Many of the books that I've read recently, not just on my book lists, but also ones that I've read for my own personal interest, are ones that seem to span large periods of time, sometimes even lifetimes, as in the case of The Old Wives Tale. So I delighted in the characters in Bel Canto being all confined to one single location (the vice president's home of a South American country) over a relatively short period of time (~4 months) and the entire story (epilogue excluded - which I'll get to) takes place all within this location and time frame. I absolutely loved it. The familiarity you gain with the setting, with each room, with the layout of each room in relation to each other, with each object in each room, with each character, with each person's attire, how each person's attire changes, with the passing of time as portrayed and importantly connected to the change in weather. All of these things are critical to the story. And I just loved it. It felt claustrophobic but in the absolute best way I've ever read. And maybe it harkens back to my love of books/movies that are set in mansions (see December 1, 2013 post for further discussion on this point), but I was hooked from the very first sentence.
The book is about Roxane Coss, an American opera singer, who has agreed to perform at the birthday party for a wealthy Japanese business man at the home of a South American vice president. The Japanese business man, Katsumi Hosokawa, agreed to have the party in the South American country under the pretense that he was interested in opening a factory there, but in actuality, only agreed to come because somehow they were able to hire his favorite opera singers, Ms. Coss, to perform, opera being the single personal indulgence he allows himself to love. However, during the party, a group of terrorists takes the entire group of high-class party attendees hostage, initially intending to acquire the president as their hostage, but unfortunately, the president is not in attendance. So the terrorists have to figure out what to do from there.
What happens from there, is a 4-month captivity of ~40 hostages (a large majority are released initially) from around the globe, many of whom cannot speak the same language, except for Mr. Hosokawa's translator who bears the burden of translating for nearly everyone. And during this time, a whole world of things change in so many ways, driven in part by Roxane's singing, which somehow seems to affect not just Mr. Hosokawa, but his translator, the other hostages, and all of their captors.
I guess I don't need to say again how much I loved this book. However, when I was reading and got to the end of each chapter, I kept expecting it to end with some kind of cliff hanger. Some kind of action related to the hostage situation going on outside to leave me on pins and needles (like, I don't know, some kind of action from the government to end the stand-off or some kind of foreshadowing about what was to come). But it really wasn't like that. Which, after a while, really made me settle down and accept that the book wasn't intended to be about the action of the events of the terrorism take-over going on outside the house, but the events going on internally between the characters inside the house. And that it was ok that the action was more quiet, and subtle and about them, and their interactions, and their moments. So those were what I was meant to feel and be left with after I finished a chapter. Not this urgent need to move on from action to ACTION to ACTION!!!! But to just hold onto these words and exchanges because, as I knew and as the reader knows, this does not, will not last. And I did not want this book to end. So many of the reviews that I've read of the book have said nearly the same thing, so that must be a damn good thing when you don't want your reader to let go of your characters, probably because you know how things will end.
There was an epilogue that I most certainly could have done without. It actually made me kind of grumpy afterwards. But I'll not give anything away, and let you decide for yourself what you think about it.
I did have a chance to watch the movie version of Bel Canto this week as well. I'd say it was a pretty decent version of the book, but something felt just not as emotionally gripping as the book. I think the casting was pretty great (Julianne Moore wouldn't have been my first choice but I liked her much more than I was expecting t0), and there were some modifications from the book that I didn't much mind (epilogue was excluded so I didn't shed a tear to see that gone). But it felt like it could have been a little bit longer and slower to just develop some of the connections to some of the characters that you get so much in the book. I enjoyed it, but would heartily recommend the book first.
Oh and did you know that the book was inspired by actual events when hundreds were taken hostage at the Japanese embassy in Lima, Peru in 1996 (opera singer excluded)?
So next up is back to the lists and on to July's People by Nadine Gordimer. I'm into the doldrums of summer and it's a short read so I'm hoping for this one to be a great, quick, engaging read!
Oh yeah, and 55 days until my 40th bday. Post about that and my lack of meeting the goal of this blog, Coming Soon! xoxo
Sunday, July 21, 2019
Sunday, June 30, 2019
"Memory Believes Before Knowing Remembers. Believes Longer Than Recollects, Longer Than Even Wonders."
I had never read anything by William Faulkner in high school. It seemed as though everyone else had to read As I Lay Dying in their English class but for some reason, my teacher chose not to include it for us. Go figure. So Light in August has been my first read of his. And I am aware that many say that he is, if not the greatest American writer, then certainly the greatest American writer from the south. And of the works that I've read from my lists, I seem to have recently chosen many writers who represent some of the writers who are most often named in any "best of" southern writers discussion and who provide a very distinct portrait of the south in the 20th century (Faulkner, Robert Penn Warren, Carson McCullers, Eudora Welty, Flannery O'Connor, and, begrudgingly to me, Erskine Caldwell). So I honestly didn't know what to expect from the book, but, 1) I did have high expectations, and 2) I may have gone in with a little bit of southern lit saturation, because I do feel like I've read a lot of it lately (although looking back at what I've read lately, it hasn't really been all that much).
Light in August tells the story of 3 main characters. First, Lena, a pregnant unwed young woman, who travels to Jefferson, Mississippi from Alabama in a quiet, dogged determination to find the father of her unborn child, convinced that he is an honest man and that he really intended to come back and marry her (spoiler alert: he is a big turd and he had no such intention). Second, Joe Christmas, a man who had arrived in Jefferson as a bit of a drifter and who no one knew much about, but the reader learns much about his history, and his mixed race background and the violence and difficulties that have plagued him as a result. Third, Gail Hightower, a former disgraced reverend, who has a very bitter streak against the people of Jefferson for his ousting from the church. There are multiple other important supporting characters, in particular, Byron, who falls in love with Lena and who may or may not do the right thing by her in regards to reuniting her with her baby daddy; Brown, Lena's baby daddy; and Joe Christmas' whack-a-do grandparents by birth who he has never met.
In the story, a murder occurs, and some very serious issues around race come to the forefront. Which isn't surprising, given that the novel was written and set in the early 1930s. While I was reading the book, I found myself very curious what Faulkner's sentiments were about racism, given that he was raised hearing stories in his family about the Ku Klux Klan. And while the sentiments of the book definitely don't condone it, they definitely didn't come down that hard against it either. And while there are a great MANY essays you can find out there about Faulkner's writings and their overall impact on race, it's less easy to find historical essays about his personal feelings about race. But it is clear that his writings themselves really seem to speak for themselves when it comes to how far he was willing to go to put issues of race out there for public discussion, certainly given that this work in particular was written in the 30s. A mixed race man having consensual sex with a white woman in her plantation home (a white woman who devotes her time to helping improve the lives of blacks in the south, incidentally) who goes on to murder her, and yet, who the reader still feels quite sympathetic towards as the rest of the events of the story unfold? Yes, I'd say there are a lot of layers there indeed.
I was expecting the actual writing to be more dense or more complicated or more flowery or more "extra" (as the kids these days would say). Or just more something, I guess. And again, I think that's because I came in with the expectation noted above. I expected to just be blown out of the water. And I don't think I necessarily was. I thought the book was wonderful, and again, it absolutely makes a statement about race given the time that it was written, and it also explored the concept of personal identity. I am very much looking forward to the other Faulkner works that I have on my list, because I suspect that they are going to be very different. And I'm kind of really looking forward to that.
Up next for a break from my reading lists during my 4th of July vacation week is Bel Canto by Ann Patchett, a book that I had purchased on a random book store whim a couple years ago and just haven't gotten around to reading yet. When I traveled to Thailand earlier this year, on our airline, we had many movie options to chose from, and the film version of this book was one of those options. So I had to do my best, when I would glance over to someone's seatback and see Julianne Moore and Ken Watanabe, to avert my eyes so as not to ruin the book and/or movie for myself before getting around to reading and/or watching. So I have the entire week off and expect to do nothing but sit on my fanny and read. So expect a quick run through this one!
218 left to read!
Light in August tells the story of 3 main characters. First, Lena, a pregnant unwed young woman, who travels to Jefferson, Mississippi from Alabama in a quiet, dogged determination to find the father of her unborn child, convinced that he is an honest man and that he really intended to come back and marry her (spoiler alert: he is a big turd and he had no such intention). Second, Joe Christmas, a man who had arrived in Jefferson as a bit of a drifter and who no one knew much about, but the reader learns much about his history, and his mixed race background and the violence and difficulties that have plagued him as a result. Third, Gail Hightower, a former disgraced reverend, who has a very bitter streak against the people of Jefferson for his ousting from the church. There are multiple other important supporting characters, in particular, Byron, who falls in love with Lena and who may or may not do the right thing by her in regards to reuniting her with her baby daddy; Brown, Lena's baby daddy; and Joe Christmas' whack-a-do grandparents by birth who he has never met.
In the story, a murder occurs, and some very serious issues around race come to the forefront. Which isn't surprising, given that the novel was written and set in the early 1930s. While I was reading the book, I found myself very curious what Faulkner's sentiments were about racism, given that he was raised hearing stories in his family about the Ku Klux Klan. And while the sentiments of the book definitely don't condone it, they definitely didn't come down that hard against it either. And while there are a great MANY essays you can find out there about Faulkner's writings and their overall impact on race, it's less easy to find historical essays about his personal feelings about race. But it is clear that his writings themselves really seem to speak for themselves when it comes to how far he was willing to go to put issues of race out there for public discussion, certainly given that this work in particular was written in the 30s. A mixed race man having consensual sex with a white woman in her plantation home (a white woman who devotes her time to helping improve the lives of blacks in the south, incidentally) who goes on to murder her, and yet, who the reader still feels quite sympathetic towards as the rest of the events of the story unfold? Yes, I'd say there are a lot of layers there indeed.
I was expecting the actual writing to be more dense or more complicated or more flowery or more "extra" (as the kids these days would say). Or just more something, I guess. And again, I think that's because I came in with the expectation noted above. I expected to just be blown out of the water. And I don't think I necessarily was. I thought the book was wonderful, and again, it absolutely makes a statement about race given the time that it was written, and it also explored the concept of personal identity. I am very much looking forward to the other Faulkner works that I have on my list, because I suspect that they are going to be very different. And I'm kind of really looking forward to that.
Up next for a break from my reading lists during my 4th of July vacation week is Bel Canto by Ann Patchett, a book that I had purchased on a random book store whim a couple years ago and just haven't gotten around to reading yet. When I traveled to Thailand earlier this year, on our airline, we had many movie options to chose from, and the film version of this book was one of those options. So I had to do my best, when I would glance over to someone's seatback and see Julianne Moore and Ken Watanabe, to avert my eyes so as not to ruin the book and/or movie for myself before getting around to reading and/or watching. So I have the entire week off and expect to do nothing but sit on my fanny and read. So expect a quick run through this one!
218 left to read!
Monday, March 18, 2019
"We Had More Than Any Two People In The World. And Then We Fell Down. First You, And Then Me. Yes, It Makes It Even. We're Down Here Together. But We're Not Up High Any More. Our Beautiful Mountain Is Gone."
About three quarters of
the way through The Postman Always Rings
Twice, I found myself
wondering what the title of the book was intended to mean. Because there was
absolutely no mail delivery in site anywhere in this novel.
And while clocking in at
a short 116 pages, man, was there a lot of story jam packed in there. The book
tells the story of Frank, a vagabond who finds himself at a diner in southern
California, where he is offered a job by Nick Papadakis (referred to throughout
the novel as "the Greek"), which he accepts and after seeing the Greek's
wife, Cora, in the kitchen, he immediately lusts for her. Turns out, Cora
isn't all that happy in her marriage, and takes an immediately liking to Frank
as well (I use the term "liking" loosely, as they pretty much just
start bangin right off the bat). And so the 2 of them hide their relationship
from the Greek and make plans to murder him, which goes awry (both times).
The writing in this novel is terse and almost like gunfire. It gets very much to the point but still has a way of alluding to events and feelings that the characters are having in a very successful way. The relationship between Frank and Cora is very intense, violent, and impulsive, which is also how the writing felt.
My initial thought of the meaning of the title was how it relates to the events in the novel...that you may not get away with something on the second try. But after slightly more research (ok, Wikipedia research), James M. Cain indicated in a conversation with screenwriter Vincent Lawrence that the title referred to the anxiety he felt waiting to hear back from publishers about his submitted manuscripts and that the postman would ring twice when he had news. After Cain discussed it in more detail, he decided that the phrase was appropriate to describe Frank's situation by the end of the novel: that he may have avoided fate the first time, but not the second. So I guess I wasn't all that far off in my assumption. And I love the seeming obscurity of the title in regards to the content of the story. I am a fan of things that make you think and come to your own conclusions, which this certainly did.
I haven't seen either of the 2 film versions of the novel (the 1946 version with Lana Turner and John Garfield or the 1981 version with Jack Nicholson and Jessica Lange, which I hear has some pretty intense sex scenes, which fits in pretty well with how it was described in the novel), but definitely would like to see one, if not both. James M. Cain went on to write Double Indemnity and Mildred Pierce, both of which became hit films and he became well known as a crime noir writer, although it sounds like he wasn't very fond of any kind of label being ascribed to his writing.
All in all, this was a quick and intense read, one that I appreciated very much. It's intriguing to me to see writers who can do so much with so few words, versus some of the other writers I've come across recently (I'm looking at you James Joyce and Gertrude Stein).
Up next is Light in August by William Faulkner. I've never read anything by Faulkner so I have no idea what to expect. Wish me luck.
219 to go. Happy St. Patty's Day!
Saturday, March 2, 2019
"He Existed. Not Many People In The World Knew How To, Even If They Had The Money."
I have never seen the film version of The Talented Mr. Ripley, although I was aware that the different characters were played by Matt Damon, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Philip Seymour Hoffman, so the entire time I was reading the book, I pictured all of them as the characters. Which normally I'm not a fan of (I like to create my own vision of who they are and what they look like based on the author's description, not based on a casting director's preference), but in this case, I kind of appreciated it. Although Gwyneth Paltrow felt a little miscast to me, but I'll wait to firm up that opinion until I actually see it. Which I'm very much looking forward to. Because I'm certain that after seeing the movie (and reading the book), I'm going to want to ditch it all and go live on the Italian seashore with sojourns up to Rome and Venice. And live like a rich American ex-pat (which I am most decidedly, not).
I won't give a lengthy recap of the book, but the main gist of the story is that Tom Ripley is a bit of a hustler in New York and is given the opportunity by a rich businessman to go find his son, Dickie Greenleaf, in Italy and try to convince him to return to the US to be around for his sick mother and to eventually take over his shipping business. But once in Italy, Tom develops a significant attachment (love?) for Dickie and the two form a fast, tight friendship. But the situation changes, and Tom makes a decision that he would prefer to continue his adventures in Italy and Europe as the person in Dickie that he idolizes.
The portrait of Tom Ripley is an excellent one. Of an insecure, petulant person who craves being accepted. So moments when people even present a hint of making fun of him or seeing him as a lesser person than he sees himself cause him to flip the switch in his mind and lose it emotionally, usually acting out in a violent way. He was a very convincing sociopath who, for the most part, didn't seem like a sociopath. And oddly, I kind of found myself rooting for him; rooting for him to "get away with it". And it kind of ruined the suspense of the ending for me knowing that there were 4 books written by Patricia Highsmith about Tom Ripley's "adventures". So sorry for possibly having ruined the ending for you too.
I loved having this book in the mix. I haven't read a good suspenseful type murder book in a while, particularly one that was coupled with such a solid portrait of the villain/main character and told from his point of view. I'd highly recommend it, particularly if you haven't seen the movie and don't know much about the book (as I did); I think I enjoyed it more this way. But I cannot wait to see the movie.
The next book I've already started on is The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain. Similar to The Talented Mr. Ripley, I'm aware that this is a movie with Jack Nicholson and Jessica Lange, and so I find myself picturing them in the 2 main roles, but beyond that, I don't know anything about the movie or storyline. This is a pretty short book so I'm guessing I'll be through it by the end of the weekend. Knocking books off the lists like a boss!
220 to go.
Side note: so I am painfully aware that in just over 7 short months, I will be hitting my 40th birthday. And while the original intent of this blog was to read all of these books by my 40th birthday, I have realized perhaps that I didn't fully appreciate the size of the task when I first started doing this in 2012. Because across the lists, which the duplicates removed, there are 326 books, and when I stared in 2012, I had already read 72. So yes, in just less than 7 years, I've only read 34 books...just slightly short of the 254 that I needed to read. My second post over on this blog pointed out how feasible this would likely not be (I would have needed to average about 3 books per month), so I'm not surprised that this didn't happen. In all fairness, I have been mixing in other non-list books, which brings my total read in 79 months to 42 books. So rather than 2 books/month, I'm averaging closer to 2 months/book. I hope to up this in the coming days, but in the meantime, I'll just keep moving that bar farther out. We'll reassess once the dreaded 4-0 crashes down on my head.
Happy Saturday!
I won't give a lengthy recap of the book, but the main gist of the story is that Tom Ripley is a bit of a hustler in New York and is given the opportunity by a rich businessman to go find his son, Dickie Greenleaf, in Italy and try to convince him to return to the US to be around for his sick mother and to eventually take over his shipping business. But once in Italy, Tom develops a significant attachment (love?) for Dickie and the two form a fast, tight friendship. But the situation changes, and Tom makes a decision that he would prefer to continue his adventures in Italy and Europe as the person in Dickie that he idolizes.
The portrait of Tom Ripley is an excellent one. Of an insecure, petulant person who craves being accepted. So moments when people even present a hint of making fun of him or seeing him as a lesser person than he sees himself cause him to flip the switch in his mind and lose it emotionally, usually acting out in a violent way. He was a very convincing sociopath who, for the most part, didn't seem like a sociopath. And oddly, I kind of found myself rooting for him; rooting for him to "get away with it". And it kind of ruined the suspense of the ending for me knowing that there were 4 books written by Patricia Highsmith about Tom Ripley's "adventures". So sorry for possibly having ruined the ending for you too.
I loved having this book in the mix. I haven't read a good suspenseful type murder book in a while, particularly one that was coupled with such a solid portrait of the villain/main character and told from his point of view. I'd highly recommend it, particularly if you haven't seen the movie and don't know much about the book (as I did); I think I enjoyed it more this way. But I cannot wait to see the movie.
The next book I've already started on is The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain. Similar to The Talented Mr. Ripley, I'm aware that this is a movie with Jack Nicholson and Jessica Lange, and so I find myself picturing them in the 2 main roles, but beyond that, I don't know anything about the movie or storyline. This is a pretty short book so I'm guessing I'll be through it by the end of the weekend. Knocking books off the lists like a boss!
220 to go.
Side note: so I am painfully aware that in just over 7 short months, I will be hitting my 40th birthday. And while the original intent of this blog was to read all of these books by my 40th birthday, I have realized perhaps that I didn't fully appreciate the size of the task when I first started doing this in 2012. Because across the lists, which the duplicates removed, there are 326 books, and when I stared in 2012, I had already read 72. So yes, in just less than 7 years, I've only read 34 books...just slightly short of the 254 that I needed to read. My second post over on this blog pointed out how feasible this would likely not be (I would have needed to average about 3 books per month), so I'm not surprised that this didn't happen. In all fairness, I have been mixing in other non-list books, which brings my total read in 79 months to 42 books. So rather than 2 books/month, I'm averaging closer to 2 months/book. I hope to up this in the coming days, but in the meantime, I'll just keep moving that bar farther out. We'll reassess once the dreaded 4-0 crashes down on my head.
Happy Saturday!
Saturday, February 16, 2019
"They Both Knew That The Women Who Cried At Night Were The Women Who Died In The Morning. Sadness And Loss Were Drawn In With Each Breath But Never Expelled. You Couldn't Give In. Not For A Second."
By my estimation, I've read just over 1000 pages in about a month. But I just couldn't help it. I totally got sucked into The Nightingale.
I've read quite a few novels based during WWII, but this one was different than ones I've read. It was from the perspective of 2 sisters living in Nazi-occupied France: one sister, Isabelle, is impetuous, stubborn, and enraged by the German occupation of France whereas the other sister, Vianne, is keen to just follow the new (awful) rules set out by the German occupiers in order to protect her daughter. Throughout the course of the war, each finds themselves handling the situation very differently, but ultimately doing what they can to help others. Isabelle helps establish an escape route for downed airmen through the Pyrenees into Spain, guiding hundreds of men to safety on a treacherous route and Vianne saves her Jewish friend's son and forges papers to make him her own and eventually hides many Jewish children in the local convent orphanage.
I appreciated the fact that this novel was about how women made an impact during the war, as part of the resistance or trying to help save others. In fact, there is a statement in the last few pages of the novel asking why one of the characters had never heard anything about how people escaped over the mountains or that there was a concentration camp just for women who resisted the Nazis, and this is the answer:
"'Men tell stories,' I say. It is the truest, simplest answer to his question. 'Women get on with it. For us it was a shadow war. There were no parades for us when it was over, no medals or mentions in history books. We did what we had to during the war and when it was over, we picked up the pieces and started our lives over."
It's good to know that these stories are being shared more widely. Because there is certainly truth to the above statement. And of course the soldiers who fought were certainly heroes, but there were so many other moments of courage and heroism in everyday decisions by women who remained in the war-torn areas. And the novel asks the question for all of us: what would we do in those circumstances? Would we have the courage to fight back? Would we risk our own lives to fight something so evil? So sometimes I need to read novels like this to jolt me back into the understanding that of how awful WWII truly was and how the human spirit can triumph in spite of that, and those who did risk their lives (oftentimes losing their lives as a result) to fight such evil in even the smallest ways were absolute heroes.
So now I go back to the book lists. Up next is The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith. I haven't seen the movie, but I probably will make it a point to watch it after I'm done (although I said the same thing a couple years ago about Sophie's Choice, and I still haven't gotten around to watching that either). And for some reason, I seem to think this book is about a mystical golf caddy, but I know I'm just confusing my Matt Damon movies. Wish me luck!
Happy Saturday!
I've read quite a few novels based during WWII, but this one was different than ones I've read. It was from the perspective of 2 sisters living in Nazi-occupied France: one sister, Isabelle, is impetuous, stubborn, and enraged by the German occupation of France whereas the other sister, Vianne, is keen to just follow the new (awful) rules set out by the German occupiers in order to protect her daughter. Throughout the course of the war, each finds themselves handling the situation very differently, but ultimately doing what they can to help others. Isabelle helps establish an escape route for downed airmen through the Pyrenees into Spain, guiding hundreds of men to safety on a treacherous route and Vianne saves her Jewish friend's son and forges papers to make him her own and eventually hides many Jewish children in the local convent orphanage.
I appreciated the fact that this novel was about how women made an impact during the war, as part of the resistance or trying to help save others. In fact, there is a statement in the last few pages of the novel asking why one of the characters had never heard anything about how people escaped over the mountains or that there was a concentration camp just for women who resisted the Nazis, and this is the answer:
"'Men tell stories,' I say. It is the truest, simplest answer to his question. 'Women get on with it. For us it was a shadow war. There were no parades for us when it was over, no medals or mentions in history books. We did what we had to during the war and when it was over, we picked up the pieces and started our lives over."
It's good to know that these stories are being shared more widely. Because there is certainly truth to the above statement. And of course the soldiers who fought were certainly heroes, but there were so many other moments of courage and heroism in everyday decisions by women who remained in the war-torn areas. And the novel asks the question for all of us: what would we do in those circumstances? Would we have the courage to fight back? Would we risk our own lives to fight something so evil? So sometimes I need to read novels like this to jolt me back into the understanding that of how awful WWII truly was and how the human spirit can triumph in spite of that, and those who did risk their lives (oftentimes losing their lives as a result) to fight such evil in even the smallest ways were absolute heroes.
So now I go back to the book lists. Up next is The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith. I haven't seen the movie, but I probably will make it a point to watch it after I'm done (although I said the same thing a couple years ago about Sophie's Choice, and I still haven't gotten around to watching that either). And for some reason, I seem to think this book is about a mystical golf caddy, but I know I'm just confusing my Matt Damon movies. Wish me luck!
Happy Saturday!
Saturday, February 9, 2019
"What Affected Her Was That He Had Once Been Young, And That He Had Grown Old, And Was Now Dead. That Was All. Youth And Vigour Had Come To That. Youth And Vigour Always Came To That. Everything Came To That."
For some strange reason, the version of The Old Wives' Tale that I ordered on Amazon came as a plain orange paperback with the title and author on the front and a very brief statement on the back about how Arnold Bennett was inspired to write the book based on a grotesque old woman that he encountered in a Parisian restaurant. Inside, other than the text of the novel, there is nothing else. No copyright information, no about the author, no introductions or dedications. The text literally starts on the very first piece of paper after the cover and ends on the last piece of paper before the back cover. Bootlegged copy perhaps? Who knows. But the one thing that bugged the ever-living shit out of me while reading this book, was that the page numbers were done in Roman numerals. Given that the book was dlxxxviii pages long (for those of you not well-versed in the ancient Roman counting system, that's 588), it was beyond irritating to have to do letter math when I just wanted to figure out what page I was on vs how many pages were left in the book. In spite of the long and rich story contained within the plain orange paperback cover, unfortunately, I'm most likely to remember this detail most about the book.
The Old Wives' Tale is the story about 2 sisters in the mid to late 19th century living in the town of Bursley, a small provincial town in England. Constance, is the dutiful, obedient, plain-looking daughter and Sophia is the beautiful, obstinate, willful daughter. They live in the lodgings attached to their father's millenary store, and follow the goings-on of the small town in the square outside their windows. Sophia causes a scandal when she runs off with a travelling salesman who would occasionally come to the shop, while Sophia dutifully marries the man who works in the shop and takes over after her father's death.
The rest of the story tells of the 2 women's lives: Constance has a son (also a stubborn and self-centered child) and lives quite contentedly in her small town with son and husband until her husband's early death and her son's abandonment of her for schooling in London. Sophia marries her salesman and travels to Paris where they live elaborately for a few years until her husband blows through all of his inheritance and leaves her. Sophia goes on to make a name for herself as a lodging/hotel proprietress. They both live their lives completely independent of each other for ~30 years until a friend of Constance's son identifies Sophia while staying at her hotel. Sophia eventually reconnects with her sister and moves back to small-town Bursley, and the 2 sisters live together into their old age.
Overall, there wasn't really all that much special about the book. The stories of the 2 sisters was interesting, but the writing was very straightforward, explanatory prose. The story kept my attention, but I wasn't wowed by anything really that happened.
I did schlep this giant book 22,116 miles across to globe to read on vacation in Cambodia and Thailand. I had lots of quality airplane time and lots of quality beach time in Koh Yao Noi to do nothing but read the tale of the lives of the 2 Baines sisters. And I'm actually quite glad that I did. Because I suspect this book would have taken me MONTHS to get through under normal circumstances. But because there was a lot of forced downtime, I motored my way through it. So while it literally was a pain to have this giant deadweight book with me all the time, it was a pretty good way to get through a hefty novel.
I also schlepped the equally giant book The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah with me on vacation (yes, I devoted like 7 lbs of luggage weight to books, including my Thailand travel book. And in case you attempt my folly, most Asian airlines have weight limits for your carry-on luggage, so I wouldn't advise bringing along 1300+ pages of books). So I'm progressing quite quickly through this book as well. Unintentionally, the book is also about 2 sisters, this time during WWII in France. I guess historical fiction is where I'll be hanging out for a while.
Happy Saturday! 221 more books to go!
The Old Wives' Tale is the story about 2 sisters in the mid to late 19th century living in the town of Bursley, a small provincial town in England. Constance, is the dutiful, obedient, plain-looking daughter and Sophia is the beautiful, obstinate, willful daughter. They live in the lodgings attached to their father's millenary store, and follow the goings-on of the small town in the square outside their windows. Sophia causes a scandal when she runs off with a travelling salesman who would occasionally come to the shop, while Sophia dutifully marries the man who works in the shop and takes over after her father's death.
The rest of the story tells of the 2 women's lives: Constance has a son (also a stubborn and self-centered child) and lives quite contentedly in her small town with son and husband until her husband's early death and her son's abandonment of her for schooling in London. Sophia marries her salesman and travels to Paris where they live elaborately for a few years until her husband blows through all of his inheritance and leaves her. Sophia goes on to make a name for herself as a lodging/hotel proprietress. They both live their lives completely independent of each other for ~30 years until a friend of Constance's son identifies Sophia while staying at her hotel. Sophia eventually reconnects with her sister and moves back to small-town Bursley, and the 2 sisters live together into their old age.
Overall, there wasn't really all that much special about the book. The stories of the 2 sisters was interesting, but the writing was very straightforward, explanatory prose. The story kept my attention, but I wasn't wowed by anything really that happened.
I did schlep this giant book 22,116 miles across to globe to read on vacation in Cambodia and Thailand. I had lots of quality airplane time and lots of quality beach time in Koh Yao Noi to do nothing but read the tale of the lives of the 2 Baines sisters. And I'm actually quite glad that I did. Because I suspect this book would have taken me MONTHS to get through under normal circumstances. But because there was a lot of forced downtime, I motored my way through it. So while it literally was a pain to have this giant deadweight book with me all the time, it was a pretty good way to get through a hefty novel.
I also schlepped the equally giant book The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah with me on vacation (yes, I devoted like 7 lbs of luggage weight to books, including my Thailand travel book. And in case you attempt my folly, most Asian airlines have weight limits for your carry-on luggage, so I wouldn't advise bringing along 1300+ pages of books). So I'm progressing quite quickly through this book as well. Unintentionally, the book is also about 2 sisters, this time during WWII in France. I guess historical fiction is where I'll be hanging out for a while.
Happy Saturday! 221 more books to go!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)