What Are You Reading

[Fading Fast]

I think the most reasonable conclusion is that history is far more malleable than people want to believe it is. We want to believe in absolute truths about historical facts -- but we're at the mercy of the sources from whom we learn those facts. But the deeper you delve into contemporary sources the more manipulation and chicanery you find -- Brother Seldes devoted most of a very long life to trying to make people aware of the fact that the American "free press" was in fact anything but free -- and the less you can let yourself rely on the currently-fashionable interpretation of those sources.

Along with my pile of "In Fact" I'm also continuing to work thru those volumes of "Life," and it's fascinating to juxtapose the two -- very often an article in Life will smell funny, and you can turn to a contemporaneous issue of "In Fact" to see Seldes pointing out exactly where the propaganda is coming from. It makes for quite an education in the area of just how manufactured the mass media of the Era really was.

I don't often agree with Henry Ford on much of anything, but you can make a good argument that history, or at least what we believe history to be at any particular moment of time, is, in fact, bunk.

Ford, like many of those industrial era tycoon, was, IMHO, a classic hedgehog. He got one big idea really, really right - classic hedgehog behavior - but he, many around him and many in the world assumed he was a fox, which he wasn't, with a brilliance that could be broadly applied. Basically, when a hedgehog is assumed to be a fox, he gets to (switching metaphors) act like a bull in a china shop and nobody says anything. If you or I acted like Henry Ford, or if Ford hadn't got one big idea right first, he, you and I would be exposed for the cranks that we all were being.

 

[Fading Fast]

I am a shallow man and it is the cover of this book that caught my attention (it was advertised as part of a "cool Art Deco covers" story on the ABE book site):



I did a little homework and the story sounded fun - basically, the author seems like a successful of-the-day popular writer, so I bought it.

Thirty or so pages in and am enjoying it. Very of the period - a youngish English man and woman meet on a cruise ship (for true travel in those days, not a pleasure cruise) and, after a bit of a kerfuffle, are getting interested in each other.

As we talk about here all the time, since it was written in '31, it reflects a '31 world view (at least of the author's) and not a smart author today writing a period novel. You can see and feel the difference immediately.

I'll report back when done. And, yes, the cover art is sensational.

 

[belfastboy]

Rereading Henry Miller's "Tropic of Cancer" and Celine's "Long Days Journey into Night". I don't care for Miller either as a person or as a character in his books but damn the boy could write. Such a wonderful way with the language. Enjoyijng the book much more than I did the first go round 40+ years ago. Celine's book is a much more straightforward narrative, again well written (translated!) and am enjoying it immensely. I have eschewed contemporary fiction and have returned to my modest library to reread the books of my younger years. Bukowski is next!

 

[Harp]

Rereading Henry Miller's "Tropic of Cancer" and Celine's "Long Days Journey into Night". I don't care for Miller either as a person or as a character... Celine's book is a much more straightforward narrative, again well written (translated!) and am enjoying it immensely.

Celine is a more difficult individual to tolerate than Miller though both were amply talented.
Celine's peripatetic Journey to the End of Night eclipses Joyce; and the former may not have garnered the laurels but he was the last century's dominant scribe.
________________________________

Searching for Reginald Foster's The Mere Bones of Latin

 

[belfastboy]

Celine is a more difficult individual to tolerate than Miller though both were amply talented.
Celine's peripatetic Journey to the End of Night eclipses Joyce; and the former may not have garnered the laurels but he was the last century's dominant scribe.
________________________________

Searching for Reginald Foster's The Mere Bones of Latin

Yes, if he had not chosen to go down the anti-Semitic road he could very well be the darling of French literature rather than the over rated Sartre. Celine was on the wrong side of history and it cost him a legacy.

 

[Fading Fast]

Finished

A solid popular novel from '31. It's set in England's middle class and tells a story of middle-age love, an "illegitimate" child, a two-faced sister, a resentful servant, a loving cousin.... Basically a fun, up-market soap opera of the time.

What kicks it up a notch for us today is the period feel. One can't help but be jarred by the college student who's not worried about another world war as she tells us - with total conviction - that she belongs to a group that avers that her generation will just say "no" if the leaders try starting another war (the innocence is both sincere and, with the benefit of hindsight, almost comically naive to us today).

Despite the belief by some that the Baby Boomers created generational rebellion and dismissal of their parents' values, those exact same sentiments are all over this novel as the teenage / college-age children reject their parents' clothes, hair styles, political views and societal norms. While not as demonstratively aggressive as in the '60s, this young '30 English generation's break is loud and clear.

For example, a key plot pivot shows that - not only the kids - but many adults viewed a shunning of out-of-wedlock children as "dated," "closed-minded," "ridiculous." The strength of this view is surprising considering how "proper" we tend to think middle class society was in the '30s. Another example are the views on women pursuing careers - while not the norm - it was not unacceptable and clearly was on the minds of young women and their more open-minded parents.

That's about it - a fun read that gives us a window into early '30s England that shows things were never as "locked down" ideology / morality-wise as we sometimes believe. That's what, IMHO, make these otherwise not-particular-special popular novels valuable today.

 

[Tiki Tom]

Just finished "The great and the good" by Michel Deon, in translation from the French. Beautifully written. The characters all first meet while crossing the Atlantic on board the Queen Mary sometime in the mid-1950s. Essentially it is a love triangle involving 3 insecure characters who cannot let their guards down and crack the door open to love. Most of the characters are flawed and injured. Nonetheless they are interesting and the dialogue is sharp and funny. Some surprises that you don't see coming (and some you do.) There is a reunion 20 years later. Sad yet sweet.

 

[Fading Fast]

Just finished "In Farleigh Field" by Rhys Bowen, a historical mystery set in WWII England.

It okay at best, but basically formulaic and two-dimensional where the author knows plenty of WWII history and period details to give it a reasonably appropriate feel, but it never comes alive. All along, I felt I was reading a modern book with characters dropped into a WWII time period.

And those characters are either all good, all evil or all faking it. While I didn't fully figure it out, I got about 80% there as the combination of formulaic narrative and two-dimensional characters allowed me to back into who was plotting, who wasn't and what was happening.

That said, for a quick WWII read, you could do worse, but why look at it that way as you could definitely do better.

Also, I'm close to having finished "Well Always Have Casablanca: The Life, Legend, and Afterlife of Hollywood's Most Beloved Movie" by Noah Isenberg. Review coming shortly.

 

[Touchofevil]

Book One of Frank Kane's Detective Johnny Liddell series, "The Fatal Foursome" or as it was originally titled, "About Face."

 

[Fading Fast]

I am the target audience for a book on "Casablanca." I love the film, love reading about its impact and legacy, love inside-baseball stories on it and love having another way to escape to Rick's Cafe for a few hours.

"We'll Always Have Casablanca: The Life, Legend and Afterlife of Hollywood's Most Beloved Movie" by Noah Isenberg has the basic elements of a good "Casablanca" read as Isenberg has extensively compiled the facts, details and related stories on its production, actors, contretemps, reviews, historical context and afterlife.

But it basically falls flat as Isenberg doesn't convey the passion, the frisson, the love story or the frantic energy of the movie. The first hint is the indigestible tittle - the book, like the title, doesn't lack for detail or research (although mainly from secondary sources - so no surprise revelations for already informed fans), but also like the title, it reads more like a list or, hate to say it, a boring lecture.

And that's hard to do with a complex classic like "Casablanca" that sports some serious plot flaws: Come on, a resistance leader running to "secret" meetings in a white double-breasted suit / the Germans marched all the way to Paris in a half hour (pausing for a snack along the way) but they will - without question - honor de Gaulle's Letters of Transit - please. But who cares, with so much verve - Greenstreet laughingly acknowledging his own thievery, the Marseillaise scene!, Rick shooting Strasser and Louis waiting for the count of three before saving Rick - the book should practically write itself.

But it doesn't. It still needs an author's talent to take all the impressive material Isenberg has researched and bring the spirit, the joy, the energy, the specialness of "Casablanca" to life. Unfortunately, that doesn't happen here. All the material just drones on by as your mind wanders over facts and details you know you are interested in.

Back in '92, on "Casablanca's" fiftieth anniversary, I read "Casablanca As Time Goes by: 50th Anniversary Commemorative" by Frank Miller which - based on my shaky twenty-five-year-old memory - has a lot of the same facts as Isenberg's book, but reads with more fun and spirit.

 

[Harp]

I am the target audience for a book on "Casablanca." I love the film, love reading about its impact and legacy, love inside-baseball stories on it and love having another way to escape to Rick's Cafe for a few hours.

Give Aljean Harmetz's The Making of Casablanca: Bogart, Bergman, and World War II a try.

 

[Fading Fast]

Give Aljean Harmetz's The Making of Casablanca: Bogart, Bergman, and World War II a try.

Thank you, I will in the future, but a bit burned out on "Casablanca" after Isenberg's book.

 

[BlueTrain]

Reading over some of the posts here, I feel so illiterate. But I get credit for reading a great deal more than I actually do. Most of what I do read is in the nature of research, either religious or military in nature, I am embarrassed to admit. Nevertheless, I do occasionally pause to read other material, invariably non-fiction. One such book was a gift from my son, so I had to read it. "Quartered Safe Out Here," by George MacDonald Fraser. It is an interesting account of the author's experiences in Burma during the war as a British soldier. I've never read anything else he wrote.

Another book, very scholarly in its approach, is "Turning to Nature in Germany, 1900-1940." It's actually a narrow and fairly obscure subject but the way the various interest groups navigated through the social changes in Germany during that period is interesting. I've had the book two and a half-months, though, and I still haven't finished it. I don't seem to have the patience for reading anymore and my eyes aren't that great, either.

One of my secret pleasures, I will confess, are adolescent adventure books, like the Hardy Boy. At least of the older ones. They can be incredibly dated but nevertheless can be interesting from that standpoint alone. It's also interesting to note how they were revised and updated (some would add dumbed down) over the years, for those still in print. Nevertheless, I read that the Hardy Boys still see tire tracks on dirt roads.

I enjoy Casablanca very much, along with a host of other movies, like Creature from the Black Lagoon (never read the book). But another wartime movie that is probably forgotten was "City in Darkness." It was filmed before the war started and released, I think, just after the war started in 1939. It was set in Paris, the City of Light. Nowhere near as glamorous as Casablanca but still just as interesting in the way it reflects the period so well and so accurately without even trying.

 

[Fading Fast]

Just finished "Sweet Smell of Success" by Ernest Lehman.

My recent viewing of the movie inspired me to read the book which turned out to be a long short story or novella (note to self, look up the difference).

Because the movie is dense with plot, characters and dialogue - a lot happens, a lot is said, and lot is implied, I assumed the book would be long and dense with the movie being a boiled-down version.

Instead, the movie is a fortified version of the book - which, to be fair, is pretty dense with story and character for its brevity. But the movie builds it all out and changes key plot pivots - my guess, the book was too gritty, too sexual, too drug focused, so it had to be changed to be made into an acceptable-for-the-time movie.

That said, the movie is no fluff ball, but shows a very seedy side of NYC and human nature in the '50s. What is stronger in the movie is both the dialogue overall - it comes at you all the time in gatling gun style and from all directions in a very NYC entertainment-industry argot - and the character of J.J. Hunsecker who's shadowy scary in the book becomes brick-and-mortar scary as portrayed by Burt Lancaster in the movie.

This is one of the rare times where I enjoyed the movie more than the book and, other than a clearly Hollywood-forced plot change, thought the story and character development was stronger in the movie.

A nice surprise from the book, though, is that it is a collection of short stories of which the two additional ones I've read so far have been enjoyable. They feel like short stories from a good high school English Lit course.

 

[AmateisGal]

I'm going in fits and starts with my reading. I was reading The Last Empress, but it sort of bogged down in the middle and I haven't been back to it yet. I knew going into it that it wasn't as good as her previous novel on Catherine the Great, and now I can see why. The narrative is quite different - instead of chapters, it's pretty much divided into three long sections, and therefore you don't feel like you can stop at a certain point. While you always want the reader to keep reading, of course, there comes a time when the reader needs to take a breath and digest what has happened. That hasn't happened here.

So, I started another fluffy, lighthearted novel, The Cupcake Cafe, set in contemporary London by Jenny Colgan who is absolutely fantastic at this type of thing. Maybe I just need to read the more lighthearted stuff right now with all the "heavy" stuff going on in my life.

That being said, my daughter just finished reading the first Poldark novel and now it's my turn. She absolutely ADORED it. So I'm looking forward to diving in.

 

[Nobert]

Just finished Wild Animals I Have Known by Ernest Thompson Seton. Couldn't help but contrast it with a B.S.A. event I staffed recently (I'm a temp event/banquet waiter) which was the shmooziest fest of Babbitry I've been around in some time.

 

[AmateisGal]

Started Ross Poldark by Winston Graham.

 

[Benzadmiral]

Just finished "Sweet Smell of Success" by Ernest Lehman.

My recent viewing of the movie inspired me to read the book which turned out to be a long short story or novella (note to self, look up the difference).

Because the movie is dense with plot, characters and dialogue - a lot happens, a lot is said, and lot is implied, I assumed the book would be long and dense with the movie being a boiled-down version.

Instead, the movie is a fortified version of the book - which, to be fair, is pretty dense with story and character for its brevity. But the movie builds it all out and changes key plot pivots - my guess, the book was too gritty, too sexual, too drug focused, so it had to be changed to be made into an acceptable-for-the-time movie.

That said, the movie is no fluff ball, but shows a very seedy side of NYC and human nature in the '50s. What is stronger in the movie is both the dialogue overall - it comes at you all the time in gatling gun style and from all directions in a very NYC entertainment-industry argot - and the character of J.J. Hunsecker who's shadowy scary in the book but brick-and-mortar scary as portrayed by Burt Lancaster in the movie.

This is one of the rare times where I enjoyed the movie more than the book and, other than a clearly Hollywood-forced plot change, thought the story and character development was stronger in the movie.

A nice surprise from the book, though, is that it is a collection of short stories of which the two additional ones I've read so far have been enjoyable. They feel like short stories from a good high school English Lit course.

I just recently finished that novelette and the other stories in a collection by Lehman. There's at least one other tale about Hunsecker and the narrator fellow, the character played by Tony Curtis in the film, which is sort of like a prequel to the "Sweet Smell" story. Considering how that one ended, the editor, or Lehman himself, should have put the prequel earlier in the book, and "Sweet Smell" later. There are more stories in the collection, if you liked Lehman's work.

 

[Benzadmiral]

While researching the Bible for a short story, I ran across an online literature site, http://www.online-literature.com/author_index.php. It's got a lot of works it's sometimes hard to find in print today, Samuel Hopkins Adams, Ambrose Bierce, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and others. Including my old favorite Sax Rohmer, the creator of the infamous Dr. Fu Manchu. Dipping into the first FM book, The Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu, I was struck by how swiftly it moves, with a strong reliance on dialog instead of narration . . . and I can see that Ian Fleming clearly had positive memories of the FM books, most visible in Doctor No.

 

[Fading Fast]

I just recently finished that novelette and the other stories in a collection by Lehman. There's at least one other tale about Hunsecker and the narrator fellow, the character played by Tony Curtis in the film, which is sort of like a prequel to the "Sweet Smell" story. Considering how that one ended, the editor, or Lehman himself, should have put the prequel earlier in the book, and "Sweet Smell" later. There are more stories in the collection, if you liked Lehman's work.

The version I have has a bunch of short stories also, but "Sweet Smell of Success" is the first. I've read about half the others so far and have, basically, enjoyed them. Most are pretty short except for "The Comedian" which is similar in length to "SSOS," but so far, the collection I'm reading, hasn't had the prequel you note. I'll come back if it shows up.