Mailbox Monday

Last week was a busy book week, making for a long Mailbox Monday post.

Two came in the mail: 

The Ice Chorus by Sarah Stonich (a novel set in Ireland that sounds really, really good -- I am excited about this one).

A Century of November by W. D. Wetherell (they are making this into a movie and I want to read it before I see it).

  

Also, I celebrated the spirit of Independence Day (and Friday off work) with a shopping spree at a couple of Portland's independent book stores, Second Glance Books (also on facebook, here) and Broadway Books. I went in to use the gift certificates I won by participating in Reading Local's monthly contest, but ended up spending more than my contest winnings -- that's the whole point, right? From Broadway Books, I got: Through the Children's Gate: A Home in New York by Adam Gopnik (I loved his Paris to the Moon book)

   

Alice Waters and Chez Panisse: The Romantic, Impractical, Often Eccentric, Ultimately Brilliant Making of a Food Revolution by Thomas McNamee

   

The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby (which I have wanted to read since enjoying High Fidelity so much)

   

60 Hikes within 60 Miles: Including the Coast, Mount Hood, St. Helens, and the Santiam River by Paul Gerald

 

and my favorite: Super Sunday in Newport: Notes From My First Year in Town by Matt Love. 

At Second Glance Books, I found many books on my Must Read lists and became instant best book buddies with Rachelle, the friendliest book seller in town: 

The Horse's Mouth by Joyce Cary (on Anthony Burgess's list of favorites)

   

Small Island by Andrea Levy (winner of the Orange Prize and the Costa Book of the Year award)  

Thinks . . . by David Lodge

 

Home Truths by David Lodge

   

A Cup of Light by Nicole Mones (because I really liked Lost in Translation)

 

The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald 

   

Heat and Dust by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (Booker Prize winner and on Erica Jong's list)

 

Jump-Off Creek by Molly Gloss (on my Oregon Books list) 

Boss Dog: A Story of Provence by M.F.K. Fisher

 

At Swim-Two-Birds by Flann O'Brien (on Burgess's list and the All-TIME Top 100 list)

 

  Middleman and Other Stories by Bharati Mukherjee (National Book Critics Circle award winner)

 

The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem (because I loved his National Book Critics Circle award winner, Motherless Brooklyn)

Opening Sentence of the Day: Super Sunday in Newport

"I drove my truck into the gravel driveway of her house and parked next to her red SUV." -- Super Sunday in Newport: Notes From My First Year in Town by Matt Love. Matt Love, editor of Citadel of the Spirit, spent 10 years as the caretaker of the Nestucca Bay National Wildlife Refuge in Tillamook County, Oregon. While living alone on 600 acres, he tended his writing skills as much as the land. Moving to the beach town of Newport in 2008 was Love's reemergence into the social order. Super Sunday is a collection of 46 essays Love wrote -- originally to read aloud -- to memorialize his transitional year. These are views of Love's new life from Newport vantage points like the south jetty, the Yaquina Bay Bridge, and a bar stool at Hoover's. I used the Broadway Books gift certificate I won from Reading Local to buy Love's book and a couple of others. This one so intrigued me so much that I started it over lunch at Chin's Kitchen before I even got home. Chin's is the kind of place that would inspire me to write my own book of musings.

Happy Independence Day!

Opening Sentence of the Day: I Capture the Castle

"I write this sitting in the kitchen sink." -- I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith. This was the book I chose for my book club selection. It has been on my radar screen -- as well as my TBR shelf -- for a while and I am very excited to finally read it. It was first published in 1948. I watched the movie several years ago and remember liking it, but not much about it.

Review of the Day: The Beggar

Published in 1965, The Beggar is, on the surface at least, the story of Omar’s midlife crisis. While less overtly political than Naguib Mahfouz’s other works, this novella takes on the biggest “political” issue of all – the meaning of life. Omar’s tale is a metaphor for the “midlife crisis” of modern Egypt, 17 years after its 1952 revolution, as both Omar and the country search for meaning after achieving worldly success.

The story reunites three childhood friends all engaged in the same struggle to find the deeper purpose of their adult lives: Othman was a bomb-throwing rebel back in their earlier days. Now, out of prison after 20 years, he is trying to adjust to an Egypt that has adopted the socialist ideals he fought for in his youth. He fights to channel his revolutionary zeal in a post-revolutionary bureaucracy.

Mustafa was an idealistic playwright who sold out and is now the host of a popular radio program sponsored by a snack food company. He embodies the discord between artistic endeavors and modern commerce.

Omar had been an aspiring poet with stars in his eyes, before he became a lawyer and real estate developer. Now, in his 40s, he is bored with his matronly wife and completely indifferent to his law practice. He cannot even get worked up over the news that the government is going to nationalize the apartment buildings he owns. In an effort to recover from this enervating “illness, ” Omar seeks stimulation in the usual combination or wine, women, and song. His reprehensible behavior – abandoning his pregnant wife for a series of trysts with showgirls – demonstrates how the pursuit of mindless, easy entertainment can lead to ruin.

The title comes from a passage in which Mustafa questions whether Omar’s crisis is caused by “suppressed art.” Omar supposes that art may be the solution, but not the cause. Then both wonder whether they would be better off, metaphysically, if they were scientifically inclined, rather than artistically, because science would offer answers that art cannot. Mustafa concludes that they cannot find the solution to Omar’s crisis, stating, “Since there is no revelation in our age, people like you can only go begging.”

The biggest problem is not the content, but the presentation. Mahfouz’s writing style is difficult to follow. He changes verb tenses at random, he uses dialog without identifying the speakers, and he changes the point of view over and over. Often Omar is referred to as “he” and “you” and “I” all in the same passage or even paragraph. It is hard to tell if these are intentional techniques or translation problems, but they are distracting.

These technical problems aside, The Beggar is full to the rim with metaphors and moral issues. It would be a good choice for a high school English class as there is plenty to chew on for such a short book.  

OTHER REVIEWS 

If you would like your review of this, or an other of Mahfouz's books, listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it.