Monthly Archives: August 2007

Dr. Thorne has now fully pulled me in. I’m so in Trollope’s world that I don’t even mind the idea that the daughter of a gentleman demeans herself by marrying a tradesman for money. I really only disagree with half that notion, anyhow. And the whole idea that a man is 100% responsible for a seduction, a woman 0% (since she can’t be expected to know what’s what, certainly?)? Sure! I’m just so there, man, the characters are so real and so compelling that I’m now taking them completely on their own terms. Damn, this guy’s good.

This is a huge power, really, the ability to swallow someone up and put them in your world. And Trollope is kind with his power (at least in the Barchester novels) – he doesn’t bring you in and then break your heart, like getting sucked into a wave and then slammed onto the sand. I really can’t stand books where awful things happen. I know! I’m a baby. I think it’s a hormonal thing related to my child-bearing years. When I was a teenager, I could read about all kinds of ill shit happening to characters and be fine with it (as long as it wasn’t an animal – I’ve never been able to stand animal suffering). And I’d see my mother crying at a movie and think she was so lame. But now I’m just the same, and you’ll never see me crying at a movie only because I never see ones that I know will do it to me. I’m really looking forward to menopause, literarily-speaking. I’m hoping I’ll be able to read about the big nasty stuff again.

Anyways, speaking of writers who can suck you into their world and their characters’ hearts, how about Naguib Mahfouz? I read most of Palace Walk, and I had to stop. Not because of anything really bad happening (I was all prepared for the death in the family that comes at the end), but I could not stand being in the mind of the patriach of the family. As I’ve said before, unfairness is physically painful to me, and this man is such a demon hypocrite, tyrant, and all-around pig – and Mahfouz makes him so real and understandable and almost sympathetic! – that I could not go on. Being inside the brain of an asshole – that is just harrowing. Often I seek it and appreciate it; I read literature to answer the question, “why do people do what they do”? And great psychological novels do a job of that like nothing else. But when there’s no relief, when we’re seeing a household dominated and ruled by this terrible power, as in Palace Walk, I must get out.

I’ve just changed my “in progress” tag on LT to reflect reality. I’m not reading anything right now but Dr. Thorne, which has finally gotten into primary narration, thank God.

Bought Will the Vampire People Please Leave the Lobby last night. Looking forward to starting it.

Started Trollope’s “Dr Thorne” yesterday. I wanted a nice English pastoral, and I knew this was not quite that (better to go with Angela Thirkell’s interpretation of the Trollope universe for that), but I was not expecting this riff on the English character:

“If in western civilized Europe, there does exist a nation among whom there are high signors, and with whom the owners of the land are the true aristocracy, the aristocracy is being trusted as the best and fittest to rule, that nation is the English..
“England a commercial country! Yes; as Venice was. She may excel other nations in commerce, bet yet it is not that in which she most prides herself, in which she most excels. Merchants as such are not the first men among us; though it perhaps be open, barely open, to a merchant to become one of them. Buying and selling is good and necessary; it is very necessary, and may, possibly, be very good; but it cannot be the noblest work of man; and let us hope that it may not in your time be esteemed the noblest work of any Englishman.”

Eeeew! The American in me just recoils at this passage! I was hoping for some of Trollope’s wondrous characterization, not his conservative-ass social views! He’s hit this note as well as airing his opinions about a woman’s proper role in the family and society by page 23. Sigh. Hopefully after we get through his “introduction” chapters things will get a little more interesting. It’s when his characters start bumping up against each other that things usually get good in a Trollope novel.

Woe is me! I can’t seem to settle in to one good book. Or even a few! Since Harry Potter, I’ve just been flitting from book to book, not really enjoying anything more than just a little. Here’s what I’ve got officially “in progress” right now:

A History of the Book in America: Volume I: The Colonial Book in the Atlantic World (History of the Book in America) - this is something I’m reading slowly over time whenever I’m in the mood. Unfortunately, extreme humidity and temperatures over 80 degrees are not conducive to the reading of non-fiction (unless it’s about shipwrecks!).

Cleopatra’s Sister - I borrowed this from my mother’s extensive office bookshelf an age ago and picked it up the other day. It’s one of those things I would not pick up unless there were extenuating circumstances, mainly because it’s about 15 years old now and there’s no buzz about it (although it seems there was at the time it was published). So I picked it up and it’s OK, but a little twee for my tastes. A few less observations about the nature of narrative and life and the novel would be nice. But at the same time, not liking the book much is arousing feelings of inadequacy in me. If I was truly well-read and smart and cultured I would read this book and like it! So we’ll see which wins – the drive to read what I enjoy, or the drive to meet my own expectations of myself.

Voyager - And now for the other end of the spectrum! I read this book, and the others in the series that existed at that time, in the late 90s, must be. And now I’m back for more. This is another one I’m reading slowly, only when I’m in the mood. It’s not really a “main course” book at this time (although it sure as heck was when I read it the first time!). It was my main course for about 1.5 days, and I totally OD’d on it last night, which leads us to:

Anything But Ordinary - A book I picked up on my last foray into the Christian Science Monitor’s discarded review book pile. I grabbed it on the way out the door this morning because I couldn’t face another page of “Voyager” at the time. Cute, short, too soon to tell much else…

Miles, Mystery & Mayhem – Practically doesn’t count right now, since I’m not really reading it and will probably take it off my active list soon. See the comments under this book over at LT for more.

I’m hoping to do some book shopping later today. I’ll post the shopping list, perhaps.