In A Vindication of Love: Reclaiming Romance for the Twenty-First Century, Christina Nehring sets forth to return romantic relationships - those involving that tricky, slippery emotional state called "love" - to center-stage. Love is in dire straits, according to Nehring. It is too safe; the risky thrill of falling in love, risking one's emotional state, has been flattened by PC-ness, "prescriptives" for every relationship problem under the sun, and banality.
This is not a "relationship" book, no matter where you might find it in the bookstore. Nehring offers no "quick-fix" for what ails one's relationship. Instead, Nehring uses examples from history and literature to show how the relationships that cause us to show our vulnerabilities are often the ones that are the most satisfactory. A Vindication of Love is far more a cultural studies work than a self-help book.
Nehring first takes issue with the historical denigration of women's romantic relationships starting with Mary Wollstonecraft and Edna St. Vincent Millay. How could an intelligent woman, one who espouses equality between men and women, fall prey to whims of the heart? Attempt suicide because her lover has left her? Must be something wrong there...but then history never stabbed Percy Bysshe Shelley in the back for abandoning his first wife (who drowned in the Thames under suspicious circumstances, if I remember) to wed Mary Wollstonecraft's daughter, Mary Shelley. This introduction leads into an examination of love as it functions in power dynamics, abscences, wisdom, art, transgression, and failure. Along the way, Nehring pulls examples from history (Dante and Beatrice, Petrarch and Laura, Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, Abelard and Heloise) and literature (Darcy and Lizzy, Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochester, Catherine and Heathcliff) to show how love can elevate and illuminate, or wound. There is a wealth of close reading and research to support the chapters (and if you haven't read Abelard and Heloise or Dante or Pride and Prejudice or Wuthering Heights your TBR needs expansion).
Unfortunately, I found one mis-quote. Mis-quotes drive me nuts particularly if the source is one I know well. Like Jane Eyre. On page 52, Nehring is discussing power discrepancies and cites a scene in Jane Eyre where Jane refuses to call Mr. Rochester "Charles"; the citation is given as page 97 in the 1899 Harper and Bros edition of Charlotte Bronte's best-known novel. Page 97 of the 1899 edition of Jane Eyre has no reference to Mr. Rochester because Jane is still at school at Lowood and is taking her cue from Miss Temple; additionally, Rochester's given name isn't "Charles", it's "Edward" - as in "Edward Fairfax Rochester" as Jane so relates to the reader on page 528 of the same 1899 edition (there aren't even any characters named Charles in the book - I checked). The mis-quote stopped me in my reading tracks. I had a choice to make: finish A Vindication of Love (which the publisher was so nice as to send to me on request) or chuck it. I chose to finish it but paid far more attention to examples and citations than I normally would. Not too many pages later, Rochester's name was given correctly so I have no idea what happened the first time. I didn't find any other issues, either, so maybe a computer did it.
Nehring has wonderful arguements. I very much agree with many of her points, that our culture of Match.com and speed-dating creates an unsatisfying safety net. I also agree with her that love takes courage, the courage to risk being hurt in order to give and receive love. Once I got past the quote hiccup, I was able to really enjoy Nehring's examples because many were familiar to me. I had a lot of fun reading this book - I thought alot, too!
*Dear FTC: I received a copy of this book from the publisher.
20 August 2010
17 August 2010
The Falls
The Falls was the selection for Literature by Women in August. I'd never read a Joyce Carol Oates novel (even though I've acquired a few at library sales) so I went into the month with an open mind. I also started a week behind because I was at Conclave the first week of August.
The Falls is a very meandering novel and I'm still not sure what exactly is the central narrative plot. Is it Ariah's life and experiences near Niagara Falls? Is it the area of the Falls themselves? Can a novel be setting-driven as opposed to character- or plot-driven? I'm not quite sure because the focus of the novel moves from Ariah as the "Widow Bride of the Falls" (after her new husband jumps to his death the morning after their wedding) to the fate of Ariah's second family during the Love Canal crisis. There are many links to the treacherous and seductive Niagara Falls throughout the narrative.
Oates contributes further to the meandering quality by changing narrative points-of-view and even the narrator. There's an "I" that appears every once in a while and it takes a bit to figure out which character is the "I" (sometimes it seems like a different character, too). The description is exquisite at times, particularly in the first chapter in describing the Falls on the morning of Gilbert's suicide.
The characters themselves are irritating at times, particularly Ariah in her ostrich-like way of ignoring the outside world. Juliet is bothersome to be in that she's burdened with one of the most famous literary names in history (and very nearly shares her fate). The research into Love Canal is extensive and while I don't think all the information is necessary for the reader to believe in the rights of the plaintiffs (it's pretty obvious that the big shots were completely at fault and completely without morals) it does seem necessary for the characters to have everything spelled out for them in order for them to believe in the validity of the case.
I am glad that The Falls was put forward for Literature by Women and that I was finally able to read some JCO. I just wish I had been prepared for the meandering quality of the novel. Although, I should have guessed from the length of the book that is wasn't going to be too terribly compact as far as plot.
*FTC Disclosure: I received a review copy of this from BNBC.
The Falls is a very meandering novel and I'm still not sure what exactly is the central narrative plot. Is it Ariah's life and experiences near Niagara Falls? Is it the area of the Falls themselves? Can a novel be setting-driven as opposed to character- or plot-driven? I'm not quite sure because the focus of the novel moves from Ariah as the "Widow Bride of the Falls" (after her new husband jumps to his death the morning after their wedding) to the fate of Ariah's second family during the Love Canal crisis. There are many links to the treacherous and seductive Niagara Falls throughout the narrative.
Oates contributes further to the meandering quality by changing narrative points-of-view and even the narrator. There's an "I" that appears every once in a while and it takes a bit to figure out which character is the "I" (sometimes it seems like a different character, too). The description is exquisite at times, particularly in the first chapter in describing the Falls on the morning of Gilbert's suicide.
The characters themselves are irritating at times, particularly Ariah in her ostrich-like way of ignoring the outside world. Juliet is bothersome to be in that she's burdened with one of the most famous literary names in history (and very nearly shares her fate). The research into Love Canal is extensive and while I don't think all the information is necessary for the reader to believe in the rights of the plaintiffs (it's pretty obvious that the big shots were completely at fault and completely without morals) it does seem necessary for the characters to have everything spelled out for them in order for them to believe in the validity of the case.
I am glad that The Falls was put forward for Literature by Women and that I was finally able to read some JCO. I just wish I had been prepared for the meandering quality of the novel. Although, I should have guessed from the length of the book that is wasn't going to be too terribly compact as far as plot.
*FTC Disclosure: I received a review copy of this from BNBC.
16 August 2010
Talking to Girls About Duran Duran
I found Rob Sheffield a couple years ago when his first memoir, Love is a Mix Tape, hit B&N's Discover Great New Writers display. I loved it and sobbed my way through it on a lonely Valentine's Day.
Rob has a new book, Talking to Girls About Duran Duran. I have a friend, Beth, who works at the Park Slope B&N where Rob was doing a signing. She got me a signed copy - score!
Like Love is a Mix Tape, Talking to Girls About Duran Duran is organized around a musical theme. Each chapter progresses through the 1980s using a group or song Rob related to during his formative years. [Rob is about ten years old than I am; he's at the beginning of the GenX/MTV generation and I'm at the tail end.] He talks about how his four sisters (especially his youngest sister, Caroline) shared his musical explorations and even led him to new groups as they taped back and forth. Rob looks at the New Wave one-hit-wonder phenomenon using groups like Haysi Fantayzee (singers of "Shiny, Shiny"). The fun of singing eighties hits at karaoke bars is discussed. He leaves off after looking at the rise of NKOTB and rap in the early 1990s.
I really like Rob's writing style on the Pop Life blog at Rolling Stone and it carries over into his books. If you love the eighties, please, please read Rob's book.
After I finished Duran Duran I spent an entertaining afternoon putting together a playlist on iTunes using the songs from the chapter headings of Duran Duran. I wasn't able to come up with a couple of songs ("Shiny, Shiny" being one of them) but I rounded out the list with a few extra Duran Duran songs. Appropriately enough.
Rob has a new book, Talking to Girls About Duran Duran. I have a friend, Beth, who works at the Park Slope B&N where Rob was doing a signing. She got me a signed copy - score!
Like Love is a Mix Tape, Talking to Girls About Duran Duran is organized around a musical theme. Each chapter progresses through the 1980s using a group or song Rob related to during his formative years. [Rob is about ten years old than I am; he's at the beginning of the GenX/MTV generation and I'm at the tail end.] He talks about how his four sisters (especially his youngest sister, Caroline) shared his musical explorations and even led him to new groups as they taped back and forth. Rob looks at the New Wave one-hit-wonder phenomenon using groups like Haysi Fantayzee (singers of "Shiny, Shiny"). The fun of singing eighties hits at karaoke bars is discussed. He leaves off after looking at the rise of NKOTB and rap in the early 1990s.
I really like Rob's writing style on the Pop Life blog at Rolling Stone and it carries over into his books. If you love the eighties, please, please read Rob's book.
After I finished Duran Duran I spent an entertaining afternoon putting together a playlist on iTunes using the songs from the chapter headings of Duran Duran. I wasn't able to come up with a couple of songs ("Shiny, Shiny" being one of them) but I rounded out the list with a few extra Duran Duran songs. Appropriately enough.
13 August 2010
The Moonflower Vine
This is another instance of starting a book then forgetting about it for a year.
I suggested The Moonflower Vine for my bookstore bookclub last September. I read the first 60 pages or so then either got distracted or lost interest (can't remember anymore). I dug it back out and finished it eleven months later in an attempt to decrease the number of half-finished book languishing around the house.
The Moonflower Vine is the only novel published by Jetta Carleton, surprising in that she had a successful career as a radio and television copywriter then later operated a successful publishing house, The Lightning Tree. The Moonflower Vine was out-of-print until Jane Smiley commented on the novel in 13 Ways of Looking at the Novel leading HarperPerennial to release a new edition of The Moonflower Vine.
Although largely autobiographical, The Moonflower Vine doesn't have a tight narrative; the story is actually created by a set of vignettes, each narrated from the point-of-view of one of the Soames family members. The first section, which is also the "modern" segment, is narrated from the vantage of the youngest daughter Mary Jo, modeled on Jetta herself. It tells the story of a single day in the Soames family, busy with cooking, celebration, family. The next segments jump back into the family history, explaining why each of the three other daughters - Jessica, Leonie, and Mathy - and parents Callie and Matthew behave as they do. Education is important in the Soames family, as is good work and avoiding idleness. Carleton's writing shows a love for her rural Missouri setting; the most lush description is reserved for scenes where the sisters are enjoying the outdoors. The Moonflower Vine is also like a time capsule, describing a time and place in middle America where the school principal might still farm his own land, too.
I am so glad I went back and finished The Moonflower Vine - this is not a novel to be missed and definitely not one to speed read.
I suggested The Moonflower Vine for my bookstore bookclub last September. I read the first 60 pages or so then either got distracted or lost interest (can't remember anymore). I dug it back out and finished it eleven months later in an attempt to decrease the number of half-finished book languishing around the house.
The Moonflower Vine is the only novel published by Jetta Carleton, surprising in that she had a successful career as a radio and television copywriter then later operated a successful publishing house, The Lightning Tree. The Moonflower Vine was out-of-print until Jane Smiley commented on the novel in 13 Ways of Looking at the Novel leading HarperPerennial to release a new edition of The Moonflower Vine.
Although largely autobiographical, The Moonflower Vine doesn't have a tight narrative; the story is actually created by a set of vignettes, each narrated from the point-of-view of one of the Soames family members. The first section, which is also the "modern" segment, is narrated from the vantage of the youngest daughter Mary Jo, modeled on Jetta herself. It tells the story of a single day in the Soames family, busy with cooking, celebration, family. The next segments jump back into the family history, explaining why each of the three other daughters - Jessica, Leonie, and Mathy - and parents Callie and Matthew behave as they do. Education is important in the Soames family, as is good work and avoiding idleness. Carleton's writing shows a love for her rural Missouri setting; the most lush description is reserved for scenes where the sisters are enjoying the outdoors. The Moonflower Vine is also like a time capsule, describing a time and place in middle America where the school principal might still farm his own land, too.
I am so glad I went back and finished The Moonflower Vine - this is not a novel to be missed and definitely not one to speed read.
11 August 2010
The Disappearing Spoon (and Reading Chemistry!)
So.
I'm a big nerd. I think chemistry is pretty fun (where else do you get to set stuff on fire, distill alcohol, make drugs, and play with expensive machinery like Rotovaps and even more expensive machinery like NMRs). I heard Sam Kean speaking on NPR about his new book The Disappearing Spoon, a book that is all about the elements on the Periodic Table. It sounded so wonderful I just had to have it - I opened up my nook, called up the Shop, and had it downloaded in about a minute. Ahhhh, book love, instant gratification at my fingertips.
Anyway, back to The Disappearing Spoon. Kean doesn't start with hydrogen, helium, and beryllium, discussing each element in turn as the periodic table ascends in number - good for a textbook, not so fun for a popular science book. Kean instead groups the elements by type (noble gases), function (poisoner's corner), or interesting stories (gallium tea spoons and radioactive lead). He opens the book with his own fascination with mercury (an element strongly linked with his childhood) and then on into the depths of the periodic table. This allows him to talk about elements that are chemically similar or elements with similar stories of discovery. The periodicity of the elements (the first functional arrangement is credited to Mendeleev) helped a number of chemists, some of them quite eccentric, determine where and how to look for "new" elements.
Kean does a great job of both telling stories and explaining the chemistry. Having a chemistry background, I wasn't bored when Kean gave an elementary explanation; that being said, a casual reader without a scientific background won't be overwhelmed by technical explanations and equations. The Disappearing Spoon is really a fun book to get people interested in the stories behind the science (scientists are just as nutty and gossipy as the average human) - from there people might stay interested in the science. Who knows what somone might discover.
Discoveries lead to squabbles, squabbles make for great anecdotes. Some are pretty funny, some are sad. Some, like that of Primo Levi, whose knowledge of chemistry allowed him to obtain food and survive the concentration camps of World War II, led me to new books and a new project/blog Reading Chemistry. I had a brain wave - with the International Year of Chemistry ocurring in 2011, why not have a blog for reading chemistry-related books of all types? My goal was to get it set up before 2011 and then keep going when the year is over. I might add other contributors as I go but for now it's just me and some cross-posted reviews. Yay, chemistry!
I'm a big nerd. I think chemistry is pretty fun (where else do you get to set stuff on fire, distill alcohol, make drugs, and play with expensive machinery like Rotovaps and even more expensive machinery like NMRs). I heard Sam Kean speaking on NPR about his new book The Disappearing Spoon, a book that is all about the elements on the Periodic Table. It sounded so wonderful I just had to have it - I opened up my nook, called up the Shop, and had it downloaded in about a minute. Ahhhh, book love, instant gratification at my fingertips.
Anyway, back to The Disappearing Spoon. Kean doesn't start with hydrogen, helium, and beryllium, discussing each element in turn as the periodic table ascends in number - good for a textbook, not so fun for a popular science book. Kean instead groups the elements by type (noble gases), function (poisoner's corner), or interesting stories (gallium tea spoons and radioactive lead). He opens the book with his own fascination with mercury (an element strongly linked with his childhood) and then on into the depths of the periodic table. This allows him to talk about elements that are chemically similar or elements with similar stories of discovery. The periodicity of the elements (the first functional arrangement is credited to Mendeleev) helped a number of chemists, some of them quite eccentric, determine where and how to look for "new" elements.
Kean does a great job of both telling stories and explaining the chemistry. Having a chemistry background, I wasn't bored when Kean gave an elementary explanation; that being said, a casual reader without a scientific background won't be overwhelmed by technical explanations and equations. The Disappearing Spoon is really a fun book to get people interested in the stories behind the science (scientists are just as nutty and gossipy as the average human) - from there people might stay interested in the science. Who knows what somone might discover.
Discoveries lead to squabbles, squabbles make for great anecdotes. Some are pretty funny, some are sad. Some, like that of Primo Levi, whose knowledge of chemistry allowed him to obtain food and survive the concentration camps of World War II, led me to new books and a new project/blog Reading Chemistry. I had a brain wave - with the International Year of Chemistry ocurring in 2011, why not have a blog for reading chemistry-related books of all types? My goal was to get it set up before 2011 and then keep going when the year is over. I might add other contributors as I go but for now it's just me and some cross-posted reviews. Yay, chemistry!
10 August 2010
Children of the New World
Children of the New World by Assia Djebar took me to a new area of the world - Algeria - and a new setting - Algeria's war for independence from France. It's a guerilla war, uncertain, with freedom fighters hiding out in the hills, shelled by a French-backed military. The lives Djebar chooses to show the reader are those of ordinary Algerians, women, children, men, revolutionaries. It's like a slice of life only this slice of life is liable to open with a bomb that lands in the courtyard, killing someone's mother-in-law.
Children of the New World is more than a feminist novel. The interconnected stories of a single day in a provincial Algerian town show how the inhabitants live under the constant thread of detention and death. Although many of the main characters are women, younger, more educated than their mothers, and walking the line between seclusion and freedom in a Muslim world, Children of the New World is a nationalist novel - it's about the right to be recognized and live freely in your own town and country. The people of Blida represent those ordinary men and women who risk their lives, even in so simple a gesture as crossing the town unaccompanied to warn a husband, in a war of independence. This is a novel to be read for it's point-of-view and Djebar's beautiful writing.
*FTC Disclosure: I recieved a review copy of this from BNBC [And I apologize, this reveiw is about 6 weeks late]
Children of the New World is more than a feminist novel. The interconnected stories of a single day in a provincial Algerian town show how the inhabitants live under the constant thread of detention and death. Although many of the main characters are women, younger, more educated than their mothers, and walking the line between seclusion and freedom in a Muslim world, Children of the New World is a nationalist novel - it's about the right to be recognized and live freely in your own town and country. The people of Blida represent those ordinary men and women who risk their lives, even in so simple a gesture as crossing the town unaccompanied to warn a husband, in a war of independence. This is a novel to be read for it's point-of-view and Djebar's beautiful writing.
*FTC Disclosure: I recieved a review copy of this from BNBC [And I apologize, this reveiw is about 6 weeks late]
02 August 2010
The Falls and a Reading Schedule
The readers have spoken and the new fall/winter schedule at Literature by Women is:
September: Purge by Sofi Oksanen
October: Orlando by Virginia Woolf
November: Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson
December: The Ponder Heart by Eudora Welty
January: Shirley by Charlotte Bronte
February: Memoirs of Hadrian by Marguerite Yourcenar
In the meantime, drop by in August to join us for The Falls by Joyce Carol Oates!
September: Purge by Sofi Oksanen
October: Orlando by Virginia Woolf
November: Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson
December: The Ponder Heart by Eudora Welty
January: Shirley by Charlotte Bronte
February: Memoirs of Hadrian by Marguerite Yourcenar
In the meantime, drop by in August to join us for The Falls by Joyce Carol Oates!
01 August 2010
Bel Canto
I read Bel Canto back around 2005 (I think - I couldn't find the page in my book journal) and I have to say that I really didn't like the book all that much. I thought the plotting was annoying with all the foreshadowing about after the hostage situation ended. I couldn't really get into any of the characters - probably because I was concentrating on the plot - so I was pretty blah about the whole thing. I couldn't see how this had been nominated for an NBCC award or the Orange Prize. I even off-loaded my copy thinking I was unlikely to read it again.
Fate laughs.
Enter BNBC. And I start moderating "Literature by Women", for which I let the group nominate and vote on the reading lists. Lo, and behold, Bel Canto is nominated for Spring/Summer 2010 and makes it through the voting. I had to read it again (*sigh*).
So I did. I tried to concentrate on the style of the book, the music references, the relationships formed between the characters. Bel Canto is better the second time around - at least for me. I was able to bypass some of the irritation I felt with the plot by concentrating on the writing. Until I got the Epilogue which is not only unneccessary but completely confusing; there's little in the way of explanation. It has a pretty last line, but so does Chapter Ten, and I would rather have had the book end without an Epilogue than keep the one it has.
So, an improvement (and I was moved to listen to opera all day when I finished - oh, Renee Fleming, how I love thee, which reminds me I need to come up with a copy of your duet album with Placido Domingo *droolz*).
Fate laughs.
Enter BNBC. And I start moderating "Literature by Women", for which I let the group nominate and vote on the reading lists. Lo, and behold, Bel Canto is nominated for Spring/Summer 2010 and makes it through the voting. I had to read it again (*sigh*).
So I did. I tried to concentrate on the style of the book, the music references, the relationships formed between the characters. Bel Canto is better the second time around - at least for me. I was able to bypass some of the irritation I felt with the plot by concentrating on the writing. Until I got the Epilogue which is not only unneccessary but completely confusing; there's little in the way of explanation. It has a pretty last line, but so does Chapter Ten, and I would rather have had the book end without an Epilogue than keep the one it has.
So, an improvement (and I was moved to listen to opera all day when I finished - oh, Renee Fleming, how I love thee, which reminds me I need to come up with a copy of your duet album with Placido Domingo *droolz*).
28 July 2010
Die Katzen sind nicht amüsiert
This is Chaucer. Spam comments bore him. They waste his mommy's time since she has to go delete them.
Dante also doesn't like spam comments - spammers do not give tummy rubs.
Die Katzen sind nicht amüsiert. Sie müssen ihren Bauch reibt.
So stop with the spam already!
26 July 2010
Cast your votes at Literature by Women!
We're setting the September through (about) February schedule at Literature by Women. Here's the shortlist:
Atkinson, Kate: Behind the Scenes at the Museum
Bronte, Charlotte: Shirley
Drabble, Margaret: A Writer's Britain
Lahiri, Jhumpa: Unaccustomed Earth
McCullers, Carson: The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter
Mengiste, Maaza: Beneath the Lion's Gaze
Muller, Herta: The Passport
Nemirovsky, Irene: Suite Francaise
Oksanen, Sofi: Purge
Proulx, Annie: The Shipping News
Tyler, Anne: Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant
Welty, Eudora: The Ponder Heart
Woolf, Virginia: Orlando
Yourcenar, Marguerite: Memoirs of Hadrian
Voting directions are on the thread here.
Atkinson, Kate: Behind the Scenes at the Museum
Bronte, Charlotte: Shirley
Drabble, Margaret: A Writer's Britain
Lahiri, Jhumpa: Unaccustomed Earth
McCullers, Carson: The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter
Mengiste, Maaza: Beneath the Lion's Gaze
Muller, Herta: The Passport
Nemirovsky, Irene: Suite Francaise
Oksanen, Sofi: Purge
Proulx, Annie: The Shipping News
Tyler, Anne: Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant
Welty, Eudora: The Ponder Heart
Woolf, Virginia: Orlando
Yourcenar, Marguerite: Memoirs of Hadrian
Voting directions are on the thread here.
23 July 2010
Things I found while "cleaning" iTunes
I had to replace the hard drive on my laptop ("The Precious") because the original was dying (oh, and the Geek Squad wanted to "run more diagnostics" to make sure it wasn't infected - considering that it was both overheating and trying to jump across the desk due to a broken arm I'd say the Geek Squad gets a "fail"). So I was really smart and backed everything up (twice) then replaced the hard drive and upgraded the OS to Windows 7 (pretty sweet).
So I had to re-install iTunes and import all my music/podcasts - something got messed up because almost everything is duplicated.
So I've spent the last few days deleting the duplicate import files (I played a few playlists to see which files were updating information before I started) and I noticed a few things:
So I had to re-install iTunes and import all my music/podcasts - something got messed up because almost everything is duplicated.
So I've spent the last few days deleting the duplicate import files (I played a few playlists to see which files were updating information before I started) and I noticed a few things:
- I have some really random music tracks from Paste downloads; not that the music is bad it's just really random as to genre and sound
- I listen to a lot of christmas music
- I have really embarassing taste in the pop music that I listen to at the gym (like Ke$ha)
- None of the Janet Jackson or Michael Jackson imported CD tracks duplicated (only tracks from iTunes downloads of their music duplicated) - obviously that says the Jacksons are gods
- Glee seems to like songs with titles that begin with "Don't" - "Don't Stop Believin' ", "Don't Rain on My Parade", "Don't Make Me Over", etc.
- Lady Gaga got copied three times....scary
- Every, single Madonna song/CD I have in iTunes got duplicated in random amounts - I guess Madge really can "reinvent" herself
- I am finally able to buy and download music from iTunes without worrying my hard drive will crap out before I get a chance to back-up new purchases; 1st purchase: Katy Perry's "California Gurls", 2nd purchase: Muse's "Uprising" (don't judge)
- My iTunes gift card is almost out of money so I have to buy a new one before I do anymore buying
22 July 2010
Troubles
I started reading Troubles when the shortlist for the "Lost" Man Booker Prize was announced in March. The Siege of Krishnapur is on my longlist TBR as part of my Booker Project/Challenge but Troubles is the first book in JG Farrell's Empire trilogy so I was interested in reading Troubles before Siege (the final book is The Singapore Grip).
Conveniently for me, Troubles won the "Lost" Booker Prize so I got to read my first Booker winner of the year.
Troubles follows the story of Major Brendan Archer and his interaction with an Anglo-Irish family, the Spencers, at their decaying estate/hotel, the Majestic, around the beginning of the "Troubles" in Ireland.
("Troubles" is such an innocuous word, like a guerrilla-style war for Irish home-rule is the same as a bothersome neighbor who neglects to return the leaf blower.)
Archer comes to the Majestic to claim the hand of his fiancee, Angela Spencer, and winds up embroiled in the idiosyncratic way of life at the old estate. It's a bit like a Waugh novel, the decaying Anglo-Irish aristocracy is a major focus of Troubles, combined with a Wodehouse farce - the cadre of elderly English maiden aunts and widows who permanently inhabit the Majestic lend a comic aspect to post-World War I/pre-civil war Ireland. The rapidly multiplying horde of cats inhabiting the Majestic - they steadily take over the upper floors and varying rooms of the hotel causing guests to change rooms - are also a source of hilarity (to the reader) when the cats venture out to vex the hotel's human inhabitants. Archer also becomes fascinated with the aloof Sarah Devlin, a resident of nearby Kilnalough, as the relationship between the English and the Irish rapidly deteriorates.
JG Farrell's writing is wonderful and very much worth savoring. The majority of the plot in Troubles moves very slowly (the whole action of the book takes places over eighteen months to two years) so there is plenty of time for Farrell to develop the characters of Archer, Spencer, Ripon, Sarah, and all the others...only the expected character development doesn't seem to occur. The only character we start to fully understand is the Major and we see all the other characters through his eyes; I really only recall one or two scenes where Archer is not present so it was so fun to read a book that really stayed with one character's perspective (the few point-of-view breaks were almost anecdotal in nature so they really didn't interrupt my reading). Farrell even provides the reader with the newspaper articles Archer reads so we always stay with Archer's perspective and body of knowledge.
If I didn't know Farrell wrote Troubles in the 1960s (a time where the "Troubles" were heating up in Ireland again) I would have thought the original publication was in the 1920s. There is a very real-time feeling to the novel, the feeling of uncertainty, that you don't quite know who's a "Shinner" (Sinn Fein), if you will make it home to dinner in one piece. That is the best kind of historical novel - when you can't tell the setting was reconstructed from research - and I love it.
Conveniently for me, Troubles won the "Lost" Booker Prize so I got to read my first Booker winner of the year.
Troubles follows the story of Major Brendan Archer and his interaction with an Anglo-Irish family, the Spencers, at their decaying estate/hotel, the Majestic, around the beginning of the "Troubles" in Ireland.
("Troubles" is such an innocuous word, like a guerrilla-style war for Irish home-rule is the same as a bothersome neighbor who neglects to return the leaf blower.)
Archer comes to the Majestic to claim the hand of his fiancee, Angela Spencer, and winds up embroiled in the idiosyncratic way of life at the old estate. It's a bit like a Waugh novel, the decaying Anglo-Irish aristocracy is a major focus of Troubles, combined with a Wodehouse farce - the cadre of elderly English maiden aunts and widows who permanently inhabit the Majestic lend a comic aspect to post-World War I/pre-civil war Ireland. The rapidly multiplying horde of cats inhabiting the Majestic - they steadily take over the upper floors and varying rooms of the hotel causing guests to change rooms - are also a source of hilarity (to the reader) when the cats venture out to vex the hotel's human inhabitants. Archer also becomes fascinated with the aloof Sarah Devlin, a resident of nearby Kilnalough, as the relationship between the English and the Irish rapidly deteriorates.
JG Farrell's writing is wonderful and very much worth savoring. The majority of the plot in Troubles moves very slowly (the whole action of the book takes places over eighteen months to two years) so there is plenty of time for Farrell to develop the characters of Archer, Spencer, Ripon, Sarah, and all the others...only the expected character development doesn't seem to occur. The only character we start to fully understand is the Major and we see all the other characters through his eyes; I really only recall one or two scenes where Archer is not present so it was so fun to read a book that really stayed with one character's perspective (the few point-of-view breaks were almost anecdotal in nature so they really didn't interrupt my reading). Farrell even provides the reader with the newspaper articles Archer reads so we always stay with Archer's perspective and body of knowledge.
If I didn't know Farrell wrote Troubles in the 1960s (a time where the "Troubles" were heating up in Ireland again) I would have thought the original publication was in the 1920s. There is a very real-time feeling to the novel, the feeling of uncertainty, that you don't quite know who's a "Shinner" (Sinn Fein), if you will make it home to dinner in one piece. That is the best kind of historical novel - when you can't tell the setting was reconstructed from research - and I love it.
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