I try to read books by 20th century authors in publication order, but with Kerouac that is tricky because of his odd publication history. His debut noI try to read books by 20th century authors in publication order, but with Kerouac that is tricky because of his odd publication history. His debut novel, The Town and the City, was published in 1950. He was unable to get any other books published until On the Road came out in 1957. His incredible sudden fame from that book nearly ruined his precarious mental health, but most of the other books he had written before 1957 began to be released.
Desolation Angels was written in 1956 as he awaited a publication date for On the Road. It is somewhat different from other of his novels, in that he wrote it from journals he kept about his tenure as a fire watcher, when he was studying Buddhism and trying his best to practice it. Then he came down from Desolation Peak, returned to his friends, his drinking and drug taking, and his on the road life.
All his famous friends are with him, though called by pseudonyms: William Burroughs, Neal Cassady, Allen Ginsberg and others. This journey began in San Francisco and led to Mexico, New York City, Tangiers, France and London. He wrote every day!
But I could tell that by the time he returned to New York he was not in a good state. He surely was not ready for the fame, attention and burdens that came with his most famous book. Even though his dream came true, it was not the dream he wanted. He could no more fit into society than he ever had before.
I know this is an old story for creative people. The very consciousness that enabled their art was not at ease in the commercial world. How can one be a true Buddhist in our insane world?
Still, I love Kerouac unconditionally. Reading him opens my consciousness and loosens the constrictions I live and write under. ...more
This was the last book on my 1965 reading list. So, after two years, I have finally finished that list. (If you want to see the books that I read publThis was the last book on my 1965 reading list. So, after two years, I have finally finished that list. (If you want to see the books that I read published in 1965, click on the "books-from-1965" in the bookshelves/tags link above this review.)
White Lotus was an extremely challenging read for me. In fact, when I finally finished it, I could hardly read at all for a few days.
John Hersey takes on slavery and racism in a speculative story. He posits that America lost a war with China and in his very long story, the Chinese (the Yellows) capture American white people and take them off to China in ships to be slaves.
Then he loosely parallels the Civil Rights movement as it played out up to the mid-1960s in America. The main character, a fifteen-year-old girl from a village in Arizona, narrates the story over many years. She is named White Lotus by her first Chinese master's wife.
Hersey goes deeply into her psyche, meticulously following her every thought. She is rebellious and consistently falls for strong but unreliable men. Her sufferings as a slave and then as a free white in various Chinese cities, stand in for the stages of rising out of the degradation of being a slave (all brutally described) to regaining a sense of self and developing concepts of rebellion and non-violent protest. Interestingly, it is Chinese Buddhists who are against slavery.
This is a long book and the 667 pages felt like 2000 pages. Reading it was a process of pushing through unremitting barriers. I suppose Hersey did indeed create in me, the reader, the confusions and sufferings and hopelessness of the conditions of slavery. I was just a bit suspicious about his method because he was reporting on an experience he never lived through as a white American.
He was a reporter first and foremost who came to recognition with his report made into a book, Hiroshima, after it was published in The New Yorker in 1946. Then he turned to fiction. I have read all seven of his previous novels and I will probably read the rest because I admire his inquisitive and imaginative writing about the human condition....more
I am closing in on finishing my reading list for 1965. I put 74 books on this list and I have been reading from it for nearly two years. 1965 was a piI am closing in on finishing my reading list for 1965. I put 74 books on this list and I have been reading from it for nearly two years. 1965 was a pivotal year in my life, the year I graduated from high school and went off to college to begin reinventing myself.
Irwin Shaw got on the list because he had three bestsellers between 1948 and 1960 and I came to like his writing by reading those earlier. Voices of a Summer Day features Benjamin Federov, son of Jewish immigrant parents, now looking back over his life. He became a successful businessman, created a family with the love of his life, but had much difficulty remaining faithful to his wife.
I still enjoyed the writing and the story of American mid-20th century life, but reading about a man's justifications for his infidelities grew tiresome after a while. It is all fine and good for a male to "be his own man" but the women are either long-suffering, of loose morals or just flat as characters. He did cause me to examine my own marriage and our commitment to remaining faithful after finding each other amid the wreckage of our wild youths.
So I can thank Irwin Shaw for the memories....more
Andre Norton wrote so many books in her career. I am not planning to read all of them but have chosen two of her series to read through.
The first two Andre Norton wrote so many books in her career. I am not planning to read all of them but have chosen two of her series to read through.
The first two books I read begin her Estcarp series: Witch World and Web of the Witchworld. I loved them both, especially the witches!
Year of the Unicorn begins the other series: The High Halleck books. Set in the same invented world but on a different angle. The main character, Gillan, is a witch too. She does not know that yet, being a foundling who was raised in a convent in a High Halleck town.
Gillan has never felt at home there and senses a will within her to be free and somewhere else. She makes her escape only to find herself in great danger, but begins to discover some of her witch powers. Thus the two series become connected and parallel.
That strong will Gillan possesses gets her through the the dangers despite some deep psychological issues. I could not help thinking of my own will and how it has both gotten me into plenty of trouble and out of oppressive situations in my life.
The fantasy elements in these books are so wonderfully rendered. As good as any I have read including Lord of the Rings. Better in some cases because they are written by a female author who had to create a male-sounding pen name to break into publishing in the 1960s....more
I liked this one, perhaps the most, of the twelve PKD books I have read. His biographer, Lawrence Sutin (Divine Invasions), agrees with me. He claims I liked this one, perhaps the most, of the twelve PKD books I have read. His biographer, Lawrence Sutin (Divine Invasions), agrees with me. He claims it was PKD's first sci fi novel in which the author makes it work his way. John Lennon read and admired it (explains a lot about John Lennon.) Sutin calls it "a moving parable on the nature of reality and the struggle for our eternal souls."
That struggle, as it is portrayed, is what I found meaningful. Palmer Eldritch personifies the struggle, but who is he anyway with his three stigmata?
I doubt I will forget this story. It has the virtue of extending circumstances from Medieval times to 21st century times. I mean, don't you feel in the midst of a struggle for our eternal souls? I do....more
I am gradually filling in the Anne Tyler books I've not read. The Tin Can Tree is her second novel.
Set in a small Southern town, it concerns the Pike I am gradually filling in the Anne Tyler books I've not read. The Tin Can Tree is her second novel.
Set in a small Southern town, it concerns the Pike family who have lost their six-year-old daughter in an accident involving a tractor. Ten-year-old Simon only knows that his mother has retreated into her bedroom and does not come out.
The Pikes live in a row house, three small homes attached to each other with a front porch that spans the whole building. The inhabitants have known each other for ages. These characters are all as individual and odd as Tyler's characters usually are.
Through awkward encounters with each other they muddle through the aftereffects of little Janie's death. It is a story of people doing only what they know how to do to deal with their own and each other's troubles and messy lives.
I don't recall how I learned of Andre Norton but I am so glad I did. She was an American author of science fiction and fantasy. She changed her given I don't recall how I learned of Andre Norton but I am so glad I did. She was an American author of science fiction and fantasy. She changed her given name of Mary to Andre while she was still in school so boys would not be afraid to read her stories. That was in the 1930s.
I started with her Witch World Series, first published in 1963. Three Against the Witch World is the third in that series. Killen, Kemoc, and Kathlea are triplets born of Simon Tegarth, an earthman and his wife Jaelithe, a rebel with who sacrificed some, but not all, of her witch power to marry Simon.
These three siblings are now young adults. They each have a special gift: warrior, sage and witch, and can communicate telepathically. In this story they flee from danger to the mysterious and ancient land east beyond high mountains. In doing so they awaken an even greater peril and must resolve age old conflicts in the Witch World.
It takes a certain bit of concentration to read these books but that is rewarded by a tale full of danger, adventure and a deep wisdom. No wonder she was named The Grande Dame of Science Fiction and Fantasy....more
Another great and psychologically creepy novel by Ms Highsmith. In this one Sydney, a writer, and Alicia, a painter, are unhappily married. Highsmith'Another great and psychologically creepy novel by Ms Highsmith. In this one Sydney, a writer, and Alicia, a painter, are unhappily married. Highsmith's couples are never happily married.
I am not telling the plot here. What is great about this one is that Sydney's imaginations as a mystery-script writer become inextricably entwined with read life.
This is one of only two books I have read by an author whose last name begins (and ends) with X. The other one was Intern by Doctor X, also autobiograThis is one of only two books I have read by an author whose last name begins (and ends) with X. The other one was Intern by Doctor X, also autobiographical.
I have read Malcolm X's book before. Read it again this time for a reading group. In between I've read many books about racism and Civil Rights in America. I mention some of those below, but it all came together while I reread it.
Malcolm told his life story to Alex Haley, who conducted hours of interviews with the man between 1963 and 1965, right up to Malcolm's assassination.
It is a long and powerful story that reveals another facet of the fight for racial justice and equality. A classic, made into an equally powerful movie by Spike Lee in 1992, who took his source material for the script from a screenplay written by James Baldwin and Andrew Pearl in 1971.
James Baldwin's essay "Down at the Cross," from his book The Fire Next Time, about his meeting with Elijah Muhammad, leader of the Nation of Islam, is Baldwin at his perceptive and cynical best.
Claude Brown's Manchild in the Promised Land, also published in 1965, contains scenes where he is being recruited for the Nation of Islam, but declines. Brown's experiences growing up in Harlem parallel Malcolm's years there as a young man.
In the biography of James Baldwin by David Leeming, I read about Baldwin's relationship with Malcolm and about his efforts to get the screenplay made.
Finally, in Pillar of Fire, Taylor Branch's second volume of his biography of Martin Luther King, I read about the scandal in the Nation of Islam which caused Malcolm X to leave that organization.
The epilogue at the end of The Autobiography of Malcolm X, written by Alex Haley, covers the last days of Malcolm's life. Pursued by NOI assassins, working feverishly to get his message out, while trying to provide for his wife and daughters after he is gone, it presents a man who has grown into his true mission but who knows he will soon be dead. The incident that ended his life and the funeral make up the final gut punch....more
John Nichols is the author of The Milagro Beanfield War. I have not read that yet but the movie adaptation (1988) was great. I guess that is how he goJohn Nichols is the author of The Milagro Beanfield War. I have not read that yet but the movie adaptation (1988) was great. I guess that is how he got on my Big Fat Reading Project lists.
The Sterile Cuckoo was published in 1965 and was his debut novel. It was also adapted for a film in 1968. On his website he calls it a "wacky college romance." It is that and is wacky because of the female character Pookie Adams. She is probably the most unusual female I have come across in novels and that is saying something because I seek out unusual female character in my reading.
I enjoyed Pookie, I enjoyed the story. Lots of sex and drinking and crazy fraternity buddies and that uncertain groping that goes along with first love, college, first sex and first heartbreak....more
This is Iris Murdoch's 9th novel as well as her first and only historical novel. (I am reading her books in order of publication.)
The story is set in This is Iris Murdoch's 9th novel as well as her first and only historical novel. (I am reading her books in order of publication.)
The story is set in Ireland, the country of her birth. The scene is Dublin, 1916, and covers the week leading up to the Easter Rising, a doomed attempt to fight against the English.
The extended Irish family who people the story are a mix of native Irish and Anglo/Irish, of Catholic and Protestant. The many intricate social and political strands of Ireland in the early 20th century gave me even more insight into a country that fascinates me but also refuses to let me truly understand it.
As always with Murdoch, her characters are conflicted, there are love stories, and she is investigating the question of freedom. I never did quite determine the significance of the title. Who or what are the red and who or what are the green? Can anyone help me on that?...more
This is another book I learned about from a book blogger. The blurb on the back of the New York Review of Books reprint I read (obtained from the librThis is another book I learned about from a book blogger. The blurb on the back of the New York Review of Books reprint I read (obtained from the library) claims it is an acknowledged masterpiece of modern world literature.
For me, it was another book about the problem of burying a dead body, as in As I Lay Dying by Faulkner. In this case, a small South Indian town populated mainly by Brahmins (the highest caste in Hinduism, from which Hindu priests are drawn) is thrown into chaos by the death of an inhabitant who is looked upon as a renegade. Should he be buried as a Brahmin or not?
The characters resemble what I suppose one would find in any small town. When agreement cannot be reached, they turn to the most devout priest for an answer. He is hard pressed to decide.
Though the life, customs, and religion are somewhat foreign to me except for what I have learned in books, I enjoyed the story. As the body festers, as all the Brahmins must fast until the burial is accomplished, as a plague creeps into the village, the priest and many of the other characters including some of the women, are forced to examine their lives and beliefs in order to find the answer....more
Next up on my 1965 reading list is one of Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover tales; #16 in chronological order, but I am reading them in order of publicNext up on my 1965 reading list is one of Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover tales; #16 in chronological order, but I am reading them in order of publication, so #4.
It is a tale of boyhood friendship across social and political boundaries. Larry Montray, 16 years old, has just arrived on Darkover from Earth. Kennard Alton, the other teen, is the son of a Darkover Lord.
Larry befriends Kennard in the marketplace where he is allowed to go by his space commander father. Soon he is caught up in the kidnappping of Kennard with possible disastrous consequences between the spacers and the natives.
The writing is great, of course. There are empaths and psychics, feuds, bandits and danger. The theme, as always in this series, is how can these two peoples come together in understanding and technological expertise?
This was an interesting and well-written novel about a young rabbi finding his way in the first half of 20th century America. Grandson of an immigrantThis was an interesting and well-written novel about a young rabbi finding his way in the first half of 20th century America. Grandson of an immigrant orthodox rabbi, he was a sensitive man who studied his Hebrew diligently and tried his best to fulfill the role of Rabbi.
He married a Christian woman who converted to Judaism for her love of him. That was often an issue for both, as they moved around the United States following his assignments to various temples.
Thus Noah Gordon portrayed many of the religious and social situations during those years. But his wife had a tragic past with her strict Christian father, a minister. Sexual mores of the times figure quite a bit in the novel. As their two children grew up she fell into a deep depression and was treated with electric shock, the approved but barbaric solution in the 1950s. That shocked me!
I could never tell, while reading, how it would all work out for this family in the end. The recipe for a good read!...more
This is the third book I have read by Fletcher Knebel. His first two were 1960s best sellers co-written with Charles W Bailey II: Seven Days in May anThis is the third book I have read by Fletcher Knebel. His first two were 1960s best sellers co-written with Charles W Bailey II: Seven Days in May and Convention. Both were journalists with their fingers on the pulse of American political life during the Cold War.
Night of Camp David, written only by Knebel, proposes a situation in which the President of the United States appears to have gone stark-staring mad. Not surprisingly this novel we reissued in 2018.
A junior senator is escorted to the current President's Camp David residence where the country's leader relates to the senator an insane plan to create peace in the world and make America a great power again. He lets the senator know he intends to name him as his next Vice President.
The inexperienced senator feels he must alert certain top government officials and off we go into the deeply weird ways of politics in America.
I found the book hard to put down, well-written with the suspense and psychological undertones of a true thriller.
This is Alison Lurie's second novel. I was delighted to find this author when I read her debut 1962 novel, Love and Friendship. She wrote with intelliThis is Alison Lurie's second novel. I was delighted to find this author when I read her debut 1962 novel, Love and Friendship. She wrote with intelligence, humor and a perceptive understanding of both women and men.
In The Nowhere City she adds a savvy insight into the changing mid-1960s mores and the culture shock inherent in changing coasts.
Paul Cattleman, with a PhD in history, takes a job in Los Angeles when he can't find a decently paying professorship in New England academia. His wife Katherine is a bit of a hothouse flower whose sinus troubles quickly become chronic in the smoggy air.
Each of these mismatched partners lives through personal changes and growth. The funny parts reveal that the West Coast penchant for "finding oneself," always mocked even to this day on the East Coast, turns out to be true.
With scintillating descriptions of the cultural flashpoints in America's so-called city of dreams, of the inherent superficiality found even in its business world, Lurie brings her main characters to a nuanced understanding of themselves. Katherine wins the game. Paul returns to play out his philandering ways in the safety of convention.
As I have observed in my long reading of 20th century fiction from 1940 on, each decade reaches a turning point midway from the traditional to the modern. The Nowhere City fits right into that pattern and is, in fact, rather ahead of its time for 1965....more
In Cormac McCarthy's debut novel I found the voice he has always had. Now, that is not unusual for an author but to find it so fully formed in a debutIn Cormac McCarthy's debut novel I found the voice he has always had. Now, that is not unusual for an author but to find it so fully formed in a debut is.
The location is rural Tennessee, the time is between the two World Wars, and one of the main characters is a bootlegger named Marion Sylder. John Wesley Rattner is a young boy who has lost his father. Along with John's Uncle Ather, the two men become father figures and mentors for the boy.
All of these characters are constantly on the move through the mountains, the local small town and the paths and roads that connect it all. So that grimy, ruined-world milieu found in The Road was formed from the get go in McCarthy's literary terrain along with men who embrace danger in order to stay alive and maintain a ruthless independence.
I was thrown into this world, both natural and human, by McCarthy's wondrous and propulsive writing. All the while, I knew I would be hard pressed to survive in such a setting but I loved being there. John Wesley Rattner is a boy straight out of Dickens, Twain and even Alexandre Dumas or Carlos Ruiz Zafon.
Best of all is the mystery of how Sylder the bootlegger and Uncle Ather, the orchard keeper, form this triangle with John, the boy....more
Some readers like to complain about John Updike. I rather like him. I am reading his novels in order of publication and since Of the Farm is only his Some readers like to complain about John Updike. I rather like him. I am reading his novels in order of publication and since Of the Farm is only his fourth novel, I have a ways to go.
So far, I have found a white male heterosexual WASP trying to understand women and his relationships to them in an earnest quest. I admire that. If more men could speak in such eloquent and interesting sentences, it would help everyone.
Here we have a man on his second marriage visiting his cranky aging mother on her farm with his new wife and stepson in tow. Mom did not like his first wife; he is hoping she will like the second.
Mom does not seem to like anyone much, including her deceased husband. She is chronically disappointed in her only child. She speaks her mind bluntly.
Perhaps I felt so at home in this novel because my mom did not like my first husband (though she was always polite with him) and my older son's wife does not like me. Whatever we are all trying to do in our relationships, there is always and forever friction. Marriage is an exercise in melding all the baggage two people bring from their respective families. It could be laughable but we know it really is not....more
I don't know how I discovered Ellis Peters but it was a lucky thing for me as a reader. This is the fourth in her Felse crime series, named after DeteI don't know how I discovered Ellis Peters but it was a lucky thing for me as a reader. This is the fourth in her Felse crime series, named after Detective George Felse.
George, his wife and his 18 year old son Dominic are on holiday in Cornwall. When Dominic rescues a boy from the rocky waters of the bay near their hotel, he meets the boy's uncle, a journalist investigating a centuries old tomb in the town's graveyard.
It seems everyone in small town Maymouth is connected. The coastal town has a history of smuggling rum, among other things. The 18th century couple whose tomb is about to be opened were involved.
Once the tomb is exhumed, all manner of secrets spill out. Several mysteries twist and turn within several families. Dominic, my favorite character in the series, is instrumental in solving a tangled story.
I love Ellis Peters's sparkling prose. Her characters are rich, both young and old; she does family and romantic relationships with humor and grace. For this reader she always keeps the pace at least a few steps ahead of my comprehension. Good for me that there are still nine more books in the series to enjoy....more
It seems as though I have always known of this book. Now I have finally read it. It made a huge splash in 1965. James BAnother book from my 1965 list.
It seems as though I have always known of this book. Now I have finally read it. It made a huge splash in 1965. James Baldwin called it "a tremendous achievement." Toni Morrison was once one of Brown's teachers. Even Tom Wolfe and Norman Mailer liked it.
Claude Brown was born and grew up in Harlem in the 1940s. His parent were part of the Great Migration, escaping Jim Crow and heading for the "promised land" of Negro spirituals. By the age of six, Claude was on the streets, learning to overcome his ever-present fears by fighting and then stealing. He became very good at both and by the age of eight was in a place for delinquent children. There he learned more skills for stealing but also met a great man who eventually influenced him toward a more positive way of living.
He put all of this experience into his book which has sold well for all the years since. He tells all there is to tell about life on the streets of Harlem, about how heroin transformed his neighborhood into an even more dangerous environment but how jazz brought life and light. He managed to avoid heroin, never to get a "sheet" which is a record for armed robbery and/or murder. He eventually finished high school, became a jazz pianist and a writer, went to college.
His eloquence about how he emerged from confusion about himself, about being part of a minority, about how to navigate between Harlem and the rest of New York City, is what raises the book above any hint of sensationalism. For those of us who grew up in relative safety, he brings an antidote for looking down on those who grew up in poverty and discrimination.
Martin Luther King believed that the moral arc of history tends toward justice. That is a hard concept to hold, especially in these times, but as long as stories such as this are published around the world, perhaps we can keep the faith a while longer....more