I heard about this new translation on the Ezra Klein show. Madeline Miller made a very convincing pitch for why this book is relevant today, and why everyone should read this book; especially, the new translation by Emily Wilson. I was looking for something complex to read, that would keep me occupied for the 5 day extended vacation from May 2nd to May 7th (here in Japan). That was my main reason for picking this book up.
The story was simple, it was told at a beautiful, exciting clip. The story moves forward with this incredible, hard-to-believe speed. I am glad I read this book!
The story is fairly simple: Odysseus goes to Troy to fight alongside the Greeks against the Trojans. He's cunning, and extremely shady; he comes up with several clever, "fox-like" plots throughout the story. Every time that he is despairing and cornered somewhere, he comes up with some kind of way to trick the person who has captured him and get out and get back to Ithaca, the place where he was king before he left for Troy.
At home, his wife Penelope and his son Telemachus are waiting for him. Well, sort-of. Telemachus is a child (although he is 20) and doesn't really have much of a spine. Penelope definitely wants him to return, but it also feels like there are moments when she does not really want him to return. She's never really happy throughout the book; even when he comes back and they are re-united, he tests him and then is happy that Odysseus is back; she is very mysterious and does not clarify her position to anyone. And finally, the villains of the story are the suitors: A group of obnoxious young men who are trying to win Penelope's hand in marriage. They have somehow entered Odysseus' house and have started having daily feasts there (???) The concept of someone entering your house just because you are not home and eating from your larder and having a great time in your absense is hard to comprehend. Perhaps it was something that was quite common in Ancient Greece? Exactly how they gained access, and established themself in Odysseus' house is never made clear. They are there at the beginning of the book, and they are an obnoxious bunch.
Odysseus is also very popular with the ladies. Every female character he meets in the story immediately falls for him and wants to keep him tied up wherever they live. Calypso is the goddess who has a lot of power and tries to take his freedom and give him immortality instead; Odysseus is not down. Circe hangs out with him for about a year; then he decides that he wants to leave. Why he didn't decide to leave early, if he really wanted to see his wife and son, is never explained.
Dichotomies
This book has a lot of dichotomies. Odysseus wants to get back home, but he's always having a good time wherever he lands. He shows urgency at some points in the story, but the 1 year he spends with Circe "in her bed" is pretty hard to explain away.
Penelope wants her husband to come back home, she wants Telemachus to be safe and to mature into an adult. She doesn't take any steps towards either end. She is very good at weaving apparently, so she is weaving in her room and weeping into her bed. No concrete steps though.
Telemachus wants to become a man, but he's the most spineless character in the whole book. Every time that someone wants him to do something or decide something, he simply defers to the other person. The most glaring example of this that frustrated me was the one in which Odysseus has finally vanquished all the suitors and asks him to suggest some kind of way to avoid a confrontation with the suitors' families. Telemachus replies promptly:
Telemachus said warily, "You have to work it out. They say you have the finest mind in all the world, no mortal man can rival you in cleverness"
Odysseus was not fishing for compliments man.
And finally, the dichotomy when describing city sackers and pirates.
Strangers, who are you? Where did you sail from? Are you on business, or just scouting round like pirates on the sea, who risk their lives to ravage foreign homes?
This was a pretty jarring line for me. "Risking your lives" is something that we always associate with something noble: like joining the army or becoming a doctor. "Ravaging foreign homes" is obviously very bad and not noble at all. To put both of those in the same line and frame a question is very hard to digest.
Translation
This book isn't very long. It's written in "iambic pentameter" and you can recognize the rhyme in most places, but it doesn't read as a poem. It read likes prose. It's extremely fast-paced. That was the highlight for me. I was able to finish reading this in about 3 days. I was reading slowly and taking notes and making sure that I wasn't missing anything important. Even still, the pace was fast enough that I often ended up reading for 2 hours without noticing the time or page numbers.
I found Madeline Miller's pitch for the book on the Ezra Klein show podcast and her review of the book very useful to understand the goal behind this translation.
One of the things that Homer has in the original is this incredible forward motion. It's an exciting, exciting read. Wilson wanted to keep that galloping speed. -- Madeline Miller (10:15, Ezra Klein Show, 2020-04-23) -- Podcast
Notes
But of course, the English of the nineteenth or early twentieth century is no closer to Homeric Greek than the language of today. The use of a noncolloquial or archaizing linguistic register can blind readers to the real, inevitable, and vast gap between the Greek original and any modern translation.
-- From the translator's note. Wilson gets it absolutely right! I have always wondered why we must use antiquated English in our translations; she does a great job of explaining why that's not useful and serves only to drive people away from reading literature that they would find interesting.
As you know, divine Calypso held me in her cave, wanting to marry me; and likewise Circe, the trickster, trapped me, and she wanted me to be her husband. But she never swayed my heart, since when a man is far from home, living abroad, there is no sweeter thing than his own native land and family.
-- This line was an articulate description of how I have felt every time I have moved away from a place I lived in for a long time. (moving to a new city when I was 10, moving to college when I was 17, moving to Japan when I was 22)
Scowling at him, Odysseus said, “Fool! I did not do you wrong or speak against you. I am not jealous of another beggar receiving gifts, however much he gets. This doorway can accommodate us both. Do not hog all the wealth; it is not yours.20 You seem to be a homeless man, like me. Gods give all mortal blessings. Do not stir me to fight or lose my temper. I am old but I will crack your ribs and smash your face to bloody pulp—then I will have a day of peace tomorrow; you will not return here to the palace of Odysseus.”
Fighting words; "I will crack your ribs and smash your face to bloody pulp" => this is so much better than an action scene.
It is a very good book and the author presents facts about the disproportionate suspicion / prI heard about this book on this Ezra Klein Show episode.
It is a very good book and the author presents facts about the disproportionate suspicion / profiling of Muslims and the amount of media coverage that is given to "professional Islamophobes", even as Muslims trying to rectify the public image of their religion are given no air time at all.
Very important book; I recommend it to anyone who has felt within themselves an inexplicable resistance when thinking about Muslims at a societal level. ...more
In 1918, just as World War I was ending, (2 months before the armistice was signed), a pandemic started. The disease was influenza, only influenza. ThIn 1918, just as World War I was ending, (2 months before the armistice was signed), a pandemic started. The disease was influenza, only influenza. That's what everyone thought. All the conditions at that particular point in time led to a pandemic that killed nearly 60 million people (according to all estimates) This book gives you all the information you need to understand how the human race sat around while something of this magnitude swept through the world. Remember: It was only influenza. Not deadly AIDS or SARS.
There are several things to unpack in this book. One book review will never cover everything and I don't intend to do that anyway. I am going to enlist three things that I learned from this book that were absolutely important revelations.
1. The truth is important. Especially, during war.
A lot of the book is about how newspapers across the US wouldn't print anything that would "affect the war effort" or "affect morale adversely". It also shows how people in public administration weren't willing to take the most basic precautions because it would spread panic and affect morale. It also shows how the army was turning a deaf ear to all the doctors in the administration who were telling them to stop moving soldiers across the country and across the Atlantic. Anything but the truth (half truths, lies) will only adversely affect the collective ability of people to fight a crisis.
2. Good science needs the right combination of people, time, money, luck and state of mind.
Paul Lewis and Avery were very similar. They were well respected and old. They each had a particular problem on their mind and they spent much of the time after the pandemic solving it. Avery came out of it with the discovery that DNA contains genetic material. Lewis came out of it with an obsession to win back the respect of the two people whom he respected the most. Eventually, this obsession killed him / he killed himself in a foreign land. He succumbed to the very virus he was investigating. (yellow fever)
3. Documentation is important. Especially, during a crisis.
This last point really resonated with me. What one must understand is that the crisis will blow over. During a crisis, it's often to become frustrated with the apparently unnecessary paperwork when one is facing problems that question the very existence of the human race. Having the perspective to look past a crisis into the future and understanding what can be learned from this horrible thing that so many people suffered through and died in, is the most important quality in every bureaucrat and politician out there. It's often very easy to be short sighted and deal only with the problem right in front of your face and not care about anything else until it is solved. (Or worse, say "Let's take care of everything else after this particular problem is solved")
Apart from these, there are a lot of things I have learned from this book (I have nearly 20 pages of notes). I plan to condense those into more bullet points and publish them on my blog soon.
That community is already in the process of dissolution where each man begins to eye his neighbor as a possible enemy, where non conformity with the accepted creed, political as well as religious, becomes a mask of disaffection; where denunciation, without specification or backing, takes the place of evidence; where unorthodoxy chokes freedom of dissent. -- Learned Hand
I picked this one up because of a recommendation from Kshitij Saraogi. He spoke highly of this book. As soon as I looked this book up, I reached Bill I picked this one up because of a recommendation from Kshitij Saraogi. He spoke highly of this book. As soon as I looked this book up, I reached Bill Gates' blog speaking incredibly high of this book too. I am so glad I took their advice and read this book. It has significantly changed the tools I use and the way I understand the world.
Hans, Ola and Anna Rosling were geniuses to have compiled everything that affects the fundamental way we humans think in ~250 pages. It takes an incredible amount of courage and belief in the facts in front of you to call out every single informed, well educated, wealthy, experienced person in the world. Throughout the book, the authors compare the way people do on the 13 question quiz compared to chimpanzees. That is audacity and belief right there.
I think that the stories that Hans puts in periodically in the book serve to make the book feel like something written by someone who really has seen the world change and morph into the amazing place it is today.
I don't really think I can add anything to what people have already said about this book. I have taken away three things from this book:
1. If you feel depressed about something happening in the world right now, look into the facts. Watch the news and then look at the numbers yourself. Spend your time understanding what's going on. Compare them to the past. Divide them by the total. Things have undeniably gotten better. They are bad, but they have gotten better and are getting better every day.
2. If you feel that someone is trying to get a rise out of you by triggering your fear instinct or your urgency instinct, exit the room. Take as few decisions as you can. Commit to as little as you possibly can. Drink tea, watch a show that calms your nerves, talk to the people you care about, take a day off. Re-evaluate the problem alone, with only cold hard numbers helping you. Then, go out there and talk to the people you trust to not trigger these instincts in you and get them to tell you what their experience has been. Put all this together and decide later.
3. If you feel that a line going straight to eternity doesn't make sense, find out if the line is actually straight. eg: Userbase of your app won't increase at the same rate as it did in the firt 3 months. It would be crazy to assume that and save resources now. If you feel you are generalizing, look for differences within a group and similarities across groups. Don't blame people. Don't believe experts, simply because they are experts.
All this is talk, what really changed for me is surprisingly easy to articulate: I had basically tuned out of the global warming discussion because (a) I was pissed with Western countries blaming huge countries like India and China, when quite obviously they were the ones with the highest CO2 emissions per capita. (b) I looked at the graphs that showed increases of average temperatures by 2 degrees Celsius over nearly 200 years. I wasn't convinced by the data in front of me. I had lost belief in the so-called experts. I am now convinced I need to spend more time understanding this problem.
Global Warming is too big a problem for me to do anything for it personally. All I can do though is spend time understanding what is going on.
A few quotes that were impactful for me:
pg. 69:
I'm a very serious "possibilist". That's something I made up. It means someone who neither hopes without reason, nor fears without reasons, someone who constantly resists the overdramatic worldview
pg. 69:
When women are educated, all kinds of wonderful things happen in societies.
pg. 230:
Some aspects of the future are easier to predict than others. ... Demographic forecasts are amazingly accurate decades into the future because the systems involved -- essentially, births and deaths -- are quite simple. Children are born grow up, have more children, and then die. Each individual cycle takes roughly 70 years.
pg. 137:
If the UN forecasts for population growth are correct, and if incomes in Asia and Africa keep growing as now, then the center of gravity of the world market will shift over the next 20 years from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean. Today, the people living in rich countries around the North Atlantic, who represent 11 percent of the world population, make up 60 percent of the Level 4 consumer market. Already by 2027, if incomes keep growing worldwide as they are doing now, then that figure will have shrunk to 50 percent. By 2040, 60 percent of Level 4 consumers will live outside the West. Yes, I think the Western domination of the world economy will soon be over.
pg. 247: (speaking of a woman in Bandundu in what is now the Democractic Republic of Congo in 1989)
She was able to think critically and express herself with razor-sharp logic and perfect rhetoric at a moment of extreme tension.
pg. 247
The world cannot be understood without numbers, nor through numbers alone. A country cannot function without a government, but the government cannot solve every problem. Neither the public sector nor the private sector is always the answer. No single measure of a good society can drive every other aspect of its development. It's not either/or. It's both and it's case-by-case.
This book is a 180-page account of what happened to us once the visual mode and not the literary mode became the primary mode that a majority of humanThis book is a 180-page account of what happened to us once the visual mode and not the literary mode became the primary mode that a majority of human beings used for absorbing new information. Near the beginning of the book, there's a basic revelation and this sets the tone for the rest of the book:
The clock made us time keepers, then time savers, and now time servers. ... Nature was the basis for time. But once we invented a clock, our invention was the basis of time, not the sun or moon. Introduction of a clock into a culture is not merely a way to bind time, it is a transformation of the way of thinking in that culture.
This seems to be obvious and unavoidable whenever we humans try to quantify nature and then take the quantification to be the original source of that phenomenon, forgetting that nature was the original source.
A theme that runs through the book is this: It is naive to believe that we can introduce a new technology into a culture and it will not transform the culture.
I can't quite cover everything that I have written down in my notes or what's covered in this book. Instead, I will just list some of the things I found to be very interesting revelations in this book.
1. The best thing on TV is the "junk" because these shows don't affect anyone and don't claim to be significant. Most harmful are the shows that are apparently engaging in "serious debate" and "informing people", i.e News shows and debates
2. Proverbs are essential in a culture without written language. We tend to use them only with our young now, not in "serious" situations. Proverbs are expressions of oral wisdom. Wisdom that is now considered to be inferior to written wisdom, i.e. Law, Citations, etc.
3. Until the late 19th century, print was the only form of communication. There was no radio, no TV. Everything was print based. Everyone read, it wasn't an activity that only the elite engaged in. Children didn't have "reading" problems.
4. The written word has content. This content might be banal, useless, or even false, but it is always present. Readers of print cultures were ready to catch mistakes or self contradictions in arguments. They were primed through practice and the medium itself.
5. Print advertisers took their potential buyers to be rational, literate and analytical people. Print Ads didn't have true statements in them all the time, but they were presented in a context where the question "Is this true or false?" made sense.
6. The globe has become a village, but each man only knows the most superficial facts about people living far off. This is what news has done to us. "Relevance is irrelevant" today. You read news because it's news, not because you are interested or you want to know.
There's a lot more to unpack in this book, I can't possibly go over all of it. The above 6 points I feel make a convincing case to anyone that they should read this book. I will end with the quote that really shocked me by it's simplicity:
An Orwellian world is much easier to recognize, and oppose, compared to a Huxleyan one.
This is the story of a guy from the year he leaves college to the year when he's well settled with a loving wife and a son. He acts as the narrator, aThis is the story of a guy from the year he leaves college to the year when he's well settled with a loving wife and a son. He acts as the narrator, and it frankly sounds like an autobiography rather than a novel.
The foreword to this novel talks about how this is the story of a man, as he goes through life, without any exaggeration or embellishments. That is so true throughout the book. The uncertainty of not having a job, the irritation of working with someone whom you know to be untrue and devious, the love one feels for a woman he knows to be a dear friend and the absolutely relief one feels in the company of one he truly loves and wishes to spend the rest of his life with. This book is everything that a story about a man's life should ideally be. Ups, Downs, Lovers, real-life Villains, sore Friends and honest Well-Wishers.
The book between 40 and 50% was boring, it was meandering but then Bronte pulled it all together starting in Chapter 19. I am pretty sure chapter 19 is one of the best pieces I have read in a while now. It was exhilarating to see the words flow through, unencumbered by any hesitation either in the author's mind or pen. A couple specimens from the chapter. First, the opening paragraph:
Novelists should never allow themselves to weary of the study of real life. If they observed this duty conscientiously, they would give us fewer pictures chequererd with vivid contrasts of light and shade; they would seldom elevate their heroes and heroines to the heights of rapture -- still seldomer sink them to the depths of despair; for if we rarely taste the fullness of joy in this life, we yet more rarely savor the acrid bitterness of hopeless anguish; unless, indeed, we have plunged like beasts into sensual indulgence, abused, strained, stimulated, again over-strained, and, at last, destroyed our faculties for enjoyment; then, truly, we may find ourselves without support, robbed of hope.
I felt, as well as saw, who it was; and, moving neither hand nor foot, I stood some moments enjoying the security of conviction. I had sought her for a month, and had never discovered one of her traces -- never met a hope, or seized a chance of encountering her anywhere. I had been forced to loosen my grasp on expectation; and, but an hour ago, had sunk slackly under the discouraging thought that the current of life, and the impulse of destiny, had swept her forever from my reach; and, behold, while bending suddenly earthward beneath the pressure of despondency -- while following with my eyes the track of sorrow on the turf of a graveyard -- here was my lost jewel dropped on the tear-fed herbage, nestling in the messy and mouldy roots of yew-trees.
And yet one more, her reaction as she sees her long-lost master, whom she was barred from seeing by the most devious Reuter.
Amazement had hardly opened her eyes and raised them to mine, ere Recognition informed their irids with most speaking brightness. Nervous surprise had hardly discomposed her features ere a sentiment of most vivid joy shone clear and warm on her whole countenance. I had hardly time to observe that she was wasted and pale, ere called to feel a responsive inward pleasure by the sense of most full and exquisite pleasure glowing in the animated flush, and shining in the expansive light, now diffused over my pupil's face. It was the summer sun flashing out after the heavy summer shower; and what fertilizes more rapidly than that beam, burning almost like fire in its ardor?
Wuthering Heights was a great novel, a great story with the villain Heathcliff and the poor heroine of that story. This novel is a complete opposite with nothing exaggerated anywhere in this book.
I didn't expect this book to be as good, as dark, or as thrilling as it was. The synopsis betrayed hardly anything about the book or what the plot wasI didn't expect this book to be as good, as dark, or as thrilling as it was. The synopsis betrayed hardly anything about the book or what the plot was. I dived in and was startled to find out.
First and foremost, the subtlety that over rides the whole book is GOOOOOD. What is Denker? What did he do? Why does Monica not mind Todd calling her "Monica-baby"? Why is Richard the way he is with his son? Why are Richard and Monica always formal and matter-of-fact around their son? Why is the only real conversation that Richard and Monica have about Richard's boyhood and how they should not worry about Todd and not the other way around
Those are all questions that I have still only partially answered. It's not like there's a sinister subtext to everything that happens, I refuse to believe that. I think the answer lies in how the characters themselves were constructed in Stephen King's head when he first came up with the idea of an "apt" American boy of 14 going wild and turning out to be someone else, within the course of just one summer.
The characters in this book were all a little over done. I wonder if that was intentional. Making Rubber Ed wear ONLY Keds. Making Denker / Dussander drink Ancient Age and smoke almost incessantly. Making Monica an overly hot suburban house wife. Making Todd a creepy, cold young teenager who could put on whatever air he chose. You can smell the fiction in the story, but that only serves to make the story better.
I read the last 150 pages in a single day. After about every 30 pages, I was wondering What story could possibly be left? There's enough plot here, and it will leave you more thrilled than you were with King's writing. Certainly did that for me.
As a parting note, perhaps I should address this: This book is a dark reminder of the insane tragedy that were the Holocaust and the Nazi concentration camps. While in daily life, several jests might be made about these in a light-hearted manner, what happened there was abominable. Reading this book only serves to increase the horror at how Todd behaves. Especially towards the end of the book where he almost starts treating himself as unbeatable.
Todd and Kurt D are both seriously screwed up. Kurt D was trying to get past it, while Todd had no idea of what would happen when you purposefully on a sleeping tiger's tail. In this story, the tiger didn't eat him up, oh no. The tiger invited him into the sinister cave and showed him what it felt like to be a tiger in a jungle filled with "lesser" beings.
Despite this, I breathed a legit sigh of relief when Kurt D was finally able to leave. I think that is where the genius of Stephen King lies....more
This book is great, the ending is really explosive and more or less unexpected. It just happens, the suspense is there all the time, and there are no This book is great, the ending is really explosive and more or less unexpected. It just happens, the suspense is there all the time, and there are no big revelations at any point in time, the whole thing is revealed slowly. The first time that a topic is touched, it's extremely confusing, I found myself reading paragraphs again, believing with certainty that I had missed something, but then a few paragraphs down the line, the full explanation comes and then you are floored!
The reverse chronological structure is very very disorienting. While it might look great on screen in Memento, in a book that's about 370 pages long, it's very distracting and hard to keep up with. Towards the end, especially, the days get tangled up within each other, and the end of Day 2 is a few minutes away from the beginning of the chapter Day 3 that you have already read. Yeah, it's that kind of a book.
Totally worth it. And pretty easy reading too. Some platitudes which were mis-timed and over-used (especially, Tick-tock, Nic and Jump. The former is cruft, while the later might be justified)....more
Um, okay. I read this because I wanted to understand what Communism really is. It covers "What it is" for maybe 1 section, but does a comparative studUm, okay. I read this because I wanted to understand what Communism really is. It covers "What it is" for maybe 1 section, but does a comparative study of it with the other prevalent schools of thought of that time (1844) for the remaining part. The first two sections were really good, and serve as a good primer on Communism and what's expected of Communists.
The third and fourth section are mainly comparative studies with the different types of Socialism. I know hardly anything about Socialism, so onwards to the next "this type of book" about Socialism, I guess!...more
This is a HUGE book, that's the second thing that comes to my mind when I think about this book. The first thing is the characters: Cassie, Ryan, JonaThis is a HUGE book, that's the second thing that comes to my mind when I think about this book. The first thing is the characters: Cassie, Ryan, Jonathan, Katy and Jessica, Rosalind, and Cathal. The plot is intricate, the killer IS revealed after about 450 pages of investigation that leads nowhere, but left me with an idea about who was fishy and who was not. I am not going to go about talking about spoilers here (because then I would have to hide the review, and I don't want to do that), but once you are 400 pages into an almost 600-page book, one of the things that keeps you going is finding out who did it. In this book, it was also wanting to find out what was really so SAD at the end that everyone was hit by it. I found out, eventually.
This book is sad, much like The Secret History. Before I started the book, I saw that almost each review said that the book was unexpectedly sad for a crime novel, and the characters unexpectedly deep for people who were detectives. Crime novels are about the crime, and the uncovering of the person who committed it, not about the people who are doing the uncovering. Atleast, THAT is the classical notion. Not here. If I have read one book that has remained with me ever since (almost 2 years), it's Secret History. The characters, I can remember why I liked some of them, why I didn't like some of them, why I felt sad when the book ended in a diabolical, almost cruel fashion. Few authors can write characters so deep and relationships so sweet that you know you will never have them. French certainly achieves that in this book. Cassie and Ryan make the perfect couple, but ...
My final piece of advice when you start this book is twofold. 1. Brace yourself for a long long book. I believe that you will only get through if you keep guessing who did it, thinking about everyone in the book, and eventually, you will KNOW. 2. It is a sad book, not for any of the reasons that you would be able to surmise from a look at the synopsis of the book. So, don't try to guess, just keep reading. I am pretty sure you will feel sad at the end.
Closure isn't something everyone can have.
P.S. If you haven't read The Secret History, then read it! If you liked this, you will like that book for sure. If you didn't, well that's not a crime novel, and there's no mystery in that one. So, that book starts out somewhere around the 450th page of this book....more
This book has some really good fiction! The question of whether this is actually fiction, or just auto-biographical from the author's own experience iThis book has some really good fiction! The question of whether this is actually fiction, or just auto-biographical from the author's own experience is a good one, and I guess it's partly autobiographical (as the summary says). In any case, it's a good book! There are some subtle references to capitalism (?) here, but I guess that it depends on what mindset you are reading this book with, and you could read these kind of references into any book written around the World War 2 time.
There are a few lines, some of which might seem rather obvious in retrospect, but when presented as structured quotes they sound really good:
I shall never again think that all tramps are drunken scoundrels, nor expect a beggar to be grateful when I give him a penny, nor be surprised if men out of work lack energy, nor subscribe to the Salvation Army, nor pawn my clothes, nor refuse a handbill, nor enjoy a meal at a smart restaurant. That is a beginning.
When you see a man distributing handbills you can do him a good turn by taking one, for he goes off duty when he has distributed all his bills.
But there is also a paradox about it, namely this: Our intention in a swearing is to shock and wound, which we do by mentioning something that should be kept secret-usually something to do with the sexual functions. But the strange thing is that when a word is well established as a swear word, it seems to lose the original meaning; that is it loses the thing that made it into a swear word.
If you set yourself to it, you can live the same life, rich or poor,. You can still keep on with your books and your ideas. You just got to say to yourself, "I'm a free man in here" - he tapped his forehead and you're all right.
This list goes on and on. It's a really good book!...more
The writing was unbearably slow and unnecessary in a few parts of the book. The two stories that really stood out were Grandparenting, which I think iThe writing was unbearably slow and unnecessary in a few parts of the book. The two stories that really stood out were Grandparenting, which I think is the absolute best short story in the book and Your Lover Just Called, which is just this bear animosity and almost hatred that both of them emit towards each other.
The last story Grandparenting also had two of these lines that are so so quotable:
Speaking of his firstborn, Judith:
Judith had been born in England, ... She was the first baby he had ever held; he had thought it would be a precarious experience, shot through with fear of dropping something so precious and fragile, but no, in even the smallest infant there was an adhesive force, a something that actively fit your arms and hands, banishing the fear. ... We are in this together, Dad, the baby's body had assured him, and we'll both get through it.
And the last line in the book, talking of his newborn grandson:
And the child's miniature body did adhere to his chest and arms, though more weakly than the infants he had presumed to call his own. Nobody belongs to us, except in memory
Oh, this book is GOOOOOD! The first few chapters describing everything, and this enormous cylindrical object, the visualization of which occupied me fOh, this book is GOOOOOD! The first few chapters describing everything, and this enormous cylindrical object, the visualization of which occupied me for the most part of the book until they go in. And when they go in!
The species that exists to collect information is pretty dope though. Yeah, pretty dope!
I wish the sequels had been as good as this book, or better. Alas, I was disappointed. The next book was a real disappointment....more
The beginning of this book is fascinating science fiction. And then, the book moves slowly into a spiral of amazing writing that it never recovers froThe beginning of this book is fascinating science fiction. And then, the book moves slowly into a spiral of amazing writing that it never recovers from. The book gets progressively better and better. The number of Shakespeare quotations increase and the splitting of the life that is lived in London is presented, and eventually, it's death alone that can save people who want to be unhappy and undergo struggles from a world with drug-induced happiness, where everyone belongs to everyone else....more
I absolutely loved this book. It is more of an academic book, with a lot about Crypto, but it gets better and better as it approaches the recent ways I absolutely loved this book. It is more of an academic book, with a lot about Crypto, but it gets better and better as it approaches the recent ways for Crypto. Both the historic part and the present part are very well written.
I have read the public-key Alice-Bob analogy twice. And probably the best thing I can say about this book is that I read this book more than three years ago, and even today, I like it enough to read some parts of it again and again. (Especially the last few chapters!)...more
After reading this book, I have a newfound respect for art. Mainly, paintings, sculptures, pots, utensils, things that are kept in museums. I realize After reading this book, I have a newfound respect for art. Mainly, paintings, sculptures, pots, utensils, things that are kept in museums. I realize now that these objects, some of them bare stones from 1000s of years ago, have survived all this while and will survive for a lot longer. When I saw them, I became a part of their eternity. They became a part of my life. That's what this book is about: art not for art's sake, art as the driving force of mankind, a deeper understanding of art than a transient piece that evokes some feelings in us.
Heavy preface, I know. The one liner wasn't hard to come up with: Theo Decker loses his mom in a museum accident, he takes a painting from that museum, and everything spirals from there.
This book has great writing. It's not easy to read because somewhere around the middle of the book the plot stalls. Theo is in a drug-ridden haze which he is unwilling to come out of. It's really boring to read about, and I (legit) felt like I was in some sort of a haze too because I was falling asleep reading the book and waking up not knowing where I had left off or what was going on; because what was happening 40 pages ago felt exactly like what was happening right now. My point is, this book closely resembles what Theo's thoughts were at the moment you are reading them.
In fact, at the end of the book, he admits to it when he says that he wrote this as a journal in real time that he kept right from when he was a child and a teacher of his gave him a journal to cope with his mother's death. So, when you read this book, you have this up-and-down feeling as if you are feeling exactly what Theo is feeling and going through what Theo is going through but one looking glass away; as if he has taken away the soul of what was happening to him and is telling you just the facts making it harder for you to wrap your head around what sort of a room he is or what he is doing. Like having a normal lens looking at his life instead of a wide angle lens. Your understanding lacks perspective and throughout the book, you need to be alert and supply this consciously.
His mother's death is something that overshadows the book like a cloud covering the sun on some overcast day. About 15 years later, he still brings her up in conversation. He still traces everything that he does back to her. It's incredibly heart breaking and sad. It scared me in the beginning of the book when he says things like How was it possible to miss someone as much as I missed my mother? I missed her so much I wanted to die: a hard, physical longing, like a craving for air underwater.
The book is also about the Barbours. When Theo goes to their house, we see their house only from his perspective: a kid who has just lost the only parent he loved and doesn't know how to deal with the world yet. When he returns after all those years to meet the Barbours, I thought about it for the first time from their perspective and realized the impact that he must have had on them! It's really beautiful to read it.
The book is also about Boris. About the difficulties of his life, about how similar his life is to Theo's, about how differently they both approach what happened to them, about how Boris says Theo's father is good even though he says it only because Theo's dad would never be as brutal as he is with Theo with Boris, his son's friend, a third person: the distance makes him decent. And sometimes that is what you need to be decent with someone else: distance. Too close is not always good.
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And finally, perhaps most importantly, this book is about The Goldfinch. Not the painting as much as the finch itself. The little guy who spent his whole life chained to the wall, who looks at you earnestly from nearly 400 years ago. What was the bird like? Did children like him? Did he ever fly freely in the sky or was he chained at birth? The last few pages of this book summarize everything that Theo and Welty and Boris and anyone who came in contact with this painting, even Horst, felt about this painting. ... And if I could go back in time I’d clip the chain in a heartbeat and never care a minute that the picture was never painted. Only it’s more complicated than that. Who knows why Fabritius painted the goldfinch at all? A tiny, stand-alone masterpiece, unique of all its kind?
And we can never know that.
That was a heavy review to write. I should put some of the quotes I like here, just in case you need more convincing to go right ahead and pick this book up:
What had happened, I knew, was irrevocable, yet at the same time it seemed there had to be some way I could go back to the rainy street and make it all happen differently.
‘When you feel homesick,’ he said, ‘just look up. Because the moon is the same wherever you go.’ So after he died, and I had to go to Aunt Bess – I mean, even now, in the city, when I see a full moon, it’s like he’s telling me not to look back or feel sad about things, that home is wherever I am.” She kissed me on the nose. “Or where you are, puppy. The center of my earth is you.”
Yet all these aspects were – to me – so tender and particular they moved me to despair. With a beautiful girl I could have consoled myself that she was out of my league; that I was so haunted and stirred even by her plainness suggested – ominously – a love more binding than physical affection, some tar-pit of the soul where I might flop around and malinger for years.
“It’s a joke, the Fabritius. It has a joke at its heart. And that’s what all the very greatest masters do. Rembrandt. Velázquez. Late Titian. They make jokes. They amuse themselves. They build up the illusion, the trick – but, step closer? it falls apart into brushstrokes. Abstract, unearthly. A different and much deeper sort of beauty altogether. The thing and yet not the thing. I should say that that one tiny painting puts Fabritius in the rank of the greatest painters who ever lived.
That life – whatever else it is – is short. That fate is cruel but maybe not random. That Nature (meaning Death) always wins but that doesn’t mean we have to bow and grovel to it. That maybe even if we’re not always so glad to be here, it’s our task to immerse ourselves anyway: wade straight through it, right through the cesspool, while keeping eyes and hearts open. And in the midst of our dying, as we rise from the organic and sink back ignominiously into the organic, it is a glory and a privilege to love what Death doesn’t touch.
Insofar as it is immortal (and it is) I have a small, bright, immutable part in that immortality. It exists; and it keeps on existing. And I add my own love to the history of people who have loved beautiful things, and looked out for them, and pulled them from the fire, and sought them when they were lost, and tried to preserve them and save them while passing them along literally from hand to hand, singing out brilliantly from the wreck of time to the next generation of lovers, and the next.
This is a huge book, and what's most interesting to me about this book is the CHANGE that he goes through. From a hick to a teen living with his sisteThis is a huge book, and what's most interesting to me about this book is the CHANGE that he goes through. From a hick to a teen living with his sister in Boston, to a Harlem hustler, Red, Prison, Elijah Muhammed, N.O.I, and his legacy.
His views on integration and the "blue-eyed devil" are scathing, right from the transformation that he underwent in prison. This book was written 52 years ago, and I don't know how relevant this is right now because everything I know about the difference between the races, in current-day America, is second-hand information from left leaning media.
That said, I think this is a great read as JUST a book. The effect that he had on such a huge movement starting from nothing, and getting to where he was, is moving to read about, and there is not one dull moment throughout the book.
The last few paragraphs of the book are him talking almost fearlessly about his death, and how he feels almost certain that he will be assassinated. He was, that same year, and the world sure lost a great leader and a man with an open mind like no other....more
Dystopia. Disturbing. I was hardly able to read through the middle chapters of Part 3. It was all so grotesque, the imagery, the man himself, the chanDystopia. Disturbing. I was hardly able to read through the middle chapters of Part 3. It was all so grotesque, the imagery, the man himself, the change his mind was going through, the things a collectivist group is capable of. Ew. If that's the right emotion.
Parts 1 and 2 are shocking, hard to believe, fascinating and frightening all at the same time. It's hard to believe that people would exist in a society as the one depicted, but at the same time, it is easy to understand why there is no revolution. When you have no one to compare yourself to, you tend to resign yourself to what you have, take pleasure in the few privileges accorded on you by the power above, the Party, Big Brother.
The book by Emmanuel Goldstein is perhaps my favorite part of the book. OR rather, the most logical? I don't know, but it made sense. The explanations, "War is Peace" and "Ignorance is Strength", these slogans are enraging when in the Part 1 of the book but they make sense in Part 3.
The world makes sense once you know why it is the way it is. I had actually planned to read another Dystopian novel, The Man in the High Castle, I am not sure if I would now.
Stay away from Dystopia because it is disturbing? Nah, this is probably one of the few books that people read books for....more
Astonishing. The last book I read was Dark Places by Gillian Flynn. And she does it again. Some part of the plot was given away to me because of the AAstonishing. The last book I read was Dark Places by Gillian Flynn. And she does it again. Some part of the plot was given away to me because of the Acknowledgement at the end of Dark Places. SO, if you are reading that before reading Sharp Objects, don't read anything other than the chapters.
The book is a stellar thriller. The protagonist (as always in Flynn books) is a deeply disturbed woman, who tries to convince herself that she's not as bad as some of the people she knows now and compares everything that happens now with things that happened when she was a child and how she handled them.
This is a GOOOOOD book! Read right away. At 300 pages, and 1.5 spaced paperback, burning through the book is made extremely simple....more
Amazing. This book is hinged around an absolutely un-understandable crime. Right from the beginning of the book, the one thing I kept thinking about aAmazing. This book is hinged around an absolutely un-understandable crime. Right from the beginning of the book, the one thing I kept thinking about and wondering why was the "motive". It helps that things that form the climax of the book are dropped often, everywhere, throughout the book, but make sense when it finally all comes together. The name, the murders, and the person who did it. Yeah, it is revealed. So keep reading. Eventually, it will dawn on you. (Psst, psst, it's the only real sand explanation.)
Character wise, I loved Diondra and Trey. Probably the people ... No, I am not going to spill anything about these guys.
I loved Libby as a cute little child with red hair. I love picturing this little kid who's always been poor and it's sad, but I do think she would look cute still (perhaps the movie will solve that for us? There isn't a movie? Whaaaaa? Please make a movie!)...more
This was probably the first book that I was determined to read because of this awesome review. I started reading, and in the prologue, I discovered thThis was probably the first book that I was determined to read because of this awesome review. I started reading, and in the prologue, I discovered that they had killed their friend. An attrocious act, on the face of it, but surprisingly towards the end, I was empathising with their situation, and although, I feel that this may not have been the best course, I can't question the decision that they made to kill their friend. That, only because of some really involved and amazing writing!
Starting out, the book feels really obscure, the characters seem to be ideal versions, who have had too much of education of the Classics, and have withdrawn into a world of their own where murder is required, and covering it up will only make the act harder to digest.
The first five chapters delve into Bunny. The last three are set after the act. Initially, the book is heavy with philosophical references, and description of everything in general. But as the book proceeds, it gets darker and concentrates more on the plot itself, rather than the surroundings. Throughout the book, I felt as if Richard (the narrator) is a passive part of it all, and is able to provide us with something more than just a plain narration of what's going on, but something that is more involved with his own emotional conflict, and the perceived lack of remorse in his accomplices.
This book does lend itself to a movie wonderfully, and now I wish there was a movie based on this book. I am intrigued by her style, and her characters, but most of all, the boldness of the premise of this book.
Re-Read: August 25th, 2019
The first time I read a PDF version of the book. It was nearly 4 years ago and I remember reading a really good review and that being the reason I started reading this book. Well, this book has aged incredibly WELL! I absolutely loved the nuances that I was able to catch on the second time that I read this book. This time, I read it on a Kindle, so I was able to mark several passages that I thought were just absolute FIRE!
I envied them, and found them attractive; moreover this strange quality, far from being natural, gave every indication of having been intensely cultivated. (It was the same, I would come to find, with Julian: though he gave quite the opposite impression, of freshness and candor, it was not spontaneity but superior art which made it seem unstudied.)
Over-all, the book evoked the same kind of emotions in me, I believe. You start with the disbelief: is there ever anything that a person can do to you that would make you want to kill them in cold blood? Then, you learn more about the 5. In particular, I learnt an incredible amount about Bunny in the first section of the book. Then, you realize how cruel he is, and how he gets on everyone's nerves all the time. And how he does it with a relish for the results.
I did know. Bunny had an uncanny ability to ferret out topics of conversation that made his listener uneasy and to dwell upon them with ferocity once he had. In all the months I’d known him he’d never ceased to tease me, for instance, about that jacket I’d worn to lunch with him that first day, and about what he saw as my flimsy and tastelessly Californian style of dress.
The above quote describes perfectly the way Bunny was blackmailing all of them. And then, the act. Once it happens though, you are only half-way done. This book is much more a story about the consequences of one decision than it is about the build-up to that decision. People dislike other people a lot. It comes quite naturally. Taking the decision that this dislike would lead us to, is quote natural too. But the consequences of that decision are un-savoury and push the remaining 5 people (including the narrator) into an extremely unpleasant sequence of events.
Richard has a particularly enlightening realization.
One might expect that I, being at that time perfectly innocent of any crime against either Bunny or humanity, would not myself be a target of this ongoing sniper fire. Unfortunately I was, perhaps more unfortunately for him than for me. How could he have been so blind as not to see how dangerous it might be for him to alienate the one impartial party, his one potential ally?
Richard was Bunny's only potential ally. He was the only "outsider", so to speak. He was the only one in their group, who Bunny believed didn't know about the act, and was confident wouldn't approve of, if Bunny ever chose to tell Richard. In turning Richard on to his side, in a fashion that was so natural that one might even question this particular theory as cynical or diabolical, Henry displays his master-y of people and understanding what motivates them. (Henry would have been one hell of an engineering manager!)
Finally, I have never stopped admiring Camilla for the amazing character that she is! In this book, particularly, she is the hinge to all the guys around her. She is the person around whom all the others spin. In some ways, Henry was the leader of the group, he was flying the plane. But Camilla was the Pursor, she was the one responsible for charming the outsiders and keeping them happy. (including us, the readers). Tartt puts the reader in Richard's place, that's quite clear. And then, in drawing similarities between Richard and Camilla, she forces us to see Camilla as the endearing one. The character that you can't quite not love.
Camilla was no different, secretly preferring, as I did, the easy delights of English literature to the coolie labor of Greek. What was laughable was that poor Bunny should display concern about anyone else’s intellectual capacities.
What are you thinking, Amy? How are you feeling? Who are you? What have we done to each other? What will we do?
This book. Oh, this book. Where do I st
What are you thinking, Amy? How are you feeling? Who are you? What have we done to each other? What will we do?
This book. Oh, this book. Where do I start?
I love the narration, I love the look inside beloved Amy's busy, working round the clock brain. Now, I had already seen the movie. So the biggest twist in the book, which if you don't know by now, you should stop reading right here.
No, seriously stop. Don't blame me when the movie is spoilt because you continued to read.
Anyway, the biggest twist in the book was known to me. But this didn't make the experience of reading the book even a little bit bad. If anything, it kept me on the edge, anticipating the start of the next chapter and Amy returning at any moment. Any moment.
A lot of the book is about Amy, and Nick. Some of it is about Go, and even less about Mama Maureen and Nick's Dad. The least is said about Marybeth and Rand. But after reading this book, and thinking about what really went wrong, I guess it's these two. The dream couple, the couple that never fights, the couple that has probably never made a mistake. Amy finds them disgusting and repulsive after really understand what the Amazing Amy books did to her. Nick sees in Rand the father figure he lacked all his life. I feel like they are the people who are really screwed up.
Through the books, it was almost like they were telling Amy how to behave, and she was exactly that. An unbelievably smart, alpha female who doesn't back down from a fight, and always must get what she deserves.
What's the point of being together, if you are not the happiest?
This fits her parents very well. They were together, they were never really in a fight, they always had their hands around the other's waist. And that's the image of marriage that has forever been etched in young Amy's mind.
The characters are all fetching, Boney is slightly different from the movie, she's a little bit more of a hometown girl, Gilpin is in the driving seat in a lot of the cases where in the movie it was always Boney who was driving the investigation.
This is one book that I will find hard to stop thinking about.
I am done with the review, but Amy must always have the last word.
I waited patiently - years - for the pendulum, to swing the other way, for men to start reading Jane Austen, learn how to knit, pretend to love cosmos, organize scrapbook parties, and make out with each other while we leer. And then we'd say, Yeah, he's a Cool Guy
So, finally, I am done with some more of required reading. It is surprising how much this book, and others like it have been read, and how highly theySo, finally, I am done with some more of required reading. It is surprising how much this book, and others like it have been read, and how highly they are appreciated everywhere. Nonetheless, this was an amazing book.
Never through the book did it at all feel dreary or stretchy, it was all the life of a few people as seen from Scout's perspective. Scout's narration is probably the one thing about this book that I loved the most! Apart from Atticus being Atticus, Jem growing up, Dill's craziness, Miss Maudie's quiet presence, and Boo Radley's omnipresent mystery. Yeah, that's kind of a long list, but this was a good book!
The trial chapters were particularly good from a plot perspective, the suspense that finally leads up to the result was actually, really more awesome than the final revelation itself. I won't tell you more, because it is the suspense that counts....more
AHA! A deeper look into Dr. Lecter's mind. And Dr. Lecter POV! <3 What goes on inside the mind of this psychological mastermind, with an unbelievable AHA! A deeper look into Dr. Lecter's mind. And Dr. Lecter POV! <3 What goes on inside the mind of this psychological mastermind, with an unbelievable sense of smell, 6 fingers on his left hand, and the murderer of 9 is a tad too interesting to read about.
To get on with the book, it was again, pretty easy reading and there weren't a lot of pages that took re-reads at all, maybe a few that explained the layout of the house that the killer lives in. That's a special gripe that I have with the book. Where Cathy is being held is absolutely unclear to me. The well part of it is okay, but the basement, the stairs, etc etc are just too complicated and it's almost like the author takes for granted that the reader knows how the house was built. I should probably read it again, but the narration at that part could have been a bit more elaborate.
The previous book, Red Dragon did a really good job at this! The house from the first book is a lot clearer despite most of it being narrated from a blind person's perspective. (OH WAIT, was the house clearer because it was narrated from a blind person's perspective. We are essentially blind as readers. That's for another time.)
The next two books promise to shed even more light on Dr. Lecter, and I would certainly love that! So, the next two books are definitely on my reading list. And the note he sends to Clarice (whom the author resolutely calls Starling the whole book :/ ) is particularly lovely. A small quote, because frankly, I can't resist putting a Dr. Lecter quote in this review. For what it's worth, it puts the title in perspective.
I won't be surprised if the answer is yes and no. The lambs will stop for now. But, Clarice, you judge yourself with all the mercy of the dungeon scales at Threave; you'll have to earn it, again and again, the blessed silence. Because it's the plight that drives you, seeing the plight, and the plight will not end, ever.
Thomas Harris is certainly worth your time.
A short break from this series to finally read Gone Girl (I loved Flynn's remaining two, I know I will love this one! More than the movie? Certainly!), and then probably come back to this series and pick up right where I left off!...more
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