edwinbcn's 2014 Books - Part 2

During the first half year of 2014, I read the following books:

January
1. Exquise Louise by Eugène Savitzkaya
2. The curious case of Benjamin Button, and six other stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald
3. Falsifications of the Russian Orange Book: Actual exchange of telegrams between Paris and St. Petersburg at the outbreak of the war by Baron G. von Romberg
4. Conference at Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
5. Frog Music by Emma Donoghue
6. The road by Cormac McCarthy
7. A cup of tea. A novel of 1917 by Amy Ephron
8. For all the tea in China. How England stole the world's favorite drink and changed history by Sarah Rose
9. Pulse by Julian Barnes
10. Something to declare by Julian Barnes
11. Against interpretation and other essays by Susan Sontag
12. Diaries and selected letters by Mikhail Bulgakov
13. Mathilde Möhring by Theodor Fontane
14. Ewald Tragy by Rainer Maria Rilke
15. Sonnenuntergang im Prater. Fünfundfünfzig Prosastücke. by Peter Altenberg

February
16. Der Spaziergang by Robert Walser
17. Private Angelo by Eric Linklater
18. The mountains of California by John Muir
19. Brigitta by Adalbert Stifter
20. Killer in the rain by Raymond Chandler
21. April, Nutzlos vertan by Klaus Mann
22. The enchafèd flood, or the Romantic iconography of the sea by W.H. Auden
23. Land der Kunst und Musik – Chinesische Traumsuche in Österreich by Li Xuetao

March
24. Kai by Robert Vacher
25. The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann D. Wyss
26. Exterminator! by William S. Burroughs
27. The Resurrection Club by Christopher Wallace
28. Eminent Victorians by Lytton Strachey
29. Rapture by Carol Ann Duffy
30. The comedians by Graham Greene
31. The late bourgeois world
32. The daydreamer by Ian McEwan
33. Swimming in a sea of death. A son's memoir by David Rieff
34. The uncharted heart by Melissa Hardy
35. Fabula Rasa, proeve van objectief dagboek by Gaston Burssens
36. Een heel klein scheepje by Chris Yperman
37. Through the window. Seventeen essays and a short story by Julian Barnes

April
38. Cat's cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
39. Studio by Philippe Sollers
40. Britten's children by John Bridcut
41. The China diary of George H. W. Bush. The making of a global President by George H. W. Bush
42. Bankroet van een charmeur by Hugo Raes
43. Komen en gaan by Maurice Roelants
44. Mattekeesjes of de zielenreiniging van de Nederlandse klamboemaatschappij by Jan Wolkers
45. Serpentina's petticoat by Jan Wolkers
46. Verscheur deze brief! Ik vertel veel te veel. Een briefwisseling by Gerard Reve and Willem Frederik Hermans
47. The spinning heart by Donal Ryan
48. Liza of Lambeth by W. Somerset Maugham

May
49. Wesker. The Playwright by Glenda Leeming
50. Atlantic. A vast ocean of a million stories by Simon Winchester
51. Untold stories by Alan Bennett
52. Sheherazade of literatuur als losprijs by Raymond Brulez
53. The painted word by Tom Wolfe
54. The gentleman in the parlour
55. The Yage letters. Redux by William Burroughs
56. A writer's people. Ways of looking and feeling by V.S. Naipaul
57. Inventing the Enemy. Essays by Umberto Eco
58. Familiezaken by Nico Dros
59. Three brothers by Peter Ackroyd
60. Seize the day by Saul Bellow
61. Adventures in Japan. A literary journey in the footsteps of a Victorian lady by Evelyn Kaye
62. Changing my mind. Occasional essays by Zadie Smith
63. Once more to the lake. Essays, Vol. 2 by E.B. White
64. . Here is New York. Essays, Vol. 1 by E.B. White

June
65. The lawless roads by Graham Greene
66. My autobiography by Charles Chaplin
67. Payback. Debt and the shadow side of wealth by Margaret Atwood
68. New Granada. Twenty months in the Andes by Isaac F. Holton
69. A Writer's House in Wales by Jan Morris
70. The Virago book of wicked verse by Jill Dawson
71. Hell's Angels by Hunter S. Thompson
72. Toxic flora. Poems by Kimiko Hahn
73. Paper nautilus by Nicholas Jose
74. Boneshepherds. Poems by Patrick Rosal

July
75. Personality by Andrew O'Hagan
76. This is how. Proven aid in overcoming shyness, molestation, fatness, spinsterhood, grief, disease, lushery, decrepitude & more. For young and old alike. by Augusten Burroughs
77. Visiting Mrs Nabokov, and other excursions by Martin Amis
78. Under the sun. The letters of Bruce Chatwin by Bruce Chatwin
79. Tooth and claw, and other stories by T.C. Boyle
80. Tomorrow by Graham Swift
81. The secrets of a fire king by Kim Edwards
82. The life and opinions of Maf the dog and of his friend Marilyn Monroe by Andrew O'Hagan
83. A short autobiography by F. Scott Fitzgerald:
84. The robber bridegroom by Eudora Welty

Trends & Thematic Reading:

Literary Centennials: 1814 -- 1914:
Exterminator! by William S. Burroughs
The Yage letters. Redux by William Burroughs

World War I
Falsifications of the Russian Orange Book: Actual exchange of telegrams between Paris and St. Petersburg at the outbreak of the war by Baron G. von Romberg
A cup of tea. A novel of 1917 by Amy Ephron
Der Spaziergang by Robert Walser

Essays
Something to declare by Julian Barnes
Against interpretation and other essays by Susan Sontag
The enchafèd flood, or the Romantic iconography of the sea by W.H. Auden
Land der Kunst und Musik – Chinesische Traumsuche in Österreich by Li Xuetao
Through the window. Seventeen essays and a short story by Julian Barnes
Here is New York. Essays, Vol. 1 by E.B. White
Once more to the lake. Essays, Vol. 2 by E.B. White
Inventing the Enemy. Essays by Umberto Eco
Changing my mind. Occasional essays by Zadie Smith
Payback. Debt and the shadow side of wealth by Margaret Atwood
Visiting Mrs Nabokov, and other excursions by Martin Amis

Nature & Natural History:
The mountains of California by John Muir

Authors with more than one book read in 2014:
F. Scott Fitzgerald
The curious case of Benjamin Button, and six other stories
A short autobiography

Julian Barnes
Pulse
Something to declare
Through the window. Seventeen essays and a short story

William S. Burroughs
Exterminator!
The Yage letters. Redux

Graham Greene
The comedians
The lawless roads

Jan Wolkers
Mattekeesjes of de zielenreiniging van de Nederlandse klamboemaatschappij
Serpentina's petticoat

W. Somerset Maugham
Liza of Lambeth
The gentleman in the parlour

E.B. White
Here is New York. Essays, Vol. 1
Once more to the lake. Essays, Vol. 2

085. La Mort propagande et autres textes de jeunesse
Finished reading: 2 August 2014



La Mort propagande et autres textes de jeunesse brings together a a collection of the earliest prose works of the French author Hervé Guibert. Guibert is best known for his later works, which are taken to be autobiographical descriptions of his struggle with AIDS. In 1988, Guibert was one of the first authors to publicly admit to suffering from the disease and describing that in fictionalized autobiography.

La Mort propagande et autres textes de jeunesse consists of the earliest prose texts composed by Hervé Guibert, some of which were written when he was only 15 or 16 years old. Hence, "textes de jeunesse." The style of those earliest works, for instance "Thérèse et son crocodile ailé" is baroque, attempting to achieve an almost rococo or manieristic type of beauty, with many details and adjectives. Similarly, "Le prince blond" and "Isabella" are poetic fairy-tales in which a budding homosexuality starts shining through. Despite their virtuosity, they still very much read like precocious adolescent prose texts.

The key text of this publication is Hervé Guibert's earliest novel, La Mort propagande, which was originally written in 1975-1976, when the author was only 21 years old. This short novel is printed in two versions. In La Mort propagande, Guibert's style evolves to a curious mixture of beauty, mingled with grotesk cruelty. Beautiful descriptions are set off against or contrasted with descriptions which rouse disgust. These style experiments led to the development of Guibert's shockingly open and raucious style in his later works.

As important as Guibert's later works are for the description of AIDS in gay and mainstream literature, it is regretful that little attention is now paid to his early work. La Mort propagande et autres textes de jeunesse clearly marks an important stage in the development of gay literature of the middle to late Twentieth century, creating a connection of the raw style of American prose artists, such as William Burroughs to the up-coming genre of gay writing in Europe.



Other books I have read by Hervé Guibert:
Mes parents
À l'ami qui ne m'a pas sauvé la vie
L'homme au chapeau rouge

086. Lost memory of skin
Finished reading: 4 August 2014



Lost memory of skin by Russell Banks is a novel characterized by ambivalence. The story for this long novel is rooted in reality, focussing on a new type of outcast. It seems the authors wants to draw attention to social injustice, but the message of the novel is unclear because of the weird plot turns.

The weird plot turns are hard to explain, although the message seems to be that some people can get away with a great deal more than other people. This sense of moral injustice is created through the juxtaposition of the two main characters in the novel, the Kid and the Professor.

The novel describes the hopeless life of a new type of outcasts in American society. This outcast is formed by convicted sex offenders. The inhumane treatment of these people, and the, possibly unforeseen, consequences of the legal ramifications, such as the on-line sex offenders registry, their obligation to wear a GPS anklet and, worst of all, the legal measure which forbids them to live within 2,500 meters of a school, leads to such incredible limitations that they can barely find a spot to dwell in the city. Their lives are effectively destroyed and there is no escape from their predicament. Part of the ambivalence of the novel is that the novel depicts both seemingly very innocent "victims", such as the Kid, along with all other tpes of sex offenders, many of whom seem to be very deliberate, or likely recidivist. Whether or not through circumstance, some are involved in criminal activity, involving even more child abuse, as described in the photo shooting episode in the novel.

Non-Americans will be baffled by the inhuman legal practice in the United States, where tripping up by the police belongs to accepted legal procedure, while the sex offender's registry and other measures lead to medieval and life-long punishment and stigmatization.

The case of the Kid is presented as almost pure-bred innocence; a young man, who made a few stupid mistakes, and was set up and fell into a trap. There is much more to this simple story-line. The novel seems to suggest that, possibly, there are many more young men like the Kid. Their moral values are blurred by the ubiquitous availability of pornography, which in the life of modern teenagers has a very different status than in the lives and minds of older people. In fact, the social life of young people, as compared with that of an earlier generation, has changed to the effect that their "life on line" has replaced the more natural social life, which has led to loneliness, and inability to establish "normal" social contacts. As large parts of their lives take place on lone, so it seems natural that dating takes place on line as well. Essentially, the Kid is a recognizable, very possiblly realistic character. The Kid is quite obviously guilt-ridden. While, even yo himself, he is quite obviously an offender, he is also very much a victim.

The Professor, on the other hand, is a much darker, Falstaffian character. The picture that emerges of the Professor is that he is a highly intelligent person. His exceptionally superior intelligence enables him to conceal much of his life from others, effectively living multi-layered lives. The Professor is also described as hugely obese. This feature suggests that, despite his superior intelligence, his judgement is seriously flawed. His eating disorder is as much as symbol of his moral disorder: he thinks he can get away with anything.

As the "names" or "labels" (always capitalized) of the characters suggest, "the Kid", "the Professor" and "the Wife" are larger-than-life characters. They are caricatures. In the Kid, innocence is blown up and exaggerated. In the Professor cunning and intrigue are exaggerated. In the Wife, understanding and foregiveness, although this element plays only a minor role, towards the end of the novel.

Many of the surprising twists and turns of the plot involve antics of the Professor. The effect of these twists is to make the Professor an even more mysterious character. These plot turns, in all their capriciousness, suggest that even the Professor might conceal what the Kid is so obviously accused of, and that what brings them together, the Professor's interest in people like the Kid, or possibly even specifically the Kid, is a shared common secret. This shared secrecy is played out in the sub-plot of the Treasure Island myth.

Lost memory of skin is a complicated novel. It is a successful novel in as far as it makes readers think about this social problem. The novel also clearly speaks about the overall state of morals in the United States, not only the blurring or moral awareness of younsters, but also the injustice between the socially disadvantaged versus the socially advantaged, and a legal system which is clearly not ready to deal with new norms and a new reality.

Perhaps this is what the title of the novel, Lost memory of skin, hints at. A skin which can no longer adapt to its surrounding, either because it does not have the capacity to emulate the new colour for a new environment or has exhausted adaptiveness.

Finally, the Kid's pet, an iguana, is a freak. A freak of an animal that scares people. Perhaps it is also a reference to that other American novel that describes outcasts on the fringes of American society; Vollmann's The Rainbow Stories.

087. Soul tourists
Finished reading: 8 August 2014



Bernardine Evaristo is not a new-comer on the literary scene. She has taught creative writing for more than twenty years, and is the author of seven books and novels, also referred to as verse fiction.

Soul tourists, which appeared in 2005, is a novel, which consists of prose and verse in almost equal proportions. Prose and verse fragments appear in all possible, varied forms in a mellifluous confluency of both forms and all intermediary forms. As a result, the transitions between verse and prose are natural, and never abrupt. In fact, Bernardine Evaristo's use of verse fiction seems so natural, that could easily be said to represent the best proponent of this experimental hybrid form of prose.

The title of the novel, Soul tourists. does not only suggest that the two main characters, Stanley and Jessie, are travellers, but also that they are explorers of each others' souls; their closeness is not exacly that of "soul mates" but there is still a large terrain to explore.

The novel takes the characters in stages all across Europe, from the UK, through France and Italy and into Turkey, and each others personality. The story is quite straightforward, and an easy read. The style is literary, with various allusions to literature and both British and European culture.

Highly recommended for readers interested in new voices, experimental styles and literary fiction off the beaten paths of mainstream literature.

I've only read one book by Russell Banks, The Darling. Although it was quite a few years ago, I remember enjoying it, but it also had some rather weird or thought provoking twists. I have two of his other books on my shelf and think I should probably try one of them.

Thanks, Colleen. Lost memory of skin was my first book by Russell Banks. I have been looking for Cloudsplitter, which has been very favourably reviewed by some other members here.

I gave Lost memory of skin 3 stars, because I felt the crazy plot turns were far fetched. However, as usual, reviewing the book made the picture I now have of the book clearer.

I enjoy reading literature that addresses current issues in contemporary society.

It is a bit frightening how people react to this novel. In some of the reviews, reviewers accuse Banks of making a plea for sex offenders.

I think the novel also partially wants to highlight the absurdity of the legal system in the United States. My colleague, at work, is an American lawyer. He, of course, thinks it is all hunky-dory. Americans seem to take their legal system for granted, but however strongly non-American readers think about paedophilia or sex offenders, people will be shocked by the way American law deals with such people. It is inhumane, and I thinks that is one of the things the author wants readers to consider.

>5 edwinbcn: Highly recommended for readers interested in new voices, experimental styles and literary fiction off the beaten paths of mainstream literature.

This description puts Soul Tourists right into my orbit. Onto the wish list . . .

The only book I ever read by Russell Banks was his first(?), Continental Drift, and I read it many years ago. I remember liking it, so I'm somewhat surprised I must have given it away (it isn't in my LT library), and I do own a collection of his stories. Lost Memory of Skin sounds intriguing.

Continental Drift is the other novel i already have, but as yet unread.

Enjoyed your excellent review of Lost Memory of Skinand the questions that it raises. It is so easy to stigmatise people and that is frightening.

088. Stories for nighttime and some for the day
Finished reading: 10 August 2014



It has been a while since I came across such an inane, non-sensical and boring collection of short stories. Most stories are absurd or complete nonsense. Short sentences result in a staccato reading rhythm. Many stories have an ultra-simplistic beginning, almost like jokes, starting off with "A man etc" or "The man and the woman, etc".

Maybe this style of writing is what you get when you spend the whole day on Twitter and other micro-blog services.

Recommended for idiots.

>12 edwinbcn: LOL!

>4 edwinbcn: Although I've read nine books by Russell Banks, who is on my LT list of favourite authors, Lost Memory of Skin is one I haven't read. I think I was waiting for the paperback and just didn't find it. I will have to read that now. The theme of the injustice between the socially disadvantaged versus the socially advantaged, and a legal system which is clearly not ready to deal with new norms and a new reality appears again and again in his books. The marginalized in US society are people he seems to know, bringing them off the page so that you know them too. Perhaps the problem is that many readers don't want to know his characters, in fiction or in real life. Funny that you were looking for Cloudsplitter. That is another one I haven't read, although it is on my TBR. I think I have delayed reading it as it does not deal with contemporary people, although it will be interesting to see how Banks deals with the past.
Continental Drift was the first book of his I read, and it is still my favourite.

Thanks, Sassy. I have noticed in the past that our reading is quite convergent. I haven't noticed you around very much these past few months, but then again, I have been very busy myself.

>12 edwinbcn: I love a review that trashes a book, but yours is in sharp contrasts to other readers on LT

>16 baswood:

I do not quite understand your use of "but" in the sentence above, Barry.

Besides, Internet is not the world of a magazine. If I were to write a review for a magazine, I would probably write more, explain more, etc. A thread like this just allows much more freedom. I am also very busy, and do not always want to spend a lot of time on books that I consider trash.

Now, it is possible that Stories for nighttime and some for the day is a real innovation. Other critics suggest that the short fiction of Ben Loory shares characteristics with the work of Lydia Davis, whose work I have recently bought but not yet read.

In Stories for nighttime and some for the day there are 40 stories on 200 pages, appended with some nonsense before and after. That leaves a mere five pages per story.

In my most concessional mood, I might suggest that the stories of Ben Loory show some affinity to for instance The fairy tales of Charles Perrault. They are very short stories that high-light a particular point. The style of the stories is that of a short fairy tale or, as I suggested before, a joke. However, most of the stories are non-sensical or absurd.

Most stories begin abruptly, introducing unnamed characters simply as "the man" or "the man and the woman." The stories also feature animals and aliens that can talk.

Another feature that adds to the jarring quality of the stories is the mixing register. It is confusing and irritating to see typical colloquial speech patterns integrated into literary dialogue. Although literary dialogue is supposedly a representation of speech, Loory uses these colloquialisms in a way that just does not seem to fit, as below the snake saying he is "just hanging out".

Below is the complete short story called "The Snake in the Throat"

A man finds something in his throat. He reaches in and pulls it out.
It's a snake.
What are you doing in my throat? the man says.
Nothing, says the snake. Just hanging out.
The man stares at it.
There's something you're not telling me, isn't there? he says.
But all the snake does is look away.

The man puts the snake in a jar and closes the lid. He sits around and stares at it all day.
What are you doing? his friends say.
I found this in m throat, says the man.
The man's friends stare at the snake.
That's disgusting, they say. Why don't you kill it?
Kill it? says the man.
He looks at the snake.
He hadn't really thought of that, he says.

Long after his friends have left, the man sits with the snake. He imagines himself bashing it with a rock.
Don't do it, says the snake. It would be a mistake.
Really? says the man. In what way?
You would regret it, says the snake. You would feel bad.
Can't you just tell me why you were in there? says the man. Can't you just tell me what you were up to?
But the snake just shakes its head.
I wasn't up to anything, it says. I already told you. See, that's our problem--you're distrustful.

The man takes the snake outback and finds a big rock.
Last chance, he says. Last chance.
Go ahead, says the snake, staring right back up at him. Do it if you think it'll help.
The man brings the rock down on the snakes head. He brings it down again and again. He grinds the snake's head into a sickening pulp. Then he throws the body away.

Later that evening, the man goes out with his friends.
How's that snake? they ask. Still in the jar?
I killed it, says the man.
His friends stop and stare.
I killed it with a rock, says the man.

The rest of the evening is rather subdued.
I have to go, says one of the man's friends.
My wife is expecting me, says another one.
Yeah, says a third. See you next time.
Finally, it is just the man, sitting alone at the table. He sits alone for quite some time. Drinking, and thinking, and thinking.
Outside the door he finds a rock.

The man goes to the house of one of his friends, and then smahes his head with the rock. Then he goes to the house of another of his friends, and does the same thing to him. He smashes the heads of all his friends, and then he walks away. He walks to a field on the edge of the town and lies down on his belly to pray.
Please God, says the man, out loud to himself. Please God, I'm sorry I did that. I had no idea I could do such a thing. I didn't even know I had it in me.

From your example Edwin, I can understand why some people like these stories and others do not. The jury is out for me and it will stay out, because I probably will not get to read the book.

089. No place to hide. Edward Snowden, the NSA and the surveillance state
Finished reading: 11 August 2014



Particularly since the death of Christopher Hitchens, it is important that a new generation of critical journalists takes over, to keep the general readership informed of the way in which civil liberties are undermined and threatened. Glenn Greenwald may not seem the most sympathetic journalist to do so, but he does well.

The book No place to hide. Edward Snowden, the NSA and the surveillance state can roughly be divided into three parts. In the first chapter, the author relates the story of Edward Snowden and the origins of the news story. It shows that the emergence of the story took Snowden a much longer time than has so far transpired in mainstream media reports. This chapter also demonstrates the devious ways in which the media work, particularly how deeply some American news media are now entrenched or embedded in or with the American authorities, to protect American national and government interests. Greenwald is barely honest enough to admit that he nearly missed the opportunity to get in touch with Snowden, and throughout the story his own interests as a journalist keep ringing through. A certain degree of ruthlessness and egoism shines through, together with the ambvalence of the Guardian whether or not to publish, and the somewhat toxic relation between the paper and the reporter. But perhaps such ruthlessness is what it takes to get heard, these days, and possibly Greenwalds personality is a product of our times.

The first chapter tells the story of Edgar Snowden in a gripping, detective-like style, ennumerating many details omitted from the media. It is a high-pace, exciting story.

The second chapter explains the workings of the NSA and its spying systems. The chapter is richly illustrated with screen shorts and graphics to demonstrate how the NSA spies on civilians, and anyone its agents decide to investigate with closer scrutiny. The chapter also effectively demonstrates the power of the system, to shockingly reveal that its capacity is effectively such that in can monitor all and everyone. It is a clear warning that no-one should feel safe in the ignorance that such a system could not achieve its objectives.

The final chapters of No place to hide. Edward Snowden, the NSA and the surveillance state are written as essayistic reflections on the further ramifications of the idea that the government spies on its citizens and a priori assumes that anyone outside its borders (or within) is a potential threat.

The book is particularly interesting for readers who missed the extensive reporting on the story as it unfolded in the media.

090. Contact! A book of glimpses
Finished reading: 11 August 2014



Born in 1926, now aged 88, Jan Morris has witnessed many important events, known and seen many important people, and places. Trained as a historian, Morris achieved reknown as a travel writer, particularly describing places, most notably portraits of cities,such as Oxford, Venice, Sydney, Hong Kong and Manhattan '45. His focus has always been to describe places, writing "relatively little about people" (...) "Often I have given them only a few lines, or a paragraph" (p. 1), as the author writes in the introduction. One wonders what motivated Morris to change that in what might well be her last book.

Supposedly, travel must become really hard to an aging author, let alone the work of writing. Thus, it seemed, Jan Morris chose to find her subjects closer to home, as she described her home itself in the short autobiographical and historical monograph or memoir A Writer's House in Wales (2002). In 2006, she returned to fiction, with the (social) science-fiction novel Hav, picking up on the same themes of Last Letters from Hav, which was written and short-listed for the Booker Prize more than 20 years earlier. It seemed Mrs Morris had retired, as no further books or essays appeared, until the publication of Contact! A book of glimpses, three years later.

It is not clear where the material for this book comes from. They could be passages from notes or autographs, but it seems most are newly written passages, most very short, based on memories. They form a very eclectic collection of nostalgic ramblings. The style of writing is quaint and antiquarian. One almost hears the author's dentures rattling. In the introduction she writes that these vignettes are observations of "Rich and poor (...), young and old, grand and humble, primitive and exquisitely civilized, named and anonymous, in particular and in the general (...) seldom friends or even acquiantances, only contacts." (p.2) The latter seems an over-statement. As the title suggests, and the reading confirms, these contacts are merely glimpsed, they are no more than very superficial "eye contacts."

Contact! A book of glimpses is a collection of very random reminiscences of all kinds of people Jan Morris encountered on her travels or during his or her life. They are people the way she remembered them, often endearingly enshrined in memory with a humourous little anecdote, a humour soft and mouldy with time.

The book is a book of no effect at all, and very boring after a couple of pages. While these people may have left an impression on the author, the reader soon gets the feeling that the author must have pained her memory or imagination to scrape enough material together to fill the pages. Nice memories do not always come out nicely on paper.



Other books I have read by Jan Morris:
A writer's house in Wales

It's too bad that Contact! didn't work. I loved Hav and it's sequel (which I discovered through tomcatmurr) as well as the various articles I've run into by her.

>21 RidgewayGirl:

Never mind. I had picked up Contact! A book of glimpses in May or June, but then decided not to buy, and when it was remaindered in August, i bought it on impulse. It was cheap. Despite the fact that it was a disappointing read, it does not diminish my idea that Jan Morris is an interesting author, although i am somewhat critical of her books. Travel writing is a very interesting genre, and with a background as a historian, clearly Jan Morris has a great deal to say about places. However, my dipping into Spain even in its updated version, i.e. Spain which came out in 1988 is the updated version of The Presence of Spain, which was originally published in 1964, one feels that time is fleeting, and reading a re-issue of the 1988 book, it really feels dated. For instance, I have rarely met people in Spain wishing me farewell with the words "Vaya con Dios". It is a well-known Spanish greeting, but Morris assertion that it is a common saying is out-of-date.

It seems that the discrepency between history, time-as-experiences and the present time is widening, and Jan Morris is no longer so well capable to bridge that gap.

It can be interesting to read travel books that are out of date, though. It's a glimpse into a world that no longer exists. I have a book about a guy's experiences traveling through the former Eastern Bloc that was a few decades outdated when I first read it in the nineties and I think about it whenever I'm in Prague (which has only been a few times), because of the disparity -- I find myself looking for the remnants of the world the author wrote about. (And now I need to go and find the book as i've forgotten both title and author).

091. Memoirs of a fox-hunting man
Finished reading: 12 August 2014



Unless, as most likely, Memoirs of a fox-hunting man was conceived as the first volume in the planning of the writing of the trilogy, the other two volumes to follow, being Memoirs of an Infantry Officer and Sherston's Progress, the first volume is quaintly unbalanced. It seems that the first part of the novel takes up too much, while the second part is relatively short.

However, it is this odd structure which lends Memoirs of a fox-hunting man its exceptional power. The first part of this autobiographical novel, which describes the early life of George Sherston (i.e. Siegfried Sassoon) appears as an endlessly long Indian Summer. Sherston is described as a young, upper-middle class, but not quite aristocratic boy who grows into adolescence, and quite apparently not bothered by schooling or the need to look for employment. Instead, he spends his time horse-riding. In the first 230 pages, or thereabout, social life in the English countrside is described from the point of view of the landed gentry. The purchase and learning to ride a horse, participating in a fox hunt, and the first steps of entering the social class just above his own level, George Sherston lives a laid-back life through the ever sunny summers of the Edwardian era. It was the backdrop to the life style that would be obliterated and completely disappear after World War I.

As young George Sherston reaches maturity he enlists in the army, and following mobilization finds himself at first under arms in England before being sent over to the front. This part of the book takes barely 50 pages, two chapters, of which only the last is about the experiences at the front. This chapter, however, still very much describes the experience of the Great War as a comradely, upper-class affair, with few gruesome details and room for poetry. Although it forms a grim contrast to the preceding part of the novel, in a way, it is still an extension of the priviledged life style of the upper classes.

Siegfried Sassoon is mostly known for his poetry, including his war poetry. Memoirs of a fox-hunting man is an autobiographical novel, and as such offers a first-hand experience of an author, and exceptionally brave soldier, who lived through the ordeal of the trench war. It describes a life style that was destroyed through the event of the Great War.

092. Van de lente de dauw. Oosterse reizen
Finished reading: 12 August 2014



The Dutch writer Cees Nooteboom is the author of numerous novels and travelogues. His passion for Germany and Spain is well known, and has resulted in several books dedicated to these two countries, some of which have been translated into various languages. For instance, De omweg naar Santiago (Engl. Roads to Santiago) is a magnificent book that deeply penetrates the mystique soul of Spain.

Compared to these works, the travel writing of Nooteboom to other destinations seems to be uninspired. He has been compared to Louis Couperus in the scope and impact of his travel writing. However, the only similarity that is obvious is that like Couperus, Nooteboom seems to avoid China. Van de lente de dauw. Oosterse reizen most clearly shows that of all countries in the Far East, Nooteboom is most interested in Japan. In fact, Van de lente de dauw. Oosterse reizen hardly qualifies as a travelogue to the Far East. With most essays dedicated to Japan, the other essays form an odd lot, as there are one essay about Iran, three about Myanmar, one about Malaysia, two about the various small states on the island of Borneo, one about Thailand, and one about Macao. In fact, a large part of the collection seems a retracing of Somerset Maugham's The Gentleman in the Parlour, a road winding though Burma, Thailand, Malaysia and ending in Macao.

Like Somerset Maugham, Nooteboom makes little mention of his travel companion. His observations are more obvious and direct, and lead to much pondering. All essays are very didactic, presenting the reader with a myriad of historical facts for edification. Both in the writing style and scenery, readers will find samples of large contasts, between beauty and ungliness, the holy and profane, the serene and banal. The essays are at once journalistic and very personal travel records.



Other books I have read by Cees Nooteboom:
Mokusei !
In de bergen van Nederland
Allerzielen
De omweg naar Santiago
De koning van Suriname
De verliefde gevangene
De ridder is gestorven
Rituelen

The Snowden book sounds well worth reading. And the Siegfried Sassoon book sounds intriguing too, especially given what we know of his poetry. I am quite sure I will never read that book, so I appreciate your review.

Great review of Contact! a book of glimpses One almost hears the author's dentures rattling wish I had thought of that.

Memoirs of a Fox Hunting Man sounds like it is worth reading to get a picture of upper class life in England before the war.

I am glad there has been a good book written about Edward Snowden.

Really interesting review of No Place to Hide -- I really wonder how this whole situation will unravel in the next few years. Is there any remote possibility of Obama granting Snowden amnesty before he leaves office?

I'm also intrigued by Sassoon's autobiographical novel -- may have to trace that one down,

093. Be near me
Finished reading: 16 August 2014



Be near me will probably remain of of Andrew O'Hagan's best books. It is a book of tremendous depth, and not at all as obvious as it seems. In fact, the obscurity of what "it" is all about, is one of its main themes.

The novel is difficult, and difficult to get into. The final chapters are much better and much more engaging that the first part of the book. The difficulty of the book lies in the fact that the main theme of failing sympathy and understanding is worked out in various dimensions and relations in the book, in age, class, material and spiritual wealth. The enormous differences lead to and produce an enormous clash, a collision of two spheres, two worlds colliding at full speed.

In Be near me, religion is but a membrane that separate these two orbs. Even to the main character, David Anderton, a Roman Catholic priest, religion is but a thin veneer, a skin adopted or worn for fail of another, better choice. Anderton, as his name suggests, so different from others ('Ander' taken to mean different, in German), fails to adapt of be flexible, while others, in their later years at university shake off religion. Uncertainty, and hesitation to change, instead rather hold on to what is familiar characterized Anderton. In more than one sense, Anderton has not really outgrown his students days, or his ideals and past are hidden under a thin film.

Assigned to a Parish in rural Scotland, an impoverished town, Anderton's "otherness" is heightened by the sharp contrast between his almost aristocratic background, his tastes and his intellectualism, which is all but barely accepted as he enjoys the protection of his status as a priest. He enjoys most understanding from his housekeeper, Mrs Poole, who sees his refinement close up. Until one day, she sees too much.

Anderton's demise comes through the unlikely friendship he makes with two teenagers; they symbolize his inability to see the world as it is, as he tries to understand them, and be close to them. As he smokes pott with young Mark, his judgement is blurred and he gives himself over to feeling which were buried for decades.

Nothing much happened, but it looks very wrong, and is not understood. The hatred of the local population comes full down on Anderton, and everything he ever loved is smashed.

The anger of the parishioners in the novel is echoed by the anger of some readers. Particularly since 2006, when Be near me, the number of news stories about abuse in the church has increased. The novel is no apology, but an intellectual interpretation, an exploration of different, possible perspectives.

Very impressive.



Other books I have read by Andrew O'Hagan:
The life and opinions of Maf the dog and of his friend Marilyn Monroe
Personality
The Atlantic Ocean. Essays on Britain and America
The missing

094. Report from the interior
Finished reading:



After the Winter journal described the aging of the body, as an original approach to biography, Report from the interior is Paul Auster's latest publication. It consists of a collection of three texts, each autobiographical: "Report from the interior", "Two blows to the head" and "Time capsule". The quality of these three texts differs greatly, making Report from the interior as a whole a very unbalanced book.

Innovation is not always the way to go. The first text, "Report from the interior" is an autobiographical text, but written in the second person singular "you". This is an appropriate form, as it creates some distance, which benefits the text, as writing about one's earliest youth could have become very tacky and awkward if written in the first person singular. While "Report from the interior" is written as an autobiography of Paul Auster is can almost be read as an autobiography of any (American) "everyman". The text is simulateously as description of the author's youth, as it is a cultural analysis of growing up in the United States through the 1950s and 60s. Many television programmes, films and other cultural landmarks line the "curriculum vitae" of young Paul. Most of "Report from the interior" is still interesting to non-American readers as many television series and films were also aired in other countries, although, possibly, with a time lag. The first part of the book is illustrated with more than 50 pages black-and-white illustrations, referring to American visual culture. In the paperback edition these illustrations are included at the back of the book. Had they been inserted in the text, they would almost have outnumbered the pages with text. Added at the back, however, they are oddly disconnected. It feels like cheap filling.

"Two blows to the head" is the most disappointing section of the book, of almost 75 pages effortless filler. In the first few pages the author asserts that the movie "The incredible shrinking man (1957) had a decisive influence of the author. The following 70+ pages are a detailed retelling of the film. This section is just a waste, a loose filler-up of the most uninteresting twaddle. Supposedly a re-telling does not infringe on the copyright of the film, but it seems the cheapest trick by Auster to date.

However, any of the weakness of the book is made up for in the last section of the book, entitled "Time capsule". This is an engaging piece of relatively conventional autobiographical narrative. It offers a full experience of Auster's rich life experience, his experience in France and his development as a novelist. It makes up for any of the short-comings of the book as a whole.



Other books I have read by Paul Auster:
Winter journal
Sunset Park
The music of chance
Oracle night
The book of illusions
Leviathan
In the country of last things
Hand to mouth. A chronicle of early failure
Moon Palace
The New York trilogy
The locked room
Ghosts
City of Glass
The red notebook. True stories, prefaces and interviews

095. Mirrors of the unseen. Journeys in Iran
Finished reading: 18 August 2014



Great travelogues are still being written. While bookstores nowadays offer many stories of back-packing adventurers and journalists, often producing exciting, but superficial accounts of encounters with rugged locals, it is good to know that there are still scholars who travel and write in-depth travelogues of inaccessible destinations, such as Iran. Mirrors of the unseen. Journeys in Iran is such a travelogue. It is a real eye-opener. It offers true insight into a country and culture, which has been all but shut to outsiders for more than 30 years. Mirrors of the unseen. Journeys in Iran by Jason Elliott has everything to become a classic.



For once, impressions deceive. Born in 1965, Jason Elliott has published two travelogues about Iran and Afghanistan: An Unexpected Light: Travels in Afghanistan (1999) and Mirrors of the Unseen: Journeys in Iran (2006).

While Iran, formerly known as Persia, now is an impoverished country, it boasts an ancient culture, of thousands of years. Elliott is a Persianist, and his fluency is so exceptional that taxi drivers take him for a native speaker, albeit with an accent that is hard to place. This enables Elliott to travel and mingle with the local people very naturally.

Perhaps the strength of Mirrors of the unseen. Journeys in Iran is that the author travels like an adventurer, but can interpret and describe Iranian culture with all the depth and authority of a scholar. It lends the book a great deal of credibility. Still, the book is very well-written, and never bores. In many respects, Jason Elliott is the ideal author to bring Iranian culture to light.

Some of the most revealing insights from the book are that most common Iranians are not to be confused with the extremists that dominate foreign news bulletins. Mirrors of the unseen. Journeys in Iran demonstrates very elegantly how the ancient Persian culture is throroughly rooted in Central Asian culture and bears some similarity to Chinese culture, i.e. not formal, material, but informal culture of the people's customs, for example with regard to hospitality. Elliott describes how he participated in parties that were organized in a type of "samizdat" atmosphere, ready to disperse and comply with Islamic regulations the moment they were discovered.

While most of the book deals with travels throughout Iran and encounters with common people, Elliott does not fail to describe the history of Persia in broad outlines and inform the readers about the magnificence of Persian and Muslim art.

Reading Mirrors of the unseen. Journeys in Iran can really change your mind about Iran.

096. Mr Pirate. A romance
Finished reading: 19 August 2014



Mr Pirate. A romance is quite a silly, little romance, silliness here meaning unpretentious. Abraham B. Shiffrin (1902-1998) was a playwright, dealer in antiquarian books. He was born in Poland, and lived in New York. Mr Pirate. A romance may well be inspired on his own experience as a second-hand book seller.

Six year's earlier, Reuben Piratski took over the antiquarian bookstore from his boss, Mr Oliver Katzenbogen, changing his name and that of the shop to Reuben Pirate. One day, a young man, named Stutter, introduces himself, hoping to take over the shop, but as he does not have enough money, he asks Reuben to hire him as an assistant, so he can work between the books, as that is what he loves. One day, Reuben is visited by his old friend John Burton. Burton has left his wife, and wants to move to South Africa. He wants to leave his wife to Reuben (...) and borrow 5,000 dollars from him to cover his travel expenses. Furthermore, he leaves an unpublished manuscript in Ruben's care.

Throughout the novel there is talk about buying and selling books, and the relative value of books. Reuben's stock of 25,000 books seems to be of little value, and he always dreams of being offered a priceless book, such as a First Folio. Some people come into the shop and ask about valuable books Reuben does not have, while others offer to sell books which they believe to be very valuable, while their actual market value is very low. Sometimes, Reuben has a wind fall, when a collection of books falls into his hands cheaply.

Forsaken by John, Ethel turns to Reuben, and tells him about there unhappy marriage. She would much like to marry Reuben. One day, unexpectedly, Stutter returns, and buys the shop from Reuben for 5,000 dollar. Ethel now hopes to marry Reuben, but Reuben says he cannot because he is already married. He married many years ago, but his wife left him after a month. Reuben takes the money and disappears, leaving Ethel and Stutter behind in amazement.

Mr Pirate. A romance is a most peculiar little tale, and completely absurd, a bit along the lines of F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story "O Russet Witch". Shiffrin's book seems to be about the absurd relation between the material and immaterial value of books, a capricious relation which is mirorred in the absurdities of life.

Perhaps Mr Pirate. A romance is of interest to people who collect books about books, almost the way in which Mr Pirate collected books about pirates, another hint at absurdity. Otherwise, it seems best to leave this book where you found it, back on the shelves of a second-hand bookstore: it has no value, or any value that is possible. It seems the greatest absurdity of the book seems that it plays a game with the buyer of the book, and makes you think about how and where you bought it, at what price, and how you are going to get rid of it.

097. The peace correspondent. Asian travel stories from a restless writer
Finished reading: 20 August 2014



Among an abundance of war correspondents, Garry Marchant presents himself as a "peace correspondent". In The peace correspondent. Asian travel stories from a restless writer, published by Hong Kong based Earnshaw Books, travel reports are collected from almost all South-East Asian countries: Japan, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Myanmar, South Korea, Tibet, Macau, Mongolia, Vietnam, Laos, Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, India, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Indonesia. The travel stories are collected over a period of twenty years, with the earliest dating back to 1978, and the latest written in 2001. Some countries have been visited multiple times, but with large lapses of time in between. With a total of 40 essays, and an average length of 7 pages, the book mainly offers very superficial impressions of each country. This superficiality is emphasized as the author writes using the "I-am-a camera-style" recording all, mostly fleeting impressions.

As a result, it is hard to gage the value of the collection. Some travel stories seem to have some journalistic value, while other are mainly touristic. There are four essays for China: Canton (1978), Yunnan (1987), Hong Kong to Shanghai (1992), and the Yangtse River (1995). Essays about China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and Tibet are grouped separately under headers as if they are separate countries.

Garry Marchant is a Canadian freelance writer who has made contributions to various guidebooks and anthologies, notably Away From Home. Canadian Writers in Exotic Places and Our American Cousins. The United States through Canadian Eyes.

>29 edwinbcn: ...Anderton, as his name suggests, so different from others ('Ander' taken to mean different, in German)
Thanks for this insight, which I hadn't considered, but which truly fits.
When I read Be Near Me, I had taken the name David Anderton to be a reference to the Glasgow district of Anderston, an area largely demolished like the character himself. Now I will look at it both ways. Great review.

I'll have to find Mirrors of the Unseen. I love real travelogues and it's heartening to see they are still being written.

I probably won't read any of these, but I enjoyed reading about them. Thanks for your reviews.

>35 rebeccanyc:

Haha. Your position is not unique, Rebecca! There is only ONE copy of The peace correspondent. Asian travel stories from a restless writer on LT, namely mine. Likewise, there are only 3 copies of Mr Pirate. A romance on LibraryThing, one of which in the Historical Library of Carl Sandburg.

They are both obscure, and marginalised authors. Abraham B. Shiffrin must have been a fairly successful playwright, at some stage, now almost completely forgotten.

Enjoyed reading your reviews as always Edwin. I am particularly interested in Mirrors of the Unseen, which seems like a valuable document in that the author gets to speak to the ordinary people in Iran.

You have read a great many of Paul Auster's books and I am glad to hear that his latest book is not without merit.

Mirrors of the Unseen sounds fascinating and has gone on my wish list.

Great reviews, Edwin. No Place to Hide and Mirrors of the Unseen have been added to my wish list, and I'll plan to read Roads to Santiago, which I bought this spring, as early as next month.

Thanks, Darryl. I will look forward to read your ideas about Roads to Santiago.

>30 edwinbcn: I'm interested in trying out something from Paul Auster and here I see you have read a ton of his books. Any suggestions as a first book to try?

Thanks for asking Daniel.

I think Paul Auster is one of the most interesting younger American authors at work. I first became interested in reading him, through his autobiographical work, notably The Red Notebook (1995) and Hand to Mouth (1997). What makes Auster interesting is his interest and experience in France. This comes back in the third part of Report from the interior (2013).

I enjoyed reading The New York Trilogy, because at that time I was interested in German Expressionism, and found that back through the novels of Auster's early prose. Moon Palace (1989) and In the Country of Last Things (1987) reminded me of the vital energy and pure power of inventiveness of Franz Kafka's novel Amerika.

In my opinion, Timbuktu (1999) and the novels after that lack the passion and originality of the earlier work. The later work shares many elements of the earlier novels, but the optimism has taken a dark turn.

I would recommend you'd start with some of the early work, for instance, Moon Palace (1989) or In the Country of Last Things (1987).

098. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Finished reading: 25 August 2014



The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a hybrid book about medical science and biography. The book contrasts several diverging lines, around racial issues in the United States. The book contains many shocking facts, and shockingly graphic descriptions of medical conditions. As a result, the book is not entirely free from sensationalism.

The sensationalism is conjoined with a sentimentality that is at once appropriate, but with a peculiar twist. This twist originates in the conditions the relatives of the object of the study have made to share their story with the author. She does not achieve that entirely successfully.

Science writing shares with medical science a general focus on the object, as opposed to the subject. The experiment, the discovery, the method is always more important than the people involved. The book describes the history of cancer research, particularly the successes in medical research based on the use of a strain of cells that has always been known, more or less anonymously as the HeLa cells.

The author's research into the origin of the HeLa cells literally means the opening of a Box of Pandora. Obviously, anonimity in medical procedures and medical science must serve a purpose. As the quest of "test tube babies" for their biological fathers shows, and breach of anonimity can cause all kinds of painful conflicts. Fortunately, such issues play no role, as yet, in organ transplants and blood transfusions. But it is not unimaginable that it one day might.

The United States has a shameful history of dealing with African-American people, whom they treated very badly until very recently, or even into the present. The US has a reputation of being a type "Wild West" of lawlessness which lasted until the end of the Nineteenth century, and some of its inability to treat its citizens as equals pervades until the middle of the Twentieth century, as late as the mid-1960s, when the Jim Crow laws were finally abolished in 1965. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks contains some shocking descriptions of the ways in which American doctors ignored the Nuremberg laws which forbid experimenting on patients without their consult, and neglecting and deliberately withholding treatrment from African-American patients in experiments which ended with the unnecessary suffering and death of those patients, as in the Tuskegee study. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks describes the beginnings of cancer research and treatment through, initially, the 1950s and 1960s, using the HeLa cells and injecting them in experimental fashion into patients unaware of the medical procedures and experiments they were submitted to.

The HeLa cells were originally takes from an African American woman, named Henrietta Lacks. The first part of the books is devoted to the biography of Mrs Lacks. Thus, the author turns the spot light from the object onto the subject: "the cells" get a face. And, a pretty face it is. However, Skloot's biography drags out every sordid detail about the life of Henrietta Lacks life and death.

In an apparently entirely objective descriptions, investigating the causes of the resilience of the HeLa cells the author reveals that, while 90% of adults become infected with at least one strain of human papillomavirus (HPV), Mrs Lacks was infected with multiple strains (p.212) On the next page, the author writes up what is in the mind of the relatives: namely that the disease was "the Lord's way of punishing Henrietta for leaving home (...) the wrath of the Lord.

Throughout the book, the author depicts the decendent family members as a bunch of the lowliest simpletons, emotionally unstable, financially insecure, and eccentric: a class of degenerates. In the meantime, the author has by inference imposed the firm impression on the reader that Henrietta Lacks was a promiscuous lovey.

Henrietta Lacks' suffering, is described as if "she had been possessed by the Devil of pain itself." (p.85). This chapter describes the incredible progress of the cancer in Mrs Lacks body, in tremendous graphic detail, descriptions which are outright shocking. The title of the chapter is "The Devil of pain itself", a suggestive abbreviation, as it links the horror of her condition and suffering to demonize Henrietta Lacks and prepare the reader for the verdict of the Lord's wrath.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a peculiar book that has no clear point of focus. The books consists of the descriptions of cancer research, centred on the history and role of the HeLa cells, the biography of Henrietta Lacks, and the research of the author documenting the life of Henrietta Lacks and dealing with the descendant family in the process. These three ingredients create a peculiar dymanic, of both attraction and repulsion, and a strong undercurrent of racism.

That was a thoroughly entertaining review. I love that you have such a different perspective on all this than most readers, and certainly from any American readers.

Also, thanks for the suggestions on Paul Auster!

099. Goodbye to all that
Finished reading: 25 August 2014



If you only want to read one book about the trench war and World War I, or the Great War, as it was called in its time, Goodbye to all that by Robert Graves would be an excellent choice. Graves was one of the long-term, active combattants. Goodbye to all that is a first-hand account of the horrors of trench warfare. It describes all the images which have since become emblematic for that event: snipers, gas, gas masks, severed limbs, etc. Horrors including sinking once fingers into a putrified corps while groping in the dark under shell fire, comrades who are felled by a shot in the skull from a sniper, and soldiers being blown up by grenades. There is also a passage in which he described the successive colours of the stages of decomposition of a corpse. Gruesome! Robert Graves survived these horrors much longer than most other soldiers, apparently through a great deal of luck, and the sensible attitude to not take any unnecessary risk, and pursuing a strategy of survival.

The first 80 pages, or so, deal with Graves time at boarding school in England, and the reality of war comes on very soon. The writing is very engaging, and the whole book is a very easy read. Towards the end, Graves descibes many literary figures he met, such as Siegfried Sassoon whom he actually met at the front, and other authors, later such as Aldous Huxley. The final 100 pages of the book seem to be dragging a bit, as they describe Graves life after the war.

Goodbye to all that is a very good introductory read to understanding the action of the Great War.

I would like to read this Graves, even more so after your review.

Edwin, have you ever read Pat Barker's Regeneration trilogy? Graves and Sassoon feature prominently in it.

ETA: I've added Goodbye to all That to my wishlist.

I have Regeneration and Life Class on my tbr, but I do not take to the style of Pat Barker. Earlier this year, I have removed a few other novels by Pat Barker from my library, but have held on to these two titles because of the WWI theme.

I must also say that I think there is a huge gap between contemporary witnesses writing, fiction from that period and fiction about WWI that was written later. I find that contemporary (then) fiction has much more depth, while fiction that was written by modern authors in our era is superficial.

The Penguin Book of First World War Stories has an excellent introduction to the genre by Barbara Korte. While very short, the introduction tells readers that there was a war books boom in the 1920 and 1930s, but that only a single anthology of short stories appeared in 1930, with reprints in 1933 and 1994. No anthologies were either published or (re)printed in the intervening years. Towards the end of the Twentieth centure, there was a revival of interest in the Great War, with several novels and stories published between 1985 and 1995.

I will definitely read more World War I related books, non-fiction as well as fiction, over the next three years, including Regeneration and Life Class. Thanks for the suggestion. I did not know that Graves and Sassoon feature prominently in it.

Edwin, I've read several books in the WWI theme this year. All Quiet on the Western Front was excellent. That and Birdsong have very realistic descriptions of life in the trenches. I would recommend those.

>48 edwinbcn: The Penguin Book of First World War Stories sounds intriguing.

I quite like Robert Graves and really should read Goodbye To All That — based on your review if nothing else!

Thanks for bringing Goodbye to all that to our attention Edwin.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks left a nasty taste in my mouth and that was because of Rebecca Skloot's viewpoint and self aggrandisement.

>52 baswood:

I agree, Barry. There is something quite weird about The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, the composition of the book, the role of the family and the author, and a faint smack that sincerity has somewhere fallen off the waggon.

100. Travels with a donkey in the Cevennes
Finished reading: 26 August 2014



Some animals, particularly domestic animals, take a prominent role in people's lives and in literature. While not as significant as dogs, which feature abundantly in literary fiction, nonetheless the donkey makes a regular appearance in literature as a companion of (wo)man. However, whenever the donkey makes its appearance in literature, it is almost always as a symbol of humility, humbleness or poverty. Donkeys are found in literature in the Bible, The Transformations of Lucius, Otherwise Known as, The Golden Ass by Apuleius, Platero and I by Juan Ramón Jiménez, Don Quichotte, etc. Whereas the dog is emblematic of loyalty, and cats perhaps the opposite, horses may express fierce pride, but donkey are often associated with stubbornness. At the same time, a donkey is immensely endearing.

A donkey is also Robert Louis Stevenson's main companion on his hike through southern France, described in Travels with a donkey in the Cevennes. It is a classic of travel writing, and a beautiful book for lovers of natural history writing. Stevenson chose the preciously beautiful region of the Cévennes for his 12-day journey on foot. The Cévennes is a mountainous region located in the Massif Central in south-central France, covering parts of the départements of Ardèche, Gard, Hérault and Lozère. The ruggedness of the terrain has offered various people a refuge from persecution, most notably the Huguenots in the late Seventeenth and early Eighteenth centuries, and Jewish people during the Twentieth century holocaust. Stevenson may have chosen the region as the situation of the Huguenots-Camisards' 1702 rebellion against the Catholic King reminded him of the Jacobite risings in Scotland. The episode is described in the book.

Travels with a donkey in the Cevennes is a lovely and short tale to read. In many places it is humourous, particularly Stevenson's exploits with the donkey, whom he christened "Modestine". There are beautiful descriptions of the landscape, nature and the people he encountered in the best tradition of travel literature, particularly hiking in the south of France.



Other books I have read by Robert Louis Stevenson:
Treasure island
Weir of Hermiston and Other Stories
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde & other stories

You have made these travels sound spectacular. I put them on my wishlist.

Thanks for your excellent review of Travels with a donkey in the Cevennes I will make sure I read that when I get to R L Stevenson

I think you could also add wisdom to the characteristics of a donkey, I thought that Platero was a wise animal.

Do you know who did those great illustrations for Travels with a Donkey? My edition (without pictures) is currently packed away and I wish it wasn't, as I had wanted to read it in the summer and get that sense of hiking and the outdoors. Perhaps by next summer I will be able to get to unpack it.

>57 SassyLassy:

The picture under my review is the frontpiece from the first edition of Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes (1879), illustrated by Walter Crane. But this picture in not included in my edition of the book. I have the 1967 edition brought out by the Folio Society (tenth printing in 1992), which was illustrated by Edward Ardizzone. His style is much more naturalistic, and very Romantic, and French.

Loved your review of Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes — and the illustrations. The Ardizzone is very French indeed, at least what I think of as French!

Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes sounds delightful!

101. Two lives
Finished reading: 29 August 2014



Two lives is a hefty volume consisting of a dual-biography of Vikram Seth's great-Uncle and great-Aunt. As a young man, the author came to live with his great-Uncle and great-Aunt as he moved from India to live with them in England, where he went to school. While their lives are perhaps interesting to the author, they are not necessarily interesting to readers.

Reading 500 pages about people who are only remotely related to Vikram Seth is quite a struggle, especially if one wonders why one would read a book like that. Althought the book does tell the reader something about the young Vikram Seth, that would barely be enough motivation to read a tome like this.

The distance in the relationship shows equally in the way the authors deals with the material. The first biography is distanced, and confusing as the story jumps across history and places, alternately referring to the great-Uncle using different names, such as Uncle Shanti and the Shanti-Uncle, Shanti, etc. While Shanti B. Seth led an interesting life, there are no doubt countless other anonymous people who have lived equally or even more interesting lives.

The second live describes the biography of Seth's great-Aunt, Henny Gerda Caro. Much time is invested into describing the horrible fate of the great-Aunt's German Jewish family, most of whose family members perished during the holocaust. Here, the author's descriptions of their fate are so incredibly horrendous and hard that they can barely be seen as being written by a family member. Here he describes the death of his great-Aunt's sister, Lola:

Lola's naked body, groteskly contorted, possibly broken-boned, her face blue and unrecognisable and bleeding from mouth and nose, her legs streaked with shit and blood, would, after a hosing-down, have been dragged out of the room, possibly with a noose and grappling-hook, to a large lift that would have taken her together with the man others up to the ground floor of the building. Here, in the furnace room, a trolley would have moved her body along to continue the procedure. Any gold teeth she might have had would have been broken out of her mouth with pliers, and she would have been tipped out of the trolley into one of the fifteen cast-iron ovens. She would have been disposed of in about twenty minutes, her own residual fat helping to sustain the heat of the oven, thus saving fuel.

The description of the holocaust and how it affected the family of his aunt takes up the largest part of the book. Clearly, the author must have been filled with a fascination or horror to write this part of family history out of his system.

Obviously, while some writers write about what they think their readers or publishers might like, Vikram Seth is known for his idiosyncratic choice to write about what fascinates him, breaking any taboo or convention, to pursue what interests him. This is the prerogative of the author.



Other books I have read by Vikram Seth:
The rivered earth

102. Mockingbird. A portrait of Harper Lee
Finished reading: 31 August 2014



Charles J. Shields is clearly an accomplished biographer, but it seems he must have underestimated the difficulty of the task of taking on a biography of Harper Lee, given the paucity of material available to accomplish that task. Harper Lee, born in 1926, is a reclusive author who never published another book after her best-seller To Kill a Mockingbird. For more than fivedecades, since publication in 1960, Harper Lee has consistently refused to make speeches or give interviews. This lack of material shows in the biography, which is therefore only moderately successful.

However, Mockingbird. A portrait of Harper Lee does still contain some material that make reading it interesting. Firstly, the opening chapters of the book give a wonderful description of the languid lifestyle in the South of the United States. The biography also reveals and describes in detail the longstanding and personal friendship since childhood between Harper Lee and Truman Capote, as they grew up in the same small town. Shields describes numerous influences in the works of Harper Lee and Capote, showing how the figure in each other's works under a thin disguise. The most spectacular contribution are the chapters which describe the help Harper Lee gave Truman Capote in doing research for his seminal non-fiction novel In Cold Blood. In effect, the writing of In Cold Blood would not have been possible in its current form if it had not been for Harper Lee.

Obviously, Mockingbird. A portrait of Harper Lee describes the success of Harper Lee's novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, and the effect it had on its author. However, the biography remains vague as to why Harper Lee decided to withdraw from public life, and one would expect more detailed description of how that situation came about.

According to later chapters in the biography, Harper Lee is known to have worked or been working on further novellistic work, but little is known about it and none has been published so far. The last part of Mockingbird. A portrait of Harper Lee are vague, and all based on speculation, that does not bring anything significant to light. Supposedly, readers and scholars will have to wait till the estate is executed, to discover an personal details about the author and her ideas before long. It is very unlikely that any other biography could offer more insight that this biography, and therefore, despite its necessary short-comings, Mockingbird. A portrait of Harper Lee is probably the best biography around.

Recommended for readers interested in Harper Lee and particularly her relation to Truman Capote.

103. Plain tales from the hills
Finished reading: 5 September 2014



Having published only three novels, viz. The Light that Failed (1891), Captains Courageous (1896) and Kim (1901), Rudyard Kipling is mostly remembered for his poetry and short stories. He won the Nobel Prize in 1907, but as his prose and poetry is most closely associated with British colonialism, his work is now but little read.

Plain tales from the hills, a collection of 40 stories, is one of the first prose works of Kipling to be published. But for twelve, these stories had first appeared in a local newspaper in India. They are sketches of various aspects of life in British India.

However, these stories and the sentiments they refer to stand very far off modern readers. Most of the stories come across as gossip, and would only seem interesting to an incrowd readership, either British colonials of the time in India or the home country. Among modern readers it is unlikely to find either staunch defenders of the Raj, or readers to whom the intricacies of life in Simla would be appealing enough to read.

The stories appear dull, and as some stories are interrelated, with characters repeatedl appearing, it is not clear to modern readers what is going on. Besides, what appears to be going on, seems of very little interest to readers now.

Plain tales from the hills is clearly dated to beyond shelf life, and best left alone.



Other books I have read by Rudyard Kipling:
Just so stories

104. Sinds gisteren zijn twee dagen verstreken
Finished reading: 6 September 2014



Sinds gisteren zijn twee dagen verstreken consists of 23 short stories by the Dutch author Rogi Wieg. Most of the stories are very short, with an average length of just under six pages. As most of the stories are very subdued, and written in a ver similar style, dealing with ver similar people in similar situations, careful reading is advised. Otherwise, the reader may easily get lost, and miss the boundaries between individual stories. The stories in Sinds gisteren zijn twee dagen verstreken deal with relationship between men and women, and the causes for failure in relationships. The subtlety of the stories lies in the vague suggestion that the cause for failure could be either of the two partners, depending on the perspective. The monotony and uniformity make the collection overall rather dull to read.

105. Great ghost stories
Finished reading: 7 September 2014



It is apparent that modern people, used to viewing horror movies of the late-Twentieth century and onwards, are unlikely to be thrilled or startled by horror stories written in the Nineteenth century. Literature does not work in the bright light or the glaring brighness of the screen. It operates best in the dark crevices of the imagination, and the borderlands between the real and the imagined. However, there will always be a group of readers who have a strong imagination, and for them these stories will remain as scary as ever.

The thing with anthologies is that they often contain stories one already owns in other volumes or has read before. Great ghost stories, edited by John Grafton contains a number of ghost stories b well-known authors, such as LeFanu, Dickens, M.R. James and Bierce, but also a number of stories by authors less well-known.

Some of the scariest stories in the collection are written by W.W. Jacobs, "he Monkey's Paw", woe he who can imagine the mangled creature that knocks at the door, and Charles Dickens' "To Be Taken with a Grain of Salt", the latter is scary once one thinks through to the implication of who is able to see ghosts, is seen by ghosts, and may appear as ghosts to others. Whether one is afraid of rats or not, the giant rat and what it stands for in Bram Stoker's "The Judge's House" will make any sensitive reader shudder. "The Phantom Coach" by Amelia B. Edwards calls the rugged moorland of the Bronte's to mind.

The power of all the stories lies within the realm of the imagination, outside the direct experience of the characters and the reader. Great ghost stories offers a very interesting sample of ghost stories.

106. Autobiography
Finished reading: 18 September 2014



Early on in his Autobiography Steven Patrick Morrissey explains why the book is published under the single name Morrissey, and why as a musician, he prefers to be known as Morrissey. It is because Beethoven is simply known as Beethoven. Thus, as we may recognize Beethoven Fifth Symphony by its opening bars, this statement heralds the arrogance and nacissim that readers may expect in this Autobiography.

Penguin Books is as much implicated, for how can a book be included in the Penguin Classics Series upon first publication? Absolutely nothing merits the book's inclusion in this series, but as one may suppose the decision is not based on merit but on money.

Autobiography by Steven Patrick Morrissey is pompous in every way. It is a volume bloated to a fist-thick volume, quite clearly by the large print. While the opening chapters display a laboured and somewhat elaborate prose style, including samples of poetry and references to literature and art, the largest part of the book consists of hum-drum everyday businesses that are down to earth and boring. The book is about the author's music career, but by the end of 600 pages, the reader knows nothing about the personal life of the author. Neither his single or unmarried status are explained, nor personal or sexual relations are described. There is a peculiar description in the mid-section of the book in which, however unlikely, the author sees a half-naked man from the windows of their car, and they assume that this person is the victim of rape. The story seems contrived, and its purpose is not clear.

Insincere, narcissistic and boring. Probably too thick for fans to read, a mockery to lovers of literature.

107. The Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie and The Gospel of Wealth
Finished reading: 20 September 2014



Signet Classics brings together Andrew Carnegie's The Gospel of Wealth, which is no more than a 13-page essay, first published in 1889, and The Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie, which was first published posthumously in 1920, a year after his death. However, it is because of the first that Andrew Carnegie is a household name in the United States, and even many people around the world are familiar with his name.

The Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie is almost a non-fiction equivalent to Theodore Dreiser's The Financier. From very humble beginnings in his native Scotland, the autobiography describes how Carnegie created a business empire, which he successfully sold off in 1901 or $480 million (in 2014 $13.6 billion). Even in his position as an industrial magnate, Carnegie befriended authors and philosophers, such as Mark Twain and Herbert Spencer, while writing and publishing essays and books himself. The autobiography describes how clever business acumen led to ever increasing business success and even apparent misfortune such as the American Civil War could be turned to profit. The red thread throughout the book is the theme and core on which his wealth was built, how as a young boy he would observe the smith forge the steel in his Scottish village, to working in steel works, a progression from railroads to building bridges and the production of steel in the Pittsburgh Steel Works.

Andrew Carnegie is close to the American Dream of rising from rags to riches, as self-made man, close to the legacy of Benjamin Franklin. However, as is pointed out by Gordon Hutner in the introduction, despite his idealism, Carnegie is not entirely frank about his role in the Homestead Strike which threatened his business interests. However, in his later years he devoted his life to charity, showering money to the purpose of creating libraries and universities, thus returning his wealth to society whence it came from. In this sense the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is a worthy follower in this tradition.

The Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie was written in and abruptly broken off, to remain unfinished in 1914. It was published after his death in 1920.

108. The four loves
Finished reading: 21 September 2014



In The four loves, C. S. Lewis brings together his erudition in the field of culture, particularly the European Middle Ages and Renaissance and his religious views regarding love. The book was published in 1960 and has a much broader scope than Eric Fromm's Die Kunst des Liebens (Engl. The Art of Loving), which had appeared a few years earlier in 1956.

The four loves explores all forms of loving by humans, although it places materialism, "the love of sub-human things" clearly at a lower plain. In the first two chapters, the author also tries to distinguish between "loving" and "liking" something. Regarding the love of humans, Lewis aims to explain the love among humans and supra-human love, or divine love. The opening chapters are a bit confusing, as general concepts are explained with small excursions into future chapters. However, the last four chapters are devoted to the said four loves the title refers to, namely Affection, Friendship, Eros and Charity.

Although The four loves was published in 1960, and purports to be a philosophical essay on the various forms of love, the book could barely expected to offer guidance to readers on the eve of the sexual revolution. The main outlook is conservative, and throughout the book Lewis religious heart-thob is felt. Particularly in the final chapter, this overbearing slavishness to the Christian interpretation of love becomes overbearing. Clearly, the flower power movement would prefer Fromm's The Art of Loving which is more scientific, based in psychology rather than religion.

However, for readers who can appreciate the strong Christian sentiment in The four loves, Lewis work offers a broader and more interesting picture, as various forms of love are explored within the Christian cultural tradition of Europe.



Other books I have read by C. S. Lewis:
Spirits in bondage. A cycle of lyrics
A year with C. S. Lewis. 365 daily readings from his classic works
The problem of pain

Wow! A lot of books to catch up with, and varied too. Sorry you didn't like most of them very much.

I remember really liking Two Lives when I read it, probably at least a decade ago, but I don't have strong memories of it the way I do of Seth's A Suitable Boy which I absolutely loved. I like that Seth writes such varied books, and I am eagerly awaiting publication of A Suitable Girl in 2016.

I read another collection of ghost stories, The Haunted Looking Glass, a year or two ago, and Count Magnus and Other Ghost Stories a year or two before that, and I guess while I found some of them scary I ultimately find them pretty predictable.

>58 edwinbcn: Thanks for the info. I do like that Walter Crane. A Folio Edition with Ardizzone illustrations would be wonderful. I always think of him and the "Tim" books, about the little boy who has such great adventures at sea. Checking him now, I see that he was the inaugural Kate Greenaway medal winner for children's illustration. Your reminder about him has just prompted me to order A Child's Christmas in Wales with his illustrations.

Interesting book about Andrew Carnegie. You can always spot his libraries, which dot small towns in the part of the world where I live. I know there are those who only think of him as some sort of robber baron, but these libraries always inspire me. What a great legacy.

Interested in your review of Mockingbird; a portrait of Harper Lee I would find the early chapters interesting where Lee's book is put into context.

It's no surprise to read what you said about the Morrissey autobiography

109. Cooked. A natural history of transformation
Finished reading: 26 September 2014



Michael Pollan is firmly established as an author of books about food, partcicularly about the production of food. He is not only characterized as a writer, but also as an activist and lecturer. The early years of Pollan's authorship are a bit difficult to trace. In 1975, he attended the Mansfield College, Oxford University and after taking an MA degree in English in 1981, supposedly, he worked for nearly two decades as an editor and journalist. Some of his earliest essays in the early 1990s demonstrate an interest in natural history, particularly plants, botany, and food, or the intersection of the natural world and culture. While in his early books, Second Nature: A Gardener's Education (1991) and The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World (2001) botany was forefronted, Pollan's recent four books have all focussed on the food industry, particularly man's domination of nature and near destructive influence on the ecology of food yielding crops. Particularly, The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals forms the backbone and basis of Michael Pollan's crusade against the food industry. In this book, he describes the origins of human's food, demonstrating how mankind developed food resources from hunting-gathering, through agriculture to agribusiness with industrial characteristics, and how man's domination of nature threatens to destroy our health and the eco system, foreboding an apocalyptic food scarecity scenario. Following the publication of the The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, Pollan has published several books, which cab be seen as spin-offs from this book, mostly advocating better food habits, such as In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto (2008), Food Rules: An Eater's Manual (2009) and Pollan Family Table (2014). While the former is theoretical, the latter three books are all very practical, containing tips for better eating.

Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation (2013) is a book that moves back a little bit along the spectrum, to discuss the intersection between culture and nature, in the form of discussing the way humans have prepared and eaten. Like, The Omnivore's Dilemma, the book is divided into four parts, each describing a method of food preparation, symbolized by one of the four elements: fire, water, air and earth. The first part of the book is formed by a more or less anthropological description of "fire pit" hog roasting. This is a fascinating piece of writing of a unique way of roasting meat. By focussing on a single, spectacular type of roasting, Pollan circumvents the necessity of tedious explanation of methods of barbecuing that everyone would be familiar with. Apparently, the type of roasting described by Pollan is sufficiently obscure to be interesting and new to the majority of both domestic and international readership. Unfortunately, the piece is too long, and repetitive. While the original description is great and interesting, a similar case at a different location is included, which, though described in less detail, creates an unnecessary repetition. This clearly seems to be a filler, to lengthen the chapter. The second part of the book describes all forms of stewing, braising and boiling in water. This is the shortest chapter. It is fleshed out with an explanation of umami the fifth taste, with which not very many are familiar.

While everone can imagine the role of fire and water in the preparation of food, the author stretches the imagination of the reader a bit by the next two categories: air and earth. This is not obvious at all. Part three describes the baking of bread, while Part four describes various ways of fermentation. The artificiality of this division is obvious. After all, the function of yeast in bread is also a form of fermentation, while in the fermentation processes of wine and beer, described in Part four, "air" is also formed. However, this is obscured by the author. Part three describes the role of yeast in the production of artisan bread, while Part four describes the role of microbes in the production of wine, beer and cheese.

Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation is a very interesting book, that combines background, history and cultural description, with writing about food, and food preparation. The book also contains various DIY recipes, suggesting readers to put into practice. The book is much more optimistic and lighter than The Omnivore's Dilemma.

However, even with regular readers of the work of Michael Pollan a certain fatique with the topic must be noticeable. The division into four parts is strained, as discussed above. Pollan's writing style bears all the typical characteristics of journalistic writing. So, every part is identified by a particular named individual, a person who functions as a kind of anchor, and is described as a grotesque caricature. At the same time, the author places himself in the position of the person who experiences, tastes, smells and tries everything: the eyes and ears of the reader. Both books have a mystifying sub title. In fact, A Natural History of Transformation comes close to having no meaning at all. It is neither "natural history" nor "transformation".

Michael Pollan is not a great thinker or original mind. His books are well-crafted, but bear all the characteristics of paucity in scholarship and lacking a critical and objective mind. Thus, Pollan's view are elitist, driven by commercialism and activism, rather than sound scholarship. Pollan's work is better understood as popular science, and very readable. However, it is hoped the author will soon turn to another topic.



Other books I have read by Michael Pollan:
In defense of food. An eater's manifesto
A place of my own. The architecture of daydreams
The botany of desire. A plant's-eye view of the world
The omnivore's dilemma. A natural history of four meals

So many good books Edwin. I always enjoy visiting your thread to see what you have to say.

Happy New Year.

110. Ashenden, or, The British agent
Finished reading: 26 September 2014



“To drink a glass of sherry when you can get a dry Martini is like taking a stage-coach when you can travel by the Orient Express.” (p. 225-226)

Few literary sources are mentioned to explain Ian Fleming's creation of James Bond, although Eric Ambler's spy novels, published in the late-30s and onwards are sometimes mentioned. Another worthy contender would be Ashenden, or, The British agent by W. Somerset Maugham.

The truth behind the story is astonishing enough. In 1914, W. Somerset Maugham was recruited by the British Secret Service to stay in Switzerland, posing to work on a play, and in this disguise execute his work a a liaison and spy. The stories in Ashenden, or, The British agent are based on Somerset Maugham's own experience as an agent. The main character, modeled on the author, is an aristocratic, suave gentleman, ruthless enough to face blackmail, interrogation and murder, in the service of the Motherland.

Somerset Maugham cleverly borrowed Conan-Doyle's formula of a collection of loosely connected stories that each form an episode around the main character on an ongoing mission, similar to the The adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
John Ashenden might as well be the model for James Bond, perhaps a bit more aristocratic. Another similarity, is that, like in the James Bond novels, the chief of the secret service is never named other than merely by the use of an initial, thus Colonel R.

Ashenden, or, The British agent breathes the atmosphere of Conrad's Under Western eyes, in which foreign operatives, with long, foreign-sounding names meet in obscure hostels, plotting and conspiring to do mischief. The stories are not as exciting as later spy novels in the genre, but Maugham does bring an intriguing cast of characters together, Russian, Mexican and Indian, with characters such the hairless Mexican, The dark woman, or Giulia Lazzari.

Ashenden, or, The British agent was written and published in 1928, but based on Somerset Maugham experience during the Great War. It is a book that offers a different perspective of the First World War.



Other books I have read by W. Somerset Maugham:
The Gentleman in the Parlour
Of human bondage
The painted veil
Up at the villa
The moon and sixpence
Points of view
The vagrant mood
The narrow corner

>72 edwinbcn: I read The Omnivore's Dilemma and it did put me off beef, but I agree with your last paragraph about Pollan.

111. The London scene. Six essays on London life
Finished reading: 28 September 2014



'I love walking in London,' said Mrs Dalloway.
'Really, it's better than walking in the country.'

Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

Given the status of Virginia Woolf as an author in English literature, The London scene. Six essays on London life has received very little attention. This is all the more startling, as this small book provides a most lyrical and enticing description of the city of London, a city loved by the British and travellers alike. Moreover, London, as the capital of Great Britain, and, at that time, the empire at large, has always been a city filled to the brim with culture and literature, a well Woolf thankfully dips into.

The London scene. Six essays on London life was published in the same year as her novel, The Waves, a mature work by an author known for her lyrical prose style. She had already published six novels, and her work was increasingly moving in the direction of essays and non-fiction. The writing of the six essays or articles about London was commissioned by Good Housekeeping, a women's magazine, which had launched its British edition in 1922. The essays were published in bi-monthly instalments, between December 1931 and November 1932. The first five essays were published in book form in 1981, but by that time the sixth essay was lost, until it was rediscovered at the University of Sussex in 2004. This prompted the Ecco Press to collect all six essays, and publish them for the first time in the United States in a small volume of just under 100 pages, with a gorgeous cover.

The six essays are written as walks in London. As historical London has changed but little, is should be possible, almost, to retrace her steps and gaze up at towers, cathedrals and facades with one's own eyes. Then again, Virginia Wollf walking around London and describing the city provided an impressionistic image of Bloomsbury London. Besides the beautiful images she captured and framed with her mind, the essays provide a kaleidoscopic display of illusions and allusions of London and London's history or the Nineteenth and early Twentieth century.

The first essay, "The docks of London" is perhaps not the most enticing, as even in Woolf's day the Thames estuary and the docks were becoming a derelict area, a messy fringe to the city, a wasteland too, of the literary imagination. However, the following essays bring the allure of London to full bloom. This contrast between the crudity of the docklands and the refinement of the City is intentional, as if the reader makes a transition from the leaden grey into the dazzling gold. In Virginia Woolf's prose, London is a warm place, a cosiness emphasized as she takes the reader into the homes of London's great writers, such as Dicken's house, Keats' house and Carlyle's house. However, Woolf's inimical style shines through in the haunting descriptions of statesmen's sculptures "gazing from white eyes". Haunting are also descriptions from Westminster Abbey, where "(f)rom every corner, from every wall, somebody leans or listens or bends forward as if about to speak."

The London scene. Six essays on London life is not merely a book about London. We see London through Woolf's eyes, and through her eyes, we see Virginia Woolf.



Other books I have read by Virginia Woolf:
Mrs. Dalloway
Jacob's room
Orlando
A room of one's own
Monday or Tuesday
Selected short stories

What a wonderful start to the New Year with the Maugham and Woolf -- two books that I had never heard of by important authors. Lovely reviews.

Echoing Jane here about the two last reviews. I used to read a lot of Maugham and your reviews this year have made me think I should go back to him. Ashenden is one I haven't read, so perhaps would be a good one. Six Essays on London Life was unknown to me and sounds intriguing for those who love to travel in their armchairs, like me, while dreaming of future destinations.

Thanks for bringing The London Scene. Six Essays on London Life to our attention Edwin.

112. Overpeinzingen van een bramenzoeker
Finished reading: 5 October 2014



Up along the North Sea coast, about 40 kilometres northwest of Amsterdam, lies Bergen, not to be confused with Norwegian Bergen. The Dutch coast consists of beaches and dunes, and in some places the dunes are forested; with broadleaf trees in the area around Haarlem, and with pine trees in the area near Bergen. Haarlem is a city of patricians, its close proximity to Amsterdam has always meant a close relationship with the capital city. It is the birth place of Harry Mulisch. Bergen, together with Bergen aan Zee, are twin villages, far enough from Amsterdam to be seen at a distance, but for convenience still close to Alkmaar, a small city of merchants and farmers. Up until 1955, Bergen was conveniently connected to Amsterdam b rail, operating a steam engine.

In its hey days, between 1900 and 1950, Bergen was an artists colony, and the Roland Holst family, Adriaan Roland Holst, the poet, and his cousin Rik Roland Holst, the architect, are among the most well-known artists who resided and worked in Bergen. Henriette Roland Holst, a novelist, was his wife.

Rik Roland Holst is mainly knows as an architect, sculptor are graphic designer, but has published a number of essays. Most of these essays are about art, but Overpeinzingen van een bramenzoeker (English: "Ruminations of a Bramble picker" is a work of a more general nature. The prose style is rich, symbolic and mainly atmospheric. However, it does not convey a clear message or inspiration.

113. Dagboek van een lege plek
Finished reading: 5 October 2014



Dagboek van een lege plek is a failed experiment. It is a post-modern novella, including collated newspaper clippings of doubtful authenticity, i.e. they may be real or they may be fake. The newspaper clippings suggest that one of the characters ideas in the novella is true. The Netherlands, being a small and over-crowded country, is considered to be full, by many Dutch people. Whether in a political sense, or in ecological sense. Besides, there is no "wilderness", no wild nature in the Netherlands. All natural landscapes are to some extent cultural landscapes.

The novella tells the story of Peter Holst, a naturalist, and Tonya, a jazz-zangeres. Together they travel around the country, and as they gradually become aware that there is no nature left, they decide to create "nature" by creating a refugium, a plot of land, left to itself.

In the 1980s, nature construction also known as "rewilding" came into vogue in the Netherlands, particularly as a means to re-create nature, often to compensate for the destruction of natural habitats in other locations. This novella, published in 2005, seems to be based on some of those ideas. Unfortunately, the story is muddled, creating the impression that to the author, the idea is more important than the story.

The author, Thomas van Slobbe is an activist, who promotes rewilding and the reconstruction and preservation of both natural and cultural landscape. He is the author or co-author of several books, among which, notably in English Fences and Freedom: The Philosophy of Hedgelaying.

I enjoyed your review of Ashenden, Edwin. Happily, I have discovered that I have an unread copy on my shelves. Maugham's background as a British agent sounds interesting.

114. The world is what it is. The authorized biography of V.S. Naipaul
Finished reading: 12 October 2014



Great writers are not always great men. In fact, it has been claimed that The world is what it is. The authorized biography of V.S. Naipaul "reveals the true monster in V. S. Naipaul". Indeed, reading this biography you will experience a staggering mount of surprise, as you gradually realize what an awful person V. S. Naipaul obviously is. His abominable behaviour is described in so much detail and at such length, that one wonders whether or not Naipaul has ever considered retracting his authorization. The facts about the personal life of V. S. Naipaul that are revealed are truly shocking.

Patrick French has written an excellent biography of V. S. Naipaul. It is all there, for all to see. Without any moralizing comments, which essentially shows that the biographer is a man of his time. Perhaps that is what appealed to V. S. Naipaul in working with Patrick French as his biographer, as it is clearly not only a display of great skill, but also of great courage, for a relatively young biographer to write such a daring book about a Nobel Prize winner.

It is obvious, that V. S. Naipaul, the man, has a very unpleasant side to his character. He is shown to drop his friends, even claim they never were his friends, or speak evil about the behind their backs, while his relations with women raise eyebrows in most observers. The biographer neither comments, nor asks the women for their point of view. To a very large extent, Naipaul is described as an essentially very selfish, and self-centred personality, but the biography also shows that perhaps that was needed for the worm to crawl out of the mud. The women he used, after all, gave themselves to him. It is almost as if Naipaul is never out of the role of the author, and that both in his work and in the world he is the creator. For a better understanding of this contradiction, it may be useful to read Naipaul's A writer's people. Ways of looking and feeling, a collection of autobiographical essays, which came out in the same year as the biography.

The history of Naipaul's authorship, from the humble beginnings, coming to London and start plodding at a career in writing are all meticulously described, in the right amount of detail for the reader to remain fully engaged. Coming from the perifery of empire, Naipaul had a difficult start to find his niche in British literature, and from thence develop into a world class writer. This was possible, as he gradually realized and turned towards his Indian roots, and wrote his first book about India, An Area of Darkness. This book is a very direct, frontal attack on India, describing the country in such negative terms that it was banned.

According to French, the great strength of Naipaul is that he developed an entirely personal style, and with forceful callousness vent his opinion or view on anything, particularly in racial and post-colonial matters. Thus, Naipaul made himself eyed suspiciously by people from developing countries all over the world, as he bluntly exposed the way many immigrants, and former colonial people pay lip service to independence, but blame former colonizers for their own weaknesses and corruption, relinquishing their responsibility behind a smoke screen of victimhood. This was an unheard of view, particularly in the 1960s, when academia began embracing and pampering all abused minorities.

Long before the desastrous developments at the turn of the century, V.S. Naipaul turned to study Islam, and noticed the sprouting of Moslem fundamentalism, in several travelogues he wrote, exploring the Moslem diaspora in South and Southeast Asia.

Readers who can separate the man from his work, will find The world is what it is. The authorized biography of V.S. Naipaul a very good biography. The description of the development of his literary oevre, shows Naipaul as a visionary, in terms of authorship, a man ahead of his time, perhaps even by such a great measure that the ultimate significance of his work is still not clear to contemporary readers.

As someone who can quite happily separate authors' personalities from their writing, especially in fiction, I have been reluctant to delve to deeply into the man V S Naipaul, lest it alter this approach, since I admire the work of his I have read to date. I particularly thought The Enigma of Arrival detailed the struggles of those from the periphery of Empire, when confronted with those who see themselves as the custodians of that empire on the empire's home turf.

However, your final paragraph makes me think I should investigate further, and a biography that pays attention to his writing seems like a good start.

Great review.

Excellent review of The World Is What it Is, Edwin. In A Free State is the only Naipaul that I have read and I did enjoy it. I have been somewhat intrigued by what I have heard about Naipaul as an individual and picked up a second hand copy of Between Father and Son: Family Letters. It will be interesting to see whether his correspondence is as revealing as his biographies.

Wow thats a great review of The world is what it is Many authors who we might consider dreadful human beings, wrote great books and it might be that because they were such dreadful people they were able to produce great literature. We should not be so surprised.

The Patrick French biography sounds like a great one and hats off to Naipaul for authorising it.

>86 baswood: Many authors who we might consider dreadful human beings, wrote great books and it might be that because they were such dreadful people they were able to produce great literature. We should not be so surprised.

I agree with the first part of that (and I try to separate the book from the author, or the art from the artist, etc.), but I'm puzzled by the second part. How can being a dreadful person add to someone's ability to produce great literature?

>87 rebeccanyc: I was thinking more on the lines that the reading experience can be enhanced when we read books by people who have a totally different world view than ours. This maybe because of their difficulties in relating to people in real life and so presenting a different perspective can make for interesting and even enlightening reading.

Oh, I see what you mean. I feel that way when I read books from other times and other countries, but I don't know that I read a lot of books by people who have difficulties in relating to people.

>88 baswood:, 89

Please note that my review is vastly understated. The biography reveals that V. S. Naipaul is a real pig. I am talking about real physical and mental abuse, and absolotely no loyalty, just pure self-centred egotism. Naipaul met Paul Theroux in Africa, while both were novice writers, but while Theroux regarded himself as a loyal friend, Naipaul would pay lip service to the friendship vis-a-vis Theroux, but scornfully deny such friendship when with other people, often completely and deliberately ignoring people for years, and then re-affirm the contact, only to repeat and fall into the same respectless pattern all over again. As a young man, coming to London, Anthony Powell was friendly to him, and helped him, a friendship Naipaul betrayed by saying, after Powell's death that he (Naipaul) was disappointed in Powell and thinks Anthony Powell's work is the pinnacle of mediocrity.

Naipaul was married with Patricia Ann Hale for 41 years, during which he lived off her income for many years, benefitted from the care she took of him, doing a great deal of work for him, searching in archives, but apparently receiving very little in return. Soon after the marriage, Naipaul took to prostitutes and had an extra-marital sexual affair for more than 25 years, leaving Pat childless and lonely. The biographer calls Pat a "great, tragic, literary spouse". Naipaul was increasingly ill-humoured and infantile, and Pat increasingly reduced to mothering him.

In his sexual affair with Margaret Murray, Naipaul shows himself a true misogynous pig, repeatedly and long-term, 25 years, committing acts of "chronic physical abuse". The descriptions in the biography are really shocking.

I gavee The world is what it is. The authorized biography of V.S. Naipaul 4.5 stars because reading this biograpy is a baffling experience. The story is, just quite almost unbelievable, incredible. I suppose the fact that Naipaul does not prevent the publication or withdrew his authorization, just fits the pattern of his perfectly narcissistic, bi-polar personality.

You would really have to read it for yourself!

Sounds like a thoroughly repulsive individual.

115. The rainbow stories
Finished reading: 17 October 2014



William T. Vollmann is an American author, who is seemingly underappreciated. Perhaps this is in part because of his unusual career and entry into writing, although a rough career from the lower rungs in society through hard work is part of the so-called American Dream. For another, it must be said that Vollmann's books are thick and difficult to read. Much of his work is a continuation and reinvention of "narrative journalism", which had its precursors in American fiction such as Truman Capote's In Cold Blood and Hunter S. Thompson's Hell's Angels. Vollmann's prose, at least in the case of The rainbow stories appears more literary, and the interpolations of the author often seem stylistic. In fact, the stories are, in man cases, so incredible that they are more likely fictional than not.

Another reason why The rainbow stories is somewhat forgotten may be because of the time it was published. 1989 marked the end of the decade, a decade which in itself seemed more like an afterglow of the mid-Sixties to mid-Seventies, while the 1990s presented a quite different world view. In subject matter and atmosphere, The rainbow stories appeal much more to the past decade of the 1970s. Besides, The rainbow stories are about a people who are repulsive to most ordinary people. Mainstream American readership is more likely to morally object to the lifestyles and scene described in The rainbow stories, than a somewhat more tolerant European readership, although as an American author who has not really broken through, Vollmann's work remains obscure among European readers aswell.

The rainbow stories is not about gay people. The rainbow rather refers to the full spectrum of light, from the infra red to ultra violet. The book is a collection of short stories and novellas, about people on the perifery of society, skinheads, prostitutes, beggars and drug addicts. Each sub-culture is represented by a shade of light: "Red Hands", "Ladies and Red Lights", "Scintillant Orange", "Yellow Rose", "The Yellow Sugar", "The Green Dress", "The Blue Wallet", "The Blue Yonder", "Indigo Engineers" and "Violet Hair". There are also stories with titles such as "The Visible Spectrum", which offers an introduction, "The White Knights" and "X-ray visions". In the case of some stories, the link between the colour and the sub-culture is easy to make, such as prostitutes and the "Red light". In other cases, the link between the colour and the scene is less obvious.

In all stories, violence plays a central role. Life at the fringe is clearly a rough ride. Vollmann has experienced much of this rough life himself, either as an aspect of his own life experience, or from a very near perspective, and certainly, later on, as a writer, in the form of extensive field research. The novel is interspersed with footnotes, referring to the author's field research, and, although never too intrusively, the author moderately features as an observer in some of the stories.

In addition to describing a kaleidoscopic scene of life experience, the author experiments with different genre and writing styles in various stories. Some stories belong to the genre of science fiction, and "Scintillant Orange" is particularly difficult to read. Vollmann has a magnificent command of the language, and his literary style should propel his fiction to a level far above that of many contemporary authors.

"The Blue Yonder" is the scariest story, and the longest, at just over 100 pages. The story is about a mass murderer, who kills prostitutes who live on the street. Many of the descriptions are gory, and horrific in the degree of detail, describing violence. It contains a detailed description of an autopsy. However, it is also the most impressive story, which could well be read as a separate novella. Despite its horror, it has an impressive, deep poetic quality. In fact, in many stories in The rainbow stories there is a fascinating pull between beauty and horror, attraction and repulsion.

Perhaps, Vollmann is an author who has not yet fully broken through, and may find wider readership in the future. However, if he remains loyal to his own inimical style, this may not happen that soon. On the other hand, The rainbow stories could be read as a sociological time capsule: a collection of stories that describes a part of American society from which most people rather look away. It is perhaps a feat of irony, that all colours of the rainbow make up the white visible light, but that the stories described in The rainbow stories are stories of people in the dark.

Very impressive, but only recommended for readers with a strong interest in literary fiction.

116. The thief at the end of the world. Rubber, power, and the seeds of Empire
Finished reading: 20 October 2014



The lives and adventures of thousands of interesting people lie buried in the past, waiting to be re-discovered and brought to attention through the discipline of history. As the number of such individuals can be very large, it is up to historians to make decisions which stories to tell. The skills of an historian, research, work in archives and describing are skills shared by journalists, or even interested laymen or amateur historians. However, academic historians will have other considerations, such as historical relevance and relative importance of their subject, and an objective, and accurate description of the story. Journalists and amateur historians are often not bothered by such considerations, and the advantage of many journalists and some non-specialized writers have over professional historians is that the former are often much better writers. They simply tell the story better, while historical monographs are often poorly written and boring or too difficult to the wider public.

Publishers therefore publish more history books than ever, researched by journalists and amateurs. These writers are bothered by the scruples of the academics. Details and historical accuracy are not as important. A racy story all the more. Hence, many such books emphasize uniqueness rather than historical patterns. Failures are described as successes, history is a swinging adventure, empire is glorious. As towards the end of the Twentieth century, Britain's global empire, and its dismanteling and colonialism is increasingly seen as a cause for shame, while the United Kingdom is still struggling with its declining importance as a mere windy corner on the far edge of the European Union, there is a growing nostalgia for the days of empire and power. Victorian explorers are not colonial oppressors, but chivalrous rogues, who risked their lives for the empire. A noticeable trend is to portray Victorian explorers as thiefs, and naughty boys.

Joe Jackson's The thief at the end of the world. Rubber, power, and the seeds of Empire is written in a very similar vein as For all the tea in China. How England stole the world's favorite drink and changed history by Sarah Rose. Both books are about explorers, each featuring the contribution botany made to the development and financial success of the British empire. Rose describes how Robert Fortune brought tea seeds away from China in the Far East, while Jackson tells the story of the exploits of Henry Wickham acquiring rubber tree seeds from South America. Both books mention the "Wardian cases" the invention that enabled the safe transportation of fragile seedlings on clippers across climate zones and maritime spray across the globe. The book by Sarah Rose does not even attempt historical accuracy, and contains no footnotes, but The thief at the end of the world. Rubber, power, and the seeds of Empire is more pretentious listing sources and footnotes, a glossary, bibliography and index on more than 100 pages, cf pp. 309-414. However, Henry Wickham is a much less interesting person than Robert Fortune. The story about rubber is not as appealing as the story about tea, and Jackson's book is sometimes a bit too long, clearly struggling to flesh out a thin story. Both books are based on incomplete records, and Jackson often ends up speculating (cf pp. 284-5).

While Joe Jackson apparently knows how to do research, he is not such a very good writer, and his editor was clearly sleeping, or not paying enough attention. Jackson's sentences are clumsy and there are many instances where the editor should have improved the text, as the author's association was running wild. For example, on page 143-4, the author describes the vegetation of the estate Piquiá-tuba:

"On Piquiá-tuba, in addition to rubber and the indigenous piquiá, some of the more common trees included the towering, golden-crowned ipe, or ironwood tree, now known in America as the wood used for the boardwalk in Bill Gates's coastal mansion; the purple ipe, whose bark has been suggested as a possible cure for cancer; (...) and the rosewood tree, and essential ingredient in Chanel No. 5."

The deaths described on pages 151 ff. and 171 ff. are tragic, but to describe them as a "wave of death" and "wave of sickness" is exaggeration, and confusing.

Stylistically ugly is also: "By 1859, the British Honduras company, which originated as a partnership between old settler families and a London merchant, emerged as the colony's predominant landowner. It spread like an amoeba in the 1860s." (p. 220), or

"He was photographed leaning against the largest rubber tree in Ceylon (...). He wore a khaki jacket and white Captain's hat. The V's of the herringbone scars crept up the tree like chevrons. Henry rested his hand against the trunk like an old friend." (p. 283)

A remarkable passage full of speculation and rambling on without the hand of the editor, can be found on pp. 284-5:

"By then, no one remained to dispute Henry's tweaks to his legend. The adopted Indian boy disappeared after Queensland. Violet and Henry had been separated for over twenty years. After leaving the Conflicts, she dropped from the records almost as totally as the adopted boy. (...) We know they loved each other. There are secrets we'll never know, but she'd stood by him through the worst, and he'd loved her so recklessly that he swam a shark-filled channel in the middle of the night just to be with her."

The book is full of such weird sentences an passages, full of speculation, non-sensical description, and exaggeration to create an exciting narrative where there is not, and to flesh out the story. It is quite shameful for the publisher, Penguin Books to print and publish such a shoddy piece of work.

Very interested to read your excellent review of The Rainbow Stories. I know of a few other people on LT who rate Vollman very highly and so it was good to read your review to get an idea what all the fuss was about. The violence would make me hesitate to read him, but I am still curious.

I enjoyed your review of The Rainbow Stories as well. I have most of Vollmann's fiction, but not this one. So far I've read just a couple of them. Whores for Gloria is much in the same vein as The Rainbow Stories, but Europe Central is a work of historical fiction--albeit fanciful at times--which has a much broader appeal.

I read Europe Central and I had very mixed feelings about it. It was ambitious, and parts of it were stunning, but parts were boring and repetitive. It didn't motivate me to read more Vollman, but I enjoyed your review of his stories.

I had never heard of Vollmann before, so I was very interested in your review. I agree with Barry that the violence would probably deter me from picking up The Rainbow Stories, but perhaps Steven's suggestion of Europe Central is a possibility.

>92 edwinbcn: Thank you for the review. I bought Vollmann's Imperial some time ago (2013 I think) but don't feel very motivated to read it to be honest...

117. In other worlds. SF and the human imagination
Finished reading: 22 October 2014



At times, part of the work of Margaret Atwood, notably The Handmaid's Tale, Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood are classified as belonging to the genre of science fiction. However, Atwood maintains that her novels are not science fiction. In her essay collection Moving Targets: Writing with Intent, 1982-2004, Atwood wrote that her novels describe a world which is essentially possible now, which could already have happened or might come into existence in the future. Atwood's definition of science fiction is "fiction in which things happen that are not possible today". This discussion was started by Ursula Le Guin in 2009, and In other worlds. SF and the human imagination is Margaret Atwood's answer to that. Thus, the introductory essay to the book consists of a discussion on the definition of science fiction.

In In other worlds. SF and the human imagination explores her "relationship with the SF world, or world" (p. 5). The essays collected in this volume are grouped in three main sections. First, there are three essays which explore various forms of what Atwood would consider science fiction and the related genre or sub genre, fantasy. These essays (with footnotes) offer an historical overview of the development on the genre. The first essay, "Flying Rabbits" also contains an interesting discussion about the origins of the "outfits", i.e. the special costumes and regalia of some fantasy novel figures, such as superman, and batman, such as a mask, and cape or cloak. The essays are not a systematic history of the genre but offer a collection of tit-bit pieces of information about defining features of science fiction and fantasy fiction, including both literary fiction, graphic novels and other media. Ideas for this essay are based on Atwood’s own reading experience of novels belonging to this genre, when she was a child. Another such feature is, for example, the double identity. The double-identity pairs often represent good versus bad, in early novels, such as Robert Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray and Edgar Alan Poe's William Wilson. Atwood suggests that the archetype for such figures might be found in Jonathan Wild, who was a constable in daily life, but secretly as mastermind of crime. Jonathan Wild was a real historical person, an appears as a character in Jonathan Wild by Henry Fielding and Jack Sheppard by William Harrison Ainsworth.



Incidentally, Atwood also explains that the brand name Bovril, the base for beef broth, that sustained troops at the World War I front, cf Not So Quiet... Stepdaughters of War (1930) by Helen Zenna Smith, invented in 1870, comes from Bovine + Vril, from "vril", an electromagnetic substance which was harnessed by the super human race populating Edward Bulwer-Lytton science fiction novel, The Coming Race (1870).

The second essay, contains an exploration of the mythical in relation to science fiction, and religious overtones. This essays is inspired by Atwood's college experience taking classes with her Professors Northrop Frye and Marshall McLuhan during her student days at the University of Toronto. The last, and third essay, describes Atwood's view on Ustopias a word she coined, to capture the sense of continuity between utopias and dystopias. Ideas for this essay come from Margaret Atwood’s unfinished PhD dissertations “The English Metaphysical Romance” in which she describes the world of fairies, and other-than-human beings, and themes which in origin and subtext were of theological nature (p. 79).

The next part consists of essays and articles about science fiction and fantasy novels that were written between 1965 and 2010. Most essays cover literature and novels, that are classics or very well-known, such as George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-four, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World or H.G Well’s The Island of Dr. Moreau, but there are also less obvious selections, such as Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro and Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy. Although in the short, interleaved introduction on page 99, the author writes that the essays have been edited for overlap, there is still quite a lot of overlap between the essays and all the other parts in the book. This degree of overlap also suggests a strong mutual interest between Ursula Le Guin and Margaret Atwood.

The last part of the book is taken up by excerpts from Margaret Atwood’s own work that illustrate or underwrite her ideas about science fiction. This part is followed by appendices.

In other worlds. SF and the human imagination does not offer a systematic overview of the genre of science fiction and fantasy, but it does cover a great deal of ground. It should more be considered as a personal exploration of its author of the genre, and a life time of ideas to various aspects and features of the genre. Atwood’s style of writing essays is rather facile, that is to say, while the essays do contain interesting pieces of information, the spread is thin, both for each essay, as well as for the collection as a whole. In addition to that, there is quite a lot of overlap between the essays and articles. The main purpose of In other worlds. SF and the human imagination is to answer the question as to whether some of Margaret Atwoods novels should be regarded as science fiction. The answer to that question is “no”, which is clarified by Atwood by defining both the genre of science fiction and her own work, and providing examples. However, this division and the definition seem a bit arbitrary and idiosyncratic. Then, too, although Atwood did not finish her dissertation, it shows that she has a well-informed view on the issue.

In other worlds. SF and the human imagination seems particularly interesting for readers with a more than average interest in science fiction and / or Margaret Atwood as an author. The first 100 pages of the book are the best and most interesting, although for a quick answer one only needs to read the 11-page introduction.



Other Books I have read by Margaret Atwood:
Strange things. The malevolent north in Canadian literature
Payback. Debt and the shadow side of wealth

Interesting review of Atwood's essays on science fiction. I am always looking for other descriptors for books of imaginative reality that do not really fit into the categories of science fiction, fantasy, magical realism, or for that matter, utopias and dystopias (or ustopias, as Atwood proposes). For example, how does one categorize a story I recently read by Doris Lessing about an imagined ancient civilization on the verge of disintegration?

I like Atwood's definition of Science Fiction. For me Attwood's novels are not science fiction and so I am inclined to agree with her.

Edwin you said that Attwood's essays were a personal view of genre books and I was wondering if they strayed into self promotion for herself and her coterie.

No, Barry. I would not say that. But in general, I find Atwood's essays unsubstantial. This is the third collection of her essays I have read, and they are all soso. Few ideas that are spread thinly. It is more as if she has some bright moments or inspirations, but then does not have the ability or interest to spin a full essay around it. Actually, as I wrote in my review, the first 100 pages of In other worlds. SF and the human imagination were relatively strong as they were about her life-long interest and (unfinished) PhD thesis.

118. Only a theory. Evolution and the battle for America's soul
Finished reading: 23 October 2014



Only a theory. Evolution and the battle for America's soul is a topical book about the question of the origin or the world, and mankind in particular. Most recently, this question was paricularly hotly debated between 2005 and 2007. The discussion rose to such fierce intensity around the lawsuit known as "Kitzmiller v. Dover". The author of the book was an important witness in this case. Now, this discussion has calmed down, and while the book provides a detailed description of both the case and the issue in general, the book is now a bit dated.

One of the chapters in Only a theory. Evolution and the battle for America's soul is titled "Closing the American Scientific Mind". The title of this chapter is of course a direct reference to Alan Bloom's famous book The Closing of the American Mind, which was very controversial in the late 1980s. In his book, Bloom lamented the relativism, that had eroded common sense and lead to praising any creative, literary effort over and against the classics. Kenneth R. Miller draws the comparison for the field of biological science, where a considerable number of people suggest that Darwin's theory of evolution is "only a theory", one among other possible options. They claim that creationism is an equally viable theory, and should receive more attention. Their argument is mainly based on majority vote type of democracy.

Kenneth R. Miller is a Christian, but professionally he is a scientist, who, like 99.9% of scientists in the world refutes the claim that Darwin's theory of evolution can be regarded as merely an opinion of Mr Darwin. Kenneth R. Miller was asked to testify in the case "Kitzmiller v. Dover" as an expert, and because he is one of the major textbook authors, who has written textbooks for the study of biology at high schools.

While Darwin's theory of evolution is almost universally accepted among scientists, there are religious groups, of various religions who adhere to a literal reading of scripture. Only a theory. Evolution and the battle for America's soul only deals with the Christian point of view, which is based on the Bible. Depending on how the question is framed, very substantial numbers of Christian Americans say that they believe that God created the world, or created mankind. Some of these people believe the story of creation just as it is represented in the Bible, while others read the story in a metaphorical sense, and believe that it is less likely creation took place in six day, but believe God had a guiding influence in the process of creation over a longer period of time. The figures quoted by the author are very high. Apparently, a substantial part of Americans, around 42% believe more in God, and cannot accept the scientific explanation of the origins of life on earth.

The opposing party in the lawsuit "Kitzmiller v. Dover" are a group of religious people, a movement now known as Neo-Creationists, who want to substitute the teaching of evolution theory by a biblical version of the story of creation. In Only a theory. Evolution and the battle for America's soul the author provides a detailed argument that clearly shows that neo-Creationist thought is essentially religious dogma, and any of its claims as being an "alternative theory" are unfounded. Neao-Creationism is not a theory, and its claims are pseudo-scientific.

While there is no problem with what people believe, the concern of the author, and the lawsuit, is that religious dogma cannot substitute empirical fact. Facts and ideas are two very different things. The author clearly demonstrates that the neo-Creationists deliberately confuse essential terminology such as science and belief, and theory and ideas.

Only a theory. Evolution and the battle for America's soul is a very useful book for readers who are not familiar with the neo-Creationist movement that was formed in the late 1990s and increasingly gained ground till about 2007, when they lost the lawsuit known as "Kitzmiller v. Dover" with the judge ruling that neo-Creationism is pseudoscientific. Creationism is as old as the institutionalized form of the Christian religion, but neo-Creationism is a very recent movement that claims its point of view as an alternative to the theory of evolution. However, science curricula are not put together based on personal ideas or opinions. Only a theory. Evolution and the battle for America's soul is a clear defense of the theory of evolution, as the author testified in court.

119. Roughing it
Finished reading: 26 October 2014



The works of Mark Twain are all published as classics, literature that finds new readers each generation. However, Roughing it is much thicker and detailed than many of Twain's popular, shorter works. Then, too, to the patient and attentive reader Roughing it will prove to be a highly entertaining and dazzling novel.

During the 1860s, the United States of America was still largely unformed, and pioneers had shown to path to the West. Their trail was followed by fortune hunters, and a colourful, adventurous and lawless medley of immigrants, who settled in the new territories, and tried to carve out a livelihood. Samuel Clemens and his brother Orion Clemens were among them, and Roughing it is a semi-autobiographical novel based on their adventures, under the sole authorship of Mark Twain.

Roughing it is the story of travelling and short-term jobs of a young man in the "Wild West". It is a kaleidoscopic work of fiction, which consists of numerous anecdotes, stories, true, perhaps, and fictional, experiences and descriptions of all youngman Clemens saw and experienced at that time. All is described with a remarkable degree of detail, which forces the reader to slow down in order to be able to take it all in.

In the early 1870s, Mark Twain looked back on this period of his life, just five to ten years earlier, and realized he could remember hardly anything about it. With trhe help of his brother's diaries, and invention, he was able to recover the spirit of the times, and Twain's superior penmanship shines through on every page. Besides that, Twain was an excellent story teller, a quality that accounted for much of his early success, as much of the income of novelists in the Nineteenth century came from public readings. In some parts of the story, the reader can imagine the impact of "telling" the story to an audience, carefully timing jokes. Some stories are funnier than other stories, and probably drew laughter from different kinds of people. Some are difficult to appreciate by modern audiences, either because modern readers are out of tune with what would provoke laughter at the time, or because the written consumption of the book leads to less hilarity. The narrative of Roughing it is enlivened with a number of "nuggets" short episodes embedded in the story that capture the audience more intensely and create memorable vignettes of heightened observation. One of these stories is for example the story of surveyors spending the night in a barrack in pitch dark, when one of them upset and breaks the glass terrarium that contains 16 tarantulas. The fear of sixteen large, black, hairy spiders at large in a bedroom in the black of the night creates a tension that is at once horrifying and humourous:

The surveyors brought back more tarantulas with them, and so we had quite a menagerie arranged along the shelves of the room. Some of these spiders could straddle over a common saucer with their hairy, muscular legs, and when their feelings were hurt, or their dignity offended, they were the wickedest-looking desperadoes the animal world can furnish. If their glass prison-houses were touched ever so lightly they were up and spoiling for a fight in a minute. Starchy?—proud? Indeed, they would take up a straw and pick their teeth like a member of Congress. There was as usual a furious "zephyr" blowing the first night of the brigade's return, and about midnight the roof of an adjoining stable blew off, and a corner of it came crashing through the side of our ranch. There was a simultaneous awakening, and a tumultuous muster of the brigade in the dark, and a general tumbling and sprawling over each other in the narrow aisle between the bedrows. In the midst of the turmoil, Bob H——sprung up out of a sound sleep, and knocked down a shelf with his head. Instantly he shouted:

"Turn out, boys—the tarantulas is loose!"

No warning ever sounded so dreadful. Nobody tried, any longer, to leave the room, lest he might step on a tarantula. Every man groped for a trunk or a bed, and jumped on it. Then followed the strangest silence—a silence of grisly suspense it was, too—waiting, expectancy, fear. It was as dark as pitch, and one had to imagine the spectacle of those fourteen scant-clad men roosting gingerly on trunks and beds, for not a thing could be seen. (...) Presently you would hear a gasping voice say:

"Su—su—something's crawling up the back of my neck!"

(...)

Not one of those escaped tarantulas was ever seen again. There were ten or twelve of them. We took candles and hunted the place high and low for them, but with no success.

The story is littered with several such gems, each entirely pleasing when read and many memorable. There are stories about outlaws, Indians, bandits and bravados, told in a jumble as Twain saw it, in the real or in his inner eye.

The second part of the book, describing the narrator's travels to the Sandwich Islands, now better known as Hawaii, is a bit different in tone than the first part of the book. It is more descriptive, and less jocular, perhaps reflecting the more mature traveller.

It is very likely that upon completing the reading of Roughing it the reader will feel exactly the same way as the writer felt when he embarked on the adventure of writing it, namely the inability to recall and remember all of it, or maybe even any of, or at most those sparkingly intense mini stories. If so, the reading would mirror the real life experience: living through a dazzlingly rich experience, and looking back with wonder.



Other books I have read by Mark Twain:
The diary of Adam and Eve
Pudd'nhead Wilson
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's court

120. Darwin and the modern world view
Finished reading: 26 October 2014



Both science and religion have a role in the world. It is symptomatic of modern time that they are pitched against each other and the discussion strives for supremacy of the one, and annihilation of the other. Religious fundamentalism leaves littlle room for science, while some scientists try to obliterate religion. In the current debate, it seems there is possibility for co-existence: the battle is for elimination. This battle if increasingly fought with simplified arguments, and seen as a black-or-white dualistic dilemma.

Darwin and the modern world view offers a balanced view and exploration of the history of ideas, in three essays. In the first essay, the author investigates the interacation between the ideas as expressed by Darwin and ideas found in the Bible or explained by religious philosophers. The second essay is devoted to Natural Theology, a term now little understood. The thirds essay explores the relation between Darwinism and the social sciences.

Human knowledge consists of a domain of facts and ideas. Facts are a type of knowledge that can be shown to be true or not true, and tends to achieve some level of permanence, once well-established. Ideas are a type of knowledge which cannot be disproved, but can be agreed of disagreed with. To fundamentalist religion, Darwin's evaolution theory is in essence unacceptable, because it contradicts divine revelation. To scientists, a supernatural power is unacceptable, because it cannot be proved. Neither is scripture acceptable, because the origin of the Bible as divine revelation cannot be proved. Natural Theology cannot be reconciled with Natural Science, because Natural Theology presupposes faith, and faith cannot be proved to refer to a reality in truth. These ideas are elegantly explored and eloquently explained in Darwin and the modern world view.

The description refers to sources ranging back to the Middle Ages, with particular focus on the interaction between William Paley' ideas on Natural Theology, as a Christian apologist, though predating Darwin, and Thomas Henry Huxley as a fierce defender of Darwin's theory of evolution, as first put forward in 1859.

By 1922, Darwin's evolution theory was widely accepted among scientists, and this acceptance has only grown since then. Darwin and the modern world view collects three essays which were delivered in 1960, but published together in 1981. This delayed publication is irrelevant. The essays present a high level of scholarship, which is as readable and topical as it was, when first conceived. Darwin and the modern world view can still make a very valuable contribution to the debate on the relation between natural science and religion, and show how each takes its place in a more tolerant world view.

121. The rum diary
Finished reading: 29 October 2014



The life of Hunter S. Thompson largely plays out "on the wild side". Still, while classified as belonging to 1960s counter-culture, his work is not affiliated to the Beat Generation. Thompson's life is quite remarkable, and from its earliest days showed a fascination with the underground, not just literary, but gearing towards the criminal and rough underbelly of society. Still, Thompson was apparently able to channel his energy into a literary production, which has unique features, sparking a genre of itself, and producing very readable works of fiction. Perhaps most well-known for Hell's Angels, Thompson lived and rode with the Hells Angels for a year, as a kind of "participating observation" before publishing his book on the notorious motor club. Disappointingly, Hell's Angels reads more like a journalistic compilation of newspaper clippings than a semi-autobiographical work, possibly to avoid conflict with the Angel's chapter he had been part of. Hell's Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs was Thompson's first book to be published, but it was preceded by two novels, Prince Jellyfish, as yet unpublished, and The rum diary, which was begun in 1958, and finished around 1960, but remained unpublished until 1998.

The novel is a fairly joyful story on a sunny island, of a young journalist who discovers how to make a living off writing for a small, local newspaper. The story is set in Puerto Rico, and American colony, which, in the 1950s appears as a relatively lawless, freehaven for adventurous expats. The rum diary is a racy novel, and a very quick read. It tells the story of Paul Kemp, a young journalist, who arrives on the island, lands himself a job as a journalist and starts hanging out with the other editors. Not much happens, but Kemp is quickly able to make some money and earn some respectability, renting a better place, and buying a car. However, hanging out with the clique of editors, and their boozing habits does land them into trouble over a small thing that spins incredibly out of control. Towards the end of the novel, Kemp' relatively simple existence on the island end up in an imbroglio of violence, adultery and alcoholism, from which he can barely escape, getting off the island.

The rum diary is an interesting novel about the struggling early years of a writer, in a somewhat seedy expat environment. The novel has little pretense, and is not much connected with any literary movement of the time. It can be read as a light entertainment.



Other books I have read by Hunter S. Thompson:
Hell's Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs

122. Ticky
Finished reading: 30 October 2014



Ticky is a palyful novel, written in a tone of gentle mockery. This light-hearted novel incorporates elements from Shakespearean plays, and reminds of some of the satirical works of Evelyn Waugh or even Lewis Carroll, but is altogether conceived in Gibbons own inimical style.

The story has characteristics of a fairytale. it is set in a location described as a Club in central London, but this is hard to comprehend, and it seems more likely that the location should be thought of as a large neo-Gothic building with two high-towering glass towers on either side of the structure on a large, partly wooded estate. Central to the story is the duality between "the city" and "the country", a duality simutaneously played out between the aristocrcy, embodied by the regiment, and the working class, embodied by the servants. The regiment is characterized as foppish, decadent and hedonistic, and a total farce. The novel creates an image of a medieval mock-antiquated army that is entirely self-absorbed, and lead by the Colonel, whose sole obsession is the conquest of the whole estate. He is thwarted in this ambition by a charter which protects the servants rights, but as the servants' domain comes under threat, the charter cannot be found and the Colonel seems about to usurp the Servants Pleasure Grounds. These pleasure grounds are an area in the woods, that stand for a magical world. After work, the servants can go there, to forget their sorrows. Some of the soldiers also go there, but this is frowned upon. When sergeant Cannonroyal is ordered "to take" the Pleasure Gardens, he cannot even muster a skeleton force, as more than three quarters of the regiments' force is excused, ill or occupied with other chores. Lieutenant Toloreaux 'Ticky' plays the role of a maverick, in scuttling between the two realms and siding with the servants. The Colonel "attacks" and lies siege to the Glass Tower of the servants, aiming to conquer and subject the realm of the servants, but in the final moment the servants are saved when the charter is found.

The novel features a sub-plot involving a love affair, and several fairytale characters, mocking the tin foil army and the antiquated world they represent. Particularly the Colonel has a slurred, aristocratic accent that adds to the colour locale of the novel.

Ticky is a peculiar novel, that would probably divide readers in those who would love it, and those who would hate it. There are some elements that remind the reader of Cold Comfort Farm, but Ticky is quite unique and wholly original, although it seemingly bears relation to the imagery of the satirical novels of Evelyn Waugh and Lewis Carroll. Ticky failed as a novel, most likely because this type of satire at the height of World War II, in 1942, was not welcomed, and in the post-war years, the novel seemed to be belonging to an older style of fiction. It was largely forgotten. However, part of its impopularity may be that the novel is difficult to place.

Ticky is very playful and an excellent story full of elements to tickle one's imagination.



Other books I have read by Stella Gibbons:
Conference at Cold Comfort Farm
Cold Comfort Farm

Interested to read your review of Roughing it, because a couple of years ago I picked up to read Innocents Abroad and found it surprisingly dense; in fact I didn't finish it

never heard of Ticky before or The Rum diary; thanks for that excursion into the bi-ways of literature Edwin.

Wonderfully eclectic reviews. I'm going to have to get a copy of Roughing It for my husband who is a big Twain fan.

Always enjoy reading your reviews, Edwin. I'm a big fan of Cold Comfort Farm, so Ticky sounds intriguing but with all the other books I want to read I probably will never get to it.

Hadn't heard of Roughing It before, but it sounds as if it would go well with some of the other books, fiction and nonfiction I have been reading about the American west in the last year or so. Tempting reviews as always.

> Indeend, Barry, Roughing it should be characterized as very dense, and it took me unusually long to read it. It was written as a prequel to Innocents abroad. In my review, I suggested that the reading of these works requires a patient and attentive reader, which is meant to be just an optimistic way of phrasing that I think few people will take the trouble, nowadays.

I would not describe myself as a fan of Mark Twain, but definitely did enjoy reading Roughing it and will go on with Innocents abroad.

Stella Gibbons is seen as a one-work author. However, she has written many other works, which have all failed to attract a larger readership. From the style, it is immediately obvious that Ticky is not mainstream literature. I like reading at least some voices outside the mainstream, because they offer a much more personal type of experience. Ticky is technically very well-written; it is probably better than a lot of contemporary fiction, but it came out at a wrong time, and was subsequently over-looked. Ready to be rediscovered.

Thank all of you, Barry, Rebecca, Jane and Sassy for coming over and commenting on my Club 2014 readings. My work has been so busy over the past six months, and on-going, that I am behind with my reviews, and still need more catching up to do. That's also why I haven't started my Club Read 2015 thread, yet.

Ticky sounds very interesting, as it was your review of Cold Comfirt Farm that got me to read that one by Gubbons. As always, I am amazed at the amount of reading that you are able to do even when you are very busy.

Thanks for checking here, Colleen.

Last year, I read 20 book below my target of 160 books, so I got stuck at 143. These first two weeks of the year, I am already "behind" on my reading, because there is so much work, and, vis-a-vis previous years, over the past year or so I have started taking more physical exercise. Another, New Year's Resolution is to spend more time with friends.

I am glad my review of Cold Comfort Farm inspired you to read that. Vintage has brought out all works in new editions in 2011, and I will be reading many more novels by Gibbons. Some of these novels have very few readers / owners on LT, as with Ticky of which there are only 18 copies listed on LibraryThing.

In my review, I will usually quite clearly suggest whether I think a novel is readable. For instance, in m opinion Conference at Cold Comfort Farm is not interesting at all, but Ticky was funny and playful in an unexpected way, offering an unusual perspective. Ticky was one of Gibbons own favorites.

I have not always read as much as I do now, but I am glad I can.

123. Possible side effects
Finished reading: 31 October 2014



Possible side effects offers "more of the same". Newcomers to the fictional world of Augusten Burroughs will be dazzled by his peculiar supposedly autobiographical hodge-podge of gays, lesbians, midgets and other weirdos all mixed up. Readers familiar may find Possible side effects lacking the sharp, snidiness of some of the other, better collections of short stories.

Hyperbole only works as long as it is extraordinary. However, the whole universe of Augusten Burroughs is supposedly out-of-the-ordinary, and therefore the effect wears off. The collection shows signs of fatigue, and particularly the stories that make up the body of the book are largely rather weak

If you have never read anything by Augusten Burroughs , this might be a good book to start, as the stories are funny, but not as over the top as some of his other work.



Other books I have read by Augusten Burroughs:
This is how. Proven aid in overcoming shyness, molestation, fatness, spinsterhood, grief, disease, lushery, decrepitude & more. For young and old alike.
Dry
Running with scissors. A memoir
Magical thinking. True stories

124. An appetite for wonder. The making of a scientist
Finished reading: 6 November 2014



The first volume of Richard Dawkins shows clearly how the author was born into a life of privilege. With only a short chapter describing the author's parents and grand-parent, the biography starts with the story of Dawkins earliest youth in Kenya, Africa, spanning a mere four years. Subsequent chapters describe his schooling, first in the British public school system, and then at university. The best schools, and the best universities, were natural choices in the 1960s for young upper-class men with a pedigree. They benefitted full from the education system before the wave of democratization brought down levels. An appetite for wonder. The making of a scientist describes some wonderful experiences of growing up in an old family, with observations about the world of a university education which is now no longer the same.

The second half of the book is devoted to describing the first stages of Richard Dawkins' career, describing early research and findings. This part is fairly technical, and difficult, and not really interesting or comprehesible to a more general readership. It requires quite some knowledge and a deep interest in animal bahavior. To biologists, this part is more revelant, and it interestingly describes Dawkins' experience with Nobel Prize winner Niko Tinbergen.

An appetite for wonder. The making of a scientist may be interesting to readers interested in British colonial history and the British public school system. But this part is covered by the first 150 pages.



Other books I have read by Richard Dawkins:
The God delusion

125. Luo Zhongli. The chinese soul of Dabashan. 9.9 - 8.10 1995
Finished reading: 9 November 2014



Luo Zhongli. The chinese soul of Dabashan. 9.9 - 8.10 1995 is a hardcover publication, that appeared as a companion volume / catalogue with an exhibition about the work of Luo Zhongli at the Royal Art and History Museum in Bruxelles, Belgium. The text is printed in three language versions, English, French and Dutch.

Luo Zhongli (罗中立) was born in Sichuan Province, China, in 1948. When he first showed his painting "My Father" in the early 1980s, the painter was severely criticized. Chinese authorities condemned the hyper-realistic painting as a criticism of Chinese politics, assuming the painting suggested that people in China continued to live in deep poverty and no progress was made. The more than life-size oil painting "My Father" is now considered a classic masterpiece of Chinese art, and is a standard piece of practise for art students to copy as part of their training in art academies in China.

Luo Zhongli (罗中立) developed to a more dream-like style, depicting farmer's life in China in a unique style. Oil painting has but a relatively short history in China. The catalogue also contains samples of Luo Zhongli (罗中立) ' photography. Currently, Luo Zhongli (罗中立) is recognized as one of China's famous contemporary artists, while he serves as a teacher and president at the prestigious Sichuan Fina Arts Institute.

"My Father"

126. Voraussetzungen einer Erzählung: Kassandra
Finished reading: 9 November 2014



In 1983, Christa Wolf published the novel Kassandra, which is often described as her most important novel. Publication of Kassandra, was preceded by a lecture series about the creation process and her ideas about the novel during the Summer term at the Goethe University in Frankfurt. These lectures are collected and published in the volume: Voraussetzungen einer Erzählung: Kassandra.

Since 1959, Fisher Verlag, later Suhrkamp, has organized the lecture series, known as the Frankfurter Poetikvorlesungen. With an interruption between 1968 and 1979, each term, namely twice per year, during the Winter term and the Summer term, a literary author is invited as a guest lecturer. Christa Wolf presented a series of lectures as guest lecturer at the Johann Wolfgang von Goethe-Universität in Frankfurt am Main during the Summer term of 1982. This was still quite remarkable at that time, because Christa Wolf was a prominent author from the German Democratic Republic (DDR).

Voraussetzungen einer Erzählung: Kassandra is a collection of four essays that were read as lectures. The first two lectures describe how Christa Wolf discovered her theme. As she had missed her flight to Greece, for a holiday, she started reading the The Oresteia by Aeschylus. They are the hum-drum report of her travel to Greece, a recording of her thoughts on the reading of The Oresteia interspersed by many, noisy interruptions around her, as observed during her travel. The third lecture is written as a diary recording the interaction between her life and the conception of the novel. In it, the author explores ideas about the role of women in society and literature, particularly the figure of Cassandra. The fourth lecture is a letter, in which she investigates the historical reality of Medea, and the history of writing by female authors. The novel Kassandra is announced as the fifth lecture, but published in a separate volume.

Presumably, the lectures or essays in this volume, were read in several sessions; or, the text of the lectures must have been condensed and re-written for publication. It seems the first two lectures are too long and boring, while they present the reader with very little, or relevant material. The final two lectures are quite difficult and very dense. They require knowledge of The Oresteia, Greek history and Greek mythology.

Voraussetzungen einer Erzählung: Kassandra can be read separately from the novel. In that case, it could serve as an introduction exploring the mythical figure of Cassandra. The lectures offer a feminist interpretation of the Trojan War, from a Marxist perpective. The lectures are also interesting to readers interested in mythology.

127. Food rules. An eater's manual
Finished reading: 9 November 2014



Michael Pollan has written several books about food, particularly describing the causes and dangers of unsustainable food production and the threats to human health. The omnivore's dilemma. A natural history of four meals, which appeared in 2007, is seen as the most theoretical of these books, providing a theoretical underpinning of Pollan's ideas with regard to the current food situation in the world, the United States in particular. In defense of food. An eater's manifesto is a more practical explanation of what Pollan proposes as a possible solution for the problem, particularly what people should do, and what choices to make to adopt a healthier lifestyle. The book promotes an elitist view of food safety, and although anyone could make these choices and follow the author's advice, he assumes that the lifestyle he promotes is "not for everyone", and that the low-class, non-white population will most likely be left behind, a fate the author seems to have no problem with. The most practical of these books is Food rules. An eater's manual. It gives very clear, short advice what to eat and what not. The book is very easy to read and very effective in getting its message across.



Other books I have read by Michael Pollan:
Cooked. A natural history of transformation
The omnivore's dilemma. A natural history of four meals
The botany of desire. A plant's-eye view of the world
A place of my own. The architecture of daydreams
In defense of food. An eater's manifesto

128. Der Hund. Der Tunnel. Die Panne. Erzählungen
Finished reading: 9 November 2014

English:

Der Hund. Der Tunnel. Die Panne. Erzählungen is a thin volume, Werkausgabe, Band 21, in the 30-vols. collected works of the Swiss author Friedrich Dürrenmatt. In it three short stories are collected: Der Hund (Engl. "The Dog"), Der Tunnel (Engl. The Tunnel") and Die Panne (Engl. "The Breakdown"). The three stories are each written in a surrealist style.

Der Hund (Engl. "The Dog") was first published in 1952. It is a rather haunting story about a rich man, who chooses to live in poverty, separated from his wife, but accompanied b his daughter. Every day, he performs on the streets to read from the Bible. Not only does he attract an audience of listeners every day, and the attantion of the narrator, more sinister is that a large, grisly dog latches on to him, following him everywhere and into his home. One day, the dog attacks and kills the man. Then, the dog latches onto the daughter, following her around the streets. It would be quite appropriate to include this story in an anthology for horror stories (I do not know whether that has ever been considered.)

Der Tunnel (Engl. The Tunnel") is a very short story, indeed, which was also first published in 1952. Anyone may have given some thought to the idea, that each time a train rides into a tunnel, it might just as well never come out. We all know and expect to emerge out and into the light at the end of the tunnel, but what if the tunnel would just run on deeper and deeper into the darkness. Der Tunnel (Engl. The Tunnel") is a surrealist story of just that happening. It is a quite exhilarating, but very short story.

Die Panne (Engl. "The Breakdown"). It is the longest story and was published in English as A Dangerous Game in the UK, and Traps in the United States. It is a very interesting, surrealist story, first published in 1956. A sales representative, Alfredo Traps, is stranded in a village after his car has broken down. Rather than staying at a hotel, he accepts the invitation of a local person, to stay the night and join him for dinner with his friends. The friends are a group of retired judges and lawyers. They get together and while enjoying an excellent dinner, they play a game to plead the case of one of them. Traps gets involved and his words and stories are weighed and judged, until gradually, Traps feels cornered and starts believing in his own culpability.

The Dog, The Tunnel & Traps are three very well-written, somewhat sinister, surrealist stories. They are not very long, but excellent reading.



Other books I have read by Friedrich Dürrenmatt:
Theater. Essays, Gedichte und Reden

129. Mein Verschwinden in Providence. Erzählungen
Finished reading: 10 November 2014

English:

Mein Verschwinden in Providence. Erzählungen (Engl. My Disappearance in Providence & Other Stories) is a collection of nine short stories by Alfred Andersch, published in 1971. All stories were written between the Spring of 1968 and the Spring of 1971. The stories are published in the order in which they were written, which hinders the reader to construe a meaning or signficance of the stories.

Some of the stories contain autobiographical elements. Alfred Andersch, who was born 100 years ago, in 1914, was drawn into the army during the Second World War. A decade before the war, he had been imprisoned in a concentration camp for his sympathies with Communism.

Three of the stories, "Brüder", "Festschrift für Captain Fleischer" and "Die Inseln unter dem Winde" deal with the Second World War. In each of these stories there is a character by the name of Franz Kien, who seems to be an alter ego of Alfred Andersch. "Brüder" is about two brothers who are musing about being drawn into the army. "Festschrift für Captain Fleischer" deals with a group of German Prisoners of War in an intern camp in the United States and the process of de-Nazification, as they need to come to terms with their new status and the fact that Germany has lost the war. The story deals with interesting aspects about the soldiers capacity to remain sane, absorb the many impressions of their new environment (the story is set in the United States), and matters of honour and respect, shown by a Jewish officer. "Die Inseln unter dem Winde" deals with a foreign visitor to Germany, who is shown around by Franz Kien. The story describes how Kien at first suspects, and gradually realizes that the foreign visitor sympathizes with the ascending Nazi powers. The story is set in the final years before the war.

Some stories seem to deal with developments in Germany after the war, and the changes in people's ideas and attitudes towards Americans. Thus, in the story "Tochter" some of the characters German is studded with English expressions, and other English language influences, even to the extent that they cause mistakes to be made in German grammar. Other stories are clearly set during the students protests and "second" rise of communism in Germany during the 1960s. The title story "Mein Verschwinden in Providence" consists of a series of 110 vignettes which represent suggested chapters or scenes for a novel to be written.

It seems the "war stories" are the strongest felt stories. They are apparently most close to the core themes of Alfred Andersch. Most other stories are only somewhat interesting, as they trace contemporary developments in Germany, but there is no clear thematic development. The repeated appearance of the character Franz Kien, suggests that the stories describe a personal development, but other stories seem unrelated.

During the 1950s and 1960s, Alfred Andersch emerged as one of the most important post-war authors, but in recent years, doubt has been cast on his sincerety, and the truthfulness of his autobiographical writing related to the war experience. However, it seems many German authors seem tainted by this type of behavior. It will probably take another generation to re-evaluate this "menschliches-alzu-menschliches" behavior of denial are distortion. Once all biographical facts have been explored and studied, it will most likely be possible in the future to appreciate parts of these writers oevre as opposed to insisting on 100% ideological purity. Surely, a large part of the work must be original and sincere. It would really be throwing the baby out with the bath water, to fully discard an author such as Alfred Andersch.

Alfred Andersch was born in 1914 and died in 1980.



Other books I have read by Alfred Andersch:
Die Kirschen der Freiheit
Wanderungen im Norden
"... einmal wirklich leben". Ein Tagebuch in Briefen an Hedwig Andersch, 1943 bis 1975

>115 edwinbcn: Taking more physical exercise and spending more time with friends is not conducive to more reading. I can't think of any physical exercise where I could read at the same time. I don't count audio books as reading.

Interesting to read your reviews of German authors (or authors who write in German)

>

I know, Barry, but there are other pleasures in life, besides reading. And there will still be enough time for reading, as long as I stay close to my target of 160 books per year.

I read several German authors in November / December for the Theme read in the Global Authors Group. More to follow, which I read but had no time to review.

130. Das Glück in glücksfernen Zeiten
Finished reading: 11 November 2014



Das Glück in glücksfernen Zeiten would translate as "Happiness at Unhappy Times". It is the title of a German novel that gives an intense impression of the 1990s, although its main theme is of all times. The main character in the novel, Gerhard Warlich, is a philosopher, that is to say a professional philosopher, with a PhD degree in the subject. However, this qualification does not immunize nor make him more perceptive about the condition of his own soul. After a period of unemployment, Warlich, found a job as a manager in a laundry firm, a type of employment clearly far from what he would have expected. In his day dreams he hold on to his secret ambition to set up a school, and he even undertakes steps to realize that ambition. Unaware of his profound unhappiness, unable to see even the beginning of his deep depression, he breaks together as the blackest melancholia bursts through.

Does life have a purpose? What is the fulfillment of life? Perhaps the 1990s brought this issue to the face of more university graduates than ever before, although daily toil without perspective or fulfillment of dreams must have been the fate of countless working people before. The novel does not offer any solutions to this dilemma.

131. Das Gefängnis der Wünsche
Finished reading: 12 November 2014



Das Gefängnis der Wünsche (English: "The Prison of Desires") is a experimental novel by the Swiss author Christoph Geiser. While the heart may be the seat of love, desire, or lust originates in the mind. The novel is difficult to read, as it consists of a kind of stream-of-conscious thought. As the connection between love, lust and prison first brings Marquis De Sade to mind, he is one of the minds being read, the other is Goethe. Diffucult to read, and hard to follow.



Other books I have read by Christoph Geiser:
Zimmer mit Frühstück
Wüstenfahrt

132. Der fremde Freund
Finished reading: 15 November 2014

In English:

In the love affair between Claudia, divorced, and Henry, a married father of two children, who lives separated, passion seems to be missing. Although in the German language, "the strange friend" can only refer to Henry, who remains a stranger, perhaps, the "odd" friend is Claudia, who is unable to develop a normal, enduring relationship with Henry, as she was unable with her husband, from whom she divorced. Although readers may be tempted to find the reasons for her loneliness in her life in the German Democratic Republic, the true causes are found in her past.

Der fremde Freund, in English The Distant Lover, is a beautifully written novella, about the inability to come closer.

133. The Thin Man
Finished reading: 16 November 2014



I am not very fond of reading detective novels, but only if they have some cult status such as Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes, or, in this case Hammett's The Thin Man.

Supposedly, The Thin Man, published in 1935, is an early and original detective novel, largely laying down the muster for the genre. The novel is centred around six or seven characters, who all know each other well, as family members, friends and acquaintances. While suspicion about the murder first points at the Clyde Miller Wynant, readers nowadays more familiar with the genre would soon rule out that character as the most obvious usually is not the culprit.

The novel is written throughout in mostly dialogue, with very little telling. As a result, the reader is almost as completely in the dark as most of the characters, and starts theorizing about possible candidates and their motive for the murder, which quite obviously seems to be the money.

With the limited role of story-telling, the obvious strategy of the novel is that the only knowledge that is imparted in through the physical presence of the characters, in conversation. It gradually becomes obvious that one character only communicates through correspondance, i.e. letters and telegrams.

The Thin Man contains some references to the period it was written. Quite modern is the suggestion that "junkies" might be responsible for robbery; the etymology of the word "junkie" can be traced to its earliest use in that sense in 1923. It appears in the novel (page 60) along with the word "hop-head" to denote a drug addict, which also sprang up in the jazz era of the 1920/30s' America. Another interesting linguistic feature is the repeated use of the word "speakeasy" for bars during the Prohibition era, from 1920 - 1933 in the United States.

The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett was issued in the Penguin Essentials series in 2012, and it is considered a classic and must read, as such included on the 1001 list of novels one should read.

134. Das Brot der frühen Jahre
Finished reading: 19 November 2014

In English:

Das Brot der frühen Jahre is an uneventful novella that portrays the hardship of life in post-war Germany, as a constant struggle for food, even the meagre portion of everyday bread. This struggle is described with a certain nostalgia, as it seems to be the only legitimate connection to the past. The novella describes a day in the life of the unnamed main character. On this day, he must arrange to meet Hedwig Muller, a young woman he has known since his early days from his hometown. She forms another legitimate connection to the past. The arrival of Hedwig in his life, marks a turning point of which the earliest moments are indicated in this short novel. The young man awakens to the sense that he must take responsibility and care for another person, no longer hoard money and only live to secure his basic needs, but spend money, for her, on her, even waste money, perhaps.

Das Brot der frühen Jahre, in English The Bread of Those Early Years, is a hopeful novella, about new life, emerging from the darkness.



Other books I have read by Heinrich Böll :
Weil die Stadt so fremd geworden ist ... Gespräche

135. Der Spaziergang von Rostock nach Syrakus
Finished reading: 21 November 2014



To readers who have no experience with the absurdities of living in the former German Democratic Republic, Der Spaziergang von Rostock nach Syrakus may appear to be a work of satire. It is, and is meant to be, notwithstanding the fact that the absurdity of life in the DDR was sadly very, very real. And while many of the main characters escapades, his reasonings and actions are fictional, and while not actually real, they most certainly seem to belong to the stock of likely, perhaps somewhat exaggerated, but very, very plausible actions and ways of thinking that belonged to that historic period. Therefore, future readers can read this short novel both as a satire and a source of understanding life in the then-German Democratic Republic (DDR).

Part of the satirical aspect of Der Spaziergang von Rostock nach Syrakus lies in the dramatic irony, that the reader already knows that the whole plot, as built up from 1981 to 1988 (- 1989) is obsolete in view of historic reality, as it would unfold after the summer of 1989. In 1981, the main character decides that he intends to travel to Italy, a country outside the so-called "East Block', beyond the reach of ordinary citizens. His journey is inspired by Johann Gottfried Seume's Spaziergang nach Syrakus im Jahre 1802. In the course of the novel, it becomes clear that there is no way Paul Gompitz can do this legally, i.e. with permission from the authorities, and therefore he decides to undertake his journey by illegal means, which, in practical terms meant that he had "to escape" from the GDR. The novel minutely describes the planning, preparation and execution of Gompitz's plan. Part of the sublime absurdity of the novel lies in the fact that Gompitz sincerely intends to voluntarily return to the GDR after his journey, a contingency the authorities barely know how to handle.

The novel can also be read as an absurd adventure, and may be of particular interest to people who like reading about sailing.

136. Nachgetragene Liebe
Finished reading: 23 November 2014



Nachgetragene Liebe beschreibt the youth, aged six to 11 of author Peter Härtling in Olomouc in Moravia, now part of the Czech Republic. Härtling, born in 1933, grew up during the Second World War. The theme of the novel is the expression of "belated" love for the father.

Some biographical facts are known about the author and the author's family, and seem to correspond with elements in the novel. However, the novel must surely have significance beyond the autobiographical basis of Peter Härtling.

Perhaps part of the "belatedness" of the love for the father, as expressed in Nachgetragene Liebe is the tabu that must have surrounded the topic, directly after the War and many years that followed. The father figure in the novel is a barrister and continued working in that position during the war, which would make him an accomplice in the eyes of many. The novel describes how, at the beginning of the war, the family moved from Hartmannsdorf near Chemnitz, in Sachsen, in eastern Germany to then Olmütz in Mähren. The novel suggests that the parents moved to Olomouc in search of "a quiet corner" in the German Reich, and there are many suggestions that the father and mother were benign to the local populace.

Prior to 1939, Olomouc was a Czech city. Bohemia and Moravia were annexed by Nazi Germany. In the night of 15 / 16. March 1939, the synagogue was burnt down and 800 Jews were arrested and deported to the extermination camp Dachau, a fate shared by 3,489 Jewish people from Olomouc throught the Second World War period.

Olomouc is a very beautiful city, essentially quite on a par with Prague. Nachgetragene Liebe is a very nostalgic novel that does not deal with any of the suffering during or after the war. Instead, it presents an idealized view of life in the city through the eyes of a young boy. The focus of the novel are the boys memories of his father.

137. Miracles of life. Shanghai to Shepperton. An autobiography
Finished reading: 28 November 2014



Although, as the title suggests, Miracles of life. Shanghai to Shepperton. An autobiography is the autobiography of J.G. Ballard's whole life, and a large part of the book deals with various, later episodes of his life, the focal point of the book is on his earliest youth. One third of the book is devoted to Ballard's youth, growing up in Shanghai, and a large part of that is devoted to life in the concentration camp created by the Japanese occupation forces during the Second World War. This traumatic experience is described together with other traumatic events observed by the author at a young age, such as atrocities commited by Japanese soldiers in China. Together with the apparently random fate of people, and properties, these experiences may form the basis for Ballard's authorship. One such baffling experience is the young Ballard's walk from the liberated concentration camp to his former family home. On the way he witnesses how Japanese soldiers torture and murder a Chinese peasant. Arriving in his street he finds that the home of a neighbouring youth friends has been completely destroyed, however, his own family home has been completely preserved, so he can walk in, lie on his old bed and, as it were, walk from the horror of the day into the space-an-time capsule of his "untouched" bedroom of nearly two years before. An experience of miraculous proportions.

Although the short book, of about 300 pages deals with subsequent years and the author's life during the 1960s and 70s, the focus remains on the original influence of his life in China. The final chapter and photos document the author's recent visit to China, discovering what has become of the places he grew up.

With nearly 100 pages devoted to his youth growing up in pre-war and war-time Shanghai, Miracles of life. Shanghai to Shepperton. An autobiography is not only an autobiographical document about the author's life, but also an historical source about the modern history of China, and Shanghai in particular.

138. Courage
Finished reading: 30 November 2014



Writing in English, living in Australia for more than 20 years, Maria Tumarkin is a writer of Russian origin. She was born in Ukraine. Her parents left the then-Soviet Union shortly before that country fell apart, and emigrated to Australia. Tumarkin hold a PhD in Contemporary History, Cultural Studies, Trauma Studies from the University of Melbourne. She describes herself as a freelance writer, teacher, researcher, translator. She has written three books, and is working on her next.

Tumarkin 's books are all closely connected with her own life experience. Courage has a somewhat broader scope. There is the faint suggestion that the author demonstrated courage by emigrating to Australia, while, as she was only 15 at the time, it should be acknowledged that perhaps her parents had the courage to do so. Apart from this slight criticism, Courage is a book which has no equal in contemporary publishing. It is almost as if other writers and philosophers shun big topics like this, or consider them done by classic authors. Tumarkin writes that the Australian philosopher Raimond Gaita was her mentor and has influenced her.

In Courage, Maria Tumarkin explores what courage means in the modern time. She explains and illustrates the concept by describing people in contemporary history who have demonstrated courage.

Very readable, and Maria Tumarkin seems to be an author from whom we may expect many more interesting books.

139. The last supper, and other stories
Finished reading: 3 December 2014



Howard Fast (1914 -2003) was an American author. In 1943 he joined the Communist Party in America, and he continued to work for Communist papers well into the 1950s. Consequently, in 1950 he was summoned to appear before the House Committee on Un-American Activities. This investigative committee, originally set up to identify and isolate American citizens with Nazi sympathies continued its activities after the War, and then mainly focussed on surveillance and identification of American citizens, civil servants and organizations with Communist sympathies, to detect any subversive activities or possible disloyalty. The investigations of the Committee very deeply intrusive, and the most resented feature of the Committee's work methods consisted on its insistence to give out the names of other people.

The last supper, and other stories (1955) is a collection of short stories which describe experiences of dealing with the House Committee on Un-American Activities. To Howard fast being called before the committee, and subsequently imprisoned for three months was a deeply humiliating experience. Several of the stories in the collection focus on life in prison, interrogation by the Committee, and aspects of betrayal. The last supper, and other stories is a deeply moving collection of short stories, that documents a very black page in so-called American democracy.

The last supper, and other stories was published by the Blue Heron Press, a publisher created by the author to publish his own work, as after the Committee hearings and his conviction he was blacklisted by American publishers, and unable to publish. However, Fast's very successful novel Spartacus was self-published, and its filming by Hollywood in 1958 broke the ban.

Howard Fast 's experience with the Committee prompted him to write the now considered very prominent essay "Why the Fifth Amendment?" which explains and details the importance of the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America, of which the House of Representatives was in dire need of being reminded.

Fast has a very long publishing career, with his first novel published in 1933, and his last in 2001, altogether more than 50 novels publsihed, some under the pseudonym as E.V. Cunningham. Besides novellistic work, there are several collections of short stories, non-fiction and autobiography.

The last supper, and other stories should be read as a reminder that American citizens should remain vigilent about their governments subversive tendencies to intrude upon and restrict its citizens civil rights.

140. Five Star Billionaire
Finished reading: 4 December 2014



While China has enjoyed double-digit economic growth for nearly two decades, set at an average rate of 10 - 11%, much of that development was centred in the cities, where it may have been closer to 17% growth overall. Particularly in the period 2003 - 2008, the Chinese economy went supernova. This tremendous boom created tremendous wealth, in a country with very loose legal contraints and hardly any regulation. The harsh reality is that China is governed by the rules of the jungle, and that to many people survival means survival of the fittest. China's ancient classic The Art of War means that one should not shun to take advantage of any means to achieve one's ends. Conceit, double-dealing and deceit are all part of the game. In some sense life in China resembles a computer game, not in vitual reality but in the flesh-and-blood.

Shanghai is the commercial capital of China, and with its history of being a world capitalist city in the years leading up to the war, its creation a miracle on the scale of the rise of Hong Kong, created out of mud, the early Twenty-first century saw Shanghai arise again, like the Phoenix from its ashes, to engage in a wild dance with the dragon. It appears to be an excellent stage for a novel of greed and capitalism of the new century. In that sense, one might compare Five Star Billionaire by the Malaysian author Tash Aw with the novel of the 1990s, Money by Martin Amis. Unfortunately, Tash Aw as an author lacks the skill to pull it off.

For a start, Five Star Billionaire has a weak structure. The story is told in alternating chapters on a rotation of five, as the plot or rather five plots are centred round five characters, each telling a story in turn. Five, maybe the five points of the Red Star, is too many, and the structure of the novel seems contrived, rigid and mechanical. None of the characters is fully developed, and although interactions between the characters are suggested, this more surprises the reader than anything, and the relations do not become transparent. The plot as a whole remains obscure

The story told for each of the characters consists of a roping together of all the cliches that are written about China in popular media in the world's newspapers the year around. The characters are charicatures lacking a human dimension, and as a result they remain two-dimensional card board figures.

Being a Malaysian author, Tash Aw has created several characters who are Malaysian, and although there are many Malaysians of Chinese ethnic origin in Malaysia, the story's premise that they illegally immigrate into China and there compete with native Chinese employees seems implausable. Some of the characters in the novel speak Cantonese rather than Mandarin, and to engage the reader in this foreign-language environment, some words and exclamations are rendered into English. Now, in Mandarin this rarely poses a problem, but readers may wonder how aware either the author or his editor were of rendering "Hey" ("Hei") from supposedly Cantonese into English. Better not read that part aloud to prudish ears with an understanding of Cantonese!

Although Five Star Billionaire seemed interesting and exciting during the first 80 pages, the story becomes cliche, mechanical, and ultimately boring. Perhaps it tells us more about Malaysians than about China.

141. The lady who liked clean restrooms. The chronicle of one of the strangest stories ever to be rumoured about around New York
Finished reading: 8 December 2014



The title of this novella by J. P. Donleavy, The lady who liked clean restrooms. The chronicle of one of the strangest stories ever to be rumoured about around New York gives an excellent indication of what to expect from this humourous, short work of fiction. Main character in the novel is a middle-aged woman, and if there is anything about a person in their name, then it must be in hers, as her full name is Jocelyn Guenevere Marchantiere Jones. As her character, it combines the high snobbishness with the ordinary.

Explaining more about the story might give it away. The lady who liked clean restrooms is a hilariously funny novella.

You are really catching up with your reviews. I'm impressed that you can write them so long after you finished reading them!

>You must have noticed that they are shorter, and there are few references to actual parts of the novel or short stories. This is because I remember my overall impression, but left the books and the note cards in Beijing. Originally, I had hoped to finish writing up all reviews before my departure from Beijing, but could not. I could postpone writing the reviews till my return in March, but decided against that, trying to finish off as much as I can while residing in Nanning.

There are just a few more to follow, before I can get started on the 2015 thread.

142. City of Spades
Finished reading: 10 December 2014



Colin MacInnes was a successful British author from a literary family, who published several well-known novels such as To the Victors the Spoils and Absolute Beginners.

During the 1950s, MacInnes wrote a number of novels situated in the milieu of black immigrants. These novels bear relations with the novels of Sam Selvon, for instance The Lonely Londoners (1956), and the early work of V.S. Naipaul, with whom MacInnes was acquainted. McacInnes "London trilogy, comprising of the three novels City of Spades (1957), Absolute Beginners (1959) and Mr Love & Justice (1960) was published during this period, at a time when racial discrimination and bisexuality were still largely tabu. MacInnes attraction to writing about these groups stemmed from his homosexual or bisexual orientation. As he was attracted to black men en women, he came into contact with their issues, including subjects such as urban poverty, matters of race, drugs, anarchy, and "decadence".

In City of Spades, Nigerian immigrant Johnny finds himself caught up in the new ethnic subculture in 50s London. The novel is very well written, and introduces many topics and issues now commonly associated with poor, immigrant populations. There is a brooding sense of homosexuality, as the white employee of the government office cannot really explain his interest in these black men he seeks friendship with, but the matter is settled as he enters into a sexual relationship with some of the black girls.

Current literary scholarship favours the prose of ethnic minority writers over the work of Britsih authors, regarding ethnic issues as more authentic. However, it seems Colin MacInnes' work should not be overlooked.

Another great batch of reviews Edwin. Maria Tumarkin's book Courage sounds very interesting in that it has the courage to discuss big topics.

The German novels seem introspective when compared to British and American contemporary literature.

143. Selected poems of Dylan Thomas
Finished reading: 11 December 2014



The edition of Selected poems of Dylan Thomas by Dylan Thomas in the series of Penguin Modern Classics gives a representative overview of the poetic work of Dylan Thomas. I did not care much for his poetry. The early works, mostly seem high flown but devoid of meaning. The later work introduces people and in the later poems some recognizable sense of beauty and meaning can be discovered.

144. A hero of our time
Finished reading: 16 December 2014



He knew himself a villain—but he deem'd
The rest no better than the thing he seem'd;
And scorn'd the best as hypocrites who hid
Those deeds the bolder spirit plainly did.
He knew himself detested, but he knew
The hearts that loath'd him, crouch'd and dreaded too.
Lone, wild, and strange, he stood alike exempt
From all affection and from all contempt:
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, (I, XI) (1812–1818)

Vladimir Nabokov collaborated with Dmitri Nabokov on creating a translation of A hero of our time by Mikhail Lermontov. Apart from Nabokov's claim that their translation is more authentic, and more faithful to the Russian language conventions of Lermontov, perhaps the most decisive difference between this translation and other translations is that, in most translations A hero of our time is presented as a collection of related novellae and short stories, while Nabokov insists that the book is a novel, suggesting a plot structure which resembles the well-known Matryoshka dolls, of one story nested in another story, suggesting a structure of three levels. Nabokov supports this theory by illustrating a similar structure in a poem, written by Mikhail Lermontov, which lugubriously predicts his own death.

In eithet case, the story of A hero of our time is hard to follow, or, more likely, the story does not matter. What matters is the character of the main protagonist, Grigory Alexandrovich Pechorin. From each of the five chapters or narratives, the image arises of Pechorin as a capricious character, wild and irresponsible, "a man proud, moody, cynical, with defiance on his brow, and misery in his heart, a scorner of his kind, implacable in revenge, yet capable of deep and strong affection", as Lord Macaulay would have it.

Mikhail Lermontov was a Russian author, who was born in 1814, and died at the early age of 27, in a duel in 1841. A Hero of Our Time was published at the height of the Romantic period, in 1840. The character of Pechorin can best be understood as bearing similarity to the "Byronic character" a type of character that despite its obvious flaws has remained popular in literature since the early Nineteenth century.

A hero of our time was written at a time when Mikhail Lermontov was stationed in Georgia, and the novel provides some beautiful descriptions of the rugged landscape there.

145. Shakespeare's restless world. An unexpected history in twenty objects
Finished reading: 20 December 2014



Shakespeare's restless world. An unexpected history in twenty objects does not offer much new knowledge of Shakespeare's time, but does present many known facts in a very fresh, new way. Not only does the archaeological evidence present a very compelling picture, the images created about Shakespeare's time, particularly his audience are very vivid and completely convincing. Naturally, we can all imagine the audience at the Globe Theatre as a lively company, eating and drinking while watching a play, but the find of a luxury fork to eat sweet meats forces the mental image much stronger. Likewise, we know from Shakespeare's own words that "All the world's a stage", but that his audience took this literally and would carry renaissance Italian-style swords and daggers, emerges from archaelogical finds of such items. Using 20 objects, Neil MacGregor illuminates the world of Shakespeare, giving body to mere ideas, and supporting evidence to theories about life and the theatre during Shakespeare's lifetime. Highly recommended!

That was the last one.

I concluded my reading in 2014, with a total number of 145 books read. A bit lower than my target, but with several books in progress, not entirely unsatisfying.

Unfortunately, my work has been so busy since June, that I barely found time to write up the reviews.

Now, over to Club Read 2015, at http://www.librarything.nl/topic/187689

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