Ethan reads 2013

[ethan]

I'm late to the party but I have been on an extended reading binge this year and felt it was time to keep some sort of record. I'll start my comments on recently finished books fresh in my mind. I placed an asterisk beside those titles I was particularly pleased with, but if anyone is interested in my reaction to any book on the list I would be happy to comply.

 

Fiction

 

House of All Nations (Christina Stead)

Villette (Charlotte Bronte) *

The Bay of Noon (Shirley Hazzard) *

Ivanhoe (Walter Scott)

Loitering With Intent (Muriel Spark)

Portrait of a Lady (Henry James) *

A Game of Hide and Seek (Elizabeth Taylor)

Swann's Way (Marcel Proust)

Mortals (Norman Rush)

The Charterhouse of Parma (Stendahl)

 

N.W. (Zadie Smith)

The Sacred Fount (Henry James)

1Q84 (Hiruki Murakami) *

Fortunes of War: The Balkan Trilogy (Olivia Manning) *

Cousin Bette (Balzac) *

The Prague Cemetery (Umberto Eco)

The Cat's Table (Michael Ondaatje)

Telegraph Avenue (Michael Chabon)

Doctor Thorne (Anthony Trollope) *

A Family and a Fortune (Ivy Compton-Burnett)

 

Mudwoman (Joyce Carol Oates)

Your Republic is Calling You (Kim Young-Ha)

The Egoist (George Meredith)

The Tiger's Wife (Tea Obreht)

Within a Budding Grove (Marcel Proust)

The Possessed (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)

On the Edge (Marcus Werner)

Romola (George Eliot) *

The Gate (Natsumi Soseki)

I Have the Right to Destroy Myself (Kim Young-Ha)

 

South Wind (Norman Douglas)

Manon Lescaut (Abbe Prevost)

Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte) *

Framley Parsonage (Anthony Trollope) *

Traveler of the Century (Andre Neuman)

To the Lighthouse (Virginia Woolf)

The Wings of the Dove (Henry James)

Please Look After Mom (Shin Kyung-Sook)

The Darkroom of Damocles (Willem Fredrik Hermans)

The Golden Bowl (Henry James)

 

Light in August (William Faulkner)

The Ice Palace (Tarjei Vesaas) *

Beloved (Toni Morrison)

Where Tigers Are at Home (Jean-Marie Blas De Robles)

The Wrong Woman (Charles Stewart) *

The Infatuations (Javier Marias) *

The Custom of the Country (Edith Wharton)

What Maisie Knew (Henry James)

Transit (Anna Seghers)

Ficciones (Jorge Luis Borges)

 

Disgrace (J.M. Coetzee)

The House in Paris (Elizabeth Bowen) *

Human Voices (Penelope Fitzgerald)

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (David Mitchell)

Symposium (Muriel Spark)

Cousin Pons (Balzac) *

His Family (Charles Poole)

Gilead (Marilynne Robinson) *

Something To Answer For (P.H.Newby)

The Return of the Soldier (Rebecca West)

 

The Good Soldier (Ford Madox Ford) *

The Yacoubian Building (Alaa Al Aswany)

The Mandelbaum Gate (Muriel Spark)

Dissident Gardens (Jonathan Lethem)

The Transit of Venus (Shirley Hazzard) *

The Small House at Allington (Anthony Trollope) *

The Spoils of Poynton (Henry James)

The Guermantes Way (Marcel Proust)

The Rules of Engagement (Anita Brookner)

Bleeding Edge (Thomas Pynchon) *

 

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (James Joyce)

The Samurai (Shusaku Endo)

The Unconsoled (Kazuo Ishiguro) *

Wives and Daughters (Elizabeth Gaskell)

The Lowland (Jhumpa Lahiri)

A Time to Be Born (Dawn Powell)

The Levant Trilogy (Olivia Manning) *

Harvest ( Jim Crace)

Mrs. Dalloway ( Virginia Woolf)

The Sound of the Mountain ( Yasunari Kawabata)

 

The Pickwick Papers (Charles Dickens) *

The Goldfinch (Donna Tartt) *

The Luminaries (Eleanor Catton)

The Red and The Black (Stendahl)

The Last Chronicle of Barset (Anthony Trollope) *

A True Novel (Minae Mizumura) *

A Christmas Carol (Charles Dickens)

Vera (Elizabeth von Arnim)

No One Writes Back (Jang Eun-Jin)

The Professor's House (Willa Cather)

 

Pitch Dark (Renata Adler)

Mr. Darwin's Gardener (Kristina Carlson)

The Murder of Hallandale (Pia Juul)

 

Non-fiction

 

The Swerve:How the World Became Modern (Stephen Greenblatt)

Restless Empire (Odd Westad)

Black Lamb and Grey Falcon (Rebecca West) *

Portrait of a Novel: Henry James and the Making of an American Masterpiece (Michael Gorra) *

Old Calabria (Norman Douglas)

A Time of Gifts: On Foot to Constantinople: From the Hook of Holland to the Middle Danube (Patrick Fermer) *

Imagining the Balkans (Maria Todorova)

Bitter Lemons of Cyprus (Lawrence Durrell)

Religio Medici and Urne-Buriall (Thomas Browne)

The Crisis of the European Mind: 1680-1715 (Paul Hazard)

 

The Hall of Uselessness: Collected Essays (Simon Leys) *

Greene on Capri (Shirley Hazzard)

Frederick the Great (Nancy Mitford)

Danube (Claudio Magris)

The Thirty Years War (C.V. Wedgwood)

Between the Woods and the Water: On Foot to Constantinople: From the Middle Danube to the Iron Gates (Patrick Fermer) *

The World of Yesterday - (Stefan Zweig) *

1913: In Search of the World Before the Great War (Charles Emmerson)

The Liberal Imagination (Lionel Trilling)

The Delighted States (Adam Thirwell)

Edited January 1, 2014 by ethan

[pontalba]

Very interesting list, Ethan.  I'm reading The Infatuations (Javier Marias) at the moment.  Enjoying it a lot, when I get back to it.  lol

[ethan]

Something to Answer For - P.H. Newby

It's 1956, Port Said, Egypt. Nasser has just seized the Suez Canal from the British. Our hero, a minorleague scoundrel in London, had served in the Army in the Canal Zone after WWII, and is asked to return bythe widow of a recently deceased friend to help her settle his estate. Everything is off-kilter upon hisarrival. He has entered an hallucinatory zone, he can't seem to remember whether he is Irish or English.All the other characters have shifting identities, at times merely odd-ball, other times untrustworthy,even dangerous. The British counter-attack and our hapless hero becomes further entangled in a Kafkaesqueworld.

 

It took me awhile to realize I was reading a comic novel. There's no ha-ha, really, except in the bizarredetails of the extended hallucination. Newby is very good at imagery. Some paragraphs are mesmerizing, but he doesn't stay long in any one place. The story is fast paced, often entertaining, including a quixotic love story. Newby conveys a wonderful sense of time and place. In its most nightmarish moments there is still a kind of twisted reality present, although I sometimes paused to ponder whether there was any point being made. Newby may be worth (re)discovering. I'll certainly be checking out one or two of his other novels in the near future.

Answer was the first winner of the Booker in 1969, triumphing over books by the better known Muriel Spark, Doris Lessing and Iris Murdoch. The judges included Frank Kermode, Stephen Spender and Rebecca West. Kermode has written that Dame Rebecca ruled, and the others on the panel were cowed into submission by her imperial aura. Answer turned out to be the novel she disliked least. Newby is virtually unknown in the US,the NY Times didn't even review this novel (although they had reviewed some earlier ones) and there was only a brief mention of Newby winning the award, book prizes not yet a hyped media event. He ran Radio 3 for the BBC for many years and wrote most of his 20 novels on weekends. Grahame Greene was a friend and champion of his writing.

[ethan]

 I'm reading The Infatuations (Javier Marias) at the moment.  Enjoying it a lot, when I get back to it.  lol

I loved The Infatuations and Marias in general. I get addicted to his long, intricate often beautiful sentences. He is fortunate in his translator, Margaret Jull Costa. I read an interview once with Marias where he stated, perhaps somewhat jokingly, that he prefers her English language versions to his originals.

[pontalba]

I loved The Infatuations and Marias in general. I get addicted to his long, intricate often beautiful sentences. He is fortunate in his translator, Margaret Jull Costa. I read an interview once with Marias where he stated, perhaps somewhat jokingly, that he prefers her English language versions to his originals.

This made both husband and myself smile. Thanks.

 

Have you read Your Face Tomorrow? Husband has ( I think all three), and I fully intend to.

[ethan]

Have you read Your Face Tomorrow?

 

I read the Your Face Tomorrow trilogy a couple of years ago. Amazing novels. Marias is a master of the long scene, and I vividly recall all of them still today. You need a lot of time though.

[frankie]

Hi ethan, long time no see! I'm happy you made your way through to the reading logs of 2013 And I'm happy to hear your being away for so long doesn't mean you haven't been reading!

 

I'd like to know how you liked the Marcel Proust books! Books do furnish a room has also been reading his books this year, maybe you can compare notes

[ethan]

Hi ethan, long time no see! I'm happy you made your way through to the reading logs of 2013 And I'm happy to hear your being away for so long doesn't mean you haven't been reading!

 

I'd like to know how you liked the Marcel Proust books! Books do furnish a room has also been reading his books this year, maybe you can compare notes

 

Thanks frankie for the warm welcome back. I've been lurking, I often read through your always entertaining threads, and I look forward to Books do Furnish's reviews, we seem to have similiarly eclectic tastes.

 

As for Proust, I'm a third of the way through Vol 3 The Guermantes Way. I'm reading it slowly on my Kindle, segmenting it 3% a day or about 40 minutes. So  5 to 6 weeks to finish. I can't absorb much more at a sitting. When I first started Vol 1 I thought there would be no way I'd finish the series. But I'm enjoying Vol 3 much more than the first two. I've either finally gotten used to the style, or Proust slowly added some entertainment value as he went along. It's definitely a literary mountain to climb but one probably every ambitious reader should take at some point in life. I have no doubt now that I'll finish, maybe by the end of next year. I can take my time, but then so did Proust.

Edited September 6, 2013 by ethan

[Kylie]

You certainly have been a busy reader, Ethan. Welcome back. I hope you won't lurk so much in the future (but no pressure, of course!)

 

I admire you for undertaking Proust too. I'm determined to do it one day, but it does seem rather challenging!

[frankie]

Thanks frankie for the warm welcome back. I've been lurking, I often read through your always entertaining threads, and I look forward to Books do Furnish's reviews, we seem to have similiarly eclectic tastes.

 

Oh I'm glad to hear you've been lurking around as well, at least. Reading through other people's posts and the books they read will suck you right in to posting again yourself It's this devious, cunning system we have...

 

 

As for Proust, I'm a third of the way through Vol 3 The Guermantes Way. I'm reading it slowly on my Kindle, segmenting it 3% a day or about 40 minutes. So  5 to 6 weeks to finish. I can't absorb much more at a sitting. When I first started Vol 1 I thought there would be no way I'd finish the series. But I'm enjoying Vol 3 much more than the first two. I've either finally gotten used to the style, or Proust slowly added some entertainment value as he went along. It's definitely a literary mountain to climb but one probably every ambitious reader should take at some point in life. I have no doubt now that I'll finish, maybe by the end of next year. I can take my time, but then so did Proust.

 

I'm happy to hear Vol 3 has piqued your interest! After the first book, did you find it difficult to decide whether to continue on to the second book? Maybe it's both: you've gotten used to the style, and the third book's more interesting than the first two. You're also more into the series, having immersed yourself in it, and it has to be reassuring to know you are so much closer to finishing the series.

 

Haha yes, you can take your time That made me laugh!

 

I admire you for undertaking Proust too. I'm determined to do it one day, but it does seem rather challenging!

 

That it does But I'm sure you can tackle it, and as you probably already know, I'm also determined to do it.

 

I think I've recommended this to Kylie already, but now for ethan: Alain de Botton has written a book on Proust and his books (How Proust Can Change Your Life) , and I found it a compelling reading. I don't remember why I picked the book up in the first place, but I really enjoyed it. I think that's what made me really want to read Proust

[ethan]

"After the first book, did you find it difficult to decide whether to continue on to the second book?"

After I finished Book 1 I wasn't sure I'd go on. The first two thirds is a series of digressions,memories, pages long riffs on such things as a church steeple, a flower, a musical phrase, a country walk. I think this opening section tends to discourage alot of readers. Then the last third is the "Swann in Love" section which is more like a conventional novel and more interesting to me. Of course then there is the "I wonder what happens next" thing to spur one forward. I'm actually tempted to get the more recent Lydia Davis translation of Vol 1, and dipping into some parts, as I don't think I fully appreciated it first time around.

"Alain de Botton has written a book on Proust and his books (How Proust Can Change Your Life) , and I found it a compelling reading."

Thanks for the link, frankie, it sounds interesting and I'll definitely be reading it sometime along the way. So far I can't say my life has changed, but I'm fully prepared for a transformation just in case.

 

I also fear I am making the experience of reading Proust sound like it's akin to eating one's vegetables or mopping the kitchen floor. Great literature, especially when it is challenging, has a way of burrowing into my imagination and memory, often without me realizing. I have a feeling I'm never going to forget this stuff, and as I mentioned before, will want to re-read portions in years to come. I'm a 4 mile a day walker, usually takes an hour, and yesterday's walk zoomed by in no time as I was completely absorbed in thinking about what I had just read in Vol 3. You can't ask for much more than that from a book.

Edited September 7, 2013 by ethan

[Athena]

You've read quite a lot this year, nice list .

[ethan]

Frederick the Great - Nancy Mitford
Excellent short biography of an interesting and multi-faceted royal. Mitford  brings her novelistic skills (Love in a Cold Climate) to bear so the book is rarely dry, except in some of the battle descriptions where if you don't have prior familiarity you might, like me, get a bit lost in the avalanche of names.
But at least I finally have a grasp on The Seven Years War, an offshoot of the conflict is known in the US as The French and Indian War. The most enjoyable part of the history is Frederick's long term and tempestous relationship with Voltaire, what an incorrigible scamp he was. Mitford also wrote a bio of Voltaire that should be be highly entertaining.

The Good Soldier - Ford Madox Ford
Ford must have had some twisted relationships with women given the intensity with which he portrays them in his fiction. To go mad, to die, for love, do people still do this? I liked the technique of giving the bare bones of the fate of the characters in the first few pages, and then filling in the puzzle with a non-linear impressionistic maze of incidents. It reminded me of Toni Morrison's Beloved in this regard. Soldier often pops up on lists as one of the great novels of the 20th Century, and I have no argument with that.

[Ooshie]

I have The Good Soldier near the top of my TBR pile, thanks for reminding me about it - it sounds a really intriguing book.

[pontalba]

Frederick the Great - Nancy Mitford

Excellent short biography of an interesting and multi-faceted royal. Mitford  brings her novelistic skills (Love in a Cold Climate) to bear so the book is rarely dry, except in some of the battle descriptions where if you don't have prior familiarity you might, like me, get a bit lost in the avalanche of names.

But at least I finally have a grasp on The Seven Years War, an offshoot of the conflict is known in the US as The French and Indian War. The most enjoyable part of the history is Frederick's long term and tempestous relationship with Voltaire, what an incorrigible scamp he was. Mitford also wrote a bio of Voltaire that should be be highly entertaining.

 

Definitely going on my wish list.  Good review, thanks!

[ethan]

The Yacoubian Building - Alaa Al Aswany
Devastating portrait of social decay in Cairo during the time period of the first Gulf War. A huge bestseller in Egypt, surprisingly so considering the critique of the country's endemic corruption (Mubarak appears as a disembodied voice but is called "Mr Big") and the explicit depiction of sex in all its varieties. It was also adapted into an equally successful big-budget movie and tv series. I felt at times I was being sledgehammered by despair, but there are some tender moments as well. Among its multiple strands the one about an optimistic lad who ultimately sees no future for himself, no escape from poverty, succumbs to hopelessness, drifts into religious extremism, jailed and brutally tortured for his new beliefs - the making of a terrorist- is greatly affecting.

The Mandelbaum Gate - Muriel Spark
The longest and most substantial of the Spark novels I've read. Interesting story lines with lots of dark comedy set in Jerusalem during the Eichman trial. I'm never quite satisfied with Sparks' endings. Here, towards the end, she suddenly indulges in awkward flash forwards that dissipate all semblance of the suspense she had craftily built up. But her prose, characters and ideas are always lively enough to impel me to want to read more. Gate is worth reading if for no other reason than to meet Suzi Abudm, sassy, liberated, conniving, indispensible Arab travel guide to the Christian shrines, and savior even, as it turns out, just an all-around delightful creation.
 

[ethan]

Dissident Gardens - Jonathan Lethem
The only previous Lethem novel I'd read was Motherless Brooklyn which was somewhat conventional. Gardens is different. In narrative voice it's a non-stop barrage of words with a very jazzy tone, jumping around from era to era. It's ostensiby about American Communism in the 1930s, the Great Depression days, how it fell apart, and the effects of that belief on the descendents of the believers.

 

The characters unfortunately never transcend their stereotypes. The novel is dominated by the familiar overbearing Jewish mother, Rose, who is thrown out of the Party for having an affair with a black cop, although she has long since lost the faith. And most of what is left of the party soon falls apart after Khruschev famously reveals to the world the bloodcurdling dimensions of Stalin's gangsterism. Rose's daughter Miriam follows her life trajectory, as if in a Hollywood movie, from teen rebel without a cause, to sexually liberated beatnik, to hippy chick with child, finally to Sandista acolyte in the jungles of Nicaragua.

That I still found the novel entertaining is a tribute to Lethem's talent as performance artist. He seems to be suggesting that all of us are performers, our role is to fine-tune the performance, and keep up with the craziness around us. Authenticity and meaning may be illusions.

The Transit of Venus - Shirley Hazzard
Hazzard's depiction of romantic love as ethereal, mystical, able to withstand the ravages of time, runs counter to my hardened heart. But she does so with such absolute conviction, she wins me over, absolutely. It helps that her old-fashioned prose is richly poetic and her plot pleasingly constructed. When I finished, I re-read the first thirty pages or so, they so beautifully blend with the ending, and everything in between. Hazzard is still with us, at 82, ten years since her last novel (twenty years before that to Transit) so there is still a possibility of another. I hope so.
 

[ethan]

The Small House at Allington - Anthony Trollope
Book 5 of the Barsetshire Chronicles which I have been greatly enjoying. I would rank this volume as just a tad below only Book 2 (Barchester Towers) in entertainment value. Trollope creates a recognizable world so masterly in each volume, as well as characters to inhabit it that are as finely drawn as any you might find in literature.

Small House is the most intimate of the series. It mostly concerns Lily Dale who loves the rascal Crosbie madly and deeply, even after she is cruelly jilted by the cad. One of Trollope's biographers states that Trollope meant to satirize this everlasting love, he felt it was an unhealthy concept too many young Victorian women were afflicted with. Ironically, Lily would become his most popular heroine for her willful adherence to this very concept.

The series is basically a comedy of manners, and weddings have supplied harmonic conclusions to the first four books. Although Trollope does indeed give us one here as well, it is surprisingly not the one we were anticipating, leaving his three main protagonists in an interesting, ambiguous limbo. On to the final volume, The Last Chronicle of Barset, 900+ pages!

The Spoils of Poynton - Henry James
I've also been reading alot of James lately although not by any set design. I so loved my re-reading of Portrait of a Lady earlier this year, that I can't seem to stop myself from reading more. This short novel is considered minor James but I found it very satisfying.

The "spoils" are the tapestries, paintings and bric-a-brac lovingly accumulated by a middle-aged widow throughout her life, and proudly displayed at her country mansion, Poynton. Her son has inherited all, and chooses a bride his mother detests. Not wanting to leave her vast, cherished booty to one who will not appreciate it, she steals every last piece, transporting them to the small cottage she has been exiled to. A psychological war develops between mother and son (the bride wants it all back as a condition of marriage). A young female friend of the mothers acts as intermediary, and in the process of negotiating she falls in love with the son. All leading to a stunning ending.
 

Edited September 21, 2013 by ethan

[Ooshie]

I haven't read the Barsetshire Chronicles series, but read The Small House at Allington as a kind of prequel to the Pallisers series, as one of the characters (Plantegenet Palliser?) makes a first appearance in Small House if I recall correctly.  I enjoyed it very much, and have been planning a reread of the series, so I know I will read it again at some point.

 

I have enjoyed the Henry James books I have read (The Portrait of a Lady and The Ambassadors), and have a couple more of his books (The Golden Bowl for sure and The Wings of the Dove I think) on my shelf waiting for me; I haven't heard of The Spoils of Poynton before, it does sound a good read and just my sort of thing

[ethan]

Yes, Ooshie, it is indeed Plantegent Palliser who makes an appearance. His quixotic infatuation with the exquisitely named Lady Dumbello is one of the most entertaining of the sub-plots. I think when I finish the Chronicles not much time will pass before I tackle the Palliser series.

[ethan]

Danube - Claudio Magris
Magris takes a journey from the headwaters to the delta of the famous river. He is a professor of Germanic literature (also a novelist) at the University of Trieste so this is a very learned book. At each significant town or city along the way he gives us ample doses of historical, cultural, and especially literary history of the place. I was familiar with only a small fraction of his topics but he explains them in gorgeous prose and with much philosophical insight, so I was often entranced regardless.

The Guermantes Way - Marcel Proust
I read much larger segments in each sitting in this, Vol 3 of In Search of Lost Time, than I did in the previous two books. Much of this volume is given to a satirical evocation of the French aristocracy, a long dinner party and then subsequent visits to the salon of the Duchess Guermantes. The narrator had been fascinated by the Duchess from afar, and although somewhat disappointed with her when he finally becomes part of her clique, she is the wit and life of the story. The height of the Dreyfus affair occurs within the time frame of the novel and it's interesting to see how the passions that the controversy induced divided society and families. The narrator was on the side of Dreyfus, his father vehemently opposed.

...

I've taken a few courses with coursera.org in the last year and have recently enrolled in a new one on historical fiction called Plagues, Witches, and War: The Worlds of Historical Fiction which begins October 15. This one sounds good as it will include workshop videos with five different practioners of the genre in discussions of one of their novels. I took a literature course earlier this year called The Fiction of Relationship with Arnold Weinstein from Brown University that was extraordinary. And it's all free!

Here's a link. https://www.coursera.org/course/hisfiction

Edited September 24, 2013 by ethan

[ethan]

The Rules of Engagement - Anita Brookner
I zipped through this in a couple of days and that kind of surprised me. It's a story told in first person of a depressed, alienated woman and her relationship with a schoolgirl friend, who seems to shadow the events of her life in interesting ways. What I think I found spellbinding was the way the narrator analyzes and attempts to make sense of her disappointing life. I'm going to check out Brookner's Booker winner, Hotel du Lac, next.

 

The Thirty Years War - C.V. Wedgwood
A comprehensive and very readable history of the calamitous war of the 17th century. Emperors, Kings, Archdukes, Electors, Princes of all sorts duking it out, ostensibly for religious reasons, but ultimately just to protect their own fiefdoms. Average people had no say whatsoever, and the suffering was horrific, if the undisciplined soldiers didn't get you, there was starvation and plague around the corner. Man's inhumanity to Man is always a mind boggler.

Bleeding Edge - Thomas Pynchon
Not one of Pynchon's major works but still entertaining and often quite moving. If you're not already a fan though, you might want to pass it by. He's definitely the love/hate author of our times.
 

Edited September 28, 2013 by ethan

[frankie]

"After the first book, did you find it difficult to decide whether to continue on to the second book?"

 

After I finished Book 1 I wasn't sure I'd go on. The first two thirds is a series of digressions,memories, pages long riffs on such things as a church steeple, a flower, a musical phrase, a country walk. I think this opening section tends to discourage alot of readers. Then the last third is the "Swann in Love" section which is more like a conventional novel and more interesting to me. Of course then there is the "I wonder what happens next" thing to spur one forward. I'm actually tempted to get the more recent Lydia Davis translation of Vol 1, and dipping into some parts, as I don't think I fully appreciated it first time around.

 

Thanks for the reply. I think it's best that I know beforehand that the beginning might not be very inspiring or encouraging, to go and read on the rest, but that it does get better. And of course one would want to know what happens next. I know Proust is said to be difficult, but for some reason I feel like I'll love him and his stuff. I hope I don't have too high expectations!    If I hate his books, I shall blame Alain de Botton

 

 

 

"Alain de Botton has written a book on Proust and his books (How Proust Can Change Your Life) , and I found it a compelling reading."

 

Thanks for the link, frankie, it sounds interesting and I'll definitely be reading it sometime along the way. So far I can't say my life has changed, but I'm fully prepared for a transformation just in case.

 

I'm not sure how seriously de Botton was about the title, I don't expect Proust to change my life, either, but I did find the book and all the details and information about Proust very intriguing

 

I also fear I am making the experience of reading Proust sound like it's akin to eating one's vegetables or mopping the kitchen floor. Great literature, especially when it is challenging, has a way of burrowing into my imagination and memory, often without me realizing. I have a feeling I'm never going to forget this stuff, and as I mentioned before, will want to re-read portions in years to come. I'm a 4 mile a day walker, usually takes an hour, and yesterday's walk zoomed by in no time as I was completely absorbed in thinking about what I had just read in Vol 3. You can't ask for much more than that from a book.

 

Don't worry, I don't think you've made it sound like that at all!   I think the best books need to be challenging. Great books that aren't, can still be very enjoyful, but the ones that will stick in your mind and which you will think about for a long time aftewards, are the most rewarding.

 

And yes, your anecdote about you thinking about Proust vol 3. when walking, and not seeing how much time/distance you'd already covered, is quite telling of how much you appreciate the books

 

The Good Soldier - Ford Madox Ford

Ford must have had some twisted relationships with women given the intensity with which he portrays them in his fiction. To go mad, to die, for love, do people still do this? I liked the technique of giving the bare bones of the fate of the characters in the first few pages, and then filling in the puzzle with a non-linear impressionistic maze of incidents. It reminded me of Toni Morrison's Beloved in this regard. Soldier often pops up on lists as one of the great novels of the 20th Century, and I have no argument with that.

 

Oooh this sounds good! I love a bit of madness. Although I hope he's not being chauvinistic...    I have a copy of the book, the book's on the 1001 list and that's why I acquired it. I love the name of the author. Ford Madox Ford. The same first name as last name? Easily remembered, if nothing else

 

 

The Mandelbaum Gate - Muriel Spark

The longest and most substantial of the Spark novels I've read. Interesting story lines with lots of dark comedy set in Jerusalem during the Eichman trial. I'm never quite satisfied with Sparks' endings. Here, towards the end, she suddenly indulges in awkward flash forwards that dissipate all semblance of the suspense she had craftily built up. But her prose, characters and ideas are always lively enough to impel me to want to read more. Gate is worth reading if for no other reason than to meet Suzi Abudm, sassy, liberated, conniving, indispensible Arab travel guide to the Christian shrines, and savior even, as it turns out, just an all-around delightful creation.

 

 

Okay, I have to ask: how many books by Spark have you read? And have you read The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie?

 

[ethan]

frankie, I've read 3 Spark novels (Loitering With Intent, Symposium the other two) recently and a few more a long time ago.  I've not read The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie as I avoided it so far having seen the Maggie Smith movie many times.

 

Ford Madox Ford's real name was Ford Hermann Hueffer and many of his books were originally published under that name. He changed it during WW1 because he thought it sounded too German.

[frankie]

frankie, I've read 3 Spark novels (Loitering With Intent, Symposium the other two) recently and a few more a long time ago.  I've not read The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie as I avoided it so far having seen the Maggie Smith movie many times.

 

Ah, alright. Because The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is the only book I've read by Muriel Spark and I was utterly disappointed by it The blurb promises a great many things, but then it was a dud, for me at least, I'm afraid. I've been thinking about re-reading it, though, to see if I would appreciate it more now.

 

Not wanting to discourage you from reading it, though!!

 

Ford Madox Ford's real name was Ford Hermann Hueffer and many of his books were originally published under that name. He changed it during WW1 because he thought it sounded too German.

 

Funny he would choose Ford as his last name, too. And such a shame that he felt he needed to change his last name in the first place. That's the kind of world we live in.