Currently and Recently

Currently Listening To: Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata


Recently watched and LOVED:  The King's Speech.  No wonder it's been nominated for all those Academy awards. It doesn't take itself too seriously and yet, at the same time, is incredibly moving.  Subtle, gentle, a virtually perfect film!  I especially loved Helena Bonham-Carter's interpretation of the Queen Mum.  Great blend of determination, fierce loyalty, intelligence, and softness. My favourite British king is probably George VI so I was looking forward to watching this film to see what they did with his character/personality/persona. Fascinating portrayal that kind of transcended the particulars. 


Recently Read and Found Disturbing (though enjoyed):  Leo Tolstoy's novella The Kreutzer Sonata.  A story that ultimately is as truth-seeking as anything else by Tolstoy I've read and yet doesn't ring true as a whole. Perhaps it's the narrator of the tale?  A man who has killed his wife in a jealous rage, the narrator goes on to expostulate about the emotions and ideals that are disguised as/or are manipulated by love and art and lust and religion.  Pozdnyshev (the man who has killed his wife) basically reaches the conclusion that sex is both dangerous and demeaning to women, and, by extension, to humanity as a whole.  And that the ideal is chastity.  In the afterword, Tolstoy explains his position on these issues with great authority and conviction (when the novella came out it was immensely shocking and was banned, etc). Much is made of woman's subordinate role in society and relationships and he (along with his narrator) justly condemns this state.  Although, I think what he is describing negatively as sex and romantic love seems to me to be based on a confusion between actual love and selfish love (which, of course, isn't love) and a possible misreading of Christ's approach to the relations between men and women, etc. But I digress.  The story is certainly captivating, and engenders much thought.


Currently Reading and (Surprisingly) Enjoying:  The Final Act of Mr. Shakespeare by Robert Winder.  Addressing what he has come to view as his own blindness in the depiction of Richard III, William Shakespeare plans another play as restitution.  The novel sees our William setting out upon Henry VII, a play about the beginnings of the Tudor dynasty in a post-Tudor (yet still politically dangerous) environment.  I'm not really sure I believe this Shakespeare is THE Shakespeare (which, admittedly, would be almost impossible for a writer to pull off), but the characters are interesting, the setting diverting, and the plot is drawing me in.


Also Recently Read and (Not Surprisingly) LOVED:  Jeffery Donaldson's Guesswork.  Donaldson is the kind of poet I love to read.  He writes with such measured passion that the poems kind of creep up on you and wallop you (in a good way) when you're not looking. He has an unerring sense of timing, imagery, and sound.  Guesswork is even better (in my opinion) than his previous (and brilliant) collection Palilalia. Loved, loved, loved it.




Recently Read and Enjoyed and Planning A Lengthy Post On:  Bound To Last: 30 Writers On Their Most Cherished Books Edited by Sean Manning.  This was probably a no-brainer: book addict loves book about books. But, honestly, these are wonderful little personal essays about the power of the physical object that is a book, as well as great insights about the transformative nature of the words contained therein.  Great read!


Looking Forward To: More Shakespeare.  Reading the novel about Shakespeare (while making my slow way through Shapiro's Shakespeare and the Jews) is inspiring me to get back to Shakespeare (I ordinarily read a good deal of Shakespeare in a given year . . . must get back to that. Life is so much brighter with Shakespeare :).  

You know the kind of day.  The kind of day that promises well during the first few moments but quickly spins awry. When you find yourself receiving bad news that surprises and saddens.  


In 1999, my sis and I were in grad school and sharing an apartment in a character-laden Edwardian-era building.  It was what we hoped would be the first in a long line of interesting living spaces for interestingly lived lives.  To celebrate the onset of it all, we each brought home a kitten to call our own.  They were sister cats -- from the same litter -- very attached to each other and quickly attached to us.  Mine grew to be the grey-white and caramel pharaoh-cat that is my Hatchepsut --  regal, a clever genius with paper (she likes to fold it), and a talkative companion for those slow-writing days.  My sister's grew to be a massive black and white feline whose size was countered by her gentleness and timidity. Not surprisingly, given the surroundings, she grew into a love of books . . . and not just a love of chewing them, either. Like the perfect feline she was, she loved to be read to. Both cats became intelligent, hilarious, cuddly additions to our household.  More than pets, their personalities so unique, they felt like family members. They loved and were loved.  


My sister's cat suddenly reached the end of her life yesterday, surprising and saddening us all.  She'd been ill, but we'd hoped it would not be a lasting or fatal illness.  Unfortunately, though it was not lasting, it certainly was fatal.  


I miss her already.  The world seems a little less bright today. And I'm reminded, once again, that good pets, like good people, never live long enough.  

I keep promising myself that when I don't like a book, I'll just put it down and not endure another two or three hundred pages out of the misplaced notion that since I've started it I must finish it.  Have I kept my promise to myself? Not often enough! Case in point: Joyland by Emily Schultz, a 2006 novel by the writer who more recently penned Heaven Is Small.  


Schultz knows how to write a good, descriptive sentence, I can't deny it, but I am becoming increasingly weary of what seems to be a growing trend in the Canadian novels and short stories I've been reading . . . focusing on the seedier/nastier/darker side of 'reality' but focusing on it in such a way as to bring nothing new to the conversation. It reads like mere observation, albeit well-worded observation.  And I think a good work of words should do more than that, ultimately.   


I admit, it's unusual for me to write a negative review, but I suppose I'm suffering from that terrible reader's affliction, thwarted expectations. Joyland promised me much and delivered little. I was looking forward to a story about two siblings (Chris and Tammy) in a small Ontario town who undergo a life-altering summer. Add in the 1980s pop culture references, teenage Chris's obsession with arcade games, eleven year old Tammy's compulsion to be a spy . . . how could it go wrong?  [While immediate comparisons with Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird might have occurred (two young siblings undergo life-altering events in a small town), I brushed away the inevitable 'but-it's-been-done-before' thoughts and hoped for the best (that the setting wasn't just a gimmick to retell a better-told tale).] 


As I progressed further into the story, however, it struck me as something of an empty read. It was all described very graphically (Chris' growing interest in a female fellow gamer, Tammy's eleven-year-old confusions over issues like sex, marriage failure, high school dating), but I felt I'd read and seen similar characters and situations so many times before (it was especially reminiscent of many a John Hughes film, just told a bit grittier and, honestly, not nearly as well). And unlike Lee's classic-for-a-reason novel (and most Hughes films, for that matter), Joyland doesn't have much to offer in the way of insight into the human condition. In a nutshell: these characters and their problems didn't come alive for me.


Have I learned my lesson? Will I put down the next book that fails to capture my imagination and respect?  I hope so . . . I've just started Winder's The Final Act of Mr. Shakespeare and must admit to feeling a bit dubious about the wisdom of continuing . . . But maybe it'll get better later on (and here we go again . . . :)

Unintentional Vampire Theme

"The idea of a vampire was to me absurd. Such things do not happen in criminal practice in England." Sherlock Holmes.

After finishing The Historian, I turned to the next story in The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes and which do you think it was? Yes, "The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire." After a chuckle, I settled in for the read.  


Another quote:


"It has been a case for intellectual deduction, but when this original intellectual deduction is confirmed point by point by quite a number of independent incidents, then the subjective becomes objective and we can say confidently that we have reached our goal."


Gotta love Holmes. 

On a more intentional note, I have downloaded a copy of Bram Stoker's Dracula .. . a novel I've never read (though I've seen a myriad of greater and lesser films based on it).   

There seems to be too much vampire in the reading diet lately.  I'll have to switch gears and try something completely different.  I do have some more Canadian novel-reading to work my way through. . . we'll see how that goes. 

Wow. That was something!  


I just finished reading The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova and I loved it.  I was immersed in the scenery, the story, the characters (Kostova is strongest when describing scenes . . . made me want to jump on a plane and explore the places for myself).   There were a few lapses in the middle (I thought the almost complete absence of the daughter -- after all that slow, but wonderful build-up as the stories were told to her -- made for an imbalance in the narrative), but overall it was a satisfying take on a familiar legend.
   

Afternoons in sunlight, turning the pages while eating rich chocolate cake, sitting on the edge of my seat for the next discovery, the increasing danger for the characters. . . what a great week of reading I had. (I'm afraid I may have neglected some of my work in favour of turning another page in the story of Paul, his daughter, and the tragic Helen).


Side Note:  Of fascination was how Kostova explores the nature of human history through the legend of Dracula, with its cyclical yet accumulative effect of evil -- and the attack a small number of people launch against that effect. It's so much more than a haunting, quasi-gothic page turner.   

The Sherlockian by Graham Moore

I'm having an ongoing (if late-starting) love affair with many things Sherlock.  Reading through the various stories and novels, augmenting same with Laurie R. King's great novels, has been and continues to be a wonderful experience. One of those can't-believe-I-haven't-done-this-before kinds of things.  And I like books about books, books about literary characters, and (sometimes) books in which actual once-alive historical figures make an appearance. But, as you may have noticed if you've read some of my previous posts about historical figures revised/reinterpreted/whathaveyou, I'm less keen on the once-alive historical figures popping up in novels.  Some do it well, with respect, ingenuity, and real imaginative genius, others just leave me wondering.


I'm sitting on the fence about this one.  Moore's The Sherlockian is a fun, quick read.  He's got a good, engaging writing style with an ability to place his reader right there in the action.  As popular novels go, there is no reason why this novel shouldn't be popular.

Focussing on two time lines, Moore's narrative switches back and forth between a modern-day mystery involving a member of the Irregulars who appears to have been murdered just before the big reveal (he's just announced he's found Arthur Conan Doyle's missing diary), and a 1900s mystery that involves Arthur Conan Doyle himself, hot on the trail of another mystery.  While I thought the Conan Doyle section of the narrative was better rendered (there were aspects of the modern-day mystery that I found hard to believe, from time to time), it was the one I was least comfortable with. Moore brings the time period to life, though, and I did find myself enjoying (the soontobe Sir) Arthur's journey through the underbelly of London life alongside his friend Bram Stoker. The ending of both mysteries, however, was less satisfying. 


That having been said, if you're interested in a fun novel that plays with plots and characters associated with Holmes and/or Sir Arthur, then this is the novel for you. 


I did enjoy finding out about all these Sherlockian activities . . . having come at the Sherlock Holmes world rather later than many, it seems (i.e. didn't read the mysteries as a child, etc), I'm always discovering new things about the world of Sherlock that fascinate.


* Thanks to Penguin (Canada) for the review copy! 

Organizing the TBR Stack for January (Or, An Excuse For Another Book List)

A new year always brings new books . . . but the books that have been waiting to be read deserve some of the action.  One of my New Year non-resolutions (I don't make resolutions) is to make a dent in the TBR pile that has been mounting on my desk/bookshelves/floor. To whit:

The recently purchased Waters novel is on the list, as is The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova . . . which has been on my TBR shelf longer than I care to admit.  My sister (who already read and enjoyed it) has been urging me to place The Historian higher up on the pile. Ever the obedient sibling (ahem!), I have done so.

From the book sale Mr. Inkslinger and I attended before Christmas, two books that have yet to be indulged in: China: Dawn of a Golden Age, 200 -- 750 A.D.  .. . and . . . Polar Castaways: The Ross Sea Party of Ernest Shackleton, 1914-17 by Richard McElrea and David Harrowfield.

And, speaking of China, Mr. Inkslinger picked up The Ghost Brush by Katherine Govier -- a fascinating-sounding novel about the daughter of the famous Japanese artist Hokusai -- at a reading before Christmas.  I'm pretty sure I'll get to it before he does as he's lost in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo at the moment. 

The Patrick Lane collection was a Christmas Eve gift from Mr. Inkslinger. 

And the others in the pile?  I've already finished the first (Flights of Fancy: Birds in Myth, Legend and Superstition by Peter Tate . . . and it has inspired some writing projects).  The second, Foyle's Philavery by Christopher Foyle, was a gift I'm looking forward to poring over (a readerly book about quirky words? Perfection!).  Then there's How to Be a Hepburn in a Hilton World, another gift (this time from the sis). The title sounds right up my alley.  Then comes The Historian, and the Patrick Lane.  Then The Final Act of Mr. Shakespeare which I still haven't got around to . . . so on the pile it goes. 


After The Ghost Brush there awaits Joyland by Emily Schultz, a mystery centred on an arcades game-playing teen in the 80s. Followed by a handful of Nightwood Editions: lousy explorers (poems by Laisha Rosnau), When I Was Young & In My Prime (a novel by Alayna Munce that I've been trying to make time for as it sounds like my kind of read), and Muybridge's Horse ("a poem in three phases" by Rob Winger).  


The last five books have been on the shelf for awhile:

• Complete Physical by Shane Neilson (I like Neilson poetry, but I tend to shy away from books that reference anything related to illness . . . hence the delay).
• The Mysterious Stranger by Walter Bates (fascinating book, really. Been trying to make time for this one for as long as its been on the pile. Must exert more of an effort :).
• The Romanovs: The Final Chapter by Robert K. Massie (I started this one awhile back, but it's been slow going . . . such a sad, at times gruesome, story).
• Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World by Margaret MacMillan (I've been meaning to read this since I borrowed it from the sis . . . either she's the most patient sis in the world, which is unlikely, or she's forgotten she loaned it to me).
• Passions of the Mind by A.S. Byatt (I love Byatt!! Must make time!)

A gem of a book! From One Green Field by Edward Thomas:


"A great writer so uses the words of every day that they become a code of his own which the world is bound to learn and in the end take unto itself."


And


"Thinking of ourselves in a great wood or field of flowers ever so long ago, it is hard not to exaggerate whatever give-and-take there was between the spirit of the child and the vast pure forces of the sun and the wind. In those days we did not see a tree as a column of a dark stony substance supporting a number of green wafers that live scarcely half a year, and grown for the manufacture of furniture, gates, and many other things; but we saw something quite unlike ourselves, large, gentle, of foreign tongue, without locomotion, yet full of the life and movement and sound of the leaves themselves, and also of the light, of the birds, and the insects; and they were givers of a clear, deep joy that cannot be expressed."


Lovely.  


On another note, since today marks the end of the Festive Season (if one includes the 12 days of Christmas and Epiphany, which I do on the assumption that one can't have too many celebratory occasions :), I thought I'd wish everyone a Happy Epiphany . . . and then, sadly, comes the dismantling of our tree, etc.  Alas.  And I entirely forgot my intention to read Twelfth Night last night (Mr. Inkslinger and I indulged in some film-viewing instead . . . The Last Station, which was absolutely gripping!). 


Perhaps I'll just throw intention to the wind and dive into Twelfth Night today before the family arrive? Yes, sounds like a plan.


And about The Last Station:

The holidays may be winding down, but the cupboards/fridge/freezer are still full of holiday goodies (perhaps overbaking was involved?).  

My grandma's cake on Mr. Inkslinger's grandma's china.

It's definitely time to relax with some tea, cake, and a good book (currently reading a delightful little book titled Flights of Fancy: Birds in Myth, Legend and Superstition). 

Isn't the cover lovely?

Currently and Recently . . .

Currently Listening To: Orlande de Lassus (because he was mentioned in the Sherlock Holmes short story I'm just finishing up)



Recently Read: A handful of great books. Holiday reading . . . yay!  Among them was George/Douglas Fetherling's Rites of Alienation (I am becoming such a staunch admirer of Fetherling's writing), which is a great collection of haiku, Tom Stoppard's typically (for him) rich and complex play The Invention of Love (about poet A.E. Housman's love for his friend), Adam Getty's most recent poetry collection (which grew on me as I read along), Repose, and the fascinating classic by Muriel Spark, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.  Been meaning to get around to that last one for some time now . . . and now I'm going to have to track down the film. 

Recently Watched and Enjoyed: A couple of interesting, unique action type movies.  Salt and The American.  Both of which I rather liked, but for different reasons.  The performances were good all round, but what stood out for me was the fact that I couldn't always predict every little twist and turn (as opposed to most action films).  Plus, The American was directed by Anton Corbijn!  Great stuff.


Currently Anticipating: more Christmas cake!!!  Nothing like holiday goodies (of the culinary and reading variety).