Ethan reads 2014

[ethan]

I'm very late to this, but I wanted to just wish you a great and fabulous and bookfilled and well deserved retirement! I'm happy you get to read a lot more now and can put those gray cells at work, not having to worry about work Enjoy!  ​ 

 

Thanks for the kind sentiment, frankie, retirement has been good so far. I just bought a new car (I've been, by design, without a car for the last year and a half, unheard of in US suburbs) in preparation for extensive travel, some books and kindle on board of course.

 

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[ethan]

Romanticism: A German Affair - Rudiger Safranski
Safranski superbly synthesizes a remarkable strand of literary and intellectual history. The first half covers the original Romantics from the early 1800s, including a lot on Novalis, which prompted me to move up Penelope Fitzgerald's The Blue Flower on my reading queue. The second half discusses the resulting influence of the movement - on Wagner, Nietzsche, the events of 1968 and especially to what degree it can be held responsible for the "great calamity" of National Socialism. The translation by Robert E. Goodwin is crystal clear. I liked his decision to use the original German of some of the significant phrases, in parentheses, such as - "insulting the audience (Publikumsbeschimpfung)", sounds juicier in the original.

Frankenstein - Mary Shelley
A prime example of the Romantic imagination, nothing like the familiar Boris Karloff/Hollywood version. The edition of Frankenstein that I have, and Romanticism both use Caspar David Friedrich's magnificent painting The Wanderer above the Sea of Fog as its cover art.

All the Birds, Singing - Evie Wyld
When Adam Opens His Eyes - Jang Jung-Il
Two gloom-ridden modern novels expressing disenchantmentment with the world. Wyld's novel has won awards so I'll grant it must have qualities that passed me by. Jang's novel has many sex scenes (he spent time in jail due to these explicit passages during a more repressive South Korean regime) to somewhat relieve the tedium.

Train Dreams - Denis Johnson
Johnson takes an ordinary life from early 20th century Idaho, a backwoodsman, a logger, a man-of-all-trades, a family man, who suffers great loss and disappointment, becomes haunted, but who, despite all, carries on to his ordinary fate. Much like Marilynne Robinson (Gilead, Home) and John Williams (Stoner), Johnson attempts to illuminate the grace of God in our ability to endure.

The Bachelors - Muriel Spark
To extend the train of thought, Spark, as well, has religious themes she wishes to explore. Half Jewish, she converted to Catholicism as an adult. She seeks God's mercy in her fiction, perhaps easier to find in fiction than in real life, a novelist's role resembling a god. There is a most pleasing overt revelation of such mercy in the this novel, a court case whose prosecution has gone completely awry, a not guilty verdict seemingly assured, which would jeopardize the lives of two innocents. Divine intervention sets things right (briefly) in an otherwise floundering world.

A Motor-Flight Through France - Edith Wharton
Wharton was an early automobile enthusiast and in 1906 she traveled throughout the French countryside recording her reactions to landscape and architecture. She wrote these for magazines, and swallowed whole, they become a bit monotonous despite her brilliant prose. The cathedrals and museums begin to blend together. She never mentions her travelling companions and as these included her good friend Henry James it was disappointing. More complete accounts of these trips are reportedly given in her autobiography.

 

Edited September 3, 2014 by ethan

[ethan]

Global Crisis: War, Climate Change and Catastrophe in the Seventeenth Century - Geoffrey Parker
One's brain can become numb in these kind of survey histories, a new fact to absorb in almost every sentence. And this book covers a lot of ground, the entire globe. I found the Asian sections to be the most interesting. I need to read more of the Ming to Qing Dynasty transfer, it's fascinating (if catastrophic) and relatively new to me. The Japanese shoguns get the highest marks, setting up an "industrious" society that benefited all, that prepared, so when calamity came calling the low ends were looked after in ways that European monarchs would have sneered at.

My Struggle Vol One - Karl Ove Knausgard
The first of six volumes in which Knausgard, suffering from writers block, sets down the story of his life in all its banality. Along the way he alienates family and friends as he spares no one their dignity including himself. Ironically his ramblings have become a world wide sensation, a reality TV show for intellectuals.

All That Is - James Salter
Salter, in his eighties, delivers his summing up novel, ranging from his protagonists' experiences surviving WWII, the heroic war, through his many sexual encounters with highly desirable women, who grow younger as he grows older. There's a Hemingway manliness vibe to it especially in his attitude towards women.

The Finishing School - Muriel Spark
Spark was also in her eighties when she published this, her last novel. Set on the shores of a Swiss lake, it's a coming of age tale at a bohemian prep school, with a gifted but vaguely troubled student body, and with an eerie foreboding of a tragedy in the making. Not one of her best novels but still satisfying.

Time Regained - Marcel Proust
I thought Proust ended the series beautifully, bringing back all the major characters, in person or in memory, in a ghostly promenade. As for the overall heptalogy (I had to look that up) I was disappointed in many ways, but mostly in myself, for not being able to fully engage with such an exalted work. It took me a year and a half to complete, and I read other literature about Proust and the series along the way. It was worth the effort, though, an education, I feel as if I've earned a diploma.

The Driver's Seat - Muriel Spark
Spark's most bizarre novel, deeply disturbing, I still haven't recovered yet from the tragic ending. A woman who appears to have lost her marbles goes on vacation to an Italian city in search of a mysterious man, to what end is not clear until the final pages. Spark has a real talent for embedding the surreal within the commonplace surface of her stories. Often she diffuses our narrative expectations, in this novel she explodes them.

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves - Karen Joy Fowler
One of the two American novels that made the short list for this years Man Booker award, the first year that American novels are eligible. I can't see it winning, so light is it in its prose and artistic ambition, and so overflowing in quirkiness. It seems designed primarily to touch readers hearts, and judging by internet comments it surely accomplished that goal. My heart, unfortunately, is made of sterner stuff.

A Ring of Conspirators: Henry James and his Literary Circle 1895-1915 - Miranda Seymour
During this time period, when James lived at Lamb House in Rye, his neighbors (within a few miles) were H.G. Wells, Joseph Conrad, Ford Madox Ford, and Stephen Crane (briefly). This book relates the ups and downs of their unusual friendships and I highly recommend it to anyone who cares for any of these writers, but especially James.

 

Edited September 12, 2014 by ethan

[willoyd]

Global Crisis: War, Climate Change and Catastrophe in the Seventeenth Century - Geoffrey Parker

One's brain can become numb in these kind of survey histories, a new fact to absorb in almost every sentence. And this book covers a lot of ground, the entire globe. I found the Asian sections to be the most interesting. I need to read more of the Ming to Qing Dynasty transfer, it's fascinating (if catastrophic) and relatively new to me. The Japanese shoguns get the highest marks, setting up an "industrious" society that benefited all, that prepared, so when calamity came calling the low ends were looked after in ways that European monarchs would have sneered at.

That's a humungous read - I've got it on my shelves to read, and whilst I'm looking forward to it, it'll need a holiday for me to get stuck in I think. I know your brain became a bit numb, but did you enjoy it?

[ethan]

^ I did like Global Crisis, willoyd. So much goes on in the 17th century it would be tough to be bored. Parker's angle is how climate affects historical events. A mini Ice Age grips the entire planet in the middle of the century due to excessive volcanic activity in the Ring of Fire, as well as solar shenanigans. I read no more than a chapter a day (usually about 35 pages) and was able to finish in about a month.

Edited September 14, 2014 by ethan

[ethan]

Antony and Cleopatra - Shakespeare

I read this soon after viewing a live performance that somewhat disappointed me. I caught so much more of the poetry in the reading. Also there was more a sense of the middle-aged romance of the duo, hinted at in the performance, but mitigated by the youthful choice of the actors, in their sexual prime. Of course one doesn't experience the theatrical genius of Shakespeare in the reading. I'm always amazed and exhilarated by this aspect even in productions not quite up to snuff.

 

I was surprised to find only one feature film, from 1972, directed by its star, Charlton Heston. I sampled a video recording of Timothy Dalton/Lynne Redgrave and also the first few scenes of the Richard Johnson/Janet Suzman version (very good). Other lauded productions have included Helen Mirren, Glenda Jackson, Michael Gambon and Patrick Stewart, who played Enobarbus twice and Antony in 2006 with Harriet Walter. I'm going to try the Heston movie, not expecting much, he at least looks the part.

 

Aiding and Abetting - Muriel Spark

Spark takes on the famous Lord Lucan murder case from the 1970s. Lucan mistakenly bludgeoned his housekeeper to death in a dark room thinking it was his wife. When his wife came to investigate he nearly killed her. He then disappeared, never to be found, presumably living off the financial support of wealthy friends. Spark takes this material down many imaginative lanes. She creates two on-the-run Lord Lucans (one hired as a look-alike) both seeking help from the same psychiatrist, who has a shady past of her own. Which is the real Lord Lucan? Ultimately, though, this is a novel about blood, and it's one of her best.

 

Reality and Dreams - Muriel Spark

This is a novel about redundancy, in all its forms. A famous film director has two daughters, one beautiful, the other redundant. One often gets the feeling that Spark is improvising in her novels, like a musician. She keeps you off-balance as anything is likely to happen. The first half of this novel contains some of her funniest scenes, the second half, unfortunately, meandered.

 

To Rise Again At a Decent Hour - Joshua Ferris

One of two American novels that are on the short list of the 2014 Man Booker. It has an interesting premise - a successful Park Avenue dentist is being impersonated on-line by someone who knows everything about him, and is posting outrageous and offensive comments in his name. This creates an identity crisis for the dentist (his friends and employees believe the imposter is really him). The crisis is solved by some ancient religion mumbo-jumbo, an idea that might have been found in Dan Brown's discard bin. The narrative collapses under its weight. I hope the other nominated novels are better than the Americans. I'm soon to start one of them, The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan

 

Varamo - Cesar Aira

A day in the life of an ordinary office worker who will that very night create one of the classic poems in Spanish literature. He has never written before and he will never write again. Aira's brand of surrealism is vivid and intriguing, flowing naturally within his placid matter-of-fact surfaces. So many details to digest in an 88 page novella.

 

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Edited September 25, 2014 by ethan

[ethan]

Autumn is play going season for me so I thought I would add my reactions to what I've been seeing.......

 

The Alchemist - Ben Jonson
This was the first time I had ever seen a production of a play by one of Shakespeare's contemporaries. It was frantic, bawdy, with hilarious characters, everything cleverly constructed. The themes of greed and self-delusion are unfortunately timeless. I kept thinking it would have been a perfect vehicle for Monty Python in their prime. In comparison to Shakespearean comedies there was no sweetness, poetry or flights of fancy, nothing to counterbalance the cynicism which did become monotonous at times.

Antony and Cleopatra - Shakespeare
A fast paced, rather minimalist production. I had never read the play or seen it before so I missed quite a bit as the line readings were as fast as the scene changes. What was left was a furious theatricality with a great on-site percussionist punctuating the Alexandria/Rome back-and-forth. Enobarbus' speech describing Cleopatra on her barge was the highlight as far as the poetic goes. I was surprised to discover, when I researched back home, that the speech came almost verbatim from North's translation of Plutarch, although I think Shakespeare did improve it a bit. At any rate I was tearily moved by the Antony's tragic finale - "I am dying, Egypt, dying"

Intimate Exchanges - Alan Ayckbourn
This is Ayckbourn's most extreme play structurally. It has 16 possible variations and all 16 were once performed at a festival. Most companies pick one of the possible paths. The production I saw (at three points in the play) allowed a member of the audience to make a chioce for one of the characters (ex.should Emily sleep with George Friday night?), yes/no, at which point the play went off in the yes or no direction. They prepped us beforehand, an alarm sounded, the actors froze, the stage manager announced the choice, and a spotlight shone on a random member of the audience to make the choice. It turned out to be a lot of fun. Right before intermission the gentleman sitting next to me made a popular choice leading to a hilarious scene and a vestibule of smiling faces.

There were two actors, each playing two roles, not knowing which version or scenes they would be playing that night. They stumbled a bit with their lines in the later scenes but their timing remained excellent, a very brave duo. Alain Resnais made two films Smoking/NoSmoking (which I've not seen) from six of the variations.

Ayckbourn can often seem overly simple with a limited range but he does strike a nerve in the muddled morality of middle-class suburbia. And he can be very funny, this play (version) had three genuinely inspired moments of hilarity. The ending was close to downbeat (as I suspect all the versions were), Ayckbourn's point may well be that no matter what choices we make we will probably feel disappointed, if not discontented, haunted by where our alternate choices might have led.

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Edited September 25, 2014 by ethan

[Chrissy]

Ethan, I so enjoy reading your book reviews and am delighted that you are including plays into your thread.

[ethan]

Thanks, Chrissy, here's some more plays I've seen recently........

 

La Bete - David Hirson
A homage to Moliere complete with rhyming couplets, first performed in 1991, about a 17th century acting troupe employed by a wealthy aristocrat. It's worth seeing for an incredible 45 minute monologue in which every emotion known to mankind is delineated with an energy and intensity that boggled the mind, it never let up. I was sitting close to the stage and I began to fear for the health of the actor, Scott Greer, much renowned in these parts for his comic genius. The play ended awkwardly with a long speech, a solemn benediction, at odds with the farcical tone that preceded. I suspected it might have been taken directly from Moliere, his theatrical creed, in earnest.

The School For Wives - Moliere
The real Moliere as poet Richard Wilbur translates the couplets with a musical flair. Veteran tv/movie character actor Robert Stannard (as Arnolphe) impressively glided around the poetry and across the stage. The design was anchored in the New Wave Paris of 60s Godard movies, with a tilted Belmondo fedora for Arnolphe, an Anna Karina hair bob (via Louise Brooks) for Agnes, and a white motor scooter for Horace.

Wittenburg - David Davalos
A homage to Tom Stoppard, bringing together fictional and historical characters for philosophical and theological discussions punctuated by songs and low comedy. We have Hamlet, a student, right before he is summoned back to Denmark, and Doctor Faustus, a professor, right before he sells his soul, both of whom taught and studied in Wittenburg (fictionally of course). They spar with Martin Luther, still a Catholic priest (who did indeed teach in Wittenburg) but beginning to doubt the Pope and the institution. Davalos never reaches the depth of poignancy that Stoppard can, but there were still some powerful moments.
 

Edited October 5, 2014 by ethan

[ethan]

and some more books......

 

The Idiot - Fyodor Dostoevsky
I put it down for more than a week, a mistake with a Russian novel, as I had to reacquaint myself with the the names, the nicknames, the web of relationships. Once that hurdle was negotiated, I rolled. I passed over the psychological, religious, ethical, national, and medical angles, and read the novel as a dark Gothic comedy, populated with the mad, the near mad and the discombobulated. The strange narrator who pops in now and again with bemused summations reinforced that view. I can't believe that Dostoevsky never tried writing plays, they are often so visual and dramatic. I'll never forget that final death room scene, for sure. The David McDuff translation was superbly readable.

All Souls - Javier Marias
A prequel of sorts to Marias' Your Face Tomorrow trilogy. The style perhaps not as rich, the events more diffused. The uniqueness of his narrative voice is consistent, each of his novels I've read seems one of a piece, much more so than with most novelists.

Kokoro - Natsue Soseki
Not one but two (presumably) journeys to suicide, an act that holds no fascination for me, familiar with the pall it casts over those left behind.

The Iliad - Homer
Neurotic gods, men as killing machines, women traded back and forth like chattel, soaring poetry. I much preferred the greater variety of incident in The Odyssey. I'm going to read Simone Weil's book, War and The Iliad for some perspective.

The Great War and Modern Memory - Paul Fussell
Fussell does more to illuminate the life and feelings of a soldier (British) during the Great War than anything else I've read. Like many historians he uses the approach of the two wars as a continuation, a Thirty Years War for the twentieth century. The chapter on war as theater, soldiers describing how they felt like actors on a stage as they charged through no man's land, was particularly impressive.

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie - Muriel Spark
Her most famous book and, I think, justly so. The experiments with narrative structure are at their most accessible, her jolting fast-forwards expertly placed, with a lead character of common interest (Miss Brodie) easily identifiable. This is nevertheless one of her bleakest novels. I loved the distorted (yet comic) self-portrait of the Muriel character (the betrayer), grown into bestselling writer, cloistering herself as a nun after a surprising conversion, talking to her friends through prison-like bars, one hand firmly grasping the impediment.  

The Hothouse by the East River - Muriel Spark
Her most surrealistic and avant-garde novel- madness, always on the edges, is here in full flowering. A crumbling 1970s New York City (she lived there then) gripped by paranoia is expertly evoked. Spark nearly went mad from dexedrine poisoning in the early 1950s, among other things she thought T.S.Eliot (whom she knew slightly) was sending her coded messages in crossword puzzles, and was spying on her from behind the bushes in her garden. The fragility and muddle of the human mind is a constant theme. One of her greatest comic scenes is here - a production of Peter Pan with all the performers over 60 years old, staged in an off-off Broadway black box, the bejeweled producer's mother at the premier, disliking the approach, pelting the actors with rotten tomatoes.
 

[ethan]

The Age of Empire: 1875-1914 - Eric Hobsbawm
Brilliant, clear and persuasive arguments explaining the trends of the era and how they contributed to the lead-up of the Great War. Hobsbawm is an unapologetic Stalin defender (hard to believe there can be such a thing) but his leftist views rarely get in the way of his impressive scholarship.

Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
I struggled with this, put it down for awhile, then began reading it as a study in stupidity, which made sense but didn't ameliorate the dullness. The story of adultery and thwarted passion is overly familiar, although I suppose it wasn't when it was originally published. I much prefer Flaubert's A Sentimental Education.

War and the Iliad - Simone Weil/Rachel Bespaloff
Two very rich and intellectually lofty interpretations of the poem, my puny brain could only handle a few bites but they were tasty. I read a war story, they saw the meaning of life revealed.

The Bone Clocks - David Mitchell
Holly is a marvelous creation (in the first two sections at least) and I couldn't help thinking what an interesting novel this could have been, told in her voice, without the supernatural and apocalyptic nonsense (or at least considerably toned down) that Mitchell burdens her with. The War between good and evil (unreadable, I had to skim) waged in some other zone of existence sinks the novel in the fifth section with only a meager recovery to wrap up in the final section.  

Mitchell's weakness is in being too eager to get onto the next story, reeling in the reader with a new narrative voice in just a few pages, a reluctance to develop what he's just written. Most troubling for me though is that I'm unable to detect any meaningful dimension in his work other than story. I still think Cloud Atlas is a remarkable novel, though, a clear display of his undeniable talent.

The Public Image - Muriel Spark
An exploration of the pitfalls of celebrity, something Spark struggled with in her life. In this novel (I'd place it middle of the pack, with five left to read) an actress becomes famous, her actor husband does not, her status rises while his declines. All of which leads to two astonishing betrayals.

Muriel Spark: The Biography - Martin Stannard
I usually avoid biographical details of authors as they can distract from enjoying the texts. I couldn't resist in this case given the oddity of the novels. I was surprised at how much acclaim and popularity they garnered during her life. She rarely won any awards, though, (never won the Booker, only nominated twice) which might be to her credit, not fitting into fashionable trends now forgotten.

Her story is on one level quite heroic, a single mother (there was an early, quickly dissolved marriage with son) navigating herself through the labyrinth of a male dominated literary jungle of the 1940s and 50s, with scant funds or long-term emotional support. She did have allies. Graham Greene, who had met her only once, supported her financially for two years, admiring some of her short stories. She didn't begin writing novels until her late 30s and her autobiography, Cirriculum Vitae, ended at that point. This biography was authorized and researched  with Spark's cooperation, but it doesn't gloss over her many warts. Her life was as entertaining as her books, a vibrant personality first on the invite-to-dinner list. Highly recommended for those who like her work.

 

And two plays.....

 

Detroit - Lisa D'Amour
Although I prefer the timelessness of classical theater (and literature) to contemporary stuff, I'm making an effort to stay in tune with the moment this season. So many new plays are obsessed with oppression and victimization you would think we're living in the darkest of ages. This play illustrates the death of the American Dream which literally goes up in flames on stage. Then after 90 minutes of pessimism came the obligatory coda of healing and a slight glimmer of hope. The performances were all excellent. I'm always amazed at the high level of skill and talent actors have in US regional theater.

Fences - August Wilson
One of Wilson's ten plays (each set in a different decade of the 20th Century) about black family life in his hometown of Pittsburgh. This one was from the 1950s and concerns an embittered retired baseball star player from the Negro Leagues whose career ended right before the Major Leagues integrated. It's really a story about the deep chasm between fathers and sons, conventionally depicted, highly reminiscent of Eugene O'Neill and Arthur Miller.   


 

[ethan]

Buddenbrooks - Thomas Mann
I expected a dour, everything-ends-badly journey and Mann delivered that, but after about 100 pages I was totally absorbed. I thought there were some brilliant characterizations, interesting accounts of what the 19th century economic world was like, and a view of family as a kind of religion unto itself. Also, a vivid preoccupation with the decay of the human body (especially teeth, ow!). In the last section one short chapter was entirely devoted to the symptoms of typhoid fever. That section (killing off the last-of-the-line) was the only misstep, superfluous, a bit of piling on.

Palace of Desire - Naguib Mahfouz (Volume Two of The Cairo Trilogy)
The clumsy soap opera coincidences that Mahfouz deploys keep surprising me especially for a writer of lofty reputation, I suppose these are nods to Dickens. The political world which propelled the tragedy of Volume One was disappointingly kept to the sidelines. We're left with endless portrayals of the licentiousness of the hypocritical father, double that with the odious older son, and in the final section the once devout younger son, too, becomes a devotee of alcohol and prostitutes. All of which Mahfouz describes with a matter-of-fact "well-written" veneer. I have a weakness for melodrama (even the high brow variety) so the pages turned quickly.

Most family sagas need death to add gravitas. I found it interesting having just concluded Buddenbrooks in which Mann (after many death scenes) at the end kills off a little boy with typhoid fever, that Mahfouz tops him, killing off two little boys and their father with the same disease for his ending.

A Difficult Young Man - Martin Boyd (Volume Two of The Langton Quartet)
The first volume contained lots of genealogy but really got going once it settled down and focused on Boyd's grandmother, a grand character. Volume two focuses immediately on Boyd's older brother and his youthful travails. The first-person narrative voice is very engaging, but the inspired comedy is the star. Boyd is one of the most satisfying discoveries for me this year.

Dance Night - Dawn Powell
Powells' novels are divided up into those set in mid-western small towns and those set in NYC. Dance Night is located in a northern Ohio town on the rise, and Powell adeptly recreates the sights and sounds of what it felt like in the early 20th century. She is often compared to Sherwood Anderson and Sinclair Lewis, but I was more reminded of William Inge, who came later, especially Picnic, with its languid yearning for the big city, the roar of the train constantly beckoning on the horizon as a means of escape. There is also a remarkable portrayal of young love, two teens who feel so connected they are afraid to take the next step, as if in proclaiming love, their individual lives might disappear.

The Lake - Banana Yoshimoto
Illustrates the familiar story-line of young adults as damaged goods (childhood trauma) in need of healing, to be found in the "redemptive power of love" as the cover blurb puts it. A bare-bones approach and Murakami-lite style, so despite the protagonist's pain, it's easy to digest.

Not To Disturb - Muriel Spark
This comes from Spark's experimental period when she was very influenced by Alain Robbe-Grillet, who she often cited as her favorite contemporary novelist. I only know Robbe-Grillet through the film Last Year at Marienbad which I found enigmatic, cold and impenetrable. Spark is a bit warmer and comic but otherwise I can see the relationship. Of the experimental novels I thought this was the weakest, the dreamlike angle too oppressive, if nevertheless intriguing.

Vile Bodies - Evelyn Waugh
The satire is very funny, at a frantic pace, but I soon grew tired of the mean-spirited, misanthropic tone. Then gradually that changed, as a curious melancholy took over. The battlefield ending came out of left-field, but I found the final scene (three characters asleep in an automobile as the sounds of war approach) quite moving, although I understand that it is considered a weakness by critics then and now. I'm trying to track down Stephen Fry's film version Bright Young Things, which was Waugh's original title.
 

Edited November 1, 2014 by ethan

[ethan]

The Abbess of Crewe - Muriel Spark
This is Spark's Watergate novel transposed to an Abbey in which a power struggle is raging (including buggings and break-ins) during an election for a new Abbess. The satire is biting but I'm not sure how much so if the historic particulars are unfamiliar. One of her miniatures I wish she had expanded on, as the material is rich.

 

Colorless Tsukuru Tanaki and His Years of Pilgrimage - Haruki Murakami
More of the notion that the magic (both good and bad) of life resides in childhood. The subsequent years are spent in bland disappointment, struggling with the residue of one's youth. Although I don't quite buy into that, Murakami makes it so in his eerie dream-like approach. He doesn't fully transcend the banalities of his plot (as I thought he did in 1Q84), but I still found this a compelling read.

 

Dear Leader: Poet, Spy, Escapee--A Look Inside North Korea - Jang Jin-Sung
The hair-breath escape reads like a Hitchcock movie. The descriptions of the brutal and bizarre dynastic regime, the epitome of totalitarianism, boggle the imagination.

 

Come Back to Sorrento (aka The Tenth Moon)- Dawn Powell
Another of her small town mid-western novels. Powell is excellent at evoking the daily routines of ordinary people, how they deal with their lost dreams. Her appeal is in the details, and in her deep compassion for those who live, in some confusion, on the borders of happiness. Also, another interesting depiction of a transcendent friendship that never quite reaches fulfillment.

 

The Entail: Or the Lairds of Grippy - John Galt
I was touted by Lord Byron and Sir Walter Scott both of whom considered this 1822 novel a favorite. I struggled with much of the dialogue which was mostly rendered in a thick Scottish dialect. The subject is marriage and money with the added bonus of a journey through the maze of the legal system then in place. The novel really should be titled "The Leddy of Grippy" as she is the heroine who uses the system, much to the astonishment of her family and their lawyers, to set right the mischief (the entail) caused by the Laird.

 

Decline and Fall - Evelyn Waugh
Waugh's first novel (1928) was a huge success and made him an instant celebrity. It's much less fragmented than Vile Bodies but the plot still veers off down fanciful pathways. The satire of academia and the upper classes is often hilarious. Waugh reflects the attitudes of his time, I suppose, but it is uncomfortable for a modern reader to digest his ethnic and racial stereotypes. Everyone is skewered to be sure in the novel, but in that aspect at least Waugh's mean-spiritedness is too exposed.

 

and one play.....

 

I was walloped by Death of a Salesman a few nights ago and I'm still feeling a bit punch-drunk. Willie Loman is a mythical force in stage history and if your paths cross don't miss him ("Attention must be paid" is one of the famous lines). The playbill offered the common interpretation that he embodies the death of the American Dream (1949, even then). But Willie is clearly bonkers and I think the cause is far more personal than social. To me, the core is the father/son relationship, the illusions it conjures, father as paragon, son as chip-off-the-old-block with an endlessly bright future, all gone to ashes, culminating in the Willie/Biff scenes that reach the stratosphere in emotional intensity. Miller has stated that he wished to use elements of Greek tragedy in a modern expressionist mode. Such ambition! (where has it gone?). It's just a great play.

Edited November 14, 2014 by ethan

[ethan]

Stage Blood: Five Tempestuous Years in the Early Life of the National Theater - Michael Blakemore
A vivid portrait of Laurence Olivier, especially during the rehearsal process for Long Days Journey Into Night (which Blakemore directed) his last great stage triumph. Too many pages are devoted to an ancient feud with Peter Hall (Olivier's successor as Director of the National) who comes across as a greedy narcissist. Otherwise a very entertaining read.

Turn, Magic Wheel - Dawn Powell
Powell had been writing soulful pastorals and her publishers were vexed when she delivered her first NYC novel, informing them that she would now be writing "urban comedies". Not that much changes beside the setting, although the tone becomes much more satirical. A novelist is about to experience his first big success but he has used for his material, much too closely, the real life details of a woman who loves him. There is also an amusing portrait of a macho writer who resembles Ernest Hemingway. Powell considered this the best of her New York novels.

 

The Only Problem - Muriel Spark
Spark often cited the Book of Job as a major influence. This is her first novel to explicity confront its implications. Why does a God worthy of worship allow so much suffering? How much suffering can one man endure? A writer living in a rural part of France, composing a learned treatise on the Book, gets to experience that which he is writing about, including having a nutty wife who has somehow become a supermarket terrorist. The 20th of Sparks' 22 novels that I have read, I'd place it in the top ten.

The Laughing Monsters - Denis Johnson
A spy-counter-spy adventure in the African hinterlands scourged by savage wars. Despite the first person narration, I had difficulty following the motivations. There was a convoluted scheme to get rich scamming a non-existent crashed Russian plane loaded with plutonium. Like Apocalyse Now and Heart of Darkness, it's really about going crazy in the jungle on both the real and the existential level. The "laughing monsters" refer to a chain of mountains teeming with ghosts and deadly spirits.

I saw an excellent Henry VIII last weekend. I had seen a RSC production years ago on the big stage at the Kennedy Center that emphasized the pageantry. The intrigues played out better on a more intimate stage. Scholars agree that as much as half of the play was written by John Fletcher and there is little evidence of Shakespearean poetics. Still Wolsey and Katherine are terrific roles with rich pathos.

and a beautiful song with wintry video ...  Agnes Baltsa singing There will be better days, even for us    

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPPiVe-hyZs


 

Edited November 18, 2014 by ethan

[Kylie]

Ethan, I love reading your reviews. You pack a lot of great writing and wonderful observations into such a short space!

 

Capital in the 21st Century - Thomas Piketty
An extraordinary study, prodigiously researched, profoundly depressing, explaining the root causes of income inequality in the wealthy countries during the last couple of centuries through to the present day. In the USA example, the current steep curve toward the greatest inequality ever known has little braking interference. The egalatarian spirit which once flourished has been dead in the water since the Reagan Revolution. We're becoming the country we once rebelled against - an 18th century England with an entrenched aristocracy who owned all the land, the US in the 21st century with an entrenched super-plutocracy who will have all the wealth due to minimally taxed financial windfalls. Piketty, who wrote this for the general public rather than other economists, offers some solutions but they seem utopian in today's cynical climate. The winds of change can shift unexpectedly and quickly, but not likely anytime soon.

 

This sounds great. Going on my wishlist, thanks!

 

Tristram Shandy - Laurence Sterne

Probably the funniest fiction I have ever read. It's famous for the endless digressions, but the most surprising aspect is that the narrative voice is so modern, you might think Sterne walks among us. Also famous for the concept of the hobby-horse, that personal quixotic obsession that helps one make it through the dark night of the soul. Tristram himself turns up briefly in the second half, it takes half the novel to get to his birth. Uncle Toby and Tristram's father pick up the slack with absolute hilarity.

 

I recently bought this novel and am surprised I don't hear more about it because it sounds fabulous.

 

The Comforters - Muriel Spark
Fascinating mix of meta-fiction, The Ladykillers and the mysterious intersection of madness and religion.

Robinson - Muriel Spark
Sparks second novel (The Comforters was her debut). A woman writer is trapped on a desert island with three very odd men after a plane crash. As usual, Spark sets up genre expectations (here a murder mystery) only to deflate them at the end, a technique I once found annoying but now find interesting.

 

These both sound intriguing. I've only read The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Spark, and I'm keen to try more of her works. I think I'll add these to my wishlist, thanks!

[ethan]

^Thanks, Kylie, for the kind remarks, they are much appreciated. I only have one more novel of Sparks to read and although I expected exhaustion to set in, I honestly wish there were a stack more to go.

 

Agostino - Alberto Moravia

I enjoyed this 100-page coming-of-age tale. A 13yo boy from a wealthy Italian family awakens to the reality of sexual attraction (confusingly so with Mom suddenly seen as woman), and to the reality of the huge gap between the social classes. The Freudian/Marxist twists may be of their time (1950s) but I still find them interesting.

 

The Corrections - Jonathan Franzen

Franzen's combative public persona causes ripples but I tend to avoid such things as they often do lead to disappointment. The reality of favored authors are often at odds with the image one creates in ones mind. The only interview with him I recall reading was one in which he touted me onto Christina Stead's The Man Who Loved Children and I'm grateful for that. The populist in me is also sympathetic to his ambition to write realist novels with both literary value and appeal to the general reader.

 

But as I flipped rapidly through the pages of this (and Freedom a couple of years ago) I grew increasingly annoyed. My tentative stab as to why would be that Franzen traps his characters in a box, they are who they are and that's all they ever will be. Their sense of confinement causes them to be upset with themselves and with others, who are also upset. The arguments are endless and repetitive. By the time I reached the Christmas finale I felt as if we (reader, novelist, characters) were all just going through the motions.

 

Dead Souls - Nikolay Gogol

A mendacious but charming gentleman roams the estates of rural Russia buying up serfs who have died but not yet taken off the taxed census. He has an implausible scheme that results in much bafflement and amusement. Gogol's narrative voice, like Sterne's in Tristram Shandy, is so modern and addictive, it's a shame he never finished the projected three parts. I thought the fragments left from Part Two (he burned the rest) were fascinating in the possible paths that he might have gone down. I was also struck by his constant insistence on a specific Russian identity within his comic gallery of oddballs. Can Putin be recognized in any of them? The irony there is that Gogol, to my surprise, was Ukranian.

 

The Takeover - Muriel Spark

Spark's most wildly comic novel, a world teetering on the eve of destruction. It's 1973 Italy, the Communists are coming to power, terrorists are in the bushes, the rich are at imminent risk, as all the norms disintegrate. Everyone becomes a criminal to survive, it seems their only choice. I'm surprised this wasn't made into a movie, the almost perfect plot is made to order, and it does conjure memories of the zany zeitgeist.

Edited December 31, 2014 by ethan

[ethan]

I experienced a severe attack of vertigo two weeks ago, spent a couple of days in the hospital, which put a temporary halt to my year long reading binge. My brain (if not yet my equilibrium) cleared up over the weekend so I was able to complete some stuff that was nearly finished.

 

Outbreak of Love - Martin Boyd
The third volume of the autobiographical Langton Quartet is another entertaining comedy-of-manners. Set in Australia (the family also had strong ties to European culture) in the year before The Great War, it illustrates the dilemmas of loyalty on both a personal and social scale. Boyd's feeling for his family history runs deep and adds a convincing dimension of life-as-it-was-lived-then to his fiction. The ending is sad but very satisfying.

Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh - John Lahr
The best parts of this superb biography are in the 1950s when Williams was riding high, in touch with the large Broadway audience then in place that craved serious new dramas. William's relationship with his long time director Elia Kazan is especially fascinating. Kazan drove Williams hard as no one else could. Williams thought that Kazan was vulgarizing his artistic vision but was always grateful to him for his commercial successes. The later self-destructive years (booze and pills to the max) are difficult to read, as the plays received increasingly cruel dismissals from the critics. Lahr is very good in analyzing the fortunes and misfortunes and champions some of the later plays, none of which I've seen as they are rarely performed. But Williams has not been forgotten, Lahr counted almost 400 world-wide productions in a recent year.

Mysteries - Knut Hamsun
A mysterious stranger comes to town, disrupts the lives of many and then goes mad. I didn't understand the point of this at all, perhaps being too intent in identifying early indications of Hamsun's later infamous embrace of fascism. I could see the relationship to Dostoevsky (a parody?) and especially The Idiot which I read a couple of months ago. The stranger annoyed me in ways Prince Myshkin never did and I felt none of the novelistic power of Dostoevsky. I.B. Singer in the afterword of my edition sings Hamsun's praises to the heavens, so I'll try two of his other novels, Pan and Hunger, somewhere along the line.

Lila - Marilynne Robinson
Robinson takes a minor character from Gilead and Home and builds a novel around her thoughts and experiences. I found it insular and repetitive, the weakest novel in the trilogy, also the most Toni Morrison-ish. Robinson immerses us in Lila's miserable youthful existence (and subsequent unlikely marriage to an ancient preacher man) to such an extent that the reality of any world around them shrinks away. Of course it is "beautifully written" in the Iowa School of Writing school of prose, and I don't mean that as a detriment, only in this case I thought the beautiful writing consumed the narrative.

Edited December 9, 2014 by ethan

[Athena]

I experienced a severe attack of vertigo two weeks ago, spent a couple of days in the hospital, which put a temporary halt to my year long reading binge. My brain (if not yet my equilibrium) cleared up over the weekend so I was able to complete some stuff that was nearly finished.

I'm so sorry to hear this . I've had that myself a couple of times, the last time from coming off medication. I hope you feel better soon.

[Kylie]

That sounds awful, Ethan. Hope you're feeling better now.

[ethan]

thanks, Athena and Kylie,  I am feeling much better and making up for lost (reading) time......

 

A Little Lumpen Novelita - Roberto Bolano
This is one of the earliest stories Bolano published. It has some of the dreaminess of his later stuff, two teen-agers (the lumpen) drifting through adolescence (having lost both parents in an auto accident), easy sex, eventually crime, disconnected from the world around them. All the characters bear the peculiar Bolano brand of lost souls, but here also a peculiar happy ending, as Bolano insists that one must make an effort to take control.

Conversations - Cesar Aira
Two intellectuals spend an evening discussing a mindless Hollywood action film, centering on the versimilitude of an isolated Ukranian goat herder (played by a big star from Beverley Hills) wearing an expensive Rolex watch in a crucial scene. One argues that it was a goof (actor forgetting to take off his own watch, the crew not noticing), the other argues an elaborate alternate reality as he deconstructs the narrative. I found it very amusing, and perceptive in the ways we absorb the images of our popular culture.  

The Bookshop - Penelope Fitzgerald
This is my second Fitzgerald (Human Voices the other) but I haven't yet made a connection. Some post-reading research yielded an insight that Fitzgerald's work is a nod to the defeated in life, a notion that certainly applies to The Bookshop as just about the whole community conspires to deprive the bookseller of her moment of significance. Not much cheeriness then, but I'm still looking forward to her later The Blue Flower even though from what little I know of Novalis (it's real life tragic hero) there probably won't be much there either.

Angels On Toast - Dawn Powell
Powell continued to fine tune her satirical talents, moving the action here between Chicago and NYC, involving hustling capitalists on the prowl for women and the big deal (the combo are "angels on toast"), leaving spouses and betrayed co-investors in their wake. High society comes in for particular scorn. Unlike Evelyn Waugh, Powell is never misanthropic in her satire, there is a sense of pity, yet one devoid of sentimentality. I've now completed Vol One of her Library of America collection, on to Vol Two next year.

Territorial Rights - Muriel Spark
Another novel set in Italy, Venice this time, and another that fits in the category of her lively more conventional entertainments. Spark pours it on here, so much packed into a short space rendered in vivid cinematic scenes.  

This completes my reading of her 22 novels and I can honestly say I wish there were a few more left to go. Rarely have I been so in tune with a writer. Spark thought that if she were remembered at all it would be for her short stories, she wrote a ton of those, but I have never been fond of the form. She also wrote a couple of plays which I may check out some day. I read a recent study, Muriel Spark: Twenty-First-Century Perspectives, a bit too academic for me, but still a confirmation of my sense that there is a lot going on within and beneath the surfaces

The Housekeeper and the Professor - Yoko Ogawa
An elderly math professor (who lives alone) has been injured in an accident, suffering brain damage that causes short term amnesia. He remembers everything before the accident (from years before) but can only recall the past 8 hours of his life before they become a blank. He leaves himself notes (ala Memento) to remind him of his condition  and who his current housekeeper is when she arrives at his door each morning. The housekeeper and her young son develop a unique bond with him as they form a family of their own. I enjoyed this short novel, the blurb calls it "uplifting", and although I'm mostly immune to that emotion, I believe it delivered the goods.

Napoleon: A Life - Paul Johnson
A terrific short biography, excellently written. I read it as an introduction for a much longer study. I'm not sure now I'll take that path after all. Napoleon certainly was one of the most important figures in human history, but Johnson presents a very unappealing figure, a precursor to the scourge of 20th century might-makes-right despots, in the process destroying the lingering "cult" of Bonapartism.

 

and a play and a movie......

Camelot - Lerner and Loewe
Lerner could be long winded, the original Broadway production (starring Richard Burton, Julie Andrews and Robert Goulet) premiered at over four hours! Director David Lee (Frasier, Everybody Loves Raymond) was allowed to pare it down to two hours while still keeping all the songs. And damn but these guys wrote some great tunes. No show stopper but every song clever and tuneful. Eight performers and eight piece orchestra in an intimate theater made for a delightful afternoon.

What Maisie Knew (2012)
I read the Henry James novel last year and finally caught up with the recent screen adaptation. It's updated to contemporary times, much of the plot is excised (all of the prominent Mrs. Wix) and time is compressed (impossible to gradually age a six-year old actress). The core story of divorced parents leaving their little girl to her step-parents (both estranged from her parents but cozy with each other) remains. The movie then consists of us watching little Maisie as she watches and processes the callous irresponsibility of the adult world. Fortunately, the production struck gold with Onata Aprile as Maisie, mesmerizing from beginning to end.

.

Edited December 23, 2014 by ethan

[Athena]

I'm glad you're feeling better . You've read quite a bit, I'm glad you're enjoying some nice books.

[ethan]

A Father and His Fate - Ivy Compton-Burnett
The claustrophobia and the super-odd dialogue (it's almost all dialogue) demand full attention. About halfway through just as fatigue began to set in, Compton-Burnett livens things up with some improbable melodrama. Suddenly the Pinteresque cryticness of the conversations gained power. Reputedly this is one her lesser efforts, but I ended up loving the uniqueness of her approach.

Last Friends - Jane Gardam
I read something recently that compared old age to be being on a battlefield, watching ones' friends falling all about you. Gardam ends her Old Filth Trilogy with two ancient friends still standing among the ruins, in a surprising and delightful octogenerian romance.

When Blackbirds Sing - Martin Boyd
The final volume of the Langton Quartet. After the sparkling comedy of the previous two volumes, the pall cast by The Great War comes to dominate. Boyd served in the trenches, seeing the slaughter first hand, and his descriptiveness is powerful. One gets the sense toward the end that Boyd is tiring of all these painful family memories, they've become too personal, despite there seeming more rich material remaining.

Tristana - Benito Perez Galdos
One of the many things I enjoy about Galdos is that you can never tell where exactly he is taking you, the unexpected pops up when you're least prepared, his characters never stagnate, they can change in many interesting ways. On to the Bunuel film adaptation.

Paradise Lost - John Milton
I read the text while listening to a masterful narration by Nadia May. The Shakespearean-like poetry often soars in her cadences. As a lapsed Christian of many decades I was reminded of how cruel the Creation/Garden of Eden stories have always struck me. And the misogyny - sin, death, the assorted subsequent ills of human beings are all about Eve. Milton (over)emphasizes this aspect, perhaps due to his own experiences, his seventeen year-old bride having left him shortly after their marriage.

and a play....

Great Expectations - Gale Childs Daly (adaptation)
Six actors performed 40 roles! Daly kept all the major plot points of the novel, albeit at a frantic pace. An actor would run off stage and in a matter of seconds re-emerge in another costume in a different role. The main entertainment was in watching these brave actors navigate themselves through the precise and challenging structure. Fortunately, all six were incredibly proficient , the audience gave them a standing-o, even if the story had assumed a secondary importance.
 

Edited December 23, 2014 by ethan

[ethan]

Year end recap...

I'm still reading a few books, but I doubt any will make the cut of top favorites, and I want to get to this before the holiday bustle interferes. It's been a great year of reading, topping 175 read, a personal best by far. I seem to have morphed my syllabus the last few years into a comparative literature course, lots of classics, ranging over the centuries and the globe. I'm grateful for this as these books stick with me, and I overlooked the classics for most of my life.

 

There was only one novel I truly disliked (Days of Abandonment) and one big disappointment - not being capable of fully engaging with In Search of Lost Time even though I'm pleased that I made the effort and finished all seven volumes. That was balanced out by the highlight - completing all of Muriel Sparks' 22 novels, a very rewarding experience. So here's my top ten favorites.......

Fortunata and Jacinta - Benito Perez Galdos
I would describe Galdos as a mix of Dickens and Balzac. A slew of memorable characters caught in the vortex of a carnal world at odds with the strictures of religious yearnings. This is a behemoth, the whole of Madrid society is embraced. I highly recommend the much shorter Dona Perfecta or Tristana as introductions.
 
The Lily of the Valley - Honore de Balzac
Crazy love as only the French can do it. I can't conceive a year passing without reading something by Balzac, and that something making my top ten.

The Idiot - Fyodor Dostoevsky
Extraordinarily readable translation by David McDuff with some of the most dramatic scenes I've ever read. I described it earlier as a dark gothic comedy and I'll stick with that.

The Gray Notebook - Josep Pla
The real life chronicles of a Catalonian writer in his youth. Pla captures the anxieties and beauties in reaching toward adulthood with great poignancy.

The Girls of Slender Means - Muriel Spark
I could have placed any of a half-dozen of Sparks' novels in this spot. But I think Girls is slowly eclipsing The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie in reputation. It captures all of her strengths in a brief, tragic elegy.

By Night in Chile - Roberto Bolano
My only re-read of the year. The moral dilemma of compromising with evil authority is perceptively explored.

Frankenstein - Mary Shelley
Not the Boris Karloff Hollywood take, but creepier and scarier in much more profound ways.

Lawrence in Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly and the Making of the Modern Middle East - Scott Anderson
A great story told by a great storyteller. If you want to read one book to commemorate the anniversary of The Great War, this would be my recommendation.

Angels on Toast - Dawn Powell
As Rory said, Powell has been unjustly forgotten, but not by me. Her comedy and her insights into the human heart surpass much of what has been remembered from her era.

Innocents Abroad - Mark Twain
Twain, of course, is funny, I mean really funny. As a travel companion he's next to none.

honorable mention: The Langton Quartet, Old Filth Trilogy, A Dreambook For Our Time, Dead Souls, Tristram Shandy, Good-bye To All That, How To Live: A Life of Montaigne
 

Edited December 23, 2014 by ethan

[Athena]

Congratulations on reading 175 books, that's amazing !

[willoyd]

That's a monumental effort ethan - especially as there are some pretty substantial (both in terms of volume and content) books there.  Wow!  I love your reviews too - they are proving a great resource.

 

Just a couple of notes jump to mind from books I've read as well:

 

The Ballad of Peckham Rye - Muriel Spark

Reads like a ballad. An odd fellow descends on a Scottish village, does odd things, stirs up lingering discontent, and is perceived by some to be the Devil. There's an emptiness, more an incompleteness, in Spark's fictional world, which may perhaps indicate the absence of a Savior.

 

I loved this - one of the best of hers I've read so far - even if I was never quite sure what she was aiming at, other than the (obvious?) satire.  Peckham Rye, by the way, is in fact in Southwark, in London.  Her Peckham Rye is very much how I recollect the place when a child, but it's nothing like it is today!

 

The Bookshop - Penelope Fitzgerald

This is my second Fitzgerald (Human Voices the other) but I haven't yet made a connection. Some post-reading research yielded an insight that Fitzgerald's work is a nod to the defeated in life, a notion that certainly applies to The Bookshop as just about the whole community conspires to deprive the bookseller of her moment of significance. Not much cheeriness then, but I'm still looking forward to her later The Blue Flower even though from what little I know of Novalis (it's real life tragic hero) there probably won't be much there either.

This, for me, is the weakest of those of hers I've read. My first was The Blue Flower, which I found fascinating. By far my favourite so far is Offshore, one of her first phase based on life experience. More than a nod to the defeated in life! She is definitely growing on me, and I need to go back and reread some once I've got through the first round.

Edited December 25, 2014 by willoyd