A Sense of Loss

The Swimmers 

by Julie Otsuka

“{We] glide serenely through the water, safe in our knowledge that we are nothing more than a blurry peripheral shape glimpsed in passing through the foggy, tinted goggles of the swimmer in the next lane.”   

― Julie Otsuka, The Swimmers

This is a story of a group of swimmers who, except for their individual routines (slow lane, medium lane, rapid lane) and the comfort each person finds in their morning or afternoon laps, they are strangers to one another. However, as a rift opens up in the pool's bottom, they are abandoned in a forgiving world without solace or consolation.

Alice, one of these swimmers, is gradually losing her memory. The pool served as Alice's last line of defense against the dementia that was advancing on her. Without the support of her fellow swimmers and the stability of her daily laps, she is thrown into disarray and turmoil and is reminded of her early years and the Japanese American internment camp where she spent the war. When Alice's estranged daughter unexpectedly re-enters her mother's life, she sees the tragically abrupt fall of her mother. 

The narrative is a compelling and enduring work yet from a modern artist, told in hypnotic, incantatory writing. It is a searing, intimate story of mothers and daughters, and the pangs of loss. Otsuka's style is somewhat subdued: She constructs lists and litanies that initially seem modest, even mundane, but by the time the paragraph comes to a close, you are astounded by what she has accomplished. I was moved by the lovely detail... 

In this work, scenes repeat in the same way that the mind does or the way that swimmers swim laps, rather than just accumulating. These accumulations add up to a terrible sense of loss and being too late. The Swimmers is a beautiful book that mimics a companion for a time of tedium and disorder, when death is as real as it is unimaginable.

Something Beautiful

A River Runs through It 

by Norman Maclean

"One of life's quiet excitements is to stand somewhat apart from yourself and watch yourself softly becoming the author of something beautiful, even if it is only a flowating ash."  -  Norman Maclean

I chose to read the book when the movie version of A River Runs Through It was released a number of years ago. The stunning scenery, excellent acting, and significant passages of the story that were taken straight from the book produced one of the best films in recent memory and solidified the book's status as one of the greatest American stories. Everyone agreed that it was the best fishing narrative ever written. I diligently looked for it and read it. I learnt to appreciate it when I recently went back to it with more knowledge and just enjoyed the language and the poignant family story it told.

Here is the famous opening:
" In our family, there was no clear line between religion and fly fishing. We lived at the junction of great trout rivers in western Montana, and our father was a Presbyterian minister and a fly fisherman who tied his own flies and taught others. He told us about Christ's disciples being fishermen, and we were left to assume, as my brother and I did, that all first-class fishermen on the Sea of Galilee were fly fishermen and that John, the favorite, was a dry-fly fisherman."

In his timeless tale of dads, sons, and brothers and their frequently fruitless attempts to understand one another, MacLean shows how sport may serve as a link—and even the only link—between them. In this very nearly perfect book, MacLean's crystalline style and the moving plot will leave you haunted. It certainly did that for me and I heartily recommend this book to anyone who loves great literature.

Memoir of Life and Dance

Illusions of Camelot: A Memoir 

by Peter Boal

Dance is like life. It exists as you are flitting through it, and when it's over, it's done.   --   Jerome Robbins

I enjoyed this wonderful memoir that brilliantly combined the personal story of a somewhat dysfunctional family, at least from the paternal presence, and an amazing career of a professional ballet dancer. What made the book so special was the ability of the author to share both interesting personal and professional events that were touching and relatable to this reader. His gradual realization of his sexual identity was handled with grace as was his fortunate rise in his career as a ballet dancer. Some highlights included details about the development of his ballet persona as well as intimate moments with stars like Jerome Robbins and others not so well known to the general public. His sensitive way of handling the impact of his father's alcoholism on his family was touching as well. Overall the narrative of his life kept me reading with interest and pleasure.

A Lonely Yearning

The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter 

by Carson McCullers

“The Heart is a lonely hunter with only one desire! To find some lasting comfort in the arms of anothers fire...driven by a desperate hunger to the arms of a neon light, the heart is a lonely hunter when there's no sign of love in sight!”   ― Carson McCullers





This is a coming-of-age novel, but it is atypical given that it's told from the perspective of four very divergent characters: a young girl, a drunken socialist, a black doctor and a sympathetic deaf mute - each of them grotesque in their own individual way.

All of these individuals believe they understand their place in society to differing degrees, but as the story unfolds we find that they are all actually lacking something that would enable them to fit in. Each character in McCullers' concept of the grotesque has an exceptional quality that sets them apart from the usual, yet they are nevertheless driven to seek acceptance.

The clearest example of one of the main characters still trying to figure out who they are is Mick, who, as a young adolescent, has not yet discovered who she truly is. She throws a party for her new classmates to fit in, explores sexuality with Harry Minowitz, and gives in to what a career in music can teach her about herself. Ironically, though, once she has discovered a self that she is comfortable with, she is prevented from continuing the music career due to Despite the irony, Singer does not identify with any of the other key characters but rather with the Greek, Antonapoulos. She and the other primary characters all go to Singer because they believe he is like them.

Each of the characters share similarities: they are yearning for something that will help them "grow" emotionally. The delightful young girl, Mick Kelly, shifts between being a playful tomboy and a proper young lady. Her "journey" is a heartfelt one: a poor girl who has an amazing amount of creative energy but doesn't know how to channel it in a fulfilling way. It's not until she has some kind of "awakening" that she realizes she is growing up and that her destiny is in her hands.

This was the first of McCuller's novels, and in my estimation one of the best first novels that I have ever read.

New Love or True Love?

Find Me 

by André Aciman

“Everything in my life was merely prologue until now, merely delay, merely pastime, merely waste of time until I came to know you.”   ― André Aciman, Find Me






The melancholy Call Me by Your Name by André Aciman has spoken more powerfully to modern readers about the essence of love than any book in recent memory. It was praised for being "a love letter, an invocation...an exceptionally beautiful book" (Stacey D'Erasmo, The New York Times Book Review) when it was first released in 2007. A popular, Academy Award-winning movie based on the best-selling book has about three quarters of a million copies in circulation. In this continuation of the story Aciman depicts Elio's father, Samuel, traveling from Florence to Rome to see his son who has become a talented classical pianist. Sami's plans are upset and his life is changed forever when he encounters a stunning young woman by chance on the train.

Elio soon relocates to Paris, where he also has become involved in a significant relationship, while Oliver, who is now a professor at a college in New England with a family, finds himself suddenly considering a return trip across the Atlantic.

Aciman is a master of sensibility, the personal details, and the subtle emotional undertones that make up passion. The question of whether true love actually ever dies is raised by Find Me, which takes us back to the magical realm of one of our greatest modern romances. However, I found the journey to be somewhat muddled and  not up to the high quality and intensity of the previous novel where Elio and Oliver first encountered each other.

A Poem for Today

The Complete Poems 

by Thomas Hardy

The last thirty years of Thomas Hardy's life was devoted to poetry. During this time after he had eschewed novel-writing he wrote hundreds of poems. These poems spanned a variety of styles including: satires, love poems, lyrics, reveries, and songs. The topics also spanned a great number including some focused on the Wessex countryside where he set his well-known novels. The result of all this poetic creation is a collection that rivals that of the greatest poets in the English-speaking world. I would recommend this volume to all who revere fine poetry. Here is a poem from one of his late collections:

The Six Boards

Six boards belong to me:
I do not know where they may be;
If growing green, or lying dry
In a cockloft nigh.

Some morning I shall claim them,
And who may then possess will aim them
To bring to me those boards I need
With thoughtful speed.

But though they hurry so
To yield me mine, I shall not know
How well my want they'll have supplied
When notified.

Those boards and I — how much
In common we, of feel and touch
Shall share thence on, — earth's far core-quakings,
Hill-shocks, tide-shakings —

Yea, hid where none will note,
The once live tree and man, remote
From mundane hurt as if on Venus, Mars,
Or furthest stars.

From Thomas Hardy: The Complete Poems, Collier-Macmillan, London, 1976, pp 820-21.

Dysfunctional Family

The Prince of Tides 

by Pat Conroy

“Her library would have been valuable to a bibliophile except she treated her books execrably. I would rarely open a volume that she had not desecrated by underlining her favorite sections with a ball-point pen. Once I had told her that I would rather see a museum bombed than a book underlined, but she dismissed my argument as mere sentimentality. She marked her books so that stunning images and ideas would not be lost to her.”   ― Pat Conroy, The Prince of Tides

This is the tale of a dysfunctional family where a violent father beats his wife and kids. Henry Wingo is a shrimper who plies the oceans off the coast of South Carolina in search of shrimp. He frequently blows through the meager funds he accumulates in ridiculous business ventures. His stunning wife, Lila, serves as both his victim and a cunning and guilt-inflicting mother.

The central characters in this family saga are brother and sister twins. Tom Wingo, a middle-aged man with a wife and three young girls who has recently lost his job as a high school English teacher and football coach, is one of the youngsters who tells the narrative. Tom alternates between remembering his childhood on the remote Melrose Island and his current life in Manhattan.

Tom promises to visit Savannah in New York City, where she resides, to take care of her while she recovers.  However, Tom discovers that his wife is having an affair just before he departs from his South Carolina home.  The gory sight of horror, rape, and carnage known only as "what happened on the island that day" finally sheds light on the sadness, pain, and emotional isolation the Wingo siblings experienced. Conroy skillfully handles a wide cast of characters and a complicated plot, but he betrays his credibility with a gimmick in which Tom relates the Wingo family saga to Savannah's therapist. 

Some readers might notice a poor imitation of Robert Penn Warren's potent evocation of the Southern myth in this work, while others would detect echoes of John Irving's baroque fantasies. The majority, though, will be carried along by Conroy's felicitous, frequently beautiful prose, his sarcastic observations on the nature of man and society, his love of the South's marshland region, and his talent for storytelling.

I enjoyed reading Conroy's book and couldn't help but admire the author's creative ability in creating this family. My understanding of the author's background has led me to believe that some of his real-life experiences served as inspiration for this fiction. That doesn't take away from how much I believe you will appreciate this well-told story.

Essential Dreams

Dreams of My Russian Summers 

by Andreï Makine

“The unsayable! It was mysteriously linked, I now understood, to the essential. The essential was unsayable. Incommunicable. And everything in the world that tortured me with its silent beauty, everything that needed no words, seemed to be essential. The unsayable was essential.”   ― Andreï Makine, Dreams of My Russian Summers




This is a beautifully-written novel about a young man who spends the summers in Siberia with his French grandmother, Charlotte Lemonnier, along with his sister. The narrative is told as a semi-autobiographical story by Andrei Makine, who fled the Soviet Union in 1987 when he was thirty years old. Charlotte, who became trapped there following the death of her Russian husband, shares a world of memories with the children, including memories of France before World War II. Charlotte's sheer Frenchness raises serious suspicions in the eyes of her neighbors and the authorities in the very paranoid realm of Soviet Communism.

The boy is divided as he grows up between his love of his grandma and the lovely world she conjures and his urge as a young child to fit in and embrace his Russian heritage. In his perspective, the French aspect of his character reflects a gauzy humanism and a love of beauty, while the Russian aspect of his character comes to represent a type of barbarism and a potential for violence. His perception, however it may be flawed, convinces him that the Soviets have good reason to be afraid of their Frenchness. 

"I became aware of a disconcerting truth: to harbor this distant past within oneself, to let one's soul live in this legendary Atlantis, was not guiltless. No, it was well and truly a challenge, a provocation in the eyes of those who lived in the present."

Living in the West, it is casually assumed that progressives are often the only ones whose souls contain humanism and the good. For Makine and his narrator, the exact reverse is true; at that time, it was necessary to look to the East to find ideals and a culture that exalted human beings, whereas the Soviet Union's progressives did everything in their might to put them out of existence.

It is not surprising that Makine's story occasionally comes out as being somewhat vague and opaque given how deeply personal memory is. He sometimes leans a little too heavily on Proustian and Nabokov connections; a few fewer references to cork-lined chambers and moths wouldn't hurt; we get the point. Furthermore, I'm not enough of a Francophile to find it funny rather than emotional when someone speaks fondly of France. However, I would recommend the book due to the beauty of the writing, a few striking pictures, and the way the plot alludes to the tragedy of 20th-century Russia.

A Boy's Memories

Ordinary Grace 

by William Kent Krueger

“The dead are never far from us. They’re in our hearts and on our minds and in the end all that separates us from them is a single breath, one final puff of air.”   ― William Kent Krueger, Ordinary Grace




Set in a typical small town, New Bremen, Minnesota, where in 1961 Ice-cold root beers were disappearing from the shelves at Halderson's Drugstore's soda fountain, and Hot Stuff comic books were a staple on every barbershop magazine rack as the Twins played their inaugural season. It was an era of optimism and innocence for a nation led by a new, young president. Yet for thirteen-year-old Frank Drum, it was a gloomy summer marked by frequent and varied visits from death, a natural occurrence, but also murder and suicide. Except for the murder and suicide, it reminded me of the small town I grew up in at about the same time in southern Wisconsin.

When tragedy unexpectedly strikes Frank's family, which includes his Methodist minister father, his passionate, artistic mother, his older sister, who is headed to Juilliard, and his wise-beyond-his-years younger brother, he finds himself thrust into an adult world full of secrets, lies, adultery, and betrayal. Frank is suddenly required to show a maturity and gumption beyond his years. Again I felt a similarity, in part, since I grew up in an extended family of Methodists, with a sister, two uncles, and aunt, and eight cousins (two of whom were the same age as me).

I found this book to be a profoundly compelling narrative of a youngster attempting to make sense of a world that seems to be disintegrating around him, told from Frank's perspective forty years after that tragic summer. Centered within multiple mysteries and deaths this book explores the cost of wisdom and the role of God's unfailing grace.

Horror or Primitive Duality?

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll 

and Mr. Hyde  

by Robert Louis Stevenson

“I learned to recognise the thorough and primitive duality of man; I saw that, of the two natures that contended in the field of my consciousness, even if I could rightly be said to be either, it was only because I was radically both.”   ― Robert Louis Stevenson, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde has a lot of literary legends associated with it, as would seem appropriate for such a bizarre narrative. One claims that Stevenson had nightmares about the story's gory parts at initially. Another claims that the hasty author burned the first complete draft in response to his wife's criticism. Both myths might not be true. The only thing that is known is that Stevenson's work masterfully caught the obvious paradoxes of Victorian society and illustrated the terrible results of hiding man's innate animal desires beneath the rigid concepts of "decency." This duality preceded the results of Freudian and Jungian studies of the subsequent century; however they provided an interesting addition to the literature of the doppelganger. A horrifying window into the murky recesses of the psyche is provided by Jekyll and Hyde.

This is one of those favorites of which it seems everyone knows the story even though they may only have seen one of the film adaptations of the original book.  It is their loss for the book is a minor masterpiece and the best offerings of Hollywood (my favorite is the 1941 version with Spencer Tracy but Frederic March, 1931, is a close second) wander far from the text of the book, particularly with the addition of a love interest for the good Dr. Jekyll that just is not there.  That aside, the book is high Victorian speculation about the nature of evil and man's ability to create life or at least modify it.  It reminds me of Well's The Island of Dr. Moreau, published a decade later, except Stevenson is a bit more of a romantic.  It also provides an example for the theories of Dr. Freud, who was not on the scene when Stevenson was creating his short novel.  There are many explanations for the dual personalities presented by Stevenson.  I like to think of it as a variation of the doppelganger literature of which Poe's William Wilson and Dostoevsky's The Double are classic examples.  Stevenson's story and character has entered our literary mind and vocabulary and was popular from the beginning with good reason.  

Stevenson was well-liked in his day, but writers in the early 20th century criticized him for penning profit-driven commercial fiction. Since then, he has gained recognition as one of the greatest writers of English literature. This is one of his best stories and a favorite of mine.

Remembering His Invisibility

Invisible Man 

by Ralph Ellison

“I remember that I'm invisible and walk softly so as not awake the sleeping ones. Sometimes it is best not to awaken them; there are few things in the world as dangerous as sleepwalkers.”   ― Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man

Beginning with a prologue that reminds the reader of Dostoevsky's Notes from Underground, Ralph Ellison creates one of the best first novels I have ever read. His writing in Invisible Man, while filled with literary references, is truly in the tradition of the great American novel as he pens the evolution of a modern underground man. His protagonist grows invisible to those who look beyond him as he experiences disappointment in the hypocrisy of white and black men alike. The result is a novel that rejects conventional social protest to proclaim the humanity of the individual by making him invisible.

In a similar manner to Dostoevsky's Underground Man, Ellison begins the story by telling us that the only thing he has accomplished in the world is to experience rejection from it, but at least he has opened his mind to its essence. The protagonist of Dostoyevsky's novel was addressing the naive idealism of Russian social reformers of the time, who believed that equality and justice would come about through labor and effort. The main character of Ellison is aware of this presumption as being Booker T. Washington's thinking. He quotes a Washington speech to the town's white elite in the opening chapter, however it is not credited to Washington. Instead of saying "social responsibility," which causes the storyteller to choke, he or she says "social equality," earning the ire of the audience.

The protagonist of the book describes his existence as a black man in modern-day (1930s or 1940s) America. His experiences have exposed every aspect of civilization and every social lie. The understanding is dark, yet at its core, it belongs to a lone, invisible human being. Therefore, the narrator waits in what he refers to as "hibernation" at a subterranean location. According to him, "a hibernation is a concealed preparation for a more overt action," and "not every sickness is unto death, neither is invisibility," thus he believes he may return to the world. But by the end of the story, we know that he will continue to live underground, at least psychologically.

A Bond for Life

Serious Things 

by Gregory Norminton

"Though he did not consent to friendship, the tall and beautiful English boy had acknowledged my existence."   - Gregory Norminton, Serious Things






I was impressed with how this narrative of two young boys is presented in a unique way narrated by one of the two preemintent characters in the story. The book emphasizes the psychological effects of our actions and the importance of how our lives are influenced by how we respond to those actions.

The story tells of two lads at a traditional boarding school who develop a close bond that will influence the rest of their lives. Anthony Blunden has Bruno Jackson, the quiet and lonely son of British expatriates, completely smitten. The boys are inspired to investigate the "more serious matters" of life outside of college after being taken under the wing of an idealistic English teacher. But, in the intense environment of the school, a slight from their mentor looks to be of utter significance and will have irrevocable effects. 

Years later, with those memories all but forgotten, Bruno lives a blameless life. Anthony's unexpected reappearance pushes him to look back on his dark past and determine how far he is willing to go to appease his conscience.

Overall it is both riveting and a subtle novel about an undetected crime and its corrosive legacy for the schoolboy culprits, by a young writer that I would recommend to all.

Memory and Dreams

Landscape: Memory 

by Matthew Stadler

“If all memories decay, what of them will really ever be left? What is it that's growing from out of the rotting material of old memories? Is every moment of the past simply gone forever? Why can't they be held intact somehow?”   ― Matthew Stadler, Landscape: Memory





An excellent debut work that, through the lens of a homoerotic teen's diary or sketchbook, brilliantly portrays the atmosphere of San Francisco in the year 1915. With Maxwell, the narrator, his totally modern parents, and the allure of San Francisco during its second flowering—the glimmering years between the disaster of 1906 and the sobering effects of World War I—Stadler succeeds in a magnificent way. When Max visits the Pacific Exposition with his best friend Duncan, the son of a Persian sculptor, the prose is flavored with historical detail and childlike joy. Yet tragedy strikes early when Max's father crosses the Bay to Bolinas to continue his bird-watching hobby.

Memory and dreams seem to fill this novel with a unique atmosphere. It  seems like there is always something that is just beyond the horizon, a fleeting suggestion of the unknown. The combination of dramatic adult changes in circumstances contrasts with the growing young love between the two boys. The beautiful prose style and the effective narrative reminded me of William Maxwell's The Folded Leaf or John Knowles' A Separate Peace. This was an engrossing novel that deserves to be saluted for both the complexity of its themes and the author's lyricism. 

A Literary Narrator

The Friend 

by Sigrid Nunez

“Consider rereading, how risky it is, especially when the book is one that you loved. Always the chance that it won't hold up, that you might, for whatever reason, not love it as much. When this happens, and to me it happens all the time (and more and more as I get older), the effect is so disheartening that I now open old favorites warily.”   ― Sigrid Nunez, The Friend





A woman agrees to take care of the unwanted puppy that her longtime closest friend and mentor has left behind after passing away unexpectedly. Her own struggle with loss is made more difficult by the dog's quiet suffering—a large Great Dane frightened by the mysterious disappearance of its owner—and the prospect of eviction she is facing because pets are not allowed in her apartment complex.

The woman will not be separated from the dog, except for limited periods of time, which worries others who fear that grief has made her a victim of magical thinking or worse. She is increasingly preoccupied with the dog's care and seems to be on the verge of disintegrating due to her isolation from the outside world and her determination to understand the dog's heart and intellect. While difficulties abound for both her and the dog, each of them will experience rich and unexpected benefits.

While the description of the novel highlights the events, it does not tell the whole story. The most important aspect for me was the literary sensibility of the narrator - a narrator who is a writer. This was evidenced both by multiple literary references that provided a deeper meaning for the story and observations on the importance of reading.  More significantly, this had special meaning for me based on my own shared experience of reading the texts that she referenced. Her observations about writing based on reading Flannery O'Connor, Nabokov, and other authors were astute and beautifully blended into the narrative. The result of these references added power to the narrative and left this reader ready to reread the novel.

Reader and Orator

Cicero 

by D.R. Shackleton Bailey

“Read at every wait; read at all hours; read within leisure; read in times of labor; read as one goes in; read as one goest out. The task of the educated mind is simply put: read to lead.”   ― Cicero

Cicero was an advocate, orator, patriot, and author who lived through a turbulent and turbulent time in Roman history. His writings capture a wide range of modern attitudes, concepts, and circumstances. He is depicted in this book in both his public and private capacities. Perhaps best known in his day as an orator, we can only encounter his thoughts through his voluminous writings, many of which have survived to this day and are available in modern translations. His Republic, Rhetoric, and essay on Friendship are among my favorites.

He was aspirational, a little pretentious, talkative, and wholly human. Through the eyes of one of its most renowned inhabitants, this vibrant account provides an entertaining and informative introduction to daily life in ancient Rome. In addition, the author offers psychological explanations of his character and his place in Roman history.

A Favorite Literary Moment

War and Peace 

by Leo Tolstoy

The Death of Prince Andrew Bolkonski

On the Pratzen Heights, where he had fallen with the flagstaff in his hand, lay Prince Andrew Bolkonski bleeding profusely and unconsciously uttering a gentle, piteous, and childlike moan.

Toward evening he ceased moaning and became quite still. He did not know how long his unconsciousness lasted. Suddenly he again felt that he was alive and suffering from a burning, lacerating pain in his head.

"Where is it, that lofty sky that I did not know till now, but saw today?" was his first thought. "And I did not know this suffering either," he thought. "Yes, I did not know anything, anything at all till now. But where am I?"

He listened and heard the sound of approaching horses, and voices speaking French. He opened his eyes. Above him again was the same lofty sky with clouds that had risen and were floating still higher, and between them gleamed blue infinity. He did not turn his head and did not see those who, judging by the sound of hoofs and voices, had ridden up and stopped near him.

It was Napoleon accompanied by two aides-de-camp. Bonaparte riding over the battlefield had given final orders to strengthen the batteries firing at the Augesd Dam and was looking at the killed and wounded left on the field.

"Fine men!" remarked Napoleon, looking at a dead Russian grenadier, who, with his face buried in the ground and a blackened nape, lay on his stomach with an already stiffened arm flung wide.

"The ammunition for the guns in position is exhausted, Your Majesty," said an adjutant who had come from the batteries that were firing at Augesd.

"Have some brought from the reserve," said Napoleon, and having gone on a few steps he stopped before Prince Andrew, who lay on his back with the flagstaff that had been dropped beside him. (The flag had already been taken by the French as a trophy.)

"That's a fine death!" said Napoleon as he gazed at Bolkonski.

Tomorrow is Another Day

Gone with the Wind 

by Margaret Mitchell

“I'll think of it tomorrow, at Tara. I can stand it then. Tomorrow, I'll think of some way to get him back. After all, tomorrow is another day.”   ― Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind




Gone with the Wind is a novel by Margaret Mitchell in which Scarlett O'Hara struggles to maintain her family's plantation, which has fallen into disrepair since Atlanta was burned in the Civil War. Scarlett is crushed when her childhood love marries another woman. Scarlett marries Charles Hamilton, who dies in the Civil War. After the Civil War, Scarlett struggles to support herself. She marries three more times in search of financial stability.

Mitchell's narrative, set against the historical background of the American Civil War is a somewhat engrossing read. I say somewhat because I was not impressed with the central character of Scarlett O'Hara and, although the author was able to introduce many characters and much historical detail, I was not engaged as the novel droned on. The selfishness of the priveleged character of Scarlett was disappointing and deterred me from enjoying some of the colorful detail in this long novel. Her struggles, particularly with Rhett Butler, dimmed as the novel wound onward to its inevitable ending.

Strange Fixations

Confederates in the Attic: 

Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War 

by Tony Horwitz

“There are people one knows and people one doesn't. One shouldn't cheapen the former by feigning intimacy with the latter.”   ― Tony Horwitz, Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War

While I first read this book more than a decade ago I still remember it vividly, if for no other reason than the cover art, which I consider to be one of the most hideous of any book that I have read. Fortunately I did not let that stop me and inside I found a delicious mix of cultural history, personal reminiscence and odd, but true (I believe) miscellany about people who are fixated on the Civil War era.

The discussion of the Japanese people's fascination with Gone With the Wind was one of the oddest episodes. They visit Atlanta, Georgia as a result of their fixation, where they are known to look up Tara's location because they appear to believe that there must be a genuine Tara behind the novel. In that much of the book has a similar eccentricity, it reminds me of Louis Theroux's The Call of the Weird: Adventures in American Subcultures. Horwitz definitely looks for strange and perhaps undesirable elements to interview, such as the insane biker bar. There was an insightful conversation with Shelby Foote, and I ended up appreciating a particular pro-Southern viewpoint (even if I disagree with it).

Since the memories of the persons interviewed are fading and times are continuing to change, the book may have lost part of its value with time. It's much more entertaining because the book almost reads like a picaresque novel or anthology of short stories. It might be seen as a snapshot of the 1990s' zeitgeist in regard to the Civil War. The Civil War re-enactors are a genuinely odd breed, yet their fervor for the time period makes them endlessly fascinating. It was enjoyable to read.

An Independent Epic

Independent People 

by Halldór Laxness

“This was the first time that he has ever looked into the labyrinth of the human soul. He was very far from understanding what he saw. But what was of more value, he felt and suffered with her. In years that were yet to come, he relived this memory in song, in the most beautiful song this world has known. For the understanding of the soul's defencelessness, of the conflict between the two poles, is not the source of the greatest song. The source of the greatest song is sympathy.”   ― Halldor Laxness, Independent People

In this novel Halldor Laxness narrates the struggle with modernity of an Icelandic sheep farmer while creating in his protagnist, Bjartur of Summerhouses, a heroic character whose life mirrors the growth of Iceland itself as it enters the twentieth century.

In his attempt to live freely, poor sheep farmer Bjartur of Summerhouses living in rural Iceland faces a life of misery and a never-ending battle for existence. Bjartur always puts forth a lot of effort, yet he is beholden to others, endures severe treatment, and is forced to work in appalling conditions. He finally accumulates sufficient funds to purchase some land in a distant region of Iceland, where he starts a new life as a sheep farmer. He weds a local woman named Rosa, who has a daughter named Asta Sollija who, as Bjartur soon learns, is the offspring of a different man. Rosa passes away after delivery, but Bjartur raises the infant as his daughter and adores her.

“It's a useful habit never to believe more than half of what people tell you, and not to concern yourself with the rest. Rather keep your mind free and your path your own.”

Bjartur finally gets remarried, has three boys, and carries on with his menial existence. He endures suffering as he battles the land; he loses one son when he immigrates to America, another dies, and he rejects his daughter and exiles her from Summerhouses when she gets pregnant at the age of 15. Despite his struggles, Bjartur perseveres and manages to live freely until Summerhouses are no longer able to support him. Then, he decides to stop raising sheep and obtain a loan for summerhouses. He makes amends with his daughter, moves farther north, and resumes his hard life.

“Presently the smell of coffee began to fill the room. This was morning’s hallowed moment. In such a fragrance the perversity of the world is forgotten, and the soul is inspired with faith in the future…”

This summary doesn't do Bjartur's story justice because his novel also combines the supernatural with the natural struggle for survival, shows how man is constantly at odds with nature, and most importantly, considers the effects of one man's desire for independence on his life, his family, and the world around him. I've found that Laxness' lyrical prose and epic scope of narration compare well to those of Rolvaag's Giants in the Earth and Hamsun's Growth of the Soil. 

I must conclude with the author's comments on the importance of books: "books are the nation's most precious possession, books have preserved the nation's life through monopoly, pestilence. and volcanic eruption, not to mention the tons of snow that have lain over the country's widely scatteed homesteads for the major part of every one of its thousand years." (p 314)

The World of the Kabbalah

The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon 

by Richard Zimler

“God comes to each of us in the form we can best perceive Him. To you, just now, He was a heron. To someone else, He might come as a flower or even a breeze.”   ― Richard Zimler, The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon

In the novel The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon, which is set during the Lisbon Massacre of April 1506, the reader is transported into the mysterious world of kabbalah. A few years prior, Portuguese Jews were coerced into becoming Christians and brought to the baptismal font. Many of these "New Christians" conducted their rituals in secret and at considerable peril, while the kabbalists' secret, mysterious rites also persisted.

Berekiah Zarco, a youthful manuscript illuminator, was one of these hidden Jews. He seeks the assassin of his adored uncle Abraham, a renowned kabbalist found dead in a secret synagogue along with a young girl in deshabille, driven by love and retribution. Berekiah searches for answers among Christians, New Christians, Jews, and his uncle's fellow kabbalists, risking his life in dangerous alleys as they alternately illuminate and obscure the path to the truth he seeks.

The world of sixteenth century Lisbon and the Jewish Kabbalah comes to life in this historical mystery. The young manuscript illustrator, Zarco, is effectively portrayed as he attempts to find out who killed his uncle. His search takes him into the world of Kabbalists and with it brings the reader into a world of secret languages and codes. It was an award winner for best First U.S. historical mystery of the year and I agree that it gives the reader a flavor for a very different time and place. Anyone who has enjoyed Arturo Perez-Reverte or Umberto Eco will like Zimler's suspenseful tale.

Losing a Family in History

Leopoldstadt 

by Tom Stoppard

Here’s a couple waving goodbye from the train, but who are they? No idea! That’s why they’re waving goodbye. It’s like a second death, to lose your name in a family album.”   ― Tom Stoppard, Leopoldstadt

This play is both a historical and philosophical drama as well as a highly personal challenge from Stoppard, who didn't discover that he was Jewish until his 50s when a distant cousin got in touch with him. The author appears to make up for lost time with Leopoldstadt, a first-rate, epic, and impassioned declaration of his own origins. He asserts that forgetting one's forefathers is tragic in and of itself. To lose your name in a family album, as one character puts it, "is like a second death."

It is yet another play by Tom Stoppard that impressed me with its erudition and singular structure. But there was an undercurrent of emotion that built over the length of reading the play that overwhelmed me by the final scene. So many of the family members had succumbed to tragic ends over the course of the family history that there was a  nostalgia of lives lived that was was dressed in the end with widows' weeds of death.

Picaresque History of Science

Rats, Lice and History 

by Hans Zinsser

But however secure and well-regulated civilized life may become, bacteria, Protozoa, viruses, infected fleas, lice, ticks, mosquitoes, and bedbugs will always lurk in the shadows ready to pounce when neglect, poverty, famine, or war lets down the defenses.   - Hans Zinsser, Rats, Lice & History

Zinsser's book, published in 1935, can be read as a modern adaptation of Laurence Sterne's The Life and Opinions of Tristam Shandy. It provides the reader with a picaresque description of how typhus outbreaks have influenced human history. In the days before antibiotics, he issued a challenge against germs that is still relevant today: "Infectious disease is one of the few genuine adventures left in the world." The lance is rusting in the chimney corner and the dragons are all dead. The war against those ferocious little fellow creatures, which lurk in dark corners and stalk us in the bodies of rats, mice, and all kinds of domestic animals; which fly and crawl with the insects, and which fly and crawl with the birds, is about the only sporting event that has not been negatively impacted by the relentless domestication of a once free-living human species.

Even though this book was written almost a century ago, it hasn't become any less interesting or funny. Hans Zinsser has created an eccentric view of history, rambling about rats, typhus, the Roman Empire, lice, and everything. You can't read it in one sitting, because you'll have to keep taking breaks to calm down from the experience. I liked the book because because I learned so much - this book is a classic microbiology textbook among other things. My favorite foonote was associated with a word I'd never heard -- it said, "If the reader does not know the meaning of this word, that is unfortunate." That gives you an inkling of what is in store for you if you choose to read this book.