Tag: book lust i

Addie

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Settle, Mary Lee. Addie: a Memoir. University of South Carolina Press, 1998.

Reason read: Mary Lee Settle was born in July. Read in her honor.

There is something to be said for honoring one’s past. The oral histories of yesteryear are the cornerstones to who we are as people today. When Mary Lee Settle decided to write about her grandmother, Addie Settle, she chose to recognize not only a blood relative, but historical events: World War I, the Great Depression and mining strikes with Mother Jones leading the way. Settle honors her own personal tapestry of life by remembering family holidays from her childhood, coming of age, and the natural beauty of Kentucky and the Kanawha Valley of West Virginia. My favorite section was the poignant moment when Settle went back to Pineville, Kentucky. Sixty-five years after leaving the area as a six year old little girl, sharp memories rushed to meet her at every turn.
As an aside: when Mary Lee Settle was nine or ten years old she wrote a poem. When that poem was published someone had changed a word in the finished copy. In childish indignation she vowed never to write again. I just love that self righteous ardor for the integrity of her craft at ten years old!

An another aside: was it a typo to call it Wail Street instead of Wall Street?

Line I liked, “When your childhood has been spent on the river, the river will, wherever you are, flow through your dreams forever” (p 177). This quote reminded me of Natalie Merchant’s song, “Where I Go” – a song about finding solace on the banks of a river.
And this: “We had learned to watch for signs of that happiness as you watch the weather” (p 125). Confessional: my sister and I ask each other about the weather when we are really asking about our mother’s mood. Like weather in New England, it can change in a heartbeat.
Here is another one: “Since my mother never forgave anybody, she refused to go to the funeral when her friend died at ninety” (p 185). Does this kind of obstinate stubbornness come with old age? I see this in my own mother.

Author fact: Settle is in the Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame.

Book trivia: I am reading ten different books by Mary Lee Settle. This is my first one off the Challenge list.

Music: “Little Corey”, Guy Lombardo, “The Sweetheart of Sigma Chi”, “We shall Overcome”, “It was Sad When the Great Ship Went Down”, “In the shade of the Apple Tree”, “Down on the Farm”, Mozart, Nellie Lutcher, Flagstad & Melcior’s “Liebestod”, Hal Kemp, “If I Had the Wings of an Angel”, Tchaikovsky’s Second Piano Concerto, and “the Valley of Kentucky”.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Companion Reads” (p 62) to be read with Charms for the Easy Life because they are both about the south.

Dead Man’s Walk

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McMurtry, Larry. Dead Man’s Walk. Simon & Schuster, 1995.

Reason read: McMurtry celebrates a birthday in June. Read in his honor.

As a prequel to Lonesome Dove, this is the reader’s first introduction to Call and Gus and their budding friendship. Together they join an expedition from Texas to New Mexico. They, along with 200 other men, cross a landscape fraught with danger at every turn. Apache and Comanche natives that could steal a captain’s horse or thirty without a sound; slit your throat without disturbing a single sleeping comrade. Mexican armies trying to defend “their land” from the Texans. Hunger and thirst at every mile. There are so many ways to die: falling over a cliff, drowning in a river, bleeding to death as a result of a scalping or throat cutting, arrow or lance through the heart, hanging, burning, whipping, suicide, starvation, freezing, exhaustion, thirst, firing squad, crushed by a horse, snake bite, spider bite, suicide, being run down by a buffalo, or gored by a bear. Things turn from bad to worse when the Rangers are captured and forced into a dead man’s walk across the desert in leg irons. Be forewarned – only a few will survive.
Please keep in mind, Dead Man’s Walk was published in 1995 and takes place years before one needed to be politically correct. In the spirit of authenticity of the era, one will have to endure racism and sexism on multiple levels. In contrast, McMurtry several times acknowledges native ownership of the land Call and Gus travel.
The opening line of Dead Man’s Walk reminded me of a line from Josh Ritter’s song “Myrna Loy” for she had a wolf pup at her heels and a snow white rabbit huddled in her arms. It wasn’t a 200lb prostitute carrying a snapping turtle by the tail…but close.

Book trivia: Dead Man’s Walk is a prequel to Lonesome Dove. Someone mentioned that if you read Lonesome Dove before Dead Man’s Walk you figure out who survives in Dead Man’s Walk.

Author fact: I am reading seven books by McMurtry.

Setlist: “Barbara Allen”, “Buffalo Gals”, and Verdi’s Nabucco.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Western Fiction” (p 240).

Life on the Mississippi

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Twain, Mark. Life on the Mississippi. Oxford University Press, 1996.

Reason read: June is supposedly National River Cleanup month. I bet the Mississippi could stand a cleanup every now and again.

Twain was obviously in love with the Mississippi River. He gives a historical perspective of what was happening (and not) in the year 1542. He astounds the reader with a barrage of facts. I am not about the check validity of his claims, but here are a couple: You weren’t anyone until you got a job on the mighty river and pilot was the most coveted position. To put Life on the Mississippi into perspective, in 1874 there were only twenty-eight states and territories. The south was wide open territory.
One of the cool things about reading Life on the Mississippi is that the reader gains insight about Twain’s work in progress, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. He calls it a story about “an ignorant village boy” and shares a chapter or two. Another insight is how Samuel Clemens became Mark Twain. While piloting the Mississippi Clemens learned that the words mark twain come from a call for the measured depth of a river. And just like that a pen name is born.
All in all, Twain is a masterful storyteller. Keep that in mind when you read Life on the Mississippi because not everything he says is true and the second half of the book is all over the place. Wouldn’t it be great to have dinner with Twain and ask him what he was thinking when he put together the second half of Life on the Mississippi? My favorite part was the detailed description of New Orleans and the cemeteries.

As an aside, does anyone else think that the portrait of Mark Twain looks like a scowling grump?

Favorite quote, “…there is music in the rush of water…” (p 145). Yes, yes there is. Here is another, “I killed Brown every night for months; not in the old, stale, commonplace ways, but in new and picturesque ones, – ways that were sometimes surprising for freshness of design and ghastliness of situation and environment” (p 224).

Author fact: Samuel Clemens was a very influential person in his community.

Book trivia: my copy of Life on the Mississippi contained over three hundred illustrations. Another point to note: in addition to Twain’s story there is one page for the editor’s note, nineteen pages for the foreword (written by Shelley Fisher Fishkin), twenty-two pages for the introduction (written by Willie Morris), eighteen pages for the afterword (written by Lawrence Howe), the table of contents takes up eight pages, the list of illustrations takes up another six, and there are 30 pages of appendices.

Music: “Buffalo Gals, Can’t You Come Out?” “Battle of Prague”, “Bird Waltz”, “Arkansas Traveller”, “Rosin the Bow”, “Marseilles Hymn”, “On a Barren Isle”, “The Last Link is Broken”, “She Wore a Wreath of Roses”, “Go, Forget Me”, “Long Long Ago”, “Days of Absence”, “A Life on the Ocean Wave”, “Bird at Sea”,

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapters called “Companion Reads” (p 63) and again in “Rivers of Words” (p 202). Here’s what I find really interesting. Nancy does not have a “Mark Twain: Too Good To Miss” chapter in any of her Lust books. Why not? She certainly lists a few he has penned: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the Adventures of Huckleberry Sawyer, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, Innocents Abroad, Life on the Mississippi, the Man Who Corrupted Hadleyburg, Roughing It and even essays in In a Fog. Mr. Twain is indexed in all three Lust books.

Wild Sheep Chase

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Murakami, Haruki. A Wild Sheep Chase. Vintage International, 1989.

Reason read: in early June the running community celebrates a national run day. Murakami is an experience marathoner. To celebrate running and Murakami’s athleticism, I am reading A Wild Sheep Chase.

Hidden in the midst of The Wild Sheep Chase are mysteries. Early on, the nameless narrator receives a letter from someone he didn’t want to think about. He throws the letter away without opening it. As the reader, are we supposed to remember this letter? Is it important later on? I’m thinking it must be or it wouldn’t have been presented in such a way. Right? Wrong assumption. This nameless protagonist has been issued a threat – find a unique sheep with a star on its back or else. The blackmail is terrifying in an unspecific way. Get use to the vagueness of A Wild Sheep Chase. No one has a proper name. Not the narrator, ex-wife, girlfriend, business partner, or even the strange man dressed in a sheep suit.
The entire time I was reading A Wild Sheep Chase I thought it could be a video game…either that or a fever dream. You find yourself questioning chaos versus mediocrity. The negating of cognition. Part I begins in November of 1970. This date is important but you won’t realize it until long after you’ve closed the book. Like I said, fever dream.

As an aside, I was struck by this line, “…an epidemic could have swept the world…” (p 307). It was published 31 years before Covid-19 blanketed the entire world with its deadly power. Here is another line I liked, “No matter how much speed we put on there was no escaping boredom” (p 100).

Author fact: Murakami won the Norma Literary Newcomer’s Prize for A Wild Sheep Chase.

Book trivia: A Wild Sheep Chase is part of a trilogy called The Trilogy of the Rat. I am not reading the other books in this trilogy.

Setlist: Bach, the Beach Boys, Beatles, Beethoven, Benny Goodman’s “Air Mail Special”, Bill Withers, Boz Scags, Brothers Johnson, the Byrds, Chopin, Deep Purple, the Doors, “Johnny B Goode”, Johnny River’s “Midnight Special”, Maynard Ferguson, Moody Blues, Mozart, Nat King Cole, Paul McCartney, Percy Faith Orchestra’s “Perfidia”, “Roll Over Beethoven”, the Rolling Stones, “Secret Agent Man”, “Star Wars”, and “White Christmas”.

BookLust Twist: First from Book Lust twice in the chapters “Japanese Fiction (p 131) and “Post Modern Condition” (p 190). Also in Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Japanese Journeys” (p 117). I see this BLTG addition as a cheat.

Easy Way Out

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McCauley, Stephen. The Easy Way Out. Simon & Schuster, 1992.

Reason read: McCauley celebrates a birthday in June and it’s Pride month. What better way to honor both occasions than by reading The Easy Way Out?

Patrick O’Neil has been called the anti-hero and I have to admit, when I read that I thought of Taylor Swift (I love that song…only Dermot Kennedy’s version). Patrick is not exactly the best lover to his partner, Arthur. He isn’t the best brother to Ryan and Tony either. He is an even worse travel agent. How he manages his relationships, both personal and professional, is a conundrum. In all honesty, I didn’t like any of the characters well, except Sharon. Everyone was someone who took the easy way out (hence the title of the book). Am I supposed to applaud Patrick for finally not compromising his feelings? The way he did it wasn’t admirable either.
As someone who took the easy way out because I thought I knew what I wanted, I have learned that life isn’t always lived in regret. I do have my moments of oops, but for the most part I do have my share of gratitude for the mistakes I’ve made and how it all turned out.

As an aside, did anyone else notice the multiple comments about global warning?

Lines I liked, “I sometimes worried that he might suddenly disappear, especially when I’d been spending a lot of time fantasizing about leaving him” (p 19) and “I was in that oddly euphoric state that accompanies fasting, sleep deprivation and natural disasters” (p 281).

Book trivia: I could easily see this as a movie.

Author fact: I have three MCauley books to read. Man of the House and Object of My Affection are next.

Setlist: “Ill Wind”, “Put the Blame on Mame”, “MoonSlide”, “The Shadow of Your Smile”, Richard Tauber, Ben Webster, Mozart, La Traviata, “Surrey with the Fringe on Top”, “Hello Dolly”, Uccini, and “La Vie en Rose”.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in two different chapters. First, in “Gay and Lesbian Fiction: Out of the Closet” (p 93) and again a few chapters later in “My Own Private DUI” (p 165).

Old Glory

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Raban, Jonathan. Old Glory: an American Voyage. Simon and Schuster, 1981.

Reason read: read as a companion to Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain (which was read in honor of National River Cleanup month).

Raban was captivated by the story of Huckleberry Finn in 1949. He never forgot it, so in September of 1979 he decides to retrace Huck’s journey. Imagine traveling down the massive and mighty Mississippi River in a borrowed 16′ aluminum boat with just an outboard motor. He didn’t even have a radio to communicate with the larger tows.
Probably the biggest surprise of Old Glory was how much time Raban spends talking about being on shore comingling with the locals. He finds people to feed him and give him rides. He even spends a night or two in the homes of strangers and goes on a few dates. One date becomes serious enough for him to start using words like our garden and we went to church. He takes the time to hang out in bars to listen to the locals gossip and fight and gets caught up in both from time to time. He speaks to schoolchildren about his adventures (and they are not impressed). He hunts racoon, visits the Oscar Mayer factory workers on strike, attends a pig roast and crashes a house warming party. He stays with a taxidermist. He tries to talk politics by asking the locals about the upcoming election to get a sense of the political climate (and they are not impressed with Jimmy Carter). He romanticizes the writings of Twain, Dickens, Trollope, and Thoreau as he learns to listen to the Mississippi River’s moods and heed her whims.
One of my favorite parts was when Raban took on hitchhiking Monarch butterflies as they migrated down to Venezuela and Columbia.
In all honesty, I couldn’t tell if Raban was happy with the conclusion of his journey. Was it worth it and what did he do with the borrowed outboard motor boat?

As an aside, can I say I was shocked when Raban threw the empty cigarette pack into the river? I had to remind myself that Raban was not piloting down the Mississippi for the love of nature; that was not his goal.
On a personal note, Raban mentioned a poky little movie house in Northampton, Massachusetts; watching Twiggy in “The Boy Friend”. The year was 1972 so my husband’s family was not in town, but it was cool to see a town name I not only recognized, but had visited many, many times.

Lines I liked, “It is hard to make travel arrangements to visit a dream” (p 16) and “High wakes from towboats came rolling at me through my dreams” (p 48).

Author fact: other Raban books I have on my Challenge list include Passage to Juneau, Coasting, Waxwings, and Bad Land.

Playlist: Andre Kostelanetz, Aida, Barbra Streisand, Big Bopper’s “Chantilly Lace”, “Camptown Races”, Carol Lawrence’s “Tell All the World About Love”, Dave Brubeck, “Jingle Bell Rock”, Judy Garland’s “Meet Me in St. Louis”, “I Want That Mountain”, “It Is Well with My Soul”, Len Mink, Miles Davis, “Old Man River”, “On Blueberry Hill”, Patience and Prudence’s “Tonight You Belong To Me”, “Saints”, Scott Joplin, “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes”, Smokey Robinson’s “You Better Shop Around”, “South Rampart Street Parade”, and Verdi’s requiem “Dies Irae”.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the forgotten chapter “Water, Water Everywhere” (p 254), and again in Book Lust twice. First, in the chapter “Companion Reads” (p 62) and again in “Rivers of Words” (p 202).

War and Remembrance

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Wouk, Herman. War and Remembrance: Vol. 1. Little, Brown and Company, 1978.

Reason read: to continue the series started in honor of Memorial Day in May.

War and Remembrance: Vol 1 covers the Americans at war from Pearl Harbor to Hiroshima and even though it picks up where Winds of War left off, Wouk assures his reader that War and Remembrance can be read independently of Winds of War. I disagree to a certain degree. In Winds of War we have gotten to know the Henry family very well. You can’t help but get tangled in their lives. There is something about this passionate family! We have followed their adventures in love and war. Torrid affairs and wild ambitions have led each family member through various trials and tribulations. We rejoin Victor as he struggles to understand his feelings for the young and beautiful Pamela while traveling across the globe from the Soviet Union to Manila and Hawaii. His time on the Northampton set my teeth on edge. Natalie and Byron still haven’t rendezvoused on American soil. Natalie is still trapped in Italy with the young son Byron has never seen. Warren and Janice have welcomed a baby into their family, too, but Warren is always away, piloting top secret missions. Rhoda can’t decide between an absent husband and a totally different man, one more than willing to be there in the flesh. Like Winds of War, Wouk will take his reader to intimate places most are unlikely to go, like the belly of a thin-skinned submarine.
Military politics can be a fine line to balance upon. It can have career-ending ramifications to reject a vice admiral’s invitation to tea, for example. Wouk recreates military conversations that are fraught with tension and innuendo. His characters vibrate with drama. War and Remembrance is every bit as exciting as Winds of War.

Confessional: by now you know that I sometimes get hung up on the details. Here is one: Warren and Byron are sitting on the lawn, drinking beer straight from cans. Dad comes out and Warren produces a “frosty glass” for him. To create a “frosty glass” one has to chill the glass, most likely in a freezer. Why would they have such a glass out on the lawn while they are drinking straight from the can?
Second confessional: I knew something was going to happen when Warren’s mission does not go as rehearsed; when they alter the plan from what they practiced. That sense of foreboding was pungent.

Line I liked, “This isn’t the war we trained for, but its sure as hell the war we’ve got” (p 45).

Author fact: Wouk lived to be 103 years old.

Book trivia: War and Remembrance was dedicated to Abraham Isaac Wouk who didn’t make it to his sixth birthday.

Playlist: Bing Crosby, “Battle Hymn of the Republic”, “Boogie Woogie Washer Woman”, “Der Fuchrer’s Face”, “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen”, “Hut-Sut Song”, “Lili Marlene”, “Reactionary Rag”, “Rozhunkes mit Mandlen”, “Three O’Clock in the Morning”, “Yah Ribon”

Nancy said: Pearl called War and Remembrance good fiction.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “World War II Fiction” (p 252).

Groves of Academe

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McCarthy, Mary. The Groves of Academe. Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1952.

Reason read: Mary McCarthy was born in the month of June. Read in her honor.

Meet Henry Mulcahy. He is a middle-aged (42) professor who teaches literature at a small progressive college in Pennsylvania. Taught literature, I should say. His contract was not renewed for the upcoming term. There is a philosophical argument to be had: is it better to be fired or just not have your contract renewed? Is there a difference? Is there a more acceptable option? Henry “Hen” Mulcahy thinks President Maynard Hoar has it out for him. The sad thing was I didn’t care. When it came to intellectual liability, I thought they all were floating in egotistical backwater.
McCarthy is a crafty one. You are led to believe one thing about a character, but then, as the story unfolds, you hear the truth is something quite different. The reader is drawn into the manipulation. Mulcahy seems like a genuine person until you realize how far he is willing to go in order to save face.
McCarthy captures the snootiness of academia perfectly with all of its Proustian and Jamesian context. If Groves of Academe was a baking game show and the challenge was satire, McCarthy would have failed because her secret ingredient was too secret. The flavor was lost behind too many other ingredients like religion, philosophy, politics, literary greats, psychology, and let us not forget, human emotions like jealousy, competition, and hubris. At face value, Groves of Academe is a story about a man who doesn’t want to lose his job.

Author fact: McCarthy taught at Bard and Sarah Lawrence. Groves of Academe are based on McCarthy’s experiences teaching at these institutions.
Quote I wonder if she heard somewhere for real, “I had the misfortune to be born into the upper classes and I cannot respond to the suffering when the sufferer is base” (p 213). The attitude is the poor are free of money guilt…lucky them. Here’s another line I didn’t understand, “…her violent thrusts against the modern…” (p 227).

Book trivia: The first chapter of The Groves of Academe was featured in The New Yorker in 1951.

Playlist: Bach

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

Cement Garden

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McEwan, Ian. The Cement Garden. Simon and Schuster, 1978.

Reason read: McEwan celebrates a birthday in the month of June. Read in his honor.

Put your mind right before you read The Cement Garden. If you think of it like Lord of the Flies by William Golding, only Lord of the Flies family-style, you will be fine. Cement Garden is dark. Really dark. It deals with really difficult subjects. A family of four children, the youngest being six and the oldest, fifteen, are left alone for the summer. The do not have neighbors, teachers, parents, relatives, town officials, anyone to look after them. No one knows these four are alone. They don’t have many friends, either. Left to their own devices a quiet chaos within the house ensues. Told through the fourteen year old character of Jack, McEwan’s psychological exploration of naivety and stunted societal growth is captured in the themes of death, sexuality, and relationships as the children do not know how to deal these things. The death of their mother, coming of age impulses, and interactions with the outside world confound them and they react inappropriately. Beyond death, sex, and interpersonal relationships, the subtle emotional themes of grief, jealousy, and love are also probed. It’s a blessing that is mercifully short.

Pet peeve: I can sometimes get obsessed with details. The siblings are in Julie’s room when they pull down Sue’s pants. So when Jack wanted her to get dressed, why did he throw her skirt at her? Why wasn’t it a skirt of Julie’s? Why wasn’t it the pants they originally removed from Sue?

Author fact: So far I have read Atonement, Cement Garden, Amsterdam, and Comfort of Strangers. I have five other novels on my challenge list.

Book trivia: The Cement Garden is McEwan’s first novel.

Playlist: “Happy Birthday”, “Greensleeves”, and “Get Your Kicks on Route 66” by the King Cole Trio.

Nancy said: Pearl didn’t say anything specific about The Cement Garden.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Ian McEwan: Too Good To Miss” (p 149).

Winds of War

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Wouk, Herman. Winds of War. Simon & Schuster, 1974.

Reason read: Memorial Day is in May. Read to remember those no longer with us.
Confessional: I read most of this as an ebook. I made a lot of notes and highlighted many passages, but had to return it before I could transfer the information here.

The year is 1939 and Germany busily bullies the world into a clash that would later become the infamous World War II. The advances of Hitler into Poland and eventually England, France, and the Soviet Union indicate a man hellbent on world domination; all the while citing the “Jewish problem” as his justification and motivation. Wouk will take you on a panoramic journey through the intimate details of war. You will have a front row seat in the war room; be a voyeur in the bedroom; sit elbow to elbow in the libraries of world leaders as they speak in hushed tones about counterattacks. With a book this size (Winds of War is over one thousand pages long in paperback format), I wanted to make sure I kept track of all of the different characters. I wasn’t sure who was going to be worth remembering, real or imaginary. At the center is Berlin attaché Victor Henry (“Pug”), his glamorous but bored wife, Rhoda, and their three adult children. Winds of War begins when the parents are relocated with Germany on assignment. The three children, Byron, Warren, and Madeline are scattered across the globe. Pug desperately wants to captain a battleship but being relegated to serve as Naval attaché in Berlin has afforded him the opportunity to see the war fold out firsthand. As he gains the unusual trust of President Roosevelt he travels the world, gaining insight on future enemy tactics. Indeed, many real political powerhouses make an appearance in Winds of War.
A note about Winston Churchill: It is interesting to see how time blunts the sharp edges of an unfavorable reputation.
It is also interesting to see the varying opinions about the start of the war. Byron and his girl, Natalie, didn’t take it seriously until they were strafed in Poland and Natalie began to have troubles getting her Polish uncle out of Italy. Byron’s mother only had superficial societal concerns when Pug couldn’t accompany her to the opera. I mentioned she was the epitome of the bored housewife, didn’t I? She becomes even more cliché as the story progresses.
Separating fact from fiction: Did Hitler really have a remarkable smile?

Wouk certainly loved his women characters. As an aside, have you ever noticed that a woman’s breasts can be described with abandon (dressed or undressed), but barely (pun intended) anyone writes about the size of a man’s privates? Wouk is no different in the way he romanticizes the female body. Here are the breasts of Wouk: creamy breasts, pretty bosom, ample bosom,

Quotes to quote, “So they stood together, watching the Luftwaffe start its effort to bomb London to its knees. It was the seventh of September” (p 422).

Author fact: Wouk won a Pulitzer for The Caine Mutiny.

Book trivia: Winds of War has been made into a mini series starring Ali MacGraw and Robert Mitchum. Of course I haven’t seen it. Confessional: I confuse Ali MacGraw with Ali Sheedy.

Playlist: “The Star Spangled Banner”, Chopin, “Star Dust”, Liszt, “Deutschland Uber Alles”, “Three O’clock in the Morning”, “Horst Wessel Lied”, “Bell Bottom Trousers”, “She Wore a Yellow Ribbon”, “Auld Lang Syne”, “This Can’t Be Love”, Bach, Schubert, Beethoven, Mozart, “There Will Always Be an England”, and “Alexander’s Ragtime Band”.

Nancy said: Pearl called Winds of War good fiction.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “World War II Fiction” (p 252).

The Odd Women

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Gissing, George. The Odd Women. Stein and Day, 1968.

Reason read: Read in honor of Mother’s Day.

Society is the name of the game in The Odd Women. Think Victorian and you have The Odd Women in a nutshell. It is all about the sociable attitude and the intelligent female society: women live in shame if they do not marry a man who has a sense of honor (and carries gloves and a walking stick). There is a subtle analysis of the institution of marriage.
As an aside, I found myself getting increasingly annoyed by Edmund Widdowson’s behavior when he would not allow Monica to see her friend Milly alone. By the time he consented to let her see her friend for just an hour I was seething. Edmund insists on them always being together and criticizes her friends. It reminded me of the classic behavior of an abuser: alienating one from their friends and family, always wanting to be together, the possessiveness that turns rageful (my word). Meanwhile, there is Everard Barfoot and Rhoda. Rhoda fears that marriage would interfere with the best parts of her life. All in all, I did not care for Gissing’s barely veiled attitudes towards women’s love of fashion and gossip.

Lines I liked, “If I could move your feelings, (p 29), and “Not a word reached her understanding” (p 30), and “I would go any distance to see you and speak with you for only a few minutes” (p 67). That last line, while incredibly romantic, is also very telling.

Author fact: George Gissing helped a prostitute while he held a teaching position. He was later fired for the act, but he married the lady of the night.

Book trivia: the introduction to The Odd Women was written by Frank Swinnerton.

Playlist: “The Blue Bells of Scotland” and Schubert.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Companion Reads” (p 62).

On Being Different

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Miller, Merle. On Being Different. Random House, 1987.

Reason read: Merle Miller celebrated a birthday in May. Read in his honor.

The prejudice one has for homosexuals borders on insane, yet it exists. Why anyone would see a link between homosexuality and communism is beyond me. Same with thinking marriage could be a potential “cure” for homosexuality. These are the beliefs of the ignorant. It took Miller fifty years to come out of the closet. That is an unimaginable length of time to hide one’s true self yet it happens all the time. Miller’s essay “On Being Different” is a valiant attempt to respond to the ignorant and expose the human side of love. He discusses the prejudices and fears without flinching. There is grace threaded throughout his anger.

Book trivia: the foreword was written by Dan Savage. Afterword One was written by Merle Miller. Afterword Two was written by Charles Kaiser. Acknowledgments were written by Carol Hanley. On Being Different is only a twenty-one page essay, but with all these other additions and appendices A through C is becomes a much longer book.

Confessional: I, too, like Halloween for all of its mask wearing.

Playlist: Paul Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Peggy Lee’s “Love Story”, Liberace, Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus, and “We Shall Overcome”.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Merle Miller: Too Good To Miss” (p 155).

Out of Africa

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Dinesen, Isak. Out of Africa. Modern Library, 1992.

Reason read: Karen (Isak) Blixen Dinesen was born on April 17th, 1885. Read in her honor. I also needed a book for the Portland Public Library Reading Challenge in the category of a book with a bird on the cover.

Karen (Isak) Christenze Dinesen von Blixen-Finecke was a woman well ahead of her time. There is no denying her courage, independence, intelligence and strength. To be a Danish woman living alone on a four thousand acre coffee plantation in the early 1900s takes fortitude. Her famous memoir, Out of Africa, covers her adventurous life in Kenya from 1914 to 1931. Whether it is keeping a pet antelope named Lulu, being caught in the middle of a shooting tragedy, or being at the bedside of a dying Kikuyus chief, Dinesen seems to have a deep understanding of, and respect for, her surroundings. She understood the cultures of the tribes with whom she lived. Agreeing with Kikuyus custom of not burying their dead and letting the African wilderness take care of their remains is one such example. She was respected within the tribal communities.
Personally, the elephant in the Out of Africa room was who was the real squatter on this plantation. Dinesen acknowledged that the squatters (who she employed) were born there, and their fathers’ fathers before them. Instead of saying the land is their birthright she states, “they likely regarded me as sort of a superior squatter on their estate” (p 10). Note the use if the word likely. Dinesen, being from Denmark, technically had no right to claim the land as inheritably hers. By the end of Out of Africa she came to a different conclusion by saying, “It is more than their land that you take from the people, whose Native land you take” (p 385). This, as she was returning to Denmark and leaving her squatters to displacement.

Author fact: Dinesen married her second cousin but divorced him in 1921. She then took a lover until his untimely death in 1929. I appreciated the fact that Karen kept this personal part of her life out of the pages of Out of Africa. As a memoir about Kenya, her romances, failed or otherwise, had nothing to with it.

Book trivia: Out of Africa has been called a masterpiece. I would have to agree, but I would have liked to see at least one photograph besides the author photograph on the back flap of the book. Confessional: I wanted to see Denys’ face so I Googled him.

Natalie Merchant degree of separation: there is a section of Out of Africa where Dinesen discusses the killing of elephants for their ivory tusks. the entire time I was reading the passage I kept hearing the 10,000 Maniacs song, “Hateful Hate” and the line “Curiosity spilled the blood of these for their spotted skins and ivory.” If you know the song, you can hear the chains being dragged continuously through the whole song.

Quotes to quote, “It is a moving thing to work together with a demon” (p 40), “There is something strangely determinate and fatal about a single shot in the night” (p 93),

Playlist: Beethoven’s Piano Concerto in G Major.

Nancy said: since Pearl mentions Out of Africa three times, it is safe bet to say she liked it. There is a part of me, however, that wonders if she brings it up because it is a classic and, well, easy to include.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Dreaming of Africa” (p 76) and again in Book Lust To Go in the chapters called “Africa: the Greenest Continent” (p 7) and “Kenya” (p 122).

Unexpected Light

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Elliot, Jason. An Unexpected Light: Travels in Afghanistan. Picador Press,

Reason read: Victory Day in Afghanistan was on April 28th.

Elliot writes about Afghanistan with a passion that takes you along with him. You can practically smell and see the shops where one can buy shampoo, faux leather watch straps, sticky honey, blank staring heads of goats, army green grenades, prayer carpets, cooking pots, rotting vegetables, astringent medicine, wooly socks, or steel rockets…anything to suit your needs. His mission? To prove to the world that is was possible to travel alone in the places others shunned. (As an aside, what does he think of our world now? It is still possible?)
Besides passion, Elliot also writes with lyrical elegance. His statement about time being a river was stunning. It left me pondering my fishing abilities for days. Words like spectral, silent, ghostly, and luminous describe a simple ride through town, but those words also make the journey extra eerie and dangerous. He takes this imagery a step further by adding a touch of royalty by saying they are “kings in the night on our wild chariot” (p 47). It is a romantic image in a dangerous town for Elliot and his companion are out after curfew and could be shot on sight.
Speaking of danger, the section on the diabolical designs of landmines was difficult to read. I cringed as I read about explosives that were made out of plastic so that they would avoid detection by x-ray in a victim’s body. Or mines that “jumped in the air to about the height of a man’s groin before exploding” to cause a man the most damage and bleed to death…I could go on. My favorite section was when Elliot needed to distract himself from paralyzing fear. He fantasized about riding on the back of a giant fantastical simurgh and seeing with landscape from high above.
Elliot met with people with eyes open; people who supported the Taliban and even defended their actions, pointing out how order has been restored. Perception is truth to most people.
Personal observations: Can you imagine receiving a fax from someone chatting about curtain colors after you have been in the center of incoming tank rounds? It sounds inane.
When Elliot described people ripping off parts of Russian tanks and selling them for scrap I instantly thought of the opening scene to one of the Star Wars movies.
As an aside, I would understand why Elliot would want a guide traveling through unknown territories, but why does he need someone to sherpa (my verb) all his crap, too?

I mentioned before how elegant and lyrical Elliot’s writing is. Here are other examples: a brilliant description of a mood change, “…fell across my feelings” (p 208) or the removal of an ammunition belt, “slithering to the floor like an anaconda” (p 233). When Elliot described a ride in an overburdened vehicle struggling up a steep and windy mountainside I felt his fear as if I were right beside him. Here is another quote of brilliance, “Fear has its own seductive language” (p 265).

One degree of separation from Natalie Merchant moment: When describing the mysterious world of Sufi mysticism Elliot compared it to the ancient tale of the blend men and the elephant. The same story Natalie set to music on her double album, Leave Your Sleep.

Author fact: Elliot has a very simple but cool website. There isn’t a lot of information about him, but it’s still cool. If I could meet Elliot I would ask him if Beat ever read his book and if so, did he recognize himself as the one with the idiotic smile?

Book trivia: An Unexpected Light was the winner of the Thomas Cook/Daily Telegraph Travel Book Award.

Music: Mir Fakhruddin, Pavarotti’s Nessun dorma, and Puccini.

Nancy said: Pearl called An Unexpected Light perceptive and exciting.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “The Islamic World” (p 126).

I Know This Much Is True

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Lamb, Wally. I Know This Much Is True. HarperCollins, 1998.

Reason read: March is considered Family Month. Brothers are family. Read in honor of brothers everywhere.

Thomas and Dominic. Identical twins.
Dominic’s life reminded me of a country song. You know the ones where anything that could go wrong eventually does. Consider: Dominic spent his entire life worrying about three things. One, who was his father? By not knowing his father Dominic feels he does not know himself. As a child he dreamed of his biological father and fantasized about the day this mystery man would swoop in and save him and Thomas from their abusive stepfather, Ray. Two, Dominic was convinced his mother loved his brother more. Maybe she really did because of Thomas’s mental illness. On her deathbed she makes Dominic promise to look after Thomas, all the while refusing to reveal the true identity of their father. Three, Thomas’s mental illness could be hereditary and sooner or later Dominic would inherit his brother’s schizophrenia. Was he just as crazy as his brother and just not know it? All of these worries weigh on Dominic as he tries to cope. In giving up his own life to fulfill the promise he made to his mother his marriage falls apart and he quit his job as a history teacher (ironically, it is history that sets him free).
In order for this story to be successful the reader needed to be grounded in the current events of the time, otherwise Thomas’s internal angst doesn’t make sense. Eric Clapton’s son falling from a window. Desert Storm. The beating of Rodney King. The world on fire. In addition to these unsettling times, Lamb throws in some equally difficult subjects like racism, AIDS, post traumatic stress suffered by veterans, diabetes, and of course, the complicated system of treating mental health.
I deeply love flawed characters; ones who find a way to change just enough that by the end of the book they are going to be okay, even if it is only somewhat okay. They haven’t gone from devil to angel but their lives are not the disaster they once were.

As another aside, the next time I am feeling threatened by anyone I think I want to try Dominic’s trick of protection – look your tormentor directly in the eye without flinching.

Author fact: Lamb also wrote She’s Come Undone, another fantastic book.

Book trivia: this is a reread for me. I remember being intimidated by the number of pages. Some things never change.

Playlist: Aerosmith, “Age of Aquarius”, Beatles, “Beautiful Dreamer”, Bob Dylan, Bob Marley’s “One Love”, “Cool Jerk”, “Heartbreak Hotel” and “Hunka Hunka Burning Love” by Elvis, Eric Clapton, “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow”, “Good Lovin'”, “Happy Birthday”, “Hot Diggity Dog Diggity”, “I Shot the Sherriff”, Indigo Girls, John Lennon’s “Instant Karma”, “Marzy Doats” The Monkees, “My Country ‘Tis of Thee”, “Night Moves”, “Nineteenth Nervous Breakdown”, Olivia Newton-John, Question Mark and the Mysterians’s “Ninety-Six Tears”, Rolling Stones, Sam the Sham and the Pharaoh’s “Wooly Bully”, “The Boys are Back in Town”, “Three blind Mice”, Tina Turner’s “What’s Love Got To Do With It?”, Verdi, “Wild Thing”, Willie Nelson’s “Heartland”, and Yanni.

Nancy said: Pearl called I Know This Much Is True an interesting portrait of therapists. She said more than that but you should check out Book Lust or More Book Lust for more.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Shrinks and Shrinkees” (p 221). Also from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Oh! Brother” (p 180).