pontalba

Good review, Athena, and I can agree......a map would have been helpful. I was always good at geography, but it's been a few, er several...many decades since that happened.

Thanks, Athena.

It's true, it's all true!! Good review, this does sound interesting, perhaps her character is a bit like Flavia of the Flavia de Luce books? Also meant to say that even disagreeing with your review of The Slap, it was an excellent review!

Thanks, I'm glad. Re the list...yes, it's quite daunting. And, I have hardly started it, but certainly will.

Wow, exact opposite reaction to mine. I read it in October of 2012, and gave it a 4/5. I think, though, that I actually liked the extreme(ness) of the characters. And, it's true that there wasn't any character to say I thought of as a "good person". It's such an extreme and hot topic, I guess Tsiolkas felt he had to be extreme with his characters, sort of like a stage play. Every gesture is exaggerated. Actually, the strong feelings the book engendered in me are what kept me (so far) from reading another of his, I think it's called Barracuda.

Funny, I'd almost forgotten about that particular scene. And, yes, the wording was very delicately done. With, I'm sure, an eye to the censors.

Thank you, Ele! I just might be going on a Faulkner binge.

Yeah......and yay! I'm 86 pages into The Unvanquished, and am loving it.

Agreed. Hmmmm, Instead of last book, how about last author?? I know, it's cheating. so, ok..... Malevil by Robert Merle.

Oh, goody! Vladimir Nabokov (of course!) ok, just reread instructions.....lemme think... John Banville (in either incarnation....meaning Benjamin Black) Paul Auster William Faulkner

I'm starting another Faulkner. The Unvanquished.

LOL I actually have a couple by Ha Jin in my stacks, here. Also Nanjing Requiem. Didn't realize there was a film.

I've always felt that Lolita kind of knew what she was doing.........as far as a kid of that age can know. She did have some small sexual experience the summer before with some boy at the camp, so she was no virgin. She was horny, and curious. That being said, even if she deliberately set out to seduce HH, she didn't fully understand the ramifications of what she was doing. PLUS, she had no inkling of what HH really was, or what he was capable of doing. She thought of him as she thought of the movie star picture she had pinned to the wall of her bedroom. Something to dream about, wondering. She was only playing at seduction, I think. As we know, HH was quite serious and deadly. Any responsible male would have gently brushed her off. Also, there is the "father figure" bit to think about. Lo's father was dead, she was searching in all manner of ways.

She does engender strong opinions, which is a good thing as she is very opinionated herself.

I finished Scarlett, by the hardest. Didn't like it though. The film was worse, if that's possible. In spite of Timothy Dalton's presence.

I know, the inevitability just tears at you. And wonder how we'd cope. Well, I finished The Sound and the Fury, review over on my book thread, and I started A Case of Exploding Mangos...can't get into it. I suppose I'm still in the Gothic South... lol I may have to go back to Faulkner.

You're a love, poppy..... The copy I have is "The Corrected Text with Faulkner's Appendix" from Modern Library. Actually, it's one of three copies we have.....lol One very old mass market paperback, and one trade sized paper back are the other two. It's really mainly, stream of consciousness.....and it took me a while to nick onto that fact. There are all kinds of interpretations of the characters out there. I've seen some say that various characters are "Christ figures", etc. But, really, to my eye....Faulkner wrote about the people around him, beautifully, lyrically, but factually. I don't know all these characters personally, but I've heard stories from my family about them, and have had some as ancestors. On my Father's side of the family.....his Mother's side goes back, way back in this country's history, and his Father's side came to the U.S. in the early 1800's. Anyway, I hope you do get back to the book soon, I want to see that review! So, I instinctively know these characters...and can feel the truth of them in my blood.

Thank you, mah Honey...

The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner 5+/5 The good more than outweighs the difficult in Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury. This was my second attempt, the first being shattered by the Benjy section. Just couldn't slog my way through it. Finally, this time, I decided that even if it annoyed me, irritated me, or just plain floored me.....by gum, I'd get through it! Then I fell into the rhythm of the section, and just accepted, and let it flow over me. Quentin's sections were much more easily gotten through with the huge patches of Faulkner's gorgeous prose. Painterly does not begin to give his style justice. We see the sights, smell the smells, and feel all of it in our very bones. p.76: "When the shadow of the sash appeared on the curtains it was between seven and eight oclock and then I was in time again, hearing the watch. It was Grandfather's and when Father gave it to me he said I give you the mausoleum of all hope and desire; it's rather excruciating-ly apt that you will use it to gain the reducto absurdum of all human experience which can fit your individual needs no better than it fitted his or his father's. I give it to you not that you may remember time, but that you might forget it now and then for a moment and not spend all your breath trying to conquer it. Because no battle is ever won he said. They are not even fought. The field only reveals to man his own folly and despair, and victory is an illusion of philosophers and fools." Faulkner catches exactly the relationship between classes and races of people, beautifully. This is the way the South was. Faulkner lived it, and committed it to paper with style and much grace. He manages the patois of the servants without a hint of ridicule, truly and softly. There is much love here, and much truth. Finally, when all the sections are read, all the points of view are given, we understand why Benjy's section was first. It had to be for the truth to be told. The reader may heartily dislike many of the characters, but we are given the tools to understand them, perhaps even sympathize with them.....and certainly to know them. Highly recommended.

Thanks, James. An Estate Sale takes place when the heirs of a person or persons either pass away, or is incapacitated in some way, i.e. nursing home, etc. Everything in the home is usually put up for sale. Some heirs take some items out that they wish to keep, some don't. It varies. It can include furniture, indoor and outdoor, clothes, knick-knacks, kitchen ware, linens, books, office equipment. The whole nine yards. It takes place (99%) of the time in the original home and a company that is geared toward that will have people there to mark prices and arrange and go through the home items. They tag things and answer questions as far as they are able with regard to the items. I suppose you could call it a "jumped-up" Garage Sale indoors, or as you'd call it over there, a Boot Sale. We don't go to as many as we used to, I mean, really.....we only need so much. This one was in my old neighborhood, and was in a group of condos that was built, probably 40 years ago. I'd always been curious to see the inside of one of them, so we took this opportunity to go. We didn't arrive till afternoon, so didn't see some of the stuff, and the books were gone over already, but we managed those above. The condos are gorgeous, and very upscale. I have really mixed feelings about my old neighborhood, I miss it in one way. But it's changed so much in the last 20 years, it isn't home anymore. So, I can truthfully testify to the fact that you can't go home again. That's ok, this is home now.

What a shame it wasn't more interesting. When I think of the flak he probably received for the entire thing, I'd wish the book could have proved to be more readable.

LOL, me either! It's my next after The Sound and The Fury.

It's satire, apparently of a General's assassination....in Pakistan. I've only read the first page, but the guy can draw a picture with words!

Hey! Glad to see ya. Your lists are really wonderful, I see a lot that I've read and loved as well. I have to say, you have great taste in books!

Thanks! Found a few more at an Estate Sale...... Really nice, old(ish) hardbacks of: Eleven Plays of Henrik Ibsen 1948 The Narrow Corner by W. Somerset Maugham 1935 Cakes and Ale by W. Somerset Maugham 1967 The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck 1939 and, a trade paperback sized copy of In the Land of Dreamy Dreams by Ellen Gilchrist and, a newish hardback of The Appeal by John Grisham