Category: Fiction

Changing Places

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Lodge, David. Changing Places: a Tale of Two Campuses. Penguin Books, 1975.

Reason read: to “continue” the series started with Small World. I put continue in quotes because I should have read Changing Places before Small World.

Imagine an academic swapping of places. Instead of a poor man switching lives with a rich man in a strange social experiment or two students exchanging countries for a term, Changing Places is two Literature professors swapping teaching jobs at small liberal arts colleges. Morris Zapp and Philip Swallow could not be any more different. Zapp is very used to flying; considers himself a distinguished gentleman; has published widely; is savvy about getting ahead and has a killer instinct about the people around him. Meanwhile Swallow has a fear of flying; he is frumpy and without ambition to the point where he leads a life of professional barrenness. Morris Zapp finds himself traveling for the first time across the pond to Rummidge in England while his counterpart, Philip Swallow, heads to Euphoria in California. As usual, Lodge puts his characters in outlandish situations. For instance, Morris happened to be the only male on his flight. Every female on board was headed to England for an abortion. Once on the Euphoria campus, Philip finds himself hanging out with a group of students, smoking pot and giving massages.
As characters, Zapp and Swallow could not be any different. Lodge uses an epistolary technique to allow his characters to show their true colors while lying to their spouses back home. Mrs. Zapp was my favorite character. She was outspoken, truthful and funny: “You can’t rush nausea, you know” she says on page 80.
No doubt Changing Places shows its age. The lapel button was the hottest literary medium where you could wear your convictions on your chest. Students with late night radio programs could avoid the draft. As an aside, it is interesting to see Lodge’s perception of the United States. Bomb threats and loud protests are common.

Favorite quotes, “This plane, for instance, belonged to a company called Orbis; the phony Latin name inspired no confidence and he wouldn’t mind betting than an ultra-violet photograph would reveal a palimpsest of fourteen different airline insignia under its fresh paint flown by pilots long gone over the hill, alcoholics and schizoids, shaky-fingered victims of emergency landings, ice-storms and hijackings by crazy Arabs and homesick Cubans wielding sticks of dynamite and dime-store pistols” p 11), “Morris, already basking in the radiator’s warmth, lurched with clumsy haste to prevent her, and she shrank back, quivering as if he had put a hand up her skirt – which given its dimensions, wouldn’t have been difficult, it could easily happen accidentally just by shaking hands with her” (p 62).

Author fact: Lodge was born and died in the month of January.

Book trivia: I should have read Changing Places before Small World. Meh.

Music: Joan Baez, Aretha Franklin, Bartok, “These Foolish Things,” Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Sibelius, The Jackson Five, “Who Knows Where the Time Goes” by Judy Collins, “Puff the Magic Dragon” by Peter, Paul & Mary, Bee Gees, “O Happy Day,” and the Beatles’ “Let’s Do It In the Road.”

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Academia: the Joke” (p 3). I wish Pearl has a chapter called “Academia: the Wicked” because every Lodge book would fit in that category!

Psmith in the City

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Wodehouse, P.G. Psmith in the City. Kessinger Publishing, 2004.

Reason read: Wodehouse was born in October. Read in his honor.

I was a bit surprised by the lack of plot in Psmith in the City. But when it lacked in plot it made up in humor. If anything Psmith in the City is Wodehouse’s nod to bad bosses (or bad jobs) everywhere. For Michael Jackson and Rupert Psmith, employees at New Asiatic Bank where their old school friend is the head, they are watched to see how long they are gone from the office, whether it be a lunch break or picking up the mail. Mike and Psmith hate their jobs as much as the boss hates them. Mike has bigger dreams of studying at Cambridge and playing cricket professionally. Psmith is fully of witty banter and devil may care attitude. Together, they are the perfect friends. I especially enjoyed the scene in the Turkish bath when Psmith gets Mike’s job back for him. It will be interesting to see how the rest of the series plays out.

Author fact: P.G. Wodehouse’s full name is Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse.

Book trivia: in 2008 this was turn into a radio show.

BookLust Twist: first from Book Lust in the chapter called “100 Good Reads, Decade By Decade – 1910s” (p 175) and again in More Book Lust in the chapter called “P.G. Wodehouse: Too Good To Miss” (p 234). From everything I have read I am supposed to read Psmith in the City before Leave It To Psmith.

Searching for Caleb

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Tyler, Anne. Searching for Caleb. Ballantine Books, 1996.

Reason read: Tyler was born in the month of October. Read in her honor.

Justine Peck’s career as a seer began when she was asked to run the fortune telling booth at the school bazaar. Once people started whispering in her ear that she had serious talent she turned it into a full-blown business. However, despite all of Justine’s talents, no matter how hard she searched, she could not find her grandfather’s long lost brother. Daniel’s brother, Caleb left home abruptly in 1912, never to be seen again. Justine and her hard of hearing grandfather patiently travel from place to place following up on leads and peering into wrinkly faces, hoping to find long lost Caleb. In the meantime, Justine’s husband (and cousin) bounces from job to job, searching for his own place in life. He moves his family in the search for his true calling. Apparently, Justine was able to see his future either.
One of the things I love about all Anne Tyler books is her imagery. For example – before moving Justine searched the house for something to stir her coffee and came up with a screwdriver because everything else was packed up. [Although my question is this, if you knew you would be saving out the coffee maker for one last cup, and you know how you take your coffee, wouldn’t you save out a spoon? Here is another point. Duncan was professionally adrift. He frequently moved his family. Wouldn’t they have this moving thing down pat?]
Another strength of Tyler’s is her ability to capture realistic dialogue. I could hear their voices in my head.

As an aside, this is the second book I am reading where cousins get married.

Lines I liked, “Was there anything worse than the feeling you were sealed in a place, to frow old and stale and finally die” (p 490) and “She was the other shoe which never dropped” (p 261-262). Last one, “She had never managed to believe that some people truly will not be seen again” (p 284).

Author fact: Tyler is a Pulitzer Prize winning author. She graduated from Duke at age 19 with a degree in Russian studies.

Book trivia: I am reading seven books of Tyler’s. Searching for Caleb is the second oldest book on the list.

Setlist: “The Pardon Came Too Late,” “Just a Lock of Hair for Mother,” “The St. James Infirmary Blues,”
Mantovani, “Goodnight, Irene,” “Wabash Cannonball,” Caruso, Arturo Tosanini, Jan Kubelik, Czerny, Buddy Bolden, “Country Gardens,” “Chattanooga Choo Choo,” “Blues in the Night,” Czerny, “Broken Yo-Yo,” “Stone Pony Blues,” “Careless Love,” “Mr. Crump,” “Stack O’Lee,” “Jogo Blues,” “Pig Meat Papa,” “Broke and Hungry Blues,” “Nobody Knows You When You are Down and Out,” “Doxology,” and “Bringing in the Sheeves.”

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Real Characters” (p 197) and again in Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Baltimore” (p 34). I have to admit, I didn’t really get a sense of Baltimore or even Maryland in Searching for Caleb.

Golden Spiders

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Stout, Rex. Golden Spiders. Collins Fontana Books, 1954.

Reason read: the slog continues.

Golden Spiders begins in the kitchen. Nero Wolfe likes his sterling pie a very particular way and when it isn’t prepared to his liking, you guessed it, he sulks and refuses to eat Fritz’s prepared dish. Archie, ever the trickster, decides to punish Wolfe for his churlish behavior by allowing a young boy to interrupt Wolfe’s makeshift meal. Young Pete Drossos has an interesting tale about a damsel in distress. She was wearing spider earrings and Pete swore she asked him to find a cop. When the boy ends up dead as the result of a hit and run, the next day Wolfe is visited by the boy’s mother. With four dollars and twenty cents from Pete’s piggy bank, she pleads for Wolfe to solve her son’s murder. The plot thickens when the man thought to be driving the car that killed Pete is also a victim of vehicular homicide. Matthew Birch was an agent of the Immigration and Naturalization Service was killed by the same car on the same day. By taking this case, Wolfe solves more than Pete and Matthew’s murder as he is thrust into a blackmail scheme targeting poor immigrants.

Death by automobile is a favorite way to die in a Nero Wolfe mystery.
As an aside, on Columbus/Indigenous Peoples Day I read the line about Columbus running into a continent he didn’t expect.

Book trivia: in the introduction, written by Linda Barnes, gave a walk-through of the house rules at 325 West 35th Street: the times in the plant room, rules during meals, and how to treat guests. Linda called Golden Spiders atypical. I would argue that Black Mountain is the most atypical Nero Wolfe story thus far.

Music: “Oh What a Beautiful Morning.”

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the never-ending chapter called “Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe: Too Good To Miss” (p 289). Just kidding.

Face Value

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Matera, Lia. Face Value. Pocket Star Books, 1995.

Reason read: October is to honor William Penn who was a pioneer of criminal justice reform/corrections. He was born in October.

Lia Matera’s Face Value opens with Laura Di Palma describing how an ex-colleague happened to show up at her office-warming party. Of all the nerve for Steve Sayers to show his face at her new law practice when he was the one to turned her mentor against her and worse, got her fired by exposing Di Palma’s pro bono work without the firm’s consent. I was expecting Sayers to be a pain in Laura’s butt for the duration of Face Value, but he quickly disappears from the scene when Laura takes on an unusual case in her new practice. An old friend comes to her for advice about a compromising situation. Quantum physicist turned spiritual guru “Brother Mike” has convinced this friend to explore her spiritually through (you guessed it) group sex with other devotees. While Brother Mike’s followers knew their sessions would be filmed, no one expected their wildest escapades to end up for rent at the local adult video store. Di Palma agrees to look into the case and finds herself involved in a mass murder of six strippers. As the case becomes more complicated Di Palma decides to represent Brother Mike and recruits her old boyfriend for help.

Whenever I meet a new character who is part of a series (which means I will be spending some time with them), I always take note of their personality. Right away I learned that Laura was not good with emotion. She was ab avid hiker and had complicated relationships with ex-lovers.

Music: Jerry Lee Lewis’s “Give Me a Licking.”

Author fact: Lia Matera has a website here.

Book trivia: Face Value was a very quick read but I took my time with it because every character holds a clue to the mystery.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “I Love a Mystery” (p 117).

Gaudy Night

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Sayers, Dorothy L. Gaudy Night. Harper & Row Publishers, 1936.

Reason read: after many false starts I am finally getting around to reading the next book in the Harriet Vane/Lord Peter Wimsey series.

From the very beginning of Gaudy Night, Sayers makes sure the reader is connected to Harriet’s past. This is important for the story to be successful. In Gaudy Night Harriet returns to her alma mater, Shrewsbury College, for a reunion of sorts. Called a ‘Gaudy Night Dinner’ Harriet attends the feast during the college’s reunion weekend and has a wonderful time reconnecting with people and the place. However, afterwards Harriet receives a nasty message tucked inside the sleeve of her college gown, calling her a “dirty murderess.” Someone knows of her past: years earlier she had been on trial for the death of her lover, but ultimately acquitted, thanks to Lord Peter Whimsey coming to her rescue and proving her innocence. Despite all that, there are people out there who still think of her as guilty beyond a shadow of doubt. The messages don’t stop there. Harriet and others continue to receive threatening missives. Someone has a bone to pick with the women of Shrewsbury College. Shrewsbury administration is adamant that Harriet solve the mystery…with the help of Peter, of course. What better way to avoid public scandal than to have alum Harriet Vane investigate the nasty letters? Never mind that Harriet is not a trained investigator. The fact that she writes compelling mystery fiction is clout enough. When the investigate stalls, of course Lord Peter must come to Harriet’s rescue and uses this latest mystery as an excuse to yet again propose to Miss Vane. I found the scene when Peter gives Harriet a lesson in self defense while flirting silly. Peter even outfits Harriet with a dog collar to protect her precious neck while sleeping.
Marriage and romantic relationships are a prominent theme in Gaudy Night. [As an aside, Wimsey is so persistent and Vane is continuously so reluctant that I wished more than a few times that Peter would give up. I wanted him to break the news to Harriet that he has found someone else; a bombshell of a girl who he considers his true love.] All in all I found Gaudy Night to be a long and winding story that moved away from the mystery for long periods of time.

Line I liked. When Peter is talking to Harriet he utters, “The words of Mercury are harsh after the songs of Apollo” (p 404). Phrase I also liked, “…distorting-glass of suspicion…” (p 462).
Confessional: there is talk of suicide throughout Gaudy Night that was difficult to read. I had a friend who took her life earlier this year.

Author fact: After reading Have His Carcase the author fact was Dorothy Sayers full name. The fact for this blog is that she died at 64 years of age.

Book trivia: I am always annoyed when someone like a hairdresser always gets caught up in murders. Their involvement never seems clever enough. There is no murder in Gaudy Night.
Audio trivia: my version of Gaudy Night was read by Ian Carmichael.

Music: “Love in Bloom,” Bach, “Greensleeves,” Morley: Canzonets for Two Voices, “Sweet Cupid, Ripen Her Desire,” Tobias Hume’s “True House of Joy and Bliss,” and Bach Concerto.

BookLust Twist: You can always tell just how much Pearl loves a book by how many times it gets mentioned in various chapters. Gaudy Night appears in all three Book Lust books. There is a double mention in the original Book Lust: first, in the chapter called “Academic Mysteries” (p 4), and again in the chapter called “I Love a Mystery” (p 117). In More Book Lust, Gaudy Night shows up in the chapter called “Ms. Mystery” (p 169). Finally, there is a fourth mention of Gaudy Night in Book Lust To Go in the chapter simply called “Oxford” (p 170).

Mexico Set

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Deighton, Len. Mexico Set. Alfred A. Knopf, 1985.

Reason read: to continue the series started last month in recognition of the National Security Act.

In Mexico Set readers rejoin M1-6 agent Bernard Samson as he trails his Soviet counterpart, Erich Stinnes, a KGB major whom London Central salivates to recruit to their side. This is a strategic dance that takes considerable time. Samson travels between Mexico, London, Paris and Berlin delicately trying to seal the deal while avoiding traitors and blackmailers. Samson’s ex-wife has made it personal by threatening to take their children if he interferes with her KGB man. Remember, back in Berlin Game Mrs. Samson flipped and works for the enemy now. Like any good thriller worth its weight, Mexico Set has an abduction, a suicide, and a murder. Suspicions abound and loyalties become murkier by the day. As Samson goes deeper into his mission the net tightens incrementally around him. Pieces of his old watch are found at the murder scene of one of his own men. He is the one to bring the poisoned meal that kills another of his agents. Samson has no idea of his enemies except the obvious one, his ex-wife. Could it be that Fiona is trying to make the Department think she got her ex-husband to change sides with her? Then there is the Russian passport with his name and picture…
I appreciated that Deighton gave a two sentence recap of Berlin Game, artfully setting the stage for Mexico Set without spoiling either book. Another bonus was Deighton’s explanation of the difference between recruiting and enrolling someone to their side. For those interested, recruiting is a civilian term for swaying ordinary people. Enrolling is when an enemy can be flipped into joining the other side.
What makes Berlin Game and Mexico Set so riveting to read is that Len Deighton was a master of realistic dialogue. His characters are believable in emotion and speech. I was kept on the edge of my seat for the entire book.

Lines that mentioned coffee which I loved, “It was a heavy Mexican coffee that Biedermann had turned into a devil’s brew that made my teeth tingle” (p 40). Sounds like my kind of cup. Here is another coffee reference, “She stared at me with enough calm dispassionate interest to make me worry whether my coffee was poisoned” (p 69).
A non-coffee quote, “For fear is so unwelcome that it comes only in disguise and guilt as its favorite one” (p 189).

Author fact: Deighton went to art school.

Book trivia: cover art is by Arnold Schwartzmann. This is the first time I have ever seen an artist explain their cover art.

Music: Mozart’s Magic Flute, Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Duke Ellington, Elvis, the Beatles, Elton John, Mick Jagger, Ingrid Haebler, “Bye Bye Blackbird,” and “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes.”

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Cold War Spy Fiction” (p 61).

The World of Henry Orient

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Johnson, Nora. The World of Henry Orient. Little, Brown and Company, 1958.

Reason read: Supposedly, October 6th – 14th is Teen Reads Week. Confessional: some library had that information on a sign in their window.

Nora Johnson split her time between California and New York, thanks to divorced parents. Looking back on childhood memories, she wanted to write a book about what it was like to grow up in the Big Apple. This is an old New York; back when they had wicker seats on the subway and you could buy an ice cream for a quarter. [As an aside, I wonder what she would think of today’s New York.] The World of Henry Orient tells the tale of two twelve year old friends, Marian Gilbert and Valerie Boyd with New York as their backdrop. Marian lives a sheltered life on the Upper East Side while Val is a whirlwind of creativity, culture and crazy. Because of their quirkiness and refusal to join the cliques, they are each other’s only friend…until they discover classically trained musician, Henry Orient. Henry, decades older than Val becomes her obsession. Soon Marian is using Henry as a way to get closer to Val, encouraging her to stalk the older man to learn his habits and eventually, his every move. This behavior sends the already fragile Val into a breakdown of sorts. World of Henry Orient ends with a surprising yet realistic twist. I rather liked the ending. Confessional: there is a scene when Marian and Valerie eat lunch at the Melton Arms. It reminded me of the scene in Beaches when Hilary took C.C. to dine in her hotel.

One mention of Bonwit’s brought me back to when my grandmother gave me a fur coat from the department store.

Quotes to quote, “She traded in gossip the way grownups play the stock market” (p 20), “Just when I am starting to compensate for my lack of home life, it arrives in town” (p 82), “Perhaps it is good to be lonely sometimes, to be able to stand here and feel everything, all at once” (p 87).

Author fact: Nora Johnson was born in Hollywood, California. Her photograph for The World of Henry Orient makes her look like she was destined for the silver screen.

Book trivia: this should be a movie. Oh wait. It sort of is.

Music: Mozart’s “Turkish March,” Bartok, Khatchaturian, Bach, “We Three Kings,” Good King Wenceslas,” “Deck the Halls,”

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Teenage Times” (p 215).

Door into Summer

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Heinlein, Robert A. The Door Into Summer. Doubleday & Company, 1957.

Reason read: October is Star Man Month. Okay, so I admit I had to look this one up. I had no idea what I meant by “Star Man Month.” Guess what! I still do not know what I was talking about. To Google Star Man brings up…me. Meh.

In the 1950s Daniel Boone Davis is a brilliant yet naive engineer with a knack for inventing futuristic household chore helpers. While ideas and designs come easily to him, the business side is murky so he enlists the help of a business partner and Daniel’s fiancé. What could possibly go wrong? Of course the pair double cross Daniel and steal his company. Heinlein introduces his readers to the idea of cold sleep, a form of suspended animation for humans wanting to preserve themselves for the future. This is the perfect way to get Daniel out of the way, making the company takeover complete.
There is a scene in The Door Into Summer that made me think of the movie, “The Lake House” starring Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock. In Door into Summer Daniel is trying to explain to Ricky how he will meet her in thirty years into the future. She has to trust that he will be there when he tells her where to go. Totally like the Lake House except for the fact Ricky is only eleven years old.
As an aside, I loved the nine year old Tomcat named Petronius the Arbiter (Pete for short) and I loved that he understood human speech and drank ginger ale.

Quotes I liked, “Cats have no sense of humor, they have terribly inflated egos, and they are very touchy” (p 42). Yes, yes there are. Here is another, “I am smart enough to appreciate real genius when I meet it” (p 141).

Music: “Time On My Hands.”

Author fact: Heinlein died in 1988 at the age of 81. To read the small bio on the back flap of Door Into Summer, it sounds like an unbelievable fiction. Did he really own a silver mine and when he tried to sell it was the buyer murdered the night before? Did he really know chess before he could read? Was he really friends with eight murderers?

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Time Travel” (p 220). In the beginning, I had to question if Door Into Summer was really a time travel book. D.B. Davis simply took the deep sleep and “waited” for time to march by. Thirty years later he “woke” the same age as he was when he entered the long sleep. It’s not like he jumped thirty years into the future. Later in the book there is an authentic time jump. Phew!

Airs Above the Ground

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Stewart, Mary. Airs Above the Ground. William Morrow & Company, Inc. 1965.

Reason read: Vienna’s National Day is in October.

It all begins when an old school chum asks Vanessa March to travel to Vienna as a chaperone for her seventeen year old son. Tim Lacy won’t stop nagging his mother to see his father in Austria. Coincidentally, Vanessa has just spotted her husband of two years on a news broadcast about a circus fire in Vienna. Lewis was supposed to be in Stockholm, Sweden. Curious about the young woman Lewis had his arm around in the newsclip, Vanessa agrees to travel with Tim. Together they make a wonderful pair of liars. Tim told his mother that his father was meeting him in Vienna and Vanessa said she was going to Austria for a planned meet up with her husband. Nothing could have been further from the truth for either of them. Tim and his father fell out of touch some time ago. Vanessa suspects her husband of lying to her, but doesn’t understand why. Neither father nor husband know of Tim and Vanessa’s arrival.
Vienna proves to be an adventure for Tim and Vanessa. Upon finding the circus Vanessa learns of an elderly horse in desperate need of surgery. She happens to be a surgical veterinarian who had given up her career to get married. While befriending several members of the troupe, Vanessa and Tim find themselves in the middle of a mystery. Turns out, the lame horse is a prized Lipizzaner disguised as an old piebald. By the way, readers will get a history of the Lipizzaner Stallions, but not in a didactic way that is dry and boring. Tim’s knowledge of the Lipizzaner culture is beautiful for someone so young. Confessional: I searched for videos demonstrating the Schulen uber der Erde.
Second confessional: I was wary of Sandor Balog from the beginning and I was convinced the muttering parrot would hold the key to solving the case.

As an aside, I had to giggle when Tim mentioned Archie Goodwin being his favorite amateur detective. Since I am hip deep in the Rex Stout canon, it was like having a new friend tell you about their favorite hairdresser who happens to be your best friend.

Those crazy Europeans! I can’t imagine having supper at 11pm.

Favorite lines or moments, “She dimpled at him” (p 57). Charming!

Author fact: Mary Stewart’s photograph makes her look like she is just about ready to hail a waiter for a second cup of coffee.

Book trivia: I have to admit Airs Above the Ground served as a wealth of knowledge for me. I didn’t know what “airs above the ground” meant (it is a move the L stallions perform); I didn’t know you could not walk by a horse that is lying down without it getting to its feet; the use of a car horn is forbidden in Austria unless it is an absolute emergency; there is always one bay in the Lipizzaner show.

Music: Offenbach, Suppe, Strauss, Schubert, the Rosenkavalier, Mendelssohn’s “Hear My Prayer,” and Boccherini.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the very simple chapter called “Vienna” (p). Incidentally, this is the first book I am reading for this chapter!

Black Mountain

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Stout, Rex. Black Mountain. Bantam, 1983.

Reason read: I am still sloggin through Rex Stout’s canon of Nero Wolfe mysteries.

In the Rex Stout series, Nero Wolfe is known for being a recluse. He does not like leaving his brownstone apartment for anyone or anything. In Black Mountain Wolfe not only leaves his residence and his beloved New York City, Nero leaves country. There are a whole bunch of firsts in this book. Nero at the morgue. Nero on a train. Nero on a boat. Nero making dinner. Nero hiking in the dark through a “jungle of rock” in Montenegro, as Archie called it. Hiking so long and so far that Nero’s feet bleed. Nero taking care of Archie. Nero taking on a case where he is his own client. I should back up a little.
Marko Vakcic, a reoccurring character in the Nero Wolfe series is found murdered. This is a personal blow to Wolfe as he and Marko were childhood friends in Montenegro. His death brings back a memory of climbing Black Mountain, a peak he first summited when he was nine years old. Of course, Nero and Archie must travel back to the Balkans to find Vakcic’s killer and bring them to justice. Along the way readers learn more about Nero’s past and political views.

Line to make me laugh, “the day that Wolfe would like to climb steps to look at children will be the day I would like to climb Mount Everest” (p 119).

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the never ending chapter called “Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe: Too Good To Miss” (p 289).

Last of the Wine

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Renault, Mary. Last of the Wine. Vintage Book, 1984.

Reason read: Mary Renault was born in September. Read in her honor.

Enter life in 5th century B.C. The sweeping backdrop to Last of the Wine is the ancient world of Greece during the final battles of the Peloponnesian War. The focus is on a young man from a well to do family named Alexias from Athens. From a young age he has been a curious learner and is soon captivated by the teachings of Sokrates. It is at one of these lectures that Alexias meets Lysis and together the two young men become athletes and warriors and lifelong best friends and lovers. They attend the Olympic Games, fight in the wars against Sparta, and survive famine, siege, and societal betrayals. Despite marrying women and starting families, their passion for one another is one of loyalty and respect. What I appreciated the most about Last of the Wine was the clever mix of fictional and potentially factual characters. Renault’s imagination breathes life into the ancient world.
As an aside, Renault includes an abbreviated glossary. I say abbreviated because words like hetaira were not included.

Personal connection to Mary Renault’s work – I read The King Must Die in high school. It was one of the first books in my freshman English class.

Quote to quote, “But serious matters broke in on us and, blew such follies way” (p 239). Her is another, “They met and wrestled with me love and envy of an excellence beyond my reach” (p 252). One more, “Everything is change; and you cannot step twice into the same river” (p 288).

Author fact: Mary Renault trained as a nurse.

Book trivia: Last of the Wine has been compared to I, Claudius by Robert Graves (which, incidentally, I finished last month).

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Alpha Beta Gamma of Greece” (p 10).

Small World

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Lodge, David. Small World. Warner Books, 1984.

Reason read: September is traditionally back to school month and since Small World is about academia, why not?

Meet the academics in Small World: Persse McGarrigle is seen as the epic hero. At a typical conference full of pompous blowhards in Rummidge, he has fallen in love with a fellow conference attendee, the mysterious Angelica Pabst. He chases her all literally over the world to the point where it becomes farcical. Professor Morris Zapp is always appalled that he isn’t presenting his paper to a larger audience. He thought for sure the title of lecture, “Textuality as Striptease” would surely bring listeners into the room. [As an aside, the entire book is continuously dominated by various sexual situations.] Then there is the mystery of Joy Simpson. Her old lover thinks she is dead yet she is alive and well somewhere on the planet. Dempsey talks to a computer as if it is his therapist and becomes obsessed with her replies (readers should keep in mind this is the early 1980s and predates Siri or Alexa). I could go on, but I’ll leave the rest of the characters for you to discover.
Critics have called Small World “delightful” but I wouldn’t go that far. Even though this is supposed to be a satire about academia I was annoyed by the characters. The more verbose and didactic the dialogue, the more I tuned out. I will say my favorite scene was when Persse travels to Tokyo and learns of karaoke. Even though he is hellbent to find the woman of his dreams he manages to find time for a little fun. I won’t say whether Persse ever got his girl. It’s more about the journey than reaching the destination! Do not fret, the ending is satisfying!

Line I liked, “Professor B agreed that a law of academic life was that it was impossible to be excessive in flattery of one’s peers” (p 173). So true!

Author fact: David Lodge was an honorary professor of Modern English Literature at the University of Birmingham and it shows.

Book trivia: the title of the book, Small World, surfaces when Persse tells Akira it is a small world on page 335.

Music: Bob Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man,” “Lay Lady Lay,” and “Blowin’ in the Wind,” Bee Gees, Simon and Garfunkel’s “Mrs. Robinson,” Beatles’ “Hey Jude” and “Hard Days Night,” and Diana Ross’s “Baby Love.”

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Academia: The Joke” (p 3).

Resistance

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Sheers, Owen. Resistance. Nan A. Talese, 2007.

Reason read: Sheers celebrates a birthday in September. Read in his honor.

The year is 1944 and Sheers has introduced his readers to an alternate World War II in which Germany has all but won the war. For perspective, D-Day landings are an utter failure, Dewey wins the presidency of the United States, and Britain is almost completely German occupied. In the far reaches of a remote sheep-farming countryside all of the Welsh menfolk have abruptly disappeared, leaving their wives to farm the land alone just before the harsh arrival of winter. At the center of the story is young Sarah Lewis, not yet thirty and a sheep farmer’s wife of two years. Her antagonist is a German soldier, Albrecht Wolfram, who has come with a band of soldiers to the valley in search of a map. Incidentally, this map is real. It is the Hereford Mappa Mundi, a priceless medieval map of the world. But, back to Albrecht. He is not your average World War II villain. He loves books, nature, and music. The war has made him sick of fighting; he just wants to hide from the war and Sarah’s world is the perfect hideout. It is if Sheers wants you to like Albrecht just a little despite the side he is supposed to be on. Incrementally, the sentiment is felt for all of the soldiers under Albrecht’s command. As winter approaches, the local women and the German soldiers must work together to survive. Their mutual necessity for each other forms strange relationships. Sarah and Albrecht perform a dance of growing trust and lingering suspicion while Sarah tries to hang onto the hope that her husband is still alive and will return. In the end, the community of women face a heartbreaking betrayal. There is much more to the story, but I will leave that alone.
As an aside, one of my favorite scenes in the book is when Albrecht brings Sarah a gramophone and plays her cello music of Bach. It is like a seduction for the senses as well as the heart.

Quotes to quote, “The shrapnel had numbed his world” (p 99) and “…despite his blunted senses, which had left him feeling less human than ever” (p 99). These two sentences sent shivers down my spine as they alluded to something farm more ominous about Mr. Wolfram.

Author fact: Resistance is Sheers first novel. He is also a poet which makes me wonder if he put himself in the story as the poet Sarah remembers from childhood.

Book trivia: because Resistance takes place on a sheep farm readers learn a great deal about tupping, dipping, and foot rot. Resistance was made into a movie in 2011. This is one I would definitely see.

The music is very important in Resistance. Bach’s Cello Suites No. Four, the Allemande, the Courante, the Sarabande, and the Intermezzo.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Wales Welcomes You” (p 248).

Berlin Game

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Deighton, Len. Berlin Game. Pushkin Publications, 2023.

Reason read: The National Security Act of 1947 was signed in July, but most of the provisions went into effect on September 18th.

Len Deighton’s Berlin Game is the first book in the Game, Set, Match trilogy which is part of two other trilogies, Hook, Line, Sinker and Faith, Hope, Charity. In Berlin Game, Bernard Sampson is a married father who works for the secret intelligence service in London, the M16. His wife also serves as an agent, but she outranks Bernard which does not seem to bother him.
Bernard has had a desk job for years, but when Brahms Four, a British agent behind the Iron Curtain (obviously, Berlin Game takes place back with there was an East and West Germany) asks to be rescued by Bernard he cannot say no. Brahms saved his life twenty years earlier and now Bernard must return the favor. What follows is a new game of cat and mouse where everyone could be a traitor, including his own wife. Deighton lines up the suspects, each one more likelier than the last. It’s a fast moving drama, perfect for the big screen.

Confessional: I thought the ending was a little too predictable.

Author fact: Len Deighton was born on February 18th, 1929. He died earlier this year.

Book trivia: Berlin Game is the first book in the Game Set Match trilogy.
Audio book trivia: Berlin Game was read by James Lailey. Confessional: I thought his accents were terrible. I couldn’t tell if a character was German or Russian. I switched to the book format after a while.

Music: Schubert’s “Death and the Maiden,” Haydn’s Seventy-Seven C Major, and “the Trout.”

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust twice. First, in the chapter called “Cold War Spy Fiction” (p 61) and again in the chapter called, get ready, “Spies and Spymasters: the Really Real Unreal World of Intelligence” (p 223).