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Posts from the ‘Classic’ Category

1
Aug

Classic: E.A. Poe The Angel of the Odd

 

Quickscan:

  1. A skeptic (narrator) does not believe coincidence can determine one’s fate.
  2. The Angel of the Odd wants to convince him he is wrong.
  3. After the narrator endures a series of “singular” events….he repents.

Main Characters: 

  1. Narrator (unnamed)
  2. Responding to an apparently absurd story in a newspaper,
  3. …complains about the contemptible hoaxing
  4. for the sake of providing interesting reading material.
  5. Irony: Poe complains about  hoax stories….but he writes
  6. …them himself! The Angel of the Odd is just one example!

 

  1. The Angel of the Odd
  2. Speaks with a humorous German accent.
  3. The accent was easy to listen to but more difficult to read!
  4. Why does Poe use a German  accent?
  5. Poe had a rather superficial knowledge of German culture.
  6. He kept mocking  the mystical trend of German philosophy.
  7. Poe thought that the Germans are “ranting and raving”.

Setting:   a den in disarray… similar to th state of mind of the narrator

Action:     jumble of improbable misfortunes

  1. narrator falls asleep
  2. house burns down
  3. failed to renew insurance.
  4. two marriage proposals are rejected
  5. attemps suicide in a river
  6. a drunken crow steal his pants
  7. a hot air balloon saves his life
  8. and bottles of Krichenwasser knock sense into him!

Irony:

  1. Is the angel a figment of the narrators imagination
  2. …a drunken hallucination?
  3. The narrator clearly thinks that he is real.
  4. The Angel of the Odd ironically does
  5. NOT protect the narrator…(guardian angel)
  6. …it CAUSES accidents.

Conclusion:

  1. While listening to the audio version  during my morning walk
  2. …I missed so much in the story.
  3. Perhaps I was not awake yet.
  4. The story came to life once I read it closely.
  5. Things that seem trivial are essential.
  6. What was Poe reading just before the angel appeared?
  7. Who are these authors?
  8. Is this just random list of books
  9. ….or did Poe purposely select them?
  10. The list includes three epic poems
  11. (the Leonidas, the Epigoniad, and the Columbiad)
  12. an American romance (Sicily)
  13. a travel book (Lamartine’s Voyage en Orient)
  14. a collection of literary gossip (Curiosities).
  15. Time to investigate….
  16. Trivia: the author of Sicily….once as literary editor
  17. …rejected Poe’s  “The Tell-Tale Heart”  Oops!

Last thoughts:

  1. When I listened to the story I shrugged it
  2. off as a amusing but trivial piece of writing.
  3. Now that I have researched it…
  4. I appreciate Poe’s writing skills.
  5. Just 12 pages….but this is a bizarre story
  6. with many allusions  to the reading list of books on page 1
  7. ….that should not be missed.
  8. #Classic!
  9. I’ve started reading one of my Classic Club books:
  10. The Complete Short Stories by E.A. Poe. (29)
  11. I want to extend my stay with Poe whose genius is
  12. …unquestionable. These stories need to be
  13. read, digested and reviewed …one at a time.
  14. It will take many weeks to finish this book
  15. on my morning walks…a story a day!
27
Jul

Classic Club Spin # 18

  1. It is time to take part in Classic Club spin nr 18!
  2. I have decided to use audio books for my spins.
  3. Why?
  4. I love to get up in the morning…
  5. and take a 1 hour walk
  6. ..while I enjoy great literature!
  7. Why?
  8. I must reduce my TBR list on my Audible.com library
  9. Why?
  10. I need to avoid IPAD/Kindle screens before bed-time.
  11. Audio books are a perfect solution.
  12. #ccspin
  13. Trivia: @bornasbooks and @HowlingFrog
  14. …these clubbers have participated on ALL 18 CC spins!
  15. BRAVO!
  16. I win the prize (I think) for the LEAST number of spins!
  17. 2014 – Praise of Folly (Erasmus) …very easy to read and very funny!
  18. 2017 – Long Day’s Journey Into Night (E. O’Neill) – one of best 50 plays in 100 years!
  19. 2018 – ??

Update: 01.08.2018

  1. OMG I’ve died and gone to heaven…
  2. spin book is “Means of Ascent’ by R. Caro.
  3. This is a modern non-fiction classic!
  4. Hours of listening pleasure on my morning walks!!
  5. Thank you CC !

 

My list:

  1. Eliot, George – The Mill on the Floss –
  2. Dickens, C. – Our Mutual Friend –
  3. Suetonius – The Twelve Caesars – ancient classic non-fiction –
  4. London, Jack – Call of the Wild –
  5. Ford Maddox Ford – Some Do Not (#1 Parade’s End) –
  6. Bronte, C.  – Shirley –
  7. Conrad, J. – Heart of Darkness –
  8. Hardy, T. –  The Mayor of Casters bridge –
  9. Caro, R. – Means of Ascent (LBJ) –  READ
  10. Bronte, A. – The Tenant of Wildfell Hall –
  11. Huxley, A. – Brave New World –
  12. Atwood, M. – The Handmaid’s Tale –
  13. Mann, T. – The Magic Mountain –
  14. Fitzgerald, F. S.- The Great Gatsby –
  15. Kipling, R.  – Kim –
  16. McCullers, C. – The Heart is a Lonely Hunter –
  17. Du Maurier, D. – Rebecca –
  18. Poe, Edgar Allan – The Complete Short Stories (29 stories) –
  19. Shakespeare, W. – Hamlet –
  20. Thackeray, William – Vanity Fair –
26
Jul

Classic: The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich

War correspondent, W. Shirer

 

 

Conclusion:

  1. The best description of this book
  2. …was written by H. Trevor-Roper
  3. a British historian at Oxford University
  4. who reviewed the book or the New York Times:
  5. “Light on our century’s  darkest night
  6. the awful story of Hitler’s Germany is movingly told
  7. and masterfully studied.”
  8. I could not improve on this statement if I tried.
  9. What I can add are my thoughts while reading the book.
  10. This classic of non-fiction had been on my bookshelf for decades!.
  11. But the sheer size of the book intimated me…and I never read it.
  12. If I can give any advice
  13. …read this book because it is so insightful.
  14. The only way I managed to do
  15. ..it was using the audio book.
  16. I set out with Hitler, Goebbels, Himmler, Göring  and  a cast of
  17. …characters on my morning walks.
  18. I let Shirer’s words drift into my mind hoping I would learn a
  19. little more about Hitler, his rise to power and his
  20. …dreams of a pure nation that would rule the world!
  21. I wrote down a few notes  after every walk.

 

Last thoughts:

  1. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich has become more than
  2. …just another work of history.
  3. It has acquired the reputation as the best-selling historical work
  4. ever written in modern times.
  5. It is based on captured  German secret documents.
  6. Don’t wait as long as I did to discover this book
  7. ….read it soon!
  8. Remember…
  9. Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.‘
  10. (George Santayana, philosopher )

 

 

Notes:

May 20, 2018 – page 80
Beer Hall Putsch (8 Nov 1923) Hitler’s attempt to form a new government failed miserably. But Hiltler was not deterred…I’ll be back!

May 21, 2018 – page 117
Did you know?
It was obligatory (and politic) to present a copy of Mein Kampf to the bride and groom at their wedding?
Nearly every school child received a copy at graduation.
Now…that creates a boost in sales!

May 23, 2018 – page 150
Did you know?
Hitler’s great deep love was for his niece (1929). She was not to be seen with any man than himself. 1931 his niece decided ‘I’m done, going back to Vienna”. There was an argument between Hitler and the girl. The next morning she was found shot in her room.

May 24, 2018 – page 188
Election intrigues (1932) backroom politics, conspirators playing their last desperate hands, with so many details. This was an exhausting read (pg 150-188). I was glad when it all ended and on
Jan 30 1933…. Hitler was finally appointed as chancellor and in March 1933 Hitler would be named dictator. It’s all downhill from here!

May 25, 2018 – page 200
Did you know?
Göring suggests to Hitler that the Reichstag (parliament) be dissolved.
He didn’t mean that literally!
Oh, well ….it burnt to the ground….now
who did not get the memo?

May 26, 2018 – page 230
June 30-2 July 1934 Purge “The Night of the Long Knives”
Political executions of people who knew too much. Hitler’s power is now absolute. While this was going on Hitler was hosting a tea party on Sunday 01 July.

May 27, 2018 – page 279
Shirer mentions one of the most arrogant, icy and ruthless Nazis: Reinhard ‘Hangman’ Heydrich, chief of Security Police (SD) spying on everone! A great cross-read is HHhH by French author Laurent Binet (2010). The novel recounts Operation Anthropoid, the assassination of this Nazi leader in Prague during World War II. This will keep you glued to your summer beach chair!.

May 28, 2018 – page 300
Did you know?
Did The London Times play a dubious role in the disastrous appeasement of Hitler? Norman Ebbut chief correspondent for the paper in Berlin…his dispatches were much more revealing than other reporters. Much that he sent to London was NOT published! The Times editors read all his reports and knew what ‘really’ was going on in Nazi Germany!  Ebbut was expelled by the Nazis in August 1937. After only a month back in England, Norman Ebbutt suffered a severe stroke, thus effectively ending his career as a journalist. He was 43 years old.  A stroke at 43?  That is very young….or was Ebbut a “man who knew too much?”  MI6 …hmmmm?

May 29, 2018 – page 357
Did you know?
Hitler hated Vienna! (…such a beautiful city)
On the first day of Austrian invasion Hitler arrested
79.000 citizens of that town.
Austria is done an dusted…next stop Czechoslovakia!

June 6, 2018 – page 435
Goebbels is spreading fake news about Czechs attacking poor German citizens…March 1939 Czechoslovakia ceases to exist. With the newly empowered juggernaut of Hitler…next stop Poland!

June 8, 2018 – page 500
Did you know?
Hitler was as sly as a fox…never kept a promise and it was all about Make Germany Great Again….hmmm.
Adolf Hitler treated Danzig somewhat differently. During the Czechoslovakia annexation, Hitler was ready to use force. Danzig was the catalyst. Hitler intended to use it to provoke war with Poland…and it worked!

June 15, 2018 – page 520
Boris Johnson (UK) has predicted Vladimir Putin will revel in the World Cup in Russia this summer in the same way that Adolf Hitler did in the Olympic Games in Berlin in 1936.
I will have leave Hitler in Poland…. and put this book on the ‘back-burner’ while I ‘revel’ in the World Cup Soccer Championship.

June 25, 2018 – page 555
Poor Poland….invaded by Hitler and knocked out of the World Cup 2018.
Lose-lose situation.

July 8, 2018 – page 625
Did you know?
Mussolini was so worried about the approaching chance of world war that he sent a TOP SECRET message on 31 Aug 1939
(the eve of the attack on Poland by Hitler on 01 Sept )
to the British?
He promised despite his support of Hitler…
Mussolini would not attack England or France.
Not only Hitler can double cross friends….so can Il Duce!

July 11, 2018 – page 675
Did you know ?…..what the best kept secret was in WW II?
Hitler’s plan to invade and conquer Denmark and Norway!
I did not know that!

July 22, 2018 – page 758
Calculated ruthlessness of the Germans after bombing Rotterdam on May 14th 1940 would not be forgotten by the Dutch.
You will have excuse me for NOT feeling sorry that the German ‘manschaft’ was knocked out of the World Cup Soccer Championship in the first round.

July 22, 2018 – page 600
Did you know?
Once the Germans realized that Churchill and the British would never agree to a peace in July 1940…they were stunned!
No one had imagined Germany may have to attack and conquer England!
Germans had no PLAN-B! This is a great book with so many interesting insights!

July 23, 2018 – page 826
Did you know? ….that Denmark and Norway were sleeping at the switch. If I saw 10 German destroyers cursing on the horizon I’d be suspicious. Not the Scandinavians….before it was too late.
Russia is NOT going to make that mistake. They were WARNED by Pres. Roosevelt 10 days before the Hitler’s invasion on 22 June 1941.
#OperationBarbarossa

July 24, 2018 – page 903
December 1941 Hitler is at the zenith of his power…..after this day it’s all downhill.
At war with formidable opponents (UK-USA-FRANCE-RUSSIA and smaller key figures Poland, The Netherlands, Denmark, Norway…who now start fighting back….be it only with The Resistance.
#LastHailMary

July 24, 2018 – page 950
Stalingrad en El Alamein (Desert Fox, Rommel)…..military disasters.
Speechless. Starting the last…200 pages of 1149!   NOTE: my father’s favorite general was Rommel. He  loved the movie The Desert Fox (1951) with James Mason. We watched it together in 1961 on TV ‘Saturday Night at the Movies’ NBC! My mother’s favorite general was Patton! Mother never went to the movies….but made an exception to see George C. Scott dazzle in the movie.  If you have never seen this movie do try to find it on DVD….it is amazing! The movie won many Oscars (Best picture, Best Director, Best Writing)…and Best actor for G.C. Scott.  He famously refused to accept the award claiming that competition between actors was unfair.  George C. Scott  was a #ClassAct

July 26, 2018 – page 1100
February 1945 – it is evident the Hitler, his mission having failed to conquer the world, was ready to go down like Wotan at Valhalla ….taking his enemies and own people with him. I learn today about Operation Alsos…a fascinating scientific espionage story just waiting for me! US wants to know how close Nazi Germany was to getting the bomb.

 

22
Jul

Classic Club Master List

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The Classic Club – community of classics lovers

  • The Classics Club is a club created to
  • inspire people to read and blog about classic books.
  • There’s no time limit to join and you’re most welcome,
  • …as long as you’re willing to sign up to read and
  • write on your blog about 50+ classic books in at most five years.
  • You can join HERE.
  • 2018 – 2020   – I hope to finish these classics

 

  1. Pascal, B. – Pensées – READ
  2. Shelley, M.  – Frankenstein – READ
  3. Stendhal – La Chartreuse de Parme (french edition) – READ
  4. Miller A.  – Death of a Salesman – (play) – READ
  5. Vaz da Camões, L.  – The Lusiads – READ (epic poem)
  6. Alighieri, Dante  – The Divine Comedy – READ
  7. Doyle, Arthur Conan – The Hound of the Baskervilles – READ
  8. Hermans, W.F. – Nooit Meer Slapen (Beyond Sleep) – READ
  9. De Lorris, G. et De Meun, J. – Le Roman de la Rose – READ 
  10. Hugo, Victor – Les Misérables – READING
  11. Woolf, V. – Mrs. Dalloway – READ
  12. Wollstonecraft, M.  – A Vindication of the Rights of Women – REA
  13. Virgil –The Aeneid – READ
  14. Cooper, J.F. – Deerslayer – READ
  15. Hemingway, E. – The Sun Also Rises – READ
  16. James, H. – The Golden Bowl – READ
  17. Shirer, W. – The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich – READ
  18. Seneca – Letters From a Stoic – READ
  19. Dickens, C. – Our Mutual Friend – READ
  20. Dickens, C. – David Copperfield – READ
  21. Dickens, C. – Great Expectations – READ
  22. Sei Shonagon –The Pillow Book – READ
  23. Chaucer – The Knights Tale – READ
  24. Maupassant, G. de  –  Une vie – (french edition) – READ
  25. Caro, R. – Means of Ascent (LBJ) modern classic non-fiction – READ
  26. Sophocles – Electra – READ (play)
  27. Ibsen, I. – Rosmersholm – READ (play)
  28. Bronte, A. – The Tenant of Wildfell Hall – READ
  29. Boswell, J. – The Life of Samuel Johnson – READ
  30. Austen, J  – Pride and Prejudice – READ
  31. Anonymous, – Myths from Mesopotamia – trans. S. Dalley – READ
  32. Horace, – Satires – READ
  33. Eusebius,   – The History of the Church – READ
  34. Eliot, G. – Selected Essays, Poems and other Writings– READ 
  35. Dickens, C.  – The Christmas Carol – READ
  36. Shakespeare, W.  – Midsummer Night’s Dream – READ
  37. Shakespeare, W.  – Othello –  READ
  38. Shakespeare, W. – Hamlet – READ
  39. Thackeray, William – Vanity Fair – READ
  40. Suetonius – The Twelve Caesars – ancient classic non-fiction – READ
  41. Pepys, S. – The Diary of Samuel Pepys Vol 1 1660 – READ
  42. Du Maurier, D. – Rebecca – READ
  43. Faulkner, W. – Absalom, Absalom
  44. McCullers, C. – The Heart is a Lonely Hunter
  45. Spark, M. – The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
  46. Shakespeare, W.  – Macbeth – READ
  47. Mahfouz, N.- The Palace Walk- READ
  48. Laxness, H. – Independent People
  49. Atwood, M. – The Handmaid’s Tale 
  50. Melville, H.  – Moby Dick – READ 

 

Short stories:

  1. The Angel of the Odd – E.A. Poe (The Complete Short Stories)
  2. The Birthday of the Infanta – O. Wilde ( The Works of Oscar  Wilde)

 

 

Hashtags:

21
Jul

Classic: Women in Love

 

Notes:

July 13, 2018 – page 65
Just read the first chapters…. this book is impressive!
E.M. Forster said of D.H. Lawrence in his obituary notice: “the greatest imaginative novelist of our generation.

July 14, 2018 – page 165
How can I describe D.H. Lawrence’s writing?
Impatient fury!

July 15, 2018 – page 185
Managed to read a few chapters of Women in Love while taking my daily 1 hour walk. This book is tedious and thank goodness I’m listening to an audio book while improving my health! I would never have gotten this far if I was reading the paperback. Sad…but true.

July 16, 2018 – page 230
Sunny morning walk but D.H. Lawrence gives me chapters about the nothingness of life, a bestial rabbit named Bismarck and a marriage proposal that felt like a death sentence! Now I want to read a biography about the author…he has some serious issues!

July 17, 2018 – page 261
Rupert and Gerald (main characters) meet. Gerald is bored.
What can we do to be released from this ‘ennui’?
Eat, drink…or according to D. H. Lawrence the best thing the boys can do is strip naked and wrestle!
Thank goodness we have Netflix to fill in our ennui-hours!

July 17, 2018 – page 280
Love triangle: Hermione-Rupert-Ursula
A lover’s spat that took an hour to listen to
….jealousy, rotten spiritual intimacy, foul false liar….
rings are tossed and scattered in the mud.
#LoveIsABattlefield

July 19, 2018 – page 332
Just four more chapters to go ( = 2 morning walks).
Ursula is married….Gudrun is still resisting that fate in life.
I feel both girls are going to end up in tears.
D.H. Lawrence was praised for his experimental writing techniques.
Is repeating every gloomy word in the dictionary a technique?
..abyss, chasm, hollow, bare, void, nothingness, bottomless pit
…..an angry sunset!

 

Conclusion:

The last chapter sounded ominous…
“Try to love me a little more and
want me a little less.”
The great tides of darkness plunge over this love affair.
“…but always it was this eternal seesaw
…one destroyed so that the other could exist.”
This was THE most intense love-hate story I have ever read.
D.H. Lawrence is not for the fainthearted!

 

Last Thoughts:

  1. Am I glad I read it?
  2. Not so much.
  3. I  do respect the opinion that Lawrence is
  4. …considered one of the great English writers.
  5. He just did not appeal to me….pas de tout!
11
Jul

Classic: The Sun Also Rises

 

Introduction:

  1. Hemingway was part of what is called the Lost Generation.
  2. It was a group of expatriate writers
  3. ….who found real meaning in nothing.
  4. They spent their time reveling while living in Europe.

 

Title:

  1. The title comes from the epigraph.
  2. Despite the despair this ‘lost generation’ feels….there is hope.
  3. Ecclesiastes 1:5
  4. “Also, the sun rises and the sun sets;
  5. And hastening to its place it rises there again.”

 

Publication:

  1. When published in 1926, The Sun Also Rises
  2. …caused a bit of a stir
  3. among the Montparnasse expatriate crowd.
  4. Many of its characters were based on real people.
  5. Donald Ogden Stewart   (character Bill Gorton )
  6. Harold Loeb   (character Robert Cohn)
  7. Lady Duff Twysden   (character Lady Brett Ashley)

 

Alcohol:

  1. This book is held together by
  2. …the buying, mixing, having, spilling and pouring out drinks.
  3. In O. Laing’s book The Trip to Echo Spring she mentions
  4. that “Hemingway, who’d been drunk since he was fifteen
  5. …had put more faith in rum than conversation.” (pg 92)
  6. Hemingway used alcohol to
  7. …blot out feelings that are otherwise unbearable.
  8. ”A bottle of wine was good company” (pg 236)
  9. Drinking reflects the characters attitude.
  10. Brett drinks for psychological/physical pleasure.
  11. The Count is a connoisseur.
  12. Brett:  “Let’s enjoy a little more of this,”
  13. Brett pushed her glass forward (pg 66)
  14. Count: The count poured very carefully.
  15. “There, my dear. Now you enjoy that slowly,
  16. and then you can get drunk” (pg 66)

 

Hemingway code:

  1. Bullfighting fascinates Hemingway.
  2. He describes in great detail Pedro Romero’s
  3. …killing of the bull.
  4. He faces danger with understanding and dignity
  5. …undaunted, grace under pressure.
  6. FEELINGS fascinate Hemingway.
  7. Everyone in that time had feelings, as they called them,
  8. just as everyone has “feelings” now.
  9. Whether Jake leaned in a cab against Georgette or
  10. leaned in a cab against Brett
  11. ….Hemingway was searching where his feelings lay!
  12. Georgette?  Brett?

 

Last thoughts:

  1. This book is considered a classic.
  2. The book didn’t interest me as a whole.
  3. Others may swear by it and Hemingway
  4. …but I just like The Old Man and the Sea. :)
  5. Advice: the book should be read
  6. …so you can form an opinion about it.
  7. It is on Modern Library’s Best 100 Novels List.
  8. Perhaps they  could have selected a book written
  9. later in Hemingway’s life….his writing matured.
  10. I can agree with Hemingway……just once!
  11. “You´re always drinking my dear.
  12. Why don´t you just talk?” (pg 65)
  13. The Lost Generation–living in Paris during the 1920s
  14. …was lost on me.
  15. Finished: 11.07.2018
  16. Genre: novel
  17. Rating: D
  18. Conclusion:
    I think I’m done with Hemingway.
    I don’t care if he won the Nobel Prize or not!
    There are better classics waiting to be read.

 

4
Jul

Classic: James Fenimore Cooper

  • No, Daniel Day-Lewis did not appear in the movie version of Deerslayer
  • …but IMO he  is the best visual image I could find for
  • the main character….a  white scout who was raised by the Mohicans.

 

 

Introduction:

  1. I had to read this book in high school  English class.
  2. You luckily were spared this torment, I hope.
  3. I never shrink from a challenge and pledged Brona’s Books
  4. …I would try to re-read a book.
  5. Re-reading is against my literary religion.
  6. So I choose the only book I have actively blocked out of my memory.
  7. Now I will try to see what in heaven’s name made Mr Hughs
  8. select this book for my senior English exam.
  9. I graduated….so I must have read the book somehow!

 

Plot:

  1. Deerslayer and his Mohican blood-brother, Chingachgook
  2. stumble onto an old trapper Tom Hutter who asks for their help in
  3. ..protecting a crazy old man and  his two daughters from a Huron assault.
  4. Deerslayer reluctantly agrees and  meets the old
  5. …man on his floating fort in the middle of the river.
  6. The crazy codger hates Indians.
  7. This has brought the wrath of the Hurons down on him.
  8. Hutter flatters his oldest daughter (Judith) while
  9. …telling his youngest (Hetty)  that she’s feeble-minded.
  10. Deerslayer has suspicions about the whole set-up.
  11. (no spoilers)
  12. There is a love triangle:
  13. Deerslayer – Harry March – Judith Hutter

 

Setting:    Lake Otsego = Lake Glimmerglass in the book

 

Weak point:   class distinction (pg 30) – not a weak point…but hard to read.

  1. This is what people thought in 1846:
  2. White is the highest color and therefore the best man.
  3. Black is put to live in the neighborhood of the white man
  4. …and fit to be made use of.
  5. Red comes last…those that made them never
  6. …expected the Indian to be accounted as more than half human.

 

Notes:

28.06.2018 – #20BooksOfSummer #ReReadChallenge
If you buy the E-book version only choose Penguin Classic edition. Design and fonts are so important The cheaper books use a font that is ugly and embedded.

29.06.2018 – #20BooksOfSummer #ReReadChallenge
I need a good glass of Cru Bourgeois Chateau La Tour de Bessan Margaux 2010 to start The Deerslayer by J.F. Cooper. #ReReadChallenge.
Deerslayer must choose between uprightness of heart vs false pride and frontier boastfulness.

30.06.2018 – #20BooksOfSummer #ReReadChallenge
Making good progress and must read 5 chapters a day.
Busy morning in canoe with Chingachgook and Deerslayer on Glimmerglass Lake (Lake Otsego in upstate New York).

01.07.2018 – #20BooksOfSummer #ReReadChallenge
The book reflects the styles and attitudes of another time. Cooper wants his message of Christian morals to pervade. Revenge should be avoided and we should forgive…”turn the other cheek”. Who ever heard of a young girl (Hetty) fleeing from wild savages Huron Indians…stop after gathering dried leaves for a bed…and kneel to say The Lord’s Prayer. #HardToBelieve

03.07.2018 – #20BooksOfSummer #ReReadChallenge
Busy night: Mysterious floating moccasin found, Tom Hutter is scalped and left to die, Judith Hutter refuses Harry March’s proposal of marriage, Hetty Hutter is still reading the bible, Deerslayer is held captive by the Huron braves
…and England finally won a penalty shoot-out in World Championship Soccer 2018.
ENG-SWEDEN   1/4 final!  is this Saturday, don’t miss it!

 

Conclusion:

  1. This is a classic about the early America era.
  2. It is filled with adventures, violence and clever escapes
  3. …but most importantly a few dirty secrets emerges.
  4. Did I like the book after RE-READING it after  50 years?

 

Last Thoughts:
This book has stalked me for 50 years.
I had to read it for high school English.
I have wondered why Mr Hughes assigned
this book to a giddy group of teen-age girls.
Is there a message in this book that
will help us starting our lives?
I think it is in chapter 30:

  • “It’s true that you being female will most likely
  • save you from torments but it will not save your
  • liberty and may not save your scalp.”


James Fenimore Cooper was an enlightend man.
I am indebted to him
….because I still have my scalp!

28
Jun

Classic: Thea Astley

 

Introduction:

  1. I love a good short story.
  2. Usually I review just one story to post on this blog.
  3. W. Trevor  and John Updike are favorites of mine,
  4. ..but a collection is the hardest thing to review.
  5. I want to give Thea Astley the attention she deserves and
  6. …have spent 4 days reading eight short stories!

 

Weak point:

  1. I felt only a few of the selections were real short stories.
  2. Instead Astely uses each ‘story’ as a continuation of
  3. Keith’s thoughts and adventures in Queensland.
  4. A short story must come to the point!
  5. A short story must reveal in 1st or 2nd
  6. paragraph the mood, theme and conflict.
  7. Astley fails on this point.
  8. In The Curate Breaker  there was a clear  conflict
  9. between the Catholic priest and Anglican minister.
  10. The resolution was believable and touching.
  11. This story made this reader pause and think.
  12. #Bravo

 

Conclusion

  1. I read these eight stories and have reviewed four.
  2. The first story was a disappointment and
  3. …I had to push myself to read the rest of the book.
  4. I was expecting a short story and got  what sounded
  5. …like the exposition of a novel!
  6. So you’ve been warned: the first story is a dud.
  7. But I kept  reading…giving Astely a chance to improve!

 

4 REVIEWS     I’ll let you discover the rest yourself!

 

North: Some Compass Readings: Eden

  1. Setting: Carins
  2. Title: refers to the first two sentences:
  3. “Let me draw you a map…put it just north of 20 and 146 east…
  4. sea bitten rind of coast…limbo for those who’ve lost direction.”
  5. Parents: Iris and Bernard are exact opposites:
  6. Iris: gorges on horoscopes, sports a lucky color and
  7. it always seems to be the Ides of March.
  8. Bernard: jocular, jaunty and tips his son an unsmiling
  9. wink as he he rattles his newspaper busily.
  10. Narrator:  Keith Leverson
  11. Note: Iris, Bernard and Keith are
  12. characters are from Astley’s book The Slow Natives.
  13. A suburban couple, Iris and Bernard, 
  14. …have drifted into the shallows of middle-aged boredom.
  15. Their fourteen-year-old son, Keith  is a stranger.

Plot:

  1. Fourteen-year-old son, Keith is now
  2. middle-aged, thinning blond hair and
  3. ..has lost one leg in a car accident
  4. …that was central in the book The Slow Natives.
  5. Keith sets out on a journey  from Carins
  6. to Falls Gorge on the Kuranda railway.
  7. Keith/Astley  rants about the influx of lean, arrogantly young
  8. Balmain and South Yarra drop-outs, 
  9. the new urban trendies and
  10. the  middle-aged straights trying to adopt the patois and local dress.
  11. Theme: landscape is beautiful in Queensland
  12. ….but you get more magic from strangers (the misfits).

 

Weak point: allusions

  1. The use of allusions in Astley’s novels is
  2. one of the elements of her style  that I enjoy reading.
  3. But in her short stories I think she has
  4. overreached herself and lost much of her focus. 

 

Weak point:  Tone

  1. The tone achieved by the use of allusions
  2. shifted from imaginative in her novels...
  3. to pedantic in the short stories.

 

Conclusion:

  1. This was NOT an easy read.
  2. Astley starts her story in the present but
  3. flashbacks to a month ago, then yesterday,
  4. …then the present again.
  5. It was hard to follow. 
  6. The author makes it even more complex….
  7. by filling the story with too many allusions.
  8. Brilliant writing….but not a well-balanced story.
  9. Thea Astely’s novels?   TOP! 
  10. Thea Astely’s short stories?   Not her strong point!
  • Allusion: poem Trade Winds by J. Masefield
  • Allusion:  Shakespeare’s Hamlet
  • Allusion: to Virgil  “Sera comans, Iris” (the late blooming…)
  • Allusion: D.H. Lawrence poem Green:
  • “…the gorge is evaporating in green light,
  • green into greeness as Lawrence might have said…”
  • ... Astely assumes we all know who Lawrence is.

 

 

The Curate Breaker

Conclusion:

  1. This was a normal short story….a pleasure to read
  2. …with a beginning, middle and end.
  3. The story centers around an insanely bitter conflict
  4. between the Roman Catholic priest and the Anglican canon.
  5. Father Rassini and Canon Morrow  are at odds
  6. …but their lives are heartbreakingly parallel.
  7. The tragedy is….neither the priest nor the canon
  8. see their uncharitable behavior.
  9. Canon Morrow flatters and shields his ego from blame
  10. when we make mistakes (berating his wife…severely, angrily)
  11. because he is doing God’s work.
  12. Father Rassini observes this behavior and is appalled.
  13. But this suave man of God realizes he is no better than Canon Morrow.
  14. Father Rassini has callously ill-treated his father
  15. …snapping and shouting at him when the elderly parent falters.
  16. Father Rassini suddenly leaves the house after seeing
  17. his frail, grey parent shelling peas for the evening meal.
  18. Father Rassini must spend some quiet time with God,
  19. asking Him to show him where he needs to change.

 

Hunting the Wild Pineapple

Conclusion:

  1. I was hoping to have a great time enjoying
  2. Astley’s humor and  finding out what
  3. in heaven’s name the wild pineapple meant.
  4. My enthusiasm waned.
  5. Why do bad souffles happen to good cooks?
  6. Why do dull stories….happen to good writers?
  7. This story started out with Astley’s keen observation of bored
  8. people  at a tropical Bed and Breakfast
  9. …where the pink gin, vodkas on ice
  10. …and stingers kept the guests
  11. in a permanent ‘happy-hour’.
  12. There was some sexual tension arising  among
  13. B&B owner, guests and two plantation workers (gay and bi).
  14. But nothing that made the story shine.
  15. Hunting the Wild Pineapple was a hoax to
  16. …take bored and slightly tipse guests
  17. …on a wild goose chase.
  18. This story had so much potential
  19. ..and I hoped it would entertain me as much as
  20. Boat Load of Home Folk,
  21. but this short story sadly #Collapsed.

 

A Northern Belle

Conclusion:

  1. Astley uses no alcohol, no allusions  only Clarice’s tears and embedded fears:
  2. Fear black men instilled by her mother
  3. Fear of sins of the flesh instilled by the nuns, Mother Suplice.
  4. Irony: her mother was determined her daughter Clarice would marry well
  5. ….but her only true love was Bixer, her dog.
  6. Weak point: 
  7. There is no real epiphany, no redemptive moment.
  8. Just a sad life that ends with a traumatized unmarried
  9. …50 yr old woman….screaming.
  10. #Disappointing, lacking imagination.

 

 

 

26
Jun

Flowers for Algernon

 

Finished: 25.06.2018
Genre: novel
Rating: C-
#20BooksOfsummer


Conclusion:

The only word that best describes this book is gray.

pg 156 – gray and drizzly and that may account for the depression that grips me.
pg 162 – feeling of cold grayness was everywhere around me…sense of resignation.
pg 204 – I was floating…not clear and sharp but with a gray film over everything.
pg 206 – the gray murk lifted from my mind.

 

Strong point: Keyes plunges the reader into Charly’s inner struggle with first person point of view.  Charly faces a long and grueling process (mentally challenged –> high IQ) in which he was constantly being treated like a lab experiment. Keyes also deals with Charly’s feeling on loneliness and lack or respect.

 

IMO: The praise given to this book could be 70% due to this heart wrenching journal of a mentally challenged man Charly Gordon that captivates readers.


Weak point: I found the writing dishwater gray.

7
May

Classic: The Golden Bowl

 

Introduction:

  1. 2 marriages – 2 couples = 4 emotional roller coasters.
  2. The Prince’s fate has been sealed at 3 ‘o clock. at lawyers office.
  3. He is trapped in a marriage contract.
  4. “…something of the grimness of a crunched key in the strongest lock…”
  5. I can only cringe reading this omen in ch 1.
  6. #DefinitelyNotComedy”

 

Theme:   marriage

  1. The golden bowl is a metaphor for marriage. (foto)
  2. The bowl, not really “golden” at all…
  3. but crystal gilded with gold leaf.
  4. It has the superficial appearance of perfection.
  5. Crystal “It doesn’t break, it splits….
  6. Crystal does split, eh?
  7. On lines and by laws of its own.”
  8. Why it has a crack!
    ‘Per Dio, I’m superstitious! (Amerigo)
    A crack is a crack…and an omen’s an omen.
    …afraid for you marriage?’ (Charlotte) (ch 6)

Foreshadowing:

  1. 1% into the book we read Amerigo’s warning to Maggie:
  2. “You see too much
  3. …that’s what may sometime make you difficulties.
  4. When you don’t, at least,…see too little.”
  5. 72% into the book  we read…that Maggie discovers
  6. ….that Charlotte and her husband were lovers.
  7. “But surely you always knew they had met.” said Mrs Assingham.
  8. Charlotte: ” I didn’t understand. I knew too little.“

 

Conclusion:

  1. This book was about a love triangle:
  2. Amerigo – Maggie (marriage)
  3. Amerigo – Charlotte (affair)
  4. James’ sentences do not flow.
  5. This makes the reading so irritating.
  6. Characters often ramble on and on
  7. …after the essence of the chapter was clear.
  8. Weak point:  overwriting!!
  9. I could not bear reading the paperback filled with
  10. commas, convoluted sentences, repetitions.
  11. This book is long….and seems longer
  12. because it is 8o% descriptions (thoughts) – 20% dialogue.
  13. I decided to switch to the audio book.
  14. Hours of twirling and swirling words and
  15. finally James makes his point:
  16. Amerigo has secrets, Maggie sees him as ‘prize catch’
  17. …and ex-lover Charlotte arrives to attend the wedding.
  18. She uses veiled subtle remarks to spark Amerigo’s affection…again.
  19. This book contains no enchantment or
  20. beautiful metaphors ( …except crystal bowl…that was good).
  21. This book is a classic but James’ writing style
  22. …ruins the book for the average reader (me).
  23. I would never recommend it.
  24. Now I have read one Henry James book on
  25. …Modern Library’s top 100 novels list
  26. ...I am NOT going to read two more!
  27. I’m replacing the other Henry James books with guess who?
  28. Edith Wharton…my favorite!

 

Last thoughts: 

  • Narrator Simon Prebble is good but the Italian accent
  • for the character Amerigo sounded forced, unnatural and contrived.
  • After 25% of the book.…
  • I skimmed the long, trivial descriptions
  • I never would have finished the book without this strategy.
  • Ironically Henry James uses so many words to describe houses,
  • shop’s inventory, parks etc….
  • and barely touches on Maggie’s wedding!
  • 20% into the book  I expected more attention to the marriage ceremony
  • James mentions it in in one sentence!
  • 6 sentences later Mr Verver is visiting his grandson!
  • 31% into the book Mr. Verver’s marriage in one sentence:
  • “…waiting to be rejoined by her (Charlotte) companion.”
  • #Strange
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