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Posts from the ‘Modern Library 100 Novels’ Category

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.

 

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
27
Apr

Pulitzer Prize 1984: Ironweed

 

Theme:  Redemption: The ghost of Francis’ infant son tells his father that he
must perform acts (of kindness) to exorcise his demons.

Motif:  Gothic details, in recurrent images of gloomy and haunted settings, supernatural events (ghosts in cemetery), full moon (moonlight), Halloween (goblins).

Setting and timeline:  the story takes place in Albany over two days and two nights, Halloween and All Saints’ Day of 1938.

Main characters:  Francis Phelan and Helen Archer are bums, back in their birth city. She was a singer on the radio, he a major league pitcher. Francis Phelan  is resilient.  Helen Archer has traveled with and lived with Francis for nine years. She is “shapeless, windblown weed blossom of no value to anything.” (pg 127). She is not meant for survival.

Title: Ironweed refers to the main character. Francis Phelan is a survivor and hard to break. The ironweed flower is a plant known for its toughness of the stem.

 

Introduction:

  1. The presence of death appears throughout this novel.
  2. In the first chapter Kennedy cleverly uses the scene of a cemetery.
  3. Francis is digging graves for small cash.
  4. He has returned to his home town for the first time since
  5. …Francis abandoned his family after
  6. …the death of his infant son Gerald.
  7. “I never stop thinking’ about him’.
  8. Kennedy portrays the human condition as tragic, but it is precisely
  9. …in confronting this situation, that Francis experiences hope.

 

Conclusion:

  1. Sometimes an image is all you need
  2. …to inspire you to read this book. (see above)
  3. This is one of the better novels on
  4. …the Modern Library List Best 100 Novels 20th C.
  5. #Classic

 

 

7
Dec

Quick Reads 5-7 December

Finish date: 05 December 2017
Genre: fiction
Rating: A
Review:   Short listed for Miles Franklin Award 2017…
I read this book in 24 hours. I was fascinated by the profiles of Australian authors I never heard of! The story of Matilda Young (poet)…touched a heartstring and Stephen Pennington’s life long struggle to write A. Fernsby’s biography was a page-turner. This is an excellent book…that engaged and entertained me. That is what good books do!
#MustRead

  1. Update: 05 December 2017 (Carol on Goodreads)
  2. Sounds great – I’m looking forward to it. But this book is fiction.
  3. These are not real writers so
  4. ….it’s not surprising you’ve never heard of them.
  5. Not that that really matters, I guess.
  6. I’m assuming it’s all an elaborate joke?
  7. Update: 06 December 2017
  8. I really thought these writers were real! OMG
  9. Thank you Carol….for setting me straight.
  10. The joke is on me!

 

Finish date: 07 December 2017
Genre: fiction
Rating: C+
Review: This book is yet another ‘fin de siècle’ novel about the marriage in England. It describes two couples of ‘good people’ living according to codes maintained by their class.
The tone is tragic and I closed this book with a feeling of relief. The characters keep ‘doing the right thing’ but end up bitter (Leonora) mad (Nancy), dead (Florence and Edward) or bemused (narrator) without finding a drop of redemption along the way.
This is on the Modern Library 100 Best Novels list and deservedly so.
The book just could not charm this reader but others may get value out of it.

#HoHum

 

Finish date: 06 December 2017
Genre: Crime fiction
Rating: B
Review: Poirot has method in his madness.
Who handed Mrs. Ingelthorp the coffee on the fatal night?
One must find the missing ‘other’ coffee cup!
Smoking gun? Last will and testament found destroyed
in the grate of Mrs. Ingelthorp’s fireplace.
Poiroit knows someone is guilty
but he has to have the evidence
Until he finds the last link in the chain
….he must stay behind the scenes.
Agatha Christie is…
#QueenOfMystery