Thoughts On Reading (Fully) Books I Don't Like

Many times on this blog, I have written about books, buying books--especially used books, reading books, reviewing books, and sometimes about books which I have not liked at all. But I'm a bit funny about how I deal with beginning a book I turn out to not like compared to how many other readers deal with such books. I almost never throw a book out without finishing it even when I have decided that I don't like it, that it is garbage, never should have been printed, and is almost totally a waste of time for everyone who has ever been involved with it including both myself and the author, the publisher, the printer, the printer's devil to use an old typesetting term, the mail man or woman who dropped it off in my mail box, the low paid and under respected worker at the Goodwill Store where I might have bought it, right down to the eventual garbage man who will dump it along with the other contents of a can into the yawning and cavernous jaws of a garbage truck. Yet, I like to acknowledge the fact that the author who spent the time to write it, get it accepted for publication, and sold made a commitment to do the necessary work to produce whatever 100, 200, or 2,000 pages of drivel I have attached to myself and my psyche much like the man or woman working on a county road gang has been a participant in the process of attaching a ball and chain to their leg and placing a Pulaski or weed blade in their hands. I have also made a commitment to the author, publisher, editor--if there was one half asleep at a desk the day they approved that particular epistle for publication, and that same belittled and beleagured Goodwill employee who rang it up, added the tax, and then had the gall to ask me if I wanted to round up so the same corporation who is robbing that person of their services and scrape extra money from me so they can move on to the next belittled and beleagured employee who has no other employment options at the time. If the author took themselves seriously enough to do the work to produce the book, put in on the market, and hope for its success much like a poor mother wishing her very ordinary child can become president some day, I owe that author the common decency to shut my mouth, put my negative opinions in my pocket, grit my teeth, and ride this flea bitten nag of a book to the end of the line where it may or may not be noted with the words, "The End", "Fini", or simply "Sucker, You Had It Coming". Authors are a weird lot say I who have also launched a couple dozen short stories into the world without ever herding them and a few others into the covers of book much like poor, bedraggled cattle into a muddy, dung spattered holding pen until the truck arrives to take them to the stockyard. Why on God's green earth, you are probably asking yourself, did I feel the need to take the time to give this nod to all the poorly educated and trained scribblers who have created so many overpriced wastes of paper and printer's ink? The answer is that I am currently involved in reading two books simultaneously which I would not have been willing to pay fifty cents for the pair if I had known in advance what they contained...or failed to contain. I am always reading at least one book, generally two or three at a time, because my wife and I are engaged in a long term habit of reading a novel together which I usually read aloud day after day as she washes the dishes. Then I rinse those dishes. We have also for a year or two been reading one short story from some collection or other in the evenings after supper. Thank God, as I have been involved in reading two bad books at the same time, we have also been reading a collection of short stories which is composed of 28 fine stories by 20 or so authors of some repute. Without that short story of quality each day, I would be pulling my hair out. Thank God for Guy de Maupassant, O. Henry, Richard Connell, Frank R. Stockton, and Jack London.

"The Jungle" by Upton Sinclair, Reading A Great Book Many Years Too Late!

 

 

 

 

Despite how much literature, and a great deal of the "great literature" I have read in my life, I had never read "The Jungle" or any other book by Upton Sinclair until just now.  A couple of months ago, my sister-in-law in Wisconsin suddenly mailed me a copy of "The Jungle" with a note that said "Roger, I tried to read this book, but got frustrated right away.  I think you'll have more patience with it."  On some levels I was surprised by the book and note and, on some other levels, I was not.  She is a pretty voracious reader, rather brilliant with near perfect scores on her college admission tests when she came out of high school almost 30 years ago.  But I have noticed over the years that her reading material tends to be a bit toward the general adult fiction level.  I had asked her about why she didn't like the book or "got frustrated" with it and never seemed to get a succinct answer.  

 

 

Anyway, my wife Candice decided when it was time for us to choose another book for our joint reading effort in which I read aloud while Candice washes the dishes each day and we alternate in who chooses the books.  When she finishes washing the dishes, I dry them and eventually put them away each evening.  I have to say I was also somewhat surprised that Candice chose this book but thought that it might have been curiosity about what her sister gave up on.  But she also tends to like more "great literature" when I do the reading aloud than she would usually read on her own.  

The first thing I noticed about the book is that it is a markedly dark novel, about as dark as anything I have ever read.  I don't cull much in literature and don't usually say anything is too dark for me.  But this novel is incredibly dark, moving consistently from one disaster among the central characters to another without ever having a bright spot or a lucky day last any longer than the next sunrise, if the sun rises at all the next day.  But it is a fine novel with excellent character development, plot and counter plot, and a couple of definite goals from the beginning to the end.  I would say that the primary goal of the novel, which I suspect is true of everything Sinclair wrote, is to promote socialism as the best form of government for the United States.  In Sinclair's defense, I would also say that his secondary goal was to write a good to great novel which would be accepted widely by the reading public.  I have no crow to pick with his first goal since I have known several devout socialists in my lifetime, and I would even agree that socialism is a far better form of government in its pure form (which can never be fully achieved) than several other forms of government.  As for his second goal, I came out of the novel firmly convinced that Sinclair had definitely achieved his second goal with flying colors. This is a fine novel!  Yes, it is as dark as the deepest corner of an underground coal mine, but it is also a fine novel.

The protagonist, Jurgis Rudkus, and his family are the central characters, native Lithuanians who emigrate to the United States and find themselves living, if that is  not too strong a word, in the meat packing neighborhood of Chicago.  The novel was published in 1905 and covers about a ten year period before and after the turn of the century.  Sinclair chose to give the neighborhood around the meat packing companies, slums, and railroad yards as Packing Town.  It is filled with immigrants from several different countries and cultures who struggle to survive on a daily basis in which the meat packing companies operate as the Meat Trust in conjunction with the Railroad Trust, two entities which are each comprised of several companies who work in a cohort in order to control and suck the lives out of their employees just as they take the lives of trainloads of cattle and hogs.  The book served to educate the American public about the outrageous practices of the meat packing industry and the multitude of ways in which those companies live off the lives of everyone they come into contact with, whether they are employees or customers.   They own the local public officials, judges, police, and nearly every human who comes into contact with the meat packing industry.  They are a predatory entity both as individual companies and as a loosely constructed conglomerate.  

Jurgis and his family suffer one debilitating event after another from the packing industry, local real estate companies, the police and courts, and each other.  His wife dies in childbirth because the family has no money for a doctor.  His only child drowns in the mud and water surrounding their home. He is jailed multiple times and eventually blacklisted because he beat his wife's supervisor who had lured her into prostitution.  Another child in the family is frozen nearly to death walking to work in a Chicago winter and eventually killed and eaten by rats after being locked into his work site at the end of the day.  But eventually, Jurgis is converted to socialism, gets a job in a hotel owned by a socialist with a social conscience, and become a devout evangelist for socialism. The novel ends with about 20 pages of a lengthy sermon about the virtues of socialism and the predatory nature of capitalism.  Yes, it's dark as hell, but it's a fine novel.  If you haven't ever read it, give it a chance and commit before you begin it that you won't give up, as my sister-in-law did, before you have read at least fifty pages. 

"Where All Light Tends To Go" by David Joy, A Book Without Light Or Joy

 

Sometime in the summer of 2023, I saw a television documentary about writers in Appalachia in which David Joy was portrayed as one of the newer and most respected writers of Appalachian fiction and ordered this book and three more of his novels.  I read this book with my wife shortly after it arrived, still don't know why, and have never touched either of the other two novels which I actually received.  I have also been quite thankful that one of the four I ordered from a used book website had actually already been sold but not removed from the website by the seller/member. I rejoiced when I got my money back instead of another of this man's books. I doubt that I will ever touch either of the other two novels unless I am snowbound for an extended period of time and have nothing else to read which is very unlikely since I own somewhere in the neighborhood of 2,000 books of all types.  I could very likely also buy copies of both "War And Peace" and "Ulysses" to hold in reserve for just such a blizzard.  DO NOT MAKE THE MISTAKE OF BELIEVING THAT I RECOMMEND THIS BOOK BECAUSE I HAVE CHOSEN TO WRITE ABOUT IT!

This novel is set somewhere in the Carolinas in a fictitious town in which the protagonist (and I use that word very loosely), the teenage son of the local drug kingpin, is about to graduate from high school and has an ongoing relationship with the most desirable girl in the school and hopes to marry her someday.  They have grown up as best friends from babyhood and the girl hates the occupation of this boy's father.  The boy is making what initially appears to be a genuine effort to avoid becoming his father's right hand man in the drug trade which they disguise behind an owner operated mechanic business.  The boy's father is well connected in the area and has strong and well funded connections with the local law enforcement which protect him and his drug dealing from any law enforcement interventions.  The boy's mother, divorced from the father, lives in another house and is a drug addict with a mutually negative relationship with her ex-husband.  The boy works daily to maintain acceptable relationships with both his parents.  

As the novel progresses, the boy finds himself drawn into his father's drug operation due primarily to his dependence on his father for his daily existence.  He also becomes angry at a party because a local boy with connections to the sheriff's department is making a move on the girl he loves. He savagely assaults the boy and finds himself facing several criminal charges and must depend on his father's connections to dodge the penitentiary.  He eventually finds himself present at what he believes is the murder of another young man whom his father has ordered his son and two of his henchmen to take adverse action against.  They dump what they believe is the dead young man over a mountain and somehow he survives which intensifies the attention toward all of them by law enforcement.  Our hero, and I assure you that is a misnomer, finds himself deep in the drug business and appears to be trying to get out somehow after also helping the same two henchmen to dump a different body in the local lake in his father's favorite graveyard.  Just as the reader begins to develop hope that the boy will somehow find a way to testify against his father and escape the clutches of the drug trade, he goes completely off the deep end, shoots and kills the sheriff when they come to arrest him and the novel comes to a very undesirable end.  

It is abundantly clear that David Joy simply took his publisher's money and ran, has no commitment to supporting Appalachia or defending it in any venue, and is unworthy of the positive regard of any citizen of the greater Appalachian Region, especially if such a citizen has any positive regard for Appalachia, Appalachian Culture, or Appalachia's hopes for the future.  He is simply another writer who writes well enough to be published in the drug store novel trade, and likely has no ambition to become any better.  

What do I have to say further about this disgusting piece of work?  David Joy cannot be perceived, in my opinion, as a writer who is worthy of the respect of other natives of Appalachia.  This novel makes it abundantly clear that David Joy joined all the other detractors and defamers of Appalachia and Appalachian people, grabbed the easy money, and acquiesced to the commonly held belief outside the area that all Appalachia's best writers such as Thomas Wolfe, Pearl Buck, Marie Manilla, and a dozen others can either go to hell if living, and, if dead, can just roll over in their graves .  He has filled this novel with every negative, hateful, ignorant, and defamatory depiction he could envision of Appalachia; Appalachian people; the drug problem in America which is not just an Appalachian problem but a national problem; and has clearly chosen to produce the kind of writing which those other detractors of Appalachia love to produce, read, and spread as far around the world as they can.  This is a totally detestable novel and unworthy of anyone's time to read.  DO NOT MAKE THE MISTAKE OF BELIEVING THAT I RECOMMEND THIS BOOK BECAUSE I HAVE CHOSEN TO WRITE ABOUT IT! DON'T BOTHER WITH IT!  IF NECESSARY, GO TO YOUR BATHROOM WHEN YOU RUN OUT OF READING MATERIAL AND READ THE BACK OF THE AIR FRESHER CAN WHILE YOU TAKE A CRAP! 

"Sibir" by Farley Mowat, Reflections On An Older Book About Siberia

 

For many years, I have read the works of Canadian naturalist and author Farley Mowat, and several months ago my wife and I read several of his books together which had been the first time she had ever been exposed to his wonderful writiing.  The only negative comment I can make about Mowat and his work is that after he had become widely and wildly successful for works like "Never Cry Wolf" and "A Whale For The Killing", some of his later works were less interesting, less exciting, and, of course, less popular.  But every book I have ever read by Mowat was still filled with occasional shots of his splendid writing and voluminous vocabulary.  When I was younger, I would often read his books with a dictionary by my side because I knew I would find some words along the way that I had never heard, some from his life as a world traveling Canadian, and some from his having been descended from Scottish ancestors who must have passed a great deal of their linguistic panache along with their DNA.  

This book we are discussing was published in 1970, and came about because Mowat was invited to come to Russia by a Russian writer who also lived in and wrote about the extreme north of the country, Siberia, one of the coldest climates on earth with the possible exception of the peaks of the Alps and Himalayas.  Naturally, Mowat took the man up on his offer and eventually made several trips to Russia and Siberia.  In spite of the cold war, and because international concerns were different in those days, Mowat said that he was always well received and well treated wherever he went in the Russia, and particularly in Siberia.  I have been motivated to remember and write about this particular book, because my wife and I are currently reading a much less scholarly book about that region, "Last Of The Breed" by Louis L'Amour which I picked up on a whim in a Goodwill store because it was uncharacteristic of L'Amour's western writing.  I had also picked up two other L'Amour books for the same reason, already read and written about one of them, "Yondering" which is a collection of his short stories.  "Last Of The Breed" has led me back to this Mowat book because, to his credit, L'Amour had done some reasonable amount of research about Siberia before he wrote his book about an American pilot who escapes from a Siberian prison and is attempting to cross Siberia to Alaska in order to escape.  

Issues such as those in the L'Amour book never arose in Mowat's experience in Siberia although the two men do write about several similar aspects of the region which was far less developed in the times Mowat traveled there than it was in 1986 when L'Amour wrote his novel. The vast majority of the region was what is known as the taiga, a vast forested area which was replete with wildlife and few people.  Mowat was being guided on his visits by Yuri Rythkheu, a Russian nature writer and naturalist whose works were motivated by many of the same concerns which motivated Mowat.  The two became close friends over the years they knew each other and corresponded regularly, and in those times, Russia was considerably less repressive than it is today.  Mowat was allowed to travel extensively in the country, was often given official welcomes by local government officials and greeted much like a celebrity might have been even in America at the time.  He came to love Siberia, the Taiga, the people, and the vast wildlife of the region, and writes about it with a great deal of the same emotion and general protective concern he wrote about his native Canadian north.  The people he eoncountered in his travels there were much more open than Russians are today and, at times, Mowat found himself invited into homes and even involved in fairly wild parties.  

I have also known a few others of my friends and acquaintances who have been privileged to travel to Russia in the past including a nurse practitioner who went there as a  young nurse with a Christian based medical entourage and claims to have bribed an airport security officer in order to be allowed to take some medications into the country which she said the officer claimed were not permitted.  Nearly forty years ago, I also knew a few people who traveled to Russia as part of a group sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker group.  But none of those people were ever received in Russia in the open hearted way that Mowat was.  This is a fascinating book despite its age and good reading for anyone who likes to learn the history of other places in the world.  If you can find a copy, read it.  You won't be disappointed.  And, you might even like "Last Of The Breed" by Louis L'Amour. 

Revisiting An Old Favorite, "The Subterraneans" by Jack Kerouac

 

 

I was first introduced to the work of Jack Kerouac about 1974 or so by my friend, mentor, and professor Bob Snyder.  At about the same time, he introduced me to Kerouac, Mildred Haun, and Francois Villon.  You can't ask for a much better threesome of authors to come to know.  Since then, I have read every word I can find by all three.  I devoured Kerouac's work much like a famished person just rescued from a long stranding in a wilderness would have devoured a good breakfast of sausage, eggs, biscuits, gravy, and fried apples.  I have returned more than once to one or another of Kerouac's books over the years and every time I am deeply impressed by the skill with which he wrote, and the obvious rapidity of his working style.  "The Subterraneans" has always been one of my four or five favorite Kerouac novels.  Some people refer to it as a novella since it is only about 150 pages.  But for me, it is much a novel as any of his other novels.  It is also one of only two novels in his oeuvre which come across as totally loving, sweet, beautiful, without any level of animosity, anger, fear, or any other negative emotion.  

The novel is about a love affair between the narrator, Leo Percepied, an alter ego of Kerouac himself, and a beautiful young African American woman named Mardou Fox.  The affair is brief, meteoric, heart warming, trusting, and everything an unforgettable love affair should be despite coming to an end which is described in the most simple terms: "And I go home, having lost our love.  And write this book."

When it's over, it's over, and yet it leaves an impression on the reader just as deep and meaningful as it has left on the character Kerouac created due to whatever previous events in his life that served as the impetus for this wonderful, loving little novel might have been.  I suspect this won't be last time I ever pick this sweet little book up to read once again.  And every time I do that, I always find myself thanking God for both Jack Kerouac and Bob Snyder.

"Night Watch" by Jayne Anne Phillips--Notes On Reading A Pulitzer Prize Winner

 

I have for many years made a practice of reading prize winning books in fiction, nonfiction, and juvenile fiction.  I don't read every prize winner every year or even most of them in some years.  I chose to read this one because someone I know on social media recommended it, and it is a 2024 Winner of the Pulitzer Prize.  The brief description of the novel on the official website of the Pulitzers says this about the book: 

From one of our most accomplished novelists, a mesmerizing story about a mother and daughter seeking refuge in the chaotic aftermath of the Civil War—and a brilliant portrait of family endurance against all odds.  (Pulitzer Prizes website 2024) 

The novel is set primarily in West Virginia's Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum which was one of the earliest such mental institutions in America beginning shortly after the states of Maine and Kentucky built the first two such institutions.  The novel is set in the times shortly before, during, and after the Civil War, and is centered on three women in the mountains of West Virginia, and the Civil War sharpshooter who is the son, husband, and father of the three women respectively.  The sharpshooter has been seriously injured during the war and has no memory of who he is, his name, or personal history.  But he has become skilled in caring for the mentally ill while in a hospital in Alexandria, Virginia, and has been referred to the asylum as a night watchman and general aide to the doctor.  The man's mother is a root woman, an herb doctor, or healer. The man's wife and daughter, along with the older woman, are living high in the mountains of West Virginia while he is away in the war and are the victims of marauders from both sides of the conflict at times.  The antagonist in the novel is a Rebel sympathizer who is wandering the countryside alone preying on whomever he can find who is too weak to defend themselves against him.  He moves in with or on the young woman's mother, victimizes the two of them in every way possible and finally drops off the girl and her mother, who has become nonverbal as a result of his rape and abuse of her, at the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum and disappears before returning as an inmate of the institution.  The girl has been ordered to tell the asylum staff that the mother is not related to her, and she is simply a teenage orphan who has been caring for the woman.  The ruse works and the mother is admitted as a patient while her daughter is taken in as an unpaid aide for her mother.  

Eventually, the mother begins to talk and continues the lie their attacker has forced them to tell.  But she also becomes enamored of the doctor in charge of the institution and the feelings are mutual. Her daughter is eventually made a full time nurse, a position which did not require formal educational training or a degree in the 19th century.  When their attacker is brought to the asylum, he is in a violent rage and placed in a locked ward from which he eventually escapes.  The novel comes to a violent climax with the building on fire, the attacker returned to try to murder the women, and, in the meantime the night watchman's wife has recognized him and they have come to tell the doctor they are married and intend to leave to go back to the mountains.  The attacker climbs through the window of the doctor's office as that conversation has begun and attacks the group.  The sharpshooter is shot and killed just as he manages to throw the attacker out a third story window to his death.  All the loose ends are quickly tied up and the girl's mother marries the doctor, the grandmother takes the girl back to the mountains, and all is well that ends well.  

This is a good novel but not a great novel.  It does contain the bones of what could have been a great novel.  But after years of reading many winners of the Nobel, Pulitzer, and other literary prizes, for me the novel is a disappointment.  It is poorly organized, leaves far too many issues hanging at times, and could have been a far better book with a serious rewrite.  I realize when I say such things about a book which others rave about, I have set myself up for anything from a mild sneer of derision to outright claims of ignorance on my part.  The author has a fine resume both as a writer and a trainer of writers.  This is her sixth novel and twelfth book.  It is also the first of her books I have ever read and it is possible that I am not giving her enough credit.  But I really do believe that she, her agent, her editor, and the Pulitzer committee all accepted less than what could have become her best work and a worthy prize winner.  I'd love to have seen this book in a better form after another month or two of work from the author and her editor.  But you might also read it and rave. Don't take my distaste for the book as a total red flag.  If you like the sound of the plot, read it, and form your own opinion. 

Reflections On "The Man Who Fell To Earth" by Walter Tevis

 

 A little more than a year ago, I watched a documentary on KET about the life of Walter Tevis who had suddenly risen once again to a high profile in the media because of the success of a television miniseries based on his book "The Queen's Gambit" which is about a young female character who becomes a chess champion.  I have to admit I have still not read that book despite its having been on my large To Be Read Shelf for over a year.  But I did read his science fiction classic, "The Man Who Fell to Earth" and loved it to the degree that it prompted me to order most of his published works and add them to my long list of books I "will get around to someday". But let's talk about the actual subject of this blog post, "The Man Who Fell To Earth".  Tevis's work on that book is as good as any science fiction I have ever read.  It is one of those rare works of science fiction which also falls solidly within the larger and more important body of what we know as "Great Literature".  It is a masterpiece and deserves every accolade it has ever received. It is masterful science fiction which is solidly based in the minds of both its characters and the author and not in ray gun shoot 'em up scenes which are cheap copies of some bad John Wayne western as much of ordinary science fiction is today.  

 

The main character in the book is Thomas Jerome Newton from the planet Anthea who has been sent to earth to determine if it is possible for the occupants of his doomed planet to emigrate to earth in order to save their lives and their much more advanced culture.  His spaceship is destroyed on landing and it is determined that he will not be able to return to his home planet.  He is humanoid in appearance with some odd features which he is able to disguise well enough to "pass" as human for quite some time.  He becomes a very wealthy individual because he is able to patent many ideas which his culture has produced that are much more scientifically advanced than anything on earth.  But his obvious intelligence and scientific acumen are soon recognized the government as being impossible for an ordinary human to have achieved and "the jig is up" to use common vernacular.  But in the end, he is allowed to remain on earth, still disguised as a human, living in quiet semi-poverty with a Social Security check and a small apartment.  This is a book which no aficionado of science fiction can claim expert status in the field without having read.  The book was made into a movie starring David Bowie in 1976 for which Bowie recieved rave reviews playing the truly unique alien.  It was also made into a 2022 Showtime miniseries which "The Guardian" panned as "a misbegotten and poorly paced attempt to update the 1976 cult sci-fi classic".  I have to admit that I have never seen either production of the work, but I will go so far as to say that I won't bother with the Showtime effort based on "The Guardian's" review.  When the time comes that is available somewhere again on television, I will definitely watch the 1976 work with David Bowie.  

Thoughts On Reading "Imperial Woman" by Pearl S. Buck

 

Over the years, I have read about 10 of Pearl S. Buck's fine novels and written about several of them on this blog.  Recently, in a large purchase of used books from the estate of a former school principal in this community, I obtained several first editions of Buck's novels including a copy of "Imperial Woman" which was published in 1956.  I had never read it and completed it a few weeks ago although I have procrastinated about writing a blog post about it for no good reason.  After having read all three novels in the "Good Earth" trilogy, three novellas which were published under the pseudonym John Sedges, "The Living Reed" which is a Korean novel and, in my opinion, one of her finest other than her masterpiece "The Good Earth".  I love her work and don't believe that she ever allowed herself to write and publish a second rate book.  I had loved "The Living Reed" nearly as much as "The Good Earth", but I have to say that I am now convinced that it must be at most her third best novel running behind "Imperial Woman" and "The Good Earth".

 

"Imperial Woman" is a fictionized biography of Tzu Hsi, the last empress of China who was born of low caste and brought into the Forbidden City as a candidate to become a concubine of the sitting emperor at the time.  She is not only chosen to be one of his concubines but manages to bear him a son, the heir to the Dragon Throne, and becomes his most beloved partner and advisor.  She initially devotes her life to helping her son gain and maintain the throne.  But due to the many weaknesses of her son and his early death, she then manages to gain total control of the kingdom through a male heir she has chosen from the family of one of the dead emperor's advisors.  With the help of her cousin Jung Lu to whom she had been betrothed prior to her becoming a royal concubine, she not only managed to hold onto power but increased her power and popularity over the kingdom while living as a  conflicted type of ruler who is loving, devout, and intellectual while also being absolutely ruthless when it becomes necessary.  

It is said that Buck strove to depict both sides of the empress, who is actually only a regent for the child emperor she has chosen. Buck did an excellent job of achieving that goal.  The character of the empress can be loving and devoted to her son and the few people she allows to be closer to her while also being capable of ordering the deaths of those who oppose her.  She is a powerful and powerfully depicted ruler.  She is also dealing with a lifelong conflict between her love for Jung Lu and the inability to allow it to be a public matter in her royal role.  She arranges a loveless marriage for Jung Lu with one of the women who assists her on a daily basis and they both live with the conflict of being in love and unable to allow that love to be manifested fully.  

This is one of Pearl Buck's best efforts in my opinion and well worth reading by any lover of great literature.  It helps prove, along with "The Living Reed", that Pearl Buck's best work was not finished after "The Good Earth".  She was an incredible novelist and knew the China in which he spent much of life as few Americans ever could.  If you haven't read it, find a copy and reward yourself with this wonderful book.  

Reflections On Reading "Accordion Crimes" by E. Annie Proulx

E. Annie Proulx, or Annie Proulx as she is sometimes known, is one of America's best known and most successful authors.  She is the author of the short story on which the movie "Broke Back Mountain" was based and won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for her novel "The Shipping News" in 1994.  This is actually the third of her works which I have read and yet I have not yet written about any of them on this blog which is an unjustifiable error.  At times, she is a wonderful writer and her prose can flow smoothly, interestingly, and in a manner which consistently draws the reader deeper into her works.  But, in my opinion, at times her work falls measurably short of her best.  I like this book as much or better than either of her others which I have read.  But I have to admit that I enjoyed the earlier reads enough to go back for another dip in this one. Perhaps part of that higher level of pleasure on my part comes from the fact that, as a child in grade school in Knott County Kentucky, I was exposed on a monthly basis to live gospel accordion music from Alma Heibert, of the two "Bible Women" who were allowed to visit each small, rural grade school in the county on a monthly basis as a part of their missionary work with Camp Nathaniel in the county.  As always when I mention my experience with these two women and that fact that missionaries were allowed to visit public schools in the county, I am morally and ethically bound to state that the fact that they were allowed to do so in public schools was a clear cut violation of the Separation of Church and State and never should have been allowed to happen. But, yes, I do have fond memories of having known those women and of accordion music.  

The main character in this novel is not a person but an accordion, hand made by a native of an Italian native who emigrated to the United State with the instrument he had made and eventually sold it.  The human characters come and go in the novel as the accordion passes from hand to hand, being used by members of different ethnicities to play the particular music of each culture as the instrument passes along its life.  The accordion is variously owned and played by Mexican Americans, African Americans, Polish Americans, Irish Americans, and other members of other cultures. Along the way during the story, Proulx weaves in a great deal of historical and musical information about accordions, their instrumental relatives, and many of the cultures which are historically connected to accordion music.  along the way, the instrument is loved, played, admired, and sometimes abandoned much as a human character might have been.  It is an interesting and unique method of constructing a novel and, I believe, is some of Proulx's best work.  In my opinion, the language and written structure of the novel is more skillful than that in either "The Shipping News" or "That Old Ace In The Hole" both of which I have also read and will, perhaps, also write about on this blog.  The accordion becomes a living, breathing character in the book.  It is more than just a musical instrument.  It is a delivery vehicle which deposits musical and cultural history at the reader's doorstep. It becomes the glue which brings all the other characters, cultures, and histories together.  And those histories are both documentations of cultures and of people, families, and individual and shared lives.  It is a book well worth reading, especially if the reader is not familiar with the work of Proulx it is a fine place to begin a relationship with the author and her work. 

"A Time To Keep Silence" by Emily Steiner--Book Review

 

 I always enjoy reading books and posting about them on these reviews on my blog post and, in general that is especially true when I write about books which were written by my numerous friends who are authors.  This is not one of those times because I have just read and am now writing about a new book by one of my friends whom I like especially well and I do not like this book nearly as much as I have three others she has written and which I have also reviewed on this blog.  The friend and author to whom I refer is Emily Steiner, a young conservative Mennonite woman whom I have known for about three years.  I respect her talent, her intelligence, her writing, her books, and her commitment to her religion.  I value our friendship and we correspond these days by e-mail since she is teaching in a small Mennonite school in Central Michigan.  We met accidentally, or serendipitously as I prefer to believe, in Old Mill Park near my home in West Liberty, Kentucky, and slightly farther away from her childhood home in Crockett, Kentucky. She was dressed in a traditional Mennonite long dress and head covering and carrying a lap top which is odd among Mennonites.  I had already read her book, "Under The Bridge", which is linked above and which is the first book in her triumvirate of books about a coal mining family in Harlan County Kentucky in the union organizing efforts of the 1920's.  While I disagreed with the book's position that Christianity and trade unionism are not necessarily compatible, I liked the book and her writing quite well overall.  I struck up a conversation with her by asking these exact words, "I don't mean to bother you, but are you Emily Steiner?"  She responded "Yes!" and I told her about having read her book and we had about a half hour conversation about her book, writing on both our parts, Appalachia, and writers I knew.  We established what has been a good, honest, communicative, and respectful friendship beginning that day despite the difficulty of an older, married, non-Mennonite man and a younger, single, Mennonite woman having a friendship which respects the social barriers her religion requires in such cases.  We sometimes read each other's writing, sometimes e-mail, and, if a community occasion makes a face to face meeting possible in her community of origin, we sometimes talk a while in plain view of other Mennonite observers.  It has helped that I am fairly well known by numerous members of her congregation because I have done business with them for quite a few years and have always respected and honored the constraints and barriers their religion places on contacts with outsiders.  

So, to repeat myself, this is a difficult review to write since I like and respect the author a great deal and am not particularly fond of the book.   But please do not assume that I am saying you, dear reader, will not like the book.  It has merit as does all the work I have ever read by Emily Steiner.  So, in order to be absolutely fair to my friend, Emily Steiner, I searched out two other reviews on the internet from other sources who have read the book to see what they thought about it.  An anonymous reviewer on the Goodreads website has this to say about the book: ...A Time to Keep Silence shows the loneliness and misunderstanding that singles can face in a tight-knit Mennonite community. This is a book that an older single may relate to, and those who are married can read to understand the challenges of singles.  I agree wholeheartedly with this reviewers statement that the book "shows the loneliness and misunderstanding that singles can face in a tight-knit Mennonite community". From my point of view, the most valuable thing I got from reading the book is that it gave me an improved understanding of the religious based social customs which govern dating and consideration of marriage among young conservative Mennonites.  But, having lived my life in the greater non-Mennonite community, I tend to believe that the social customs in question place undue burdens on those young church members.  I was left with the impression that, in most cases, young Mennonite women are almost required to accept the first young Mennonite man whom they agree to date as the person they will marry even before their first date.  That is a bit too restrictive for my blood.  

The second review I chose to read about "A Time For Silence" is by a relatively young Mennonite widow who describes herself on her blog as follows: I am Gina, a Mennonite mom who writes about books, broccoli, and baking bread. In May, 2017 my husband was diagnosed with glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer, which took his life two years later in May, 2019. These pages share my journey of searching for joy with cancer and widowhood."  I know nothing about Gina other than what I have read on her blog and the fact that Emily Steiner has told me she knows Gina. As it turns out, I have just discovered that Gina was the person whose writing was used in part on the Goodreads website for the first quotation I used about the book since the language is identical on that website to part of Gina's review on her blog which I recommend for anyone who wants to learn more about Mennonites, their religion, and the self-sufficient lifestyle of gardening, canning, freezing, cooking, and other things such as homeschooling and church based childhood education.  I should also say that the photo of "A Time To Keep Silence" which I have used above is taken from Gina's blog, "HomeJoys" as linked above.  I have been unable to locate other independent reviews of the book at this time and will attempt to use quotations in others I might locate in the future to update this review.  

Now to more adequately address my personal issues with this book which Emily Steiner has told me is selling better than any of her previous books.  In fact, she and I had one e-mail exchange when she was actually at her printer, Haines Printing, watching the presses run so she could pick up several hundred more copies of this book.  That could be an indication that I am wrong about the book.  But, the first critique I have of the book is that it is a story which is told in 341 pages and could, I believe, have been told in a more literary manner in 200 or 250 pages at the most.  I have told Emily in an e-mail that I think that a lot of dialogue does little to advance the plot and I stick to that assessment.  The book is broken into 60 relatively short chapters, the longest of which is about 10 pages and several are 1 page.  Emily has explained this to me as a choice she made "to keep people turning pages".  I did keep reading to the end and I will buy and read the other two books which are to follow in this series about the main characters, Justin and Monica, whom I expect to be married by the end of the third book.  I was also put off mildly by one section in the book in which the protagonist, Monica, who is working in a coffee shop she and a friend, Ida Belle, have recently bought and are operating as single Mennonite women. Monica becomes scared of a rough looking non-Mennonite man who is staying in the coffee shop too long, asking a few too many questions and is dressed somewhat inappropriately by Mennonite standards.  To see single Mennonite women operating a business as Monica and Ida Belle do in the book is uncommon but not totally rare.  I regularly do business in a bulk food store which is owned by a woman in Emily Steiner's community of origin.  I also know of a bakery business in that same community which was operated for a time by the former Mennonite divorcee daughter of a devout Mennonite friend of mine.  But I have never known of a Mennonite who pre-judged a person to the degree I perceived in that section of the book.  Monica fears are used as a tension builder before the male in whom she is interested, Justin, enters the shop to buy coffee for himself and his employees.  Monica fights the desire to ask Justin to rescue her from the perceived danger of the rough look man and allows Justin to leave before making the request.  The book also winds to a conclusion without either Monica or Justin taking any action to move their relationship to another level.  It simply ends with the two of them still thinking about the possibility of dating each other but doing nothing to bring it about.  Both are afraid of entering a dating relationship because they have both been unsuccessful in one prior dating relationship.  Both fear the disapproval of the community if they enter a relationship which does not end in marriage.  In the real world, almost no one, except Mennonites apparently, gets married to the first person they date.  In my opinion, no one, not even young Mennonites, should feel compelled to marry the first person who asks them to consider a dating relationship.  I sincerely hope the next two books in this series are better than this one.  But use your own judgment about whether or not you want to read this book, especially if you have read other books by Emily Steiner and enjoyed them.  This could turn out to be the very book you have been hoping you would find.

"A Time To Keep Silence" is available directly from the author, Emily Steiner, for $12.50 plus $3.00 shipping for a total price of $15.50 by check or money order from: Emily Steiner, 5532 N. Shepherd Road, Rosebush, Michigan 48878.  If you have questions, Emily will answer her cell phone in person or return your call if you need to leave a message at 606-495-8090.  But, if you call, please keep in mind that she is a school teacher.  Call after 4pm on weekdays, never on Sunday. 

"Voices In The House" by Pearl Buck (John Sedges)--Book Review

This is the second of Pearl S. Buck's five pseudonymous novels which she published under the pen name John Sedges.  This novel is also included in the "American Triptych" edition of three of the John Sedges novels and is best bought that way if you intend to buy and read it.  This is a fascinating novel which is completely uncharacteristic of anything else I have ever read by Buck.  The book is set in Manchester, Vermont, in the home of an attorney and his wife who live in a spacious, multi-wing mansion with three servants.  The novel is a story of several conflicts: the conflict between the classes of the rich and their servants; the conflict between immigrants and natural born citizens; the conflict between the rich and the poor in general; the conflict between attorneys and the criminals they represent; and, most importantly, the conflict between men and women, husbands and wives, about their different expectations, desires, and needs regarding their sexual relationships.  The book is considerably shorter than the first John Sedges novel I read and wrote about on this blog, "The Townsman".  This novel, and the other John Sedges novel I just mentioned are completely different in nature from Buck's better Asian novels such as "The Good Earth Trilogy" and "The Living Reed" which is set in Korea.  But it is well worth reading and its complexity of issues are dealt with really well in the roughly 130 pages which she used to tell the story of the wealthy Asher family and their servants, a mother, daughter, and son-in-law of German immigrants.  

The Asher family is composed of the attorney, William Asher, his wife Elinor, and their three children, two sons and a daughter, along with their spouses and the children of one of the sons.  The servants are composed of Bertha, the German immigrant mother who has been with the family for forty years; her daughter Jessica, who grew up in the Asher home except for the period she spent in a Canadian convent when Bertha shipped her there as a young girl due to conflicts between the two of them which is also a major theme in the novel; and Herbert, who is eventually Jessica's husband and serves as the butler and chauffeur for the family.  Jessica's relationships with everyone in her life are contentious and she lives in a fantasy world in which she is naturally entitled to be a part of the rich family and to live in the palatial house of her own right.  Her conflicts with her mother and the Asher's are rooted in this fantasy.  Her conflict with Herbert is rooted in his belief that he is entitled to "my rights" as a married man to have sex at his whim.  A second cousin of Mrs. Asher, Cousin Emma, is eventually the victim of a horrendous murder by having darning needles driven through her eyes into her brain.  After that disclosure, I don't wish to ruin the book by telling you more.  It is well worth reading.  Try to find a copy of the "American Triptych" edition, which I have been told was originally a book club edition, and read all three of the novels it contains. The "American Triptych" edition can usually be located on the major used book websites at a reasonable price. You will not be disappointed. 

Some Thoughts On A Quote From Pearl S. Buck

"Yes, it was a great country, and he was part of it.  Men like him chose a common man and bade him to go to Washington and run the nation for them, and so long as they willed, he obeyed them.  When they willed, they sent him home again, and he went back to some little place...and was no more than anybody else.  It was a glorious idealism,

its only weakness the weakness of the individual."  (Pearl S. Buck, "The Townsman", Chapter 38, published under the pseudonym John Sedges)

During the course of her life, after returning to the United States from China, Pearl S. Buck wrote and published five novels under the pseudonym John Sedges because at the time her publisher believed that the American people simply thought of Pearl S. Buck as a Chinese or Asian writer and would not accept her writing fiction about America.  This is the only one of the John Sedges novels I have read at this point.  But I will complete them all in time based on how much I love this one. As I have been reading "The Townsman", I have come to love it and was particularly struck by the quotation above when I came upon it near the end of the novel.  What an important and accurate quote it is especially in these turbulent and terrifying times in America, the America which both Pearl S. Buck and I have loved.  But I do not intend to write at length in this post about the entire novel.  I only want to address the quotation above.  For these times, in March of 2020, with America facing the worst pandemic in the world since the polio outbreak of the early twentieth century this quote is both accurate and fraught with warning for this country and its people.  Taking the quotation line by line, let us examine it.  

"Yes, it was a great country and he was part of it." Yes, this is a great country, or was a great country.  But over the last four or so years, since the day the TRAITOR Trump announced he was running for president, the country has deteriorated sadly and immensely due primarily to the idiotic, unpatriotic, destructive, racist, violent, and ignorant speech from the TRAITOR Trump.  A coalition of the most gullible, criminal, and Right Wing Radical people in the country, including many who mistakenly claim they are Christians, has supported him and his TREASONOUS activities and the country has deteriorated morally, ethically, and legislatively as a result.  Our respect, as a nation in the eyes of the world has deteriorated greatly and now we are facing an unforeseen crisis which will turn out to be the worst health care crisis in the world since the polio epidemic of the early twentieth century.  Sadly, we have no leadership at the top fit to deal with it.

Men like him chose a common man and bade him to go to Washington and run the nation for them, and so long as they willed, he obeyed them.  From 1789 until 2012, the truths in the preceding sentence were upheld in America.  But in 2016, TRAITOR Trump, with the assistance of Russia, Vladimir Putin, and Russian hackers stole a US presidential election and now nothing in that sentence above is true.  Men and women like the average citizen had their election, their presidency, their White House, and their country stolen from them and on January 20, 2017, a TRAITOR was actually allowed to illegally occupy the White House and he has never done the will of anyone except his Russian Master Vladimir Putin.  There have even been intimations, at times, both from TRAITOR Trump and his Russian master Vladimir Putin that he might not even step down at the end of this illegally obtained term. At no point, has TRAITOR Trump obeyed the will of the people.  The only will he has obeyed has been the will of his Russian Master Vladimir Putin.  He does not, has never, and will never obey the will of the electorate and only obeys the will of Vladimir Putin under duress which began when Russia bailed him out of his disastrous casino bankruptcies in 1989 through Deutsche Bank and Alfa Bank. At that time, no American bank with sufficient assets to do so would loan TRAITOR Trump enough money to save him from total financial collapse.  He belongs to Russia and he has always belonged to Russia since the day that first Russian backed loan was granted to him and he will belong to Russia until the day he dies or until the day they consider him no longer useful to Russian interests.

When they willed, they sent him home again, and he went back to some little place...and was no more than anybody else.  There are several separate key segments to this deceptively simple little sentence from Pearl S. Buck.  "When they willed" is a segment we have discussed at some length in the segment above which discusses in part the use of the very similar words "so long as they willed" and we will not repeat ourselves here.  But when you combine the words "when they willed" with the following phrase "they sent him home again", we arrive at a very important issue as regards the TRAITOR Trump and his lack of obedience to the will of the American electorate, his related total obedience to the will of Vladimir Putin and Russia, and the aforementioned doubt as whether or not the TRAITOR Trump will even obey the will of the people when he is defeated in the 2020 election and willingly leave the White House, the scene of most of his crime spree from January 20, 2017, until today, as I write, March 24, 2020.  Now, let's look at the last phrase in the sentence: "he went back to some little place...and was no more than anybody else".  That entire phrase and the totality of its validity rests on whether or not the occupant of the White House, whomever he or she may be, is willing to leave willingly at the end of their term whether that term was legitimately or illegitimately achieved.  In the case of the current illegitimate occupant of the White House, serious doubt exists among many of the most astute and intelligent people in the country and the world as to whether or not he will actually leave the White House willingly.  Their doubts are based in well documented statements both from TRAITOR Trump and those closest to him including his Russian Master Vladimir Putin.  Naturally, the question remains unanswered as to exactly what other public officials of the United States, including governors, senators, congress members, the Supreme Court, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff , would do in the event that an election were held, TRAITOR Trump were defeated, and then he refused to concede and leave the property of the taxpayers who had just rejected him.  Let us all hope that we never need to learn the answer to that question.  But if it does become necessary to learn, it is my fervent hope that the Joint Chiefs would do their duty and forcibly remove the usurper from the Oval Office.  It is also interesting from a psychological point of view to realize that the TRAITOR Trump has never believed, and mistakenly so, that he is "no more than anybody else" when in fact for every day of his criminal and TREASONOUS existence he has been far less than any other randomly selected and honest citizen of the country.  His ordinariness, his criminal nature, his limited intellectual skills, and his bone deep dishonesty indicate in an incontrovertible way that he is far less than the average voter who will, God willing, order him to give up his usurped office and leave to await further indictment, prosecution and eventual imprisonment for his TREASON and assorted other crimes.  

It was a glorious idealism, its only weakness the weakness of the individual."  At the time Pearl S. Buck wrote the book "The Townsman" and wrote the paragraph we have been examining, she had no way of knowing whether her words would ever be applicable to any political situation in America such as the one we are mired in as a country today.  Although she was expressing her own deeply held beliefs about America, American Democracy, and the Presidency, she had no way of knowing just how prescient her words would become seventy-five years after the book was published in 1944.  But prescient they are.  The entire concept of American Democracy and the US Constitution and everything it governs including the presidency does represent "a glorious idealism".  In the two hundred plus years since the US Constitution was written, several other democracies and constitutions have been modeled after ours.  Our democracy has managed to survive every assault which has risen against it since 1789.  We have survived multiple wars including two world wars.  We have survived prior economic collapses and health care epidemics including the Great Depression and the polio epidemic.  But in all those years, this country and this democracy has never been faced with a double breasted crisis such as the one we are facing now.  We are in the throes of the worst world wide pandemic since the 1918 Influenza Epidemic attacked the world.  We are in the throes of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930's.  Simultaneously, we are forced to face this two-pronged assault with the White House under occupation by an illegitimate claimant to the title of US President who claim to that title arose in a criminal nature and was facilitated by TREASON in cooperation with the worst geopolitical enemy this country has.  "The weakness of the individual" as Pearl S. Buck wrote it is at the heart of our worst crisis in American history.  The criminal weakness of the TRAITOR Trump has placed us in an untenable position as a country and a people.  We must survive this crisis and he must receive the punishment he deserves for the damage he has done to this country.  When is removed from office by vote, and if necessary by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, he must be indicted, prosecuted, convicted, and incarcerated for his TREASON and assorted other crimes against the government and the people of the United States, and he must be forced to serve his sentence in a secure federal prison to the literal end of his miserable, TREASONOUS life.   

"Silas Marner" by George Eliot--Book Review

This has always been one of my favorite novels ever since I read it in my teen years, more than half a century ago.  It has been absolutely timeless and has been published in dozens of different editions from nearly every publisher which sells classic fiction.  You can find it in any decent bookstore from coast to coast. I recently reread this little classic with my wife and it was just as wonderful an experience as it was the first time all those decades ago.

George Eliot was the pen name of an English woman named Mary Anne Evans who published at least seven novels in the late nineteenth century.  "Silas Marner" was Eliot's third published novel in 1861.  It is frequently found in high school and college literature courses; in some abbreviated form in text books of both English and world literature; and, is one of the best known early novels by women in English.  But "Middlemarch" is generally considered to be her masterpiece.  If it is that much better than "Silas Marner", then it truly is a masterpiece.  I have never read "Middlemarch" but I assure you I will manage to do that in the near future and I already own a copy.  I would love to read all her published works if I had unlimited time.  I cannot recommend her work more highly.

This wonderful story of a lonely, miserly bachelor who is robbed of all his money and then saved, both emotionally and morally, by the sudden appearance of an orphan two year old girl on his doorstep upon the winter death of her drug addict mother is a tale which is priceless in its ability to give pleasure to both the ordinary recreational reader and the advanced student of great literature.  Eliot's combination of long, complex sentences and interspersed short sentences of only three or four words is a type of writing which was not common at the time in which the author lived.  Her skill set was unusual and unusually advanced for the late nineteenth century.  The story is brief, only 175 pages in the edition which I just read from Arcuturus, an English publisher.  But the story it tells is one that leaves strong, positive, enlightening, and educational impressions.  This is a novel which no reader of great literature should ever pass up.  The plot is direct but complex with strong characterizations of Silas Marner, the adopted daughter Eppie, and her secretive biological father who also lives nearby and is a major factor in the life of the community.  Read this story!  Enjoy it! Relish it!  This is a book which you will never regret coming to know.