Kate Keeps on Keeping on Jumping

April Books
Madhouse at the End of the Earth: The Belgica's Journey into the Dark Antarctic Night -Julian Sancton - Reviewed
Mantel Pieces - Hilary Mantel - Reviewed
Waiting for the Mahatma - R. K. Naryan - Reviewed
My Heavenly Favorite - Lucas Rijneveld - in progress
House of Mirth - Edith Wharton - in progress
The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher - Hilary Mantel - Reviewed
The Trees - Percival Everett - Reviewed
We Die Alone - David Howarth - Reviewed
Kitchem - Banana Yoshimoto - Reviewed
Found in the Street - Patricia Highsmith 3.5
The Tremor of Forgery - Patricia Highsmith - Reviewed
Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits -Leila Lamani - 3.5
The Other Americans - Laila Lamali - Reviewed
The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene - Rating 4
Case Studies by Graeme Macrae Burnet

March Borks
Too Much Happiness: Stories - Alice Munro - Reviewed
The Push - Ashley Audrain - Reviewed
The One - Rating 2 - Not reviewed
Pyre - Reviewed
One Part Woman - Reviewed
Small Pleasures - Reviewed
Summer - Reviewed
Eastbound - Reviewed
The Heart - Reviewed
Shuggie Bain - Reviewd
Brotherless Night - Reviewed
Roman Stories - Reviewed

X Talks Silent

Small Pleasures
By Clare Chambers
Media: Audio
Read by Karen Cass
Length: ~10 hours
I have no idea as to how this book landed on my tbr list. The only clue I had as to its contents was its cover that looks very much like a late 1950s swap-card. Swapping cardboard cards with pictures of flowers and pretty little girls in hoop skirts and braided hair is what girls used to do for fun in the late 1950s in Australia. Simple times. Flat times. I remember those days in black and white. The pastel-colored cards were the bright lights of our beige lives.

Gen X-er Clare Chambers has done her homework. She tells us so in the “Credits” in the audio version. Her 1950s facts are spot on. Her style and plot are flat and go with the period, lacking subtlety and depth. Textureless. I doubt this was on purpose. Perhaps the dreariness of those bleak times got to her.

The main characters are of the Silent Generation, and here Chambers falls down. While the environment - the buildings, cuisine, fashions - are portrayed accurately, the adult characters are surprisingly aware and supportive of Gen-X values. women’s independence, sex outside marriage, gay sex, tolerance of atheism. But their inner lives are bland like their food and the architecture of the time. All a bit scrambled up.

I read somewhere that Claire Chambers has been likened to Kate Atkinson. Poor Kate.

Back to the book. There are two storylines. A beautiful woman (Silent gen) believes that her daughter is a product of parthenogenesis, that is conceieved without the participation of male sperm. Gretchen writes a letter claiming this to a regional newspaper in Kent. The letter is picked up and a woman journo (Jean) takes it on as a virgin birth story. Jean does her background research while she partakes of a lot of Silent gen things. She uses pay phones that connect to human operators, she eats meat with three veg for “tea”, smokes, and is surprised when children say cute things.

While researching for her virgin birth story Jean has it off with the salt-of-the-earth husband of the beautiful Gretchen, who happens to be a closet lesbian. This affaire between Jean and Gretchen’s husband is the second story of the novel, and runs along in parallel with the virgin birth.

I read till the end. I thought of how it was for my parents back in the late fifties and how we kids had no idea of what troubles they had in their younger lives. I felt sorry for the pre-pubescent me with my swap-cards..

I gave this book a 3, 2 for research and 1 by default.

>2 kjuliff: Entertaining review of a not-so-entertaining book. Happy new thread.

yikes, that looks like a skip.

>2 kjuliff: Sorry this wasn't a hit, but your review did make me smile so it wasn't a total waste of 10 hours!

Appreciated your recent Alice Munro review. I've not read anything by her, and the 1 or 2 titles I have of hers on my wish list keep getting pushed further down. Maybe that's not a bad thing given your first impressions.

>2 kjuliff: enjoyed your review

>5 AlisonY: I suspect you might like Alice Munro, or at least appreciate her writing. It's the dialogue that shines, so probably somewhat culturally dependent, but that repression older women in particular try to impose on each other and on younger women, that need for control in their lives, really comes through. "Who do you think you are?" can be said in so many ways, with so many meanings, but there's only one way mothers mean it.

>7 SassyLassy: certainly one’s culture can influence perception of spoken words. But I’ve lived in the US over 25 years and I don’t think my being born in Australia alters how I hear American English. Even living in Australia we hear Americans speaking in film, TV etc. But I do think hearing conversations from a book on audio can influence how a conversation is interpreted. Books that rely a lot on conversations often do not do so well in audio.

Who do you think you are?" can be said in so many ways, with so many meanings, but there's only one way mothers mean it.
And there’s more than way to speak it.

>6 baswood: >5 AlisonY: >4 cindydavid4: >3 labfs39: I’m glad the review amused. I had fun writing it. Like many others I find it easier to review a book or film I don’t like, or perhaps it’s more books that I don’t think are well-written. I’m currently trying to read My Heavenly Favorite which is a difficult read. It will leave me speechless I’m sure and I don’t think I’ll be able to review it.

>2 kjuliff: I'm not going to read this one, but I very much enjoyed your review of it.

>2 kjuliff: So another member of the "I want to write about Period X but I disagree with the time's thinking and morals so I will make my character enlightened and thinking and acting like 21st century people" cohort...

I enjoyed reading your review :)

>10 RidgewayGirl: Thanks Kay. I had such a positive reaction to my review I m tempted to read some more bad books so I can review them..

>11 AnnieMod: I agree Annie. In this case I think it just didn’t occur to the writer than there could have ever been a period where her own values were not held. She went to so much trouble getting the environment of her characters correct - every possible kitchen appliance, the way train timetables were displayed, the makes of cars, and somehow added values that none of her characters would never have heard of, let alone embraced. Maybe we could make a list of such writers and post it in the LISTs topic.

>8 kjuliff: Specifically dealing with Alice Munro, she is Canadian, not American, and Canadians may speak the same language, but they use it differently. It is recognizing that and the tone of voice behind it which makes Munro so good at dialogue.

Odd about conversations in audio - I would have thought that would be where they excelled, always given the right reader.

>13 SassyLassy: With older audio books there’s less “acting”. With newer ones there’s a trend for some readers to emote. It’s a matter of taste as to which style one likes. I don’t like it when. professional actors read books for audio as they tend to treat the novels like play scripts, and interpret them for the listener. Thus inserting themselves between the listener, reader, and the book as it was written.

Yes I should have not assumed that Canadians speak the same English as Americans. You’d think I’d be more sensitive, me being Australian. I was aware that Alice Munro was Canadian, but the book I listened to was read by Americans . I take your point.. I still can’t pick a Canadian accent.

The short stories I listened to were read by Kimberly Farr and Arthur Morey. Farr is an actor from Chicago and Morey is from Oregon but is I think, Chicago based. He’s a well-respected narrator.

I miss being able to read text. So I’m at the mercy of the narrators.

>2 kjuliff: Loved your review. "Poor Kate," indeed.

Catching up, Kate. Enjoyed your reviews on the Indian (or Ceylon-ian?) authors and the review here. I’ll pass Small Pleasures.

>16 dchaikin: Dan, it’s Sri Lanka now. Tamils live in southern India and Sri Lanka. They have d different ethnicity to that of others on the subcontinent but practice Hinduism. They have their own language. Most Tamil writers write in English as I mentioned through my quote in my review of Pyre.

I hope you get to read more Indian and Sri Lankan books.

The Living Ain’t Easy

Summer
By Edith Wharton
Media: Audio
Reader:Grace Conklin
Length: `6 hours
Rating: 3
The most positive thing I can say about this short novel is that it’s well-crafted. Other than that, it’s Wharton at her melodramatic best.

The story has been described as an American Madame Bovary . I can understand why. However I’d throw in a dash of Lolita with a sprinkling of Mansfield Park and a Mandelay zest to give the full offering.

A young child Chastity is moved from a nasty impoverished area to small town by the local orator Mr Royall, who falls in love with her when she reaches adolescence. Chastity meanwhile meets a beguiling young architect Lucas Harney who she falls for after a brief meeting on a dusty road. Harney is infatuated by her beauty but sees her as a sex object and beds her as they used to say back in the day.

They get around in a horse-drawn carriage but unlike Emma Bovary Chastity is true to her name and makes Harney wait until he’s set up a spot in the woods where they can indulge in stillness and privacy.

The older, much older Mr Royall tries to warn Chastity, but he’s done his dash with the young woman by coming onto her once, making a sexual advance when she was younger. She has this act and his subsequent well-deserved shame as an unmentioned bargaining point and she has the power over the man who regrets forever his stupid testosterone-filled move three years before.

True to Royalll’s word, young Harney abandons ship, leaving Chastity to her memories of his love-lust, and the glimpse he gave her of the higher things in life. Architecture and grammar and such.

What to do? He’s gone, she’s preggers and Royall has a few more attempts at winning her - well not back - she despises him - “her hand”.

Meanwhile her mother who is said to be a slut is dying in the hills. Anything more would spoil the tale so I’ll leave the plot there. There are some nice scenes of the wilderness around the small town, and of the wheat fields where Chastity throws herself down in despair over her love.

The characters are a bit of a mishmash but maybe I was getting confused between Royall and Hubert and Lord Mansfield and Maxime. Harney is an easier take. He’s Léon the law clerk from Lyons. And Chastity? More Emma or Fanny Price than Hardy’s Tess or Rebecca. I was having trouble with Chastity’s mood-swings but perhaps it was just her name that was throwing me off.

I gave Summer a 3 for its wordcraft and the bush scenes and the way the story magically picks up pace toward the end. Will Mr Royall prove to be the successful older suitor? You will need to read the book, a must for young unwary female lovers, and for lovers of Wharton.

>18 kjuliff: one of my favorite Wharton’s. 🙂 I loved strange Chastity, the one world’s worst librarian, and was heartbroken along with her.

Happy new thread, Kate.

>2 kjuliff: great comments. I think I have this on my shelves. Maybe that will go in the giveaway pile.

>18 kjuliff: I really enjoyed your review ("...the glimpse he gave her of the higher things in life. Architecture and grammar and such." made me giggle) but I doubt I'll read the book!

Ain’t got no cigarettes…

Eastbound
By Maylis de Kerangal
Translated from French by Jessica Moore.
Media: Audio
Read by Jennifer Pickens
Length: 2 hrs and 23 mins
Rating: 4.5
The central character in this brilliant novella is the train. In what appears to be a never-ending journey, it doggedly winds its way east from Moscow to Vladivostok. Aliocha and Helene are two of the passengers on the ride that takes place in post Soviet Russia.

Aliocha a young Russian conscript and Helene is a slightly older French woman. They are strangers when they meet on the train when Aliocha is trying to desert. Helene becomes his accomplice. The tension is high for both and for the reader, as the train moves east and the probability of Aliocha being able to stay hidden until he can make a break from it, increases.

The pair have no common language and are reluctantly entwined, together in a fragile shell. The Siberian landscape is their moving background.

It’s a gripping tale that covers a very short time period, a few days. A lot happens and like Aliocha the reader loses all sense of time. Seven days becomes an hour, a minute, but at the same time the trip appears to be unending.

What sets this book apart from other books I’ve read in the past two years is the beauty of its prose. The reader is put firmly into the train with Aliocha and Helene and the Provodnitsy. The imagery that bounces from train windows as in a shattered film sequence is depicted in unfaltering detail. I was amazed at the skill that was evident in Jessica Moore’s translation. There were times that I couldn’t help but try to translate back into French to experience how the sentences would sound in their original language.

Helene and Aliocha sleep, eat, and smoke cigarettes. As an ex-smoker I related to de Kerangal’s detailed description of the cigarettes. From the cheap cardboard filters to the packaging and the associated cravings. I noticed that cigarettes played a large part in Kerangal’s other novel The Heart. She’s must be a smoker. The pleasure of smoking oozed back into my memory as I tried to slow my reading, not wanting the train to reach the final stop and the book to end.

Highly recommended.

>22 kjuliff: I've seen this book on "best of" lists, but yours is the first review. I've put it on my wishlist.

>22 kjuliff: I've had my eye on this one, but your review plops it into my cart.

>22 kjuliff: I started it but didn’t finish. I meant to go back to it.

>22 kjuliff: sounds fun. Terrific review!

>22 kjuliff: This sounds great; thanks for posting the review.

>27 rasdhar: >26 dchaikin: >24 labfs39: >23 RidgewayGirl: Thank you for your responses to my review of Eastbound. That book was SO enchanting that I’ve been unable to settle on a book since. My “currently reading” list is too long. I suspect I’ll have a few DNFs as a result. Leaving a half-read book unattended for too long can ruing it.

>25 dianeham: I encourage you to finish this one. It’s a very short read and I’m sure you'll like it though you may need to restart to get into the flow.

Should I continue with

• House of Mirth and be distracted
  
• Shuggie Bain and be sad
  
• My Heavenly Favorite and be repulsed
  
• The Crying of Lot 49 and be confused
  
  I need help in deciding.

>29 kjuliff: I personally would recommend Shuggie Bain, although it will certainly make you sad like it did for me. It was an eyeopener for me about life in Glasgow where my mother came from.

Well, as long as you’re not bored…

Keep on Searching

The Heart
By Maylis de Kerangal
Translated from French by Sam Taylor
Media:Audio
Read by Steven Jay Cohen
Length: 8 hrs and 49 mins
Rating: 3
I bought this book after reading Eastbound. I’d been so overwhelmed by that novella that I needed more of de Kerangal than the two hours that Eastbound had given me.

Unfortunately I could not finish The Heart. The six hours about the day in the life of a heart transplant was beyond me. Yes the writing is mesmerizing and the detail finessed. Yet somehow it wasn’t enough. But it wasn’t so bad that it doesn’t deserve a mention, and I’m sure others will like it more than I could.

A young boy, a surfer dies in a car accident. His young healthy heart is made available for a transplant. Everyone involved is a subject of de Kerangal’s attention. The surgeons, the hospital and care workers, the relatives of the donor and the donee all play a part in this perfectly chronicled choreographed feat of modern medicine. Every detail of the participants’ lives in the twenty for hours is described, accurately and efficiently. From the cup of coffee the head nurse drinks, from the assistant hospital orderly’s intake of her cigarette, to the donor’s mother’s inner feelings come to the reader as if we are in the room with the participants.

Despite my enthusiasm at finding a new writer to follow, I had a problem with The Heart. The poetic language seemed at odds with the subject matter. The symbolism and softness of the beating heart didn’t sit well in the stark sterility of the operating theater. Feeling and technology didn’t mix. For me at least.

I suppose I was expecting something along the lines of Eastbound - short and softly emotional. The Heart is a novel three times longer than the novella. What worked on a train trip didn’t work for me in a hospital setting.

Still I look forward to reading more of this writer’s work. It is just that Eastbound set such a high bar, and maybe my heart wasn’t in this one.

Interesting to read your reviews of books by Maylis Kerangal a french writer new to me.

Interesting that your reactions to the two books was so different.

>34 labfs39: Yes, and quite surprising. I so much expected to love The Heart. I’d be interested in trying another book by de Kerangal

Great review for a book you didn’t finish. The heart does sound like it has an appeal. Maybe a very different one. Better next book, I hope.

>36 dchaikin: Yes, well there’s no doubt that de Kerangal is a good writer. I think the hospital setting may have helped turn me off in The Heart, though it was very life-affirming. I reviewed the book because I didn’t want to disuade other possible readers.

I’m now reading Shuggie Bain and wondering what all the fuss was about. Reading in parallel with L’assomoire - so perhaps it’s no surprise that the Scottish version of a drunk woman outweighs the French.

>37 kjuliff: i was never a lover of the long slow Shuggie Bain, but i was able to hang in there and ultimately it won me over. I’m glad you’re giving it a shot

>38 dchaikin: I’m intent on finishing it but it’s not a book I could ever like.

the topic kept me away, and based on friends reviews, ill stay away

>40 cindydavid4: >39 kjuliff: I finished it. I couldn’t eat while reading it.

>41 kjuliff: oh, right, no. I wouldn’t have been able either (of course I was driving, so eating wasn’t really an option 🙂)

>42 dchaikin: Ha. Well I actually felt like hitting the road as I approached the end of this Scottish misery. BTW how did you handle the Scottish accent?

When I vacationed in Edinburgh I couldn’t understand a word any of the locals said. My experience of Shuggie Bain had several moments when I had to go back and listen again. I did like the way though that the Scots use the same word as us Aussies for loose change. Shrapnel.

>43 kjuliff: hmm. I don’t remember having trouble with it.

>37 kjuliff: That's quite a combination - would make a great exam question: "Explore..."
...perhaps it’s no surprise that the Scottish version of a drunk woman outweighs the French Ouch

>43 kjuliff: Shuggie's Glasgow accent would have been quite different from those you heard in Edinburgh. Who was the reader?

Went back to my review, which I had great difficulty writing because I thought the book was so powerful. I see in the end I just gave up and let Stuart speak:
https://www.librarything.com/topic/337305 posts 3 and 4

I was so shattered by Shuggie Bain that I had to put it back on my shelf fairly early on. My mother came from a small village just out from Glasgow around 1925 and I still have relatives there. Fortunately, none have ever had to live in the public housing world.

After a few months I worked up my courage to finish the book. I came away with the utmost respect for Douglas Stuart and the primary characters.

in some way his second book Young Mungo is equally shattering to me. Ironically, I have a relative with the name Mungo and several others as acquaintance's.

I now wonder where Stuart will go with his writing as these books border on being auto-biographical. But the quality of his writing, beyond this subject, I would look forward to more of.

>45 SassyLassy: Thanks for your comments. I read your review and can see you found the characters of Shuggie and Agnes convincing. I was unable to. Perhaps the narration got in the way.

The narrator is Glaswegian Angus King and you can here his voice here at Voice Angency. But, and it’s a big but, in the narration King adjusts his own voice to reflect the individual characters. So when Shuggie’s girl friend speaks King puts on a female-sounding voice and the character has a different accent than Shuggie’s whose accent is supposedly “posh”.

Angus King has a clear voice when he’s being Angus King. But there’s a lot of dialogue in the book and that’s where I had the problem.

>46 JoeB1934: Thanks for the comments. I gather you read the book in print or ebook form. Perhaps I was put off by the accents - see my comments above - >47 kjuliff:.

I’m not generally put off by graphic descriptions of poverty and the effects of substance abuse, but there seemed to be graphic descriptions for effect rather than understanding. L’assomoir is so much more convincing for me.

I wonder if public housing in Scotland has improved since the Thatcher years. I didn’t see evidence of severe poverty when I visited Scotland. I did find an interesting bookstore that had a dig at Tony Blair. Will look for it and post if I find it.

Edinburgh bookstore showing Tony Blair’s autobiography in the Dark Fantasy section.

>48 kjuliff: I did listen to the audio, otherwise I would have been hopelessly lost. All of my Scottish books are with audio. I must admit that since I lived with my mother's brogue and other relatives the accent is never a problem. Pronunciation of place names and slang terms only make sense when spoken by a Scottish person.

Hi, Kate, I’ve been generally absent from LT for past few weeks and just wanted to check in—and check out your new thread. I always enjoy your reviews and have added three books to the Wish List, Eastbound and Heart (with a question mark), and Wharton’s Summer, which I’ll read when next in the mood for melodramatic. It’s been fun catching up!

Shuggie Bain was a heartbreaker, but it never felt like it devolved into straight out misery porn for me. Maybe the quality of the writing, which I liked, or maybe the absence of the narrator's reflection on his trauma—that kind of portrait of people plowing ahead in a hard world, through good and often bad decisions, interests me if it's done well.

And from a discussion way back, possibly your last thread (see, I do read all the way through!) about green burials—Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in lower Westchester has 'em. I've been, seen the site (last year around this time, so very austere, as NY in March usually is, but lovely), gotten a price quote (not cheap, but plots in general aren't). If anyone wants more info, I'm happy—if that's the appropriate word—to send it your way.

>52 lisapeet: Shuggie Bain was a heartbreaker, but it never felt like it devolved into straight out misery porn for me
For me neither. I did feel however that there were passages where descriptions went too far, far enough to lead me to feeling unable to eat. I do think perhaps it was made more indigestible by Angus King’s narration. He an excellent narrator, but his voice made the horror in the novel seem stronger than it might have done in print.

Re discussions about “green burials” I think you must have confused my posts with someone else’s. I’m sure I’ve never discussed green burials. And no I certainly don’t want a quote for Sleepy Hollow cemetery. But thanks for volunteering.

>51 dianelouise100: Thank you for your comments Diane. Yes I’d give The Heart a try. de Kerangal is a good writer and the book is interesting. I have two books on the go right now, Brotherless Night and Waiting for the Mahatma.

>54 kjuliff: Really looking forward to your thoughts on Brotherless Night.

>55 RidgewayGirl: It’s an interesting style - a fictional chronicle, but somehow compelling.

>53 kjuliff: I’m sure I’ve never discussed green burials.
Haha whoops, sorry! I did read back, but maybe... not super carefully. The conversation got my attention just because it was something I know a little about, but maybe whoever was wondering will see this.

Re Brotherless Night, do you ever listen to the Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast? Ganeshananthan is one of the hosts, and it's often pretty interesting.

>57 lisapeet: No I haven’t listened to that podcast but I will now. Thanks for letting me know about it. I’m always on the lookout for good podcasts.

Tyger Tyger burning bright

Brotherless Night
By V. V. Ganeshanathan
Media: Audio
Read by Nirmala Rajasingam
Length: 13 hrs and 28 mins
Rating 4

Written in the form of a chronical, Brotherless Night tells the fictionalized story of a young woman’s life during the early years of the Sri Lanka civil war. It’s told from the vantage point of the young woman whose journey ends in her settling in New York before the civil war has ended.

The story starts with sixteen year old Sashi, the young Tamil girl who is living comfortably with her family in Sri Lanka. But there is unrest in their country.

In 1983 ethnic tensions erupted into an all-out civil war which was to last 25 years. The war was fought between the Tamil Tigers (predominantly Hindu) and the Sinhalese government forces (predominantly Buddhist). After some years the Indian government sent troops - supposedly as peace keepers, but becoming another source of violence.

At times I was reminded of Adiche’s Half of a Yellow Sun set in present day Nigeria, where the ethnic divisions, encouraged by the colonizing British caused problems when they left after favoring an ethinic minority. In Nigerians it was the Biafrans, in Sri Lanka it was the Tamils.

Knowing something of modern Sri Lankan history is a help in reading Brotherless Nights, but is not necessary. The story stops before the war ends.

I’m not going to give a synopsis of the book as you can easily find it elsewhere. But a few aspects of what is essentially a piece of historical fiction stood out.

The format is that of a chronical. Sashi is writing down the events as she experiences them. Where do these events come from? They are fiction but based on actual history. The chronicle is told in first person by the made-up character of Sashi. Ganeshanathan has researched the history, the participants and events, from her home in the U.S where she was born of Sri Lankan parents.

Knowing this I was disconcerted at times. It reads as if it was autobiographical but we know it is not. Most events are either anecdotal or completely made-up, as are the characters. So there’s a lack of authenticity though of course similar events occurred many times, and the characters are based on real people or amalgamations thereof. The descriptions are so realistic that they become believable but we know they are not.

It’s a chronical, but fictionalized and there’s some editorializing. There’s also some introspection. In the final chapter Sashi looks back on her life and the historical records (which is in fact the book we are reading) which she has been maintaining in order that the truth gets out. We are reading about the book we are reading.

There’s also the way that Sashi talks directly to the reader with questions like “What would you do in such a situation?” and, “Do you think he’ll answer the door?”. The first time this happened I thought that I’d misread and had to go back to check, but then I got used to it. I half-expected to find out that Sashi was in fact addressing one of her brothers, and that remains a possibility for me.

I liked Brotherless Night. I ended up liking Ganeshanathan‘s style, though at first I thought I would tire of the novel. I became engrossed. I liked the nuance and the political detail, some of which was new to me.

I do wonder whether Ganeshanathan will write another novel. The only other novel she’s written to date was her debut, Love Marriage and it was during the writing of that novel that she came upon the idea of Brotherless Night wich took her over ten years. She’s American now and I feel she will need to move on. The success of Brotherless Night lies a lot in its subject matter.

The timing of Brotherless Night is apt for the 2023-4 reader. With the terrorism, the accusation of human shields, the collateral damage, the reader has to keep her mind to stop fleeting to the situation in Gaza.

Even with my reservations I have to highly recommend this book. There’s something about it that speaks to the reader that is beyond its exhaustive research. It speaks to the heart.

Interesting review. I have read Michael Ondaatje's Anil's Ghost which I thought was excellent, but Ondaatjé was a Canadian Resident before the Civil war started and his book tells the story of a visit to Sri Lanka during the civil war.

V. V. Ganeshanathan book obviously tells a story from the start of the hostilities and you say it is strong on the politics and so although the events in the novel are "based on facts" it would give a good general view of the situation. Interesting it made you compare it to Gaza. I spent a couple of weeks in Sri Lanka in 1975; a beautiful Island, it is difficult to imagine it as a battleground full of atrocities.

>60 baswood: There are apparently few books set in the beginning of Sri Lanka’s civil war. Before reading Brotherless Nights I had a somewhat biased view of this war, having known a pro Tamil Tiger family who had fled to Australia mid 1980s. Plus my tendency to side with the revolutionaries.

The book is critical of the Tamil Tigers (LTTE, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam), especially in the short period after the turn of the century. I saw the similarities to Gaza 2023-4 in the plight of the civilians. There’s a particularly vivid scene where tens of thousands maybe more, Tamil civilians were locked in - the sea on one side and government forces on the other. The exact number is still contested. The LTTE was using these civilians unsuccessfully as human shields. Government forces were shooting the civilians if they stayed, and the LTTE was shooting them in their backs if they tried to leave. There’s not an exact equivalence but it’s functionally the same situation as in Gaza.

Also of interest in the book, which I forgot to mention in my review, was the main character’s gradual disillusionment with the Tamil Tiger organization. At first she worked with them, albeit reluctantly. Gradually she came to see how little they valued human life, how they (according to V. V. Ganeshanathan ) encouraged terrorism and hunger striking to death. The hunger striking scene along with the description of the burning of Jaffna Public Library by a mob Sinhalese individuals, were well-written and have stayed with me after finishing the book.

>59 kjuliff: there seem to be several books out about the Sri Lanka civil war, esp The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida

ETA yeah what >61 kjuliff: said

>62 cindydavid4: Yes there are many. I’ve read quite a few. My favorite was A Passage North by Anuk Arudpragasam. What I liked about Brotherless Night was that I learned more about the beginnings of the conflict, I had not known for example about the burning of the Jaffa Public Library in 1981. The library was one of the biggest in Asia; 97,000 books and manuscripts were lost forever. So much history is being lost in all these wars.

In Misery

Shuggie Bain
By Douglas Stuart
Media: Audio
Read by Douglas King
Length: 17 hrs and 30 mins
Rating: 3.5

A terribly tragic and horrible story of the increasing degradation and poverty of a working class family. Accounts of terrible physical and mental abuse. @BookAddict review

Yes it’s from a review on LT, though not of Shuggie Bain - it’s of Zola’s L'Assommoir though it does describe Shuggie Bain rather well.

Personally I prefer Zola’s Gervaise to Douglas Stuart’s Agnes. Though both characters descend into drunkenness and pine over undesirable men, I could feel more sympathy for the French alcoholic and I have to believe this has something to do with the writing. Of course Zola sets a high bar.

Poverty and alcoholism don’t always go hand in hand. But they often do. Shuggie Bain’s mother who was born to a poor working class family descends into poverty and alcoholism fairly rapidly once she leaves her first husband. She makes as they say, bad choices.

When we meet Agnes she’s already been married twice but reader doesn’t find out much about her first husband who is simply referred to as “The Catholic”. She has two children Katherine and Leek from the Catholic and Shuggie from her second husband, Shuggie Bain the Elder.

Agnes is unhappy and drowns her sorrows in whatever alcoholic beverage she can get. She spends her government child support money on the grog. She drinks herself into oblivion. Katherine flees the nest and Leek follows shortly after. Shuggie the elder eventually leaves. Young Shuggie, still a child is left to care for his mother. The tragedy of the book is that Shuggie feels himself responsible for his mother’s alcoholism and believes he can save her. He gets no help. The book is set in the UK under Thatcher’s iron reign, and the welfare state, starved of funds does nothing to help.

I did not gain much from this book. I have first hand experience of, and have read enough about alcoholism and poverty, and there’s nothing new for me in Agnes’s degradations. She goes from one horrific situation to a the next, repeating her past mistakes. The book describes her decline in increasingly horror-filled detail. . I suppose that’s the point, but I could see no point in its being driven home time and time again. I did learn one thing though.

After tiring of living with her parents, Agnes moves to a house that Shuggie’s dad, big Shuggie has somehow managed secure. It’s in a run-down council estate which was built for mine workers who are now laid-off. The area is thus referred to as ”The Pits”. So that’s where the saying “going to the pits”comes from.

There’s something to be learned every day.

>63 kjuliff: oh my god . so much history, and so many people lost. I dont know anything about the beginning of that conflict either, will need to check that out

>64 kjuliff: Enjoyed your review. I've not been drawn to read Shuggie Bain for the reasons you mention, but never say never.

>64 kjuliff: Well we certainly had different reactions to Shuggie Bain. I did not dismiss Agnes for making "bad choices". Alcoholism is a disease, and living as Agnes did, one very difficult to put into abeyance. Gervaise had the same substandard living situations, and often made the same choices, so I'm not sure why she ranks higher with you.

As you say, it may be due to Zola's writing, so I went back to my review of L'assomoir, and see that I thought it one of the best books of the nineteenth century, something with which I would still agree. However, Zola was well on in his career when he wrote it; Shuggie Bain is a first novel.

Stuart shows a real love and compassion for both Shuggie and Agnes, but I would say also it is called Shuggie Bain, not Agnes Bain, and the central character is Shuggie, not Agnes, something that isn't really clear in your description.

It's a good thing that LT can engender such different thoughts about the same book, always fascinating to read, and the fact that your review spurred me to comment at this length is one of the best things about it.

_____________

>66 AlisonY: I suspect you may get on with it better than you think.

>67 SassyLassy: Thanks for your insightful comments on my review.

I liked the book L’Assommoire better than I liked the book Shuggie Bain and I take your point that Shuggie Bain is a debut novel. I wasn’t however taking that into consideration in my comparison. For whatever reason I believe L’Assommoir is the superior novel. Will Douglas Stuart ever reach the heights of Émile Zola? I doubt it. But I was comparing my reaction to the two books, and I had a better experience with L’Assomoire. It is my favorite Zola book, so of course it is only natural that I would prefer it.

I agree that the main character in Shuggie Bain is Shuggie and not Agnes. I did see the tragedy of the book being Shuggie - The tragedy of the book is that Shuggie feels himself responsible for his mother’s alcoholism and believes he can save her.. But I concede that my review places Agnes as the main character and it should not.

How much is an individual responsible for their own alcoholism? I do think individual choice does play some part. But it’s harder for people living in poverty, without adequate resources, to make good decisions.

I still remember the character of Agnes as being selfish, especially toward young Shuggie. Very possibly my own life experiences have contributed to my view of the characters in the book. I think I concentrated more on Agnes in my review because I liked her less than I liked Shuggie, who had no choice at all in how he lived, whereas Agnes did have some control, though ultimately it was society that failed them both.

Thank you again for your considered response to my review, I so enjoy discussing books, especially when opinions differ.

>66 AlisonY: I wasn’t drawn to Shuggie Bain either. I generally read Booker Prize winners’ books in the year they won. I’d put off Shuggie as I didn’t think I’d like it. But it kept appearing in my recommendations from most LT members that I follow. It was going to keep popping up till I read it, so I did.

I am not drawn to books about children being brought up by single mothers with addiction, so I suppose I was biased from the beginning. But I read it to the end and it has merit. Still I can’t put it up there with most other Booker winners.

Hi Kate - I never had any desire to read Shuggie - so just saying hi. 👋

Consequences
>
Roman Stories
By Jhumpa Lahiri
Media: Audio
Read by: Deepti Gupta, Carlotta Brentan, Cassandra Campbell, Ari Fliakos, Michael Obiora
Length: 6 hrs and 4 mins
Rating: 3.5

Lahiri is such an adept story-teller, and it’s always a delight to read her collections. There are eight stories ranging in listening length from 20 minutes to almost one hour. If there’s any commonality between the stories it is that they were all written in Italian - not Lahiri’s main language - and translated by her, to her primary language of English. It was because of this that I put off reading the book, not seeing the point, and fearing something’s may have been lost in translation.

There are several themes that reappear in the stories, the main one being that they all involve people moving continents for major slabs of their lives. Some for professional reasons, others for reasons of life or death.

She describes an aspect of expat life in her last story of the book, mysteriously entitled, “Dante Alighieri”. In it one of the characters travels twice yearly between the East coast of America to Italy and back, twice yearly. She’s so blasé about this long air flight that she doesn’t even look at the scenery from the cab window as she leaves the airport to travel to her homes. I know the feeling, having split my life between Australia and America for over ten years.

Most of the short stories are set in Rome, but I didn’t get much feel of Italian life coming through. The stories could have been set in any Western European country experiencing mass migration from Africa and Asia.

Many of the stories, “The Steps” in particular, hinge upon individuals doing innocuous acts that end up having severe and unexpected consequences. Set on the Steps in Rome, where young people lark around as in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, we get the feel of the ancient city and the unchanging nature of the human condition. “The Steps” and “The Well-lit House” which quietly describes the bigotry and poverty that refugees can be subject to in western countries, were my favorite stories.

Roman Stories is a quiet and gentle read that packs its punches when least expected. Recommended.

>22 kjuliff: I'm catching up after being away for a bit. This one caught my eye and I've put it on hold. Apparently I'm not the only one: there are several folks in line ahead of me.

>71 kjuliff: Great review, Kate. I've only read her novel The Namesake, a million years ago and I don't remember it, but I was not enticed to continue reading her. Maybe I need to give her another go.

>73 labfs39: I would definitely give Lahiri another go. I think she’s more a short story writer. Her Interpreter Of Maladies which is another of her short story collections won a Pulitzer in 2020. It may be easier to get than her Roman Stories which was just recently released. I had to wait 12 weeks on hold to get Roman Stories.

My March Madness
I had such a weird March and need to decide whether to give up on some of my my partly read books.

March Borks
Too Much Happiness: Stories - Alice Munro - Reviewed
The Crying of Lot 49 - Thomas Pynchon - DNF
The Push - Ashley Audrain - Reviewed
Normal Rules - Kate Atkinson DNF
My Heavenly Favorite - Lucas Rijneveld - in progress
The One - Rating 2 - Not reviewed
Pyre - Reviewed
One Part Woman - Reviewed
Small Pleasures - Reviewed
Summer - Reviewed
Eastbound - Reviewed
The Heart - Reviewed
Shuggie Bain - Reviewd
House of Mirth in progress
Brotherless Night - Reviewed
Roman Stories - Reviewed

Fireless Snow

Madhouse at the End of the Earth: The Belgica's Journey into the Dark Antarctic Night
Julian Sancton
Read by Vikas Adam
Length: 13 hrs and 28 mins
Rating:3.5
This book is a narrative account of the Belgian Antarctic Expedition of 1897–99, its “planning”, execution, and aftermath. The expedition was Led by Adrien de Gerlache de Gomery aboard the RV Belgica, and was the first Belgian Antarctic expedition. It is considered to be the first expedition of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.

Madhouse at the End of the Earth is a well-researched and competently-written book, but for me it failed to convey the claustrophobia and dread that is so often engendered in such sea tales.

There’s a lot of detail of the members of the crew and their quarrels that threatened the success of the expedition, but I just didn’t get the feel of the sea and the extreme conditions of Antarctica that I was expecting. There was no fire for me in this book, despite the catchy title.

But perhaps I had unrealistic expectations. One of my earliest memories is of listening to Douglas Stewarts’s play, Fire on the Snow on the radio in Australia. Australians are perhaps more aware than others of Antarctica. Especially those of us from the southern coast. We feel Antarctica’s cold winds in winter. And even travelling by boat from the mainland to Tasmania can be a rough experience. All things considered please take my 3.5 rating with a grain of sand.

>75 kjuliff: You've had a great month of reading, and some very interesting reviews. Thanks for sharing with us!

>76 kjuliff: Interesting - I had not heard of the book, or Fire on the Snow, both of which I will be looking up

>77 rasdhar: I’m not sure how Fire on the Snow would hold up. I was about six when I listened to it, and from my very vague memory of it, although it wrenched my small heart to listen to it, it was a bit gung-ho British.

>74 kjuliff: I agree that Lahiri's stories are her best work, Kate. Her novels aren't as good although I did like The Namesake.

I look forward to Brotherless Night. Great comments.

>79 BLBera: Have you tried Hilary Mantel’s short stories? I really like them. I’ve just finished her Mantel Pieces which is more essays than short stories, but fascinating.

Any recommendations from the International Booker longlist this year? I’ve had a bit of a look, but unlike other years, none are grabbing me.

Bookless in Gaza

Mantel Pieces
Read by Olivia Dowd, Length:~11hours
The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher
Read by Jane Carr, Length: ~4 hours

I decided to review these two books together, as both contain Mantel’s stories, literary articles and reviews. Also I read them consequently so they have morphed into my mind as one long Mantel description of the real and literary worlds. Both truly excellent, though I preferred Pieces.

One of my favorite Pieces is “On Jane Boleyn” (2008) which starts with the so-Mantel remark that You may fear from the title of this book that they’d found yet another Boleyn girl. , which is a review of a book written by Julia Fox. Of course there wasn’t another Boleyn girl in the true sense, although another prolific writer, who Mantel refers to as “the energetic Philippa Gregory” has also written a Jane Boleyn biography.

Mantel is concise, full of humor, and is historically accurate. She expects other historical fiction writers to be the same. Unfortunately they are not, as Mantel has so much fun in acidly pointing out.

Another favorite was “Royal Bodies: from Anne Boleyn to Kate Middleton” (2013). At a writers’ festival in Hay-on-Wye Mantel was asked to name a famous person and to choose a book to give them. Not surprisingly Mantel hates such questions, but she had to answer. She chose Kate Middleton Duchess of Cambridge as the famous person, and the book to give her, the cultural historian Caroline Weber’s Queen of Fashion: What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution. Need I say more. You can read this essay in the London Review of Books Feb 2013 Royal Bodies.

Another London Review of Books Essay, “Marie Antoinett” (1999) published in Pieces published under Fatal Non-Readers shows us how pamphlets in the 18thC were as vicious to Marie Antoinette as was the press to Diana Spencer. The similarities between the two blue-eyed, porcelain-skinned, Marie Antoinette and Princess Di had more in common than their love of clothes and their need for them.The similarities in how they were treated is striking. Both were the subject of extreme misogyny and a hungry press.

In “Bookshop Shopping in Jeddah” (1988) we get a memoir snippet of Mantel’s life in Saudi. Bleak and bookless. Mantel concentrates on the lives of the women. In her own words.

Housewives whose mothers sat in tents spend the days in their urban apartment blocks watching Egyptian soap-operas on TV. Students at the university would not buy books, their European teachers said: it was necessary for a department to buy enough copies of the standard texts, and place them in the library. My closest Muslim friend, a well-travelled and articulate woman, had a degree in English from a college in Pakistan. She mentioned one day that since her marriage, three years previously, she had read only one book. - London Review of Books, March 1999

The stories and essays are undated in The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher. I sense they are on the whole a bit older. Two stand out. “How Shall I know You” is an amusing story of Mantel’s overnight stay in the insalubrious Eccles House, a small seedy hotel in a remote town somewhere in the UK where she was obliged to go for a talk. The conveyor was as hopeless as the hotel, but Mantel makes it an amusing tale.

In “Sorry to Disturb” we get a look at her life as an expat in Jeddah, but a more intimate look than in Pieces’ “ Bookshop Shipping in Jeddah”. “Sorry to Disturb” is a story about her pointless friendship with a fellow expat, a rather dismal Pakistani accountant. Both of them are lonely but Mantel can enjoy her solitude. She feels duty-bound to invite her acquaintance to her home, though she becomes wary of his intentions. It’s worth reading if only to get an idea of Mantel’s silent husband.

I recommend both books, and hover between 3.5 and 4 in my rating. The individual stories served welcome break between my reading of full-length novels.

Great review of Eastbound. I read it and enjoyed it as much as you did, although I failed to write a review of it.

I did, however, enjoy The Heart far more than you did; I gave both book 4 stars. I suspect my medical background played a major role in this, as I have had several young patients who required heart transplants, either before or after I took care of them, and I've talked to and read several stories of their parents, who thanked the family of the donor, while dealing with deep guilt over the child whose premature death allowed their child to live. IIRC Adina Talve-Goodman also mentions this sense of guilt in her fabulous book Your Heart, Your Scars.

>83 kidzdoc: I knew The Heart must have been good. de Kerangal is such a good writer, but it just wasn’t for me. I can see it must have been more apt for you because of your experiences. I wanted to review it because I still wanted to draw others attention to it, knowing my experience was because of me, and not the writer.

>82 kjuliff: oh i loved those! She is so quick and smart. been awhile since I read them, I should reread them sometime.BTW did you watch the Wolf Hall series from a few years back? They are finally working on one for the mirror and the light. no idea when it will start but most of the same actors are in it. Cant wait!

I started to write about International Booker but it disappeared. I started -Crooked Plow and loved it but I’m still waiting for the hold.

>82 kjuliff: Great reviews. I'm reading Mantel Pieces right now.

Blackbird singing

The Trees
Percival Everett
Read by Dwayne Glaption
Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
Rating: 4

Wow! It’s really the only word needed to describe this excellent novel. But wait, there’s more.

Of course a synopsis won’t do. I have no desire to spoil this must-read for anyone. The genre? Well it’s dark and funny and tragic and mysterious all at once. It starts here.

In the neighborhood of Small Change in the town of Money, Mississippi a white family comprising of Charlene (Hot Mama Yellah), and Wheat, Granny C, Junior Junior and Lullabelle, gatheres around an empty pool outside a grassless shotgun house. They are discussing using the pool to keep pigs in. Little do they know, but one of them is about to be murdered, his body mutilated, his scrotum stuffed into the hand of a dead black man.

So starts the story. I took notes for my review. A few will hopefully give y’all a flavor of this remarkable book..

“There’s be no First Amendment without the Second”
“If guns are outlawed only outlaws will have guns”
“When the trumpet sounds I’m outa here”
- Stickers on the deputy coroner’s rusted-out car.

The top coroner is called Reverend Fondel. A nasty fellow a KKK supporter who discovers he is black. Only one of many of Everett’s imagined characters, so exquisitely described that we can’t wait to meet the next one. Then there’s their names. Junior’s son Junior, Junior Junior, Mister Mister, Fondel, Hobsinger.MacDonald MacDonald, Pick L. Dill. Not since Dickens has a novel’s characters so matched their owners’.

“You kill em We chill ‘em”
“You stab ‘em we slab ‘em”
“You slay ‘em We slab ‘em”
Two detectives pay a visit to the Acme Cadaver Company. The receptionist has a tattoo on her neck, “Break here in case of emergency”. One of the detectives doesn’t get it. When they enter the warehouse Marvin Gaye is being played. The cadavers are kept head-to-toe on a conveyor belt. One cadaver is just male head, the rest of its pieces being scattered somewhere in Pennsylvania. Some employees are playing catch with an eye ball. Others play soccer with a head.

But it’s not all fun, and there’s some serious stuff going on. Seriously.

This is a book to read at leisure and to be taken very, very seriously.

Edited for typos.3/7

>88 kjuliff: It's amazing how Everett managed to make a novel that was so bleak and angry also so funny.

>89 RidgewayGirl: Yes I agree. Before reading The Trees I’d read reviews saying it had humour, murder, racial hatred etc and I could not believe it could be possible. But it was. Though toward the end I think the darkness overtook??

>88 kjuliff: Reading this excellent review with its excerpts put me in mind of Evelyn Waugh’s The Loved One. You have seriously sold me on reading The Trees. Moved to top of WL!

>91 dianelouise100: I remember The Loved One from years ago and can see why my review of The Trees reminded you of it. I wonder if it holds up. I tried re-reading his Brideshead Revisited and found it aannoying, though I once loved it.

Definitely read The Trees. I was so impressed I just borrowed I am Not Sidney Poitier.

>82 kjuliff: I don't often read essays, but I loved Mantel's Cromwell trilogy and own The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher. Your review makes me want to read it.

>93 labfs39: Thanks Lisa. I prefer Mantel Pieces to the Margaret Thatcher one. My review has links to a couple of the stories from Pieces that were published in the London Review of Books. If you have time to read them, you’ll get a feel for the book. I don’t read essays much either but these are compelling and highly readable.

>88 kjuliff: I think that may have to be my next Everett…

Hello Young Lovers

Waiting for the Mahatma
R. K. Narayan
Read by Richard Wulf
Length: ~7 hours
Rating: 4

It’s always a delight to read Narayan. Malgudi Street, I feel I know it backwards. The vendors, the characters, the food, the little quarrels, the humor. Narayan’s books bring to life the villages and the people of my own favorite country, India.

Waiting for the Mahatma is the tale of Sriran and Bharati, two young people who meet at the beginning of the Indian war for independence. Bharati is passionate and fully committed to the cause. Sriran joins the movement only when he meets Bharati who is campaigning on the streets of his village in southern India.

Bharati will not marry the smitten Syrian until she has Gandhi’s blessing. Syrian is passive and sees the world through bewildered eyes. He’s innocent and seems to be dim-witted, but every now and then he shows spark, but then in the most inappropriate of times. Fortunately much of the time Bharati is around to put him in his place but not always, and when he follows the idea of an older man and tries, against Gandhi’s non-violence decree, to derail a train, he gets himself thrown into prison.

After several years Sryian is freed. It’s another world. Independence has been achieved and there’s the inevitable disorganization. He locates Bharati who has relocated to Delhi where she lives with other Gandhi followers, caring for children who have been displaced from their families due to the Hindu-Muslim conflict. Gandhi has decreed that the children be given names of flowers, so as not to label them as belonging to any religion, Hindu, Sikh or Muslim, lest they become embroiled in the now bloody conflict. Bharati spins her own cotton, weaves her own cloth. She’s still dedicated to Gandhi and his way of life. Gandhi is busy so the couple must wait patiently for his blessing.

It’s a simple tale elegantly told with love and humor, and the subtle irony one expects from a Narayan story. So much so that the unanticipated ending leaves the reader with a terrible chill.

Narayan is such a beautiful writer. Fortunately he was prolific and his books can be read time over time. They are indeed treasures. Read any you can get your hands on.

>88 kjuliff: We really are going hand in hand this week - first Mantel Pieces and now The Trees. Great review, and indeed a book to be taken seriously.

>96 kjuliff: Again, lovely review. I am reminded of being in school. A friend of mine read too many RK Narayan books in a row, and was quite melancholy. Her brother told her she looked 'like an envelope with no address on it'.

Enjoyed your review of Waiting for the Mahatma. I have not read any of his books but have The Painter of Signs and The Guide on my shelves.

>97 rasdhar:- The brother of your school-friend has a way with words.
- I’m looking forward to your next reviews. Have you finished Mantel Pieces?

>98 baswood: I haven’t read The Guide but have read The Painter of Signs. I hope you get to them soon; I’d be interested to know what you think of them. Most engender a feeling of peace and tranquility, and a melancholy longing for simpler times. Waiting for Mahatma was the only one of his that I’ve read that was about political turmoil. Most are sweet authentic stories about unchanging village life.

I’ve just finished We Die Alone and am in need of another gripping tale. I’ll review We Die Alone when I’ve recovered - it’s a great read. I also recently read books about ill-fated ship journeys. But any tips on a gripping escape or exploration story would be appreciated. It’s not a genre I normally read so I know little of the good writers in such books.

I’ve only been able to read a few pages of several books. After a few pages my mind jumps somewhere else.

A Most Wanted Man

We Die Alone
David Howarth
Read by: Stuart Langton
Length: 6 hrs and 42 mins
Rating: 4
This is a true story of a Norwegian, Jan Baalsrud‘s attempt to escape the Nazi occupiers of his country as he travels alone from the Arctic to southern Norway and from there hopefully to neutral Sweden. He's been injured in a failed attack against the Nazi occupiers. The rest of his group was killed and he survived though injured.

Told in present tense in the third person, we follow Jan on his journey. The background is white, there are no markers to get bearings. He can’t see mountains till he is almost upon them, and then only knows only when he discovers that he climbing.

Are there Nazis following his trail? He’s a wanted man. His injuries increase and the frostbite is working from his toes up his legs. He manages to survive from his own perseverance and with the occasional help from sympathizers who he is able to contact but who cannot accompany him.

As well as the elements and the fear of being discovered by the Nazis, he fears the people he finds in the early part of his trek. Will they betray him to the Nazis? Is it fair to put them in a difficult position. Even if they are unafraid to help, what will happen to their families if they are captured? Jan is an honorable man.

As the book progresses we cannot imagine how Jan can possibly survive. His snow-blindness, his weeks alone unable to move because of his injuries, his hallucinations, his pain, his descent into madness.

I can’t even comment on the prose. I was so bound up in Jan’s struggle I could think of nothing else. And after completing the book I could not take to any other. It’s a compelling and gripping read, expertly executed. David Howarth manages to put us into 1940s Norway, into a landscape the likes of which is far from my own experience. I could imagine the fjords, avalanches and glaciers - words I’ve never really known the meaning of. I was there with Jan, in the bleak landscape of a Nazi Norway.

I highly recommend this book.

>102 kjuliff: I'm glad you enjoyed this one, Kate. I don't read a lot of adventure/exploration stories either, I stumbled across this one because of its WWII theme. The only one I can think of at the moment is River of Doubt about Theodore Roosevelt's trip up the Amazon. Not quite as heart-pounding as We Die Alone, but a good tale nonetheless.

>103 labfs39: I don’t usually read that sort of book either Lisa, but I did read a gripping story about the trip to Antarctica - Madhouse at the End of the Earth and I was looking for something similar when I saw you had enjoyed - not really the right word - We Die Alone, so borrowed it. Now I’m kinda stuck with what to read next. I have a number of books on hold and only one of the 2024 books is available in audio form.

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida just came off hold, but there’s too much male sex in it for my taste, though I can see it’s an excellent book.

Then Kay had a review today of Hard Girls but unfortunately the audio version is off-putting. Looks like I’ll need to read an R K Narayan - always good while waiting for inspiration. Though any WWII suggestions are welcome. Not Pacific war though.

>104 kjuliff: Hard Girls having a bad audio version is disappointing. Hope you find a great read soon. I'm in a minor slump myself, having just finished two books that I loved and finding myself slightly dissatisfied with my current books.

>104 kjuliff: yeah I had to skim lots of sex and gore in order to finish it

>106 cindydavid4: Was there much left? I read the eggplant discussion which was interesting and sounded authentic if my promiscuous friends of either sex are to be believed. But after that came the headless corpses and I decided that the sex bits might have actually been the best parts. ;)

>105 RidgewayGirl: Yes it was disappointing as I’d held out such high hopes and I can see that it would be a good read on paper or e-book. I really liked We Die Alone. It’s gripping. Maybe give that a go.

well I did do a lot of skimming I was interested in the civil war, which I learned about from a brother of a friend of mine who was teaching there at the time. This pretty much mirrored his comments and I got a better sense of what is about. But yeah, lots of stuff could have been edited and made it an easier read

>109 cindydavid4: I’ve read several really good books on the Sri-Lankan civil war and that’s partly why I thought I’d like Seven Moons. In fact early on it mentions an academic who I think is the same one as appeared in the excellent Brotherless Night.

thanks for that, on the list it goes

Finistère
By Kevin Barry

He knew not to continue the conversation. A man travelling alone in his morbid fifties does not talk to a girl in her teens without family or guardian in sight, especially not in this black romantic mood and certainly not with a bottle of Château Despair on the go.

What am I doing reviewing a short story? I’ll tell you what I’m doing: after weeks of good reads I came upon an excellent one. Of course I’m in love with Kevin Barry. He is so verbally dextrous, his humor so bleak.

I came upon “Finistère” in the New Yorker. Though I’m not a subscriber the publisher kindly allows a few uploads per month, and this includes their occasional short story in written and audio form. This week it was Kevin Barry’s “Finistère”, read in clear Irish brogue by the writer himself.

You can get both print and audio here

The story tells of a voyage of fifty-five-year-old Cian John Wynn who is escaping a doomed romance in County Clare on the ferry to France. He finds himself engaged in conversation by a teen-age girl in the ferry’s café, and the pair form a bond that starts with their shared interest in Netflix’s “Inside the World’s Toughest Prisons”.

Barry gets into Cian’s mind and we observe his reactions to the girl, the woman Sylvia who he has just left and of course, himself. The story is both funny and insightful. As a woman I saw the man. I wonder if males readers of a certain age see themselves.

Barry is a masterful storyteller and his characters are so perfectly drawn one has to pause after so many of his sentences, in awe.

Yes I must truly be in love with this writer. I end this short note with a quote and a hope that I’ve lured those of you who have not read any of Barry’s works, to do so.

Even with his hands still trembling in the Tesla that morning, even with Sylvia still raging among the bushes and the wildflower embankment, even with the guards still parked across the road and the squad car full to bursting with their broad unsalted-butter faces, even with all that going on he had decided to pay the little extra for a cabin with a sea view. He booked it on his phone and in fact the last-minute pricing wasn’t so bad.

Moon Shadow Moon Shadow

Kitchen
By Banana Yoshimoto
Translated by Megan Backus
Read by Yolande Bavan
Rating: 3
I’ve given Banana Yoshimoto’s pen name because it was the name she gave herself in the 1980s when the book was published. Her birth name is Mahoko Yoshimoto, and the title “Kitchen” was the “borrowed-name” of the book; it was the original title and not translated from Japanese.

The book is divided into two parts, the novel “Kitchen” and the novella “Moonlight Shadow”.

I decided to read Kitchen after discovering it was an instant best seller when it was published in Japan, and I was intrigued by the title and the author’s name. I was expecting from these, a quirky novel, along the lines of some other Japanese books I’ve read.

It’s not quirky at all. Both the novel and the novella embrace the themes of coping with the sudden death of a loved one. Both are optimistic, with the survivors moving forward after periods of mourning.

The prose in both stories come across as choppy in parts. I first thought this was due to the translations, but later read it was the original Japanese. What was interesting about the book was the subtle and tender way it dealt with the emotions of mourning. At times the novella Moon Shadow was extremely touching. This may have been because of my own experience of young love. In any case I liked the novella more than I liked the novel.

There were times of unintended humor. Being a lover of Japanese food it was surprising to read of young people praising meal of Kentucky Fried Chicken. Here and there there are signs of Western influence in the writing, and this plus the choppiness of the prose takes from the gentle feel Mahoko Yoshimoto engenders so well in the two stories.

If you like Japanese literature, Kitchen delivers a pleasant read. For me Kitchen is a good but not a memorable book and I rated it a nuanced 3.

>98 baswood: >97 rasdhar: by the way, The Guide has been adapted into a very well-known and successful Hindi film, called Guide (1965). I don't know if you'll be able to get a subtitled version. The movie was wildly successful and became a big hit, but RK Narayan supposedly hated it and called it 'The Misguided Guide'. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guide_(film)

>102 kjuliff: This sounds very intense and engaging. I'm going to try it.

>112 kjuliff: This is a great story. By the way, the New Yorker has a free podcast, called the New Yorker Fiction podcast, which has stories from the New Yorker, read out by other authors also published in the same magazine. They follow the reading with some comments. There's a huge back catalogue of episodes to browse through, and no restrictions on how many episodes you can hear, if you're interested. I'm including a link here: https://www.newyorker.com/podcast/fiction You can also access it on streaming services, like Spotify/Apple Music, I think.

>113 kjuliff: I agree with your assessment. This book didn't leave much of an impression.

By the way, I'm terrible, because I haven't finished Mantel Pieces nor The Trees. I'm halfway through both.

>115 rasdhar: Thanks for the feedback which is much appreciated.

Regarding Mantel Pieces, I found there was a lot to think about in many of her essays/reviews, and reading one or two only between novels is easier than tackling the book in larger chunks.

Thanks for the info on the New Yorker podcast and their featured stories. I will be subscribing. I had no idea about this resource. I will be looking for a short story that I read in that magazine years ago. It’s called “The Slows” I think. Wonder if it’s there as I’d be interested in finding out about the writer (forgot his name).

For some reason I no longer feel like reading.

been there done that. I often go for a walk, do something i enjoy instead for a while and eventually come back to it. hang in there

It’s been like this for ages. I can’t imagine reading ever again.

oh im so sorry; have your eyes gotten worse? can you still do audio?

>120 cindydavid4: My eyes are the same. Yes I can still physically do audio, but I’m totally uninterested in books. There have been times in the past I’ve struggled to find a book I like but now I’m not even interested in looking. :(

ok, is there something else that you are interested in doing?

>122 cindydavid4: Nope

:( thinking of you, hang in there

>124 cindydavid4: Thanks. Appreciated. Still bookless.

>82 kjuliff: I haven't read Mantel Pieces, but I remember liking The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher well enough for what felt like a collection of sketches—brought out, I thought, to bridge the moment when she won the Booker and Costa and then didn't have the third book in the Cromwell trilogy for another five or six years. I like sketches myself, if I'm not expecting strong and fully realized stories... and those were hit and miss, I thought but her writing is so good that I enjoyed the book as a whole. I'd be interested to try Mantel Pieces, though.

>117 kjuliff: My two cents—don't read, then. Do something else that gives you pleasure or that you find relaxing/restorative/enlivening. When you get antsy to pick up a book again, do that. I love sites like this, and bookish communities in general, but I do feel edgy sometimes when the act of reading is elevated as the pinnacle of all one can do. Reading is great, fun, informative, escapist, whatever. But it's not an indication of the quality of how one spends their time, or their life, and if not wanting to read is just where your tastes fall right now, so be it. I'm not saying that you were expressing that—just something I think about, spending a lot of time in places (work, online, friendships) where reading is a huge part of life and sometimes presented as a standard of excellence, which makes me grit my teeth.

>126 lisapeet: — Re Mantel Pieces - I found it a much more interesting read than The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher. I actually skipped some of The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher but Mantel Pieces is one of her best works. In my reviewabove I have given links to a couple links to her essays which are on the London Review of Books websites, no registration required. You might like to check these out to see if they are your thing..

— Thank you for your observations on what can be done when unable to read. I see the merits of your suggestions. My problem is that I am apartment-bound due to a variety of debilitating illnesses that started after I retired in 2018. Last week I left the house with the help of a regular health-care aide, for the first time in 16 weeks. Also I have poor vision, so am restricted to audio books, which though there are many, I often cannot read what I would like to.

So I can’t do many of the things I was interested in my past life - pottery, gardening, knitting, cooking, or throwing dinner parties. It’s a real bummer. I will not be getting better. The illnesses are progressive and irreversible.

Nevertheless I will take your advice as much as possible. It is good advice, well-considered and very welcome. Thank you Lisa.

Kate, sorry that things are getting on top of you! Like Lisa said, reading should be a pleasure, so if it isn’t that at the moment, put it on hold for a bit. There are more important things than books. Obviously we aren’t qualified to give you good advice, but it sounds as though what you should be doing is looking out for new things you can do in your current state, especially things that might bring you in touch with other people who are going through similar things to you. The important thing seems to be to try out all possible activities first, and only then think up reasons why you wouldn’t like them or can’t do them.

>128 thorold: The important thing seems to be to try out all possible activities first, and only then think up reasons why you wouldn’t like them or can’t do them.

That’s so true. But I intrinsically know I can’t do what I want to do. There’s very little in the way of activity that I can do. Still I’ll try to widen my range of possibilities instead of looking back at those things I used to enjoy.

I am in touch with people in similar positions to mine, but apart from common illnesses I have little in common with the ones I’ve had contact with. All they seem to want to do is to talk about their medications and diagnoses.

I'm sorry to hear that you don't feel like reading. Thinking of you. Within the 'range of possibilities' - perhaps non-book listening might help? A music project, or a list of albums?

>130 rasdhar: Thanks Rasdhar. I’m not really into listening to music as an activity. I so like music but as a background to some other activity. I’ll be ok. I just have to stop worrying about it I suppose.

So I took a bus to New York and got off at 34th Street. Wow! … But New York, I love it. It’s better than a circus. You never know what kind of person’s turning up next. Funny people and bright people, people you can talk to and they’ll let you alone too. - Elsie Tyler in Found in the Street.

New York plus Patricia Highsmith - Slowly getting back to reading though it’s not the same. Thinking of Highsmith who ended up alone in Switzerland, after her vibrant life in NYC and Paris. I wonder why she didn’t return.

As for me, I’m thinking of reviving my blog, Letter from New York, but wanting better software. In the past I was using my own website, now shout down, then Blogger, but I need something more journal-like than Blogger. If I can write more again I hope I can get back into reading.

>132 kjuliff: If you do start blogging, please link to it here.

>133 RidgewayGirl: I stopped around 2017. It’s still online but I stopped paying for the domain letterfromnewyork.com so it’s reverted to its Blogger url. You can still access it on this link.
Letter from New York

I’ll let you know if I do a new one.

I hope you get your reading mojo back, Kate. I've had periods like that (one year I read a whopping 10 books all year!), and it's discouraging. One trick that sometimes works for me is to indulge in some low brow romantic suspense or some such. The fast pace combined with no-thought-required plot can jolt me out of my reading doldrums. I hope you find something you enjoy.

I would really appreciate your restarting a blog. Your old one is so good!!

>136 JoeB1934: That’s such a sweet thing to say Joe I’m glad you like my old blog. I used to get inspired. I’m getting an idea for a new start, so thank you for the encouragement.

>132 kjuliff: What an extraordinary archive of memories your blog is - from 2000 to 2019! If you do restart it, I will be another reader, for sure.

>138 rasdhar: Thanks! I went back and read a couple of the early entries and they seemed so odd and awkward. I found my immediate response to 911 interesting. I actually started Letter from New York as a web page around 1998 but have lost those early stories. I even had a mention in The NY Times. See A Cyberhome for Strangers in a Strange Land .

>135 labfs39: Yes I’ve done that in the past. I’ve actually managed to get through a Patricia Highsmith in the weekend. I’ll try to review it. I’ve started another of hers. Can you recommend any page-turners that aren’t gruesome? I have a horrible suspicion that I’m so old that I’ve read all the books I’m likely to like. Plus some of my favorites like R. K. Narayan and Javier Marias are no longer …

Please let me know if you'd like a visit. That M116 bus is a crosstown magic carpet!

>141 rocketjk: I will Jerry. Let me know when you’ve settled in New York. You must be excited about your new apartment.

>142 kjuliff: We won't be fully settled until the fall, as we still have to go back to California to pack up the house and move whatever we're moving east. But before we leave for California, we expect to have most of May post-move from our current NYC digs to our new abode, so perhaps sometime in May will work out. And, yes, we're excited.

>142 kjuliff: I don't want to just invite myself along, but if you like can take that crosstown bus too (plus a subway, for me). We're actually getting an uptown contingent here... color me pleasantly surprised.

>144 lisapeet: Let me know by sending a message Lisa. It would be good to see you but I’m quire unwell now.

Well thanks to the encouragement from Joe >136 JoeB1934: and Rash >138 rasdhar: I’ve started a new blog. It’s called “Left Turn to Carthage” but there’s no content yet. There’s a draft there and I will post the link when there’s something to see.

Also I’ve talen Lisa’s advice >135 labfs39: and read a Patricia Highsmith that I hope to review soon.

Yay!! looking forward ti your review (no pressure!)

>147 cindydavid4: Fi have it in my head what to write but lack the strength right now. Spent too much time setting up my blog last night and I’m exhausted.

The Talented Ms Highsmith

The Tremor of Forgery
Patricia Highsmith
Read by: Steve Marvel
Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins
Ratin 4
Anything set in Morocco is bound to delight. As is anything written by novelist Patricia Highsmith. It follows that The Tremor of Forgery is just what was needed to overcome my period of un-reading.

The book is set in the coastal city of Tangiers. The central character, Howard Ingham is a successful writer who has travelled there for an extended visit to write a screenplay. Once settled he ponders the meaning of life and morality. He wonders how a man’s inner morality, a product of his culture, can hold up when he is thrust into an alien culture - one where the belief system is vastly different from his own.

Ingham has come to the right part of the world. The place of Camus’ L’Étranger and Bowles’ Sheltering Sky. What is it about northern Africa that captures a person’s soul? So many writers are drawn there. So many readers entranced.

The Tremor of Forgery is set in the 1960s during the Israel-Palestine Six Day War. There’s more obvious political overtone than usual for a Highsmith novel. The main character, Ingham meets two other men in Tangiers - a boorish Francis Adam’s an extreme right-winger pro-American and a sardonic gay man called Anders Jensen. Both Adams and Jensen are more-or-less settled in Tangiers and though opposites, represent expat life.

There’s a love affair and a death of course - it’s a Highsmith novel. The person who dies is an Arab man who has no described personality. I wondered at the number of books written that revolve around such men.

The book has the usual “ I hope he gets away with it” vibe. Will the murderer be discovered? We hope not. As to the love affair between Ingham and a forgettable woman (I forget her name), we are batting that he Ingham breaks up with her. Maybe he will realise his sexuality and go off with the Dane? The forgettable women suspects this. She’s not a complete fool, though Ingham is clearly better off without her.

There’s a lot going on to keep the reader’s interest. The plots, the characters, and perhaps the most refreshing aspect was the way to book’s events proceeded in chronological order. Such a relief to have no time shifts, no multiple generations, no sliding-doors.

A great read. Highly recommended. As is Morocco. Oh I so long to return.

>149 kjuliff: what no time shifts, no sliding doors, Im shocked that such a thing can happen (love moroco and highsmith so looks like oone for me)

>146 kjuliff: Yay! Wonderful news.

>149 kjuliff: I'm glad you found something to suit your current reading mood. After reading Apeirogon, I'm falling into the last Murderbot Diaries book with a sigh of relief. I need a little easy after the excellent, but emotionally challenging.

>152 labfs39: , >151 rasdhar: > 150 Thanks for the feedback. Yes I’m back reading, but trying to stick to more conventional novels with clear plots for a while. At least I’m reading again. I just finished reading two novels by Moroccan- American writer, Laila Lalami, which I’m about to review.

>152 labfs39: - Yes I know what you mean by Apeirogon. It’s such an excellent book and so apt given the current crisis in Israel/Palestine. It really takes an emotional effort in reading it. I can’t go for those Murderbot books but Highsmith always manages to take me away from intense moral dilemmas.

>149 kjuliff: Sounds good! A Highsmith I haven’t got to yet. Glad you found something to get you reading again.

Don’t Play it again Sam

The Other Americans
By Laila Lalami
Read by: Mozhan Marnò, P.J. Ochlan, Adenrele Ojo, Ozzie Rodriguez, Susan Nezami, Ali Nasser, Mark Bramhall, Max Adler, Meera Simhan
Length: 10 hrs and 45 mins
Rating: 3.5
I had such high hopes for this book, having read some earlier novels by Laila Lalami that had shown promise. I have had good experiences with writers from Morocco and neighboring Algeria, as well as with Western writers’s books set in those countries. I’ve been to both and left a little bit of my heart in Morocco, a country I’ve always been drawn to since I read A Sheltering Sky in my youth.

Drinking mint tea, sitting around cafés French style, exploring medinas, waking to the call for prayer, meeting eccentric Westerners, Morocco has a certain je ne sais pas magic.

Sadly I was disappointed when I read The Other Americans. There’s not much of Morocco in the book, whose central characters come from Casablanca but live permanently in America. The prose too often reaches clichéd and banal lows. Take the Iraq War vet Jeremy, musing over his Marine buddy Efraín, who he’s recently fallen out with and beaten to a pulp. I’m just looking after you, baby, he’d called to the horrified Nora as he stood over Efrain with his knuckles bloodied.

The Marines had brought us together, two dumb kids from the desert. And although we’d fought side by side for years, in the end we’d come out just as we’d gone in, two different people. Now it was time for us to go our separate ways.

But it’s not the patchy quality of the writing that’s the problem. Although there’s a central incident that the novel resolves around, the cast of characters is huge - just look above at the number of narrators - each one representing a different fully-fleshed-out character, each with their own story. Each chapter is devoted to a different character, and the novels cycles through the list on repeat until a conclusion is reached.

Jeremy, Anderson, Nora, Driss, Coleman, Maryam, Efrain, A.J., Selma and Anderson. They are all directly or indirectly linked to the “incident “ and each had their own story taking one or three dedicated chapters. Plus most of them had wives, mistresses and/or children who also tell their stories, many of which have little or no relation to the “incident” or to each other.

It was all a bit much. I’d be following Nora and her affairs and problems, and then A.J would make a chapter appearance Then Maryam. And then back to Nora and so on and on and on. Many of the characters didn’t know each other though some did.

Then there were the multiple themes. Illegal immigration, the Iraq War, the fall of King Hassan II of Morocco and subsequent reforms there, Blacks in America. Muslims in America. Adultery, school bullying, the recession, police conduct and drug addiction.

Still I feel Lalami is a promising writer. I read the book through to the end; it managed to hold my interest. So it had something though I can’t quite work out what that something was.

I gave The Other Americans a 3.5 rating. I feel the writer took on too much for one novel. If she cut out the clichéd parts and a couple of the characters, and tightened the plot up a little, I’m sure it would have made a better read.

>155 kjuliff: Excellent review, although I am sorry it turned out to be a disappointing read.

>149 kjuliff: I’ve not read any Highsmith. Sounds like this could be a good one to start with—and on Hoopla, I’ve a choice of audio or print. Thanks for the great review!

>156 rasdhar: Yes it was a disappointing read but still the book wasn’t a waste of time. I think Laila Lalami is worth reading but could do with a better editor. I held out high hopes and perhaps set my bar too high. The book did hold my interest despite its flaws.

>149 kjuliff: I think you will enjoy Highsmith. Her books are hard to put down. I thought I’d read them all and was glad to find out there were two still out there that had somehow slipped through without my noticing.

I am inspired to write the following by @dianham who had a dream. I’m writing it in similar style.

I had a dream last night. It was on a theme that recurs regularly in my dreams and as is normal for me, it ended with me actually speaking the words, “I don’t have to put up with this dream”, and waking.

Here is last night’s dream.

I’m in a large kitchen full of appliances. It is my first husband’s kitchen, though I only “know” this; he plays no major part in the actual dream. It looks nothing like a kitchen he’s ever owned, being full of modern appliances. I write this as I was never allowed to own a modern appliance when married to him. Even the washing of sheets had to be done by hand and wrung out with a mangle. I kid you not.

The kitchen was a mess. There were two stoves (ranges) one at either end. The kitchen was large. Both stoves - tops and ovens - were filthy with baked-on grease and I was going between them, cleaning bits of each in turn. In between were cupboards above bench-tops covered with dishes of left-over meals and half-opened cans. Underneath was a dishwasher. It needed emptying but as fast as I emptied it, more dirty dishes covered with food appeared within.

The were strange men who looked like they’d stepped out of a Henry Lawson novel in the next room. They were wearing 1950’s trousers, stained shirts, and brimmed-hats of that period. There was a stench of old urine wafting in from their room.

The dream went on and on, with me cleaning the stoves and the dishwasher, and the counter tops. I’d get the basic top cleared of trash and would be started on the edges where the chrome edging meets the laminate, when my mother would call from nowhere asking why couldn't I keep my house clean. My husband would be there but was silent. Maybe he was wondering how the appliances got there.

It was exhausting and I kept thinking of Sisyphus. Just as the counter-tops and dishwasher kept getting refilled with dirty dishes, the stoves never stayed cleaned. I started to realize I could only end it by waking. When I woke my right hand (I’m left-handed) was reaching for a non-existent can of Ajax.

The End

>159 kjuliff: omg 😱 with this woman who is helping me clean and declutter my house I kind of feel this way. And in fact we are doing the kitchen next. And did I mention we have no hot water in the kitchen? Oh dear your "dream" sounds like my real life.

I'm glad you were able to wake yourself from this dream. What a nightmare.

>161 labfs39: I have this dream all the time. Sometimes I’m cleaning a whole multi-storied house or an office block. One night it was a cruise ship, and another it was an Italian village, nestled high up a mountain. And it’s not only cleaning. Sometimes it’s filing papers or organizing time tables for large train station in places like Milan or Lyon. I have to wake myself up. They are always exhausting.

>159 kjuliff: I too have a recurring dream. This has happened in various forms for decades.

In my case I am in a large government building usually CIA headquarters and it is at the end of the workday and I have to leave. Only problem is that I can't find the exit and I become frantic.

There are several variations of this dream where the building is a large conference hotel, and I can't find my way back to my room.

I think my dream is triggered by having an unsolvable issue in my life.

>163 JoeB1934: Interesting. It’s similar to mine in that it’s never ending. I am quite sick of mine. It’s boring. It’s also fairly new. I used to have different people in my dreams and they were much more interesting. Sometimes I’ll forget a dream on waking, only to remember it later in the day when someone says something that makes the dream jump back into my mind.

Vitamin b6 helps you recall your dreams. I had stopped taking b6 but started again recently because of my carpal tunnel. Probably explains why I recalled last night’s dream so well.

>159 kjuliff: This sounds like a stressful dream. Do you find that what you're dreaming about correlates to what is happening in your life - or is it disconnected? I remember as a student, whenever I had a deadline looming, I would dream about missing a plane, a train, a bus - or being on time, but forgetting my passport, or my ID and having to go back and get them. As metaphors go, it was a bit heavy-handed. Even now, when I'm stressed, in my dreams I'm usually watching my plane take off without me.

>166 rasdhar: The theme is disconnected from day-to-day happenings. However small elements connected to recent events or conversations can make an appearance. For example, in the kitchen dream last night, the Henry Lawson men must have been because @thorold had recently mentioned that writer in a discussion we were having on his thread here. Lawson is not a writer I’ve thought about in years. But the recurring Sisyphus dream itself is not related to my life - it can turn up anytime.

In writing this I’ve had a small epiphany - these particular themed dreams started around my retirement. I used to have to manage a department of about 30 people. Maybe I’m missing that occupation … hmmm worth thinking about.

I was hoping to squeeze in May reading, but looks like a new thread is needed.