Happy Easter!

Opening Sentence of the Day: A Pelican at Blandings

The summer day was drawing to a close and dusk had fallen on Blandings Castle, shrouding from view the ancient battlements, dulling the silver surface of the lake and causing Lord Elmsworth's supreme Berkshire sow Empress of Blandings to leave the open air portion of her sty and withdraw into the covered shed where she did her sleeping.

A Pelican at Blandings by P. G. Wodehouse. Is that a great way to start a book, or what? It starts in the heavens and funnels down from the celestial grandeur of the dusk sky, to the architectural magnificence of the castle, to the ground-level beauty of the lake, to a pig shed. And with that soft landing, we are in the middle of the action at Blandings Castle.

I haven't read any of the other Blandings Castle books and this is penultimate book in the series.  But I don't think it is necessary to read them in publication order.  They are all funny.

This is one of my favorite Overlook Press "Collector Editions" of Wodehouse's books.  I treasure the ones I have and covet the rest of them.  I kind of wish Overlook had re-published it with its original American title, No Nudes is Good Nudes.  How hilarious!

Review of the Day: Banker

Dick Francis is an all-time favorite of mine.  So when I say that he had a formula for his novels, I don't mean to deride the quality of his writing or the entertainment value of the books. He had a winning formula:

His novels seem to always involve a protagonist (usually a man) in a job not known for its pizazz (insurance, wine selling, horse training, or meteorology, for example), with some connection to British horse racing, and a mystery to solve. This general outline works because it brings in a huge part of the story that is independent of horse racing and, because the gentlemanly heroes always enjoy and take pride in their work, the reader is left with a greater appreciation for the profession involved.

Banker follows this formula with great success. Tim Ekaterin is a merchant banker in London, responsible for making loans and raising investments for all sorts of private business ventures. One of his deals is to finance a stud farm's purchase of a champion horse, but things go horribly wrong.

The story is complex, involving a charismatic horse healer who uses herbal remedies and laying on of hands; horse-buying swindles; teratogens; and a depressing love triangle with the hero, an older woman, and her husband, the hero's professional mentor.

This romantic storyline is the weak part of the book. It never feels integrated into the main story and its resolution is too quick and too pat, although this does not detract from the overall enjoyment of a terrifically satisfying mystery.

Opening Sentence of the Day: The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas

I was born in San Francisco, California.

 -- The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein.

This is one of those books that I have always meant to read but never have. The title is misleading.  Obviously, it is not an "autobiography" because Toklas didn't write it, her partner Stein wrote it. It is about both of their lives, not just a biography of the one. And it may be partly fictional, I'm not sure.

I am only about 50 pages into it and I love it.  It's like falling down a rabbit hole and waking up in pre-WWII Paris -- Montmarte, to be exact.  Here's Picasso and Cezanne and Duffy and they are all gathering at Stein's atelier and looking at paintings at salons and having dinner parties.

This book is on several of the lists I am working on: Erica Jong's list of Top 100 Novels by Women, the Radcliffe list of Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century, and my own French Connections list.

Teaser Tuesday: Banker

All the snooty teenage scorn I'd felt for "money-grubbing," all the supercilious disapproval of my student days, all the negative attitude bequeathed by my failure of a father, all had melted into comprehension, interest and finally delight. The art of money management now held me as addicted as any junkie, and my working life was as fulfilling as any mortal could expect.

--  Banker by Dick Francis.

This quote epitomizes what I enjoy about Francis's novels: he takes someone in a job no known for its pizazz (merchant banking in this case), creates a gentlemanly hero who enjoys and takes pride in his work, and weaves an exciting story around all of it, so that the reader comes to find the profession to be very interesting. 

I also like how he says the hero is as fulfilled by his work as any mortal "could expect" -- not going to to go overboard and say the guy is as fulfilled as any mortal could wish or hope. It is fiction, not fantasy.



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