Tag: historical

Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All

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Gurganus, Allan. Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All. Ivy Books, 1989.

Reason read: There is a day in March called “Hug a G.I. Day”. I don’t remember where I read that, but that’s my story and I’m sticking with it.

Do not be intimidated by the length of this book. Miss Lucille Marsden will keep you entertained through every single page. Even when she is telling you about the horrors of war, she will keep you riveted every paragraph. Even when the story is not from her point of view, she will have you glued to the sentences. Within Lucy’s monologue Gurganus lays out the entire southern society from before the Civil War up to the mid-1980s when Lucy is almost one hundred years old. History breathes in and out with every colorful sentence; from the recognition of Baby Africa and every aspect of owning another human being to life in a nursing home.
Lucy herself is a treat. Married at a mere fifteen years old, she saw the world with a sensitivity and sweetness. She cared about where people came from (Castalia from Africa) or how displaced a foreigner can feel (Wong Chow from China). Even though her husband was in his fifties when they married, Lucy became a baby factory having nine children in eleven years. Her marriage was painful as her husband could be very abusive. Sleeping with a hatchet was not out of the question for Lucy. But I digress. Take your time with Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All. Know that every character serves a purpose at the moment of introduction but may not need remembering a hundred pages later.
Confessional: I was not sure I knew what to make of William Marsden. His story jumped around quite a bit. In the beginning I thought it was poignant how Captain Marsden mourned the loss of a childhood friend more than his love for his own children. Death has a funny way of elevating one’s stature to martyrdom.

As an aside, Lucille never says the word clock. She always refers to Seth Thomas like it is an unspoken prized possession.

Line I liked, “We all need to stay a little mad” (p 15). Amen. Here’s another, “You force exposed words to spell what you want” (p 133). And another, “Fear can be the start of the truest love” (p 468).

Author fact: the only other book I am reading by Mr. Gurgangus is Plays Well with Others.

Book trivia: each chapter of The Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All begins with a quote from the Bible.

Playlist: “Aida”, Bizet, Debussy, “Dixie”, “Frozen Charlotte”, Gounod, Handel, “He was Despised”, “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring”, “Last Rose of Summer”, “A mighty Fortress is Our God”, “The Old Reb”, “Royal Fireworks”, “Sheep May Safely Graze”, “Sherman’s Barbequeing Mother”, “The Shoe Fits”, Stephen Foster, the Supremes, “The Tailor and the Leg”, Wagner, “When the Colors Change” “Who’s Sorry Now”, “Work for the night is Coming”, and “Yankee Doodle Dandy”.

Nancy said: Pearl called Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All “pure gold” (Book Lust p 12).

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “And the Award for Best Title Goes To…” (p 12). Pearl could have included Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All in the chapter called “Men Channeling Women” as well.

Little Liar

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Albom, Mitch. Little Liar. Harper, 2023.

Reason read: I needed a book for the Portland Public Library Reading Challenge in the category of a book currently on the New York Times bestseller list. Little Liar was on that list when I was looking for something to read.

Where do I begin with this little book about a liar? From start to finish it was amazing. I couldn’t read for hours at a time due to the subject matter of the Holocaust, but in small doses it was fantastic. I do not want to describe the plot at all except to say the angel of truth is the first person narrator which lends an air of fairytale, but it is far from being a magical imagining from Albom’s mind. The setting is World War II. Real people like actress Katalin Karady and real events like the rescue of families waiting to be shot by Arrow Cross are faithfully reproduced in Little Liar. The magic comes from Albom bringing all characters and events, factual and fictional, to life. The characters’ human emotions come across loud and crystal clear and yet, like glass, there is a delicacy, a subtle nuance that haunts. Take, for example, how easily the small misunderstandings during childhood can quickly blossom into full blown adulthood hate. Lifelong passionate jealousies carried behind a vengeful ice cold exterior. It reminded me of the cold and heavy chains of Jacob Marley.
As an aside, what an interesting locale for Little Liar. When people speak of World War II and the Nazi regime not many people think of how the island of Greece weathered the atrocities.

As another aside, the last person to read my copy of Little Liar must have smoked like a fiend because the book reeked of old cigarette smoke. So gross. I put it in the freezer for a little while with some lavender sprigs. That seemed to do the trick.

Line I loved the most, “By the time you share what a loved one longs to hear, they often no longer need it” (p 142). I am living that truth every single day.

Author fact: I was first introduced to Albom when he published Tuesdays with Morrie. While I haven’t read everything he has ever written, I can say I have enjoyed everything I have.

Book trivia: this should be a movie.

Playlist: Lucinda Williams

Volcano Lover

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Sontag, Susan. The Volcano Lover: A Romance. Farrar Straus Giroux, 1992.

Reason read: the Carnival of Ivrea happens in February every year. It is essentially a four-day food fight with oranges in the town of Ivrea in Northern Italy.

The Cavalier, an art dealer and British ambassador to the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, is obsessed with three things: collecting beautiful and rare pieces of art, watching Vesuvius breathe and rumble, and having a relationship with his nephew’s former lover. I know, it’s an odd beginning. When the Cavalier’s nephew, Charles, grows tired of his mistress he simply sends her to live with his uncle once the Cavalier became a lonely widower. How do you learn to love a stranger? What do you do when that love matures into devotion and passion falls by the wayside? Beyond being a story about relationships and circumstances, The Volcano Lover is also the love story of art, war, and devotion to a life well lived with passion.
There is a cleverness to Sontag’s writing. Most of the story is told in the third person with touches of first person narrative sprinkled in. Is that Sontag offering personal tidbits about herself? Who is this off-camera speaker? In the very last section of Volcano Lover the Cavalier, his wife, his mother-in-law, and the Queen all offer first person perspectives on their lives with one another. Both the Cavalier and his mother-in-law are careful to never reveal the Cavalier’s wife real name (modeled after Emma Hamilton). No one mentions the hero’s name (Lord Nelson in real life), either.

As an aside: I listened to an interview with Sontag conducted by Muriel Murch. The whole time I kept thinking one of their voices sounded familiar. There is a professor (retired now) who sounds exactly like Sontag.

Lines I liked, “Sometimes it felt like exile, sometimes it felt like a home” (p 67), “Pleasure is haunted by the phantom of loss” (p 201) and “Nothing is more hateful than revenge” (p 313).

Author fact: While Sontag has written more than The Volcano Lover, it is the only book I am reading for the Challenge.

Book trivia: The Cavalier is based on Sir William Hamilton.

Playlist: Farinelli (Carlo Broschi), “God Save the King” and “Rule, Britannia”, Mozart, Haydn’s “The Battle of the Nile”, Vivaldi, Handel, and Couperin.

Nancy said: Pearl calls The Volcano Lover a historical romance for intellectuals. She’s not wrong.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the very simple chapter called “Naples” (p 146).

First American

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Brands, H. W. The First American: the Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin. Doubleday, 2000.

Reason read: Benjamin Franklin was born in January. Read in his honor.

Any book you pick up by H.W. Brands is going to be entertaining. Never dry or boring, in First American, Brands not only brings his subject of Benjamin Franklin to living and breathing life, but also the era in which Franklin lived. Society, religion, politics, and the arts are vividly presented to the reader as the backdrop to Franklin’s life. For example, details like explaining how apprentices were not allowed to visit taverns, inns, or alehouses served to give insight into Franklin’s future beliefs. As a young man, he could not play cards, dice, or even enter into marriage. Franklin was essentially slaves with pay.
Brands also brings to light what an interesting man Benjamin Franklin became in his older years. His range of interests, his need for self-improvement, his contradictory beliefs, and his ambitions were nothing short of astounding. His goals and resolutions surrounding virtue and the way he went about trying to master his them were admirable for all mankind. Everyone knows the story of the silk kite and key, but who remembers Franklin deciding that Philadelphia needed more academia to teach the subjects that were useful to the youth? His quest for vegetarianism? His ability to change his mind about slavery?
With Franklin’s use of aliases (Silence Dogood, Martha Careful, Caelia Shortface, and Polly Baker to name a few), I wonder what Franklin would have thought about our ability to hide behind user names and criticize our fellow man for everything from the color of her skin to the way our neighbor mows the lawn.

Author fact: Even though Brands has written a plethora of books, I am only reading two for the Challenge: First American and The Age of Gold.

Book trivia: there are absolutely no photographs or illustrations of any kind in The First American. Maybe that is because we all know what Ben Franklin looks like? I would have liked to see maps of Philadelphia and Boston.

Nancy said: Pearl mentions Brands talent.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Founding Fathers” (p 91).

Staying On

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Scott, Paul. Staying On. Avon books, 1977.

Reason read: The Booker Prize was awarded in October. Staying On is a Booker Prize recipient.

On August 15th, at the stroke of midnight in 1947, British rule comes to an end and India has gained her independence. Not all British soldiers have departed India in shame, though. Colonel Tusker Smalley and his wife, Lucy, have stayed on. It is now 1972 and the couple have started to fade in money, health, vitality, and the real reason they decided to remain in the remote hill station of Pankot. Everything is in question now. Complicating matters is their antagonistic landlady, Mrs. Bhoolabhoy. Bhoolabhoy is determined to humiliate the British couple into leaving her country. After all these years her tactics are getting more and more hostile, forcing the English couple to renew their commitment to one another.
A backdrop for Staying On is the tapestry of culture and caste. What it means to have wealth and status in a country on the verge of finding a new identity. The Smalleys and the Bhoolabhoys are no different in their hope for the future.

Author fact: Scott also wrote the Raj Quartet. I am only reading The Jewel in the Crown, book one of the four.

Book trivia: as mentioned before, Staying On won the Booker Prize. I probably should have read The Jewel in the Crown before Staying On. Oh well.

Quotes to quote, “I’ll sue the bitch from arsehole to Christmas” (p 29), “I feel worn to a shadow”, (p 125),

Playlist: “Onward Christian Soldiers”, “Flowers of the Forest”, “God Save the King”, “Abide with Me”, All Things Bright and Beautiful”, “These Foolish things”, the Inkspots, Judy Garland, Dinah Shore’s “Chloe”, and Ravi Shankar”.

Nancy said: Pearl compared Staying On to Women of the Raj.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “India: a Reader’s Itinerary (History)” (p 125).

When Broken Glass Floats

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Him, Chanrithy. When Broken Glass Floats: Growing Up Under the Khmer Rouge. W.W. Norton and Company, 2000.

Reason read: I needed to pair a nonfiction book on history with a historical fiction on the same subject for the Portland Public Library 2023 Reading Challenge. Both When Broken Glass Floats (nonfiction) and For the Sake of All Living Things (fiction) are about the days of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. I am also reading When Broken Glass Floats in honor of the monarchy of Cambodia being restored in the month of September.

Many times, more times than I could count, I found myself trying to put myself in Him’s shoes. Having her brother waste away and die before her very eyes. The utter grief she experienced when her father left for “orientation” before she could say goodbye (not to mention his subsequent murder). Those are only some of the devastating events Him experienced during the rein of Pol Pot terror. Then came the never-ending slave labor and extreme starvation. One by one, her family withers and dies. How does one survive such constant suffering? Him is courageous and her will to survive is astounding.
Confessional: Despite the horrors Him relates in When Broken Glass Floats, there was a fascinating component of describing cultural superstitions. When Him’s brother is dying it was believed he urinated on someone’s grave and that is why, during the worst of his illness, he could not speak or relieve himself.

Author fact: Chanrithy is a human rights activist as well as an author.

Book trivia: one of the maps in When Broken Glass Floats is curious. Places are pinned as meals: supper, breakfast, dinner, dessert, snack, and lunch.

Playlist: Sinsee Samuth, Ros Sothea, and Leo Sayer’s “I Love You More Than I Can Say”.

Nancy said: Pearl called When Broken Glass Floats heartbreaking and unforgettable.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter simply called “Cambodia” (p 47).

For the Sake of All Living Things

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Del Vecchio, John M. For the Sake of All Living Things. Bantam Books, 1990.

Reason read: For the Portland Public Library Reading Challenge of 2023 I needed a book of historical fiction to pair with a nonfiction on the same subject. I am reading For the Sake of All Living Things with When Broken Glass Floats. Both books cover Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge. A second reason is Cambodia had its monarchy restored in the month of September 1993.

I don’t care how many years pass. The plight of Cambodia in the years following the Vietnam War is atrocious. For the Sake of All Living Things is a difficult read. It is powerful. Powerful like a 250 pound man of all muscle punching you in the gut. From scenes when the poorest of poor farmers have to pay tolls or “donations” just to travel a road to the vicious methods of torture and killing (chopsticks driven into the brain via the ears, bodies cleaved in two, children buried alive) I was wincing the entire time I read For the Sake of All Living Things. Through fear and violence the dominance of the Khmer Rouge spreads like a staining black oil throughout Cambodia, indoctrinating and training villagers to become killing machines for the Pol Pot regime. The methods of brainwashing are subtle and sly. As a historical fiction For the Sake of All Living Things reads like a nonfiction because of the appropriate terminology, government reports and various strategic maps. At times I was internally cringing to be American.
I read somewhere that For the Sake of All Living Things is actually the second book in a trilogy about the Vietnam war, Cambodia and the Pol Pot year zero cleansing, and veterans coming home.

Author fact: While Del Vecchio has written a few other works, this is the only one I am reading for the Book Lust Challenge. Confessional: I am kind of relieved.

Book trivia: this should have been a movie or a mini-series. Maybe it is a movie. I don’t know. Everyone has made comparisons to The Killing Fields, the 1984 film directed by Roland Joffe.

Nancy said: Pearl did not say anything specific about For the Sake of All Living Things.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the simple chapter called “Cambodia” (p 47).

How the Irish Saved Civilization

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Cahill, Thomas. How the Irish Saved Civilization: the Untold Story of Ireland’s Heroic Role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe. Nan A. Talese Doubleday, 1995.

Reason read: the Lisdoonvarna festival is in September. Supposedly, it is this big match-making festival. Sounds fun!

In the beginning of How the Irish Saved Civilization we examine the philosophies of Augustine, Plato, and Cicero. Augustine’s knowledge is considered the portal into the classical world. The most influential man in Irish history is Patrick, of course. He was the first to advocate for the end to slavery. He had a lifelong commitment to end violence and he was not afraid of his enemies. Irish Catholicism was sympathetic towards sinners, accepting of diversity and women in leadership roles, and considered sexual mores unimportant.
Cahill has a sense of humor. Early on he supposes Alaric was the King of the Fuzzy-Wuzzies. I don’t know what that means, but it made me smile. Cahill also includes a map of the Roman Empire in the 5th century to orientate his readers.
Spoiler alert: the answer to how the Irish saved civilization is that they brought their literacy and love of learning to the rest of the world. Probably one of the most fascinating parts of How the Irish Saved Civilization is how the Irish monks buried their beloved books and valuable metalworks to hide them from the Vikings. Cahill claims that even today farmers are known to unearth lost treasures.

The best line to like, “A world in chaos is not a world in which books are copied and libraries maintained” (p 35). Amen.

Author fact: Thomas Cahill’s author photograph looks like he should be reporting the six o’clock news. How the Irish Saved Civilization is the only book I am reading of his.

Book trivia: How the Irish Saved Civilization includes a very small section of black and white photographs. As an aside, one of my pet peeves is when an author describes a striking or favorite photograph and then does not, for whatever reason, include it in the book. Cahill actually shares the photographs that he describes.

Nancy said: Pearl called How the Irish Saved Civilization readable.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Ireland: Beyond Joyce, Behan, Beckett, and Synge” (p 110).

Rebels of Ireland

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Rutherfurd, Edward. The Rebels of Ireland. Doubleday, 2006.

Reason read: to continue the series started in May.

This is the sequel to the Princes of Ireland. The Rebels of Ireland follow six families through history but before doing so, Rutherfurd takes the time to catch the reader up by giving a recap of The Princes of Ireland. Once caught up historically, Rutherfurd focuses on deep character development of the families and their political involvements in Ireland’s struggle for independence.
Throughout history, differences in religion have been dangerous. A tale as old as time and will never change. I found it interesting when a character used the pulpit to announce his declaration of war. Everyone in the church knew what his sermon would be, but none expected the vehemence of his words.
Another notable moment: looking for the staff of St. Patrick.
The Rebels of Ireland is well researched. Rutherfurd consulted the National Library of Ireland as well as other national offices in Ireland to make sure he had his history accurate.
Word to the wise: do not try to read two different Irish historical novels in one month. All month long I was getting Rutherfurd mixed up with Flanagan and Flanagan confused with Rutherfurd.

Author fact: Edward Rutherfurd’s real name is Francis Edward Wintle.

Book trivia: The Rebels of Ireland contains a map of Ireland, a map of the Dublin region and a map of the city of Dublin.

Nancy said: Pearl said nothing specific about The Rebels of Ireland except it is a historical novel.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Ireland: Beyond Joyce, Behan, Beckett and Synge” (p 110).

End of the Hunt

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Flanagan, Thomas. End of the Hunt. Dutton, 1994.

Reason read: to finish the series started in April.

Flanagan’s End of the Hunt picks up where Tenants of Time left off; right after the Easter Rebellion. So begins the birth of the IRA (Irish Republic Army). Flanagan weaves intimate portraits of widow Janice Nugent as she tries to find love again; Patrick Prentiss as he navigates the world as a World War I amputee; and Frank Lacy, a contradiction in character with his weapons and Virgil in hand. Character development is so on point you swear you have met these people before. Meshed with real historic events and people, it is easy to see why End of the Hunt is a best-seller.

As an aside, how can you be historically deliberate and accurate and yet only coincidentally name actual people? I realize the coincidence phrase is a standard blurb to cover an author’s ass, but either these people were a part of history or they weren’t.

Line I liked, “Dublin is a city of half sentence” (p 7).

Author fact: At the time of publication, Flanagan divided his time between Long Island (New York) and Ireland.

Book trivia: End of the Hunt is the final book in the Irish trilogy and has been compared to Leon Iris’s Trinity.

Playlist: “Lead, Kindly Light”, “Sean O Dwyer”, “Slievenamon”, and “A Nation Once Again”.

Nancy said: Pearl called the entire trilogy “magnificent” and End of the Hunt “good.”

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the obvious chapter called “Historical Fiction From Around the World” (p 113) and again in the chapter called “Irish Fiction” (p 125). Funny how none of the other books in the trilogy are mentioned in this chapter.

Princes of Ireland

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Rutherfurd, Edward. The Princes of Ireland. Narrated by Richard Matthews. Books on Tape, 2004.
Rutherfurd, Edward. The Princes of Ireland. Doubleday, 2004.

Reason read: in honor of the Cat Laugh Comedy Festival in Ireland.

Rutherfurd’s Princes of Ireland opens with a lesson in geography, anthropology, and history. I am always learning something new with historical fiction, like the difference between overlords and feudal lords. Did you know that Celtic warriors rode their horses naked? Kissing each other’s nipples is a show of forgiveness? Clans buried their warriors standing up, facing their enemies camp, to keep an eye on them? So many customs and traditions and that is not even getting into the politics of the country!
Although I kept making comparisons to Thomas Flanagan’s Irish series, Rutherfurd’s Ireland is much rowdier than Flanagan’s epic tale. People stealing horses for animalistic (pun intended) pleasures was a head scratcher for me. I have heard the rumors of men with sheep, but horses? Mythology and rituals abound. As an example, the success of the season’s harvest is dependent on the druid’s blessing. All of these details are a vehicle for the clever entanglement of fact and fiction – details so interwoven it is hard to tease them apart.
My favorite part of the story was Rutherfurd’s mastermind of the relationship between Margaret and Joan. Margaret’s misconceptions and prejudices of Joan were skillful and plausible. It was like a medieval gossip rag. Here is another drama: the king’s wish to divorce his Spanish wife for the love of another. The townspeople quarrel about who is in the right.

Edited to add a quote I liked, “Marriage is like religion, in a way, it requires an act of faith” (said by Dame Doyle, p 740).

Author fact: beyond the Ireland saga, Rutherford has also written London, Sarum, and The Forest which are all on my Challenge list. I am not reading the novel about New York.

Book trivia: Princes of Ireland is epic. It spans seventeen centuries of Irish history and is only part one of the saga. The Rebels of Ireland continues the journey.

Nancy said: Pearl did not say anything specific about Princes of Ireland.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Ireland: Beyond Joyce, Behan, Beckett, and Synge” (p 110).

Tenants of Time

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Flanagan, Thomas. Tenants of Time. Warner Books, 1989.

Reason read: to continue the series started in March in honor of St. Patrick’s Day.

This is the account of the Fenian Rising of 1867 in the time of the Parnell Special Commission. All of Ireland rises up and greets war with bravery and stern determination. The chief storytellers are Patrick Prentiss and Hugh MacMahon, but you’ll also meet Robert Delaney, a shopkeeper and Ned Nolan, a terrorist. Like Katherine by Anya Seton Tenants of Time walks a tightrope between fact and fiction – a beautiful balance of great storytelling.

As an aside, I have a pang of nostalgia reading about Waterford crystal. I dated someone who lived in Waterford. He was my first “exotic” love.

Quotes to quote, “It was in a different world that he tended his roses, not the world of the white March morning” (p 174), and “It was a moment hinged upon silence, upon dreadful expectation” ( 201).

Playlist: “A Nation Once Again”, “The West’s Lake”, and “God Save Ireland”.

Nancy said: Pearl called the entire trilogy “magnificent.”

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Historical Fiction for Kids of All Ages” (p 114).

Katherine

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Seton, Anya. Katherine. Houghton Mifflin, 1954

Reason read: I needed a book with a name in its title for the Portland Public Library reading challenge. Katherine was next in line.

This is a love story. A fourteenth century story to be exact. Katherine Swynford has loved John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster ever since she first laid eyes on him as a young girl of thirteen. As a commoner, predestined to marry a lowly knight, Katherine’s standing in society is, at best, only to be a lady-in-waiting for the Duchess of Lancaster. That is as close as she can get to the man of her dreams. Yet, meeting the duke has sealed her fate. The saga that follows spans three generations of life and love. Seton does a fantastic job weaving true history with a fabricated backstory of romance. If you get the chance, listen to the audio version. It’s fantastic.

Author fact: Seton also wrote Green Darkness which is on my challenge list.

Book trivia: the 14th century of England is accurately portrayed in Katherine.

Audio trivia: I don’t think I have ever heard someone pronounce “joust” as “juiced.”

Setlist: there were lots of songs sung, but not many by name. “Here We Come a Wassailing” was the only one.

Nancy said: Pearl said Katherine is a good example of Seton’s ability to combine fact and fiction in her work.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the odd chapter called “Romance Novels: Our Love Is Here to Stay” (p 203). I would have thought it would be in a chapter about history.

Birth of the Beat Generation

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Watson, Steven. The Birth of the Beat Generation” Visionaries, Rebels, and Hipsters, 1944 – 1960. Pantheon Books, 1995.

Reason read: Allen Ginsberg died in April. Read in his memory.

We begin by exploring the phrase “beat generation.” Where it came from and what does it mean. What exactly is a Beat? Were these people a brand new class of genius? Or were they just plain crazy? Maybe it is a cultural thing, but I was alarmed at the behaviors of some members of the group. The violence, self-mutilation, sexual escapades. Whether it was the drugs or their need to be seen as over the top artistic, I don’t know.
Birth of the Beat Generation does not only delve into the core members of the original group. Watson takes you behind the curtain to meet the mothers, girlfriends, wives, and muses of the Beats, the less often talked about women of the generation. They had their own addictions and mental failings, but they always played second fiddle to the boys. Everyone seemed to searching for sexual identity. Everyone seemed to be one card short of a full deck. Everyone slept with anyone, regardless of actual preference. Celebrity was a beast to be chased, but once caught, extremely hard to tame. To be a Beat you had to be a libertarian, write confessional poetry, be open to mind-bending drugs, sexual liberation, and embrace pacifism.
Birth of the Beat Generation is not your average book. It has unusual dimensions. The photography is sprinkled throughout like Easter eggs. Quotes, a slang dictionary, and fun facts are written in the margins. I appreciated the flow chart of players, when they met, their relationships to one another, and the seriousness of their connections. The best margin information was what was on everyone’s book shelves. I found that fascinating.

As an aside, I learned of two new words today. I want to use them often – bewilderness (I visit that place whenever I am at a festival) and “alcoholized”.
As another aside, this is the second book in as many months where someone cuts off their own digit. There is an amputation scene in Little Bee and William Burroughs does his thing…
As yet another aside, and you knew this was coming if you know anything about me. How could I not think of the 10,000 Maniacs song, “Hey, Jack Kerouac” while reading Birth of the Beat Generation? Especially when Natalie sings, “Allen baby, why so jaded? Have the boys all grown up and their beauty faded. Billy, what a saint they made you.” That particular line took on a whole new meaning when I read about Burroughs and his wife, Joan, and a little game they played called William Tell. In an interesting twist of fate, I sat in a jury pool room, waiting for #70 to be called when I was reading the part about the perjury of the witnesses.

Quotes to quote, “The notion of the anti-hero as icon – the underworld beautified – had already been partly codified” (p 72).

Author fact: Watson has his own website here. He has written a handful of other books, but I am only reading The Birth of the Beats.

Book trivia: At the end of the book there is a chronology of what the Beats were up to at the same time as the rest of the world, including when Tupperware was invented.

Playlist: Charlie Parker, “The Red Flag”, “On the Line”, “Last Night the Nightingale Woke Me”, Beethoven’s 5th Symphony, Brahms Trio Number One, Thelonious Monk, Bach’s Toccata, Edith Pilaf, “Too Close for Comfort”, “You Always Hurt the One You Love”, Leadbelly, Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky Suit, Billie Holiday, Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Lee Konitz, “My Funny Valentine”, “Just You, Just Me”, Cal Tjader, “Deep in the Heart of Texas”, Pat Boone, Wagner’s “Gotterdammerung”, “Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”, Steely Dan, David Bowie, Tom Waits, Patti Smith, Frank Zappa, and John Cage.

Nancy said: Pearl commented on the same thing I did. She called the extra information in the margins cunning.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “The Beats and Their Generation” (p 17).

Year of the French

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Flanagan, Thomas. Year of the French. Henry Holt & Company, 1979.

1798. Ireland. It all starts when a school teacher is asked to write a letter to a landlord. Arthur Vincent Broome offers a narrative of the events that followed. Malcolm Elliot writes a memoir. Sean MacKenna shares a diary. Characters from every angle share a voice in the telling. Thus begins a long and tumultuous history of Ireland, starting with the Rebellion of 1798. As with any war, the Rebellion is violent tide that sweeps up anyone in its path, be they Protestant, Catholic, Papist, landowner, landless, landlord, farmer, soldier, blacksmith, teacher, poet, peasant, gentry, French, English, Irish, man, woman, or child. Narratives come from all of the above and readers are cautioned to read carefully, to concentrate on the voices. Flanagan puts you into the plot so well that at any given moment you are either on the side of the Protestants or Catholics. Either the French or the English welcomed you into their camps. Year of the French describes war maneuvers as well as personal rifts between families, struggles in marriages and livelihoods.
As an aside, I felt like Year of the French was half written in a foreign language. Words like boreen, kernes and omadhaun kept me diving into Google for answers.

Line I liked, “I have never broken the law when sober” (p 92). Amen to that. Here’s another from the diary of Sean MacKenna, “There are some pf these fellows who don’t know that the world is round, and for all they knew, they were being marched off to the edge of it” (p 260).

Confessional: I always keep a running biography list of characters whenever I see there are too many to keep track of. For example, Citizen Wolfe Tone is the founder of the Society of United Irishmen. Donal Hennessey has a handsome wife and is the father of two sons. Malachi Duggan is a unicorn in Ireland because he doesn’t drink. Matthew Quigley owns the tavern where Duggan doesn’t take drink.

Orbital information: I love it when one part of my life informs another. In Year of the French Flanagan writes the words “the parting glass.” If I wasn’t listening to an Irishman’s music, I wouldn’t know “The Parting Glass” is a funeral song (and a very beautiful one at that).

Book trivia: Year of the French is book one in Flanagan’s trilogy about the history of Ireland. I am reading all three.

Author fact: Amherst College holds Professor Flanagan’s papers. Too cool.

Nancy said: Pearl called Year of the French magnificent.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Historical Fiction Around the World” (p 113).