Hello again! So glad you could join me in my cozy newsletter. Please, pull up a chair next to the fire. Yes, that's it. Would you like some hot chocolate? There, now you can get all warmed up––you're dripping wet! How's the work been going this week? I see, well that's certainly something. And the family? Mm-hm, just like them isn't it? Oh don't mind old Rags there, she loves a good scratch behind the ears. How have I been, you ask? Well…
I Read A Few Books
It’s been a while since I’ve had a book review up here, as I’m still working my slow, wending way through Ulysses. So I thought for this week I’d put up a few mini reviews of books I never got around to giving the full treatment. Some of these I’ve been picking up alongside Joyce when I can’t quite bring myself to face the footnotes.
The Procedure — Harry Mulisch
I don’t quite remember how I came across this one, but I’m glad I did. There are elements about it that remind me very much of Italo Calvino, with passages set in the second person, and more self-reference than you can shake a meta-stick at. But unlike something like If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler, the story here is much more than mere window dressing for the author’s clever linguistic tricks. Instead, we find a modern retelling of the Frankenstein story, beginning with a chilling recounting of the Jewish myth of the golem. This part was so good it easily could’ve stood on its own as a short story. We soon settle however onto our present-day Victor Frankenstein — Victor Werker by these lights — who is styled here as a biologist who has succeeded in creating a tiny, complex crystal which is possessed of the most basic metabolism and which also has the ability to reproduce. In other words: life. I enjoyed that the so-called eobiont is rarely discussed directly, however. Instead, the story is much more concerned with the human experience of life and death, and its philosophical observations are often infused with a biting irony. There is a description of childbirth here that nearly brought me to tears. As is often the case with books that pull out the lexical fireworks in their opening pages, however, the latter half can’t quite keep up the momentum, and the final section especially feels too drawn out, even repetitive at times, while at the same time not quite managing to deal in a satisfying way with all the themes presented earlier. Because of this, I’m not quite sure what to make of this book; parts of it were certainly some of the best prose I’ve read in a long while and really quite moving, but other very sizeable portions had me looking forward to the last page. Overall, I’d say this book is very much worth reading, even if the best bits are concentrated in the first half. I can’t shake the feeling that this is a lesser work by a great author. 3.5/5
The Nose — Nikolai Gogol
This one’s a short story, and hilarious. What’s a man to do when his nose up and leaves his face? And worse, when it insults his class-consciousness by taking on an identity more prestigious than his own? Some satire gets bogged down in metaphor and didactic tedium, and some allows you to consider what life would be like without a nose. 4.5/5
Barchester Towers — Anthony Trollope
Haven’t you always wanted to read Pride & Prejudice, but with Mr. Darcy replaced by a preoccupation with petty Diocesan politics? No? I loved this book so much I actually wrote up an entire doting review of it before realizing it was longer than any sane human would willingly read. I’ll atone now by making this as brief as I can: it’s wonderful. Trollope’s characters are just as humorous and entertaining as Austen’s, but with much more depth and realism. I love a book that lets us inside people’s heads. Yes, you might argue that the structure isn’t as tight as it should be, and his heroine can be a bit bland, but in the face of characters like Signora Madeline Neroni, I forgive all sins. Some authors simply have a genius for characterization. 5/5
Naked Statues, Fat Gladiators, and War Elephants: Frequently Asked Questions About the Ancient Greeks and Romans — Garrett Ryan
I don’t generally write reviews of the nonfiction that I read, but for this special mini-review list, what the heck. This book is a kind of Horrible Histories for adults, and explores the social history of Ancient Greece and Rome in a question-and-answer-style format. Did the Greeks and Romans really believe their own myths? Did they travel for pleasure? Why were they so against pants? It’s written in a light, informal style and I learned a lot, though I often wished the author were a bit more specific in his descriptions — sometimes I couldn’t tell if he was talking about the Greeks, the Romans, or both without reading back over again. Seemingly designed to be read just a few pages at a time, I pulled this one out when I knew I needed something particularly light. Plus, you’ve got to love that cover art. 4/5
Courtesans and Fishcakes: The Consuming Passions of Classical Athens — James Davidson
Okay, so maybe Fat Gladiators was a little too light. An appetizer that whetted my appetite for a more substantial meal, you might say. Courtesans and Fishcakes is another social history of the ancient world, but a much more, er, weighty one than Gladiators. It takes as its subject the sensual side of Classical Greek culture, namely: food, wine, and women. I’m still working my way through this one, so I can’t sum up my feelings on it just yet, but so far it seems a fruitful avenue by which to get inside the classical mind. I never thought I needed to know so much about ancient prostitution.
That’s all for now, thanks for asking! Same time next week? I’ll keep the kettle on.
Elizabeth, I’ve read another Trollope novel of The Chronicles of Barsetshire, “The Warden” from a Kindle ebook, which also contains “Barchester Towers”. I agree with your review, Trollope is a hoot! I’ll have to put “Towers” in my novel queue. I’ve also sent your reviews to a grand-sib whom we gifted “Naked Statues, etc” for their birthday last month. I hope they subscribe to S,OS. JBSP