The Small House at Allington by Anthony Trollope

 

In April of 2021 I set out on a quest to read strictly dystopian novels during that month. As a result, I read 15 novels with a dystopian theme. I had previously read a few of the books that would make my list, but most were new to me (though not exactly new books). The last book in that series was first published in six installments in Blackwood's Magazine in 1881–82 - The Fixed Period by Anthony Trollope . That book turned out to be one of my favorites in the dystopian series.

Reading a Wikipedia article on The Fixed Period, I learned that this was Trollope's only Sci-Fi/futuristic novel. He is best remembered today for two six book series of novels - the Chronicles of Barsetshire and the Palliser novels (AKA - the Parliamentary novels ). In May of that year, I began reading Chronicles of Barsetshire. After reading the 4th novel in the series, I decided to take a break from Trollope. I began reading the entire collection of Agatha Christie's mystery novels and soon forgot about Trollope.

He was forgotten until his books were mentioned by John Podhoretz on the Commentary Magazine podcast recently. Podhoretz highly recommended Trollope's Palliser novels and I felt I needed to finish the last two books in Chronicles of Barsetshire before I could read something different by Trollope.

I started book five - The Small House at Allington. I'm glad I did. This one is my favorite (so far) of Trollope's novels.

Generally, I'm not one for spoilers but I want to compare parts of The Small House at Allington with an earlier novel in the series, Doctor Thorne . In the earlier novel, a Mr. Moffat breaks off his engagement to Miss Augusta Gresham because he had found a more "advantageous match." To avenge his sister, Frank Gresham and one of his friends horsewhip Moffat within an inch of his life. Most of the characters in the novel appear to be OK with the beating, as does Trollope, for that matter. In The Small House at Allington, after Adolphus Crosbie jilts Lily Dale in order to marry Alexandrina de Courcy, Crosbie is simply given a black eye by John Eames.

In his autobiography, Trollope is amazed by the number of letters he'd received from readers of the installments of The Small House at Allington who loved Lily Dale (who he considered a prig) and wished that Trollope would have Lily and John Eames marry. Trollope did not unite the two. Several of the characters from The Small House at Allington return in The Last Chronicle of Barset. Judging by Trollope's comments, I would be very surprised to see the couple marry in the final book.

Past Master by R.A.Lafferty

 

Being forever on the lookout for reading material, when a friend told me of his recent discovery of Sci-fi writer R. A. Lafferty, I immediately did a web search for the writer. After compiling a list of his Sci-fi books found at wikipedia, I went to my go-to page for free ebooks and downloaded 20 novels and short-story collections. The question now was, where do I begin? His first novel, Past Master was nominated for the 1968 Nebula Award and the 1969 Hugo Award, so that seemed as good a place as any as a place to start.

The story is set in the year 2535 on the utopian Earth colony, Astrobe. The leaders of Astrobe view life on the planet as less than perfect, and to bring their world in line with their utopian dreams, they send a man to Earth to travel back in time and bring Saint Thomas More into the future to rule over Astrobe. The leaders do this on the mistaken belief that More's book, Utopia was not satire, but a "how-to" manual.

Once on the planet, Thomas More travels about the world and experiences adventures of a very unusual nature. I would describe his wanderings as Don Quixote or Candide in Outer Space - with a bit of sixties psychedelia thrown in for good measure.

There were times when I found it difficult to keep up, but my review is positive, for the most part.

After reading Past Master, I downloaded a recent translation of More's Utopia, which will be the next book on my list.

The Ring Series by Koji Suzuki - Book Three - "Loop".

 

Having finished books 1 and 2 in Koji Suzuki's Ring series, rather than go immediately to book 3, I took a detour with Ken Grimwood's Replay. In my earlier post on the Ring series I said that there will be more to follow once I'd read the remaining books. That time has come.

The Ring series was originally conceived as a trilogy - with a collection of short stories coming in 1999 to put an end to the series. More than 20 years after the first book in the trilogy was written, 2 more novels were written in 2012 and 2013. I've read the 3rd book making up the original trilogy; the additional books will come later. If Suzuki could wait 20 years, I can put them off for a bit.

Loop begins very differently than the first two. Ring and Spiral have both been described as Japanese horror/mystery novels - and they are that - Loop however, fits more into the Sci -fi genre. No horror at all, as I see it. It is so different that I could not see how the stories could be related - at least until I was 30% into the book. Even when I couldn't find a connection, I was still enthralled; and when I finished reading the book, I was all the more impressed with Suzuki's talent as a writer and storyteller.

As usual, I'm not inclined to give spoilers; I will say that I can highly recommend this trilogy.

Replay by Kim Grimwood

 

One of my sources for book recommendations is the daily podcast at Commentary.org. The podcast is predominantly political, from a conservative point of view although at the end of most podcasts there will be a Commentary Recommends section which will recommend not only books, but movies, and T.V. programs......sometimes even Youtube videos.

So far this year I've read five books recommended by the podcast. In February there were two - The Wolf Hunt by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen and Budapest Noir by Kondor Vilmos. In March I read The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin and A Brutal Design by Zachary Solomon. I didn't particularly like The Three-Body Problem, but that's neither here nor there.

Number five is a fantasy novel from 1986 - Replay by Ken Grimwood. The novel tells of a 43 year old man who suddenly dies of a heart attack and awakens in his 18 year old body in his dorm room at Emory University in Atlanta in the year 1963. He begins to relive his life with the memories of his earlier life intact. With his knowledge of "the future" he is able to amass a vast fortune thru gambling on sporting events and surefire stock investments. He lives his "replay" slightly different from the first life, but still dies of a heart attack on the same date.

He finds himself returned to 1963, Emory University but at a slightly later date. This cycle continues for several "replays". Always dying on the same date but awakening at later time than the previous replay.

The novel was a bestseller in Japan. Its time-loop concept has been referenced as a precursor of the 1993 movie, Groundhog Day.

As usual, I won't be giving spoilers.

Sadly, Grimwood died of a heart attack in 2003 at age 59 while working on a sequel to Replay. I've only been able to find one other book by Grimwood - Elise. I wish there were more.

The Ring Series by Koji Suzuki

 

About eight or nine months ago, I came upon a web page giving a list of the 65 Best Japanese Books of All Time. Of course, this list was right in my wheelhouse. I made a copy of the list and downloaded not only the 65 books listed, but anything I could find in English by all the authors named.

I had read a few of the books prior to coming upon the list and a few more since then. One of the books making the list is a Japanese, mystery/horror novel, Ring by Koji Suzuki which I read in March.

Suzuki's Ring series was originally written as a trilogy - Ring (1991), Spiral (1995), Loop (1998). In 1999, a short story collection, Birthday was added to the series. Finally, two additional novels were added - S (2012) and Tide (2013). Unfortunately, Tide has not been translated into English.

As of this writing, I've read the first two books in the series.

I'm not inclined to give spoilers, but I will give the first paragraph of a wikipedia description of Ring:
"This story is set in present-day Tokyo. When four teenagers mysteriously die one night at the same time, Kazuyuki Asakawa, a journalist and uncle to one of the teens, takes a particular interest in the case and investigates. This leads him to a holiday resort called Hakone Pacific Island, where the four teens stayed one week before their death. There he watches a videotape left behind in their room which contains a series of abstract and realistic images. At the end of the sequence of cryptic and disturbing images, a warning appears: 'The one who saw these images is destined to die in one week at this time. If you do not wish to die, do as will be said from now on. That is—' but the rest is erased by an advertisement. This has a strange mental effect on Kazuyuki, who immediately believes that the tape has now placed its mark on him".

I enjoyed the first novel so much that, of course, I'd go on to book two. After I had finished reading the first book, I thought I had a good idea how book two might progress. I was surprised from the very first page. The events were not going as I had thought. To me, book two (Spiral) is even better than the first. The remaining books in the series will be most definitely put into the queue.

On a side note - several films have been produced based on the novels, in Japanese, Korean and English. I'll look to see if the Japanese and Korean films are available online with English subtitles. I watched the first American film from 2002 and while interesting, it doesn't live up to the first book. The film strays too far for my tastes.

There will be more to follow once I've read the remaining books.

The March, 2024 Reading List

 

Anyone who is even slightly familiar with this blog knows that I am an avid reader; I am constantly looking for recommendations for books to download. When a book recommendation does pique my interest, I'll go to a particular website that is basically an online library where almost every book imaginable is available. I'll come upon the name of an author and download everything the author has published in English. As a consequence, I have more e-books than I can read in my lifetime. The e-books will be filed away, to be retrieved later.

Just before finishing 1Q84by Haruki Murakami I went to my digital library for an e-book to put into the queue for March. I don't recall exactly when I downloaded Visitation by Jenny Erpenbeck - the file properties says Feb.14- and I couldn't remember where the recommendation for the novel came from. I did a web search for Erpenbeck and the reviews I found for her work were very impressive. Visitation was the first book I read this month. Sadly, I was disappointed.

From a review on themodernnovel.org:
"Erpenbeck really does an excellent job of showing German history of the twentieth century in such a short book. The valuables hidden in the lake when the Soviets arrive and buried when the architect leaves the area are equated with the burial of the bodies of local Jews found in the forest. Erpenbeck has written not a Holocaust novel nor an East German novel but a German novel, warts and all, showing us that Germany has buried its past but, like the bodies of the Jews or the valuables hidden in the lake, everything come back to the surface sooner or later. Everything except the gardener, who disappears."

If you're looking for a fictionalized account of German history of the twentieth century you be better off reading Günter Grass.

Next on the list for March is The Girl of his Dreams by Donna Leon. This is #17 in Leon's Commissario Guido Brunetti series. It's no secret that I'm a fan of the series.

From time to time, I'll get book recommendations from the books I'm reading. That was the case when I reread,last year, Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn when I discovered the book was a favorite of Japanese writer Kenzaburō Ōe. It was also the case when I came upon a character in a book by Haruki Murakami who had a copy of Oliver Twist in their library. At one time, both books would have been considered classics in literature, but have fallen out of favor due to the racist views of Twain and Charles Dickens.

Oliver Twist became book # 3 for March. Dickens' antisemitism may have been typical for people of his social class in the 19th Century, but it makes reading his books today difficult. In Oliver Twist, Fagin is particularly despicable - so is Bill Sikes for that matter; but in the case of Fagin, Dickens is forever reminding us that he is a Jew. Dickens could have just as easily portrayed Fagin as a villain without the antisemitism.

Ring by Koji Suzuki is the first in a series of Japanese mystery horror novels by the writer. His second book in the series will be the first in April's reading list.

#5 on the March book list is Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and his Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami. Wikipedia describes the novel as..... "a Bildungsroman that tells the story of Japanese railroad engineer Tsukuru Tazaki". Haruki Murakami continues to live up to my expectations.

Next on the list is The Three-Body Problem by Chinese Sci Fi writer Liu Cixin. The book is the first in a trilogy, Remembrance of Earth's Past. The book has recently been released as a Netflix movie and was highly recommended by the folks at the Commentary Magazine podcast. I have to say that I can't add my recommendation. Most of the book went right over my head and I had difficulty following along. It's unlikely that I'll finish the trilogy.

Reading Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki as a bildungsroman brought to mind another novel which falls into that category - Demian by Hermann Hesse. I read Demian fifty years ago, so needless to say, I remembered very little of it. It was so long ago that I'm not 100% certain I actually finished it. I have two translations of the book in my digital library; the 1965 English translation by Michael Roloff & Michael Lebeck and the 2013 translation by Damion Searls. I couldn't decide which version I should read so I read the two simultaneously. I have to say I prefer Searls translation. According to Wikipedia, there are three additional English translations, although I was unable to locate a free ebook version of those. There is, however, an English translation from 1923 by N. H. Priday available as an audiobook at Internet Archive.

The next book on the list was also a recommendation from the Commentary Magazine podcast. A Brutal Design by Zachary Solomon is a nightmarish, dystopian novel. It starts off Kaffaesque and then quickly branches off into a world that is a cross between Yevgeny Zamyatin and Mikhail Bulgakov.

Now, for the list:

Visitation    by Jenny Erpenbeck
The Girl of his Dreams    by Donna Leon
Oliver Twist   by Charles Dickens
Ring    by Koji Suzuki
Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and his Years of Pilgrimage  by Haruki Murakami
The Three-Body Problem  by Liu Cixin
Demian   by Hermann Hesse (Tr. Michael Roloff & Michael Lebeck)
Demian   by Hermann Hesse (Tr.Damion Searls)
A Brutal Design   by Zachary Solomon

#79 or #50 or #18?

 

While attending Palm Sunday services at Our Mother of Perpetual Help Redemptorist Church in Dumaguete this morning, I saw this VW Beetle in the parking lot. It looks very much like VW Beetle #50 from July 12, 2018. The only noticeable differences are the wheels. It's also very possible that this one and #50 are the same as VW #18 from January 3, 2017.

 

VW Beetle # 78

 

I haven't come upon a new VW Beetle in the area since October of last year. This morning, I went with a group of American friends to an eatery in Valencia. Not far from the eatery, I spotted this olive colored VW. This one makes #78 that I've photographed since I first started posting VW photos to another blog in November, 2016.

Looking back, I've published 70 VW posts onto my "Sorry, all the clever names are taken" blog. I'm tempted to transfer those posts to this blog ...... it would take quite a lot of work. We'll see.

 

The February, 2024 Reading List

 

The first book on my list of books read in February is The Worlds Religions by Huston Smith. The book was initially based on a class given by Smith at Washington University in St. Louis in 1955. The class attracted the attention of a NET affiliate (the precursor of PBS) who produced a television series based on Smith's class. The series would lead to the development of a book that became the standard textbook for colleges and universities for classes on the World's Religions. .

A book review from 1958 says;
"Because Dr. Huston Smith, Professor of Philosophy at Washington University, St. Louis, has such a high regard for man, he is able to give us a book about man's major religions that an intelligent reader may read, understand and be thankful for. Refusing to be [sic] begged down by the details which so easily and often throw the interested inquirer off the track, he moves rapidly into the meaning these religions carry for the lives of their adherents. In this book, we both [sic] sea and feel why and how they guide and motivate the lives of those who live by them".

I recommend this book to anyone interested in taking a look at religions other than their own.

I wrote of Oyinkan Braithwaite's My Sister, The Serial Killer in an earlier blog post.

Two of the books on this months list - The Wolf Hunt by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen and Budapest Noir by Kondor Vilmos - were introduced to me through recommendations from the Commentary Magazine daily podcast. It's one of my go to podcasts, by the way.

Finally, I wrote a bit about 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami in my last blog post. This "trilogy" has lead me to put more of Murakami's books into the queue, as well as Dickens' Oliver Twist. Of course, another book in Donna Leon's Commissario Guido Brunetti series will be on the list for March.

Now, for the list:

The Worlds Religions             by Huston Smith
My Sister, The Serial Killer   by Oyinkan Braithwaite
The Wolf Hunt             by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen
Budapest Noir             by Kondor Vilmos
1Q84 (books 1,2 & 3)   by Haruki Murakami

1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

 

I first became award of Japanese writer Haruki Murakami a little over two years ago, reading two of his novels - Norwegian Wood and Kafka on the Shore. Both of my blog posts written at the time were favorable toward Murakami, although I mentioned that I thought his novels went into far too much detail about the sexual activities of the characters.

There's no lack of sexual activity in 1Q84 but it seems to be more important to the story than was the case in the earlier novels.

The story takes place in a fictionalized 1984 which slightly parallels the real 1984. The protagonist refers to this parallel year in which she finds herself as 1Q84.

The novel was originally published in Japanese as three separate volumes between 2009 and 2010. When the work was translated into English, it was published as one novel. In the ebook format I have, the book is nearly 850 pages and when I began reading it I was not expecting to finish all three volumes in time to list the book in this month's reading list. I managed to finish the "trilogy" with one day to spare.

It's not really my purpose to go into detail regarding the plot of the book. One can go to Wikipedia for that. I will mention one detail. A musical work, Sinfonietta by Leoš Janáček plays a significant role in all three volumes. I wasn't familiar with Janáček prior to this and I couldn't resist searching for the piece on Spotify. Like two of the characters in 1Q84, I've taken to using Sinfonietta as background music for my workout. 

I'll be putting more of Murakami's novels into the queue.

My Sister, the Serial Killer. by Oyinkan Braithwaite

 

Back in January while reading two novels by Femi Kayode, I came upon a review of one of his novels, written by "Oyinkan Braithwaite, author of My Sister, the Serial Killer." Naturally, with a title like that, I had to locate her book and put it in the queue.

On the Goodreads website, someone describes her book this way-"My Sister, the Serial Killer is a blackly comic novel about how blood is thicker - and more difficult to get out of the carpet - than water..." . That's an pretty fair description.

It was originally published in Nigeria as an e-book entitled Thicker Than Water in 2017, before being released in the United States in November, 2018.

I wouldn't say the book is uproariously funny, but there are comic elements and it's worth a read.

Oyinkan Braithwaite is the third Nigerian writer that I've read recently - the third being Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. It's an interesting genre.

The Reading List for January, 2024

 

The time has come to post another monthly reading list. With nine books on the list, January has been the most productive month since July of 2023.

I've already posted about the first four books on the list - "The Razor's Edge" by W. Somerset Maugham ,The Devils Flute Murders by Seishi Yokomizo and two novels by Femi Kayode .

Lost to the West by Lars Brownworth deals with the history of the "other Roman Empire" - Byzantium. (Thanks Dom).

Running a 1000 Miles for Freedom is the story of Ellen & William Craft, as told by themselves - Master Slave Husband Wife by Ilyon Woo is an expanded telling of the Crafts' story.

Naturally, I couldn't end the month without catching up with Commissario Guido Brunetti.

January's reading list is as follows:

The Razor's Edge  by W. Somerset Maugham 

The Devils Flute Murders  by Seishi Yokomizo

Lightseekers  by Femi Kayode

Gaslight  by Femi Kayode 

Lost to the West  by Lars Brownworth 

Running a 1000 Miles for Freedom  by Ellen & William Craft 

Master Slave Husband Wife  by Ilyon Woo  

Through a Glass, Darkly  by Donna Leon  

Suffer the Little Children  by Donna Leon

A Look at Femi Kayode

 

There are a number of similarities between writer Femi Kayode and the protagonist of his first two novels (Lightseekers and Gaslight) - Dr. Philip Taiwo. Both were born in Nigeria and received a degree in psychology. Both moved to the United States, Kayode working for many years in advertising while the fictional Dr. Taiwo becomes an "investigative psychologist" for the San Francisco police department. After spending several years in the U.S., both return with their families to Africa; Dr. Taiwo returning to Nigeria, Fayode and his family moving to the much safer Namibia.

According to his literary agency's website, Kayode..... "managed to build an impressive resume on prime-time television by creating, writing and developing several award-winning TV dramas." Unfortunately, the website doesn't list these award-winning TV dramas. I am very impressed with his first two novels and I'd be interested in seeing these TV programs.

I can recommend both novels, although I didn't care for Dr. Taiwo's implied "pro-choice" attitude in Gaslight. Of course, that attitude is to be expected with folks with politically Liberal views. Other than that, I liked both Lightseekers and Gaslight. At Goodreads.com, he was give a good review by Nigerian writer, Oyinkan Braithwaite. Now, of course, I have to put Braithwaite's novel My Sister, the Serial Killer into the queue.

The Devils Flute Murders by Seishi Yokomizo

 

It was in December, 2022 that I first came upon the work of Japanese mystery writer, Seishi Yokomizo. Although the late Yokomizo (he died in 1981) had written more that 75 mystery novels and was famous in his native Japan, at the time I first learned of him only four of his novels had been translated into English.

After reading the first one - The Honjin Murders I set out to read everything of his that I could get my hands on.

Thankfully, a fifth book was translated and released in 2023 - The Devils Flute Murders. This one is my favorite, so far. Like Yokomizo's first novel, The Devils Flute Murders is a "locked room mystery", although it goes much further than that. Of course, I never give spoilers.

The only negative I can give is the difficulty I have keeping all the Japanese names straight - but that's me, not Yokomizo.

I've learned that a sixth mystery novel by Yokomizo (The Little Sparrow Murders) has been translated into English and will be available sometime this year. At the rate that his work is being translated, it's unlikely that I'll live long enough to read his 77 novels featuring Kosuke Kindaichi.

W. Somerset Maugham's "The Razor's Edge"

 

I came to read W. Somerset Maugham's The Razor's Edge in a 'round about way. I had recently seen a meme on Facebook involving a TV program from the 1960's - The Ghost & Mrs. Muir. I have a vague recollection of that program. My mother would watch it from time to time and seeing this meme led me to look into the 1947 film upon which the program was based.

I was able to locate the film online and found it to be a rather charming movie. The film starred Gene Tierney and while I knew her name, I was, for the most part unfamiliar with her work. The wikipedia article on her provided me with a list of her better films. The first one I picked was The Razor's Edge. I made a mental note that the film was based on a book by Maugham. I've enjoyed the books of his that I had read and was intrigued. The movie starred Tierney, Tyrone Power, John Payne and Anne Baxter. After watching the film, I knew I'd have to read the novel.

There are differences between the novel and the film. That not unusual in the film industry. As much as I enjoyed the film, I loved the novel more. We get a better idea of the protagonist's spiritual awakening and there is an "adult" treatment of sexuality which could not be brought to the screen in 1946.

Reading the novel, I'm reminded of the work of Hermann Hesse and I don't understand why the novel hasn't reached the cult status of Hesse's work.

The Books I Read in 2023

 

This being the first day of 2024, I thought I'd look back on the books I read in 2023. I'll be putting in links to each of my monthly book lists for the year. Unfortunately, there's no reading list for June, 2023. I was stuck trying to read One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez. I wasn't able to finish the book - try as I might. You might say that month was a washout. I still managed to read 63 books in 2023, better than the "one book-a-week habit" mentioned in yesterday's post.

I started reading The Razor's Edge by W. Somerset Maugham the last few days of December and it will be the first novel finished in 2024.

Last January, I was able to read two books by Japanese mystery writer, Seishi Yokomizo.(I'd read two in the previous December). Since that time another of his books has been translated into English and released - The Devils Flute Murders. I'll put it into the queue for January. Another of his books has been translated and due for release in May, 2024.

Looking over some of the book lists for 2023, I'm reminded that I should pick up Patricia Highsmith again. I'll take a look at her profile and put something by her into the queue.

Two books I'll be putting into the queue are by Nigerian writer, Femi Kayode - Lightseekers and Gaslight. These are #1 and #2 in a crime series involving investigative psychologist, Dr. Philip Taiwo.

Naturally, I'll be continuing on with Donna Leon's series featuring Commissario Guido Brunetti.

Below are the links to the 11 posts covering the books I read in 2023.

January 2023
February 2023
March 2023
April 2023
May 2023
July 2023
August 2023
September 2023
October 2023
November 2023
December 2023