The Empirical Approach to Learning

The Major Works 

by Francis Bacon

 “If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.”   ― Francis Bacon, The Advancement of Learning

 

 

 

 

Among other things, the intellectual justification for the scientific empirical approach is provided by this foundational work. Bacon contends that one should examine the evidence of their senses and investigate the outcomes, as the antiquated method of demanding classic authors is inadequate. This excellent collection also includes "The New Atlantic" and a selection of essays.

In "The Advancement of Learning," Francis Bacon argues for a new approach to knowledge acquisition, advocating for the empirical method as the primary means of scientific understanding, emphasizing observation and experimentation over traditional reliance on authority and speculation, with the ultimate goal of improving human life through practical applications of knowledge; he outlines a detailed classification of knowledge, dividing it into history (memory), poetry (imagination), and philosophy (reason), and criticizes existing scholarship for its focus on "vain speculations" rather than useful discoveries for mankind.

Friends of Maugham

The House of Doors 

by Tan Twan Eng

“All of us will be forgotten eventually. Like a wave on the ocean, leaving no trace that it had once existed.' He shook his head. 'We will be remembered through our stories.”   ― Tan Twan Eng, The House of Doors





This is a book that grew on me in the sense that it became more and more engrossing and ultimately very powerful in an emotional sense. It was not a simple story as it involved a famous novelist, a Chinese statesman, and a murder trial. These disparate aspects were held together by the connections to a husband, Robert, and his wife, Lesley.

It examines issues of cultural dissonance, memory, and loss. In doing so the narrative centers on the lives of two well-known individuals from the early 20th century—Sun Yat Sen and W. Somerset Maugham—and is set in Penang. The book also reflects on the power of stories and their ability to cut across time and cultural boundaries.

The House of Doors also alternates between a heated courtroom drama that centers on the Proudlock affair, a meditation on how and why we tell stories, and a portrait of the artist in crisis. In a way, it is also a political saga that follows Lesley's path to self-determination and social activism.

Along with the stunning countryside, one learns about Dr. Sun Yat Sen and his friends. This expanded my library of books by and about Maugham and brought back memories of his short stories.

A Raindrop

There Are Rivers in the Sky 

by Elif Shafak

“Words are like birds, when you publish books you are setting caged birds free. They can go wherever they please. They can fly over the highest walls and across vast distances, settling in mansions of gentry, in farmsteads and laborers' cottages alike. You never know whom those words will reach, whose hearts will succumb to their sweet songs.”   ― Elif Shafak, There Are Rivers in the Sky

The water sign is used to color this book from the first to the last page. A raindrop marks the start of it, and a flood marks its conclusion. According to Elif Shafak, the secret of infinity can be found in any drop of water; rivers are particularly adept at remembering. The Thames and the Tigris are the two rivers that are most noticeable here. Their flow is made up of numerous currents, and they are both fed by different affluents. The same is true of this book, which blends a number of stories that emerge from various locations and eras.

A single drop of water connects three extraordinary lives, two enormous rivers, and one lost poem in this tale. The remains of a long-forgotten poem, the Epic of Gilgamesh, are buried in the sand in the ruins of Nineveh, that ancient Mesopotamian city. Water endures and remembers throughout. When Shafak makes the same drop of water fall as rain on Ashurbanipal's head in Nineveh and fall as a teardrop in London, two and a half millennia later, she is attempting to teach this important lesson. I highly recommend this fascinating book.

Understanding Modern Music

Style and Idea 

by Arnold Schoenberg

The principal function of form is to advance our understanding. It is the organization of a piece which helps the listener to keep the idea in mind, to follow its development, its growth, its elaboration, its fate.   - Arnold Schoenberg

This is a collection of music-related essays from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Included are essays on twelve-tone music by composers such as Brahms and Mahler. Schoenberg's style is portrayed as not only understandable and appealing, but it also communicates significant details about the nature of modern music.

It is considered by some to be one of the most important compilations of musical essays ever released, Schoenberg's Style and Idea, has long been out of print. Only a small portion of Schoenberg's literary output was represented by the volume's few essays when it first came out. Leonard Stein, Schoenberg's assistant and editor of his theory and composition books, examined Schoenberg's entire body of work for this new edition and selected a significant number of essays to go with the reprint of the original papers. The result is a treasure trove for those interested in Schoenberg's musical thoughts.

The Beauty of Provincial Spain

Journey To The Alcarria 

by Camilo José Cela

"Going through th Entrepena, the traveler sees a beautiful stage setting, exactly as if it were in a theater, of great craggy naked rocks and dead trees split by lightning."   -  Journey to the Alcarria, Camillo Jose Cela.

A sensitive portrayal of provincial Spain. Its people are thoughtful and caring in their physical appearance, psychology, and values.  A few days were spent in Alcarria by Camilo José Cela, the undisputed master of the Spanish novel of the twentieth century and the author of The Family of Pascal Duarte and The Hive. His travel sketch has a brilliant sheen to it. It describes a trip to several different parts of the peninsula, such as Cifuentes, Soledad, and Guadalajara. You leave with the impression that you were actually there, taking part in the adventure firsthand. In this translation, it is an enjoyable journey.

Completely Subversive

James 

by Percival Everett

 “At that moment the power of reading made itself clear and real to me. If I could see the words, then no one could control them or what I got from them. They couldn’t even know if I was merely seeing them or reading them, sounding them out or comprehending them. It was a completely private affair and completely free and, therefore, completely subversive.”
― Percival Everett, James

 

 While some people believe Percival Everett's James, a retelling of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, is a must-read, I found it to be self-serving and subversive. The book examines issues of violence, language, and the risks associated with claiming one's own language, but these topics alone did not convince me to read the book. The book gives Jim a fresh start in the first section, and James is a vividly imagined human being.

In my opinion, the book exploits the moments in Huckleberry Finn when Jim and Huck are apart. Everett's language games can be humorous at times, and there are touching and humorous moments in the book. I thought the book ended in a way that left the reader wondering if James was actually captured.

I feel conflicted about this one. I adore how the author retells the traditional Huckleberry Finn story while reclaiming Jim's story. However, I also thought that the narrative was very forced. Retellings are difficult, and in my opinion, hearing Jim tell his own story differs greatly from Huck's point of view. But I struggled to connect.

Peking Mystery

René Leys 

by Victor Segalen

  Exoticism's power is nothing other than the power to conceive otherwise. ... I conceive otherwise, and immediately the vision is enticing. All of Exoticism lies herein.

 

 

A Westerner in Peking searches for the mystery at the center of the Forbidden City in this captivating tale of spiritual adventure. The young Belgian René Leys, who claims to be aware of strange happenings in the Imperial Palace, such as love affairs, family disputes, and conspiracies that jeopardize the empire's very existence, is taken on by him as a Chinese tutor. However, whether he is telling the truth or playing tricks, the enigmatic and endearing René gives his ever-more-astonished disciple a glimpse of "an essential palace built upon the most magnificent foundations." This is enigmatic and entertaining - a read that I enjoyed.

Learning to Cry

  

Sophie’s Choice 

 by William Styron

  “I have learned to cry again and I think perhaps that means I am a human being again. Perhaps that at least. A piece of human being but yes, a human being.”   ― William Styron, Sophie’s Choice

 

 

 

 Sophie's Choice is largely regarded favorably, despite criticism for its intricacy and examination of challenging subjects, such as the novel's examination of survivor guilt and the decisions made by survivors to safeguard themselves. The reader is better able to comprehend Sophie's experiences because the story is told from the viewpoint of an outsider, Stingo. The reader cannot dispute Styron's dedication to comprehending the horrors of American history and the Holocaust. Although Styron is a talented storyteller, she also points out certain problems with the story, like awkward transitions between the elaborate dialogue and the Auschwitz flashbacks. The book looks at issues including love, guilt, and the lingering effects of trauma.
Sophie Zawistowski, a Polish Holocaust survivor, and her relationship with a young writer named Stingo are the subjects of the 1979 novel Sophie's Choice, which is set in Brooklyn in 1947. In 1983, Meryl Streep played Sophie Zawistowski in the film adaptation of the novel.

The significant—and unquestionably underrepresented—question of what becomes of the Holocaust survivors is addressed in Sophie's Choice. Such comprehensive, self-admitted immorality ought to absolve a man, and it does, sort of.

Twentieth-Century Music

The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century 

by Alex Ross

“Bernstein poured his unfulfilled ambition into stupefying powerful performances of the Mahler symphonies, freighting them with the themes that he should or would have addressed in his own music if only he had the time or the energy or whatever it was that he ultimately lacked:"







This is an immersive introduction to twentieth-century music. Ross explains musical and cultural in novel-like prose that is often mesmerizing. The intimate activities of composers and their interaction with the world around them come alive in this amazing book.

Reading New Yorker music critic Alex Ross's outstanding essay on Schoenberg, Mahler, Strauss, or even Philip Glass will make anyone who has ever tried their hardest but failed to fully comprehend, appreciate, or even grasp their complex works smile. The Rest Is Noise. Not only does Ross manage to give historical, biographical, and social context to 20th-century pieces both major and minor, he brings the scores alive in language that's accessible and dramatic.

Consider Ross's portrayal of Schoenberg's Second Quartet: "He finds himself at a crossroads, pondering the different paths that are unfolding before him." Written the year before, the first movement retains a fairly traditional late-Romantic language. In contrast, the second movement is a Scherzo that sounds hallucinogenic and is unlike any other music of the era. It includes excerpts from the folk ballad "Ach, du lieber Augustin," which Mahler associated with Freud. Schoenberg saw the song as a representation of a world gone by collapsing, with the line "Alles ist hin" being crucial. A terrifying series of four-note figures, consisting of fourths divided by a tritone, culminates the movement. Traces of the bifurcated scale that starts Salome can be seen in them. Nevertheless, the feeling of tonalities colliding has vanished. As an alternative, a matrix of intervals is replacing the idea of a chord altogether.

Most of The Rest is Noise by Alex Ross The 20th Century is worth listening to because it explores the music of the stormy decade and how it influenced political and cultural history. The book is approachable and has the power to simplify complicated musical subjects due to the author's readable style and use of personal experiences to illustrate the book's themes.

She Hated Men as a Class

The Bostonians 

by Henry James

“She thought him very handsome as he said this, but reflected that unfortunately men didn't care for the truth, especially the new kinds, in proportion as they were good-looking. She had, however, a moral resource that should always fall back upon; it had already been a comfort to her, on occasions of acute feeling, that she hated men, as a class anyway.”   ― Henry James, The Bostonians

To give a fair synopsis of The Bostonians, the three main characters—Verena Tarrant, Olive Chancellor, and Basil Ransom—are the focus of in-depth analysis and discussion, with a special emphasis on their perspectives. All three are young adults without children, and the two ladies, along with most of the other characters, are from Boston. With long pauses in New York and on Cape Cod, most of the action takes place in Boston.

The reader may notice that the characteristics of "proper Bostonians" have not changed much, despite the fact that this is set in the late 1870s. I will admit that I saw a lot of this as ironic satire, but still satire. According to historian Paul Jehle, even after the Puritans rejected Christian orthodoxy, they continued to act in ways consistent with their Puritan upbringing. They were searching for fresh mental exercises. They conducted experiments with various philosophies and religions. And they were still looking for causes to advocate for and believe in. 

This early work by James is a good candidate for someone who is not familiar with his novels.

Dreaming about a Life

Death in Spring 

by Mercè Rodoreda

 

“Breathing. Only the chore and sadness of breathing and breathing, as things change from tender to dry, new to old, the night-moon that grows thin then swells, the fireless sun that lights up, the soughing of wind that transports, shatters, gathers, and drives away the clouds, raising and flattening the dust. Only the sorrow of going to sleep and waking up, feeling life without knowing where it comes from, aware that it will flee without knowing why it was given to you, why it is taken from you. Here you are: there is this and this and this. And now, enough.”   ― Mercè Rodoreda, Death in Spring

 

 Death in Spring is lushly eerie, incredibly challenging, disconcerting, and strange. In this it is reminiscent of Pedro Paramo, another masterfully written but eerie book by Juan Rulfo. The narrative deals with the coming of age with a mixture of simplicity and density of texture. The story is like a dream but it is rooted in the real world.

You may read it as a testament to the resilience of the human spirit, for its exquisite prose, and for the way it will seduce you despite your desires. Ultimately it is a novel about coming of age with a surprising edge.

A Glimpse of Eternity

Notebooks 1935-1942 

by Albert Camus

“Beauty is unbearable, drives us to despair, offering us for a minute the glimpse of an eternity that we should like to stretch out over the whole of time.”   ― Albert Camus, Notebooks 1935-1942

Albert Camus, a prominent existentialist philosopher and Nobel laureate, shares his philosophical ideas in this volume. Furthermore, there exist passages of description that were incorporated into specific publications during his lifetime. The notebooks help us understand Camus's reading preferences and the ways in which his activities shaped his ideas. The entries piqued my interest since they offered a glimpse into the process of creating some of Camus's works during this time. I would recommend these notebooks to anyone who enjoys the fiction of Albert Camus.

Small Bookstore in Troubled Times

The Sentence 

by Louise Erdrich

“Small bookstores have the romance of doomed intimate spaces about to be erased by unfettered capitalism.”   ― Louise Erdrich, The Sentence

The first few chapters of this book had me intrigued, especially Tookie's character and her bookstore. The plot seemed to meander as it went along and turned into a commentary on a number of current affairs. Although I recognize the significance of these events and the issues they raise, the story's plot seemed to veer off course. I could not help but wonder why it was all happening, even though it might have been my fault as a reader.

The story had a lot of strong themes of love and death, which made it quite an emotional ride for me. Tookie and her husband Pollux have a pure love that makes me smile warmly at times, but then Tookie has another unsettling encounter with the ghost that haunts her, and that chills me. I was able to enjoy the story despite its apparent lack of direction because of the author's superb writing style.

A big plus was the "Totally Biased List of Tookie's Favorite Books" at the end of the novel!

Introduction to Isaiah Berlin

The One And the Many: 

Reading Isaiah Berlin 

by George Crowder

"What he sees is not the one, but always, with an ever-growing minuteness, in all its teeming individuality, with an obsessive, inescapable, incorruptible, all-penetrating lucidity which maddens him, the many." - Isaiah Berlin

In the history of ideas and political philosophy of the 20th century, Isaiah Berlin is regarded as a significant figure. His discussion of the connection between the "positive" liberty of self-fulfillment and the "negative" liberty of non-interference has made him most famous in the modern era. Offering a thorough introduction to Isaiah Berlin's ideas "across its whole range" is the audacious aim of this compilation of  essays about his thought. Regardless of whether that objective is met, this is still a remarkable collection of essays that highlight Berlin's wide body of work.

Berlin's Karl Marx, a brief book that served as my personal introduction to Berlin's ideas, is the subject of the first essay. Other subjects covered include history, nationalism, pluralism and liberalism, the Russian intelligentsia, and liberty. I have read a few of Berlin's books, so this was a great addition to my reading. It may also serve as an introduction to the diverse ideas of Isaiah Berlin for readers not familiar with his writings.

Resistance and Revolt

The Captive Mind 

by Czesław Miłosz

“A man may persuade himself, by the most logical reasoning, that he will greatly benefit his health by swallowing live frogs; and, thus rationally convinced, he may swallow a first frog, then the second; but at the third his stomach will revolt. In the same way, the growing influence of the doctrine on my way of thinking came up against the resistance of my whole nature.”   ― Czeslaw Milosz, The Captive Mind




1911 saw the birth of Czesław Miłosz in central Lithuania, which was then a part of the Russian Empire. In two books, Native Realm, his memoir, and The Issa Valley, his novel, he wrote affectionately about his childhood in Lithuania. When he visited Paris in his twenties, he was impacted by the poetry of his distant cousin Oscar Milosz, a French poet with Lithuanian ancestry. The outcome, a collection of his own poems, was released in 1934. That year, he graduated from law school and again took advantage of a fellowship to spend a year in Paris. He was fired from his position as a commentator at Radio Wilno after returning to Poland due to his leftist beliefs.

Miłosz spent World War II in Warsaw, under Nazi Germany's "General Government," where, among other things, he attended underground lectures by Polish philosopher and historian of philosophy and aesthetics, Władysław Tatarkiewicz. He did not participate in the Warsaw Uprising due to his residence outside of Warsaw proper. Following the conflict, Miłosz worked as the communist People's Republic of Poland's cultural attaché in Paris. He did, however, defect in 1951 and seek political asylum in France. The Prix Littéraire Européen (European Literary Prize) was awarded to him in 1953.

Miłosz immigrated to the United States in 1960, obtained US citizenship in 1970, and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1980 for his work "Voiding man's exposed condition in a world of severe conflicts with uncompromising clear-sightedness." Many Poles were unaware of him for the first time, as the communist government had banned his works from being published in Poland. Miłosz continued to spend time annually in America but was able to return to Poland after the fall of the Iron Curtain, first as a visitor and then as a part-time resident in Kraków. Miłosz was awarded the National Medal of Arts by the United States and an honorary doctorate by Harvard University in 1989. Through the Cold War, his name was often invoked in the United States, particularly by conservative commentators such as William F. Buckley, Jr., usually in the context of Miłosz's 1953 book The Captive Mind. During the same time, his name was largely ignored by the government-censored media and publications in Poland.

The Captive Mind has been described as one of the finest studies of the behavior of intellectuals under a repressive regime. In the preface, Miłosz observed that "I lived through five years of Nazi occupation... I do not regret those years in Warsaw.". But it is his analysis of Poland and her intellectuals under the heel of Soviet Communism that is the primary content of this book. Through the examples of four intellectuals, Milosz is able to capture the psychological impact on the lives of his countrymen. The criticism is devastating, and it has not lost its impact more than fifty years later. He even was prescient enough to speculate that the Soviet dictatorship might fall at some future date; little did he know in 1953 that it would come to pass less than thirty years later. This reader found that Milosz' prose is as beautifully written as his poetry, and he is an author to whom I will continue to return for inspiration.

War in Mozambique

Sleepwalking Land 

by Mia Couto

"She had only one remedy to make her recover: that was to tell her story. I told her I would listen to her , no matter how long it took." - Mia Couto

For me as a reader who was not familiar with Mozambican history or life during a civil war, Sleepwalking Land's nonlinear feeling was ideal because it gave me a surreal introduction to living in a violent and confusing political environment.

An emotional tale about war and its aftermath emerges from the travelogue of an elderly man and a young boy in Mozambique. Does it inspire hope or just a sense of emptiness? A picture of humanity in harsh circumstances is produced by the characters' sincerity and their predicament. It is a book that I would recommend to all readers interested in the story of Africa and its many denizens.

Infatuation and Doomed Love

Flesh and Blood 

by François Mauriac

"if only the beating of his heart could catch the rhythm of  those tranquil constellations which never moved from their appointed course!" - Francois Mauriac

A young man of peasant origins becomes infatuated with the sister of his new friend Edward, son of a wealthy landowner. The story of Flesh and Blood may seem like a typical tale of riches and poverty, of doomed love, and of an overindulgent attachment to worldly pleasures rather than the core of what really matters. In actuality, though, it raises deeper and more profound issues regarding life, death, love, and the significance of having faith in God. 

Well-known, Nobel Prize-winning, French novelist Francois Mauriac creates complex characters that, in spite of their disparate social classes, cultural backgrounds, customs, and beliefs, struggle with who they are and how to define their identities. A book filled with secrets, revelations, and the pursuit of elusive solutions.

French Revolution

"

A Tale of Two Cities 

by Charles Dickens

"In the moonlight which is always sad, as the light of the sun itself is—as the light called human life is—at its coming and its going."  - Charles Dickens






In Charles Dicken's 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. The narrative is leaner than the typical Dickens' novel, but that does not minimize the reader's delight. As you might expect, 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. 

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. Fate and death intervene in the world created by Dickens with the express intent to mirror history. The novel succeeds in rendering the horrors of the French Revolution in brilliant fictional style.

Reckless Impulses

In Tongues 

by Thomas Grattan

"wondering if my reckless impulses would ever settle down. Thought, too, about what might still change for me, what would stay the same." - Thomas Grattan






This is a moving portrait of a young gay man making his way in New York City, accompanied by an interesting network of friends and acquaintances. The story drew me in right away in a way that similar gay fiction has rarely done for me. This was in part because the narrator reminded me of Philip Carey in Somerset Maugham's Of Human Bondage, one of my favorite novels.

It is a perceptive examination of class, family, and gay men's inheritance across generations. Gordon, the main character, is a twenty-four-year-old man who was raised in Minneapolis by discordant working-class parents. He leaves for New York City in 2001, just before the 9/11 attacks, after being dumped by his boyfriend, using $200 he stole from him. He eventually secures a job walking dogs for the wealthy Philip and Nicola, the owners of an art gallery. They quickly requested that he work as their personal assistant. The author uses this couple to illustrate the way of life of the extremely wealthy. While Philip is aloof and patrician, Nicola, the younger member of the couple, appears to be resentful of Gordon's presence. Before he makes a mistake that will end the close bond between the three of them, Gordon still has a lot to learn about navigating the complexities of their sophisticated lives. 

For the majority of the book, Gordon is reckless and impish. However, he slowly matures, while his memories of his early misadventures continue to bother him. Gordon's voice is dark, humorous, and ultimately reprimanding, making him a remarkable narrator. Though Gordon learns to control himself rather than wreaking more havoc, the book builds on the self-absorbed, occasionally cruel protagonists similar to those of Edmund White's earlier works.

Learning for Understanding

The Ethics/

On The Improvement

 of The Understanding

by Baruch Spinoza

“The highest activity a human being can attain is learning for understanding, because to understand is to be free.”   ― Baruch Spinoza

In his Ethics Spinoza explores the nature of reality, God, and the human condition, inspiring readers to consider their own beliefs and look for greater meaning in life. I found that with his rigorous logic and meticulous reasoning, his Ethics and related writings succeeded in challenging interested readers to analyze closely their thinking about philosophy and the ethical life.

The method of Spinoza mirrors the mathematical logic of geometry in such a way to make his presentation rigorous beyond that of most philosophical treatises. Spinoza claims that "whatever is , is in God," and "from the necessity of the divine nature there must follow infinitely many things ..."  I found his argument that God equates with Nature and his derivative of the theoretical structure of the world in which we live to be enlightening in every sense.  Following in the steps of Socrates, Giordano Bruno, Descartes, and others, he developed a philosophy that emphasized the union of God and Nature and provided a scientific-based method for developing a way of life.  While addressing the nature of humans and the world around them, he explored the limits of knowledge and the limits of our own will.  I found even more impressive was  the way he could dispassionately promote a study of the passions. 

His disquisitions raise questions about who we are as humans, what are our causes and, most importantly, what is the nature of our being in reality.  In doing this he challenges all thinkers and believers to question the nature of God and God's relation to the world.  Interestingly, his approach to this involved developing a metaphysics and method to provide a foundation for his ethics.

Without trying to delineate all of the details of his philosophy (I'm certain that much of which is still somewhat beyond me) it is useful to summarize his premises of knowledge which revolved around imagination, reason, and intuition; all of which could be addressed via a scientific approach that evokes the rigor of geometry. The development of our personality depends on a mental acuity that encompasses the world around us. Yet, he argues that our reasoning demonstrates that truth is independent of our mind while challenging us to consider the cosmic order of things.

Memories of Butterflies

A Revolver to Carry at Night 

by Monika Zgustová

"So Vladimir sat down again at his desk, not without some difficulty, and pretended to write, but he couldn't concentrate. He was thinking about Vera and himself when they were just twenty . . ."   -  Monika Zgustova

Zgustova convincingly conveys the interaction of memory, art, and motivation whether or not it is historical. Her provocative, psychological portrait of a remarkable woman and the man she helped steer toward greatness is presented in just 150 pages, interspersed with a number of quiet scenes. It is an engrossing, subtle depiction of the life of Véra Nabokov, who devoted herself to furthering her husband's literary career and was instrumental in the composition of his best-known works.

In many ways, Véra Nabokov (1902–1991) was the quintessential wife of a great man: she was acutely aware of her husband's extraordinary talent and made his success her ultimate goal throughout their fifty-two-year marriage until his death in 1977. Véra worked as an editor and typist and was the first person to read his texts. She organized their life in exile, organizing trips to Berlin, Paris, Switzerland, and most importantly, the US, where she persuaded Vladimir to concentrate on writing novels in English. She managed the family's finances and contract negotiations, and she even went so far as to audit his classes.

Monika Zgustova immerses us in the everyday lives of this extraordinary couple in this rich, expansive book, providing insights into their intricate personal and professional relationships as well as the real people who lie behind characters like Lolita. Though Véra prided herself on being independent, was she really that much of an independent woman given how much room her husband occupied? Might Nabokov have emerged as one of the greatest authors of the 20th century without Véra?

An Unknown Quantity

Ice 

by Anna Kavan

“Reality had always been something of an unknown quantity to me.”   --  Anna Kavan, Ice







"Ice" is a haunting and enigmatic novel that has been described as a mixture of science fiction, dystopia, and surrealism. Published in 1967, it was Kavan's last work to be published before her death and remains her best-known work. The novel has drawn attention for its inventive and genre-defying style and has been acknowledged as an important piece of literature.

The world described in the book is engulfed in massive ice sheets as a result of a nuclear winter. The anonymous narrator is fixated on a fragile yet beautiful young woman as he describes the impending destruction of both his world and the girl he finds so alluring. The story is raw and brutal, drawing readers in with its frozen post-nuclear dystopia setting. Kavan's descriptions of disaster are both brutal and beautiful, with little gentleness in this world and a relentless fixation on male pursuit of female victimization.

"Ice" has been labeled as a work of science fiction, Nouveau roman, and slipstream fiction. It won the science fiction book of the year award after being nominated by Brian Aldiss, although he admitted that he didn't really think it was science fiction but believed the award was the best way to encourage more people to read Kavan's work. The novel has been increasingly viewed as a modern classic, on par with works like 1984 and Brave New World.

The novel can be interpreted as an allegory of addiction, with the brutal reality of the world, military governments, and the overwhelming ice serving as symbols that fit nicely with this theory. The destruction everywhere and the hallucinatory quest for a strange and fragile creature with albino hair can be seen as reflective of the author's personal struggles. Additionally, the novel delves into themes of loneliness, confusion, and the costs of violence, with a cool gaze that reveals the impact of abuse on both men and women.

Anna Kavan, born as Helen Woods, led a tumultuous life marked by strained parental relationships, bad marriages, mental health struggles, and heroin abuse. Her personal struggles are believed to have informed her writing, adding layers of depth and darkness to her work. Her novel is a gripping and uniquely strange work of literature that demands to be experienced. Its enigmatic nature, genre-defying qualities, and haunting themes have solidified its place as a modern classic in the literary world.