Happy Birthday, Philip Roth

Philip Roth, who surprised so many of us a few weeks ago by announcing that he had written his last novel, turns 80 tomorrow.  As a fan of his writing for more than four decades, I was both shocked and disappointed by his announcement.  He is one of the great ones, and it still feels strange for me not to wonder what is coming next from his pen.

I was reminded of Roth's milestone birthday this morning when I received an announcement from Library of America that their  final two volumes of Roth's work are available.  This brings the Roth collection to nine books totaling more than 7,000 pages, and it places the author in remarkable company.  To date, he is the second most published LOA author, trailing only Henry James's sixteen volumes, and being one ahead of Mark Twain's eight. 

(If you are unfamiliar with Library of America and its mission, please consider purchasing some of their wonderful books.  LOA is a nonprofit publisher and deserves (and really needs) the support of America's book lovers.)

The first video (from 2011) shown below is one of the best Philip Roth interviews I have ever seen, and the second, from CNN, captures a bit of the general shock at Roth's retirement announcement.






 Happy Birthday, Mr. Roth - and thank you.

Celebrating Pride and Prejudice

Although Jane Austen began writing Pride and Prejudice in 1796, and first offered it for publication the following year, her masterpiece would not finally be published until January 1813.  Now, the two hundredth anniversary of this literature-changing event brings much deserved new attention to the novel and its author.  And if you are one of the countless hard-core fans of Pride and Prejudice, you will not want to miss Susannah Fullerton’s Celebrating Pride and Prejudice.  Fullerton, president of Australia’s Jane Austen Society, has written an entertaining and informative history of the novel - from its conception to the worldwide love and admiration it justly claims today.

Celebrating Pride and Prejudice begins with chapters on the writing of the book, its publication (simultaneously in three volumes with an initial first printing of less than 1500 copies), and initial reaction to it.  Thankfully, as the author notes, Austen was able to enjoy the novel’s early success even though she would not be generally acknowledged as its author until her death in 1817.

Fullerton, in chapters such as the one on the book’s famous first sentence and another on its style, details and explains the groundbreaking impact of Pride and Prejudice.  She also includes individual chapters about heroine Elizabeth Bennet and her ultimate hero Fitzwilliam Darcy along with separate chapters on “Her Relations,” “His Relations,” and “Other Characters.”  One of the book’s most interesting chapters discusses illustrations and cover art associated with Pride and Prejudice over the past two centuries. 

Susannah Fullerton

But, the modern era, particularly as it relates to film and theatrical adaptations of the novel and its overall marketing, is not ignored.  Fans of the BBC Pride and Prejudice television adaptations may be surprised to learn that the 1980 version (if they have even seen it) is more true to the novel than the much more popular 1995 version starring the shirtless Colin Firth.  (And to my way of thinking, it includes the best Elizabeth Bennet ever in Elizabeth Garvie.)

The only misstep in Celebrating Pride and Prejudice is the over detailed chapter devoted to “Sequels and Adaptations,” a chapter paying way too much attention to what is commonly referred to as “fan fiction.”  Pride and Prejudice has certainly been subjected to more than its fair share of these “continuations,” “retellings,” “pornographic versions,” and the like, but being subjected to so many of their ludicrous plotlines at once makes for painful reading.

I found Celebrating Pride and Prejudice so intriguing that I followed it by re-reading Pride and Prejudice itself for the first time in at least twenty years.  And, perhaps because I had just finished Fullerton’s study, I enjoyed it more than ever.  Pride and Prejudice (and I mean this as a sincere compliment despite what I said in the previous paragraph) is romantic comedy before there was such a thing.  It is universal, a novel that can be as readily enjoyed today as it was when first published two hundred years ago.

(Review Copy provided by Publisher)

Heaven's Prisoners

Coming into 2013, one of my goals was to re-read James Lee Burke’s entire Dave Robicheaux series, capping off the year by reading Creole Belle (2012) for the first time.  That’s 19 books in all and I’m already way behind, so it probably will not happen exactly that way.  But I have just finished Heaven’s Prisoners, the second book in the series, one I consider to be a key book in the set.

Dave is long gone from the New Orleans Police Department now (although he can’t seem to stay out of that city), and has returned to New Iberia, his hometown.  He is newly married to his second wife and the two are running their own bait and tackle shop there.  It is a perfect life for Dave, something he was born to and does well – if his past, and his white knight self-image, will just allow him to get on with it.

Dave can’t win, though.  One day, while he is fishing on the Louisiana Gulf with Annie, they watch a small, two-engine plane crash into nearby waters.  The plane passes so close to the boat before slamming hard into the water that Dave has a clear view of the terrified faces looking out the plane’s windows.  Strapping on a pair of near-empty air tanks, Dave hits the water in hopes of rescuing some of the passengers.  And, largely thanks to the heroic efforts of a little girl’s mother, Dave manages to get the child out of the plane in time to save her life.  No one else survives.

James Lee Burke

Dave saw some things in the sunken plane he should not, for his own good, have seen.  After one of the bodies in the plane is left unaccounted for in the official account of the accident, Dave starts asking questions.  Some very powerful people want him to shut up – and Dave knows that he should.  But Dave, being Dave, can’t do that.  He wants the truth, and he is willing to risk everything he has (and loses much of it before this one is over) to find it.

Heaven’s Prisoners is an important Dave Robicheaux book because the little girl Dave rescues becomes Alafair Robicheaux, the only child Dave will ever have, and 17 books later she is still one of the most important people in his world – and in the series.  It is not easy growing up Dave Robicheaux’s kid, but the little Central American girl who almost died entering the country illegally will thrive and become a fan favorite over the years.

Next up in the series is Book Three, Black Cherry Blues.  

The Khaled Housseini Foundation

I'm going to do something different this evening: bring your attention to what I believe is a worthy cause that heavy-duty readers like you guys might want to help out by purchasing a bookmark.  (You have to admit that these hand embroidered bookmarks are beautiful.)

Most of you know of Khaled Housseini's books, particularly the smash success he had with The Kite Runner book and movie (thus the theme of the bookmarks shown above).  

Mr. Housseini's foundation describes its mission as follows:

The Khaled Hosseini Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, provideshumanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan. The Foundation supports projects which provide shelter to refugee families and economic and education opportunities and healthcare for women and children. In addition, the Foundation awards scholarships to women pursuing higher education in Afghanistan.

Take a look here for bookmark descriptions and more detail on where and by whom they are produced...some 1500 Afghan women help feed their families through this work.   And, if you are not into bookmarks, take a look at the page anyway to see all the other stuff available there.  (For a larger image, just click on the bookmark picture I've included.)

Thanks for considering this.

By the way, Mr. Housseini has a new novel coming in May...always a good thing.

The Crook Factory

Think what you might about Ernest Hemingway’s writing, personality, attitude toward women, etc., there is no denying that the man lived life to the fullest.  And, of course, he went out with a bang, further ensuring his legendary status in the world of American literature.  But, as detailed in the Dan Simmons novel, The Crook Factory, there is much more to the Hemingway life story than most realize.  

Lest readers be left wondering how much of the novel is based on fact, Simmons adds this clarifying note at the end of the book: “The incredible story of Ernest Hemingway’s Cuban spy-catching, submarine-chasing, World War II adventures in my new novel, The Crook Factory, is – I think – all the more incredible for being 95 percent true.”  He then goes through a list of plot twists and main characters that are based on “confirmed fact.” 

Fictional FBI man Joe Lucas, under direct orders from J. Edgar Hoover, is in Cuba to keep tabs on Hemingway and the little network of spies Hemingway is running there.  Hemingway, although he is a little suspicious of Lucas, only knows that the U.S. ambassador to Cuba will not approve the operation unless Lucas is part of the team.  He is not particularly happy to have Lucas on board, and, in turn, Lucas is unhappy because he thinks he has been assigned simply to “babysit” Hemingway long enough to keep him out of trouble – or from embarrassing the U.S. government.

But then people start dying.  And everything changes.  In this world of agents, double-agents, traitors, and professional killers, all Lucas knows is that someone wants Ernest Hemingway – and him- very, very dead.  Now, if he can figure out why, he might be able to save both their lives.

The Crook Factory is a superb World War II thriller that will, I think, leave the reader with a new appreciation for just what a wild man Ernest Hemingway really was.  Its seamless blending of fact and fiction includes appearances by the likes of: Gary Cooper, Marlene Dietrich, Ingrid Bergman, Hoover, John F. Kennedy, Ian Fleming, and other figures from both sides of the war.

Dan Simmons

The author’s account of Hemingway’s end is both so touching and so disturbing that readers will long remember it.  That such a famous man could have been so ill-treated by the medical community and his own government is shocking.  This, in combination with the incredible “missions” undertaken by Hemingway’s Crook Factory, make for engrossing reading. 

I do, however, have one word of warning.  The story involves a tremendous amount of infighting between Hoover’s FBI and the other intelligence agencies of the U.S. and Britain, and Simmons spends way too many pages explaining how it all happens  - and why.  Several long sections within the book’s first two hundred pages read more like mind-numbing pages from a bad history textbook than like content from a war thriller.  But don’t give up because the last 350 pages or so will greatly reward your patience. 

(Review Copy provided by Publisher)

Authors on Authors

As a dedicated, but strictly amateur, book reviewer, I have had my judgement questioned more than a few times - sometimes even by the author being reviewed.  That goes with the territory, of course, but it always makes me think of some of the more famous criticism directed at authors by their peers - and that makes me smile at the number of times they get it wrong.

Here are a few examples:

 He is a bad novelist and a fool.  The combination usually makes for great popularity in the U.S.  - Gore Vidal on Alexander Solzhenitsyn

...he goes on like the worker's son, like a modern-day D.H.  Lawrence, but he's just another boring little middle-class boy hustling his way to the top if he can do it. - Gore Vidal on John Updike

...he seems to suffer from American cleverness: the fear of being thought stupid, or dull, or behind the times.  I think that's a very bad attitude for the novelist to adopt...he's heading for disaster. - a little payback on Gore Vidal from Kingsley Amis

The reason Hemingway is easy to read is that he repeats himself all the time, using "and" for padding.  Tom Wolfe on Ernest Hemingway

My favorite is a comment that Hemingway made in a letter to Charles Scribner about the writing of James Jones.  But I hesitate to quote the obscenity-laced comment here (also, its repulsive images).  Look that one up on the internet sometime...or email me and I'll get it back to you.