Things start to get historically set in a context that most people would be familiar with as the city of Danzig is declared a free city by the League of Nations to try and ward off Nazi attempts to swallow it up. But it does not take long for fighting to break out between the German’s backing Hitler and the Polish contingent dividing families and parts of the City.
Bullet points between pages 190 – 262
* There is a brief chapter about the trumpet player who lives in the attic of Oskar’s apartment block who tries to kill his cats and fails and then is reported by a neighbour and as a result stripped of his position in the SA organisation
* Then Oskar with a broken drum decides to go and visit his Uncle Jan at the Polish post office to get the janitor there to mend it for him but instead he drags his Uncle, who had tried to escape, back into a confrontation with anti-Polish forces
* The Post Office is attacked and under fire his uncle turns out to be a coward who prefers to hide with the injured in the safe room waiting for the outcome of the battle that is raging all around them as they play cards
* In the end though the opposition is too strong and Jan and the rest of the defenders are arrested and taken off and shot and buried in a shallow grave that Oskar is told about later from the serial mounrner who turns up at every funeral
* Oskar is introduced to the delights of female company after his father employs Maria to run the store and because of a moment when the present day breaks the memories of the past you realise that Oskar has a son that presumably is borne by this woman
More tomorrow...
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Lunchtime read: Short Stories by Dreiser
Another story that Dreiser managed to get published in Cosmopolitan again covers the subject of love and matrimony but this time the couple are married and that’s when the problems begin.
The Marriage
* A woman who is of farming stock marries a musician who hangs around with a large number of arty friends, some of whom are women, and so she tries to get him away from that crowd to meet with older more refined society
* Dreiser describes the way she tries to manipulate her husband with crying, baby speak and bullying and she obviously thinks she has the upper hand in the marriage particularly after she introduces him to people she approves of
* The problem is that these people are intellectually superior to the wife and she starts to feel that compared to them she is dull and unworthy and finally one night opens up and the balance of power shifts to her husband having to console her
* The story ends with the musician musing on the relationship coming to the conclusion that he might not even love his wife but they are now trapped in a cycle of comfort and emotional weakness
A review of this collection follows over the weekend…
The Marriage
* A woman who is of farming stock marries a musician who hangs around with a large number of arty friends, some of whom are women, and so she tries to get him away from that crowd to meet with older more refined society
* Dreiser describes the way she tries to manipulate her husband with crying, baby speak and bullying and she obviously thinks she has the upper hand in the marriage particularly after she introduces him to people she approves of
* The problem is that these people are intellectually superior to the wife and she starts to feel that compared to them she is dull and unworthy and finally one night opens up and the balance of power shifts to her husband having to console her
* The story ends with the musician musing on the relationship coming to the conclusion that he might not even love his wife but they are now trapped in a cycle of comfort and emotional weakness
A review of this collection follows over the weekend…
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
The Tin Drum - post IV
Each chapter seems to have a theme and although they are interrelated because the story is being told in a chronological way. But there is a two-fold process happening with his talking about growing up but also covering off big issues like religion and the death of his mother.
If you were to look at the themes of the first 150 pages of the book - apart from the obvious one of Oskar and his odd ambition to remain at the height of a three year old and play a tin drum all the time – then there are quite a few to deal with.
Firstly, there is the question of adultery with Oskar never really knowing who his father is with the choice being between his mother’s two lovers. Then there is a question of identity with the growing tension caused by the Nazi’s and the question marks over the value of pushing a Polish identity. Finally there is a theme of guilt with not only Oskar’s presumptive father having to live with the knowledge he left the cellar door open that caused Oskar’s accident but also the guilt felt by his mother with her sexual relationships and even the guilt Oskar makes others feel when he helps them become thieves. Finally, and it goes almost without saying, there is the theme of size with those who are small able to make observations and disrupt political meetings in a way anyone larger would fail to achieve.
Bullet points between pages 126 – 190
* Oskar is taken to church with his mother and receives a blessing but remains convinced that despite the priests words against Satan he has still go the devil sitting on his shoulder encouraging him to sing and break glass
* Then the scene shifts to a bank holiday day out that takes the mother and her two lovers to the coast where they come across an old fisherman hauling on a line that turns out to have a horses head attached
* As the fisherman picks off the eels the mother wretches and following the experience is never quite the same and start eating massive amounts of fish and drinking fish oil until it kills her
* Despite the other thoughts in her head Oskar is blamed for the death by gossips who say that the mother had been driven top the brink by his drumming but Oskar genuinely misses her and starts to notice gaps in his life she used to fill
* There then follows a great chapter when Oskar and a friend who has been in numerous fights and has scars all across his back spend some time with a cursed figurehead from a boat that has caused numerous deaths in its history
* While Oskar is allowed to spend time with his friend who is a museum guard they have the confidence to face the cursed figurehead but when left alone the survivor of numerous fights ends up killing himself as he tries to carve himself into the figurehead with the aid of an axe
More tomorrow...
If you were to look at the themes of the first 150 pages of the book - apart from the obvious one of Oskar and his odd ambition to remain at the height of a three year old and play a tin drum all the time – then there are quite a few to deal with.
Firstly, there is the question of adultery with Oskar never really knowing who his father is with the choice being between his mother’s two lovers. Then there is a question of identity with the growing tension caused by the Nazi’s and the question marks over the value of pushing a Polish identity. Finally there is a theme of guilt with not only Oskar’s presumptive father having to live with the knowledge he left the cellar door open that caused Oskar’s accident but also the guilt felt by his mother with her sexual relationships and even the guilt Oskar makes others feel when he helps them become thieves. Finally, and it goes almost without saying, there is the theme of size with those who are small able to make observations and disrupt political meetings in a way anyone larger would fail to achieve.
Bullet points between pages 126 – 190
* Oskar is taken to church with his mother and receives a blessing but remains convinced that despite the priests words against Satan he has still go the devil sitting on his shoulder encouraging him to sing and break glass
* Then the scene shifts to a bank holiday day out that takes the mother and her two lovers to the coast where they come across an old fisherman hauling on a line that turns out to have a horses head attached
* As the fisherman picks off the eels the mother wretches and following the experience is never quite the same and start eating massive amounts of fish and drinking fish oil until it kills her
* Despite the other thoughts in her head Oskar is blamed for the death by gossips who say that the mother had been driven top the brink by his drumming but Oskar genuinely misses her and starts to notice gaps in his life she used to fill
* There then follows a great chapter when Oskar and a friend who has been in numerous fights and has scars all across his back spend some time with a cursed figurehead from a boat that has caused numerous deaths in its history
* While Oskar is allowed to spend time with his friend who is a museum guard they have the confidence to face the cursed figurehead but when left alone the survivor of numerous fights ends up killing himself as he tries to carve himself into the figurehead with the aid of an axe
More tomorrow...
Lunchtime read: Short Stories by Dreiser
A footnote explains that this story was originally published in Cosmopolitan in 1918. My wife had a few years working in the art department in Cosmopolitan and the idea that they might print a story like this is some what removed from the sort of sex positions content the modern magazine handles.
The Second Choice
* A woman who has been taken in by a smooth talking confident man, Arthur, breaks off her engagement with a steady character and dreams of living with Mr Exciting rather than Mr Steady
* However Mr Exciting is just having some fun with her before he moves on and by the time he does she is left with nobody and after a while heads back to her Mr Steady and reignites the relationship
* She consoles herself thinking that she aimed too high and that she will after all have to replicate the life of her parents and churn out some kids and eek out an existence accepting that while she is choosing her second choice she was Arthur’s
* You can imagine the readers of Cosmo lapping this up because of the way the story focuses on the woman and the decisions she makes about her love life. But it is worth a wider readership because it is also making a comment about the way that a little bit of confidence can make a huge difference
More tomorrow…
The Second Choice
* A woman who has been taken in by a smooth talking confident man, Arthur, breaks off her engagement with a steady character and dreams of living with Mr Exciting rather than Mr Steady
* However Mr Exciting is just having some fun with her before he moves on and by the time he does she is left with nobody and after a while heads back to her Mr Steady and reignites the relationship
* She consoles herself thinking that she aimed too high and that she will after all have to replicate the life of her parents and churn out some kids and eek out an existence accepting that while she is choosing her second choice she was Arthur’s
* You can imagine the readers of Cosmo lapping this up because of the way the story focuses on the woman and the decisions she makes about her love life. But it is worth a wider readership because it is also making a comment about the way that a little bit of confidence can make a huge difference
More tomorrow…
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Tin Drum apologies
Sometimes you get a book that although the subject is not that difficult to deal with it just feels like it is going to be a difficult one to get through. Sadly the Tin Drum is turning out to be a problematic book in terms of reading it, and after falling asleep on the train this morning going to work I had to take a phone call for most of the journey coming back so read almost nothing. Hopefully tomorrow I can break the 50 page mark but that is far from guaranteed...
Lunchtime read: Short Stories by Dreiser
A rather sad and moving story to get through on a lunch break and as you finishing reading and then snap back into the reality of the computer screens and voices drifting across the open plan office it seems better in Dreiser’s world.
The Lost Phoebe
* An old couple who have lived together for years are finally separated by death with the wife dying first and after the husband Henry refuses help life seems to settle down to the quiet existence of a widower
* But one night he thinks he sees his wife and after that he is on a mission to find her that takes him to all of their old friends and even beyond and after the authorities take the view he is harmless he is left to wander looking for Phoebe for seven years
* Finally he sees her and rushes to catch up with her and with happiness at the end of his quest he jumps off a cliff and is discovered with a smile on his face at the bottom of it
More tomorrow…
The Lost Phoebe
* An old couple who have lived together for years are finally separated by death with the wife dying first and after the husband Henry refuses help life seems to settle down to the quiet existence of a widower
* But one night he thinks he sees his wife and after that he is on a mission to find her that takes him to all of their old friends and even beyond and after the authorities take the view he is harmless he is left to wander looking for Phoebe for seven years
* Finally he sees her and rushes to catch up with her and with happiness at the end of his quest he jumps off a cliff and is discovered with a smile on his face at the bottom of it
More tomorrow…
One extreme to another
Two different takes on the state of the independent book store with David Usborne in The Independent reporting from New York that although one bookshop has closed down one of his favourite independent bookshops has stayed open and judging on that basic barometer he feels things are okay in the state of Indie bookseller land.
But, at the other extreme and this story is bizarre a bookseller in Kansas who literally could not give books away has resorted to burning them.His burning was a protest at what the owner of Prospero's Books Tom Wayne believes is a lack of support for the printed word. The owners of the book store have found sales figures falling and similar bookshops closing and now the only option they feel thay have left is to burn their stocks.
Having gone onto the store website it seems they might be a way to save some of the stock by buying titles for a dollar. It seems a tragedy to let them burn so maybe I'll get ordering...
But, at the other extreme and this story is bizarre a bookseller in Kansas who literally could not give books away has resorted to burning them.His burning was a protest at what the owner of Prospero's Books Tom Wayne believes is a lack of support for the printed word. The owners of the book store have found sales figures falling and similar bookshops closing and now the only option they feel thay have left is to burn their stocks.
Having gone onto the store website it seems they might be a way to save some of the stock by buying titles for a dollar. It seems a tragedy to let them burn so maybe I'll get ordering...
The Tin Drum - post III
Because today was a bank holiday I had no work and as a result no commute so reading has not been easy and I have waited until everyone has gone to bed to get some pages of Tin Drum under my belt. The reading will start again tomorrow in earnest but these few pages at least keep it ticking over and make it possible to complete the book this week.
Bullet points between pages 101 – 125
* Oskar meets a dwarf who decided to stop growing when he reached the age of ten and he warns him never to be in front of a rostrum but on it or behind it because a time is coming of torch light parades and speeches
* Sure enough Oskar’s father joins the party and Oskar starts to attend rallies but he hides underneath the rostrum and using his drum infects the bands above with waltzes and swing and disrupts the meetings
* He then moves on to experimenting with turning people into thieves by using his voice to smash shop windows and then in the shadows watch as normal people, including his mother’s lover, succumb to temptation
More tomorrow…
Bullet points between pages 101 – 125
* Oskar meets a dwarf who decided to stop growing when he reached the age of ten and he warns him never to be in front of a rostrum but on it or behind it because a time is coming of torch light parades and speeches
* Sure enough Oskar’s father joins the party and Oskar starts to attend rallies but he hides underneath the rostrum and using his drum infects the bands above with waltzes and swing and disrupts the meetings
* He then moves on to experimenting with turning people into thieves by using his voice to smash shop windows and then in the shadows watch as normal people, including his mother’s lover, succumb to temptation
More tomorrow…
Monday, May 28, 2007
Coming up short in the relay
Having seen the adverts in the paper over the weekend it finally seemed like a good idea to log on and see what the collective efforts of writers contributing to the Guardian's relay story has produced.
So far there have been four writers, out of a total of ten which will contribute, and at the rate they are going it is going to be one of the shortest books ever written even before you get into the content. It reminds me of something we did at school and some people only contributed one sentence not for fear of developing plot and character in a way that could not be picked up by someone else but because simply they could not be bothered. Which of those is the driving motivation in this case is hard to say.
So far there have been four writers, out of a total of ten which will contribute, and at the rate they are going it is going to be one of the shortest books ever written even before you get into the content. It reminds me of something we did at school and some people only contributed one sentence not for fear of developing plot and character in a way that could not be picked up by someone else but because simply they could not be bothered. Which of those is the driving motivation in this case is hard to say.
Lunchtime read: Short Stories by Dreiser
It is always an odd and uncomfortable feeling using a term that for a long time was one of abuse. To describe someone just because of their colour was sadly part of life at the turn of the last century but in this story Dreiser widens out the bigotry from racism to also make it a statement about City versus country ways and a question of who really is guilty.
Nigger Jeff
* A man is accused of raping a 19 year old and a lynching party sets off to try and find the man to bring him to justice at their own hands so a reporter from the city newspaper is sent out to cover the story
* He is disturbed by the thought of a lynching but files a story reporting that the sheriff has the man in the cellar of his home and appears to have defused the situation but even so the reporter tells the paper to wait for potential updates
* Sure enough the father and the son with a posse of supporters manage to get up top the sheriff’s house and get past the official and take Jeff and cart him off to be hanged in revenge for the crime he committed that morning
* After Jeff is left to hang the reporter struggles to get the thoughts clear in his head but before heading back to the city he walks to Jeff’s house and there sees his corpse and discovers his mother crying over the body
* As he walks out he feels a horror at the events but the power of the mother’s grief leaves him with the angle to take on the story – an account of a lynching that destroyed more than it rectified
More from this fascinating collection from Dreiser tomorrow…
Nigger Jeff
* A man is accused of raping a 19 year old and a lynching party sets off to try and find the man to bring him to justice at their own hands so a reporter from the city newspaper is sent out to cover the story
* He is disturbed by the thought of a lynching but files a story reporting that the sheriff has the man in the cellar of his home and appears to have defused the situation but even so the reporter tells the paper to wait for potential updates
* Sure enough the father and the son with a posse of supporters manage to get up top the sheriff’s house and get past the official and take Jeff and cart him off to be hanged in revenge for the crime he committed that morning
* After Jeff is left to hang the reporter struggles to get the thoughts clear in his head but before heading back to the city he walks to Jeff’s house and there sees his corpse and discovers his mother crying over the body
* As he walks out he feels a horror at the events but the power of the mother’s grief leaves him with the angle to take on the story – an account of a lynching that destroyed more than it rectified
More from this fascinating collection from Dreiser tomorrow…
bookmark of the week
Living near Greenwich you take it for granted having the Cutty Sark on your doorstep and although it has been behind blue hoardings and closed for its refurbishment the feeling has always been that it is only temporarily out of action. So it was with a surreal sense of horror that I work up to go to work the other day and watched pictures of it burning on the TV. Popping down there today the visible damage was quite disturbing because you can’t help but suspect it might be arson. To have survived for all these years just to become the victim of an idiot is a tragedy.
Anyway next to the burnt out shell of the hull there is a concession booth and they continue to be upbeat selling the merchandise with the logo on for the conservation project. This bookmark is one of the things they are selling.
Sunday, May 27, 2007
book of books - The Fall of France
Since starting this blog this is the first non-fiction title I have read and a return to the sort of reading I was consuming a couple of years ago. History books these days have to be narrative as well an analytical, something Julian Jackson acknowledges here splitting the first book into that type of history. The second part is briefer and harder to follow and reminds you of the old-fashioned history texts that sent you to sleep while trying to be informative.
Contents summary
The book aims to simply explain why it was that the Nazi army could set out to capture France via Holland and Belgium and manage to do all of that in a matter of weeks. There are several reasons put forward:
Bad preparation
Low morale
Poor intelligence
These were against a political background of few allies and general upheaval with various parties vying for government. When it really mattered there was a split over whether or not the French should stand or sign an armistice and those arguments cost a prime minister his position. Ultimately the German’s were just too quick, better able to use their military hardware and did not attack where they were meant to making the French efforts always going to be second best.
After the war what was interesting is how little the conflict was talked about and how few French historians studied it. But despite that the impact made certain people behave in the way that they did – namely de Gaulle who set out to have a strong sense of French national identity. There are comparisons made between the French army of 1914 and the British relationship and their morale. In the first the only major difference was the French managed to gain a victory, the Marne, that had a massive psychological impact that helped them steady the nerves. When it comes to comparisons with the British they were also neither in a better shape militarily or politically with Churchill not universally admired.
It is well written?
A difficult one here because it does rumble through the events but there is never a real sense of what is happening and then with France having lost the war the narrative cuts off although the political and historical analysis of it carries the story on after the fall of Nazi Germany, leaving you with a vacuum of about five crucial years. The narrative moves forward and backwards a bit like a jelly with you trying to get across the story but each time the narrative seems to move you on it then pulls you back to make a further point about the characters, politics or military strategy of the time. Not the most difficult read but one that could have been made more enjoyable.
Should it be read?
There are not too many books dedicated to looking at why the French collapsed in the way that they did and so this is worth reading from the point of view that there are not going to be too many other places to go to get this sort of information. But it is going to leave you with some gaps that have the potential to annoy. The reason for coming to this book was that having read Iron in the Soul by Jean-Paul Sartre it felt like a good idea to put some more meat on the bones and try to get to the facts of why his lead character Mathieu ended up in the situation he did facing the Germans in a village during a retreat. This partly answers those questions and so for those with a similar desire this is a good option to plum for.
Summary
Facing the blitzkrieg of an army with its confidence high the French never managed to recover from low morale, bad intelligence and divided politics
Version read – Oxford University Press hardback
Saturday, May 26, 2007
book of books - For Esme with Love and Squalor and other stories
One of the biggest problems with reading a collection of short stories over a few days then losing the book and taking an enforced break is that it is difficult at the end of a disturbed reading period to try to gather your thoughts about it all.
One of the first things that can be said about this collection of stories is that unlike the last book I read Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters… these stories are not linked in the same way and as a result it is slightly easier dipping and then dipping out. It also has the result of showing off different styles of writing and the appreciation of J.D Salinger increases as a result.
With short stories it is sometimes useful to picture where the text first appeared with some of these stories being printed in literary magazines for consumption in a way that is different from this book. With a pressure to grab the reader and keep them engaged there are some stories here that really stand out as examples of how to keep the reader involved and it is worth mentioning a couple.
For Esme with Love and Squalor
An American solider getting ready for D-Day pops into a church to watch choir practice and notices a girl who then follows him with her brother and governess into the café where he is having tea. He strikes up a conversation with her and it turns out that her father and mother are dead and she is mature for her years partly as a result of that but her brother Charles does seem damaged by it.
The narrator tells her he is an author so Esme asks him to write something for her that is not silly but about squalor and so he mentions he will but then the story switches location and the solider has had a nervous breakdown after D-Day. As he sits down to write a letter he notices a package that has been sent and it is from Esme who has sent him her watch, something he admired in the café, and he suddenly feels like sleeping and remembers her asking him to come back with all his mental facilities.
Teddy
A young boy who has captivated professors round the world with his arguments that he is reincarnated and that the true road to understanding God is through meditation and spiritual concentration. He is challenged by an academic who is on the same boat travelling back from Europe to the US and asks him why he responded to some of the questions professors asked him about predicting death – in response Teddy outlines a possible scenario where his sister pushes him into an empty pool and kills him.
The professor is obviously disturbed not just by Teddy’s views but by his self-confidence and the meeting between them ends with him pausing for thought before running after the 10 year old genius. As he gets down to E deck and nears the pool he hears a shriek of a young girl rebounding off four tiled walls and you realise that the scenario that Teddy sketched out for his own death has happened exactly as he foretold.
Is it well written?
Some of the stories are almost too subtle, Pretty Mouth and Green My Eyes as an example, and others seem slightly dated in their wartime setting like Just Before the War with the Eskimos. But in places this feels like a flower opening up to the sunlight with the title story and the final Teddy both having a twist in the first instance moving and in the second disturbing that shows real depth. The ability of a child to pull back a man from the edge of the abyss is described with such light touches that a great deal could be learnt from how he writes that scene.
Should it be read?
As has been previously commented with Salinger, the more you read beyond Catcher in the Rye the more you discover a writer that is capable of delivering much more than just a teenage angst ridden novel. Just like Catcher there is an independence of view that carries through the writing and reappears in some of the characters but there is also a variance of style, observational intelligence and recognition that the reader is strapped in and ready for a few hairpin bends to make this worth reading.
Version read – Penguin paperback
The Tin Drum - post II
Knowing that Oskar is remembering his childhood from the sanitised situation of a mental hospital it is becoming a question of working out what point he ends up there – is there something in his behaviour that triggers it, bearing in mind he is already acting up.
It’s odd reading this with a child of two and a half because if he turned into Oskar on his third birthday it is doubtful I would keep buying drums and smiling through the madness. I’d be in the mental ward not the child.
Bullet points between pages 55 – 101
* As his third birthday comes Oskar is given his drum and resolves to throw himself down the cellar stairs and land on his head to provide the medical justification to why he won’t grow and he discovers that he has the ability to smash glass with his high-pitched scream
* The scream is deployed whenever anyone tries to take away the drum and gets him into trouble at school when he ends up smashing most of the glass in the classroom as the teacher tries to wrestle the drum away
* All the time he remains a small backward boy that is the butt of other children’s curiosity and almost an affliction that his mother has to carry around as she goes between her lover, husband and music shop owning admirer
* Oskar climbs to the top of a tower and from there decides to smash the glass in the theatre and only comes down when he can see his mother coming leaving a bewildered public wondering just what caused most of the glass to shatter
More to come over the weekend…
It’s odd reading this with a child of two and a half because if he turned into Oskar on his third birthday it is doubtful I would keep buying drums and smiling through the madness. I’d be in the mental ward not the child.
Bullet points between pages 55 – 101
* As his third birthday comes Oskar is given his drum and resolves to throw himself down the cellar stairs and land on his head to provide the medical justification to why he won’t grow and he discovers that he has the ability to smash glass with his high-pitched scream
* The scream is deployed whenever anyone tries to take away the drum and gets him into trouble at school when he ends up smashing most of the glass in the classroom as the teacher tries to wrestle the drum away
* All the time he remains a small backward boy that is the butt of other children’s curiosity and almost an affliction that his mother has to carry around as she goes between her lover, husband and music shop owning admirer
* Oskar climbs to the top of a tower and from there decides to smash the glass in the theatre and only comes down when he can see his mother coming leaving a bewildered public wondering just what caused most of the glass to shatter
More to come over the weekend…
Friday, May 25, 2007
Lunchtime read: Short Stories (Dreiser)
My only experience with Theodore Dreiser is with Sister Carrie the epic tale of love and loss against the background of Chicago, New York and the great depression. This slim collection of short stories was purchased for $1 on my last holiday to Chicago and instantly you are reminded of the creative ability Dreiser had at his fingertips.
Free
* A 60 year old architect living in New York is being told by his family doctor that his wife of thirty years is unwell and might potentially die and in reaction the architect almost wills it to happen so he can be free
* He looks back over his life and realises that he made a mistake marrying his wife and apart from his first child, who died at the age of two, he has never really been happy in the rleationship
* He weighs up why he never left his wife and reveals it was because of fear of the social stigma it would have caused despite him not enjoying being married plus his wife had married their other two children into socially connected families
* In the end he realises he is almost murdering her with his thoughts so tries to be pleased when she seems to recover but he is woken from his sleep to be told that his wife has died and he realises he is free at last - but free to die and not to live again
More soon...
Free
* A 60 year old architect living in New York is being told by his family doctor that his wife of thirty years is unwell and might potentially die and in reaction the architect almost wills it to happen so he can be free
* He looks back over his life and realises that he made a mistake marrying his wife and apart from his first child, who died at the age of two, he has never really been happy in the rleationship
* He weighs up why he never left his wife and reveals it was because of fear of the social stigma it would have caused despite him not enjoying being married plus his wife had married their other two children into socially connected families
* In the end he realises he is almost murdering her with his thoughts so tries to be pleased when she seems to recover but he is woken from his sleep to be told that his wife has died and he realises he is free at last - but free to die and not to live again
More soon...
The Tin Drum - post I
The choice of books to follow The Fall of France was limited by simply what was on the bookshelf so The Tin Drum it is for the next couple of days and next week. Having read Cat & Mouse there is a sense that at least you might be prepared for the style but the opening to this book is a powerful reminder that you should always accept the unexpected: “Granted: I am an inmate of a mental hospital”
Bullet points between pages 1 – 54
* Having introduced the main character Oskar as a resident of a mental institute the character starts to lead us through the story of his life starting with his grandmother, a woman who wore her skirts for the week one on top of another
* She finds her husband as he hides under her skirts after being chased by the police for arson and that evening they get married and he assumes the identity of a dead rafter and for many years is a well-behaved citizen
* But then he is given a job delivering wood for the mill owner that employed him when he burnt down the mills in the region and the police surround the rafts as they come into the river basin and the grandfather jumps into the water never to be seen again
* The story then shifts to the next generation with Oskar describing his mother who had two loves and spent her time running a grocery store that managed to survive even through the hard times of the first world war
* Then he describes his own birth, which he recalls in perfect detail, and remembers his [parents promising to buy him a drum for his third birthday an event that is captured on film and inserted into a family photograph album that Oskar is strongly attached to
* Having got his drum the three year old decides never to grow or develop beyond that point and vows not to follow his father into the grocery trade
More tomorrow…
Bullet points between pages 1 – 54
* Having introduced the main character Oskar as a resident of a mental institute the character starts to lead us through the story of his life starting with his grandmother, a woman who wore her skirts for the week one on top of another
* She finds her husband as he hides under her skirts after being chased by the police for arson and that evening they get married and he assumes the identity of a dead rafter and for many years is a well-behaved citizen
* But then he is given a job delivering wood for the mill owner that employed him when he burnt down the mills in the region and the police surround the rafts as they come into the river basin and the grandfather jumps into the water never to be seen again
* The story then shifts to the next generation with Oskar describing his mother who had two loves and spent her time running a grocery store that managed to survive even through the hard times of the first world war
* Then he describes his own birth, which he recalls in perfect detail, and remembers his [parents promising to buy him a drum for his third birthday an event that is captured on film and inserted into a family photograph album that Oskar is strongly attached to
* Having got his drum the three year old decides never to grow or develop beyond that point and vows not to follow his father into the grocery trade
More tomorrow…
Thursday, May 24, 2007
book of books - Cat & Mouse
Having never read Gunter Grass before this was an introduction that was a result of choosing a slim-line volume for lunchtime reading rather than on the strength of the reputation of the title.
There is a motif running through the book to do with the cat and the mouse and although it initially concerns the main character Mahlke’s Adam’s apple being clawed by a cat it widens out to become about chasing other elusive goals. The most elusive of all the things the narrator wants to find, a relationship with girls being amongst them, is to drill down into the essence of Mahlke.
Plot summary
A group of boys spend their free time out of school swimming out to a partially sunken barge where Mahlke dives with a screwdriver round his neck to retrieve prizes from below the water. Part of the reason he wears something round his neck is because he has a particularly large Adam’s apple and he is conscious of it. Mind you he also has (using Grass’s language) a particularly large cock. Despite his heroics on the barge Mahlke is a loner and the narrator, who is a neighbour seeks and fails to try and work out what makes him tick. You do discover that Mahlke is obsessed with the Virgin Mary, steals an Iron Cross medal and gets expelled because of his attraction to wearing a medal round the neck and finally that he is tremendously successful in the tank regiment. This success is rewarded with the Knights Cross and more infamy but it fails to get him back in front of his old school to deliver a speech. In revenge Mahlke wastes his leave waiting to slap the headmaster and then goes AWOL living back on the barge. At the end the narrator visits an evening event to celebrate those who won Knight’s crosses and although Mahlke’s name is called he fails to appear.
Is it well written?
It is working on different levels and the metaphor play with the cat and mouse is easily understandable, which makes a difference compared to some authors. On another level it is a rites of passage tale for not just two boys but a war time generation that learnt names of boats that they expected to conquer the world only to hear that, like the barge, they had been sunk. It shows the awe that the military was able to inspire but with the narrator’s brother dying in the Russian campaign it also showed the indifference and fatalism that seemed to be growing as defeat neared. The constant focus on the Adam’s apple does grate sometimes but you can imagine that if you were trying to recall a boyhood friend only the exaggerated details would be memorable.
Should it be read?
It is reasonably accessible and not too daunting. It does require a commitment to get past a lot of the sometimes hard to understand desperation to find the truth of Mahlke. But ultimately this is one of those books that sits in your head and starts to unravel after it has been finished and all of the different levels and the clever repetition of themes become striking as the days since consumption pass by. It provides a taster for Grass, who regardless of the SS membership issues, is seen as one of the great modern German writers.
Summary
A boy with striking physical features manages to stand out on the battlefield for different reasons but always continues to remain an enigma to his friends.
Version read – Penguin paperback
Lunchtime read: For Esme with Love and Squalor...
This story is both quirky and supernatural and the sting in the tail is left until the every last sentence. Those looking for examples of what short stories can do should look at the second half of this as a great illustration of how pace can be gently introduced, at a pace that is almost imperceptible, and a twist can come from a reference buried in the text several pages before the event happens.
Teddy
* A young boy who has captivated professors round the world with his arguments that he is reincarnated and that the true road to understanding God is through meditation and spiritual concentration
* He is challenged by an academic who is on the same boat travelling back from Europe to the US and asks him why he responded to some of the questions professors asked him about predicting death – in response Teddy outlines a possible scenario where his sister pushes him into an empty pool and kills him
* The professor is obviously disturbed not just by Teddy’s views but by his self confidence and the meeting between them ends with him pausing for thought before running after the 10 year old genius
* As he gets down to E deck and nears the pool he hears a shriek of a young girl rebounding off four tiled walls and you realise that the scenario that Teddy sketched out for his own death has happened exactly as he foretold
* Great twist and well written in the second half in particular – a bit of a slow starter but gets there in the end
A review will follow shortly but this has been difficult reading because it was truncated while there was a dispute with my own child genius about exactly where he had hidden the book…
Teddy
* A young boy who has captivated professors round the world with his arguments that he is reincarnated and that the true road to understanding God is through meditation and spiritual concentration
* He is challenged by an academic who is on the same boat travelling back from Europe to the US and asks him why he responded to some of the questions professors asked him about predicting death – in response Teddy outlines a possible scenario where his sister pushes him into an empty pool and kills him
* The professor is obviously disturbed not just by Teddy’s views but by his self confidence and the meeting between them ends with him pausing for thought before running after the 10 year old genius
* As he gets down to E deck and nears the pool he hears a shriek of a young girl rebounding off four tiled walls and you realise that the scenario that Teddy sketched out for his own death has happened exactly as he foretold
* Great twist and well written in the second half in particular – a bit of a slow starter but gets there in the end
A review will follow shortly but this has been difficult reading because it was truncated while there was a dispute with my own child genius about exactly where he had hidden the book…
Fall of France - post V
The narrative comes to an end with you wondering just how things ended with Paris being captured and the rise of the Vichy government - there is a feeling that you just have to assume those things happened and fill in the blanks. It doesn't help to have unanswered questions but in fairness the scope of the book was confined to the defeat and that is covered.
Bullet points between pages 200 – 249
* Comparisons are made between the state of the British and the French from both a military and political view and in both cases there was not too much superiority on the British side of the channel
* Churchill was painted out with hindsight to be the popular leader but for the first period of his time as leader he struggled to get backing from his own party and the public and could not be considered to be much more popular than his French counterpart
* The difference for the French was that aside from indifferent polticial leadership there was poor intelligence and when the Germans did attack they were able to exploit the fog of misunderstanding that swamped the French
* Following 1940 the defeat was not talked about much but present in policies carried out by de Gaulle who leant on the Empire as some sort of consolation and ended up in wars in Vietnam and Algeria as a result
* The impact of the defeat lives on with historians continuing to see the political leadership of the time - the Third Republic - as decadent and architects of their own downfall despite the increasing amount of facts proving that view wrong
A review will follow soon...
Bullet points between pages 200 – 249
* Comparisons are made between the state of the British and the French from both a military and political view and in both cases there was not too much superiority on the British side of the channel
* Churchill was painted out with hindsight to be the popular leader but for the first period of his time as leader he struggled to get backing from his own party and the public and could not be considered to be much more popular than his French counterpart
* The difference for the French was that aside from indifferent polticial leadership there was poor intelligence and when the Germans did attack they were able to exploit the fog of misunderstanding that swamped the French
* Following 1940 the defeat was not talked about much but present in policies carried out by de Gaulle who leant on the Empire as some sort of consolation and ended up in wars in Vietnam and Algeria as a result
* The impact of the defeat lives on with historians continuing to see the political leadership of the time - the Third Republic - as decadent and architects of their own downfall despite the increasing amount of facts proving that view wrong
A review will follow soon...
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Lunchtime read: For Esme with Love and Squalor...
The second part of the story brings it to a close with love and loneliness being two of the main emotions. The feeling that it is all a hoax that could end at any moment is rienforced with the closure of the art school for not having a proper license.
De Daumier-Smith’s Blue Period
* Having become obsessed with the pictures from one of his students - a nun - the narrator oversteps the mark asking if he can come to visit her and sends a four-page letter talking about art and life
* While he waits for a reply he throws himself into the task of helping improve the work of other students but then is handed a letter by the school director from the convent telling them that the nun will no longer take part in the school
* In a fit of dissapointment the writer sends out letters to his other pupils telling them they will never amount to anything and then considers sending another letter to the convent
* In the end it is the impact of seeing a shop girl setting up a window display that brings hims back down to earth and he writes telling the students there was an administrative mistake, which becomes irrelevant after the school closes due to the lack of a proper license
Final story starts tomorrow...
De Daumier-Smith’s Blue Period
* Having become obsessed with the pictures from one of his students - a nun - the narrator oversteps the mark asking if he can come to visit her and sends a four-page letter talking about art and life
* While he waits for a reply he throws himself into the task of helping improve the work of other students but then is handed a letter by the school director from the convent telling them that the nun will no longer take part in the school
* In a fit of dissapointment the writer sends out letters to his other pupils telling them they will never amount to anything and then considers sending another letter to the convent
* In the end it is the impact of seeing a shop girl setting up a window display that brings hims back down to earth and he writes telling the students there was an administrative mistake, which becomes irrelevant after the school closes due to the lack of a proper license
Final story starts tomorrow...
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
A Herge centenary
Tintin has always been a firm favourite - my birthday treat is one of the hardback books each year - and no trip to Brussels is complete without a visit to the museum and the shop celebrating Herge's greatest creation. Today marks the centenary of Herge's birth and there is plenty going on and the chance to share your thoughts about the man and his work on the BBC. My comment is that his pure escapism has always turned a dreary afternoon into an adventure...
Fall of France - post IV
As Jackson moves onto look at the performance of the French army it is almost impossible to not draw comparisons with the feelings shown in 1914. The difference that did have a real impact was the phoney war that managed to work in the favour of the Germans dragging down confidence and morale.
When the fighting did start missed messages, a tendency to panic and a lack of air support meant that the Germans were able to bypass pockets of resistance.
Bullet points from pages 150 – 200
* By the time the war started the peace movement had virtually disappeared being both discredited and politically unfashionable and most people were resigned to going to war
* Once in the firing line some troops fought well but the phoney war had already reduced morale and the training had been poor and Jackson quotes from Sartre’s diaries to illustrate the level of boredom in the mobilised troops
* A lack of communication led to panic and retreat that was fuelled by the superiority of the German army and air support with Stuka bombers peppering French defences with bombs uncontested for hours at a time
* But there were real accounts of bravery and resistance and for a while the French even thought they might hold out on the Somme-Ainse line that they tried to keep the Germans back from but that passed and the roads became clogged with those evacuating and heading South
* Following the defeat a committee was set up to look at the reasons for it and although it did not conclude its findings until 1954 it turned into an opportunity for the various sides to try and shift the blame and point the finger
* French historians ironically largely ignored the conflict and until de Gaulle ended his term in office there were just a few histories of the defeat but after the great general, who did his fair share of revising history, was gone the floodgates started to open a little bit more
* When objective comparisons are made between the state of France in 1914 and 1940 the country was no better off at the outbreak of the First World War the difference was the victory at Marne in the first conflict that helped build morale and helped settle nerves
The final chunk of this interesting look at the vital period when France turned from a potential block to Hitler's ambitions to an easy opponent tomorrow...
When the fighting did start missed messages, a tendency to panic and a lack of air support meant that the Germans were able to bypass pockets of resistance.
Bullet points from pages 150 – 200
* By the time the war started the peace movement had virtually disappeared being both discredited and politically unfashionable and most people were resigned to going to war
* Once in the firing line some troops fought well but the phoney war had already reduced morale and the training had been poor and Jackson quotes from Sartre’s diaries to illustrate the level of boredom in the mobilised troops
* A lack of communication led to panic and retreat that was fuelled by the superiority of the German army and air support with Stuka bombers peppering French defences with bombs uncontested for hours at a time
* But there were real accounts of bravery and resistance and for a while the French even thought they might hold out on the Somme-Ainse line that they tried to keep the Germans back from but that passed and the roads became clogged with those evacuating and heading South
* Following the defeat a committee was set up to look at the reasons for it and although it did not conclude its findings until 1954 it turned into an opportunity for the various sides to try and shift the blame and point the finger
* French historians ironically largely ignored the conflict and until de Gaulle ended his term in office there were just a few histories of the defeat but after the great general, who did his fair share of revising history, was gone the floodgates started to open a little bit more
* When objective comparisons are made between the state of France in 1914 and 1940 the country was no better off at the outbreak of the First World War the difference was the victory at Marne in the first conflict that helped build morale and helped settle nerves
The final chunk of this interesting look at the vital period when France turned from a potential block to Hitler's ambitions to an easy opponent tomorrow...
Lunchtime read: For Esme with Love and Squalor...
The last couple of stories in this collection by Salinger are too long to be read at one lunch break sitting so will be split into two halves. The first half of this story has an upbeat pace, which is strange bearing in mind the grief of the main character, and there is a humour there but also a feeling that this will end in tears.
De Daumier-Smith’s Blue Period
A 19 year old that has been living in Paris returns to New York with his step father following his mother’s death and decides to apply for a teaching post acting as a teacher for a remote teaching course specialising in art
Making up a load of lies about his French history, being related to De Daumier and a best friend of Picasso, he manages to get the job and heads off for his adventure working for a Japanese couple
He spends his first night in their son’s room and then wastes his first morning translating letters from English into French and then after lunch gets to see his first three pupils work that ranges from the inept to the disturbing
Second half tomorrow…
De Daumier-Smith’s Blue Period
A 19 year old that has been living in Paris returns to New York with his step father following his mother’s death and decides to apply for a teaching post acting as a teacher for a remote teaching course specialising in art
Making up a load of lies about his French history, being related to De Daumier and a best friend of Picasso, he manages to get the job and heads off for his adventure working for a Japanese couple
He spends his first night in their son’s room and then wastes his first morning translating letters from English into French and then after lunch gets to see his first three pupils work that ranges from the inept to the disturbing
Second half tomorrow…
Monday, May 21, 2007
The Fall of France - post III
It has been quite a while since I read a history book and you forget the level of concentration needed to get through what can be a strained narrative that tends to tell you something and only afterwards go backwards to answer some of the questions about why it happened. I'm not naive enough to think it can be much different but after fiction it requires a different mindset.
Bullet points between pages 100 - 150
* Following Dunkirk the relationship between the French and British went downhill with both blaming each other for the military debacle and the traditional prejudices surfacing
* The impact of the looming war had already shaken the French political scene with the communist movement grabbing power as a result of its involvement in the Popular Front (no doubt Sartre’s character Brunet would have been involved) still haunting the right wing politicians
* The poltical scene fluctated between the stable with Daladier and then started to fracture with his succesor Reynaud who faced conspiring colleagues and unsurmountable difficulties on the battle field
* Because of treaty clauses there was a commitment on the French not to pull out of the war without consulting the British but the distrust of the Anglo relationship and the speed of events meant that ultimately that was not possible
* The Frenchs politicians started to split with some wanting an Armistice and others threatening to resign if one was given so reynaud quit allowing Petain to take over - someone who had already expressed a view that it made sense to work with the Germans
* There was a feeling that unlike 1914 the French soldier had not been prepared to fight to protect their country (again this is on display in the first part of Iron in the Soul) but it didn't help that the soldiers who could see the graveyards of 1914 knew what was coming
More tomorrow...
Bullet points between pages 100 - 150
* Following Dunkirk the relationship between the French and British went downhill with both blaming each other for the military debacle and the traditional prejudices surfacing
* The impact of the looming war had already shaken the French political scene with the communist movement grabbing power as a result of its involvement in the Popular Front (no doubt Sartre’s character Brunet would have been involved) still haunting the right wing politicians
* The poltical scene fluctated between the stable with Daladier and then started to fracture with his succesor Reynaud who faced conspiring colleagues and unsurmountable difficulties on the battle field
* Because of treaty clauses there was a commitment on the French not to pull out of the war without consulting the British but the distrust of the Anglo relationship and the speed of events meant that ultimately that was not possible
* The Frenchs politicians started to split with some wanting an Armistice and others threatening to resign if one was given so reynaud quit allowing Petain to take over - someone who had already expressed a view that it made sense to work with the Germans
* There was a feeling that unlike 1914 the French soldier had not been prepared to fight to protect their country (again this is on display in the first part of Iron in the Soul) but it didn't help that the soldiers who could see the graveyards of 1914 knew what was coming
More tomorrow...
Lunchtime read: Cat & Mouse
The book ends with a sense of mystery and despite the style, which has at times been hard to follow, it is with a sense of affection you put this down for the final time. A story of growing up against the background of the war and overcoming teenage worries about physical appearance and is in essence what Cat & Mouse is all about.
Bullet points between pages 121 - 137
* Having returned to not much of a hero’s welcome Mahkle decides not to return to report from duty and after having a one night stand with one of the old gang he tells the narrator that he has had enough of the war
* But he doesn’t know where to hide until the idea of the barge is brought up and then in the rain he taxes the loyalty of the narrator to get him some food, row him to the barge and then agree to come and meet him later that night
* He loses touch with Mahkle the moment his friend dives under and heads for his secret room and even after the stretch of the coast is bombed there is never any mention of Mahkle on the film footage or in despatches
* Years later the narrator is trying to get into an evening organised to celebrate those who received the Knights Cross and Mahlke’s name is mentioned but he fails to appear allowing the mystery to deepen and continue
A review will appear in the next couple of days…
Bullet points between pages 121 - 137
* Having returned to not much of a hero’s welcome Mahkle decides not to return to report from duty and after having a one night stand with one of the old gang he tells the narrator that he has had enough of the war
* But he doesn’t know where to hide until the idea of the barge is brought up and then in the rain he taxes the loyalty of the narrator to get him some food, row him to the barge and then agree to come and meet him later that night
* He loses touch with Mahkle the moment his friend dives under and heads for his secret room and even after the stretch of the coast is bombed there is never any mention of Mahkle on the film footage or in despatches
* Years later the narrator is trying to get into an evening organised to celebrate those who received the Knights Cross and Mahlke’s name is mentioned but he fails to appear allowing the mystery to deepen and continue
A review will appear in the next couple of days…
book of books - The Roads to Freedom trilogy
There are several famous trilogies in literature with Lord of the Rings being the most well known, but whether it is Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast or Jean-Paul Sartre's The Roads to Freedom the ability to use three volumes to build up characters makes the trilogy a special form in literature.
Sartre uses the political background of the turbulent 1930s in France as the background to all three of the books. There are other examples of French literature, Gustave Flaubert’s A Sentimental Education springs to mind, where characters develop over a backdrop of political upheaval.
Where the Roads to Freedom is different from perhaps using lesser know historical events is that most readers would know what happened in the Second World War and see the defeat of France on the horizon long before any of the characters in the books would.
Quick overview
The Age of Reason
Mathieu discovers that his mistress Marcelle is pregnant so they agree on an abortion but it involves him finding 4,000 francs and in his chase for the funds he asks a rich friend Daniel, who refuses him, as well as his brother Jacques who asks him to recognise he needs to grow up and accept that he is old enough to have the age of reason. Part of the reason Mathieu does not want the child is because he has spent most of his 34 years searching for freedom and it would compromise that. Also he is harbouring some sort of fantasy love with Ivich a sister of one of his pupils Bruno. She is an odd girl who fails her exams and faces the prospect of having to go back home. In the meantime Marcelle, encouraged by Daniel who has been seeing her secretly for a long time, admits she would like to keep the baby. Daniel hopes to trap Mathieu and end his friend’s freedom. But Mathieu goes as a far as stealing from Boris’s older girlfriend Lola the money and that brings it to a head and as Marcelle refuses her long standing lover Daniel steps into the breach and agrees to marry her. Denied of love or family Mathieu seems to suddenly realise that the freedom he believed was at risk was something unattainable and as a result of this realisation accepts he must be at the age of reason.
The Reprieve
The book starts with the politicians surrounding British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain waiting for an audience with Hitler to try and defuse the rising tension about the German leader’s territorial claims in Czechoslovakia. Meanwhile the diplomatic process grips the French because they have an agreement with Czechoslovakia to come to its aid if it is attacked. The narrative follows the course of the week that led up to the Munich agreement, where in an effort to maintain peace in Europe the Czech’s were betrayed by their British and French allies. Over the course of the week the French reservists, including Mathieu (the main character from the first book) are called up and the book holds up a mirror not just to national uncertainty but also that of a handful of characters ranging from those determined to fight and die (Boris) to those at the other end of the spectrum arguing for peace (Philippe). In the end nothing is resolved and although the French people believe war has been averted those in transit to join up with the army or prepare for loss and pain are still left in a partial limbo.
Iron in the Soul
The book is split into two halves with the first concentrating on Mathieu and the second on Brunet the communist activist who tried to get Mathieu to join the party in the first part of the trilogy The Age of Reason. The story starts with France defeated by the Nazi’s but because it has not yet signed the armistice the fighting continues. The soldiers in the reserve line, including Mathieu, are humiliated at not being given the chance to prove their worth against the Germans. Finally as the approaching enemy gets closer to the village where Mathieu is he decides to fight and is left on top of a church the lone gunman as the enemy wipes out the rest of the resistance.
Then the second part takes up the story of what happened to those that were taken prisoner with Brunet being picked up with thousands of others and marched into an abandoned barracks before finally being put on trains that took them to uncertainly – probably Germany. In a desperate attempt to feel that he is doing something – just like Mathieu felt – Brunet decides to try and stir up political action against not just the Germans but also the padres in the camp. He half manages to get himself noticed but fails to make any difference on his own and it is only at the end when the German’s shoot an escaping prisoner that the hate he hoped to stir rises to the surface.
Does the trilogy work?
The Reprieve is the most difficult of the three to read and so that can have the effect of being a slight hiccup on the journey but overall the three books do work. On a historical level the political tension increases from the first volume where the communist party is mentioned but the emphasis is much more on the individual not the nation. But in The Reprieve the sense of events being dictated from elsewhere could not be more underlined with the week leading up to the Munich agreement impacting everybody in the story. Then finally with the Germans invading the question of an individual response returns because a national one has broken down.
Over the course of the three books following the lead character Mathieu there is an opportunity to see a man get to the stage where he understands what life is all about overcoming a youthful yearning for a sense of illusionary freedom. Then he does his duty and mobilises and finally takes a bullet not so much for his country, which he knows is already defeated, but as some sort of release. It is not a suicide but is not too far removed. Other characters also go on journey’s of self discovery with Odette realising she no longer loves Mathieu’s brother Jacques, Daniel facing up to his losing battle to control his homosexuality and Brunet trying to carve out a role for himself as a communist alternative.
Because it is a trilogy it helps chart those journeys of development and as long as the reader can get through The Reprieve the story of Mathieu can be told until the end.
Should it be read?
It is a challenge reading these books because of the style, which is not just one that steers away from traditional happy endings and character development paths, and also because of the numerous unanswered questions that Sartre leaves for you to ponder on. Sartre avoids the traditional behaviour of tying up all the loose ends and telling the reader what happens to people so you end up not knowing what happens to the vast majority of characters that are introduced to The Reprieve. Does that matter? Not if the point is to illustrate the transitory nature of war and the confusion that ensues when chaos is all around. But from a straight forward reading perspective it can make life difficult. For those who love history there is also the added bonus of enjoying a series of books that paint a picture of the impact of the political and then military confusion on normal French people and that is something you would struggle to get from a history book.
Versions read – all Penguin Paperbacks
Sartre uses the political background of the turbulent 1930s in France as the background to all three of the books. There are other examples of French literature, Gustave Flaubert’s A Sentimental Education springs to mind, where characters develop over a backdrop of political upheaval.
Where the Roads to Freedom is different from perhaps using lesser know historical events is that most readers would know what happened in the Second World War and see the defeat of France on the horizon long before any of the characters in the books would.
Quick overview
The Age of Reason
Mathieu discovers that his mistress Marcelle is pregnant so they agree on an abortion but it involves him finding 4,000 francs and in his chase for the funds he asks a rich friend Daniel, who refuses him, as well as his brother Jacques who asks him to recognise he needs to grow up and accept that he is old enough to have the age of reason. Part of the reason Mathieu does not want the child is because he has spent most of his 34 years searching for freedom and it would compromise that. Also he is harbouring some sort of fantasy love with Ivich a sister of one of his pupils Bruno. She is an odd girl who fails her exams and faces the prospect of having to go back home. In the meantime Marcelle, encouraged by Daniel who has been seeing her secretly for a long time, admits she would like to keep the baby. Daniel hopes to trap Mathieu and end his friend’s freedom. But Mathieu goes as a far as stealing from Boris’s older girlfriend Lola the money and that brings it to a head and as Marcelle refuses her long standing lover Daniel steps into the breach and agrees to marry her. Denied of love or family Mathieu seems to suddenly realise that the freedom he believed was at risk was something unattainable and as a result of this realisation accepts he must be at the age of reason.
The Reprieve
The book starts with the politicians surrounding British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain waiting for an audience with Hitler to try and defuse the rising tension about the German leader’s territorial claims in Czechoslovakia. Meanwhile the diplomatic process grips the French because they have an agreement with Czechoslovakia to come to its aid if it is attacked. The narrative follows the course of the week that led up to the Munich agreement, where in an effort to maintain peace in Europe the Czech’s were betrayed by their British and French allies. Over the course of the week the French reservists, including Mathieu (the main character from the first book) are called up and the book holds up a mirror not just to national uncertainty but also that of a handful of characters ranging from those determined to fight and die (Boris) to those at the other end of the spectrum arguing for peace (Philippe). In the end nothing is resolved and although the French people believe war has been averted those in transit to join up with the army or prepare for loss and pain are still left in a partial limbo.
Iron in the Soul
The book is split into two halves with the first concentrating on Mathieu and the second on Brunet the communist activist who tried to get Mathieu to join the party in the first part of the trilogy The Age of Reason. The story starts with France defeated by the Nazi’s but because it has not yet signed the armistice the fighting continues. The soldiers in the reserve line, including Mathieu, are humiliated at not being given the chance to prove their worth against the Germans. Finally as the approaching enemy gets closer to the village where Mathieu is he decides to fight and is left on top of a church the lone gunman as the enemy wipes out the rest of the resistance.
Then the second part takes up the story of what happened to those that were taken prisoner with Brunet being picked up with thousands of others and marched into an abandoned barracks before finally being put on trains that took them to uncertainly – probably Germany. In a desperate attempt to feel that he is doing something – just like Mathieu felt – Brunet decides to try and stir up political action against not just the Germans but also the padres in the camp. He half manages to get himself noticed but fails to make any difference on his own and it is only at the end when the German’s shoot an escaping prisoner that the hate he hoped to stir rises to the surface.
Does the trilogy work?
The Reprieve is the most difficult of the three to read and so that can have the effect of being a slight hiccup on the journey but overall the three books do work. On a historical level the political tension increases from the first volume where the communist party is mentioned but the emphasis is much more on the individual not the nation. But in The Reprieve the sense of events being dictated from elsewhere could not be more underlined with the week leading up to the Munich agreement impacting everybody in the story. Then finally with the Germans invading the question of an individual response returns because a national one has broken down.
Over the course of the three books following the lead character Mathieu there is an opportunity to see a man get to the stage where he understands what life is all about overcoming a youthful yearning for a sense of illusionary freedom. Then he does his duty and mobilises and finally takes a bullet not so much for his country, which he knows is already defeated, but as some sort of release. It is not a suicide but is not too far removed. Other characters also go on journey’s of self discovery with Odette realising she no longer loves Mathieu’s brother Jacques, Daniel facing up to his losing battle to control his homosexuality and Brunet trying to carve out a role for himself as a communist alternative.
Because it is a trilogy it helps chart those journeys of development and as long as the reader can get through The Reprieve the story of Mathieu can be told until the end.
Should it be read?
It is a challenge reading these books because of the style, which is not just one that steers away from traditional happy endings and character development paths, and also because of the numerous unanswered questions that Sartre leaves for you to ponder on. Sartre avoids the traditional behaviour of tying up all the loose ends and telling the reader what happens to people so you end up not knowing what happens to the vast majority of characters that are introduced to The Reprieve. Does that matter? Not if the point is to illustrate the transitory nature of war and the confusion that ensues when chaos is all around. But from a straight forward reading perspective it can make life difficult. For those who love history there is also the added bonus of enjoying a series of books that paint a picture of the impact of the political and then military confusion on normal French people and that is something you would struggle to get from a history book.
Versions read – all Penguin Paperbacks
Sunday, May 20, 2007
the week ahead
The plan for the reading week ahead is to finish off three books currently on the go. On the lunchtime read front there are just 16 pages left to go on Gunter Grass's Cat & Mouse.
For Esme with Love and Squalor and Other Stories has a couple of stories left, one of which is too long for a lunchtime so that might take a couple of days.
The on the main book front there is still quite a way to go with Julian Jackson's The Fall of France, which is so far a depressing tale of inept leadership and military mistakes.
After that who knows? Might stick with the era and go for Tin Drum by Gunter Grass, The Blood of Others by Simone de Beauvior or could go off in a completely different direction...
For Esme with Love and Squalor and Other Stories has a couple of stories left, one of which is too long for a lunchtime so that might take a couple of days.
The on the main book front there is still quite a way to go with Julian Jackson's The Fall of France, which is so far a depressing tale of inept leadership and military mistakes.
After that who knows? Might stick with the era and go for Tin Drum by Gunter Grass, The Blood of Others by Simone de Beauvior or could go off in a completely different direction...
Lunchtime read part II: Cat & Mouse
With the story set in 1944 inevitably even those who had not volunteered for the army were called up, as the collapse became more of a certainty. Bearing in mind the Nazi’s were using children at the end to try to defend Berlin the idea of a 16-year-old going off to training and then into battle seems quite normal.
But what makes it harder is the success that Mahlke is having blazing a trail in the tank regiment blowing up Russian tanks with such regularity that he gets the Iron Cross and becomes a legend in his own lifetime.
Bullet points between pages 91 – 121
* Having told the narrator that he is joining up Mahlke disappears from the story and is only heard of through second hand accounts including a letter his aunt shows off in the street with drawings of tanks that Mahlke has hit
* Even at training camp above the toilets there is some religious, Virgin Mary, inspired text scratched in by Mahlke and there are stories about his big ears, cock and passion for wearing something round his neck
* That passion is finally sated when he gets a medal of his own for his performance in his tanks against the Russian enemies and like those before him heads back to the school to give a lecture of his own to the students but is told to go away because of his former expulsion
* Having failed to get the headmaster to back down Mahlke waits for him near his home and then gets his chance and pushes him up against the railings and slaps him in the face before heading off into the night
Final few pages over lunch tomorrow…
But what makes it harder is the success that Mahlke is having blazing a trail in the tank regiment blowing up Russian tanks with such regularity that he gets the Iron Cross and becomes a legend in his own lifetime.
Bullet points between pages 91 – 121
* Having told the narrator that he is joining up Mahlke disappears from the story and is only heard of through second hand accounts including a letter his aunt shows off in the street with drawings of tanks that Mahlke has hit
* Even at training camp above the toilets there is some religious, Virgin Mary, inspired text scratched in by Mahlke and there are stories about his big ears, cock and passion for wearing something round his neck
* That passion is finally sated when he gets a medal of his own for his performance in his tanks against the Russian enemies and like those before him heads back to the school to give a lecture of his own to the students but is told to go away because of his former expulsion
* Having failed to get the headmaster to back down Mahlke waits for him near his home and then gets his chance and pushes him up against the railings and slaps him in the face before heading off into the night
Final few pages over lunch tomorrow…
bookmark of the week
There is a Chinese shop in Soho near China Town that sells all sorts of things ranging from tea sets, inks and paper lanterns. In a box when I last visited about five years ago there was a large number of bookmarks using the sort of illustrations you expect to see on paper cuts from japan and China. Simple but very useful and attractive.
Lunchtime read part I: For Esme with Love and Squalor...
There really didn’t seem to be a great deal in the papers this weekend about literary matters so today once the kids had gone to bed the focus shifted to doing some reading and both the Salinger and the Grass have been nibbled away at and attacked.
First the Salinger with a rather odd story because you think you have guessed the ending only to discover you were wrong and as a result are left not really knowing what to make of it all.
Pretty Mouth and Green My Eyes
The title refers to a line from a poem that a husband used to read to his wife before they drifted apart. The line is quoted by the husband to a friend who answers the phone in the company of a girl who you assume is the missing wife. The drunk and angry husband is talking about divorce and admits to his friend who is obviously a colleague that he has also lost a case with a high profile client.
The friend keeps advising the husband to calm down and go to bed to wait for his wife and all the time you expect the woman he is with will head off home. But after hanging up and a delay the friend phones back to apologise because his wife has come home. That leads to the friend being sharp with the woman he is with and displaying a mixture of temper and disappointment
Maybe he thought the wife would come to him but all the time the reader thought she was already there with him
Some Gunter Grass in a moment…
First the Salinger with a rather odd story because you think you have guessed the ending only to discover you were wrong and as a result are left not really knowing what to make of it all.
Pretty Mouth and Green My Eyes
The title refers to a line from a poem that a husband used to read to his wife before they drifted apart. The line is quoted by the husband to a friend who answers the phone in the company of a girl who you assume is the missing wife. The drunk and angry husband is talking about divorce and admits to his friend who is obviously a colleague that he has also lost a case with a high profile client.
The friend keeps advising the husband to calm down and go to bed to wait for his wife and all the time you expect the woman he is with will head off home. But after hanging up and a delay the friend phones back to apologise because his wife has come home. That leads to the friend being sharp with the woman he is with and displaying a mixture of temper and disappointment
Maybe he thought the wife would come to him but all the time the reader thought she was already there with him
Some Gunter Grass in a moment…
Lunchtime read: For Esme with Love and Squalor
It took a week but after turning the house upside down and begging with my two year old son to point me in the right direction I finally found the Salinger short story collection shoved down the back of a radiator. I have an awful feeling the toddler might be more innocent than first suspected so the matter of the missing book has been left without the finger of blame being pointed anymore than it already has been.
Of all the stories in this collection so far this title tale is one of the best because it has a completeness that is unusual for what has often felt like an on-going dialogue. Part of the reason is that although you recognise that the narrator is again no doubt linked to the Glass family there is a limited focus just on Esme and the story of a meeting that possibly saved a man from the brink of mental collapse.
For Esme with Love and Squalor
* An American solider getting ready for D-Day pops into a church to watch choir practice and notices a girl who then follows him with her brother and governess into the café where he is having tea
* He strikes up a conversation with her and it turns out that her father and mother are dead and she is mature for her years partly as a result of that but her brother Charles does seem damaged by it
* The narrator tells her he is an author so Esme asks him to write something for her that is not silly but about squalor and so he mentions he will but then the story switches location and the solider has had a nervous breakdown after D-Day
* As he sits down to write a letter he notices a package that has been sent and it is from Esme who has sent him her watch, something he admired in the café, and he suddenly feels like sleeping and remembers her asking him to come back with all his mental facilities
Her love, despite her own misfortune, saves him from becoming a victim of his own misery – clever and very moving
More of Salinger and Gunter Grass in the next few days until both books are completed…
Of all the stories in this collection so far this title tale is one of the best because it has a completeness that is unusual for what has often felt like an on-going dialogue. Part of the reason is that although you recognise that the narrator is again no doubt linked to the Glass family there is a limited focus just on Esme and the story of a meeting that possibly saved a man from the brink of mental collapse.
For Esme with Love and Squalor
* An American solider getting ready for D-Day pops into a church to watch choir practice and notices a girl who then follows him with her brother and governess into the café where he is having tea
* He strikes up a conversation with her and it turns out that her father and mother are dead and she is mature for her years partly as a result of that but her brother Charles does seem damaged by it
* The narrator tells her he is an author so Esme asks him to write something for her that is not silly but about squalor and so he mentions he will but then the story switches location and the solider has had a nervous breakdown after D-Day
* As he sits down to write a letter he notices a package that has been sent and it is from Esme who has sent him her watch, something he admired in the café, and he suddenly feels like sleeping and remembers her asking him to come back with all his mental facilities
Her love, despite her own misfortune, saves him from becoming a victim of his own misery – clever and very moving
More of Salinger and Gunter Grass in the next few days until both books are completed…
Saturday, May 19, 2007
book of books - Iron in the Soul
If you think about the overall title of the triology – The Roads to Freedom – you instantly start to think about the yoke of occupation and the yearning that the French must have had to be rid nog the Germans.
But while these books touch on that the final part of the trilogy is as much about individual freedom as it is to do with the collective freedom of a nation. It focuses on two main characters, although most of those who have featured in the other two books do pop up.
Plot summary
The books is split into two halves with the first concentrating on Mathieu and the second on Brunet the communist activist who tried to get Mathieu to join the party in the first part of the trilogy The Age of Reason. The story starts with France defeated by the Nazi’s but because it has not yet signed the armistice the fighting continues. The soldiers in the reserve line, including Mathieu, are humiliated at not being given the chance to prove their worth against the Germans. Finally as the approaching enemy gets closer to the village where Mathieu is he decides to fight and is left on top of a church the lone gunman as the enemy wipes out the rest of the resistance.
Then the second part takes up the story of what happened to those that were taken prisoner with Brunet being picked up with thousands of others and marched into an abandoned barracks before finally being put on trains that took them to uncertainly – probably Germany. In a desperate attempt to feel that he is doing something – just like Mathieu felt – Brunet decides to try and stir up political action against not just the Germans but also the padres in the camp. He half manages to get himself noticed but fails to make any difference on his own and it is only at the end when the German’s shoot an escaping prisoner that the hate he hoped to stir rises to the surface.
Is it well written?
You feel the sense of hopelessness, shame and anger that those who have lost a conflict inevitably fell. But what it made worse is that unlike the 1914 generation they lost without having a chance to fight.
“They had counted on this war to make men of them, to give them their rights as heads of families, their share of glory as war veterans. It was to have been for them a solemn initiation, a means of freeing them from the crippling shackles of that Great war, that World war, which had stifled their youth with memories of splendour. This war of theirs was to have been greater and still more world-wide. By firing on the Jerries they were to have accomplished the ritual massacre of their fathers which marks the entry of each generation into life. But as things turned out they fired on nobody, indulged in no massacre. The whole thing had gone wrong.”
You identify with the restlessness that both Mathieu and Brunet fell and because the other characters – Daniel, Odette and Boris – are used to expand that feeling across France it is easy to sense a little bit what it means to be invaded and defeated. It is also the end of the journey for Mathieu who graduated from a seeker of freedom to the age of reason and then to a stage of realisation that it almost did not matter what he did because it was all an illusion. On the other hand Brunet continued to believe, even when the truth stared him in the face, that there was a chance he could make a difference.
Should it be read?
Of the three books this is much easier to read than the second, The Reprieve, but while it is easier to digest in terms of style – there are chapter breaks etc – the constant uncertainty, restlessness and depression does have an impact on you. That is a positive because it shows the book is working but it is not a read for people who like happy endings. It’s not really a read for people who like endings with you never finding out what became of Mathieu, if Marcelle ever had a child or what became of some of the other secondary characters. But it deserves to be read for the simple reason that it is rare to get a series of books that chart the mental search of an individual for something as elusive and idealistic as freedom.
Summary
With France defeated and the Germans closing in the search for freedom ends with guns blazing for Mathieu while for others it carries on with limited success
Version read – Penguin paperback
A review of the trilogy will follow tomorrow...
Friday, May 18, 2007
The Fall of France - post II
The reasons for the defeat are still being outlined in the first part of the book but they are mounting up with a combination of failed diplomacy, poor military and political judgement and a superior opposition.
There is an interesting piece in The Economist today in the Charlemagne column that refers to a comment made by Javier Solana, The European Union’s main foreign policy man who says that when the American’s say something is “history” they usually mean it is no longer relevant whereas Europeans mean the opposite. It is also because of that inability to bury hatchets of the past that the French stumbled into the Second World War with almost no firm allies.
Bullet points between pages 42 – 100
* The French were unable to hold the Germans as they sped through Belgium and when they did have a chance to bomb them or counter attack they missed it because of bad intelligence or pigheaded leadership
* Once in France the Germans found little resistance and were able to move quickly towards the coast and almost cut off the British expeditionary force and the French troops fighting alongside them
* Dunkirk managed to snatch some sort of result from the jaws of defeat but the French felt betrayed by their British allies but Jackson then takes a step back and asks the question about why the French had so few allies
* Attempts to develop links with Poland, Czechoslovakia were not enough to off set the lack of a big partner and links with Russia failed to materialise in anything and all the time the British strung them along
* It was partly because of the British disapproval of the Italian invasion of Abyssinia that the French let that relationship go and they signed up for sanctions against the Italians and lost a potential ally
* On top of that there were various personalities at play with the British being wound up by the French leadership and vice versa leading to mistrust just when unity and clear thinking was needed
More to come…
There is an interesting piece in The Economist today in the Charlemagne column that refers to a comment made by Javier Solana, The European Union’s main foreign policy man who says that when the American’s say something is “history” they usually mean it is no longer relevant whereas Europeans mean the opposite. It is also because of that inability to bury hatchets of the past that the French stumbled into the Second World War with almost no firm allies.
Bullet points between pages 42 – 100
* The French were unable to hold the Germans as they sped through Belgium and when they did have a chance to bomb them or counter attack they missed it because of bad intelligence or pigheaded leadership
* Once in France the Germans found little resistance and were able to move quickly towards the coast and almost cut off the British expeditionary force and the French troops fighting alongside them
* Dunkirk managed to snatch some sort of result from the jaws of defeat but the French felt betrayed by their British allies but Jackson then takes a step back and asks the question about why the French had so few allies
* Attempts to develop links with Poland, Czechoslovakia were not enough to off set the lack of a big partner and links with Russia failed to materialise in anything and all the time the British strung them along
* It was partly because of the British disapproval of the Italian invasion of Abyssinia that the French let that relationship go and they signed up for sanctions against the Italians and lost a potential ally
* On top of that there were various personalities at play with the British being wound up by the French leadership and vice versa leading to mistrust just when unity and clear thinking was needed
More to come…
Lunchtime read: Cat & Mouse
The cost of stealing the iron cross is an expulsion from school for Mahkle and a self imposed exile from the barge, the beach and those friends he has made. But the disappearance of someone just helps increase the mystery around them and in the end the narrator ends up running back to become an altar boy just to see his old friend.
Bullet points between pages 81 – 92 (will post a bit more later)
* Mahkle shows off the medal that he stole and is encouraged to give it back and then he fails to appear at school on the Monday and then the pupils are told that he has been expelled
* All summer there is no sign of Mahkle on the barge and nobody seems to see him even after school starts because he goes a completely different route so the narrator starts going back to church in the hope of seeing him there
* Finally they meet and the former monosyllabic Mahkle is talkative and talks about the problems he has had with his Adam’s apple and the experience of the cat being put on his neck and then reveals he has volunteered to join the submarines
More to come…
Bullet points between pages 81 – 92 (will post a bit more later)
* Mahkle shows off the medal that he stole and is encouraged to give it back and then he fails to appear at school on the Monday and then the pupils are told that he has been expelled
* All summer there is no sign of Mahkle on the barge and nobody seems to see him even after school starts because he goes a completely different route so the narrator starts going back to church in the hope of seeing him there
* Finally they meet and the former monosyllabic Mahkle is talkative and talks about the problems he has had with his Adam’s apple and the experience of the cat being put on his neck and then reveals he has volunteered to join the submarines
More to come…
Thursday, May 17, 2007
The Fall of France - post I
I have a work commitment this evening so as a result this is being posted early and does not include too much from the first chapter because the aim would have been to have finished that on the way home this evening.
One of the main themes of Iron in the Soul is the collapse of the French army against the Germans with both of the main characters Mathieu and Brunet both experiencing the bitter taste of humiliating defeat. But you have to wonder just how the French army allowed their enemy to capture Paris in under a week. This book by Julian Jackson should explain why that happened.
This book is split into two parts with the first explaining and narrating the defeat of France in May 1940 and then the second half looking at the consequences.
It starts by sketching out the condition of the French country militarily before they were attacked trying to start to provide an explanation for why the Nazi forces were able to defeat them in just six days.
Bullet points from pages 1 – 42
* In the start the British expressed feelings of slight concern about the French army but expected the army that had fought so valiantly at places like Verdun to be able to hold on for quite a while against German opposition
* But the French lacked artillery, planes and tanks with the German’s easily over taking them in production before the war started on those crucial items – but even so the government felt comfortable enough to declare war
* The plans of defence centered on the Maginot Line holding the border with Germany and as a result the focus moved to Belgium but that ran into trouble when the country declared neutrality
* As a result there were various plans put forward to defend the Belgium border but because it was neutral they relied on a call for help rather than an assumed ability to set up defences in readiness
* The consequences of that relationship became clear when the Germans attacked because it took two hours to wake the French prime minister with the Belgiums call for help after the Germans invaded on 10 May
* Despite all the warnings the Germans manage to swarm through Belgium and overcome the totally inadequate defences that when put to the test cannot stop tanks and even when the Allies could have stopped the main attack their intelligence was poor causing bombers to be sent to the wrong place and the wrong types of troops deployed
More sobering history tomorrow...
One of the main themes of Iron in the Soul is the collapse of the French army against the Germans with both of the main characters Mathieu and Brunet both experiencing the bitter taste of humiliating defeat. But you have to wonder just how the French army allowed their enemy to capture Paris in under a week. This book by Julian Jackson should explain why that happened.
This book is split into two parts with the first explaining and narrating the defeat of France in May 1940 and then the second half looking at the consequences.
It starts by sketching out the condition of the French country militarily before they were attacked trying to start to provide an explanation for why the Nazi forces were able to defeat them in just six days.
Bullet points from pages 1 – 42
* In the start the British expressed feelings of slight concern about the French army but expected the army that had fought so valiantly at places like Verdun to be able to hold on for quite a while against German opposition
* But the French lacked artillery, planes and tanks with the German’s easily over taking them in production before the war started on those crucial items – but even so the government felt comfortable enough to declare war
* The plans of defence centered on the Maginot Line holding the border with Germany and as a result the focus moved to Belgium but that ran into trouble when the country declared neutrality
* As a result there were various plans put forward to defend the Belgium border but because it was neutral they relied on a call for help rather than an assumed ability to set up defences in readiness
* The consequences of that relationship became clear when the Germans attacked because it took two hours to wake the French prime minister with the Belgiums call for help after the Germans invaded on 10 May
* Despite all the warnings the Germans manage to swarm through Belgium and overcome the totally inadequate defences that when put to the test cannot stop tanks and even when the Allies could have stopped the main attack their intelligence was poor causing bombers to be sent to the wrong place and the wrong types of troops deployed
More sobering history tomorrow...
Lunchtime read: Cat & Mouse
The individualism of Mahlke continues to provide the narrator with plenty of material and because he is so self sufficient the nick name of 'The Great Mahlke' is dreamt up and manages to stick.
Bullet points between pages 53 - 80
* Mahlke finds a room above water on the barge and after allowing his friends to think him drowned pops up and tells them that it is going to be his secret room and then over the course of the summer moves in most of the things he has pilfered off the barge
* He starts playing music from the depths which fascinates his friends but despite it all they still find him an odd character and not the sort of person you would encourage your sister to go to the cinema with
* But everything changes with the arrival of a naval lieutenant commander at the school that talks about the navy and seems to have an impact because he steals his decoration, which leads to a large search of the changing rooms and the slapping of an innocent boy
* Those close to mhim suspect Mahkle of stealing the iron cross and sure enough the narrator swins out to the barge and lying their naked basking in the sun with nothing except the iron cross around his neck is Mahlke
More tomorrow...
Bullet points between pages 53 - 80
* Mahlke finds a room above water on the barge and after allowing his friends to think him drowned pops up and tells them that it is going to be his secret room and then over the course of the summer moves in most of the things he has pilfered off the barge
* He starts playing music from the depths which fascinates his friends but despite it all they still find him an odd character and not the sort of person you would encourage your sister to go to the cinema with
* But everything changes with the arrival of a naval lieutenant commander at the school that talks about the navy and seems to have an impact because he steals his decoration, which leads to a large search of the changing rooms and the slapping of an innocent boy
* Those close to mhim suspect Mahkle of stealing the iron cross and sure enough the narrator swins out to the barge and lying their naked basking in the sun with nothing except the iron cross around his neck is Mahlke
More tomorrow...
A reason for defeat?
This is taken from Julian Jackson's book The Fall of France (the first post about that will come later) as one of the reasons why the French capitulated to the Nazi's so quickly.
The two peasants in the caption for the 1941 cartoon are being told: "How can you be surprised [about the defeat]? you gorged yourselves on the works of Proust, Gide and Cocteau."
Literature gets blamed for everything...
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Iron in the Soul - post VI
The book ends with the prinsoners discovering the same feeling as Mathieu that despite the speed of the French collapse this is war and underneath the different uniforms and language there is the potential for real hatred.
Bullet points between pages 318 - 349
* Brunet struggles to get through to people and the Germans are in total control of their fate even commanding time making everyone move an hour forward to Berlin time so the German empire can all be in synch
* Visitors are allowed to enter the barracks and one of the men is a veteran of the first world war and the tension in the air that he will condemn them evaporates after he tells them it was not their fault and refers to them as “poor lads”
* One officer escapes and in his rage at the other prisoners, who threaten to turn him in if they discover where he is hiding, Brunet boasts that he is also going to try to escape and dares them to also grass on him
* He obviously doesn’t because the scene shifts with them all in rail carriages being moved to Nancy and all the time Brunet either tempts others with the idea of jumping off or considers it himself then they hear from a bystander they are going to Germany
* The prisoners start to relax after the points change gives them the impression that they are going deeper into France and not towards Germany but they ask some Germans on the embankment where they are heading and are told that they are indeed going to Germany
* That leads to the rest of the men starting to panic and the printer that Brunet fears will try to escape jumps out of the train and is shot at by the Germans as he tries to get back into the train
* For the first time they realise the hatred that is directed towards them and the sense of war is made clear to them with Brunet benefiting from the anger but also a sense of reality and the futility of their position becoming clear
A full review will follow shortly…
“They had counted on this war to make men of them, to give them their rights as heads of families, their share of glory as war veterans. It was to have been for them a solemn initiation, a means of freeing them from the crippling shackles of that Great war, that World war, which had stifled their youth with memories of splendour. This war of theirs was to have been greater and still more world-wide. By firing on the Jerries they were to have accomplished the ritual massacre of their fathers which marks the entry of each generation into life. But as things turned out they fired on nobody, indulged in no massacre. The whole thing had gone wrong.”
Bullet points between pages 318 - 349
* Brunet struggles to get through to people and the Germans are in total control of their fate even commanding time making everyone move an hour forward to Berlin time so the German empire can all be in synch
* Visitors are allowed to enter the barracks and one of the men is a veteran of the first world war and the tension in the air that he will condemn them evaporates after he tells them it was not their fault and refers to them as “poor lads”
* One officer escapes and in his rage at the other prisoners, who threaten to turn him in if they discover where he is hiding, Brunet boasts that he is also going to try to escape and dares them to also grass on him
* He obviously doesn’t because the scene shifts with them all in rail carriages being moved to Nancy and all the time Brunet either tempts others with the idea of jumping off or considers it himself then they hear from a bystander they are going to Germany
* The prisoners start to relax after the points change gives them the impression that they are going deeper into France and not towards Germany but they ask some Germans on the embankment where they are heading and are told that they are indeed going to Germany
* That leads to the rest of the men starting to panic and the printer that Brunet fears will try to escape jumps out of the train and is shot at by the Germans as he tries to get back into the train
* For the first time they realise the hatred that is directed towards them and the sense of war is made clear to them with Brunet benefiting from the anger but also a sense of reality and the futility of their position becoming clear
A full review will follow shortly…
Lunchtime read: Cat & Mouse
A pitifully small number of pages today but it is not always possible to do reading while at work. The concept of having an hour’s lunch break sadly often is just that – a concept – and in practice after you have popped out for a sandwich, returned to your desk and fielded comments from colleagues and alls from contacts it is time to get back to work.
Bullet points between pages 43 – 53
* Even without the audience of the narrator and the girls from Berlin Mahkle carries on cutting through the ice and manages to make a hole over the forward hatch of the sunken barge
* Mahkle is spell bound by a talk from a former pupil about the war but realises that to get a medal he had to shoot down 40 planes and he mentions that at the start of the war it was 20 planes so things must be getting bad
Hopefully more pages will be read tomorrow…
Bullet points between pages 43 – 53
* Even without the audience of the narrator and the girls from Berlin Mahkle carries on cutting through the ice and manages to make a hole over the forward hatch of the sunken barge
* Mahkle is spell bound by a talk from a former pupil about the war but realises that to get a medal he had to shoot down 40 planes and he mentions that at the start of the war it was 20 planes so things must be getting bad
Hopefully more pages will be read tomorrow…
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Iron in the Soul - post V
As the pages start to run out you start to realise that maybe the first part of the book was about the futility of fighting the Germans and has seen the end of Mathieu and the second part is going to be about Brunet and his similar battle to accept the obvious that France is not ready for a communist uprising, partly because the Soviets clearly don't care about them.
Bullet points between pages 272 - 318
* Brunet almost falls by the wayside because of starvation but he manages to last long enough for the food to arrive and save him from dying and ten he starts to try and recruit a group to undermine not just the Germans but also the priests
* But the Germans are clearly in control and Brunet can talk all he likes about the need for agitation and controlling those around him but it makes no difference to the conditions in the barracks and as Brunet starts to get paranoid with cleanliness all he manages to di is alienate those around him
* He ends up having a confrontation with Schneider, who has been one of his constant friends, and despite being given numerous home truths Brunet still believes that t is not his fault but those of the French people
More tomorrow...
Bullet points between pages 272 - 318
* Brunet almost falls by the wayside because of starvation but he manages to last long enough for the food to arrive and save him from dying and ten he starts to try and recruit a group to undermine not just the Germans but also the priests
* But the Germans are clearly in control and Brunet can talk all he likes about the need for agitation and controlling those around him but it makes no difference to the conditions in the barracks and as Brunet starts to get paranoid with cleanliness all he manages to di is alienate those around him
* He ends up having a confrontation with Schneider, who has been one of his constant friends, and despite being given numerous home truths Brunet still believes that t is not his fault but those of the French people
More tomorrow...
Lunchtime read: Cat & Mouse
Not much reading down this lunchtime but the character painting of Mahlke continues with a few extra details, some that are not necessarily essential but add to the background.
Bullet points between pages 28 – 43
* Because of his ability to dive down and retrieve various objects from the sunken boat Mahlke continues to be a constant member of the boys at the boat although he is never quite one of them
* He manages to stand you again not just because of the size of his Adam’s apple but because of the size of his penis, which is the largest in the group by some inches, but even then he doesn’t seem to care too much
* One of his preoccupations is to hide his overly large Adam’s apple and so he starts wearing things round his neck and then attacks a visiting boy to the school who does a cartoon of him exaggerating his weakness
Hard to see where this story of a loner with a large Adam’s apple and penis is going but more tomorrow…
Bullet points between pages 28 – 43
* Because of his ability to dive down and retrieve various objects from the sunken boat Mahlke continues to be a constant member of the boys at the boat although he is never quite one of them
* He manages to stand you again not just because of the size of his Adam’s apple but because of the size of his penis, which is the largest in the group by some inches, but even then he doesn’t seem to care too much
* One of his preoccupations is to hide his overly large Adam’s apple and so he starts wearing things round his neck and then attacks a visiting boy to the school who does a cartoon of him exaggerating his weakness
Hard to see where this story of a loner with a large Adam’s apple and penis is going but more tomorrow…
Monday, May 14, 2007
Iron in the soul - post IV
You know a book has you hooked when you can’t wait to find out what happens to a character. The end of part one ends with you not knowing whether Mathieu is alive or dead and you race onto part two to try and find out but so far no answer is forthcoming.
This book has also worked on an inspirational level with the old flames of non-fiction flickering and turning to a history book, I have pulled down Julian Jackson’s The Fall of France – The Nazi Invasion of 1940 off the bookshelf and plan to read that straight after Sartre because there is a growing desire to clarify just how the French army was overrun so quickly.
Bullet points between pages 190 – 272
* Mathieu and the troops that are prepared to fight prepare the village for a defence against the Germans with armed soldiers posted in various buildings including the school house, town hall and up on the church roof – where Mathieu is waiting
* Up on the church roof there is a tension that is broken with the arrival of the Germans and after what feels like an hour Mathieu who has claimed his first victim of the war is told that only three minutes have elapsed
* The battle with the clock becomes an obsession for Mathieu as the minutes slowly tick by and the school and town hall are overrun with only him left firing any resistance he concentrates on just holding out for 15 minutes and he does that and then part one ends
* Part two starts with Brunet, the communist leader being picked up by the Germans and added to a winding mass of prisoners who are finally marched to a town and dumped in the courtyard of an old barracks
* But after five days on the run and in captivity Brunet has not eaten and his strength is ebbing away as is his health and although he plans to build some sort of cell and mount some political resistance it become clear he might not have the strength
More tomorrow…
This book has also worked on an inspirational level with the old flames of non-fiction flickering and turning to a history book, I have pulled down Julian Jackson’s The Fall of France – The Nazi Invasion of 1940 off the bookshelf and plan to read that straight after Sartre because there is a growing desire to clarify just how the French army was overrun so quickly.
Bullet points between pages 190 – 272
* Mathieu and the troops that are prepared to fight prepare the village for a defence against the Germans with armed soldiers posted in various buildings including the school house, town hall and up on the church roof – where Mathieu is waiting
* Up on the church roof there is a tension that is broken with the arrival of the Germans and after what feels like an hour Mathieu who has claimed his first victim of the war is told that only three minutes have elapsed
* The battle with the clock becomes an obsession for Mathieu as the minutes slowly tick by and the school and town hall are overrun with only him left firing any resistance he concentrates on just holding out for 15 minutes and he does that and then part one ends
* Part two starts with Brunet, the communist leader being picked up by the Germans and added to a winding mass of prisoners who are finally marched to a town and dumped in the courtyard of an old barracks
* But after five days on the run and in captivity Brunet has not eaten and his strength is ebbing away as is his health and although he plans to build some sort of cell and mount some political resistance it become clear he might not have the strength
More tomorrow…
Lunchtine read:Cat & Mouse
While the standoff between my two and half year old and myself continues over what exactly he did with the Salinger book I am half way through, it seemed wise to choose a different book for my lunchtime reading. Sticking with a war theme the lunchtime read this week is going to be by Gunter Grass, who for all the recent controversy about his involvement with the SS, is a writer that I have so far missed but would like to get acquainted with.
Bullet points between pages 1 – 28
* The narrator is describing a boy, Mahkle, who has such a prominent Adam’s apple that a cat mistakes it for a mouse who is slightly out of kilter with the rest of his friends choosing to wear a screwdriver round his neck
* Mahkle uses the screwdriver to dive down to a wrecked boat and prise off prizes that he brings up to the surface to show off to his gull dropping chewing friends
* The narrator is among those friends and is also witness to Mahkle stating to the rest of his class when asked by the teacher what he wants to become states that he is planning on becoming a clown
* He is different from most of the other children and even when he joins the Hitler youth he seems to be able to live a life of relative individualism coming and going when it suits
More tomorrow…
Bullet points between pages 1 – 28
* The narrator is describing a boy, Mahkle, who has such a prominent Adam’s apple that a cat mistakes it for a mouse who is slightly out of kilter with the rest of his friends choosing to wear a screwdriver round his neck
* Mahkle uses the screwdriver to dive down to a wrecked boat and prise off prizes that he brings up to the surface to show off to his gull dropping chewing friends
* The narrator is among those friends and is also witness to Mahkle stating to the rest of his class when asked by the teacher what he wants to become states that he is planning on becoming a clown
* He is different from most of the other children and even when he joins the Hitler youth he seems to be able to live a life of relative individualism coming and going when it suits
More tomorrow…
Sunday, May 13, 2007
book of books - The Reprieve
When you commit to reading a trilogy you know that unless something unforeseen happens you are going to see it through to the end and the decision to read the second book was nowhere near as important as the move made to read the first.
But Jean-Paul Sartre does his best with The Reprieve to make you wonder if it is worth sticking with the Roads to Freedom trilogy. Written in a way that is difficult to follow, populated with numerous characters and dispensing with some of the page furniture and breaks – chapters, asterisks and spaces - that would make it slightly easier to follow makes this a harder book to stick with. But, and it is an important but, if the aim of the writing is to transmit the sense of fear, panic and confusion that existed in the run up to the second world war, then it succeeds.
Plot summary
The book starts with the politicians surrounding British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain waiting for an audience with Hitler to try and defuse the rising tension about the German leader’s territorial claims in Czechoslovakia. Meanwhile the diplomatic process grips the French because they have an agreement with Czechoslovakia to come to its aid if it is attacked. The narrative follows the course of the week that led up to the Munich agreement, where in an effort to maintain peace in Europe the Czech’s were betrayed by their British and French allies. Over the course of the week the French reservists, including Mathieu (the main character from the first book) are called up and the book holds up a mirror not just to national uncertainty but also that of a handful of characters ranging from those determined to fight and die (Boris) to those at the other end of the spectrum arguing for peace (Philippe). In the end nothing is resolved and although the French people believe war has been averted those in transit to join up with the army or prepare for loss and pain are still left in a partial limbo.
Is it well written?
As already mentioned this is a difficult book to get through because a description of one character in a situation will run straight into another. The reader has to work very hard to concentrate and stick with the numerous characters as well as the political developments happening in the background. It works well as an almost metaphorical description of the confusion of war but as a narrative is perhaps in some places unnecessarily confusing. One work colleague admitted that he had started the book then given up on it. That is the risk that Sartre takes because the third book Iron in the Soul has a different feel again more similar to The Age of Reason.
Should it be read?
If you are reading the trilogy then obviously missing this out would detract by in an odd way it would be possible to skip it because it concerns one week and the main characters are reintroduced in the third volume. But it is a reminder that the fears of Hitler were causing disturbances well before he started to advance with troops and tanks across the French border. It is also a good illustration of how the prospect of an impending conflict or major event can cause people to react differently. Another book that reminds you of the myriad of responses is The Plague by Albert Camus and the sense they both have in common is of people being trapped. The Reprieve is about the claw back from war and the reprieve the main characters and the country has from bloodshed but as the French Prime Minister mutters at the end of the book it is nothing of the sort and just delays the war. The challenge constantly to the reader is how they would react, and this is picked up even more in the final volume. Would you be a coward? Rally to the flag and support your allies? Or view the potential conflict as something that you might be able to make personal gain out of? From start to finish the reader is challenged on every level to stick with the book, empathise with the confusion and suffering and constantly wonder just how they would have reacted.
Summary
War is postponed by in the week waiting for the reprieve the country and the people display a number of reactions that cover most parts of the spectrum, including the fatalist existentialist one you would expect from a Sartre novel.
Version read – Penguin Modern Classics paperback
bookmark of the week
Last weekend we went on a family day out to see the Star Wars exhibition at County Hall. Although it cost us £50 it was worth it with a large number of models, costumes and props from the films. At the end there was the obligatory visit to the shop but there were no books of the exhibition or another glaring admission – no bookmarks. This is one I picked up a couple of years ago of Darth Vader.
Saturday, May 12, 2007
weekend paper round up
Yesterday was not the best but there was an interesting piece in The Guardian about the way that technology is changing the way we read books by self-confessed book lover Andrew Marr. In an article that came up with a lot of the traditional responses to ebook readers Marr threw in a criticism not only of the technology, he pointed out that page turning was too slow, but the experience of using something that was clean and fresh compared to books which are often old, worn and treasured possessions. He also mentioned the obvious that books are so well designed that it is hard for technology to come along and make a difference.
Other things that stood out in the papers today were a piece in The Independent about the movie that is being made about Dylan Thomas. Naturally when you could focus on the poet’s work and writing process what apparently is the main content of The Edge of Love focuses on the love triangle between his wife and a childhood friend. The hidden message is that if you ever want to become a writer that has a reputation that lives on beyond death, write some good prose or poetry but importantly try to develop some sort of twisted love life.
The Independent also has a piece about the fight to save the Karl Marx Memorial Library from takeover. Quite what the father of communism would think of the battle for the library is hard to guess.
Apart from that it has been incredibly frustrating I was half way through the title story in Salinger’s For Esme with Love and Squalor before the doorbell rang and my youngest child – who is still refusing to cooperate on this issue – decided that because I had not been reading a Star Wars book mine deserved to be taken and hidden. As a result there will not be any posts on that today.
Hopefully more reading tomorrow…
Other things that stood out in the papers today were a piece in The Independent about the movie that is being made about Dylan Thomas. Naturally when you could focus on the poet’s work and writing process what apparently is the main content of The Edge of Love focuses on the love triangle between his wife and a childhood friend. The hidden message is that if you ever want to become a writer that has a reputation that lives on beyond death, write some good prose or poetry but importantly try to develop some sort of twisted love life.
The Independent also has a piece about the fight to save the Karl Marx Memorial Library from takeover. Quite what the father of communism would think of the battle for the library is hard to guess.
Apart from that it has been incredibly frustrating I was half way through the title story in Salinger’s For Esme with Love and Squalor before the doorbell rang and my youngest child – who is still refusing to cooperate on this issue – decided that because I had not been reading a Star Wars book mine deserved to be taken and hidden. As a result there will not be any posts on that today.
Hopefully more reading tomorrow…
Lunchtime read: For Esme with Love and Squalor and other stories
Today has not been a good one for reading but it was possible to slip in a short bit of Salinger and another story featuring a member of the Glass family. This time the focus falls on Boo Boo who seems to be struggling to relate to a Seymour of her own, her four-year-old son who keeps threatening to run away.
Highlights from Down at the Dinghy
* The story starts with two domestic helps chatting about a problem that becomes clear after Boo Boo comes home and openly starts discussing the latest antics of her son Lionel who likes pickles and running away, once as far as Central Park
* Boo Boo discovers her son sitting in a dinghy waiting to sail away and so she tries to connect with him on his own level by pretending to be an admiral and then discovers that what is eating Lionel is that he has overheard the home helps being critical of his father
* Boo Boo comforts her son and tells him they are going to go back to the house and then go and pick his father up from the station and Lionel runs back to the house
On the face of it here is a story about a boy who others are describing as disturbed but who in fact is just not being spoken to in the right way and once his feelings are unlocked he is just looking for love and reassurance.
More tomorrow…
Highlights from Down at the Dinghy
* The story starts with two domestic helps chatting about a problem that becomes clear after Boo Boo comes home and openly starts discussing the latest antics of her son Lionel who likes pickles and running away, once as far as Central Park
* Boo Boo discovers her son sitting in a dinghy waiting to sail away and so she tries to connect with him on his own level by pretending to be an admiral and then discovers that what is eating Lionel is that he has overheard the home helps being critical of his father
* Boo Boo comforts her son and tells him they are going to go back to the house and then go and pick his father up from the station and Lionel runs back to the house
On the face of it here is a story about a boy who others are describing as disturbed but who in fact is just not being spoken to in the right way and once his feelings are unlocked he is just looking for love and reassurance.
More tomorrow…
Friday, May 11, 2007
dental excuses
I had to have a tooth taken out this morning and it has been pretty painful. The plan was to read in the waiting room before I went in but the thought of what was coming plus the collection of inappropriate pictures of old fashioned drills made it impossible to concentrate. Then since it has been a battle of the mind just to try and focus away from the pain. I will try to do some reading today but it will be much later.
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Iron in the Soul - post III
The question being asked of you as a reader is what would you do if the country you were fighting for was defeated without giving you the chance to at least feel that you had tried to defend her. Mathieu and his fellow soldiers are all asking themselves that question while others who are not in uniform still face the difficult matter of deciding on their own ability to sucumb to cowardice.
The book is written in an easier style with diary dates forming chapters and breaks in paragraphs as a way of indicating when there is a shift in character, mood or location.
Bullet points between pages 112 - 190
* Mathieu is caught between a rock and a hard place finding himself shunned by his fellow soldiers because they view him as an intellectual and somehow better than them and no matter what he does he cannot fit in and even when he tries to get drunk he is unable to match the excesses of the other troops
* All the time the Germans are getting closer and although the troops have somehow gone into denial about the moment they will face the enemy and concentrate just on the idea of peace and stop thinking of fighting almost completely
* Back in Paris Daniel meets Phillipe - talk about a small world - and is instanly captivated by the young man who is considering suicide but then allows himself to be taken back to Daniel's flat and spoken to in a way that the older man hopes will lead to a seduction and a relationship that might have some depth to it
* Back in the village Mathieu and the troops are disturbed to see a nearby village burning and then a squad of fighters enters the village and challenges anyone to join them and fight off the Germans when they do finally arrive
The number of questions are growing with the most obvious being - what happened to Marcelle? Has Boris fled to England and what will happen to Mathiue when the Germans do finally arrive? More tomorrow...
The book is written in an easier style with diary dates forming chapters and breaks in paragraphs as a way of indicating when there is a shift in character, mood or location.
Bullet points between pages 112 - 190
* Mathieu is caught between a rock and a hard place finding himself shunned by his fellow soldiers because they view him as an intellectual and somehow better than them and no matter what he does he cannot fit in and even when he tries to get drunk he is unable to match the excesses of the other troops
* All the time the Germans are getting closer and although the troops have somehow gone into denial about the moment they will face the enemy and concentrate just on the idea of peace and stop thinking of fighting almost completely
* Back in Paris Daniel meets Phillipe - talk about a small world - and is instanly captivated by the young man who is considering suicide but then allows himself to be taken back to Daniel's flat and spoken to in a way that the older man hopes will lead to a seduction and a relationship that might have some depth to it
* Back in the village Mathieu and the troops are disturbed to see a nearby village burning and then a squad of fighters enters the village and challenges anyone to join them and fight off the Germans when they do finally arrive
The number of questions are growing with the most obvious being - what happened to Marcelle? Has Boris fled to England and what will happen to Mathiue when the Germans do finally arrive? More tomorrow...
book of books - Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters Seymour: an Introduction
This book is made up of two stories by J.D. Salinger that interlink in terms of being based around the same character but are written in almost completely different styles. The first story is easier to digest but the second displays a type of confessional writing that although hard to get on with at first does have a power of its own.
Salinger is famous for a few things, among them being a recluse, including creating one of the greatest fictional families in literature, The Glass family. These stories both focus on the eldest brother in the Glass clan, Seymour, and are both written from the point of view of his brother Buddy. As well as providing an indication of life during and post World War Two.
It makes sense to split the review into the two halves of the book:
Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters
Buddy, the narrator, gets a letter from his sister telling him that no one else can attend but he must go to his brother’s wedding and represent the family. One he arrives at the wedding it becomes clear there is a problem and his brother has not turned up and so he jumps in a car with other guests including the matron of honour and gets to drive for several minutes hearing all sorts of bad things about his brother. One of the themes of the maid of honour’s attack is that the groom Seymour was mentally unbalanced. Even after they realise that Buddy is Seymour’s brother the criticisms continue as they take up his offer of hospitality in his apartment as the heat becomes oppressive after the car becomes stuck in a jam. Finally things are resolved with the news that Seymour and the bride have eloped and all is forgiven. But Buddy is left alone in the apartment wondering, having read his brother’s diary, just what on earth motivated the absent brother.
Seymour: an Introduction
This is a book that describes an author that has the weight of family expectation that they can produce a fitting tribute to their dead sibling. The narrator is finding it very hard to write about a brother that he idolised and the rest of the family looked up and the effort of trying to come up with a suitable tribute is crushing and you start to see the pain of the exercise:
"I said I'd finish this, but I'm not going to make it after all. Not because I'm not a proper iron man but because to finish it right I'd have to touch on - my God, touch on - the details of his suicide, and I don't expect to be ready to do that, at the rate I'm going, for several more years."
The book ends with just a few anecdotes being shared and all about Seymour as a boy or young man. The writer has set the boundaries of the non painful zones and it is only when you realise this in a way is not a story about Seymour at all but the reaction of a brother and family to a suicide that this story starts to make sense. Once that penny drops it becomes a powerful story but the slight criticism would be the length of babble you have to get through to start getting to the nub of the story.
Is the book well written?
It takes a while to get bedded down with the idea that both stories are about a character that apart from a few diary entries and a memo never really speaks for himself. The description of Seymour is poor, and deliberately so in an Introduction, making the reader completely rely on the narrator Buddy to be their guide. He is a strong and engaging voice in Raise the Roof but becomes almost unable to write at all in the second story. For those readers expecting more answers – why Seymour killed himself - this book does not provide that and you have to turn to the story A Perfect Day for Bananafish to get that. Appreciate what is going on here and it is a well written book, fail to do that, which is more than possible with an Introduction and it might fail to engage readers.
Should it be read?
To see the power of imagination in action – bear in mind both Seymour and Buddy are completely fictional – this is worth reading. To discover that there is more to Salinger than Catcher in the Rye this is worth reading. To see someone really trying a different style then this is worth reading. But you have to be prepared to work at it and think laterally to appreciate just what is trying to be achieved here. Sadly my suspicion is that most people will expect Holden Caulfield to appear, or someone similar, from the pages and will be disappointed when he doesn’t.
Version read – Penguin paperback
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