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#Novella Thea Astley

JUNE

by Thea Astley

Finish date: 31 May 2022
Genre: novella
Rating: D-
Review: Beachmasters (ISBN: 0140079122)

Bad news:
First few pages…did these pages hook me as a reader by hinting at what lies ahead? No…just a lot of ‘triple-speak” (languages pidgin, seaspeak, French/English)…later in the book “rainspeak and tearspeak”. Mentioning all these “quirky” languages felt gimmicky.
Astlely uses Gavi a 13 yr old boy rummaging around a box of old photos to give us the backstory about his family history that is locked in these Kodak moments. He discovers that he is ‘hapkas’ mixed-race. Not impresssed so far….

Good news:
Pg 64-77: Finally I have found a glimmer of good writing but had read almost 50% of the book before I reached this point. The rebellion from the POV from Headmaster Woodful was good. I did not feel for any of the characters, but finally found an emotional connection with this man. There is a sacrifice he made for the islanders that is apparent and he truly feels for the islanders.
Note: Ashley bookends her story: pg 1 and on pg 185 Gavi and Uncle Narota (instigator of the rebellion) say goodbye at the prison gate.

Bad news:
Page 78 – 174 is a series of chapters highlighting 9 different characters. The idea was to describe the island revolution from their POV’s . Character development was pretty much non existent…beige characters just dipping in and out of the narrative for a brief moment. Still not impresssed…

Personal:
So disappointed with this story.
I finished it b/c my goal is to read all 15 novels by Astley
I’ve read 12 and it is clear to me that Thea Astley’s first 6 books written 1958-1972 are the best.
After that she seems to …..run out of steam.

#Novel Grand Days

Finish date: 20 May 2022
Genre: Novel
Rating: D-
Review: Grand Days (ISBN: ‎ 9780143790907)

Quick Scan:

• Grand Days by Frank Moorhouse….
• …not very enthusiastic  about reading this book.
• …but I promised Brona’s Books I would at least give it a chance.
• I read the introduction, acknowledgements and list of characters.
• The plot revolves around a young Australian diplomat Edith
• …her job in Geneva and the creation of The League of Nations after WW I.

Good news:

1. I finished the book….but don’t ask me how many times I wanted to stop!

Bad news:

1. This book published in 1993  failed to impress me.
2. The story based on the early days of the League of Nations
3. and all that were involved in its inception had potential.
4. Unfortunately Frank Moorhouse decided it need some “spice”.
5. Sex sells books…you already know that…
6. but this erotic romance and sexual aspects of love
7. between Edith and a cross-dressing Englishman written 30 years ago
8. is #CringeWorthy.

Personal:

• Style: the writing itself is repetitive, verbose, and excessive 
• …670 tedious pages.
• There are SO many great books to read….
• …time make a cup of coffee and ….move on.

NOTES:

• Here are some of my notes…..when I was still optimistic
• …still hoping I’d found a book I could enjoy.
• Stupid me.

Chapter 1:

1. There was a lot to unpack in chapter one.
2. Edith (26 yr) is the character to watch.
3. She has created a list of “Ways” of Going  she must refine and practice.
4. Ways of  Circumspection, All Doors, Compainable Confession, Cowardly Flight
5. …just to name a few.
6. These “Ways” felt very gimmicky and I do hope
7. Moorhouse just uses them in the first chapter.
8. I had to persevere through 12 pages of Edith trying to guess if her male
9. companion on the train Paris–> Geneva was gay or not.
10. #CringeWorthy writing.
11. The chapter felt like a chess game   in which Edith and Ambrose
12. start with flirtation….teasing….and end with seduction.
13. The reader is waiting to see who will ….say: “Check mate”.
14. Ambrose wants to titillate
15. …..Edith wants to shock.
16. But to learn if Edith will experience a change in character it is  important
17. to learn what she is afraid of:
18. — being seen as unworldly
19. — not being considered equal to male companions/co-workers.
20. We shall see…

Chapter 2: 

Internal dialoge:   What is Edith thinking…..but not always telling others.

1. I have already made an enemy….behaved improperly. (pg 52)
2. I have been made to look a fool… (pg 52)
3. I can handle this crew, she thought, I am not fazed by these people. (pg 53)

Apologies /holds herself back many times

1. She asked in hesitant voice, hoping she was not too forward… (pg 41)
2. She felt then that she’d asserted enough for one day.
3. She thought she’d better SHRINK back to being more charming and womanly… (pg 63)
4. She regretted her boast as unwomanly, but moved quickly to undercut it (pg 65)
5. She contemplated taking him (romantic evening)
6. …but she held back her desire for further carnality (pg 69)

But….Edith is NOT A shrinking violet, not buy a long shot!

1. She decided that she wanted things to unfold
2. and shetakes the romantic leadership!
3. She wanted to be experienced as a woman,
4. …fully and finally, and this man would….do just nicely.
5. Asks: “Will we dine together?” (pg 41)
6. She leaned over and put her hand on Ambrose’s. (pg 62)
7. Asks” “Perhaps we could do smth together at the week-end?” (pg 65)

I had to laugh at some of the euphemisms used:

1. “…of the Greek way?” –  “…the way of Oscar Wilde?” (gay)
2. “…they found their carnal way…”

Edith wants to be taken seriously, feel in control yet she sends out opposite signals!

1. “..helpless laugh“
2.  “she admitted she hoped HE would guide her in her work
3. “…I’m hear to learn. I am a bemused and lost colonial lass.”  (What?)

Chapter 3:  

1. Getting more of an impression who Edith feels she is!
2. Not a shrinking violet!
3. Reads a book at a café table “…make it clear to anyone
4. she is NOT an available woman.” (pg 75)
5. When a man gazes at her thinking she was available
6. (another cringeworthy euphemism), “part of the Traffic in Women”
7. Edith’s internal dialogue reveals:
8. “Perhaps she should experience that, going with
9. …a man for money. Once” (78)

1. I can’t help but feel Edith has an exaggerated sense of self-worth
2. ...just full of herself!
3. “Just appearing cosmopolitan was enough, for now.” (pg 78)
4. “She felt  that her inner self was immensely empowered
5. by her status as a League official…” (pg 78)
6. Edith feels she is  NOT at the bottom of the food chain as an intern.
7. She ponders about the messengers and Roneo operators….
8. — “She would have to begin setting a mighty fine example.
9. When she’d got “being international’ right, that is.” (pg 75)

1. Finally there is some intrigue in the narrative.
2. Stupidly Edith speaks to strangers at the café about the League
3. …gives them her business card (name).
4. Back at the office she get’s a proper dressing down from her superior.
5. The ‘stranger’ sent her a gift: ladies handbag revolver!
6. She shows it to Ambrose ….they argue…she must send it back!
7. Edith feels a spurt of power having and firing a pistol….she’s going to keep it!
8. I have a feeling this is NOT the ‘fine example’ she should be giving to others!
9. Sounds like the start of trouble for our  ‘pretentious little Edith’ !

#ArtHistory Caravaggio

St Jerôme écrivant (1607 …excellent example of chiaroscuro)

MAY

by José Frèches

Finish date: 22 May 2022
Genre: Nonfiction
Rating: A+++
Review:

How to describe Caravaggio?
Badass ….but brilliant.
This man was ready to duel, fight and
even kill when he had to.
That is not what you would expect from such a great painter.
Caravaggio had the good fortune to be protected by an Italian Duke in Italy …so he could continue with his painting while the police were held at bay.

Good news:  it’s ALL good news…..!!
But of course….not many people care about Caravaggio’s crime sheet
…it is all about the art, unforgettable images he has left us:
Saints, sinners, crucifixions, orgies, portraits, beheadings, lots of cupids and angels with impressive wings!

Caravaggio….
— he used cinematic realism (Judith et Holopherne)

— he used every day people as models and even his
prostitute girlfriend Fillide Melandroni to pose for
Saints! (Sainte Catherine d’Alexandre, La Conversion de Madeleine)

— he gave us an auto-portrait of a young Caravaggio! (Bacchus malade)

— he gave us a masterclass on structure in a painting….the underlying, concealed formula according to which a work of art is constructed.
In La Déposition du Christ we see a cavalcade of mourners in triangular form – 3 different women…each with a unique expression of grief an remarkably…this horrific scene of Christ ’s death is bloodless!
PS: the face of Nicodemus (supporting Christ’s legs) is Michelangelo!

— he used contrast. In Le Cournonnement and La Flagellation of Christ notice the sereneness and calm flowing from Christ’s body in contrast to the violence depicted by the jailers.

— The most famous characteristic of Caravaggio is his use of chiaroscuro
….the dramatic use of light distribution to create brilliant reflections and create dark masses to enhance somber scene. (La Arrestation)

Personal:
I just loved this book! It is a small compact (128 pg) analysis of Caravaggio’s artistic career from his early struggle to make a living, through his first public commissions in Rome, and his growing celebrity status. This book is in French but

….if you could look for Caravaggio Complete Works  by Sebastian Schütze (no photo) you won’t be disappointed. The complete works is an expensive book…so the library would be your best bet! (ISBN: 9783836587969

#20BooksOfSummer22 Reading list

• Summer drinks are ready
• ….now the hard part:
• Make a list for… #20BooksOfSummer
• hosted yearly @Cathy746 Books
• Monthly reading plan
• #20BooksOfSummer22

• UPDATE: 31 August 2002
• Challenge WRAP-UP

Reading list:

1. Thank You For Your Servitude  (2022)- M. Leibovich (NF) – REVIEW
2. Devil in the Blue Dress – W. Mosley (CF) – REVIEW
3. Portrait of an Unknown Woman – Daniel Silva – REVIEW
4. Le Dernier Jour d’un Condamné   – Victor Hugo – REVIEW
5. All the White Friends I Couldn’t Keep – A. Henry – REVIEW
6. Le Dieu de Dostoïevski – Marguerite Souchon (France)- REVIEW
7. La Cousin Bette – Balzac – REVIEW
8. Flyboy in the Buttermilk – Greg Tate (USA) – REVIEW
9. Unfollow Me – J. Busby – REVIEW
10. Living By the Word – Alice Walker (USA) – REVIEW
11. The Crown Ain’t Worth Much – (50 poems) Hanif Abdurraqib – REVIEW
12. Stages of Struggle: Modern Playwrights – J. DiGaetani – REVIEW
13. The Periodic Table – Primo Levi (Italy) – REVIEW
14. Invisible Storm – Jason Kander (memoir) – REVIEW
15. Stony the Road (NF) – H.L. Gates jr. (USA) – REVIEW
16. Mildred Pierce – James M. Cain (USA) – REVIEW
17. Profession du père – Sorj Chalandon (France) – REVIEW
18. Hooked: Art and Attachment – Rita Felski (USA) – REVIEW
19. Beachmasters – Thea Ashley (Australia) – REVIEW
20. When Harlem Was In Vogue – D. Lewis (USA) – REVIEW
21. Everything Flows – Vasily Grossman – REVIEW
22. Gordo – J. Cortez (12 stories) – REVIEW
23. Lungs – Duncan MacMillian (2011) play – REVIEW

#CF Chris Hammer

MAY

by Chris Hammer

Finish date: 15 May 2022
Genre: Crime fiction
Rating: D-
Review:

Bad news: Biggest problem: The storyline is TOO complicated! I just could not wrap my head around all the subplots. Unless you’re a master writer, you shouldn’t use more than 2 subplots to your main one! You have 1 dead man…a bloody knife and a narrator that finds the body! Unfortunately Chris Hammer managed to muddy the waters with deaths in narrator’s childhood, alludes to death in previous book…multiple deaths on a beach including a swami! Oh, and don’t forget the dead sharks! It was just TOO much. Bah.

Bad news: Memories: There are traumatic memories that keep popping up in the narrative of the main character Martin (journalist). I found that it jolted the reader out of the plot about the current murder. I was asked to switch my concentration back and forth too often.

Bad news: Family life: I get it that a journalist/detective has a private life and it is an integral part of the CF novel these days…but Martin’s toddler Liam is mentioned 178x! Less is more!

Good news: Title: The title is the first hook: SILVER… what is it? This intrigues the reader. Silver = the dream, the wealth  which tempts, corrupts and destroys people (greed?) Port Silver = setting; Silver = vein of expensive metal (pg 354); Silver = thin thread of a necklace once worn by Martin’s partner (pg 326) Silver = 30 pieces of silver (betrayal?) (pg 409) Location: Port Silver is on the far north coast of New South Wales near Byron Bay and, in Martin’s eyes, is becoming gentrified.

Personal: In all honesty…this 2nd book in the series #2 Martin Scarsden (journalist) pales in comparison to Scrublands. After 15 chapters (50%) I started to loose interest. The plot contains a murder but I felt the “chessboard” of moving pieces of real estate subplot (block a golf course and marina, close a cheese factory, block a housing subdivision and save a pristine beach)…just pushed me out of the story. Mr Hammer has not found the the perfect balance of telling readers just enough for the story to make sense and come to life, without sharing so much.
I felt the book was too long and I #WastedTwoDays trying to make sense of this book.

#Non-fiction Bring The War Home

• Author: Kathleen Belew
• Title: Bring The War Home
• Published: 2018
• List of Challenges 2021
• Monthly plan

  UPDATE:  17 May 2022

1. It felt like the right time to ‘highlight’ this book about the White Supremacy Movement in USA.
2. Not an easy read, but a necessary one. #AmReading
3. “Not everything that is faced can be changed,
4. …but NOTHING can be changed until it is faced”. James Baldwin

Introduction:

#Classic Joseph Conrad

• Author: Joseph Conrad  (1857-1924)
• Publish: 1920
• Trivia: The novel took twenty years to complete.
• Conrad started it in the late 1890’s and completed in 1918.
• Genre: novel
• Monthly plan

Quick Scan:

1. 3 boats:
2. Hermit (yacht owned by rich Englishman Mr.Travers)
3. Lightning (Captain Tom Lingard, adventurer)
4. Emma (old schooner purposely run aground by Lingard to use as a weapons store)
5. Tom Lingard, a sort of Humphry Bogartish, cynical
6. gold-digger trader in the South Seas discovers the Hermit stranded in soft mud.
7. The yacht is near a dangerous island
8. …that is experiencing political strife among
9. other characters….Wajo leader (Hassim), outlaw (Daman),
10. local chief (Belarab) and rival chief (Tengga).
11. I’ll spare you the intrigues but they all are
12. …trying to regain power and the weapons on the Emma!
13. Captain Lingard  wants to keep the navy out of HIS territory and
14. ..sets out to rescue the Hermit (John and Edith Travers) and
15. …get involved with island politics.
16. SNAFU: Lingard falls in love with Edith, the bored wife.

Conclusion:

1. This book is an an adventure of the sea that has a romance woven into it.
2. This tension between Captian Lingard and Edith Travers fuels the plot.
3. IMHO…this book ran out of “fuel”  very quickly.
4. Weak point: NO action in begin of part 1.
5. Conrad probably did not get the MEMO from writing class
6. you have to ‘hook’ the reader.
7. I kept reading because I promised myself finish this book
8. otherwise I doubt I would continue
9. Last page of part 1: smoke signal on shore captures
10. Capt T. Lingard’s attention
11. ….he knows what is going on but this reader is still clueless.
12. Pace:  very slow and finally the last 150 pages saved what was left of this book.
13. Character change:  Lingard admits on
14. pg 242 ” I am no longer the man
15. … to whom you (Carter)  spoke that night in Carimata.” (pg 16).
16. Captain Lingard rescued the white people on the Hermit
17. …but lost his soul in the attempt  and failed to
18. fulfill his debt to the Malayan prince, Hassim.

Last thoughts:

1. This was not Joseph Conrad’s best work
2. …not by a long shot.
3. The book felt like it ran this long, exhausting marathon
4. …only to collapse into a heap,
5. huffing and puffing just before it crossed the three-star line.
6. But I’m trying to be kind to this author because his best novels
7. ….enthralled me:  Lord Jim and  Nostromo.
8. Read The Rescue… if you are really interested in his writing as a whole.
9. Sorry,…not every book is a home run.

#ArtHistory Cézanne

Grand Pin (1890)….just beautiful!

• Cézanne: Puissant et solitaire– M. Hoog – READ

1. Update:
2. This is  an introduction to Cézanne…
3. low key guy, father/family  were financially secure
4. …so they could help Paul in his early years in Paris.
5. 1870: meets Hortense Fiquet.(was one of his models)
6. …not exactly a match made in heaven
7. …but they learn to live together/apart.
8. Cézanne has no intention to fight in Franco-Prussian war and takes girlfriend
9. …back to Aix-en-Provence…and starts paining beloved Montage Saint-Victoire (many times!)

1. No, Cézanne didn’t slice off his ear (Van Gogh) or disappear to a Polynesian Island (Gaughin).
2. He was content to live in his beloved L’Estaque in the south of France.
3. His method was simple:
4. Mont Saint-Victoire
5. images rich vegetation contrasted with panorama’s and breathtaking skies.
6. Still life: light, composition and perspective…a mixture of smooth surfaces of fruit (apples)
7. decorative earthenware and table cloths draped irregularly to create a contrast.
8. …I never knew there could be so much to see in a still life!
9. Portraits: …there were many of his wife Hortense who always looked somber and constrained.
10. Favourite paintings:                                                                       Vue de lac d’Anncey
11. 

Pont de Maincy

1. Just look at  “Le Pont de Maincy” by Cézanne…
2. This is a breathtaking painting of “verdure réfléchie dans une onde (pond) douce.”
3. Cézanne said:
4. “…it is not important what you paint…but HOW you paint it!”
5. This was a beautiful book
6. ….just 128 pages…an introduction to one of the best French painters 19thC.
7. Finished: 04.05.2022
8. ———————–

#UPDATE: May reading list

Update: 28 April 2022

1. Last month I still struggled to fall into my comforting reading zone.
2. All I could do in de evenings was
3. …’binge watch’ some series on HBOmax, Disney+ and Netflix.

• Our Flag Means Death (SE 1) – very funny
• Schitt’s Creek (finally finished SE 1-6)
• Anatomy of a Scandal and The Dropout (DNF…just too slow, boring)
• The Mauritian (…expected more from a Jodie Foster film) score 4/10
• Ozark and Better Call Saul (…in progress, enjoying the final seasons)
• I enjoyed the distraction… but after a few days ...I need to get back to books.

1. I looks like this UKR-RUS crisis is going to continue for months.
2. I cannot let this situation dictate my reading
3. ….I need to feed my soul AND continue to follow the news!

May reading list:  NEWS

1. Freezing Order  (2022)- B. Browder 
2. Update:  Disappointed
3. Read if just a few hours
4. …but most of what Browder writes about
5. has been in the news already.
6. Very quick read….if you’re still interested.
7. Finished: 29.04.2022
8. __________________

1. Everything Flows (1970) – Vasily Grossman (novel)
2. Im Schatten des Kreml (2019) – Udo Lielischkies (former chef ARD-Studio Moscow)
3. Policor in de Polder (2021)– S. Valkenberg (Dutch philospher) (Dutch political correctness )
4. De wraak (revenge) van Poetin (2015) – H. Smeets (Dutch journalist @NRC)
5. Putin’s World (2019) – Angela Stent
6. On ne peut pas tou dire (2022) – S. Fontanelle (cancel culture in France)

1. This Will Not Pass: (03.05.2022) – J. Martin – A. Burns – READ
2. Update:  
3. Readable….but nothing  earthshattering.
4. Worth reading/skimming….
5. No real ‘bombshells’ other than the tapes
6. we all have heard reported on in the news.
7. Good quick scan of events March 2020 – Dec 2021
8. …but if you read the news, nothing much new in this book!
9. Finished: 07.05.2022
10. ———————

1. Gier, Gas und Geld – Jens Hovsgaard (Danish investigative reporter) – READING (28/313 pg)
2. “Greed, gas and money” show who pulls the strings at Nordstream,
3. who contributes to this trillion-dollar business, and
4. how Putin’s network wants to divide the European Union and bring it under Russian control.

May reading list:  ART, HISTORY, LITERATURE

• La littérature de A à Z  (référence sur la littérature française – F. Aguettaz
• …this reading will continue for a few months

• Varennes: La mort de la royauté – Mona Ozuf

• Mon musée imaginaire – P. Veyne

• Petite Encyclopedie de l’ Impressionnisme – G. Crepaldi
• …this reading will continue for a few months

• Bonnard: Colour of Daily Life – A. Terrasse

• Henri IV of France: His Reign and Age – V.J. Pitts

• Cézanne: Puissant et solitaire– M. Hoog – READ

1. Update:
2. No, Cézanne didn’t slice off his ear (Van Gogh) or disappear to a Polynesian Island (Gaughin).
3. He was content to live in his beloved L’Estasque in the south of France.
4. His method was simple:
5. Mont Saint-Victoire
6. images rich vegetation contrasted with panorama’s and breathtaking skies.
7. Still life: light, composition and perspective…a mixture of smooth surfaces of fruit (apples)
8. decorative earthenware and table cloths draped irregularly to create a contrast.
9. …I never knew there could be so much to see in a still life!
10. Portraits: …there were many of his wife Hortense who always looked somber and constrained.
11. Favourite paintings:  Vue de lac d’Anncey
12. 

Pont de Maincy

1. Just look at  “Le Pont de Maincy” by Cézanne…
2. This is a breathtaking painting of “verdure réfléchie dans une onde (pond) douce.”
3. Cézanne said:
4. “…it is not important what you paint…but HOW you paint it!”
5. This was a beautiful book
6. ….just 128 pages…an introduction to one of the best French painters 19thC.
7. Finished: 04.05.2022

• Le Caravage, peintre et assassin – J. Frèshes – READING

1. UPDATE:  Excellent! 
2. Caravaggio – José Frèches – REVIEW
3. Finished: 28.05.2022

• Le maniérisme – (2004) P.  Falguières  – READ 

1. Update:
2. Excellent book to brush up on your French reading skills
3. With many beautiful images you can learn about
4. ….a period of art history that often forgotten!
5. The mannerists – Le maniérisme 1520-1580- …throwing caution to the wind
6. and rejecting the classic style of High Renaissance and plunging into
7. the frivolousness of avant-garde art, nature and architecture!
8. Maniérisme:
9. Three words that are the essential for the mannerists:
10. in painting and sculpture:
11. contrapposto – figure standing with weight on one foot
12. (slight curvature of the torso)
13. serpentine – twisting, winding form
14. sperzzatura – a certain nonchalance.
15. …book is very interesting!
16. Waves of art keep rolling and in 1580-1600 there came a fracture and
17. … baroque became the ‘style of the day’.
18. Finished: 29.04.2022
19. ———————