Starting this 1942 novel. Opening 21 pages are terrific.

My new audiobook, selected to carry me far away from the daily catastrophic news. Three hours there is a whole lot on 18th-century botanist Joseph Banks.

Hmm. Does it work? This novel is actually two separate stories in each in a kind of distinct contrast. Chapters alternate. One is a medical student who abandons his career to run off with a married woman. The other is a convict who gets lost during the 1927 Mississippi flood, and finds himself floating alone in a small boat with a woman in labor.

These stories are ok, but really only for Faulkner completists.

I love Deborah Levy. She's always a little absurd and it's always entertaining. This is her first of several memoirs, covering mainly her time in South Africa while her father was imprisoned for about five years for speaking against Apartheid, and then some of her time in England.

I want to read her other memoirs, but this will be the only one I listen to (free on audible). I didn‘t like the reader.

Hollinghurst, the gay author, is a beautiful, elegant, paced writer. And this audiobook is read perfectly. But, whoa, slow. David Winn has many layers of separation between his single mother home, half-Burmese appearance, gay sexuality, and those of wealthy, elite-school classmates. The book keeps going through his 1970‘s acting career, many relationships, and on to covid. A little too much too slowly for this listener. But I liked the style.

This was my January book. It‘s a chunk and it‘s slow, and has a massive amount of research (which Byatt said was rewarding). The book takes English children of the 1870‘s, born into the liberal artistic intellectual world of the Fabian Society, and carries us with them through WWI, after which they are clearly no longer children. I adored this massive thing and its vast spread across 50 characters. I read it with a Booker group on fb.

The Buccaneers - Book 3
#whartonbuddyread

Ok, 1st of all, I didn‘t see that marriage happening. What a devastating way to open book 3.

2nd - that‘s the end of Wharton‘s draft.

3rd - but she also left a synopsis. So we know what is going to happen. But that‘s looking ahead.

4th - so, Book 3 - thoughts on Longlands, Ushant, Dowager, Thwarte, Conchita, Testvalley, Lizzy Robinson?

5th - completion plan next week. See comments.

The ruins of Tintagel castle in Cornwall

The Buccaneers - Book 2
#whartonbuddyread

Scene switch: We‘re in England, and new American wealth collides with English heirs. Nan has romantic interludes. Lady Churt confronts Seadown and Virginia. Then, Tintagle confronts Testvalley. What would you have liked Testvalley to say?

Where are you all with this, within your Wharton mindset?

I‘ve been working through this as i‘ve had time. I might have finally gotten to the point of enjoying it. The first 150 pages were not all that fun.

Reading my first Woolf novel.

Here‘s an early quote:
Since he belonged, even at the age of six, to that great clan which cannot keep this feeling separate from that, but must let future prospects, with their joys and sorrows, cloud what is actually at hand, since to such people even in earliest childhood any turn in the wheel of sensation has the power to crystallise and transfix the moment upon which its gloom or radiance rests…

My new audio. This is the 1st of several memoirs - and it‘s free on audible. Writing is fun. (Reader is crappy - but not so bad that I can‘t tolerate her. I think Juliette Stephenson reads an edition. Maybe find that)

Deborah Levy writes about growing up in South Africa, her father imprisoned for speaking against Apartheid.

The Buccaneers - Book 1

Five girls in NY in a world largely developed for us by the adults - Mrs. St. George, satirized shallow housewife and mother, and Ms. Testvalley, an out-of-style English Governess with Italian parents. We see several other characters and one interesting scene with all five girls welcoming the governess. We are back in time again, Age of Innocence era - which doesn‘t excuse the casual racism that closes Book 1. Thoughts?

Something I found used in California and have been paging through

Short listed for the #Booker in 1980, and something of a cult classic. The story of a wwi vet with PTSD from London who goes to York, hired to restore a whitewashed medieval mural in a tiny town. It‘s endearing and quietly wonderful.

I‘ve been picking away at this since Dec 27. I‘m sort of mostly done, but just wanted to share what I‘m actively listening to.

This is my first Hollinghurst, so I‘m just learning what an elegant prose writer he is. Everything is beautiful. It‘s also really long, patient and slow. The life a gay actor on an Oxford scholarship.

Getting started. #whartonbuddyread

Reminder - two weeks till next #whartonbuddyread 😍

A soft pick. A Native American history focused on the way the many different tribes responded to, and managed, European encroachment, each responding in their own way. The info is solid. The tone is strange. A lot to of pro-native bias - like way over the top.

Some sass, some absurdity, and a lot of Auld Lang Syne sung at night on the curb. Spark writes about a writer working in her first novel in 1950, in “modern times”. An autobiographical touch. But the story is ridiculous and fun, and, as it‘s Spark, hangs around. Everyone should read Muriel Spark.

My 13th Faulkner book, here a collection of linked stories, was also the easiest Faulkner to read. It was a nice break after Absalom. These stories cover the civil war from the perspective of two boys at home in Mississippi, one white and one a loyal slave. Told in 1st person, it reads like a document of an era, although it‘s not clear what Faulkner‘s sources were. Could have been his own imagination. Anyway, possibly a good intro to Faulkner.

A long look at the mixture of cultural elements in lawyer‘s family in some unspecified village outside Dehli. And then a depressing parallel in Massachusetts. The 1st hundred pages are vibrant and dynamic and I truly loved reading them. The fun fades and purpose is curious. But I enjoyed the book overall.

My current book. The first easy to read Faulkner… (this will be my 13th Faulkner)

#booker #booker2024 #longlist

My last longlist book. This is an interesting narrative style, a series of snapshots from each fighter‘s past, future, and rather violent present. The 8 girls fighting for the u-18 boxing championship in-front of 12 fans in a neglected arena. But the narrative is doing a lot more than just following our neglected lady gladiators.

My full longlist summary will go in the comments.

A lot of deep Faulkner readers say this is his best book. I found it hard - 4-min/pg hard. It propels itself. But it didn‘t leave me in awe. Just exhausted. My 12th Faulkner novel, and by far the most difficult to read.

- #whartonbuddyread
- Feb 1 - Book 1
- Feb 8 - Book 2
- Feb 15 - Book 3

An unfinished novel. We‘ll discuss book 1 in six weeks.

I‘m learning Penelope Fitzgerald was a special writer. Fell in love with The Blue Flower earlier this year, and have now read this one - a bad good marriage in 1950‘s Florence with a doctor too rational to acknowledge his emotions. Ok, that‘s humble. Now hand it over to Penelope and her backhanded, almost absurd, striking lines. 🥰

My current audiobook. This is the recent winner of the 2024 Cundill History Prize. The language is a little overkill in lifting up the native image and condemning the European one. But the info has been good.

My next book. I started this morning

Starting my last from the #Booker2024 #longlist. This is my first book after drowning in Faulkner‘s Absalom, Absalom! for 20 hours at 4-minutes a page. So, this one is so far crazy fast and clear

My 12th from the #Booker #longlist. One more to go.

A sensitive thriller? A low-level violent drug-deal abduction, that becomes very interested in the sensitive nature of its characters. The pacing is careful but controlled. When we want it to move on, it holds its course. Be patient dear reader. I enjoyed it.

#Booker2024

This eventually was terrific. She talks about Chinese universal surveillance, the apparent arbitrariness of law enforcement to prevent rebellion. And the problem of openness around AI. A known code is useful. But if hidden, it seems random and becomes dangerous. And she talks about the predictive nature of ChatGPT, how it predicts language patterns, and so makes things up, conjuring facts. I found the 1st 7 hrs dull, the last 2 fascinating.

This was a fantastic introduction to Keats. Miller takes a famous poem and writes a biographical essay around it. Then she moves on to another poem. So readers get to his most famous poems and then reads about them. Keats died of tuberculosis in 1821, age 26. Almost all his famous poems date from 1818-to-1820. Three magical years in a tragic life. This is recommended. I‘m left in love with Keats.

Enjoying a little rain. I‘ve been hiding from the world in this 14th-century text.

This was a truly great and special, if too brief, experience for me. I had never read ED. Her poems are short, their meanings slightly hidden, their power in a lingering aspect that takes some time to pick up on.

So my reading experience was very much about adapting, and learning. Also gained a lot from The Prowling Bee, a blog on Dickinson. Highly recommended: bloggingdickinson.blogspot.com

See, collar off. 🐕

Starting my 12th from the Booker longlist.
#booker #booker2024 #longlist

Ok. It had a lot of information I didn‘t know, that i did find interesting. He‘s thorough on facts, but he‘s soft on that kind of look-back analysis. And the writing is just poor.

Not sure exactly what Wharton was doing here as her artist wanders through all sorts of writing and social circumstances, and his one time muse, now lover, gets neglected, left behind, forgotten. I waited for her seek independence, but Wharton wasn‘t writing for me. I merely got a wink. Still, it‘s pleasant reading. #whartonbuddyread @Lcsmcat

My pup is out of this lion costume collar now. Surgery went well, recovering largely done.

Powers is an author determined to make quality fiction out of pertinent science. Here he tosses us a red herring, when a social media leader, author of AI-based Playground, suffering from a disease that affects his mind, looks at the oceans. I was waiting for the environmental hammer, but his focus is different. Thought-provoking. Not subtle.

Just getting going on audio. It‘s ok so far.

I‘m reading a fantastic book on Keats. This is my introduction to him. (I keep seeing the word “Keatsian”. Lately in reference to Wilfred Owen and Emily Dickinson. I‘m trying to understand what this word means.)

By the way - Lucasta Miller undermines “Therefore” above - which she says he knowingly knew was inappropriate here. 🙂

A woman has become mute. She has lost her husband, teaching job, and custody of her 8-yr-old son. Lost herself, she takes a course in Ancient Greek taught by an instructor about her age who is losing his sight. Somehow a gentle warm story comes out of this, layered onto of darker histories and life pains, and terrific interesting prose. This completes my two week run through Han‘s four English-translated novels. (Another is due out in January)

Han begins with a room of unclaimed corpses. South Korea has a dark history. In May 1980, in response to a coup, university students and young female factory workers joined to inspire an uprising in Gwangju, a university town. The government responded with an intentionally brutal crackdown and massacre. Han, a born in Gwangju, is uncharacteristically direct here, and brings us to the crackdown and to its long aftermath. It‘s an important book.

This is an old obscure book left on my mother‘s shelves. I think it‘s actually a 1963 printing. Anyway, I‘ve started. The author grew up in Hawaii. Molokai was the leprosy quarantine island in the 19th century.

Starting the next book - more from Nobel winner Han Kang

This reads like a collection of prose poetry. A series of white things, with a theme on an older sister who only lived a couple hours. Each topic gets a page or so. A blizzard is characterized by "this oppressive weight of beauty", a handkerchief is falling "like a soul tentatively sounding out the place it might alight". Very interesting, if generally mystifying to me.

Working through Han‘s novels. They‘re short! And only 4 in English. I started with her International Booker Prize winner. Ok - you might know the theme, the wife who turns vegetarian driving everyone crazy. What you may not know is how fun this book is up front, and how opaque is becomes. We never get her view. Only those around her, and these narrators have serious issues. But also it always undermined what I expected. Thought provoking.

I‘ve been listening to this. It‘s an example of awkward writing mixed with seemingly excellent information. The writing is about as finessed as the audio cover image - an audiobook produced by the author. Despite all that, I‘m getting good stuff out of this so far.

This is an attempt to use William Faulkner to explain southern culture. The idea is maybe the unspoken, Faulkner being known for not telling us what he‘s reading about. The Civil War and its mythology are central to Faulkner‘s work and yet lightly touched, at best. Another oddity is that Faulkner the writer was a better person than the RL Faulkner. He was moderate on race (ie racist), but his writing demanded more human treatment.

Tough day for Pepper. Two weeks of this thing on her head. Meanwhile I‘ve started another Han Kang novel.

150 pages with maybe 80 pages of actual text, the rest white space. It reads like a series of prose poems on white things. Although not poetic in rhythm, the feelings they left me with are very similar that of Emily Dickinson‘s poetry that I‘m currently reading. Han writes of about an older sister who lived for 2 hours in Korea, while looking out at snowy Warsaw, Poland.