lizard of oz

Sir Francis Bacon

This is a re-read. I was looking for something quick, and this handwritten, illustrated novella was just what I needed. I borrowed this from my childhood library after my older sister had read it and laughed through most of it as I recall. Its a trippy, early 1970's essay on how to get back or renew your spirit after its been suppressed by the machine. Its amazing how much the machine has grown in the 50 years or so since this was written, which means its even more relevant today than it was then, and perhaps even more important as a message. The message is dated however.

By you know what isn't dated? Puns. said no one

I won't repeat everything I wrote about this one when I found an old copy and re-read this about 5 years ago, you can check that out here. That post had links to what the author, Richard Seltzer, was up to at the time, and even an illustrated online version of the book, but those links don't work anymore. 

I think its a good bet that this Christin Couture is the book's illustrator, which she did while she was a student at UMass Amherst. Given the era, and the fact that she was a college student, I think these psychedelic images were pretty fun for Couture to come up with. 

The puns are prevalent throughout, along with some other pun-related word-play. The story follows an elementary school class on a field trip to rediscover the magic that is being washed out of the world by the aforementioned machine, personified by the humbug, which can be seen flitting about on insect wings, slowing beating his humdrum. The kids pile into their teacher's VW Bug along with the class fishbowl and its two inhabitants, to go find the secret fire again, in the unworld of Ome.

There's love, there's laughter, danger, giant potholes, and other fractured fairy tales. No not those Fractured Fairy Tales. The Lizard of Oz is a fun one, and it reads different as you get older.

book that wouldn't burn

Yes, I've changed gears. After learning that Samantha Shannon has book 6 of her Bone Season series due out next year, and who knows when book 7 will be out (or if there will be more!) I decided to swap over to Mark Lawrence's Library Trilogy. I bought book 2 at some point at a used book sale, and didn't realize it was the second in a trilogy until I got home and cracked it open to read. So I borrowed book 1 from the library; The Book that Wouldn't Burn. I haven't read any of Mark Lawrence's stuff before and this was pretty good. The story arc is built around a library, that in the point of this story, seems to have been developed thousands of years ago, but a much more advanced society than the current one, but the reasons for that may be that the culture the present story takes place in is either new to the library or is possibly a newer culture that is developing after some post-apocalyptic event, or something. Its a little vague, but I wouldn't tell you what it was here in any case as I try to avoid spoilers.

The library itself reminds me a little of the library in Asimov's Foundation Series, but only in its abstract, font of all knowledge, people in service of the library vibe that story gave me, at least as far as I can recall. its been a while!

I actually finished this a few days ago, and I've been working on book 2. Its a smaller volume, so I don't think it will take me too long before I go grab book 3 from the library. I guess this probably fits into the fantasy genre, but there are also SciFi aspects to it as well, and it also reads a little like historical fiction, but that may be because the culture in which this takes place is slowly transitioning from edged weapons to firearms, and the customs, dress, architecture, societal norms, nobility etc. seem to reflect a historical era.

The writing is pretty tight, and there are some interesting twists and loops that creep in that I wasn't expecting, and some others I could see coming, but I think I could see them because Lawrence wanted me to. 

spellbook of katrina van tassel

The Spellbook of Katrina Van Tassel: A Story of Sleepy Hollow may be the first book by Alyssa Palombo, but I guess I can check that. nope, she wrote a few other things before this  Maybe she’s too young to remember the Tim Burton movie "Sleepy Hollow" from 1999 with Johnny Depp as Ichabod Crane and Christina Ricci as Katrina Van Tassel but she is certainly aware of Washington Irving's short story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" from 1820, and she's a big fan. I don't recall the Tim Burton movie that well, but it came out in 1999, and I'm guessing she was a kid then. "Sleepy Hollow" was more of a murder mystery with spooky ghost tie-ins, a la Scooby Doo.

The spellbook in the title is just about the only place you'll find a spellbook in this novel. I get the creeping suspicion that someone (editor, publisher ?) suggested the title, or at least that part of it. Van Tassel does keep a diary, and I guess she may have scribbled the ingredients for an herbal tincture that her friend, the healer, gave her, but I'm not sure that makes it a spellbook. Certainly not enough of a spellbook to name a novel after. oooo, maybe this is the spellbook? nope

Otherwise, this book was okay. I thought Palombo may have been a little more detailed during the sex scenes--which showed up a little more frequently--than she needed to, which gives the whole story an little bit an Historical Romance* vibe. Van Tassel is a strong female lead, and does what she needs to do to stick up for herself in a time and place where women aren't typically given the opportunity to stand up for themselves. Palombo set this book in Sleepy Hollow, of course, but at an earlier time period that other interpretations. Washington refuses to run for a second term, and John Adams takes over as the second president during this story arc of this novel.

 

* See my note about 'bodice ripper' romance novels and the associated footnotes and links on this recent post.

 

 

eye of the needle

Eye of the Needle is a Ken Follett World War II novel from 1978. I picked this up from the book sale at the Bigelow Free Public Library in Clinton, MA. The Bigelow is a pretty little library built with Guastavino vaults about 100 years ago. It was built with funding from the Andrew Carnegie Foundation, and opened in 1902. The library director gave me the thumbs up on this book, and altho I've read Follett's cathedral stories, I haven't read any of his spy thriller work (or maybe anything else he's written?)

Anyhoo, this is a well paced, inspired by reality kind of thriller, and it certainly checked off all the boxes for me. It was exciting, believable, seemingly well researched, tense, and in some cases brutal, and in other cases sad, and still others, sweet. The story is set mainly in the UK, toward the end of WWII, with glimpses of what was happening in Germany at the time, or at least what Follett speculated could have happened based on the information we do have, both about the events in the UK and Germany. He comes right out and says up front that we all know the results, but it was close there for a while, and while we don't know all the details something like this could have happened. I'm paraphrasing. because I didn't want to get up and get the book

 Its crazy to imagine that in 1978, the world was much closer to the end of WWII, than we are now to 1978. Follet wrote this just 30 or so years after the end of the war, and its getting close to 50 years since he wrote it. The story holds up however, probably because its set in an earlier period and it seems that Follet was careful to avoid modern terms and lingo in his writing (at lest to my eye.) This is James Bond without the tuxedos. Its gritty, and the story is wrapped up in everyday life, and the struggles of people living through a war, and doing the best they can in crummy circumstances.

dombey and son

Dombey and Son is not a book I’d heard of before. It was written by Charles Dickens beginning in 1846, and published as a serial, with pamphlet size installments issued once per month for 19 months between 1846 and 1848 by Bradbury & Evans, with illustrations Henry Clarence Pitz. Shortly after the last (double-issue) pamphlet was released, the entire book was published in hardback. Serialized books read differently than other books, in my mind anyway, as they can be had in one go without having to wait. And because one had to wait, there could be cliffhangers at the end of a monthly installment; but there also needs to be a way to make sure your readers will remember where they are in the story, and who the characters are. This is why, I believe, the characters are almost caricatures, or archetypes, which makes their personalities so striking, especially when contrasted to other characters in the story. The character names are also a clue, and consequently can be very amusing. One can imagine that a gruff imposing landlady named Mrs. MacStinger, should not be crossed without some consequence.

Reading a serialized novel is similar to spamming a television series that was designed to be broadcast once per week. The regular pacing of a weekly TV show, its alignment with holidays, and the passing of seasons, felt in many ways that you were following these characters along in their lives at the same pace you were living along with them. While Dombey and Son takes place over a longer story arc than the 19 months in which it was originally published, I’m sure that span of time helped with the pacing as the story stretched through the years. Reading it all in one volume is the 1840s equivalent of the spamming.

I picked up this volume at the book sale in my local library. It had no book jacket, although I assume it probably did,* and there was a small leaflet tucked inside the front cover which I thought was a found bookmark. Because I didn’t know about it, and had no book jacket to consult, I read the first line and I was sold. Between that first line, and the handsome binding, it was clearly worth the $2.00 I paid for it. After getting it home, I found that it is a Heritage Club edition. The Heritage Club published books with quality bindings, using their own editing staff, illustrators, and bindery, and made them available at an affordable price to their members. The leaflet tucked into the front is a small newsletter to the club members called  "Sandglass" that discusses the book, the printing, and Dickens himself.

The original title was Dealings with the Firm of Dombey and Son: Wholesale, Retail and for Exportation. yeah, glad they shortened that up It’s a big book but I really enjoyed it. I can’t say that I couldn’t put it down but I did find myself picking it up more often that my usual reading times at breakfast and before bed. Not only that, Dickens had me emotionally tied up with these characters. It may be because of the serial format, or it may just be a literary tool, but the characters had such clear personalities that you could almost guess what they might do, and when wrong, it was either much worse or much better, depending on the character, than you may have guessed.

There are some familiar themes here that Dickens is examining. Themes that we’ve seen him mull over before in books like A Christmas Carol, and David Copperfield. Paul Dombey could be compared to Ebenezer Scrooge, and James Carker would give Uriah Heep a run for his money. What I especially liked is how Dickens examined insidiousness in his evil characters. They aren’t as smarmy or blatantly vile as they are in more modern stories; Dickens’ baddies use the very etiquette of a polite and civil society, especially the higher class norms, as the pool in which he has these creatures wriggle about like eels or prowl like sharks, outwardly smiling and nodding as they watch their prey twist in agony. By contrast, Dickens’ good characters are personifications of the divine upon the earthly plane. It doesn’t matter what happens to them, how terrible their misfortunes, how bleak their outlook may be, they smile or simply tighten their belts, and push on, with endless reservoirs of love, kindness, understanding, and forgiveness. Maybe that’s putting too fine a point on it, and perhaps it’s a bit of a spoiler, but if you’ve read Dickens, I don’t think this will come as a surprise.

I really enjoyed this one, and I can imagine reading it again at some point to see if it still holds up, like I’ve done with similar books, like The Count of Monte Cristo. After a quick look online, it seems as though Dombey and Son is not unknown in the UK; I found many different adaptations of the novel in British movies and television programs. 

Read this book. Maybe twice!

 

 

 

* After writing this, I discovered the Heritage Club edition came in a red slipcase as shown in the photo. This wasn't there at the library box sale, where I got mine.

 

 

 

 

 

kingdom of copper

This is book 2 of the Daevabad Trilogy by S. A. Chakraborty. I had taken this book out a few weeks ago by mistake, not knowing it was book 2, so I returned it and got the first one. By the time I read that one and returned it, this book was lent out, but through the magic of the inter-library loan program, I got an email a day later that this book had arrived from one of the other libraries in the North of Boston Library Exchange (NOBLE) network. if you haven't been to the library, then go--a few times--and see what they can do

Sometimes the second book in a trilogy feels like filler, or just a bridge between the intro in book 1 and the climax in book 3, but this one didn't feel like that, and I think that is especially nice given that this is the first work of this author, who now goes by her given name Shannon Chakraborty. 

Any great adventure story has something difficult for the protagonist(s) to overcome; the big baddie, the evil plot, the end of the world, and this one is no different. The Kingdom of Copper fleshes out the personalities of the main characters, tests their resolve, and uncovers parts of their personalities that didn't come to light, or at least not so clearly, in the first book. This volume also introduces the big problem. And its much bigger than we were lead to believe in the first book. 

This one ends in an almost literal cliffhanger, so while the idea is that each book in a trilogy can or could be read independent of the others, this one does leave you hanging. But I was also left looking forward to the last book in the trilogy (which I took out from the library at the same time, and I am currently reading!) 

book marker collection

Click on the image to enlarge, as usual

I was visiting the Richard Salter Storrs Library in Longmeadow, Massachusetts this past week, and I was excited to find a collection of old bookmarks in a curio case, which serves at the coffee table for a small arrangement of wing-backed chairs and a few other seats by one of the many fireplaces in that handsome old building. 

The original building, designed by architects Smith & Bassette of Hartford, Connecticut, was opened in 1932, and then in 1992, it was renovated (carefully) and a large addition was added, which is sympathetic in design--at least on the exterior--to the original building. The addition was designed by King & Tuthill of Avon, Connecticut.*

This pretty little collection sits in one of the bright and well appointed reading rooms on the main floor of the old building. The fireplace had a fun, imitation log fire flickering away on the hearth. And the seats, were very comfortable. 

The bookmarks include paper, wood, leather, and metal designs. Some of the paper markers are cut; one looks like it was cut by hand! Others are painted, or printed with designs.  There is one made of fabric, in the form of a tiny doll, who's long swaddling clothed form the marker that fits between the pages. Fiber arts also include a cross stitch example, and an amazing tatted lace marker showing European buildings and a image of a tatter at work.

Lastly, there is a note in there describing the history and principals of the Foundazione Marcello Gori, which has been around since World War II, helping teach children hand crafts and history. They are apparently still around, and I assume that some of the markers represented are from there.

 

* King died in 2005 at 78.  Not sure about Tuthill but it seems as though the firm was renamed Tuthill and Wells at some point, altho I'm not sure if that was with the original Tuthill, or a descendant. They don't seem to be around any more.

 

 

 

navola

I was in the library to look for some things to read. I normally check out the used book sale, which may seem crazy considering I'm buying books from a place that is full of free ones, but I do it for two reasons: first, I'm a slow reader, so I'm unlikely to finish a book before its due,* never mind multiple books, and second, the small amount of money goes to support the library, especially given the fact that I return most of those books in the form of donations to the book sale. One of the reasons I started this blog was to keep track of the books I've bought so that I don't buy them again. yeah, that happens

Anyhoo, I found two books at the book sale, one of which my wife read in about 2 days, and the second I've just started today. The third book I found was in the new books section. I thought I'd take a look and see if any of my favorite authors had published anything new. Alpha-by-author got me to Bacigalupi, Paolo, which was a pleasant surprise. Once I found Navola, I stopped looking. Bacigalupi** has written a few novels for adults, and a few more for teens. I read the teens books, and they're pretty good, but I like his adult fiction/SF better. Navola was a treat.

Bacigalupi has developed a world based on Renaissance Europe, and is focused on the city-state of Navola, in the upper eastern part of a 'hook' shaped peninsula poking out into a sea with countries to the north, west, and south coastal regions. Its pretty clear that the 'hook' is based on the pre-Italian conglomeration of city-states, duchies, and kingdoms, and has French-like and German-like countries to the north, Turkish and further Asian countries to the east, and Arabic-type countries on the southern shores of the sea. Where there they have dragons, or they used to, at least.

Navola is a coming of age story, with political, social, and familial intrigues, romance, and violence,with glimpses at historical gods, and the believe systems that grew from them. Bacigalupi has created a world with depth and history, rife with monetary, cultural, and nobility clashes. Navola also appears to be the first is a series of books based on this world Bacigalupi has created. Maybe the good news is that this book actually came out in 2024, although I'm not sure why I haven't seen it until now or why its on the new books shelf at the library a year and a half later, but maybe that means the next installment isn't too far off?

  

* Yes, I know I can renew it. In fact my library now has automatic renewals and no late fees. 

** Bacigalupi is a fun name, and its Italian, which may have something to do with the inspiration for the fantasy setting of this story in a pre-Italian peninsula of city-states and other Euro-inspired surrounding countries, but a search for the origin of this surname led to differing, but interesting results:

One site has it listed, confoundingly as "unattensted verb bacigare ‘to hunt’ + lupo ‘wolf’" Unattensted apparently means: not existing in any documented form. Super helpful.

Wikipedia has this to say: "Bacigalupi (Ligurian: Bâçigalô) is an Italian surname from Liguria, literally translating to 'wolf-wounder' " Altho, its funny, when I translated bacigalo, it means 'kiss him,' but dialect is always funny.

Hunter, or wounder? And a few others besides, see below. So I used my dangerous level of Italian comprehension to search in Italian, and this site (thanks to google translate) says: "It derives from a nickname linked to the Genoese dialect word basigâ, "to swing/to tease," and lupi, meaning "the one who swings/teases the wolves." The nickname probably indicated a wolf hunter (who attached the skins to a stick to carry them, hence the swinging motion), or a wolf skin merchant." M'kay.

This guy, who maintains his own site, as a kind of commonplace book, thinks it's a: "compound surname derived from "bacia" (kiss) and "lupo" (wolf), thus literally meaning "kiss the wolf." I'm assuming that is a wild guess? I'll admit, I was under the impression it was baci [(you) kiss] + whatever galupi meant, but galupi meant nothing. Except...

The same guy has a page on the name origin of the surname Galuppi, which he says: "is derived from the nickname "galuppo," meaning "crest" or "tuft,". If that is the case, I'm not sure why he didn't assume that Bacigalupi means to 'kiss the crest' which certainly sounds like a thing... coat of arms, signet ring, to show respect, allegiance, etc. Well, to me anyway. 

The world may never know.

 

 

reality is not what it seems

Carlo Rovelli picked a great title when he chose Reality is Not What it Seems for this follow up to his Seven Brief Lessons on Physics,* which started out a pamphlet and became an international best seller. Rovelli talks a little bit about this in the introduction; how this book came to be; how people had been asking him to explain the theories of quantum gravity in layman's terms, which he was reluctant to try and do. He did try when pressed, and the result was a small book, but because of its popularity, he was pressed further to expand on that work and the result, he explains, is this book.

I will go ahead and tell you now, that I was quoting phrases, and reading passages out loud to anyone who would listen. my apologies to my family When I finished, I gave the book to my wife and recommended that she read it.

In the first few chapters, Rovelli traces the history of where we are in physics, and our understanding of how the universe works. How scientists and philosophers built upon the work of their predecessors to unlock the secrets of the universe as we know it. Because I am interested in this kind of thing, I had a pretty good idea about where we are and how we got there, but the story that Rovelli tells both provided missing links in the trail of information, extended what I understood and how different theories relate to one another, and in a way that was both succinct, and mesmerizing. Two chapters in and I was hooked.

Rovelli then goes on to describe quantum physics, and what we know about it, building upon what we've learned in the past, until he gets to the point where the theories aren't proven yet, and its still conjecture and competing theses. He points out that there are two main branches of theories, the one he is working on and believes in, and the other, which is string theory. You got me about which is correct, or more correct, but he makes a passionate argument.

Read this Book--I enjoyed it thoroughly--but maybe only if you are interested in this kind of stuff. Its good, but I'm not sure how much general appeal it will have for the less geekily inclined.

* You can download a copy of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics by clicking here.

 

 

world without end

World Without End is Ken Follett's 2007 follow-up to his 1989 The Pillars of the Earth. Its the second in his Kingsbridge series, which apparently has 3 more, making it a total of 5 in this series, so, pentology, I guess.

Pillars was good--it's actually listed in the 'good' section on the right-hand column of this blog--so I was interested to see where this one would go.  We're still in Kingsbridge, where the first story takes place, and the cathedral that formed the framework around which the first installment was built, is already in place. This book is also about the people, rather than the building, but things have changed in the years that have elapsed in Kingsbridge (or in the 18 years that elapsed between writing the first and second books!) This book is a little more soapy than I recall the first one being, and a little more sexy. Its not a bodice ripper, by any means, but I did get the feeling that Follett may have taken a little more freedom with what propriety may have allowed during the period without some shunning, if not hanging. But what do I know; my experience with what happened and what people did or could do in the 1200s is limited to the other things I've read and seen on the screen, so who's to say which notion is correct.

That said, World Without End was entertaining, if perhaps not quite as good as the original. As I said, there are now three more: after another 10 year gap, Follett produced A Column of Fire, sounds like he should have that looked at and then just three years later, and then another three more, he cracked out the remaining two. Are there more coming? Don't know, guess we'll wait and see. Based on this read, I won't be running out to get the next one, but if I stumble across it in the wild, as I did this one, I'll probably pick it up.

I read this a while ago (a few months ago?) and didn't get a chance or make a chance to write about this one at the time. I have a few more to catch up on too.

book of illusions

The Book of Illusions is a novel Paul Auster, published in 2002, and was apparently pretty well received at the time. I don't really follow things like that, but they show up when I do a little searching to put together my review, and lots of book descriptions say it was nominated for the International Dublin Literary Award in 2004. His work is generally lauded, I've come to understand. Go Paul Auster.

I picked this one up at the book sale at the Moses Greeley Parker Memorial Library in Dracut, Massachusetts. Library books sales are one of my favorite ways to find books. Lost of times the library will stock up on new books that are very popular so they can meet the demand. Often times it is the Friends of the Library group, who helps to funds these additional copies so that patrons aren't disappointed by not being able to secure a copy of the latest popular book by being put on a wait list. Once the rush is over, the library may begin to sell off additional copies to make room for the new popular title.

I enjoyed this false history* story very much. David Zimmer is a professor who stumbles upon some thought to be lost silent movies by a less than well known actor from the 1920s, and contemporary of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. Zimmer takes advantage of the discovery to create a project to help help cope with recent tragedy that has also left him with more time on his hands than he wants, and extra spending money to follow this pursuit. He takes it upon himself to find out all he can, and write the definitive book on this unknown champion of the silent film genre.

What he eventually finds changes his life more than he expected, and some of those experiences tilt into the surreal. I have read anything by Auster in the past that I recall, but I really like his writing style. Its direct, pared down, clean and easy to read. Like all the best writers, Auster is invisible, and the story just feels like its being absorbed rather than read and interpreted. Auster's first person story telling seamless slipped between Zimmer's story, the silent movies plots he was watching, and the book he was writing. All of which seem to inform, reflect, and in some cases foreshadow one another. Art evincing art, evincing art.

I'll keep my eye out for Paul Auster. Auster died last April at 77. Read this book. 

 

*In 2010, Duke Special recorded an album in tribute to the 12 fictional lost movies of the fictional silent film star, Hector Mann, in Auster's book. The 12 tracks on the album have the same names as the 12 silent films described in The Book of Illusions. Wild.

aednan: an epic

 

Aednan: An Epic is a long form poetry saga by Linnea Axelsson, translated into English by Saskia Vogel. We're going to stick with the theme of exploitation and subjugation of natives that we started in Typee, although I didn't know that when I picked up this book at my local library. When I picked it up, what I thought was: Epic poetry? Hell yeah!

Its always great to read books written in other cultures, and from different perspectives. If I had all the time in the world I would learn multiple languages, so that I could read in different languages. That would be grand, but for now, I will continue to rely upon translators.

The story follows the lives, and is told from the points of view, of multiple generations of a Sami * family, from the 1910s until the present. At the beginning of this story, the protagonists and their tribal families, raised reindeer and followed their herds across all of their native land, Sapmi, * which stretched across Norway, Sweden, Finland, and into a part of Russia. At the the time they moved freely across their land, with little thought given to the national borders which had grown up around them. In a word, they were nomadic.

In time, the governments of these countries began to rope the Sami in, excluding them from areas where the various governments determined was off limits to their ranging due to things the Sami didn't recognize, such as private property, public works project, and other developments and exclusions they needed to learn to live with. Eventually, the Sami in this family were isolated in a part of Sweden, and their ranging was completely cut off. This was hard for the Sami, because their culture had grown up around following the natural ranging of the reindeer herds. But that was now curtailed, and hemmed in as well. Think Native American reservation. They even went through the a forced assimilation process that many aboriginal peoples were forced to endure.

Its clear that the assimilation process worked in many ways, and many Sami became the neighbors of other ordinary Swedes, but what Axelsson shows us is that there are many, that still suffer from that process, and others who fight for reparations for what was done to their people. 

An an epic, it was a little slow, and in some cases, a little hard to tell who was narrating. Its epic in its scope, but this isn't Beowulf or The Iliad, nor is it trying to be. This is an epic of suffering and injustice, which should be read, lest we let it happen again. The Sami have begun to regain and rebuild their cultural heritage and have won recognition from the Swedish government.

* The words Sami and Sapmi are both properly spelled with an acute accent mark over the A, ( a straight line pointing at 2:00 o'clock, rather than a grave accent mark, which points at 10:00) but in my experience, those things don't always render properly on Blogger, so I've left them off rather than taking the chance that you'll see question marks or gray boxes in their place.

typee

Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life was Herman Melville's first book. The paperback version I read, is from Penguin Classics, printed in 1996. I borrowed this copy from my office lending library.

This version looks like it may have been prepared with the school market in mind. There is an introduction (about 20 pages) by Professor John Bryant, who also prepared other commentary on the text, and an extensive appendixes. Bryant's introduction helps to place Typee within Melville's life, as well is within the larger context of the world in which it was written. Bryant, according to the bio in the front matter, is a professor at Hofstra University and an author and/or editor of all things Melville, basically. yeah, Melville nerd 

It was interesting to learn that Typee was published in Britain, and then in America, but editors in each took offense to differing things, and so Melville modified or removed items to suit the local tastes, actually, more than once, which means there are two authorized versions--British and American--each with its own various editions, as ther edits and corrections were made. That, of course, makes it difficult to know what the original, unmodified author's intent was. Bryant has edited this version as a hybrid between the two, to try and get at the most complete and accurate interpretation of the author's original story. To that end he has also made 'corrections' to the manuscript for typos and in some case words that Melville may have selected in error. These edits and corrections, along with explanatory notes are included in the appendixes.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but Melville was essentially stranded on this island for months,* living with the natives, and essentially shacked up with a local young woman. That, along with the fact that the women went around topless--when they weren't completely naked whilst swimming, bathing, or just hanging out on a canoe--was one of the things Melville needed to edit out or tone down, in order to keep from stunning British and/or American readers.

What was maybe most problematic, however, is that Melville had a real problem with what so call 'modern society' had brought to the natives of the South Pacific at the hands of missionaries. Its was Melville's believe that way the natives lived, in harmony with nature, and at ease in their tribal societies, was not improved by the introduction of modern society. He was heartbroken that in an attempt to improve the lives of the natives, the missionaries brought structure and religion to a place where Melville that it wasn't required to improve either the people or their lives. The introduction of structure and religion also meant rules, governance, and money. In reality, from Melville's point of view, at least, that meant the white men came to exploit what the islands had to offer, and what the native used to take for free from the forest they now had to work for, and quickly came under the thumb of westerners. It was apparently too much for his readers, worried his editors, that men of god could be making the lives of those they were trying to 'save' so much worse. Melville uses the colonization of the Hawaiian Islands as an example of the corruption, poverty, and exploitation that westernization had brought at the hands of missionaries. He also didn't believe that all missionaries were innocent of the tragedy they wrought. On the contrary, it was his believe that even some who came with good intentions were swayed by the luxuries that exploitation brought and were soon become exploiters themselves.

Its clear then, that Melville isn't interested in a purely maritime adventure story, based on his escapades. Melville's ability to fatten up his stories appears to have been born here in Typee. From what was essentially a tale he told at parties, Melville, at the urging of his listeners, put down his adventures, and then added in a bunch of other information that he had researched or heard about, along with his personal thoughts about colonization and evangelism, in order to flesh it out to a novel. Whole chapters on how harpoons are made and used in Moby Dick, I'm looking at you.

Is this nonfiction? A journal of actual events with some additional researched information (which may or may not be completely accurate) thrown in? Or is it a fictionalized account, inspired by the true events witnessed by Melville while he was stranded on the island for those few months and some other information that Melville used to support his social commentary conclusions about western interference in native cultures and the societal damage caused by religious indoctrination? To be honest, I'm sympathetic to Melville's thoughts about western exploitation of native cultures. Not just here, but everywhere. 

I called this Melville's first novel, multiple times during this entry, but perhaps that's unfair. Lets just say this is Melville's first book and leave it at that. This was is worth a read if you haven't already.

* Depending on what you read (or believe) Melville may have been in captivity, albeit a very relaxed captivity, for multiple months, as the story indicates, or maybe just a month.

metropolis

Metropolis by Philip Kerr.

I'm trying to play catch up, so I'm working in reverse to gets some notes down, or a review, I guess you could say, of the recent books I've read. I tried to list them all in 'the books' tab above, and I did my best to put them in rough order. I fell down on the job of keeping track for most of this year, but I was able to cobble the list together based on the stack of books I have here, quick lists of books I jotted down in a draft posts here on the blog, and some photos I took of the book covers to help me remember, whenever it occurred to me that I wasn't getting the job done.

At some point, the books I've read will have been completed far enough in the past that I may not remember enough about them to be worth it to actually write about them. My guess is that it may depend on whether I still have the book and can flip through it, how much I liked it when I read it, etc. Metropolis is just a few books back, and while I don't recall the names of the characters, I do recall them, and the story.

As you can see in the Amazon link for the paperback version, linked above, Metropolis is a Bernie Gunther novel. Gunther is a recurring character in Kerr's books, altho I think this is the first one I've read. There is one other Kerr book included here on the blog,* but its not a crime story. Gunther is a detective (newly minted in this book) on the Berlin police force, between world wars I and II. Its the late 20s I think, and Nazism is on the rise. The murders Gunter is looking into appear to be hate related, and targeted at specific groups of people--prostitutes and disabled WWI veterans. Gunther is following leads, that no one else he works with thinks are worth his time, but he's young, and once he gets an idea in his head...

The story follows Gunther's rise into the Berlin Murder Squad, or whatever that group is called, and his investigation into these two groups of murders. His investigations take him to some of the seedier parts of Berlin, and his adventures (or misadventures) in that secret layer of Berlin society is what provides the colorful backdrop to this story, which was at times horrifying, disgusting, and sad, but was also, in some cases, sensual, and occasionally sexy.

Kerr has woven quite a tapestry upon which he has set these Bernie Gunther novels it seems, so I can see why folks keep reading. I'll keep my eyes out for more, but I won't be jumping in the car to get them today.

 

* in the link to the other Kerr story on the blog, you find a link to a third Philip Kerr book I read, called Dark Matter, which was pretty good.

ex-libris

Ex-Libris is from 1998, so its been kicking around for a while. I borrowed this copy from my small lending library we have at my office. It pre-dates this blog so I wasn't sure if I had read it or not, but I do recall reading Ross King's Brunelleschi's Dome years ago, and it was very good--you can find it in the right-hand column in my 'great' list--so I thought I may have. But no, I don't think I did, or at least I don't remember reading it, tho the first part did seem familiar. After looking back at the blog, I did find two others Domino (which I didn't finish) and Leonardo and the Last Supper, which I did finish. In that review, I noted a few other books from Ross King that I had read, but this isn't one of them.

So if I was looking for a pattern in my reactions to Ross King's writing, I would say that I tend to like his novelized historical books, versus his historical novels. It seems like when his work is based more on a single historical work and how it came to be, he does better than straight fictional stories, even if those stories do include a fair amount of historical research and content. I would put Ex-Libris in the latter category, but that said, I liked this one better than some of the others. I may have read this one, I guessed that I did in my review of Domino (linked above) but I didn't remember then either. Forgettable is probably not a great attribute for a book, but perhaps its apt here.

If this one had a draw back, its that it has so much research and history, that it was, at times, a little hard to follow. There were so many interlacing facts, spread out over a hundred or so years, that it would take a college history class to untangle them, never mind understand them in context. So I did what I assume most readers who aren't 17th century historian would do, I ignored most of it, tried to remember the high points, and assumed that King would help fill in the blanks as we went along, which he obligingly did.

This story is about the power of knowledge, the concentrated power of libraries as fonts of learning, and the various historical powers that struggled to control, ban, censor, and contain that knowledge and keep its power for themselves. It was also a powerful reminder, for me, of why public libraries are the great democratizers, as they have taken that power from the rich and wealthy few that used to hoard it for themselves, and delivered it into the hands of the people.

If you enjoyed King's books on the duomo in Florence, and the frescoes by DaVinci and Michelangelo, you'll enjoy this one too, just not as much.

sea of poppies

Amitav Ghosh has a number of books, but I don't recall reading any of them. I came across Sea of Poppies in a library book sale and decided to give it a whirl. Its an historical novel that takes place in India in the early 1800s when the English colonizers there were running an opium trade between there and China. After looking this up for a link, I found that it is the first in a Trilogy know collectively as The Ibis Trilogy. The other books are River of Smoke, and Flood of Fire.

There is a wide cast of characters, but they come from three major groups: the local Indians, the western colonists, and a sort mishmash of transplanted folks who end up being on the outside to both of the other parties. Its this group of people, who intermingle with the locals and the colonizers, whose perspective I ended up identifying with and thereby viewing the story from. I suppose, depending on where you're from, or where your sympathies lie, your viewpoint may be different, but perhaps its Ghosh's multicultural lifestyle* that allows us to see the story from each side. I felt the plight of the local folks who were being forced to grow poppies to feed the opium machine, even to the point that they weren't allowed subsistence crops to feed their families.

The story is epic in its story arc, but ended abruptly for my taste, but perhaps knowing as I do now that its the first of a trilogy, makes the needle lifted from the record ending a little more understandable. I do like books, part of a series or not, that have a beginning, a middle and an end. This one does, to be sure, but the ending was a little abrupt.

I'll keep my eye out for the others, but I won't be seeking them out at the store or the library.

 

Note: I'm trying to post about a few of the recent books I've read. I've fallen out of the habit of writing about them as I finish them, but I did manage to record what books they were. You can find a list of them on the Books page here, linked on the tab above.

* According to the book jacket, Ghosh lives in India and New York.

impossible lives of great wells

The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells is a 2014 book by Andrew Sean Greer, the author of The Confessions of Max Tivoli, 10 years prior. I liked that earlier, book and I liked this one too, altho perhaps not quite as much. There are some similar themes Greer is exploring here, and the premise of the story is also fantastical.

Greer is again examining love, loss, and longing. And because this also has historical fiction aspects, he is also looking at a woman's place and standing in American society in the various time periods in which the story takes place.

This was a fun ride and Greer has constructed some pretty complex characters, and developed their personalities and interactions in ways that really help us understand how these people feel about each other, and how society, from differing time periods, influence those personalities and interactions.

Suspension of disbelieve is again required for this one, and if you enjoyed Max Tivoli then you'll probably enjoy this one.

persepolis

I haven't read a ton of graphic novels, but some.* This book was a loan from my oldest; not too long ago I commented that I had read a bunch of books written by authors sympathetic to the Israeli point of view in its continuing quarrels with its Middle Eastern neighbors, and I was hoping to read something that took a different view. Marjane Satrapi was born in Iran, was raised there as a child, and moved to Austria for her education--what ended up as essentially a boarding school, with her parents stuck in Iran--not long after the fundamentalist revolution or uprising in Iran.  

Persepolis ** is her telling, in two parts, of her life as a child in Iran,  her teens in Austria as a student and newly birthed innocent into the ways of the West, and her eventual return (at least for a while) to her home and family. One assumes this is strictly autobiographical, but I don't know that I actually read that anywhere... let's check. Random House lists it as Biography/Memoir, so I guess so.

The illustrations/cartooning in the graphic novel are bold, black and white. When I did an image search for Marjane Satrapi a lot of her photos are also black and white, which made me wonder if that is so because that is what she wanted, or if the photographer or publisher of the photo used black and white because of the novel's imagery. hmmm

The story of Satrapi is one of conflict; between her and her family and the oppression the are forced to live under, as well as the conflict of her innocent early years in contrast to the modernism of Vienna where she attended school. She rebelled against the regime as a child, and rebelled against xenophobia and elitism in Vienna, and after her return to Tehran, she rebels again as an adult, and eventually leaves again to live in France and find the freedom she tasted as a teen.

As you would expect there are scenes of sweetness, and sickening oppression, stress, anger, prejudice, love, and healing, but none of these ideas and feelings overwhelms the story. In the end I felt for the author, and had the feeling that she did the best she could with what she had. Maybe not as good as some in similar circumstances, but better than most. 

While confirming for this blog entry, I discovered that there is another book, Persepolis 2, that presumably continues the story, so I'll need to look for that. There was also an animated movie of the same name, with a limited US release, in 2007.

* Watchmen, and one or two others.

** The title Persepolis, I presume, comes from the capital City of the Achaemenid (Persian) Empire, of the same name, founded by Darius I, about 2500 years ago, which sits in current south-west Iran. The city is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

gawain and the green knight

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl & Sir Orfeo are three poems translated from Middle English by J.R.R. Tolkien. The first two were discovered contained in the same manuscript, along with two other poems, written in the same hand, around the year 1400, according to the introduction, edited by Christopher Tolkien from a number of sources which original with his father, including notes, transcripts from broadcast interviews, etc. Sir Orfeo is contained in three extant manuscripts, and the one Tolkien used is dated to the 1330s, inscribed, probably in London. The original authors are unknown.

Tolkien worked on the translations a number of times from the1920s up through at lest the 1950s according to the preface by Christopher Tolkien, and in some case in collaboration with other experts in the field. In some cases, Christopher found multiple versions, and made an effort to use the most recent updated forms for this publication. The copyright is dated 1975 and held by Tolkien's long time publisher, George Allen & Unwin, Ltd. and published in 1980 by Ballantine Books, of New York.

The trickiest part of the translations, according to the front matter, is the rhythm, not the strict iambic metrical foot used in other forms, such as Shakespeare, but a more loose rhythm of stressed and less stressed syllables, more closely matching natural speech, combined with alliterative sounds within many of the lines, such as this example given in the Appendix (also credited to J.R.R. Tolkien, and edited by Christopher):

Tirius went to Tuscany         and towns founded*

In this line, I've bolded the stressed syllables in red, and obviously, Tirius, Tuscany and Towns alliterate. I've added the break in the line, as the example in the aforementioned appendix did, to illustrate that each line is composed of two chunks, according to Tolkien.

The trick is apparently finding the words in moderns English that both tell the same story, give the same intended meaning, maintain the meter and rhythm, and don't damage the structure of the poem or its speech patterns so much that it is no longer a worthy representation of the original.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is the longest poem, at about 80 pages, Pearl is about 33 pages, and Sir Orfeo is shortest at about 15 pages. Each seems designed to be spoken aloud, as one assumes that not many in the 1300s and 1400s could read, and they each seems to be focused on a story that is both exciting, and includes lessons on life and strong moral. They each extol the glory of God and being good, and the rewards that come from keeping both of those aspirations close at heart. Each also has a sprinkling of magic, often dressed as dream or phantasm brought on by sleep, drink, or love. All of the ingredients for that which Tolkien was trying to restore to England, its lost native mythology, which he imagined was as rich and diverse as the Greek, Roman, Egyptian, or any other ancient civilization that didn't suffer the losses brought on by England's northern, damp climate, which is so hostile to things like old parchment manuscripts.

What I found most fun was the similarities in some of the themes from the adventures themselves that were clearly the inspirations,** at least in part, for some of Tolkien's fiction. That itself, is worth the price of admission.

* Sir Gawain, stanza 1 

** Tolkien fans out there will have heard the comparisons between The Lord of the Rings and Wagner's Ring Cycle (Der Ring des Nibelungen) which Tolkien denied, and still many try to say that it is at least partially inspired by Wagner, regardless of the author's dismissal. But Wagner was himself inspired by an old Middle High German poem from around 1200, called Nibelungenlied (The Song of the Nibelungs), which is in turn, based on oral traditions that likely go back to Old Norse sources, which Tolkien did study. In his 2011 essay on this comparison, Jamie McGregor provides a quote from Tom Shippey's work on Tolkien, indicating that Tolkien has a distinct dislike for Wagner (and other authors, including Shakespeare) and felt that they "had got something very important, not quite right." That, to me, explains why the similarities are present, i.e., they used the same source material, but Tolkien's inspiration, and what he took from the texts and traditions he studied, could be his own.***

*** One of Tolkien's friends--and a member of the Inklings, which they founded with their literary friends--C.S. Lewis, was described by Roberts Giddings, again, according to McGregor's essay, noted above, as a "rabid Wagnerite" and in his mind the source of the Wagner "taint" in Tolkien's work. Not having read Giddings work myself, I can't tell you if that theory is supported by any evidence, but in absence of that, I'll only add that it may be that Lewis saw these associations himself, and may have even brought them up to Tolkien himself, and if he did, I assume that Tolkien's response was the same to Lewis as it was to more public comparisons, altho, I also assume, perhaps more pointed.