All right, I finally did it -- I finished a Victorian novel and finished a Zola.
My cursory research tells me that this was not considered the best of All right, I finally did it -- I finished a Victorian novel and finished a Zola.
My cursory research tells me that this was not considered the best of Zola's novels, but in recent years, its ranking has risen.
La Curee, or The Kill, has two basic themes -- economic corruption, centered on the character of Aristide Saccard, who used sheer willpower and a lack of any moral compunction to build his wealth (while always being on the verge of collapse). The other theme is moral corruption, characterized by his beautiful younger wife, Renee Saccard, who has several affairs, but then one particularly disastrous one that becomes the central example of moral disintegration in the book.
The setting is Paris in the Second Empire, 1852-1870, when Napoleon III led a final period of monarchy in France. It was during this era that Paris as a city was completely terraformed and reshaped under the direction of George-Eugene Haussmann, and that becomes the canvas which Zola uses to paint economic corruption. The basic scheme in which Aristide and his cronies engage is buying up properties with advance knowledge of where new streets will be laid out, then inflating their value through various paperwork shenanigans and then making a killing (the source of the novel's title) when the government expropriates the properties.
After the death of his first wife, Saccard woos the beautiful Renee, and for several years she becomes the toast of Paris high society, in part because of the enormously expensive dressmakers' budget she sustains. She lives in their new palatial home with Aristide (who is rarely there when she is) and her stepson Maxime, a sexually ambiguous young man who loves to associate with high society women and who becomes a sort of pet for all of them.
Without having to do spoiler alerts, I'll simply say that the relationship between Renee and the much younger stepson continues to evolve in destructive ways, and that what Zola seemed to want to portray most strongly is their absolute lack of a moral center. Whatever desire or impulse struck their fancy, they felt free to pursue, much as Aristide did in the financial sphere.
At the end of the book, some of the main characters face bleakness -- but others seem to be unscarred by their unseemly behavior. It's a rich portrait of societal degradation at a time when wealth inequality in France was greater than during the Gilded Age in the United States.
The only reason I held back a star was because I am just not completely suited to the long digressions and descriptive passages in these classic novels. Certain lengthy descriptions of the landscape or of the plants in the Saccard's greenhouse I could have done without.
On the other hand, he does a brilliant job of painting the excesses and decadence of these citizens in depicting a final party thrown at the Saccard villa, complete with a living tableau featuring the high society women in mythological costumes and a long and increasingly frenetic ball afterward.
In the end, I felt this was well worth the time I invested in it, and I am encouraged to tackle one of Zola's top classics, perhaps Germinal. ...more
This first-time novel is getting a lot of buzz, and for the most part I think it's well deserved.
Annie is 9 months pregnant when she decides to go shThis first-time novel is getting a lot of buzz, and for the most part I think it's well deserved.
Annie is 9 months pregnant when she decides to go shopping for a crib at Ikea in Portland, Oregon. That's when a massive earthquake strikes (based on real life predictions of a coming cataclysm there) And Annie barely survives being trapped under collapsed boxes and shelves.
From that point on, the story alternates between Annie 's sometimes perilous journey on foot across Portland to try to find her husband, and flashbacks that show their troubled marriage. Annie wanted to be a playwright and had one play produced but now works in a soulless job for a tech company. Her husband is an actor who has had very little success but won't give up his dreams of being famous, causing constant tensions in the family.
The family saga gives extra dimension to what is otherwise a well-told disaster story, as Annie witnesses not only the severe physical destruction of the city but the breakdown of personal and group behavior as people become more desperate.
The book ends dramatically and abruptly, but I won't say anything more to avoid spoiler alerts.
I found this to be very enjoyable and highly readable....more
This was my favorite entry in the series so far. It seems as though Gilman was hitting her stride in finding a balance between Emily Pollifax's naivetThis was my favorite entry in the series so far. It seems as though Gilman was hitting her stride in finding a balance between Emily Pollifax's naivete and closeted life on the one hand, and her intuition and bravery in espionage situations on the other hand.
In this novel, Emily is sent to Bulgaria to hand over some passports to an underground group, but of course, she gets involved in much more than that. She meets some young college travelers on the way, and is affected by the way one young one young man seems to be so ill. She later realizes he has disappeared somewhere inside Bulgaria, and before long, she is heading up a plot to rescue him from a psychiatric prison, with the help of the aforementioned underground, a task she was not sent to do -- but of course, this is Mrs. Pollifax, and what else would happen?
I won't give away any more details to avoid spoiler alerts, but this had the usual fine balance between adventure, humor, and of course, the required suspension of disbelief. It also includes a comic set piece of a stern tour guide from the government who is constantly frustrated by Mrs. Pollifax's unwillingness to follow directions.
Another satisfying entry in the Mrs. Pollifax series
This one is set almost entirely in Turkey, as Emily Pollifax is sent to meet up with a longtime dAnother satisfying entry in the Mrs. Pollifax series
This one is set almost entirely in Turkey, as Emily Pollifax is sent to meet up with a longtime double agent, Magda Ferenci-Sabo. As usual, the fledgling courier is supposed to meet Magda, get a mysterious package, and return.
Of course it doesn't work out that way. Soon bodies start piling up and Emily, accompanied by a young British expatriate who's not supposed to be involved, is on the run in a battered van, trying to dispose of a corpse and keep the threatened Magda alive.
Eventually, Emily and her compatriots are in the protection of a band of gypsies with whom Magda has formed a connection, and trying to stay one step ahead of yet another double agent, a Turkish professor who Emily's boss mistakenly thinks is an ally.
One of the best parts of this book is that the gypsies are depicted with respect. On the other hand, the main bad guy, Professor Guillaume Belleaux, borders on the cartoonish, which is the only reason I downgraded this one star.
Gilman even throws in a last-minute twist on one of the characters to add an extra fillip of satisfaction
I can't remember how I was alerted to this series, which was written between 1966 and 2000, but my first exposure was utterly delightful.
Emily PollifaI can't remember how I was alerted to this series, which was written between 1966 and 2000, but my first exposure was utterly delightful.
Emily Pollifax is a genteel widow with a nosy neighbor whose children are grown and who has become quite bored with her life. So, improbably, she marches down to CIA headquarters and inquires at to whether there are any spying jobs available.
Rather than being unceremoniously ushered out, she catches the attention of a CIA administrator, Mr. Carstairs, who has the need for an unknown courier in Mexico City to pick up some important documents.
And so Emily Pollifax of New Brunswick NJ is suddenly en route to Mexico. Of course, things do not go as planned. The bookstore owner she was supposed to meet disappears, she is kidnapped and drugged and finds herself in the company of an experienced American agent who's in the same predicament.
Before long, they are deep in the mountains of Albania, and the rest of the story tracks their attempts (successful, of course) to win their freedom.
What Gilman does so well with Mrs. Pollifax is that she keeps her from being a complete bumbling amateur on the one hand, but also shows her slowly, on the fly, learning how to become a spy and do spy-like things.
When she describes the elaborate and then highly improvised escape attempt, Gilman shows that Emily is good at thinking on her feet and can use her grandmotherly demeanor to her advantage, without ever being a hardened professional. She also does an excellent job of humanizing her characters, including the stereotypically evil ones.