A Smattering of Irish Stories

March had me really missing Ireland, wishing I was there, and thus reading Irish literature as a way to make do.  I finished a small assortment of Irish books, and felt like I'd keep finding more, but I think the craving may have receded for a while.

After owning it for 2 years (and having it partially read for just about as long) I have finally finished reading the stories in this volume. While many of the stories left me ambivalent or disappointed, there were a few standouts that I was very glad to have read. As a group, I think they made an interesting Irish portrait. Two authors I especially enjoyed, and anticipate reading more from, were Dermot Bolger and Orfhlaith Foyle.  

I was disappointedly not as enraptured with my first tastes of Roddy Doyle, Colum McCann, or Colm Toibin as I'd hoped I'd be.

"These mornings when I wake up - no longer even caring if I wake up - I feel oddly free. It's a terrible freedom, but it's the freedom that comes from knowing there is nothing more that life can do to you, that fate can have no more tricks up its sleeve.  I'm numb with grief, Maureen, I don't know if I'll ever feel warm again.  But I'm afraid of nothing now.  My sleepless nights are over because there is nothing left for life to snatch away from me." Winter, by Dermot Bolger


Ireland by Frank Delaney is a book that always caught my eye in the book store, so I finally received it through PaperbackSwap sometime last year, and then I ended up listening to it on Audible just recently.  Actually, it was a much more drawn out process than "recently" implies.  It was narrated by the author himself, and - though he has much experience reading aloud - wasn't very engaging.  The recording was some 20 hours long (thank goodness for being able to speed up the narrator's voice) and felt that long - and longer.

In the end there was much to appreciate, but I felt that Ronan's story was too bogged down by the lengthy "histories" that were the real point of the story.  The stories themselves weren't connected enough or interesting enough to keep me going.  Only the fact that it was on audio (and therefore multi-task-able) got me through it.  Makes me loathe to try his other titles, even if they are all about Ireland.

Sebastian Barry always writes beautifully.  If you are in the mood for some contemplative, gorgeous prose, pick up a Sebastian Barry novel.  His novel of WWI (A Long Long Way) is one of my most favorite books, and in fact, little Annie Dunne appeared in that novel, as she was the sister of the main character.  In this novel, life has passed her by for the most part, and we are treated to a portrait of her aged self.

Most of what I've read from Barry (this was my 4th novel) has a perfect (for me) balance of plot and sparkling composition, but Annie Dunne was definitely lacking a bit on the plot side—even for me, which is saying something!  I actually began reading it last autumn, and just now picked it up to finish it.  It took a level of focus I've found difficult to harness lately.

Still, I'd recommend giving Barry a try.  As a first foray I'd recommend The Secret Scripture, as I remember it being a tad more plot-driven.  And as always, I'm up for recommendations also!

The Professor's House by Willa Cather

"He had never learned to live without delight.  And he would have to learn to, just as, in a Prohibition country, he supposed he would have to learn to live without sherry.  Theoretically he knew that life is possible, may be even pleasant, without joy, without passionate griefs.  But it had never occurred to him that he might have to live like that."

Largely hailed for her sense of place, I've always believed that Willa Cather's talent for writing a realistic character is one of the core qualities that make her books so easy to love.  She writes of struggles and sorrows familiar to us all.  The Professor's House was a look at a man coming to terms with the fact that his life had shifted gears, and not necessarily for the best.  Looking back at his life as he nears retirement, he thinks about Tom Outland - the man whose life so greatly affected his family in a variety of ways.

Willa Cather's most famous setting is, perhaps, the Great Plains of Nebraska, but she is equally as talented in her magnificent descriptions of the canyons of New Mexico.  Her love for the majestic serenity of the Southwest is apparent.  My heart has never sung in adoration of that locale, preferring the lakes and trees of the Sierra Nevada Mountains I call home, but the more I read of Cather, the more I develop that love and respect for a landscape so different from my own.

Makes me want to go visit! (photo credit)

As I've read through Cather's oeuvre, I've noticed a quirk to many of her novels: in construction, she seems to prefer segmenting her story into two or three distinct sections.  She may jump to a different time, place, or point of view—or in this case, all three.  The best part of this small book was the middle section: Tom Outland's Story.  What a vivid experience, and perfect companion towards shaping a view of America around the time of the Great War.  The more things change, the more they stay the same.  By virtue of location, as well as circumstance, Tom's early life captured the imagination of the professor's young family when they first met, and it captured my imagination as well.

Quiet and contemplative, as is to be expected, The Professor's House was not my favorite Cather book I've read, but it is worth a  read for the middle section alone.  Check out my other Willa Cather reviews here, and for a fabulous summary (and more info and discussion about The Professor's House,) I highly recommend checking out this post by Jay @ Bibliophilopolis.)

"He had let something go—and it was gone: something very precious, that he could not consciously have relinquished, probably.  He doubted whether his family would ever realize that he was not the same man they had said good-bye to; they would be too happily preoccupied with their own affairs.  If his apathy hurt them, they could not possibly be so much hurt as he had been already."

Benediction by Kent Haruf

I believe I've read two previous novels by Kent Haruf.  One, Plainsong, I loved.  The other, (title unfortunately forgotten,) I remember loving until the ending—at which point it earned itself a spot at the bottom of the Caribbean.*  Benediction has redeemed my opinion of Haruf.

For being a story packed with things that could [quite plausibly] have been antagonistic or offensive, (the roles of religion, sex, and other beliefs and needs,) the book is surprisingly gentle, warm, and embracing.  Well, from my point of view at least.  I'm curious to see how it would hit others.**

Haruf uses beautifully fleshed out characters to explore the gap between our ideas and our actions.  What is good? What is bad? Why?  Do we believe (and live by) the ideas we profess?  What do our words and actions show our priorities to be?

This passage addresses what very well may be the crux of the problem:

People don't want to be disturbed.  They want assurance.  They don't come to church on Sunday morning to think about new ideas or even the old important ones.  They want to hear what they've been told before, with only some small variation on what they've been hearing all their lives, and then they want to go home and eat pot roast and say it was a good service and feel satisfied.

I am a Christian because I believe in Jesus Christ and his teachings.  The point and purpose is to improve my life and those around me by changing my actions to align with his. This takes thought.  This takes action.  This takes making difficult choices and challenging my built-in thought processes.  These are good things.  What on earth is the point of floating around in a little bubble of platitudes?  Why bother with the tremendous effort of keeping up appearances when you could be getting all the benefits that come with actually living out your beliefs?

Benediction represents one of the larger reasons I love to read.  It expands my horizons and exposes me to different ideas that I can bounce off my own—it allows me to see the world through different eyes and prevents me from becoming complacent.  I loved the complexity of the characters, the beautiful simplicity of the writing, the way it pulled me through in a few hours' time.  The characters seem to belong to their setting in the way that Willa Cather's are one with theirs: without effort, but with a vitality that makes the story that much more real.
_______________________

* It wasn't me who put it there.  Rather, my husband, himself inflamed at my griping, tore it from my hands and fed it to the fishes.  True story.

** It got me thinking.  Why wasn't Benediction offensive to me when Flight Behavior was?  In a way, they both took a small town setting to address some big issues...yet Flight Behavior felt smug and preachy, while Benediction felt compassionate and peaceful.  The subject of Flight Behavior (global warming) isn't as personal to be as the subject of Benediction (beliefs etc) so it seems that my reaction should be opposite...unless Benediction was in fact written with more respect, more peace, more compassion.  I'm compelled to think it must be so.

For the Record: March 2013

Abysmal.  That's how reading went in March.  I moved house, which ending up including many more hours on So. Cal. freeways until the new school bus route could be fixed.  Not my favorite time-suck.  Our 1960s house rebuild is progressing slowly, but we will soon be moving onto all the framing/plumbing/electrical and so many final decisions are needing to be made - all of which take TIME.  I'm missing reading and blogging, though, and am making efforts to have a better book month in April.  Here's the rundown for March:

4 Books Read in March: (18 year-to-date)
1 for Classics Club Challenge:
  - The Beautiful and Damned, F.Scott Fitzgerald (4.5) [I simply love the era and this was a wonderful way to learn more about it. review here]

3 from my shelf:
  - Some Tame Gazelle, Barbara Pym (4) [fun & cozy]
  - Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, Dai Sijie (3.5) [lent to me by a book club member and very good until the abrupt and odd ending.]
  - New Irish Short Stories, var. (3) [purchased in Ireland 2 years ago, and finally finished in a surge of wanting to be back there once again.  Wide range of quality, overall good experience.]

      


2 Current Reads:
  - Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky.  Yikes.  Still.  And stalled out to boot.  Must re-motivate! Get it done!
  - The Professor's House, Willa Cather.  I had to take a break to finish The Beautiful and Damned by April 1st, but am looking forward to picking it back up.  [update: finished already! April might be a good reading month after all.]
  - Ireland, Frank Delaney.  Listening to this on audio and almost done! Not very good...but it's about Ireland so it balances out somehow. [update: finished this too!  Onto my next audio book: The Chaperone read by Downton Abbey's Elizabeth McGovern.]

      

On My Nightstand:
I'm away from home right now, so my "nightstand" is currently a "bookbag" which contains the following:

    

The Beautiful and Damned: Classics Club Spin List Selection

I finished my selection - The Beautiful and Damned by F.Scott Fitzgerald - just after midnight on the 31st...squeaking in a final March read and barely accomplishing this goal.  Sometimes I forget how much more I accomplish when I have deadlines.  I should probably give myself more of them.  I'm definitely glad that The Classics Club gave me this one!

First published in 1922 and said to be a largely autobiographical look at the author's own marriage, The Beautiful and Damned was an intriguing mix of the expected and the unexpected.  It seemed to drag a bit in the middle, but was otherwise a captivating read.

I expected (and received):

1. New York, alcohol, and parties
2. All the fashion, glitz, and glam that goes along with the Gilded Age
3. Poetic Prose
4. A somewhat depressing, hopeless outlook

I didn't expect (but enjoyed):

1. A different writing style than Gatsby - a bit more straightforward
2. Many film and literature references
3. The intricately complex and precise portrayal of mental/emotional dysfunctions
4. The shocking number of similarities between that age & the current age.

F.Scott & Zelda Fitzgerald
(did you see them portrayed in Midnight in Paris?)

One of the things I loved most about this book was how the era was portrayed.  Reading about the first quarter of the century through the eyes of the authors who lived it just can't be beat.  It's a better learning experience than any history lesson.  There is a similarity to the experiences, (a flavor, a vibe, a sort of stunned observance of the massive changes happening in America,) that seems to place me directly into the time period as if a movie is happening around me.  From Willa Cather's O Pioneers! to Edna Ferber's So Big, and then to F.Scott Fitzgerald's The Beautiful and Damned - the stories stick with me, the characters are as real as life, and they make me hungry for more.

If you have a passing fancy for the era, or any interest at all in Zelda's life, I recommend this book.  It wasn't a very happy book, but it was a fascinating character study and peek into the culture of the times.    It kept me reading and interested, and I have a feeling that it will stick with me for a while.  Between Prohibition, the entrepreneurial spirit, the contrast between rural and urban areas, and the cocky American pride in the face of the First World War, I can't seem to get enough of the literature of the day.  Do you have any suggestions of other authors/titles I should try?

Knitting up my Reading Time

Here are some pictures that I promised Belle and Heidi I'd post regarding some of my knitting projects.  I've always loved working with my hands, (mostly quilting, some crochet,) but just over a year ago I taught myself a new trick: knitting.

{Confession: I'd always held a reverse snobbery for knitting: everyone said it was so vastly superior to crochet that it couldn't possibly be.  Now I'm sold. There are so many possibilities!}

I went on a Great Sock-Making Spree in the months before Christmas, making 8 pairs to give away to family members and one for myself.  Now my girls are asking for socks, so even though I just about sickened myself with the small thread and small needles, I have more socks in my future.

I've also conquered the fear of making a whole entire sweater.  Not only did the sweater above turn out nicely, but it actually fits!  Super comfy, in fact.  Having miles of simple knitting to do was quite nice after the intensity of complex sock patterns.  I have 2 other sweaters currently in the works.

The hat with the horses.  It was for my 8-yo-horse-loving daughter who is adamant that horses should always be depicted in natural colors...which meant that I had to adapt a pattern and do things WAY beyond my skill level.  But.  I learned so much! And I do love a bit of a challenge.

This simple hat just came off my needles and was a wonderfully satisfying quick project.  The yarn has some cashmere in it, so it feels nice too.  I haven't decided it I'll keep it or gift it, but I'm leaning towards keep right now.

This is the other project that just came off my needles, but it is a gift so I don't want to say much about it.  I had to include it in my post, though, because it was a fun pattern and fun yarn.  I can't wait to give it away, but I'm trying to amass Christmas gifts so I shall attempt to practice restraint.

If you knit or crochet, Ravlery is a wonderful resource for patterns, info on yarn, and discussion.  I'd love to see anything you've made!  If you have pictures online, post a link or find me (melopher) on Ravelry.

Look What I Won! (Forgotten Bookmarks!)

It's easy to feel unlucky in the art of winning prizes and awards.  Those pesky odds.  When I left a comment to enter one of Forgotten Bookmarks' giveaways, I held little hope of actually winning.  I don't enter there often, but I couldn't resist trying when he offered an old etiquette book.

After entering the contest I promptly fell into a fever-induced state of forgetfulness about the whole thing, making me completely miss out on the whole state of anticipation.  Imagine my shock then, when - still in a feverish frame of mind - I tried to comprehend the email I received telling me I'd won the book!

Manners, Culture & Dress is packed with wonderfully helpful tidbits, from directions for removing freckles to Trifling With a Man's Feelings.  Imagine a time when peer pressure was so intense that there were scores of books offering guidance and assistance...oh wait, that applies to the current day also, doesn't it?  Somehow, the social anxiety of a bygone era seems so much simpler and quaint.

Anyhow, thanks to Michael at Forgotten Bookmarks for the lovely book - such a treat!

For the Record: February 2013

So here's the deal.  I've been on a knitting rampage for the last few months, and it is definitely eating into my reading time.  But.  I can knit while I'm visiting with friends, (can't really read and visit at the same time,) and I've made some really great things.  There: I've come clean.  In other news, I'm moving again this month, and so all my newly unpacked books are being repacked.  Which books do I leave out in order that I might read them in the next month?  Such difficult decisions!

6 Books Read in February: (14 year-to-date)
1 for Book Club:
  - The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, David Wroblewski (3.5) [boooring]
3 Wishlist/New Books:
  - The Death of Bees, Lisa O'Donnell (4) [Indiespensable selection, set in Scotland!]
  - The Illusion of Separateness, Simon VanBooy (5) [ARC--perfect, brilliant, lovelovelove]
  - The Song of Achilles, Madeline Miller (4) [proof that genre fiction can be well written]
2 from my shelf:
  - The Toothpaste Millionaire, Jean Merrill (4) [fun read-aloud, and smart too]
  - River of Earth, James Still (4) [classic Appalachian lit]

          


2 Current Reads:
  - Some Tame Gazelle, Barbara Pym.  My first time reading Pym!  It's fun and funny, if a bit simplistic.  But there's a time and a place for everything & this is fun right now.
  - Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky.  Reading it along with a great group (& Wallace) @ Unputdownables.  I must admit I'm not enjoying it much, but if I don't finish it now, I never will.  So: little by little, keep on reading.

  

On My Nightstand:
I seem to have the same 2 books on my nightstand.  Maybe I'll stick them back on my shelf and see if that makes me more in the mood for them?

  

It's Not You, It's Me: Vol. 4

After being laid out on the couch as sick as a dog for nearly week, I've lifted my head above the fog with that strange notion of time set askew.  It feels as if I've missed more than a week of reality, and I figured that the best tonic would be to come clean on some perfectly good books that left me cold.  Once I get this out of my system I move onto gushing about other perfectly wonderful books and all will be well.

May I present: The Story of Many Dogs That Almost Broke Into Speech But Never Quite Did.  At least that's what I expected them to do.

This book was hugely popular a while back.  Oprah selected it.  I read enough unenthusiastic reviews to convince me not to read it, but then it was selected for my book club so I had to.  I got through it mostly on audio, and if I said that I cared about any of the characters, I'd be exaggerating.

However.  If you are a dog lover, a lover of the Shakespearean tragedy, if you are a Wisconsin lover or a lover of the long-winded epic, then this may be a match made in heaven.

Parts of Running the Rift were quite good.   The story of Rwanda's recent history can't fail to be compelling, making it impossible to remain emotionally detached during the climax of the plot.  It is important to tell the stories of those who are unable to tell their own—atrocities should not be left unremembered.

The problem is the nagging feeling that has followed this story for me: that those people weren't done justice in this book.  I had a hard time drumming up a connection to any of the characters...what should have been a celebration of survival and spirit, instead felt rather lifeless and mechanical, and I thought it was a pity.  Obviously my opinion is not universal, and I still think it's a story worth telling, even if the telling wasn't spectacular.

Now I thought that Rules of Civility would be a terrific romp through NYC in the Roaring 20s, and who am I to complain about that?  Snazzy style, glamorous girls, plenty of parties, and most of all...jazz.  Yes please.

Actually, I may have liked it more if I had read it instead of listening to it.  Perhaps it was the narrator's intonations that brought attention to the scads of metaphors saturating the prose.  It sounded as if it were written by someone who enjoyed sunsets and long walks on the beach and could rather do without having to actually read anything.  I'm sorry, but there it is.

Still, I love the era.  The title is great.  The premise has promise.  Sigh.

The Kitchen House: A Book Club Favorite.  It's no wonder, actually, because it seems to have been marketed directly for that purpose.  Simple writing, quick pace, tons of plot points, a gazillion-billion issues (and their sisters), and the Southern, historical setting, and Bam! Book Club Favorite!

Okay, but seriously.  If you are in the mood for a quickly moving, easy to read, page turning experience, then pick it up.  Do it.  It's what you want.  Just don't try to figure out why the Irish girl is named Lavinia, or what is benefited by the narrator switch, or if it is likely that all of these things would have happened to one person, or which issue you should care about the most...because you might get distracted and stop turning pages so quickly.  And that was the point, wasn't it? Oh, and don't forget to meet up with a group of girls and drink a glass of wine afterwards.  You've earned it.


Ahhh.  I feel so much better now.  I think that was just what the doctor ordered.  :)

A Peek Below Stairs

For the Downton Abbey fan, for the lover of history, for the memoir junky, or the behind-the-scenes aficionado: if you haven't met Margaret Powell, you're missing out.

Originally published in 1968 but only discovered by me during a recent trip into a bookstore (a woefully rare occurrence), this book ended up being the missing piece in my search to understand the history of domestic service in Britain.  Not that I'm done reading about it, mind you.

A year ago I read Up & Down Stairs: the History of the Country House Servant, and found scads of fascinating information.  What was missing, however, was the unedited opinion of the servants themselves.  While I'm certain servants' viewpoints varied as widely as personalities vary in general, there's nothing like information straight from the horse's mouth.

Margaret Powell is a spunky girl, and Below Stairs is never lacking liveliness.  From her tales about growing up poor in a small town to bold opinions and conjectures, there's always something to keep you turning the pages.  It had me laughing aloud and searching for a willing ear to pass tidbits onto.  In fact, I can't quote anything from the book because I lent it out as soon as I'd finished reading.  It was that much fun.

And now I'm torn—I want to scour bookstores for more, snatching up anything remotely related, and yet how can anything live up to a perfect experience?