Yeah, the ending doesn’t really work for me. It’s ambiguous, but it’s the first real glimmer of long-term hope in the book, and I agree that it undercuts the book’s theme (as I understand it). It feels like a completely understandable copout: the bleakness up to that point is almost unbearable, and it felt like McCarthy himself cracked under its weight.
And hey: we’re all mortal. If you’re not religious, we’re all living the life of the protagonist. We’re gonna keep on slogging until eventually we die. There’s no hope. How do we survive, knowing that?
I mean, sure, and I think there’s something to be said for the central premise of the book, which is how to prepare your child for an unforgiving world without you in it. That is something all parents have to do.
I don’t particularly view existence as bleak so much as inherently meaningless, but I’m more than equipped to imbue it with the meaning of my choice, which is kind of cool (I think fundamentally I am just an existentialist.)
I finished that a few weeks back. It is Connelly’s latest, and it is engaging.
He switches back and forth in the narrative when he switches from the perspective of Haller to Bosch and back again. It really didn’t bother me at all, but I was listening to an audio book. Don’t know if that would make a difference or not.
The book arrived a couple of days ago. Once opened I couldn.t put it down.
Years ago I read Ansons’ journal and did wonder about the fate of the ships that became separated. This book completes the story. I especially liked his recounting, in the epilog and notes, of the authors’ visit to the site. And his details of the encounter with the Kawesqar.
The Wager is in my audiobook queue, and I’m definitely gonna listen. A good friend who, like me, loves the Aubrey/Maturin books, highly recommended it.
In the The Reversal, Connelly used the same technique. The Mickey Haller chapters were first person and Bosch the third. IIRC, all the Haller books are told first person.
A couple of the Bosch books were written in the first person, too. I think both took place when he was working as a private investigator.
Finished A River Runs Through It, by Norman Maclean, which is beautifully written. It reminds me of another great book with a fishing theme, The River Why, by David James Duncan.
Now I’m reading The Mind of the Maker, by Dorothy L. Sayers.
I read Bounce by Matthew Syed. Well, I read most of it. It’s a book for popular audiences about the “science of success,” with a focus on the things besides and beyond talent that lead to greatness in sports and elsewhere.
I’ve read a lot on this subject, apparently, because I was already familiar with most of the examples he used–Carol Dweck’s research, the idea of ten thousand hours of practice, hockey players’ birthdays, the “gorilla experiment.”
That’s probably not the fault of the book, which was published in 2010; maybe if I’d read it when it first came out, it’d have been new to me. (Well, Dweck wouldn’t have been as I was already teaching her stuff in a college course by then, but the others, perhaps.)
Anyway, that familiarity led to a certain amount of skimming. Still, there were some things I hadn’t known, and the chapter on race and sports was particularly interesting. But the next nonfiction book I pick up maybe should be about something I’m not familiar with at all.
Currently balancing three insightful texts on strategic bombing during WW2. First is “The Second World War - a short history” by R. A. C. Parker who presents the British point of view through tables, statistics and economics. The second is “The Bombing War Europe 1939 - 1945” by Richard Overy an American who deals with politics and propaganda at the command level. And third “Fire” by German author Jorg Friedrich. A native of Essen, Friedrich covers, in great detail, the effects of aerial bombing on the civilian population.
I’m about a third of the way through each one and find that their combination provides a detailed view of what happened. A quick example is the famous dam buster raid. A lasting propaganda piece that was too costly in terms of aircraft and crews, had little impact on German industrial output, but caused major devastation to farms and cities downstream.
All three hold Patton in high regard and consider Montgomery to be a counter productive nuisance.
I’m going to take this opportunity to mention that not only is Connelly one of my favorite authors, he’s a stellar human being and he and his wife Linda just donated a million dollars to the anti-book banning organization Pen America for the purpose of combatting book bans and disinformation in Florida and nationwide.
This is why I never resist the urge to buy a new Connelly novel at full price.
As to my reading, so far this year
Ghostwritten by David Mitchell, the first novel by the author of Cloud Atlas. The book consists of 9 stories that interconnect in subtle and not-so-subtle ways. I thought it was brilliant, better than Cloud Atlas, one of the best books I’ve ever read, plus it has terrorists, financial crimes, art heists, ghosts, revolutions, and AI overlords.
The Good Father by Noah Hawley This book is story of a son who descends into mental illness and commits a political assassination, and the struggle of his father to come to terms with the actions of his child. I found the father’s journey very thought provoking although I thought the son’s story moved a little slowly at times. The book also contained a lot of background about similar crimes that I found interesting.
The Mitford Affair by Marie Benedict Set in 1930’s England and Germany, this book is based on the true story of two well-connected British socialites -Diana and Unity Mitford- who enthusiastically embraced fascism and Nazism, and one of their other sisters, the novelist Nancy Mitford, who wrote thinly disguised satire making fun of her sisters’ proclivities. Diana and Unity worked their way into Hitler’s innermost circle, and Nancy had to make a difficult choice between her family, her country and the fate of the world. It was an interesting portrayal of the political conflicts pre-World War ll, and it contains lots of parallels to today’s political climate.
I finished listening to Flight or Fright, a collection of short stories concerning the real or imagined horrors of air travel. The stories were compiled by Stephen King and Bev Vincent. Like many anthologies, a couple of the selections were great, most were good, and one or two were…not.
One of the stories was written by Arthur Conan Doyle, about some unspeakable beings that inhabit the skies above 30,000 feet. That story was published in 1913, just 10 years after the first flight by the Wright Brothers. Another selection was Nightmare at 20,000 Feet, first published in 1961. I remember reading it as a pre-teen in a book of horror stories that my big brother brought home. The story served as the basis for a 1963 episode of The Twilight Zone, starring William Shatner. That experience obviously prepared him well for his later exploits as captain of a starship.
Finished The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder. In 1741, HMS Wager, part of a fleet hunting for a Spanish galleon laden with treasure, shipwrecked on an island off the coast of present-day Chile. It and her crew were presumed lost. Several months later, a ragtag band of survivors washed up in Brazil with a harrowing tale of survival. They were hailed as heroes … until some more survivors turned up including the captain, and they accused the first group of mutiny. A good read. Named the top book of 2023 in some quarters.
Have started The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams, by Stacy Schiff.
Finished The Mind of the Maker, by Dorothy L. Sayers, which is compares the creative process (mostly of writing) to the Holy Trinity. It includes a few funny anecdotes about people’s assumptions about Lord Peter Wimsey. (My favorite: An acquaintance suggested, “Send Peter to Antarctica! I can give you lots of background information.” Her response: “What makes you think he would ever do that?”)
Now I’m reading a fantasy by GennaRose Nethercott titled Thistlefoot.
Started this morning on Zoey is Too Drunk for This Dystopia by Jason Pargin (formerly David Wong). Third in a series, and a sure thing if you’re a fan of Mr. Pargin’s humor.
Finished Ryka Aoki’s Light from Uncommon Stars It’s been hailed as a work of science fiction, but a major plot point concerns a deal with as demon, so I’d refile it as science fantasy. Very well written story combining the unlikely elements of classical violin competition, running a donut shop in LA, Asian cooking, an alien starship crew, and a devil/demon out for souls, all bound around a transexual protagonist who has definitely suffered for their identity and sexual orientation.
Now I’m reading L. Sprague de Camp’s The Goblin Tower, the first part of a trilogy that I’ve somehow managed to miss reading all these years. Definitely one of his better fantasies.
Next up is my friend Stephanie Schorow’s Cat Dreaming: A Story of Friendships and Second Chances. I’ve heard many sections of the book during sessions at our writing groups, but haven’t read the whole thing. In its proper order.
I still have to finish Dan Simmons’ Ilium, which I’m halfway through. I stopped because I wanted to read Aoki’s book before Aoki was Guest of Honor sat Arisia. Ilium is fully as weird and complex as Aoki’s book, with three simultaneous stories of post-humans recreating the Trojan War on Mars, a set of surviving humans on a vastly changed Earth trying to get to Mars, and a set of organic/robotic cyborgs trying to get from the moons of the outer planets to Mars to investigate what’s going on. Actually, it’s not abundantly clear that the three narrative strings are occurring simultaneously – authors and TV series have been screwing around with your expectation of simultaneity a lot over the past couple of decades. But it’s worth it to see Odysseus going on a Phororhacus hunt from a base in the Golden Gate bridge in the Andes. Yes, you read that right.
My bedtime reading lately consists of Andy Borowitz’ hilarious Profiles in Ignorance: How America’s Policians got Dumber and Dumber, a funny book with the serious premise of explaining how stupidity in public office has become normalized. Definitelt worth a read
I finally finished Grave Expectations, by Alice Bell (which I learned about in this thread from Dung Beetle ). Like my esteemed fellow Doper I didn’t care much about the mystery, but I actually didn’t care much for the characters either (especially the main character). I loved the writing, though: there were some really nice turns of phrase and some deft humor. This seems to be the author’s first/only book: upthread Dung Beetle mentioned that a sequel is due in May, and I’ll probably read it. If Bell had other books I’d try one, but I liked her writing enough to be willing to give these characters another shot.
I then briefly tried to read M.J. O’Brien’s We Shall Not Be Moved, about the 1963 Jackson, Mississippi, Woolworth’s sit-in, but quickly realized two things: (a) it’s more historical nonfiction than I’d expected (including detailed biographies of the main figures), and (b) I wasn’t up for that. I’m frankly not sure if/when I’ll return to it…even though I’m friends with the author, and will continue to have occasional bouts of “I really should read it.”
I wound up starting Wonder Boys, by Michael Chabon. I read and enjoyed The Yiddish Policemen’s Union about four years ago, and this sample has been hanging out on my Kindle for almost as long. No impression yet; it’s early days.
). Like my esteemed fellow Doper I didn’t care much about the mystery, but I actually didn’t care much for the characters either (especially the main character). I loved the writing, though: there were some really nice turns of phrase and some deft humor. This seems to be the author’s first/only book: upthread Dung Beetle mentioned that a sequel is due in May, and I’ll probably read it. If Bell had other books I’d try one, but I liked her writing enough to be willing to give these characters another shot.