#ReadingIreland22 Abelard and Heloise

MARCH

23. by Helen Waddell

Finish date: March 03 2022
Genre: Novel (210 pg…almost a novella)
Rating: F
Review: Peter Abelard (ISBN: 978-0343274122)

Bad news: Ms Waddell was a well known writer in Ireland and her book Peter Abelard was a best-seller. I think one must remember the time when this book was published 1933. It was a ground-breaking and shocking description of the lust/love between Heloise and Abelard. The book quietly circulated among convent schooled girls and women longing for a passionate love story. The book was considered explicit. Unfortunately…times have changed. Peter Abelard has fallen between the cracks….for a reason.

Bad news: First lesson in writing…draw the reader in….create a hook. Well, I read chapter 1 but I felt nothing…a word salad without the dressing! It must be me…so I re-read ch 1.

Bad news: The reader is thrown into ‘the unknown’ in chapter 1. It took me so much time to finally figure out who’s who…and what’s what? Where are we actually? If I wasn’t determined to finish this book…I would have stopped after the first pages. The style is too coldly academic to allow the characters to escape from the words and become living breathing beings.

Abelard (1079–1142) is now 37 yr (start book 1116) – around 1115, he became master of the cathedral school of Notre-Dame.
William of Champeaux – was Abelard’s teacher- Abelard challenged some of his ideas, and William thought Abelard was too arrogant.
Goswin (1085-1165 ) (classmate of Abelard at St Genevieve school)
Guibert – Abelard’s servant for the last 20 years
Gilles – canon (member religious community) at ND School
Gerbert – elected to succeed Gregory V as pope in 999. Gerbert took the name of Sylvester II.
Denise – Abelard’s sister

Well, now you can start chapter 1 of this book…without all the work I had to put into it!

Good news: Best thing I can think of….finished the book for #ReadingIrelandMonth22. Now time to read something completely different…no more historical fiction for me.

Personal: I took a chance on Helen Waddell and did not win the prize. In the biography of Patrick Kavanah I learned that Ms Waddell was a well respected writer in her day. Alas, NOT my style of writing but I was determined to see how Ms Waddell writes this classic love story. Well, a yule log burning on your TV screen gives off more heat! If you are a dye in the wool historical fiction reader and want to feel how the first writers approached the genre…then read the book. This is an example of a very educated medieval scholar who thinks she’s a novelist…it just did not work out for me.

#ReadingIrelandMonth22 Irish Sweaters

1. Burns Family History
2. Ó Birn, Ó Beirn – anglicised as (O) Beirne, Byrne,
3. Byrnes and Burns, even occasionally Byron.

#ReadingIrelandMonth22 March reading list

• The hardest thing you have to change is your mind….. 
• I’ve decided to start this most difficult challenge !
• #MountTBR2022
• #BeatTheBacklog
• Monthy Planning

• #ReadingIrelandMonth22  hosted  @cathy746books
• #TheBegorathon22

Reading List March:      0/10    …stay tuned!

1. Patrick Kavnaugh – Antionette Quinn (biography)
   

1. Peter Abelard – Helen Waddell  (historical fiction)

by Helen Waddell

Finish date: March 02 2022
Genre: Novel (210 pg…almost a novella)
Rating: D-

1. Still Life – Ciarán Carson (poems)  (17 poems)
   
2. The Best of Frank O’Connor (6 essays about Irish writers)
   
3. The Canterville Ghost (novella) – O. Wilde
   
4. Theatre & Ireland – Lionel Pilkington (2010)
5. Portia Coughlan – Marina Carr (play)
   

1. Shining City – Conor McPherson (play)

by Conor McPherson (no photo)

Finish date: 04 March 2022
Genre: Play
Rating: F

1. On Blueberry Hill – Sebastian Barry (play)
   
2. The Humours of Bandon – Margret McAuliffe (play)

#BlackHistoryMonth Lynn Nottage

Jessica, Tracey and Cynthia

FEBRUARY

23. by Lynn Nottage

Finish date: 21 February 2022
Genre: Play
Rating: A++++++++
Review:

Good news: Structure: Now this was a real puzzle! Act 1 and Act 2 start the first scene in 2008…then the rest of the act is a flashback to 2000. Act 2 does end with 2 scenes in 2008 to give the play a feeling of closure, bookends the last scenes with the same characters that started the play: Chris, Jason and their parole officer, Evan. You get the feeling that these 2 young men are just out of prison for ….what? Read the play! Every time I read a play I learn more information that helps me read novels. Study one genre….and learn more about another!

Good news: Dialogue: We get a realist picture of life in a factory town…this is a “slice of life” play. The location reminded me of the Pennsylvania town depicted in the movie Deer Hunter . I always like to put faces on names….and in the play Sweat I could use some of the characters from that movie to breath life into the characters! Oh, I must watch that movie again!

Good news Location: Ms Nottage selected one of the poorest towns in USA in 2017 as the backdrop of the play: Reading, Pennsylvania. We walk into a blue-collar industrial town bar…a place where the factory workers would congregate.

Good News: Writing style: Ingenious how Ms Nottage creates two worlds: inside the bar, the lives of the characters and outside the bar by introducing the “radio news” before each scene. You can just picture barflies hanging over their beer listening to things that are beyond their home grown troubles (Wall Street Bailout, Bush administration, Obama-McCain debate).

Good news: Social commentary:  this play had everything that would push the buttons of working class folks: black promoted to management, factory moves jobs to Mexico, union puts a headlock on the workers and wages are going to be slashed.

Good news: Characters: are from ethnic backgrounds including 6 men and 3 women. There is a deep feeling of racially-related disagreements that destroy friendships and turn into violent conflicts.

Personal After reading this play I was so impressed by Ms Nottage. She won the Pulitzer Prize twice in 2009 for Ruined and in 2017 for Sweat and she thoroughly deserved these accolades! While reading Sweat I had to remember a poem by Y. Komunyakaa Fog Galleon The poet describes the return to a industrial hometown USA. in just a few words he summed up what I felt after reading this play:
The whole town smells like the world’s oldest anger…..that turns workers into pulp.

#BlackHistoryMonth James Baldwin

FEBRUARY

28. by James Baldwin

Finish date: 20 February 2022
Genre: Non-fiction
Rating:
Review: A

Bad news: The second half of the book was very political and dense. I do remember the Black Panther Party and Angela Davis vaguely…but reading about it now, it felt so far away. But at the time JB was writing this book….there was a fresh black political movement that was awakening and for the times…very thrilling for some …and very threatening for others.

Good news: The first halve of the book was a very personal story about James Baldwin’s life. It just drew me into the book and at times I felt JB just siting here talking to me.

Good news: Excellent writing…and many insights made by JB in 1972…still ring true today. There are hard truths about the lives of black people in America. The doctrine of white supremacy which still controls most white people is a delusion. People who cling to their delusions find it difficult, if not impossible to learn anything worth learning. To be born black in America is an immediate, a mortal challenge. (G. Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Briana Taylor, Duante Wright) Note: 18.02.2022 Kim Potter (ex-policewoman, Minnesota) will serve 16 months for killing a black teenager, Duante Wright…while in Tennessee Pamela Moses was sentenced to 6 years for trying to register to vote while on probation.

Personal: Any book by James Baldwin IMO is electric. There is a lot to absorb. I was struck by some his words written made 50 years ago: — People who treat other people as less than human must not be surprised when the bread they have cast on the waters comes floating back to him, poisoned.  (pg 191) — The Western party is over, and the white man’s sun has set. Period. (pg 196) Captivating…when JB tells us in 1971 that …when the black man’s mind is no longer controlled by the white man’s fantasies…a new balance begins to make itself felt. (pg 189)
#WorthYourReadingTime

#Classic Macbeth

MARCH

??. by William Shakespeare

Finish date: February 14 2022
Genre: Play
Rating: A++++++
Review:

Good news: I celebrate Black History Month 2022 not only in books but also honoring IMO the best black actor ever: Denzel Washington. He’s charisma and originality shows he’s mastery and talent. When I watch a Denzel movie I can’t but watch it again. His presence holds so much attention and focus.

Good news: What an impressive play…when you read the text and WATCH the movie version by Joel Coen! Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand are magnificent. At times director Coen adjusts the play for a movie storyboard effect. In Act 1 Coen interweaves scene 4 and 5. So, if you’re reading the play while watching…you’ve been warned!

Good news: Classic play that I will have to read again. There is so much in Shakespeare’s play that I cannot absorb in one sitting.

Personal: The black and white visuals in the movie are mesmerizing in its simplicity. Act 5, 6 when Malcolm says: “Now near enough: your leafy screens throw down.” When you see this in the movie the words come alive! Don’t forget the three witches…so impressed with their spookiness!
Bravo Joel Coen….3 Oscar nominations:

Best Actor – Best Production Design – Best Cinematography!

#Spring is just around the corner…

1. Spring is just around the corner….in my house!
2. #BeatTheBacklog
3. Reading and watching Thomas Becket by J. Guy
4. John Adams by David McCullough.

#Short stories Redeployment

FEBRUARY

24. by Phil Klay

Finish date:  8 February 2022
Genre: Short Stories (12)
Rating: A+++++
Review:

Bad news: If you enjoy a SHORT story you can read in a few minutes….this is not your book!
50% = 6 VERY long short stories….but it is worth your readng time!

Bad news: NO glossary for terms often used in the military.

Bad news: Writing style…not my cup to tea. (first three stories…
Stories I would describe as helmet-cam fiction…jolting, graphic and dialogue is an alphabet soup of abbreviations, acronyms and brevity codes:
CASEVAC (casualties evacuation) – SITREP (situation report) – EOD (explosive Ordnance Disposal) – TQ (tertiary care surgical ) – UXO (unexploded ordnance) – FOB (forward operating base) – DFAC (the dining facility) – HUMINT (human intelligence)

Good news: Phil Klay’s intention was to build realism into his stories. He describes a leader and his decision making (narrator, the Sergeant) and gives us a taste of warfare at the platoon and squad level.

Good news: Klay tries to keep his book balanced. There are “touchy-feely” stories in which the reader can understand and empathize with the wants and/or needs of soldiers returning from combat. Klay uses scenes about letters from home while in boot camp, homecoming after a 7 month tour in Iraq, wife with tear streaked cheeks and a devoted Labrador to create impressive storytelling.

Good news: Just to give you an idea what the book is about…

Redeployment: Flight home….soldier remembers military operation…homecoming.
First story filled with shock and emotion….this is the hook to keep the reader reading.
I don’t know if I could take more of this type of raw fiction. It is not strange that so many soldiers suffer from PTDS.

Frago: (fragmentary order need to change an order) Urgent situation ….all torture, blood and guts It felt like I was watching a soldier’s body cam.

After Action Report: Soldier is guilt ridden after killing an the enemy.
Bodies: – soldier comes home and realizes he’s lost the love of his high-school sweetheart
….he redeploys and is moving on with life in the marines.
OIF: (code name for Iraqi war) – alphabet soup…just awful…filled with military abbreviations ad nauseam.

Money as a Weapons System: -long..indicating the idiotic attempts to change Iraq!
In Vietnam They Had Whores: – title speaks for itself
Prayer in the Furnace:     best story!!

#Play King Charles III

FEBRUARY

by Mike Bartlett (no photo)

Finish date: 04 February 2022
Genre: Play
Rating: A
Review:  King Charles III

NOTE: 70 years ago today….

Elizabeth II acceded to the throne at the age of 25 upon the death of her father, George VI, on 6 February 1952, being proclaimed queen by her privy and executive councils shortly afterwards

Good news The play instantly feels different! It is written in Shakespearean form. Barlett uses in blank verse – also known as unrhymed iambic pentameter in common with many Shakespeare plays. This play follows Shakespeare classic 5 act structure …. and even with a ghost.

Good news Charles is a man who has waited all his life for a job – and then it goes horribly wrong! Great metaphor for Charles “…I’m like a book, stuck on the shelf, for years ignored and waiting to be judged….”. This play is not without controversy. For the stage version there were long conversations with lawyers. Even certain actors refusing to be involved because of how it might affect their future career.

Best scene: Charles is living in the 16th C. as a “Shakespearean King”…who thinks he has God given powers. “…Anointed not by man, but God, I don’t negotiate but issue commands.” Act 4 is the explosive  showdown between Charles vs William.

Personal: There’s a lot to unpack in this play: royal family and Harry’s desire to “leave the firm” – power of `the Parliament and Prime Minister – privacy vs freedom of the press – the future of the monarchy.

There’s a reason this play is controversial….wow! I thought was going to read a  pompous and pretentious play It turned out to be a doozy with a lot of meat on the bone.  No wonder no Royals officially came to see the play in London.

The play premiered in London in 2014. BBC broadcasted a movie version in May 2017. It is on streaming…so try to find it. It was nominated for BAFTA’s Best Single Drama and Best Leading Actor, Tim Pigott-Smith (1946-2017). Mike Bartlett portrays Charles as a Shakespearean king…with actual power” in the 21st C! In truth kingship in England is only symbolic.

PS: Next month Mike Bartlett’s new play in Shakespearean form will open in London. It is about  a power struggle…an ambitious man and asks the question: “Do we have a devil in all of us?.”  The new play is called “47th”  …about Trump.

#NF Bill Bryson

JANUARY

18. by Bill Bryson

Finish date: 20 January 2022
Genre: Non-fiction, travel
Rating: D
Review:

Bad news: Not what I expected…. I hoped for a more introspective journey from Georgia to Maine. But Bryson lost me in the first chapters with the ‘technical’ Appalachian Trail (AT) length, AT history, possible sickness to be confronted, buying equipment and an obsession with big bears.

Bad news: On page 45 we read the ‘hardest part of the AT is getting to it’. With this comment …it deflates my need to read the book if this is really just a walk in the woods.

Good news: I’ve tried to find something I really liked…skimmed the notes once again. I did find on pg 50 the words that I could relate to after having biked so many years in The Netherlands…

“…coming to terms with the constant dispiriting discovery that there is always more hill…you can never see exactly what’s to come.” So there is introspection but you have to look hard to find it.

Personal: I’m hanging up my hiking boots for the foreseeable future. This was my first Bill Bryson book…and it will be my last.

But….if you REALLY want to enjoy a walk and excellent writing...then I highly recommended

by Paul Theroux.

It was nominated for the Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year (2016)
Paul Theroux never….disappoints this reader!