This is an immersive and meticulously plotted novel, with several characters whose psychological breaking points we get to examine. It's also very embThis is an immersive and meticulously plotted novel, with several characters whose psychological breaking points we get to examine. It's also very embedded in Russian culture and politics, about which I know little so found fascinating.
This is dark as dark can be though. And without the buoyant absurdity that comes with Bulgakov, for example, to temper the darkness. I did find it pretty heavy reading and found myself number and number to tragedy as the novel went on. The women are also, as is typical for the time, mainly minor. Even key female characters like Varvara Stavrogina are unexamined in their psychology....more
Not my favorite reading experience, and maybe best left to obscurity. I was engaged at the start, and at the end, but the whole middle leans toward suNot my favorite reading experience, and maybe best left to obscurity. I was engaged at the start, and at the end, but the whole middle leans toward suspense/mystery and I found it tedious. Especially since it was pretty clear what was going to happen.
I did enjoy the crises of conscience and moments of self-illumination that happened for several characters towards the end. Spoilers below (can I spoil an obscure 1872 novel?).
As Augusta learns more and more about her husband's past and secrets, she learns more and more about herself - her feelings, her flaws, her temptations. Redmayne has similar moments: with Mrs. Bush when he realizes his moping and isolation may make people assume the worst, and with the chaplain when he realizes that he may not have killed Hubert if he had remembered the flowers on Grace's grave....more
For a book about subtraction, this was a very rambling and repetitive book. I don't even want to think about what all was subtracted.
The author also fFor a book about subtraction, this was a very rambling and repetitive book. I don't even want to think about what all was subtracted.
The author also found a way to make discussions of racism and climate change off-putting, overwhelming and even a little melodramatic. This was wild to me. It felt like he was stretching to apply his theory to the very most important subjects he could think of. It's not that the need to subtract doesn't apply. It's more that he didn't seem to know enough about those topics to effectively write about them.
I took an idea or a nugget away here and there, but overall this was pretty disappointing....more
"A life without grief is no life at all. But regret is a prison. Some part of you which you deeply value lies forever impaled at a crossroads you can "A life without grief is no life at all. But regret is a prison. Some part of you which you deeply value lies forever impaled at a crossroads you can no longer find and never forget."
This quote reads darker than the novel as a whole feels (with it's beautiful prose, strong characters, quick clip pace, and quiet low-drama reveals). But to me it's a bit of an anchor.
Bobby is trapped in his past, in his grief, yet remaking his life over and over. As a race care driver, a salvage diver, in a rustic cabin for a Montana winter, in a lighthouse in Spain. Episodes come out of order, each with a mystery that has no follow-up and each with a strong emotion (joy, fear, sadness) that is unfeelable for Bobby. He is very much frozen.
This takes the darkness and tension out of the telling in a way that astounded me. Because the novel doesn't become flat. Instead it's this illumination of how unreal reality is when you scrutinize it hard enough. Physics and math all boil down to philosophy and speculation at their leading edge.
"History is belief."
"...in the end you really cant know. You cant get hold of the world. You can only draw a picture."
Bobby's story is broken up by Alice/Alicia's conversations with her hallucinations, mainly "the thalidomide Kid" who puns, teases, and terrorizes her without ever quite being scary or mean. I can't wait to read Stella Maris and fill in more of Alice/Alicia's story....more
Full of a quiet sense of dread that leads to a secret revealed midway through. That secret brings Jadine and Son together, and then there's a new growFull of a quiet sense of dread that leads to a secret revealed midway through. That secret brings Jadine and Son together, and then there's a new growing sense of the irreconcilable sociocultural differences between the two of them. Their love is built on fear and that becomes scorn, then hatred.
The various and shifting allusions to the tar baby tale are fascinating. Sometimes it's a purely visual reference, sometimes symbolic, sometimes triggered by a single word or phrase, and sometimes a full-on parable. But always illuminating.
As a reader, both Jadine and Son resonated with me. Their core beliefs about life and what success looks like can't really create a Ven diagram, yet both are compelling in their way....more
I'm a little broken after reading this. The story is full of tragedy and darkness, but there's so much sympathy here for the characters, even in the fI'm a little broken after reading this. The story is full of tragedy and darkness, but there's so much sympathy here for the characters, even in the face of little mercy. Bone and her family do the best they can with what they know and have. It's often harmful, but mostly not meant so, with the clear exception of Daddy Glen.
The culture around the Boatwrights is pretty ugly - hatred of others, violence, desperate lack of resources and support, no attention to mental health, racism, etc. I wanted to scream at how the doctor and cop treat Bone towards the end of the novel. Not because it's poorly done or didn't feel real. It's the opposite, which makes it all the more frustrating and terrifying.
Dorothy Allison pulls no punches in this book. There is brutal, graphic violence. But she handles it deftly and manages to avoid any sense of voyeurism. Bone, Raylene, and even Anney are left their dignity....more
"The world IS, no matter how we think it ought to be. You have to be with it. You have to let it be."
That's George. He wants to just live his life, wi"The world IS, no matter how we think it ought to be. You have to be with it. You have to let it be."
That's George. He wants to just live his life, without making any mark, but his "effective dreaming" won't let him. Even as his psychologist, Huber, leads him to shape and reshape everything, he is compliant and meek. His lack of need to be God saves him, and the need to be God destroys Huber.
Le Guin is fantastic every time, and this book is no exception in that way. But it is a bit of an outlier for her in that it takes place on earth - solidly placed in my own home of Portland, Oregon in fact. The characters are realistic humans who live human lives.
The depth of the characters' psychological states, the realness of the setting, and the real-ness of the dystopian future Le Guin imagined all come together to give this book weight and impact. The plot is exciting and mysterious too, for the true sci-fi lovers, but for me the draw is the characters.
I also like the mystery of whether George's abilities are true within the world of the novel. At the start he is dying and then his dream changes things. But perhaps he is still dreaming, still dying. Perhaps, as he tells Heather:
"We are all dead, and we spoiled the world before we died. There is nothing left. Nothing but dreams."...more
This was a pretty haunting reading experience. Much is withheld and slowly revealed throughout the book through flashbacks. Not my favorite structure,This was a pretty haunting reading experience. Much is withheld and slowly revealed throughout the book through flashbacks. Not my favorite structure, but there are good character-driven reasons for the hidden information so it didn't bother me too much. Plus the reveals are fairly predictable and the plot clips along. There's some disbelief to suspend - but the decision to place the novel in a very near possible future where climate change is running its course helps.
I love how McConaghy plays symbolically with birds and their life stages (migration, especially) in her portrayal of Franny's life and motivations. The symbols are quite overt, but also chewed on, played with, and altered in ways that leave room for interpretation.
Franny is a wonderful, full character and I was endlessly intrigued by her. I was both sympathetic and baffled by Niall's obsession with her, and loved getting a better sense of him through the rare moments when he and Franny are in perfect harmony together.
The secondary characters - mainly the fishing boat crew - could have been better as individuals, but were great as a group to convey the camaraderie and deep trust that forms among people who face life and death together regularly.
I'm also not sure the epilogue should be there - a small thing....more
Part dystopian adventure, part satire, part philosophical treatise. Our hero travels the an uninhabited countryside, winding up in Erewhon (Nowhere). Part dystopian adventure, part satire, part philosophical treatise. Our hero travels the an uninhabited countryside, winding up in Erewhon (Nowhere). The key feature of Erewhon is that health issues, aging and ugliness are treated as criminal whereas moral failings/crimes are treated as illnesses to be pitied. If you have a headache, you hide it. If you have heart problems, you'll end up in prison. Meanwhile, if you embezzle money or have a dalliance with your neighbor's spouse, you see a "straightener" who might prescribe a boring diet and an occasional flogging.
The first half of the book focuses on our hero discovering and coming to understand this strange way of living. The second half gives over to philosophy in the eyes of Erewhonian thinkers (on eating animals, eating vegetables, reason and unreason, justice, the nature of time, the consciousness of machines) and bogged me down a bit.
Definitely thought-provoking!
A few quotes:
But who can say that the vapour engine has not a kind of consciousness? Where does consciousness begin, and where end? Who can draw the line? Who can draw any line? Is not everything interwoven with everything? Is not machinery linked with animal life in an infinite variety of ways?
Even a potato in a dark cellar has a certain low cunning about him which serves him in excellent stead. He knows perfectly well what he wants and how to get it. He sees the light coming from the cellar window and sends his shoots crawling straight thereto.
The writer went on to say that he anticipated a time when it would be possible, by examining a single hair with a powerful microscope, to know whether its owner could be insulted with impunity.
we cannot calculate on any corresponding advance in man’s intellectual or physical powers which shall be a set-off against the far greater development which seems in store for the machines. Some people may say that man’s moral influence will suffice to rule them; but I cannot think it will ever be safe to repose much trust in the moral sense of any machine.
Men will only do their utmost when they feel certain that the future will discover itself against them if their utmost has not been done....more
"Certainly then each one is himself each one is herself certainly then each one is that one in being one being living."
Well, I finished it. It took fo"Certainly then each one is himself each one is herself certainly then each one is that one in being one being living."
Well, I finished it. It took forever and it wasn't particularly fun. I can't think of anyone I'd recommend this book to. But as tedious and repetitive as it is, there is something truly unique here, and now that it's over I'm glad I read it.
A few phrases other reviewers have used that resonate with how I feel about this book:
From Publisher's Weekly - "exquisite narrative tedium"
From the New Yorker - "The first stunningly original disaster of modernism."
The Making of Americans is not unlike a very complex, multi-variable science experiment. In her scientific way, Stein is studying two things at once:
1. Understanding the depth and breadth of different people's psychological cores 2. Finding words to name and describe this understanding that are both accurate and can only be interpreted in one way.
The resulting writing is incredibly intentional and exhaustive. "Every word I am ever using in writing has for me very existing being," Stein's narrator writes. In practice, this makes for very tedious repetition. As I read, I could see Stein starting with a concept (family living, for example). She defines it in a small number of words. Then twists, turns and repeats those words in a variety of ways that subtly alter and add layers to her definition. Occasionally a new word is added and it's like a tiny earthquake. It's one word, but it offers a dozen new ways to repeat and refine. This continues for 925 pages.
And this is what I mean when I say that The Making of Americans is like a science experiment. The repetition allows for precision. Stein is listing and testing the range of each possible variable in human nature. Each variable must be understood across its spectrum (ex. from no loving feeling to nearly none to a little to a little more to a medium amount to a lot to a whole lot to always loving). Then it must be understood in situ - in relation to the other variables an individual has and to what level. And then it must be understood in motion - over time and through interaction with others. By over time, I mean that as an individual ages they may change, or they pretend to change, or they think they change but don't.
It's an ever-growing flowering of variation and each permutation and combination must be tested.
Some of the most discussed concepts are the bottom of a person, the stupid being, the family being, the loving being, the talking, the listening, the angry being, the sad being, the dependent independents who resist as fighting power, and the independent dependents who attack as fighting power.
Stein repeats and repeats, and so do we as people. This was an interesting concept to me, that we come to know people because they repeat the same behaviors that let us understand their values, priorities and interests. Some passages that speak to this:
"Slowly, more and more, one gets to know them as repeating comes out in them. In the middle of their living they are always repeating, everybody always is repeating in all of their whole living..."
“It is a wonderful thing as I was saying and as I am now repeating, it is a wonderful thing how much a thing needs to be in one as a desire in them how much courage any one must have in them to be doing anything if they are a first one.�
"Many go on all their life copying their own kind of repeating, many go on all their life copying some one else or some other kind of men or women's kind of repeating, some kind of being that hey have not in them. Every one mostly has in them their own repeating sometime in their living, this is real being in them, many millions are always all through their living copying their own repeating, some have this in them because they are indolent in living, it is easier for such of them just to go on with an automatic copying of their own repeating rather than really live inside them their repeating."
Towards the end, this passage woke me up from the tedium. I was newly struck by how we can all look at the same thing and see something different, based on what we care about, what we have experienced, and what we deem worth our notice. It continues much longer, here's the start:
"There are some who realise it of each thing that it is a pretty thing, there are some that realise it of each thing that it is an ugly thing, there are some who realise it of each thing that it is a funny thing, there are some who realise it of each thing that it is a tender thing, there are some who realise it of each thing that it has a pretty color, there are some who realise it of each thing that it has a pretty shape, there are some who realise it of each thing that it has a meaning..."...more
I went in a bit blind, but I really enjoyed this. Gide takes on a lot here:
-what it takes to write and a contribution to transforming the novel as a fI went in a bit blind, but I really enjoyed this. Gide takes on a lot here:
-what it takes to write and a contribution to transforming the novel as a form -a huge cast of characters with complex, changing identities and relationships -many perspectives, and both narrative and journal formats -subtle gay subtext (in 1925) -psychological musings that pack a punch -and also a plot with turns and surprises
It's not all perfect and some threads get dropped, but it's pretty close. And I love the abrupt crescendo of an ending.
Some quotes to keep:
"...that henceforth there would be a whole heap of delicate feelings whose fingers and hands I should hack away to prevent them from climbing into my heart and wrecking it."
"But of all these things that she has added to herself for my sake, nothing will remain -- not even a regret -- not even a sense of something missing. A day comes when the true self, which time has slowly stripped of all its borrowed raiment, reappears, and then, if it was of these ornaments that the other was enamoured, he finds that he is pressing to his heart nothing but an empty dress -- nothing but a memory -- nothing but grief and despair."
"In the domain of feeling, what is real is indistinguishable from what is imaginary."
"Many things escape the reason, and a person who should attempt to understand life by merely using his reason would be like a man trying to take hold of a flame with the tongs."
"It is true that there is no psychological truth unless it be particular; but on the other hand there is no art unless it be general. The whole problem lies just in that -- how to express the general by the particular -- how to make the particular express the general."
"One wants to deceive people, and one is so much occupied with seeming, that one ends by not knowing what one really is..."...more
Very readable and engaging, short and simply told. I was interested in Zweig's choice to tell this story from a remove (second-hand perspective) ratheVery readable and engaging, short and simply told. I was interested in Zweig's choice to tell this story from a remove (second-hand perspective) rather than diving in to Dr. B's perspective. It's very consciously done - our narrator even says at one point that Dr. B told him the story in "much more detail" than he's relating here. I suppose it lends itself to the novella form more easily, and keeps the psychological intensity at a lower level.
It's a story about Nazism and, really, about surviving psychological torture, but the second-hand perspective and the laser focus on chess make what could have been a terrifying, psychological thriller of a read more of an intellectually interesting read. I don't know that many authors would make the same narrative choices but with these parameters in place, it is beautifully done.
"All my life I have been passionately interested in monomaniacs of any kind, people carried away by a single idea. The more one limits oneself, the closer one is to the infinite."...more
This is a fascinating character-driven narrative that is deftly written. Not only are the characters fantastic, but the structure is so well done. TheThis is a fascinating character-driven narrative that is deftly written. Not only are the characters fantastic, but the structure is so well done. The story mostly takes place when the girls of the "Brodie set" are students, but there are extremely well-timed moments and hints about their futures that give us a foreboding sense of the darkness that will eventually become all too clear in Jean Brodie's unusual teaching style.
I was intrigued by the girls' ever-evolving understanding of what it means to be "in your prime." Spark also does an excellent job making the reader respect Brodie at first, then slowly destroying that feeling. In some ways, we experience the predator/prey relationship along with the girls....more
I'm very invested in Maisie Dobbs as a character, and as a series, but the mystery tropes that I dislike really crept in to bug me on this one - the aI'm very invested in Maisie Dobbs as a character, and as a series, but the mystery tropes that I dislike really crept in to bug me on this one - the arbitrarily withheld information, the luck and coincidence. There's also the occasional quick summary of what has already happened that comes with a series.
I was also bothered here by the blatant comparison of the plight of a Black soldier in the U.S. army in WW2, with the plight of Maisie's young daughter teased at school for her olive-tone skin. Not to say Anna's situation isn't awful but equating the two isn't right. The soldier is up against the culture of an entire nation and legally codified racism, Anna is up against a few mean people. Other than that comparison, race is only lightly touched here, and skittishly. ...more
Great story, great characters, but there's at least 200 pages of repetition and minutiae that bogged this down, especially in part 3. Dreiser is so coGreat story, great characters, but there's at least 200 pages of repetition and minutiae that bogged this down, especially in part 3. Dreiser is so concerned with getting across the weight and magnitude of the religious, politicial and class pressures that impact Clyde's actions (and his guilt) that they wind up overstated. The novel winds up feeling like preachy melodrama, which is crazy considering how devastating what happens truly is....more
This is a brilliant little novel and gave me the modern characterization and intensity that I was disappointed not to find in Of Human Bondage.
It staThis is a brilliant little novel and gave me the modern characterization and intensity that I was disappointed not to find in Of Human Bondage.
It starts out with a traditional feel - Kitty is a victim of first her too high self-regard, then her fear of missing out (in a way that only a member of the scrabbling almost-upper-class in late 19th/early 20th century England can be).
But quickly the story opens up and it's nothing short of fascinating. Kitty struggles under the yoke of her marriage to Walter, a shy, cerebral man she doesn't love. Walter knows she doesn't and never could, but he wanted her all the same. It's not healthy for either of them and, of course, implodes. Their hurt reactions to each other through the rest of the novel are complex, believable, and build on one another in a way that very nearly reads as horror. The tension is beautifully done.
And without giving away the end, I appreciated the inversion from the usual in who gets the ultimate punishment and who has hope here....more
I didn't enjoy this as much as I enjoyed the Great Plains Trilogy books (especially O Pioneers!). Perhaps it's the lack of a female lead or a somewhatI didn't enjoy this as much as I enjoyed the Great Plains Trilogy books (especially O Pioneers!). Perhaps it's the lack of a female lead or a somewhat less potent sense of place in the first half. The second half had the pueblo ruins, but in the first half I didn't have a visceral feel for the professor's house or town.
That's not to say the book isn't well done, more a reflection on what I've come to love and want from reading a Willa Cather novel. Here, the focus is on the professor's advancing depression as he slows down and wants to stay the same, but the world and his family keep advancing and changing around him. It's also about the meteoric impact that Tom Outland had on all their lives - the effects are widespread, both good and bad, and very much ongoing. Cather's focus on the psychological and relational implications, rather than on the events themselves, is what makes this a classic that stands the test of time....more
Overall, I enjoyed this, despite mystery not really being my thing. It's a classic, which helps. There are certainly reasons it continues to be read (Overall, I enjoyed this, despite mystery not really being my thing. It's a classic, which helps. There are certainly reasons it continues to be read (and put on as a musical) to this day. It does very much include the thing I dislike most about the mystery genre: an ending that ties up any and every loose thread, satisfies every curiosity, and sends surviving characters happily off into the sunset.
I enjoyed the first third as the mystery was set up and characters introduced most. I also loved the fantastical-seeming elements (disembodied voices, disappearing objects, the torture chamber). Their eventual explanations are pretty old-fashioned, but I forgive that since this was published in 1909.
I did find the phantom himself to be unbelievable as a character. I can accept the intense self-hatred hidden behind incredible pomp and need for control. But some of the evil things he does throughout the book are too evil for me to buy the very good things he does at the end. Especially given that Christine never offers him more than pity and obedience, something he already had from the Persian. It didn't feel like enough to change him the way the book asks us to believe....more
This started out very clunky. Heavy-handed thematically, which it remains throughout, but also just poorly written. Odd motivations, plot conveniencesThis started out very clunky. Heavy-handed thematically, which it remains throughout, but also just poorly written. Odd motivations, plot conveniences, flat or tell-not-show characterization. But by the time I got halfway through, most of those problems had fallen away. I don't know if Powers hit his stride or I fell in love with the story. Probably both.
The metaphors and themes are not remotely subtle. The descriptions of planets tie directly to what's occupying or happening to Theo and Robin. The Flowers for Algernon descriptions lay bare exactly what will happen for the rest of the novel. This I had to just accept.
I also had a minor quibble with the simplistic handling of psychotropic medicine, but Theo is entitled to his fatherly opinion. This I also accepted.
Because what Powers ultimately does here is masterful.
He tells the story of what happens when we won't stop destroying the earth, destroying truth, destroying politics, destroying science, destroying curiosity, destroying love, and destroying childhood.
The story is highly specific. At heart, it's about a grieving father and his also-grieving, autistic-perhaps son, and these characters are beautifully tender and depthful in the second half.
At the same time, it's a sharp rebuke of modern US politics and social systems (complete with characters who are basically Donald Trump and Greta Thunberg). Unfortunately, these parts can veer towards silly or preachy.
(view spoiler)[And, most of all, Powers manage to carry hope all the way through a novel that is dark and hopeless and tragic. Even in the end, in the face of unimaginable loss and the breakdown of humanity, there is hope. (hide spoiler)]
It leaves an awful lot to think about.
Quotes to keep: "The world is an experiment in inventing validity, and conviction is its only proof." "Earth had two kinds of people: those who could do the math and follow the science, and those who were happier with their own truths." "But maybe the Great Filter isn't behind us. Maybe it's ahead of us." [Great Filter = theory that a roadblock of some sort keeps us from being able to see or detect life elsewhere in the universe] "Only pure bewilderment kept us from civil war." "Dad, there's no room left. And everything's just starting. We need wider paper."...more
First, the negative. My main complaint is the ways the plot feels forced. The most egregious of these was Piranesi's disI'm of two minds on this one.
First, the negative. My main complaint is the ways the plot feels forced. The most egregious of these was Piranesi's discovery of torn up paper - not only the convenient timing of the discovery but the fact that he just didn't both to put the pieces together for weeks, until the right moment for the narrative. Piranesi also waits to look up the Other's name is his index because "it hadn't occurred to him." The fact that Clarke provides an excuse shows her own discomfort with that plot manipulation - Piranesi is curious by nature. There are smaller, similar forces on the plot -- things like this drive me crazy.
There's a lot on the positive side: the world-building is strong, Piranesi as a character is interesting and easy to love, the sense of place is strong, and unlike a lot of fantasy this isn't overly long nor does it feel like it's somehow trapped in medieval times as far as technology and gender roles. Most important of all, the ideas presented here about transgressive thinking (its dangers and its beauties) are thought-provoking, even haunting....more
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