edwinbcn - Better luck with ClubRead in 2017, Part 1

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edwinbcn - Better luck with ClubRead in 2017, Part 1

1edwinbcn
Modifié : Déc 30, 2016, 12:30 am

For more than 12 months, of part 2015 & 2016, I was locked out of LibraryThing due to Internet restrictions and / or low bandwith in Beijing, China.

Having relocated to the south, I now seem to have better access in both my homes: my home-base in Nanning (Guangxi Province) and my work location in Guangzhou (Guangdong Province).

I will hopefully be better able to keep up with my reading log on LT.

This is my Tenth Year on LibraryThing.

2edwinbcn
Déc 30, 2016, 12:31 am

--

3RidgewayGirl
Déc 30, 2016, 11:17 am

Welcome back, Edwin. You have been missed.

4Trifolia
Déc 30, 2016, 4:21 pm

I look forward to see what you read next year. It's good your internet access has improved.

5PaulCranswick
Déc 31, 2016, 8:34 am

Good news on improved internet, Edwin.

I look forward to keeping up with your reading in 2017.

6ELiz_M
Jan 1, 2017, 9:51 am

Happy New Year? (Maybe happy Jan is more appropriate?) I am glad that you will have better internet access this year, as I have really enjoyed the reviews posted last year during the brief times of internet availability.

7dchaikin
Jan 1, 2017, 10:43 am

Hi Edwin. Hope you are able to post regularly this year. Wondering if you might be adding books you have read in Chinese at some point?? Wish you a happy, er, international new year.

8NanaCC
Jan 1, 2017, 11:09 am

Welcome back Edwin. I look forward to your reviews.

9janeajones
Jan 1, 2017, 11:55 am

Happy New Year -- and may your internet hum along.

10The_Hibernator
Jan 1, 2017, 9:08 pm

11Simone2
Jan 1, 2017, 10:50 pm

Dropping off my star and wishing you a good 2017 in China!

12edwinbcn
Jan 2, 2017, 5:22 am

Thank you all for your warming welcome.

13AlisonY
Jan 2, 2017, 6:32 am

Dropping a star here too....!

14edwinbcn
Jan 2, 2017, 10:21 am

001. Censoring sexuality. Poulenc's priest
Finished reading: 2 January 2017



Censoring sexuality. Poulenc's priest is a smallish book, published in the series Manifestos for the 21st Century, drawing attention to the deplorable state of human rights of GLBT in a number of countries around the world, particularly situated in the Middle East. While gay marriage is now increasingly accepted and available to gays and lesbians in various developed western countries, the gay rights movement in most western countries is all but obliterated. As there is apparently nothing left to fight for, and GLBT in the US and most European countries are seemingly completely satisfied, while the Internet provides both information, entertainment and dating services, gay communities worldwide have lost members, the gay scene has become less prominent or even disappeared, while GLBT organizations find themselves with less support and reduced membership. In the wake of western acceptance and tolerance of homosexuality, a number of developing countries are guardedly following suit, notably China, where attitudes both in the legal sense and otherwise are gradually, though slowly improving. However, at the same time, GLBT in some western countries are faced with new threats from the radical islamic movement in western countries, while in fundamentalist iskamic countries, such as Iran, the situation of GLBT is unrelentingly harsh.

Paul Bailey (1937) is a British author of a modest oevre, consisting of both fiction and biography. Two of his novels, Peter Smart's Confessions (1977) and Gabriel's Lament (1986) were shortlisted for the Booker Prize for Fiction. Bailey has written biographies of Cynthia Payne and Quentin Crisp, and a collection of Three Queer Lives: An Alternative Biography of Naomi Jacob, Fred Barnes and Arthur Marshall published in 2001.

Censoring sexuality. Poulenc's priest consists of an essay by Paul Bailey and a compilation of documents by contemporary writers on the repression and violation of the human rights of gay people around the world. Bailey's essay outlines the well-known history of the oppression of gay and lesbian women in the western world. In the essay he describes well-known cases such as the fate of Oscar Wilde, Marcel Proust, and Quentin Crisp beside the lives of artists such as Benjamin Britten, WH Auden and Ronald Firbank. The essay is a very loose collection of reminiscences of Bailey's own experience and observations over the past fifty years, both at home and abroad. It brings together a broad variety of less well-known facts, anecdotes and ideas, altogether written in the style of lightly bantering, 'camp' gossip.

The essays is followed by a collection of documents, some autobiographical, a radio transcript and some journalistic work by a number of authors describing the current situation of homosexuals in the Middle East, notably Iran, Egypt and Israel and Morocco, besides places such as Jamaica and Poland. Some of these documents describe cases of torture and fear for their lives of gay men and lesbian women.

It is obvious that at the beginning of the 21st century, the western GLBT movement should not complacently rest in its own comfort, but strive for the freedom of gays and lesbians in other places and less fortunate circumstances. Bailey's essay shows that their rights are only a very recent thing, while many GLBT around the world still suffer, possibly even worse than 19th century western literati.

While Censoring sexuality. Poulenc's priest brings together an interesting collection of documents, the booklet as a whole is fairly weak. The main essay is too loosely written and of very little interest, focussing mainly on the lives of artists, while the documents are shocking descriptions of the lives of less well-known people. The connection between the essay and the documents is confusing, and the book, despite the suggestion that it is a manifesto, does not suggest a program.


15baswood
Jan 2, 2017, 6:29 pm

An interesting read Censoring sexuality to start the year. We may well find that with the election of right wing populist governments in the West that hard won freedoms could be eroded.

16arubabookwoman
Jan 2, 2017, 7:59 pm

I'm glad you're back Edwin, and hope that your internet access remains reliable. I enjoy following your reads, although I was mostly a lurker. This year I hope to comment occasionally.

17dchaikin
Jan 2, 2017, 11:26 pm

Yes, interesting first topic for the year. Cultural intolerance is a bewildering aspect of humanity.

18kidzdoc
Jan 3, 2017, 5:21 am

Great review of Censoring Sexuality, Edwin. I intend to read at least a couple of similar books this year, but given your comments I won't choose this one.

19tonikat
Jan 3, 2017, 6:23 am

Whatever its failing I am interested in Censoring Sexuality now. Does it say much on gender? I'm interested in the artists, but also in more everyday experience. I also fear there is much of the west that's not been won.

20edwinbcn
Jan 24, 2017, 8:40 am

Censoring Sexuality does not say much about gender issues. LibraryThing must have had another bug or so, because I listed all the contributors separately, but none of that was saved.

The main essay by Paul Bailey is a historical overview from his very personal viewpoint, and it is supplemented by a choice of articles from a GLBT rights publication, focussing on the poor condition of GLBT rights in mostly Middle Eastern countries.

The structure of the book was bit confusing to me, as I originally thought the appendices were illustrative material to the main essay, which was not entirely the case.

21edwinbcn
Jan 24, 2017, 9:24 am

002. Bohemians, bootleggers, flappers, and swells. The best of early Vanity Fair
Finished reading: 7 January 2017



Bohemians, bootleggers, flappers, and swells. The best of early Vanity Fair is an anthology of essays and articles that appeared in the early editions of the magazine Vanity Fair. The book is compiled and edited by Graydon Carter the current editor of the magazine.

Vanity Fair was the name of no less than five different magazines. There was an American Vanity Fair magazine that was published between 1859 and 1863. The second Vanity Fair was a British weekly published between 1868 and 1914. For only two years, from 1902 to 1904, another American magazine bearing this name was published. Then, a new American Vanity Fair was published between 1913 - 1936. This magazine was revived in 1983, and published from 1983–present, known as Vanity Fair, currently being edited by Graydon Carter. The introduction to the book does not mention the capricious history of the magazine, somewhat suggesting a steady, continuous publication, firmy claiming the 1913-1936 magazine as belonging to the history of the current magazine, which may be discutable. Thus, "early Vanity Fair is meant to mean the Vanity Fair magazine that was published between 1913 - 1936. The introduction of the book highlights the importance of the owner and particularly the then-editor of the magazine, Frank Crowninshield, who had a particularly good nose for talent. As Vanity Fair the world's most modern magazine at the time, it attracted many of the most important authors to contribute essays and poems. Modernity is made an issue in several of the contributions, contemplating was it means to be modern.

Bohemians, bootleggers, flappers, and swells. The best of early Vanity Fair is divided into three parts, the 1910s, 1920s and 1930s. As the magazine started in 1913, and folded in 1936, only the second decade was a full ten years long. The contributions in the 1920 are definitely the most interesting.

The selection for the 1910s is rather boring and uninteresting with essays by P.G. Wodehouse, Stephen Leacock and rather a lot of poetry by Dorothy Parker. Arthur Symons' 1918 essay comparing hashish and opium is interesting as a forerunner of the experimentation with various drugs, although it is more likely to have been written since the British government banned trade in opium in 1918. The 1920s opens with a biographical sketch on Somerset Maugham by Hugh Walpole, praise for the coming author by the going author of the day, soon to be trampled and ridiculed by the newcomer. The most interesting contribution selected for this decade are certainly Djuna Barnes portrait of James Joyce and Aldous Huxley's essay on modernity. Many essays contemplate the position and rights of women, including as essay by D.H. Lawrence. The single essay by Scott Fitzgerald is a very weak contribution. Strong contributions are an essay by Jean Cocteau: "The Public and the Artist" and a biographical sketch on Pablo Picasso by Max Jacob. There is a choice of some good poetry, notably by Edna St Vincent Millay and T.S. Eliot. The selections for the 1930s are weak. They mostly ponder on the Great Depression, and it must be said that J.M. Keynes' essay "Banks and the Collapse of Money Values" could as well have been written for the 2008 financial crisis.

Altogether, the reader is presented with a very large selection of now long forgotten authors, writing on issues which are no longer of any importance. The very few interesting essays hardly justify reading through 400+ pages of rather mediocre stuff.

22edwinbcn
Jan 24, 2017, 9:36 am

003. Finding your element. How to discover your talents and passions and transform your life
Finished reading: 21 January 2017



Finding your element. How to discover your talents and passions and transform your life is a self-help book to help people find happiness by breaking out of constraints and liberating one-self by finding out what one's real aptitude and ability are. The book is remarkably simple, and straight-forward, a series of open doors. If there are any people who do not see the obvious, the merit of the book is that it offers guidance in finding the goal and many practical exercises to do so.

23edwinbcn
Jan 24, 2017, 9:50 am

004. Search inside yourself. The unexpected path to achieving success, happiness (and world peace)
Finished reading: 21 January 2017



Search inside yourself. The unexpected path to achieving success, happiness (and world peace) is just another book about meditation for managers, written in a goobldygook guru style, to veil its very obvious and simple content.

24edwinbcn
Jan 25, 2017, 1:56 am

005. Chinese lessons. Five classmates and the story of the New China
Finished reading: 22 January 2017



Chinese lessons. Five classmates and the story of the New China is yet another book about the disaster known as modern Chinese history. In just over 300 pages, John Pomfret tells the story of modern China, basically from the late 1950s up till the present. Journalists are not historians, and typically, they lack distance to the object of their study, and with it any form of objectivity. As many long-term residents, Pomfret has a strong tendency to identify with the Chinese, and hence, the book seems a feeble attempt to write himself into Chinese history. The author's longing to be part of Chinese history seems more strongly so since he was evicted from the country, in the aftermath of the Tiananmen Incident.

Both historians and journalists may make use of eyewitness accounts. Chinese lessons. Five classmates and the story of the New China is largely based on the stories told by Pomfret's former classmates, five Chinese students he befriended while Pomfret studied at Nanjing University. This also gives the book a fairly unique perspective, namely that from the city of Nanjng, while most other books tend to focus on either having a very general scope, collecting stories from all over China or being very focused on Beijing.

Nonetheless, the stories of each of these classmates are as shocking as any. They may have a somewhat more rural base, but the quintessential horror of the Cultural Revolution in present in each. Part 2 of the book tells the life experience of Pomfret's classmates during the 1970s and early 80s, the period when the author witnessed their lives as he studied in China.

In Part 3 of the book, Pomfret himself is the eye witness of the events in the capital in 1989. The narrative focuses on proximity and on-the-ground perspective, the author running through the hutongs to reach the square before the armoured vehicles, the author among the students, the author with his face pressed against the tarmac taking cover. What follows is interrogation, and eventually, expulsion.

The next part of the book is called "Into the Sea", a typical phrase for Chinese to have left the motherland. It shows once more how the author identifies with the Chinese. During the following years, Pomfret worked in Hong Kong, and a decade later he is enabled, with special permission to re-enter China and resume reporting on conditions in China. The final two parts of the book are about the 1990s and the early first decade of the new century, a time of economic development, but no less hardship and political repression.

Part memoir, part observation, but lacking distance, Chinese lessons. Five classmates and the story of the New China is a book that throws three parts of Chinese history together, that would heve been better presented if dealt with apart. For all of the author's closeness to China, the book lacks true sympathy. It is much more a harsh reckoning, than a warm memoir. The book would be of interest to people who are interested in Nanjing, and the history of the Cultural Revolution at Nanjing University, Chinese education and Chinese universities. The rest of the book is barely worth attention, as it is too distanced and too superficial.



25edwinbcn
Jan 25, 2017, 10:38 am

006. I drink therefore I am. A philosopher's guide to wine
Finished reading: 24 January 2017



I drink therefore I am. A philosopher's guide to wine is a another book about wine, but not just for every reader. The book is a very intellectual and literary approach to the subject. Roger Scruton ('Sir Roger') is an English philosopher specialised in aesthetics and political philosophy. He is a prolific writer who has published seven works of fiction, two operas, and a very long list of non-fictional works, many in the field of philosophy, but also many in all other aspects of life and society, including animal's rights, modern culture, music, and globalisation. Scruton favours traditionalist conservative views, and some of these ideas shine through in I drink therefore I am. A philosopher's guide to wine, as aristocratic ideas about drinking wine.

I drink therefore I am. A philosopher's guide to wine is divided into two parts. The first part deals mainly with all the usual talk about wine, technical details, terroir, grapes, etc. Despite lamenting the usual practise that many wine writers tend to praise exceptional wines, Scruton does fall into the same trap. Perhaps that's why the first chapter is aptly titled "My Fall". At least it does describe how and when the author fell for wine. As a conservative, it will come as no surprise that Scruton favours Old World wines over New World wines, emphasizing terroir and culture, particularly the culture of wine making. Consequently, Scruton does not believe in 'blind tasting', which he compares to a blindfold kiss: "you can no more understand the virtues of a wine through a blind tasting than you could understand the virtues of a woman through a blindfold kiss" (p. 33) , and on the next page, very much in the same vein "(t)o think you can judge a wine from it's taste and aroma alone is like thinking you can judge a chinese poem by its sound, without knowing the language." (p. 34). To Scruton, drinking wine has as much to do with the quality of the wine, as the region it is produced.

The second part of the book consists of four essays about philosophical concepts that logically connect with the culture of drinking wine. Some of these essays are critical of our age, as greed and the need for easy gratification clash with the true spirit of educated wine consumption, or, as the title of the last essay: "Being and Bingeing". Actually, this essay about the misuse of drink, hence the misuse of pleasure and the rule of agape is relatively easy to understand. Some of the essays need a very clear and concentrated mind, and it might be a good idea to read that part of the book before intoxication. The author would probably assume that wine not be consumed in the solitary situation of reading the book, but rather in the cheerfulness of company and good conversation.

I drink therefore I am. A philosopher's guide to wine is not an easy book to read, but for readers with an intellectual slant it may be an interesting choice, to pick it up as (just) another wine book, albeit with a somewhat different perspective. The book offers a lot of food for thought, and there is still quite a lot to learn from. Carefully chewing and digesting the book, may be quite similar to drinking a fine wine. The book would probably not be a very good choice as a first book to read about wine, but after one has read a few, I drink therefore I am. A philosopher's guide to wine offers sufficient stimulus and pleasure to pick it up and read. Thus, recommended, but not for everyone.



26baswood
Jan 26, 2017, 7:03 pm

Lovely review of I drink therefore I am

27edwinbcn
Fév 2, 2017, 8:51 am

007. The Chinese
Finished reading: 24 January 2017



The China of the 1990s is not exactly the same country as the China of today. It is the same place, and to some extent, the same people, but you could say the China of the 1990s was an entirely different world.

Perhaps the same is true for the author, as the chapters in this book, boldly entitled The Chinese, seem to be very different from what the author suggests in the introduction. There, the author writes that statistics in China are unreliable, nonetheless, each chapter of the book is studded with statistical data. Scandals and social problems described are quite typical of the 1990s, such as the countryside outbreak of AIDS caused by blood plasma recycling, and the popularity of qigong. In the introduction the author also writes that the book is structured as a pyramid, with many chapters devoted to describing young people, while the final chapters would be dedicated to describing the "ruling class" of cadres, but this structure is not discernable.

The material for the book was collected during the first five years of the author's stay in China, from 1995 - 2000, and the book was first published in 2002. It is the typical kind of journalistic writing, that relies heavily on limited sources claiming universality, hence the pompous title of pretending to be a book describing "The Chinese", a country of 1.3 billion people a tremendous diversity. As many such books, the undertone is hostile and critical at best.

The book is very boring to read, and by now quite outdated.



Other books I have read by Jasper Becker:
Hungry ghosts. Mao's secret famine

28SassyLassy
Fév 2, 2017, 1:44 pm

>27 edwinbcn: That's disappointing from Becker. I had read Hungry Ghosts and thought he did a good job on that one. How did you find it?

29Trifolia
Fév 3, 2017, 2:44 pm

>22 edwinbcn:, >23 edwinbcn: : Quite surprised to notice that you read this kind of books. They're so different from anything else you read...

30edwinbcn
Fév 4, 2017, 11:33 pm

>29 Trifolia:

You are right, these books are mainly impulse purchases when I am travelling and nothing better is to be had. I bought Search inside yourself. The unexpected path to achieving success, happiness (and world peace) at Amsterdam Airport, and Finding your element. How to discover your talents and passions and transform your life was one of my first buys in Guangzhou.

31Trifolia
Fév 5, 2017, 1:42 pm

>30 edwinbcn: Ah, I see. That's why I like e-readers so much.

32edwinbcn
Fév 10, 2017, 8:39 pm

008. Koning Cophetua en het bedelmeisje
Finished reading: 25 January 2017



Prior to publication of Knielen op een bed violen in 2005, Jan Siebelink was an author in the margin, whose novels were perhaps technically well-written but of very little interest. The short story collection Koning Cophetua en het bedelmeisje, published in 1983 belongs that that early period.

The eight stories in the collection seem to be connected as the same protagonist(s) seem to appear, at least in some of the stories. These central characters are a writer, or someone who wants to become a writer and a young woman, both apparently students in a big city, perhaps Amsterdam. The stories can be clearly situated in the early 80s as references are made to the protest culture of that time. Otherwise, the stories are all rather vague.

The title story of the collection, The King and the Beggar-maid hints at the theme of the stories, which could be described as the Cophetua complex, i.e. the main character's sexual desire for the girl is driven by a feeling of mental superiority. Perhaps the author wants to parody the sense that some, even unsuccessful authors or artists seem to have a sense of superiority vis-a-vis other people.



Other books I have read by Jan Siebelink:
Vera
Knielen op een bed violen
Engelen van het duister

33edwinbcn
Fév 10, 2017, 9:11 pm

009. Spain
Finished reading: 25 January 2017



Spain is a large European country, with a long history and rich cultural traditions, which differ in many ways from other European countries, and one might expect that there is a lot to say about that. Nonetheless, Jan Morris's Spain is just a very thin booklet of a mere 147 pages, not including the index. The book was first published in 1964, when the fascist Generalissimo Franco still ruled the country with an iron fist, and the book was revised in 1979, after the death of Franco, when Spain became a constititional monarchy. In such a small book, there is only time for the essentials or the core of Spanish culture.

The focus of Spain is very much on the culture of the Spanish nation, while history is merely mentioned in an illustrative manner. Stylistically, Jan Morris is an excellent writer and the descriptions of the country and its people are powerful and evocative. Nonetheless, readers of the book now, may find the author's approach a little bit too terse.

It isn't made clear how extensive the 1979 revision of the book was, but the book still carries the weight of the Franco era, and in many ways the book seems unable to represent the current situation in Spain. One might assume that at a deep level, the Spanish culture is unchanged and that there is an essential core Spanishness that is of all ages. Nonetheless, the Spanish people have changed a lot, and particularly by the present, Spain is a very different country, not just looking back at the early 60s, but also by comparison with the late 70s. For instance, Morris makes a point of a Spanish way of saying goodbye, to show how deeply Spain is a Roam Catholic country, which is all true, but in all my time in Spain, I have never heard anyone say "vaya con Dios", although the expression is readily recognizable. And, although perhaps officially the police may still be so-called, I think even Spanish people will avoid referring to the "Guardia Civil" and particularly in Franco's time they were a very strict and stern police force.

Why read an old travel guide? The relevance of reading this book is not greater that reading a travel guide about Spain published a hundred years ago. The book is very, very general, but readers will find very little information to prepare for travelling there. Probably the best motivation for reading this book is, like my own, a sense of nostalgia: readers who already know a lot about Spain may find it a nice, and short read to dip into a past experience. Another reason, could be to read it as part of the author's collected works, acknowledging the fact that Jan Morris is a very good writer, and read the book on the strength of its prose.



Other books I have read by Jan Morris:
Manhattan '45
Contact! A book of glimpses
A writer's house in Wales

34edwinbcn
Fév 10, 2017, 9:49 pm

010. Extremes along the Silk Road. Adventures off the world's oldest superhighway
Finished reading: 25 January 2017



My initial interest in the author Nick Middleton finds its origin in the fact that he is a geographer, and it is suggested that as such his writing would have a very different focus. Most travel writers are literary people, and most travel writing focusses on culture and anthropology. However, reading Middleton's book Extremes. Surviving the world's harshest environments about Greenland, Congo, Niger, and Papua-New Guinea was rather disappointing. The same sense of disappointment comes with reading Extremes along the Silk Road. Adventures off the world's oldest superhighway.

What must be said in favor of the book is that the author travels an unusual road, starting in Mongolia, then trekking into northwestern China, via Gansu Province and the north of Xinjiang Province and ending his journey near the Aral Sea in Kazakhstan. However, the book is hardly about geography, and is barely discernable from other travelogues. The book mainly focusses on the unusualness of the people the author encounters on the way.

With the current Chinese leadership working to develop the One Belt, One Road project, there is renewed interest in the vast land expanse between central China's Xi'an city and the eastern-most reaches of Europe. However, as this area is not only formed by a rather hostile environment, for instance the Gobi Desert, the region is also known for it's political instability. In fact, three years into the project, the Chinese have established very little, their main stronghold being in Pakistan and Kazakhstan. In the introduction of the book Middleton expounds that the so-called historical "Silk Road" did not consist of a single, clearly marked road. The Silk Road, a term coined by a German sinologist about 100 years ago, is more like a concept, covering various overland routes connecting Europe with the far-east in a corridor of trade and cultural exchange. Thus, roman-greek influences can be found in north-western Chinese sculpture, while silk products were at one time fashionable in imperial Rome.

Obviously, the Silk Road brings up images of caravans of camels, but ever since the Great Game days of Kipling and the British Empire, continued in the dominance of the United States, the region has suffered from imperialism and a clear policy to destabilize the region. Thus, what would be the middle route of the Silk Road, through Persia (Iran), Iraq and Syria is clearly not viable at present, as the proposed Pax Sinica is thwarted by American military intervention in the region.

Extremes along the Silk Road. Adventures off the world's oldest superhighway could be a very good impression into the development of a northern corridor. However, although Nick Middleton's road travel or a motor bike may be romatic and adventurous, it tells us little about the reality of travel by high speed rail, as under development by the Chinese. The book will interest readers form an anthropological point of view, but the book utterly fails to describe the landscape or environmental situation of the region, with exception of the author's description of the environmental disaster that befell the Aral Sea, and an area by the name of Vozrozhdeniye, which was an area designated by the Soviet Union to test biological weapons.

Extremes along the Silk Road. Adventures off the world's oldest superhighway will be enjoyed by readers of adventurous travel in rather out of the way places, and as such the book does a good job. It is well-written, never really dull, while the road travelled, the people and their customs are unusual.



Other books I have read by Nick Middleton:
Extremes. Surviving the world's harshest environments

35edwinbcn
Fév 11, 2017, 9:51 pm

011. Johnno
Finished reading: 28 Janury 2017



Johnno is a short novel by the Australian author David Malouf . The chapters devoted to telling the story of the main character Johnno are embedded in a framework of two chapters, the first and the last describing the narrator's days mourning the death of his grandfather. These chapters create the setting for going through old things, papers and memories, and in this nostalgic mood the narrator remembers and tells the story of his classmate Johnno.

Although the narrator, Dante, and Johnno seem each other's opposites, in their adventures they are complementary, with Danta mostly poised to admire Johnno's audacity and Johnno at times showing unexpected loyalty to Dante. The novel is a tribute to pure, male friendship.

In this way, the novel tells the story of coming of age in the late 40s through early 60s, starting in Australia during the war and rather boring 50s, an opening up of an exciting stay on the European continent and final days back in Australia.



Other books I have read by David Malouf :
Remembering Babylon

36edwinbcn
Fév 11, 2017, 10:24 pm

012. Charles Dickens. A life
Finished reading: 2 February 2017



Charles Dickens. A life, the biography of Charles Dickens by Claire Tomalin reads like a novel by the Victorian author himself. The biography is remarkably well-written, and just a sheer pleasure to read. In just over 400 pages Tomalin compacts Dickens's eventful life.

For readers who imagine Charles Dickens as just another dreary old Victorian, this biography would come as an eye-opener. Dickens, apparently always as busy as a bee, led a bohemian lifestyle of exhuberence and dazzle. Starting from a very humble background, which would later appear in many of his greatest novels, early fame in his late Twenties brought wealth and the means to enjoy life on a grand scale. Dickens is described as an unusually colourful character, literally, as he would dress in gaudy colours. His friendships were warm, and his passion for the theatre went as far as not only writing plays (who had ever heard of that?) to producing and acting in his own plays, for very varied audiences, including the Queen. The biography also shows how an initially very good match and happiness in early marriage soured under the burden of work and an ever expanding family. While Dickens regularly frequented brothels and this is characterised as not unusual even in Victorian England, while his contacts with the women not only inspired many characters in his books, but also spurred Dickens into charity and setting up a home for destitute women, these visits may have been the prelude and symptom of a deteriorating marriage, which ended in divorce.

Dickens's life was extremely eventful and busy, as he wrote very many novels, and was engaged in many other projects ranging from charity, the theatre to journalism and running a newspaper. Part of the struggle of young authors is the modest to low income as at that time copyright was either not protected or publishers would benefit most from cooperation with their authors. Fortunately, Dickens was able to negotiate better deals with his publishers over the years in England, but often lamented piracy of his works in the United States, where the Copyright Act was not concluded until the final decades of the century, and Tauchnitz (Leipzig) brough out pirated editions of his works.

Claire Tomalin has struck a very good balance between writing about Dickens life and his novels. With so much to write about, the novels are never described with too much detail, and neither are the novels analysed. There is also a very good balance between Tomalin comments and use of the novels as illustrative material and contemporary criticism, showing how Victorian critics felt about Dickens's work.

Although there a footnotes for some of the facts, Charles Dickens. A life does not feel like a scholarly work. The biography is very well-written and very readable. A short but very useful bibliography with suggestions for further reading shows that scholarly interest in Dickens is far from rounded off with a number of major publications of Dickens's Letters in 12 vols. only completely published failrly recently between 1965 - 2002 (in The Pilgrim Edition of the Letters of Charles Dickens, and his collected journalism in miscellaneous writing in four vols. (1894-2000) in The Dent Uniform Edition of Dicken's Journalism.



37edwinbcn
Fév 11, 2017, 11:01 pm

013. Kort Amerikaans
Finished reading: 2 February 2017



Particularly in the Netherlands, Jan Wolkers is named as one of "The Great Three" authors, meaning Jan Wolkers, Harry Mulisch and Gerard Reve. They were all similar in age, and wit their novels dominated the literary scene in the Netherlands for nearly six decades. Many of their novels are inspired by the Second World War.

Kort Amerikaans (1962) is Jan Wolkers's first novel, although he had published some short stories and a play before that. The title of the novel refers to the hair cut of American soldiers, known as the "crew cut".

Jan Wolkers originally trained as a painter, but is mostly known for his writing. A striking feature of his writing are unablushed references to sexuality, and Wolkers can be easily described as the Dutch Henry Miller. The erotic element in his work was emphasised by the filming of many of his novels featuring the Dutch actress Monique van de Ven, who appeared in the filming of several of Wolkers's novels in the 70s besides filming of novels of Mulisch and Reve during the same period. Written in the 1960s - 70s and filmed during those same years, many of these movies are very explicit about sexuality.

Kort Amerikaans is set in the final year of the Second World War. As the war had upset regular life, twisting human relations into secrecy, suspicion and hiding, various characters' love and sexual lives are twisted and hampered in a similar fashion. The frustration of daily life is echoed in sexual frustration. Not only can Eric not find nude models, for his painting, he also cannot achieve the sexual act. The threads connecting Eric to various characters in the novel are often snapped. Love and death and entwined in various morbid ways. The novel features various peculiar characters, charicatures of Dutch people. The main character's name "Van Poelgeest" suggests dark, murky waters. Thus, in the final pages, as the Eric knows light will penetrate his dark secret, he embraces freedom by welcoming death.



Other books I have read by Jan Wolkers:
Mattekeesjes of de zielenreiniging van de Nederlandse klamboemaatschappij
Serpentina's petticoat
Dagboek 1972
Ach, Wim, wat is een vrouw?
Dagboek 1969 - 1971
Wolkers, Jan Dagboek 1974

38edwinbcn
Fév 11, 2017, 11:52 pm

000. Einstein's dreams
Finished reading: 2 February 2017



Alan Lightman is a foremost American physicist, and the author of Einstein's Dreams. It is essentially an essay disguised as a novel. The novel as a form of fiction is plastic and flexible, and so is the essay. The narrative is confusing and rather uninteresting, and it isn't very clear where all is fictional or based to some extent in fact. Centred around Albert Einstein's dreams while working on his Theory of Relativity the reader is invited to ponder issues of time. Whether novel or essay, the hype over this work and the expectation it creates in the reader, only resukts in disappointment.



39edwinbcn
Fév 12, 2017, 8:15 am

015. De helleveeg. De Tandeloze Tijd. Deel 5
Finished reading: 2 February 2017



As time itself is an important theme in the novel cycle De Tandeloze Tijd by Dutch author A.F.Th. van der Heijden , the publication of De helleveeg as volume 5 in the series in 2013, 17 years since the publication of volume 3 (with volume 4 being published in 1990) is a really late serving. Compared with the other volumes in the series, De helleveeg. De Tandeloze Tijd. Deel 5 is oddly short, and while the other volumes were mainly coherent and fascinating, De helleveeg is a fragmented, unclear story. Many of the figures that appeared in the previous volumes make a short appearence in the story, but without clear connections of purpose.

De helleveeg. De Tandeloze Tijd. Deel 5 is a very disappointing book, that, appearing with a delay of 17 years, had perhaps better not appeared at all.



Other books I have read by A.F.Th. van der Heijden:
Het Schervengericht. Een transatlantische tragedie
Tonio. Een requiemroman
Asbestemming: Een requiem
Uitdorsten. Klein requiem voor mama, mam, ma
Doodverf
De gazellejongen. Het verzameld werk van Patrizio Canaponi
De draaideur
Een gondel in de Herengracht en andere verhalen
Gentse lente
Voetstampwijnen zijn tandknarswijnen
Kruis en kraai. De romankunst na James Joyce
Drijfzand koloniseren
MIM, of De doorstoken globe
Het leven uit een dag
Hier viel Van Gogh flauw
Ik heb je nog veel te melden. De briefwisseling tussen Jean-Paul Franssens en A.F.Th. van der Heijden
Gevouwen woorden
Engelenplaque
De Movo tapes. Een carriere als ander
De sandwich
Advocaat van de hanen. De Tandeloze Tijd. Deel 4
Onder het plaveisel het moeras. De Tandeloze Tijd. Deel 3, Tweede boek
Het hof van barmhartigheid. De Tandeloze Tijd. Deel 3, Eerste Boek
Weerborstels. De Tandeloze Tijd. Een intermezzo
De gevarendriehoek. De Tandeloze Tijd. Deel 2
Vallende ouders. De Tandeloze Tijd. Deel 1
De slag om de Blauwbrug. De Tandeloze Tijd. Proloog
Een gondel in de Herengracht en andere verhalen

40edwinbcn
Fév 12, 2017, 8:39 am

016. Het verdriet van België
Finished reading: 3 February 2017



In his essay collection Familiearchief : notities over voorouders, tijdgenoten en mijzelf the Dutch historian E.H. Kossmann describes how in the Netherlands the culture of writing about the war has resulted in the paradigm that a number of people were collaborators, and therefore "black" or bad, a number of people was in the resistance, and therefore "white" or good, while most of the population was "grey", and therefore "suspicious. While the Black/White view can be explained and accepted, categorizing the rest of the population as suspicious is rather peculiar. Kossmann suggests that as long as people did not eagerly collaborate, while collaboration was limited for the necessity of one's personal survival, the general population should be considered good. In Dutch novels about the Second World War, this division is almost always very clear.

However, in reality, of course, things were not so clear, and although it would perhaps be too strong to use the word "suspicious" any form of "limited collaboration" is extremely flexible and can be interpreted in very many ways. Likewise, the justification of personal survival, possibly extended to family members is very pliable.

That is just what Hugo Claus's novel Het verdriet van België is about. Describing the lives of a number of ordinary Belgium people, from shortly before the war and throughout the war years, there are no obvious collaborators. Neither does Claus focus on the resistance. The characters in his novel belong to the general population, and how they deal with the occupation on a day-to-day basis.



Other books I have read by Hugo Claus:
Onvoltooid verleden
De geruchten
De zwaardvis
De koele minnaar
De dans van de reiger
Een bruid in de morgen

41baswood
Fév 12, 2017, 6:37 pm

Enjoyed your review of Charles Dickens: A Life. I read it some time ago and found it very credible.

42janeajones
Fév 13, 2017, 3:42 pm

Just catching up here. Your review of the the Dickens bio certainly is tempting even though I'm not a great fan of his novels.

43SassyLassy
Fév 13, 2017, 7:56 pm

>36 edwinbcn: Another prompt to get this biography. The only decent one I have is the (much) earlier Edgar Johnson one. I should get one with a more recent outlook.

44Simone2
Fév 14, 2017, 12:51 pm

>39 edwinbcn: I felt exactly the same about that one. Besides, the story had been told already in one of his other books.

45edwinbcn
Fév 15, 2017, 11:46 pm

017. Rome and rhetoric. Shakespeare's Julius Caesar
Finished reading: 4 February 2017



It is unlikely that Rome and rhetoric. Shakespeare's Julius Caesar will ever find or was even intended for a wide, general readership. Essentially, it is a small monograph on Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar. The book consists of four lectures, each dedicated to a figure in the play, respectively Caesar, Brutus, Anthony and Cassius. The author very convincingly shows how old Roman rhetoric shapes the play. Renaisance writers loved contrived word play, and Julius Caesar is full of it: various tropes, and rhetorical figures are explained and illustrated with examples from the play. Besides the role of rhetoric, the lectures highlight various details about the play, bringing together a wealth of insight in the connections between the classical world and the renaissance view of that antique world.

Rome and rhetoric. Shakespeare's Julius Caesar is a very interesting, but rather specialized book of literary criticism.



46japaul22
Fév 16, 2017, 7:11 am

Claire Tomalin wrote a Jane Austen biography that I've always been interested in but haven't gotten to yet. Hearing that you enjoyed her Charles Dickens biography is making me interested again.

47edwinbcn
Modifié : Oct 29, 2017, 11:39 am

For the past 12 months, I had pretty good access to LibraryThing, but was too busy with my work to write reviews. While access had been impossible in Beijing, fo the past two years, I still enjoyed the apparently less restricted access in the southern Chinese provinces of Guangxi and Guangdong. However, since the party congress last week, access seems to be as strict as in Beijing, and that means practically that i can no longer edit my catalogue. Pity, after 10 years.

48tonikat
Modifié : Oct 29, 2017, 6:29 pm

sorry to hear this edwin -- when at work our systems go down I still write drafts of my notes in word or text editor and copy them in later...if at all possible for you, would be a treasure horde for LT when you got to copy them in, I think.

49auntmarge64
Nov 14, 2017, 6:11 pm

>47 edwinbcn: That truly sucks. It's hard to imagine living in such restricted circumstances. Hope things loosen up for you.

50edwinbcn
Nov 7, 2022, 2:33 pm

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