Sneak Peek! #99: The Master and the Margarita

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8xtxA7EBVw&feature=channel

#100: Ishmael by David Quinn (Continued)

Book of Genesis:  Chapter 4:1 thru 4:16

King James Version

4:1 And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD. 

4:2 And she again bare his brother Abel.  And Abel was a keeper  of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. 

4:3 And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD. 

4:4 And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof.  And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to  his offering: 

4:5 But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And  Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. 

4:6 And the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is  thy countenance fallen? 

4:7 If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou  doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him. 

4:8 And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass,  when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his  brother, and slew him. 

4:9 And the LORD said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother?  And he said, I know not: Am I my brother's keeper? 

4:10 And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy  brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground. 

4:11 And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened  her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand; 

4:12 When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield  unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be  in the earth. 

4:13 And Cain said unto the LORD, My punishment is greater than I can bear. 

4:14 Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of  the earth; and from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a  fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall come to  pass, that every one that findeth me shall slay me. 

4:15 And the LORD said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth  Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the LORD set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him. 

4:16 And Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and dwelt  in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden. 

Translation according to Ishmael: The agricultural revolution caused man to "plant his seed" with no regard for overpopulation.  He knew that the more land he took, the more enemies he killed, the more animals whose habitats he destroyed, allowed him to cultivate more land, and in turn, increase his population.  He could feed this giant population and did not have to take heed of the word of the gods.  His life was in his own hands.  This was his destiny.

Please read this book.

#100: Ishmael by David Quinn

"There's nothing fundamentally wrong with people. Given a story to enact that puts them in accord with the world, they will live in accord with the world. But given a story to enact that puts them at odds with the world, as yours does, they will live at odds with the world. Given a story to enact in which they are the lords of the world, they will act as the lords of the world. And, given a story to enact in which the world is a foe to be conquered, they will conquer it like a foe, and one day, inevitably, their foe will lie bleeding to death at their feet, as the world is now."

A philosophical book about the ethics of man, Quinn's Ismael takes the reader to a secret room in a quiet office building where a gorilla named Ismael teaches a man the faults of the human race.  Man's tragic flaw, he explains, is his ability to answer the question "How things came to be this way?".  By studying man's story of evolution Ishmael explains that man is so quick to end his "creation myth" with the phrase "and finally man appeared." He asks the man to question to this theory.  What is there in history, he asks us to wonder, that says evolution ("creation") ended when man was placed on this planet? Whose to say that creation, then, did not end when the jellyfish or the turtle or any other creature was put on the earth? The answer to these questions, according to Ishmael, is that man believes that creation ended with him because the world was put here for him to live on.  The world was put here for him to live on so he could "organize" the world; he could rule all other species.  The world is his to rule.

Ishmael further questions man's creation story in questioning man's destiny:  If creation ended with man, and it is man's destiny to conquer and rule the world then why does he destroy it? Again, Ismael explains that because man feels an innate desire to rule "his" world, his desire to conquer takes over.  His conquering of other creatures, in turn, makes the world a worse place to live.  This is a circle that man can not put an end to because his creation story forces him to believe that the world, the universe, existence, exists for his own survival.

Wow.

Fantastic Changes Ahead!

Well, it's been decided:  The NYT topsellers list does not replicate Robyn's top 100 books!

If you know me at all, you know of my love for The Wizard of Oz and the Batman series.  You have probably heard a bit about my unhealthy obsession with vampire lore (thank you Elizabeth Kostova!)...  and my flawed decision making which causes me to watch Ghosthunters regularly instead of going to the gym. 

Well, here is an exciting excuse for me to explore these loves further!  Checkout the Fanpop Top 100 Fantasy Books!  Same premise: I read the book and note my thoughts on it.  I recommend you read it or run as far from the library as you can!

You will see a few additions from the NYT top 100 list along the way (in particular two that a wonderful friend gave me for my birthday!) and perhaps some more of Robyn's Faves.  

Come on! Let's read!

More on the Postman Flop...

http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi1520764185/

There is a movie! The main characters are very different people, though, and there still does not appear to be any postman!

• Cora, the "woman," should be a beautiful woman with long, brown hair who is offended that she is often confused for a working class Mexican woman because she is making enchiladas in her husbands street restaurant.
• Nick, the murdered husband, of the book is a large Greek man who is "smelly and mean." His last name for the movie is changed from Papadakis to SMITH of all things.
• It appears from the trailer, as well, that the main character, Frank Chambers is a handsome "drifter." The book, though, makes him out to be a hyperactive, hitchhiking lunatic who can not stay put longer than a few days at a time.

Wow, what racial discrimination did to movies of the early 20th century...  Luckily we have books to help us remember that not only beautiful blond women with soft voices and sultry pouts and handsome, well meaning men with muscles and a smile that could met a block of ice ever exisited.

Book #98: "The Postman Always Rings Twice," by James M. Cain

I swear there is some horror flick out there called "The Postman Always Rings Twice" and I thought that's what I was getting into when I picked up this book.  Although it was not a horror flick, this book was about a man who scams a woman into murdering his husband because they are in love.  In the end, his plan backfires and they both die miserable deaths.

Frank Chambers, our "antihero" sums up the message of this book in just a few lines.  He has been put in jail for a murder that he can not fathom committing.  The jury, though, knows this man.  They know his past, they know his present and they know that he has a big fat liar:

"There's a guy in number 7 that murdered his brother, and says he didn't really do it, his subconcious did it.  I asked him what he meant and he says you got two selves, one that you know about and the other that you don't know about because it's subconcious.  It shook me up.  Did I really do it, and not know it? God Almighty, I can't believe that! I didn't do it.  I loved her so, then, I tell you, and I would have died for her.  To hell with subconcious.  I don't believe it..."

To be honest, I have no idea why the book title references a postman.  There is no postman in the story and there is no well known metaphor I can think of referencing postmen ringing doorbells.  The Postman Always Rings Twice been a bad knock off of "The Green Mile" and On the Road combined. 

Of the three books I have read, two have been confusing messes.  Sure, style is important and when writing in the first person when your first person is a liar, a drunk and a cheat it could certainly difficult to check that your thoughts make sense, but I prefer a book that I don't have to reread the pages several times because the "narrator" can't complete a sentence.


After reading about another illogical main character who is extraordinarily flawed, and rather unlikeable, I realized that there does appear to be a trend developing on this list.  Books 100-98 have each been about confused, relentless, greedy young men who 'get what's coming' to them when they can't stop beating women, yelling at their mothers or drinking too much.  I am looking forward to moving behind this stage to more thought provoking topics.  Let's hope book 97, The Sheltering Sky, Paul Bowles is of a more interesting nature.


Come on, let's read!

Ginger does not equal Funny.

Well, "The Ginger Man" was not humorous.  That is, unless you feel like a man who is abusive to his family, drinks too much and can't keep a job is funny.  Sadly, this book was not enjoyable.

In this story, a man who moved from the United States to Ireland lives in a rotting apartment with his poor wife (who once came from an affluent family and lost all of her belongings because of her husband's terrible drinking habit) meets several women who he lies to and manipulates them.  He lies to his friends, he lies to his wife, he lies to his daughter (who is still in diapers).  I was tempted to compare it to "Catcher in the Rye" in a sense that you even feel like he is lying to you, the reader.

The writing style was interesting and poetic but difficult to follow for a whole novel.  As an example, the story is told by Dangerfield, the main character, but often, and sometimes mid-sentence, switches between first and third person.  He begins his sentences mid-thought sometimes and will be mid-thought before finishing what he wants to say.

Not until the very end of the story, does the reader begin to understand that the main character is potentially crazy.  He can't remember where he was or what he did or when he did it.  Only then can the reader feel any compassion for this man.

I hope the rest of the books about families more like the "Magnificent Ambersons" and nothing like "The Ginger Man."

Book #99 - " The Ginger Man" by J.P. Donleavy

The cover of The Ginger Man describes it as "A comic masterpiece", and "Brilliant, lusty, wildly funny..." but I have to say, for a book with such incredible reviews and listed as book #99 of the best contemporary novels, it was very difficult to find.  I searched the Salem Library and the Salem State College LIbrary only to find that the best way to obtain a copy was to interoffice loan it from Ipswich.  The process for this system, once I realized it existed completely online, was very simple and  I now have the book in hand a month after I began my search.


The cover of this book has a bit of artwork by Barton Stabler.  The art work shows a miserable looking man sitting at a pub drinking, what appears to be, vodka.  A train is zooming by and as far as I can tell he is a (or uses a?) stock broker.  The book was written in 1965 so I am interested to learn what a man from Dublin thought of stock brokers and "business men" who have suit jackets stuck together with a safety pin.  Given the current economic circumstances, I wonder how our opinions of these men changed over the last 40 years.


Come on, let's read! 

A Fave - "David Golder"

Although reading the top 100 contemporary books in order from 100-1 is an exciting idea, I also want to share with you some of my personal favorites.  I recently re-read a collection of Irene Nemirovsky's short stories.  Nemirovsky was born in 1903 living in three wars, the Russian Revolution, World War I, and World War II, only to die in at the Nazi camp Auschwitz of typhus.  Her writings take us into the minds of those people living in these times - the good people, the bad people and those who are extremely confused in the middle.

My favorite of these tales is "David Golder," the story of a man who was born a poor Jew in Russia and became a wealthy stock broker in the early 1900's in the stock market.  He moves his family to France (similarly to how Nemirovsky's father moved her family to France in her childhood) and continues working extremely hard until the day he dies.  The story takes place during the last few years of his life: Golder has become a miserable, unloved, deceitful old man.  His family only asks him for money and "how's business" and his friends don't trust him except to follow his lead in the market.  The conflict taking place in Golder's mind becomes a character in the story: his health begins to fail him (in particular his heart) and when he is emotionally unstable, for example upset about a friend/business parter who committed suicide because Golder would not go into a deal with him, his body acts as a reminder that "good business" is not always "good".

The reader knows almost immediately there will not be a happy ending to this tale of David Golder.  There are a few surprises along the way that make the reader say "AH!" and wonder how they did not see the situation as inevitable.  The moral of the story is clear and speaks volumes: money does not make us happy, love makes us happy.  Having fortunes and "good business" may sound fantastic, but really, without a loving family and supporting friends, we are nothing.  We will die alone.

Tradition

It took me a long time to write this final blog.   I finished the book almost a month ago.  The end of the story was very moving and I did not feel like I could do it justice.  The story was made up of everything a great one should be: life-like suspense, a love story that is not overpowering, a story that is believable but bigger than life,  flawed characters who you love even though you can't stand them.  I highly recommend this story: I put it on my list of best books no one has ever heard of.

Well it happened.  George's father died.  He was a stressed, working man losing all of his money in his investments. At his funeral all George could think about was how modest his family's plot looked compared to the plots of those with "new" money.... how out of control those new citizens in their town were with their spending and how inappropriate they were because they built funeral plots larger than that of the Ambersons.

Then it happened again. George's mother died.  She was meek. She had recently began spending an extraordinary time with Mr. Morgan, Lucy's father.   George ruined the love she shared with this vibrant, life-loving man, because he felt that people were "talking" and that she was behaving inappropriately.   He took her to Paris and she barely made her way back home because he wouldn't "let her" go back to Mr. Morgan.

And it happened again.  Major Amberson, George's grandfather who began it all, died.  He was old and forgetful, and depressed.  As such, he forgot to deed his home to George leaving George desolate with his Aunt Fanny in his care.

Throughout the novel, Mr. Morgan is George's foil.  He is interested in modernizing the world: he invents an automobile and isn't interested in who is "talking" about his affair with George's mother. He is a man of the times.  The opposition of their personalities and beliefs is fully demonstrated in the final moments of George's demise: He is run over by a car while crossing the street in his now dirty, highly populated city.  The type of car built by his nemesis destroys him.  He has lost his family, his fortune and almost his life.

****


Come on, let's read!