A Book Blog by Books do Furnish a Room 2013

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The Journey to the East by Hermann Hesse

I have enjoyed the novels I have read by Hesse, but this wasn't really one that resonated with me. The narrator H.H joins a quasi-religious organisation called The League which has ancient roots and members from reality and fiction: Plato, Don Quixote, Mozart, Tristram Shandy, Baudelaire, Puss in Boots (I kid you not). There is a pilgrimage to the East, which falls apart when a servant called Leo seems to disappear. Of Course, Leo is much more than a servant as the rest of the novella reveals, with reflections on the master/servant role. After some years of despair and doubt about The League H.H finds his way back (via Leo, of course and reaches a level of enlightenment and self awarenes.
For me, it's all a little self absorbed. It isn't helped by Timothy Leary's rather lengthy and overblown introduction. H.H is, for me, too one-dimensional and taken up with concepts, inner journeys and completely unrelated to other members of the human race. The philosophy of life, personally, is too unrelated to interpersonal relationships and too obsessed with the inner journey and self actualisation.
However having had to read about Servant-Leadership management theories and having on a daily basis to manage a team of people, it was interesting to look at the character of Leo and his changing (yet being the same) role.
It's very brief and probably a good starting point for religious and philosophical arguments. I enjoyed Steppenwolf much more.

5 and a half out of 10

Starting Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard by Kiran Desai
 

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Junky by William S Burroughs

Burroughs does not pull any punches in this, his first novel. It is a plain account of the life of a junkie based on his own life. Burroughs describes his experience in a very matter of fact way; the many lows and very few highs. The descriptions of coming off heroin are horrific. It is still difficult to read, but describes a way of life and a downward spiral. The glossary at the end was very necessary for me.
Burroughs illustartes how much junk dominates your life when you are an addict and the effect it can have on your personality and relationships with others. There is one shocking description of cruelty to an animal which comes out of the blue and you realise the irrationality of the whole thing. Junk think is different. Most of the characters flit in and out very briefly and they are a pretty hopeless (in the true meaning of the word) bunch. The novel really did read like one of Dante's seven circles of hell.
Burroughs explodes a few myths in his original introduction, but he creates a few more and medical science has moved on since then. It is the description of the lifestyle and the drivers in the personality of a junkie which are the real strength of the book and now it is almost a piece of social history of a bygone age in relation to the legal and medical situations.
The Penguin Modern Classics edition has a very good introduction of Oliver Harris.
There is a vein of humour running through the novel and Burrough's laconic style works very well

7 out of 10

Starting The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers

[Brian.]

I really enjoyed Junky when I read it as well, he seems to catch the atmosphere and mood very well.

[Books do furnish a room]

I would agree Brian; I have Naked Lunch lined up for later in the year.

The Bodies Left Behind by Jeffrey Deaver

Stand alone thriller that ultimately struck me as rather lazy. The protagonist is a female police officer in a small town. She has the standard type family problems with a few gaps in her past where the author can insert things of interest to move the story along later in the book.
She is responds to a routine looking call out in a remote area of her patch. She finds two bodies and disturbs two miscreants. She manages to lose gun, cell phone, access to car etc and picks up a stray female who happens to have been with the couple. The women head for the woods followed by said miscreants and a game of cat and mouse ensues. Throw in a lot of nature red in tooth and claw, a caravan full of people cooking up crystal meth, a shady union boss, a collection of local police looking in the wrong place and you have the idea.
There are lots of twists (some very obvious) and, of course, no one is quite who they seem. So what's not to like?
Well, some of the twists are so obvious they slap you in the face. There are too many impossibles (like the chase through the woods in the dark). The ending is very unconvincing and way too neat. The problem here is that the author clearly very much likes one of the characters and it was obvious to me that there was no way that things were going to end badly for this particular character; hence neat ending.
There are some pluses; the chapters are very short. I read it last thing at night as my late night read; I have been sleeping very well.

4 out of 10

Starting Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

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Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

A powerful novel; one of the must reads. Written shortly after the Second World War it is the classic study of invisibility; what it means not be be "seen" in society. Set in the US it is an unflinching analysis of racism at all levels of society. The unnamed narrator starts in the South at college and continues in New York. Ellison pours into his writing his frustrations with the attitude of the left in America just after the Second World War.
There are some memorable characters, I would like to have seen more of Ras, who was a fascinating and complex character. There is a rich vein of humour in the book, but there is a brutal realism as well. The opening of the book is one of its great strengths as Ellison sets the stall for the whole novel. The narrator's initial hopes are gradually dashed and disillusionment very slowly sets in. He sees the suffering of those around him and the practical effects of racism and discovers he has a voiceand can move people. What to do with that voice? This is where the Brotherhood comes in.
The Brotherhood is a left-wing/Marxist organisation commited to radical change in society and Ellison is reflecting his own experiences with the left. The narrator is given a job with the Brotherhood, to assist with their efforts in Harlem. The Brotherhodd have sections which deal with different aspects of their work and the committee dictates policy and practice. The narrator is taken out of poverty and given a new flat, but is bound by policies which he does not always understand. At one point the narrator is taken away from Harlem to work on the issue of women's rights because the committee disapproves of some of his actions. The incendiary climax can clearly be seen coming, but is no less shocking and poignant; the futility of it all is striking. The real villains are the Brotherhood. The racists are, well, racist and behave as you would expect. However the Brotherhood are about equality and change in society and ought to know better, but they turn out to be just as racist and lacking in compassion as the rest.
I remember being involved in debates in my youth concerning left wing politics. Whether it was race, gender, sexuality, the environment; everything was secondary to the primacy of how Marx said things should happen in terms of revolution and change; economic issues were always primary. Others issues when it came down to it were irrelevant, a great mistake as Ellison powerfully shows. The Brotherhood use the race issue when it suits them and discard it when it does not without a thought for the people involved.
I'd like to say that things are completely different to when this was written; in many ways times have changed, but there are still indicators that old attitudes may be dormant rather than gone. When times are difficult people still vote for those who play on fears and prjudice (the last few days in the UK have shown that); outsiders are still stereotyped. That is what makes this book and Ellison's message so important.

9 out of 10

Starting Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann

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Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard by Kiran Desai

Fairly amusing and fairly brief novel about Sampath, an Indian adolescent, who really does not want to work hard and who would rather laze around. One day he suddenly decides he would like to sit at the top of a guava tree. He stays there and refuses to come down. He begins to be mistaken for a wise man.
There is an air of predictability about this and some of the characters are very formulaic.
There are some very funny moments though and the saga of the drunken monkeys is hilarious. Desai also very neatly dissects bureaucracy and the inability of local dignitaries to make decisions. She also sends up the role of the guru mercilessly and some of the sayings Sampath passes on to those who visit him in his tree are close enough to the sort of things you read in books of wisdom/proverbs to be convincing and amusing at the same time. Desai must have had great fun making them up: Remember "If you do not weed your tomato plant will not flower".
The plot is a little thin at times and some of the interesting side stories would have benefited from expansion. The ending doesn't work, but on the whole it is enjoyable and doesn't stretch the mind too much; which is sometimes a good thing, especially as I'm going to read Middle C next!

6 out 0f 10

Starting Middle C by William Gass

[frankie]

A lot of great review again!   I like how you seem to read all kinds of books, in my opinion that's the spice of life and reading, most definitely.

 

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

A great novel with great scope, which ticks so many boxes and seems to be so many things.
It is the story of Cal, Callie, Calliope (muse of epic poetry) Stephanides who is intersex, brought up as a girl and following pubery is found to be male. The story is in the genetics. Starting in the Greek community in Turkey in the 1920s and then to Detroit in the 1930s and on to be present day, looking at three generations of one family.
Eugenides covers a good deal of ground, racism, gender identity, religion, the depression, the American Dream, nature or nurture, family life, being an immigrant, incest the list is nearly endless. The book is also packed with references to Greek myths, woven into the fabric of the novel. The Greek community in Detroit was from Eudenides own experience and we move through the 20s and prosperity to bootlegging, post war American Dream, the 1960s and race riots, the Nation of Islam, the counter culture, too may to list.
It's a great ride with moments of humour and tragedy and it's written with great warmth and humanity. The subject matter is sensitive at times, but Eugenides is a skillful writer and there is a sense of participation in the narrative rather than the sense of being a voyeur. Great Stuff!

9 out of 10

 

Excellent review   I loved it how the novel tells the story of different generations, and eventhough it's quite a long book I never got bored and wished the story would pick up its pace. I could've read for longer!

 

Have you read other books by Eugenides, how do they fair against this novel? I personally was a bit disappointed with Virgin Suicides myself, and The Marriage Plot wasn't quite up to par either.

 

The Bodies Left Behind by Jeffrey Deaver

Stand alone thriller that ultimately struck me as rather lazy. The protagonist is a female police officer in a small town. She has the standard type family problems with a few gaps in her past where the author can insert things of interest to move the story along later in the book.
She is responds to a routine looking call out in a remote area of her patch. She finds two bodies and disturbs two miscreants. She manages to lose gun, cell phone, access to car etc and picks up a stray female who happens to have been with the couple. The women head for the woods followed by said miscreants and a game of cat and mouse ensues. Throw in a lot of nature red in tooth and claw, a caravan full of people cooking up crystal meth, a shady union boss, a collection of local police looking in the wrong place and you have the idea.
There are lots of twists (some very obvious) and, of course, no one is quite who they seem. So what's not to like?
Well, some of the twists are so obvious they slap you in the face. There are too many impossibles (like the chase through the woods in the dark). The ending is very unconvincing and way too neat. The problem here is that the author clearly very much likes one of the characters and it was obvious to me that there was no way that things were going to end badly for this particular character; hence neat ending.
There are some pluses; the chapters are very short. I read it last thing at night as my late night read; I have been sleeping very well.

4 out of 10

 

Ouch! Too bad you didn't enjoy the novel. I have it on my TBR pile, I've been collecting all the Deavers I can get my hands on. Have you read any other books by him, have you liked them better?
 

[Books do furnish a room]

Thanks Frankie! I haven't read any more by Eugenides, but will at some point. I have read some of Deaver's short stories, which I enjoyed. The problem with that one is that, on reflection, it feels like a novel that should have been a short story!

 

Volume 5 of Proust: The Captive

Again, the writing is so delicious that I tended to forget what an idiot the narrator is. Maybe I'm being harsh, but if I'd been in Albertine's shoes I would have left him long before she did.
I have taken to reading this after I get home from work. I deal with some of the more difficult spects of peoples' lives, mostly towards the end. I immerse myself in Proust for a while and forget the tensions of the day. I'm not sure how Proust kept the standard of writing so high, but he has.
Proust revisits a number of themes throughout and in this volume the narrator in his obsession with Albertine seems to suffer the same sort of separation anxiety he used to feel as a child. His mother at this point is living elsewhere and disapproving of his relationship with Albertine. An interesting switch.
We get more of the marvellously silly Verdurin's and Baron Charlus continues to delight, but this volume really centres on the narrator and Albertine and whether or not she is having Lesbian affairs. Poor Marcel is bored with her and wants to break things off, obsessed with her, can't make his mind up until she does it for him.
The problem with reviewing this is I just keep remembering the Monty Python sketch; The All England summarizing Proust contest. If you haven't seen it, look it up; it's nearly as silly as the narrator.

8 and a half out of 10

Starting Volume 6, The Fugitive

[ethan]

Great reviews as always. I'm a bit bogged down in Vol 2 of Proust, reading the Moncrieff translation. Are you reading that translation or another?

[Books do furnish a room]

Thanks Ethan; I'm also reading the Moncrieff translation.

 

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers

Carson McCullers was only 22/23 when she wrote this; an amazing feat and a truly great novel. The plot centres around John Singer a man who is deaf and mute. Singer initially lives with his friend Spiros Antanopoulos. Their companionship comes to an end when Spiros's mental health deteriorates and he is admitted to an asylum. Singer then takes a room in the Kelly hpusehold. Here a group of people gravitate around him.
Mick Kelly, the daughter of the household has musical aspirations and feels out of place as she grows up. Biff Brannon, the owner of the local bar/diner who has recently lost his wife. Benedict Copeland, an African American doctor who has great hopes and ideals. Finally Jake Blount, a radical and labour agitator who is also an alcoholic.
They all gravitiate towards Singer and his room; each with their own different angsts and stories. Singer is like a mirror who reflects their concerns. He is attentive and can read lips. He writes down what he wishes to say. They all believe him to be taking in their concerns and feel better for talking to him. The fortunes of most of them are in a downward spiral (this is the depression). Copeland is ill and has family problems; he is also increasingly affected by the oppression and racism he experiences and sees around him. Mick Kelly is watching her family descend into poverty following a shocking occurence. Blount is being overtaken by his drinking and is frustrated by the society he lives in.
Events spiral towards a tragedy that is unexpected.
Isolation and loneliness run throughout as a theme in the novel, as does the ache ofunachieved hope and ambition. Things do not always work out for the good and endings are seldom happy; people take more than they give and don't see what is in front of them.
Singer reminded me of the religious symbol of the animal (goat) onto which all the sins of the community are placed and is then sent out into the wilderness carrying the sin with it. He is a holy, almost religious figure for the other characters. Singer is treated by the others as a tabula rasa, but a knowing one who agrees with them.
The writing is simple and poetic and the whole thing will tear your heart out. Oppression and injustice have bee with us for so long and continue to be with us. This book is a poignant reminder that they happen to real people with real hopes and dreams. It is also a reminder that the person opposite you has their own feelings and aspirations too. The title is perfect and poetic.

9 and a half out of 10

Starting The Debt to Pleasure by John Lanchester

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The Second Coming by John Niven

This book is very, very funny. It is not a literary masterpiece and has lots of flaws. It will also offend many many people. It will particularly offend religious fundamentalists (especially Christian ones) and those who are racist and homophobic. Oh, and if you are offended by swearing and casual drug use, you may also have problems with it. When I say swearing, well it's not the odd damn and blast, just a little stronger.
The premise is quite simple God goes for a weeks fishing in the 17th Century and returns in 2011 (heaven time is different). He is distinctly upset at what humanity has done to the earth; genocide, pollution famine and f**king Christians all over the place. God does not like Christians. God's message is very simple Be Nice. This was the commandment he gave Moses, who promptly dumped it and made up 10 of his own. He consults with Jesus, who is playing a guitar with Jimi Hendrix and smoking some very good marijuana (everyone smokes it in heaven). They decide Jesus must return to earth and promote the message Be Nice. Jesus, a struggling musician, turns up in New York with a rag tag band of followers in the form of the despised, homeless, broken. He enters American Idol (run by a very thinly disguised Simon Cowell) and history repeats itself in i9nteresting ways.
Don't try to work out the timeline or the plot; there are enough holes to drive several buses through. The book is FUNNY. Especially the first quarter. The descriptions of Hell are gruesome but there are some neat touches; the fate of politicians and investment bankers. Hitler working as a waiter in a jewish restaurant. The fate of the founder of the KKK is particularly inventive.
There is underneath it all a very human story about the whole point being Be Nice; nice involving justice, equality and fairness for all; oh, and lots of weed to smoke.
This is guarenteed to make most people wince at some point, but the satire is biting. All the fundamentalists end up in hell; the suicides, damaged and lost are of course in heaven; along with the gay community ("God loves fags"). It's a good read and I laughed out loud on several occasions; said ouch, that went too far on others; but mostly it is excellent satire with a very human message.

7 and a half out of 10

Starting Disappearance by David Dabydeen

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The Debt to Pleasure by John Lanchester

Quirky and inventive novel, which is well worth the effort of persisting with the pompous and irritating narrator. Tarquin Winot is a foodie and is not all that he seems. The blurb on the back of the book indicates that. Also anyone who changes hia name from Rodney to Tarquin does have identity problems. It is a sort of Mrs Beeton meets American Psycho.
The food talk is actually very interesting and Lanchester clearly knows his stuff (he ought to as he has been a restaurant critic for the Observer). The recipes sound delicious and seductive; the ragu, Irish Stew and ratatouille stand out.  Tarquin is a marvellous literary creation and Lanchaester has his snobbery just right. He compares the English penchant for having mint sauce with Lamb to their penchant for flagellation and cryptic crosswords; not a juxtaposition that had ever occured to me before!
Is Tarquin and unreliable narrator? I think it may be more subtle than that; he is a seductive narrator. He builds the layers gradually; an aesthete, but he draws in rather than misleads. It is clear from early on that our narrator is seriously disturbed and you can see the ending from some distance. There is a facination wondering if you know what he is really up to and how he's going to achieve his goal. Note to Mr Easton Ellis; less is more and works better.
This is a clever study of the seriously deranged, surrounded by lush descriptions of the French countryside and its cuisine. The novel flows easily and is very well written. It is original and interesting.

8 out of 10

Starting Wish her safe at home by Stephen Benatar

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Thomas Mann: Eros and Literature by Anthony Heilbut

Weighty and very good analysis of Mann's life and work, read in conjunction with Buddenbrooks. Not a conventional A to Z biography, Heilbut places Mann's work in the context of his family, geography, sexuality and politics. I got the impression that here was someone who had really got under Mann's skin, his contradictions, neuroses, triumphs and failures.
The analysis of each of his major works is excellent, especially "Death in Venice". Heilbut explains Mann's homosexuality and ambivalence about his nature with great sympathy and perception. Fascinating too was Mann's political journey. Mann was always conservative in thinking, but initially he was Conservative in politics and in the First World War was a strong supporter of the German government. In the early 1920s he was one of the first to see the dangers of the Nazis and in a very few years moved politically to a socialist/humanist position; championing Proust and Kafka.
This is a warts and all biography and Heilbut illustrates Mann's tempestuous relationship with his brother and his sometimes difficult relationship with his children.
The Magic Mountain is one of my favourite books and Heilbut explains Mann's dazzling contradictions and narrative ploys and the novel's central themes; love and death. There is a detailed analysis of all Mann's major works and this has given me the impetus to consider reading other works, especially the Joseph trilogy.

8 out of 10

Starting The Wretched of the Earth by Fritz Fanon

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Disappearance by David Dabydeen

Most of the reviews about this book complain that it is slow and nothing happens. It is true that the pace is languid and that there is very little action. However there is a great deal going on beneath the surface; as there always is with Dabydeen. The influence of Naipaul is clear as is that of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness; most of all though there is the influence of another Guyanese novelist Wilson Harris.
The protagonist is a Guyanese engineer who comes to England to work on coastal defences on the south coast near Hastings. He stays in the village of Dunsmere with Mrs Rutherford. We move backward to his childhood and to his first engineering job in Guyana and then back to the present. Interestingly the particular stretch of coastline near Dunsmere is the same one where the protagonists of Rushdie’s Satanic Verses also land. Mrs Rutherford is a sort of guide, not only to the village, but to the past and colonialism. She has lived in Africa and has some tribal masks, which play a role in their discussions about England and colonialism; her husband has left her (now possibly dead). There are two characters who play similar roles; both workmen on the coastal projects; Swami in Guyana and Christie, an Irishman, in England.
The novel is packed with symbolism; the crumbling cliff; falling apart as the empire fell apart. The migrant condition is examined in the interplay with Mrs Rutherford on the very stretch of coastline so symbolic in British history (1066 and all that). Of course the engineer is battling the very same sea that he battled in Guyana. The landscape in England is symbolic and strange:
“I felt like some prehistoric bone in the Hastings museum which had suddenly stirred in its glass cabinet”
Alienation and identity are strong themes; the engineer tries to fit in rather than be himself; Mrs Rutherford points out he too is hidden behind a mask of subservience because of his desire to be accepted.
The contrast between the two engineering projects is significant; the sea triumphs in Guyana. As the worker Swami points out the engineer has adopted a western approach and not taken into account local conditions and local gods. In England Christie says much the same thing to him. Although the scheme in England works, the local gods here are custom and money. The Engineer’s mentor Prof Fenwick (who set up the job), he discovers (through Christie) is taking money and dragging the job out.
The migrant experience is alien and unsettling, but changes the face of the landscape and indeed the structure of the land as the sea wall is completed.
There are so many layers; the heart of darkness theme is also central and it is easy to get lost in all the levels of meaning. Actually and enjoyable and thought provoking read.

8 out of 10

Starting Restless by William Boyd

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The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon

This book is angry passionate, but written with great clarity and purpose. It is the classic critique of colonialism from the Marxist left with a powerful introduction by Sartre. It is written before Vietnam, before the changes in the sixties and by an eminent psychiatrist enmeshed in the struggle for freedom in Algeria. Fanon examines nationalim, imperialism and the colonial inheritance and manages to turn the traditional definition of the lumpenproletariat on its head.
There are significant problems with the book; which are clear now. This is a very male book. The struggle is by men and the book is, on the surface, for men. When Fanon talks about intellectuals he refers to them as men. This was the zeitgeist of the left at the time, before feminism made an impact. It would be written differently today.
The chapters about psychiatric disorders is very good and the descriptions gut wrenching; although many of the symptoms described would today be identified as post traumatic stress disorder.
What this book really does of course is give you a sense of colonialism in Africa; the devastation and injustice. The opening of the book caused great controversy; "decolonization is always a violent phenomenon". People since have argued that the chapter on the necessity of violence is powerful, of course, but exaggerated and a bit over the top. Written in the heat of conflict. However, what we forgot is that the original colonization was much more violent and horrific. It can hardly be expected that at the end of empire and colonization people wave their colonial masters goodbye with a cheery "Thanks for all the fun!" Fanon understood this very well. It is a lesson we still have not learnt and we are still making the same mistakes with very similar results.

7 and a half out of 10

Starting The Hare with the Amber Eyes by Edmund De Waal

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Wish Her Safe at Home by Stephen Benatar

This novel is crazy, fabulous, haunting, embarassing, disturbing, to rattle off a few descriptions; and I wasn't really expecting it. I knew Benatar briefly in the mid 80s when he lived in my home town for a while and I've read another of his novels (The Man on the Bridge) which was pretty good; but this was from leftfield.
It is about Rachel Waring a spinster in her late 40s/possibly early 50s, who shares a flat with a friend and has a mundane job. She inherits an old Georgian house in Bristol from her great aunt and gives up her job to go and live there. All of the novel takes place inside Rachel's head and we are looking out onto the world through her eyes as she moves and meets new people. In one sense this is a simple and straightforward little story, if not for the character of Rachel herself. Rachel has been described as an unreliable narrator; but she is not at all unreliable; this is all real for her. She is certainly, at the start, an eccentric and rather odd narrator, then you realise from her interior life and the way she is reacting to those around her that she is mentally unwell and getting worse. Then you, as a reader, have to hold on tight as Rachel begins to disintegrate. You feel you want to step in and help, but you are stuck inside her head, you become angry with those who make fun of her (though she does not notice) and with those (Roger and Celia) who are clearly trying to take advantage of her. the last few scenes are truly awful. Yet there are also some wonderfully light comic touches.
Rachel is really a composite of many different characters. She has been described as a cross between Blanche DuBois, Miss Havisham (with, eventually wedding dress; the scenes in the dress shop are hilarious), Vivien Leigh and she also reminded me a little of the governess in The Turn of the Screw. John Carey, in his excellent introduction compares her to Don Quixote (minus Sancho Panza, well a real Sancho Panza). The genius is that you can see things that Rachel does not, little nuances that Benatar skillfully weaves into the narrative that show the intentions of those around her. The manipulative lawyer, Roger and Celia (are they after her money/wanting to take advantage; you really want to whisper in her ear) and her one sexual experience when she was 20 when the boy was clearly doing it for a bet. Rachel's new home has a blue plaque on it relating to a little known eighteenth century opponent of the slave trade who dies young (33; an age which has some significance). Rachel tracks down a portrait of him and starts to write about him. You shake your haed a little when she starts to talk to him; but hey we all have an interior monologue. Whe she starts to see him ...
John Carey, previously a professor of English at Oxford was on the Booker committee when it was published. he championed the book, but none of the other judges got it at all. He feels that it was because it was too disturbibg a book to be a prizewinner, too odd. Carey also thinks that the character of Rachel Waring is amongst the best attempts by a male writer to enter female consciousness in literature.
There is a point in the book when you realise how bad things are with Rachel. Rachel sings show songs, dances in the queue at the chemist (ignoring odd looks), is polite and funny. Rachel, in her interior monologue suddenly uses a word which is completely out of the blue and out of character. You know then how deep the problem is, but by that time you are captivated by her, delusions and all; it's a difficult journey.
I can sum it up best with a phrase from Doris Lessing's review; " This is a most original and surprising novel, and one difficult to forget: it stays in the mind"

9 out of 10

Starting Unclay by T F Powys

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Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann

Mann's first novel and quite a saga it is; a family history stretching through the latter half of the nineteenth century and over three/four generations. It is more accessible than some of Mann's later works as here all the big topics that Mann raises are couched in routine and the daily rhythm of life. In his first novel Mann is writing about what he knows; these are the people and details of his childhood and upbringing, clearly set in his hometown of Lubeck.
I was a little reminded of the Palliser novels, but though there are similarities, Trollope was more of a plain storyteller. There is always much more going on with Mann. I can imagine scholars of literature writing articles like "Dentistry and Death in Buddenbrroks". Decay and decadence are important themes. The tensions that the desire for an artistic life creates in a conventional bourgeois household. Yet there is an element of soap opera too; Thomas Buddenbrook upstairs reading Schopenauer whilst his wife is downstairs having a musical dalliance with a lieutenant. The typhoid motif appears for the first, but not the last time; rearing its head again in "Death in Venice".
Of all the characters; for me the most significant is Antonie (Tony), who is in the book from beginning to end. Tony is the custodian, resilient; surviving life's setbacks. Her life is unfulfilled and she never forgets her youthful attempt at rebellion; this is clear at the end of the book. She also attempts to keep the peace between her two brothers.
It is an impressive novel which straddles two centuries in its creation. Anthony Heilbut argues that Mann here creates a transition from Wagner and Nietzsche to Freud and Schonberg. There is always a sense of the fragility of life; death is always close and often the end is sudden. The book also ends quite suddenly. There remains an interesting undercurrent; Hanno is quite a novel character. He is uniterested in games, a target for bullies, an aesthete. Kai and Hanno provide a homoerotic undercurrent as Mann explores what is to be a recurrent theme in his novels. An interesting precursor to those later novels.

8 out of 10

Starting Herzog by Saul Bellow

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Restless by William Boyd

Fairly competent world war two spy thriller which goes along at a good pace without taxing the brain too much (not a bad thing as I'm also immersed in Proust and Gass at the moment).
Set in 1976 with flashbacks to 1940/1941. The central characters are Sally and her daughter Ruth. Sally decides to let Ruth knowabout her hidden past as a apy and does so in a series of written chapters which gradually reveal her story. SWhe does so because she thinks someone is trying to kill her and feels she needs to tidy up a loose end or two.
I liked the fact that there are two strong female protagonists and the tension is maintained at a pretty good level; the spy part of the story is also believeable.
However there are plenty of cliches and too much stating the obvious. I also had some difficulty with Ruth's situation. She is a single mother, her son's father being a German academic. All of a sudden she discovers her mother's history. Her ex-lover's brother and girlfriend also turn up. They appear to be loosely attached to Baader-Meinhof. Ruth also teaches English to foreign students and one of her regulars is an Iranian who opposes the Shah and may be of interest to SAVAK. Just too many layers of coincidence.
First Boyd I've read in a long time; it was ok but just a bit insipid compared to [book:Wish Her Safe at Home|2264024] which was so haunting. Nevertheless it was enjoyable.

7 out of 10

Starting The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri

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Proust volume 6; The Fugitive

Six out of seven volumes completed! This volume to me felt more like a linking volume, a preparation for the conclusion; although a great deal happens, mainly in relation to the now departed Albertine. True to form, now she's gone our narrator wants her more than ever. We learn more about the lesbian tendencies of Albertine and her friends. Our narrator visits Venice with his mother and reads Ruskin. We come across Saint-Loup again and Gilberte and the two get married, leading to various asides by the narrator about society weddings.
As always it is beautifully written and has the usual dose of debauchery, loss, jealousy and paranoia. We return to a high level of introspection as the narrator analyses his grief. This minute analysis of an emotion and state of mind is something Proust does impeccably. And, of course, throughout the Albertine episodes the difference between the real Albertine and the Albertine of the narrator's imagination is illuminative of all human relationships. We do, of course live mostly in memory; the more so as we age. Our constructions and narratives of our lives can vary over time and conflict with each other and with the narratives of others. For this reason I am looking forward to seeing how Proust handles the passage of time in the final volume.

8 out of 10

Starting volume 7 Time Regained

[Janet]

Proust is an author who makes me feel a little intimidated.   I think Remembrance of Things Past is pretty long too, isn't it?   It would definitely be a Kindle one for me if I ever decided to tackle it, I think. 

 

I can't help but think of Monty Python whenever anyone mentions Proust! 

[Books do furnish a room]

Proust is long; but I've tackled it by doing a volume at a time; less intimidating and yes Monty Python's take on it is hilarious!

Middle C by William Gass

I’ve taken my time reading this; mainly because I didn’t want it to end. Gass is a master craftsman; you can drift along so easily in the prose that you don’t realise how good it is. Gass plays with words with a light touch and even makes up/develops a few (gossipacious anyone? According to my spell-check it isn’t a word!)
One of the central themes is clearly identity. Our protagonist has several identities, indeed names. Joseph/Joey Skizzen (Yussel Fixel briefly thanks to a father who thought that it would be a good idea to change his family’s identity from Austrian to Jewish as the Nazis came to power). Joseph starts life in Austria, moving to England with his parents (living through The Blitz) and finally to America, where he grows up. Joseph’s father disappears before they leave England and he is left with his mother and sister. They end up in Woodbine Ohio, where after schooling; brief stints working in a music shop and a library Joseph passes himself off as an academic in a small college where he teaches music. He specialises in twentieth century music; particularly atonal music and Schoenberg. In his spare time and in his spacious attic Joseph also collects newspaper clippings which depicts human inhumanity. These he pins around the walls and collects for his Inhumanity Museum. Joseph’s interior life is also rich and he spends a good deal of time working on a particular phrase/idea. “The fear that the human race might survive has been replaced by the fear that it will endure”.
Gass creates some wonderful characters along the way, but the flow and depth of the book is not about the plot which drifts along merrily without a great deal of action. The themes in the book run very deep and I suspect I’ve missed several of them.
There is a clear reference to Candide at the end; Joseph says of his mother, “She couldn’t cultivate her garden forever”; in contrast to Candide telling Pangloss “we must cultivate our garden”.  I wonder if that is Gass’s sign off; who knows. Everything is transient and identity comes to an end. Of course Voltaire is attacking the optimism of Liebniz in Candide. The debate about Candide is still rumbling on, but whether you want to see the gardening in Middle C as a Garden of Eden motif (as in Voltaire) is open to debate (I can find arguments for and against). I think the Inhumanity Museum also feeds into the themes in Candide. I also think Voltaire’s best of all possible worlds arguments provide a counterpoint to Skizzen’s workings on “The fear that the human race might survive has been replaced by the fear that it will endure”. Candide has greatly influenced many of the great modern writers (Pynchon, Beckett, Vonnegut to name a few). I think as Middle C is analysed the Candide links will be developed and these rather disconnected ramblings are just a few musings along the way.
Music and fakery are also themes; Joey pulls off fakes with his driver’s licence and his teaching post. Skizzen is the German plural word for sketch and we are treated to almost a series of sketches that make up Joey. It might also be instructive to play with the sound of the word and Skizzen might become schism; but then we do have Joey, Joseph and Professor Skizzen. Another avenue to follow. The music references may be orchestral and the protagonists instruments, each playing their part. Enough rambling; there is a sinister shadow in the background, the Nazis and the holocaust.
There is a striking quote on p240 “The leader raises his baton; Stukas scream from the skies”. This follows the Odysseus analogy and is a clear musical reference. There are many levels of meaning but what came into my mind most clearly was Adorno’s post war comments about how it was impossible to write poetry after Auschwitz. This feels like Gass is working out how to write literature after Auschwitz (but the Inhumanity Museum is still in the attic). These literary and musical variations sparkle with ideas and the structure of the novel becomes more interesting the more you think about it.
Gass has always said that to write he has to be angry, has to hate and he channels the rage wonderfully, dissecting and perhaps updating Candide with our modern inhumanities.
I think I could probably continue to write about this book and already looking at what I have written I want to change and add. That might be a good time to leave in alone for now.

9 out of 10

Starting After Arkadia by Nella Bielski
 

[Books do furnish a room]

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

The general book blurb below sums up the novel well; it is a sweeping story, ambitious in its scope and range.

"Marion and Shiva Stone are twin brothers born of a secret union between a beautiful Indian nun and a brash British surgeon at a mission hospital in Addis Ababa. Orphaned by their mother’s death in childbirth and their father’s disappearance, bound together by a preternatural connection and a shared fascination with medicine, the twins come of age as Ethiopia hovers on the brink of revolution. Yet it will be love, not politics—their passion for the same woman—that will tear them apart and force Marion, fresh out of medical school, to flee his homeland. He makes his way to America, finding refuge in his work as an intern at an underfunded, overcrowded New York City hospital. When the past catches up to him—nearly destroying him—Marion must entrust his life to the two men he thought he trusted least in the world: the surgeon father who abandoned him and the brother who betrayed him"

It is a good tale, well told and sometimes a good story is what is needed. It does ramble a bit. Verghese is a surgeon and he clearly knows his stuff. He also shares a good deal of it in some detail and at some length. Not for the very squeamish.
So what turned an evocative, enjoyable story into something much more personal and powerful? Three years ago my wife had a mastectomy. It was a traumatic time, but she got through it. Though I helped, supported (physically and emotionally), I always wondered whether I truly undertood. What Verghese does here is talk about surgery in more emotional terms. My wife read this book some time ago and she underlined some parts of it. One of the protagonists had life saving surgery towards the end of the book. He wakes up from surgery and sees the two surgeons (both of whom were very close to him) and he is grateful, but;
"They stood before me, these perpetrators of organised violence on my body" then, I think I really understood more clearly and that made me cry. Verghese's reflections on surgery and the relationship between surgeon and patient are scattered throughout are are illuminative. The story covers identity, twins, loss, betrayal and so on; all the easy ones. It is good, but what tipped it over into something more personal was the shared (if later) reading with my wife.

9 out of 10

Starting Revelation Space by Alistair Reynolds

[Books do furnish a room]

The Hare with the Amber Eyes by Edmund De Waal

This was an interesting read and a fascinating account of the journey of a group of netsuke through a family history of about 140 years and several generations. The journey moves from Paris to Vienna, across Europe through Nazism and to Japan.
De Waal's family history is fascinating and I was particularly interested in the link to Proust and Great Great Uncle Charles being the model for Swann. The descriptions of furnishings and the decorative aspect of the grand residences are sumptuous. De Waal has an artist's eye and a good way with words.
The account of the rise of Nazism, the Anschluss and the dismantling of the family's fortunes give a clear and rightening first hand account of the horrors of the 1930s and the war. Their fortunes reflect those of many wealthy Jewish families at that time. De Waal has put together his family history well.
The only caveat I have is that the accumulation of wealth is seldom a neutral thing; especially in a family of bankers. I would have been more interested in some detail about the lives of those who made them and the conditions in which they were made; and perhaps some sense of the contrast of fabulous wealth with society around. I felt a little uncomfortable that the servants were just referred to by their first names (did anyone know their surnames).
On the whole it was a fascinating journey and one I enjoyed.

7 out of 10

Starting Imperial Ambitions by Chomsky

[Books do furnish a room]

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri

This is a diaspora novel; the story of a Bengali family moving to America; the intermingling of cultures, the way different generations adapt and change. It is really well written and is very easy to read and I enjoyed this more than the collection of short stories by the same author. The plot itself is fairly thin and revolves around the main protagonist Gogol Ganguli, his parents (who move to America from India and his various doomed love interests. There are some good food descriptions, and for me that always improves a novel!
Lahiri describes cultural alienation rather well; the struggles with dress codes, the tensions between traditional moral values and more modern mores, feeling apart from society, mixing with others in the same situation. Lahiri sometimes switches narrators; this can be illuminating, but she doesn't really do it enough and some alternative points of view would have strengthened the whole. Gogol/nikhil sometimes felt a little flat and more input from the female characters would have made him more three dimensional. It's also about growing up and leaving home; becoming an adult with your parents.
There was an emotional warmth and tenderness to this novel which I enjoyed; Lahiri's characters were all likeable in their own way. A simple fable of life, love, growing up and food. Not bad at all.

8 out of 10

Starting Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

[bookworm87]

I have Things Fall Apart on my wishlist, so I'm looking forward to seeing what you think of it