Arubabookwoman's Updated 1001 List

Talk1001 Books to read before you die

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1arubabookwoman
Jan 29, 2018, 5:36 pm

My previous (neglected) thread is pretty messed up. I purchased an app listing all the 1001s, and am using it to post my corrected list of books read. I hope to read more frequently from the list going forward--I'm not getting any younger. I will include the year I read the book as best as I can remember. Going forward, I'll try to post my reviews of the 1001 books I read here.

It'll probably take a few days to get my list posted, so please don't post until I complete my list of books read. Thanks!

13arubabookwoman
Jan 30, 2018, 7:25 pm

That concludes the list of 1001 books I have read to date (from the combined lists. So far in 2018 I have read one book from the list, The Moon and Bonfires, and it is already included above. I will try to post my review of it shortly.

Thread is now open.

14Yells
Jan 31, 2018, 11:31 am

That is quite the list! Welcome back :)

15ALWINN
Jan 31, 2018, 12:55 pm

Wow 524 that is an impressive number.

16arubabookwoman
Edited: Feb 2, 2018, 10:08 pm

>14 Yells: and >15 ALWINN: Thank you both!

Here is my review for The Moon and Bonfires which I read earlier this month, and which is already included in my list above.

The Moon and Bonfires by Cesare Pavese (1950) 176 pp

This is a book in which nothing much happens, and the setting, place and time, and the characters take the forefront. Shortly after the end of World War II, the unnamed narrator returns from America to the rural farming village in Italy where he grew up. An orphan, he was raised by a poor farmer who took him in mainly for the charitable stipend he received monthly. When the narrator grew up, he made his way to America where he became moderately successful. On his return to his village, he is perceived to be fabulously wealthy.

As he revisits the people and places from the past, we learn his life story through flashbacks. In the present, he interacts with the one friend from his youth, Nuto the musician, and also befriends a boy who is the son of a poor farmer who reminds him of himself. Along the way he also learns of the betrayals and atrocities that occurred in the village during the war, and of the fates of some of the partisans fighting the fascists, although as I stated this is not primarily a book reliant on plot.

This book is considered a classic in Italy, and I can see how it has received that designation. Pavese has written other novels, and in addition was a well-respected translator of American literature into Italian. He committed suicide a few months after this book was published. I don't regret reading the book, but it's not one of my favorites, nor is it one which I would unequivocally recommend. Nevertheless, I recognized it to be well-written, and if it sounds like your thing, go for it.

3 stars

I have just finished reading L'Abbe C by Georges Bataille, which I will review soon.

17arubabookwoman
Mar 24, 2022, 11:57 am

Well I obviously did not review L'Abbe C soon, nor did I keep current with tracking my 1001 reads. I was keeping track on an app on my iPad, but that was suddenly discontinued, and I can't even access it any more, so luckily I have this list here.

What I plan to do is to list my 1001 reads from 2018 to present, and where I reviewed that book I will incorporate that review (or sometimes just brief comments) here. I also reread a number of 1001 books, so I'll try to note those too, but not add to the numbers.

So first, the long promised review of L'Abbe C:

18arubabookwoman
Mar 24, 2022, 12:00 pm

525. L'Abbe C by Georges Bataille orig. pub. 1950

This is the story of twin brothers, Robert, a pius priest, and Charles, a depraved libertine, who despite their character differences remain close. Both are attracted to a "loose" woman, Eponine, with whom Charles spends his time drinking and having sex. For her part, Eponine is attracted to the virtuous Robert, and she and Charles spend time plotting ways to seduce Robert. When Eponine and a fellow harlot show up in the front pew for mass one day, Robert breaks down mentally and emotionally. Simultaneously, Charles begins to deteriorate physically.

I never connected with this book. I found it very contrived, although well-written. It didn't educated me, and I did not derive any enjoyment from it. So, another one checked off the 1001 List, which says the novel fuses "Bataille's familiar fascination with the relationship between eroticism, death and sensuality, {and}...explores the thin line between sexual desire and morbidity." This analysis of the novel concludes, "Readers may find the treatment of this issue somewhat excessive and the contrived intention to shock somewhat heavy-handed, but this is still an engaging and unusual piece of writing."

2 stars

19arubabookwoman
Mar 24, 2022, 12:04 pm

1001's read in 2018:

526. The Burning Plain by Juan Rulfo

This collection of short stories is similar stylistically to Juan Rulfo's novel Pedro Paramo which I read a few years ago and loved so much that when I finished it I immediately went back to page 1 and read it again. The stories are all set in rural Mexico, in an isolated area that is hot and dry and hostile, a place of which one of the characters says, "You talk here and the words get hot in your mouth." The characters are all poor(with exceptions in a few of the stories for the landowners and rich people against whom these people struggle) and can barely manage to eke out a living. Most of the stories are set in the first 25 or so years of the 20th century in a time of violence and political unrest, which also feature prominently in these stories.

I recognize the beauty of Rulfo's writing and concur that this is worthy of inclusion in the 1001 Books To Read Before You Die. And yet, I had difficulty reading these stories. I've long recognized that I don't get along with short stories. They often feel incomplete to me, and I frequently feel puzzled by them. For many of these stories, it feels to me as if Rulfo had gone out of the way to make the stories puzzling. The first one, "Macaria", (one of the ones I had the least trouble with) is narrated by a man of whom the villagers "say in the street that I am crazy." He is killing frogs for the elderly woman (relationship unknown) who cares for him and who hates frogs. People throw stones at him, and he is always hungry, and eats cockroaches in the dark. In "We're Very Poor" a series of catastrophes big and small ends with a flood which carries away the narrator's sister's cow, which was purchased as her dowry to ensure that she didn't end up "going bad" like the other sisters. Perhaps the most famous and accessible story is "Tell Them Not To Kill Me." In this one, the narrator, who killed a man 40 years ago and has just been captured by the son of the man he killed, urges his son to beg his captor for mercy.

Pedro Paramo has the same type of detail of the brutality of life combined with a certain mysticism that these short stories have. But somehow to me the lack of a complete narrative arc in the short stories left me puzzled. However, I do think that this is more my lack of comprehension than a fault of the stories.

3 stars
Orig. pub. 1950

20arubabookwoman
Mar 24, 2022, 12:08 pm

527. City Primeval by Elmore Leonard--Unreviewed.

528. Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor
After end of WW II man named Hazel Motes falls under the influence of a street preacher and his teenage daughter Sabbath Lily. He then founds his own church, which is against Jesus Christ. This is crazy, surreal, and it did not grab me at all. None of these are southern people I know. 2 stars

21arubabookwoman
Mar 24, 2022, 12:12 pm

529. The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt

Byatt sometimes becomes more historian than novelist, and sometimes seems more interested in displaying her vast knowledge and erudition about art, literature, philosophy, political and cultural movements, etc, than in developing her characters or advancing her story, but there are many parts of this novel that are brilliant and extremely moving, so that overall, this is a worthwhile read.

This family saga(s) and historical fiction novel, has a vast cast of characters, and panoramic scope, covering the time from 1895 through the end of WW I.

4 stars

22arubabookwoman
Mar 24, 2022, 12:16 pm

In 2018, I also reread the following, which were already included in my totals:

Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky
The Grass Is Singing by Doris Lessing
Excellent Women by Barbara Pym
Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann

Beginning my 1001 reads in 2019:

530. Blood and Guts in High School by Kathy Ackerly--I only read about half of this, then DNF'd it. I'm counting it anyway.

23arubabookwoman
Mar 24, 2022, 12:19 pm

531. Glimpses of the Moon by Edith Wharton

Nick Landis and Suzy have good pedigrees, but no money. Nevertheless, they travel effortlessly through high society, moving from one pleasure place to the next, Venice to Versaille, Newport to New York City, as society dictates. Attracted to each other, they decide to marry, live on their friends for a year or two, with the understanding that if something better (i.e. a rich person) comes along either is free to leave. But what happens if they fall in love with each other? Or what if one of them begins having moral qualms about what they are doing?
I enjoyed this.
3 1/2 stars

24arubabookwoman
Edited: Mar 24, 2022, 12:33 pm

532. The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene

Catholic priests in a remoted Mexican province have been expelled or executed in the course of a revolution. Except for one, the "whiskey priest." He is now on the run, and the authorities in control are after him.
I recognize the quality of the writing, the intensity of the story, but I never really connected with or was engaged by the book.

3 stars

533. The Go-Between by L.P. Hartley--unreviewed; rated 3 1/2 stars

In 2019 I reread The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty, about which I said:

Laurel Hand returns home where her father the Judge is dying in a NO hospital, his new young wife Fay at his side. After he dies, Laurel and Fay return to the small Mississippi town for the wake and the funeral.
The book really catches the feel of life in a small southern town. it is not plot driven, and is more of a character study. Someone on Amazon said, :"If you are not from the south, read another book.

Moving on to 1001 reads in 2020:

25arubabookwoman
Mar 24, 2022, 12:37 pm

534. Rituals by Cees Nooteboom orig. pub. 1987

I didn't find this 1001 book an easy read, though it is short, and there were many phrases and observations that were original and well-put. The first part introduces the main character, Inni, in 1963, contemplating suicide as his wife Zita leaves him. In the second part, set in 1953, Inni meets Arnold Taads, an older man who is obsessed with time and keeping to schedules, and who will play an important part in his life, at least for a short while. There is much discussion of Catholicism, and you might even call this part "Losing My Religion." In the final part, set in 1973, Inni meets Phillip Taads, the estranged half-Indonesian son of Arnold. Phillip covets, but cannot afford antique Japanes roku pottery. There is a lot of discussion of art collecting, which I found interesting, as well as discussion of Eastern religions and other beliefs and "rituals," including yoga and the tea ceremony (also interesting).

I'm glad I read this, but it was not a book that called to me when I wasn't reading it.

3 stars

26arubabookwoman
Mar 24, 2022, 12:41 pm

535. The Professor's House by Willa Cather

The simplest description I can give of this book is that it is about one man's mid-life crisis. Certainly in the 60's, 70's, 80's and beyond, I read a lot of books that fit this description, and frankly I got a bit tired of the sometimes whininess of these characters. But this is Willa Cather, and her prose is beautiful and honest, and though in general I didn't always sympathize with the professor's plight, I never got tired of the book.
The book is in three parts. The first and last concern the professor and his family. The middle part consists of an interlude in the life of Tom, a former student of the professor's, who had also been the fiancé of one of his daughters before being killed in the war. This middle portion had been written separately from the parts about the professor and his family, and I personally did not find that it added significantly to the overall story of the professor. I thought it would have done better as a separate novel, and it was, in fact, the part of the book I liked best. It involves Tom's life as a cattle handler, during which time he discovered an ancient Indian pueblo which he excavated. This was a fascinating story, including Tom's attempts to interest the Smithsonian in the Indian artifacts, and it is in this part, in Cather's descriptions of the landscape in particular, that Cather's strength's shine through.
In the family parts, the professor's 8 volume history of Spanish explorers has finally brought him financial success, and, largely through his wife's efforts, a new house has been built. As the family moves, the professor decides he wants to retain his study in the attic of the old house, and begins to spend more and more time there. His two daughters are at odds with each other. The older, Rosamund, who had been engaged to Tom, is now married to Louie and is extremely wealthy, largely due to an invention of Tom's which his will left her. The younger daughter Kathleen and her husband Scott are struggling and seem envious. The professor becomes more and more isolated from his family, and ultimately refuses to travel with the family to Europe for the summer. Instead he spends his time daydreaming in his old study, with the faulty stove (mentioned in the first part, so we know it will play an important role), finding himself less and less interested in engaging in life.
This is the fourth novel by Cather I have read, the others being My Antonia, O Pioneers and Sapphira and the Slave Girl. She is one of the female writers of the last century who were undeservedly overlooked in considering Nobel Prizes for Literature. I don't know where this one is ranked by her literary critics, but I think it is a worthy entry in Cather's body of work. And I do know that I want to read more of her work.

3 1/2 stars

27arubabookwoman
Mar 24, 2022, 12:45 pm

536. Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell orig. pub. 1848

I enjoyed this depiction of the life of a factory girl in Manchester in the mid 19th century. It portrayed all classes of society, and clearly depicted the travails of the working class, and the privileges of the factory owner. Mary was a lovely character, developing from a naive young girl to a self-sufficient woman. I can't put my finger on why, but I didn't enjoy this quite as much as I generally enjoy books by George Eliot or Charles Dickens. This is only the second work by Elizabeth Gaskell I have read, and it is her first novel, so I hope to read more by her, as I have a few more of her books on my Kindle. Still, a worthwhile read.
3 1/2 stars

28arubabookwoman
Edited: Mar 24, 2022, 3:01 pm

1001 Rereads in 2020

A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute

After reading On Radji Beach I somehow wanted more about Australians in Malaysia and remembered this book. I read it in the 1970's, I think, after seeing the excellent BBC adaptation.

The overall story I was remembering, of British women POWs in Malaysia during WW II who are helped by an Australian POW, and whld tales about what a wonderful place Alice Springs is, is actually only a small part of the book, with most of it happening after the war. I will admit that I found the part when Jean goes to Australia to look for the Australian soldier Joe and ends up almost single-handedly transforming a drab outback town into an almost paradise a bit much. So overall I didn't find this an enjoyable reading experience this time around.

But more than that what really grated on me was the overt and ubiquitous racism. I understand we must read older books in the context of their time, and our morals and standards have changed over the years. But this one really grated on me. Malaysians and the aboriginals are referred to as "boongs," and the "white" people (British and Australian) know better than the natives, have good intentions, will protect them, give them jobs, but they can't eat at the same ice cream parlor. As I said, a reader often has to overlook the ethos of the time expressed in older books, but this one was just too much for me.

The Plot Against America by Philip Roth

I read this book years ago when it was first published, but thought I would reread it in light of our current situation This is an alternative history in which Charles Lindbergh defeats Franklin Roosevelt and becomes president in 1940. He immediately enters into a pact with Hitler (and soon after with Japan), so that the United States will not enter WW II. Soon, encouraged by Lindbergh's government, anti-Semitism is overt, government-approved, and everywhere.

Despite covering these big issues though, this is also a family story, the story of a Jewish boy named Philip Roth growing up in Newark at this time. He is growing up in a poisonous atmosphere, but he also has many of the normal experiences you might expect for a young boy. The family tries to live their normal lives in an extraordinary time. I have to wonder how much, if any, of the familial stories and relationships are autobiographical.

So while at times this is a sweet coming of age story, it is also a vivid reimagining of what might have been, and a terrifying look at how quickly and easily America could go so wrong. And it is all the more tragic because of how prescient the book was regarding our present circumstances.

Highly recommended. 4 stars

Onto 2021:

29arubabookwoman
Edited: Mar 24, 2022, 3:01 pm

537. The Birds by Tarjei Vesaas orig. pub. 1957

"Now it is Night.
"What can you do when everyone around you is strong and clever?
"Will never know."

Mentally deficient Mattis lives in a cottage by a lake with his sister Hege who supports them by knitting. She occasionally sends Mattis out in search of work as a farm hand, which he dreads because he knows he is different, and will not perform up to par, no matter how hard he tries. He frequently feels people are laughing at him.

One day Hege suggests, and Mattis agrees, that he work as a ferryman on the lake. He begins to spend his days at "work" in his rowboat on the lake, although there are never any passengers. Until one day there is. Mattis ferries Jorgen, a lumberjack, across the lake, and Jorgen becomes a boarder with Hege and Mattis. Soon Mattis begins to fear he will lose Hege to Jorgen.

This entire beautiful novel is narrated from the pov of Mattis, and Vesaas does a masterful job of channeling the mind of someone who sees the world in an entirely different way than most people. We see all Mattis's thoughts, experience nature through him, as well as sensing scorn from other people. I loved this book. Recommended for all.

4 1/2 stars

30arubabookwoman
Mar 24, 2022, 12:59 pm

538. The Beggar Maid by Alice Munro

I think I've read one other book by Alice Munro, but after she won the Nobel Prize several years ago I've wanted to read more, although she primarily (exclusively?) writes short stories, not my favorite, as I've said often enough.

This book consists of what are referred to as the Flo and Rose stories, and I believe they are stories that have for the most part previously appeared elsewhere. These interwoven stories tell us of the lives of Flo and Rose (step-mother and step-daughter) over 40 years, and read together feel like a novel in short stories. The stories are presented roughly chronologically (as measured by the lives of Flo and Rose), beginning when Rose is just a young child, and ending with Flo in the throes of dementia. The early stories take place in the small Ontario town where Rose grew up in poverty. Later, Rose goes out into the wide world to make her way while Flo remains behind. Yet the ties that bind them stay strong in ways good and bad. This is a wonderful collection, and although the stories were written at various times over the years, there is an inherent consistency and unity in them.

Highly recommended.

4 stars

31arubabookwoman
Mar 24, 2022, 1:02 pm

539. The Sound of the Waves by Yukio Mishima

This is the story of first love in a small Japanese fishing village. It was not at all what I expected--there are characters the reader cares deeply about, and in the end, the good guys win. And along the way, we learn about the lives of the fishermen and pearl divers in this small village.
Shinji, a young fisherman on Uta-Jima Island falls in love at first sight with Hatsue shortly after she returns home to her father, the wealthiest man on the island. Rumor has it her father is looking for a suitable husband for Hatsue, and whoever is chosen will inherit his businesses. Shinji recognizes that because of his poverty his chances of winning Hatsue are slim. The only thing in his favor is that Hatsue seems to love him in return.

Highly recommended
4 stars

32arubabookwoman
Mar 24, 2022, 1:06 pm

540. The Hour of the Star by Clarice Lispector

This is the story of Macabea, "one of life's unfortunates," a person who is "incompetent at life." She is described as ugly, sickly, stupid, poor and wretched. But she also lacks the self-awareness to know any of this, and accepts what life hands her. The pleasure of this book is the innovative nature of the narration. Macabea's life is described by Rodrigo, with many digressions and asides about where the story will end up and the nature of telling the story of a life. At the beginning, Rodrigo says, "Will things happen? They will. But what things? I don't know that either." Rodrigo also tells us, "I know everything about Macabea because I once caught a glimpse of this girl with the sallow complexion from the northeast. Her expression revealed everything about her."

I'd long heard of Clarice Lispector, but this is the first book by her that I have read. I will be seeking more of her books to read.

Recommended
4 1/2 stars

33arubabookwoman
Mar 24, 2022, 1:08 pm

541. The Radetzky March by Joseph Roth

"They had been born in peacetime and became officers in peaceful drills and maneuvers. They had no idea that several years later every last one of them, with no exception, would encounter death. Their ears were not sharp enough to catch the whirring gears of the great hidden mills that were already grinding out the Great War."

In this 1001 novel, the decline of the Trotta family parallels the decline of the Hapsburg Empire. Carl Joseph's grandfather, Joseph Trotta, saved the life of the emperor at the Battle of Solferino, and for that deed was awarded a baronacy. His father Franz, son of the hero of Solferino, was a government official, leading a staid and emotionally repressed life under the portrait of the Hero of Solferino. Most of the book focuses on Carl Joseph, who joins the army and dreams of saving the Emperor as did his grandfather. Instead, he ends up on a remote frontier outpost, where women, drink and gambling do him in. Over the years as various crises occur in the Trotta family, the Emperor is able to help them out.

There's some beautiful writing her, and Roth skillfully paints his characters. But he does so from a distance, and the characters are all so emotionally stunted, that I found it difficult to connect with the them and their plight. As a portrait about the loss of tradition and order, about a crumbling empire, it succeeds, but I had a hard time sympathizing with any character. They were all far away in another world.

Nevertheless, I don't regret reading this. I feel "improved" by having read it. I've read one other book by Roth Job, and would read more.

3 1/2 stars

34arubabookwoman
Mar 24, 2022, 1:10 pm

542. The Book of Illusions by Paul Auster

After his wife and two children die in a plane crash, Vermont professor Dave Zimmer passes several months in a daze of grief. Then one day, something he sees on TV makes him laugh for the first time since the tragedy. He had caught a glimpse of an excerpt from a silent film starring the actor Hector Mann, who he later learned had vanished at the height of his career and was never heard from again. Zimmer becomes fascinated, perhaps obsessed, with Hector Mann, and begins a quest to view and study all of Mann's existing films. Ultimately, Zimmer writes a book on Mann's films, but the mystery of Mann's disappearance remained unsolved.

Then, shortly after his book on Hector Mann is published, Zimmer received a letter purportedly from Mann's wife saying Hector would like to meet with him. Zimmer initially discounts this as a hoax, but developments proceed to show him otherwise.

This like most of the books by Auster I've read was eminently readable, and I'm always amazed at the inventiveness and creativity of his plots and the absolute reality of his characters. This was a most satisfying read, and I will continue to read the several Auster books I have remaining unread on my shelf, as well as any new ones I come across. Recommended.

4 stars

35arubabookwoman
Mar 24, 2022, 1:12 pm

543. Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons

When Flora is orphaned she finds herself in straitened circumstances and forced to write to distant relatives seeking a new home. She receives a reply from the Starkadders of Cold Comfort Farm, offering her a place to stay, and she heads off to the country to meet these previously unknown relatives. She arrives to find an extremely odd assortment of eccentrics and yokels, and immediately sets out to reform them all, from Amos the fire and brimstone preacher to Elfine, the pixie-like youngest daughter who pines for the son of the neighboring landowner. Before Flora's arrival, all the denizens of the farm had been ruled over by the iron hand of Great Aunt Ada Doom, who never descended from her room and who is crazy as a loon, but Flora soon sets things right.
I know that this is a well-loved book, and there are an abundance of favorable reviews and descriptions of rolling around on the floor with uncontrollable laughter. Unfortunately, this brand of British humor is one that I frequently just don't get on with. I was mostly lukewarm while reading this book, and never felt the slightest urge to laugh out loud. I also did not fall in love with Flora. I guess this book just wasn't my thing. Maybe it will be yours.

2 stars

36arubabookwoman
Mar 24, 2022, 1:15 pm

544.Cost by Roxana Robinson

"Her parents were drifting away, locked in a losing struggle with their bodies, their minds. The tide was going out."

Julia, a divorced art professor, is spending the summer at her Maine house when it becomes apparent that her younger son Jack has descended into the hell of heroin addiction. The novel follows Julia and her family's journey as they attempt to rescue Jack. The story, told from alternating points of view of the various family members, including Julia's parents, her father a cold and controlling retired neurosurgeon, her mother in the beginnings of Alzheimers, her ex-husband, Jack's older brother, and Jack himself, is a devastating one. It is not easy to read, and people more knowledgeable than me state that it paints an accurate description of the dirty side of an addict's life and what it is like to go through withdrawal an rehab, and of course how rarely rehab is successful. The focus is not entirely on the addict, however, but how addiction affects, and sometimes destroys, the entire family.

This is an excellent book. "Enjoyable" is not the word, but it is a book definitely well-worth reading. My only complaint is that Julia at times seemed too naive, too willing to accept Jack's lies and deceptions, and she took entirely too long to accept the reality of Jack's addiction. But, I suppose that's what a mother's love would do.

4 stars

37arubabookwoman
Edited: Mar 24, 2022, 1:25 pm

In 2021, I reread several 1001's including these three 5 star reads:

House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

"She was so evidently the victim of the civilization which had produced her, that the links of her bracelet seemed like manacles chaining her to her fate."

Lily Barton lives among the rich of New York City, the creme de la creme, yet she is not rich herself. She comes from a good family, has some rich relatives, yet she must rely on the good will of her friends, as well as her beautiful face, her charm, her wit, her ability to always do and say the "right" thing. Her mission in life is to find a rich man to marry, and her ability to do so is unquestioned. Yet she has somehow arrived at the age of 29 and is still unmarried. It seems that at the last minute before sealing the deal something always causes Lily to question whether marriage to a rich man is what she really wants. Then through a series of misteps Lily finds herself on the wrong side of society's arbiters, an outcast.
I first read this as a teenager, and remember loving it, but had no actual memory of the story. Wharton writes beautifully--I've always thought she was deserving of the Nobel in literature. Wharton was a member of the class that destroyed Lily, and she presents them to us warts and all.
This is one of her earliest books, and it is the book that established her literary reputation, as well as being one of the three or four most read/most famous of her works. Some of the themes of her earlier works are fully developed here. It is an exquisite book and it deserves a place in the literary canon. This is one of the rare books I think everyone should read.

Highly recommended
5 stars

And

Howard's Watch by E.M. Forster

This is the story of a family home, and of three families whose lives become entwined through chance encounters. The Schlegel sisters, Margaret (Meg) and Helen are intellectuals and fledgling suffragettes. They live with their younger brother Tibby, a university student, and are comfortably well off. On one of their European tours, the Schlegels meet the Wilcox family, who reside at Howard's End. The Wilcoxes represent the "Establishment," the "old order," the "sun never sets on the British Empire" order, and their house, the eponymous Howard's End, plays a prominent role in the novel. The third family is represented by Leonard Blast and his awful wife. Leonard is a working-class bloke with aspirations who becomes involved with the Schlegels after Helen "steals" his umbrella when exiting a concert at which they sat next to each other.
I loved this book, and Meg has become one of my all-time favorite characters. It was charming, elegant and delightful, and I need to go back into E.M. Forster's work to read what I haven't read and reread what I have.

5 stars

And,

The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner

This is my fourth reading of this classic masterpiece. I first read it in a freshman English class in college, and without the guidance of the professor I am not sure I could have gotten through. I love Faulkner, but his style of writing takes getting used to in the best of circumstances. The opening section is narrated from the point of view of Benjy, the "idiot" as in Shakespeare's "tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury..." (I'm sure I've gotten that quote wrong). We are told that Benjy has the mind of a 3 year old, and the "present" of Benjy's section is April 7, 1928, the day of Benjy's 33rd birthday. But the chronology is all over the place, changing rapidly, page to page, paragraph to paragraph, sometimes within the same sentence. And everything is described through Benjy's consciousness, and so we perceive things as he perceives them, and are puzzled by much. No wonder so many are put off by this opening section.
The second section goes back to 1910, and in between flashbacks we accompany Quentin on his last day. This section is easier to comprehend than Benjy's, although Faulkner's style is in full bloom here. The next section is mostly through the point of view of older brother Jason, a rather nasty fellow, and the present is the day before Benjy's birthday. The last section has an omniscient narrator, and is the day after Benjy's birthday.
I love Faulkner, but am not competent to "review" him. I can only say that I think everybody should read this book, and although I can no longer pretend to be merely middle-aged, having entered my 70's, I fully anticipate this will be one I may reread yet another time.

5 stars

38arubabookwoman
Edited: Mar 24, 2022, 1:29 pm

Finally, so far in 2022, I have read 2 1001 books. I hope to read more 1001's than I have been reading in the past, and I hope to track them here.

545. Memed My Hawk by Yasar Kemal

Memed grows up in a small Turkish mountain village run by the cruel Abdi Agha. A feudal system prevails, and the villagers toil and sweat in rocky fields overgrown with thistles with most of the rewards for their labor going to Abdi Agha. Even as a very young boy, Memed recognized the inequity of this, and at one point ran away. He stayed with a kind family on the other side of the mountain for several months, but eventually returned because he missed his mother. Nevertheless, his small act of rebellion was remembered by Abdi Agha, who ever after was particularly cruel to Memed and his family.

When Memed was a young man he fell in love with Hatche. Unfortunately, Hatche was promised to Abdi Agha's nephew. Despite this Memed and Hatche decide to elope. They are pursued by Abdi Agha and his men, the nephew is killed and Hatche is jailed.

All of this is set up for the main story of the book, which I admit I did not connect with particularly well. Memed escapes to the hills and joins a band of brigands. During the time the novel was set, brigands, or bands of highwaymen/robbers, were apparently common in the hills of Turkey (and I learned that the red fez is the sign of brigandage). Some brigands are associated with particular pashas or aghas, some are well-tolerated by the police or government authorities, and others are in constant battle with police or aghas. Some brigands are cruel to the common people and some are the heroes of common people. Initially, Memed joined a band of brigands let by a leader who turned out to be one of the cruel brigands. When Memed sets out on his own, with his own followers, he becomes a sort of folk hero, and is mythologized by the villagers and common people who hear of his exploits.

As I was reading of Memed's exploits, his constant skirmishes and near escapes from the police and Abdi Agha's men who are pursuing him, I kept thinking of how much this reminded me of the Robin Hood story. And the episodes were like the adventures that might be described in a boy's own story. There was one battle with the authorities followed by miraculous escape, soon to be followed by another battle, one after the other. None of this I particularly enjoyed, so I have to say, this really wasn't the book for me.

I will say, however, that this is a much-loved classic in Turkey, and there are several sequels delineating the further adventures of Memed. The book itself brought world-wide acclaim to Kemal. It is an influential work in Turkey, and at one point, the Turkish government was considering banning it (or maybe did ban it) because of fears that it may have romanticized "socialism." So, there is that. And if you want to read about the escapades of a Turkish folk hero, this is the book for you.

First line: "The slopes of the Taurus Mountains rise from the shores of the Eastern Mediterranean on the southern coast of Turkey, in a steady ascent from the white, foam-fringed rocks to the peaks."

Last line: "With this fire a ball of light appears on the peak of Alidagn and for three nights the mountain is white, as bright as by day."

3 stars

39arubabookwoman
Edited: Mar 24, 2022, 1:34 pm

546. Man With the Golden Arm by Nelson Algren

"Yet the week ran out on Saturday night and he was no richer than he had been Monday morning. The old merry-go-round was rolling again and he had to ride as hard as any."

"Some cats just swing like that."

It took me quite a while to get into this book, which was the winner of the first National Book Award, I think primarily because of the extensive use of 1940's slang, particularly slang related to cards and gambling, drug addiction, and the out and out poverty, despair and ugliness surrounding all the book's characters. It's set in the Polish ghetto of Chicago in the years immediately after World War II. The main character, Francis Majcinek, aka Frankie Magic, aka the Dealer, is the man with the golden arm. He's a card dealer, a good one, and he deals the game run every night in the back room by Schwieftia. He is almost always accompanied by Solly Saltskin, aka the Sparrow, aka the Punk, aka the Steerer, and together they commit petty crimes to get by, whenever they are not involved in a card game or some serious drinking or in jail for a bit.

There's another reason Frankie is the man with the golden arm--he's also a drug addict. Because of a wound during the war, he is frequently in pain, and craves the relief morphine brings. He frequently believes he can kick it at any time, and is not an addict, but his fixer, and we the reader, know otherwise.

Frankie is married to Sophie, and she has been in a wheelchair since a car accident with Frankie drunk at the wheel left her apparently unable to stand or walk. Her only outlet in life is in keeping a scrapbook of fatal accidents. Frankie doesn't love Sophie, and no longer wants to be married to her, but stays with her out of guilt. And Sophie reminds Frankie constantly that he is the cause of her predicament.

Algren has been described as the "poet of the lost," and the book is unrelentingly bleak and dark. Beyond the main characters I've described above there are many other denizens of this gritty decrepit urban neighborhood with whom the book involves us, many of them known just by their nicknames or occupations. Besides the Fixer, there is the landlord of the seedy rooming house where Frankie and Sophie live known as "the jailer," there's Drunkie John, "a mouth at the end of a whiskey glass," Blind Pig, whose actions lead to the ultimate downfall of Frankie, and many other poor and lost souls. All of them are in on "the great secret and special American guilt of owning nothing, nothing at all in the land where ownership and virtue are one."

Despite the hopelessness of his characters, Algren writes beautifully. He is an amazing prose stylist. As I said, because of the slang, it was at first hard to follow, but once I learned the characters (many of whom are referred to by multiple names) and got into the flow of the story and the language it was hard to put the book down. I can well understand why this book won the National Book Award, and why it is on the 1001 list.

First line(s): "The captain never drank. Yet toward nightfall in that smoke-colored season between Indian summer and December's first true snow, he would sometimes feel half drunken."

Last line: "To rustle away down the last dark wall of all."

4 1/2 stars

40puckers
Mar 24, 2022, 2:35 pm

>17 arubabookwoman: Welcome back! Nice to read all those reviews, and hope you keep the reviews coming.

41annamorphic
Mar 24, 2022, 4:01 pm

Welcome back, and thanks for all the great reviews, including of many books I haven't read. I was wondering just today whether I should read Nooteboom's Rituals. Hmm, probably not.

42arubabookwoman
Jan 1, 8:20 am

Well it's been nearly two years since I've updated my 1001 reading. I've read some, but not as many as I would have liked. Going back to 2022, I already included this next one in my list above, so I am not giving it a number, but I read/reread this in 2022:

High Rise by J. G. Ballard (1975) pp

This book has been described as an adult Lord of the Flies, and a modern fable about the disintegration of society. In it the residents, of an upscale high rise residential building descend into anarchy and violence. Ultimately, the building becomes divided into three camps, the upper and most prestigious, and the lower and the middle, the inhabitants of which are seeking to move up. The book describes how "clans broke down into small groups of killers, solitary hunters who built man-traps in empty apartments or preyed on the unwary in deserted elevator lobbies."

This was not a pleasant read, but it is compelling, and these days I would say it is just this side of believable. Definitely horrifying and graphic.

3 1/2 stars.

First Line: "Later as he sat on his balcony eating the dog, Dr. Robert Laing reflected on the unusual events that had taken place within this huge apartment building during the previous three months."

Last Line: "Laing watched them contentedly, ready to welcome them to their new world."

3 1/2 stars

43arubabookwoman
Jan 1, 8:25 am

Read in 2022:

547. Cutter and Bone by Newton Thornburg (1976) 322 pp

The setting is Southern California, just post-Vietnam War. Bone is a drifter, a gigolo who makes his cash wooing older wealthy women. Between gigs, he crashes with Cutter and his woman Mo. Cutter is a disabled one-eyed double amputee vet. Bitter doesn't begin to describe his personality, but he is witty and original. His belligerence creates problems for him and Bone wherever he goes. Mo is depressed, an alcoholic and drug addict, and the mother of Cutter's baby. Cheery set-up, no?

Driving home late one night, Bone sees a man driving an expensive car stuff something resembling a set of golf clubs into the trash and then drive off. It turns out that the golf clubs were in fact the body of a young girl who has been murdered. When by chance Bone sees the picture of billionaire chicken magnate J. J. Wolfe in the paper, he thinks he recognizes Wolfe as the man who stuffed the body in the trash. When Cutter hears this he devises a scheme to blackmail the presumed murderer. What could go wrong?

The book perfectly evokes the milieu of California in the 70's, and the hardscrabble life of a Vietnam vet. The dialogue particularly stars in this book, and Cutter, despite his bitterness and meanness, is brilliantly witty. It was a very good read, but I'm not entirely sure why it made the 1001 list.

3 /12 stars

First line: It was not the first time Richard Bone had shaved with a Lady Remington, nor did he expect it to be the last."

I'm not including the last line because if I did, you would know what happens to Bone in the end.

There is apparently a very good movie of the same name that was made from this book, starring Jeff Bridges.

44arubabookwoman
Jan 1, 8:27 am

And a review of another reread, so my total is not increased:

Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton (1911) 105 pp

"He seemed a part of the mute melancholy landscape, an incarnation of its frozen woe, with all that was warm and sentient in him fast bound below the surface....he lived in a depth of moral isolation too remote for casual access."

This is one of those classics that is assigned reading in U.S. high schools, probably because it is so short. At least it was in my 10th grade back in the 1960's. And I hated it then, and I've heard from others how had to read it as a young teenager who also hated it. However, many years later, in older middle age, I read it again, and loved it. I recently reread it again as part of the Wharton buddy read on Litsy, and yes, it's still an excellent book.

New England farmer, Ethan Frome, is living a life of isolation and quiet despair. In an unhappy marriage with his invalid wife Zeena, the only bright spot in his life is Zeena's cousin Mattie Silver, who is Zeena's caregiver. The harsh environment of a New England winter in an isolated village plays a big part in the tale.

Unlike many of Wharton's better-known books in which characters are members of NYC high society and the American aristocracy, in Ethan Frome, her characters are the struggling poor and rural underclass. In many ways, I admire the books in which Wharton focuses on the lower classes more than those in which she focuses on the upper classes.

Highly recommended.
4 stars

First line: "I had the story, bit by bit, from various people, and, as generally happens in such cases, each time it was a different story."

Last line--too revealing again.

45arubabookwoman
Jan 1, 8:36 am

548. The Nice and the Good by Iris Murdoch (1968) 370 pp

First line: "A head of department, working quietly in his room in Whitehall on a summer afternoon, is not accustomed to being disturbed by the nearby and indubitable sound of a revolver shot."

Last line: " Hand in hand the children began to run homeward through the soft warm drizzle."

"He saw himself as a little rat, a busy little scurrying rat seeking out its own little advantages and comforts. To live easily, to have cosy familiar pleasures, to be well thought of."

I always feel I should read more Iris Murdoch than I have. I've started and abandoned more books by Iris Murdoch than I care to remember, though I'm not sure why. And for a while, it looked like this one was going to be another abandonment. It probably took me close to a month to read the first 150-200 pages, and I was having to force myself to pick the book up. But then it took hold of me (finally!), and in the end I quite enjoyed it.

The book was described as being one in which a senior civil servant is given the task of investigating the death of another senior civil servant to determine whether it was actually a suicide as it appeared to be. This description intrigued me, and perhaps I was expecting the book to be more plot-driven, more of a mystery. However, this investigation mostly takes place in the background.

After the opening scene with the gunshot (See First line above) the setting moves to the Cornwall coast to the estate of the head of the department, Octavian. There are so many residents there, many of them females, including friends of his wife who came to visit and stayed on, that Octavian himself often refers to them as his "harem." Octavian's wife Kate is carrying on a flirtation with Duncane, another senior civil servant in Octavian's department who often accompanies Octavian down to Cornwall. Octavian is well-aware of the flirtation, and in fact he and Kate often discuss it. For his part, unknown to Kate and Octavian, Duncane is involved in a love affair with Jessica, which he is tired of and desperately trying to end. Duncane is the person Octavian has appointed to investigate the suicide, and to the extent there is one, Duncane is the central character of the novel.

Others living on the estate include Paula Biranne, an academic and the divorced wife of Richard Biranne, another civil servant in Octavian's department. She, and her 9 year old twins Edward and Henrietta, who sometimes see UFOs, came to stay 4 years ago and are still there. Another friend of Kate's who resides there is Mary, who is a widow. Mary is not a servant (that would be Casie), but she does keep the household on track, as Kate is a bit scatterbrained. Mary's 15 year old son Pierce also lives there when he is not away at school. Barbara, Kate and Octavian's teenage daughter is also resident when not at school.

In addition, Octavian's brother Uncle Theo, who has returned from India under a cloud no one talks about lives there, although he mostly stays upstairs in bed, with the companionship of Mingo the dog. And, in a small cottage on the estate Willy, a European refugee from Dachau lives.

All of these characters, and others, are introduced very early in the book, and they are all talking at, to, and about each other. Perhaps one of my difficulties with the book was keeping track of who was who, because they all sounded pretty much alike, in a British upper crust way. But in the end, there's a lot that happens here, from black mail to black magic to a near drowning, all interspersed between lots of philosophical discussions and musings. Overall, it convinced me that, yes, I do need to read more Iris Murdoch.

4 stars

46arubabookwoman
Jan 1, 8:42 am

549. Thursbitch by Alan Garner (2003)

There are two stories in this 1001 novel, set in two widely separated time periods (the 18th century and the current time), but taking place at the same geographic location. I found the book very hard to get into, even incomprehensible at times, but I persevered, let it flow, and at some point I began to enjoy it, although I will say I remain puzzled by portions of it. I do feel that I would understand more if I were to engage in a second or even third reading. In the 18th century portions in particular it is written in a dialect that is full of unfamiliar words and phrases that even google could not define for me.

There was help from the author's note at the beginning which states:

"John Turner was a packman. With his train of horses he carried salt and silk, traveling distances incomprehensible to his ancient community. In this visionary tale, John brings ideas as well as gifts, which have come from market town to market town from places as distant as the campfires of the Silk Road. John Turner's death in the eighteenth century leaves an emotional charge which, in the twenty-first century Ian and Sal find affects their relationship, challenging the perceptions they have of themselves and of each other. Thursbitch is rooted in a verifiable place. It is an evocation of the lives and language of all people who are call to the valley of Thursbitch."

So in the actual text, John Turner ("Jack") is a "jagger" who "jags." (Google helpfully referred me to Mick Jagger). I got that he travelled with horses and his dog, but not what he traded (other than "puddle juice," which he. seems to have made with mushrooms). Along the way, Jack picks up mushrooms which he uses in some sort of pagan ritual he conducts when he returns home to his village.

In the current day, the story of Ian and Sal is a little less murky, but still had many puzzling elements. We gather that Sal, who seems to be some sort of academic in geology (or at least very familiar with geology), is suffering from a degenerative disease affecting both her muscular control and her cognitive abilities. Her disease worsens over the course of the book. But who is Ian, who accompanies her on her trips to the valley--Is he her caregiver? Her partner? A friend? Her doctor?

I think "evocation" is a good description of what this book creates. What comes through is that sometimes there are "leaks" between Jack's time and Sal's time, and on various occasions throughout Jack and Sal connect.

3 stars

First line: "He climbed from Sooker and the snow was drifting."

Last line: "And Crom asleep in the ground."

47arubabookwoman
Jan 1, 8:45 am

These next two, final two of 2022, were not reviewed by me, just these short comments:

550. Mrs. 'Arris Goes to Paris by Paul Gallico
I read this for a quick 1001 book to cross off the list. It was a condescending and annoying fairy tale with a moral that knocks you in the face, totally unrealistic and I intensely disliked it. It was short though. 2 stars

551. Farewell My Lovely by Raymond Chandler
Another quick 1001 read. I'd never read anything by Raymond Chandler. I put him in the noir category, and I think I was expecting prose plain and simple, somewhat similar to Jim Thompson. This was noir, all right, but the prose was original and complex. It's trite to say but he "has a way with words." I will be reading more by him. 4 stars.

48arubabookwoman
Jan 1, 8:47 am

Read in 2023:

552. Chess Story by Stefan Zweig (1942?) 104 pp

"Anyone who has suffered from a mania remains at risk forever, and with chess sickness (even if cured) it would be better not to go near a chess board."

World chess champion Mirko Czentovic has "the vacant look of a sheep at pasture," but as a monomaniac with no peer at chess, he considers himself the most important person in the world. After all, "isn't it damn easy to think you're a great man if you aren't troubled by the slightest notion that a Rembrandt, Beethoven, Dante, or Napoleon ever existed?"

Czentovic is embarking on a voyage from New York to Buenos Aires to engage in some chess games. One of his fellow passengers is McConnor, a wealthy Scottish engineer, a "self-obsessed big wheel." When McConnor learns that a chess champion is on board, he wants to play, and Czentovic agrees to play McConnor for $250 per game. Our narrator knows that "regardless of the stakes, this fanatically proud man would go on playing Czentovic until he won at least once, even if it cost him his entire fortune."

During the game a third man we know only as Dr. B appears, pale and strange, and very knowledgeable about chess. The heart of the book relates the story of the circumstances under which Dr. B became such an expert in chess.

I'm not a chess player, but there was nothing too technical about chess in this book. Nevertheless, despite the excellent quality of the writing, it was not a book that grabbed me and compelled me to keep reading, which was disappointing since I so loved The Post Office Girl. This is the only book by Zweig in which he directly confronts Nazism (in response to which he and his wife committed suicide in 1942).

3 stars

First line: "On the great passenger liner due to depart New York for Buenos Aires at midnight, there was the usual last minute bustle and commotion."

Last line: "For an amateur, this gentleman is really extraordinarily talented."

49arubabookwoman
Jan 1, 8:50 am

553. Saturday Night and Sunday Morning by Alan Silitoe (1958) 258 pp

"I'm me and nobody else; and whatever people think I am or say I am, that's what I'm not, because they can't know a bloody thing about me."

It's shortly after the end of World War II; Arthur is a worker at a Nottingham factory, still living at home, biding his time until the weekends. He spends his evenings at the pub, and is having sex with Brenda, the wife of one of his friends at the factory who works the night shift. He chooses married women because he knows they will make no demands on him. As I was reading this, I was struck by how much Arthur reminded me of Michael Caine's Alfie. Of course, the good times can't last forever.

And despite Arthur's perception of "good times," Silitoe does a masterful job of showing us the limitations of the dead end lives of the working class in Great Britain after the war. This was his debut novel (made into a well-regarded movie starring Albert Finley), and we are made to see the disillusionment and lack of opportunities facing the young working class, even if, like Arthur, they don't recognize it themselves. Recommended.

3 1/2 stars

50arubabookwoman
Jan 1, 8:51 am

554. The Girls of Slender Means by Muriel Spark (1963) 146 pp

This short novel presents us with a slice of life in bombed out London shortly after the end of World War II for a group of young women living at the May of Teck Club, a sort of boarding home for "Ladies of Slender Means below the age of Thirty Years, who are obliged to reside apart from their families in order to follow an Occupation in London." We follow the lives of Jane Wright, who is fat, but does "brainwork," Anne Baberton, owner of the Schiaparelli gown shared among the girls, Joanna Childe, teacher of elocution, Selena Redwood, "the only woman present who could afford to loll, the three spinsters, Collie, Greggie, and Jarvis's, and several others. There is a "before and after" in this book, and the story alternates between the two. Spark's writing is witty and precise--the bombed out houses were like "giant teeth in which decay had been drilled out, leaving only the cavity," and the book conveys a great sense of time and place. I liked this book very much.

4 stars

First line: "Long ago in 1945 all the nice people in England were poor, allowing for exceptions."
Last line: "Nicholas marveled at her stamina, recalling her in this image years later in the country of his death--how she stood, sturdy and bare-legged on the dark grass, occupied with her hair--as if this was an image of all the May of Teck establishment in its meek, unselfconscious attitudes of poverty, long ago in 1945.

51arubabookwoman
Jan 1, 8:54 am

A reread already included in my numbers above:

The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton (1920) 374 pp

Wharton's most well-known book invokes the typical Wharton theme of the strictures of society that the wealthy live under: Does one really have any free choice to live one's life as one pleases? Newland Archer thinks he can escape, to ignore the rules of the New York wealthy society in which he lives. He is engaged to be married to May, a girl deeply embedded in New York society, with the correct and proper breeding and education to fit the requirements for a wife. But then Archer meets Countess Ellen Olenska, a woman who has recently returned from Europe after leaving her husband under scandalous circumstances. He believes he has fallen in love with Ellen, and wants to give everything up, his place in New York society, his fiancée May, and run away with Ellen.

In Archer's mind, May is an innocent, unaware of how bound up in society's rules she is. But who is the real innocent here--is it Archer who thinks he is brave enough and strong enough to give up everything he has ever known? He can't even recognize that behind the scenes May is manipulating people and events so that her life goes exactly the way she wants it to. In the end, innocent May, may have been the most successful at living life exactly as she chose to.

This is a book everyone should read.

5 stars

First line: "On a January evening of the early seventies Christine Nilsson was singing in Faust at the Academy of Music in New York."

Last line: "Newland Archer got up and walked back alone to the hotel."

52arubabookwoman
Jan 1, 8:56 am

555. Lives of Girls and Women by Alice Munro (1971) 290 pp

Alice Munro is known as a master of the short story, but in a note at the beginning of this book she called this a novel, "autobiographical in form but not in fact." Structurally, it consists of what appear to be short stories, roughly in chronologically order, narrated by Del, telling the story of her life, her family, and her town.

Briefly, as follows, the stories are:

THE FLATS ROAD--Del and family are living out of town on a fox farm This story focuses on Uncle Benny's disastrous marriage.
HEIRS OF THE LIVING BODY--Del's mother's failure to be accepted by her father's family: "My mother went along straight lines. Aunt Elspeth and Auntie Grace wove in and out around her, retreating and disappearing, and coming back...."
PRINCESS IDA--Again the focus is on Del's mother, who becomes an encyclopedia salesperson. "I felt the weight of my mother's eccentricities as something absurd and embarrassing about her--the aunties would just show me a little at a time." Del, her mother, and her brother are now living in town while her father is out at the fox farm.
AGE OF FAITH--Del wants to know if there is a god. "Sometimes I thought of the population of Jubilee as nothing but a large audience for me...."
CHANGES AND CEREMONIES--Del and her friend Naomi are becoming interested in boys and the mysteries of sex. In Jubilee, "reading books was something like chewing gum, a habit to be abandoned when the seriousness and satisfactions of adult life took over. It persisted mostly in unmarried ladies, would have been shameful in a man."
LIVES OF GIRLS AND WOMEN--As a teenager Del is sexually molested by the boyfriend of her mother's boarder.
BAPTIZING--In high school, Del has boyfriends; loses her virginity.
EPILOGUE: THE PHOTOGRAPHER--A story imagined by Del, who has failed her college scholarship exams, but who wants to be a writer. "And no list could hold what I wanted, for what I wanted was every last thing, every layer of speech and thought, stroke of light on bark or walls, every smell, pothole, pain, crack, delusion, held still and held together--radiant, everlasting."

4 stars

53arubabookwoman
Jan 1, 8:59 am

556. The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst (2004) 448 pp

This novel begins in 1983 when middle-class Nick Guest has just graduated from Oxford. He comes down to London and is given a room in the prosperous home of one of his classmates. The father, Gerald Fedden, is a conservative MP, and the mother, Rachel, comes from a wealthy banking family. Nick makes himself useful to the family in one way or another over the next several years. He becomes an inside observer of the workings of the upper classes, the wealthy and the politically connected during the Thatcher years. As an observer, Nick basically remains an outsider (though he doesn't always recognize this himself), and never really becomes a full participant in the goings-on. And since Nick is gay, the book is also the story of gay life in London during the onset of the AIDS epidemic.

The novel is divided into three parts. The first part takes place in 1983 when Nick has just come down to London and has his first love affair with Leo, a young but more experienced civil servant. The second part takes place in 1986 when Nick is both working for and having an affair with Wani, a former Oxford classmate. In the last part, in 1987, AIDS is ravaging Nick's social group, and disasters of other sorts are befalling one after another of the other characters.

Hollinghurst writes beautifully, and I was always fully engaged in this book. The book is full of insightful and perceptive observations about the time, the place, culture, and the society in which these characters move. (One reviewer compared the book and its social observations to Proust). The book serves both as a very personal story of one man and his friends, and as a political and societal history of the Thatcher years. I highly recommend it.

4 1/2 stars

54arubabookwoman
Jan 1, 9:01 am

557. The Radiant Way by Margaret Drabble (1987) 487 pp

"These signs of age, the aging process, she greeted and greets with curiosity, with a resolute welcome. One might as well welcome them, after all: there is not much point in rejecting them. It is all intended, it is all part of the plan. There is a goal to this journey, there will be an arrival, Liz Headland believes."

This book is similar to The Line of Beauty in that it is a novel about life in London during the Thatcher years. It opens on New Year's eve 1979 at a large party at which dozens of characters are introduced, but ultimately the focus is on three friends, former Cambridge classmates who are now in their 40's. Liz is the hostess of the party, and she is a successful psychiatrist married to media mogul Charles (who advises Liz at the New Year's party that he is divorcing her). Alix is married to Brian, and both of them have retained their social consciences. They continue to live in genteel poverty. Alix works at various "gigs," including teaching English literature at a woman's prison. The third friend, Esther, is an art historian, dilettante, and she has never married, though she has a serious lover. Sometimes popping in and out of the story is Shirley, Liz's sister who never went to university, married young, and who remains in the northern manufacturing town where she and Liz grew up.

Like The Line of Beauty, the book is a treasure of political and social commentary about the times, while also being a compelling study of the friendship and the lives and loves of these interesting women. It also paints a pretty grim picture of the havoc wreaked by Thatcher's policies over the 1980's on working class and struggling people.

I really loved this book as well, and over the past few years I have been "rediscovering" Margaret Drabble as an excellent and favorite author. I read many of her earlier books when I was in my 20's, then somehow lost track of her. I learned that this is the first of a series involving the lives of Liz, Alix and Esther, and I will be seeking the others to read in the future.

4 stars

55arubabookwoman
Jan 1, 9:03 am

558. The Sea by John Banville (2005) 195 pp

"Perhaps all life is no more than a long preparation for the leaving of it."

After the death of his wife Anna, Max returns to the seaside where he spent childhood summers fifty years ago. He is staying at the Cedars, where one memorable summer he befriended Chloe and Myles Grace and their parents Connie and Carlo who were living at the Cedars. As Max remembers and explores childhood haunts, we feel an impending tragedy will strike the children, something that will affect Max for the rest of his life.

I can't say that this is one of the better books on the 1001 List that I have read. It was well-written, but not one I deeply felt. One thing that really bothered me was the author's use of vocabulary. I think I have a better than average vocabulary, and I love learning new words, but the author seemed to bandy obscure words about just for the heck of it, and this bothered me and frequently took me out of the story. A few I Had to look up: flocculent; mihatory; greet; scurf; velutinous; anaglypta.

3 stars

First line: "They departed, the gods, on the day of the strange tide."

Last line: "A nurse came out then to fetch me, and I turned and followed her inside, and it was as if I were walking into the sea."

56arubabookwoman
Jan 1, 9:05 am

559. Get Shorty by Elmore Leonard (2005)

After reading City Primeval several years ago (also for the 1001 list), I told myself I had to read more Elmore Leonard, he is such a good writer. But somehow he fell by the wayside--until I recently checked Get Shorty out of the library, and had a similar reaction: Elmore Leonard is such a good writer--read more by him.

Here, the plot revolves around a dry cleaner who has cheated the airlines out of $300,000 and taken off for Las Vegas leaving his wife behind. He's also left behind a mountain of debt to a loan shark, and Chili Palmer, debt collector for the loan shark takes off after the dry cleaner. Chili ends up in Hollywood where he comes across Harry Zimm, producer of sleazeball movies, and Chili decides it would be more fun to be a movie producer than a loan collector. What a ride it is.

And apparently there is a sequel to this gem.

3 1/2 stars

After reading this book, I watched the movie made from the book which stars John Travolta. I don't think I ever watched the movie before because I wasn't a John Travolta fan. The movie was okay, but really doesn't capture the full genius of the book, and what a great character Chili Palmer is.

57arubabookwoman
Jan 1, 9:07 am

560. Invisible by Paul Auster (2009) 332 pp

This is a complex novel, both structurally and plot-wise. It consists of 4 parts, the first three of which take place in 1967, and the fourth taking place 40 years later.

Part I is narrated in the first person by Adam Walker. It is the spring of 1967 and he is a student at Columbia when he meets Rudolf Born, a visiting professor from France. Born and his girlfriend Margot befriend Adam, and Born offers to finance a literary magazine for Adam to develop and edit, something Adam considers a dream come true. He fully intends to accept the challenge, until he witnesses a shocking act of violence that changes his life forever.

In Part II, we learn that Adam has sent the first-person narrative set forth in Part I to his former college roommate Jim, who is now a successful writer. As the novel continues, the framing device for the remainder of the book becomes one in which Jim pieces together in various ways the remainder of Adam's story. Adam wrote Jim that he wanted to continue with his story, but feels blocked and seeks advice. Jim advises that Adam consider telling the story in something other than the first person. We then read the continuation of Adam's story, ostensibly, as with Part I, written by Adam. The story narrated in Part II takes place over the summer of 1967 and is narrated in the second person ("You"). In this section, Adam bides time in New York sharing an apartment (and possibly more) with his sister Gwynn, as he awaits traveling to Paris in the fall for his junior year abroad.

Part III details what happened while Adam was in Paris in the fall of 1967. This section is narrated in the third person, and is ostensibly written by Jim from detailed notes Adam left for him.

The final part takes place forty years after the events which occurred in 1967. Jim has travelled to Paris, and while there seeks out some of the people with whom Adam had interacted in the fall of 1967. Adam's story (and Born's) is finally completed by the diary entries of one of those people, originally written in French and translated.

Throughout, beyond the story Adam wanted to tell about the life-changing events of 1967, questions are being raised about whether a story in a novel can be "true," what makes it true, does it make a difference who tells the story or how it is told? All sorts of issues are raised about the art of writing. I suppose this can be considered meta fiction, which I usually like.

In fact, I liked this one a lot (but then, I've liked most books by Auster that I've read), and I definitely think it deserves a place on the 1001 list. I realize that maybe I haven't made it sound that interesting in that I've kept the plot details rather vague, but I've always found Auster's plots to be imaginative and engaging, and this one was no exception.

Recommended.

4 stars

58arubabookwoman
Jan 1, 9:09 am

561. Nemesis by Phillip Roth (2010) 309 pp

World War II is not quite over, but in the summer of 1944 there is a war of a different sort on the home front. A deadly polio epidemic is sweeping the playgrounds and streets, attacking randomly, and children, teens and adults are in iron lungs and left paralyzed or dead. No one is quite sure how polio is transmitted, and everyone is frightened:

"We were warned not to use public toilets or public drinking fountains or to swig a drink out of someone else's soda-pop bottle or to get a chill or to play with strangers or to borrow books from the public library or to talk on a public pay phone or to buy food from a street vendor or to eat until we had cleaned our hands thoroughly with soap and water."

Bucky Cantor, a young school teacher, is the playground director for the summer in a Jewish Newark neighborhood. After several of his playground charges get polio, Bucky wonders whether he could be doing more to protect them. He has already been feeling guilty because he was unable to enlist in the army due to his poor eyesight. Now he feels he is failing in the battle on the home front. It gets worse when his girlfriend tries to convince him to give up his job at the inner city playground and join her in the "safe" countryside as a camp counselor.

Particularly having recently experienced the covid epidemic, I found the evocation of the fear and paranoia to be very real and convincing. (I don't know when the polio vaccine became widespread, but I don't think it was available until I was a few years into elementary school. I do know there were at least two kids at my very small school in leg braces from having had polio.) It is also a very good depiction of Bucky's doubts and feelings of helplessness, and self-blame:

"He was struck by how lives diverged and by how powerless each of us is up against the force of circumstances. And where does God figure in this?"

Highly recommended

4 stars

First line: "The first case of polio came early in June, right after Memorial Day, in a poor Italian neighborhood, crosstown from where we lived."

59arubabookwoman
Jan 1, 9:10 am

562. In the Heart of the Country by J.M. Coetzee (1977) 160 pp

"The land is full of melancholy spinsters like me, lost to history, blue as roaches in our ancestral homes...."

"I do not think it was ever intended that people should live here. This is a land made for insects who eat sand and lay eggs in each others corpses and have no voices with which to scream when they die."

This short novel is one of Coetzee's early works. It consists of 206 numbered passages, which are generally short, some merely a short paragraph long. Coetzee has said that in structuring the novel he was influenced by film and photographic methods. And despite being short, the chapters and the prose are frequently dense and require (at least for me) much concentration to read.

The narrator, Magda, lives on a sheep farm deep in the veldt with her widowed father. The story she tells is disturbing, and we sense from the beginning that Magda is/will be an unreliable narrator. We can never be sure whether Magda is telling the truth, or whether the events she described even actually happened. What we can be sure of is that the novel follows the descent and decline of Magda as she (probably) kills her father, and is slowly starving herself, as all around her the farm deteriorates.

Not an easy read, but very powerful.

4 stars

60arubabookwoman
Jan 1, 9:12 am

563. The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy (1887) 433 pp

"He wondered if her father's ambition which had purchased for her the means of intellectual light and culture far beyond those of any other native of the village, would conduce to the flight of her future interests above and away from the local life which was once to her the movement of the world."

This is considered one of the six masterpieces of Hardy's Wessex novels. The other five are The Mayor of Casterbridge, Far From the Madding Crows, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, Jude the Obscure, and The Return of the Native. This is the only one of those novels that I had not yet read (though to be fair other than Jude which I have read multiple times, I read them all many years ago, so perhaps they are due a reread). Of the group, this is my least favorite, though it is still a good read, and Hardy himself described it as his favorite of his novels.

Grace Melbury, daughter of a rural timber dealer from the village of Little Hintlock, was sent away to school by her father to be educated as a "lady." Before she left, she had a loose understanding with local apple farmer Giles Winterbourne. Now that she has returned, her father believes that marrying Giles would be beneath Grace and he wants her to marry someone of a higher social status. There is a new doctor in the area, Edred Fitzpiers, and this is who Grace ends up marrying. Although she suspects before the marriage that Edred is a philanderer and of low moral character (and knows that Giles is true-hearted and honest), Grace marries Edred anyway to please her father. The marriage rapidly deteriorates, and Edred becomes infatuated with a wealthy local widow who owns most of the land in the area, Felice Charmond. And always hanging in the background observing is another true-hearted villager, Marty South, who is secretly in love with Giles.

Hardy considered this one of his Novels of Character and Environment, and the message he is seeking to get across is loud and clear: Valuing social status over good character can only lead to tragedy. Unlike some of his other novels, we have characters dealing with the consequences of the wrong choices they have made in life, rather than characters being constantly downtrodden by fate. It's a novel about the conflicts wrought in society by class privilege and wealth, and Hardy comes down on the side of the honest and hard-working villagers rather than the gentry.

I mostly enjoyed this, although as I said it's not my favorite Hardy. One thing people have really liked about the book is its many lyrical descriptions of Nature, which I was not particularly interested in. But I'm glad I read it.

3 1/2 stars

61arubabookwoman
Jan 1, 9:13 am

564. The Victim by Saul Bellow (1947) 250 pp

This is Bellow's second novel, so a very early work for him. Asa Leventhal is alone for the summer, his wife having gone to help her mother move. Walking through the neighborhood one evening, Asa is accosted by an old acquaintance, Kirby Albee, who is drunk. Kirby accuses Asa of having caused him to be fired from his job several years previously. Over the next six weeks or so Kirby becomes increasingly more aggressive in his attacks on Asa, many of which Asa interprets as anti-semitic.

While all this is going on, Asa must also help out with his absent brother's wife and her very ill son. He also is trying to figure out, contacting others from his past, whether he really had played any part in Kirby's being fired from his job.

In the introduction, the book is described as "a parable in the guise of a middle-European realist novel." At the time he was writing it, details of the Holocaust were just becoming known to the world. Bellow has said that the theme of the book is guilt and it is somewhat about anti-semitism. There is a definite play about the ambiguity over who is the victim--Asa or Kirby? In fact they victimize each other.

I found the style of writing very distancing from the characters. I could never work myself up to sympathize with any of the characters. The writing beautifully portrayed life in post-WW II New York City--the heat of the summer, the crowds, the grittiness, and I enjoyed reading about what life was like in the city then. But it was never a book that called to me because I was enjoying it so much or because I wanted to find out what was going to happen next. So, mildly recommended.

3 stars

62arubabookwoman
Edited: Jan 1, 9:18 am

Next one was a reread, so it doesn't add to my total:

A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry (1995) 628 pp

I won't keep you in suspense: I still love this book, although on this reread I noticed more than a few blatant coincidences that should have bothered me, but didn't. It is an epic tale of India during the 1970's. It is set primarily in Mumbai during the so-called "Emergency" when Indira Ghandi's government imposed a series of harsh and repressive measures, and there was much unrest and violence. Along the way we experience many of the horrifying events in India: the Partition, the violence against Muslims, the violence against the untouchables, beggars, the massive slums, forced sterilization, con men, thugs, official corruption, and much, much more.

Two tailors, Ishvar and Om, uncle and nephew, of the untouchable caste, have come to Mumbai from their small village to make their fortune. Although Ishvar and his brother Narayan trained as tailors in order to escape their caste, they were still violently abused in their small village, which led to the death of Narayan. Ishvar brings Narayan's son Om to the city to overcome that past.

In the city, they obtain work producing garments with Dina, a widow desperately trying to maintain her independence. They also develop a friendship with Dina's young boarder, a student. Through these four marvelous characters we come to view the panorama of Indian life. Of vastly different backgrounds, and initially suspicious of each other, over time, the four form a family of sorts.

One of the things I remembered from my first read of this book was how Dickensian it was. One horror after another overtakes these characters, but they, especially Ishvar and Om, just keep coming up for air, and keep on keeping on. Despite the seemingly constant tragedies, there is much rejoicing in the book, and the book at several points references life as "a fine balance" between despair and hope. I will say, however, the has one of the most devastating endings I have ever read, though even then there is hope in what the characters make of it.

The book begins with the epitaph: "This story is not fiction. All is true."

I guess I would still put this book in the category of books I think everyone should read.

5 stars

63arubabookwoman
Jan 1, 9:20 am

565. Michael Kohlhaas by Heinrich von Kleist (1810) 144 pp

Set sometime in the early Renaissance, Michael Kohlhaas is a horse trader who finds himself unfairly (he believes) required to pay a toll. When he contests the toll, his horses are confiscated, and things go from bad to worse as Kohlhaas goes to further and further extremes to seek justice, to the extent that soon the whole country is up in arms.

The book has been described as a portrait of a man "in the Hell of unsatisfied vengeance," beset by "bureaucratic obstacles and governmental corruptions," and is said to have influenced Kafka. Its story illustrates how all out combat can result from the most petty of personal disputes in a fanatical quest for justice.

Even though the book was short, I did not find it an easy read. The backs and forths of the machinations of both sides were not always so easy to follow, though the frustrations experienced by Kohlhaas are clearly conveyed. Read it if you are trying to check some books off the 1001 list, but although it is highly critically praised as being extremely influential, it is not a book I would categorize as "must read."

3 stars

64arubabookwoman
Edited: Jan 2, 9:45 am

566. In This House of Brede by Rumer Godden (1969) 392 pp

Philippa is a middle-aged senior civil servant when she decides to give up her job and all her worldly goods and enter a convent. Philippa is the main character of this chronicle of life in a convent, but there are a dozen or so other major character, all nuns, who become living, breathing individuals who we come to know deeply over the course of this novel. I am not religious, but I found reading about the inner workings of a convent fascinating. In this convent, causal nuns do most of the day to day chores (cooking, cleaning) and the most exalted nuns (Dames) have specific roles they are assigned by the Abbess or head nun. And there are some very talented and highly regarded nuns in this convent. Dame Maura was a hugely respected music leader, and chants by the nuns were highly valued by music lovers. Dame Agnes was an esteemed scholar, writing and publishing scholarly works. Another nun published poetry. One nun wove exquisite silk on the convent's loom. And so on.

We follow these and many others over the years, some as newly entered novitiates, all the way through to the deaths of more than one. They grow and develop as the convent suffers a financial crisis and other woes, and the nuns try to overcome their petty rivalries and peeves, all narrated with a lot of good humor.

Highly recommended.

4 stars

ETA--Leaving the review here, but not counting it as 566--it's probably on a 1001 list from a different country than the English one. Next listed book will be 566.

65arubabookwoman
Jan 1, 9:30 am

And I think that catches me up on my 1001 reading to date. I started The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West last night, and it is short so I should finish it today, so my first read of 2024 will be a 1001 book. Since I'm in my 70's I'm going to have to up my game if I want to get anywhere near 1000 books from the list. I know of a number of books on the list I do NOT want to read, and I am not a completist so that wouldn't bother me. But there are lots and lots of unread ones I do want to read.

Maybe I could set a modest goal of breaking 600 this year. That would only involve reading 3 or so a month.

66puckers
Jan 2, 12:18 am

>65 arubabookwoman: welcome back! Looking forward to you 2024 reviews.

67annamorphic
Jan 2, 7:56 am

>64 arubabookwoman: is this on some version of the list? I would love to read it for my countdown and am happy to count things from other countries’ lists. But I don’t think it’s on the English version.

68arubabookwoman
Edited: Jan 2, 9:48 am

>67 annamorphic: You are probably correct. I hadn't marked it as a 1001 book, but when posting here I couldn't find my 1001 master list. I checked the book page on LT which said it was on the 1001 list, although I don't recall seeing it on my (lost) master list. As you point out, it's probably another country's list, which the LT book page did not make clear. I will remove it from my numbers for the time being (I'm doing the combined list, English version). However, I really liked the book, so I would recommend reading it regardless of whether it's on the list or not.

69annamorphic
Jan 2, 12:10 pm

>68 arubabookwoman: No, don’t remove it from your numbers! That way I can read it and add it to mine. I have a copy waiting for me.

I already have kept on my list two non-1001 books: The Periodic Table, which I read thinking it was on the list and which was fantastic, and Wolf Hall, which I was certain would be added to the next edition of the list but wasn’t.

Arubabookwoman's Updated 1001 List

Talk1001 Books to read before you die

1arubabookwomanJan 29, 2018, 5:36 pm

2arubabookwomanEdited: Jan 29, 2018, 6:32 pm

3arubabookwomanEdited: Jan 29, 2018, 7:08 pm

4arubabookwomanEdited: Jan 29, 2018, 7:45 pm

5arubabookwomanEdited: Jan 29, 2018, 8:21 pm

6arubabookwomanEdited: Jan 29, 2018, 8:53 pm

7arubabookwomanEdited: Jan 30, 2018, 4:52 pm

8arubabookwomanEdited: Jan 30, 2018, 5:21 pm

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10arubabookwomanEdited: Feb 1, 2018, 12:20 am

11arubabookwomanEdited: Jan 30, 2018, 7:07 pm

12arubabookwomanJan 30, 2018, 7:22 pm

13arubabookwomanJan 30, 2018, 7:25 pm

14YellsJan 31, 2018, 11:31 am

15ALWINNJan 31, 2018, 12:55 pm

16arubabookwomanEdited: Feb 2, 2018, 10:08 pm

17arubabookwomanMar 24, 2022, 11:57 am

18arubabookwomanMar 24, 2022, 12:00 pm

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24arubabookwomanEdited: Mar 24, 2022, 12:33 pm

25arubabookwomanMar 24, 2022, 12:37 pm

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27arubabookwomanMar 24, 2022, 12:45 pm

28arubabookwomanEdited: Mar 24, 2022, 3:01 pm

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37arubabookwomanEdited: Mar 24, 2022, 1:25 pm

38arubabookwomanEdited: Mar 24, 2022, 1:29 pm

39arubabookwomanEdited: Mar 24, 2022, 1:34 pm

40puckersMar 24, 2022, 2:35 pm

41annamorphicMar 24, 2022, 4:01 pm

42arubabookwomanJan 1, 8:20 am

43arubabookwomanJan 1, 8:25 am

44arubabookwomanJan 1, 8:27 am

45arubabookwomanJan 1, 8:36 am

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60arubabookwomanJan 1, 9:12 am

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62arubabookwomanEdited: Jan 1, 9:18 am

63arubabookwomanJan 1, 9:20 am

64arubabookwomanEdited: Jan 2, 9:45 am

65arubabookwomanJan 1, 9:30 am

66puckersJan 2, 12:18 am

67annamorphicJan 2, 7:56 am

68arubabookwomanEdited: Jan 2, 9:48 am

69annamorphicJan 2, 12:10 pm

Group: 1001 Books to read before you die

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1arubabookwoman
Jan 29, 2018, 5:36 pm

2arubabookwoman
Edited: Jan 29, 2018, 6:32 pm

3arubabookwoman
Edited: Jan 29, 2018, 7:08 pm

4arubabookwoman
Edited: Jan 29, 2018, 7:45 pm

5arubabookwoman
Edited: Jan 29, 2018, 8:21 pm

6arubabookwoman
Edited: Jan 29, 2018, 8:53 pm

7arubabookwoman
Edited: Jan 30, 2018, 4:52 pm

8arubabookwoman
Edited: Jan 30, 2018, 5:21 pm

9arubabookwoman
Edited: Jan 30, 2018, 5:52 pm

10arubabookwoman
Edited: Feb 1, 2018, 12:20 am

11arubabookwoman
Edited: Jan 30, 2018, 7:07 pm

12arubabookwoman
Jan 30, 2018, 7:22 pm

13arubabookwoman
Jan 30, 2018, 7:25 pm

14Yells
Jan 31, 2018, 11:31 am

15ALWINN
Jan 31, 2018, 12:55 pm

16arubabookwoman
Edited: Feb 2, 2018, 10:08 pm

17arubabookwoman
Mar 24, 2022, 11:57 am

18arubabookwoman
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19arubabookwoman
Mar 24, 2022, 12:04 pm

20arubabookwoman
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21arubabookwoman
Mar 24, 2022, 12:12 pm

22arubabookwoman
Mar 24, 2022, 12:16 pm

23arubabookwoman
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24arubabookwoman
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25arubabookwoman
Mar 24, 2022, 12:37 pm

26arubabookwoman
Mar 24, 2022, 12:41 pm

27arubabookwoman
Mar 24, 2022, 12:45 pm

28arubabookwoman
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29arubabookwoman
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30arubabookwoman
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31arubabookwoman
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32arubabookwoman
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33arubabookwoman
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34arubabookwoman
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35arubabookwoman
Mar 24, 2022, 1:12 pm

36arubabookwoman
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37arubabookwoman
Edited: Mar 24, 2022, 1:25 pm

38arubabookwoman
Edited: Mar 24, 2022, 1:29 pm

39arubabookwoman
Edited: Mar 24, 2022, 1:34 pm

40puckers
Mar 24, 2022, 2:35 pm

41annamorphic
Mar 24, 2022, 4:01 pm

42arubabookwoman
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43arubabookwoman
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45arubabookwoman
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58arubabookwoman
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59arubabookwoman
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60arubabookwoman
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61arubabookwoman
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62arubabookwoman
Edited: Jan 1, 9:18 am

63arubabookwoman
Jan 1, 9:20 am

64arubabookwoman
Edited: Jan 2, 9:45 am

65arubabookwoman
Jan 1, 9:30 am

66puckers
Jan 2, 12:18 am

67annamorphic
Jan 2, 7:56 am

68arubabookwoman
Edited: Jan 2, 9:48 am

69annamorphic
Jan 2, 12:10 pm