Tag: book lust iii

Ellington Boulevard

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Langer, Adam. Ellington Boulevard: a Novel in A-Flat. Spiegel and Grau, 2008.

Reason read: September is when the New York Gypsy Festival usually happens.

Ike Ambrose Morphy has been away from his beloved Manhattan for seven months while he cared for his dying mother in Chicago. In that short time, the New York he knew has changed dramatically. The off-limits parts of Central Park he used to frequent with his dog, Herbie Mann, are now patrolled by police. Right away you know Ike is headed for trouble. The hole in a particular fence he used to sneak through is no longer there so he has to cut a new hole. His carrying a tool for that? That’s new. The cop who caught him gives him a hard time about trespassing. That is also new. Even more disturbing, there are people in his apartment when he finally arrives back home; the place where he has never needed a lease or contract. It is no longer his apartment just as it is no longer his New York. Welcome to Ellington Boulevard. But Ellington Boulevard isn’t just Ike’s story. Readers will meet the buyer, her husband, the real estate agent (an out of work actor playing the part of a real estate salesperson even though his heart isn’t really in it), the broker and a bunch of other interesting characters. Readers will also get a few lessons in music history (like the inventor of the B-flat clarinet, Iwan Muller).
My initial complaint? Some of the characters in Ellington Boulevard were very cliché: stereotypical descriptions of the haves and have-nots. Mark Masler is a good example of that. My only other complaint about Ellington Boulevard? In a city as vast as the Big Apple is, I was surprised Herbie Mann’s world was so small. What are the chances that his current owner and previous owner would run in the same circles?

As an aside, I love any author that slips in a little Dr. Seuss (who remembers Gertrude McFuzz?).

Author fact: I am only reading two books by Adam Langer. I finished Crossing California earlier in the Challenge.

Book trivia: Ellington Boulevard uses real N.Y.C. locations like the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center and the Untermyer Fountain to name a couple.

Setlist: 50 Cent, “Air Algiers” by Country Joe McDonald, Bruce Springsteen, Black Sabbath, Barry Manilow, Busta Rhymes, Beethoven, Beatles, Buddy Holly, Benny Goodman, Bob Dylan’s “Hard Times in New York Town,” “Conquering the City,” Cole Porter’s “I Happen To Like New York,” the Damage Manual’s “Sunset Gun,” Dave Matthews, Dokken, Easy-E, Eric Dolphy, the Game, Gil Scott-Heron’s “Blue Collar,” “Angola, Louisiana,” and “Winter in America,” “Hava Nagilah,” Hendrix, Herbie Mann, “Here I Go Again On My Own,” Ice Cube, ” (I Believe) I Can Fly,” “(I Wanna) Soar,” “(I’m a) Love Man,” “In the Court of the Crimson Kings,” John Mayer, Janis Joplin, John Lennon, Keith Moon, King Crimson, Kurt Cobain, Kool & the Gang, Leonard Bernstein’s “Conquering the City,” Lake & Palmer, “A Little Night Music,” LL Cool J, Lou Reed’s “NYC Man,” “A Love Supreme,” Mozart, Mahavishnu Orchestra, “Merrily We Roll Along,” Moby, Mongo Santamaria, Nirvana, Nas, N.W.A., “Our time,” Ornette Coleman, Patti Smith, Paul McCartney, Peter Frampton, Peggy Lee, the Pogues, Procul Harem, the Prodigy, “Raisins and Almonds,” “Rough Boy,” Rovner!, Snoop Dogg, “Straight Outta Compton,” Sun Ra, Sidney Bechet, “Sunride, Sunset,” “(To Dream) The Impossible Dream,” Tupac’s “Resurrection,” U2’s “Yahweh,” “Where the Streets Have No Name,” and “Crumbs From Your Table,” “Winds of Change,” “Wheels On the Bus (Go Round and Round),” “I’ve Seen All Good People” by Yes, “(You Are the) Wings Beneath My Wings,”

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “New York City: a Taste of the Big Apple” (p 151).

With His Pistol in His Hand

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Paredes, Americo. “With His Pistol in His Hand: a Border Ballad and Its Hero.” University of Texas, 1958.

Reason read: Parades birth month is in September. Read in his honor.

As with all great legends the stories about them are passed down through the generations to the point where no one knows the truth anymore. Ballads are sung to remember (misremember) and honor (or exaggerate) the legendary events and humans throughout history. “El Corrido de Gregorio Cortez” is the ballad for Gregorio Cortez. No one can agree on what he looked like or where he was born. Legend has it he shucked corn for a living. Maybe he picked cotton. Maybe he was a barber? Everyone said he could shoot a pistol and talk to horses. He might have been an expert trail tracker. He certainly was a weather predictor and a womanizer (No one can agree on who he actually married, though). He was also crafty and smart. He often got away from posses by blending in with the common folk on either side of the Rio Grande. He was peaceful yet he killed many men “in self defense.” Posse after posses chased the infamous man and his little mare across the wild Texas countryside. Cortez is able to walk amongst the commoners because, while they all knew of his exploits, he was unrecognizable in a crowd. Exaggerating the villainous nature of the Mexican people only increased the paranoia and prejudice against Cortez. When Gregorio Cortez is finally caught his legal battles raged for over three and a half years. For one trial Cortez’s supposed wife testified in his defense but by the next trial she had divorced him. Despite being found guilty, he was pardoned in July of 1913.
In the end, no one could decide how Cortez died. Was it a heart attack? Poison? He was only forty-one years one.
The second section of “With His Pistol in His Hand” is not nearly as exciting. Paredes spends this time comparing and critiquing the variations of the El Corrido de Gregorio Cortez ballad and describing the narrative elements and the development and quatrain structure of a ballad.

Lines I liked, “If the ballad maker wants to justify the deeds of his robber hero, he will transform him into a border raider fighting against the outside group, the Americans” (p 144).

Author fact: Paredes was able to talk to singers about the variants of corrido the performed.

Book trivia: “With His Pistol in His Hand” was illustrated by Jo Alys Downs.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Texas Two-Step (After a Bob Wills Song)” (p 225).

Brass Dolphin

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Trollope, Joanna. Brass Dolphin. Viking, 1997.

Reason read: In September Malta celebrates their independence.

As a young woman, Lila Cunningham dreamed of running away. She had been saving for her escape from her widower father for years. Freedom seemed just around the corner until one day her father admits they are in debt so deep they are going to lose their house. How can Lila leave her father now? Financially ruined, he only has his art…and he is not that talented of a painter. Even Lila does not believe in his paintings. [As an aside, I found Lila’s father to be a very selfish man. He bartered Lila’s mother’s pearls for paints. But Lila has her immaturities as well.] Neighbors Mr. & Mrs. Perriam come up with a plan to send Lila and her father to the island of Malta where their second home needs looking after. The plan is perfect except for the timing. Hitler has appointed himself war minister of Germany. Lila is naïve to this and she goes to work as a secretary for Count Julius. The theme of naivety runs strong with Lila. She doesn’t realize the importance of Malta to Hitler’s war. She is naïve about Malta’s society. She doesn’t understand the proper decorum of the wealthy. She has never been in a relationship. Readers watch Lila mature as she is faced with difficult and life-altering situations.
As an aside, the first time readers meet a brass dolphin it is in the shape of a knocker, placed high up on an enormously tall door of the Tabia Palace, home of Count Julius. It becomes a symbol of hope for the future later in the book.

As an aside, Joanna Trollope introduced me to the plumbago plant. It is beautiful!

Author fact: Joanna Trollope also wrote under the name Caroline Harvey, probably to scape her famous novelist ancestor, Anthony Trollope.

Music: “Flat Foot Floogie,” and “Jeepers, Creepers.”

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Messing Around on Malta” (p 144).

Maine Woods

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Thoreau, Henry David. The Maine Woods. Decorations by Clare Leighton. Ticknor and Fields, 1864.

Reason read: the Maine Lobster Festival is always the first weekend in August.

Henry D. Thoreau made three separate trips to Maine. Most of the Maine Woods is a descriptive narration about the journey and the nature witnessed along the way. From navigating rapids and hunting moose to observing flowers, trees, and small animals. From a cultural perspective, The Maine Woods paints a picture of Thoreau’s interactions with the natives in Maine: especially their canoe building and cooking skills and their hunting and fishing practices. Thoreau wanted to learn from the natives (“I would tell him all I knew, and he should tell me all he knew” p 221).
Thoreau could not help but insert a little politics into his narrative from time to time, “The Anglo-American can indeed cut down, and grub up all this waving forest, and make a stump speech, and vote for Buchanan on its ruins, but he cannot converse with the spirit of the tree he fells, he cannot read the poetry and mythology which retire as he advances” (p 309).
While the narrative just ends abruptly, the appendix includes a list of trees, flowers, shrubs, and birds seen along the excursions. It also includes how to outfit and excursion with tents, tools, etc. There is also a glossary of Indian words and their meanings.
I did not know this about Maine: in 1837 there were 230 sawmills on the Penobscot river.

Thoreau had a sense of humor, “We saw a pair of moose horns on the shore; and I asked Joe if a moose had shed them; but he said that there was a head attached to them, and I knew that they did not shed their heads more than once in their lives” (p 127).

As an aside, I thought of my papas when Thoreau was explaining how to steer a boat into waves to avoid capsizing or taking on water.
As another aside, Thoreau mentioned John Smith from 1614. That is the same year Captain Smith landed on Monhegan. Interestingly enough, Thoreau mentions a “Manhegan Island.” I’m not sure it’s the same one.
I’m glad to know some things never change. The nuisance of mosquitoes was just as bad then as it is now, “We were considerably molested by mosquitoes at this camp” (p 253).

Author fact: beyond being a naturalist and an essayist, Thoreau was a philosopher.

Book trivia: If only there were photographs! Or a map. I swear Thoreau mentions Monhegan (spelled Manhegan).

Music: “O Susanna!”

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “The Maine Chance” (p 135).

African in Greenland

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Kpomassie, Michel-Tet. An African in Greenland. Harcourt Brace Janovich, 1983.

Reason read: August is the last month of freedom for students returning to school. Every once in awhile I chose a travel book to recognize this fact.

Before Kpomassie can tell you about his time in Greenland he needs to explain where his life began and all that Western Africa entails. To understand his culture you must first embrace his origin story.
Upon discovering a book about Greenland, Kpomassie became obsessed with traveling to that “other” green land. Kpomassie exhibited a great deal of patience – it took him six years just to make it out of West Africa. But he was also smart and ambitious. Being bilingual he was able to pay his way as he traveled. He had hopes of living with seal hunters, sleeping in igloos, and riding the sledge. He wanted the full experience. He got more than he bargained for in the northern Greenland village of Rodebay. Families too poor for groceries ate rabid dogs. Their bathroom was a bucket by the door for everyone to see. A father takes his son-in-law hunting so his daughter and Kpomassie can have four days of intimate alone time. Parents ignore their young son while he practices oral sex on his two year old brother. Dos are so hungry they attack and devour their master. When the community is not hunting or fishing, they are fall-down drunk. Besides culture, Kpomassie learned about the science of fashion; what it took to survive temperatures that reached forty or fifty below zero.
I did not expect to laugh while reading An African in Greenland but Kpomassie’s account of using the grease from a lizard to grow one’s penis was hilarious.

As an aside, animals and there shed blood is very important to tribal cultures. I saw it in The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down as well as An African in Greenland. The butchering of whales, seals, and even dogs was difficult to read.

Confessional: Kpomassie’s father had five wives and how the hierarchy within that system worked: who was intimate and for how long; who did the cooking and how other chores were parsed out. Polygamy was natural in Western Africa, yet Kpomassie found it hard to share a woman with another man in Greenland. Curious.

Author fact: Kpomassie is the first African to choose to live in Greenland, trading in one green continent for another.

Book trivia: I do not know why I feel this way, but the preface by Jean Malaurie is a little self-indulgent.

Music: the Beatles

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Where On Earth Do These Books Belong?” (p 258). Armchair travel, maybe?

Big Red Train Ride

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Newby, Eric. Big Red Train Ride: a Ride on the Trans-Siberian Railway. Penguin, 1978.

Reason read: the first electric trains were introduced in the month of July.

Six thousand miles. Seven time zones. The big, red Trans-Siberian train ride took Eric Newby and his wife from Moscow to the Pacific.

Eric Newby and his wife, Wanda, embarked on an epic journey across Siberia back in the late 1970s. All along the way, Newby peers into the habitations of USSR locals with curiosity and humor. His words could be lyrical in addition to being sarcastic and humorous.
It is interesting to read Fear by Anatoli Ryabakov at the same time as The Big Red Train Ride. Reading about Stalin from the fictional and historical perspectives, especially during 1936 – 1938 and the rein of Great Terror. Both books report the arrest of seven million people (not including the criminals) and the death toll during Stalin’s time to be somewhere around twenty million souls. When talking about the Siberian exiles Newby did not mention the Russians who were perceived to have made fun of Stalin and were banished or murdered simply as a result of his paranoia.
It goes without saying that Big Red Train Ride is a bit dated. Written in 1977, there is a great deal of “this will be done” statements. For example, he used the future tense when talking about a railway to be finished in 1980. When Newby was trying to take photographs of certain stations I thought of my sister and her smart phone. She takes stealthy pictures of people all the time. Her subjects are none the wiser. Meanwhile Newby was getting yelled at left and right.
As an aside, I appreciated the humor in Big Red Train Ride. Newby was not a fan of knobbly knees.

Lines I liked, “It was certainly Saturday, unless sit was Sunday” (p 72). I get that way, too. Especially on Monhegan. Here’s another that reminded me of the island, “…a grey stretch of water on a rocky, fog-bound coast” (p 260).

As an aside, my papa loved trains. He died earlier this month so I cannot help but think of him and how he would have loved this journey.

Author fact: I have four books by Eric Newby on my list. Round Ireland in Slow Gear and Love and War in the Apennines are left to read. I am looking forward to Love and War because my friend has always wanted me to see the Apennines. I am planning a trip this spring.

Book trivia: there are some interesting black and white photographs included in The Big Red Train Ride.

Music: “Auld Lang Syne”, “One Day Over the Urals”, Judy Garland, and “Lord Dismiss Us with Your Blessing”.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Making Tracks By Train” (p 138).

Accordionist’s Son

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Atxaga, Bernardo. The Accordionist’s Son. Translated by Margaret Jull Costa. Graywolf Press, 2003.

Reason read: the running of the bulls in Spain usually takes place in July. This year it was July 7-14.

David Imaz is caught between two worlds. Exiled on his uncle’s ranch in California he looks back on his youth in Basque Spain during the civil war. Young David was caught between his father and uncle. David tried to stay neutral during the varying conflicts, both personal and political. The message of youth received loud and clear was the idea that people lived double lives in order to survive. His father, on the side of the fascists, was suspected of murder and deep down David thought it was true. By playing the accordion like his father, David remained under his thumb. The only escape was to denounce the instrument and join a band of revolutionaries. However, the accordion became crucial as a way to calm the nerves and carry the explosives.
Thoughts:
This was a time of war when anything was possible. Propaganda was spread by donkeys so that the agitators could remain anonymous. Boys turned to boxing because being a human punching bag earned ten times more than an honest day at the saw mill.
As an aside, there is a beautiful moment in the book when an aging David, many years later, sees his family and friends in the colorful wings of butterflies.

Images of life that I liked: the thrill of David’s courtship of Virginia brought me back to my own days of innocence – flirtful letters dropped in a library book drop and the desk of a hotel concierge. The aging of the dog was a message of time passing which David received loud and clear.

This quote makes me think of my friend: “…without curiosity one learns nothing” (p 244).
Another quote I liked, “…time doesn’t pass in vain, that we will not embrace in the grave those whom we failed to embrace in life” (p 265). Amen to that. I’m looking at you, Mr. Nash.

Author fact: While Atxaga wrote a bunch of other books, this is the only one I am reading for the Challenge.

Music: “Mary Queen of Arkansas”, “Barcola”, “Padam, Padam”, Marie Laforet’s “La plage, la vie s’en va”, “To You, My Love” by the Hollies, Credence Clearwater Revival’s “Susie Q”, “Casatschok,” “Pagotxueta,” Henry Mancini’s “Soldiers in the Rain,” “The Touch of Your Lips,” Antonio Machin’s “Angelitos Negros,” and “Five Hundred Miles.”

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the simple chapter called “Spain” (p 218).

Two Years Before the Mast

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Dana, Jr., Richard Henry. Two Years Before the Mast: a Personal Narrative of Life at Sea. Fearon Publishers, 1971.

Reason read: June is Celebrate Oceans Month. Maybe that is a made up reason to read about the ocean, but I’m going with it because it is a good time to sail.

Two Years Before the Mast is the true story of Richard Henry Dana’s two years spent at sea first, on the brig “Pilgrim,” bound for California via coastal South America. Using his journal to write Two Years Before the Mast, one has to remember this is August 14th, 1834. Time before canals and motorized vessels. California was not part of the United States. In 1934, California was part of Mexico. As a Harvard student, bound for a career in law, Dana had to take a hiatus from his studies when an illness affected his eyesight. Doctors recommended some time away from the books to allow his eyes to rest. The brig “Pilgrim” is in the business of transporting animal hides and furs. Once on the “Pilgrim,” Dana quickly learned about life on the ocean on the fly: getting over seasickness, learning to push through fatigue, finding his sea legs. Once settled into a life at sea, Dana then had to desensitize himself to a tyrannical captain who flogged sailors ruthlessly and without provocation, long days of continuous work, and making the most of shore leave.
This is a great account of life at sea as well as in ports. As an aside, I had to laugh when Dana’s vessel could not get over a sandbar at low tide due to the unusually heavy load they were carrying. They had to wait until low tide in order to be released from the channel.

Lines I liked: said of San Francisco – “If California ever becomes a prosperous country, this bay will be the centre of its prosperity” (p 194).

Confessional: I have spent most of my life on the ocean so when Dana described dolphins swimming just a few feet below the surface of the water I could picture every color.

Author fact: Dana was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Book trivia: Two Years Before the Mast was illustrated by Dennis Dierks and my copy provided a biographical sketch by Dana’s grandson, H.W.L. Dana.

Playlist: “O Pescator”, “Onda”, “All in the Downs”, “Poor Tom Bowline”, “The Bay of Biscay”, “List, Ye Landsmen”, “Heave, to the Girls”, “Nancy O!”, “Jack Crosstree”, “Cheerily Men”, “All in the Downs”, “Poor Tom Bowline”, “The Bay of Biscay”, and “List, Ye Landsmen”.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “See the Sea” (p 201).

The Temple

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Spender, Stephen. The Temple. Harper and Row Publishers, 1987.

Reason read: June is Pride month. Read in honor of love, no matter how you find it.

To know that The Temple is a semi-autobiographical fiction gives weight to Spender’s words. Most everything that happens to the main character, poet Paul Schoner, in The Temple is something that happened to Spender in and around 1929. He thinly disguises his relationship with other writers (most significantly W. H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood) as he travels to Hamburg from Oxford. It is important to remember that in the 1920s censorship was prevalent in England. As a homosexual, Spender needed to live his life in lies. His true identity was hidden like a secret. Germany in 1929, while more forgiving about lifestyles, was also going through its own dark period. Spender includes the growing sense of foreboding as Hitler comes to power. Though fascists and Nazis Spender paints a picture of a society that foregoes the history of friendship for the sake of power. It’s violent ending is a sign of dark days ahead.

Author fact: Spender was the first non-American to serve as Consultant in Poetry in English to the Library of Congress.

Book trivia: The Temple could be a movie.

Setlist: Cole Porter’s “Let’s Fall in Love”, Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet, Wagner’s Ring cycle, Beethoven, and Schubert.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Oxford” (p 170). As an aside, I am not sure I would have included this in the Oxford chapter. I would have thought it more appropriate it a chapter on Germany or homosexuality.

Glamorous Powers

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Howatch, Susan. Glamorous Powers. Harper Collins Publishers, 1996.

Reason read: to continue the series started in April in honor of Easter.

The world is teetering on the fringe of World War II. Abbot Jonathan Darrow experiences visions that tell him he must leave the Order. He has had the Glamorous Power of second sight since he was fourteen years old. (Readers will recognize Darrow as the pivotal spiritual advisor to Charles Ashworth in Glittering Images.) Despite his vision calling him to leave the Order, Darrow must undergo a thorough psychological analysis. Only Abbot-General Francis can grant his release and only after Francis determines it is in Darrow’s best interest to leave. The decision cannot be one borne out of spiritual crisis or impulse brought on by false visions. It is such a twist of fate from the pages of Glittering Images when it was Jonathan Darrow analyzing and healing Charles Ashworth’s psyche.
One of the delectable elements of the Stargate series is how soap opera dramatic the writing is. Emotions are turned up to eleven and events are earth-shattering. Words like terror, shock, harrowing, disastrous, horror, hostile, garish, rage, disturbed, diabolical, disgraceful, despair, doomed, menace, monster, disaster, tragedy, troubled, appalling, cruel, chaos, and crisis. Everyone trembles, feel faint or actually does faint, or gasps loudly in utter dismay. Some of Darrow’s angst is warranted. He experiences sensory overload while visiting his modern daughter. He is not used to the sharpness of the outside world. In time, Darrow discovers the work he is supposed to do on the outside. Glamorous Powers examines the sins of the father, handed down. Who will break the cycle?

Confessional: the miscommunications and assumptions Jonathan experiences with his wife filled me with anxiety. Their marriage was fraught with one misunderstanding after another and I constantly questioned if it would survive.

Lines I loved, “People always know when they’re not loved” (p 106). Indeed. Here’s another, “I’m busy learning how to kill people and I hope you are pleased” (p 267).
Two words I loved together, “emotionally dislocated” (p 235).

Author fact: Glamorous Powers is the thirteenth novel of Susan Howatch’s.

Book trivia: like Glittering Images, Howatch begins each chapter of Glamorous Powers with a quote from an individual who inspired the story. In this case, William Ralph Inge, an intellectual and Dean of Saint Paul’s Cathedral in London (1911-1934). She includes a brief biography of Inge at the end of Glamorous Powers.

Music: Straus

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Fathers, Mothers, Sisters, Brothers: The Family of the Clergy” (p 87). Also from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Entering England” (p 76).

Children’s Bach

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Garner, Helen. The Children’s Bach. Pantheon Book, 1984.

Reason read: May is music month but there is not much in the way of music in this book.

Within less than two hundred pages Helen Garner has managed to condense a complete picture of the institution of marriage. Dexter and Athena Fox had a steady, quiet relationship. They went for long walks and coexisted in relative peace. That is, until along came Elizabeth, a former friend of Dexter’s from college. They hadn’t seen each other in years, but without warning Elizabeth started shaking up their lives with her rock musician boyfriend and his teenage daughter in tow. Suddenly, Athena was seeing the world through a different lens and started to wonder if she made the right choices early in life. Her marriage. Her lifestyle. Her future. It as if Athena experienced a mid-life crisis of epic proportions.

Quotes I had to acknowledge, “In this frame of mind, savage with homesickness and loneliness, she roamed the city, daring it to tackle her” (p 36). So beautiful. And this was, that made me laugh, “He was chucking a mental” (p 130).

Confessional: Gaps in the dialogue make the action jumpy. When did Dexter agree to give Elizabeth and Vicky a ride? One minute they are in the airport, the next they are traveling in a car.

Author fact: Garner published many of her journals. She also wrote Monkey Grip which is on my challenge list.

Book trivia: the foreword forewarned of the numerous characters. Indeed. Athena. Dexter. Arthur. Billy. Elizabeth. Vicky. Philip. Poppy. The fact that the book made Rumaan Alam want to go for a run is intriguing. Supposedly she hates to run.

Setlist: Ravel’s Bolero, La Traviata, Haydn, “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do”, “The Wild Colonial Boy”, “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross”, Steve Winwood, Elvis Presley, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Mary Ford and Les Paul’s “How High the Moon”, Don Giovanni, “The Vicar of Bray”, “Jerusalem”, Mikrokosmos by Bela Bartok, Bach’s Small Preludes, Kabelevsky, and “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot”.

Nancy said: Pearl admitted that The Children’s Bach was old and hard to get a copy of.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Australia, the Land of Oz: Fiction (p 26).

Beyond Belief

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Naipaul, N. S. Beyond Belief: Islamic Excursions Among the Converted Peoples. Random House, 1999.

Reason read: Beyond Belief is the sequel to Among the Believers. Read to finish the series.

In Beyond Belief Naipaul picks up the story of faith nineteen years after Among the Believers. He follows his own footsteps and traces over the memories with new and different observations. His connections to people are less interviews and more conversations, however just as probing. Naipaul meets with poets, publishers, lecturers, researchers, criminals, religious and political leaders, laborers, and Muslim intellectuals. The most common theme was in times of various regimes you had two choices – be revolutionary or reactionary. Naipaul met them both. My favorite part was when he addresses the sacredness of place; how the idea of what constitutes “sacred” can be different for each of us, depending on the connection we have to that place. Or think we have. I think of Monhegan and realize that there are only certain sections of the island I consider sacred even though I speak of the entire island in generalized terms. Those sacred spots are ones that I hardly visit, never talk about, and secretly dream about the most.
Afterthought: It must be difficult to appease something as intangible as a guardian spirit.

As an aside, I enjoyed meeting Imaduddin. Lecturer, electrical engineer, Islamic teacher, Indonesian, political prisoner (for fourteen months), once wealthy and famous. What a fascinating man.

Book trivia: there are no photographs at all in Beyond Belief. I would have liked to see the Indonesian landscapes, even if it was just pictures of the rice fields or Javanese puppetry.

Music: Beethoven

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Indicative of Indonesia” (p 103).

Glittering Images

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Howatch, Susan. Glittering Images. Alfred A. Knopf, 1987.

Reason read: I am not religious, but Easter is in the month of April and this book is about that world. Read to recognize it.

Vicar Charles Ashworth agrees to become an archiepiscopal spy. What could be juicier? He has been tasked by the Archbishop of Canterbury with reading Bishop Jardine’s private journal and search for illicit love letters to make sure nothing untoward is happening in the household. Rumors abound. Ashworth’s cover story is that he is going to Starbridge Cathedral because he wants his students to learn more about Saint Anselm and Starbridge just happens to hold the only early manuscripts. As if orchestrated in advance, a dinner party discusses the subject of divorce as it relates to the Marriage Bill and the Bible. This is perfect cover for Charles’ investigation, but it reveals deep, dark, and dirty secrets of his own. True to his past and unable to help himself, Charles falls in love with a member of the bishop’s household; the very person causing the Archbishop’s concern. From there, everything unravels at a rapid pace. Glittering Images becomes laden with psychobabble theology and therapy doubletalk. When Charles suffers from an emotional angst far heavier than he can handle, he seeks the counsel of Jon Darrow, a monk from the Fordite monastery. Thanks to Darrow’s investigative interviews, sound consultation, and the subsequent wailing torment of Charles, the two discover Charles is of two distinct personalities. One maintains the glittering image of perfection while the other is a whiskey gulping, fornicating fool wracked with guilt. Is the man he has called ‘father’ to blame or is it the man who actually sired him? Uncovering layers of insecurity and irrational jealousy leads to a self-fulfilling prophesy. The more insecure Charles behaves, the less inclined people are to convince him of his worth. The fear of abandonment is not exclusive to Charles. Many other characters suffer the same terror of inadequacy.

I love books that stretch my vocabulary just a little more. Words like senectitude, monotheism, prelactical, and perorations do not easily roll off the tongue.
Confessional: I am currently reading The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough and Beyond Belief by V.S. Naipaul alongside Glittering Images. It is a bit much to be reading three very religious books at the same time. While theology is a strong theme for both, they are all completely different. To be honest, I do not know how I am going to get through the other Stargate books. I feel like I have overdosed on religion.

Quotes to quote, “The chief disadvantage of Carrie’s insomnia is that she is always overcome with the urge to share it with me” (p 43). Been there and done that. When my mind snaps on at three in the morning I have the overwhelming urge to share my alertness with my partner.
Here’s another, “I also drank two glasses of water in pursuit of sobriety” (p 175). I love the image of chasing something that you cannot catch.
One more, “I wondered dimply how anyone survived their parents” (p 322).

Confessional: there were parts of Glittering Images that were hard to read. Ashworth Sr. reminded me of my mother. She can be critical and condescending. Her displays of affection are restrained and limited to outward negativity. She means well, but she is heavy on the tough and sparing on the love.

Author fact: Howatch has a law degree.

Book Twist: Glittering Images is the first book in the Stargate series. I will be reading Glamorous Powers next. As an aside, the word Stargate makes me think of science fiction.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Fathers, Mothers, Sisters, Brothers: the Family of the Clergy” (p 86), and again in Book Lust To Go in the simple chapter called “Entering England” (p 76).

Among the Believers

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Naipaul, V.S. Among the Believers. Alfred A. Knopf, 1981.

Reason read: Indonesia has a day of silence. It is always following the new moon of March. Read in recognition of this fascinating 24 hours.

Naipaul takes a six month journey across Asia just after the Iranian revolution. During his travels through Iran, Pakistan, Malaysia, and Indonesia he encounters Muslims who have returned to the founding scriptures of Islam. His conversations and interviews with them are thought-provoking and insightful. These people are the believers. In a nutshell, Among the Believers is in-depth and descriptive travel book that takes a look at exploring the Muslim faith.
As an aside, I have so any questions! Did the hanging judge ever find out that Naipaul called him a clown? Is Naipaul’s favorite descriptive color ochre? because he used the word a lot in Among the Believers. It is true I am an armchair traveler. It is too complicated to think about the rules and customs of a middle eastern country. The rules of the mosque, for example. Which foot enters the holy space first? How do worshippers wash their hands? Do they remove their shoes and if so, when and where?

As another aside, I never thought about Islamic urban planning. Think about it. Toilet fixtures that had to be arranged so that a backside would not be directed towards the City of Mecca. Indeed.

Author fact: Naipaul was born in Trinidad.

Book trivia: Among the Believers is followed by Beyond Belief: Islamic Excursions Among the Converted People. I will be reading it next month. Other books by Naipaul on my list: Mystic Masseur and Loss of El Dorado.

Music: the Carpenters, Handel’s Messiah, and Bach.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Indicative of Indonesia” (p 103).

In Sicily

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Lewis, Norman. In Sicily. Thomas Dunne Books, 2000.

Reason read: there is an almond blossom festival that takes place every March in Sicily.

Norman Lewis fell in love with Sicily and its environs in the mid 1950s. In Sicily is a remembrance of that long-gone era. The mafia does not have the grip it once had, but Lewis has his memories and heartbreaks tied up in the violence and terror of wartime yesteryear. He married a mob daughter, after all. Sicily is a place of long-held corruption; of falling down palaces and open-air lovemaking and Lewis does not miss a single detail. In Sicily is an open love letter, full of crime, mythology, superstition, and passion.

As an aside, Lewis reported that Italians have a difficult time pronouncing the letter H. I can attest to that. My friend, born and raised in Rome, cannot pronounce my name.
Another aside. I am in love with the Dancing Satyr of Mazara. It’s now on my bucket list.

Quote to respect, “There are many lessons to be learned, the first being that as a black he had become invisible” (p 125).

Author fact: Lewis wrote a bunch of interesting books. I am reading a total of five of them for the Challenge.

Book trivia: the dedication is surprising. I have not seen one of its kind before.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the simple chapter called “Sicily” (p 209).