June, 2019 Readings: "Here's a hymn to welcome in the day/Heralding a summer's early sway." (The Decembrists)

Summertime and the reading is never easy...

Not for snobs.

We like our books difficult, the equivalent of mentally bench-pressing the New York Public Library.

This month I'm staring down a couple of fat history tomes and offerings from the far Left of the political spectrum.

And mebbe a smart novel or two.

What about you?

Just got started on the correspondence between Thomas Jefferson and John & Abigail Adams. So far, it seems the Honorable Mr. Adams really, really (I mean really) loved his commas.

Currently listening to Foursome: Alfred Stieglitz, Georgia O'Keeffe, Paul Strand, Rebecca Salsbury by Carolyn Burke. Not a whole lot of insight here but seems well researched. I don't know much about the art world in the US before the Depression so this is interesting. Also, it includes O'Keefe's and Stieglitz' pet names for each others private parts in case you ever need to know.

FASCISM: WHAT IT IS AND HOW TO FIGHT IT by Leon Trotsky.

Trotsky was a nasty piece of work, one of the architects of the onerous Leninist/Stalinist dictatorship that controlled Russia for much of the 20th century.

But he was also an astute observer of world affairs, a pragmatist and a man plugged in to his era's zeitgeist.

"Fascism comes only when the working class shows complete incapacity to take into its own hands the fate of society."

Zing!

>4 CliffBurns: I think you have it when you describe The Old Man as "plugged in to his era's zeitgeist". I've observed to friends about modern-day Russian affairs that it is a hard country and it breeds hard people, in every respect. And so many of our ideas about what constitutes 'democracy' are very recent; indeed, given our modern digital polity, the nature of 'democracy' is changing almost as we watch it.

A lot of current political radicals who describe themselves as "Trotskyist" are, by and large, referring only to Trotsky's ideas on campaigning and organisation. It was Trotsky who originated the ideas of people banding together according to shared interests, electing their leaders from amongst their own number, gauging opinions on current matters from their constituencies and feeding those opinions, appropriately composited, upwards to the policy-makers, who would then take those opinions into account with due weight to the constituency promoting them.

This lesson needs to be re-taught to too many politicians who seem to believe that 'consultation' means "asking your opinion of what we propose to do, but then going on and doing it anyway". That Rightist politicians need to understand that should be self-evident; but too many ostensibly Leftist ones seem to have adopted that meaning as well.

It amuses me when I hear critics, especially of the Right, denounce Trotsky as "Bolshevik", because that was the last thing he was. He was from the opposite wing of the Social Democratic Party, the Mensheviks; and this was one of the reasons he ended up with an ice pick in his head. (And it bears repeating that those labels, 'Bolshevik' and 'Menshevik', only refer to 'the majority faction' and 'the minority faction' respectively.)

Excellent points, Robert.

Wow! Just finished another great one: Samanta Schweblin's Fever Dream. Really enjoyable. (Review here: https://wp.me/p4LPys-n2.)

I recently finished For the Sake of Shadows by Max Miller. Miller was a well-known San Diego journalist during the Depression, best known for his reportage on the San Diego docks, I Cover the Waterfront. Published in 1936, For the Sake of Shadows is Miller's probably somewhat fictionalized account of his very short and unsatisfying stint as a Hollywood scriptwriter. The book is basically a long complaint without enough detail to even make it satisfying to lovers of screeds. Kind of fun, though, at this late date, for its historical interest.

I greatly enjoyed Tim Maughan's INFINITE DETAIL.

I'm not usually that interested in near future science fiction but Maughan paints a vivid picture of the world after the "crash", when anti-capitalist hacktivists have succeeded in destroying the internet we've become so dependent on. There are small enclaves of freedom, but the utopia the revolutionaries hoped for does not come to pass, autocratic governments imposing martial law, press-ganging people into working on massive farms to feed the populace, etc.

Sobering and credible, a very scary look at a possible future.

I think I've hit the jackpot this month; I devoured Alejandro Zambra's Multiple Choice yesterday. Best thing I've read in a while; a general review is up here: https://wp.me/p4LPys-n8.

Finished the ebook version of COMRADELY GREETINGS, a compilation of letters exchanged between Marxist philosopher Slavoj Zizek and jailed "Pussy Riot" member Nadya Tolokonnikova.

Zizek began his letters in an attempt to create solidarity with the jailed activist and soon discovered his penpal had a fierce, uncompromising intellect and could hold her own in political and philosophical exchanges. His admiration for her grows with each missive.

Heady ideas and excellent debates between two first-rate minds.

Recommended.

A fast, rather mindless bit of summer reading, DARK MATTER by Blake Crouch.

Crouch is prolific and knows how to tell a tale...but, like many lazy, reader-conscious scribes, insists on overly happy endings and books that can be translated directly to the screen.

Finished THE OTHER SIDE OF SILENCE, another title in the "Bernie Gunther" mystery series.

God bless Philip Kerr.

A rainy weekend, good opportunity to shirk yard work and stay inside with a good book.

Started the Iliad (again). This time I will read the whole thing!

Still plowing through The Age of Surveillance Capitalism.

Periodically reading Boris Akunin mysteries, both the Fandorin series and the Sister Pelagia series, as palate cleansers.

Still on a Chandler kick, now reading The Long Goodbye. Just finished The Little Sister.

Anna, (re: THE ILIAD) which translation did you go with?

With me, it's Robert Fagles all the way.

...and, maybe as a companion volume, you should have a look at Pat Barker's THE SILENCE OF THE GIRLS.

Here's Ms. Barker being interviewed by the inimitable Eleanor Wachtel, on "Writers & Company":

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/writersandcompany/pat-barker-on-giving-voice-to-the-ens...

>15 CliffBurns: Actually yes, Fagles is the one I happen to have. I think it is my husband's copy. I seem to remember I had the Lattimer. But I can't find it. I am enjoying this one, very poetic.

Thanks for the rec, I will look into that!

The interview is a good one and should intrigue you.

Another companion novel to consider is THE SONG OF ACHILLES, by Madeline Miller.

Good luck with the Fagles translation, I adore it.

>18 CliffBurns: I recently read The Trojan War: A New History by Barry Strauss, which I believe set some good context for me to try the Iliad this time. I had no historical background last time (apart from just general reading about the mythology) and I think this is kind of a necessity when you are reading a piece from that remote a time and place.

Zipped through Alastair Reynolds' SHADOW CAPTAIN in about a day and a half.

A sequel to REVENGER and a real swashbuckler--a great yarn with brains to burn.

Reynolds is my favorite living SF writer and this book provides ample evidence why he holds that place of honor.

Recommended.

I grow more impressed with the intelligence and courage of the members of the Russian punk collective Pussy Riot the more I read about them.

Nadya Tolokonnikova's book READ AND RIOT: A PUSSY RIOT GUIDE TO ACTIVISM is inspired and impassioned.

A tome any progressive and politically knowledgeable individual should have on their bookshelves.

Recommended.

Finished PERMAFROST by Alastair Reynolds.

Near future sci fi, a team of scientists struggling to solve a catastrophe in 2080 by going back in time and seeking, literally, the seeds of survival. But tampering with the past may leave mankind vulnerable to predations from the future.

A good yarn, a short novel that manages to cover a lot of ground in 170 pages.

Reynolds is always a fun read.

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves – Karen Joy Fowler
Book on CD narrated by Orlagh Cassidy
4****

College student Rosemary Cooke is all but estranged from her family. Yes, she still speaks to her parents, and they are supporting her, but she’s gone as far as she possibly can from her Indiana home and only grudgingly goes home for quick holiday visits. A chance encounter with a fellow student, Harper, with a volatile temper and a propensity to act out, causes Rosemary to briefly abandon the careful façade she’s adopted and has her reflecting on her childhood, and her lost siblings: her sister Fern and her brother Lowell.

Through her thoughts and flashbacks the reader gradually gets a picture of the young Rosemary – talkative to the point of distraction, happy, inextricably linked to Fern and both under the protection of older brother Lowell. They live with their parents on a farm near the university where their father is a research professor, and the graduate students who work under him are part of the extended family. Rosemary and Fern roam freely in the natural landscape, climbing trees, catching frogs at the creek, picking wildflowers. But one pivotal event (which Fowler doesn’t fully reveal until close to the end of the book) destroys this idyllic existence and causes a nearly irreparable rift.

Fowler’s writing brings this wounded family to life. Though Rosemary is the narrator, and an unreliable one at that, we do get a sense of both the “before” and the “after.” Of how her once vibrant, clever mother is now a shell of her former self. Of why her adoring (and adored) older brother left and became a fugitive wanted by the FBI. Of how her father carries the burden of guilt and blame that his wife and children place on him for what happened. And of the guilt that Rosemary feels, because she “knows” that it was all her fault.

It's the kind of character-driven literary fiction that I relish.

Orlagh Cassidy does a marvelous job of performing the audio version. She sets a good pace, and I could follow the plot despite the back-and-forth in time structure. However, I think I would have enjoyed this even more had I read it in text, so I could savor Fowler’s writing.