Candles to the Sun

This play in ten scenes by Tennessee Williams is his first full length play. Lost for decades after a 1937 amateur production it surfaced in the nineties and this is the Chicago premiere. The story is based on coal miners in the Red Hills of Alabama and it has Williams' first of many dysfunctional families in the Pilchers. Williams commented that his writing touches on "the great tenderness between individuals and the terrible circumstances that surround them," which is shown in this play. There is the desire of mothers for their sons to escape from the slavery of the mines (reminiscent of Lawrence's Sons and Lovers) and the struggle between social classes.

The production by The Eclipse Theatre Company, directed by Steven Fedoruk, was excellent. The actors worked on the edge between realism and melodrama and managed to rein in the excesses present in this youthful work. The whole cast was superb with standout performances by Rebecca Prescott and Nina O'Keefe as Star and Fern Pilcher, respectively. CeCe Klinger also excelled in the role of the matriarch Hester whose tired countenance symbolizes much of what will occur as the story unfolds. There are suggestions of future excellence in this early example of Williams' dramatic talent. It was an exciting evening of theater with one of America's greatest playwrights.

Candles to the Sun by Tennessee Williams. Eclipse Theatre Company, April 27, 2008.

Musician Ahead of his Time

Symphonie Fantastique

In 1830, when the Symphonie Fantastique by Hector Berlioz premiered, Beethoven had been laid in his grave only three years before, Franz Liszt and Frederic Chopin were young pianists in Paris with their greatest compositions ahead of them (Liszt's Faust Symphony would not premiere for another 27 years), and his symphonic and orchestral ideas that were to revolutionize musical Romanticism were incomprehensible to all but a very few. Eight years earlier Schubert hinted at the notion of thematic unity through a musical motif with his "Wanderer Fantasy" (later transcribed for orchestra by Liszt who was fascinated with the work). But it is Berlioz, with his "idee fixe" in the Symphonie Fantastique presented as the thematic representation of a young musician's ideal love, who at the young age of 27 changes the course of romantic orchestral music. The symphony contains many other innovations, particularly in the orchestration and instrumentation (Berlioz would later write, Principles of Orchestration, still one of the great works in this field). While he would go on to many more triumphs (at least in historical perspective), including Romeo & Juliet, Harold in Italy, Les Troyens and his Requiem, the Symphonie Fantastique is still probably his best known work.

Last night the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Kent Nagano performed an electrifying and edifying version of this 178 year old masterpiece. Particularly notable was the sensitive handling of the introduction and main theme in the first movement and the exaltation of the brass in the finale. While the second movement waltz and the march to the scaffold in the fourth were lucid, the final coda topped the evening and literally took my breath away. While I have not heard all of the four previous recorded versions of this work by the CSO (two led by Sir George Solti and one each by Claudio Abbado and Daniel Barenboim) it seems unlikely that they could be much better that the performance last night.

The Shadow of the Sun

Last fall I read Travels with Herodotus by Ryszard Kapuscinski, the Polish journalist. It was his final book (he died in January, 2007) and I enjoyed it very much, having recently read Herodotus' Histories upon which he draws extensively. So it was with great anticipation that I looked forward to reading earlier works by Ryszard Kapuscinski. As an introduction to the mosaic of life that is known as "Africa" The Shadow of the Sun did not disappoint. The book consists of loosely connected essays on the travels and specific experiences of the author interspersed with brief historical commentaries. The looseness of the content is linked together through recurring themes such as the Sun of the title, the importance of minerals and elements, such as water in the Sahara, and the pervasive violence of both nature and man. The latter is evidenced by the presence of "Warlords" in several countries and the recurrence of tribal attacks of blacks on blacks leading at one extreme to examples of genocide as happened in Rwanda. The ubiquity of oppression of one group upon other(s), again both black, was striking and the existence of black on black apartheid (before it ever occurred in the Republic of South Africa) was both illuminating and disillusioning.

In a book as much about the plastic water container as the warlord and preferring the African shanty town to the Manhattan skyscraper as a monument to human achievement, what Kapuściński, the author of Shah of Shahs describes is not just Africa, which he claims does not exist except geographically, but more a distillation of life itself, through its religiosity, its trees, the frightening abundance of youth, sun that "curdles the blood" and terrorising, ruling armies that fall in a day. A couple of minor criticisms: the chronology in the book was uncertain at times, infuriatingly so; and, the book would have benefitted from a map for reference as the episodic quality of the content led the reader to and fro across the continent. Kapuscinski is an excellent writer and a literary journalist. He is also a brave man who went into places and faced situations that appeared quite dangerous. His readers benefit from his adventurous personality. This excursion into his world makes me even more interested in reading other examples from his oeuvre.

The Shadow of the Sun by Ryszard Kapuscinski. Klara Glowczewska, trans. Alfred A. Knopf, New York. 2001.

Reading Plato


How do we know what is good? How do we know what is true or beautiful? How do we know? While the answers to these questions may not result from reading Plato's dialogues and thinking about them, we will be closer to the way to find the answers or move toward them. In that pursuit I am currently reading a dialogue of Plato entitled Protagoras. Already in the first few pages of the dialogue we have encountered seduction, pursuit of truth and beauty, and an example of a classic interchange between Socrates and a young companion - all in the introduction to what appears to be an exciting journey into the world of the sophists.

The dialogue demonstrates the concepts being discussed as Plato's description of the situation is slowly developed. For example, the setting of Protagoras' teaching "wisdom", in the home of Callias indicates the nature of his true purpose is one of promoting clever speech to his wealthy young clients. That other sophists, Prodicus and Hippias, are present suggests the esteem with which that profession holds Protagoras. Of course few of his words have come down to us today, most notably the saying: "Of all things Man is the measure, both of things that are, that they are, and of things that are not, that they are not." Whatever else Protagoras may say, when we meet him he has the crowd in thrall with his "voice like Orpheus" reaching lyrical heights that has the group moving in a a dance like pattern around the orator.


Protagoras by Plato. Stanley Lombardo and Karen Bell, trans. Hackett Publishing, Indianapolis. 1992.

Great Expectations II




"Who am I," cried Miss Havisham, striking her stick upon the floor and flashing into wrath so suddenlythat Estella glanced up at her in surprise, "who am I, for God's sake, that I should be kind!"
(Miss Havisham to Pip, chapter 44)


Last night I attended the penultimate discussion at Newberry Library of Charles Dickens' penultimate (complete) novel. Our discussion itself demonstrated the popularity of this novel with all of the attendees participating with more passion than typically shown. Perhaps this is because everyone, myself included , seems to like this story, and in spite of his faults, the protagonist Pip. It helps that Dickens demonstrates a mastery of his novel-writing craft and, as he demonstrated in Hard Times and A Tale of Two Cities, he has restrained the prolixity of his prose and yet not failed to deliver vivid descriptions and dramatic scenes. There are moments as moving as any of Dickens, for example when Joe Gargery says goodbye to Pip in London as he returns to his home and the forge. Joe, who is portrayed as the "natural man", is naturally good as the village blacksmith and somehow his Edenic life is believable.

Pip's precious search for his benefactor and his "great expectations" is thwarted by his innocence, by his foolishness, and ultimately by fate which has decreed that his dreams of love and life with Estella are not to be fulfilled. The underlying theme of a search for a father takes a strange turn, while Pip is able to summon the courage to help the convict Magwitch a second time proving his innate goodness. This reader found impressive the development of characters and their changes, ultimately even in someone as cold-hearted as Miss Havisham (demonstrated by the quotation above). Miss Havisham is particularly interesting as a prime source of motivation, putting into motion the life and fate of both Estella and Pip, and as a cruel spinster who ultimately seeks forgiveness. The story builds to a suspenseful climax and on second and third readings continues to charm and challenge my reading life.

What is a bibliography? The dictionary definition (Webster's Collegiate - my favorite) describes it as a list of sources of works on a particular subject or works by a particular author. It might also be a book containing such information or the study of certain data about books and other writings (although I might call that bibliographology). On a more personal level, for this reader, a bibliography is a signpost for further study; a guide for more enjoyment and further reading. The best bibliographies are annotated with commentary that distinguishes the nature of the items listed, pointing to the best for a particular topic or just the most well-written. The annotator may comment on those items that he found especially useful or enjoyable - always a good sign. Needless to say, I always look for books with bibliographies and appreciate the writers and editors that provide them for their readers.

Out of Africa



Out of Africa is Karen Blixen's memoir about her years in Africa, writing as Isak Dinesen. She recounts the world of Africa, specifically Kenya. It is, like the England of her friend Denys Finch-Hatton, "a world that no longer existed" even then and certainly as she left it. The memoir is a slow read, yet a book with prose in which you can luxuriate, or languish perhaps as it seems to mirror the mammoth African landscape. Reading like a pastoral novel, the narrator interested me with her myriad experiences. It presents people, cultures, landscape, and wildlife through her eyes, sometimes noble, sometimes paternal. The culture of the various tribes and religions with whom she had contact on her coffee farm became almost real, so that as I read certain moments became funny or sad or wistful. The reader comes to view animals differently, the fecundity of life struck me particularly. The different forces at work are both natural and foreign; the paradoxical nature of the presence of two churches (Roman Catholic and Church of Scotland); they are sometimes presented as working for good yet other times in conflict with each other. The memoir is truly literate and the importance of books and writing is evident throughout. Early in the memoir she tries to explain her writing a book to a native, while near the end of her stay as she is selling off the furniture and other estate provisions there is a poignant moment when, as she sits on her remaining books, she comments:

Books in a colony play a different part in your existence from what they do in Europe; there is a whole side of your life which they alone take charge of ... you feel more grateful to them, or more indignant with them, than you will ever do in civilized countries.

Blixen's memoir of this "uncivilised" land is both memorable and effective in sweeping the reader away into a very different world. Definitely a worthwhile read.

The image above was Dinesen's farm house in the Ngong Hills. Of it she wrote:
"To the great wanderers amongst my friends, the farm owed its charm, I believe, to the fact that it was stationary and remained the same whenever they came to it."

Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen). The Modern Library, New York. 1992 (1937)

Protagoras

Over the years, starting in my first year as an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, I have read and reread the works of Plato. Most recently, in the Basic Program of Liberal Education at The University of Chicago, I had the opportunity to read and discuss many of the dialogues. As part of this program's offering of "Alumni" courses I am currently rereading Plato's dialogue, Protagoras. This dialogue focuses primarily on the question of virtue and whether it may be taught. In particular, Plato presents the sophist Protagoras as interlocutor for Socrates, along with an impressive supporting cast including Alcibiades and others. Over the next ten weeks I plan to read, discuss and think about the issues presented in this dialogue. I expect to find my love for philosophy reinforced and, perhaps I may learn a bit about the nature of virtue. If it truly can be taught.

Protagoras by Plato. Stanley Lombardo and Karen Bell, trans. Hackett Publishing Company, Indianapolis. 1992.

A Marvelous Novel

Great Expectations
by Charles Dickens

His name is Pip and this is his story. Starting with the convict in the marsh we are swept away into the world of Pip with all of his friends, acquaintances and antagonists. The story is one of "the universal struggle", we are told, and this will be a motif for Pip's story. The first people Pip introduces are all dead, except his sister Mrs. Joe Gargery. He is in a churchyard and his family, father, mother Georgiana, and "five little brothers" are all buried there. The mood is set early with the sudden appearance of a convict who interrogates and terrorizes Pip. As the first chapter ends Pip is running home, running under a sky that "was just a row of long angry red lines and dense black lines intermixed", with the shadow of a gibbet in the distance.

What a beginning! This is the penultimate (complete) novel from Dicken's pen and it demonstrates all the skills that he had developed over his career. We gradually meet Mrs. Joe and Joe Gargery, Mr. Pumblechook and Mr. Wopsle; but it is a visit to an old mansion to provide companionship to a young girl that is the one of the first turning points in this story. Miss Havisham, the bride who is frozen in time as she slowly ages with yellowing and gray, and the young girl Estella with whom Pip almost immediately is smitten. Poor Pip, so innocent one day and the next, the sad inheritor of the knowledge that he is a poor boy with "rough" hands who does not know the proper way to play and socialize. This realization begins to stir in Pip the yearning to leave this small village and his friend Joe and take up a better life, or what he believes would be a better life. It is not long after that he is provided the opportunity as the lawyer, Mr. Jaggers, presents him with "great expectations" from a mysterious unnamed person. The result of this will become clear as I continue my reading of this marvelous novel.


GREAT EXPECTATIONS by Charles Dickens. Penguin Books, New York. 1996 (1861).

Two Loves

Anne Elliot and Lucy Manette

It may seem an unlikely pairing, but I would like to make some comments on and comparisons between two seemingly disparate literary heroines, Anne Elliot and Lucy Manette. In Charles Dickens novel, A Tale of Two Cities, the beautiful Lucy Manette marries Charles Darnay, the descendant of an aristocratic French family denounced by the revolutionaries, among whom are the memorably evil fanatic Mme. Defarge. While in Jane Austen's last novel, Persuasion, which was not published until after her death, Austen created a strong, mature, and independent heroine, Anne Elliot. Having foolishly broken off an engagement eight years earlier to Frederick Wentworth, a penniless naval officer, Anne at the age of 27 has remained unmarried--and secretly devoted to Wentworth. While written decades apart and depicting two different women, one of whom is substantially more "mature" than the other, I believe these characters share some of the same core values, the foremost of which is an enduring love for a man in whom each believes strongly. Lucy, as wife to Charles, is able to withstand the separation from him while he is imprisoned awaiting apparent doom buoyed by her love for him. Anne, after being "persuaded" to break off her engagement to Frederick when she was all of nineteen years old, did not abandon her inner feelings for him and found that in nurturing this enduring love she could attain the reward that she may not have imagined possible when he went off to sea. In addition to and complementing their love each woman demonstrates an extraordinary loyalty to her friends and family. We see this demonstrated in Anne's relationship with Mrs. Smith just as Lucy demonstrates a loyalty to her Father during moments when she cannot be sure that he recognizes her.

My comparison would not be complete if I did not also note some of the contrasts between the heroines and their respective novelistic worlds. There could not be a greater distance between the settings of the novels than these two with one focused primarily on two houses within miles of each other in England while the other is focused, as the title makes clear, on two urban centers in two different countries separated by the English Channel. One is focused on the internal workings of families seemingly immune to the world outside them while the other finds the characters and families buffeted by the winds of revolution and the politics of their respective countries. Fate and death intervene in the world created by Dickens with the express intent to mirror history; while fate is also present for Austen, and the threat of death is not absent, it is not nearly so overwhelmingly displayed. While the two heroines seem to share a certain reserve, it is in Austen's novel with its' narrower focus on family and marriage that we learn more about the details of the heroine's life. In many respects Lucy remains a cypher, not unlike some of Dicken's other fictional women, perhaps in part because, unlike Esther Summerson in Bleak House, we never are allowed to share her thoughts. In spite of the differences I believe that the fundamental character of each of these women has much in common. From my recent reading of these two novels they will remain among my fondest memories.


A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. Penguin Books, London. 2003 (1859)
Persuasion by Jane Austen. The Modern Library, New York. 2002 (1818)

Russian Easter Overture


Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov composed the Russian Easter Overture in 1888 and conducted the first performance in December of that year. Last night I attended a performance by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra led by guest conductor Charles Dutoit. I was surprised to discover, upon reading the program notes, that it had not been performed on a subscription concert since 1951. This is among Rimsky-Korsakov's most popular works and its absence from Orchestra hall for more than a half century is inexplicable. Fortunately it has returned and the audience was treated to the stunning orchestration of Rimsky-Korsakov who was at the height of his powers when he wrote this piece, following Capriccio Espagnole and Sheherazade which had premiered earlier in the same year. Under Dutoit's baton each section of the orchestra displayed the virtuosity that is the hallmark of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
The concert also included the Symphony in C of Igor Stravinsky, a twentieth century neoclassical icon completed in 1940 specifically for the fiftieth anniversary of the orchestra, and the Brahm's First Piano Concerto performed by the virtuoso Russian pianist Yevgeny Kissin. Each work was performed brilliantly by the orchestra while Kissin's mastery of the difficult Brahms concerto was the high point of the evening. This was certainly one of the best concerts that I have had the pleasure to attend this season.

The Yacoubian Building

Reading literature about a particular city gives you insight into the mores and character of that community. This is true of Alaa Al Aswany's novel from 2002, The Yacoubian Building (ImaratYa'qubyan). I found the novel both well written and structured. Using the title building as his center Aswany portrays a diverse group of contemporary Cairenes to demonstrate the experience of living in the world of Egypt today. The author presents the issues of political corruption, class conflict and the "science" of love in a believable narrative; however, I found his portrayal of homosexuality less effective: sensitive at times but ultimately concluding with a stereotypically brutal end for the spurned lover. The difficulties of living in this society are highlighted as the novel moves smoothly from episode to episode building toward a climax that, while somewhat melodramatic, brings the story to an effective conclusion. Overall the complex narrative and view of the city of Cairo made this an engaging and satisfying read.


The Yacoubian Building by Alaa Al Aswany. Harper Perennial, New York. 2006 (2002).

The Cairo Trilogy III
The novel Sugar Street ends Naguib Mahfouz's masterpiece bringing the story of Al-Sayyid Ahmad's family to a close. With the death of Al-Sayyid his wife Amina is all alone. In a moving chapter we hear her voice and see the world through her eyes as she feels more alone than ever before. The house and the coffee hour are no longer the same. But the focus has turned to the grandchildren, particularly Ahmad and al-Muni'm, sons of Khadija. Each is seeking new directions, mirroring the political and cultural changes in Egypt as World War II approaches. Kamal continues to pine for his ideal love, Aida, and almost finds it in her younger sister, Budur. His own indecision prevents him from making a commitment to her, turning away when she makes the slightest advance. Superficially his life resembles that of his nephew Ridwan, the beautiful son of his brother Yasin. Kamal meets his old friend Husayn Shaddad one final time, learning of the fate of Aida and the Shaddad family, but not with any sense of encouragement or satisfaction. As the novel ends family change occurs once again with the passing of Amina and the birth of Yasin's first grandchild. There is a hopeful sign as Yasin goes out with Kamal to buy clothes for the new baby.

Mahfouz's trilogy has epic sweep in its depiction of the changes to Cairo over the first half of the twentieth century mirrored in the growth and change of the Ahmad family. He presents ideas and demonstrates them with the actions and interactions of the characters as they love and learn and die. The outside world, first seen in the occupation of the British, grows throughout and looms ever larger as the final novel in the trilogy ends. Twentieth century ideologies are beginning to affect Egypt with the power seen elsewhere in the world and the portent is ominous. Yet with that Mahfouz leaves the reader with the possibility of hope and the encouragement that can only be found in a great literary achievement.


The Cairo Trilogy by Naguib Mahfouz. Everyman's Library, New York. 2001 (1957)

The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit


Lucette Lagnado's moving memoir is subtitled My Family's Exodus from Old Cairo to the New World. It is a story of a remarkable father and his family movingly told with the feel of a novel as you share the experiences of this family who traveled half way around the world to settle in America. Lucette Lagnado, who is a senior special writer and investigative reporter for The Wall Street Journal, demonstrates both her skill as a writer and an investigator.

The story begins with the marriage of her parents, Leon and Edith, in wartime Cairo. As the family establishes itself after the war, the position of the Jewish community gradually deteriorates until, in the early sixties they flee to Paris en route to their eventual destination. The strength of both parents and the details of the family's difficult journey is a story that this reader found intensely moving. The thought of being "stateless", as they were once they left Egypt, is hard to imagine. That they overcame this and survived is a tribute to their courage. This is a memoir that I will not soon forget.


The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit by Lucette Lagnado. The Ecco Press, New York. 2007.

The Cairo Trilogy, II

The second novel of Mahfouz's Cairo Trilogy is titled Palace of Desire. The family of Ahmad al-Jawad has expanded as the married daughters and son have children. Particularly touching and revelatory is a scene where Ahmad becomes the doting grandfather demonstrating a side of his character that we did not see in the first novel of the trilogy. We also see the permutations of love and desire on display as the family evolves through the maturation of the second generation. There is a particular focus on the development of Kamal, the youngest of the children, who has seen success in school and slowly leaves behind his youthful innocence as he develops into a thinker, a writer, and an admirer of the perfection of beauty as embodied in the young Aida Shaddad. His view of love is doomed to an unsuccessful search for perfection when the one he adores, Aida, rejects him and leaves Egypt with another. Kamal will eventually satisfy his bodily needs with girls from the brothel district while he lives an ascetic life of the philosophic writer and teacher. He also highlights one other theme of the novel with his popularization of western philosophy as Egyptian nationalism grows and the culture of Ahmad's family is buffeted by the new ideas. Perhaps the eldest son, Yasin, best represents the view of love as mere desire. Even in the first novel Yasin had demonstrated his inability to control his natural desire for women and this lack of control continues to complicate his life. Unlike his father, who could discreetly maintain his life with the singers of the night separately from his home life, Yasin blunders about, endangering both his home life and his career. Desire permeates this story even as the world of Ahmad, the father, slowly begins to lose the control that seemed to be his main characteristic as the trilogy began.

The Cairo Trilogy, I

As I near the end of the third and final novel of Naguib Mahfouz's masterpiece I thought I would summarize a few impressions of my experience reading this magnificent work. The first novel, Palace Walk, introduces the family of Ahmad Abd al-Jawad: his wife Amina, sons Yasin, Fahmy and Kamal, and daughters Khadija and Aisha. This family will be the center of all three novels as Mahfouz chronicles their experiences living within a Cairo neighborhood identified by the street, Palace Walk, home to the family. Prominent among the themes of the first novel is the freedom of the family (or lack of freedom) under the authoritarian rule of the father. Mahfouz slowly develops the relationships within the family and the novel builds upon events that epitomize the growth of each family member. Just as the middle son Fahmy excels in school he begins to seek freedom in the growth of nationalist fervor during the era of the Great War. Amina, who is present on the first page has the temerity to defy her husband and pays a price, yet demonstrates growth in stature within the family. Amina's life and personality is the lifeblood of the homelife of the family, bracketed by the scenes of the coffee hour and Amina on the roof overlooking the city. As the first novel ends we find the family's peace and structure threatened portending more change in the novels that follow.

The Meaning of Life

I am reading a book by Terry Eagleton, The Meaning of Life, that poses a lot of questions about that very issue. What is the meaning of life? Is it meaningful to even discuss this question? The book raises these and other questions and seems to alternate between challenging issues that encourage thoughtful responses, and a somewhat prosaic litany of differing responses to the questions, some of which do not deserve much thought or attention. What makes the book interesting and worth persevering are the former, the issues that challenge personal beliefs and encourage thoughtful meditation on the meaning of meaning, if not life itself. I was reminded of a somewhat tongue in cheek but lyrical meditation on the issue of meaning I wrote some years ago.

The Source

...alone with an inscrutable society.

- Virginia Woolf

Where does one look for the meaning of being
Apart from the life of the crowd?
The crowd with its shuffle
And bustle and people, whose trivial talking
Explains not one iota of what you need to know.

How does one know what is really important,
When cascading cacophonies of high-minded
Poseurs prevent you from sifting through cant
And through rhetoric; thus leaving you no way to grow?

Will growing and knowing enable the process
Of discovering all that is hidden beneath each and every
Accident comprising our world?
For there is the source, the location of meaning,
And with it the being that makes this world go.


Literary Poems, January 1992

Play Reading

Weekend

by Gore Vidal

This play, written by Gore Vidal in 1968, is a witty and very humorous look at the nature of politics. "Ripped from the headlines," as they say, it was almost dead on arrival on Broadway in early 1968. However it stands up as a comic vision of a certain time in political history with somewhat prescient moments, including a sly reference to a break in at Democratic Party national headquarters that would actually occur four years later. What made the play interesting to the current audience was its' brilliant dialogue and the complexity of the theme of politics which was addressed at several levels. The machinations within the MacGruder family were just as convoluted as those at the national level of politics. The twists and turns made for an interesting and sometimes surprising evening of theater. TimeLine Theatre Company produced this rare gem as part of their new play reading series. The production was excellent. The readings of Terry Hamilton, Erik Hellman and Penny Slusher as Senator MacGruder, his son Beany and wife Louise, respectively, were outstanding. If this series continues with such excellent fare it will be a welcome addition to TimeLine's fine record of dramatic productions.


TimePieces Play Reading Series from TimeLine Theatre Company

Mahfouz and Updike

I was reading the wonderful story Pigeon Feathers by John Updike this morning and the thought occurred to me that young David Kern's (the protagonist of the story) situation was not that different than the young Kamal in Mahfouz's Cairo Trilogy, especially in the second volume, Palace of Desire. Not surprisingly, both texts were written within in a decade of each other (Mahfouz in the early fifties and Updike at the beginning of the sixties - of the last century) and each have, in part, the theme of how a young man thinks about faith and issues of spirituality. In Updike there is a bit more emphasis on death, but the issue of faith and the loss, or moving beyond, it is central for both young men. In each the boys are well versed in their faith. Kamal has memorized much of the Qu'ran and David is attending bible lessons in Sunday School. But the knowledge of their respective beliefs seems in each to inspire a spiritual rebellion. One that is not asked for, but comes none the less. In David's case his very questions of his pastor seem to be irreverent, at least in his imagination. While we see Kamal battling within his own mind, his inner dialogues questioning the nature of the world and spirit. It is striking that in this century in cultures separated by thousands of miles, one in the heart of the United States and the other in northeastern Africa, that these two young men are portrayed as facing similar spiritual issues and each in his own way moves in the opposite direction. David, in his experience with the barn pigeons, sees his faith in the eternal strengthened while Kamal moves toward a study of philosophy that seems to lead to a rejection of his faith.

Doris Lessing

I have begun to read the novels of Doris Lessing who was awarded the 2007 Nobel Prize for Literature. I have started with an unusual choice, reading Shikasta , the first volume of her series Canopus in Argos. Having read many science fiction novels over the years I was not prepared for this unique approach to the genre. Lessings' space novel is told from the point of view of the alien Canopeans who compete with their rivals from the planet Shammat for the guidance of civilization on Shikasta (Earth). A cosmic accident of some kind (not caused by Shammat) disrupts the energy flows between Shikasta and Canopus. This leads to the breakdown of the harmony of Shikastan civilization, and dominance by Shammat. As an immediate effect, the life span of living beings on Shikasta is shortened from several hundred years to the average life span of a contemporary human. All kinds of evil aspects of modern society (mostly that of political violence and abuse of power) start to arise from this energy disruption. Throughout the Canopeans have agents visiting Shikasta to report on the events and finally living as Shikastans . The novel uses many different styles including historical reports, sociological studies, memos and the diary of the sister of the protagonist, George Sherban (aka Johor). It is a fascinating display of imagination even though it is dated in some ways (the Soviet Union and Communist China are depicted as they existed thirty years ago). It is almost quaint the way Johor walks across Africa and letters from Communist China are sent but never received, while the level of technology presented does not incorporate the immense changes in computing. However, as an allegory it demonstrates an political world that is not too different from the one in which we live. Overall I enjoyed her writing style and look forward to my next Lessing work, her first novel The Grass is Singing.

Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont

I should have known when my friend Anne Marie recommended this film that it would be good, and when I found that it starred Joan Plowright that it would be very good. But seeing the film, based on the novel by British author Elizabeth Taylor (whose novels I have neglected, at my regret), I find myself in awe at the warmth and love that is displayed by this simple story of a woman, no longer young, all but abandoned by her family in a London retirement hotel. About to be overwhelmed by loneliness the woman strikes up a curious friendship with a young writer and discovers a new life in this friendship. Beautifully acted as I have come to expect from Dame Joan Plowright, this film exudes the feeling of sentiment without being sentimental. The situations depicted are both heart warming and emotionally wrenching. I enjoyed every detail in the lives of the characters and ended the film with a feeling that life is good.

Keats

John Keats was buried on this day in 1821 in Rome, beneath his famous self-written epitaph: “Here lies one whose name was writ in water.” Keats took the line from Beaumont & Fletcher’s 1610 play Philaster, or Love Lies-Ableeding, in which the unreliable King, who is considering executing his own daughter, is warned that “all your better deeds / Shall be in water writ, but this in marble.” Keats remains among my favorite poets with Endymion and the Odes among those poems to which I return with regularity.


A THING of beauty is a joy for ever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.


The music of Keat's words never fails to transport me to another world of "sweet dreams, and quiet breathing".