I have a recurring problem with My Big Fat Reading Project. I keep discovering books that I missed on the lists of earlier years. Thus, the project keI have a recurring problem with My Big Fat Reading Project. I keep discovering books that I missed on the lists of earlier years. Thus, the project keeps getting bigger and fatter! Just the other month I learned about Theodora Keogh. She wrote nine novels between 1950 and 1962. Meg was her first.
She was a trail blazer and I just had to read her. She had a most interesting life which you can read about on Wikipedia: Raised in NYC on the Upper East Side, private school, Radcliffe, then married a costume designer and moved to Paris.
In 1950 I was three years old, first-born daughter, and already plotting my independence. Meg is 12 years old, attending private school in NYC, living in an elegant apartment. But she has a private life with some street kids from the slums, all boys, who have adventures on the banks of the Hudson River.
Meg has the usual concerns for her age revolving around rivalries at school over best friends. She is also fascinated by a family friend who is a poet and playwright. She gets into scrapes but always seems to emerge unscathed. She is fearless and an expert when it comes to lying!
When Theodora Keogh began to publish her books, she was considered daring for her modernist style, her portrayals of psychological conflicts and other dark themes. (Patricia Highsmith wrote a rare and glowing review of Meg.) After a decade of publishing, she had been relegated to the status of a pulp writer, her books went out of print, and she quit writing. Oh, the many ways brilliant women can be silenced.
I know I would have felt less alone, had I read her books in the 1960s. In truth, I feel less alone reading them now! I feel like I did when I first read Pippi Longstocking when I was 12. ...more
The second novella in Paul Auster’s debut New York Trilogy is even more creepy than the first.
“First of all there is Blue. Later there is White, and The second novella in Paul Auster’s debut New York Trilogy is even more creepy than the first.
“First of all there is Blue. Later there is White, and then there is Black, and before the beginning there is Brown.” This opening sentence already had my head spinning. What do these colors mean? Need I remember them? Like a taxi or limo driver who keeps speeding up and slowing down, Auster does this to the reader’s mind. One is either worried or a bit bored. Neither state lasts long.
I’ll give you a hint, as the author does in the next sentence. Blue is a private detective. White appears and gives him an assignment to follow Black for as long as is necessary. It becomes a long time and following Blue as a reader is about as exciting as it is for Blue to follow Black.
Still the tension mounts for all 72 pages until a startling denouement ends the story. At that point this reader forgot she was ever bored. She felt like she should have seen it coming. Looking back in my mind I could see the whole plot though while reading I was not sure there was a plot.
The Castle of Llyr is the third book in Alexander Lloyd’s series, The Chronicles of Prydain. I am reading the series in order of publication as part oThe Castle of Llyr is the third book in Alexander Lloyd’s series, The Chronicles of Prydain. I am reading the series in order of publication as part of My Big Fat Reading Project (an attempt to read as many books as I can published during the years I have lived.) The final book of the series, The High King, won the Newbery Award in 1969, so I chose the read the earlier books first.
These stories are high fantasy set in a fictional country based on Wales and inspired by Welsh mythology and folklore. I can feel the influence of C S Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia, though the Christian themes are missing.
Taran, Assistant Pig-Keeper, is the main character. He dreams of being a great hero and falls in with the Princess Eilonwy and others who have adventures in fighting evil in their land. As Taran and Eilonwy grow up, the band stay together. In The Castle of Lyr, Eilonwy has been betrothed to a prince in another castle and has been sent there to learn how to be a young lady. Taran is hopelessly enamored of her but knows he is just a commoner, so doesn’t stand a chance. When she is kidnapped though, he gets the band together to rescue her from an evil enchantress. Eilonwy herself has some of the powers of an enchantress.
I love these tales. The characters are as good an any you might find in Tolkein and their exploits are full of danger and triumph. The concepts of bravery, honor and responsibility are given a light hand but have a huge influence on the stories. For some reason, I feel at home in the Welsh lands whenever I read about them ...more
The other morning I woke up to learn that Edna O'Brien had died at 93. That is a ripe old age. My mother died at 90. It takes a good long run at livinThe other morning I woke up to learn that Edna O'Brien had died at 93. That is a ripe old age. My mother died at 90. It takes a good long run at living to get to either age.
Casualties of Peace was her fifth novel. It opens with a nightmare that seems so real I did not get that it was a dream until Willa awoke. Edna O'Brien's books always grab me by the throat and never let go. Even as she writes about horrific things, the prose is beautiful, rich, and so alive.
I read this novel in under two days. Every character has longings, every longing is unfulfilled. You don't read Edna O'Brien to get happy. You read her to understand unfulfilled longing as something that is inherent in life. As children we are raised to strive for happiness. A dirty trick if you ask me.
I don't mean to sound dour or depressing. It is in the nature of people to want, to strive, to achieve. It is in the nature of some people to use force to get what they want, or deceit. It is in the nature of others to fall into depression, fear, or despair, when their longings are not met.
Willa has been abused by a man, physically and emotionally. Now she lets a man and his wife, Tom and Patsy, live in one of her rooms, he to take care of the property, she to take care of the house. In fact, she hopes they can protect her from further hurt. It all comes out by the end but the story is not straight forward. Thus it is a kind of mystery.
If you like stories that make you happy, hopeful, or contented, this is not one of those. It is one that creates empathy, that makes you want to protect people from each other and themselves. ...more
This was a sentimental reread. I will tell why in a minute.
Travanian is the pen name of Rodney William Whitaker; a writer more reclusive than J D SaliThis was a sentimental reread. I will tell why in a minute.
Travanian is the pen name of Rodney William Whitaker; a writer more reclusive than J D Salinger and Thomas Pynchon. He wrote six novels under that name though Shibumi is the only one I have read, so far. My husband and I read it in the early 1980s and besides both of us loving it, it improved our sex life!
Shibumi is a Japanese word that connotes complete harmony, tranquility and balance. Nicholai Hel, the book’s hero, was able to achieve this state until his career as an assassin caused a spiritual banishment from what for him was mystical. He also was an accomplished player of the Japanese board game known as Go.
The novel is one of the most exciting I have ever read and is a fast read as well. Nicholai Hel has another special feature he called “proximity sense.” It enabled him to be aware of any movement 360 degrees around him. Of course, that comes in handy for an assassin.
He had a hard and hellacious life as a child and young man in Japan between the World Wars. He overcame it all but when he attracts the attention of the Mother Company, a super group of international espionage, he faces a set of circumstances that could bar him permanently from shibumi.
When I began my reading in publication order of Don Winslow’s books, my husband decided to take the journey with me. Don Winslow, with the permission of Travanian’s daughter, wrote a prequel to Shimumi, called Satori and it all led to our sentimental reread of the Travanian novel and a plan to read the rest of his work.
This might be the reading slump breaking novel of all time! ...more
I first read Clarice Lispector in 2016, because I had found a bit of buzz about her. She was revered by so many readers and writers of literary fictioI first read Clarice Lispector in 2016, because I had found a bit of buzz about her. She was revered by so many readers and writers of literary fiction. I started with Near to the Wild Heart and was defeated as a reader. I wrote a mean-spirited review which someday I will revise.
I went on to read The Chandelier in 2018 and The Besieged City in 2019. Still I struggled.
Finally, while reading The Passion According to G H, I began to see the light. She very much wrote in a stream-of-consciousness style which is not my favorite. In fact, most of my reading friends will not read books in that style. But in this one it finally got through to me that she was writing from her wild mind, streaming ideas, perceptions, emotions and psychological tensions. It also got through to me that we all do that in the privacy of our minds.
Thus, it is a good thing for writers to read books in this style since any characters we create are doing that kind of thing and we need to be able to add that to the character at times to make them realistic.
In this novel, G H is a fairly young woman who has become aware that she is leading a carefully constructed false life. When she finds herself confronting a cockroach that she has tried to kill, her own façade comes apart. She spends hours with that bug, digging into memories and questions and the meaning of life. The prose becomes at times gross and at other times fantastical. She is going after questions about her role in her own life and in the world.
The translation I read is by Idra Novey. Another author I would like to investigate. ...more
I like to read translated literature to keep in touch with other countries besides the USA. My Archipelago Books subscription supplies me with approxiI like to read translated literature to keep in touch with other countries besides the USA. My Archipelago Books subscription supplies me with approximately a book a month. I don’t always keep up with reading them but usually when I do, I am rewarded. In this case, the novel was originally published in The Netherlands in 1971. The author wrote many novels and this was his personal favorite.
The story is narrated by a guardian angel! The man he guards is a public prosecutor. It is the evening before the German invasion of The Netherlands, May 9, 1940. Alberegt, the public prosecutor has just put a woman on a boat. She is a Jewish refugee from Germany whom he had been sheltering for four months, during which time he had fallen in love with her. He is heartbroken but she is adamant that she must get to England to be safe.
Following this opening scene, Alberegt gets into some serious trouble which dogs him throughout the rest of the tale. He has become a hapless male.
Despite its length the book was easy to read. I was most impressed by how I got a glimpse of Dutch society on the eve and during the initial weeks of the German occupation. Through Alberegt’s fellow workers at the Justice Department, through his family and other associates, the picture becomes clear. Fear, rumors, false documents, mistaken intentions, all make the tension grow.
In addition to an angel on his shoulder, trying to encourage the man to do the right things, there is the Devil on his other shoulder giving him the worst advice. Amid the confusion and panic, these two otherworldly characters provide levity.
There is so much going on in Amy Tan’s third novel that I thought two things: 1. She was always a bit crazy in her fiction and perhaps only became morThere is so much going on in Amy Tan’s third novel that I thought two things: 1. She was always a bit crazy in her fiction and perhaps only became more so as the years went by. 2. She is an insanely talented storyteller and writer.
Since I have only read her first three novels by now, I cannot yet say which is true. I suspect both are. I vaguely remember when her fifth novel, Saving Fish From Drowning, came out in 2005 it got some pretty bad reviews, though it still had fierce fans.
In The Hundred Secret Senses, Olivia is the daughter of a Chinese father and an American mother, living in America with a Chinese half-sister and a husband she has fallen out of love with. Quan, the half-sister, daughter of their Chinese father came into her life shortly after their father’s death. She has “yin eyes” that can see and communicate with the dead.
Olivia is the kind of female who cannot get enough love to fill her. She is also so annoying. But as the story went on, I grew close to every character, no matter how flawed. When Olivia, her husband and Quan go to Manchu, China, Quan’s life story and ancestors come into full play and the tale becomes darker, more treacherous, and I must say less realistic.
But the end of the story did away with any doubts about realism because it is so wondrous. Did I mention that bubbles of humor float up at just the right places. Both #1 and #2 above are true! ...more
Maurice Sendak won the Caldecott Medal in 1964 for this iconic picture book. Of course, I have read it before. In fact, I read it countless times to mMaurice Sendak won the Caldecott Medal in 1964 for this iconic picture book. Of course, I have read it before. In fact, I read it countless times to my sons when they were small.
I had to read it one more time because the love of Max’s mother who had his dinner waiting in his room when he came back from his adventure is my favorite page. Mothers do love their wild children! ...more
I found this a sad story. Saber is a 24-year-old spoiled young man. His mother was a wealthy courtesan who was convicted for her profession and strippI found this a sad story. Saber is a 24-year-old spoiled young man. His mother was a wealthy courtesan who was convicted for her profession and stripped of her wealth. All the money is now gone and her beautiful house sold. Saber is left without a mother, with only a small portion of the money his mother got for her house, but also with the news that he has a wealthy father somewhere in either Alexandria or Cairo, told to him on her deathbed.
With a picture of his father, whom he resembles exactly, he begins to search. Because he was given everything by his mother, he has no skills. Eventually he finds himself in Cairo where he puts ads in the local paper inquiring for his father. A young woman at the paper falls in love with him, but he succumbs to a passionate woman who persuades him to help her kill her husband, promising him a life of leisure when they get her husband’s money.
Will he choose love or money? Those are his only choices.
In all his novels, Naguib Mahfouz creates a full picture of Egyptian society from the early 20th century into the 1960s when, post-revolution, morality declined, and on into the 21st century. I find these novels a wonderful way to learn about the country and its modern years....more
Earlier this decade I read Don Winslow’s Power of the Dog trilogy. It covers the drug scene in Mexico and unsuccessful efforts by the US government toEarlier this decade I read Don Winslow’s Power of the Dog trilogy. It covers the drug scene in Mexico and unsuccessful efforts by the US government to stop the flow of drugs into the country. Each book was great.
I decided, as I often do, to go back and read his earlier books.
A Cool Breeze on the Underground was his first novel. It is a thriller based around a political family whose father is a US Senator, whose daughter is a runaway, whose mother knows terrible secrets about their family. The Senator wants his daughter found and brought home in time for his campaign for re-election.
Enter the hero of this five-book series: Neal Carey. What a character! He grew up on the streets of New York but gains a mentor who teaches him how to be a private detective. That teaching rivaled Samuri discipline and was one of my favorite parts of the book.
Neal sets off for London, where the missing daughter is presumed to be, and trails her to a raunchy bunch of drug dealers and sex traffickers. The missing daughter is one of their victims kept in line by providing her with drugs. It gets gnarly!
I would warn you that Winslow does not shy away from graphic violence. His characters though have depth and right out of the box with this first book, he is deep into the connections between crime and politics. If that is your kind of story Winslow is your guy! ...more
Once again an author I have always meant to read has died before I read more than one of his books. Clearly I am getting old and nothing worries me asOnce again an author I have always meant to read has died before I read more than one of his books. Clearly I am getting old and nothing worries me as much as the fact that I am running out of reading time.
Early in the 21st century a friend lent me Paul Auster’s first book: Hand to Mouth, A Chronicle of Early Failure. I found it fascinating. It tells of a life of extreme austerity while he developed himself into a writer. His most important practice was to safeguard his writing time. He finally published City of Glass, the first in his New York Trilogy, with a tiny press but was then picked up by Penguin.
City of Glass is essentially a novella but felt like a big fat novel to me in terms of substance. Quinn, the protagonist, is a writer of mysteries under a pen name and has no interaction with his public. One night he gets a phone call after midnight. The caller asks to speak to Paul Auster!
Uh oh!
Quinn takes on the identity of Paul Auster, detective. He takes on the case needing to be solved. Somehow, though the story gets quite strange, I had no trouble following it and in fact became completely drawn in. I read it in one day. This is one of those tales that probably means unique things to unique readers.
Siri Hustvedt, one of my most favorite authors, is Paul Auster’s wife. That makes me happy!
The next book in the New York Trilogy is Ghosts. I will be reading it soon! ...more
This is the 15th P K Dick novel I have read. Why do I read him? Because he was, in my opinion, a prophet. Like the Old Testament prophets he saw visioThis is the 15th P K Dick novel I have read. Why do I read him? Because he was, in my opinion, a prophet. Like the Old Testament prophets he saw visions, though his were not brought to him by messengers from God but by a combination of amphetamines and his own precocious understanding of the world.
If you read The Similacra today, it feels eerily similar to what is going on with politics on this very day, during this very summer.
Set in the mid 21st century, the “permanent” First Lady (who is in fact the fourth) is mostly brought to the public through the media. The President is a simulacrum. There is only one political party and one Network for news.
If you are feeling tired of being on Earth, you can catch a space taxi to Mars. A complete plot for the novel can be found on Wikipedia. I suggest you read the book. ...more
I confess I am a bit obsessed with Rebecca West. I read her 1956 novel, The Fountain Overflows, in 2009 which was when my obsession began. It was one I confess I am a bit obsessed with Rebecca West. I read her 1956 novel, The Fountain Overflows, in 2009 which was when my obsession began. It was one of my favorite novels of all time. In 2013 I read an excellent biography, Rebecca West A Life by Victoria Glendinning. Learning about her life and loves and struggles as a female author induced a strong identification with her in me, being a woman who could have been her daughter and who experienced similar struggles in my 20th century life.
Then I spent about seven years trying to read her magnum opus, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, about her travels through the former Yugoslavia. As I finally penetrated and proceeded through those 1100 pages, I gained an appreciation for her many fine qualities as a writer: her astonishing sentences, her deep understandings about history, religion, war, and the highs and lows that human beings can reach.
Now I have read The Birds Fall Down, her final novel. All those fine qualities are in play here. A young woman, Laura Rowan, daughter of a Russian mother and a British father, travels with her mother to France to visit her Russian grandfather, Count Nikolai. The Count is an exiled Russian aristocrat who is still loyal to the Tsar, that complete autocrat fighting for his existence against the Social Revolutionary Party: terrorists who will usher in Lenin after the Russian Revolution.
Laura learns that a double spy lives in her grandfather’s house. Rebecca West reveals all these layers of intrigue in such a way that I could feel the danger, the confusion, and the pressures of history at work. Laura is 18, is quite conflicted about being a woman, does not intend ever to marry, and is far braver than her years would suggest.
I found the novel difficult going at times. But I recognized the intense understanding of history Rebecca West had developed over her career of writing, her traveling, and her passionate embrace of feminism. The story encompasses the forces that created modern history. To me, that is a form of genius: to be able to have such an overview combine with her convictions and turn that into a spy novel of epic proportions.
All the previously read books mentioned here I have reviewed on Goodreads. Today as I worked to pull my thoughts together, I learned that The Fountain Overflows was originally intended to be the first in a series, The Aubrey Trilogy. Though Rebecca West never published the others, a completed manuscript for the second and extensive notes on the third were pulled together after the author’s death in 1983 at 90 years old and published as This Real Night and Cousin Rosamund.
After learning that, I have decided I am not done with Rebecca West yet. There are four earlier novels from before The Fountain Overflows and the rest of The Aubrey Trilogy. Somehow, I will fit them into my reading someday! ...more
I think I first learned of Ernest J Gaines when he died and got a bit of press from that. I hate it when that happens!
He was born in 1933 to a sharecI think I first learned of Ernest J Gaines when he died and got a bit of press from that. I hate it when that happens!
He was born in 1933 to a sharecropping family. Started picking cotton at the age of 9. At 14, he moved to California where his mother lived and began writing. He attended college, served in the Army, won a scholarship to Stanford and the rest is history. He won several awards and died in 2019.
Catherine Carmier was his debut novel. (He published 8 novels in all.) Jackson, a young man who had been to college in the North, returns to his hometown for a visit but does not intend to stay. It is a Louisiana town built around the site of an old plantation. The current population includes Blacks, Creoles, racist whites and various mixtures. Jackson himself is light-skinned.
In the course of his short time there he falls in love with Catherine Carmier. Her father is the son of a Black man who moved into the former overseer’s house from the plantation. This father is a complex, angry, paranoid man who keeps Catherine under close watch. She is of course beautiful, loves her father, but once she and Jackson fall in love and begin an affair, is totally conflicted.
It took me a while to sort out who was who, to trace the family lines, and to grow accustomed to the dynamics of the town. Jackson knows he cannot stay but does not want to leave Catherine behind. It gets messy and a bit melodramatic. But I was drawn into the tale because clearly from the beginning Ernest J Gaines was a natural born storyteller! ...more
Once upon a time, I wondered to myself what ever happened to the Egyptian Empire. I suppose like most empires it eventually lost its empire size and sOnce upon a time, I wondered to myself what ever happened to the Egyptian Empire. I suppose like most empires it eventually lost its empire size and status and became just another country on Earth. But the question led me to reading books set in Egypt past and present and to reading about it in history books. It also led me to Naguib Mahfouz who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1988. I started reading his novels in 2000. This is the tenth one I have read.
Mahfouz is credited with bringing the novel form to Egyptian culture. He was born in Cairo and lived there for most of his life. He writes about change in society, in government, and therefore in people.
In Adrift on the Nile, a group of friends meets most nights on a houseboat along the banks of the Nile at Cairo. It is the late 1960s, Nasser is President. Their host is a disillusioned civil servant in the Ministry of Health. The others are middle-aged, middle-class men and women of various artistic pursuits who are not in favor of Nasser’s insistence that art should serve by committing to the current concepts of committed theater, social realism, and message. Art for art’s sake is no longer in vogue.
So they smoke hashish from the hookah, hour after hour, and discuss art in the way they perceive its function to be. When a younger female journalist joins in, strange currents are set in motion which shatter the group.
I found myself rather bored by the conversations at these gatherings. I had trouble keeping track of the many characters and needed to refer to the list I had made each time another one spoke. I was glad the book was short. But it did make an impact on me. When a segment of society becomes disillusioned trouble usually follows. The drop-outs, the beats, the musicians of the 1960s, were all part of my young adult life and a mood of absurdity led to trouble as well as to some great literature and music.
I can well imagine that such a state of affairs can happen in any country. As always, Naguib Mahfouz brought that alive in this book. ...more
I read this as part of My Big Fat Reading Project. (For those of you new to my reviews here on Goodreads, the project consists of reading lists from eI read this as part of My Big Fat Reading Project. (For those of you new to my reviews here on Goodreads, the project consists of reading lists from every year since 1940. The lists include the top 10 bestsellers of each year, the award-winning books, and a list of authors I want to follow through their careers.) Babel-17 won the Nebula Award in 1966. Having read it, I have finished the award-winning books from 1966. I will post the full list below this review.
I was thrilled to make the acquaintance of Samuel Delaney. He is frightfully intelligent and his story is an explication of semiotics through a space opera tale of love and adventure. I have never been able to wrap my head around the term semiotics (the study of signs, symbols, codes, and languages) so it took a novel rooted in the subject to make it real to me.
War is raging in space and has been for some time. As always it is about who controls the commerce routes between planets and satellites. One of the warring governments intercepts a code at places where sabotage by the enemy take place. A former code-buster turned poet, Rydra Wong, is called in. Rydra is one of the most intriguing female characters I have come across in science fiction.
Other cool concepts arise in the story: “Tripling” is a sexual union between three people; telepathy; psychology; and “discorporates” who are minds without material bodies.
Despite all the heavy concepts at work, it is a page turner and got into my heart as well.
Sigh! I have added another author to my bulging lists.
The Award-Winning books of 1966 (all of which I have reviewed on Goodreads.)
1. *PULITZER: Collected Stories, Katherine Anne Porter 2. *NEWBERY: I, Juan de Pareja, Elizabeth Borton de Trevino 3. *CALDECOTT: Always Room for One More, Sorche Nic Leodhas 4. *NBA: Collected Stories, Katherine Anne Porter 5. *HUGO: This Immortal, Roger Zelazny (And Call Me Conrad) 6. tie: *Dune, Frank Herbert 7. *EDGAR: The Quiller Memorandum, Adam Hall 8. *NEBULA: Babel-17, Samuel R Delany 9. tie: *Flowers for Algernon, Daniel Keyes 10. *PRIZ GONCOURT: To Forget Palermo, Edmonde Charles-Roux 11. *STREGA: A Spiral of Mist, Michele Prisco ...more
I had only read one Michael Connelly book: The Late Show. My husband has read them all. I was once in a reading group whose leader was Connelly’s realI had only read one Michael Connelly book: The Late Show. My husband has read them all. I was once in a reading group whose leader was Connelly’s real estate agent, who had signed copies of all his books. In those days I mostly read female crime/mystery writers. I read The Late Show because he finally made a woman his main character! I decided it was time to tackle his entire series. The Black Echo was his debut and it won the Edgar for Best First Crime novel in 1993.
Connelly fans are probably also familiar with the Bosch TV series though I have not watched them. Bosch was Connelly’s first main character, a cop with a lot of issues, one of which was authority. He likes to work his own way, make up his own mind, and though he gets in trouble he always gets his perpetrator.
The black echo of the title refers to the sound heard in the tunnels that American soldiers during the Vietnam War had to traverse in search of weapons and Vietcong soldiers. A terrifying, claustrophobic endeavor that contributed to these men’s subsequent PTSD after the war. Bosch was one of those. His case in this book involves a return to the tunnel rat job right in Los Angeles.
There is a female law enforcement character in the book. FBI agent E D Wish. Tough, wily and possibly using Bosch for her own ends when they begin working the case together.
Quite an amazingly accomplished book for a debut. I am hooked. Now I will get as far as I can in Connelly’s huge list of books. I especially love that they are set in my city: Los Angeles! ...more
Continuing my reading of Joyce Carol Oates’s novels in order of publication, filling in the ones I have missed over the years. A weird thing: I was ceContinuing my reading of Joyce Carol Oates’s novels in order of publication, filling in the ones I have missed over the years. A weird thing: I was certain that I had read this one before and that it was the first book by her I ever read. But this time, it felt completely unfamiliar to me. The scenes I remembered were not there. I can only conclude that the first book I read by her was a different book. My aging brain is losing it?
Marya Knauer was left with an aunt, along with her two brothers, at a young age. She never saw her mother again. This part of the story is set in a small mining and mill town, impoverished, violent. But Marya is tough and observant and smart. A typical JCO female character, you might say.
As indicated by the title, the story follows Marya’s life in stages as she grasps at any opportunity and holds on by working hard. She excels in school, she has boyfriends but does not desire to marry, she goes to college, then graduate school, becomes a teacher of literature and a famous critic. At every stage she has a love affair but leaves the man behind as she moves to the next stage. She gets religion but then loses her faith. She defies a mentor and begins to write political commentary as well.
I felt great admiration for Marya and great sympathy. She is trying to build a life out of the remnants of her desperate childhood, she keeps her own counsel, but though she always finds a lover she is deeply alone. The abandoned child inside her finally drives her to make a radical change at the end.
As always for me, JCO captured me in her spell.
I wonder if I will ever come across the book I thought I read in 1988. ...more
Big As Life is E L Doctorow’s second novel. I have read his first, Welcome to Hard Times. It was a literary western with philosophical affectations. IBig As Life is E L Doctorow’s second novel. I have read his first, Welcome to Hard Times. It was a literary western with philosophical affectations. I liked it just fine. I have also read Ragtime, a historical novel set in the early 1900s. I always meant to read more because I love his sense of humor and the way he fits ideas into propulsive plots.
According to the lore about this author, who died in 2015, he later decided that Big As Life was no good and forbade his publisher to print any more copies. I found a first edition at my local library.
Red is a jazz bass player, in love with his Indiana girlfriend, Susan. He calls her Sugarbush. Early one morning on his way home from the gig, two 2000-foot tall figures appear over New York City’s harbor and chaos ensues.
Through the viewpoints of Red and his historian friend Creighton, the usual inept attempts by the government are displayed: military control, lock down, Senate investigations, etc. Reading the book was reminiscent of the attack on the two towers, and the opening months of Covid 19.
I found the story completely entertaining, shocking and smart. I suppose you could call it speculative fiction but the writing was top-notch and the characters were so endearing. ...more
Loading...
