Baswood's books, music, films and haikus part 2

My reading shelf

Last years Books


Doris Lessing



1914



Sixteenth Century


Science Fiction


Book Club Reads

Bas,

How was Cities in Flight? I have been in the mood for a good science fiction novel.

Cities in Flight is still on the shelf, but I did read some of the series when in my teens. I enjoyed them then. I am expecting it to be a bit better than First Lensman on the grounds that it could not be much worse.

I love the character of Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird. And who can forget Gregory Peck as Atticus?

I was thinking about reading To Kill a Mockingbird next, so I'd be interested in your thoughts about it. Have I missed it in part1 of your thread?

No Oscar, I have not got to To Kill a Mockingbird yet, but I have to read it before my next book club meeting in Mid March.

A Modern Utopia H G Wells
Wells was not satisfied with two previous books in which he had attempted to provide a blue print for a better more tolerant society for the future. Anticipations of the Reaction of Mechanical and Scientific Progress upon Human life and Thought and Mankind in the Making had both suffered from being preachy and decidedly dry in places. They had both had passages of interest, but struggled to hold my attention. In A modern Utopia published in 1905, Wells is at it again in his attempts to put the world to rights, but this time by including an element of fantasy and some sort of narrative he hoped to make his medicine more palatable. He is only partially successful. I found myself a good third of the way through the book before Wells caught my attention and then my imagination, he held it then pretty much towards the end and it made me think about his writing in general.

After the early great science fiction novels The Time Machine and War of the Worlds I have found Wells a slow starter. I don't know if it's me or Wells, but I suspect it is a bit of both, but it seems that Wells gradually warms to his task and only when he is in full flow does his writing take off into something more special. Patience is needed and also a familiarisation with a writing style that can be a little condescending - it is always clear that Wells knows best. Wells introduces A Modern Utopia with a note to the reader, which is an attempt by Wells to take the reader into his confidence, but here that preachy tone is at its worst, he says:

"If you are not already a little interested and open-minded with regard to social and political questions, and a little exercised in self examination, you will find neither interest nor pleasure here. If your mind is "made up" upon such issues your time will be wasted on these pages. And even if you are a willing reader you may require a little patience for the peculiar method I have this time adopted."

The method Wells adopts is to imagine 'The Owner of the Voice' (a caricature of H G himself) and a botanist friend starting to walk down from one of the high Swiss Alpine passes. They have indulged in a good lunch and their heads are swimming a little as they look down at the world below and as they start to walk Wells realises that everything has changed and that they are on another planet. They have transposed themselves to earth's sister planet somewhere beyond the star Sirius; it is a planet that is identical to earth but has developed differently. The whole planet is an Utopia and Wells makes great play on the fact that his Utopia could only work if it was planet wide; one government, one society, universal education, a world unity, world wide travelling, a freedom of sale and purchase and a tolerant society. As they walk down into the first valley we learn that the botanist is suffering from an unrequited love and his only concern is to win the woman of his desire away from an abusive partner. He provides a counterpoint to the other voice (Wells) being completely wrapped up in his own affairs and hardly noticing the changed world around him and when they discover that there are doubles of everybody on Earth on Utopia then his concerns turn even more inwards as he searches for the love of his life. This extremely thin narrative is interspersed with the real author describing the society of Utopia as it is revealed to them by the people they meet. Wells meets his double who of course belongs to the ruling class. This thin framework to the novel is under continual strain and while it does introduce an element of fantasy it does not satisfy.

The meat of the book is of course a description of Utopia and the Utopians and chapters like "Concerning Freedom" and "Utopian Economics" allow Wells to expound on his vaguely socialist ideas which we may be familiar with, from his earlier books. It is when we get to the chapters on "Women in Utopia" and "Race in Utopia" that we find that Wells has become much more progressive in his views. Equality for women is now embraced and in a marked change of tack Wells goes into great lengths to expound his views on racial equality. It is the chapter entitled Samurai that causes modern readers the most concern. Wells saw a ruling class that that he labelled as Samurai, they would be of a certain mind and intelligence that could be tested from an early age and would be earmarked as a distinct ruling class, who would have a secure grasp on the reigns of power. As Samurai's tended to marry others of the same class then their children were more likely to be Samurai's themselves and Wells saw them as becoming an hereditary elite, although not exclusively so. The Samurai ruling class is just one element of The Utopian society that seems to lack the freedoms that we might wish to see and Wells cannot help but go into details that make his society appear as dangerously regulated as Thomas More's Utopia; for example here is a regime that the Samurai's must comply with:

Save in specified exceptional circumstances, the samurai must bathe in cold water, and the men must shave every day, they have precise directions in such matters, the body must be in health, the skin and muscles and nerves in perfect tone, or the samurai must go to the doctors of the order and give implicit obedience to the regime prescribed. They must sleep alone at least four nights out of five and they must eat with and talk to anyone in their fellowship who cares for their conversation for an hour at least at the nearest club house of the samurai, once on three chosen days in every week. Every month they must buy and read faithfully through at least one book that has been published in the last five years...........

It was perhaps Wells' idea that for two weeks of the year every Samurai must take themselves off into the wilds of the natural world without weapons or maps on a sort of survival course, that caught the attention of some members of the public in England and America and despite Well's strenuous denials that he should not be taken seriously in this respect; clubs were formed on his ideas of the way of the Samurai. How far Wells courted controversy is difficult to say, I am rather inclined to believe that he just got carried away with his ideas and rarely had second thoughts.

Well's imagination, his mind overflowing with concepts and ideas are not lacking in A Modern Utopia and it his ability to express them with wit and enthusiasm that makes this book worth reading. Who can resist thinking about his critiques of his own society, such as;

Work as a moral obligation is the morality of slaves

or his views on religious toleration and his ideas that religion or what we might call spiritualism should be a private thing:

A man may no more reach God through a priest than love his wife through a priest

Wells says in his introduction that he will not publish any more books on his ideas for Utopia or how the world should develop, but of course as we know he could not leave it alone and much more was to follow. In A Modern Utopia he tried something different, linking his critique of modern society with an element of fantasy. It was not entirely successful, but today is a worthwhile read for anybody interested in Utopias or H G Wells and at times it is entertaining. I would rate it at 3.5 stars.

Utopian dreams
More Bacon, Wells' Butler
Nightmare world order

Wells' perfect world
Individual free will
won't fit; why should it

My Utopia
Optimistically speaking
Plum blossom again

I know I read To Kill a Mockingbird in school, grade 7 I think, but I didn't recall a thing about it so I reread it a year or two ago, amazing book!

That Wells title sounds interesting; did you ever read Huxley's Island?

I reread To Kill a Mockingbird a few years ago after reading a thought-provoking article about it in The New Yorker and I found it interesting to read it so long after it was written as it really captures a time and a place, with all the limitations of that.

Enjoying, as always, your Wells (and utopia/dystopia) reviews.

Monkey, I read Huxley's island so long ago that I have almost completely forgotten it and so it is time for a re-read soon.

Welcome back Rebecca

I thought it was very interesting, he had a lot of rather unique ideas in his utopia, but the ideas wind up outweighing the story a bit. But even with that fault I think I'd like to buy it sometime (I read it from the library) and reread it in the future, it's one of those rare ones that I feel really could benefit from a closer look. :)

Terrific cover of To Kill a Mockingbird. I have very fond memories of that book.

Very well written review of A Modern Utopia. I think the review might be better than the book. Wells may call it utopia but it doesn't sound like anyplace I would want to live.

I so enjoyed your review of A Modern Utopia.

I adore To Kill a Mockingbird.

Catching up. Fun stuff on Wells and very impressive list on Camus. Great job, and what a great experience.

Very interesting synopsis of Wells's A Modern Utopia. His Samurai class sounds an awful lot like Plato's Guardians from The Republic.

I am rather inclined to believe that he just got carried away with his ideas and rarely had second thoughts.

Probably true. He seems never to have been at a loss for an opinion or an idea.

I think the idea of a 'meritocracy' that rules benevolently is one that has always appealed to intellectuals. Someone has to know 'better'; democracy panders to the masses, while dictatorship tends to tyranny.

A few years ago I did an OU course and one of the set books was John Carey's The Intellectuals and the Masses: Pride and Prejudice among the Literary Intelligentsia which has two short chapters on Wells. His final words on Wells' utopias are -

Wells is often thought of a rationalist, bringing science to the succour of mankind and planning technological Utopias. This view is not false, but it is incomplete. Many aspects of modern mass-mankind repelled him - newspapers, advertising, consumerist women, cities. A return to peasant life was preferable. The development of his fiction suggests that destruction lured him even more powerfully than progress. Reducing the world's population became an obsession. In fantasy he took - again and again, and with mounting savagery - a terrible revenge on the suburban sprawl that had blighted Bromley.

I'm sure I'll enjoy your thread 'part two' as much as 'part one'. A fascinating review of A Modern Utopia to kick things off.

I wonder if you've ever come across the Faber Book of Utopias edited by John Carey? It's a very interesting compendium of all kinds of good (and some not-so-good) fiction and non-fiction writing on the subject across the ages.

We are having a short break in a holiday cottage. When I saw the bookshelves in this cottage I thought of you. Numerous Wells and Lessings on show, and a couple of DHLs and Camus.

I've picked up Sexing the Cherry and Return of the Soldier to read.

It will be interesting to hear your views as to where We fits in to the utopia/dystopia genre.

Thank you for the recommendations Paul and Turner. John Carey posted by both of you, but two separate books. I am very tempted by the Faber book of Utopias.

Wow Zeno, do you select your holiday cottages by what's on their bookshelves?

Turner, Another thing that has struck me about Wells is how parochial his outlook can be and so that closing phrase "a terrible revenge on the suburban sprawl that blighted Bromley" is so apt. In all Wells' books about the future I have read; he flirts with eugenics, not rejecting it out of hand, but saying the science needs more development.

Steven, Wells says that his ideas on the Samurai were developed from Plato's Republic and throughout the book he mentions previous writings on Utopia, More of Course, Plato, Campanella, Bacon etc.

When I get around to reading H.G. Wells, I'll keep your comments about him in mind. Adding my vote for To Kill a Mockingbird! Love both the book and the movie. Looking forward to your thoughts on it.

Two films:

12 Years a slave http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2024544/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
I saw this at my local cinema and could not fault it as a film. Superbly shot, brilliantly acted and it told a story that deserved to be told. However I could not escape a feeling when the credits rolled that I had somehow done my duty in seeing this film. I knew the story, there were no surprises in a good way and everything looked beautiful and it had the desired effect of leaving me feeling saddened at the end. Everyone was a little subdued as they left their seats, no chatter about the film as we strolled out into the town square. It was as though we had all known what to expect and we had not been disappointed, but what was there to talk about? A strangely subdued experience.

The Descendents http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1033575/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_5
Starring George Clooney and set against a modern backdrop of Hawaii. I saw this on TV and loved the film. Clooney is very good as a husband trying to cope with two young daughter while his wife lies in a coma in hospital. The family grows and come of age somewhat jerkily as they all cope in their different ways with the tragedy. It feels real, it is funny without resorting to endless wisecracks and the supporting cast is top notch.

Two excellent films, but while I would be happy to see The Descendent again tomorrow night I would avoid any future viewing of 12 years a slave.

Interesting about 12 Years a Slave. I've tried reworking the rest of my comments several ways, none of which sounded like what I meant, so I'll just say that even though it is one of the award films to come anywhere near here this year, I haven't seen it, suspecting my reaction would be much like yours. On the other hand, my conscience is telling me I should see it.

Thought The Descendants was an excellent role for George Clooney, and you're right, it is worth seeing it again.

Great quotes from Wells.

Your review to 12 Years a Slave is exactly how I felt upon leaving Passion of the Christ. A movie that was well made with an important story (and I'm not even religious) and that upon leaving, I was entirely neutral upon my reaction. Sort of an acquiescence that I saw the movie and that life would continue as normal.

Adding my enthusiastic praise of To Kill a Mockingbird

The Titan by Theodore Dreiser
"I satisfy myself" says Frank Cowperwood the Titan in this story of one man's rise to power in the financial world of Chicago in the 1880's. Written in a realist style the book has been said to provide an interpretation of American Public Morality. This is a world where making money matters above all else, but Dreiser invests his hero Cowperwood with a rich understanding of the human psyche and this gives him an advantage over his competitors. Every man has his price and everyman has a limit as to how far he is prepared to go and Cowperwood's knowledge of this and his willingness to use every means at his disposal to succeed makes him appear either, as a monster or superhero; the line is really that blurred in Dreiser's excellent characterisation.

The Titan is the second book of a trilogy and we learn that Cowperwood had recently been released from prison where he served a sentence for illegal financial dealing in Philadelphia. During his time in jail his investments have made him a rich man and with the support of his mistress the beautiful Aileen Butler, of good family, he is prepared to take on the world again. He sees Chicago as his kind of town, a place seething with energy and expanding at a colossal rate. It is controlled by men representing old American money, families that form a close knit society whose financial dealings enable them to control city hall and the local politicians. Cowperwood's methods of buying his way into this society are resisted by the old elite and his aggressive financial dealings soon make enemies of the old patriarchs. His seduction of one of their wives and his refusal to be bested, stir up a hatred that becomes intensely personal and he finds himself in a battle for control of the city. Bribery, corruption and the pursuit of money is the oil that makes the machinery of government work smoothly and Cowperwood knows how to make the wheels turn. He gathers around himself a coterie of lawyers, financial men and crooked politicians and with his financial acumen and his ability to seize on opportunity he takes on the old guard. Cowperwood's power plays in the financial world are offset by his power plays in the bedroom. He is a strong man and in Dreiser's world sexual potency is an essential requirement.:

"Sex interest in all strong men usually endures unto the end, governed by a stoic resignation"

Cowperwood enjoys his conquests, but he is questing as always and it is for the perfect partner, this is one that will provide him with the stimulus he needs and also the intelligence to be able to make it in society. He blames Aileen (whom he marries) for his failure to break into the Chicagoan high society and his relationship with his wife and his desire for a younger more intelligent model, is a second strand in the novel to his financial dealings.

Dreiser's book and in fact the whole trilogy is based on the character of Frank Cowperwood and ultimately its success or failure depends on whether we can believe in the man as much as we can the world that he inhabits. Cowperwood is not one for naval gazing and so while he does feel guilt for the way he treats Aileen and some of his business rivals, he can offset this with largesse: money gives him power to fix things and while his understanding of human nature makes him realise that this is not always enough at least it can ameliorate the guilt that he does feel. Cowperwood's human side and and his at times warped sense of fair play coupled with his fight against a society whose values are at a similar pitch or worse than his own make this self made man into a hero that some of us may want to see succeed. Dreiser wants us to admire the man; after all he is the kind of person that made America into a country whose values and beliefs dominate much of the Western world today. Chicago in the period of its rapacious growth from 1880 until 1905 when this novel ends is vividly portrayed especially in the early part of the book. The vibrancy, the energy the feel of a town that is on the verge of becoming a great city is well caught. Cowperwood makes his money by buying up gas companies and then street cars and Dreiser manages to portray both services desperately trying to keep pace with change, growth and new technologies. One gets the feeling in the best parts of this novel of a pulsating life that is messy, almost out of control, but boisterously overcoming all barriers in its will to succeed.

The novel does go into some detail about the financial dealings of the period and much of this I do not pretend to understand, it may or may not be of interest to other readers. The boodling politicians and their ways and means of stuffing ballot boxes are all too familiar and I felt on safer ground with this aspect. Dreiser's writing was considered to be part of the Literary Naturalism movement and so the reader would expect to find a certain amount of realism, which can be detailed. One would also expect to see how social conditions, heredity and the environment shapes human character and this is a major theme in the novel. Although in this case the environment is the financial and political world and some aspects of high society, there is precious little about the "great unwashed": the working classes: they are seen primarily as a barrier to progress then as a threat to society itself giving the novel a right wing perspective. However while one may admire Cowperwood, one certainly can't admire the world that he inhabits and this brings out the dichotomy that is inherent throughout the novel. The reader is torn between wanting to admire Cowperwood and all he represents; as he battles to get to the top in a society that has many of the faults of rampant capitalism, with the ways and corrupt means that he gleefully uses. There is the dichotomy of his relationships with women, who are depicted no more unkindly than their men. There is also a further dichotomy between the world of finance and the world of art. Cowperwood is portrayed as a genuine lover of art, he is collecting pictures for his gallery, which will of course be investments and a legacy to the nation. He admires some artists and will accept their different outlook on the world, although he struggles to see their place in it, he wants the women in his life to be both intelligent, to appreciate, or be artists themselves as long as they remain true to his vision of the world.

Dreiser's novel was published in 1914 and it depicts a time in America's history twenty years previously and so the reader will look in vain for progressive modern ideas. It is concerned with giving an accurate portrayal of the emergence of a powerful nation and the forces and men that brought this into being. This it does admirably. It also has a fascinating portrait of a powerful, successful man perfectly attuned to the times in which he lives. You may admire him or you may not, that will probably depend on your own view of the world, but there is enough of a dichotomy in his character to make him more than just a product of his times. I found this an absorbing read and while this is by no means anything like a perfect novel it was well worth the time spent reading, perhaps it also gives an insight into the American psyche. (which is something else I don't pretend to understand.) I am tempted to read Dreiser's American Tragedy which is considered to be his most successful novel and I would rate this at 3.5 stars.

Very interesting review of The Titan, Barry. I have An American Tragedy on my shelf. I may pull that one down this year.

Pet Boodles abound
Jerking off America
Handily Tragic

Titanesque live Corps
Eating more than they can chew
Farting towards God

Rome's great capitals
Listing to dystopia
working men clubbed dead

Fine review of The Titan. I've read Dreiser's Sister Carrie and An American Tragedy and recommend them, especially the latter.

The Titan sounds like a great read (good glare on the cover). Thank you for the very detailed and excellent review. I haven't read any Dreiser but will be doing so.

On the subject of films, publicity starts so far in advance these days that my interest has waned by the time they're released. If there is something I think I might want to watch I try to avoid trailers, reviews, etc. so I can watch without preconceptions, but release runs are so short I seldom catch them anyway.

I haven't seen 12 Years A Slave, but I suspect it may fall into a class of film which always makes me uncomfortable, however good it may be. I can't think of a way of putting this well, but as a crass analogy I remember at university people (including me) would watch grainy films about human rights abuses, etc., and I always felt that however much the audience felt genuine concern about the subject matter they also felt just a tinsey bit smug, as attending the screenings showed them to be engaged and concerned. People who didn't care didn't go, so the films always played to an audience of sympathetic like-minded people, who would experience a sense of outrage but not actually do anything in consequence. Nowadays with much bigger budgets and better production values there are films out there doing the same thing; all that is left to the audience is to judge the acting, the script, the production - everything else is preset. Obviously all movies aim to press their audience's buttons, but I recoil from anything which aims to make the audience feel slightly morally superior, particularly when it can do so at a safe distance, whether physical or historical, from the subject matter, to stir our emotions in condemnation of something we all know is, or in this case was, awful. Tom Lehrer joked about 60s folk singers boldly declaring themselves in favour of things no one in the audience would oppose. It was a somewhat mean joke, and in a lot of cases unfair, but at a stripped down level it applies to many films.

Vis a bis The Titan. Still the same old Chicago - graft, bribery, under-the-table deals. As for Cowperwood, had he married Undine Spragg from Edith Wharton's Custom of the Country, he would have had the perfect spouse.

#32 I can't think of a way of putting this well, You put it very well indeed, thank you for posting.

I've never read any Dreiser -- and probably won't -- so I appreciated your excellent review.

Enjoyed your review of The Titan. I read An American Tragedy a couple of years ago and I can only recommend it.
The Titan made its way on my wishlist.

Mary, I discovered a new word through Dreiser: Boodle. Good to know it is "business as usual" in Chicago.

"Business as usual" is one of my most hated phrases, Thatcher and her government used it all the time, but then again so did Tony Blair: perhaps it is a phrase that war criminals have a penchant for using.

Boodle ... I like that.

Great review of The Titan, Barry. I decided to tackle The Financier first, which I am still reading, and will get to The Titan later on in the year.

The details about financial dealings bore me, but the book has sufficient speed to keep going.

The only book I've ever associated with Dreiser is Sister Carrie, so really liked your review of The Titan. I see it features in Literary Centennials, so reading the whole trilogy might be a good pursuit this year. I'm one of those who plods through from beginning to end. That whole class fascinates me for some reason, probably for its political influence which it had no hesitation in using. Once again you've tipped me to a new book.

Sassy I am not going back to read the first in the trilogy especially as edwinbcn has commented that the financial dealings bore him. They would bore me to and The Financier was criticised for its wordiness.

This is a bit embarrassing but too funny not to share.

At breakfast this morning I was telling my wife (who is a non-reader) about Oandthegang's comment in msg #32 above that there are movies we see, not because we enjoy or learn from them, but because we are expected to watch and can feel righteous later about having done so. I said that applied as much to books as it does to movies. "Yeah," she replied, "like that book Fifty Shades of Grey everyone was trying to get me to read." I dropped my spoon into my oatmeal in astonishment and asked how on earth she could consider that subject to be even remotely "politically correct." "Of course," she replied, "isn't it all about women growing old?"

At least now I know why she was so offended when a younger woman recommended it to her at the a bookstore last year, and why her expenditures at the hairdresser have doubled since then.

>42 StevenTX: LOL. That is very funny.

Lol Classic

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
This is an extraordinary novel that reads like a jazz rendition of an old New Orleans standard tune; it has themes a plenty, highs and lows, caricatures, exaggerations, is riotously funny and strains at the seams to hold it's central motif. The hero, whose name is kept secret is the invisible man of the title and his story is told in the first person. He is not literally invisible, but it is the "real me" his true self that other people cannot see and Ellison is suggesting that this is the issue for many people. It was particularly applicable to black people in 1952 when the novel was published and was seen as a novel of protest for black people who were striving to achieve equality and who were fighting a white majority.

The book can be read as a bildungsroman as we follow the hero through a number of set piece events; the battle royal, his expulsion from college, his job in the paint factory, his work for the Brotherhood, the death of Clifton his colleague and finally; the riot in Harlem. At the end of these events our hero has learnt much about himself and the world around him; "None of us know who he is and where he is going" he says in an epilogue, but it is evident that some people need to have control over others and these others are the invisible people. Everything our hero attempts to achieve turns to dust and other people suffer; his repeated question is "Did I do something wrong" it is only when he realises that he is not to blame that he can attain some sort of peace with himself.

The set piece events are exaggerated for effect and they can be very funny, but the humour is sometimes black. The first of these is the battle royal where a number of young negroes are rounded up to fight until the last man is left standing at a smokers club. Many of the pillars of the community are present to watch and the atmosphere becomes something akin to an event that could have been staged in the Coliseum at Rome as first the young boys are made to watch a nude blonde woman before starting in on the fighting. The survivors are then encouraged to fight for coins, scraps of metal that have been placed on an electrified metal meshing before their ordeal is over. Our hero has been roped into the event even though he is ostensibly there to make a speech as a reward for his oratorical skills at school. He finally gets to make his speech and impresses enough to win a scholarship to a black college. Other set pieces involving our hero are equally dramatic and equally funny. He chauffeurs a white trustee of his college and takes him to the old slave quarters of the town ending up at a bordello, where he quickly loses control of events. When he moves up to New York he gets a job in a paint factory and succeeds in being unwittingly instrumental in blowing up the plant. Everything seems to happen to him and at times it reads like a particularly rumbustious comedy as he lurches from one disaster to another. Ellison manages to move the story along at a cracking pace during these passages, but sometimes loses a little control as the humour can be in a sort of unnatural tension with our hero's attempts to find a meaning to everything that is cracking off around him. There is no doubting that it is fun to read and elements of illusion and even fantasy add to the mix and the novel borders on being a Rabelaisian nightmare at times; I am thinking here of our hero in the paint factory infirmary, undergoing a kind of lobotomy as a cure for his sickness. Is he mad one wonders? Is it all a dream? these questions contrast with some gritty realism forcing the reader to continually take stock of what is happening.

Illusion and fantasy elements are given extra credence by some unforgettable caricatures of leading characters. Lucius Brockway, the janitor in the basement of the paint factory, who may or may not be have delusions of grandeur, Ras the destroyer; the black activist who charges into the riot in Harlem, spear in hand on an old nag. Brother Jack the red haired one eyed leader of the Brotherhood who imposes a Kafka like discipline and secrecy over much of the Brotherhoods tactics. These larger than life men and women just stray far enough outside of true characterisation to turn them into symbols of a deeper malaise and there is much symbolism in this novel. Darkness and light are the most obvious, but there is also chaos, control, blindness, invisibility, music and illusion.

One mustn't lose sight that the novel is about a 'them and us' situation, blacks and whites. The whites are in control of much that is important and our hero sees his role as raising the consciousness of black people and in doing so Ellison raises the consciousness of the reader to the racial issues affecting America in the 1950's. The book can be seen as a historical document of race relations at the time written by a black man writing with passion and zeal about real issues in America. There are very few shades of grey, but I think it would be a mistake to limit the books message to this idea, as what was true for black people in America is equally true for many minorities today. It is a book that highlights the plight of invisible people everywhere who are subject to unjust control of their lives in an effort to keep them invisible. Our hero comes to a sort of realisation at the end and Ellison starts the novel with a powerhouse of a prologue where he sets up many of the symbols that are key to his text.

The shock value of the novel has dissipated over the intervening years, but the energy and quality of much of the writing is still there to be admired. It is not evenly paced and sometimes gets a little lost in its own energy, but Ellison stops it running away with itself. Some brilliant set pieces and there is much to discuss especially the symbolism, although it can feel a little uneven. An important book and one that I greatly enjoyed. A four star read (probably would have been five stars in 1952)

Terrific review of Invisible Man, Barry. It is a book that I have been meaning to read for years, and I never seem to get to it.

Wonderful review, Barry. I read Invisible Man decades ago, as a teenager, and it might well be due for a reread. I have a biography of Ralph Ellison by Arnold Rampersad, but I haven't read it yet (my sweetie did); I enjoyed Rampersad's two-part biography of Langston Hughes.

Great review. I studied Invisible Man for a class on the American novel and we spent a lot of time on the numerous elements of symbolism in it. There was also quite a bit of conversation about the influence of jazz on it - I'm sure I read somewhere that Ellison had ambitions to be a musician when younger. I remember being very impressed by it, even after it had been picked apart.
I've always wondered if its success inhibited Ellison, to the extent that he never finished another novel. (>48 rebeccanyc: - it would interesting to know why he didn't publish another novel, if you get the time to get around to reading the biography).

One thing I found interesting about Invisible Man, in addition to the points you've made in your review, is that the Brotherhood was a Marxist movement. This was a very bold topic during the Red Scare, and no doubt influenced how many people reacted to the novel. I can recall that much of the anti-Civil Rights propaganda--including films we were shown in school--attempted to tie people like Martin Luther King, Jr., to the Communist Party and the USSR.

Turner, there is much conjecture why Ellison never published another novel during his lifetime. Three days before the shooting his unfinished second novel was published after his death. I will not be reading that, but I am interested to read his essays on music.

Steven. The Brotherhood was the thinly disguised communist party. Ellison both wrote and edited some of the communist party's publications before he fell out with them, claiming that there was no place for African-Americans in the movement. This is of course reflected in Invisible Man when the hero becomes disillusioned with the Brotherhood. It is very interesting that the novel was published in 1952 probably at the height of McCarthyism and the red scare in America. You will know more about that than me.

>51 baswood: - you may be interested in this then - The Blues by Ralph Ellison

Great review of Invisible Man, Barry. I plan to read it again later this year, along with his monstrous unfinished second novel Three Days Before the Shooting....

If I haven't mentioned it already I would highly recommend two other books by Ellison, which are mostly about music: Trading Twelves: The Selected Letters of Ralph Ellison and Albert Murray, and Living with Music: Ralph Ellison's Jazz Writings.

I will definitely get a copy of Living with Music to read this year.

Darryl you might be interested in Jargoneer's link in #52 which is a book review by Ellison on one of Leroi Jones's books.

Really interesting review of Invisible Man. This idea of the person inside chiming with Oblomov for me and what I've read so far of my latest Russian reading.

Btw I like the Haiku

Thanks TonyH

The Dramatic Writings of John Heywood
Is this my attempt to post a review of one of the most obscure books read in club read this year? No of course not; I could never compete with stevenTX. It is my on going project of reading early 16th century literature and Heywood serves as a link between medieval morality plays and the Elizabethan drama tradition of Shakespeare, Marlowe and others.

John Heywood (1497-1580) was an English Tudor courtier and made his name as a musician and composer. None of his music survives but there are plays, proverbs and poems and it is his plays or interludes that are of most interest today. Heywood was a devout Catholic and very well connected; his Uncle-in-law was Sir Thomas More, but Heywood managed to prosper under four Tudor Kings and Queens (Henry VIII, Edward, Mary, and Elizabeth), although he had to flee the court of Elizabeth when the Act of Uniformity became law in 1564.

His plays vary somewhat in content and quality and were written to be performed at court or in private houses, there were no permanent theatres at that time, although there were professional players and the plays were written to be performed by a minimal number of actors. There is very little actual drama and they would have been performed as interludes between or among other courtly activities. The plays are:

The Pardoner and the Friar Printed 1533. Most of the interlude is a dialogue between the Friar and the Pardoner, in which they both state their case as to what they have to offer to people who wish for salvation. It is not long before they start trading insults and there is an amusing passage where each of the actors are given alternate lines, where it would have called for some skill to bring this off. The players also have a chance to directly address the audience and the Pardoner gets the best lines here when he says to the women in the audience that if they have cuckolded their husbands they will receive no benefits from his relics, so they had better come forward. A Parson then enters and it becomes obvious it is his church and he berates both the friar and the Pardoner for the fraudsters that they are and he demands that they leave. They stand their ground and the Parson asks Neighbour Prat to help him clear the church. A fight develops and surprisingly it is the Pardoner and the Friar that come off best saying they will leave now, but will come back any time they like.

This is a lively entertainment that ends in a brawl which would have amused the audience. The Pardoner and the Friar both come across as whipping boys of the catholic church in the best traditions of Chaucer. However the Pardoner perhaps the biggest rogue reminds the audience of the power of the catholic church when he becomes angry at the Friar and the parson for interrupting him:

And all such that make interruption
The Pope sends them excommunication
And eke if you disturb me anything
Thou art also a traitor to the king

The above example demonstrates the rhyming couplets that are a feature of most of the lines.

The play called the Four PP's printed in 1543. The dialogue here again involves four players: A Pardoner, a Palmer, A 'Pothecary and a Pedlar. The argument is again over who is best qualified to lead the people to God. They decide that if they band together then they will be invincible, but they must choose a leader. They agree on a contest and the one who can tell the tallest tale or who is the biggest liar will win. The Pothecary's story is gross and obscene, the Pardoner gets the best story which involves a trip to Purgatory and then to Hell in search of a female neighbour of his who he has promised to save. However the contest is cut short when in response to the Pardoner saying that the devil is only too pleased to release the troublesome woman because of her evil tongue, the Palmer declares that he has never met a woman that would loose patience with him and let loose her tongue. The pedlar immediately declares the Palmer the winner for telling a lie that cannot be beat. An amusing interlude that has some good lines but there is no drama and the sudden ending before each participant gets to tell his tale, while witty smacks of Heywood afraid of boring his audience.

A Merry Play Three players in this comedy: John John, Tyb his wife and the priest Sir John. A relatively short and funny interlude that moves the furthest distance away from the morality plays of the middle ages. This is a domestic drama featuring real people who are named. There are changes of scene, asides to the audience and even a scene within a scene that could be acted out in the playing area. It is genuinely funny with the cuckolded husband coming off worst. The play opens with a long soliloquy from John John who is waiting for his wife to come home, he says how he suspects her of running around and he says how much he will beat her when she returns. He goes into great detail of what he will do to her and of what he has done in the past. As soon as Tyb enters, one word from her and John John is put in his place and the only thing he beats is his fish for supper. Tyb has been making a pie with her gossip (friend) and the ingredients have been provided by Sir John the priest. She orders husband John John to go round to the priests house and invite him to supper. John John swallows his pride and goes. He returns with the priest and Tyb tells him to go and fetch a pail of water. The pail badly leaks and John John has to fix it before he can return, meanwhile Tyb and the priest eat all the pie and have a merry time together. They go off leaving John John on his own.

This makes for an amusing and fun interlude with changing dynamics between the players, that points the way towards Elizabethan drama.

The Play of the Weather printed 1533. With the number of players this could be seen as Heywood's most ambitious play, but it is more attune to the morality play format than A Merry Tale above. The God Jupiter controls the weather but he is fed up with the carping from the humans about the weather he provides and so he asks Merry Report - a Vice to find out from the people what they want. A number of representatives from the people all want different things. The water miller wants rain, the wind miller wants wind, the Gentleman wants good weather for hunting, and the Gentlewoman wants no sunshine to spoil her complexion. The play is organised as a series of dialogues with no more than three or four actors on stage at any one time, which would allow players to take on a number of roles. The dialogue is enlivened by Merry Report who chides, goads and laughs at the various representatives.

The Play of Love Features more disputation rather than drama. The lover loved, The lover not loved, The woman beloved but not loving and Neither Loved nor Loving dispute over who suffers most pain and who is the happiest. The theme is courtly love dating from the middle ages and while it might have appealed to Tudor Courtiers, much of the "witty" dialogue reads a little tedious today.

A Dialogue Concerning Witty and Witless This was never printed in Heywood's lifetime and one can understand why. A dialogue that seems to go nowhere, suffering from repetition and confusion.

These plays or interludes are of interest to readers who want to delve into early modern drama, they are amusing at times and of course give a real feel for the times in which they were written. One can see the early stirrings of recognisable drama in a couple of them, but they are only for the enthusiast I suppose, and so I would rate them at 3 stars.

Barry, I just noticed that Doris Lessing's Mara and Dann is the science fiction/fantasy deal for amazon kindle today. I'm not sure if that works for you too. I know that you might already have it, but thought I'd mention it.

Thanks Colleen

Love your opening paragraph!

Heywood must have been skilled in many areas to be a courtier and survive to such a ripe old age. I have seen his name mentioned in passing in some histories, but did not know his plays were available. Great explanation of the positioning of Heywood between the morality plays and the Elizabethan playwrights. It's amazing how much we can learn about different times from each one's contemporary writers.

Great reviews of The Titan and Invisible Man, Barry.

Coincidentally, I am currently reading Dreiser's An American Tragedy and organizing a small group discussion of the book, to be led by a professor who has taught and published on it. It should be a great discussion, made even more interesting by the fact that it is based on an actual criminal case from a nearby region of NYS. An operatic adaptation of the book is also on this summer's schedule at Glimmerglass Opera in Cooperstown.

The African American Lit seminar that I attended last year included the excerpt from Invisible Man that you describe as the first set piece. Read in isolation, I didn't see the humor in it. In fact, the brutality of how the young men were treated made we wonder if I would be able to get through the whole book.

Emerging from obscurity to say that was a very interesting review of the Heywood plays, and you've made it clear how they represent a transition from medieval morality plays to Shakespeare. But what a great leap from the likes of Heywood in just a few decades to Shakespeare and Marlowe!

Late to the party, but just wanted to say your review of Invisible Man was terrific. I read it many, many years ago but clearly remember almost none of it. I'll have to reread soon.

To Kill A Mockingbird Harper Lee
I had seen the film starring Gregory Peck as Atticus many moons ago and would never have bothered to read the book had it not been a choice of my book club, however having just read Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison I wondered how it would compare on race issues in America during the mid 20th century. Well the short answer is it doesn't. Whereas Ellison's book was an adult novel, angry at times and encompassing issues of protest against the position of Black people in America, Lee's book is a young adult novel more concerned with issues of raising children in a small town in America's southern heartland, where the position of the black minority is highlighted by the impossibility of a black man to get a fair trial at the hands of an all white jury.

The books central concern is with how the two children of a liberal lawyer cope with the animosity stirred up by Atticus acting as a defence lawyer to a black man accused of raping a white woman. The trial does not so much as divide the community as pitch most of them against Atticus in varying degrees. The position of the black minority is one of stasis, they are despised by most white people living at the poor end of the social spectrum and tolerated in varying degrees by most others. They are accepting of their fate, relying on the church and employment by white people for their economic survival; they are relatively safe as long as they know their place, but when one of their community crosses a line between them and the poor whites then violence against them will be the result. This is America (Southern States) in the 1930's.

The trial of Tom Robinson while taking up the central part of the book it is not the central issue. We are not made aware of charges against him until well into the novel and he fades from our view long before the novel finishes. The novel ends with a retributory attack on Atticus' children and the solving of the mystery of Boo Radley, which was a feature of the early chapters. This is a book written from a child's perspective, Scout is about 8 years old when the major events take place. Her home life with elder brother Jem their friend Dill their father Atticus, and their black maid Calpurnia is portrayed in some detail. It is written in the first person with Scout looking back over the events that were so important for her formative years and we do not know what she really thinks about them now. Lee wisely does not try and see the events exclusively through the eyes of the 8 year old Scout, but uses her older self to provide some analysis. This works quite well, however where the book runs into trouble is when it has to engineer situations where the 8 year old can be present to witness events, here the readers incredulity is put under some strain. For example the children are allowed in the courtroom to witness the trial, they disobey their father and Scout is instrumental in stopping a possible lynching. This is all kids stuff and what you might expect in a YA Novel.

Atticus is set before us as a shinning light of liberalism, his children are basically good kids, who occasionally get up to mischief. They learn their lessons well and we as readers are expected to do the same and this is where I found issues with the book: It is too simplistic in its down home folksiness. Don't get me wrong Atticus, is a father it would be a privilege to have, but his wise words and upright citizenship, don't quite ring true with the final compromise which means we can all feel good about the ending of the book.

This is a book about growing up in a town in the South of the USA where segregation of the races is normal. What is not normal is Atticus' determination to treat everybody equally and always to look for the good in the most unpleasant characters. He comes across as a heroic and courageous man, a guiding light for his children to live up to and so surely an ideal subject for an excellent Young Adult novel, but great literature it isn't. I would rate this at 4 stars for it's feel good factor (if you are white that is, because guess who is the only person to get shot).

You are so bad for my TBR.

It's interesting to read your perspective on To Kill A Mockingbird. I first read it as a teenager and read it again a few years ago after reading a somewhat critical article about it in the New Yorker. I too found it simplistic, and found its treatment of both the black people and the white people stereotypical, and I am also probably the only person in the world who found Atticus infuriating and insufferable.

Fabulous and very useful review of To Kill a Mockingbird, Barry. I haven't read it yet, believe it or not, so I'll keep your thoughts in mind when I eventually do get around to it.

Marked your review to read it later. I am reading To Kill a Mockingbird myself but I seem to have no time at all for reading and just I use the few minutes I have right now to catch up on all the posts in CR. Though it's mostly reading and not so much commenting.

The Casual Vacancy J K Rowling
Think of a script for the worst Television Soap Opera - that's The Casual Vacancy
Rating 1 star

Great review, Barry!

>65 baswood: >67 rebeccanyc: Really interested in your review Barry, and your comments Rebecca. I am going to have to re-read the book. I remember really feeling the sense of place and time when I read it, maybe first in my early 20s (it wasn't a set book at school), and once since some while ago, and of course have liked the film. I never really thought about it as being a Young Adult novel, but of course it is (they didn't brand 'young adult' novels then).

However, as someone who read James Baldwin in my mid-teens, I don't even remember thinking of his books, with Harper Lee's book in any way, Mockingbird was for me about white experience and behaviour, rather than black experience.

Food for thought!

>71 baswood: oh my! As an older person uninterested much in fashion, I find it difficult to keep up with how much or which parts of underwear it is allowable and/or cool to display. So, shoulderstraps and waistbands ok, very top of cup not?

>73 Caroline_McElwee: Oh I agree with you, Caro. TKAM is definitely about white people -- look how exemplary the black people in it have to be. It's like the movie Guess Who's Coming to Dinner where the Sidney Poitier character had to be a doctor AND helping the less fortunate in the world; he couldn't just be an ordinary guy.

71 -
Funny review. But poor woman! No one wants to be photographed during that one moment you have to adjust yourself. That's just cruel and unusual punishment.

74 -
As someone very much in love with fashion, it is never okay to show your undergarments. Just because a younger person wears it, doesn't mean it's fashion. In fact, it's probably the exact opposite! :)

>76 lilisin: LOL Well said! I was walking through a dept. store once and there was an interesting couple in front of me. She was totally covered in her burka (Can't remember or spell the correct term) and his pants were almost down to his knees with his underwear covered bottom in full view. I bit my tongue but have always regretted that particular episode of tongue biting.

77 -
Oh that would be infuriating indeed! I've also said that if a woman wants to wear a burka, then fine, but the man should also be in traditional garb in that case. If you want tradition, show it. Don't pick and choose what's convenient for you then force your views on others.

Nice frock, bra's fine, but why the necklace?? And as for the novel...!!!

Wow, all sorts of interesting comments here. I don't even know where to start.

I enjoyed your comments on To Kill a Mockingbird very much.

I read the novel in grade 10 English in the mid-70s, and then read it a couple of years ago when my daughter had to read it in her grade 10 English class, and my feelings were about the same both times--good book, well written, but something about it makes me not love it. I find the world of the novel very foreign, so I'm not sure why this book keeps being taught in Canadian high schools. One thing I noticed this last time I read it was the relationship between Scout and her older brother. I'm sure some one has had a sibling relationship like this, but I myself have four older brothers, and not one of them was awesome to me like this. Ever. Further, I've had handfuls of friends with older brothers, and pretty much across the board, older brothers treat their younger siblings (both girls and boy) just horribly. No older brother of any friend of mine was ever nice--even decent was a stretch. Just an observation.

>80 Nickelini:: Hi Joyce, To Kill a Mockingbird is a book that is taught in many schools I believe and it seems eminently suitable for that. I have no experience of older or younger siblings, but from observing other kids it would seem the best most kids could hope for was toleration, although I did know a girl who was in love with her older brother but that is another story.

Sorry Lilisin >76 lilisin: it is a cruel picture, but I was not feeling generous after reading her book. It was a book club choice and we are meeting to talk about it next week, I am wondering if I will be the only person not to like it.

>73 Caroline_McElwee: Absolutely right Caroline, To Kill a Mockingbird is all about white experience and behaviour.

>71 baswood: - I'm thinking of Eldorado. One of the best reviews I've read since Tibor Fischer said this about Martin Amis -

"Yellow Dog isn't bad as in not very good or slightly disappointing. It's not-knowing-where-to-look bad. I was reading my copy on the Tube and I was terrified someone would look over my shoulder (not only because of the embargo, but because someone might think I was enjoying what was on the page). It's like your favourite uncle being caught in a school playground, masturbating."

Dropping in to try to catch up -- interesting discussion. TKAM has a significant historical place in the popular and school reading of the US. It's both an antidote to GWTW and a companion piece to The Diary of Anne Frank.

I am glad I got to join in on your insightful comments on To Kill a Mockingbird. I think that young adult says a lot about this book. The characters were stereotypical and Tom Robinson was just a backdrop for the story of the kids. I remember it as a book everybody read, a rite of passage experience.

Catching up. Great stuff on Ellison and Heywood. Quite a shot at Rowling.

As kid I saw the movie TKAM, not sure if I read the book or not, but I adored Atticus. He was the person I wanted to become - which I saw as someone strong enough to do the right thing even if it would attract popular condemnation and likely violence. And of course he handled it well and came out ok. I was not thinking about how black characters were portrayed and I certainly did not see his weaknesses and compromises.

As an adult I can see that, and tear the book apart with a critical eye. But I don't know that it's necessary or appropriate. And I like the Atticus I always admired so much, it's hard to let that go. I think I'm just resistant to open my eyes and be too critical.

Now, if I were to read Ellison first I would certainly see things differently. (I haven't read it). For all her condemnation of southern racism, Lee was really in love with that culture and, in a sense, gave her quiet signs of tolerating it's faults by not probing too deeply into the black characters. That is a form of racism.

Bring out your tired books
Breathe life into worn out blogs
Endorsements abound

Casual vacancy
Small minded people. Act out
life's turgid fly by

T V churns 'em out
sick buckets full of boiled brains
Sheep to the slaughter.

Rowling stones gather
money by the barrow load
J K Fried Chicken

Interesting discussion on TKAM here, Barry. I certainly have nothing to add to it that hasn't already been said. Interesting choice of photos of J. K. Rowling, too.

I hate windows operating system 8. Just needed to say that after downloading the latest update 8.1 and found that it has locked me out of connecting with the internet.

Sorry to hear that, Barry. Everyone I know hates Windows 8, if that's any comfort!

Love the images you post.

Tristram Shandy (Norton Critical Editions)
I struggled to read Tristram Shandy, as most of the time I felt out of tune with Laurence Sterne's world. When I had finished I felt as though I had merely skimmed it's pages and so my thoughts on my reading experience are impressionistic at best.

"I wish either my father or my mother, or indeed both of them, as they were in duty both equally bound to it, had minded what they were about when they begot me"

And so the book starts, but it takes another 170 pages before we get to Tristram's birth as Sterne launches into one digression after another. Is he ever going to tell his story the reader wonders and I think that is the point, because Sterne is a master of manipulation. The book does not merely contain authorial interventions it is for the most part completely made up of them: Sterne explains;

"Digressions, incontestably, are the sunshine - they are the life, the soul of reading; - take them out of this book for instance, - you might as well take the book along with them; - one cold eternal winter would reign in every part of it; restore them to the writer; - he steps forth like a bridegroom, bids All hail; brings in variety, and forbids the appetite to fail"

While we are waiting for Sterne to get on with the story of Tristram, we have Sterne telling us how his book should be read, musing over his difficulties, wondering aloud as to which bits of the story should go where, providing us with tantalising glimpses of what he will write in future volumes, or changing his mind as he launches into yet another story. I have used the word manipulation to describe Sterne's style and I could not help feeling that Sterne, as the arch manipulator was having a grand joke at the expense of his readers. We are either fools or cretins or we are of sufficient intellect to appreciate Sterne's grand design. Whether there is a grand design in Sterne's novel has been the subject of much debate and I can imagine Sterne chuckling to himself knowing he was setting hares running that would run for centuries. He would not be disappointed.

Around the time of it's publication there was much debate about its bawdiness (not considered suitable for ladies to read?) and while much of the story is centered around ideas of impotency; Uncle Toby's war wound in his groin that takes three years to heal and his subesequent amors with the Widow Wadman and Tristram's circumcision by a falling sash window, Sterne takes his readers around such a circutious route that we are never really sure what is bawdy and what is not. The classic example is the chapter on noses. The way Sterne writes about the advantages of large noses; this reader could not help thinking of penis and Sterne knows exactly what he is doing because he says:

" by the word Nose, throughout all this long chapter of noses, and in every part of this work, where the word Nose occurs, - I declare, by the word I mean a Nose, and nothing more or less .

I believe that the reason I appeared to miss so much from this first reading is my lack of knowledge of 18th century literature, while I can appreciate the nods towards Rabelais writing a century and a half earlier I struggled with references to Locke and other writers and thinkers of the period. Reading Tristram just for the funny bits is a frustrating experience especially when you are not sure if the joke is on you. Sterne's characters however are engaging; Uncle Toby and his hobby horse, his faithful servant Corporal Trim, the unfortunate Yorrick, Dr Slop, Obadiah and the rest of the Shandy family come to life in these pages. There were passages where I was engaged, but there were many passages where I was a little bored.

The Norton Critical edition contains much literary criticism. It would appear that there were favourable reviews when it was published with many writers appreciating the unique reading experience that it provided. It was championed by Coleridge and the Romantics, generally despised by the Victorians and Edwardians and today is recognised as a classic. It has many imitators and it's similarity to a kind of stream of consciouness technique has made it a protean work in the genre. The criticsm is generally of a high standard, with many reviwers tying themselves in knots attempting to explain the grand design.

I will re-read Tristram Shandy as being forewarned is definitely fore-armed when approaching this book. I rate it at 3.5 stars, but I think there is a 5 star book in there waiting for my next read.

Protracted birthday
Thinking he would never come
No mid-wife crisis

Hobby Horsing vets.
Trained to kill, show no mercy
Absurd birdsong trills

Inflamed genitals
Sash window circumcision
Touching wounds of war

Unmentionable
sexual innuendo
Life's in out pageant

Impatient reader
Digress with me a while in
Sternucopia

I have The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman on my Kindle. Is it the same book? I haven't read it ... Yet. I'm finding your review intriguing.

Colleen it is Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne, but it is a different edition to mine. I have the Norton critical edition which has some essays at the back.

Colleeen - that is the canonical name of the book--I guess Norton thought it too long when combined with their title elements, or they knew everyone just calls it "Tristram Sandy" anyway, or . . . ?

It's a book that has been on my radar for a long time, but I can't see reading at this stage of my life. Maybe after my kids are grown and I have longer periods of time when people aren't expecting me to be productive. I'll read Moby Dick and War and Peace then too, and maybe even Ulysses.

For now I will just enjoy the film version -- "A Cock and Bull Story' with Steve Coogan. Even it is almost too weird, and tangential,

Well, I have always heard of Tristram Shandy and now I know I don't need to read it. Thanks!

I enjoyed Tristam Shandy, but I can't say that I understood it (or that it was necessarily meant to be understood). Your point about needing to be familiar with 18th century literature is very good. I hadn't read very much of it at the time I read Tristam Shandy.

Thank you Barry, Joyce and Steve. I am not going to write it off, as I am still intrigued. I always used to say "when I'm retired, I will...." Well I'm there, and still have trouble finding all of the time I need to do all of the things I want to do.

Just catching up here. Loving the picture of poor JK.

Thank you for saving me the time and trouble of reading this book. I will put this on the list of the 1001 books I don't need to read before I die.

>101 wildbill: I will put this on the list of the 1001 books I don't need to read before I die

Great idea and very funny.

>65 baswood:: It's been a while but I only read your review of To Kill a Mockingbird just now. I wanted to finish and review the book myself first. I liked your thoughts on the book. I haven't seen the movie, though.

I love Tristram shandy, and have read it so many times, I can't count them. He is my favorite picaresque hero after Tom Jones and Huck finn. The digressions in the book seem to me to be great fun. I don't find that much help in 18th century novels. How would defoe, or aphra behn, or Maria Edgeworth help in reading Sterne? I think Sterne was a creative genius like Joyce, and you have to roll with it, and laugh along.

>104 almigwin: Miriam. Good to see a Tristram Shandy fan here. It is a book that divides the critics and you are right to suggest that you have to roll with it to appreciate it.

Sterne certainly paraphrases or satirises John Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding, which would have been known to well read people of the mid 18th century and so being familiar with the ideas in that essay would enhance the reading experience. Modern critics have compared Sterne to Fielding and so it might be useful to read him and perhaps others just to see how unique Sterne's Tristram really is.

Looking back on my read of Tristram I feel as though I didn't give it my best shot. I am expecting to enjoy it much more when I re-read it.

>101 wildbill:. Don't be put off by my review, you might just love it.

Joshua Redman Quartet at L'Astrada Marciac
Joshua Redman is a regular visitor to the Marciac Jazz Festival held in August and usually plays to a sell out audience of over 5000 people. Last August was no exception and his quartet shared the bill with Ravi Coltrane and Steve Coleman quintet; Redman came on after the quintet and played like a man who had something to prove and brought the audience to its feet. Last Saturday night at the 600 seater L'Astrada it was a different Redman on show and although he played beautifully and excitingly at times the passion in his playing that was so evident last August was missing. My friend thought the group sounded tired, but I don't think it was that. He played a very different programme; for example the first number was something he had recently written for the group and with its sort of fractured time signatures and changes in tempo it looked fiendishly difficult to play, all the group members were paying close attention to their music stands and seemed palpably relieved when the rhythm section provided some swing for the solos. Most of the programme consisted of original material although there were a couple of excursions into his groups previous repertoires.

Joshua played tenor saxophone all evening and his regular group are Aaron Goldberg on piano, Reuben Rogers on bass and Gregory Hutchinson on drums. They all had solo space, but it is Redman's group and he took the lion's share. I suppose the songs were of a more technical nature, and were definitely suited to modern jazz lovers, he did not play any standards or show tunes and so the more casual listener might have been disappointed. The group received a rousing reception at the end of their set, but they did not bring the audience to its feet as they had done last August. I was totally fascinated the whole evening spending the time lost in admiration to one of the best saxophone players on the planet.

I started to read Tristam Shandy when I was studying for doctoral exams, but never got beyond the first 20 pages -- must try again -- when I am FINALLY retired.

Tristam Shandy is the only book I just could not finish in university courses. You summed it up beautifully: ...is he ever going to tell his story the reader wonders Naturally there was a compulsory question on the book on the final exam.

Interesting about the Redman concert. I often think it must be difficult for musicians to feel compelled to play familiar work for the audience, versus spotlighting new work, that is more challenging. He's someone I would like to see no matter what he is playing. How are your own forays going?

I enjoyed your Tristam Shandy review and reading about your troubles with it. Miriam's comments are encouraging. Maybe one day for me, but kudos to you for getting through it.

>96 Nickelini: is it too snotty of me to suggest reading Moby Dick sooner rather than later? You don't need uninterrupted time. I found I liked reading in small pieces, casually letting it grow on me.

>106 baswood: Nice review of the Joshua Redman concert, Barry, although I'm sorry that it paled in comparison to last year's performance.

>108 SassyLassy: How are your own forays going

Learning to play the tenor saxophone has become a real hobby. I started from absolute zero and now after about 16 months I can read music reasonably well and translate that into my saxophone playing, hence I can play a number of standards. I am just starting to feel confident enough to try out my own improvisations. I started out believing I had no natural talent for playing music and that is certainly the case, but I enjoy practising and can see some progress. I am not ready to go public yet and may never do so, but that was never my original intention, I just wanted to see if I could play a musical instrument and I can now quite happily blow along to backing tracks.

It does cut down my reading time though.

Barry, I am so impressed by your progress and prowess with the saxophone. I have long wanted to return to the piano (I suffered through lessons as a child because I hated to practice) and perhaps you will inspire me to do so. As I recall, you are self-taught, or did you have any lessons?

>112 rebeccanyc: Stop me if you have heard this story before. We were on a trip with a friend of ours into Spain and were chatting away passing the time on a typical motorway journey. My friend said to me "You have reached a certain age now Bas is there anything you want to do with the time you have left" I thought for a minute and said I would like to play a musical instrument, but I have never tried to play believing I don't have a good musical ear.

Now I knew that my friend had at one time earned his living as a rock musician and plays trombone in a traditional jazz band in France. He immediately came back with "what do you want to play" I said a flute because I liked the sound it made. "Hmmm" my friend said that might be a bit difficult to learn on, why don't you get a saxophone; it has the same fingering and I'll teach you to play"

That was an offer I couldn't refuse and within a couple of weeks of our trip I had found a second hand tenor saxophone on the internet and went and bought it. From information on the internet I worked out how it fitted together and was able to get some sounds from it. I then turned up at my friends house clutching my saxophone. He tried it out, but found it awkward to show me how to play when he didn't have one himself. "I think I am going to get myself a saxophone" he said.

15 months later my friend has four saxophones, he has completely fallen in love with the instrument and we get together once a week and blow some music. He has taught me to read music, but is also teaching me to use my ears; most of what he said at the start of our sessions went over my head, but it is beginning to make sense now. No money changes hands for my "lessons" which usually take the form of what my friend has been playing that week. We are sort of learning together although my level is considerably below my friends.

PS; I am about to buy another saxophone; an alto this time.

>113 baswood: great story, Bas. :)

>113 baswood:: Nice story. Love it.

>113 baswood: That is a great story, Barry!

What everyone said! Thanks for telling ust the story, Barry.

"You have reached a certain age now Bas is there anything you want to do with the time you have left"

I've asked myself that question several times. Unfortunately I haven't yet come up with anything practicable. I'm glad you were able to.

That is a wonderful story. When I was in college I took about ten lessons on the sax. I love the tenor sax. I have some Coltrane and Sonny Rollins on disk and it is a great instrument.

I have played around at learning several instruments but your story is an inspiration. I had no idea you could learn to play in that short a time. Natural talent showing through.

Oh I love your sax story! Best one I've heard! and as Wildbill said, natural talent showing through!

>101 wildbill: Sounds like a whole new ClubRead thread: 1001 Books We Have Saved Each Other From (sorry all you English teachers. Feel free to edit.) 1001 Books from Which We Have Saved Each Other.

Enjoyed getting caught up bas.

Your saxophone tales reminded me that long long ago and very far away I lived in a bedsit with my then boyfriend. He had wooed me with literature and a guitar but when he decided to teach himself the clarinet I made him practise in the garden. It is possible that the English weather had something to do with his failure to pursue the project.

I later married a man who played the trombone - fortunately never when I was around.

I suppose if it came to it having to stand in the garden in France whilst mastering the sax would not be such a bad thing.

>120 mkboylan: It does sound like a great thread idea. I'm already thinking of entries.

Caught your review of Our Mutual Friend on the "Hot Reviews" section and gave it my thumbprint. I did a little double-take at the character "Jenny Wren" which is the name of one of my favorite McCartney songs: Jenny Wren

>106 baswood: I'm still trying to catch up with posts, a never-ending mission. I really enjoy Joshua Redman's music. It must have been a fine way to spend an evening hearing him play at a jazz festival. Congratulations on your saxophone story! That sounds like a lot of fun.

Hope everything's OK. Missing you here!

Ditto.

Susie, Rebecca, I am fine thanks. I have just got into a bit of a reading slump. I have been concentrating on playing music and real life has caught up with me a bit.

However Patti Smith's Just kids has grabbed my attention and I am getting myself lost in her world. We are off to Paris tomorrow, as I want to see Robert Mapplethorpe's photography exhibition at the Grand Palais.

See you all soon.

Reading slumps seem to be pretty common around here these days. Must be somethin' in the water. Enjoy your trip to Paris. Thanks for checking in!

Just Kids is wonderful, isn't it? Not only a portrait of a time and a place, but one of the best books I've read about the drive to be an artist.

Just Kids by Patti Smith
Just Kids is the perfect title for Patti Smith's autobiography of her early life as a struggling artist in New York in the late 1960's and early 1970's. She looks back on those times with nostalgia, some pride and an adults view of her relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe, which forms the essential core of this book.

Mapplethorpe went on to become an important voice in the photographic world of the 1970's and 1980's. It was a time before the advent of digital photography where care and hard work in the studio could lead to stunning results, especially in the medium of black and white, however when Patti met Robert in 1967 they were "just kids". Mapplethorpe was painstakingly putting together a portfolio of his drawings, paintings and collages, whilst trying to earn a living as a casual labourer. Patti got a more regular job in a bookshop and under Robert's influence put together her own portfolio of poetry, writing and drawing. Their existence was very much hand to mouth often relying on friends for floor space or handouts, but their belief in their own talents, their determination to succeed and the mutual support that they gained from their relationship saw them through. Smith does an excellent job of describing these early years when they sacrificed everything except their love for each other to succeed in the world of art. Their precious portfolios went with them everywhere and were even used as collateral to gain themselves a foothold in the famous Chelsea Hotel.

Smith and Mapplethorpe realised that all the talent in the world would not be enough to get the success they craved; it was equally important to know the right people. Patti staked out the lobby of the Chelsea Hotel (this was more a question of necessity in the early days as they were sharing the smallest room in the establishment) and they both hung out in Max's bar in the evenings, where Andy Warhol's people congregated. They needed to be accepted by the "in" crowd to stand a chance of securing a patron, a commission, or collaborations with other artists. Throughout their struggles Patti's support for Robert was unwavering even when he experimented with drugs, explored the S & M gay scene and found male lovers, eventually moving in with a male partner. She was just as sure that Robert would always be there for her.

Just Kids has become a best selling autobiography and you have to look beyond the story of Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe to discover why. After all they are hardly household names. Patti Smith went on to become a rock star but she was hardly a mega name and while some people may have heard of Mapplethorpe it would mostly be because of a certain notoriety.

The book would obviously appeal to anyone interested in the 1970's rock scene (me for instance) particularly as Patti Smith rose to stardom along with the burgeoning New Wave scene centred around the CBGB's club. It would also appeal to people interested in Robert Mapplethorpe's photographic work (me again) as Smith gives an excellent account of his influences and how he took up photography as his mode of expression. (I was also curious about their relationship as I had always pegged Mapplethorpe as a gay man). The book has a wider appeal because it seems to accurately describe the life and times of struggling artists in the 1970's New York scene. Not only is there plenty of name dropping, but there is a real feel for the time and the place. Smith takes us inside the Chelsea Hotel, she describes how two outsiders gradually wormed their way into the art scene, she tells of sickness and wretchedness and how two kids survived the pitfalls and how they were touched by the early deaths of so many shooting stars with whom they may have rubbed shoulders; it captures the atmosphere of the times brilliantly.

Above all though it is a love story tinged with tragedy and this I think explains it's widest appeal. Patti was Robert's earliest muse and he supported her in whatever venture she undertook. When they drifted apart mainly because of Mapplethorpe's need for a homosexual lover, there was still an important connection between them and Smith is at her best telling this story with honesty and feeling that is deeply affecting.

I read this book before going to see a major retrospective of Mapplethorpe's photographs which is showing in Paris this summer at the Grand Palais and at the Rodin Museum. Patti Smith was Mapplethorpe's earliest model and he took photos of her for her album covers, he also took many self portraits and seeing all these pictures on show really did bring the two characters to life. An excellent read which I would rate as 4 stars.

>129 baswood: & 130 Adding your review to Rebecca's, I'm thoroughly convinced I need to read this one. Love the photos you included; glad you got to see his retrospective. Cool!

Wonderful review of Just Kids. I was not able to get into it. Sounds like I should give it another try.

Glad you loved Just Kids as much as I did, and I loved seeing the photos too.

Wonderful review of Just Kids, Barry.

Great review of Just Kids, Barry.

Just wanted to say that I'm still around here somewhere reading and enjoying your reviews. I'm just really quiet...

Well done! It's such a wonderful book, but also such a difficult book to capture in a review.

Thanks everybody for those kind words and in case you are wondering about Mapplethorpe's photographs, here is a selection of his most famous images. The first one is a self portrait.

Robert Mapplethorpe - Photographs

Robert Mapplethorpe edited by Richard Marshall
This book of Robert Mapplethorpe's work was published to coincide with an exhibition held at the Whitney Museum of American Art; New York, July 28 through October 1988. Mapplethorpe was ill with AIDs having been diagnosed in September 1986 and only had a few months to live. These 109 plates serve as a fitting retrospective for an artist whose vision encapsulated much that was taking place in the world of art at the time. He was an important maker of images and Marshalls book includes many of his more famous black and white photographs as well as a good representation of his early collages and some later colour photographs. From the late 1970's Mapplethorpe's pictures were regularly to be found in galleries and exhibition spaces, he was an established artist and at the time of his death had secured his place in the artistic canon.

Looking through these pictures I was struck by his desire to achieve a perfect balance of subject and form. The vast majority of the pictures were taken in the studio where the artist has most control and in Mapplethorpe's pictures there is no extraneous detail, his most successful pictures have a satisfying completeness about them as he invites the eye to share exactly what he sees. His early images and collages were influenced by Andy Warhol and it seems as though he was trying to subvert the way we look at pictures. He used found pictures from books and magazines sometimes with material and always framed in such a way that the framing became an important part of the picture. He experimented with polaroid shots spending as much care on their representation in the frame as in the subject matter. Many of these early works featured homo-erotic images which in Mapplethorpe's hands achieve a certain balance and dare I say it; beauty. Mapplethorpe was no voyeur he actively took part in the S&M scene and his pictures have quality about them which can only have come from someone who was fascinated and in love with much of what was going on at the time.

The late 1970's found Mapplethorpe fully at home in the studio taking pictures with a large format camera. He had found his medium for expression and he concentrated on the human form, producing pictures that celebrate the power and the beauty to be found in the male torso. Genitalia were often included and sometimes were a feature of these pictures. His celebrated book of photographic studies of black men mostly naked were perhaps a defining moment of his work at the time. He subverted these images with his studies of the white female body builder Lisa Lyons whose musculature achieves a grace and beauty as powerful as his pictures of black men. His use of studio lighting became an art form in itself as he turned his attention to include still life studies of plants: these are plants taken out of their natural habitat, placed in vases and photographed with such care and attention to their place in the frame that the pictures become things of beauty, but not in any naturalistic way. His plant and flower pictures are almost architectural and just as his pictures of the human body resonate with a power so do these beautifully presented photographs.

Ii is no surprise that his studio work also turned in the direction of portraiture. He took many self portraits always supremely confident in the image that he presents. He dressed or undressed for the part making pictures that are a clear statement of intent; sometimes designed to shock always with style and all with a love for the art of picture making. He took pictures of friends many of whom were active in the world in which he lived, but posing for Mapplethorpe was a serious business, no one naturally smiles as they enter into the world of Mapplethorpe's imagery.

Mapplethorpe demanded that we see his photographs as works of art and looking through this excellent retrospective I think he hit the mark more often than not. Included in the book are three essays one of which by Richard Marshall serves as an excellent introduction to his work placing the artist in context with 1970's and 1980's New York. An essay by Ingrid Sischy takes up some of the themes inherent in the photographs using plates in the book as examples. The essay by Richard Howard titled The Mapplethorpe affect for me lacked clarity, however a Five star book of photographs.

Blasted disease. Wonderful review.

Great review, and insight into Mapplethorpe's photography.

Great review of the Mapplethorpe book. Thanks for sharing the pictures.

Excellent review of the Mapplethorpe. I went to an exhibition of his work in a very small town in Scotland a couple of years ago and it included some lovely photographs of children which I had never seen before. They were completely different from the stylized work for which he is well known. Were any of them included in the book?

Wow excellent review! Thanks for sharing most of the pics. ;)

Great review of Robert Mapplethorpe, Barry!

Dubliners by James Joyce
A slim volume of fifteen short stories make up James Joyce's first prose book published in 1914. They are easy to read apart from a few obscure Irish phrases and it soon becomes apparent that Joyce is writing with a realism and insight that must have seemed quite modern when they first appeared. They are slices of middle class life told in a simple fashion with no sudden plot twists or trickery and may at first seem rather inconsequential, however they are certainly not that and build up to "The Dead" one of the best short stories I have ever read. The book has an accumulative power with that final story bringing together many of the strands and themes that appear earlier in the shorter tales.

All the stories are beautifully crafted with characters that are sketched in with such a preciseness that the reader feels at home with them straight away. The reader is never surprised with the actions (or in many cases inactions) that they take; they are a product of their times and those times are superbly caught by the author. Catholic Ireland in the first decade of the twentieth century was smarting under English rule and while a Nationalist uprising was just around the corner the middle class characters that inhabit Joyce stories seem as wary of the Nationalist as they are of English rule and while the political situation does not dominate their lives it is in the background to many of the stories, however Joyce is interested in the way people behave within their own community and his insights into the human condition are just as relevant today.

Missed opportunities or a failure to follow a dream is a theme that predominates, but in many of the stories it would seem to me that the characters are better off not chasing that dream. The events in their lives lead many of them to an epiphany of some sort, it could be a crossroads, but the tragedy is that some of them only realise this after the opportunity has passed them by. There are no risks taken, characters are content to live the lives that they are born into, conventions are followed and you have to say that many of the choices made are inevitable and may even be the right choices.

In "An Encounter" an adventurous young lad is curious about a strange man, who the reader can see could be a paedophile. In "Eveline" a young domestic is given the chance to run away to Argentina with a man who she may love. In "Araby" a teenager is desperate to get to a local Bazaar to buy a present for a girl on whom he has a crush. In "A Painful Case" James Duffy a confirmed bachelor meets a married woman whose company he yearns for and whom he finds intellectually stimulating. Many of the stories touch on situations that many of us will have come across; if not in our own lives then in the lives of friends or acquaintances and we cannot help but be drawn into the consequences for the characters in Joyce's stories.

Once the reader is used to the idea that the stories seem to follow a natural course he can let the prose do it's work; which is to capture the milieu of middle class life, to enter into the thoughts and feelings in such a way that there in no feeling of intrusion. Joyce is a master of non manipulation; their is no preaching, no moral stance, people behave as they will with few surprises; it is left to the reader to appreciate what he has just read and to follow his own reaction to the events that take place. There are few writers that can tap into my thoughts and feelings the way that Joyce can in Dubliners and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

The first story "Sisters" starts with the death of an old priest about whom there may be something untoward and the effect on a young lad who has grown close to him. The last story "The Dead" continues the grand theme of the march towards death by invoking the dead in the actions and thoughts of a party of friends gathering for a Christmas celebration. This masterful story brings many of the other stories into focus with a symbol of a snowfall that appears to deaden the lives of Joyce's characters; some marvellous prose completes the story:

Generous tears filled Gabriel's eyes. He had never felt like that himself towards any woman, but he knew that such a feeling must be love. The tears gathered more thickly in his eyes and in the partial darkness he imagined he saw the form of a young man standing under a dripping tree. Other forms were near. His soul had approached that region where dwell the vast hosts of the dead. He was conscious of, but could not apprehend, their wayward flickering existence. His own identity was fading out into a grey impalpable world: the solid world itself, which these dead had one time reared and lived in, was dissolving and dwindling"

After all the realism of the earlier stories Joyce's final lurch into the metaphysical world has the power of contrast that juxtaposes all that has gone before. A five star read.

THAT is a wonderfully enticing review. Sounds like a good place for me to start with Joyce.

What a fantastic review of Dubliners. I too love "The Dead". I loved it the first time I read it for a literature class at university and have read it many times since.

I read Dubliners so long ago (high school) that I've forgotten most of it, and you certainly make me think it would be well worth a reread. I loved A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man too, and someday, maybe, will tackle Ulysses.

It's been many years since I read James Joyce. Time for a re-read. I've added The Dubliners and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man to my library pick up list.

ETA I've thumbed your excellent review.

Loved your review of Dubliners. I have read and reread it, Portrait of the Artist and Ulysses every few years since college. There are wonderful films too. The Deadis a film with Angelika Huston and there is also a Ulysses film, and I think it is with Siobhan Mckenna, but I am not sure.

I used a lot of helper books for Ulysses- the Annotated Ulysses, Stuart Gilbert,harry Levin and others. I think Ulysses is absolutely worth all the effort you can put in it.

Thanks everybody and thanks for the thumb Vivienne. In my opinion Dubliners and A portrait of the Artist as a Young Man are great books, but I hope I never have to read Ulysses again.

That's the kind of review that makes me second guess whether I should be wasting my time with what I'm currently reading. Enjoyed thinking about the subtle complexity you bring out.

Outstanding review of Dubliners. Like Rebecca, I read it in high school and don't remember much of it. I love the way your review highlights how Joyce can write a predictable story about an ordinary life, yet lead the reader to something profound and meaningful.

We Yevgeny Zamyatin
Published in 1924 this dystopian novel is now firmly fixed as a classic of 20th century literary science fiction ranking alongside George Orwell's 1984 and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. We predates both these novels and while Huxley claimed not to have read it Orwell admitted that his idea of a modern dystopia was written following a reading of We. Curiously Huxley's stable, safe drug induced and happy Brave New world is much more like We than Orwell's claustrophobic shabby world of spies informers and shortages.

Zamyatin's We is set in the far future and follows the near annihilation of the human race following the catastrophic 200 years war. The One State is ruled by the Benefactor; the inhabitants have numbers instead of names and live in a modern city almost entirely made of glass surrounded by the green wall that excludes the anarchic fecund world of nature. No privacy is required in a city whose inhabitants work and play according to a rigid timetable, everyone getting up at the same time and having the same hours of recreation. Within the timetable are generous amounts of sex days according to need and every number(person) has the right of availability to any other person on the production of a pink ticket; blinds can be lowered for 15 minutes while sexual intercourse takes place. Nothing is concealed from the guardians and it is a citizens duty to report any law breakers; conversations out of doors are carefully monitored. The story focuses on D-503 who has the misfortune to fall in love and suffer a mental breakdown; he is an important mathematician and builder of the INTEGRAL the first rocket ship designed to export the One State culture to other worlds. The object of his affection I-330 is the leader of an underground group who are intent on stealing the INTEGRAL to link up with the natural outside world.

The One State is by no means an unhappy society; although it aims to eradicate individuality numbers like D-503 revel in its safety, its conformity, its productiveness and its feeling of companionability. The freedom of past civilizations is seen as disorganised wildness and in D-503's opinion does not compare to the harmonious, clean and carefree world in which he lives. D503's story is told in a series of records that he imagines he is writing for someone to read in the twentieth century and so he extolls the virtues of his society and the reader feels the poetry of the mathematically structured world of the future. D-503 is excited by his world and so his doubts and fears as he becomes a sick number (person) through his mental breakdown are scatter shots of the wildness that he fears.

The ability to create a world that entices and fascinates the reader is a pre-requisite of much dystopian/science fiction writing, but to make the novel have literary merit the author has to go further. Zamyatin does this by his ambiguity about the merits of the One State and the reader asks himself the question: is all the conformity as bad as it first appears; seduced perhaps by some fine writing full of images that convey the beauty that D-503 sees in his world. The reader also is witness to the disintegration of this world through the thoughts of a man losing his grip on reality, what is real and what is not becomes a question that hovers over this book. The language is certainly dreamlike and perhaps a little druggy like the reflections in the glass that surround everything in the One State. The book has a feel and an atmosphere all of it's own and the writing would appeal to those who like the work of Cordwainer Smith

I found myself re-reading parts of this novel in appreciation of its imagery and its flow, always a good sign. Here is D-503 falling in love and discovering his soul;

The two of us walked along as one . Somewhere a long ways off through the fog you could hear the sun singing, everything was supple. pearly, golden, pink, red,. The whole world was one immense woman and we were in her very womb, we hadn't yet been born, we were enjoying ripening. And it was clear unshakeably clear, that all of this was for me: the sun, the fog, the pink, the gold - for me. I didn't ask where we were going, going, ripening, burgeoning and supple.

As a dystopian science fiction novel it ranks along with the very best and so deserves 5 stars, as literature I suppose it is a four star read, hence my rating of 4.5 stars. (I will never think of a pink ticket in quite the same way again)

I normally would not have touched this just because of the scifi tag, but now I'm intrigued. Another entertaining review.

Wonderful review. even for those of us who don't normally read science fiction. WE is an important and necessary book to be held next to Brave New world and 1984.

Fascinating and insightful review. Wow!

Great review as usual, Barry.

What everyone said, especially >158 dchaikin:. I have heard of We for years, but have yet to read it despite my interest in Russian/Soviet writing. Your review encourages me to change that.

Another great review. We made it onto my wishlist.

Wonderful review of Dubliners. You've made me reconsider reading James Joyce.

I'm reading We at the moment, too. It's a complex work, full of both the politics of its time and larger implications that resonate today, so I'm reading it in smaller doses to absorb more of the larger themes and ideas. Books with unreliable narrators aren't my favorite reads, but Zamyatin leverages this well, and not in the self-reflexive way so many of today's writers use when they employ the technique.

Interestingly, my edition contains a foreword by Bruce Sterling, who mentions that Orwell was influenced by it and that Orwell felt Aldous Huxley had used it as unacknowledged inspiration for Brave New World.

>156 baswood: I love that cover. Thanks for the great review. I have questions about this world .... so I guess I'll have to read the book. XD

Fine review of We. I read it a number of years ago but in a different translation where the citizens are called "ciphers" instead of "numbers." I thought it was a purer dystopia than those of Huxley and Orwell and had an excellent discussion of the nature and price of freedom. What I particularly enjoyed was how D-503, a mathematician, uses the language of mathematics to describe his feelings.

Although I haven't read the book, I like the translation of "cipher" rather than "number" as it allows the citizens to maintain some mystery and perhaps individuality.

May I ask Barry, what translation of We did you read? I have a free ebook translation but may splurge and buy a modern translation if that's a lot better.

Hi Margaret,
I read the penguin classics version of We and Clarence Brown did the translation in 1993. I thought his translation read quite well.

Interestingly SassyLassy thought that cipher might have been a better translation for the citizens than numbers. Clarence Brown uses numbers and I think that is better, because in many respects their society has moved away from the individual and in D-503 case he finds beauty in the world of mathematics and numbers. See Stephens comment above >166 StevenTX:.

Fabulous review of Dubliners, Barry. I started it a few years ago but got distracted before finishing. Your review has left me anxious to get back to it!

Great review of We, Barry. A good friend from the 75 Books group encouraged me to buy that book when we were in a bookshop in Kings Cross station on our way to Cambridge last fall, and I'll probably read it, and 1984, next month.

I've always had the vague feeling I should someday get around to reading We, just out of a general academic interest because of its importance in the history of science fiction, but now you've made me feel much more interested in it as a novel.

Linda, Dubliners is well worth getting back to, especially as in my opinion the stories get better as the book progresses.

Hope you enjoy We Darryl

Betty, I would be interested to read your opinions of We if you get to it, because of your scientific background; not because the science in We is either essential or accurate, but because the views of the leading character are expressed by someone who sees the world through the eyes of a scientist/mathematician.

>173 baswood: That makes it sound all the more interesting! Well, it is on my wishlist now. We'll see if and when I actually get to it.

Henry VIII, J J Scarisbrick
Maybe Henry was no more unaware and irresponsible than many Kings have been; but rarely, if ever, have the unawareness and irresponsibility of a king proved more costly of material benefits to his people

Scarisbrick's biography published in 1968 cannot resist looking at its subject from a moral viewpoint entrenched in the 1960's. His final chapter which is akin to a balance sheet of good points and bad points suffers the most from this stance, which is a pity because what had gone before was a detailed examination of the public life of one of England's most notorious kings. Henry VIII was fated and revered after his death as one of the great Kings and there is no doubt that a cold hard look at his life would redress the balance, but Scarisbrick for me does not quite give the reader enough context in which to make his own judgement.

Coming in at over 650 pages there is more than enough here to satisfy the amateur historian who wants to find out in some detail the workings of Henry VIII and his government. Scarisbrick is particularly strong on the religious and political arguments that lead to the break with the Pope and the church of Rome. There are well over 100 pages that provide a blow by blow account of the arguments and diplomacy that resulted in Henry's policy of Royal Supremacy. Scarisbrick managed to make this all very readable with some insightful commentary on the religious issues involved; that allows the reader to gasp the main points of the struggle. He was apparently the first historian to make use of hitherto unused documents from the Vatican library and so this aspect of Henry's life features very strongly in the Biography. It was perhaps the most important aspect of Henry's reign and I think the time spent on the issues rather than the characters involved (the Boleyn family for instance) gives the Biography an historical weight. The biography also provides plenty of details concerning Henry's ambitious foreign policy and his dealings with Francis 1st of France and Charles of Spain the Holy Roman emperor.

The Biography rightly centres on Henry VIII and his motives and actions providing a good insight into his character. Scarisbrick explains convincingly the reasons for his matrimonial difficulties even speculating a little as to why Henry's relationships were so fraught. From our 20th century perspective it is impossible to know or even understand all the reasons for Henry's difficulties. It is clear he was a volatile character supremely confident in his right to be king and ruler over his domain and he was Machiavellian in the extreme, but in keeping speculation to a minimum Scarisbrick serves his subject well.

I wanted to read a Biography that would provide me with a background for my reading of Early Tudor literature and this Biography fits the bill exactly, as far as kingship and politics are concerned, however it is lacking in social history and so anyone not familiar with the first half of 16th century England might need to read more widely.

This is a solid biography in many respects, there are many other books on the period and the characters surrounding the king, but if you really want to get to grips with the issues that Henry VIII faced as King of England then this is a good place to start. A four star read.

I may have to add Henry VIII to my wishlist after your review. He was such a complex character during a very complex time. It might be good for me to read about the politics of the time.

I think I've Tutored-out, but that does sound interesting.

I bought and read Henry VIII when it first came out. I was in high school at the time and certainly didn't have the background to appreciate it as I should have, nor do I remember it very well these many years later, but I do recall how detailed the treatment was of the political and religious issues.

Definitely a good solid biography and a real tribute to Scarisbrick that people still read it and it is still in print. I still go back to it when I want to check out something about this era that is mentioned in other books. Enjoyed your review.

The Revolt of the Angels by Anatole France
Perhaps only an author whose literary reputation was firmly established could have published this novel in 1914. It has elements of science fiction, certainly of fantasy, yet is a satire on war, government and religion; and places the reader firmly in Paris, at a time when the city was braced for war. It is a delight to read with a writing style that looks back towards "le fin de siècle" rather than forwards to 20th century modernism.

The disparate elements which make up this novel hold together reasonably well, because the reader never loses the charm with which it is written. It starts off as a mystery with books disappearing from the wealthy family d'Esparvieu's private library. Poor Sariette the family librarian cannot explain the weird things going on in the library, books displaced, thrown around, found outside the library and worst of all randomly desecrated. Arcade is soon revealed as the culprit; an angel who materialises in front of Maurice d'Esparvieu and is using the library to gain an education. There is no call for an education in heaven and with the help of his reading Arcade is planning a revolution that will dethrone God and replace him with Lucifer. Arcade however is Maurice's guardian angel, but he cannot lead a revolution and keep his day job as a guardian to Maurice, and there is a further complication as angels are notoriously liable to desire mortal women and he wants Maurice's mistress; Madame des Aubels.

There is a group of characters around the art forger Guinardon that become closely linked with other fallen angels and Maurice enters their world in pursuit of Arcade, but these tales of life and loves in Paris are a backdrop to the coming revolution in heaven. We learn that God is in fact Ialdabaoth a minor demiurge who has gained control of heaven through his lies and deceitful ways. He is a narrow minded tyrant, only one of many who operate in our galaxy, he has based his power on the fable of Christianity, which Anatole France says, could influence those feeble intellects that are to be found everywhere in great masses and enjoy the idea of suffering in this world to gain an advantage in the next. Anatole France then launches the reader on an alternative version of a history of creation and the domination of man in our world, before dropping back to the fallen angels and their dealings with the local Parisians in present times. On the way through all of this there is plenty of opportunity for satire and some choice remarks:

Max Everdirgen is a fallen angel who has become a financier who encourages war because of course it is good for business. Ialdabaoth (God) has little general culture but is a soldier - to the marrow of his bones, The organisation of paradise is a thoroughly military operation, it is founded on hierarchy and discipline. Passive obedience is imposed there as a fundamental law. The fallen angels are lectured on the advantages of modern warfare where numbers of men are all important and the fact that promotion in the military is based on time served rather than brilliant generalship. The heading to chapter XXVII starts with a typical summary by the author:

wherein we shall see revealed a dark and secret mystery and learn how it comes about, that empires are often hurled against empires, and ruin falls alike upon the victors and the vanquished; and the wise reader (if such there be - which I doubt) will meditate on the important utterance "a war is a matter of business"

The lives of the Parisians on the ground and the final battle in heaven provide a climax to the book. There are lessons to be learned and Anatole France's wry views on the human condition permeate throughout his fantastical story.

Just so as the reader is in no doubt that this is a French novel written by a Frenchman Anatole reminds us that:

French cooking is the best in the world. It is a glory that will transcend all others when humanity has grown wise enough to put the spit before the sword

Just as H G Wells' story of a fallen angel The Wonderful Visit published 20 years earlier gave a parochial feeling of Southern England Anatole Frances' book gives us Paris, but a city nervous about a war coming ever closer. Frances' book is of a grander scale but the angels are curiously similar to Wells' angel, We might want them to be friends and guardians, but we might need to keep them away from our partners. A thoroughly enjoyable read which I rate at 4 stars.

When to put the spit before the sword leapt out at me, I had one of those instances of selecting the wrong meaning for a word. Possibly influenced by other LT discussions of yucky things, I was still fixated on this meaning and its relationship to excellent French cooking, when suddenly it dawned on me: "Of course, they eat animals, they roast them on spits". Now recovered, that is an intriguing review.

Putting "the spit before the sword" immediately reminded me of a scene from Aristophanes's The Acharnians which I read earlier this year.

The Revolt of the Angels sound like something I must read, in fact I think it's already on my science fiction and fantasy reading list. Did you read the free ebook with a translation by Wilfred Jackson, or is there a more modern translation available? (or did you tackle the original French?)

>183 StevenTX: I read the free e book translation by Wilfred Jackson, which was fine.

>181 baswood: that is a great review, Barry, although a book that I probably won't read. The timing of publication is very interesting.

Wonderful review of The Revolt of Angels, Barry. I have several free e-books by France and hope to get to one soon.

The Bird of Paradise: and other poems by W H Davies.

"What is this life if, full of care
We have no time to stand and stare.
(opening lines from Leisure not included in this collection)

W H Davies certainly found plenty of time to stand around and stare and some might say he did little else. This collection of 47 of his poems was published in 1914 at a time when war was raging on the continent and although we do not know when Davies composed these poems, there is not a hint of the conflict in any of them. Davies seems to have been a poet who lived very much in his own world and he recorded what he saw and what he felt, nothing much troubles him outside of this world and his poems can reach the depths of banality.

His simple view of life finds plenty of expression in this collection and are typical of his output. He writes charmingly about nature, sometimes with a wistfulness that borders on melancholy, but usually his themes are full of simple delight in the world around him.

"How sweet this morning air in spring,
When tender is the grass, and wet
I see some little leaves have not
Outgrown their curly childhood yet ;
And cows no longer hurry home,
However sweet a voice cries " Come."

He writes about dumb nature, the innocence of childhood, about love, life passing, roaming the countryside and of life in the London Shelters where his roaming sometimes took him. He gently castigates people who live in the world of work and money and who deny themselves the simple pleasures of living freely.

He was a popular poet whose short poems often written with a simple rhyming scheme are not difficult to grasp. Unfortunately they are also full of clichés and rhymes that are all too obvious and although he keeps the form of his poems simple he can struggle with the syntax, producing moments of unlikely discord. There are no hidden meanings, hardly any ambiguity and one suspects they are true of his feelings because nothing much else occurred to him. Reading his poems can be like seeing the world through the eyes of a child; not always a bad thing, but too much of it can make the poems seem inconsequential.

However he can find images that hit the mark and a few of his poems are effective:

The Hawk

THOU dost not fly, thou art not perched,
The air is all around :
What is it that can keep thee set,
From falling to the ground ?
The concentration of thy mind
Supports thee in the air ;
As thou dost watch the small young birds,
With such a deadly care.

My mind has such a hawk as thou,
It is an evil mood ;
It comes when there's no cause for grief,
And on my joys doth brood.
Then do I see my life in parts ;
The earth receives my bones,
The common air absorbs my mind —
It knows not flowers from stones.

I rated all the poems from 1-5 and came up with an average of 2.5. which I think will serve as my rating for the collection as a whole.

I had not heard of Davies before, and I think I now know all I need to about him--no need to visit "the depths of banality."

Oh no! Leisure has always been one of my favourite poems, which I learned in school. I was a big fan of W.H. Davies when I was young. I thought Autobiography of a Super Tramp was terrific - probably because I'd never heard of such a life (remember, I was young) and hadn't yet come upon George Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London. Davies attracted the attention of George Bernard Shaw who got things started. I once read that they met when Davies was selling his poems door-to-door and went to Shaw's house. Sounds suspect, though.

Note: Autobiography of a Super Tramp was published in 1908. I hasten to add that I'm not that old!!

Vivienne, I also really like Leisure, which in some ways fits with my world view. However 47 poems in one collection were probably 43 poems too many.

>190 baswood: Ah, I see. I agree, one poem in a sitting is enough for me, otherwise they just don't have any impact. And given the simple nature of Davies' poems, it would be difficult to take in so many.

Hi Barry! Somewhat late to the party, but I've just been catching up on your thread. Your Haiku make me smile! There's a lot to comment on here and the temptation is to remark about everything, but I'll spare you this once! Still, I cannot resist a few highlights.

Glad to see in my absence that you've made it up to the 1500s!

Love your story of your saxophone! Long may you flourish!

I particularly enjoyed your review of A Modern Utopia. Having recently reread The Time Machine, I daresay reading the one informs the other to some extent. Also The Revolt of the Angels caught my interest, especially your comment: It is a delight to read with a writing style that looks back towards "le fin de siècle" rather than forwards to 20th century modernism. This one goes on my wish list.

IDEA: There should be a way on LT to review outstanding threads. This one would make the list for sure!

Hi Suzanne, welcome back. I will be looking out for your new thread.

The Proverbs and Epigrams of John Heywood

John Heywood (1497-1580) was an English Tudor courtier and made his name as a musician and composer. None of his music survives but there are plays, proverbs and poems and it is his plays or interludes that are of most interest today. Heywood was a devout Catholic and very well connected; his Uncle-in-law was Sir Thomas More, but Heywood managed to prosper under four Tudor Kings and Queens (Henry VIII, Edward, Mary, and Elizabeth), although he had to flee the court of Elizabeth when the Act of Uniformity became law in 1564.

Having read his plays and interludes earlier this year I discovered his epigrams and proverbs free on line and for completest sakes read these as well. Heywood lived and some would say survived by his wit. As a catholic in the court of Henry VIII he was in danger of meeting a traitors death especially when the Boleyn family held sway. His intelligence, command of repartee and his writing kept him in favour with most people that mattered. This book contains three hundred epigrams, three hundred proverbs, a dialogue concerning marriages, a few ballads and a couple of panegyrics.

The epigrams take up the majority of the book and consist of pithy verse like structures that follow in the footsteps of Erasmus. Difficult to describe them and so here are a few examples that probably had Henry VIII and his court rolling in the aisles (or not)

Of Dogs and Thieves
To keep thieves by night out of my house
I keep dogs to aid me in my yard
Whose barking at the stirring of every mouse
By lack of sleep killed me in regard
Thieves or dogs then, which may both be spared
Thieves can do no more and dogs no less.

Of Blowing
What wind can there blow that doth not some men please
A fart in the blowing doth the blower ease

Of Waiting
I would see a man wait to his master's mind
As the weathercock waiteth on the wind
Blow it here or there, blow it low or high
The weathercock's beak is still in the winds eye

A Fools Tongue
Upon a fools provocation
A wise man will not talk
But every light instigation
May make a fool's tongue walk

Of a Dyer
"Is thy husband a dyer woman?", "Alack"
"Had he no colour to dye thee on but black"
"Dyeth he oft". "Yea too often when customers call
But I would have him one day die once for all
Were he gone, dyer would I never mo' wed
Dyers be ever dyeing, but never dead"

The three hundred proverbs consist of popular sayings of the time (many of which we would recognise today as proverbs) to which Heywood adds a line or two of witty comments.

The dialogue on marriage concerns a dilemma for a young man at court. Should he marry a flowering young maid who has many friends but no money or should he marry a rich widow with few friends who is old and white haired. Heywood spins a couple of amusing yarns based on examples of such marriage with the advise that the young man should not rush into anything. One of the panegyrics "A description of a Most Notable Lady" was written about and for princess Mary who would later become Queen Mary.

All in all a mixed bag of writing from the Tudor court, some of which is amusing, but many of the puns and in-jokes will be lost on todays readers. The book is edited by John S Farmer and was probably published in 1906 and has modern spelling. There is an extensive notebook and word list, but this is one for the enthusiasts I think and I rate as 3 stars.

I'm intrigued by your review of The Revolt of Angels added bonus is that there is a free kindle edition.

Nice review of The Proverbs and Epigrams of John Heywood, Barry. I've probably been influenced by the effects of TV shows like The Real Housewives of Atlanta (which I've never watched but hear a lot about), but I recommend that the young man marry the rich old widow, ensure that he inherits her wealth after she dies, and then go after the lovely young maid if she's still available.

Barry and Darryl — I wonder what Baldesar Castiglione (Book of the Courier) would have to say about the Real Housewives! Nice review of Heywood, by the way.

Yolana, thanks for pointing out the internet freebie of The Revolt of Angels. Already downloaded.

Thanks for the examples of the epigrams. (Not quite rolling in the aisles, but entertained.)

>194 baswood: Very entertaining review, Barry. >196 kidzdoc: Smart thinking, Darryl.

Have you retired from Haiku? (I hope not.) Have I missed something?

Oh, I am so far behind. But I must download The Revolt of the Angels. I'll try to keep up more timely from now on.

Hi Yolana, Darryl, Suzanne, Rebecca, Colleen, Tony and Jane. I have been off line for a week, while visiting a friend in Normandy France. It was chilly up there and I am glad to be back in the warm, South West.

This thread has reached the 200 mark and so hope to see you all in part three.