October 2023 Reading Summary

Though a long month of 31 days, October was a short one for the reading program.  I took the Silverberg novel with my on a recent 8-day trip, but read very little.  When we returned home I was sick with a bad cold, and kept falling asleep each time I tried to read.  So I didn't even get the five Avon/Equinox authors' books read until October 19th, when I finally began my "free" reading period.  After that, I managed three books, the last one being very long.

 

Like the late writings of Jack Williamson, the late writings of Robert Silverberg are not to be missed.  The man is on a roll, big time.  From 1994 comes  Hot Sky At Midnight, at 388 pages. At its heart it is an ecological story about humans destroying the Earth (can that really happen?).  But the novel has more than one heart.  It is also a futuristic retelling of Lord Jim, one of Conrad's finest novels.  Paul Carpenter goes through many iterations in this, his story.  We meet him as a Level 11 salary weatherman in Spokane (Level 20 being the lowest on the grid).  He gets a unique offer to be captain of a boat out of San Francisco.  He is sick of Spokane, and accepts the reprogramming involved with the job transfer.  He messes up terribly on his first voyage, and is actually fired by his corporation, something that is virtually unheard of at his rank.

It's difficult to say what exactly makes this book worth reading, but I would have to say it is the very accurate picture of what Earth will resemble in not too many years.  The only other SF novel that rivals it for potential accuracy is Norman Spinrad's unforgettable Greenhouse Summer, an even more cynical look at our chosen future.  SF often gets it wrong when it comes to future predictions.  However, when an author gets it right, the reader can feel the truth emerging in every single page.  Perhaps not the masterpiece to compare with Conrad, but this is a damn fine book that should scare the hell out of every person alive today.  Especially if you are young.

 

From 1977 comes the final book written about Commander Abernathy Fox.  That is one of the saddest statements I have ever written in this blog.  This is #14, called Close Quarters.  Captain Fox, of the British Navy, is doing more than his part to help his country defeat Napoleon.  In fact, I doubt the British would have ever won had it not been for Mr. Fox.  The 148 page finale was not supposed to be the last book, but alas, it was.  Fox sets sail in his repaired ship for England, part of a large convoy headed by his nemesis, Captain Stone.  I had always hoped to see Fox get even with that blackguard captain, but I will never get that pleasure.  Nor will faithful readers get to see Fox promoted to full Captain, something he deserved many books ago but never received.  This book is typical of the adventures Fox and his loyal crews have faced since the beginning of the series, with one big exception; this time we get to see Fox capture and ride in a primitive submarine!  Science fiction?  Nope.  Bulmer is relying on actual attempts to use underwater technology in battles from the time, and he came up with a workable solution.  Despite its many flaws, Fox used it twice for successful outcomes on his behalf.  A nice touch in this otherwise standard Fox adventure.  

 

There is a bright gleam of hopeful light at the end, however.  Fox has rescued two British merchant ships from Spanish pirates, and one of them was carrying many grateful VIPs.  It seems a given that he will be rewarded when back on English soil.  And he has brought back the captive submarine and its French inventor and his crew.  The admiralty should be rewarding him, also.  If only there had been a Book 15.  We have suffered Fox's indignities along with him, and deserved to be rewarded nearly as much as he did.

 

The Scourge of the South by E. C. Tubb is the 3rd western of his (of 11) I have read.  Short, packed with action, I again must admire him for trying to depict Native Americans as real people, with their own beliefs and ways of doing things.  A young boy is kidnapped from a wagon train attack by the Sioux, and raised as their own.  He becomes a warrior and eventually must choose between living with the Sioux and fighting the white man, or returning to his roots and fighting for the rights of Natives that way.  A pretty good read, with many truths included, including the way Indians considered war, and how the white man killed the buffalo, thus killing the way of life for Indians.

 

Next came a group of shorter stories by Michael Moorock, Fabulous Harbors, loosely connected by family and place Von Becks, in London).  Two of the stories, both very good ones, had been read in previous volumes.  Of the newer stories, most are pretty middle of the road as far as fantasy literature goes.  One major exception is "No Ordinary Christian," from 1995.  It is the kind of story that one might dream, forgetting much of it next morning.  The Albino features, as do the old Egyptian gods and Aton, the new god.  A desert oasis provides the most interesting backdrop so far in this volume.  Recommended.  From the previously read tales, "The Black Blade's Summoning" also stands out.  It is an Elric tale, where he meets up with one of the Von Becks.

Another Burt Wulff (The Lone Wolf) book, #2 of 14, was read.  Bay Prowler is from 1973, the 2nd of ten such books Malzberg wrote within one year to fulfill a contract.  He continues his annihilation of the drug traffickers, this time in San Francisco.  But he meets a girl who restores some of his humanity and sanity, at least briefly.  He gets to blow up a ship and take out more mid-level crooks.  Next time he is off to Boston, to do some more damage.  Pulp fiction at its bloodiest.

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One of the pleasures of visiting downtown Cincinnati is stopping in at Ohio Bookstore, a used book store almost in the same league as John King in Detroit.  Four floors of books await, and it would be too easy to spend hours in here.  Years ago I found several books I needed for my Avon/Equinox project.  On my most recent visit here in late September, I was searching for Low Company, by Daniel Fuchs.  They had no books by Fuchs.  However, searching nearby "Fs", I came across a little hardcover book by Bruno Frank.  The Days of the King is a fictional novel based on Frederick the Great in his old age.  With a forward by Sinclair Lewis, and dozens of illustrations by Adolph Menzel, it was a bargain I couldn't refuse.  I wasn't even certain that I would read it, but the art inside was amazing.

 

One of dozens of illustrations by Menzel. 

 

The book is in three parts, with each revealing something important about the character of the King.  We learn that he is a humanist, an animal lover, a musician and champion of the arts, and a champion of the poor and working class people.  We also learn about his loneliness, his losing his manhood to incompetent doctors at age 27, and the many cruel rumours about him that spread, including that he was gay (he wasn't) and that he had sex with his female dogs (he didn't).  The writing is pure and the three episodes are lovingly told.  This is history the way most people would love to hear and read it.  The scene at the apothecary shop, where Frederick stops over for a night being very ill, reveals truths about medical treatment of troops back in the day, is chilling to read and think about.  His love of animals, especially his horses and his small Italian greyhounds could only be truly understood by a fellow animal lover.  This chance discovery turned into a very good read, and a most memorable one.

I finally located a paperback copy of Low Company, a novel by Daniel Fuchs.  I found it on Abe Books website, and promptly ordered it.  It came from nearby (Kitchener), and only took a few days.  From 1937, it was Barry Malzberg's pick for best novel of the 1930s.  It is the last one that he recommended I have read (20s through 70s--see my blog article for February 2023 books read, published here March 1st).  Fuchs only wrote three novels, and this last one, considered his best, only had a run of 1200 when it first came out.  Virtually forgotten until rediscovered in the 1960s, my edition has a new preface by the author written in 1961.  The book is very claustrophobic.  There are few characters, mostly Jewish, and most of the action takes places at Neptune Beach, now better known as Coney Island.  An aging Jewish man runs an ice cream parlour.  He is the most stereotypical Jewish business man one could ever hope to meet.  He is a Woody Allen in perpetual crisis and misery.  Yes, he is a humourous character, but he is also one of the most tragic figures in literature.  His employees and a few regular customers make up the cast of characters, and they are characters.  Shorty, the regular soda jerk, is hot after women.  Arthur, the dishwasher, is a young lad who yearns to be a man.  His is one of the saddest outcomes in the novel.  Karty, a customer, was once an accountant, but has been lured to his doom by betting on horses.  He has stolen $1300 from his wife's brothers' garage, and they are out to get him.  Shubunka, in business with the owner of the parlour who rents out apartments to Shubunka's whores, is being squeezed out of his shady business by a new heavy handed crime syndicate invading New York.  He is perhaps the oddest character in the book, obsessed with his self image, always looking in the mirror to see if he is expressing emotion properly.  When reality finally does bite him, he is bitten hard.

The title refers to the lowlife that work and inhabit the streets around Neptune Beach.  Here is a quote from page 166 of my Berkley Medallion edition.  "This was Neptune Beach, Lurie [the horse race victim] cried to himself, lacking dignity, lacking spirit and feeling, concentrated wholly on desire and the process of its satisfaction, abject and mean."  There is no major male character in the book with redeeming qualities.  It is a grim world, a kind of purgatory, much of it brought on by the multitude of bad choices the characters continually make, including lying to themselves and others over and over again.  The irony is heavy at all times, and at no time heavier than the last line of the book.  This is fascinating reading, and it's hard to put the book down, especially when the plot begins to come together in the last section.  A truly neglected classic.  Highly recommended.

 

Adela Cathcart (1864) by George MacDonald contains several short tales within the framework of a novel.  In fact, it's easier to think of this very long book as a collection of stories, rather than a novel.  The stories are told by various people over the Christmas holiday period, including two by the narrator, "John Smith."  The first of his tales is one of the finest, a fairy tale called "The Light Princess," about a princess who has a spell cast upon her by her evil aunt.  The spell removes the young lady's gravity, causing her to float up rather than stay anchored to the ground like the rest of us.  This is a wonderful tale, easily pulled from the pack and able to stand on its own.  The storytelling hour after dinner is conceived by the narrator, Adela's uncle, to lift her mood.  She has fallen into a sickness of the spirit, and, at 21, seems destined to a life of dullness and routine, and perhaps marriage to a cousin for whom she has little to no feelings whatsoever.  A very few of the remaining ten or so stories are memorable.  The more Christianity inserted into a tale,the less memorable that tale becomes.  "The Cruel Painter," told by the young doctor now looking after Adela's health, is also a very good tale, one of those supernatural tales (vampires and such) that really has no supernatural elements to it at all.  This one would make a great little horror film.  The second tale of John Smith, the narrator, is also fun and truly bizarre, and is called "The Shadows."  It would best be handled by animation, and could be pretty impressive as such.  Remove all the overt Christianity and the book is filled with some wonderful stories.

Mapman Mike

 

 

Life Goes On

 

It's been over three weeks now since Deb's hiking trail fall.  And we both lost a week in there to very bad colds.  But I have resumed my exercise program (the maintenance one) for two weeks now, and Deb has finally had her long overdue infusion for her RA.  While waiting for her last Monday (the procedure takes about 30 minutes) I took a walk to some nearby shops, discovering a Halloween store where I spent some time, and then came across a vegan restaurant of which we knew nothing.  Called Copper Branch (?), it has a full menu and bakery.  It is a chain in Canada and has one place in the US.  So we now have two vegan places right where Deb goes every two months!  I got a takeaway order for each of us.  We shall return!

 

I have managed two segments of the rails to trails path near our home lately, with Deb accompanying me on the second one last Tuesday.  It was sunny with temps in the high 60s.  It will be mild until Saturday, when cooler air will return with a vengeance.  Firewood is being chopped and split.  No heating has been required this week, either.  But the wood pellet stove is standing by.

 

 From my solo walk last week on the first segment of the trail.

 

The 2nd segment of the walk Tuesday with Deb. 

 

In other blogging news, the 3rd and final segment of the recent travel blog has been posted on the American Midwest site (see margin, upper left), detailing Deb's accident and the very pleasant scenery of the Wichita Mountains, what we saw of it at any rate.  It certainly was a memorable trip.  In about 49 more weeks, we can try it again.  I have also updated and reedited most of the photos.

 

I tried pricing airfare to London from Detroit.  The airfare alone would pay for an entire 17 day trip over here.  So no London in our future, even if we did have a desire to fly again.  Even airfare from Windsor to Sudbury to visit my parents is a ridiculous amount.

In film news, there are a few to report, beginning with a couple of strange Japanese films chosen by Deb last week.  First up was We Are Little Zombies, from 2019.  This is an experimental film about four 13 year olds--three boys and a girl--who met at their parents' cremation.  They are all suddenly orphaned, and they decide to hang out together.  They are also all emotionless, as they try to deal with their situations in unusual ways.  A truly dark comedy, it's hard to take one's eyes from the screen.  Viewers get pulled in by the bizarre stylization of the film, as well as the intense colours used, and the deadpan humour.  Definitely worth catching.

 

 Leaving Mubi soon. 

 

Giants and Toys is from 1958, another colour extravaganza that relies heavily on the energy of its starlet.  Hitomi Nozoe is chosen as the poster girl for a candy company, in a deadly competition with its two main rivals.  She has bad teeth, the personality and energy of a giddy teenager, and the smarts to know what to do in almost any situation.  This is about cutthroat corporate life, where working in such an environment is very hazardous to one's health.  Director Yasuzo Masumura made some 60 films, but is little known in the west.  Mubi has just acquired many of his films, so he will likely be popping up here more often now.  Part comedy and part drama, it is a film like no other from Japan.  Worth a look if you are lucky enough to find it anywhere.

 

  

Now showing on Mubi, along with several other films by the director. 

 

My main choice for this week was a made for TV mystery called The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: The Murder in Angel Lane from 2011.  Part of a detective series, it is the 2nd installment of four, and the only one showing on Prime.  It features the usual convoluted plot, with the main suspect innocent (of course) but looking mighty guilty, the incompetent and unfriendly-to-private detectives police force, a good cop and a bad cop, and a hero who finally gets it right, after several wrong turns and very few happy faces.  Nothing new here, but some fine costumes and authentic 19th C pub scenes.

 

Now showing on Prime. 

 

The next piano this Sunday was cancelled due to illness of the host.  I am hoping to play some Beethoven at it next week instead.

 

Mapman Mike 

A Brief Catching Up

It was a doozy of a cold, and I still have that cotton in my brain feeling two weeks later.  My last cold was in December 2018, after returning from a sleepless but fun week in Vienna.  Deb's last cold was literally decades ago.  Her overcharged immune system has protected her till now.  She is a few days behind me in her recovery, but doing well.  We have both been sleeping a lot.  Whenever I try to read, I fall asleep, so along with the travelling we did my October reading list will be on the short side.  Deb's wrist seems to be healing well, with 3 weeks left to wear the cast.  And her lung is slowly healing, too, with far fewer painful episodes.  All will be well again someday soon.

 

We were away for 8 days instead of 17, so the piano program didn't suffer too much.  I did light practice during the worst of my cold.  Things are still a bit wobbly, but memorization of the Beethoven proceeds apace.  I resumed some light physical exercise a week ago, including a few outdoor walks, some yard work, and cutting the grass.  So only 50 more weeks until I get another chance at hiking in New Mexico.  5 of those 8 days we had were lots of fun; the last 3 not so much.

 

I have been working on the trip blog, and have the Cincinnati portion published.  Look on the American Midwest blog link, upper left on this page.  I am currently working on the second part, and might publish it by tomorrow.  I did get some really good photos, even in Oklahoma.  I haven't printed any yet, but soon.  

 

In film news, some really good ones on which to report.  But first, Deb's SF film is being shown this weekend in Manchester at their incredible SF festival.  Her film was one of only 6 chosen from a thousand entries that will be shown during the main event, and is in competition.  This looks like such a fun event, and we would love to attend, perhaps next year.

 

Mandalay is from 1934, and directed by Michael Curtiz.  Quite a good picture, when a woman dumped by her criminal lover has to fend for herself, taking an unpleasant job as a night club hostess in SE Asia.  She meets an alcoholic doctor and they seem to hit it off, until lover boy returns, expecting the woman to help him out.  Kay Francis is a knockout beauty in this short feature.

 

Leaving Criterion Oct. 31st. 

 

The Coconuts is from 1929, and is the first appearance on screen of the Marx Brothers.  While they are very funny, and their routines are well timed (the auction scene is one of their funniest), the movie screeches to a halt far too many times for some very lame songs, sung very lamely by others.  Harpo's harp solo, on the other hand, is very good, as is Chico's piano solo.  Fast forward during the other songs and all will be well.

Leaving Criterion Oct. 31st. 

 

Genghis Cohn is one of dozens of BBC films and filmed plays that were released as a multi-season anthology series called Screen Two.  Prime seems to have picked up a half dozen or so of these films.  This one is exceptionally good.  From 1994, it features a Jewish comedian who is murdered by the Nazis in a mass killing of Jews during the war.  His ghost comes back to haunt the commandant in charge of the killings, until he gets his sweet revenge.  This could easily have been a horror story, or a really heavy drama.  But it is actually more of a comedy!  And it has some very funny moments, too.  A real sleeper gem, and worth seeing more than once. 

 

Now showing on Prime. 

 

Another Screen Two BBC presentation on Prime was called Small Faces, from 1996.  It takes place in Glasgow in 1968, with a young boy growing up amidst the violence and despair of life in a poor inner city.  It was well acted, but the story it told could have happened anywhere, including Milan or St. Louis.  Not really that memorable, unless, perhaps, viewers grew up in Glasgow in 1968.

Now showing on Prime. 

 

Legend of the Red Dragon is a Chinese kung fu film from 2002.  Despite the violence, it is mostly a comedy, as a small team of do gooders, led by Jet Li, takes on the evil folk in charge of the country.  More a display of insane acrobatics than martial arts, it also features an invincible bad guy, who literally cannot be stopped.  He drives an all-silver steam powered racing car!  This one also features a group of young boys, including the hero's son.  Five of the boys have part of a treasure map tattooed on their backs, which the bad guys are after.  A very silly way to spend two hours.

 

Starring Jet Li, and showing on Prime. 

 

Next came a mind bending SF film, which seems to really be a play that was filmed.  Jerome Bixby's The Man From Earth is from 2007.  From the description on Prime: An impromptu goodbye party for Professor John Oldman becomes a mysterious interrogation after the retiring scholar reveals to his colleagues he has a longer and stranger past than they can imagine.  Well scripted and very well acted, this is one of those rare, highly intelligent scripts that tell truths most people do not wish to hear about.  The expose of Christian religion (having all been taken from earlier mythologies from other parts of the world) could have been written by Joseph Campbell.  This is a very highly recommended film, with a few surprises at the very end.  There is a sequel which it seems it might be better to avoid.  We'll see.

Now showing on Prime. 

 

Mapman Mike

 

 

 

Lots of Movies

First, a quick health update.  My cold is passing, in its 6th day.  Deb's is at its peak, in its 4th day.  Deb's bruised lung is beginning its 7th day of healing, and seems to be getting better day by day.  She has more sitting options now, and less sudden pain when she moves.  She has learned about a technique to reduce the magnitude of a sneeze, and that seems to be working well.  The coughing can't be helped too much, as she has to get stuff out of her lungs or risk pneumonia.  It's been a lot of fun for both of us going from tip top condition to get up some big mountains, to becoming like a pair of sick marshmallows sitting around and watching movies.  Of course we are also watching three great lecture series' on The Great Courses channel.

 

We were both at a pretty low point when we returned home last Friday afternoon.  My first movie choice was The Trojan Horse, from 1961 and starring Steve Reeves.  An Italian picture, we were expecting the usual sand and sandal muscle man epic.  There was some of that, but this was a big budget picture that sticks pretty true to Homer.  It actually was pretty good!  I hadn't wanted anything with depth or requiring much thinking, and Deb could not afford the luxury of a comedy, as laughter would have caused her more pain.  But we both ended up enjoying this widescreen and very colourful spectacle.  Reeves plays heroic Aeneas, saddled with Paris for a military leader, while John Drew Barrymore plays the cunning Odysseus.

Now showing on Prime. 

 

My leaving choice (Criterion) was a fantastic SF film we are certain we have never seen before.  But who can tell--our memories may have been scrambled, like in the movie.  Dark City (1998) all takes place at night, except at the very end.  A man awakens at a murder scene, and he appears to have been the killer.  He remembers nothing, and tries to figure out his past.  He quickly learns that the city where he lives is one of the strangest places in the universe.  He seems to have a special power, and eventually learns that an experiment on his memories went awry when he woke up during the event.  He managed to escape, and evil aliens are now in search of him.  To their peril.  This is an amazingly good film, worth a second look, too.  Even Jennifer Connelly is tolerable in her role as his wife.  Kiefer Sutherland plays a somewhat mad professor by the name of Daniel Paul Schreber (look up the real name).  William Hurt and Ian Richardson also star.  The aliens are a bit too evil, as they experiment and try to find out what makes humans tick.  Mad scientists, without a shred of humanity.  They toy with memories in an effort to find out what is inside of us.  Definitely worth catching, especially on a very dark day or night.

 

Leaving Criterion Oct. 31st. Directed by Alex Proyas.

 

Deb chose two Noir films, now that Dark City had set us in the mood.  We watched the Corinth version of Mr. Arkadin, a 1955 weirdo film by none other than Orson Welles.  There are at least four different versions of this film now, with the Spanish version even featuring different actresses from the English ones.  That includes the Criterion restored edition, helped on by Peter Bogdanovich and other directors and film historians.  We hope to see that one in a month or so, so stay tuned.  Welles plays one of the richest and most powerful men in the world, who has a past to hide from his daughter.  He hires an American to try and find out what he had done before 1927, telling him that he has amnesia.  Of course he hopes that the investigator won't find out anything, but he does.  The people who the investigator spoke with and gave information are soon showing up dead.  Certainly one of the strangest films we have ever seen, and along with Dark City we were now on a very impressive roll!  Welles looks like a satyr, and appears to have a very unhealthy interest in his daughter.  Filled with bizarre scenes and characters.  Not to be missed.

 

3 versions are currently showing on Criterion.  We watched the Corinth version. 

 

Mr. Arkadin's Christmas party in Rio. 

 

Next came one of the great classics of American Noir film,  The Big Heat, from 1953.  Glenn Ford plays a police sergeant who steps over the line when he tries to finger the biggest mobster in town.  When his wife is blown up with a car bomb (instead of him), he turns in his badge (not his gun) and goes hunting.  That car blow up scene is still one of the most shocking moments in American cinema.  Gloria Grahame gets boiling coffee thrown in her face, and returns the favour to bully boy Lee Marvin later in the film.  Shock after shock, even after seeing the film perhaps 8-10 times.  Ford is perfect in his role as cop, father, husband, and avenger.

Leaving Criterion Oct. 31st. 

 

Mapman Mike

 

 

 

 

A Sudden Finish

Everything went well, until it didn't.  Of the dozens of major trips we have undertaken, only our 3rd Mexico City adventure ended in many kinds of disaster.  That was way back in the 80s.  We have been sick on trips, especially March Break ones to NM, when one or both of us would have bad colds.  But somehow even those resulted in triumph in the end.  Not so much this most recent trip.  Its negative repercussions will last for many weeks.  The trip ended suddenly on Day 6, when we turned around and headed for home, arriving safely on Day 8.  It was supposed to last 17 days.  What happened on Day 6 to terminate our hiking adventure?

 

Deb had her second fall within 9 days.  Despite five weeks of training at home and at Malden Hill Park for hiking, she somehow slipped and fell down six stairs 4 days before our departure (see earlier blog).  We decided to carry on with the film festival in Cincinnati, and that went really well.  Deb's film was shown to a good sized and very appreciative audience on Saturday, Sept. 30th, in the 1 pm block of films.  Afterwards she did a Q & A with the audience.  I found the auditorium much too cold to stay there for long.  The weather was very warm, and the AC was very cold.  Still, I managed to watch several very good films, including Deb's.  We walked a lot in the city, and though Deb was a bit unsteady on her feet due to her cast and large bumps and bruises all over her head, face, and body, she managed just fine.  I even made it to my favourite Belgian restaurant, where they have about 20 taps of Belgian and Belgian style brews.  It is a good substitute for Heaven.

 

Deb talks to the audience after the showing of her film at the Cindependent Film Festival in Cincinnati.  She is holding the fox, one of the stars of her animated short called "A Fable For Four Voices."    

 

We left town on Sunday afternoon, heading west to do some hiking.  Deb's hiking would be moderated by her wrist cast (left arm).  On the third day we reached our first (and what would be our final) hiking destination, the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge in SW Oklahoma.  We arrived in late afternoon, with time for a drive to the top of the highest peak, Mt. Scott.  We also had time for one short hike, up to an old observation tower built in the 1930s overlooking a lake, but now closed up.  That hike went just fine, without even using our poles.

 

Deb sits on a boulder at the top of our first short hike of the trip.  Her cast can be seen. 

 

For the next day we had plans to do several more shorter hikes before moving on to Texas for a longer one.  Because of heat, humidity, and approaching storms that would reach our area by the afternoon, we got up at 6:30 am for an early start.  Even that early it was very warm and extremely humid.  We were on the trail around 8:30 am.  Going up a short slope Deb lost her footing on some sand over top a flat but sloping granite rock.  Down she went.  She fell hard, on her left (cast) side.  I was one second away, but could do nothing in time.  She lost her breath for several seconds, and then the pain hit her.  Her wrist was fine, but it seemed as if she had broken some ribs on that side.

 

She could not get up.  We tried for about twenty minutes to get her to stand.  There was no cell phone service back there, as we discovered.  We were close to the car, and not far from the visitor center, where I could get some aid.  But we finally managed to get her standing.  Then began a very slow walk back to the car.  That involved several staircases, as we had to recross a large dam.  Into Lawton, sent onward from an Urgent Care Clinic where they sent us to the nearby Commanche County Hospital.  Lots of x-rays, some pain meds, and finally a diagnosis.  No broken ribs; a bruised lung.  If that sounds painful, it really is.  But only when you move or breathe.  Otherwise everything is just fine.  And don't dare cough or sneeze.  The hospital was terrific, and treated Deb well.  We left at 3 pm, heading for home.  The sky was black, the wind was up, and we headed out onto the highway for a nightmare drive.

 

I have driven in rain; I have driven in wind; I have driven in snow.  But this extreme rain was something entirely out of my experience.  Determined to get as far as possible today towards home, we eventually made it to Joplin Missouri.  Though reasonably comfortable in the car seat, Deb was in constant pain, with occasional bouts of most severe pain.  I drove through rain where I could not see 100' in front of me.  We had to get through Oklahoma City during rush hour during this fierce storm.  We had to pull off for half an hour just due to stress on the driver.  I ended up following a transport truck much of the night, trying to keep his rear red lights in my view.  But this truck driver was a maniac, whose average speed was around 75 mph during this several hour rainstorm.  We passed everything.  Sometimes a car would be in the slow lane going about 40 mph, and we would zoom past as if it were on the side of the road and stopped.  The rain never let up that night, as we seemed to follow the weather front to the northeast.

At the first motel Deb was able to sleep on her side, supported by a small army of pillows.  Getting up and back down was not a fun pastime, though.  Next day we made it to Lafayette, Indiana, and by Friday at 2:30 pm we were home, 47 hours after leaving the hospital.  Messaging one of my physician/musician friends earlier today (thank you, Dr. S.), Deb can expect most healing to take place in the first two weeks, with lingering effects for up to six weeks.  Yay.  That is when her wrist cast might come off, too.

Lastly, I came down with a very bad cold on the way home, likely caught in Cincinnati.  And now Deb has it.  She can't take her (overdue) RA meds until that is all finished.  The adventures never stop here at the Homestead.

Mapman Mike

 

 

September Reading Summary

I hit the jackpot with the first novel of the month, Robert Silverberg's Kingdoms of the Wall, a lengthy novel from 1992.  Joining books that take us on great journeys such as some of my favourite reads of all time, this one easily ranks as a don't miss masterpiece of hiking.  It has more than a bit of The Hobbit in it.  It also has some Gormenghast elements, especially at the beginning, and quite a bit of Well at The World's End, too.  Then come memories of the two volume set of The Night Land, not to mention Dante's Inferno.  Which brings to mind the paintings of Bosch.  The Voyages of Gulliver are here, and David Lindsay's A Voyage To Arcturus, and, of course, Homer and Ulysses.  In short, Silverberg's novel is an epic in every sense of the word, a quest akin to searching for the Holy Grail.  So I guess Arthurian tales should also be mentioned here.  It is a vast fantasy novel wrapped in thin science fiction paper.  It is a tale of people on a strange planet, searching ever for their gods.  What they eventually find no one could have predicted, though it drove many of its discoverers mad.  A great novel in every sense.

 

Next came Armada of Antares, the 11th volume in the tales of Dray Prescott, written by Kenneth Bulmer.  It concludes a large block of a continuing story line, which taken altogether is pretty good fantasy writing.  Beginning with the 6th book and continuing through the 11th, the Havilfar Cycle is an impressive read, inspired by Edgar Rice Burroughs' Martian series.  This last book finally sees the greatly anticipated battle take place between Hamil and Vallia.   But the final book in this segment of the story isn't one of the better entries, and the battle itself is told quickly and without much detail.  So much for building to a climax.

The Captive is another western (he wrote 11 of them) by E C Tubb, written in 1955.  This one takes place near the end of the Civil War, in a western desert.  The South is losing, unable to feed or pay its troops.  They try to smuggle a gold shipment from California to help their cause.  A man is given the task of finding the wagon train shipping the gold, and to see that the gold does not reach the South.  Along the way he is captured and tortured by Commanches.  But again (see last month's read by this author) Tubb gives two sides to the story.  The Indians are fighting a losing battle against white encroachment, and are desperate to die fighting.  However, some want peace, no matter how many treaties the whites have broken.  There aren't enough soldiers to deal with Indian raids, due to the Civil War.  So the white general is also hoping for peace.  A decent pulp action novel with some strong characters, including Native ones, and even Southern ones (well, one anyway, a female).  And what happens to the gold at the end will keep adventurers searching for it forever.  Good luck with that!

 

I finished up a large Moorcock volume, Earl Aubec, which contains a novel (see last month) and a whole slew of short stories, written between 1962 and 1993.  Two stories stand out, while several others are worth reading.  "A Dead Singer" is from 1974, and is 8 pages long.  I think Iain Banks would have loved this story, and some of it reminds me strongly of his writing.  Jimi and a roadie take a little trip.  Highly entertaining!  "Hanging The Fool" is from 1989, and is 17 pages long.   One of Moorcock's Euro-tales, of which I am immensely fond.  No fantasy elements here, but the Tarot Deck plays an important role in the story, and it has a grisly side to it.

 

Lastly (from my Avon/Equinox authors project) came a new collection of old stories by Barry Malzberg.  Called Ready When You Are And Other Stories, the author gives a short introduction, and then follows each story with a brief afterword.  The stories date from 1979 through 1997, with most of them written in the 1980s.  "The Twentieth Century Murder Case" is an ingenious crime caper, with a very unusual victim.  "The Trials of Rollo" is a humourous piece about a man travelling back in time to have a second chance at landing the girl of his dreams.  "Grand Tour" is one of two stories where a man gets three wishes from a genie.  Even after getting his three wishes, he is still depressed and at the end of his rope.  Why?  Because he is who he is, and he did not wish for any kind of real change in himself.  "Celebrating" is quite a charming tale about a man with a gifted young daughter, who teaches him a very important lesson.

 

My first free choice read of the month was H. Rider Haggard's second novel, "The Witch's Head" from 1884.  It is an epic read, originally published in three volumes.  I nearly gave up part way through book 2, but I am glad I persevered.  For a while it looked like a typical late 19th C soap opera kind of story, which I found surprising for Haggard.  He has long been one of my favourite authors, for reasons that will become obvious the further along we go with his works.  But Haggard soon has turned the Victorian novel much on its head, and written a very entertaining piece of fiction.  Three women love the same man, but he only loves one of them; the most beautiful of them, Eva.  Eva's jealous older sister, who also loves poor Earnest, contrives to ruin their relationship.  She does a masterful job of it.  Young Dorothy, almost like a sister to Earnest, also loves him, but realizes that she is far out of the running.  After getting engaged to Eva, Ernest is off on an adventure which will lead him far from most other young men's adventures abroad.  He kills a man in a duel (a cousin) and flees with a friend to South Africa.  He ends up fighting in the first major encounter of British versus Zulus (Battle of Isandhlwana) on January 22nd, 1879, in which the British were totally demolished.  He comes out alive, but blind, due to a lightening strike.  Where does the witch's head come into things?  At the very beginning, and at the very end.  Why did the face of the witch look like Eva's older sister, the one who spoiled everything for the lovers?  Who knows.  Still a cracking good adventure novel, with lots of courting, shooting, and fighting.  For his time, Haggard was fairly advanced in his written treatment of women and Blacks, though today he would be called sexist and a racist.

Next up on the Kindle reader was Dashiell Hammett's first novel, Red Harvest, from 1929.  The only kind of non-wartime story that would have a higher body count would be a samurai film.  And guess what?  Kurosawa took this novel and made it into Yojimbo, one of his biggest popular hits.  A private detective arrives in a small city to find a seething den of crime and general iniquity.  An old man hires him to clean up the town and discover who killed his son, who had just taken over the town newspaper.  The son had actually hired him first, but was gunned down before he could give his scoop to the detective.  The plot and characters are nearly impossible to follow; there are at least three criminal gangs and the entire corrupt police department to deal with, so the detective goes about setting them all against one another.  While the writing style is crude, it is effective and often very dry and funny.  An amazing first novel, and great fun to read.

Fergus Hume followed up his successful first novel with a shorter one called Professor Brankel's Secret, from 1886.  This is a very quick read about a mad chemistry professor who finds a formula that will allow him to travel back in time.  There is also a formula that will allow him to travel into the future, but that part requires having the missing 2nd volume of an old chemistry book.  He tracks down the 2nd book to an English collector, looking for the missing formula.  This is a Gothic tale along the lines of Stevenson's Jekyll/Hyde story, but not nearly so carefully written.  Fun to read, and does not require much from the reader.

Watch and Ward was written in serial form and published in 1871, then revised for book publication in 1878.  Henry James' first novel is a very minor and bizarre tale about a man who takes in an orphaned 12 year old girl and raises her to be his wife.  Try writing that kind of story today!  Of course she knows nothing of his ultimate purpose, and grows up well cared for and happy.  To begin at the beginning, after her father commits suicide, a young girl is left homeless and without family.  Our hero steps in quickly to look after the child, as he was first on scene after the shooting in a hotel.  Before any readers panic, he has an older female housekeeper who helps raise the child, who is soon sent off to boarding school.  A year in Europe follows for the girl, accompanied there by a friendly and rich female friend of the rescuer, and sees her return at age 18 a beautiful and highly educated young lady, in whom three men are very interested.  One is supposedly a long lost cousin of hers, who turns out to be quite a cad.  The other is our hero's cousin, a preacher.  She falls for him, but in the end realizes how weak the man truly is.  In short, the only man whom she can fully trust is her rescuer and guardian.  When he proposes marriage at long last, she at first refuses and runs off to London.  After a few sordid epidsodes there, and having her eyes opened wide to life,and especially men, she returns to marry him after all.  Though the subject matter is somewhat strange, what really defeats the novel (which James disavowed later in life--it's very hard to find a copy of it, but my complete set of his works from Delphi Classics has it) is its simplistic outlook and very simple plot.  While I am glad that for once nothing seriously wrong happens to the child, other than witnessing her father's suicide, the characters are little more than cardboard, and seem to have very little depth.  Probably meant to be a heart warming tale of a man who finds true love (and the woman, too, eventually), James goes out of his way to avoid the story becoming creepy or sentimental.  While it is neither of those, it still lacks enough energy and power to stand even in the middle of the pack as a good read.  Probably best read by James' completists and scholars, or those curious as to the subject matter.  It was first published in serial form in 1871, and considerably improved for its 1878 book publication.  I read the 1878 version.

A second collection of ghost stories by M. R. James is simply called More Ghost Stories, and was published in 1911.  There are 7 stories, and while all of them are worth reading, I will mention two that stand out.  "Casting the Runes" was made into a superior horror film by Jacques Tourneur called Night of the Demon, which was only spoiled at the very end when the monster is shown.  James' tales are so different from those of Lovecraft, an inferior writer who dwells endlessly on how horrible and terrifying everything is.  James is one of those writers that seems to get the facts of the matter down without emotional baggage attached, and still provide a spine tingling thrill by the final page.  Even though I knew the story well, I was biting my nails towards the end of Runes, as if the ending might somehow turn out differently, and the innocent fall victim to the evil.  Another great story is "The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral," dramatized for British television many years ago.  This one involves carvings that were made from a very old, dead oak tree for the church, and depict frightening creatures that seem to be able to punish anyone who touches them who happens to have blood on his hands (meaning that he has murdered someone).  There is also a good tale about a haunted rose garden, and another about a haunted maze.  Fun reading, especially on a windy night!

 

1st edition of James' 2nd set of ghost stories. 

 

Jerome K. Jerome also had some things to say about Victorian ghost stories.  He early and short collection of stories is called Told After Supper, and was published in 1891.  The author pokes fun at the English tradition of telling ghost stories on Christmas Eve.  Here in North America we usually prefer Samhain, or Halloween as it is now known.  The stories are few and they are very short.  This is a very easy read, perfect for a damp and dark afternoon.  Parts of this book are very funny indeed, my favourite being the story told about the man who killed an entire host of annoying street musicians.  Highly recommended, and makes a perfect after dinner mint after reading the M. R. James stories.

The 1st edition. 

 

I pressed on with a slightly longer, though still short, story collection by Jerome called John Ingerfield and Other Stories, published in 1893.  The lead story is the longest of five tales, three of them very serious ones.  This first story is a very well written one called "In Remembrance of John Ingerfield and His Wife Anna."  Jerome bases this story on a tombstone the narrator seeks out in a poor section of London on the grounds of an old and run down church.  At its heart it is a very unusual and touching love story, set in a time when typhoid fever was running rampant in parts of London, mostly in the poorer areas.  "The Woman of the Saeter" is an old fashioned ghost story that takes place in the mountains of Norway.  I guess he wanted to prove that he could write a real ghost story.  "Variety Patter" details the humourous adventures of a 14 year old boy making his first visit to a music hall.  He smokes cigars, drinks too much, and does it all again when he is 16 or 17.  A pretty funny story.  The final two stories are not very memorable.

 

Lastly came the next Oz book, the 7th, by Frank Baum, called The Patchwork Girl of Oz, from 1913.  All of the Oz books are so odd that by the 7th book they don't seem very odd anymore.  Baum had ended the series at book 6, but decided to bring out another one due to popularity and the income it brought him.  Oz had been sealed off from our world, so he had to come up with a way for the new story to get to him.  New characters in this story, which was his first "quest" adventure, include the namesake Patchwork Girl, as well as the Crooked Wizard, Ojo the Boy Munchkin, the Glass Cat, and the Woozy.  As they seek ingredients for a magic formula that will free Ojo's uncle from an accident with a magic spell that turned him into a marble statue, along with the wizard's wife, they gradually encounter most of the old friends we have all come to know from previous books.  Baum claimed that this was his best Oz book to date.

 

Back by popular demand.
 

Mapman Mike