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.

Choices that End Poorly

Birnam Wood 

by Eleanor Catton

“...the real choices that you make in your life, the really difficult, defining choices are never between what's right and what's easy. They're between what's wrong and what's hard.”   ― Eleanor Catton, Birnam Wood







Birnam Wood is a group of guerilla gardeners that Mira Bunting founded five years ago. Set in New Zealand, this activist collective, an unregistered, uncontrolled, occasionally criminal, occasionally charitable group of friends, plants crops wherever no one will see them: on the sides of roads, in abandoned parks, and in backyards. For years, the group has struggled to break even. Then Mira stumbles on an answer—a way to finally set the group up for the long term: a landslide has closed the Korowai Pass, cutting off the town of Thorndike. A natural disaster has created an opportunity; a sizable farm is seemingly abandoned.

But Mira is not the only one interested in Thorndike. When he sees Mira on the property, mysterious American billionaire Robert Lemoine tells her that he has taken it to build his end-of-the-world bunker. Intrigued by Mira, Birnam Wood, and their entrepreneurial spirit, he suggests they work this land. But are they able to put their trust in him? Can they trust one another as their beliefs and ideals are put to the test?

A psychological thriller from the Booker Prize-winning author of The Luminaries, Eleanor Catton's Birnam Wood, left me wondering if it was worth the time I took to read it. I was not surprised by the ending in general and found some of its main characters preditable. Neither the protagonist nor her antagonist were particularly believable. I barely found the story engaging enough to finish the novel. I cannot recommend this novel to any intelligent reader.

Enter, Falstaff

Shakespeare’s  Henry IV, Part 1, Henry IV, Part 2

by William Shakespeare

“I can call the spirits from the vasty deep.

Hotspur: Why, so can I, or so can any man;

But will they come, when you do call for them?”

― William Shakespeare, King Henry IV, Part 1

Shakespeare's greatest plays, according to none other than Orson Welles, were these ones. Furthermore, Welles believed that Chimes at Midnight, the film adaptation of these plays, was his best work—even better than Citizen Kane.

Shakespeare's best works are those two plays, which can be seen as telling a single story. The plays that Falstaff appeared in are the plays that most people are more familiar with, which is why most people do not recognize them as such. (Apart from "Merry Wives," which is not quite as wonderful.)


Most people will ask, "Is not that the big fat guy who Shakespeare wrote about?" when you mention the name "Falstaff."

These plays only touch on a portion of Henry IV's turbulent reign, during which he usurped Richard II's throne. The real focus is on the coming-of-age of his eldest son, Prince Hal, the Prince of Wales, who was destined to someday become Henry V. The twist of the play is that — much to his Dad’s disappointment — young Hal prefers to hang out with Sir John Falstaff, a fat, drunk wastrel and a liar, but Falstaff is just so damn entertaining. So, Prince Hal hangs out with Falstaff rather than come to Court and study how to rule. Hal, later Henry V, becomes a great king, against all odds.

Legendary Neighborhood

Harlem Shuffle 

by Colson Whitehead

". . . maybe don't play the same number all the time. Play something else, see what happens. Maybe you been playing the wrong thing this whole time."   - Colson Whitehead, Harlem Shuffle

I have eagerly anticipated and delighted in reading Colson Whitehead's novels ever since I first read  The Intuitionist.      In his recent novel, Harlem Shuffle, the tension increases with each act as Ray Carney, the main character, delves further and deeper into the world of crime. Social unrest, racism, and classicism are the backdrop against which it is set. As a black man, Carney faces ongoing obstacles in his pursuit of success. He encounters class and racial divides in addition to them.

While racism is pervasive in Harlem Shuffle, to the point where the characters find it difficult to imagine a society in which everyone is treated equally, it plays an equally large role in the evolution of the 1960s New York City and Harlem communities. Even though there are several civil rights demonstrations throughout the book and people are aware of social injustice, characters like Ray have a negative outlook on racism. In addition, a number of unsavory characters are highlighted, including Ray Carney, who the reader found endearing, as part of a skillful depiction of the apparent side of Harlem business.

The book ends with what I consider its best narrative section making it impossible not to recommend it to anyone who enjoys a great read.

The (almost) Complete Truth

Emma 

by Jane Austen

“Seldom, very seldom, does complete truth belong to any human disclosure; seldom can it happen that something is not a little disguised or a little mistaken.”   ― Jane Austen, Emma

I most recently read Emma as the April book for my local Great Books reading group. I had previously read it as the introductory novel in a class at the Newberry Library. The class was entitled "Jane Austen's Heirs" and included novels by such "heirs" of hers as Virginia Woolf, Rebecca West, Elizabeth Bowen, Barbara Pym, and Anita Brookner. Rereading this delightful novel is something I will undoubtedly do again.

Before she began the novel, Austen wrote, "I am going to take a heroine whom no one but myself will much like." In the very first sentence she introduces the title character as "Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich." Emma, however, is also rather spoiled; she greatly overestimates her own matchmaking abilities; and she is blind to the dangers of meddling in other people's lives and is often mistaken about the meanings of others' actions.

While Emma differs strikingly from Austen's other heroines in some respects, she resembles Elizabeth Bennet and Anne Elliot, among others, in another way: she is an intelligent young woman with too little to do and no ability to change her location or everyday routine. Though her family is loving and her economic status secure, the quotidian details of Emma's everyday life seem a bit dul; she has few companions her own age when the novel begins. Her determined though inept matchmaking may represent a muted protest against the narrow scope of a wealthy woman's life, especially that of a woman who is single and childless.
And of course there is the classical balance of the novel's structure that, combined with the beauty of Austen's writing style, makes this novel a favorite of readers and writers, particularly those mentioned above, ever since it was published.

What is Life Like?

The Long Form 

by Kate Briggs

"But what is life like, really? The necessary, pressing, open question. And for whom? Questions that the novel, through its descriptions, the sharing out of its attention, both answers and asks." - Kate Briggs, The Long Form







The Long Form, which Briggs refers to as the "essay parts," is partially a reaction to Tom Jones and adopts a similar format that breaks up fictional narrative with expansive nonfiction passages. She also uses all caps with the lavishness of a novel from the eighteenth century; in one passage alone, the word "love" appears numerous times. Thus, it presents the novel form as it has rarely been presented before, with a lengthy series of short chapters, some as brief as a sentence. It is ostensibly about a single day in the lives of a new mother and her infant. It does this through its recursive structure, subtle connections and reverberations, attention to physical and social life, and lively conversation with other works of fiction and theory.

The Long Form is technically fiction but often veers toward essay. In this, it resembles a book delivered that morning to Helen’s door, interrupting a coveted moment of calm. In the gaps of time Helen can find to read it, we learn that Fielding’s novel also moves between forms and that it, too, addresses the subject of child-rearing, at least for a few chapters. But, as Helen muses, whereas Fielding’s protagonist arrives as an orphan without history, speeds through infanthood, and becomes a young hero, in reality, babies do come from somewhere, and they exert their own wills before they can walk or speak, even as they depend on a cast of care-giving others. I found the style worked for a time, but it made it difficult to maintain interest in the whole book.

Prudent and Virtuous Governance

Discourses on Livy

Niccolo Machiavelli

“The salvation of a republic or a kingdom is not, therefore, merely to have a prince who governs prudently while he lives, but rather one who organizes the government in such a way that after his death it can be maintained.”   ― Niccolò Machiavelli, Discourses on Livy






A thought-provoking and perceptive read, Discourses on Livy by Niccolò Machiavelli that is ideal for those who are passionate about politics, democracy, and the quest for a more just and equitable society. Machiavelli provides a radical vision of a new science of politics that continues to shape the modern ethos, as well as a foundational exploration of modern republicanism.

Discourses on Livy, is a seminal work that laid the foundation for modern republicanism, and it has been definitively translated into English by Harvey C. Mansfield and Nathan Tarcov. The translation is extremely readable, staying true to the original Italian text while paying appropriate attention to Machiavelli's idiom and subtlety of thought. Machiavelli's radical vision of a new science of politics—a vision of new modes and orders that continue to shape the modern ethos—is revealed in The Discourses, which includes a comprehensive introduction, extensive explanatory notes, a glossary of key terms, and an annotated index.

Livy, whose histories are also a profitable read,  provided Machiavelli with the inspiration scholars needed for five centuries. The discourses contain the germs of contemporary political philosophy, which are frequently concealed and occasionally unintentional by the writers. Reading this book gives you a very different perspective on the author than you may have received from reading his more famous masterpiece, The Prince. Mansfield and Tarcov's translation is careful and idiomatic.

Rural Life

Pig Earth 

by John Berger

“Later, when I was in the Argentine, I used to tell myself that I could not die until I had seen another month of May, here in the mountains. The grass grows knee-high in the meadows and down the centre of the roads between the wheel ruts. If you are with a friend, you walk down the road with the grass between you. In the forest the late beech leaves come out, the greenest leaves in the world. ”   ― John Berger, Pig Earth

Pig Earth, the first of three volumes about the movement from rural to urban life, includes poems and short stories about rural life. Berger adds a historical afterword and interprets these stories as parables. Although the book falls into the novel category, I would consider it more appropriately described as existing in the space between memory and arrangement, or between memoir and imagination. In addition to writing about his personal experiences, Berger also acts as a watcher, an eavesdropper, and a covert sharer in the stories. Berger lives in the isolated Jura.

Berger tackles subjects like the lives of hard labor, the proximity of death, and the bond between farm animals and their owners in her kind and exquisite writing. The book is worth studying as people try to understand a world in transition

Florentine Thinker

Machiavelli in Hell 

by Sebastian De Grazia 

One can take it as a rule, that if there are new things in heaven, there will be new things on earth. A new hierarchy in the first will bring about a new one in the second.   - Sebastian de Grazia, Machiavelli in Hell

This book's wisdom makes me think of Niccolo Machiavelli's advice to the hunter to become a knower of sites by getting to know one well. It demonstrates how much political science can be learned from a single source if it is chosen and studied carefully. Political theorists and political scientists may view their scholarship as derivative and docile, but this would silence their detractors and readily defend their subject and methodology in a competition before unbiased judges to see who can teach the most about politics. Nevertheless, the themes and plots of their novels diverge.

Sebastian de Grazia has done something amazing, whether we admit it or not: he has produced a book for the general reader. His book is a well-reasoned Pulitzer Prize-winning intellectual biography of Niccolo Machiavelli

Imaginary Worlds

 

Ficciones 

by Jorge Luis Borges

“When it was proclaimed that the Library contained all books, the first impression was one of extravagant happiness. All men felt themselves to be the masters of an intact and secret treasure. There was no personal or world problem whose eloquent solution did not exist in some hexagon. The universe was justified, the universe suddenly usurped the unlimited dimensions of hope.”   ― Jorge Luis Borges, Ficciones

One of the earliest memories of reading that I have is one of Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There. The idea that there is another world beyond or through the mirror in one's parlor is a fabulous way to introduce the flights of fancy that little Alice was prone to engage in as I had learned in Carroll's earlier book, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. I am reminded of this experience because of the importance of mirrors in the writing of Jorge Luis Borges as he privileges the mirror and his stories as books appear as mirrors for reality. Just as in Carroll the mirror image presents a reflection that is backwards and always seems a bit wrong; however, it is wrong in a way that one only senses and cannot actually identify with any hope of specificity. My own dreams, and perhaps yours, often seem to be similarly twisted, even absurd, reflections of reality.

In Ficciones Borges has included nine short fictions in part one and ten even shorter works called "artifices" in part two. I like every story in the first part but my favorite has to be "The Library of Babel" which, for readers, has to encompass the notions of heaven and hell all in one twisted story.

The first story in this collection, "Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius, is an example of the importance of mirrors as it begins with the following sentence: "I owe the discovery of Uqbar to the conjunction of a mirror and an encyclopedia."(p 5). Additional stories share favorite places of Borges whether they be a garden in the case of "The Garden of Forking Paths", or the library as in "The Library of Babel". The latter of those two stories would have to be my favorite, and perhaps the favorite of many readers as readers who love libraries. Borges' library is a cheerless and even fearful place. With its incalculably vast size suggesting infinity it can seemingly be a nightmare more than a dream. Yet there is always the possibility of finding hope hidden in the vastness of infinite space. While Borges himself spent several years in a dull library job cataloging books the imaginary library of Babel seems to defy any cataloging. Just like a world reflected in a mirror, "absurdities are the norm" in this library while disorder reigns. Conundrums also abound as with the notion that everything that has already been written, yet there are always new and definitively different books that one may encounter.


The worlds depicted in Borges' stories are filled with blank spaces, the ideas and ideals are abstract rather than personal, yet they yield a personal response. Those unwilling or unable to fill in some of the blank spaces with their own imaginations may find something lacking. No amount of further writing would help though all of the stories are short, even as short stories go with the second part filled with "Artifices" that are typically no more than two or three pages long. Just as the stories beckon with suggestions of ruins, lotteries, libraries, and gardens; so do the artifices with titles that invite you to partake of death, miracles, swords, differing visions of Judas, and the rise of the Phoenix. Infinite libraries suggest stories from an imagination that also may have been infinite.


The world of Borges' fiction expands to encompass more than reality. These short narratives reveal conflicting emotions, motives, and desires shared by all humans and explore what he imagines as a tortured struggle for salvation or perhaps merely redemption.  His genius gives rise to flights of the imagination unique in my experience. My love for these narratives stems from their presences as magical works of a literary master.

Comedy of Life in Brooklyn

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store 

by James McBride

“Chona had never been one to play by the rules of American society. She did not experience the world as most people did. To her, the world was not a china closet where you admire this and don’t touch that. Rather, she saw it as a place where every act of living was a chance for tikkun olam, to improve the world.”   ― James McBride, The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store





James McBride's 381-page novel The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store combines elements of group comedy, cultural history, thriller, and love story. The story takes place in Pottstown, Pennsylvania's dilapidated Chicken Hill neighborhood, where African Americans and Jewish immigrants coexist and work side by side. The book tells the story of the people who live in Chicken Hill, how they make ends meet despite being marginalized by the larger white population, and how the country is changing quickly, as witnessed by those who were formerly enslaved and others who have recently arrived.

The author's prose style is elegant, and his development of individual characters is exceptional, providing a realism for his story that few novelists attain. I enjoyed this novel as much as his wonderful Good Lord Bird, and I look forward to more novels from James McBride.

Intelligent Mischief

  

Tartuffe 

by Molière

“Beauty without intelligence is like a hook without bait.”   ― Molière, Tartuffe








One of the most divisive comedies ever written, Tartuffe was the focus of the biggest censorship dispute of the 17th century. Molière's remarkably beautiful drama concerning religious belief fundamentally altered the purposes and goals of comedy. It was extremely brave, if not foolish, of Molière to humorously tackle such a subject in a religiously sensitive era that still dealt with heresy at the stake. Tartuffe may have struck a nerve when his detractors interpreted the play's portrayal of religious hypocrisy and fake piety as an assault on religion in general. Still raw from Tartuffe's sting, it is easy to criticize the prejudice and blindness of his contemporaries. At the time of his passing, Molière's fellow clergymen were still resentful of Tartuffe. But the drama still manages to jolt and move spectators in tender places, and the urgency of being able to discern genuine devotion from fakery is as great now as it was in 17th-century France.

Moliere demonstrated that the caricatures of farce facilitated rather than hindered the investigation of human nature and social experience, and that both comedy and tragedy could delve into profound psychological depths and fundamental human concerns. His was a unique character comedy that drew laughs heartily at the mistakes and pretenses of human nature while portraying modern manners in a lifelike manner. Not everyone found it funny.

Rewarding Stories

The Complete Short Stories of James Purdy 

by James Purdy

“Just like children, he and the greatwoman Grainger longed, and especially demanded even, that something should happen, or again Parkhearst would cry, “A reward, I must have a reward. A reward for life just as I have lived it.”   ― James Purdy, The Complete Short Stories of James Purdy

These stories just happen to take place here. That they happen in America and feel very American on the surface still allows room for depths of meaning that suggest the archetypal. I am reminded of the southern Gothic world of Flannery O'Connor without the religion. His thoroughly idiosyncratic writing leaves trails of peculiar, odd, eccentric characters that make their way through a world that is a skewed version of every town. Usually every town is more like Thornton Wilder than David Lynch.

When I first came across Purdy, it was through his enigmatic and unsettling vision of Eustace Chisholm. However, his sharper focus became apparent in his smaller works, such as Malcolm and The Nephew. The stories in this collection range from fairy tales about an opera diva whose mega-stardom is cleverly managed by her talking cat to the story of the young girl who escapes with a fire-breathing dragon to eat turtle soup; from an unusual story of a desperate husband whose fixation on a rare white dove results from his obsession over his wayward ex-wife to a visit to Moe's Villa, a private mansion that doubles as a gambling casino where the Native American owner teaches lonely boys the game of poker.

Gore Vidal called him "an authentic American genius.". For Vidal, himself given to the fantastic, Purdy's stories contained "lost or losing golden ephebes.". This collection is a welcome feast for fans of Purdy, as well as a nice taste for newcomers.

When the bizarre is the norm, your nightmares become mere dreams, yet what wonderful dreams! This collection of short stories is just that—a myriad of prose poems engaging your soul and fulfilling needs beyond your imagined life. All you need is to sit back, read, and enjoy!

Family Nostalgia

Tom Lake 

by Ann Patchett

“I look at my girls, my brilliant young women. I want them to think I was better than I was, and I want to tell them the truth in case the truth will be useful. Those two desires to not neatly coexist, but this is where we are in the story.”   ― Ann Patchett, Tom Lake

Ann Patchett's 309-page novel Tom Lake explores the transient aspects of life, love, and death. The narrative centers on a mother who, while under COVID-19 quarantine, tells her grown children about her first love. The book investigates what it means to be content when everything around you is collapsing. One notable aspect of the novel was the influence of the play Our Town by Thornton Wilder.

This is not my first Ann Patchett novel, but it's the first that I have enjoyed, at least in part. As always, her book is well written and readable, but I began to lose interest in the narrative about halfway through the book. By the end, I wished that I had spent my time rereading Our Town, or one of Thornton Wilder's delightful novels.