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Posts from the ‘Modern Library Novels’ Category

19
Aug

Spin #18: Means of Ascent LBJ

 

 

Quickscan:

  1. Robert Caro is writing  The Years of Lyndon Johnson.
  2. Four volumes have been published and he is working on vol 5.
  3. As of 2017 400 pages were typed for this last book.
  4. Now Caro is moving to Vietnam to continue the writing process.
  5. I cannot emphasize enough
  6. …what a monumental historical document
  7. …Robert Caro is giving us.
  8. I read volume 1 The Path to Power…it was very good.
  9. All of the volumes are chunksters and the only way I can
  10. read them is using an audio version on my IPOD.
  11. I listen during my walks, while doing household chores,
  12. riding my bike to the grocery store….and 30 min before sleeping.
  13. LBJ and Nancy have become very close!

 

Conclusion:

  1. Volume 2 is a blow-by-blow account of the drama
  2. concerning the back-round and outcome of the
  3. 1948 Senate seat of Texas election.
  4. Caro reveals  an exhaustive amount of
  5. …details only recently available to historians.
  6. There are long testimonies given in court by individuals who
  7. conspired with LBJ to STEAL the election!
  8. Needless to say.
  9. …the Johnsons family is not fond of Robert Caro.
  10. This book was about LBJ  but it did spur me on
  11. …to learn more about the defeated candidate in the race:
  12. ‘Coke’ Stevens and the demcratic political boss
  13. that put LBJ in  the 1948 senate, The Duke of Duval
  14. …George Berham Parr
  15. #MeanerThanABarnyardDog

 

Last thoughts:

  1. Means of Ascent  paled in comparison to
  2. …the blockbuster volume 1  The Path to Power.
  3. A senatorial race in Texas 1948 may seem to be a turning point
  4. …in modern politics but is was just a ‘run-of-the-mill’
  5. type of  campaign in USA  even today!
  6. The only difference being the role of
  7. Twitter,  FB social media and the
  8. …phenomenon of ‘fake news’ websites!
  9. Backroom deals, bibes, intimidation even ballot-box stuffing
  10. …it is STILL going on.
  11. LBJ is just one of many  USA politicians that have entered office
  12. by these distinct patterns or methods of operation
  13. ……Modus Operandi.
  14. Oh, don’t forget there are also rich fathers who make sure
  15. their son is the first Catholic president in the White House.
  16. I recommend the book about
  17.   the MAN behind JFK…
  18. The Patriarch by David Nasaw (2012).
  19. #EyeOpener

 

 

My notes:

August 3, 2018

Listened to introduction that lasted 1 hour 11 min on IPOD!
This book will look at 7 years 1941-1948. LBJ won a senate seat in election 1948…by just 87 votes. Why was this election a watershed moment? It was the end of ‘ol school politics’ ( handshaking, backslapping and the three B’s: beef steak, bourbon and blondes) and the start of the new school politics (media, TV, backroom deals of pressure and persuasion).

August 7, 2018

Ch 1-2 are a re-hash of the first book. You can jump into ch 3 and not miss a beat. LBJ is desperate to get into ‘the combat zone’ (…if Melbourne Australia is considered the front line…hmmm). It looks good on the political CV. Poor Lady Bird Johnson….husband treats her eith his Neanderthal habits. She gives him his due respect …he runs out the back door to his mistress Alice.

 

August 14, 2018

The more I learn about LBJ…the more i admire his wife Lady Bird Johnson
…for being able to endure her insensitive husband.

 

August 15, 2018

Frenetic politician….LBJ wants every minute to be used to convince the voter he must be their next senator 1948. The ‘windmill’ a Sikorsky heli was the newest tool he used to visit at least 10 small Teaxan towns on ‘the forks of the creek’ a day! This was the start of modern political campaigns!

 

August 16, 2018

Well, it’s official…LBJ did not buy his Texas senate election 1948…he stole it! Putting this man in high office…changed the course of history (Vietnam).
How many subsequent US elections have been stolen….I wonder.

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!
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