Saturday, June 28, 2025
Friday, June 27, 2025
Wednesday, June 25, 2025
Tuesday, June 24, 2025
Monday, June 23, 2025
Sunday, June 22, 2025
A poem of mine …
Day Dream
Wondering about it long ago proved
No different from imagining it now.
Same odds, same wagers. Enter faith, proposing
Hints and guesses, of how we figure in
A story, not a riddle. He had sensed this
On his entrance, then lost himself in
Thought, and missed his cues. Now it all came
Back: He was not to play a part, but be
A part created once for all. Being,
Freed from self, however briefly, brought joy —
That thrush bearing that branch aloft in song
Child and mother attending marigolds.
Wondering about it long ago proved
No different from imagining it now.
Same odds, same wagers. Enter faith, proposing
Hints and guesses, of how we figure in
A story, not a riddle. He had sensed this
On his entrance, then lost himself in
Thought, and missed his cues. Now it all came
Back: He was not to play a part, but be
A part created once for all. Being,
Freed from self, however briefly, brought joy —
That thrush bearing that branch aloft in song
Child and mother attending marigolds.
Saturday, June 21, 2025
A masterpiece lov3d …
… its author dismissed — The terrible fate of John Milton (Hat tip, dave lull.)
Friday, June 20, 2025
Thursday, June 19, 2025
Rachel Cusk
I've written several times on the blog about my admiration for Rachel Cusk and for my sense that she has -- especially with the Faye trilogy -- charted new literary ground. Her novels occupy a curious perch: part philosophy, part auto-fiction, they highlight wonder in the banal, sorrow in places unseen.
Cusk's most recent novel -- Parade -- advances many of these themes. The effect, however, was more muted this time around. Part of my response to Parade focuses on its saturation: unlike Cusk's earlier novels, this one makes direct and specific references to philosophy -- so that, instead of allowing the characters to explore some intellectual space, they seem instead to function as vehicles in support of a larger concept.
At times, that philosophy overwhelms, rendering the characters little more than vessels meant to deliver dialogue. In the Faye novels, characters encounter one another in sometimes unexpected fashion, but the result of their interaction is a quiet suggestion about living, about ways of being. In Parade, the order seems to have been inverted, with the philosophical suggestion made first, and the characters supporting it through dramatic scenarios intended to sharpen the original concept (for instance, scenarios involving suicide or random acts of violence).
There were chapters within Parade that function as the Faye trilogy does -- and these are excellent. I'm thinking here of the first chapter about ways of approaching art and gender. But other parts of the novel do not, in my reading at least, work as well, and it was here that the book felt too crammed, too full: there was too much happening for me to feel that I'd arrived in that very memorable place where Faye had left me. I'll not abandon Cusk, of course, but I did feel that the subtlety of Transit, for instance, had been exchanged for something far more dense and insistent.
Wednesday, June 18, 2025
Tuesday, June 17, 2025
Encouraging news …
… The doctor said 'be happy.' Music therapy can help cancer patients do that (Hat tip. Dave Lull.)
Monday, June 16, 2025
Sunday, June 15, 2025
Saturday, June 14, 2025
Friday, June 13, 2025
Brilliant and nice ……
… A gentle man in New York. Harry Cluff salutes Robert Benchley (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Thursday, June 12, 2025
Wednesday, June 11, 2025
Tuesday, June 10, 2025
Monday, June 09, 2025
Anne Bronte
On a recent visit to a bookstore, I happened upon Anne Bronte's Agnes Grey -- not a book I was familiar with, but one that tempted me all the same. And I have to say, I'm glad that I've now read it: because this is a solid, enviable piece of writing.
Published in 1847, Agnes Grey takes as its primary subject the experience of being a governess. That position -- part teacher, part caretaker -- cannot have been easy: in Bronte's rendering, the children are distracted, coddled, and harsh. The caretaker can only accomplish so much -- which seems, in some ways, to be Bronte's point: that nature can, and will, overwhelm the tendency to nurture.
But more than that, Agnes Grey seems to be about the random nature of social interaction, and the very good fortunate Agnes Grey has of meeting the curate, Mr Weston, as part of her second position with the Murray family. It is that relationship with sustains Grey, and which serves as the basis for the novel's matrimonial culmination. The phrase -- "silver lining" -- would not be entirely appropriate here, but there is certainly a degree to which Bronte suggest that, even in the most unpleasant of circumstances, unexpected positivity may result. From struggle with the wealthy came a meaningful marriage for two of the middling classes.
Agnes Grey offers quiet commentary, even critique; and it functions, today, as a piece of the historical record. It is a fictional "document," providing an unobstructed view into the lives of unmarried women in the middle nineteenth century. The novel is perfectly crafted, with language both accessible and balanced. That refreshing quality -- of excellent prose, delivered with striking style -- is in itself worth the read. For my part, I throughly enjoyed Agnes Grey (and won't say a thing about how it compares with the work Anne's sisters)!
Appreciation …
… On Marianne Moore, Unexpected Celebrity Poet of Midcentury America (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Sunday, June 08, 2025
Saturday, June 07, 2025
Friday, June 06, 2025
Thursday, June 05, 2025
Wednesday, June 04, 2025
Appreciation …
… 'Cooler Than Cool’ Review: Elmore Leonard’s Life of Crime (Hat tip, Dave Lull)
i knew Elmore. well enough to call him by his nickname, Dutch. and he was indeed cool.
Tuesday, June 03, 2025
Monday, June 02, 2025
Sunday, June 01, 2025
The butterfly effect …
… Elif Batuman on Vladimir Nabokov’s “The Perfect Past” ( Hat tip, Dave Lull)
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