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What Are We Reading? 22 March 2021
Afternoon all, blue skies in the Shires, warbling birds too(a wren hopping around a bench i sat on at lunch, beautiful). The Rowan on the hangar above my house is starting to bud gently....nothing opened yet but little white dots appearing......As for reading, here is a brief summary:
The Longest Journey by EM Forster (1907)
(Edwardian manners, class and marriage are all themes in this downbeat 1907 novel, which Forster felt was closest to his vision of the world)
Immigration and Nationalism: Argentina and Chile 1890-1914
(A crisp and concise study of the emergence of the two southern cone nations from the stagnant post independence half centuries into the modern immigration era. How immigrants were at first lionised and then started to become demonised)
The Vinland Saga's
(meant to read this in December but am enjoying it, a familiar prose work of the anonymous Icelandic masters, describing voyages to Newfoundland aka Vinland)
The Gray Notebook by Josep Pla
(Simply a joy to read this in my series of diaries i have been reading. Pla is at once a knowing cynic and then lost in a fiesta among the people of coastal Catalonia. The "Spanish flu "pandemic has deprived him of the Barcelona lifestyle as the university is shut, so he lovingly describes his hometown and its people, including his family members)
Mod
on the hangar?
Gpfr wrote: "AB76 wrote: " The Rowan on the hangar above my house is starting to bud gently....nothing ..."on the hangar?"
from wikipedia:
The East Hampshire Hangers are located in the English county of Hampshire and form a line of hills with steep scarps that marks the eastern edge of the Hampshire Downs and its boundary with the Western Weald, an area of rolling countryside east of Petersfield and Liss. The Hangers run from the area of Farnham to Petersfield, before swinging eastwards to take in the north-facing scarp of the South Downs
The name is derived from the "hangers": long, narrow remnants of ancient woodland clinging to the steep scarp slopes.
The Vinland SagasIt was a paperback copy of this book which I still have, that started my fascination with the Vikings many many years ago whilst travelling up and down to the City to work.
Somehow they caught my imagination, their exploration, the wonderfully shaped ships, Iceland, Vinland, the adventures and they have stayed with me. When I finally got to see those ships as part of my eightieth birthday celebrations three years ago the magic held true....and all begun by that paperback.
CCCubbon wrote: "The Vinland SagasIt was a paperback copy of this book which I still have, that started my fascination with the Vikings many many years ago whilst travelling up and down to the City to work.
Someho..."
its a tiny book...barely 50 pages of text and 30 of notes and intro, is that same edition as yours CCC?
The celtic blood of the icelanders interests me, i visited the national musuem in Reyjkavik years ago and it had identified a significant british DNA presence in the female population, mostly from earlier viking raids on Ireland and Scotland
Mod
This photo was taken Halloween 2019. It's one of my favorite photos of Lucia and our neighbor dragon, Emry.
Mod
on the hangar?"
from wikipedia:
The East Hampshire Hangers are located in the English ..."
😏Thanks - I obviously didn't google far enough!
Mod
This photo was taken Halloween 2019. It's one of my favorite photos of Lucia and our neighbor dragon, Emry.
"
Such a lovely photo
A bit of promotion for a friend of mine... She's just published the Usborne Book of the Brain [Edit: it was supposed to be published in July last year, but was postponed due to covid], and that's probably the only book for kids where you'll see an anatomically-correct brain drawn! https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/pro...
AB76 wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "The Vinland SagasIt was a paperback copy of this book which I still have, that started my fascination with the Vikings many many years ago whilst travelling up and down to the Cit..."
You’ll have to give me some time to look it out or I might have a catalogue entry. This must be back sixty years, a Penguin if I remember correctly but I have seen it fairly recently when looking for something else.
Highly recommended: ARTE, the French-German culture channel now has an offshoot in English (free):https://www.arte.tv/en/
If you want to see the full programme scroll down to "browse categories"
For those who love Tove Jansson: this is a beautiful short film, where you can walk in her footsteps. It is (mainly) in French (and what a wonderful voice the speaker has) with English subtitles:
https://www.arte.tv/en/videos/101596-...
Bill: don't think you're interested in the Moomins ;-), but you might find the music programme worth a look
https://www.arte.tv/en/arte-concert/
Lljones wrote: "Happy Spring, everyone! Hope you all are enjoying some blue skies, warbling birds, budding flowers. I've been gorging on fresh, tender, local asparagus for days now - heaven!Interesting Links a..."
Wow, I got 13/20 with pure guesswork!
And happy Spring to everyone too, wherever you are. Went for a walk round the local park and found, to my delight, the café was open so a large latte went down very well.
I have just finished The Uncrowned Queen and enjoyed it very much. I have decided that Margaret Beaufort gets a rather worse press than she deserves.
I have now started Cold Tuscan Stone by David P Wagner. An Italian/American translator living in Rome, is asked by his former Italian schoolmate, now working for the Govt. to go to Volterra to investigate the sale of antiquities. So far so good.
giveusaclue wrote: "Lljones wrote: "Happy Spring, everyone! Hope you all are enjoying some blue skies, warbling birds, budding flowers. I've been gorging on fresh, tender, local asparagus for days now - heaven!Volterra is a fascinating hill town, capital of the Etruscan world, back in the day. It is quite a dark sort of place. It does not feel like the average Italian hill-top town at all, more brooding 'noir'. They seem to do a lot of blacksmithing there, I saw many fascinating 'wrought iron' lamps and such. Worth a detour down the 'Etruscan' rabbit-hole, if you are up for it!
Int..."
Hello all. What a beautiful picture of Lucia LL. It feels very special to see this. I read 70pp of "The Vivisector" over the weekend and was enthralled from the first page. More at another time, perhaps.
Lljones wrote: "Today is the one-year anniversary of Lucia's death. I sure do miss her.This photo was taken Halloween 2019. It's one of my favorite photos of Lucia and our neighbor dragon, Emry.
"
That's a gorgeous photo, the kindness shining out of Lucia ... a hard day for you LLJ.
Reen wrote: "Lljones wrote: "Today is the one-year anniversary of Lucia's death. I sure do miss her.This photo was taken Halloween 2019. It's one of my favorite photos of Lucia and our neighbor dragon, Emry.
..."
Good to see a mini-dragon and a 'wise woman' in a mutually comforting role...
Veufveuve wrote: "I read 70pp of "The Vivisector" over the weekend and was enthralled from the first page"Fantastic!
Hushpuppy wrote: "You're up late scarlet! Is that because you're still trying to recover from the pain caused by that stunning last minute win of France (cocorico)? (Sorry, sorry!)Jesus, I think my husband lost his tympani, I was screaming my head off by the end of it. What a match. Loved the style of the referee too... If you get a chance, or if anyone else here knows rugby well, I'd like to understand how that try could be awarded to Wales when there was no visual evidence that the ball had touched the ground (similar to another try, this time French, but which was - rightly - not awarded).
Just replying to this from last week... by 'being up late', do you mean 5:30pm or thereabouts? It's true that I post mainly in the mornings, because the old noggin works better then... anything 'late' from me is usually 'early' or a result of insomnia! 10:30pm to 5:30am is a 'good' night...
As for the rugby - it's taken me a good couple of days to recover from that heartbreak... easily the best game of the tournament between the two best teams... what a match - but a killer, when you come out on the wrong side. (I've seen a good few late wins, too, fortunately.)
The referee seemed to give a number of debatable decisions which affected both sides. The worst was when he 'bought' Fickou's absurd Hollywoodian dive to gain a 3-point penalty. He refused to consult the TMO... And did LRZ's attempt not touch the ground before the touch line? Very difficult decisions... there were so many. A great match, though.
As for commentary - you are mistaken about 'Wyn Jones' - he was, indeed, the player whose eyes were fingered by your guy. He is a prop, and plays for 'my' Scarlets... not to be confused by 'Alun Wyn Jones' - captain and plays for the Ospreys. (My wife always complains about how difficult it is in Wales to figure out who is who, given the lack of variety in surnames!)
No idea who it was, though - I always watch these matches on S4C with the Welsh medium commentators, who are far better - and, crucially, show the 'right sort of bias'!
Enough of that - I'll write about books tomorrow - two or three completed since the last reviews.
Anyway - congratulations on a great match and win!
Veufveuve wrote: "Hello all. What a beautiful picture of Lucia LL. It feels very special to see this. I read 70pp of "The Vivisector" over the weekend and was enthralled from the first page. More at another time, ..."
am very interested in your comments on this novel Veuf, keep me posted.!
Am currently interested in american non-fiction narratives of the Independence era, roughly 1760-1786.The Federalist Papers was my first call,reading it slowly in segments as i tend to do with texts from the pre-19th century era.
I found the Papers to be somewhat underwhelming, my first aim was to appreciate english as it was spoken by the colonists and to study the vocabulary used. The outline of reasoning and debate was solid and the historical studies of the old world political structures were well drawn. However by about 3/4 of the way in my interest flagged, it didnt help that all of the logic in creating checks and balances was being frayed and stretched by Trump(thankfully the system won, just..). Anyway it was worth reading and i got a feeling for the minds and character of Madison, Jay and Hamilton
Next up(delayed by slow post) is Thomas Jefferson's " Notes on Virginia, which i hope will be a robust intellectual challenge for me as well as a study of the state that was one of the largest in the 13 colonies at the time.
Tam wrote: "Volterra is a fascinating hill town, capital of the Etruscan world, back in the day. It is quite a dark sort of place. It does not feel like the average Italian hill-top town at all, more brooding 'noir'. They seem to do a lot of blacksmithing there, I saw many fascinating 'wrought iron' lamps and such. Worth a detour down the 'Etruscan' rabbit-hole, if you are up for it!"You have set me off with a yearning to go now. Maybe one day......
Georg wrote: "Highly recommended: ARTE, the French-German culture channel now has an offshoot in English (free):https://www.arte.tv/en/
If you want to see the full programme scroll down to "browse categories"..."
I get a "This video cannot be viewed from your current location." message.
Tried moving my computer 10 cm to the left, but still no luck.
I haven't been doing a good job of talking about the books I've been reading but here are a few brief comments:La Pucelle de Belleville, Paul de Kock:
I spent a few days trying to decide which of de Kock's many novels I should read but detailed info was discouragingly hard to come by. Having chosen this one finally, I seem to have made a lucky choice because it's pretty much what you'd expect from the comments made by the Major in Pendennis that motivated me to read one of his books in the first place (to the effect that they entertained this aging man about town, otherwise a non-reader, and made him laugh). The innocently ribald humour reminds me of nothing so much as the old Carry On movies I used to see on tv as a kid in the 60s and 70s - apart from the obvious differences in time period and setting.
Berkley wrote: "Georg wrote: "Highly recommended: ARTE, the French-German culture channel now has an offshoot in English (free):https://www.arte.tv/en/
If you want to see the full programme scroll down to "brow..."
so much for the net being international eh?
The Tragic Muse is one of the better long novels Henry James wrote, though it doesn’t displace The American as my favourite. In those two novels and in The Reverberator, I get the impression that James’s enthusiasm for Paris leads him to write prose with a fine polish, almost in spite of himself – there are even some hints of humour in there. The novel flitters between a few main characters. Nick Dormer is a man divided. He has a calling to become a painter, but his family has rested its hopes on his future as a member of parliament. The ‘tragic muse’ of the title is an actress of captivating gifts. Her presence is less overtly sexual than that of Nana in Emile Zola’s novel, but her influence on her male admirers is clear enough. The narrative is essentially I suppose about the need to make sacrifices for art. As in Roderick Hudson, the author’s sympathy seems to lie with artists who have struggled and paid dearly for their skill. The great shame of The Tragic Muse in my view is a weak ending, though I feel this shouldn’t detract from the work’s strength too greatly. Readers of Alan Hollinghurst’s The Line of Beauty may feel a sense of déjà vu, firstly because of the ambience of aesthetics and politics, but also because of the tribute of the protagonist’s name, ‘Nick Guest’. Incidentally, I have Trollope's The Way We Live Now at the bottom of my pile, another text name-dropped in that novel.Now for something shorter. I’m turning to Conan Doyle’s The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.
I read the fourth book in the Hanne Wilhelmsen series which turned out to be rather different.The author Anne Holt served as Minister for Justice in Oslo, Norway,back in the late 90s; The Lion’s Mouth being written in, I believe, 2001.
The story concerns the death of the Prime Minister under suspicious circumstances and the political fallout rings true. What made the book topical today was a linking investigation into vaccines.
One could imagine this book set as a novel rather than one in a crime series, it might have worked even better.
The investigation into the death was a little flaky but I did find the political machinations interesting.
AB
The Vinland Sagas by EV Rieu . It seems to be out of print now. I haven’t found the actual book yet but did find my reference.
CCCubbon wrote: "I read the fourth book in the Hanne Wilhelmsen series which turned out to be rather different.The author Anne Holt served as Minister for Justice back in the late 90s; The Lion’s Mouth being writ..."
thanks CCC. i finished it pretty fast and it was fascinating, shame there wasnt more written about that first norse encounter with the new world
Berkley wrote: "Georg wrote: "Highly recommended: ARTE, the French-German culture channel now has an offshoot in English (free):https://www.arte.tv/en/
If you want to see the full programme scroll down to "brow..."
Sorry, Berkley. I am a technical idiot, but it did seem straightforward and easy:
ARTE, the European culture channel, now offers a selection of its programmes subtitled in English on www.arte.tv/en alongside French, German and Spanish. Thanks to this free offering, South Africans and anyone around the world can now watch new, high quality programme."
http://www.ifas.org.za/index.php/cine...
Georg wrote: "Highly recommended: ARTE, the French-German culture channel now has an offshoot in English (free):https://www.arte.tv/en/
I seem to be able to watch the Arte programmes in the UK, so thank you to Georg for the link. My favourite memories at the moment are of checking into cheap French hotels on a weekend trip and scrolling through the TV channels to check whether Arte is on offer. And great joy when it is. Just the best TV channel ever! I hope I'll be doing that again some time soonish.
I haven't started on The Terror yet, and now there's all of Arte to choose from to watch. But reading is really my top choice.
I've just finished The Third Man Factor by John Geiger, about the feeling of being accompanied by another person in lonely/ stressful situations. There's an awful lot of evidence that people feel or even see extra companions. Almost always they are comforting and helpful. There were some pretty stressful situations described, mostly on the top of snowy mountains or in tiny boats in the middle of the ocean.
The title comes from T S Eliot's Waste Land:
Who is the third who walks always beside you?
When I count, there are only you and I together
But when I look ahead up the white road
There is always another one walking beside you.
Eliot was apparently remembering Shackleton's crossing of South Georgia to get help for the crew of the Endurance. In fact there were three men making that journey so the unseen companion was the fourth man.
Another book where a helpful companion suddenly appears is Joshua Slocum's Sailing Alone Around the World. This companion was actually seen and steered the boat when Slocum was ill. Slocum believed it to be a sailor from one of Columbus's ships. Make of it what you will, I'm still wondering about it.
Lisa - that's a lovely picture of Lucia and her dragon. You must miss her terribly (and her dragon too of course)!
As many of you know, i love photobooks, collections of images by great photographers such as Erwitt, Walker Evans and othersSince Xmas i've been enjoying the images and texts of a collection of Dorothea Lange images entitled "Words and Pictures", which includes her work in the Great Depression era, the image "Migrant Mother" and a wide collection of later photos and texts
I recommend it to all
Sometimes only a rubbishy crime fest will do, sometimes it is serious non-fiction, sometimes a lush classic, but recently I finished an ultra modern debut by Meg Mason, called Sorrow and Bliss, on the shaky principle that perhaps as an Official Old Fart I should check out what the young things are doing, and this one did not appear to be off the typical creative writing factory belt.Stick with this book because Martha, the main character, can be oh so annoying. Yes, I know she has mental health problems and I sympathise but she is still irritating. It turns out that she can also irritate those around her but she is also extremely funny and that is what saves and elevates this novel. I always think it is a helpful corrective to live in someone else’s world/mind, especially when that person is so different to you. It gave me a bit of a shake up after months of solitary lockdown!
I don’t want to say too much as I think Martha’s past and mental state has more impact in the revelation. This is what is called an “assured” debut. Mental health is given a fresh, original twist, the writing is sharp and very funny, and the last third where there is a diagnosis and understanding brings the whole book together in a wise, satisfying, but not sentimental or saccharine fashion. I really enjoyed it and look forward to what she comes up with next.
I do have a fondness for books that defy classification, and this certainly exceeded any expectations I had. Such is the case with Charles Lambert's The Children's Home
Call it a mystery/ gothic/ ghost / horror / fantasy / fairy tale / coming of age story if you will..
After a horrible facial disfigurement in his youth, Morgan Fletcher has chosen a solitary existence for himself, in an isolated gothic mansion house on a vast estate, looked after by his housekeeper, Engel.
But we don't get to know this immediately, as first of all, in the novel's opening lines..
The children began to arrive soon after Engel came to the house. Other children arrived soon after that, as though Morgan had earned them by taking the first one in.
If your'e intrigued, I'd urge you to seek no more detail for fear it would spoil your enjoyment of what is a wonderfully told tale.
There's a lot going on here, and although the ending is satisfying, it does leave some questions, but only in the way the best mysteries should.
There's a folkloric undertone to it, combined with a contrasting tone, which at times make a read like a picture book for 8 year olds, and at others provides genuine scares; I like the term the New York Times used in its review after its publication in 2016, disquieting.
All wrote: "Carrying over discussion about The Terror, am in two minds about them combining exact factual history with supernatural fiction. There are descendants of the men, of course. Toby Menzies is the b..."
I think The Terror is excellent and amazed that it seemed to sneak by everyone on AMC, which i have via BT but never watch.
BBC again doing a good job here providing the nations watching for it and the second series of the Terror looks interesting too, set in WW2 i think
Mod
I must check that out - I was trying to remember if I've seen a Dorothea Lange exhibition, but I think it was an exhibition of the Howard Greenberg collection which included some of her work. It was at the Fondation Henri Cartier Bresson.
Among other exhibitions I've seen there, Lewis Hine, Helen Levitt, Bruce Davidson ..., Berenice Abbott at the Jeu de Paume ...
Oh for museums to open again
..and Bear Season by Bernie Hafeli
Set in Detroit in 1951 this is a tender coming of age story that engages throughout. It would make a great read for 12 to 16 year olds, but I enjoyed it as something much lighter amongst my more regular diet of darker stuff.
The narrator, Czeslaw, or Chester, of Polish descent, is an 11 year old, in need of a father figure having lost his in the war. His uncle Izzy cannot hold a job down, and drinks heavily to drown his memories of the war, but his stories enchant young Chester, particuarly those that involved Wojtek, the 'soldier' bear, of his regiment. But the photos Izzy had have been stolen, and Chester is at an age where he is begining to doubt their authenticity..
Wojtek's story, is an actual one, and was actually the subject of a film (More here.)
Gpfr wrote: "AB76 wrote: "a collection of Dorothea Lange images entitled "Words and Pictures"..."I must check that out - I was trying to remember if I've seen a Dorothea Lange exhibition, but I think it was a..."
its one of the best photobooks i have come accross recently as it includes test runs, actual pages from her notebooks, published work in the format of the original magazine and images from exhibitions she organised.
Photobooks are expensive but i love to study them over a few months, leave the book open on an image and study that over time too
Berkley wrote: "Georg wrote: "Highly recommended: ARTE, the French-German culture channel now has an offshoot in English (free):https://www.arte.tv/en/
I get a "This video cannot be viewed from your current location." message.
Tried moving my computer 10 cm to the left, but still no luck.
Haha! No, you should change your own location, not the computer's!
Seriously though - I assume you are joking - but if not (or if anyone else wonders about this sort of thing), you often need a VPN if you try to stream content from another country. I have to admit that I have never used one (being of a suspicious nature), though many people do, to watch live sport shown free-to-air outside the UK (or wherever).
https://www.kaspersky.com/resource-ce...
Storm wrote: "...recently I finished an ultra modern debut by Meg Mason, called Sorrow and Bliss, on the shaky principle that perhaps as an Official Old Fart I should check out what the young things are doing, and this one did not appear to be off the typical creative writing factory belt.Thanks for an interesting review - I also tend (as befits an elderly curmudgeon) to be resistant to the charms of the "creative writing factory", so I may try this one - but it's not published until June!
Did you nick a proof from somewhere? ;-)
Berkley wrote: "Tried moving my computer 10 cm to the left, but still no luck."Big mistake; you should have moved it to the right. Computers are notoriously contrarian.
AB76 wrote: "Afternoon all, blue skies in the Shires, warbling birds too(a wren hopping around a bench i sat on at lunch, beautiful). The Rowan on the hangar above my house is starting to bud gently....nothing ..."George Mackay Brown uses the Icelandic saga for his novel, Vinland, a second hand copy of which arrived just a few days ago...
AB76 wrote: "All wrote: "Carrying over discussion about The Terror, am in two minds about them combining exact factual history with supernatural fiction. There are descendants of the men, of course. Toby Menz..."
I saw The Terror a while ago, but some will remember how when given the chance I bang on about the book, which is a great favourite, The Terror.
I read it several years ago, and at the same time as Andrew D. Lambert’s Franklin: Tragic Hero of Polar Navigation, the latter of course, non-fiction.
But I like the idea that Simmons’s book also could be non-fiction. As no one knows what happened.
I won’t spoil The Terror of course, but suffice to say, Simmons’s explanation, as much as Lambert’s, could actually have occurred.
Well I have wandered through 'Jesus on Mars' by Philip Jose Farmer (1979)... she said, somewhat cynically, so you don't have to... Perhaps a bit unfair?... The premise is that four 'Earth' astronauts land on Mars and find that it is already inhabited, underground, by Jewish refugees, from the 1st century AD, with the help of some other aliens, the Krsh, and have built an 'Othodox' Jewish community underground. It's certainly a sort of time capsule of attitudes from that 70's era. I have to ask AB here, given that he reads a lot of pre-70's books by choice, whether he comes across many outdated ideas of how women should be referred to? I'd appreciate his input. I'm not that sensitive to it usually, as I appreciate that you cannot go backwards, and rewrite the norms of that period, but it was when I got to the bit about the one of the 4 earth astronauts, who had taken a fancy to one of the natives, and they were considering him converting so that they could marry. To have sexual relationships, in this othodox Jewish Mars world, you have to be married apparently, anyway they are discussing whether they should marry, and the Earth character, Orme, apparently says, when they part, "and the blond walked off"!... Jesus...
That might be thought in bad taste, a bit, my 'Jesus' comment, as the premise is that Jesus, a charismatic chap, and seemingly the leader of the Mars colony, is about to launch his 'second coming' on to the 'Earth' now that the Earthlings are sophisticated enough to be allowed to communicate with the Mars dwellers. Well its not a bad story. But I was far more interested in the descriptions of the underground building projects, than the actual drama itself. The crux of it is, is this really Jesus's second coming? or the coming of the anti-christ? The authors 'Riverworld' book is well thought of, apparently, though I have not read it.
I am much more interested in AB's, and others, possible comments on reading pre-1970s books and how he/they regard in-built patriarchal attitudes, when they come across them, than discussing this particular book, i guess...
scarletnoir wrote: "Berkley wrote: "Georg wrote: "Highly recommended: ARTE, the French-German culture channel now has an offshoot in English (free):https://www.arte.tv/en/
I get a "This video cannot be viewed from..."
The Opera browser has a free vpn facility
Andy wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Afternoon all, blue skies in the Shires, warbling birds too(a wren hopping around a bench i sat on at lunch, beautiful). The Rowan on the hangar above my house is starting to bud gentl..."thanks andy
I'm slightly distracted from reading by a Japan series on Amazon Prime (here in Germany, don't know if it is available on Amazon.uk Prime, but I'd think, yes).I have even used my smartphone (me, the "no, I do not need a smartphone" person from 2018) to watch the third episode in bed yesterday ...
Have found some incongruencies, for example I saw the "hero" enter a ryokan with shoes on ... And from what I read from Alan Booth, you do not eat in your room but with the other guests in a common room in the ryokan
At long last, I have finished Albert Cohen's Le Livre de ma mère the book of my mother...It's a short book, but a painful read, being a lament in which Cohen returns, inevitably and obsessively, to the cruel fact that his mother is dead. One paragraph, indeed, lists a series of actions which she carried out in this manner (leaving out the details):
"My mother did...this... She's dead. My mother did...that... She's dead. My mother did something else... She's dead."
You get the idea, and maybe you also get both a feel for the style - repetition is used repetitively, for effect - and the tone (lugubrious). Indeed, I have never read a book in which such regular use is made of repetition, both of words and of ideas and feelings, though subtly modulated from chapter to chapter (these are very short).
It's well written, then, but for the most part so gloomy that I hesitate to recommend it in this period of plague... you would need a strong stomach. Indeed, I could only take it in small doses of ten pages at a time - and then not every day. In parallel, I completed three full-length crime novels in the same period, as a blessed relief from Cohen and his misery.
So - what do we learn? We learn that Cohen's mother loved him unconditionally, and that there is no substitute for that love - no-one, he says, will love us more than our mothers. We learn that he loved her, but in a selfish way - he would benefit from her love by asking her to sell her jewels to finance his young man's spendthrift lifestyle. He was not above making her wait for him on a park bench for hours, while he completed his dalliance with a 'nymph'... it's clear that at this time, he only considers young women as sexual objects. It's far from clear that his attitude developed...
He felt guilty that he had not appreciated his mother more and better while she was alive, and especially regarding one incident when he hurt her feelings badly.
He would like to believe in an eternal life, where they would meet again - but he can't.
All of this is very well recounted, but why does he not tell us more (anything, really) about the relationship between his parents? The marriage was arranged, and although his mother was clearly a dutiful wife, it's also clear that she went from being an attractive young woman to an obese elderly one, who indulges in comfort eating. Why? We are not told... either Cohen doesn't ask the question himself, or he doesn't care to answer it. Perhaps he is deliberately ignoring the issue (the reasons), if not the observation.
I was also uneasy about Cohen's implicit acceptance of a woman's role, which no doubt was (is?) typical of many Mediterranean cultures... as a home-maker, who looks after her husband and son (he was an only child), and who may have received a very elementary education... Cohen at times is rather condescending towards her, her simple tastes (often bad tastes in his opinion) and naive faith in (for example) doctors and their medicines. He doesn't query this state of affairs at all, in this book anyway.
But he did love her, and misses her enormously.
I hope these lines will give you an idea about the book, and whether reading it is an effort you wish to make.
FranHunny wrote: "I'm slightly distracted from reading by a Japan series on Amazon Prime (here in Germany, don't know if it is available on Amazon.uk Prime, but I'd think, yes).I have even used my smartphone (me, ..."
Fran, I find a stay in a Ryokan quite enjoyable, often you can find a gem of a place with the most exquisite food. Before covid Totsuko and I would take off once or twice a year and stay in a Ryokan in some out of the way place in Japan....Hokkaido, Tohoku (before and after the Tsunami), the Japan Sea side (Shimane and Tottori - brilliant food), Shizuoka etc etc. In the near future we will be heading to our favourite Ryokan, a "local" one at Mount Unzen, magnificent food and a private outdoor bath adjoining our room.
Anyway, in my experience, the more traditional Ryokans will require removal of shoes at the front entrance, but some more modern establishments only require removal of shoes in the entranceway to your room. It will be self evident when you arrive, if there are shoe storage racks and rows of slippers (maybe even a sign in English) just inside the main entrance then you need to get your shoes off there. Likewise with dining, some Ryokans serve dinner (and breakfast) in your room, while in others meals are served in a restaurant type meal room. The Okami will, at great length, explain the dining arrangements when you arrive.
A couple of years ago we stayed at the most amazing little Ryokan in Kawaguchiko near Mount Fuji, in room bath with a view of Mount Fuji, brilliant food served in room. Totsuko spent most of the time in the bath while I slipped off and climbed the mountain....
In response to your post about etiquette from a few weeks ago. I think that (like anywhere really) Japanese people can very quickly distinguish between a first time visitor and a long term resident and adjust their expectations accordingly. No one will think evil thoughts about you if you place your chopsticks in the wrong spot or walk out of the toilet still wearing the toilet slippers. Best just relax and be yourself without trying to awkwardly comply with rules of etiquette written by a European, some of which may not apply any longer in 21st century Japan - yes, I think formalities of etiquette have relaxed a little over the years I have been here, especially so at relaxed gatherings of family and friends. Still, as a long term resident I am cut no slack in this area, "you have lived here long enough so you should know how things roll" is the attitude.
It is fascinating to learn about Japanese etiquette, Kayaki, thank you. ( I was really puzzled by ‘toilet slippers’ . Are there separate slippers kept outside the bathroom for wear inside?)You make me want to visit Japan.
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