Because of travel I was unable to report on August as a standalone month. I write this blog entry as I go along, writing a short review after reading the next book. However, it doesn't get published until the end of the month.
Scorpio Drums (1992) by Kenneth Bulmer is 235 pages long and continues the decline of the great series. The
first part of the book isn't too bad, as Dray and company descend upon a
city hidden by a dense jungle. They find the citizens frozen in time,
in the midst of their daily and ceremonial activities. They have been
frozen for almost 300 years. What a great story opportunity. I became
excited. But then the book degenerated into yet another underground
maze, with traps, fierce animals and, lastly, a tribe that worships a
sacred fire. Dray is after a collection of special rubies, wanted badly
by yet another evil wizard. Yawn. So we wander below ground for over a
hundred pages. Dray becomes a slave again, then a sacrificial victim.
When it all becomes too much for him (seeing Deliah in combat to the
death) he goes wild. The evil wizard snatches the ruby we have been
searching for through the entire book and disappears with it. End of
this story. Still several more to get through.
** stars.
The Children of Captain Grant by Jules Verne (also called In Search of the Castaways, a much better title) was published in 1867 and translated a year later. It consists of three books that tell of an around the world adventure of the Scottish ship Duncan, led by Lord Glenarvan as they search for a missing boat captain, father to two children. The expedition spends one of the books in South America, another in Australia, and the third in New Zealand. It is a boys' adventure story, though with a lot of geography lessons thrown in. The two females don't do much except not complain, and suffer with dignity in silence during the hardships. The 12 year old son of the missing Captain Grant, however, is involved in several heroic deeds. This is not my favourite Verne novel, and a lot of it is very slow going, especially the first book in Patagonia. In a remarkable stroke of good luck, after nearly everything has gone wrong many times, everything works out fine. The captain is rescued, the bad guy is left on a deserted island, and apparently everyone lives happily ever after. The events and geography are perfectly integrated with known facts at the time, including war with the Maori in New Zealand and the fact that they were cannibals. For its time, this would have been an example of "true adventure" story. Worth reading, but certainly not essential Verne. *** stars.
All illustrations by Edouard Riou.
Next up was a true classic of SF literature--The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells from 1897. Wells does everything he can to make this story work, as he thinks of everything that might happen to give away the man. Footprints in the snow, digestive issues, bleeding from wounds, jostled in crowds, hit from behind by vehicles. The scientist who makes himself invisible is a very ornery and selfish man, and while at first we are sympathetic to him, once we hear his manifesto we can't wait for him to be caught. What imaginative person has not wanted to be invisible at times? However, once we see all the traps that can catch a person in such a state, it does not seem quite so wonderful an idea. Wells has taken a universal wish and made it come true, for better and for worse. The formula is still out there somewhere, written into three books that have now been missing for a very long time. Perhaps they will turn up someday. Perhaps they already have. **** stars. Recommended.
A Woman of No Importance is a play by Oscar Wilde, first performed in 1893. This has to be one of the drollest plays ever written. The theatre director where Wilde's previous success had run (Lady Windemere's Fan) wanted another comedy, and he wanted it quickly. Wilde obliged with this work, certainly not his best though filled with more witticisms than any large joke book. A man discovers his son, whom he had abandoned along with the mother, and offers him a job as his private secretary. Once the truth finally spills out, however, the father has to face up to the consequences of his previous inaction. A serious play though filled with wit. It's all too offhand for my taste, but I guess that is the point--society people are ultimately empty and worthless. *** stars.
Mrs. Dalloway is the novel that put Virginia Woolf on the literary map, and kept her there. Published in 1925 this novel, more than any earlier work, shows just what Woolf was capable of. It uses as its framework a day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway, an upper class woman who lives to give parties. We first meet Clarissa as she heads to the flower shop in the early morning to order flowers for her evening party. We spend a day with her and people she knows, getting inside their heads in turn and sorting through their thoughts. The story never dwells on any one person, but moves from person to person throughout the book. Central to the story is Peter Walsh, just back from 5 years in Italy (1918-23). He had been in love with Clarissa, and though they had got on well and were great friends, she choose Richard for her husband instead. He is still in love with Clarissa, at least in some ways, even though he recognizes her for what she really is. Also central to the story is Septimus, a war veteran suffering terribly from PTSD, which was not known about then. His wife Lucretia (Reiza), an Italian woman he married in Italy after the war, is greatly troubled by his worsening mental state. Dr. Holmes, a GP, is worse than useless to her and Septimus. Dr. Bradshaw recognizes the soldier's condition but requires him to be institutionalized and separated from his wife. Elizabeth is Clarissa and Richard's teenage daughter, just beginning to awaken to life and its possibilities. All of these characters and more we learn much about during the novel. While it might seem that the book is Joyce light, it is highly readable and not difficult to follow or understand. It remains one of the better stream of consciousness novels to this day. **** stars.
Foundation and Empire is from 1952, Asimov's 2nd Foundation novel. The book details the falling of the first Foundation, as well as the further disintegration of the Empire. The Mule now takes front stage, and we don't discover who he/it is until the end of the novel. I enjoyed this one more than the first volume, mostly because the characters seem a bit more interesting and more developed, and are given a bit more to do. Seldon's predictions have broken down, unable to predict the Mule and what he has done to disrupt the plan. Or has the plan broken down. Harry Seldon knew something was going to happen, or else why would he have set up a 2nd Foundation. This one is so secretive that no one knows its location or status. Can it take on the Mule? Should it take on the Mule? We'll have to wait till next month to find out the big mystery. A good read. *** 1/2 stars.
Children of the Ritz is a 1927 novel by Cornell Woolrich, his 2nd. While not a great piece of literature, it is a readable tale of an 18 year old spoiled rich girl who falls for the new family chauffeur. They end up running away to be married. He has recently won $50,000.00 at the racetrack, and their marriage gets off to a good start. However, the young woman cannot give up the lifestyle she had when living with her family, who are now bankrupt. She spends and spends, goes out dancing with friends and meets and falls for another rich man. I kept waiting for something major to happen, for instance a murder. But not much happens except for the marriage failing, the girl running back to her family (who now have money again), and the happy couple getting back together again at the end. The chauffeur's family, especially his mom, will remind readers of Michael Moorcock's Jerry Cornelius and family. Jerry's mom is very much like the one Woolrich gives us. Worth a quick read, but not a recommendation. ** 1/2 stars.
The Crooked Hinge is a 1938 murder/mystery novel from 1938 by the great John Dickson Carr. In my teens I read everything I could by Carr, and my local library had many of his novels in paperback edition. I collected him for years, too. I haven't read a Carr novel in perhaps 30 years, but I'm happy to be back. The author was greatly influenced by Chesterton, especially his Father Brown stories. This is a fairly convoluted tale of murder, reminding me of the very first Father Brown story. Amateur sleuths would have no way of solving this murder, even if the correct criminal was suspected (I suspected the correct person but had no idea how it was done). This story involves witchcraft, automatons, the sinking of the Titanic and a lot of people. Of course wheezing Dr. Fell solves the crime, but it takes a 22 page chapter at the end to explain it all to us. A bit too far fetched for this reader. Forgetting about the mystery component, however, it is a heck of a good novel. It is perfect for a TV script. *** stars. Reviewed September 15th/26
Yeats' New Poems was published in 1938, the same year as Carr's mystery. I particularly liked "The Three Bushes", a Pre-Raphaelite work of significance. Is is about three memorial bushes planted for three deceased people. Many of the poems refer to Irish history and characters who influenced it. I really liked "The Ghost of Roger Casement," which reads like lyrics from a Pogues song. And "The Municipal Gallery Revisited" seems to sum up much of the work in this collection, being a thoughtful ode to Irish struggles and personal friendships made along the way.
Don Delillo's White Noise is a novel from 1985. I think I've read it before, though I have no written account of it anywhere. It's a book that often appears on "must read" lists, so I began reading, as usual, wanting to like the novel. But part way in I found that I didn't really like it very much. I found much of the writing glib, uninspired, too matter-of-fact and quite emotionless. However, as I read on I would come across a line or paragraph that was truly well written. I slowly began to like it, in places. Then major events occur and the book begins to soar. So I ended up liking it quite a bit. Grocery stores feature widely in the story, places of sanity and where many of the characters often meet by chance. This reminded me of Ballard's use of multi-storey car parks. In fact, there is more than a hint of Ballard in Delillo's writing and style. Even more of other writers also appear, including Barry Malzberg, Woody Allen, Dave Barry and even John Sladek. A few quotes will give some idea of the style and quality of writing.
From Chapter 11: "Television is just another name for junk mail."
From Chapter 14: "Only a catastrophe gets our attention. We want them, we need them, we depend on them. As long as they happen somewhere else."
From Chapter 19: "Bee [one of the hero's daughters] was small-featured except for her eyes, which seemed to contain two forms of life, the subject matter and its hidden implications."
From Chapter 22: There were two new developments at the supermarket, a butcher's corner and a bakery, and the oven aroma of bread and cake combined with the sight of a bloodstained man pounding at strips of living veal was pretty exciting for us all."
From Chapter 22: (again in the grocery store) "Products from twenty countries. It's like being at some cross-roads of the ancient world, a Persian bazaar or boom town on the Tigris."
From Chapter 27 (about a younger daughter): "She had a history of being devout in her victimhood."
From Chapter 37: "Would you prefer to know the exact date and time of your death?" "Absolutely not. It's bad enough to fear the unknown. Faced with the unknown, we can pretend it isn't there. Exact dates would drive many to suicide, if only to beat the system."
From Chapter 40 (regarding his youngest child): "He walked the tricycle down the steps, guiding it with a duteous and unsentimental hand, letting it bump right along, as if it were an odd-shaped little sibling, not necessarily cherished."
I would recommend the book. If readers don't like the first 50 pages or so, try to stick with it. It gets better and better. *** 1/2 stars.
Nightwood by Djuna Barnes was next, published in 1936. There is a preface from 2006 by Jeanette Winterson, and an introduction by T. S. Elliot from 1937. The book comes highly recommended, but after reading it I know that it is not for me. The main characters are Robin, a woman who stirs the pot and is more or less the center of things; her spurned lover Felix, who has a son by her before they separate; Nora, a female spurned lover; Robin's newest lover Jenny; and the doctor, a man who talks incessantly and when in a conversation can never give a true answer at any time. All the characters are mad, with Nora driven insane by her love for Robin and Robin herself so unsure of who or what she is that she is likely the craziest of them all. The alcoholic impoverished doctor is insane, but we don't find out why until near the end. Jenny is also mad about Robin and when Robin drifts away from her she is not far behind Nora in her obsession. Felix wanders Europe with his handicapped son, totally adrift with no hope of ever being grounded.
Each character is introduced with a very long description before they have said or done anything. While the book is quite readable it seldom makes sense. Since crazy people are talking most of the time (the book is extremely heavy on dialogue), I suppose it is not meant to make much sense. Descriptions tend to be on the bizarre side, not helping readers to picture what is meant but being quite descriptive nonetheless. For instance: "In her face was the tense expression of an organism surviving in an alien element." Or a more general example: "The French are dishevelled and wise; the American tries to approximate it with drink." Try this one: "There is no truth...you have dressed the unknowable in the garments of the known." I like that one a lot. One final word of wisdom from the author (usually it is the doctor speaking these sideways truths): "...be careful whom you love--for a lover who dies, no matter how forgotten, will take somewhat of you to the grave."
A good read overall, but not an easy one. I won't recommend it as it is not what I am searching for in a book, but give it a try if you want a bit of a challenge, or if you are pining away about a lost lover. Good luck. *** stars.
I finished up with another section of essays (three) by Stephen Jay Gould. The book is called Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and The Diet of Worms, his tenth collection of essays on evolution. Section IV of the book is called "History and Tolerance." The first essay (the 11th of the book so far) is called "A Cerion For Christopher" and is a very readable account of Columbus' first landing in 1492, on the Bahamas. This is one of the best essays on first contact I have ever read and can highly recommend it. The next essay is called "The Dodo in the Caucus Race," and explains the demise of the giant flightless bird and how people at the time blamed its stupidity for becoming extinct. This is eye-opening writing and a must for any student of science. The final essay discusses Martin Luther's defense of his version of Christianity, as well as the way religion has led to so much violence and hatred. Two sections and eight more essays remain. So far this is easily his best collection, though they are all five star books.
Mapman Mike
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