A quote for the day …

… Quotes To Inspire You

Poetry in prose …

… Lydia Davis — The Dog Man

Just so you know …

… Don’t Know Jack About the Other C.S. Lewis? (Hat tip, Dave Lull)

A poem for this morning …

… Lydia Davis — The Dog Man

Penelope Fitzgerald

 

I hope readers of the blog will agree that I tend to be generous in my praise of the large majority of books I review here. But having recently finished Penelope Fitzgerald's Beginning of Spring, I'll have to -- temporarily, at least -- change my tune. I was not impressed.

I came to Fitzgerald's work as a result of its praise; indeed, Spring was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. But there was very little here which moved me. For a start, this novel about Russia struck me as painfully generic. The sections about Moscow seemed superficial and could have swapped out, really, for any major city: had Fitzgerald set this book in Mexico City or Paris, I'm not sure the impact would have been profound. Nor do I think that executing that swap would have been that hard: the fabric of the novel is not so deeply set in Moscow that it cannot be untangled. 

And more than that: there is far too much dialogue in Spring. And much of it, I felt, was not well staged. It was simply call and response, without scaffolding to surround it. You might argue that artifice is not necessary in a modern novel, but I'd tend to disagree: there's a fine line between a novel and a play, and some of the sections of Spring veered toward the latter. 

Perhaps most disappointing for me were Fitzgerald's characters, who were, for the most part, as generic as their surroundings. By the end of this book, I didn't care much for their revelations, or realizations, or actions. They seemed two-dimensional at best, and without the wholeness that generates that connection between reader and imagined figure. This is a book about an English man named Frank, living in Moscow, caring for his children. That in itself struck me as stilted: Frank, really? 

If there was a connection here with Tolstoy -- which some critics have argued -- that was lost on me, because the most interesting characters in Spring are those with the most incomplete renderings. Frank's caretaker, for instance, seems to have an intriguing arc, but what motivates or compels her remains a mystery. 

All told, this is not a novel I would recommend, and it's one, truthfully, that confused me: the praise it has garnered seems to point either to portions I've misunderstood, or which have simply not moved me. Either way, I'd take a pass on Spring. 

A poem for this morning …

… Jean Valentine —=Birthday Letter from South Carolina

A poem for this morning …

… Abigail Dembo — The Common Era

Check out your wisdom …

…?Weekly Wisdom Quiz

A poem for this morning …

… James Schuyler — Going

A mjor figure you should know abnout …

… The Eye of Denise Scott Brown

For your reading pleasure …

… March Reviews at North of Oxford

A poem for this morning …

… Kenneth Koch — Ten Films

Our town …

… Davis: Free parking, frequent crime in South Philly

One of the great ones …

… John Milton: Christian Individualist

That’s for sure……

… When newspapers cut book coverage, communities lose more than reviews (Hat tip, Dave Lull)

A poem for this morning …

… Philip Booth — Night Notes on an Old Dream

RIP …

… Edward Hoagland, Lyrical Chronicler of the Natural World, Dies at 93 ( Hat tip, Dave Lul)

A poem for this morning …

… Gottfried Benn – Rowans

A poem for this morning …

… Diana Garza Islas — from “Section of Adoring Nocturnes”

RIP …

… IN MEMORIAM, ROBERT DUVALL (Hat tip, Dave Lull)

A poem for this morning …

… Max Jacob — Story Without a Moral

A poem for this morning …

… Sargon Boulus —=Story Without a Moral

Han Kang

 

Let me say at the start: I was not ready for that. I'd read, of course, about Han Kang, who won the Nobel Prize in 2024. But The Vegetarian, which is perhaps her most acclaimed novel, moved in directions I was not expecting. On the surface, this is a book about a woman who decides, seemingly out of the blue, to become a vegetarian. But that decision, over time, masks a related set of challenges involving physical and mental health. It wouldn't be saying too much if I revealed that the first part of the novel culminates with brutal attempts by main character's father -- the woman's father -- to force feed his daughter meat. The book progresses from there, but not always as I'd have imagined. The middle section of the novel includes a disturbing meditation on art, sexuality, and power; it's in that portion of the book that ideas of nature are introduced: these become more pronounced toward the end of novel, when the main character, Yeong-hye, imagines herself as a sort of tree, needing only water to survive. The Vegetarian is a disturbing novel about individual agency, social pressure, and the complex layering underpinning humanity sexuality. There's a lot happening here, and not all of it is pretty or pleasant. Under the polite veneer of Kang's novel -- of apartment living in contemporary Seoul -- is a very dark and unsettling set of circumstances. 

A poem for this morning …

… Today’s Poem: My Heart Leaps Up (Hat tip, Dave Lull)

Think about it …

… Are Petrarch’s Love Poems Your Perfect Valentine’s Day Gift? ( Hat tip, Dave Lull)

My patron saint…

… Canticle of All Creatures (Hat tip, Dave Lull)

A poem for this morning …

… Tory Dent — Ocean Park

A poem for this morning …

… Muin Bseiso –.Fingernail Poem

A poem for this morning …

… Henri Cole – Sycamores

Perhaps we all should bother …

… Why am I Bothering to Read Van Til?

Worth pondering …

… Was Socrates Wrong?

Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa

 

There are novels which are so well constructed that their content, in the end, becomes secondary. That's certainly the case with The Leopard, Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa's triumphant novel of Italian unification. Published in 1957, but taking as its focus events from the second half of the nineteenth century, The Leopard is a celebration of language and style. Lampedusa has a way of describing places, especially, with a complex layering: those places, of course, become characters in their own right. The Leopard, as I understand it, is considered one of the premier novels of modern Sicily: its history, personality, and geography are bound as one, an immovable entity confronting the realities of war and politics. At the heart of the novel is the Salina family: they who start at a princely perch and who end, fifty years later, three widowed women, caretakers of memories and dusted relics. The Leopard is not a perfect book; indeed, it felt too short; but its fabric, its language, and its characters are finely woven. This is a novel about the creation of heritage, memories, and lineage, and about how history stops for no one, not even the wealthy. I knew nothing, really, of Sicilian history during this period, but Lampedusa's language, alone, was worth the read.

Continuing

... 70 million years of history

Ready, set, go ……

… Starting point for my Mark Twain celebration

A poem for this morning …

… Alice Notley – “I’ve meant to tell you many things about my life …

Another passing …

… Allan Massie obituary ( Hst tip, Dave Lull)

RIP …

… The strange death of Swiftian satire. 300 years after Gulliver’s Travels, the right to be offensive has died. A N Wilson ( Hat tip, Dave Lull)

Good for her …

… Lionel Shriver Infuriates the Literary World. That’s Fine By Her. (Hat tip, Dave Lull)

Another poem …

… The Fish – by Marianne Moore (Hat tip, Dave Lull)

A poem for this morning …

… Margaret Ross – Macho

A poem for this morning …

… Brian Blanchfield – Smalltown Lift

Curiouser and curiouser …

… Former CNN host Don Lemon arrested after anti-ICE protests at Minnesota church Last time I checked, we had freedom of the press in this country.

A reminder …

… On this day in 1933

A poem for this morning …

… Idra Novey – The Experiment

RIP …

… The passing of James Sallis

Denis Johnson

 

I don't know too much about Denis Johnson, but in my mind, at least, he's part of that cohort of novelists focused on the American West. I'm thinking, especially, about Wallace Stegner and Cormac McCarthy. If that's the case (and if Johnson is indeed part of that cohort), then Train Dreams fits the mold: this short novel -- set at the turn of the twentieth century -- captures a number of the themes made famous by the rugged Western experience. Train Dreams is about the brutality of the land, the promise of its financial fortune, and the loneliness of people who attempted to conquer it. But more than that: Johnson seems to have something to say about the temporary nature of life on the frontier. When his main character, Robert Grainier, passes away, it's as if he hasn't lived at all. He's owned few things, loved very little, and has never truly understood his past. He's the extension of a landscape indifferent to humanity. In that way, Train Dreams is a very sad novella. But then again, seen another way, it's a novel about what a person actually needs, and about how, over time, a sense of identity emerges from the limitations imposed by an unyielding environment.

A poem for this morning

~ Rae Armantrout – Now See

A poem for today …

= The Before Picture – BY MAGGIE SMITH

I have returned.…

Ar 5 yesterday morning, I called my emergency caregivers because my catheter didn't seem to be working prooerly. it wasn't, and I spent the rest of yesterday in the hospital. AS soon as they gave me a new catheter, I felt great. the people at Jefferson Hospital were also outstanding. i would have been back last night, but I couldn't remember the number to get me into my apartment building.As Bette Davis sard< growing old ainkt for sissies.

A poem for this morning …

… Linda Pastan – Last Rites

A poem for this morning …

… Charles Olson Poem

Rosamond Lehmann

 

Apologies for my temporary absence from the blog. I've been knee-deep in Rosamond Lehmann's The Weather in the Street. Published in 1936, this novel caused something of a stir, I gather, on both sides of the Atlantic. Lehmann's focus -- on the affair between a married man and a separated woman -- featured not only an abortion, but an unyielding view of the victimization of women during this period. For a novel written a century ago, Weather packs a considerable punch: its challenges feel modern, its tropes familiar. This is a book about power and its imbalance, and about the extent to which women, in particular, confronted a range of social and economic limitations. Weather was not, perhaps, as brutal as another book which I've written about on the blog: Torborg Nedreaas's Nothing Grows by Moonlight. That said, it's close: this is an unrelenting account of one woman's awakening and the forces, throughout that process, that evolution which conspire against her. The contemporary feel of the novel -- both in its content as well as its fluid, experimental narration -- adds something poignant for the modern reader. This book may be one hundred years ago, but in its preoccupation with class, sexuality, gender, and capitalism, it feels very much of our times. The Weather in the Streets is an inter-war classic and required reading, I'd say, for those interested in British society during this complicated time. 

RIP …

… Literary agent Georges Borchardt, who championed Nobel laureates, dies at 97 (Hat tip, Dave Lull)

A poem for this morning …

… Nora Claire Miller – Rumor

Another poem …

… Laurence Alexander — When Miles Are the Only Matter

A poem for this morning …

… … Paulé Bártón — The Bowl Seller

Always worth pondering …

… From the “Meditations” of Marcus Aurelius (Hat tip, Dave Lull)

A poem for this morning …

… Cynthia Cruz — January

A poem for this morning …

… Paulé Bártón — The Bowl Seller

Update …

i hope to resume serious blogging later today. i was released from the hospital yesteday, after having a substantial blood clot on my lung removed.

A poem for this morning …

… Jana Prikryl — Small Parts

Getting things straight ……

… An Elementary Confusion Regarding Dispositions and Potentialities

A poem for today …

… Nightwind (Hat tip, Dave Lull)

An introduction …

… Cynthia Haven: Meet C.S. Lewis's brainy wife ( Hat tip, Dave Lull)

Blogging …

i am still in the hospital, where the internet connection is not so great. i'll post something when i can.

Back online …

I am in the hospital, and have been since yesterday. In a short while, I will be taken upstairs, my right leg wil have something inserted, and they will drain the blood clot on my lung. in a couple days i will go home. Had I take taken a sip or two of red wine the symptoms would have gone away, as they did when I did, but by then I had pushed the emergency button I have and they had come, checked me out, and took me away. Just as well. Not good to have a blood clot on your lung.

Amen …

… Prayer for Uninteresting Times (Hat tip, Dave Lull)

A story for this morning …

… A Story About Friends — Joy Williams

A poem for this morning …

… Sara Teasdale: Winter ( Hat tip, Dave lull)

Who knew?

… … Reading Is a Vice ( Hat tip, Dave Lull)

Friendship eventually prevailed …

…… C.S. Lewis and T.S. Eliot: A Tale of Two Critics ( Hat tip, Dave Lull)

A poem for this morning …

… Lucille Clifton — poem to my yellow coat

A poem for this morning …

… Naomi Lazard — Public Notice

Seems reasonable …

… Ancient Wisdom: I Want to Die with a Book in My Hands ( Hat tip, dave Lull)

Q&A …

… The Art of Poetry No. 119 Alice Oswald

A poem for the Epiphany …

… Mystery's toys' (Hat tip, Dave Lull)`

Another poem …

… Lawrence Joseph — Is What It Is

A poem for this morning …

…… Joyce Mansour — “I stole the yellow bird …”

A poem for this morning …

… Courtesy by Hilaire Belloc ( Hat tip, Dave Lull)

A poem for this morning …

… Angela Ball —=Hares

The Mummers …

… Alabama Jubilee i grewcup down the street from Joe Kerko's drug stire. He took me to my first baseball game.

Happy New Year …

… New Year’s Day Tennyson’s ‘Wild Bells’ ( Hat tip, Dave Lull)

A poem for this morning …

… Patrizia Cavalli — “When, thanks to the virtues of wine …”

Sounds about right …

… Mark Twain On New Year's Day

Another poem

… John Perreault —+The Lights

A poem for this morning …

… Sonnet: Barbara Loots, ‘An Old Man Makes Chili for Lunch’ (Hat tip, Dave Lull)

Lost and found …

… R.R. Tolkien's Lost Christmas Poem (Hat tip, Dave Lull)

A poem for this morning …

… Eugenio Montale "People talk and talk more …"

In case you wondered …

… Hemingway On Giving Advice

A poem for this morning …

… Sonnet: Barbara Loots, ‘An Old Man Makes Chili for Lunch (Hat tip, Dave Lull)

Oh, really.

……‘We are the free world now’ — Europe declares war on free speech in the US Well, maybe Bill and Hillary should move to Europe. i think most Americans would prefer to keep our freedoms. i know i would.

A poem for this morning …

… Edwin Denby — Standing on the Streetcorner

A poem for this morning …

… Jim Powe — lHeat

A poem for this morning …

… Jim Powell — Heat

A poem for this morning …

… In the Bleak Midwinter (Hat tip, Dave Lull)

Fir the season …

… THE QUIET PRESIDENT WHO STARTED 2 LASTING CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS ( Hat tip, Dave Lull)

A poem for this morning …

… Yusef Komunyakaa — Night of the Armadillo

A poem for this morning …

… Mistletoe (Hat tip, Dave Lull)

Great cause for concern

… The West’s complacency over censorship ( Hat tip,Dave Lull)

Help wanted …

… Santa needs new reindeer