March 2024 -- MONTHLY WRAP UP

 

MONTHLY WRAP UP

March 2024

Thanks to an unexpected, unusual, but much appreciated lull in my workload, I read more books in March than I’ve ever read in one month as an adult. I now have a glimpse of what retirement might look like and am looking forward to it all the more!

See any here you’ve read and enjoyed, or want to?

Phineas Finn by Anthony Trollope, the second book in the the Palliser Series, which I am reading this year as part of a group read on Instagram. 

Fay Weldon’s Love & Inheritance Trilogy: Habits of the House, Long Live the King, and The New Countess. The novels are set in London society at the turn of the 20th Century. They have strong Upstairs, Downstairs themes, which makes sense because Weldon wrote several episodes of Upstairs, Downstairs, including the first, prize-winning episode. She published these three books in 2012 and 2013, shortly after Downton Abbey captured the collective imagination, and there are many similarities! The trilogy was thoroughly entertaining, if light fare compared to Trollope.

An Omelette and a Glass of Wine by Elizabeth David, Britain's foremost food writer. This is a collection of food, restaurant, and travel essays, many from newspaper columns and magazine assignments.

My Kind of Place by Susan Orlean is a collection of travel-inspired essays. This is one of my #TBR24in24 books. It reminded me that Orlean used to live here in Portland where she wrote for our weekly alternative paper, Willamette Week. 

The Way We Lived Then: Recollections of a Well-Known Name Dropper by Dominick Dunne. Before he reinvented himself as a novelist, Dunne was a television producer in Hollywood. This memoir, chock-o-block with personal snapshots of celebrity society in Hollywood in the 1950s and ‘60s, would be insufferable without Dunne's charm and frank admission of how badly he messed up his life later on.

The Old Patagonian Express: By Train Through the Americas by Paul Theroux, about his 1978 train journey from Boston, through North and South America, to Patagonia, another TBR 24 in '24 read.

The Curmudgeon’s Guide to Getting Ahead: Dos and Don’ts of Right Behavior, Tough Thinking, Clear Writing, and Living a Good Life by Charles Murray, a common sense guide to adulthood, which I wrote about here.

Menagerie Manor by Gerald Durrell, about starting a private zoo on Jersey, was the first first book by him I've read, but won’t be my last. Another TBR 23 in ’24 read. I'm going to pass this on to my daughter-in-law who is a vet at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. because I think she will find interesting the comparison between a private zoo in the 1960s and '70s and a public zoo now. 

I’ll Never be Young Again by Daphne du Maurier. This is du Maurier's second novel and I found it tough going. I'm in a Du Maurier Deep Dive reading group on Instagram and we are down to the last few books. This one is my least favorite DDM book so far. The main character is unattractively immature and I wanted nothing to do with him. If I weren't a du Maurier completist, I would not have finished it. 

The Vintage Caper by Peter Mayle, a wine-themed cozy mystery set in Marseille. Loved it. 

Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto was my book club pick for March. I am pleased to report that everyone in the group enjoyed it, which is unusual for book club! 

Songbook by Nick Hornby, the only author I like enough to read a 20+ year old book about pop music.

The Horse’s Mouth by Joyce Cary. I read this because it is on Anthony Burgess's list of Top 99 Novels in English, one of my favorite lists for reading inspiration. It might be a classic about the life of an artist, but there is a reason you don’t see it around much anymore. The protagonist, artist Gully Jimson, is highly unlikeable, which made the book a slog for me. Oddly, by one of those reading coincidences, in The Old Patagonian Express, Paul Theroux mentions in passing and without context that some wall art he sees from the train window would make Gully Jimson proud. I am happy to cross this one off my TBR 24 in ’24 list.

Slightly Foxed, Issue 81, Spring 2024. I like to include these in my lists of books read so I can keep track of which ones I've finished.  

His Last Bow by Arthur Conan Doyle, which brings me to the end of the Sherlock Holmes series. Several years ago, I found a boxed set at an estate sale and jumped right on it, intending to read (and reread) them straight through. But my enthusiasm waned and it's taken me almost 14 years to get through all of them. 

NOT PICTURED (READ WITH MY EARS)

Foster by Claire Keegan, my other book club’s latest pick. This is an excellent novella about a young girl in Ireland sent to live with foster parents. We don't meet until April, but I am sure the book will be a popular one. 

A Song for the Dark Times by Ian Rankin. I have been working my way steadily through his John Rebus books, making a concerted effort the past year and a half. This is book 23 of 24 (so far), so I am close to wrapping up the series. I love the books, but it's a long series! 

What were your March reading highlights?

Women Authors -- BOOK THOUGHTS

BOOK THOUGHTS

Women Authors

March is Women's History Month, so I thought I'd highlight some of the women authors sitting on my TBR shelves. My reading is split pretty evenly between male and female authors and this is reflected in the books on my TBR shelves. 

Who are some of your favorite women writers? Or those you want to try?

Here’s are two stacks of books by women. In the stack on the left are ten books by women writers whose books I’ve already tried. Some of these, like Iris Murdoch and Muriel Spark, are favorites and I've read most of their books. Others, like Margaret Atwood and Elizabeth Strout, are those I've only dipped into but want to read more of their work. In the right stack are ten book by women writers whose work is new to me. There are many other women authors I love, but I limited myself to ten of each. 

FAVORITE AUTHORS

Kate Atkinson, Transcription. I love everything by Atkinson. I really like her Jackson Brodie mystery series, but I also like her historical fiction. 

Margaret Atwood, Hag-Seed. This is Atwood's retelling of William Shakespeare's last play, The Tempest. I've read and enjoyed a few other books from the Hogarth Shakespeare series so am really looking forward to this one. 

Joanne Harris, Five Quarters of the Orange. I've only read one Joanne Harris book and can't remember which one, other than it wasn't Chocolat. I need to remedy this situation. 

Patricia Highsmith, Ripley Under Ground and Ripley’s Game. My book club read her first Ripley book a few years ago and I intended to read the others straight through, but I got off track.

Iris Murdoch, Nuns and Soldiers. I love Murdoch's books but she was so prolific! I feel like I must have read them all but I'm only halfway through. 

Ann Patchett, State of Wonder. I read Bel Canto right when it came out and didn't like it so never read any more books by Anne Patchett. Then my book club read The Dutch House and I loved it, so I read Tom Lake when it came out. Now I want to go back and read her earlier books. 

Annie Proulx, Bad Dirt. The Shipping News is one of my very favorite books. I think I've read almost everything Proulx has written. I don't gravitate to short stories, so what is left on my TBR shelf are a coup of sort story collections, like this one.

Barbara Pym, An Academic Question. Pym is another author I love but have not read as many of her books as I think I have. Time to catch up!

Muriel Spark, The Comforters. I love Spark's snarky, dark humor but have never read this, her first novel. 

Elizabeth Strout, Oh William! I'm not wild about the two other Strout books I've read, but I found this one in a little free library so want to give her another chance. 

NEW-TO-ME 

Ann Beattie, Chilly Scenes of Winter. This one is on Erica Jong's list of Top 20th Century Novels by Women, one of my favorite sources of women authors. 

Suzanne Berne, A Crime in the Neighborhood. This one won the 1999 Women's Prize for Fiction (then the Orange Prize), my other favorite source for finding women writers.

Gina Berriault, Women in Their Beds. Again, I am not drawn to short stories. But this one won both the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction and I am working my way through both those lists. 

Harriet Doerr, Stones for Ibarra. Another Erica Jong listed book.

Shirley Hazzard, The Transit of Venus. This has been on my TBR shelf for years, even though it sounds like a wonderful ovel about two sisters. 

Sarah Orne Jewett, The Country of Pointed Firs. It isn't easy to find classic books by women so I don't know why I haven't read this before now. 

Hiromi Kawakami, The Nakano Thrift Shop. I don't know anything about this, but bought it on a whim because I liked the cover and title. 

Molly Keane, Good Behaviour. This one gets a lot of love on Instagram so I am excited to read it. 

Olivia Manning, The Balkan Trilogy. Anthony Burgess included this trilogy on his list of the Best 99 Novels in English Since 1939 (to 1984), another list I'm working on.

Jody Picoult, Keeping Faith. Despite Picoult's enormous popularity, I have yet to read any of her books. 

Do any of these look good to you? Where would you start?

Anglo-Saxon Attitudes by Angus Wilson -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

What are your book plans for this weekend? My weekend is filled with grandkids, so I don't think I'll get much reading in. But I hope to snatch a few pages here and there. 

Please share the opening sentence (or so) of the book you are reading -- or just a book that caught your fancy -- here on Book Beginnings on Fridays. 

MY BOOK BEGINNING

Gerald Middleton was a man of mildly but persistently depressive temperament. Such men are not at their best at breakfast, nor is the week before Christmas their happiest time.

-- Anglo-Saxon Attitudes by Angus Wilson, a darkly comic satire of academia and society.  

This mid-century British novel has been on my TBR shelf for a long time. It is one of the books I picked for my TBR 22 in '22 Challenge list. Maybe I should save it for December, but I grabbed it and am going to read it now, in the middle of summer. Since Angus Wilson was one of England's first openly gay novelists, this can count as my book for Pride Month.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please link to your Book Beginnings post in the Linky box below and use the hashtag #bookbeginnings if you share on social media. Have fun!

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THE FRIDAY 56

Freda at Freda's Voice hosts another teaser event on Fridays. Participants share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of the book they are reading -- or from 56% of the way through the audiobook or ebook. Please visit Freda's Voice for details and to leave a link to your post.

MY FRIDAY 56

From Anglo-Saxon Attitudes:

There was no want of artificial flowers in the Corner House entrance hall. An enormous cardboard turkey and an enormous cardboard goose, owing their inspiration to somewhat vulgarized memories of Walt Disney, held between them the message MERRY XMAS made entirely of white and pink satin roses.

A Splurge of Books for MAILBOX MONDAY

 

A splurge of new books!

Yes, I think the collective noun for newly-purchased, yet unshelved books should be a splurge – like a murder of crows or a flock of sheep. Before they become part of a library, a group of new books should be called a splurge. What books have you splurged on lately?

I did some stress shopping the other day when I was hammering away at my nth Boy Scout sex abuse claim to get them all filed before today's November 16 deadline in the BSA bankruptcy.* Good thing used books are my weakness and not designer handbags or something. 

I shopped from my master list of Books To Buy and Read, which is why so many of these are on lists I'm working on. But I didn’t remember what I ordered until I opened the box, so this splurge of books was extra fun for me. Does anything look good?

Transparent Things by Vladimir Nabokov.

Beat Not the Bones by Charlotte Jay, winner of the first Edgar Award for best mystery in 1954, reprinted by Soho Press.

The Time of the Angels by Iris Murdoch.

The Pumpkin Eater by Penelope Mortimer. This is on Erica Jong’s list of Top 100 20th Century Novels by Women. 

Madame de Pompadour by Nancy Mitford. This biography of Louis XV’s mistress is another contender for Nonfiction November and is on my list of French Connection books.

The Fox in the Attic by Richard Hughes with an introduction by Hilary Mantel. This historical fiction book, set in Germany after WWI, is on Anthony Burgess’s list of Favorite 99 Novels.

The Lockwood Concern by John O’Hara, also on the Burgess list.

Late Call by Angus Wilson, also on the Burgess list.

* OFF TOPIC NOTE: If you have seen the news about the Boy Scout's bankruptcy, it does seem astounding that so many people, mostly men, have made sex abuse claims so far. There were over 80,000 yesterday and by the 5:00 pm deadline today I am sure the number will be over 100,000. 

Sadly, that number doesn't surprise me. I've been representing BSA sex abuse survivors for a long time now and have long estimated there were well over 100,000 victims of sexual abuse and exploitation in Scouting. I hope the organization can survive in a way that will be better and safer for kids.

MAILBOX MONDAY 

Join other book lovers on Mailbox Monday to share the books that came into your house last week. Visit the Mailbox Monday website to find links to all the participants' posts and read more about Books that Caught our Eye.

Mailbox Monday is hosted by Leslie of Under My Apple Tree, Serena of Savvy Verse & Wit, and Martha of Reviews by Martha's Bookshelf.

Best 99 Novels in English Since 1939 (to 1984), According to Anthony Burgess -- BOOK LIST

Anthony Burgess made a list of the Best 99 Novels in English. At least, they were the Best 99 Novels in English between 1939 and 1984, according to him.

Burgess was entitled to offer an opinion with some authority. Burgess was a British author who wrote 33 novels as well as poetry, biography, criticism, and other works. He was also a journalist, linguist, and music composer. He died in 1993. He is best known for his dystopian satire, A Clockwork Orange, an excellent book I put off reading for too long because the movie was so disturbing.

In 1984, Burgess published a book he called 99 Novels: The Best in English Since 1939 (reviewed here). The time span of 1939 to 1984 is described as "a period that encompasses the start of a world war and ends with the nonfulfillment of Orwell's nightmare."

His book included mini-reviews of the 99 novels (some are sets or series), which he chose on the basis of personal preference. Burgess described his process and his choices like this:

In my time, I have read a lot of novels in the way of duty; I have read a great number for pleasure as well. The 99 novels I have chosen, I have chosen with some, though not with total, confidence. I have concentrated on works which have brought something new – in technique or view of the world – to the form.

If there is a great deal of known excellence not represented here, that is because 99 is a comparatively low number. The reader can decide on his own hundredth. He may even choose one of my own novels.

The Anthony Burgess list of 99 Best Novels and Erica Jong's list of Top 20th Century Novels by Women are my go to lists when I'm looking for something good to read. There is some crossover with other Must Read lists, but a lot of originality. There are many authors I tried and books I read only because they were on the Anthony Burgess list and they are now all-time favorites.

Also, I would include Burgess's Earthly Powers book as the 100th. I think it deserves a spot on a top 100 midcentury novel list.

Here is the list, in the same chronological order by publication date that Burgess lists them in his book, with notes if I've read the book, it is on my TBR shelf, or if it is available in an audiobook from my library. So far, I've read 58 of the books on this list. There are a few I will most likely never read.

Party Going, Henry Green FINISHED

After Many a Summer Dies the Swan, Aldous Huxley FINISHED

Finnegans Wake, James Joyce (discussed here) FINISHED

At Swim-Two-Birds, Flann O'Brien TBR SHELF

The Power and the Glory, Graham Greene FINISHED

For Whom the Bell Tolls, Ernest Hemingway FINISHED

Strangers and Brothers, C. P. Snow (an 11-novel series George Passant, reviewed here FINISHED; A Time of Hope, reviewed here FINISHED; The Consciousness of the Rich FINISHED; The Light and the Dark FINISHED; The Masters FINISHED; The New Men FINISHED; Homecomings TBR SHELF; The Affair TBR SHELF; Corridors of Power TBR SHELF; The Sleep of Reason TBR SHELF; Last Things TBR SHELF)

The Aerodrome, Rex Warner TBR SHELF

The Horse's Mouth, Joyce Cary FINISHED

The Razor's Edge, Somerset Maugham (reviewed here) FINISHED

Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh FINISHED

Titus Groan, Mervyn Peake (reviewed here) FINISHED

The Victim, Saul Bellow FINISHED

Under the Volcano, Malcolm Lowry FINISHED

The Heart of the Matter, Graham Greene FINISHED

Ape and Essence, Aldous Huxley FINISHED

The Naked and the Dead, Norman Mailer (reviewed here) FINISHED

No Highway, Nevil Shute

The Heat of the Day, Elizabeth Bowen FINISHED

Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell FINISHED

The Body, William Sansom

Scenes from Provincial Life, William Cooper TBR SHELF

The Disenchanted, Budd Schulberg

A Dance to the Music of Time, Anthony Powell (a 12-novel series; my desert island pick; discussed here) FINISHED

The Catcher in the Rye, J. D. Salinger FINISHED

A Chronicle of Ancient Sunlight, Henry Williamson (a 15-book series, not easy to find, and only gets Burgess's halfhearted endorsement)

The Caine Mutiny, Herman Wouk TBR SHELF

Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison FINISHED

The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway FINISHED

The Groves of Academe, Mary McCarthy (one of my favorite books ever; reviewed here) FINISHED

Wise Blood, Flannery O'Connor FINISHED

Sword of Honour, Evelyn Waugh (a trilogy)  FINISHED

The Long Goodbye, Raymond Chandler FINISHED

Lucky Jim, Kingsley Amis (I love this one) FINISHED TWICE

Room at the Top, John Braine FINISHED

The Alexandria Quartet, Lawrence Durrell FINISHED

The London Novels, Colin MacInnes (a trilogy) TBR SHELF

The Assistant, Bernard Malamud (reviewed here) FINISHED

The Bell, Iris Murdoch FINISHED

Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, Alan Sillitoe (I was supposed to read it in college but was hungover - the irony) TBR SHELF

The Once and Future King, T. H. White TBR SHELF

The Mansion, William Faulkner

Goldfinger, Ian Fleming FINISHED

Facial Justice, L. P. Hartley TBR SHELF

The Balkans Trilogy, Olivia Manning TBR SHELF

The Mighty and Their Fall, Ivy Compton-Burnett

Catch-22, Joseph Heller FINISHED

The Fox in the Attic, Richard Hughes TBR SHELF

Riders in the Chariot, Patrick White TBR SHELF

The Old Men at the Zoo, Angus Wilson (my favorite unknown novel) FINISHED

Another Country, James Baldwin ON OVERDRIVE

Error of Judgment, Pamela Hansford Johnson TBR SHELF

Island, Aldous Huxley TBR SHELF

The Golden Notebook, Doris Lessing FINISHED

Pale Fire, Vladimir Nabokov (brilliant) FINISHED

The Girls of Slender Means, Muriel Spark (my favorite Spark) FINISHED

The Spire, William Golding FINISHED

Heartland, Wilson Harris TBR SHELF

A Single Man, Christopher Isherwood (reviewed here) FINISHED

Defense, Vladimir Nabokov (also called The Luzhin Defense)

Late Call, Angus Wilson TBR SHELF

The Lockwood Concern, John O'Hara TBR SHELF

The Mandelbaum Gate, Muriel Spark (reviewed here) FINISHED

A Man of the People, Chinua Achebe

The Anti-Death League, Kingsley Amis (reviewed here) FINISHED

Giles Goat-Boy, John Barth TBR SHELF

The Late Bourgeois World, Nadine Gordimer

The Last Gentleman, Walker Percy FINISHED

The Vendor of Sweets, R. K. Narayan TBR SHELF

Image Men, J. B. Priestley (two volumes)

Cocksure, Mordecai Richler TBR SHELF

Pavane, Keith Roberts TBR SHELF

The French Lieutenant's Woman, John Fowles FINISHED

Portnoy's Complaint, Philip Roth FINISHED

Bomber, Len Deighton

Sweet Dreams, Michael Frayn TBR SHELF

Gravity's Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon ON OVERDRIVE

Humboldt's Gift, Saul Bellow FINISHED

The History Man, Malcolm Bradbury FINISHED

The Doctor's Wife, Brian Moore TBR SHELF

Falstaff, Robert Nye TBR SHELF

How to Save Your Own Life, Erica Jong (reviewed here; I love all the Isadora Wing books) FINISHED

Farewell Companions, James Plunkett TBR SHELF

Staying On, Paul Scott (Booker Prize winner) FINISHED

The Coup, John Updike TBR SHELF

The Unlimited Dream Company, J. G. Ballard

Dubin's Lives, Bernard Malamud TBR SHELF

A Bend in the River, V. S. Naipaul FINISHED

Sophie's Choice, William Stryon (reviewed here) FINISHED

Life in the West, Brian Aldiss

Riddley Walker, Russell Hoban TBR SHELF

How Far Can You Go?, David Lodge (reviewed here) (one of my favorites) FINISHED

A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole FINISHED

Lanark, Alasdair Gray

Darconville's Cat, Alexander Theroux

The Mosquito Coast, Paul Theroux FINISHED

Creation, Gore Vidal

The Rebel Angels, Robertson Davies (reviewed here; my love of Davies started with this one) FINISHED

Ancient Evenings, Norman Mailer TBR SHELF


NOTES

Updated July 3, 2025.

Teaser Tuesday: Groves of Academe by Mary McCarthy

Whenever, during the summer, he took a party of students abroad under his genial wing, catastrophic event attended him.  As he sat sipping his vermouth and introducing himself to tourists at the Flore or the Deux Magots, the boys and girls under his guidance were being robbed, eloping to Italy, losing their passports, slipping off to Monte Carlo, seeking out an abortionist, deciding to turn queer, cabling the decision to their parents, while he took out his watch and wondered why they were late in meeting him for the expedition to Saint-Germain-en-Laye.

-- Groves of Academe by Mary McCarthy, which is on the Anthony Burgess list of Top 99 novels. Every sentence in this book is a gem. It is a short book, but I keep rereading sentences over and over because they are so wonderful.

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event. 

Mailbox Monday

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday! MM was created by Marcia, who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring event (details here).

Kristen at BookNAround is hosting in September.  Please visit her terrific blog for reviews of her favorite types of books, mostly contemporary/literary fiction, historical fiction, young adult, narrative non-fiction (travel, cooking, etc.) and memoirs.

Three books came into my house last week:



Room at the Top by John Braine. This is on Anthony Burgess' list of his favorite 99 novels, so I've been looking for it for years.  Mine doesn't have the cool Penguin cover.



My Mortal Enemy by Willa Cather. I really like Willa Cather, but forget to read her books. This is a novella, so it may get me back into practice.

 

Chocolat by Joanne Harris.  This has been on my French Connections list for a long time. 

Mailbox Monday

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday! MM was created by Marcia at A girl and her books (fka The Printed Page), who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring meme (details here).

This month, Mailbox Monday is hosted by Martha's Bookshelf.  Please take the time to visit her wonderfully eclectic blog.

I got a short stack of books last week from a variety of sources:



Get Your Pitchfork On!: The Real Dirt on Country Living by Kristy Athens.  This is terrific! It is a practical, no-nonsense guide for urbanites who want to go live in the country -- and don't we all have those fantasies every now and again? Thanks go to intrepid publicist, Mary Bisbee-Beek for my copy.  This is right up my Food Freedom alley!



Songs of Power and Prayer in the Columbia Plateau: The Jesuit, the Medicine Man, and the Indian Hymn Singer by Chad S. Hamill.  This looks like a really interesting story about the connections between music, religion, and Native American spirituality.  Thanks go to OSU Press for my copy.



Skios by Michael Frayn.  I first saw Frayn's permanently-running and very funny play, Noises Off, when I went to London as a teen-ager in 1983.  His new novel looks like it could be just as funny.  Thanks go to the LibraryThing Early Reviewer program for my copy. 



Island by Aldous Huxley.  This shows up on the Anthony Burgess list of his favorite 99 Novels, so I've been looking for a copy. I found one at The Joy of Books in Libby, Montana when I was there for work.

Mailbox Monday

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday! MM was created by Marcia at A girl and her books (fka The Printed Page), who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring meme (details here).

This month, Mailbox Monday moves north, to somewhere near Quebec, where Cindy at Cindy's Love of Books is hosting.  Please stop by to visit her blog and join in the fun.

Thanks to a stop at the Friends' store of the Deschutes County Library in Bend, I snagged three vintage paperbacks for only 50 cents each.

 

Darkness Visible by William Styron. His classic memoir about his own depression.



The Sot-Weed Factor by John Barth. On the All-TIME list of best 100 novels.



May We Borrow Your Husband? by Graham Greene.  A possibly odd choice for the Graham Greene Challenge.

Review: The Anti-Death League

 

I read The Anti-Death League for three reasons. First, Kinglsey Amis is a favorite of mine (I have a penchant for Mid-Century, dipsomaniacal, British authors). His big hit, Lucky Jim, has been a personal favorite ever since I read it in college and I thoroughly enjoyed his Booker-winning The Old Devils. I plan to read his complete bibliography.

Second, The Anti-Death League made it to Anthony Burgess's list of his favorite 99 novels. Burgess has steered me to a couple of winners in the past, so I trusted him on this one. And, given my completist tendencies for book lists, I plan to read all 99 of Burgess's picks.

Finally, this book was published in 1966, so counts as one of my choices (perhaps the only one this year) for  Hotchpot Cafe's Birth Year Reading Challenge. 

For these reasons, I was triply disappointed. It's not that it is a bad book. As a parody of a British army novel, it is pitch perfect, positing a spy ring looking to discovery a new secret weapon in Cold War Britain on the brink of war with Korea. There are several set pieces – the first visit to the nymphomaniac widow's mansion and the lunch party at the lunatic asylum, for instance – that are very good.

As entertaining, even compelling, as individual scenes might be, none of it held together for me. The overarching theme is anger at a belligerent God who allows – perpetrates – senseless death (prompting the formation of the titled Anti-Death League and leading to a particularly bitter ending). But Amis divides the story among so many characters suffering from so many things – grief, cancer, romantic rejection, loneliness, loss of faith, fear, addiction, insanity, and more – that it is hard to get an emotional toe-hold.

Burgess concluded that the book may be "[t]heologically unsound" but "is nevertheless a noble cry from the heart on behalf of human suffering." It may be, but because it failed to engage me on an emotional level, it failed to engage me at all.

OTHER REVIEWS

My review of One Fat Englishman is here.
My review of Everyday Drinking: The Distilled Kingsley Amis is here.

If you would like your review of this or any other Kingsley Amis book listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it.

Mailbox Monday

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday! MM was created by Marcia at A girl and her books (fka The Printed Page), who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring meme (details here).

Serena at Savvy Verse & Wit is hosting in October.  Please go by and visit her wonderful blog. 

Many books came into my house last week from a variety of sources:

First, I had lunch with Larry Dennis to discuss his company, Turbo Leadership Systems doing some work with my law firm.  Larry gave me a copy of his book InFormation: How To Gain The 71% Advantage.  I don't read a lot of business books, but I'll read this one.



Second, Bob Sanchez, author and nonfiction editor at the Internet Review of Books, sent me a copy of his mystery, Little Mountain. I don't have a Kindle, so Bob was nice enough to send a paperback, but the Kindle edition is a steal at only $2.99! It looks great -- a Cambodian refugee now homicide cop in Lowell, Massachusetts.



Third, because I completed the Vintage Mystery Challenge, hostess Bev from My Reader's Block sent me a prize -- A PRIZE! For reading books. Does it get any better than that?  I chose An Oxford Tragedy by J. C. Masterman because this challenge has me hooked for good on vintage mysteries.



Finally, showing an uncharacteristic willingness to relinquish control, I gave a copy of my "Books to Buy and Read" list to Rachelle at my favorite Second Glance bookstore.  She found several nice copies for me, so I have a stack of new (to me) books, most of them on one or another of my book lists:

The Once and Future King by T. H. White (on the Burgess list)



One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn (on the College Board's Top 101 List and the MLA's 30 Books Every Adult Should Read Before They Die list)



What Makes Sammy Run? by Budd Schulberg (in a nice Modern Library edition; on the BOMC's Well-Stocked Bookcase list)



An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro (winner of the Costa Book of the Year award)



Old Bones: A Gideon Oliver Mystery by Aaron Elkins (an Edgar Award winner)



A Case of Need by Michael Crichton (another Edgar winner)



The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir (in a nice Everyman's Library reissue; on my own French Connections list)



The Love of a Good Woman by Alice Munro (winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award)



The Jungle Books by Rudyard Kipling (on the Easton Top 100 list)

Opening Sentence of the Day: The Anti-Death League

A girl and an older woman were walking along a metaled pathway.

--  The Anti-Death League by Kinglsey Amis.

Kingsley Amis is one of my favorite authors. I wanted to read this one in particular because it is on Anthony Burgess's list of his favorite 99 novels.

Also, it was published in 1966, so it counts as one of my books for Hotchpot Cafe's Birth Year Reading Challenge. It may be my only candle, unless I get around to The Comedians by Graham Greene.

Review of the Day: The Rebel Angels

 

The Rebel Angels is the first in Roberson Davies "Cornish Trilogy" of books with a connection to eccentric art collector Francis Cornish.

In Rebel Angels, three university professors are appointed joint executors under Cornish's will, assigned to sort through Cornish's vast and ill-organized collection of art and manuscripts, overseen by Cornish's nephew and heir, Arthur Cornish. The three also share a connection with the beautiful and scholarly Maria Magdalena Theotoky, a half-gypsy graduate student who has them all mesmerized. Interfering with all is John Parlabane, an ex-professor and former monk now sponging off his friends and writing an incomprehensible tell-all novel.

The cast is crowded and the ideas are big. This is a philosophical novel about philosophy – and theology, literature, heredity, scatology, physiognomy, love and academia. Despite the lofty themes, it is entertaining throughout, very funny in wit and imagery, and with lots of action.

The action, unfortunately, includes perhaps the most perverse sex scene in modern fiction and a particularly cold-blooded murder. Neither are enough to preclude finishing the book, or reading it, but they overshadow the rest of the story.

NOTES

This book shows up on Anthony Burgess' list of the Best 99 Novels.

OTHER REVIEWS

If you would like your review of this or any other Robertson Davies book, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it.

Teaser Tuesday: The Rebel Angels

McVarish always reminds me of the fairy-tale about the girl out of whose mouth a toad leapt whenever she spoke.  He could say more nasty things in ordinary conversation than anybody I have ever known, and he could make poor innocents like Ellerman accept them as wit.

-- The Rebel Angels by Robertson Davies.  Ooooooh . . . it is that last little bit that makes this especially good. 

This book shows up on Anthony Burgess' list of the Best 99 Novels. 

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.

Review of the Day: 99 Novels

99 Novels: The Best in English Since 1939 by Anthony Burgess.

It was the arrival of 1984 (the year, not the book) that inspired Burgess to compile a list of what he considered to be the 99 best novels published since 1939. He explains his inspiration in the introduction:

For thirty-five years a mere novel, an artifact meant primarily for diversion, has been scaring the pants off us all. Evidently the novel is a powerful literary form which is capable of reaching out into the real world and modifying it. It is a form which even the non-literary had better take seriously.

Why he chose to include only books published since 1939 is a little less clear. Burgess says only that "it is more poetic to begin with the beginning of a world war and to end with the non-fulfillment of a nightmare." His book choices, like his timeframe, are his alone. He chose books that brought him reading pleasure, but also "concentrated mainly on works which have brought something new – in technique or view of the world – to the form."

Each book, discussed in chronological order, gets only about a page, sometimes two, of Burgess's keen analysis. He briefly describes each book and a little about its circumstances, such as its historical context, how it fits in with the author's other work, or how it was received. He explains why he thinks it is significant and why he enjoyed it. Then he usually wraps up with a pithy little conclusion, such as, "The vitality of Saturday Night and Sunday Morning compensates for its faults of form," or "Written in the middle of the swinging sixties, it has a very clear vision of Western moral decay."

His mini-reviews are generally compelling. Some make you want to hole up with a particular book immediately; others engender respect for the choice, but little actual excitement. For instance, after reading 99 Novels, I am eager to crack the spine on The Girls of Slender Means by Muriel Spark ("Brilliant, brittle, the production of a fine brain and superior craft"), but not looking forward to Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban, a post-apocalyptic story written entirely in a made-up dialect ("This novel could not expect to be popular . . . [b]ut it seems to me to be a permanent contribution to literature").

It becomes apparent that Burgess was drawn to novels exploring the concept of free will. In particular, several of the books he chose deal with the exercise of free will in the face of religious tradition or political tyranny and suicide as an expression of free will. In discussing these concepts, Burgess doesn't avoid spoilers, probably because his analysis requires looking at the whole story. For those who enjoy the process as much as they payoff, this won't matter, but be warned.

The best part of 99 Novels is the introduction, in which Burgess expounds on the art of fiction, what he thinks makes a good novel, and the joys of reading. Filled with such gems as "BOOK can be taken as an acronym for Box of Organized Knowledge," and including a fervent apologia for popular fiction, this essay should be required reading for any bibliophile.

NOTES

The list of 99 novels Burgess chose can be found here.  I've read several books because they were on this list and greatly enjoyed them.

If anyone else is reading the books on this list, please leave a comment on the list page with links to any related posts and I will list them there.

OTHER REVIEWS

If you would like your review of this book listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it.

Opening Sentence of the Day: 99 Novels

"1984 has arrived, but Orwell's glum prophesy has not been fulfilled."

-- 99 Novels: The Best in English Since 1939 by Anthony Burgess.

It was the arrival of 1984 (the year, not the book) that inspired Burgess to compile a list of what he considered to be the 99 best novels published since 1939.  I've been working on the list of novels for several years, but just now got around to reading the book. I wish I hadn't waited so long.

Review of the Day: Titus Alone

Titus Alone is the final volume of Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast Trilogy about the 77th Earl of Gormenghast. In Titus Groan, the eponymous first volume, Peake created the elaborate world inside castle of Gormenghast and introduced readers to the extended Groan family and their court of retainers and hangers-on. Volume two, Gormenghast, picked up when Titus was a schoolboy, allowing Peake to focus on the antics of a mangy band of professors responsible for Titus’s education.

This last volume is not really an extension of the glorious saga of the first two books, but its own story of Titus’s adventures after he leaves Gormenghast. It is much shorter than the first two, giving Peake less room to develop the intricate descriptions and side stories that make the others so seductive.

The plot moves forward in fits and starts as Titus tries to find his way back to Gormenghast, or at least back to surefooted sanity. There are gaps in the narrative and some characters disappear quite abruptly.  And the story is emotionally ragged as Titus and several other characters are, for no clear reason, quick to anger and violence.  Scenes go instantly from potentially humorous to disastrous, and then the story moves off in a different direction, leaving the reader struggling to catch up.   

Overall, Titus Alone lacks the polish and delightful detail of the first volumes, which makes it a letdown.

OTHER REVIEWS

Bibliofreak

See also, The Voice of the Heart: The Working of Mervyn Peake's Imagination
by G. Peter Winnington

Judging from other reviews I’ve read, I’m not alone in my assessment. But there are some fans who very much enjoyed the third volume and make a case for its literary and entertainment value.

If you would like your review of this book listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it.

NOTES

My review of Titus Groan is here. My review of Gormenghast is here.

The Gormenghast Trilogy shows up, in whole or in part, on Anthony Burgess's list of his favorite 99 novels and on the BBC's Big Read list.

Review: The Naked and the Dead

Norman Mailer's The Naked and the Dead is a mesmerizing look at Army life in WWII. Mailer tells the story of an Intelligence and Reconnaissance platoon on a fictional Pacific Island. There are fewer battle scenes than expected. Most of the story is about the men on daily patrols, guard duty, and a week long patrol behind enemy lines.  The realism of Mailer's descriptions -- particularly, of what it was like to hike for days and days in the jungle carrying 60 pounds of equipment -- are riveting. What those men went through!

Mailer personalizes the characters by interposing flashbacks highlighting the pre-war lives of several of the men. He also switches the point of view among the various characters. Still, the characters are never fully developed, which, oddly, made the story more realistic. The reader gets the kind of impressionistic views of each man in the troop that the men had of each other. These men were all thrown together to serve under horrible conditions, but they had nothing in common to start with and really did not know each other.

All in all, a great book. It is long, but it is a fast read. In Mailer’s introduction to the 50th Anniversary edition he self-deprecatingly explains that the book (his first) was a best seller and was written in the flashy language of all best sellers. But it is not the language that makes the book so good, it is the story.


OTHER REVIEWS

If you would like your review linked her, please leave a link in a comment and I will add it.

NOTES

Mailer's best seller did not win any prizes, but it did make it to the Modern Library's list of Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century, Radcliffe's competing list, The Book of the Month Club's "Well Stocked Bookcase" list, and Anthony Burgess's list of his favorite 99 novels.

Review: Humbolt's Gift

What a wonderful, great, big, shaggy dog of a novel Humbolt's Gift is!

While litigating with his ex-wife, being bullied by a B-team mobster, and fending off the marriage plans of his young "palooka" girlfriend, narrator Charlie Citrine contemplates the life of his recently deceased best friend and meditates on big questions such as the nature of death, man's role in the cosmos, and theories of boredom.

With dozens of remarkable supporting characters and side stories, this long book is entertaining throughout. It is not a quick read, but it is worth the time.

Saul Bellow deserved his Nobel -- he was really the Grand Master of American letters. Anthony Burgess included this one on his list of favorite 99 novels.

Review: How Far Can You Go?

How Far Can You Go? by David Lodge is a fascinating, anthropological novel following the lives and religious development of a group of English Catholics from their days in a college church group in the 1950s, through the tumultuous years of the sexual revolution.

The friends question their religious tenant and traditions as they face marriage, families, religious callings, sexual identity, and mortality. At the same time, the Catholic Church wrestled with Vatican II, the battle over contraception, internal reform efforts, and the charismatic movement.

The title jokingly refers to the question the young Catholic men asked their priests about “How far can you go with a girl?” But more substantively, the book asks how far the Catholic Church can alter its rituals and adapt to modern mores and still remain the Catholic Church. Or how far individuals can abandon their religious customs and personalize their faith and still remain Catholics or even Christians. On a different level, the title refers to how far a novelist narrator can insert himself into the story and still count the book as a novel.

This is an absolutely intriguing novel. It won the Costa (Whitbread) Award for best novel in 1980. Anthony Burgess included the book in his list of the best 99 novels since 1939. Catholics (whether they lived through the changes depicted or came along after), other Christians, and general readers interested in religious cultures should find it mesmerizing.