put it down. I may have to throw in some lighter reading to get through them.
Monday, April 2, 2012
The Sense of an Ending
Just finished reading Julian Barnes, Booker Award winning novel, The Sense of an Ending. Awesome! Young Adrian Finn questions the accuracy of historical accounts written years after events have occurred. How good of a detective does the historian need to be? How well should we expect that witnesses to events remember what happened? Can one trust the accounts of journals, letter and articles written at the time?
The story is narrated by Tony, a retiree in his sixties who tells his own tale as well as the tale of an old friend who dies young. Tony has lived a comfy life only to allow it - and his memories of the past - to be disrupted when he accepts an inheritance from the mother of an old lover named Veronica. It could be simple - take the money and run. But there is a diary involved.
The diary was left to Tony, and he wants to read it but Veronica has it and will not give it to him. However, she gives him one entry and an old letter. Veronica goadsTony on to do some detective work to sort out what took place after she and Tony broke up. He tries to figure it out from the clues she gives, but he can't get it. She says he never will.
As he begins to piece clues together, his memories and the story shape-shift. A clever reader is going to figure it all out long before Tony does, but the underlying theme of uncovering history keeps the book interesting. The Sense of an Ending leaves as many questions unanswered as it does those solved.
The story is narrated by Tony, a retiree in his sixties who tells his own tale as well as the tale of an old friend who dies young. Tony has lived a comfy life only to allow it - and his memories of the past - to be disrupted when he accepts an inheritance from the mother of an old lover named Veronica. It could be simple - take the money and run. But there is a diary involved.
The diary was left to Tony, and he wants to read it but Veronica has it and will not give it to him. However, she gives him one entry and an old letter. Veronica goadsTony on to do some detective work to sort out what took place after she and Tony broke up. He tries to figure it out from the clues she gives, but he can't get it. She says he never will.
As he begins to piece clues together, his memories and the story shape-shift. A clever reader is going to figure it all out long before Tony does, but the underlying theme of uncovering history keeps the book interesting. The Sense of an Ending leaves as many questions unanswered as it does those solved.
Sunday, March 25, 2012
The Possession
I finished Possession by A. S. Byatt while on a trip to
Boston last week. It is a 530 page book with a great amount of detail, numerous Gothic and epic poems and 19th century letters ... it is no quick read. And as for reviewing it, it's the sort of book that dissertations are made of, so I'll keep this short and sweet.
Byatt used every part of her brain to create this one. It is dense, intricate, intellectual and deep. The prose is stunning.
Two modern-day literary researchers find clues about the possible relationship of two 19th century poets. What ensues is a chase through the English countryside as well as a poring over dusty archives to trace the poets' movements. As they do this, they are just steps ahead of their colleagues and adversaries -- who are also trying to claim the prize of discovery. The story of the two poets unfolds bit by bit, with a delicious Agatha Christie style wrap-up that neatly concludes the tale. Quite delightful.
I was not up for the slow-paced work of piecing together clues when I began reading this book and instead tried to blaze through it. That was a big mistake. The book deserves a careful reading, and eventually I was able to find the time to give it its due. That involved rereading the first 200 pages I had raced through. It was worth it. I rank this one highly -- not quite as high as Atwood's excellent The Blind Assassin, but The Possession is a very good book. (****)
Byatt used every part of her brain to create this one. It is dense, intricate, intellectual and deep. The prose is stunning.
Two modern-day literary researchers find clues about the possible relationship of two 19th century poets. What ensues is a chase through the English countryside as well as a poring over dusty archives to trace the poets' movements. As they do this, they are just steps ahead of their colleagues and adversaries -- who are also trying to claim the prize of discovery. The story of the two poets unfolds bit by bit, with a delicious Agatha Christie style wrap-up that neatly concludes the tale. Quite delightful.
I was not up for the slow-paced work of piecing together clues when I began reading this book and instead tried to blaze through it. That was a big mistake. The book deserves a careful reading, and eventually I was able to find the time to give it its due. That involved rereading the first 200 pages I had raced through. It was worth it. I rank this one highly -- not quite as high as Atwood's excellent The Blind Assassin, but The Possession is a very good book. (****)
LUCKY JIM
You would have thought I'd had enough of English Humor of the 30s after
Powell's Dance and try something completely different next. But instead I
picked up Lucky Jim by Powell's friend, Kingsley Amis.
No dry humor here, this is slapstick. The story is about an agreeable and easily victimized new PhD of history trying to make his start in a back-water college in England. He is mentored by an old professor who prefers putting on plays to teaching history classes and who invites him to preposterous parties where he drinks too much and gets into hilarious fixes. He is befriended by and nearly betrothed to a neurotic colleague who plays suicide games to get what she wants. He is nearly done in by an exercise to create and give an "important" lecture on the topic of Merrie England. However, there is hope in the form of a lovely lady, the fiance of his mentor's son, who conspires with him in various ways. This, of course, causes more problems, but by the end, he pops out of the tangled mess, lands on his feet and thumbs his nose at the bunch of them. This is a very silly book. Not sure why it is on the Time 100 except to fill out the humor genre. Pleasant enough. **
No dry humor here, this is slapstick. The story is about an agreeable and easily victimized new PhD of history trying to make his start in a back-water college in England. He is mentored by an old professor who prefers putting on plays to teaching history classes and who invites him to preposterous parties where he drinks too much and gets into hilarious fixes. He is befriended by and nearly betrothed to a neurotic colleague who plays suicide games to get what she wants. He is nearly done in by an exercise to create and give an "important" lecture on the topic of Merrie England. However, there is hope in the form of a lovely lady, the fiance of his mentor's son, who conspires with him in various ways. This, of course, causes more problems, but by the end, he pops out of the tangled mess, lands on his feet and thumbs his nose at the bunch of them. This is a very silly book. Not sure why it is on the Time 100 except to fill out the humor genre. Pleasant enough. **
A Dance to the Music of Time
I can't believe that I finished this series. 2500 pages! What started out as an immensely pleasurable experience got very, very old in the end when the prose - always at the edge of tediousness became awash with $10 words and 40-word sentences. But I must admit, I was addicted to this series, tedious passages and all and am glad to have read it.
The books cover 50-60 years in the life of narrator, Nicholas Jenkins, an upper middle class literary reviewer/writer with friends in the arts and family with titles. He knows everyone and so is invited to interesting soirees where he meets and becomes friends with a number of outrageous characters. The cast of hundreds has society mavens, alcoholics, hostesses, artists, musicians, millionaires, normal business people, a nymphomaniac, a necrophiliac, cult leaders, seers, and on and on.
The most outrageous character is Kenneth Widmerpoole who first shows up in book 1, an overly-serious lad, running down a lane on his way to a life as a successful businessman, colonel and peer. He is a man without a conscience and without a heart. He marries a sulky nymphomaniac who steals the show (the plot) in several of the later books with her many moods and antics. Widmerpoole makes his final curtain call, again running down a lane, in book 12, an old and very changed man.
The books are full of dry humor. Kingsly Amis, who wrote upper middle class slapstick, called Powell "the most subtle writer now performing in English". Subtle, indeed. If you aren't paying attention, you miss all sorts of jests. Which gets back to the issue of tediousness. It's not always easy to pay such close attention at that level to prose that feels foreign and dated.
The highlights? Books 1, 2, 3, 6, and 7-9. I enjoyed book 3, a romance, quite a bit. It was both sexy and graceful (in a 1950ish sort of way). Books 7-9 - the war years - were second best. Although Jenkins did not go off to war, the war most definitely came to him in many ways. He spent 5 years in the army ending up as a liaison to other countries. These books provide a solid look at London in blackout conditions with buildings and people disappearing nightly. I found books 4 and 5 boring, but I was addicted to the prose and so got through them quickly. Book 11, set in 1958 is all about sex - and book 12, set in 1968 extends that and wraps up the series with both solemn endings and just desserts.
My Take: The strength of the books is that they chronicle a certain culture in time with wit and insight. The subject matter, with its serious moments, is generally not deep. This series will either enthrall you or bore you to tears. I stand with the former group. (****)
The books cover 50-60 years in the life of narrator, Nicholas Jenkins, an upper middle class literary reviewer/writer with friends in the arts and family with titles. He knows everyone and so is invited to interesting soirees where he meets and becomes friends with a number of outrageous characters. The cast of hundreds has society mavens, alcoholics, hostesses, artists, musicians, millionaires, normal business people, a nymphomaniac, a necrophiliac, cult leaders, seers, and on and on.
The most outrageous character is Kenneth Widmerpoole who first shows up in book 1, an overly-serious lad, running down a lane on his way to a life as a successful businessman, colonel and peer. He is a man without a conscience and without a heart. He marries a sulky nymphomaniac who steals the show (the plot) in several of the later books with her many moods and antics. Widmerpoole makes his final curtain call, again running down a lane, in book 12, an old and very changed man.
The books are full of dry humor. Kingsly Amis, who wrote upper middle class slapstick, called Powell "the most subtle writer now performing in English". Subtle, indeed. If you aren't paying attention, you miss all sorts of jests. Which gets back to the issue of tediousness. It's not always easy to pay such close attention at that level to prose that feels foreign and dated.
The highlights? Books 1, 2, 3, 6, and 7-9. I enjoyed book 3, a romance, quite a bit. It was both sexy and graceful (in a 1950ish sort of way). Books 7-9 - the war years - were second best. Although Jenkins did not go off to war, the war most definitely came to him in many ways. He spent 5 years in the army ending up as a liaison to other countries. These books provide a solid look at London in blackout conditions with buildings and people disappearing nightly. I found books 4 and 5 boring, but I was addicted to the prose and so got through them quickly. Book 11, set in 1958 is all about sex - and book 12, set in 1968 extends that and wraps up the series with both solemn endings and just desserts.
My Take: The strength of the books is that they chronicle a certain culture in time with wit and insight. The subject matter, with its serious moments, is generally not deep. This series will either enthrall you or bore you to tears. I stand with the former group. (****)
Falconer
Falconer, by John Cheever details the slimier aspects of prison life, moving between the over-the-top, sadistic behavior of prison guards to the boring (for me) details of how prisoners manage their sexual lives. The protagonist, Farragut, did not come alive for me and so I did not care about his outcome. Details in the surprise ending seemed contrived. All that said, the beauty of the prose kept me going. (***)
Saturday, March 24, 2012
Recent Books
My work schedule has increased and I am having trouble keeping up with blogging about what I've been reading. Here are some micro reviews.
A DANCE TO THE MUSIC OF TIME
When I picked up Anthony Powell's series 0f 12 books (about 2500 pages), I had to decide whether to read the books over a period of months or years and risk forgetting the early stories, characters and locations OR read them all at once and burn out. I chose the latter course, and it nearly put me off of reading completely. I liked most of the books - especially the war years.
The first several pages of each book is horribly cryptic. I found myself reading paragraphs out loud to get a better handle on 40 word sentences with several $10 words in them. Once past that, the reading was usually interesting. The narrator, Nicholas Jenkins, a writer and member of the upper middle class with many musicians, artists, writers and art critics for friends, is an acute observer of human nature. The characters are, well, "characters" and the humor is dry. The settings are typically grand salons or artists' hangouts - pubs and galleries filled with people who seem to have a lot of time to party. The books start when Jenkins is a teen and leave off in his 60s. People come and go throughout the books. The war changes everything and then life starts again. It is truly a dance through time.
I thoroughly enjoyed books 1-3 (see the review of book 1 and books 2-3). Books 4-6 kept me engaged, but were not thrilling. Books 7-9 were a fascinating look at England and London, in particular, during the war years. For me, it could have all stopped there and I would have been satisfied with a "good read". But it didn't. Book 10 introduced an incredibly unpleasant (and highly unbelievable) character who along with her paramours stole the show for the next 500 pages. She is no longer a part of the story in book 12, but that storyline tops 10 & 11 for being factitious. This is humor, (or humour), but it felt over-the-top.
Sometimes when I read a very long book, I'll go back to the beginning and reread sections to help plug the gaps in my understanding. I felt no desire to do that with this series - and in fact, am not sure that an exercise of that sort would be of much value. The books have depth, but not in that way. I think that I would notice changes in style and treatment of character - and perhaps personal philosophy - Jenkins does get more conservative as he ages. I do not think I would find great and deep themes to ponder - but perhaps I'll try the exercise at a later time and see what I've missed.
BTW: There is a reader's guide for the books which I own (but have loaned out, and can't recall the title) which helped to keep names and places straight.****
LUCKY JIM
You would have thought I'd had enough of English Humor of the 30s after Powell's Dance and try something completely different next. But instead I picked up Lucky Jim by Powell's friend, Kingsley Amis.
No dry humor here, this is slapstick. The story is about an agreeable and easily victimized professor of history trying to make his start in a temporary position in a back-water college in England. He is mentored by an old professor who prefers putting on plays to teaching history classes and who invites him to preposterous parties where he drinks too much and gets into hilarious fixes. He is befriended by and nearly betrothed to a neurotic colleague who plays suicide games to get what she wants. He is nearly done in by an exercise to create and give an "important" lecture on the topic of Merrie England. However, there is hope in the form of a lovely lady, the fiance of his mentor's son, who conspires with him in various ways. This, of course, causes more problems, but by the end, he pops out of the tangled mess, lands on his feet and thumbs his nose at the bunch of them. This is a very silly book. Not sure why it is on the Time 100 except to fill out the humor genre. Pleasant enough. **
POSSESSION
I read and finished Possession by A. S. Byatt while on a trip to Boston last week. It is a book with a great amount of detail and a great amount of Gothic poetry and 19th century letters - plus it is 530+ pages long. This is no quick read. I started out trying to blaze through it, and then eventually had to come back and reread the better part of the first 200 pages. Fortunately, I managed to slow down and enjoy the book. I found it very enjoyable in the end. ****
THE ELEGANCE OF THE HEDGEHOG
I got to page 113 and then gave up on it. It is awful. The only reason I read that much is because I was traveling and had no other book on me. The word that comes to mind is cloying. *
AND MORE .....That's a lot of books. I travel a lot, and so I have large chunks of time for reading. I am currently reading three books. I picked up Willa Cather's, My Antonia, which is a soft sweet book and had the crazy idea to use it as antidote for what I figured would be two venomous books, Cheever's Falconer and the last half of Gone With the Wind.
Scarlet is certainly venomous. Farragut, the protagonist in Falconer, seems, if not innocent (he is in prison for the murder of his brother), then at least agreeable, but his prisoners are sadists.Taking turns with the three books is making it possible to finish two of them but is absolutely destroying my pleasure in My Antonia.
In any event, Falconer is going fast, and will be completed shortly - this is not a book I choose to read slow and savor. I also learned not to read it late at night, because you never know when the sadistic games will show up. They are fodder for very bad dreams. Gone With the Wind feels infinitely long. After letting it lie unopened for six months I come to it with more patience, but until I hit the last 10 pages, I will not be happy.
A DANCE TO THE MUSIC OF TIME
When I picked up Anthony Powell's series 0f 12 books (about 2500 pages), I had to decide whether to read the books over a period of months or years and risk forgetting the early stories, characters and locations OR read them all at once and burn out. I chose the latter course, and it nearly put me off of reading completely. I liked most of the books - especially the war years.
The first several pages of each book is horribly cryptic. I found myself reading paragraphs out loud to get a better handle on 40 word sentences with several $10 words in them. Once past that, the reading was usually interesting. The narrator, Nicholas Jenkins, a writer and member of the upper middle class with many musicians, artists, writers and art critics for friends, is an acute observer of human nature. The characters are, well, "characters" and the humor is dry. The settings are typically grand salons or artists' hangouts - pubs and galleries filled with people who seem to have a lot of time to party. The books start when Jenkins is a teen and leave off in his 60s. People come and go throughout the books. The war changes everything and then life starts again. It is truly a dance through time.
I thoroughly enjoyed books 1-3 (see the review of book 1 and books 2-3). Books 4-6 kept me engaged, but were not thrilling. Books 7-9 were a fascinating look at England and London, in particular, during the war years. For me, it could have all stopped there and I would have been satisfied with a "good read". But it didn't. Book 10 introduced an incredibly unpleasant (and highly unbelievable) character who along with her paramours stole the show for the next 500 pages. She is no longer a part of the story in book 12, but that storyline tops 10 & 11 for being factitious. This is humor, (or humour), but it felt over-the-top.
Sometimes when I read a very long book, I'll go back to the beginning and reread sections to help plug the gaps in my understanding. I felt no desire to do that with this series - and in fact, am not sure that an exercise of that sort would be of much value. The books have depth, but not in that way. I think that I would notice changes in style and treatment of character - and perhaps personal philosophy - Jenkins does get more conservative as he ages. I do not think I would find great and deep themes to ponder - but perhaps I'll try the exercise at a later time and see what I've missed.
BTW: There is a reader's guide for the books which I own (but have loaned out, and can't recall the title) which helped to keep names and places straight.****
LUCKY JIM
You would have thought I'd had enough of English Humor of the 30s after Powell's Dance and try something completely different next. But instead I picked up Lucky Jim by Powell's friend, Kingsley Amis.
No dry humor here, this is slapstick. The story is about an agreeable and easily victimized professor of history trying to make his start in a temporary position in a back-water college in England. He is mentored by an old professor who prefers putting on plays to teaching history classes and who invites him to preposterous parties where he drinks too much and gets into hilarious fixes. He is befriended by and nearly betrothed to a neurotic colleague who plays suicide games to get what she wants. He is nearly done in by an exercise to create and give an "important" lecture on the topic of Merrie England. However, there is hope in the form of a lovely lady, the fiance of his mentor's son, who conspires with him in various ways. This, of course, causes more problems, but by the end, he pops out of the tangled mess, lands on his feet and thumbs his nose at the bunch of them. This is a very silly book. Not sure why it is on the Time 100 except to fill out the humor genre. Pleasant enough. **
POSSESSION
I read and finished Possession by A. S. Byatt while on a trip to Boston last week. It is a book with a great amount of detail and a great amount of Gothic poetry and 19th century letters - plus it is 530+ pages long. This is no quick read. I started out trying to blaze through it, and then eventually had to come back and reread the better part of the first 200 pages. Fortunately, I managed to slow down and enjoy the book. I found it very enjoyable in the end. ****
THE ELEGANCE OF THE HEDGEHOG
I got to page 113 and then gave up on it. It is awful. The only reason I read that much is because I was traveling and had no other book on me. The word that comes to mind is cloying. *
AND MORE .....That's a lot of books. I travel a lot, and so I have large chunks of time for reading. I am currently reading three books. I picked up Willa Cather's, My Antonia, which is a soft sweet book and had the crazy idea to use it as antidote for what I figured would be two venomous books, Cheever's Falconer and the last half of Gone With the Wind.
Scarlet is certainly venomous. Farragut, the protagonist in Falconer, seems, if not innocent (he is in prison for the murder of his brother), then at least agreeable, but his prisoners are sadists.Taking turns with the three books is making it possible to finish two of them but is absolutely destroying my pleasure in My Antonia.
In any event, Falconer is going fast, and will be completed shortly - this is not a book I choose to read slow and savor. I also learned not to read it late at night, because you never know when the sadistic games will show up. They are fodder for very bad dreams. Gone With the Wind feels infinitely long. After letting it lie unopened for six months I come to it with more patience, but until I hit the last 10 pages, I will not be happy.
Saturday, March 3, 2012
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullersMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Prose is excellent. The plot went over the top at one point and I had to put the book down for a few days. I think that she tackled a bit too much for 1 book - even a 357 page book. Very sophisticated subject matter for a 23-year old (McCullers) to have written. McCuller's young age shows in dealing with matters of sex, but otherwise paints some very realistic views of the world in the late 1930s.
Monday, February 13, 2012
Capital T Truth, David Foster Wallace
I came to read David Foster Wallace after his death - actually because of his death. My introduction to him was through the April 18,2011 New Yorker article by Jonathan Franzen about DFW's suicide. They were great friends. The suicide broke Franzen's heart. I was moved by the article, and found a couple of short stories by DFW on the Internet which moved me further to read Infinite Jest. Can you believe it? I read the entire 1000 page book in the three weeks allotted by my local library. (I have since purchase a copy of it.) What a writer, what a thinker. And as I discovered tonight, what a speaker.
Here are a few memorable quotations from the phenomenal 2005 commencement address he gave at Kenyon College. This version was transcribed and published by The Economist.
A side note: Franzen claims that with his suicide, DFW was shooting not the "master", but those who loved him (family and friends) because he was incapable of accepting their gifts of love. He had capacity to give infinite love, but not to accept it. Franzen's article is long, but also is worth a read.
Here are a few memorable quotations from the phenomenal 2005 commencement address he gave at Kenyon College. This version was transcribed and published by The Economist.
I have come gradually to understand that the liberal arts cliché about teaching you how to think is actually shorthand for a much deeper, more serious idea: learning how to think really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think. It means being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to and to choose how you construct meaning from experience. Because if you cannot exercise this kind of choice in adult life, you will be totally hosed. Think of the old cliché about "the mind being an excellent servant but a terrible master".In this address, he has been slowly, logically making his points, and by the time the above conclusion is reached, it hits with a force rather than as a cliche. This next paragraph follows in sequence - there's a jaw dropper in it.
This, like many clichés, so lame and unexciting on the surface, actually expresses a great and terrible truth. It is not the least bit coincidental that adults who commit suicide with firearms almost always shoot themselves in: the head. They shoot the terrible master. And the truth is that most of these suicides are actually dead long before they pull the trigger.The address ends with the following:
It is unimaginably hard to do this, to stay conscious and alive in the adult world day in and day out. Which means yet another grand cliché turns out to be true: your education really IS the job of a lifetime.He called this "The capital-T Truth: life BEFORE death". The address is not long and contains many profound ideas. It's worth a read.
A side note: Franzen claims that with his suicide, DFW was shooting not the "master", but those who loved him (family and friends) because he was incapable of accepting their gifts of love. He had capacity to give infinite love, but not to accept it. Franzen's article is long, but also is worth a read.
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Dog Soldiers
How does a mild-mannered, middle-aged woman (me) get through a journey into hell like Dog Soldiers? It was a struggle. The saving grace was the meaty, philosphical reflections of its main characters on topics like death, the meaning of life, marriage and drugs.
This is a book about drugs, drug smuggling, drug users, drug addicts - not the sort of book I have any interest in. But what a story teller Robert Stone is - and what a story to tell.
This thriller takes place in the drug-crazy, late-Viet Nam days of the 70's. John Converse is a journalist in Viet Nam trying to find the creativity for a novel or a play by covering the war. As he is getting ready to return to Oakland, CA, and to his wife, Marge, and their young daughter, he is talked into buying and smuggling into the US, 4 kilo of very pure heroin. To him, it sounds easy. It sounds harmless. Little does he know. The heroin gets there before he does with the help of a psychotic friend, Hicks, who is making passage to the US on a mostly-empty military cargo ship. Before Hicks leaves Converse's house where he has not only dropped off the heroin, but seduced/raped Converse's wife, things are already out of control. Two federal agents acting on the wrong side of the law bust in the door and try to steal the heroin. The monstrous strength and psyche of Hicks fends them off. He steals the stash, Marge and Converse's money. Drops off the daughter in a safe location and runs for the LA area desert. The chase is on.
Stone does a terrific job of painting the characters. Marge takes tickets at a porn movie and injects a large part of her salary into her arm. Hicks is part zen adeapt, part monster, presumably the result of having lost his entire troup during a one-sided battle in the jungle. Converse is mostly just a loser with an adict for a wife, a career gone wrong and little heart remaining. Stone manages to pull empathy for this trio from the reader by creating bad guys that are ever-so more evil than them in the two agents who take up the chase, kidnapping and torturing as part of the game.
But as I said, I'm not a fan of action books. It was the philosphic musings I enjoyed. Here is an early sample. Converse has just arrived in the US and discovered that his house is trashed and his wife and daughter are gone. Hicks is nowhere to be found. Converse heads out of his house and sees a tan car following him. He meditates on the death he sees in his near, short future.
This is a book about drugs, drug smuggling, drug users, drug addicts - not the sort of book I have any interest in. But what a story teller Robert Stone is - and what a story to tell.
This thriller takes place in the drug-crazy, late-Viet Nam days of the 70's. John Converse is a journalist in Viet Nam trying to find the creativity for a novel or a play by covering the war. As he is getting ready to return to Oakland, CA, and to his wife, Marge, and their young daughter, he is talked into buying and smuggling into the US, 4 kilo of very pure heroin. To him, it sounds easy. It sounds harmless. Little does he know. The heroin gets there before he does with the help of a psychotic friend, Hicks, who is making passage to the US on a mostly-empty military cargo ship. Before Hicks leaves Converse's house where he has not only dropped off the heroin, but seduced/raped Converse's wife, things are already out of control. Two federal agents acting on the wrong side of the law bust in the door and try to steal the heroin. The monstrous strength and psyche of Hicks fends them off. He steals the stash, Marge and Converse's money. Drops off the daughter in a safe location and runs for the LA area desert. The chase is on.
Stone does a terrific job of painting the characters. Marge takes tickets at a porn movie and injects a large part of her salary into her arm. Hicks is part zen adeapt, part monster, presumably the result of having lost his entire troup during a one-sided battle in the jungle. Converse is mostly just a loser with an adict for a wife, a career gone wrong and little heart remaining. Stone manages to pull empathy for this trio from the reader by creating bad guys that are ever-so more evil than them in the two agents who take up the chase, kidnapping and torturing as part of the game.
But as I said, I'm not a fan of action books. It was the philosphic musings I enjoyed. Here is an early sample. Converse has just arrived in the US and discovered that his house is trashed and his wife and daughter are gone. Hicks is nowhere to be found. Converse heads out of his house and sees a tan car following him. He meditates on the death he sees in his near, short future.
If he had just been a bit less timid in Viet Nam, he thought, he might be honorably dead -- like those heroes who went everywhere on motorbikes and died of their own young energy and joie de vivre. Now it would be necessary to face death here -- where things were funnier and death would be as peculiar and stupid as everything else.Dog Soldiers is by no means on my favorites list, but I'm glad I read it. I would not recommend it to folks not going through the list. It's a hard, hard tale to read.
Sunday, February 5, 2012
The Power and the Glory
I found Graham Green's, The Power and the Glory to be a bit tedious. But it was a book that I was glad to have read, even though I did not enjoy reading it. The story tells of a Catholic priest who is being hunted during the anti-clerical purge in a southern state of Mexico. To get a sense of it, the American TV series, The Fugitive, was loosely based on the novel.
Why was I glad to have read it? The character of the priest was brilliant. What was tedious about the book? The chase. Not-for-me, the story that enthralled millions of people over a several-year period. So goes taste. But I recommend the book to you.
The priest is an interesting character. He's a coward, whiskey-priest, sire to a 10 year-old child. He could marry and go free. He could cross the border into another state and find safe-haven. Instead, he shows up in towns and villages offering confessions, baptisms, marriages and masses to the local residents.
This pattern goes on for several years until an edict comes from on-high to track him down and execute him. A man simply called, The Lieutenant, takes charge of the hunt and begins to take hostages from the Catholic towns he searches as a way of putting pressure on the priest. Some of the hostages are executed. The priest searches his soul and attempts to do the right thing, but his need for whiskey continues to betray him until he finally realizes that he must leave the state or die.
It is his fear of death that he must come to terms with. He fears both the pain of death and the prospect of hell if he dies before confessing his sins to another priest. The plot has some interesting twists toward the end of the book that allow the priest to look deeply into psychological self and grow from that sight.
In the end, the priest is an honorable character worthy of a great book of his tale.
Why was I glad to have read it? The character of the priest was brilliant. What was tedious about the book? The chase. Not-for-me, the story that enthralled millions of people over a several-year period. So goes taste. But I recommend the book to you.
The priest is an interesting character. He's a coward, whiskey-priest, sire to a 10 year-old child. He could marry and go free. He could cross the border into another state and find safe-haven. Instead, he shows up in towns and villages offering confessions, baptisms, marriages and masses to the local residents.
This pattern goes on for several years until an edict comes from on-high to track him down and execute him. A man simply called, The Lieutenant, takes charge of the hunt and begins to take hostages from the Catholic towns he searches as a way of putting pressure on the priest. Some of the hostages are executed. The priest searches his soul and attempts to do the right thing, but his need for whiskey continues to betray him until he finally realizes that he must leave the state or die.
It is his fear of death that he must come to terms with. He fears both the pain of death and the prospect of hell if he dies before confessing his sins to another priest. The plot has some interesting twists toward the end of the book that allow the priest to look deeply into psychological self and grow from that sight.
In the end, the priest is an honorable character worthy of a great book of his tale.
Saturday, February 4, 2012
The Sot-Weed Factor
There are only a few books on the Time 100 list that I do not plan to read. I opted out of A Clockwork Orange (although I saw the film) and The Blood Meridian due to excessive violence. I found two other books alarming in various ways (Lolita and Naked Lunch), but managed to complete them (or nearly so) anyway. Such was not the case with The Sot-Weed Factor.
I came to The Sot-Weed Factor, by John Barth, without any prejudice. I missed the not-so-soft-porn illustration on the back cover of my used-British version of the book showing half-nude women being tied up and raped. I also missed the quote next to it from Norman Shrapnel of The Guardian:
Had I seen the back cover and blurb, I would have hesitated before opening the book. As it was, I didn't get much further than the first 30-40 pages before becoming thoroughly disgusted with it. I browsed the remainder of the book and decided to give it up. I can see that some will like it -- love it, as a matter of fact. I am sure that Barth has excellent social commentary buried in those sordid pages. I wasn't interested in dumpster diving to find those pearls buried amidst the garbage. It's a matter of taste.
Barth tells the tale of an innocent named Ebenezer Cooke who is a man of high morals, high aspirations but a weak spirit. Cooke spends his free time either gambling or working on an epic poem and both interfere with his earning his keep. He is an easy mark for the miscreants of the world who continuously show up on his doorstep. Although he tries to keep his affairs from his father, an uptight American tobacco farmer who now lives in England, a series of misfortunes befall Cooke and his woes reach his father's ear. In spite of his pleas for forgiveness, he is forced to move to Maryland to manage the family tobacco business.
There is an eventful journey to Maryland and an eventful life in the sot-weed (tobacco) factory. Barth does not treat this hero any better than he did Giles, in The Giles Goat Boy. Cooke is subjected to countless indignities everywhere he turns. He tries to keep to morally high ground, but in the end, the experiences change him deeply. This is a coming-of-age story (parody) that moves in the wrong direction. The book, true to Shrapnel's review, is bawdy: filled with rapes and atrocities. But it's a parody and all is forgiven in a parody, isn't it? Well, that may not be true, but then one doesn't have to read it, do they. In the end, I chose not to.
I am glad to be rid of the book. On to something more suitable....
I came to The Sot-Weed Factor, by John Barth, without any prejudice. I missed the not-so-soft-porn illustration on the back cover of my used-British version of the book showing half-nude women being tied up and raped. I also missed the quote next to it from Norman Shrapnel of The Guardian:
"Here be rapes pursuits, swivings, walking of the plank, epic poems, fantastical changes of identity, deep philosophical discussions, more pursuits, more rape."
Barth tells the tale of an innocent named Ebenezer Cooke who is a man of high morals, high aspirations but a weak spirit. Cooke spends his free time either gambling or working on an epic poem and both interfere with his earning his keep. He is an easy mark for the miscreants of the world who continuously show up on his doorstep. Although he tries to keep his affairs from his father, an uptight American tobacco farmer who now lives in England, a series of misfortunes befall Cooke and his woes reach his father's ear. In spite of his pleas for forgiveness, he is forced to move to Maryland to manage the family tobacco business.
There is an eventful journey to Maryland and an eventful life in the sot-weed (tobacco) factory. Barth does not treat this hero any better than he did Giles, in The Giles Goat Boy. Cooke is subjected to countless indignities everywhere he turns. He tries to keep to morally high ground, but in the end, the experiences change him deeply. This is a coming-of-age story (parody) that moves in the wrong direction. The book, true to Shrapnel's review, is bawdy: filled with rapes and atrocities. But it's a parody and all is forgiven in a parody, isn't it? Well, that may not be true, but then one doesn't have to read it, do they. In the end, I chose not to.
I am glad to be rid of the book. On to something more suitable....
Saturday, January 28, 2012
The Artist
What a fun movie! Jean Dujardin played it just right - as did Uggie ;) And wasn't it thrilling to watch Berenice Bijo smile and dance. Such presence. Glad I tracked down where it was playing. I don't understand why it doesn't have a larger audience. Still, I'm pulling for The Help or (fat chance) Midnight in Paris.
Friday, January 27, 2012
A Dance ... Books 2 & 3
My love for the series, A Dance to the Music of Time by Anthony Powell, continues to grow. (See my earlier post on A Question of Upbringing). If I had nothing else on my plate to read, I would devour all twelve right now. I know I will miss them when I am done.
In books 2, A Buyer's Market and 3, The Acceptance World, Nicholas Jenkins is now working for a publisher of art books and struggling to write novels on the side. In the evenings he attends social dances with his peers. These are set up for young people by their parents as a way of arranging marriages for the women. In book 3, he outgrows the dances and instead attends parties - lots of parties, running into his old college chums as well as meeting lords, ladies, artists and fools. An eccentric lot to be sure. The books rely on that eccentricity for the wry humor to flow.
In terms of romances, it is puppy love in book 2 and his first long-term romance in book 3. The latter is actually an affair with a married woman whose husband returns from abroad at the end of the leaving us to wonder if she will still be around in book 4.
On a side note: I bought a used copy of Invitation to the Dance, a reader's companion to A Dance to the Music of Time that tracks characters, events and places throughout the 12-book series. At this point, I am still able to keep track of what's gone on, but I expect that by book 5 I will be relying on Invitation heavily.
Next: Book 4 - At Lady Molly's
In books 2, A Buyer's Market and 3, The Acceptance World, Nicholas Jenkins is now working for a publisher of art books and struggling to write novels on the side. In the evenings he attends social dances with his peers. These are set up for young people by their parents as a way of arranging marriages for the women. In book 3, he outgrows the dances and instead attends parties - lots of parties, running into his old college chums as well as meeting lords, ladies, artists and fools. An eccentric lot to be sure. The books rely on that eccentricity for the wry humor to flow.
In terms of romances, it is puppy love in book 2 and his first long-term romance in book 3. The latter is actually an affair with a married woman whose husband returns from abroad at the end of the leaving us to wonder if she will still be around in book 4.
On a side note: I bought a used copy of Invitation to the Dance, a reader's companion to A Dance to the Music of Time that tracks characters, events and places throughout the 12-book series. At this point, I am still able to keep track of what's gone on, but I expect that by book 5 I will be relying on Invitation heavily.
Next: Book 4 - At Lady Molly's
Einstein on the Beach - Ann Arbor
What a treat ... The opera, Einstein on the Beach, composed by Philip Glass, choreographed by Lucinda Childs and designed and directed by Robert Wilson, opened it's preview performances in Ann Arbor prior to heading out on a world tour. I attended the first of these 4 1/2 hour performances on January 20th at the Power Center.
The opera -- more like opera meets performance art meets Philip Glass - is not the usual lush setting, tragic story, gorgeously costumed staging that comes to mind with the term opera. There is no plot, the music, dance and staging is minimal (if not quite minimalist) and there is little libretto - just a few poems and spoken lines that are repeated multiple times within a "scene". The bulk of what libretto there is are sequences of numbers such as "12345678, 12345678, 1234, 1234, 12345678". Given that the opera honors Einstein, the numbers are appropriate as are the slow robot-like movements of the choreography.
Glass, Wilson and Childs brought Einstein's humor into the opera. Much of the context for individual scenes are visual and auditory puns on Einstein's work - the term "sand" suggests particle theory and dancers in a field represent the unified field theory. Performers wearing baggy grey pants, loose shirts and suspenders stick their tongues out at the audience on several occasions -- reminiscent of a popular photo of Einstein.
Both music and dance are hypnotic rather than lyrical. Some of it very enjoyable, some of it painfully fatiguing. In fact, the work requires great endurance on the part of the musicians, dancers and the audience since there is no intermission. All of us, performers and audience alike, sneaked breaks quietly while others remained behind to carry on.
Overall, the opera felt very long. I kept wishing that Wilson had lopped off 20-30% of everything. Given the repetition, that would have been possible. I was not alone. By the end, 20% of the originally packed house were gone.
The audience was warned that since this was the first performance, there might be a few glitches - and in fact, the event started 20 minutes late. There were a few noticeable mistakes, but it ran smoothly overall. The quality of the performance was another matter. The soprano was not quite up to the enormous challenge of her part that night. Also, many of the performances lacked the fluidity and intensity that I expect will come with time. There are still 8 weeks remaining before the world premiere in France, and so there is time for polish.
What was my overall response to this very-special performance? I enjoyed parts of it enormously and am glad that I was in attendance for this "event of the year". I would love to see how it evolves in the months ahead - although sitting through it for another 4.5 hours seems daunting.
Wilson, Glass and Childs collaborated on this production and were in attendance in Ann Arbor. It is expected that this will be their final production - as they are all in their 70s.
The opera -- more like opera meets performance art meets Philip Glass - is not the usual lush setting, tragic story, gorgeously costumed staging that comes to mind with the term opera. There is no plot, the music, dance and staging is minimal (if not quite minimalist) and there is little libretto - just a few poems and spoken lines that are repeated multiple times within a "scene". The bulk of what libretto there is are sequences of numbers such as "12345678, 12345678, 1234, 1234, 12345678". Given that the opera honors Einstein, the numbers are appropriate as are the slow robot-like movements of the choreography.
Glass, Wilson and Childs brought Einstein's humor into the opera. Much of the context for individual scenes are visual and auditory puns on Einstein's work - the term "sand" suggests particle theory and dancers in a field represent the unified field theory. Performers wearing baggy grey pants, loose shirts and suspenders stick their tongues out at the audience on several occasions -- reminiscent of a popular photo of Einstein.
Both music and dance are hypnotic rather than lyrical. Some of it very enjoyable, some of it painfully fatiguing. In fact, the work requires great endurance on the part of the musicians, dancers and the audience since there is no intermission. All of us, performers and audience alike, sneaked breaks quietly while others remained behind to carry on.
Overall, the opera felt very long. I kept wishing that Wilson had lopped off 20-30% of everything. Given the repetition, that would have been possible. I was not alone. By the end, 20% of the originally packed house were gone.
The audience was warned that since this was the first performance, there might be a few glitches - and in fact, the event started 20 minutes late. There were a few noticeable mistakes, but it ran smoothly overall. The quality of the performance was another matter. The soprano was not quite up to the enormous challenge of her part that night. Also, many of the performances lacked the fluidity and intensity that I expect will come with time. There are still 8 weeks remaining before the world premiere in France, and so there is time for polish.
What was my overall response to this very-special performance? I enjoyed parts of it enormously and am glad that I was in attendance for this "event of the year". I would love to see how it evolves in the months ahead - although sitting through it for another 4.5 hours seems daunting.
Wilson, Glass and Childs collaborated on this production and were in attendance in Ann Arbor. It is expected that this will be their final production - as they are all in their 70s.
Monday, January 9, 2012
The Courage Consort
The Courage Consort, by Michel Faber tells the story of Catherine, an emotionally fragile soprano, who is part of a 5-member singing ensemble specializing in new music. The consort is invited to rehearse for a Dutch music festival in a gorgeous rural house across from deep woods. Catherine is constantly tempted by suicidal urges. The change of scenery away from London along with the friendship of the group's other woman member gives her an opportunity to confront her fears.
This book is delicately written with subtle shadings. One reads it slowly or misses the personal and group dynamics. It's an interesting story and a quick read. 120 pages.
I found this quiet gem in a used book store. I paid 50 cents for a signed copy - someone missed the signature, I guess.
This book is delicately written with subtle shadings. One reads it slowly or misses the personal and group dynamics. It's an interesting story and a quick read. 120 pages.
I found this quiet gem in a used book store. I paid 50 cents for a signed copy - someone missed the signature, I guess.
A Question of Upbringing
Whoo-hoo, I'm in love with Anthony Powell! Just finished book 1 of A Dance to the Music of Time: A Question of Upbringing which starts the 12-book series narrated by Jenkins, an astute observer of people, places and politics. This first book introduces us to some of the characters who will come and go through his life - and the remainder of these books.
We meet Jenkins in prep school and stay with him through his first year of college meeting his narcissistic uncle, the prankster Peter Templer, Peter's shy sister Jean and their wealthy friend Stringham. Jenkins looks in awe as his friends leave school, find romance in the world and with women and create their lives while he follows a narrower path: mooning over Jean and Jean-like creatures while attending to his studies at the university.
This is a sweet look at upper class Britain in the mid 1900s. Dry humor abounds, but so does a bit of slapstick. Take the scene in which a champion race car driver, in the dead of night, attempts to remove a visiting lawyer's top hat from his luggage and sneak a chamber pot into it's place. Funny stuff.
Can't wait for books 2-12!
We meet Jenkins in prep school and stay with him through his first year of college meeting his narcissistic uncle, the prankster Peter Templer, Peter's shy sister Jean and their wealthy friend Stringham. Jenkins looks in awe as his friends leave school, find romance in the world and with women and create their lives while he follows a narrower path: mooning over Jean and Jean-like creatures while attending to his studies at the university.
This is a sweet look at upper class Britain in the mid 1900s. Dry humor abounds, but so does a bit of slapstick. Take the scene in which a champion race car driver, in the dead of night, attempts to remove a visiting lawyer's top hat from his luggage and sneak a chamber pot into it's place. Funny stuff.
Can't wait for books 2-12!
Death Comes for the Archbishop
My friends who have read My Antonia by Willa Cather are disappointed by Death Comes to the Archbishop. It's a book that is short on drama and loose in structure with nine "books" that read well as short stories. The book is based on the lives of the first bishop/archbishop of Santa Fe and his vicar, following them from their overland journey to Santa Fe to their deaths as old men. While hair-raising stories do come and go within this 300-page epic, the chief focus is the friendship of the two men.
Cather gives us a bit of a travelogue of the southwest in the 1800s as the poor churchmen travel back and forth across the desert, up and down mesas and up into Denver, skirting along mountain precipices.. We meet Navajo chiefs, Mexican priests, rich rancheros and even a few desparados. Kit Carson takes the stage, as well.
Having lived in that area for 3 years, I loved the book. Cather captured the serenity of the landscape, the desolation of the desert and the heart of the people. Santa Fe today, with its cathedral, plaza and winding streets is a beautiful city. We get glimpses into how it came to life and how the cathedral was built.
Read it!
Cather gives us a bit of a travelogue of the southwest in the 1800s as the poor churchmen travel back and forth across the desert, up and down mesas and up into Denver, skirting along mountain precipices.. We meet Navajo chiefs, Mexican priests, rich rancheros and even a few desparados. Kit Carson takes the stage, as well.
Having lived in that area for 3 years, I loved the book. Cather captured the serenity of the landscape, the desolation of the desert and the heart of the people. Santa Fe today, with its cathedral, plaza and winding streets is a beautiful city. We get glimpses into how it came to life and how the cathedral was built.
Read it!
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