tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7609218520227350552024-02-19T21:38:23.635-08:00The Eclectic ReaderBad Catholichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11987121652866343848noreply@blogger.comBlogger87125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-760921852022735055.post-29993071660666306222018-07-01T20:02:00.001-07:002018-07-01T20:02:08.390-07:00The Rector of Justin<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Xx5rvHusi-o" width="480"></iframe>Bad Catholichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11987121652866343848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-760921852022735055.post-62928676844166736492017-01-21T07:49:00.000-08:002017-01-21T07:49:52.312-08:00Ernest Hemingway's THE SUN ALSO RISES<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSRLHjDZyVoqXTo5NQlB2sKpsE2StB0L6PJfT7oNHBNHOF-iU6YufPRhQyPIPoaK1KAd323c-GfvL2uORDQUQ3si3hb3q9BSwuYQtGUNc1owLrmZ5D5ZlWQbu28DhOkLL8SQsfLidrIiI/s1600/also+rises+5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSRLHjDZyVoqXTo5NQlB2sKpsE2StB0L6PJfT7oNHBNHOF-iU6YufPRhQyPIPoaK1KAd323c-GfvL2uORDQUQ3si3hb3q9BSwuYQtGUNc1owLrmZ5D5ZlWQbu28DhOkLL8SQsfLidrIiI/s320/also+rises+5.jpg" width="207" /></a></div>
When Hemingway's first novel, <i>The Sun Also Rises</i>, was published in 1926 quite a few people were shocked. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAWHFHPiAglA5OKZEQxBRCRW61AUw45UOLgosrQPD8iFhBGR9wZcwj6mJu1pvjfLw5_qxTGVP4iqhMq0uA_g7nl4VWnvzCa86v7hRt0lmCDeRkEPzsFF-nXNFel5xvML08c3ceYmOmaBE/s1600/The-Sun-Also-Rises.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAWHFHPiAglA5OKZEQxBRCRW61AUw45UOLgosrQPD8iFhBGR9wZcwj6mJu1pvjfLw5_qxTGVP4iqhMq0uA_g7nl4VWnvzCa86v7hRt0lmCDeRkEPzsFF-nXNFel5xvML08c3ceYmOmaBE/s320/The-Sun-Also-Rises.jpg" width="221" /></a></div>
<br />
Hemingway's mother thought it was the most pornographic book she'd ever read. Grace Hemingway wrote Ernest a letter and told him how embarrassed she was and surely he knew some words other than "damn" and "bitch."<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0g2PeSHACrZXbDN7m1tz3mZnThWg_VWkB2oJN0AS8J03MP2YMYJzDkKAtqZ9UoI5xbWqUfOSkMimoq0KBrlbEzFATBHbSyh_nTNL3UWFVEIGS9CwA-dU77n3Ea-FhvNKjH7RGJE2PdqY/s1600/also+rises+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0g2PeSHACrZXbDN7m1tz3mZnThWg_VWkB2oJN0AS8J03MP2YMYJzDkKAtqZ9UoI5xbWqUfOSkMimoq0KBrlbEzFATBHbSyh_nTNL3UWFVEIGS9CwA-dU77n3Ea-FhvNKjH7RGJE2PdqY/s320/also+rises+1.jpg" width="214" /></a></div>
<br />
Hemingway's fellow ex-patriot friends were also shocked. The characters of <i>A Sun Also Rises </i>were thinly veiled caricatures of Hemingway and his friends. The main character, Jake Barnes, was Hemingway, his love interest Lady Brett Ashley was Duff Twysden, Robert Cohn was Harold Loeb. They were shocked. Duff Twysden was especially shocked to see herself portrayed by Hemingway as a nymphomaniac who sleeps with every man in sight and even seduces a nineteen year old matador.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWfSJbq6uDTuv7lzf2nDKXOsXWBLX_mdZNVZvQShS5gxdafSHZoj0Nc3rBgZoQFKaI-73M4wAyR_kxe6IFMb76gPr0afJz-Oq3mAAY-0U4_LLHvon09T8olozPiN-unuXWMnOuEgRYE8o/s1600/also+rises+4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWfSJbq6uDTuv7lzf2nDKXOsXWBLX_mdZNVZvQShS5gxdafSHZoj0Nc3rBgZoQFKaI-73M4wAyR_kxe6IFMb76gPr0afJz-Oq3mAAY-0U4_LLHvon09T8olozPiN-unuXWMnOuEgRYE8o/s320/also+rises+4.jpg" width="203" /></a></div>
<br />
Hemingway had originally considered naming the novel <i>The Lost Generation. </i>The writer Gertrude Stein had commented to Hemingway that all of the young people who fought in World War I were "A Lost Generation." <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrdVw3t0ys35ztD99gf4ddl-Hi69453Sj_rrILKTRpIVtiorJopZKcuXeEavudoRhRwZHC9DR-USYDOJiEpyOZRjZytBF3Wox3W_A-Vu3IJjuXLVKohg-jHh0lDSQBD2_C8irC6WcuLc8/s1600/xinterwar-europe-lost-generation-hemingway-the-sun-also-rises.jpg.pagespeed.ic.kqePURCWw4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="177" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrdVw3t0ys35ztD99gf4ddl-Hi69453Sj_rrILKTRpIVtiorJopZKcuXeEavudoRhRwZHC9DR-USYDOJiEpyOZRjZytBF3Wox3W_A-Vu3IJjuXLVKohg-jHh0lDSQBD2_C8irC6WcuLc8/s320/xinterwar-europe-lost-generation-hemingway-the-sun-also-rises.jpg.pagespeed.ic.kqePURCWw4.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<i>Ernest Hemingway and friends.</i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<i><br /></i></div>
To quote Sean Hemingway's introduction to the recent Hemingway Library Edition of <i>A Sun Also Rises: "Characters from <u>The Sun Also Rises</u> who were in the war - Jake Barnes, Brett Ashley, and Mike Campbell - are broken physically and mentally. Brett loses her first true love to the war, and no number of liasons fills the void. Mike Campbell is an alcoholic and Jake is physically wounded, though the specific nature of his wound is never described in the book. In an interview with George Plimpton, Hemingway said that Jake Barnes was not emasculated; his testicles were intact and not damaged, so he was capable of all normal feelings of a man but incapable of consummating them. It was a very particular type of wound of which Hemingway had learned while he was at the Italian front."</i><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc3rSAGklgfMwb9TowcEXE_m9xg3r3KqG70Y0ad8_9EUgTCtD3cWdZAH5ecYXx2bPpKuIL9C5iEq21wAeIxARY-sgq5EE0qm1kDPMxKf8qoSH8LHlIzLmK82B3SNjw6hO_JWwdYraxShY/s1600/also+rises+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc3rSAGklgfMwb9TowcEXE_m9xg3r3KqG70Y0ad8_9EUgTCtD3cWdZAH5ecYXx2bPpKuIL9C5iEq21wAeIxARY-sgq5EE0qm1kDPMxKf8qoSH8LHlIzLmK82B3SNjw6hO_JWwdYraxShY/s320/also+rises+3.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
<br />
And there is the central plot of <i>The Sun Also Rises</i>. Jake Barnes is a red blooded American male. He likes to fish and go to boxing matches and bullfights. He was a fighter pilot on the Italian front in the war. But Jake Barnes received a horrible wound in the war. Although we are never told the exact nature of his wound, Jake Barnes can no longer perform sexually. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoSIYPJwb15gjCA_0gK00dVlZ1zyJxgENvl_H-M3TUTAwb-EEtb2UWEMk5X_oXyTvX-MnUnwVv318_VF4yLvwDwW9oI0iBeuhg-u-08aWpL0LnzGmjzIxNOGPnOdWfXtVrgPjTLpuv2oM/s1600/also+rises+6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoSIYPJwb15gjCA_0gK00dVlZ1zyJxgENvl_H-M3TUTAwb-EEtb2UWEMk5X_oXyTvX-MnUnwVv318_VF4yLvwDwW9oI0iBeuhg-u-08aWpL0LnzGmjzIxNOGPnOdWfXtVrgPjTLpuv2oM/s320/also+rises+6.jpg" width="193" /></a></div>
<br />
Jake is extremely attracted to Lady Brett Ashley. Brett, in return, is extremely attracted to Jake. Because of his war wound, Jake can never satisfy Brett sexually and neither of them is satisfied to live together without it.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjELBw56cuteWHPE38cYqxJkUJqN09JWe6_qZUDWHHuUzcouKjd-PQyNf8EChhtKTjU451diXBuYuvNigIlpUnm6ucT1ALiaULGGtfn5PMDu5ZaUXNHDSy8kMdyEKn2IdZ6UX4-aW7ujpc/s1600/also+rises.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjELBw56cuteWHPE38cYqxJkUJqN09JWe6_qZUDWHHuUzcouKjd-PQyNf8EChhtKTjU451diXBuYuvNigIlpUnm6ucT1ALiaULGGtfn5PMDu5ZaUXNHDSy8kMdyEKn2IdZ6UX4-aW7ujpc/s320/also+rises.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
Robert Cohn, the author of a third rate novel, is everything that Jake Barnes isn't. Although he was a boxing champion at Princeton he never liked boxing and only participated in the sport because he thought he had to. Cohn is dominated by the women in his life. As Jake is physically emasculated, Cohen is spiritually emasculated. Brett, who is engaged to marry the alcoholic Mike Campbell, goes off the beach in Spain with Cohn for a week. After Brett sleeps with him, Cohn follows Brett around like a whipped puppy dog and won't leave her alone. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhre8YNX8Ez0Zt6MTM-3iS3JBQlzEQ4SGbTtOo47Kb186U_xRnxp1scSnXilgQTMz-jZRyiW-yotbHJqkLZRgIvSxkjwP94IOtx9U7SWtkWEXE9tgN7RfVROG6bYP9VWIzxnIFTksqypRI/s1600/also+rises+7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhre8YNX8Ez0Zt6MTM-3iS3JBQlzEQ4SGbTtOo47Kb186U_xRnxp1scSnXilgQTMz-jZRyiW-yotbHJqkLZRgIvSxkjwP94IOtx9U7SWtkWEXE9tgN7RfVROG6bYP9VWIzxnIFTksqypRI/s320/also+rises+7.jpg" width="221" /></a></div>
<br />
An alternative name that Hemingway considered for the novel is <i>Fiesta</i>. In fact, this is the name that the novel is still published under in the United Kingdom. Although the novel opens in Paris, the central action occurs during the Feast of Saint Fermin in Pamplona, Spain. The running of the bulls through the streets and the subsequent bull fights are meticulously described.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIqRB8SMsNDw9houIeERhHQjmqjhr0PhyjeDPu1yUENS72HOhQdixREbtIBnIiYdccnW3i-9fgk0x22soEZJEiFD_y2m5wSusmiTmRCVPnPLnk_ZYXFxJhATyKeyPWeYnzJ4MVywlA5Hc/s1600/Bullfight2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="237" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIqRB8SMsNDw9houIeERhHQjmqjhr0PhyjeDPu1yUENS72HOhQdixREbtIBnIiYdccnW3i-9fgk0x22soEZJEiFD_y2m5wSusmiTmRCVPnPLnk_ZYXFxJhATyKeyPWeYnzJ4MVywlA5Hc/s320/Bullfight2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
All of the men in Brett Ashely's life are somehow emasculated. The young matador, Pedro Romero, is the picture of masculinity. Romero is fearless and virile. The thirty four year old Brett wants the nineteen year old Romero. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNspKO8AgVxipGxnQS_6DG5G2b1iGi4GuuMMPrgaRV6V35nrYHZmY1UZJfi5JPaQyf-dyTPxMtsupSJaVDnJzZvyKzmDP9SGyflYZnyzafj3g-bBFpnS0zRgGikzR1ltHe_vGo3gfZTwU/s1600/also+rises+10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNspKO8AgVxipGxnQS_6DG5G2b1iGi4GuuMMPrgaRV6V35nrYHZmY1UZJfi5JPaQyf-dyTPxMtsupSJaVDnJzZvyKzmDP9SGyflYZnyzafj3g-bBFpnS0zRgGikzR1ltHe_vGo3gfZTwU/s320/also+rises+10.jpg" width="187" /></a></div>
<br />
Jake's old friend, the owner of the hotel the group is staying at in Pamplona, asks Jake to help him keep young Pedro Romero from being corrupted by fame before he can rise to his full potential as a matador. Jake promises to do so. When Brett asks Jake to fix her up with Romero, Jake can refuse her nothing. When Robert Cohn accuses Jake of being Brett's pimp, one of the reasons Jake gets so mad is because he recognizes that the charge is true. Jake also loses his reputation with the hotel owner and knows he will never be welcome again. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJE125Kmnc1VIcOV8QrHZG4M6YpcZqagCj68LrspDVkKs7n3SI83ROYBXiyn7HcMBX4fY3g2aBwKpTZNKaMye7SzlTQzdEot9_H97GgYtL4pP6HL2XM_IqkNmrpc4Nuc3z8WvuUvnxfXo/s1600/hemingway+paris+1924.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJE125Kmnc1VIcOV8QrHZG4M6YpcZqagCj68LrspDVkKs7n3SI83ROYBXiyn7HcMBX4fY3g2aBwKpTZNKaMye7SzlTQzdEot9_H97GgYtL4pP6HL2XM_IqkNmrpc4Nuc3z8WvuUvnxfXo/s320/hemingway+paris+1924.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<i>Ernest Hemingway in Paris in 1924</i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<i><br /></i></div>
The 1968 edition of the <i>Cliffs Notes </i>summarizes the ending nicely: "<i>She sent Romero back to his world because they were happy and she was aware that their happiness would not last; he wanted her to let her hair grow and become a real woman, so, she granted herself a beautiful memory while she could. </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9aQzmRq2Ar5sTETxzaj9yEEIkxA8oQCP0bp22viMpWOGgHeSbW5OfT_JWRdxEP_fVGUG-KbG5492RaZIPMxVPHiokfyZwFJ9hVKYTbosTqD_W1xJgxR8xu5BPFU7T-36XcmBD9uoJhiI/s1600/also+rises+12.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9aQzmRq2Ar5sTETxzaj9yEEIkxA8oQCP0bp22viMpWOGgHeSbW5OfT_JWRdxEP_fVGUG-KbG5492RaZIPMxVPHiokfyZwFJ9hVKYTbosTqD_W1xJgxR8xu5BPFU7T-36XcmBD9uoJhiI/s320/also+rises+12.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
<i><br /></i>
<i>Besides, Romero was nineteen, Brett thirty-four. In a short, short time her age and her past would be ridiculous were she to take up with Romero. The young hero would be in the first years of his prime. And Brett? She would be an unhappy, aging beauty trailing after the young Spanish god. Brett returns to her world; here she can be irresponsible again; she will marry Mike Campbell and she can once more wonder about Jake and herself. </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNnHmWne53GNCpGik-eEeHzXQGYjoKdy8Z6pmx2m-JppmvUT7rGJvrzPZbOuGFXZBQtyiRXwqshQaEJv1fPTLT1op41kjAQ7vqMVF7owg-JAQQKkYnqE7WcUZ_RS1J1Glo2sjZCKRZpqM/s1600/also+rises+9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNnHmWne53GNCpGik-eEeHzXQGYjoKdy8Z6pmx2m-JppmvUT7rGJvrzPZbOuGFXZBQtyiRXwqshQaEJv1fPTLT1op41kjAQ7vqMVF7owg-JAQQKkYnqE7WcUZ_RS1J1Glo2sjZCKRZpqM/s320/also+rises+9.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
<i><br /></i>
<i>Could they have been happy? Jake says it's 'pretty' to think so, knowing full well that sex would only have eased them into a beginning of God-knows what. Brett suggests that sex would have been terribly good between them and would have served them well but Jake does not accept this conjecture. It's only a game, this speculating, and it is, in a sense, comforting, but it has nothing to do with reality. Chasing after "as if's" is, in the words of Ecclesiastes (the source of Hemingway's title for this novel) all 'vanity and a chasing after the wind.'</i><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxYuBC6Kdl_oIHeWETP0NgJCArd515uC05RVFq4RwyGlibv2xdjLbGlxzQiPQO-JxINjgGWv7MqAiO6yaZjdaBkfRLTgw00QkHChL4NjnArwuMQ_A8UxB8b71zzrKL-TVxLn3jXyRB1Io/s1600/also+rises+13.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxYuBC6Kdl_oIHeWETP0NgJCArd515uC05RVFq4RwyGlibv2xdjLbGlxzQiPQO-JxINjgGWv7MqAiO6yaZjdaBkfRLTgw00QkHChL4NjnArwuMQ_A8UxB8b71zzrKL-TVxLn3jXyRB1Io/s320/also+rises+13.jpg" width="188" /></a></div>
</div>
Bad Catholichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11987121652866343848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-760921852022735055.post-5516336806023381462017-01-15T07:56:00.001-08:002017-01-15T07:56:06.948-08:00William Faulkner Nobel Prize Laureate His Life in Oxford, Mississippi 1940s<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="344" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/SxLcYQGP_no" width="459"></iframe>Bad Catholichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11987121652866343848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-760921852022735055.post-84576481900349703162017-01-07T09:49:00.000-08:002017-01-07T09:50:59.073-08:00Ernest Hemingway's FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge6CmultPrsXdvcRvRY-w1hXdAbZe6sGsOB1a2D31nPK74tWLzIyfKQPguO1co4-Aa7aAM2gbVggwDLRMmaWt64Hb4JSkxRlwk4h8fpPoe08zUygyV_J4O4h_xvtvcPz3MIBEflclGVbI/s1600/forwhom-ernest.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge6CmultPrsXdvcRvRY-w1hXdAbZe6sGsOB1a2D31nPK74tWLzIyfKQPguO1co4-Aa7aAM2gbVggwDLRMmaWt64Hb4JSkxRlwk4h8fpPoe08zUygyV_J4O4h_xvtvcPz3MIBEflclGVbI/s320/forwhom-ernest.jpg" width="220" /></a></div>
I'm fifty years old. I'm surprised that I never read Hemingway's great novel about the futility of war before now. Hemingway's big three are <i>The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell To Arms </i>and <i>For Whom the Bell Tolls</i>. I was assigned to read <i>A Farewell to Arms</i> my senior year in high school. I am sure that I will appreciate more than I did then when I read it again.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuU3ZYKvORN_lpVzg2aFP5BAB4tWQCqs50bq7VK380RskzNdI1EGARcnQk5B3awtz7QD3fgkDcNq96b6YydYNPpWx67i_oQhWS9gbqkLG2xccMCoHoA6zP0ccsW35GyPLvgf_Th3h-V-E/s1600/forwhom+paperback.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuU3ZYKvORN_lpVzg2aFP5BAB4tWQCqs50bq7VK380RskzNdI1EGARcnQk5B3awtz7QD3fgkDcNq96b6YydYNPpWx67i_oQhWS9gbqkLG2xccMCoHoA6zP0ccsW35GyPLvgf_Th3h-V-E/s320/forwhom+paperback.jpg" width="201" /></a></div>
<i><br /></i>
<i>For Whom the Bell Tolls </i>is Hemingway's novel about the Spanish Civil War. The Spanish Civil War was the <i>cause celebre </i>of the 1930s. When a coalition of left wing parties won a majority of seats in the Spanish parliament, a group of army officers, eventually led by General Francisco Franco, launched a rebellion.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAaGG4Z-5aUuciXgBbZXnE4TGQyNczWRyYJ21uPCnvKEpEwtieMHBCSeY1DveDndfL4hpBLLIxkh2MoSDKWq-a8HuTwcQc2Yq2v6n95X3mvSe3DMjzIVk4sCEHXyVnUx4rMsGMQYSSSCA/s1600/for+whom+paperback.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAaGG4Z-5aUuciXgBbZXnE4TGQyNczWRyYJ21uPCnvKEpEwtieMHBCSeY1DveDndfL4hpBLLIxkh2MoSDKWq-a8HuTwcQc2Yq2v6n95X3mvSe3DMjzIVk4sCEHXyVnUx4rMsGMQYSSSCA/s320/for+whom+paperback.jpg" width="206" /></a></div>
<br />
Franco and the "Nationalists" were aided by Hitler and Mussolini who sent troops and equipment. <br />
The "Loyalists" or "Republicans" were aided by Stalin and the Soviet Union. If you considered yourself an intellectual in the 1930s, it was the in thing to be a Communist. Having romantic notions about the struggle of workers and peasants fighting facists, artists and intellectuals flocked to fight for Republican Spain.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPUjXKr4BgRdRI-NY7Ony4DTSEIuomTVENQRaF74KPZeVHJSYRgalhaL0vXsXf4a7RmU174-NTFTLvGyecv-GF_pO_HasL0ddM_Xam-1OjBW1SZP3MlR2KC64BiKu2EqwlPBDgZFGhyphenhypheno8/s1600/forwhom+british.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPUjXKr4BgRdRI-NY7Ony4DTSEIuomTVENQRaF74KPZeVHJSYRgalhaL0vXsXf4a7RmU174-NTFTLvGyecv-GF_pO_HasL0ddM_Xam-1OjBW1SZP3MlR2KC64BiKu2EqwlPBDgZFGhyphenhypheno8/s320/forwhom+british.jpg" width="228" /></a></div>
<br />
The reality was that neither side in the Spanish Civil War had a real claim to moral superiority. Both sides were guilty of horrible atrocities. When either side would take a town, the first thing that usually happened would be that everyone identified as being a member of the other side would be marched to the nearest wall and shot, or as happens in the novel, thrown off of a cliff.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDzTpE2Oj69vjFs9REvfqcUMKNEJk0uQrxkI8Ar3Q1POGl3OnOrZaPqFXo9O9Sbu3CNVSCFQTI67C4NtOx2Vtvo203wHwmhCTUPzFDQ29wal2A6LNcTMwV8-Nt-Xo7q2i5CZilNodLZYA/s1600/for+whom+full+cover.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDzTpE2Oj69vjFs9REvfqcUMKNEJk0uQrxkI8Ar3Q1POGl3OnOrZaPqFXo9O9Sbu3CNVSCFQTI67C4NtOx2Vtvo203wHwmhCTUPzFDQ29wal2A6LNcTMwV8-Nt-Xo7q2i5CZilNodLZYA/s320/for+whom+full+cover.jpeg" width="212" /></a></div>
<br />
In 1937 Hemingway went to Spain to cover the war for the North American Newspaper Alliance. Between battles and drinks, he had time to carry on an affair with fellow news correspondent Martha Gelhorn who became the third Mrs. Ernest Hemingway. Soon after arriving in Spain, Hemingway announced that he was writing a novel about the war. By the time <i>For Whom the Bell Tolls </i>was published in 1940, the Nationalists had crushed the Spanish Republic. The Spanish Civil War had only been a dress rehearsal for a much more horrible conflict.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisRyTJCWgm27zAsLI7FYuBSJPAHg9pz0KBRzLdb9RX3Qa1MIjCRvfXaZsQnW5kRRsGmZV08IIsiitC6m-RzGjfboE2Z5AE50gBg9raMjqJNxkDxZiuGgfDadRWR5KSfU7otPLwW8YTWIA/s1600/for+whom+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisRyTJCWgm27zAsLI7FYuBSJPAHg9pz0KBRzLdb9RX3Qa1MIjCRvfXaZsQnW5kRRsGmZV08IIsiitC6m-RzGjfboE2Z5AE50gBg9raMjqJNxkDxZiuGgfDadRWR5KSfU7otPLwW8YTWIA/s320/for+whom+3.jpg" width="196" /></a></div>
<br />
The hero of <i>For Whom the Bell Tolls</i> is Robert Jordan. Robert Jordan is the stereo typical Hemingway hero. Jordan is a professor of Spanish at the University of Montana who has taken a leave of absence to volunteer to fight in Spain. He worries that he won't be able to get his job back after the war because he's been identified as "a Red." Like his creator, Jordan says that he's not a Communist he's just in favor of liberty. He has put himself under Communist command and submitted to Communist discipline because the Communists are the only ones who can organize the army and win the war. At the start of the war, the Republican Army was composed of militias of various factions, including Anarchists, various kinds of Socialists, and Communists. The Communists tended to be the best organized.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAUdDzKlD5l4jMKlrPefCa7PFzxmS4wTiMnViUuRaS3jqDb4yTQ0NxBre6AvgbDJd4dWRrxRIGsPQQ8fIC68rrlnP0O8MZNShm11QcXw0gAJYsot-C8Z5X-tDPGO6Fj_vS4sevbxM7YTI/s1600/for+whom+papa+and+ingrid.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAUdDzKlD5l4jMKlrPefCa7PFzxmS4wTiMnViUuRaS3jqDb4yTQ0NxBre6AvgbDJd4dWRrxRIGsPQQ8fIC68rrlnP0O8MZNShm11QcXw0gAJYsot-C8Z5X-tDPGO6Fj_vS4sevbxM7YTI/s320/for+whom+papa+and+ingrid.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<i>Ernest Hemingway with Ingrid Bergman who starred as Maria with Gary Cooper as Robert Jordan in the movie version of For Whom the Bell Tolls</i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<i><br /></i></div>
Jordan is a demolition expert. He has been assigned by a Soviet General, Golz, to destroy a bridge in the mountains to keep the Nationalists from moving equipment across while the Republican forces launch a surprise attack. Jordan makes contact with the Republican Partisans who are fighting a <i>guerilla </i>war behind the Nationalist lines. The partisans are led by the ruthless Pablo and his mistress Pilar.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKwh3FKt1ZWkV7no3bQFKc3wRjjQX_Ock_9vGC8nGpa5zoA8BKen5HGXJjADhqLq9iThEXUS1RdGgxXNGEsLYrXkVgEdg9Ca4apdUioWXSnVUFMEOG-dSCc0R_rm-Z0Xo05El4v6pactE/s1600/for-whom-the-bell-tolls-9781476770116_hr.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKwh3FKt1ZWkV7no3bQFKc3wRjjQX_Ock_9vGC8nGpa5zoA8BKen5HGXJjADhqLq9iThEXUS1RdGgxXNGEsLYrXkVgEdg9Ca4apdUioWXSnVUFMEOG-dSCc0R_rm-Z0Xo05El4v6pactE/s320/for-whom-the-bell-tolls-9781476770116_hr.jpg" width="205" /></a></div>
<br />
Even in peacetime, Pablo would probably have been a <i>bandito. </i>Prior to the opening of the novel, Pablo's band has destroyed and sacked a Nationalist train. They rescued Maria, a nineteen year old girl who was a prisoner of the Nationalists. Maria was the daughter of the Republican mayor of a town. Her father and mother were both shot. The fascists shaved Maria's head and then raped her. This all happened not long before the opening of the novel. Pablo believes, rightly, that the operation to destroy the bridge is a suicide mission. Pablo would much rather loot another train.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-YUnUv-xi2pP-EcP_u89FRSId5zhC3JAtzdT5Y_bOUmttCzyhIBfOn2__xNcib_ojLeeBgMfTZE6zGqZV1R7VltELuLJ4ntUC5Xsh4K_FqQmkDh7nwxANezUuRYCDSB5zo8ouq3RpFOY/s1600/for+whom+another+cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-YUnUv-xi2pP-EcP_u89FRSId5zhC3JAtzdT5Y_bOUmttCzyhIBfOn2__xNcib_ojLeeBgMfTZE6zGqZV1R7VltELuLJ4ntUC5Xsh4K_FqQmkDh7nwxANezUuRYCDSB5zo8ouq3RpFOY/s320/for+whom+another+cover.jpg" width="191" /></a></div>
<br />
Pablo's mistress, Pilar, is one of Hemingway's great characters. The former mistress of a matador, Pilar is introduced in the novel as "an old woman." We later find out that Pilar is forty eight! Pilar relates how Pablo massacred the Nationalist Civil Guard in his village and then threw the town officials and land owners over the side of a cliff. Hemingway based this on a real incident which occurred in the town of Ronda in Andalucia. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf8HqEEnY6ciT4E_q7QdSbAicWUt2e5mvR8MIKnQDVLbsfHYEw4X0luCXDBuQMuFKprUknmv98WUp9fTSWhDncjHGlVVTyQ38aAH2AwnByNsAq0eXNcKUfTN_sv9nIJo5ePfgEGUhVT9g/s1600/For+Whom+the+Bell+Tolls.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf8HqEEnY6ciT4E_q7QdSbAicWUt2e5mvR8MIKnQDVLbsfHYEw4X0luCXDBuQMuFKprUknmv98WUp9fTSWhDncjHGlVVTyQ38aAH2AwnByNsAq0eXNcKUfTN_sv9nIJo5ePfgEGUhVT9g/s320/For+Whom+the+Bell+Tolls.jpg" width="190" /></a></div>
<br />
When I say that Robert Jordan is the typical Hemingway hero, he's an intellectual who's also a real man. He drinks hard, is pretty much fearless in the face of almost certain death, and women cannot resist him. The novel takes place over four days time. Even though she is traumatized from being brutally raped, only a few hours after meeting Robert Jordan, Maria is getting naked and crawling in his bed roll. What a guy!<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpM5yudCf5ehjeeDZaIzZOLlfKUxr7r5JUldUOuwmOjk9C94kKgtDo0gJf5HZWLAoden-Qh27p9wYTJiZ0qh7wTQVY95l-Ee43YI2Dwo4I7yG8qSrx0ZzGmNjtFbVpzXoqPP8b3eDzuRQ/s1600/for+whom+woman+cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpM5yudCf5ehjeeDZaIzZOLlfKUxr7r5JUldUOuwmOjk9C94kKgtDo0gJf5HZWLAoden-Qh27p9wYTJiZ0qh7wTQVY95l-Ee43YI2Dwo4I7yG8qSrx0ZzGmNjtFbVpzXoqPP8b3eDzuRQ/s320/for+whom+woman+cover.jpg" width="199" /></a></div>
<br />
Hemingway also highlights the incompetence and lack of organization which plagued the Republican forces. Seeing the Nationalists moving a lot of equipment across the bridge, Jordan realizes that the Nationalists have been tipped off about the Loyalist surprise attack. Jordan sends one of the partisans, Andres, back to advise General Golz that the attack will fail. It is in the scenes where Andres is trying to deliver the message to the Soviet General that we see all of the stupidity and disorganization of the Loyalist forces which will ultimately doom their cause to failure.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-faX4ex9EG5mRZF9u1B5MLJkf20H3iKbKuLQ3b88d6OohFqxzqc1mxJGifnnxxZOPbQemw2umM_fY25c3_HiUAYdX1bk6RyG4r88Y_cRD3eZMSym-uEqYOaJv-Hvdzra5aT4pPcVLjkQ/s1600/Artwork-political-posters-Spanish-Civil-War-Posters-01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-faX4ex9EG5mRZF9u1B5MLJkf20H3iKbKuLQ3b88d6OohFqxzqc1mxJGifnnxxZOPbQemw2umM_fY25c3_HiUAYdX1bk6RyG4r88Y_cRD3eZMSym-uEqYOaJv-Hvdzra5aT4pPcVLjkQ/s320/Artwork-political-posters-Spanish-Civil-War-Posters-01.jpg" width="257" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<i>Anarchist propaganda poster from the Spanish Civil War.</i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<i>F.A.I. stands for "Federacion Anarquista Iberica" or Iberian Anarchist Federation</i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<i><br /></i></div>
First the anarchists on the front lines have to debate whether they are going to let Andres pass or just shoot him on the spot. Next, an insane Communist Party Commisar arrests Andres and a loyal Republican officer on suspicion of being traitors. Finally, Jordan's message gets to the General's aide but it is too late to stop the attack. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiB8f9xeMYW8p9wq4_3sC9YvM70As78o8oMUSb-_7y2B2GhIUDsD4WklfdiERLXvdsFYy4Ac8FH2VmOEfZ8oVSQQ-X4c6LYEEXilK3rGGpaCFPjasjPZFN75lgg5AdPp-_gK4Mf2QUdyw/s1600/nopasaran.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiB8f9xeMYW8p9wq4_3sC9YvM70As78o8oMUSb-_7y2B2GhIUDsD4WklfdiERLXvdsFYy4Ac8FH2VmOEfZ8oVSQQ-X4c6LYEEXilK3rGGpaCFPjasjPZFN75lgg5AdPp-_gK4Mf2QUdyw/s320/nopasaran.jpg" width="230" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<i>"They shall not pass!" Republican propaganda poster.</i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<i><br /></i></div>
As the 1965 <i>Cliffs Notes </i>summarize it: "So, here is the crowing irony of the book. Jordan must blow up a bridge, the destruction of which will be absolutely of no value. He must carry out his ineffectual assignment because of the ignorance, stupidity, indifference, and self-importance of people who should most logically have done all they could to help his courier get to his destination in time."<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWunp3sMLdDKXkyJx9xHbdmRy4OigcOxmZvnwXnnVQgtlHsm0Es9EgZbAI9it81DHQz5wAGB5kMFqVYsH6QnvjNSWJkqRWxf40vXf9iywiIVDrMQng_D81h3Vg5pvlPvpNsm0QgoRjkMI/s1600/forwhom+5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWunp3sMLdDKXkyJx9xHbdmRy4OigcOxmZvnwXnnVQgtlHsm0Es9EgZbAI9it81DHQz5wAGB5kMFqVYsH6QnvjNSWJkqRWxf40vXf9iywiIVDrMQng_D81h3Vg5pvlPvpNsm0QgoRjkMI/s320/forwhom+5.jpg" width="220" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
I have read on the internet that a lot of people do not like the style which Hemingway used to write <i>For Whom the Bell Tolls</i>. In order to convey the flavor of the language spoken by the Spanish peasants Hemingway has used "thee" and "thou." He also sometimes puts the word order the way it would be in Spanish which sounds unnatural in English. This is the same device he will use for the old Cuban fisherman in <i>The Old Man and the Sea. </i> Another device which is off-putting to modern readers is the device of not saying profanity. Over and over again we hear the partisans say something like "I obscenity in your mother's milk!" To modern readers this seems really silly. We have to realize that had Hemingway actually come out and said "I piss in your mother's milk," his book would never have been published by a reputable publisher and would have been subject to censorship.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJrBrOQAmYetEdZoBKqkla2f516fRQCxSeFGHvTJlutd-g23XWu9HfFUphYpJhVgf4GoBLESOraSsDCr111UPZlaUOJTRYaZP__QS6OTSStrapXP99Y8NBCqNH7nGerXJQjGs3aPlmf4M/s1600/forwhom+8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJrBrOQAmYetEdZoBKqkla2f516fRQCxSeFGHvTJlutd-g23XWu9HfFUphYpJhVgf4GoBLESOraSsDCr111UPZlaUOJTRYaZP__QS6OTSStrapXP99Y8NBCqNH7nGerXJQjGs3aPlmf4M/s320/forwhom+8.jpg" width="248" /></a></div>
<br />
A fascinating sub theme that runs through the novel is the loss of God. The Catholic Church in Spain was identified by the left as allied with the monarchists and large landowners. The Anarchists and Communists believed that throughout Spanish history the Church had been used as a tool to oppress and control the workers and peasants. Especially early in the conflict, many atrocities were carried out against priests, monks and nuns. Many churches were looted and desecrated. Even though the old religion is gone, the Spanish peasants fighting for the Republic still cling to the mystical heritage of Catholicism. Pilar relates to Robert Jordan how disappointed Pablo was that the priest in his village did not die bravely. Even though Pablo rejected the Church and all its teachings, he expected more from a Spanish Priest. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaK5LdFLS5pXnTJB2ttoZrMYli1fu2YbYLvh35Tuf1t7prPf5JeYz7l2yL_ProdJiiyScQ1aHCayP3ABIbboXd5kWd9YInB07u2Ajix8lj62x-Y5mP4X_c5jArJ3pXQ2qSwfmBMirnjSo/s1600/Help-Spain-PHM-r.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaK5LdFLS5pXnTJB2ttoZrMYli1fu2YbYLvh35Tuf1t7prPf5JeYz7l2yL_ProdJiiyScQ1aHCayP3ABIbboXd5kWd9YInB07u2Ajix8lj62x-Y5mP4X_c5jArJ3pXQ2qSwfmBMirnjSo/s320/Help-Spain-PHM-r.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<i>Republican propaganda poster seeking foreign help.</i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<i><br /></i></div>
There is a reason that Ernest Hemingway has the reputation of being one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. Hemingway's reputation has suffered a great deal in the last few decades because he is seen as a super macho sexist with outdated patriarchal attitudes. Regardless of all that, I think that Hemingway's work lives up to his reputation. I enjoyed reading this great classic and recommend it highly. <br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGrOjvbHYbsKlW1pBU_80xQyNl6o0kcKmu-8i9E8IPEqqBIaBZ3g0abenCxZe_HOldABZMnBlVjis9KbJiq8HIFKoKE0YCg80FonGHFDdywjFFd9Qqm_5x1-IjGXoJRORj8t-Zd_n6bJQ/s1600/for+whom+cat+quote.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="278" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGrOjvbHYbsKlW1pBU_80xQyNl6o0kcKmu-8i9E8IPEqqBIaBZ3g0abenCxZe_HOldABZMnBlVjis9KbJiq8HIFKoKE0YCg80FonGHFDdywjFFd9Qqm_5x1-IjGXoJRORj8t-Zd_n6bJQ/s320/for+whom+cat+quote.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<br />
</div>
Bad Catholichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11987121652866343848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-760921852022735055.post-38295490434254739132016-12-26T12:07:00.001-08:002016-12-26T12:08:33.059-08:00THE LADY FROM ZAGREB<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXQ9eK0OS7Ws-AFC38mmSE6TDUGDkTIjTG0p3I_KHqV8B_hpMQ6ZjLfhcdqBqdVnzR65tNublMYorxJPKMLROfp8C2sgBz-QoB7to46i4DOa__2aYjqy9mh3W4Vgxsfi1v3LHmB6n7_8g/s1600/kerrzagreb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXQ9eK0OS7Ws-AFC38mmSE6TDUGDkTIjTG0p3I_KHqV8B_hpMQ6ZjLfhcdqBqdVnzR65tNublMYorxJPKMLROfp8C2sgBz-QoB7to46i4DOa__2aYjqy9mh3W4Vgxsfi1v3LHmB6n7_8g/s320/kerrzagreb.jpg" width="212" /></a></div>
<br />
This is the tenth novel in Philip Kerr's Bernie Gunther series of detective novels. It's the first Philip Kerr novel I've read. <br />
<br />
The thing which immediately distinguishes this series from just another "hard boiled" detective series (the jacket proudly proclaims that "<i>Philip Kerr is the only bona fide heir to Raymond Chandler") </i>is the setting of the books in Nazi Germany.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipy-NVcXRJZc_72s9U2oytSjQp7YXN5lYSbqPTLnv83YExgefLFjoN3oPkIJmB60y06RmvSr3zf9Vth0vi4Kh0HXMPEH1wHNs0cniCt2VFMRl2cDfPCQH0Z64IkuJ5wdVB7eJCJVVPmOk/s1600/page-45-the-lady.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipy-NVcXRJZc_72s9U2oytSjQp7YXN5lYSbqPTLnv83YExgefLFjoN3oPkIJmB60y06RmvSr3zf9Vth0vi4Kh0HXMPEH1wHNs0cniCt2VFMRl2cDfPCQH0Z64IkuJ5wdVB7eJCJVVPmOk/s320/page-45-the-lady.jpg" width="207" /></a></div>
Bernie Gunther used to be a real police detective, now he's just another German trying to survive World War II. The police have now become a part of the SS, and Bernie is on special assignment for the Nazi Minister of Propaganda Josef Goebbels. There is a beautiful actress, Dalia Dresner, that Herr Goebbels has the hots for. She wants to know whether or not her father in Croatia is still alive and Goebbels wants her for his movies and his bed. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK-6n6s6gmgDo_NVaKP6Syey29_-281Ifak2Pc_wxvnfvLRz_FuBC9beadot-fntkoLwnrAiwogrZlRNEbYMP7Y5ZPW_vdKKX9r2YDQyaq0JLyOd48jmIqa6ntqcY8ABe8Jbr07zRvJ1k/s1600/kerr2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK-6n6s6gmgDo_NVaKP6Syey29_-281Ifak2Pc_wxvnfvLRz_FuBC9beadot-fntkoLwnrAiwogrZlRNEbYMP7Y5ZPW_vdKKX9r2YDQyaq0JLyOd48jmIqa6ntqcY8ABe8Jbr07zRvJ1k/s320/kerr2.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<i>Philip Kerr</i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<i><br /></i></div>
Bernie has a real tendency to leave a body trail behind him. Bernie also likes beautiful women and they like him. A recipe for a ripping good yarn and a painless history lesson. As an SS officer in the Third Reich, Bernie has learned that ordinary murders don't mean much when nations are engaged in genocide. Written in the first person "hard boiled" style, Kerr is skilled in letting his German Sam Spade tell the tale.<br />
<br />
It did feel to me like the novel was somewhat padded and overlong. If it was about two hundred pages shorter, it would have been a five star novel. As it is, the Bad Catholic gives it three and a half Sherlock Holmes hats.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmXVgzhpUYB0e9MQXJBIZmgf9g7mRdte8l8q5ihzO_ZrP_a9IfjT-ZYnV6aei6UiCxBK266PXK9L_oMy0I8rEg64jhS0uZ_UlT1b8J5APGRs9ZY9ffbEoVGr3cD59-StGIKFCnZkZrm0U/s1600/Three-half-stars.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="62" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmXVgzhpUYB0e9MQXJBIZmgf9g7mRdte8l8q5ihzO_ZrP_a9IfjT-ZYnV6aei6UiCxBK266PXK9L_oMy0I8rEg64jhS0uZ_UlT1b8J5APGRs9ZY9ffbEoVGr3cD59-StGIKFCnZkZrm0U/s320/Three-half-stars.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
Bad Catholichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11987121652866343848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-760921852022735055.post-72543514996440235282016-05-09T10:18:00.000-07:002016-05-09T10:18:28.205-07:00Julian Fellowes' Past Imperfect<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9wHlKaYZvaQe8zEKCkWqPaUFcuctjxG33Gm3gX1Zn3HSm4Z2j0rQIjwdnW6FhNgp8db4QzEF8KbA7x-HdeOxLVwOsD88li4Dhn5Qkq50RMOH4dLE-SGh_lWDEpdk6hqDD8LVxGfptL64/s1600/TN6_L3098207.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9wHlKaYZvaQe8zEKCkWqPaUFcuctjxG33Gm3gX1Zn3HSm4Z2j0rQIjwdnW6FhNgp8db4QzEF8KbA7x-HdeOxLVwOsD88li4Dhn5Qkq50RMOH4dLE-SGh_lWDEpdk6hqDD8LVxGfptL64/s1600/TN6_L3098207.JPG" /></a></div>
Damian Baxter is a fabulously wealthy late middle aged businessman who has a problem. Damian is dying of cancer and wants to leave all of his money to his illegitimate child that he fathered as a young adult back in the swinging sixties. All Damian has to go on is a letter written to him by the mother telling Damian that "he ruined her life." The other problem is that Damian doesn't know who among the bevy of beauties that he bedded back then is the mother of his child.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7kMtCWJMpViq-LinLnAbcldVetD1yz1IskmrtQ_W8yAKMEEmCg8pK1qkA-bjd_al1PA3ClRK5WYR7aCcHnRPmPfYQJtWw2OcKIMX2D6_FF77RdNLdNg9nAp6N7If7T2fE_QzqsFRSY9c/s1600/2392839.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7kMtCWJMpViq-LinLnAbcldVetD1yz1IskmrtQ_W8yAKMEEmCg8pK1qkA-bjd_al1PA3ClRK5WYR7aCcHnRPmPfYQJtWw2OcKIMX2D6_FF77RdNLdNg9nAp6N7If7T2fE_QzqsFRSY9c/s320/2392839.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
<br />
After not hearing from each other for decades because of an embarrassing episode at a house party in Portugal, which we are kept in suspense about until the very end of the novel, and which really is not nearly as shocking as the build up leads the reader to believe that it will be, Damian contacts the un-named narrator, who has had a moderately successful career as a novelist. The narrator, "Fellowes," hates Damian but cannot resist going to see him. "Fellowes" also cannot resist carrying out Damien's last request to find the mother of Damian's child and seeing that he or she inherits all of Damien's fabulous wealth.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWk9lgDA8LoiMt-CBMdGSJE03rflS_dIvGdPgYexUJ-vWynJrTyelievckgc3cdKPnEzHa1P7HVw8Ie67Lu78tjr_rqfdnLk9OUgc4lWzGaEVIW-mFLSkvxY49Eo_aJzfzUi5eE490s1s/s1600/9200000030613088.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWk9lgDA8LoiMt-CBMdGSJE03rflS_dIvGdPgYexUJ-vWynJrTyelievckgc3cdKPnEzHa1P7HVw8Ie67Lu78tjr_rqfdnLk9OUgc4lWzGaEVIW-mFLSkvxY49Eo_aJzfzUi5eE490s1s/s320/9200000030613088.jpg" width="208" /></a></div>
<br />
The book goes back and forth between the present (the book was first published in 2008) and the late 1960s. The book has all the inside scoop on the British upper classes that you would expect from the creator of <i>Downton Abbey. </i>The novel chronicles one of the last debutante seasons in the late sixties when the parents of the aristocracy and the rich paraded their daughters from one dance and party to another to find an appropriate husband.<br />
<br />
Just like in real life, what we want to become in our youth is rarely what really happens to us. <i>Past Imperfect</i> is a well written and entertaining soap opera. And it's educational. You may learn how to dress for dinner if you're ever invited to an English country house or how to appropriately address the daughter of an Earl. Five out of five.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMAe66qdg5OuxnIVzM1wlCVpeN5ND8JtuDivMwF1eZAqcjpwzXwHcdsd3fzko8cOYcZFpu9lub0g7snjMGDKbJ9o1F0B06Rk0FseQF6BMPeg6zMrm83QLwicNSMbu5BM5b84JuIeadC8A/s1600/julian-fellowes_1365344c.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMAe66qdg5OuxnIVzM1wlCVpeN5ND8JtuDivMwF1eZAqcjpwzXwHcdsd3fzko8cOYcZFpu9lub0g7snjMGDKbJ9o1F0B06Rk0FseQF6BMPeg6zMrm83QLwicNSMbu5BM5b84JuIeadC8A/s320/julian-fellowes_1365344c.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Lord Julian Fellowes</i></div>
<br /></div>
Bad Catholichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11987121652866343848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-760921852022735055.post-20282119559702096142015-09-09T04:51:00.000-07:002015-09-09T04:51:23.397-07:00On Chesil Beach<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwj2xHRtJCQyVcKczAqvFg1miSFDHpjc4fcO0nGJ5z0NCIE6SNhoGyZBfyEbcxacNowCcoVkThe2yVrRHraBuEm7hf5X_u3Uu38znyiXDo_eBuwxKJEqo2uGq7koJ0P9sog-Zz1DHkfyY/s1600/OnChesilBeach.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwj2xHRtJCQyVcKczAqvFg1miSFDHpjc4fcO0nGJ5z0NCIE6SNhoGyZBfyEbcxacNowCcoVkThe2yVrRHraBuEm7hf5X_u3Uu38znyiXDo_eBuwxKJEqo2uGq7koJ0P9sog-Zz1DHkfyY/s1600/OnChesilBeach.jpg" /></a></div>
A really talented writer can pack an entire world into a very few pages. This is exactly what the gifted Ian McEwan has done in his short novel <i>On Chesil Beach</i>, published in 2007.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF7CodkViWXLPbNtlYli0PVY5q7F_ip4yr86rI6rJol49dXWjkgck8FhKQPrDJn-U8RcsTzymvKwJOTJEv7UwCerV4LxbiAN5XV7k7e6AAAEeBn0hm0y8i5mLEhDHq-6rXOMkeAA4ajAQ/s1600/chesil+beach+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF7CodkViWXLPbNtlYli0PVY5q7F_ip4yr86rI6rJol49dXWjkgck8FhKQPrDJn-U8RcsTzymvKwJOTJEv7UwCerV4LxbiAN5XV7k7e6AAAEeBn0hm0y8i5mLEhDHq-6rXOMkeAA4ajAQ/s320/chesil+beach+3.jpg" width="199" /></a></div>
When we first meet Edward and Florence they are a young couple who have just been married hours before and are off on their honeymoon at Chesil Beach. Their fumbling sexual dysfunction and psychological baggage cause them to have a disastrous wedding night which has a catastrophic effect on the rest of their lives.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilmk0wWhGYRshLZzkvwLk9bA_2kCBGgQwCRv8Ndh2NA9-U3LSQQkNeMMQ-ylAGNMHKbHiv8ktfaogIc2gXpvxQ3RT0eEEqLknDfWND2xBTPBK50scAKXG0icrGbx2c7aJe_S9MYuAR7WM/s1600/on-chesil-beach1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilmk0wWhGYRshLZzkvwLk9bA_2kCBGgQwCRv8Ndh2NA9-U3LSQQkNeMMQ-ylAGNMHKbHiv8ktfaogIc2gXpvxQ3RT0eEEqLknDfWND2xBTPBK50scAKXG0icrGbx2c7aJe_S9MYuAR7WM/s320/on-chesil-beach1.jpg" width="208" /></a></div>
After reading this, the reader is totally immersed in the world of a young intellectual English couple in the early 1960s. In a few short pages(the novel is only 166 pages), we learn all about Edward and Florence's childhood and their courtship and hangups. Edward's father is a school headmaster who has to take care of his brain damaged wife and his three children. Florence's mother is an emotionally cold Oxford philosophy professor who would rather read Plato than be with her children. There are subtle clues that Florence may have been sexually abused by her father. (I didn't pick up on this until I started reading reviews of the book online. After being pointed out to me, I now see the clues in the novel. Was Florence molested by her father? Maybe. Maybe not. The reader will have to decide).<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC_37MRYP4sbUV9EzRKkf_0kg50M9YGMfkt80z6X5W8rF3neXiCy4gThlv5AaFzBs-1FLdM4bPe3hV0vavldBi8l85HiYTafx07bLh0ly5-PWzGlMIihxKCASM-ugU7gUS10vpMsQRrFo/s1600/on+chesil.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="253" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC_37MRYP4sbUV9EzRKkf_0kg50M9YGMfkt80z6X5W8rF3neXiCy4gThlv5AaFzBs-1FLdM4bPe3hV0vavldBi8l85HiYTafx07bLh0ly5-PWzGlMIihxKCASM-ugU7gUS10vpMsQRrFo/s320/on+chesil.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
Anyway, I can't say too much about this intriguing little story or it will give away too much. But <i>On Chesil Beach</i> is definitely a great read.<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Bad Catholichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11987121652866343848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-760921852022735055.post-72947085598483698662015-07-23T03:24:00.000-07:002015-07-23T03:24:13.607-07:00I AM LEGION<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCUi8a5CRhqjgWFmIKX4Nw7h2kd4JRArHu-BV09iAjJTEbNRS6yd1blzRDYkfGIVEfBkGpIMPT-kywm5HdvAa0hH67TYIjALx9rYNrKhGJoSbxvRxbVK3JkesApQkhLlpcDcY4RPpEdo0/s1600/legion+wilson.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCUi8a5CRhqjgWFmIKX4Nw7h2kd4JRArHu-BV09iAjJTEbNRS6yd1blzRDYkfGIVEfBkGpIMPT-kywm5HdvAa0hH67TYIjALx9rYNrKhGJoSbxvRxbVK3JkesApQkhLlpcDcY4RPpEdo0/s1600/legion+wilson.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
I wanted to like this novel a lot more than I did. It was written by A.N. Wilson who is a very good writer and it was about the Christian religion, which is a topic that interests me. But Wilson's <i>I Am Legion</i> published in 2004 just fell flat, and frankly, wasn't very good.<br />
<br />
Some reviewers description on Amazon that influenced me to purchase a copy of the novel said that one of the main characters of the novel, Father Vivyan Chell, was a thinly disguised Thomas Merton. I confess that I don't see it. About the only thing that Vivyan Chell and Thomas Merton have in common in that they are both priests and they both have trouble maintaining their vow of celibacy. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDxvV2wZzbk0oiUQpn1ZvRcXutu6nIiuPsdI-1lgc-NTsOnZIJN6F1kVCFexoscdXDpRsh-R74XOh5vf2JGHsp6lDyDEGVpdEFJdbPR553jo0CGCMz4uRMKnzWTwv0pLIwiuQD0keDSVc/s1600/legion+wilson+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDxvV2wZzbk0oiUQpn1ZvRcXutu6nIiuPsdI-1lgc-NTsOnZIJN6F1kVCFexoscdXDpRsh-R74XOh5vf2JGHsp6lDyDEGVpdEFJdbPR553jo0CGCMz4uRMKnzWTwv0pLIwiuQD0keDSVc/s320/legion+wilson+2.jpg" width="208" /></a></div>
<br />
Father Vivyan Chell is a former British Army Officer who has joined an Anglican religious order and become a priest. For many years, he has been running a mission in a fictional African country called Zinariya. As a teenager, Lennox Mark comes to Father Vivyan's mission and is struck by his holiness and his work with the poor. <br />
<br />
Lennox comes very near to dedicating his life to Christ and staying with the mission, but after living with the monks for several months, he goes back to his life of wealth and privilege. When the novel opens, Lennox Mark is an overweight, middle aged millionaire who owns a muck racking tabloid newspaper called <i>The Daily Legion</i>.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbtGEk2r_zHeub9irtINuVzL1BW0-WgrJUdbA55NwKryflpv0KekMLAH9zKJRxXQC8pJkF552G1VLIMdk6xSxyCekCHq81PvFNDHEfC4aPNnBP1v9dT1SRshUF86A5TMdfLS7DEX1FlzU/s1600/legion+wilson+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbtGEk2r_zHeub9irtINuVzL1BW0-WgrJUdbA55NwKryflpv0KekMLAH9zKJRxXQC8pJkF552G1VLIMdk6xSxyCekCHq81PvFNDHEfC4aPNnBP1v9dT1SRshUF86A5TMdfLS7DEX1FlzU/s320/legion+wilson+3.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
<br />
One of Father Vivyan's former students in Zinariya, whom he had great hopes for, has become the dictator of Zinariya. Like every other character in this novel, General Bindiga is little more than a caricature (think Idi Amin). <br />
<br />
Turns out that Father Vivyan is not nearly as holy as everybody thinks he is. For years he has been living in sin with a series of African women. Finally, out of guilt he comes home to England and is put in charge of a slum parish which he opens up to the poor and destitute. Once again, his libido gets the best of him and he has affairs with a series of women.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7WT44iowTsH4N8ZzP_EIJwlcFPA4FYqdGIalnUs30-NKiriLwgZWCl_0qTjH1uko_LvRO1g-xai6soEYiMyUOF0yRme6LSxni50PWVW4tpVZkCIYxD37VNvK8UrLHs3aLq2vf540OoJQ/s1600/wilson+and+williams.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7WT44iowTsH4N8ZzP_EIJwlcFPA4FYqdGIalnUs30-NKiriLwgZWCl_0qTjH1uko_LvRO1g-xai6soEYiMyUOF0yRme6LSxni50PWVW4tpVZkCIYxD37VNvK8UrLHs3aLq2vf540OoJQ/s320/wilson+and+williams.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<i>Author A.N. Wilson with Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams</i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<i><br /></i></div>
One of the women Father Vivyan has sex with is Mercy Topling, who is a 2nd generation immigrant from Jamaica. Mercy also once worked as Lennox Mark's secretary and also has a short affair with him. When Mercy becomes pregnant she is not sure who the father is. Mercy gives birth to Peter.<br />
<br />
Peter, it turns out, has split personality disorder which gets worse as he gets older. Peter's split personalities run the gamut from a highly intellectual English butler all the way to a retarded homicidal maniac. It turns out that Peter has been sexually molested by his school counselor, which only makes his mental imbalance worse.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQzFcxZXldx9muilj5Oaw2lkPXuZ1mJDGqLDycGTQIVS_BRd2pHsZ8r3BRU6VVcrnnGkrwxBPpSOMpE3whHi88e-v-v7msDYKpOy1trtHVYT_UU3-rOpH4JqccA78qIujhyphenhyphen2r9W21_UdI/s1600/wilson+and+daughter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQzFcxZXldx9muilj5Oaw2lkPXuZ1mJDGqLDycGTQIVS_BRd2pHsZ8r3BRU6VVcrnnGkrwxBPpSOMpE3whHi88e-v-v7msDYKpOy1trtHVYT_UU3-rOpH4JqccA78qIujhyphenhyphen2r9W21_UdI/s320/wilson+and+daughter.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<i>A.N. Wilson with his daughter</i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<i><br /></i></div>
Lennox Mark is married to Martina, a former East German prostitute. Martina's mother, who apparently is trotted out at dinner parties to scare the guests, is horribly disfigured having been shot in the face by East German border guards while escaping from the Iron Curtain. Martina has only married Lennox for his money and influence and has had a long standing lesbian relationship with Mary Much, another former prostitute who is now a columnist for <i>The Daily Legion</i>. When Peter, looking for his father, who Mercy has told him is Lennox Mark even though she thinks his father is really Father Vivyan, comes to the Mark's house and murders a delivery boy, Martina and Mary hide him out and make him the chief butler. Martina and Mary find Peter very attractive and it is strongly hinted that they begin a sexual relationship with him.<br />
<br />
If this description sounds like this novel is a muddled mess, that just about describes it. The convoluted plot also involves an artist supported by Martina and Mary who's new performance art is a glass toilet which is to be installed in the foyer of the <i>The Daily Legion</i> and which the artist himself will sit upon and take a crap, but is blown up by terrorists led by Father Vivyan who are rebelling against the British support for General Bindiga. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNtT91495CV3Nz5mjEUw2mxGpSulTDo0QXse04Zr2e-OundttRa9_XZ3iHtaAIi481RUEWYBPVK6DSyHVjIGMN7RTHzXVA6qpKONzoibGqS72222wrxUp0UrI1XlNRz4TeyXJGpyjwOVQ/s1600/a.n.+wilson.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="252" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNtT91495CV3Nz5mjEUw2mxGpSulTDo0QXse04Zr2e-OundttRa9_XZ3iHtaAIi481RUEWYBPVK6DSyHVjIGMN7RTHzXVA6qpKONzoibGqS72222wrxUp0UrI1XlNRz4TeyXJGpyjwOVQ/s320/a.n.+wilson.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<i>A.N. Wilson enjoys a libation</i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<i><br /></i></div>
I have the overwhelming feeling that the hours I spent reading this thing could have been better spent doing something else, like watching re-runs of <i>Gilligan's Island</i>. Wilson tries to make this mess a serious novel by discussing serious issues, like the existence of God and the nature of faith, but it just doesn't work.<br />
<br />
Obviously, the title is taken from the demoniac in the Gospel of Mark, where the man possessed by demons tells Jesus "My name is Legion: for we are many." (Mark 5:9). The demon possession theme is not only the boy with the split personalities but also the Fleet Street rag that prints lies and half-truths to sell newspapers.<br />
<br />
Over all, although I generally admire A.N. Wilson's work, this just falls flat. Two out of Five.</div>
Bad Catholichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11987121652866343848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-760921852022735055.post-39278782232243392592015-05-15T06:21:00.000-07:002015-05-15T06:21:41.681-07:00THE NIGHT VISITOR AND OTHER STORIES<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtIV7o6aZnf-1FZ6ZsQ9KbC42kxyYGyva5I143lC3TBYZQZsCcsmkY1JT9WVBp8CQlOQoFugpPQ32TE8qY9f4KL_2gCh0JBg1_NtaYLKHa0_MqFPVOHpwuGL3bhbJaimC8prKJv4eglhQ/s1600/night+visitor.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtIV7o6aZnf-1FZ6ZsQ9KbC42kxyYGyva5I143lC3TBYZQZsCcsmkY1JT9WVBp8CQlOQoFugpPQ32TE8qY9f4KL_2gCh0JBg1_NtaYLKHa0_MqFPVOHpwuGL3bhbJaimC8prKJv4eglhQ/s320/night+visitor.jpg" width="204" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
I greatly enjoyed this collection of short stories by the mysterious B. Traven.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS9cYmx5a8lSlsJT4FZkopX-iQ_65cRRutLP-WlkJkB9DM2dBJlsJ75JQXXAzLMqM1gUw3QoDFyMPmn0njGoyCIaNQmDSn0i58QY8oUVkCG4lXOwViAQ6liPr9z46TmUvgehf9ZyBv-a8/s1600/night+visitor+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS9cYmx5a8lSlsJT4FZkopX-iQ_65cRRutLP-WlkJkB9DM2dBJlsJ75JQXXAzLMqM1gUw3QoDFyMPmn0njGoyCIaNQmDSn0i58QY8oUVkCG4lXOwViAQ6liPr9z46TmUvgehf9ZyBv-a8/s320/night+visitor+1.jpg" width="190" /></a></div>
<br />
All of the stories in this collection are set in Mexico at various periods and most of them involve the lives of the native Indians. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjilJCQ-FYeFvKvBH4tSRxeiDg50uQMwwi49JYs6V9tIaEgYuletX2W3FQen1guNT_a5H8l-PGAKJwL250MdMUqQnw-pV7W9ZZWDlVzk0s5sP0-jORClFwBIrwtV683Mcy40mVIvD2tzZM/s1600/night+visitor+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjilJCQ-FYeFvKvBH4tSRxeiDg50uQMwwi49JYs6V9tIaEgYuletX2W3FQen1guNT_a5H8l-PGAKJwL250MdMUqQnw-pV7W9ZZWDlVzk0s5sP0-jORClFwBIrwtV683Mcy40mVIvD2tzZM/s1600/night+visitor+3.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
The title story <i>The Night Visitor </i>is a ghost story about an ancient Aztec king who visits an expatriate American living in the jungle. <i>Effective Medicine </i>is about another expatriate American who is asked by an Indian to help him when the Indian's wife runs off with another man. <i>Assembly Line</i> is about a wealthy American businessman who thinks he has figured out a way to get rich off of the home-made crafts of a poor Mexican peasant artisan. <i>The Cattle Drive</i> is self-explanatory. <i>When the Priest Is Not at Home</i> is a comic story about the real story behind a miracle which is reported in a small Mexican village while the parish priest is away from home. <i>Midnight Call </i>is another story about an expatriate American and the visit he receives from banditos during the middle of the night. <i>A New God Was Born</i> takes us back to the times of the Conquistador Hernando Cortez and the gift he leaves for an isolated group of Indians who live deep in the jungle of Central America. <i>Friendship </i>is about the relationship between a man and a stray dog. <i>Conversion of Some Indians</i> is also set during period of the Spanish conquest of the New World and involves the efforts of a Catholic missionary to convert the Indians. <i>Macario </i>is a charming folk tale about a man whose dream of a life time is to eat a whole roast Turkey with all the trimmings all by himself.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-KuIraZC0vRMHvGf_NqgTmdgd0pMNmJTOJvfKLoTZTvUxL-eBrdto-aB5dYGaLJFfRAt6ttcx24skcwvGv2ywD02Y_Zhnt1SH7FMMURlRvG1l1Xg_mf5LjNUmLIZSzA10cVwekoWM_8I/s1600/traven.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="151" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-KuIraZC0vRMHvGf_NqgTmdgd0pMNmJTOJvfKLoTZTvUxL-eBrdto-aB5dYGaLJFfRAt6ttcx24skcwvGv2ywD02Y_Zhnt1SH7FMMURlRvG1l1Xg_mf5LjNUmLIZSzA10cVwekoWM_8I/s320/traven.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
There is a whole library of literature about who B. Traven really was. The elusive B. Traven began publishing stories and novels, mostly set in Mexico, in Germany during the 1920s. Scholarly opinion is pretty much agreed today that B. Traven was the pen name adopted by Ret Marut (also probably a false name) who was a Communist and sometime Anarchist who was a part of the short lived Bavarian Soviet Republic which came to power for a very short time in 1919. Fleeing from Germany, Marut was briefly imprisoned as an undocumented alien in England and eventually wound up in Mexico where he went by various names. For many years, Traven lived in Mexico under the assumed name Hal Croves. Hal Croves died in 1969. Traven's most famous work is the novel <br /><i>The Treasure of the Sierra Madre</i> which was the basis for a film directed by John Huston which starred Humphrey Bogart.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBRtcQa9gFbuNo-Goszej86ruln4rEbaIePU3_3sE2SNKJOyfxpXg1PasiADsUIcNVqsIiOZLu3Y2K-N0nZR7NQkevREPcgTfeOlE6MJyek7ENhjxBzNdmu750Cu0a88FRLb3u2sqa2V4/s1600/Traven_NightVisitor_HillWang75.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBRtcQa9gFbuNo-Goszej86ruln4rEbaIePU3_3sE2SNKJOyfxpXg1PasiADsUIcNVqsIiOZLu3Y2K-N0nZR7NQkevREPcgTfeOlE6MJyek7ENhjxBzNdmu750Cu0a88FRLb3u2sqa2V4/s320/Traven_NightVisitor_HillWang75.jpg" width="214" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
Bad Catholichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11987121652866343848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-760921852022735055.post-27744252015410567152015-05-10T07:50:00.000-07:002015-05-10T08:02:04.955-07:00THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUvPZwEqUiG9hhWepcKlYw8KInUrlROK2WIjZW26tjO_lpehQb6x6hzwbmczMhhicPhhj36Q3CYowYihw2XiM-20epP474BMZ1OUCtjoC6nMinYcSqvw2VDdEaK_tM_KjmlXYAB9xKdps/s1600/TheirEyesWereWatchingGod.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUvPZwEqUiG9hhWepcKlYw8KInUrlROK2WIjZW26tjO_lpehQb6x6hzwbmczMhhicPhhj36Q3CYowYihw2XiM-20epP474BMZ1OUCtjoC6nMinYcSqvw2VDdEaK_tM_KjmlXYAB9xKdps/s320/TheirEyesWereWatchingGod.JPG" width="210" /></a></div>
<i></i><br />
<div>
<i><i><br /></i></i></div>
<i>
Their Eyes Were Watching God, </i>published in 1937, is Zora Neale Hurston's masterpiece. The novel is about the life of Janie Crawford and her search for love and meaning in her life. <br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbL6x2Mm7nvhNG6gA4ZHMaN5bSahXi3QwTB18HmKYhom6kKf0nLjS3uNkEj7ZNFfORAtR-rCjg7BnN0E1CiZZ9FJ8lxoB9UJ97z2pw0HKs43DQPUS4Lp9PX49PBR4MlmaSrqVVD6FEoCE/s1600/hurston+watching+god.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbL6x2Mm7nvhNG6gA4ZHMaN5bSahXi3QwTB18HmKYhom6kKf0nLjS3uNkEj7ZNFfORAtR-rCjg7BnN0E1CiZZ9FJ8lxoB9UJ97z2pw0HKs43DQPUS4Lp9PX49PBR4MlmaSrqVVD6FEoCE/s320/hurston+watching+god.jpg" width="233" /></a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I can't do any better than the synopsis from the <i>Cliffs Notes: </i></div>
<div>
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKOLKsjHteFwo1R75fduDKhPYJa18zibcyeNIK-9RhMGODDRIvpZuaNBXSOjQEN8FQ5Zyl0WzQBZRITHydqauV7_FnxMOzQE34Gz0HFzfFs0Rc87dKKCFmBeBfiSYcImhafrvNwhVsv9Y/s1600/their_eyes_were_watching_god.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKOLKsjHteFwo1R75fduDKhPYJa18zibcyeNIK-9RhMGODDRIvpZuaNBXSOjQEN8FQ5Zyl0WzQBZRITHydqauV7_FnxMOzQE34Gz0HFzfFs0Rc87dKKCFmBeBfiSYcImhafrvNwhVsv9Y/s320/their_eyes_were_watching_god.jpg" width="209" /></a></div>
<div>
<i><br /></i></div>
<div>
<i>"This novel is the story of Janie Crawford's search for love, told . . . in the form of a frame. In the first few pages, Janie returns to her hometown of Eatonville, Florida, after nearly two years absence. Her neighbors are curious to know where she has been and what has happened to her. They wonder why she is returning in dirty overalls when she left in bridal satin.</i></div>
<div>
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQWbpPnABwbzjFqUzRC4wKJl0TTxkJblBXIQmexIsEG47w8aXbj5Nt4CM6O0GIwG9EkQGUnVrnz5KsdKamV97OFFU1DIez5BuobHwHppxGqrDBHdtUH4xHRZajJ1vShbh-ksNFx7nyS7A/s1600/thier+eyes+hurston.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQWbpPnABwbzjFqUzRC4wKJl0TTxkJblBXIQmexIsEG47w8aXbj5Nt4CM6O0GIwG9EkQGUnVrnz5KsdKamV97OFFU1DIez5BuobHwHppxGqrDBHdtUH4xHRZajJ1vShbh-ksNFx7nyS7A/s320/thier+eyes+hurston.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
<div>
<i><br /></i></div>
<div>
<i>Janie tells her story to her friend Pheoby Watson, and after the story is over, the novelist returns to Janie's back steps. Thus, the story, which actually spans nearly 40 years of Janie's life, is "framed" by an evening visit between two friends.</i></div>
<div>
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrYbSnt_ueIWu1_upiCDVuqHoRJ_zkGW8OkhD-SWqAUZopcFq8UxyMkvRRyTby3g3SNaWqluv3lBjyUjJxVfqY6nb5KFkqzzcir1GG_CBOnYbsIldtM9gk_71ZFWFL1IIC1rKuRB1ad_E/s1600/their+eyes+hurston+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrYbSnt_ueIWu1_upiCDVuqHoRJ_zkGW8OkhD-SWqAUZopcFq8UxyMkvRRyTby3g3SNaWqluv3lBjyUjJxVfqY6nb5KFkqzzcir1GG_CBOnYbsIldtM9gk_71ZFWFL1IIC1rKuRB1ad_E/s320/their+eyes+hurston+1.jpg" width="205" /></a></div>
<div>
<i><br /></i></div>
<div>
<i>The story that Janie tells is about love - how Janie sought love in four relationships. First, she looked for love from the grandmother who raised her. Next, she sought love from Logan Killicks, her first husband, a stodgy old potato farmer, who Nanny believed offered Janie security. Her third relationship involved Joe Starks. Their union lasted nearly 20 years and brought her economic security and an enviable position as the mayor's wife. Janie endured this marriage in the shadow of charismatic, ambitious Joe, a man who knew how to handle people, money, and power, but who had no perception of Janie's simple wish to be respected and loved.</i></div>
<div>
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPkqKLlHUS38ZqF3-ovXOOKn_D2bj1Z5D04XfSZ0p-cJZ7qiOPL1W0bI3HNy1zocKPMgxmjRdxjvNXFo2abysXoAr3MbxVXDVk1vu_bcqWwqIpl64QhZBzE5bszHlaRWqrf4rPr4CNMg4/s1600/zora-neale-hurston-their-eyes-were-watching-god.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPkqKLlHUS38ZqF3-ovXOOKn_D2bj1Z5D04XfSZ0p-cJZ7qiOPL1W0bI3HNy1zocKPMgxmjRdxjvNXFo2abysXoAr3MbxVXDVk1vu_bcqWwqIpl64QhZBzE5bszHlaRWqrf4rPr4CNMg4/s320/zora-neale-hurston-their-eyes-were-watching-god.jpg" width="204" /></a></div>
<div>
<i><br /></i></div>
<div>
<i>Janie's final relationship was with migrant worker Tea Cake, who gave Janie the love she had always desired. With Tea Cake, Janie was able to experience true love and happiness for the first time in her life. As a widow, Janie would sell Joe's crossroads store, close up her comfortable home, and leave with her new husband to share his life as a bean picker in the muck of the Everglades. Tea Cake introduced Janie to a new life in the Everglades. There she met new people, Tea Cake's fun loving friends, and experienced another community. Her life with Tea Cake was far different than her life with Joe. This marriage and Janie's happiness lasted about 18 months - until a powerful hurricane devastated the land, and Tea Cake became a victim of it.</i></div>
<div>
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPKREShT-rCzMFXHTdg_qo5FgTKFnYwqP65tRcKD8Fo1WIT5e4bSddilQQi0Gyuo3H6XqreBgAhkXe8lMO4NOZSJM_LUH2WLRbet9foeGguvcw-CIROBmkZsFqpTcP2le02IrL_Z7uyGg/s1600/theireyeswerewatchinggod+(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPKREShT-rCzMFXHTdg_qo5FgTKFnYwqP65tRcKD8Fo1WIT5e4bSddilQQi0Gyuo3H6XqreBgAhkXe8lMO4NOZSJM_LUH2WLRbet9foeGguvcw-CIROBmkZsFqpTcP2le02IrL_Z7uyGg/s320/theireyeswerewatchinggod+(1).jpg" width="208" /></a></div>
<div>
<i>A few weeks after Tea Cake's death, Janie returns to Eatonville because she cannot bear to remain in the Everglades, where she is surrounded by memories of her beloved Tea Cake. She returns to her hometown, with her quest for sincere love having finally been fulfilled by Tea Cake. After an evening of retelling her past to her friend Pheoby, the story of Janie's life is complete."</i></div>
<div>
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhktslXVYcD6cUekCDxQIkmI4Br3BAK1EmTEkNEGuDmzJV6_rStL5qOad3ONMUusyd-DQr-EYRj0fhDEAyyQ2UeRoZb5Npi7Z5wx-N8rNRQgxoRQwEgTm9QeHDbVxuFJA4fT_-rtQGkCis/s1600/hurston.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhktslXVYcD6cUekCDxQIkmI4Br3BAK1EmTEkNEGuDmzJV6_rStL5qOad3ONMUusyd-DQr-EYRj0fhDEAyyQ2UeRoZb5Npi7Z5wx-N8rNRQgxoRQwEgTm9QeHDbVxuFJA4fT_-rtQGkCis/s1600/hurston.png" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Zora Neale Hurston</i></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Just a few observations:</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
(1) Janie is looking for spiritual fulfillment through the love of a man and no amount of material wealth can ever satisfy this longing. When Pheoby comes to Janie in Chapter 12 and tries to talk her out of marrying Tea Cake the following conversation takes place:</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<i>"How come you sellin' out de store?"</i></div>
<div>
<i><br /></i></div>
<div>
<i>"Cause Tea Cake ain't no Jody Starks, and if he tried tuh be, it would be uh complete flommuck. But de minute Ah marries 'im everybody is gointuh be makin' comparisons. So us is goin' off somewhere and start all over in Tea Cake's way. Dis ain't no business proposition, and no race after property and titles. Dis is uh love game. Ah done lived Grandma's way, and now Ah means to live mine."</i></div>
<div>
<i><br /></i></div>
<div>
<i>"What do you mean by dat, Janie?"</i></div>
<div>
<i><br /></i></div>
<div>
<i>"She was borned in slavery time when folks, dat is blak folks, didn't sit down anytime dey felt lak it. So sittin' on porches lak de white madam looked lak uh mighty fine thing tuh her. Dat's whut she wanted for me - don't keer whut it cost. Git up on uh high chair and sit dere. She didn't have time tuh think whut tuh do after you got up on de stool uh do nothin'. De object wuz tuh git dere. So Ah got up on de high stool lak she told me, but Pheoby, Ah done nearly languished tuh death up dere. Ah felt like de world wuz cryin' extry and Ah ain't rad de common news yet."</i></div>
<div>
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDx_a1WjNjIl0WaMn2Tuzb__PA2A0U_AW82UBEub3bNPDwOumDzCjrq-MEkphlBSKRuAL32q7a7Smc-UKyOCsguxiU_GWiKiE_BHRVENpR1fLBWTvQnaaHQGdsxLZ-qNmWZByyVbNaGi0/s1600/their+eyes+cover.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDx_a1WjNjIl0WaMn2Tuzb__PA2A0U_AW82UBEub3bNPDwOumDzCjrq-MEkphlBSKRuAL32q7a7Smc-UKyOCsguxiU_GWiKiE_BHRVENpR1fLBWTvQnaaHQGdsxLZ-qNmWZByyVbNaGi0/s320/their+eyes+cover.gif" width="210" /></a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Janie has found material wealth and high position in the community to be spiritually empty and meaningless without love. She is happier with the gambler and drifter Tea Cake than she ever was with the wealthy Jody Starks. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5qRitaW8K05SzYulWk0NMEkSuhAZ4ga_C7BEgjK3MSZKVVflFyA0RyGBvKV0rhVsrELwE6TamdfVsnrPWWIlrR_AzyhoSdA80uyJRCj6NulwqCO9bihZMvyFI7Ako-N__8kmdzflym8s/s1600/hurston+stamp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="204" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5qRitaW8K05SzYulWk0NMEkSuhAZ4ga_C7BEgjK3MSZKVVflFyA0RyGBvKV0rhVsrELwE6TamdfVsnrPWWIlrR_AzyhoSdA80uyJRCj6NulwqCO9bihZMvyFI7Ako-N__8kmdzflym8s/s320/hurston+stamp.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
(2) Richard Wright and other black intellectuals criticized Hurston for perpetuating black stereotypes and writing her novel in "Negro dialect." This criticism was patently unfair. In a review published in 1937 Wright wrote: </div>
<div>
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEQnTj6zngIwBeOn-sC9lqU4q1ROqqc6V3hK3_U3sCy7OzzcUHI2GuaEyhnCipdHVDqoUnu0uUsTs4s6pQPMJNN3SEFy4ysuZMrqNXa7ZKbOSW3BVe9MvL-EfAxy_Dq28BHgWZvXirnww/s1600/richard-wright-nsn090914.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEQnTj6zngIwBeOn-sC9lqU4q1ROqqc6V3hK3_U3sCy7OzzcUHI2GuaEyhnCipdHVDqoUnu0uUsTs4s6pQPMJNN3SEFy4ysuZMrqNXa7ZKbOSW3BVe9MvL-EfAxy_Dq28BHgWZvXirnww/s320/richard-wright-nsn090914.jpg" width="238" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<i>Richard Wright</i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div>
<i>"Miss Hurston can write, but her prose is cloaked in that facile sensuality that has dogged Negro expression since the days of Phillis Wheatley. Her dialogue manages to catch the psychological movements of the Negro folk-mind in their pure simplicity, but that's as far as it goes.</i></div>
<div>
<i><br /></i></div>
<div>
<i>Miss Hurston <u>vountarily</u> continues in her novel the tradition which was <u>forced</u> upon the Negro in the theatre, that is, the minstrel technique that makes the "white folks" laugh. Her characters eat and laugh and cry and work and kill; they swing like a pendulum eternally in that safe and narrow orbit in which America likes to see the Negro live; between laughter and tears. . . . The sensory sweep of her novel carries no theme, no message, no thought. In the main, her novel is not addressed to the Negro, but to a white audience whose chauvinistic tastes she knows how to satisfy. She exploits that phase of Negro life which is "quaint," the phrase which evokes a piteous smile on the lips of the "superior" race."</i></div>
<div>
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNCJsXACAVEBuOvkO1rbRt2GV2CCU6J3fBhWijBCKVJ76ZMxBdZ-AtgLEwVFxsJGL79BnZkaKgP5Zfq3iDguHdZtaFhY6caYv6ewFmLkoAD1P7yRN6cLGziK_CdyXNMscJwe2iuKr_aS0/s1600/richard-stamp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="204" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNCJsXACAVEBuOvkO1rbRt2GV2CCU6J3fBhWijBCKVJ76ZMxBdZ-AtgLEwVFxsJGL79BnZkaKgP5Zfq3iDguHdZtaFhY6caYv6ewFmLkoAD1P7yRN6cLGziK_CdyXNMscJwe2iuKr_aS0/s320/richard-stamp.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Wright's criticism was misguided. He misses the fact that, like Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha County, Hurston's Florida is only a backdrop to explore universal themes. <i>Their Eyes Were Watching God</i> is also a feminist novel, dealing with a strong, independent woman who will not accept what society says should satisfy her. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxpiPiyJ391CrjsV8BjuU5A7iaVHsgXSVQxwC4pKw7dqMmYZAcgeUbUP3exOxJ7BdJ9em6Cg1qehAjWrW6GrjYF9l247KiHrfcfrtAO0dO2dDcpjrSlApY6q2oge2xHUnbempGS6nd2FA/s1600/hurston+historic+marker.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="283" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxpiPiyJ391CrjsV8BjuU5A7iaVHsgXSVQxwC4pKw7dqMmYZAcgeUbUP3exOxJ7BdJ9em6Cg1qehAjWrW6GrjYF9l247KiHrfcfrtAO0dO2dDcpjrSlApY6q2oge2xHUnbempGS6nd2FA/s320/hurston+historic+marker.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
In defense of Hurston's use of dialect, a trained anthropologist, she was trying to capture the actual flavor of the people's speech. In the few places where white characters appear, they don't talk any better than the black characters. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQEbycxJwJ0f5NfTqBwlEubMHWkZjJaaK9S43fwo79DuKXrzB78xTXz8gf8KMa4S4u4BbR0HEFh9f9TYFyv1OivJWgnCirtNENDIM5ZVVkmwmvqeqgFDBhHO4WKDab5mr73MzVNcrLPHI/s1600/zora+neale.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQEbycxJwJ0f5NfTqBwlEubMHWkZjJaaK9S43fwo79DuKXrzB78xTXz8gf8KMa4S4u4BbR0HEFh9f9TYFyv1OivJWgnCirtNENDIM5ZVVkmwmvqeqgFDBhHO4WKDab5mr73MzVNcrLPHI/s320/zora+neale.jpg" width="257" /></a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I suspect that Wright may also have been offended that, in a few places in the novel, Hurston explores racist attitudes among blacks. The restaurant owner Mrs. Turner likes looks down on dark skinned blacks but likes Janie because of her light complexion and straight hair and thinks that Tea Cake isn't a fit husband for her because he's "too black." </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia7cO7TGQOw2sHf-ciNaey3SLeGvWAjWDcdu9S3m5_50t-Hi8MVFhulSdg6VZJnhlQKaF_2dyIwTCzJUfBDLxx5OkMLLKDUwWAspp0V6IT8N-VWHOLvyhxEJLDS-Ab9Fjjzn9HT4vAsO0/s1600/zora+quote.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia7cO7TGQOw2sHf-ciNaey3SLeGvWAjWDcdu9S3m5_50t-Hi8MVFhulSdg6VZJnhlQKaF_2dyIwTCzJUfBDLxx5OkMLLKDUwWAspp0V6IT8N-VWHOLvyhxEJLDS-Ab9Fjjzn9HT4vAsO0/s320/zora+quote.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
(3) As a lawyer, I was fascinated by how Janie was able to use the racism of the white community to her advantage in her trial for killing Tea Cake. Bit by a rabid dog, Tea Cake becomes crazed and attacks Janie who is forced to shoot him in self defense. The black community is outraged over Tea Cake's death and wants Janie convicted of murder. The whites, who don't really care about a black woman shooting a black man, are very willing to accept Janie's plea of self defense and the jury of twelve white men very quickly return a verdict of "not guilty."</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBpNArlWeOKlJjsrjQAgrABw5f-HWmQFDKmBLWItTxWgIucFACBN6OunvHu-UwhPGzQtVrxnByKC77UHt0kxTjIHlnkTf2_2GDviQiHmv7Ls2k8YSl71qtodJcfiSXoRa64rbWSpdkB7k/s1600/huston+laughing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBpNArlWeOKlJjsrjQAgrABw5f-HWmQFDKmBLWItTxWgIucFACBN6OunvHu-UwhPGzQtVrxnByKC77UHt0kxTjIHlnkTf2_2GDviQiHmv7Ls2k8YSl71qtodJcfiSXoRa64rbWSpdkB7k/s320/huston+laughing.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
(4) The end of Janie's story may really be the end of her life. After she shoots him, Janie is bitten by Tea Cake. The book ends with the reader not knowing whether or not Janie has been infected with rabies. If she has been infected, left untreated, Janie will suffer the same agonizing illness as Tea Cake and die in pain and madness. She may well have returned to Eatonville to tell her story and end her life. We will never know.</div>
<div>
<i><br /></i></div>
<div>
<i>Their Eyes Were Watching God</i> is, truly, a masterpiece and a great work of literature.</div>
</div>
Bad Catholichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11987121652866343848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-760921852022735055.post-53086340346233298112014-11-30T06:01:00.001-08:002014-11-30T06:01:52.596-08:00The Children Act<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIBxommbY7rql1Uz-2iv9c8idjUerdgWXsPchnT40JcBAoJ3I-FU8cg3JrfJ2KbRmV7lqzpantGJtPD4a4gACoOiD_WWfoCaBCTwl3eZizp7EQjZbaZT17V6YyJOJKs8BOZXivYRAzhOU/s1600/childrens+act.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIBxommbY7rql1Uz-2iv9c8idjUerdgWXsPchnT40JcBAoJ3I-FU8cg3JrfJ2KbRmV7lqzpantGJtPD4a4gACoOiD_WWfoCaBCTwl3eZizp7EQjZbaZT17V6YyJOJKs8BOZXivYRAzhOU/s1600/childrens+act.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
Ian McEwan's new novel, <i>The Children Act</i>, is about three of my favorite subjects: law, sex and religion. <br />
<br />
Fiona May is a fifty nine year old British High Court Judge in the Family Law Division. As the novel opens, she is working on an opinion in a child custody case between an Orthodox Jewish Father and a now Reformed Jewish mother. Her previous case, about conjoined twins whom the conservative Catholic parents do not want to separate and kill one to save the other, has haunted her. <br />
<br />
Because of her preoccupation with cases, Fiona has not had sex with Jack, her husband of over thirty years. Jack, a college professor going through his "early old age crisis," has picked out a twenty nine year old statistician whom he wants to have an affair with. Jack tells Fiona that he needs to have a passionate love affair before he's too old for it, and that he wants her permission. In response, Fiona throws Jack out and changes the locks on the apartment.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz00-bymemX8JYh3jHyPPW01rYGsMSLvfVkQuY7Kw7Gk9pAsmTRAhHAhUDB3OktxgVg3R_rx4oLHvdyS43IdgRLuLhd9iBaBjAba_gBtO0kDn2AqgJU15CwYxGigDXugi_yBhHPPvEQEM/s1600/Ian-McEwan-008.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz00-bymemX8JYh3jHyPPW01rYGsMSLvfVkQuY7Kw7Gk9pAsmTRAhHAhUDB3OktxgVg3R_rx4oLHvdyS43IdgRLuLhd9iBaBjAba_gBtO0kDn2AqgJU15CwYxGigDXugi_yBhHPPvEQEM/s1600/Ian-McEwan-008.jpg" height="192" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<i>Author Ian McEwan</i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<i><br /></i></div>
Fiona's new case is an emergency hearing about a teenage Jehovah's Witness, Adam Henry, who is suffering from leukemia and will need a blood transfusion to survive. The parents refuse permission on religious grounds and the hospital seeks a court order to overrule them. Adam, who is 17, is only months away from his eighteenth birthday which would give him the authority to decide for himself.<br />
<br />
Fiona goes to the hospital and interviews Adam and is smitten with him. Adam is an intellectual, a gifted poet and a talented musician. Fiona ultimately rules that the Court has a duty to save Adam from his religion. Ultimately, this casts Adam adrift and causes him to loose his staunch faith. He replaces his faith in God with a romantic obsession with the Judge which results in tragic consequences.<br />
<br />
I enjoyed <i>The Children Act</i> a great deal. It was not nearly as good as <i>Sweet Tooth, </i>but it was a very good read from one of the best contemporary British novelists. Four out of five gavels.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB8sGZubcR5fbxzVDtTMJ7Glbv55VkLl6aAb4vDZVK9B0B4hGPhhBH0_X9CNsgL-8-5UFvc4oI8iGXfS9Xvxgdd5AJ0eAJKbT_rWJG0vvDXP4XlYYYF0seryyHjlMj0vTgV7ssMpOlVTs/s1600/mcewan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB8sGZubcR5fbxzVDtTMJ7Glbv55VkLl6aAb4vDZVK9B0B4hGPhhBH0_X9CNsgL-8-5UFvc4oI8iGXfS9Xvxgdd5AJ0eAJKbT_rWJG0vvDXP4XlYYYF0seryyHjlMj0vTgV7ssMpOlVTs/s1600/mcewan.jpg" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
Bad Catholichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11987121652866343848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-760921852022735055.post-87815013268194859752014-10-14T05:10:00.000-07:002014-10-14T05:10:21.412-07:00Winnie and Wolf<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-SPdV1LqqWruEtY1rUIyIRPeU9QcTS0fOGEQ5eS71voo73yaZOop3F9IPVBFzjaDY7sU7qqZ8MI89v7yYZfYV1oLulmIpP0mw_vBCPCTGkiC7eHilu9bEQk2ntZQo8yc9ia5q4NdHQGE/s1600/winnie+&+wolf.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-SPdV1LqqWruEtY1rUIyIRPeU9QcTS0fOGEQ5eS71voo73yaZOop3F9IPVBFzjaDY7sU7qqZ8MI89v7yYZfYV1oLulmIpP0mw_vBCPCTGkiC7eHilu9bEQk2ntZQo8yc9ia5q4NdHQGE/s1600/winnie+&+wolf.jpg" height="320" width="213" /></a></div>
<br />
I enjoyed A.N. Wilson's 2007 novel <i>Winnie and Wolf </i>a great deal. If you like this book you probably have two characteristics: (1) You're a fan of the music dramas of Richard Wagner and (2) You're interested in the history of Nazi Germany. If you don't fall into one of those categories this might not be your novel.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ8dwJ_LtYBe-jGYyqc1Q6rQ_El4-BaXFdXVMQsJEBxXwepe7tzbhB777tui8kQ_uuW1cOU3hBcCrySA04SsKtqY-PTO0GrE1tEPe5Ja_xUaIWV3o9Xh4gh57KeDqAf9uhSOv6GG1FkCs/s1600/winnie+&+wolf+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ8dwJ_LtYBe-jGYyqc1Q6rQ_El4-BaXFdXVMQsJEBxXwepe7tzbhB777tui8kQ_uuW1cOU3hBcCrySA04SsKtqY-PTO0GrE1tEPe5Ja_xUaIWV3o9Xh4gh57KeDqAf9uhSOv6GG1FkCs/s1600/winnie+&+wolf+2.jpg" height="320" width="202" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
"Winnie" is Winifred Wagner, the wife of Richard Wagner's son Siegfried. "Wolf" is the affectionate nickname given to Adolf Hitler. Hitler was an ardent fan of Wagner Operas. During the 1920s he started going to the Wagner home at Bayreuth and became good friends with Siegfried and Winifred. In fact, the Wagner's supplied Hitler with the paper to write <i>Mein Kampf</i> while in prison for leading a failed <i>coup d'etat </i>against the government of the Weimar Republic<i>.</i> </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdO5vPx5lh5NmilIBe-JXZlaJZFrLN1OKvZd_krOkvIPeSHGLq-7Me1npVCaOq5btIejp4FNAtAxkByvlxA0q_uSNZvxR7KmVKR4wh9p9cS8JIFImI5Tt2409cDoYSomej0VodaX5sDCw/s1600/winnie+&+siegfried.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdO5vPx5lh5NmilIBe-JXZlaJZFrLN1OKvZd_krOkvIPeSHGLq-7Me1npVCaOq5btIejp4FNAtAxkByvlxA0q_uSNZvxR7KmVKR4wh9p9cS8JIFImI5Tt2409cDoYSomej0VodaX5sDCw/s1600/winnie+&+siegfried.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<i>Winnie & Siegfried early in their marriage.</i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
After Siegfried's death, rumors circulated that Hitler and Frau Wagner were about to marry. There is no doubt that Winifred Wagner was one of Hitler's closest friends and the "Uncle Wolf" was very close to the Wagner children. A.N. Wilson has taken these facts and extrapolates what might have happened if Winnie & Wolf's relationship had been sexual and had produced a child.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB30LsTc-Q_XuIYGunLURltbfQ_Ri8U0qBUl-yVUsis-0YPHS-qk0zRSeNY61kqifEsat3FCHRH9SiqSW2-v4xCcn9pYhMhgFoAac8nNlISLhkhFcQoGiF_ifDrY_3GaeyDwCaQcZXEeY/s1600/winnie-and-wolf2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB30LsTc-Q_XuIYGunLURltbfQ_Ri8U0qBUl-yVUsis-0YPHS-qk0zRSeNY61kqifEsat3FCHRH9SiqSW2-v4xCcn9pYhMhgFoAac8nNlISLhkhFcQoGiF_ifDrY_3GaeyDwCaQcZXEeY/s1600/winnie-and-wolf2.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<i>The real Winnie & Wolf</i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
The novel is narrated by Herr N_____, whose name we never learn. Herr N._____ served as the personal secretary to Siegfried and then to Winnie. Although we never learn his name, Herr N_____ is a finely drawn character whom, by the end of the novel, we feel that we know intimately. </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUpD1Uz1IODU3yEXFoq_AKGVPW5Au2TUDkPKwWsYMjKEkl73nORJUjF9cwCIPXODFo8_YCXQORwVc1fHOn0ovrkvSS1dPaGvjbdAir_bKfQEhduQtJbzL2xcwrRqTufRH9B_RaEkwqh9o/s1600/winnie-and-wolf.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUpD1Uz1IODU3yEXFoq_AKGVPW5Au2TUDkPKwWsYMjKEkl73nORJUjF9cwCIPXODFo8_YCXQORwVc1fHOn0ovrkvSS1dPaGvjbdAir_bKfQEhduQtJbzL2xcwrRqTufRH9B_RaEkwqh9o/s1600/winnie-and-wolf.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<i>Frau Wagner greets the Fuhrer</i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
There is a lot of real history in this novel. The fictional narrative is seamlessly interwoven with the real history of Germany. Wilson also shows a deep knowledge of Richard Wagner and the Bayreuth Festival. Wagnerians should love this book. The novel is presented as a long letter to Herr N____'s adopted daughter who is really the love child of Winnie and Wolf. The novel is well written and hold's the reader's interest well.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ0gbdcMs0Q-_NW-vKwIasEhIu_mn8Hymr5Hw87w5vLYNR_mj32OSDnxbng0tH6hFjBDKuWS8jHK2ObzK7t8tgFLVfKQ-ImUNj6FUcVEJvqB_KaM7x2JfioWgm0LSoTCuy-h9-sKkGe8M/s1600/Picture+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ0gbdcMs0Q-_NW-vKwIasEhIu_mn8Hymr5Hw87w5vLYNR_mj32OSDnxbng0tH6hFjBDKuWS8jHK2ObzK7t8tgFLVfKQ-ImUNj6FUcVEJvqB_KaM7x2JfioWgm0LSoTCuy-h9-sKkGe8M/s1600/Picture+1.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<i>A.N. Wilson</i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
While this material may not be to everyone's taste, I absolutely loved it. FIVE OUT OF FIVE viking helmets.</div>
</div>
Bad Catholichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11987121652866343848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-760921852022735055.post-24636089430348975722014-07-27T17:28:00.000-07:002014-07-27T18:33:59.322-07:00THE FALLING HILLS<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioMMSDxVHGozbSahvKLLhMAf_Nx7cXO-Mh1a61Yc4JbyfKqdaCFC4AA1E5J1JikfY4sDP7I8PTDAPnvJc71oJqCwhnJjcfV264rDA1CWIGeEny91Twu0cm-ocE3HqGVG9eJZi3gPe6W_M/s1600/falling+hills+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioMMSDxVHGozbSahvKLLhMAf_Nx7cXO-Mh1a61Yc4JbyfKqdaCFC4AA1E5J1JikfY4sDP7I8PTDAPnvJc71oJqCwhnJjcfV264rDA1CWIGeEny91Twu0cm-ocE3HqGVG9eJZi3gPe6W_M/s1600/falling+hills+2.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Perry Lentz (b. 1943) is a retired Professor of English at
Kenyon College. In 1967 at age 24 he
published <i>The Falling Hills</i> a novel about the notorious “Fort Pillow
Massacre” during the American Civil War.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjux3soa5Jl-TsaAdDu5T_T90SEhwRWsf-gXgbSlSePboM59OL6apgSu8Kvc2CVJBYMZ1QvB2-8yFhyphenhyphenXAvnRBp4xeTSBQtACkmfXj8oHcEriS0g7R0CZpg5y_XpIOAuipd6wOCwYZAsjMc/s1600/Fort_Pillow_cannons_2006.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjux3soa5Jl-TsaAdDu5T_T90SEhwRWsf-gXgbSlSePboM59OL6apgSu8Kvc2CVJBYMZ1QvB2-8yFhyphenhyphenXAvnRBp4xeTSBQtACkmfXj8oHcEriS0g7R0CZpg5y_XpIOAuipd6wOCwYZAsjMc/s1600/Fort_Pillow_cannons_2006.jpg" height="212" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<i>The Modern Reconstruction of Fort Pillow</i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Fort Pillow was located on the Mississippi River above
Memphis, Tennessee and was garrisoned by a regiment of white Tennessee Union Loyalists
and two regiments of black Troops. When
the Fort was stormed by the Confederate Army of General Nation Bedford Forrest
in April, 1864 the majority of the black Union soldiers were killed, many of
them after throwing down their arms and trying to surrender.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeqgzGLeuOTWcShkdKiD7K6wT9PjMITH0Ntb95_yujVluyK3dJvHBRk5l4rW49n8P6uw_QWYMXNj22ySx_sif7wTgANuTIACcR6ILqJSj1g8jrdO1oY91u_iEVCYgYcatobAM-rmSvyZY/s1600/NathanBedfordForrest.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeqgzGLeuOTWcShkdKiD7K6wT9PjMITH0Ntb95_yujVluyK3dJvHBRk5l4rW49n8P6uw_QWYMXNj22ySx_sif7wTgANuTIACcR6ILqJSj1g8jrdO1oY91u_iEVCYgYcatobAM-rmSvyZY/s1600/NathanBedfordForrest.jpg" height="320" width="197" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i>Major General Nathan Bedford Forrest, C.S.A.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Lentz, a native of Alabama, clearly shows his prejudices. When dealing with the Confederates, Lentz’s
writing is vivid and his characterizations are life like. We come to know and to like both the
fictional characters and the real historical figures, like General Nathan Bedford
Forrest, that populate the narrative.
The white Union soldiers, both historical and fictional, are generally
disreputable and dysfunctional. There
is not a single black character in the novel who is not a caricature of a stereotype.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSz6hLfc2BKONMYmD7bdL7AkrzUVdHFYzwM3si_wvaC65hUHKl9L4oV4yT3JX9K0-23t0XuXVFIsyseRU1_UNRSxvQVYr44oUrMql-e1Dr7eLzornOgJAtU7pHTWybAc8M9N86Wkn20eI/s1600/Ft_Pillow650.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSz6hLfc2BKONMYmD7bdL7AkrzUVdHFYzwM3si_wvaC65hUHKl9L4oV4yT3JX9K0-23t0XuXVFIsyseRU1_UNRSxvQVYr44oUrMql-e1Dr7eLzornOgJAtU7pHTWybAc8M9N86Wkn20eI/s1600/Ft_Pillow650.jpg" height="320" width="272" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The main Confederate character is Captain Hamilton Leroy “Lee”
Acox. A Tennessee lawyer, Acox served in
an infantry regiment in the Army of Tennessee through all of the terrible
battles fought in that theater of war from Shiloh to Chickamauga. Wounded at Chickamauga, Acox goes home with a
commission as a recruiting officer hoping to sit the rest of the war out. Acox desperately does not want to leave his
wife, Amanda, who has just suffered the devastating deaths of the couple’s two
children from disease. However, Acox is reluctantly drafted to lead a company in the cavalry corps of Major General Nathan
Bedford Forrest.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcjfm3s5soRkNi3t5_z1JGhDoqe8drCv_dGbntyJRfgNSsm839JNZrzeLcqZ66SX28YElMwMZmQyxZP2H_TQpJm6mDgUS4KG_sqs98w0S5zb4A6_3qC_MfmaDFdt30bR3l7ERxRyRDFxA/s1600/falling+hills.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcjfm3s5soRkNi3t5_z1JGhDoqe8drCv_dGbntyJRfgNSsm839JNZrzeLcqZ66SX28YElMwMZmQyxZP2H_TQpJm6mDgUS4KG_sqs98w0S5zb4A6_3qC_MfmaDFdt30bR3l7ERxRyRDFxA/s1600/falling+hills.jpg" height="320" width="213" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The main Union character is Lt. Jonathan Seabury. Seabury is from a family of Bostin Brahmins
and is young and idealistic. A fervent abolitionist,
Seabury wants to command black troops.
With his romantic and idealistic notions, Seabury is soon disillusioned
by the reality of garrison duty with former slaves in the Western Theater of
operations.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio1VD-pFp8VIoWYAVdSSE_WFjNV5iukVSuFwZCDqrARzxfQrESixB8C3h_8rj0hiCHrVty5NnYpDqKTqjKPTI2Hdzxnf9SRE5h4fzQBER48sjmTyigDTHXAlzvThhIKHmclelvyrxGkLI/s1600/rebel+cavalry.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio1VD-pFp8VIoWYAVdSSE_WFjNV5iukVSuFwZCDqrARzxfQrESixB8C3h_8rj0hiCHrVty5NnYpDqKTqjKPTI2Hdzxnf9SRE5h4fzQBER48sjmTyigDTHXAlzvThhIKHmclelvyrxGkLI/s1600/rebel+cavalry.jpg" height="239" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The other fictional Yankee is John Arness Suttell, who is
best described as a homicidal sociopath.
The novel opens with Suttell, then a corporal, leading his squad in
ambushing a group of Confederate officers as they come out of a house after
having dinner with their mother.
Suttell, the son of a poor hardscrabble farmer from West Tennessee,
harbors a deep hatred for the planter aristocracy of South, who he believes are
responsible for the deaths of his father and younger brother.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWrXtwUPYQjo7WuI-esnH8VVrV0p55SKbV-Jj2BMWLrTB4LyLd_O9Duuf2CyMJKo0PFhFeki1d-iAlGBs0Z-K7gaRjP5XEUKyLdhB8LiNrDhEAIJ3lPm02kxTkkj7Vvv5dtIkIloFfVN8/s1600/lentzperrythefallinghills1968andredeutschsbb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWrXtwUPYQjo7WuI-esnH8VVrV0p55SKbV-Jj2BMWLrTB4LyLd_O9Duuf2CyMJKo0PFhFeki1d-iAlGBs0Z-K7gaRjP5XEUKyLdhB8LiNrDhEAIJ3lPm02kxTkkj7Vvv5dtIkIloFfVN8/s1600/lentzperrythefallinghills1968andredeutschsbb.jpg" height="320" width="209" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Lentz is excellent in describing the horrors, deprivations and
sheer savagery of war. I was especially
fond of Chapter 7 which is basically a short story stuck in the middle of the
novel. It involves the life and death of
a Confederate trooper named Bob Perry who was a former “slave catcher.” As I said, Lentz is much better when dealing
with the Southerners than with the Yankees, and the story of Bob Perry is one of the best
works of fiction which I have read in a long time.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNTFLevS_AF37-cpf1HuQMA0aI0Wl-NyQr-Fyeevi5xAK7ZsADjJu8Rcf7vzljXHYZSWP5fL2VAZFj3DJEFtWhbh4u-KlDYmwmsqC2ourksvB-jvPpnmj5pWrwKu_lHTwJIwGuYTTAZoM/s1600/fort-pillow-e1325796114185.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNTFLevS_AF37-cpf1HuQMA0aI0Wl-NyQr-Fyeevi5xAK7ZsADjJu8Rcf7vzljXHYZSWP5fL2VAZFj3DJEFtWhbh4u-KlDYmwmsqC2ourksvB-jvPpnmj5pWrwKu_lHTwJIwGuYTTAZoM/s1600/fort-pillow-e1325796114185.gif" height="131" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Fort Pillow was commanded by a regular army officer named
Lionel Booth. When Booth was killed during
the battle, command passed to Major William Bradford, a minor Tennessee
politician who was loyal to the Union.
In real life, when Forrest demanded the fort’s surrender, Bradford
pretended to be Booth and refused. In
actual history, not covered in the novel, Bradford was taken prisoner and shot
by Confederates several days after the battle for allegedly attempting to
escape.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In Lentz’s hands, Booth is a washed up old regular army
officer, just trying to survive the war so he can retire with this
pension. Bradford is depicted as a
cowardly political opportunist.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I couldn’t help thinking that by today’s standards <i>The
Falling Hills</i> is probably a racist book.
As I said there is not one fully developed black character in the entire
novel and the black characters who are described are stereotypically lazy and
ignorant. Although there is historical
truth in the lack of training and the assigning of second rate officers to
command black troops, I feel that Lentz probably crosses the line. Although this book is still in print, thanks
no doubt to Professor Lentz’s stature as a distinguished literature professor,
I doubt it could be published today. <i>The
Falling Hills</i> would have been a much better book if at least one black Union
soldier had been fleshed out and made into a fully realized human being. A student of literature and future professor,
Lentz’s writing sometimes seems like it came out of Willy Wanka’s Faulkner
Factory, and can be pretentiously literary.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIDgNgXNQ9i8mMUkOPR1W7lfB0MVxcfEP7vzIOAdM8ItTLKtCHFuIfY_eA5NAxMe6yaojpd96Qg8CW1tdidmlM7mA51qclmc5xAE-uW7-T34A69Ftqhc8xMkvDZDKmi-rJMlT4D06Pv4o/s1600/lentz.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIDgNgXNQ9i8mMUkOPR1W7lfB0MVxcfEP7vzIOAdM8ItTLKtCHFuIfY_eA5NAxMe6yaojpd96Qg8CW1tdidmlM7mA51qclmc5xAE-uW7-T34A69Ftqhc8xMkvDZDKmi-rJMlT4D06Pv4o/s1600/lentz.png" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i>Dr. Perry Lentz</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Having said that, for those into Civil War literature, <i>The
Falling Hills</i> is a great read. The Bad Catholic gives it four out of five
Rebel Flags.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
Bad Catholichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11987121652866343848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-760921852022735055.post-47478357155427803022014-07-26T06:34:00.000-07:002014-07-26T06:36:03.171-07:00Hi, I'm Bad Catholic and I'm a Book Hoarder<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXVK9qXNBKheT9bvatGKppMtuUAXylzkiErbtQ03x88d-sOI-2-_S0cYFLNVpCoG4W2ZC0KA_5F2etji7NzsMXQQ1K7ZiAeZ59yp8H2dAWzkOKphZXKGbfkkQJqfGGr-xGGfY5vRzeNBU/s1600/books.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXVK9qXNBKheT9bvatGKppMtuUAXylzkiErbtQ03x88d-sOI-2-_S0cYFLNVpCoG4W2ZC0KA_5F2etji7NzsMXQQ1K7ZiAeZ59yp8H2dAWzkOKphZXKGbfkkQJqfGGr-xGGfY5vRzeNBU/s1600/books.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
<br />
I just joined a new organization I started - Book Hoarders anonymous. I simply have to stop BUYING books and start READING them. If I had all the money I've spent on books over the years I'd be rich beyond the wildest dreams of avarice. So, we're going to institute some new rules:<br />
<br />
(1). I HAVE TO READ 100, count em, 100 books before I BUY another one. (That doesn't count what I can get for free through rewards points, gifts, etc. , heh, heh, heh.<br />
<br />
(2). Even after I've read the 100 I get to get ONE BOOK.<br />
<br />
I'm asking all of you out there in blog land to help me. I have a serious problem. Help me to JUST SAY NO!!!!</div>
Bad Catholichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11987121652866343848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-760921852022735055.post-47064472955057340862014-07-01T17:45:00.000-07:002014-07-01T17:47:53.241-07:00The Vicar of Sorrows<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcIs_MG0Aq39zCxzMwdIepWhFIXPI_un2ZTds5nPSf8647edH2AFlwehgitw738kTFh8dq0J_sr767z_edLi5J8bLSq0djvz4IDL5GKLqQHurnsLaVnVkvBFOCglufNqab4jUferZ4KGo/s1600/41UedH0LV3L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU02_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcIs_MG0Aq39zCxzMwdIepWhFIXPI_un2ZTds5nPSf8647edH2AFlwehgitw738kTFh8dq0J_sr767z_edLi5J8bLSq0djvz4IDL5GKLqQHurnsLaVnVkvBFOCglufNqab4jUferZ4KGo/s1600/41UedH0LV3L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU02_.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Reverend Francis Kreer has a problem, he no longer
believes in God. However, he doesn’t
find this to be too much of a problem in his job as an Anglican clergyman and
in traditional British fashion he just gets a stiff upper lip and carries
on. Francis has other problems at home,
though. He is bored with his wife and
bored with his life in general. When his
mother dies and leaves half of everything she owns to her former lover, this
pushes Francis over the edge. Francis
suffers a nervous breakdown, has an affair with a hippie who is young enough to
be his daughter, and gets fired from his job.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmdBK7RWqXRSkfD0i5ZXBM51IyeMkc9-DNOrvuILKoLCWco-6DaiN4eifD3H3l1nVsv92rmZhw3_PBwVp0SDZNZ7NfLKYmu8X-IzO6TZB3M0K54ZIr5KXM_rfZnQMALGRVdGxeLO7xtdk/s1600/an+wilson+&+rowan+williams.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmdBK7RWqXRSkfD0i5ZXBM51IyeMkc9-DNOrvuILKoLCWco-6DaiN4eifD3H3l1nVsv92rmZhw3_PBwVp0SDZNZ7NfLKYmu8X-IzO6TZB3M0K54ZIr5KXM_rfZnQMALGRVdGxeLO7xtdk/s1600/an+wilson+&+rowan+williams.jpg" height="245" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i>Author A.N. Wilson with Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is the basic plot of A.N. Wilson’s 1993 soap opera <i>The
Vicar of Sorrows</i>. Although it had its
moments, <i>Vicar</i> is about 150 pages too long.
Mrs. Kreer, the mother, gets mad at Francis for something he didn’t say
and leaves half of her estate to a former R.A.F. pilot whom she had a
passionate affair with during the Blitz.
Being an Anglican Church groupie, I liked all the long winded passages
about the ecclesiastical politics of the Church of England. Francis’ best friend Damien is a gay
Anglo-Catholic priest who has lost his position because he was caught out in
public in a compromising position with another man. By the
end of the novel, as Francis’ career as a clergyman has crashed, Damien has
been rehabilitated. The Archdeacon of
the Diocese thinks Francis is a kook but doesn’t have a problem with Damien: <i>“(The Archdeacon) who derived most of his
views from liberal newspapers, took a very lenient view of Damien’s
proclivities: but one had to be sensible, and think of the ‘old dears’ in the
pew, who might be slower than the rest of us to realize that fornication, when practiced
by homosexuals, was no longer exactly a sin.”<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQjRBDfV8Wun7iU6p9hsuzy1v6cS2jvIgrhj6cNwy0fIV56Trt2cxCup_9yn4qFYLyQQXH7iwVDRjWN2_yViULEck3p_WIZLoRdkcVoY-EUjX3iB-oP5c-Ciwta6i4gwCw3LXnrF4bj2E/s1600/A+N+Wilson.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQjRBDfV8Wun7iU6p9hsuzy1v6cS2jvIgrhj6cNwy0fIV56Trt2cxCup_9yn4qFYLyQQXH7iwVDRjWN2_yViULEck3p_WIZLoRdkcVoY-EUjX3iB-oP5c-Ciwta6i4gwCw3LXnrF4bj2E/s1600/A+N+Wilson.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i>A.N. Wilson</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Overall, <i>The Vicar of Sorrows</i> was probably not worth the
time it took to read the 391 pages of it.
It could have been a humorous little satire if it had been about 150 to
200 pages shorter. Two out of Five.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
Bad Catholichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11987121652866343848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-760921852022735055.post-9261723010164623182014-05-03T18:31:00.000-07:002014-05-03T18:32:40.845-07:00The Book of Lights<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhsZc8FhwEM8CoWrcaQkbR4gzSqAA8704GLoIyGhy0hAc9h07NYKJm6OmUTTHXDCBSZoF2oswR8LaS5_xpJ9UGAxeWUrbsO5trns5VIRd2OOYq0pWf1vfYZ5nQszp1nDT8hveM2kRfKRk/s1600/The_Book_of_Lights.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhsZc8FhwEM8CoWrcaQkbR4gzSqAA8704GLoIyGhy0hAc9h07NYKJm6OmUTTHXDCBSZoF2oswR8LaS5_xpJ9UGAxeWUrbsO5trns5VIRd2OOYq0pWf1vfYZ5nQszp1nDT8hveM2kRfKRk/s1600/The_Book_of_Lights.gif" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>(THE FOLLOWING POST CONTAINS SPOILERS. IF YOU THINK YOU MIGHT READ POTOK’S <i>THE BOOK
OF LIGHTS</i> YOU MAY NOT WANT TO READ THE BELOW).</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Ever since I read <i>The Chosen</i> and <i>The Promise</i>, Chaim Potok (1929-2002) has been one of my favorite authors. As
has been noted by literary scholars “All of Chaim Potok’s novels vividly depict
the study of sacred texts as central to the Jewish tradition.”<a href="file:///C:/Users/Mark/SkyDrive/Documents/The%20Book%20of%20LIghts.docx#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> Instead of Torah and Talmud, the texts which
interest Potok in <i>The Book of Lights</i> (1981) are the medieval Jewish mystical
writings called the Kabbalah. The novel's title is derived from a central mystical text, <i>The Zohar</i>. The actual title of the work, the <i>Sefer
ha-zohar</i>, means “the book of lights.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Light is very important in Jewish mystical theology. “Kabbalists believe that the universe was
created by a light ray that poured into containers, some of which broke, thus
causing evil to enter the world. Pieces
of light are everywhere. When the
spilled light is gathered up by humankind, people will become immortal. For kabbalists, the two-thousand-year
dispersal of the Jews is to prepare the world for the Messiah who will come
when the lights are recovered.
Kabbalists naturally would be fascinated by light, for God said “Let
there be light,” just after creating the heaven and the earth. Before light the earth was “without form, and
void” (Genesis). Like mysticism, light
is incorporeal. But as particle and wave
it has substance, motion, and power.”<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Mark/SkyDrive/Documents/The%20Book%20of%20LIghts.docx#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" title="">[2]</a></span></span><a href="file:///C:/Users/Mark/SkyDrive/Documents/The%20Book%20of%20LIghts.docx#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" title=""><!--[endif]--></a></span>
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT94w9Qgab9vQWJNhYLUlCHDMfnDwHNKri38ROF9zLH7K8jyg8AFlGNVvc1dsoAeauXq3yK5zT8Vgcsea1wkObIFjLAq56-Hv1Ae4JqNM7NIlaUqPipcKp0OFUT_6QF_jHkay3xuMLhgY/s1600/n136248.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT94w9Qgab9vQWJNhYLUlCHDMfnDwHNKri38ROF9zLH7K8jyg8AFlGNVvc1dsoAeauXq3yK5zT8Vgcsea1wkObIFjLAq56-Hv1Ae4JqNM7NIlaUqPipcKp0OFUT_6QF_jHkay3xuMLhgY/s1600/n136248.jpg" height="320" width="194" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As with the protagonists of Potok’s earlier novels, <i>The
Chosen</i>, <i>The Promise</i>, and <i>In the Beginning</i>,
the main character of <i>The Book of Lights</i> is a young rabbinical student
who lives in the Jewish section of Brooklyn, New York. Gershon Loran is a lackluster student of
Talmud but becomes excited about the study of Kabbalah. The novel opens in the early 1950s when
Gershon is a student in a seminary. Gershon’s parents were killed in a cross fire
between Arabs and Jews in Jerusalem in 1937 when Gershon was eight years old. Orphaned, Gershon has been reared by his aunt
and uncle. His uncle owns a run down
Hebrew bookstore and his aunt has never recovered from the death of the couples’
only son during World War II.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>The Book of Lights</i> has many more literary devices and
metaphors than Potok’s earlier novels.
Gershon’s aunt and uncle live in a ramshackle apartment building. Gerhon’s uncle acts as the building
supervisor and collects rents for the unknown absentee landlord. “They lived in a sunless ground-floor
apartment in an old five story redbrick building where his uncle collected the
rents for the owner no one ever saw. The
house was the talk of their Brooklyn neighborhood. There was something wrong with it, something
had gone awry from the beginning.” This
suggests a metaphor for the world where “something had gone awry from the
beginning,” and suggests the role of the Jews as God’s chosen people who serve
the unknown absentee Creator of the Universe in his broken world.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGG_0xk6IfeISPfNj12tF8YruZ331l1sEEMYYR0MiI10nDhKhphhHrIMdBupJ2Fn6XMIWJhADd1NI3q8sTOgTjixEUjKUfYLODzcj-Q-dbaINqHuOmu6za4wTXNOKThhc8mbjHsSHVnxU/s1600/th8GA4UZP0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGG_0xk6IfeISPfNj12tF8YruZ331l1sEEMYYR0MiI10nDhKhphhHrIMdBupJ2Fn6XMIWJhADd1NI3q8sTOgTjixEUjKUfYLODzcj-Q-dbaINqHuOmu6za4wTXNOKThhc8mbjHsSHVnxU/s1600/th8GA4UZP0.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One night, on the roof of the apartment building, Gershon
has a mystical experience which he believes is God revealing himself. Throughout the novel, Gershon has visions of
people and places and seeks to recapture the experience of the night on the roof
when he touched the stars and all things seemed to be one.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Gershon is sent to an Orthodox yeshiva where he has a
lackluster academic performance. After
graduation from the Yeshiva, Gershon enrolls in a non-orthodox theological
seminary. Gershon is a competent student
of Torah and Talmud but his academic career does not take off until Jacob
Keter, an expert in Kabbalah and Jewish mysticism, arrives to teach at the
seminary.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Gershon’s roommate is Arthur Leiden. Arthur’s father is a famous
physicist who worked on the development of the atomic bomb. Arthur’s mother is a noted professor of art
history. Arthur has chosen to be an
observant Jew and to study to be a rabbi in apparent rebellion against his
parents who are secular Jews. Arthur
drinks too much and is often unprepared for class. Gershon is dating Karen Levin who is studying
for her doctorate in philosophy at Columbia University. Karen’s father is a noted rabbi, and Karen
makes it clear to Gershon that she does not intend to be the wife of a “pulpit
rabbi.” Nevertheless, Gershon and Karen
continue to see each other.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Due to a lack of Jewish chaplains in the armed forces,
seminary administrators make it a requirement for ordination that all graduates
serve two years as a military chaplain. However,
Gershon’s military service is delayed for a year when he wins an academic
scholarship, endowed by Arthur’s parents and named for Arthur's dead brother, which enables Gershon to do graduate study on
Kabbalah with Professor Keter. Finally,
his year of graduate study over with, Gershon reluctantly joins the army.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjipehgyrg3ybsEcU_WIPlo7eUv05EiW5P4IJMdDcJSSLFQ-yvVOvABYcqtd1tRViws_taCZGhGQ63thJuWhk089bDwblnt_elEICwRZb22pe6tJBjMLxUUDiGibtT_EVAlEdFuQx4skTY/s1600/shinto+worship.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjipehgyrg3ybsEcU_WIPlo7eUv05EiW5P4IJMdDcJSSLFQ-yvVOvABYcqtd1tRViws_taCZGhGQ63thJuWhk089bDwblnt_elEICwRZb22pe6tJBjMLxUUDiGibtT_EVAlEdFuQx4skTY/s1600/shinto+worship.jpg" height="254" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i>Worship in a Shinto Temple</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sent to Korea as a chaplain just after the end of the Korean
War, Gershon is a great success as an army chaplain. He is well respected by both the officers and
men, and gains a reputation as a good chaplain.
In Asia, Gershon’s perspective is considerably broadened. He realizes that there may be other ways to
God than Judaism. During a trip to Japan, Gershon and another
soldier watch people pray at a Shnto shrine:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>“In the indoor shrine at the end of the street, people
crowded before an altar on which stood an image. Candles burned in tall black metal
candelabra. Women stood with their hands
together, praying. Children prayed
softly. Before the altar was a
railing. An old man stood at the
railing. He wore a hat and a brown coat.
He had a long white beard, a flowing beard that lay upon his chest and seemed
possessed of a life of its own, like a waterfall. It caught the soft lights of the candles and
glints of the sunlight that came through the door of the shrine. In his hands he held a prayer book. His body swayed back and forth, back and
forth, as he prayed. His eyes opened and
closed behind rimless spectacles that flashed and flared with the lights of the
candles and the sun. Gershon looked at him.
Had he seen him somewhere before?
He could not remember.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i> “Do you
think our God is listening to him, John?”<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i> “I don’t
know, chappy. I never thought of it.”<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i> “Neither
did I until now. If He’s not listening,
why not? If He is listening, then-well, what are we all about, John? That’s my thought for tomorrow. It think we ought to go back to the hotel.”<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i> The day
was Friday, Gershon’s Shabbat began with dusk.
He remained by himself in the room; John went out for a walk. He sat in an easy chair, reading a work by
Chaim Vital on the kabbalistic thought of Isaac Luria. He put it aside after a while and took up the
second of the two books he had brought with him, a volume of the Zohar. He began to read the commentary to the Torah
portion of that Shabbat, the section that tells of the Revelation at Sinai.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i> He
read, “When a man spreads out his hands and lifts them up in prayer and
supplication, he may be said to glorify the Holy One in various ways. He symbolically unites the ten sefirot,
thereby unifying the whole and duly blessing the Holy Name.” He read this and thought of the Japanese he
had seen praying in the shine.”<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKTI_fOKCSbfmHULtetAZjgRg10kMcSPvmAHwcUFuz6FMW_XEUai72a0BJlzonl8ZWjZgKdeQRSd_aChuX-oJgmP6AB6-8hrBgBE4go_npmk5wbIRdex22U0BfwC_xj-nM1Fhy9IIdDLo/s1600/hiroshima.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKTI_fOKCSbfmHULtetAZjgRg10kMcSPvmAHwcUFuz6FMW_XEUai72a0BJlzonl8ZWjZgKdeQRSd_aChuX-oJgmP6AB6-8hrBgBE4go_npmk5wbIRdex22U0BfwC_xj-nM1Fhy9IIdDLo/s1600/hiroshima.png" height="204" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<i>Hiroshima after the Bomb</i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For a while, Gershon is the only Jewish chaplain in
Korea. Finally, a new Jewish chaplain
arrives, Arthur Leiden. Arthur
desperately wants to travel to Japan and especially want to visit the cities of
Kyoto and Hiroshima. After first going
to Hong Kong, where they meet a Muslim lawyer and his daughter, Gershon and
Arthur arrive in Japan. Arthur wishes to
see Kyoto because his mother was instrumental in saving the city and convincing
the army not to drop an atomic bomb on it due to all of its ancient art
treasures. He wants to see Hiroshima due
to guilt that his father helped to build the bomb which killed thousands of
people. At the shrine to the dead of
Hiroshima, Arthur says the Kiddish, the traditional prayers for the dead. Near the end of the novel, Arthur is killed
in an airplane crash attempting to return to Japan.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1Vzv2i9mHMJ173ZvWzp41PrHTYR4BRQaLM5kHmAb8sAHuurnyDzofGWSnemnMxkvqUq4zNimxH_WMScPrcOeUrCumbgI4oGQpIjUBxKvk64vRznG9dy5Y_oMcl3FKfyKBFMAkjhoIZnw/s1600/Toji_Temple_Kyoto_Japan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1Vzv2i9mHMJ173ZvWzp41PrHTYR4BRQaLM5kHmAb8sAHuurnyDzofGWSnemnMxkvqUq4zNimxH_WMScPrcOeUrCumbgI4oGQpIjUBxKvk64vRznG9dy5Y_oMcl3FKfyKBFMAkjhoIZnw/s1600/Toji_Temple_Kyoto_Japan.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i>Kyoto</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
After leaving the army, Gershon returns to the United States
after visiting Arthur’s parents he spends time with Karen who has accepted a
job teaching philosophy at the University of Chicago. Gershon tells Karen that he cannot go with
her and that their marriage will have to wait. Gershon then travels to Israel to continue his
Kabbalah studies with Jacob Keter. At
the end of the novel, Gershon is sitting
in a garden in Jerusalem, waiting. We
can infer that he is waiting on God.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Book of Lights is a very deep and involved novel. This
discussion only scratches the surface of the riches of this book. The atomic bomb is itself a kind of divine light and, like God, the physicists who created it also unleashed evil. Gershon’s first name is a variation of the
name Moses gives to his son which means “stranger.” Gershon’s last name, Loren, is an acronym for
a navigation device. Gershon is a stranger seeking God but he is navigating in the right
direction. Arthur’s last name is also
symbolic. Leiden means suffering in
German. Karen, the student of philosophy
who rejects the life of her rabbi father, is the secular humanist who demands
certainty. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFJJME8R8-KLaxgMaknxHOrh2NjmedJFMKBBZ0sQfNYlZItyK_8pEnjca8r-tyRbmxXkAmlVWvhD601DZ58oHz7sdaEtBXliQDIUvsaiBF5dEILm_RGeuyTCFgNzPkJnL1pRb-mGdJRTU/s1600/Chaim-Potok.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFJJME8R8-KLaxgMaknxHOrh2NjmedJFMKBBZ0sQfNYlZItyK_8pEnjca8r-tyRbmxXkAmlVWvhD601DZ58oHz7sdaEtBXliQDIUvsaiBF5dEILm_RGeuyTCFgNzPkJnL1pRb-mGdJRTU/s1600/Chaim-Potok.jpg" height="320" width="316" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<i>Chaim Potok (1929-2002)</i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Book of Lights is the kind of novel that demands a lot from
the reader. It is well worth it. Shalom.<o:p></o:p></div>
<h1>
Works Cited<o:p></o:p><w:sdtpr></w:sdtpr></h1>
<div class="MsoBibliography" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span><span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'> </span>BIBLIOGRAPHY <span style='mso-element:field-separator'></span><![endif]-->Soll, W. (Spring, 1989). Chaim Potok's Book of
LIghts: Reappropriating Kabbalah in the Nuclear Age. <i>Religion &
Literature</i>, 111-135.<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-no-proof: yes;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBibliography" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
Sternlicht, S. (2000). <i>Chaim Potok: A Critical
Companion.</i> Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<w:sdt docparttype="Bibliographies" docpartunique="t" id="1577326318" sdtdocpart="t">
</w:sdt>
<br />
<div>
<!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<br />
<div id="ftn1">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/Mark/SkyDrive/Documents/The%20Book%20of%20LIghts.docx#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> <w:sdt citation="t" id="1493287325"><!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:
field-begin'></span><span style='mso-spacerun:yes'> </span>CITATION Sol89 \l
1033 <span style='mso-element:field-separator'></span><![endif]-->(Soll, Spring, 1989)<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]--></w:sdt><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn2">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/Mark/SkyDrive/Documents/The%20Book%20of%20LIghts.docx#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> <w:sdt citation="t" id="-1778555140"><!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:
field-begin'></span><span style='mso-spacerun:yes'> </span>CITATION Ste00 \l
1033 <span style='mso-element:field-separator'></span><![endif]-->(Sternlicht, 2000)<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]--></w:sdt><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
Bad Catholichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11987121652866343848noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-760921852022735055.post-62972875244947159642014-04-14T05:04:00.001-07:002014-04-14T05:04:40.662-07:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVNO0XPqPIF_UCAA2KEVkryUYP5tZ3FaB6otCP8-zdijGT65kED_GzEve3Y3pWrtUwWTcA1oUjbnZ6b5g9njK0JzlciC9gBuIm55_5xa8J7x8TFNZfaKJWw9tB5B-OiBoF4xaBADamDsQ/s1600/book+order.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVNO0XPqPIF_UCAA2KEVkryUYP5tZ3FaB6otCP8-zdijGT65kED_GzEve3Y3pWrtUwWTcA1oUjbnZ6b5g9njK0JzlciC9gBuIm55_5xa8J7x8TFNZfaKJWw9tB5B-OiBoF4xaBADamDsQ/s1600/book+order.jpg" height="212" width="320" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
Bad Catholichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11987121652866343848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-760921852022735055.post-85957311451011146272014-01-25T06:14:00.000-08:002014-01-25T06:14:30.961-08:00THE GETAWAY<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyTFsGGoYj7w9RIDw9JvB1-xacjeDLJ1kSBTly8oKmWcUdW-Kcy_CTPfVR9nsh7Qt27SsoiUWagS1X-qyfvR6m3URZwCwNhlk2d-O0gjWlNfTCHgnY1i3L7v6CLE_byOYGl3AZSOoSlhk/s1600/126210.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyTFsGGoYj7w9RIDw9JvB1-xacjeDLJ1kSBTly8oKmWcUdW-Kcy_CTPfVR9nsh7Qt27SsoiUWagS1X-qyfvR6m3URZwCwNhlk2d-O0gjWlNfTCHgnY1i3L7v6CLE_byOYGl3AZSOoSlhk/s1600/126210.jpg" height="320" width="196" /></a></div>
<br />
This is not my first Jim Thompson novel. A number of years ago I read <i>The Killer Inside Me</i>, which, along with Brett Easton Ellis’ <i>American Psycho</i>, ranks with the top ten novels which have tried to get within the mind of a psychopathic serial killer.<br />
<br />
The book presently under consideration is, perhaps, Thompson’s most famous and infamous novel. Famous because of the two Hollywood adaptations of it, and infamous because of the allegorical surrealist ending which has both intrigued and baffled readers for decades. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf-wqNrrKm_cNBlf7sWUzpz6xdpXuv756MLN6iLDbY-mXH6013Kr-o47vmYwkZyGWvwntTGMhZMlJWy3bkJpGT0Now72sTzix6EhfdnvRO3qCntHAUwruylmAyvLpDLfynodg1tBNt3nI/s1600/595329.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf-wqNrrKm_cNBlf7sWUzpz6xdpXuv756MLN6iLDbY-mXH6013Kr-o47vmYwkZyGWvwntTGMhZMlJWy3bkJpGT0Now72sTzix6EhfdnvRO3qCntHAUwruylmAyvLpDLfynodg1tBNt3nI/s1600/595329.jpg" height="320" width="205" /></a></div>
<i><br /></i>
<i>The Getaway</i> (1958) begins as a conventional crime novel about a bank robbery. The robbery happens at the very beginning of the book. The mastermind, Carter “Doc” McCoy, has recently been released from prison after Doc’s wife, Carol, seduced and bribed the parole board chairman. Doc has been holed up in a seedy hotel casing an isolated bank in a rural town. Except for killing a bank guard with a long distance rifle shot, Doc is not doing the dirty work himself. Ace thug Rudy Torrento and his young side kick have been assigned to actually rob the bank. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQyZC8u94KZuJMTKuZf-VVg7qP-Fx1N1VhTpXsQuMbTVeH3x58jgIvEth04_17N4tK2ktVJDykUFQxj4TRUUBg8ivhE1srMmN6qF4wWh_e-DmW46Gn0_4Iz-SWkFsKp2PokkTCZ70okxo/s1600/GetawayThom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQyZC8u94KZuJMTKuZf-VVg7qP-Fx1N1VhTpXsQuMbTVeH3x58jgIvEth04_17N4tK2ktVJDykUFQxj4TRUUBg8ivhE1srMmN6qF4wWh_e-DmW46Gn0_4Iz-SWkFsKp2PokkTCZ70okxo/s1600/GetawayThom.jpg" height="320" width="191" /></a></div>
<br />
Just about everybody in <i>The Getaway</i> is out for themselves. Rudy kills the young side kick, then Doc tries to knock off Rudy to get him out of the way. After Doc plugs Rudy, Carol is waiting to pick him up and haul ass.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyWZMWreQRYXfN6vzvt_OE7ov568IdtMn9bRXzhf_5GJmS0_6-8lgTKoPmrMequxjlsAcluPc9W1ZHLqzFd9qCoqc0FzbrdhMWAk9Z3AywLkm9CAdAt2f5TTTJR_JvB_c4BwyRtMsZ_8g/s1600/Jim+Thompson+-+The+Getaway.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyWZMWreQRYXfN6vzvt_OE7ov568IdtMn9bRXzhf_5GJmS0_6-8lgTKoPmrMequxjlsAcluPc9W1ZHLqzFd9qCoqc0FzbrdhMWAk9Z3AywLkm9CAdAt2f5TTTJR_JvB_c4BwyRtMsZ_8g/s1600/Jim+Thompson+-+The+Getaway.jpg" height="320" width="197" /></a></div>
<br />
Of course, everything goes wrong. Rudy survives being shot by Doc and kidnaps a veterinarian and his wife. The wife goes crazy for Rudy and the milquetoast husband commits suicide. It seems to be a theme in <i>The Getaway</i> that girls love the bad boys. We learn that before meeting Doc, Carol was a homely librarian. Doc swept her off her feet and she eagerly joined Doc in his life of crime, even being disowned by her parents.<br />
<br />
So Doc and Carol haul ass across the country with the loot being pursued by both the police and Rudy Tarrento. As Carol and Doc flee, the body count continues to mount up. In fact, it is alluded to that Doc and Carol have killed more people during their getaway than is directly recounted. Anybody that gets in their way or is an inconvenient witness is ruthlessly eliminated.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9_va8AWZIROiiR33hWumiTabak2Vcvm0iowCpDDaY8BwK6SUCsR3vqa9S_ZLNu7SAA1wLVQma1fPWzE-FhEV8ZEldR4b6-ixCwxN-mS-eOSG5CG_IvtDjjt8Ll-KrChRSzdXyEfppM44/s1600/51mW-I1VdqL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9_va8AWZIROiiR33hWumiTabak2Vcvm0iowCpDDaY8BwK6SUCsR3vqa9S_ZLNu7SAA1wLVQma1fPWzE-FhEV8ZEldR4b6-ixCwxN-mS-eOSG5CG_IvtDjjt8Ll-KrChRSzdXyEfppM44/s1600/51mW-I1VdqL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg" height="320" width="211" /></a></div>
<br />
Finally Rudy and his new girlfriend catch up to Doc and Carol in a Southern California Motel. Doc kills both of them and he and Carol must again run like hell.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u>DON’T GO TO EL REY!</u></b></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOKzeLl7eQyv2eP1-nNqtut-jZBktKbMXAwsT4evBiUMazxM0CJGaJSMDqg-pcj1LV9iJtVamuTbBEQ0sf9oq6LTGI-5JD555fuVF0BgmN48h53fx2Aatme27IseMHzuFYtISqGW_ZSqo/s1600/26-06-07.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOKzeLl7eQyv2eP1-nNqtut-jZBktKbMXAwsT4evBiUMazxM0CJGaJSMDqg-pcj1LV9iJtVamuTbBEQ0sf9oq6LTGI-5JD555fuVF0BgmN48h53fx2Aatme27IseMHzuFYtISqGW_ZSqo/s1600/26-06-07.gif" height="320" width="226" /></a></div>
<br />
Here’s where things start getting weird. A lot of crime fiction aficionados don’t like the surrealist ending of <i>The Getaway</i>. I think that the ending is what makes this novel special. After all there’s a reason that a book published as a throw away pulp fiction paperback in the late 1950s is still in print and we are still reading it and talking about it.<br />
<br />
Doc and Carol are headed for sanctuary in the Kingdom of El Rey which is described as a hideaway for fugitives in Mexico. El Rey, which means “The King” in Spanish, has lavish first class accommodations. In fact, residents are required to pay for first class accommodations, because they wanted everything first class in their previous lives. However, when your money runs out, you are banished to an outlying village. There is no food from the outside allowed in the village. The residents exiled from El Rey survive by cannibalizing each other. Therefore, couples who seek refuge in El Rey usually wind up murdering the other partner to conserve cash. That is, the ones who don’t commit suicide out of despair. So, in the midst of first class villas by the sea and unlimited gourmet food and drink, everyone in El Rey is miserably awaiting their ultimate demise.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
Obviously, all of this is not to be taken literally. Because it is a radical departure from the realism of the rest of the book, a lot of readers over years have despised the ending. I think that the allegory really begins before the fleeing couple get to El Rey. After killing Rudy and his girlfriend, Doc and Carol flee in a stolen taxi. Facing certain capture, they are rescued by crime family matriarch Ma Santis. Ma Santis hides the couple out first in underwater caves where the space is no bigger than a coffin and then in a lean-to hidden in a manure pile. <br />
<br />
This entire episode is heavy with symbolism. Doc and Carol have to strip naked and dive into a water filled pit to get to the cave hideaway. The rooms in the caves are just big enough to lie down in and Doc and Carol are separated by a wall of rock. Obviously, this represents death and the grave.<br />
<br />
Then after coming up from the pit, Doc and Carol hide out in a lean two hidden inside a pile of cow manure. During the day, they are faced with swarms of flies and worms. It’s not difficult to figure out that this represents that, although still technically alive, Doc and Carol are decaying corpses.<br />
<br />
Then Ma Santis arranges for Carol and Doc to be taken to Mexico by a Portuguese fishing boat Captain. The body count again mounts up when they have to kill the crew of a Coast Guard Patrol Boat. I think that the boat ride represents the ferrying of the dead across the River Stix to the underworld in Greek mythology.<br />
<br />
El Rey is the Devil and his Kingdom is Hell. For a novel that is a fast paced conventional crime novel until 2/3 of the way through, all of this symbolism and allegory has been tough for a lot of readers to take. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPe2lMnen_PYpzucvoJSVkaMgFA1kReFsASQDE3jy3ALn_zOHqTzTOpJooKYzhCzxEXSe351bDdgAGkiRXoQPeBmgBn6Th0t7yJL23HDkbfvjwvjChgQNmsq9LJhCV9vYVImTAoj8K7AA/s1600/the-getaway-1972.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPe2lMnen_PYpzucvoJSVkaMgFA1kReFsASQDE3jy3ALn_zOHqTzTOpJooKYzhCzxEXSe351bDdgAGkiRXoQPeBmgBn6Th0t7yJL23HDkbfvjwvjChgQNmsq9LJhCV9vYVImTAoj8K7AA/s1600/the-getaway-1972.jpg" height="320" width="224" /></a></div>
<br />
Steve McQueen fired Thompson from writing the screenplay for his movie version of <i>The Getaway</i>, and totally jettisoned the El Rey ending. In McQueen’s movie version, Doc and Carol apparently escape into Mexico to live happily ever after. But “happy ever after” is a really boring ending isn’t it? And don’t Doc and Carol deserve to go to hell after the blood trail that they’ve left behind them? If Thompson had written an ending where Doc and Carol were captured and went to the Gas Chamber together, there would be the possibility of redemption through suffering. As it is, they get away to the place where they deserve to be and there is no possibility of redemption. <br />
<br />
Interestingly, at one point in the novel, Doc and Carol hide out a with a group of migrant farm workers. Here among the poorest of the poor, Doc is happy. The novel indicates that Doc would have been content to stay with them forever. The irony is that Doc is happiest when he is with poor people who have nothing. When he reaches El Rey and has every material comfort, he is the most miserable. Be careful what you want, you might get it.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEmogos0apHp1zleT1dBq4afbRQcQ1EpMaxuv-Am0N44EHe8rk4HZmraOntl45Hsi_BC1adjx9C3JzCkfa2116R0MR-I3Lv72rfZo7DXlFDD627LGZE5okn4B1x-E9QV1FtvHQgA7nRCw/s1600/MV5BMTUzNjI5NTUwOV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwMDAyMDQyMQ@@._V1_SY475_SX292_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEmogos0apHp1zleT1dBq4afbRQcQ1EpMaxuv-Am0N44EHe8rk4HZmraOntl45Hsi_BC1adjx9C3JzCkfa2116R0MR-I3Lv72rfZo7DXlFDD627LGZE5okn4B1x-E9QV1FtvHQgA7nRCw/s1600/MV5BMTUzNjI5NTUwOV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwMDAyMDQyMQ@@._V1_SY475_SX292_.jpg" height="320" width="196" /></a></div>
<br />
The Quentin Tarantino - Robert Rodriguez movie <i>From Dusk Til Dawn</i> follows the pattern of <i>The Getaway</i>. It begins as a conventional crime story involving the Gecko brothers, George Clooney and Quentin Tarantino, fleeing from a robbery. Just like in <i>The Getaway</i>, they’re headed for El Rey. Half way through the movie, it becomes a horror film when the brothers stop off at a Mexican strip club run by vampires. On the commentary track, Tarantino talks a lot about the Kingdom of El Rey. Tarantino is a big fan of Jim Thompson and <i>The Getaway</i>.<br />
<br />
So if there’s one thing to take away from <i>The Getaway</i>, it’s “Don’t Go To El Rey!”<br />
<br />
<br />
.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN1zLUuqcMjXNKF_hMps7cZ_xRl8al5WYCezIfQQI_dUwkvgER5OAsPBZlqhqzLRI0LK4h54zO3_OFc4hzbn4tzU9Wt0WHXomtVRPZb16zmwyp__VCFrQeFxzrdB7Zfr51bxvZ_9KYW00/s1600/Jim_Thompson.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN1zLUuqcMjXNKF_hMps7cZ_xRl8al5WYCezIfQQI_dUwkvgER5OAsPBZlqhqzLRI0LK4h54zO3_OFc4hzbn4tzU9Wt0WHXomtVRPZb16zmwyp__VCFrQeFxzrdB7Zfr51bxvZ_9KYW00/s1600/Jim_Thompson.jpg" height="216" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Jim Thompson (1906 - 1977)</i></div>
<br /></div>
Bad Catholichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11987121652866343848noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-760921852022735055.post-64895961833620077372013-12-29T15:13:00.000-08:002013-12-29T15:13:42.703-08:00Sofia Petrovna<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilEwIIMqi1QYk7IY1b85NfOFEN5xO7BkrbwQJIWsyDpD0EEPlTKkwx1bXrx72pXyUcBK8r0RgMkfvnFo7QCR0fpkC-_tG9mTWcaZN0rjSSnjsxeKHulqCHXVZlzlW9iJlxi-hHHY4_d-s/s1600/sofia+petrovna.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilEwIIMqi1QYk7IY1b85NfOFEN5xO7BkrbwQJIWsyDpD0EEPlTKkwx1bXrx72pXyUcBK8r0RgMkfvnFo7QCR0fpkC-_tG9mTWcaZN0rjSSnjsxeKHulqCHXVZlzlW9iJlxi-hHHY4_d-s/s1600/sofia+petrovna.JPG" /></a></div>
<br />
Lydia Chukovskaya (1907 - 1996) was of Jewish origin and was the daughter of a beloved writer of children’s books in Russia. Lydia married Matvei Bronstein, a promising young physicist. In the late 1930s, Bronstein was arrested as a part of Stalin’s purges, and was put to death as an enemy of the Communist Party. The government refused to give Lydia any information about her husband, and for a number of years, she did not know that her husband had been executed.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0eWnizDJjB1F2__tkasHVhY368VoeuOuJulsAv4WNct2mi6jdW7O0_liQuuU9PmE6dKkQE749sdQt7vr4Z5dMCVhZ-JAUjnN4_FF0s0lh2jBZ_nQQHWkEwgEShMsyZ0TX8srjQpn1R8k/s1600/chukovskaya.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0eWnizDJjB1F2__tkasHVhY368VoeuOuJulsAv4WNct2mi6jdW7O0_liQuuU9PmE6dKkQE749sdQt7vr4Z5dMCVhZ-JAUjnN4_FF0s0lh2jBZ_nQQHWkEwgEShMsyZ0TX8srjQpn1R8k/s320/chukovskaya.jpeg" width="203" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Lydia Chukovskaya as a young woman.</i></div>
<br />
Between 1939 and 1940, Chukovskaya wrote her most famous work, the novella <i>Sofia Petrovna</i>. Sofia Petrovna is the widow of a medical doctor. After the Communist Revolution, her apartment is confiscated by the government and divided up among several families. Sofia and her son, Kolya, live in a single room of their former house in Leningrad.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7oSrwzUi8ruB-H2bvz5TEIYn2bSXg-wPU3JKfMA5Fg0cvcKb8jXONhCmWsZOJmfUfcOakf4d3eaeEEpLcO6Rk_zx2CIRzSSYvXDGul2K6Ja-rg8-iMafizn9k72bKyIDCsHRkVMfYhMg/s1600/Matvey_Bronshtein.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7oSrwzUi8ruB-H2bvz5TEIYn2bSXg-wPU3JKfMA5Fg0cvcKb8jXONhCmWsZOJmfUfcOakf4d3eaeEEpLcO6Rk_zx2CIRzSSYvXDGul2K6Ja-rg8-iMafizn9k72bKyIDCsHRkVMfYhMg/s320/Matvey_Bronshtein.jpg" width="197" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<i>Lydia's husband, Matvei Bronstein, who was executed by the Stalinist Regime</i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<i><br /></i></div>
While her son studies to be an engineer, Sofia takes a job as a typist in a government publishing house. Life is more or less good for Sofia and her son. Sofia performs well in her job and is promoted to supervisor. Kolya does well at his studies and shows great promise as an engineer.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCIXmnMtnIONWP3xgO2cvE3PLKjoGTEnUJtue9GLtvGDXkn3re7iy0qeEscjhvTtvax89YOSwASq9zziyh0W5QBasFgFldzj1tIhfCLB3wEbBnv3yinENCU_NDfCclQhjS1Hs8Ty-eQjw/s1600/lydia+and+child+circa+1943.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCIXmnMtnIONWP3xgO2cvE3PLKjoGTEnUJtue9GLtvGDXkn3re7iy0qeEscjhvTtvax89YOSwASq9zziyh0W5QBasFgFldzj1tIhfCLB3wEbBnv3yinENCU_NDfCclQhjS1Hs8Ty-eQjw/s320/lydia+and+child+circa+1943.jpg" width="223" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Lydia Chukovskaya and her daughter in the 1940s.</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><br /></i></div>
However, conditions rapidly change when many formerly prominent people begin to be arrested as traitors and saboteurs. First, Sofia meets the distraught wife her husband’s former medical colleague who has been arrested. Next, the director of the publishing house is arrested and denounced. The relatives of those arrested and exiled to “remote camps” in Siberia are themselves sent into exile or worse. Finally, Sofia’s beloved Kolya is arrested.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFgIEbx0yXjFrlHx0UaGDP2_YkrJQ-DobTQLZm5MWm7Q4MvCoBm3nt4RCDCdA-xwS7JThOasBqBJ6sNfKqOVLDXDMShGP5NVdH4J5sTpgHwTV-k33zNySnYMu-BuZLdHk5WOrbVlCUXOU/s1600/lydia+in+the+mid+1960s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFgIEbx0yXjFrlHx0UaGDP2_YkrJQ-DobTQLZm5MWm7Q4MvCoBm3nt4RCDCdA-xwS7JThOasBqBJ6sNfKqOVLDXDMShGP5NVdH4J5sTpgHwTV-k33zNySnYMu-BuZLdHk5WOrbVlCUXOU/s320/lydia+in+the+mid+1960s.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Lydia Chukovskaya, the Soviet Dissident, in the mid 1960s</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><br /></i></div>
Now Sofia enters a nightmare world of standing in line at the prison and the prosecutor’s office in an attempt to get any information. Finally, she is told that her son has been sentenced to 10 years in a Siberian labor camp. She is told that he has “confessed.” Sofia’s best friend, Natasha, and Kolya’s girlfriend is fired from her job because she made a typographical error in typing “Rat Army” instead of “Red Army,” and because she is suspect because her father was an officer of the Tzar. Natalia eventually commits suicide. Kolya's best friend Alik is also arrested. Sofia slides into madness. When she finally receives a letter smuggled by Kolya out of the labor camp which says that he cannot make it very much longer, Sofia burns the letter and sinks totally into her fantasies.<br />
<br />
The picture of Soviet life under Stalin is fascinating. Religion has been banned, so Soviet citizens put up “New Year’s Trees” which are topped by a Red Star. The Christ child has been replaced by pictures of “the Child Lenin.” Children are given candy with a card which says “Thank You Comrade Stalin for giving us a Happy Childhood.”<br />
<br />
The story of how Chukovskaya’s manuscript survived is just as interesting as the novella. After her husband’s arrest and execution, Lydia fled her home in Leningrad. The manuscript was hidden in a friend's house. The friend died of starvation during the German seige of Leningrad but the manuscript was discovered and was finally returned to Chuskovskaya after the war. During the political thaw introduced by Kruschev in the early sixties, <i>Sofia Petrovna</i> was prepared for publication. However, it was decided that enough anti-Stalin literature had been published and publication was tabled. A manuscript of the novel was smuggled out of the Soviet Union and was published by a French publisher without Chuskovskaya permission under the title<i> “The Deserted House.” </i><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjKBK3gWsDn-4y_hJX-tn0TJ2gDrTty28xoeqiiVUHCn73NSvL2tXMH-vAcEC3XaXXoPzoCQkIyuZWGAMPHld4Ybkak7UEHllN6i0TbgN6dkMfxVXOmtUYF60_4aNp7-xcZ9_a1kKeWG0/s1600/deserted+house.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjKBK3gWsDn-4y_hJX-tn0TJ2gDrTty28xoeqiiVUHCn73NSvL2tXMH-vAcEC3XaXXoPzoCQkIyuZWGAMPHld4Ybkak7UEHllN6i0TbgN6dkMfxVXOmtUYF60_4aNp7-xcZ9_a1kKeWG0/s1600/deserted+house.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
<i>Sofia Petrovna</i> is a very good novel which deserves a wide readership and is a warning why we must be ever vigilant against tyranny. <br />
<br /></div>
Bad Catholichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11987121652866343848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-760921852022735055.post-19069402911567410672013-11-20T03:09:00.000-08:002013-12-08T20:13:21.045-08:00The Confederate General Rides North<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3tW09m4nf7nfDipzSdUE1CRbqZUF_nkJXje03EXJfMNeQde4jtvjDYhH6gve46eWp65y7wriRTOuXcKjjsRrLBYTCzXb8ehZdwF5zrz0At2G3TvvATD3qAKBD_JflCrw7JSTV__fzuUQ/s1600/confederate+general+book+cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3tW09m4nf7nfDipzSdUE1CRbqZUF_nkJXje03EXJfMNeQde4jtvjDYhH6gve46eWp65y7wriRTOuXcKjjsRrLBYTCzXb8ehZdwF5zrz0At2G3TvvATD3qAKBD_JflCrw7JSTV__fzuUQ/s1600/confederate+general+book+cover.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
When I first read a review of Atlanta author Amanda C. Gable’s 2009 novel <i>The Confederate General Rides North</i>, I immediately knew that I would have to go to Amazon and order a copy. I’m glad that I did. Ms. Gable has written an outstanding work of literature.<br />
<br />
The “Confederate General” referenced by the title is eleven year old Katherine McConnell, an only child from Marietta, Georgia who spends most of her free time studying Civil War history and fantasizing about putting herself into her history books as a Confederate General. The novel is set in the late 1960s. Ms. Gable has done a masterful job of evoking the time and place of the South in the late sixties. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbk22BU-5JxRYRtYM5JkUmR9P4CfwZMFedOmNniMjMSHMuZTDXi-gdSB1n8_nbkUSR9qbmvMTxb6tVNthSF4uH3cvgktyRm1nJrhJ6ZR5spXjnp4vRxTXMKnd8DDGlJuWd2pU15DZQkOY/s1600/confederate+general+amanda+c.+gable.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbk22BU-5JxRYRtYM5JkUmR9P4CfwZMFedOmNniMjMSHMuZTDXi-gdSB1n8_nbkUSR9qbmvMTxb6tVNthSF4uH3cvgktyRm1nJrhJ6ZR5spXjnp4vRxTXMKnd8DDGlJuWd2pU15DZQkOY/s1600/confederate+general+amanda+c.+gable.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<i>Georgia Author Amanda C. Gable</i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<i><br /></i></div>
Kat’s beautiful but erratic mother, Margaret, packs up one day, throws Kat in the car, and heads north to where she is from in Maine. Katherine fantasizes that the trip is a Civil War campaign and that she is a Confederate General leading troops north. Gable has brilliantly woven the real history of the Civil War together with the story of Katherine and her mother. Through a series of flashbacks, Gable has also done a great job of slowly revealing the dark secret which haunts Katherine’s mother. To begin with, Katherine does not understand that her mother is seriously emotionally disturbed. As they travel from one Civil War battlefield to the other re-living the campaigns of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, Margaret’s mental illness reveals itself in more pronounced ways as the campaign continues, finally reaching its high water mark at Gettysburg. Gable’s portrait of Katherine’s mother, Margaret, is simply brilliant. This has to be the best portrait of a person suffering from bipolar disorder which I have ever read. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5EaIoEPf4bMNWa37NSvuqzX4QCixD9FP1LhNFoUo4R0nP_4XNvM0r1McUMz97YM25ZBebBFhzFahVU8PBsC9zLvgZFDSHHb6rBo9Pz89bseh1KEQrGGzTbiv7oxcV75SqQHwF196N0BU/s1600/civil+war+souvenir+hat+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5EaIoEPf4bMNWa37NSvuqzX4QCixD9FP1LhNFoUo4R0nP_4XNvM0r1McUMz97YM25ZBebBFhzFahVU8PBsC9zLvgZFDSHHb6rBo9Pz89bseh1KEQrGGzTbiv7oxcV75SqQHwF196N0BU/s1600/civil+war+souvenir+hat+2.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
I cannot say enough good things about this novel. It is a fun read, but it is also serious literature. As other reviewers with similar experiences have said, the young Civil War buff from Marietta, Georgia also resonates with my personal experience. I’m about ten years younger than Katherine McConnell, but my experience growing up in Norcross, Georgia, also a suburb of Atlanta, is very similar to that of young Katherine. Growing up, I visited the Kennesaw Mountain battlefield and the Atlanta Cyclorama. I saw <i>Gone With the Wind</i> for the first time at the Fox Theater in down town Atlanta. Like Katherine, I grew up hearing stories about my Civil War ancestors. Like the 1960's Atlanta described by Ms. Gable, the Atlanta of the 1970s that I grew up in was saturated with Civil War history. I grew up feeling like Sherman had burned Atlanta just the year before. I had a copy of the <i>American Heritage History of the Civil War</i> by Bruce Catton and poured over the pictures and practically memorized it. And I remember souvenir Rebel and Yankee hats at every gift shop at a tourist destination (I had one of each.)<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMX0c_zTHg-GFBqdEXVVL7VXjsw5Gk64RygfYxLPvSR-T52z9E8G-AzO-XuLH6HMzr7zI_1vzekF5jE_d8BT_m8fISLqAzQ_r3c70COjjBANK42z-amFDFUpcRQbpN4LqAvCPQ-YO7TEk/s1600/civil+war+souvenir+hat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="281" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMX0c_zTHg-GFBqdEXVVL7VXjsw5Gk64RygfYxLPvSR-T52z9E8G-AzO-XuLH6HMzr7zI_1vzekF5jE_d8BT_m8fISLqAzQ_r3c70COjjBANK42z-amFDFUpcRQbpN4LqAvCPQ-YO7TEk/s320/civil+war+souvenir+hat.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
If you haven’t read <i>The Confederate General Rides North</i>, don’t wait, go to <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Confederate-General-Rides-North-Novel/dp/1416598391/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1384944970&sr=1-1&keywords=the+confederate+general+rides+north">Amazon</a> right now and get a copy. You’ll be glad you did. <br />
<br />
PAX ET BONUM.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
</div>
Bad Catholichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11987121652866343848noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-760921852022735055.post-79169791036845764472013-11-10T17:06:00.000-08:002013-11-10T17:06:13.390-08:00Irving Wallace's THE PRIZE<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIntDNs4Y-pLdbo1SmZXr7YC-WaRYGXcU8EYQUAIfe80YnjZ5O3IBxPN3dOix9ELFML8zxEWzIyM-slJdaxORJ0RkjbRR7iENzC9eOa3NGm-nKlykivMGLGKJEbGWTzDP3PCWqVvcAYqM/s1600/6645_original_1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIntDNs4Y-pLdbo1SmZXr7YC-WaRYGXcU8EYQUAIfe80YnjZ5O3IBxPN3dOix9ELFML8zxEWzIyM-slJdaxORJ0RkjbRR7iENzC9eOa3NGm-nKlykivMGLGKJEbGWTzDP3PCWqVvcAYqM/s320/6645_original_1.jpeg" width="190" /></a></div>
<i><br /></i>
<i>The Prize</i> (1962) is prolific author Irving Wallace’s magnum opus on the Nobel Prizes. Reading a novel by Irving Wallace is like eating potato chips, you know that it's junk but it tastes good and you just can’t quit.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm7yT7WxPFwBRB3BWx-zE6oHIyuF1rSYsrrpTUFRrIZUnjxCkaRvWVwrneqxwmrAQOk60kJtPPyag2pqT2cHblWb506udqMhy79xtY_SZ2Aw0rubRnWQhNS6SIpvKhv2eUoH2lVhNGWtI/s1600/148300884_amazoncom-the-prize-irving-wallace-books.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm7yT7WxPFwBRB3BWx-zE6oHIyuF1rSYsrrpTUFRrIZUnjxCkaRvWVwrneqxwmrAQOk60kJtPPyag2pqT2cHblWb506udqMhy79xtY_SZ2Aw0rubRnWQhNS6SIpvKhv2eUoH2lVhNGWtI/s1600/148300884_amazoncom-the-prize-irving-wallace-books.jpg" /></a></div>
Despite the painless lesson on the history and process of awarding the Nobel Prizes, like every other book Irving Wallace ever wrote, <i>The Prize</i> is a giant soap opera. <i>The Prize</i> tracks the story of a group of Nobel laureates as they are notified of their prizes and travel to the award ceremony in Stockholm. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlXHC6-GgQU3vXK1jY0uF32tA23ynxzhzfwJBdy-RdXn0VtjSVzoSLvoR7-vnNAt_BWy1IGQvQ7e_z23eNj21fJGbE139Z_t6Knmce7pYDWgc6KkXo-LvFX-Ay5KjQoBekczXiwsKilvM/s1600/478146.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlXHC6-GgQU3vXK1jY0uF32tA23ynxzhzfwJBdy-RdXn0VtjSVzoSLvoR7-vnNAt_BWy1IGQvQ7e_z23eNj21fJGbE139Z_t6Knmce7pYDWgc6KkXo-LvFX-Ay5KjQoBekczXiwsKilvM/s320/478146.jpg" width="185" /></a></div>
<br />
The book centers on Andrew Craig, the winner of the Nobel Prize for literature. Craig’s wife died in a car wreck a few years before. Craig blames himself for her death and has sunk into alcoholism. There are plots and subplots and subplots of subplots. And there are lots of characters, some of which serve no particular useful purpose other than to allow the main characters to respond to them. Since this is an Irving Wallace novel, there is, of course, <b>SEX</b>. Lots of <b>SEX</b>. This was some pretty racy stuff for 1962. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9cE3s491aD2Tq5y8L3aO2gtAlx38J3WnMKp6TIjmmLLl_BokDNyOG4KK4pLJe1QerJVFW168WH47u4rxCmIyrrLcf-YKetS89faBSawOr2IkphHNdD5fOa1Cu5ifqXgPwwMvaAP8pOFo/s1600/SDR-THE-PRIZE-IRVING-WALLACE__823560_0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9cE3s491aD2Tq5y8L3aO2gtAlx38J3WnMKp6TIjmmLLl_BokDNyOG4KK4pLJe1QerJVFW168WH47u4rxCmIyrrLcf-YKetS89faBSawOr2IkphHNdD5fOa1Cu5ifqXgPwwMvaAP8pOFo/s320/SDR-THE-PRIZE-IRVING-WALLACE__823560_0.jpg" width="206" /></a></div>
<br />
Claude Marceau, part of a French husband and wife team which has won the Prize for chemistry, is having an affair with an attractive fashion model. His wife begins an affair with a man that she does not really have any feelings for in order to make her husband jealous and win him back. Andrew Craig apparently never saw a woman he didn’t try to sleep with - except for his homely Sister In Law that wants to marry him, but whom Craig finds repulsive. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-rUk3mNoyw9ZzE0Uke0Kj0Cu2crsg25GmFNeaLq4QLuyIr8jdkV0O0qAJyyNKeOdBkGQHvEh3QF2TpE9WE-ABtT7vJqJPIqEGPP82xDtEFnBkwS3K15RLT6DaO3WQT4WU2lgygVo9iEk/s1600/5292486179_dff56f0828_z.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-rUk3mNoyw9ZzE0Uke0Kj0Cu2crsg25GmFNeaLq4QLuyIr8jdkV0O0qAJyyNKeOdBkGQHvEh3QF2TpE9WE-ABtT7vJqJPIqEGPP82xDtEFnBkwS3K15RLT6DaO3WQT4WU2lgygVo9iEk/s320/5292486179_dff56f0828_z.jpg" width="184" /></a></div>
<br />
In many respects, The Prize was a conventional spy novel. The Physics Laureate, Max Stratman, is wanted by the Soviets. An elaborate plot is developed to convince Stratman to defect. This plot involves Stratman’s niece, Emily, who was sexually abused by the Nazis in the Ravensbruck concentration camp during World War II, and her father who everyone thought was dead. Of course, Craig has the hots for Emily and pursues her. Poor Emily is depicted as trying and failing to get over her emotional problems with sex. However, Wallace’s alter ego Andrew Craig is there to help her. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQJtgr688rdAukecNX4k15ys6t_teeGPIIuV9Ax7P1o_doCyfHxA-PSDE3t6sGO-83qszZXk5i0sPIRVpbe8a5tBpV8lqQ3uxmr9HXEzpHKqoctrEHFmCm-tgrhma-FHcBommD9o6sUu0/s1600/n112930.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQJtgr688rdAukecNX4k15ys6t_teeGPIIuV9Ax7P1o_doCyfHxA-PSDE3t6sGO-83qszZXk5i0sPIRVpbe8a5tBpV8lqQ3uxmr9HXEzpHKqoctrEHFmCm-tgrhma-FHcBommD9o6sUu0/s320/n112930.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
<br />
Like most Wallace novels, The Prize is an entertaining old pot boiler. If you tackle it, be forewarned, at 600 pages it’s about 200 pages too long. But all, in all, old Irving’s pot boilers still hold up pretty well.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0GnQHhFnViS0vwk6Rq5s-M_vgq05WXhdxgtZ5mnX9ewpr0kd7nl6Rv3Zje-B3eroBPbVBGOodxV0_ZxqIeIjAHq4BlUDtZmGhjB_p7mLrcm16-gtrobSDstwXjC53PvxCtlXmG4GXP1k/s1600/The+Prize.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0GnQHhFnViS0vwk6Rq5s-M_vgq05WXhdxgtZ5mnX9ewpr0kd7nl6Rv3Zje-B3eroBPbVBGOodxV0_ZxqIeIjAHq4BlUDtZmGhjB_p7mLrcm16-gtrobSDstwXjC53PvxCtlXmG4GXP1k/s320/The+Prize.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>The prolific Irving Wallace at work (1916 - 1990) </i></div>
</div>
Bad Catholichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11987121652866343848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-760921852022735055.post-43858408033971709892013-09-21T12:30:00.000-07:002013-09-21T12:34:07.103-07:00JONAH'S GOURD VINE<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1DJioo04jFvNa0_DlFEpQWOOry01V28nhIPf2Gi6oDFLYygfZPjzWM-9U06aLNnrJGA-9qMt_qEJueGMTT3mia2qCsCzYj6Iw3DoYmoqEkHxF78sPT3gpIrJ0nmNikbyupNpZou15DR4/s1600/38066.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1DJioo04jFvNa0_DlFEpQWOOry01V28nhIPf2Gi6oDFLYygfZPjzWM-9U06aLNnrJGA-9qMt_qEJueGMTT3mia2qCsCzYj6Iw3DoYmoqEkHxF78sPT3gpIrJ0nmNikbyupNpZou15DR4/s320/38066.jpg" width="210" /></a></div>
<br />
Zora Neale Hurston’s first published novel, <i>Jonah’s Gourd Vine</i> (1934), was loosely based upon Hurston’s parents. The main character, John Pearson, is the bi-racial son of a poor woman married to a brutal sharecropper in rural Alabama just after the end of the Civil War. The first half of the novel is taken up with his struggle to make his way in the world. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXx5j0S23fIpXtFEkmoHnhyY7yiRVOOoWxCcd4KjVsACQm8hY-_DK4BAWnS0JApXYX-qqupPLrd2m5D08LI8BV49mJhO42IQB2IxW2Q3mgEqo-WJdppQqGxGxuGQxDd4YtnVHprSjKaFk/s1600/15121.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXx5j0S23fIpXtFEkmoHnhyY7yiRVOOoWxCcd4KjVsACQm8hY-_DK4BAWnS0JApXYX-qqupPLrd2m5D08LI8BV49mJhO42IQB2IxW2Q3mgEqo-WJdppQqGxGxuGQxDd4YtnVHprSjKaFk/s320/15121.jpg" width="230" /></a></div>
<br />
While working for his mother’s former master, Judge Alf Pearson (who is probably John’s father but the novel never says so), John gets an education and learns to read. John falls in love with Lucy Potts, the daughter of a well to do black family. Lucy’s mother strongly disapproves of John and refuses to attend John and Lucy’s wedding. After injuring Lucy’s brother in a fight, John is forced to flee Alabama. John re-locates to Eatonville, Florida, an all black town north of Orlando. Finally able to be re-united with his wife and children, John become a prominent preacher and a prosperous carpenter.<br />
<br />
<i>Jonah’s Gourd Vine</i> refers to the biblical story of the prophet Jonah and the gourd vine. (Jonah 4:6-10). In the Bible story, the Prophet Jonah sleeps under a gourd vine which grows in a day and shelters him from the sun. A worm comes along and eats the gourd vine, leaving Jonah exposed. Most critics view John Pearson’s marriage to Lucy and his prosperous career as a minister as being the comforting gourd vine. Pearson’s sins, especially his affairs with other women, are the worm which destroys the fragile sanctuary of his marriage and career.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhURLTbSJgpAgoR35gHznLBXSNfmfg13q_J8TO_qa5SlRnJyYnPj3IE3_LOFM2SYRk-m95eHSq6rFghBKwSEx5ThLgYW2KZIOd7udJvssn5b0XB-G5FUkS1iFvzrjRdSxUQTuMZ1hEwnXY/s1600/JonahandThe_Gourd_1193-154.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="224" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhURLTbSJgpAgoR35gHznLBXSNfmfg13q_J8TO_qa5SlRnJyYnPj3IE3_LOFM2SYRk-m95eHSq6rFghBKwSEx5ThLgYW2KZIOd7udJvssn5b0XB-G5FUkS1iFvzrjRdSxUQTuMZ1hEwnXY/s320/JonahandThe_Gourd_1193-154.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>The Prophet Jonah asleep under the Gourd vine.</i></div>
<br />
Just like John Pearson, Hurston’s father had remarried soon after the death of her mother. Hurston’s step mother was a cruel women who forced Hurston and her sister from the home. Lucy Potts, the character modeled on Hurston’s real life mother Lucy, is presented as a tragic figure who stayed loyal to her husband through all of his adulterous affairs and abusive behavior. On her death bed, Lucy says that she has been to sorrow’s kitchen and licked out all the pots. In the novel, John’s gold digging second wife, Hattie, brings him nothing but trouble and causes John to loose his position as a pastor. (Hattie goes to the local hoodoo “root doctor” to be able to cast a spell on John to make him love her and stay with her).<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjJiOvWVtA1qiq4Svu2nA8nowVJHvh7aSgEIJa7f7jzZo-MttBRjPpfEn2vwZUzut2fd05HErm9h_LYt3GdmV7Ofh94pafs1-emfeg5w8XMQxFhVZaNS2nX1NCJd932RmDecqOPEdelBs/s1600/jonahs_gourd_vine_pb_c_new.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjJiOvWVtA1qiq4Svu2nA8nowVJHvh7aSgEIJa7f7jzZo-MttBRjPpfEn2vwZUzut2fd05HErm9h_LYt3GdmV7Ofh94pafs1-emfeg5w8XMQxFhVZaNS2nX1NCJd932RmDecqOPEdelBs/s320/jonahs_gourd_vine_pb_c_new.jpg" width="209" /></a></div>
<br />
Although John tries to reform and is given another chance at a happy and prosperous life with his third wife, Sally, in the end his sinful and weak nature win out and lead to his death. <i>Jonah’s Gourd Vine</i> is a great work of American literature.<br />
<br />
Zora Neale Hurston (1891 - 1960) was one of the black artists who formed the so-called “Harlem Renaissance” and was a novelist, playwright and anthropologist. Dying in poverty and anonymity in 1960, Hurston's work was re-discovered by students of literature and black feminist artists like Alice Walker, who found Hurston’s unmarked grave and put a marker on it proclaiming Hurston “A Genius of the South.” <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk5L9Bt20b_a9zIVQ_OLwyLYfYSciB4e6XDU3T0vb_SaBn95qdkYBzSBPNCVgK_yOue110sB_4NhWb7T6g8pgNGm3Uur1K1VIF2Rv60-Hj9c6dSIldpbZdmdl8g0orDbxDTep5eie5Il4/s1600/Zora+Neale+Hurston.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk5L9Bt20b_a9zIVQ_OLwyLYfYSciB4e6XDU3T0vb_SaBn95qdkYBzSBPNCVgK_yOue110sB_4NhWb7T6g8pgNGm3Uur1K1VIF2Rv60-Hj9c6dSIldpbZdmdl8g0orDbxDTep5eie5Il4/s320/Zora+Neale+Hurston.jpg" width="197" /></a></div>
<br />
I read <i>Jonah’s Gourd Vine</i> in the Library of America edition of Hurston’s novels and selected short stories. Highly recommended. There is definitely more Zora Neale Hurston to come on <i>The Eclectic Reader</i>. <br />
<i><b><br /></b></i>
<i><b>Pax Et Bonum</b></i>.</div>
Bad Catholichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11987121652866343848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-760921852022735055.post-60474323983778378132013-09-20T18:02:00.000-07:002013-09-20T18:02:05.230-07:00Black Mischief<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKXsDgHwn3xIGgGc3hjreZpfUcAOCI2qrSl71LjJEdD5oGIPIKh6dWUAOzk2OxkWjoCP92JTGmPxEKK16TH3njob2xLWSBYPQxUXTdi9cECXtB6dXIocHWbftHpBRoNAOepC0svVbc1tU/s1600/black-mischief.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKXsDgHwn3xIGgGc3hjreZpfUcAOCI2qrSl71LjJEdD5oGIPIKh6dWUAOzk2OxkWjoCP92JTGmPxEKK16TH3njob2xLWSBYPQxUXTdi9cECXtB6dXIocHWbftHpBRoNAOepC0svVbc1tU/s320/black-mischief.jpg" width="206" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Something zany is going on in the East African Kingdom of Azania in the early 1930s. Seth, the new Oxford educated emperor, wants to modernize the country. This means that the army must wear boots instead of going barefoot, the cannibalistic natives must stop eating human flesh, they must have an economy based upon worthless paper money just like the Europeans, and they must have lots of birth control. In support of this mission Emperor Seth brings in his old chum from Oxford, Basil Seal, to run the Ministry of Modernization.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3XMBU4-k40Zkr2pKC3hNVJStwAygIjl-e5YR1ZKGEnHrg2Ul7yR2DM1P4kfjgqHmFWepRIhX2ci61cn8CIst_fpJ-70jgGw-Za5DggKg0Mjk6PtBYtsK6hGbGEz0vWjlBfj2gwRXpb0Y/s1600/175px-BlackMischief.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3XMBU4-k40Zkr2pKC3hNVJStwAygIjl-e5YR1ZKGEnHrg2Ul7yR2DM1P4kfjgqHmFWepRIhX2ci61cn8CIst_fpJ-70jgGw-Za5DggKg0Mjk6PtBYtsK6hGbGEz0vWjlBfj2gwRXpb0Y/s1600/175px-BlackMischief.JPG" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
In brief this is the plot of Evelyn Waugh’s 1932 dark comedy <i>Black Mischief</i>. Waugh wrote <i>Black Mischief</i> after traveling to Ethiopia to observe the coronation of Emperor Haile Salassie in 1931. Waugh had written a travel book, <i>Remote People</i>, about his travels in Africa in which he was very much not impressed. </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTc1QWWBHmmLbMd8Cr1TRkhWo9VmmRQFtm0OoPcGHWGrskKzxq9yyT2uFvYqaIayNNLl6AvbO4ciuFVylAT_x4KhyphenhyphenKNWQJonnd356fVvwIim_GAlgQEFpnT_9YDGbzzDJu_Hmib8glc18/s1600/waughAP460.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTc1QWWBHmmLbMd8Cr1TRkhWo9VmmRQFtm0OoPcGHWGrskKzxq9yyT2uFvYqaIayNNLl6AvbO4ciuFVylAT_x4KhyphenhyphenKNWQJonnd356fVvwIim_GAlgQEFpnT_9YDGbzzDJu_Hmib8glc18/s320/waughAP460.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<i>The always politically incorrect Evelyn Waugh smoking a politically incorrect cigar.</i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<i></i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<i>Black Mischief</i> is racist, sarcastic, outrageous and over the top. It is also very funny. As one reviewer on <i>Goodreads</i> said it’s like reading the script for an extended Monty Python sketch. The native troops who have never worn shoes boil their new shoes and eat them. A family moves into an overturned truck in the middle of the highway (this is apparently something Waugh actually witnessed in Africa!). A group of cannibal natives eat the daughter of the British Ambassador and feed her to her unsuspecting boyfriend. <i>Black Mischief</i> is composed of one farcical scene after another. </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1Re2Lk9C1UkP_rREDdiOiBWGM4C41bKDv9hRwOrQcOUep4VEbqSJK3AV5dZO8HH169xFMAu3YWwDJw9eoc78rkhj2Q3ERWlgxXuU8jRkZ3LaBUXHbTgLrPsXpzDdeXsXYYYm4pm5aR6g/s1600/9780141183985_p0_v1_s260x420.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1Re2Lk9C1UkP_rREDdiOiBWGM4C41bKDv9hRwOrQcOUep4VEbqSJK3AV5dZO8HH169xFMAu3YWwDJw9eoc78rkhj2Q3ERWlgxXuU8jRkZ3LaBUXHbTgLrPsXpzDdeXsXYYYm4pm5aR6g/s1600/9780141183985_p0_v1_s260x420.JPG" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
The book does have a serious point. Waugh is satirizing “modernization.” Whatever is deemed “modern” Emperor Seth has to have. No doubt taking a jibe at the rising fascist states in Europe in the early thirties, Waugh has his English Modernization Minister say:</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<i>“we’ve got a much easier job now than we should have had fifty years ago. If we’d had to modernise a country then it would have meant constitutional monarchy, bicameral legislature, proportional representation, women’s suffrage, independent judicature, freedom of the press, referendums . . .”</i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>“What is all that?” asked the Emperor.</i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>“Just a few ideas that have ceased to be modern.”</i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(It is ironic that Waugh took a pro-fascist stance in favor of the Italian invasion of Ethiopia by Mussolini in 1935.)</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3VT5qQgCFIHecDHK0e_VVL0RQxJJu-taf7hjV_XATuQQ5pvTaLbCnNEw0Thohb1ca4cFrTn8TPoPaPawgdyvcjpWE_oDTubZMQQylV-uj6kUU8GdKLrspUGucDgfyj2iifY3whxjps7Y/s1600/51Puw1+YB3L.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3VT5qQgCFIHecDHK0e_VVL0RQxJJu-taf7hjV_XATuQQ5pvTaLbCnNEw0Thohb1ca4cFrTn8TPoPaPawgdyvcjpWE_oDTubZMQQylV-uj6kUU8GdKLrspUGucDgfyj2iifY3whxjps7Y/s320/51Puw1+YB3L.jpg" width="206" /></a></div>
<br />
Although Waugh had recently converted to Catholicism, <i>Black Mischief</i> was not well received by the Catholic press. Ernest Oldmeadow, the editor of the Catholic newspaper <i>The Tablet</i> complained that <i>Black Mischief</i> was “ a disgrace to anyone professing the Catholic name.” * Outraged by the sexual references in the book, Oldmeadow was particularly outraged by Waugh’s description of a Nestorian Monastery which was based upon Waugh’s real life visit to a monastery of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church:<br />
<br />
<i>“A well substantiated tradition affirmed that the little river watering the estate was in fact the brook Kedron conveyed there subterraneously; its waters were in continual requisition for the relief of skin diseases and stubborn boils. Here too were preserved among other relics of less certain authenticity, David’s stone prised out of the forehead of Goliath (a boulder of astonishing dimensions), a leaf from the Barren Fig Tree, the rib from which Eve had been created, and a wooden cross which had fallen from heaven quite unexpectedly during Good Friday luncheon some years back.”</i><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjE8eCDqayoqmxl-Y59uqhJiVX5OOACrU1RU3pYi5GRUQg0rd1ZMcZwrmbPPmOEspkh5A-vszbmK-cd4grC3ujTymobbFFsAeWb10M-LSR0SPAsPK2ylaJ8DQWkWTzpCbPVM-1L7UsE9U/s1600/black+mischief.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjE8eCDqayoqmxl-Y59uqhJiVX5OOACrU1RU3pYi5GRUQg0rd1ZMcZwrmbPPmOEspkh5A-vszbmK-cd4grC3ujTymobbFFsAeWb10M-LSR0SPAsPK2ylaJ8DQWkWTzpCbPVM-1L7UsE9U/s320/black+mischief.jpg" width="199" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
English Catholics were not the only people who were not too happy with Waugh’s humor. When Waugh traveled back to Ethiopia to cover the Italian invasion for a London newspaper, the British Embassy, offended at Waugh’s lampooning of British diplomats in <i>Black Mischief</i>, refused to offer him any assistance.** </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF5vDhzG7APfm6g6zRiOI_iJYpsLr8BBPexOrvV6RaP0LzhNXh9lod1wPQVAoSlmfv5M0TR6FUhzrnK9AYpyk8kvLe1jIAO_FNsmN-aZ_KwKDk3DcjME7VTXBRVpPrdvau_nKfRSUIh9w/s1600/%7B34FF27F3-81F7-41C6-89C4-C185FD43C42D%7DImg100.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF5vDhzG7APfm6g6zRiOI_iJYpsLr8BBPexOrvV6RaP0LzhNXh9lod1wPQVAoSlmfv5M0TR6FUhzrnK9AYpyk8kvLe1jIAO_FNsmN-aZ_KwKDk3DcjME7VTXBRVpPrdvau_nKfRSUIh9w/s320/%7B34FF27F3-81F7-41C6-89C4-C185FD43C42D%7DImg100.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
If you can overlook the racist nineteenth century “White Man’s Burden” viewpoint and juvenile humor (Waugh was only 31 when <i>Black Mischief</i> was published),<i> Black Mischief</i> is still a great deal of fun. </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieoA2iygEHoFQSwwW-RmFGWIAz8ueLfIziBCeq0T-gCctyF-EIcaoUg87OJ3c_2Dypy5nkVZi2dOQa-NPQLugWLEtmYbYCh0g0AyvrKG7j-Rn2fxiCLJ3aq93eduQjn-pEFOJrp2h-2OU/s1600/147640899_amazoncom-black-mischief-9780140182408-evelyn-waugh-.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieoA2iygEHoFQSwwW-RmFGWIAz8ueLfIziBCeq0T-gCctyF-EIcaoUg87OJ3c_2Dypy5nkVZi2dOQa-NPQLugWLEtmYbYCh0g0AyvrKG7j-Rn2fxiCLJ3aq93eduQjn-pEFOJrp2h-2OU/s1600/147640899_amazoncom-black-mischief-9780140182408-evelyn-waugh-.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
* Humphrey Carpenter, <i>The Brideshead Generation: Evelyn Waugh and His Friends</i>, p. 241.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
** <i>Ibid</i> p. 282.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZRkA8ynvB90MEW207HZFLhsXkP_FOHQ0kQNnZa5553dKFG6gT_XwCy-SO2jMhKNdSAQ9YMJQjykjYUB4urdEpt-ihgjGOxyijdzPcW1E_qih3yXecXP_ZQeh9170L6BGsBYBBpbgaTPQ/s1600/Evelynwaugh.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZRkA8ynvB90MEW207HZFLhsXkP_FOHQ0kQNnZa5553dKFG6gT_XwCy-SO2jMhKNdSAQ9YMJQjykjYUB4urdEpt-ihgjGOxyijdzPcW1E_qih3yXecXP_ZQeh9170L6BGsBYBBpbgaTPQ/s1600/Evelynwaugh.jpg" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
Bad Catholichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11987121652866343848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-760921852022735055.post-84262212425051569192013-09-01T08:03:00.000-07:002013-09-01T08:03:44.733-07:00BONFIRE OF THE VANITIES<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGfppO8HFbO-tBXfDZhv18Mvs1yzh6aTeZfRy8dogGQzlSD3T4_HwRluE1qSqs9TzTxn0OfVl8pD0nSGOtPVFoVhl-mPHlItYXjbWQp7oEjA5YCKpFDQ-Se_D_8stJGuYA7Y9_z-pmU0Y/s1600/bonfire+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGfppO8HFbO-tBXfDZhv18Mvs1yzh6aTeZfRy8dogGQzlSD3T4_HwRluE1qSqs9TzTxn0OfVl8pD0nSGOtPVFoVhl-mPHlItYXjbWQp7oEjA5YCKpFDQ-Se_D_8stJGuYA7Y9_z-pmU0Y/s1600/bonfire+1.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Well, I understand that I’m only 26 years late. I just finished reading Tom Wolfe’s blockbuster novel about the decadence, excess and injustice of 1980s New York, <i>The Bonfire of the Vanities (1987).</i><br />
<i>
</i><br />
<i></i><em>Bonfire </em>was Wolfe’s first novel. Prior to that he had specialized in the so called "New Journalism" which sought to apply the descriptive techniques used by fiction writers to journalism. <i>Bonfire </i>was Wolfe’s attempt to write a novel which criticized modern American society in the same way that William Thackery Makepiece satirized 19<sup>th</sup> century England in <i>Vanity Fair</i>.<br />
<br />
The book was first published as a serial in <i>Rolling Stone</i> magazine. The idea of serializing the novel appealed to Wolfe who thought of himself as a modern day Dickens. However, substantial changes were made to the story before publication in book form.<br />
<br />
I’m not going to bore everybody with a play by play of the plot and characters. This is easily available elsewhere on the net and this book has been widely read.<br />
<br />
Although Wolfe’s characters are almost characterizations, and many of his scenes and situations are grossly exaggerated, I found his exaggerations to be rooted firmly in fact. It is a fact that the Young Turks of Wall Street, making millions of dollars on each trade, viewed themselves as "Masters of the Universe," just like Sherman McCoy does.<br />
<br />
Sherman is so wrapped up in his power and wealth that he works all the time and is never home. Although he loves his 6 year old daughter deeply, he has become bored with Judy, his wife, as she approaches the old age of 40.<br />
<br />
Since Sherman brings down a million dollars a year, enough to pay his daughters tuition at an exclusive private school, and the $21,000 a month mortgage payment on his Park Avenue apartment, he thinks he deserves sexual excitement which his wife is not providing him with. The exciting beautiful gold digger Maria satisfies Sherman’s sexual fantasies and is the cause of his downfall.<br />
<br />
It turns out that all of Sherman’s power as a "Master of Universe" is an elaborate house of cards. When Sherman and Maria take a wrong turn off the freeway into the Bronx things go terribly wrong. Blocked on a freeway entrance ramp by a tire in the middle of the road, Sherman and Maria believe they are being robbed. When Maria takes off in the car in a panic she hits Henry Lamb, a young black teenager from a housing project in the Bronx.<br />
<br />
And it takes off from there. Henry Lamb, who is considered an honor student just because he shows up in school every day, lies near death in a coma in the hospital. An Al Sharpton - Jesse Jackson type character, the Reverend Bacon, uses the cause of Lamb and his struggling mother as a political football to manipulate New York public officials.<br />
<br />
From his posh world on Wall Street and Park Avenue, Sherman is thrust into the criminal justice system in the Bronx. Wolfe describes the crime ridden streets of the Bronx as a jungle and the criminal courts are another jungle for Sherman. <br />
<br />
Wolfe’s description of the criminal courts rings very true to me. Although I was an Assistant District Attorney in a rural area in the Deep South, much that Wolfe describes about what goes on at the Bronx Criminal Courts is very familiar territory. <br />
<br />
Sherman McCoy is not the only character in this vast sprawling novel who is attached to some vanity which is ultimately cast into the fire. The only characters who come out well are Fallow the muck raking tabloid journalist and the Gold-Digging Maria who is pretty much willing to do anything for her own pleasure and advancement.<br />
<br />
This novel still holds up well and has much to recommend it. I have no doubt it will still be being read a century from now.</div>
Bad Catholichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11987121652866343848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-760921852022735055.post-63247040216116120512013-05-21T07:13:00.000-07:002013-05-21T07:13:48.805-07:00A Feast of Snakes<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdGtN0sQ_ywLZLSEL8AMUw659v4ScTLfGLdT4P7Nnw_MFFmHgpy21fL4tSZNiwr6He0LKKH0JVALr-kUhc17-h8SiMrDOaktF_T82Fi0DVXnNL584yUMuOtRfmgkkfbCFy-x_o3cldtoY/s1600/Feast-of-snakes1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdGtN0sQ_ywLZLSEL8AMUw659v4ScTLfGLdT4P7Nnw_MFFmHgpy21fL4tSZNiwr6He0LKKH0JVALr-kUhc17-h8SiMrDOaktF_T82Fi0DVXnNL584yUMuOtRfmgkkfbCFy-x_o3cldtoY/s320/Feast-of-snakes1.jpg" width="212" /></a></div>
<br />
Flannery O'Connor famously said that <i>"Anything that comes out of the South is going to be called grotesque by the northern reader, unless it is grotesque, in which case it is going to be called realistic."</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>A Feast of Snakes </i>(1976) by the late Harry Crews (1935-2012) is truly a grotesque novel. However, it is rooted in reality. And some of the more grotesque elements of this novel are the most realistic. <i>A Feast of Snakes </i>is a sordid little tale about a former high school football star who, because of his lack of academic ability, is trapped in a nowhere life in a nowhere town in South Georgia. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieDdMA_ycrrshvWfknBBLHv04cJOYqWbosh1hTUpzOwNoFG83kHmj_NVj-m04yJH6KMBmCZDCAnVWHOQwacKXXN0aEgya1jKM8sZrF9XTpxmUZjeXlfdeIzG-SYWHVXcKxBgx39pB-Yjo/s1600/CREWS-obit-popup.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieDdMA_ycrrshvWfknBBLHv04cJOYqWbosh1hTUpzOwNoFG83kHmj_NVj-m04yJH6KMBmCZDCAnVWHOQwacKXXN0aEgya1jKM8sZrF9XTpxmUZjeXlfdeIzG-SYWHVXcKxBgx39pB-Yjo/s320/CREWS-obit-popup.jpg" width="261" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Harry Crews (1935-2012)</i></div>
<br />
I have known a lot of people who are not far removed from Crews grotesque caricatures. Without frugal working class parents who sacrificed to give me a college education, I would probably have been one of Crews' southern caricatures. As a practicing lawyer in Southwest Georgia for over two decades I have met many people who resemble the characters who populate Crews' fictional Mystic, Georgia.<br />
<br />
<i>A Feast of Snakes </i>is the story of Joe Lon Mackey, former star of the Mystic High School football team, <i>The Rattlers. </i>As the head Rattler Joe Lon gets to date the head cheerleader, Beredine. Beredine is the daughter of the local doctor. Joe Lon is the son of the local bootlegger. At the end of high school, Beredine goes off to college at the University of Georgia, while Joe Lon is trapped selling bootleg whiskey for his daddy.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9OTitexqhQZbxt8eDqxhzV6jU1TlqK9IxCKmFDTOZL3wPBHK75XGblbdfo506XfWE7W8-vXtrAvbORM4ZZ65NdWqHv_RKfyNK7DoxfRbHlV6ra7O1njcEHsIu0j57LKHaK5YJGBq6DC8/s1600/feastofsnakes.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9OTitexqhQZbxt8eDqxhzV6jU1TlqK9IxCKmFDTOZL3wPBHK75XGblbdfo506XfWE7W8-vXtrAvbORM4ZZ65NdWqHv_RKfyNK7DoxfRbHlV6ra7O1njcEHsIu0j57LKHaK5YJGBq6DC8/s1600/feastofsnakes.gif" /></a></div>
<br />
After Beredine leaves Mystic for college, Joe Lon gets a girl, Elfie, pregnant. Now he lives in a mobile home with Elfie and their two infant sons. Elfie is losing her teeth and her looks have been ruined by repeated pregnancies. Joe Lon's daddy is not only the local bootlegger but also raises pit bulls to fight. Joe Lon's sister went crazy after discovering her mother's suicide and now sits in bed all day and watches television. <br />
<br />
And that's just Joe Lon's messed up family. The local sheriff, who lost a leg in Vietnam, arrests black girls for the sole purpose of getting them in jail to have sex with them. As a matter of fact, the black characters in <i>A Feast of Snakes </i>seem to be the most sane. Although one of the Sheriff's victims will suffer from a mental illness brought on by the trauma of being raped and will gain sweet revenge.<br />
<br />
The backdrop of the novel is the traditional rattlesnake roundup which has become a large regional tourist attraction. In traditional agricultural communities in South Georgia, the community would get together in the fall and winter and try to eradicate poisonous snakes to avoid attacks on people and live stock in the summer. As a matter of fact, I live about 20 miles from a town that has a yearly rattlesnake roundup which has become a tourist attraction. It may be the inspiration for Crews' novel. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsMvD5duxW2sq5IzjHnNKEerbUApuBahTVT1nJmv-s4hGejNL1bpgA7tDw2lycroMEswiCI-A1pdVO4gr03Kf1vBzWC6BHOTxlQFvpJS2UFippiXpUAd8WmcqE94Zg3zYtW3U3NBJFLXA/s1600/Harry-Crews-La-Foire-aux-serpents.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsMvD5duxW2sq5IzjHnNKEerbUApuBahTVT1nJmv-s4hGejNL1bpgA7tDw2lycroMEswiCI-A1pdVO4gr03Kf1vBzWC6BHOTxlQFvpJS2UFippiXpUAd8WmcqE94Zg3zYtW3U3NBJFLXA/s320/Harry-Crews-La-Foire-aux-serpents.gif" width="191" /></a></div>
<br />
Other reviewers of <i> A Feast of Snakes </i>have seen it as some sort of tale of redemption. I don't see any redemption in this at all. It appears to me to be coming from a totally nihilistic world view. Although it has some comic elements to it, I found <i>A Feast of Snakes </i>to be very dark material. <br />
<br />
To wrap up, I don't think I can summarize <i>A Feast of Snakes </i>any better than Professor James C. Cobb's description in his fine book <i>Away Down South: A History of Southern Identity </i>(2005): <i>In his fiction Crews presented a southern poor-white netherworld inhabited by characters whose desperation, depravity, and grotesqueness went well beyond anything Erkine Caldwell had dared to offer. Crews's A Feast of Snakes emphasized the widening chasm between the caricatured, commodified representations of regional culture currently in fashion among upwardly mobile white southerners and the grim realities of life facing those for whom upward mobility did not exist. The novel is set in "Mystic," a small South Georgia town whose traditional rattlesnake roundup has exploded into a major tourist attraction. The protagonist, Joe Lon Mackey, is a former high school football star who was considerably more adept on the gridiron than in the classroom. Unable to pursue collegiate stardom, he descends into a miserable, hopeless existence, drinking incessantly and living in a mobile home with two smelly kids and a pitiful, long-suffering wife with rotten teeth. Joe Lon finally erupts in a murderous shooting spree and is thrown by an angry mob into a pit of writhing reptiles, rising to his feet for the final time with snakes hanging from his face."</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
Although I don't really recommend it, <i>A Feast of Snakes </i>is worth reading for the warped "Southern Gothic" atmosphere. If you are depressed this is not the novel to read because nobody in Harry Crews' South lives happily ever after.</div>
Bad Catholichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11987121652866343848noreply@blogger.com1