The autorenew came up and I was prompted to think whether I should continue. Because most of life is aspirational, I decided to continue this personal blog in order to prompt good writing habits and to prompt reflection. It was an eventful year and I feel documenting it would be a good mental exercise. Goals for this year: to just read the books I already own and have not yet read. Unless I really, really want it. For example , if Patrick Rothfuss finally decides to publish the last book in the KingKiller trilogy, I am not going to deny myself. Let’s see what happens.

We are at a hinge point in history.  If not in the long arc of human history, at least in the shortened view of our immediate lives.  I am currently reading about the essays of Montaigne and it seems like a resource that is not only worthy of study and reflection but also an example for my own self reflection as an itinerant memoirist.  Reflect inwards and document your thoughts.  What else does one know best?   

We are at a hinge point in history.  Tomorrow is the election of 2020.   It has taken so much mental energy and angst that I have attempted to retreat somewhat away from the world.  If not fully, at least from social media, which is whipping itself into a frenzy like a titanic battle between a sperm whale and a giant squid during a furious storm and we on our small boats can only grimly hold on and wait for the sound and fury to die down before loosening the battens and peering out of the hatches into the new day. 

I have confidence in the scientific measure of the polling that Biden will win and win rather easily.  One cannot discount the possibility of another black swan event, however and even if the probabilities hold and the expected outcome occurs, there are many alternate futures that involve violence and turmoil continuing long into the winter.  I fear that that passions and underlying issues that have led us to this point will not easily dissipate.  I hope that the future I experience will be relatively placid and calm, but until we start down the path, one cannot help but imagine the worst. 

I have been reading some books about alternate histories.  I will try to write some reviews as I had pledged to do several years ago and work through my unread collection of books.   I recently read ’The Midnight Library’ which relates the possibilities of living out the different choices that you make in your life.  The ultimate message is rather trite but still comforting, that the choices in your life are less important than your outlook and attitude towards your life.   You only have one life in reality and sometimes it’s good and sometimes it’s bad but your approach is what matters. 

Kara’s mother died on Sunday after a rather rapid decline from pancreatic cancer.   Kara had been caring for her down in Santa Cruz and had only come up to San Francisco for the day for her daughter to attend some Halloween party and sleep over with her all-important teenage girlfriends.  Her mother died early that morning and Kara was not there.   I am not sure how she feels about this but I think it probably was for the best.   Kara had said her goodbyes and what was left of her mother when she left was just a flickering shell of her former self.  I hope that the aftermath will be kind to her. 

Montaigne writes about ‘how to live’ but relates the aphorism that philosophy is really the study of how to die.  I hope that my reading about his work will be instructive in both respects. 

Julian Fellowes – Kindle

I originally wanted to read this book because I had torn through the Crazy Rich Asians trilogy by Kevin Kwan and it was one of the books recommended by a social climbing character to develop an insight into the British upper class.  Since I had been also thinking that I wanted to restart Downton Abbey from where I left off around the end of Season 2 and I am an avowed Woodhouse and Austen fan, it seemed like a good choice that ticked off a lot of my boxes of interest. 

The book itself is an enjoyable light frothy confection of a story that is actually more of an exercise in describing the social milieu of the English nobility and the showbiz world.  It is not so much a comedy of manners as a somewhat sad story of a woman making choices in the social environments in which she swims. 

 One of the things that I like about both Snobs and Crazy Rich Asians is that while there are ridiculous characters that are caricatures of themselves that are usually gently mocked, there is never any real judgement by the authors of the society that they are describing.  It is a world with its rules and points system for gauging success that is part of the human condition.  We all have our place within our chosen groups and understand the inherent rules and unwritten conventions of those groups.  Whether you are an ‘A’ gay in WeHo or a church lady in Minnesota, how we earn and lose the respect of our community are of paramount importance to us as a social species.

We enjoy these books because we inherently understand the rules and stakes of the protagonists but are separated enough from the world that it is amusing and novel.  It doesn’t hurt if those worlds are fabulously exclusive or luxurious as well. 

The book is well written and fun and recommended if, like me, it checks off enough of your base interests.  Fellowes is especially good at naturalistic dialogue that doesn’t feel stilted, which I guess is his experience as a screenwriter, and I also thought that he did a credible job of describing the inner thoughts and emotions of characters without being too overbearing.  The best part of his writing though is his ability to easily humanize all the characters and to make them understandable and sympathetic even though they may be acting in caddish ways.  You understand why people act the way they do within the structures of their societal rules.  I did not like the omniscient nameless first person narrator as much especially when intermixed with descriptions of scenes beyond their attendance.  That part a little contrived and a bit confusing.   First person narratives can be difficult to pull off apparently.    

What is more interesting to me is the self reflection and recognition that we all have ambitions, indicators of success and societal rules that we follow.  In the United States, these are less open unlike in Asia and Europe.  A social climber is understood, but rarely acknowledged or openly condoned.  Everything has a veneer of democratic inclusion and based on ‘love’ rather than open scheming of trying to marry the right families.  This is why that woman was openly reprimanded a few years ago when she openly advised Princeton (or Yale) girls not to waste their opportunity to marry well while at college.  Or we don’t talk about the propensity of high achieving Asian women to marry white husbands.   The Asian aunties will discuss it over coffee, but no one else will openly congratulate the women for marrying ‘up’ – it is unspoken and assumed.   

I am old enough and successful enough in my chosen communities that I can think about what deep laden social signifiers exist in my subconscious.  Growing up in New York City, there is still a lingering desire for a brownstone in Manhattan as the epitome of really making it big.  I don’t really care for cars, but the idea of Soho house membership would be exciting to me.  Not really practically, but I like the IDEA of it.  These fantasies may be incredibly shallow, but I contend that we all have these potentially shallow and snobby desires.  These really don’t have anything to do with actual happiness or true achievement but I think it is instructive to stare at them and try to understand the deeper psychological reasons for these symbolic indicators of success.

Takeaways: 

It is fun to read about social climbing systems that is not your own. 

I should study and parse out the dialogue that Fellowes produces. 

Think and evaluate my own ‘snobbish’ desires        

Rainbow Rowell – Actual book

I am falling behind writing about the books that I am reading.  I read pretty fast and writing about my reading takes up a longer time than I can easily carve out of the day.  The lesson here is to annotate and take notes while I am reading and to not worry too much about the content and quality of the final post.  The journey and process is the important thing.  I also just took a reading speed test on the internets and was informed that if I read an hour a day, I can read approximately 150 books in a year.  That seems a bit ambitious since I tend to be sporadic with my reading, so I will set a goal of a 100 books for the year to read and write about.  Excelsior!

Eleanor and Park was an interesting book.  I definitely liked it and enjoyed the narrative structure of switching back and forth between the characters viewpoints.  Eleanor and Park themselves are fully fleshed out but the other characters are a bit sketchy.  I guess this is acceptable when the book is literally called Eleanor and Park.  The best part of this book was the realistic depiction of the intensity of adolescent feeling and the awkwardness of the teenage brain. 

I was a teenager in the 80’s so I related to the time frame although I felt that it didn’t quite capture the feeling and zeitgeist of the mid-80’s.  There were a few things that helped set the scene, but otherwise it could have been easily set in the present day without cellphones.  I think Rowell set it in the era partly because she was familiar with it and so that the plot development could proceed without the complications of phones and social media that today’s teenagers deal with as part of their world today.

My son is also 15 and sort of introverted, so there was a lot of recognition of this reality.  This book was a good reminder that even though teenagers seem disaffected and aloof to the world, there can be a lot of intense emotion roiling beneath the surface that is not immediately apparent.  I bought this book partly in the hopes that he would read it and maybe give me a bit of feedback about how he relates to the mindset of the characters.  He did read it (when his phone was taken away for some infraction) but I haven’t poked yet to see his thoughts on the book.   

So overall I had a lot of empathy and connection with the book.  Even the fact that Park was Asian in a mostly white community felt pretty true to life, especially the fact that he didn’t internalize his attractiveness because he didn’t get any feedback from media.  His feelings as an ‘other’ definitely seemed to be part of the bod that he shared with Eleanor.  I think that this separation from society could have been explored a bit more, but that is a personal preference. Eleanor’s feelings about herself as a somewhat zaftig, poor girl who was a social outcast also felt very real.  There was a lot of poignancy  in the descriptions in her trying to deal with her life and her living situation and her inner strength really shone.  The family structures and the dynamics were nuanced and realistic, even though I felt that the characters were still a bit one-dimensional.  This may be somewhat deliberate to really focus on and emphasize the self-absorption of the teenage world but it was again a lost opportunity for depth.

I enjoyed the pacing and the deliberate way that Eleanor and Park’s relationship and growing love from their interactions on the bus was developed.  If they make a movie of this book, I hope they focus on the small moments and not rush through the blossoming of their feelings. As a narrative contrast, I enjoyed the somewhat random side story about Park wearing eye shadow to school despite opposition by his father seemed like an extension of his need to define himself rather than just a rebellious act or fashion statement.  In the same vein, I liked the aside of Eleanor’s disaffected father and her enjoying the freedom from her stifling home despite his selfishness and apathy toward her.  

It did seem a bit rushed when everything came to a head at the end of the book with the crisis of Eleanor’s stepfather potentially abusing her.  The ending did seem realistic and pragmatic and not overly contrived in a happy Hollywood ending, although I was not thrilled with the postcard ending with the mysterious three words from Eleanor to Park.  What was she going to say?  ‘ I hate you?’  ‘We can’t work?’ ‘It was nice’?  I guess if you are a teenager, the ending gives you  a reasonable level of closure because you can project your own dreams onto the situation. 

Takeaways:  Internal dialog can work as a plot driver.

You can’t go wrong describing or showing the emotional state of a character. 

The small words that flesh out a scene or a character are very important.  In my mind, a little more depth would have pushed this from a good book to a great book.    

Ivan Turgenev (e-book) Translation by Constance Garnett.

Turgenev is funny.  Not Jane Austen funny, but definitely funnier than Tolstoy.  If I had to elevator pitch this book, I would actually think of it as a mash-up of Austen and Tolstoy.  Bazarov’s admiration of Madame Odintsov’s figure and his declaration that he would love to see her on the dissecting table must have been shocking and funny to the readers of that age.  Likewise, Turgenev’s characterization of Bazarov’s father Vassily as a wannabe intellectual and European sophisticate in their relatively humble estate (only 15 serfs!) is as loving and amusing as Austen’s portrayal of Mrs. Bennet and her social climbing airs. 

It is remarkable how modern this novel feels especially with the main themes of societal change and generational attitudes and how to deal appropriately.  Issues of inequality, modernity and freedom are also major issues that are touched upon in this pretty short book.  Apparently, this is one of the first books that popularized the term nihilism in general use.  I guess the nihilists would have been as shocking and counter cultural as the 60’s hippie movement and a book that had a nihilist put up as a main protagonist would have maybe been similar to Catcher in the Rye.   I do not know how popular Turgenev was in his lifetime and I need to research where he is in the historical record.  I know he is after Austen but pretty contemporaneous with Tolstoy.  Halfway through the book, I was sort of expecting a narrative of manners where everybody ends up with the right person after some hijinks, some declarations of love and a couple of obstacles overcome.  So I was pretty shocked when the end of the book took a dark turn and ended up with Bazarov randomly dying of typhus with all the outstanding issues between him and Madame Odintsov unresolved.  There is even a postscript where Turgenev describes all the pragmatic decisions that the main characters take with their lives.

People make compromises, people live and die, love comes and goes and a happy ending is not guaranteed for anyone.  I should have been better prepared after reading Anna Karenina, but the lighter tone of Turgenev’s style threw me for a loop.  I guess this is the Russian vision of life.  Essentially dark and fatalistic and happiness, when it comes, is unexpected and to be appreciated.  Contrasted with the English mindset, where good and love generally prevail.  I am currently listening to the audiobook of Middlemarch – so it will be interesting to track these nationalistic biases in literature.   

Russian society through the lens of Turgenev and Tolstoy is very interesting.  An evolution from serfdom towards more modern ideas about individual liberty and basic human dignity.  One eye toward Europe as the epitome of culture of society, while still remaining fiercely proud of being Russian.  As part of this schism, the upper classes spoke French or sprinkled French phrases in their conversation to signal their sophistication (or lack thereof).  It reminds me of society in the Philippines, where use of English in language is a signifier that carries a lot of additional meaning.   Another quirk in Russian literature is the different use of names and nicknames for everybody.  It seems similar to Japanese manga or anime when characters use different honorifics and titles to signal different shadings of meaning to an interaction or situation.  I feel like I do not understand the full subtlety of either example but you can feel it in the background.  It is like going to a party in a foreign country and you are only dimly aware of the social convention and relationships flying around you and you can only hope not to make too big an ass of yourself.

Following up with Tolstoy as well, the role of women in Russian society seems subtly different than English society.  I couldn’t see strong independent women who have agency of their own being such major characters in English novels.  Anna Karenina or Madame Odintsov do not have any parallel figures in English literature of that age.  Lady Catherine deBourgh is the only figure that I can think of (in my limited memory bank) that is even close to any comparison and she is a harridan who jealously guards her privilege and is mocked by Austen for lack of true understanding and false sophistication.  Russian women seem to have more latitude to establish themselves as people in their own right, whereas English women are almost always in the shadows of their male kin.    

This is a very good book.  I can see why it is generally in the lists of classics or at the very least in the second tier of great books.  Even a week after, I am still thinking about some the issues and themes that were raised in the book.  Turgenev is especially good at drawing out character with just a few lines and actions.  The book does have a narrator but their voice is not intrusive.  For the most part, the actions and motivations seem very natural and logical to the characters.  The sudden challenge of a duel by Arkady’s uncle Pavel of Bazarov after he catches him kissing his brother’s mistress seemed a little extreme to my modern sensibility but it seemed like a reasonable course for Pavel’s overly punctilious and correct character.  

Bazarov flirting and kissing Fenitchka did seem somewhat reckless, but given his stated rejection of social norms and authorities, not out of character.  Despite his professions of not caring about titles and nobility, he obviously does feel somewhat inferior to the upper class represented by Madame Odintsov and this was a major reason for not pressing his suit beyond his declaration of love.  His actions with Fenitchka could have been an attempt to salve his pride and attempt a romantic liaison with someone more in line with his station.  

Even Bazarov recklessly examining the corpse of a typhus patient and subsequently getting sick and dying reflects the mindset of a young man who believes that rules do not apply to him.  

Even though Arkady’s father Nikolai is presented as part of the older generation and already old at the tender age of only 44, the themes of the book do mirror our contemporary issues.  It is a study about the different roles of modernity and tradition in Russia and the social changes and turmoil inherent in the change.  Bazarov is defined by throwing off all the shackles of the past and the authority of tradition, but he is rootless and without a center to ground his actions.  Arkady is smitten with Bazarov’s commitment to the nihilistic ideal, but he only really finds actual happiness when he settles down to his estate and marries Katya.     

The fathers in the book are in favor of the changes overall but do not understand their place in it.  They imperfectly understand and try to make the best of it, like grandparents using Instagram, but they look to their sons to forge the path to the new age. 

This must have been a turbulent age in Russia for archetypes and themes to be repeated and explored so much by their great writers.  The disaffected young man with ideas at odds with traditional life in Mother Russia.  The independent woman trying to navigate their way in the world.  The older landowner trying to maintain the work of generations.  The peasant, suddenly told that their life is worth more than they had been led to believe. 

But in the end this is a book about a man who tries to create himself anew in the fires of his mind and is brought down through his actions.  It is not even really a tragedy – it is like watching a moth die in a flame.

 Takeaways: 

I should dissect Turgenev’s character and scene descriptions.  Every character is three dimensional and real. The world is real.  He is a master who makes it seem easy. 

Apparently, this is the second novel in a series.  Apparently, this was a big success and definitely captured the zeitgeist of its time.  I should try to read the other ones and see how they work together. 

 Daniel Klein (actual book)

This is a lovely little meditative work on what it means to grow old gracefully.  Gracefully in the older sense of the word – as in ‘full of grace’.  He goes to Greece to meditate on the philosophy of Epicurus and of the Stoics and because it seems to him that the Greeks are especially good at this process of being old as a defined stage of life.   He relates an explanation to him of the meaning of use of ‘komboloi’ – inaccurately described as ‘worry beads’ in English as a method that Greeks use to define and extend time.  I think it is a meditative practice that allows time to be measured according to your own perception.  Apparently there are two words for ‘time’ in Greek – Chronos – the dimension of time that we are familiar with and Kairos – the quality of time that can be expressed in why a vacation day can seem to last for a week or the hushed moment before a kiss can seem to stretch out forever.  Learning to appreciate ‘Kairos’ seems to be an important concept if one wants to grow old gracefully.

Where to begin?  I guess it comes from defining one’s terms.  What is a good old age?  A good death can be described as one where you do not suffer – where you slip away without any realization that you have departed this mortal coil.  So perhaps one can define a ‘good’ old age as one where you do not suffer.  Personally, I do not like this approach.  It seems that the actual death experience would be important.  I would feel cheated if I didn’t fully go through the cessation of life.  It may be painful and somewhat stressful, but it is literally the last thing I will ever feel.   As for suffering, as the Buddhists and the US Marine Corps both preach – Pain is inevitable, Suffering is optional.  Suffering involves deliberate actual mental decision that negatively addresses your current experience.  One must compare it with your ‘normal’ existence and think about the difference.  In this way, it can be said that animals do not usually suffer in the same way that humans do.  They may feel pain or a sense of loss but they do not suffer from contemplating their imagined self.  If you see a three legged dog, they have not just accepted their state of being, they probably cannot even imagine a different reality.  Compare that with a man who has lost a limb and spends their days missing what might have been.  Who is suffering and why? 

So part of this work is trying to accept the physical decline and eventual end in an equitable frame of mind.  But that does not seem enough, it seems that there are perhaps many advantages as well to becoming old and I need to learn and lean into those aspects so that when the time comes, I may more fully appreciate and take advantage of this stage of life.   At the very least, the absence of striving, of being, of constant change seems to be a welcome state to contemplate.  Maybe one’s life can be seen as a slow inexorable journey towards present state awareness.  When you are young, you think about the future.  As you get older, the future starts to collapse towards the present.  At some point, you probably pass the origin point and start living in the past.  I would think it would be better to try and work the limit towards the present state and fully experience the now.  Is this not what Buddhists consider enlightenment?  The ineffable present?           

In the Future History series by Robert A. Heinlein,  the main protagonist of the series, Lazarus Long,  is introduced in ‘Methuselah’s Children’ – where the story of a group of families who have been successfully selectively bred for long life that face persecution from society at large.  Among the many thought experiments that are introduced are questions about what an extended life would entail, how it would change your thinking and priorities and how society would take the revelation that their exists of long lived individuals whose fortune they could not share.  What is not yet discussed is whether or not one should grow old and die.  It is always assumed that our drive for survival is so great that choosing to extend life is always the default, understood option. 

Our lives are all the same length – there is a beginning, the present and the end.  And we can only truly experience the present.  Everything else only exists in our mind.  I think I will definitely buy some ‘komboloi’.  I am very attracted to the concept of a meditative exercise that contemplates the duration of time.  I especially like the amber beads because of their ancient organic origins. Maybe I will start to collect them.  I gave my copy of “Travels with Epicurus’ to my mother but her immediate takeaway is that one should just give up and it is not worth trying to redefine the aging process.  Maybe she is right- who am I to judge? – She is further down the road than I am.    

Jason Segal and Kirsten Miller (actual book)

I bought this book because I succumbed to the staff recommendation slip at the bookstore – ‘If you liked Ready Player One!’.  Since RP1 is one of my son’s favorite books, I thought that we could get a two-fer with this book that we both could enjoy and discuss.  I didn’t realize until after I finished it that it was the actor, Jason Segal (of How I met Your Mother fame) who co-wrote this book with Kirsten Miller.  I would normally be a little dubious about an actor writing a YA book and trying to possibly trade on their celebrity and especially if they have a co-writer who is possibly doing all the heavy lifting, but I know that Jason Segal writes a lot of the work that he appears in as a screenwriter and ‘Forgetting Sarah Marshall’ is one of my guilty pleasures.  There should be a word for a movie that you will always watch if it comes across your attention whilst TV channel surfing.  Groundhog Day and Kill Bill No. 1 are two of those movies for me – Forgetting Sarah Marshall is another.  (comfort flicks? Movie worms?) 

The short description of this book would be that it is like Ready Player One without the Eighties easter egg storyline.  I think it actually develops the possible ‘reality’ of VR in a better way than RP1.  One of my pet peeves with the premise of the VR experience in RPQ is the reliance on haptic suits and universal treadmills.  They look and sound stupid in the movie and they are not very believable as truly immersive in real life.    Having a direct brain connection makes a lot more sense both stylistically and intellectually.  I remember as a kid waking up, getting ready for school and taking the bus and then waking up again and realizing that it was a reality dream.  Just the other day I reality dreamed that I was reading articles on my phone while lying in bed.   I don’t think that this is that uncommon an experience for people.  I don’t think that slapping a patch on your neck and brain stem would be able to make the neural connections necessary for a true VR experience, but it is credible. 

From a literary standpoint, it also allows for higher stakes for the character’s since it is believable that when in that state, if your brain believes that you have died then you actually die.   Not just losing your avatar levels and acquired virtual loot.    Do I think that there are problems with Ready Player One?  Yes, I do.  Otherworld is better when it comes to describing a virtual world but it has significant problems of it’s own.    

The biggest issue with the book is that Simon, the main protagonist, is just not very likeable.  He comes across as an entitled jerk who doesn’t really warrant our sympathy or affection.  I guess if you are a teenager reading this book, you can identify with his nihilistic and rebellious attitude especially against his stereotypical disaffected parents who are more concerned with their jobs and their social standing rather than showering all the attention to their moody son but if you are older and have some actual life experience, Simon comes across as just annoying.  I felt a lot more connection with the other supporting characters in the virtual world who are trying to escape their induced vegetative states and end up sacrificing themselves  so that Simon can continue his quest – even though they have no objective proof that their reality is what Simon says it is beyond his proclamations.    

Simon’s borderline obsession, I mean love, of Kat is similarly shallowly presented.  She spends most of the book just out of reach as she travels ahead of him to the mythical exit area (why an exit area?  Isn’t everything virtual?)  and they don’t have a lot of backstory that illustrate their relationship except that she taught him to play in the woods when he was a sheltered youngster and spent a lot of his time at her house because it was more warm and loving then his own.  Simon is awkward and distant throughout and has to be practically forced by Kat to express any emotion for her.  Again, maybe this is a teenage boy’s mindset but it seems very stupid.  Especially having read Eleanor and Park (Review coming soon) around the same time, some actual touching dialogue or description of Simon and Kat’s relationship would have gone a long way to making their feelings seem three dimensional.

I actually am disliking this book more and more now that I am writing about it.  The deus ex machina events throughout the book – the mysterious virtual guide who turns about to be a fellow classmate – the unpleasant descriptions of bacchanal temptations as they proceed from level to level.  Even the somewhat obvious twists involving Kat’s stepfather.  This is a series of action scenes and unbelievable plot coincidences to get people to the right place at the right time. I was going to say that I was hoping that my son would read it and want to get the sequel ‘OtherEarth’ so that I could continue reading the sage without violating my self imposed restriction not to buy any new books, but after a week to let it sit with me, I find that I don’t really care.

Takeaways:

Character development is super important.  You need to know what motivates someone in a believable and consistent manner.  Spend a little time fleshing out personality and relationships.

Don’t be lazy with the plot.

I did read this book and enjoyed it at the time – reasonable action, cliffhangers and some hook will take your far.  I guess this is the current media standard.  Good enough for a popcorn book, but annoying if you read critically at all.  If I wasn’t reading so much other and better books, I would be a lot less forgiving.   

Genevieve Cogan (actual book)

I have a very soft spot for books and shows about magical libraries.  I loved the sections (TV and Book)  in The Magicians that describe the library and I have read a lot of Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next series.  I guess this genre taps into most avid reader’s childhood memories about libraries being otherworldly places that can transport you away and holds all the secrets of the adult world in plain sight.  That said, this is definitely a popcorn book that alternately amused and exasperated me.  The writing is breezy and fun, with a lot of modern asides from Irene, the narrator, that are amusing.   The set up of the Fae as agents of Chaos in the multiverse and Dragons as their ordered opposite number is interesting and I could see be mined for interesting storylines.  I even like the often used device of the true language that spans across realities that can be used to manipulate objects and people within the limits of their nature.   

The two big problems that I have with the book are the character development and the internal logic of the magic / language structures.  Irene is likable enough but she declaims her thinking without really giving an idea of what her core values are besides an unthinking devotion to her service to the library.  I don’t know if it is a deliberate feminist touch or if I just didn’t read carefully enough but it bothers me that there is no physical description of her appearance.  Meanwhile her male colleagues, Kai and Vale are described in glowing physical fan girl terms.  Obviously a set up for future romantic tension between her and her co-stars but it comes across as sort of romantic fantasy fiction.  Overall, at least for the first book, all the characters seem somewhat cookie-cutter.  Bradamant as her librarian rival is undeveloped except as sort of a popular mean girl. Even the motivations of the villain,  Alberich, are unclear except for the fact that he disagrees with the ethos and mission of the Library and wants more power in lieu of non-interference and balancing.  All the librarians are terrified of Alberich but we are not sure why. He is like an ill-defined boogeyman. I liked the gory details of inhabiting the actual skin of his victims, but Alberich seemed overly amoral while still trying to convince Irene to join him in his pursuit of power.  Why?  Because he senses that she is intelligent and special?   

The other issue I have is the logical framework of the magic.  Fae and Dragon magic are not explained except as being an integral part of their nature as chaos/order beings.  There are random werewolves and vampires that are not explained except as window dressing.  And the Library language is both overly constrained and broad in confusing ways.  They use it to manipulate locks that want to be open or closed because that is their primary function and do some mind control to tweak perceptions and opinions.  But then they use it to bring stuffed animals to life and to increase the weight of the struts of an airship.  The increase in weight especially bothers me because it makes absolutely no sense as far as any sort of logical magical reality.  IF you can increase the actual mass of an object or alternatively, the local effect of gravity on an object, then you can pretty much do anything.  It seems very sloppy and undeveloped. 

Overall, I did enjoy the writing style and the set-up.  I liked the breezy modern tone of Irene within the steampunky, Victorian world.  I didn’t like the absurd amount of plot devoted to figuring out motivations and mysteries while glossing over the characters and world building.  I did buy the second book, because I do love magical library fiction, so I hope she will start to sort out some of these issues and develop some depth to the characters and world.            

Takeaways:

Character motivation and development is important.

Spend some time on developing the internal logic of your universe.

Simpler is usually better. This book is like an overstuffed cake.

I am willing to put up with a lot for an interesting premise.

Ernest Hemingway. (actual physical book)

I picked up this book because I was watching the first few episodes of ’The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’ and was thoroughly enjoying the Paris escape of Rose Weissman to find herself again after years as a proper Jewish housewife.  ‘A moveable feast’  happened to be sitting under the coffee table because I bought it a few months ago as an example of food writing that I wanted to read and I suddenly wanted to read more about Americans in Paris.   When presented with obvious literary serendipity, I try to follow the path presented.   I read it on our (now) annual trip to Portland to go to Powell’s Bookstore.  The genesis of this year of reading is multi-varied – but at heart is the fact that I have too many books in my home that I haven’t read.  I am going to spend the year going through my book backlog.  I will allow myself to include the books bought in the current Portland trip and free books from my Kindle Unlimited and public domain books, but the goal is to not buy any new books for the year.   These reviews are just an attempt to document the journey and force myself to contemplate and process what I have just read.  I can read very quickly and often miss the details and the craft of writing in my rush to read the narrative.  One of my other goals is to focus and be more introspective about what I am reading.  The writing is just a bonus. 

 Speaking of writing, I can see why Hemingway caused such a stir with his work.  His writing is spare, but always seems to hint at some other deeper meaning that you wish you were astute and clever enough to understand.  It seems very naturalistic, but closer examination and his own writing about his process reveals that he has honed down his sentences until they are like milky opals.  His descriptions of life with his wife, talking with his son, growing his hair out to the same length as his wife so that they can cut it together, are so evocative that they seem like prose poems.  But Hemingway’s other descriptions of Gertrude Stein, Scott Fitzgerald , descriptions of Shakespeare and Company and the sympathetic bookseller willing to loan money or books to penniless authors are more journalistic and natural in their tone and approach.  I realize that these are not new observations, but I had never really looked at his voice and the style in this manner.  I need to see if his tone is different in Hemingway’s other books or if this style is limited to this memoir of life in Paris. I can definitely see why his memoir defined the cultural American experience of Paris for generations.  It is very romantic and seductive.   

Between Hemingway and Mrs. Maisel, I do want to visit Paris again and vicariously absorb the remaining romantic energy of the city.  I understand that the current reality is different and I have been generally ignored and treated like a non-entity by the French but one of the curses of being a transnational minority  is that we romanticize the stories of the dominant cultural elite.  I will re-read The Sweet Life of Paris by David Leibovitz and one of David Sedaris’ books about moving to France if I can find a copy on my bookshelves.     

I also will try to read something by Turgenev because Hemingway speaks so highly of his work and I have never read him.  I will also get around to rereading F. Scott Fitzgerald and see if I have a better impression of The Great Gatsby than I did the first time I read it.

I did try reading some of Gertrude Stein’s poetry in the bookstore but I found it exasperating and annoying.  I prefer Alice B. Toklas and her cookbook.  I do not know if there is any real worth to Gertrude Stein that I am just too dense and uninformed to appreciate or if she is all flash and theory that has beguiled the literary community for decades. 

It has been about a week since I finished the book and I started writing this.  I will look back through and see if I can figure some additional thoughts on the book.  I realize that if I am going to write and reflect on a book, I will need to do more intentional reading and take notes and write down what I am thinking while I am reading.  Annotation of the text would probably be a good thing as well.  Things that they tell you to do in school but you don’t really do when you just read for yourself. 

Takeaways: 

There is something about Paris that inspires a lot of people to be creative and be themselves.

A literary voice is important and needs to be consistent and clear throughout the work.

You have to work hard to make something look effortless.

I should learn more about the context of writing in the period where Hemingway developed his style.  I am not sure about the era.  I read about his reading of George Sand, Turgenev and others but I am not sure where they all are historically. 

Hemingway was born in 1899.  George Sand was born in 1804.  Ivan Turgenev was born in 1818. Jane Austen is my touchstone for the modern novel.  She was born in 1775. 

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton