The Rear View Mirror

The older I get, the lazier...and less moved to write "a review". I prefer to think of this lassitude as enlightenment, but it's more likely inertia. Nevertheless, I do like to look back from time to time on where I've been, and for that, I need a list with notes...well, where better than here, the beloved 50 Books Challenge list? I shall begin by going back, in no special order, up to one year. With no further ado.

#1 Mr. Maugham himself - a compilation of selections from fiction and autobiographical writings by Somerset Maugham. Of Human Bondage is included in its entirety. I found the relationship between Philip and Mildred not quite credible. Or maybe I don't want to contemplate the extremes to which masochism can rule a person. But no attraction of Mildred's seemed to justify the extremes of misery to which Philip submitted himself. And if Philip's self-hatred - because of his club foot and religious guilt - is where we must look for his passion, then that source seemed too balanced by his self awareness and pride to be quite believable. Maybe, Maugham - in so far as he was gay, and the book was largely autobiographical - fails to convince because the Mildred fetish seems a bit fantastical. Meh?
The compilation also includes four short pieces, and a piece called A Summing Up. Maugham's piece recollectiing Henry james, HG Wells, Arnold Bennett, and Countess von Arnim is not to be missed.

#2 Ashenden is Maugham at his best and is a collection of sketches drawn from his work as a spy in Switzerland and Russia in WWI. The tales are vivid portraits of players caught up in the whimsy and tragedy of war and diplomatic service.

#3 Valis, by Philip K Dick is a masterpiece of Sci Fi with a strong undercurrent of Gnostic speculation - or is it the other way around? Certainly the phrase "think pink" now takes on a new meaning. And it's a pretty damn funny book, too.

#4 Coningsby, by Benjamin Disraeli is a charming nougat of romance encased in a crunchy, even enamel shattering, layer of politics. I read it to see if I could sort out once and for all the difference between Tories and Whigs. I think the answer is "you had to be there" and "it depends". The former, though, were more impressed by blood, and the latter by money...royalty vs nouveau riche , however, just when I thought I was getting things sorted out, the terms started melding and morphing into conservative and liberal. Oi Vei.... still, this roman a clef by Dusraeli led me to move on to...

#5 Disraeli, A Biography by Stanley Weintraub which is a lively, sympathetic portrait of an amazing fellow. No one is born with a knowledge of British politics in the era of Queen Victoria - and the politics of the day are almost as confusing as our own - so, what better an introduction to the field than this life of an outsider and dandy who on sheer chutzpah, brillance, and persistance became Prime Minister of England.

#6 Dumbth by Steve Allen - I can't decide if I like this critique of our lack of education, self and institutional. On the one hand, it's nice to be reminded of a number of ways in which, with a little effort, one could improve one's game. On the other hand, Mr. Allen really does complain a bit too much of the shortcomings in the service sector. Still, it makes sense that Allen would write such a book, and reveals the source of the wry humor of the first Tonight show host, and inventor of the man in the street interviews.

#7 The House in Paris

#8 The Death of the Heart

#9 The Heat of the Day

All the above, by Elizabeth Bowen, are excellent studies of alienation and familial disfunctionality. I think Death of the Heart, which concerns a young woman's coming of age, is the best of the three. The wartime atmosphere of The Heat of The Day recommends it. The children in The House in Paris are a bit too adult to be credible. Still, they're poignant.

#10 Paris Was Yesterday by Janet Flanner - The Steins, Hemingway, Joyce, The Fitzgeralds and more and more. A very readable classic and must read for anyone interested in that great era, the 20's, in Paris. A nice sequel, in a way, to Proust's Remembrances or supplement to Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris

#11 Parallel Lives (Five Victorian Marriages) by Phyllis Rose - The dirt, or rather, considering, in many instances, the aridity of the relationships, the sand on the Carlyles, Mills, Ruskins, Dickens, and Eliot/Lewes. A TMZ for the literary intellectual crowd. Pity poor Mrs. Dickens, and Ruskin's treatment of Effie Gray: effin' incredible.

#12 Gideon's Corpse by Preston and Child - Not a Pendergast novel, but hey, it's 100 degrees outside, and I'll take any diversion I can get

#13 Utopia by Lincoln Child - a vivid little techno-thriller - the amusement park images are beautifully crafted and linger as though you've actually been there, sort of like the landscape of the Elder Scrolls video games.

#14 The Princess of Burundi -Kjell Erickson - Finnish detective novel with a nice cast of characters and atmosphere. Not the Girl With A dragon Tattoo, but not bad

#15 Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood - nice sketches/character studies of Berlin before WWII, not unlike Maugham's vignettes in Ashenden

#16 How to Heal the Hurt by Hating
#17 How to Stay Bitter Through the Happiest Times of Your Life

both by Anita Liberty

Hell hath no comedy like a woman scorned. Guys, don't ever dump a comedienne. Liberty is out for revenge like a kamikaze Joan Rivers. I bought them for the titles alone. Read them in one night. Laughed a lot.

#18 The Skin Chairs by Barbara Comyns - Comyns is like South Park meets Beatrix Potter...devilish, English, childish. The best fun ever.

#19 Atlantis by Gerhardt Hauptman - So very eerie how this novel "predicted" the Titanic, and the chapter where the Atlantis sinks is incredibly graphic. But that's only one third of an excellent novel, and the transatlantic story of a man's search for meaning and love.

#20 Weymouth Sands
#21 Maiden Castle
#22 Owen Glendower
#23 Porius
#24 Wolf Solent

all by John Cowper Powys - I spent the winter of 2011 inside Powys's odd brain. I even began to cavoseniargize a bit myself. I, further, read material by his brothers, LLwelyn, and T.F.

#25 Earth Memories - Llwelyn
#26 Mr. Weston's Good Wine - T.F

The experience was, I suppose, like drowning in a vat of aged whiskey. Too amber, too smokey, too much.

#27 Remembering Mr. Shawn's New Yorker - Ved Mehta - very interesting memoir of the golden days at the New Yorker by a quirky individual

#28 Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung by Lester Bangs - a collection of the critical writings of the late, great Lester Bangs who died too young, or, considering the state of Top 40 music and America's Got Talent, Idols, Whatever - maybe he died at just the right time.

#29 Puffball by Fay Weldon
#30 A Glastonbury Romance by John Cowper Powys

I think these two books are Tor-ific.

#31 Miss Macintosh My Darling by Marguerite Young - this is the literary equivalent of Op Art. Read a few chapters and the lines of prose begin to wiggle like Medusa's hairdo.

#32 The Black Prince by Iris Murdoch - an amazing tour de force regarding love and marriage, and reminded me at times of The Idiot, Lolita, Darconville's Cat, Turn of the Screw, and much of Updike. The sad/happy story of 58 year old Bradley Pearson, a sometime novelist and retired taxman, looking to write his great work in his golden years. Instead, he gets caught up in a perfect storm of emotion, that literally appears and reappears on his doorstep, in the form of very credible characters including his pathetic sister who is dealing with a failed marriage, his best friend who thinks he has murdered his wife, his despised ex-wife and gay brother in law, and the love of his life, a twenty year old. Poor bugger never has a chance. Then again, who has?

#33 The Wife of Martin Guerre by Janet Lewis - This is hard not to read in one sitting. It was even more powerful to me because I have been reading Philip Dick lately. There is a strong resonance with Dick's theme of identity and false reality in this tale of a wife who believes her husband to be an impostor. The brevity of the story belies its richness and implications.

#34 The Trial of Soren Quist by Janet Lewis - This book, like Marin Guerre, takes a historical case of circumstantial evidence and brings it alive, almost like a forsensic anthropologist might recreate a person from a skeleton. Lewis's style is limpid and poetic, and reminds me of Sigrid Unset. Again, like Martin Guerre, the reader is left to ponder the ironies that justice creates in its aftermath.

#35 The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins - not a bad bit of escapist fiction like HG Wells might have produced - and certainly a scenario more plausible as a possible future, than say Well's Time Machine - but I don't think I'll stick around for the rest of the trilogy. The death match was what made the story interesting, not the teenage romance.

#36 Theodora: Actress, Empress, Whore by Stella Duffy I had fun reading this bit of historical fluff, kind of like eating Frosted Flakes from the box... Procopius's Secret History with a lot of corn syrup and salt. It reads kind of like The Hunger Games, easy to visualize, fast action, heroine up front etc. only while doing so, I imagined Lindsay Lohan and Lady Gaga alternating in the title role as Theodora rather than Jennifer Lawrence. But if I could commission a bio of Theodora, I would choose Tanith Lee. Her heroines have just that right mixup of sangfroid and lust.

#37 Count Belisarius by Robert Graves A tragic portrait of a brilliant brave military man who was ill-used by the paranoid and insecure Emperor Justinian.

#38 The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol.2 by Edward Gibbon I began by just reading the chapters on Theodoric and Justinian's era. Gibbon has that "view from 30,000 feet" perspective on a vast swath of history, and you feel it in his organization and tone, yet he can swoop down like a falcon and zero in on the personality of a individual. I liked his approach so much that I went back and began the project of reading the entire history. The third century in particular was an ugly time to be alive, and defininately not the time to be Imperator.

#39 The Secret History by Procopius It's hard to read Procopius's description of Justinian without thinking of Tony Soprano's mob, except that Tony was likeable and loyal in comparison to Justinian.

#40 Justinian's Flea by William Rosen The effect of the bubonic plague on Emperor Justinian's reign.

#41 The Collector by John Fowles Fowles seems to have been ahead of the times with this 1963 novel about a psychopathic victimizer of women, and a his approach, by alternating viewpoints between the criminal and the victim, gives the story a heightened sense of both the tragedy and banality of evil that is rarely encountered in this genre even though the genre is now mainsteam.

#42 Lest Darkness Fall by L. Sprague de Camp is a one of the early classics in the time travel/ alternate history genre. Although I like the concept of time travel, I didn't like the execution in this novel because the dialogue was too hokey, i.e. too much 20th Century slang (although the author did, self consciously, insert jokes when idioms were blatant). Still, the history was accurate, and detailed, the events were plausible, the technological changes the protagonist attempted were interesting, and the novel succeeded in capturing the most salient characteristic of the era which was the political instability. Worth a read if you are already familiar with the era and interested in its major figures, other wise, probably not.

#43 The Ghost of Monsieur Scarron by Janet Lewis Another masterpiece by Janet Lewis. In this novel she interweaves two patterns of infidelity in 18th century France: King Louis the 14th's on-going relationship with Marquise de Maintenon and the seduction of a printer's wife by her husband's apprentice, linking their stories through the prosecution of the printing of a satirical pamphlet critical of the King. Lewis has an incredible gift for writing clear prose and developing a plot. Her descriptions of locale are vivid, and her psychological analyses and character sketches are complex yet natural.

#44 Travels With My Aunt by Graham Greene I wish I had an Aunt like this: an Auntie Mame's Auntie Mame. A great mix of droll comedy, skeleton in the closet mystery and English local color. The protagonist is a mild-mannered sexually repressed recently retired bank officer. The novel is written in the first person, as is Iris Murdoch's The Black Prince, which has a very similar character as its protagonist. I found it interesting that the voices of the two were so close that it felt at times that I was reading a chapter in Murdoch's book, even though the story lines are not at all the same.

#45 The Monster of Florence by Douglas Preston An interesting, very readable, and multifaceted look at an unsolved string of serial murders, similar to the Son of Sam killings, which occurred in Florence, Italy beginning in the 1960's and ending in the 1980's. The murders were all linked by the same gun and same m.o., the murder of couples in parked cars. The mystery, however, is only one aspect of the book. Preston's Italian co-author investigative journalist Mario Spezi was harassed and briefly jailed by a corrupt judiciary for his investigative efforts which contradicted and embarrassed some of the investigating officials. Thus Spezi experienced a variation on the adage " if you look to long into the abyss...."

#46 Conan of the Isles by L.Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter I was delighted to find this long out of print Sphere British edition of the nine part Conan series in an antique mall book rack. It's a satisfying Conan read, especially considering it was developed from only a paragraph in Howard's notes. Kinda like current day Lynyrd Skynyrd who still rock with only one of the original band left.

#47 Three Wogs by Alexander Theroux Theroux's first work and least successful. All the elements of his later style are here (grotesque characters, words you'll never encounter anywhere else, fascinating hagiographic trivia, etc), but the misanthropy is excessive, and the point? In short, like Oscar Wilde and James Joyce combining talents to describe an oaf picking his nose.

#48 Tao: The Watercourse Way by Alan Watts The Jerry Seinfeld show was, famously, a show about "nothing". The Tao is that which cannot stated in words. And so this book, The Watercourse Way, logically, is an exercise in describing a No-thing. But the book, like Seinfeld's show, succeeds in doing whatever it is that it does. As does the Tao.

#49 The Decline and Fall of The Roman Empire, Vol. 1 True story: Fifty years ago, I was impressed by a buddy, our class's valedictorian, who had read Gibbon's Decline and Fall over the summer vacation. I picked up a copy of Volume 1, and carried it about with me for many decades...occasionally dusting it off and reading a few pages - using it as a reference manual. This summer I finally read all 900+ pages myself. Gibbon truly achieved a panoramic masterpiece. The book reads in a clear comprehensive style and tells a story which is fascinating and relevant concerning both the micro and macro aspects of history - focusing in on personal human follies and virtues and drawing back to view grand strategies,blunders, and dead ends. I read it slowly, 45 minutes per day, perhaps 30 or so pages at a time over the course of a month. What a great work!

#50 Melmoth the Wanderer by Charles Robert Maturin I am not fond of novels which are constructed like Russian nesting dolls, with stories with in stories; and I like the idea of Gothic novels much better than the actual execution (they tend to be repetitive in descriptions and belabor the horrific elements to the point of tedium). Thus, about mid-way thru this classic (whereat the goddess on an island off the Indian coast is introduced) I bailed. The evocation of the Inquisition and the monastic prison chapters were well done, but still, not enough to keep me chasing Satan's tail, through one door after another.

#51 The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper Sometimes I read a book for the most superficial of reasons. This edition, an older hardcover, had great illustrations, and large pages. I felt like a big of escapism, a period piece, and a northeastern locale. Cooper's prose is a bit prolix and antiquated, but the story moves along at a rapid pace not unlike a Conan tale. The historic significance of the novel lies in Cooper's multisided look at Native Americans and their political difficulties in defending their turf and siding with the English, the French, or one another. I most enjoyed the way the wilderness is evoked by Cooper. It was almost like viewing a Hudson River school landscape.

#52 Kalki by Gore Vidal Envisioning the post-Apocalyptic portion of this novel must have been fun for Vidal. I suspect he would have loved to have Paris and The White House as personal vacation resorts exclusively for himself and a few friends. This Hindu "romp" and American societal satire is one of Vidal's more readable novels, pernaps because it wasn't much of a stretch for him to write in the first person as a female aviatrix.

#53 Kingdom Come by J.G. Ballard Ballard's last novel - more a novelette (126pp) is a dark vision of an English neo-fascist consumerist suburban society where a regional supermall, local cable channel, and affiliated contact sports clubs are the key props of the community, and where ethnic groups are harassed and subordinated in ghettos. The writing is a bit repetitive, and probably the idea could have been condensed even further into a short story. Reminded me of similar stories about the horrors of gated communities.

#54 Phantoms on the Bookshelves by Jaques Bonnet If you are a member of Library Thing, you are the natural audience for this short non-fiction apologia of a life-long bibliophile. It's one man's ( a very erudite man) profession of love for his library, and he speaks of it like any collector would of his passion. If you already have more books than you will likely read in your life, then you know already many of the topics reflected upon in this book. For example, how do you sort your books, how do you part with them, how do you decide which to add, and when to read them, and how to read thwem. What are the famous libraries in literature, in history, etc.? In short, a wonderful, and short, book which is great because you already have a dozen more on your TBR list, right?

#55 Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens Dicken's first historical novel uses the backdrop of the Lord George Gordon "no-popery" riots of 1780 London and develops a complex story of two sets of lovers and their obstacles, as well as several sets of sons and their parental conflicts. The riot scenes are particularly vivid. Barnaby Rudge, a simpleton, intersects with a number of characters, but unlike Dostoyevsky's Mishkin is not a catalyst for their development. Grip, the raven, is memorable and an example that Dickens grotesques are not limited to humans.

Just found your thread. Very cool reading and terrific reviews. Thanks!

#56 The Sea, The Sea by Iris Murdoch I'm showing my age with these references to Rod Stewart and Joni Mitchell, but hey, they're apt: "first cut is the deepest"; "It's love's illusions I recall. I really don't know love, at all". These two lines, extrapolated, produce the subject matter and tone of this novel whose hero is a retired semi-famous playwright/director/actor who retreats from the stage to write his memoirs in a Edgar Allan Poe-tic house by the English seaside. In so doing, he stumbles upon, in the local village, an aging unattractive woman who happens to be his first love, his true love, and yes, the love who jilted him and married someone else. He is inflamed, and pursues her, discovering to his chagrin that she is still married, and not all that interested in his attempts to resurrect their long dead relationship. Murdoch has a knack for plot twists which keep this obsessive first person- told tale fresh despite the protagonist's unrelenting monomania. She also develops a supporting cast of credible and colorful characters, and throws a bit of Buddhist spice into the mix in the person of the hero's cousin James.. I've read some reviews that are critical of this masterpiece, I however loved it unreservedly.

#57 Libra by Don Delillo Picked this up this afternoon at Paradox Bookstore. For a dollar fifty. Gave it a go, in my chair by the river, during the sunset hour on one of the last days of Indian summer in 2012. In short: Oswald. Some CIA agents. Ferrie. Ruby. Subway ride. Whoosh, then...Yack, yack. Bang, bang, bang. Bland dialog. Flat emotions. I found this a very dull read of tired material, but I could have been - ahem, cough, cough, making a rush to judgement. Rather than read this, rush to Rush To Judgement.

#58 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart by Karl Barth This small booklet (60 pages) was a succinct reminder to me to listen to some Mozart. Barth mentioned The Haffner Serenade K250 as being his one of his first favorites, and, one youtube click later, I can see why. Quote by Barth "it may be that when angels go about the task of praising God, they play only Bach. I am sure, however, when they are together en famille, they play Mozart, and that then too, our dear Lord listens with special pleasure." Amen.

#59 The Return of Jeeves by P.G.Wodehouse This is the first thing I've read by Wodehouse, but definitely not the last. A hilarious romp, along the lines of many of the great movie comedies of the 1930s, concerning an impovershed member of the gentry who winds up further down at his luck after engaging in a bookmaking scheme. It's , well, off to the races! Jeeves is a fine veddy British invention, like Doyles' Sherlock Holmes, and in this novel, Lord Torchester's brother in law and foil Rory is the comedic show stealer, in a bumbling Nigel Bruce as Dr. Watson sort of way. I look forward to reading the entire Jeeves oeuvre.

I love your review (and the references!) of The sea, The Sea--I even went to star it, and found it wasn't on the book's page! Whether you put it there or not, I just had to say I found it perfect :) Good reading!

#60 The Housebreaker of Shady Hill by John Cheever I've heard much praise of John Cheever over the years, but didn't know quite what to expect when I opened this book. The one factoid which stuck in my memory was that he took his profession seriously, so much so, that he dressed in a suit and tie before he sat down to write. I found this small collection of eight short stories to be crisp and entertaining. All but one were previously published in The New Yorker, back in its glory days, and they have urbanity and droll humor (suburbanity, actually) that you expect from that magazine. At times, Cheever reminded me of Salinger, with his touch of alienation, and clarity, and at times of Updike, with his eye for telling detail. I'm not usually a fan of short stories, but this book felt more like a novel, because some characters reappeared in different stories, and all shared a common locale, the upscale suburb of Shady Hill.

#61 The Wapshot Chronicle by John Cheever At a certain point, the beginning of Part Two, I began to hear Garrison Keillor's voice reading the lines to me. Sure enough, I checked Google, and Keillor lists Cheever as one of the five writers who have most influenced him. There are a number of passages in Cheever that echo in Keillor's style. Wapshot, Wobegone, what more could you ask for? The descriptions of cool summer breezes, frosty nights, young lovers, adolescent awkwardness and courage...that sort of thing. The vividly drawn elderly and aristocratic Honoria and Justina also recall Dicken's grotesques with their eccentricities, egotisms, and imperiousness. And somehow, Cheever evokes a certain Edward Gorey atmosphere. Good stuff.

You are reading a wide variety of books and writing some good reviews. I am impressed!

#62 The Wapshot Scandal by John Cheever This continuation of the Wapshot saga felt a lot like Updike, particularly the details of the randy Melissa and her delivery boy. There's a mid-twentieth century sadness, even pessimism, though, that - despite the flashes of humor, descriptive beauty, and engaging narrative - drifts like a fog through the Wapshot history and makes me want to run to the more optimistic Victorian era and the warm cheery hearths of Dickens.

#63 Child of Fortune by Norman Spinrad This book is special for me. I recently reread it after a gap of 25 years. It has not aged. If anything, it's more appropriate to the current times than when it was written. The theme of the story is "the wanderjahr", traditionally a time in 19th century Europe when a young person would take time after a preliminary education to travel, experience different cultures, and explore their new freedom from family and parochial influences. And in so doing, discover themselves, before settling into a career and family. Spinrad has imagined such a journey, in a time of space travel, that is beautiful and moving. It involves no aliens, or combat, but simply the story of a young person looking for employment, love and independence. Pater Pan, a Gypsy Joker, free spirit is a central figure in the tale and a mentor to Wendi/Sunshine/Moussa the young heroine. The Bloomenveldt, an Amazonia with psychopharmacological properties, is another key richly imagined element in the tale. The novel has a kind heart, and the ending rivals the best of sentimentality that one would find in a Dickens novel. If, as a youngster, you felt the special magic of the Wizard of Oz, or Peter Pan, then this is the book for you.

#64 The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens Like the Winged Victory of Samothrace or Venus de Milo, Drood is no less beautiful for being incomplete, and maybe even superior to what it might have been, because had it been completed it would have had only one ending whereas now there several plausible scenarios. The perfect mystery because eternal. Long live Charles Dickens!

#65 Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Tale of Wall Street by Herman Melville Last week's New Yorker had a funny one-page story Bartleby the Badass, so I decided to revisit Melville's classic. There's a lot to like here. Some very comedic characters, an exquisite sense of prose "I'd prefer not to", an historic snapshot of the law clerk profession, an imaginative self-examination by Bartleby's employer of his reactions to Bartleby's inactions, and, of course, the grand philosophical question - a variation of to be or not to be - what if some chooses the course of least resistance again and again by deciding not to act. Ah Humanity! Ah, Melville!

#66 The life and adventures of Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens This should not be the first, or even the fifth, Dickens work to read, if you've never read Dickens. I'd say save it until you've read most of his work...until such time when, as a fan, you're worried that you've almost read his oeuvre, and then what? Nickleby is a bit bloated with characters - the Krummles troupe and the Kenwigs, for example - and while the plot plods along with enough twists to keep it interesting, the whole caravan contains a few more RVs than will fit in the campground. All of which is fine for fans, but not for someone who has time for only Dickens' best work.

It's interesting how most Dickens novels have, and Nickleby in particular, all the elements which made for the success of the original American Idol TV show. The backgrounds in both are competition. For Dickens, economic competition; for Idol, entertainment. Dickens usually features a mean or miserly villain, like Squeers and Ralph Nickleby. Idol featured Simon Cowell who could be miserly with and praise, and gratuitously snide. Dickens has a host of grotesques; Idol has an early period of tryouts where the most woefully untalented and laughable persons are given there five minutes of fame. Dickens always has a sentimental pitiable character like Smike, Idol usually has a contestant or two profiled with a sob story, such as an ailing child or parent. Dickens champions an innocent, good natured hero, like Nicholas, who prevails against the odds. Idol selects a popular, charismatic and clean cut "idol". In both instances, it's a case of rags to riches.

#67 Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace I made it to page 500, threw my hands in the air and moaned "No Mas". DFW was a brilliant and clever writer, but I found his subject matter (a hyper competitive tennis academy and a painful vivid halfway house/rehab lifestyle) to be more and more depressing the more I read. The Quebec Wheelchair Assassins and future dystopia, Concavity, ONAN background etc was simply annoying. The whole thing felt like something Salinger might have written to seek redemption while crashing from a crack addiction. Too grim for me.

#68 Armadale by Wilkie Collins If I had a second life, pun intended, I would spend it exploring the role of the doppleganger in literature (not that the subject hasn't been mined to exhaustion). This novel is sustained fun - watching the Machievellian plots of the evil Miss Gwilt as she manipulates the Allan Armadale and Ozias Midwinter (also Allan Armadale) to the point where she is unsure about her own emotions. A sublimation, aided by Collin's opium addiction, of his own inability to decide between two women? No doubt. An accident that Gwilt suggests guilt. Doubtful. A great tale. The mixture of techniques - third person narrative, epistlatory, and diary entry - while effective, makes at times for a lumpy reading experience.

#69 Pierre or The Ambiguities by Herman Melville Ouch! What a bleak book! Reminded me of the bitterness and ending of Darconville's Cat. It is interesting to compare Pierre with Dicken's Nicholas Nickleby. Superfcially, both concern the fate of a brother, sister, and helpless dependent cast adrift in a big city. Nickleby with sister and fatuous mother, though mislead and betrayed by Uncle Ralph, are aided by strangers and bravely persevere against mean events to find happiness. Pierre, his sister, and maid, though betrayed by his relatives, and though aided by friends, bravely nosedive into a sanctimonious oblivion. Granted, bad things happen to good people, but Pierre's grim fate feels unjustified, given the initial richness of his character, and warped so as to illustrate Melville's dark world view. Melville creates a fascinating conundrum, with Pierre's discovery of his sister, and the story seems open to many twists and turns but Melville takes it to a uniquely narrow and bleak conclusion. Small wonder, feeling as he did, that he wrote little for another two decades, and small wonder, writing as he did, that readers stopped reading him.

#70 EEEEE EEE EEEE by Tao Lin My granddaughter introduced me to Tao Lin. I'd already been a fan of Miranda July's movies, and her sense of humor comes pretty close to Tao Lin. In fact, she provided a pretty accurate blurb on the back of the book. If you still don't have an idea of what I'm talking about, think of Seinfield, and his show about nothing, as the grandfather of writers like Tao Lin, and Lin as his aspy grandchild. Some very funny stuff about almost nothing here. Lin writes kind of like Holden Caulfield with a personality disorder and slightly off on his Ritalin dose. A little bit like Beatrix Potter on 'shrooms, too. Fun, and it will make you cry a bit, silently, to yourself.

#71 That Mighty Sculptor Time by Marguerite Yourcenar Reading Yourcenar has an amphetamine effect. You feel like your IQ is immediately 15 points higher. This collection of essays ranges widely from historical topics like the transmission of written works (Bede) to religious matters (Tantric Yoga) to perennial current issues, like not wearing fur or eating meat. I especially liked the one pager Febo del Poggio, which in an elegant way, says simply: Enjoy the Now.

"I am awakening. Before me, behind me, there is eternal night. For millions of ages I have slept; for millions of ages I shall sleep again…I have but one hour. Why would you spoil it with explanations or maxims? I stretch out in the sun, on the pillow of pleasure, in a morning that will never again return."

Amen.

51> Oh no! ;-)

#72 The Man of Property by John Galsworthy Finally got round to The Forsyte Saga after all these years. Quite good. I'm in for the whole Saga, and onto Book 2, In the Chancery. The sentimental postlude, Indian Summer of a Forsythe, was very touching. Dickens couldn't have done it better. The genealogical chart at the front of the book is quite daunting - and heavily gerontological too - but Galsworthy does a swell job of fleshing out even the elderly, more staid, characters and drawing you, and them, into the romantic triangle at the center of the story. This intro to the saga focuses on Old Jolyon, June, Bosinney, Irene, and Soames.