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Thursday, March 20th, 2008Embers by Sandor Marai
Embers by Sandor Marai is a novel about Henrik and Konrad, two men who share a deep friendship from childhood. The novel opens with Konrad visiting Henrik for the first time in 41 years. The reasons why the pair were separated for so long are unraveled throughout the book.
Henrik comes from a privileged, wealthy background while Konrad is from poorer stock. They both attend a military training academy as youngsters, but Henrik is much more suited to the military life, while Konrad wishes to pursue the finer arts such as music. When Henrik’s father (a military man himself) meets Konrad for the first time, he states to his son that his friend will never be suited to the military because he is a ‘different sort of man.’
As they meet at Henrik’s castle for the first time in four decades, they discuss at first what they have been doing during that time, and then come to the reasons why these two friends have not seen each other for so long. The background to the story involves the first 80 or so pages, and then a dinner party discussion between the two goes on for the remaining part of the novel. Most of this discussion is a one-sided monologue by Henrik. In fact, Henrik goes on speaking about the pair’s past for almost the entire last 70 pages. While Henrik’s monologue goes on much too long, some of the passages were beautifully written:
The feeling that bound me to my mother and to you and to Krisztina was always the same, a longing, a hope in search of something, a helpless, sad yearning. For we always love the ‘other,’ we always seek it out, no matter what the circumstances and sudden changes in our lives….The greatest secret and the greatest gift any of us can be offered is the chance for two ’similar’ people to meet. It happens so rarely — it must be because nature uses all its force and cunning to prevent such harmony — perhaps it’s that creation and the renewal of life need the tension that is generated between two people of opposite temperaments who seek each other out. Like an alternating current. . . an exchange of energy between positive and negative poles, think of all the despair and the blind hope that lie behind this duality.
The book has quite a bit of suspense to it. I was definitely interested and engaged and wanted to know the pair’s secret, but at the end, it just didn’t quite satisfy. I would like to re-read this someday as a translation from the Hungarian to English. This translation was in English from the German translation of the original Hungarian, which doesn’t seem like it would quite work. In fact, I noticed in a few spots that the same words or phrases were repeated too close together. In one instance, ‘prettified’ was a word used twice in close proximity, and it just didn’t fit. I would read more by this author, though, if there were direct translations available.
1942, 213 pp.
Rating: 3.5
Also reviewed by:
Popularity: 49% [?]
Friday, June 8th, 2007The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
The Eyre Affair
by Jasper Fforde
2002, 374 pp.
Rating: 4
Literary allusions, time travel, a mystery to solve, and a protagonist named Thursday Next–what more could you want in a mystery/fantasy novel? I really enjoyed this book. There is just the right amount of mystery, fantasy, romance, and even comedy to suit just about anybody. With people named Jack Schitt, Braxton Hicks, and other punny names, I found myself laughing quite a bit through this book.
Thursday Next is a LiteraTec–a sort of literary detective. She reads, time travels, investigates lit crimes, and still finds time to pine over a man at the end of the day. I definitely look forward to reading more of Ms. Next’s adventures.
- Nyssaneala - June 17, 2007
- I love the Thursday Next series. Do you know the next book in the series is coming out in July?
Popularity: 9% [?]
Saturday, May 5th, 2007Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
Eat, Pray, Love
by Elizabeth Gilbert
2006, 352 pp.
Rating: 3.5 (Edit: I changed it from a 4)
Caveat! I didn’t like the book much. I’m giving it a ‘4′ because of the brilliant writing.
Subtitled One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia, Elizabeth Gilbert’s book about “finding herself” after a divorce is, well, interesting to say the least. She is frank, candid, brutally honest, and bares all in this travel memoir. I do give her this: she is a brilliant writer and narrator (I listened to the audio CD). The problem was, though, that after finishing the book, I found I really didn’t like it much. It is an easy read/listen, with a little ‘too much information’ sometimes, if you know what I mean. I also didn’t agree with almost any of her decisions or with her conclusions about God and spirituality, though I’m sure she’s not asking me to, either! Still, I rated it a ‘4′ because I want to recognize her writing talents.
She goes through a messy divorce and travels through the three “I” countries listed above. She learns Italian and eats a lot of pasta in Italy (the Eat in the title), she “finds God” in India (the Pray), and she finds love (the Love in the title) in Indonesia. She makes it all very interesting, that’s for sure. I do recommend this book because it is always fascinating to take a peak at other women’s lives and their viewpoints, and as I said, the writing is excellent. In some ways, though, books like these always reinforce my own beliefs and viewspoints as well.
- Lisa - May 5, 2007
- I am sad that you didn’t like this! I loved it so much. It was so easy to read and just flowed for me. I am dying to go to Italy, so that may be part of my love.
- Bybee - May 30, 2007
- I’m going to try this book because I really enjoyed her first one, The Last American Man.
Popularity: 25% [?]
Wednesday, March 21st, 2007Everyman by Philip Roth
Everyman
by
Philip Roth
2006
182 pp.
Rating: 1
Everyman could have been a good book. If only. . . Had he not. . . I will get to those details later.
The book traces a 70-something man’s history of his health problems, his three marriages, and his affairs. After doing some research on Roth, I wondered if it is a bit autobiographical. At the end of the novel, he regrets his life. His sons and his ex-wives hate him, and he doesn’t get to spend time with the one person he does love, his daughter Nancy. He is even jealous of his brother’s good health and stops calling him–a brother who has always been there for him. There are lessons to be learned from the novel, sure, but here is my objection to it.
He could have written this novel without the graphic s * x scenes. It really does border on p * r n. How such a le wd book could be awarded the PEN/Faulkner is beyond me. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone.
An NPR interview with Philip Roth about the book Everyman is here.
- booklogged - March 21, 2007
- Thanks for the warning. I’ll skip this one.
- Wendy - March 21, 2007
- I’ve never read Roth…and I’m reluctant to because he doesn’t sound like the type of writer I’d like to read. This to me sounds a bit self-absorbed. I’ll skip it! Thanks for the review!
- raidergirl3 - March 25, 2007
- I read Roth’s The Human Stain last year, and it made my most hated books. I finished it, barely, but found it boring, I hated the characters, couldn’t find anythng likeable about the plot,characters or writing. There was a movie with Anthony Hopkins, so I knew the gist of the story, and that didn’t help at all. Now that I’ve read your review of another of his books: Blech on Roth!
Popularity: 13% [?]
Monday, March 12th, 2007The Echo Maker by Richard Powers
I’ve been wanting to read The Echo Maker for several reasons. I always like to read novels that are set close to where I grew up–on the prairie in the Colorado/Nebraska/Kansas region. This novel is set in Kearney, Nebraska, where my sister currently lives. I like to read award-winning novels, and The Echo Maker won the 2006 National Book Award. Also, it is one of the books in the New York Times Notable Book Challenge, in which I am participating. Lastly, it concerns Capgras and Cotard’s Syndromes, and I have an intense interest in these because I know a person who experienced them.
Warning: there may be some minor spoilers below.
Mark Schluter has been in a rollover accident and has sustained a severe head injury. As Mark starts to get better, he insists that his sister is an impostor. He also doesn’t recognize his dog, Blackie. He begins to think that his home has been duplicated and perhaps the whole community has as well.
His sister Karin (Mark calls her Kopy Karin and Karbon Karin) is devastated when he refuses to accept her as his sister, and she calls in a nationally known doctor who has written several popular books on brain disorders. “Shrinky” as Mark calls him, comes to Kearney, runs a few tests, consults with Mark’s doctor, and then goes home. Is he truly interested in Mark’s case or does he just want another “story” for his new book? Mark does trust “Shrinky,” though, as well as his nurse’s aide Barbara–two people he did not know before the accident. Much of Mark’s time is spent trying to figure out who wrote a mysterious note found on his nightstand in the hospital.
“I am No One
but Tonight on North Line Road
GOD led me to you
so You could live and bring back someone else.”
We do find out who wrote the note, how the accident occurred, and if Mark gets well again. Contrary to some bad reviews of the book, I liked how the characters were developed–even if some weren’t likable. While I was interested in the various characters’ thoughts and feelings, I thought some of it extraneous. I appreciated the setting (of course) and the descriptions of the birds. I didn’t like the vulgar language and s*xual content, but I guess that is the norm in a modern novel today.
Also, I’m not sure why, when referring to prairie farm people, certain very negative subjects have to always be brought up. The people I know from the area are the most decent in the entire USA, and I’m always sad to see it when they are portrayed with negative qualities that might occur in less than 0.5% of the population of the region.
All in all, I’m glad I read the novel because of the reasons I stated in the first paragraph. I’m not sure that most readers would appreciate it, though.
Note: After doing a little research after I read the book, I found a book that contains very similar individual case descriptions that are mentioned in The Echo Maker:
Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind By V.S. Ramachandran, M.D., Ph.D., and Sandra Blakeslee. New York, William Morrow, 1998, 328 pp.
2006, 451 pp.
Rating: 4
Popularity: 11% [?]