Ersatz TLS discussion

Hello! Hope you all enjoyed a lovely Father's Day and Summer Solstice!

It's great to be back in my old neighborhood, lovely flowers in bloom everywhere (though the heatwave has caught up with us, finally). Here we have one of my favorite flowering trees - dogwood is one of the first flowers my father taught me to identify.



Thank you all for your patience and understanding last week, with no new weekly thread posted. I truly appreciate everyone's flexibility; things should start to settle down for me soon, though I still have one more major clean-out/move ahead of me this summer. Thanks again for your patience.

If all goes as planned, I'll have a BIG announcement for you before the end of the week. Stay tuned!

In the meantime, here is a motley crew of links:

Literary Birthdays - June 14th through June 20th

Literary Birthdays - June 21st through June 27th

Last week's Birthday List included Lillian Hellman. This week's includes Mary McCarthy. Seems like a good time to revisit this story.

Also from this week's birthday list:

The Fraser Darling Effect

NPR interview with Hilary Spurling , author of Pearl Buck in China: Journey to the Good Earth.

Mention of Laurie Lee always make me miss @PatDunn.


About time for a quiz, don't you think? Let's get Orwellian with a quiz on Nineteen Eighty-Four (remember when the Graun used to do quizzes?)

Happy for you, LL
I have a cornus kousa , like the one in your photo, growing in my front garden near the window and the flowers are waving in the breeze as I watch.

Looks beautiful, Lisa!

Apologies for the lack of posts recently, everyone; I started a new job a couple of months ago and it's pretty busy. Once I've passed probation and they can't fire me, expect more regular updates ;).

I just finished 'My Antonia' by Willa Cather and it was sensational. A few people recommended it back on TLS, including nicandrach88, so thanks very much to them.

It's a wonderfully written, humane, intelligent book that does so many of the things I love. Brilliant nature writing - check. Fascinating description of a society in flux - check. Shimmering, slightly regretful, elegiac tone, reminiscent of A Month in the Country - check. Superbly drawn, three-dimensional characters that you feel close to, Kent Haruf-style, - check.

Highly recommended to anyone that hasn't read it. For those of you who are already fans of Cather, what should I read next by her?

AlbyBeliever wrote: "Looks beautiful, Lisa!

Apologies for the lack of posts recently, everyone; I started a new job a couple of months ago and it's pretty busy. Once I've passed probation and they can't fire me, expec..."

Best of luck with the job Alby, and I hope you enjoy it.

Afternoon all....very cool and damp (13c) in the shires but i like it, although i have donned a sweatshirt in last 30 mins which is very unusual in the summer months

The remarkable, bleak and thought provoking Blai Bonet novel The Sea (1958) has me blinking and wondering after every few chapters slowly digested, half way through and its possible the most remarkable and ice cold novel i have read. Its warts and all, with a strong Catholic theme

Have just finished The Channel an in depth and thoughtful study of the English Channel its formation as an entity from the 13-14th centuries and then its positiuon from 1688-1815, as the British and French nations wrestled for control overseas and how it affected the maritime barrier of said channel or "Manche"

The OS Memoirs of South Ulster 1843-8 are a glimpse of Ireland before the famine destroyed whole communities and caused the intensive emigration of the following four or five decades. Whether Catholic majority South Ulster can truly represent a picture of Eire before the fall is questionable but i am determined to read as many of these memoirs. (The Ulster counties which are now in Northern Ireland have far more extensive volumes) . Poor housing, slovenly habits, drink and idleness are observed in many towns and counties, how much could be put down to anti-Irish prejudice is not made clear.

A comment in the section on "habits of the people" for a district of Co Cavan was interesting, relating to the religosity of the inhabitants :

Patron days or local customs are nowhere observed ....

New non-fiction will be Journals of Travel in Iceland 1871-73 by William Morris

giveusaclue wrote: "Best of luck with the job Alby, and I hope you enjoy it."

Thanks very much! So far, so good - interesting work and the people there seem nice.

Lljones wrote: "Hello! Hope you all enjoyed a lovely Father's Day and Summer Solstice!

It's great to be back in my old neighborhood, lovely flowers in bloom everywhere (though the heatwave has caught up with us, ..."
A very chilly and windy solstice here in the East Midlands I'm afraid but the roses have started to bloom at last, the vegetable garden is way behind though. Looking forward to the big news :)

Greenfairy wrote: "Lljones wrote: "Hello! Hope you all enjoyed a lovely Father's Day and Summer Solstice!

It's great to be back in my old neighborhood, lovely flowers in bloom everywhere (though the heatwave has cau..."

As a fellow East Midlands dweller I can confirm that - my heating actually came on briefly this evening. My neighbour has climbing roses in beautiful bloom on the front of his house.

Carrying on with my reading of The Anglo-Saxons and Alfred has come riding to the rescue ! So far it has been a running sequence of battles between the various kings in England, attempts at repelling invaders, and venal not very Christian bishops!

Allright, after finishing that Merkel crime story, I sped through Pratchett's Dragons of crumbling castle. Introducing the carpet people "universe" to me. But I am still of the opinion Sir Terry was better at novels than short stories.
I am now reading the first book of The Chronicles of St Mary's (omnibus of the first three books in the series) by Jodie Taylor. Historians go 'investigating major historical events in contemporary time'. So far I have only finished two chapters of book 1 - 6 % - and while it is entertaining enough, it is a little shallow so far, I do not quite feel really drawn in. So far it was about the training of the studied historian Ms Maxwell into the challenges her new position requires (which goes far beyond "pure" history - strays into experimental "archaeology" territory and covers the everyday life far better than traditional history, which is mainly into rulers and politics).

Interesting concept - but we will see if the writing style really agrees with me in the long run.

REVOLUTIONARY ERA AMERICAN DRAMA

have always been a reader of plays, interested in the way plays are read and the idea of how they are presented to the reader, as opposed to presented on stage (via footnotes, stage directions etc)

Having not read any plays for maybe two years, my current occaisonal focus on american writings of the revolutionary period (1770s to 1790s) has led me to Early American Drama a penguin collection of plays from 1787-1860s.

I will only be reading the first two Tylers 1787 satire "The Contrast" and Dunlaps 1798 tragedy "Andre", as they fall within the period i am interested in.

My other Revolutionary era reading is Jeffersons Notes on the State of Virginia (1785) and i finished The Federalist Papers (1788) last year. Am enjoying Jefferson much more than the federalist, maybe as he is documenting the history and modern features of Virginia, as opposed to Jay, Hamilton and Madison dryly trying to create a perfect modern state.

I have ideas of Franklin's autobiog for future reading, Irvings stories(re-read) and Brockden Browns Wieland (1798) lined up later in 2021

Podcast: Colm Toíbín on Thomas Mann

It certainly made me more inclined to read Reflections of a Nonpolitical Man, though - no surprise really - didn't sell me on The Magician.

Happily the skies are gray here in Seattle this morning. It was hottish yesterday, and it appears summer has shown up with a vengeance. The predictions are dire! for this weekend.

Most older homes here (mine included) don't have air conditioning which has only been very sporadically needed some summers. After all, I have been known to hang out in the cellar (there's always stuff to be done there) for a day or two.

Right now all doors and windows that can be opened are - in hopes of more interior cooling - before the sun breaks through. With great regret, though, I'm going to have to dig out the box fan before the week is out.

On the reading front, I have begun Inside Money: Brown Brothers Harriman and the American Way of Power which is fascinating. From the beginning as linen merchants in Belfast (1790s) to quiet money men on Wall Street today.

To balance that, I also found an old Miss Silver Wicked Uncle at the library. Nothing like a 'damsel in distress' mystery to cozy up with.

Unfortunately, I got lost in the first few pages of Peter May's newest The Night Gate which will be going back to the library for all intents and purposes - unread.

I also wish I could find a copy of The Channel which does not appear to have been published in the States.

I haven’t reported on my reading exploits for a few days, so here goes..
I’ve just finished The Confusions of Young Törless by Robert Musil (translated by Shaun Whiteside).
I always admire any author who writes well about adolescence. I think it’s really difficult to get right, so many authors seem to skirt around issues, notably sexual desire, or simply ignore them. Published 115 years ago though, Musil makes astute observations about a small group of young teenagers at the most prestigious Austrian boarding school of its time, as his protagonist, one of the group, slips into moral decline.
Rather than wizardry, teenage sleuths, and midnight feasts, there is bullying, sodomy and flagellation.
Written before the First World War Musil takes the chance to write as a warning about the nature of power, but even if read as just a piece of school fiction, it is often uncomfortable, grim throughout and regularly shocking.

A couple of new novels that I thought little of,
The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu by Tom Lin, a Western of a type, but low on character and humour, and high on violence.
The Killing Hills by Chris Offutt, a pretty standard rurally set US drug thriller.

Worth more words though, was A Sunday in Ville-d'Avray by Dominique Barbéris. This was more enjoyment than I could possibly have thought, about reading of one sister's visit to another on a Sunday afternoon. The short book's strength is the sense of place, Paris is wonderfully described here. The writing manages to be intimate without being intrusive, and there's a form of escapism in reading it.

My usual, and off-topic, film mentions also. Two good ones this week, one of them outstanding... that being In The Earth , a British low budget, eco, folklore horror with Reece Shearsmith at his dastardly best.
And, a very watchable Nobody , with Bob Odenkirk.

Andy wrote: "I’ve just finished The Confusions of Young Törless by Robert Musil."

Glad you admired this one. I've long intended to read something else by Musil, but it has fallen off my radar.

Andy wrote: "I haven’t reported on my reading exploits for a few days, so here goes..
I’ve just finished The Confusions of Young Törless by Robert Musil (translated by Shaun Whitesid..."

i loved that novel Andy but i think it was set in Austria wasnt it?

The play Spring Awakening by Frank Wedekind(1906) is in a similar style

Another very interesting novel from 1919 , so post WW1 is Demian by Herman Hesse

MK wrote: "Unfortunately, I got lost in the first few pages of Peter May's newest The Night Gate which will be going back to the library for all intents and purposes - unread."


I gave up on The Night Gate too. I had really enjoyed the first 5 books in the series, thought no. 6 was a cop out (no pun intended) and the last one was just a drag.

AB76 wrote: "Andy wrote: "I haven’t reported on my reading exploits for a few days, so here goes..
I’ve just finished The Confusions of Young Törless by Robert Musil (translated by S..."

AB. Yes Austria. My brain was elsewhere...

And thanks for those recommendations.

Andy wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Andy wrote: "I haven’t reported on my reading exploits for a few days, so here goes..
I’ve just finished The Confusions of Young Törless by Robert Musil (tr..."

it had my memory twitching there....i was thinking "did i read a whole book set in Russia and not spot it!"

i think "The Sea" which i am currently reading is on your list isnt it? Will be interested to see what you think of it, so far its been an amazing cold as ice, stern examination of life and death. I am suprised Bonet isnt more well known

https://www.theguardian.com/books/202...
That is one of the links of our TLS-Ersatz
10 books non-fiction (anthropology) - of which I have indeed read one!
"Watching the English"

FranHunny wrote: "https://www.theguardian.com/books/202...
That is one of the links of our TLS-Ersatz
10 books non-fiction (anthropology) -..."
I find No 3 quite intriguing, too … Sigh .. I should not look up booklists …

FranHunny wrote: "10 books non-fiction (anthropology) -of which I have indeed read one! Watching the English..."

Yes, I've also read Watching the English: The Hidden Rules of English Behaviour - and very much enjoyed it. Finished it thinking a little ruefully, 'OK, so I'm very English'.

Consider this a PSA! I know there are a few here in the Pacific Northwest (PNW) where it looks like we are in hot water this weekend. Cliff Mass - Prof at UW - has just released his latest.

https://cliffmass.blogspot.com/

Looks like I will be hunkering down in the basement with lots of books as I have no air conditioning! Good luck to other PNWs!

My book of the year so far: Captain Flinn and the Pirate Dinosaurs at Smugglers Bay. My seven year grandson whom I hadn't seen since before lockdown read it to me in the garden this afternoon 😀😀 He is quite the performer...

MK wrote: "Consider this a PSA! I know there are a few here in the Pacific Northwest (PNW) where it looks like we are in hot water this weekend. Cliff Mass - Prof at UW - has just released his latest.

https..." I hope you manage to keep cool, enjoy the reading ;)

MK wrote: "Consider this a PSA! I know there are a few here in the Pacific Northwest (PNW) where it looks like we are in hot water this weekend. Cliff Mass - Prof at UW - has just released his latest.

https..."

basements are ideal for the heat. i dont have a basement but my downstairs back room had the floor lowered in the 1980s, so it is like a cave on hot days...a wonderful refuge, rarely gets above 20c, even when its 32c outside. Ofc i'm in blighty aka England, so long hot spells are mercifully only twice a year

Greenfairy wrote: " My seven year grandson whom I hadn't seen since before lockdown read it to me in the garden this afternoon ..."

How lovely to have been able to see your grandson! I've been lucky enough to be able to see my two pretty regularly during this period, except during the 1st & strictest lockdown, even if without hugs.

Gpfr wrote: "Greenfairy wrote: " My seven year grandson whom I hadn't seen since before lockdown read it to me in the garden this afternoon ..."

How lovely to have been able to see your grandson! I've been luc..."

Greenfairy wrote: "My book of the year so far: Captain Flinn and the Pirate Dinosaurs at Smugglers Bay. My seven year grandson whom I hadn't seen since before lockdown read it to me in the garden this afternoon 😀😀 He..."
Thanks, it was a wonderful afternoon, he looked so tall since I saw him last!

I was very pleased with the ending of Ann Patchett’s State of Wonder, a book with plenty of surprises. The novel depicts medical researchers in the Amazon rainforest, who are hoping to gain insights from observation of a remote tribe. I found the prose to be a bit plain at first, but the text had exactly the kind of escapism I was hoping for – making it a worthy addition to my list of novels in jungles and tropical places. Thanks @LL.
This novel also struck me as strangely feminine, which I’m taking as a hint that I’m due to read more novels by female authors. I’m contemplating a range of Elizabeths: Taylor, Bowen, Strout, and Jane Howard. I’ve ordered in Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont – tip of the hat to everyone who has mentioned it, including Justine. Now turning to Pierre by Herman Melville.

SydneyH wrote: "I’m contemplating a range of Elizabeths: Taylor, Bowen, Strout, and Jane Howard ..."

Excellent idea!
And that reminds me, I've still got Olive, Again waiting to be read - I wanted to reread Olive Kitteridge first, which I've done ...

Gpfr wrote: "I wanted to reread Olive Kitteridge first"

What did you think? I haven't tried Strout yet, but that's the one I had lined up.

SydneyH wrote: "Gpfr wrote: " Olive Kitteridge "
"What did you think?"

After reading it twice, I think it's excellent - Olive arouses mixed feelings ... It was the first of Strout's books that I read. (The TV series with Frances McDormand is good, too.)
I then went on to read the others. I liked very much The Burgess Boys which I think Ll recommended in the past.

MK wrote: "Consider this a PSA! I know there are a few here in the Pacific Northwest (PNW) where it looks like we are in hot water this weekend. Cliff Mass - Prof at UW - has just released his latest.
..."

O.M.G.

SydneyH wrote: "I was very pleased with the ending of Ann Patchett’s State of Wonder, a book with plenty of surprises. The novel depicts medical researchers in the Amazon rainforest, who are hoping to gain insight..."

So pleased to hear this, Syd. Doesn't it seem like a million moons ago that we first discussed this?

Looking forward to your foray into the Elizabeths. You might throw in a few Penelopes while you're at it.

L’Amant de la Chine du Nord – Marguérite Duras (1991)

This is an amplified and tender re-telling of L’Amant (1984) with much of Un barrage contre la Pacifique (1950) mixed in, and it’s all done rather like a director’s cut of a movie with the director commenting in a voice-over as the movie goes along, except that here MD is giving directions as to how any future movie of the book should be shot (the movie came out a few years later). It sounds like a complete jumble, yet it works, and like the other two novels it has a mesmerizing and allusive quality. French Indo-China, a young white girl on a river ferry, her wide-brimmed hat, a Chinese man, his silk suit, the long black saloon car, the silent chauffeur. The first scene almost shoots itself.

Alongside it I was reading All Adults Here by Emma Straub (2020), a best-seller which I knew would be a bit of a beach-read. The NYT called it “literary sunshine”. It’s not fair to compare the two, but I will anyway because, oddly, there is the exact same family set-up: a widowed mother with a glowering older son, a transgressive middle daughter, and an adored younger son, only here everyone is older and there is another generation coming on behind. ES’s story unrolls in an artsy upstate town resembling Kingston, NY. Emotional snarl-ups are shared out among the characters – late marriage break-up, single-mom IVF, he/she teenager, coming out as lesbian, smart-phone bullying, internet grooming. It is all so predictably contemporary and relevant, though there is still room for old-style lustful adultery. At least no one gets stabbed or shot, which I guess today counts as sunshine. I will say the writing has an easy fluency, and the clever plotting made me keep reading till the end. It didn’t have anything of MD’s compelling artistry. But then again, ES also runs an independent bookstore (in Brooklyn) and has a young family too, so credit to her.

We have had humming-birds for the last month. They come to sip at a honey-water feeder on the deck. Even if you’re in the middle of a critical passage, it makes no difference. When you hear that friendly buzz you have to stop and watch this small miracle of nature.

Russell wrote: "L’Amant de la Chine du Nord – Marguérite Duras (1991)

This is an amplified and tender re-telling of L’Amant (1984) with much of Un barrage contre la Pacifique (1950) mixed in, and it’s all done ra..."

hummingbirds sound fascinating Russ

AB - Yes - Fifty wing-beats a second, and the ability to hover completely stationary in the air and then dart away in a flash. The swoops of the mating dance are something else.

The Sea by Blai Bonet is being digested at the slowest pace of reading since covid hit the UK in Feb-March 2020

Partly due to my volunteering thee days a week, my focus on reading has shifted a little, or rather back to the way it was before we were all indoors and locked down for long periods

Its not slow cos its a grind or a tedious read, i am deliberately pacing it as i plan to do with all shorter novels now. It is quite simply the bleakest novel i have read for maybe a decade, its devoid of sentiment, it represents poverty, illness, murder and sadism as it is, without hope, or flannel, as a struggle

Russell wrote: "AB - Yes - Fifty wing-beats a second, and the ability to hover completely stationary in the air and then dart away in a flash. The swoops of the mating dance are something else."

i also am interested in that Duras novel, one of her three Indochina set works (The Lover and the Sea Wall were favourites of mine). I have The Sailor from Gibralter lined up this summer and am also aware her first novel is also now been re-translated

Hey folks! I have been lying low these past few days, writing, writing, writing, and reading as much as possible when the teething baby falls asleep.

I've read my second of Honore de Balzac's works in the La Comédie Humaine cycle. So, 2 down 89 to go. If I stick to my once per year per author rule, I should be wrapping up the whole shebang at the ripe age of 134. Biology is making great strides. It's a possibility.

I've read Peré Goriot Old Goriot, and I really enjoyed it. It seems like a bit of a keystone book, in that you can sense a larger narrative branching out from the Goriot seed. My only previous Balzac was Eugenie Grandet, which I didn't much care for and I don't recall any connection between the two stories.

Goriot was a good story, following Rastignac and his struggle to commit to social climbing, masquerading it as a noble effort, or a necessary step. H has to decide whether fucking his way to the top is his bottom line, or murder by contract is a good means to the desired end. The male characters, Rastignac, Goriot, Vautrin are all well-constructed archetypes, but the female characters are a bit less three dimensional. Rastignac's wobbly climb between impoverished ostracism and soulless luxury was really well balanced and interesting.
Balzac really reads as a natural precursor to Zola/Hardy/Gissing/Norris. His characters stink, empty chamberpots and pick maggots from yesterday's omelette, but his voice is jovial. Balzac shows Rastignac's dopey imaginings in such a way as to sniggeringly suggest "Poor boy, you and I know better don't we?" There is a suggestion of a conspiratorial separation, whereas Zola lets you know "We're all screwed, this little book may make you feel better about your own situation, but the worms are coming for you too."

Now I'm Reading Justine. We both shared a love for short stories, so now I'm reading one of her most loved collections:
The Collected Stories of Isaac Bashevis Singer The Collected Stories of Isaac Bashevis Singer

AB76 wrote: " The Sea by Blai Bonet is being digested at the slowest pace of reading since covid hit the UK in Feb-March 2020

Partly due to my volunteering thee days a week, my foc..."

I have ordered The Sea because it seemed so intriguing ... I will approach with some trepidation now!

I have read a few short novels recently.

At Night All Blood is Black by David Diop. A Senegalese soldier mentally fragments, which is really the only true human response, as he confronts the overwhelming savagery , guilt and loss in war ,
colonialism. and family break up. The incantatory first person narrative is the soldier's desperate attempts to hold onto the shreds of his sanity.

The War of the Poor by Eric Vuillard - it has to be read in one sitting to get carried along on the waves of protest which relentlessly rise up only to inevitably crash down

The Silence by Don De Lillo . I am not sure if I understood this book or even if it is any good but I quite enjoyed it none the less. I think it is about how the constant barrage of social media flattens and voids any human communication and thought to the most superficial and banal level.

Oggie wrote: "AB76 wrote: " The Sea by Blai Bonet is being digested at the slowest pace of reading since covid hit the UK in Feb-March 2020

Partly due to my volunteering thee days a..."

its still worth reading though Oggie, as its such a strange and original novel, its Mallorcan identity is subtle but if you read up on the island during the Civil War, the very subtle references make sense.

i didnt expect it to be so bleak(i've almost finished it now) but then Bonet himself suffered in a sanotorium and probably meant this as an auto-bio account of youth blighted by illness.

forgot to add, the style is what makes it so bleak, maybe more than the content, its certainly the most unusual novel i have read for a while

Lljones wrote: "You might throw in a few Penelopes while you're at it."

Which Penelopes would you suggest?

Paul wrote: "His characters stink"

I was extremely unimpressed with Pere Goriot, I thought it was very trashy. What I found peculiar is that I had heard of Balzac as a great writer of characters, but his characters are apparently based on recognisable 'types'. I don't think it's a great strategy, but I think some people give him credit for 'realistic' characterisation.

Three new books i'm about to start are:

Rebel Richmond: Life and Death In The Confederate Capital telling the story of the critical Virginian town during the US Civil War, elements of which were touched upon in "Confederate Cities" which i read last year

The Word for World is Forest by Ursula Le Guin (1972), my first Le Guin novel wondering if it will be as interesting as Phillip K Dick sci-fi novels i have read, lets see

and lastly

From Germany to Germany: Diary 1990 by Gunter Grass, 1990 was a major year in my life as a 14 yo and it will interesting to re-visit it as an adult, in the nation that was re-unified that year.

Penelope LivelySydneyH wrote: "Lljones wrote: "You might throw in a few Penelopes while you're at it."

Which Penelopes would you suggest?"

Penelope Lively and Penelope Fitzgerald.

Greenfairy wrote: "MK wrote: "Consider this a PSA! I know there are a few here in the Pacific Northwest (PNW) where it looks like we are in hot water this weekend. Cliff Mass - Prof at UW - has just released his late..."

Here in the wilds of Auburn, we're anticipating days of heat.

Here (in Portland) too... Maybe 107 F or higher on Saturday. Just hoping the power doesn't blow out like it did during last summer's heatwave.

Lljones wrote: "Here (in Portland) too... Maybe 107 F or higher on Saturday. Just hoping the power doesn't blow out like it did during last summer's heatwave."

It’s cloudy here this morning with the grey hanging low in the sky and a gentle rain falling. The flowers have their faces upturned drinking, all is still and quiet.

I read about 30 sludge-like pages of Melville's Pierre and I'm putting it aside for now. Unfortunately, it has the hallmarks of bad Melville, as opposed to the gorgeous Melville I know from Omoo, Typee, The Encantadas and Moby-Dick. Oh well. But I may finish it some day.
Now going to read the Casebook of Sherlock Holmes.

CCCubbon wrote: "Lljones wrote: "Here (in Portland) too... Maybe 107 F or higher on Saturday. Just hoping the power doesn't blow out like it did during last summer's heatwave."

It’s cloudy here this morning with t..."

i have a profusion of foxgloves on the raised section of my garden, under the shade of towering sycamores. usually i get 2-3 every odd year, i counted 16 foxglove stems this year, almost like a manhattan of foxgloves, impressive sight