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…

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…

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.

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…

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…

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.

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...

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

Lunchtime read: For Esme with Love and Squalor and other stories

There is certainly something to be said for reading a large amount of an author’s work because it provides an opportunity to really discern the style, as well as providing a chance to pick out the best work. Salinger produces some great short stories when he mixes the classic elements of a great plot with strong characterisation.

Highlights from The Laughing Man

* A former boy scout is reminiscing about his days playing baseball, camping and having some after school fun led by a leader named the chief who entertains them in the bus before going home with tales of The Laughing Man

* The bus stories centre on a hideously deformed man who fights injustice and has some animal friends and wears a poppy mask to keep his features hidden - and the boys are addicted to the stories

* The routine is suddenly changed by the arrival of the chief’s girlfriend who starts playing baseball with the boys and starts attending their meetings pretty regularly until one evening when she suddenly turns up late and then cries and runs away

* That night the chief, obviously upset about the relationship tells the last episode of the Laughing Man with the hero choosing death after vanquishing his enemies and the impact on the boys is tears and silence as if they realise that they are mourning the end of a more innocent stage of childhood

More tomorrow…

Iron in the Soul - post II

There is a real sense of futility as the rumours spread of the defeat and the armistice being signed. Now with 100 pages gone all of the main characters have been reintroduced with the exception of Marcelle and you wonder how she is getting on with Mathieu’s child. War seems to have damaged people and put their lives in perspective and has also had an impact on Paris itself, which is beautifully described:

“It was Sunday. For the past three days it had been Sunday. The whole week now, in Paris, consisted of one day, a ready-made, colourless sort of day, rather stiffer than usual, rather more synthetic, over-marked by silence, and already filled by a secretly working rot.”

Bullet points between pages 57 – 112

* Boris is injured in a hospital and given the chance to fly to England and escape before the Germans arrive but he explains that he needs to ask Lola first and then goes off to meet with his sister

* It is then revealed that Ivich is not only married to the man she ran to when she thought war was coming in Paris but had a miscarriage and has aged a great deal and as a result of her experiences has drifted almost completely away from her brother

* Daniel is in Paris and almost enjoying the state the city finds itself in and then he spots the Germans, the first time they have appeared in the story in the flesh, and he realises just how many enemy military are in the deserted capital

* Mathieu and the troops wait to hear what is going on and get mixed messages about the signing of an armistice and as a result feel as if they have failed because they have not had a chance to fight

* But then they drift back to camp with the feeling that they might after all get a chance to prove they can fight only to discover they are being abandoned by their officers and left to fend for themselves

“No one likes us, no one: the civilians blame us for not defending them, our wives have got no pride in us, our offices have left us in the lurch, the villagers hate us, the Jerries are advancing through the darkness.”

More tomorrow…

Lunchtime read: For Esme with Love and Squalor and other stories

Before I get into commenting on the story today I wanted to mention that like most other people reading these stories without too much knowledge about the author you do assume that the members of the Glass family are based on Salinger's own family. But they are not and the discovery that this is one of the classic fictional family creations is something that adds to the respect for the author's imagination.

Just Before the War with the Eskimos

* Two friends, Selina and Ginnie, are coming back from playing tennis and have an argument over money with Ginnie pointing out that she always has to pay the fare and so demands some money from her friend

* Selina storms into her apartment and tells Ginnie that sshe will have to wait while she gets the money from her mother

* As Ginnie waits she is interrupted first by Selina's brother and then by one of his friends who both bowl her over with their observations on life and enthusiasm for being cycnical

* Selina returns with the money but Ginnie tells her to keep it because in a away you feel that she has enjoyed herself and learnt more than a couple of dollars worth of entertainment and knowledge

More tomorrow...

Iron in the Soul - post I

After the difficult reading experience of The Reprieve this is a more conventional style sticking with a character for a chapter, the diary date that Sartre uses, and giving them the room to think that was absent in the rush to war that was in the second book.

Things start in an odd position because you know that at the end of The Reprieve Sartre has a choice to start Iron in the Soul either just before the Nazi attack on France, which might have been tempting for tension. However he starts not in France but New York and starts with Paris having fallen. That’s why you know this is going to be an interesting read because from page one none of the easy options have been taken.

Bullet points between pages 1 – 57

* The story starts with Gomez in New York looking for a break from the heat and the struggle to get money but he seems to be being looked after and he is offered a job as an art critics based on his experience as a painter

* Gomez hears that Paris has fallen but because of his experience in the Spanish Civil War he feels no sympathy and even when he sits down and has a drink with a French man in a bar he still feels nothing

* Meanwhile Sarah his wife and son Pablo are struggling to escape from the Germans and are mixed up with other refugees and the picture that is painted of life in France is incredibly hard

* Then the time moves on and the story picks up with Mathieu with seven other troops lying in a field waiting to find out where they are going next in the retreat from the oncoming enemy

* Mathieu and his colleagues sum up the sense of the frustration in the defeat with some not caring, others regretting the death of their troops and all worried about what will happen next to them

More tomorrow…

More than an hour? Switch off and read

It’s nothing particularly new but more evidence has been made available if it were needed that watching TV rather than reading might make it harder for you to learn and climb up the academic ladder. The Guardian reports on an American study that found that 14-year olds who watched more than three hours of television a day were twice as likely not to continue their education after school. Although the study proves a point you do have to wonder who funds these studies into the painfully obvious.

Lunchtime read: For Esme - with Love and Squalor and other stories

As you read more Salinger and start to appreciate the role that the family plays in his stoties and even when you don't think that it is going to be about one the Seymour and Buddy clan it turns out to fill another part of the jigsaw about the family history - this time about Walt who died in the war.

Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut

* Two old college friends meet up on a cold snowy day and share some memories and plenty of alcholol and start to talk about the old times and some of the people they went to college with

* But the married woman who lives in the house starts to turn bitter in her recollections, particularly after her daughter comes home with her imaginary friend, and reveals that she adored a soilder who was killed in the war

* She tells her friend that she has never been able to tell her husband about the relationship, which she valued for the humour (the title comes from something Walt said) and he would be even more jealous of a ghost

* The friend asks for details of his death and is told a camping stove blew up and killed him and then the drink and futility of the loss overcome her and she is angry with her daughter and then in tears asks her friend if she was good - obviously wondering why something so bad happened to her

More from the collection tomorrow...