New Century Reading

Sense and Sensibility (and a recipe)

July marks the first month of James' six-month Jane Austen Read All A-Long. This month's kickoff book is Sense and Sensibility, which I read for the first time a few years ago and loved. This time around, though, I found it made me more melancholy. I still enjoyed it--no one can beat Austen for her rapier wit--but when you look at how the story reflects women's lives during that time period, well, it's kind of heartbreaking. Which is true for many of Austen's books (I don't say all because I haven't read them all, but hope to remedy that through this read-along).

If you haven't read it, Sense and Sensibility is the story of Elinor and Marianne Dashwood, sisters whose father died and left them at the mercy of their half brother. The half brother was instructed by the father to take care of the sisters, but his wife has other plans, and the Dashwood women, along with their mother and younger sister, end up being taken in by a relative elsewhere. Their outlook long-term is fairly bleak, as they have limited funds, and unless they can find spouses, they will end up lonely spinsters living in a cottage with their mother.

Of course, being Austen, this doesn't happen, although there are several twists and turns before they reach marital bliss. A big part of the story is about how impetuous, romantic Marianne has to mature and come to terms with reality. This is presented as a good thing, and of course maturing out of childish dreams isn't necessarily bad, and it prevents her from making a spectacularly bad match. 

But really, the best that these women can hope for is to find a husband. Period. 

I'm not criticizing Austen. I think she illuminates this time period very well. And as I mentioned before, her wit is dry as dust but much more entertaining:

"'Oh!' cried Marianne, 'with what transporting sensations have I formerly seen (autumn leaves at her former home) fall! How have I delighted, as I walked, to see them driven in showers about me by the wind! What feelings have they, the season, the air altogether inspired! Now there is no one to regard them. They are seen only as a nuisance, swept hastily off.'

"'It is not every one,' said Elinor, 'who has your passion for dead leaves.'"

I don't think this is Austen's best work, although it's certainly a good read. Next month we tackle Pride and Prejudice, which I have read multiple times (and seen in multiple screenings and on stage), and I'm anxious to get to that. But! In the meantime! I was recently given this book:

As the cover says, this is a recipe book inspired by Austen's work. That could be hokey or trite, but instead the author did her due diligence, researching recipes and cookbooks from Austen's time and finding matches for things mentioned in the novels. In many cases, she puts the text of the original recipe next to the updated version, as recipes certainly have evolved over the centuries. She also kindly notes that she avoided recipes with ingredients like fish heads. 

I thought it would be fun to include a recipe with each Austen post. The cookbook is broken into different chapters based on Austen's writings and has recipes for each novel in the read-along. So, in that spirit, here is a recipe for Sense and Sensibility, based on a character who tries to mend Marianne's broken heart with dried cherries, a recipe from Margaret Dods:

Cherries en Chemise

1 2/3 cups fresh ripe cherries with stems
1-2 egg whites
Confectioners' sugar or superfine sugar
For the meringue:
2 egg whites
1/4 cup superfine sugar

1. Take the cherries and cut off the stems with scissors, leaving about 1 inch to each cherry.
2. Beat an egg white until it is frothy, and roll the cherries in the egg and then in confectioners' sugar.
3. Place them on parchment paper, and let them dry at room temperature until the "frosting" adheres. They should keep for about a week.
4. They are too delicate to transport, though, so for a gift that will go in a box, make meringues to surround them. Beat the egg whites until they are stiff, and fold in the superfine sugar. Pile teaspoonsful of the mixture onto parchment paper, and place half a pitted cherry on top. Leave some uncovered, and cover some with another blog of meringue. Turn the oven to 225F. Give them 2 1/2-3 hours to dry out in the oven.

Bon appetit! See you next month for Pride and Prejudice.

Jane Austen Read-All-A-long

James is hosting a Jane Austen Read All A-Long, starting July 1st. He's going to read Austen's novels in order of publication, one per month. He's a congenial host who doesn't demand an all-or-nothing approach; if you feel like reading Pride and Prejudice or Emma and no other, he's cool with that. So if you're up for some Austen conversation, it'll be starting next month. I'm going to try and do all the books, but you know, sometimes life happens. So we shall see. There are a couple I've never read (bad Austen fan), so this might light a fire under me.

Anna Karenina

I just finished reading this with an online group. It's been decades since I last read it, right after graduating college. Then I loved it for the despair-filled romance between Anna and Vronsky. As I started reading it again, I worried; would Older Me still like this book? My tastes have changed, along with the amount of life experience I have, since I was in my 20s.

Well, good news for me--there's a reason this is a beloved classic. I was as captivated this time as the first time. But--captivated for entirely different reasons. While Anna and Vronsky were my obsession on first reading, this time I wasn't quite as interested. Not that I was bored, but this time I looked at their romance through the view of the times in which they lived. There was no way this was going to end well, not with the way women in particular were treated. And Vronsky may have loved her, but there were warning signs a modern woman could see a mile off saying there were going to be problems.

FYI, if for some reason you don't know the ending of this book, might want to stop reading. I usually try to avoid spoilers, but given that this was published in the late 1800s, I feel less restricted about that.

Anyway. What I had forgotten over the years--probably because I was so focused on Anna and Vronsky--was the parallel story of Levin and Kitty. Their story became the most interesting one for me, not least of which because it was so fraught with peril on its way to becoming a good marriage. Tolstoy did a masterful job of detailing and comparing the two relationships, tied by the fact that Kitty initially hoped to marry Vronsky, which humiliated Levin. He never lets Levin off easy or ties everything up in a neat bow, but by the end, Kitty and Levin have, through hard work, made their way towards a good marriage. They've also had a child (after a terrifying labor) and Tolstoy gets parenting, he really does; Levin finds, when he meets his new son, that it's not love he feels as much as fear, because now there's so much to lose. I think a whole lot of parents can identify with that. Levin's political ideals, the way he strives to run his farm both for profit but also in newer, kinder ways of dealing with peasants (whether the peasants want that or not) make him interesting and flawed and often sympathetic.

Which is not to say Anna and Vronsky don't have their moments. She's stuck in a boring marriage, and here comes Prince Charming. She gives up everything to be with him, but the sacrifice is more onerous than she fully understood. Especially in her day and time--society shunned her except for a very few brave souls, while her lover was still accepted in polite company. Her husband refused to divorce her, which meant she could not marry, and what's more, the child she has with Vronsky is considered her husband's, not hers. It's untenable. And as she begins taking opium to help her sleep, you can't help but know this won't end well.

Tolstoy is at his most masterful in the final scenes of Anna's life, which are borderline delirious. She's frazzled, losing her sanity, unable to determine whether she should stay or go. The death scene, when she throws herself under a train--well, if you either haven't read it, or read it lately, read it. Incredibly powerful and devastating.

From what little I know about Tolstoy, he sounds like he was a somewhat misogynistic, pompous, overly idealistic old goat who advocated abstinence but impregnated his wife 13 times, several of those against her will. And yet, look at his writing! Not just the scenes described above, but scenes like one where Anna receives a visitor at Vronsky's country estate, where she and Vronsky are hiding out basically. At first the poor visitor is awed by the opulence of the home, but over the course of a day or two, she realizes that Anna is in a terrible stasis and that she would not trade her life, much poorer and less glitzier, for Anna's.

It raises again the question of how much do you ignore the writer and just pay attention to the writing? I guess you can tell which side I'm on.

As for this edition, I'm no expert in translations, but this read clearly and smoothly for me. As for the cover, phhhpt. Dreadful.

 

A Collapse of Horses

In A Collapse of Horses, Brain Evenson is writing from a place of nightmares. Not, for the most part, the kind of nightmares where giant ogres with pointed teeth the size of the stones at Stonehenge loom over you while you scream in terror. No, this is even worse: The kind of nightmare where on the surface, everything seems fine, but you know it's not, but you can't figure out why, the sky is blue, and yet the shade of blue is wrong, and you think someone is following you, but when you look, no one's there, and yet something shimmers in your peripheral vision, and you are terrified without being entirely certain why, and suddenly you can't move, and you know that's very, very bad.

Which is to say, I pretty much loved this collection of stories. If I hadn't lost control of my library queue, this would have been a perfect October book. However, it is a perfect fit for the R.I.P. (Readers Imbibing Peril) Challenge, which started Sept. 1, so hey! One down for the goal already!

I gotta say, author Evenson's photo at the back of the book makes him look like a very congenial chap, but lord almighty, does he have a perverse imagination. In one story, a couple expecting their first child buys a teddy bear that's equipped with a recording of their yet-to-be-born baby's heart beating. The baby is stillborn--but the bear comes to life. In another story, men working on an unnamed planet find themselves increasingly covered in some kind of dust that they can't keep away, and when bad things begin to happen, it's not entirely clear who or what is responsible. A man driving to Utah from California to attend the estate settlement of his estranged father finds unfathomable things happen once he gets past Reno.

If there's a fairly common thread throughout these stories, it's the terror of the unknown. In many cases, the author simply drops us into a situation with no backstory and few present details, which allows us as reader to flail as helplessly as many of the characters do. Some stories are hallucinatory, others are white-knuckle chillers.

So, if you're making a list of creepy tales for October, this would be a great addition. Note: Publisher Coffeehouse Press printed this original earlier this year, along with reissues of some of Evenson's earlier books. If you click here, you can see some rather brilliant book design--four of the books, including this one, fit together like a puzzle, and ultimate the covers feature a rather terrifying creature. Kudos, Coffeehouse.

R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril

Given that I spend every October reading creepy, ghoulish books, it's a wonder I've never signed up for the RIP (Readers Imbibing Peril) Challenge. I actually have a bookshelf devoted to October contenders, and I have several items on my library queue too. While the RIP started Sept. 1, I won't start until later in the month, since I usually devote my whole October to it. There are several levels to choose from in this challenge (including watching movies or playing video games), but I will choose Peril the First: Read at least four books that are in the mystery, suspense, thriller, Gothic, horror, or dark fantasy categories. I know for sure I'll read Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber, which I've read before and loved, because it's a book club selection. But hmmm....read all new books otherwise? A mix of new and old favorites? So many choices, so little time.....

TBR Triple Dog Dare

It's back!

The Triple Dog Dare TBR Reading Challenge! James is hosting again, he says for the last time (sniff), and in honor of the lovely Dakota, who you see in the photo above. I haven't always succeeded in the TBR-only reading from January through March, but I've always made some progress in getting a few things off the shelves, so I'm in. Because it's a loose kind of challenge, I'm going to say I'll allow exceptions for book club and the Tournament of Books. Who's with me?

Ulysses

Well. I did it. I read every single word in Ulysses. Every. Single. Word. There are many words in Ulysses. Some of them are long. Some of them are short. Some are made up. Some are weird hybrids.

Some of them, strung together in sentences and paragraphs, have meaning that swooshed right over my head, so far above that it didn't even ruffle my hair.

What is this book about? What's the meaning?

I dunno.

Would I read it again to try and glean more insight?

Oh, HELL, no.

And the last chapter thoroughly annoyed me. It has no punctuation. Now, that doesn't mean Joyce wrote a 40-page sentence, which, while likely tedious, would have been an accomplishment. No. He just wrote a chapter with lots of sentences and no punctuation.

But I'm glad I read it once. I wish the edition I read (the Gabler edition, pictured above) had not spent so much of its preface, introduction, and afterword discussing the difficulties in coming up with a correct edition, given how Joyce edited almost continuously. Yes, that's interesting, but for a book as difficult as this one, could we have more discussion of the book itself?

And there were things I liked. Sentences I more than admired--I loved them and wished I had written them. Things that were funny, like Joyce's funny asides about a bad cup of coffee: "Over his untasteable apology for a cup of coffee" and "Stephen…shoved aside his mug of coffee, or whatever you like to call it."

Beautiful passages:

"Like him was I, these sloping shoulders, this gracelessness. My childhood bends beside me. Too far for me to lay a hand there once or lightly. Mine is far and his secret as our eyes. Secrets, silent, stony sit in the dark palaces of both our hearts: secrets weary of their tyranny: tyrants, willing to be dethroned."

"Every life is many days, day after day. We walk through ourselves, meeting robbers, ghosts, giants, old men, young men, wives, widows, brothers-in-love, but always meeting ourselves."

"The aged sisters draw us into life: we wail, batten, sport, clip, clasp, sunder, dwindle, die: over us dead they bend."

I could go on. There are many such passages. And equally many fairly gross scenes--lots of bodily fluids in this book. And a surprisingly frank look at one woman's sexuality.

So. Done. Now excuse me, I have a Stephen King book waiting for me at the library.

Ulysses

Of all the books on my "geez I oughta read this someday", this one's been on the list the longest, and caused me the most trepidation. Well, it's now or never time. Girl Detective is doing a read-along starting 2/9. Join us, if you dare, by following along on her blog, or chat with us on Twitter using the hashtag #TCUlysses, the TC being Twin Cities, MN, but you don't have to live here to join in. (Although you may want to join us for the ending celebration at the Anchor Fish & Chips, if you can.)

Here's the schedule:

/9/15 Start Ulysses which has 18 parts of various lengths

2/16/15 discuss and tweet sections 1, 2= 32 pp
2/23/15 discuss and tweet sections 3, 4=29 pp
3/2/15 discuss and tweet sections 5, 6=40 pp
3/9/15 discuss and tweet section 7=29pp
3/16/15 discuss and tweet section 8=28pp
3/23/15 discuss and tweet section 9=30pp
3/30/15 section 10=31 pp
4/6/15 section 11=31pp
4/13/15 section 12=45pp
4/20/15 section 13=31pp
4/27/15 section 14=37pp

5/4-5/18/15 read, then discuss and tweet section 15 (150 pages in my ed.)

5/25/15 discuss and tweet section 16=44pp

6/1-6/8/15 read then discuss and tweet section 17 (65 pp in my edition)

6/15/15 discuss and tweet section 18=37pp

6/16/15 Bloomsday!

Group meetup and celebration to follow at the Anchor Fish & Chips in NE Minneapolis.

Moby Dick

Hey, Amy, what did you do on your summer vacation? Oh, I'm so glad you asked! I participated in the Summer of Moby Dick challenge! Our fearless leader, Beth, led a small but determined group through this daunting classic. We also chatted on Twitter using: #TCMoby (the "TC" stands for Twin Cities, where most of us are located, but no one had to live here to participate).

What's my take? Well, as an English major who has long felt guilty about not reading this, I'm relieved to finally cross it off my literary bucket list. I'm thankful to the blogging world, and Twitter, and IRL book clubs that are allowing me to slowly and steadily get through some of the shocking gaps in my literary education. There are books I've read over the past few years that, not only did I love, I do want to read again, like Middlemarch and War and Peace and Bleak House. There are books that I'm glad to have read, and maybe wouldn't read again, but would seek out other novels by the same author, like The Brothers Karamazov.

And then there's Moby Dick, which falls in the category of so happy I read it, will never read it again, and I'm on the fence about whether or not I would seek out other Melville books, like Typee or Omoo.

Here's the thing about Moby Dick. It had so much more humor than I expected, especially in the beginning. And it has long--looooooooong--parts of whale/whaling arcana. What I did not expect was, with a 500-page book titled Moby Dick, that we wouldn't actually *get* to the damned whale until the final 50 pages. That mightily tried my patience.

But this is where a good edition with a thoughtful introduction comes in handy. Here are some valuable insights:

"The epic...aspires towards achieving a 'totality of objects', as opposed to drama which aims for a 'totality of actions'. Melville's imagination...was 'profoundly undramatic', but there is an extraordinary feeling of totality--of immensity, range, inclusiveness--in Moby Dick."

Further analysis of the role of world events, of literature, of religions and myth, all made me appreciate the book more than I did while actually reading it.

What did I appreciate while reading it? Here are just a few samples of the writing that I loved:

"'Yes,' said I, 'we have just signed the articles.'
"'Anything down there about your souls?'
"'About what?'
"'Oh, perhaps you hav'n't got any,' he said quickly. 'No matter though, I know many chaps that hav'n't got any,--good luck to 'em, and they are all the better off for it. A soul's a sort of a fifth wheel to a wagon.'"

"Consider the subtleness of the sea; how its most dreaded creatures glide under water, unapparent for the most part, and treacherously hidden beneath the loveliest tints of azure. Consider also the devilish brilliance and beauty of many of its most remorseless tribes, as the dainty embellished shapes of many species of sharks. Consider, once more, the universal cannibalism of the sea; all whose creatures prey upon each other, carrying on eternal war since the world began.

"Consider all this; and then turn to this green, gentle, and most docile earth; consider them both, the sea and the land; and do you not find a strange analogy to something in yourself?"

"Is it not curious, that so vast a being as the whale should see the world through so small an eye, and hear the thunder through an ear which is smaller than a hare's?"

So--worth the read; not an easy task, but I'm glad I persevered.

 

How to Build a Girl: the end

And now we've reached the end of How to Build a Girl. First I want to thank Emily and HarperCollins for including me on this event. It's always fun to read a book with other like-minded readers and compare notes.

Caitlin Moran is an interesting writer. She's created such an interesting character in Johanna, someone with real heart and intelligence, but (mostly) with the naivete that causes problems in the teen years. She's been on many adventures in this book, and now Moran swoops in and wraps up lots of loose ends, not always believably or satisfyingly. The relationship Johanna has with John Kite is too good to be true. I don't for a second believe that Johanna's father wouldn't have hounded her about that demo tape. Is she really blind to the fact that Krissi is gay, or is she being sarcastic? The pace is crazy-fast. I would have liked fewer tied-up endings and more time with Johanna in her present.

Again with the overly insightful:

"So what do you do when you build yourself--only to realize you built yourself with the wrong things?

"You rip it up and start again. That is the work of your teenage years--to build up and tear down and build up again, over and over, endlessly, like speeded-up film of cities during boom times and wars. To be fearless, and endless, in your reinventions--to keep twisting on nineteen, going bust, and dealing in again, and again. Invent, invent, invent."

Pretty calm, sage words from a narrator who is supposedly 17 years old and just suffered a humiliating sexual adventure and responded by cutting herself. Nope, not buying the present tense here.

This is Moran's first book, and she's got some definite strengths. She can create interesting characters that I care about, flawed as they are. She can tell a great story. But she needs to really think about the story she wants to tell overall. Is it better to tell it from Johanna's 17-year-old viewpoint, or from Johanna's adult viewpoint looking back? Doing both just did not work for me. There are pros and cons to either, but that's part of being a writer--having to make the tough choices. When the past-tense sections showed up, it felt like an authorial intrusion, not a plot device.

That said, I never felt like giving up on this book, and would likely read the next novel Moran writes. The promise is definitely there.