August Reading Summary

 I was slowed down in the middle of the month by some medical issues, taking a very long time to read the Dunsany novel discussed below.  But at least the first five novels, all related to my Avon/Equinox SF Rediscovery authors, went by quickly.  Let us begin, as usual, with Robert Silverberg.

His next crime novel to be recently republished is called Blood on the Mink, first published in Trapped Magazine, 1959.  Besides the main short novel, there are also two shorter tales.  The author gives a modern afterword to his stories.  The plot has to do with a federal agent taking the identity of a criminal, and trying to stop the flow of counterfeit cash coming out of Philadelphia.  There is a lot of tension and a lot of plot thickening in this decent story of underworld crime and violence, which includes a few dames and lots of shooting.  It is a short novel, and I easily read it over the course of a day.  There is some humour regarding night life in Philly.  Worth a read for pulp crime fiction fans.  It would make a decent noir film, even today.  Also included were:

Dangerous Doll, a story from 1960, also to do with counterfeit money.  A Chicago hoodlum is to deliver some plates, but things go wrong when he is tested by the syndicate.  He sells them down the river the first chance he gets, but afterwards he realizes that he is out of chances.

One Night of Violence is from 1959.  An innocent Wisconsin furnace salesman involves himself in an altercation in the motel room next to his, and soon regrets his interference.  It leads to a shootout between two Chicago gangs in the motel and parking lot.  A lively story!

 

Cover art by Michael Koelsch.  I read the Kindle edition. 

 

In A Fortune For Kregen, we have arrived at the 21st book of the Dray Prescott series, one in which Bulmer's imagination continues to impress readers.  Things take yet another different turn in this novel from 1979.  At first it seems like the same old thing, as Dray once again is captured and becomes a slave.  But soon things develop, and the adventure we read about could easily be transferred to a Lara Croft Tomb Raider game.  Dray is a slave in a large expedition that heads to a vast underground burial site, protected by traps and wizardry, including monsters, ghouls, walls that close in, and even stinging insects.  Most people are out for loot from the burial tombs.  The underground caverns have grown vast over the centuries, and the traps more diabolical and dangerous.  Dray just wants to get out, alive if possible.  Though never quite up to the sword and sorcery standards of Fritz Leiber, Bulmer has created a world filled with excitement, adventure, and danger.  That includes wizardry, which takes a front seat in this story.  A fun read, and quite different from most of the other entries in this enticing series.

 

The fifth book of E C Tubb's Cap Kennedy series (he is a secret agent for Earth) is called Jewel of Jarhen, dates from 1974, and is a brief 111 pages.  It features a good opening chapter, as the cruel leader of a medieval-type world is killed while on a hunt, and his more rational younger brother has to take over.  The title jewel itself is quite intriguing, and forms the central plot line of the story, nicely mixing science with sorcery.  Cap and his boys are charged with a diplomatic mission, even though they are warriors rather than diplomats.  This puts a different spin on the story as well.  Science and magic and superstition meet on the planet Jarhen, as three civilizations compete for the right to trade with the backward planet and help it along its course of growth.  When the previous Earth diplomat is found drowned in his bed, far from any water, Cap is called in.  Good thing Cap can swim.  How did someone drown when they weren't near water?  Read this fun pulp adventure story to find out.

Barry Malzberg's (writing as Mike Barry) Peruvian Nightmare is from 1974 and is 137 pages long.  The story picks up directly after #6 in this series, about a lone wolf out to exterminate the North American drug trade after his girlfriend was killed by an overdose.  Burt Wulf lands in Peru, where he is trapped in a large hotel.  The bad guy from book 6, Calabrese, just wanted Wulf out of the country and out of his hair, but realizes too late that he should have had him killed instead.  Wulf is helped out by the hotel owner, who has a little job for him, and who promises to get him out of the country at the same time.  Book 7 includes a narrative recap of many of the events that happened in earlier books, but finally gives us some details about his relationship with his deceased girlfriend.  The book spends a lot of time inside Wulf's head, and the on-going killings, still a goodly number of them, seem to take a backseat to the man's introspective life.  In Peru Wulf takes a bus to Cuzco, where his bus is ambushed by Calabrese's men.  He is ambushed again at the climax of the novel, on a narrow ledge along a high mountain trail.  The death of two horses in this scene is very unpleasant, and is treated in a thoughtless and mostly carefree way.  Kill all the bad people that you want, but leave the animals alone, svp.  We are now halfway through the series, and so far Malzberg is able to make each story not only different, but interesting and mostly fun to read.  Let's hope that Wulf succeeds in eliminating the drug trade, and that in 2024 there will not be anymore overdose deaths (add heavy sarcasm to preceding statement).

 

Lastly from SF writers comes James Blish's More Issues At Hand.  Blish's second group of essays dates from the late 1950s to 1970.  There is more focus here on single novels, rather than shorter stories.  I find myself disagreeing with Blish much of the time, though he speaks many truths and bursts many bubbles.  He seems, to put it bluntly, to be an old fogey.  I do not blame him for trying to raise the standard of SF literature, and for blasting poor writing.  He blames writers, editors, and readers for the problems.   Why does some real drivel get published, and why does some of it even win coveted awards?  Well, Mr. Blish, the universe is filled with mysteries, many of which will never get solved.  Why do voters vote for criminal and psychotic politicians?  Why do people eat tons of junk food every day?  Why do hideous billboards appear on highways that have beautiful natural scenery?  Why do so many women marry male crumb bums?  I could go on.  There isn't much that Blish can do about it, except insult writers and make enemies of them, which he seems to have done rather well.  Among his other incisions, he tears apart the British New Wave SF writers, often with very prescient comments.  I agree with much of what he says here, but what's done is done.  He loves SF literature, but never once mentions the many horrible SF movies that helped lower the bar even further for writers.  For most people, SF means monsters, aliens, and flying saucers, all threatening our existence (are you listening, Dr. Who?) instead of well plotted stories about characters dealing with some form of science problem.  He blames SF writers for trying out new forms, ones which have been prevalent in regular literature for decades.  Since many writers never come to terms with Joyce's writing, nor even attempt to, why belittle SF writers when they try something new in the genre that has never before been done here?  Even failures have their value, providing that the writer and others can learn something from them.  Sometimes he swill rip apart a story without even saying why, though most of the time he gives his reasons for disliking a book.  While some may boil and fume at Blish's criticism, at the time he was only one of two writers even doing such a thing.  Overall, like the first book, this one is well worth reading for SF fans, especially if well read in others areas of literature.  Highly recommended. (The second SF writer to turn critic was Damon Knight--I have seen purchased his book of such from Kindle).

Now comes the free reading period of the month, when nearly anything can turn up.  First up was Curse of the Wise Woman by Lord Dunsany, from 1933.  This is a very special book only to those who have known a piece of land well, and been changed and formed by it.  The Sudbury landscape where I grew up is now completely changed, though for the better.  Still, I cannot return here and see what I saw growing up.  The bare rocks have now sprouted forests, and Sudbury is now green instead of black.  Lake Penage, where our summer camp was located, probably shaped me as a person just as much.  Though the landscape remains much the same, since we sold the camp I can never go back.  My third major influence from the land was New Mexico, with deserts and alpine mountains in heaping quantities.  Much of it remains unchanged, and I am free to visit whenever I can.  Those three landscapes--early Sudbury, Penage, and certain parts of New Mexico will always be with me, even if I cannot always be with them (the former, never again).  Anyone with similar experiences will understand Dunsany's book, and his attempt to show one young man's connection to a vast Irish bog that is about to undergo transforming development from an English peat company.  All that stands in their way is an Irish witch.  This is a story with deep, deep roots in the land, and despite the person being a 'sportsman', the message still comes across loud and clear.  Will the witch be able to save the bog from developers, or will it be lost for all time.  It would be a spoiler to tell, but the ending and the story isn't was this book is about--it's about the land.  A masterpiece.

A book with very special powers to enchant the reader. 

 

T. S. Eliot's Poems 1920 contains 12 poems written up to that year.  Like most Eliot poetry, the surface seems easy to read, but understanding the inner meaning of words and phrases is beyond most casual readers, including this one.  To make matters more difficult, 4 of the poems are entirely in French!  What is a reader to do?  In my case, Genius.com came to the rescue.  This site not only will translate back to English, but will carefully annotate and explain the poem, often line by line.  I found it invaluable in understanding the meaning and relevance of the poem.  Two favourite poems for this reader were the incomparable "Hippopotamus", where a hippo's life is compared to that of the Church.  Biting satire at its finest, not to mention quite funny.  The other is "Dans le Restaurant", one of the French poems.  Chilling and somewhat mystifying.  The poem ends with an early version of Death By Water (written for a good friend killed in the Gallipoli fiasco.

Next came three novellas by Gogol, contained in a volume entitle Arabesques, from 1935.  The first is called The Portrait, and is a lesson for writers in how to tell a good story.  It is a supernatural tale, but one that could also be explained in more rational ways.  In two parts, the first part tells how the purchase of a portrait in a junk shop alters the life of a young artist, in mostly negative ways.  In the 2nd part we learn about the artist who painted the portrait, and the man depicted in the picture.  Though not a hair raising tale and not likely to appeal to fans of Stephen King, it is an extremely well crafted story.  All the information required for readers is eventually given out in Part 2, and after experiencing Part 1, we can make our own judgment of whether or not "the devil' was involved.  An excellent read.

Nevsky Prospekt was next.  The exposition is dedicated to detailing the life of the famous street in St. Petersburg from dawn to dawn.  Then the author begins to tell his story, which is actually two stories.  Two young men, one an artist and one a lieutenant each follow a different beautiful woman they encounter on the boulevard.  The two stories and their outcomes are very different, the second perhaps more unexpected than the first.  These are the kinds of stories that could have produced an entire volume unto themselves based around that street, and perhaps Gogol had such an idea in mind.  But the second story ends so abruptly that it seems as if he tired of the idea and wanted to move on.  Not nearly as satisfying as the first story.

Third and finally came Diary of a Madman.  Some people might actually read this thinking that it is a comedy.  Though not exactly a case study for madness, it does get the idea across of how delusions, often of grandeur, accompany some forms of madness, as well as auditory hallucinations.  The wretched clerk in the story is pretty far gone before the story proceeds very far.  The most entertaining part of the story for this reader was the dialogue and letters between two lap dogs.  But the story becomes more and more horrifying as it proceeds.  Definitely a unique story for its time.  In the present, the streets are where many schizophrenic people end up.  Back then it was in an institution, where treatment was so often brutal and inhuman.

 

Anna Katherine Green's The Sword of Damocles is her third novel and is from 1881.  It is an epic tale, well planned, and divided into five books.  The fun of reading books about love, courtship, and honour from the 1800s is to undertake it like an expedition in archaeology.  What was it like back then for middle and upper class people to get married?  What was expected of the man?  Was it all up to the father of the bride?  All these questions and more will be answered when a book such as this is read.  Besides the love interest of two couples, there is a mystery or two to be solved, including the mysterious reason for Mr. Sylvester's clouded brow.  There is also a type of bank robbery, which casts doubt on the character of one of the young suitors.  Though it is a long novel, it is an easy read.  Occasionally the story itself is interrupted while one of the characters relates a background story.  One of the interesting things about the book, which proves its careful planning, is that virtually every character one meets has a crucial role to play, sometimes much alter in the story.  Just what is the sword that figuratively hangs over the head of Mr. Sylvester?  Nothing much, by today's criminal and moral standards.  But back then it was enough to ruin a man's reputation, and cause him to lose the woman he loves.  Overall it is quite a good novel, and well suited for adaptation to a TV series.

We are watching a crime and mystery literature course on The Great Courses.  This is a very thorough investigation of the genre, beginning with its creator Edgar Allen Poe, through much of Conan Doyle's creation, Sherlock Holmes, delving deeply into Agatha Christie's contributions, continuing on through the American hard boiled detective years of the 1930s, right up to contemporary writers.  One of the episodes spent a lot of time discussing dime novel detectives.  These stories sprang up in the 1800s between the time of Poe's three detective stories and those of Conan Doyle.  One of the most prolific writers of that time, and one which had a huge influence on later detective fiction, went under the by-line of The Old Sleuth, AKA Harlan Page Halsey.  He wrote hundreds of dime novel mysteries back in the 1880s.  I read #12, called The Twin Detectives, or The Missing Heiress, from August 1885.  Written well before Conan Doyle's Holmes stories, I was surprised how many little connections there were between the two.  Doyle was obviously a fan of dime novel detective stories before he set out on his own enterprise.  The dime novels originate in the US, and it is interesting to note that the first Holmes and Watson novel takes place there.  In this story, the detective has to find a missing man and the person to whom he left a fortune.  He has very little to go on, and we follow this brilliant man from step to step as he pieces the puzzle together, one step at a time.  There is considerable humour in the story, as well as tragedy and sadness.  His method of extracting information from people is one similar to one that Holmes uses, and at one point in the story, after telling his client how he ingeniously figured out one part of the puzzle, the client replies that he guesses that being a detective isn't so difficult after all.  Doyle used this quite often in the Holmes stories, with Watson claiming that solving the puzzle was rather easy, after the fact.  I have six more of these short novels on hand, and will likely get through them over the next few months.

Finally came the 17th novel in the Doc Savage series, called The Thousand-Headed Man.  From July 1934, it was written by Lester Dent, a prolific author who wrote over 159 novels.  The book cover gives the house name of Kenneth Robeson as the writer.  When I read these books as a young teen, I was completely unaware of any racism in the stories.  Doc went after bad guys (or they went after him), and they battled it out with guns and wits until Doc finally got the upper hand.  This book has an Oriental bad guy, and some of the worst racism I have ever come across fills the pages.  The dialogue consists of the Chinese men speaking in that horrendous English that writers often used back in the day, and it is truly cringe worthy.  One fun part of the book is that the early part takes place in London, with Doc arriving on the scene to awaiting crowds at Croydon Airfield.  Once the story takes off, literally, and Doc and his comrades fly to Indochina, Dent is at his pulp writing best.  Into the jungle we go, finding lost and isolated pagoda temples and, finally, a vast abandoned city.  The city holds a great mystery, and even Doc is captured and taken prisoner.  But not for long.  Escape for him and the people he has come to rescue seems impossible.  Can he do it?  Dent has a good eye for detail, and after allowing the creation of numerous mystical-seeming events, explains everything by the end.  Except for the racist attitudes to Orientals, the adventure itself is quite a good one.  This reader is a sucker for lost jungle cities and the secrets they hold.

Original 1934 publication.  Cover by Walter B. Baumhofer. 

 

Mapman Mike

 

August Reading

Last night was a blue moon (the 2nd full moon within a given month) as well as a super moon (the moon being very close to Earth when it appears at full phase).  We try to celebrate each full moon, usually with a round dessert such as a special cake or pie (this time we have cherry pie!).  In addition, we often listen to an opera throughout that day.  Yesterday we listened to a short opera by Haydn, in two acts.  It was written for his marionette theatre at Esterhazy Palace, and is only one of two such operas to survive.  A devastating fire at the palace burned many of his original manuscripts, most of which had no outside copies.  He wrote dozens of operas that were lost forever.  Die Feuersbrunst (The Conflagration) is a comic opera that shows Haydn in a light that many listeners never get to see.  It is a very charming work, and imagining the puppets carrying out the action is part of the fun.  We also saw the super moon, finally rising above our trees around 11 pm.  It was really big!

Turning now to the month's reading, I made it through 10 books.  Five were required reading for completion of my Avon/Equinox project, and five were picked from my endless collection of other books to read, mostly on Kindle and from the Delphi Classics collection.

Robert Silverberg used 3 stories by Asimov to write different versions of them.  The Ugly Little Boy is an early story by Asimov that Silverberg has expanded into a full novel.  I talk about the Asimov story in my May reading blog from this year.  A little Neanderthal boy is essentially kidnapped by modern time travel science in order to study him.  He is assigned a nurse to look after him.  The main difference in Silverberg's expanded version is the addition of "Timmie's" tribe to the story, before, during, and following his captivity in present day Earth.  We get to see the tribe facing a grave danger, and the time spent with them is quite memorable.  As much as I enjoyed reading the Asimov story, I much prefer this version.  The ending is still somewhat open ended, but a lot more optimistic than the original could have allowed.  A good tale, well told and updated.

From 1976 comes Kenneth Bulmer's 140 page addition to the on-going sea saga of Mr. Fox, #13, Sea Flame.  He is still on land for the first half of the story, fighting the French near Alexandria in a gruesome battle based on historical truths.  Bulmer writes for Fox on land as well as he does at sea, but Mr. Fox makes things very clear that he would rather be at sea.  He has opportunity to capture some French soldiers, including a truly miserable colonel, a man who loathes Fox.  There is also a beautiful young English woman, a prisoner of the French, whom Fox frees and takes under his protective wing.  Returned to sea after the battle, Fox is assigned to take the prisoners back to England, as well as a lot of wounded soldiers.  It doesn't take long for a French ship to find them and attack, and then all hell breaks loose on board, as per normal for Mr. Fox and his crew.  With only one book remaining in the series, I look forward to its conclusion with some apprehension.  My life without a regular fix of Fox just will never be the same.  He is one of the great pulp action heroes of all time.

 

Tubb wrote at least 11 westerns, currently available on Amazon Kindle for $0.99 each!  I bought them all.  Since the Kindle price went way up on his Dumarest novels (from $4.99 each to $7.99), I have halted any further reading in that series until the price returns to something more decent. So get out your old set of spurs, your six gun, and that saddle you haven't used in years, and head out on the lonesome prairie with me for a spell.  The Gold Seekers comes from 1955, and is 117 pages long.  It is a fast read, and a darn good one.  I haven't read a western novel in many years, though I still enjoy many old western films, including the Anthony Mann directed ones (usually with James Stewart).  The hero of our story today is Marc, a former captain in the southern army during the Civil War.  With the war over and his plantation burned and kinfolk killed, he has become a lone cowboy wanderer.  After a saloon adventure (two of them, actually), he is forced to leave town.  He takes the job of scouting for a wagon train of 15 wagons and families, heading for the gold fields in California.  While all the usual western cliches are there, including plenty of Indian fighting, some of the cliches are turned on their heads.  For example, Marc has taken a 12 year old boy under his wing, training him to be a scout.  When the boy's Pa is killed by Indians in a battle, he becomes an Indian hater.  Tubb takes almost a full chapter (in a book of only 11 chapters) to explain to the boy why he shouldn't hate all Indians.  He gives a full and complete picture of the position the Indians are in due to the encroachment of the whites into their territory, including having all their buffalo slaughtered.  The only thing he omits is the giving of pox-filled old blankets to them.  I give Tubb a lot of credit here for presenting the Indian side of things.  This is a rousing good tale, and though the wagon train makes it to California, their original goal has broken apart to the point where none of them head for the gold fields; they take up farming instead.  And less than half of them have made it through the journey alive.  I am hoping his other westerns are as good as this one.

 

The Golden Barge is a dark fantasy novel from 1979, and is 120 pages long (189 pages in the paperback edition from 1979, above).  It is a flawed work by Michael Moorcock, but quite interesting nonetheless.  A man, Tallow, heads down river in a small boat, following a mysterious golden barge.  He can never quite catch it, though, and his adventures along the river make up the bulk of the book.  He sees it one day at home, and soon abandons his mother to follow the mysterious boat.  He comes across a castle and becomes involved there with a beautiful woman.  Later he becomes imprisoned in a city, held "for his own good."  After escaping, his adventures continue, and include becoming involved in a small country's revolution, finding an abandoned baby, kidnapping a young boy who he thinks can help him find the barge, and he even makes a quick journey across dimensions to a mysterious fairy land.

I believe that Moorcock was inspired by Lin Carter's fabulous Ballantine Adult Fantasy series, and if the series had continued no doubt Carter might have published this one as part of it.  A bit like Dunsany and a bit like Fletcher Pratt, and a bit like many others, including William Morris.  In turn, Moorcock may even have influenced P. J. Farmer in his memorable Riverworld series.  What is this strange tale all about?  Firstly, we all make a voyage, and it is called Life.  Along the way we make choices, choices which not only affect us, but others around us.  Tallow makes some very poor choices, some very selfish choices, and he is the cause of much death and tragedy around him.

 

Cover of the month goes to Amano Yoshitaka.  The volume contains short stories, novellas, and a novel, The Golden Barge.  Next month I will report on the shorter fiction.

Tallow seems to be searching for something mysterious, hoping to find it aboard the barge.  What does he hope to find?  Inner peace, for one thing.  His urge to keep searching is so strong that he cannot turn it off after a time, even though he has had more than enough opportunity to do so.  He is a man in search of a soul, in search of his own humanity, which continues to elude him at every bend in the river.  He is so deeply lost that he cannot find his way out, and it is difficult to blame him for the bad things that happen because of his choices.  He is what he is, and seems incapable of change.  Do you know anyone like that?  I'm certain that you do.  They are everywhere among us, causing pain and destruction as they blindly follow their own path, unseeing as they go.  Moorcock has created one of the strangest fantasy characters ever penned.  If nothing else, Tallow is unforgettable once you have met him.

 

From 1973 comes Malzberg's Night Raider, the first of 14 volumes about a lone man trying to end the drug scene in New York.  Good luck with that. One would have to be a murderer, a sadist, and a masochist.  Bert Wulff fits the bill.  A former Vietnam vet, he becomes a drug cop in New York.  But because he tries to play it straight, he makes few friends around the department.  He is shipped back to a patrol car, and is called to the scene of his girlfriend's death, apparently killed by an overdose.  He knows that she was not a user, and suspects the cartel of using her to get back at him.  Not likely.  More likely it was the NYPD that set it all up.  This might be made clear later, but in this first volume he goes after the cartel, after turning in his badge.  Malzberg takes us on a journey in this first book, as Wulff begins with the small fry.  The street corner pusher has to pay off his collector.  Wulff captures them both, tormenting them until they give the name of who they report to.  After disposing of them, he goes up the line.  And so on, until he gets the top man that we know of so far.  Six murders later, he still hasn't done much to clear up the street drug trade.  But give him time.  Though he is a lone wolf, he gets some help from a black rookie cop who partnered with him for a time.  Wulff is tough as nails, and reminds me a bit of a loose cannon version of Doc Savage.  The book is filled with violence of the vigilante kind, and moves along smartly.  It is an easy read, and follows a logical path up the chain of command.  There are virtually no women in major roles in book one.  This is a man's world.  It is a guilty pleasure to see the big men squirm under Wulff's unkindly intentions towards them, after acting so self assured and superior prior to meeting him.  Not great writing, but I'm sure the style will evolve.

 

Moving on to books by non Avon/Equinox authors, I began with F. Marion Crawford's second novel, Dr. Claudius, from 1883.  Approaching 400 pages in length, it is a sprawling tale of love and high seas adventure, in the high tradition of such writers as E R Eddison.  Women are to be adored and waited on hand and foot by men of the highest moral standards, preferably rich ones.  To be called a gentleman is likened to be called one of the gods, and indicates a man of unquestioned moral standards, and usually wealthy to boot.  Though at heart it truly is a love story, in detail this is a very amusing and highly likeable adventure.  It begins in Heidelberg, with philosopher Dr. Claudius living an isolated and scholarly life among his books, living in cheap and crowded rooms.  He comes upon a large inheritance from an uncle living in New York, though he has no plans to change his lifestyle or use any of the money.  Amusingly, this is no grey beard scholar, but a very tall, handsome, and sturdily built Swede.  A chance encounter with a beautiful woman on one of his private walks changes his entire outlook, and, of course, his life.  We get to cross the Atlantic on a steam yacht, and then we spend the rest of the story in New York and close by.  Though this is one of those books where very little actually happens, it encapsulates a lot about life in its humble pages.  Crawford himself was a friend to Isabella Stewart Gardner, and the woman in the story likely represents such a woman.  Rich reading, and rewarding.

The Blessing Of Pan was published in 1927, and is Lord Dunsany's 4th novel.  His first three novels, and many of his short stories, were published by Ballantine in the Lin Carter Adult Fantasy series back in the 1960s and 70s.  Had the series continued, Carter undoubtedly would have also published this gentle fantasy, about a parish vicar trying to save his flock from reverting to Paganism.  Like the other novels by this writer, I seemed to hit spots that were hot then cold.  Sometimes I felt that he was heading in exactly the right direction with the story, when it would take a sudden turn and I thought he was losing the thread.  But alas, Lord Dunsany knew better than me how to write a delicate tale about ancient practices returning to supplant Christianity in one small English village, and by the end of the novel I was convinced I had read something very rare, precious, and unusual.  Think of this as a kinder, gentler "Wicker Man."  The moods that this writer can create, evoking other times and other sensibilities, is most remarkable.  His descriptions of encroaching evening, and of the dawn, are rich beyond what words should be able to conjure.  There is humour in the tale, and much wisdom.  A fun book to read.

 

T. S. Eliot is a long way from Dunsany,  I read his chapbook collection (twice) published in 1917 called Prufrock and Other Observations, which includes 12 poems written between 1910 and 1917.  Born in St. Louis, he moved to England at the age of 25 (1914), settling there and eventually renouncing his American citizenship.  The lead poem of the set is "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," a man who seems to be in the skids emotionally, physically, and spiritually.  It can be seen as a devastating look at life in the modern era, and the loneliness and isolation that can ensue.  The opening ten lines seem to encompass an entire modern novel!  And much later:  

"But though I have wept and fasted, wept and prayed,

Though I have seen my head (grown slightly bald) brought in upon a platter.

I am no prophet--and here's no great matter,  

I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker,

And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker,

And in short, I was afraid."

 

The other poems don't really compare to the main poem, though a few are humourous ("The Boston Evening Transcript," and "Cousin Nancy," and a few are quite profound, and several have lines that are entirely astounding.  Then there is the bizarre "Hysteria," which is a bit hard to describe, as a man watches a woman have a laughing fit.  The first poem, at any rate, is worth many more readings.

Next came 2 volumes of short stories by Nikolai Gogol.  Published in 1831-32, there are 4 stories in each volume, the whole called Evenings On A Farm Near Dikanka.  Gogol was born in the Ukraine, and grew up there.  These tales of peasant village life are among the best short stories ever written!  Having said that, there are small but blatant examples of anti-Semitism in nearly every story, despite there being no major Jewish characters. 

 

Vol. 1

"The Fair At Sorochinsti" is a straight forward tale about a young girl's first visit to the big wide world, as she, her father, and her stepmother visit the annual fair together for the first time.  Being 18 and sweet to behold, the young girl soon attracts the attention of a handsome young man, who determines that she must be his wife.  However, getting past the wicked stepmother is not an easy task.  A funny tale that keeps one reading until the very end.  The incredible superstitious fears of villagers is introduced in this story, which will blossom forth in future tales.

 

"St. John's Eve" is a story about the devil and how he was able to talk a young man into doing his evil deeds, in exchange for enough gold to wed the village girl whom he loves.  The story is framed humourously, but the tale itself is a classic horror one, with a very sad ending.

"May Night" nails down several aspects of Ukrainian village life.  Courting a girl is given top priority in this tale, as are the village night pranks of youths, both male and female.  Another supernatural tale makes its way into the narrative, and capturing an evil witch finally allows the village headsman's son to marry his girlfriend, Hanna.  Obviously Gogol is writing down some of the tales he heard growing up, preserving them for future generations, and building his narrative around such tales.  Wonderful atmosphere, with simple and direct writing.

"The Lost Letter" is another tale of the devil and witchcraft, and again not without humour.  A village man is given the task of delivering a letter to the Czarina in the capital city, and rides his horse towards completion of his goal.  He encounters the devil on the way, and has a very funny conclusion to his first attempt at delivering the letter, ending up back at his house, but up on the roof.  His second attempt is successful, however.  A grandfather tells this story to his grand kids, after much coaxing, as he does not relish the memory of it happening to him.  A gem of a tale.

Vol. 2

"Christmas Eve."  Many of these stories (this one is a novella) are very much like paintings by Marc Chagall--they are colourful, bizarre, folk-like, whimsical, and different from most other short stories in many ways.  This one might have been called 'The Enchanted Blacksmith,' as a young man goes far out of his way to win Oksana, the girl he desires.  His mother is a witch, the devil helps him get the Czarina's slippers, and all of this (and much else, including a lot of mayhem) takes place on Christmas Eve.  Expect the unexpected in these totally delightful early tales of Ukraine village life, seemingly unchanged from medieval times.

"A Terrible Vengeance" is a serious novella lacking any humour, and featuring some truly evil deeds.  A warped sorcerer wants to marry his beautiful daughter (I warned you), even though she is already married and has a baby son, and he goes to some pretty sick lengths before disaster strikes one and all.  An epilogue explains how it was that the sorcerer finally met his doom.  Grim but fascinating reading.

 "Ivan Fyodorovich Shponka and His Aunt" is an incomplete novelette about a shy man retired from the army who returns to his family farm to work on it.  His aunt has been looking after things for him, but she can no longer manage it on her own.  She wants to see him married, but he is too shy and doesn't want anything to do with it.  The story ends abruptly, hinting at a continuation which never came.

"A Bewitched Place" is a short story about a place where nothing will grow.  Fully expecting to find a treasure beneath the ground, a man finds an old urn.  With great effort he brings it forth and rolls it home to unpack his treasure.  What was inside?  Mud.

Espedair Street, from 1987, is Iain Banks' fourth novel.  It is a mock autobiography of a fictional Scottish lad who becomes a very big rock star.  This tragi-comedy is a very fun thing to read, all 361 pages of it. Daniel Weir (as Weir, D. on his school record, and thus nicknamed "Weird") thinks he can write hit songs, and goes looking for a band to play them and make him rich and famous.  Low and behold, he finds a band and they soon land a record contract for an album.  The album turns into a great seller, and they sign a three album contract.  The tours begin, and the money pours in.  All the cliches of rock band tours are here: the fast cars, the alcohol, the drugs, the mansions and parties, the deaths.  But they are handled with Banks' usual flair for writing, leaving readers amused, shocked, and saddened, sometimes all on the same page.  Danny is 6' 6", quite homely and clumsy, and mostly likes to stay in the background.  This makes him a much more likeable character than if he'd been an egomaniac rock star, looking at himself in the mirror over and over.  We also get a nice peek at some backstreets of Glasgow, where Danny grew up.  This is a very entertaining and highly readable novel.

A Strange Disappearance is from 1880, written by mystery writer A. Katherine Green, her second novel.  The novel features Inspector Gryce, who featured prominently in her first novel.  He has a large role in this story, too, but a younger inspector relates the story and really gets the credit for solving the mystery of a young woman's disappearance.  I found this story easier to swallow than the first novel by Green, though it also suffers from that fear of scandal that seemed to foretell doom to influential families in stories from this time period and later.  For one thing, the novel is shorter and much more tightly written.  There is very little, if any, extraneous material, and much of the action takes places in two houses in close proximity to one another.  However, we do get outside of New York for a fascinating trip to Vermont, where a further mystery and adventure awaits the young inspector.  For another thing, we get to meet a young woman whose father and brother are criminals to their core, yet she remains clean and decent despite her upbringing.  They are truly ugly characters, and the mysterious disappearance comes directly from their actions.  One strange thing, though.   A girl was kidnapped, apparently for ransom, and is kept hidden.  However, no clear way to offer her up for ransom ever emerges.  Were they going to just keep her there forever, always having to guard her?  Anyway, a short and enjoyable mystery novel awaits curious readers.

In conclusion, I continue to make progress on two long term reading projects.  Joseph Jacob's 1750 page volume Complete Fairy Tales is a treasure worth seeking out.  It not only contains a ton of tales, but it is also a scholarly work where he discusses the sources and different versions of each story, and comments upon them.  I am about 60% of the way through.  My Kindle edition cost me around $3.  I am also slowly making my way through 70 Wonders of the Ancient World, a book purchased many years ago in London.  I read I through back then, but am rereading it now.  It's well worth tracking down.

An older purchase, this is a fascinating book.  I am on my second time through it.

 

An indispensable volume for lovers of fairy tales.  I am taking my time with it. 

 

Mapman Mike