**spoiler alert** I wondered why I kept reading this past the halfway mark because it was trite and boring. A self-deprecating fifty year old ex-actre**spoiler alert** I wondered why I kept reading this past the halfway mark because it was trite and boring. A self-deprecating fifty year old ex-actress living in Rome knows and understands there are “marchettas,� basically men leeching off wealthy women, after her millions. She indulges one of them, Paolo, for much too long before revealing that she knows his plan to take her money (coordinated by an older Contessa). And then the book basically ends. The final page implies that she throws the keys to a flasher who has been stalking her for the entirety of the book to continue in her fight against “nothingness� and “drifting� without a purpose (which is deeply tied to her vanity and loss of good looks).
The plot and protagonist of this book seem far removed from our current milieu of celebrities in their 50s-70s who are still looking healthy, attractive, and are basking in the glow of their wealth. How could a 50 year-old actress be nearly suicidal in Rome with millions left from a husband she did not love but only tolerated in life? But, hey, who am I to say it could not be the case? It is all a recipe for a shallow and irritating protagonist.
The only piece of literary charm in this book lies in the metaphorical quality of her name, Mrs. Stone. Williams writes about her failing to portray a young Juliet in a Shakespearean production, “failure was being carved like a monument of stone�(108). The connection between this line and her name speaks volumes about her character: Mrs. Stone and the stone of failure implies that she is failure incarnate. Indeed, she is, and so is this book....more
Melville is undoubtedly a genius but he is a genius of the minutiae. Each sentence of Billy Budd lasts a full half of a page. It is not that they are Melville is undoubtedly a genius but he is a genius of the minutiae. Each sentence of Billy Budd lasts a full half of a page. It is not that they are not artfully crafted; no, it is that they are simply boring. Fleshing out characters, for Melville, seems to be very difficult work and it shows.
Melville said that Budd is the embodiment of mankind’s innocence while other critics sense a homoerotic element at work in the character (I can see it in the way Claggart envies and hates Budd; one doesn’t both envy and hate unless one knows they cannot possess the object of their attention). Melville lauds the “peacemaker who fights� but I found Budd to be rash, boyish, and utterly stupid in the face of shame and embarrassment over his speech impediment! What “innocent� lashes out in a dialogue even he is facing a hard accusation—Mutiny!—without even trying to stammer his way to a defense? I say Budd may be innocent but he sure is ridiculously stupid.
Despite the length of “Billy Budd, Sailor,� the actual events leading to a quick hanging take only a few pages. If you are a native speaker, this is worth reading just to feel like English is your second language and you have really worked those neurons out. Pat yourself on the back and grab a reward for yourself before you toss this book in the donation bin. ...more
Loading...
