edwinbcn - 2015 Reading - Part 1

Due to the Great Firewall of China, I only enjoyed limited access to LibraryThing. In my home in Nanning, I usually can get to the site, but in Beijing I can rarely get to LT.

LibraryThing is not (yet) blocked in China, but LT makes extensive use of googleapis, and since Google is blocked in China, this severely hampers my access and use of LT. In Beijing, I can view most of the site, including My Catalogue, and Groups, but I cannot edit my catalogue or post comments on neither my Profile nor in Groups. The only things I can do on LT is uploading covers or deleting books from my catalogue.

I am considering taking a VPN only for access to LT, but haven't made up my mind.

In the second half of 2015, I got rid of about 700 books, and have set another 600+ books aside to get rid of. My TBR went down from 4560 to 3,903 (now).

Also, I moved most of by book collection from Beijing to Nanning, 2,800 KM to the south. This consisted of a shipment of 30 boxes of each 50 kg (Total 1,500 kg).

My goals for this year are as before, read about 150 books, but I am afraid I cannot participate as much on Club Read, Literary Centennials, and Reading Globally as before, as a result of my limited access to the site.

If I stop posting, it means I am (b)locked out.

On Club Read 2015, I posted the list of 81 book I read during the second half of the year, but was not able to post or review on LT.

In 2015, I read 134 books, quite a bit lower than my target of 150 - 180. However, my count is possibly incomplete (and thus higher) and I have a number of books unfinished (but those will have to wait till March).

I hope LT continues to fly under the rader in China! I have enjoyed the review you have been able to post very much.

And my jaw is on the floor RE: moving Mount TBR. I moved myself and 1200 books 10 miles across Brooklyn and that was a struggle. But 30 boxes, shipped so far..... wow. Congrats!

>Thanks ELiz.

Being able to read but not post or comment on the threads of others was quite frustrating. I guess some people thought I had just disappeared....

Many of those books were shipped from Holland to Beijing, China, first over a period of 15 years. Shipping from Beijing to Nanning over a distance of 2,800 km was not that expensive. They picked them up from my apartment (carrying them down over the stairs from the sixth floor) and delivered them into my apartment in the south at an expense of 950 US dollars.

I've missed your reviews. I hope you are able to stay connected.

Thanks, Colleen. I am considering a VPN. It has also been said Google may return to business in China, some time in the spring. That might solve the problem.

001. The arches of the years
Finished reading: 4 January 2016



The Arches of the Years was published in 1932, when its author, Halliday Sutherland was 50 years old. It was a best-seller in 1933. Sutherland was a medical doctor and successful author. In his youth he wrote three books in the field of medicine, about birth control and tuberculosis, culminating in the Tuberculin Handbook, published in 1936. In his later years, the 1930s and 40s he wrote several travelogues, about travels to Spain, Ireland, Lapland and the home countries.

The Arches of the Years is a memoir which describes his youth in rural Scotland at the turn of the century: beautiful descriptions of nature and the people with the nostalgic touch of the glance over the shoulder at a world that no longer existed. The writing style of Sutherland reminds of the novels of Hugh Walpole, that popular author of the Edwardian period. Sutherland describes how as a teenager his was lazy at school and his father sent him to relatives in Spain to prepare for his examinations. These descriptions are colourful and full of Spanish caprice as the young Sutherland struggles to learn his first words in Spanish, a lively stay of three months which created a lifelong interest in Spain and successfully prepared him for his examinations, back in Scotland.

The middle section of The Arches of the Years is dedicated to Sutherland's second, longer stay in Spain, as a young man in his mid-twenties. It describes life in Spain at that time, around 1907, and gives very detailed descriptions of the ceremony, rituals and traditions of Spanish bullfighting. The last part of the book describes the author's time in the navy during the First World War, relating various anecdotes and adventures and dangers of the submarine war, and lifting the veil on a German invasion of Britain in 1917.

Halliday Sutherland is quaintly old-fashioned, and some of his jokes are no longer that funny. Incidentally, The Arches of the Years was published in the same year as Death in the Afternoon by Ernest Hemingway, and both books describe the Spanish bullfight traditions in a very similar way; Sutherland as a 25-year old in about 1907 and Hemingway two decades later in 1929, aged 30. Born in 1899, Hemingway was 17 younger than Halliday Sutherland. However, written at about the same time, and published in the same year, 1932, Hemingway's prose has held up much better than Sutherland's.

The Arches of the Years is perhaps still of interest to readers who enjoy the style of Edwardian prose, and might like to read about Spain and bullfighting during that period, and an adventurous episode of the naval experience of the Great War.

002. The Cambridge Companion to Laurence Sterne
Finished reading: 4 January 2016



As I often reassure my students, much academic writing is often written in a poor style, that makes your thoughts wander and your eyes droopy, no matter how interested you are in the subject matter at hand. It is much the same with The Cambridge Companion to Laurence Sterne, a collection of 12 essays in just under 200 pages.

Laurence Sterne's output was quite limited. Born in 1713, Laurence Sterne lived in near obscurity until 1760, when he was catapulted into celebrity from being an obscure parson with the publication of Tristram Shandy. Unfortunately, at that point, Sterne had barely eight years more to live. He spent seven years enjoying his fame in the London literary circles, while completing a total of nine installments of The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman.



The final year of his life, 1768, saw the publication of his other work which achieved the status of a classic, viz. A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy. Very few other works remain in the legacy of Sterne, mostly forgotten or read by afficionados and experts alone. They are rather political, such as A Political Romance or consist letter and sermons, published between 1747 and 1759.

The merit of The Cambridge Companion to Laurence Sterne is that it places Sterne very well in his time, describing the cultural background and literary scene of the middle of the 18th century. However, these descriptions introduce a large number of authors even more obscure than Sterne, which may provide clarifying background to specialized readers, but is dazzling to lay readers. Many of the essays are basically too detailed for the casual reader who wishes to understand Laurence Sterne a bit better. Ironically, reading the essays, one gets the feeling that there is not much to say about Sterne himself. This impression is strengthened by the fact that the volume as a whole counts barely 200 pages, while it contains many illustrations. In fact, one of the chapters is dedicated to images through the ages depicting Sterne's novels, and consists of many full-page B/W illustrations.

The Cambridge Companion to Laurence Sterne provides a lot of detailed and in-depth information about the man, his work and his times, but is written in a dry, academic style that makes reading less than a pleasure.

003. Breach of trust. Truth, morality and politics
Finished reading: 4 January 2016



Breach of trust. Truth, morality and politics was published in 2004 as a book-length essay (80 pages) in the series as "Quarterly Essay" (Nº 16). As a philosopher and, at that time, Professor of Moral Philosophy, one would expect Gaita to be foremostly eminent in writing a critical essay on the aftermath of 9/11 and the war in Iraq that was then taking shape as one of the consequences of the tense situation that was created since the attacks on the Western world in 2001.

Up until 2002, Raimond Gaita had published five books about moral philosophy and some biographical work. From 2003, he has concentrated on reflection on the good and evil of the tension as it has arisen during the first decade of the 21st century, beginning with the volume Why the War Was Wrong to which Gaita contributed as one of its editors. Breach of trust. Truth, morality and politics seems to be an afterthought to that book. After this, it took Gaita another six years to publish Gaza: Morality, Law and Politics and Essays on Muslims and Multiculturalism both of which published as an editor. The latter two place the discussion in a much broader context that it deserves, as the violence in the Middle East, though up till 2001 apparently localized and limited to the region, has been simmering since the end of World War I.

Unfortunately, while critical of the then-Prime Minister of the UK, Tony Blair, Breach of trust. Truth, morality and politics is still a rather superficial essay, caught up in the anger of the time, and the indignation vis-a-vis Western politician to launch an unjust war in Iraq on false grounds. The essay is mostly descriptive, involving little insight on in-depth reflection. There are a few moments where the author does attempt fitting the discussion into a deeper sense of a moral, not necessarily Christian perspective, but these passages are puzzling, and do not relate well to the overall quality of the essay. As it stands, the essay remains superficial, and dated, providing little insight of worth to understanding anything of what has come to dominate our times, that found its origins in the previous century and is an ongoing source of conflict and grief.

004. Ik ben een hand
Finished reading: 4 January 2016



Harry Platteel (1920 -1991) was a Dutch author, who was mainly active during the 1960s and 70s, and whose published works appeared between 1962 and 1983. The novel Ik ben een hand (Engl: "I am a hand") appeared in 1967.

At the beginning of the novel Ik ben een hand, its main character, a young women who remains unnamed has a conflict with her parents. During a trip to Rome she abandons the travel group and remains behind, while the others travel back to the Netherlands. With little money in her pocket, she survives in Rome for a few days, and then wanders to the outskirts of the city where she is found and taken in by a project developer. Dirty, tired and cold, she needs a shower, after which they make love. The real estate developer appoints her as a type of secretary, letting her stay in the model apartment, to receive and tour potential buyers. In her free time, she wanders around, and coyly enjoys various sexual escapades and fantasies with men she meets in the woods around the estate. She speaks Italian reasonably well to get bye, and delude a group of boisterous young Dutch students at a camping to believe she is Italian, or at least, not Dutch. Trouble arises when her "boy friend" - the real estate developer is suspected of having murdered his wife, and no longer able to stay in the model apartment she moves to a cheap hostel in another suburb of Rome.

The novel has a number of characteristics of Dutch literature of the period. Starting with the typical rebellion with the parents over (sexual) freedom, the main character pursues a life of such sexual freedom in Rome, far from the oversight of her parents. Early in the novel, it has been suggested that she is perhaps somewhat mentally challenged, and the title, "I am a hand" suggests that she is less cerebral and more practical. More than once, in her owm mind as well as in the way she perceives men's ideas about her, she compares her behaviour to that of a prostitute; the Italian men in the novel take quite more naturally to the adultary nature of her sexual expressiveness than the boisterous Dutch students. Still, her life of abandon and freedom teeters on the brink of danger of rape and murder, which she narrowly escapes, and is limited by the need for money (prostituting herself does cross her mind). The novel does not really develop, and, set in Rome, is of no specific interest to understanding the 1960s in the Netherlands.

Although Harry Platteel published 12 books during his lifetime, he is a very obscure and all but forgotten author.

So glad to see you back again. I knew you would turn up sooner or later, but it's good that it was sooner.

Sorry about such limited access. I look forward to whatever you're able to post.

So good to know that you are still with us Edwin.

The Arches of the years looks like a good book to stumble upon. I have to admit to being caught up in the bullfighting thing when I was in Spain in the 1970's and Hemingway's book is written as a real fan of the spectacle. (oops nearly called it a sport)

Unlucky with your other reads so far. I am not an admirer of Tristram Shandy and so would not be tempted by The Cambridge companion volume.

Happy to see you here again this year, Edwin. I do hope your Internet problems are resolved eventually. Your reviews always pique my interest.

Thanks, Sassy. It might only till the end of February, as I expect I won't be able to get back on in Beijing, unless I find another solution.

I've never seen a corrida for real, but I enjoyed watching the Spanish channel before moving to China. I found The arches of the years in a Chinese second-hand bookshop. It is a first edition, and it is obvious the book has been in China since the early 1930s, although it is in very good condition (though missing the dust cover).

Generally, I do not lik the Cambridge Companions very much. I think you were very lucky to find the Cambridge Companion to Albert Camus so useful. I have, or actually, I had about 30 vols., about 10 original editions and 20 vols. in a Chinese re-issued, and much cheaper edition. But in my vigorous sorting out before moving operation, I decided to leave most of the re-ssued edition behind in Beijing.

Thanks, Suzanne and MJ. I hope I can keep coming back.

enjoyed your comments on Laurence Sterne. Nice to hear from you, Edwin. Wish you well with the firewall issues.

Ditto what the others have said in saying it's nice to see you back around the group. Although we don't really read the same books I always enjoy your insightful commentary.

Although Japan doesn't have firewall issues like China, I invested in a VPN (50 dollars for a year) so that I can access American Hulu and Netflix and other US-based websites and it's fantastic. I highly recommend doing the same.

Welcome back, Edwin. Great reviews as always; I'll keep my eye out for The Arches of the Years.

>Thanks, Daniel, Lily and Darryl for your warming reactions.

Yes, Lily. I have looked into taking a VPN. I lost LT around mid-November, and expected I would be able to get on line here in Nanning, so I did not immediately take action. A VPN probably has additional benefits, as you have.

Hi edwin. When I was in Nanning 3 years ago, I distinctly remember trying to access LT but couldn't at any time during my more than a week's stay there. That brief experience with no access to my favourite websites caused anxiety issues for me, as it did in a few other places I traveled to later, with internet restrictions. I'm glad that you're not encountering any major problems with access there now, at least not, it seems, in Nanning.

Looking forward to your reading year.

005. Vera
Finished reading: 13 January 2016



When Jan Siebelink broke through to a larger audience in 2005 with Knielen op een bed violen, it was with a book he had feared to write. This autobiographical novel describes the ultimate horror of his father's religious obsession in a fundamentalist Christian branch of the reformed church. However, this turned out not to pose the obstacle he feared, and the novel brought him broad popularity.

In Vera, published in 1997, the father-in-law of the main character, Vera Melchers belongs to this same Christian church, but as a minor character in the book, the religious theme remains obscure. As in other novels by Siebelink, the relations between people as seen and developing over a life-long period are the main focus.

The novel Vera begins with a chapter that casts a peculiar light on Vera. In it she is seen flirting, but ultimately rejecting a sales manager.

Marital happiness cannot be captured and kept at any particular moment of marriage. Staying together for a life-time, people bring their peculiarities into matrimony, and these characteristics must be endured. Happiness also depends on one's own desires and expectations, which over time tend to change. The compex web of balance in interhuman relations in experienced in this novel. As the entire novel is written from the perspective of Vera Melchers, it is her quest for happiness.

The first part of the novel describes the tension in the marriage of her parents; her mother is perceived as suffering under the neglect by her father, but later in the novel, as Vera becomes more attached to he father, the mother having passed away early, this perspective is challenged. The behavior of the father may well have been the result rather than the cause of the mother's behavior. Throughout the novel, their is envy and spite towards Vera's sister, Suze. But here again, the relation is only seen through Vera's eyes. She cannot accept the life choices of her sister, which are certainly less conventional, if not more adventurous than her own.

Vera enjoys an almost perfect marriage, with a husband who remains devoted to her throughout their lives. Vera's flirtation and affairs with other men are escapades for which she bears full responsibility. Fortunately, although obsessively jealous, her husband remains faithful. When Vera's daughter develops an eating disorder, other than the eating disorder of Vera's mother, she cannot but wonder whether it is her fault. Tension in her professional work relations stems from the same tug and push between desires and expectations

Vera is a longish novel, with very little action. However, the novel requires this lenghth to offer sufficient space for the natural development of the dynamic in human relations. The novel is carefully composed with sufficient drama to be recognizable, without becoming melodramatic. The psychological problems and the tensions between the characters are real, but not excessive, preventing a breakdown of the story. Vera is neither a particularly likeable nor unsympathetic character. A nicely balanced story.



Other books I have read by Jan Siebelink:
Knielen op een bed violen
Engelen van het duister

006. POPism. The Warhol Sixties
Finished reading: 15 January 2016



Pat Hackett was Andy Warhol's secretary throughout the 1970s and 80s, but her role encompassed more than that label suggests. For instance, in the case of the Diaries, she wrote the manuscript based on her memory of conversations with Warhol and edited the manuscript into publishable form. Hackett is also listed as coauthor on POPism. The Warhol Sixties.

Unlike the Diaries, POPism. The Warhol Sixties is a very readable book. The Diaries cover the period 1977 - 1987, which was artistically a less interesting period in Warhol's life. On the other hand, POPism. The Warhol Sixties covers the 1960s, the decade which saw Andy Warhol rise from an unknown to a world-renowned artist.

POPism. The Warhol Sixties is written in a very lively, enervating style. Regardless of whether you are specifically interested in Andy Warhol, the book is recommended to any reader who is interested to experience the very positive atmosphere of the 1960s. The landmark achievements in Warhol's artistic career are mentioned, but the book is devoid of technical details of art production. Neither does Warhol talk about money, although between the lines one can read that his fame was established very fast, and he must have made or been closely associated with a lot of it. At the beginning of the book, there is talk of walking on old shoes, while towards the end of it Warhol is described only as getting into and alighting from limousines, and the casual mention of buying "a pound of caviar".

POPism. The Warhol Sixties is essentially a book of people, and the only thing that can be said against the book is that it comes very close to name-dropping. However, the overall style of the book is so positive and powerful that the book does not notably suffer.

Read the book to relive that period, and if you are interested in Andy Warhol, then POPism. The Warhol Sixties is a very good place to start.



Other books I have read by Andy Warhol:
The Andy Warhol diaries
America

007. The third chimpanzee. The evolution and future of the human animal
Finished reading: 16 January 2016



Non-fiction often has a limited shelf life. After about 20 years, much of the science and data upon which that science is developed is out-dated. New data and new science make such older books obsolete, or at least of lesser interest. The third chimpanzee. The evolution and future of the human animal was originally published in 1992. It's reissue, in 2006, following the success of Jared Diamond's book Collapse. How societies choose to fail or succeed, almost 15 years later, was justified, also because of the help the book could offer at better understanding the new book. But reading The third chimpanzee. The evolution and future of the human animal now, in 2016, almost 25 years after original publication, makes it clear the the book not a classic, and much of its thesis is outdated.

The third chimpanzee. The evolution and future of the human animal is very much a book of the pessimistic 1970s and 1980s, a period in which people believed that the desctruction of the world and the end of the human race by nuclear obliteration was imminent. The structure of the book, as also the title suggest, reflects this belief. The book aims to describe the beginnings of mankind and its end.

Describing the evolution and devlopment of humanity on such a large scale also means that the book is not much more than a primer, and the author must be a mere layman in many of the field he touches upon in the book. Chapters about the prehistory of man, evolutionary biology and the development of language are superficial and sketchy. Particularly the chapters about the devlopment of modern man out of a succession of generations of hominids now shows the weakness of the book, in that many new discoveries leading to new insight have been made over the past 25 years. The portrayal of Neaderthal man in the book by Diamond is still very much the image of the uncultured brute that circulated in the 1980s. New finds or evidence that Neanderthals had a sense of artistic expression are not evidenced in the book. New DNA research also clearly establishes the presence of Neanderthal DNA in the DNA of modern man. Diamond's conclusions that interbreeding between Homo sapiens and Neanderthal man is unlikely because no fossil remains of such offspring have been found is simply an argument that is too weak.

The third chimpanzee. The evolution and future of the human animal is now merely of interest for some snippets of information and facts which may startle, less than develop real insight. For example, the closeness of man to chimpanzee is cleverly demonstrated, although the evidence leans heavily on the importance of quantity rather than quality of difference.

Just caught up with you. Enjoying all your reviews.

I'm intrigued by the Warhol book. We were thoroughly fascinated by the Warhold museum in Pittsburgh a couple of years ago.

Good luck with your internet access.

>23 edwinbcn: How can it be I have missed Vera until now? I didn't know of its existence, while I loved Knielen op een bed violen and the novelle Ereprijs, also by Siebelink. Your review makes me want to read it rather sooner than later. Thanks!

I just found your thread after being away, and am glad you're back, firewall or not.

I think Siebelink is the kind of author that grows on you. Vera is not as extreme as Knielen opn een bed violen. Still, Siebelink's style comes through very clearly. Another thing that is nice, is that it is very clearly set in The Hague.

Ah! the sixties. So glad I was alive then. I have noted POPism: The Warhol sixties

Very nice reviews, Edwin. POPism sounds particularly interesting, so I'll keep my eye out for it.

008. Cider voor arme mensen
Finished reading: 23 January 2016



Cider voor arme mensen (Engl. "Cider for poor people") is a novel by the Dutch author Hella S. Haasse. It was published in 1960. Most of Haasse's novels are either historical novels, situated in the Netherlands, France or Italy, or (historical) novels about former Dutch India, now Indonesia. Cider voor arme mensen does not fall in these categories, although the story does take place in France.

Cider voor arme mensen is a finely crafted novel. The story develops as a Dutch couple, on vacation in France, is stranded in the French countryside, in the middle of nowhere, after their car has broken down in a thunderstorm. At the end of the novel, as the car has been repaired, and they are on their way again, dark clouds gather, and the novel ends as they drive into a new thunderstorm. Thus, the action of the story takes place, as it were, in the eye of the storm, the quiet moment between two thunderstorms.

Marta and Reinier have been literally stranded in the middle of nowhere. As Marta discovers over the following days, the nearest farm, where they can spend the night, belongs to a castle estate, which is situated a few kilometres from the nearest village. The castle is situated in garden grounds within a small forest. The eccentric lord of the manor is only once per year in residence, upon which occasion tenants are obliged to participate in festivities organized at the castle estate. While the tenants live in deep poverty, the castle is a treasure house. When Marta walks in through the garden, she is overwhelmed by its riches and beauty. It feels as if she is in a dream. The experience opens her eyes to a different reality.

Martha has lived in the dream, believing that Reinier will separate from his wife Sophia, to stay with her, but it gradually dawns on her that Reinier is faithful in heart to his wife, while he keeps Martha on his side. While it seems Reinier betrays Sophie with Martha, he actually betrays Martha by speaking out against her to her employer. As a result, Martha loses her job. Reinier justifies this betrayal with his orientation for objectivity. Since he already has a love affair with Martha, he feels he cannot protect her without compromising his professional integrity. Thus Reinier doubly betrays Martha.

Martha is described as driven by idealism. The dilemma created at her work has arisen because she invited people who were progressive and part of the resistance during World War II, to give lectures or work for the Nieuws Centrum she works for. However, the politically more conservative management does not welcome her leftish orientation. By siding with the management of the Nieuws Centrum, Reinier also betrays Martha ideologically.

Throughout their short stay, the people on the farm remain suspicious about Martha and Reinier. Towards the end, they do not charge them any repair cost, but in return ask them to give their son a lift to Paris. Before leaving the farm, the farmer's wife gives Martha her recipe for surrogate cider. Martha has picked up that the boy is a Communist and is looked for by the police. They take the boy, but once on their way, Reinier protests. In an unobserved moment, the boy slips out of the car, and disappears.

Reinier's love for Martha is but a cheap surrogate, the lowest and cheapest substitute for the real thing. As cider is but a surrogate for champagne, surrogate cider stands at the lowest rung.

Cider voor arme mensen is a short, but very beautiful novel.



Other books I have read by Hella S. Haasse:
Het dieptelood van de herinnering
Transit
Een gevaarlijke verhouding, of Daal-en-Bergse brieven
Een doolhof van relaties
De Meester van de Neerdaling
Een nieuwer testament
Berichten van het Blauwe Huis
De tuinen van Bomarzo
Oeroeg
De verborgen bron
Zwanen schieten

I remember that you visited Nanning for a conference. You stayed in the hotel where I usually go swimming in summer.

It is not clear why I have access to LT in Nanning. Either Nanning is less strict with banning web content, or, possibly, my overall Internet access and speed in Nanning is higher than in Beijing.

I will try to keep posting.

Yes, you indeed mentioned that. Did you know that that hotel has quite a history? Or at least their conference building? It was very interesting to discover that it was the venue for a CP top brass meeting in the 1950s for one of the earliest 5-year economic plans (the Great Leap). A meeting room we were using was even the actual room where the great names met. None of us actually knew that but found out only when we noticed later the smallish photo on the side of the room's door, and a tiny plaque on the tree outside mentioning the event (I was imagining those mighty men gathered around it and nearby during their cigarette break).

009. The country diaries. A year in the British countryside
Finished reading: 26 January 2016



The country diaries. A year in the British countryside is an anthology of diary writing with special focus on the British countryside. Although the idea is very appealing, the resulting book is aenemic and of little interest.

In The country diaries. A year in the British countryside, Alan Taylor, editor of the Scottish Review of Books, brings together fragments from diaries of 81 different British authors, from the early and mid-1700s till the present day. The book itself also has the structure of a diary. There are entries for every day, and every month, throughout the year. Some entries are very short, a matter of lines, while other entries take up more than a page. For some days, only one (short) entry is given, while for other days, multiple entries are given by different authors from different times in history.

In the introduction, Taylor explains why the book was written. As an editor, Alan F. Taylor has copiled at least two other anthologies of this type: The Assassin's Cloak: An Anthology of the World's Greatest Diarists and The Secret Annexe: An Anthology of the World's Greatest War Diarists. Having grown up in the countryside near Edinburgh, Mr Taylor has a strong feeling for the countyside and the assault on the countryside by project developers, urbanization, and the decline of farming as a profession, threatening the countryside as we know it are some of his concerns.

The introduction does not explain how Mr Taylor compiled the book, or what his considerations were in selecting fragments. From reading an initial 50 to 80 pages into the book, it quickly becomes clear that all major diarists known for writing about the countryside are represented, notably Dorothy Wordsworth and Gilbert White. Less well-known diarists, whose diaries were only published during the past two decades, such as Denton Welch and John Fowles are also presented. These were all writers, and they particularly wrote about the natural beauty of the British countryside. However, with a total number of 81 different diarists, and many of these having only one or two entries, one wonders what other criteria the editor had.

It is likely the editor compiled a list of key words for the countryside, and it seems his list must have included words such as animals, life and death, hunting, natural history, etc. Whether or not the word "farming" was included is not very clear. Perhaps British farmers did not write diaries, at least they seem to be underrepresented. Among the contemporary writers, Mr Taylor has selected several authors who have tried to protect the British countryside. It is obvious that some of his choices, as could also be seen from the introduction, are political rather than literary or aesthetic.

There are diarists from the last four centuries. James Woodforde (1740 - 1803) was a vicar and many of his diary entries are about burials. Siegfried Sassoon is often selected to write about hunting. Various farm animals make their appearances, sheep, horses, cows, etc. and of wilde life particularly hearing the cuckoo or chiffchaff in spring, or finding spiders in the bathroom gives the quitessential feeling of life in the countryside.

However, The country diaries. A year in the British countryside is not very enticing. Thoughts wander while reading, and the book seems to make little sense. Usually, a diary gives a sense of place or a sense of personality, or both, but this book is too fragmented. Paradoxically, the British countryside is not any particular place, and the choice of fragments by so many authors over a period of 400 years, means there is no particular period of reference. No unity of place, and no unity of time.

On the other hand, The country diaries. A year in the British countryside introduces many different authors and their diary writing to the reader. At the end of the book, the book includes a list of short biographies for each diarist, a bibliography to locate editions of their published diaries, and a register, to look up entries for each author in this volume.

010. The shelf
Finished reading: 28 January 2016



The shelf is a short novel by by the British novelist Kay Dick. Published in 1984, the novel looks back at a time in the 1960s, a retrospective look full of nostalgia and regret. The beginning of the novel is a bit difficult, as many characters are introduced, but after a few pages the main characters and their relations become quite clear. Cassandra, Cass, is in love with Anne, and tells Sophia how this relationship came about and developed. Anne has had an unhappy marriage before, and is married to Maurice, who has no sexual interest in her. Much of the tension in the novel arises from Cass's misreading of the relationships around her, or the inability of Anne to see what other things are possible. It is not entirely clear whether Anne is bisexual. Towards the end of the novel she elopes with a man, and the final part of the novel consists in piecing together how Anne spent her last hours. "The shelf" in the title refers to the repository in the coroner’s office where two of Cassandra’s letters to Anne and an unposted letter found in Anne’s handbag are lodged.

>35 edwinbcn: That sounds disappointing. Were there any diarists whom you felt tempted to read further?

I don't think I want to read The Country Diaries

>37 SassyLassy:, 38

You picked up the right vibe from my review. I have The Country Diaries 3.5 stars, but al a whole I considered giving it only 2.5 stars.

It is a very disappointing book, and indeed, I wasn't tempted to read any new diarists after reading the book, i.e. diarists introduced by the book. This is not the fault of the diarists, but the fault of the book; just as I wrote in my review, the book is so fragmented that you cannot develop a connection with a place or any diarist in particular. Even the big names, Wordsworth, and Gilbert do not shine.

011. Eleven years in China--and counting
Finished reading: 30 January 2016



Particularly since 2002, Lisa Carducci has written an impressive list of works. Born in Montréal, Canada, of Italian origin, fluent in Italian, French, and English, and being one of the exceptionally few honorary recipients of permanent Chinese residency, it is hard to decide whether to classify Carducci as a Canadian, an Italian or a Chinese author.

Lisa Carducci is active as a poet, novelist, journalist and translator. When she established herself in China, in 1991, she already had several publications, poetry and short stories to her name, and had worked as a journalist. Her earliest visists to China dated back to 1985 and 1989. Initially, she taught at a university, but soon switched to working for the Chinese media, particularly the international broadcasts on Chinese radio and TV, and later for the magazine Beijing Information. Her poetry was awarded several literary prices in Canada, Italy and France, while her recent translations from Chinese have also received awards.

Her earliest works consist of novels, short stories and poetry, published by various publishers in Montréal, Canada. In 1985, she published Nouvelles en couleurs ( Éditions de la Marquise) and Les Héliotropes (Editions Elcée). Four years later, in 1989, two volumes of French poetry, La Dernière fois (Écrits des forges) and Cris et palpitations (Humanitas-nouvelle optique) followed by a volume of poetry in Italian, L'Ultima Fede ( Lalli Editore) in 1990. In China, she continued to regularly write and publish poetry in these langauges and started translating, at first from Italian into French. In 1994, she published a first collection of short stories inspired by living in China: À l'encre de Chine - nouvelles. Lisa Carducci is a very productive author with one or two publications every year.

China throughout the 1990s was a very different country from the way most people know China now through the media. On the whole, China was much poorer, and much more foreign. Apart form foreign correspondents and visitors, Lisa Carducci has had the unique perspective of living long term in China throughout this exceptional decade and recording what she experienced and saw. This resulted in La Chine, telle que je la vis published in 1998, and subsequently published in many other languages, and Correspondance de Beijing, 1991-1997, published in 2000.

Carducci's earliest book publications in China to reach a larger audience appear to have started from columns she wrote for the media she worked at. They resulted in Talking about China and Eleven years in China--and counting. These books were published by the Foreign Languages Press.

A selection of such essays and columns, published in the English-language newspaper China Daily between 1993 and 2000, appeared in book form, bi-lingually in English and Chinese, in 2001, under the title Talking about China.

Talking about China contains 29 columns about specific aspects of Chinese culture and customs which may surprise foreign visitors or expats. Carducci's essays show that China has changed considerably over the past two decades, although most of her observations are still valid. Upon the book publication, Chinese translations of all essays were added, to interest Chinese readers in the experiences of foreigners in China.

Eleven years in China--and counting is a monolingual book, which describes all aspects of living in China throughout the 1990s from the of a foreigner. The book is structured around topics and key words, which are arranged into chapters with headings such as "Daily Life", "Festivities and Traditions", "Transportation", "Work and Housing", etc. Although first published 14 years ago, most of the descriptive parts of the text are still very current. China has not changed that much in essence. Eleven years in China--and counting could very well serve as a first guide to survival for any newcomer to China, and much of what Mrs Carducci experienced during her apprenticeship is still current. Of course, the book also records some of the inevitable changed, the disappearance of the system of "Foreign Exchange Certificates" and the rise of the market economy.

It is obvious that Mrs Carducci believes in China. In earlier decades she would be labeled a "fellow-traveller". There are two sides to this quality of the book. First of all, to get anything published in China by a Chinese publisher, the content cannot be too negative. This does not mean that the book should be all flattery. It also depends on the medium. Censorship in massmedia is obviously stronger than in print media, and the degree of censorship is also determined by the intended audience. Talking about China appeared in a bi-lingual, English and Chinese, edition, but the monolingual edition of Eleven years in China--and counting much more suggest an international readership of foreigners, likely in China. Besides, the perceived difficulty of reading such a book in English suggests that Chinese readers who can master reading at that level are likely very well-educated, and hence less vulnerable. By the way, Eleven years in China--and counting does not read as a very uncritical book. Mrs Carducci has her pet peeves and is given room to rant. She is very critical about Chinese education, and critical about a large number of other issues as well. Surely she must have fought for the inclusion of a number of her views, a fight which can only be won if the issues tend to have more the hue of facts rather than mere opinions. After all, Eleven years in China--and counting is largely a book of experience and observations with a personal touch.

The other side is that Lisa Carducci had already established pedigree in China. Known as a respected author and journalist with a long career working in the Chinese state media, she would be more trusted by a Chinese publisher than other authors, and she would be more respected in her defense of her manuscript. A relatively weak point about the book is that the author includes a lot of statistics in a very uncritical way. There is never any source given for these statistics, they are presumably from Chinese newspapers or magazines. Mrs Carducci should know, as most Chinese people would know, that these statistics are likely unreliable. Therefore, particularly in this context they do not lend the book greater reliability.

The chapter about Tibet in a real abberation. This chapter is far too overwrought with emotion, blatant propaganda, and altogether does not fit in this book. The peculiar nature of this chapter is emphasized by the fact that it includes more than a full page (p. 215-216) of suggestions for further reading, consisting of a list of websites and a list of books. Other chapters do not contain such lists.

Talking about China and Eleven years in China--and counting are Mrs Carducci's first two publications with the Foreign Languages Press. Both books can provide a lot of practical information, but they are probably not her best books.

Interesting to read your reviews of Lisa Carducci's books as you are another Westerner living and working in China and have done so for some time I believe. Perhaps you have a different view on some issues because you do not spend all your time in China and you give the impression that Mrs Carducci has become more inculcated into the culture.

Member since: Feb 21, 2007

Next week will be my ninth thingaversary....

Happy Thinga, Edwin. Are you going to splurge on books?

>No, Colleen. No splurging on books. I have far too many books, already.

Last year, I only bought 30 books; this year, so far, I bought only 1.

The counter of my TBR now stands as 3991 books. For the sake of domestic harmony, this figure should go down, rather than up.

012. Oscar's books
Finished reading: 31 January 2016



Thomas Wright has accomplished quite a remarkable feat writing a book of close to 400 pages about the books owned and read by Oscar Wilde. Reamarkable, because not that much is known about Wilde's reading, and very little research had been conducted in that area. As the Legacy Library project at LibraryThing shows, there is considerable interest in knowing what great authors read or had in their libraries. Obvuously, as will also be relevant in the case of Oscar Wilde, owning, perusing and reading are quite different actions. Some historical figures compiled notebooks recording what books they finished reading, but no such record is available about Wilde's reading.

Oscar's books is a not merely a bibliography. Rather, it is a biography of Oscar Wilde with particular interest in the books he (may have) read, bought, collected, and, wrote. Actually, there is not much about the books he wrote. Oscar's books really focuses on the books Wilde read or may have possessed.

Spending his youth in the third quarter of the Nineteenth century, much is made of story telling, and listening to stories being told, whether from literary sources or an oral tradition. Young Oscar Wilde grew up in Ireland, and throughout his life, he remained interested in the fairytales of his ancestral homeland. Later in the book, Wilde received the then young W.B. Yeats as a visitor to his home in London. The chapters describing Wilde's youth suggest which books his mother read to him and which books were present in their home, some of which he would treasure after his tragic downfall, as he returned to his mother's home after finishing his prison sentence. Books read at that time include fairytales and the novels by Disraeli.

Oscar Wilde was not particularly careful with books. It was essential for him to own copies of books, so that he could write in them, making notes and comments in the margins. In later life, while writing essays and books, he would also apply the scissors or simply tear out pages to collect pieces he needed. Careful study of the marginalia shows that Wilde literally devoured books and used books intensively in authoring his own work. In the afterword, Wright describes some of the copies owned by Wilde and how study of the marginalia helped understand Wilde's ways of working. However, very few of the copies of books owned by Wilde have survived or are available for study.

At Oxford, Wilde read the classics, and particularly Benjamin Jowett's "The Dialogues of Plato became one of Wilde's golden books (p. 85). Here his interest in reading Plato and other greek authors is outlined, and Wilde's developing interest in Greek culture. One of the most important books, to influence him lifelong, was Walter Pater's The Renaissance.

Thomas Wright goes some way to describe the cultural history of the significance of "the library" in a Victorian gentleman's home, and describes what Oscar Wilde's library may have looked like. Here, Wilde withdrew to find peace and quiet and enjoy his books. Much is made of Wilde's aesthetic enjoyment of books, and the material features of finely printed books of the last two decades of the Nineteenth century. Various chapters describe which books he owned and at which time he may have bought them, linking their content and authorship to literary figures Wilde encountered at that time and the use of the books in his own work as sources of inspiration.

In the late 1880s and early 1890s, Wilde's interest extended to collecting Uranian poetry,a term used to indicate poetry of more or less open homosexual nature. Oscar's books describes how Wilde obtained these books, either as gifts from their authors of through bookshops and publishers. Part of Wilde's days were filled with visiting bookshops and maintining close contact with booksellers and publishers.

Subsequent chapters describe the libel court case, which Oscar Wilde lost and which ruined him. His possessions including his library were auctioned off. No catalogue survives or ever existed, and some of the books were bought by his friends. Some of these books are noew owned by university libraries in the United States.

Imprisonment with hard labour for two years effectively meant a death sentence, as it was known at that time that most gentleman of the upper classes had but a limited time to survive after completion of such imprisonment. The terms of Wilde's imprisonment were gradually eased and he was allowed to request purchase of books. The lists with his requests have been preserved and show which books Wilde certainly read in prison. Upon his release, Wilde stayed for a while with his mother, before moving to the European continent.

Oscar's books is a touching and dramatic biography of Oscar Wilde that describes in detail which books Oscar Wilde owned and read during his lifetime, and how these books shaped his work and his fate.

013. Ancient gonzo wisdom. Interviews with Hunter S. Thompson
Finished reading: 1 February 2016



In Ancient gonzo wisdom. Interviews with Hunter S. Thompson, Anita Thompson has collected all interviews given by Hunter S. Thompson. Anita Thompson started working for Hunter S. Thompson as his assistant in 1999, and a four years later they got married. Hunter S. Thompson commited suicide in 2005.

Ancient gonzo wisdom. Interviews with Hunter S. Thompson collects a lot of material. Is encompasses all written and published interviews from magazines, such as Playboy, The Paris Review, and Esquire and the transcripts all all radio interviews. Some of the interviews are long, but there are also many short, or even very short interviews of just one or two pages. The book is a quite cumbersome read, and contains a lot of repetition. Some interviews are almost identical, as interviewers would come up with more of less the same questions, and Thompson provides more or less the same answers.

Hunter S. Thompson expresses several times that he never expected to live to such a high age. When he commited suicide, he was 67 years old. His lifestyle was characterised by recklessness, insanity and the use of drugs, alcohol and violence. Thomson's most famous book, Hell's Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs is a fictionalized description of the Hell's Angels. To gather material for this book, Thompson lived and rode with the Angels for a year. Obviously, not just any person would fit into the subculture of the Hell's Angels. The post-humously published, short novel, The Rum Diary describes Thompson's struggling early years as a writer, in a somewhat seedy expat environment. Thompson's life early on was "on the wild side". Still, while classified as belonging to 1960s counter-culture, his work is not affiliated to the Beat Generation.

In 1966, the year Hell's Angels was published, the genre of the non-fiction novel was brand new. The genre came into existence during the preceding decade, while Truman Capote's novel In Cold Blood, published in 1965, is its most well-known example. With Hell's Angels Hunter S. Thompson is identified as having initiated the genre of Gonzo journalism, i.e. the style of news reporting that allows for fictional elements, without the attempt of objectivity.

1965/66 was not the time the Hells Angels emerged, but it was a moment the club achieved notoriety. In fact, at that time, the Hells Angels were not the only organized band, that was characterized by a sub-culture and cult of violence. However, the Hells Angels, through their high degree of organization, and the luck of having been led by a number of smart people, and their ability to tie in with contemporary Beat-culture, outlasted most of the other gangs and clubs.

Ancient gonzo wisdom. Interviews with Hunter S. Thompson makes very clear that Thompson's year with the Hell's Angels was not an under-cover operation. The Angels knew he was a journalist, and they knew he was there to collect materials to write a book about them. Many of the interviews ask about this period in his life and the way the book about the Hell's Angels was written.

In many of the interviews, Hunter S. Thompson's eccentricity is exemplified. Many interviews have a weird opening, at which the interviewers are weird questions, or Thompson ignores the interviewer, does not answer of gives strange answers. From the early 70s, Thompson is addressed as Dr. Thompson; this was after he attained a doctorate from a university. Obviously, later interviews mention or talk about the later books, such as Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
and Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72, but most interviews return to asking about the book Hell's Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs and the origins of Gonzo journalism.

Ancient gonzo wisdom. Interviews with Hunter S. Thompson is interesting as a primary source, to get a lively impression of the madness of Hunter S. Thompson.

014. De smaak van groene kaas
Finished reading: 2 February 2016



Alfred Kossmann died in 1998, and is already quite forgotten and obscure. The Dutch literary scene does not have publishers' series such as Penguin Classics or Modern Classics or Vintage, which might keep classics and recent literature available for a large audience. Most of Kossmann's work, during his lifetime, was published in the Reuzensalamander series (Querido's), not included in the Salamander series, which perpetuates the printing of modern literature. This means that most of his work is only available in second-hand editions.

De smaak van groene kaas is a collection of travel essays. In his later life, Kossmann became particularly fond of Greece and lived there for a few years after a car accident he suffered in 1972. In De smaak van groene kaas seven essays are collected which describe, mainly, his travels in the Mediterranean. However, the first essay is devoted to the author's hometown, Rotterdam.

Rotterdam was severely damaged during the Second World War, as it was bombed by the Nazis. It is now hard to imagine Rotterdam as a city of the same splendour as Amsterdam. In this essay about Rotterdam, Kossmann's explores how other authors from Rotterdam felt and wrote about the city.

The travel essays are very introvert prose pieces. Travel merely seems a pretext for introspection. The essays, therefore, do not really describe the landscape or foreign places, but record what the author thought or felt. His ruminations often ponder on his own life facts, or literature and his development as an author.

The seven essays in this collection seem to describe one journey, which starts in Rotterdam, then, via Amsterdam, along the Rhine, through Germany and Austria to southern France. Next stops are in Greece, Morocco, Ceuta, Spain and return to the Netherlands.

What is interesting is that even momentary impressions, such as the lights of a fleet of fishing vessels off the coast of Marseille, appear in later works, for example in the title of the short novel De wind en de lichten der schepen. Thus, De smaak van groene kaas is not just a travelogue, but more a form of autobiography, that shows how Kossmann creates connections between his past and future literary works.



Other books I have read by Alfred Kossmann:
Slecht zicht
Weerzien van een eiland
Studies in paniek
De bekering
De hondenplaag
De linkerhand
De wind en de lichten der schepen
Reislust
Hoogmoed en dronkenschap

015. De vrouwenhaters. Drie verhalen
Finished reading: 2 February 2016



Despite the fact that Alfred Kossmann was a major Dutch author, who lived from 1922 to 1998, no biography has been written about this author. There are short biographies, such as by Ter Laan, Van Bork and Van Bork & Verkruijsse in literary compendiums, but there is no trade edition biography. This means that a large part of Alfred Kossmann's work can only be understood in context, particularly in the total context of all his works. Many of his works point at other works, forming a network of connections of autobiographical significance to create meaning at an overall level. This hyper-textual nature of Kossmann's work makes it difficult to appreciate individual works.

For example, in the short, late novella, Slecht zicht, all characters are pre-occupied with their own identity, i.e. how they see themselves, but in the present and in the past, and how others see them. They are unable to fully realize themselves to former glory, and instead, characters are frozen in a state of impotence and depression. In 1972, the author suffered a car accident which crippled him, and reflections in Slecht zicht are likely autobiographical.

De vrouwenhaters. Drie verhalen was first published in 1968. Hence, the three stories in this collection likely refer to sentiments and facts in the earlier life of the author, however, with sufficient background they are hard to understand. The first of the three stories consists of three fragments describing aging authors who cannot write or maintain a publishing career. Each fragment represents an aspect of the anxiety of an author for writer's block or stagnation in their career.

The second short story describes an aged author who is dementing, and struggles to find words to communicate. Realizing that their father is dying, his children bring a final manuscript to a publisher. The manuscript contains a final novel that is pornographic and very different from the rest of the author's oevre. The dilemma arises whether to publish or not.

In the third story, the story lines of the previous two stories seem to come together, mixed with other story elements shuch as a prolonged absence from the Netherlands a the struggle for find a foorhold there again.

The second and third story are somewhat bewildering, with their focus on sado-masochism; however, according one of the autobiographical essays in De seizoenen van een invalide lezer, published in 1976, Kossmann wrote a study about sado-masochism is 1959, a fact not mentioned in the sparse biographical information available about Kossmann on the Internet.

Of course, De vrouwenhaters. Drie verhalen can be appreciated in its own right, as three stories about the obsessions and compulsions of authors, in a scene void of glamour.



Other books I have read by Alfred Kossmann:
De smaak van groene kaas
Slecht zicht
Weerzien van een eiland
Studies in paniek
De bekering
De hondenplaag
De linkerhand
De wind en de lichten der schepen
Reislust
Hoogmoed en dronkenschap

Kossmann sounds interesting - I'll look out for him. Although that isn't so easy any more, without De Slegte...

>45 edwinbcn: Wilde was at Magdalen, so Jowett wouldn't have taught him personally, although Wilde would certainly have attended his lectures. I suppose what Wright meant was that everything to do with classics in Oxford at that time was dominated by Jowett's influence. I've got a Magdalen Library calendar on my office wall, and coincidentally, the February picture is a frontispiece from a Paris edition of Salomé.

016. We have always lived in the castle
Finished reading: 3 February 2016



The best claim of We have always lived in the castle as a literary masterpiece is that it is a fairly simple story that is nonetheless far from straightforward, and keeps readers puzzled long after finished reading. There is not much of a story, and some of the action in the book is quite absurd. The sisters, Mary Katherine ('Merricat') and Constance, and their uncle Julian are somewhat unusual, but not in the extreme.

Readers who find the novel spooky or stange, are in fact on a par with the villagers in the novel, who see things that are not there. The novel presents a fine example of the suspicion of a small-town community in the United States of that time, harking back to the witch-hunt episode in Salem, but also casting long shadows into our time, as it seems a part of human nature to be attracted and repelled by the unusual, to reject it and venture to gloat and look into it. The visit of Mrs Wright and Helen Clarke is nothing very unusual, and in as far as anything looks out of the ordinary neighbours' visit, it should be remembered that the whole episode is related by Merricat who cannot be taken as a reliable narrator.

The home of the Blackwood family is not a castle, but does stand within its own grounds, somewhat removed from the village. After the fire, which destroys a large part of the house, the home is said to resemble as castle. The perceptual transformation of the house into a castle, that is to say, when it is revealed to resemble a castle after parts have burnt away, suggests that the true state of things should be looked for underneath reality.

Merricat is by far the most intriguing character in the novel. Although she is described as being 18 years old, she appears a bit younger, and the ambivalence between the ages of 15/16 and 18 casts doubt on the innocent nature of her interests in magic, or rather witch craft. For sure, she has an interest in poisonous plants, charms, and rituals to avert events. There is an element on compulsion in her actions. In a novel with relatively little action, it seems significant that the major events were precipitated by Merricat, whether consciously or unconsciously. The fire seems the result of an unconscious act, but is should be remembered that the outcome of the event is what Merricat had apparently originally hoped to achieve with that other evil act, namely to remain alone with her older sister in the home.

Highly recommended.

You are right; I have corrected the review as follows:

At Oxford, Wilde read the classics, and particularly Benjamin Jowett's "The Dialogues of Plato became one of Wilde's golden books (p. 85).

I am sure you can find copies of Kossmann's books. I think almost any 2nd-hand bookshop is sure to have some.

I do not lament the disappearance of de Slegte. They used to be unreasonably expensive, and they were the ones who used to offer the lowest prices if you tried to sell them any books.

017. De seizoenen van een invalide lezer
Finished reading: 4 February 2016



Immobilized by a crippling car accident in 1972, Dutch author Alfred Kossmann turned to even more introspective prose in De seizoenen van een invalide lezer, a collection of four essays. While prior to the accident Kossmann had been a compulsive traveller, his travels now take place in the mind, or in an arm chair. This fate is lamented by the author, and in subsequent work his deformation appears as a trauma.

The writing style of De seizoenen van een invalide lezer is similar to previous work, but, as for instance compared with De smaak van groene kaas, the physical act of travelling is substituted by reading and contemplation. What has remained is Kossmann's extensive introspection, pondering his life in past and present, making connections between his reading, his life and his work. And again, the reader can observe how impressions, this time from reading appear in future work. Thus, while translating Cavafy in the second essay Kossmann contemplates the merit of two translations of a poem by Cavafy, preferring the English translation by Rae Dalven: "perhaps arrogance and drunkenness; but no -- rather like understanding of the vanity of grandeurs" over the Dutch translation by G. H. Blanken: "hoogmoedigheid wellicht en dronkenschap; neen toch -- veeleer iets als een vol begrip van het ijdele van alle grootheid." Hoogmoed en dronkenschap would be the title of one of Kossmann's novels, published in 1981.

The four seasons in De seizoenen van een invalide lezer are Summer, Spring, Winter and Autumn, and the four essays are presented in this achronological order. In the first essay, Kossmann ponders the value of literature as a source of wisdom and experience. He balks at being immobile and bored in Wassenaar. The second essay, describes refers to the accident is a very short paragraph. the accident itself is never described: always only before and after, as if the accident is completely blacked-out. This is remarkable, because almost all of Kossmann's work brims with biographical details.

De seizoenen van een invalide lezer provide valuable biographical details that would be hard to locate, since no biography has been published about Alfred Kossmann. In several of the essays, Kossmann looks back on the publication of his first novel in 1950. This novel, De nederlaag is based on Kossmann's experience of forced labour in Heidelberg for the Nazis during the Second World War. Details described in the essays reveal how the author twisted reality into fiction.

The second essay also brings up Martelaar voor een dagdroom, twee verhalen van Leopold von Sacher-Masoch and an essay by Alfred Kossmann, published in (1962). This early essaistic work by Kossmann explains why sado-masochism often features in some of his later work, particularly in, for instance, De vrouwenhaters. Drie verhalen.

Kossmann does write about literature in these essays, notably Omar Khayyam, Malcolm Lowry's Under the Volcano and Cavafy's poetry, among many others, but as with Kossmann's previous travelogues, the backdrop is barely of interest. De seizoenen van een invalide lezer is a collection of very personal, autobiographical essays.



Other books I have read by Alfred Kossmann:
De vrouwenhaters. Drie verhalen
De smaak van groene kaas
Slecht zicht
Weerzien van een eiland
Studies in paniek
De bekering
De hondenplaag
De linkerhand
De wind en de lichten der schepen
Reislust
Hoogmoed en dronkenschap

>50 edwinbcn: Great review of We Have Always Lived in the Castle. I loved it.

>Thanks, Rebecca. I bought my copy in 2012, and that was after reading your enthusiastic comments. I do not remember whether she fit into a challenge at the time or not. I also bought The Road through the Wall, The Haunting of Hill House and a Penguin Classics mini edition of The Tooth, which I believe is one story from The Lottery.

Based on my reading of We Have Always Lived in the Castle, I would definitely read The lottery. I am not sure whether I can make it to read The Road through the Wall before I go back to Beijing later this month.

The Road through the Wall was Jackson's first novel and it's interesting mainly because it illustrates themes she would develop (better) later; I finished it only because I'm a Jackson fan. And I was ambivalent about The Haunting of Hill House because I'm ambivalent about the supernatural.

Edwin, happy ninth!

>50 edwinbcn: I read your review with one eye closed but did note your Highly Recommended. It's on my wishlist too from Rebecca.

>35 edwinbcn: Glad to see your review of The Country Diaries, which you'd mentioned on my thread last year when I'd listed New York Diaries. Sounds like the two books have many similarities, including our (disappointing) experiences with them.

Great you remembered that! I recall we both thought the idea for a book like that was great, but, now that I have finished reading the book, it is disappointing.

Of course you should read all my reviews with one eye closed, because my reviews often contain details that some people would regard as spoilers.... :-;

Nice reviews, Edwin. I'll have to pick up We Have Always Lived in the Castle.

Excellent reviews. I'll definitely be on the lookout for Oscar's Books. I read a book several years ago that examined the margin notes of books owned by Hitler, in addition to an examination of his wider library and reading. These types of books provide a fascinating alternative insight into the minds of their subjects.

>Indeed, Peter. Note that the book was first published as Oscar's Books, in in the UK in 2008 by Chatto & Windus. It was later published in the U.S. as Built of Books, in 2009 by Henry Holt and Company.

018. Tynset
Finished reading: 6 February 2016



Tynset is considered among the best literary works of the German author Wolfgang Hildesheimer. Foremostly trained as an artist in the plastic arts, a career he never gave up, Hildesheimer turned to writing at a later age. He was a member of Gruppe 47 (Group 47), and his first collections of short stories and novels were published during the 1950s. As a playwright, Hildesheimer belonged to the German avant-garde in the "Absurd" or "New Theater" movement, together with other members of the Gruppe 47, such as Günter Grass and Peter Weiss, likewise born in 1916. Wolfgang Hildesheimer was of Jewish descent. The traumatic experience of the war made him leave Germany permanently after 1957, settling in Switzerland and Italy. The nausea experienced living in post-war Germany is an important motive in the novel Tynset.

Although the author has repeatedly referred to Tynset as a novel, literary critics regard the work as a long piece of lyrical prose. The influence of the theatre of the absurd can be clearly felt, and it would not be far-fetched to compare Tynset to, for instance, Beckett's Waiting for Godot.

Tynset is an internal monologue or a sleepless man. The story covers a time of about six hours, although some of the reminiscences and thoughts of the man extend the time frame over a longer period. A large part of the novel is taken up relating how the man used to spend sleepless hours reading telephone directories and railway timetables. Reading the telephone directories led to making telephone calls to strangers, and confronting these strangers through insinuation with their gruesome past. From a light entertainment this develops into such a scary game that the man develops and existential fear. Further thoughts, then, focus on leaving Germany, by train, to the Norwegian township Tynset. The Scandinavian connection brings the man to think about his father, thoughts which become connected with the Hamlet-motive of the indecisive son versus the absent, ghostly father. Apart from drinking a bottle of wine in the middle of the night, nothing ever happens.

Tynset is not a boring book. It is very well written, and the telephone game really conveys the sense of nausea and fear, what the German would call das Unheimliche, of the obscure tension between the offenders and the victims in post-war Germany. The complete impotence of the sleepless man is present throughout the novel, finding a climax in the absurd of the man believing to trigger cocks crowing all over Greece. This section of "die Hähne Attikas" is an unforgettable prose fragment.

019. Victory
Finished reading: 7 February 2016



Victory (sometimes published as Victory: An Island Tale) is a psychological novel by Joseph Conrad (1857 – 1924), first published in 1915. Through its publication, Conrad achieved popular success. The novel is seen as a highly complex allegorical work, with a narrative structure and psychological development laying the basis for the modern novel. Victory is initially somewhat difficult to follow because of the shifting narrative and temporal perspective. Part 1 of the book is written from the viewpoint of a sailor, Part 2 an omniscient perspective ofthe main character, Part 3 from an interior perspective of the main character, and Part 4 from the perspective of an omniscient narrator. The novel is very rich in literary allusions, and an annotated edition, such as by the Oxford University Press is recommended.

Like many of Conrad's novels, Victory is set in the Indonesian archipelago, then the Dutch Indies. The story is fairly straight forward, although the narrative develops slowly. Axel Heyst, a Swede, resides on the virtually uninhabited island where a business venture failed. During a holiday trip visiting another island, he meets and unhappy young English woman, who is attached to a music band. They steal away together. This angers and frustrates the owner of the hotel, Mr Schomberg, whose wife is a hovering presence in the background. Out of spite, Schomberg puts three desperados, Mr Jones, Ricardo and their servant on Heyst's trail, suggesting that Heyst guards a hoard of money. The three men, ruthless, sail to the island, but Mr Jones idea of finding Heyst alone, and an easy prey, runs completely awry. On the island, Jones meets his nemesis.

The novel is beautifully written, and each character fits perfectly into the plot. The psychology of each character is very convincing, despite a slight sense og exaggeration. The plot and the outcome of the story are very compelling. Various elements and characters of the story suggest a strong relation between the book and Shakespeare's play The Tempest.



Other books I have read by Joseph Conrad:
Typhoon
Under Western eyes
The secret agent. A simple tale
The mirror of the sea
Almayer's folly. A story of an eastern river
Heart of darkness

020. Jacht in de diepte
Finished reading: 8 February 2016



Adriaan van der Veen was a Dutch writer and journalist. During the Second World War, he worked in the United States as a correspondent for a Dutch newspaper. Although Jacht in de diepte was not his literary debut (which was Geld speelt de grote rol, published in 1938), Jacht in de diepte contains some short stories that were written before the publication of his debut.

Jacht in de diepte consists of 11 short stories written between 1935 and 1946. One of the stories, "De man op de toren" (1942) was written in New York. The style of the short stories can best be described as expressionism, however, quite different from the novels and short stories of Simon Vestdijk. However, similar to Vestdijk's Meneer Visser's hellevaart Van Der Veen's stories have a quality, as if they are dreams.

Each of the eleven stories is very short. There are few comparable prose works to this type of work in Dutch literature.

021. Geld speelt de grote rol
Finished reading: 9 February 2016



Geld speelt de grote rol is a collection of three short stories, describing life in the Netherlands during the early to mid-1930s, the years of crisis and poverty known as the Great Depression. No Dutch literature from that period is canonized, in a way comparable to The Grapes of Wrath. These stories therefore offer a unique perspective on this period.

The first story describes the life in poverty, a lack of money urging the family to move. In the second story, in spite of injustice of being forced to do extra work after office hours (cleaning the floor), poverty teaches the main character of the story humility. The stories have a discernable influence of the social justice movements of the period, such as communism, and brewing political tension in the background. This becomes evident in the third story, with its references to the revolutionary civil war in Spain.

Within the context of Dutch literature, the stories would form interesting reading.



Other books I have read by Adriaan van der Veen:
Jacht in de diepte

022. The well
Finished reading: 9 February 2016



Elizabeth Jolley (1923 - 2007) was an Australian writer. Born in Birmingham, she settled in Australia in the late 1950s. What Jolley has in common with Penelope Fitzgerald (1916 – 2000), is that both female authors started publishing at a relatively high age, in their early 50s. Although Elizabeth Jolley had written short stories in her twenties, her first book was published in 1976, when she was 53 years old. Penelope Fitzgerald published her first novel in 1977, at the age of 60.

The well, published in 1986, is a spooky novel. In atmosphere, it bears some resemblance to We Have Always Lived in the Castle, by Shirley Jackson (1916 – 1965), who was born in the same year as Fitzgerald, their age difference being only nine years.

The plot of The well is fairly easy to summarize, and it is no spoiler to describe the car accident that forms the basis for the story. In fact, the narrative structure of the novel almost foregrounds this event in a cinematographic way, i.e. just like a "spoiler". The novel opens with a description of the accident, and this fragment is later repeated. After the opening, the novel tracks back to the days before the accident.

Although the novel was written in the 1980s, and the presence of various clues also suggest that the story is set at that time, nonetheless, the story has a somewhat antiquated feel to it, possibly as a result of the rural setting in Australia. Hester is a middle-aged woman, who takes care of Katherine, who is a teenager. Hester has adopted Katherine, who is an orphan. Katherine has asked Hester to teach her how to drive, so that she can take the car and attend parties in the nearby town by herself. At the moment of the accident, the inexperienced Katherine was driving.

Hester's farm is located somewhat remotely, and can only be reached by taking a turn from the road, over a dirt road. On this dark road, the car hits something heavy, caught up on the roo bar. Only Hester gets out of the car, telling Katherine to drive slowly to the well. There, they drop the thing into the well.

It is never revealed what the car hit, but the strong suggestion is that they hit and killed a man. this suggestion is strengthened as they discover that money is missing, and a burglar, who has mysteriously disappeared is reported in the area. There are various complications, as Hester considers descending into the well, to retrieve the money, and possible gain of wealth in finding other spoils. (Literally) covering up the affair is not much of an option, because Hester has just sold the farm off.

Whatever happened is only known to Hester, but not made explicit. The event and the well subsequently drive Katherine mad with terror, a horror which seems beyond what could reasonably expected, perhaps because Hester has threatened her.

The novel develops various interesting psychological aspects. Clearly, part of the terror arises from the fear of what could have happened if the two women had been confronted by the male "intruder", a threat which is still perceived as they doubt whether or not the man died, or his ghost terrorizes them from the well. (Financial) dependence is an important motive in the novel, where the intruder alternatively stands for ruin and for profitable gain. There is an odd incongruency between the relation between the two women, both in age and gender roles, as they try to cope with the situation as it arises, and subsequently morphs. The horror of the novel goes far beyond the suggestion that the well acts as their subconscious.

Excellent reading.

You write such wonderful reviews, Edwin. I like how you include so much backstory. I learn a lot reading them.

Thanks, Fuzzy. Glad you enjoy reading them.

Today is.....

my NINTH Thingaversary.....

Happy Thingaversary, Edwin!

>68 edwinbcn: Happy Thingaversary!

Great review of Victory and it seems you have been reading some cult classics. I am thinking of We have always lived in the castle and Ancient Gonzo Wisdom

I also loved your review of Oscars Books Joe Orton was the most famous defacer of library books. I am not surprised that Oscar used books the way he did.

>62 edwinbcn: Intriguing review of Victory, a book with which I was unfamiliar. By coincidence, I am currently reading both The Tempest and a Conrad The Mirror of the Sea, so your reference to The Tempest made it sound like a good follow up all around.

023. Flush. A biography
Finished reading: 12 February 2016



If you have felt awed and reluctant to read Virginia Woolf, whose novels do suffer from the reputation of being intellectual or difficult, it might be refreshing to try some of her later work. While strream-of-consciousness is supposedly a very free style, characterised by impulsiveness and lack of restraint, some readers experience Woolf's early novels as experimental and confusing.

However, Virginia Woolf also has a very humouristic side to her, which, combined with a virtuosity in command of the language had led to the creation of some very fine prose, such as in the autobiographical Moments of Being. Some of Woolf's non-fiction is also of lasting impressions, particularly recommendable there would be the short, but very fine essays in The London Scene, published in 1931. Readers who would dismiss Flush. A biography, published in 1933, as a silly story about a dog, should think twice. Actually, the book is a very clever biography of Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806 – 1861) was one of the most important Victorian English poets. She was weak and sickly from an early age, a condition which improved when she moved to Italy in the 1840s. Out of admiration for her poetry, the British poet Robert Browning started a correspondance with her, secretly courting, and eventually marrying her. She took an interest in the social cause, and was a follower of the progressive ideas of Mary Wollstonecraft.

Readers of Woolf's Flush. A biography would be largely aware of the biography of
Elizabeth Barrett Browning, although she had died 70 years earlier. Woolf's book purports to be the biography of Barrett Browning's dog, which in some sense it is. Elizabeth Barrett Browning did own a dog, Flush, which was given her by her friend Mary Russell Mitford, and many of the incidences described in the biography really occured. Based on letters and other documents, Woolf reconstructed and described the life of the dog.

This is done with a great deal of humour, and empathy. The unique perspective, that is to say, the world from the viewpoint of a dog, is remarkably, cleverly well-done. There is a great amount of detail in describing noise, odours, and colours. But dogs are also very good at sensing the mood of their owners, and the mood and life of Elizabeth Barrett Browning shines through in every part of the book.

As a pedigree spaniel, Flush was a very aristocratic dog, and its life in the household at Wimpole Street reflects that social status. The social agenda of poverty in the slums of London sneaks into the book in the episode which describes how Flush was kidnapped for ransom. After all, the life time of Flush was the high time of publication of Charles Dickens. Flush. A biography has quite some characteristics of the rags-and-riches, or prince-and-pauper style fiction, and also forms a prelude to the later famous The Hundred and One Dalmatians by the English novelist Dodie Smith.

All in all, Flush. A biography is a very poetic biography of particular interest to readers who enjoy literary criticism, cultural history, and particularly biography describing the inspirational part of the Victorian era, and its light-footed escape to Pisa and Florence.



Other books I have read by Virginia Woolf:
Moments of being
The London scene. Six essays on London life
Selected short stories
Monday or Tuesday
A room of one's own
Orlando
Jacob's room
Mrs. Dalloway

I was not aware of Flush. A Biography thanks for an excellent review.

Thanks, Barry. I started reading Victory last summer, for the Literary Centennials 1915 publication, but was unable to finish it during my holiday. Returning here, I re-read the first 80 pages, to get back into the novel.

>74 edwinbcn: Enjoyed your review of Flush!

Great review of Flush -- I read it decades ago; I think it was my first Woolf. Definitely time for a reread.

>78 janeajones:

You have a lot by Virginia Woolf, even that earlier version of The voyage out, Melymbrosia.

and, --- a first edition of Flush. A Biography.

I have considered using that cover for my review, because it is so much more attractive than the bland cover on my edition. It isn't very clear who did the art work in my edition; Chinese publishers often are not careful at giving all credit due.

I can remember that reading Virginia Woolf was very much in vogue during the 1980s and early 1990s.

If, like myself, you haven't picked up anything in the meantime, it is really worthwhile to go back to (re-) reading Woolf or pick up some new editions or scholarship, much of which has come out between the mid-1990s and now.

I have read five works by Virginia Woolf since 2012, but that was after a gap of nearly 20 years....

Just saw, it would be very interesting to read Virginia Woolf: An Inner Life by Julia Briggs, published in 2005, and when I looked a little bit further into that, I saw that, sadly, Julia Briggs passed away in 2007.

Julia Briggs was the editor of the re-issue of the works by Virginia Woolf in the Penguin paperback editions of the early 1990s, overseeing the editing and printing of 13 volumes, with introductions by renowned female scholars from Britain and the US. She is also the author of This stage-play world. English literature and its background, 1580-1625 , which I guess many of us here have read, like me, at university.

I read the very beautifully written and touching obituary by Alison Light

http://www.theguardian.com/news/2007/aug/30/guardianobituaries.booksobituaries

024. Anthem
Finished reading: 12 February 2016



Anthem is a novella written by Ayn Rand. Rand first developed her idea for the story during the early 1920s, before emigrating, but did not write the story down in its present form until the summer of 1937. Therefore, its publication was preceded by We the Living, and followed by her writing The Fountainhead.

The novella already contains all the major elements of Rand's philosophy. It has been suggested that she might have been influenced by Yevgeny Zamyatin's novel We, which was published in 1921, but the main consensus is that Rand independently conceived the idea for Anthem.

By the late 1930s, science-fiction was no longer a novelty, but the dystopian nature of Anthem, the idea of technological regression in the future and the social implications of the loss of civilization may have surprised readers. The story of the novella is fairly simple.

At the time of the story, people no longer have names. The main characters are identified as Equality 7-2521 and Liberty 5-3000. Like their names, all other traces of independence and individuality have been erased. Children are raised away from their parents, and in youth there is no freedom of choice in careers. Thus, while Equality 7-2521's ambition was to become a scholar (i.e. scientist) he is assigned to serve the community as a street sweeper.

Outside the city, Equality 7-2521 discovers a place where he can withdraw, devote himself in self-study and develop his invention. He also meets a girls, Liberty 5-3000, with whom he falls in love. With the re-discovery of some lost technology, Equality 7-2521 hopes to impress the authorities, help humanity and be allowed to pursue his career as a scholar, but instead he is cursed. With Liberty 5-3000 he flees the city, to the Uncharted Forest, where is is pursued, but succeeds in hiding.

Especially to readers today, Ayn Rand's novella Anthem may seem little spectacular. However, as an early novella within the genre, Anthem may still be read. It also provides a very readable introduction to Rand's work, for readers who hesitate to take on the large tomes, such as The Fountainhead or Atlas Shrugged.

While not everybody is interested in Ayn Rand's philosophy, her fictional work has merit in its own right. It is stylistically pure, interesting and very well-written. The novels and early fiction of Ayn Randare classics of modern American fiction, with a unique perspective.

025. The graduate
Finished reading: 13 February 2016



The story of The graduate, an American novel by the author Charles Webb, published in 1963, is simply ridiculous, and if it had not been as funny, would be easy to dismiss. The plot is not so very unlikely, except that the hap-snap, abrupt sequence of events is startling. It gives the impression that the main character, Benjamin Braddock is tossed around, without any volition of himself.

This is actually what the novel is very much about. Benjamin feels he has been pushed through school and college, but that his achievements are somehow disconnected from him, and that any choices in life were not his. After graduation, and on the evening of his twenty-first birthday, he seems to want to change that. A rebelliousness emerges, but strain of habit, listening to his parents, and social conventions seem to form such a straight-jacket that he cannot determine on his own what to do that evening. The climax of the evening is his being nearly seduced by Mrs Robinson, a friends of his parents.

Since everything is his life seems to be prepared and laid out by his parents, Benjamin wants to break free. A road trip lasts but three week, and is little more than a failure. To break conventionality, he starts an extra-marital affair with Mrs Robinson. After the Robinsons' daughter, Elaine returns home after graduation, Benjamin ends up in a tug and pull of feelings for her. Initially he rejects dating her, because it seems a pre-arranged match by their parents, but later he irrationally falls in love with Elaine head over heels.

While the story can be told in a straightforward manner, Benjamin's conduct is ludicrous, but however ridiculous plot elements seem to be, they are also very recognizable, if only perhaps as a hyperbole.

The graduate is almost pure dialogue, with a minimum of narrative. Being very humourous, it is a very easy read. Large parts of the novel are complete slap-stick, but if you are willing to get along, it is a very funny comedy of manners.

026. Address unknown
Finished reading: 14 February 2016



Address unknown is an epistolary novel. This means that the novel appears to be a correspondance in letters, but unlike, for instance Helene Hanff's 84, Charing Cross Road, which is an epistolary work based on real letters, Address unknown is a work consisting of fictional letters which together aim to tell a story.

This short novel was written by the American author, Kathrine Kressmann Taylor, and first published in 1938. Kressmann Taylor got her idea from real correspondence. By the mid-1930s she heard of American students in Germany writing letters home describing Nazi atrocities. Their friends sent them letters making fun of Hitler. Then, the visiting students urged them to stop doing that saying these letters put them in grave danger, and they might get arrested or even killed. Thus Kressmann Taylor got the idea of letters as a weapon or "murder by mail."

Most middle- and upper-class Germans had Jewish friends or clients before Hitler rose to power, but particularly after 1933 the political climate in Nazi Germany rapidly changed towards a situation where having Jewish friends was suspicious. In fact, while researching materials for her novel, Kressmann Taylor discovered that even well-educated Germans had fallen prey to the indoctrination to renounce friendship with Jewish people and despise them. The idea that German censors opened incoming and outgoing mail. monitored correspondence, and arrested people accused of having personal or business contacts with Jewish people flabbergasted Kressmann Taylor.

Address unknown is based on this idea. The book consists of a correspondence between Max Eisenstein and Martin Schulse. Together, they run a successful art gallery in San Francisco. Martin Schulse returns to Germany, where he quickly adopts the new political ideas of the Nazis. Max Eisenstein, his Jewish business partner, remains in the US to continue the business. As the story evolves, Max is slow to understand how the situation unfolds, and Jewish people realize too late how vicious the nazis are in their determination to exterminate the Jews. Martin takes a very active, volutary role in this process, and deliberately betrays Max when he asks him to help his sister Griselle, who is an actress in Berlin.

When the bitter truth dawns on Max, he takes a turn, and continues to write letters to Martin, until one day his letter is returned, marked "Address Unknown".

The short novella Address unknown is perfectly tuned to the slow-witted process of discovering how things stood in Germany at the time. Tipped off by the curious correspondence incident, Kressmann Taylor investigated what was known about Nazi Germany and discovered what tragedy was unfolding, long before anyone in the United States had a clear idea of what was going on. The novel was an immediate success, and was re-issued to serve as a warning. Most continental editions were lost as soon as the war broke out, and interest in this curious short novel only recently picked up as a French translation appeared in 1999, a German translation in 200, Hebrew in 2001 and a new English edition in 2002, with more countries and languages following.

Nowadays, censorship and fear of what carelessness are widespread. Americans are hesitant to send mail to Iran or North Korea, and in a more modern version, Internet and email censorship is ubiqitous. Apparently, the time is right for a re-reading of this novel.

Fascinating review of Address Unknown. I've never read The Graduate, but saw the classic 1967 film version with Dustin Hoffmann and Anne Bancroft when it first came out.

Anthem does sound very similar to We which I read a couple of years ago.

Most people will be familiar with the film of The Graduate and when I saw it again recently I was surprised by the cross-cutting feel of the first part of the film which does give the impression of a lost young man being tossed around.

Address unknown has a very interesting synopsis.

>84 janeajones:
>85 baswood:,

Yes, Barry. I have not read Zamyatin's We, but critics have pointed out that there are a number of similarities, one of which is that the characters in Anthem can only refer to themselves in plural pronouns such as "we" or "they", and that particularly the word "I" is banned from usage.

It is possible, that Ayn Rand had read the Zamyatin's novel, as it was published in 1921, while she still lived in the Soviet Union. It is said that Rand conceived the idea for what later became Anthem while she was still in the Soviet Union, before moving to the States in 1925. Critics merely state that there is no evidence that she was inspired or aware of Zamyatin's work.

I am not a great lover of films; I rarely go to the cinema, and do not care much for DVD or screened films, hence, while many people have often seen the film, I usually haven't. Instead, I prefer reading. I read The Graduate because it is included in the Penguin Modern Classics series, and I do not regret it. Actually, it was quite fun to read.

Address unknown is really quite interesting, and very short, so can be read without much effort. In addition to that, the publication history of the book is interesting, I did not include that in my review.

Great reviews of Flush and Address Unknown, Edwin. I've added both books to my wish list.

027. The emperor. Downfall of an autocrat
Finished reading: 16 February 2016



Ryszard Kapuściński (1932 – 2007) was a Polish journalist and writer. He published many works on history and politics, based on his journalistic work, and was considered an authority particularly with regard to African nations. The German journalist Claus Christian Malzahn described Kapuściński as "one of the most credible journalists the world has ever seen", and he has been attributed with a "penetrating intelligence" and a "crystallised descriptive" writing style. Kapuściński was a serious contender for the Nobel Prize.

The emperor. Downfall of an autocrat is a literary work describing the final years of the reign of Haile Selassie I, the Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974, and the revolution that deposed him. Despite the fact that Kapuściński had earned the epithet of being a most credible journalist, readers would be ill advised to take the content of the book at face value. Many peculiar statements in the book rather suggest that The emperor. Downfall of an autocrat is a fictionalized account of the events, and should perhaps rather be read as a piece of fiction, rather than non-fiction. Although the book is presented as a veritable account of the decline and fall or the empire, it has been suggested that the book makes little more sense than Samuel Johnson’s The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia. Instead of journalistics writing, the account has characteristics of an allegory.

Explanations for the allegorical, fictional nature of The emperor. Downfall of an autocrat can be sought in two areas, namely the political and the literary. During the 1970s, when Ryszard Kapuściński was active as a reporter in Africa, foreign travel for people from socalled "East-block" countries was not at all self-evident. Most people from East-European communist countries could not travel to foreign countries other than those encompassed within the sphere of countries under communist rule, such as the Soviet Union or other "red" East-European countries. It has been suggested that The emperor. Downfall of an autocrat has meaning at a deeper level, and that it can be read as a criticism of the Communist leadership of Poland at that time. However, this interpretation, 25 years after the end of communism in Europe and the end of the Cold War is obscure, and unlikely to be part of the reception of contemporary readers. The edition of The emperor. Downfall of an autocrat published in 2006, in the series of Penguin Modern Classics, is preceded by a introduction, written by Neal Ascherson, who is an expert on Poland. However, the introduction does convincingly support this interpretation.

On the other hand, the author seems to have given in to working the material in such a way to create a wholly new genre of writing, within the domain of literary fiction. The emperor. Downfall of an autocrat could well be read as a piece of creative non-fiction or fictionalized realism. In 1994, the term magic journalism was coined, as a pendant to magic realism. Narrative technique, including absurdism, distortion, exaggeration and hyperbole would then feature in a narrative account that relates the history of the reign of an emperor in a faraway country. It has been pointed out, also see above, that Polish readers had very little exposure to the outside world and even less experience of travelling, themselves. As a piece of fiction, The emperor. Downfall of an autocrat could offer Polish readers an escape into an exotic realm. The absurdistics character of the description of Haile Selassie's despotism, with all the typical characteristics of feudalism or an arbitrary, absolute monarch would much appeal to readers with a firm Marxist indoctrination. (NB.: feudalism here in the marxist interpretation.) The story would then carry all kinds of connotations to readers with a firm background in Marxism, such as the backwardness of a Western country, the wickedness of an aristocratic society, headed by a monarch. In the literary sense, The emperor. Downfall of an autocrat shares some characterists with Evelyn Waugh's novel Black Mischief.

Ryszard Kapuściński was admired by the Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez and Chilean writer Luis Sepúlveda, who, writing in the same style of magic realism, accorded him the title "Maestro". In fact, the narrative style of The emperor. Downfall of an autocrat shares some characteristics with the baroque style of the great novels of the magic realism of these Latin-American authors. To write the book, Kapuściński claimed to have relied on informers, who were former servants or officials at the imperial court. To protect their identity, their names are concealed, and only their initials are given. Doubt has been cast on whether all these informers truly existed. Thoughout the book, Kapuściński makes various claims and statements which can be proved to be untrue, for example that the emperor did not read. The honorific titles, used to refer to the emperor are almost certainly invented, and offices and positions described as the court never actually existed. The emperor. Downfall of an autocrat is de facto a mixture of fact and fiction.

The emperor. Downfall of an autocrat is a relatively short book, at 164 pages, divided into three sections: "The Throne", describing the court of Haile Selassie I, "It's Coming, It's Coming" describing the beginnings of unrest and a first attempted coup in the 1960s, and part 3, "The Collapse" which describes the revolution and the aftermath.

Ryszard Kapuściński died in 2007. The Penguin Modern Classics edition reprints the original 1983 translation of The emperor. Downfall of an autocrat. The introduction in this edition, written by Neal Ascherson is of little use. For a better understanding of the African works of Kapuściński, I would suggest to read the Review of Kapuściński by John Ryle for the Times Literary Supplement (27 July 2001): "At play in the bush of ghosts: Tales of Mythical Africa" Extended with post publication note, 2001 and 2007.

The emperor. Downfall of an autocrat is an ambivalent work of literature. Whether it should be read as a piece of literary non-fiction, or fictionalized journalism, and to which genre or sub-genre it belongs is undecided. Clearly, the literary reception of the book can benefit from further analysis. This could perhaps best be achieved with a new translation, and comprehensive annotation by experts or a critical reading of the Polish edition. Till then, readers in English have free reign to explore and appreciate this highly curious work of prose.

028. Letter to D. A love letter
Finished reading: 16 February 2016



Letter to D. A love letter is a love letter. D. is Dorine, the loving partner, wife, of A., André. It is not a romantic love letter between young lovers, but a meditation on 58 years of marriage.

André Gorz (1923 – 2007) was a prominent French intellectual, a social philosopher, and journalist, founder of Le Nouvel Observateur in 1964.

In 2007, André and Dorine Gorz commited suicide. She was aged 82, he was 84 years old. They could not bear the idea that one of them would pass away first, leaving the other behind, alone.

Letter to D. A love letter reads like a short biography. In this ego document, Gorz looks back on the 60 years they spent together, from getting to know each other, to courtship, and a loving marriage that lasted for 58 years. They look back, mostly on the career of André Gorz, focussing on the high-lights. The booklet describes how they did things together, the key people they met and which important decisions they made in their lives.

It is not a political or scientific testament, although the emphasis on the technocriticism and ecology as the outcomes of their career, seems to give the book more significance, as if offereing the readers a suggestion or consideration for the future.

The English translation of Letter to D. A love letter is published with an afterword by the translator, Julie Rose, and "Notes for the Reader" listing all major personae listed in the book with a brief biography and main publications. Besides some of the most obvious, such as Sartre, Blanchot, Camus, De Beauvoir, Giles Deleuze, Marcuse, Merleau-Ponty, lLévi-Strauss and Benny Lévy, who played an important role in the formation and early philosophy of Gorz, there are references to Robert Laponche, Ivan Illich, Pierre-Félix Guattari, Jean Jaurès, Jacques Ellul, Günther Anders and Charles Apothéloz, who were key figures in his development towards a new future for political economy and political ecology.

Rather than a short biography or synopsis of a life, Letter to D. A love letter can be read as a coda: it might teach the reader what was the inevitable outcome of a life, it's compass needle pointing from Existentialism, to Marxism, then, to the New Left, and finally to technocriticism and political ecology.

Read the book as a fingerpost.

029. The diving pool
Finished reading: 20 February 2016



The diving pool is a collection of three short stories of the Japanese author, Yoko Ogawa. In each of the three stories there is a decided preponderance of food and on the human body. Somewhat comparable to the chute in French novels, that is to say an unexpected turn, each story in The diving pool is characterised by a sinister twist.

The first story, "The Diving Pool" is perhaps the most beautiful. The descriptions of the male swimmers' body are quite erotic. The twist in the story is surprising, and makes the reader wonder with what pre-meditation or deliberation the act of kindness, or generosity was made. The casualness of the description suggests impulse, but the accusation at the end seems to see through that innocense.

The second story, "Pregnace Diary" seems to build up too slowly. This story has a much stronger sense of intentional malice, and the scope of the cruelty is determined in the mind of the reader, whether it is limited to physical pain or permanent deformation.

In the final story, "Dormitory", the physique of one of the characters is somewhat absurd. This story is perhaps strongest in building up suspense.

All three stories in The diving pool are highly original in the twisted outcome and the way the body and food are connected. The main theme of each of the story is love, although not in the usual relations of lovers. The stories are easy to read and enjoyable.

030. Haunts of the black masseur. The swimmer as hero
Finished reading: 21 February 2016



Haunts of the black masseur. The swimmer as hero is a very well-written book in the field of cultural history or cultural anthropology. It provides an overview of the importance of swimming, predominantly in Western culture. The best part of the book are the chapters describing the English cultural history and poet-swimmers of particularly the Romantic, Victorian and early Modern period.

The author, Charles Sprawson describes himself, and many of the personas featured in the book, as an obsessive swimmer. Although the book deals with the history of swimming in general, the main focus is on a limited number of characters who could be described as "obsessive swimmers" a term which is repeatedly used throughout the book.

Haunts of the black masseur. The swimmer as hero is preceded by an introduction, written by the author, in which the author relates his own life as a swimmer. The introduction is one of the most enticing and most beautifully written parts of the book. The introduction is almost mythical. Very little biographical information is available about the author, who seems to have written very few books. In the introduction, the author appears very aged, having lived a life almost as romantic and idyllic as many of the characters in the book.

It appears, that the author had a few chapters which are very good, and was asked to present and expand the book to encompass a greater period and cover more ground. While the chapters about English swimmers are clearly written with passion, the other chapters are not of the same high quality. One of the author's tenets, presented in the first chapter is that the obsession with swimming is, essentially an English thing. The first chapter is about English swimmers of the 18th and 19th centuries. In the second chapter, the author offers a look at the world of antiquity. This chapter is considerably weaker, as the main focus shifts from swimming to water and bathing. Possibly, the author's sources were limited to classical literature, which mainly describes nymphs in and out of the water, Greek gods and godesses, and Greek heros' relation to water in a more general sense. For the Roman, the feature of bathing is added.

Beside Chapter I, chapters 3, 4 and 5 are the strongest, forming the core of the book. Although, over the course of these chapters a very broad range of writers and poets is covered, the main focus is on the early Romantic poets such as Lord Byron, and Percy Bysshe Shelley. Later Victorian writers suffered a great deal from the prudishness during the Victorian Age, while the climate in Nordic countries is much colder than in Italy and Greece. However, to the obsessive swimmers this is apparently all irrelevant. Despite winter and cold weather, their urge to swim on a daily basis is apparently so strong that they must get into the water.

Chapters 4 and 5 deal with a large number of English (and American) swimmers, particularly many writers, such as Algernon Swinburne, Denton Welch and the Baron Corvo. There is a little overlap between chapters, at the level of anecdotes being related twice of cross-references to, for example, Byron and Shelly in earlier chapters.

Chapter 6, about German Romanticism is a strong chapter. It describes the exploits of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe as a swimmer, in the small brook which flows beneath his cottage in Weimar, and goes on to describe the Freikörperkultur (FKK) and the Wandervogel movement of the early 1910s - 30s, which further developed in the interest of the NSDAP in a healthy body & healthy mind ethics of the Nazis. The chapter extensively describes the artistic work of Leni Riefenstahl in relation to the Olympic Games at that time.

The final two chapters, about America and Japan, are weak. Apparently the author did not find much material about these countries, or swimming culture was not developed or appreciated in the same way

Despite the weakness of some parts of the book, the four chapters about the role of swimming in English culture are fascinating and very well written. Together with the Introduction and the chapter about Germany they form a very interesting book.

While it is a possible option to focus on swimming, the book is not merely a book about swimmers per se. The book offers a marvelous and sparkling description of literary and cultural history of the late Eighteenth to mid-Twentieth Century from the refreshing perspective of surface water and swimming.

Originally published in 1992, Haunts of the black masseur. The swimmer as hero was re-issued in Vintage Classics in 2013, thus becoming available to a broader readership at an affordable price.

031. A hedonist in the cellar. Adventures in wine
Finished reading: 23 February 2016



Wine can be a fascinating hobby, and if you are interested in wines beside as a way to wash away your pizza there is a lot to learn.

Jay McInerney is a well-known American novelist, perhaps most famous for his 1984 novel Bright Lights, Big City. From the mid-1990s, McInerney started writing a wine colums. These columns have been collected in two volumes, Bacchus and Me: Adventures in the Wine Cellar (2000) and A hedonist in the cellar. Adventures in wine (2006).

A hedonist in the cellar. Adventures in wine is not a book for beginners. To enjoy the book, you should already have a very firm grasp of the various varieties of grapes, and a lot of wine terminology. Otherwise, it will be too difficult to grasp the basic meaning of the book.

Another consideration is that before reading the book, you should make up your mind about how seriously interested you are in wine. Basically, the wines discussed in the book are wines which most readers will never drink. Unless you want to read the book merely as an entertainment, completely separate from your wine drinking experience, readers who would like to use the book as a guide to knowing what to drink should realize that all wines in the book will set you back at least 20 USD a bottle, and many will costs hundreds if not thousands of dollars.

Obviously, Jay McInerney developed his expertise in only a few years. As a writer for a magazine, he must have enjoyed wonderful opportunities of being invited or sent out to vineyards and go to tastings, interview owners or vineyards and offered unique bottles of wine. Particularly helpful in this was Julian Barnes, who, as we learn is an aficionado of great wines and generously shares these with his friends. In the same circles, McInerney also makes personal acquaintance with Jancis Robinson, a well-known British wine critics.

A great advantage of reading the book nowadays is the ability to look up all wines mentioned in the book on websites or apps such as "Wine Searcher". Such apps or web sites can provide more detailed information about the vintage and other details of the wines described in the book.

A hedonist in the cellar. Adventures in wine is very entertaining. Unlike most critics, who merely spew unintelligible wine notes, full of adjectives describing the most unlikely aromas, flavours and smells or any type of exotic fruit or flower, tied in with terminology of soil, and minerality, Jay McInerney, of course, writes very well. Not shunning some technicalities, McInerney spices his columns up with interesting stories, anecdotes and a healthy dose of humour. Covering six years after the previous book, which was published in 2000, A hedonist in the cellar. Adventures in wine also, still, makes many references to the author's experience during the period 1985 - 2000. Some anecdotes are repeated.

Although A hedonist in the cellar. Adventures in wine was published in 2006, the content is still very up to date, and if you want to impress your sommelier, as the author pretends to teach you in one section of the book, you may still succeed by following his advice. Wine lists of the trendiest and most expensive fine dining restaurants will feature many of the wines described in the book. The book features all types of wines, of many varieties of grapes from many wine regions in the world. There are a number of columns about Champagne, but also Chartreuse verde and Armagnac.

While not particularly accessible to beginners in the field of wine, A hedonist in the cellar. Adventures in wine is very informative for the "intermediate" wine aficionado.

Tomorrow, I will travel back to Beijing by train. I am not sure when I will be able to continue updating my thread.

I very much enjoyed participating in Club Read 2016 for the past five or six weeks.

Currently reading:

Bewolkt bestaan by Cola Debrot

Love-hate relations. A study of Anglo-American sensibilities by Stephen Spender

Other voices, other rooms by Truman Capote

Visions of Gerard: A Novel by Jack Kerouac

I will leave these books unfinished in Nanning and continue reading or re-read them in summer.

My train trip tomorrow will take 13 hours by high-speed rail from Nanning to Beijing.

Traveling through the mountains for the first 300 km, the train only reaches as speed of about 100 km/h but for the next 2700 km, the cruising speed of the train will reach 300 km/h.

Nonetheless, the trip as a whole takes 13 hours.

For reading in the train, I have selected The Bostonians by Henry James.

You will be missed. You are such a voracious reader with varied tastes.

Good luck, Edwin. I will look forward to your updates whenever you are able to do them.

>88 edwinbcn: Fascinating thoughts on Kapuściński. I've read several of his works, but not this one. I had not heard that term magical journalism before, although I would tend to be more in the camp of those who think of Kapuściński as a credible journalist. I could see that the book on Selassie could be less so and I think your review would make me look at Kapuściński's book on the Shah of Iran differently Shah of Shahs.

Easy trip back to Beijing. I'm sure The Bostonians will put you in a different world entirely!

Looking forward to your LT return.

Fascinating reviews as always Edwin.

I would be interested to read letter to D and so will look out for that.

I enjoyed reading your review of The Emperor which has been highly thought of and your review makes me feel like I would know what I was getting into if I read it.

I will avoid Haunts of the Masseur because as a very young man swimming was my sport and I probably did too much of it and so now I avoid swimming pools like the plague. Swimming in cold water also sounds like an awful thing to do.

However drinking wine is something I enjoy.

Safe trip back to Beijing. I will miss your posts.

Nice review on The Diving Pool, I'll be looking for that one. Your review of A Hedonist in the Cellar reminds me that I started this book several years ago and never finished it - I'm about half way through if I remember rightly.

Enjoy the trip. I'll be doing 300 km/h between Tokyo and Kobe next week on the Shinkansen, but at least that trip takes only 2.5 hours.

Enjoying all your varied reviews, as always, and will look forward to more when you return.

Looking forward to your next access to Club Read.

032. The art of travel
Finished reading: 29 February 2016



The art of travel is a valuable and enjoyable collection of essays about travel. There is a tendency to hold up any new work by Alain de Botton over and against his early work, and out of spite or envy bring in his lifestyle. Supposedly independently wealthy with a lot of spare time, De Botton emerged as a postmodern new novelist in the mid-1990s. Particularly his early work was considered superficial and relatively meaningless, facts readily connected to breaking off his study in philosophy. However, a decade later, De Botton has developed into an all-round writer, and turned to essay writing, in 2002 with the publication of The art of travel.

The title coyly suggests a twist of looking both at travel and art, the imagination and experience of traveling both becoming the object of contemplation. Nine essays are grouped thematically under headings such as Departure, Motives, Landscape, Art and Return. The first essays, entitled "On anticipation" is a wonderful exposition about a trip Huysmans was almost going to make to London. To travel or not to travel, seems to be the question. The spirit of anticipation both spurs on to travel and holds back, while the imagination races with anticipated joy and discomfort. The episode or anecdote is hilarious.

The essays connect actual travel experiences with literary travel experiences. The focus is particularly on France and French authors, such as Huysmans, Beaudelaire and Flaubert. Thus, "On the Exotic" combines Flaubert's ideas about the Orient with De Botton's observations in Amsterdam. A beautiful essays is devoted to the Wordsworths and the Lake district, while another essays places Van Gogh in the Provence. Philosophical ideas about the sublime and beauty are found in the essays about Burke and Ruskin.

The art of travel ties the world of the imagination to the imagination of the world. Hightly recommended.



Other books I have read by Alain de Botton:
A week at the airport. A Heathrow diary
How Proust can change your life
Kiss and tell
The Romantic Movement. Sex, shopping and the novel

033. Een pruik van paardenhaar & Over het lezen van een boek. Amartya Sen en de onmogelijkheid van de Paretiaanse liberaal
Finished reading: 3 March 2016



As of late, the author prefers and uses 'Max' or 'Maximiliaan' while his official last name is Drenth. Previous work listed and was published under a multitude of pseudonyms, which could be categorized into two groups of each three names. The initial "M" which sometimes refers to the female side of the author, as Marjolein Drenth or M. Februari and M. Drenth von Februar, and recently the male side of the author, Max.

The same ambivalence is found in Een pruik van paardenhaar & Over het lezen van een boek. Amartya Sen en de onmogelijkheid van de Paretiaanse liberaal which is neither purely a novel nor exclusively as a thesis, although it did fulfill this role as a PhD thesis. The title suggests a dual publication under dual authorship, while in fact, it is a single work under two pseudonyms which refer to a single author.

An earlier novel, De zonen van het uitzicht (1989) was anaemic and bland, but hailed as promising. This was followed by Een pruik van paardenhaar & Over het lezen van een boek. Amartya Sen en de onmogelijkheid van de Paretiaanse liberaal more than a decade later, in 2000. Presenting the work as literary or consisting of both literary and scientific passages is somewhat deluding. The work is a highly cerebral, theoretical and philosophical work on ethics.

Not for ordinary readers, extraordinary, perhaps.



Other books I have read by Maxim Februari:
De zonen van het uitzicht

034. Eindelijk oorlog
Finished reading: 4 March 2016



Before the publication of The Dinner, the Dutch author Herman Koch was virtually unknown as an author, both internationally and among the Dutch reading public, although to the latter he was known from television. However, Koch had already published 13 novels and collections of short stories, since 1985, when he broke through with The Dinner in 2009.

Eindelijk oorlog (Engl. "Finally War") is an early novel, which was first published in 1996. The novel satirizes the Dutch predilection of imagining oneself into a meaningful, if not heroic role, into the Second World War. In the case of the main protagonist of the novel, this is exaggerated to ridicule.

Rather far-fetched and boring.

>101 edwinbcn: So good to see you at the top of the Talk list this morning.

The Art of Travel looks like a good addition to the wonderful field of literary travel writing, which all too often seems underrated.

Welcome back.

Nice to see you back, and enjoying your reviews, as always, and looking forward to more.

Good to see you back. That train journey must be a mix of boring (13 hours!) and at 300kms per hour, exciting!

Excellent reviews. I acquired a copy of Koch's The Dinner at a booksale, but now I'm thinking of passing it on unread.

>103 edwinbcn: oh no! I was fascinated by the misanthropes in The Dinner and Summer House with Swimming Pool and have been looking forward to more translated novels.

I have sort of grown used to these long travel hauls. It is surprising how little I manage to read. Like long-distance flights, it is a mixture of looking out the window, dozing / sleeping, eating and a bit of reading. Of The Bostonians I just barely managed to read the long introduction.

I am not suggesting The Dinner is a bad book (although I have never felt I should read it). The popularity of that book seems to be a hype. I read Eindelijk oorlog because it was a gift from a friend.

Last week the Great Firewall of China was down for just 1 hour. I was lucky to just be home and attempt login at LT, which gave me full access. So, I am back for a while...

>108 edwinbcn: At least on a train there is something to look at out the window. I just can't imagine going travelling that fast.

I'll hang on to The Dinner although it might be a while before I pick it up.

035. Five o'clock angel. Letters of Tennessee Williams to Maria St. Just, 1948-1982
Finished reading: 4 March 2016



Maria St. Just was Tennessee Williams' "Five o'clock angel" in their correspondence that lasted more than three decades from 1948 till 1982. With these letters, Maria St. Just has compiled and written the book Five o'clock angel. Letters of Tennessee Williams to Maria St. Just, 1948-1982. This heafty volume of more than 400 pages consists of a cleverly interleaving of letters, diaries and comments. The letters are mostly, but not exclusively selected from the cache of correspondence between Maria St. Just and Tennessee Williams. This material is supplemented with excerpts from Maria St. Just's diaries describing time she spent in the company of the playwright, and in between the letters and diary fragments, she wrote an ongoing commentary, which essentially consists of memoirs, and clarification and elucidation of the letters and diaries. There is a wealth of photos.

Lady Maria St. Just was born Maria Britneva, in Petrograd (USSR) in 1921. The introduction provides a detailed description of her mother and grand-parents, which is in itself a fascinating piece of history. Maria Britneva studied ballet and performed as a child in Balanchine's ballet La Concurrence. However, she decided on a career as an actress in the theatre. Maria Britneva met Tennessee Williams in 1948, at a party given by Sir John Gielgud. She describes Williams as a shy man, wearing two unmatching socks. In fact, in 1948 Tennessee Williams was already a celebrity. Born in 1911, he had remained obscure for many years, but at the age of 37, with recent successes with The Glass Menagerie (1944) and A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), Williams was a respected author.

Perhaps because success came so relatively late in his career, at 37 Williams was still very accessible, and open to make new friends. In fact, his response and subsequent letters from Paris show he was pleasantly surprised or even somewhat enchanted by Maria Britneva. A turbulent friendship ensued.

Particularly the first 100 pages of the book, describing the first decade of their friendship, period between 1948 - 1958, are racy and full of brio. There are wildly humourous anecdotes:

"I am now in Naples, Positano was just a little bit too much. Having completely overwhelmed the goats, the dikes began to turn on the queens and th fur was flying! I took flight with a Dutch baroness who is part Javanese. She could not pay her bill at the Miramare so she gave the padrone a strong-box full of rocks and sea-shells, saying: "These are my jewels, all I have left in the world!". (1950) p. 35-6.

or a little story about Maria Britneva's grandmother:

(...) who was once browsing in a bookshop in Peterburg. The bookseller hovered, not daring to shut up the shop. All the other customers had gone; hours ticked by; still she went on browsing. Eventually, at about eleven o'clock at night, she told the bookseller, 'I really can't decide. Send everything in the shop to my estate.' (p. 70)

Naturally, on all his travels and during parties, Williams met many other iconic figures who became long-time friends. He describes Christopher Isherwood with Don Bachardy in Key West in 1954 as (...) "with the youngest-looking boy I have ever seen outside school. They say he is twenty but he looks so young he has to order a Coca-Cola in bars." (p. 106).

Throughout the 35 years, Maria Britneva appears to have been Williams' close friend with whome he shared anything. They fell out in anger once, but made up. Thus, Maria was a witness to 35 years of Williams life. The books describes Williams' time with his first partner, Frank Merlo, till his death in 1963 (pp. 183 - 185).

There are many literary successes and literary friendships, particularly with Carson McCullers, while many other literary figures make appearances in the letters, such as Gore Vidal, often with nicknames: the "Horse" (Merlo), "Choppers" (McCullers), "Gadge" (Elia Kazan).

The correspondence of the later years misses the enthusiasm of the first 100 pages. It is more business like, describing literary rights, performances and film rights.

Five o'clock angel. Letters of Tennessee Williams to Maria St. Just, 1948-1982 is a very enjoyable read, particularly the first part of the book, and of great interest to readers in the literary scene of American letters in the 1950s, with interest in the theatre of gay letters in particular.

036. Quest for Kim. In search of Kipling's Great Game
Finished reading: 5 March 2016



Peter Hopkirk (1930 – 2014) was a journalist who wrote six books about the role of the British Empire in Central Asia – eastern Turkey, Russia, the Caucasus, Pakistan, India, Iran, China, and Nepal. Hopkirk was the chief reporter, Middle East and Far East specialist at The Times for more than 20 years. The books he wrote are a direct off-shoot of that work, and demonstarte a profound interest in the region, joined with the adventurous spirit of the older generation, particularly found in authors such as Erskine Childers and John Buchan. Perhaps this mentality was a family tradition. In any case, by the time the books were written and published in the mid-1990s, Hopkirk's enthusiasm for the British Empire was already dubious.

Quest for Kim. In search of Kipling's Great Game is just such a book, written in the celebratory spirit of colonialism and the British Empire. The book is not at all scholarly, but a purely personal interest of the author to explore the background of Rudyard Kipling's novel Kim.

The book creates the impression that very little material was at hand and what was there is drawn out to make the most of it. Thus, in the opening part of the book, several pages are devoted to the personal significance of the novel Kim to various people, including the author.

What follows is a travelogue to places of importance in Kipling's novel. Hopkirk convincingly demonstrates that Kipling found his inspiration very close at home, showing that many buildings and objects in the novel exist in the real world, in fact, many buildings are preserved into the modern time.

The region in which Kim is set, in now a dangerous border region, divided between India and Pakistan. For nearly two centuries, the world powers have tried to conquer this region unsuccessfully.

Quest for Kim. In search of Kipling's Great Game is moderately interesting, particularly for those with an interest in the history of the British Empire in the region, or nostalgia for colonial times. Likely, the book is more appealing to readers familiar with Kipling's work.

037. Hier ben ik. Een hedendaags Hooglied
Finished reading: 6 March 2016



Hier ben ik. Een hedendaags Hooglied is the first novel by the Dutch author Donald Niedekker. The title tells a lot about the book: "Here I am" or "This is me" with the sub title: "Modern Canticles". The short novel is a cacaphonic, whirling description of the main characters' life; a rich life of many talents, interests and experiences, from the lowest passions to the highest spirits.

It is a song of songs, showing the depth that can be reached in the low lands, the cosmopolitanism of Amsterdam in the Zaanstreek. The descriptive power of the novel is a bit over the top, and at the cost of narrative. The suggested depth, however, is but a smoke screen for shallowness. Superficially and interesting read, but with very little substance.

Vassallucci is a Dutch publisher that often publishes new authors in hardcover editions.

038. Verhalen
Finished reading: 10 March 2016



Between 1996 and 2004, the Antwerp publisher Houtekiet published the series "Flemish Library", re-issuing 36 important Flemish novels which originally appeared between 1927 - 1970 in hardcover editions. Through this series, many novels, long out of print, were made available in clean, crisp, new editions. Many of the authors included in the selection were out of print.

Maurice D'Haese (1919 – 1981) was a Flemish author, who published only three books: De heilige gramschap (1952), De witte muur (1957) and Verhalen (1961). The title of the latter is simply "Stories" and consists of a collection of ten short stories. In all stories a deep sense of humanity is juxtaposed with a form of unusual behavior which creates a strong sense of alienation.

Very powerful stories which left a deep impression on me.

039. Temptations of the West. How to be modern in India, Pakistan and beyond
Finished reading: 11 March 2016



Temptations of the West. How to be modern in India, Pakistan and beyond is a strenuous read about contemporary politics in India and Pakistan. In a prologue, the author Pankaj Mishra sympathetically sketches how he launched upon his career as a writer, relating details from his student days in Benares. This Prologue is followed by eight long essays in three parts: Part 1 about India; Part 2 about Pakistan and Afghanistan; and Part 3 about Nepal and Tibet.

The essays are a strenuous read because they are very long, and highly detailed descriptions of contemporary politics: politicians and events in the region which are unlikely known to the general reader, and likely of little importance, as ten years on, most will likely be irrelevant. (The book was first published in 2006.) The essay about Indian politics is 76 pages long, the essay about Kashmir, 90 pages, and the essay about Afghanistan 56 pages. Most of the other essays are about 30 pages long.

Particularly since the book was published more than a decade ago, describing a very turbulent region, it is questionable how useful and relevant it still is to the non-specialist reader.

Nice to see you here, Edwin. I always enjoy your thoughtful reviews of the many books that you read.

Intriguing reviews. Especially interested in Five O'clock Angel.

>115 edwinbcn: The book title sounds more interesting than the essays it contains.

Right, Bas. The title probably comes from an editor, unlikely from the author. It would be hard to explain the relation between the title and the book.

040. China Diary
Finished reading: 14 March 2016



Charlotte Y. Salisbury was mainy active as a diarist, publishing at least six diaries based on travels in Asia and Russia. China Diary describes her six-week trip through China in 1972. The diary starts with a first entry, dated May 27, and finishes in Hong Kong on July 3.

Admitted to traveling through China in 1972, the Salisburys, Charlotte and Harrison, were among the first visitors since 1966, the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, which in fact had not finished while they were there. During this six week trip, they visited various big cities, such as Beijing, Shanghai, Wuhan, Changsha and Xi'an, as well as rural areas and the revolutionary base at Yan'an. They were welcomed and met by Prime-Minister Zhou Enlai and Soong Qing-Ling, which exemplifies that they were not ordinary travellers. Harrison Salisbury was a respected journalist who often reported from Communist countries and who opposed the Vietnam War very early on.

China in 1972 was a baffling experience, even to seasoned travellers, and the cultural differences were still towering.

Charlotte Y. Salisbury's China Diary is rather tame and not very spectacular. It duly describes the plodding on their journey, recording mostly minor details. At the end of the book a list of "Do's and Don'ts for traveling in China" is included.

041. The Ladies of Grace Adieu, and other stories
Finished reading: 15 March 2016



Despite the fact that the novel Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, published in 2005, had more than 1,000 pages, it was and enchanting and compelling read, from which I derived a great deal of pleasure. Unfortunately, the stories in The Ladies of Grace Adieu, and other stories are not of the same quality.

Some of the stories in The Ladies of Grace Adieu, and other stories have the same characters as in the novel, while all stories are set in the magical wonderland of elves and magicians. The stories are either thematically linked to the novel or were written in the same style, either predating, written concurrently or shortly after the novel Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell was published. Some stories consist of fragments which were lifted out of the novel.

Perhaps what makes the novel so great is the huge scope and scale of the story, while the short stories as simply too short to develop a real sense.

Quite disappointing.



Other books I have read by Susanna Clarke:
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell

042. The pleasures and sorrows of work
Finished reading: 16 March 2016



In Fates worse than death. An autobiographical collage Kurt Vonnegut wrote that a beginning writer should be on the look out for unusual fields, technology, occupations or cultural niches, which may harbour a treasure trove of unusual vocabulary and usage of language. Alain de Botton is hardly a new writer, but The pleasures and sorrows of work seems to be a typical illustration of Vonnegut's tip.

In The pleasures and sorrows of work De Botton collects 10 essays about a very wide variety of topics: (1) Cargo Ship Spotting, (2) Logistics, (3) Biscuit Manufacture, (4) Career Counselling, (5) Rocket Science, (6) Painting, (7) Transmission Engineering, (8) Accountancy, (9) Entrepreneurship, and (10) Aviation.

One typical problem of this choice, is that few readers of essays may have rather little interest in any of these topics. Another problem is that, while reading, one gets the feeling that these are not essays per se but rather pieces of journalistic work. Then, too, as journalism, they would be a tat too literary. Each of the essays does introduce a wealth of vocabulary and particular language use. Besides, De Botton treats every topic with a broad sweep of elegance and seriousness, oddly juxtaposing literary erudition and matter-of-fact knowlegeability about such plebescite topics.

The pleasures and sorrows of work was published in 2009, and it will come as no surprise that A Week at the Airport was published in the same year. These two works are clearly related, in the choice of topic area, scope and style.

For readers who are interested in mastery of language in ususual areas, or faithful fans of Alain de Botton, The pleasures and sorrows of work may have some appeal. Incidentally, the essays are not a reflection on our own work or the psychology of a working (wo-)man's life. They are rather descriptive features of an odd-ball variety of occupations.



Other books I have read by Alain de Botton:
The art of travel
A week at the airport. A Heathrow diary
How Proust can change your life
Kiss and tell
The Romantic Movement. Sex, shopping and the novel

043. Vladiwostok!
Finished reading: 17 March 2016



Whatever the ideals of the Flower-Power and Hippie generation were, by the 1990s the baby-boomer generation has developed into an egotistic, and ruthless tribe. Sexual freedom and multiple partners has taken the form of self-centred gratification without loyalty or consideration for the feelings of others.

The main character of Vladiwostok!, Fons Nieuwendijk, is just such a selfish, reckless character. The plot of the novel seems a condensation of elements directly taken from daily television shows on Dutch TV, such as DWDD: a toxic mix of politics, media, commerce and business.

However, the novel is rather disappointing. There is not enough focus, and no real human interest. Iconic perhaps, but not cult. Just a very average novel.



Other books I have read by P. F. Thomése:
Eerder thuis dan Townes
Het zesde bedrijf

044. Guns, germs and steel. The fates of human societies
Finished reading: 20 March 2016



Widely read and popular, Guns, germs and steel. The fates of human societies has a simple and compelling thesis: Geography lies at the basis of the success of civilizations. The long horizontal axis spanning the Eurasian continent resulted in successful transmission of cultural and agricultural discoveries, while the vertical axes of the American and African continents were less conducive to such promotion. Thus, the civilizations on the Eurasian continent were ultimately more successful than civilizations of other continents.

Guns, germs and steel. The fates of human societies includes descriptions of all continents and major civilizations, with some more prominence for places the author knows better from previous work. The fact that the book first appeared in 1997, 1999 does not seem to be of major impact. Although in the meantime significant progress has been made in describing human ancestry, new findings do not seem to undermine or challenge Diamond's thesis on main points.

Guns, germs and steel. The fates of human societies does take a rather reductionist stance, and the main arguments in the conquest of Latin America seem to be a bit forced, downplaying simple luck. Psychological traits of the conquerers, such as agression, deceit and drive to conquer are not juxtaposed to the characteristics of other peoples in the world.

Still, Guns, germs and steel. The fates of human societies remains a very interesting book to read.



Other books I have read by Jared Diamond:
The third chimpanzee. The evolution and future of the human animal

045. Doorgaande reizigers
Finished reading: 21 March 2016



Doorgaande reizigers is a collection of short stories by the Dutch author J. Bernlef. Each of the stories explores the idea that our personality is not autonomous, but is in part determined by circumstances. We are not just who we are, but we are our work, we are influenced by others. Perhaps being is only a figment of the mind, while becoming and being part is more accurate.

The stories do not all equally successfully explore this idea. The story of the holiday entertainment show, and the (apparently) Stasi Spitzel, the spy, are compelling.

Doorgaande reizigers is an intetesting collection in the work by Bernlef.



Other work I have read by J. Bernlef:
De witte stad
Meneer Toto-tolk
De pianoman
Verbroken zwijgen
Publiek geheim
Sneeuw

046. Dit zijn de namen
Finished reading: 21 March 2016



Dit zijn de namen is a novel unlike other Dutch novels. The story is confusing, because two story-lines are told in alternating chapters, a common enough device, but neither the connection nor the loci of the minor story-line and main story are clear. The main story is set in Eastern Europe. The un-Dutchness of the novel seems to elevate the story to a higher, more international level.

The main theme of the novel is identity, particularly Jewish identity. In this respect, the novel might be seen as a parabel. A previous novel by Wieringa, Alles over Tristan was also disconnected from Dutch experience, but the human experience was more recognisable, and therefore on the whole more satisfactorily.



Other books I have read by Tommy Wieringa:
Joe Speedboot
Alles over Tristan

047. The life-changing magic of tidying Up. The Japanese art of decluttering and organizing
Finished reading: 21 March 2016



Advice about de-cluttering can be found in many places on the Internet, and boils down to the same effect in most cases. Most of the advice contained in the book by Marie Kondo is of the same kind. That being said, her book is a very enjoyable read, and the length and reiteration of the method is much more effective and convincing that reading a few Internet pages.

Although the author is Japanese, her method and approach are not constrained by cultural barriers. Her ideas are clear and logical, and can be applied anywhere, regardless of cultural background or nationality.

While a certain compulsion is probably a must, the author does shine through the text as somewhat childish, and her self-confidence and belief in herself are a bit streched.

048. The Angel Esmeralda. Nine stories
Finished reading: 22 March 2016



A collection of very diverse short stories of experiences on the far outer reach of experience. Left absolutely no impression on me.



Other books I have read by Don Delillo:
Point Omega
The body artist
Falling man

048. Before the dawn. Recovering the lost history of our ancestors
Finished reading: 24 March 2016



Before the dawn. Recovering the lost history of our ancestors is a great book about the origins of humananity. Its author, Nicholas Wade is a journalist. Wade has done a great job reading and bringing together all materials to present an entirely up-to-date picture of the pre-history of human ancestry.

First published in 2007, the work is already somewhat older, especially as in recent years many new discoveries in the field of human descent have been made, but the book is still very useful. Not a scientist himself, Wade is not hindered by hobby-horses or the need to graft his own experience on a certain muster. His research is thorough and to the point. The scope of the book is remarkably wide, including a number of very interesting issues, such as the origin of language, race, and the extension of humanity to apes.

Before the dawn. Recovering the lost history of our ancestors describes the origins of humanity and its spread over the world, through the trasnsition from hunter-gatherer to the sedentary agricultural cultures. Unlike Guns, germs and steel. The fates of human societies, the book is never populist, and much more focussed, supported by much more findings. There is some over-reliance on the evidence of DNA; some reference to DNA appears on almost every page.

Before the dawn. Recovering the lost history of our ancestors is a very satisfactory book, describing humanity's pre-history not merely from a single perspective, but from a milti-faceted angle, involving biology, archaeology, and anthropology. Speculation is limited and within apparently very reasonable confines.

Before the dawn. Recovering the lost history of our ancestors is one of the best books in this field that I have read.

>123 edwinbcn: Whatever the ideals of the Flower-Power and Hippie generation were, by the 1990s the baby-boomer generation has developed into an egotistic, and ruthless tribe. Sexual freedom and multiple partners has taken the form of self-centred gratification without loyalty or consideration for the feelings of others.

So very true Edwin unfortunately, although I might argue that the ideals of Flower-power and the hippie generation was and still remains very much a counter-culture.

I agree with the idea of "The Life changing magic of tidying-up" but this seems to have been interpreted by many people as the art of getting rid of things. I have a friend who now lives by the code of whenever one new thing comes into the house he gets rid of two other things. I am a bit worried he might starve himself. I am still very much in the process of cluttering - I just need more space to do so and where I live that is not a problem.

I note your review of Before the dawn. recovering the lost history of our ancestors, which sounds good.

What a lot of wonderful reviews! I am grateful you have found a hole in the great firewall of China. I especially enjoyed the review >122 edwinbcn:. I absolutely loved his On Love and am afraid to anything else by him won't be as wonderful.

I've added >129 edwinbcn: to my mental recommend-to-bookclub list as I think it will generate a fun and interesting discussion.

>124 edwinbcn: I read Guns, Germs, and Steel ages ago; thanks for your review.

>129 edwinbcn: Before the Dawn sounds fascinating.

Thanks, Barry. I use The life-changing magic of tidying Up. The Japanese art of decluttering and organizing to justify getting rid of some things, but it remains very difficult, particularly sorting unread books. It is much easier to get rid of lots of other stuffs, and then the book by Kondo is very helpful.

You are right, ELiz, the works of Alain de Botton seem to be very differing in quality. I loved the first book I read, The Romantic Movement. Sex, shopping and the novel but then did not care at all for Kiss and tell and How Proust can change your life.

I am very happy with The art of travel, which I enjoyed reading very much, but The pleasures and sorrows of work and its spin-off A week at the airport. A Heathrow diary are not interesting at all, and hard to compare as essays (if the latter can be called essays at all) by the same author.

>> Barry and Rebecca.

Before the dawn. Recovering the lost history of our ancestors was indeed a very engaging and rewarding book. Tremendous scope and a wealth of information. I bought the book on the strength of the publisher, Penguin Books, and was not mistaken. The book covers much material similar to Guns, Germs, and Steel but does not have the populist angle of competitiveness, and is, in fact, much more comprehensive.

050. The human mind, and how to make the most of it
Finished reading: 26 March 2016



The human mind, and how to make the most of it is a very useful and comprehensive introduction to the study of psychology. In nine chapters, nonetheless nearly 500 pages, Robert Winston covers nearly all aspects of the brain, from physiology to various mental disorders, and particularly the interaction and close relation between the physical and mental structures that make up the human mind.

The book should mostly be seen as a primer and introduction to the field, but can equally well be read to fresh up one's knowledge of psychology. It includes all standard examples of various brain disorders and historical experiments and accidents which have helped elucidate the workings of the brain. It is fully up to date, and, apart from necessary terminology, never overly technical or specialist. Robert Winston writes very well, making The human mind, and how to make the most of it a breeze to read.

051. The pesthouse
Finished reading:



The pesthouse is Jim Crace's seventh novel, published in 2007. It is another novel, among many, of a distopian future, in which people are desperate to leave the United States. The books contains many story elements from similar novels in the genre, and immediately calls Cormac McCarthy's novel The Road to mind. However, The pesthouse is not as horrific and offers more of an idyll.

In fact, the realization that the novel is set in the future comes very late in the book, as the hatred of iron cannot be otherwise explained. The pesthouse is very well-written, and particularly the first chapter, ominous and dark, is extremely well conceived and executed. It is borne of a magnificent idea, and perfectly executed, and seems to be a core element in the work of Crace in its dark pondering of death. Subsequent chapters are also extremely well-written, and th novel as a whole is very enjoyable to read.

It seems a bit odd that such a distopian novel about America is written by a British author, and at a deeper level this does seem significant. Unlike The Road, The pesthouse is not all bleak and pessimistic. Various story elements seem to draw on the typical American experience, such as the frontier exerpience, aptly reversed in people trekking to the East, in almost equal circumstances as the famous expansion to the West. The religious sekt which harbours and shelters refugees like an ark, and the procedures to come on board are about as strict as boarding an airplane to the US in our own days. Finally, refugees leaving the shores in ships to Europe is another odd reversal of the actual history of the United States.

Various parts of the novel are convincing and interesting to read. Perhaps among the distopian novels, The pesthouse is the most beautiful and ultimately the most optimistic, as the novel opens a vista to some form of hope, albeit feeble. The novel does not disclose what disaster caused the country to fall back into a much more primitive stage of civilization, but, as in the episode of Margaret's stay in the pesthouse, the novel seems to suggest that a prolonged period of waiting and patience may bring better times to the continent, the pesthouse of the title becoming a metaphor for the future of America.

The pesthouse is very well-written, and presents a beautiful story in very dire circumstances.



Other books I have read by Jim Crace:
Being dead
Quarantine
Signals of distress

052. Eerst grijs dan wit dan blauw
Finished reading: 28 March 2016

English

Eerst grijs dan wit dan blauw (Engl. First Gray, Then White, Then Blue) is an award-winning novel by the Dutch author Margriet de Moor. The panel considered the hap-hazard structure of the novel "innovative" as it enhances the sense of displacement. The novel was written in the early 1990s and contains various elements referring to that period, such as travels to Prague and a well-known cafe in the Kleist Strasse in Berlin.

First Gray, Then White, Then Blue is difficult to read, and upon finishing the book, the reader remains with more questions than answers found. Magda is of Czech descent, and the novel tells the story of her life, having grown up in Czechoslovakia, Canada and the Netherlands. However, the motive for the murder of Magda by Robert, in the first chapter never becomes clear.

Autism seems to be a theme in the novel, and although only one character is described as being autistic, it is this child that can best connect with Magda, while Robert, painter, cannot connect to Madge at all, and both seem to live together separately, as Magda goes her own way.

The novel is partly set in the 1970s and 80s, and the free lifestyle of that period shines through, but does not brin any of the characters closer together. Perhaps Magda's seemingly perfect integration is but an illusion, and the darker suggestion that she is nowhere at home.

The novel is slightly reminiscent of Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being.

>125 edwinbcn: It seems so unprobable that you haven't read Hersenschimmen that I almost assume you either did read it or you made the choice not too read it. I must say I am curious :-).

There are two reasons why my TBR is huge, and some books are un-read for extended periods. Firstly, all my life I have spent so much time abroad, and had my possessions, especially books spread out over various places, that I simply had no access. For instance, right now, 30% of my books are stored in the attic of my mum (distance: 8,000 km), 60% are in my home in Nanning (distance: 3,000 km) and 10% of my books are in Beijing.

And secobdly, before 1995, I did not read much Dutch literature; only after graduation did I start buying and reading modern and contemporary Dutch fiction.

I own a copy of Hersenschimmen, which I apparently bought in February 2010. For many years, the book stayed in my mum's home. It was here in Beijing for about 2 years, and now the book is in my other home in Nanning. One day, I'll get round to reading it.

I am not so extremely fond of the work of Bernlef. I have read seven books by Bernlef, and Hersenschimmen is the only unread on my TBR pile.

Thanks for explaining! I read Hersenschimmen a long time ago but can still remember it vividly. I read more by Bernlef afterwards, but none of his other works could match this one.
Maybe one day you'll get round to it, but I can imagine your problem with most of your books at least 3000 km away!

>129 edwinbcn: Interesting review of Before the Dawn: recovering the lost history of our ancestors. I have it on the shelf and hope to get to it for the Dewey challenge in July.

053. Grillige Kathleen
Finished reading: 28 March 2016



Grillige Kathleen is an experimental novel by the Flemish author René Gysen, published in 1966. Not without dispute, the book is considered to be a novel, despite the fact that it looks more like a short story collection. In fact, the books consists of seven texts, which belong to different genres altogether, including short stories and essays. The novel seems to be a contemplation on Nabokov's famous novel Lolita, which was first published in 1955.

054. De passievrucht
Finished reading: 29 Maerch 2016

English

Children born from extramarital affairs are a much more common phenomenon that generally thought. Armin Minderhout, the main character in De passievrucht (English: A Father's Affair discovers by accident that his son, Bo, is not biologically his son. A fertility test shows that not his current wife, Ellen, but he is barren. By implication, Armin cannot be the father of his 13-year old son from his previous marriage to Monika.

Bafflement is followed by anger, and wonder about relationships. In his search for the biological father of Bo, Armin goes over all Monika's friends and acquaintances to determine who could have impregnated her. This leads to some surprising developments.

055. A bend in the Yellow River
Finished reading: 1 April 2016



A bend in the Yellow River is a memoir of the author's year, teaching English in the small town of Yuncheng in Shanxi Province, China. Aged just 21 year, Justin Hill arrived in China in 1993, as a volunteer with the VSO. The small town to which Mario and he were assigned lies at a distance of 16 hours by train from Beijing, in the southernmost tip of Shanxi Province.

In 1993, Chinese people in such a remote place had barely been exposed to foreigners, and the local population and the foreigners observe each other as exotica. The memoir, divided according to the seasons, describes every aspect of life as a foreign teacher in China. It forms a quaint portrait of life in China in the early 1990s.

A bend in the Yellow River was Justin Hill's first book. He has subsequently written various other books, including a novel and collection of short stories. Leaving China, he moved to Africa, to teach English in Eritrea.

056. The memory chalet
Finished reading: 1 April 2016



The memory chalet by Tony Judt is a memoir that in scope and topic is comparable to Letter to D. by André Gorz. Describing roughly the same period, and the same political and social movements, The memory chalet is a light autobiography, in which the author looks back on his life. The memoir is written in very short episodes, and in a light, and very readable style. The main tone of the memoir is a sense of nostalia.

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>146 edwinbcn: I read Tony Judt's sometimes heartbreaking essays about his battle with ALS, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, in The New York Review of Books, and bought The Memory Chalet after he died. I loved it.

>147 edwinbcn: Blank message? Or am I missing something?

Thanks for noticing, Darryl.

Adding a "dot" is the easiest way for me to check whether I have access to LT.

In early May, my computer crashed and I lost the cached files to access LT from my home in Beijing, unable to load those files again.

I am now spending 3 weeks holiday in my home in Nanning, but only had my Internet connection restored as of Thursday afternoon.

One of my first actions was to "try LT", and even though the home page would not immediately load, (which is a bad sign), being able to write on the boards means I have full access, again, at least here in Nanning.

Good to see you Edwin

Ah. I'm glad that you have full access to LT, Edwin. Enjoy your holiday!

After 16 years, I have left Beijing and am now relocating to Guangzhou, a.k.a. Canton in South China. This will enable me to spend more time in Nanning (500 km to the west), where I have my home.

The past 3 months have been very stressful. I lost access to LT in early May, so wasn't able to manage my catalogue and keep track of my reading. Books and notebooks will hopefully resurface by the mid- to end of September, when my shipment arrives in Guangzhou.

Anyway, I am so happy that here in Nanning, I can access LT.

057. Is God Happy? Selected essays
Finished reading: 2 April 2016



The apparent impopularity of this author, Leszek Kołakowski and this work, Is God Happy? Selected essays is probably symptomatic for our time, and wholly unjustified, even unwise as Kołakowski argues.

Leszek Kołakowski (1927 -2009) was born in Poland, where he worked until 1968, when his ideas about communism jarred with the Polish state political ideology. In the same year, he moved to the United States, to continue his academic career, and further develop his ideas about communism, which resulted in the 3-volume standard work on the topic, Main Currents of Marxism. After 1968, Kołakowski became increasingly interested in religion.

Published in Penguin's Modern Classics series, Is God Happy? Selected essays is perhaps the most easily available volume of essays by Leszek Kołakowski, but not the most representative. The volume collects essays in two topic areas, the first part being devoted to essays about communism and the second part, essays about religion.

The essays about communism are mostly relatively short. It should be noted that they are more about communism than about Marxism, and that the essays particularly address the communism of former Eastern Europe, particularly in Poland. The essays are easy to read, and spiked with trite humor of the kind widespread among sceptic communists at the time in East European countries. Many essays address the negative side of communism as it existed in Poland before 1990. However, Kołakowski argues that current disinterest in Marxism and communism is unjustified, even unwise. Firstly, he postulates that essentially the Twentieth Century, particularly the period between 1915 - 1990 cannot really be well understood without a firm knowledge of Marxism, as politics in this period were both directly and indirectly influenced by this political ideology. The author argues that particularly scholars, but likely also general readers ought to invest more time into reading about the basic principles of Marxism, and the way communism developed and existed in various forms during the Twentieth Century. Furthermore, Kołakowski writes that it is likely that Marxism may make a come-back. While it seems that as an ideology is has completely lost appeal to people in the West, the author argues that Marxism was a very potent ideology for more than 100 years, inspiring millions of people. The appeal of Marxism did not only exist in those countries where Marxism in the form of communism became the state ideology. Marxism also inspired millions of academics and other people in democracies all over the world as a mode of thought which could contribute to make a better world if not realize an utopia. Kołakowski argues that as such, Marxism may make a come-back during the course of the Twenty-First Century.

The second part of the volume is dedicated to essays about religion. Many of these essays describe religious experience from a very personal point of view, while some essays are very deep into various aspects of religion, such as the question whether God exists. These essays are meditations on various existential questions and the nature of belief. Some of the essays are long, and difficult to understand, coming close to expressing a mystic form of belief.

It is perhaps symptomatic for our time that few readers are interested in either communism or religion. Nonetheless, it should be realized that they have been fundamental pillars of modern Western society and thought, religion for hundreds of years, and Marxism for more than 100 years. Their appeal has only dwindled since the early 1990s, and as current politics do not seem to have answers to people's and modern society's problems, it is likely that at some stage people will return to one of these systems of thought and ideology. Although a re-emergent form of Marxism or Christian religion is likely to appear in altered form, incoprporating new ideas and adaptations to appeal to young people, it is more likely that at some stage people return to either Marxism or religion, than the emergence of an entirely new ideology. Re-emergent forms of religion and Marxism will be rooted in the older forms, and therefore these origins and the eternal values they address should be studied.

The essays in Leszek Kołakowski Is God Happy? Selected essays are easily accessible and available, but perhaps not the most representative of the full body of the author's work. For instance, while the essays about communism describe the failed communism in Poland, they do not give a good impression of Kołakowski's thought on Marxism. As a philosopher, the author is not just criticizing a failed experiment. The essays do not address the author's ideas about a possible alternative interpretation of Marx in the form of Humanist interpretation of Marx. Likewise, the essays about religion focus too much on a personal experience of the Christian faith, while Kołakowski's broader interest in philosophy and metaphysics does not become apparent.

Still, since interest among modern readers in these two areas is at a historic low, Is God Happy? Selected essays is perhaps a good introduction into the work of Leszek Kołakowski and thought in these areas, spurring interested readers on to exploring other works by this underappreciated author.

Welcome back!

Very interesting Edwin

Glad to hear you will be closer to where you can get LT access. The Tony Judt book sounds very interesting to me. I thought I had read one of his books but I think it's just that I've always meant to get around to Postwar.

058. Midnight in Peking. How the murder of a young Englishwoman haunted the last days of Old China
Finished reading: 3 April 2016



Midnight in Peking. How the murder of a young Englishwoman haunted the last days of Old China and The badlands. Decadent playground of Old Peking are two closely related books, authored by Paul French, the editor of the in-house publication series of the Royal Asiatic Society. The badlands. Decadent playground of Old Peking is a small booklet that describes the seedy area of gambling houses, cabarets, brothels and opium dens directly to the east of the Legation Quarter in Beijing during the 1920s -- 1930s. This area is the setting of the drama in Midnight in Peking. How the murder of a young Englishwoman haunted the last days of Old China.

For a long time, foreigners had the position, almost as untouchables, but also in a sense of neglect. The Chinese mainly tend to see the foreign presence as a pollution, and tend to ignore it as well as they can. During the late years of the Qing dynasty diplomats lived in the Legation Quarter, and a relatively small number of foreigners lived in other parts of the city, notably George Ernest Morrison who lived in Wangfujing Street, then called Morrison Street, Sir Edmund Backhouse and Sir Reginald Fleming Johnston, tutor of Puyi. These people were sinologists and newspapermen. A more colourful riff-raff of Russians and other foreigners resided in the seedy quarter known as the badlands north of the Hadamen Gate. It was in this area that the young Pamela Werner, daughter of a sinologist and diplomat, looked for adventure and met with a gruesome death.

Midnight in Peking. How the murder of a young Englishwoman haunted the last days of Old China describes the events and points at the most likely culprit at whose hands Pamela met with her death. It is a chilling story, which French pieced together from the archive of Pamela's father and circumstantial other evidence. The book is written in the style of a detective story, but still sufficiently factual to pass as a hybrid between scholarly work and popular science.



Other books I have read by Paul French:
The badlands. Decadent playground of Old Peking

059. Le mausolée des amants. Journal 1976 - 1991
Finished reading: 4 April 2016



Like many of his novels, Le mausolée des amants. Journal 1976 - 1991 by the French author Hervé Guibert is a fictionalized account, in this case in the form of a diary. A disturbing feature of the book is that there are no dated diary entries. The book consists of a large number of short and medium-length entries, as in a real diary, but without dates the structure of the text and time of events remains relatively obscure. While fictionalized, the work relates to reality, and elements and people from Guibert's life may realistically feature in the Journal. For instance, there are regular references to the Belgian author Eugène Savitzkaya, with whom Hervé Guibert corresponded for a more than 10-year period overlapping the course of the journal, viz. Lettres à Eugène. Correspondance 1977-1987. Le mausolée des amants. Journal 1976 - 1991 is a chronicle of the AIDS epidemic and Guibert's personal drama. It is difficult to decide to what extent the Journal is fictionalized, and how this affects the described events. Thus, the work is strongly lacking in personal appeal, and is as much a diary as a novellistic piece of prose.

Le mausolée des amants. Journal 1976 - 1991 appeared post-humously in 2001. The Journal starts in 1976, and ends in 1991, the year in which Guibert died of AIDS. The period 1976 - 1991 appears to be the period during which Guibert was active as an author, and in that sense the work pertains to the persona of the author as the author appears in his semi-autobiographical, or fictionalzed work. Guibert was diagnosed with HIV / AIDS in 1988.



Other books I have read by Hervé Guibert:
Le Paradis
Lettres à Eugène. Correspondance 1977-1987
La Mort propagande et autres textes de jeunesse
Mes parents
À l'ami qui ne m'a pas sauvé la vie
L'homme au chapeau rouge

060. The farthest home is in an empire of fire. A Tejano elegy
Finished reading: 5 April 2016



The farthest home is in an empire of fire. A Tejano elegy is a freely exploratative autobiography tracing the author's Spanish and Amer-Indian ancestors. The writing style is light and unpretentious. Ultimately, the book is dissatiffactory because it lacks a clear focus and is too anecdotal.

061. Why I write. Thoughts on the craft of fiction
Finished reading: 5 April 2016



Why I write. Thoughts on the craft of fiction is a collection of 26 fairly short essays in which authors explain why they write. Among the more famous contributors are names such as David Foster Williams, Ann Patchett, Jane Ann Philips, Richard Ford and William Vollmann, etc. According to comments by authors in the essays, the authors were apparently left very freely to decide how to write their essays, while they wereome contributors seem generously paid for their contributions. Some contributors seem to have taken this authorial liberty to the limit and produced some pretty awful postmodern trash. However, most authors provide a neat, short essay explaining their motivations to write. There is also one essay which celebrates the reputation of Alan Gurganus as a creative writing tutor. Interesting for a wide readership.

062. The bath fugues
Finished reading: 6 April 2016



Not very impressive novel consisting of three interconnected novellas.

063. Collected poems
Finished reading: 8 April 2016



This collection of poems, translated into English did not interest me at all.

064. Just kids
Finished reading: 9 April 2016



Just kids is a memoir written by the American punk rock singer Patti Smith about the period in her early career when she lived together with the photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. It is a very readable book that gives a very warm and fuzzy peek into the 1960s and 1970s. As the title suggests, the memoir focusses on the innocent side of their lives. Hardly any mention is made of Mapplethorpe's homosexuality, to the extent that the reader is led to believe that Smith and Mapplethorpe were not just room-mates, but de facto lovers. It does not become clear whether this was a part of deceit on Mapplethorpe's side or Smith's delusion. It seems the innocence of the memoir seems a ploy to prolong the naivete and illusion that they were more than just room-mates.

065. Vliegers boven Lentestad
Finished reading: 15 April 2016



Novel originally published in Dutch by the Chinese author Yuhong Gong about modern Chinese history, described under a thin veil of imagination. Rather uninteresting.

066. Kon-Tiki. Across the Pacific in a Raft
Finished reading: 17 April 2016



Looking back acrross the years to its first publication, nearly 70 years ago, Kon-Tiki. Across the Pacific in a Raft has achieved the status of a classic. Probably the documentary film of the expedition in 1951 greatly contributed to the popularization of the book. While largely unscientific, Heyerdahl's hypothesis and the practical exploratative nature of his research appeals to the popular mind, and the popularity of the book has swept criticism about its scientific premises or verity aside. Having studied zoology and explored the colonization of Polynesian islands by animals, Heyerdahl proposed a new controversial hypothesis based on an ancient Inca myth that Polynesia was discovered and populated by a mythical white race, originating from the Latin American continent prior to the arrival of the Spanish there. The books premises are about as strong or weak, and at least as popular as those of Gavin Menzies in our day.

Contrary to what many reviewers claim, the book is not 'a ripping adventure story', a claim which would perhaps better fit the films based on the book. The largest part of the book is devoted to describing Heyerdahl's hypothesis and the practical preparation for the journey.

Although Heyerdahl may be wrong about the spread of humans to Polynesia, his work and the adventurous demonstration that ancient people's could have travelled across the Pacific in a vessel or raft of their own crafting, has inspired not only many readers, but also other archaeologists and explorers to reconstruct ancient technology and prove the feasibility of, for example, literary records of travel or warfare.

Thor Heyerdahl is an excellent writer, and regardless of its scientific merit, Kon-Tiki. Across the Pacific in a Raft should be read as a classic travelogue.

067. Heartburn
Finished reading: 19 April 2016

068. The floating brothel. The extraordinary true story of an Eighteenth-Century ship and its cargo of female convicts
Finished reading: 19 April 2016



Siân Rees has done an amazing job combining various historical records and sources into a dramatically convincing story. The first part of the book consists of accounts based on legal records about various women and their crimes, ranging from theft to prostitution, and their subsequent deportation to the penal colony, then Australia. The hardship of the voyage, the landing and finally settlement with new husbands is decribed in equally engaging chapters, which vividly bring the everyday life experience of the Eighteenth Century to life. However, the literary quality of the book falls somewhat behind the scholarly work, and at times descriptions are a bit too long. The research may not be very spectacular, but the conception of the book into a coherent narrative is quite successful.

069. Globalisation, Democracy And Terrorism
Finished reading: 20 April 2016



A short, but excellent analysis of our time, by one of the great critical historians of the Twentieth Century.

070. Favonius
Finished reading: 21 April 2016

071. Suzanne, een bouquetromance. Sprookjes, novellen, vertellingen
Finished reading: 23 April 2016



Suzanne, een bouquetromance. Sprookjes, novellen, vertellingen is a collection of short stories by the relative little-known Dutch author Klaus Siegel. Readable but not very interesting.

Other books I have read by Klaus Siegel:
De nieuwe engel
Een wereldondergang in Oud-Zuid

072. Tirza
Finished reading: 23 April 2016



Tirza is a Dutch novel which completely pulls the reader into the weirdly autistic world of its main protagonist, Jörgen Hofmeester. Hofmeester cannot accept that his daughter is growing up, and cannot live with reality as it is. While the plot is very thin, consisting of little more than the complications between Hofmeester and his wife, who shows up after three years of absence, and the birthday of his daughter, in whose Moroccan boyfriend Hofmeester seems to recognize Mohammed Atta, the claustrophobic paranoia of the novel seems a completely natural biosphere for this weird story to unfold. The reader is completely drawn in, and despite its length the book continues to fascinate till the very end. Very well done.



Other books I have read by Arnon Grunberg:
Fantoompijn

073. Brieven aan mijn kleinzoon. De geschiedenis van een joodse emigrantenfamilie
Finished reading: 24 April 2016

074. England, England
Finished reading: 25 April 2016

075. A summer of hummingbirds. Love, art, and scandal in the intersecting worlds of Emily Dickinson, Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Martin Johnson Heade
Finished reading: 25 April 2016



A summer of hummingbirds. Love, art, and scandal in the intersecting worlds of Emily Dickinson, Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Martin Johnson Heade is a work of literary criticism and history, focussing mainly on the writer Harriet Beecher Stowe and the American painter Martin Johnson Heade in the period shortly after the American Civil War. A couple of other literary figures, among whom Mark Twain and Emily Dickinson are featured. The book forms an interesting description of the period, bringing together authors who were obviously contemporaries but are not often discussed together. However, the motive of the hummingbird throughout the book as a kind of metaphor for the light, fluttery sexual promiscuity of the age, personified by Lord Byron was rather disturbing, and laid on too thickly. Still, the book will be attractive to readers with an interest in the period and these authors, and particularly delightful to those unfamiliar with the painting of Martin Johnson Heade.

076. The secret river
Finished reading: 27 April 2016



Kate Grenville's novel The secret river is a dramatic story not often told, and a multiple-layered novel. The story begins with the life of the Thornhills, William and Sal, in utter poverty in London. When William is caught stealing his death sentence is changed to deportation of his whole family to New South Wales. After a few years in the colony, like many (ex-) convicts, Thornhill thrives, establishing a life of comfort unbeknownst to people like him in London. While Sal wants to set money aside to return to England, with the risk of losing everything again and falling back into a life of poverty, William Thornhill wants to stay and stake a claim to a piece of land of his fancy. For years he observes the plot and when he finally wants to stake his claim it appears to be taken. But William ignores the signs, as apparently the digging does not indicate a claim of fellow settlers, but merely the work of some local aborigines, who do not seem to linger.

From this stage, the novel's plot becomes a metaphor for the colonization of Australia, for the land on which seemingly no-one lingers does actually belong to the native inhabitants. The story of the Thornhill family then develops to its ultimate, very dramatic climax.

The secret river is beautifully written, exploring an intriguing theme and portraying both the colonists and the aborigines in a psychologically completely convincing way. It is a strong story of real interest, not only as a historical novel, but also in its implications to the present.

Highly recommended.

077. The cleft
Finished reading: 28 April 2016

078. The Folding Star
Finished reading: 2 May 2016



The Folding Star, published in 1994, was Alan Hollinghurst's second novel. The novel tells the story of Edward Manners, who makes a living as a tutor to two Belgian students. Being gay, Edward is more attracted to Luc than to Marcel, although Luc seems to be rather naughty. In between and after classes, Edward frequents the gay scene where is is attracted to the North-African Cherif, who seems to be an unstable character of neither particularly good looks nor manners, and often disappears for short times. While Edwards obsession with these three boys wanders, his mind often strays to a youthful lover who died many years earlier. In a sense, none of the young men are within his reach, either separated by age, social circumstances or death. Edwards obsession with the beauty of the boys is reflected in the obsession of Luc's father for the painter, Edgard Orst. Edward helps Luc's father making a catalogue of the works of the painter.

The Folding Star gives a very interesting portrait of gay life in the late 1980s and early 1990s, while its theme of pondering an longing for unattainable beautiful boys, whether really beautiful or just beautiful in the minds, gives the novel a longer lasting appeal among major works with gay themes.



Other books I have read by Alan Hollinghurst:
The swimming pool library
The spell

079. De literaire kring
Finished reading: 6 May 2016





Other books I have read by Marjolijn Februari:
Een pruik van paardenhaar & Over het lezen van een boek. Amartya Sen en de onmogelijkheid van de Paretiaanse liberaal
De zonen van het uitzicht

I loved Just Kids and The Secret River and felt lukewarm about Midnight in Peking. Nice to see you back.

Always interesting to read your reviews Edwin

>177 edwinbcn: Thanks for the review. I have a couple of his other books on the TBR, which I apparently have been avoiding for no reason whatsoever.

Great reviews, Edwin. I'm glad to see that you enjoyed Just Kids and The Secret River; I'll move both books higher on my TBR list.

Last week Wednesday, my partner brought me a new laptop from Beijing, for me to use in my apartment in Guangzhou. I haven't been back to my home in Nanning for about a month, and all the while had very limited access to the Internet, basically only in my office, but there I had no time to surf leisurely, and I did not want to carry books to the office to review them there.

Today, my Internet connection was set up in my apartment in Guangzhou, and guess what, it seems I have access to LibraryThing and can try to catch up with my enourmous back-log.

Not having Internet access has some advantages: I wrote a 185-page book which was published in Beijing last week.

Haha, glad to be back.

Welcome back to LT, Edwin. Congrats on your book.

Glad to see you back Edwin, and congratulations on your book!

Congratulations on the book. It's good to see you back and looking forward to your posts.

Congratulations and welcome back, Edwin!

Our man in China

Welcome back, congratulations on your book and looking forward to your updates.

091. The man on Mao's right. From Harvard Yard to Tiananmen Square, my life inside China's Foreign Ministry
Finished reading: 14 July 2016



The man on Mao's right. From Harvard Yard to Tiananmen Square, my life inside China's Foreign Ministry by the Chinese author Ji Chaozhu 冀朝铸 has remarkably few readers on LibraryThing; only about 30 to date, nearly eight years since its publication in 2008.
That was the year of the Beijing Olympic Games, a time presumably many people would be interested to pick up a book about China. The title of the book refers to the author, shown on the cover standing to Mao's right, a somewhat enigmatic title, of course. The subtitle is long and complicated From Harvard Yard to Tiananmen Square, my life inside China's Foreign Ministry

Mr Ji Chaozhu is of course a rather insignificant figure, not a politician but an interpreter wo served Chinese political leaders for several decades. However, Mr Ji was mostly employed and enjoyed the protection of Prime Minister Zhou Enlai while he only occasionally interpreted for the Great Helmsman, Mao Zedong. Nonetheless, his position gave him a unique perspective, as he could not only observe the unfolding of Chinese contemporary history, but see it from the rostrum of the Meridian Gate, right next to the men who made history.

Although the author largely received protection from China's Prime Minister, he did not escape hardship and suffered greatly during the Cultural Revolution, as he was sent to the countryside for reform through labour with the peasants.

The man on Mao's right is very well-written, and mainly a factual account of Chinese modern history. It describes many of the well-known episodes with great detail, and probably more accuracy than many western authors who tend to exaggerate and speculate more. Mr Ji Chaozhu is never really critical or hostile to the Chinese leadership, but neither tries to cover things up.

Before publication by Random House, The man on Mao's right was published in two earlier, presumably different editions in China. These editions sold very well, although it is not explained in which was those Chinese editions were (if so) different from the current edition.

For readers with an interest in Chinese contemporary history, particularly the period from 1949 till 1980, The man on Mao's right. From Harvard Yard to Tiananmen Square, my life inside China's Foreign Ministry is warmly recommended. The subtitle of the book quite incorrectly suggests that the book would describe Chinese history up till 1989, whereas there is just a short coda describing the authors career as an ambassador after 1982.

095. Puyi, my husband. The last emperor or China 我的丈夫溥仪中国末代皇帝
Finished reading: 25 July 2016



Li Shuxian was former Chinese emperor Puyi's fifth wife. Puyi, my husband. The last emperor or China 我的丈夫溥仪中国末代皇帝 is an autobiographical account of her life with Puyi, and, hence, also a biography of Puyi. Like Puyi's autobiography, From emperor to citizen. The autobiography of Aisin-Gioro Puyi which was written with the assistance of a ghost-writer, likewise Li Shuxian books is based on interviews given by Li Shuxian and written down by Wang Qingxiang. The merit of this biography is that it does not overlap much with Puyi's own biography, and in fact describes how Puyi worked on his own book and recording his own history.

The style of writing is fairly simple, and the book is divided 37 fairly short chapters with many photographs.

>190 edwinbcn: Not a book I have heard of, but certainly looks like a worthwhile one. Thanks for adding in the review.

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